Sailor Moon: Shades of Light and Darkness
Volume I: The Chosen
Part 1: Questions
Author: David Kogan - dnk@cmu.edu 
Editor: Samah Sohrab - smsohrab@ucdavis.edu


-Disclaimer
Sailor Moon and the characters and plotlines associated with that trademark are owned by large companies with which I have no wish to fight (because I would lose).  This piece of fanfiction, however and all the characters created within are mine.

Please visit the SLD web site at http://sld.home.ml.org for
information on the SLD universe and the fanfics in it.

For more information, see the readme file.



Sailor Moon: Shades of Light and Darkness
Volume I: The Chosen


One Queen, a King, four avatars
The six will fight the darkest cold
The six will decide the fate of all
And one more
One whose name will be known forever
One who will die.


Prologue

    In a darkened room, a single person sat, observing the battle.  The 
four scouts were practically helpless before the Gloom and Doom girls, 
there was no way they would survive.  He knew that, and yet he hoped, 
even as they were taken.  Lita went first, destroyed, gone forever. Or 
perhaps not.  He was not sure, but there still seemed a chance.  
Guardian certainly thought so, but even he made mistakes every once 
in a while.  His experience was vast, but even he did not know 
everything.  Still, even if the scouts were doomed to failure, there 
was nothing he could do help them.  At least, nothing that he was 
allowed to do.  This was their fight. And so he sat, silently watching 
the battle, hoping the scouts would win, and yet knowing that even if 
they did, four of them would not survive.  That was written, and no 
one could ever change that. But one destiny can not interfere with 
another, so at least one of the four must survive.  And the moon 
princess must survive, at least until the final confrontation.  Four of 
the five must die, yet two must survive.  It did not make much sense.  

He sighed.  Destiny rarely did.

As the second scout, Mercury, was taken, the figure remained still.  Only a
flicker in his eyes might have betrayed any feeling toward the people he
watched being destroyed.  A globe of shimmering light appeared over his
shoulder.



"I could help them"



"I know.  And I also know what will happen if I do not help them."



"Destiny also says that she will die.  It has to be one or the other."



"In other words, you do not know."

The voice seemed to sigh.  It paused, then continued
hopefully. 

"I will know.  In fact, I do know what will happen next.  I keep telling
myself that there is nothing I can do, yet..."

The third scout, Mina died.  This time, the figure flinched visibly.  
A feeling of grief passed over his face, but was washed away by the 
previous mask of passivity.



"I can only hope that you were right."  His voice came out differently, 
tight in a way that contrasted with the previous, more relaxed speech.  
"I only hope you were right."  It sounded like a prayer.

Far away, the battle raged on.  Mars, the last scout, was killed and only
Sailor Moon remained.  The way the Princess pulled herself together 
would have amazed anyone who knew her.  Almost anyone, the figure 
thought to himself.  For a split second the corners of his mouth went 
up a bit, as if he were expecting this.

"She has a chance."



"What about Prince Darian?"



"Yes, but will he turn?  Everyone has good and evil inside of them, not
everyone can control it."



The man seemed to expect a protest, not letting the light finish. "All
right, almost everyone.  This is not the time to discuss Him.  Will 
Tuxedo Mask break free of the bonds laid on his mind?"

Before the light could respond, Sailor Moon tried to heal Darian with her
wand.

The man sighed a little at this, watching the wand fail. "She is not a 
princess yet.  I thought she was supposed to recover all of her memory 
before the final conflict.  She should know the Moon Wand will not heal 
him, it is not that kind of healing.  Only..."

He was interrupted, as, with her last wisp of courage, Serena smashed 
her Tiara into her true love at point blank range.  He collapsed to the 
ground, then started to pick himself up.

"The locket, damn it, use the locket."  The man clenched his fists, hoping
against all possibility that she would hear him. 

And she used it, as if heeding his distant command.  For the first time since
his capture, Prince Darian was free.  Seeing Beryl's attack, he saved his
Princess with a rose, red as it should be and collapsed.  He had found peace,
and that was enough.

 The
globe of light amended, as if 'final battle' had greater meaning to
it.

"You had to be right about the crystal.  Are we shielded against
temporal waves?"



"You never seemed prone toward forgetfulness, but anything is 
possible. I hope we need that protection.  They begin.  Is there 
nothing we can do?"  Suddenly, the man picked himself up, as if 
listening to a sound from far away. "Wait!  Do you feel it?"

, the light emphasized the pronoun,< is trying to block off the
other scouts.  They cannot help the princess.>

"Why would He use his energy in that manner?"  The answer was obvious. "Of
course!  If he stops them, the Princess will lose and I will never...  The
world will be ruled by Queen Beryl."





"Where... Where are we?"

"What is this place?"

"Are we dead?"

"I'd be surprised if we aren't.  That ditz Serena, can she ever do 
something right for a change?"  The speaker was annoyed, a feeling that 
seemed to come naturally.

"Well, nice to see all of us are here."  

A more rational voice spoke up. "There has to be a logical explanation
for this.  We must be in some other dimension or time str.." Another voice
interrupted her.

"Can you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"She is calling us.  It's her, Serena!  Don't you understand, she 
needs our help!"

"We have to go to her."

"We cannot, there is something blocking our way."

"It's.... it's some sort of wall, but..."

"It's not real, there is nothing physical here."

"We aren't particularly physical at the moment either... Wait, there's
something else.."



"Did you guys hear that or am I getting totally zoned out like Serena?"

"I heard it, but how can we go... oh!... The wall.... It's gone..."

"It seems to me that it's only been moved away from our present 
locale.  If we try to go at different vectors to..."

"Shut up and let's move.  Serena needs us!"




In the darkened chamber, the man opened his eyes.

"I did it, they are coming."



"Not in any reversible way."



"She is winning."



"You are right, she will be beaten."  Both human and guardian fell 
silent for a few moments, the amount of time it took for the Princess 
to create a blast with the help of the crystal and her friends.

"Now it comes."

They observed as Beryl was destroyed by the enormous shockwave from the
crystal.  

As were the scouts.

The man sighed, his eyes flickering with hidden emotions as his head 
lowered a little. "Now what?  I thought you said-"



The scouts were destroyed, but the crystal was not.  And perhaps, 
neither was the princess.  From the left over energy of the explosion, 
a different shockwave emerged.  As it went, it rearranged space and 
time as its wielder chose.  Except that there was no wielder, at least 
none that could be felt. All of the scouts have been destroyed, as was 
Beryl and a good portion of the Negaverse.

"What is it?"


The voice paused, unsure, then regained strength. 

"What about the scouts?"



"Yes... They are alive, though unaware of their destiny."



"And?"  The man spoke up again, waiting for the end.



"Including Queen Beryl?"  A touch of sarcasm entered the man's voice, 
as if he were trying to hide a deeper and more profound relief.

The globe of light seemed to sigh a little in annoyance.  

"The wave has closed the gap." It was not a question.



"So it begins."


_	_	_


Historian's note:  The events described take place after the Alan/Ann 
episodes of Sailor Moon R, but before the attack of the Negamoon.
All events following the Alan/Ann episodes did not happen, pre-empted by
this new storyline. 


_	_	_



Part 1: Questions




"Damn, what the hell _is_ this thing?" exclaimed a very frustrated Raye.
"Sailor Moon, why doesn't your scepter work against it?  Can't you do
_anything_ right?"

Sailor Moon, still shocked at the failure of her weapon did not take the
question lightly. "Why are you always so _mean to me_?  You _saw_ me
do it, I did everything right, it just didn't work!"  The disbelief 
was evident in her tone.

The monster had been a complete surprise. The scouts had just recovered 
from the Alan and Ann business and Darian's return and had been returning 
to their normal lives, slowly adjusting to not fighting all the time.

Thinking that they had stopped evil again, none had expected an attack so 
soon.  So the two cats had had absolutely no idea what was going on when 
the scouts, walking down the street, had felt an evil presence not far from 
them.  A nearby explosion had confirmed that something was up, and they 
had rushed toward the sound.

The monster was imposing because of what was not there rather than what
was there.  It stood half again as tall as a human, which was slightly smaller
than average for evil creatures.  But little of the nine feet seemed to have
any substance to it.  The creature did not seem solid, it was merely a
darkening of the air in a concentrated area, a shadow standing in the middle
of the street, blocking sight of the things behind it.

Other than for its mysterious darkness, the creature looked almost harmless
compared to the average enemy of the Sailor Scouts.  It did not have any
claws or protruding teeth, at least none that were visible.  Even the explosion
had not been directly caused by it, a car having smashed into a telephone
post after being spooked by the creature.  The driver's side door was open
and there was no one inside the burning vehicle.  That was lucky both for
the person who had managed to escape and for the scouts, who did not
need someone burning alive to distract them.

The reaction of the team to the creature differed. Sailor Mercury looked
puzzled for some reason, her visor down, one hand typing quickly on her
computer.  Strangely, the expression on Mars's face was very similar, 
as if she was getting strange vibes from the monster.  Sailor Jupiter, 
bored for the last week, was looking forward to a good challenge, 
confident she could trash this thing.  To an extent, the emotions of 
the green scout were reflected in the Princess, who was still cocky 
because of her success with the Doom Tree.  Mina had a strange look on 
her face, but she wasn't looking at the creature, rather, she was 
looking at Artemis looking at it.

The cat seemed to recognize it for a moment, a troubled expression 
passing over his feline face as soon as he had seen it.  Mina had never 
found  out just how much Artemis remembered of the Silver Millenium, 
but whatever it was he was thinking about, it made his white fur
stand straight up.

Luna, on the other hand, seemed completely oblivious to her partner's 
problems. Consumed with the coming battle, she kept her quiet cool. 
"You had better transform, scouts, there's nobody around to see you. 
And be careful," she added, concerned for their safety in a way they 
had all gotten used to.

Serena, especially, did not worry, and tried to assure her guardian 
that they would be all right. "Yeah, yeah, Luna, we can handle it.  You 
saw how we toasted  that last monste..."

"Get to it already... Mars Star Power!" 

Rings of fire gathered around the red scout, changing her from her ordinary
identity into Sailor Mars.  Her transformation was followed with varying
degrees of speed by the rest of the scouts.

"Jupiter Star Power!"  Bolts of lightning surrounded Lita.

"Mercury Star Power!" Bands of blue gathered around the blue scouts.

"Venus Star Power!" Energy whirled to Mina.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

Serena glared at Raye, but went on with her transformation. "Yeah, yeah. 
Moon Crystal Power!"

Light tore through the street.

The scouts, finally having transformed, confronted the creature, which 
did not seem to have any fear of the five sailor-clad figures.  Then 
again, the scouts thought to themselves, that was normal for Negatrash, 
at first.  It always took a while for a monster to begin to respect the 
warriors, usually as long as it took the scouts to defeat them.

"I am Sailor Mars, and on behalf of..."

"Hey, it's my right to go first, since I'm leader..."

Ami let out a sigh of frustration. "Can you two ever stop fighting?  I'm
scanning this thing now."  She paused for a few moments, then looked up.
"That's strange."

"What is it?"  Lita had the answer to any monster. "A little lightning
will..."

"I'm not so sure it will do anything," Mercury interrupted.  The 
others looked at her with surprise since interrupting someone was 
definitely not her style. The information would have to be pretty bad 
for her to change so drastically. "There doesn't seem to be anything 
there... Just a large concentration of evil power."

"What do you mean, there's nothing there, it has to be _something_, I
mean-"

What Sailor Venus meant was not to be found out, for the monster chose 
that moment to attack.  With a tentacle that seemed to grow out of the 
monster as it grabbed, the dark shape snatched Sailor Mars up in an 
unbreakable grip.

"Seems pretty solid to me, now can someone get me out of here?!"  The 
red scout twisted ineffectively in the grasp of the creature, trying to 
do something.

"Are you all right?  I'm still not reading any physical substance there?"

"I'm fine, but this thing is freezing...   Can someone help already?"

Lita was never one to refuse an invitation. "You got it!  Jupiter
Thunderbolt... Zap!"

A ball of lightning left Jupiter on a direct course for the tentacle, tiny
tendrils of electricity protruding from it.  Everyone froze, waiting 
for the monster to move out of the, but it did not.  It actually seemed 
to stop moving, purposefully leaving its limb in the path of the deadly 
bolt.  The ball of energy struck the skin, penetrating inside.

And continued on through, as if nothing was there!  It passed all the way
through the darkened area of the air and demolished a parked car on 
the other side of the monster.

Lita's jaw hung open at her unintended destruction. "What... I don't
undereeeee... get off me you ugly thing!" The monster had 
extended another tentacle to grab the green scout.  The other scouts, 
momentarily stunned by the ineffectiveness of the lightning bolt, 
regained control over themselves.

Mercury continued to tap out a complicated pattern on the keyboard of her
computer.  She dodged a tentacle, jumping aside without missing a key, 
then frowned. "I don't believe anything can hurt this- for lack of a 
better name, this _thing_.  There is simply nothing to hurt!"

"Then what's holding me?!" screamed a rather outraged Jupiter.

"I think we should give it a try, don't you, Mercury?", inquired Venus,
slightly annoyed by her friends pessimistic attitude.

"All right, but I don't think it will do any good...  Mercury Ice 
Bubbles... Freeze!"

"Venus Meteor Shower!"

A cloud formed around the monster, freezing the air close to it, but the
temperature drop that would have killed a polar bear went unheeded.  A 
second later, a large number of energy blasts passed through the icy 
cloud, only to smash away half a building on the other side of the 
monster.  Without missing a beat, the creature snared Mercury, 
apparently deciding the blue scout was becoming a nuisance.

Serena stepped back a little. "Whaaaaa!... all your powers didn't do 
anything.. what am I going to dooooo?"

"You might try using the scepter," suggested a rather snide Mars, hanging
upside down.

"Can it, Mars, don't tell me what to do..."

"Just DO it already!," Luna was beginning to get worried.

"All right, all right, here goes.. Moon Scepter Elimination!"

The most powerful weapon of the scouts went into action, a beam of energy
powered by the Imperium Silver Crystal, enhanced and channeled by the 
gift of Queen Serenity. The blast shot straight toward the creature's 
middle- and passed through without leaving a mark.  After the dust 
settled, Serena realized she had finished the destruction of the 
building that had been damaged by Mina.

Another tentacle grabbed on to the princess.

"Damn, what the hell _is_ this thing?," exclaimed a very frustrated Raye.
"Sailor Moon, why doesn't your scepter work against it?  Can't you do
_anything_ right?"

Sailor Moon, still shocked at the failure of her weapon did not take the
questioning of her abilities lightly. "Why are you always so _mean_ to me?
You saw me do it, I did everything right, it just didn't work!"  The
disbelief was evident in her tone.

The sailors started to freeze, the monster draining their energy 
through the icy grips.  Mina watched helplessly, preparing to use her 
power, but knowing it to be futile.

And a red rose went plummeting toward tentacle holding Sailor Moon.

"_I_ am Tuxedo Mask, and if you want the scouts, you are going to have to
go through me first!"

"My hero!" Serena's eyes tracked the black suited figure that appeared on top
of a lamp post.

Then the group's spirits fell again as the rose went through the 
tentacle and embedded itself in the pavement.  Something vaguely 
resembling a laugh came form the creature, the first sound the thing 
made during the fight.  A tentacle shot out, encircling Tuxedo Mask.  
He tried to resist, attacking it with his cane, but the black staff, 
too, passed through the tentacle without resistance.  The creature 
continued to make the strange laugh as it extended another tentacle for 
the last of the scouts and their two cats.

Luna and Artemis jumped out of the way, trying to avoid the creature, then
leaped for its center, hoping their claws would have some luck.  The 
two cats passed through the creature's skin without resistance, then 
stopped for some reason, remaining motionless, floating in the center 
of the monster's chest.

"Venus, DO something!," Serena yelled as the last scout dodged a tentacle.

The orange scout avoided the black pseudopods desperately as they fought for
her capture. "I don't know what to do, I...  who's that?"

"Where?"

A solitary man was standing slightly to the side of the action, watching
quietly.  No one had seen him arrive, but he had definitely not been 
there when the fight began.  He watched calmly, patiently.  There was 
nothing particularly out of the ordinary about him, other than his 
black outfit and his calmness.

Dark brown, almost black hair stirred a bit in the wind as he observed 
the fight.  His face seemed calm, but it was difficult to distinguish 
features because of a shadow that seemed to fall on it from nowhere, 
hiding it.  The creature, seeing a new and undefined threat, moved away 
as the man suddenly started to approach.  Reaching the embedded rose, 
he bent smoothly and picked it up, easily jerking the red flower out of 
the concrete.

"Impossible," breathed Darian from his position in midair.  He moved 
his cape out of the way of his eyes in order to see better, wishing for 
once that he had a more useful outfit. "No one should be able to 
extract my rose that easily. It's imp-"  Before finishing, his brow 
furred as if he were remembering something, then he shook his head. 
"No, it's impossible, he repeated."

Meanwhile, ignoring the impossibility of pulling the rose out, the man 
brought it to his nose.  He breathed in deeply, savoring the smell, then 
smiled, looking at Tuxedo Mask. The monster seemed to decide the man 
was simply crazy and posed no danger, so it returned to the business 
at hand.  It moved back a little, and extended a pseudopod toward 
Sailor Venus.  Distracted by the man, she did not anticipate the attack 
and the black pseudopod touched her leg.  She screamed as she jerked 
herself away from the dark extension, but it was too late.  It grasped on.

The man in black seemed to concentrate.  Mars's eyes stared at the 
hand holding the rose as she felt a power growing there.  After a 
moment, the other scouts, too, felt the strange energy.  Then the power 
suddenly leapt from the hand directly into the rose itself.  In an 
instant, the rose went from a deep, rich, red to a shining, glaring 
white.  Not the passive white of The Moonlight Knight's rose but 
rather the flaring white of the midday sun.

The creature tried to reexamine the situation, looking at the strange 
light, but did not seem to believe the man posed any danger.  It 
concentrated its attention on brining in the orange scout, shortening 
the pseudopod.  Sailor Venus tried to use her powers but they did not 
work.  She suddenly felt completely drained of all energy, the tentacle 
seemed to suck the very life from her bones.  She looked for help from 
the black figure, but he did not move, though his arm flinched a bit.

Then Mina was hoisted into the air, upside down. She screamed as she 
tried to wrench free and suddenly, then stranger moved.  As if in 
automatic reaction to the orange scouts' scream, the man in black threw.

In one fluid motion, he accelerated the rose toward the monster, 
throwing it in a gentle ark.  To the scouts' surprise, it was not 
thrown as Tuxedo Mask would throw it, tip first to cut or spinning to 
make an impact. Rather, it flew as if the man was giving the monster a 
gift.  Startled at the bright light approaching it, the creature 
released Sailor Venus, dropping her on the pavement, and moved slightly 
to orient closer on the new man.

The rose continued on its trajectory smoothly, ignoring the monster as the
flower went through it.  But instead of going all the way through the
dark shadow as everything else had, the rose stopped.

The flower stopped in the middle of its ark in the center of the 
creature's midsection.  Amy frowned at this violation of physics as she 
understood them, but was in no position to object, hanging several feet 
up in the air.

For a second, nothing happened. Two cats, fours scouts, a princess, a 
prince and a monster concentrated their attention on the white flower.

The rose seemed to pulse, just once, and flared, blinding everyone 
watching with its light.

The monster shrieked!  Releasing the scouts, it gathered all of the
tentacles inside of its main body.  On the outside, pieces of it began to
dissolve, drifting away like fog. At the same time, the rose seemed to be
sucking up the dark matter, drawing it into the glaring white light.
Continuing to shriek in an inhuman, painful voice, the monster started to
shrink. Both cats dropped suddenly as the support around them 
dissolved. Within a minute, the monster was gone, leaving a glaring 
white rose hovering in midair.

The Scouts, their guardians, and a confused man in a cape and top hat 
watched the rose silently. When it had first been thrown, it had been 
pure white.  Now the evil of the creature seemed embedded within it 
and a battle raged within the fragile flower.  The white and black 
forces mixed,  sparred, conquered each other, took over petals and lost 
ground. The fight might have gone on for seconds or minutes or even 
hours. The audience of the strange spectacle lost track of time, 
entranced by the kaleidoscopic activity.  The black figure, watching 
silently, smiled and faded into the shadows from which he came.  

In the rose, the fight continued.  The white light seemed powerful, 
but the black force was springy, tough and did not want to give up.  It 
spread out, concentrated and leaped around, avoiding its nemesis and 
striking back.

But the white prevailed and dominated, wiping the black stains off the 
flower, cleaning every petal of to evil it contained.

For a few seconds, the rose continued to emit white like a banner of 
victory. Then, between one heartbeat and the next, it returned to a 
deep red and dropped, embedding itself once more in the ground.

After several seconds of silence, the scouts gathered around the rose in a
circle, staring at it.  Slowly, Tuxedo Mask bent down to pick it up.  He
brought it up to his face, smelling it cautiously.

"Seems.."  He paused, surprised. "Seems normal.  Like nothing happened."
Darian suddenly got the idea that all he had seen was a hallucination. 
"You _did_ see that, didn't you?  The rose and.."  He was stopped by a 
chorus of affirmatives.

"Then I'm not going crazy," he stated, with some doubt. He turned to his
true love. "Meatball head, you know what's going on?"  Serena shook 
her head.  Though she was theoretically the leader of the scouts, she 
was as much in the dark as everyone else. As usual in times when she 
needed information, she turned to the blue scout. "Ami?"

Mercury seemed embarrassed as she tapped something out on her 
computer.  She had somehow retained it in the fight, but it did not seem 
particularly helpful. "I never got a chance to scan the rose, or the 
strange guy.  Seems kind of strange of me, but I was totally taken up 
by that show with the rose."

"Say, where is he?"  Lita was the first one to notice the dark man's 
absence. "While everyone's attention was on the rose, he seemed to have 
disappeared." The scouts suddenly became aware of the deserted street 
around them.  In the distance, police sirens approached slowly and the 
scouts exchanged a glance. Picking up the cats, the group leapt on top 
of a building, concealing themselves on the roof.

Once they were more or less safe, Luna became aware of a strange 
expression on the orange scout's face. "Mina, what is it?"  The orange 
scout seemed hesitant to answer the question.

"Artemis, is he the same one that..."  Artemis did not reply, so she 
continued, "I think that.."

_	_	_


"Artemis, I'm telling you, nothing is going to happen here.  Why would the
Negaverse be interested in a TV broadcast station?  I suppose there is 
energy going through it, but it is not the kind of energy these things 
seem to want, not _human_ energy.  And if they wanted electricity, 
would they not go after a power station or something like that?"

In the distance, a large clock rang twelve times before quieting.

"Great, it's midnight, according to old Ben.  What am I going to tell 
my folks anyway?"

"You'll figure something out," Artemis answered. "I'll use the hypnosis 
if I need to."  

Mina knew how much the white cat hated to use his mind powers.  
If Artemis was willing to use them, then he must be really worried. 

"I'm telling you, there is going to be an attack tonight," the white 
cat continued. "And a very dangerous one, if my feeling is correct."

"It's freezing out here.  If I knew I would have to wait this long, I 
would have never changed.  This uniform is not exactly warm, you know."

"Shows off your best attributes though," this time, the cat's voice 
was smug.  Then he yiped as he dodged Sailor V's swift answering kick. 
After she stopped chasing him around the base of the tower, he 
continued. "I think I might know why the Negaverse is after this tower."

"_Might be_ after this tower.  So tell me, before I freeze to death. Or
decide to kill you and use your fur as a scarf."

The white cat pretended shock before replying. "Sight is one of the 
seven major senses a person has."

"Five," Mina corrected immediately.

"Seven," the cat answered with a sigh.

"Five: Sight, Hearing, Touch, Smell, Taste.  Maybe intuition is 
another, but that's at most six."

"Who are you going to believe, me, or your biology teacher?"

"My biology teacher, of course." She smiled.

"I have about..." the cat paused as a troubled expression crossed over his
face. "I have a lot more experience," he finished, somewhat lamely.

That reminded Mina of something. "Just how much more experience have 
you had?  How old _are_ you, Artemis?  You've always avoided this 
question before, but now there are no distractions."

Fortunately for Artemis, she was proven wrong as a nearby explosion 
deafened them.  Though she could not hear too well with her head 
ringing, Mina could have sworn the cat muttered "Saved by the boom."

As their ears cleared, Artemis threw Mina an "I told you so" look as they
turned toward the source of the explosion.  It was a tiny tear in the 
scenery, like a portal between two places, only too small for anything 
major to come through.  The two had seen this sort of thing before, the 
tear grew slowly, but soon it would grow large enough for a creature to 
come through.  Wind rushed through the hole to the other side.  That, 
too, was normal. Apparently, the air pressure in the Negaverse was 
generally less than that of Earth.

"Before we have to fight, what were you saying about sight?"

Trying to overcome the noise of the wind made the cat's voice sound 
desperate in some way. "Just that the Negaverse might have contrived a 
television show that would drain the energy of anyone who watched it."

"But this is the largest station in the vicinity, thousands of people 
might be affected!"

"That's why we have to stop it." He was yelling now.  The hole had 
become large enough.  Something was coming through, something large, 
and definitely unfriendly. "Here we go!"



The something was decidedly ugly.  It was somewhat catlike, standing 
two meters high, covered with a dark fur that concealed mostly 
everything. It did part to reveal razor sharp claws on each of the four 
fingers of each of the six arms. That and two flexible tentacles coming 
from the back that were tipped with yellowish spheres.

The monster looked around with eyes like red portals to hell, then 
proceeded to the antenna.  Sailor V and Artemis, hidden in the shade, 
escaped detection.

"Now what?"  The voice was barely a whisper yet the monster looked 
searchingly in her direction.

"Careful," replied Artemis in an even quieter tone. "That thing has 
very good senses except for eyesight." Mina was always amazed at the 
information the cat seemed to come up with from nowhere. The monster 
proceeded to climb the antenna, easily swinging from one metal support 
to the next. "Seems quite agile, too.  Well, better do something, that 
box under its arm seems like some sort of controlling device."  He was 
right, there was some sort of electronic gadget under one of the 
creature's numerous arms.

Mina came out of her hiding place. "I am Sailor V, the champion of 
aaaaa" she screamed as she dodged an energy bolt one of the tentacles 
fired as soon as she started speaking.

"Well, if you want to play it like that... Venus Crescent Beam... 
Smash!"  The beam shot out and smashed into a steel pillar the monster 
hid behind.  The steel support strut got a bit scorched, but the 
creature continued up.

"You have to follow it up there, or it will dodge every bolt.  I think we
should have attacked it here, on the ground.  With six arms it'll have the
advantage," Artemis continued, ignoring Mina's shock at climbing 
the structure. "Hindsight is wonderful.  Now go, I can't climb 
that thing myself."

Mina gulped, nodded, and grabbed onto the lowest beam.

"Good luck." Artemis sounded worried, she noticed.  Then again, she told
herself, he _always_ seemed worried for her.

Being a scout does help on certain occasions, she thought to herself 
as she started up.  Leaping from beam to beam like she was doing was an 
impossible task for a human. Not, however, very hard for a champion 
of-  She almost lost her balance as she had to dodge another blast form 
the monster.  She _did_ lose her chain of thought, and started worrying 
instead.  Being a scout did not protect her from smashing to death as 
she would do if she fell.  And it would not save her from being fried 
by an energy beam.  Her breathing sped up, as did her pulse, but she 
told herself to remain calm. She looked up, not moving, and saw the 
monster.  It seemed relaxed as it hung there, the two blast tentacles 
pointing down, legs wrapped around a steel beam, one arm on another 
beam and five concentrating on hooking the gadget to the center of the 
antenna.  For a second, the feline looked down, but eyesight did not 
seem to be its strong point.  Mina hoped that if she made no sounds the 
monster could not locate her.

OK... now to get up there... quietly. She thought to herself, trying 
to calm down again.  She began slowly climbing.  She glanced down 
accidentally, something she had tried to avoid, but it happened.  The 
height made her dead spin for a moment and her palms, under white 
material, became covered with a sheen of sweat.  Thanking what powers 
there may be for gloves, she tried to continue up.

Unfortunately, the glance down was considerably more nasty than she had
thought, disorienting her.  When she tried to go up, her orientation 
failed her and she pulled the wrong way-

And slipped!

An involuntary scream ripped out of her throat as she fell.  Grasping out
wildly with both hands, she managed to catch onto next beam down.

The monster did not seem like one to pass up an good opportunity. A split
moment after her scream, two beams of energy slammed into the metal 
strut where she had been.  And the blast illuminated her enough for the 
monster's eyes to see her!

Mina dodged frantically as blast after blast went past her.  She was 
too close to dodge, and the creature too maneuverable for her to hide 
from.  And she was hanging with her hands from a steel strut.  
Frantically, she scrambled up, managing to get up onto the steel beam 
to which she was holding on, and attacked.  

"Venus Crescent Beam... "  For a moment, she thought she had it, there was
nowhere for the monster to hide this time. "Smash!"

But at the last moment, a blast hit her shoulder.  It slammed her 
backwards, knocking her attack far off the target, never even getting 
close to the monster. But that was not the worst part.

The blast knocked her backwards- into the night.  Completely off 
balance, she grasped for something, anything to stop her fall, grabbing 
handfuls of air as she tumbled into the darkness.

She felt the scream tear out of her, a primal fear of death as she fell.

She was falling too far from the antenna to grab hold of it, and too 
far above the cement roof of the building to survive.  Closing her eyes 
she hoped Artemis would forgive her for failing, which seemed a 
ludicrous thing to think about under the circumstances.  Below, a white 
cat watched with horror as the most important person in his life 
plummeted to her death.  There was nothing he could do.  The monster 
above cackled as he watched the fall, then went back to its business as 
she disappeared from his limited eyesight into the night. Mina could 
almost feel the ground approaching her back.  With strange clarity she 
noted that her life was not passing in front of her eyes as it should 
have been according to folklore. The ground grew nearer.

The next thing she felt was a horrible jerking feeling.  So that's 
what death feels like, she thought to herself.  

Then she realized that the jerk came from her foot.  Slowly, she 
unscrewed her eyes.  Over her head, something large and gray hung, 
swinging back and forth. It seemed out of focus, and she wondered what 
it was.

Then she realized that she was upside down and the gray was the cement 
roof of the radio station.  For a moment, her brain pondered what to do 
with this information, then decided that it might be a good idea to 
check what was holding her.

She tried to look up, a sharp pain in her neck warning her to use slow
movements. Squinting, she tried to make something out in the foggy 
night, but only saw a dark figure leaning out of the antenna.  She felt 
herself being drawn up, and in to the safety of steel. Gratefully she 
grasped on to a strut, turning herself over.

A disembodied voice came out of the darkness. "Do not despair.  It is 
not the time yet." It had a strange undertone, but was pleasant.  At 
least what she could hear through the ringing in her ears.

Shaking her head to clear her vision, she tried to make out more of 
the figure but the more she concentrated, the less she saw.  The figure 
seemed to fade into the black foggy night, disappearing without a trace.

Mina stared into the empty night where he disappeared for a few 
moments. /Do not despair./  She looked up and resumed her climb.
 


"I sneaked up to the creature, and blasted it.  It never expected it, 
assuming that I was dead, which I suppose was a pretty good 
assumption.  I managed to destroy the gadget as well, and I made it 
back in one piece."  Mina paused in her story, looking earnestly at the 
scouts. "That guy... He saved me two more times during my time in 
England, and-"  She did not finish her sentiment, changing the subject. 
"I never saw him, not really.  But he did seem a lot like the guy who 
was just here.  Artemis, you know any more about him?"

The cat looked strangely at her as he answered. "I was relieved that 
he was there, and could save you.  I do not know what I would have done 
if you had died."  No one seemed to notice that Artemis never answered 
the question.

Ami, ever practical, had noted a discontinuity in the story. "Mina, 
what was that explosion thing when the portal appeared?  Normally, when 
a monster appears here, there is no warning."

"Oh, Artemis figured this out a while ago.  Probably, the Negaverse 
wanted to make several points of entry into this universe, but it 
turned out to be considerably more difficult than they thought it would 
be.  After finishing the one here, in Tokyo, they only managed a 
partial one it England.  As a result, they had to make sure the area 
they were transporting in was clear, destroying anything there already, 
so the monster would not materialize inside a building. Here, they can 
just check ahead of time.  That is also probably the reason they 
stopped using that portal."

Serena, deciding that she was getting left out, added her question. 
"What about the one in Greenland?"

Artemis answered her. "I'm not sure, but it probably took a lot of 
energy to make one as large and complete as it was."

Darian brushed his hand through his hair, taking off the hat to do it. 
"Well, it's getting late, and I don't suppose anyone will have any 
answers for us tonight."  Suddenly everyone noticed that while they 
had been fighting the creature, the sun had set.  It was dark now, the 
city lit up with light. "See you around, scouts. See you tomorrow, 
meatball head."  He jumped off the roof on the opposite side of the 
police which had arrived during Mina's story.  Once down, he 
reverted to his normal identity, becoming just one more person on 
the streets.

"Wait! Er... see you later guys.." Grabbing Luna and waving good-bye, 
Serena followed him without mishap, astonishing the other scouts with 
her ability to walk in a straight line.

Lita sighed tiredly. "I don't suppose you have any more data, Amy?"

"I might, the computer automatically records anything strange, but 
it'll take me a while to get at it and translate it."

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then.  You too, Raye, Mina. Bye."  
Sailor Jupiter leapt away into the night, leaving three scouts and a 
cat behind.

Ami turned to Raye.  At first, when she had met Sailor Mars, she had
mistrusted the priestess' mythical powers, but those abilities had 
been proven enough times for the scientific genius to believe in 
them.  To an extent. "Well, Raye, what do you think?"

The raven headed girl shook her head, upset for some reason. "I don't know
about that guy.  I'll ask the sacred flame tomorrow.  Bye." She, too, left.

Ami suddenly realized that she had yet to catch up on her Biology 
reading.  She was a mere nine chapters ahead ever since they had read 
that chapter in school. "I have to go," she murmured hastily.  "See you 
later, Mina," she tossed over her shoulder.

Mina smiled. "It's a vacation week, Amy, you don't _need_ to study." Amy
looked at her with an expression approaching horror and the orange 
scout shook her head with a smile. "See you tomorrow."

Artemis stepped on her foot, a move designed to get attention. "Your 
parents will wonder why you are late.  Let's go."

Mina lingered for a while, trying to remember. "I... That guy.... he 
seems to remind me of someone... like a memory of another time.."

"It's just deja vu, let's go."  Mina almost though she heard a note of
discomfort at that rejection, but it was probably just her own 
imagination.

The two leapt across to another building, leaving the roof alone in the
night.


_	_	_



The man groaned slightly as he collapsed on the couch.  It immediately 
molded itself to the shape of his body, making him more comfortable.  
Not nearly as comfortable as it could be, the man thought to himself.  
Those portals needed a lot of work before they were _really_ safe to 
use.  And they were one way, which meant he had to walk back.



"Yes, He attacked them.  Damn it."



"Of course not, but I still wish He had not found out that I am willing
to waste energy on saving them."



"And now He will use them to make the balance unequal again, as he tried
to last time."



"All I _can_ do now is wait."

 But not the whole truth, the voice seemed to suggest.




Looking at the rose, he sat on the bed, drawing his breath slightly at
the pain.  The monster's grip had been rather tight and something was
definitely out of whack in the general vicinity of his ribcage. Not so 
much that it wouldn't heal, but not pleasant either.  Pushing thoughts of 
physical discomfort out of his mind, he returned to the enigma at hand, 
staring at the small object in his hand. There was nothing out of the 
ordinary about his most potent weapon, it was the same color, the same 
size as usual.  It even smelled the same, he affirmed by breathing in 
its delicate aroma.  Yet somehow it had been used to do something he 
did not understand.

Sighing at the dilemma, Darian lay back on the bed.  His usual clothes 
were rubbing on the sore ribs and the iciness of the creature's grip 
seemed to have penetrated him, chilling his very soul.  Usually the 
view out of the balcony calmed him, the fresh air let him think 
clearly, but he was sure it would not help him tonight.  Besides, he was 
too tired to get up now, he thought as he closed his eyes.  Within 
moments, he was asleep, dreaming of Serena and their destiny, asleep in 
all his clothes with a single red rose lying on his chest.




Serena, too, was thinking of the strange events of the day, but her
lightheadedness did not let her concentrate on any one thing for 
long.  After she got chased away from her TV set by her parents with 
their unreasonable attitudes, she got into bed and was asleep faster 
than seemed possible for any human.  Luna sighed with frustration at 
the short attention span of the supposed leader of the sailor scouts as 
she tried to make herself comfortable at the foot of the bed.  The 
problem was Serena, who usually tossed all night and Luna ended up on 
the bottom all too often. The cat might have slept somewhere else, but 
duty required her to be close to Serena in case something should 
happen. Serena murmured something as she turned over, burying the black
cat under a mound of bed sheets.  It was going to be a long night, Luna 
thought to herself as she tried to avoid shredding the white fabric 
with her claws.




Ami was still awake, and very frustrated.  She was poring over the 
computer, getting nowhere with a fairly reasonable speed.  There 
was absolutely no sensor data on the strange man, or the rose, 
which was strange since the computer had definitely been on at the 
time.  She had not been using her visor, but the computer should 
have gotten _something_.  It was almost as if the strange person were 
controlling the stupid thing, not letting her get any answers.  On the 
other hand, there was some data on the monster. 

She shivered, remembering its grip, like slimy, freezing seaweed, then 
forced her mind back to what she had learned.  Enough information to 
point out a possible theory on what it was, but that theory was 
frightening.  She shivered again, then remembered something. With well 
practiced commands she sent the computer to look up a bit of 
information.  For a moment, her face brightened, then grew sober again 
as she examined the output.

She rubbed her eyes suddenly, making a mental decision, and threw the 
small computer on her night table.  In a minute, she was under the 
covers of her bed, within two minutes very little could have woken her up.




Rei was meditating in front of the sacred fire burning in her temple.  She
rarely slept, long training made meditation replace the normal 
functions of slumber.  There were some advantages to this alternate 
mode since she did not need any time to wake up and there were no 
problems with insomnia.  Usually.  Now, however, the thoughts of the 
strange shape that came out of the night to help them kept the red 
scout from achieving the peace necessary to relax.  She had tried 
asking the flame for information about him, but it had merely flared as
if about to give an answer, then quieted down, seemingly controlled by a
greater force.  For a moment, just before it had been forced quiet, a shape
had flickered in the center, but it was gone to soon to recognize.  Even 
with her training, she was not able to trace down the strange feeling 
that had come over her when she saw the figure.  And when she had 
asked for information about the monster... She shivered slightly as she 
tried to relax.  The image in the fire then had been even briefer, but on some 
subconscious level, it had scared her worse that Queen Beryl ever had.  
Whoever sent that monster was a lot more evil, and more dangerous. 
Sighing, she tried to force herself to enter a deeper level of meditation.




Lita was asleep, dreaming of what she would have done to that creature 
if the guy had not shown up.  She would have beaten it up with her 
lightning, then would have mangled it with her fighting skills.  The 
dream took little interest in the impossibility of beating up something 
that had no physical substance, but it was pleasant anyway.  The girl 
smiled in her sleep as she turned over to her other side.




Artemis was brooding.  Next to him, Mina rested with the peace of the 
truly innocent, falling asleep soon after going to bed.  He, on the 
other hand, had troubles that did not let him enter a peaceful dream 
state.  He looked at her sadly, wondering what _he_ was doing back.  He 
hoped that it was not what he thought it was, a vain hope.  He knew he 
was right.  Sighing, he forced himself down on the pillow and made his 
eyes close.  Somehow, the white cat knew he would not get to sleep that 
night, but he had to try.  "I hope you know what you are doing," he 
whispered quietly, a benediction to the night.


_	_	_



"So, the fool still cares for that scout."  Dark, cruel laughter 
poured out of the black shape. He knew the puny Chosen did, it was 
predestined by his nature, but it was still amusing to remind himself 
that his opponent was so weak.  Now all he had to do was use this 
information to destroy the enemy.  And so simple.

He turned to another shadow minion, the first having been destroyed.  
For a moment, the black creature reminded himself that with only 
several, he had to be more careful. "Get me the four sailor scouts and 
their leader... their Princess!  There might be a guardian or two with 
them..  And make sure they are alive!" He practically burned with glee.

"How do I find them, master?"  The words were hollow, deep, and completely
subservient.

"You fool, _they_ will find _you_!  All you have to do is wait!  
They will be together, no doubt." Again the figure hidden in black 
shadows dissolved into laughter. "And once I have them, _he_ will be mine!"

The shadow warrior obeyed, going off toward the portal that led 
through several dimensions into the Universe.  It did not walk as much 
as it flowed through the dark and barren worlds.

And it thought.  Master did not think the shadow warriors, the _true_
shadow warriors, not Beryl's imitations, thought much.  _He_ was 
incorrect. There were thoughts passing through their minds, merely 
alien ones. And at the moment, the shadow was not very pleased.  He had 
been assigned a task which did not seem very honorable, and though 
honor was Kaneth's department, true shadows had a marginal amount.  He 
would obey his orders, he could do nothing else, but he took no 
pleasure in the task.  Emitting the shadow equivalent of a sigh, he 
continued on his way.


_	_	_



The scouts were at a meeting.  Most of them anyway.  "Serena is late
_again_?"  Lita's question was mostly rhetorical, as Serena's lateness had
long since turned into a legend.

"As usual," muttered Raye.  "Doesn't she understand that this is 
important?"

Luna looked annoyed as she walked up to the girls. "She got detention 
again and will be a bit late.  We will just have to start without 
her."  The black cat sighed.

Mina smiled slightly. "Cheer up Luna, she _is_ getting better.  This is
only the fifth time she got detention this month."  The cat was not 
amused, so Mina switched to a more serious topic. "So what do we do 
about this monster thing?"




Serena was running down the street as usual.  Why am I always late?, she
wondered as she narrowly avoided collisions with several people.  It's 
not like I mean to be late, more like the whole world is an hour ahead 
of me all the time.  Distracted by her thoughts, she did not notice 
Darian until she was passing him.

"Hey meatball head, what's the rush?"

Without losing speed, Serena made a complete turn, slamming into 
Darian's arms. Only his quick grip on a parking meter saved them both 
from falling ignominiously on the pavement.

"Hi Darian, missed you mmmm."  She said breathlessly as she reached up 
to kiss him.  "Oh, I'm going to a scout meeting about that monster and 
the guy, you coming?"  Without waiting for his reply, she launched 
herself in he general direction of the temple.  

Wondering how he came to deserve this, Darian followed at a similar 
pace but with more caution for other pedestrians.




Ami took a deep breath before beginning, then frowned. "Maybe we 
should wait for Serena before beginning?  She _is_ our leader, after all."

Just then, the ridiculous haircut appeared at the entrance to the temple
ground.  None of the scouts ever used the expression 'Speak of the 
Devil,' the idea of evil creatures being too close to them.  Yet if  
they had thought it, the phrase would have certainly applied.




"Hey, there she is!  And that looks like Darian behind her."

Puffing, Darian arrived a few seconds after Serena.  While Raye started 
chewing out the perpetually late scout on the subject of being on time, 
Darian sad down, breathing heavily.  "Where does she get the energy to 
run so fast?" he wondered aloud.  

Hearing, Raye offered her opinion, "Comes from long practice in running 
away from Negaverse monsters." 

Immediately, Serena's eyes grew moist as she stared at the red scout. 
After a moment, she started crying at a frequency somewhere in the 
ultrasound range, causing the two cats considerable discomfort.  
Artemis and Luna exchanged a suffering look while the rest of the 
scouts attempted to calm Serena and relax Raye.

It took them a while, but they settled down and got to the business at 
hand.

Ami, as the only one with good news, and as the intelligence leader of the
scouts started the meeting. "First the good- well, not the good news, 
but not really bad news either.  My computer was definitely on when we 
saw the strange guy, but it did not register anything.  It was as if 
the person were never there.  Either he had something that protected him 
against my scans, which is scary."  The blue scout paused, looking up. 
"Or he has the ability to control my computer, which is worse." Amy tried 
to not let her annoyance with the failure show. "Basically that means he 
could have been anything, good or bad, on our side, or not.  Though he 
did save us, so that leads me to believe that he isn't evil."  Amy 
sighed, she hated guessing but there was just not enough real information.

"Last night I tried asking the sacred flame," Raye put in. "But all it 
gave me was a flicker, like it was controlled by something more 
powerful than it was. All I got was a weird feeling, like I know 
something, but can't quite place it."  No one spoke, but all the scouts 
had witnessed the fire readings Raye did. Although some might have 
suspected its accuracy at first, it had been well demonstrated to be 
true.  Darian, though never witnessing one in this life, did remember 
something about the predictive powers of Mars and said nothing.

"It does sound similar, Raye," Amy continued.  "Perhaps he has some sort of
force field that stops any sort of information from coming out, 
although my computer and the flame have very different ways of 
gathering knowledge."

"We have to find out is whose side he's on," Raye muttered darkly. "That's
something we really need to know."

Mina looked up, slightly surprised at her friends. "He did save me several
times, and he saved us from the monster yesterday, so it seems that he 
was on our side."  

"It also seems he has an advocate in our camp," Lita answered with a 
smile. "I wonder what his _real_ reason for yesterday was, though.  If 
he was from the Silver Millennium, shouldn't we remember him?  I say 
that he is a new force, an unknown.  As such, he is unpredictable."
  
Artemis frowned, but no one was looking.  Suddenly, the green scout 
turned to the white cat. "Artemis, we have recovered all of our 
memories from the Silver Millennium, right?"

Before Artemis could reply, Luna cut in, "We are not omniscient, you 
know.  At the moment, we know as much as you do."

Lita continued. "Still, he is probably a new force, and we can not 
tell whose side he is on until we know more about him."

To the others' surprise, Serena suddenly pitched in. "He did seem kind
of familiar. Raye, didn't you say that you got a strange feeling when 
you saw that something in the flame."

"Yeah, macaroni head, but it was probably nothing!"

"Why are you always so _mean_ to me?"

"Oh, please, don't start again!"

"Uh-hem."  Suddenly the two fighting scouts realized that they had a 
guest. Raye suddenly looked a little sad for some reason, and Serena 
snapped out from her crying.  Luna smiled gratefully at the prince as 
the princess stopped her supersonic sounds with a start. In a single 
fluid motion that amazed the others, Serena ended up sitting next to him, 
with a more or less polite expression on her face. While the other 
scouts stared at this sudden change, Raye realized she had no more 
opposition.

Darian, having joined the meeting, decided to press on. "Is there 
anything else you know about him?"  The reference to 'him' started to 
assume an almost mystical power to the present, who exchanged blank looks.

Then Lita remembered something she noticed the previous night. "Um... 
I have gone to several karate schools, and the way he moved- It 
reminded me of one of my instructors. Smooth and fluid, as if hiding a 
lot of power.  Darian, Raye, you've been to a karate school, haven't 
you?" Almost immediately, Lita was sorry she mentioned that, since at 
the time Raye loved Darian.  The former was never one to get in the way 
of destiny, so let Serena have him, but she might still have some 
feelings for him.  Lita's voice trailed off.

Her suspicions seemed ill founded since Raye did not show any discomfort in
replying. On the other hand, the green scout thought sadly, the red scout 
always could hide her emotions pretty well.

The priestess thought for a while. "Yes, I did notice something like 
that about him.  And he was wearing something very similar to a gi."

"And he wasn't wearing any shoes."  Seeing the strange looks she got from
everyone, Amy shook her head in innocence, "Hey, you notice the 
weirdest things when hanging upside down..."  That drew smiles from 
everyone.

"And everyone knows what one of your favorite movies is." Lita 
finished for Amy.

"So we know he is powerful, can resist scans and fire readings, and 
might have some skills in martial arts. Is that it?"  Luna looked 
around, wishing for more information.

"And he can use my roses." Darian almost sounded resentful as he took the
flower out.  "It's the same as it was before he ever picked it up, and 
that's very strange.  Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about 
that, but I'll keep this one for now."

Nodding, Luna added that to the list. "And he has some powers we do not
comprehend." Luna got what she assumed to be agreement from everyone. 
"But we don't know who he is, or whose side he is on?"

Rei hesitated, then ventured an opinion, glaring at Serena. "Um... 
when I did the fire reading on him, the feeling I got was strange, but 
not one of evil. But it wasn't one of good, either, more like 
neutrality.  No, that's not quite it.  It was more like he had a 
definite alliance with a side, but it was totally separated from us, so 
he was neutral when it came to _me_. Does that make sense?"

"Not really," Serena mumbled, but quieted under the combined stares of the
group.

"He _did_ save our lives." Mina was continuing to defend the guy.

"Yes, but for all we know he might have staged the whole thing.  Or 
the rescue might have been incidental."  Darian got up, abruptly 
separating himself from Serena, and walked to a window, staring at the 
crows outside. "We cannot be sure what he is up to."  He looked back 
inside. "And what about that creature we fought.. or tried to fight?  We 
have been avoiding it so far."

He was right, the conversation had sheered away from the strange 
assailant. And the scouts suddenly felt the air grow cold as Darian 
mentioned it.  They knew the thing had been destroyed, or were at least 
reasonably sure, but it was difficult to believe that something that 
evil could ever die.

"Well, I do have some good news about that thing...." The scouts 
looked at Amy with hope.  Then the blue scout hung her head. "And more 
bad news. As far as I can tell, the creature is sort of a kernel of 
evil controlling space around it. The only reason it could grab us was 
because we had energy in us."  Getting strange looks from everyone, Amy 
tried to present her thoughts in a more comprehensible manner. "He was 
not grabbing the physical substances but the energy contained.  Since 
the two are inseparable, we could not get out."

"That doesn't help much."  Lita sounded angry at something.

"Lita, let her finish," Luna reprimanded the belligerent scout, though 
she knew the anger was directed at Lita's futility with the monster, not 
at Amy.

Ami continued, understanding. "I was thinking that if we could isolate 
that kernel of power in the middle, it would not be able to do anything.  
All we would have to do is join our powers and concentrate them on the 
center on the creature and..."

Serena finished for her. "And it's moondust!" She paused, looking at 
Ami when she heard no reply. "Uh.. right?"

"Not quite.  That's the bad news.. We _might_ be able to imprison the
assailant, but we would probably not be able to destroy it.  But I 
suppose, at first, imprisoning will do."

Serena regained some of her enthusiasm. "Why do we need to know that 
anyway, I thought it was toasted?"

Rei naturally stomped on the hope. "Because other monsters sent by the 
same force might be similar, chowderhead!"

Serena's eyes went moist, and the two cats jammed their ears flat 
against their heads in anticipation of more crying. "How do you know 
there is a force, maybe it was just the one."

"Because, spaghetti brain..." Raye paused, a look of surprise replacing
annoyance. "I hate to admit it, but Serena might have something 
there.  Perhaps that _was_ just an isolated incident.  Unlikely, but 
possible."

Artemis nodded. "We will just have to hope."

Unfortunately, hope was not something the scouts had time for.  A 
sudden crash interrupted their meeting, an explosion coming from a 
nearby section of the city.  A wave of negavibes washed over the 
assembled as they jumped to their feet.

"So much for that hope," Luna murmured.  "Scouts!  Time to transform!"




He looked around, pleased.  The amount of energy he had sent into the 
negapulse should alert the scouts immediately.  If the Lord was 
correct, they would soon come.  It was unfortunate that he had to 
destroy a civilian store to release the charge, but he had managed to 
scare away everyone inside before blasting the place.  Not that scaring 
these pitiful humans was difficult, the shadow smiled to himself as he 
waited.  In the distance, he heard approaching sirens.






"Yeah, yeah, I felt it!  I'm going!... Do you think that He
will try to...?"



Ignoring Guardian, the man got up and concentrated, a slight disturbance
forming in the air in front of him.  For a moment, he looked back. "Try to
follow me."



"I know, but still try.  Yes, I know, I'm going."  The man concentrated
once more on empty space in front of him.  A portal appeared out of 
nowhere, hovering in midair.  Wincing in anticipation of another 
spatial transferal, the man stepped through.  As the portal closed, 
Guardian was left alone to contemplate the empty room. And the future.  
Then it, too, vanished and the black room was left to itself.




"It seems to be the same sort of monster,"  Amy panted as she 
approached to source, doing the impossible task of running at high 
velocity and typing something on her computer. "Or for all I can tell, 
even the same one."  The  scouts, following her lead, said nothing. "So 
remember, concentrate your power on the center of the monster, try to 
isolate it."  The scouts and Tuxedo Mask ran with a speed that would 
have been impossible for mere humans, but even they could not outrun 
cars.  Police sirens were slowly approaching the site of the crash and 
the runners would only beat them by several minutes.

Then, suddenly, they were there.  The shape, seemingly identical to 
the one they had faced before, stood near a supermarket.  The building 
looked like it had been at ground zero of a tactical warhead, half of 
it completely torn apart, the other half still holding together by some 
miracle. The scouts, remembering the other previous monster, shuddered, 
but it was their duty to fight evil, a duty they did not shirk.

"All right, Sailor Scouts, attack!"  Luna yelled, then turned to 
Tuxedo Mask, "Darian, you can not fight this thing, so stay back for 
now."  Throwing her a rebellious stare, the prince nevertheless 
obeyed.  Meanwhile, the scouts had arranged themselves in a loose 
circle around the monster.  Before it could grab any of them, they 
attacked.

"Mars Power!"

"Venus Power!"

"Jupiter Power!"

"Mercury Power!"

"Moon Crystal Power!"  Serena was the last to go, and haloes of power
surrounded each scout. The five paused, building up energy.  "Now!" 
Someone yelled and the energy each had built up was released. A beam of 
force from each lanced at the center of the monster, wrapping around 
its essence.  The black shadow writhed and shrunk a little, then 
resisted.  The scouts were using all of their power to try and contain 
it but it was not enough.  The shield was being attacked from within- 
but also from the outside, by the rest of the shadow.  Amy suddenly 
opened her eyes, realizing she had miscalculated.  If she had been 
correct, the creature should only have been able to attack from inside, 
the outside should have dissipated almost immediately. With a sudden 
wrench, the monster ripped free of the forces and the scouts staggered 
back with the sudden shattering of their attach.

The creature reacted with inhuman speed, reaching out with black tentacles,
ensnaring all of them at once. With icy pseudopods, it immediately started
draining energy from each, freezing tentacles of fatigue rippling 
through each scout.

"Wha... what's happening?"  Serena asked as her eyes closed and her body
relaxed. None of the other scouts had the energy to answer.

With a yell, Tuxedo Mask, ignoring Luna's protests, launched himself 
straight at the shadow but it grasped him as well and scarcely a second 
later two cats followed his fate.




He looked at his victims, hanging in midair, and wondered what he was 
supposed to do.  He had been told there would be four scouts, a 
princess and perhaps two guardians.  That was all, everyone else was a 
bystander to be ignored.  Here he had five scouts, a foolish man in 
black who seemed to have considerable power within him, and two cats.  
The shadow paused a second longer, then decided. The man must be a 
bystander, it decided and dropped him, draining most of his energy so 
he would not make any trouble.  The two cats must be the guardians, 
their energy outputs differed from what he had been told to expect of 
indigenous life. And the five scouts?  One of them must be fake, he 
decided, but there was no way to tell. And the princess never came.  So 
he should go back with all five scouts and the two cats.  Arriving at 
that reasonable conclusion, he opened the portal.




The arriving policemen observed a very strange scene.  A man in black 
was lying in front of the building, unconscious. Something that looked 
like a hole in the air was hovering overhead, parallel to the ground.  A 
tear in the scenery, it seemed to hold still for a few seconds. Long 
enough for a very foolish policeman to come close to it and get a 
glimpse of a rocky landscape beyond. Then it began to close slowly, 
startling even the foolish man away.  Before anyone could react 
_another_ person in black arrived suddenly, as if appearing out of thin 
air.  He leapt over a police car, landed near the unconscious man, 
looked up and without a moment's hesitation leapt straight up five 
meters into the gate right before the portal vanished.

After discussing the possibility of mass hallucinations, the police 
decided they had seen _something_.  The only person present was the 
strangely dressed unconscious man in black, so they sent for a van to 
take him back to police HQ.


_	_	_



He did not show it, but Kaneth was very upset.  In actuality, it would 
have been very difficult for him to show any expression at all since 
his face was mostly a rigid mask that denied any possibility of motion. 
As a result, for most people, it would have been impossible to tell the 
difference between him being happy, and him looking for blood.  At 
least not from his face.  There were other ways of distinguishing his 
emotions, and anyone well versed in them would know to stay away now.  
Despite the creature's efforts to conceal his anger, there was a 
certain rigidness in his large frame, the muscles tenser than usual, 
the eyes slightly narrower.  Anyone who knew him well would know that 
he was very upset.  Not that there was anyone who knew him that well.

Kaneth was the best warrior in Beryl's army. At least he had been, now 
he was second best.  But his skill was not the only reason he rose 
through the dark army as fast as he did, finally becoming the leader of 
the greatest force in the Negaverse.  That other reason was honor.  As 
contradictory as that may seem, one of His best generals was one of the 
few creatures in the Negaverse who believed in fairness.  No one knew 
precisely how Kaneth got that way.  He had been raised correctly according 
to Negaverse tradition.  He had had normal parents who had not cared for 
him, leaving him to fend on his own as soon as he could survive on his 
own. Later he had been part of a large band of creatures who had pillaged 
the  dark world, before he had been recruited into Beryl's ranks where he had
been taught more hatred and evil.

And yet somewhere, somehow, he had learned something that very few 
creatures in the Negaverse understood, something that made him almost 
unique.  He had learned something that allowed others to trust him.  He 
had learned _honor_.  In the Negaverse, trust is almost completely a 
foreign concept.  It is almost impossible to believe in someone who is 
looking out only for himself.  At first, Kaneth's behavior had gone mostly 
unnoticed, but as he had started to gain rank because of his fighting 
proficiency, the strange attribute had been seen by forces higher up.  
And appreciated.

Yes, appreciated.  Despite the fact that most minions of the Dark Lord 
have no honor, that characteristic is not something that is frowned 
upon.  Having some sense of fairness was considered actually useful in 
high positions.  Certainly not in the field, with combat going on, but 
in a command post, it had its advantages.  And so Kaneth continued to 
rise in rank until he reached a position all the army aspired to.  He 
became one of the few generals in Beryl's army.  These leaders were 
almost as high as the Four Generals and becoming one of them was the 
most prestigious position one could have.  The Four did not allow 
anyone else to rise to their level, and so the level below them was as
high as one could go during Beryl's rule.  

And then the impossible had taken place. One by one, the generals 
had been killed, either by the wrath of their queen or by their own folly.  
And in  the end, something even more frightening to the average 
Negaverse warrior had happened.

Beryl had been destroyed.

With the Negaverse severely damaged by the battle 
and the subsequent explosion, and anarchy threatening to take over the 
kingdom, the choice of leader became unclear.  The four generals were 
destroyed or imprisoned, and the lower generals, though few, were too 
many for any one to take control easily.  Usually such problems were 
resolved with duels, but at this level that kind of selection did not 
always give the best results.  As a consequence, tradition was 
overridden with a more cunning war of survival. In the end, Kaneth 
won for two reasons.

Not one of the others dared to challenge him to battle. They knew him 
to be a superior fighter and they would not have survived.  And because 
the army knew of his strange beliefs in many cases they trusted 
him more than they could trust themselves. And so he became the leader 
of the greatest force in the Negaverse, leading with honor and 
toleration that made a time of bounty for his troops for a small period of
time.

And then He came.  Remembering, Kaneth ground his four hands into 
fists.  He had been so close!  He genuinely believed that there was 
gain to be had in honor and he had thought that his followers were 
realizing the same things.  When they stopped going after the Universe, 
when they stopped wasting energy trying to plunder grenoks, they 
actually started to do well.

Well.  That single word contained a concept that was difficult to 
imagine for a Negaverse warrior. All they knew was suffering, both 
giving it and receiving their share. Under Beryl's rule, and under the 
rule of most of her predecessors so many years ago, the only way to 
experience some pleasure was to risk one's life constantly. Now, with a 
benign leader, his troops realized that they were doing much better.  
And as those under his command became somewhat civilized, the 
conditions improved even more.

There had always been basic emotions among the creatures of the 
Negaverse but they had mostly been negative.  There was always some 
love, such as between Zoicite and Malachite, but it was rare. The lives 
of most warriors, when not ended prematurely in combat, were generally 
long, long enough for the need for procreation to be small.  And those 
directly under Beryl's rule were generally not allowed to intermix in 
that way.  Thus, when Kaneth gave permission for that kind of thing, 
some of the warriors suddenly found themselves doing something they had 
never thought of before.  They realized they actually liked their leader.

Kaneth tried to grimace, wiping the thought from his mind.  The 
rigidity of his face made such movement nearly impossible, but somehow 
merely trying to do it gave him satisfaction.  Though he came to be 
much later than the first strike against Queen Serenity, he resented 
the surprise attack.  Not that he was for the Universe.  He was as 
loyal to the Cause as anyone, he merely though it should have been done 
in a less shameful matter, not the kind of battle Beryl had waged.  
What he envisioned was honorable warfare, or.... He paused in his  
thoughts, making himself say the word that was not known to most 
creatures inhabiting his plane.  Peace.

'Peace' was another word that was alien to most of his fellow 
warriors.  Trying to surrender, or avoiding conflict was unthinkable.  
A creature of the Negaverse would either fight to the ultimate victory 
or resist to the complete defeat, to its own destruction.

Remembering the coming of the Dark Lord, Kaneth quickened his pace.  
Though he was ultimately loyal to the lord, he disliked him with an 
intensity that would have shocked most of the creatures he knew.  And 
it was all because of timing.  Kaneth had been prosperous, the best 
leader of the clans for a long time, and had even begun to influence 
some of his subjects, teaching them honor.  A few, a very few, became 
more loyal to him than was thought possible. There were still some that 
were loyal to him and _only_ him, more so than to the Dark Lord with 
his shadow minions.

The Lord was cunning, that much was obvious. He saw the good within 
Kaneth and hated him, but could not kill the leader because of his 
followers. So he demoted the warrior to a lower command.  

Timing... If the Dark One had come later, he might not have been 
listened to. And if he came earlier, he would have dealt with Beryl, 
and Kaneth would have never found out the sweetness of command.  Now
Kaneth had to obey a leader he did not want. But Kaneth was loyal, and 
he did as he was told.

But the situation made him angry.

Now, however, he was angry for another reason.  The first foray into the
Universe since Beryl, the one with the shadow was known to him.  But 
he had no idea the Dark Lord would react that fast to the news of his 
Enemy.  Kaneth could not believe that He had already sent another 
minion to capture-

Kaneth wondered about that.  He hated the scouts, the ones who had 
destroyed most of his home, those who killed many of the warriors 
serving under him.  He had though of some of the soldiers under him as 
friends.  But the scouts were _warriors_, not pawns in some game.  It 
was _wrong_ to use them just to further a cause, just as bait for a 
greater enemy.

Ahead, he saw the shadow, emerging form the next bubble universe.  
There were several shapes being held by it.  Recognizing them as the 
scouts, he began to think.  There had to be some way that he could keep 
his honor without losing his loyalty.  After a few moments, he smiled, 
or would have if he could.  His legs increased the pace without the 
rest of him noticing.




The shadow was carrying the scouts like so many sacks of trontor, Kaneth
thought to himself with indignation.  He blocked the dark creature's 
path .

"I recognize you, Kaneth, and have nothing against you.  Let me 
pass."  Like that of other shadows, the voice was hollow.

Kaneth stood his ground. "If you know me, you know what I stand for."

The shadow seemed to look at him more closely. "You are the one known 
for... honor."  The shadow shifted somewhat to a respectful position.  
"The Dark Lord does not like honor, though it sometimes has its uses.  
If you mean to tell me this attack goes against your principles then 
spare me that.  I am aware of that, but I _will_ deliver."

So the shadows do have some honor, who would have believed it? Kaneth
asked himself.  At least some of them. If the other had known Kaneth 
better, he would have noticed a slight shifting in his stance.  In his 
life, Kaneth found very little use for evading the truth, and was not 
equipped to hide it. But the shadow, trying to figure out something out 
from the inflexible mask was at a loss. 

Kaneth continued. "What were your orders?"

With emphasis, the shadow grumbled. "I do not have to divulge that
information."  The dark creature paused uncomfortably. "But I will
nevertheless.  I am to bring the four scouts, the princess and the two
guardians to the Dark Lord."  The shadow suddenly wondered if Kaneth knew
anything about the overabundance of scouts.

"Do you realize you have four scouts and a fake?"  Mentally, Kaneth 
prayed to the Negaforce that this ploy would succeed.  If the shadow 
was sure of his prey, than all would have been for nothing, and then 
Kaneth would die. Silently, the warrior steeled himself.  If this was 
the time for him to die, then so be it.

The shadow paused again.  "The thought had occurred to me, but I had 
no way of telling which were real and which was not.  And the Princess 
did not come at all."  The shadow waited before admitting its ignorance 
even more. "I have been... I have been asleep for a very long time," 
the dark creature admitted slowly.  Kaneth realized that the shadows, 
which came back with the Dark Lord, have no memories of what happened 
after the Lord had been banished the last time. While he filed that thought 
for future reference, the shadow was continuing. "I am not sure I 
remember these things too well."  Thinking of Kaneth's reputation, the 
shadow realized it might be able to trust him. "You have been here, do 
you know?"

So easy, Kaneth thought. "Yes, of course," he answered, perhaps too 
readily but the shadow did not notice.  "That one," he said pointing to 
the orange clad scout, "is a fake.  She is merely a civilian."  
Flinching inwardly at the lie, Kaneth waited for the reply.

It came slowly, the shadows were not the smartest of creatures. "Are 
you sure?" The shadow paused again, thinking ponderously. "Do you 
_swear_ that she is not one of the four scouts?"  The phrasing gave 
Kaneth his escape.  The four scouts were Moon, Mercury, Mars and 
Jupiter.  Sailor Venus joined them later, so could considered the 
_fifth_ scout.  Kaneth did not seem to realize that he was using a 
loophole, he just wanted to set his honor at rest.

"I so swear."  The shadow paused, looking forward to the next portal.  
Roughly it dumped the orange scout on the ground, the form still 
unconscious.  It saddened him to know that grenoks would kill the 
scout before she would awaken, but he could not very well return 
her to the Universe.  If all else failed, he would be able to return before 
the scavengers found her.  Probably. Swiftly, he moved off at a speed 
no human and few denizens of the Negaverse could match.  Kaneth was 
one of those who could, switching his middle set of limbs downward, 
he shifted to a galloping stride.

He knew he would die for his betrayal when it was discovered, but he 
had no choice, his honor allowing him no other recourse. His mind 
seemed to go over and over what he had done without real 
comprehension.  When he had set out, he never meant to betray, yet that 
is what he had done.  Betrayed.  Kaneth stopped, horrified at himself, 
stopping long enough for the shadow to notice.  And... He had to force 
the thought out of himself, make it felt on a conscious level. It felt 
right.  He could not define it, but if he had to do it again- His mind 
tried to blank out the end of the idea, but it continued on, 
relentless. If he had to do it again- he would change nothing.

_Nothing_.  The word echoed in his mind as he continued.


_	_	_



Neither of the two creatures was aware of a silent observer.  The man 
in black had passed through the portal only in time to witness the end 
of their conversation, but it was enough.  He knew he would not be able 
to catch up to them, not at their speed and he thanked the four armed 
creature, silently. Whoever he was, he slowed the shadow long enough 
for the man to catch up. And, more importantly, he had freed her..

It was impossible to understand how someone could have convinced the 
shadow to let _her_ go, but the man suspected a possibility.  Sailor 
Moon was only created a short time ago and He probably did not know 
that the princess acted like a scout.

He shook his head silently as the other two creatures faded into the 
darkness. Ignoring the strange surroundings, the man moved next to the 
scout.  She looked so frail, lying on the ground, shivering, 
unconsciously freezing in the frigid air. The man stared at her for a 
long time, and something seemed to happen to him.

A shiver passed through him as he bent slowly toward her face.  Their 
lips grew closer, the distance slowly diminishing.  He did not seem to 
be aware of what he was doing, his eyes locked in a trance.  He could 
feel the warmth rising slowly from her face as his lips almost brushed 
hers.  Just a little more and- a sudden noise snapped him out of the 
strange state.  He jerked himself up away from the scout, his fists 
clenched.

After a moment, he calmed, his breathing relaxing slowly and he heard 
the sound again. A large number of voices, murmuring in the distance. 
He wondered what they were until a long unused memory told him. A 
single word went through his mind. 

_Grenoks_.  He took out a black cloak from somewhere on his gi and
wrapped the slightly moaning scout in it as he picked her up.  Choosing a
direction that led away from the voices, he strode forward.

Trying to occupy his mind, he attempted to remember what he could 
about where he was.  The memories were old, distant, covered with 
mental cobwebs.  But they were there despite the time that had passed 
and he forced himself to remember.

Bubble universes were dangerous.  Each was completely self contained, 
and could be composed of anything.  Usually, there was some sort of 
ground or floating rocks or _something_ that a person could walk on.  
And almost always, there was at least one stationary portal, one 
entrance to the small world from somewhere else.  And very often, the 
worlds were inhabited.

The man sighed as the memories floated up, realizing that their age 
might make them inaccurate, but tried to force himself to think.  The 
creatures had to come from somewhere, he thought to himself.  Slowly, 
the training he had overcame the time barrier and his mind reluctantly 
provided the answer.

The problem consisted of keeping someone away since anyone with the 
coordinates of the universe and an ability to make portals could make 
his way to it.  At least if the universes were close enough.  
Generally, creatures from the Negaverse, fierce scavengers came across 
as soon as the bubble was created. They were known as the grenoks, the 
homeless, those creatures in the Negaverse which were not affiliated 
with the Negaverse army.  They generally lived in tribes, scavenging 
for food in the bare plains of the Negaverse.  And they were never 
friendly.  They could not afford to be.

The man continued on his way, ignoring the other images that floated 
up with what he needed, memories of times long gone.  The girl was 
growing less active, freezing to death in the rarefied atmosphere.  
Finding a somewhat sheltered region he set her down on a smooth rock, 
gently using the cloak as a buffer between her and the frozen surface.

He concentrated.  

 The answer came from a place separated by more than physical
distance.



 It was not a question.

 In a brief flash, he related
what he saw of the four armed creature.

The reply came almost immediately. 


The man shrugged, though he knew Guardian could not see him. 









Abruptly the light appeared in front of the man.



"You know better."



"She has been touched by a shadow and drained.  She might not recover."

Guardian knew it was hopeless, but he had to try. 

He did not let the light finish "Must what?  Must let her die?"

Though he must have known it was futile, Guardian tried to reply to that.


"I can't let her die!  Not again!"  Abruptly, the man turned away from the
light, facing the prone scout.  "I have no choice."  He extended his arm.

The globe of light emitted something very much like a sigh.  Guardian floated to a position over the girl's face.  The
aura around the light pulsed, then seemed to concentrate.  All of the 
separate beams converged into one, pointed at the scout's forehead. 
For a moment that seemed to last forever, the beam held, then 
vanished.  The girl drew a shuddering sigh, then slowly stopped 
shivering.  Sending a grateful look to Guardian, the man used the edge 
of the cloak to cover the girl, then turned away, waiting.


_	_	_



"You WHAT??" The shriek tore through the chamber. The shadow cowered 
away from it, six captives still clutched in it's dark appendages.

"I..."  The shadow paused, wondering what it should say. "I..   He 
told me the other scout was a fake."

"WHO?  Who told you?"  The voice was full of death.  The shadow 
flinched away toward the entrance.  With its last wisp of courage, it 
whispered the answer hoarsely. "Kaneth."  

The dark shape on the pedestal seemed to recoil.  It stopped moving 
for a few seconds as if in thought, then returned its gaze on to the 
shadow.  Though the eyes were invisible, the gaze had a power that made 
it felt like a physical blow.

"Place them there."  The shadow wondered at the sudden change in subject,
holding still until an invisible arm pointed the direction. A shadowy arm
stretched out toward one of the walls of the great chamber.

Seven indentations were along the wall, hollows surrounded by pulsing 
black tentacles. At the end, farthest from the throne were two small 
ones, obviously made for the guardian cats. Though they looked 
appalling, they were not as bad as the rest. The next five hollows were 
all human sized, but not identical. The first three were the only 
similar ones, differing only in the position of the pulsing veins and 
slightly in size, as if made specifically for individuals.  The next 
one looked stronger, as if made to hold a more powerful creature.  And 
the next-

The next one was ghastly.  It was set forward from the rest, 
emphasized by a glaring white light that would make a captive blind.  
The black veins surrounding it were a network of dark poison, pulsing 
in a hideous rhythm.  And unlike the rest of the depressions which 
seemed designed merely to hold, this one was different.  It was 
surrounded by instruments, black tentacles tipped with cutting edges, 
with syringes made to deliver a black poison into a person, serrated 
edges that would rip flesh rather than cut it.  Like a surgeon's table
gone mad, it awaited a victim.

The shadow moved slowly, hoping not to attract more attention.  It 
placed the two guardians in their hollows, then hesitated.  The Dark 
Lord noticed and rasped directions in a harsh tone.

"Put the one with the tiara in that one." He said, extending a shadowy arm
toward the stronger chamber.

"But Lord, I thought that was reserved for the Princess with her.." It was
interrupted by a scream filled with more frustration than hate.

"She _is_ the princess, you fool!!  Do as I command!"  The shadow obeyed
quickly, fearing for its life.  The tentacles and veins wrapped around the
scout, imprisoning her more securely than they did the two guardians. "Now
place the other ones in the three slots."  Understanding, the shadow 
placed them in the recesses, sorting them by size, watching the 
tentacles react swiftly, immobilizing them. It waited for further 
instructions, knowing that it was close to being killed.  But the Dark 
Lord seemed too caught up in his own thoughts, he only noticed the 
shadow several seconds later. To the shadow's astonishment, he did not 
seem as full of rage as it would have thought. "Leave me."  Glad to 
obey, the shadow slipped out as quietly as possible.




With the shadow gone, he concentrated on the problem.  Some time ago, 
he had felt the Chosen come in through the first portal, but knowing 
the speed of a shadow, the Dark One had not worried. He knew the Enemy 
would not be able to catch up.

Now was a different matter.  He was sure that the Chosen was with the 
scout, and he had to figure out what to do about it.  And, he continued 
with anger, what to do about Kaneth.  Kaneth was a problem. His 
_honor_, the Lord scorned the concept in his thoughts, Kaneth's honor 
forbade him to obey his orders so he had to be destroyed.  He was too 
fair, to honorable to continue serving the Dark Lord, and he had to 
killed.  But because of his popularity, it had to be done in a way that 
would not appear suspicious, something that would make his followers be 
proud of him.

For a moment, the Dark One was concerned that Kaneth might command 
more respect than the Lord, but wiped the idea from his mind.  Even if 
he did, he was not as feared, and _fear_ was power. Still, he had to 
get rid of him in a way that would not cause unrest.  And Kaneth was the 
second greatest warrior in the realm, the best next to himself, he was 
too valuable to waste.  There had to be a way to get rid of him that 
would make use of his particular talents. Making the equivalent of a 
frown, the shadow realized that Kaneth knew of his impending doom.  
That knowledge would have to serve as a punishment until something 
better came up.

And what about the Chosen?  The dark shape set his mind to tackle the 
problem of separating the scout from him, forcing her here, making him 
come after.  But he had to let that idea go, though possible, it would 
require more energy than he would gain, and might not succeed.  There 
_had_ to be some other way to use him-  The Lord's thoughts trailed off 
as he paused.  Of course!  With a jerk, the Dark Lord stood up.  This 
could serve me after all, he thought to himself.

On the wall, in their individual niches, the scouts were waking up 
slowly.  He came up to their leader, the princess.

"You, my dear," he whispered in a voice that was anything but 
pleasant, "are going to be very, very useful to me."  His grin was a 
dark slash across his face.  He then reached up, altering something 
over her head.  She was too powerful to leave conscious, the dark shape 
thought to himself as he administered a drug to her system.  A 
previously hidden tentacle rose up, sticking a needle in a vein in her 
arm.  The scout tried to twist out of her bonds but she was too groggy, 
and the drug worked quickly.  A black fluid flowed up into her arm, the 
tentacle pulsing like a twisted IV.

The Shadow turned away, satisfied. "Guard!"  A different shadow 
answered his call, flowing in smoothly. "Set up a guard at each of the 
portals leading to were _he_," the reference to the other shadow was 
obvious, "left the scout.  Make them ordinary guards, formidable, but 
no shadows.  Do you understand?  No shadows!"

"But my Lord, if the Chosen is truly out there, he might break through a
defense of that nature."  The shadow did not question, it knew better, 
but as a shadow, it had to inform its Master of everything it was aware of.

The Dark Lord smiled. "Exactly."


_	_	_



Mina was alive. She was sure of that.

Almost sure.

The pain was considerable.  Well, not so much pain, as aching.
And the _cold_.

Slowly, she regained consciousness.  Over time, vague definitions of 
feelings became more and more distinct.  After a while, the fog over 
her senses seemed to lift faster, and she was surprised  to realize 
that she could feel everything around her, though as if from a large 
distance. As if nothing applied to her in her stupor.  Hesitating to 
open her eyes for a reason she could not quite explain, she tried to 
figure out where she was.  Lying on a flat, hard surface, though there 
seemed to be a softer cover over it that made it bearable to her cold 
bones. A conversation was going on, somewhere that seemed distant, yet 
she was sure that it was right next to her.  She listened a bit, then 
realized it was not making any sense.  As if she was hearing only one
side, the speaker answered questions and talked, but the other side of the
conversation was left empty, for her to guess about.

The voice she heard was sad, filled with pain. "So long.." It breathed
quietly.




He reached out with one hand, almost touching her.  A slight shiver 
worked its way up his frame as his hand moved down to her.



"So long... So much time I've waited for this moment.  Always training,
learning, getting myself ready.  And now..."



The man turned to the light behind him, anger clearly written on his
face. "What do you know of denial?"



"At least you survived."

A tinge of sad humor entered Guardian's thoughts. 

"At least I managed to survive once.  That is more than any of you can
say." The man sighed slowly. He rubbed a hand over his face, then looked
directly into the light.  "I know what I have to do."  His voice sank to a
whisper. "It's just that it's been so _long_."

 The light,
too, seemed to sigh. 



Mina wondered what the man was talking about.  He seemed to pause, as if
listening to someone else speaking to him.  The scout thought that she 
might not understand because she did not know the other side.  What she 
did not realize was that she wouldn't have understood the conversation 
anyway.

The man fell silent for a while, during which time much of Mina's feelings
returned.  She still hesitated to open her eyes, and was debating with 
herself on that subject when the man spoke again.

"Does He sense you yet?"  The voice seemed to be more relaxed, not sad any
more. A pause, while no one replied, yet again.

"Then you should go before He is sure."  Another pause, this one 
longer, as if the answer was long, but Mina still did not hear 
anything.  She wondered why the voice emphasized 'he' so much.

"I understand, but surely He will take action to get you away." 
Another halt. In a way, Mina was becoming used to this.  It certainly 
made for a lot less strain on her mind, she did not even need to try to 
understand.

"And once He does notice you completely He might destroy you. He might 
send a shadow after you, even if He cannot reach you here."  The voice 
sounded aggravated, and that made it seem familiar.  She tried to place 
it, but failed.

Then a single word in the previous statement leapt out to her.

_Shadow._

The Creature!  Suddenly, Mina's memories came flooding back. The monster
attacking, her being taken and now... Where was she?  She tried to 
look around, but her eyes would not open as if she were paralyzed. Then 
the shot of adrenaline brought the surroundings closer to her in a 
sudden jump, and the paralysis seemed to move back a little.  Forcing 
motion into her muscles, she moaned, then cleared her throat.

"Where am I?"  Her voice sounded alien because of the dryness of her 
throat and mouth.

"Disappear."  The voice was quiet and commanding, and she was not sure she
heard anything.  Did she hear that one word, or was it her 
imagination?  There was a brief echo of motion, then a voice, the same 
voice she heard before said something.  It took a bit of time for her 
to figure the words out, her mind still fuzzy, but he seemed to be 
replying to her question. "Great, a cliche."  Her eyes were still 
closed, but she had the definite impression that he was smiling. He 
paused, then continued. "You are in a..  you would call it a bubble
universe.."

A what? 

"You are safe for the moment."

That was good to know.  If she could trust whoever was speaking.  
Maybe she should open one of her eyes.  A portion of her brain told her 
to relax while another fought for action. "Wait!"  She scrambled 
through her thoughts.  "My friends... Where are they? Are they all 
right?"

The voice was slightly sad now. "I do not know.  There is nothing you 
can do for them yet, but we _will_ help them."  The voice reassured 
her, relaxed her.

Finally, her eyes came open. She could not see anything, then the fog 
over her sight lifted and she found herself staring at someone bent
over her.  At first she did not recognize him, then with astonishment 
realized it was the man in black.  

Of course!  _That_ was the voice she could not place, what did he tell her
that time on the tower?  /Do not despair.  It is not the time yet./  She did
not recognize him because the shadow over his face was absent, she could
_see_ him for the first time. A question bubbled up through her mind, a
question she wondered about for a long time. "Who are you?"  Her voice 
still sounded alien to herself.

"Not that again," he sounded disappointed, though the smile did not 
disappear. "That is a _very_ long story, and I do not have the time.  
Neither do you, for that matter."

What did that mean? "But... What is your _name_, at least?"

"You just asked that."  His voice was reproachful.

What? "No, I asked who you were.. it's not the same thing."  She 
fought to get her thoughts together.

"What a person is, and who a person is are one and the same. I thought 
you would remember that."  His voice sounded even more disappointed, 
and the slight smile vanished.

Remember from where?  "Then what am I supposed to call you?"

"I let people call me what names to me they will.  Some are better then
others."  Seeing her surprise, he smiled again, a slight turning at 
the corners of his mouth and sighed with resignation. "Just call me... 
Call me Chosen."

Chosen?  Chosen.  The word spun in her mind.  It had to connect to 
something, it felt so familiar, but it fell through without hooking on 
to anything.  As if she knew of him, but did not let herself remember.

Forcing herself, she looked past him.  She was lying in some sort of 
niche, surrounded by short stone walls.  As far as she could see, the 
surrounding were completely barren. Just stretches of rock with nothing 
on them.  And the sky...

The sky was hideous.  Like a living entity, it swirled in its colors 
of garish purple and gray, threatening to consume her.  It twisted and 
turned with no end, no cessation of motion, no way of escaping, 
grasping at her, luring her inside its depths.

Forcing herself to tear her eyes away from the sight, she gasped.

"Where are we?"  The question escaped her before she realized she had 
asked it already.

"I told you. A bubble universe."  That did not help any more than it 
did the first time he said it.

"What's that?  A bubble universe, I mean."  Funny, her voice sounded 
almost human now.

He frowned. "I thought you would know, you've been in enough of 
them."  Seeing her confusion, he seemed to remember something. "No, you 
came later.  Serena and Amy are the ones, and I think Raye was in one or 
two.  Jadeite was a master at these, it's amazing the scouts managed 
to defeat him." 

Jadeite?  Who was this guy, and how did he know all of this?

She heard scrambling somewhere near, and voices, lots of voices, 
distracting her.  "What are those?"

He seemed to notice them and frowned again. "Grenoks.  Can you move?"

"Do I have a choice?"


_	_	_



Aspirin.  Darian wondered why his mind was sending that word to him 
when he tried to move.  Some part of him went 'oh, that makes sense,' 
while the rest of him screamed silently in protest at the motion.

His body felt like it had been frozen solid, then thawed with a 
flame-thrower. There were a few places that were not aching, but that 
was only because they were numb.  His head... he did not even want to 
think about his head, which seemed swollen to at least four times its 
normal size.  Or so it felt.

Another thought made the treacherous journey through the numbed 
portions of his brain.

Serena!  The word made him wince in more than physical pain.  Last he 
saw, she had been grabbed by the creature with the other scouts, then 
he himself got grabbed and... where was he?

With a force of will impossible for most humans, he forced his eyes open.

A jeering voice greeted this.  "So our little prisoner is awake?  
Where'd you get the costume, man?"  The voice made fun of him, but 
there was something else.  It took a moment for Darian to identify.

Fear.  Now why would someone fear me? Darian thought to himself.

His eyes could not focus at first, the surroundings floated around in 
shades of gray and blue.  All of a sudden, the fog seemed to clear, and 
the objects around him became well defined.

He was staring at the uniform of a police officer.  As near as he 
could tell, he was sitting on a bench in the rear of a police van.  A 
quick glance confirmed that he was wearing handcuffs and the door was 
securely closed.  The van was moving.

OK, Darian thought, so now what?  He wondered how he got captured by 
the cops, then wondered what happened to the others.

Well, as a first order of business, I can not have myself getting caught 
by the police, Darian told himself.  At least my mask is still on so 
they don't know who I am.  Casually, he addressed the cop across from 
him. "What happened officer?" He did his best to fake confusion which 
was not hard under the circumstances.

"Damned if I know- Some friggin' _hole_in the middle of the sky opened up,
and you're the only guy left 'round to talk." Hopefully, the man added, "I
don't suppose you can explain it?"

With an attitude of complete relaxation, Darian answered, "No, I 
can't." Trying to relax the other with his attitude seemed to work, and 
the guard did not seem all that battle-ready anyway.  Suddenly, the 
prince twisted his wrists with inhuman strength, breaking the metal 
chain.  Before the officer could react, Darian kicked the door open, 
shattering the metal lock, and leapt out of the moving vehicle.  By the 
time the van stopped, he was racing down a side alley, keeping to the 
shadows.  After avoiding any possible pursuit, he wondered what 
happened to the scouts.  He continued down the alley, worrying, unaware 
that the scouts knew little more than he did.


_	_	_



"What do you want from us?"

This was beginning to get annoying.  Not that it mattered, there was 
nothing any of them could do, anyway.  The bonds had been specially 
designed to hold them, and no power could set them free.  Well, almost 
no power, he thought with a dark smile.

"Why are you keeping us prisoner?"

Yes, this was definitely becoming annoying.  They had not stopped 
since they had began to wake up.  To their credit, it had only taken 
them a couple of moments to realize that their powers did not work.  I 
took a bit longer to figure out what was wrong with the Princess, but 
one saw the needle sticking in her arm.  He sighed, wishing they would 
shut up.  Yes, that would be nice.  He reprimanded himself for his 
thoughts, shifting his mind outward, trying to locate the Chosen, and 
trying to block off the Guardian.  He was interrupted yet again.

"Who _are_you?"

Very well then. "_Enough_!"  The voice, filled with the passionate hate he
had built up over eons silenced them.  Slowly, he approached the suddenly
silent scouts, a darkness even blacker that the shadows, visible 
against the lightlessness of the cavern only as an even darker place.  
Just to see what the effect of it was, he repeated himself "Enough."  
With surprise, he noticed that not one of them flinched the second 
time.  The two cats did not seem to fear anything, as they should not.  
They were, after all, guardians.  Not Guardian, but guardians 
nevertheless.  The red and the green, Mars and Jupiter if he remembered 
correctly seemed defiant, the blue, Mercury caught up in her own 
thoughts, and the Princess..... The Shadow smiled to himself.  She was 
mumbling something, but was completely out of it, her muscles relaxed 
and her eyes closed.  He could understand that since the drug, having 
to restrict her powers to a great extent, might be set too high for her 
to tolerate consciously.  He smiled again, knowing they could not see 
his face under the shadows that cloaked him.

He remembered the question, and decided to answer it.  Leaning close, 
he spoke out in a harsh whisper, moving his head next to them. "You 
want to know who I am?"  The voice he used was a special one he 
developed for dealing with stupid questions.  After hearing that voice, 
it was not infrequent for a creature to have an 'accident,' stupidity 
was not tolerated.  But of course, the scouts  would not know that, all 
they knew is that his voice mocked them. "Very well." His voice 
descended an octave, lower than a human could manage. "I am aware that 
certain portions of your memory were... how should I put this?"  He 
grinned at their discomfort. "Erased."

The green one spoke up.  "Our memory was restored.  All of it!"  She was
defiant, that one.  He would have to think of something special for 
her, after the Chosen was dealt with.

Meanwhile, he answered. "All of it?  Are you sure?  Are you quite, 
quite sure?" The voice questioned any belief. Seeing her about to 
protest, he continued, this time putting anger into his voice. "No, you 
do not remember everything. But perhaps this will spark your memory a 
little."

He breathed in deeply, savoring this. "I have been known by many 
names, most of them bad."  He started at a whisper, gradually building 
up his voice.  "I have been called the Lord, the Enemy, the Shadow!...  
But there is one name I have been known by for the longest period of 
time.  I am the _Dark Lord_!"  His voice reached an intensity beyond 
anything human at the end.

The red one replied to that heatedly. "Nope, doesn't ring a bell.  But 
wait until we get free.." She twisted uselessly within the confines of 
the vines.

He laughed suddenly aloud, a dark laugh that instilled cold into the very
marrow of a creature's bones.  Or so he had been told, for he had never
experienced cold in his infinite life. "Oh, I think you will remain 
there until _I_ say otherwise.  You six are going to be much more 
useful than I originally imagined."  He dropped to a conspiratorial 
whisper. "Originally, you see, I took you for nothing more than backup, 
just in case.  Now, you are all of the bait, and you will be enough.  
She will come for you. And He will have to come with her! Until then, 
you are staying right here."  Turning his back, he slid over to the 
throne.  "Guard!"  While he waited, he turned his head toward the six 
figures along his wall.  They seemed to be talking, probably making 
plans, but it did not matter.

Things were going well indeed.




"Serena, snap out of it!"  Raye could not believe she would sleep at a 
time like this.

Lita seemed sympathetic. "Leave her alone, she has been going through 
a lot."

"She has been like this since we awoke, perhaps this is serious.  It 
could be some sort of shock."  Amy had a point, since they woke up, Serena 
showed very little movement.   They had noticed the needle in her arm, 
but knew there was nothing they could do about it. Although the
princess had moaned something about usefulness at first, she had 
quickly quieted, and they could hear nothing from her.

"She is our leader, we need her awake!"  Luna was not in a very good 
mood.  The two cats had gotten a higher dose of freezing and the cold 
was only now wearing off.  And because of the difficulty of restraining 
a feline more so that with a collar, they were tied up much more 
uncomfortably.

Artemis suddenly interrupted. "That chamber looks more powerful 
somehow, maybe it is draining too much of her strength for her to stay 
awake."  The white cat suddenly noticed everyone's eyes focus on him.  
"Just a guess." He finished.

Rei continued, heedless. "And where is Mina?"

Now there was a question that had been troubling all of the scouts 
since they awoke.  Mina was not tied up along with them.  The quiet 
hope seemed to be that she escaped and would free them, but that seemed 
a bit far fetched. Nevertheless, no one was willing to venture the 
other alternatives.

Again, Artemis replied for everyone. "She is all right, I know it."  
This time, he ignored the surprise at the confidence in his voice.  "We 
just have to keep hoping."


_	_	_



Mina was most definitely not all right.  She was running down a rocky 
plane in nothing but her sailor outfit, with the temperature 
considerably lower than comfortable.  The fact that they were chased by 
a horde of assorted monsters did little to alleviate her concern.  
Neither did the fact that her companion in black did not seem tired in 
the least.  In fact, he seemed to hold back for her, which annoyed her 
since she had always done well in gym.  And she was going at a pace 
that was faster than any human on earth.

That the creatures were gaining did not help her mental attitude either.

She wondered when her heart would give up, it was certainly beating 
faster than ever.  Any time now, she imagined, the muscle would be 
driven to its extreme, the blood would pump a little too fast, and it 
would rupture.  The flesh giving way to red, spurting blood, flooding 
everything, her body falling gracefully to the ground, the creatures 
boiling her as a tasty snack, their drool..... Fortunately, she was not 
allowed to finish that train of thought, though she had gone far enough 
to be nauseated.  A sudden light seemed to illuminate the ground in 
front of her, appearing so swiftly she almost twisted her ankle on a 
rock, which would have been suicidal.

"Did you find anything?"  The man did not seem to be out of breath at 
all.  He was talking.... He was talking to... She could not quite 
distinguish it, but it seemed to be a sphere of light hovering over 
them.  The man seemed to be listening to something, though she did not 
hear any reply.  His face turned  grim as he answered. "That will have 
to do.  Hopefully it isn't poisoned," he added, not inspiring much
confidence.

Grabbing her arm, he changed course, heading somewhat to the right.  
The light disappeared so fast it might have vanished into thin air. 
Which would make sense, she thought with a bit of irony, since that was 
how it seemed to get there in the first place.  She followed him 
quietly since he seemed to know what he was doing.

"How well can you swim?"  For a moment, she thought he was talking to his
silent guide again, then realized he was staring at her.

Between pants, she tried to reply. ".... I.... was second..... in my.....
class."

He nodded tersely, then did something strange.  She had noticed two 
swords in some sort of harness across his back, but when he reached 
behind himself, he took out a knife that had also been there, hidden in 
the black folds of his gi. With two swift motions, he tore away the 
fabric on the side of his top, revealing his ribs.  For a moment, she 
though she saw lines drawn in the flesh, parallel to the ground, then 
she had to concentrate on running.

A lake appeared in front of them, a glossy surface reflecting the 
rather nasty sky.  Within moments, they were at its edge, and she 
wondered what they were going to do next.  It was huge, and though she 
could see the other side, there was no way to get to it.  And it looked 
_cold_.

With a wavering voice, she asked him  "Um, I don't suppose you can fly."

"No."  The reply was casual, as if she asked if he knew what the time was,
passing him by on the street.  He did not seem to have really heard her.
 
With a smooth motion, the man bent down, dipping his hand in, then ran 
a wet fingertip across his tongue.
 
"What are you doing?" She asked, frustrated.
 
"Testing for poison."
 
Oh, yeah, that was helpful, she thought to herself.
 
The horde was a hundred meters away, and he still paused, standing still.
  
It was fifty meters away, and she believed she could smell the individual
creatures composing the mob of monsters, when he smiled.  In a single 
motion, he grabbed her around her waist, and threw them both into the 
waters. Noiselessly, the water closed over their heads.
  
Frantic, Mina tried to make him release his grip.  She had been 
correct, the water was cold.  After a moment, she started to lose 
feelings in her limbs, despite her scout physique. Then she became 
aware of a burning in her lungs, a desperate need for air. As a scout, 
she could hold her breath for several minutes while being active, but 
she needed to take a deep breath first, something she had not been 
given  chance to do.  She struggled to keep herself from inhaling as 
she realized that the only question was what death she would suffer.
  
Would it be the lack of oxygen, pressing on her lungs, collapsing and 
inflating against her closed lips?
  
The cold around her gripping at her limbs with gaunt hands, paralyzing 
her?
 
The mob of creatures an unthinkable distance above her, barely audible 
through the water?
  
Or, she added one more, or the man in black, this Chosen who seemed 
intent on killing her?
  
Slowly, the two figures drifted into the depths.

  
_	_	_


  
The shadow was furious.  In a single gliding motion, it entered Kaneth's
living chambers, passing through the door as if it wasn't there.  
Seeing the warrior in some sort of meditation, the shadow almost 
stopped, but its anger was such that it disregarded all that was told 
of Kaneth's battle prowess. Besides, it thought to itself, nothing 
physical could threaten it.
 
"Traitor!" It spat out hoarsely in his face. "You will face me or die a
coward."
  
The four armed creature woke calmly.  Almost casually, as though 
unafraid, it replied. "Why should I?"
  
The shadow swelled with anger, quite literally, growing until its 
insubstantial head passed through the ceiling. "Why?  _Why_?  You 
betrayed me!  That scout was not a fake, that was the one He had been 
looking for.  you lied to me, you..." The shadow paused, looking for 
the worst insult it could give.  In a flash of inspiration, the answer 
came. "You have no honor!  You betrayed a sworn lord, and therefore you 
are just as deceitful as the rest of us."
 
For the first time, Kaneth looked uncomfortable, but he came back 
strong even so. "I did not betray my lord, He betrayed _me_!  He lacks 
all honor, and uses innocent humans to bait his trap!"  But he did not 
sound very sure.
 
The shadow was on a roll however, answering the weak excuse. "You 
don't seem to know as much of honor as you say you do.  Just because 
you serve a dishonorable master does not mean you have the right to 
betray him.  A sworn allegiance remains, no matter who you swear to.  
And the order was not given to _you_, so you could not claim you were 
made to do something you could not. Now face me, if you dare!"
  
Kaneth bowed his head.  He clenched his fists, then raised his head, 
sighing. "Perhaps you are right.  But I simply couldn't allow anyone to 
commit such a deed."  He suddenly drew himself up, glaring at the 
shadow. "But I do not wish to kill you, and if you fight me, you will 
not emerge alive."  Before the shadow could laugh at what it perceived 
as an empty threat, Kaneth unsheathed his two swords, leaving the 
two shorter blades in their harness.  "These were made long ago.  I 
_inherited_ them from their previous honor, who died challenging me."  
Seeing the shadow moving back a little, he continued. "They were made 
of a material that could cut through almost anything." Again, he 
paused, then suddenly looked into the eyes of the blackness in front of 
him. "Even shadow-flesh."
  
The shadow shrunk back against the wall.  "Yes," he whispered 
quietly,  "I have heard of blades that could cut through even our 
intangible flesh.  I had thought the only pair left was the one the 
Chosen carries and the one belonging to the Dark Lord, but I recognize 
the metal."  He paused quietly. "But I cannot let this insult go 
unpunished.  And so I must die."
 
Kaneth nodded once, shortly, and gave the shadow the best compliment 
he could. "In a way, you, too have honor."  The shadow leapt on him and 
the two swords whistled through the air.
  

_	_	_


  
Yet again, the fire defied him.  Grandpa sighed his distress, his face
unusually somber.  It had been hours since Raye was supposed to have 
come home, and she had not even let him know something was up.  And the 
flame refused to tell him anything.
  
Sinking down to the ground, Grandpa tried to recall all he knew of Raye's
mysterious nature.  Ever since she met Amy and Serena, she had been acting
strangely.  Disappearing for hours, coming home with various minor 
injuries. And then that time warp came, that no one seemed to have noticed.
  
And the fire, the flame that was supposed to serve him, reveal to him 
what his limited senses could not, did nothing.  For many decades he 
had trained to use the flame, to join with it until it was part of him, 
burning in his flesh.  And he had thought he was a very good student, 
until Raye was born.  She had an instinct for the fire, for priesthood, 
that defied belief.  When he taught her, he could hardly contain 
himself from the elation he felt at her inner strength. Instead, when 
she came around, he tried to put on a goofy exterior, hiding his own 
strength deep within, the strength that had honed her to the power she was
today.  
  
Sailor Mars.  He smiled to himself despite everything, amused that she 
thought she could hide her identity from him.  Just because the fire 
refused to tell him of her nature did not mean that he was helpless, or 
stupid.  And he was sure that she and her friends were the Sailor Scouts.
  
And now she was gone.
  
She was with her friends, having one of their 'secret meetings' when 
something exploded in the city.  He felt an evil force nearby, and saw 
the scouts run off toward it with their secret companion, Darian, on 
whom Raye had a crush for a while.
  
That was the last he saw of them.
  
Well, at least Chad was away for the week, Grandpa thought to himself 
with a sigh.
  
He heard footsteps behind them, steps that would have been silent to any
ordinary human, but easily felt by Grandpa.  Very few humans could be that
silent, and he knew only of one with that particular feel.  The fire 
flared once in an answer to an unspoken question.
  
"Hello Darian."
  
Tuxedo Mask was obviously taken back a little, though he replied smoothly
enough. "So you are not as senile as most of the scouts think."
  
Smiling at the backhand compliment, Grandpa answered. "Why should I 
be?  I have been trained for this job since I was a kid.  I like to 
think I am pretty good at it."
  
"Then I assume you tried asking the fire for Raye's whereabouts."
  
"I have, but as usual, it is not very responsive when it comes to 
her.  Still, it told me nothing at all, which is unusual."
  
"That's what she said."  Darian did not look surprised, knowing that 
Rei had the same result when dealing with the situation they had been 
dragged into.  He walked up to a chair, then swirled his cloak about 
him.  Within a moment he was back to the ordinary looking Darian.
  
Grandpa noted this without surprise, though it was certainly an 
interesting mode of metamorphosis. He waited for the end, then retold 
everything he knew. "She worked with the fire for a long time 
yesterday, and nothing came of it. She went to sleep frustrated, I 
could feel it.  And when I tried to get the flame to tell me what she 
was asking, it brought me to a similar frustration." Knowing the 
answer, Grandpa asked the question anyway. "Do you know what happened?"
  
Sighing, Darian collapsed into the chair. "No."  He looked at the 
crows, flying from post to post, and envied them.  They were oblivious 
to the problems around them and had no worries beyond feeding themselves.
  
For a while, the temple was silent.

  
_	_	_


  
Of the different demises possible, Mina was going to die because of
asphyxiation, she was sure of it.  It was definitely not pleasant.  
The other possible deaths, while being threatening, did not seem 
anywhere as immediate as that.  The cold bound her, froze into her 
skin.  She could no longer feel most of arms and legs, and she knew she 
was going to get hypothermia soon.  But that was too far away a death, 
the lack of breathing was much more immediate.  The monsters, hardly 
noticeable at the depth she was at, were too far away, separated by too 
much water to reach her.  And the man seemed to be satisfied at what he 
had already done.
 
She knew she was going to die, and yet she did not move.  Her mind, 
numbed by the sudden drop in temperature, refused to let her move.  And 
what force of will she could muster she needed to keep herself from 
breathing in the water, from dying.  Then she wondered why she 
bothered.  If she died by breathing in, she would at least be free of 
the pressure on her chest.  She would not have to fight any more.  She 
could just relax, let herself drift off into the depths forever.
  
Some portion of her mind fought back at the passive voice.  You have 
to fight, it told her, insistently, you have to hold your breath.
  
Why, she replied, why should I listen to you?  All you have brought me is
pain.
  
Your friends!  The active portion screamed, and that reached Mina.  She
disregarded quiet voice telling her to surrender, and tried to move.  With
jerks, she forced energy into her limbs.  And nothing happened.  She 
realized she was too far gone, there was nothing she could do.  The 
part of her that wanted to fight broke, and she almost inhaled.
  
Almost.
  
At the last moment, strong arms flipped her over.  She was suddenly 
staring into the face of the man in black.  For a moment, some far away 
part of her tried to remember his name, but failed.  And then he did 
something astonishing.
  
He kissed her.
  
In a normal situation, she would have jerked, reacted somehow, but 
this was not normal, and the only thing she managed to do was widen her 
eyes a little.  She felt him open her mouth with his tongue, and tried 
to twist away when he breathed out.
  
And sweet, vital oxygen rushed into her lungs like a knife through her 
chest!
 
Stunned, she breathed in, savoring the taste of air.  She thought she 
felt his lips curve up against hers at her surprise.  The coldness in 
her limbs retreated a little, as if forced back by her elation.  After 
an eon that might have lasted for seconds or hours, she began to 
approach normalcy.  The coldness retreated even more, until only the 
ends of her limbs were numb.  Then she felt an intangible warmth flow 
from him into her body, and she recovered even further.
  
After a time that seemed to last forever, they separated.  She felt 
she could last a few minutes like this, even in the cold, but then she 
would need more air.
  
Then she wondered what just happened.  Startled, she looked at her 
savior.  He did not seem uncomfortable swimming in the water.  His eyes 
were fully open, and his clothes hung loosely about him.  Seeing her 
wonder, he smiled again. Gently, he took her arm and brought it to his 
side, where he had torn his gi. Moving her hand softly, she felt 
several indentations running across his ribs. Swimming up to get a 
closer look, she saw them to be slits, where she had seen the lines 
before.  As she watched, the holes contracted and relaxed, and she
saw his chest rise and fall at the same time.
  
Gills?  
  
She shook her head in astonishment, then realized she needed more air.
Hesitating, she looked at him, and he nodded, bringing his head to hers,
exhaling into her again.  The air had a slightly salty aftertaste, but 
so did the water, so she hoped that made sense.  Once she separated, 
he pointed a direction, and they swam off in it.

  
_	_	_


  
Darian was the first to break the silence. "Um... is there something I 
can call you except 'Grandpa'?  I mean, that's what the girls use, but 
it seems kind of awkward.  Don't you have a real name."
  
Grandpa looked sad for a moment, but replied. "No one has called me 
anything but Grandpa for a very long time.  You might as well use it."  
Seeing Darian frown, he continued. "Don't you understand?  Names have a 
far greater impact on a person than one would think.  If you know 
someone's name, you have a power of them that few others have.  Take 
yours, for example, your name is Darian, Right?"  Darian nodded
agreement. "Are you sure.  Who do you think yourself to be.  Are you 
Tuxedo Mask, for example?  Or maybe Prince Darian? When you were on 
Beryl's side, were you aware that your name was Darian?"
 
The prince looked confused for a few moment, but answered the 
question.  "Um... no, actually.  I think I thought of myself as Prince 
Darian, nothing else.  I remember, right before I summoned the water 
sprite, Serena asked me if I remembered the name Darian, and I didn't.  
I suppose I really was not aware that 'Prince' and 'Darian' was not 
one... one word, I guess."  After a pause, Darian nodded. "Yes, I think 
I see what you mean."  He was about to ask another question, but he was 
interrupted.
 
Another set of footsteps came up to the door, uncertain ones.  The door 
slowly slid open yet again.
  
"Hello." Greg said as he walked in.
  

_	_	_
  


Slowly Mina was getting used to their mode of traveling.  At first she 
felt rather uncomfortable kissing the guy every few minutes, but at the 
same time something strange happened to her when she did.  It was like 
a tingle of electricity going through her mind, as if a long forgotten 
memory was trying to awaken.
  
The orange scout shook her head, something not entirely effective 
underwater, and sighed, something that also didn't work too well.  She 
had been trying to figure out what that feeling was, but without any 
success.  Just that when she was with him she felt-  Mina paused in her 
thoughts.  She didn't really understand how she felt, just that she 
liked it a little, and was scared of the emotions a little.
  
With a mental shrug, she turned her attention toward their passage 
through the water. The lake was amazingly clear, and completely empty.  
Sometimes she felt like they were swimming through a pool in which the 
chlorine had been replaced by a small amount of salt.  There were no 
animals, no plants, no life of any kind, just water.
  
Not for the first, or last time, she wondered about her companion.  
Although he was very calm, he did possess emotions, she could feel it.  
That was a good sign, because most of the creatures of the Negaverse 
had only room for hatred.  He, on the other hand, had a sort of humor, a 
sarcastic type, but a humor nevertheless.

Then again, there were mysteries about him that made her unsure of his
allegiances.  The rose episode and the globe of light seemed to be 
good, but the gills reminded the scout of several monsters she had 
fought over time.  She had gotten used to her friends being completely 
human and the enemies having differences in physical structure and that 
prejudice was becoming difficult to overcome.  Mina was also fuming 
slightly at him dumping her in the lake like without warning, but she 
tried to ignore that residual anger.  After all, it had saved her life.
  
Still, despite all the unknowns about him, despite all the questions 
which she had, there was something inside her that insisted on trusting 
him.  Even when she told herself that there was a good chance he was 
from the Negaverse, a part of her refused to believe it. In some way, 
she believed in him far more than could be explained rationally.
  
And she felt safe with him, safer even than she felt with Artemis or 
any of the scouts.
  
Ahead, she saw the other side of the lake approaching slowly. The 
shore was like a cliff, going straight down into the depths at a steep 
slope.  The reflection of the water hid what the cliff did above, but 
she assumed it was something similar. They would probably arrive 
straight on the rocks, and have to climb up to get to the level of the 
land.  She shook her head, thinking forward to the time when she would 
be able to get out of the cold water. Despite her receiving some sort 
of heat from him every time she took a breath, the water was still too 
frigid to be comfortable.  And she was tiring, not used to swimming 
this sort of distance while holding her breath all the time.
 
A glance at her companion confirmed that he seemed as relaxed as ever, his
motions smooth and strong.  Neither the cold, nor the long swim, nor the
absence of air seemed to have bothered him, Mina noticed once more, slowly
getting annoyed at his seeming strength.
  
Slowly the shore approached until she could hear the sound of water 
crashing against rocks.  As she neared air her body seemed to grow 
lighter, going faster toward the rippling light of the surface.  A few 
more moments and they broke the curtain of waves, their heads finally 
above the bottomless lake.
 
Drawing air in gasps, she welcomed the sight of the rocky shore and the barren
land.  Even the sky, the sight of which had scared her before, seemed
pleasant.
  
She did not have much time to enjoy being alive, though.  Her 
companion swam quietly to one side and she followed him.  He climbed 
out where there was a rock outcropping, hiding them from anyone on the 
plain.  Despite her fears, the cliff only extended several feet into 
the air at which point it leveled off, giving way to the normal rocky 
terrain. Mina followed him out quickly, eager to leave the cold water, 
then found that it was a mistake.
 
She had gotten somewhat used to the cold, but a harsh wind dropped the
temperature of the water on her to below freezing.  She started to 
shiver, and the man looked at her.
  
"Can you regulate your beam to dry us?  The temperature of the air 
seems to be a bit chilly today."  There was the suggestion of humor in 
his voice, but he was clearly uncomfortable. Mina tried to be coherent 
through the shivers that racked her. "Um, I don't really know, I 
suppose I could try."
 
The man smiled at her a bit. "Do try it."  Before she could yell out 
the words, he added, "quietly."
  
She breathed out the air she had intended to use for a yell, and whispered
instead. "Venus Crescent Beam.. " Mentally, she set the beam to a mild
temperature that should warm both of them. "Smash." She closed her 
eyes, hoping they would not both get fried.
  
The beam surrounded both of them, evaporating the water in seconds.  In a
moment, she was dry, though a bit uncomfortable, her skin warming swiftly.
Looking down at herself, she decided not to think what her uniform 
looked like. The white material was not made to be soaked for long 
periods of time and then dried suddenly.
  
The man seemed unimpressed at her display of power other than for a slight
elevation of an eyebrow.  He walked to the edge of the grotto and 
looked beyond it. Whatever he saw, it was important, judging by the 
expression on his face, so she came over quietly to look as well.
  
A portal.  At least that's what her mind labeled it as.  It hung in 
the air, a roughly circular tear in the barren landscape, hovering in 
midair.  In front of it, two guards stood.  They did not look overly 
imposing, each roughly two meters high, with two arms and a dull skin.  
If not for the rows of spikes on their shoulders and the malevolence in 
their eyes, they could be almost thought of as being harmless.  But 
their location and their stance assured her that they were guards, set 
up to defend the gate.
 
Silently, the man drew her back into the grotto.  His voice was barely a
whisper, but she could understand him easily enough. "Only two.  And no
shadows."  He sounded surprised. "Perhaps because this is not near the
Negaverse yet."
  
Wait, she thought, this is going too fast. "What is that thing?"  She
whispered. "And what are you talking about?  What about the Negaverse?"
  
He looked at her with slight annoyance, then relaxed. "Your friends 
are there. He probably did not want to waste power creating a direct 
portal which wouldn't last, so he made bubble-universes that make sort 
of stepping stones between the Universe and the Negaverse.  We have to 
get past those guards."
 
"Wait... who's 'He'?  And how do you know?  Are you from the Negaverse?"
  
Ignoring the rush of questions, he walked to the edge.  "You take the 
one on the right, I'll take the one on the left."  His voice allowed 
for no hesitation so she joined him, not having much choice at the 
moment. "One, two, three, GO!"
  
It was amazing, really, how fast the things reacted, Mina mused to 
herself as she charged. As soon as the two came into sight, the guards 
turned to face them, dropping into combat stances.  She wondered what 
her first move should be for a split second, then an idea came to her. 
What worked for the meatball headed scout might work for everyone else 
as well, she decided.
 
"I am Sailor Venus, the champion of justice.  On behalf of... er... Venus, I
shall right wrongs and triumph over evil, and that means- aarrrgghh!"
She was not allowed to finish her speech as the creature, at first 
taken back by her tirade, regained its poise.  With a single motion, it 
threw a handful of flashing stars at her, an attack she avoided with a 
leap.  Unfortunately they smashed into the ground beneath her and the 
resulting explosion knocked her off balance in midair.  She landed 
badly, almost twisting her ankle, then the thing was on top of her.
  
The Chosen was doing considerably better.  Not bothering with any
preliminaries, he came straight in at his target, dodging a similar 
array of stars with a fluid twisting motion.  Within a second, the two 
combatants were face to face, a position they did not retain for long.  
Effortlessly blocking the swipe of a claw, the Chosen ducked under the 
outstretched arm, hammering at the creature's stomach.  While it bent 
in pain, he hit it with an elbow to the head, and grabbed its still 
outstretched arm.  Stepping back, he kicked it in the stomach, keeping 
his hold on the hand to double the impact, then knocked it out with a 
spinaround back kick.  As it collapsed to the ground, motionless, the 
man looked at Mina's struggle.
 
It did not look good.  Mina was half unconscious, the creature being 
to strong for her to defeat in straight hand to hand combat.  She never 
go a chance to fire a blast at it, since it attacked her so fast, and 
now its claws were arrayed about her throat, ready to rip it out.  She 
was half unconscious, limply hanging in the creature's grasp, unable to 
free herself.  And the Chosen was too far away, ten yards or so, to 
help.  The creature raised its head, smiling grotesquely, then decided 
to finish Mina, before taking on another opponent.
  
Before the monster could finish its motion, the man in black spoke out 
to it. "Hey pussface!"  It was not a yell, but it carried clearly 
through the valley. The creature paused, relaxing its grip somewhat and 
raising its head at the man in black, wondering what he was trying to 
accomplish.
 
Suddenly, its gaze stopped on the man's eyes.  Somehow, they seemed 
bigger than they should be at this distance, it thought to itself as it 
tried to tear itself away from the sight.  It could not, for some 
reason it was frozen, seeing the only the eyes, getting bigger, huge, 
overwhelming.  The creature ordered its muscles to twist away, look to 
the side, tear out the scout's throat but it continued to hold still, 
its body slack.  With the sudden relaxation, the scout slipped out of 
the hold, dropping to the ground.  Her vision blurry, Mina forced 
herself to get up, facing the monster, but it seemed to pose no 
threat.  It just stood in place, staring at the man across the distance 
between them.
 
Suddenly, the man raised his arm, stiffening his hand into a fist.  With a
swift motion he punched the air in front of him.  The monster recoiled 
as if the punch landed on it, throwing it away from Sailor Venus.  Again, 
the man punched, somehow hitting the monster, and again.  With a 
strength that Mina could almost feel, the Chosen punched for the final 
time, the creature collapsing in a crumpled heap fifteen yards away 
from him.  Mina looked at the monster, then at the man, astonishment 
plainly written on her face.
 
The Chosen's voice seemed slightly sad as he came up to Mina, hurrying 
her. "Come on, they will send reinforcements soon." He paused, looking 
at her. "Oh, and we _are_ in the Negaverse, or somewhere close.  Next 
time, shoot first, make speeches later."  Not waiting for her to nod, 
he turned toward the circular hole. Together, they leapt through the 
portal.

 
_	_	_


  
"Prince Darian, Grandpa," Greg nodded as he sat down.  He looked with 
distrust at the first until the prince remembered the circumstances 
under which they met last.
  
The prince snorted. "Does _everyone_ know who I am?"  He asked no one in
particular.  He quickly changed to a more serious attitude.  "Hello 
Greg.  Last time we met, I was trapping you in the black crystal, I 
believe. You're Amy's boyfriend, right?"
  
"Um.."  The boy actually flushed, Grandpa observed, staying out of the
conversation. "Well, I suppose you could call it that.  Amy did tell 
me of your change, and I saw it in my...  Anyway, I know you are on our 
side now."
 
"But you still don't quite trust me." Darian observed.  
  
It was not a question and Greg ignored it, the answer being obvious.  
Instead, he changed the topic. "Still, I need your help.  All of the 
others are missing, and my powers can not find anything out, except 
that they are gone.  And the only person who I thought could help was 
you." He said looking at Darian. "But you don't know either."  Seeing 
agreement, he turned to Grandpa.  "Rei told me once that you did very 
good fire readings, but I had a dream the you would not be able to help 
me either."
 
Grandpa shook his head. "The fire refuses to tell me anything.  All I 
got was a flicker."
  
Greg sighed though he was quite obviously expecting the answer.  Then 
the boy sat up straight. "Then tell me of the man in black."
  
Both Darian and Grandpa sat up attentively, wondering what he knew 
about the guy, but Darian's reaction was just a bit faster. "How do you 
know about him?" He blurted out, a split second before Grandpa would 
have said the same thing.
 
Greg seemed taken aback by the other's enthusiasm.  "Just that he is
important."  He frowned. "It's almost like something is blocking my 
powers, I cannot clearly see anything."
  
Darian sank back, disappointed. "Join the club." He said with the bare
suggestion of a smile. "Apparently, none of us can do anything but wait.
I've never felt this helpless, never! I guess I'll stay here for now.  
Oh, how did you get here anyway?"
  
"Um, I told my dad I'm going to visit Amy for a couple of days.  I 
guess I'll stay here, if I can?" He looked at Grandpa, who nodded.
  
The figures, now three, sat silently, waiting.

  
_	_	_


  
The passage seemed to take forever, as all interdimensional travel 
did.  He tightened his grip on the girl's arm, letting her know that he 
was still there. After a fraction of a second that seemed like an eternity, 
they emerged onto a new scene.
  
The Chosen's well trained eyes surveyed the surroundings.  They seemed 
to be on a free floating island, a rather large one, in the midst of 
other such islands floating through the air everywhere.  Beyond, a 
border similar in some ways to the sky they had just left formed its 
curtain.  However, there was more pressing business to be done since 
directly in front of them, ranged in a strange formation, was a group 
of guards.
 
Letting go of the scout, who seemed to have recovered from the journey, he
switched automatically to a combat situation mental outlook.
  
After as many years of training as he had received, his mind easily 
switched to the battle mentality.  It was almost as if his brain got 
detached from his body, observing what was going on and delivering 
information.  Then his body would take over, acting on the information 
as if it had a mind of its own.  In reality, he knew that it was two 
separate portions of his brain talking to each other, but it always 
seemed like his body knew what to do before he did. Mostly it came from 
the enormous amount of training, the basic forms of combat had become 
ingrained in him until it was part of his subconscious.  Then again,
his subconscious was not exactly subconscious any more, so that did 
not apply, he thought with a slight mental smile.  Still, now as 
always, the different portions of his brain kicked in, one analyzing, 
the other acting.
 
There was no real way to convey what he was thinking in words, it was too
intuitive for that.  The best way it could be translated would turn out a
little like a series of commands, or informational messages sent from 
one part of his brain to another.
  

  






  

  

  
"Cover me," he told Mina as the thoughts flashed through his mind. He
ignored her consternation at his tactics, concentrating on the 
situation. His body was moving even before he finished analyzing, 
accelerating toward the line of defense.
  

  
He noticed with detachment that Mina threw a blast that smashed into 
one of the minor creatures in his path, this time without a preceding 
speech.  Another monster took it's place, closing the gap.
  

  



  
His body seemed to concur as he closed the distance.  Suddenly there was a
flash ahead, the rear creature having extended both arms in front of 
itself.
 

  
His body was already in motion, leaping over a radial blastwave coming 
from the monster.  Some portion of him noticed calmly that Mina had 
avoided the blast as well. A creature came in at him, snarling, a shard 
of crystal in one hand.  It swung the sharp chunk at his head, missing 
completely because his head was no longer there.  In a smooth motion 
that belied its speed, he twisted in a way that brought his rear foot 
into contact with the guard's face.  Stunned with surprise and physical 
impact, it slammed into the ground and he continued.
 

  
Fuming at the logic, his body obeyed.  The next creature wielded an energy
sword, which whistled through the air over the Chosen's head as he 
ducked.  In a seeming caress, his fingers brushed against the monster's 
side as he passed it without looking back.  He did not need to, he knew 
what would happen.
 
Shrieking as if it had been burned, the creature dropped to the 
ground, the energy sword vanishing from its grasp as it screamed, 
clutching its side. Mina, stopping her frantic blasts for a moment, 
gaped in surprise.
 

  
The creature extended its hand again, but the blast was different.  
Instead of a solid blast wave traveling close to the ground, hundreds 
of separate energy blasts radiated from it in a wave that traveled up 
as well as to the sides. Distracted by his brush with the defense 
creature, the Chosen was not quite fast enough.  Whipping his body 
around to avoid a blast that came directly at him, he did not quite 
make it.  The blast grazed along his biceps, going through the fabric 
of his suit and through his skin as it passed by.
 
  His body ignored that, knowing there was nothing
to be done.
  

  
It sometimes frightened him how rational his brain became at times of 
combat. A part of him noticed that Mina dodged the blast effortlessly, 
it being too spread out to do be dangerous at her a distance away from 
the source.  However, the portion of the creatures that oriented on her 
were giving her more trouble. Several seemed impervious to her attacks.
 

  
He arrived with a crash, impacting on the creature before it could react,
pushing it off balance.  Unfortunately, there was little else he could 
do, the creature's scaly skin seemed impervious to his attacks.  
Thrusting himself away, he twisted on one foot, smashing the other into 
it's face.  The only thing that got hurt was his foot.  A low growl 
emanated from the creature as it sprang forward, claws first.  
Fortunately, he was ready, with a quick motion, he twisted himself out 
of the way, letting the claws pass, then shoved the creature along its 
path, almost making it fall on its face.  Then it recovered, from an 
almost impossibly tipped position to a completely balanced one.
 

  
As it did.  With another motion, it sprang at him again, but this time 
it was balanced.  All he could do was to keep its claws away from his 
throat as they struggled for control.  Moves which should have broken 
the grip and sent the creature flying provoked no more than the 
occasional growl.
 
  His mind disregarded the 
fact that Mina was not just a defense unit, for the purposes of direct 
combat, it became irrelevant.  But only to the tactical portion of the 
Chosen's brain.
 
Knowing that he had little time, he decided on a more speedy, though 
possibly more dangerous course.  He looked directly into the creature's 
eyes, keeping the claws well away from himself, staring at the 
monster.  With a force of will impossible to most people, he released 
himself, letting his essence leak out through his eyes and into the 
guard.  It froze, staring into them, the two orbs, gleaming, getting 
wider, deeper.  The creature knew that something was wrong, its brain 
told it to twist free, to look away, but it was already too late.  
Falling into a bottomless pit, those dark eyes getting larger and 
larger, it was trapped.  With a shriek of mortal pain, it collapsed, 
its body twisting in on itself, turning into a fetal position, 
shuddering slightly.  The Chosen turned his attention toward away from 
it, a look of pain for his actions hidden behind a mask of impassivity.
  
Mina was not doing very well.  Heeding the guy's advice, she attacked 
as soon as he left her, wondering where he was going, then seeing the 
rear creature. Immediately, she decided to start with the heavy stuff.  
Concentrating, she summoned power from within herself, pointing at the 
creatures in front of her. "Venus... Meteor Shower."  A spray of rocks 
sprang out from her hand, showering those in her path and temporarily 
clearing the way for the strange man.  She saw two or three of the 
creatures go down, but also a similar number from whom the meteors 
simply bounced off.  A few remaining blasts made it to the creature at 
the rear, but they bounced off it as well. For a moment, she wondered why
the thing was so important, then it let out some sort of energy blast wave,
answering that question.
  
She followed the example of the other, leaping over the blast, then 
the smaller creatures were upon her.  She let out another blast of 
meteors, which seemed to have little effect, then switched to her 
beam.  The power of the beam was more concentrated and only two 
creatures survived to reach her from the first wave. The second wave 
was mostly after the man in black, though more were heading her way.
  
Then the two who penetrated her defense were on her, springing at her 
swords first.  She was able to see their forms with eerie ease, they 
seemed very much like humans.  Carrying swords made out of crystal 
shards, they jumped at her, making her dodge- too fast, off balance.  
It took her several moments to regain her stance, then the first was 
attacking her again.

Dodging his first strike, she tried to blast him again, but his skin 
seemed absorb the beam, receiving no damage.  Blocking his next strike, 
she smashed him with her fist, and that seemed to work much better as 
it staggered back.

The creature at the rear, now pretty far away, let out another blast, many
individual bolts this time.  She could not be sure, but she thought 
that her companion dodged it, then it spread out too far and none 
impacted near her. She returned to her present problem, which was 
dodging the second of her attackers.

This one seemed smarter somehow, more cunning.  It swung its sword, 
keeping her out punching or kicking range.  Distracting him for a 
second with a fake kick, she leaped over his head, landing behind his 
back and smashed her elbow against his spine.  He collapsed, clutching 
at his back and dropping his sword.
 
Thoughts seemed to pass very slowly across her mind.  As if observing 
herself from a distance, she waited while things took forever to reach 
her brain.
 
The creature with the damaged back was in front of her.
  
The portal was behind the creature.
  
Therefore, the portal was _in front_ of her.
  
The main force of the creatures was behind her.
  
She was between the portal and the creatures.
  
She waited while her mind tried to come to some conclusion, then it flashed
through her.
  
Most of the creatures were behind her.
  
She felt something close to her back and started turning, knowing it 
was too late.  It was one of them, crystal sword raised high over her 
head, ready to split her in half.  Instinctively raising her hands, she 
waited for the blow, then was stunned when it did not come.
  
The creature shuddered, then slid quietly to the ground.  A knife was 
stuck in the middle of its spine.

A quick glance showed the situation behind much changed.  The rear 
creature had apparently fallen.  The man in black was standing there, 
looking at her.  Most of the other monsters were fleeing as fast as 
they could, leaving the two people behind.
  
Slowly, she walked up to him, looking at the whimpering rear creature 
in its fetal position.  She started to ask a question, but he stopped her.
  
"We have to go, they will bring reinforcements."  Seeing her almost 
bursting with questions, he sighed. "I will explain, now come on!"
  
Together, they ran toward the next rock island, floating in midair.  She
wondered how they were going to get from one flying rock to the next.
  
  

  
It only took the two a couple of minutes to reach the edge of the floating
island.  Stopping, the Chosen pointed roughly straight ahead.
  
"The next portal is that way."
  
"How do you know?"
  
He looked at her, dead serious. "I can feel it."
  
She accepted that with some private reservation, then asked him the next
question percolating through her mind. "All right, how do you propose 
to get from this island to the next."
 
Good question, she thought, congratulating herself for it, then 
groaning.  The rock seemed to float on nothing. Below it, a 
very long drop led to a surface very much like the sky.  Mina was sure 
she did not want to fall that way.  And the next island, though not 
very far, was beyond even her scout enhanced jumping ability.
  
The man smiled. "We take the bridge," he answered simply, pointing to the
right.  And there it was, a narrow woven road crossing the abyss.  She 
wondered who put it up, and how, then had to follow her companion who 
did not wait for her as usual.  She was beginning to get annoyed at him 
for that.

It took them another few minutes to reach the bridge, then again as 
much time to cross it.  At the apex, she looked down and thanked 
whatever powers may be that she was not afraid of heights.  Not since 
her near death when she fell off that radio tower.  She crossed 
quickly, then followed the strange man.
 
For a while, they walked in silence.  Though he had told her he would 
explain, the man did not seem very excited at the idea.  If she did not 
know better, she would have though that he was avoiding conversation by 
staying a few steps ahead.  Mina caught herself on that thought. She 
did _not_ know him better, or at all for that matter.  Which is why she 
needed him to answer her questions. With a few quick steps, she caught 
up with him. Now what? she asked herself as she looked at him 
carefully for the first time.

His face held no expression at all, as if it were made from stone, 
completely impersonal.  No, she reflected, that was not quite right.  
Something in the way his features came together suggested he might be 
upset at something, but she could not be sure.
  
His gi, which she had taken to be simple material at first, seemed more 
than that.  It was... she paused, thinking of some quality that 
corresponded, then getting it. It was leathery in some way, though 
obviously not made out of leather.  Almost as if it were much stronger 
than it appeared.

Across his back, two swords and a knife were hung  in some sort of 
harness. The knife seemed to be the one he threw, and Mina wondered how 
he managed to recover it without her noticing.  The swords, like the 
rest of him, seemed to be stronger than they appeared, more than just 
ordinary steel.  She wondered why he had not used them in the fight.

She continued down, scanning him.  His pants seemed to be made out of 
the same material, as well as his shoes.  She almost giggled, realizing 
that either Amy had been wrong, or he decided that he should put 
something on his feet for this venture.  Still, the material seemed the 
same as his clothes, too soft to really protect him but stronger than 
it seemed.
  
Mina realized that she was missing something, a nagging feeling that 
went up and down her spine.  Something was not quite right... And then 
she looked at the top of the gi again.  Of course.  The suit had been 
torn, she had seen him cut it with his knife to expose his gills.  Now 
nowhere was there a trace of the cut, as if the material was always 
whole.  Did it mend by itself?
 
"Yes, it has healed." The sudden words startled her a bit.  She had 
not been aware that he observed her looking at him, and was taken back 
a bit.  But in turning to answer her unspoken question, his opposite 
arm got in her view, and she noticed the burn wound he had received
in the last fight.  The gi was still torn there, and the flesh that was 
revealed seemed well cooked.
 
"You're hurt."  The words escaped her before she realized how obvious that
was.
  
He glanced at himself, seemingly surprised, scrutinizing the black 
line. "It's not bad.  Just a minor case of Nephlyte syndrome." He added 
with a slight smile.
  
Nephlyte syndrome?  She mouthed, not comprehending.
  
Seeing, he explained. "Didn't the scouts tell you?  You know, Nephlyte 
got a cut on his arm while protecting Molly.  Later Hercules got it, 
and apparently it has been spreading."
  
Oh.. Of course, they had told her about that.  Nephlyte was wounded 
protecting his girlfriend, Molly...  She paused, running down the 
ramifications of the metaphor, then continued her chain of thought.  
Then he had gotten killed for Molly.  She wondered just how far that 
simile went, then decided to drop it.
 
"Um, do you need something to bandage it with?"
  
He looked her over and answered with a slight twinkle in his eyes. 
"You don't seem to have an overabundance of cloth to make tourniquets 
out of."
 
Suddenly, she was reminded that she was still in her scout uniform 
which was not particularly concealing.
  
Thankfully, seeing her predicament, he relented. "No, I don't need a 
bandage. It's not bad, almost healed."
  
She knew that no one could heal that fast, but was thankful 
nevertheless.  And she felt a bit less uncomfortable, so she pressed 
on. "Um... you said you would explain what you did back there.  And 
could you tell me what other powers you have?  And could you tell me 
what I can call you, except for 'Chosen'?  I can think of more a more 
awkward name, but it would take a while."  He smiled at the gush of 
questions.
 
"All right, all right." He put up his hands in a surprisingly human 
gesture. "I'm afraid that for now, 'Chosen' will have to do."  She 
sighed, frustrated, but at least he had suggested that there might be 
another name. "And the answer to the first two needs a bit of 
background, I think, in order to be comprehensible."
  
"I don't exactly have anywhere else to go." Mina said, trying to 
imitate his slightly ironic tone of voice.
  
He nodded, then paused for a while as they walked on.  The particular rock
island they were on was a large one, and Mina did not see how they 
could cross it without stopping to rest.
  
"To every creature, there are three main types of powers available, 
that he, she, or it can use.  There are exceptions but that is true for 
everyone I know of who exists today save one.  But _He_ is a special 
case."  Again, Mina noticed him emphasizing the word 'he' with an 
undertone of bitterness.  He continued, unmindful of her thoughts. "The 
powers that one can use can come from three places, that's how I 
classify them anyway.  The first is what one _is_, the second what one 
_becomes_ and the third what one can _use_."
  
Mina did not understand, at least not to any satisfactory extent, but 
at least he was talking.
  
"By the way, when I am talking about power, I mean anything.  What you 
call science, what you would call magic, whatever, they are all part of 
this."  He paused, letting her assimilate that, then went on. "As I 
said, the first major source is what one is.  The powers that one is 
born with, the different strength and abilities.  So every human has 
certain physical and mental attributes that are specific to that 
person.  But it can be more than that. Take people with whom you are 
familiar with as examples. Amy is a genius whether as a scout or as a 
schoolgirl.  Raye has certain spiritual strengths, her affinity with the
flame is an inborn power that has been tuned to a very good level.  
Lita is a good fighter.  And so on, every person has his own individual 
makeup of strengths."
 
Mina wondered how he knew all of this, then wondered if being a scout was
something one was born with.  Somehow, she could not quite remember 
anything from the Silver Millennium that dealt with that.  In fact, she 
thought, distracted, she did not remember many things from the 
Millennium, her memory was foggy at best.
  
"The second major source is what one becomes.  That does not mean 
practicing or tuning what one has, that is part of the first power.  
The second is basically what powers you are given by others.  You," he 
said suddenly, startling her a bit by addressing her directly, "have 
been chosen as the sailor representative of the planet Venus.  As a 
result of that, you have been granted certain powers that have been 
ingrained in you until you are virtually inseparable from them. 
Nevertheless, those powers are not something you had before you became a 
scout, and it would be possible, though difficult to remove them.  The 
rest of the scouts are the same, except for the Princess," Mina was 
surprised by his use of her formal title, "who is not actually a scout.  
She does receive power from the Imperium Silver Crystal, but that's 
only a portion of what she really has."
 
He took another deep breath before continuing.  Mina noticed that the 
air was getting chilly, and her uniform was not exactly good for 
protecting against cold.  And she feared to change back to her more 
warm regular attire because of the danger of attack.  Not that her 
light spring clothes would do her much good. Steadying herself against 
the cold, she listened.
 
"The third power is that which is available to all, with the correct 
knowledge of how to use it.  Science, an extremely powerful tool, falls 
under that category.  A lot of what you might call magic can be called 
up by anyone at all, had they the knowledge and ability.  I suppose 
that in some ways, the powers of the planets could be considered that, 
as anyone could use them with the correct tools... " He paused, 
thinking about something. "No, you have to be given the power, it is 
impossible to draw upon otherwise. Usually."  He paused for so long 
that she wondered if he was finished. 
 
She tried to assimilate all of that, but her mind blanked, questions 
coming out faster than ideas coming in. "Wait... what about Serena's 
powers?  You said those were different."
 
He smiled.  Mina wondered at the way his features changed from 
impassivity to irony with such ease, with the slightest movement of his 
lips. She seemed to know what he was feeling from the slightest 
movements of his face, as if she were long familiar with his mannerisms. 
Shaking her head, she ignored the idea, listening to him. "The Princess 
is a different case.  Her powers have been passed down from generation 
to generation.  They are genetic, and therefore cannot be tinkered 
with.  So her powers are inborn and fall under the first category. " He 
paused, then added somewhat apologetically. "The divisions are
rather arbitrary, but they work. At least most of the time," he qualified.
 
Wait, damn you, she swore slightly in her mind, then chided herself 
for doing so.  Something was not quite right.  Oh yes! "If her powers 
are her own, how come she needs to use her scepter or her wand to 
attack?" Gotcha, she thought with triumph.
  
He just smiled. "Who says she does?"
  
She looked at him for a few seconds, decided he was serious, thought 
about what he just said and decided he was joking.  She got tangled up 
in her own thoughts after a few moments and did not want to think about 
it any more.  They continued on in silence, until she remembered her 
original questions. "Wait!  You never did answer me!  What was it that 
you did back there?  And what powers do you have?"  Finally, some 
answers that make sense.  Or at least ones that might make sense.

He sighed. "All right.  Basically, I really have only one power-" One 
power? More like ten, Mina thought to herself, but he was already going 
on. "-that is in the first category.  I control energy.  Basically, I 
can drain the energy out of something and use it for something else, 
though I can not use it for my own metabolism, I have to release it in 
some form." He shrugged. "More's the pity." Then his tone darkened. 
"And then I have the second power, the power of the _Chosen_.  Most 
of it I can not use yet, and will not be able to use until the time, 
but as of now, it enhances my current powers to a large extent.  For 
example, I can drain something completely, even to the actual matter, 
the bonds between the atoms and the atoms themselves.  In fact.. " He 
paused, looking down, searching for something.  In a moment, he bent down,
picking up a loose rock about the size of his fist.
  
Gripping it tightly, he concentrated, stopping and closing his eyes.  
She could see his fist clench around the gray stone, then started to 
feel some sort of strange energy.  Then, before her eyes, the stone 
disintegrated- it became cloaked in light, then simply disappeared.
  
Chosen.. she ordered herself to think of him by the name he told her.. 
Chosen seemed to continue to concentrate.  He brought up his other arm 
and clenched it.  A similar shimmer appeared in it, and in a moment the 
rock was there.
 
"How?"
  
He smiled, somewhat tensely as he let the rock drop to the ground. "I 
turned it all into energy, then returned it to matter.  I can, in 
theory, do it with larger objects, but it is considerably more 
difficult.  As you could see, even that was a strain." He shrugged 
suddenly relaxing. "Not very useful, I know, but kind of cool.... 
Anyway, that's all for magical powers, largely."
 
Huh?  "Wait a second, wait a second.  That does not explain things, 
not by a long shot!" She paused, gathering her thoughts. "What about 
the gills?"
 
"Oh, that's... um... I am actually not sure where that would belong.  
Probably in the first and third categories.  Basically, every person 
has gills when he.. or she- "he added with a slight smile, "-is in the 
womb.  I just used science and some self control to make them 
resurface, and relocated them to my ribs. Also, I used some things to 
improve my sight, for example, and a bit of hearing.  Not much in the 
way of smell, though."
 
"Wait, how can you do all of that?"
  
He looked at her earnestly in the eye. "How much biology have you had?"
  
Surprised with the question, she wracked her brain. "Um... the 
introductory course a couple of years ago,  and now one, but we are 
still doing biochem."
 
He smiled. "Then it'll take too long to explain.  It works though. Q.E.D."
  
"Uh.. what?"  Mina thought about that, a vague memory of something in her math
class surfacing.
  
"That has been demonstrated."
  
I bet Amy would have no trouble, Mina thought to herself, immediately
reprimanding her for jealousy.  OK... what else?  The scout tried to 
remember. "Then what about the other two?  The one you beat up at a 
distance and the one who was whimpering.  That's some power, isn't it?"
  
Without any transition, he saddened.  The look in his eyes almost 
resembled pain as he answered. "That is not exactly a power." He said 
heavily. "You might have heard the expression 'the eyes are the windows 
to the soul'."  Seeing her agree, he continued. "That expression dates 
to before the current time, it was in use even during the Silver 
Millennium.  And it was much more true then than it is now.  For most 
people on Earth today, the eyes can tell, often, how old the person 
is.  But because few people live to be over a hundred, there is little 
impact in that."
 
"In my case, on the other hand..." He sighed. "If I release control, 
if I let my essence show through and manipulate it somewhat, I can do a 
lot of things with it.  I can hypnotize creatures pretty easily, though 
not everyone.  And.." Again he paused, as if he was not sure he wanted 
to tell her of this, then went on. "And if I want, I can overwhelm 
someone with a millennium's worth of experience." In some way, he 
looked relieved that he said it.

A _millennium_?  Mina's mind tried to grasp what it would be like to live
that long, failing completely.  She knew that in some ways she was several
thousands of years old, but that did not count since she had been... 
dead?... at least  not there during that time.  But to live for a 
thousand years?  And what kind of experience would overwhelm the 
hardened soul of a Negaverse warrior?  She looked at him with new 
respect, and perhaps a bit of fear.
 
A gust of wind went around them, chilling her.  She clutched at that, 
trying to get out of the previous line of conversation. "Why is it so 
cold here, anyway?"

He did not seem to hear her, his mind seemed too far away but he answered.
"It's the bubble universes.  They came from nothing, and are only heated
enough for a creature to survive for a period of time.  It would be too
expensive energy-wise to make it warmer."

Suddenly, she felt very tired.  Her knees buckled, and she started to 
fall. When she realized she did not hit the ground, she tried to figure 
out what happened.  He... she searched for a name yet again.. Chosen 
was holding her up by her arm.
  
"Um.. sorry, I guess I was more tired that I thought." With an effort, 
she got back to her feet.
  
He frowned, but seemed understanding. "Well, it is night back in Tokyo. We
should find some place to rest for a while."
  
They made their way to an outcropping of rock nearby, one that would 
hide them from all directions.  Out of somewhere on his gi, he produced 
a cloak which he spread out on the ground.
  
Smiling gratefully, she sank down on the soft fabric, which seemed 
much warmer than it's thinness would have suggested.  After a moment's 
hesitation, he lay down beside her.
  
She closed her eyes as she tried to relax.
  

_	_	_


  
The dark cavern was silent.  In one corner, the girls and their 
guardians hung limply.  The three scouts had managed to enter a fitful 
sleep as did the cats, though their guardian feline senses were 
constantly assaulted by evil feelings. Serena was still in her stupor, 
unable to break free, staring into space as if there were something 
specific she was looking at.
 
The Lord sat on his throne waiting.  Patience was a virtue he had 
built up over eons, but it was a patience that extended only to 
certain things.  He did not even mind the boredom so much, he had 
complex plans that needed thought, plans for he domination of the 
Universe.  A shadow, the one that usually guarded the entrance came in.
  
"What is it?"  For once his voice was calm, though it still carried 
unsubtle threats of hostility.
  
The shadow seemed to fear to reply, but it could not disobey its 
lord.  Still, its voice quavered a bit as it delivered its report. 
"Someone has broken through the Gamma gate.  The security has been 
breached on both sides, the two star-attackers and the blastweaver are 
assumed lost."
 
To the shadow's confusion, its Master seemed to smile. So I was right, 
the Lord thought to himself.  Now all I have to do is wait.  He will 
surely break through the Beta gate, and the Alpha gate...  suddenly he 
remembered Kaneth, and something clicked.
  
"Where is Kaneth?"
  
"My Lord, he has been observed entering his quarters.  A shadow, the 
one he lied to followed him, but did not emerge."  The guard paused, 
hesitating at the next question, but had to press on. "Is it possible 
that Kaneth could have defeated a _shadow_?"  The way the guard said it 
put across the disbelief it had at any normal creature defeating one 
like it.
 
"Do not be naive!  Of course he destroyed it!  Do you not remember 
maraki?"
  
The shadow was taken aback at this. "Of course I remember.  The... 
universals-"the generic term for anyone from the Universe "-used 
blades covered with it to fight us shadows.  And the Chosen is reputed 
to have a staff of the same material." And my sword is made of it as 
well, the Lord thought to himself while the guard continued. "But I had 
thought that all of that cursed material had been destroyed."

It was really a pity, how shadows believed in their immortality, the Lord
thought to himself. "Of course not.  Kaneth's four blades, the two 
swords and the two knives are covered with the metal.  I am sure 
there is more, both lost to us and wielded by people who know not its 
powers.  Kaneth's blades were probably covered with it for strength, 
maraki is almost indestructible.  It has the unfortunate side effect of 
being able to destroy _us_ as well."  To the surprise of the guard, the 
Shadow seemed to include himself in that statement. "But that does not 
matter."

The shadow was surprised at that, but did not protest.  Going against 
the word of the Shadow meant death.

"Yes," the Lord repeated, seeing hesitation, "it does not matter.  Give a
message to Kaneth.  He is to guard the other side of Alpha gate, and 
not to let the Chosen through.  If he does... well, he will not survive 
the fight if he loses." And he will lose, of course.  Even if by some 
chance, he happens to win, so much the better.  The Shadow's thoughts 
held no remorse.

The guard knew the message meant death, for no one could beat the 
Chosen save the Dark Lord himself.  But Kaneth deserved it, and so it 
left, pleased at its orders.

The scouts slept fitfully, oblivious to the events taking shape around 
them.

 
_	_	_


  
On Earth, in a temple in Tokyo, three figures were also asleep, though 
not very well.  Grandpa fidgeted, disturbed by his inability to focus 
his fire, and could not keep still despite his deep meditation.  Darian 
turned from side to side on the floor, unable to get the image of 
Serena dying out of his dreams. Greg was no better off, unable to 
remain asleep for long without waking up from some horrible feeling- 
then not knowing what it was all about.
 
While the city slept the easy slumber of the ignorant around them, the 
three people who needed rest most could not get it.
  

_	_	_
  


Mina, too, could not fall asleep.
  
Despite the protection of the black cloth she was shivering, freezing 
in the temperature, but her insomnia was caused by more than that.
  
The air stung her lungs, being rarefied and somehow evil, but it was 
more than even that.
  
She felt _unsafe_.
  
Unlike her home, where she could tune out the outside world with the walls
around her, this place had no such defense.  The rock on which she lay 
was hard and the small outcropping of rocks that seemed to hide them 
from view looked insufficient now that she was on the ground.  The 
wind, almost silent when she had been talking to her strange companion 
now seemed to howl like a pack of wolves.  Strange sounds assailed her 
ears, like enemies coming to attack her, strange creatures that would 
bite... She tried not to think about what could happen to her, failing 
miserably.
 
And then there was the sky, somewhat obscured by the rocks, but still well
visible.  Swirling around, sucking her in, never letting go.  Pulling 
at the tightly stretched fabric of her soul until she thought she would 
tear.
 
Silently, she looked at her companion, hoping he would wake up.
  
To her surprise, he did.  Opening his eyes as if he never closed them, he
smiled at her, turning his head to do so.  Immediately, she seemed to feel
warmer, and...safe?  Why would she feel safe?  She did not try to
analyze her feelings, but instead just looked at him, hoping he 
wouldn't close his eyes.  And even more, she started to wish-
  
He suddenly turned over to his side, facing her, and extending his arm 
towards her.  She looked at him for a moment, wondering if he had read 
her mind, then decided it did not matter. Gratefully, she took the 
invitation, snuggling between his arm and his side, breathing in the 
smell of the black fabric of his gi.  It smelled slightly of sweat, but 
not really offensive, just enough to be pleasant.  He closed his arm 
about her, drawing her in tight, then let his chin rest on the top of 
her head. She had the distinct impression that he smiled as he closed 
his eyes.
 
After a few minutes she, too, relaxed.  She could not quite put a 
finger on it, but this felt so _right_ in some way.  And she was no 
longer afraid. Breathing in his smell, she drifted off to the reprieve 
of sleep.
 
  

  
After he was sure that she was sleeping, he opened his eyes.
  

  
, came the answer somewhat annoyed,< I'm coming.>
  
The white light appeared over the sleeping forms.  Mina rearranged
herself, trying to shield her eyes, but the light toned down before 
she woke up.

  The man looked at the silent light for a
moment. 

 
  
The Chosen smiled at Guardian's relief, then decided to tease the 
creature a bit. 
  
The light did not respond. Instead, its focus shifted slightly to
encompass Mina.  It was Guardian's way of looking at something when he 
wanted you to know he was looking at it.  The Chosen sighed, 
anticipating what would come next. 

He replied with hesitating. 

 Despite the mental communication, the concept of annoyance came
across quite sharply. < I do understand what you are going through, and 
I will not interfere.  There is nothing you could do otherwise, even 
though you know what this is doing.  Just remember that in the end, you 
want her as far away as possible.>  The Guardian paused.  

The light vanished, leaving the Chosen staring at the sky beyond.  After
a few minutes he, too, fell asleep.
  

_	_	_


  
Waking when something was up was a very useful ability, one that he had
cultivated over a long period of time.  As a result, the transition time
between him being asleep and alert was very small.  He had also 
cultivated the habit of staying still when waking up in a strange way 
since in a strange situation it is often beneficial to make others 
around you think you are still unaware.
  
Nevertheless, the way the Chosen woke up came as a surprise.
  
Mina was kissing him, her soft lips working against his.
  
He forced himself not to move, ordering his body to stay still.  For a few
moments, he allowed himself that, allowed her to continue, but he knew 
he could not afford this.  With an inward sigh, he proceeded to let her 
know that he was waking, opening his eyes and looking at her from a 
distance of two inches.

 
  
  
Suddenly snapping out of her dazed state, Mina pulled back, a flush 
developing on her cheeks.  What had happened?, she wondered.  She 
remembered waking up slowly, still in a bit of a dream state and-.. ?  
She knew she was in his arms, and it seemed very natural to simply 
reach up and kiss him.
 
She shook her head slightly, trying to untangle her feelings. 
Meanwhile, he was saying something.  It seemed to take a long time for 
it to penetrate the confused region of her mind and reach her hearing 
center, but it finally did and she tried to concentrate on what he was 
saying.
 
"I can't think of a more pleasant way to wake up."  She looked up to 
see him smiling at her, and thought she could feel the skin on her face 
begin to actually burn.  She reached up with a hand to make sure her 
face was still in one piece, her fingers reassuring that the surface 
was not hot enough to start a fire.  Quite.
  
Then she thought about what happened, trying to keep her emotions in 
check.  He was right, it had been rather pleasant.  She wondered why he 
had no morning breath, but quickly dismissed that as irrelevant and 
rather childish.
 
He got up smoothly, offering her his hand.  A part of her mind noticed
something strange about his arm, but most of the rest of her was still in
confusion, so the problem disappeared.  She grasped the offered arm 
gratefully, and he raised her to her feet, looking around as her head 
rose above the rock outcroppings to see if anything had changed.
  
It had not.
  
The sky seemed in a bit of a different formation, the light subtly
altered, but basically nothing had varied.  They were still on a bleak 
island floating in the middle of thin air, or something similar to air.
  
"Are you hungry?"
  
The words took time to penetrate, something that the scout was not 
used to. She was still very confused at her awakening, and perhaps even 
more so at his reaction.  She remembered that he said something and 
waited for the words to reach the conscious part of her mind.  Once 
they did, she was surprised, because she was not actually hungry.  Well, 
she was, but not nearly as much as she expected herself to be. "Um..  
not too bad."  She answered, slightly confused.  The emotion was 
becoming familiar to her, she was spending most of her time with him 
in it.

He noticed her surprise and answered her silent question. "I believe 
that as a Sailor Scout, you can go for long periods of time without 
eating, but it is not recommended."  He reached into a pouch she had 
not noticed before and pulled out a flask and something in a wrapper, 
offering to her.
 
She looked at him, not accepting whatever it was quite yet. "What 
about you?"
 
"I am good for a while yet.  Go ahead."
  
She was slightly dubious, but he seemed in no discomfort.  So she took 
the two objects, an idle portion of her mind wondering if he were 
trying to poison her. The thought was dismissed for several reasons, 
the least of which was that he had many chances to kill her before in
less chancy ways.  Artemis had told her that a scout was very difficult to 
kill with biohazards.  Strangely, that reason was not the most important, 
the fact that she was comfortable with him seemed to count for
much more.  She shrugged mentally at her thoughts, opening the package.
 
The wrapper turned out to contain some sort of candy bar, which 
satisfied her hunger much more than she felt possible from something 
that small.  The flask contained clean water that refreshed her.  After 
a while, her mind cleared, then the something that bothered her before 
suddenly hit her.  His cut had healed.  She stared at it from close 
range, and there seemed to be no mark, not even a tear in the 
clothing.  He seemed to ignore her stare studiously, so she did not 
ask.  He had mentioned that he healed fast at one point, but she did
not expect it to be this effective.
  
Drinking about half, she offered the flask back, but he declined.
  
"Leave it."  With a certain pride, Mina noticed that she had not 
betrayed her surprise.  Perhaps after enough times being astonished, a 
person gets used to it, she thought with an inward smile. "We will not 
need it again," he finished.
  
He paused while she finished the water and set it down, then seemed to 
change his manner to a more serious one.

"The next portal is several kilometers that way." He 
pointed in the direction they were going before. "I think it is on the 
next island, so we might have to bridge another gap." She barely 
stopped herself from groaning. "After that, the next portal should be 
fairly close, and it should be the last one.

"The last one before what?" Mina asked, hooking on to the last thing 
he said.
 
He took a deep breath. "Before the Negaverse."
  
"The Negaverse?" She took a cautious step back.
  
"Your friends are there.  And He is there.  We have to go and save them."
  
"The scouts?  In the Negaverse?" That was bad news, but he had already 
told her of this once, she remembered.  At the time, everything was 
too hurried for her to really be surprised. "And who is this 'He' you 
keep talking about?"
 
He looked her in the eyes. "I will tell you. I promise." The way he 
said it almost made her believe that it was the truth.  But somewhere, 
deep inside, a voice told her not to believe that.  Then another voice 
told her to believe anything he says, so the two argued while he 
finished.  "For now, 'He' is the one who has the scouts.'

"Then what are we waiting for? Come on."

She set out at a good pace, and he followed, somewhat bemused.

  
_	_	_



Kaneth stood silently, watching the limited horizon.  Or at least where a
horizon would be if he were able to see that far.  As it was, the 
murkiness of the atmosphere created a constant smog that made it 
impossible to distinguish anything farther than two hundred yards away 
or so.  He sighed to himself as he made sure of his position.
  
He was standing several yards away from Alpha gate, the gate that lead 
to the Negaverse.  On his back, the four blades gleamed in their 
sheathes, ready for use.  He knew he would have adequate time to draw 
them when the Chosen came and-...
  
And then he would die.
  
He knew that, and there was nothing he could do about it.  Or rather, 
there were things he could do, but nothing he would do.  He would not 
run away to betray people and their trust.  And he would not disobey a 
direct order from a sworn overlord.
  
Though he had done so once before.

He did not move, standing in a relaxed stance, waiting for something 
to happen, watching for the one who could beat him.
  
At least he would die with honor.
  
He took what comfort he could from that.

  
_	_	_


  
First, they were running across a seemingly endless stretch of bare 
rock, then, without transition, they had reached the edge.  They had 
been walking for hours, Mina wondering if it was evening back home 
again when the rocky soil ended as it did with the previous floating 
island.   The island simply cut off at an angle greater than ninety 
degrees, actually going back from the edge as if they were on an 
inverted cone.  Wondering how they would get across the gap,
she looked for another bridge.
  
There was none. "How do we get across this one?"
  
Another good question.  The next island was actually closer, the gap 
not quite as wide as the one that they had used the bridge for.  The other 
island was slightly lower than the one they were on, so that it almost 
seemed that they could jump from one to the other.  But Mina knew that 
was an illusion, not even she could jump that far. 
  
Or could she?
  
"Look."  She suddenly realized that he was pointing toward the other 
island. Because of their elevation over it, and its small size, they 
could see to a slight depression in the center.  In the middle of it, a 
tear in the scenery floated, the same sort of portal that they had come 
through before.
 
Except that this one was surrounded by creatures.  They did not 
seem particularly powerful, none seemed to be  invincible, although 
appearances could be deceiving.  But there were so _many_ of them.  
And each carried some sort of blade, knife or sword, mostly made out 
of crystals, and in a few cases out of other materials: metal, rock, 
parts of their anatomy.  From a certain point of view, this was good,
since that meant that they would probably not be able to strike with
energy blasts. A hate emanated from the creatures, felt even from 
their distant position.
  
The Chosen looked over the situation and seemed to make a decision.  
With a hand, he pushed her out of the creatures' view, then he turned 
to her.
 
"We are going to have to rush them.  I do not want to spend time 
massacring all of them one by one, and they might be too many to kill 
easily."  He frowned, then added as if to reassure her.  "Besides, I do 
not like killing.  So once we reach them, I will distract them while 
you run like hell to the portal and go through.  I will join you on the 
other side. Got it?"
 
"How come I have to go..." Before she finished the question, another 
surfaced. "You forgot one little thing.  How are we going to get from 
here," she indicated the island they were on, "to there?" She pointed 
to the creatures.
 
"Simple. We jump."  Before she could protest, he stood up, grasping 
her lightly by a forearm. "One, two-" Somehow knowing that he would not 
stop, she crouched down beside him, knowing that it was suicide.
  
"-Three!"  They leapt together into the void.  Mentally, Mina counted the
seconds of their flight, knowing they were going to fall forever into that
bottomless void of the sky. _two_...  She saw the island
approaching, but too far away for them to land on. _three_...  She
saw the great rock approach them- and then she saw it pass, scarce 
feet away. Some part of her noted that the man was shifting his 
position without letting go of her arm. _fou_umpg! A sudden jerk 
stopped her counting.  She looked down, and saw only the bottomless sky 
below.  For a moment, she wondered what was stopping her from falling, 
then realized that someone was holding her arm. A sudden feeling of 
deja vu passed over her as she raised her head.
 
The Chosen hung there, grasping an outcropping of rock with one hand.  The
other was holding Mina from falling to her death.  Then she wondered 
if she would die, and if so, how, as there did not seem to be anything 
to be smashed on below, just that endless sky.  Great, the orange scout 
thought, after all this time, I'm going to die of hunger while falling 
endlessly through a bubble universe.
  
His grip around her hand tightened, and she almost felt the power 
within him as he pulled them both up.  In several seconds, she was 
lying on the edge next to him, both breathing rather heavily.
  
He looked up at her, and made a weak attempt at a smile. "Any landing 
you can walk away from..."  She was suddenly tempted to push him over 
the edge, but restrained herself with what she thought was iron control 
beyond the call of duty for  a teenage girl.
  
Slowly, they got up.
  
"The portal is that way."  How he managed to maintain his sense of 
direction, she could not understand, but after only a few minutes, they 
were near the site.  Looking cautiously around another helpfully 
concealing rock, they examined the situation.  It seemed no different 
than before, the guards were arranged in a roughly circular formation 
in front of the portal.
 
"Remember the plan."  Before she could protest, he launched himself 
from the rocks, running a bit to the side of the portal, screaming at 
the creatures. Almost all of them started running towards him, leaving 
Mina a clear path to the tear.
  
Cursing him for his tactics, and for being right, she started running 
quietly toward the gate.  Avoiding the few creatures that remained, she 
was soon standing in front of it.  Turning, she saw the Chosen fighting 
off a whole pack of the creatures, and almost turned to help when a 
faint cry reached her.
 
"Go, you fool!"
  
Damn him if he didn't want to be saved, she thought to herself as she 
leapt into the dark void, praying for him to be all right.
  

_	_	_


  
Darian, Greg and Grandpa were not having a very good time.  The three had
stayed at the temple all day, the two visitors taking care of many of the
chores.  Then the parents of each of the scouts, other than Raye, 
started coming over to the temple, asking about their daughters, as 
they had every right to. Grandpa had managed to convince them that 
everything was all right, and the worried parents returned home.
  
"Well, at least its a vacation week."  Darian observed.  "You would 
have had a far harder time convincing their teachers."
  
Greg paused in his work of washing the floor and looked up.  "Can you 
explain exactly how you managed to convince them of that."
  
Grandpa grinned. "Let's just say that I'm not as senile as I appear.  
I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. Priesthood is good for much 
more than just asking a flame for answers."
  
Greg sighed for the nth time at Grandpa's refusal to tell his secret.  
Then Grandpa's smile vanished, replaced by an uncharacteristic sadness. 
"I just hope I told them the truth when I said they would return 
safely." He murmured quietly.
  
Darian sighed. "All we can do is wait", he said, not for the first 
time, nor for the last.
  
The sun slowly dipped toward the horizon, another day passing.
  

_	_	_


  
As before, the translation seemed to last forever.  She grew cold 
inside and there was no one to hold her this time.  But she fought it, 
fought the reflex to give up until she made it through.   Without 
transition, the blackness ended.  Ahead of her, a crystalline landscape 
went on forever, a fog obscuring her line of sight, but she felt sure 
that the floor went on just as smoothly as it was where she stood.  
There would be no place to hide. There also seemed to be no one to hide 
from.  As far as she could see, the plain was completely void of all 
life and all protection.  She took a few steps ahead, trying to see 
beyond the portal.
 
"Well, well, if it isn't a Sailor Scout."  The voice was jeering, 
grating on her nerves.  A slight echo made it a bit difficult to find 
the source in the fog, then a creature formed out of it, perhaps a 
hundred yards away.
 
She was surprised.  For such a voice, she would expect some sort of 
powerful creature, worse than she had ever seen, but this one actually 
appeared somewhat standard.  A bit higher than a human would normally 
be, with grayish features, it had a hideous grin on its scaly face.  
And that was it.  No swords, no visible weapons.
  
Trying to get a better look, Mina went a bit to the side, keeping the 
portal at her back.
  
The creature's eyes seemed to defocus and it held a clawed hand in 
midair.  The fog shimmered, concentrating, solidifying.  Within a 
moment, a yard-plus long crystal spear was in the creature's hand.
  
Seeing a clear shot, it launched the projectile.  There did not 
actually seem to be any transition, the spear went from motionless
to lethal in a blink of an eye.
  
Mina threw herself to the side, then cursed herself for leaving the 
protection of the portal.  Still, the spear missed, passing to the side 
and disappearing after a few seconds.  Lying on the ground, she thought 
that wasn't so bad, she should be able to dodge things like that forever.
  
Not that she would have to, she thought confidently.
  
"Venus Crescent Beam Smash!" She cried out.  A beam of energy lashed 
out from her finger, striking the creature. 
  
And nothing happened.  The blast might as well have bean a sunbeam for 
all the damage it did to the gray scaly skin.  The creature grinned as 
it bounded up closer to her and launched another spear.
  
Mina dodged that one too, as easily as the previous one.  She was 
beginning to get annoyed at the abundance of monsters resistant to her 
beam.  Halfheartedly, she cried out her other attack. "Venus Meteor 
Shower!" A stream of energy boulders rocketed at the creature-
  
And bounced off.  Mina was definitely annoyed, but not really worried 
yet.  So far neither of them could hurt the other.
  
The creature concentrated again, closing its eyes.  Mina took the 
chance to change her position a bit, bringing the portal between 
herself an the creature. Now, however, the portal was sideways to her, 
making her notice for the first time that it had no depth, like a flat 
sheet of paper.
 
Another spear appeared in the creature's hand.  But Mina was too far 
away, and the portal was interfering with her sight.  She did not see 
that this one was bigger, longer.  Its edges gleaming with sharpness, 
it launched itself at the scout, passing close to the portal.
  
Mina saw another spear coming at her head on, and dodged it.  She 
prepared to attack again when she noticed something was strange.  
Despite her having moved, the spear was heading straight toward her.
  
_Straight at her._
  
With an impossible effort, Mina managed to twist most of the way out 
of the path, but not quite.  With a sickening tearing sound, the edge 
of the spear slashed through her suit and through her side.  As it 
passed, she felt an electrical discharge passing through her.
  
She collapsed, her feet suddenly unmindful of the frantic commands her 
brain was sending.  Panicking, she tried to move but could only stare 
at the spear. It came around her, returning to the creature with its 
glaring grin.  With malice plainly written in its eyes, it aimed 
straight for her heart, swinging its arm back.
  
In a single instant, Mina saw it all as if it were a still-life 
scene.  She was opposite the creature which was about to throw the 
spear.  The portal was between them and to the side, facing them both 
obliquely.
 
With a hoarse cry, the creature launched its deadly missile.
  
And the Chosen flew through the portal.  He landed steadily as if he 
had never lost his balance in his life, his knees flexing smoothly 
as they absorbed the speed of his passage.  Mina could almost 
see him appraising the situation in the instant that he had.  Without 
pausing, he used his momentum to launch himself straight at the 
shard of crystal, all of his weight behind him.
 
He collided with it, his hands gripping the knife-like edges, knocking the
thing from its path.  With a thud, he hit the ground, managing to 
tuck himself into a roll, coming up in a crouch with the missile in his 
hands.
 
It seemed alive, twitching and trying to break free, but it could not 
get out of his grasp.  He held it as hard as he could, tensing his bare 
hands against the cold sharpness of the blade.  Mina could see with 
perfect clarity the red of his blood on the crystal around his hands, 
the edges cutting deeper every time he resisted.
  
But he would not let go.
  
"No one controls my crystal! _NO ONE_!"  Mina noticed the creature again
but her eyes were still the only portion of her that obeyed her 
brain.  She tried to cry out to him, warn him, but it would not come.  
The electric charge! She had to tell him.  A tear rolled down her cheek 
at her impotence.
 
The creature raised its arm and dropped it, and in the same instant, 
the spear ignited.
  
Lightning, electricity powerful enough to be visible flashed along its 
surface, soaking into the Chosen's skin.  Evil power racked through him 
as he shuddered, the electric discharge making his muscles spasm.
  
He could not survive.  Mina knew that.  No human could ever survive 
that kind of punishment.  More tears rolled down into the corners of 
her eyes, making it difficult to see.
  
And then she seemed to view something impossible.  The Chosen 
straightened up, ignoring the lighting.  She could almost feel his 
muscles bulge, straining against the power of the spear.
  
With a scream of protest, it shattered!  The middle of it vanished as 
if it never existed, blasted into powder, leaving two segments in each 
of the man's hands.  The lightning was snuffed out, erased from 
existence.  The creature jerked back as it stared incredulously.
  
"Now-" The Chosen panted heavily, still holding the two pieces. "-now it's
_my_ turn."
  
Before the creature could react, he twisted about, launching one of the
segments.
 
The creature saw it coming and stepped to the side, a scorning snarl 
forming on its mouth.  But the smile turned into a howl of despair as 
the other segment, launched a split second after the first, impaled it 
through the side.  With a shriek, it vanished into energy, dissolving 
as if the spear were Sailor Moon's tiara.
  
At the same moment, the spell holding Mina down was broken.  She tried 
to sit up, but the pain from her side was reaching her, as well as the 
shock.  She sank down to the hard ground, sobbing, wondering why she 
was crying.  But she seemed unable to pull herself together.
  
With a few steps, he reached her, bending down.  His clothes were full 
of cuts, probably from the fight on the other side of the portal.  His 
hands were a mess of black and red, part of the flesh burned by lightning.
  
She was never happier at seeing anyone in her life.
  
He sat down by her, holding her, comforting her as best he could until the
spasms ceased and she stopped crying.
  

_	_	_


  
"My Lord, two separate unauthorized passages through the Beta gate 
have been recorded.  There are no witnesses, but we suspect that-"
  
"You suspect correctly."  The guard was surprised that its Master was not
infuriated with the failure.  So, it thought, he does want the Chosen 
to come here. "Dismiss all of the guards."
  
"Lord, I cannot abandon you."
  
He almost seemed to snarl, then managed to get his self control back.  Or
perhaps he had plans for the guard. "Very well.  You may stay.   For now.
Everyone else has to go, is that understood?"  It was a dismissal, not a
question.
  
"Yes, My Lord."  The shadow turned around and left.
  
  

  
Spread over the wall, three scouts and two guardians tried to figure 
out what was going on.
  
"Damn!  That ditz is still in her trance!" Raye was correct, Serena was 
still in her hypnotized state, staring at nothing.
  
"It's not her fault.  Have any of you had any luck in trying to break 
these bonds?"  Since waking up, the scouts have been attempting to free 
themselves once more, but were not having any more success than before.
  
"I think we just have to hope that Mina made it and will come and 
rescue us." Luna did not sound very confident in herself at that moment.
  
Artemis just stared, at the moment very much like Serena, not 
involving himself in the discussion.
  

_	_	_


  
The first thing Mina thought of as she woke up was an enormous feeling 
of deja vu, her second one... today?  She wondered if it was still the 
same day.  She was lying on something hard while someone was bent over 
her.  The only difference was the pain in her side, now subsided to a 
dull ache, and the shivers that racked her body.
  
The shivering stopped after a while and Mina slowly raised her head, 
recovering from the electric shock and the inadequacy she had felt 
while he had been attacked by the monster.  She sat up with start, 
suddenly realizing that he would probably need much more medical 
attention than she, then remembering that she, too was wounded 
seriously.
  
In a way, she was correct, and in another she was not.  Even before 
she saw it, she realized that the wound on her side was bandaged by 
something soft and clean.  It was a black strip of cloth made out of a 
strange material that did not seem to be in any danger of slipping off.
  
A voice reassured her before she asked. "It's not as bad as it felt.  
Mostly, it hurt because of the paralysis shock, the charge it sent 
through you to stop you from moving."
  
Still a little dazed, she looked up at him.
  
"Are you all right?"  She saw the different cuts on his uniform.
  
He nodded, and then her gaze fell to his hands.
  
They were raw, there was no other word for it.  In several places, 
cuts seemed to have reached bone while in most others the skin was 
burned to a crisp.  Mina could not stop herself from gasping.
  
"It's not as bad as it looks."  He did not seem to be aware that he was
repeating himself. "I can live with it, and the flesh is already 
regenerating. As you saw, I heal fast."
  
She nodded absently, shocked at the sight.  With a rueful smile, he 
took out a pair of black gloves and put them on.  For a moment she 
wondered where he was getting all this stuff from, then a more 
important question went through her mind.
  
"Don't you need a bandage?  I mean, you could get infected or something."
  
The sad smile widened for a moment.  "All the bugs that ever bit me died.  
Don't worry, I have a very good immune system.  Do you feel up to 
traveling?"
  
Did she? Mina asked herself.  Her side seemed all right, and there were no
other major injuries. And if he could use those hands, she could 
hardly refuse to move from a slight cut.  "Of course...  Just how much 
longer is this going to go on?"
  
"I believe there is only one gate left."  He paused, a strange 
expression on his face. "And I have a feeling..." He let the sentence 
fade out, then refocused. "Let's go, Mina."

For the first time, she wondered how he knew her real name.
  
They went off into the fog.
  
  

  
After only about a hundred yards, they could not see the gate behind them.
Another hundred and Mina could not even tell where they were going, 
she was hopelessly lost in the soup that surrounded them.  Her 
companion seemed to notice.
  
"Don't worry, I can feel where the other gate is, remember?  I know we are
close, it's that way, about half a mile away."
  
They spent the trek in silence.  It seemed to take hours, going 
through a red tinted darkness, with no visual references.  She kept a 
close eye on the Chosen, making sure she did not stray away, for she 
was sure that she would get lost otherwise.
  
And then they arrived.

  
  
  
Suddenly the mist parted like a red veil, revealing a strange sight to 
the two travelers.  A portal, in all ways identical to the last one 
they came through hung in mid air.  In fact, Mina could not quite get 
rid of the feeling that they had turned around in the haze and were now 
back where they started. Except for one thing.
  
A solitary creature was in their path.
  
It was vaguely humanoid, though not in the ways that really counted, 
having four arms with bulging muscles on all of them, and similarly 
powerful legs.
 
But that was not the strange thing, not the one that gave Mina an eerie
feeling.
  
The creature was relaxed.  It stood in a simple stance, as if waiting for
something inevitable without making any noise.  It did not make any 
roars or snarls, it did not threaten to kill them, it did not attack 
even though it obviously saw them.  Although its face looked immobile, 
she received the definite feeling that it would have been impassive 
even if it had been able to move.
  
And it did not hate them.
  
That Sailor Venus was sure of.  All of the other creatures from the 
Negaverse she had fought had had an aura of malevolence around 
them, a veil of evil that she and the other scouts could feel on a 
subconscious level.   Although sometimes cloaked, this hate was 
almost always felt when one of the scouts concentrated on the 
creature, the evil imprinting itself on some basic level of the scouts'
minds.

This one had no such hate within it, which almost made Mina wonder if 
it were on their side.  The idea ended when it spoke.
  
Its mouth opened, the only portion of its face that seemed to be 
capable of motion. "I cannot let you pass."  The voice was calm, not 
threatening.  He was stating a fact.  Startled, Mina realized that she 
went from thinking of him as an 'it' to thinking of him as a 'he', the 
creature became somehow human with those words.

The Chosen replied in a similarly relaxed tone. "But we have to go 
through."
 
"I was ordered by Him not to let you pass.  I am honorable, I have to 
keep my allegiance, I cannot break my oath.  I have no particular onus 
with you, Chosen, but I cannot let you pass."
  
The Chosen stared at the other calmly. "I fear you have the advantage of 
me.  You know who I am, but I do not know who you are."
  
"I am Kaneth."  The creature answered simply, as if no further 
explanation was necessary.
  
"You are the one who misled the shadow, letting Mina go."  It was not a
question.
  
Sailor Venus, hearing, suddenly focused on her unlikely savior.  A 
creature from the Negaverse saved me? she asked herself, astonished. 
Meanwhile, the Chosen was continuing.
  
"In that case, Kaneth, thank you for confusing that shadow.  I owe you for
that."
  
Mina watched this exchange with increasing incomprehension.
  
The creature did not acknowledge the debt, instead repeating as if it 
were the only truth he knew, "I know you will defeat me, but I can not let 
you pass."
 
A slightly sly expression passed over the Chosen's face. "Do you have any
orders regarding Mina?"
 
"No," the answer was slightly surprised, "Apparently He forgot about the
scout."
  
The man suddenly turned toward Mina. "You have to go through."
  
Conscious of the creature still watching her, she protested. "That 
strategy did not turn out well last time, if you recall."

A pained expression passed over his face. "You are the only one who 
can help your friends.  They are in a chamber on the other side of that 
portal.  You have to help them."
  
Somehow, his words penetrated. "Damn you.."  She said it aloud this 
time, a whisper, but she said it.
  
"I'm sorry."  He whispered in answer. "You have to go.  I must face 
this Kaneth alone."
  
She thought of her friends, in some danger, kept captive by someone 
malevolent. Yes,  he was right.  She had to help her friends, otherwise 
she would not be able to live with herself.  All right, she thought to 
herself, she thought to him.  _All right_.
  
Ignoring a part of her that screamed to stay, she made her body 
turn away from him   With a resolution, she forced herself to the window 
into another dimension.  At the last, she turned back, looking at him, 
but he only mouthed four words. _I will be all right_.  She had the 
distinct feeling that he was about to add something, but he only turned 
to Kaneth.
 
Closing her eyes, she stepped through the gate.

  
  
  
"Very well, shall we begin?"  The Chosen drew his two swords.
  
Kaneth answered by drawing two, then paused.
  
The Chosen had noticed the long knives as well. "You have two more, do you
not?"
  
"Yes, but it would be dishonorable to fight you with that advantage."
  
"No.  You are used to fighting with four blades, and that is a point 
in your favor for being able to coordinate all four.  You should fight 
with them."
 
Kaneth thought this over for a few moments.  "You are correct." He 
answered, drawing out two smaller blades. In fact, they were more like 
elongated knives rather than swords, less dangerous at long range, but 
still deadly.
 
"Shall we?"  The Chosen looked over his opponent.  Kaneth was in a low but
light stance, all four blades wavering slightly in an intricate 
pattern.  The Chosen had not practiced much with four blades against 
two, and was not really well prepared.  And his grip on his swords was 
not very good due to the mangling of his hands.
  
He did not know if he could win, not with his injuries.
  
But he had to.
  

_	_	_


  
The first thing that Mina felt as she emerged was warmth.  She had 
gotten used to the frigid atmospheres of those bubble universe over the 
time she had been in them, and had grown comfortable in their 
temperature.  Thus the new warmth came as more of a shock than a 
relief, like stepping suddenly into a tropical rain forest.  She drew 
in her breaths, trying to overcome her sudden nausea, knowing her body 
just had to get used to the temperature change.  After a minute, she 
was already more comfortable, her breathing relaxing a little.
Then she remembered that the change in temperature meant she was 
in the Negaverse proper, and she shivered.
  
The place smelled..  She stopped, trying to put a finger on it and 
realized the smell was one of death.  It was rank and putrid, like the 
smell of the dust of a negamonster.  There was a sky above her, but she 
would almost have preferred the wild emptiness of the bubbles.  The sky 
was gray, rolling, as if the atmosphere were hiding some unknown evil.
  
At least the ground was not solid rock or crystal, more like some sort of
compressed dirt and she could see some things that might have been plants
around her, struggling to survive.
  
And it was deserted.  She was sure of that.  In the last universe she felt
something wrong when she did not see anyone right before she was 
attacked, but here she knew there was no one hiding behind her.
  
Not behind her.
  
In front, something that looked like a mountain loomed.  It reminded 
her of all of the evil she had ever felt, of the Starlight Tower 
transformed into a horrifying structure, the Doom Tree before it had 
regained its voice.  The structure ahead was covered with veins, 
pulsing black walls,  waiting for someone to destroy. Waiting for her.
  
And right in front of her was the entrance, a dank, dark hole that lead deep
into the giant structure.  She shivered again, and started to back off.  There
was absolutely no way she was going in there, she told herself.
  
And then she felt her friends.
  
There is a bond between the individual scouts whether they know it or 
not, a link that connects them, makes them aware of each other.  It was 
very slight in the Universe, where they were always surrounded by other 
people, both good and less so.  But in the Negaverse, there was none of 
that confusion, nothing to stop her from feeling her friends' anguish 
coming from inside the building.
 
And so despite every horror the place awakened in her, despite her mind
pleading with her to reconsider, she did it.
  
She stepped inside.

  
_	_	_


  
Strike.
  
Parry.
  
Dodge.
  
Attack.
  
Defend.
  
The Chosen was not doing well.  He was better than Kaneth in 
swordsmanship, both of them knew that, but the advantage of four blades 
was evening that up. And the Chosen's hands slipped on the handles 
despite the gloves, the damaged flesh not nearly as good as it had been 
when whole.  It had begun to heal, but even he needed time to rest in 
order for his regeneration to take place.  And the numerous cuts over 
his body had also not quite healed, making his muscles weak in 
several places, soft spots that were deadly in combat.
 
He had to help Mina, he knew she could not do what he asked to do 
alone, she needed his help more than ever.  He had only sent her away 
so that she would not get in the way of this battle, her presence 
would not have been fair either to her or to Kaneth.
  
The Chosen sighed in his mind, trying to find a place to attack the 
four armed warrior, hoping to get through, but Kaneth persisted, 
attacking, slashing, parrying with his four blades.  It took all of the 
Chosen's considerable skills to defend himself against that assault.
  
And that was all he could do. Defend.  He could not attack 
effectively, not with four blades ready and eager to block with two and 
strike back with two more.  The Chosen had managed to stay out of range 
of the knifelike blades, but when he attacked, Kaneth could block one 
of his blades very effectively with both knives.  A third blade would 
block his other sword, and a fourth blade would be free to do what it 
wanted.
 
But he had to persist, he had to win this fight. He _had_ to.
  
He just did not know how.
  

_	_	_


  
The structure was even worse inside than out.  Only her fear for her 
friends' fates allowed Mina to go on, and even so she was hesitant.  
Dark, dank smells assaulted her, strange sounds grated on her ears.  
Keeping all of her attention focused in front of her, on the passage, 
she continued, fighting off the fear that clutched at her.
  
Unseen, a dark shadowy creature detached itself from a similarly black 
wall and followed her, flowing smoothly.

  
_	_	_


  
He knew what he had to do.  He could not afford to take any more time 
for this, no time to analyze Kaneth's tactics.  And at the same time 
he needed the analysis, needed the information.  He forced himself to 
record the fighting, made himself aware of what the other was doing.  
And he found it, found the slightest of holes, something that would not 
be ordinarily a problem, but would become one now.
  
With a cry, he launched his attack, slamming both blades at Kaneth's 
head in a seemingly lethal blow, but he was off balance, obviously so.
  
Kaneth did not waste the opportunity, he blocked with a sword and a 
knife, and the other knife-  

The other knife plunged into the Chosen's side like a stake, piercing 
all of the layers of flesh and exiting on the other side.  It went in all 
the way to the hilt, jammed against the man's side, immobile for a second.
  
Astonished at what he had just done, Kaneth paused for a moment, 
dropped his guard, waiting for the Chosen to stagger back at the 
injury.  The knife had to have done a lot of damage, the guard thought 
to himself.
 
But Kaneth did not see, he could not understand that it was the Chosen
who had guided the injury, not him.  The knife passed all the way through
without ever touching a vital organ, only puncturing several muscles 
at points that were not vital.  And the man had accomplished his 
purpose. For a split moment, Kaneth was off guard, one hand 
holding on to the sunken blade.
 
Ignoring the pain, the Chosen slammed a sword against one of Kaneth's 
as hard as he could.
  
With a shrieking protest, the maraki covered blade shattered!
  
Stunned at the sudden reversal, Kaneth let go of the blade buried in the
Chosen's side.  He staggered back, off balance, dropping the useless 
broken sword, a knife and another sword his only weapons left.  The man 
took the opportunity offered, bringing his two swords to bear, blocking 
with one while attacking with the other.  With astonishment, the 
Negaverse creature realized that his opponent was ignoring the knife 
still stuck in his flesh, and was still able to fight.  Off balance 
physically and mentally with surprise, Kaneth could not stay on his 
feet against the sudden assault, he dropped on his back, cringing as a 
sword's edge brushed against his throat.
 
He closed his eyes, waiting for death.  He had no regrets, really, he 
knew he would be beaten and was glad that he would be dying with 
honor.  He just wished that he had another chance to rule his people, 
teach them what honor really meant.  But that was over now, he thought, 
his mind ready for peace.
 
He waited.
  

Nothing happened.
  

He realized he should be dead by now and opened his eyes slowly.
  
The Chosen was standing over him, both swords sheathed and a hand extended
toward the prone warrior.
  
"Like I said, I owe you."  With astonishment, Kaneth watched as the Chosen
pulled the knife out of his side with his free hand.  Some blood 
tricked down but even that stopped after a second.  Apparently, the 
wound was not as severe as it had seemed.  The other hand remained 
extended toward his enemy.
 
Not sure if this was happening, Kaneth grasped the hand with one of 
his own and allowed himself to be pulled up.  He retrieved his three 
weapons, wiping the blood off the knife and sheathing all three, not 
bothering to pick up the shattered sword.
  
He looked toward the Chosen.
  
"How did you know I would not attack you even as you spared my life?"
  
The Chosen smiled slightly. "Lucky guess."  Kaneth realized the man was
standing next to the portal. "We will meet again."  He stepped through 
without waiting for an answer, leaving Kaneth to wonder what he would 
do now.  

He had not killed an enemy he was ordered to kill, and yet he survived.
 
No one would have any pity on him, no one in the Negaverse.

There was no future for him here.  Hesitantly, he took a step toward the
gate.
  

_	_	_
  


The shadow watched as the lone scout continued on her way down the 
passage.  It had been ordered to guard the chambers, but it had ideas 
of its own.  The Lord was expecting the lone scout, he wanted her to 
come.  That was the only possible explanation for his actions.  He 
wanted to destroy the Chosen.  Well, thought the shadow to itself, that 
is one way to get ahead.  The Chosen would surely soon show up, and 
when he did, the shadow would have its chance.
 
Silently, it detached itself from the girl's trail, falling back, then hid
itself in another black niche in the passage.
  

_	_	_


  
Mina continued down the tunnel.  For a few minutes she had felt some 
sort of evil at her back, but refused to let the place get to her.  
After a while the feeling disappeared, and she knew that it had been a 
product of her imagination, and she was happy to an extent that she 
defeated it.  There was enough of real malevolence in the place, 
without her making some up, she told herself as she tried to keep 
her movement silent.
  
Then she reached the end of the passage.  Ahead of her, it opened up 
into a gigantic room, large enough for a stadium.  Realizing she had 
stopped, she forced herself to move forward.  Scared, but not willing 
to give up, she examined the room from the relative safety of the darkness.
  
The cavern was large, but she had already realized that.  What she had 
not seen was how empty it was.  If not for the darkness that enveloped 
it, she thought she could see to the other side of it.
  
In the center of the room, however, was a pedestal.  Or that is what she
thought at first.  It was some sort of resting place, and on it-... 
She was not sure, but it was like a patch of space even blacker than 
the darkness surrounding it, a piece of night that made it impossible 
to detect other than by something that should be seen there and was not.
  
It radiated a _hate_ that she could feel with the nerves in her face, a
hate directed toward her, toward the tunnel, toward the whole of 
existence. But whatever it was, it did not move, it did nothing but 
stay there, seemingly unaware of her.  Perhaps, she thought hopefully 
to herself, it was some sort of immobile object.
  
With a wrench, she forced herself to look away.  And then she saw them.
  
The Scouts!
  
They were all there, held by some sorts of bonds inside indentations 
in the walls.  They seemed unaware of her, even the two guardians.  And 
Sailor Moon looked completely out of it, staring into space and moving 
her lips a little.
 
A decision formed itself in her head.  She had to free the scouts 
first, before dealing with anything else.  Together, they were 
unstoppable, she told herself despite the evidence of the two shadow 
attacks.
 
Gathering courage, she stepped into the chamber.
  

_	_	_


  
He waited for her to make some sort of move, patiently staying still 
on the throne.  She had been there for some time, but the Chosen was 
not with her.  He wondered if he could have been wrong, but knew that 
the Chosen would come.  He had to, destiny was quite clear on that 
score.  Perhaps he was guarding her back, somewhere back in the 
tunnel.  Yes, perhaps.  Or maybe Kaneth was actually good enough to 
take him out.  It seemed impossible, but the reports said that the 
Chosen had been injured several times and that might have made him weak 
enough.  Still, it was an unlikely possibility, and one fraught with 
danger- if Kaneth was good enough to defeat the Chosen, then he might be
_too_ good to get rid of easily.  The Shadow thought to himself, and, to
his own surprise, decided that he was on the Chosen's side in that 
particular fight.  It would just be so much better to have the pleasure 
of killing the pest himself, and not worrying about other competition.
  
The Lord wondered what she was waiting for.  She had to take action, but
perhaps she was too frightened to do it.  Deciding that she was too 
scared, he prepared to do give her some incentive when she moved.
  
Deliberately, she stepped out of the mouth of the tunnel.
  
The sudden motion attracted the eyes of the scouts, and they started 
to yell out a warning.  He did not let them, ordering their bonds to 
drain the energy from their lungs, and they tried to tell her with 
motions about the Shadow.
 


But Mina did not hear, she did not see, all she knew was that she had 
to free the scouts.
  
"Venus-" the shout echoed in the huge chamber, "Crescent Beam!"  She 
paused, gathering courage and glanced to the center of the cavern.  The 
darkness in the middle of the chamber did not move. "Smash!"
  
Her beam of energy lanced out, smashing the bonds that held the scouts,
breaking the vines that seemed immobile, shattering the pulsing veins.
Suddenly, all of the scouts were free, collapsing on the floor, then 
beginning to regain control of their bodies.
  

  
  "Venus, Watch Out!"  Lita yelled out, pointing at the center of the 
chamber. Mina looked toward it, and took several steps toward the 
scouts, avoiding the middle.
  
"But I don't waaaant to go to school today, mom!"  Serena murmured, 
the spell around her broken but not faded.
  
Rei glanced with annoyance at her friend. "Wake up, meatball head, we need
you!"  The girl sighed with frustration and turned to Amy. "Mercury, 
does your visor work now?"  As a response, Amy took out her computer.  
The glass shield appeared over her face as she scanned the chamber.
  
"I am getting some readings now.  The thing in the center is like one of
_them_," she referred to the attack of the shadow," but more 
concentrated. I can't make anything out of it."  The blue scout shifted 
her stance to look at Sailor Venus. "Mina's all right, mostly, except 
for a slight cut in her side and..."
  
Rei did not wait for the rest of the diagnosis, the fact that the 
other was all right  being enough. "Jupiter, you ready?"  Seeing her 
friend nod, Mars concentrated.
  
"Mars Celestrial Fire..."
  
"Jupiter Thunder Bolt..."
  
"Hi guys.  Did I miss anything?"  Serena asked brightly as she shook 
off the lingering power of the trance, then jerked back as the scouts 
released their strikes.
  
"Surround!"
  
"Zap!"
  
A ball of lightning formed ahead of Lita, shooting out toward the 
center of the chamber.  Several rings of fire surrounded it, adding to 
the power as it hurled toward the creature in the center.
  

  
  
The Lord saw the incoming blast and ignored it.  He had far more important
business at the moment, the power of two scouts could be ignored.  The 
energy smashed into the throne, exploding and electrocuting the black 
seat.  None of it so much as touched the Shadow, safe behind the 
dark shield that was generated by the room.  He was waiting for 
something much more important.
 
And he saw it.  
  
It was the Chosen, coming out of the tunnel into the giant cavern, 
ready for a fight.  Almost sighing in relief at the Chosen beating 
Kaneth, the Shadow turned to face his enemy fully.  Smiling to himself, 
the Lord raised his hand, preparing to strike his blow, then lingered.  
The guard appeared behind the Chosen, ready to pierce him with a shadow 
spear.  Wondering what would happen, the Lord hesitated.
  
  

  
Mercury readjusted her visor, looking back toward the entrance.  The 
readings the computer was giving her were strange, and she tried to get 
a better read.
 
"It's him."  the other scouts paused, turning to follow her gaze.  
"The guy from... two nights ago I guess.  And he is in pretty bad 
shape...  Deep cut to the ribs...  Severe hand trauma, both cuts and 
heavy burns.  And lots of minor cuts and bruises."
  
The computer chirped an alarm suddenly.
  
"Wait, there is something behind him..."  She paused for a moment. 
"It's one of _Them_!" 
  
But the warning came too late to help the Chosen, he was unaware of 
the trouble behind him.
  

  
  
This was its chance, the shadow thought to itself, elated as it 
crossed the distance between the Chosen and itself.  The enemy was 
occupied with the scouts too much to see the danger behind it.  He had 
not even seen the shadow when it had joined up with him, flowing 
behind him noiselessly.  Now the guard concentrated, forcing its 
mind to focus, to create a shadow spear.  The weapon made no silence 
as it appeared, a cold, lethal extenuation of shadowflesh.  The creature 
prepared to launch it.
  
And a voice rang out behind it. "Face me shadow, if you dare!"  

What?  The shadow wondered in confusion.  No one was supposed 
to be here.  And all of the scouts....  In marvel, the shadow turned.
  
And Kaneth strode out of the darkness, with three maraki blades in his 
hands and death in his eyes.
  
"You?  Traitor!" The shadow hissed as it attacked, its last mistake.  The
blades Kaneth wielded were one of the few remaining able to hurt one 
such as the shadow.  They cut through the non-existent flesh, leaving 
torn holes with vapor dissolving from them.  The shadow strove to 
attack Kaneth, get around his defense, but in vain.  In the end, like 
its fellow guard, the shadow dissolved into nothing more than a cloud 
of hate, an acrid smoke that dissipated into the air.
  

  
  
The Lord saw the entire exchange, incensed at Kaneth for daring to 
defy him. He would have to think of a punishment for the insolent 
creature, but for now, he had more important things to do.  Making sure 
that the Chosen saw it, he raised his hand again, gathering up a bolt 
of energy.  Then it was ready, a lance of power that would burn through 
flesh and bone, destroy everything its path.  The Shadow raised the 
bolt, aimed, and threw.
 
At Mina.
  
  

  
Sailor Venus was about an eighth of the way from the entrance to the 
rest of the scouts when she realized that something was up behind her.  
Turning to look, she saw the Chosen coming out of the passage.  He 
pointed toward the center of the cavern.
  
Turning to look, she did not see the events between the shadow and Kaneth,
something she would not have a chance to regret.  She tried to figure 
out what that shadowy image on the throne was doing, but it was too 
dark.  She turned away, back toward the Chosen, trying to ask him what 
was happening, the second time she missed something crucial.  She did 
not see the bolt leave the Shadow, did not see it aimed for her, all 
she saw was the man in black colliding with her at top speed. having 
closed the distance in a remarkably short time.
 
Roughly, he grabbed her upper arms, tightening his hands until it was 
painful. She tried to twist out of the grip, surprised at the change in 
him, his face full of anger.
  
Then the ultimate cold hit her!  A sensation like every bit of energy 
she had was being leached out of her, drained, her blood turning to ice 
in her veins. The last thing that went through her mind before she lost 
consciousness was one word.
  
_Traitor!_
  

  
  
The scouts watched in astonishment as the blast hit the two figures, 
throwing them back and obscuring them with a cloud of energy.
  
When it cleared, only the man in black remained, his arms grasping 
dissolving dust.
  
"Mina."  Serena whispered, barely audible, reflecting the feeling of 
all of the scouts.
  
"Sailor Venus."  Luna added in a dull tone that hid the pain deep within.
  
Artemis remained silent, just staring at the man slowly get up.
  
  

  
A laugh interrupted their horror and despair, turning their eyes, but 
not their souls from Mina's remains.  It was horrid, gloating sound of 
victory and power.
  
"Try to fight _now_, Chosen!"  The last words, full of jeering hate 
seemed aimed at the solitary figure in black that just got up.
  
A portal, larger than the others opened between the Chosen and the 
scouts.  A blast of wind more powerful than a hurricane, generated
by the blackest of powers, blew the four scouts and the guardians 
into the window.  Still stunned, they did not resist.
 
The Shadow continued, still looking at the man in black.  "I will meet 
you at the time!"
  
A second blast blew him as well into the portal the scouts.  As he 
vanished, the Shadow turned his gaze onto Kaneth.

  
  
  
Kaneth stood at the entrance where he had dispatched the shadow, and 
gaped at what had just happened.  He looked at the portal, watching the 
four scouts get thrown through, and made his decision.
  
With a speed unknown to mortals, he ran for the gate.  When the Chosen 
went through, the guard was only several yards away, too late for the 
Lord to realize his mistake.  With a snarl, the Shadow ordered the 
portal closed, but it was too late.  The four armed warrior leapt 
through the diminishing circle.
  
No matter, thought the Shadow to himself, no matter.  He watched as 
the gate closed, gloating at the success of his plans.
  

_	_	_


  
The scouts hit the ground hard, some landing on one another, the two cats
landing on the top of the pile.
  
Picking themselves up, they stared at the circle of energy hovering 
over them with hate-filled eyes.
  
"Mina."  Amy murmured with anguish, echoed by the rest of the scouts.  
As the numbness of shock passed, tears formed on each scouts' cheek.
  
The portal flared again, a black suited man smashing into the ground, then
somehow rolling onto his feet.
  
"This is your fault!"  Lita exclaimed, moving up to him.  "You are somehow
involved in all of this!  If it weren't for you..." She pulled her 
fist back.
 
Another flare of energy from the portal stopped her, and she turned 
before she saw the look of pain on the man's face.  A creature fell 
out of the hole, landing on his feet.
 
Seeing a monster, Lita switched targets.  Turning, she prepared to launch
herself at the creature, and was surprised when nothing happened.  
Twisting to look, she found the man's hand grasping her shoulder, 
stopping her.
 
"No.."  He rasped. "He's on our side."  No one, not even Lita, heard 
him add a very quiet "I think."
  
"All right," she snarled, seeing that the creature was not making any 
threats. "Then what about _you_?"  She tensed, needing some way to get 
rid of her anger.
  
"Wait."  The whisper was tense enough to make her pause.  He was obviously
under some sort of strain.  The grip on her shoulder was not very 
strong and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead.  She saw the 
muscles on his face tense as if trying to contain something.  "It is 
difficult..."  He swallowed hard before continuing.  "She is not dead."
  
The single statement attracted everyone's attention.  "What do you 
mean?"  Amy was ever the practical one, but there was no answer.  The 
man appeared to be exhausted from something.
  
"I think he needs somewhere more private.  Whose house is closest?"  
Everyone looked with surprise at Artemis, since he was the one who 
spoke.  Then, for the first time since coming through the portal, the 
scouts took note of their location.
  
They were back in Tokyo.  The only thing that saved them from being 
seen there and then was the fact that it seemed to be the middle of a 
night.  If not for that, four scouts, two talking cats, a strange man 
and a four armed creature would have certainly attracted attention.  
But even though no one was in immediate sight, people were still out 
there, and it would not do to be caught.
  
Suppressing sudden hope, Lita answered, releasing her grip on the other's
shirt. "My parents are away for the week... " She frowned. "That is, 
if it is still the same week.  How much time passed while?....  Anyway, 
my house is only two blocks that way."  She pointed. "I know the 
neighborhood."  She shrugged as the rest turned to her at her knowledge 
of the street.  Then she grabbed the man's shirt again, not to attack, 
but because he showed signs of collapsing. "Who are you, anyway?"
  
He managed a very weak smile. "Bond.... James Bond."  Lita had an 
irresistible urge to let him drop to the ground, so she did.  To her 
surprise, however, he continued standing, summoning strength from 
somewhere.
 
"Come on!"  Artemis leapt a few steps forward, the way Lita pointed.  
"Let's go!"
  
Serena looked back at Kaneth. "Wait... er what about him?  Shouldn't I 
moondust him or something?"  The others did not have the emotional 
energy to smile.
 
Kaneth answered in a calm voice, to the scouts' surprise.  "I do not 
serve the Dark One.   Not any more. You have nothing to fear from me."
  
"Come on."  Artemis repeated, and they followed Lita and him down the dark
street.
  
"For now," Kaneth added darkly, and followed.


_	_	_
  


The three figures were asleep when it came.  Suddenly, Darian jerked 
himself awake, slamming his eyes open.  Greg followed almost 
immediately, and Grandpa woke up at the others' sounds.
  
Darian closed his eyes for a moment. "She's back, I can feel it!"  His 
bond with Serena allowed him to know when she turned to Sailor Moon, 
and where she was.
  
"Yes, I can see a little bit in their future now.  And the strange 
man..."
 
"What is it?"  Darian was tired of all this mysteriousness.  As Greg 
answered, he took out a rose, transforming to Tuxedo Mask.  In the 
process, his hand brushed the rose the stranger had affected, making 
the Prince wonder about that once more.
  
"I couldn't see him before, but now... Oh, no... Something..."  Greg 
collapsed for a moment, almost falling to the floor, but Grandpa caught 
him.
 
The boy opened his eyes.  "Something terrible is about to happen, 
something that will affect... everything.  We have to get there."
  
Darian closed his eyes for a moment, then pointed.  "They are in that
direction," he pointed, "It might be Lita's house.  Let's go."
  
Together, the three rushed down the temple steps and into the night.

  
_	_	_
  

The door slammed open, a segment of the room eerily illuminated by the 
light in the hallway.  A hand found the light switch easily in the 
dark, destroying the shadows that lurked everywhere, shattering the 
room into light.  Lita's parents would have been very interested at the 
collection of creatures entering.  Interested enough to call the police,
certainly.
  
Fortunately, they were still away and the group entered uninterrupted.
  
"Nice."  The man rasped out with a slight smile.  It was nice.  Lita liked
glass art, and the living room, in which they were, was decorated with 
several transparent sculptures.  One was in the center of the room, 
between a couch and the TV set, a vase standing on a small table.  It 
looked a bit precarious, but also very beautiful in its place, which is 
probably why it stayed there despite the danger that someone might 
knock it over.
 
The Chosen brushed by the scouts, pushing them away. "Step back."  The 
others looked from one to the other, not certain how much they should 
listen to this man.  "_Damn it_, don't you want Mina back?"
  
For several moments, the scouts looked at him, the emotions in their eyes
ranging from hatred to hope.  A slight mental wind seemed to blow 
through them as they exchanged glances.  Then the scouts made their 
decision and the stranger seemed to sight in relief as they stepped 
back, giving him room.
 
Slowly, he closed his eyes, his body relaxing, the tension seeming to 
flow out of his frame.   For several seconds, nothing happened, then 
the scouts began to feel something.  Like an aura, a light began to 
glow around him, a light that did not seem to be physical.
  
Rei suddenly drew in her breath, feeling an energy wave travel through the
man's body, and closed her eyes to try to feel the power better.
  
A slight wind picked up around the figure, tugging at his clothes, but 
he did not seem to notice. Slowly, as if he did it without being aware 
of his actions, he put his arms out with the hands open.  The black 
gloves that he was wearing gave off a slight glow.
  
"Don't fail me now."  Artemis whispered, unheard.
  
The room darkened suddenly, all of the light concentrating on the 
figure, on his hands.  A shimmering energy field appeared, whirling in 
front of his fingers, a dancing pattern of bright light.  They could 
almost hear him concentrate as he willed the energy to assume the form 
that it had originally been in.
  
Mina.
  
In full scout uniform, she formed in the same position that she was in 
when the blast hit, slowly materializing from the glowing sparkles.  
She became a solid body, though slightly blue, obviously frozen.  Then 
more energy pored into her. The unnatural blue tint was slowly replaced 
with normal tone as the energy particles around her diminished.  
Finally, they vanished back into the man's arms, his muscles suddenly 
relaxing.
 
For a moment, the scout was still, then the man in black dropped his arms,
barely keeping himself from collapsing on the floor.
  
The scouts gasped as the girl sank down to the floor.  As if throwing 
off a paralysis, they rushed to help her while the man moved out of the 
way. Ignoring the look Artemis gave him, he looked dazedly at the 
couch.  The Chosen slid off the harness that held the sword on his 
back, dropping the extra weight on the floor. Barely avoiding the glass 
statue, he stumbled toward the couch, needing a place to rest.
  
He would not make it.
  

  
  
Cold.
  
The icy fingers that gripped her bones seemed to relax a little.  She had
blacked out-  She tried to remember, but it was too cold. She could 
almost feel the brittleness of her bones, the slowly crystallizing 
blood flowing in her veins.  As her body tried to warm itself up, she 
was wracked with shivers.
 
Her mind spun endlessly, numbed by what just happened.
  
_Traitor!_
  
The word clawed through her mind, leaving a gash of pain.
  
She had trusted him.
  
She had believed in him.
  
She had-  What?, she asked herself.  Liked?  Yes, she had liked him.  
Mina's mind refused to acknowledge that it went deeper than that, but 
it was enough.
 
And he tried to kill her!
  
He tried to freeze her to death.
  
The phrases flashed through her mind, unstoppable, building up her 
anger.  With an effort of will, she shook off the cold.  She put all 
the energy she could into her muscles, slowly straitening, getting up.  
She shook off the hands that grasped at her, ignoring them.
 
Then she saw him, his back turned, ignoring her.
  
With the power of feeling betrayed, she forced her mind to concentrate.
  
The words barely escaped her throat, were barely heard. "Venus.."  She
whispered.
  

  
  
Kaneth was the only one who realized what was happening,.  He saw 
Venus's eyes lock on the Chosen, saw her daze.  He remembered what had 
happened, and was the only one who made all of the connections.  And he 
heard her whisper.
 
With a cry, he charged forward, trying to get the scout to stop.
  
He was not understood.  The four scouts reacted immediately and 
unanimously, bodily slamming into the charging creature, forcing it 
back from their friend. And Kaneth could not get past without harming 
them, which he had sworn he would not do.  He snarled at the dilemma, 
trying to push through with brute force, failing.
  
"...Crescent.."  Mina's voice grew in strength, as if supported by the 
energy she was preparing to unleash. "..Beam...."  Suddenly connecting 
the words, Amy stopped defending Mina and looked at the scout.
  

  
  
The door slammed open, the scouts turning their attention to three figures
bursting inside with remarkable speed.  Darian and Grandpa, seeing the 
monster, pounced on it, helping the scouts stop the desperate warrior.  
Only Greg realized what was happening, he turned his attention to the 
other two figures in the room.  "NO!"  He yelled out, getting 
everyone's attention, but it was too late.
  
  

  
"SMASH!"  The cry rang out in the room, freezing everyone.  The Chosen,
realizing that something was wrong started to turn, but he was too late as
well.  He was too tired from rebuilding the orange scout, and his reflexes
failed him.  A bolt of energy, traveling at a speed only marginally 
slower than that of light left Mina.
  
It blasted from one side of the room to the other in a straight line, 
but there was an obstacle on its path.  The glass sculpture, standing 
on its pedestal, got smashed by the blast, the light becoming mixed 
with pieces of broken glass, a solid mass crossing the room at an 
uncontrollable speed.
 
The beam impacted on the Chosen's back, a scorching blast of heat 
filled with hundreds of tiny glass projectiles.  They slammed into him, 
tearing through the black shirt, through the muscles beneath.  The man 
was slammed forward into the couch, then rolled away, coming to rest on 
his stomach, motionless.
 
For a moment everything was still.
  

  
  
Mina's mind cleared slowly of the haze that surrounded it.  She stared 
at the prone body, at mass of blood and fragments of black that was the 
man's back. She wondered if he was alive, then wondered why he would 
turn his back to her after trying to kill her.
  
Suddenly looking around, she realized that she was in Lita's apartment, no
longer in the cavern.
  
She remembered him pointing to the center of the chamber, the darkness 
there.
 
She remembered the scouts shouting something about a blast just as she was
losing consciousness.
  
And she remembered something she saw out of the corner of her eye, 
some sort of blast coming at her.
  
And the scouts were not acting like she attacked an enemy.
  
Greg had yelled for her to stop.
  
Darian and Grandpa looked on with horror.
  
Her mind, still confused, put two and two together and came up with five.
  
Oh, no.
  
But it was too late.
  

  
  
Ami, being the first to grasp the situation, crossed the room, taking 
out her computer and getting down by the Chosen's side.
  
As the rest of the group watched in growing disbelief, she tapped 
several keys, aiming the device at the man, then tapped them again.  
Frowning, she dropped the box on the ground and reached out, feeling 
for a pulse.
 
After a moment, she did not move, waiting, then raised her head, an 
expression of pain clearly written in her eyes.
  
Slowly, she shook her head. 
  
Just once.
  
"No."  Mina whispered as her soul shattered.
  
_	_	_
  


Thus ends Questions, part one of volume one of Sailor Moon: Shades of Light and Darkness.

To be continued..............


Send all comments/questions/flames to dnk@cmu.edu

Please visit the SLD web site at http://sld.home.ml.org for
information on the SLD universe and the fanfics in it.

For more information, see the readme file.

    Source: geocities.com/soho/atrium/2429/text