(Steve Stachowicz)
gerrek@hotmail.com
(Matthew Frey)
MAFREY@charter.net 

Webpage:  http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/shores/2307

                           Swords of Destiny

                                  By

                          Eric Thorsen and Stacko

LEGAL STUFF:

** The characters and concepts used here are the property of those people
and companies holding the copyrights to the respective storylines, series,
and movies. The only exceptions are those created by the demented minds of
authors of this story. The use of this material should be seen as the sign
of respect that it is. Besides, suing either of us would be a waste of time
since we don't have any money to begin with.


                   *************************************
                      Chapter Five - Kidnapped part I
                   *************************************

April 28, Tokyo, Juuban Ward

    It was a bright, sunny afternoon at Chibi-Usa and Hotaru's school.  That 
day, they had showed their teacher the progress they had made in the week since
they had received the assignment. They showed their teacher the scabbard and
the notes they had received from Scott and what he had told them when they
got the scabbard. The teacher congratulated them on their progress and left
to talk to the other students.

	When the teacher left, they both dropped their happy faces and went back
to talking about what they had found out about Scott and Kevin yesterday.
Discovering that Scott was really the adopted first Prince of Minerva, and
Kevin, who they found out was Makoto's current boyfriend, was really the first
Prince of Neptune was a little hard to take. What really got to the
girls was, finding out that Scott and Kevin were both immortal, that Scott
had been alive since the fall of the Silver Millennium, over two thousand
years ago, and that Kevin has been alive for about seven hundred and twenty
years. What scared both of them the most though, was when Scott told them of
the price of their immortality; having to kill others in order to stay alive.
They talked about all that until they had to leave school.

	They were walking to Hotaru's house in silence, when Hotaru broke that
silence.

	"I'm glad that you were able to spend a couple of days at my house,
Chibi-Usa-chan," Hotaru said.

	"Yeah, me too," Chibi-Usa replied. "It took some persuasion, but Mrs.
Tsukino said it was okay."

	"I'm glad. You know, I can't believe that Schwartzstern-San is from the
Silver Millennium, and has been alive since it's destruction," Hotaru said,
wonderingly.

	"It mustn't have been easy for him to be around waiting for the others to
be reborn while other people were out to kill him," Chibi-Usa said, thinking
of all the time that he had been alive.

	"Yeah," Hotaru replied, agreeing that it must have been difficult for him.

    They continued walking until they heard a woman screaming for help.
Chibi-Usa and Hotaru looked at each other and then made their way toward the
sound to see what the trouble was. When they looked around the corner of a
building, to look down an alleyway, they saw a man dressed in casual clothing,
who looked to be in his twenty's, holding a Rapier in an offensive stance. His
opponent was a youngish looking woman of around sixteen, dressed in a high
school girl's uniform and defending herself with an iron bar.

	Chibi-Usa and Hotaru looked at each other and nodded to each other. They
made sure that no one was going to see them and then transformed.

	"Moon crystal power!"

	"Saturn planet power!"

	Sailor Saturn then called the others to tell them what was happening and
where they were. The other Senshi told them to wait until they got there to
help. Sailor Saturn and Chibi-Moon watched the fight and hoped the others
would hurry up, because the girl looked like she was losing. Then the girl was
forced against the wall, and the iron bar was knocked out of her grasp.  The man
smiled and brought his sword arm back for a final stroke. Sailor Saturn and
Chibi-Moon knew they couldn't wait any longer and ran to defend the girl.

	When the man brought his sword down, it was blocked by a purple and pink
blur.  The man looked at his sword and saw a Glaive had blocked it. The man
jumped back to see who stopped him. When he saw who it was, he smiled even
more.

        "For attacking innocent girls with the intent to harm or worse, I am
pretty soldier Sailor Chibi-Moon," Chibi-Moon said 

	"And I am the Melancholic fighter, Sailor Saturn," Sailor Saturn said.

        "In the name of the Moon, We will punish you," They both finished.

	"Well, well, well. If it isn't the babies of the Sailor Senshi," The man
said.

	"We are not babies!" Chibi-Moon yelled.

	"No, but you two are just as gullible," The man laughed.

	"What do you mean?" Sailor Saturn asked, looking confused at the comment.

        "You'll see," The man replied, laughing even harder as he looked behind
them.

	Just before Chibi-Moon could ask him what he meant, she heard a zap, and
when she turned toward the sound, she saw Sailor Saturn fall to the ground
unconscious. She turned to look at the girl behind her and saw that the girl
was smiling and holding a Stun-Gun. Chibi-Moon suddenly realized that it was a
trap, and that they fallen for it, when the girl brought the Stun-gun to her
arm. Then she fell unconscious.

                   *************************************

        The girl put the Stun-Gun away as Chibi-Moon collapsed to the ground, and
the man walked up to her with a smile on his face. He nudged both of the
girls with his toe to see if they were really out cold. Then he put his sword
away and looked to the girl for instructions on what he should do next. When
he didn't receive a response he shrugged.

	"We better get going, Annie," Daryl said. "Knowing these two, they
probably called the others,"

	"Yes. We don't want to confront the others just yet," Annie replied.

	Annie reached in her pocket and grabbed a folded piece of paper, a small
throwing knife, and some tape. She went over to the two unconscious girls and
cut a lock of hair off each girl and taped the hair to the inside of the
folded paper and stuck the paper to a pipe by the knife.

	"Let's go, Daryl," Annie said as she picked up Chibi-Moon while Daryl
picked Sailor Saturn up.

	"What about the Glaive over there?" Daryl asked.

	"Leave it," Annie said as they left through a portal that she created.

				*******************

A COUPLE OF MINUTES LATER

	Several girls with different brightly colored skirts arrived in the alley
and looked around.

	"Where are they?" Jupiter asked, looking a little worried.

	"They are not here, or anywhere near here. I'm picking up that there was a 
Negaverse portal here, and the Silence Glaive is near, but not Sailor Saturn.
Other than that, I'm not picking anything up," Sailor Mercury said as she
scanned the area.

	"Hey, over here!" Sailor Mars shouted.

        "What is it?" Sailor Moon asked, as she got closer to where Sailor Mars 
was standing.

	"I found the Silence Glaive. There was also a note near it," Sailor Mars
replied.

	"What does it say?" Venus asked.

	"'Hello Sailor Senshi. As you can see, you are now missing two members. If
you want them back unharmed, bring Scott Schwartzstern and Siegmund Drakkar to
McKenna Park at midnight, Two days from now.'" Sailor Mars finished.

	"That's it?" Jupiter asked.

	"Yes, except for a lock of Chibi-Moon and Sailor Saturn's hair," Sailor
Mars replied.

	"Noooooooo!" Sailor Moon wailed.

	"It's all right, Sailor Moon. We'll get them back safely," Sailor Neptune
said as she tried to comfort Usagi.

	"And when we do, the kidnappers are gonna pay," Sailor Uranus grated
angrily.

	"Well it looks like we better get Scott and Kevin's help. I think we're
going to need it," Sailor Neptune said.

	"It's only four in the afternoon, so Scott's shop is still open. We can't
go to his shop like we are now though; we would attract too much attention to
Scott and ourselves. Since he doesn't seem to know our normal identities, we
can't go that way.  Our best choice is to call him, but then, it would take
awhile to get to a phone much less convince him we are who we say we are. But
we still need to tell him what's going on," Sailor Mars said, trying to think
of a way they could contact Scott without calling attention to themselves.

	"I'll go and talk him," Sailor Mercury volunteered quietly, with a small
blush on her cheeks. All the Senshi turned and gave her a surprised look. "We
are only a few blocks away from his shop and time is of the essence.  Like 
Sailor
Mars said he doesn't know our normal identities.  But if one of us has to reveal
their identity, the rest are still safe,"

	"Or is it that you remember you were engaged to him once, and you want to
see him again," Sailor Mercury blushed even more when Venus said that. She
knew Venus was only teasing, but that was really close to the reason that she
wanted to go see him.

	"That's enough Venus, stop teasing her," Sailor Moon said angrily. "You're
right, Sailor Mercury, time is of the essence. You go talk to Scott, we'll wait
for your call at Mar's temple," Sailor Moon said once Sailor Mercury had
regained her composure.

	"Thank you Sailor Moon," Sailor Mercury said as she detransformed and
grabbed the note from Sailor Mars and made her way to Scott's antique shop.

	"Are you sure we should let her go to see Scott alone?" Sailor Mars asked.

	"She's in love. I know what it's like to lose someone you loved during the
Silver Millennium. So I'm letting her find her love again," Sailor Moon
replied, smiling at the look on Sailor Mars' face.

	"All right. She really needed someone in her life anyway," Sailor Mars
agreed finally.

	"Well, we better start heading back to Sailor Mars' shrine to wait for
Sailor Mercury's call," Sailor Uranus said, slightly bored as she grabbed the
Silence Glaive and waited for the others.

	They detransformed and made their way to Rei's shrine. En route to the
shrine, Michiru decided to see if she could use the Aqua Mirror to find any
answers. The pictures that the mirror showed confused her. It showed Kevin
fighting a different man in out of date clothing. The other scenes that it
showed were of Kevin and the same man fight with swords in different clothing
and in different eras and locations.

	Haruka saw the confused look on Michiru's face and went up to her. She put
one of her arms around her shoulders to comfort her and asked her what was
troubling her. Michiru looked up at her and told her that she had asked the
mirror to help locate Chibi-Usa and Hotaru, and all it showed was Kevin
fighting a man with swords throughout other eras. It didn't show her where
the two girls were or anything about them. Haruka told her that they would try
to piece it together at the shrine while they waited for Ami's call.

				*******************

At Scott's Shop

	It's been a normal day of repair work and business at Scott's shop. He'd
had the new windows installed to replace the ones that were broken during his
recent fights, and he'd had the door repaired after Austin broke it while
entering his shop. He had also ordered replacement display cases, and
straightened out everything that was salvageable from the damaged antiques.

	He had opened his shop so people could still buy the antiques that he had.
The people talked to him about business, and some general information about
the antiques that were around his shop. It was a quiet time in his shop at
the moment, so he went back to his workshop and went over the estimate of what
the rest of his repairs were going to cost him.

	When he was almost finished going over what he needed to cover the repair
and insurance costs, he heard the chimes that signaled that someone was
entering his shop. He glanced at the security monitors by his desk and saw a
young girl enter the shop and look around.

	She was dressed in a girl's high school uniform, and had hair that came
down almost to her shoulders. She reminded him a little of Sailor Mercury,
and from what he could tell, she looked a little hesitant to be in the shop.
Scott smiled and saved the cost estimate, then walked out to see what the girl
wanted.

				*******************

	Ami was nervous. Getting her memories back of the times that she'd had
with Gerrek during the Silver Millennium scared her a little. After all,
finding out that Scott, the antique dealer, was really Gerrek and that he had
been alive since the fall of the Silver Millennium was definitely a shock.
The feelings she'd had for him returning to her, at the same time that her
memories did, surprised her. She was thinking that maybe she should have gone
along with the plan to call him, but she was still trying to figure out why
she wanted to visit and tell Scott what happened. Her thoughts stopped
circling when she saw Scott come into the shop and walk towards her.

	"Can I help you?" Scott asked politely.

	"Ah...um...yes," Ami replied nervously.

	"What is it you would like?" Scott said, wondering why this girl was so
nervous.

	"I need your help," Ami said shyly, questioning her reasons for coming.

	"Okay. What is it that you need my help with?" Scott said calmly,
wondering who she was.

	It was then that Ami realized that Scott didn't recognize her in this 
form. "I need you to help the Sailor Senshi," Ami said, looking to see if she had
been overheard.

	When she said that, Scott looked at her very suspiciously. He didn't know
what or why she said she needed help for the Senshi. "What do you mean? Who
are you?" He asked carefully eyeing her, looking for any signs of trouble.

	Ami realized that she had to tell him who she was when she saw the look
he was giving her. "I'm Sailor Mercury," she said quietly as she looked down
to the floor, a little embarrassed.

	"Meriel?" Scott asked, surprised. Then, when he pictured Sailor Mercury,
Meriel, and Ami, he realized that they were all the same person. After her
hesitant nod, Scott took her to the back of the shop to talk more privately.
"What happened, Meriel?"

	"Ami, my name is Ami now," 

	"Ah yes, I see," Scott replied, nodding as he realized that she was giving
him her present name. "Please, tell me what happened,"

	"Sailor Saturn and Chibi-Moon were kidnapped,"

	"What! How did it happen?" Scott asked, stunned.

	"We don't know. We got a call from them a short while ago saying that a
man was attacking a young girl with a sword. We told them to stay put and
wait for us, but when we got there, we found the Silence Glaive and a note.
They were gone."

	"What did this note say?" Scott asked. Ami handed him the note and he read
it. After he got done reading it, he frowned grimly. "Did Talia or Chibi-Moon
give you a description of the man attacking the girl?"

	"No,"

	"What about the girl, was there any sign of her?" He asked next.

	"No, but there weren't any bloodstains around so she could have escaped."
Ami replied, wondering where this was leading.

	"That will make it harder to figure out who did it, but if I'm remembering
correctly, I have an idea who it is that's behind this,"

	"Who would that be?"

	"Can't tell you for sure, we need Ziggy to check this note out,"

	"Okay. But how are you going to get hold of him?"

	"I haven't known him for 700 years for nothing,"

	Scott gave Ami a smile that made her blush a little and then Scott went
back to the storeroom and made a call.

	"Hey, Ziggy, it's me... Yeah, I'm fine... No, no one has come after my
head lately... Ziggy, we've got a problem... No, a Senshi problem... No,
I'll tell you when I get there in a few minutes, don't want to talk over
the phone... Okay, I'll be there in a little while, bye Ziggy." 

	After Scott hung up the phone, he went back to find Ami looking around
the shop, and asked her if she was willing to go with him to talk to Kevin
about what had happened. She agreed but she said that she had to tell the
others where she was going. He told her to go ahead and left her alone in
the storeroom while he went to get his coat. After she was done updating the
others of what was going on, she went to find Scott. She found him in his
workshop, putting his sword inside his jacket. She asked him why he put the
sword in his jacket, he replied with, "With my kind it's like your American
Express Card, you never leave home without it." Then they hopped in Scott's
car and headed for Kevin's place.

	As they drove down the highway, Scott and Ami started talking about their
past relationship. Scott started the discussion after a long silence that
started just after they left his shop.

	"What do you remember about us from the Silver Millennium?" Scott asked,
trying to get a feel for what she remembered without giving too much away.

	"Not much really. Mostly what I remember is feelings, and some of the
times we were together," Ami replied, blushing a little.

	"I'm surprised you even remember me at all," Scott said self-consciously
running his hand through his hair.

	"Why do you say that?" Ami said, confused.

	"Through the years of talking to people about what they knew about
reincarnation, it didn't look too promising that you would remember
anything of your previous life at all," he responded, trying to gauge her
reaction.

	"We don't remember all that much about our lives in the Silver Millennium
unless something triggers the memory," she said, then looked at him closely.
"It must have been hard for you, going through the years, always thinking
about me. Not knowing when I'd be reborn."

	"Yes it was. It took over 200 years and continual talks from my first
teacher before I tried having another relationship with a girl," Scott
replied softly.

	"What happened?" She asked curiously.

	"We were attacked and she was killed in a painful, and extremely degrading
way,  five days before our wedding," he replied.

	"Oh, my..." Ami gasped, shocked at the images this statement conjured up.

	"Because of that, I began what I call my 'Dark Times'," Scott said,
ignoring her gasp.

	"'Dark Times'? What do you mean by that?" Ami asked nervously, wondering
what he could have done to make him call them that.

	"I became a ruthless killer for almost 200 years. It wasn't until I killed
a defenseless young child that I snapped out of it. That and severe counseling
from others of my kind that took sympathy on me. I've been punishing myself
ever since," Scott said the last sentence quietly that Ami almost didn't
hear it.

	"Don't punish yourself too much. I mean you realized what you were doing
was wrong and you regret it. That means you are still good at heart," She said,
smiling reassuringly.

	"Thanks Mer... Uh, Ami. I appreciate it," Scott replied, smiling back at
her.

	"What are your feelings towards me now?" Ami asked, trying to be as
nonchalant about the question as she could be.

    "To tell you the truth, I'm scared," Scot replied. "When you died, a part
of me felt like it had died also. I have attempted to have a total of three
serious relationships since you died, but they all ended with her death
shortly before we got married. I've been in love with you all these years,
and now that I find you alive again, I'm scared to death of what might happen
to you, with us, with everything. It took me a long time to admit that I loved
you at all the first time, but now I don't want you to get hurt just because
you're around me. I'm still in love with you, Ami, and I don't want any harm
to befall you,"

	After this, silence fell for a while, then Scott turned to look at Ami and
saw that she was deep in thought.  Scott left her to her thoughts as he
continued driving towards Kevin's place. After a few minutes, Scott was about
to say something when he felt a hand on his left arm. He turned and saw Ami
with a small smile on her face.

	"Hello, I'm Ami Mizuno," Ami said. After she saw his confused look on his
face, she continued. "If we're going to have a relationship, it would be best
if we started from the beginning,"

	"You do know what you will be getting yourself into, don't you?" Scott
asked, worried.

	"If I didn't, I wouldn't have said what I just did," Ami replied
confidently.

	"Okay, sounds good enough to me," Scott said as he smiled in reply. "Nice
to met you Ami, I'm Scott Schwartzstern."

	"Hello, Scott," Ami replied, smiling back shyly 

	"We'll be arriving at Kevin's soon," Scott said after shaking his head
ruefully at her greeting.

	Ami looked out the window and saw that they were driving towards a German
castle. She recognized the castle from one of her history books. "We're going
there?" Ami asked surprised.

	"Yes, this is one of the many houses Kevin owns around the world," Scott
replied.

	Scott pulled up to the gate guard and then continued on up to the castle
when the guard let him through. Upon reaching the front part of the castle, he
parked the car and got out of the car and saw that Ami was still in the car
starring at the castle. He walked around the car and opened the door for her.

	"Would my lady care to go inside?" Scott said formally.

	Ami snapped out of her trance and looked at Scott. She saw him standing
there with his hand out, looking like he was waiting for her to do something.
When she remembered the words he'd just said, a small blush came to her cheeks
as she took his hand and stepped out of the car. Scott placed her hand on his
arm as he led her to the door, then he knocked on the door twice and waited.
Shortly there could be heard the sounds of the lock being undone and then the
door being opened. When the door opened, there stood an elderly man, around
his late fifties, and dressed in a butler outfit. When the man saw Scott, he
smiled.

	"Good evening, Master Scott," said the man.

	"Evening, Jervis. Is Kevin here?" Scott asked.

	"Yes he is, sir. He's in his study right now, I believe you know the way?"

	"Yes. How are the grandkids?"

	"They are doing well sir, thank you for asking. Jaina loved the gold
necklace you gave her for her birthday. She refuses to take it off,"

	"I'm glad, please tell her I said hello. We will see you later then
Jervis,"

	"Very Good, Master Scott," Jervis replied, then returned to the work that
he had been doing before they arrived.

	Scott and Ami left Jervis in the hall and walked to the study. Before
they reached the study, Ami felt Scott stiffening for a moment as they got to
the door. Ami was about to ask what it was, when they reached the door and
Scott knocked twice then opened the door. Scott let Ami go in first and he
followed her and they both saw Kevin sitting at a desk, that had a bunch of
papers scattered all over it, working on something that looked important.

	"Ziggy," Scott said, smiling at his friend absent wave in reply.

	"I see you've already met Sailor Mercury in her secret identity," Kevin
said after he looked up and saw who else was in the room with them.

	"How did you know I'm Sailor Mercury?" Ami asked, completely surprised.

	"I've found that most people, even when they are at their most vigilant
still forget to look up," Kevin answered, then smiled at her confused look.
"You didn't see me on the roof of the warehouse when you girls all
detransformed, did you?" Ami blushed hotly as the implications of this
statement hit her.

	"So that's why you left in such a hurry," Scott said with amusement in his
 voice.

	"One of them, yes," Kevin said.

	"What are you going to do with your knowledge our identities?" Ami asked
with a hint of anger in her voice.

	"I was going to tell Scotty here, but he didn't answer his phone. So don't
worry, I'm not going to reveal your identity to anyone else. I still can't
believe that my girlfriend is Sailor Jupiter," Kevin said in shocked tones,
then turned when he heard Scott laughing to himself. "What's so funny?"

    "If you can't remember it yet, it's not worth telling you then," Scott
said, laughing even harder.

	"What do you mean by that?" Kevin asked angrily.

	"Hey you two, we've got more serious problem then Kevin's love life," Ami
yelled at the two men. When Kevin saw the look on Ami's face, he calmed down.

	"Sorry, what's the problem?" Kevin asked softly.

	"Talia and Chibi-Moon were kidnapped a little while ago by the Negaverse,
and we're the ransom," Scott said.

	"Do you know who did it?" Kevin asked, looking more alert now.

	"I have an idea. Ami can you hand me the note," Scott said. Ami reached
into her purse and handed Scott the note, and he then passed it to Kevin.
"Read it and see if my guess is correct."

	Kevin read the note and his face turned into a frown. His face got a look
of anger on it when he saw the locks of hair. He definitely recognized the
handwriting. He crushed the note in his hand and threw it to the ground.

	"Annette Mouliere," Kevin said angrily

	"Annette Mouliere? Who's that?" Ami asked.

	"Most people, including myself, call her Annie at her own insistence,"
Kevin said, angrily muttering to himself about his stupidity in not
stopping her when he had the chance.

	"Is she after you as well?" Scott asked, surprised.

        "Yeah, mostly because I didn't help her destroy the British," Kevin
replied shortly. "She took it as a personal insult."

	"First Daryl and now Annie. I have a feeling that all the people that
you made enemies out of have teamed up to get to you and are dragging
everyone else you know down with you." Scott said, shaking his head in dismay.
                                                                              
        "Okay, so we know who, but where are they?" Ami asked, disregarding Scott's
last words.

	"I know someone to ask," Kevin replied, getting a phone number from the
Rolodex on his desk.

	"Really, who?" Ami asked.

        "Can't tell you, it's a secret" Kevin said regretfully.Then he made a phone
call. After setting up a meeting, he hung up, and called Jervis into the room.

	"Where is this place we're going?" Scott asked as they walked to Kevin's
garage.

        "It's a bar in Roppongi, one of those out of the way kind of places," Kevin
replied get the keys to a rather beaten looking car.

	"Ah, I see," Scott said recognizing the car as the one his friend called
his 'stealth getaway car'.

	"So when do we go?" Ami asked looking uneasily at the ratty interior of
the little car.

	"Um, it's one of those places where it's also not a safe place for a girl
to be either," Kevin said trying to get Ami to stay behind.

	"I'm going," Ami said, glaring at the two men sternly.

    "Scott, help?"  Kevin asked, looking to see if Scott would help him dissuade
the girl.

	"Sorry, Ziggy. I've learned over the years to never argue with a woman.
Besides, I'll be there to watch out for her," Scott said reassuringly.

	"All right, I know when I'm on the losing side of a battle." Kevin said,
defeated.

	Walking up to the car, Kevin noticed that Scott and Ami were holding hands
as they walked. He realized that they'd had the talk that he'd tried to get
Scott to have with her. He smiled because he realized that they were now
closer, he just wondered what they talked about. When they got to the car, Ami
climbed firmly into the back seat while Scott and Kevin got into the front.
They then headed to the dark depths of Roppongi.

				*******************

IN FRONT OF 'THE SNAKE PIT' 

	All three of them were standing outside the bar waiting for Kevin to tell
them what he wanted them to do.

	"I'll go in and ask my contact if he knows anything about this. You two
wait here until I come back," Kevin said, with a warning look at them both.

	"Okay," Scott and Ami both replied in synch.

	After Kevin went into the bar shaking his head, Ami looked like she was
nervous about something. She looked over at Scott and saw that he was standing
quietly against the car. She was wondering how he could be so calm waiting
like this, so she decided to find out.

	"How can you be so relaxed, knowing that someone has been kidnapped, and
that you are relying on someone who would go to a place like this to know
something about where they could be?" Ami asked.

	"I'm not calm. I've just learned to be able to hide my feelings very 
well," Scott said, as he walked over to Ami and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm
just as worried as you are, Ami. I don't fully trust this contact that Ziggy
is here to see. But I do know that when a friend of his is in trouble, Ziggy
will do everything that he can to help. We just have to wait patiently."

	"Okay." Ami said looking up trustingly at Scott.

	Scott looked down at her and leaned in to kiss her. 

	Ami was caught off guard for a moment when Scott started kissing her, but
she quickly got into the kiss. They were very deep into the kiss when they
heard someone clear their throat. Both of them quickly broke off the kiss
at the sound, then blushed a little at being caught. They turned to the sound
of the voice, expecting Kevin, but saw four men that looked like gang members,
standing there near the door.

	"My, wasn't that a lovely scene," said the man that appeared to be the
leader.

	"What do you want?" Scott asked as he stood in front of Ami.

	"We want your money, and your girlfriend." The leader said.

	"I don't think so." Scott said angrily, subtly opening his jacket to get
his arms a little more room.

	"So you want to do this the fun way, huh? Good." said the man with a
smile as the other men pulled out knives and he pulled out a pistol.

	"Ami, get out of here," Scott said as he got ready to fight.

	"But... " Ami said as she was thinking of a way to change and help.

	"Get out of here!" yelled Scott at her. She turned and ran into the bar,
hoping to get Kevin before those gang members could kill Scott.

				*******************

INSIDE THE BAR

	Kevin walked into the bar and looked around. The place hadn't changed
much since the last time he had been here. The biggest room was full of pool
tables that were all being used, off to the right side was the bar, the other
side was the table and benches and booths. There were a few video games and
slot machines scattered about the place, and the air was filled with cigar and
cigarette smoke. Kevin made his way to one of the booths where a lone man was
sitting drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette. He sat down across from the man 
and waited. A few minutes later, the man spoke.

	"So what brings you around this time?" asked the man, not looking at 
Kevin.

	"I'm looking for a certain person," Kevin said, studiously following the
man's example.

	"Who might this person be?"

	"A female, around twenty years of age, dark red hair, sometimes has an
extremely deadly temper. Do you know of anyone that fits that description?"

	"I know of one person that fits that description. The person has recently
been buying up property in Osaka."

	"Anything else?"

	"Not much. The person has been known to disappear strangely when they are
done with business."

	"Thanks. Great talking to you again."

	"Do you happen know a girl that is dressed in a high-school uniform, with
bluish hair, about your age?" The man asked, looking over Kevin's shoulder in
mild surprise.

	"Yes, what of it?" Kevin replied, a little confused by the change of
subject.

	"I think she needs some help. Behind you."

	Kevin looked behind him and saw that Ami was being hassled by a group of
men by the pool tables. Kevin sighed and got up from the booth to go rescue
Ami. As Kevin left the table, the man glanced at his watch, its face covering
the inside of his left wrist, concealing a Watcher tattoo.

				*******************

	Ami found herself surrounded by several men when she came in looking for
Kevin. The men gathered around her and were trying to get her to go somewhere
with them, while others were feeling her up. She was trying to get by them,
but they kept pulling her back towards them. She started to cry from fear
because of all the strange men around her when she heard a familiar voice.

	"Why don't you leave the lady alone?" an angry male voice growled from
behind the men surrounding her. "She obviously doesn't like your company,"
Everyone turned and saw Kevin standing there with a pool stick in his hands.

	"What's it to you?" one of the men asked looking at the 'kid' messing
with his friends.

	"She happens to be a girlfriend to a friend of mine." Kevin replied.

	"Then where is this 'friend' of yours to protect her?" another man asked,
smiling nastily.

	"I would like to know that myself," Kevin muttered to himself then
continued louder. "I would like it more if you would just stop doing what
you're trying to do, and go on about your business."

	"And what would we have been doing? This?" said the man directly behind
Ami as he reached for the front of her shirt and ripped it open, revealing
her light blue lace bra. The man then groped one of her breasts, fondling
it with a challenging look in his eye. All the other men laughed as they
watch what was happening and at Ami trying to get out of the man's grasp.

	"That was a big mistake, neighbor." Kevin said flatly looking at the man
grimly.

	"What are you going to do about it, boy?" The man who was fondling Ami
asked. He bent down and licked her neck.

	"Not too much, really." Kevin said smiling evilly.

	With that, Kevin moved quickly and hit the man that was fondling Ami in
the face with the pool stick, breaking his nose. Blood spurted all over, some
of it getting splattered on Ami's back and neck, and some on her face. When
the man released his hold on her, she dove for cover and hid among the pool
tables.

	When Kevin smiled at the sight of the man on the ground holding his nose,
the man's friends tried to gang up on him. He ducked under two pool sticks from
opposite sides, resulting in the two men hitting each other. As both men fell,
Kevin went on to the next opponent. He smiled as he clubbed the next man with
the butt end of the broken pool stick, dropping the man and breaking the
rest of the stick in the process.

	Then two men suddenly grabbed each of Kevin's arms to hold him down. Kevin
saw a third man approaching with a look of pure hatred for Kevin on his face.
Kevin broke himself out of the hold the two men had on him,and elbowed the man
that had held his left arm in the gut. As the guy folded over in pain, Kevin
brought his right knee up and hit him in the head. Kevin then quickly kicked
the other guy in the head with the same leg. Both of the men then fell to the
floor unconscious. He then heard a gunshot outside.

    He saw the third man approaching and he grabbed two pool balls from a
nearby table, and threw them at the man's chest. The first one hit while the
man blocked the second one, so Kevin threw a third at the guys left knee,
which the man failed to block. When the ball hit, there was a sickening
crunch as the man went down on his other knee. Kevin threw a fourth ball and
hit the guy in the head, causing the man to fall to the ground, unconscious.
He looked around and saw that only two more men were willing to stay and
fight him.

	Kevin saw that they were standing close together on the other side of a
pool table. So he just ran towards them and jumped over the pool table and
pushed off from it to get more momentum. Then he did a flying kick at one
of the men and sent him rolling over the pool table that was behind him. The
man landed on his head knocking himself out. Kevin then landed on the pool
table, and after rolling away from the cue stick the man tried to hit with did
a spin kick, hitting the other man in the chest.That sent the man reeling back
until he tripped over one of the bodies on the floor and hit his head on a
pool table, knocking him unconscious. Kevin looked around and saw that no one
else wanted to fight, so he went looking for Ami.

	He found her hiding underneath one of the pool tables at the far end of
the room. He helped her out from under the table and saw that she was blushing
from embarrassment because of what had happened to her. He saw her trying her
best to keep covered with the remains of her blouse.

	"What are you doing in here?" Kevin asked, smiling reassuringly at her
look of acute embarrassment.

	"I came to get you," Ami replied.

	"What for?" Kevin asked, surprised.

	"When you left, we were attacked by some gang members. Scott is still
outside, fighting four armed men," Ami said, remembering her original reason
for coming into the bar.

	"Okay. Let's go see if we can help," Kevin said as he noted the fear in
her voice.

	As they ran to the door, Kevin smirked a little when he noted that Ami was
barely managing to keep her blouse together as she tried to keep up with him.

                 *******************

EARLIER, OUTSIDE IN THE ALLEY

	"That wasn't smart, telling her to leave. Now we have to hurt you more,"
The leader said as he saw Ami run into the bar.

	"You can try, but I don't go down very easily," Scott replied, firmly.

	"That's just the way we like it," The leader said, cheerfully motioning
the other gang members to move forward.

	Two of the four men came charging in to slash at Scott with knives. Scott
dodged both of their attacks and pushed them away. The closer of the two men
turned and thrust his knife at Scott. Scott side stepped the thrust then
grabbed the man's wrist, and twisted it until it broke. The man fell to his
knee's, holding his broken wrist, screaming in pain. Scott then hit him in the
back of his head, knocking him unconscious.

    The second guy came at Scott again, swinging his knife wildly.Scott dodged
the best he could, but he could feel the knife hit him twice in the arm. After
the last thrust that the man attempted, Scott grabbed his arm and yanked. The
man shot by Scott and Scott added a little push, which sent him into the wall
behind him, head first. The man landed on the ground out cold.

	Scott turned to the last of the men to see what they were up too. He saw
that the leader nod to the other man, and the man smiled as he pulled out two
more knives and stepped forward.

	"You were lucky to defeat those two. Not many people have been able to do
that. Now you will face me, and I have never lost," the other man said. The
man threw one of his knives towards Scott, but Scott just ducked under it.

	"Strike one," Scott said as he stood again. The man got mad and threw the
second of his knives. Scott just swatted it out of the way. "Strike two," The
man got furious and threw the third one. Scott just caught the knife and
looked at the man. "Guess what? Strike three."

	Scott knew the man threw with his right arm, so he threw the knife back
and it stuck into the man's right shoulder. The man screamed in pain as he
tried to remove his knife from his shoulder. Scott walked up to him while he
was distracted and punched him in the gut. When the folded over his fist,
Scott hit him in the back of the head, knocking him out.

	Scott then turned to the leader just as he heard a gun go off. He felt a
sharp pain in his left shoulder. He smiled at the leader evilly when he saw
that the barrel of his gun was smoking then looked down at his shoulder,
seeing a large red spot growing there.

	"You're not so tough," The leader said as he walked up to Scott and
pointed the gun at him. "So, what are you going to do now?"

	The leader saw a glint of light that reflected off something and felt
something hit his gun. When he looked down at his gun and saw that it was
now in two pieces, cut right above his hand. He looked at Scott and saw that
he had a katana in his right hand.

	"What? How did you get that sword? Where did it come from?" The leader
asked.

	"One of life's many secrets," Scott replied as he hit the man in the Solar
Plexus with the hilt of his sword. When the man bent over, because of the hit,
Scott punched him in the head, with the hand that held the sword. The man was
out cold shortly there after. "And one you'll never know."

	Scott looked around and saw all of the men laying on the ground
unconscious. He decided to move them so the police wouldn't see them. Then he
realized that he was regaining the use of his left shoulder. He put his sword
in his sub-space pocket and lifted the leader over his right shoulder. He
carried him to a Dumpster and threw him in. Scott then threw the other three
men in there and closed the lid. He then sensed the presence of another
immortal nearby, turned around and saw that Kevin and Ami were coming out of
the bar in a hurry.

	When Scott took a look at Ami, he realized that something had happened.
Ami was walking behind Kevin, like she was trying to hide something. Then he
saw that there was blood splattered on the left side of her face, neck, and
shoulder. He also saw that she was trying to hold her blouse together in
front. Then Kevin and Ami walked up to Scott.

      "Hey Scott old buddy, what were you doing?" Kevin asked.

      "Taking out some trash. Why?" Scott replied.

	"I thought you said that you would watch the kid here." Kevin said.

	"What happened?" Scott asked.

	"She got attacked by some of the scum inside while she was trying to find
me." Kevin replied.

	"What!" exclaimed Scott as he looked over at Ami and saw her looking at
the ground with a dark shade of red on her cheeks. He was about to continue
when he heard Ami gasp. He looked at her again and saw she was starring at
his chest.

	"Oh my God, you've been shot!" exclaimed Ami as she went up to him.

	"Uh, Ami, it's all right," Scott said trying to down play his injury.

	"No it's not! You're probably just going into shock," Ami said.

	"Ami, it's all right," Scott said one last time but failed as she ripped
open his shirt, over the wound, and inspected the wound. Scott noticed that
when she went to rip open his shirt, she lost her hold on her blouse all
together and he got an eyeful of her chest.

	"How can that be?" Ami asked, as all she found was a little red mark where
the bullet apparently hit entered. The mark slowly faded from view as she
watched.

	"I tried to tell you, but you seem to have forgotten that I heal quicker
than any normal person. Also I really enjoy the view, but I don't think you
want anyone else to see that. Besides you might catch cold." Scott said,
chuckling softly as she started to blush even more. Ami realized that her
blouse was hanging open, showing off her chest. She blushed even hotter at
both comments. She quickly covered herself up, and turned when she heard
Kevin snickering.

	"This isn't funny!" Ami yelled at Kevin. Kevin quit chuckling, but you
could tell that he was still laughing on the inside. Ami suddenly felt
something resting on her shoulders. She looked behind her and saw that
Scott had covered her with his jacket.

        "Here, use this to cover yourself," Scott said calmly. Ami quickly put
the jacket on and closed it up. She suddenly realized that something was
missing from his jacket.

	"Where's your sword?" Ami asked, confused.

	"In my Sub-space pocket," Scott replied.

        "Hate to disturb your private moment there, you two, but we've got to get
out of here," Kevin interrupted, motioning to the car.

        "Where are we going now?" Ami asked, still blushing at the earlier comment.

        "To my penthouse in Ginza," Kevin replied nonchalantly. Ami gasped then
looked at Scott for confirmation.

        "Okay, let's go," Scott said, unconcerned. As they headed to Kevin's car,
Kevin smiled when he saw that Scott put his arm around Ami while they walked
together.

				*******************

AT THE PENTHOUSE

        Ami stood looking out a window overlooking downtown Tokyo. She saw Tokyo
Tower in the distance. When she had entered the penthouse, thankful for
private elevators, she was surprised at the size of the rooms. The penthouse
covered the entire top floor. She couldn't see how anyone could afford all of
that space in this district.

	"How can you afford all of this?" Ami asked, gazing wonderingly at the
expensive furnishings.

	"Well, if you live 700 years, placing money in banks and leaving it there
for awhile, and then placing some in stocks and not panicking, after awhile
you can acquire an obscene amount of money," Kevin replied smiling at her
reaction.

	"Oh my," was all Ami could say to that.

	"Ami, isn't it time you called your friends. They may be worried about you
by now," Scott said, trying to bring her out of her shock-induced daze.

	"Okay," Ami said as she slowly went off to a far corner of the room and
pulled out her communicator. After a short wait, Usagi's face appeared on it.

      "Ami, we've been wondering what happened to you. I've been worried that
something bad had happened," Usagi said.

	"Well... " Ami tried to talk but was interrupted by Usagi.

	"Oh, Ami, did you hear, school is closed down because a water main broke. 
Oh wait, of course you didn't hear, you've been away," Usagi said.

     "Um... " Ami tried to talk but was interrupted again when Usagi noticed the
blood on her face.

     "Oh my God Ami, is that blood?" Usagi said noticing the stains on Amy's
clothes, and getting really worried. "Oh I was right, something bad did happen
to you, didn't it." 

	"It's really... " Ami said as she was interrupted again.

        "Are you hurt? Are you okay? Who did that to you?" Usagi asked.

	"If you give her a chance to speak, she'll tell you," yelled Rei over the 
communicator.

	"Sorry Ami," Usagi said.

	"That's okay Usagi. I'm all right, this is someone else's blood that got 
splattered on me," Ami said.

	"What happened?" Ami heard Makoto say.

	"I'll tell you guys later. Right now we need to worry about Hotaru and 
Chibi-Usa," Ami said.

	"What's up?" Rei asked.

	"Kevin may know where they are," Ami said.

	"Really, where?" Usagi asked.

	"Somewhere in Osaka," Ami replied.

	"What!?!" everyone exclaimed.

	"We all need to get together and plan this out. We're dealing with another 
immortal here," Ami said

	"Well, since school is out for most of us, we were planning on staying at 
Makoto's for the night. Can you meet us there?" Rei asked.

	"Hold on," Ami said. The others saw her turn her head and talk to someone 
else in the room. In a few moments, she turned back. "Kevin says why not meet
here?"

	"Where are you?" Minako asked.

	"Kevin's penthouse in Ginza," Ami replied.

	"Penthouse!" everyone exclaimed, "in GINZA!?!?!?!?!"

	"Yes," Ami said smiling a little at their shocked expressions.

	"How does he own a penthouse, if he's still in school?" Makoto asked.

      "Um,don't forget that he's over 700 years old. He has saved up quite a bit 
of money," Ami replied.

	"Okay. We'll meet there. How do we get there?" Rei asked.

	"Scott said that he would pick you guys up if you would call Haruka and
Michiru and tell them what's going on," Ami said.

	"Okay. Where shall we meet him?" Rei asked.

	"How about at the shrine, Rei?" Ami asked.

	"Okay, but will he recognize us or should we be in our Senshi form?" Rei 
asked.

	"Go as you want. But if you go in normal attire, I don't think he'll
recognize any of you. He didn't recognize me." Ami said.

        "We'll wait for him in senshi form," Rei replied.

	"See you guys when you get here," Ami said, smiling as she thought of the 
surprise in store for them when they arrived at Kevin's penthouse.

        "Later Ami," Usagi said, then the screen on the communicator went blank.
Ami got up and went over to where Scott and Kevin were sitting.

	"So, what's the verdict?" Kevin asked.

	"They'll meet here after Scott picks them up," Ami said.

	"So where do I pick them up?" Scott asked.

	"Hikawa Shrine," Ami replied.

	"I know where that is. Been past it a couple of times," Scott said.

	"Okay," Ami said as she walked with him to the door.

	"Are they going to be in Senshi form or normal attire?" Scott asked.

        "They said that they would meet you there in Senshi form," Ami replied.

	"Well, then I guess I'm off then. I hope I can find them," Scott said as 
he went and grabbed another jacket out of the closet and left the penthouse.
Kevin looked closely at Ami then sighed softly.

	"I think you should take a shower before that blood dries to much, Ami.
The bathrooms are attached to the bedrooms right down that hall. I'll get you
some of Scott's clothes until you can get new ones," Kevin said as he smiled
at Ami.

	Ami smiled shyly with a small blush on her cheeks then went into one of
the rooms to take a shower. Kevin followed after her once he heard the shower
start. He got some clothes out of the chest of drawers, then decided not to
tell her she had chosen Scott's room. Placing the clothes on the bed, he went
back into the living room and looked around. Realizing what Ami's reaction
would be when she found out where she was, he started laughing. Still
laughing he went into the kitchen and started getting snacks ready for
everyone.

				*******************

AT THE HIKAWA SHRINE

	Scott pulled up to the curb next to the shrine and got out of his car. He
took a look at the shrine and saw that it was a small one, but he also saw
that it was a rather peaceful one as well. He started up the steps when he
felt a presence that didn't signify an Immortal, but rather a Pre-Immortal.
When he got to the top, he saw that there were four girls, a man, and two cats
waiting near the shrine. He glanced around the group and realized that the
feeling was coming from the tall, brown-haired girl. When the girls noticed
him, they came towards him, then looked at each other waiting for someone to
do something. Scott got tired of this quickly and looked around. Seeing Luna,
while still keeping an eye on the man since he didn't know who he was, he
smiled down at her.

	"So Luna, I guess these people are the Princess and her court, except for
that guy there," Scott said, with a questioning look. "Who's he?"

	"That's right, you haven't met him yet. You would now him as Prince
Endymion," said Luna. The man looked surprised that Luna would talk to the
person in front of him, much less introduce him by his Silver Millennium name.

	"I see," Scott said as he placed his hand out. "It's nice to meet you
again, Prince Endymion. Scott Schwartzstern, otherwise known as Gerrek
Bontrager, First Prince of Minerva."

	"Nice to meet you too," said Endymion as he took Scott's hand and they
shook hands. Scott looked at the other girls and noticed that the one who was
giving off indications of being a Pre-Immortal was Kevin's girlfriend. He
smilled as he thought of the problems that Kevin was going to have in the
future. When he was done shaking hands with Endymion, he went over to her.

	"And you must be Makoto Kino. Kevin's told me a lot about you. I must
shake the hand of the one woman in all of history that can make Kevin
O'Connell do what he hates, and then turn around and stop him from getting
anything he wants," Scott said as he held out his hand. Makoto was a little
taken aback because of what Scott had said, but shook his hand anyway. He then
went over to Usagi and did a polite bow. "And you must be Princess Serenity."

	"How did you know?" Usagi asked.

	"Well, I could say it's because Luna is standing right next to you and I
know she is the Princess' advisor, but there just aren't that many people
that use that particular hair style, so I just put a few things together and
made a guess," Scott replied, smiling. Then he laughed as she blushed.
"And you just confirmed it, your highness" He looked around and saw that two
members of the group were missing. "Where are Hadria and Meri?"

	"They should be here shortly," Usagi said, as she realized he was asking
for Haruka and Michiru. As she said that, they heard a car pulling up. A
short while later, two people walked up the stairs.

	After a brief greeting to everyone else, Scott told them where they were
all going and how to get into the private garage. Then they went down to the
cars. Haruka and Michiru got into Haruka's sports car and left in flurry of
flying gravel. Mamoru took Usagi, Makoto, and Luna with him. Scott took Rei,
Minako, and Artemis with him. They got to the hotel in twenty minutes. After
parking the cars, they all gathered by the private elevator and Scott took
them up to the penthouse.

	When they entered the penthouse, the others were shocked at what they saw.
They expected the penthouse to be small, not one that took up the entire floor.
Scott showed them to the living room, where there were enough couches and
chairs for them all to sit down. After they sat down, with Usagi sitting next
to Mamoru, Michiru sitting next to Haruka, and all the rest sitting in chairs,
Scott looked around for Kevin and found him in the kitchen putting snacks into
bowls and pulling the drinks out of the refrigerator. Scott helped him take
out the snacks and drinks and smiled a little when he saw Usagi attack the
snacks. He saw that Kevin was sitting as far away from Makoto as he could.
Then he noticed that Ami wasn't around.

	"Where's Ami?" Scott asked Kevin.

        "When the kid got out of your bedroom, she went into the library," Kevin
replied.

	"I'll go get her," Scott said, then froze. "MY ROOM?!?"

	Kevin just laughed at the expression on Scott's face as he left the room.

	Scott left the group staring at him in confusion, and headed towards the
library. He got there and entered it to find Ami sitting reading a book. He
smiled ruefully at the way Ami was dressed. She was wearing one of his black,
long-sleeved silk shirts, that was partially laced up in the front, a pair of
his blue silk boxers, with a big blue towel wrapped around her head. She was
sitting in a chair, reading one of Kevin's books. He cleared his throat and
chuckled a little when he saw Ami jump. She looked over the top of the book
and saw Scott standing there, with his jacket still on, waiting at the door.

	"I like the outfit," Scott said, chuckling as he saw Ami blush a little.
"The others are here and waiting for you," 

	Ami set the book down and walked over to Scott.

       "Kevin said I could use some of your clothes, I hope it was all right?"
 Ami asked.

       "It's all right. Wouldn't be proper for you to be sitting out there with
your blouse gaping open. You might give Hadria the wrong idea," Scott replied,
smiling as Ami blushed again.

	When both came into the living room, the others stared at the way Ami was
dressed. She just looked down at the floor blushing because of her friends'
stares. Scott walked over to the closet and put his jacket in it. When he
returned to the chair next to the couch Ami was sitting on, the others stared
at him, gasping when they saw the way his shirt looked. They saw the cuts on
his sleeves with dark red patches around them and the big red area on his left
shoulder with a massive hole torn in it, exposing his shoulder. Scott realized
what they were looking at and smiled as he answered their unasked question.

	"We got into a little fight while we were looking for information on the
kidnappers," He said as he sat down in the chair. 

        He, and most of the others in the room, got a surprise when Ami got up
from the couch and sat on his lap. After a momentary pause in his explanation,
he placed his arms around her. Usagi smiled complacently when she saw Ami
sitting in Scott's lap, and knew that they had started renewing their
relationship.

	"Okay, we're all here. Now what did you find out," Haruka said, angry to
be apparently wasting time.

	"Well, since you want to get down to business," Kevin said. "I figured out
that since one of the kidnappers was an immortal called Annette Mouliere, or
Annie as everyone calls her, one of my acquaintances might know where she
hangs out. It seems she's been buying up property in Osaka lately. So that
is probably where they took the missing Senshi."

	"Why would she kidnap them?" Michiru asked.

	"I figure it was to get back at me, Sis," Kevin replied smiling. Michiru
flinched at how easily he had said that. She was still getting use to the
fact that she now had an older brother that looked seventeen and was Immortal
with many old enemies.

        "Why would she be getting back at you?" Rei asked.

	"When I last saw her, we weren't exactly on good terms," Kevin replied.

	"So what are you going to do now?" Haruka asked.

        "Well, I figured I would go out tomorrow and talk to certain other people
for verification," Kevin replied.

	"Why tomorrow?" Rei asked.

	"Annie probably figured it would take you guys a lot longer than a few
hours to persuade Scotty here to help you out, then get hold of me. So when
I find the place where they are, we'll go and rescue the girls," Kevin said
confidently.

	"That sounds nice and simple, but some of us still need to go to school
tomorrow." Rei said looking daggers at a smirking Usagi.

	"Hmmm, that does cause a problem. I think I can solve it though," Kevin
said, smiling secretively.

	"How?" Rei asked, not understanding the strange smile.

	"I'll just call and tell them that you're not going to be able to make it
to school, and they'll excuse you." Kevin replied smugly.

	"And just why would they do that?" Rei asked suspiciously.

        "Well, to put it bluntly, about 20 years ago I got really bored, so I
decided to become a doctor, so it'll be a medical reason. But first I need
to know who this is going to effect first," Kevin said.

	"Just Venus and myself," Rei replied, a little confused at the idea of a
guy who appeared to be a seventeen-year-old being a qualified medical doctor.

	"I'll need your real names in order to tell your schools to excuse you,"
Kevin said rather pointedly when it appeared they wouldn't say any more.

	"I'm Rei Hino and she's Minako Aino," Rei said after she thought for a
while about revealing their names to Kevin.

	"Thank you. Now which schools am I contacting?" Kevin asked, pulling out a
note pad. Rei and Minako told him their respective schools' names and he
nodded. "Well, since we can't do anything else about this until tomorrow, you
guys should get some sleep. Guest bedrooms are down that hall, so you people
can make your own sleeping arrangements in regards to who sleeps where. I'll
see all of you tomorrow morning,"

       Kevin left the room after he finished, and the others got up and headed for
the guestrooms. Haruka and Michiru took the first bedroom on the right, Mamoru
and Usagi took the second one on the left, accompanied by a chorus of hints
from the others,and Rei,Makoto, and Minako took three others. Inside the rooms,
they found that they were indeed set up as guestrooms. Inside each there was a
couple of dressers, a few chairs, several windows that showed a view of Tokyo,
and king-size beds, except for the first two on the left, which looked like
they were decorated for little kids complete with two twin beds on opposite
sides of the room. They all went into their rooms and got ready to go to bed.

	As the others were getting ready for bed, Scott and Ami were still
standing in the living room.

	"So Ami, um... where are you going to sleep?" Scott asked nervously.

    "Well, the bed in the room where I took my shower looked comfortable," Ami
said, as she looked at Scott and was surprised to see him blushing hotly. She
misinterpreted the reason for the blush and continued talking quickly. "Ah,
no! I didn't mean we should share... "

	"It's not that, it's just that you took a shower in my bedroom this
afternoon," Scott told her, noting the surprised look of shock on her face.
Then he heard Kevin, Makoto and Minako break out laughing at the look on Ami's
face followed by a thump as Minako hit the floor still laughing uncontrollably. 

	"Don't say anything," Scott said quietly, seeing the blush coloring Ami's
cheeks."We are not going to get too worked up over our relationship just yet.
Let's worry about rescuing Talia and Chibi-Moon first, then we can worry about
us. Deal?" Scott whispered to Ami after he placed a finger on her lips to
silence her.

	Ami nodded, smiling.

	"You can go get in bed. I'll take one of the others. I'll see you 
tomorrow,"
Scott said out loud.

	"Okay," Ami said, smiling confidently as she walked past her staring
friends and into Scott's room and closed the door behind her.

	As Scott watched Ami head to his room, he smiled, then turned and headed
for the kitchen. He got himself a glass of water. When he was done drinking
the water, he noticed that Luna and Artemis had entered the kitchen. They
hopped up on the counter and looked questioningly at Scott.

	"Hello you two. Can I get you anything?" Scott asked.

	"That's all right, Gerrek. We're about to turn in ourselves," said Luna.

	"Then what can I do for you?" Scott asked.

	"We see that you and Ami are getting along pretty well together again,"
Artemis said.

      "No thanks to you two, making her remember before she was ready for it,"
Scott said angrily, looking down at the obviously repentant cats.

	"Sorry," said Luna quietly.

	"It's just that I wanted her to have a normal life. Not one where she was
forced into remembering a time in her past or a relationship she'd once had,"
Scott said.

	"Are you in love with her or are you just stringing her along?" Luna asked
bluntly.

	"I've been in love with her for over 2000 years, Luna, and now, when I've
found her alive again, I'm scared to death of what could happen to her," Scott
said, smiling reassuringly at the cats' surprised looks.

	"What do you mean?" Artemis asked, confused.

	"I'd rather not say. It was hard enough to tell her what I meant," Scott
said.

	"Oh," both cats replied, surprised.

	"I'll let you two go to sleep now. I've got to go get cleaned up and then
get some sleep. I'll see you two in the morning," Scott said

	Scott left the two cats in the kitchen, noticing that the others were
already settled in for the night. Smiling a little at the protectiveness of
the cats, he wandered along the hall, still too wound up to get to sleep. As
he got to the door of the library, he saw a light under it, and chuckled
softly as he realized that Kevin had the same problem he did. Opening the door
he was surprised to see that Kevin was reading what appeared to be a handmade
book. As the door opened Kevin looked up and smiled to see Scott at the door.

        "Let me guess, you couldn't sleep either," Scott said, moving further into
the room. Glancing at the book he was surprised to see that it was in Old
Lunar. "Hey, I thought you couldn't read that book," he said in surprise.
Kevin nodded and motioned for Scott to sit down, then offered him some brandy
from the decanter at his elbow. After pouring Scott's drink, Kevin sat back
then picked up the book again.

	"Well, too answer your question, no, I couldn't read this book when I got
it," Kevin replied, leafing idly through the book. "Thing was, when I got here
this afternoon, I suddenly remembered the last time I saw Kiana before the
meeting yesterday. So I decided to try reading this thing again. Unfortunately,
I still can't read it, though I get the feeling I should be able to. Anyway,
I'll probably have to check the scrolls since the book is falling apart now,"
He carefully set the volume down on the desk.

	"What scrolls? And what does the book have to do with Kiana?" Scott asked.

	Kevin smiled at the confusion on Scott's face. "Well, you obviously
remember the time I got this book, but you probably don't know how I got the
scrolls it came from," He said smiling at the question. "It was during the
time before we met again in Japan almost 300 years ago.

	        #################################################

Honshu Island, 1700

	Kevin O'Connell grumbled as he trudged along beside the horses,
complaining about the snow, and the fact that he was out in it. As he trudged
through the snow, he wondered who the woman who kept following him was, and
what she wanted. She was a native of the country, but she showed more than
the normal interest in him. Since he hadn't be able to think of any reason for
her to have asked to see him three months ago, other than being an assassin
paid to kill him, so he had left Sendai and had been on the run ever since.

	A loud crash at the head of the caravan startled his horse, and made him
look up. A landslide ahead had just blocked the trail, and from the shouting
coming from the lead riders, the slide hadn't been natural. Drawing his sword,
Kevin moved to the front, arriving in time to see a pair of ninja rise up
behind the caravan guard leader, who was struggling with his mount. Before
Kevin could shout a warning, the further one shot the guard leader from his
saddle while the other darted out and capture the horse's reins. As the ninja
with the horse was dragging the guard leader from the saddle, Kevin moved up
behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

	Ducking under his opponent's swing, he brought his sword up in time to
block the man's return strike. As he was driven backward, Kevin noticed that
the other ninja was trying to shoot him, so he turned the fight to keep his
opponent between him and the archer still in the rocks. As Kevin was backed
toward the rest of the caravan, he heard the clash of swords and came to the
conclusion that the two ninja at the front were not his only atttackers.
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw a number of bandits, and even a few Ronin
fighting the caravan guards while the merchants cowered under the wagons.
Turning back to his opponent, he began a pattern attack that ended with him
facing the decapitated form of his opponent. Darting forward, he drew one of
his boot daggers and as the second ninja came into view taking aim on one of
the caravan guards who was winning his fight with an especially well-armored
Ronin, he threw the dagger, burying it in the man's throat, and sending the
arrow, arcing into the sky.

	Rejoining the caravan guards, he found that the bandits were being driven
back,until the last few turned to run, only to be felled by arrows from the
three remaining bows. Kevin went back to the forward-most wagon, and found
the owner of the caravan huddled under the tarp of the wagon, shaking. After 
dragging the man out of hiding,Kevin took two of the guards on horses, and
searched for the bandits' camp.

	After four hours, they had almost given up, when one of the guards found
the bandits' latrine, the hard way. As the other guard hauled their companions
out of the latrine, Kevin followed the well-worn path back to the camp. As he
glanced around the camp he noticed one of the tents had a wooden floor, and
was larger than the others around it. Approaching it, he noticed that only
the roof was a tent. The rest of the structure was made of wood and it
actually had a door. He searched the rest of the camp then returned to
entrance of the large building where he was joined by the two guards.
Motioning the two men back, he climbed the steps to the door.

	Examining the edges of the door, he noticed a rougher spot on the door
near the top of it, about twice the width of a dagger blade as if a dagger was
slid in at one point and then moved to the other. Drawing the dirk he had
retrieved from the ninja, he motioned the guards to move further back. He
then slid the dagger into the small opening, and slid it sharply toward the
corner. As it slid to the right, he felt a sharp tug then heard a weight drop
to the ground. Carefully, he slid the door open revealing a net full of bricks
lying on the floor with a severed rope hanging down above it. On sight of the
rest of the contents, he called the two guards into the room. When the two
guards entered they saw weapons and sacks lying everywhere.

    As the guards went into the room and searched, Kevin looked at the far
wall questioningly. Pacing the length of the room, he went back outside and
measured the length of the building. Even more confused, and a little excited
he ran back into the room, and paced it off again. After looking at the wall
for any signs of an opening, he began to search along the floor. It was near
the corner of the room that he noticed some of the treasure had been piled
onto a large carpet. Smiling to himself, he looked over at the guards who
were still sorting through the treasures on the other end of the room. He
called one of the guards over, told him to go tell the others about the
treasure, chuckling to himself when the two soldiers grabbed the best looking
items and stashed them in one of the other tents.

	As the one guard rode off, Kevin got the other to move the treasures off
of the rug 'to get a better look at it'. When the treasure had all been moved,
he was surprised find that the rug was actually more like a tapestry like he
had seen at the castle he had stayed in, in Germany, during his travels on
his way to Japan. Intrigued he viewed the images on the cloth and felt as if
he had seen something like this before. Glancing at the images he saw a large
circle surrounded by ten larger circles.

    On each of these larger circles, circles filled with many strange colors
were shown. The third circle from the center was blue and green with some
brown areas. The fifth was blue with many different brown areas, and for some
reason seemed to be more faded than any of the others. The sixth, seventh,
eighth and ninth were nearly as faded as the fifth, but the first, second,
fourth, and tenth were not as faded as the other five, but nowhere near as
brightly colored as the third. Something in the back of his mind told Kevin
he should know what this meant, but he couldn't figure out the feeling.
Smiling ruefully, Kevin decided that he would keep this item for himself.
With this in mind, he went outside, gathered his belongings from the horse,
and then lay them out on the 'carpet'.

	The caravan arrived shortly thereafter, and all of the treasures were
packed into the wagons. When the leader of the caravan asked about the rug,
Kevin simply told him it was comfortable, and then that he had decided to
stay in the camp. The leader shrugged then told the pack master to remove
Kevin's two packhorses from the caravan. As the caravan left several of the
guards could be heard muttering to themselves about crazy foreigners. Smiling
to himself Kevin simply waved to the departing people, then when he had seen
the last of the departing pack horses vanish over the last visible rise, he
turned and went back into the building. Whistling, he moved all of his
belongings from the tapestry, then rolled the tapestry up until the trap
door he had expected to find was revealed. Smiling even more broadly, he
grasped the ring and hauled the door up coughing at the dust that sprang up.
He was surprised at the amount of dust on the stairway that was now visible.
The hinges hadn't even squealed as he opened the door, but the dust visible
in the passage spoke of centuries of disuse.

	Gathering a torch and some other supplies, Kevin climbed down into the
passage, carefully keeping his feet from scraping along the floor in order
to keep the dust down. As he walked along the passage the total absence of
footprints struck him as odd, but not as odd as the total absence of cobwebs.
As he reached the far end of the passage, he saw a large metal door.
Approaching the door he froze when he heard a deep voice in his mind.
"Stand for aura scan and identification," the voice rumbled. As he stood,
scared out of his mind, a painfully bright beam of light flashed out from
the door, and filled the passage. After two minutes of being exposed to the
light, the beam cut off and the same deep voice entered his mind. "Greetings
and welcome First Prince Siegmund Drakkar, you may enter," Then the door
opened.

                   #####################################

	Scott looked at Kevin in surprise. "You mean you already knew who you
were?" he said, bewildered.

	"Hell no," Kevin replied. "I just thought the guardian had made a mistake,
and went in. That was where I found the scrolls."

                   #####################################

    The room was full of scroll racks the likes of which he had only seen in a
monastery. Staring around the room he noticed a stack of scrolls that had a
spotlight shining on it, then the same voice sounded in his mind. "These
documents are those pertaining to your duties at this time, Prince of Neptune,
take those and no others," Then the voice faded again and so did the strange
lights in the room until only the pile of scrolls on the table was lit. When
Kevin glanced around at the other racks he saw that all of the scroll still
in the racks were glowing with a strange blue light. Curious he reached out
his hand and touched one. As his hand brushed the first scroll there was a
bright flash, then darkness.

    Ten minutes later, Kevin woke up with a severely pounding headache. "Man,
note to self, don't touch glowing scrolls, they hurt a lot," Grimacing with
pain he walked over to the table with the scrolls on it. Counting them, he
found there were 15 scrolls, all in a language he couldn't read. Grumbling to
himself he gathered them all up and carried them back to the entrance. When he
arrived in the other building he placed all of the scrolls in one of the empty
waterproof pouches he usually carried travel bread in, then gathering the rest
of his belongings from the pack animals outside, he made camp for the night.
As he settled into sleep, he grumbled to himself. "Wouldn't you know, the one
time I find a secret room and get in, and all I get out of it are a bunch of
lousy scrolls," With this he fell into a deep sleep filled with dreams of a
beautiful girl and war.

                   #####################################

	"So what does this have to do with the 'oh so embarrassing' meeting
between you and Sailor Pluto," Scott asked, smiling at the blush on his
friend's face. "And don't try to tell me they aren't related to each other
because the timing is just too coincidental."

	"Okay, I can see you want the whole story," Kevin muttered. "Just promise
you won't laugh."

	"Alright, deal," Scott said, crossing his fingers behind his back.

                   #####################################

	Kevin rolled the tapestry up completely two days after leaving the record
chamber, and placed it on one of his pack horses after wrapping it in the
waterproof cloaks he found in the other tents in the camp. Drawing his own
cloak tight around himself, he rode toward the citadel of the Nakijima Clan.
As he entered he was greeted by many of the guards and noticed that there were
a large number of new troops, and that some of the apprentices being trained
were not of the same quality as those that had been in training even the year
before. He placed his possessions in his rooms, and then was taken before the
clan leader to report on what he had seen and heard in the many months he had
been away. After he had reported he asked about the large numbers of new
guards he had seen on the road and the many apprentices he had passed in the
main courtyard that had previously been refused training.

	"Honored Elder, I know quite well that the reason that Ohata, and Akinji
were refused training was that they were both accused of brutality by many,
and rape by three women who later disappeared under strange circumstances,"
Kevin said, speaking of two of the worst new apprentices. "I was the head of
the board who denied them training. The only thing which stopped us from
ordering their castration was that there were no witnesses except the victims,
and they could not be found."

	"My child, it was by the order of the Shogun himself that we have been
forced to take into our ranks those who were deemed unworthy previously. The
Daimyo of Hokkaido has angered him by harboring Gaijin against his edict," At
this the Clan leader motioned the guards outside. Once they had left and shut
the doors behind them, he continued. "In six months time we are to go to
Hokkaido. Once there we will attack the Daimyo's palace, and destroy every
man, woman, and child of the present lord's family. In addition, we are to
dishonor every wife, concubine, and daughter of the Daimyo," At this Kevin was
outraged.

	"Requiring the Daimyo to commit seppuku is within the bounds of honor and
right for the crime Lord Shinusuke has committed," Kevin said, forcing himself
to stay calm. "The rape, and destruction of his entire family is wrong. His
heir is a mere child of three, and his wife and daughters have no control of
his actions. How can it be deemed right, and honorable to dishonor then kill
helpless women and children?" Shaking his head he bowed formally to the clan
leader, who was looking severely disapproving. "Honored Elder, I feel that
this path is wrong. I will be guided by you in this however and will do as
you command."

	The leader of the Nakijima clan bowed in return, his expression 
lightening.  "Your scruples do you credit my son, and for your honesty I shall be honest in
return. It is true that there is much of dishonor in this commission the
Shogun has given us, but we dare not refuse, on pain of the destruction of our
entire clan. For your honor, I shall give you the only assignment that
possesses even a particle of honor. In two days you will leave for Hokkaido.
Your task will be two-fold. First you are to get word to the Daimyo, that
 unless he drives all gaijin from Hokkaido he shall be destroyed. Second, if
I am slain by one of the other members of the clan, you must spirit the
Daimyo's heir, and favored daughter Michiko from the palace, and hide them
where they can not be found," After having said this the Clan Elder dismissed
him to prepare for his journey.

	Two days later Kevin left for Hokkaido, praying for the guidance of every
god he had ever heard of to aid him in preserving the honor of the Nakijima
Clan. After reaching the coast, he paid a fisherman to take him to the Island,
and was told that the boat would be ready to depart in three days. As he
returned to his camp after gathering firewood, he felt something disquieting.
Approaching the camp carefully he saw a shadow detach itself from the trees.
Moving stealthily, he approached the figure from behind as it bent to look at
one of his packs. In a rush he tackled the person and pinned them- correction,
her- to the ground. As he held the girl down, he heard some extremely irate
screeching coming from his opponent. After binding her with the leather straps
he usually carried for such eventualities, he rolled her over and was
surprised to see it was the girl that had been looking for him before. She
glared up at him as he checked his knots one last time then turned to work on
his fire.

	"LET ME LOOSE THIS INSTANT SIEGMUND DRAKKAR," The girl yelled at him in
Japanese as she struggled with her bonds. Kevin jerked at the name then,
turned to face the girl once he had a cheery blaze going.

	"And who, my dear girl, would that be," he asked her, smiling a little at
her shocked look. "My name is Kevin O'Connell, of the clan O'Connell of
Donegal, Eire. I have no notion who this Siegmund Drakkar is, but you just
happen to be the second being to call me that. Who are you, and what do you
want with this Drakkar person anyway," Having said this, he saw that she was
a little stunned by his statement, and started preparations for his evening
meal with a shrug.

	"But, but... you look just like him... " Sailor Pluto whispered to herself
, then shook herself as she realized that he must not remember the Silver
Millenium. "It doesn't matter. My name is Pluto. You are the person I'm
looking for. You must come with me to the eastern slope of Chokai-zan. You
must claim your guide scrolls."

	Realizing that what this girl was talking about was the strange records
cavern he had found, he asked her for reasons. "How do I know your not just
saying that to get me to trust you so you can kill me later?" he asked her
belligerently.

	The look she gave him was completely shocked, then disbelieving. "Now, let
me get this straight. You, the six foot, two inch giant, are afraid of me, the
five foot, six inch dainty female? What is wrong with that picture? I mean,
if you wanted to, you could immobilize my hands with one of yours left over,
so what are you worried about," After she said this she shrugged in disgust.

	Realizing how silly he looked in the situation after he thought about it,
he smiled apologetically, and rolled her over to untie the straps. As she
worked the circulation back into her hands then ankles, she looked up at him
and smiled.

	"Now, can we be on our way to Chokai-zan?" Pluto asked, getting to her
feet and stepping closer to the fire, noting that he still kept the same
distance between them. "We really must get those scrolls so that you can
learn what your supposed to do when your destiny demands it," After saying
this she sat down and looked at him as if she expected him to agree with her.

	Shaking his head gently, Kevin sat opposite her after dragging his bedroll
and saddlebags over. "I don't know anything about destinies, or why you think
I'm the person your looking for but if these 'guide scrolls' are fifteen
scrolls written in an unknown language, from a strange cavern that talks to
you on the east slope of Chokai-zan, I already have them." Having said this
he watched Pluto to gauge her reaction.

	Pluto stared at him in shock for a few minutes, then started swearing
viciously. She stood up and stormed around her side of the fire pacing back
and forth, then started swearing in a strange but oddly familiar language.
Finally she stood and pointed her finger at Kevin.

	"Do you have the gall to tell me that I have been following you all over
Japan, chased by rapacious bandits, captured and almost raped, buried by an
avalanche, then knocked down and tied up; and you've already got the scrolls!
?!" She yelled, looking very put out.

	"Well, yes, I guess in all honesty, I am," Kevin replied, surprised at her
vehemence.

	That's great, just great," Pluto screamed. "Now, if you're done wasting my
time, I have more important things to do," With a flash of green light Pluto
vanished still swearing in that strange language.

	Two weeks later in Hokkaido, Kevin received word that the Clan Elder had
died, and Ohata had become the High Elder.

                   #####################################

	"So you see, I'm surprised that she will even talk to me," Kevin said
smiling ruefully at Scott.

        "Sheesh wassh jusht a bit peeved ash you there Kevin, me boy," Scott said,
blinking at Kevin owlishly. 

        Kevin looked at his friend in surprise, then noticed the pleasant buzz he
felt, and glancing down at the table realized they had finished a bottle and
a half of brandy. Glancing at the mantle clock he saw that it was 1 AM. "Scott
old friend, I think you should get some sleep before the long day we'll have
tomorrow," Helping his friend out of the chair, Kevin led him to the door.
After reminding him about the room changes, Kevin let him stumble off to bed
while he walked to the other end of the hall and entered the master suite.
After downing two quarts of Gatorade, and getting ready for bed, Kevin
collapsed into his bed to be tormented by dreams of his love dying, and not
being able to do anything.

                   *************************************

A WAREHOUSE SOMEWHERE IN OSAKA

	In a warehouse on the waterfront, two people, one male, and the other
female, were talking as they sat by a large table, waiting for instructions.
The man was getting restless after waiting as long as he'd had to, so he got
up and went to a nearby door and looked in at the two captives that they had
tied to a bed in the next room. They were two girls about thirteen years old.
One was wearing a pink fuku, while the other was wearing a purple fuku. They
were lying on an old, rickety bed, tied spread eagle. Around their necks they
wore chokers that were glowing softly.

	"They aren't going anywhere, Daryl," The woman said frowning at her
companion.

	"I'm just tired of all this waiting, Annie. When is Jarosite going to get
here?" Daryl asked impatiently.

	"He'll get here when he gets here. In the meantime you can stop looking at
our two captives like that. Those chokers that they are wearing prevent them
from regaining consciousness, while it slowly drains them of their powers, but
if you touch either one of them, it'll drain you too," Annie said, smirking
at the fear on his face.

	"I know that," Daryl said with a small hint of anger in his voice at the
insinuation.

	"Yeah whatever. You should realize that we shouldn't expect Jarosite until
tomorrow anyway. It should take him that long to get to us from Okinawa. We
should probably expect him to arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon. Go and get
some rest. And leave those girls alone. If you touch either of them I'll kill
you myself."

	After Daryl glared at her, he left to get some sleep. Annie got up and
checked on the two girls and wondered again why they wore such short skirts.
She figured it was to distract their enemies while they got their attacks off.
That was the only reason she could come up with anyway. She just shrugged her
shoulders and closed the door and went to her room to sleep in order to be
rested enough to fight Drakkar when he met them in two days.

To Be Continued...

    Source: geocities.com/zciwohcats