Sailor Moon: Shades of Light and Darkness
Volume I: The Chosen
Part 2: Clash
Author: David Kogan - dnk@cmu.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.


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. 


_	_	_


Sailor Moon: Shades of Light and Darkness
Volume I: The Chosen
Part 2: Clash


Amy stared helplessly at the prone man in front of her, her mind still in
shock.  Grasped lightly in one hand, her computer continued its scan,
registering no life signs.  The wound on the man's back was just too severe,
she told herself, trying to tear her eyes from the sight.  The blast had
penetrated the black clothing, then ripped the flesh below to shreds.
Everything between the waist and the upper back was a soup of red and black,
bloody and charred. There was nothing I can do, Amy's mind screamed.  Her
body ignored the command, checking for life.

Dropping the computer, she felt for a pulse, hoping that just once the device
was wrong. But she knew it was not.  Her hand moved along the skin of his neck,
feeling for something, anything that might be a sign of life, then her hand slipped
to the floor.  Forcing herself to take a breath, she looked up into Mina's eyes, 
seeing the anguish within. Slowly, the blue scout shook her head, just once, 
hating herself for the pain she was causing her friend.

For a few moments the room was silent, everyone too drained by the events of 
the previous days to respond.  The taking by the shadow creature, the 
bizzare rescue, the Negaverse warrior who seemed to be on their side - all
had tired them and it took a few moments for the death of the stranger to
sink in.

As the truth penetrated, the scouts remained silent, not sure what they were
supposed to do.

The computer beeped.

Amy did not react at first, her mind still numb from everything that had
occurred.  

It beeped again, insistently.

She turned slowly to the data pad on the floor, wondering what it was
trying to say.  Her hand fluttered, moving up to feel for a pulse again,
finding nothing.

Her other hand snaked out, clutching the computer, hoping it had something to
tell her, something that might help her mind shake free of the shock.




Like everyone else in the room, Greg was looking at something important,
staring ahead.

Unlike the rest, he was not looking at the man in black.  

While his eyes focused on a point far away, his mind was elsewhere,
remembering. Remembering the future.

Images flashed by in his mind, an overwhelming number of visions.  He watched,
only being able to distinguish a few, but Greg knew that was normal.  Out of a
tidal wave of information, he was only generally able to figure a few facts, 
if he was lucky.  More often, he merely woke up with a headache and an empty
feeling in his mind where memories were supposed to be.  Many times in his life,
he had thought that his gift was more of a curse than a blessing.  But he could
do nothing to avoid the images, they came to him, unstoppable.

Foggy figures formed around him, dissipating moments later into the darkness 
that surrounded him.  Then the fog started clearing, and Greg felt his mental
eyes widen.  He had gotten used to the haze that obscured the future, but
now, it was actually clearing.

A single vision appeared, more distinct that anything Greg had ever seen. It
was an image of a battle. The man was there, the boy noted.  He did not
wonder how the man could be anywhere in the future if he were dead
now.  Greg's mind accepted both facts without reservation, unable to
question either the evidence in front of him or his memories of the future.
It was not the first time that such a conflict had risen, he was used to the
future's constant contradiction of the present.

In the scene, another form, a shadow of some sort was looming over the
stranger, threatening him.  Greg tried to move, to help the man for a reason he
did not know, but as always in his visions, he only saw the future.

He could not change it.  

He watched as the shadow fought with the man, wondering who would be
victorious.  As the battle continued, he strained his mind, struggling to see
the outcome.

And a fog as dark as night settled over the image, obscuring it, hiding the
end.  He tried to focus the vision, to understand, but it only made the veil
more impenetrable, the image vanishing into blackness.

With a start, he snapped out of reverie, his sight returning to normal,
focusing once more on the black figure on the floor.

He wondered why no one had moved during the time he had been spaced 
out, then managed to focus beyond, on Amy.

She was looking at her computer, her face rearranged in an expression that
seemed fitting to her character somehow.  It was not anger or grief or even
sadness.

It was wonder.

Lita seemed to snap out of her own dream, shaking her head slightly. "What is
it, Amy?"

For once, the blue headed scout seemed to be at a loss. "I'm not sure."  For a
few moments, Amy continued to stare at the screen, then looked to the prone
form.  "That is, I know what is happening, but not why.  Or
how."

Greg almost spoke up, almost sure he knew what was going to happen, but
realized that he would not speak.  If he spoke up, then the version of the
future he saw would not agree with reality, and so he could not speak up because
he did not, in his vision of the future.  He had tried to change what he saw in
similar cases, but something always interfered, he could not create a paradox
for reasons he did not comprehend.  Time was strange that way. 

Amy continued, still staring at the form. "He had no cardiac or respiratory 
activity."  She said the words in a completely calm, clinical tone of voice.

Then, realizing her friends might not understand, she sighed. "He isn't
breathing and he has no pulse. But...."

"But?"  Lita prompted her after a few seconds went by.

"I can't explain it, but he is still alive.  He has brain activity, and it is
actually higher than that of a normal human.  Of course, physically, he is not
human, but he is close enough for there to be certain similarities..."  Amy's
voice trailed off.

Raye shook her head. "Shouldn't we do CPR or something?  Call an ambulance?"
The other scouts seemed still frozen, Mina in pain and Serena in shock.

Amy shook her head, tears of frustration welling up. "It no use!  His
heart has been burned beyond repair.  There is glass buried in his spinal
cord, which is also pretty well charred.  Not to mention the wounds he got
before. There is nothing we can do.  He should be dead... but he isn't."

The computer beeped again, insistently.  Amy ignored it, knowing it was futile
but it did it again.  Then again, a series of beeps heightening in pitch.
Shaking her head, Amy finally looked.

Greg almost smiled as he saw her eyes focus sharply, her features changing from
frustration to puzzlement once more. "Impossible," she whispered, her lips
barely forming the words. Seeing the looks of the others, she answered their
silent question. "His neural activity is off the scale.  That is not supposed
to be possible.  It's almost as his brain is ordering his body to.."  Everyone
looked over at the man in time to see every one of his muscles spasm.  His body
jerked once, twice, then rested limply.  

As everyone watched, a choking sound came from his throat. His rib cage
expanded, then collapsed, a hoarse sound emerging from his chest, a sound that
was unmistakable.  

Slowly, painfully, he breathed.

The computer beeped again, then continued regularly in the familiar rhythm of a
beating heart.  Amy shook her head slowly, then looked at the screen. Not
believing her eyes, she felt for his pulse again, her hand resting on his neck,
then looked up again.

"It's impossible, but there it is anyway."  Her voice was a whisper, barely
audible. "Pulse normal, respiration normal.  Brain activity-"  She paused,
looking down at the computer screen. "Brain activity down to somewhat higher
than normal, but what do I know?"

Amy jerked her hand away from the man's neck as he moved, the pattern of burned
flesh twisting sickeningly across his back.  To everyone else's astonishment,
he spoke, a harsh voice that seemed to come from far away emerging. "That.."

He paused while the scouts listened, trying to figure out what he was trying to
say.

The man breathed in once more before finished. "That hurt." His voice did not
seem to have any anger in it, just annoyance.  And pain.  They could almost
feel the strain on his arms as he flipped himself over, leaning against the
edge of the couch, his eyes still closed. His mouth hung open for a moment, a
trickle of blood coming down one side of his jaw. He swallowed, clearing his
throat, then opened his eyes. "I deserved that." He groaned as the scouts came
up to him.




He looked at his granddaughter, and wondered what to do next.  Grandpa knew,
somewhere deep inside, that if Raye knew he was not a doddering fool their
relationship would disintegrate. On some level, he understood that she had to
have her secret life, she had to remain Sailor Mars and believe he was
unaware of that power, or they would not be able to live under one roof.

The only problem was that both Darian and Greg knew that he was not just an old
senile guy, a knowledge he did not really want them to have.  But at the
time, telling them was unavoidable.  He thought, concentrating to an
extent that would have amazed Raye, who thought him too old.  He thought he
could trust Darian, if the prince knew what to do, but Greg, with his
foresight, might see something that would change his standing with his
granddaughter.  So.... grandpa almost smiled in his thoughts.




Greg felt a hand on his shoulder.  Turning, he saw it was Grandpa, and
_saw_what was going to happen.  He shrugged mentally, knowing
there was no way to avoid the future.  The old man turned to the scouts. "I'm
going to leave you scouts here, you seem to be in control of the situation.  I
think I'll take Greg to the train so he can return home."

There was a general lack of reaction for a moment, then Raye, Amy and Darian
turned to the two.  Darian gave an almost imperceptible nod, with a look of
understanding on his face.  Raye frowned, probably wondering what her grandpa
was doing there. And Greg decided that Amy was looking at him.

Raye beat her friend by a portion of a second. "Wait... old man... what are you
doing here?"

"Oh, just looking for Greg," Grandpa replied in his normal, slightly goofy tone.
He started moving Greg back when the boy remembered.

"Wait," he almost yelled.  Everyone turned to him.  "About him," Greg
said, pointing at the man.  There was something important about him, something
they had to watch out for.  And he was going to lead them all into trouble,
Greg was sure of it.  And the shadowy figure, where did that come in? Greg
asked himself, then decided to say what he knew. "He.."  suddenly the boy
faltered.

The scouts had moved aside a little, and Greg could see the man in black.  But
it was not the man himself the boy saw, but his eyes.  Dark, almost black, they
sucked him in, plunged him into their depths.  They sucked his breath away,
tugged at his thoughts, moved around his mind.

Amy broke the spell. "What is it, Greg?" She asked, unaware of the direction of
her often-denied-to-be-boyfriend's stare.

He shook his head, wondering what he was about to say.  Nothing came to mind,
so he decided it was not important.  Out of the corner of his eye, he thought
he saw the man smile a bit, but it was probably just his imagination.  A vague
uneasiness tugged at the edges of his consciousness.  With a small effort, he
ignored it, sure it was nothing.

"What is?"  It was Darian this time, wondering what was wrong.

"Nothing," he answered, sure it was not important.  He allowed Grandpa to draw
him out the door.




Amy watched with incomprehension. "Wait," she cried after the two, but it was
too late.  She exchanged a baffled look with Raye, then turned to Darian. "What
was that about?"  Suddenly the stranger groaned, distracting her, and she
turned back to the dark form, picking up her computer.

It was not good.  The original scan she had done was only for life signs and had
not detected all the damage that had been done to the stranger.  As her eyes
scanned down the list, she saw one item highlighted as more important than the
rest.  She gasped, turning to the man.

Before she could speak, he rose his arm slightly, stopping her.  With obvious
pain, he opened his mouth. "Mina."  The name came out harshly against his
throat and the drying blood.

Amy turned to see her friend crying. "Yes?"  The orange scout asked in a
whisper.

He shook his head. "It wasn't your fault."

Amy looked at him with surprise as Mina answered. "Not my fault!?"  The voice,
still barely a whisper, rose in intensity. "I almost killed you."  The
admission brought new tears to her face.  She moved forward a bit, then
stopped, as if afraid to approach him. "I attacked you right after you saved my
life."

He shook his head again as if it were the only part of his body still able to
move. "I drained you, took away all of your energy without warning.  You wake
up to a strange place, your mind still numb from pain.  And you see me.  Of
course you attack me.  That's what I would have done, anyway."  He slammed a
fist into the floor. "I just can't believe I was stupid enough not to
anticipate it."

It was Mina's turn to shake her head. "No... I should have.." She faltered, not
sure.  Amy was amazed at how the man affected her friend.

He changed the subject. "Could you make me a cup of tea?"  He put the question
softly, a slight smile on his lips, as if the situation was far less serious.

What? Amy thought to herself.  He had several wounds that might still be
mortal.  She did not even want to think about the damage to his back and spine.
And he was asking for tea?  Looking at Mina, Amy saw that the orange scout was
having a similar reaction. For a few moments, the reasoning eluded Amy, then 
it hit her.  

He did not want Mina to know the extent of his injuries, for some reason he was
protecting her.  Amy turned back to him and tried to thank him with her eyes as
best she could.  He smiled slightly, then turned back to Mina, still standing
there.

"Please?" he asked.

Mina turned to Lita who silently pointed the way to the kitchen, and the
orange scout went there, still dazed.

Amy picked up her computer again, taking a deep breath.  Then she had to expel
it because he raised his hand, stopping her again.

He winced, then spoke. "Wait, let me see..."  He closed his eyes and 
breathed in deeply.  A sigh passed through his rough throat and he
started reciting. "Several minor cuts, already healing.  Severe damage to 
hands, including burns and lacerations.  Deep knife wound to the side, which 
passes between the spleen, the gall bladder, and the small intestines 
without cutting through anything but mesoderm.  Severe burns and 
lacerations of back, including damage to the heart and major organs of 
the area, but not quite a mortal wound.  Shards of glass puncturing 
my back in large numbers and varying sizes."  He opened his eyes. 
"And several shards embedded in my spinal chord, resulting in complete
paralysis below the waist."

Amy stared at him, ignoring the collective shock of the scouts behind her. She
looked down at the computer, but already knew he was right.  Gathering courage,
she answered his challenge. "If you know that, then you are aware that nerves
do not regenerate."

He smiled in answer. "Not in humans."

Amy wondered what that answer meant, then did a scan of him again. Shaking her
head, she looked up. "According to the computer, you are almost as human as we
are.  I can't quite get a precise reading for some reason, but all the main
organs seem to be in place, though there are strange things here and there.  As
far as I can tell, you are more human than not."

For a second, he stared up at her as if what she said were important somehow,
then shook his head.  "I've healed from worse."  His face flickered for a moment 
with memories, then he was calm and clear again.  "Given enough time, I will 
recover as is."  His expression turned grave. "But I do not have the time. 
Amy, you always wanted to be a doctor, right?"

"A pediatrician," she agreed cautiously.  The girl suspected where this was
going and did not like it.  On several occasions, she had treated scouts for
minor damage, bruises, twisted ankles and the like.  She had never faced a
wound anywhere close to the proportion of his.  She was not ready.

"Close enough."  He smiled at her consternation. "All you have to do is
get the glass fragments out of my spine.  And while you are at it, you might
want to get the larger ones out of my heart and lungs.  All you need is a pair
of tweezers."  He looked at her seriously and seemed to wait for an answer.

Amy shook her head in answer, unable to explain that she was not ready for 
this sort of thing.

He merely looked at her. "Trust me," he said quietly, just as Mina came back
into the room.

She was carrying a cup, her hand almost not shaking.  Coming up to the 
man, she offered him the tea.

He smiled as he accepted, his face turning white for a second as if he were
concealing pain. "Amy wants to look at my back, though she believes it is not
serious."  Ignoring the reaction of everyone else in the room he continued,
turning to Lita. "Do you have a table that has a good light over it?"

Lita answered slowly, still not sure what to think of him. "There is one in the
guest room."  She hesitated. "What else do you need?"

He seemed to think about the question. "Um.. a bed sheet or two that you don't
mind losing, hopefully clean ones.  Also, I think Amy will need a pair of
tweezers and maybe a scalpel."  Seeing Mina's reaction to that last, he hastily
turned to her. "To cut the clothes off, because they stick to the blood."  Mina
nodded, her face blank.

Lita shook herself again. "Sure," she answered, though she obviously was not
sure of anything.

"We'll help," Raye offered suddenly, grasping Serena's arm and dragging the
princess away after Lita despite the blonde's protests.

The man looked at Mina earnestly. "You might not want to see this."

"I did it, I should help."  

Amy noticed that it seemed to be more than that.  Mina seemed to want to be
near the stranger.  The blue scout reprimanded herself silently, knowing that
Mina's feelings were none of her business.

Meanwhile, the man was shaking his head. "Trust me, you do not want to see 
this.  Amy wants to be a doctor, she might as well know what that entails.  You, 
on the other hand, do not need the sight." He smiled, somewhat forcedly. "You
didn't have lunch, so you won't be able to lose one."  

Amy almost interjected that she wanted to be a pediatrician, a profession that
had nothing to do with surgery, but she stopped herself.   Instead, she 
decided that the man's idea was a good one, and tried to support it. "Mina, 
I can handle it, it's not a bad wound."  Amy hoped that the man was not lying, 
otherwise the situation might be rapidly spinning out of control.

The blue scout almost laughed out loud at that thought.  She was about to
operate on someone who was paralyzed from the waist down, but who
was nevertherless claiming he could heal himself.  Out of control was a 
very mild description.

Amy blinked, trying to remember what she was saying.  "But this might get
messy, and I'd just as soon not have any witnesses when I try to mess with
with the wound."  Amy tried to smile. "It might not be my finest hour."  
There, she thought, that was some pretty quick thinking.

Mina seemed ready to protest.  Surprisingly, she did not. "All right.  I 
understand."

The man raised his hand as if to take Mina's, then seemed to notice the gloves
and stopped. "I'll be all right," he said, dropping his arm.

Raye came back into the room. "All right, it's all set up.  There is a pretty
good light over the table, and there is a bed right next to it."

Amy wondered how the man intended to get to the other room without Mina knowing
that he can't move his legs, then it came to her. "Don't move," she ordered the
stranger in her best doctor voice.  She turned to Darian. "I don't want to
aggravate the wound any more than necessary.  You think you can carry him?"

Raye interrupted. "We already thought of that.  The table is one of the type
that you can disassemble to get more space out of your room.  I have the top
right here."  She demonstrated the board.

Darian smiled, a little sickly, in answer.  With the man's help, the three got
him to lie on his stomach on the board, and Darian and Raye lifted the piece
of wood.  They carried him into the guest room, where they put the board 
down, completing the table.

Amy had followed the carrying and was looking down at the wound when she
realized everyone was expecting her to do something. "Um guys.." Not quite
correct, but it would do. "Could you let us be alone?  I'm not exactly sure
what I'm doing here."

Lita rebelled, naturally enough. "But then shouldn't we be here in case you
need help?"

"She won't need it."  The man's voice allowed no room for doubt.  Slowly, the
others filed out of the room, closing the door.

"We'll be outside if you need anything."

Amy looked down at the work if front of her and tried not to shrink away from
what she had to do.




He closed his eyes, forcing the muscles in his back to relax, probing deep
within his body to see the extent of the damage.  He knew how difficult it was
for the girl to believe she could handle this, and he knew she needed
reassurance more than he did.  Striving to keep any pain out of his voice, he
cleared his throat. "Do not worry.  You're a doctor."

"Not yet I'm not," she answered immediately.

Unsure of yourself as always, Amy, the man thought as he kept himself from
smiling.  That was too difficult because of the pain.  He had tried to conceal
it to the extent possible for Mina's benefit, but it was catching up to him.
Swallowing hard, he continued. "All you have to do is remove the large shards
of glass.  I can heal the rest of the way, but you would not believe how
difficult it is to connect tissue with things in the way."  He did not smile,
but the slight attempt at humor seemed to relax the tension a bit, both in him
and in Amy.

He continued, not letting her pause and think, actions that might make her
panic. "Cut away to back of the suit so all of the wound is exposed."  He felt
her eyes search for the scalpel, then find it.  Dspite her obvious lack of
confidence, the hand that grasped the metal implement did not shiver.  She had
not changed, the Chosen thought to himself with satisfaction.

With smooth motions, she cut away a rectangle of his suit, revealing the blast
hole in his back.  He could feel her shiver as she saw his exposed spinal chord
and muscles, with char and pieces of black mixed in.

"That's good.  Now try to pick out the pieces of the suit with the
tweezers."  He forced himself not to flinch as she obeyed, the cold metal
coming in contact with his exposed muscles.  The mental pain numbing technique
was working, but nothing was perfect.  He sensed her hesitate as all of the
larger pieces of material were gone.  The rest was mostly dust scattered over
the area.

"You don't have to worry about the rest."  He tried to project calmness in his
tone.

"But the-"

He didn't let her finish. "It's organic.  In a way that you might not
understand, it is part of me."  He cursed himself, realizing how condescending
that sounded. /You might not understand./ A foolish thing to say to someone
who held his life in her hands.

She seemed to take no offense. "Now what?"

"You're the doctor, what would you recommend now?"

"The morgue?"  He almost smiled. "I don't know. I guess get the glass out of
the spinal chord."  She waited.

"So what are you waiting for?"

He could feel the hesitation as she raised the tweezers. "Where is it?  She
touched a vertebrae.

"The first one is two vertebrae lower.  Right there," he said as she touched
the bone over the sliver. "Can you see it?"

"Yes." Her voice wavered.

He took a deep breath. "Just grab it and pull it out.  And ignore me if I
scream, that is a rather sensitive spot."  That was putting it mildly, the
nerves going through the spinal chord led to the rest of his body.  He felt her
hesitate, then plunge the tweezers down.  The ends contacted the glass.

He managed to keep himself from crying out loud.  

Barely. His muscles bunched up around the area.  When immobile, the glass was
not too bad, but moving it was... worse.  He felt her pull back and almost
screamed at her.  In a voice that he hoped projected strength, he ordered her.
"Pull it out. Now."  Again the pain as she touched it, then even more as the
ends of the tweezers grasped the sliver.  Then she pulled.

_Aarrgh._ He kept himself still as the pain reached a peak, an unbearable 
level, then slowly began to fade.  He realized he must have blocked
out the worst of it, otherwise he would be unconscious.

"Are you all right?"  The voice reached him from a long way off.

He fumbled for his voice for a couple of moments, then found it.  To his
surprise, it was rather high pitched. "Fine."  He realized he was not breathing
and reactivated that part of his body.  For a couple of moments there was
silence as the pain faded slowly.  He could already feel the nerves starting to
knit, the gap slowly bridged.

"All right, the other ones are not as deep.  There is one just a little lower
than that shard, embedded a bit to the right."

She moved the tweezers appropriately.  And he almost screamed in pain again.

Trying to keep himself distracted, he tried to remember the last time she did
something similar on him.  While a part of him continued to point out the
crystals, his brain flowed away with the tide of memories.




It was during his later years in training, before the attack of Queen Beryl.
Before the time had come for the Chosen to face Him.  He had been practicing
with Amy and Lita in a heavily mined field, more for his entertainment than for
any realistic aid the experience might give him in his battle.  And then he
stepped a bit to the side of the planned path.

He remembered the blast, tearing his balance apart, sending the world spinning
around him, the sky crashing down on his head.

He remembered the light of the bomb, burning its way through his retina,
blinding him.

Worst of all, he remembered his leg disappearing in a pale pinkish mist,
dissolving under him, a brief flash of unbearable pain followed by a numbness
that would not go away.

He would have died there and then if Sailor Mercury had not been there.  Now,
a thousand years of training later, he had a chance of surviving such a wound.
But in the Silver Millenium, he had not had a fraction of the training needed
to stop the blood gushing from the femoral artery.  He would have lost too
much blood to live if Amy had not been there.  Regeneration of a limb was
not nearly as difficult compared to the control needed to keep the body from
dying at the actual time of the injury.  Surviving the first moments was the
difficult part.

Lita could do little to help, fundamentally she was a fighter, not a healer.  It
was Amy who had managed to stop the flow of blood with a variation of her 
bubble, a transparent bandage that expanded with the growth of his leg,
keeping the damage contained.  She had saved his life that day.

Again, I owe you, Amy, the Chosen thought to himself.

And I will not get a chance to pay you back, he finished sadly.




"How is he?"  Mina was still in shock from everything that had happened.
The scouts had changed back into their normal identities, trying to relax
without much success.

Lita frowned in annoyance. "How would we know?  They chased us out of there
before we could make sure."  The green scout, in silent agreement with everyone
else in the room, did not mention the severed spinal chord.

Serena turned her head at that, surprised. "But Amy told us mmmpph!"  Raye,
alert for something like that, had stopped the rest of the sentence with her
hand.

"Told you what?"  Mina asked innocently.

Luna came forward, jumping nimbly to avoid the scramble between Raye and Serena.
The black cat ignored the fight with skill born of long practice. "Nothing
important.  Now, tell us what happened with you two."  Artemis, who had been
silent before, came forward a little.

But Mina was already distracted, looking back at the door behind which the
stranger was being operated on.  They had heard no noises coming from there and
she was beginning to get worried. "Maybe I should wait for Amy, so you can all
hear it together.  It was very- strainge."

Darian, who also changed back to his cover identity, smiled, seeing that it was
not just Amy the scout was worrying about.




Finally the last of the large shards of glass was gone, a bloody pile of
crystalline fragments piled on a white sheet next to him.  He relaxed, his
normal regenerative mechanisms coming into force, beginning to work.

"OK, that's the last of them."  He smiled to himself.  Amy was as good as
ever, he thought.

"My scanner is picking up a-"

He finished the statement easily. "A large number of smaller pieces of 
glass.  I can handle them."

Though it was obvious she wanted to argue, she agreed. "All right.  Now
what?"

"Um... Can you bandage it with something?"  After several tries, she got a
towel over the wound and made it stay with a sheet of something white cinched
tight around his waist.  The rest of his top had to be cut off and got itself
tossed into a corner with the other pieces of black material.  His belt with
the assorted pouches followed.

"All right, what about this rib wound?"  At some point, she had switched to an
almost relaxed doctor voice, one that suited her pretty well.

"It's a clean cut, don't worry about it."  Except for the fact that it was made
with a maraki blade, he added to himself, sighing.  That made it a lot more
difficult to heal, but there was no need for her to know that.

He could feel her about to protest, then stop herself. "And the hands?"  Not
waiting for an answer, she flipped one of them over. She had made him take the
gloves off before, revealing the damaged tissue. "I don't care what you say,
these are pretty bad.  I'm at least going to bandage them."

"Whatever you say," he agreed with an inward smile.

As she wrapped strips of cool cloth around his hands, he remembered
something.

"You know, it would have been much easier to just ask Serena to do Moon Healing
on me."  He wondered what kind of a  reaction he would get, and was not
disappointed.  She froze in mid-bandage.

"The Moon Wand was destroyed," Amy said slowly.

So they still thought that Sailor Moon's power objects were the source of her
strength. That was interesting, if somewhat disappointing.  For now, however,
the crystal would do as an excuse to continue the conversation, he thought.
"The crystal can heal as well as the wand."

Amy continued to be frozen. "Why didn't you say something before?"

Because I do not like to rely on foreign objects, he did not say.  The problem
with anything physical was that there was no assurance of their presence.  His
own abilities were far more reliable. 

"Because it would have probably not worked on me.  It can only heal
things within its power, and I.." He paused. "I do not belong in that
category."  That was also the truth.

Amy continued bandaging.  Finished, she put the first hand down 
and picked up the other, beginning to work on it.

"All right, I'd say you need three months before you can get out of bed." 

"And then I won't be able to walk for the rest of my life, I know.  Just relax,
all I need is sixteen hours' worth of sleep." And a week or so to finish all
of the healing.  A week he would not get, if he was right.

A long pause followed, and he felt her about to ask about him who he was. "You
will know about me tomorrow, I promise."

She stood up, waving gently from side to side.  With his arms, the Chosen
rolled himself off the table and onto the bed, conveniently placed next to it.
He rearranged himself on his back, ignoring her astonished expression at
abusing a wound like that.  

Turning off the light, she exited.

He ordered his body into a regenerative mode, directing the order of repairs,
then closed his eyes.  Within ten seconds, he was in a state as close to sleep
as he ever got.




Everyone rose their heads as Amy opened the door and came out of the room.
Mina rose slightly. "My god."

Amy was even paler than usual, her eyes framed unusually by the white skin.
Much of the sailor suit had blood on it, the gloves almost completely red.  And
the hands shook visibly under the gloves.  The rest of the scouts stood up to
help, but she shook off their hands.

The blue scout swallowed. "Let's just say that it was one of the stranger
experiences of my life," she answered in response to their questions.

"Is he all right?"  Mina asked almost immediately.

"I think so.  It was very weird."

"What do you mean?"

"Well-" Amy paused, trying to gather her thoughts. "The damage was less than
what I expected.  And there was almost no bleeding."  Looking down at herself,
Amy almost retracted the last statement, then let it stand.  There actually had
been very little bleeding, mostly the blood had been from the impact itself.
It was almost as if he had been able to stop the blood flow to the wounded
areas.  Which might well have been the case, she sighed.

The blue headed scout concentrated, her scout uniform dissolving into ribbons
of energy, replaced by a more ordinary and much cleaner aquamarine dress.  She
collapsed in an armchair, then had to stop the rest of the scouts from going
into the room with the stranger. "He needs to rest, I'd prefer no one bothered
him.  He said he would explain to all of us tomorrow."  Then, to distract the
rest, she turned to Mina. "So what happened with you two?"

Sighing deeply, Mina sat down, closing her eyes for a moment. "That is a long
story."  Sighing again, she began, starting with her waking up in strange
surroundings.  As she came to the one night the two had spent in a bubble
universe, Mina left out the part when she had inadvertently kissed
the strange man.  She might not have even been able to tell herself just why
she skipped over that, she did without even thinking about it.  And so she
continued, past the different obstacles they had passed, across the bubble
universes while the other scouts listened attentively.

Outside, the moon crept across the sky, marking off the time left.


_	_	_



"And the rest you know."  Mina finished her recounting, sitting back and
yawning.

For a few moments, the rest of the scouts and the two cats remained silent. 

Lita sighed. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm pooped.  Anyone know
what time it is?"  The question was rhetoric.  Everyone had been showing
signs of fatigue.  At several places during the story, Serena had fallen
asleep only to be rudely wakened by an alert Raye.  Lita continued after a wide
yawn that threatened to engulf the whole room. "I guess you all might as well
stay here for the night."

Serena woke up suddenly. "Oh, no, what am I going to tell my mom?"  Her eyes
turned glassy, threatening to spray tears.

Mina looked at the two cats. "I guess Luna and Artemis will have to make sure
our parents do not know anything bad has happened."

Luna sighed. "You know how we hate to use our mental powers."  She exchanged a
short glance with Artemis and hung her head. "But I suppose we have no
choice."

Artemis seemed to shake himself out of a trance he had been in during Mina's
story. "At least it's a vacation week, we don't have to worry about teachers.
And you girls will have to explain to anyone other than your families if they
are suspicious, you can make something up."  Luna sighed at this, but did not
interfere.

Darian stood up, surprising the rest for a moment since he had stayed in the
background during the story. "I think I'll head back to my place for the night.
I have a few things I need to take care of, and I believe you can handle the
situation  for today.  I'll be back first thing in the morning."  Kissing Serena 
good-bye, he went out the door with few protests from the other scouts.

After a few more moments of tired looks, the scouts and cats departed to
various parts of the house, dividing up the rooms with a zeal.  Only minutes
later, most of them were asleep.


_	_	_



Artemis woke up from motion around him, but ordered his body to be still.  Not
moving was easy, given that his body was still asleep and had no urge 
to move anywhere except back into the dream he was having about this golden cat
with...  With an effort, he opened one eye.

Mina had gotten up, obviously trying to not wake him.  For a moment, he felt
anger, and perhaps a little more, but he kept still.  He watched as she padded
out of the room in an oversized outfit, Lita's old pajamas, on loan for the
night.  The cat sighed, brooding.




After under two hours of undisturbed sleep, the Chosen's subconscious
woke him up.  Someone was in the room with him, and his alertness automatically
qualified this as a dangerous occurrence.  It was not, of course, his mind
immediately recognized Mina's mental presence.  He sighed to himself silently
in the dark, then steeled his expression. This was not entirely unforeseen, but
it was also something he did not want to deal with yet, not while half
paralyzed.

A part of him checked how his regeneration was proceeding while the rest of his
mind waited for Mina to do something.

He felt her approach, a subtle pattern of air pressure playing on his skin, a
bit of rustling between fabric and skin, the smell of another person.  She
stopped by the foot of his bed, looking at him, and waited.

After a few moments, he decided that he had to do something.

"Hello Mina," he said without opening his eyes.

He could feel her slight surprise at the recognition, but she was not overly
astonished.  That was good, he thought to himself, she was not surprised by
anything he did any more.  Or perhaps she was too preoccupied with something
else.

"I'm sorry." She sounded lone and afraid. He startled to feel her start to cry,
and cursed himself for not being able to deal with it.

"Mina."  He whispered, not wanting the others to come rushing in, but made his
voice intense enough for her to listen.  "You remember when I said it was not
your fault."  It was not a question, but she nodded, still believing that it had 
been, but he continued.  "I wasn't lying.  Don't you understand?" He reached 
up with bandaged fingers, gently taking on of her hands. "I could have stopped
that beam.  I could have dodged, I could have explained, I could have warned 
you."  He hoped he was getting through to her. "But I did none of those things,
I did not pay attention.  That is why I got hurt, because of my own foolishness.
But there was no harm done, I'm all right."  He looked up into her eyes, his
heart flinching. "I'm all right," he forced himself to repeat.

He was not.  But that had nothing to do with the injury.

After a few moments, she slowed down her crying. "I didn't mean to hurt you,
you saved my life. You gave me hope.  You saved my friends.  And you stopped me
from being afraid."  She paused, looking directly at him. "I hurt you even
though I think I may-" She stopped, and he breathed in with relief, suspecting
what she had been going to say.  It was not the time for that yet, if she said
it now, she might never forgive him, he thought painfully.

So he stopped her. "It wasn't your fault." He repeated, and she collapsed on
his chest, her head resting on his heart.

He comforted her with his hands until she stopped crying, then gently wiped the
tears off her eyes with a finger that peeked through the bandages.  For a
moment, she asked to stay with him silently, just with her eyes, but he
understood.

"No."  Before she could protest he explained. "It isn't right.  You.."  How
could he explain, the Chosen wondered, how could he tell her that she might
hate him in the morning? "You have to hear what I have to say tomorrow
first."

She paused, then nodded.  Reaching up, he kissed her gently on her cheek. "Good
night, Mina."

She got up, slowly walking to the door, sad.  But the tears were not longer
there. "Good night, Chosen."  The door closed behind her and she was gone.




Artemis watched under the pretense of sleep as she walked back into the room
and lay down.  Relief flooded through him, releasing the tension he did not
know he held.   She was back, and she was no longer in as much pain as before.
He wondered if he were more greatful because she was no longer hurting, or
if she had returned.

For a few moments, her eyes were open, staring up. Then she
relaxed, closing her eyes.  The white cat waited a few minutes until he was
sure she was asleep before leaping from the bed.

He walked quietly out the door, crossing the corridor and gently pushing open
another door, trying to make as little noise as possible.  It was a special
talent of cats, and he took pride in his particular ability with it.  Nimbly,
he jumped onto the table next to the bed, then down.  The white cat made a
perfect landing in the center of the Chosen's chest.

The other did not move.  Artemis smiled internally, knowing the man was 
realizing the other had learned his lessons well.  The Chosen had not flinched.
A millennium ago, he would have.

The Chosen opened his eyes. "Hello Artemis."  The cat smiled to himself at the
correct use of his name, then decided it was time.

"Hello Nakiad," he said, slurring the last two vowels and accenting the second
letter 'a'.

To his credit, the Chosen did not react.  He merely stared at the cat, his
eyes not revealing his thoughts.  After several moments, he sighed and answered
in a tired voice.  "I have not gone by that name for a thousand years."  He
paused, then finished in a dark tone. "You remember."

It was not a question, but Artemis answered it anyway. "Yes.  Everything I knew
before, I know now.  At least relating to you."

Nakiad shook his head. "But you don't know what happened."

Artemis frowned, surprised. "I am not sure what you mean."

The Chosen shook his head. "Tomorrow, then. I do not have the strength." Or
courage, was written on his face.  What could Nakiad possibly have done to make
him think his friends would not understand? Then the other continued, and the
expression was gone so fast the white cat was not even sure it had ever been
there. "How did you remember?  The wipe was designed for everything."

Artemis smiled as best as a cat could. "All through my existence in this time,
I have been getting a vague unsettling feeling, weird signals that came from
nowhere.  Like the kind I get from Mina, only stronger, but with no source."

The man nodded. "Yes, that link could not be broken, but it should not have
bothered you too much."

"It did not, at first.  But lately, after Mina became Sailor V for the first
time, the feelings became stronger.  They peaked three times, when you saved
Mina from death those times.  After that, I could not ignore those feeling, I
tried to track you down, but you always were elusive.  It would have come to
nothing, except.."  The cat paused for effect.

The Chosen sighed. "The trigger."

"Yes.  I was reading a book of Greek mythology while watching over Mina, and
guess what word I came across?"

The other shook his head.  "No one could have predicted that some of the lore
of the Silver Millennium would be preserved and passed down from generation to
generation.  I was aware of the phenomenon, but I hoped you would not have come
across it." Nakiad shook his head again. "It does not matter anyway."

They paused, looking at each other. Artemis broke the silence first, conscious
of the other's stare. "Thank you."

"For what?"  The Chose seemed close to drifting back into sleep.

"Mina."

The man's eyes opened. "If you truly remember, you know better than that.  I
could not have done otherwise."

"Your feeling have not changed?"

Nakiad smiled sadly.  "Destiny is not so easily rewritten."

The cat sighed, settling down on the Chosen's chest. "A guardian can hope."
Artemis looked directly at the man. "If you hurt her, I..."  He left the threat
hanging, though he knew it was futile.  He could do nothing, and he would do
nothing because what must be must be.

"I know.  What must happen, must happen, you know that."  Unaware, the Chosen
was repeating Artemis's thoughts.

Slowly, the white cat relaxed. "Yes, I know."  He put his head down, closing
his eyes.

"Good night, Art."

"Artemis."  The cat grumbled softly without opening his eyes as he fell
asleep.


_	_	_



The Dark Lord sat silently on his throne.  He did not know what had become of
the Chosen and his companions, but he could guess.  He laughed silently as he
thought about the amount of energy it would have taken for the Chosen to
disassemble his love and then recreate her once more on Earth.

Now the shadowy figure knew he would win this fight.

I do not even need to lift my sword, he thought as he laughed.

Still, tradition was tradition, he thought, and looked up. "Guard."

A shadow approached somberly, obviously remembering the fates of the previous
two shadows who had the posts.

"Get the arena ready," the Lord hissed.

The other ran out of the room, fleeing the echoing laughter that suddenly
filled the great black chamber.

Now, Chosen, the Dark Lord thought-

/It will end./




The Chosen's eyes flickered open silently in the night.  Something strange
had just gone through his mind, as if someone were talking to him.  The 
sentiment he felt from that distance was not pleasant.

For several moments, his mind was open, searching to Universe for the 
mental presence he had felt, a mind all too familiar.  Not finding the mind
in the Universe, he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

Worrying never accomplished anything, he had had a thousand years 
to learn that.



_	_	_




The sun rose slowly over the horizon, casting its beams on the window and
beyond, on the Chosen's face.  His eyes flickered open instantly without the
normal human transition between sleep and wakefullness.  The absense of 
a disoriented period was one of the advantages of never truly sleeping, of
never dreaming.

He moved his chest slightly, waking the white cat.

"I think you better return to Mina before she finds you missing."

"Right," the cat answered sleepily.  Artemis yawned as he hopped off the bed.
Coming to the door, he paused. "Was it really that bad?"

The past.

Nakiad looked at him sadly. "Worse."  He waited for the cat to leave before
deciding to get up.

The man gave his systems a thorough examination.  His spinal chord was mended
enough to allow him to walk, though it would take a week or so to completely
heal.  His hands seemed to be doing fine, though he had yet to regain all of
the sense of touch.  The wound through his ribs, on the other hand, was taking
longer to heal because of the maraki blade that caused it.  Still, Nakiad
thought with satisfaction, everything should be in good shape by the time he
would have to-

He interrupted his own thoughts with a somber reminder that everything would
have to go well in order for him to have enough time.  And if not-  He sighed,
interrupting his thoughts once more.

His mind flickered through the house, checking on everyone.  Only Artemis
was awake, the rest of the scouts' minds resting in the peace of sleep.

Slowly, he sat up on the bed, carefully attending his back, then put his feet
on the floor, looking around the room for the first time.

It was a mess.  

Actually, it wasn ot nearly as bad as it could have been, the sheets had 
retained most of the blood, not allowing any to spill on the floor.  But the table 
was soaked, and there was a pile of bloody glass next to where he had lain.  
The bed was also somewhat dirty, but only from the blood that had remained 
on him, and none seemed to have penetrated the bed sheets.

Sighing, Nakiad stood up, feeling the wooden floor with his bare feet.  He
gathered the sheets off the bead, crumpling them up into a ball, and left the
room.  In the kitchen, he took a garbage bag from a box, stuffing the sheet
into it.  Returning to the room, he gathered everything else that was bloody
into the bag, wrapping the glass shards in a similarly bloody towel before
dumping them inside.  To his surprise, the room looked almost normal.  The only
thing left to do was to clean the table and get his suit out of the corner,
after that everything would be fine.  As far as cleanliness was concerned.

He switched his attention to his own outward appearance, something he had not
the time to do before.  He was pretty messy, but it was nothing half an hour
with soap and water couldn't fix.  

Flexing his hands to test for damage and discovering no pain, Nakiad decided
to get rid of the bandages.  In a few moments, his hands were free of the white
covering, the bandages not even sticking to the blood that covered his hands. 
He tossed the white material into the garbage bag, then rubbed his hands 
together over it to get rid of the remaining blood. His hands were revealed 
as almost completely healthy, with an almost invisible pattern of scars on 
the palms.  In a few days, even that would be gone.

He looked at them quietly. "Thank you, DNA."  He forced a smile, surprised 
a little at his own somberness.  Still smiling slightly, he found his way to the
bathroom, dumping the garbage bag near the exit on his way.  The living room
could also use some cleaning, the blood stains evident on the carpet and couch.
And, of course, someone would have to replace a glass sculpture, he reminded
himself, ruefully feeling his back.

Twenty minutes of running water later, he was mostly clean.  The white bandage
around his midsection was the only thing marring his upper body.  And he need
a shave.  Closing his eyes, he concentrated on his face, focusing his mind with
the ease of centuries of training in energy control.  A careful observer might have
noticed a slight drop in the temperature around him as he stared, then it was
gone.  With a swift motion, Nakiad rubbed a hand across his face.  Thousands of
frozen hairs dropped off into the sink.  After several brushes, the hair was
gone, and he turned on the water again, flushing the water down the drain.

Out of the mirror, a person who looked almost presentable stared back at him.
Then the reflection's face turned grim, wiping away any signs of enjoyment in
the sight.

  The voice came suddenly into his head.

Sighing, the man  turned off the water. 



Nakiad sighed.  He was aware that it took a while for Guardian to change
dimensions, but this time it had been taking far too long and he actually had
been worried.  He remembered the other's question, and answered it, using
normal speech this time. "Yes.  There is no other choice, it was destined for
them to know.  Otherwise, my decision would not be as hard, but it might do
damage to-"

   Guardian finished for him.




Amy's eyes opened slowly, her mind still partly in a dream state.  Some sort of
noise was disturbing her, a beeping that seemed to come from everywhere at
once.  It took the girl several minutes to remember that she set her computer
to wake her up and had left the machine under her pillow.

She sighed as she forced herself to wake up, wishing for a few more hours of
sleep.  The wish was a common one to her, despite what her friends thought, it
did take a lot of effort to get straight A's.  And now she could not even get
decent sleep during a holiday week. Even worse, she had gone to sleep late the
night before because of problems she could not ignore. There were two issues
that were troubling her.

The first was the failure of her method of killing the dark creature when they
had been captured.  She had been so sure that she had been right, that all they 
had to do was isolate its center, and it would not be able to function, but it 
had been able to destroy their bubble of energy and take them.

The second problem was the stranger, Mina had called him Chosen.  His whole
physiology seemed different, but Amy wanted to find out more about what he was
and how he was able to heal as fast as Mina said.  And how he saved the orange
scout.  And what the black creature was all about.  He had called himself the
Shadow, the Dark Lord.  Somehow, he was at the root of everything. Along with
Chosen, of course.

So many questions, Amy remembered, sighing.

The blue scout had pored over the data for several hours without a lot of luck,
and it had been close to dawn when she had finally finished.  She had gotten 
only some of the answers she needed, but that was all she had been able to do.  
Setting an alarm, then tossing away the device, she had rolled onto the bed 
she was using and fell asleep.

And now, without any transition, it was morning, and she had not gotten nearly
enough sleep.  But she had to check on her patient, make sure he did not do
anything stupid.  Amy smiled to herself, realizing she was thinking like a
doctor.  Then she heard running water.

Surprised, she forced herself to hurry.  She did not think it was so late that
one of the other scouts would be up, certainly not after a night like the last
one.  And that meant... what?  She wondered as she dressed hurriedly.

As she opened the door of her room, the water was turned off.  She came up to
the bathroom door, but heard nothing beyond the door.  She froze, listening.
Then she heard the stranger's voice. 

"Yes.  There is no other choice, it was destined for them to know.  Otherwise, 
my decision would not be as hard, but it might do damage to-"  The voice 
stopped and Amy wondered what that meant.  What would do damage?  What 
was destined for whom to know?  Suddenly, the blue scout realized she was 
doing something very much like spying and forced herself to unfreeze.  
Hesitantly, she reached up and tried to knock.

Tried to, because the door was not fully closed and opened completely with
the slight impact of her fist.

The Chosen seemed to be talking to a sphere of light.  He turned to her and
sighed.

"Good morning, Amy."  The light disappeared without any visible signal from the
man.

The only word that came to the scout's mind was 'what', so she decided to use
it. "What?" She asked, somewhat halfheartedly.

"I assume you mean the light. I assure-"

Anything he was saying was lost, since at that point the mind of the blue scout
began to get distracted. Amy's eyes went down a little and she realized that
his hands did not have any bandages on them.  Moreover, the hands did not seem
to be bleeding profusely, but almost seemed to have healed.  At the same time,
it hit the scout that the Chosen was standing on his own, something patently
impossible for a person with a severed spinal chord.  A high pitched squeak
emerged from Amy's lips, the only thing she could think of while her brain
attempted, in vain, to deal with the contradicting input.

The man seemed to realize what was up and he sighed again, a sound filled with
suffering.  He brushed past her into the corridor, going back to his room and
she followed on his heels, her mind still a bit dazed.  

She was almost recovered when they entered the room he had slept in.  Somewhat
with detachment, she noticed that he had cleaned up the mess, or most of it,
then a part of her brain told the rest to stop fooling around.  The majority replied
that it had every reason to be distracted, and a fight ensued inside her head, 
an argument that occupied a few more seconds.

Meanwhile the Chosen went to the corner of the room where she had dumped his
very torn suit and lifted it to put it on.  The day before, the black fabric had been
cut up into very small pieces right after a fairly sizable hole had been blasted in it.

Now it was undamaged, the tunic looking complete as he streched it between his
hands.

Amy's mind, nor really ready to deal with the major problems, focused on the
minor inconsistency. "How come your suit is no longer torn?"  Her voice sounded
a bit alien, but she was getting it under control.  Somewhat under control, she
corrected herself.

He turned around. "This fabric is part of me, much like the staff.  Both are alive
in a way that I am not sure your computer can read, and will recover from any
injury as long as I am alive."

Her mind processed that for a few seconds, then something clicked. "Staff?"

He looked surprised for a moment, then shook his head. "I mean my swords."

Yeah, that made sense, the scout thought in a sarcastic tone that surprised
her.  While this conversation was going on, she managed to accept the
unbelievable recovery of the man.  But he had not removed the bandages on his
back and side and her scientific curiosity got the better of her. "If you can
regenerate, how come your back is not all of the way healed yet?"

He frowned. "I might have led you a little astray in that.  I do not really
regenerate, not like a worm, for example.  It is merely that my healing is
considerably stronger than an average human's, and works a lot faster.  But
that does not mean that I am invincible, if my heart is destroyed, for example,
I will die as any one would.  And even in me, nerves take a long time to heal
and re-attach.  I haven't had enough time."

OK, Amy thought with a strange degree of satisfaction, so he is not immortal.
So theoretically, she should be able to figure our how he does it, and perhaps
use that.  That, and she needed a talk alone with the scouts. "Can I take a
look at it?  Actually, I'd like to do a computer scan of the damage. "

He shrugged. "Sure, go ahead."  The expression on his face was almost
unreadable, but she thought she caught a hint of disdain, almost as if he
suspected her scan would fail.

She set her computer to do a thorough examination of all systems, especially
the immune and defense while he removed the bandages and lay down on the table.
To her surprise, the back was considerably better, and though the skin seemed
very fragile, the spinal chord seemed to have mended at least part of the way.
The cut to the ribs, on the other hand, was worse off for some reason, it had
only partially healed and was still very ragged. "How come the wound in the
ribs is taking longer to heal?"

The man sighed. "Maraki," he explained.  When she did not understand, he smiled
a little. "It was caused by a blade covered in maraki, an alloy that is very
rarely seen today.  When such a blade penetrates a living organism, it is very
difficult to heal and often results in death.  It is less potent on me, but it
is still difficult to heal.  It leaves a sort of an inhibitory layer that prevents
a normal immune response."  His mouth twitched. "Think of it as a uranium
sword- except that maraki is only deadly when it comes into contact with
tissues.

Amy nodded absently as she placed the computer near him, executing the scan,
then had a strange feeling.  For a split second, she knew she would not find
anything.  Then it passed, and she turned to the Chosen.

"Um.. I'm going to leave this to scan you, and I'll go wake the other scouts
up."  She needed to talk to them alone, without his presence.

"Sure, go ahead."  He put his head down, closing his eyes as Amy walked out of
the room.

As she grasped the handle of the door, he opened one eye. "My hearing is
excellent as well," he added mildly.

For a moment, Amy wondered what that applied to.  It was as if he knew
what she was about to do and was warning her to keep the discussion
quiet.  She turned back to look at him, but he already
seemed asleep.

She would have been very disconcerted to know that as she turned her back he
smiled.




Through her dream, which revolved around Tuxedo Mask, Serena felt some
strange force shaking her.  As the pleasant images dissolved around her, she
felt herself whining a bit.  She _really_ did not want to go to school,
but the shaking was getting more insistent and her sleep dissolved.

Opening her eyes in a slit, the scout saw a face over her, though the features
were still too blurred to know who it was. "But mom, I don't want to go to
school today," she whined.

A voice came from the figure, one that did not belong to either of her parents.
"There's no school today, it's still the middle of the vacation week."

No school?  Serena's mind reveled in the sudden relief, then she grew
suspicious. "Then why did you wake me up so early?" As an afterthought, she
added another question. "Who are you, anyway?"

Another voice came from behind the figure. "This is hopeless.  Here, stand away
from her."  the new voice was imperious, commanding.

"Do you think that's wise, after all-"  A third voice asked as the first blurry
figure moved out of sight, and Serena thought she saw something coming toward
her.

Then an icy blast of water landed on her face, jerking her awake!

"What, where, whenwhywho!?"  Her vision suddenly cleared, Serena recognized the
fist figure as Lita and the second one as Raye. "Reeeeiiiiii!"  Serena yelled in
absolute fury.

"Well, it was the only way to wake you up." Raye answered matter of factly.
Seeing the other's stare, she tried to defend herself again. "It worked, didn't
it?"

"Ooooooo!"

Luna, the third voice, seeing an imminent fight, interposed herself. "Guys, Amy
has something to tell us, so come on!"

Serena decided to settle the dispute some other time as she heard the doorbell.
Remembering that Darian said he would be back in the morning, she dove into her
clothes with a speed that amazed the other two as they got out of her way.

Raye looked with grim amusement at the trail of disorder. "That energy, used for
a peaceful cause....."  She trailed off.

"Yeah," Lita agreed as the two girls followed the Princess. 




Darian rang the door, wondering if he should have stayed Lita's apartment that
night.  There was no telling what trouble those girls might have gotten
themselves into, the prince thought.  And besides, he added to himself, he
did not exactly get a good night's sleep worrying about them.  The door opened
and hurricane Serena blew through it.

To his own surprise, Darian managed to retain some control of over his balance
as she smashed into him.  After several seconds of almost falling, he managed
to reverse her momentum and walked through the door.  The rest of the scouts
were gathered around Lita's kitchen table and he took a chair, gently
separating himself from Serena and putting her on a chair next to his.

He noticed that the man, Mina had called him Chosen, was not there, and turned
an inquiring look toward Amy.

"He's in there," she answered, pointing at the room. "I am running a scan on
him, so he can't come right now."  Darian smiled, but only to himself.  Amy was
not a very good liar, she obviously wanted to have a talk alone without the
other's presence.

After a gratuitous spat between Raye and Serena, the latter accusing Sailor Mars
of having poured cold water on the former, the meeting came to order.  At least, to
the maximum amount of order the scouts, Darian and the two cats could manage.

Amy sighed, rubbing her eyes. "I have had some time to run a check on two
things that worry me, the dark warriors and the Chosen."  The blue scout looked
meaningfully at Mina. "First, the.. well, not the bad news, but not good news
either." Seeing the inquiring looks, Amy continued before the others could ask.
"All of my scans have not shown anything about him.  It is almost as if his
entire physiology is based around not being detected.  The best scan I got was
when.." Darian followed Amy's glance to Mina and wondered just how involved the
orange scout was in the whole story. "When he was wounded," Amy had meanwhile
finished.  But even that scan was barely a glance, nothing specific. Basically,
I have no clue who or what he is."

Darian noticed that Mina jerked as she heard that last. 

"Who he is," the orange scout insisted with a surprising vehemence.

Amy sighed. "There is not enough information to go on, so I think we should
drop that until my scan is finished."

"What about the shadow?" Lita asked.  Combat was very much her thing.

Amy almost smiled. "That's the good news. I think I know why that method of
fighting the creature did not work. At first, I thought the creature was just a
kernel of power that extended energy to manipulate objects.  But from the
extended scan, it seems like the thing was taking up a lot more space than a
kernel.  More like all of it is an energy field, not just the center.  The
middle of it is merely where it is the most powerful.

"So how does that help us?"

Amy finally smiled.  "All we would have to do is confine it gradually to a
smaller area in which it would not be able to continue to function."  Seeing
the blank looks, Amy explained. "We have to concentrate our power as
before, but into a larger bubble, encompassing the whole creature, then make 
the bubble shrink until the creature dies from not having enough space to
exist."

The other scouts exchanged hopeful glances.

Darian thought about this, then wondered what he was supposed to do while the
scouts fought the creature. "Um, Amy? Is there a way for me to fight this
thing?"

The blue scout looked apologetic. "I don't think so. Most of your attacks are
more of a physical assault rather than energy waves.  Neither the roses nor the
staff would really work against the creatures."

Darian wondered about the rose the stranger had altered.

Serena looked up suddenly. "Do we even know what these things are?"

For a few seconds, there was silence, then a new voice cut across the room.

"They are called shadows."

Everyone turned to the Chosen, standing in the doorway.  In one hand, he held
Amy's computer.  Catching the girl's eye, he tossed it across the room, the
smooth arc stopped by Amy's hands.  He continued to watch her as she frowned,
tapping at the keys, then looked at him.

"It didn't scan you."

He smiled a sadly. "On the contrary, it did scan me, it just couldn't scan
me."

Darian watched the exchange, wondering when one of the girls would realize what
the Chosen had said.  Lita, next to the Prince, suddenly jerked. "Wait a
moment," she whispered.  Then, raising her voice. "Did you say shadows?  Didn't
we destroy those when we toasted Queen Beryl?"

The man turned to her, sighing. "The shadows of the Dark Lord are the original
deadly creatures.  Made of nothing but negative energy, they obey him
implicitly.  Or so I was always taught. When Queen Beryl fought her way to the
throne of the Dark Army, she created the seven shadows out of her best
generals, an imitation of the Dark One's greatest servants. The true shadows
disappeared before the end of the Silver Millennium, never to be seen again."

Mina looked at him softly. "Until now."

He sighed again. "When you awakened in this time as the Sailor Scouts, you
remembered nothing of the Silver Millennium.  Over time, you began to recall
some important moments, and even now you are often finding out new things about
yourselves."  It was not a question, but the scouts, along with Tuxedo Mask and
Luna nodded.  Artemis did not, but no one noticed. 

The Chosen continued. "Many of those memory gaps are there just because 
of the passage of time, things lost to you during the period between now and 
then."  His voice seemed to tense.  "But... in addition to the natural memory 
lapses, there is also the purposeful ones."  Before anyone could interrupt, 
he continued. "And a part of the gaps that were made on purpose were 
caused by _me_"

"What?"  The question echoed through the room.

The man swallowed as he stood, facing the others as if they were opponents in a
deadly game.  "It is time for you to remember."  He paused. "Guardian!"  A
sphere of light appeared over his shoulder, and the stranger addressed it. "It
is time.  Remove the suppression, set their minds free. _Now_."

The light hovered there without making a sound, but the Chosen seemed to be
listening to something.  Darian got the strange feeling that a conversation was
taking place, but he had no idea why he got that idea.  Inside his jacket, the 
Prince felt at a rose, making sure he was ready in case something dangerous 
happened.  He noticed Raye and Lita reaching for their transformation sticks.  
Mina and Amy did not move, strange expressions on their faces, while Serena 
stared at the white light as if she were at a laser show.

The Chosen's features contorted suddenly, and he spoke out loud. "It may be
dangerous, but it must be done."

Then the light, too spoke.  A baritone thought floated through the air.  And
although Darian heard nothing, he could understand what was being said
perfectly.



The man looked very sad as he nodded. "It always is."

The light moved away from him and toward the scouts.  Before anyone could
react, eight beams lanced out, one to every scout,  one to the prince and two
to the cats.  Darian's eyes widened as he noticed the beam reaching Artemis
falter and disappear, then the Prince tried to avoid his own light.  Before he
could move, however, the strange ball darkened, the beams vanishing. It seemed
to turn toward the Chosen. 

Serena rubbed her head. "Funny, I don't feel any different."

The man looked at the light as it vanished. "The memories were keyed to respond
to a single word, spoken by a single person." Darian wondered why the Chosen
looked at Artemis as he continued. "Apparently, it was not perfectly successful,
but.." He paused, hen something happened to the Chosen's eyes.  Darian was sure
that the man was staring straight at the prince, but also looking at each of the
scouts.  The eyes seemed to pulse, increasing and decreasing in size, then
turned black.

The stranger took a deep breath as he uttered the word.

_"Nemesis."_


Darian screamed silently as he fell into those eyes.


_	_	_



Lita opened her eyes.

Sort of.

She did not have eyes, nor ears, nor a mouth, nor any other part of her
anatomy.  As near as she could tell, she was an invisible presence flating
in the middle of a room that did not resemble her apartment in the least.  
Although she could see and hear everything going on around her, she did not
seem to be there.  The closest thing she could compare the feeling to was
watching a movie, but this was in three dimensions and a lot more realistic.

With a violent motion, she tried to twist herself around, failing completely,
and ended up where she started, wherever that might be.

Then she became aware of something else going on inside her. A strange process
was taking place inside her mind, information seemed to be coming in.  Images
flashed through her head, and knowledge came to her, knowledge she knew she
could not have.

For one thing, she knew that at this point in time, she had not been born yet.
And, her brain assured her stubbornly, this was the Silver Millennium.  She was
on Earth, where a boy had just passed the first Test for the Chosen.  The
information seemed so subconscious, even instinctive, that she did not even try
to argue with it because she could not.  It was like trying to argue with a dream-
people do not.  The events are taken for granted.

Instead, she examined her surroundings to the extent possible.  She was in some
sort of room, one without any particular distinction, a room that might well be
found in a rural house today.  A large window showed green countryside outside.
It was in front of that view that the woman sat.

Lita jerked in surprise, or tried to, as the absence of a body prevented the
natural reaction to being startled, resulting in confusion. The scout was sure
that the woman had not been there before, it was as if Lita's viewing had skipped
past time, jerking her to a moment when the woman was there.

Lita tried to ask something, and failed, quite naturally, then noticed that the
woman seemed very sad.  She had a sheet of paper in front of her with writing
on it in a format very similar to a normal letter.

The scene jerked again, the woman not moving, and a young boy, perhaps five
years old ran into the room.  Lita gasped.

The boy was the stranger, the Chosen.

There was no way Lita could know that, there was almost no resemblance.  But
she knew that the boy and the stranger were the same.

The boy ran up to the woman. "Why are you sad, mother?" He asked.  Lita
wondered at his tone, for it held little of the childishness expected of
someone his age.  The voice was- for a few moments, Lita tried to qualify it,
then decided on the one thing that made sense.  The voice was mature.

The woman looked up. "Oh, Nakiad."  Her eyes got glassy with imminent tears.
"You have passed the first of the Tests."

Nakiad?  Again, Lita tried to jerk in surprise.  For some reason the name stood
out in her mind, as if she knew it from somewhere, but she could not trace the
origin of the feeling.

The boy looked surprised at the woman's sadness. "But you have always told me
that being picked as an apprentice for the Chosen was a great and honorable
thing.  You always encouraged me to make the best of my abilities and my
strengths."

She shook her head. "I know."  Her voice was barely a whisper. "But this means
you will have to go away to train.  And I might never see you again after you
leave, for.." The woman stumbled.

The boy laid a hand on her arm. "Do not worry, mother.  I will only be leaving
if I pass the next set of tests, and that's four years from now.  The chances
of me making it are small."

The woman sighed. "I know, Nakiad.  But I have a feeling that you will pass.
And I do not know what I will do without you."

The boy looked confused for a few moments, then something strange happened to
the room.

Time seemed to slow, the boy freezing in place, then everything went dark.

A split second later, Lita was somewhere else.

Somewhen else.


_	_	_



Nakiad watched the six figures in their sleep, a slumber that had come on them
instantly when he had spoken the word.  He turned to Artemis. "Do you know 
what is happening to them?"  

Mentally, he addressed the thought to Guardian as well.

, the light answered aloud. 

The white cat jumped on top of the table. "When I was read the word
'Nemesis' in one of the Greek myths, I fell into a sort of dream state,
somewhat like the one they are in now.  I think that the overload of memories
is so great that a mind tries to cope with it by reliving the important parts
of the situation that is being remembered."



The man sighed in relief. "Then they are all right."

They watched in silence for a while, then Artemis turned to the man. "I was
wondering about something.  How did the name of a person from the Silver
Millennium got into an Earth myth?"

The man shook his head. "I'm not sure.  Perhaps some of the literature on Earth
survived, and someone was able to translate it.  Or maybe the memory of Nemesis
carried over in some of the people reborn here."

The cat settled down. "Perhaps.  It seems strange, though, that a person of
such historical importance would be recorded as a minor god in the myths."

Nakiad smiled slightly. "It makes more sense than you think.  Nemesis, the 
goddess of retribution, was merely a tool for the gods, with little free will of 
her own."  The man's eyes suddenly took on a strange look. "And the Nemesis 
of the Silver Millennium, along with all who followed her, are merely tools 
for the power of the Universe.  Just as the Dark Lord is a tool for the Negaverse."

Artemis seemed about to argue with that last statement, but he merely lay down,
closing his eyes, hiding the pain there.

Nemesis had been the first of the Chosen.

Nakiad was the last.


_	_	_



Raye wondered what was going on for what seemed to be the hundredth time.  She
had just been in a chamber with the young stranger and his mother, and now she
was somewhere else, the change in location obvious from the planet that hung
peacefully overhead.

The planet was Earth.

As near as Raye could tell, she was on the moon.  To one side was a fair sized city 
with the royal palace in the center.  The beauty of the scene reminded the scout 
of when she was.  This was the Silver Millenium only years before Queen Beryl's
attack.  The beauty would not last.

At the same time, Raye knew that she had been born four years ago, with an
instinctive knowledge beyond her explanation.

A star approached from the blue-green planet, rapidly enlarging into something
like a spaceship gone wrong.  It landed near Raye, on a flat pad near a
building.  The vessel turned out to be an extended sphere of energy with
pulsing lights along its walls.  A crack opened in its side, a bright cut in
the smooth covering, and a person appeared, silhouetted dark against the bright
background of the ship's interior.  The person jumped down to the ground,
revealing another who followed.  After ten people came out in that manner, the
portal closed.  The scout, observing the procedure, noticed that the figures
were no larger than children, perhaps ten years old..  The figures turned,
watching the ship that brought them to the moon vanish over the horizon.  The
they went toward the building, entering a doorway and disappearing within.  At
the last moment, one of them turned, and Raye saw him.

Again, Raye recognized him almost instinctively, though the only time she
remembered seeing him in reality was when he was much older.  He was Chosen.
No, she realized after a moment, a piece of information finally reaching her
mind.  Being a Chosen was a post, so he was the Chosen.  But not yet,
not in this time.

The scene blinked again, a phenomenon that Raye was actually getting used to.
She was in some sort of audience chamber with tiered rows of seats and a podium
in the center.  Raye estimated about a hundred people sitting within the
audience, all approximately the same age.  The scout hovered over the group
that had come from the Earth pod. Then she wondered how she knew the others had
not come from the planet.

The scene blinked without changing, and Raye realized that a speaker had come up
to the podium, and seemed to be in the middle of a speech.

".... one of you will reach the end.  But do not let the competition disgruntle
you, for reaching this level of apprenticeship is almost impossible.  Each and
every one you can be proud of your accomplishments. You are the best..."

The scene blinked again, and Raye got the impression that the speech had
continued for a long time. The speaker seemed to be finishing.

"... assigned quarters.  Your guardians will meet you there and instruct you
further.  They will be your guides, your advisors and your helpers. You can
trust them with anything and everything, for they are the ones responsible for
you.  They are the best, just as you are."

The kids in the audience got up, and the scout noticed that most of them had
grim expressions on their faces.  She wondered what it was that made them as
serious as they were.  Then Nakiad passed by her, and she saw that he was one
of the few who seemed almost relaxed.  The grimness was there, but it was
hidden with such skill that Raye almost missed it as he walked by.

The scene blinked again, replaced by another.




Amy tried to shake her non-existent head as the scene vanished, replaced by a
small room.  The chamber was pretty bare, with not a lot of space to really do 
anything.  A bed stood at one wall, a desk stood against a window, the two 
pieces of furniture taking up most of the room's space.

The scene beyond the window was a complete contrast to the bleakness of the
room.  The palace was outlined against the horizon, rows of fountains plainly
visible despite the distance.  A huge lake of frozen ice reflected the Earth,
the planet casting a gentle blue light that reflected a thousand times in the 
frozen lake.  Beautiful buildings of all sizes and colors spread over
the landscape, lit by the overhead stars.  It was the Moon Kingdom at the
height of its prosperity.

The door to the room opened and the boy came in.  Nakiad, the stranger who Amy
had met only recently, yet she seemed to know a lot about him.  She knew, for
example, that he was the Chosen back in her own time.  That is, forward in her
own time, Amy corrected herself.  She thought about that and decided that the
statement was still incorrect, but realized that she would get too tangled up if
she were to try to figure everything out.  She was viewing the world when she
was ten years younger, millenia before her birth.

She sighed, realizing that the concept could drive a person insane and just
concentrated on observing.  That seemed to be what she was there for.

Then a white cat entered the room, causing Amy to try to yell out because he
looked a lot like Artemis, except for being just a little bit smaller. The boy
looked up as the feline advance.  The cat jumped easily up on the bed.

"Hello, Nakiad.  I am Artem."

The boy sat down next to the cat. "You are the guardian?"

"Yes."  An obviously uneasy silence rested between them for a few seconds. "The
Test showed that you have great promise."  

The boy almost smiled. "What about you?"

"I got my second syllable a while ago, and mostly I have had pretty good jobs.
The Council thought you had a much better chance to succeed than the other
trainees and so they assigned me to you.  If I succeed, I will become one of
the few."

For a moment, the boy seemed to think about that, then he shook his head.
"Wouldn't that be sort of a letdown? What would you do after that?"

The cat thought about it. "No, it wouldn't be.  Training each person is
different, no matter how strong they may turn out in the end."

Amy watched the two talk, wondering just what was going on.  For one thing, she
had not seen the other scouts.  And she had no clue how she got wherever it is
she was.  Her mind was telling her the scenes were real, but at the same time,
logic said that the events had happened over a thousand years ago.  The only
explanation was-

Her thoughts were interrupted as the scene blinked yet again.

This time, she seemed to be in some sort of gym.  But unlike her school gym, a
place she liked slightly less than the rest of her classes, this one seemed to
be geared toward combat.

The boy was there with the cat, Artem.  They were defending themselves from
black-clad creatures that came at them claws first.  Surprisingly, Nakiad was
doing pretty well, impossibly well for a nine year old.  But he was almost
completely ignoring the cat, who did not have much of a chance to help, and
Artem seemed infuriated at his futility.

Then two of the attackers got smart, one attacking from the front, and another
from the boy's back.  Nakiad was able to block the front one's claws, slamming
the thing with a fist in its face, but the one behind was too close.  But
just as its claws were about to hit, a white flash passed by the outstretched
arm.  Three lines of blood appeared on the hand, and the creature screamed.
The boy turned around to see the thing attack again, and was able to roll aside
and finish it.

He glanced at the white cat with a slight smile on his face, and Amy distinctly
knew that the two began to get along at that point. "Thank, Art."

"Artem," the cat growled, but he did not seem upset.

The scene dissolved once more.




Luna tried to make sense of the images that flashed in her mind.  After the
last scene had vanished, the period of darkness seemed to be longer.  She got
the impression of years going by.  She somehow knew that the boy was growing up
and getting closer to the cat, the cat Luna was sure was Artemis.  The youth
was acing all of the tests, physical, mental and power ones, beating the other
apprentices almost all of the time.

Then another scene formed.

The boy was sitting in his room, staring at Artem, a somber expression on his
face.  He looked somewhere around fifteen years old, his frame strong , his
body upright and relaxed.

He looked up, asking in a quiet, sad tone. "I'm going to be the one, aren't I?"
It was almost not a question, but he obviously wanted an answer.  

The cat sighed. "There are plenty of other choices, some of the others have
been doing pretty well in the....." Artem trailed off, sighing, then seemed to
resign himself toward telling the truth. "You've beaten the others in almost
every test taken, you've outlearned them and outdone them.  Yes, there is a
very high chance that you will be the one."

The youth looked at him. "Then why is it I know nothing about what I have a
good chance of becoming?"  The boy seemed to stare out into space. "When I was
young, my parents used to tell me that being chosen was one of the most honored
things that can happen to a person. Yet once I was chosen, my mother acted as
if I would never come back.  And every time I visit my parents, they avoid
talking about my training. Is it so much to ask, to know what I am doing?"

The cat thought for several moments, his tail beating rhythmically back and
forth.  Finally, he looked up. "All right.  I knew this time would come, and
now it has.  It's time you know the truth."

Luna did her best to jerk back without a body, as that statement was very
similar to what the Chosen said before he had put them into this dream.

"Long ago," the cat began. "When the Universe was created, it was made along
with one other.  Good can not exist without evil, and so the Negaverse came
into existence at the same time."  Artem sighed. "At first, the two existed
completely independent of one another, and for eons, the inhabitants of both
knew nothing of their counterpart.  Then the ones in the Negaverse somehow 
found out about us.  No one knows exactly how, perhaps they merely deduced our
presence from the necessity of balance, or maybe they had some way of looking
between realities.  That does not matter now.  All that is really important is
that the denizens of the Negaverse made a choice.  They pooled a huge amount of
power, forcing it into a single form, a creature that would have the strength
to bridge the gap, one evil enough to attack the Universe.  And so the Dark
Lord was created."

The cat paused, a sad look crossing his feline face. "It did not work, of
course.  The creature they created was too powerful for them to control, and it
broke loose, destroying the ones that gave it life.  It raged inside the
confines of the Negaverse, destroying what it could, but then it remembered
what its creators had told it.  And so, it began forcing the two universes
together, actually moving what we now call the Negaverse through the
continuum.

"In the Universe, the sudden shift of power did not go unnoticed.  The balance
had been disrupted, and both universes were in danger.  And when the Evil One
moved the Negaverse closer, this disrupted the balance even more.  So a
decision was made.  The only way to stop the Dark Lord was to confront him, and
force a stalemate.  And so the leaders of that time forced their own strength
together as well.  And they helped the Evil One in his quest to bridge the
gap."

Shocked, Luna wondered why they did it.  So, obviously, did the youth.  "Why
would they do that?  Wouldn't it have been better to move the two apart?"

Artem shook his head. "Look at it his way.  Pretend the balance is like a
seesaw, where we are on one side, and the Negaverse on the other.  If one moves
toward the center-"

"The other has to move there to equalize."  Nakiad finished. "Of course.  We
can not move their universe, so we move ours."

The cat almost smiled. "And since there is not way to move another universe
without a Conjunction, we have to move our own.  But while thus the balance was
preserved, this brought the two universes closer together, and the leaders knew
the Evil One would try to bridge the gap.  And there was no equivalent power in
the Universe fight him."

Artem looked straight at the youth as he continued. "And so the Chosen was
created.  The council of the time picked the best fighter and gave him the
strength to fight back.  And that woman, Nemesis, did it.  She fought the Evil
One."

Both Luna and Nakiad waited for the end, a silence hanging over the room.

The cat looked down. "And she died." Artem sighed. "In sacrificing herself, she
managed to destroy the link between the universes and push them apart a
little, too far for the Evil One, damaged but alive, to travel."  The Dark Lord
was pushed out of his dimension into an immaterial state from which it took him
a long time to recover.

"But that was not the end.  After a long time, the Dark Lord regained strength,
and came back to the Negaverse.  And he had retrieved enough of his power to
come across the gap again.  And so, every several thousand years a single
person is the Chosen, a person in the hands of which rests the fate of the
Universe for that period of time."

The cat seemed to be finished, but then he looked up. "You have the right to
know this, Nakiad, though I am not sure I am allowed to tell you.  But there is
one last thing which you should know."

The cat sighed, then looked directly at the youth. "Not one of the Chosen has
ever survived."

Luna gasped to herself as she remembered.

For several seconds, a silence reigned over the room.  Then the youth looked
up, his eyes still determined. "I think I already knew.  The sadness and pride
of people when the word 'Chosen' is mentioned.  Your own sadness sometimes.  I
knew I would not live."  He paused, looking somewhere straight ahead. "Is it
theoretically possible to survive?"

The cat seemed to think about it. "There is nothing said about that, but one
thing is clear.  The balance of good and evil in the Universe will always be
preserved as it is.  And so even if you destroy the Dark Lord, you will die
even as he does."

"Wait a minute."  The youth's eyes focused. "If that is true, how could the
Chosen die?"

Artem sighed.  "The Chosen is not a single person.  When one dies, the 
post remains.  As long as that is true, a single Chosen can die.  And there 
is one other reason." The cat's tone made it clear that he did not want to 
talk about that yet.

Nakiad thought for a few more moments. "What happens if I lose?"

The cat stared straight into his eyes. "There have been...dark periods of time,
millennia from which memories are few.  Those records that exist speak of evil
and despair, of shadows dancing in the burning dark." The cat grimaced in pain.
"No one knows exactly what caused those times, but the best guess is that a
Chosen got beaten and the Dark Lord won."

"Then how could.."

"It seems that another Chosen must have come, and was able to force the Evil
one back into his own universe.  But like I said, no one knows for sure."

"The Universe balanced against my life."  The youth paused, thinking, then
shook his head. "So be it," he said in a tone of finality that spoke of no
return.

Luna tried to blink as the room dissolved into blackness.




Mina looked at the two figures as they walked down the street.  Somehow, she
knew who they were.  The one was Nakiad, the man who saved her life.  He was
older now, almost fully grown, perhaps seventeen, for she felt several years
had passed since the last vision.  The other, who called himself Artem, was
Artemis, he had to be.  But younger in a way, before he was her guardian.  And
the scout herself knew that she was now twelve, and had been accepted as a
candidate for Sailor Venus.  Mina remembered distinctly her thrill at being
chosen for that honor.

The two continued down the street toward a large building, one that Mina
somehow knew to be a combat practice gym.  Then the man stopped in his tracks,
so suddenly that Artem continued for a meter before stopping and turning to
figure out why the man had stopped.

And Mina saw herself.

She, too, was walking down the street, in the opposite direction.  And she, too
was staring.  With a start, Mina realized that this was the first time she ever
saw Nakiad.

The first time in her life she had even fallen in love.

All of a sudden, the orange scouts' memories were swamped, barriers collapsing
as she remembered her emotions, remembered the happiness.... and the pain.

The two people on the street approached each other meanwhile, ignoring everyone
else.

"I am... Nakiad."  The youth stumbled across the word.

"Mina," the girl answered shyly.

Suddenly, the white cat leaped up to the man, and, outside the girl's view, he
slashed his claws down across Nakiad's leg.

The pain brought him out of the daze, and he looked down at his guardian. "We
have to go, now," Artem whispered intensely.

For a moment, the youth seemed about to disagree, then shrugged. "I will see
you around." He smiled to the girl as he moved off.

"Bye," Mina whispered.

The observing scout floated after the man and cat as she struggled to get
control of her emotions.  The memories of her past and her present were
colliding in her mind, messing up her thoughts, but she could still hear what
was happening.

The cat walked for a while in silence, until he looked up at Nakiad staring at
him.  Then Artem sighed. "Then you are the one," he whispered.  Nakiad looked
down at the white cat, justifiably confused, but said nothing. And after a
moment, the cat continued.  "When the Chosen was being created, the leaders of
the Universe decided they needed some sort of compensation for the weight that
one person would have to carry.  And the Dark Lord was able to influence them
in such a way that they made the Chosen fall in love during his life."

Fall in love?  The youth mouthed the words silently.  "How?"

The cat sighed yet again. "The Dark Lord cannot directly change the happenings
of this Universe, but he can influence other's minds if they let him.  And the
council was not used to the idea of evil." Artem shook his head. "You have to
understand, the Universe was a place of Good only, and so the people were
innocent.  So the Council arranged it that the true love of the Chosen would be
born in a similar time slot.  And so it has always been, by destiny."

The man continued to walk. "It was a mistake?"

"Of course.  The Evil one used that weakness, he used the Chosen's love against
him by attacking the love, or forcing the Chosen to abandon her or him."

"But it is destiny.  And that is what just happened." Nakiad referred to
Mina.

Artem looked up. "Yes, I felt it.  There is nothing you can do."

"I will probably never meet her again, so it is over?"  He glanced over at the
cat and saw the expression. "Destiny, huh?  I could try to make her hate me."

"You could, but you won't."  The two had arrived at the gym. "Most of the other
Chosen have been able to deal with it."

Nakiad's eyes flashed confidently.  "Then I am going to have to as well."

The white cat did not seem nearly as sure.

As the two went in, Mina found the scene dissolving once more.

The pause was also long this time again, she felt perhaps a year go by.  Then
things reappeared, a street again, to Mina's surprise.

Once more, Artemis and the Chosen were going down the road.

"You are thinking of her again, aren't you?"  The white cat accused Nakiad with
a certain tiredness, as if Artem had said the same thing too many times.

"Destiny," the man murmured, "is a funny thing."  He changed the subject. "Why
am I to meet the Princess and the ones chosen to be the Sailor Scouts?"

"They are the best fighters of their worlds.  You are to train with them now,
since you are the most likely candidate for the Chosen."

They were approaching the palace. "Do you remember the proper greetings?" The
white cat asked somewhat apprehensively.

"Relax, Art, you've told me already.  Why is it so important, anyway?"

"It's Artem, and protocol is required in the palace.  Your position is high,
but you must maintain your social status.  And despite everything, you remain a
commoner, not royalty.  Although Queen Serenity is supposed to be liberal, it
is not the time to change a tradition this old."

"Social status, yerch."  The man made a sound of disgust. "I've never
understood the obsession with protocol.  Oh well."  they had arrived at the
entrance.

The scene blinked and they were inside, standing in a spacious chamber.  The
queen approached them.

The Chosen inclined his head gently, but without actually bending his back.
"Your highness," he said politely.  Artem seemed to sigh in relief.

"Nakiad."  Queen Serenity extended here hand, which he took, bringing it up to
his lips for a moment, then letting it go.

The Queen half turned, gesturing to the others behind her to come forward. "My
daughter, Princess Serena."  A girl in a long whit dress approached Nakiad, and
he greeted her the same way he did the queen.  The appellation of 'Princess'
seemed to bother her but not unduly.  "And Serena's guardian, Lu."  Nakiad
nodded to the black cat as Artemis smiled a bit, looking the lithe black shape
over.  The man glanced down at the white cat for a moment, arching an eyebrow,
but did not comment.

The Queen turned again. "And may I present the future Sailor Scouts, champions
of their planets and defenders of the Silver Millennium."

As the four girls approached, the man straightened suddenly, gasping.
Observing, Mina followed his gaze, knowing exactly what was going on without
understanding how.  He was staring at herself once more.  Artem closed his eyes
as he sighed silently.

Queen Serenity was continuing, meanwhile. "Amy, the Sailor of Mercury."  The
blue-headed girl came forward, shaking Nakiad's hand. Raye and Lita followed
similarly, then Mina approached. "And this is Mina, the Scout chosen to
represent the planet Venus."  

The youth stared into her eyes as she extended her hand.  Gently, he accepted
the hand and held it for a time much longer than protocol required.  To one 
side, the Queen glanced at Artem.   As the two released each other, the
white cat nodded almost imperceptibly to the Queen and she frowned just a bit
as she turned back to the others. "You will be studying together in combat, so
you ought to get aquatinted.

Mina's spirit followed the Queen and the cat as they left the others.

Serenity waited until they were out of hearing of the scouts, then turned to
the cat. "You were correct.  I felt it-"

"As I have," the white cat finished. "It is destined, there is nothing we can
do."

"Nor is there anything we should do."  They turned to look at the others, who
seemed to be getting along. "It'll work out, it always has."  But the hopefullness
in the Queen's voice was mixed with anxiety and something else, something
that none had seen in her voice for many centuries.  The slight tinge in 
Serenity's voice was that of stress.

Artem shook his head. "Almost always."

"True."

The two faded into darkness.




Serena tried to blink to wash away the imaginary tears the previous scene had
generated, failing, naturally, since the tears were not physical.  Though a
part of her mind still wondered how she was viewing all of this, most of her
had agreed with everything she saw.  And she somehow knew that
this all happened, and had no doubts.

She felt a little more time pass, the scouts and Nakiad getting along in their
training other for some petty annoyances like Lita's inability to beat him in 
hand to hand combat.  The scout of Jupiter was not used to being thwarted 
like that, but there was little she could do.  And Serena remembered the 
man and Mina falling in love, going out into the parks of the Moon, 
spending a lot of time there....

Slowly, another scene appeared, one of the man's room.  Only a little bit of
time had passed, but Serena knew that the attack from Queen Beryl was 
approaching fast.  And Serena remembered falling in love with Darian at 
about this time, so things were coming to a head.

Nakiad was sitting in the room, staring at the trash can with narrow eyes.
There was a pained expression in his eyes, and he sighed slowly, then
turned to the window, looking at the Earth.

Someone knocked on the door.

Artem came in, his expression strangely mirroring that of his pupil.  
It was as if the cat was sad and happy at the same time.

The youth looked up at him. "Hey, Art.  Since when do you knock?"

"Artemis," came the reply.

It took a few seconds for the word to sink in, then Nakiad looked up again. 
"Artemis?  Then that means that...."

The cat sighed. "A guardian gets his first syllable at birth," he reflected,
almost to himself. "On finishing his tutoring of his first ward, he gets his
second syllable, one that he gets to choose himself.  But only a few guardians
ever get a third syllable."  The cat suddenly jumped on the table. "A guardian
can only get a third syllable by finishing the teaching of someone who is
picked as the Chosen."

The man stared at Artemis for a few moments. "Then I have been picked."  
His voice was a bare whisper.

"Yes.  Officially, you are the one, you are the Chosen.  And I have finished
teaching you everything I could."

"Wait, what?" Nakiad looked up at that last. "You can't mean I'm ready?"

A new voice penetrated the room. 

Nakiad turned slowly to find a sphere of light hovering behind him, just
hanging in the air.  Artemis made a little cough, attracting attention.
"Nakiad, this is Guardian."

The man shook his head. "A guardian?"

"No," the cat's voice was reproachful. "Guardian."

The strange voice came again. 

After a few seconds of digesting this, Serena realized what she found strange
about the light's voice; it was not any particular voice but rather all of
them.  As if many people were speaking together, not in a crowd all together,
but more like their voices were all averaged.  The princess tried to make sense
of that thought and failed.

Nakiad, meanwhile, seemed to have absorbed the information much faster. "If you
will continue my training, what will happen to Artemis?"

The white cat got a little uncomfortable. "I've been assigned a new ward."

"Who?"

Now Artemis looked definitely uncomfortable.  "The Sailor Scouts needed 
someone with more experience than Lu to help them.  She will soon get her 
second syllable, since she is doing very well with her teaching of Serena, but 
she could use some advice.  So I have been assigned to Mina."

The man sat back in his chair. "Somehow I doubt that is a coincidence.  The
only question is what exactly happened.  Did you want to keep an eye on us?  Or
perhaps the Queen felt.."

  Guardian interrupted suddenly. 

Nakiad sighed. "You are correct."  He looked slowly at the white cat. "You've
been a great teacher, Artemis."

The white cat blinked quickly, turning away. "Thanks," he said softly.

The scene dissolved into darkness.




Darian blinked as the room disappeared.  He no longer questioned the
information that he seemed to be remembering.  The Chosen was getting along
well in his training when rumors of a power shift in the Negaverse first came.
And the next scene showed Darian himself.

He was looking at Serena, an expression on his face that he was sure gave
everything away.  His younger self was being introduced to the court, and
finally, Nakiad came up as someone not directly part of the hierarchy, but
associated with it.

"Prince Darian."  As was customary, Nakiad inclined his head.

"Chosen," the prince returned to favor.  Then he turned to Serenity. "Queen,
there are rumors of a power shift in the Negaverse.  Things seem to be
changing, the gap between us shortens at a speed that no one can predict.  I do
not know how much time we have before Earth itself will be assailed."  The
prince looked openly at Nakiad.

Watching himself, Darian's disembodied eye saw Nakiad jerk, just barely
visibly.  The Chosen seemed to steel himself, then stepped forward into the
conversation.

He did not hesitate. "Then it is time."  A globe of light appeared over 
Nakiad's shoulder, ignored by the man. "I must stop Him, before He, too, 
can cross over."

The Queen looked at him sadly. "Are you sure you are ready?"

The man did not flinch, he did not turn to Guardian, he merely looked Serenity
straight in her eyes and answered. 

"Yes."

"No," Mina breathed, back among the scouts.

The man walked up to her softly, the other scouts fading away from the view of
Darian's spirit. Nakiad stopped, placing his hands on her shoulders. "It must
be this way," he whispered. "In the end, you and I are the same, we each have a
path to follow, a battle to fight.  If you are to have a chance of winning when
the Negaverse attacks, as it will, I _must_ stop the Dark Lord.  It is my
destiny."

Her voice faded to a barely audible whisper. "Can't you stay just a little
longer?"

He sighed. "You know I can not.  I can not shirk my duty anymore than you 
can yours."  He wiped away a tear that had been about to roll down here cheek.
 "I will find a way back to you," he whispered. "Our love is eternal, nothing can 
change that. _Remember_."  Darian wondered what Nakiad was referring to. "I 
will find a way."  He lowered his head, kissing her on her lips, then straightened.
"I must go."

He turned, not seeing Mina's hands go up as if to stop him, not seeing tears
start coming down her cheeks.

But watching, Darian could swear he could see the Chosen's eyes become moist as
he walked away.

Briefly, Darian caught the images of a portal through which Nakiad stepped, not
to be heard from again, then the prince relived Beryl's attack, but it all
flashed by in a blur until the end of the last fight.

Then everything went blank, like a lid slamming on a box, until he could no
longer see anything and was blind.




Nakiad watched as the scouts, Luna, and Darian continued in their strange
slumber.  He had not spoken to Artemis much, mostly holding back his thoughts.
Then he saw a slight alteration in the others' demeanors.  Slowly but steadily,
they seemed to be waking up.

Suddenly, they opened their eyes, all at the same time, blinking as if to rid
themselves of a long dream.

Serena murmured to herself as she stretched. "Mom, I had the weirdestdream..."
Her voice trailed off as her brain seemed to kick into high gear at the same 
time as everyone else's did.

Mina looked up, her eyes focused on only one thing. "Nakiad," she whispered
softly, one word that shook his heart.  The scout did not seem to be aware that
she was getting up.

"No."  The word came out as a croak.  He held his hand up, stopping her and
everyone else.  For the first time, the others saw his feelings show plainly, a
look of plain clear on his face.  "You have remembered what you knew before.
Now you will know the rest."

He got up, swallowing. "You saw me pass through the Gate, but not anything
afterward. There is an ancient arena in the Negaverse, made especially for that
single fight, once every several millennia. There, I challenged him."

Nakiad tried to relax. "We fought for a long time in the dark.  The story of
that battle could be a long one indeed-"  He paused, a look of pain crossing
his face for a moment, then he shook his head.  "That which is in the past
should remain there, I have learned that over time.  Old wounds will resurface
on their own without us trying to bring them back-" He faded out for a 
moment, then seemed to remember where he was, and looked up. "Suffice
it to say that I was winning."

"Yes, winning.  The Dark Lord had not managed to attack anyone I cares about 
in order to decrease my power, and so we were equal.  But I was fighting for a
just cause, and he was fighting out of greed, so in the end, I had to triumph."
Nakiad shrugged. "In retrospect, it seemed luck more than anything else.  He
underestimated me, and I was able to attack better than he thought, and he
suffered the consequences."

Nakiad sighed. "I canceled out his energy until it was down to a basic fight,
all skills and no power.  He was wounded, weak, while I was young and strong.
I got his sword away from him, and raised it over his heart, ready to kill him
with his own weapon."  The man paused, his voice close to breaking.

"When a Chosen dies, another might take his place.  And it is believed that the
Dark Lord cannot be destroyed, which means the cycle will repeat forever."  
Nakiad's voice flashed with strenth. "That belief is wrong.  It is possible to 
finish the fight forever, it is possible to destroy the evil that He contains."

Nakiad looked at the others, a strange look in his eyes. "But in order to do
so, a Chosen has to sacrifice himself, completely.  For if the Dark Lord dies,
there will be no continuation within Guardian, no immortality.  The chain of
Chosen will end there and then."

"And as I raised the sword, I realized this with a clearness than bore no
doubt, I knew that I would die if I killed him.  And I knew that I could
destroy the evil that he was for all eternity if I would just strike."

Nakiad raised his head, staring Mina in the eyes. "And I hesitated."

A silence hovered over Lita's dining room like a beast ready to attack.

The man sighed.  "Before I met you," he included the scouts, but everyone knew
he meant Mina more than anyone else, "my life was simple.  I would be the
Chosen, I would honor the name of my family and I would die doing it.
Somewhere deep inside, I knew this from the moment I was a five year old boy
who passed the first Test.  And then...

"After I met you, for really the first time in my life, I was actually happy.
I had friends, I was in love.  I liked my life.  I was young, I did not want to
die."  The scouts realized that two creases of moisture ran down Nakiad's
face.

"And then I saw it in His eyes, I saw the power flare inside.  Knowing I was
too late, I thrust with the sword, but it was futile.  Like fog, he dissolved
into the darkness, and I felt myself doing the same.  If I had struck him there
and them, he would be gone, but he had enough time to separate us, trapping us
both without bodies until the next Conjunction."

The scouts settled down, trying to absorb the news.  Passing seconds stretched
into minutes as everyone silently thought.

Nakiad raised his head. "It is all my fault.  The attack of Queen Beryl.  Queen
Serenity's death.  The death of all those who died for the Moon Kingdom, and
those on Earth who were killed in the initial attack.  I saw it all."

Artemis raised his head. "What is your fault?"  The others turned to him,
surprised by the question.

"Don't you understand?"  Inside, Nakiad was screaming in pain while he strove
to remain in control of his outward emotions. "When Queen Beryl attacked, when
she attacked again.  If I had killed Him there and then, the Universes might
have gone back to the way they were, far apart.  And you would not have lost
the Moon Kingdom."

"No," the white cat answered.  In that moment, his diminutive shape seemed to
gather strength. "You are wrong.  If you had destroyed Him, then everything
would have stayed the same.  There would have been nothing to push the
universes apart once more.  Beryl would have still attacked, and no one could
predict what would have happened. And you are wrong about one other thing."

The cat continued to stare at him, continuing. "The day Beryl attacked, we did
not lose.  We won."

"But.." Nakiad did not have a chance to finish.

"_We won_.  Queen Beryl was trapped until such time as Princess
Serena could finish her, which happened now.  And the people of the kingdom
were saved, sent to a new time on Earth where they were reborn."

"What about the kingdom?"

Artemis's eyes flashed anger for an instant, then subsided. "It was just a
kingdom.  It hardly matters, only people matter.  And the people survived."

Nakiad sighed. "Then what about Queen Serenity?"

Artemis bowed his head for a moment. "She died saving her people, saving her
daughter.  There is no higher honor than that.  Nakiad, remember this; you have
done the same thing that every Chosen has been able to do, but you did it
without dying."

Nakiad shook his head, settling down into a chair. "Perhaps you are right," he
whispered.  He knew the white cat to be wrong, a large part of the fault for
that attack lay on his shoulders, but he would never convince Artemis of that.
Did that cat not understand?  He had blamed himself for thousands of years, it
was too late to change that.

Then he looked at Mina, that single focus making the scouts fade away in
comparison.  She was silent, simply looking at him, but he could feel her
emotions stir.  A storm was gathering behind those eyes, a storm that was
directed at him, and he could feel the anger gathered.

And then it faltered for a moment, and collapsed, the clouds clearing to reveal
a bright blue sky, and she smiled.

The smile went through his heart like a sword, slamming into his feelings.

"Just because you hesitated, you didn't kill him at once, you thought we'd hate
you?"  Mina asked the question seriously, calmly.  Raye looked up as if to
protest, but kept quiet.  Mina came up to Nakiad, her eyes moist. "You thought
I'd hate you?"  To his surprise, she hugged him, clutching her hands around him
as if he were the only thing keeping her stable.

A sharp pain from his back lanced through him, but he did not flinch.  He saw
Amy look with concern at him and tried to look reassuring as he comforted Mina,
feeling strange.  Somehow, he had thought that it would be he who needed
comforting.

He swallowed hard, holding her against him as tightly as he dared.  It had been
a long time.

Lita looked up. "Um, is anyone else hungry?  I have some potatoes and beef that
just need to be warmed up."  

Nakiad's stomach rumbled at a level that Mina could feel and she raised her
head, looking into his eyes.  "Well, he does, anyway."  She was obviously
trying to keep her voice light and he thanked her for that silently.

Then, he, too smiled. "You wouldn't believe how much energy a good regeneration
takes out of you."




The group was finishing its collective meal, with everyone surprised at the
sheer amount of food Nakiad consumed.  But as he said, regeneration must take a
lot of energy, and from Mina's story, he had not eaten in a while.

Darian looked up, pushing away his plate with a smile. "Your cooking always was
great, Lita."  He looked at everyone. "So, what now?"

The question was probably on everyone's minds, but Lita answered first. "Well,
I hate to play an discourteous host, but my parents are supposed to come today,
so I kind of need things back to the way they were around here.  And hopefully,
there shouldn't be too many strangers hanging around." She looked pointedly at
Nakiad and Darian.  The prince's lips twitched as he looked behind himself to 
see to whom she was talking.

Serena looked at Luna. "Speaking of parents, I need you to do your thing, you
know?"

The black cat sighed, exchanging a glance with Artemis, who nodded. "All right,
like I said, we don't like to mess around with other's minds, but in this case,
it seems unavoidable.  "Who else needs it?"

Amy and Mina needed it, but the rest did not seem to have a problem.  Except
for Raye, who looked strange for a moment. "I'm not sure," the raven hair scout
answered. "Grandpa was here last night, and... I just don't know.  He seems to
understand, anyway."

Luna thought for a moment. "All right, we'll see how it goes.  I'll take
Serena's parents and-"

"And I'll do Mina's and Amy's," the white cat finished for her.  He turned to
Nakiad. "Do you need a place to stay?"

The man wondered if he should tell them about his home, but it was not the
time, and neither would it be for a while.  "I guess I could use one."

Artemis nodded. "Darian?"

The Prince looked up from staring into space. "What's that?... Oh, sure."

Then Raye frowned. "Maybe he should stay with me, at the temple."  The rest of
the scouts, particularly Mina, looked sharply at her, but the red scout did not
flinch.  So, Nakiad thought, you still don't quite trust me.  

Good.

"All right," he answered. "Anything else?"

Amy looked at him. "Yes.  How's your back?"  Everyone was reminded
uncomfortably of the incident of the night before, which had faded in their
memories due to everything else that had happened.

"It'll heal completely within a week, so you won't be able to tell anything
happened."  He was keeping his eyes on Mina, who seemed to deal with the
reminder all right.  Nakiad suddenly got up, a thought going through his
mind.

"Where's Kaneth?"

Nakiad had always been the one to ask the hard questions.


_	_	_



In front of Kaneth's eyes, the Chosen got hit by the beam, despite the
warrior's attempt to save the other.  Kaneth was not exactly sure when he
had decided to guard the Chosen, but the decision had been made.  And 
now, Kaneth had failed.  Again.

The warrior watched silently as one of the scouts, Sailor Mercury according to
the intelligence reports, had decided that the Chosen was dead.

Then the man had come alive, and seemed to be in good hands.  At the same time,
two of the others, an old man and a boy started to leave, and Kaneth noticed
something strange.  The boy was one of the human faces he had been trained to
recognize.  The young human was was one of Beryl's seven shadows.  And, if 
the intelligence reports Kaneth remembered had been correct, then the boy could
predict the future.

Glancing once more at the figure of the Chosen, Kaneth forced himself to blend
with the shadows, making his body all but invisible as his training had taught
him.  After several moments, he sneaked out, a black shape going through the
darkness of the door.

Outside, the warrior looked around, spotting the old man and former shadow, and
followed them, then stopped.  The street to which the others had turned was
filled with people, even at this late hour, and there would be no hiding from
the lights.  For a moment, the warrior thought to himself.  The solution was
obvious if uncomfortable.



Every creature of the Negaverse has certain powers, one being the ability
to assume a disguise for limited periods of time.  Unfortunately, even for
ones used to the process, the transformation is uncomfortable.  For Kaneth,
the change would be the first in a long time, and would be painful.  But if
he were to follow the two figures, he did not have much choice.



Kaneth concentrated, forcing his shape to morph into that of a human man, 
steeling himself as best he could against the pain.  Within moments, he looked 
like nothing more than a businessman rushing to a late night meeting or 
coming home from work.  The only thing that might have given him away was
his face, which was somewhat unnatural as Kaneth had little practice with this
particular disguise. Few would notice this, and, according to the reports of
others who had come to the planet, most would studiously ignore the difference
in appearance.  Shifting in the uncomfortable suit, the Negaverse warrior
followed the two figures toward their destination, whatever that might be.

After a few blocks, they reached something the warrior's memory identified as a
train station where, after speaking some words, the old man left, heading back
the way he came.  As he passed Kaneth, the man turned for a moment, as if
feeling something, and the warrior tried to improve his disguise, but the old
man was already continuing down the street.

Recovering from the strange meeting, Kaneth covered the distance between him
and his target rapidly, closing in on the boy.  He moved from shadow to shadow,
sneaking up on the youth, then lay a hand on the other's shoulder.

To Kaneth's surprise, the boy did not even flinch. "Hello, Kaneth."

The warrior blinked slowly.  "Then you are the shadow."

The boy turned around. "I no longer call myself that.  I am Greg.  And you
are?"

Kaneth shook his head in surprise. "You just said it, did you not?"

The boy sighed, seemingly in frustration. "In order for me to have known it
then, you have to have told me now, so I could see it in the future."

For a few seconds, Kaneth tried to make sense of this, his head starting to
spin. "You mean that you could not have seen it in the future until I told
you?"  The boy nodded, and a thought came to the warrior. "Then how come you
couldn't have just seen yourself say Kaneth, then you would know I am
Kaneth?"

Greg almost smiled. "It's possible.  Smacks of paradox, I know, but it is
possible.  However, I did not see that particular part of my future, just your
sneaking up on me and saying you were Kaneth.  And some other vague things."

"So what if I don't tell you who I am?"

The boy spread his hands. "Paradox.  But paradox is impossible by definition,
you will tell me because you _have_ told me."

Kaneth struggled with this for a moment, then gave up. "Fine.  My name is
Kaneth."

"So nice to meet you.  Go to the Temple on Cherry Hill."

"What?  I don't understand.  I haven't even asked a question yet.  Which is,
what do I do if I want to repay my debt to the Chosen?"  Kaneth paused for a
while, then got it. "Oh."

Greg watched as the figure faded out of sight, then smiled.  That had been 
one of the stranger predictions in his life, and the strangest piece of advice 
yet.  But he had seen himself giving the advice, so it must be right.  Or, at 
least, it must _be_, he thought to himself.

There was no way  to know how right the advice was.  Things that are 
meant to be are meant to be.  That is all there is to it.


_	_	_



"So where do you think he went?"  They had ascertained that the last time
anyone saw Kaneth was when he had tried to stop Mina's ill-judged blast,
he must have left shortly after that.

Nakiad turned to Serena, who had asked the question. "I do not know, Princess."
She frowned a bit at the appellation, but let it pass. "He did try to save my
life, and I do not think there is anything we have to fear from him."

"But he's a monster from the Negaverse."  Serena almost sounded peeved at not
being able to fight, something that drew glances of surprise from the other
scouts.  Serena's abhorrence of any danger was legendary.

Nakiad sighed. "Princess, I.."

Serena snapped. "Would you please stop calling me that?!"

"What should I call you?" Nakiad asked, obviously startled.

"Not Princess, not Sailor Moon, like I'm just some object.  Anything is better
than that, Serena, even Meatball Head!"

The man smiled. "All right.. Meatball Head."

"Oooooooo!"

Amy sighed, prepared to stop another argument, but Nakiad raised his hand as a
gesture of peace. "Serena," he amended.

"Better," the blonde replied, still somewhat miffed, then she shook her head.
"Now what were we talking about?"  The others smiled.

Artemis got up. "All right, let's get to work. I'll go with Mina and Amy to..
er.. enlighten their parents."

"And I'll go with Serena, she had a paper due after vacation which I'm going to
have to drag out of her," Luna added.

"Homework?  But it's vacation! Whaaaaaaaaah!"  The black cat swiftly thrust
Serena toward the exit.  At the last moment, the blonde stopped crying, turning
for a moment. "See you guys," she yelled as the door slammed behind her.

Raye expelled a sigh born of long suffering as Mina and Amy headed for the
door. "Bye," the red scout said almost simultaneously with Lita.

"Bye," Amy and Mina answered together as they left, Artemis on their heels.

Raye turned to Lita. "Looks like you have a major cleanup job to do, you want
some help?"

Darian seconded the suggestion, but Raye exchanged a glance with the green scout
and shook her head. "Thanks, but we'll be all right. Why don't you take Nakiad
to the temple, introduce him to grandpa.  He'll be staying there.." She glanced
at the man in question.

He shrugged, obviously unsure. "Not long, perhaps a week.  More likely a couple
of days."

"Whatever," Raye agreed.

"All right.  See you around."  The two girls, already at work, paid scant
notice as the two walked out.





Darian blinked as the light from the sun hit him, the day was already well on
its way, what with the memories coming back and everything else that had 
happened.  As his eyes adjusted, he figured out the best way to the temple, 
pointing the rough direction. "This way."

The prince had an irresistible urge to smile as they walked. "It's been a long
time," he said.

Nakiad looked at Darian strangely. "You have no idea."  The Chosen's voice
was tinged with sadness.

Unbidden, more of Darian's memories came flooding back to him.

Training with the man walking beside him and with the scouts.  Darian 
remembered the sparring sessions, getting beaten mostly, he thought with 
a slight smile.  And the parallel, the love between Darian and Serena almost 
identical to the one between Nakiad and Mina.  It even rhymed, Darian 
thought, slightly amused.  Then another thought came into his mind, one 
he did not like nearly as much.

"How do I know which memories are mine and which are not."  The idea had been
sparked by a passing thought about Queen Beryl and her mind wipe.

Nakiad glanced at him. "Look deep within your heart, and you will find the
answer there," he answered cryptically. Then, with a smile, he added. "Or you
could just trust me."

Trust?  Darian had been an orphan for his whole life, had had to care for 
himself most of the time.  Even now, he was self sufficient, and trust did not 
come easy to his mind.  The whole story with Queen Beryl had aggravated 
that problem.  He trusted the scouts, but truthfully, he was saving them more 
often than the other way around.  So how could he trust?

/Look deep within your heart./  Darian tried to make sense of that.

And then he found that he could trust the man because he already did.  His mind
may have been unsure, but his heart was not.  Deep inside, he believed
Nakiad.

In the end, that was all that really mattered.

"So how have you been, oh old and wise one?" Darian asked.

The other smiled.


_	_	_



Exactly eight hours after his eyes had closed, Nakiad's subconscious jerked him
awake.  He got up in the strange surroundings without surprise, the confusion
most people get after waking up completely absent.  Rays of light streamed
through the windows and penetrated the thin walls, making things unnaturally
bright.  The effect would go away as the sun rose higher, but for now, it gave
the temple an almost surreal aspect.

Nakiad looked in the mirror over the sink, rubbing his hand over his chin in
satisfaction.  Not one hair peeked out after he had ordered it to grow the
night before, and his control seemed as good as ever.  He felt under his shirt
at the bandages.

Several minutes and a discarded roll of gauze later, he emerged into the
daylight, smiling as the sun hit him.  For a moment, some sort of presence
nudged at him, like someone was watching, but there was no one in sight when he
turned.  He closed his eyes, concentrating on the feeling, a vague four armed
shape almost forming, but nothing definite.  He sighed, letting the image 
go since it did not seem to be dangerous, then walked toward the sound 
of a car.  Two burly men were unloading a four yard tall sapling birch tree from
the back of a truck, the process made considerably harder because of
Raye impatiently fuming over them.

"Do you want us to help you plant it, miss...?"

Raye frowned in annoyance as she replied in an impatient tone of voice. "No, we
can handle it.  Just leave it here."

"All right," the worker agreed doubtfully, getting back in the truck with his
partner and driving off.

"They would never be able to plant it right," Raye grumbled as she grabbed the
burlap bag encasing the roots and yanked.

The tree budged. Barely.  Nakiad watched for a few moments as Raye continued to
struggle, then came over at a normal pace. "Want some help?" He offered,
looking down at her.

"I can handle it."  Her voice was even more annoyed.

For a few moments, he remained silent, then looked at her penetratingly once
more. "You don't trust me, do you?" Raye stayed down, continuing to pull at the
plant. "That is why you invited me to stay here, so you could watch over me."

The girl sighed, letting go of the tree. "No, I don't trust you."

"Why not?"

She glared at him, brushing a few stray locks of hair away from her eyes. "I
don't believe your story.  At least not all of it.  And those memories could
have been planted, like Beryl did with Darian.  The others might believe,
but I am going to keep an eye out on you, just in case." 

He smiled.  "Fair enough."

For a moment, she seemed a bit surprised at his ready acquiescence. "And I
cannot read you, your mind is closed.  Usually, I can pick up what a person is
by his or her aura, but yours is blank, like you are not even there.  I do not
trust that, either."

She glanced at him, then looked back at the tree. "And if you are who you say
you are, and your story is true, then things are even worse.  You did not do
your duty and did not carry out your destiny.  That is already crime enough for
me to convict you."

Nakiad forced his voice to be soft. "You place duty above a lot of other
things, don't you?"  He told himself to remember that.

"Yes, I do."

He paused. "So do I," he said abruptly.  He reached out with one bare hand,
bending down to encircle the trunk at the base of the tree, then readjusting
his grip to grasp a part of the burlap bag as well.  Concentrating, he sent a
surge of strength through his body, easily lifting the three hundred pound 
load. "Now, where do you want it?"

Raye stared at him and the tree for a few seconds, then unfroze.  "This way.
Chad dug a hole before he left for the week, so.." She moved, Nakiad closely
behind her.

Despite her relenting, she obviously did not trust him.

Good, Nakiad thought to himself. 

He do not deserve to be trusted.


_	_	_



A blow came at Tuxedo Mask's head, one that could have knocked it 
permanently off his shoulders.

He dodged it.

Nakiad smiled a grin of danger as he faced Darian, both fighters shifting 
slightly from foot to foot.  The grin seemed to me some sort of battle 
masking, it hid all actual emotions behind that readiness for battle, and 
the prince had no idea what his opponent was thinking.

The blow had knocked the prince's hat off, leaving it to lie on the grass, 
and Darian became conscious of his ridiculous costume. The other attacked, 
lightning fast, giving the prince insufficient time to dodge, and Darian's foot 
got hit, but only softly.

He turned around as soon as he was balanced again and threw a rose as hard as
he could at the other.  The Chosen merely dodged, flowing like a dark
shadow around the missile, then continued inward, making a feint to Darian's
stomach that the prince went for.  Nakiad flowed like water around the prince.

Darian abruptly felt his hand strain, levered away from his body, then a black
clad arm went around his throat.  Slowly, it squeezed, choking him.

Darian tried to free himself, yanking as hard as he could but only succeeding
in twisting his arm slightly.  A knee came up into the small of his back,
pressuring him there, not letting him move without severe injury. As the world
turned black around him, he managed to open his moth. "All right," he whispered
hoarsely.

Instantly, the arms that held him let go and he stumbled forward, almost
falling.  Turning a dark glare to Nakiad, he straightened up, forcing air past
his throat.

The other merely smiled. "You really ought to have yielded earlier, you
know."

Darian was abruptly consumed by the wish to tear Nakiad apart, and at the 
same time, an almost irresistible wish the grin. "Why, you..." That was all he
managed to say before a vaguely yellow topped projectile slammed into him,
almost making him fall again.

"Are you all right, did he hurt you, are you OK, muffin, do you need help, can
I..."  

Darian gently separated himself from Serena, looking at her. "I'm fine.  What
are you doing here, anyway?"

"Oh, I was going to go shopping-" Darian looked at Nakiad with pain at the
word, and was only slightly surprised to see a similar expression in the other.
"- with Mina, and heard you two are going to be practicing, so we decided to
meet here."

Great, Darian thought to himself, someone else to witness my ignominy.  As if
on cue, a second girl rushed up so fast that she seemed blurred, slamming at
full speed into Nakiad.  The other did not even lose his balance, Darian
noticed with admiration, and reminded himself to talk the Chosen about how he
did that.  It could come in useful, the prince thought with a smile as he
glanced at his true love.

Mina separated herself from Nakiad for a moment, looking at him with a strange
expression, then turned to Serena. "Hey, I heard there's a big shoe sale at the
mall!"

"A shoe sale!  Gotta go, muffin."  The prince flinched internally at the
nickname, steeling his expression.

"Bye," Mina yelled as the two girls disappeared.

Nakiad stared after them for a moment, then shook his head.  "Sometimes, I
wonder just why it is I.."

He did not need to finish. "Ditto here," Darian said with a smile, then
flipped another rose at him.




A long time later and, for Darian, many bruises later, they finished, Nakiad
finally stopping his attacks.  Slowly, they walked over to the main building of
the temple, Darian finally being able to relax.  With a thought he reversed the
transformation, reverting to his ordinary self, then looked up ruefully at the
other. "You haven't changed.  Fighting against you is still horrible for my
ego."  And educational, Darian added mentally, for the other had kept up a
running commentary on what it was that Darian was doing wrong. And 
every once in a while, what the prince was doing right.  In the past hour, 
Darian had probably learned more about fighting in hand to hand combat 
than in his all previous life combined, not counting the time in the Silver 
Millennium.

"You were overmatched."  For some reason, that statement made the other sad.

Darian picked up a towel, wiping off a layer of sweat on his face.  Only a faint
layer of moisture had appeared on Nakiad's forehead during the fight, and
even that had already evaporated.

"Well, I had a bit of practice since the last time we sparred," the prince said.

"So have I," the other answered.  "And you wouldn't believe how much practice
you can get over a millennium."

Darian shook his head in wonder, then remembered something.  Reaching into his
jacket, he pulled out a single red rose, handing it to Nakiad. "Just what was
it you did to it, anyway?"  He asked, hoping for an answer he would be able to
understand.

The Chosen took the flower, an understanding look on his face. He sighed. "One
of my most basic powers is that of draining."

"I remember that much."  There were still gaps in Darian's memories, but some
things he did know.

"Over time, I've noticed that I can not only take away energy, I can also put
it back.  That is how I saved Mina, approximately.  The rose... I basically
gave it some of my strength, something that is possible because it is a very
good focusing tool.  Generally, without a specific focus, my power emerges as a
random discharge of energy unless I concentrate very carefully.  With something
like one of your roses, I can make the energy very specified, setting it to do
a certain task, like destroying a shadow."

Darian nodded, he had suspected something like that. "Will it work again?"

Nakiad smiled. "Ah, what you _really_ wanted to know."  He seemed to think
for a moment. "Yes, it will work again, as long as it is the same rose."  For a
moment, the two stared at each other, both lost in thought.  Then Nakiad
slapped Darian on his shoulder. "You said you have to work today, you'll be
late."

Darian remembered, there had been a mix-up in the stage assignments at the
studio, and he had to go and straighten it out.  Typical, he sighed to himself,
just as you are learning something, you have to go.  "Well, I'll see you
around," he said, grabbing his bag and rushing out.

Nakiad looked after him with piercing eyes. "Perhaps," he whispered, unheard.




Amy walked into the temple, staring thoughtfully at her computer, held in one
hand, and chewing on an apple, held in the other.  Her scan of the Chosen's
systems, extensive as it had been, had revealed almost nothing about his
physiology.  One part of her mind had asked why she was even bothering with the
whole procedure, since she now knew who he was, but her curiosity was running
away with her.  What she remembered from the Silver Millennium and what he
seemed to be able to do now were two different things, and apparently he had
changed a lot over the years.  So Amy had decided to come to the temple to find
out more about him and, incidentally, to visit him.

She walked into his room quietly, the door open, and found him sitting silently
on the bed, his eyes closed.  As she came up, he spoke, without opening his
eyes. "Hello, Amy."

He always did have a way of knowing who people were, Amy remembered. 
"Um, Chosen?"

His eyes opened as he sighed. "Nakiad.  Granted, I haven't used that name
for a long time, but it remains the same."  He smiled at the last, looking
at her.  "We've known each other too long to use titles, Sailor Mercury."

She smiled, sitting down on a low bench across from him. "It is true that we
have known each other.  But you have changed." His eyes flickered as she tried
to distinguish the difference between her memories of him and what he was now.
"It's more than just physical stuff, it goes farther than that.  When I knew
you in the Silver Millennium, you were always a very-"  Amy tried to say it in
a way that would not affront him, then decided it did not really matter.  He
had never been known to be quick to anger, and now he seemed even less so.
"Private," she finished.  "But now, it is even more than that, I can't read you
at all.  I can't tell what you are thinking, what you are feeling, nothing."
She looked at him, and noticed his eyes again, staring at her unflinchingly."
And your eyes are closed, they do not show you, they do not show your soul."

He sighed, sitting back a little, and seemed to murmur to himself. "This is not
exactly unexpected, you know."  Then he turned to her. "Experience teaches 
many things..."  He rubbed his forehead, seeming tired for a moment, then the 
expression dissapeared. "That sounds like a cliche, but it is true.  I have had 
to live with what I had done for a millennium, if only counting the time I was 
physical, here, on Earth.  I do not know how many millenia I spent in limbo."  
His tone was almost conversational. "I made a resolution, long ago." He 
stared at her, his eyes holding hers, his voice growing strong.  "I promised 
myself that when the next time came, as I knew it would, I would be ready.  
And when it came, I would do what I was meant to do in the first place."

She just looked at him, astonished. "How could you do that to yourself?"

He answered without a pause, obviously expecting the response. "How could I
not?  How else could I live with causing the death of Queen Serenity, causing
the end of the Silver Millennium?"  He held up a hand to stop her protest.
"Perhaps it was not entirely my fault, but it was at least in part.

"And so I trained, I forced myself to become who I had to become, I forced
myself to be the Chosen.  Physically, I changed myself, I am stronger now, more
in control of myself.  I can concentrate my strength more, and I have learned
from the greatest teachers on Earth."

"But that isn't all," Amy whispered quietly.  "Your mind, it's changed."

He sighed. "No, it is not all.  I have lived with my guilt for a millennium.  I
have seen death and suffering, I have seen despair, all on this piece of rock
so many call home."  For a moment, his tone was bitter, then the harshness
vanished, replaced by a thoughtful tone. "And it changed me, it made me
stronger, but at a price.  For my soul is dark now, not evil but dangerous,
full of pain.  I learned to control my emotions, to steel my mind against stray
thoughts.  I learned to control my eyes, for the experiences of a millennium
are too much for an ordinary person to see at once, and it can be dangerous.  I
learned to control myself."

For a few moments, Amy processed that, afraid to hear more, but she had to ask.
She had to know if he was still human.  "Do you have no feelings then?  Do you
not love, or care?"

She thought she saw a slight flinch, but the motion was too swift and too 
slight for her to be sure. 

"Of course I do," he answered.  "I love Mina, I care about her.  I care about the
scouts, I care about my friends."  He paused, looking at her sadly, then
finished. "But more than that, I care about the Universe."

Amy stared at him, stricken. "Then you have changed far more than I thought at
first.  You are not the Nakiad I knew so many years ago."

He sighed. "Perhaps not.  But I am the Nakiad that is needed, I am the
Chosen."

Again, a pause stretched between them, then Amy looked up from the spot on the
floor at which she had been staring. "If you had to pick between Mina and the
world, what would you choose?"

The question seemed to plunge into his heart, and he jerked slightly, his eyes
wide open.  And for the first time in a millennium she _saw_ him, she
looked into his eyes and into his soul.  Deep inside, dark forces strove around
a single object, grasping and attacking at it, tearing it apart.  Hatred and
despair fought inside him for the center of his soul.  But in the middle, a
single immovable object stood.

Amy jerked back to reality as Nakiad answered. "I do not know," he said
simply.

She closed her eyes in relief, and felt her heart beat several times.

"Then there is still hope for you yet," she smiled.

For a while, they looked at each other, and the scout almost saw a smile form
at his lips, then it was gone.  Looking for something to break the silence, she
looked down, seeing her computer, and remembered.

"How is it that you can breathe underwater?"

He smiled sadly. "Ever heard of genetic engineering?"  He waved away Amy's
affront at the question and continued. "Well, I've had a millennium in which to
practice, and I sort of made a copy of a fish's gills."

Amy shook her head. "But how does it work?  And how could you use the air you
got to give Mina?"

"Oh... let's see..."  He put on a show of having difficulty in remembering
until she smiled, then he explained.  "It's not as hard as one would think,
actually.  Anatomically, it's very simple.  Gills are just a sort of rack on
which creatures hang capillaries.  Same thing as the lungs, really, the final
purpose is to increase the area of contact between the medium and the 
capillarries.  So a second pair of tubes separates from my trachea, through
which the water runs, and a second pair of loops come out of the 
pulmonary veins, which loops pass through the gills.  The right ventricle
is a lot larger because of the added lenth of the capillaries, but that was
not too difficult.  The real problem was making my body accept the 
changes, which is where the genetic engineering came in.  The added
benefit is that the oxygen levels are always balanced everwhere in the
systems, which means that I can actually breathe oxygen into someone 
else from my lungs while using my gills.

An explanation that would have messed up most people took Amy only a few
seconds to digest.  "Interesting... I suppose it would be futile to ask you
exactly how you got your DNA to accept _gills_?"

"Well... do you have a couple of years?"

Amy suddenly grew serious. "That depends on how close it is to the time."

He sighed. "Close."

"Then that is that," she sighed.  "How did you keep my scan from
penetrating, anyway?"

"Well," he began.

The conversation went on, and it was a long time before Amy finally left the
temple, slowly walking toward the entrance.

As she reached the top of the stairs at the exit, she turned back for a moment,
and a slight smile lifted her lips.  

When she had looked into his eyes, she had seen the dark forces battling 
inside of him.  But at the very center, a white planet stood immovable 
against the pain and horrors of the surroundings.

Despite the time that had passed, despite everything he had seen and done, deep
inside, he was still Nakiad.

Smiling, Amy walked down the steps.


_	_	_



Nakiad smiled as he heard footsteps coming up the steps of the temple.  It
seems that there would be no peace for him today, he thought quietly as he
continued to clean the wooden floor with a broom, a task entrusted to him by
Raye.  He had a suspicion as to who the person coming was, one that was quickly
being confirmed through a combination of small things, like the length and
period of footsteps and the speed of breathing.

"Hello, Lita," he said as soon as she came closer, then turned around.  He 
rarely admitted it to himself, but he privately enjoyed the surprise most people 
felt when he knew who they were before he saw them.

He was not disappointed. "How did you know who I was?" Lita asked, coming up to
him.

"Simple," he answered, smiling a bit, "elimination.  You are the only one who
hasn't been here today."  Well, he thought, with an internal smile, that _is_
true.

"Well, I had a few things to straighten out around the house, and then I went
shopping, and met Serena and Mina, and er... well, it went on from there."
Nakiad smiled to himself, looking up at the sun which was just touching the
horizon.  That must have been one hell of a shopping spree.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"  He continued to wipe the floor,
not about to betray even that slight trust of Raye's.  She seemed to be the only
one that did not trust him, a feeling that he somehow approved of even as he
tried to alleviate it.

Lita looked a bit embarrassed. "Well, actually, I'm not sure.  It's like some
voice inside me wanted to talk to you, and so I went, but now I'm not sure
why."  She paused for a few moments. "So, Mina tells you are a fair fighter?"

The Chosen smiled to himself a little. "I guess you could say that."

"Hmmm.  Want to spar?"

Lita always had been the most combative of the scouts.  "Remember the time when
you fought against Darian?  You know, Amy went to protect Greg to stop him from
being sucked into the crystal, and you faced him alone?"

Lita frowned, sitting down of the wooden floor, dangling her legs to the
ground. "Yeah, well, I wasn't stretched out that day.  Say, just how do you
know that anyway?"

Nakiad smiled to himself again, having distracted her from a slightly dangerous
topic.   The one thing he did not want was a sailor scout dejected by her inability 
to beat him.  He looked at her carefully, deciding that he could tell her. "Right
after I got defeated by the Dark Lord, I was floating through space, and then
somehow, I got drawn into a place in the palace on the Moon.  Apparently, Queen
Serenity had figured out what happened, and was able to make me see a casting
she did about my future, about my destiny."

He sighed, remembering.  Serenity had not even blamed him for what he had failed 
to do, she had merely showed him things to come, and explained things.  At that 
time, the Queen had already known that she was going to die, and yet she had
not thought him responsible.  She had never showed anyone fear for her life, she 
had been the only one who had known of her destiny.  

Nakiad remembered where he was abruptly and remembered that he was about to 
answer Lita's question. "I knew that you would turn up somewhere in this century, 
and I knew that while the rest of the scouts would start here, Mina would be born 
in England, and only come here at the last, before the final conflict."

"At first you followed her, right?  She told us you saved her several time back
when she was Sailor V."

"Yes, but I had ways of seeing what was happening back here as well."  This was
not a good time to tell her about his research into portals. "But I only know
in detail what happened after she came to Tokyo, and after that, I followed the
different battles."

Lita suddenly looked up, angry. "Why didn't you help us then?  Or at least told
us something about what was going to happen, or what was happening?"

He groaned inside, keeping silent, then put the broom down.  Walking over to
her, he sat down, his back to the building. Unaware of it, he had placed
himself in a way that made the sun outline his face in lines of darkness and
light, making him seem somewhat unreal.

"There are balances between good and evil, forces that must stay equal at all
times.  I am a balance, and opposite, for the Dark Lord, and that is the only
place where I am of any use.  I could not fight Queen Beryl without disturbing
the balance any more than you can help me with the Shadow.  Even if I had 
tried, I would have been of little help.  It is not simply that the balance would 
have been ruined, it is that our strengths are different.  The Sailor Scouts 
have as much power, perhaps, as I do, but although the strengths are 
equivalent, the powers are too different for us to help each other much.  My 
destiny is to fight the Dark Lord, just as yours is to fight Queen Beryl and the like."

Lita thought about that for a few moments. "What would have happened if you had
tired to help us with Queen Beryl?"

He looked at her directly, almost staring her down, then shook his head.  "No
one knows, exactly.  It is thought that if two forces of good attack one of
evil, the evil will become strong enough to fight destroy both of the good.
And that would upset the balance, forcing an even greater change on the other
side, which would start a chain reaction leading to..."  He stopped, hearing a
slight sound behind him.  The light of the setting sun was blocked by a corner
of the building now, casting his face into darkness.

"Leading to what?"  She was entirely serious now.

"Death," he answered, entirely serious.

"Oh.."  She glanced at the time, her eyes suddenly snapped out of seriousness.
"Oh, no, I'm going to be late for dinner.  I gotta go!" She was already moving,
then turned around. "Can you give me a few tips in fighting later?"  Apparently
she had not forgotten that topic entirely.

She did not see the pain that went through him at that phrase. "Perhaps," he
answered.

"Well, bye!"

"See you, Lita."

He stared thoughtfully into space for a few moments, then got up and picked up
the broom.  Raye came around the corner, her eyes also thoughtful.

"You heard," he said.  It was not a question, since the sound he had heard was
that of her drawing in her breath in surprise.

"Yes."

"Do you understand?"

"Yes," she answered, "in a way I do.  It is your duty.  But I also think that
good should fight evil wherever and whenever it can.  You should have helped
us."  She walked away, black hair waving slightly in the wind.  The sun had
finished going down and it was dark, but Nakiad continued sweeping the floor.

  Guardian came into his thoughts.

He sighed. "I don't know."



"Yes," but it is not that simple, he added mentally.

, the Guardian answered, picking up his thoughts easily.


"Soon," he promised, "soon."



"I have to-" He did not finish.



Pain lanced through him, and the wooden handle of the broom shattered suddenly
in his hands as he clenched them in anger. "I know," he said, throwing the
remains of the brush on the wooden floor. "I know."

Sighing, he walked inside.


_	_	_



A set of footsteps echoed outside the door, somewhere else in the building.
Absently, almost without thinking, Nakiad focused in on the sounds, bringing
the volume up to a level where he could hear voices.

Raye was speaking. "I don't trust him, and neither should you."  Her voice
dipped down for a few moments, so all Nakiad could hear were murmurs, then
another voice interrupted.

"I love him."  It was Mina.  Nakiad breathed out silently.   He should have
known this would happen, he thought furiously.  The orange scout had apparently
ended the conversation, and she was approaching him.

She walked in, quietly opening the door and as he pretended sleep, he went 
over the possible outcomes of the conversation in his mind, trying to be 
ready.  She came up to his bed, then sat down next to him.  He could feel her 
mind, full of emotions; love, anger, and something else.  

Fear.  The Chosen tried to focus the emotions, bring them into relief but his
mind link, the bond of true love, was not strong enough, not after millennia of
separation.

She was looking at him.  "I know you are not asleep."  Her voice was soft. "If
you had been, my presence would have woken you up instantly.  I told my parents
I will be staying over at Raye's tonight."

He opened his eyes, surprised to see her on the edge of crying.  His hand
reached up to touch her cheek on impulse, without conscious thought. "What is
it?"  He sat up and moved over, letting her take more space in the bed.

"Lita told me."

Nakiad sighed. "I supposed she might."

"She felt she had to, being my friend.  And I agreed.  Why didn't you tell
me?"

"Tell you what?"  For a moment, he was truly confused.

"That you are going to fight Him again."

He sighed. "Destiny is impossible to reverse or change.  The Dark Lord has
awakened and regained his power.  He is threatening the Universe again.  I have
to stop him no matter what the cost.  That is who I am.  The Chosen."

She sobbed. "You are also the man I love.  I don't want you to go."  Before he
could respond, she continued. "Long ago, you told me that you will find a way
back to me.  And now you have, you are here.  I do not want to lose you again,
like I did so long ago."

His voice grew somber. "What would you have me do?"

"Do not go."  Her voice was a whisper.

"And let the Universe get destroyed?"

He felt her shiver and put an arm around her.  He could not even force anger
into his voice, not when talking to her. 

"At least," she began.  "At least do not go alone.  Let us come with you, help
you.  Together, we can destroy him without you dying as well.  Please." She was
crying now, and his body responded automatically, enfolding her in his arms.
She raised her head from his chest, looking into his eyes through her tears.
"Promise me you will not go alone."

His features froze as a debate raged inside him, choices flowing through.  He
had to pick the best one, the fate of the Universe rested in his hands.
Emotions he did not know he still had strove at his mind, and he tried to
ignore them.  Finally, the fire finished, and he found only one choice, only
one thing he could do.  He looked back at her. 

"I promise," he whispered quietly.

She seemed to sigh, and the tension ran out of her body.  The tears stopped,
and her eyes slowly closed.  She relaxed in his embrace, and he felt her
breathing assume the rhythmical balance of sleep.

In the darkness, the Chosen alone did not sleep, staring into space, thinking,
while his arms embraced his true love.




Outside, a dark figure finished listening, creeping away from the thin wall.
The moon cast a light on it, forming a shadow on the grass as the figure slowly
made its way to the entrance of the building.  The shadow abruptly changed,
growing larger, a second set of arms projecting underneath the first.




In front of the fire, Raye flinched a little, almost awakened from her
meditation, but not quite.  The sacred flame flickered, relaxing her.




Nakiad silently cursed himself, wondering how he could have been as stupid
as he had been.  He should have seen the events coming.

  Guardian answered his thought.

Nakiad glared into space. 

Gently, he disentangled himself from the still sleeping figure, moving out from
under her.  As her head touched the pillow, she stirred, but he concentrated,
moving into her mind, smoothing the folds.  She should sleep peacefully for a
long time, he thought as he covered her.

He stood over her for a few moments, silent. "I'm sorry, Mina," he whispered.
She moved a bit under the covers, but did not react, asleep. "You said you did
not wish to lose me as you did so long ago."  He paused, looking at her
sleeping form. "Nor do I want to cause your death once more."  For a long
moment, he stood over her, then sighed. "I love you."  A single drop of water
landed on her cheek, and he wiped the tear away, angry at himself, then moved
away.

He moved silently, putting the top of his gi on, then finding the battle
harness.  As he cinched it tight on his back, he winced slightly, and cursed
the damage to his back.  He would not have the time to heal it completely now,
but there was nothing he could do about that. 

He felt for the two blades across his back, closing his eyes as the energy in
the ancient weapons tingled through his fingers.

Soon, he thought, you will fight again.  Soon, he told the swords, then dropped
his hand.

As he walked to the exit, a brief beam of moonlight illuminated him, showing a
grim face and dark, almost black eyes.

As he walked out into the cool air of the night, someone came up from behind
him, separating from the shadows.  Nakiad tensed for a moment, then relaxed.
He turned around, looking at the figure.

"I heard," Kaneth said.  He waited, looking at the Chosen for a long moment.
"You broke your word."

Angry, Nakiad glared at the ex-Negaverse warrior. "Honor," he whispered, "does
not just lie in telling the truth."

Kaneth thought for a moment. "When I made that shadow drop Sailor Venus, that
was dishonorable because I lied.  But it was honorable because it was the right
thing to do.  I understand."

Nakiad shook his head. "It's not that easy."  His voice was harsh suddenly,
grating. "The ends might sometimes justify the means, but your conscience never
thinks so.  You always have to be ready to live with what you do."  An sadness
crossed over his features. "Longer than you sometimes think."

"Perhaps," Kaneth answered.

Nakiad turned around, preparing to walk away.  He knew where he had to go.

Kaneth grasped his shoulder, stopping him. "I'm with you."

The Chosen clenched his fists. "You owe me nothing."

"You spared my life, and now it is yours.  I will follow you."

For some reason, the statement provoked another look of pain.  "You don't know
how expensive that choice can be, either," Nakiad whispered bitterly, then
turned away, striding into the night.

Kaneth followed.


_	_	_



Amy looked up from her book, Advanced Sinusoid Waves and Patterns, as a strange
feeling went through her.  A movement of sorts in her peripheral vision made
her turn to the window in her room, and she stared in surprise at what was
happening.




The sacred flame jumped, and a strange feeling woke Raye up suddenly from her
meditation.  She tried to figure our what was going on, but her mind only gave
her confused patterns.  Even the fire could not produce any answers, flickering
in the growing darkness.

The scout got up from her position in front of the flame, something prompting
her to walk to a window.

Outside, the lights of the city were going out, section by section.  The
buildings dimmed, the windows became black as a darkness took over Tokyo.  Raye
drew in her breath, remembering Luna telling her that same thing had happened
when Beryl had made her final attack.  The strange dimming of the lights
combined with Raye's uneasy feelings to make her worry escalate.

A sudden thought went through her mind and she grasped at her robes, searching
for something.  Finally, she found it, a slim object, about the size of a
credit card but thicker than one, with buttons on it.

She pressed the one with the mercury symbol on it, knowing that Amy often
stayed up late reading, hoping the blue scout would hear.

A slightly worried face appeared on the tiny screen. "Mercury here.  What is
it, Raye?"

"Have you looked outside?"

"Yes, I know, the power is going out.  My lights turned off a few seconds ago,
and much of the rest of the city is without power as well.  Do you think it
could be an ordinary power failure?"




Amy looked at her friend through the computer screen.  Though she had just
suggested it, she knew that the failure was not ordinary.  Otherwise, she
would not be getting the strange feelings she was.

Raye shook her head. "I got a really weird feeling a few moments before it, like
something was happening," the red scout continued, echoing Amy's thoughts.

A sudden thought went through Amy's mind. "Is Nakiad still there?"

For a moment, Raye was completely astonished, her mouth actually gaping.
"Damn..."  Re flashed a quick look of apology for the expletive, then
continued. "I'd forgotten all about him."  The picture suddenly veered, showing
the walls rushing by at a crazy angle.  After a quick rush, the picture became
darker, then stabilized. Amy though she heard Raye swear again, then the
communicator went up to her face once more. "Amy, he's gone."  Raye sighed in
frustration. "Mina had come over an hour or so ago, wanted to see how he was
doing, and I think, talk to him, and now... She's still here, sleeping, but
there is no trace of him."

Amy added everything up, then remembered something. "Raye, remember when he went
to fight the Dark Lord the first time?"  When Raye nodded worriedly, Amy
continued. "When he made the gateway to go and fight, did he use his own
power?"

Raye thought for a moment, then shook her head. "No, I believe he drew power
from the crystal.  Wait, do you think he went to Serena's to..."

"No, I don't think so.  But if I remember correctly, he can use most forms of
energy, converting them as he likes.  So all he needs is a large source of
power...."  She trailed off as both girls turned to windows, looking at the
darkened city.

Raye turned back. "Would you say that the main power lines of Tokyo would give
him sufficient energy to create a gateway to the Negaverse?"

Amy did not need to reply. "I'll call Serena and Lita, you wake up Mina, OK?
We'll meet at the temple."  As Raye nodded, Amy pressed the off button on her
communicator, then touched the circle with a crescent moon drawn on it.




Raye looked at the darkened screen, then shook her head, putting the
communicator aside.  She came up to Mina, shaking the sleeping girl lightly. 

"Wake up, Mina, we have a problem."  Raye suddenly realized that the orange
scout was he only one who knew why Nakiad had left, and shook her harder, but
Mina continued to sleep.

"May I?"  Raye looked at the white cat that had come up behind her.

"Artemis?  How did you get here?"

The cat shook his head, jumping onto the bed. "I was wondering where Mina was,
and, well... it did not take a lot of deductive powers to reason it out."  He
looked at his ward worriedly. "She's in a deeper sleep than normal.  Well, no
help for it."  Raye suddenly saw claws emerging from one of the cat's paws, then
there was a blur of motion and Mina yelped as she sat up, holding her slightly
bleeding arm.

"I don't want to go to schoo..... what happened?"

Raye frowned. "That's what we want to know.  He's gone, and the city just lost
its power.  What did you tell him, anyway?"

Shocked into awakening, Mina shook her head, an expression of worry swiftly
taking over her head. "I... I asked him not to go."

Artemis groaned, then looked up. "He refused, naturally, then what?"

Mina sighed. "I made promise not to go alone," she blurted out.

The white cat sighed in apparent pain, sinking down to the floor. "You made him
promise?"  He paused, muttering to himself.  "Stubborn fool.. should have seen
that coming.."  Raye wondered who he meant by fool, Nakiad, Mina, or himself.
Then Artemis looked up. "Well, no help for it now. We just have to hope."

Raye glared at him. "We have to go and help him."

"You can't help him, you can't fight the Dark Lord for him any more than he
could fight Beryl for you.  It is his destiny."  

Raye was startled to hear the same thing Nakiad had told Lita, and protested.
"We could at least help him.  We could fight the shadows, since Amy found a
way.  And we could offer moral support."

Mina had followed the interchange silently, now she put a hand on the cat's
paw. "Please," she whispered.

Artemis frowned, then nodded reluctantly. "On your heads be it."




Amy pressed the sign of the moon several times before a sleepy Luna answered.
"What is it, Amy?"

"Have you looked outside lately?"  Amy asked as sweetly as she could.

Luna apparently did, because she looked worried when she came back. "What do
you think it is, Amy?"

Briefly, the blue scout outlined the situation, and Luna nodded understanding.
"I'll wake Serena up."  The black cat sighed. "If I can," she added with a grim
sort of humor.

"OK," the other answered, "I still have to get Lita."  The screen turned
blank.




Luna looked at the sleeping princess with annoyance, tugging at one pigtail.
"Wake up, Serena, it's time for Sailor Moon." The cat muttered through a
mouthful of hair.

The girl murmured something indistinct about muffins, then relapsed into a deep
slumber.  Luna thought that over for a few moments, then looked at the girl.
"Oh, hi Darian," the black cat said very distinctly.

Abruptly, Luna was rocketed to one side as Serena almost leapt out of her bed.
"Darian?  Where?  Where?"

The black cat sighed, dusting off her coat, then turned to Serena. "Listen to
me, Serena.  Nakiad is gone, and we are going after him.  It's time for Sailor
Moon."

"Sailor Moon?  But what?...  Why?...  Who?..."

Luna, sensing this could go on forever, ground her teeth. "Just transform!"

"All right, all right!...  Moon Prism......"

The girl raised a hand to the ceiling, closing her eyes. "Power!"



Darian was abruptly jerked awake by a very familiar feeling.  A few minutes
before, he had felt uneasy in his dreams, and now, he felt the unmistakable
stigma of a Sailor Moon transformation.  Sleepily, he reached out with a hand,
groping around for the vase of roses he always kept next to his bed, grasping
at one, then concentrated.

A few seconds later, Tuxedo Mask swept through the room, only pausing to grab
the rose that Nakiad had messed with before leaping out the window.  He leapt
from building to building, homing in on his feeling of Sailor Moon.




Sailor Jupiter ran through the streets, rapidly closing in on the temple, when
a blue blur intersected her path.  She braked just in time, avoiding Sailor
Mercury, then coming up beside her.

"Do we," Lita panted, "know where he is?"

Amy nodded, also breathing heavily. "There is only one place where he can get
at all the power in the city, a power line junction fifteen miles away or so.
Raye said he left an hour or so ago at most, so that's how long it took him to
get there.  But we have to hurry, it shouldn't take him more than a few minutes
to gather enough energy for a portal."

"Fifteen miles?"  Lita gaped. "If he's already started...  how are we going to
get there in time?"

Amy looked at the girl in surprise. "We'll teleport."

The temple was straight ahead. "Oh, yeah," Lita muttered as they came through
the entrance.

Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus were waiting for them, along with Artemis.

"All right, everyone here?" Amy asked as she came up the stairs.

"No," replied Raye crossly, "Serena isn't, as usual."

"I'm here, already," replied a slightly sleepy voice from behind them, and
Sailor Moon came up the steps, followed by a black cat. "Did you _have_ to
wake me up so late?  You have no idea how hard it is to sneak out without my
dad knowing."

Raye sighed. "Never mind.  We have to get to Nakiad now, before he uses the
portal.  Amy, do you have the coordinates?"

"Yes, bearing, two hundred and seventeen degrees, distance, fourteen point four
seven miles."

"Good, everyone join hands and concentrate on that."

"Wait a second," Serena complained crossly.  "Aren't I the leader?"  Ignoring
Luna's groan at the grammar, the girl continued.  "And what about Tuxedo
Mask?"

Raye shook her head. "No time.  Just do it!" The girl exclaimed almost exactly
like Luna.

"Fine!"




Darian bounded through the streets between a run and flight, purposefully not
flying because it was too slow and took too much energy.  Finally, he reached
it, leaping up on the sign in front of the temple, he saw the girls in a
circle, their hands linked and two cats in the middle.

"Scout Power!"  Their joined voices reached him and he remembered the
teleportation from the time he was evil.  Without hesistating, he leapt
straight down into the middle of the circle, noticing as he did that all of the
scouts' eyes were closed.

Then the world dissolved into a blinding light.





Nakiad stood in front of the portal, concentrating his strength on it,
channeling the energy he was receiving.  To either side of him, massive cables
that usually conducted electricity to the city now gave him the strength to
open the portal.

It whirled in front of him, a black tear in the scenery, warped and twisted,
flowing without changing, never ceasing its motion.

His mind was just like the portal, moving, twisting, the different parts of
him questioning his actions.

Why am I doing this? 

There was no answer, then another part of his brain kicked in.  You want to
save the Universe, it told him, you want to save the world, the new voice told
him.

Perhaps, the first voice responded, but that is not the real reason, merely a
justification.  

Because you hate the Dark Lord.

Hate is not a reason to fight evil, hate _is_ evil.

Because you love Mina.

True, the first voice responded, but that is not why you do this.

For a long time, the second voice was silent, and then words bubbled up through
Nakiad's mind, words from a long time ago.

He opened his lips without thinking, the words coming out. "'And this above all
else..'"  He paused, then finished it. "'To thine own self be true.'"

Guardian suddenly appeared.   

He nodded. 

The first voice was silent, no longer protesting.

Without hesitation, Nakiad stepped through and the world faded into darkness.

Kaneth, wondering what the Chosen's statement was about, followed him.

The portal began to close.




A hundred yards away, several figures appeared, a circle of girls
materializing.  A black shape flickered between them, leaping up and out of the
ring before any opened their eyes.

"All right, there it is!"

They began running toward it, but it became apparent that it was closing far
too fast for them to reach it in time.

They stopped together, breathing heavily and looking at the diminishing circle
of black.

"Any ideas," Raye gasped, "would be welcome."

Serena looked thoughtful for a few moments, then turned to Amy. "Sailor
Mercury, do you remember the time with the busses?"  Raye, Luna and Amy
looked up in surprise while the rest looked confused.

"Of course," Amy whispered.  Raye and Serena had been stuck inside a pocket
dimension, and Amy had kept the portal open long enough for them to make it
back to the Universe.

The blue scout searched herself urgently, finally finding her stick, then
concentrated.  A beam of blue light lanced out of the symbol of Mercury, going
through the portal.  The gate slowed, then stopped closing as sweat began to
bead on the girl's forehead.

"All right, you did it!"

"Yes, but I don't know how long I can hold it.  This one is far more powerful
than Jadeite's."

"Then let's go!"

The scouts rushed to the gateway with the cats, half dragging Mercury who was
still concentrating.  Finally, they stopped, several yards away from the
flickering circle.

Raye looked around. "Well, I guess there's no help for it."

Mina looked at her. "What are we waiting for?  I let him go alone once, I'm not
about to make the same mistake again," and the girl leapt through the portal,
disappearing without a trace.

The others exchanged a series of glances, ranging from bemused to openly
annoyed, then followed her, four scouts and two cats throwing themselves into
the darkness.

The portal began to close once more, but at the last moment a blurred black
shape made its way through.  These scouts are going to be the end of me, Darian
thought, not for the first time, as the portal surrounded him.

Back on Earth, the black gate closed, leaving nothing behind.  The moon
continued to shine over the silent houses of the scouts, not knowing that the
fate of the universe for a thousand years might be decided that night.


_	_	_



The two of them walked through the fog, Kaneth breathing in the air of his
native universe with relief.  I have been born and raised here, he thought, I
have lived here most of my life.  And now I will die here.  The realization did
not come with any regret or pain, it was a simple knowledge of meaning in his
life.  He should have died when he had failed to destroy the Chosen, and 
now that destiny would be complete.

The fog seemed to be clearing a bit, the dust particles settling to the ground.
Slowly, a giant arena became visible, a flat dark surface stretching to all
directions for as far as Kaneth could see.  In the center of the space left
visible by the fog, a single figure stood.

The Dark Lord.

He was invisible in the direct sense, no light reflected off him, no light was
made by him.  But his presence could be felt by the feeling of evil that
emanated from the figure, could be seen by the blackness that stopped any
light from coming through from behind him.

"So, you have come."  The voice was grating, but Kaneth took it without
wincing, been used to it.  And the phrase had not been directed toward
him.  Only now the shadowy head turned toward the ex-Negaverse warrior.  "And
you have brought my warrior with you," the Lord continued, then abruptly seemed
to address someone else. "Take them," he spat.

Blotches of darkness appeared to one side, taking shape in the fog.  Shadows,
the darkest creatures in the Negaverse, and loyal minions to the Dark Lord.
They had been gone for over a thousand years, but now they were back, and no
one could stop them.  Almost no one.  Kaneth took a deep breath, then turned to
the Chosen. "They are mine.  Your duty lies with Him."

Nakiad nodded and turned away as Kaneth faced the shadows.  The dark 
minions were moving back and forth, making it difficult to count them, a 
problem aggravated by their blackness. Still, there was no question that there 
were too many of them for him to defeat, even with his maraki blades.

He looked at them calmly, taking a moment to go through his mind.  There was no
clutter, no problems that were his, nothing he could do any more.  He was
ready.

He was ready to die.

With a piercing yell, he pulled out the three blades he retained and launched
himself at the dark shapes.




"Amy, can you really tell anything in this fog?"  Lita asked once more.

Since they had come through the portal, an impenetrable mist had settled over
them, blocking out all sight.  Amy was using her computer to find the area of
greatest disturbance and was leading the scouts there.

"My visor is scanning large energy sources ahead, it can only be them."  Amy
answered once more, unriled.  The darkness was getting on everyone's nerves.

"This is dangerous, you have to watch what you do," Luna reminded them once
more, just to make them aware that she was still there.

Artemis paused. "And remember, in the end, this is the Chosen's fight, you can
do nothing to help him directly."

The group continued on in the dark, traveling much slower than the two who had
gone before.




"Yes, I have come for you," Nakiad answered calmly.

"Fool.  I have grown stronger than the last time, wiser.  And you have used up
your energy in the foolish rescue of your sailor friends, too much energy.
Tell me, how much did you use to save this Sailor Venus?"

Although inside he winced as the truth of the attack, Nakiad forced to keep his
features neutral. It was true, he had wasted energy in that rescue, that was
what the whole capture had been aimed at.  And now he was almost sure he 
would not have enough to defeat the Shadow.  But he would try, as he must.  
"I love her.  That is something you will never be able to understand."

"And that is why you will be defeated even now.  You do not dare to let your
love feel your death."

"I will do what I must."  That much was true.

The dark figure seemed to sneer behind the darkness, then raised its hands.
"Then feel the power of the Negaverse!"

The landscape went dark, all light smothered out as if by a candle. Dark energy
concentrated in a center, the blackness driven toward a central point in the
battleground.

Toward the Dark Lord.

He was gathering all of his evil, all his power into the battle, as the legends
said, as he had done before.  Where stood a black creature before, now was a
darkness so absolute that compared to it, the shadows were a mere gray.

A snarl came from the center. "Your turn."

Nakiad shrugged, almost in relief.  He did not need to use words, not after the
centuries of training and effort, working on his mental discipline.  But just
this once, it seemed appropriate.

He spread his arms slightly, raising his head to look up at the foul sky of the
Negaverse, then opened his mouth.




Behind him, unseen by either of the two combatants, emerged the sailor scouts,
ready for battle.  They had penetrated the sudden darkness with relief,
following Amy, and had found the source of danger.  To one side, Kaneth fought
with shadows, and to the front...

Nakiad stood, his arms spread slightly, as if to say that he did not know
something.

The scouts paused for a moment, and then he said it.

The words were not loud, certainly not a shout, but they contained power beyond
expression.  Filled with the strength of his will, they resonated in the plain,
chasing away darkness and fog.

"UNIVERSAL POWER."

A beam of light as bright as the sun lanced through the center of his 
chest.

It was as if a star had ignited before the scouts, light beams slamming into
the figure, brightening it, giving it good energy to match the Dark
Lord's blackness.  But the light, bright as it was, did not hurt the eyes of
the scouts, it went through them, cleaning away their petty hatred and
jealousies, leaving them to gape at what Nakiad had become.

A figure of pure light, he stood relaxed opposite the Shadow, ready to attack,
ready for anything.  For a moment, he looked back at the scouts and seemed to
sigh, then turned back.

And simultaneously, the two opposing forces, light and dark, good and evil,
sprung at each other, colliding in the middle.

A second flash of power shone over the scouts, the two energies colliding into
a single sphere of energy, two barely visible figures striving against each
other.

Artemis shouted something, but no one heard him, all the scouts concentrating
on the battle.  The cat shouted again. "It is his fight, we cannot help.  We
must aid Kaneth for if he is overwhelmed, then the shadows will turn to help
their lord."

Finally hearing, the scouts obeyed, jumping into the fray.




Kaneth blocked the tendril, severing it with his sword, the shadow fading back
for a moment only to allow ten more to take its place.  He was losing, the
shadows slowly overwhelming his defenses, and despite his three maraki blades,
capable of killing shadows, he was already hurt.  One whole arm was numb, the
energy in it drained, and frost covered several portions of his torso.  He had
lost the two knives in the battle, retaining only his sword, with which he
blocked the attacks desperately.  Nevertheless, he fought on, not giving up,
for he knew that in this final battle, he would die.  The only thing up to him
was the way he died, and he chose that to be honorable.  The Chosen, the person
who had spared his life was the one Kaneth was defending, and for that, the
Negaverse warrior was willing give his life.

Then a tendril wrapped around his wrist, trapping the energy within, and
abruptly his hand went numb. The sword dropped to the floor and he failed to
catch it, another tentacle encircling his torso.

His head went cold, and he sank rapidly through a fog that covered all of his
senses.  So this is what death feels like, he thought quietly with a calmness
that surprised a part of him.  Some voice in his brain yelled at him to get up,
to fight, but he could not.  Slowly, he started to go to sleep, and then a
group of voices reached him through the fog.

"Mars Power!"

"Jupiter Power!"

"Venus Power!"

"Mercury Power!"

"Moon Crystal Power!"

Miraculously, the freezing tendrils disappeared, releasing him, and his
consciousness returned rapidly.  Within a moment, he opened his eyes, staring
at the shadow that had clutched him.

A bubble of energy surrounded it, closing quickly, limiting its powers.  Within
a moment, the shadow was forced to shrink to a size that was insufficient for
it to support itself, and it dissolved, flowing through the energy bubble like
so much more fog, shrieking its rage as it died.

Turning, he saw the sailor scouts standing together around their leader, Sailor
Moon, and began to hope.  While the shadows remained back, not sure about the
new complication, he retrieved the three blades, then distinctly saluted the
scouts, taking up a position in front of them.

They had a chance.




It was not going well.

The battle between Nakiad and the Shadow was not a battle of arms or weapons,
not at first. Before that could come, the two had energy that needed to be
canceled out, and this was the struggle that was taking place.  Pure white
strove against the darkness, the forces clashing, warping the very fabric of
reality, then fading out as they mixed, becoming neutral.  Slowly, the powers
were diminishing in both of them, the brightness of the sphere of conflict
diminishing, and a fact became painfully obvious.

When Nakiad had saved Mina, completely disassembling her atom by atom, then
recreated her back on Earth, he had not really had enough power in himself to
do it.  In order not to lose her, he had used up a chunk of energy that was his
as the Chosen, and now that diminishment was showing through.

He did not have enough energy.

That was the basic fact of it.  At this stage of battle, it was not really
skill that counted, though some ability to channel energy and a lot of
concentration was required.  At that, they both seemed equally adept, and
beyond that, nothing could be done to affect the outcome.

Nakiad would lose.  He knew that now, not having realized until the clash how
much of an advantage the Dark Lord had over him.

A voice in his head told him to give up, but he merely rebelled in response,
continuing to strive for power.  He would not give up until the very end, even
if there was no way to win.  Picturing the suffering the Universe would have to
endure if he lost, he forced himself to go on, hoping against hope.

But he could feel the Dark Lord laughing, for his enemy knew his advantage and
pressed on.




The battle with the shadows was not going well either.

Kaneth was still injured, only able to use two of his hands effectively, and he
could only really battle one shadow at a time.  And the scouts had to
concentrate their collective energy on a single shadow and hold it for a few
moments before it would be destroyed.  The cats were of no use at all, though
they tried to aid as distractions, only ending up needing to be saved.  As a
result, the shadows were overpowering them slowly, attacking, injuring several
of the scouts.

They needed an advantage of some sort, another variable to tip the scales in
their favor.

Abruptly, Serena stumbled, separating from the formation of the scouts, away
from the shield they had managed to erect to protect them a bit against shadow
attacks.  

Immediately, the dark creatures surrounded the princess, separating her further
from the others despite their efforts.

Almost in slow motion, Kaneth saw a shadow descend upon her, ready to drain all
of her energy.  She screamed piercingly, holding her arms up against the
inevitable, and Kaneth knew all was lost.




Darian had been stumbling through the fog since he had first come through the
portal, not seeing anything.  His normal knowledge of Serena's direction did
not work, and he began to worry desperately that she was in some sort of
trouble.  A part of his mind was screaming that she was dead, but he ignored
it.  If that was the case, life would no longer be worth living, and so it must
not be true.  His mind ignored the illogic of it as he tried to see something
in the darkness.

On the other hand, he was apparently in the Negaverse, which meant that his
sense of direction might not work here, dependent as it was on the power of
Earth.  Unfortunately, while this meant that Serena was probably all right, it
also meant that he was lost.

And then he saw the flash of light, visible even through the seemingly
impenetrable veil of darkness, and headed toward it.  Somehow, instinctively,
he knew that the light was good, and staggered on in the general direction
until he came to the clearing.

He did not see the scouts at first, his whole mind taken up by the sphere of
energy with two flickering figures inside of them.  Thus he did not see
Serena's fall until she shrieked.

He reacted immediately, without thinking.  A single hand went into a jacket,
drawing out a rose, then throwing it as hard as it could.  He did not seem to 
aim, but his subconscious must have taken care of that, for the flower flew 
true.

He saw it in mid-flight, questions going through his mind as he ran toward 
the scouts.  Would it work again?  Was it even the same rose the Chosen had 
changed?  His hand had gone automatically, without guidance, he had no
idea if he had thrown the correct flower.

He need not have worried.

As the rose touched the creature, petals first, the shadow shrieked, the 
other creatures flowing back, startled. The flower suddenly ignited into a 
glaring white, but like the white of the Chosen, it did not blind the people 
surrounding it. The rose went all the way through the creature, leaving a 
glowing white hole in the shape of the petals in its wake.  The creature 
clutched its middle, collapsing, then seemed to pull itself together, moving 
away, severely, if not mortally, wounded.

Suddenly, Tuxedo Mask had a vision of the rose going on behind the ring of
shadows, not recoverable, and he had no more.  Raising his  hand, he
concentrated, knowing it was not something a rose could usually do, but hoping
for a miracle.

The rose, already back to its normal red, suddenly sparkled, then veered
sharply, returning to Darian's hand. He grasped the stem gratefully, finally
reaching the scouts and Kaneth.  Together, they stood, and the shadows
faded back a little.




The Dark Lord snarled again, pressing on his victory, then he noticed
something.  Where once only one stood against the shadows, now was a group.
With a start, he recognized the Sailor Scouts and, the former Prince Darian of Earth
dressed in a strange suit, but recognizable.

And they were defeating the warriors.  Kaneth and Darian defended the scouts,
the latter having embedded a rose into the tip of his cane, a rose that seemed
capable of damaging shadows.  The Shadow glared at the Chosen through the veil
of conflicting energy, recognizing that it was Nakiad who had altered the 
rose so it could harm the black minions.

At the same time, Kaneth held off the enemies from the other side with his
blades, leaving glaring white cuts on the black flesh of the shadows.  From
the protection of the two, the scouts stood in formation and fired energy
bubbles that slowly encircled and destroyed the shadows, one by one.

The Dark Lord tried to come up with the scenario that would come from all of
this, but there were so many variables that it was impossible to predict the
outcome.

If the shadows were defeated, they would not be able to come to his aid,
something that might be needed in case the battle ended up in ordinary combat.
Technically, that would be cheating, but the shadows were in some ways part of
him, so the rules of balance would be only bent, not broken.

At the same time, if the scouts won, they might disregard the balance if they
knew their friend would die.  Although he had never experienced anything like
loyalty or friendship, the Dark Lord did understand the concept, and knew it
was a powerful driving force.

In the end, he decided, their motives could not be trusted, since they just
might risk the destruction of both universes merely to save a friend.
Therefore, he needed some way of getting rid of them, or at least occupying
them until the Chosen was destroyed, and he, the Dark Lord had prevailed.

His mind searched the Negaverse, searching for an ally.  He needed someone
powerful enough to at least hold the scouts back, while at the same time not so
strong as to challenge his power.

For a moment, his thoughts lingered on Queen Beryl, but it would have taken too
much power to bring her back, destroyed as she was by the Imperium Silver
Crystal.  Then he found what he was looking for.

They had been destroyed by their own side, therefore easy for him to retrieve
for a time.

And together, they were stronger than the scouts, he remembered that from the
Silver Millennium.

He laughed to himself as his mind cast outward, concentrating energy.




Nakiad felt his sudden change of attitude, and felt that the Dark Lord was
about to retrieve creatures to fight on his side.  And the Chosen prepared his
own energy to intercept that of his enemy, knowing that the creatures the Dark
Lord would summon would probably destroy the scouts.  Nakiad knew that stopping
the summoning would take up the rest of his energy, and would mean his death,
but he had no choice.  If he did not stop it, the scouts would die.

But the two enemies were close now, in some ways overlapping.  And Nakiad felt
the thoughts of the other, felt his intentions.  For a moment, his mind froze
in astonishment, and then he did a very strange thing.

Hiding it very carefully from the Dark Lord, he laughed.

Suddenly, the energy advantage that the Shadow had was lost, used up in the
resurrection of his allies, and the two were on equal siding once more.

You might not know this, Nakiad thought silently at the sailor scouts, but you 
have given me a chance.  He does not know what events happened here, and so 
he made this mistake, he told the scouts, careful not to reveal his thoughts.

/You have given the Universe a chance./




Sweaty and tired, Raye faced the remaining shadows along with the rest of the
scouts, ready to call upon her power once more.  Her energy was almost
completely exhausted, along with the rest of the scouts' energy, and they were
barely holding their own.  But by her count, there were only six or seven
shadows left, and, with the help of Darian and Kaneth, they would prevail.

Then she felt something, a subtle trace of power that came through despite the
sphere of conflict blinding her senses.  The shadows shrank back as well,
obviously feeling it as well, retreating to figure out what was going on.

As one, the scouts, their protector, and the Negaverse warrior turned to one
side.

Four figures were forming, four humanoid figures.

The first appeared fully formed, a layer of some transparent material
dissolving from his skin.

The second formed out of sparkling dust, flowing together to create a figure.

A flurry of flower petals twisted in a non existent wind, twirling, forming a
third.

Blue bubbles of energy appeared, coming together in a vaguely humanoid form,
then changed into a person.

The four stood in a semicircle, ready for battle.

And Raye knew who they were.

Jadeite.

Nephlyte.

Zoicite.

Malachite.

The Four Generals appeared in battle stances, ready to throw themselves
into the fray.

A part of Nakiad watched while he battled the Dark Lord, for the Chosen was
almost certain that the summoning of them was a mistake.

He hoped he was correct.




He was free!

After an unknown time, frozen in the agony of the crystal, feeling pain
every single moment without being able to do anything, he was finally able to
move.  His mind screamed joy in his head, shrieking madness at the same time.
He had never expected himself to be free of the crystal, and he had given in
somewhat over time, letting his mind go as it wanted, anything to stop
insanity.  

He was already mad, though he did not realize it.

And he was unable to cope with the imprisonment, not being able to set his mind
on a single focus as another might have, he had merely screamed silently inside 
his head, hoping for only one thing, for an end to it.

Now, he thought, now I shall wreak vengeance upon the Queen and all who stand
in my way.  His mind refused to process the knowledge that Queen Beryl could
have destroyed him with a thought, and he had no knowledge of her demise.

He forced his eyes into focus, slow because of the time they had spent staring 
into a point several inches away from him.  They had been frozen along with the 
rest of him at the point of impact, and it was difficult to move, but his hatred 
was strong, and his insanity gave him power.

The scene resolved itself into startling clarity.

In front of him, five figures stood in a type of outfit he knew all too well.
They were surrounded by some other figures, but his brain filtered them out, he
no longer had the capacity for logic.  The only things he saw were the five
scouts.

Five? His mind groped for an answer, Five? He mouthed the words as if they were
vile.  How could there be five, a portion of his brain asked him, but he did
not care.  He recognized the uniforms, and that was all that mattered.

"You did this to me!" He shrieked, launching himself at the five scouts.




Nephlyte opened his eyes for the first time in what felt like an eternity.  He
remembered nothing since the moment of his death, nothing but peace and
contentment.  He had been free of the burden of evil, he had felt love.  He had
heard Molly say she loved him, he had heard her laugh.  And he had seen her
cry with the rest of the scouts when he had died.

He had gone to death content.

And now he could feel again, he could see again.  He opened his eyes, focusing
them easily.  For a few moments, he saw Molly once more, and he whispered her
name gently.  Then he realized he was somewhere else, back in the Negaverse.
With detachment, he saw someone, Jadeite, he recognized, launch himself at a
group of  white clad girls, hate plainly written on his snarl.

Nephlyte did nothing.  This did not concern him, he knew none of the people 
involved well enough to care.

Then Tuxedo Mask turned, crying out at one of the girls. "Serena!"  The
voice, full of anguish reached Nephlyte, and the world blurred around the
general.  Serena became Molly and Tuxedo Mask became himself.

His body reacted before conscious thought, a crystal knife materializing in his
hand.  Before he really knew what happened, the knife left his hand and slammed
itself into Jadeite's side.

Then the thoughts hit Nephlyte.  

Serena was Molly's friend.  

If she died, he would be hurting Molly.  

The thoughts seemed to take a long time to travel through his mind.

Tuxedo Mask loved Serena.  

He loved Molly.  

Nephlyte could not let anyone suffer as Molly did when I died.

Molly is good.

I love her.

And he reached the conclusion, almost too far from normal for his mind to
grasp. "I am not evil," he whispered in wonder.

At the same moment, he slammed into Jadeite, just as the other general was
getting up.  As the two locked together in combat, Nephlyte looked into the
other's eyes.

Full of hate and rage, Jadeite's eyes burned into Nephlyte's memory, the 
absence of humanity etching themselves onto Nephlyte's soul.




Miscalculating Nephlyte's loyalty and Jadeite's sanity were the first mistakes
the Dark Lord had made.  The other error was in the way the generals
materialized.

They started out in a semicircle, Nephlyte and Jadeite in the center, facing
the Sailor Scouts ahead of them.

Zoicite and Malachite appeared on the ends of the semicircle, facing each
other, not the scouts.

With astonishment, Malachite gazed at his love, whom he expected never to see
again other than in death.

"Zoicite", he whispered, the name catching in his throat.

But Malachite's love heard him, staring at him from across the distance.

"Malachite," the other responded with the same love, and they rushed into each
others arms, ignoring their surroundings for a few moments.

That was all the time the scouts needed to adjust to the new situation and
prepare to defend themselves against the new threats.  They turned so that
Serena was facing both threats, the shadows and the four generals.

Then Kaneth snarled at them, still slashing at the black creatures. "I'll
handle the shadows, you take care of the generals!"  And, in fact, he did seem
to be in control, with only four shadows remaining who faded back from his
strikes, fearing for their lives.  But the call of their leader was strong, and
they had to continue to attack, unable to flee from the battle.

"He's right," Darian agreed, pulling the altered rose from his cane and putting
it away. "He can handle it.  We have to get through those generals."

"Ooooo.... How did they get here, anyway?," exclaimed a very annoyed Serena, "I
thought we toasted them."

Amy was busy tapping away at her computer, scanning the four with her visor.
She shook her head, baffled. "Apparently, they are back, just as powerful as
ever, except they do not have the energy of Queen Beryl behind them."

Darian took out a bunch of roses, crouching down a little. "Those two," he
indicated Zoicite and Malachite, "won't be absorbed in each other forever. When
they see what's up, I'll handle Zoicite, you just take care of Malachite."

Lita glanced at him briefly. "What about the other two?"

Serena turned to her. "Don't worry, Nephlyte is on out side," I hope, she added
to herself, then continued aloud, "he saved me from Jadeite."

Lita shook her head, baffled, but let it go.

At the same time, Malachite lifted his head. "The Sailor Scouts!" He snarled
the words, lifting his hand.

"And Cape-Boy!" Zoicite shrieked, separating from the other and getting ready.
The two exchanged a glance and launched themselves into battle.




Zoicite and Darian fenced for a few moments, neither gaining an advantage, the
general's crystal sword blocked by the prince's cane, and Tuxedo Mask's roses
buffeted aside by whirlwinds of petals.

"Give it up, cape-boy," the general snarled as they circled each other, "I
defeated you before and I can do it again."

Darian smiled, forcing the words to come lightly from his mouth.  In truth, his
battle with the shadows had weakened him, and the general seemed stronger 
than before. "Only by trickery and deceit did you hurt me that time, and, as
I recall from my stay in the Negaverse, you got killed for trying to fry me."

"Well, I'm here now," Zoicite snarled, "and I'm backed by the strength of the
Dark Lord.  Nothing can stop me, especially not you.  You've interfered with my
life for the last time."

So that was why the other was so strong, Darian thought, the Dark Lord must 
have given his minions some of his power.  The prince blocked another blow 
from the crystal sword, wincing a bit as his right shoulder screamed pain.  It 
had been brushed by a shadow tendril, and most of the energy had left it 
for a few moments.  Though he had regained control over it, it hurt.

The general laughed. "Looks painful, cape-boy." 

Darian twisted aside from a blow, wishing the general would not call him that.

Zoicite was continuing, unmindful of the prince's thoughts. "If you recall, 
the last time we fought, we you had an injured shoulder as well."  Darian 
winced again, realizing that the shadow had touched the exact same place.
The coincidence was startling.  "And, if I remember correctly, I gave that 
wound to you that time."

Darian remembered that it was his turn, the verbal by-play of the two had 
carried on too often to be abandoned now. "You only hurt me by cheating 
that time, and, if _I_ recall, that was the day before your... demise."  He
grinned at the other and the general snarled.  Glad he was able to make the
other respond emotionally, Darian followed it up with a query that was 
not very well thought through, but one that had been on the tip of his 
tongue for a while. "How come you are back, anyway?  I thought you 
were dead."

Zoicite stopped attacking for a moment, the sword lowered. "Actually I don't
know," for a moment the normally jeering voice was thoughtful, then the general
continued. "I'm just glad I have the chance to rid my self of you.  Forever!"

With that, the crystal sword suddenly came up, too fast, and as Darian 
tried to wrench his cane to respond, his shoulder shrieked in pain.  He blinked
watching the black cane roll soundlessly on the ground, too far for him
to reach.

Zoicite stood over him, sword raised and ready two strike. "Now.... Now, you
will die."




The five scouts faced Malachite, tired expressions on their faces.  They had
been using their energy to fight the shadows, and had not expected to have
another challenge so soon.  Nevertheless, despite their low strength, they put
on a brave front.

"You'll wish you never came back, Negatrash," Lita exclaimed, readying to
attack, then faltered as she realized that she had barely enough energy for 
one thunderbolt, not nearly enough for a Thunder Dragon.  Looking around, 
she saw similarly grim faces on the other scouts, confirming that all of them 
were having the same problem.

Except for Serena.  She was as ready for a fight as he had ever been,
remembering the amount of pain Malachite cost her before.  The Imperium Silver
Crystal was somewhat drained, but of only of one aspect of its power, and 
the force that made her Sailor Moon, the force that powered her Tiara was 
intact.  Though the disk had failed her before, it worked now again, she
had tested it carefully during the free time the scouts had had.  The very
short free time.

Serena shook off that thought and glared at the general, going into one of 
her standard poses, ready for  attack. "Yeah, we have beaten you before, and 
we will do so again!  I am Sailor Moon, the champion of justice!  And I- hey," 
Serena yelped as Raye slammed into her, pushing the princess out of the way 
of an energy blast.

Malachite laughed. "You've defeated me once, but this time, I have the power of
the Shadow behind me.  And you are tired from your fight.  And, unlike the last
time we met, I will not make foolish mistakes.  Now, face the power of the
Negaverse!  Ha!"  He yelled, releasing spheres of explosive energy.

The scouts dodged aside as the balls of power exploded around them.  Several of
the girls felt licks of fire against their skin, only realizing a second later that
they had been injured.

"Oh yeah?," Raye exclaimed, holding one hand against her side where red stained
the white uniform.   "Well, take this." She breathed in, aware that she would
get only one shot. "Mars Fire..." She felt her power ebb, and finished
quickly. "Ignite!"

A red lance of flames sped from her fingers to Malachite's torso and hit him,
bathing him in fire.

Looking almost bored, the general closed his eyes, a black aura surrounding him
for a moment.  The fires flickered and died out, wiped from his uniform by the
energy he had summoned.  Raye stared with astonishment at an undamaged and
slightly amused Malachite. "You try that old trick with me?  Ha!"  With an
almost negligent move, he hurled a bolt of energy at her, and as she tried to
move, her energy dissipated and she felt her scout powers exhausted.  As she
began to fall, another figure spun her away from the path of the impact, saving
her.

"Are you all right, Raye?" A worried Lita was staring at her face.

She frowned and shook her head. "I've used up the last of my powers.  Sorry."

Meanwhile, Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury were attacking simultaneously, a
blast of light and bubbles impacting upon the stationary figure.

Malachite laughed again as an invisible shield absorbed their power, and
watched them slowly collapse to the ground, their energy spent.  He felt
something off to one side, and saw a lance of lightning approaching.  Relaxed,
he stayed there, waiting for it to hit, then deflected it to the ground at the
last moment.  Four down, one to go, he thought with a bitter smile.




Serena's eyes filled with tears as she watched the other scouts fail. "Amy,
Mina, Lita, Raye," the girl whispered, "my friends."  A black cat nudged her
ankle.

"They are still alive, Serena.  We are counting on you."  But Luna looked
frightened.

Without a further word, Luna leapt at Malachite along with Artemis.

Serena swallowed hard, determined not to be defeated like her friends. 
While the cats distracted him, she took off her tiara.  It did not have
the power of the scepter, but she had used that energy for fighting the
shadows. The fragile tiara was her last hope, and although it had failed her
before, she believed in it.

"Moon Tiara..."  She whispered so that he would not hear. "Magic."

The tiara flared with energy and leapt out of her hand.  Malachite did
not seem to see it, concentrating on getting the cats off him, then seemed to
catch a glimpse of the glowing disk out of the corner of his eyes.  Too 
late, he turned, just in time for the tiara to smash into his unprotected 
chest.

"Yes-!"  Serena began to exclaim, then watched in horror.

The tiara bounced off Malachite's chest, landing on the ground as a golden
disc.  He picked it up, protecting himself against its energy with a force
field around his fingers. "You were perhaps aiming at me?," he asked
dangerously.  "Next time, try harder!"  and he sent every ounce of negative
energy he had into the disk, overloading its power.  In a split second the
tiara changed from a brilliant shining gold to a twisted black color. "Let's
see how well you can stand against your own power."  Without warning, he hurled
the tiara back at Sailor Moon, her eyes widening as she realized what had
just happened.  Then all was blackness.




The general watched as the disk hit the sailor, draining her energy and
reversing her transformation.  She collapsed to the ground, the disk reverting
to its normal tiara shape, the dark energy coming back to Malachite.  The
general looked at the other scouts, all exhausted, with no more energy to fight
him with.  With a thought, he created a blast of air that flung the bodies of
the scouts into one area, easier of him to destroy.  Only feet away, Tuxedo
Mask fell, about to be impaled by a crystal sword, and Malachite decided
the deaths of these heroes would be simultaneous.  Without remorse, he raised
his hands, gathering enough energy to vaporize the whole group.

"Dark Energy..." He began.




Kaneth chopped off the tentacle, then came in, slashing several times at the
main body of the shadow.  The dark form began to dissolve, the last of the
creatures dying with a shriek.  It faded, the damage too great to repair, tried
to grasp at Kaneth, then disappeared completely.  The warrior sighed in relief,
sheathing his sword and letting his guard down for a moment.  Then he looked
around for the scouts...

And saw the group with Malachite standing over them.  A yard or two to the
side, Zoicite raised a sword up, an expression of pure hatred on the general's
face as the crystal sword was preparedto  plunge into the black form on 
the ground.

Malachite glanced over at his love, then raised his hands. "Dark Energy.." He
began, and, without thinking, Kaneth found himself yelling out.

"No!"

The two hesitated, looking at him as he ran towards the two.

Zoicite snarled. "You are one of the Lesser Generals, you have no authority
over us.  Only the Dark Lord can order us now."  The general looked back and
Kaneth drew his sword in frustration, unsure what to do.

This time, it was Malachite who looked up. "Fool.  You have no power over us
with that weapon.  Leave before we kill you too."

There had to be a way to convince them, Kaneth thought. "Wait," he yelled
again. "I have authority.  I have been in command of the Negaverse army."

Malachite glanced at him. "Past tense, so you no longer are.  Do you have any
other precedence?" he asked sarcastically. Kaneth swallowed and looked down.

Then another voice came.   A bright sphere of light
appeared in front of the two generals. 

Zoicite snarled again. "The Chosen has no authority over us, he is from 
the-"

Suddenly, Malachite raised his hand, silencing his love. "Very well.  The
Chosen is one of the greater powers of the universes, and though we are not
subordinate to him, it behooves us to listen. Speak, but we will have no
compulsion to obey, right my love?"  He gestured to Zoicite and the other
nodded, though still angry at him for interrupting.

Kaneth's mind whirled, now that he had their attention, he did not know what to
say.  Looking over to the scouts, he noticed with relief that they were alive,
just without energy and being held captive by some force, probably
Malachite's.

Kaneth swallowed, a decidedly human habit that he had somehow picked up over
the years.  Suddenly, a voice came directly into his head.   It was Guardian, Kaneth realized with a start, and the 'he' could
only refer to the Chosen. 

His mind suddenly cleared, an idea coming to him, and Kaneth took a deep
breath.




Nakiad faced the dark Lord, feeling his powers and those of his enemy
begin to fade, cancelled out.  The other snarled, realizing that by 
summoning the four generals, he had given the Chosen a chance to win.  
Still, the Shadow reasoned, the generals would defeat the scouts and 
come to his aid, then he would triumph ultimately.

Nakiad, too knew this, but it did not matter. He had been given a chance to
defeat the evil, defeat it forever, or banish it for millenia.  That Nakiad would
die doing either did not bother him, not any more.

Then he saw it, at the same time as his opponent, the astonishment leaking
through the barrier of energy between them.  They watched, still fighting, as
Jadeite went down under Nephlyte, and watched as the scouts organized an 
attack against the other two generals.

The Shadow snarled across the thik curtain of energy that separated them.
"They are still stronger than the scouts, as they are.  I will yet win this
day."  With an effort of hate, he flung more energy at the Chosen, Nakiad
somewhat shaken.

For the Dark Lord was right, and Nakiad watched with a part of his mind as
Malachite and Zoicite defeated their opponents.  Then the Chosen felt
something, another variable.

Kaneth.

The warrior was trying to argue with the two, stop them from attacking.

There was nothing Nakiad could do, he had to use all of his energy for the
battle at hand, and he watched with despair and Malachite threw aside Kaneth's
claim, and prepared to kill the scouts.

Then the Chosen thought of something.  He could do nothing _directly_.

With an effort of will, he concentrated. 

That was all he could do, and Nakiad turned back to his fight.




Malachite waited, then frowned. "Speak, or I will vaporize you where you
stand."

And Kaneth found his voice. "Fools!"  He spat at the others, noting with
satisfaction and a bit of dread how they reacted, shifting their anger toward
him. "Do you not realize what is happening?"

Malachite looked at him. "We have been summoned to help the Lord, and that is
what we are doing."  He answered for Zoicite as well, it was obvious that he
was in charge.  And Kaneth had to convince him.

"Yes, but you have been summoned only for a short period of time, released from
death." Malachite looked at the Dark Lord, occupied in the battle. "When you
are done, he will send you back, even if he wins.  And he will not, for you can
see that the two of them are equal," Kaneth referred to the Chosen and the Dark
Lord, "and their power will end.  Once they will be done, the forces holding
you here will not be there any more, and you will be sent back once more.  To
die."

Malachite's eyes flared. "All the more reason to kill our enemies now."  He
raised his hand, Zoicite doing the same.

They did not see. Kaneth looked at them with pity. "Do you really want to die
alone, in a battle with your enemies, filled with hatred again?"  The two
exchanged a glance. "Don't you understand?  When you died for the first time,
you each died alone, filled with hate and rage, and you never felt peace after
death." He knew by their expressions that he was scoring. "Now, you have a
chance to change all of that, you have a second chance.  You can go ahead and
kill the scouts and Tuxedo Mask, and get sent back to oblivion in hatred."
They looked at him with understanding now. "Or you can let the Sailor Scouts
live, set your loathing for them aside, and spend your last moments together,
as you did not have the chance before."

The two of them looked at him with strange expressions on their faces.
Malachite turned slowly to Zoicite, then turned back, obviously about to say
something, and Kaneth stopped him.

"You can die in each other's arms, with love," he finished. "And you can rest
in peace."

The two looked at each other.

"Malachite," Zoicite whispered.

"My love," he answered, letting the energy in his hands dissipate into the air.
Zoicite dropped the chunk of crystal, coming into his arms.

For them, the rest of the universe ceased to exist.

Kaneth almost collapsed to the ground in relief, but a strong hand held him
up.

"You did well," someone said behind him.  Kaneth turned to see Nephlyte, 
the general injured but alive.  Behind him, Jadeite lay on the ground, most 
of his chest covered with orange blood, with chunks of crystal embedded
in the wound.  After a moment, his chest rose and fell, showing he, too, 
was still alive.

Kaneth and Nephlyte helped the scouts and Darian up from the ground, carefully
avoiding the two lovers standing still on the field.  Then everyone turned to
the sphere of battle.

It was shivering, fading, breaking up.  Abruptly, with a blast of light and
power, it shattered, blinding everyone for a moment.  Then the two contenders
were revealed, standing almost face to face.





Mina drew in her breath in surprise, seeing them together.

The emotion was justified.  The two looked like brothers in many ways.  
Both had dark brown hair, light skin, similar facial features.  The Dark Lord 
wore a black robe that concealed everything, and in general appearance was
very similar to Nakiad's gi.   And the way they stood was very similar, both
remained well balanced, they were ready for anything.

At the same time, they were almost complete opposites.  The Dark Lord's face
was lined with wrinkles along the sides of his chin and along his forehead, as
if he spent much of his time frowning, an expression that led to a perpetual
scowl.  His face was contorted with hate, adding to the effect, and his
eyes flashed anger.

In contrast, the Chosen's face was calm, almost serene.  There was no question
that he was ready for anything, and ready to fight, but he showed no tension,
just a calm view of the situation.

Seeing them like that, Mina almost screamed, sure that the Dark Lord would leap
at her love madly, and not sure for a moment that Nakiad would be able to stop
such a mad attack.

Without thinking, she felt power surging through her despite her earlier
exhaustion. "Venus.."

She never got any further as three claws suddenly dug into her foot, deep
enough to draw blood.  She yelped a bit, then looked down to see a very angry
Artemis.  He shook his head. "This is his fight.  You cannot help him now,
especially not in your condition." Abruptly, Mina's tiredness returned to her
and she almost collapsed again, held up by Lita who was standing behind her.
The cat looked at her again. "We can only watch and hope he wins."





Nakiad was aware peripherally of the group's attention to the battle, but
he forced the knowledge from his mind.  All that mattered was the fight,
everything else must came second, he told himself.

The Dark Lord reached opened one hand, so similar to his own, and, for the
second time in his life, Nakiad witnessed the appearance of the Shadow's
blade.

The sword coalesced out of burning orange particles, forming in the other's
hand.  It was a straight sword, over a yard and a half in length, meant to be
wielded with both hands.  The blade showed the eerie not-quite-metal quality of
maraki, and the handle seemed to glow from within with a subdued red.

The Chosen smiled to himself, drawing his own two swords, seemingly small and
pitiful compared to the blade of the Shadow.  But both the fighters knew better.

While the Dark Lord waited according to protocol, Nakiad concentrated on the
two swords.  Then, without looking, he brought them together with a
thunderclap, slamming the two handles together, the blades extended to 
either side.

The two handles met and seemed to meld, becoming part of each other, then the
length of the metal blades began to shimmer.  As the assorted people watched,
the two swords morphed, becoming a single length of material.

For the second time in his life, he summoned the weapon, as awed by the
change as he had been the first time.

A plain, wooden stave appeared, a meter and a half in length, a bit over an
inch in thickness.  No metal emerged from it, no blades, no sharp edges.  Yet
it possessed the power of maraki, and was a match for the Dark Lord's 
sword.

He raised the staff in a traditional manner, almost presenting it to his enemy.
The Dark Lord laughed bitterly. "Let it begin, then, puppy."

With a snarl, he attacked, swinging the length of the sword easily, as if it
weighed nothing.  The Chosen blocked easily enough, but the blow jarred him.

Blocking was harder than he expected.  The simple wood of the staff 
seemed pitifully inadequate to stop the biting of the metal sword, but it held, 
flexing only slightly at impact.  It was Nakiad himself who was inadequate
to the weapon's potential.

Keeping the pressure on, the Shadow growled in his face. "Yes, Chosen," he spat
the word, "I am better now.  I will not underestimate you like I did before.  I
will not make the same mistake."  They traded blows, neither emerging for the
better. Nakiad forced emotion out of himself, concentrating on the fight as the
Shadow continued. "And the last time, you were not injured."  

Nakiad was not surprised, he knew that the Shadow must have known 
everything that had passed.

But the Dark Lord seemed to see something in the Chosen's face, to which
the Shadow replied. "Did you you think to hide it from me?  I know how Mina attacked
you, and I know that your back is not healed."

The Shadow grinned twistedly, looking Nakiad in the eye while stopping his
attacks for a moment, then finished.  "Wounded, tired, and with no hope of
survival.  Even if you win, you can not possibly emerge the victor!"





"Nakiad."  The name came out as a whisper, and without thinking, Mina moved
forward, her body reacting to her need to help him.

Then, without warning, she stopped.  Some sort of wall was in front of her,
blocking her progress.  As the girl extended her hand, her fingers slowly 
stopped from a vague resistance, like the pressure from a magnet.  After a 
few feet, she could not press any further.

She looked back at the rest of the group, and several came up to feel the
impassable wall.   Then Mina felt something strange tugging at her
subconscious, and without thinking, she opened her hand, grasping her power
stick out of its dimension.

It was pulsating slowly, lit from within with a soft orange glow. The rest of
the scouts took their power sticks out as well, finding that they, too, glowed
with the color of the planet.

Then she felt the stick begin to vibrate.



Mina shook her head.  Did she hear that?  The words seemed to come from the
four sticks simultaneously.  Looking around, she saw the rest of the group
standing around with bemused expressions on their faces, so they must have
heard the voices.



The voices were authoritative, barring any objections, but Mina gathered her
courage. "Who are you?"  She asked, feeling a bit strange talking to the source
of her power.



And the giant, echoing voices identified themselves in turn.









Then something hit Mina, their last statement. "Wait," she almost begged, 
"that isn't fair.  When the Dark Lord kidnapped the scouts, was that not
interference?"

The voices sounded almost apologetic this time. 

"Then what about the shadows?"  Mina noticed the argument was left for her, the
others not interfering.



"But they would have attacked him later, when they got rid of us."

The voices seemed to sigh.   Abruptly, the pen ceased to vibrate and dimmed,
returning to normal.  But when Mina reached a hand toward the fight, the wall
remained, blocking her.

"Nakiad," she whispered once more.




The fight was not going well.

Nakiad almost smiled at the irony.  For a millennium, he had practiced 
against the best of mankind, and never lost a battle with an enemy.  Now, 
over the course of two days, he was losing the second fight.  True, with
Kaneth, he had managed to win in the end, but only by letting himself 
get wounded.

And now, he was losing once more.

It was a combination of things.  Though Nakiad had a millennium to practice
combat, particularly this type, the Dark Lord was immortal.  He had studied the
martial arts for eons.  The gap between their skills was slight, but it was
there, and it was dangerous.

At the same time, the Chosen had not had enough time to heal from his wounds.
His side was mostly fine despite the maraki blade that had pierced it.
Kaneth's knife had not penetrated any major organs, and had even missed 
most muscles.

The wound to his back was a far more serious matter.  Every time he moved with
force, his spine sent a twinge of pain to his brain.  At first, he was able to
ignore that, but as the fight went on, the pain became more and more
pronounced. But it was not just the pain, that he could block out.  The signals
he was getting were not just coming from nowhere, they meant something.  In
this case, they meant something was wrong, and his back might fail.

And the Dark Lord seemed to strike every blow in a way that reverberated along
the Chosen's spine, though it was probably just luck.

Looking at the other's savage grin, Nakiad realized it was not just chance
that was guiding the other's hand.  The Shadow knew of the wound, and was
specifically attacking that weak point, hoping that the Chosen would just
collapse.

As a particularly strong stab of pain came from blocking a blow, Nakiad 
realized just how vulnerable he was, and altered his fighting to keep the 
strikes from affecting that part of him.  Unfortunately, that limited his combat 
even more, providing the Dark Lord more opportunities for hitting him.  As if 
by magic, a cut appeared on Nakiad's arm, blood welling up from a minor 
wound.  In a moment, the blood clotted and the wound stopped bleeding, 
but the Shadow continued grinning.




Clutching at the invisible wall, Mina almost yelled out when Nakiad got cut.
At the last moment, however, she felt a flash of energy from her power stick,
and her throat failed to make any sound.  Glaring at her source of power, she
dismissed it back to its pocket dimension, turning back to the fight.

And gasping again as a blow from the sword came at Nakiad's side while his
stave was too far to block it.  At the last moment, he gathered himself into a
crouch, doing a complete backflip to get out of the way, and remaining upright
at the end.  The move cost him, the sword making another cut on one of is 
legs.





Nakiad glared at his opponent as the other grinned wickedly, continuing to
advance.  To add to the fact that Nakiad was losing, the Shadow also kept 
up a running commentary to get the Chosen mentally off balance.

"You can't win, you know.  Even if you had a chance of beating me, you could
never kill yourself.  Just look at you love out there, can you really
disappoint her by dying?  Can you leave her?"

Nakiad blocked again, furiously. "I can because I _must_." He replied
through clenched teeth.  The wounds so far were not serious, but they cut down
his ability to fight.  That, in addition to the bad back, almost assured the
Dark Lord victory.  But Nakiad had a few tricks up his sleeve yet.

The Shadow grinned at the answer, effortlessly blocking a wild attack to his
head. "What kind of an statement is that? 'You can 'cause you must,'" he
taunted the other, "that doesn't mean anything.  Just think about it, your
love, left all alone to fend for herself, all those men on earth, ready to take
adv-"  Furiously, Nakiad struck at him, a blow the other easily blocked, then
returned with a cut the Chosen barely dodged.

Calm yourself, he thought, he is trying to get you angry.

And he was succeeding, another part of him thought as Nakiad forced 
himself to calmness.  Relax, try to think of a plan.

Sure, easy for you to say, the sarcastic part of his brain retorted.




Suddenly, a blow landed that shocked the Chosen's back once more, too
much so.  He collapsed, clutching at his back, almost dropping the staff.
Stiff in pain, he looked up at the Shadow in anger. "Damn you," he whispered,
trying to move aside.

The Dark Lord laughed. "Fool!  Do you think your measly tricks will work on me?
Your back is damaged, not broken."  Without waiting, he struck with the sword,
the Chosen scrambling away at the last minute.

The Shadow smiled to himself.  The Chosen had to be getting desperate to
try to fool the Dark Lord with lies.  Grinning to himself, the Dark Lord 
changed his attack.   Instead of a hard to get killing blow, he concentrated
on the staff, striking it time after time in the same place, as hard as he could.

The Chosen retreated in a circle, forced back because of his wounds, slowly
losing ground.  The blows came hard now, and the Shadow noticed with
satisfaction that the other did not give as much on each blow, leaving the
staff to take the impact.

Grinning, he continued.




The scouts along with their unlikely companions watched as the Dark Lord beat
Nakiad back, forcing the man down. Mina could almost feel the strikes smashing 
at the staff, reverberating through the other's body,  She closed her eyes for 
a moment, forcing the image out of her mind, then looked again.  It was still
there, the Chosen getting obviously desperate as his hands clutched at the
staff, blocking.  Mina remembered the wounds his hands had gotten, and wondered
if they were completely healed.




They were, just about.  But that slight difference between whole skin and
almost whole skin was being felt with every strike of the other's sword.

Nakiad retreated, getting more desperate every moment.  Several parts of him
hurt for different reasons, pain he ignored.  It would not matter after this
fight anyway, he thought, one way or the other.  He forced movement into his
tired muscles, coming back with strikes the other blocked almost
disdainfully.

The Dark Lord was definitely much better, Nakiad thought ruefully as the blows
continued.  For some reason he felt no resentment for that, no anger at the
other being better than he.  There was just calmness, a kind of grim peace
before death.  He knew it was coming, he knew he would not survive this last
fight.  But he would continue to try until the last, until he was dead.  A
brief glimpse of the scouts, looking at him, affirmed this belief, and he
continued.

For the first time in over a millennium, his staff crackled as the sword hit it
again.  It did not break, but neither did it flex the way it was supposed to.
A twinge of pain went through the Chosen's body as a plan suddenly materialized
inside his head.

It was suicide, a part of his brain told him.

Do you have any other ideas? another part of him asked, as he thought
desperately.




Mina gasped as the staff cracked audibly, the Shadow laughing as it did.  He
stood before the other, ready to attack once more.

"Now, die, pest!"

With emphatic force, the Dark Lord slammed the sword against the staff.

The Chosen stumbled back as a crack of sound and light whipped through the
field, then cleared.  He stood, ready to fight against a grinning Dark Lord,
but no longer with a staff.  Each hand held a piece, broken in the middle.

He collapsed.




The pain hit him as he felt the staff give way, break into two.  He managed to
turn the attack aside at the last moment, collapsing as he did.

The pain raged inside his chest, as if what was broken were himself.  He had
used that staff for over a thousand years, and it was part of him in a way that
was more than psychological.  Physically, they were bonded together, 
almost as two living creatures could be, though it would be difficult to call 
the staff alive.  At the same time, it was not a lifeless piece of wood, no more 
than his suit was a piece of leather.  Both were part of him, an intrinsic part 
that was necessary to his survival.

And now the staff was broken.

He did not quite fall to the ground, but did stoop to a crouch, holding the two
segments by their ends.  The Shadow laughed, raising its sword in victory as
Nakiad looked up through eyes blurred by pain.

A rage went through him, a hate the likes of which he had not felt for a
millennium, a fire that threatened to consume his soul.  But he fought it,
chaining it with his mind, controlling it, forcing it into a single path.

For a moment, for him, time froze.  The Dark Lord stood over him, readying to
end his life.  The scouts, with Darian, Kaneth and Nephlyte stood behind the
shield they could not penetrate, all with expressions of pain and fear on their
faces.  And he, himself, Nakiad, the Chosen, was kneeling in front of his
opponent.

Kneeling.

Giving up.

Never!  He screamed in his mind.  

The Dark Lord seemed to freeze, perhaps seeing something wrong, but it was too
late.

The two fragments of the staff morphed for the second time, melding and
altering.  In the time between one heartbeat and the next, they returned to
what they were before.

Two swords.

Their blades flashed, a material not quite like steel revealed to everyone.

The Dark Lord moved, trying to bring his sword around.

Too late.  I will not fail again, the Chosen cried in his mind.

Without hesitation, without doubt, the Chosen launched himself at his enemy,
both swords extended in front like clumsy spears.  One blade missed, blocked by
the desperate Shadow.

The other did not.

It hit the center of the Dark Lord's chest and continued through as Nakiad
continued forward, smashing into his enemy as hard as he could.

Both collapsed to the ground.




For a few moments, the scouts held still in shock.  Then Mina felt the force
field dissolve under her fingers, letting her stumble forward.  Ignoring the
slight moment of imbalance, she rushed forward, followed by the rest of the
scouts, and, more slowly, by the other three.

Neither of the two figures moved from their lying positions on the floor as she
approached.  As she came up, Mina noticed something strange.  There was a
bright tear in the back of Nakiad's shirt, one that has not been there
before.

Barely able to contain her fear, she kneeled, turning him over.  The Dark Lord
was revealed to have been actually nailed to the ground, the sword passing all
the way through.  But then Mina saw Nakiad.

The front of his tunic had a bright gash to match to one on the back, as if a
blade had gone all the way through his chest.  Yet there was nothing there 
but empty air, Mina realized, feeling with her hands.  Then a strange feeling 
came on her, and she turned to the Shadow, lying on the other side.

The point at which the Chosen's sword had gone in matched exactly the 
point of impact of the invisible sword into Nakiad's chest.

The shock of it went through her mind, and a phrase came up from her memory,
something he said the day before, seemingly so long ago.

/...in order to do so, a Chosen has to sacrifice himself, completely.../

Sacrifice.

Completely.

"Nakiad..."  She whispered the name, shaking him gently. "What is happening?"
But she knew all too well.  She felt someone coming up behind her, trying to
comfort her, but she ignored the gesture.

A light attracted her attention.  It was Guardian appearing, but only barely.
The light, before bright enough to illuminate a room, now shone weakly and
unsteadily, flickering with shades of gray.

  Once again, the quality
of the voice startled her, many voices and one at the same time.  It seemed sad
somehow, yet also happy in a way.    the
light added a little wistfully.

Mina turned tear filled eyes toward the light, which was slowly drifting to the
ground. 

Before she could reply, it continued, speaking in a weaker voice. 

Swallowing hard, she turned to face him once more. "You mean.. he's dead?"

His eyes flickered, opening slowly.  "Not yet, my love."  She could feel the
pain speaking caused him.  One of his hands rose and tried to wipe away her
tears, but failed.  She grasped it with one of her hands, holding it. He shook
his head, sighing. "This is the way it has to be.  I love you."

The words seemed pitifully inadequate.

"No," she whispered, denying it, "no."

To one side, the Dark Lord shuddered, grasping at the sword in his chest, and
pulled it out with inhuman strength.  He turned toward the Chosen. "Damn you."
The hatred and scorn seemed to have gone out of his voice a little, but the
black tone still grated on Mina's ears. "Now we will both die."  

Impossibly, the Shadow moved, crawling toward his sword, which lay several
feet away.  Lita made as if to kick the weapon out of his reach, but Nakiad 
stopped her.

"No need," he said hoarsely.  When she started to object, he swallowed 
hard, then continued. "He cannot heal fast enough from a maraki blade 
to stop the inevitable.  No more than I would have been able to."

"No," Mina repeated, still lost inside her world.  "No," she said more
strongly, "there has to be another way.  I can't just let you die this way.
There must be another way."

He shook his head weakly. "Not in this case."  His eyes flickered with 
pain, or with something else.

The Shadow had reached his blade, and as he grasped it, it seemed like he was
satisfied.  Keeping a tight grip on it, he relaxed, slumping on the ground.

Mina looked at the scouts, tears running down her cheeks. "You have to find
another way, you have to."  She was begging them.

Serena started to cry as well, Lita looked angry, Amy thoughtful, Raye even more
so. The other three, along with the cats stayed back.

Then Amy seemed to remember something. "Nakiad."  She waited for him to turn
toward her. "You told me I could have tried healing you with the crystal."

A look of pain crossed his face, and he shook his head. "No.  It can only heal
things less powerful than it is itself."

Amy looked at him. "But you no longer are.  You have lost all of your power in
that fight, the crystal will work now."

He shook his head again, despite the pain the motion obviously caused him. "You
must not.  He and I are linked, if you heal me, you might also save him."

Amy looked down and Mina looked at the blue scout, shocked. 

A tear slipped down the orange scout's cheeks.  "You have to try.  We can't
just let him die."

Amy closed her eyes, then looked at Nephlyte. "She's right.  I can't let him
die.  I've already watched one person's love die in front of me, and I could do
nothing about it."  The girl looked at Nephlyte pointedly. "Not again."

"I second that," Lita agreed grimly.

Serena hesitated, then went for her brooch, opening it to reveal the crystal.
"Here goes."  For once the girl seemed to be serious.

Nakiad motioned not to, but everyone ignored him.

Then he turned.




Raye watched as Serena opened the brooch.  She could understand Nakiad, and she
could understand her friends, she did not know which side to go with.  But she
would not interfere.

Suddenly, she noticed something strange.  Nakiad turned, and looked straight at
her. "Raye," he whispered, barely audible.

His eyes flashed with pain.

The plea plunged into her heart, into her soul.

She did not turst him, a part of her reminded her.  And Mina loved him.  Raye
frowned, she knew that she should not interfere.

But he was giving himself up for a higher cause.  She did that once, when
she had given up Darian to Serena.

It was true, she had to admit to herself.  She did like Darian, but he and
Serena were meant to be.  Thus, it was her duty to get out of their way, let
them be together.

And this was his duty.

It was his destiny.

/I care about the Universe,/ he had told Lita that day Raye overheard them.

"Moon Crystal Healing..."  Serena began her chant.

In that split moment, Raye came to a decision.

This is your duty, she said to him, silently.

And this is mine.

Before Serena could finish, she held her hands in front of her.

"Mars Fire Ignite!"

As four shocked scouts turned to her, a lance of fire no thicker than a pencil
lashed out, striking the crystal, knocking it out of Serena's grasp.  Raye was
almost completely drained, but she got the power for this from somewhere deep
inside.  The crystal bounced along the ground, finally coming to a rest near
Nakiad's hand.  He grasped it, turning to Raye for a split second.

And in that moment, Raye knew he was thanking her.   Despite her being unsure
that what she did was right, she would not have changed her actions for the
world.

I trust you, she mouthed silently, and he nodded.

"Moon Crystal Healing...."  Sailor Mars wondered what he was doing, then he
finished. "Exhalation."

The crystal pulsed once, then darkened, and Nakiad tossed it back to Serena,
who examined it.

He laughed weakly.  "Do not worry, princess, it's intact.  You just won't be
able to use healing for a few days, that is all.  The makers of the crystal had
predicted that a situation like this might arrive, and made the command part of
it."

Mina turned to Raye. "Why?"  She whispered the word, full of pain.

Nakiad answered before she could. "Because it is my destiny to stop the Dark
Lord," his voice was weakening every moment, "and this is the only way."  
He paused, turning her cheek to look into her tear filled eyes. "If there 
were another way..."  He started, then stopped.  "I love you.  But there 
is no way to put his off, even for a century.  This is how it must be."

"No," Mina whispered once more. "NO!"  She cried out, the others gathering
around her, giving their support.

Particles of energy started to gather around Nakiad's body, encasing it in a
shimmering field of light.  Similar lights, but black ones, started to gather
around the Dark Lord, blackening out his features.

"Wait."  A new voice suddenly interrupted.  Nakiad lifted his eyes wearily.

"Nephlyte," he said weakly, "you have fought honorably, but there is
nothing-"

The other interrupted. "But there is."  He suddenly seemed to be speaking to
himself. "I have seen my love crying out for me when I died.  I do not wish to
make another face the same pain."  Then he suddenly seemed to be speaking to
them again. "I was not the most powerful of Beryl's generals.  But I was the
most trusted.  She saw something strange in me that seemed to make her relax,
and she let some of her secrets slip."

"One of the things I learned over the centuries was the secret of the Eternal
Sleep."

Jadeite, lying in a pool of orange blood on the ground, jerked.  Nakiad lowered 
his eyes, the energy sparks around him dimming for a moment, and he 
seemed to be lost in thought. The scouts merely looked puzzled.

"Wait, what's that?"  Serena asked, used to foolish questions enough not to
be ashamed of asking them.

Nakiad looked up, answering thoughtfully. "The Eternal Sleep was the source of
Beryl's power, the way she made it to the throne.  Before her attack, she froze
the other leaders somehow for eternity, allowing her to come to power.  I
believe Jadeite, there, was sentenced to that after he had failed to defeat 
you."

Nephlyte nodded. "I could try to imprison the Dark Lord.  Without his strength,
I do not think he could break loose."

Nakiad seemed to think, his body growing weaker.  "He has power to spare, and
he will be still alive.  He might be able to break free after his wound will
heal."  Then he shook his head. "But I do not think he will be able to do so
soon.

His eyes unfocused, the energy sparks around him brightening as he stared
somewhere in the distance, his mind busy.

Mina clutched at his hand. "Please.  We could be together once more."

He sighed and his eyes snapped back into reality.  But the despair and pain 
inside them was replaced by something else, something almost like peace.  Almost. 
"But since he will be alive, so will I be, and when he does free himself, I will 
be there to end it.  Forever.  Very well."

Nephlyte nodded. "I am not sure this will work."  He glanced at Serena. "I will
need the power of the crystal to give me the strength to imprison him."  The
princess exchanged a cautious glance with Luna, who nodded, then she came up to
him, holding out the crystal.

He touched it, smiling a bit, then concentrated.

A strange glow came into his eyes as he forced strength to flow through him,
from the crystal to his eyes.  The Dark Lord staggered to his feet, holding 
on to his sword. "Yes," he croaked, "prolong my life.  Let me survive."  
As a flash of light emerged from the general's eyes, the Shadow looked 
at Nakiad. "I will return."  Then a bolt of energy slammed into the black
shape of the Dark Lord, blinding everyone.

While the light cleared, the Chosen murmured quietly. "And I'll be there when
you do."

Then the flash was gone, allowing the others to see the Dark Lord.

He was inside a crystal, embedded in the middle of clear material.  His eyes,
full of hate, were staring directly in front of him, and his features were
twisted with rage.  Strength seemed to flow through him, through his muscles as
if he was fighting the prison, trying to get out.

Then everyone looked at the Chosen, still lying down on the ground.  The wound
was no longer there, but his eyes were closed, and he was not breathing.

"Nakiad?"  Mina asked, gently shaking him.

  And everyone turned to Guardian, floating in
midair.  Its glow was dimmed considerably, but stable, illuminating the
ground.

Then Nakiad moved, breathing in and opening his eyes. "Apparently, it worked,"
he said as if he had never doubted anything in his life.




Nakiad forced himself to get up, painfully levering his body from the ground,
then walked over to the crystal.  The Dark Lord's eyes stared out at him, as if
promising revenge someday.  He put out one hand to touch the crystal when 
the smooth surface suddenly started to rise.  The top of the prison was 
disappearing into some sort of portal, vanishing, until all of the crystal was 
gone.

He felt Nephlyte come up to him. "It should hold him for a while," the general
said.

"Perhaps," Nakiad sighed, "but not forever."  

But when the Shadow broke free, Nakiad would be waiting.

That much, he swore to himself.

Then he turned to Mina and embraced her, holding her tight against his heart.




Amy watched to scene, confused a little, but happy that it seemed to have
turned out well.

"Chosen."  The word came from behind her, and she tuned to see Jadeite still
breathing.

He did not seem to see Amy standing there in front of him, he spoke
directly to Nakiad.  Orange stained his lips.

"Finish it."  He gasped out, blood still leaking out from his wounds. "The Dark
Lord has been beaten."  The pain the effort of speech was causing was obvious.
"We will be returned to where we came from.  I can not go back there."

A trickle of blood ran down the side of his moth. "Finish it," he pleaded.

Lita came up to the other's side. "You are an evil creature who has served the
Negaverse all of your life.  Why should we make things easier for you?"

The general merely shook his head, staring at her.   His eyes had been mad with
rage and hatred before, filled with the urge to kill. Now, when he looked at
Lita, she saw them to be clear, lucid.

Lita frowned. "Do you at least regret your actions?"

Jadeite shook his head once more.  He seemed to be fading. "Regret..." He
paused, then a grim look crossed his face. "Regret.. nothing."  Despite the
pain, his voice was strong.

Lita turned around, looking at the other scouts. "I say we leave him to
whatever this 'Eternal Sleep' is."

Amy shook her head, but did not reply, not sure.  Out of the corner of her eye,
she saw motion.  It was Nakiad, coming up to the general.

Jadeite seemed to recognize him, and opened his mouth once more. "Finish it."

For several long moments, Nakiad stood over him, thinking, then blinked. "No
one should have to suffer eternal pain."  He did not seem to be aware that he
was speaking aloud, and Amy was suddenly reminded that he himself had 
suffered the guilt for the destruction of the Moon Kingdom for a millennium. 
Then Nakiad shook his head.  "You have served your cause as best you could, 
though it was not a cause I agree with.  You deserve rest."  

Slowly, Nakiad raised one of the swords he had recovered from the ground, 
and Jadeite seemed almost to smile, but not quite.

Then the blade came down in a flash of gray, embedding itself in the general's
chest, nailing him to the ground.  Jadeite seemed about to say something when
his body spasmed and was still with death.  As his eyes closed, Amy had a 
brief impression of peace. Nakiad pulled the sword out carefully and stood 
for a few seconds over the other's body.

Then he turned away, and for a brief moment, as he faced her, Amy saw his face
sad.  Then as his face turned into the light of Guardian, she saw that he was
simply relaxed.

He turned to Zoicite and Malachite, standing together.  For those two, it
almost seemed that the rest of the universe did not exist.  Nakiad seemed to 
sigh, looking at them, and almost smiled.  Then he turned to Nephlyte.

The general looked down. "I have heard much about you."

The Chosen did not seem to hear. "You have acted honorably throughout this
battle.  And you have sacrificed yourself for a human girl, saving her life."
He paused, and Nephlyte looked up, seemingly in surprise. "It might be possible
for us to stop the end, to bring you back to earth.  You could be with Molly 
once more."

For a moment, Nephlyte looked up with hope, then shook his head.  His voice
caught in his throat as he answered. "Thank you, but no.  Molly is happy 
now, is she not?"  He turned to the scouts, several of whom nodded. "I 
thought so... I seemed to feel it somehow- that she was content.  My 
return would merely complicate that. No, my story is finished now.  I guess,
like Jadeite, in the end, I have no regrets.  I merely wish to rest once
more."

For a long moment, the Chosen looked at him with a strange expression on his
face. "Perhaps at one time you were evil, but no more.  It has been an
honor."

Nakiad extended his hand.

Amy watched with surprise the astonishment with which the general viewed the
gesture.  Slowly, almost reverently, Nephlyte took the offered hand, shaking 
it in the ancient human tradition.

A motion drew Amy's eyes away once more, and she watched as Jadeite's still
form disappeared, encased for a moment in a shield of blue.

To one side, Malachite and Zoicite dissolved together, forming one cloud of
energy, a mix of petals and bubbles that got blown away by the wind.  Together,
they floated away.

Then Nephlyte, too began to dissolve, his body disappearing as his essence
leaked out into energy dust that floated gently upward.

For a long time, Nakiad stared up at the energy floating away, then sighed. "So
ends one battle."  Amy almost thought he was about to say 'so begins another',
but he kept silent.

Then he turned to Kaneth, who inclined his head.

"What will you do now?"

The warrior looked around. "I really thought I would die here this day."  His
voice was completely sober. "I was actually looking forward to the fact.  I did
not really think you'd win, you see, not with your wounds.  But now.."  He
stared into space, the mask that was his face motionless. "The Dark Lord has
been destroyed, or at least imprisoned for a long time.  The Negaverse army has
need for a leader once more."

"Will they accept you after what you have done?"

The other looked down. "I do not know.  But it is worth a try, at least.  I
never did finish my command.  Have you more need of my services?"  He asked the
question in a different tone.

Nakiad looked surprised. "You were never in my debt, I thought you understood
that.  And now, I am in yours."  When the warrior did not reply, he sighed.
"I have no more need of your services, you are freed from any obligation."

"Thank you,"  Kaneth said.   He paused for a few moments, then extended 
his hand hesitantly. Nakiad took it, shaking it firmly. "Good bye."  The other 
walked off into the fog without so much as turning to the others.

"Good luck," Nakiad whispered quietly.

The other turned around, almost hidden by the fog. "I'll see you in battle, my
enemies."

Then he disappeared.

Confused, Amy looked at the Chosen. "What did he mean by that?"

The other smiled. "He was talking to you, the Sailor Scouts.  The Universe is
still his enemy, his honor demands no less.  But I do not think you could ask
for a better foe."

Nakiad looked around once more, at the bleak land, the fog, slowly dissipating
around them. "It's over," he said in a tone of finality. "Lets go home."

He walked painfully up to Mina who looked at him, then he reached out his
hand.

She took it, and nodded. "Lets."

They turned, the other scouts following, to a direction that Nakiad seemed to
pick at random.

Lita hurried up to the two, looking at Nakiad.  After a moment, he turned to
her, the expression on his face inquiring.  She shook her head. "Why did
Nephlyte seem so surprised when you offered to shake his hand?  And Kaneth
seemed surprised when you took his hand.  Amy looked up, interested in the 
question.

Nakiad seemed to deflate against Mina, letting her support some of his weight
for a moment, then Darian came up before the Chosen could answer.

"As I remember it," the prince began, Nakiad nodding to him, "in the old 
days a handshake like that was considerably more than a mere gesture. 
It was a mark of honor and trust.  For many, it meant that each of the two 
people would give their life for the other."  Darian sighed. "As I guess it, 
the gesture lost its meaning over the years, or at the end of the Silver 
Millennium.  But Nephlyte knew the Chosen was using the gesture in its 
ancient sense."

Lita paused for a moment. "You would have been ready to give up your life for
both of them?"

Nakiad glared at her for a moment, then his gaze softened. "And why not?"

"But.. Kaneth's evil.  And for that matter, why did you let Jadeite die, instead of
leaving him in that prison he deserves?"

Amy interceded. "Nephlyte isn't evil.  He was, but-"  The Chosen raised his
hand, interrupting.

"There is no such thing as good or evil."  His voice was abruptly very old and
tired.

"But.."

Before Lita could continue, he went on. "Was Nephlyte evil?"

The question seemed to be directed at everyone, and after a pause, Raye answered
in a hesitant voice. "No.  He seemed to be, but I think he was just misled,
because in the end he fell in love."

"So."  For a moment, it seemed that he was done, but he went on. "Were
Malachite and Zoicite evil?"

"Yes, of course."

"But in the end, they chose love over hate, they decided to die together
instead of spending their time battling you scouts."  For a few moments, there
was silence, then he went on. "Was Jadeite evil?"

This time, it was Serena who answered. "Of course.  He sent those airplanes
after us, he almost killed Darian, he liked death and destruction."

"Was he, Princess?  Remember on the cruise ship, when you sneaked 
aboard and pretended to be lost?"

"Well, yes," suddenly she seemed uncomfortable.

"How did he react?"

"Well, actually, he seemed very nice, and he was kind to me.  How do you know
about that, anyway?"

"It does not matter."  For a minute, they continued in a silence finally broken
by him. "Was Beryl evil?"

All of the scouts tensed and a chorus of affirmatives rose from them.  The two
cats, who had been silent up till then, remained so, but exchanged a glance of
surprise.  Darian kept silent as well.

Nakiad shrugged. "Perhaps."

Then Raye touched him on one shoulder. "What do you mean, there's no such a
thing as evil, anyway?"

Ahead of them, the fog parted to reveal a new gateway, different from the ones
they used before.  Nakiad looked at the red scout. "Another day, perhaps.  Just
think about one thing.  Would you prefer to live in the heaven without evil
that was the Universe once, or the horror without salvation that was the 
Negaverse?"

As Raye shook her head, not really understanding, he stepped through with
Mina.





Epilogue



Nakiad sat in the dark, relaxing in the armchair, his two swords in front of
him.

 he thought at Guardian.

The energy sphere appeared in front of him. 

For a long moment, the Chosen stared in front of him into space, thinking, then
thought again at Guardian. 

The light seemed to sigh. 

  It was not a question.

  Then
the light seemed to sigh. 

 He sighed, moving his body a little so the
different wounds did not rub against the fabric of the armchair as much.




He sighed once more, staring into space. 

The light disappeared suddenly as a door behind Nakiad opened, letting light
into the black room.

"Come on."  It was Mina.  "You said you'd show this house of yours to us today,
before the vacation ends, so we'd better hurry."  She came up to him, and he
levered his body off the armchair, looking at her.

She was radiant, completely over the battle, and ready to believe that the Dark
Lord would never be back.  The innocence was so obvious it cut through his mind
like a knife, searing him to the truth.  He looked at her, staring at him with
love filled eyes, unaware that somewhere, some evil might be rising.

He loved her yet.

Smiling, he put a hand around her and let her lead the way out of the room.

As he went out, he paused, looking back.

  He thought to Guardian.

The other was silent.

Shrugging, the last of the Chosen let himself be led into the light.


_	_	_



The pain was immense, tearing into him, singing his mind, searing his thoughts.
But he forced himself awake, staring into one direction of his prison, outside.
And he forced his arms out, throwing his pain into the crystal prison, forcing
the transparent material to relinquish his freedom.

It did not, remaining completely stable and unaffected, a single constant in a
universe without any certainties.

Hate.

The Dark Lord forced the thought through his mind, concentrating on that
word.

He hated the Universe, the need to destroy it burning through his veins.

He hated the Earth.

He hated the Scouts

He hated Kaneth.

But most of all, he hated the Chosen, this foolish human who hoped to stand
alone against him.  And now by some fluke, the human had managed to 
defeat the Dark Lord for a time, forcing him into this prison, to suffer for eternity.

The hatred ignited, burning through shadowy arteries, setting his veins 
ablaze.

The muscles on his arms bulged outward, fueled by the emotion, forcing the
crystal away from his body.

The pain lanced through him again, but he ignored it, it only served as fuel
for the anger.

As he forced power through his body, the crystal whined, slowly forced away
from him, slowly damaged.  A blue crack appeared on one face, bright against
the transparency of the crystal.  The rift began to widen.

It went slowly, but much faster than anyone could have foreseen.

The crystal was strong, a prison made to withstand the harshest forces, to keep
its own against the most powerful creatures.

The Shadow's hate was stronger.



_	_	_



Thus ends Clash, part two 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