The characters contained within this story are owned by Takahashi 
Rumiko and Takeuchi Naoko. No infringement of copyright is intended. 
This work to be distributed for free, unchanged, crediting the 
current author.

Thanks to my pre-readers:
Ben
ukie    
Kevin D. Hammel     http://www.geocities.com/~khammel/ff/index.html


This is a crossover between Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon. To make the 
two stories fit together the way I wanted, I needed to shuffle the 
dates at which a few things occur within the main timeline of Sailor 
Moon. I bow my head in shame: please forgive.

Die hard fans of Ranma may also notice a very subtle change to its 
story timeline...

This story is dedicated to the letter N the number 14,567,335,284.


Visit my website at
http://www.users.fl.net.au/~fire
                           ________________
                         /                                       \
                         |      Destiny's Child        |
                         \_________________/



What has gone before:
While on a training trip with his father during the early 1500s, 
Ranma fell into the spring of the drowned young girl. Unfortunately, 
his curse can only be changed back with _very_ hot water, which means 
he has spent most of his time in his cursed form. Not only that, but 
because the spring was drowned young girl, he turns into a 12 year 
old girl who never ages. 

In the present...
Ranma has received a partial cure for his curse by the spirit entity 
called Mistress 9. She will eventually take his girl's body, freeing 
him entirely, so now he poses as Tomoe Hotaru. Unfortunately, he now 
seems to have a few problems with the ladies, since he is 
inadvertently engaged to Hino Rei (he's taking lessons in Shinto), 
his old buddy Ucchan, and the friendly Amazon Shampoo. That doesn't 
even start to include Mako-chan, or the fact that two of his best 
friends are only three foot tall: Cologne and Chibi-Usa.

Ranma's problems are increasing daily. He now remembers being Saturn 
Knight, a borderline psychotic noble from the Moon Kingdom... too bad 
that Saturn Knight and Sailor Mars are falling for each other. Not 
only that, but Saturn Knight, Ranma, and Hotaru (as different 
persona) have all been having problems with the Outer Senshi. Last 
episode, Ranma saw Sailor Pluto cure Rei of the Xai Fang Gao Shiatsu 
technique. Why Pluto? Because she had watched one of the Witches 5 
and her Daimons beat the cure from Shampoo and Cologne. Why did the 
Witches want it? Read DC23 to find out.

--------------------
Bringing It Together
--------------------

As Hotaru walked down the street to her destination, she felt worried 
and depressed. Things seemed to be coming to a head at the moment, 
and she was not sure that they were going well. Actually, despite a 
recent victory for the Sailors, overall things were pretty grim. 
Despite a down turn in events, Hotaru could see the light at the end 
of the tunnel, and that end was getting closer every day.

It was now three days since the attack on Cologne, and the poor girl 
was still in hospital. Ranma had visited her every day, usually 
staying for several hours by her bedside. Often he would talk about 
what he remembered of life in the village, or read her the newspaper. 
The doctors kept promising she would come out of her coma any day 
now. Just watching Cologne in the bed hurt him. To him, she would 
always be the bouncing little child, the sweet teenager who looked up 
to him. Seeing her lying in the stark white hospital bed made her 
seem old and fragile. 

No matter how much he hated to see Cologne brought low like this, he 
did not begrudge a single second spent with her. She was his oldest 
and dearest friend. She was a tie to a life of happiness in the days 
of his youth. Although Shampoo was a Joketsuzoku also, she did not 
bring back the memories the way Cologne did. Besides, in the half 
hour or hour that their visits coincided, Shampoo seemed to offer 
more attention to him than her own great grandmother. He could not 
blame her, because that was how she was raised, but Ranma had once 
promised himself that he did not want to sit around and watch as 
Cologne died of old age. Now that was exactly what he was doing and 
he wished Shampoo could really understand the depth of his suffering.

Added on top of Cologne's coma was a sense of dread. Yesterday the 
Sailors seemed to have won a great victory: finally defeating Witch 
Mimete. The only problem was that it was her successor - Witch Tellu 
- that had actually killed her. Again the Sailors had been in dire 
straits, but before Mimete could take advantage of her latest plan, 
Tellu had pulled the plug on her. Literally pulled the plug, since 
Mimete had contrived to enter a giant TV and was planning on using 
the power she had by the direct connection to Tokyo's power grid. 

It was the fact that the Sailors had never actually defeated one of 
the Witches in direct combat gave him the sense of dread. Kaolinite 
had apparently fallen to her doom from Tokyo tower, Eudial defeated 
by Mimete's sabotage and a car accident, and now Mimete had been 
killed by Tellu. Each time their adversary became stronger, but the 
Senshi remained the same. It was only through their devotion and will 
power that they could hope to compete.

But how strong would Tellu prove to be?

At least he was back to getting lessons from that tomboy priestess. 
Rei-san had fully recovered from the Xai Fang Gao Shiatsu technique 
Shampoo had used. She had really hit the roof when he had told her 
that she had seen his curse.  True, because of the memory prevention 
technique Rei could not remember seeing it, but that was not Ranma's 
fault. The last couple of days he had been getting great enjoyment 
over mocking her. She was the only one around who had seen his curse, 
and she did not know what it was. Unfortunately, he was the only one 
that found it hilarious. 

Even though she was a tomboy, Rei-san did not have the strength 
needed to defend herself against the Daimons. Hell, she'd need to be 
one of the Sailors just to be safe, and there was no way that a 
simple temple maiden had that much power. In the previous week she 
had been attacked not once, but twice by the forces of evil. That was 
enough to make Ranma shiver in fear for her. The good fortune of 
having strong allies appearing could not continue forever, and that 
might mean that someday her luck would run out.

Ranma's only real hope was Mimete had borne Rei-san a personal grudge 
for some reason. Perhaps she bought a faulty charm once. Ranma knew 
just how poorly they worked: every charm for clear weather and no 
rain that he had tried, had failed. If he was lucky, Tellu would not 
follow in Mimete's footsteps, but luck was something he had learned 
not to count on a long time ago.

If all of that was not enough, Mistress 9 was saying that she was 
having a hard time getting the energy she needed to complete the 
separation of his halves. She assured him it would happen; Mistress 9 
had once hoped that she might be able to complete it ahead of 
schedule, but that was not to be. She would complete it, she 
guaranteed him.

To keep things complicated, Ucchan's was being rebuilt, and poor Ukyo 
was forced to live in a hotel temporarily. Ranma had wanted to offer 
her a place to stay with the Tomoes, but Hotaru's 'father' had ruled 
that out summarily. So now she spent long days supervising 
construction or doing some casual work at another Okonomiyaki shop. 

Hotaru was walking up the stairs to the front door when she reached 
what she hoped was the last of her real problems: the three girls 
that were trying to pass themselves off as fighters for love and 
justice like his pretty Sailor Mars. Being a Sailor was not about 
wearing a short skirt and having magical powers - although that did 
seem to be important. What really mattered was attitude. Queen 
Serenity and her warriors fought for love and justice, and that ruled 
to others out. Haruka, Setsuna and Michiru fought for their own 
hidden goals; to them it was the destination, not the journey. 

The real pretty soldiers knew that it did not matter if you reached 
the end of your voyage, so long as you travelled correctly. Failure 
was something to be avoided, but years in Poland had taught Ranma 
that phrases like 'sacrifices must be made', 'the end justifies the 
means', and 'at any cost' were something that should never be in the 
vocabulary of people in power. Although he had never asked any of 
them, his Sailor Mars would never be willing to let someone sacrifice 
their life for hers. From the way that they acted, the three older 
girls seemed quite willing to let some people make the 'right' 
sacrifices.

Placing her hand upon the door-bell, Hotaru firmly pushed all of 
these depressing thoughts down. Even as the door chimed, Hotaru 
managed a smile. The other day she was sorting through her drawers 
and had come across something she knew would bring a smile to her 
face: her paintings of Akane. They were done something like three 
hundred years ago in the Amazon village. Ever since then they had 
been sealed inside a greased and waxed leather case. After seeing how 
age had affected some of the Amazon's books, Ranma had long ago 
decided that such an event would never occur to her last images of 
Akane.

The sound of running feet announced the arrival of Ranma's hope for 
restoring the pictures. It was one's of the tomboy's friends, and the 
smartest girl Ranma had ever met. He had met her a few times at Rei-
san's or Chibi-Usa's, and she always seemed nice and sweet. She might 
get recruited as a Sailor girl with attitudes like those. Hotaru was 
laughing to herself at the joke as the door opened; someone as gentle 
as Ami did not seem the sort to be able to fight against demons.

"Hello, Ami-san!"

"Hello, Hotaru-chan. What a surprise to see you here. Are you lost?"

"No, I came here to see you. I was wondering if you could help me 
with something?"

"Sure, Hotaru-chan. Come on inside and tell me what I can do."

Stopping past the kitchen to layer a plate in biscuits her mother had 
bought and left for her, Ami led them to her room. It was a nice 
room, just as spotlessly tidy as Hotaru would have expected from such 
an organised girl. Taking one of the cookies and munching away, 
Hotaru sat on Ami's bed idly looking at all of the books on her 
shelves and stacked on her desk.

"Wow, you must be so smart, reading all the time. I wish I knew more 
than I did."

Ami blushed and covered her mouth in embarrassment. "Well, if you 
keep studying and do your school work, I'm sure that you'll do well."

After a couple more minutes of mindless small talk, and a few 
compliments to bolster Ami's faith in herself, Hotaru got to the 
point. "Ami-san, I have some really old pictures, and I was hoping 
you could give me some help getting them framed properly."

"You didn't need me for that Hotaru-chan. Any painting shop sells 
frames. You could have done it yourself; it's fun too."

"No, no, no! These are _really_ old pictures. I've got three of them, 
and their about three hundred years old. It's just that some canvases 
are supposed to get really brittle if they're too old, and I remem- I 
suspect that these ones are weak already. Here. They're sealed in 
this tube."

Hotaru handed the older girl a tube of some strange brown/black 
substance. It was a foot and a half long, and a couple of inches 
thick. Holding the tube in a delicate and slightly disgusted manner, 
Ami examined it closely. The surface was lumpy and irregular, covered 
in some thick, smooth and slightly greasy substance. There was also 
no sign of how to get the pictures in or out.

"Err... How do you know there are pictures in here?"

"Umm..." That was a tricky one. She really should have considered it 
before she arrived. "It's been... entrusted into my family... since 
they were first taken down."

Hotaru looked so earnest, Ami sincerely hoped that there were 
pictures in there. "Well, I don't want to get your hopes up, but I 
could probably cut this stuff away..."

"Please don't... The reason I came to you is because I knew you would 
be smart enough to be able to tell me who did this sort painting 
restoration work. That case has been sealed in wax and grease to 
protect them. Every few years - when it was starting to wear out - it 
would be renewed. Its been one of my regular jobs now for quite a 
while.
"What I really want is some way of preserving the paintings so that I 
can look at them, without them falling apart over time."

Holding the tube more carefully - even if only to avoid touching old 
animal grease - Ami looked at it more closely. "Well... I know a few 
people from the art gallery... and the museum might be able to help, 
but a proper restoration - the sort of treatment you need - is really 
expensive."

Hotaru waved a hand. "It's only money. It's the paintings that are 
irreplaceable."

"You don't understand. It might cost 100,000 yen or more!"

"Oh, is that all? Here." Hotaru passed her an American Express card. 
"This is set to draw straight from an account Ranma set up. If you 
need more than $300,000 US, you'll have to get approval, but don't 
let that stop you. The pictures are worth it."

"Th-- three hundred thousand US!? Do you realise how much that is in 
Yen?"

"Sure, I helped draw up the papers for it. Ami, you have to 
understand: these paintings are the finest works of art from the 
greatest painter in two generations of the Joketsuzoku. The girl in 
the paintings is the most beautiful woman in all of Japan during the 
sixteenth century. Besides, there's all sorts of money in Ranma's 
name floating around. If... if we can succeed, I thinks it's time to 
spend some of it."

Ami's eyes were as large as saucers as she clutched the tube. That 
came to over forty million yen. Forty million yen, and Hotaru had 
just handed it to her. She might have had doubts once, but if she and 
her brother were willing to give her this much money to spend, they 
must be serious. For that much money, you could buy some of the most 
famous paintings in the world. 

Actually, it was just as strange that Hotaru and Ranma were that 
rich. She had seen the Tomoe home and while it was not small, it did 
not speak of this much money. Even then, Hotaru had clearly said that 
it was Ranma's money, not her father's. Momentarily, Ami wondered if 
Ranma was actually adopted by Tomoe Souichi. It would explain a lot 
of things: his money, why he did not live there now, his travel in 
his early years. Maybe Rei knew...

Coming out of her speculations with a quick shake, Ami gave Hotaru a 
confident smile. "Leave it in my hands, Hotaru-chan. I'll speak to 
some friends and see if they can do it. Trust me, since it's this 
important to you, we'll be very careful."

Engulfing the girl in a big hug, Hotaru held her tightly. Wiping a 
small tear from her eye, Hotaru smiled. At last, after three hundred 
years of waiting, she would be able to see pictures of Akane again.

Having left Ami's house, it was time to take another trip to the 
hospital. Cologne-chan would probably still be unconscious, but 
Hotaru could read to her or something. Poor little Cologne-chan: 
attacked by Witches in a strange country, surrounded by foreigners, 
all alone when Shampoo needed to work on finding a husband. Even if 
she could not hear the words, Hotaru knew Cologne-chan appreciated 
her presence.

Walking into Cologne's room, Hotaru was positively delighted. She was 
awake! Cologne was up and sitting in bed drinking some juice. 
Throwing herself across the room, the two small women held each 
other. 

"I... I was so worried about you, Cologne-chan. The reason I left the 
village was I couldn't stand to see my friends dying, and here you 
go... I'm just so glad you're OK again."

Cologne held her friend. For the first twenty years of her life, 
Hotaru had always been a mother or a big sister to her. Since then 
she had borne her own children, and known the agony of watching them 
pass away. Returning the hug, Cologne soothed her friend, telling her 
it was all right. 

Later the two ancient Amazons - one showing her age and the other not 
- shared the bed and sat talking. Cologne talked of her battle and 
the dangers in the city these days. Shampoo had been in earlier, and 
was there when she had awoken. While Shampoo was there, she had told 
Cologne how her husband had already hunted down the people that had 
attacked them.

"Is it true, Soap? Is it true that you took on the woman and her 
monsters?"

"Well, not by myself, but yeah, I did. One of them anyway. I was 
there when the Sailors killed the others. Until I bumped into Shampoo 
two days ago, I did not even know anything had happened to you."

"Mmm. Well, it is good that one of the Joketsuzoku was there to see 
to their end. Amazon justice must be maintained. Thank you.... 
Congratulations too, they are most powerful opponents."

Bowing her head slightly, Hotaru admired her hands. "More powerful 
than you may ever know. I'm in this pretty tightly at the moment. You 
can't tell anyone, but I know one of the Sailors... well, not exactly 
know her, more like we talk some times. Anyway, recently I've been in 
some of the fights, and they're not good news. These people are 
dangerous, Cologne-chan. If you ever see them again... be careful."

Cologne nodded. "How about you? Are you careful?"

"As careful as I can be. I won't lie to you, it's dangerous, but 
then, life is dangerous... Do you remember when we first met in 
Japan? You didn’t know who was and I challenged you to a fight."

Cologne nodded her head. It had come as quite a series of shocks. 
This young upstart male firstly had the audacity to challenge her, 
then he made it worse by not loosing straight away. Only after a long 
and tiring battle, did her reveal that he was actually her long time 
friend whom she had thought was dead for many years.

Hotaru passed her a large scroll that she had pulled from within her 
shirt. Wordlessly, Cologne took it and looked at the words covering 
the wax seal. 'Saotome Secret Techniques'. 

"My father was a great man. Before I was born, he designed two 
entirely new sets of martial arts techniques. Techniques so powerful, 
so deadly, and so dangerous he asked that they be sealed away. Never 
to be used other than in my darkest hour.
"I warn you now, these techniques require great inner strength and 
great prowess even to learn. Even Akane only ever managed to learn 
the Yama Sen Ken, and a few of the moves from the Umi Sen Ken. She 
and I trained together for many years, so these aren't the sort of 
thing that can be mastered overnight."

Cologne took the scroll in her hands and prepared to break the seal. 
She knew her friend had some mighty techniques that she was entirely 
happy to use. If this was a set that even she was scared to use, they 
must be lethal in the extreme. Before she could crack the wax, a 
small hand rested on top of hers.

"My father asked me never to pass on his knowledge to anyone other 
than my wife or my children. I... I've never had children, but I've 
always though of you as my daughter and my best friend. What I'm 
doing these days is dangerous. I'm not always sure that we'll come 
out on top, and I don't want the techniques that we developed to be 
lost. If... if something happens to me, these are yours to use as you 
see fit."

Cologne nodded and looked down at the parchment in her hands. It was 
a very fine quality paper, obviously the best available. Sitting 
here, holding the secrets of hundreds of years in her hands, Cologne 
could feel the temptation challenging her soul. Turning her head, she 
looked at Hotaru: there might be a way to get some hints on what was 
in the scroll. "You said 'we'. I thought your father developed 
these."

"Pops developed the first two of them. The core of the techniques. 
I've learned a lot since then, and I've found ways to improve things. 
I've added three techniques to the series to round them out..."

Sighing, Hotaru lay back and looked at the ceiling. The scroll she 
had given Cologne held so much of her life. So many memories, the 
results of so many years of studying the art. Even if something were 
to happen to her now, she would live forever in the Joketsuzoku's 
memories.

"Before I was even born, my father designed two sets of Martial Arts 
techniques. The groundwork was laid while he was courting my mother, 
and he perfected them in the first few years of my life when he 
started my training journey. Later on I added three more sets to make 
it complete, one for each of the elements: earth, air, fire, water, 
and metal.
"The first of these techniques was the Yama Sen Ken. The Thousand 
Fist Mountain. It's the simplest of the collection. The Yama Sen Ken 
is Earth. It is simple, straight forward, and designed for the 
demolition of opponents, buildings... anything really.
"Next is the Umi Sen Ken. The Thousand Fist Sea. Like water it is 
softer and more flexible than earth. It relies on stealth, trickery, 
subtlety and precision in it's attacks."

Ranma settled into a more comfortable position. She silently wished 
that the real Hotaru had not been such a girly sort of girl. Lying 
down in skirts was really annoying; if you weren't careful, you kept 
showing people all sorts of things they should not see.

"The Kotetsu Sen Ha, or Thousand Blade Steel, is probably perfect for 
Shampoo. Shampoo likes to fight with weapons, and that's what this 
set is about. Pops probably could have come up with them, but he 
always taught me to fight bare handed. Bare hands gives you lots of 
flexibility, but I have to admit there are advantages to weapons. 
It's sort of like the Yama Sen Ken adapted to use with greater reach 
and bladed attacks.
"The two hardest techniques in the collection are limited to only a 
few people who could ever learn them... they're just too hard. I 
think you could learn the Kaze Sen Ken. The Thousand Fist Wind is a 
series of linked attacks for using Ki in combat. I know you can do 
the Moko Takabisha, so you should be able to manage these with some 
training."

When Cologne looked at her with greater interest, Hotaru shrugged. "I 
won't go into details, but it's not really a series of attacks, it's 
more a new way of doing things. It makes you better and faster. It 
lets you deliver Ki in every attack you do, and it's designed to be 
as soft and subtle as the wind when necessary. Done properly, some of 
the attacks will leave your opponent dead before they realise that 
they have been attacked."

Looking at the younger woman seriously, Hotaru tried to convince 
Cologne with her eyes as much as her words. "The Hi Sen Ken is the 
Thousand Fist Fire. It's a series of magical attacks that I doubt 
anyone other than myself or the Sailor girls could perform. Even they 
would have trouble because of the Martial side of it, despite the 
fact that they have more magical power than I do.
"Be very careful if you try these. They are just as dangerous to you 
as your opponent. There are at least four techniques in then that are 
designed to exhaust every ounce of magical energy from you body. One 
of those is a suicide attack too... I've never managed to figure out 
what you'd use it on... but it's there."

Both the women sat silently and contemplated the scroll after that. 
One was young on the outside, but today she was feeling every day of 
her age inside. The other was withered and ancient outside, but 
inside she was giggling like a school girl. She might be a Matriarch 
of the Amazons, but she was still a martial artist, and the thought 
of being handed a treasury of new techniques made her feel as young 
as Shampoo. 

They were still there several minutes later when Shampoo walked in. 
"Aiyaa! Little Sister in bed with Great Grandmother! We be such good 
friends! Shampoo have so much to teach you."

Upon entering the room, Shampoo had launched herself onto the now 
crowded hospital bed and proceeded to cling onto Hotaru in a 
enthusiastic - though sisterly - hug. Now the three of them were 
there, with Hotaru being held tightly to the curvaceous body of the 
friendly Amazon girl.

"Shampoo! I'm not your little sister."

"You Husband's sister, that make you Shampoo sister."

"I ain't gunna marry you Shampoo!"

"Not, you, Husband. Husband marry Shampoo."

"I just said I ain't marrying you."

"Little Sister confused. Shampoo marry husband, then you little 
sister."

As Hotaru attempted to grapple with the idea of being married to 
someone and being their little sister at the same time, Cologne 
placed a hand on her arm and whispered in her ear: "Remember, Shampoo 
doesn’t know about your curse."

"Whoops, sorry. I'm just used to this sort of treatment when I'm a 
guy. Let's try this again: Shampoo, Ranma's not going to marry you."

"Husband will. Shampoo show him she best choice. All go back to 
China, all be too too happy."

Switching to Chinese to make it easier for the girl, Hotaru continued 
to try and explain the situation... without actually giving away the 
facts. "Shampoo, neither Ranma or I want him to marry you now. These 
too much happening at the moment. I... Ranma's going to be cured of 
his curse soon. Until then, you have to believe me: you don't want to 
marry him."

Shampoo smiled and gave Hotaru an extra squeeze. "You're such a 
clever girl! You've already learned my language so that you can come 
back to China with us? I'm so happy!"

Trying to avoid thinking about the soft flesh that pressed against 
her in all sort of interesting ways, Hotaru looked over at Cologne. 
"Did she understand a word I just said?"

"Shampoo is a very happy girl. I think she just likes to see the best 
in every situation."

On that pleasant note, Hotaru announced it time for her to leave 
Cologne in Shampoo's capable hands. After both of the other women 
extracted promises for Hotaru to return soon, she was allowed to 
leave. Needless to say, under the combined ministrations of Japanese 
medical system, Shampoo's caring, and both Cologne and Hotaru's 
knowledge, the sprightly old lady made a rapid recovery. In under two 
days she was up and around, bouncing on her cane. By the end of three 
days, the hospital staff were more than willing to release her.

It was at this point in time, just three days after Hotaru had given 
her the pictures, that Ami came knocking on the Tomoe family door. 
When Hotaru answered, she was amazed to see a veritable wall of brown 
paper. Looking up, she saw a pair of laughing blue eyes just cresting 
the top of the wrapping paper. Over the eyes was a covering of short 
blue-black hair that swayed gently in the light breeze of the 
afternoon.

"Hello, Hotaru-chan! Look what I've got."

"Err... You robbed a paper shop?"

"No, silly. It's your pictures. I picked them up from the gallery 
today."

"Really?! You've really got them? But it's so quick!"

Ami's eyes crinkled as she smiled. "I've really got them. The people 
at the gallery said it was pretty easy to do, even if they don't need 
to do it too often. They just cut open the case you gave me and laid 
them out. They're all properly framed now, and they guarantee that 
they won't fall apart over time. So... do you want to stay out here 
and talk about them, or go inside and have a look?..."

In stunned silence, Ami watched as sick little Hotaru grabbed all 
three of the pictures in their heavy frames and carried them inside. 
Even Ami who was three years older and in perfect health thought they 
were a burden. Hotaru was pretty strong for such a little girl. "Come 
on, Ami-san! Come up to my room!"

Walking through the house behind Hotaru, Ami struggled to place the 
feeling of dread that seemed to permeate the house. Something about 
the place seemed slightly off; as though someone was waiting for 
something, something of world shattering importance. As Ami was 
walking into Hotaru's room, sounds of laughter echoed up the stairs. 
Terrible, insane laugher. The sort of laughter that set your teeth on 
edge and made you want to run for the local asylum.

"W-Who was that?"

"One of my father's 'friends'. Every now and again he seems to have 
some woman over. I guess he's just lonely. I've never met any of 
them, but this one seems worse than most. Anyway, don't worry about 
her! Let's take a look at these pictures!"

Hotaru had laid out the three paper covered frames against the wall, 
largest in the middle, with a small one on either side. Even though 
she held her fingers poised above the paper and almost quivered in 
excitement, Hotaru paused and looked at Ami. "Thank you. I don't know 
what else I can say. It's been so long that I've wanted to see these 
pictures. I... Thank you."

Blushing furiously at the praise for doing something so simple, Ami 
avoided Hotaru's eyes and made a small waving gesture. "It's OK. 
Honestly. Well, there no need to wait any longer. Let’s take a look."

Nodding, Hotaru gave a single long sweep, tearing the butcher's paper 
from the top of the largest frame to its base. In the light of the 
room, the gold frame glinted, but it was the picture that captured 
everyone's attention. It was a woman; she had large, liquid brown 
eyes, and a cheeky smile. Short-cropped black hair covered her head 
in an almost identical cut to Ami's. 

Seeing Hotaru was entranced by the picture of the woman in her 
twenties, Ami tried to remember what she had said about the person in 
the portrait. 'The most beautiful woman in all Japan...' Casting a 
critical eye over the picture, Ami wondered about that. Sure, she was 
nice, quite cute really, but to be honest, she did not look as good 
as Minako or Rei. Besides, a yellow martial arts Gi was hardly the 
sort of stunning clothing you expected a model to wear. And that 
hair; it might be acceptable now to have short hair, but most of the 
refined ladies hundreds of years ago kept theirs very long.

On the other hand, Ami had to agree with Hotaru's statement that the 
artist was very good. The tones and textures were superb, and the 
subject seemed to have an almost lifelike quality. In much the same 
way as the Mona Lisa watched you wherever you went, this woman seemed 
to smile at you - you personally - wherever you were.

Only because the house was so silent did Ami hear the quietly 
whispered word that Hotaru uttered. "Akane." That was all, one word. 
But it was one word that was sufficient to bring tears to the young 
girl's face. After a moment, she turned away from the painting and 
sat on her bed. "Thank you, Ami-san. It means so much to me to be 
able to see these pictures."

Ami sat beside Hotaru and put an arm around her shoulders. Tears 
continued to fall down the girl's face but she was not crying, 
moreover it seemed that she simply could not contain the depth of her 
emotion. "Who is she?"

"Her name was Akane, and she was the greatest girl to ever study 
Anything Goes Martial Arts." Glancing between the picture and Ami, 
Hotaru lowered her brows in mock concentration. "Real tomboy type: 
Rei-san would like her. Come to think of it, Ami-san... you look a 
lot like Akane. Don't tell me you’re a tomboy too."

Ami gave a short laugh. "No, I'm nice and sweet. Or I try to be." 

Looking back at the picture, Hotaru sighed then whispered to herself. 
"A spirit of fire or a tomboy... The choices we have to make."

Ami stayed a while longer, and the looked at the other two pictures. 
Both were obviously the same woman, just an older and younger 
version. When Ami walked out the door, her brow furrowed in 
concentration. She knew she had heard the name Akane before, and it 
was something to do with Ranma. Not only that, but the face looked 
familiar. Maybe it was just because she looked so much like Ami 
herself. As her brilliant mind struggled to find the last, slippery 
clue she had, Ami walked home. She knew she had the answer, it was on 
the tip of her tongue... Now if she could just remember it.

Back in the house, Hotaru knelt down and placed a small kiss on the 
glass covering of the picture. "Hello again, Akane. I've missed you. 
We have so much to talk about."

*       *       *

No-one could deny that Witch Tellu was a fast worker. The very day 
after Witch Mimete's demise, she had presented Tomoe Souichi with a 
foolproof plan to capture more Heart Crystals than Mistress 9 could 
possibly need. Needless to say, she had also devised the perfect way 
to deal with those pesky Sailor Senshi should they intervene. Nothing 
would be able to stop her!

At least, that was what she told her master. 

As cause for great concern to the Senshi, had they known, she was 
also right. Just four days after killing Mimete, Witch Tellu was 
ready and able to strike. Using her powers combined with the Daimons 
created by Tomoe, she had made an army of demon plants. Plants with 
only one goal in their teeny-tiny vegetable minds: steal Heart 
Crystals.

Acquiring a warehouse and setting up her plants had been the work of 
a single night. By Wednesday afternoon, Tellu's Botanical Gardens had 
been completed, and the grand opening was being advertised for that 
night.

As night fell and the moon rose in the sky, Tellu stood in the 
entrance to her garden and watched the people queuing outside. Her 
advertising had worked perfectly. All of her plants were 
exceptionally beautiful, not to mention unique in their appearance. 
Now the foolish cattle that populated the city were clamouring to see 
them. Fools! If only they knew what awaited them! Soon she, Tellu, 
would rule beside Master Pharaoh 90 when he came into this world. 
When he was told it was her that performed such valuable service, no 
reward would be too great.

Laughing with the simple pleasure of thinking about everyone bowing 
down as she passed, Tellu threw open the door to her warehouse. The 
gardening enthusiasts, the botanists, even the people who just 
appreciated pretty flowers all raced inside to see her remarkable 
display. 

As the people began to circulate through the warehouse, Tellu smiled. 
Soon she would give the command for her plants to attack. When they 
did, she could harvest all of their Heart Crystals. Even if the 
vaunted Senshi arrived they would be no problem to her, despite the 
difficulties they had caused her sister Witches. Hidden among her 
lovely garden was a killer plant. A Daimon more powerful than ever 
before, drawing on her own power for its greatness. A Daimon that 
would be able to crush the Senshi. 

Most importantly... it was a Daimon that could operate without her. 
When the Senshi arrived - and they would eventually - she would be 
long gone with the Crystals. Then, under the cover of her other 
plants, her killer could strike. The Senshi would be nothing more 
than a memory in less than a day.

Throwing back her head and laughing loudly, Tellu closed and sealed 
the front doors. Ignoring the sounds of some late comers banging on 
the outside, Tellu turned back to the people filling her beloved 
garden. Now was the time. Now was the moment of her greatest triumph. 
With a sweep of her hand, the plants transformed. 

All around the room, beautiful flowering plants writhed and sprouted 
tentacles. Vines and creepers leaped from the trestles and engulfed 
their victims. All around, beauty turned to beast. Flora leapt and 
lurched in a most unnatural fashion. Standing in the middle of the 
warehouse, Tellu held aloft the massive crystal she was using to 
collect the Heart Crystals from people. 

All around her, people fell to the floor as the physical embodiment 
of their souls were ripped away. In less than two minutes, none were 
left standing, and Tellu reigned supreme. Victory was hers!

Less than an hour earlier, an innocent looking pair of girls were 
trying to get their friend organised. For the third time in a row, 
they had managed to get fifty meters down the street from their 
companion's house, only to have her realise that she had forgotten 
something of vital importance. Back inside she would run, making them 
another five minutes late.

Finally Usagi was ready. It had taken a mammoth effort to get her 
organised, but Setsuna's steady reassurance, and Chibi-Usa's whining 
eventually convinced the blonde that she had every thing she needed. 
Although she did not spend a lot of time with the Guardian of Time, 
Meiou Setsuna was one of Chibi-Usa's few friends. The older woman was 
acquainted with her from the future, and Chibi-Usa had decided it was 
time for the three of them to spend some quality time together. Most 
importantly, it would be a chance for Chibi-Usa to see some really 
pretty plants that she had seen an advertisement for.

The three girls ran along the street, desperately trying to make up 
for lost time. Puffing and panting, they eventually arrived at the 
warehouse where the botany display was on. Unfortunately, they also 
managed to arrive just a few minutes late. As they had been running 
down the last stretch, they had seen the doors close. Banging their 
fists against the doors, the girls struggled to get in but to no 
avail. 

Chibi-Usa gave Usagi a scowl. "I really wanted to see that! 'Special 
Display!', 'One Day Only!' and I missed it."

Setsuna nodded. "It would have been quite impressive. I expect that 
it was a special display from Tokyo's Botanical Gardens. Don't worry, 
Chibi-Usa, I'm sure that we will be able to see it again some day."

"Ohhhh, and it's all my fault. If I was ready quicker, we would have 
been able to see it. Ohhhh, I'm sorry guys. I didn't mean to."

"It's all right, Usagi-chan. Puu says that we can see it some other 
time. She's always right." Setsuna looked down at the little girl. 
She did not want to disillusion Chibi-Usa and say that she did not 
know for sure. Perhaps she could find a notice that said where it was 
occurring. Stepping away from Usagi and her daughter, she let them 
make plans what to do instead for the rest of the afternoon. 

Setsuna looked back from the front door of the warehouse. "You know, 
it's really strange. I can’t find any information here about who's 
actually presenting it. I was hoping that---"

Going silent for a moment, Setsuna gasped and set her features 
sternly. Screams! Screams of terror and pain! Looking back to her 
friends, they all nodded in unison, they had heard them too. Chibi-
Usa stepped forward with determination. "The Witches 5! It was a 
trap! Quick, this looks like a job for... the Sailor Senshi!"

Sprinting around the corner of the building, each of the girls drew 
forth her henshin stick and recounted her words of power. With a 
dazzling display of pyrotechnics, the three sailor suited defenders 
of love and justice. Striking a pose, the girls prepared themselves 
for battle. Today they would again fight the forces of evil, and once 
again, the fate of the world rested on their shoulders. The duties of 
a magical girl defender were arduous, but none of them would ever 
consider relinquishing their tasks for the simple life. Too many 
people depended on them to allow that luxury.

Sailor Chibi Moon gave a smile. Too often she was left on the 
sidelines. Too often she had to wait while others did the fighting. 
This was her chance to get to do some real good for the world and to 
fight evil!

When her leader turned back to the front of the building, Sailor 
Pluto placed a gloved hand on her arm. "Wait, Sailor Moon! That's 
just what they'll be expecting. Come on, there's go to be a back way 
in."

Nodding once, Sailor Moon followed her compatriots. Shortly, they 
found a small, unlocked wooden door. Sailor Pluto was right: they 
could use this and get the drop on their enemy. For once, they would 
have the advantage of surprise. Hopefully, that would make up the 
difference in their numbers, because it would take a while for the 
rest of the Senshi to arrive, even though the call had already gone 
out.

Inside the warehouse was a scene from a gardener's nightmare. Plants 
writhed and thrashed on the floor, their whip like tendrils flailing 
around, seeking more victims. The whole place seemed to be alive with 
them, the only quiet spot was the small area in the centre of the 
floor that a woman stood. 

She was obviously one of the Witches 5, because as they watched, 
several Heart Crystals floated from the people captured by the plants 
into a large crystal that she held in her hands. The woman's insane 
laughter echoed around the walls of the warehouse, showing that here 
was someone who really enjoyed their work.

"Plants are there to be appreciated by everyone. They are objects of 
beauty for everyone to enjoy, and you have perverted them to your own 
ends! I am Sailor Moon, and in the place of the Moon, I shall punish 
you!"

Tellu looked up to the balcony where the battle cry had come from. It 
was the Sailor Senshi, here to try and ruin her plans. But they were 
too late. Too late and too weak! The instant that Sailor Moon comes 
down to try and rescue these pitiful people, she would strike, 
unleashing her attack plants.

Sailor Moon did descend. Accompanied by her allies - one taller and 
one shorter - she landed and looked at all of the plants that were 
now starting to attack them. "Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea!"

While Sailor Moon tried to fight back the even encroaching mass of 
tendrils, Sailor Pluto and Sailor Chibi Moon went into action. Bright 
globes destroyed the attacking vines by irresistibly intense levels 
of the colour pink as Sailor Pluto used the Dead Scream to keep them 
at bay. On the right, Sailor Chibi Moon was crowing in triumph; not 
once, but twice her attack had worked! She was a real Sailor now, 
able to fight with the best of them.

Sailor Chibi Moon had just turned her head to boast to Sailor Moon 
when a tendril slipped past her defences and wrapped itself around 
her waist. "Eeeek! Pink Sugar Heart Attack!" Levelling the little 
wand at the tendril, small pink hearts came trickling out, fading 
before the impacted.

"No! No, not now! Pick Sugar Heart Attack!" Again the attack failed, 
and she could feel herself being pulled off her feet. Through the 
tangle of moving vines, she could see something larger. Something 
big, mean, and very scary looking. Now would probably be a really bad 
time to get taken in!

"SAILOR MOON.... HEEELLLLLLP!"

Knocking away the vine that was reaching for her, Sailor Moon saw her 
daughter caught by the vines. Even as she tried to move forward to 
help her, more tendrils came to attack her. There was no way that she 
could reach Chibi Moon in time...

Reaching inside herself for the power she needed, Sailor Moon took 
hold of the Moon Sceptre. She may not have defeated Witch Eudial, but 
this time there was no way she would fail. Her daughter was in 
danger, and Sailor Moon would use the full power of the Silver Moon 
Crystal to save her if she needed to. 

"MOON... SCEPTRE... ELIMINATION!"

Completing her turn, Sailor Moon directed the glowing beam over the 
plants. Wherever the energy touched, the possessed, evil plants 
shrivelled up. Working her way from one side of the room to the 
other, Sailor Moon systematically destroyed everything in their path. 
The only thing that escaped destruction was Witch Tellu, who had 
leapt above the path of destruction. Freed from the confines of the 
attacking tentacle, Sailor Chibi Moon fell backwards, running to hold 
onto her friend Sailor Pluto.

Lowering the Moon Sceptre, Sailor Moon sighed. Winning was so hard, 
but it had been worth it. Again Sailor Moon saves the day... Then she 
saw the Witch's smile and her blood ran cold.

"You destroyed my beautiful plant's Sailor Moon, and for that I shall 
kill you. Come forth, my Ultimate Plant. Come forth and fulfil your 
destiny: destroy Sailor Moon!"

>From deep within the burnt brown remains piled on the floor, 
something stirred. In moments, what had seemed like a mountain of 
dead vegetation had erupted into a screaming and whirling mass. 
Bigger than any of the previous plants, it ripped up the flooring 
exposing thick roots; roots that began to move and drag the plant 
closer to the people it wanted to make into dinner.

Furrowing her brows, Sailor Moon tightened her grip on the Moon 
Sceptre. 'Just a Daimon,' she told herself. 'Just a Daimon.' Never 
before had she been defeated by a single Daimon, and this time she 
would win again!

"MOON SCEPTRE ELIMINATION!"

Once again the cleansing energy speared outwards from the Moon 
Sceptre. However, this time it was met by an equal power. Washing 
over the demon plant, the energy sprayed off it harmlessly in a 
fireworks display that made New Year's celebrations seem tame. Even 
though she gritted her teeth and poured everything she had into it, 
the plant resisted. It was not coming forward, but it was not 
retreating either.

Eventually the strain was too much, and Sailor Moon sagged to her 
knees, leaning on the Moon Sceptre for support. 'Too much. It was too 
much. There was no way I can beat that plant.' The sound of Tellu's 
laugh brought her head up, but even that was an effort.

"Ha! Sailor Moon, you are defeated. I have collected all the Heart 
Crystals from these people. Now my plant is after you. Yours are the 
only ones left! Soon you shall be defeated by my plant, because it 
has all my power too, and you could never defeat me!"

Although she felt like weeping, Sailor Moon lurched to her feet when 
she felt Sailor Pluto's hands under her arms. "Come on Sailor Moon, 
help will be here soon!"

Even as she spoke, one of the dextrous vines rippled through the 
space where they stood, knocking the two women flying. Lying on her 
side, Sailor Moon stared back at where her doom was approaching. Then 
she saw it, a movement in the rafters. Only one person would be there 
at this time! The vibrant red rose that rocketed from the darkness 
only confirmed her suspicions.

With a sound like a hundred breaking windows, the rose shattered 
Tellu's collection crystal. Freed from their constraints, dozens of 
stolen Heart Crystals fell onto the floor, spilling around Tellu's 
feet. "Sailor Moon, always remember that you are the heart of the 
people. While freedom exists, you will never be defeated."

Tellu looked around in stricken horror. All that work! All her effort 
to collect Heart Crystals! Well, Sailor Moon would still die, but she 
needed to get these Heart Crystals back to Mistress 9. Dropping to 
her hands and knees, Tellu began gathering the Crystals and piling 
them in her arms. Victory was still hers!

With her head down, Tellu never saw her ultimate plant stiffen for a 
second as though caught in indecision. Several tentacles flailed 
aimlessly for a few moments, then it lurched back where it came. 
Heart Crystals, that was what it craved, and it had found a huge 
supply. Heart Crystals, all guarded by this one woman...

Tellu gasped in pain when vines like steel cable wrapped around her 
throat and waist, lifting her off the floor. This was not supposed to 
happen! Her plan was fool proof! No plant of her creation would ever 
stop her! Even if it meant that Sailor Moon would live for another 
day, Tellu swore that she would destroy this treacherous plant and 
complete her mission to gain the Heart Crystals.

Bringing her hands together despite the pain, Tellu fired a bolt of 
power into the heart of the plant. Tendrils caught alight and fell to 
the ground burning, but still more came. No matter how many she 
destroyed, they still came at her. Their rough edges caught her skin, 
cutting her, draining her strength. In the midst of a field of Heart 
Crystals, Witch and Daimon battled for supremacy.

Watching from the sidelines, Sailors Moon, Pluto and Chibi Moon 
marvelled at what they saw. This plant had twice taken Sailor Moon's 
most powerful attack, and it was still slowly winning against the 
Witch. Or was it winning? Every moment that passed, the possibility 
of victory for either Witch or Daimon seemed to fade. The plant was 
slowly being destroyed, and the Witch weakened with each passing 
second.

The battle continued for almost two minutes before both of them 
collapsed, apparently dead. Tuxedo Kamen walked forward and poked the 
corpses both with his cane. They were dead. By linking her own energy 
to the Daimon, Tellu had guaranteed that it was the one enemy she 
could never defeat without loosing herself. Quietly, Tuxedo Kamen 
shuddered at the though of what would have happened to his precious 
Sailor Moon if he had not chanced to strike at Tellu's one weak point 
when he did. 

In short order, Tuxedo Kamen was joined by the three Senshi already 
there. As they were returning the Crystals to their owners the other 
Senshi arrived. They were too late for the battle, but their help was 
always welcome. Especially welcome since Sailor Moon was so exhausted 
from her attacks that she could hardly stand.

As people began to recover consciousness, the Senshi made good their 
escape. Spending too long in one place was a good way to let the 
world know too much about them. Once out of sight, all the girls 
transformed. Chibi-Usa stood next to her mother, looking up at the 
older girl with respect in her eyes. Unfortunately, Usagi was too 
tired to notice it. All she did notice was the warm way Mamoru had 
his arm around her and was supporting her. His warmth went a long way 
to restoring her spirits and her strength.

After appropriate congratulations - and a few recriminations about 
Sailor Moon taking on the Witches single-handedly - they dispersed 
back to their other tasks. There was a lot that they could learn from 
this battle, but Sailor Moon was too tired to talk now. Booking a 
Senshi meeting at Rei's temple for the following day, the friends 
waved goodbye and went their separate ways.

Several blocks from where they parted company, Rei was beginning to 
feel she was being followed. Placing a hand into her pocket, she took 
firm hold of her henshin stick and looked around. No-one. The street 
seemed to be empty of people. It was not until she looked low to the 
ground that she discovered the small white cat that was walking along 
fifteen meters behind her.

Stopping where she was, Rei contemplated the small furry face. 
Normally Artemis was a happy cat, smiling or joking. It seemed he was 
only serious when Minako or Usagi were in trouble - which did seem to 
happen all too often. Now he looked like he was frowning; deep in 
thought as though worrying about the weighty questions of existence. 
Or... Or perhaps he was worrying about Minako...

"Artemis? Are you OK? Is Mina-chan OK?"

He looked up at her with a distracted air. "Mina-chan... Yes. Yes, 
_she's_ OK."

Rei relaxed and took her hand out of her pocket. Crisis averted. If 
there really was something wrong, she knew she could count on Artemis 
to tell her. She liked the cat, he sometimes seemed to take things 
too lightly, but he cared for her friends' well being and that was 
what mattered. Even though he seemed like a softy, there was iron in 
the core of his soul, and he had a dedication as strong as any of the 
Senshi. He was a cat you could depend on in trouble.

"Rei-chan?"

"Are you coming back to the shrine with me? You didn't have another 
fight with Luna, did you?"

It's hard to believe that a cat can blush, but Artemis' face turned a 
lively shade of red. "No! Not at all. Actually, Rei-chan, I needed to 
speak to you about something."

She barely managed to make out the last few words. Whatever subject 
was upsetting him, he must have felt really strongly about it. So 
strongly it made him nervous, rather than his normal go-get-'em 
attitude. Rei walked in silence. Whatever it was, he would tell her 
in his own good time.

"Rei-chan, I need to ask you some questions about Saturn Knight." 
Watching the way her mouth firmed into a thin line, he hurried on. 
"I'm not going to say anything bad about him. I... I just want what's 
best for you... For both of you."

Rei looked at him in askance. "You've been talking to Setsuna-san 
again, haven't you? She's never got anything good to say about him."

"No, honestly, I haven't. I'll admit, I didn't like Saturn Knight in 
the Moon Kingdom. I'll even admit that having him here scared me at 
first. But now... Now I... Now I don't really mind the fellow. All 
right, I never really speak to him, but he treats you so well. It's 
almost like he's a different man from the one I knew. He seems almost 
at peace, as though all his troubles have been put to rest."

"So you're not going to try and talk me out of seeing him? He 
actually asked me out to breakfast yesterday. Just us, not the 
Senshi, not at some Daimon attack. Isn't it too romantic?"

Artemis looked down at the ground and cursed under his breath. This 
was going to be so hard. "I know you like him Rei-chan, and I think 
he likes you, and that's why I need to talk to you. I also know that 
you haven't had a boyfriend since Mamoru."

Rei nodded. She had covered it up under a happy smile, but loosing 
Mamoru to Usagi had really hurt. She had tried to tell herself it was 
just a silly high school crush, but it had seemed like so much more 
than that. To find that the man you were head-over-heels in love with 
was destined for someone else... Well, Artemis was right, she hadn't 
had a boyfriend since then. Ranma did not really count. Perhaps 
Saturn Knight was the man she needed to help bring her into bloom 
again.

"Do you know why Sailor Pluto has tried to discourage you from seeing 
Saturn Knight?"

"Humph. She thinks he's a bad influence. She just remembers what he 
was like before. Being born again has changed him. I know it has! 
He's nice now. He... He doesn’t do all those terrible things that she 
talks about."

"And do you know why she hasn't succeeded in breaking up the two of 
you?"

"Because... Because I think I love him, and she could never break 
that."

Artemis sighed and stopped walking. Looking down at his paws he 
sighed again. He was the only one that seemed to see it. Or maybe he 
was the only one that cared enough about Rei and Saturn Knight to do 
something. When tears began to blur his vision, he realised just how 
hard this would be for both him and Rei. He was almost ready to 
continue when he felt strong hands pick him up and gently nestle him 
the crook of her elbow. 

"Hey, it's OK, Artemis. You can tell me. Is there some other reason 
that she wants to break us up?"

Wiping his tears away, Artemis looked up at his friend. Being an 
advisor and guardian of the Senshi was so much more than helping with 
battle plans. "What do you know about Sailor Saturn?"

"Not much. She's the last Senshi to awaken. I think Pluto said that 
she would only awaken when the world was in dire trouble and we 
really needed her. I'm pretty sure she supposed to be the strongest 
Senshi, but I can’t remember if she's stronger than Sailor Moon."

"That's about right. In some ways she was stronger than Sailor Moon, 
or Queen Serenity even. In all other ways she was much weaker. But 
she was a very dangerous girl. A very troubled girl too. Long ago in 
the Moon Kingdom, everyone was scared of Sailor Saturn. 
"It was nothing that she did, Sailor Saturn was always a perfect 
little angel. It was just who she was. She was too powerful and 
dangerous, it made people nervous. Like you said, she also only 
appeared when the Kingdom was in great danger. Some people thought 
that if she was not around, the danger would go away too.
"The reason that Sailor Pluto has not made stronger efforts to break 
up the two of you is she is worried about Sailor Saturn."

"What? Why is she worried about her? She hasn’t even awoken yet."

"True. But you know how Pluto is. Leave no stone unturned. She thinks 
that Saturn Knight is a bad influence. I guess she's just worried 
that if you broke up with him, he might get together with Sailor 
Saturn."

Something cold and hard seemed to form in the bottom of Rei's 
stomach. She knew she did not want to ask this question, but 
something seemed to force her lips to speak. "Why does she think 
that?"

Artemis looked away from her. Being in Rei's arms no longer seemed 
quite so comforting. "Do you remember when we were all talking about 
Saturn Knight that first time? Can you remember why he's called 
that?"

"Sure," she said, sounding puzzled. "Because he's part of the royal 
family on Saturn. Like Mamoru was Earth Knight until he was engaged 
to Usagi... or Princess Serenity or whatever."

"That's...not quite... right."

"What do you mean? What else could it be, unless..." The cold, hard 
ball in her stomach seemed to settle even lower with a sudden shift. 

"Yes. Saturn Knight... was Sailor Saturn's husband."

Silence.

Silence aside from the sound of a white cat landing on the pavement. 
The hands that had held him had gone slack, and Rei had stopped 
walking. She just stood there; her mouth was working slowly, but no 
words came out.

Eventually she spoke. It was deathly quiet and in a whisper. "Why... 
Why didn’t anyone tell me?"

"We thought you knew. We... I didn’t realise until now how serious 
you were. I..."

"Please. Just... leave me alone for a while."

Artemis was standing there with one paw raised, ready to follow her 
as she ran down the street. It would have been easy to follow her, 
she left a trail of small wet spots on the road where her tears had 
fallen. Slowly Artemis turned and walked back to Minako's house. 

>From his nose to his tail, he wished he had not been the one to tell 
Rei. It broke him up inside to have to do that to her. But... But 
what would have happened when Sailor Saturn finally awoke? Given 
further time, Rei would have fallen further and further into love, to 
loose her man to an uncaring destiny for a second time may have been 
too much to bear. Inside, Artemis had no doubts that Sailor Saturn 
and her Knight would be reunited some day, despite all of Pluto's 
plots. To love someone so much that she was able to send his soul 
forward in time so they could be together... was there anything that 
could keep apart?

*       *       *

Thursday morning, 5:18am. Nothing short of a demon from the pits of 
hell could rouse the sailor-suited defender of love and justice, 
Sailor Moon, from her bed at this time of the morning. Unfortunately, 
she was awake. Unfortunate for her, unfortunate for the people the 
demon had attacked, and unfortunate for the demon. It had definitely 
chosen the wrong time to visit the mortal plane.

Ringed around the demon, the girls leaped and struck, firing their 
magical energies into their foe with determination. At least, most of 
them did. Notably, Sailor Mars was there in body, but not in spirit. 
This morning she held to the rear, only firing the occasional attack 
at the demon. Even those attacks she did launch were her earlier and 
weaker attack: the Mars Fire Soul. 

Beyond that, Sailor Mars kept sending dark glares at anyone that 
approached her, especially Sailors Moon and Jupiter. After Sailor 
Mercury hid the girls from the demon's view with her Bubble Blast, 
she decided it was time for her to try and rectify the situation. 
Normally it would be Sailor Moon's infectious good nature that 
overcame these sorts of problems, but today she could not get close 
before Mars would stomp off and pretend to be interested in attacking 
the demon.

"Mars, what's the matter? You seem... I don't know, upset about 
something I guess."

Mars turned away, but not fast enough that Sailor Mercury could not 
see the dark bags under her eyes. Eyes that were red and bloodshot 
from crying. Before the girl could retreat away from her too, Mercury 
put an arm around her shoulder and led her from the battle. Sailor 
Moon could take care of the demon; the other Senshi had weakened it 
enough. Now it was time for Mercury to try and help her team mate. 

"Mercury... Do you think he knew? All this time? Do you think he knew 
anyway?"

Raising her eyes to where Sailor Mars looked, Mercury could see the 
tall figure of a man in the shadows. Although his features could not 
be seen in the darkness, the absence of a top hat informed her that 
this was Saturn Knight and not Tuxedo Mask. "Know what, Mars?"

She sniffled and wiped an errant tear from her face. "Known that we 
could never be together. Known about Sailor Saturn. Known about his 
destiny, perhaps. I don't know, Mercury. It just seems so hard some 
times. First it was Mamoru, now it's Saturn Knight. Is it something 
about me? Is it so wrong for me to have a man to love?"

"What are you talking about? Saturn Knight is here for you! He's not 
here to watch us fight. Why would you think that... Oh, no... Sailor 
Saturn... You don’t think that?..."

Mars nodded. "Artemis told me last night on the way back to the 
shrine. He's Sailor Saturn's husband. She was the one that sent him 
through time. I know she's not awake yet, but when she is... is there 
any way that I can compete against her? It's the same as what 
happened with Mamoru all over again. I finally met a man I really 
like and he gets taken away from me. It's not even as though it's 
anything I did. It's just destiny."

"Oh, Mars. I'm so sorry. I never even thought..."

Mars nodded. Bracing herself as the demon disintegrated into dust in 
the background, Mars let her friend's supporting arm slid from her 
shoulder. Deep down she knew that Saturn Knight couldn’t know about 
Sailor Saturn yet. She knew that he was a kind person inside. He 
would never do something like this to hurt her. The thought that she 
would be the one who would need break up with him drove a dagger of 
ice into her already broken heart. 

Taking the first step to the most horrible thing she had ever needed 
to do, Sailor Mars tried to hold back the tears that fought for 
release. For him, she would be strong. For him. It would not be the 
last time they met, but it would be the last time that they met as 
potential lovers. For him, she would hold herself together. He 
deserved the truth from someone who cared. Later, when she was alone 
again, she could cry them both.

She watched her - no, not hers anymore - man jump to the ground. He 
still held the Silence Glaive in his hand. Before it had always 
seemed a symbol of his power and self assurance. A warrior and his 
weapon, both confident in the strength of his suitor that he would 
leave them battle unaided. She could see by the way that he walked 
and the cautious steps he took that he knew something was wrong. 
Those perceptive blue eyes of his must be taking in every moment of 
her despairing approach.

Offering her a cardboard box with one hand, he held the other out to 
take her small, fragile seeming fingers. He was always a gentleman, 
always so proper in the way he approached her. It was almost as 
though he was as scared of loosing her as she was of loosing him. She 
stopped three feet from him, and only just managed to stop her hand 
from reaching out to take his. It was had become a habit to hold 
hands and walk for a short while. Nothing more, just friends walking 
together and holding hands.

A sob escaped her throat and Sailor Mars turned her head so she could 
wipe more moisture from her face. When Saturn Knight took an 
instinctive step forward to comfort her, Sailor Mars retreated a 
step, staying just out of reach. The way he stopped short and looked 
at the offending hand, she may as well slapped him or stabbed him 
with a dagger. Confusion reigned on his face.

Before he could speak, she held up a hand and sniffled once. Saying 
it without his caring words would be hard enough. If he so much as 
spoke and offered her any support, Mars knew her resolve would break 
down; Sailor Saturn could be damned and so could destiny. This man 
would be hers. Her struggled ended in success because he held his 
silence. For long moments, they stood there, until slowly she raised 
her head and looked up at him through her thick black bangs.

"I... I can't..." Gods, this was killing her. "I can't... see you... 
any more."

"Wh... Wh...Why? What did I do?..."

"It's not you. It could never be you. It's nothing you did. It's... 
There's someone else..." Mars choked on her words and placed her 
hands over her face. "It's Sailor Saturn. The two of you are destined 
to be together... There's no place for me... I can't..."

By the time the sounds of his footsteps registered on her 
consciousness, he was already long gone. Gone; while she spoke. Gone; 
as she had rejected him. Gone; before she had even half finished 
explaining. All that remained was the small cardboard box he had 
brought her. Bending down she picked it up and tentatively looked 
inside. A table for two at a high class restaurant. And a calligraphy 
note inviting her to meet him there... without their masks.

As Sailor Mars sunk to her knees, the gentle brush strokes on the 
invitation dissolved in the moisture of her tears.

*       *       *

Saturn Knight ran and fought down the tears which struggled to break 
free. He was running, running from an enemy he could not fight. 
Running from pain he could not escape. His enemy was his own heart, 
his own mind. After three hundred years of being alone, Ranma had 
finally decided to try again... and he had been rejected. Rejected 
for another's attention.

'There's someone else...'

Her words still rang in his head like a death knell. The pretty 
soldier Sailor Mars had someone else. Of course she did. She was a 
woman of sublime beauty, powerful, self assured with a spirit of 
fire. How could someone like that possibly be alone? Had he been 
fooling himself all this time? Had he been leading himself on, 
pretending that she must feel the same things for him that he felt 
for her? Had... Had she been leading him on?

"No!"

No, his Sailor Mars would never do that. She was kind and caring. She 
would never do something like that. It just made him feel all the 
worse for realising that it was not - could not - be her fault. That 
meant it was all his fault. He was the one that had rushed things. He 
was the one that had tried to go too far. To add extra salt to his 
wounds, he saw how she looked when she told him. Because of his ill 
considered actions, he had caused her such pain. 

Stumbling to a halt in some alley... somewhere... Ranma dropped his 
costume then fell against the wall in pain. It was bad enough that he 
had deluded himself, not to mention forcing his obviously unwanted 
attentions on Sailor Mars. Now he had hurt her so badly when he 
forced her to open his eyes to the truth. Covering his face in shame, 
Ranma clawed at his forehead. How could he have been so blind? How 
could he have missed the fact that she did not have feelings for him? 
Was Cologne-chan right? Had he really been by himself for so long 
that it was impairing his judgement?

Stumbling through the alley, Ranma moaned in anguish. She was one of 
a kind. No-one else in the world was like her. No-one could ever 
replace Akane in his heart, but he had dared to hope that Sailor Mars 
might find room to live in his heart too. Two women, each so perfect, 
was it so wrong to love them both? Akane with the strength and grace 
of the tiger, Sailor Mars with the delicate beauty of a flickering 
flame. 

Pain and anger welled in Ranma's soul. All he really wanted to do was 
fight back. Revenge himself against a world that hated him with 
vigorous strength. But he couldn’t. He could no more go back and hurt 
Sailor Mars that cut his own arm off. Worse, because if he needed to 
amputate his arm for her sake, he would have... He still would. He 
could not even vent his anger in mindless destruction and violence. 
With his strength... with his magic... he hated to think how many 
people could be hurt by his foolish anger.

When the bucket of cold soapy water fell from a window high above 
him, it was the last straw. Shrunken, wet and female, Hotaru fumed. 
Water began to evaporate off her in a thick cloud of steam, and a 
sickly green aura surrounded her. Was there nothing in the last three 
hundred years that did not lead to heartache and failure? Was the 
nothing that could give him the same simple pleasure he knew from 
holding Akane's hand while walking through the falling cherry 
blossoms in the evening? Was there really no hope left in the world 
for him?

Running a hand through her hair she pulled it from the pony tail 
Ranma wore into Hotaru's typical bob-cut. Tilting her head back, and 
looking into the sky, Hotaru stared between the buildings. The sky 
was clear, no roof and no planes; no obstacles that might get hit 
when she vented her frustration. The entire alley glowed in the 
shifting green light of her depression as Hotaru lifted her small 
hands above her head. In a voice wracked with anguish, Hotaru 
whispered the words to free her spirit, and release her hold on the 
frustration building inside her.

"Shi shi hokodan!"

It was not loud, but it was enough. A green column of power spewed 
from her hands and arrowed into the sky. For kilometres around people 
could see the thin green line. It appeared instantly, and minutes 
later it disappeared just as suddenly. By the time anyone thought to 
investigate the alley, it was deserted.

*       *       *

Female, but this time in clothes that fit, Hotaru walked through the 
entry way of the Hikawa Shrine. Normally Ranma preferred to be male, 
but just this once he was glad that he could be a girl. All he really 
wanted was a sympathetic ear, someone to talk to. He knew Rei-san 
could be a nice girl, and although he loved to argue with her, it was 
not what he needed at the moment. 

When he saw the taller girl sitting glumly on the front steps of the 
shrine, he knew he had made the right choice. If he was a guy, he 
knew he would feel the need to tease her, to try and cheer them both 
up. Somehow he sensed that this would not quite be what she needed at 
the moment. For that matter, a good shouting match was not what Ranma 
needed either. What he needed was a friend, someone who could just be 
there. He had considered going to see Chibi-Usa, but somehow he 
didn't think that the little girl would quite understand the idea of 
two friends just being together, she was more active, more of a 'do-
er'. Rei-san practised meditation and all that sort of thing. If she 
didn't understand the benefits of silence, no-one would.

Plopping herself on the step next to Rei, Hotaru cupped her chin in 
her palms and subconsciously mimicked her friends posture. Both of 
them sat there, staring ahead, not saying a word. Each lost in the 
though of someone who they would never get to know.

After some minutes, a gust of wind took some of Rei's long hair and 
brushed it across Hotaru's face, causing her to sneeze. With a guilty 
start, Rei took the offending stands and pulled them back, holding 
the hair over her left shoulder. "Sorry about that Hotaru-chan."

"Rei-san? What's wrong? You looked so sad sitting here all by 
yourself."

Rei stifled a sniffle and looked away, idly stroking her hair. "It's 
nothing, Hotaru-chan. Maybe you'll understand in a few years. How 
about you? Anything I can do to help?"

Clenching her hands around her knees, Hotaru rested her head on her 
arms and looked sideways at Rei. She actually looked rather pretty 
with the light of the setting sun behind her. Almost like Sailor Mars 
in some distant fashion. "There's nothing you can do. This morning I 
just found out what an idiot I've been recently. There was someone I 
really liked. I thought they liked me back, I honestly did. And 
then.. And then they just came out and told me that they loved 
someone else. Just like that. Yes to the chocolates, but no to your 
heart."

Rei slid across and placed an arm around the girl. "I'm sorry Hotaru-
chan, you do know how I feel. I... well there is this guy I've liked 
for a while. Real sweet type. I just found out that he's... well, 
let's just say that he's already married."

"He's married and he was trying to be your boyfriend too? Who is he? 
I'll rip him to shreds!"

Rei gave a short, amused, almost tragic laugh. "I'm sure you'd try. 
I'm sure you would. No... It wasn't quite like that. It was more of 
an arranged marriage. I found out before he did and... I never 
thought I cared about him that much."

Arranged marriages could be hard on everyone at the start. Ranma knew 
all about that. "Is there anything that you can do?"

Giving her another squeeze, Rei rested her head on Hotaru's small 
shoulder. "No. Nothing at all. It's just... fate. He's just someone 
who I cannot have. Of all the men I could have chosen, I seem to 
choose the ones who are destined for someone else... and there is 
never anything I can do."

"Sometimes the whole world seems to be against you. Only a few days 
ago Takuhi was killed and Cologne-chan was in hospital, now it's our 
lives falling apart. Does it get any better, Rei-san? Or does it just 
keep going like this for eternity?"

"No. No, it gets better. You have to believe in that. I believe in 
the future. I believe that there is a bright future, where everything 
is clean and nice, and peace and love rule. I don't know when it's 
going to happen, but if we all work at it, I know it will happen some 
day. Some day, Hotaru-chan. Some day."

"I'll be there, Rei-san. I don't know when it is, but I'll be there. 
I'll remember what you said today, and I'll remember how young you 
looked."

Rei put on a mock stern face. "What? Are you saying you're still 
going to be a young little cutie when I'm all old and ugly? Humph! 
I'll have you know that I have it on the best authority that I'll 
still look this good in thousands of years!"

"Suuure. I'm almost tempted just to stay a little girl for that whole 
time just to rub it in when you get old and wrinkly!"

"Me?! Wrinkly?! Eww! No!"

Both girls laughed for a while, momentarily forgetting their 
troubles. "I knew I could count on you to make everything better Rei-
san."

"Well, not quite everything... We don't have any ice-cream."

Hotaru pulled a man's wallet from her pocket as she stood up. 
"Ranma's turn to pay! All we can eat!"

Jumping to her feet, Rei chased after the suddenly active little 
girl. "Hey! You can't do that to him!"

Two voices continued to laugh down the street, echoing between the 
buildings.
"Come get me!"
"Give me that wallet!"
"It's in a good cause!"
"Hey, stop running away!"
"Only a few more blocks!"
"Oh, no. I've forgotten my shoes!"

*       *       *

Ami looked around that the girls assembled across her floor and 
sighed. "Tell me again why you had to meet here?"

"Neutral ground. No can discuss Husband where he hear. Why you here?"

"This is my house!"

"That good. Shampoo no want more... obstacles..."

Ami looked at the Chinese model with the long purple hair who was 
playing with her knife in a most disturbing manner. "Gulp! I think 
I'll go make some tea now."

Shampoo looked around the room at the other girls assembled there. 
Here was almost everyone that knew anything about her husband. Over 
the last couple of days they had all been contacted, and had all 
agreed to share their meagre information. It seemed that Ranma had 
been hiding things about himself from all of them, so it was about 
time that they got together and aired all his dirty laundry and 
unearthed his hidden secrets.

All for his own good of course.

So here they were, finacees and suitors alike, anyone that had a good 
chance of knowing about Ranma. Shampoo, Ukyo, Makoto and - maybe - 
Rei made up the list of suitors. On the other hand, they also had 
Setsuna and Chibi-Usa since they knew his sister. Ami rounded out the 
compliment since she was the supplier of the "neutral ground" for the 
meeting. All weapons were to be checked at the door; or Ami's bedroom 
in Shampoo's case because there was not enough room in the front hall 
for all her weapons.

"Where Little Sister?"

 Ukyo shrugged. "She might know him better than anyone else, but I 
get the feeling that she tells Ranma basically everything. I figured 
it would be better if we tried to do without her. Anyway, she 
wouldn't tell us what Ranma's curse was before, so she probably won't 
tell us now. How about you? Where's the old ghoul?"

"Great Grandmother no want come. Great Grandmother already know 
everything about Husband. Great Grandmother say cannot gossip about 
friend."

Rei nodded and looked at Setsuna. "I don't suppose that there's much 
you'd be allowed to tell us either?"

The older woman gave her a gentle smile, as though trying to say 
'It's not easy knowing everything.' All she said was enough for most 
of them to discount her as an active participant in the evening's 
discussion. "It would not be... appropriate for me to reveal all that 
I know about the young gentleman. I can contribute some information 
on his sister... but I would not recommend that you rely on me to 
answer your questions."

Moving to a whiteboard that they had placed on one side of the room, 
Makoto wrote the word 'Age' neatly. "All right... Anyone know how old 
he is?"

"About twenty?"

"Do you actually know?"

Before Rei could reply, Ukyo waved her hand. "He's older than that. 
He would have been twenty about three or four years ago. I used to 
train with him before school."

Makoto wrote a tentative twenty-five on the board. "Anyone know where 
he lives?"

Silence.

"Oookay. We know anything else about him?"

"Ranma dead wife called Akane."

"He's really good at martial arts."

"He's cursed, but I don't know what it is."

"He travelled a lot when he was young."

"His sister was adopted for a while."

Makoto grabbed that one. "Good one, Ukyo-san. Maybe we can figure out 
how old he is from his sister's age. Chibi-Usa, you know Hotaru-chan. 
How old is she?"

"I'm sorry, I've never asked her. She's in my year, so I guess she's 
about twelve."

Ukyo rounded on the small girl immediately. "She WHAT?! She can't be 
going to school with you! We went to school together for three 
years!"

"What's wrong with it? She probably just transferred schools and kept 
going." Chibi-Usa felt a little intimidated by the big girl, even if 
she didn’t have her battle spatula currently.

"No, you don't understand. For three years we went to school 
_together_. Same class. Three years ago she was my age. I knew she 
was getting some sort of treatment of being small and not being able 
to grow up properly, but I never realised it was this bad."

"You mean her brain might not be developing either?!" You could trust 
Ami to come up with something sensible, no matter how horrifying the 
thought might be.

Ukyo nodded reluctantly.

"Oh, that's so sad." All the girls looked weepy for a while then 
continued on their quest to dig out Ranma's secrets. That is, all of 
them except Setsuna. She alone had seen Hotaru cast the Dragon Slave 
-from the safety of the Gates Of Time, of course. That sort of power 
and palpable evil demonstrated that there was nothing wrong with her 
brain, albeit her mind might be twisted and perverted by her evil 
ways. It was times like these that Setsuna wished she had not banned 
herself from investigating the chain of events leading up to the 
present. It would be very nice to be half as confident and well 
informed as she acted.

Setsuna had almost been satisfied with sheer coincidence when she 
remembered what Chibi-Usa had said: 'She's in my year.' Chibi-Usa's 
age. Of all the ages the girl could have picked, she just happened to 
appear exactly the same age as Chibi-Usa. The same age as the time 
travelling Moon Princess, the girl that Setsuna herself had sent back 
in time. Worse still, Setsuna's future self had never revealed why 
she had sent back Chibi-Usa. Now it seemed all too apparent.

Somehow over the centuries between now and the Crystal Millennium, 
Setsuna must have changed into a heartless and manipulative woman. 
She had obviously sent Chibi-Usa back as a lure, a target so 
vulnerable and tempting that it would draw out their enemies. It had 
worked too. Hotaru was most definitely interested Chibi-Usa; she 
pretended to be the princess' friend, associated with her and the 
Senshi and tried to hide her true evil power. Now it was just a 
question of how Setsuna could save Chibi-Usa without exposing her 
hand and having to attack Hotaru directly. This would require some 
serious thought.

After all the excitement the girls continued to compile vital 
statistics, everything from favourite foods to eye and hair colour. 
Ami was wandering through the room when she realised something that 
was missing from the list. "He's rich too."

Everyone turned to her. Rei could hardly keep the incredulity from 
her voice. "What on Earth do you mean 'he's rich'? He never has more 
hand a thousand yen, and his sister's just as badly off. His father 
has hardly anything other than house, and I don't think a teacher's 
salary would qualify as rich. Besides, the only work I've ever seen 
Ranma do is at that dojo, and I know he doesn’t get paid for that. He 
can't be rich."

"But he is! Hotaru-chan got me to help with the restoration of some 
really old pictures. It cost almost a million yen, but it was nothing 
to her. She even gave me a credit card from Ranma with over forty 
million yen on it. I'm telling you, he's loaded."

Around the room there was silence. Makoto couldn't help but think 
that he was perfect in every way, and he was rich too. Rei felt 
herself soften to him. She knew several rich girls at school; they 
often complained about boys who dated only because of their money. 
She also knew several boys who liked to pretend that they were the 
gods' gift to women purely because of their money. Ranma obviously 
wanted to be loved for himself, not his money: that was so sweet. 

Shampoo did not care: real warriors had no need for mere money.

Staring at the list, Ami felt else something tickling at the back of 
her brain. There was something there... Something that she remembered 
from before... "Akane!"

"Akane Husband dead wife. You know when they married, Smart Girl?"

Ami turned a questioning eye on the Amazon for the name but spoke 
nonetheless. "No, it's just that 'Akane' was the name of the girl in 
Hotaru-chan's pictures. For that matter, now that I think about it, 
she looked a lot like that girl in the fire reading Rei-chan did with 
Ranma. I wonder if there is some sort of connection?"

Rei shrugged. "Could be. How old were the pictures?"

"Three hundred years, according to Hotaru-chan. The people at the 
museum though that could be accurate."

"I guess that rules out the idea that the pictures were of Ranma's 
wife. Maybe they were related. Ranma knew all sorts of history about 
his wife's family. I was supposed to be some sort of tradition for 
the two clans to marry together or something."

"Humph. Amazon tribe better than that. Amazon know Shampoo need 
strong husband from outside village, or children come out bad."

They worked on their list for a while, but nothing conclusive seemed 
to come from it. Half the details were purely speculative, the other 
half were second hand information. All in all, they had managed to 
get themselves more questions than answers. That frustrated all of 
them, Shampoo more than most since her Great Grandmother apparently 
knew all the answers but would not tell her. 

The only answer they did manage to come up with was Ranma's money. 
When Ranma had talked to Rei previously, he had let slip that his 
father's name was Genma and he was dead, but yet Hotaru's father is 
called Souichi and he was very much alive. Instant answer: Ranma was 
actually adopted, and his father must have left him lots of money. 
Now they just needed answer to some other questions.

Why was Hotaru adopted when Ukyo knew her?
Where does Ranma live?
How old is he?
How does he know people in Poland and Tibet?
How long did he stay there?
How did he and Hotaru get Takuhi's spirit staff?
How did he develop his Ki and martial arts to such levels?
When did he meet Cologne?
Why does Cologne consider Ranma to be an Amazon?
What did Ranma do during the day? He just seemed to vanish.
When was he married to Akane, and how long?
How could one man eat so much and stay so lean?
What was his family style of 'Anything Goes'? No-one had ever heard 
of it.

Most importantly... Whom did Ranma love?

When their meeting broke up, each of the girls silently vowed to 
themselves that they would be the one to extract the information from 
Ranma or Hotaru. Shampoo planned to speak to her Great Grandmother; 
maybe if she tried hard enough she could convince her to reveal all. 
Ukyo considered the weekend rush at the Ucchan, and decided that 
Monday would be the right time to nail him for some firm answers. 
Setsuna silently vowed that she would brace the Outer Senshi to 
prepare themselves, who knows when Hotaru would strike?

Makoto and Rei walked side by side as they left Ami's place. It was 
getting late so they decided it was time to take Chibi-Usa home. 
Naturally enough, Setsuna was with them and she kept casting worried 
glances at all three girls. In her books, each of the others were in 
dire trouble. Chibi-Usa was best friends with a girl who could give 
Lilith a run for her money as Satan's consort. Makoto and Rei were 
not much safer: they were involved with the hell-spawn's brother.

Setsuna was so involved in cursing the much maligned Hotaru that she 
failed to pay enough attention to Chibi-Usa. Before she could stop 
the little girl, she had blurted out a damaging and dangerous 
statement. "Rei-chan, if you like Ranma so much, why don't you ask 
him out? Maybe he'd tell you about his curse then."

"WHAT?" The three others echoed.

"As if I would ever want to do anything with boy! He is such an 
insensitive jerk. All he ever does is insult me. It's not as though 
he ever says anything nice about me."

Makoto nodded. "Come on, Chibi-Usa, you've seen them together. 
They're always picking on each other. When was the last time Rei-chan 
said a whole sentence to him without yelling? She's worse than she is 
with Usagi-chan."

"Yes, but.... But Hotaru-chan really likes her, and you know how well 
she and Ranma get on. Besides, Rei-chan likes Usagi-chan, but they 
still argue."

That stopped them, wisdom from the mouths of babes. Setsuna could see 
on Rei's face that she was wavering. "Please, Rei-chan. There is no 
need to jump into something like this. You are obviously still 
distraught over Saturn Knight. Really, are you sure that Ranma would 
be any more suitable for you?"

Rei went silent. How dare she? How dare she say something like that? 
For months Setsuna had hounded her to give up on Saturn Knight. Now 
that he was out of the picture, she was telling Rei that Saturn 
Knight would have been better than Ranma? Rei tossed her hair back 
over her shoulder with a negligent flick of her hand and raised her 
head as she looked away from the Guardian of Time.

"Well, I guess we'll let Ranma make that decision, won't we? I'm 
teaching him at the Shrine this Saturday, so I'll ask him then. If 
Ranma says no... so be it." Turning back to the taller Senshi, Rei 
looked up into Setsuna's eyes and brought her face close. "But never, 
ever think that you can interfere with my personal life. Don't even 
think about coming near either me or Ranma again this weekend!"

Stalking away in a huff, Rei ignored the others. She could get back 
to her place without their help, and there was no way under heaven 
that she would spend any more time with Setsuna tonight. In the 
darkness of the night, Makoto and Chibi-Usa watched Rei leave them, 
alternately appearing and vanishing as she crossed through the pools 
of brightness from the streetlights. Of the Time Guardian there was 
already no sign. She had vanished as silently as a ghost when Rei 
captured their attention.

*       *       *

Their training session on Saturday had been oddly quiet. Rei was 
trying to work her way around to something important, and Ranma... 
Rei was not sure what Ranma was thinking. Thinking? That was the 
wrong word to use for someone like him. Plotting was more like it. 
Plotting new ways to tease her, new ways to pick on her!

"Umm, Rei-san?"

"WHAT?!"

Collecting herself quickly, Rei looked down at the ward she was 
demonstrating and cringed. She had just managed to scribble Ranma's 
name right across the middle of it as her mind wandered. As Rei felt 
her brows draw in and her mighty lungs fill with air for a nice 
relaxing shouting match, she caught herself just before words began 
to leave her throat. 

There was a good reason why Rei was so tense today: she was trying to 
be nice to Ranma. Every time she wanted to say something to the 
inconsiderate jerk, she swallowed it down. Must be nice to Ranma. 
Must not hit Ranma with anything to relieve her frustration. It was 
really hard being nice to someone this long but she needed to. Just 
when she had thought Setsuna would have been crowing with delight at 
her break up with Saturn Knight, the woman starts bad mouthing Ranma 
and Hotaru.

There was no way that anyone was going to run this priestess' love 
life. Not Cupid, not destiny, and certainly not Setsuna. Rei knew 
what she wanted, and today she wanted a date with Ranma. When she 
first met him he had actually seemed quite nice - for a while. Now 
that she knew him better she saw the side of him that he had kept 
hidden from Ukyo and Makoto; no doubt he still wanted to be able to 
seduce them. His brash, over confident and irritatingly defensive 
behaviour still didn’t belie the fact that he was actually quite 
cute.

Looking up at Ranma and the way that he was still smirking at her, 
Rei decided that cuteness must be his only good point. Here she had 
gone and botched an expensive piece of scroll, and he had not said a 
thing, just sitting there silently, somehow conveying the impression 
that he never had to worry about that sort of thing. He would always 
get it right the first time. How could he just sit there and think 
those things about her? She'd show him...

Calm. Must remain calm.

"You're awfully quiet today, Ranma. Cat got your tongue?"

Gods! Look at him flinch! "I... I'm sorry. Did I say something 
wrong?"

"Ah... no, not really, Rei-san. I just have really bad memories of c-
c-c... them things. The thought of one of them sticking it's horrid 
furry paw down my mouth and grabbing my tongue and pulling and 
tearing and the blood and it's teeth and those eyes and the screaming 
all around and scratching and clawing and..."

Ranma had gone very pale and started to shake even as his words died 
into mumbling. Rei reached out a hand and placed it on his shoulder. 
"Ranma! Ranma, it's OK! Don't think about them. You don't have to 
worry. You're perfectly safe here."

After a few moments Ranma's breathing returned to normal and he shook 
himself like a dog drying off. Bracing himself he tried to look proud 
and tough but Rei could see through his mask. "Aww, it's nothing. 
Just a little problem I've got. Nothing at all to worry about. Hardly 
any chance of anything going wrong. Hee, Hee."

Sitting back on her haunches, Rei gave him a disbelieving look. Did 
he seriously want her to accept that? Then again, this was Ranma: Mr 
I'm-So-Tough-I-Don't-Have-Problems. He probably did expect that his 
see-through acting fooled her.

Suddenly it dawned on her. Him, her, together, alone. No-one around, 
no-one to interrupt. All she needed to do was ask him. He'd never get 
the guts to ask her out, so she had to be the one to take the plunge. 
Drawing in a deep breath, she met his big blue eyes then looked down 
slightly. "Ranma..."

He leaned forward, anticipating her words. It was almost a whisper. 
"Yes?..."

"Nothing. Nothing at all. Let's just do that ward again." Coward! 
Coward! How can you face a demon by yourself and be afraid to ask out 
a stupid, inconsiderate boy? Coward!

In twenty minutes time, Rei had managed to almost complete the 
complex ward when a subtle beeping caught both their attention. Rei 
slapped her hand onto her watch and cringed in distress. She wouldn't 
see him again until Monday. She knew the way that he liked to hang 
around with Shampoo and the other girls on the weekend. If she missed 
her chance now, she might never get an opportunity. But the Senshi! 
They needed her. How could she get away with this? Especially since 
she knew how he hated it when she chased him away. 

Then inspiration struck. Grabbing a piece of clean paper she wrote a 
short note and folded it before passing it to him. "I'm really sorry, 
Ranma. I forgot all about something I had to do. That was the alarm 
just then. I... I have to go. There was something I wanted to say to 
you all day... and I just couldn't. Could you... Could you read that 
note?... Please? I've got to go, but I'll see you on Monday for your 
answer."

As Rei ran from the room, Ranma looked down at the piece of folded 
paper in his hand and wondered what it was. Once again Rei had to run 
off, but this time she had left him something. Something from her, 
something that might be an explanation of why she had to keep leaving 
him. He was just opening the piece of paper when he felt something. 
Something to stop his hands moving in an instant.

Evil. Malignant, malevolent and malicious. Evil that would certainly 
attract the Sailor girls. For a moment he hesitated, thinking of how 
Sailor Mars had rejected him. Before he had even made up his mind, he 
was out of the door, clothes changing into his formal suit with cape 
and mask. No matter if she rejected him, he would still watch from 
the shadows. He would still ensure that she was safe and alive.

*       *       *

The Daimon was in a pitiful state, weakened to the point that it 
could barely bash a hole in a solid concrete wall. But then, with a 
troop of eight Senshi pursuing and harrying it, there was little 
wonder it was exhausted and wounded.

Purple blood fell from its torn body in several places, and it's 
upper left arm was charred where the last round of Mars Fire had hit 
it. Apparently it was so weak now it could not even heal itself 
properly. This would be a flawless victory for the Senshi. Without a 
Witch to guard and guide it, the Daimon had not stood a chance 
against them. This was even more true than usual since both the Inner 
and Outer Senshi were working together on this one.

Seeing the Daimon fall down to one knee as Mercury's Shine Aqua 
Illusion bombarded it, Sailor Moon drew forth the Moon Sceptre. Now 
it was her turn! No more people would be terrorised by this horrible 
creature of evil!

A hand touched her and stopped her as she prepared to attack. Moon 
looked up at the blonde Sailor Uranus. The other girl put a finger to 
her lips and pointed to where Sailors Pluto and Neptune were delaying 
the other Senshi. "Shh. Wait for a moment."

Sailor Moon blinked her big blue eyes and scratched her head with her 
free hand. "Wait? Wait for what?"

Uranus pointed to where the Daimon had retreated from them. In a few 
more moments it would be able to reach the people cowering the 
building. "Wait for that."

"Huh?" The other Senshi seemed to be having a similar conversation, 
and the Inners did not look happy. 

"Wait until it takes a Heart Crystal. We have it all figured out. We 
know that our enemy must be ready to strike. We have to find them and 
defeat them now, while they are still weak."

With a vigorous tug, Sailor Moon freed her arm from Sailor Uranus. 
"We are the Sailor Senshi. We PROTECT PEOPLE from Daimons! I don't 
know who you are!"

Before Sailor Moon could side-step her, Uranus stepped in front of 
her. Even as her view was blocked by a broad chest covered by a 
yellow bow, Moon saw the Daimon pulling the Crystal from a young 
boy's chest. "Forget it! This is our best hope for victory! We have 
to trace the Daimons to their source."

It was only a light shove to keep the persistent Sailor girl back, 
but Moon's innate clumsiness worked against her. She could hardly 
believe that one of her fellow pretty soldiers - even one of the 
Outers - would actually physically restrain her. That was all it 
took, a light tap, a small rock and a lack of grace: suddenly Sailor 
Moon was sitting on the ground glaring up at the physically strongest 
Senshi. From where she sat, Sailor Moon really wondered if she would 
be able to ever get past Uranus if the girl did not decide to let 
her. 

Things were deteriorating just as rapidly among the other girls. 
Mercury had feinted left while Venus went right. Sailor Neptune had 
been able to block Mercury from getting past her, but Sailor Venus 
now had a clear line of fire at the Daimon. Raising a hand to her 
lips, she winked, kissed her fingers and drew forth a string of 
hearts. With a flourish she drew the lengthening chain around her 
then threw it out at the Daimon.

"VENUS LOVE ME CHAIN!"

No matter what the Outers thought, the end did not justify the means. 
Now that she had this nasty Daimon all tied up, it wasn't going 
anywhere without her permission... At least, that was true until a 
vigorous blast of water sheared its way through the magical chain. 
Bereft of the power from its owner, the glowing hearts that had 
bailed up the Daimon vanished. The beast regained its feet and 
started down the pavement.

Even as the Senshi of love was starting her attack, her allies had 
the same idea. With a nimble step to the left, Sailor Jupiter dodged 
around Pluto and tried to sprint to the Daimon. Before she could get 
more than two steps, Pluto's time staff appeared in front of her. 
Flicking her eyes to the left she saw her leader supine on the 
ground. Dodge the staff and land on Sailor Moon, or take the staff in 
the belly? 

The wind hissed out of Jupiter's lips explosively and she folded 
around the staff. As she slipped to the ground, Jupiter looked over 
at Mars. 

"Go, Mars!" She tried to yell, but all that came out was a whisper. 
With a good three meters between them, even Pluto would be hard 
pressed to get to her before she fried the Daimon to extra-crispy. 
Almost in slow motion, Sailor Jupiter watched as Pluto brought her 
staff back and prepared to deal with the Senshi of fire. A voice from 
the distance brought everything to a sharp and sudden halt.

*       *       *

Saturn Knight sat on the wall and watched as the woman he was 
forbidden to love scored another telling hit on the Daimon with her 
fire. That burn wasn't healing: the Daimon must be almost dead. 
Flicking his eyes to Queen Serenity, Saturn Knight frowned.

The Queen was being accosted by one of the impostors. Hmm, the others 
were too. Saturn Knight gave a grim smile. Now was the time of 
reckoning. Those other girls had skulked in the shadows for too long, 
avoiding a direct confrontation with the forces of good. Now they had 
overstepped the bounds. Laying hands on royalty, letting a Daimon 
escape and attack innocent bystanders; these were all things that the 
pretty Sailor girls fought against.

Pleasure at imminent justice turned to surprise and anger just as 
quickly. He owed the Queen no great loyalty, but that witch had just 
beaten her to the ground and was now gloating over the top of her. He 
was too far away to make out their words, but he had clearly heard it 
when Queen Serenity reprimanded Haruka and told her of the Sailors' 
virtuous pursuit of protecting people. Any moment now the other 
Sailors would deal with their enemies and defeat both these witches 
and the Daimon. 

For a long time he had wanted to go to the Queen and tell her the 
names and addresses of the witches. Before he never expected that she 
would want them. The witches were careful to conceal their true 
nature. Now they had overstepped the mark. After this battle, he knew 
that the overly protective Sailor Mars would want to hunt that evil 
witch Haruka to the ends of the Earth. Mars was just as protective of 
her Queen as he was of Mars.

He had stepped forward for a better view when the unthinkable 
happened. First the Sailor in the orange skirt had her attack 
destroyed by the witch Michiru - Saturn Knight reminded himself that 
he should ask Sailor Mars what her friends names were, identifying 
them by skirt colours was rather tiresome. Michiru had upped the 
stakes by bringing magic into their battle. It was obvious from the 
brutal way that Setsuna had floored the real green skirted Sailor 
that she too was not averse to using force to achieve their goals.

But the way Setsuna was bringing her staff back... could it be an 
attack? Was she going to fire on his Sailor Mars?! He was moving and 
shouting with actions and words he never realised he knew. Anger and 
protectiveness fuelled his attack, and the eight foot weapon in his 
hand seemed to sing with happiness as he lowered the tip to fire. The 
Glaive was his friend and ally, it would help him do exactly what he 
wanted. Almost as though it was made for him.

"SILENCE GLAIVE SURPRISE..."

*       *       *

Pluto heard the words and her blood went cold. She was wrong. Dead 
wrong, and they would all pay the price for it. She did not know how 
he had learned Sailor Saturn's devastating attack, but it would 
destroy everything for blocks around. All the Senshi: dead. Sailor 
Moon, her princess: dead. There was not even time for her to escape 
into the safety of the time stream.

*       *       *

"... REVISED: MINOR NOTE!"

A trench two meters wide and over fifteen meters deep rippled out 
from the tip of the Silence Glaive. The bitumen, dirt, rocks and 
piping vanished in near perfect silence. The only sound that could be 
heard was a single perfect note: a middle 'C' on the most perfect 
flute in existence. It was not loud, but no other sound could be 
heard. He had not brought the Silence, but all that stood between the 
Sailors and complete destruction was the unwavering hum of the 
Silence Glaive.

Almost in slow motion, everyone could see the trench extending. They 
were transfixed by the power, unable to move as an instant passed 
like an hour. By the time the trench was forty meters long and 
etching a line into a building down the road, the single note ended.

For a terrible moment it seemed as though the Silence had come, but 
it was only a natural quiet. As his attack ended, they could again 
hear the screams of people in the distance, the sounds of a water 
main severed by the Minor Note, and the sounds of Saturn Knight 
yelling.

"You shall not harm Sailor Mars! You survive this time for an action 
in your past! No more! When next you cross me, only one shall leave. 
Go! Go, Meiou Setsuna, and never tarnish my sight again!"

Seven pairs of eyes flicked from Saturn Knight to Sailor Pluto. 
Flicker was all they could do, because as fast as she could, the Time 
Guardian vanished again. Eyes darted back to Saturn Knight, but he 
had left too. Stunned to immobility, most of the Senshi could only 
stand motionless and stare. He had not hurt anyone this time, but 
there was no longer any question about whether he was a danger or 
not. 

Sailor Moon was almost going to ask Mars to explain everything when 
she thought of the Daimon. Looking down the street, she expected to 
see it scampering away, with her from it separated by a massive 
trench. She was almost right: the remains of the Daimon were on the 
other side of the trench. All that remained of the evil creature was 
one misshapen arm that was rapidly dissolving to reveal a Heart 
Crystal held in its hand.

Moon's eyes locked with those of Sailor Mars and the silently asked 
the same questions: "Could he really be their enemy when he had shown 
such delicacy with such power? Would their enemy have shown mercy to 
someone they hated? Would any enemy of theirs have given a second 
thought to an innocent boy's Heart Crystal?"

In silence, the two remaining Outer Senshi left. They did not try to 
justify their actions, nor did they repent them. When they had 
restored the boy to health and left the area, the Inner Senshi de-
transformed and formed a tight huddle as they walked down the street. 
One thing had occurred to all of them when they had time to think of 
it: Saturn Knight had known Sailor Pluto's real name. If she went 
home, the Time Guardian could be in serious danger.

*       *       *

Away from the battle, Ranma cursed himself. He should have killed 
her. He knew it. He should never have spared her life, no matter the 
fact that she had helped Rei when Shampoo had used the Xai Fang Gao 
Shiatsu technique on her. He should have killed her then and ended 
the greatest threat the world had ever faced.

In the instant that she vanished, Ranma had felt the power of the 
Gates Of Time. Lina Inverse had taught him to recognise the power, 
even though she had not taught him where the Gates were. The Gates Of 
Time were too great a risk for anyone to have access to them. Human 
or otherwise. Anyone that knew their existence was a threat to the 
entire human race, a ticking time bomb waiting to kill them all with 
one foolish error.

And he had just let her go.

*       *       *

Hotaru lay on her bed and looked at the ceiling. Regret was something 
she had come to learn to live with. Regret that she had not avoided 
Jusenkyo. Regret that she had not spent more time with Akane. Regret 
for so many things on her journey. Regret that Mistress 9 never 
seemed to be able to see Ranma's actions when he was Saturn Knight. 
Regret that she had not saved the world from the danger of Meiou 
Setsuna. 

Even if she regretted her actions, she knew she had done everything 
she could. That was enough; she could fret and worry, but she would 
not be able to change one thing. After the battle, Ranma had 
immediately gone to Setsuna's home, hoping to find her there. It was 
deserted, and would probably remain like that. Well, someday she 
would set things right.

Hotaru raised her head and looked down past her feet at the pictures 
hung on the wall. "What are you looking at you tomboy?"

Hotaru smiled and chucked. She wished she could hear Akane answer 
that just one more time.

"Who are you calling a tomboy?"

Hotaru hit the roof! She didn't believe in visitations from the dead! 
It shouldn't be possible! "Oh... Oh It's just you, Rei-san. You 
almost gave me a heart attack."

Rei walked over to the bed and brushed the small girl's black hair 
from her eyes. The poor thing had gone as white as a ghost and was 
almost shaking. "I'm sorry, Hotaru-chan. I thought you knew I was 
here."

"That's OK. That's OK. I was just talking to my pictures... that's 
all. Say... I thought that Kaori usually stopped people from coming 
to visit me?"

Rei sat down on the edge of the bed and smiled. "Well, she might 
have, but it was your father that opened the door. He told me to come 
on in, but I had to make sure you got your sleep. He seemed really 
happy. He even told me that in a week's time you will be cured! Isn't 
that great?"

Hotaru smiled and nodded her head. One week. That was all Mistress 9 
needed to break this rotten curse. One week and he would be a real 
man again. Forever more. 

"Umm... Hotaru-chan. I was wondering... have you spoken to Ranma this 
afternoon? Since he came back from the shrine?"

"Err... Yes?"

"I don't suppose he mentioned anything about a note, did he? I asked 
him a really important question."

Damn! Hotaru cursed herself. She had forgotten all about the note 
that Rei had given him at the shrine. She must have left it in her 
black - man sized - pants. Casting a surreptitious glance over the 
side of the bed, Hotaru check that said pants were not visible to her 
guest. That could have raised some difficult questions: 'Say Hotaru, 
why was your brother undressing in your room? And is he running 
around naked now?'

Realising that she had been thinking too long, Hotaru tried another 
smile. "No, he said that he had the note, but he didn't tell me 
anything about what was in it."

"I hope he's read it." Rei nervously began to pick at the cover on 
the girl's bed.

"Sure he has. You can trust Ranma, Rei-san. He's probably waiting to 
give you an answer on... On whatever it is he needs to give you the 
answer."

That seemed to relive Rei. For a few moments she sat there, twisting 
a finger into the bedspread and watching the patterns it made. Then 
she looked up at the room's other occupant. "Hotaru-chan, if I tell 
you something, can I get you not to repeat a word of it to Ranma?"

"Ahh... That could be difficult."

"Please!"

How could she resist those pleading eyes? "All right. I will not say 
a single word about this to Ranma. If he finds out some other way, I 
can't do anything about it. But I won’t tell him or write it down, or 
even drop any hint. Promise!"

Rei smiled and Hotaru knew it was worth juggling the facts. Just 
watching a smile like that was like watching the sun come out or a 
fire on a cold night. "Well, I decided to ask Ranma out on a date---"

"Really?!"

"Really! Well, I was wondering... If he accepts, could I get you to 
help make me a dress? You did such a perfect job of it when you made 
that Sailor Mars costume, I just know you must be a great 
seamstress."

'Wow. Rei-san asked me out on a date! That must be what's on the 
paper.' Hotaru could hardly wait until she got a chance to read the 
slip of paper Rei had given Ranma at the shrine. She might be an 
uncute tomboy and all, but, hey, it would break her heart if he 
knocked her back. 'Not that I would actually want to go on a date 
with Rei-san'.

"Tell you what. How about I start on the dress now anyway? I wouldn’t 
want to get your hopes up or anything, but you deserve a new dress, 
no matter what Ranma says."

Rei blushed. It put a pale red glow on her high cheek-bones, 
emphasising the fine lines of her face even more. "You... you don't 
mind? I mean, I'll help as much as I can, but I'm not very good. I'll 
pay for the fabric of course. Do you have a sewing machine? Mrs 
Tsukino could probably lend us one if we need it."

Hotaru laughed slightly. Who needed a sewing machine when her Ki 
powered arms could move so much faster and more accurately. She had 
plenty of fabric sitting around, especially since she had been 
meaning to make some Ranma-style shirts for her smaller girl body. 
With the impending cure, Hotaru had never really gotten around to it. 
With a little effort, Hotaru could have the dress made before lunch 
tomorrow.

Giving a smile, Hotaru cast a glance over Rei. Centuries of martial 
arts allowed her to accurately judge a persons reach, their height, 
leg length and all their other dimensions. 

"How does red sound to you?"

---
End Of Chapter.

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