<Historian's Note: This episode takes place three months after the original episode entitled "Time Enough For Love."> Time flowed strangely in The Dark. While the flow of Time seemed to be even and continuous inside the neo-void, it was quite chaotic when compared to the flow of Time in another dimension. The discovery of the consciousness inside the burnt-out shell of the soul took only a handful of minutes from her perspective, but the same span of Time covered three months in the small branch of Time that was the place of origin for the soul. <....my name is.... Pluto....> the soul said hesitantly as it woke up. Most interesting, she thought as she continued to examine the small ball of light. This soul has been virtually dead for almost a thousand years, and now it's talking to me. <....who.... who are you?> the soul continued. She blinked as she considered the question. She did have a name, but it was not something to be shared, for the knowledge of the true-name of an inhabitant of The Dark meant absolute power over the individual. It was said that those who have lived in the neo-void the longest have gone by other names for so long that they have forgotten their own true-name. <My name is not important,> she said after a moment's thought. <What is important right now is to figure out what to do with you.> <I must.... find someone....> the soul replied at once. She blinked again, amazed by how fast the soul was recovering. <Who? Who do you have to find?> she asked the soul, not entirely sure why she was doing so. <Others....> She blinked again, now totally confused. <What others?> <Others who were.... were.... !> She could sense the soul's frustration at being unable to remember. <You are still waking up,> she said soothingly, <You need to give yourself time to remember.> <Time?> the soul said slowly, as if speaking an unfamiliar word. <Yes.... Time.... I.... I remember now.... I must find those who were trapped in the temporal vortex with me when.... when.... ?> She blinked yet again, the soul's fragmented thoughts beginning to slowly make sense to her. <Others? You mean there are other souls like you?> <Yes.... Others like me.... Were with me when we were.... attacked?> She took a slow breath and sat back, letting the soul work out her train of thought on her own. Her? she thought for a moment before she nodded. Yes, this 'Pluto' was definitely female, she decided. <We were....attacked by.... someone.... was trapped in a vortex with.... with.... N.... Neptune?.... Yes.... Yes, Neptune.... And one other.... S.... No, not her.... other one.... Uranus.... That's it! I was trapped here with Neptune and Uranus during the attack....> <You say there are two others like you here?> she said when Pluto fell silent, exhausted from the effort of remembering. <Yes, Uranus and Neptune were right next to me when.... when....> <When you got trapped?> she reminded Pluto. <Yes, but I can't remember how....> Pluto thought. <Time.... Time.... I think it had to do with Time.... Something about the.... key? The key to.... Time? The key to Time? Yes.... yes.... the key to Time....> She frowned lightly when Pluto's thoughts started to become slightly more fragmented. <You are still tired and weak, my friend,> she said soothingly without thinking about it. <You should rest for awhile. Your memories will return to you in time.> <I don't have time,> Pluto replied, then fell silent as her words echoed inside her soul-mind. <Don't have Time.... don't have.... the key.... don't have the key to Time.... !!!> She jumped back as Pluto's soul started to pulse with energy. Her first thought was that she was being attacked, but her defensive impulses quickly faded when she realized that Pluto was in a severe state of panic. <What? What is it?> she asked, reflexively casting a wary eye around her tiny keep. <That's how we were trapped here! That warrior I was fighting destroyed my staff! Without it, the portal to Time is sealed!> Pluto thought, still highly agitated at the thought. She frowned as Pluto's words failed to make much sense. <I.... don't quite understand what you mean, Pluto.> <I don't have time to explain,> Pluto replied. <I must find my friends and return to the Moon Kingdom at once. Every second the Time Portal remains closed brings our universe that much closer to a catastrophic disaster that not even the gods will be able to repair.> She frowned again as something clicked within her memory. <You are from this.... Moon Kingdom?> <I am the avatar of my god in that kingdom, if that's what you mean. You know of the Moon Kingdom, then?> Pluto asked slowly, calming down slightly. <No, but I know of someone who has spoken of it before.> She hesistated only a moment before she made up her mind. <Come on, I will take you to him,> she thought towards the soul as she gathered it up and put it in her storage pouch. She looked around her tiny sanctuary to make sure everything was secure before she concentrated her internal energies and dimension-shifted into another portion of The Dark. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Leda sighed and let her head fall forward, smacking into the open biology textbook with a dull thump. "I give up," she said, her words muffled by the mass of paper mashed against her face. Ami absently patted her on the shoulder, most of her attention still focused on the textbook in front of her. "Take a break and come back to it," she said as she studied the advanced mathematics problem she was currently working on. "It'll make sense in a few minutes." "That's what you said half an hour ago," Leda replied as she straightened herself up with a heavy sigh. "This thing still isn't making any sense." She didn't even bother looking up when a steaming mug slid across the table to come to a halt in front of her. "Thanks, Mina," she said as she picked up the mug and downed half of the contents in one gulp. The blonde's head suddenly snapped up from her physics textbook, her blue eyes darting frantically around the room. "What? What I'd do?" she blurted out in confusion. "Nothing, I did it," Rei replied with a small frown as she glanced up from her own studies. "When in doubt, Leda, carry the two." Leda blinked and looked down at her book. "This is biology, Rei, not math. There's no two to carry." The priestess blinked for a moment before she shrugged. "Can't help you, then. Could someone wake up Serena before she starts snoring again?" Leda fished an ice cube out of Ami's cup of juice and tossed it across the room, bouncing it off of the top of the blonde's head with amazing accuracy. Serena immediately bolted upright, her blue eyes nearly twice their usual size with surprise. "Yiii! I'm up, I'm up!" she squealed. "That's nice," Ami said distantly as she started scribbling furiously on a scratch piece of paper before writing down the answer on her homework paper. "Mina," she said quietly. Mina jumped again, startled out of her studies. "What?" "Don't forget to include the delta-v in your third equation," Ami replied without looking up from her paper. "Mr. Meyers wants all parts of the physics model to be defined correctly." Mina blinked in confusion and looked down at her paper. "But I'm only on the second equation." "Keep working at it, it'll make sense soon," Ami said soothingly as she continued to crunch numbers at a mind-numbing pace. Rei sighed as she reached for the nearly empty bowl of fruit. "How do you do that without a calculator?" she said tiredly as she searched for a banana that wasn't too badly bruised. Serena looked down at her own mathematics textbook and sighed heavily. "Nevermind the calculator, how do you do that problem period?" she asked in a weary tone. "When in doubt, carry the two," Rei offered. "And what was your final grade in math last year?" Leda inquired. "Umm...." Rei said, her cheeks turning a light pink color. "Why don't you go study your history lesson and let us worry about helping Serena with the math?" Leda suggested gently. She blinked as there was a heavy thunking sound as another head hit the table in frustration. "Cheer up, Mina, it can't be that bad." "What was the equation for work again?" Mina muttered, her voice muffled by the textbook pressed up against her nose. "Force times displacement," Ami responded immediately. "Think of it like this: work equals force times displacement. Force is mass times acceleration. The most common variable for mass is m, a for acceleration, and d for linear displacement. So put it together and you have m times a times d. String the letters together and what does it spell?" she reiterated without glancing up. Mina blinked. "Mad." "Exactly. If you remember the mnemonic 'work makes me mad,' substituting the equal sign in place of 'makes me,' then you will remember that work equals mass times acceleration times displacement," Ami said slowly and calmly. Four minds thought about that for a brief moment before there was a brief scramble for paper as Mina, Serena, Rei, and Leda all tried to write down that tiny fragment of wisdom before they forgot it. "Ami, you're a genius," Mina cooed as she scribbled. Ami sighed and finally looked up from her work. "If you had been paying attention in class like you should have been, Mina, you would have remembered Mr. Meyers telling us that." Mina smirked. "Why do I need to pay attention when I've got you as a handy reference?" Serena giggled. "That's what I've been saying about the classes I've had with her in the past." "And what of your grades in those classes?" Ami replied reprovingly. Serena blinked and blushed. "Well...." There was yet another heavy thunk as yet another head hit the table in frustration, followed by gentle words of encouragement by Ami. Dragoon Lieutenant Maze leaned against the entraceway to the dining room, silently watching the five girls try to study their school homework. Makes me glad I'm past those days, he mused. This could get amusing after awhile, he thought as Rei picked her head up off the table. Of course at this rate, everyone except Ami is going to have impact headaches by dinnertime. Shaking his head to himself, Maze stood up straight and walked down the hallway towards the cathedral's central computer, a small smile of amusement still on his lips. He walked past the open door and was about to say something to the room's occupant but stopped when he heard the heavy sound of a forehead meeting the leading edge of a Negaverse-design crystal computer. "One of those days already, boss?" he quipped as he sat down in an empty chair next to Tolaris. Dragoon Commander Tolaris sighed quietly as he lifted his head up from the computer screen and rubbed at his temples. "Maze, this has been driving me up the wall for hours now. See if you can make sense of it," he explained as he turned the crystalline monitor so Maze could get a better look. Maze glanced at the display, blinked hard and did a double-take, and sat back with a deep frown on his face. "Tell me that's not a search worm." "It is," Tolaris said with a grunt. Maze closed his eyes and sighed. The whole purpose of a search worm was to check something out in a distant computer and report back what it found. "Did it already send out its reply?" "Just as soon as I discovered it," Tolaris said quietly. "So Rune knows we're here now?" Maze said softly. Tolaris blinked and gave Maze a curious look. "Rune has known that for some time now, Lieutenant. Why she hasn't acted on that is beyond me, but she definitely knows about Nephlyte's base being used by us, as well as the fact that the dimensional phase-link to his computer is still active." Maze sat up with another frown. "So why the search worm, then?" Tolaris shrugged. "I suppose we'll find out eventually." "Wait a second, boss...." Maze said slowly as something bubbled up from the depths of his memory. "When I discoverd that the phase-link was still in use by you, I rerouted it so it looks like an ordinary remote link. I did it myself, so there couldn't be any way that Rune knows about it." Tolaris frowned and looked at the computer screen, trying to figure out this latest development. Both Dragoons jumped slightly when the computer emitted a soft tone, indicating that a network service message had been sent to their terminal. Both denizens exchanged glances before Maze pulled out his communicator and opened a channel to Ra'vel and Whisper, asking them to come to the computer room immediately. Maze had barely finished putting his communicator back in his pocket when the air shimmered briefly as Psi-Corp Captain Whisper and Dragoon Lieutenant Ra'vel teleported into the room. Tolaris and Maze blinked hard when they realized that Whisper was wearing only a towel and was dripping water everywhere. "I was in the shower," she said mildly in response to their looks. "With all due respect, Lieutenant, this had better be very good." "I think this might prove to be worth your time," Tolaris replied evenly as he turned his attention back to the computer and opened the message. All four of the denizens leaned forward slightly in anticipation as the message began to scroll up onto the screen. FM: SYSADMIN, DHQCX (314.485.117.501) TO: 284.336.84.502 RE: NETWORK ALT-ROUTE TX: HOST NET MUST REPEAT MUST ALT-ROUTE DIST SIGNAL THRU ALT SYS BREAK DIST SIGNAL READS LIVE VIA SEARCH WORM BREAK REQ ACK OF MSG TO VERIFY CHANGE IN NET BREAK VR K'TAL CDR DRAGOON DIV BREAK END No one spoke for a moment, the only sound being heard was the steady drip of water on to the floor. "So K'tal is in command of the Dragoons now," Maze said softly. "Not a bad choice, to be honest." "He's a little too gung-ho, in my opinion, but he is one of the best," Tolaris agreed. "My question is, why did he send us this message?" Ra'vel chirped softly as she reread the message, trying to vocalize her ideas. Whisper shook her head, accidentally spashing water droplets all over Maze. "No, I think this message means much more than what it says." "Agreed," Tolaris said as he thought. "What do we know about K'tal?" Maze snickered. "He has the two qualities most desired in a Dragoon." Whisper blinked. "And what are those?" she said warily. "He's got brains and he's got k'vesan," Maze replied with a grin. "Men," Whisper sighed and traded only partially-amused looks with Ra'vel. The avian made a distasteful chirping noise and glared at Maze. Maze chuckled and shook his head. "Oh, please. I saw how you handled yourself in the Outreaches. You've got more k'vesan than some guys I know." Ra'vel blinked in mild surprise and looked at Whisper. The telepath merely shrugged and cinched her towel a little tighter. "I think he does have a point, Ra'vel." "Now that we have established that Ra'vel has what it takes to be part of the Dragoons despite being female, we need to figure this out," Tolaris said mildly. "Something is definitely going on here and we need to know as soon as possible. Suggestions?" "Send a reply back," Whisper said. "Something tells me he wants to make absolutely certain that it's us on this end before he does something." "Question is, do we really know what he's going to do?" Maze countered. "We don't even know if that is K'tal on the other end." Whisper nodded. "That is true, but keep in mind that they already know we're here. I'm not sure what sort of plan K'tal has in mind, but I don't think that a Dragoon would do anything like this unless he had a good reason." Tolaris nodded. "That makes sense. I'm for sending a reply back. Any objections?" Both Maze and Ra'vel shook their heads and Tolaris nodded. "Very well, then, here goes nothing." Everyone remained silent as Tolaris typed up a quick anonymous reply and sent it back to the Dragoon Headquarters Complex. A tiny beep signaled the receipt of the message at the distant end and Tolaris sat back. "Well, then. So now we wait." "I don't suppose I have a few minutes to go get dressed?" Whisper said mildly as she ran her fingers through her still-dripping hair. Tolaris saw Maze biting his tongue out of the corner of his eye and he sighed quietly. "By all means, Captain." Whisper nodded and was preparing to teleport back to her room when the computer beeped again, signaling another incoming message. "That was fast," she said slowly. Tolaris frowned. "Too fast," he said as he opened the message. FM: SYSADMIN, DHQCX (314.485.117.501) TO: 284.336.84.502 RE: RE-XT ACK TX: THISTA RCV'D ACK MSG BREAK REQ POS IDENT OF DIST END USER BREAK USE SEC FREQ DCT BREAK VR K'TAL CDR DRAGOON DIV BREAK END Maze sat up with a scowl. "Why does he need to know who we are?" Tolaris's mind was working as fast as it was capable. "Maze, wait a moment.... Standard operating procedure is to get a positive ID of the user on other end before performing a network alt-route. Using a secure frequency is not uncommon. However, the frequency he suggested doesn't exist." Whisper frowned and leaned forward to get a better look at the screen, cinching the towel a little tighter as she did so. "It looks like a valid frequency to me. Maze, if you don't find something else to look at other than my chest, I will tear your eyeballs out," she said evenly. Maze coughed discreetly and focused his attention on the crystal computer screen. "She's got a point, boss. I don't see why that frequency wouldn't exist." "It's one of those division-level Commander's-Eyes-Only secrets," Tolaris replied. "No message traffic is ever transmitted with a middle-band frequency of C. It's one of those little designations that means someone is trying to tell us something but can't do it on any sort of free-range medium." Whisper blinked. "Why is it they never told me that?" Tolaris turned his head to one side to look at her. "Did you ever receive a formal in-brief when you got promoted to Captain of the Psi-Corp?" The telepath wrinkled her nose at the thought. "No, I didn't." "Trust me, it would have been in there," the Dragoon commander replied as he turned back to the monitor. "Now if we can only figure out what exactly he's trying to tell us." Ra'vel chirped a query and his head snapped around to look at her, only to wind up mashing his face against Whisper's chest. "Excuse me," Whisper said icily as she took a step back and tightened the towel around her. Tolaris's face flushed a dark shade of gray. "Sorry, ma'am," he said sheepishly. He blinked and focused his attention on Ra'vel. "Say that just a little slower, Ra'vel." Ra'vel gave him a curious look and repeated her chirps slower. Tolaris sat back to consider the thought for a moment while Maze gave Ra'vel an odd look. "What exactly did you say? My language skills aren't what they used to be...." he apologized. <Acronym for commander Dragoon divison> she telepathed to the room. Whisper's eyes went wide. "DCT. Dragoon Commander Tolaris." Both Maze and Tolaris frowned as they turned to give her an odd look. "What exactly are you saying?" Tolaris inquired. Whisper shook her head, sending more water droplets flying around. "Don't you see? We know he's trying to reach you, but he can't or won't come out and say who he's trying to reach. He needs to make absolutely sure it's you he's got before he switches you over to another network." Tolaris thought about the idea for a full second before he turned back to the keyboard and started typing as fast as he could. FM: 284.336.84.502 TO: SYSADMIN, DHQCX (314.485.117.501) RE: ALT-ROUTE ACK TX: THISTA RECONF RCV'D MSG RE ALT-ROUTE BREAK ID CONF STERLING LTCDR SEC DIV IDENT 21354SCD BREAK THISTA AT SB FOR ALT-ROUTE BREAK END Maze waited until the computer beeped softly before he shook his head. "Congratulations, boss, you just totally confused me. I understood the part about reconfirming the network alt-route, and I understood the part about standing by for the switch, but who exactly did you say you were?" Tolaris looked up at his friend and smiled. "My great-grandfather." Whisper blinked. "Your great-grandfather?" she echoed. Tolaris merely shrugged. "Well, think about it. If he can't ask for me by name for some reason, what makes you think it's safe for me to reply with mine? He knows who my great-grandfather was, or at least he should," he added with a small sigh. "So now what do we do, boss?" Maze asked as he gave Ra'vel a curious look. "So now we wait for the network to switch over," Tolaris replied. Ra'vel chirped at Maze curiously and he squinted at her. "I could be wrong, Ra'vel, but I think that might be a dust mite on your shoulder," he said slowly. Ra'vel screeched and immediately started fluffing her feathers, sending a tiny cloud of feather particles into the air. Whisper took a hasty step back, but not before she accidentally inhaled some of the particles. Her nose twitched briefly for a moment before she let loose with a loud sneeze. Her eyes suddenly doubled in size as she felt the towel unwrap itself from her body and fall to the floor. Some people may have considered Ra'vel to be somewhat slow-minded because of the brain damage she received during the Mintaka campaign. However true that may be, she certainly wasn't stupid. She heard Whisper sneeze behind her and realized the probable result. With what some might have called an avian version of a grin, she extended her wings out as far as they could, effectively blocking Maze's line of sight. "I will be right back," Whisper said quickly, blushing a dark shade of blue. She scooped up her towel and teleported out of the room, leaving a small spray of water in her wake. "Lieutenant," Tolaris said evenly, fixing Maze with a reproving look. "What'd I do?" Maze replied, his tan eyes wide with innocence. Tolaris just sighed heavily and looked over at Ra'vel, who was occupied with preening her feathers for dust mites. "I'm sure Captain Whisper is very appreciative of your excellent timing, Ra'vel," Tolaris told her. Ra'vel looked up from her work long enough to scold Maze for a few moments before she returned to her task, making quiet, distasteful chirping noises to herself as she worked. Everyone blinked and looked up at the computer as it made a harsh noise and flashed a "Network Failure" warning. The message continued to flash on the screen for a few seconds before being replaced with an "Establishing Connection to Distant End" message. "This should be interesting," Maze commented as they watched the computer go through the motions of connecting to another site through the dimensional phase-link. Ra'vel chirped an agreement and resumed her task, her attention divided between the monitor and her feathers. "I think Maze was making a joke about the dust mites," Tolaris told her. "Umm, no I wasn't...." Maze said with a frown. Ra'vel paused her work to look up at them, her gaze alternating between the two of them. She was about to chirp something at them when she caught motion out of the corner of her eye. She turned to look and started screeching almost in the ultra-sound range, causing Tolaris and Maze to wince in pain at the high frequency. Tolaris watched with mild interest as Ra'vel snapped her beak at something on her feathers, chomped down hard and quickly spat it out, and then proceed to stomp on it, her talons scratching up the floor tiles in the process. "She hates dust mites with a passion," Maze observed with a smile. "So I see. I think you got it, Lieutenant, so you can stop clawing up the floor now," Tolaris called out to her. Ra'vel hissed at the now-deceased dust mite and gave it one final stomp before she fluffed her feathers and calmed down, chirping apologetically at the other Dragoons. "We understand," Maze said soothingly. The avian grumbled to herself for a moment before she resumed preening her feathers, pausing long enough to take one step to the side. The air shimmered briefly as Whisper teleported back into the room, wearing a snug-fitting tank top and sweatpants. "Hold still," she growled at Maze as she walked over to him and grabbed his nose. "Euungh..?" Maze grunted before his gaze went vaccant and he fell silent. Tolaris's eyebrow went up almost to his hairline as he watched Whisper scan Maze's mind for something. He exchanged a mild glance with Ra'vel and got a casual shrug in response. Okay.... he thought before he returned his attention back to Whisper and Maze. Whisper sighed and released her hold on Maze's nose. The Dragoon blinked and leaned forward, his nose twitching briefly before he let loose with a very forceful sneeze. His hands immediately came up to his face and his eyes took on a slightly disgusted expression. "Ewww...." he groaned. "Tissues are in the bathroom," Whisper said mildly. "Danks," Maze replied as he stood up and made a hasty exit. Tolaris sighed. "Do I want to ask...?" The telepath made a face. "I just wanted to see if he did that on purpose or not. He didn't, which is why he's still breathing," she added. Ra'vel chirped something at her and she nodded in reply. "Yes, I am very grateful for your wingspan, Lieutenant. Oh, and if you remind me tomorrow, I'll help you try to set up some sort of oil bath to get rid of those mites." Ra'vel chittered back a reply that Whisper wasn't able to translate. She blinked in confusion and gave Tolaris a blank look. "Did she say something about soap in her last oil bath?" she asked hesitantly. The Dragoon commander just shook his head. "You don't want to know." "About what?" Maze asked as he walked back in the room, still wiping at his nose with a tissue. "About that little incident where someone 'accidentally' dumped a full jar of concentrated liquid soap into her oil bath last year," Tolaris said mildly. Maze flushed a dark green and fought to keep his tone level. "Yeah, I heard about that. Soap isn't good for your feathers, is it?" he asked. Ra'vel's rather profane reply was cut off by the sound of the computer beeping as it received a message from its new network host. Everyone exchanged mild glances and gathered around the terminal before Tolaris opened up the message. FM: SYSADMIN, DHQCX (314.485.117.501) TO: 441.95.274.511 RE: EST SEC NET TX: THISTA READS DIST END ON UNSEC FREQ BREAK REQ EST SEC FREQ USING KEYTAPE 218AGH954 BREAK VR K'TAL CDR DRAGOON DIV BREAK END "Now what?" Whisper muttered. "Apparently he wants us to establish a secure connection," Tolaris said. "The only problem is, we don't have that keytape." Maze frowned. "Is that a good tape? I mean, it's not another one of your little commander's-only games, it it?" Tolaris sat back to consider the matter. "No, that is a valid keytape to the best of my knowledge." Ra'vel snapped her beak quietly several times before she blinked as an idea occurred to her. <What if keytape not, is key?> she telepathed. Whisper frowned. "What do you mean?" Tolaris blinked and looked up. "Ra'vel, did you telepath something?" he asked, once again mentally cursing the fact that he was psi-mute. Maze straightened up so fast he almost strained something. "Boss, she's right! What if that's not a keytape name, but the actual encryption key?" Whisper blinked and gave Maze an odd look. "Do you think that someone like K'tal would send the key over the open like that, even disguised as the name of a keytape?" "Remember what I said about him being just a little too gung-ho?" Tolaris replied as he typed a response back. "Trust me, this is exactly the sort of gutsy stunt I'd expect him to pull." "Too much k'vesan and not enough brains, eh?" Whisper said wryly. "You can never have too much k'vesan," Maze said with a grin. "Men," Whisper sighed as she shook her head. "So we're sure that it's K'tal on the other end?" "Well, I'm staking our lives on it by replying, Captain," Tolaris replied evenly. "I'd rather go down trusting another Dragoon than anyone else." Ra'vel chirped her agreement while Maze nodded. "We're with you on that one, boss," he said. Tolaris merely grunted in reply and waited for the distant end to respond. He blinked in surprise when the computer made a peculiar humming noise and a text box appeared on the screen. "Entering Secure Mode, Please Stand By," he read aloud, sitting back and waiting. "So now what?" Whisper asked, already knowing the answer. "So now we...." He trailed off as the screen was suddenly filled with lines of seemingly random characters. "This is interesting...." Maze blinked. "Is someone doing a data dump?" "Perhaps, perhaps not," Tolaris said as he waited for the text block to finish displaying itself. "I may not be an expert on communications, but this looks like an encrypted data file." "Well, well, well...." Whisper said slowly. "Anyone want to bet on what we'll get if we run that through a decryption program with the character string Commander K'tal just gave us?" "One way to find out," Maze said as he rose from his seat. Tolaris gave him an odd look. "Where are you going?" "I was going to go ask Ami if we could borrow her toy computer. I've seen what kind of processing power it has and I'm sure it'll zip right through this thing in no time," he explained. "Sit down, Lieutenant," Tolaris said as he split the display in half and opened another program in the second window. "She and the others are busy studying right now. It's bad enough that their lives have been disrupted by being Sailor Scouts as it is. We don't need to be adding to the chaos by having them assist us with things like this when they're trying to learn how to function as adults in their own society." Maze sat down with a small grunt. "I guess I see your point, boss." "How long will this take?" Whisper asked. "I really need to finish up my shower before dinner." Tolaris and Maze exchanged glances and Maze smiled. "I'm going to have to code this decryption program from scratch, so it should take at least an hour. I'll have someone knock on your door when we're finished," Tolaris said as he typed away at a furious pace. "Thank you," Whisper replied and prepared to teleport back to her room. "One thing before you go, ma'am," Maze said, still smiling. The telepath paused and gave Maze a wary look. "What?" "You really ought to dry off before wearing something form-fitting like that tank top," he said evenly. "Water tends to collect in the strangest of places." Whisper blinked and glanced down, her face turning a dark shade of blue when she realized that the water had turned the front of her tank top totally transparent. "Men," she grumbled as she hastily teleported out of the room. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Maze walked into the computer room carrying two steaming mugs of ma'cha, the denizen version of coffee. "So what's it look like?" he asked Tolaris as he held out a mug. Tolaris grunted as he accepted the mug and set it on the edge of the work station, never taking his eyes off of the computer display. "I finished that decryption program five minutes ago. That data file we got isn't just any data file, its another encryption key," he said grumpily. Maze paused, the mug halfway to his lips. "Another encryption key?" he echoed. Tolaris nodded, his attention still fixed on the computer. "Yes. The thing with this key is it's an actual copy of a keytape. All we would need to do is load it into a crypto-linker and we could establish a secure link to the other end of this network." "Great!" Maze exclaimed. "Problem," Tolaris countered. The Dragoon sat back and pondered the matter for a moment. "What sort of problem?" he finally asked warily. "Do you see a crypto-linker anywhere around here?" Tolaris replied with a heavy sigh. Maze blinked. "Sure, there's one in the arsenal vault." "You mean the one you fed to Dyvach so it could fabricate the parts you needed to rewire Mina's coffepot into an instant hot chocolate machine?" Tolaris replied. "D'oh...." Maze muttered as he slapped himself on the forehead. The Dragoon commander sat back and gave his friend a strange look. "What exactly is that you just said?" he asked curiously. "Sorry, I guess I sort of got that from watching too much of that animated whatever Mina keeps watching," Maze explained sheepishly. "I think this Earth culture is starting to get to me." "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Maze frowned as he took a sip of his ma'cha. "I'm not sure anymore, boss. I mean, at first living here was a great idea. We got away from all of the backstabbing and politics from working in the Negaverse, not to mention being away from all those wonderful animals and such we have running around. But now that I've been here for awhile...." Tolaris took a calculated sip of his own mug as Maze trailed off. "Keep going, Lieutenant. It's not like anyone is going to court martial you for your opinions about your exile." "That's just it, boss," Maze said suddenly with a grunt. "Right now, it's starting to feel like we're in exile. I mean, I know I don't have anyone back in the Negaverse that I could see even if I wanted to, but every now and then I feel like just taking a walk down some city street and enjoying a sense of familiarity and belonging." He blew out his breath in frustration and took a large gulp of the ma'cha, ignoring the pain as it scalded his throat. "You're bored, aren't you?" Tolaris asked softly. Maze sighed and looked into his mug, watching the odd patterns the rising steam made. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he said after a moment. "I mean, at least when I was in the Negaverse I had my job to keep me mostly occupied." "Not to mention having a seemingly endless supply of female company to help occupy you when you weren't working," Tolaris said with a grin. Maze snorted. "Admit it, you were always jealous of that." "If you say so," Tolaris snickered. Maze gave his friend an odd look. "Come on, boss, you mean to tell me that you never had the desire for female company at least some time during your seven-hundred-plus years of life in the Negaverse?" Tolaris's eyebrow arched up in mild amusement. "You know very well that I have, Maze. However, I was always too busy to accomodate." "Of course," Maze muttered darkly as he sipped his ma'cha. "So you're saying that you couldn't forget that never-ending stack of reports for at least one night to just sit back in your quarters and relax with someone?" "What, with Queen Beryl's wrath looming over my head if those reports were ever improperly handled or were late being filed?" Tolaris countered. Maze blinked. "What kind of reports were those?" "Classified Seven-Aerce," the Dragoon replied. "Straight to Beryl?" Maze asked with a sickened expression. He received a nod in reply and he shivered. "Eww.... No wonder you were so anti-social. You honestly and truly didn't have the time, did you?" "So nice to be believed after all these decades," Tolaris replied wryly. Maze made a distasteful face. "Oh, hush. Why didn't you ever put in for a short field assignment or a request to take some leave?" "Several reasons," Tolaris replied as he sat back. "First, I was the only officer in the Dragoon ranks who was cleared for that stuff. Second, those reports were rather vital to Queen Beryl's operational plans. Third, even if I did manage to get an assignment, the responsibility for those reports would have fallen to Shar-Tei, and I wouldn't want to have that dumped on anyone. And the final reason, Maze, is that I simply didn't feel like it," he finished with a sip of his ma'cha. Maze just sighed heavily and looked at the ceiling. "You know, I wonder if Captain Raijen founded the Dragoon Legion as a means of uniting the most loyal or the most work-hard-until-you-drop type of soldiers. You sure seem to fit the second category." The Dragoon commander grunted in mild amusement. "Probably both." "Figures," Maze agreed. Tolaris nodded and looked at the computer warily. "We need to get back to our original problem." "What, the crypto-linker?" Maze asked. He received a nod in reply and he sat back to think, idly sipping at his nearly-empty mug. "The only real vital component is the actual encryption modulator. Everything else can be rigged up or patched from scratch. Do you think Dyvach could reconstruct a modulator if we feed it enough raw material?" Tolaris shrugged as he tossed back the last mouthful of ma'cha and stood up. "I have no idea, Maze, but Dyavch might know. So why not ask it?" he said as he set the empty mug on the table and started walking towards the door. He only managed to take three steps past it before he accidentally tripped over the large crystalline spider curled up in the middle of the hallway. The Dragoon grunted as he got to his feet. "Must you take a nap in the middle of the hallway?" he grumbled at the weaver. Dyvach made a disoriented chiming sound before it started flexing its many crystalline legs, sounding like a tangled set of wind chimes. It's usually transparent carapace was flushed a dark orange color as it struggled to cope with the sudden shock of being tripped over while napping. It continued to stretch for a few moments before it chimed a still mildly disoriented query at the Dragoon. "Of course I'm fine," Tolaris replied as he leaned against the wall for a moment. "Trust me, if I can get run over by Ami and not damage anything, then I'm sure tripping over you won't hurt too badly. Are you awake yet?" Dyvach's color returned to normal as it chimed back an affirmative. It stood up and continued stretching its many legs one by one, making soft chiming sounds to itself in the process. Tolaris nodded. "Good. I've got a question for you. Do you remember that crypto-linker you ate awhile back?" He received a rather happy chime in response and he smirked. "Tasted that good, eh?" Dyvach immediately cut loose with a stream of chittering noises that Tolaris wasn't quite able to translate properly. The Dragoon sighed quietly and rubbed at his temples. "Slow down, Dyvach, you know I can't always make out what you say, even on a good day. You said something about the modulator?" The weaver chimed back a brief explanation that caused Tolaris to blink in mild surprise. "Mina's using it for what?" Tolaris asked. Dyvach tried to explain in greater detail but Tolaris wasn't able to fully understand what it was trying to say. Maze poked his head out of the room at the mention of Mina's name. "So what's up?" he asked, slightly curious as to what Mina had to do with the current situation. Tolaris shrugged. "From what I understand, Mina's got the modulator for some sort of project." "Great," Maze grunted. "Knowing her, she's probably got it wired into that demonstrosity she calls her synthesizer. Which also means she's not going to be too happy about having to give it up." "I'm afraid she'll have to do without it for the time being," Tolaris said with another shrug. "She can have it back when we're finished with it, but I think this takes priority over it's entertainment value." Maze snickered. "Just try getting her to see that." Tolaris gave his lieutenant a decidedly evil grin. "That's your job." Maze blinked and immediately quit snickering. "What?" "You said you were bored, right?" Tolaris said mildly. "I said I was bored, not suicidal," Maze countered. "You know how she is about her synthesizer." "Come now, surely your unnatural charm can win her over," Tolaris teased. He laughed as Maze started muttering highly acidic comments to himself about blondes and electronics. "Times like this makes me wish I was single," Maze muttered as he started walking towards the room where Mina and the others were still studying. -------------------------------------------------------------------- General Rune looked up in irritation as someone knocked on the door to her private bathroom. "Who is it?" she called out, letting her irritation show in her voice. "Moirah," came the voice from the other side of the door. Rune grumbled to herself and sat up, trying to decide what sort of crisis was happening now. She was still mildly upset at the intrusion, but she knew that Moirah had enough personal experience in dealing with her to know when and when not to disturb her while she was taking a bath. "Come in," she grunted as she picked up a washcloth and began to rinse the soap off of her skin. She heard an odd liquid sound and looked up as a puddle of water started flooding the room from the crack under the door. Rune watched with mild curiosity as the puddle started to rise up and solidify into a humanoid shape. "A little theatrical today, are we?" Rune said mildly when the aquamorph had assumed her normal, solid form. "Begging the general's pardon, I didn't think you wanted me opening the door given your current state of undress," Moirah said evenly as her eyes reflexively scanned the room for any possible sign of danger. Rune snorted. "I gave up on modesty after the first month of having you and V'Kreeth taking turns watching over me while I bathe." She looked up and caught the aquamorph's glance towards the tiny pocket of shadows in the distant corner of the bathroom. "So what sort of crisis do we have today?" Rune asked after a careful moment of observation. "Sensors report a massive energy disturbance coming from the dimensional rift in the Hinterland region. The current analysis of the disruption is inconclusive, but Science thinks it might be an artificial rift in the process of opening," Moirah reported. Rune paused in mid-motion as her bodyguard's words sank in. "From the Hinterland region, you said?" she asked slowly as she gave Moirah a carefully neutral look. "Yes, General," Moirah replied. Rune sighed and sank back down into the bathtub, letting the steaming water flow over her body. "Tell me, V'Kreeth, what do you think is going on in that region?" she asked the shadowy corner. The shadow detatched itself from the wall and moved foward to stand next to Moirah, appearing only to be a pair of dark gray eyes set into a humanoid mass of darkness. "The best guess is that Nop'tera is about to make her return," V'Kreeth said in a voice that sounded like dry leaves whispering over stone. "Which is what I would conclude," Rune said with a heavy sigh. "Time has a way of sneaking up on you, doesn't it?" "It all depends on your perspective," V'Kreeth replied. Rune said nothing as she resumed running the washcloth over her body. "Do you have anything else to report while you're here, Moirah?" she asked somewhat wearily. "We received a Flash message from Leviathan North an hour ago saying they might have a possible submerged contact," the aquamorph replied. "They only detected it because they almost collided with it. The contact does not appear on their sonar and they are currently trying to locate it by audio tracking. They do not believe they were detected during the incident and immediately assumed a Stage 4 alert." Rune sat up so quickly that she splashed a considerable amount of water onto the floor. "A submerged contact?" she repeated with a frown. She thought about the matter for a few moments before she made a decision. "Send a Flash to both Leviathan North and Leviathan South. Tell them to immediately assume a Stage 3 alert with the instructions to go to Stage 2 upon a solid contact with any submerged vessel. If the contact shows any hostile intent at all, they have full sub-surface weapons release authority." She blinked as someone started knocking on the door. "Now what?" she grumbled to herself. "Who is it?" she called out. "Admiral Si'ren," came the dulcet voice from the other side of the door. "One question, V'Kreeth," Rune said quickly. "Did Queen Beryl ever have to hold a conference while she was in the bathtub?" "The shower, yes, but I don't recall one from the bathtub," V'Kreeth said in all seriousness. "Let her in," Rune said as she sank back down into the water. Moirah blinked. "Begging the general's pardon...." "If you are concerned about my modesty, Moirah, there isn't anything I have that she doesn't," Rune said with a slight edge to her voice. Moirah traded mild looks with V'Kreeth before she went to the door and opened it, quickly closing it after Si'ren entered. V'Kreeth quickly retreated back into the corner of shadows while Moirah tried to remain as unobtrusive as possible under the circumstances. Admiral Si'ren glanced over Rune's nude body and blinked, her delicate eyebrows almost arched up to her hairline. "If I had known we'd be doing one of these kinds of meetings, I'd have brought a swimsuit," she said mildly. Rune sighed. Si'ren was the Negaverse Navy's Fleet Admiral, which under ordinary circumstances made her the equal to the Army's Commander General. However, with the absence of a monarch, the power of the throne went to the Commander General. This technically made Rune Si'ren's superior, but the admiral often still viewed them as equals. "And how many of 'these kind' of meetings have you been to?" Rune asked. Si'ren gave her a strange little smile. "Queen Beryl had the worst luck when it came to developing crises. They always seemed to happen while she was in the shower." "I'll bet that made the other generals happy," Rune replied evenly. "To be honest, I don't think anyone cared," Si'ren said with a casual shrug. "Malachite was only interested in Zoicite, Nephlyte never considered Beryl to be attractive, and neither Zoicite nor Al'vexi were attracted to other women." "And what of Jedyt?" Rune asked with mild curiosity. Si'ren made a face. "I don't think Beryl had to have a meeting like that since Jedyt was promoted to the rank of general. Or if she did, I wasn't able to attend for some reason or another." "Interesting," Rune said mildly. "So what brings you here at this hour?" Si'ren smiled at her again. "What, I can't be sociable anymore?" Rune frowned. "If you are trying to be sociable, Si'ren, then you picked a really bad time. Unless you wanted to see me naked in the bathtub," she added in a neutral tone. Si'ren blinked, her eyebrows arching up again. "I have just received a Flash message from Leviathan South about a possible submerged contact almost running them over...." She blinked again as Rune sat up again, splashing even more water onto the floor. "Moirah, get that message out now!" Rune snapped. "Tell them both that I want hourly reports on anything they find, no matter how insignificant." Moirah didn't bother taking the time to reply. She immediately became a column of liquid that splashed to the floor in a large puddle, quickly oozing out the crack beneath the door. Si'ren watched the whole process with mild amusement. "It must be nice to be able to do that," she observed. "It depends on the situation," Rune said. "Having a bodyguard that can hide in the fountain in my private chambers is a definite advantage, but you have no idea how many times I've had to chase her out of my bath. She claims she can protect me better if she's right there with me," Rune explained. Si'ren erupted into peals of laughter, much to Rune's irritation. "You should have listened to Beryl go on about having to put up with bodyguards in her bedroom. She didn't mind their presence while she slept, but she sort of had a thing against being watched while, shall we say, entertaining a private guest," the admiral explained, giving Rune a knowing look. Rune gave her a neutral look before she glanced over at the corner of the bathroom. "V'Kreeth...." she started to say. "We can leave you alone provided you are by yourself, General, but we cannot leave you alone with someone else, even if you give us a direct order to," V'Kreeth explained almost apologetically. "What goes on during that time is nobody's business and is never spoken of." "Am I not allowed any privacy any more?" Rune muttered. "Privacy is what you make of it," Si'ren said with another odd smile. "Perhaps," Rune replied. "Now unless you have any other business that needs to be addressed at this moment, I would like to try to finish my bath in some semblance of privacy." "Of course," Si'ren said smoothly. "Perhaps we can arrange to have another one of these meetings at a later date when we don't have any other crises to worry about. Pleasant evening, General Rune," she said with a small bow and left the room, quietly closing the door behind her. Rune sat in the bathtub with a slightly puzzled look on her face. She remained that way for several minutes, trying to figure out a new puzzle that life had just handed to her. "V'Kreeth...." she said slowly. "It is not for me to say," the shadow replied. Rune frowned lightly. "I see. What would you suggest I do, then?" "Again, it is not for me to say," came the voice from the shadowy corner. "If the idea appeals to you, then that's your business. As I said before, what goes on in your chambers is nobody's business and is never spoken of." Rune sighed and opened the drain valve, letting the water slowly empty out of the bathtub. "Were you there when Beryl had her guests?" She received silence in reply and she sighed. "Did Beryl ever have any privacy at all?" "None," said the shadow. "Why didn't anyone tell me about that part before I assumed command?" she grumbled to herself as she picked up a towel and began drying herself off under the ever-watchful eyes of her bodyguard. "It would probably spoil our fun," V'Kreeth replied in a rare moment of humor, drawing a dark look from Rune. "We must protect you every moment of the day, General Rune, and it's not an easy task. We need to get something out of it." "And what do you get out of watching me take a bath?" Rune inquired. "I rarely watch you as I am busy watching everything else," said the voice from the corner of the bathroom. Rune paused and gave her bodyguard a mild look. "Honestly, V'Kreeth, you expect me to believe that?" She received more silence in reply and sighed heavily. "Tell me again why I like my job...." she muttered to herself. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Tolaris looked up at the door and sighed quietly as Mina walked in with a very unhappy look on her face. "Do I even want to ask?" she said with an edge to her voice as she held out a small circuit board. "The short version is we need this to create a secure link so we can talk to someone in the Negaverse without being detected," Tolaris explained as he took the circuit board and looked it over carefully. Mina blinked. "What?" Tolaris frowned slightly. "I'll explain in a moment. What exactly did you do to the modulator?" he asked as he tapped a somewhat bulky computer chip securely soldered to the board. "I set it up so I could use it to multiplex the signals to and from a laser array," Mina explained. "Without that chip, I'd need at least another CPU chip if not two just to handle the data traffic between the control console and the array." Tolaris blinked. "This thing has an I/O port?" he asked, lapsing into computer technical talk. "Of course," the blonde replied as she leaned toward him. "See, this is where it connects to the console, that gets connected to the array's data hub, and this thingy right here gets plugged into the console's power matrix," she explained as she pointed everything out. The Dragoon nodded in understanding. "Okay, here's what I need to do. I need to have a signal come in one end, have the modulator descramble it with an encryption key, display the result on the computer, have it scramble the data I send back, and have the signal go back out the other end." Mina gave him a blank look. "Umm.... that's Ami's department, not mine. I know how to use computers, even Ami's to some extent, but all that hardware and data processing stuff is way over my head." Tolaris chuckled. "You asked what I wanted it for." "Not what I meant," she replied as she looked at the computer. "Umm, who exactly are you trying to talk to and what are you talking about? I don't mean to be nosy or anything, but I'm kinda worried about advertising our presence to General Rune, if you know what I mean." Tolaris sighed quietly. "To be perfectly honest, Mina, I have no idea who I'm going to be talking to about what. All this chip would do is let me talk to that person without having to worry about someone listening in or otherwise tapping into the encrypted link." Mina blinked and gave the crystal computer an odd look. "I'll be right back," she said and quickly left the room, leaving Tolaris standing there with the circuit board in his hands and a mildly confused look on his face. She returned a few minutes later with a somewhat upset vampire following her, highly irritated at having her studies interrupted without any warning. "This had better be good," Ami said. "Tell her what you told me," Mina said without any preamble. Tolaris blinked for a moment before he took a deep breath and explained to Ami everything he had explained to Mina earlier about needing the chip and how he was going to use it. Ami gave him a reproving look. "Surely you're capable of performing the installation and everything yourself." Tolaris shrugged. "I am." Ami sighed and glared at him. "So why did you have to bother me?" Mina tapped her on the shoulder. "Hello, Ami? You're missing a rather serious point here." Ami looked at her. "And that point is...?" "Who's on the other end?" Mina said slowly. Ami blinked at the realization sank in. "Umm.... good question...." "We think it's the new Dragoon commander, but we can't be absolutely certain," Tolaris explained before Ami could ask. "Who's we?" Mina asked. "The rest of us denizens who live here," Maze replied as he walked into the room. A somewhat lengthy scratch on the back of his hand was still slowly oozing his green blood, a sight which slightly unsettled Ami. Tolaris raised an eyebrow. "What happened to you?" "I think Mina leaves sharp edges in odd places inside her synthesizer to keep anyone who doesn't know better from removing anything," he said dourly. "I told you that I would get to it in a few minutes," Mina replied. "It's not my fault you got impatient and tried to remove it yourself." "But was I right about the sharp edges?" he asked pointedly. The blonde snorted. "Would I do a thing like that?" "Yes," chorused Maze and Ami. Mina gave Ami a dark look. "You stay out of this," she said archly. Tolaris cleared his throat. "Can we get this taken care of before you decide to further injure my lieutenant?" "Why don't we start from the beginning," Ami suggested. "What prompted you to suddenly start wanting to talk to someone in the Negaverse?" Tolaris nodded and turned to the computer. "It all started when we got a message like this," he explained and began to show them the contents of the network administration messages he had received. "Wait, don't translate for us," Ami said quickly as the spidery symbols that made up the written denizen language began to scroll up on the crystal monitor screen. "Time to see if our language skills are up to par." Tolaris and Maze exchanged glances before Maze shrugged. "Okay...." the Dragoon commander said slowly as he sat back. "Just let me know if you need help or when you're ready to see the next one." "Sure...." Mina replied absently, her mind already focused on trying to translate. "Umm, is this supposed to mean 'distant' or am I misreading it?" she asked as she pointed to a symbol. "Keep in mind that the military mindset is the same, no matter what world you're from," Ami said as she squinted at a different symbol. "It probably means the same, only it's been abbreviated to save space." "Oh, so you're saying that we're no different than your Earth armies? Thanks," Maze said dryly. Mina giggled. "Not at all, it's just that doing stuff like that is so basic a military tactic that it's universal." "She may have a point," Tolaris said. "What's this?" Ami asked as she pointed to a group of symbols. "This looks like a name, but I've never been able to fully grasp the rules of when you use that apostrophe in the middle of words." "K'tal," Tolaris explained. "He was my second officer, so to speak, and is now in command of the Dragoons." "So that made Shar-Tei your first officer?" Mina inquired. Tolaris sighed heavily at the mention of Shar-Tei's name. "Yes, she was." Mina blinked at the unexpected reaction. "Sorry, didn't mean to dredge that up," she aplogized. "I don't get it," Ami said after a moment. "This just looks like a normal message sent to users on a network that's about to be shut down." "That's what it's supposed to look like," Maze explained. "However, this computer was supposed to have been attached to an isolated network. In other words, there shouldn't have been any need for an alt-route." "You read too fast, Ami," Mina said with a grunt. "What's a search worm?" "It's an invasive program that sneaks into a computer, looks for something in particular, and reports back to its creator on what it found," Ami said. "It's like a Trojan Horse, right?" Mina asked hesitantly. Ami gave her an odd look. "In a sense, yes, only it's not destructive. Should I bother asking what you know about hacking into computers?" The blonde made a face. "Hacking is such a harsh term, Ami. Okay, so Sailor V did have to do a bit of creative reconaissance involving a set of computer-controlled security cameras on one unremarkable occasion, but she never 'hacked' into a computer database or destroyed anything before. You on the other hand...." "We don't need to discuss my computer skills at the moment," Ami said quickly. "I was just wondering what you knew." "What did you do?" Tolaris sighed. Ami blushed. "Well.... I didn't quite understand how to log into the cathedral's mainframe computer at first, so I had to bypass all of the security functions. I never destroyed anything.... unless you count the Trojan Horse I transmitted on a wide-band frequency during our first trip into the Negaverse. I don't think that worked, though...." Maze coughed. "You mean the one that went off when someone tried to save any sort of file with the words 'Sailor Scouts' in the file?" Ami blinked. "You mean it worked?" she said incrediously. "That was something I wrote in an effort to relieve some frustration. I never thought your computers would have been able to do anything with it due to the extremely differing architecture." "It worked only because some numbnut cadet ran across a copy of a program written in a computer language he had never seen before, somehow managed to translate the coding into a standard Negaverse code, and ran it," Maze said with a grunt. Ami couldn't contain the grin slowly spreading across her face. "So what happened?" "Looking at the original coding, it was only supposed to work on files with the keywords in the file name, right?" Maze asked. He received a nod in reply and he continued. "Well, that fool cadet mistranslated that and set it to go off if it found the keywords anywhere in the file. The end result was that your 'Trojan Horse' quickly mutated into an armed search worm." Tolaris blinked, his gaze alternating between Ami's smug expression and the slightly haunted look in Maze's tan eyes. "What do you mean by an armed search worm?" he asked warily. "It became a search-and-destroy program. If it found a file with that so much as mentions 'Sailor Scouts' in the contents, it deleted it," Maze grumped. "That little bug ate a good ten percent of the files in the central computer before we picked up on it and started isolating memory banks. The task of flushing it out fell to the Dragoons, and the person with the most experience in dealing with rogue programs got the job of cleaning up. Guess who that person was?" Maze explained, giving Ami an icy glare. Ami blushed. "Sorry." Tolaris blinked. "I thought they would have given it to Asrial." "They would have if she hadn't been on assignment," Maze grumbled. "She wasn't around, so it fell to me. I'd compliment you on doing good work, Ami, if I didn't have to spend a month trying to squish that worm." "Sorry...." Ami giggled, not sounding the least bit repentant. "And you say I'm a bad girl...." Mina snickered. Ami made a grunting noise as her facial expression changed unexpectedly, causing everyone to blink in confusion. "What was that about?" Mina asked. "Mmph," Ami said, letting the tip of her tongue protrude past her lips to show everyone the blood on it. "When biting your tongue to keep from making any sort of smart aleck reply, make sure you use flat teeth and not fangs," she muttered. "We try," Maze said dryly. "One of the downsides to being a vampire," Ami said, her humorous mood now forgotten. "Okay, enough about my computer skills and back to this message. What's wrong with it?" "It never should have been sent," Tolaris explained, "Nor should this computer have been invaded by a search worm unless someone on the other end of this network is trying to reach us." Mina looked at the message again. "So do you think this K'tal is trying to reach us?" "I think he's trying to look for me," Tolaris clarified. "Here, let me show you what we wrote back and forth." Ami and Mina spent the next half-hour trying to translate the spidery text into something more immediately comprehensible. "Okay," Ami said after a few minutes of careful study. "I take it a keytape is like a punch card in the sense that it has data physically imprinted on it?" Tolaris nodded. "Exactly. However, this keytape doesn't exist in a physical form, only as a stream of data. That modulator chip Mina borrowed is capable of turning that data into a secure algorithm used to scramble and descramble communications traffic." "Which you would then use to talk to this K'tal person, right?" Mina said as she rubbed at her temples. She felt Maze's fingertips brush hers aside and she leaned back to let him gently massage her head. "Which we're not sure he's who he claims to be," Ami finished up. "In a nut," Tolaris replied with a shrug. Mina giggled. "In a nutshell, you mean." Tolaris sighed. "Leave me alone, I'm still working on learning that part of your language." "You're doing just fine," Ami consoled him. "Here's the bottom line," Tolaris said as he picked up the circuit board with the modulator soldered into it. "Unless any of you have any objections, I intend to connect this chip to the computer, use it to establish a secure link to the other end of this dimensional phase-link, and find out who wants to talk to me and why." Mina suddenly sat up, mildly startling Maze in the process. "Sorry," she apologized. "Commander, what are the odds that this is another one of those fun traps of Rune's that we've come to know and love?" Maze pulled a tissue out of his pocket and held it out to her. "Here, use this. You're dripping sarcasm on the floor." Tolaris coughed discreetly and spoke before the blonde could formulate an appropriate reply. "There is a significant chance that this is indeed one of Rune's traps, but I have my doubts. Granted K'tal is just a little on the, shall we say, trigger-happy side when it comes to situations needing tact, but I honestly think that he has his reasons for doing what he did." Ami and Mina exchanged concerned glances for several seconds before Mina wrinkled her nose and made a gesture in the general direction of the living room. Ami nodded and stood up. "Go ahead and connect the chip to the computer, but don't use it yet," Ami told Tolaris. "Mina and I have to discuss this with Luna and the others first to see if we really want to take the risk of announcing our presence to General Rune or whomever is sitting on the other end of that thing." Tolaris nodded and leaned over to kiss her cheek. "I understand, love. Maze, do you remember where I put that screwdriver set?" Maze snickered. "Last I saw of it was about half a second before I sent it flying across the hall after I got electrocuted awhile back. No idea where it wound up." Tolaris stood up and sighed. "See if I ever let you borrow those again," he grumbled as he left the room to search for them. Ami and Mina exchanged a partially amused glance before Mina shrugged. "Come on, let's go see what the others think of this," Mina said. "What do you think of it?" Ami inquired as she followed the blonde down the hall towards the living room. Mina sighed. "I'll let you know when I make up my mind." Ami frowned to herself and remained silent, her own doubts about the situation starting to weigh heavily upon her. This could either help us a lot or hurt us very badly, she thought. Do we really want to risk it? Still thinking, she entered the living room with a sigh and, making sure she had everyone's full attention, began to speak about the situation. -------------------------------------------------------------------- They plane-shifted into another section of The Dark, which looked and felt just like the area they had just left. As soon as they had materialized she was on the alert, nervously looking in all directions around her for any sign of anything even remotely hostile. After a few seconds, she was satisified that she was undetected for the time being and started her search. Her search only lasted for a few moments before she froze, her senses screaming an alarm that something was wrong. Moving as quickly as possible while trying to remain seemingly motionless, she scanned the area around her again, searching for anything that seemed out-of-place. She blinked as something seemed to be missing. A reflex automatically checked her holding pouch for everything, momentarily surprising her to find a soul inside before she remembered she was carrying it. Satisfied that she was still carrying everything she had when she left, she began to move in a small circle, searching carefully even though she had no idea what she was looking for. She froze as she thought she detected the faintest movement in front of her. On impulse, she began to run various sensory filters over her optic nerves in an attempt to look at the entire energy spectrum. She paused in mid-cycle as the sense of something missing returned, nagging at the edge of her mind. She began to cycle through the filters once more, only this time at a much slower pace, comparing each image to the previous ones. She paused when her eyes were attuned to background radiation, appearing to her as a somewhat hazy collection of colored sources of radiation. She looked around her slowly and froze when she saw a section of The Dark that was completely devoid of any background radiation at all. Fear filled her when she realized that it wasn't an absence of radiation she saw but the result of something blocking her line of vision. She began to shake when she realized that she only had two choices: Ignore it and hope that it wasn't a creature trying to hunt her, or she could do a scan for life energy and give her location away in the process. She remained absolutely still as she contemplated the situation. It was her guess that she was as invisible to it as it was to her, but that was only because she wasn't moving and actively trying to mask her presence. The scan for life energy would let her clearly see what it was, but the burst of energy she gave off would announce her presence like a flare in the dark. She was just about to make her choice when the creature suddenly became visible and she was engulfed in a burst of radiation. Her brain had just identified it as a life energy scan when her reflexes kicked in and she darted away as fast as she could move, trying to escape from the creature. The creature was simply too fast. Within a mere moment it had closed the short distance between them and snared her in what might have been called a tendril of energy. The realization that she was about to die had just sunk into her brain when a beam of energy shot out of the darkness, narrowly missing her and striking the creature square in the center of its mass. The creature began to writhe around in agony as its life energy was being polarized by the sudden attack. She had barely enough time to grasp what was going on before she was grabbed by a second creature and felt herself being torn apart by a teleport. She had no idea where her molecules reassembled themselves, nor did she care as she tried to deal with the agonizing pain that a molecular teleport brought on. All that mattered was that she was alive, but the pain gave her second thoughts about enjoying it. "I am sorry I had to do that, but I wasn't ready enough for a dimensional shift," a voice said as he released his hold on her. He looked at her oddly for a moment before he remembered. "So we meet again," he said, then speaking the syllables of her true-name. The shock of her true-name being spoken drowned out the residual pain she was in. "How...?" she asked as she looked up at her savior, trying to discern his identity. "You...." He nodded. "So you do remember me." "How do you know my true-name?" she whispered, the shock being replaced by fear at the situation, for she knew that he now held absolute power over her with the knowledge of her true-name. "That is unimportant, my friend," he said softly. "What is more important is why have you come here? This region is far more dangerous than the area you usually inhabit." "Actually, I was looking for you," she said quietly. He blinked in mild surprise. "Looking for me?" he echoed. "You once spoke of a legend of a kingdom that lies outside The Dark," she explained. "I believe you referred to it as the 'Moon Kingdom.'" He looked at her with an intense gaze for a moment, making her slightly wary of the whole situation. "I doubt you have manged to escape The Dark, yet you speak of that which lies outside of this neo-void," he said softly. "How did you come by that name?" She hesitated for a moment, unsure of how far she could trust him. He saw the look on what passed for her face and gave her a comforting look. "Believe me when I say I have no reason to wish you harm. I am merely curious as to how you came across a reference to the Moon Kingdom." "A soul told me about it," she said, her voice a bare whisper. He gave her an odd look. "A soul? I don't understand." She finally made a decision and withdrew the glowing soul from her storage pouch. "Listen to her," she said as she held the soul out to him. She saw him carefully touch it like it was a poisonous object, then watched as his eyes nearly tripled in diameter as the soul spoke to him. <Who are you?> he thought-broadcasted, the shock of having the soul speak to him upsetting him enough to forget to direct his thought only at the soul. He listened intently as Pluto reawoke and told her fragmented story again. "A thousand years?" he whispered aloud. "Wait.... I've seen something like this before.... Hold her," he said as he held out the glowing soul to her. She carefully accepted the soul and watched in amazement as his form began to dissolve, quickly collapsing into a swirling maelestrom. She blinked as something intangible emerged from the center of the vortex and floated to the ground. The tiny particles quickly coalesced into their usual solid form and he picked up the object. "I found this a long time ago, but didn't know what it was or what to do with it," he said as he held it out to her. She took it from him and nearly dropped it in shock when she recognized it. "It's another one!" she said in utter amazement. "It's another soul, just like Pluto was when I found her!" "Strange it could have existed this long without fading out," he mused. "How did you revive Pluto?" "I gave it as much energy as I could spare," she replied. "Interesting...." he said as he turned his mind inward to his own supply of energy. He carefully extracted a tendril of energy and transferred it to the nearly faded soul, waiting to see what the reaction would be. Both of them jumped as the soul sucked up the tendril of energy like a vacuum. They took a closer look at it and noticed that the soul had taken on a very faint yellow glow. "Most interesting," he commented. "If it's energy it wants, I think I have enough available to satisfy its immediate needs." He searched inward and extracted almost half of his reserve supply of energy, carefully transferring it to the soul. The tendrils of energy quickly wrapped themselves around the soul, causing it to glow brighter and brighter until there was a blinding flash of light. When they could see again, they saw a vibrant yellow ball of light floating calmly in the air. The only visible difference between it and Pluto's soul was the color. "Unbelievable," he said after a moment. Carefully, almost fearfully, he reached out and touched the soul. After a careful check to ensure that the soul was still intact, he picked up Pluto's soul and held the two next to each other. <.........> <Who's there?> Pluto said. <Another soul like yourself,> he answered. <I have revived it, but I have no idea how to awaken it.> <Who are you?> Pluto asked. <You sound different than the one I spoke to earlier.> <You may call me Mephisto,> he replied. <But what is more important is to awaken your friend.> <.........> <She stirs....> <Is it a she?> Mephisto asked. <I think so. It feels very.... familiar....> <........?> <Talk to her, then. I will not interfere.> <I will try,> Pluto replied. <....?.....???> <Relax.... nothing will hurt you....> <...?.....?............!> <........Alex?> <!..... S...... Ssssss....> <Stay calm, you're still waking up.....> <Ssss.... Susan?> <!!! Alex, is is you!> <W.... where....> <Slowly, Alex. Let your mind reawaken on its own.> <M.... Mich.... w.... where.... where is Mich?> <I see you haven't changed,> Pluto said, mildly amused. <...?.... What happened?> <I'm not quite sure, but that's not important right now. Your mind needs to wake up, but do it slowly. Don't try to force anything, just let it come back to you on its own,> she said soothingly. <..........?> <What?> <Someone.... else?> <What do you mean?> <I think she means me,> Mephisto said quietly. <Who.... who are you?> <His name is Mephisto,> Pluto replied. <He found you and kept you safe.> <...? Thank you....> <You are more than welcome. Tell me, what is your name?> <My name...?> <I think she's still not fully awake yet,> Pluto said softly. <My name.... is.... is....> <Easy, Alex, don't fight it....> <My name is.... Uranus....> -------------------------------------------------------------------- General Rune sighed and glanced down at the display console she had been staring at for the past hour. The display was split into three windows, the first two showing an overhead tactical map of each of the polar oceans while the third displayed the results of several scans of the region where the odd rift was still forming. "What's the latest word from the Leviathans?" Rune called out over her shoulder. Lieutenant Admiral Ne'tan walked over from the communications console to stand next to her. "Leviathan North reports no contacts," he said in a low, even tone. "We have not yet received an update from Leviathan South." Rune frowned. "Where exactly are they?" Ne'tan reached past her to quickly tap a few buttons on the keypad at the base of the display. After a few seconds, a pair of green circles lit up on the screen, one in each polar region. "These were their last known positions as of ten minutes ago. For various security reasons they never report their exact positions, instead giving us a certain radius that they are currently operating in." The frown on Rune's face deepened as she digested the information. The Navy was fiercely protective of their ultra-secret Leviathan project for some unknown reason, a fact that didn't sit well with Rune's Army background. "Who knows their exact locations?" Ne'tan shook his head. "Only the captain of each Leviathan and their navigators." Rune have the Navy second-in-command a sharp look. "Not even Admiral Si'ren knows?" Ne'tan's reply was cut off by the loud voice of one of the communication console operators. "Sir, Leviathan South reports multiple submerged contacts. The are assuming a Stage 2 Alert as per orders and are rigging for ultra-quiet to assess the situation. They will report when they have further information provided they can transmit while remaining silent." Rune's fingers were a blur as she punched in several commands into the display console. On the far wall of the tiny underground command center, the topographic map of the Negaverse vanished and was replaced with a full-size display of the southern ocean. As further commands were entered, various objects and types of information were superimposed on the map. The green ring that appeared tiny on Rune's display was several inches across on the map, representing an area of several square nautical miles. All eyes turned to the map when five smaller white rings appeared, each denoting the possible location of a submerged contact. The rings were close enough to overlap each other several times, indicating that the contacts were rather close to one another. "Someone contact Admiral Si'ren and tell her to report here immediately," Rune ordered. "Someone starting a war?" Si'ren asked as she walked into the command center. Unlike Queen Beryl and her predecessors, she had always preferred to receive her information as it came in, instead of having to wait for various military personnel to process it into something the Queen could understand. Discovering that General Rune preferred to do the same had given the admiral a small measure of hope that the throne's power would be more focused on what the military was doing, as opposed to worrying about what the rest of the civillian population was planning. If Rune seemed surprised at Si'ren's sudden entrance, she hid it well. "I'm glad to see that timing doesn't go down the tubes in a crisis," she observed. "Leviathan South just reported several submerged contacts." Rune took one look at the way Si'ren's eyes doubled in size and decided that this was a very bad development. "What is Leviathan South doing right now?" Si'ren asked Ne'tan. "They have assumed a Stage 2 Alert and have rigged for ultra-quiet," he replied evenly. "They will respond when they have more information on the situation, provided they do not risk revealing their position in the attempt." Rune waited patiently for Si'ren to finish cussing beneath her breath. "I will admit ignorance to some of your branch's terminology," Rune said very evenly, "As no doubt you are sometimes confused by ours. What exactly takes place when they 'rig for ultra-quiet?'" Si'ren ran her fingers through her close-cropped white hair. "Do you want the short-and-stupid version or the long-and-complex version?" she asked. Rune raised an eyebrow. "Short-and-stupid will work for the time being," she said dryly. "The full explanation can wait until I have the time to deal with the headache caused by technical details." "Very well," Si'ren said with a soft smile. "In short, they're doing their absolute best to remain as quiet as possible, which means they make no motion at all, turn off all active sensors, and don't transmit any messages. In other words, they make like a hole in the water." Rune turned back to the oversized display board, already deep in thought. "Can they move when ultra-quiet?" she asked absently. "They can, but as any motion makes some degree of noise underwater, they can only move very slowly and still remain undetectable," Ne'tan explained. "And what are they armed with again?" Rune asked. She heard silence in reply and she turned around to fix Si'ren with a look. "I asked a question, Admiral, and I would appreciate an answer." Si'ren suddenly appeared to be slightly nervous. "Forty sub-surface missiles, ten sub-surface-to-air missiles, and thirty ballistic missiles." Rune blinked hard. "And with what kind of warhead on each?" "Impact, conventional, and either conventional or nuclear, respectively," the admiral replied softly. Rune looked back at the map and studied the large green ring. "Let me summarize this," she said, her voice deceptively soft. "We have a pair of Navy vessels in operation that don't report their exact whereabouts to anyone, have the ability to disappear off of the rest of the Navy's sensors at will, are able to go beyond the reach of the secure frequency communications net, and are armed with enough nuclear weapons to turn a good tenth of the known map into so much free-floating radioactive air pollution. Am I right?" A sudden noise behind her caused her to whirl around in time to see a Navy officer draw his side-arm and point it at her. Immediately the room erupted into chaos as everyone scrambled to either get out of the way or to try to stop the assassination attempt. "Die, bitch!" the officer screamed as he pulled the trigger a scant second before he was taken down by three people. Rune would have been shot in the dead-center of her chest if she hadn't been forcibly shoved aside by Ne'tan. His actions saved Rune from immediate harm but put himself in the path of the projectile. There was a muffled crack as the round imbedded itself in his ribcage and the small explosive charge detonated. Rune looked up in time to see Ne'tan's amber eyes widen in shock as most of his lifeblood was splashed across the wall, creating a hideous cascade of blue that immediately started to pool around him. Then the life faded from his eyes as his brain overloaded from the extreme shock and simply shut down, mercifully sparing him from any sensation of pain. She quickly sprang to her feet, the adrenaline burning in her veins like wildfire and her senses alert for any further attempts on her life. A quick glance around the room was all it took for her to realize that Si'ren and the other naval officers had things under control. Two ensigns had the would-be assassin in secure arm-lock, putting enough pressure on his arms to make the bones creak loud enough for Rune to hear from across the room. A lieutenant had secured the side-arm and was pointing it at the man's forehead, ready to pull the trigger in an instant. Rune blinked when she saw the expression on Si'ren's face. She had known the admiral for decades, but had never seen her as furious as she was now. So perhaps it wasn't a Navy plot after all, Rune thought, or perhaps the admiral is a first-rate actress.... Si'ren made sure that the assassin was securely restrained before she walked over and forced him to look up at her. "What were you thinking?" she seethed, her eyes showing quite clearly her anger. "You know why the Leviathan project was started," he replied. "And now you betray it to someone like her? Had I known you were as undeserving as she is, I'd have fired the next shell at you." "General Rune," Si'ren said quietly, her voice absolutely flat, "Do you have any questions for him?" Rune frowned. Ordinarily she would have turned the assassin over to her own security force for detailed questioning, followed by a suitably messy execution, but something in the back of her mind told her to let Si'ren handle the situation. "I doubt he would be able to answer the questions I have in mind," Rune said after a few moments of silence. Si'ren heard the odd tone in the general's voice and turned to look at her, the two women communicating somehow without word or gesture. "I see," Si'ren said quietly. "Then as I doubt neither of us have any patience left for the matter, is there any particular way you would like to see him die?" Rune blinked in surprise, having expected Si'ren to have the officer taken away for further questioning. She briefly toyed with several options that sounded appealing to her before she caught the look in the admiral's dark eyes. "Surprise me," Rune said with a small smile. Si'ren didn't smile back, only nodding her head once before turning her attention to the assassin and reaching out. Her hand had almost touched the base of his throat when she paused and cast a quick glance back towards Rune. "You aren't squeamish, are you?" she asked. Rune blinked in surprise again, caught off-guard by the question. "Of course not," she said, giving Si'ren an uncertain look. This time, a soft smile tugged at the corners of Si'ren's mouth. "Good," she said simply and turned back to the assassin, her fingertips lightly making contact with his skin. "This may get.... disturbing." Nothing happened for a few seconds at first. Then Rune noticed that the assassin was starting to sweat, his eyes starting to go wide for some reason. Rune knew something was happening when his skin started to turn a light shade of pink and his muscles started to twitch. The two ensigns holding onto him began to exchange nervous glances and discreetly began to shift positions, wary at what was happening. Si'ren laughed very softly. "You two may release him and step back. He isn't going anywhere anymore. As for you, Lieutenant," she said, addressing the officer still holding the assassin's weapon, "I want that weapon taken down to the lab and analyzed. I don't recall ever seeing that type of shell being used before, and I want to know all about it." "Yes, ma'am," the lieutenant replied as he made a hasty exit, not wanting to stay around to see the assassin's demise. The assassin was now making choking noises as his eyes started to bulge and his skin started to redden. "My, you're a tough one," Si'ren commented. "I think you have about one more minute of life left in you before you die." Rune remained silent as she sought to figure out just what exactly Si'ren was doing to him. She immediately ruled out electrocution, as his short hair wasn't standing on end or crackling with static. He wasn't bleeding yet, or at least not that she could see, so she tentatively ruled out any sort of internal damage being done. Still, she thought, she's doing something.... Si'ren smiled as steam began to emerge from his mouth. "I suggest that everyone take a few steps back," she said lightly. "And if you are of the squeamish type, you are dismissed from the command center." Of the twelve people in the command center, only five bothered to remain and watch. Rune cast a quick glance at the retreating mass of people before she turned back to watch the assassin. He appeared to have lost all muscular control and now his abdomen appeared to be swelling slightly. The realization of what was happening had just occurred to Rune when the assassin let out a high-pitched whistling noise a bare second before his entire body exploded outwards. Rune reflexively ducked as an unholy amount of blood and gore was thrown into the air and started raining down. She waited until the last of the bits and pieces had fallen before she cautiously stood up and looked around, her stomach churning at both the sight and the smell of burnt flesh. Si'ren was calmly brushing off the front of her uniform, which was now a solid mass of pink and blue ichor. She caught the horrified look in Rune's eyes and shrugged. "'Any day that I am covered up to my elbows in the blood of my enemies is a good day,'" she quoted with a casual smile. "This uniform is going to need some serious work, though." Rune finally found her voice. "Who said that?" she asked, a small creak still in her voice despite her best efforts. The smile fell from Si'ren's lips. "General Nop'tera." "I see," Rune said as she surveyed the control room. "You," she said as she pointed at a young lieutenant who was obviously fighting her nausea. "I want you to call maintenance and tell them that we need a cleaning team over here. Make sure they send people who aren't easily nauseated, and be sure to specify that they need to spray everything down with a heavy-duty type of disinfectant." The lieutenant could only nod in numb compliance before she turned around and quickly bolted down the hall towards the nearest latrine. Rune closed her eyes and counted to ten, opened them slowly, and turned to face Fleet Admiral Si'ren. "I'll admit that was a surprise. What exactly did you do?" she asked. Si'ren gave her a mild look. "I have a strong control over water," she replied. "Part of the reason I joined the Navy instead of the rest of the ground-based military. As for our friend here, he was composed of eighty-six percent water, just like the rest of us." "So you boiled that water?" Rune finished for her, slightly disgusted. Si'ren spread her hands. "Very messy, but very effective, wouldn't you say, General Rune? Tell me you wouldn't have crystalized something in his bloodstream or something to that effect." Rune indeed had considered doing exactly that, although she had never attempted to do such a thing before. "It matters not. I think it is safe to say that justice has been served, but there still leaves quite a lot that needs to be answered," Rune said slowly. Si'ren nodded. "Indeed, and I may have some of the answers that you seek. But this is not the place and my uniform needs to be changed. Ensign Raw'eth, you will oversee the clean-up of the center and continue to monitor the situation with Leviathan South. If anything changes, notify me in my quarters at once. Understood?" "Understood perfectly, ma'am," the stocky ensign replied crisply. Si'ren nodded and turned to Rune. "I believe there is an Earth saying that goes, 'The time has come... to talk of many things.'" Rune nodded silently and followed Si'ren out of the command center and down the corridor, her mind already sorting the questions she would ask about not only the Leviathan project, but about other things as well. Who knows, she mused, this might turn out to be exactly what I need after all.... -------------------------------------------------------------------- Leda quietly walked into the room, trying not to disturb anyone from their work. As she looked around, she had to bite her tongue to keep herself from giggling out loud. And me without my camera, she thought to herself. The front casing of the crystal computer had been removed and Tolaris had both of his arms buried up to his elbows inside. From what she could see, he had a series of wires held in one hand, some sort of tool in the other, and a small penlight clamped between his teeth. Maze had pried up several of the floor tiles in order to get to the main node of the dimensional phase-link connector. All that could be seen of him were a pair of sweatpants-clad legs hooked around a bar that had been secured between the legs of the computer table. "Wait a minute, go back to the fourth wire again?" Maze's voice drifted up from the pit in the floor. There was a dark growl from within the computer as Tolaris peered inside and traced down a wire. "I thought we already ruled that one out," he said. "Yeah, well I just discovered I had a loose connection here," Maze shot back. "That second wire is clear, that third is definitely null, but I want to try to get another reading on that fourth." Leda gave serious consideration to yelling 'boo' and most likely scaring them both. However, she thought, scaring someone holding a glass of water is one thing. Spooking someone poking around in delicate electronics or doing their impression of a bat is another. But still.... "Connected," Tolaris called out. "Ay'cha navidshi, that's it!" Maze called out from within the depths of the narrow access conduit. "See, told you all we had to do was pin down the return data path." Tolaris muttered something cryptic that Leda's limited knowledge of the denizen language couldn't translate properly. "What was that about fish?" she asked cautiously. There was a muffled curse as Tolaris jumped and bumped his head on the top edge of the computer casing. "Hang on," he growled as he secured the wire into place with the tool he was holding. "Who's up there?" Maze called out. Leda smiled as she walked over to the conduit and peered down. "Just me, Maze. We having fun yet?" "Loads," Maze replied as he glanced down at his feet to see who it was. "Speaking of loads," Tolaris replied, "Are we sure this line will be able to handle the stream of data?" "It should, but we all know how far that usually goes," Maze replied as he briefly returned his attention to firmly attaching the wire into the data hub. "Look on the bright side. If it blows, at least we know which one it is." The Dragoon commander snorted. "Great. In that case, you can replace it as I'm not quite suited to hanging upside down for hours on end." There was a brief burst of laughter from within the conduit. "I don't get it, boss. You can spend hours in an underwater or null-g environment for training, but you can't hang upside down for fifteen minutes to replace one simple wire?" Maze said. Tolaris finally withdrew from the inside of the computer and cast a mild look at the pair of legs. "It's probably the same reason why you can handle variable-gravity situations but can't stand free-fall." Maze grunted. "Yeah, well...." "Do I want to ask what you two are talking about?" Leda inquired. "If you think you can follow it," Tolaris replied with a shrug. "Put it like this," Maze grunted as he finished the last connection. "If the Dragoons ever have to go to war again, I will probably be one of the six or seven people who won't be participating in the 'Death From Above' tactic." "Yeah, sorry I asked," the brunette said with a sigh. Tolaris shrugged. "It's easy. We get a large airborne transport, strap on airframes, fly over to our objective, and deploy once we're overhead." Leda blinked. "Airframes?" "I think you humans refer to them as hang-gliders," Tolaris said. Maze grunted as he started to wiggle out of his inverted position. "The only thing wrong with that idea is Kota's First Law." Leda looked at Tolaris in time to see the Dragoon rolling his eyes. "And what exactly is Kota's First Law?" Leda asked cautiously. There was another grunt as Maze flexed his legs and flipped out of the access conduit. "Gravity works," he said. Leda smiled. "Ahh. What goes up must come down, eh?" "Precisely." "Admit it, Maze, you're just afraid of heights," Tolaris teased. The Dragoon lieutenant glared at him. "I'm not afraid of heights, boss, I'm just afraid of that sudden stop at the end if I should happen to fall." "I think hang-gliding would be cool," Leda said. "You would," Maze muttered beneath his breath. "So what brings you here?" Tolaris asked before Maze went off. The brunette sighed. "Well, first to tell you that everyone had to go home. Mina poked her head in here earlier to say good-bye, but you both looked like you had your hands full so she asked me to tell you when you were done." Maze grinned. "She just didn't want to stick around to see if we needed to further mutilate her synthesizer for parts," he snickered. Leda spread her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Hey, I'm just telling you what they told me. Anyway, Serena and the others came to an agreement to let you talk to what's-his-face in the Negaverse. However," she said, giving Tolaris a warning look, "If anything happens that could even remotely put us in any sort of trouble or anything, cut the link and give Rei a call immediately." Tolaris nodded, a small frown on his face. "Understood, but why should we call Rei instead of someone like Ami or Luna?" Leda shrugged. "Rei said something about not seeming to get much sleep anymore and would probably be the only one awake at odd hours in the morning." "That's not a good sign," Tolaris observed. Leda shrugged again. "Yeah, we know, but Rei said that she's had a lot on her mind as of late, and not just about school work. Mina tried to get her to talk about it but almost wound up getting chased out by a fireball." Maze said something cryptic in the denizen language and Tolaris smirked. "I doubt that would be the case, lieutenant," Tolaris said dryly. Leda gave the Dragoon a dark look. "I'll be sure to tell Rei you said that about her," she said evenly. Maze blinked. "Umm...." The brunette giggled impulsively. "Of course, I personally came to the same conclusion, but I'm not rude enough to voice it openly like that." "Now there's a first," Maze muttered beneath his breath. "Are you two finished?" Tolaris said dryly as he turned his attention towards the computer and began to initialize the newly installed computer chip. The computer immediately came back with a multi-harmonic chime and displayed an error message in bright red spider-like characters. The two denizens exchanged glances before Maze flushed a light shade of green and quickly climbed back down into the conduit. "Problem?" Leda inquired. "Yeah, it usually works better if you turn it on after you plug it in," Maze said from within the depths of the conduit. "The hub should be back up now, boss. Try it again." "Do us a favor and stay down there until we're sure everything works," the Dragoon commander replied as he tried to initialize the chip again. The result was the same but the error message was completely different. "Now what does it say?" Maze called out from his inverted position. "External matrix port not ready," Tolaris replied. "That's your fault, not mine," the lieutenant shot back. Tolaris grumbled something acidic beneath his breath that Leda couldn't even come close to translating. He carefully reached inside the computer and reset the tiny power circuit connecting the modulator chip to the rest of the system. There was a momentary hum as power started to flow through the chip and it began to communicate with the main CPU. Leda smiled. "Third time's the charm," she said. "Let's hope so," Tolaris replied as he initialized the chip again. This time, he got a small status screen with a single, green spider-like character that was slowly blinking on and off. The brunette squinted at the character for a moment. "Acting?" Tolaris shook his head. "Working. Acting is drawn like this," he said as he picked up a pencil and started to draw on a scrap of paper. Leda compared the two characters and shook her head. "They're almost identical. How do you tell them apart so easily?" The Dragoon shrugged. "Practice, I guess. You tend to become skilled at certain tasks if you've been doing them since you learned how to walk." "True...." Maze coughed lightly from within the access conduit. "Language lessons are always nice, boss, but is everything working to the point where I can come on out of here now?" Tolaris chuckled. "But I thought you liked doing your impression of a mer'cata." There was a derisive snort from within the conduit. "Yeah, so you get a different view of the world when you do that, but your blood also tends to start pooling in your brain after a few minutes. Especially after you've already spent an hour in this position." Leda looked up at the computer in time to see the text message change to a lengthy explanation of something. "I think it's finished," she said as she struggled to translate the first five characters. Tolaris glanced at it and nodded. "It's finished now, Maze, so you can climb back out of there." "Great," Maze grunted as he quickly extracted himself from the narrow confines of the access conduit. As soon as he was free, he quickly sat down and stared up at the ceiling. "Whee, blood rush...." "I thought you said you liked those," Tolaris said absently as he opened up a utility program and began to configure the chip's software interface for use with the crystal computer. "A blood rush from fighting for your life is always a good feeling," Maze replied slowly as his vision slowly refocused. "A rush from adrenaline is a good one as well. A rush from sex.... well, no need to comment. But a rush from having half of your blood supply go from your brain to your toes in two seconds is not the most pleasant of feelings...." Leda giggled. "You only hate that because you don't like freefall." "You hush," the Dragoon lieutenant replied with a mild look. "Children, please, not in here," Tolaris said as he continued to work. "Children?" Leda echoed, her green eyes narrowing. She moved forward to smack him upside his head but halted when she found Maze's arm blocking her. "Now, now, Leda, it's not Tolaris's fault he's old enough to be one of your ancestors," he said smoothly with a large grin. "And after all, a fifteen year old girl in the Negaverse would still be in post-diaper training." Tolaris blinked at Maze's words and quickly started to explain things to Leda before she took offense and went ballistic. "What Maze is trying to say is that denizens have an extremely slow initial growth rate, both physically and mentally. It takes us five years to get past the initial brainless-infant stage and another ten to learn how to walk. Public education doesn't start until the twenty-fifth year and that is geared towards learning how to learn. Once our minds 'solidify' as we call it, then we can begin to really learn about the sciences and all." Leda blinked as she digested all of the information. "Why does it take denizens such an unimaginable amount of time to grow up?" she asked, still in a mild state of awe. Tolaris shrugged. "I sat down with Ami one day and compared the human timespan and the denizen timespan of life at certain key points. Surprisingly enough, the only time difference between the human lifespan and the denizen lifespan is the amount of time between birth and death of old age. Everything else is virtually a direct time ratio." Leda blinked again, this time lost by the Dragoon's words. "Huh?" Maze smiled. "What he's trying to say is that if you took the denizen's average lifespan and crunched it down to a human's lifespan, we'd grow up as fast as you humans do. The reverse is also true. If we stretch your lifespan out to two thousand years, it'd take you just as long to grow up as we do." "Ooooh, I get it...." Leda said slowly as her mind grasped the concept. "And contrary to what Maze was trying to insinuate," Tolaris said dryly, "I do not view you and the other Sailor Scouts as being merely young children." Leda sighed and looked down at the floor. "Yeah, well, we kinda still are that, in a way." She looked up as she felt Maze gently squeeze her shoulder. "Age is a state of mind, Leda," he said quietly. "So Tolaris is two centuries my elder. When you live as long as we do, or are supposed to," he added with a roll of his eyes, "What does a few years matter?" "Supposed to?" Leda echoed. Tolaris laughed humorlessly. "Speaking from a strictly biological view, yes. However, the amount of violence in our society definitely has a major impact on things." Leda wrinkled her nose and was about to make a comment when the computer screen changed and a series of denizen characters appeared. A neutral-sounding synthetic voice filled the room as it read the words out loud in the denizen language. Maze blinked. "Now this is interesting." Leda frowned as she studied the screen. "Something about being ready?" she asked as she quickly went over the text and paused at the few unfamilar characters. "Vocal interface for dual input-output mode is ready," Tolaris translated. "I take it the chip works?" Maze asked cautiously. "So far, but I still have to load the encryption key into it," Tolaris replied. "I wonder.... Nak'seth." "Venta," the computer replied as it displayed the denizen character for 'ready' on the screen. "When did this thing become voice-activated?" Maze wondered aloud. "Wait a second...." Leda said. "Which circuit card is that whatever wired into?" "This one," Tolaris said as he picked up the penlight and shined it into the open computer casing. "There, the one with the three amber lights on the left side." "And Mina let you borrow that indefinitely?" Leda gasped, her eyes wide. Maze and Tolaris exchanged mildly concerned glances. "That's what she said," Maze said slowly. "Oooh boy," Leda grinned. "What?" Maze said, a small frown tugging on the corners of his mouth. "That circuit board also holds her artificial language matrix's speech pattern ROM. Her synthesizer won't be able to simulate human speech without that circuit board," Leda explained. "Uh oh...." Maze said quietly, turning rather pale. "Human speech.... hang on," Tolaris said as he turned his full attention to the computer and started to work on reconfiguring the chip again. He worked for ten minutes before he reinitialized the chip and sat back, waiting to see the results. After a few moments, the computer displayed the previous ready message and repeated the words in the denizen language. "Mmm, not a good sign," Tolaris muttered. "Nak'seth." "Venta," the computer said as it displayed the denizen character. "Looks fine to me," Maze commented. "Computer," Tolaris said in English. "Ready," the computer replied as it redisplayed the denizen character. "Good enough," the Dragoon said as he sat back with a smile. "Hey, how'd you do that?" Leda asked, her eyes wide with wonder. Maze smiled. "Using Ami's translator program?" he asked. Tolaris shrugged. "Well, I just linked her translator to that unknown program sitting on the chip, which thanks to Leda I now know to to be Mina's synthesizer language database. After that was done, I just tied Ami's program to the vocal interface properties of the communications program. And as you can see, the result is a computer that now understand both languages." "Mmm," Maze said as he looked at the display. "I take it you can't do a written-word translation because you don't have a master database for that?" "Exactly," Tolaris replied with a nod of his head. "So this thing can understand what I say now?" Leda asked with an evil gleam in her eyes. Maze and Tolaris exchanged looks before Maze smiled and Tolaris sighed. "Yes and no, Leda," Tolaris explained as he rubbed his eyes. "Yes if all you are doing is using the computer like a telephone to talk to someone or to issue brief, simple commands, but it won't understand most of what you say if you try to do anything else with it." "Aww...." Maze snickered. "You've been watching too much of that science fiction program, Star-whatever." Leda grinned back at him. "Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?" "Nak'seth, a'rein kurush'an-taal Tolaris aan," Tolaris said. "A'ren'i," the computer replied as it displayed a single character. Leda blinked. "I understood that except for that one word." "If you mean kurush'an-taal, it means encrypton key," Maze explained. "Kurush'an-taal a'ren'en," the computer said as it displayed the text. "So far, so good," Tolaris said mildly. "If I may interrupt for a moment," Leda said as she leaned past him to study the computer screen. "I just want to add to my limited understanding here. A'rein is the verb form of load, right?" "Yes," Tolaris replied. "And a'ren'i means loading, right?" "Last time I checked it did," Maze replied with a smile. "Smart aleck. Anyway, and a'ren'en means loaded?" Leda continued. "Correct," Tolaris said. "So when you write it out, you add an 'i notation to the end of a word for the present-tense action and an 'en notation to the past-tense action, right?" she concluded. Maze chuckled. "Yes, but if the last syllable contains an ein mark, you substitute the en mark in its place when you add the notation. And if it has an i mark at the very end, you leave it off totally when you add the notation," he explained slowly. Leda blinked and looked over the spidery words. "I think I understand it now," she said hesitantly. "Good, you'll be quizzed in the morning," Tolaris said evenly. He looked up at the stunned expression on Leda's face and chuckled quietly. "That was a joke, Leda." "Not funny," she muttered as her cheeks turned pink. "Perhaps," Maze chuckled. "Umm, might I ask a potentially rude question?" Leda asked cautiously. Maze blinked. "Umm, sure." "Why doesn't the verb k'ves have the notations when you conjugate it?" "Because when you use that word, you're already conjugating," Maze said almost inaudibly beneath his breath. There was a strangled noise next to him as Tolaris bit his tongue to keep himself from laughing aloud at the remark. Leda's gaze alternated between the two Dragoons. "Umm...." "You do know what that word means, right?" Maze asked slowly. "Not quite, which is why I'm asking," Leda admitted with a blush. "Oh, great, here it comes...." Tolaris muttered in his native dialect, knowing full well that Maze probably wouldn't be able to translate his accent. "I'll handle this, you go back to your work," Maze said smoothly as he reached out and turned Tolaris's head to face the computer screen. He then quietly and calmly explained to Leda the literal translation of the word and all of its associated connotations and implications. By the time he was finished, Leda's blush had deepened by at least five shades of red. "Well now...." she managed to say after a few seconds of silence. "Any other fun words I should know about?" "You don't need to teach her any more profanity, Lieutenant," Tolaris said sternly as he worked. "Granted she isn't a child, but her mind doesn't need to be corrupted any more than it already is." "Gee, thanks," Leda said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Venta," the computer said, interrupting any further conversation on that particular topic of discussion. "Here goes nothing," Tolaris said quietly. "Computer, create secure link to distant end host." "Creating," the computer said in it's synthesized neutral-toned voice as it displayed a denizen character. The computer hummed to itself for a moment before several lines of spidery text started to scroll up onto the screen. "Error: Cryptographic key has not been initialized. Now initializing cryptographic key.... Initialization completed. Searching.... Located distant end. Creating link.... Link has been established. Establishing secure link.... Warning: Cryptographic key cycle mismatch. Attempting to cycle.... Cycle match established. Establishing secure link...." "This should take a bit," Tolaris said as he sat back and blew out his breath. "Give it, what? Three minutes?" Maze shook his head. "Three to re-establish, five to establish a link for the first time once you get the right cycle going." Tolaris sighed and reached for his cup of ma'cha. He picked it up, looked at the inside of the empty cup, and stood up with another sigh. "Anyone else want anything to drink while I'm up?" "What time is it?" Leda asked. Maze leaned forward and peered at the tiny clock display bottom edge of the computer display. "Should be.... somewhere around eight o'clock." Leda made a face. "Bah, too late for coffee. Tea if you can find some, whatever fruit juice is in the 'fridge if you can't." "Okay. What about you, Maze?" Tolaris inquired. "Tea sounds like a good idea," he said wearily. "Need to get flushed out anyway. Lunch is still sitting in my gut like a lead weight." Leda grinned as she heard Tolaris's laughter echoing all the way down the hall as he headed off towards the kitchen. "When are you going to learn?" "You know how Mina gets when you turn down her cooking," Maze muttered. The brunette gave him a wicked smile. "You just need to learn how to get out of eating her cooking without seeming to be trying to get out. Trust me, both Rei and myself are highly skilled at it, Darian is learning very quickly, and Ami somehow manages to always be legitimately occupied elsewhere when it's Mina's turn to cook." Maze shrugged. "And what about Serena?" Leda just sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Serena is either too dense to learn how to avoid Mina's cooking or she has a cast-iron stomach. Knowing her, it's probably both." "I can imagine," Maze said with a smile. "And what of Artemis?" "Poor thing...." Leda said with a sigh as she shivered. "After living with her for so long, he probably doesn't even have a stomach anymore. Just a hose that connects his throat to his rear." "What's this?" Tolaris asked as he walked into the room carrying several steaming mugs. "Not much, boss, just theorizing on what prolonged exposure to Mina's cooking has done to Artemis's digestive system," Maze explained as he accepted the mug of ma'cha from Tolaris. The Dragoon grunted as he handed the mug of tea to Leda. "I can imagine," he said with a mildly sour look on his face. "Don't get me wrong, Leda. Mina is a good friend and a truly remarkable girl, but she could probably manage to ruin breakfast cereal if you let her handle it." Leda promptly set the mug of tea down before her fit of giggles could spill the steaming liquid everywhere. "You know," she said between spasms, "She did that once. I think it was when we were up at the Hot Spring Resort, the morning after you and Darian took off." The memory became too much for her to handle and she sat down on the floor before she fell over with laughter. "The scary thing of this is that I can picture it happening," Maze said. Tolaris chuckled. "It's your girlfriend." "Don't remind me," Maze replied as he rolled his eyes. "Secure link established to distant end host 314.485.117.501," said the voice of the computer as it displayed the message in the denizen language on the screen. "Good timing," Maze said as he glanced at the tiny clock. "Aww, you just didn't want to hear us continue to tease poor Mina," Leda said with a giggle before she calmed down to the point where she could safely handle her mug of tea. "You two sound like you're related," Tolaris said with amusement as he sat down in front of the computer and studied the display message. "Hey, now...." Leda said, pretending to be deeply offended. Tolaris blinked as the text message unexpectedly changed and the computer emitted a soft chime. "Direct text exchange request received from user K'tal at host 314.485.117.501 via secure link. Do you wish to accept or deny?" the computer translated in soft monotones. Leda leapt to her feet and almost knocked Maze over in her haste to move over next to Tolaris. "What did it just say?" "Sounds like K'tal wants to have a word with us," Tolaris said calmly as he read and re-read the text message several times. "So, you ready to find out if this is a trap?" Maze asked warily. Tolaris sighed. "Despite all you can do to prepare, you can never be ready for traps. But still...." He sighed softly again, took a deep breath to calm himself, and started to pray that he wasn't about to make a fatal mistake. "Computer," he said slowly, "Accept request." The computer's response was to clear the screen and split the display in half horizontally. A small blinking cursor appeared on the lower half and a line of text was printed on the upper half. "Text exchange session open," the computer translated. Maze waited impatiently for something else to happen. "Well?" he said after a few moments. Tolaris grunted. "Fine, fine, be that way," he muttered to himself as he typed a quick command on the keyboard. "Computer, activate voice-to-text interface mode," he said. A single character appeared on the screen in response, looking almost exactly like a small spider that had lost a fight with a semi on the highway. "Active," the computer said in its monotone. "Who are you?" Tolaris said to the computer, watching with mild interest as his words were translated into the written denizen language on the lower half of the screen and sent to the distant end. Everyone waited in tense silence for the person on the distant end to respond, each wondering what the response would be. After a few seconds of silence, a small line of text was printed on the upper half of the screen and the computer began to translate. "I am Dragoon Commander K'tal, but I think you already know that. The question is, who exactly are you?" "Is it just me, or did that sound slightly arrogant?" Leda whispered very quietly in Maze's ear. "More than slightly, but that's K'tal for you," Maze whispered back. "Indeed," Tolaris muttered. He then cleared his throat and spoke loud enough for the computer's microphone to hear. "I trust you'll excuse my caution and hopefully have the brains to understand why, but I need to make sure this isn't another one of your so-called fool-proof traps." He then sat back and smiled while he waited for the computer to finish translating and send his message to the other end. Leda blinked at Tolaris's words and gave Maze a confused look. "Excuse me for being dense here, but I thought he was supposed to talk to this guy, not piss him off," she whispered. Maze gave her a small smile. "He's testing the other person. We'll know if it's really K'tal or not by how he responds." "Here we go," Leda said ominously as a few lines of text started to scroll up on the upper half of the screen. "As for excusing your caution," the computer translated, "I've always maintained that there is no excuse for you. And contrary to what delusions you might currently be holding, this isn't a trap. Besides, I keep telling you that you should always make an idiot-proof trap instead of a fool-proof trap because fools can be unbelievably creative when you least expect it." "It's him," Maze and Tolaris said simultaneously. "Okay, so now what?" Leda asked, eyeing the message warily. She was glad that the computer was translating the text out loud. Otherwise, she would have been lost after the first eight characters. "Can I trust you?" Tolaris said to the computer, counting the seconds until K'tal's reply came back. "Could you ever, Tolaris?" the computer said. The Dragoon raised an eyebrow and motioned for Maze and Leda to remain silent. "What makes you think I'm Tolaris? I thought he was still frozen in crystal in the Wastelands." "Butt-ugly lawn ornament that he was, some idiot set him free," said the monotone voice after a few seconds. "Of course, if you're a denizen exile on Earth and don't know about that, then either you're playing dumb, which really isn't that hard for you, or I've made one major miscalculation and will probably have to cover my tracks by sending the NP-3 to visit you." "I see he hasn't changed," Maze said darkly. Tolaris shrugged. "You really ought to watch your tone, K'tal. Some of us might consider that to be disrespectful. And even if you didn't sleep your way to full commander, I still outrank you with time-in-grade. Oh, and use the NP-2 model instead. I've discovered that they're surprisingly lethal if you drop them into small valleys," he said evenly. Leda sighed and rubbed her temples. "Is this guy your brother or what? You two sound like Serena and Rei on a rainy Monday morning." "The trick to dealing with K'tal is to take whatever he throws at you and shove it right back," Maze smirked. "You may wind up sounding like you're getting ready to get into a fight, but believe me, you accomplish quite a lot more than you would if you try to talk normally to him." "Did you know that they're still developing the NP-4 series?" the computer said as the text continued to scroll up onto the screen. "You would think that after a hundred years, those morons would have gotten something right by now." "If Rune put people like you in charge, it's no wonder," Tolaris replied after a few moments of silent thought. "I'm often surprised that you can change your own diapers without having to call for backup." The distant end remained silent for almost a minute, cauing Tolaris to worry that something was wrong. Finally, the block of text started to scroll up the screen again and the computer started to translate. "You'd be surprised what you can accomplish with a mirror. But as for calling for backup, any Dragoon will tell you that you only do that when you either are obviously outnumbered or when you have zero idea how to handle the current situation." Tolaris sat back with a small frown. Behind him, Leda and Maze exchanged concerned looks. "That doesn't sound too good, boss," Maze said softly. "If K'tal is in charge, and I don't have any reason to doubt that he isn't, he'd only request help like this if there was a major internal problem." "Agreed," Tolaris said softly. "Go get Ra'vel and Whisper. I think they need to hear about this." He didn't bother to wait for an acknowledgement before he cleared his throat and spoke up. "So eat some v'etu. That'll help solve your digestive problems," Tolaris said pleasantly. "If that isn't the problem, which is a common occurence with people as anal as you are, then I'm afraid you'll have to go into some sort of detail about the situation." "Excuse me?" Whisper said as she and Ra'vel walked into the room. Tolaris quickly motioned for them to be quiet and to come over to the computer. "I'm using a voice-activated link to talk to K'tal," he whispered to them when they were close enough to hear him. Whisper nodded and studied the screen, reading the log of what was said from both sides. Ra'vel made a soft clucking noise as she ruffled her feathers and read the text as well, chirping quietly in laughter as the conversation unfolded. "I guess you do have a lot of experience on those matters," the computer said as more text scrolled up. "However, I'm afraid a fit of constipation is going to be the least of our worries if what I think is going to happen starts to happen. I need your help, but I need to know if I can trust you." Everyone blinked at K'tal's words. "I think that should be my question to you, K'tal," Tolaris said. There was a lengthy pause from the distant end. "If you are Tolaris, then you have my word of honor as a Dragoon that I am the only one who knows about you using General Nephlyte's cathedral as a base," the computer translated. "But I need to make absolutely sure that it's you there instead of some other operative." Tolaris sighed and looked around at the room's occupants. "Time to make the decision. Do I tell him or not?" he asked softly. "Boss, either he's there alone or he's working with someone, but we know that it's K'tal on the other end," Maze said. "I'd rather go down for trusting a Dragoon than for trying to save our butts and later discovering that he truly needed our help." Ra'vel chirped an agreement and Whisper nodded. "If we trust him, we may be able to help. And if we don't, he still knows that someone who knows the denizen language quite well is here, and that pretty much narrows it down to a handful of suspects. In that case, he just might throw a nuke at us. I say we trust him," the telepath said quietly. "And what do you think, Leda?" Tolaris asked. Leda chewed on the edge of her lip. "Tolaris, I've only known you for about half a year, but I've trusted you with my life on several occasions and have yet to have my faith in you proven wrong. I know there's always a first time for everything, but we'll just have to deal with that if it ever happens. I say go for it." "Thank you," Tolaris said softly and took a deep breath. "Very well," he said out loud. "Just so there is no doubt, I am Tolaris, formerly the ranking officer and Commander of the Dragoons until my exile to Earth." Everyone held their breath as the computer translated his words into the denizen text and sent it across the secure link to the distant end computer. The response took a surprisingly short amount of time to come back and Tolaris blinked as the text started to scroll up once more. "It's been a long time, Commander," said the computer. "However, just so you know and are aware of this, I may hold the rank of Commander myself, but every true Dragoon knows you are still the commanding officer." Tolaris sat back with a loud sigh of relief and rubbed his temples in an effort to get rid of the sudden tension headache. "I'm honored that I'm still remembered, K'tal. Forgive my bluntness, but what sort of crisis is happening that would cause you of all people to willingly violate almost every single regulation we have by trying to contact me?" The response was not what Tolaris expected it to be. "Commander, I'm trying to prevent a war," the computer translated in an even monotone. "This is not a good sign," Whisper muttered. "What kind of war?" Tolaris asked. "Conventional, nuclear, what?" The time delay was almost unbearable, and when the response finally came back after what seemed to have been several minutes, everyone suddenly wished it hadn't come back. "Civil war," the computer said. "Only this one could destroy the entire Negaverse in the process." "You have my complete attention, K'tal," Tolaris said flatly. "Good, because here's the problem...." the computer replied, and started to speak as page upon page of text started to scroll up on the screen. -------------------------------------------------------------------- <My name is.... Uranus....> she said hesitantly as she remembered. <Do you remember what happened?> the one named Mephisto asked gently. <I.... I don't know.... my mind feels like shattered glass....> <Your memories will return in time, Alex.> Pluto said softly. <Just take it easy and try not to force anything. Let the memories awaken on their own.> <I'm surprised they remember anything at all, given their age,> said the soft voice of the other Shinma. She felt Pluto's soul become agitated again at the reminder of the passage of Time and she tried to comfort her. <I'm sorry, Pluto, I didn't mean to remind you of that....> Pluto sighed. <We have more important things to be concerned about right now, like how we're going to get our bodies back.> <Bodies...?> Uranus said, more than mildly confused. Mephisto cast a mild glance of amusement at the glowing sphere that was Uranus's soul. <As much as it pains me to tell you this, your body is most likely long turned to dust. But your soul still exists, and hence so do you.> Uranus said nothing for several minutes. Pluto was about to ask if she had gone into shock when Uranus spoke up softly. <Susan, are we.... are we dead?> Pluto found herself doing something she had rarely done before in all her years of life: she started to laugh hard with genuine humor. <Umm, Sue? I don't think being dead is very funny....> Uranus's comment made her laugh all the harder, causing everyone else to suddenly worry about her sanity. She continued to laugh to herself for several minutes until she finally managed to calm down and control her emotions. <Trust me, Alex, we are very much alive,> Pluto said, a hint of a smile still evident in her voice. <If we were dead, you would be part of the Crystal and I would be in a special section of the Underworld.> <Why is that?> the nameless Shinma asked. <It's a rather complicated story, but usually....> Pluto stared to say. <Sue!> Uranus yelled in a mild state of panic. <Where's Mich?> <.........> Pluto said as she struggled to remember. <I assume Mich is a friend of yours?> Mephisto asked softly. <Neptune,> Pluto said suddenly. <That's right, Neptune was with us during the battle....> <Susan....> <I know, Alex, calm down. If we're here, then she has to be around here as well.> Pluto said. "A third soul?" she asked as she withdrew from the mental conference with the two glowing souls. "So it seems," Mephisto replied. He paused and added, "Are you going to help them find their missing friend?" She sighed and studied the floor of Mephisto's sanctuary. "We don't have a clue where to start looking, and even if we do find this third soul, it's going to take a lot of energy to revive it. I don't have enough to spare." Mephisto gave her a slightly bemused look. "If all you're concerned about is energy, I have more than enough to spare." She looked up and gave him a curious look. "Why would you help me with such a matter as this, especially when the cost is your own supply of energy?" "I have my reasons," he said as he looked down at the glowing yellow ball cupped in his hands. "As for what they are," he continued, cutting her off before she could ask the obvious, "Suffice it to say that they are not of any importance or impending concern to anyone but me." "But the energy...." He softly spoke the syllables of her true-name and she fell silent. He let the silence build for a few seconds before he spoke again. "The energy cost of reviving this one was rather substantial, as you no doubt know," he said quietly as he continued to study the physical manifestation of Uranus's soul. "However, believe me when I say that I have a more than ample source of energy to sustain me and my travelling endeavors for quite some time." She blinked hard, not sure which part of his statement stunned her more. "You have a.... a source of energy?" she whispered, hardly able to fathom the concept. The only energy she had ever been able to find during her entire existence was the life-energy of other beings in The Dark. Mephisto gave her a measured look, debating on the merits of letting her in on his most-guarded secret. "Yes, I do," he said after a few moments of careful thought. "However, that is not important right now. We must first locate their missing friend. Then we must find a way to restore their bodies and return them home." She blinked hard again, not believing her ears. The concept of trying to revive a soul removed from its body had been hard enough for her to grasp, and the concept of resurrecting a living being with only a soul to work with was making her slightly light-headed. But the concept of taking three life-forms and helping them escape the neo-void they had become trapped in would simply not register on her mind. "Escape?" she whispered incrediously. "Escape from The Dark is simply not possible. You know that as well as I do." His response was to throw his head back and start laughing. "Think, my friend," he said when his mirth subsided. "How could I have learned of their Moon Kingdom and the outside realm unless I or someone else was able to visit there and return?" "Impossible...." she breathed. "The Dark..." "Can be breached," he interrupted her. "It can be done, my friend, for I have done it myself." Shock threatened to overwhelm her. "How?" she said, her voice barely audible as a whisper. "How is this possible?" "A focused energy beam of the right sort will tear through the curtain of darkness that surrounds this world," he explained. "But the beam takes a nearly unimaginable amount of energy to use, and there are very few Shinma who are capable of gathering that much energy together, let alone learning how to use it." "HOW?" she screamed out, unable to contain herself anymore. "How is it that you claim you can do this while so many of us can barely find enough energy to live?" Mephisto looked at her for a moment before he finally made his choice. "I'll show you," he said as he gathered the two souls together in his hands. His body quickly dissolved into particles and formed into a whirling vortex. The glowing souls were drawn inside and the maelestrom collapsed around them, the tiny particles reforming into Mephisto's usual form. "Come with me," he said as he held his hand out to her. She looked at his outstreched hand for a moment before she reached out and grasped it with her own. The world around her seemed to waver ever so slightly as he folded space around them, changing their location in an instant. Then the world became solid once again. "Touch nothing," he warned as he released her hand and she began to look around. Her first impression was that they were in another small cave, but as she looked around she saw that they were surrounded on all sides by solid rock, a bubble that formed when a pocket of air was trapped in molten rock that later cooled. "What is this place?" she breathed as she glanced around before her eyes focused on the tiny puddle of incandescent water in the very center of the lava bubble. Mephisto said nothing as his body dissolved into the vortex and released the two souls. As soon as they were free the whirlwind collapsed and reformed around them, his hands materializing beneath them before they could fall to the ground. "Have you ever heard the legends of the creation of The Dark?" he said softly. "Of a once energy-rich world forged as a prison for those cast out of the outside realms, enshrouded in a curtain of darkness and sealed with an unspeakable power to keep those entrapped from ever gaining their freedom?" She nodded. "Yes, I do remember the old legends, but what do they have to do with this place?" she asked, her attention still focused on the glowing pool of water. "And what is that glowing puddle?" He said nothing as he too studied the pool for a moment. As they watched, a tiny incandescent drop of water collected on a small protrusion hanging off of the ceiling and dropped into the puddle. There was an odd sound as the drop hit the surface, creating small ripples that sparkled oddly in the glow of the pool. "Remember the legends of the fountains of power that sustained the first inhabitants of The Dark?" he said softly. He glanced over at her in time to see her eyes nearly triple in size with recognition. "Impossible...." she breathed. Mephisto smiled. "You seem to have developed a sudden fondness for that word, my friend, but I assure you that it is not only possible, but standing before you." "A mana pool?" she said, her voice almost failing her. "A puddle, really, but that does not change it's nature," he replied. "Pure energy in liquid form. Do not touch it," he cautioned as she edged forward for a better look. "The amount of energy collected in that pool would destroy you in an instant." "How do you draw energy from it?" she asked softly. He gestured. "Catch the next drop, but do not disturb the pool," he said as another drop began to form on the protrusion. She looked up and frowned, her gaze alternating between the drop and the pool, trying to decide on the best method of catching the drop without coming any closer to the pool than she absolutely had to. "Will the drop harm me if I drink it?" she asked as an idea formed in her mind. Mephisto smiled. "No, but your tongue will tingle for a few moments as the energy is absorbed." "Good," she said as she tapped into her meager supply of energy. A small angled plane of force appeared beneath the drop just as it released its hold on the protrusion of rock. The drop struck the plane and was channeled towards her mouth, moving across the plane a great deal faster than she had thought it would. Her mind had barely registered the fact that the drop was in motion before it splashed across her tongue. The plane vanshied into nothingness and she sat back abruptly as she felt her mouth being turned inside out, only without any sensation of pain. Raw power flowed through her body, filling her energy reserves to a level she had only dreamed about having. She waited until her senses reoriented on the world around her before giving Mephisto a more-than-mildly surprised look. "You call that a tingle?" she said, still adjusting to the amount of energy she now posessed. He shrugged and carefully set the two souls down on the floor of the lava bubble. "It feels like a tingle to me," he said as he closed his eyes and concentrated. A single drop of pure mana separated itself from the rest of the pool and floated towards him, landing in the center of his palm. "Absorbing more than one drop at a time is dangerous," he said after he had absorbed the energy from the small drop. "So is trying to absorb any more energy when your reserves are anything other than almost depleted." She reached out and carefully picked up the dark green sphere that was Pluto's soul. "So now what do we do with them?" she asked. "I have an idea, but we must talk to them first," he replied as he picked up Uranus's soul and studied it. He then moved over next to her so the two souls could be in close contact with one another. <Who's there?> Uranus asked. <Just us,> Mephisto consoled her. <We needed to move to another location for a short period of time.> <Where are we?> Pluto asked. <I.... I feel.... something....> <We are next to a large source of pure energy,> Mephisto explained. <I assume you have some sort of idea in mind as to what you are going to do with us?> Uranus asked hopefully. <Be nice, Alex,> Pluto chided her. <Sorry, Sue, but this.... state of being is starting to get to me,> Uranus apologized. <That, and I want to find Michelle so we can get out of here.> <I do have an idea, but I am not sure if it'll work,> Mephisto said and began to explain his idea. <Lovely,> Uranus said. <So what happens to us if this doesn't work?> Mephisto sighed quietly. <Your souls may be overwhelmed by the energy, and quite possibly destroyed.> <Thank you, but no,> Uranus immediately replied. <I'll stick with being a lightbulb, if you don't mind.> <What's a lightbulb?> the mysterious Shinma asked softly. <You may test your theory on me,> Pluto said. <Sue, have you lost your mind?> Uranus said. <You could die in that.> <If you want to be literal, Alex, I lost my mind when I lost my body,> Pluto replied with amusement. <As for being killed, we're as good as dead anyway if we stay like this, provided we don't go insane first.> Uranus's reply was a phrase that Pluto understood perfectly, Mephisto had a passing understanding of, and was totally new to the other Shinma. All three of them, however, had no difficulty discerning the approximate meaning of the phrase. <Does Michelle know what comes out of that mouth?> Pluto said mildly. <Stuff it, Sue.> <Let me know when you are ready to proceed,> Mephisto said evenly. <I am ready,> Pluto replied. <You're nuts, Sue,> Uranus grumbled. Mephisto declined to try to translate Uranus's meaning. "Hold her," he said as he held out Uranus's soul. She took the yellow ball of light and passed him the dark green ball that was Pluto's soul. <Your friend is most interesting,> he said as he carried the soul to the edge of the mana pool. <You seem to like her well enough,> Pluto replied. He paused in mid-motion, but only for an imperceptible instant. <You say that with the utmost certainty,> he said, mildly amused. <Call it a gift of insight,> she replied. <That, and I doubt you would be helping us if you didn't like us in some manner or another.> He laughed softly as he knelt down. <That is true, Pluto, but I do have other reasons. Are you ready?> <Yes.> Mephisto closed his eyes and concentrated. The glowing ball rose up from his hands by an unseen force and slowly floated over to the center of the pool. Good luck, my friend, he thought to himself as he shifted his concentration and the glowing ball became submerged in the mana pool. He watched as the glowing ball began to glow brighter for a moment, then abruptly exploded outward into a mass of tiny luminescent particles that dispersed into the pool. He heard a sharp gasp behind him and felt his own breath catch in his chest. I'm sorry.... he thought to himself as he closed his eyes, saddened by the unexpected destruction. "Is she...?" he heard her say. He tried to speak but his voice failed him, and he could do nothing but sit still as the sadness and guilt threatened to overwhelm him. "Look!" she said suddenly. He opened his eyes and blinked. The tiny particles were slowly emerging from the mana pool and lazily drifting around the confines of the lava bubble. As they watched, the particles started to come together to form a mishappen glowing mass. "Interesting...." he heard himself saying aloud. The glowing shape began to glow brighter as more of the particles merged with it. When the last of the particles was absorbed by the glowing mass, the lava bubble was suddenly filled with a blinding light, forcing the Shinma to briefly alter their physical forms to protect their vision. Mephisto waited until he could no longer see the inside of his eyelids, counted to twenty, and slowly opened his eyes. When they were able to focus properly, he looked around the room and blinked in surprise. "Pluto?" he asked softly. The figure was lying on her side, appearing to be just like any other nude human female with dark green hair that flowed gracefully down to the small of her back. The only difference between her and any of the other human females Mephisto had ever seen in his lifetime was the pair of large, batlike wings emerging from her back and neatly folded behind her. She stirred slightly as she started to regain consciousness, her arms and legs moving slowly in response to commands from her still-awakening mind. The wings on her back flexed experimentally for a few seconds before trying to spread out, the one wing smacking against the side of the lava bubble and eliciting a soft grunt from her. A sudden memory bubbled up from Mephisto's mind and he blinked. "Change your form," he whispered to the other Shinma as his body started to change into the humanoid form he had used during his brief visit to the outside realm. "What?" she said, confused at both the sudden development and Mephisto's surprising request. "For some reason, our natural forms terrify humans," he said as his body solidified. "Change into something they can recognize before she wakes up." Susan grunted softly again as she rolled over onto her stomach and lifted her head up, her eyelids trying valiantly to open. They had only partially succeeded when the image of a hideous, shapeless mass wandered into her line of vision. Eh? she thought as she blinked rapidly, trying to wake up enough to get a good look at the being and hence identify it. A small tendril reached out from the mass and brushed across her forehead, sending a decidedly unpleasant chill down her spine. Shinma? her thought fuzzily for a moment before the dark mass in front of her started to waver, causing her to forget her initial thought and to worry about what was going on. The wavering solidifed into a small figure and she blinked, not believing what her eyes were telling her. Summoning a strength she wasn't sure she possessed, she rolled over and sat up, one hand reaching out to steady herself against the wall as her world started to spin briefly with the effort. She waited until all of the double images had vanished before she looked around her. There was a small glowing pool a few feet away from her and a strange but handsome looking man was kneeling at the edge, looking at her with open curiosity. Sitting on the ground next to him was a yellowish ball of light that glowed softly from within. And right in front of her was a small gray kitten with a golden crescent mark on its forehead. Her memory immediately flashed back to her first few years in the Moon Kingdom and the small lunar kitten that she had adopted. She had often gotten the impression that the kitten had adopted her, but she never bothered to argue the semantics of the issue. And now that very same kitten appeared to be sitting in front of her, looking at her with those ever-curious pale red eyes, just as she always used to when confronted with something strange. Impossible, Susan thought. This isn't possible. But.... "Myst?" she asked softly. The kitten blinked and shook her head slowly. "I am not the kitten you once knew. I only took her form to spare you the sight of my normal form, which I am told causes distress to those who view it." Susan blinked. The kitten's voice sounded exactly as her memories told her it should, which brought her a small measure of discomfort. "You're the one who found me," she said, saying it as a statement rather than a question. "Yes," she replied softly. "I am grateful, of course," Susan said as she sat back on her heels and absently flexed her wings, "But you still haven't told me your name yet." "The knowledge of my true-name commands great power over me, and so I must keep it a secret," the lunar kitten replied almost sadly. "It is difficult to thank someone without a name," Susan said pointedly. The kitten tilted her head at an angle, unconsciously acting as a real lunar kitten would. "What did you call me a few moments ago?" she asked. "Myst. That was the name of the kitten I had back in the Moon Kingdom." "Myst," the kitten repeated softly. "It sounds like a nice name." "Thank you for saving my life, Myst," Susan said softly. She then looked up towards the figure still kneeling by the edge of the strangely glowing pool of water. "And you must be Mephisto. You have my thanks as well." He nodded his head. "I am, and you are more than welcome, Pluto." Susan shook her head. "My name is Susan. Sailor Pluto is my name when I am in avatar form." Both Myst and Mephisto shrank back slightly at the mention of the word. "Avatar?" Mephisto whispered, then nodded to himself. "I was wondering why a human had wings." Susan's wings flexed slightly before they folded flat against her back and were suddenly absorbed into her skin, leaving only a pair of dark-colored scars behind that stretched from the base of her shoulder blades down to the small of her back. "I have wings for a different reason, not because I am an avatar," she said simply. Her gaze fell to the glowing ball next to Mephisto and she frowned slightly. "Is that Alex's soul?" "Yes, it is," Mephisto said as he picked up the soul. He studied the glowing ball for a few moments before he held it out over the mana pool and began to concentrate. "Susan, do not interfere with what happens, and whatever you do, do not touch the pool," Mephisto said evenly as Uranus's soul slowly floated up out of his hand and moved over the center of the pool. Susan watched with mild interest as the glowing ball hovered over the incandescent surface of the pool for a brief moment before plunging into the center of it. As she watched, the yellow soul began to glow brighter for a moment, then abruptly disintegrated into a multitude of tiny glowing particles. "Alex!" Susan yelped in surprise and started to lean forward. She yelped again as two sets of claws raked across her bare thigh as Myst tried to hold her back. "Susan, don't worry, it's supposed to do that," Myst said quickly. Susan blinked and brushed a stray lock of dark green hair out of her line of vision. "Okay...." she said slowly as she looked at the dark red blood slowly seeping from the claw marks on her thigh. "Thank you for telling me that, but you didn't have to claw me to do it," she said somewhat archly. Myst blinked in surprise, first looking at the marks on Susan's skin and the blood seeping from them, then at her paws. She flexed them experimentally and nearly jumped in surprise when claws slid out from between the pads of what passed for her fingers. "I'm sorry, I.... I didn't know I had these...." Myst apologized. "Susan, look," Mephisto said quietly. Everyone's attention went to the pool and to the mass of tiny sparkles slowly emerging from the depths. Very slowly, the particles floated up out of the pool and started to merge into a rather mishappen form near the wall of the lava bubble. The mass started to grow brighter and brighter as more and more of the tiny particles merged together. As soon as all of the particles had finished merging, the glowing form gave off a blinding burst of light. Susan waited impatiently for her retinas to quit burning before she tried opening her eyes. They opened, but it took her a second to realize that she wasn't seeing anything because they were still recovering from the temporary overload. The blindness quickly passed and she looked around to see what the result had been. The figure was lying on her side, almost exactly as Susan had been when she first woke up. The only clues to her identity was the close-cut blonde hair and the nearly invisible network of scars criss-crossing her bare leg, scars that had resulted from her having lost a fight with a lunar cat that hadn't liked being picked up while napping. Susan quickly moved over next to her side, looking her over for any sign of illness or injury. "Alex?" she asked softly as she carefully shook the blonde's shoulder. "Gwuh," was the fuzzy and indistinct reply as Alex started to regain most of her senses. She took a deep breath and tried to open her eyes, giving up after a few seconds when she realized that it was going to take more effort than she was currently capable of putting out. Susan began to breathe again when she saw Alex's muscles slowly start to respond to what her semi-unconscious brain was telling them. "Wake up, Alex. Do it slowly so you don't strain anything, but wake up," Susan said softly as she brushed the hair off of Alex's face. "Mergh," Alex grunted as she started to wake up. She focused her mind and managed to succeed in rolling over onto her back. "Mich, what did you do with the pillows?" she muttered to herself as she pressed her hands to her forehead. "Does she always wake up like that?" Mephisto asked softly from behind Susan's shoulder, watching Alex with mild interest. Susan cast a mildly reproving look over her shoulder. "I don't know, I usually don't sleep next to her," she said. "I'm not sleeping, honest," Alex grunted as her eyes fluttered open. "Don't try to get up yet," Susan said as she held her hand against Alex's chest, preventing her from trying to sit up. "Give your body another few minutes to get your blood circulating properly." "Yuck, why do I feel like last week's roadkill?" the blonde moaned. "And I'm not going any where, Sue, so you can get your hand out from between my tits." The corners of Susan's mouth twitched in amusement as she removed her hand from Alex's chest. "I see you haven't changed much, despite our ordeal," she observed lightly. Alex flexed her fingers briefly, wincing at the slight stiffness in the joints. "Are you sure we've been alive all this time? Feels like I've been dead for at least a month, maybe two." Her blue eyes suddenly darted to the side to look into Susan's dark red eyes. "How long have we been like that?" Susan sighed quietly. "You don't want to know." "Sue, how long?" Alex in a flat tone that Susan knew she only used when she wanted an answer and wouldn't rest until she got one. "Perhaps you should worry more about yourself and your missing friend first," Mephisto said quietly. "After all, how long you were in that state is something you can discuss once you are safely back home." Alex craned her head back to look at who was talking. After a few seconds of futile effort, she took a deep breath and forced herself into a sitting position, ignoring Susan's cautioning look. She flexed her shoulders for a moment before turning around to see who it was. Her eyes met Mephisto's and she felt her body suddenly become ever so slightly warmer. Hello.... she thought slowly to herself as she was briefly taken aback by how handsome he looked. Then the little voice in the back of her mind told her to do a quick check because something felt out of place. The slightest flexing of her spine was all it took to tell her that she wasn't wearing any clothes. Susan's delicate eyebrows rose as Alex's skin abruptly flushed a medium shade of crimson and she sat back, folding her legs at an angle in front of her and crossing her arms over her breasts. Susan knew that she wasn't wearing any clothing either, but had long ago ceased to have the slightest concern about modesty in most situations. Mephisto blinked at Alex's unexpected reaction before he remembered the human culture's rules about clothing. He had included clothing in his own changed appearance out of reflex rather than thought. I'll fix that in a bit, he thought to himself, but first things are first.... "Forgive me for not introducing myself," he said as he stood up and bowed his head in Alex's direction. "My name is Mephisto." "Alex Ten'ou," Alex replied as she shifted positions slightly, her cheeks still burning with embarrasment and shame. "Alex," he repeated softly. "Forgive me, but that does not sound like a proper name for someone as beautiful as you." Susan cast a sidelong glance at Alex and noted the deeping of her blush. Interesting, she thought to herself before she turned her attention back to Mephisto. "Her name is actually Alexis, but she prefers to use the shortened version for some reason," Susan said calmly, ignoring the dark glare from Alex that her words produced. "Alexis," Mephisto repeated with a soft smile. "Alexis sounds so much more pleasing to the ear than the shortened pronounciation," he said slowly. "Thanks a lot, Sue," Alex whispered out of the corner of her mouth, her skin darkening yet another shade of red. Susan gave her an amused look in response and Alex softly blew her breath out in frustration. She looked up suddenly as Mephisto coughed lightly. "Please excuse my lack of manners, Alexis, for your beauty has been quite a distraction for one such as I," Mephisto said as he walked over to her. "If you would stand for a moment...?" he asked as he held his hand out. Alex's eyes went wide as she started to worry what he had in mind. She looked over at Susan and saw her nod slightly at her. Oh, great, Alex thought. Here I am, butt-naked in the middle of god-knows-where, some really cute guy with a sexy voice wants to dance with me, I'm naked, mind you, and Susan is telling me to go for it. Of all the insanity I've been through in the past half-hour.... She took a deep breath as she reached out to grasp his hand. He carefully helped her to her feet and looked into her eyes. Whoa, and I thought Sailor Mars had deep eyes.... she thought breathlessly as she gazed into his seemingly bottomless black eyes for a moment. "Hiding beauty such as yours is a crime," he said softly to her, "But when beauty is hidden behind more beauty, there is no injustice in that...." He then brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. Alex blinked as her skin started to tingle, then gasped as her hand was surrounded in a soft glow. The glow started to spread up across her arm, then quickly across the rest of her body. Her skin started to tingle for a brief moment before the glow faded and she looked down, not believing her eyes. She was now dressed in a shimmering white gown, looking almost exactly like one of the gowns she used to wear for ballroom dancing back on the Moon Kingdom. "Nice...." she breathed as she took a step back and ran her fingers over the silken fabric. She blinked as she realized she was now wearing white shoes along with elbow-length white gloves. "Very nice...." "I'm impressed," Susan said as she stood up and moved next to Alex. "You either are an excellent tailor or have visited the Queen's Ballroom during one of her diplomatic functions," she said evenly. "I'm honored to say that I've visited your kingdom once, although it was quite some time ago," he replied as he held out his hand to Susan. "I assume you have the same fashion preference?" "I would prefer something in black, if you don't mind," she replied as she gracefully took his hand in hers. "There you go again, always gotta be a dark spot," Alex muttered. She blinked in surprise as Susan's hand began to glow. Fascinated, she watched as the glow spread across her body and solidified into a jet-black evening gown, one more suited to quiet nights on a moonlit terrace rather than festive nights dancing on a ballroom floor. Susan looked down at her dress and nodded her head in approval. "Thank you, this is just what I had in mind." Mephisto smiled. "I am glad to be of service," he said as he released Susan's hand. "And who might you be?" Alex asked as she crouched down to get a better look at Myst. "My name is Myst," the Shinma replied. "How'd you wind up here?" Alex asked as she carefully picked up what she thought was a lunar cat. "I didn't think you'd find YEOUCH!" she yelped as she released her hold on Myst and examined the claw marks on the underside of her arm. Susan sighed. "When will you learn to ask before you pick up a cat?" She decided to ignore Alex's rather profane suggestion and knelt down to examine Myst. "Are you alright?" Myst's whiskers twitched as she examined her hind paws. "I thought I was slipping so I tried to get into a better position. I didn't think I had claws there as well." She looked up at Alex apologetically. "I didn't mean to scratch you like that," she said softly. "Ah, what's a few more scars?" Alex said as she examined the cuts. The back of her mind was working on something, however, and quickly presented its problem to the rest of her consciousness. She froze in mid-motion and looked at Myst. "Umm.... you're not a lunar cat, are you?" Myst shook her head. "This is only a guise, as my normal form would be highly disturbing to your species." Alex blinked and exchanged a mildly concerned look with Susan. "And.... ah, if you don't mind.... what exactly are you, then?" Myst's tail twitched briefly as she tried learning how to manipulate it. "Shinma," she said simply. Both her and Mephisto were surprised when Susan hissed in shock and pulled Alex behind her, dropping into a defensive stance in the process. "Whoa, Sue, what's the problem?" Alex quickly asked nervously. "Both of you are Shinma?" Susan asked flatly, her red eyes narrowed. Mephisto blinked as a puzzle piece fell into place and things started to make sense. "You're a demon, aren't you?" he asked softly. "Demon?" Myst hissed, her fur sticking straight out in a reflex. Susan winced as Alex put her fingers to her mouth and made a very loud whistling noise. "Everyone hold it for a few moments," the blonde growled. She waited until everyone seemed to calm down slightly before she continued. "Okay, will someone kindly tell me just what the hell is going on here?" "If I may?" Susan asked evenly. Mephisto made a gesture and she took a deep breath. "According to ancient legends, when the Underworld was forged out of Chaos to house the souls of the dead, there were those who sought to usurp power from Hades so that they may wield control over the souls and use their powers for their own purposes. Hades fought back against the uprising and forged a prison out of the remaining pieces of Chaos. The prison was made so that any who entered could never escape, and it was into this neo-void that he threw those who tried to take control away from him. Those demons who were condemned in this manner were called Shinma." Mephisto nodded. "You know the legends well." "It is always a good idea to know what one must often travel to," Susan replied in a cryptic tone as she continued to glare at Mephisto. Mephisto regarded her carefully. "Myst and I are indeed Shinma, but only in name. Our ancestors were the ones cast out from the Underworld, but they continued to exist here and have spawned many offspring. Neither Myst nor myself have committed any sort of crimes against the Underworld, but we remain trapped here nevertheless, along with others who have." Susan's defensive posture wavered for a few moments before she relaxed and let her arms fall to her sides. "I assume we are in The Dark, then?" "We are," Mephisto said simply. "I'm curious, Susan. Alexis appears to be entirely human, but you are not. Are both of you avatars?" "What's an avatar?" Alex whispered in Susan's ear, confused at the sudden turn of events. "Yes, but we serve different gods," Susan replied. Alex sighed and sat down on the ground before her head started to spin from confusion. She looked up to find Myst sitting next to her. "Do you have any idea what they're talking about?" she asked the kitten, picking her up and putting her in her lap without thinking about it. "Unfortunately," Myst sighed. "And what sort of demon are you, if I may ask?" Mephisto asked quietly. Susan gave him a mild look. "I have the blood of a demon in my veins, and aside from being able to manifest the wings of a demon, I am otherwise just as human as Alex is." Mephisto decided not to press the issue, instead turning to stare into the incandescent pool of mana. "It matters not," he said softly after a moment. "That's it," Alex grumbled as she stood up, making sure she kept a solid hold on Myst. "The next person to say something I don't understand gets their toes stomped on." Mephisto looked over at Susan in time to see her rolling her eyes. "Am I to assume she is always this.... forceful?" he said softly. Susan nodded. "You should see her when she's really angry." "I'm about to get that way unless someone starts talking," Alex growled. "First off, someone needs to tell me what the problem is between you two. Second, it's getting a little stuffy in here, so I suggest we start looking for a way out of this rat-trap. And third, we need to find Michelle and make sure she's okay so we can get out of this place and back to the kingdom." Susan and Mephisto looked at each other. "We do need to find your friend and get you out of here," Mephisto said softly. "If any of the other Shinma learn of your presence here, it would present an immediate and probably fatal problem." "Why would you help us now that you know who we are?" Susan asked softly. Mephisto looked over at Alex and said nothing. Susan glanced over to the blonde and saw her blush faintly under the sudden scrutiny. She looked back at Mephisto and regarded him very carefully. "Suffice it to say that I have my reasons and leave it at that," he said finally as he turned back to look at her. "How long have you watched over her soul?" Susan asked, speaking soft enough so only he could hear her. "Well over eight hundred years," Mephisto replied, equally as soft. "I don't know why I bothered to do so for so long, to be honest, but I am most.... gratified that I did." "Can we trust you?" Susan asked. Mephisto laughed humorlessly. "Come now, how would I profit from your demise? Vengeance? Justice? Why should I keep you captive? To use for my pleasure? Amusement? No, demon," he said as he shook his head, "Despite what your god has done to us, I have no reason to harm you in any way." "That is not what I asked." "Sue, will you get that weed out of your butt and calm down?" Alex said with a sigh. "Mephisto, will you help us find Michelle and get out of here?" Mephisto nodded at her. "Yes," he replied. "Great, thanks," she said with a smile. "Now then, unless you and Susan want to continue your game of verbal fencing, can we find a way out of here? This puddle is pretty to look at, but we really need to find Michelle." Mephisto glanced out of the corner of his eye and watched Susan roll her eyes again. She muttered something cryptic beneath her breath about Alex's hair color and sighed before glancing over at him questioningly. "You humans are strange," Myst observed as Alex absently scratched her behind the ears. "You have no idea," Susan said, then grunted as Alex stomped on her foot. "You hush," Alex said acidly. "The only way out of here is to use dimensional teleportation," Mephisto said with a light cough. "If you will take my hand...." Alex made sure she had a tight grip on Myst before she reached out and firmly took hold of the offered hand. Susan sighed quietly to herself and did the same after giving Mephisto a neutral look. The air around them seemed to ripple ever so slightly as space started to fold around them in a complex quasi-geometrical shape and they simply vanished. Space unfolded itself back to normal and the only motion left in the tiny lava bubble was the gentle rippling of the surface of the mana pool. -------------------------------------------------------------------- It's amazing how fast people will either do their job or get out of your way if you growl loud enough, Rune thought to herself as she walked down the corridor at a fast pace, flanked on both sides by heavily armed bodyguards. She covered the distance between Si'ren's quarters and the command center in what she thought was record time, not happy in the least at being disturbed at such a late hour. "Status report," she snapped as she strode into the large room, the guards taking up mildly unobtrusive positions on either side of the main doors. The lieutenant at the main communications console looked up at her and motioned her over, most of her attention still focused on what was happening in the communication network. "TacSat 31, Control. Repeat your last message, I say again, repeat your last message, over," she said into her headset as she turned on an external speaker. "Control, TacSat 31," came the static-filled voice over the speaker. "We have visual confirmation of a rift opening over the Hinterland region. Ground radar is being jammed by an energy field. We estimate the rift to be half a mile in length. Request further instructions, over." "This plugged into the network?" Rune asked as she picked up a spare headset and put it on. "One second, ma'am," the lieutenant said as she pressed a few buttons on her console. "It's active now." "Network, Rune," the general said into the microphone. "Scenario team, please respond, over." "Rune, red team, over." "Rune, blue team, over." "Rune, green team, over." "Rune, black team, over." Rune nodded her head in satisfaction at the prompt reply she received. "Scenario team, Rune. This may be what we discussed, so be ready for whatever comes through that rift. Is everyone clear on the assignment, over?" "Rune, black team," said a voice over the speaker. "We will take point and green will provide back-up. Red and blue will provide contingency cover. Any further instructions before we go silent, over?" "Black team, Rune. Negative, instructions stand. Good luck. Out," Rune said and turned off the headset. "And you said you hated welcome parties," a soft voice purred from behind General Rune's shoulder. Rune turned around to give Fleet Admiral Si'ren a mild look. "Who said anything about a party? Or a welcome, for that matter," Rune added with a slight edge to her voice. Si'ren opened her mouth to reply but closed it again when the control room doors opened to admit Dragoon Commander K'tal and Psi-Corp Captain Ael'ien. "Forgive a stupid question, General Rune, but have you heard the latest report from the Hinterland region?" Ael'ien asked without preamble. Rune ran her fingers through her dark hair for a moment before responding. "If you're referring to the rift, Captain, I assure you I'm well aware of it," she said slowly and evenly. K'tal and Ael'ien exchanged concerned glances. "Begging the general's pardon, but that rift is only half the problem," K'tal said slowly. General Rune frowned, a small tingle of unease crawling down her spine. "So what's the other problem?" "Intelligence has reason to believe that there is a rogue unit deployed in the Hinterland region, one that isn't under your control," K'tal explained. "We think it might belong to the remains of General Malachite's forces, but we're not absolutely certain." Si'ren took a small step forward, a dark frown crossing her otherwise delicate features. "So what can this rogue unit do?" she asked. "Shoot down whatever tries to come through the rift," Ael'ien stated. "Or if not, at least inflict a large quantity of damage on it. Either way, the person in charge of those forces is going to get royally pissed off." "Great," Rune growled. "Control, TacSat 31!" came the excited voice from the speakers. "We have a visual of something coming through the rift! What did you say it was? Umm, stand by, control...." Rune and Si'ren moved over to the main display screen console. "Give me an overhead projection of that area, now," Rune said to the room in general. There was a brief pause before the screen lit up, showing a topographical map of the immediate region around the Hinterland area. Several dozen lights lit up, each represeting units deployed around the area. A large, jagged black line represented the rift and a relatively sizable white dot was starting to form in the center of the rift. "Control, TacSat 31. Object is identified as an airborne carrier, old Vresh'tan class, designate target as avatar one. Sensory units still being jammed by the rift. Target is moving slowly at an estimated twelve miles per hour, bearing two seven zero, altitude estimated to be fourteen angels," the voice said slowly. "How old is the Vresh'tan class of carriers?" Rune asked over her left shoulder, her eyes glued to the screen. K'tal blinked. "At least four thousand years old, General," he said. "Might be closer to five, depending on what particular model they're using." Si'ren made a soft grunting noise. "Nop'tera deployed her forces around that time, correct?" "I think so," Rune replied quietly. "If I remember right, they were on the leading edge of the airborne carrier technology at the time and she took five of those things with her." Si'ren blinked. "Five carriers?" she breathed, knowing the full firepower potential of the naval equivalent. "Didn't one of them come back crippled a thousand years ago?" Ael'ien said. "Something about an internal reactor explosion?" "Something like that," Rune said, still intently watching the white blip on the display screen. "Transient, transient!" a voice screamed over the communications network. "Missile transient, ground-based missile fired, it looks to be headed towards the carrier!" Rune's head snapped up to look at the speaker as she let loose with a very inventive string of profanity. "You, get on every frequency you can and warn the carrier off. And tell those trigger-happy bastards to hold their fire!" Rune snapped at the lieutenant. "Network, TacSat 12, tracking missile with auxiliary system," said another voice over the network. "Missile is live and tracking avatar one. Avatar one has increased speed to approximately seventy-five miles per hour and is trying to increase altitude...." "Network, ComPost 3, I want to know who fired that p'tahk'enn thing!" "ComPost 3, MisBat 1, all missiles grounded, over." "ComPost 3, MisBat 4, ditto, over." "ComPost 3, MisBat 2, ordinance still accounted for, over." "Network, TacSat 12, time to impact seven seconds. Avatar one now at twenty-three angels and still climbing." "ComPost 3, MisBat 3, all weapons visually accounted for, over." "Network, TacSat 12.... missile strike confirmed, avatar one is hit.... Maintaining position at twenty-five angels, forward velocity now zero.... Transient, missile transient from avatar one!" "They're firing?" Si'ren said incrediously. "On what?" Rune said nothing, watching the chaos unfold on her display screen, her face a blank mask of controlled emotions and reactions. "Postman! Postman! Postman!" a voice started screaming on the network. "Ay'cha navidshi," K'tal breathed, his eyes going wide in utter shock. Rune's body started to shake. "She didn't....." she whispered. "Everyone get down!" the voice continued to scream. "Get down n......" Everyone stared at the display screen in mute shock as the speaker started to emit a high-pitched tone and a large red blotch appeared on the screen. The lieutenant at the communications console quickly switched over to a different frequency and the speaker fell completely silent, save for the usual static hissing. "Network, control, all units respond, over," she said into her headset. "General Rune...." Ael'ien said quietly. "Network, control.... All units respond, over...." Rune held up one hand and the telepath fell silent, everyone still waiting to hear a response from the units deployed in the Hinterland region. "Network, control.... All units please respond, over...." "...ntrol... at 31, s.... ain, over.... ra.... ference...." "TacSat 31, control, your signal is breaking up, please signal again." "...ol, TacS.... witching to.... ncy two one f.... ay again, we.... hing to frequ.... one five...." The silence in the control room made everyone's skin crawl with tension, yet they remained quiet as they listened to the fragmented broadcast from the tactical satellite transmitter. The lieutenant's concentration was absolute as she worked, her only concern was trying to re-establish the link. "Switching to frequency 215," she reported as she worked. "TacSat 31, control, please respond, over." "..ntrol, TacSat 3.... clear detonation confir.... say again, nuclear deton.... nfirmed. Radiation.... fering with transmission, I sa.... ain, the radi.... is interfering with transm.... ver...." General Rune stood up straight and slowly walked over next to the young lieutenant. She picked up the headset and put it on, momentarily giving the communications officer a comforting squeeze on her shoulder. "TacSat 31, Rune, do you copy, over?" the general said into the headset. "Rune, TacSat 31, transmi.... s shaky, but.... opy, over." "TacSat 31, evacuate the region and report to the nearest emergency radiation fallout shelter," Rune said, her voice a flat monotone. "Rune, Ta.... 1, negative," replied the voice almost sadly. "Rad count is over four five zero, it wouldn't.... us any good anyway. Request per.... to continue broadcast, over." Rune sighed and closed her eyes, knowing that any radiation dose of over three hundred points was fatal to denizens. "Commander K'tal," she said as she turned off the microphone, "I want the names of everyone in TacSat 31. Their sacrifice will not go unrecognized." "I'll see to it myself," K'tal replied softly. Rune nodded and turned the microphone back on. "TacSat 31, Rune. You have permission to continue broadcast as long as possible, over." "Rune, TacSat 31, we copy. Avatar one is maintaining previous position at twenty-five angels, no forward velocity.... New contact emerging from the rift, designate target avatar two. Moving at an estimated fifteen miles per hour bearing two seven three, altitude at an estimated fourteen angels...." The communication officer's head snapped up suddenly and she frowned as a message relayed itself through her headset. "Admiral Si'ren, flash report from Leviathan North. The shockwave from the blast has disturbed an undersea lava vent right beneath it and the vent is going active. External water temperature has risen twenty degrees and is continuing to rise. The're going to withdraw from the immediate region and will most likely loose the subsurface contacts in the thermal. They state that unless they receive further orders, they will remain under a Stage 3 Alert and run silent until they relocate the contacts." Si'ren said a very rude word as she rubbed her temples. "Acknowledge the message, Lieutenant, and tell them no further orders at this time." "Understood, ma'am," the lieutenant replied and turned to her console. Ael'ien moved over to stand next to Admiral Si'ren. "How large is the primary radiation zone and what is the expected fallout pattern?" she asked the room in general. An operator quickly checked her console before looking up. "Captain, the primary zone is a two-mile radius with the radiation count dropping almost exponentially the further away from ground zero you measure. The radiation count has already dropped by half a percent and is projected to decay to zero in slightly more than seventy-two hours." Everyone's head snapped up at the stunning news. "Total radiation decay in three days?" Si'ren asked, her eyes wide. "What kind of nuclear weapon is capable of that?" "Tactical," K'tal said flatly. "Not just tactical, but surgical. You go in, drop the NP-whatever that is, kill every living thing within a very small radius, and sweep up the ashes three days later. No worries about exposing the clean-up teams to radiation, and you don't worry about accidentally causing ten times as many casualties with fallout." "We don't have any of those, do we?" Si'ren said as she looked at the Dragoon commander. "Not that I am aware of, ma'am, but you know as well as I do how far that often goes around here," K'tal said darkly, ignoring the reproving look he got from Captain Ael'ien. "Control, TacSat 31, new contact emerging from the rift, designate target avatar three," said the static-filled voice from the speaker. "Avatar three is bearing two six eight at roughly eighteen miles per hour, altitude estimated to be fourteen angels. Avatar one is dropping altitude and has increased forward velocity to twelve miles per hour, bearing two six nine. Avatar two is coming around to bearing two six eight and maintaining speed." Si'ren glanced over at Rune and frowned lightly. The general was staring at the display screen with a distant look in her eyes, almost as if she were daydreaming. Si'ren knew that look well enough to know that was nowhere near to being accurate and started to worry slightly about what Rune was thinking. "Control, TacSat 31, respond please..... radiation interference starting to increase, losing carrier signal...." "TacSat 31, Control," the communications officer said into her headset. "We still read a clear signal from you, over." "Control, TacSat 31, please respond.... losing carrier signal.... rift is now starting to close.... all avatars are now bearing two six nine, altitude sixteen angels, forward velocity thirty miles per hour.... Control.... at 31, plea.... nd, we are los.... ier signal...." Both K'tal and Si'ren looked at General Rune. The general's eyes were closed and her head was slightly bowed as she listened to the increasing amount of static coming from the speakers. "Con.... acSat.... ease resp.... al bre.... up, re.... a.... ing...." "TacSat 31, switch frequencies and signal again, over." ".... a.... n.... sp.... k.... o...." "TacSat 31, please respond." "....." "Control to TacSat 31, please respond," the lieutenant said loudly into her headset. "I repeat, please respond." Everyone listened in silence as the only response heard from the doomed unit was the usual soft crackling of static. The communications officer spent five minutes trying to reestablish a link to the unit before she quietly sighed to herself and closed down the network frequencies. "General Rune, we've lost communication with TacSat 31," she said quietly. "Understood, Lieutenant," Rune replied softly. "You did an excellent job keeping the line up as long as you did. You'll get a commendation for this." "Thank you, ma'am," the lieutenant replied. "What is the projected destination of the carriers?" Rune asked. K'tal looked at the display board and did a few quick mental calculations. "Provided they don't change course or speed, they should reach the Imperial Castle in three days," he said slowly. "She has a great deal of k'vesan for a woman," Rune said quietly. "More so than I had thought. What do we have between us and the carriers?" "The entire Eastern Division of the military," Ael'ien replied instantly. "Their regional command post is almost directly in the carriers path." "Could they stop the carriers?" Rune inquired, still staring at the main display board. The jagged black line that was the rift was rapidly becoming smaller with each passing second and the edges of the red blotch were starting to take on a somewhat fuzzy aspect. The white blips that were the airborne carriers had formed up into a wedge and were slowly moving together in a tight formation. "Give the word, ma'am, and we'll drop them," K'tal stated. "That is not what I asked, Commander," Rune said. K'tal blinked. "The carriers could definitely be stopped, General." "Admiral Si'ren, what is the missile strike range of the Leviathans?" Si'ren gave Rune a puzzled look. "There is a hundred-mile-wide band, centered on the equator, that they can't reach from the polar oceans. Aside from that, they can hit any surface or relatively stationary airborne target." Rune grunted. She knew that both the Imperial Castle and the original Hinterland rift were situated well within fifty miles of the equator, as well as the fact that the carriers were definitely not stationary. "Lieutenant, has there been any sort of signal or transmissions made from the carriers?" Rune asked suddenly as she spun around to face the young communications officer. "Unknown, ma'am," the lieutenant replied. "All the radiation in the area is interfering with the local sensor network and the fixed-site tactical posts are still disoriented from the EMP wave." Ael'ien frowned in mild confusion, not having a great deal of background in communications. "I don't get it, Lieutenant. I thought the fixed sites were satellite dishes with sensor webs. How do you 'disorient' something like that?" The lieutenant cleared her throat quietly. "When anything nuclear is detonated, it gives off a wave of electro-magnetic energy. The pulse is strong enough to literally fry any electronics in the immediate area and to severely disrupt any electronics within range. When the carrier's NP missile hit, the EMP wave it emitted struck the fixed sites and caused their automatic tracking computers to become temporarily scrambled. Without computers to guide them, the dishes started to lose track of the satellites. Until the computers bring themselves back on-line and reorient themselves on the satellites, the data their sensor webs receives can't be transmitted. Provided the EMP wave didn't fry the sensors as well," she added. "Lieutenant, call the Eastern Division headquarters and get me their field commander," Rune ordered as she strode over to the communications console and put on the headset. "K'tal, what sort of aircraft do we have available that is capable of getting close to those carriers and staying there?" "One moment, General," the Dragoon said as he turned to a nearby console and started to run a link to the central archive computer. The headset crackled faintly as a channel was opened. "This is Lieutenant General Ra'en," a strong voice said. "I assume that if someone has sent the Nuclear Postman to visit us, we're going to war?" The corners of Rune's mouth twitched in amusement. She had dated him for a short period of time before joining the military and it always struck her as funny just how often they ran into each other. The only reason she hadn't resumed their relationship was because his lack of a sense of humor seriously grated on her nerves at times. "This is Commander General Rune, and we're still debating on that one," she said into the headset's microphone. "Are you tracking the three airborne carriers that have emerged from the Hinterland rift?" "We are," Ra'en replied. "We're also tracking the aftermath of what looks like a brand-new and highly interesting type of NP missile. A missile that obliterated a significant portion of my reconaissance units," he added darkly. "Yes, I know," Rune said. "I think she was trying to send a message to us and now it's time to send a message back." "Payback or something else?" "Something else, Ra'en. I'm not about to start a nuclear war," she said, leaving off the unspoken 'yet'. "What I want you to do is simple. Deploy your entire division along their flight path and be ready to take them down at a moment's notice." "With pleasure, ma'am," Ra'en said, the smile evident in his voice. Rune raised an eyebrow at the level of enthusiasm. "Not so fast, Ra'en, I'm not finished yet. What I want is for those carriers to see you prepared to take them down. I want every radar and active sensor you have trained on them and lit up. Let them know you're watching them. Do you have any sort of airborne interceptors over there?" There was a soft grunt from the field commander. "All we have are those ancient Red Wing troop transports and a handful of Mer'cata-class drones. The drones can take out soft targets like soldiers standing on the carrier decks, but they're virtually useless against anything remotely armored." "Get them airborne and around those carriers. Can they hover or do they need forward motion to remain in-flight?" Rune asked. Ra'en made a huffing noise deep in his throat. Most would think he was clearing his throat, but Rune knew that was his equivalent of a belly laugh. "They can hover. If you want, I can park them six inches away from the hulls of the carriers and keep them there. If the carriers move, so do the drones." "All I want is for those carriers to know that they're there and keeping an extremely close eye on them," Rune said. "Correct me if I'm wrong, Rune, but I take it all you want us to do is to rattle their cage and make sure they know we're ready for them?" Ra'en asked in an even tone. Rune smiled. "Exactly, Ra'en, but under no circumstances do you provoke them or do anything that might make them think they're under attack. Is that clear?" "Clear as crystal, ma'am," said the voice over the headset. "Oh, and one more thing," Rune said evenly. "Yes?" "If they do fire on you, you have full authority to bring them down." "Understood. Do you want to see the craters from orbit?" Ra'en asked. Rune sighed and rubbed her temples, knowing full well that he was being serious and wondering what she had seen in him so many centuries ago. "It doesn't need to be messy, Ra'en, but do what you have to do to take them down if it becomes necessary," she said wearily. "Understood, General Rune. Eastern Division headquarters out," he said and closed the line down. "I assume you have a plan of action in mind, ma'am?" Ael'ien asked when Rune removed her headset. "I might, but I'm going to need time to work it out, and time is in very short supply right now," Rune replied as she looked at the display screen once again. "Commander K'tal, I want that aircraft status report ready in half an hour, along with the technical data regarding the Vresh'tan class of carriers and a scientific analysis of that nuclear device they used." Inwardly, K'tal winced at the short deadline, but was too professional to allow his discomfort to show. "Yes, ma'am," he said simply and turned his full attention to his computer link. "Captain Ael'ien, I want you to coordinate with the other unit captains in the area to organize a tight defense of the castle. Concentrate the bulk of the defenses to the east and prepare for primarily air strikes, but don't leave any angle unprotected against either air-based or ground-based offensives," Rune continued. "Keep in communication with the Eastern Division and contact the other Divisons if necessary." Ael'ien saluted sharply and spun on her heel, leaving the command center in such a manner as to move as fast as possible while retaining the dignity of her rank. "Lieutenant, I want you to monitor the carrier group for any attempts at communication, either between themselves or to anywhere else. If they so much as break wind, I want to hear about it," Rune said to the young communications officer. "Understood, General," the lieutenant said and turned to her console. "And as for you, Admiral," Rune said, her voice low but containing a noticable edge, "I think we need to resume our talk and quickly. There are still a few things I need to know, things that may have a profound impact on what course of action we take." Si'ren nodded silently and the two of them began to make their way out of the control center and back towards Si'ren's quarters. The Fleet Admiral waited until they were out of earshot of everyone before she took Rune's elbow and pulled her to a stop. "Rune, what are you thinking?" Si'ren asked quietly. "I'm thinking that Nop'tera is going to want to take control of the entire military when she gets back," Rune said quietly, "And I don't think she's going to take 'no' for an answer. The problem is, she's been gone from this world for over four thousand years. Things have changed in that time and I'm not convinced she's capable of adapting to the changes." "You could be wrong," Si'ren pointed out. Rune turned around and looked straight into Si'ren's eyes. "Before you start making up your mind on who the Navy is going to side with," Rune said, "I want you to ask yourself this: Do you want to take orders from someone who has no qualms about using nuclear weapons as a first-strike option?" Si'ren raised a slender eyebrow. "Didn't you just authorize Ra'en to use nuclear devices a few minutes ago?" "Who got nuked first?" Rune said flatly, her voice as cold as steel. Si'ren remained silent as they resumed their journey to her quarters, neither of the two women noticing when their respective bodyguards swiftly and silently gathered around to escort them like invisible shadows. Rune's words continued to echo in Si'ren's mind and the admiral couldn't help but wonder if indeed she wanted to follow the orders of a historical legend who had been out of touch for so long. This is going to be very, very interesting, she thought as they reached her quarters and she ushered Rune inside. Yes, very interesting, the admiral thought as the doors closed behind her and the general. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Ami glanced over at Leda as she took her seat on the school bus. "Are you sure you're going to be okay?" she asked yet again, wondering just what exactly the brunette had been thinking, or even if she had been. Leda shot her a dark look, a look made even worse by the thin cut on her left cheek. "I told you I'm fine," she growled as she readjusted the backpack on her shoulder and tried not to wince as the straps rubbed across a bruise. "Another fight?" Rei asked as she walked past and took a seat behind Ami. She saw the reproving look she received from Ami and sighed. "Alright, so who lit the fuse on your tampon this time?" "I'm about to readjust the location of yours if you don't leave me alone," was Leda's harsh reply. Rei blinked at the hostility. "Calm down, Leda, I didn't do anything to you. I was just curious as to what happened." "What happened was some juvenile punk decided he wanted to see what I was wearing beneath my skirt," Leda said with another growl. "He said something about hearing rumors I don't like to wear panties and tried to get a look for himself." Rei exchanged glances with Ami, the vampire raising a slender eyebrow in response and the Shinto priestess blinking in surprise, not believing someone had been stupid enough to pull that sort of stunt with anyone, let alone with a girl with Leda's temperment. "And so you decided to introduce him into the pavement?" Rei asked cautiously. Leda smirked. "Three times, and that was after he met the fence." "Now who do we know that likes to gossip and spread rumors?" Rei said loudly as Mina stepped onto the bus, struggling to keep an overweight backpack balanced on her shoulders. "It had better not have been you, Mina, or you're really going to be in for it," Leda said with a frown, still in a dark mood. The blonde stopped in mid-motion and blinked, regarding the three of them curiously. "What'd I do this time?" She took a closer look at Leda and her blue eyes blinked again. "Whoa, what happened to you?" Rei spoke up quickly before Leda could growl a potentially profane reply. "Someone direly needed an attitude adjustment, and if it had happened to me, I'd have rung his bell too," she explained with a small smile. "Another fight?" Mina sighed as she sat down next to Ami. Her motions caused her backpack's weight to shift, resulting in her tilting to one side and promptly falling out of the seat. "So much for grace," Rei commented. "Have you seen Serena lately?" Ami asked quickly before the blonde could come up with a suitable scathing retort. "Detention yet again," Mina replied sourly as she slipped the straps off of her shoulders and sat back down, dragging the backpack under the seat in the process. She blinked as something occured to her and she turned to give Leda a cautious look. "What were you saying earlier about me doing something?" The brunette gave her a decidedly dark look. "I'm just wondering who it is around here who's been spreading the extremely inaccurate rumor that I like to wear skirts without panties," she said slowly with an edge to her voice. Mina made a face. "Don't look at me, girl, that's not the sort of gossip I deal with. Granted the no-panties thing sounds an awful lot like something you would do, but...." Her voice was cut off as she tried to scramble out of the seat as Leda launched herself towards the opposite side of the bus, her green eyes blazing. The impending melee was brought to a screeching halt as Ami went vampiric and froze Leda in place with a look from her hypnotic steel-blue vampire eyes. "Are you finished?" Ami asked softly. Leda was captivated by the eerie glint in her eyes and could only nod slowly in agreement. Ami's eyes faded from steel-blue back to their usual shade of blue and Leda felt her body start to respond to her brain again. She quickly stood up and shook her head rapidly for a moment to clear out the residual hypnotic cobwebs. "You know I hate it when you do that," she said flatly as she sat back down, ignoring the blonde cowering being Rei. "If you and Mina would behave, I wouldn't have to do that," Ami replied mildly as she fished a textbook out of her backpack and started to study. "Do what?" Molly asked as she got on the bus. She looked around for an empty seat and saw the open space next to Leda. "Mind if I sit here?" Leda looked at Molly warily. Molly had been Serena's best friend since kindergarten and the two had been almost inseparable until Serena's awakening to her true identity as Sailor Moon. Their friendship still continued, but Serena's constant worry that she might slip up and reveal herself to Molly was starting to take its toll on the blonde. "It might be safer if you sit next to me," Rei said as she casually shoved Mina out of the seat with her elbow. "Psycho over there got herself into another fight." Leda's head whipped around to fix the priestess with a venomous glare. "If you call me that one more time...." she growled, then glanced over at Ami as she cleared her throat loudly, still reading the textbook. Leda muttered something acidic beneath her breath as she turned around and stared out the window. Molly blinked as her gaze alternated between Ami and Leda. "Am I missing something?" she said softly to Rei as she sat down next to her. "I mean, I know as well as everyone else how short-tempered Leda is," she said slowly, shivering lightly as she saw Leda's expression reflected in the window, "But if I didn't know better, I would think she was afraid of Ami." She blinked as four heads suddenly turned around to look at her. "Not quite," Leda said in a tone cold enough to condense nitrogen. Rei caught the look of mild surprise in Ami's eyes and had to bite her tongue to keep herself from laughing. "What makes you say that?" she asked. "Well," Molly said hesitantly. "Why would a person who routinely kicks people's butts for fun back down from someone as harmless as Ami?" Leda opened her mouth to say something but remained silent as she felt rather than saw Ami's warning glance in her direction. Someone is going to pay for this one, the brunette thought to herself as she gritted her teeth. "Ami? Harmless?" Mina said incrediously, ignorning the sudden wave of pain spreading across her wrist as it was grabbed by a hand and held in an inhuman grip with the strength of steel. "Girl, you have no idea just how dangerous Ami can be." Molly blinked in surprise, glancing between the serious look in Mina's blue eyes and the neutral look on Ami's face. "Umm...." Mina leaned closer to Molly, partially to keep from being overheard and partially to try to relieve some of the pressure on her wrist. "Ami isn't what she appears to be," she whispered, struggling valiantly to keep her facial expression constant while the pressure on her wrist drastically increased, threatening to implode the bones into powder. "She's been specially trained in the seven-hundred-year-old Dragoon unarmed hand-to-hand combat techniques and could easily hand Leda her butt if they ever got into another fight." Molly blinked and looked around her. Leda had turned around to face the front of the bus, her facial expression unreadable. Ami's expression was one of mild amusement while Mina's was an odd mixture of seriousness, pain, and relief. She saw motion out of the corner of her eye and turned her head in time to see a tiny drop of blood fall from the corner of Rei's lip onto the edge of her skirt. "Are you alright?" she asked in concern. "Juth bit my tongue," Rei mumbled to herself as she inwardly struggled to keep her insides from bursting with laughter at Mina's statement. She had accidentally bitten her tongue hard enough to make it bleed and was now trying to use the pain as a focus to control herself. Molly blinked again and turned to look at Ami curiously. "How is it that you've never told anyone about this before?" she asked cautiously, still trying to decide if Mina had been telling her the truth about Ami. Ami shrugged and smiled mysteriously. "Two reasons. First, I've only learned within the past year. And second...." She trailed off, pretended to be in deep thought for a moment, and simply shrugged. "Well, it just never occured to me to tell anyone." Molly blinked yet again. "Seriously?" she asked in awe. Ami nodded. "Seriously." "Whoa...." Molly breathed quietly with a glance towards Leda. "So maybe she really is afraid of you." With good reason, she mentally added as she tried to fight the tiny tendril of fear developing within her. Leda snorted. "Not quite," she said without bothering to turn around. "Well, you know what they say," Mina said with an impish grin as she discreetly massaged her wrist and tried not to imagine how badly it was going to bruise and ache by sundown. "What?" Leda growled with a look at the blonde. "Beware the quiet ones," she said mock-ominously. Everyone blinked and tried not to shudder as Ami started to laugh, a soft, low-pitched laugh that sent chills down everyone's spine and made Molly start to wonder if Ami was laughing because of the humor or because of the effect it was having on everyone else. Everyone else already knew the real reason Ami was laughing, which made their unease even worse. "Should I ask?" Molly asked in a small voice. Ami's eyes closed as a small smile tugged on the corners of her lips. "Be afraid," she stage-whispered, "Be very afraid." And if it wasn't for the fact that she had felt herself going vampiric, she would have smiled at Molly. I'm sorry I asked, Molly thought as she repressed a shiver as the bus driver started the bus and pulled out of the school parking lot. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Leda's head snapped up as the bus came to a halt, the sound of the air brakes grating on the few nerves she had left. Here already? she thought fuzzily as she tried to chase the cobwebs out of her mind. She was about to get up and leave the bus when she saw Mina and Rei stand up. Nope, one more stop, she thought as she let her head fall back onto her arms. She closed her eyes and tried to stay awake for another ten minutes. She heard Mina's overly-cheerful voice saying something to Rei about going to the mall later, then heard her suddenly-not-so-cheerful tone as her backpack shifted again and she started to lose her balance as she got off the bus. Leda growled quietly to herself as she heard Rei's quiet laughter and felt someone pat her on the back before moving past her to exit the bus. She heard the soft squeak of the bus doors closing, then felt someone tugging rather insistently on her arm. "Come on, Leda, this is our stop," Ami said mildly. "What?" Leda said as she peeled her forehead off of her arms to glare at the scenery around her. "C'mon, Ami, we're still at the other.... stop?" she trailed off as the landscape around her registered on her brain. "Just a moment, she's still asleep," Ami apologized to the bus driver as she continued to gently tug on Leda's arm. "Hey, no prob, we all get those days," the bus driver said with a grin. Leda growled softly softly to herself as she stood up and hefted the backpack onto her shoulder. Her blood supply remained where it was, however, and the world around her whirled madly as her brain started to starve from temporary lack of oxygen. She would have fallen over if it hadn't been for the supporting hand still gripping her shoulder. "I had better take you home before you hurt yourself," Ami said mildly. "I'll be fine, Ami," Leda muttered as the world reoriented itself. "Of course you will," Ami said soothingly as she guided Leda off of the bus and down the street. "We also need to talk for a bit, so I might as well take you home while I'm at it." She turned around and blinked in surprise when Molly followed them off of the bus. "I thought your bus stop was the next one over," she said. Molly shrugged. "I live between the two stops, so it's the same distance no matter which stop I use. I only usually use the other one because it's the one Serena uses. Is Leda going to be alright?" Leda sighed. "I'm fine, people, I just need a bit of a nap. I was up late last night and didn't get much sleep." Ami smirked. "That explains quite a lot, actually." "Cork it, girl." Molly frowned. "You two aren't going to start fighting, are you?" Ami laughed. "Oh, no, Leda's always like that when she's sleep-deprived and I never pay any attention it. She'll be fine once she crawls into bed." "Crawl is the word," Leda muttered as her head started to ache. Molly blinked, looking like she was on the verge of saying something. She apparently changed her mind when she shrugged and waved to them. "Well if you're sure she'll be alright, I'll catch you two later. Take care!" Ami nodded. "You too," she said as she turned around and took hold of Leda's elbow. "It's down this street, not that one," she said lightly as she corrected Leda's course, pointedly ignoring the toxic comments coming from beneath the brunette's breath. Molly paused and watched them walk down the street, her thoughts occupied with Mina's words about Ami's training. Seven-hundred-year-old Dragoon unarmed hand-to-hand combat training, she thought. It sounds like something someone dug up out of one of those Chinese fighting movies, one of those supposedly ancient and obscure techniques only heroes can learn. Not that I doubt in the least that Ami hasn't had some sort of training but.... She paused in mid-thought as her subconscious told her she was missing something. She was about to find a place to sit down and do some serious brain-wracking when she heard a rather squeaky voice speaking from right behind her ear. "So what did the Psycho-Killer do this time?" Melvin asked. Her actions were a mixture of reflex and habit. Without looking behind her, her arm shot out and grabbed for the front of his shirt. She got a sense of satisfaction when she felt the cotton-nylon mix right where it should have been. Predictable, if nothing else, she thought as she braced herself and heaved with all of her strength. She did her best to conceal her smile as Melvin smoothly sailed past her and into a nearby tree. It's amazing, she thought as he bounced to the ground, with as many times as I've done this, he still hasn't learned to either quit sneaking up on me like that or to stand elsewhere when he does. "Gosh, I'm sorry, Melvin," she said in her American drawl, "You just scared the daylights out of me, sneaking up on me like that. Are you okay?" Melvin grunted as he stood up and readjusted his oversized glasses. "I'm just fine, Molly. Didn't mean to spook you like that," he said as he brushed tiny bits of bark off of his black school uniform. "You know, I think you've gotten stronger as of late." Molly sighed. I don't believe this, she thought. Perhaps meeting so many trees has rattled his brain. Assuming he had one to rattle to begin with, she thought with a mental smile. "I guess all those exercises in gym class are helping out." Melvin wrinkled his nose at the mention of gym class. It was no secret that he hated gym class, namely because it forced him to focus his attention on something that had absolutely no bearing on computers and the sciences. Or on the only other thing he really paid any attention to. "Guess what I heard in the rumor mill the other day?" he said cheerfully as he worked a kink out of his now-sore shoulder. "Ami's got a boyfriend, and an older one at that." Whatever particular train of thought that was trying to work its way through Molly's brain was instantly derailed by Melvin's words. "Melvin, are you joking?" she said incrediously. She had never held him in a high regard, but virtually everything that had come out of his 'rumor mill' had proven to be at least partially accurate. Melvin shook his head, knowing that he now had her full attention. "I'm telling you the truth! One of my sources saw her having dinner in a small Chinese restaurant with a guy who looked to be pushing thirty-five." Molly sighed. "So what makes you think it's a boyfriend and not someone like her father or another relative?" she sighed. "Because someone like Ami doesn't take romantic walks in the park with a relative," Melvin said as he adjusted his glasses. "We're talking some major hand-holding.... and more." Molly blinked, her green eyes going wide. "And more?" Melvin nodded soberly. "Lip action," he whispered conspiratorally. A sudden burning sensation in her chest told Molly that she had been holding her breath for too long. She turned to look in the direction Ami had gone as she slowly exhaled, not believing that a bookworm like Ami would fall for an older man. "You know what they say," she said as the words started to echo within her mind. Melvin squinted at her. "What's that?" "Beware the quiet ones," Molly said quietly as she repressed a shiver. "You don't say...." Melvin said quietly. "Come on, I'll walk you home. I've managed to pick up a ton of gossip after school today...." Molly repressed a second shiver at the thought of having to put up with Melvin's prattle the entire walk home. "Actually, I've got a few errands to run before I head home," she said smoothly. "Perhaps another time." Melvin nodded in deluded understanding. "Hey, no problem. I've got a few places to go myself after dinner. Maybe we'll run into each other." Not if I can help it, she thought. "I'll try to keep an eye out for you. See you around!" she said as she waved and made a quick but causal exit. Once she was sure he was out of both sight and sound, she paused to lean against a brick wall and let out a large sigh. "Why does he have to bother me?" she muttered to herself before she took a calming breath and headed towards the park. Her subconscious was starting to bother her again and she needed to do some industrial-strength thinking in a place where she was sure to be left alone in relative peace. The park was empty of people when she arrived. She knew that only the hard-core joggers would be out at this hour and that the crowd of romantics wouldn't be out until close to sunset. A small breeze was drifting across the surface of the artificial lake, bringing with it the reassuring scent of cool water and the faint calls of a trio of hungry seagulls. Just the thing to help clear the mind, she thought happily to herself as she absently headed towards the gazebo. She had almost made it when a figure stepped out from a large bush and stood before her. "Excuse me," he said softly in a deep voice. Molly looked up at him, blinked twice, and promptly started screaming. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The walk from the bus stop to her apartment was enough to wake most of her mind up, much to her dismay. Give me a shot of something hard and ten minutes, Leda thought hazily, and I'll probably be out until three in the morning. "I'm here and in one piece, Ami, so you can go away now," she sighed as she dug her keys out of her skirt pocket. "We still need to talk," Ami said pointedly. Leda sighed as she unlocked the door. "Fine, fine, just let me use the can first and grab a drink or three, then we'll talk." Now it was Ami's turn to sigh at the mention of drinks. "Your body is suffering enough as it is, Leda, and alcohol will only make it worse." The brunette snorted as she opened the door and ushered Ami inside. "I think I've learned my personal tolerances by now, thank you," she said as she followed Ami inside and closed the door behind her with a slightly off-balance kick. She paused at the entraceway and mentally gauged the distance between her and her living room couch. "Step aside for a moment." The vampire gave her an odd look as she stepped into the kitchen, keeping a slightly wary eye on what Leda was up to. She blinked as Leda slid the backpack off of her shoulder, carefully hefted it, and launched it into the air with a flick of her wrist. Ami watched as the backpack sailed smoothly through the air, landed hard on the carpeting, rolled twice, and came to a halt face-up right next to the coffee table. "That was impressive," she said in amazement. Leda's face crinkled in disgust. "Bah, I was aiming for the couch," she said as she turned down the hallway and into the bathroom. "You know the deal, Ami, make yourself at home, blah blah blah." Ami just shook her head as the bathroom door closed somewhat forcefully. Her mind was already tallying up the rather substantial collection of subtle and not-so-subtle signs of Leda's sleep deprivation. Irritation, crankiness, significant drowsiness, slight loss of balance, worse than usual aggression, Ami thought to herself as she made her way into the living room and sat down on the couch. She looked up when she heard the bathroom door open and heard footsteps making their way down towards the bedroom, accompanied by a constant monotone growl. She tentatively decided Leda was going to change out of her school clothes and thought it best to spend the estimated ten minutes studying. With that in mind, she opened her backpack, retrieved her somewhat oversized physics textbook, and quietly resumed studying particle physics. Her first clue that she had completely lost track of time and the outside world came when there was a loud pop, quickly followed by the sensation of a small, light projectile bouncing off the page in front of her. Startled, she looked up to see Leda holding a bottle in both hands and giving her a very evil and wicked grin. "I keep telling you that if a freight train can go screaming past without you noticing, you're studying too hard," the brunette said mildly as she poured the bottle's contents into a pair of wine glasses on the coffee table. "So when did you become a freight train?" Ami replied, blinking in mild surprise as she noticed that Leda was dressed in a rather immodest nightgown. "And I take it you plan on going to bed real soon?" "Just as soon as you go away and leave me in peace," Leda replied. She set the half-empty bottle back down on the table and picked up the glasses, handing one of them to Ami. "Here, you should like this. It'll warm your blood if nothing else." Ami sighed. "Alcohol?" she said as she eyed the glass warily. The brunette just sighed. "Just taste the damn thing before you start passing judgement. Yeah it's got some alcohol in it, but the amount is so low you couldn't get a cat drunk on it. I know your tolerance for alcohol is depressingly low, but I'm sure you'll hardly feel it at all." Ami repressed another sigh as she took the offered glass and held it up to the light to study it. It's pretty if nothing else, she thought as she gazed at the amethyst liquid. She cautiously sniffed at it for a moment before she took a hesitant sip. Leda leaned back to watch Ami's reaction, sipping at her own glass. "So what do you think?" she asked slowly. Ami blinked and swallowed, gently running her tongue along her teeth as the liquid tingled faintly on the way down. She took a second sip of the amethyst liquid, letting it roll around on her tongue for a moment before sending it down after the first sip. "What is it?" A smile started to form on the edges of Leda's lips. "So you like it?" Ami took another sip, trying to decide if it was as pleasing to her as she thought. "Actually, I do," she admitted after a moment. "So what is it?" "Plum wine," Leda said as she showed her the bottle. "I had never heard of it before and picked up a bottle last week to see what it was like." "Mmmm...." Ami hummed to herself as she studied the bottle. She had almost finished reading the label and was about to ask Leda where she got it when she suddenly froze in position and closed her eyes. "Problem?" Leda asked, one eyebrow arched up in concern. Ami slowly leaned back and sighed to herself as she felt an odd warmth start to bloom in her abdomen. "No, just the alcohol hitting my bloodstream," she explained with a faint smile of contentment. Leda blinked. "Already?" Ami's eyes opened to reveal the steel-blue color of her vampiric side. "Things that affect the blood affect you fast when you're a vampire," she said as the warmth started to spread across her entire body. "And trust me, this is a very pleasant feeling." The brunette laughed to herself. "At least someone is having a bit of fun around here. Or should I say still," she added. She caught the confused look in Ami's eyes and she chuckled. "Come now, don't tell me you didn't enjoy seeing the look in Molly's eyes when Mina told her about your 'seven-hundred- year-old Dragoon' training." Ami couldn't refrain from laughing for a few moments. "Yes, that was rather amusing. Did you see the look on Rei's face? I thought she was going to strangle herself trying not to laugh." Leda started to giggle so hard she almost spilled her wine. "Oh, man, I wish someone could have caught that on film." Ami smiled as she took another sip of wine, mentally calculating how much she could safely drink without casuing too much chaos in her bloodstream. She knew that her vampiric nature wouldn't be bothered by small amounts of alcohol but her human side was a different matter altogether. She had learned the hard way that just because the burning in her veins feels good now doesn't mean that it'll continue to feel good in a few hours. She looked up at Leda as the brunette's moment of humor passed and she saw the effects of insufficient sleep starting to return. At this rate, she'll be asleep within the next ten minutes, Ami thought with a mental sigh as she took a sip of her wine. Her thoughts were followed by a physical sigh as she leaned forward to set her glass down on the coffee table. Neither the sigh nor the movements were lost on Leda, and the brunette sighed heavily herself as she leaned back in the chair. "Alright, so what did you want to talk about?" she said wearily. Ami raised a blue-tinted eyebrow in response. "So what happened last night that caused you to lose so much sleep?" she asked gently. Leda snorted and took a sip of her wine. "Nothing much, really. Tolaris was able to talk to what's-his-butt over in the Negaverse, and most of what was said was said in the denizen language. I left there shortly before midnight, returned here, and couldn't fall asleep because I had too much on my mind." "Like what?" Ami asked cautiously as she took a calculated sip of wine. Leda shot her a dark look. "None of your business." Ami blinked and set her glass down, leaning back against the cushions to think for a moment. Something about Leda's statement didn't sound quite right to her and the feeling didn't sit well. "Something tells me you're not telling me everything I want to know," she said after serveral minutes of silence. Leda merely shrugged and sat back, looking at her with tired green eyes. "Sorry if you had high expectations." Ami frowned and leaned forward. "Shortly after eleven o'clock last night, all of the denizens' communicators were switched into privacy mode. If you left around midnight, you would have still been in the cathedral when whatever it was happened that caused them to want privacy." Leda sighed and looked towards the ceiling. "So maybe they didn't want to be disturbed when talking to whomever that guy was. I don't know, Ami." Ami frowned as she picked up her glass of wine and took a small sip. "If that was the case, which I'm starting to doubt, they would have done that when they first contacted the Negaverse, not three hours later. And seeing how all four of them still have their frequencies locked in privacy mode, I don't think they're doing it while they talk." Leda drained her glass and set it on the coffee table before standing up. "You're barking up the wrong tree, girl," she said as she started to stretch, accidentally revealing a sizable amount of her feminine anatomy in the process. She noticed Ami glance away with a faint blush on her cheeks and she frowned, tugging the silk-like fabric back into place. Whomever designed this nightgown obviously didn't give a damn about modesty, she thought. Either that, or they had a different purpose in mind when they designed this. Come to think of it, that's probably why I bought this in the first place.... Her thoughts led her mind down the path it had taken late last night, causing her to sigh heavily as the familiar burden settled itself on her soul once again. Not tonight, she sighed to herself as she rubbed her face with her hands and started to make her way to her bedroom. "Tired?" Ami asked softly. "Tired, me?" Leda said mock-cheerfully. "No, never. Go away and let me get some rest, Ami." She looked up as Ami reached out and took hold of her arm in a surprisingly gentle grip. "You're hiding something from me," Ami said softly. The brunette sighed. "Listen, you can either come with me or stay here, but I am going to go to bed," she said, her voice betraying her weariness more than she would have liked. She tugged her arm free of Ami's grasp and walked down the hall, mildly surprised when Ami followed her into her bedroom. Leda sighed again as she walked over to her closet and started to lay out the clothes she was going to wear to school the next day. Ami stopped only a few feet beyond the doorway, wanting to get Leda to talk more but not wishing to further intrude. Her eyes glanced around the room briefly before her gaze was captured by the open photo album on the dresser. Interesting, Ami thought as she moved closer for a better look, I don't recall ever seeing this particular album before. It only took a few seconds for her to realize why. The photo on the left was one of Leda and the photo on the right was one of Jenni, the girl Leda had fallen in love with not too long ago. The thing that set the photos apart from all the others was the fact that neither one of them had been wearing any clothes when the pictures were taken. Ami looked up as Leda walked over to see what she was looking at. There was an awkward moment of silence as deep blushes spread across the faces of both girls. "I thought I had put that away," Leda mumbled as she reached out to close the album. She blinked when she felt Ami's hand blocking her path and looked up. "When were these taken?" Ami asked softly. Leda sighed. "About ten months ago. I don't know if I ever told you just how benevolently mischievious the little imp could be. She somehow managed to get her hands on a fully loaded Polaroid camera and talked me into a photo session," she said, the blush on her cheeks deepening slightly. "You don't regret it, do you?" Leda blinked in surprise and looked over at Ami. She was about to ask why she was asking that particular question when she suddenly remembered seeing a picture of Ami in a very similar situation. "Nope," Leda replied truthfully. "Both she and I enjoyed the whole thing. Both during and after," she added. Ami said nothing as she studied the pictures, paying particular interest to the emotions reflected in the eyes and smiles of both girls. Her hand was reaching out to turn the page when Leda suddenly remembered where exactly she had put that picture of Ami she had acquired. "Sorry, got to have some secrets," Leda muttered as she somewhat hastily picked up the album and snapped it shut, locking the cover with a flick of her wrist and setting it down inside her dresser drawer. Ami's only response was to raise an eyebrow and to study her reflection in the mirror, her thoughts unreadable in the depths of her vampiric steel-blue eyes. "Leda, why won't you tell me what happened last night?" she said softly. Leda sighed and turned to look out the bedroom window, her mind already becoming plagued by the sadness and loneliness that had enveloped her since Jenni's death. She debated on what she could say versus what she wanted to say versus what she felt Ami deserved to know. She finally decided on sighing heavily and speaking the truth softly. "Tolaris asked me not to tell you." Ami's head snapped around sharply. "What?" Leda looked over her shoulder at her. "I thought that was easy enough to understand. Tolaris asked me not to tell you about it. If you want to know, you'll have to ask him." Ami gnawed on the edge of her lip as she thought. "Using my hypnotic powers to stop a fight is one thing, but you know how I feel about having to use it for other purposes. Don't make me force you to talk," she said quietly. Leda looked at her carefully for a moment before walking over to her, sliding her arms around her slender waist, and gently kissing her. Ami didn't resist but didn't yield to her either, something that Leda was in a way glad for. A distant part of the brunette's mind told her that if Ami had yielded, she probably would have tried to seduce her on the spot. Leda broke the kiss after a few seconds and looked into Ami's eyes, watching their steel-blue shade fade into a medium-blue shade as her vampiric nature went dormant. "Sorry," she said quietly. Ami didn't know if she was apologizing for the kiss, for not talking, or for both. Nor did she particularly care at that moment in time. She knew that Leda harbored a semi-secret desire for her, but unlike Mina's hormonal desires, she wouldn't try to do anything that Ami wouldn't have wanted in one way or another. The only reason she could think of for kissing her was to use as a distraction, and unfortunately for Ami it worked as her focus was thrown off- balance by the tactic. "I guess you're going to be stubborn about this?" Ami asked quietly after a few seconds of silence. She received a slow nod in response and she signed. "Alright, I'll leave you alone now. Sleep well," she said as she pulled herself free from Leda's somewhat intimate embrace. "Hey, Ami?" Leda said quietly before she could reach the door. Ami paused and turned around to look at her. "Yes?" "Would you stay with me for awhile, at least until I fall asleep?" Leda said, still speaking softly. "Thinking about the pictures has started to make me miss her again and I.... don't want to be alone right now." Ami remained motionless for a few seconds before she walked over to Leda and gave her the same kind of kiss as the one she had received only moments before. She was rather surprised when Leda reacted as she had, neither resisting nor yielding. She held the kiss for a few moments before she took a step back and whispered, "Sorry." She then turned around and quietly left the room, not really wanting to see the look in Leda's slightly-haunted eyes. She was halfway down the hall when she heard the bedroom door close quietly, shortly followed by the metallic click of the lock being turned. She had almost made it to the end of the hall when her sensitive ears heard the soft sounds of Leda crying quietly as she leaned against the locked door. Ami paused and closed her eyes, weighing her desire to go back and comfort Leda against what would most likely happen if she did. Another day, perhaps, she decided with a heavy sigh as she walked into the living room and began to gather her stuff together. She had almost finished she her gaze fell on the half-empty bottle of plum wine. This really is some good stuff, she thought as she poured a small amount of the amethyst liquid into her wine glass and looked around for the cork. She found it in the far corner of the room and picked it up, briefly studying the wooden object before jamming it back into the bottle. She paused long enough to drink what was left in her glass before carrying it into the kitchen, putting the bottle back in the refrigerator and rinsing out the glass in the sink. Ami took one final glance around the apartment to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything as she picked up her backpack. She glanced down the hallway with a small sigh and quietly left, making sure to set the lock before she closed the door. Hopefully a few hours' rest will make her feel better, she thought as she jogged down the apartment steps rather than wait for the rather sluggish elevator. She had just reached the street across from Leda's apartment complex when a column of bright purple energy rose in the distance and an icy wind swept through her body. Oh no.... she thought as her pulse started to race. She started to reach for her computer and blinked when she realized that she had already retrieved it out of pure reflex. She opened the compact-sized computer with a practiced flick of her wrist and started to scan for the disturbance. The purple light had already faded, but there was still enough residual energy for the computer's sensor suite to easily lock onto. A subroutine scanned for the carrier waves of the Global Positioning Satellite network, triangulated her position, and superimposed a map of the city with the fastest route to the objective highlighted in amber. Ami glanced quickly glanced around to make sure no one was watching as she slid the backpack off of her shoulder. Why do these things always seem to happen in the park? she wondered as her hand went to the small of her back and pulled her Mercury Wand out of her Lunar Space pocket. "Mercury Power!" she yelled as she held the Wand up to the sky. She was immediately engulfed in a mass of light and energy as her clothes melted into radiance and reformed into her Sailor suit. Tiny bits of luminescence gathered together and formed into her tiara while other particles of light and energy merged together into sapphire earrings. The entire process took only seconds and the mysterious transforming energy vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving an upset and slightly wary Sailor Mercury standing on the sidewalk with computer in hand and a worried look on her delicate features. As she reached down to pick up her backpack, the communicator in her Lunar Space pocket started beeping frantically. "Yes, I know," she sighed as she strapped the backpack onto her shoulders and retrieved her communicator. As soon as she touched the flashing button, Mina's worried face appeared in the tiny display screen, blinking in mild surprise. "I take it you know what's going on already?" she asked quickly. Mercury shook her head. "Not quite. All I know is that it was a focused beam of negatively-charged energy and that it originated from the park." "Great," Mina said with a sigh. "Serena's still in detention, so it'll have to be just the four of us. Rei and I will meet you there." Mercury sighed. "Three of us. Leda just went to sleep and I don't advise waking her up just yet." Mina blinked. "Are you sure about that? We may need her for this." "As sleep-deprived as she is, she may prove to be more of a hindrance than a help," Mercury pointed out. "And if we need backup, Whisper and Ra'vel can teleport here within a matter of seconds." The blonde blew out her breath. "Hope you're right, Mercury. See you in a few," she said and closed the connection. "So do I," Mercury said to the wall next to her as she closed her end of the frequency, put both her communicator and computer back into her Lunar Space pocket, and set off at a dead run for the city park. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Alex blinked and leaned briefly on Susan's arm as the vastness of The Dark unfolded around them. "And I thought dimension-shifting with you was a major headache...." she breathed softly. Susan shot her a reproving look. "If you get headaches, they're not from dimension shifting," she said mildly. Myst wrinkled her nose. "If you think shifting is bad, try being caught in a molecular teleport," she muttered as she looked around the area. Mephisto chuckled quietly as he also looked around for signs of potential danger. "Would you have prefered that I had let you be eaten?" "I'm still debating on that," Myst dourly muttered beneath her breath. Alex glanced around the area, blinked hard, and let out her breath very slowly. "Sue, this place gives me the creeps...." she whispered as she tried to look past the utter darkness that seemed to eminate from everywhere. "Indeed," Susan replied softly. She turned and gave Alex a mild look when the blonde started cussing softly to herself. "Now what?" "I know how you are, and if this place is enough to spook you, then I want outta here right freaking now," Alex hissed. "Without Michelle?" Susan inquired, already knowing the answer. Alex shot her a look darker than the surrounding terrain. "You know damn well that I'm not...." "Nobody move," Mephisto interrupted quietly. "We've got company." Myst immediately leapt out of Alex's arms and crouched low on the ground while Susan and Alex went into defensive positions. "I don't think it made it here with us," Alex muttered as Susan absently made a snatching motion at the air. Susan looked momentarily confused before she realized what she was doing. "No, I guess not," she sighed quietly. "So what's out there, Mephisto?" "A shadow wraith, possibly two of them," Mephisto replied. "Look a bit to your right, about fifty yards away." "Where...? Oh, I see," Susan replied as her eyes narrowed. Alex frowned. "I don't see anything, Sue," she cautioned as she glanced around, trying to see what they were talking about. "You wouldn't be able to see it unless your vision extends into the infra- red spectrum," Susan replied. "What is it doing?" "Probably trying to decide if we're worth the effort of hunting," Mephisto replied quietly. "However, I don't think it's ever seen a humanoid before, so it's still sizing things up." "There's another one behind us," Myst growled as her fur started to stick out in a reflex. Mephisto glanced over his shoulder and frowned. "Strange," he commented. Alex growled softly. "Just tell us what the new problem is." "Shadow wraiths don't hunt in pairs, do they?" Susan asked. "Not that I know of," Mephisto replied. "Wait a sec," Alex said. "If they don't hunt in pairs, then what are the odds that we've been caught between the two of them by purely bad luck?" "A reasonable deduction," Mephisto said softly. "So, what happens when two wraiths who are hunting the same prey come in close proximity to one another?" Alex replied, trying to keep a wary eye on something she couldn't see. "Never mind that, we've got a new problem," Myst hissed quietly, her tail lashing back and forth furiously. Alex looked ready to cry. "Now what?" she asked softly. Mephisto looked up and grunted softly. "I don't think that's a problem we're going to have to worry about for a few minutes." Susan's focus was on the first shadow wraith and she wasn't about to turn around just yet. "So what is it?" "Something is hunting the second wraith," Mephisto said, a slight note of amusement evident in his voice. "I can barely see it myself, but it's energy signature feels like a phantasm." "Oh, that's an improvement," Myst said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Energy signature...." Susan whispered to herself. "Of course...." "If you people are trying to scare the life out of me, you're doing a remarkable job," Alex muttered. "Sue, quit talking to yourself and let us know what you're thinking." "Mephisto, how many human souls exist within The Dark?" Susan asked. "Not too many, I would think," Mephisto replied as he continued to keep a watchful eye on both the wraith and the phantasm. "If that's the case, then I can probably find Michelle's soul if I search for the energy signature of human souls," Susan explained. "Finally, some good news," Alex muttered. "Sue, can you hold that thought long enough for us to deal with our current situation or do you need someone to find you a pencil and piece of paper?" "I assure you my short-term memory is quite capable," Susan said dryly. Everyone tensed when there was a sudden blur of movement in the distance and a high-pitched shriek ripped through the air. The noise was quickly followed by the sounds of life-or-death combat as sparks of light exploded into existence around both the shadow wraith and the phantasm. "Tell me that's a good thing," Alex said warily. "It's a good thing," Susan replied, hoping it was the truth. "Thank you, I feel so much better now. Now can someone tell me what's going on over there?" Alex said. "It appears that the phantasm has a fondness for eating wraiths," Susan observed as she glanced back towards the location of the first wraith. "And it appears that the other wraith has no desire to hunt anything when another one of its kind is being hunted." "So it seems," Mephisto said as he glanced at the rapidly retreating form of the wraith. "I don't know how long the wraith is going to be able to hold off the phantasm, but now seems like a good time to leave the area." "Alright, some good news," Alex muttered as she bent down and scooped up Myst in her arms. "You know, you're kinda heavy for a kitten. Don't look at me like that, that's just an observation, not a complaint." "You humans are strange," Myst muttered. "This way," Mephisto said as he pointed towards a featureless section of the neo-void. "I doubt this route will be safer than any other, but it does lead towards one of the more desolate areas of The Dark." They moved quickly and in silence, keeping a watchful out in every direction and trying to ignore the now-piercing screams coming from the fight behind them. Susan waited until the sounds of the battle had faded from her slightly enhanced hearing before she stopped and looked around the area. "Does this look like a safe spot for a few minutes?" she asked. The whiskers on Myst's face twitched briefly. "As safe as any one spot in this place can be," she muttered. "There is nothing around us, if that is what you mean," Mephisto said. Susan nodded. "Good. Step back, please," she said as she closed her eyes and started to concentrate. Alex muttered something inaudible beneath her breath as they all took a few steps away from Susan and watched her carefully. Everyone blinked as the dark scars on her back seemed to ripple briefly before ballooning outward and reshaping themselves into a pair of bat-like wings. "You know I hate it when you do that," Alex muttered as she involuntarily shivered at the sight. Susan's head turned to one side and her eyes opened briefly, revealing the glowing red irises and fixing Alex with a piercing stare. "Would you prefer that I not search for Michelle's soul?" she said, her voice taking on a rather sultry tone. Alex couldn't bring herself to look into those demonic eyes and instead focused on the gray cat she was holding. "Just hurry up, please," she muttered as she nervously stroked Myst. Susan continued to look at her for another moment before closing her eyes and concentrating once more. Her wings flexed briefly before spreading out to their full length and locking into place. As they watched, tiny motes of dull white energy began to form at the very tips of her wings and lazily made their way across the leathery surface towards the small of her back. Mephisto silently moved to stand behind Alex's shoulder. "I take it her demonic form bothers you," he whispered softly to her, his lips almost brushing against her ear as he spoke. "Yeah, kinda," she whispered back. "I mean, she's served the throne since Queen Serenity's great-great-grandmother was in diapers, and I'd like to think that I know her quite well, but I've never really gotten used to just how dark her nature can be." "You say that as if being from the Underworld is a bad thing," Susan said flatly as she slowly started to turn in place, her wings moving like a radar dish. "Might I remind you that not all who dwell there are evil?" Alex blushed a deep shade of crimson as she remembered how much sharper Susan's hearing was in her demonic form. "I know that, Sue, and I never said anything about being evil." "You implied it, did you not?" Alex sighed quietly to herself, wondering yet again how Susan's demonic voice could be so sultry and alluring, yet so harsh at the same time. "We've discussed that one before, Sue," she said quietly, wishing she could forget that particular conversation so long ago. Susan said nothing as her wings swept back and forth, the tiny motes still forming at her wing tips and collecting at the small of her back. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, she suddenly stopped in place and frowned. "You sense something?" Mephisto asked quietly. The motes on her wings started to glow brighter as more power was drawn out of the air and into her wings, illuminating the network of tiny veins that ran along their length. "I think so, but it's so faint I'm not quite sure. Plus there seems to be some sort of interference in that area." Myst blinked. "What kind of interference?" "If I knew, I would have told you." Alex sighed. "Leave her alone, Myst, she's only like that when she's in her demonic form," the blonde whispered as quietly as she could. "Which direction is it coming from?" Mephisto asked quietly. "From there," Susan replied as she pointed almost directly behind him. He looked at the surrounding terrain first before turning to look towards the specified direction. "Would you say the disturbance is about an hour's walk away from here?" he asked, trying to ignore the sudden icyness forming in his insides. Susan opened her eyes as she sought to gauge the distance. "That seems to be about right," she said after a moment. The motes on her wings faded into nothingness as her wings flexed before folding against her back. "Balor," Mephisto said quietly. Alex grimaced in pain as Myst twitched in shock, her claws reflexively extending and accidentally scratching Alex's bare arm. "I take it that's not a good sign?" the blonde asked as she gave the kitten a dark look. "Sorry," Myst aplogized quietly. "Where have I heard that name before?" Susan asked, her glowing red eyes narrowing as she tried to remember. Mephisto shook his head. "It is not the same one as you are thinking of. He is not the greater demon of the lower planes but a Shinma who gains his power from using other souls." "So that's it," Susan said. "The sheer number of souls in his possession was creating the interference. Interesting." "Is Michelle there?" Alex asked. "I'm not sure, but I think so," Susan said. "If that is the case, then freeing her from Balor's grasp will not be an easy task," Mephisto cautioned. "You said he's a Shinma like yourself?" Susan asked archly. Mephisto nodded and she smiled, revealing a pair of very sharp fangs on both her upper and lower jaws. "Then leave him to me." Alex closed her eyes and did her best not to shiver at the note of dark pleasure and anticipation that had made its way into Susan's alluring voice. "Let's go," she said quietly and started walking towards Balor's lair. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Molly was in the process of drawing in enough air for a third scream when his hand gently clamped over her mouth. It didn't prevent her from breathing, but it effectively blocked any sound she might have made. "If you will listen for a moment, you will find that screaming isn't necessary," he explained softly as his ears twitched, still ringing slightly from her previous screams. "I'm not going to hurt you, I just need to ask you where I can find someone." Molly's brain overcame her screaming reflex long enough for his words to register. Her lungs and throat were burning from the exertion of screaming at the top of her lungs, and her blood was a solid sheet of ice from mortal fear. It took her a few seconds to overcome her temporary paralysis long enough to nod slightly at him. "Thank you," he said as he let his hand fall to his side. "Wh..... wh..... what..... are you?" she whispered as she started to step back from him. "A visitor from another world," he explained as his tail twitched with slight impatience. "My name is Reish'id, and I'm looking for the one called Sailor Jupiter." Eight different thoughts tried to cram themselves into her brain at once, resulting in another moment of mental paralysis. "Sailor Jupiter?" she said as her mind selected the easiest concept to deal with. Reish'id nodded. "Yes. Do you know where I can find her?" His whiskers twitched briefly as he noticed the mental chaos reflected in her eyes and he sighed quietly. "I assure you that you are not in any sort of danger, miss, so you can try to relax and breathe normally." Molly blinked as she realized that she had stopped breathing again and let her breath out as evenly as she could. She was still in a profound state of shock and it took quite some time for her brain to override her reflexes and sort things out. "Sailor Jupiter?" she stammered again. "I.... no one knows who or where she is.... She just shows up with the other Sailor Scouts when trouble happens...." Reish'id grunted quietly. "I see," he said slowly. "Tell me, what would be the quickest way to get the Sailor Scouts' attention?" Molly tried to think, but the sight of a giant, talking panther kept interfering with her thoughts. "Umm.... I.... uh...." The felinoid warrior chuckled softly to himself. In another time and place, he thought, this could get amusing. "Please sit down for a moment. I fear you're on the verge of fainting and that wouldn't help matters." She blinked twice in mild confusion before she slowly knelt down on the grass, her green eyes nearly triple their usual diameter. "Why.... why are you here?" she said, her breathing still rather unstable. He dropped to all fours and started to stretch out a hind leg. "Simple, really," he said. "I need to return a few things to Sailor Jupiter. She sort of left them behind during her last trip into my world." She blinked. "Your world?" she said before something bubbled up from the depths of her memory and surged into her consciousness. "Are.... are you from the Negaverse?" Reish'id froze in mid-motion and looked at her, his almond-shaped purple irises widening against their yellow background. "How do you know of the Negaverse?" he asked in amazement. "I thought only the Sailor Scouts and their allies knew of it." Molly was taken aback by his reaction. "I was told about your society by someone I met," she said carefully, not sure how much she should reveal to him. He tilted his head to one side in curiosity. "May I ask what his name was? I might know him," he added. "His name was Nephlyte...." She jumped as Reish'id suddenly leapt to his feet, his jaw falling open in amazement. "General Nephlyte?" he said incrediously. He searched his memory for the name that had been attached to the copy of the report he had managed to acquire and narrowed his eyes. "Your name is Molly, isn't it?" Molly's eyes grew even wider, her eyeballs looking like they would fall out any second now. "How...?" she managed to choke out before her brain locked up once more with shock. He sighed quietly to himself as he realized that his task might take a considerable time longer than anticipated. "Your name became known to us when Nephlyte turned against Zoicite in an attempt to protect you from her minion." He sighed yet again as she started to show more signs of an impending fainting spell at the information. "Before you faint, can you think of a way I can get in contact with the Sailor Scouts?" he asked softly as she briefly struggled to retain what little higher brain functions she had available. "I.... umm.... let me think for a moment...." she said weakly. Reish'id tried his best to give her what he thought would look like a reassuring smile. "Please, take your time. I know things must be very confusing for you right now." No kidding, Molly managed to think. Now let's think here.... what usually happens a few minutes before Sailor Moon shows up.... Monsters everywhere, city airport gets taken over, cruise liner gets taken over, major bus route gets taken over.... very, very few people killed, considering.... !!! "Energy," she blurted out as she looked up at him. "In the past, lots of really weird monsters were running around and draining energy out of everybody. I think the Sailor Scouts picked up on something that went on while they were draining people." Reish'id nodded to himself. It makes sense, he thought. Sailor Mercury does have that scanner of hers and Leda told me about their sensitivity to what they called 'dark vibes' of energy. Interesting.... Molly blinked as he stretched and quickly stood up. "Wait, what are you going to do?" "I am merely going to create a beacon for the Sailor Scouts to find me," he said as he held his hands over his head. He paused and gave her a mild look. "This won't do anything to you, but you might not want to look directly into the beam," he cautioned. She blinked again. "What...?" "Dark Energy Electrify," Reish'id intoned as he focused his powers and sent a column of Dark Energy shooting into the sky. He was able to keep the residual energy backlash to a minimum, but the negatively-charged energy still caused the fur on his arms to tingle and stick out. He kept up the beam for a few seconds before letting it disperse into the atmosphere and letting his arms fall to his sides. "I think that should be sufficient to get their attention," he said with a satisfied flick of his tail. He looked up at her and frowned, his whiskers twitching slightly. "Are you okay?" Molly grunted softly and she wiped the tears out of her eyes. "Sorry, I didn't quite know what you meant," she said as she waited for her temporarily overloaded retinas to quit burning. "My apologies," he said sincerely. "Are you sure you'll be okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine," she said as she opened her eyes, squinting as the light caused her some minor discomfort. "I don't think it's any worse than the time Melvin caught me by surprise with his new flash camera." Reish'id chuckled quietly to himself as he dropped to all fours and began to stretch out his hind leg once more. Old age must be catching up to me, he mused as he worked on relaxing the muscle. "If I may ask a personal question, Molly, how old are you?" he asked out of idle curiosity. Molly blinked at the sudden question. "I just turned sixteen. Why do you ask? And are you alright?" she asked quickly when the fur on his tail suddenly stuck straight out in surprise. "I'm fine," he assured her as he quickly preened the fur back into place. "It's just the vast time difference between humans and denizens that keeps surprising most people. Do you have any idea how old General Nephlyte was when you two met?" Molly gave him a slightly wary look. "He looked to be somewhere between his late-twenties and early thirties. He never told me his exact age, though." Reish'id chuckled. "Perhaps I should leave it at that. I'm not sure if L.... I mean, Sailor Jupiter is any indication of how shock-resistant humans can be, but I'd rather not put any more strain on you as it is," he said in an even tone that belied how mortified he was at almost revealing Sailor Jupiter's human identity. The slip went right over Molly's head. "You mean he's not as old as he seems to be?" she said slowly. He shook his head. "Far from it." She took a deep breath and tried to steel what was left of her nerves. "How old is he?" Reish'id gave her a measured look. "Perhaps you should wait until your body hasn't been over-stressed before you ask," he cautioned gently. Molly shook her head. "I'm too young to have a heart-attack, if that's what you're worried about," she replied. "And if I can handle sitting down in the middle of the park and having a conversation with a giant, talking panther from another world, I think I can handle discovering that the man I fell in love with is a little older than he appears to be." He nodded his head slowly. "Very well. A month before his promotion to Commander General and subsequent assignment to Earth, Nephlyte celebrated his one hundred and thirty-eighth decade of life," he said evenly. Okay, she thought as her mind automatically did the math, that puts his age at.... "You're joking, right?" she said, not entirely convinced at the unbelievably high figure. Reish'id raised a furry eyebrow in response. "I assure you that I am not making a joke," he said evenly. "General Nephlyte is almost fourteen hundred years old." Molly was suddenly grateful for the fact that she was sitting down, having the suspicion that she would have keeled over if she were standing up. "You know...." she said slowly as it began to register, "That does explain more than a few things about him...." "Indeed?" he asked, curious. "Hold it right there!" a voice cut across the park. "Don't move or you'll regret it!" At least their response time is excellent, Reish'id thought as he sighed and remained in place. "I assume you are the Sailor Scouts?" he said as he turned to look at the two figures cautiously advancing towards him. "Yup, that's us," Venus said as she kept her finger pointed at him, the twin crescents of her Crescent Beam already merged at her fingertip. "Now let her go." "Are you alright?" Sailor Mars asked as she kept a wary eye on what she thought was a giant alien panther. You know, she thought to herself, I could have sworn I've seen this somewhere else before.... Molly cautiously glanced between her strange visitor and the two Sailor Scouts. "I'm fine, but I think he just wants to talk to you." "Indeed," Reish'id said as he looked glanced at Venus. "My name is Reish'id, and I'm looking to get in contact with Sailor Jupiter." Venus blinked and exchanged startled glances with Mars, her concentration starting to waver slightly. "Wait a minute...." the blonde said slowly. "Say your name again?" "Reish'id," the felinoid warrior said slowly, slightly amused at their reaction. "I take it you've never ran across a denizen who wants to talk as opposed to starting a fight?" Mars's jaw fell open. "You mean to tell me that you're Jupiter's boyfriend?" she said in utter amazement. Reish'id's tail twitched slightly in amusement. "I'm not sure if the term applies in this sense, but I am the one she was with during her vacation in the Negaverse." Venus let her breath out slowly as she lowered her arm, carefully letting the Crescent Beam energy dissapate from her fingertip. "Oh boy...." she said softly. "This is going to get interesting." "Trust me, it already is," Mars replied quietly. Molly opened her mouth to say something but remained silent as she heard pounding footsteps behind her and turned to look. "Sailor Mercury, over here!" she said to the figure on the other side of the street. Mercury continued to run until she got close enough to really see what was going on. Venus suppressed a giggle as Mercury's eyes widened as she applied the proverbial brakes and skidded to a stop several feet away from Molly and Reish'id. "My goodness...." she breathed softly as she assessed the situation and discovered no impending danger. Reish'id's eyes narrowed slightly as he recognized Mercury from what Leda had told him. "Well met, Sailor Mercury," he said slowly. Mercury blinked in surprise at what Tolaris had told her was a rather formal, if outdated, greeting. "Well met, Warrior," she replied cautiously, hoping that was the proper form of address. She blinked again as she realized that she had said it in the denizen language instead of her own. Reish'id laughed quietly. "Indeed," he said in English. "Commander Tolaris has taught you well, considering he never mastered the accent on that particular dialect." Mercury blinked yet again, unsure of what to do. Sailor Mars spared her further confusion by clearing her throat loudly. "So what brings you to Earth, and what did you want to talk about?" she asked. "I'm here for a rather simple reason, really," he said as he walked over to a thick bush. He reached inside and pulled out a rather beat-up backpack that looked to be holding a considerable amount of stuff inside. "Your friend Jupiter left this behind during her trip and I wanted to return it to her. Do you know where I can find her?" Both Mars and Venus glanced towards Mercury as she coughed delicately. "Umm.... well, to be honest, she's had a very rough day and she's sleeping right now, so I don't advise waking her up. At least, not for a few hours," she amended as she saw the look on his face. "Hey, Mercury?" Venus asked cautiously. "Say your father drops in for a surprise visit and you just happen to be taking a nap. Don't you think you'd want to be woken up?" Everyone blinked as Mercury's expression darkened considerably. "Not for him," she said, her voice cold enough to freeze blood. "Poor choice of example aside, your point has been duly recognized," she said, her tone starting to thaw ever so slightly. "Looks like someone else has been having a rough day," Mars muttered, drawing a sharp look from Mercury and an amused look from Reish'id. "Perhaps," he whispered in the denizen language, speaking soft enough so only Mercury could hear him. "Or perhaps you are letting your vampiric nature get the better of you." He blinked and involuntarily took a step back as her head swung around to fix him with a chilling gaze. "What do you know of being a vampire?" she said, equally as quiet and in the same language. "I have dealt with them long enough to know that the greatest danger they pose is not to others but to themselves," he replied softly. "The darkness within is a deadly adversary indeed." Mercury remained silent as she regarded him carefully, ignoring the looks of confusion and curiosity from the other Sailor Scouts. Molly was completely lost, not being able to understand the language Mercury and Reish'id were using. She looked at Sailor Venus and frowned lightly at the look of complete puzzlement on the blonde's face. Well, if they don't know what's going on, she reasoned, then I guess I can feel better about being totally clueless. "What do you want?" Mercury finally asked, still speaking in the denizen language. "Aside from wanting to see Jupiter." "Merely to better understand your nature," Reish'id replied softly. "She only told be a little bit about you and I admit curiosity with regards to your vampirism. But I'm afraid that will have to wait until another day, for time is running short and the longer we stay in the open like this, the greater chance there is for discovery." "So how are you planning to return to the Negaverse once this is over?" Mercury said, switching to English so the others could understand. She knew that Venus's grasp of the denizen language was almost equal to her own, but she had her doubts about Mars's mastery of the alien tongue. "I've borrowed this from an old friend for a few hours," he said as he held up an iridescent purple gem. Sailor Venus frowned. "Just how many of those things exist? I was told only a handful." The tip of Reish'id's ear twitched briefly. "Actually, several dozen Silkworm crystals exist now. Only a few existed naturally until General Rune learned how to grow them properly, which I understand has taken her close to six centuries to do so." "Several dozen?" Mercury said, a ball of ice forming in her gut. "Sounds like an invasion plan to me," Mars muttered. "Invasion?" Molly asked cautiously. Reish'id grunted as Molly's complexion paled slightly. "Perhaps we should discuss matters when time isn't so pressing," he said evenly. "Sailor Mercury, will you take me to see Sailor Jupiter?" "You know she'll be royally pissed if you don't," Venus warned Mercury. "Especially after that mood she was in last week." "I know," Mercury sighed. "Listen, you two can go ahead and head back to whatever you were doing. I'll take care of things from here." Venus shot a questioning look at Mars and the priestess nodded. "Fine," Venus said slowly, "But if anything comes up, don't hesitate to scream for backup." "I'll give you a call on the communicator since screaming will most likely only give me a sore throat," Mercury replied dryly. "Deal," Mars said and looked at Molly. "You want us to take you home or anything?" Molly sighed and shook her head. "Actually, I think I'll just stay here and relax for a while. There's suddenly an awful lot on my mind that I need to think about." Venus smiled. "Hey, we understand perfectly. After all," she added as she gave Reish'id a curious look, "It's not every day that you get to meet a talking panther from another world." "I hope you don't find me too disturbing, Miss Venus," Reish'id replied with a soft growl of amusement. "She's disturbed enough as it is," Mercury replied, drawing a badly suppressed giggle from Mars and a dour look from Venus. "Since walking down 12th Avenue in broad daylight would be a very bad idea, I'm going to need to borrow the crystal to open a wormhole into her apartment." "Time to boogie," Mars said as she tugged on Sailor Venus's skirt bow. "C'mon, let's go before something else happens." Venus shrugged and waved to everyone. "Catch ya later," she said simply and started jogging down the path. Mars started jogging to keep up with her, muttering toxic comments to herself about having to run. "Are you sure you'll be alright?" Mercury asked Molly as she accepted the Silkworm crystal from Reish'id. Molly nodded. "Yeah, just give me a few hours to calm down and all. I'm sure I'll be fine," she assured her. "You know, there has to be an easier way to get in touch with you in case of emergency," Reish'id commented as a swirling maelstrom of energy opened in front of Mercury. "Perhaps," Mercury replied softly. "Follow me," she said as she stepped into the wormhole. "Thank you for your help, Molly," Reish'id said as he paused at the edge of the vortex. "Hopefully we can meet again under better circumstances." Molly blinked and could only nod in reply at his words. Strange, she thought as she watched the wormhole collapse in on itself after he had passed through. What did he mean by better circumstances? She blinked again as another wormhole opened up a few feet away from where the first had opened. As she watched, Reish'id stepped back out, picked up the forgotten backpack, shrugged to himself, and stepped back into the maelestrom. A smile started to spread across her lips at the image. He may be a big, talking panther from another world, but he has those days just like every other life-form in this universe, she thought in mild amusement as the whirling vortex vanished into nothingness. I wonder what other surprises this day has in store? she thought before she laid back against the cool grass and let her mind try to sort out the chaos in her brain. As if this day could get any stranger.... -------------------------------------------------------------------- You are going to die a slow, painful death, Leda thought darkly as the incessant knocking on her bedroom door woke her up. I just fell asleep, and now you want to talk to me. She growled softly to herself as she got out of bed and put on an old bath robe. The person on the other side of the door knocked yet again, drawing a dark look from Leda. "I'm up already," she growled, adding a decidedly profane descriptive word to the end of her statement. She marched across the room, unlocked the door, and threw it open with enough force to rattle the hinges. Seeing Mercury standing in the hallway only served to further increase her blood pressure. "Bitch, this had better be...." was as far as she got before Mercury reached out, grabbed her jaw in an iron grip, and twisted it to the left, forcing the brunette to look down the hallway. "Is he worth it?" Mercury asked softly, not currently having enough patience to deal with Leda's present temperment in her usual fashion. Leda's eyes grew impossibly wide at the sight of a black panther sitting in the middle of the hallway. "Good afternoon," Reish'id said calmly. "I hope you'll forgive the disturbance." He chuckled softly as Leda cussed in surprise at the unexpected visit. "I see you haven't changed much," he said in amusement. Mercury sighed as she released her hold on Leda and took a step back. "Do us both a favor and look before you get hostile next time, okay?" she said in a slightly weary tone. The shock had worn off to the point where Leda could think coherently. "What are you doing here?" she said in amazement, unconsciously rubbing at a sore spot on her jaw. "Visiting you," Reish'id replied dryly. "That, and I wanted to return these," he said as he held up the backpack she had left behind during her vacation in the Negaverse. "Are you awake yet?" Mercury asked, giving Leda a measured look. "I am now," Leda replied sheepishly. "Sorry about going off on you, but I had just fallen asleep...." Reish'id walked over to her and brushed his tail across the base of her throat. "I apologize for having her wake you up, but I thought that you would at least like to say hello for a few moments," he purred softly. Leda chuckled as she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "I think I can forgive the both of you," she said as she rubbed her cheek in his dark fur. "Umm, how long are you going to be here?" "I have to return the Silkworm crystal to Maq'i in roughly three hours," he explained. "Which leaves me enough time to pay you a short visit." "Mmmm," the brunette hummed to herself. "I think I can stay awake for another three hours...." Sailor Mercury coughed lightly to herself. "Just make sure you go to bed afterwards and sleep until dawn. All we need is to have to put up with your temper for another day." Leda sighed quietly and cast a sidelong glance at her friend. "Hey, Mercury?" she said slowly. "Do us a favor and disappear, and I don't mean using your powers of hypnotic invisibility." Mercury blinked and gave Reish'id a measured look. "Can I leave you two alone or should I have to worry about various denizen powers running rampant?" Leda sighed again, knowing exactly what she meant. "Everything will be fine as soon as you go away, Mercury. Thanks for dropping by and I'll see you tomorrow at school." "Leda...." Mercury started to say. The brunette fixed her with a piercing gaze. "Go," she said firmly. The vampire sighed, having enough experience in dealing with Leda to know when she was just being tempermental and when the line was being drawn. "Take care," she said quietly as she started to walk down the hallway. She paused at the end of the corridor and cast a look over her shoulder. Leda was still tightly hugging Reish'id, her cheek continuing to brush against his as she spoke softly to him. He purred softly in response, his tail arching around his body to wrap around her wrist in what looked to Mercury to be an unmistakable gesture. To each their own, Mercury thought as she remembered the fact that her own boyfriend and lover was from another world. Sighing softly to herself, she willed herself to become invisible and left the apartment, quietly closing the door behind her. Leda heard the door close and smiled to herself. Took her long enough, she thought before looking up into Reish'id's purple-on-yellow eyes. "So what should we do with our three hours of time together?" she asked softly. "If you are as tired as I think you are, very little," he admonished her. "I do need to show you something, however," he said as he extracted himself from her embrace. "It took me longer than I had anticipated, but your suit hood is finally finished." Leda blinked as she remembered about the suit. "Ooo, good. Thank you," she said as she planted a kiss on the tip of his ear. "Let me go change so you can sew it on." "Sewing it on isn't necessary and would probably only serve to restrict your head's range of motion," he explained as he carefully opened her backpack and took the folded pelt out. "Here, just put it on like this...." Leda slid the dark fur pelt over her head and blinked. "Umm, I can't see out of this thing...." she said. The hood covered her entire head and looked almost exactly like the head of a felinoid warrior, complete with rather wicked-looking canine teeth protruding from the lips. The only discernable difference was that the eyes were a featureless black, giving the head a very demonic look. "And what is this thing pressed against my chin?" "That is the control panel for the sensor systems," Reish'id explained. "Press your chin against it and move it to the right until it clicks on." It took her a few seconds to figure out how to do it right, but as soon as it clicked her senses were almost overwhelmed by the sudden deluge of input. The hood's eyes began to glow white and the whiskers began to twitch in a random pattern as the various electronics powered up. The catlike ears on the top briefly rotated like radar dishes before orienting forward. "What is this?" Leda said, her voice being electronically altered and projected from the 'mouth' of her hood. "This is too weird...." "Look at me," Reish'id said simply. The featureless white eyes blinked a couple of times as they mimicked the movements of Leda's real eyelids and focused on him. Her ears automatically reoriented on him and her whiskers twitched as they scanned the immediate area, both sending various data to the small optic device inside the hood. The device, rather than try to act as a display for her to read, used a series of specially-built microlasers to imprint the desired images directly onto her retinal nerves, in effect acting as a virtual-reality system. "Not quite," Reish'id said as she uttered a string of profane oaths. "Sorry," she apologized. "But this is way too cool.... I think this is like how Mercury's Virtual Visor works. Umm, is there a way I can filter this down some? Information is nice, but I currently don't need to see what your circulatory system looks like...." Reish'id chuckled. "You can cycle through the sensors by pressing up and down on the chin pad. It's a rather over-simplified and crude method, I'm afraid, but it was the only one I thought would prove to be effective." "Hey, not a problem...." she breathed as she spent a few minutes learning how to manipulate the various sensors. "Whoa, this is nice," she said when she came across a setting that allowed her to see thermal traces through most solid objects. "I'll bet Mercury's toy doesn't have this sort of thing." "Probably not, since the sensor suite needed is rather sizable, even if you manage to minmize it as much as possible," he explained. She continued to experiment with the settings for a few moments before the electronic eyes went dark as she switched everything off. "Mmm, this is wonderful, furball. Thank you," she said as she removed the hood and took a deep breath. "The only complaint is it gets a little stuffy after a bit. Not that it's not ventilated enough," she said quickly as he blinked, "It's just all that fur pressing against my face." He raised a fuzzy eyebrow. "I thought you said you like the feel of fur against your skin," he murmured softly as he nuzzled her neck. "But not when it's up my nose, furball," she said with a grin. "A minor detail," he growled softly as his tongue brushed across her bare throat, eliciting a soft noise from her. "Hey now," she protested softly. "Sorry, reflex," he purred quietly. "I'll bet," she said. She would have said more, but her breath was suddenly caught up in a massive yawn. She tried to suppress it and failed rather miserably. "Tired?" he asked softly. "You could say that," she admitted as she nuzzled his ear. "Perhaps we should do as your friend suggested and put you to bed," he said as his tail wrapped itself around her wrist. "Mmmmmmmmmm," she purred as she thought about it. "It'd be rude to go to sleep now that you're here and under a time limit...." "Not if I'm with you, Leda," he replied. "I don't think I'd mind holding you for a few hours. Shall we go?" he asked as he carefully picked her up in his arms. "Hey, what are you doing?" she asked. "Putting you to bed," he replied as he carried her down the hallway and into her bedroom. "After all, you wouldn't want to move once you got all comfortable and all, would you?" Leda chuckled to herself. "True, but getting really comfortable is going to take some time," she said with a sly grin. Reish'id blinked, unsure of what he had just missed. "How so?" he asked as he carefully set her down. "Forgotten already?" she asked as she toyed with the sash on her robe. "I know you're old, but I thought your kind didn't get senile. At least, not for another few centuries at least...." "Perhaps you should remind me," he growled softly as he understood what she had in mind. Part of him was genuinely concerned for her well-being given her apparent state of sleep-deprivation, but another part of him thought that she knew her limits well enough to know what she was doing. "Since you put it that way...." she replied as she tugged on the sash and let the robe fall to the floor. "Perhaps there is something to be said for being young," he purred in appreciation as he leaned forward and drew his tongue across her throat. "They say you're only as young as the one you feel...." she quipped as she ran her fingers through his short, dark fur. Reish'id declined to reply to her comment, instead concentrating on the current situation at hand. It wasn't long before most thoughts of humor left them both and the feeling of renewed love filled them, a love that even being worlds apart couldn't diminish. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Molly sighed to herself as the headache securely lodged itself in the middle of her forehead. This is going to be one of those nights, alright, she thought dourly to herself. Perhaps it's a good thing Mom still has some of that stuff with coedine in it.... The sensation of someone poking her in the shoulder scared the daylights out her and she jumped up, a piercing cry of surprise escaping past her lips before she could even think about trying to suppress it. "Whoa, calm down," Serena said as she took a step back. "What's got you all worked up?" "Serena," Molly breathed in relief as she clutched her chest, trying to calm her pounding heart by sheer force of will. "I'm sorry about that, you just scared the jeepers out of me." Serena gave her a partially amused look. "Well, seeing how I've been trying to get your attention for the past two minutes, I thought poking you would do the trick. Are you sure you're alright?" The redhead let out her breath and sat back down on the grass. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just seem to have an awful lot on my mind as of late," she said. Serena nodded and sat down next to her best friend. "So what's got you so strung out, Mol? I know you get a little scatter-brained every now and then, but I thought you didn't do the zoning-out thing." "Now there's the pot calling the kettle black," Molly teased. "Oh, hush," the blonde replied, her cheeks turning pink. "Seriously, what's bugging you bad enough to spook you?" Molly hesitated, not sure of how much she should reveal to Serena. She was still trying to figure out the strange and unexpected reaction she had gotten when she had told the blonde about her involvement with Nephlyte, but she hadn't told her everything about him and where he came from. "Well...." she said slowly, trying to stall for time while she thought furiously. A memory surfaced in the chaos in her mind and she smiled. "For one, I hear Ami has a boyfriend, one that is considerably older than she is." Serena blinked and sat back, trying to conceal the expression on her face. "Oh, yeah?" she said neutrally. Ami's been trying to keep her relationship with Tolaris out of the spotlight, she thought, but I guess the cat's out of the bag on this one.... "It's just something Melvin said he heard about," Molly said. Serena made a soft grumbling noise in her throat. "That little weasel doesn't have the first clue about relationships, Molly. He's probably got the wires in his brain crossed or something." Molly shrugged. "Perhaps," she said distantly as her mind started to withdraw in on itself again. A stray thought popped into her mind and she turned to give her friend an odd look. "I thought you and Ami were good friends," she said slowly. Serena blinked. "We are." "And you don't know anything about her boyfriend?" Serena blinked again, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. "Um, well.... I, uh...." she stammered. The corner of Molly's mouth crooked upwards into a smile. Gotcha, she thought. "Out with it, meatball head. What do you know?" "Well...." Serena said, her cheeks turning pink again. "Umm.... Ami kinda asked me to keep it quiet, given the, ah, unusual nature of their relationship and all...." Molly laughed, delighted in the knowledge that even a rather anti-social bookworm like Ami could find someone attractive, and vice versa. "So what's he like?" she asked, eager to know the details. The blonde shook her head. "Sorry, Mol, but I promised Ami I wouldn't start telling everyone about him. And I want you to promise me you won't tell anyone else about him, either," she said as she gave the redhead a mild look. She smiled and nodded. "It's okay, Serena, I promise not to tell anyone else. Although I do have to tell you that Melvin was the one who told me about Ami having a boyfriend." "Clueless little inchworm," Serena muttered beneath her breath. "Can you at least tell me his name?" Molly pleaded, wanting to know something, anything about this latest discovery. Serena chewed on the tip of her tongue, weighing her friendship with Molly and her desire to gossip against the potential harm the information could do. If it were anyone else.... she decided. "Alright, but I'll never forgive you if you tell anyone else." Molly nodded solemnly. "I won't tell a soul, Serena." "Okay...." Serena said. "His name's Tolaris Sterling, and he's.... umm, are you alright?" she asked in concern. Molly blinked. "What? Oh, I'm fine. I just could of sworn I've heard that name before. Wasn't he the one who made the papers last week when he happened to stop some guy from mugging an old lady?" Serena frowned as she searched her memory. "Not that I know of," she admitted. Besides, she thought, I thought he had been camped out in the computer room for most of the past month. The redhead shrugged. "Guess not. Still, Tolaris is a rather unusual name, don't you think?" Serena smirked. "About as unusual as Serena," she said. Molly giggled. "You have a point," she said with a smile. Deep inside her mind, however, she was far from smiling. I know I've heard that name before, I just know I have, she thought. C'mon, where did I hear it? The blonde stood up and stretched. "Listen, I've got to head home for dinner. Don't want to be late for that." Molly chuckled. "Now if you could just have the same viewpoint about being late to school, you'd be all set." Serena sighed. "It's not my fault it's so hard to get up in the morning," she protested. "Especially when it's for something as boring as classes." "Of course, I understand completely," Molly said soothingly. "Go on, I'll see you at school tomorrow." "Don't remind me," Serena muttered darkly. "See you around!" she said and walked off. Molly chuckled to herself for a few moments. She may be a bit of a ditz and more than a little clumsy, she thought to herself, but she certainly has a way of cheering people up. The moment of humor passed and she felt her mind descending into chaos once more. Wait, she thought, I need to try to piece all of this together. Tolaris. Now where did I hear that name? Tolaris.... Tolaris.... Several voices started speaking softly in the depths of her subconscious and she sat up suddenly, her eyes widening as various puzzle pieces started to fall into place of their own accord.... Forgive me for visiting you at this hour, Miss Baker, I am Dragoon Commander Tolaris.... Guess what I heard in the rumor mill the other day? Ami's got a boyfriend, and an older one at that.... She's been specially trained in the seven-hundred-year-old Dragoon unarmed hand-to-hand combat techniques.... Okay, his name's Tolaris Sterling.... How do you know of the Negaverse? I thought only the Sailor Scouts and their allies knew of it.... Commander Tolaris has taught you well, considering he never mastered the accent on that particular dialect.... "No way...." Molly breathed softly as the various snippets of conversation blended together to paint a disturbing picture. Wait, let me think this one through, she thought. Tolaris is the one who brought me Nephlyte's crystal. Tolaris is also the name of Ami's boyfriend. Coincidence. Ami said she was trained in what Mina called the Dragoon unarmed combat techniques. Tolaris said he was the commander of the Dragoons. Coincidence again? Tolaris taught Sailor Mercury a language and apparently taught her well enough to converse with a native. So perhaps Mercury and the other Sailor Scouts hired him to help teach them the language. However, he also taught Ami martial arts. Both require a great deal of practice and attention. Molly shook her head gently as something still didn't quite make sense. Okay, she thought, let's back up for a moment. Mina said seven-hundred-year- old Dragoon techniques, which might refer to Tolaris's age rather than the origin of the techniques. If Nephlyte could live to be fourteen hundred, which still doesn't quite sound right but anyway, and if both Nephlyte and Tolaris are from the Negaverse, then it would make sense, such as it were, if Tolaris could be seven hundred years old. I wonder what it's like to have lived for that long? she mused. She sighed once more as she got the sensation of the truth dangling just beyond her proverbial fingertips. What is it? she screamed in the depths of her mind, What am I missing?! How do you know of the Negaverse? the voice in her subconscious said. I thought only the Sailor Scouts and their allies knew of it.... Her green eyes widened as the realization came down on her mind like a ton of bricks. How would Ami know about the Negaverse unless she was somehow involved with the Sailor Scouts? Commander Tolaris has taught you well.... Guess what? Ami's got a boyfriend.... His name's Tolaris.... She's been specially trained.... Only the Sailor Scouts and their allies knew of it.... Only the Sailor Scouts.... The extreme shock of the thought overwhelmed her and, for the first time since she learned how to talk, Molly cussed softly to herself. And had anyone been around to hear her and ask why she did so, the explanation she could have given was more than enough to justify it. -------------------------------------------------------------------- "General Rune?" the voice asked softly. Rune blinked and looked up from the stack of reports Commander K'tal had managed to produce on the Vresh'tan carriers. I definitely need a break from all of this technical stuff, she thought darkly to herself as her mind focused on the figures standing before her desk. "Sergeant, go find a large pot of ma'cha and some cups," she said to the nearest bodyguard. "Any new developments?" she asked when he had left. Captain Ael'ien nodded. "We've discovered something rather interesting about how those carriers are communicating. We weren't able to pick up any of the usual ship-to-ship signals after the sensor nets came back on-line and we knew that they had to be communicating somehow. Then the lieutenant here started to wonder if they were using telepaths to relay communications and asked if we could detect them," she said, gesturing to the young communications lieutenant quietly standing beside her. "Telepaths?" Rune asked incrediously, her gaze alternating between the two women. "But I thought the carriers were too far apart to make telepathic broadcasts ineffective." Ael'ien made a face. "We thought so too, but a few of the pilots flying the Red Wing transports between the carriers are telepathic. They didn't pick up on the psi-energy at first, but after we told them about the possiblity, they started actively looking for it. Whatever those carriers are doing, it involves a lot of psi-energy, both focused and unfocused." Rune's expression went vaccant for a moment as she thought about the unconventional and supposedly impracticable tactic. She looked up as her bodyguard returned with a ten-gallon silver canister and a stack of ceramic mugs. "I asked for pot, Sergeant, not a fuel tank," she said in faint amusement. "Begging the General's pardon, we know what we're doing," he replied as he set the canister on a conveniently empty desk. "Chief Mal'ek sends his regards and says he can have a complete refill available with ten minute's notice." Rune couldn't quite suppress the smile on her lips. "Is he anticipating a sudden desire to overindulge on ma'cha this morning?" Her bodyguard gave her an even look. "With all due respect, ma'am, we've known you long enough to know how you get in a crisis situation. The chief was surprised you waited this long to send someone for some ma'cha." The dark-haired general merely shook her head in wonder. "Give him my compliments next time you see him, Sergeant." He nodded once and took up his duty position, casually fading into semi-invisibility in the way that all bodyguards do when trying to remain unobtrusive. "So, Captain, I know about your proficienty in psionics and telepathy, but what gave you the idea of checking for psi-energy between the carriers?" Rune asked as she stood up and walked over to the tank of ma'cha. Ael'ien coughed lightly. "Actually, General Rune, it was Lieutenant D'mer's idea, not mine." Rune frowned slightly as she sipped at her ma'cha, ignoring the pain of the near-scalding temperature of the liquid. "Your idea, Lieutenant?" she said in surprise. D'mer's cheeked turned a light shade of azure. "Yes, ma'am," she said rather softly. "So what gave you the idea?" Rune asked. "Well, ma'am, when the fixed-site posts reset themselves and reacquired their satellite links, we were able to scan the carriers for any signals. The thing was, they weren't picking up anything from them. I spent several minutes doing distant-end diagnostics and made absolutely sure that there wasn't some sort of lingering hardware problem. The sensor nets were working fine, which meant that the carriers weren't transmitting anything, not even proximity packets." Rune frowned at the unfamiliar terminology. "One moment, Lieutenant, I'm not a communications expert. What exactly is a proximity packet?" she said as she took a large swallow of ma'cha, making a slight face as she burned her tongue on the steaming liquid. "When large aircraft travel in close formation, they continually transmit a carrier wave with an exponentially degenerating power curve. Sensors on the outside hulls pick up the signals and read their strengths. If they receive a signal above a certain energy level, it means they're drifting too close to the transmitting aircraft and warns the navigator. The whole thing is a safety measure designed to prevent collisions," the young lieutenant explained. "And the carriers aren't using this safety feature?" Rune asked. Ael'ien shook her head. "No, they're not, which is highly unusual. The proximity sensors were deisgned well before the Vresh'tan carriers were, so we know they have them. And as close as the carriers are flying now, it would be not only dangerous but stupid not to use them." "And Nop'tera is no where close to being stupid," Rune said quietly as she tried to take a sip of ma'cha. She blinked in surprise, peered into the empty mug, and sighed softly to herself. "Continue with your explanation," she said as she refilled her mug. She glanced up in time to see her bodyguards quickly removing traces of bemusement from their faces. I'll have to chew out the first one who laughs, she thought with a sigh of patient suffering. "Well, I knew they had to be communicating somehow," D'mer continued. "If they didn't, they'd collide the first time someone made a course correction to adjust for the wind. I was about to ask one of the drone pilots to start searching for some sort of physical connection between the carriers, such as mono-filiment wire, when Captain Ael'ien walked past my station and her Psi-Corp patch caught my eye." Rune blinked. "And so you thought about telepathy?" The azure blush on D'mer's cheeks deepened a shade. "Not at first," she admitted. "I knew about the effective-range limitation, but after trying to detect some other sort of transmission, I decided to bring my suggestion to the Captain's attention." "Which led to the discovery of the carriers' method of communication," Ael'ien said. "Excellent," Rune said as she sipped a fresh mug of ma'cha. "And I assume your team is busy intercepting their communications?" The telepath blinked and coughed discreetly. "This is where the bad news comes in," she said carefully. "We can listen in, so to speak, on any of the unfocused broadcasts, but not on the focused ones. Those are a direct mind-to- mind link of some sort." Rune frowned. "So what are they saying on the unfocused broadcasts?" "It's little more than low-level synaptic static," Ael'ien explained. "In essence, they're using that to gauge the distance between the carriers instead of using the standard proximity sensors." The general sighed quietly to herself and tossed back the rest of the ma'cha in her mug. "At least there is some good out of this," she said, giving Lieutenant D'mer an appraising look. "Captain, I want you to return to the operations center and continue to monitor the situation. If you haven't done so already, inform Ra'en of your discoveries and keep him updated as well." Ael'ien saluted and spun around on her heel, quickly exiting the general's office without seeming to hurry. D'mer was about to return to her post when Rune turned her attention towards her, rooting the young lieutenant in place. "Permission to return to my post, ma'am," she asked rather softly. Rune shook her head. "Stand fast, Lieutenant. You and I need to have a little talk. Grab a cup of ma'cha and follow me," she said as she made her way over towards the tiny briefing room. D'mer hesitated for a moment until one of Rune's bodyguards discreetly made a hurry-up-and-move gesture. She nodded and went after Rune, pausing only long enough to fill a mug with ma'cha. "Have a seat," Rune said as she gestured to a chair and closed the door behind D'mer. She noticed the slightly shaky way she sat down and a hint of a smile crept across her face. "At ease, Lieutenant, you're not in any sort of trouble or anything. I just wanted to ask you a few questions." D'mer nodded as she did her best to appear relaxed while sitting straight up in her chair, looking to Rune like someone trying to act calm when they were standing before a firing squad. The general took a seat across from D'mer and leaned back in her chair, casually sipping her ma'cha. "Lieutenant, how old are you?" Rune asked gently as she studied the way D'mer's uniform hung on her somewhat wispy body. Can't be older than two hundred, she thought, two-fifty at best. "Two hundred and seventeen, ma'am," D'mer replied as she self-consciously ran her fingers through her bright amber hair. "And how long have you been in the military?" Rune asked. Another azure blush sprang to D'mer's cheeks. "Close to thirty years, ma'am," she said, a faint note of nervousness making its way into her tone. Rune blinked and set her mug down on the table, clearly impressed. While the regulations stipulated that you had to be at least sixteen decades old, the vast majority of society felt that anyone under the age of two hundred was too young to be risking their lives in a profession as hazardous as the military. "Might I inquire why you started at such a young age?" Rune asked. The lieutenant blinked and glanced down at her untouched mug of ma'cha. "With all due respect, ma'am, that's not something I would like to discuss." Rune blinked in momentary surprise before she nodded. "Very well, then, Lieutenant. What exactly prompted you to apply for a commission?" D'mer's blush deepened by a shade. "Well, ma'am, to be honest, my section chief threatened to physically carry me over to the academy if I didn't apply myself." Rune blinked again. "Your section chief?" she asked in puzzlement. D'mer blushed an even darker shade of azure. "Yes, ma'am. When I signed up with the military, I was an enlisted soldier in an engineering detatchment assigned to the Northern Division. I had a bit of a knack for electronics, especially communications gear, and she felt that I was wasting my talents working as an enlisted soldier out in the field. Hence my application to the academy." The general took a sip of her ma'cha, more to stall for time while she thought rather than out of thirst. "Why did you select communications if your background was engineering?" she asked. "It was her suggestion, since she thought I was more comfortable with the communications gear than with anything else," D'mer admitted. "And how long have you been an officer?" Rune asked, making a mental calculation and suppressing the urge to take another sip of ma'cha. "Almost eight years," D'mer said quietly. Rune was suddenly glad she hadn't taken that sip of ma'cha, else she would probably have spewed it out in surprise. "You made full lieutenant in only eight years?" she said incrediously, knowing the average promotion time from cadet to full lieutenant was on the order of fifty or sixty years. When D'mer had told her she had only been in for thirty years, she thought that she had gone straight in as an officer instead of spending twenty years as an enlisted soldier. "I made ensign straight out of the academy," D'mer explained. "They made that decision based on my class standings and my enlisted personnel file." The general sat up and punched a button on the tiny console recessed into her end of the table. "Have someone get me Lieutenant D'mer's personnel file," she said into the microphone. There was a faint blip of an acknowledgement and Rune closed the circuit. She glanced up and saw the color draining out of D'mer's features. "Lieutenant D'mer, I'm going to be honest with you," Rune said evenly. "If you are half as good as I think you are, you're going to be reassigned to a section where your communication skills would be more useful to me." "Begging the general's pardon...." D'mer started to say. "Enough, Lieutenant," Rune said firmly. "Now how long ago did you make full lieutenant?" "Last year," she replied, her voice barely audible. The door quietly opened and a records clerk stepped in, placing a rather sizable black folder by Rune's elbow and refilling her mug of ma'cha from a small pot. She set the pot down in the middle of the table and quietly made a hasty retreat, closing the door behind her. Rune sighed as she eyed the pot. "You would almost think they want me to overload my bladder this morning," she grumbled before she turned her attention to D'mer's personnel file. "Let's see," Rune said as she spent ten minutes skimming over the contents of the file. "Backgrounds in field electronics and communications.... spent a full year in the Outreaches.... several commendations for superior performance, including one from a general officer.... interesting, Nephlyte didn't give those out easily to enlisted soldiers," she commented as she read the rather flowery citation. "Standard combat training.... the usual horde of routine paperwork, all oustanding.... now this is odd," Rune said as she looked up at D'mer. "You were awarded the Dragoon Legion of Merit?" "It was during a joint training exercise," D'mer explained, the azure hue continuing to deepen on her cheeks. "I was able to decypher most of the encrypted traffic on their secure networks, all the way up to level 5-Aerce. The result of that was a restructuring of their encryption methods." Rune examined the award's citation and blinked at the signature scrawled on the very bottom. Dragoon Commander Tolaris, she thought. If he thought her worthy of an award usually only given to Dragoons for exceptional reasons.... "You do know this makes you an honorary Dragoon, right?" she said slowly. "That's what Commander Tolaris told me when he awarded it to me, but I never had any desire to work for Intelligence," D'mer said. Rune nodded absently as she skimmed through the rest of D'mer's file. "I must say, Lieutenant, there are very, very few people with records like yours. How do you like your current position in the command center?" D'mer's aquamarine eyes blinked. "I like it rather well, ma'am. I know how to do my job to everyone's expectations and it's something I find to be personally rewarding." Rune closed the file and gave D'mer an even look. "How would you like to work directly for me?" The young lieutenant blinked in surprise. "Ma'am?" "After going through the appropriate training, you'll be assigned to the Red Wings as a field communications expert," Rune explained. "If your unit is deployed, you'll go with them and take your instructions from the team leader, but until then you report directly to me as part of my personal communications team." D'mer blinked again. "Red Wings?" she echoed. "But they were disbanded three thousand years ago and no longer exist." Rune smiled. "That's right, Lieutenant D'mer, they don't exist." "But I thought you just said...." D'mer said before the realization began to sink in. "You do have the field background needed and your record speaks for itself about your potential," Rune said as she gestured to the black folder. "And seeing how four of my best teams are now radioactive air pollution, I could use a few more good soldiers." D'mer blinked and looked down at her now lukewarm mug of ma'cha. "If I may have a few minutes to think about it...." she said softly. "It will be a very difficult challenge for you, D'mer," Rune said softly. "The physical training is the most demanding program we have, and while you're not physically ideal for the task, your other qualifications more than make up for the deficiencies," she explained as she glanced over D'mer's wispy frame. "Besides, a young girl like yourself could use a little muscle here and there, if only to attract others to your bedside," she said with amusement. D'mer's skin color almost went completely azure. "And what's the price to be paid for accepting this?" she asked. Rune sighed quietly, knowing she would have to be honest about this one. "The price, D'mer, is you will appear to die in an accident and cease to exist to society. You will be given a new name, one of your own choosing, a new face using minor cosmetic surgery, and a new life. No friends or family, no ties to society, and no past. You'll be starting over with a clean slate." D'mer paled. "No friends or family...?" Rune nodded. "I know that you have no living relatives left, which is why I'm offering this job to you. Breaking off friendships is hard enough, but no one could expect you to turn your back on your family." D'mer's hand was trembling slightly as she reached out and picked up the mug of ma'cha. She slowly sipped at it as she thought, her gaze going vacant. Something clicked in her mind and she quickly refocused on the present. "And if something should happen to me, like what happened this morning?" "The Red Wings don't exist," Rune said quietly. "They haven't existed for three thousand years, and they will stay that way. Very, very few people even know as much as you know now, Lieutenant, and it is going to be kept that way. As far as everyone is concerned, those teams were never there this morning." "And so it'll be the same with me in a situation?" D'mer said bluntly. Rune nodded. "Unfortunately. If a team is captured, we'll do everything we can to get you released as long as no one knows. The reason I'm telling you this now is because you need to know the truth in order for you to make the right decision." D'mer nodded, slightly sickened at the thought. "If you'll forgive a rather mercenary question, General, but what's in it for me?" Despite her best efforts, a smile spread across Rune's face. "The money is rather substantial, even by my standards, and you get access to all of the latest technology. Priority access to most resources, especially when you're on an assignment, and very little to worry about from us. We give you the tools to do the job and turn you loose. What exactly you do, how you do it, when, where, who, that's all up to your team as long as the job gets done. And whatever you decide to bring back is yours. The only exception to that is if its information, in which case we get a copy. Anything else is yours." D'mer blinked. "So, hypothetically speaking, say I join up, go on a mission, and on the way out I happen to see a nice set of frequency scanners just lying around...." "Then hypothetically speaking, as soon as your mission is officially over, you get to spend some quality time playing with your new toy," Rune said. "I take it one of your hobbies is custom electronics?" D'mer nodded. "Has been since I was fifty." "Good electronics are hard to find these days," Rune mused. "Especially the higher-powered ones." D'mer's sigh spoke volumes about the weight suddenly dumped upon her soul. She sat back and sipped at her ma'cha, her gaze once again going vacant as her thoughts turned themselves inward. "How long will the initial training take?" she asked distantly. Rune thought for a moment. "It all depends on how fast you can learn. It takes about a month for the average new recruit to get through the basics. Once that's over with, you'll be assigned to a unit and placed on back-up status. From there, you'll learn as you go. Once the unit captain feels you're ready, you'll be placed on active status and deploy as an integrated member of the unit." "How large is a typical unit?" D'mer asked, still thinking hard. "It depends on the mission, but twelve is a nice, even number." "And how many women are assigned to these units?" D'mer asked, looking up at Rune with an odd look in her aquamarine eyes. Rune blinked at the unexpected question. "Very few, I've heard." "Sounds like a challenge," D'mer said softly. "Indeed it is," Rune replied. Lieutenant D'mer suddenly stood up and straightened her uniform. "So when do I leave?" she asked, a gleam appearing in her eyes. "When would you like to die?" Rune answered. D'mer thought for a moment. "You know, I've been trying to build a type-4 sensor suite for the headsets found in TacSats for quite some time now," she said slowly. Rune blinked. "Oh?" she said, knowing that any unauthorized construction of military hardware above type-3 was strictly illegal. "It's a shame that I miswired the power supply and electrocuted myself," D'mer continued with an impish grin. Rune nodded. "Nice, neat, won't attract undue attention, and is something plausible. I like your style, Lieutenant. You'll receive full honors, of course, despite your obviously illegal activity. When did you do this?" D'mer glanced at her watch. "I go off shift in three hours. Give me four hours after that to change, get something to eat, and start to relax with my favorite hobby." Rune nodded and opened another channel on her tiny communications panel. She waited for the secure link to be established before speaking into the microphone. "V'Kreeth, I want you to come to my office and escort our newly promoted Lieutenant Commander down to supply. She's volunteering to go on the field training exercise in the northern mountain range and will need to be issued the appropriate gear." There was a soft beep of an acknolwedgement and the circuit was closed. Rune looked up in time to catch the surprised look on D'mer's face. "Is there a problem, Commander?" "I knew I'd make rank eventually, ma'am, but not this fast," she said with a grin. "Who'd imagine that anyone could make Lieutenant Commander in just eight years?" Rune shook her head. "Trust me, D'mer, with the price you're paying, the extra weight on your rank patch is just a small compensation." "Understood, General Rune," D'mer said, snapping into attention. "Just one thing, if I may." General Rune looked at her curiously. "Of course." "Call me Azure," she said with a faint smile. "My mother used to call me that when she was teasing me about blushing." The door quietly opened and a shadowy form silently walked in, seeming to be no more than a pool of darkness with two dark gray eyes. "You sent for me, General?" he said softly, his voice sounding like dry leaves whispering over stone. Rune stood up and nodded. "V'Kreeth, this is Lieutenant Commander Azure, my new communications specialist. She'll be attending the field training camp we have up in the northern mountain range after tomorrow." V'Kreeth nodded. "Understood. If you'll come with me," he said to D'mer and left the room. D'mer only paused long enough to salute Rune before she spun around on her heel and followed Rune's bodyguard out the door. The door closed and Rune sat back down, opening D'mer's personnel file once more. Something tells me I'm going to need to keep a close eye on this one, she thought as she slowly read each entry in the black folder. A mental list of preparations unfolded in her mind and she reached out to open the communications line to Red Wing command center hidden deep within the northern mountain range. "Get me Colonel Azi'mar," she said into the microphone. "I've got a new soldier for him, one with a high level of potential." She waited until she could hear a soft voice coming from the speaker, then began to talk to the open air about what was on her mind. -------------------------------------------------------------------- "Hold it," Alex said as she leaned against what she dearly hoped was an inert rock. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I need to stop and rest for a few minutes. That last one nearly did me in." Susan frowned, her expression adding a sharper cast to her demonic form. "Are you injured?" she asked as she absently rubbed the slash on her forearm that was the result of their most recent encounter with the inhabitants of the neo-void. "Physically, no," Alex said as she stretched her leg muscles. "But to be honest, this place is really, really starting to get to me. And I don't mean just in a mental sense," she added. "Now you know what we go through all our lives," Myst said softly as she readjusted her position in Alex's arms. "How badly are you hurt?" Mephisto asked as he tried to get a better look at the wound on Susan's arm. Susan's wings twitched as she gave him an even look. "I assure you it is of no consequence. It is merely a minor cut that will be fully healed within the hour," she said. Alex sighed to herself at the edge to Susan's otherwise alluring voice. One of these years, she thought, someone is going to explain to me how it's possible to have a voice that can make you desire her and fear her at the same time. "And how far do we have to go?" she asked warily. Mephisto turned around to stare into the darkness that surrounded them. "Another ten minutes of walking should put us at the front gate," he said. "Great," she said as she sat down and removed her shoes for a few moments. "These shoes are great for ballroom dancing, but they're at the bottom of my list of shoes I like running in." "So what do we plan to do once we reach the gate?" Myst asked as she leapt out of Alex's lap and briefly stretched. Susan raised a slender eyebrow. "We knock and ask this Balor to give us Michelle's soul," she said simply, drawing looks of surprise from everyone. "Just like that, huh?" Alex said, a faint edge to her voice. She blinked and glanced away when Susan's glowing red eyes fixed her with a piercing gaze. "Do you have a better suggestion?" Susan said softly. "Perhaps it would be better if you explained to us what exactly you have in mind," Mephisto said carefully, privately agreeing with Alex's stated disbelief at the simplicity and audacity of the plan. "Very well," Susan said, turning around to scan the surrounding area for any danger. "I am seeking a human soul to try to reanimate as a gift for my human.... companion," she said, placing a strange emphasis on the last word. "I have heard that a Shinma named Balor collects souls and have asked you, Mephisto, to guide me to his keep." Mephisto blinked and exchanged glances with Alex and Myst. "And what of Myst?" he asked. "A friend I made during my travel," Susan said. Alex shook her head in wonder as she put her shoes back on. "You know, Sue, that story almost sounds like it'll work." Susan's wings flexed as she cast a look over her shoulder. "Who said it's not the truth?" she asked archly. "Cover story aside, you think he's going to give you a soul out of the kindness of his heart?" Alex wondered as she picked up Myst and stood up. "Everyone has their price," Susan said softly. "So what are you going to offer him in exchange?" Mephisto asked quietly. Susan merely turned around and looked at him, one slender eyebrow arched up in mild amusement. "Leave that to me," she said, her voice taking on a faint note of anticipation. A small flag suddenly went up in Alex's mind. "Umm, Sue? Don't tell me you're planning on doing what I think you're going to do...." she said. She saw the corners of Susan's mouth twitch in amusement and she sighed, knowing exactly what she had in mind. "Again, do you have a better suggestion?" Susan said lightly. "Just promise me one thing," Alex said wearily. "Don't make it last for more than an hour, and whatever you do, don't let us hear you two." Mephisto frowned as Susan chuckled quietly to herself, wondering what he was missing. "If I may ask...." he started to say. "You don't wanna know," Alex muttered as she started scratching behind Myst's gray ears. "Trust me, you really don't." Mephisto was inclined to agree with her assessment, but something was still bothering him about the whole deal. After a few more moments of thought he turned to Susan for an explanation, but the look in her glowing red eyes and the smile on her lips told him all he needed to know. "You're a succubus, aren't you?" he asked softly. He heard a sharp hiss behind him as Myst accidentally clawed Alex again in her state of shock. "You're about this close to getting forcibly declawed," Alex muttered to the Shinma as she tried to calm her down. Susan nodded. "In part. My father was an inccubus and my mother was human, so my demonic heritage is that of a succubus. However, because I am not a pure succubus, what powers I do have is somewhat weakened." "But you do have them nonetheless," Mephisto said as evenly as he could. Susan tilted her head to one side as she regarded him curiously. "Don't tell me that you fear a half-breed succubus," she said mildly. "Fear would not have been my first choice to describe it, but yes," he replied. "I've heard of your kind and know what they can do." Alex sighed as her gaze alternated between the demon and the Shimna. "Why is it I never seem to understand what they're talking about?" she asked Myst. The cat bristled momentarily. "Trust me, if you don't know, then you are better off not knowing." "I still don't get it," Alex continued. "I mean, I think she's told me everything she can do with her kiss and tried explaining about her supposedly not-quite-controllable appetite for pleasure, but what's the problem?" "May I?" Mephisto asked. Susan raised an eyebrow. "By all means," she said with faint amusement. "According to the creation legends, when the Underworld was forged out of Chaos, Hades knew he would need a great deal of help to keep everything under control, so he tore off a fragment of the AEther and began to make his minions. While the demons were created to maintain the Underworld, he created specific forms for specific tasks. The fire demons for the Lake of Fire, for instance. When he came to the task of harvesting the souls of those living in the sin of Lust, he created a breed of women whose beauty would entice and whose kiss could send a soul to the Underworld. Hence, the succubi," Mephisto explained. Susan nodded. "Your knowledge of the ancient legends is impressive." Alex frowned. "I'll admit it sounds better than evolving from monkeys, but I don't see where the fear factor comes in." "Perhaps I should explain," Susan said. "I'll admit this gave me some difficulty at first, but I got used to the idea. In essence, I and the other succubi were created for the sole purpose of seducing and killing." The blonde blinked as the concept finally sunk into her brain. "Wait a sec," she said slowly. "You mean to tell me you were created to sleep around and, once that's finished, yank your victim's soul out through his nose?" "Or her nose, or out of whatever happens to be convenient at the time, but that is, for all intents and practical purposes, correct," Susan replied. Alex decided to sit down before she fell down, cursing softly beneath her breath as she landed harder on her rear than she had intended. "Precisely," Susan said in response to the choice of profanity, drawing a not-quite-amused look from the blonde. "You know...." Alex said, her voice suddenly sounding very tired, "This explains quite a lot about some of the stuff you used to do. And just between you and me, I'd rather not have known about this little detail of your nature." "You asked," Susan replied. Alex just sighed and shook her head. "Just one question, Sue. You ever kill anyone by accident with your kiss?" Susan blinked at the unexpected question and thought for a moment. "Hmm. I don't quite remember, to be honest, but if I did, it was when I was still a child and learning how to use my powers." "For some reason, I can't picture you as a child," Alex said as she stood back up and cradled Myst in her arms. The succubus laughed softly to herself. "Granted my childhood wasn't the most pleasant of experiences, but it was.... interesting." "May I ask how old you are?" Mephisto asked quietly. Susan's light mood evaporated like fog as she gave him a mild look. "No, you may not," she said evenly. "She's rather touchy about her age," Alex offered. "Indeed," Mephisto replied, returning Susan's gaze. "Perhaps we can have a discussion about your knowledge of divination and astrology at a later date?" "Perhaps," Susan replied. Alex just sighed. "There they go again, talking about something that makes very little sense to us ordinary humans." Mephisto was about to explain when suddenly both he and Susan spun around and took up defensive positions against the darkness behind them. Startled, Myst leapt out of Alex's arms and crouched low to the ground, her gray fur sticking out in all directions. "A little warning would be nice," Alex hissed as she dropped into a combat stance and started glancing around her. "Who's out there?" Susan said sharply, her glowing red eyes narrowed as she peered into the shadows. "Perhaps that should be my question to you," replied an inhuman voice. "It is not often that I find.... visitors near my keep." "Lord Balor, I assume?" Susan said, flexing her wings slightly. A humanoid figure stepped out of the darkness, completely enshrouded in a massive black cape and cowl. "Indeed I am," he replied. The cowl shifted position slightly as if his head had moved to look around. "And who might you be?" "Susan Meiou," Susan replied with a slight nod of her head. "Meiou?" Balor asked, his voice betraying momentary surprise. "That is not a clan name I am familiar with," he said slowly. The cowl shifted again and a low rumbling sound emerged from its depths. "I thought you prefered not to involve yourself with any of the clans, Mephisto." "Indeed I do not," Mephisto replied. "I have been asked to serve as a guide to your keep, nothing more." "Ever the disinterested observer," Balor said, his voice laced with scorn. "So what brings you here this time, Watcher?" "I asked him to bring me here so that you and I could have a discussion," Susan said, flexing her wings slightly. "I understand you collect souls for your own purposes." "Indeed I do," Balor said slowly, his voice rumbling in his chest. "And what is your interest in my.... hobby?" Susan tilted her head to one side as she regarded the cloaked Shinma very carefully. "I am looking for a human soul to give as a.... gift for my human companion," she said as she gestured to Alex. The dark cowl shifted towards Alex and the blonde shrank back slightly under the sudden scrutiny. "A human?" he said, his voice tinged with surprise. "Might I ask how you managed to acquire her?" Susan saw the expression on Alex's face at the thought of being considered as property and did her best to ignore it. "You would be surprised what you find lying around," she said lightly. "Much, as I would imagine, like the way you find some of your souls." "Indeed," he said as he nodded. "And what of this one?" he asked as he gestured to the gray cat on the ground. Myst bristled slightly at the sudden attention, trying to relax as Mephisto made a discreet gesture for her to do so. "An ally I made during my travels," Susan explained. "We were travelling in the same general direction and thought it best to travel together for each other's protection." Balor nodded in understanding. "But obviously it didn't work out quite as well as you had hoped," he said, gesturing to the still-healing slash on her arm. Susan smiled. "They had the same idea." "Indeed...." Balor said softly to himself. "So you say you are looking for a human soul, and have come here to ask me about it." Susan nodded, her expression turning serious. "I understand that they are quite fragile and next to useless as sources of power, but they do have a few redeeming qualities." Mephisto silently edged next to Alex and gently placed a restraining hand on her wrist, an unspoken gesture for her to remain silent as Susan and Balor talked. She sighed quietly and kept her facial expression neutral, vowing to have a not-so-polite discussion with Susan about the matter. Balor laughed quietly. "Are we talking about humans or their souls?" Susan raised a delicate eyebrow. "Their souls, of course. Believe me, my Lord, humans may not be as strong or as enduring as you or I, but what they lack physically is more than made up for in their strength of character." "Perhaps," he mused as he looked Alex over once more. "But while their souls are for the most part devoid of power, I do have an occasional use for them," he said evenly. "I am willing to negotiate for one," Susan replied. "While I don't have a direct use for one, it would keep her.... occupied, and that in turn would be most.... beneficial to me," she explained with a hint of a smile in her voice. "And that is worth a meaningful price." "And what sort of payment did you have in mind?" Balor asked. "That depends," Susan said slowly. "If you do indeed have a human soul you could bear to part with, I should like to see it first." The dark cowl shifted slightly and tilted to one side, still concealing what lay beneath in darkness. He regarded her for a moment before something shifted beneath his cloak and emerged from a sleeve. "Will this do?" he said as an appendage swathed in darkness held up a faintly glowing ball of light. Susan reached out to touch it, moving slow enough to ensure he knew what she was doing. As her fingers brushed the edges of the intangible sphere, she got the fleeting impression of a dormant consciousness contained within. "Alexis," she said softly as she held out her other hand, "Come here." Alex had to bite her tongue to keep herself from verbally lashing out at Susan, instead hesitantly walking up next to her. Susan reached out and took her hand, drawing her closer to the glowing ball. "This is what you wanted, correct?" Susan said softly. Alex blinked and looked at the soul carefully, studying the color of the glow. Well, she thought, at least the color matches the color of her sigil. However.... "It looks so.... dim...." she said, trying to keep her voice soft and even. "The color will improve once you start feeding it the energy strands I gave you," Susan explained, as if talking to a child. "That is, if we can reach an agreement on a price," she said as she looked up at Balor. "You have yet to tell me what you're willing to give to me as payment," Balor rumbled. Susan smiled and turned to Alex, giving her a gentle kiss on her temple. "Go back with Mephisto," she said gently. "I will catch up with you once this matter has been finished." Alex blinked. "But Sue...." Susan reached up and stilled her lips with a finger. "Go," she said. Alex cast a nervous glance towards Balor and the soul before gently sliding her hand free from Susan's grasp and moving over next to Mephisto, casting a backwards glance at Susan as she went. "I find it rather.... odd that one such as you would have another female, and a human at that, as a.... companion," Balor said softly. Susan regarded him with open curiosity. "Given the shortness of her lifespan, she is little more than a diversion for me. But she does it well, I have to admit, and talent such as that is hard to come by." The dark cowl shifted as Balor tilted his head again. "Indeed.... and might one inquire about her talents?" A small, rather predatory smile crossed Susan's demonic face for a moment. "I'm afraid her talents are out of the question," she said slowly. "Her techniques do leave a bit to be desired, however, but that is hardly her fault as she can only work with what she has." A deep rumbling sound emerged from the depths of Balor's cloak. "Indeed," he said softly. "And what did you do for a diversion before you found her?" She gave him an apprasing look. "The same thing. Some hobbies only get better with each century, wouldn't you agree?" "Indeed," Balor said again. "Perhaps we should arrange a trade of sorts." Susan raised an eyebrow. "You mean my hobby for yours?" "Does the idea bother you?" "Of course not," Susan said with a hint of a smile. "Even diversions need an occasional diversion." The cloak stirred momentarily as if caught by an unfelt wind. "Well then, if we're trading a hobby for a hobby, I think I can spare a soul from my collection," he said evenly. Susan bowed her head slightly. "With your permission, Lord Balor, I would like my companion to return to my keep and take the soul with her. There is much work to be done on it first, and unforunately patience isn't one of her stronger characteristics." "Impatience is usually not desired in your sort of hobby," he said as the indistinct appendage held out the soul to her. "Who says we don't teach each other certain things?" she said mildly as she took the soul from him and motioned to Mephisto. He approached and she gently handed him the glowing sphere. "Here, take this and return to the keep with Alexis. Lord Balor and I have some more matters to.... discuss, and I will return when finished." Mephisto nodded. "Myst will guide you back when you return," he said slowly. Susan frowned slightly as she saw Myst cradled in Mephisto's arms, a strange look in the kitten's red eyes. "She'll be waiting for you here." "Very well. Take good care of Alexis, Mephisto," she cautioned. Mephisto nodded and whispered something to Myst. The kitten immediately started to lose her shape, becoming little more than a wispy black mass that could easily be mistaken for a trick of the mind. Susan lost track of her almost instantly and was about to say something when she felt the lightest of weights settle around her, clinging to her evening gown like a second layer of fabric. Clever, she thought as she turned around to face Balor. "Shall we go, my Lord?" she said respectfully as she extended her hand to him. "Indeed," he said as something indistinct emerged from the folds of his cloak to touch her hand. Space suddenly seemed to twist and bend around them for the briefest of moments before it unfolded back to normal, leaving nothing but displaced air in their place. "Are they gone?" Alex asked as she glanced around. "They are," Mephisto replied as he discreetly edged away from her, sensing what was about to occur. "I don't believe the bitch did that!" she growled. "Perhaps you should consider the end result of her choice of actions," he suggested, trying to calm her down before she went ballistic and knowing it was probably a futile effort. "Of all the arrogant, conceited, stuck-up, over-bearing...!" He shook his head to himself as Alex's language started to degenerate into somewhat graphic profanity. Hopefully she will calm down once we return to the mana pool, he thought to himself as he knelt down and started to imprint a marker into the ground so he could find his way back to their current spot. "....and then she goes off to get laid while leaving my butt stuck in the middle of nowhere in Hell's prison!" she fumed to the general area. "Not only that, she takes the damn cat with her so I've got no one to talk to except some guy who's a good tailor but forgot to add a goddamn zipper so I can let some air into this thing...." He finished his task and sat down on the ground, not thinking it wise to interrupt the near-continuous monologue. She is quite beautiful, he found himself thinking as he studied her, despite her penchant for using profanity. "....and the worst thing about this whole godforsaken situation," Alex fairly yelled out, "I can't even find a bush, let alone something civilized, and I NEED TO USE THE BATHROOM!!" Mephisto winced as her voice seemed to resonate across the terrain. I sense stealth is no longer an option, he thought to himself as he glanced around the neo-void. He glanced at her again and noticed that she had calmed down somewhat and was now staring out into the darkness, muttering softly to herself. "Alexis...." he started to say. She whirled around and fixed him with a piercing gaze. "Call me that again and I swear I'll kick your gonads up into your throat," she growled. Mephisto blinked at the outburst. He had never heard the slang term before, but he had a pretty good idea of what she meant. "Forgive me, Alex, I didn't realize that you were offended by it," he said slowly. She sighed and sat down on the ground, her fingers running through her short blonde hair as she tried to calm down. "Yeah, well, I just never really cared for the long version, despite what Mother's intentions were. And no, don't bother asking what they were 'cause I'm not going to waste my breath by telling you about them," she said as he opened his mouth. "Very well," he said slowly as he studied the faint soul he still carried in his grasp. "We should return to the pool before trying to revive her, since it is rather dangerous being out in the open like this." Alex knelt down next to him to study the soul. "Are you sure you can revive her?" she asked, all traces of her outburst of anger gone. He looked up at her for a moment. "Of course. After all, I was able to revive you." She blinked as his words registered. "Whoops, guess you're right," she said as a faint blush appeared on her cheeks. "Well, now that we've got that established, let's get going." Mephisto nodded and stood up, holding out the soul to her. "You had better hold her, as I might need my hands free to deal with whatever we may find after we teleport." "Hold it, I thought you could teleport us directly into the cave," she said with a frown as she carefully took the soul from him. He sighed quietly. "I could, but a point-to-point dimensional shift can be traced from its point of origin. We'll have to make several shifts to make sure we aren't being followed before entering the cave." "And we won't know what'll wind up in our faces until after we complete the shift, right?" she said warily. "Unfortunately, which is why I need my hands free," he explained. "Lovely," she muttered. "Alright, tall, dark, and handsome, let's get this party started," she said as she took hold of his wrist. Mephisto said nothing, raising an eyebrow at her choice of words before turning his focus inward and wrapping three-dimensional space around them in a complex quasi-geometrical shape. There was the briefest of visible distortions before space unfolded back into a normal shape, leaving only displaced air in its place. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Ami paused in the middle of the cathedral hallway, not entirely sure if her hypnotic invisibility was having any effect on the giant crystalline spider casually hanging off of the ceiling. One of these days, I'm going to have to do a little experimentation with it, she thought with a mental sigh. But in the mean time.... what exactly is it doing, anyway? She blinked and took a step back as Maze stepped out of the computer room with a very weary expression on his face. He took a few steps forward before he glanced up and jumped at the sight of Dyvach clinging to the ceiling as any normal spider would do. "What are you doing?" he said tiredly as he tried to calm his nerves. He sighed quietly to himself as he received a multi-harmonic chime in response. "Just don't scratch the paint, okay?" he said as he rubbed his eyes and made his way down the hall towards the bedroom he shared with Mina, completely unaware of Ami's invisible presence a few feet away from him. Dusting? she thought as she watched the weaver for a moment. She blinked as she realized that Dyvach wasn't so much dusting as eating the dirt off of the ceiling. That's it, I give up.... she sighed as she focused her will on remaining undetectable and started to walk down the hall. She made it to the doorway without Dyvach showing any signs of having seen her. Okay, she thought as she peered inside the computer room, now comes for the tricky part. She took a slow, deep breath and concentrated. You do not notice the door being closed, she thought as she eased the door shut as quietly as she could. Tolaris failed to notice the door shutting as he sat back in the chair and re-read the lines of spidery text on the computer screen for at least the tenth time in as many minutes. His complexion was rather pale and his eyes were bloodshot, giving them a sickly gray tint that made Ami start to worry about his state of health. "Nak'seth," the Dragoon commander said quietly, his voice sounding like gravel. "Venta," the computer replied. "Kor'osa mase'l K'tal vu'cha-aan," the Dragoon said slowly as he rubbed at his eyes. "A'ren'i mase'l," the computer said in its flat monotone. Ami had to bite her tongue to keep herself from making any noise at the shock of hearing the computer talk back to him. When did that happen? she wondered as she silently moved to a position slightly behind him, trying to read the screen without alerting him to her presence. While her hypnotic powers could make someone forget that they see her, which effectively makes her invisible, it only worked when no one had any reason to suspect she was around and hence be more aware. "Mase'l a'ren'en, na kor'osa'i," said the computer as the display cleared and lines of spidery denizen text began to scroll up. She only read the first three lines before she had to bite her tongue again, her steel-blue eyes going wide as the situation started to unfold in her mind. Okay, large rift, something comes through, someone fires a missile at the.... carrier? She frowned as she tried to find another translation for the unfamiliar character that would make more sense. An airborne carrier? Anyway, then it fires back with.... a mailman? No, that can't be right.... Ami was about to sigh heavily in frustration before she remembered that she was invisible and hovering almost right behind Tolaris's ear. Don't need to give him another heart attack.... she thought before she covered her mouth with her hand and silently let her breath out. Cha'nak-Vilash'ne, she thought as she translated the odd character. I don't know what cha'nak means, but I thought Maze said that the vilash'nea acted as message couriers back before they discovered electronic communications.... Her train of thought was disrupted as Tolaris suddenly sat back and began to stretch, a huge yawn starting to build up in his chest. Ami quickly moved back in time to avoid brushing up against him, but wasn't aware of the static charge he had acquired until it too late. There was a sharp snap of electricity as the charge jumped the narrow gap between Tolaris's fingertips and the tip of Ami's nose, quickly followed by a brief cry of pain. Tolaris leapt out of his chair and whirled around in time to see Ami fade into view only a few inches away, both hands pressed to her face and the look of shock still in her eyes. He sighed as he turned the chair around and sat back down, rubbing the tips of his fingers. "As I often tell Maze, sneaking up on someone like that is an excellent way of getting yourself killed. Are you alright?" "I should be," Ami said quietly as she rubbed her nose with one hand and wiped a tear out of her eye with the other. "You've accidentally zapped me with static electricity before, but not on my nose. Was that from spending too much time at the terminal or from not getting any sleep?" Tolaris grunted. "Probably both. I thought you were supposed to be studying with the others." Ami frowned slightly. "That was the plan for today, but that was before Leda decided to stay up all night instead of sleeping. Having Reish'id decide to pay us a visit didn't help matters." The Dragoon blinked and looked up. "Reish'id is here on Earth?" "Maq'i lent him her Silkworm crystal for a few hours," she explained. "And after unintentionally causing a bit of chaos in the park, he's now at Leda's apartment." Tolaris's expression darkened slightly. "Did he run across anyone?" "Just one person," Ami said slowly. "Molly." Tolaris sat back in his chair with a heavy sigh, the information putting an even greater strain on his mind and body. "Great...." he muttered. He looked up as he felt Ami take his hand in hers. "Dear, what's wrong? I don't think I've ever seen you look this worn-out before," she said softly. "It has to do with the message from K'tal, doesn't it?" He said nothing and she continued with a heavy sigh. "Leda told me that you said for her not to tell me what's going on, and after reading about what happened in this incident report or whatever it is...." "Nak'seth, kurush mase'la ae s'vaer," Tolaris said suddenly. Ami frowned as the computer chittered briefly before the display went blank and the terminal went into a low-power standby mode. "Do I want to ask why you just did that?" she said cautiously. "It's not something you and the other Sailor Scouts need to be concerned with just yet," he said, the lack of sleep evident in his voice. "You should be more concerned about Molly. She's been exposed to too much information and might be in a position to piece a few things together." Ami blinked. "What makes you say that?" she said, immediately wary of the sudden change of conversation. "Think," he explained. "First off, she's been caught in the middle of a lot of incidents between the Negaverse and the Sailor Scouts. Then there's her involvement with General Nephlyte, and we still don't know the full extent of that. Then you take into account that she's a close friend of Serena, and while Serena might not intentionally give anything away, mistakes can be made. And now that she's run into a denizen like Reish'id...." "I think I see your point," Ami said as a dark shiver passed through her. Each incident alone isn't enough to go on anything, she thought, but if you put enough of them together.... "So what do you think we should do?" Tolaris sighed again as he tried to think. "Keep a close eye on her," he said after a moment's thought. "Try to learn what she knows. And if she does figure out enough, you and the other Sailor Scouts have to make a decision on how important it is for your identities to remain a secret." Ami's eyes widened as she straightened up, a look of horror crossing her features. "You're not suggesting we consider...." she trailed off, unable to vocalize the rest of the thought. The Dragoon sighed yet again, feeling every bit as old as his seven hundred-plus years of life. "If you want to take the risk of trusting her with your true identities, that's your decision. But you have to consider all of your options, no matter how undesirable they may be." Ami said nothing as she turned around, not able to meet his gaze at the thought and not believing that he had even suggested it. She tried to think of something else that could be done if the situation called for it. A stray thought suddenly popped into her mind and she turned around to give him an odd look. "If she does find out, can Whisper make her forget she knows?" Tolaris blinked at the thought and considered it carefully for a moment. "You'll have to ask her as I don't have much of an understanding on how her psionic powers work, but it does sound like a plausable idea," he said slowly. Ami nodded, feeling more than slightly relieved at finding a solution she could easily live with. "Good, that's one problem close to being solved. Now about the message...." she said as she gestured to the now-blank screen. Tolaris gently tugged his hand out of her grasp and rubbed at his eyes again. "Ami, please believe me when I say you shouldn't be concerned about it right now," he said, his weariness evident in his voice. "It has you so upset that you haven't even tried to get any sleep since yesterday, and Maze only now went to bed a few minutes ago," she said softly. "How can I not be worried about it if it's doing this to you?" The Dragoon just sighed. "If you like sleeping peacefully at night, then you really don't want to know just yet. I thought we already went through this once before about you wanting to know about certain things." Ami frowned. "Like what?" Tolaris gave her a measured look. "Like the cathedral's reactor." The vampire paled slightly at the mention of the reactor chamber in the lowest level of the cathedral. Her curiosity about the cathedral's source of power had led her to question Tolaris about it, ignoring his warnings that she really didn't want to know until he finally gave up and told her what kind of reactor it was. Afterwards, it had taken her three days to calm down to the point where she could get a decent night's sleep without worrying about what might happen if anything ever went wrong. "See my point?" he said when some of the color had returned to her cheeks. "I didn't need to be reminded of that," she muttered as she glanced away, the images she had tried to hard to forget bubbling up from her memory. He reached out and drew her to him, giving her a gentle kiss. "It's not as bad as that, but...." he said softly. "But?" she prompted. "But it could be," he finished. "However," he said as he reached out and stilled her lips with a finger, "There's nothing any of us can do from here except watch and wait, so there's no use in needless worry unless things start to go downhill." Ami said nothing for a moment, studying the dark circles beneath his gray eyes and the worry lines framing his face. "If it's nothing to worry about, why haven't you gotten any sleep?" she asked. Tolaris blinked for a moment before he chuckled softly to himself and nuzzled her neck. "Old habit," he murmurred in her ear. "I always like to see the reports as they come in, not a few hours later." She said nothing as she returned his embrace, not doubting in the least that he liked to get his information as it came in, but not entirely sure that was his only reason for staying up for so long. She blinked and pulled away from him to give him a curious look as he sighed heavily. "What is it?" "Old age setting in," he said with a hint of a smile. "Five hundred years ago, I could have stayed awake for an entire weekend without winding up totally brain-dead. I've only been up for two days, and already my mind is turning into a cinder." Ami gave him a reproving look. "Go to bed, dear." "Yes, Doctor," he chuckled as he released her and stood up, taking the time to stretch as he did so. "Funny," she said as she kissed his cheek. "You need me to go with you to make sure you don't bump into anything?" Tolaris gave her an amused look. "That depends. If I leave you alone, are you going to do something constructive like study or are you going to do something foolish like try to break the encryption lock I just put on the data files in the computer?" He couldn't resist smiling to himself as a dark blush spread across her features. "I love you too," she muttered as she took hold of his arm and led him out of the computer room. She had opened the door and was about to step into the hallway when a thought suddenly occured to her. "Wait...." she started to say. Tolaris was about to say something when he happened to glance up and saw the weaver hanging off of the ceiling. While he knew that weavers were very much capable of climbing walls when they put their minds to it, he hadn't thought it possible for them to hang from ceilings and wasn't prepared to see one doing so a few feet away from him. Ami yelped as Tolaris's combative reflexes momentarily took over, sending an electrical current along his arm in preparation for hurling a lightning bolt. He recovered his wits before he actually did so, but since Ami had been holding onto him, the charge briefly passed through her hand with a sharp crackle. "Are you alright?" he asked quickly as he dispersed the energy into the air around him, briefly giving everything a static charge and coming rather close to dislodging Dyvach from the ceiling. "What did I ever do to you?" she muttered as she flexed her hand, trying to get some sensation back into it. "Sorry," he aplogized before looking up at the slightly upset crystalline spider. "And what are you doing up there, aside from scaring the navidshi out of us?" Dyvach chimed an apology before it released its hold, twisting its body to land with a heavy thump on its many legs. It made a disoriented chiming noise as it flexed a few joints before giving the Dragoon a lengthy explanation of what it had been doing. "Do we not feed you enough?" he asked with a sigh. The weaver made a rather sour chiming noise as it flushed a rather odd shade of orange, adding a complex series of chimes to its original statement. Tolaris sighed again as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You could have said something earlier, you know." Dyvach made a rather strangled chiming noise as its usually crystal-clear carapace turned a deep shade of black, chittering away at a rapid-fire pace in its native language. Tolaris blinked and frowned as he quickly translated the weaver's chimes into something he could understand. "Of course you can," he said when Dyvach finally fell silent, softly chittering unkind things to itself. "We're surrounded by a small forest of trees. I don't think anyone will miss half a dozen or so of the large ones. The only thing we're concerned about is keeping enough of the foilage around to conceal the cathedral. As long as that's done, you can eat as much of the landscape as you want." Ami gave Tolaris an odd look as Dyvach chimed happily and made its way off towards one of the balcony doors. "Do I want to ask what that was about?" she asked cautiously. Tolaris shrugged. "Dyvach had apparently asked Mina if it could eat one of the trees growing outside. She didn't like that idea too well for some reason and told Dyvach it couldn't." Ami just shook her head slowly. "Another reason to have a dog instead of a giant spider as a pet," she muttered to herself. "Dogs like wood too, but when you throw them a branch, they bring it back to you instead of eating it." Tolaris chuckled to himself as they continued to walk down the corridor towards the bedroom wing. "Luna would be offended if she heard you say that," he said. "When was the last time Luna fetched a stick for you?" Ami replied. "When was the last time you asked her to?" the Dragoon countered. Ami just sighed. "Perhaps Mother had the right idea." Tolaris raised an eyebrow. "And what idea was that?" "Maybe there is something to be said for raising goldfish after all...." -------------------------------------------------------------------- "So where will you go now?" the Shinma said rather languidly as he tried to summon the energy to sit up and failed miserably. "Back to my keep and back to business," Susan replied as she stretched rather provocatively before rising from the bed and flexing her wings. "While I do have time to indulge my hobby here and there, I still have duties I must attend to." "Indeed," he said softly, still enjoying the pleasant state of exhaustion he was in. "And might that mark on your forehead have anything to do with it?" Susan frowned for a moment before she held her hand up to her head and saw a green glow being reflected off of her skin. Forgot about that, she thought darkly to herself. "The sign of my master," she said truthfully. "It has the tendency to appear at odd moments as a.... reminder that I shouldn't spend too much time indulging." He said nothing as he watched her get dressed, still curious as to why she had wings. He had asked her earlier about it during their lovemaking, but she had brushed his question aside with a soft comment and a kiss that had sent shocks down what passed for his spinal cord. Even now his body tingled at the memory of the kiss, something that didn't quite sit well with him. "Perhaps we can do this again sometime later," he suggested as she tugged the jet-black evening gown back into place and smoothed out the wrinkles. She gave him a partially-amused look. "Perhaps," she said as she knelt down to put her shoes on. As she did so, she could feel the fabric of her gown shifting slightly, a subtle reminder that there was more there than silken threads. She stood up and smoothed out the wrinkles once more, making a near- silent noise in her throat. "I trust the payment has been sufficient?" she asked the Shinma. "Most sufficient," Balor said with a smile. "Then with your permission, Lord Balor, I must return to my keep," she said with a small bow. "Of course," he said with a nod of his head. "I wish you a safe journey and I hope we can see each other again." "Perhaps," she said with a small smile before she turned around and left the small room, heading towards the keep's front gate. Balor said nothing as he watched her go, listening to the fading sounds of her footsteps in the corridor and the sound of her closing a rather heavy door behind her. "I'll admit that this one has me completely confused," he said to the air around him. "Usually at least something is obvious, but not in this case." <You do not need to know what goes on for you to do what I ask> said a decidedly inhuman voice. The voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, being both soft as a whisper and as loud as a scream. Balor frowned slightly. "Granted, but things have often been explained to me before, in case I need to intervene and don't have the time to.... consult with you about the matter." <Do not concern yourself with this matter. It will shortly be taken out of your domain entirely. Of that you have my absolute assurance> A dark shiver ran down Balor's spine at the unholy voice's words. "Can you at least satisfy my curiosity about why she had wings?" he ventured, not sure if he was crossing a line by asking further questions. <She had wings because she is a half-breed succubus> The Shinma suddenly sat up in his bed in shock. "A succubus!" <Indeed> said the voice, sounding faintly amused. <That same kiss which gave you so much pleasure could have torn your soul from your flesh had she so choosen. But then again, few pleasures compare to the pleasure of making love to a succubus. I trust it was sufficient compensation for the loss of the soul you were directed to give her?> "I...Indeed," Balor replied, knowing that his mysterious 'guest' had been generous in giving him any compensation at all. <That is good. If I need your services again, I will contact you> the unholy voice said and fell silent. As it did so, the air in the chamber seemed to become ever so slightly lighter, as if an intangible weight was being lifted from the room. Balor sighed and laid back against his pillows. Strange, he thought to himself. Usually his assignments were more involved than simply giving one particular soul to a wandering succubus and having his reward be having part of his life-force extracted out through his nether region in a most enjoyable fashion. He shuddered when he thought of what else could have been extracted from him at her whim. The price to be paid for having a Demon as an ally, Balor thought as he laid back down and started to do some serious thinking about the situation. So what does a succubus, a human, two Shinma, and a soul have in common? he thought. Curious indeed.... -------------------------------------------------------------------- Ami sighed quietly to herself as she looked up at the various displays the central computer's crystal monitor was currently showing. Two screens were occupied with the cathedral's external sensor array, one doing a diagnostic and the other searching for something that would only last for a few moments when it happened. The third screen displayed the current configuration for the voice-interface program, and the fourth was a blank screen with a flashing red spider-like character in the very center. "Computer," Ami said slowly. "Ready," the flat monotone of the computer replied. "Request super-user access, authorization Mercury alpha two five four," she said carefully. The crystal computer chittered to itself for a moment before making a soft buzzing noise. "State authority for alpha clearance," it replied. Let's hope this works, she thought to herself as she took a deep breath. "Preparation for impending invasion via Silkworm-class wormholes. Request access to be granted upon detection of wormhole formation at the following location," she said, rattling off a string of letters and numbers that would correspond with a partiular spot on the denizen maps of downtown Tokyo. The computer chittered to itself as it processed the information, the hyper-fast CPU attempting to validate her request against a list of accepted and denied factors in it's access database. Ami glanced down at the tiny clock displayed on the bottom of the computer screen and prayed she had gotten the timing right. Too soon and it won't start looking until after it happens, and if it takes too long, it'll abort the request and set off an alarm, she thought. Let's hope he's as punctual as I think he would be.... "Access granted upon detection of Silkworm-class wormhole formation at specified coordinates. Request window is ten minutes, mark," the computer finally replied in its synthetic monotone. One down, one to go, she thought as she glanced up at the display of what the external sensors were picking up. She had modified the sensor array's search pattern to look for the wormholes, but she couldn't tell if the array's range was large enough to pick up the signal. As if on cue, one of the readings began to spike as it picked up the tiny burst of quasi-dimensional radiation associated with a wormhole being opened up between Earth and the Negaverse. Thank you, Reish'id, Ami thought as her head whipped around to stare at the fourth display screen. "Wormhole formation detected at coordinates N3149W2210A0329. Alpha-level super-user access granted," the computer said. Ami smiled to herself. You just have to love technology, she thought. "Computer, modify access priveledges to include theta-level super-user access for the following accounts: Mercury, Senshi, Remote. Lock and verify." The computer chittered to itself for several seconds as it made changes to its security access roster and bleeped quietly. "Theta-level super-user access granted to users Mercury, Senshi, and Remote," it replied. "Gotcha," she whispered to herself, still smiling. The secret of gaining alpha-level access had eluded her for weeks until she realized that it existed as a means of ensuring orders given under certain conditions are executed without waiting to see if the person is cleared or not. The drawback was that the 'certain conditions' usually required a discernable state of emergency for it to be implemented. Fortunately for me, Ami thought as she sat back for a moment, the system's decision tree was designed by the military, which makes it rather easy to fool it into thinking that a forming wormhole is a prelude to an invasion. And since I had advanced warning of Reish'id's wormhole, it made even more sense to the computer that knowing a wormhole is going to open up at a particular spot means we know about the 'invasion' and need to prepare for it. And now that I've secured super-user access for myself and the computer links, it's time to cover my tracks, she thought as she leaned forward, a faint echo of the smile still evident on her face. "Computer, terminate super-user session." "Alpha-level super-user access withdrawn," the computer replied after a momentary pause. "Request super-user access, authorization Mercury theta seven two one." The crystal computer chittered to itself as it checked the access roster and bleeped softly. "Theta-level super-user access granted." Too easy, Ami thought with a chuckle. While alpha access was used for emergency situations, theta access was supposed to be an internal level of access, used only by programs within the computer to gain access to certain types of data. The reason she had spent weeks trying to gain theta-level access, despite it's limitations, was because the system didn't keep track of commands given under theta authority since they were theoretically supposed to be issued by a user with a logged access level. "Computer, purge all records and trace logs of all alpha-level activity within the past fifteen minutes by user Mercury," she said slowly. "Working," the computer replied as it started to search through the data logs for the specified information, erasing the information where appropriate. "Purge completed," it reported a few seconds later. Now that we've covered our butt, she thought, it's time to get to work. "Computer, access and display technical schematics for external matrix port zero nine," she said evenly as she pulled her computer and personal set of micro-screwdrivers out of her Lunar Space pocket. A new window opened up on the crystal screen and displayed the information she requested as she selected a 'driver and began to remove the tiny screws on the bottom of her computer. "Playing with the computers again?" said a soft voice from the door, briefly sending an icy wave of surprise through Ami's blood. "Serena, don't sneak up on me like that," Ami chided her as she glanced out of the corner of her eye. The blonde shook her head as she stepped into the computer room, still wearing her school uniform. "I swear, if you don't have your nose buried in some book, you're either got your computer spread out across half a room or you're poking around on the cathedral mainframe. Or occasionally both," she added as she glanced at Ami's set of tools and the screwdriver in her hand. "Oh, please," Ami said as she briefly rolled her eyes. "I don't spend nearly as much time working with my computer as you think I do." "Or as much as you'd like to," Serena countered with a smile. "And do you have a good reason for your decision to start talking to it, or has your brain finally cracked from information overload?" Ami turned her head to give her a sweet smile. "Nak'seth, kurush a'vel, men'kata Mercury n'thenan s'ech vuun ann," she said evenly. Serena's eyes doubled in size as the door slammed shut behind her and a reinforced bulkhead began to descend from the ceiling. Protective shutters started to move into place over the windows, and by the time the blonde was able to figure out what was going on, everything was locked into place with an ominous thumping sound. "A'vel kurush'en," the computer replied. "As you can see," Ami explained, still smiling, "The cathedral's central computer can somehow understand spoken words now. You have to know what you're doing for it to work, but figuring out what to say and how isn't all that difficult." "I see...." Serena said slowly as she gave the security bulkhead behind her a measured look. "Should I ask how strong this steel whatever is?" she asked as she tapped it with a fingernail. "It's nothing compared to door on the arsenal vault," Ami admitted with a shrug as she turned most of her attention back to disassembling her computer. "However, it is more than sufficient to keep most people out of the computer room in case of an emergency." Serena frowned lightly as she turned back around to face Ami. "Or when you don't want to be disturbed when playing with it?" she asked pointedly. "Of course not," Ami replied. "The room is only supposed to be isolated when something is seriously wrong, like we're being invaded. I just did it as an example of what can be done without having to type in each instruction by hand. Nak'seth, i'kurush a'vel, tae men'kata ti p'rien," she added. The blonde just shook her head slowly as the bulkhead and protective plates started to move back into their usual unsecured positions. "You're starting to sound like a denizen with the ease at which you say things like that. I can't say six syllables without having to clear my throat at least twice, and even then I can barely manage to get my tongue to say them the way you or Tolaris can," she complained with a faintly sour look. Ami just shrugged. "Practice makes perfect," she said as she removed the last screw and carefully pried apart the outer casing of her computer. "Umm, Ami, before you take that thing apart...." Serena started to say. "Too late," Ami said with a wry grin as she held up the two halves of her computer, still connected by the multitude of tiny wires inside. "It's only the casing, so I can put it back together if you need it. What's up?" "Well...." Serena said slowly as she moved a vacant chair over next to Ami and sat down. "I could have sworn I felt one of those dark chills while I was still at school, but I had a teacher watching me so I couldn't try to reach any of you on the communicator. Did something happen or anything?" Ami sighed quietly as she set her computer and screwdriver down on the table. "I'm.... glad you brought that up," she said slowly. "Reish'id decided to pay Leda a visit and had trouble finding her, so he did something to get our attention." "I think it worked, too," Serena muttered to herself as she shivered at the memory of the chill that had gone through her when it happened. A stray thought crossed her mind and she looked up with a faintly suspicious look in her blue eyes. "What else happened?" "Well...." Ami started to say, then hesitated for a brief moment. Serena blinked. "You didn't blast him or anything, did you?" she asked in concern. A faint smile played on the edges of the vampire's lips. "No, nothing like that, Serena. It's just that.... well.... he...." A dark chill swept through Serena as Ami hesitated again. This can't be anything good if she doesn't want to talk about it, she thought as she started to worry. "Spit it out, Ami. What happened?" Ami took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "He sort of ran into Molly before we got there.... relax, Serena, he didn't hurt her or anything," she said quickly as Serena's eyes nearly doubled in diameter, "It's just that we have a reason to suspect that after her contact with Reish'id, she might be able to discern our identities as Sailor Scouts." Serena blinked as she digested the information. "That's not good...." she said quietly. She looked up into Ami's medium-blue eyes and sighed quietly. "She knows a few things already, like the fact that you've got a boyfriend who appears to be significantly older than you are." Ami blinked in surprise before she sighed heavily. "And how did she find this out?" she said wearily as she slumped back in her chair. "Melvin told her, which means...." "....that the entire school will know by sundown tomorrow," Ami finished for her. "Great, just what I need. You didn't tell her anything about us, did you?" Serena turned a light shade of pink. "Well.... um, now that you happen to have mentioned that, she did ask me for his name...." Her breath was cut off in her throat as Ami suddenly leaned forward and grabbed the top of her blouse in an iron grip, a look of panic in her eyes. "You didn't tell her, did you?" she said, her eyes as wide as saucers. An icy droplet of sweat crawled down Serena's back. "Umm.... well, I.... I sort of told her, but I told her not to tell anyone else...." Ami released her grip and slumped back in her chair again, her gaze going vacant. "Oh no...." she whispered. "Serena, do you know what you've done?" Serena blinked. "I know you told me not to tell anyone about you having a boyfriend, Ami, but she already knew that, and besides...." "Serena," Ami said quietly. She waited until the silence started to rub on the blonde's nerves before she spoke again. "She knows that a Dragoon named Tolaris is from the Negaverse." "What?!" Serena said incrediously. "Remember when we came back from the Negaverse and had the Star Crystal with us?" the vampire said softly. "He gave it to Molly that night, telling her who he was and why he was giving it to her. Are you going to be okay?" she asked when she saw how pale Serena had become within the past few seconds. "Oh, god.... Ami, I-I'm sorry, I didn't know...." Ami sighed softly as she picked up her computer and snapped the casing back together. "Where was she when you ran into her?" she asked as she began to replace the tiny screws. "Umm, she was in the park, but that was half an hour ago and I think she would have gone home for dinner by now," Serena said. "We're just going to have to find out," Ami replied as she broke a speed record for screwing her computer shut. "Computer, terminate all sessions by user Mercury." The crystal computer chittered to itself for a brief moment as it closed all of the display windows and reset the screen to show a single blinking spider-like character. "All sessions terminated," the computer replied in its flat monotone. Serena blinked as Ami stood up and grabbed her arm, dragging her out of the room and down the hallway. "Wait a moment, Ami, where are we going?" "Come on, Serena, we've got to go talk to her and now," Ami replied, still tugging on the blonde's arm. "You're her friend and we've got to get her to tell us what she knows." "Alright, already, don't get your panties in a wad," Serena grumbled as she yanked her arm free of Ami's grasp and followed her down the hallway. "But how do we do that without letting her know we know something? We can't just walk up to her and ask, 'Hey, Molly, what do you know about the true identities of the Sailor Scouts?'" Ami blinked and suddenly came to a halt in mid-stride, causing Serena to almost run her over. "Why not?" she asked softly, giving her a mild look. -------------------------------------------------------------------- "General Rune?" the voice said softly as it intruded into a rare pleasant dream, dispersing the images like fog touched by the morning sun. What now? Rune thought darkly as she groaned quietly and rolled over, trying valiantly to open eyelids that seemed to weigh several pounds each. "What sort of crisis do we have now, Si'ren?" Rune grumbled as she recognized the silvery insignia affixed to the admiral's dark-blue nightgown. Do I want to wonder why she wears rank on her bed clothes? she thought fuzzily. "Several, actually," Si'ren replied, her own voice sounding like she had woken up only a few moments earlier. "Which do you want to hear about first, the carriers, the Leviathans, or your communications lieutenant?" Rune said a rude word as she sat up and fumbled for the light switch, cursing softly again as the sudden brightness gave her an instant headache. "V'Kreeth," she said, "Go find me some...." She blinked as a patch of darkness emerged from her private bathroom and she felt a small, sealed packet being pressed into her still-outstretched hand, followed by the sound of a glass being set down on her nightstand. "...thing for a headache," Rune finished softly. She looked up at her shadowy bodyguard and shook her head back and forth. "Tell me, V'Kreeth, are you telepathic or was that one just hideously obvious?" "It was expected," he replied evenly. "Thank you," Rune said as she tore open the packet and emptied the bluish powder into the glass of water. "You said something about my communications lieutenant?" she said, glancing up at Si'ren. Si'ren sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Yes, Lieutenant D'mer. An alarm was triggered in her quarters about ten minutes ago, and when security arrived, they discovered that she had apparently been working on some sort of sensor suite for TacSat helmets and had accidentally electrocuted herself rather thoroughly." Rune didn't wait for the powder to finish dissolving compelely before she drained the entire glass in one large gulp, making a face at the bittersweet aftertaste. "Yeech. I want a full report on the incident as soon as possible. Who did you leave in charge?" "Security Lieutenant Tempest. She said she had seen this kind of thing before and said she would take care of the incident," Si'ren replied. Rune nodded, knowing full well that Tempest was one of her better agents and had been briefed beforehand on what to expect. "Very well, then. Who's her replacement?" "I've got one of my officers filling the slot until we can select one. I'll admit he's not the best of operators, but he will suffice until one with better skills can be found," the admiral said. Rune grunted softly, still waiting for the medicine to produce an effect. "So tell me about the crisis involving your Leviathans." "We've managed to get a positive fix on the sonar contacts in both oceans. Six ships in the south, five in the north, all subsurface ships," she said as she sat on the far end of Rune's bed. "We still don't have a clue as to where they came from or who's got control of them, but what they seem to be doing is scouting the oceans." Rune blinked. "Scouting?" Si'ren sighed and ran her fingers through her short white hair. "What they're doing is using a new type of sonar to determine the number, type, and location of the surface ships. And since it's a brand-new type of sonar, the ships didn't realize they were being pinged until it was far too late to do anything about it." "Wonderful," Rune grumped. "So we know that they're there, but not who they are or how they got there, and they know what we've got and where. Have they discovered the Leviathans yet?" Si'ren shook her head. "We don't think they have, or if they do know, they aren't giving any indications of it. I sent a message to the Leviathan captains telling them to follow the ships, but to be extremely careful about doing it." "Better and better," the dark-haired general said sourly. "Do you have any good news for me, Si'ren?" Si'ren laughed quietly, a rather delicate sound that seemed out-of-place given the current situation and mood. "Of course not, General Rune. No good news has ever arrived at this hour of the morning. But now that you seem to be awake, I'll tell you why I decided to wake you up in the first place." "What did the carriers do now?" Rune asked evenly. "Well, this is going to sound strange...." Si'ren began. "On second thought, let me use the bathroom first," Rune suggested as she threw aside the covers and made her way into the bathroom, muttering dark things to herself about rude surprises and full bladders. "Probably a wise course of action," Si'ren said to V'Kreeth when the door closed somewhat forcefully. "Queen Beryl often did the same thing, if you recall," replied the shadow, his voice sounding to Si'ren like dry leaves whispering over stone. "And she was almost always glad she did beforehand." Si'ren smiled. "Tell me something, V'Kreeth. A personal question." She received silence in response and continued. "How are things between you and Moirah?" "I don't understand what you mean," he rumbled softly. "I know you two are discreet around Rune and never do anything while either one of you are on-duty," Si'ren said slowly, "But things have been.... shall we say, noticed happening between you two." Again she received silence in response and she sighed. "Very well, then, but I would like you to consider something. I know very well about the rules and regulations about two officers having a relationship within the ranks, and quite frankly, I agree with the wisdom behind them. However, few people have noticed that they only apply within the same branch of service." "So what exactly is to be considered?" V'Kreeth said after a moment. Si'ren tilted her head to one side. "I always thought the ability to transform one's body into a cohesive liquid would be highly useful within the Navy, especially in the security division. We do have bodyguards as well, you know, not to mention a hideously large network of plumbing that water can go through as it moves from point to point, unnoticed by everyone else." The shadow said nothing, merely moving to one side as the bathroom door opened and Rune walked out, only looking slightly more awake then when she went in. "If anything is going wind up killing me, it'll probably be from my bladder exploding from drinking too much ma'cha," Rune grumbled. Si'ren's eyebrows rose up in feigned surprise. "I heard Chief Mal'ek say something about sending up an old fuel tank filled with ma'cha for you earlier today. I thought he was joking, but perhaps he hadn't been...." "Let's not get into that one, Si'ren," Rune grumbled as her insides twinged at the memory. "Now then, you were going to explain to me about the problem with the carriers." "Two of them disappeared," the admiral said simply. Rune blinked. "Disappeared," she repeated slowly. "One moment we had them on our sensors, the next they simply vanished. The pilots we had 'escorting' them say the carriers seemed to ripple like a reflection in a puddle of water before fading from both their sensors and visual sight," Si'ren explained. "V'Kreeth, call down to Chief Mal'ek's office and see if you can't have someone find a bottle of something with a serious kick to it and have it brought up here," Rune said wearily as she sat down on her bed. "So what's K'tal say about this one?" Si'ren paused for a brief moment. "I sent someone to go find him and have him report to you as soon as he had reviewed what little information we have and put something together on it. And knowing our little Dragoon, he should be here within the next five m...." Everyone blinked as there was a polite but firm knock on the door. "If we weren't in the middle of a crisis, I could be highly amused at this," Rune said as she waved V'Kreeth back and opened the door herself. "Ma'am, Dragoon Commander K'tal reporting as ordered," he said crisply, despite the fact that he looked like he hadn't slept in a week. His uniform was still in order, but his eyes were so bloodshot as to almost appear to be a featureless black. "You can come in only if you've got good news for me," Rune muttered as she stepped back and waved the Dragoon into her quarters. K'tal seemed to hesitate for a brief moment before he stepped in and moved to one side, not wanting to intrude any more than necessary. "I've seen the data we have on the carriers' disappearance and the best we can come up with is some sort of electromagnetic cloaking device. Don't ask me for specifics because this is something new to us and we're still trying to figure out how they managed to pull it off," he explained almost breathlessly. Rune and Si'ren exchanged concerned glances and Rune sighed. "V'Kreeth," she started to say. "Another few minutes," her bodyguard replied almost apologetically. "What about the telepathic communication between the carriers?" Si'ren asked, ignoring the sudden icy chill making its way down her spine. "The telepathic pilots said it continued for a few moments after the carriers cloaked, if you will, but it began to decrease in intenisty within a matter of seconds," K'tal said as he glanced down at the condensed report he carried. "Captain Ael'ien is currently occupied trying to direct an effort to locate the cloaked carriers using telepathic means, but it's her opinion that the fading signals meant that the carriers probably altered their course and could be anywhere by now." Rune suppressed the urge to scream. "And what about the third carrier, the visible one?" she said, trying to keep her temper in check. "It's maintaining it's previous course, speed, and altitude," K'tal replied after quickly re-reading the report. "Bearing two-eight-zero, speed fifty miles per hour, and an altitude of two thousand feet." "That doesn't sound overly fast," Rune commented. "I know transports that move faster than that." "But that is a rather significant speed for a carrier," Si'ren replied. "Especially an airborne one. You have to consider they not only need the power for forward velocity, they also need a great deal more just to remain aloft. And given the fact that it's about the size of a small landing strip, that's quite a lot of mass to be moving around at that height and speed." Rune frowned. "And how do they do it, with jet thrusters?" K'tal closed his eyes as he briefly searched his memory. "Actually...." he said slowly, "The Vresh'tan carriers use a series of rotary propellers." Si'ren's eyes nearly fell out of her head. "What?! They're keeping a carrier aloft with propellers? That's insane!" "Begging the admiral's pardon," K'tal said evenly, "If it's insane and it works like it's supposed to, then perhaps insanity needs to be redefined." Si'ren's reply remained unspoken as there was a soft knock on the open door and what could only be described as a wizened old man poked his head in. "'Tis a rough night indeed if'n y'r still askin' for th' bottle at this hour, General Rune," he said lightly as he held out a small bottle and a rack of glass tumblers. Rune's eyebrows rose up. "Chief Mal'ek, what are you doing up at this hour?" she said as she took the bottle from him and examined the label. Mal'ek chuckled softly to himself, his breath rattling in his lungs. "Aye, I be wond'ring that m'self, if'n I dinna happen t' catch word o' a bit o' a crisis a'brewin," he said, his voice marred by both his accent and age. "I know how ye be, Rune. All too well, perhaps," he added as he thrust the rack of tumblers into K'tal's hands, causing the Dragoon to make a quick scramble to keep both the report and the rack in his hands while trying to regain his balance. "Perhaps," she said in amusement. Mal'ek was probably one of the oldest denizens she knew still in active service, and it continued to amaze her how someone could be as active as he was at his age without the aid of some sort of regenerative ability. While he was rather irreverent at times and had little respect for rank by itself, his past record of service to the throne and the military rivaled that of most generals, which allowed him some measure of leeway with the formalities and other things. "Chief...." Rune said slowly as she took a good look at the label on the bottle of amber fluid. "This is from Earth?" Mal'ek smiled. "Aye, that it 'tis. One o' y'r agents picked up a bit o' Earth spirits for me as a special favor, as I 'twas curious as t' how much o' a mean brew those humans could make." K'tal scratched the back of his head. "Begging the general's pardon, but I'd be careful with that stuff if I were you. I've heard that some of their alcohol is on the level of fermented le'un berries." Si'ren shivered lightly. "If that's the case, General, I would take his advice and be careful. I don't know about you, but alcohol as strong as that would have me on my ptanka in very little time." Mal'ek snorted distainfully. "Here now, ye'll have none o' th' sort o' problems wi' this. 'Tis called 'skot'ch,' and while it'll have ye a'chasin' mer'catas outta y'r skull after about half a bottle, ye shouldna have any sort o' problem if ye only drink a glass or two." "And the taste?" Rune inquired as she peered at the label and tried to translate the written words. I swear, their alphabet looks like something a hatchling vep'tera scratched into the dirt while looking for food, she mused. She blinked as Mal'ek plucked the bottle from her hands and worked the cork free. "Try some an' see," he said as he poured a small measure into a tumbler and held it out to her. "I think 'tis rather smooth m'self, but ye should always judge for y'self." "Excuse me," V'Kreeth said suddenly as he took the tumbler from Mal'ek and passed his hand over the rim of the glass. He then studied the pattern of dim lights on the tiny and nearly invisible scanner he held before he held the glass out to Rune. "Did ye think I would poison her?" Mal'ek said mildly. "No offense, Chief, but in my line of work, we can take no chances," the shadow replied evenly. Rune took the glass from him and sniffed it experimentally, blinking in surprise as the sharp scent made the inside of her nose start to burn. "Mmm, smells strong enough to peel wallpaper," she commented before she took a sip. She swallowed and gasped as her senses seemed to explode momentarily before returning back to normal. "Ye said ye wanted somethin' wi' a bit o' a kick t' it," Mal'ek said with a twinkle in his jet black eyes. "That.... that it does," Rune said, still slightly stunned. "May I?" Si'ren asked politely as she gestured to the bottle. "O' course, help y'self," Mal'ek replied as he plucked another tumbler out of the rack and poured a small measure of scotch into it. "I'll be headin' off t' bed soon, Admiral, so I hope ye'll forgive me if I don' stick around t' peel ye off o' the walls when y'r finished wi' the bottle, but ye and the General are welcome t' keep it," he said as he passed her the bottle and kept the glass for himself. "I'll have a steward come pick up th' glasses in th' mornin' o' afternoon, whichever is most convenient for ye." "Your services are most appreciated, as they always are," Rune said as she took another sip of the scotch. "Pleasant dreams, Chief Mal'ek." Mal'ek nodded his head. "And t' ye as well, General Rune." He turned around to leave but paused in mid-motion and craned his head around to look at her. "I heard 'bout th' incident with th' missile this mornin'," he said very slowly, as if choosing his words carefully. "And if'n ye don' mind m' sayin' so, ye shouldna let that pass lightly, but ye should also tread carefully when dealin' wi' th' Dark One. Few people are aware o' this, but she returned t' th' Imperial Castle 'bout a thousand years back, and I had the chance o' bein' part o' th' crew that saw t' her needs while she was a'visitin'. Her temper makes Beryl's fits seem like mild farts an' she's 'bout as warm as a block o' ice, but t' this day I ne'er met one who mets out rewards an' punishments wi' as much fairness or fervor as her. She'll slice ye t' ribbons if'n you oppose her, but she'll also make tatters of whomever dares to e'en so much as think o' lookin' cross-eyed at those she calls allies. She's a right thorny one, but t' a one her soldiers dearly love her. I'm jus' sayin' for ye to be careful, Rune. Fair evenin'." Rune said nothing as she watched the ancient denizen shuffle down the hallway. She took another sip of her scotch before she crossed the room and closed the door, a thoughtful yet haunted expression on her face. "So what do you think of the Chief's words?" she asked softly. "You can set the rack down over there, K'tal, unless you feel like holding onto that all night." "Thank you, ma'am," he replied as he carefully set the rack of glasses down in the distant corner and came back with a pair of glasses. "You may need this, Admiral, unless you've had one of those days," he said as he held out a glass tumbler to her. "Tempting as the idea sounds, I'll stick with being civilized," Si'ren replied as she accepted the glass and poured herself a goodly amount of scotch before passing the bottle to K'tal. "And how old is Mal'ek, if I may ask?" Rune did the math in her head and gave K'tal a measured look. "I'm not sure on the exact numbers, but I'd say he could have retired from the military with full honors and benefits before K'tal was even an idea. You're what, six hundred some-odd years old, Commander?" The skin on K'tal's face darkened as he blushed. "Six hundred seventy- three, ma'am." Rune grunted. "Okay, so perhaps while you were still in diapers, then." Si'ren blinked and sat down on the bed. "And I thought Al'vexi had stayed in for an overly long time. You know...." she said, pausing to take a sip of her scotch, "I had heard a rumor that Nop'tera had returned with the damaged carrier so long ago, but no one could ever prove it. If she did return briefly and Mal'ek did meet her as he claims to, and I don't see any reason for him to lie about that, then I think it would be wise to consider his.... words of wisdom carefully." "Indeed," Rune said as she sipped at her own scotch. Once you get past the initial kick-in-the-pants, she thought, this really does have a smooth taste to it. "Personal experience notwithstanding," K'tal said carefully, "He does have a point about wanting to tread carefully. Anyone who reacts to a conventional missile attack with a nuclear warhead isn't someone to be taken lightly." "Nor is the nuclear response," Rune said as she set her glass down on her nightstand with a dull thump, watching the surface of the amber liquid ripple. She blinked as she felt a tiny nagging sensation in her mind, almost as if her subconscious was trying to tell her something. Rune had learned long ago that it was ultimately best for her to stop whatever she was currently doing and try to figure things out whenever she got that nagging feeling. It didn't start until I set the glass down, she started to reason, so it's either something I did or something I saw.... K'tal and Si'ren both noticed Rune's gaze going vacant at the same time and exchanged glances, knowing full well that something had clicked in Rune's mind and that she was trying to work it out. Si'ren made a gesture and K'tal spread his hands, not having the slightest idea what Rune was thinking. They both blinked as Rune picked up her glass and set it back down again, watching the amber liquid slosh slightly and causing them to wonder if she really was thinking or if the alcohol was starting to have a serious effect on her. Ripples, Rune thought, watching the tiny rings move back and forth inside her glass. Almost just like what the pilots said the carrier did, ripple slightly before vanishing.... some sort of electromagnetic cloak, something that can mask both energy and light waves.... ripples.... waves.... light.... "Sound," Rune suddenly said, her head snapping up fast enough to startle even V'Kreeth. "The carriers used an electromagnetic cloak to hide themselves, which is why we lost them both on scanner and visually, since light is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum. But what about sound waves?" K'tal blinked as he started to see where Rune was going. "We might be able to locate the carriers by using sound waves instead of energy waves as a form of radar, but the range on that would be frustratingly small." "Wait a minute...." Si'ren said as she narrowed her eyes. "If those carriers are using propellers to keep themselves aloft, wouldn't that make an awfully loud noise?" The three of them looked at each other for a brief moment before they tossed back what was left in their respective glasses and quickly made their way towards the command center, leaving V'Kreeth alone in the room with the bottle of Earth alcohol and a collection of empty glass tumblers. He sighed quietly to himself as he eyed the bottle of amber spirits. "And to think I don't go off-duty for another seven hours," he grumbled to himself as he began to straighten up the room out of habit. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Susan stopped and looked around her, her sense of unease becoming steadily worse with each passing minute. "Myst," she said softly after another chilling wave of apprehension passed through her. "Does something feel wrong to you?" The gray kitten leapt out of her arms and crouched low to the ground, her whiskers twitching as she sniffed a spot on the ground. "There seems to be some sort of marker imprinted on the ground here," she said slowly, "But aside from that, it doesn't feel like anything else is here." The succubus frowned, her wings twitching slightly as she studied the dark landscape around her. "That's the problem," she replied. Myst blinked and looked at her curiously. "What do you mean? Mephisto and Alex should have returned to the pool already, so what else would be around here?" Susan's red eyes narrowed as she peered into the darkness. "What about other Shinma? Surely there should be something around here, but I can't sense even the slightest hint of life around here. There's an Earth expression that deals with situations like this," she said slowly. "It's quiet. Too quiet." Myst blinked again as she considered Susan's words and carefully scanned the area around her. She's right, she thought as a sudden icyness started to make its way down her back. Even if the nearest creature was half an hour's walk away, I should at least be able to feel it's life-force. But now I can't feel anything, not even background auras, and it certainly wasn't this empty when we left.... "You're right, something does feel odd...." Myst said slowly. Without warning, several flashes of light appeared several feet away from them as Mephisto and Alex teleported into the area, followed by several other creatures. Susan took one look at the creatures and decided that things had just taken a drastic change for the worse. "Susan!" Mephisto yelled as he ran towards her, keeping a solid grip on Alex's arm and fairly dragging her along with him. "Grab hold and don't let go!" Susan didn't bother replying, instead scooping up Myst in one fluid motion and running towards him. The creatures wasted no time in closing the gap and were mere feet behind Mephisto when he got close enough to grab hold of Susan's arm. The contact sent painful shocks shooting across her nerves before her vision seemed to explode into white sparks. Then the pain set in, waves upon waves of pure agony that would have had her screaming if she had been able to do so. The sensation seemed to last for an eternity before the pain vanished and her vision returned to normal. She had just started to draw in a breath when her vision exploded once more and she was again beseiged by the second-worst pain of her several centuries of life. Time seemed to come to a virtual standstill before the agony abruptly disappeared and she could see straight. Her mind had barely begun to orient itself before her legs collapsed out from under her and she fell to the ground, her nerve endings still raw with residual pain. Beside her, she heard a disturbingly weak moan as Alex also slumped to the ground and tried to curl up into a tiny ball. "Are you alright?" Mephisto said behind her, his voice tight with pain. "Wh.... what...?" Susan managed to croak out as her voice refused to cooperate. "Molecular teleport," Myst whispered as she uncurled herself and tried to move slowly. "I'm afraid so," Mephisto grunted. "Alex and I teleported into a horde of those creatures and we've been trying to escape them since. Problem was, they were able to track us and kept teleporting after us." "D.... did we.... lose them?" Susan whispered as she struggled valiantly into a kneeling position, casting a glance at Alex and trying to assess the blonde's condition. The Shinma grunted again. "I would hope so, because I'm not sure I could handle another incident like that," he replied. "Next time, just let me die," Alex whispered softly, not even considering trying to move just yet. "Are you alright?" Susan asked as she flexed her wings experimentally before folding them tightly against her back. They seemed to ripple briefly before shrinking in on themselves and were absorbed into the skin on her back, leaving only a pair of dark-colored scars behind. "Even my name hurts right now," the blonde replied, her voice still very unsteady. "Mephisto, what did you do to us?" "Didn't have enough time for a normal dimension shift, so I had to use a molecular teleport instead," he explained. "What's the difference, aside from the pain?" Susan asked as she shakily rose to her feet. "A dimension shift wraps four-dimensional space around you in such a way as to allow you to cease to exist in one spot and resume existing in another. A molecular teleport does the same thing, except that you're getting wrapped around space instead of the other way around," Mephisto explained. "So this is how taffy feels after it's been through the mixer," Alex grumbled as she started to slowly uncurl her body. "See if I ever look at it the same way again." "Where did you manage to find taffy in the Moon Kingdom?" Susan inquired as she bent down to carefully pick up Myst. "And are you alright?" she asked the Shinma. "I've been better," Myst replied sourly. "Prince Darian brought some from Earth one time and gave a bunch of it to the Princess," Alex said as she tried to roll over. "Being the sugar fairy that she is, her Highness shared some of it with us and I swear it was a week before Lady Mercury would let us hear the end of it. Kept saying something about how the 'hideously high sugar content' would give us all cavities. I'm surprised you don't remember that incident." Susan chuckled to herself, easily being able to picture the image given the Lady Mercury's often overwhelming concern for the health of the Princess and her court. "If I was around when it happened, I assure you I would not have forgotten such a thing." "Oh, that's right, I forgot you have a near-perfect memory despite being older than three generations of Sailor Scouts put together," Alex muttered to herself as she struggled into a sitting position. The succubus merely rolled her eyes and glanced around, blinking hard in surprise when she realized that they had teleported into the lava bubble that held the mana pool. "You're bleeding," Mephisto said suddenly as he moved over next to Alex and touched her shoulder. She winced at his touch and brushed his hand aside, making a face at the dark red stains on his fingertips. "Great, so I guess that thing did manage to tag me after all," she sighed as she craned her neck to try to look at her shoulder blade. "Oh, bah, that's just a messy scratch, nothing serious." "Let me see," Susan said as she moved over next to the blonde. "Mmm, it doesn't look too bad...." she started to say. "Is there an echo in here?" Alex muttered. "...but I think you're going to wind up with another scar once that heals in a few days," Susan finished dryly. "Provided, of course, it doesn't get infected and make matters worse." "Joy, another scar," Alex said as she rolled her eyes and unconsciously brushed her fingers across her thigh. "Mich is going to love that one." She paused as a realization sank in and she looked sharply at Mephisto. "You still have her soul, right?" she asked quickly. "Of course," he replied. "One moment." Both Susan and Alex blinked as his body started to dissolve into particles that quickly collapsed into a whirling vortex. The center of the vortex irised open like a flower and the faintly glowing soul emerged from the depths, slowly floating to the ground. The vortex collapsed in on itself and quickly reformed into a humanoid shape, catching the soul before it hit the stone floor. "That's spooky...." Alex said quietly, repressing a shiver. Susan merely raised an eyebrow in reply as she absently scratched Myst's ears. "How soon can you revive her?" she asked Mephisto. "I have to awaken her first, and for that I need energy," he replied as he turned his focus inward to his own supply of energy, extracting a small tendril of power and transferring it to the faded soul. Alex's blue eyes widened as Mephisto's arm seemed to ripple slightly and a glowing string of light wrapped itself around the glowing sphere. The string was quickly absorbed by the sphere and it began to glow noticeably brighter than before. "Wait, what did you just do?" she asked, her eyes still wide with wonder. "Giving your friend the energy she needs to wake up," Mephisto said as he wrapped another tendril of energy around the soul, causing it to glow even brighter. "You may wish to close your eyes for a moment," he cautioned as his arm started to ripple once more. Susan and Myst did so, but Alex continued to stare at the soul as the tendril of energy coiled itself around the soul like a snake before it suddenly was absorbed and the soul seemed to explode in a flash of light. "Owwwww...." Alex moaned as she turned her head away, briefly blinded by the flash. "He did warn you," Susan said mildly as she opened her eyes, her vision unaffected by the effects of the light. "Mmm, that certainly looks to be the right color." "Oh, shut up and give me a moment," the blonde replied as she blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to clear the residual afterimage. She waited until she was able to focus on her hand before trying to look up at the soul. "Ohh...." she breathed as her eyes widened once more. The soul, once a dim ball of light, was now a vibrant sphere of aquamarine light that filled the lava bubble with it's radiance. It seemed to be hovering slightly above Mephisto's hand, giving it a slightly ethereal effect. "I'm curious," Susan said slowly as she stared at the soul. "Do living souls always coalesce into spheres once they've been removed from the body?" Mephisto blinked, surprised by the question. "You're a succubus, and you're asking me about souls?" he said. Susan's lips curved into an amused smile. "The key word is living souls. Trust me, by the time I've extracted a soul to the point where I can physically see it, it's as dead as the body and in a somewhat liquidy form." Alex tried to fight off the dark shiver that crawled down her spine and failed miserably. "Must you be so morbid?" she muttered as she tried to calm her nerves. "Death is an odd teacher," Susan mused. "Quite effective, I assure you, but it extracts a toll in exchange for the knowledge." "I would imagine so," Mephisto said after a moment of heavy silence. The silence continued for a number of moments before it was abruptly dispelled by a forceful sneeze from Myst that nearly dislodged her from Susan's arms. "Whoa, you alright?" Alex asked as she gave the Shinma a concerned look. "I'm surprised that didn't turn your nose inside-out." Myst made a sour face as she jumped down from Susan's arms and batted at her nose with a paw. "Finally," she said. "My nose had been tingling since we teleported here and I thought it would never work its way out." "I think it's out now," Susan said mildly. "I hope so," Myst replied as she wrinkled her nose. Alex glanced over at Mephisto and frowned at the look on his face. "What is it, Mephisto?" she asked. "She awakens," he replied softly as he studied the aquamarine soul. "I'm going to revive her now. Please stand back and no matter what happens, don't touch the mana pool." Susan's head snapped around hard enough to make a joint creak somewhere along her spine. "Mana pool? Is that what this place is?" she said in awe. Alex blew her breath out hard in frustration. "Why can't you two spend five minutes together without having to start talking about something that's completely over my head?" she growled. A delicate green eyebrow rose in response. "Once you've lived among the inhabitants of the Underworld for a few centuries, you'll understand most if not all of what is said," Susan explained in mild amusement. The blonde resisted the urge to flip her off and instead settled for giving her a dark look. "Well, in the meantime, can you try to keep it to a level that a mere seventeen-year-old like myself can comprehend?" she said with a slight edge to her voice. Both Myst and Mephisto blinked in surprise and exchanged glances. "You're only seventeen?" Myst said amazement. "Yup," Alex said. "So how old did you think I was?" she asked as she put her hand on her hip and gave Mephisto an appraising look. "Significantly older, but I had forgotten about the shortness of human lifespans," he said carefully. "I would have said no more than two centuries, but that would roughly be the Shinma equivalent to a human your age." Alex raised an eyebrow, clearly not amused. "Two hundred years, huh?" she said, the edge returning to her voice. "A young two hundred," Mephisto offered in a light tone, suddenly sensing he may have made a mistake in voicing his opinion. "Sue's older than dirt and most people think she looks to be in her young twenties. I'm only seventeen and you say I look like I'm two hundred. Thanks a lot," Alex said with a sour expression on her face. "Perhaps we should concentrate on reviving Michelle and worry about our respective ages at a later time," Susan said gently, giving Alex a slightly reproving look. Mephisto nodded and started to concentrate on the glowing aquamarine soul. "As I said earlier, do not touch the pool no matter what happens," he cautioned as he closed his eyes. Everyone watched in mute fascination as the luminescent sphere started to float up into the air and over the center of the pool. The soul paused halfway in it's journey and hovered for a moment to avoid a drop of mana falling from the ceiling. Once the odd ripples had vanished, the soul continued to move across the pool, coming to a brief halt a few inches from the surface before suddenly plunging deep into the center of the pool. As they watched, the soul began to glow brighter for a moment before suddenly exploding outward into several thousand tiny points of light that quickly faded into nothingness. "MICH!!" Alex yelled as she instinctively lunged forward, only to be held back by both Susan and Mephisto. "It's supposed to do that," Susan quickly explained, cursing herself for not thinking to warn the blonde beforehand. "Give it a few moments, Alex." In a burst of almost inhuman strength, Alex shrugged off both grips and lashed out, grabbing the collar of Mephisto's tunic and pinning him against the wall of the lava bubble. "Where is she?! What happened?!" she demanded. "Alex, look," Susan said softly as she stared into the mana pool. The blonde's grip relaxed only fractionally as her head snapped around to look. A cloud of luminescent particles was slowly emerging from the depths of the pool and started to float around aimlessly. As the air began to grow thick with the points of light, they started to gather together into a glowing mass only a few feet away from Alex, glowing brighter and brighter with each passing second. After a few moments, the last of the particles merged together and suddenly gave off a burst of light that forced everyone to look away. "Oww, damn!" Alex moaned as her eyes began to tear from the overload. It took several moments before the pain in her retinas subsided enough for her to open her eyes, and it took her another few moments before she was able to focus on the nude female figure lying next to her. "Michelle!" she cried out as she recognized the wavy aquamarine hair of her friend. She fairly tossed Mephisto aside as she scrambled over to her, gently taking Michelle's hand in her own and carefully looking her over for any obvious sign of injury. "Are you alright?" Susan quietly asked Mephisto as she too looked over the inert form for any abnormal indications. "I've had better days," he replied with faint amusement. There was a soft moan as Michelle started to stir. Alex reached up and brushed away a few stands of aquamarine hair that had fallen over Michelle's face. "Easy, love," the blonde said softly. "Don't move just yet." "A.... Alex?" Michelle whispered faintly as she tried to open her eyes. "Right here, hon," Alex replied with a gentle smile. "Wh.... what happened?" Michelle asked as her eyelids finally fluttered open. It took her a few moments before she was able to focus on Alex, and she blinked as she saw the patch of blood on her shoulder. "You're bleeding!" she exclaimed and immediately tried to sit up. "Whoa, I said don't move yet," Alex said as she gently pushed her back down. "I'm fine. You, however, could use some work. Rest for a moment." Michelle closed her eyes and sighed for a moment before they suddenly snapped back open and gave Alex a slightly wary look. "Wait.... what did you do with my clothes?" she said with a slight edge to her voice. The corners of the blonde's mouth twitched in amusement. "I haven't a clue," she replied softly, "But I thought you liked being naked with me...." Michelle immediately blushed and looked away. "Of course I do," she whispered. "However, there is a time and place for that, and somehow I don't think this is either. Where are we?" she asked as she glanced around. "I see you haven't changed much," Susan said as she moved over and knelt down next to Alex. "Welcome back." "Susan!" Michelle said happily and tried to sit up again. She grimaced as her muscles protested but she refused to give up, finally managing to achieve a sitting position with Alex's help. "Easy, love, don't strain yourself," Alex said with concern. "I'll be alright once this headache goes away," Michelle replied as she looked around the lava bubble. "I'll be even better when I find my clothes, but in the meantime could someone tell me just where exactlEEEEEEEE!" she screeched as she saw a fully clothed man looking at her nude body. "WHOA!" Alex yelped as Michelle yanked her off-balance and she tumbled to the ground in front of her, effectively hiding Michelle's state of undress from everyone else in the lava bubble. "Jeez, girl, warn me before you do that!" "Who are you?" Michelle demanded, blushing furiously with embarrassment. "Perhaps I should do the introductions," Susan suggested before Mephisto could open his mouth. "Michelle, I would like you to meet the Shinma Mephisto. The lunar cat is another Shinma named Myst. Both of them saved our souls and restored our bodies. Mephisto, this is Michelle Kaiou, the avatar of Neptune." Michelle blinked and could only nod a polite greeting to Mephisto. Alex saw the deer-caught-in-headlights look on Michelle's face and sighed quietly. "Mich here is rather shy with people. We're both very grateful for your assistance up to this point, Mephisto, and I was wondering if I might ask a bit of a favor of you...." Alex said slowly, trying to soothe a slightly disturbed Michelle. "Clothing, I would imagine," Mephisto said as he moved closer to her. "If you would stand for a moment....?" he said as he held out his hand. Michelle hesitated for a moment as she considered her options and Alex sighed softly to herself. "He already looked over your luscious bod while you were still unconscious, dear, so there's no use in hiding it now. C'mon, time to get up," she said as she stood up, grabbing Michelle's arm in the process and hauling her up with her. Susan raised an eyebrow at the intensity of the blush on Michelle's face. It has always amazed me how someone as shy and reserved as Michelle could be so deeply involved with someone as forceful and outgoing as Alex, she thought to herself in amusement. But neither one seems to mind, so to each their own.... It took Michelle a moment to regain her balance before she could extend her hand to Mephisto, giving the Shinma an uncertain and slightly wary look. Mephisto merely took her hand in his and gave her a soft smile. She nearly yelped in surprise as a soft white glow enveloped her hand and quickly spread across her arm. The glow continued to expand until her entire body was covered by the soft radiance. She blinked as her skin started to tingle for a moment before the glow faded as quickly as it had come. Alex waited until the glow had faded before she turned around and took a step back to look at Michelle. She blinked hard and let out a soft whistle of appreciation at what she saw. "Damn, you do good work," she breathed. Michelle glanced down and blinked as well. "Ooooh, this looks nice," she said as she studied the aquamarine gown she was now wearing. She hiked the hem up a few inches to look over the matching low-heeled shoes she was wearing and nodded. "Shoes are a good match, too. Thank you, Mephisto," she said as she glanced up at the Shinma and gave him a shy smile. "My pleasure," Mephisto replied as he kissed the hand he was holding, causing a furious blush to appear on Michelle's cheeks. Alex frowned and reached out, tugging Michelle's hand free from Mephisto's grasp and holding it tightly in her own gentle grip. "Hey, now, no one gets to kiss her but me," she said with a faint edge to her voice. Mephisto blinked hard in surprise, at a momentary loss for words. Myst, who had been quietly watching the scene from the corner of the lava bubble, moved forward and gave all three girls a very curious look. "I don't quite understand the relationship between you three. Can you explain it to me?" she asked cautiously. Alex and Michelle exchanged glances before Michelle blushed and a smirk appeared on Alex's lips. They both looked at Susan as the succubus coughed lightly and gave Alex a reproving look. "I think I'll handle this one, if you don't mind," she said with a hint of amusement in her voice. "Spoilsport," Alex muttered as the smirk grew wider. "We are all avatars from the Moon Kingdom," Susan began explaining. "As I've inherited my father's eternal lifespan, I have been serving the Kingdom for many generations and knew both Alex and Michelle before they were born. Since I've not only changed their diapers but also helped to train them as Sailor Scouts, we've become very good friends over the years." Both Alex and Michelle blushed at the mention of being diapered. "That's great, Sue," Alex muttered. "Why don't you just show them the baby pictures while you're at it?" "If I had them with me, I would," Susan replied evenly, resisting the urge to smirk in satisfaction as Alex's blush deepened. "As for the relationship between Alex and Michelle, they've been the best of friends since they were able to crawl. However, over the years their relationship has...." She paused as she searched for a suitable word. "Evolved?" Michelle suggested softly as she edged behind Alex. Susan thought about it for a moment before shrugged. "A good word as any. Their relationship evolved beyond friendship and into what can only be thought of as a serious romance." Mephisto blinked. "Romance?" he echoed, giving Alex and Michelle a mildly confused look. Alex smirked again as she felt Michelle's arms around her waist and felt her leaning against her back, seeking the comfort of the blonde's presence. "In other words, we're lovers," Alex said with a touch of pride. Susan studied the expression on Mephisto's face and frowned lightly as she couldn't immediately identify it. It's not shock, she thought silently. Surprise, yes, but not much of it.... Her dark red eyes narrowed for a moment before they suddenly snapped wide open and blinked in surprise. Could that have been.... disappointment? she thought for a moment before she forced her facial expression to return to normal. "I see...." Mephisto said slowly, his expression changing to one of faint amusement. "That does explain matters. Forgive me, I meant no transgression," he said with a bow towards Michelle. "Ah, don't worry about it," Alex said with a wave of her hand. "Just as long as you don't try to kiss her again, I won't feel compelled to injure you." "I'll try to keep that in mind," the Shinma replied somewhat dryly. "Hello there," Michelle said softly as she knelt down to pet Myst. "How are you doing?" Myst blinked as Michelle began to scratch behind her ears. "You humans are strange creatures," the cat said with a slight frown. Michelle froze in mid-motion and blinked, giving Alex and Susan a slightly uncertain look. "I don't think she was paying attention," Susan observed with amusement. "To what?" Michelle asked, slightly wary. "You tell her, Sue, I'm having too much fun with this," Alex said with a grin, thoroughly enjoying Michelle's state of confusion. "Tell me what?" Michelle demanded as she tried to decide whether she should be getting angry or worried. Susan raised a slender eyebrow. "That's not a lunar cat you're petting," she explained gently. Alex had to bite down hard on her tongue to keep herself from bursting out laughing at the expression on Michelle's face. "Relax, hon, Myst won't hurt you unless you do something that would get you clawed by any other lunar cat." "The voice of experience, no doubt," Susan added, unable to resist. "I think you need to go get laid again. Your sense of humor is starting to wear thin," Alex replied evenly without looking at the succubus. "Umm.... if you're not a lunar cat, then what are you?" Michelle asked. "Shinma," Myst replied. "A species of outcast demons," Susan explained as Michelle gave her a blank look. "Granted they are far from harmless, but I assure you that these two bear us no ill will and in fact have gone to great lengths to help us." "Speaking of which," Mephisto interrupted gently, "Now that you've found your friends, we need to return you to your kingdom." Michelle's aquamarine eyes went wide as the mention of the Moon Kingdom caused a memory to bubble up from the depths of her mind. "Susan, the battle!" she exclaimed as she quickly stood up. Susan sighed quietly and held up a hand to silence any further potential outbursts. "The battle has been over for some time," she explained softly, "So there is no need to be concerned about that." Alex frowned as Susan's words triggered her own memories. "For how long? You still haven't told me how long we were dead or whatever it was that we were," the blonde said, her eyes narrowed. The succubus sighed again, feeling the weight of her years bearing down upon her already overburdened soul. "Alex...." she started to say. "How long?!" Alex demanded as Michelle moved slightly behind her, one hand gently wrapping around the blonde's wrist. "A thousand years," Susan said softly. The silence in the lava bubble was so sudden it echoed. The only sound that could be heard for several seconds was the sound of a drop of mana falling into the pool. "A thousand years?" Michelle asked, almost too softly to hear. Susan nodded in response and she began to tremble with the realization. "But.... what about the Kingdom?" "You know as much as I do right now," the succubus replied. "Queen Serenity...." Alex said softly, "The Princess.... the other Sailor Scouts.... they're all gone, aren't they? Even if we won, they would have.... I mean...." "Susan, can you take us back in Time?" Michelle asked. "Perhaps to a point just a few days after.... whatever it was that sent us here?" "I cannot," Susan said with a shake of her head. Alex frowned. "Wait, Sue, I know you feel about taking others with you when you time travel, especially in the past, but this is something...." "I CANNOT!" Susan screamed, her temper snapping for one brief moment and causing everyone to jump back, cringing with fear. She sighed and closed her eyes as she struggled to regain her composure. "Even if the Rules allowed me to send us back, it is impossible for me or anyone else to travel through Time anymore." Michelle blinked. "Why? What happened?" Susan opened her eyes and stared into the mana pool. "My staff was destroyed during the fight, and that release of temporal energy is what trapped our souls here in the first place. Without that staff, without the Key to Time, the Portal of Time is sealed shut." Alex and Michelle exchanged looks of horror. Neither of them had been able to fully grasp the celestial mechanics involved in time travel, but Susan had managed to explain a few of the basics about the Portal and the Key, and how the interaction of the two helped keep the fabric of the Universe from tearing apart at the seams. "Wait a moment," Mephisto said slowly as something clicked in his mind. "Susan, you're one of the Guardians of Time?" Susan nodded and ignored the sudden ball of ice in her gut. "Yes." The Shinma blinked hard. "But if you're an avatar, then why...?" She sighed heavily, once more feeling the weight of her responsibilites on her soul. "It is not something I wish to discuss," she said softly. Mephisto blinked hard again, not completely understanding what he was hearing. He let out his breath silently and nodded after a moment of silence. "As you wish, then." Alex and Michelle looked at each other and merely shook their heads, not having the slightest idea what Susan was talking about. "Think she was like this way back when she first became a Sailor Scout?" Alex asked Michelle in a hushed tone, receiving a wry look and a whispered, "Probably...." in reply. Susan shot them both a reproving look before looking at Mephisto. "In any case, the three of us need to return to the Moon Kingdom as soon as we can manage to find a way back. I am very grateful for your assistance up to this point, Mephisto, and your's as well, Myst, but considering what you've already done for us I can't ask you to do anything more." Mephisto chuckled to himself for a brief moment. "Come now, my dear Guardian, you would have us rescue you and your friends, and then do nothing to aid you in returning to your post?" He shook his head and chuckled again before his moment of humor passed and he looked up at Susan. "Besides, think of what might happen if Lord Hades were to hear of mere Shinma helping to return his avatar to his side." Susan blinked. "What do you mean?" she asked as she narrowed her eyes. "The Shinma as a whole have been condemned since the creation of the Underworld as the result of the actions of a handful of demons. If Lord Hades were to realize that perhaps not all Shinma are as.... unruly as the original traitors, then perhaps he might be willing to let some of us return to the Underworld and take our places as his minions." Susan considered that for a moment while Alex knelt down to pick up Myst. "Can you tell us what they're talking about this time?" she asked the gray cat as she started to scratch behind her ears. "I'm not sure," Myst said with a silent sigh as she gave up trying to understand the human interest in holding and petting her. "I was wondering why a Shinma would willingly help a demon," Susan said carefully after a moment's thought. "After all, ulterior motives are common to both species." The temperature in the lava bubble seemed to drop by twenty degrees as Mephisto spoke. "I had once heard that the demon society had somehow managed to become civilized in the countless centuries since the Creation, perhaps even becoming enlightened to the concept of treating others as you would like to be treated. Obviously that information was in error." "Whoa, time out," Alex said as she carefully handed Myst to Michelle. "Susan, what the hell are you doing? I'm not going to pretend I know even a fraction of the full story between you two, but as far as I know, Mephisto has done quite a lot for us and I have yet to hear him ask for anything in return. And now all of a sudden you're picking a fight?" The succubus shook her head slowly. "That is not my intention, I assure the both of you. I am merely trying to ascertain why we have been receiving an unprecedented amount of help from a historical.... adversary is a bad word, but the relations between demons and Shinma have never been what you would call cordial." "Not that we don't have a justified reason to resent our imprisonment," Mephisto said evenly, his voice still tinged with frost. "Tell me, avatar of our Lord Hades, what crimes have I committed to deserve such punishment?" Susan said nothing for several seconds, listening to the sounds of falling drops of mana and the rhythmic beating of her own heart. "As I said before," she said slowly, "It is not my intention to upset or offend you. Indeed, I am very much in your debt for your assistance, whatever your intentions may be. If you were to come me when I return to the Underworld, I am reasonably sure that Lord Hades would give you an audience for what you may have to say about The Dark and it's inhabitants." Mephisto nodded slowly. "Very well, then." "Okay," Alex said as she clapped her hands and rubbed them together. "Now that you two seem to be finished with your usual round of verbal fencing, can we crank this party up and get out of here? Like I said before, this puddle of whatever is pretty to look at, but we need a change of scenery and I really, REALLY need to find a bathroom sometime soon." Mephisto and Susan exchanged amused looks and the succubus nodded. "She has a valid, if unrefined, point," Susan said. "Indeed," the Shinma mused. "In any case, we are going to need to move to another location. The type of gate I can open operates on fixed points between the origin and destination. In order to open the gate I used to visit your Moon Kingdom, we will need to be standing in a particular place in The Dark. Fortunately, I marked that place so I could return if I ever needed to." "Great!" Alex said as she smiled at Michelle. "Unfortunately...." Mephisto continued. "Wait, let me guess," the blonde grumbled, "It's in the middle of a chunk of land infested with all sorts of evil and hungry critters." "Your insight is astonishing," Mephisto said dryly. "How long will it take to open the gate after we arrive?" Susan asked. Mephisto sighed. "The problem is not the timing but the energy. When the gate first starts to form, it will give off a burst of energy that will be detected by every Shinma within three miles. Granted the gate will start to open seconds after that, but that's more than enough time for the curious to start teleporting to us." "They're not going to be hostile or anything, are they?" Michelle asked cautiously, nervously stroking Myst in a failed effort to calm down. Everyone exchanged glances before Alex sighed. "Love, saying they'll be hostile is like saying the Princess likes sugar. In other words, bet on it." Mephisto made a gesture towards the mana pool and a drop started to float up into the air. "Are we ready then?" he asked. "One moment," Susan said as she concentrated. The skin on her back seemed to ripple and pulse before exploding outwards as her wings emerged. She flexed them experimentally for a few seconds before she nodded to Mephisto. Mephisto briefly glanced at the looks on Alex and Michelle's faces at the demonic transformation before shaking his head. "Very well then," he said as he concentrated. The drop of mana darted towards him and splashed against his outstretched hand. A tremendous amount of energy began to surge through the Shinma as he shifted his mental focus to the fabric of space surrounding them. They seemed to shimmer briefly as four-dimensional space was folded around them in a complex quasi-geometrical shape. Then as soon as it had started, space unfolded itself into it's normal shape, leaving behind an empty cavern. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Molly sighed quietly to herself as she closed her eyes and laid back on the grass. Her ears heard the sounds of hungry seagulls flying over the city's artificial lake, but her mind was far too preoccupied to pay any attention to the minor distractions around her. It's got to be a coincidence, she thought to herself. So Ami's got a boyfriend with the same exotic name as the person from the Negaverse that's been helping Sailor Mercury learn his language. I've seen Mercury in action and somehow I can't imagine a bookworm like Ami being that physically active, with all that running around and whatnot they do. Molly's green eyes snapped open as a thought crossed her mind. However, if Ami has been trained in martial arts like Mina said, that would mean that Ami would have been physically active like that, and for quite some time, so it is possible.... maybe. She sighed quietly again as she closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. This seemed a lot easier to think about an hour ago, she thought, but now I'm really starting to wonder. Ami Mizuno as Sailor Mercury? Yeah, they've got the same color hair, but I also know three other girls with blue hair, although none of them keep it short like Ami does.... Or Mercury.... Molly almost giggled to herself. C'mon, girl, I've seen them both really up close and personal, and they don't look much alike. However, she thought, neither did Superman and Clark Kent. Now there's a sobering idea. Could whatever power they use as Sailor Scouts also disguise what they really look like? Why not ask? This time she did giggle to herself. That's it, your brain has cracked, she thought. Why don't I just walk up to them next time we happen to run into each other, look Mercury in the eye, and ask, "Hey, aren't you Ami Mizuno?" And if pigs could fly.... "Molly?" a voice asked gently. "Do you mind if we talk to you for a few minutes?" It took Molly a full second to decide whether or not she had indeed lost her mind and was now hearing the voices of the Sailor Scouts in her head before she remembered to open her eyes. The sight of two Sailor Scouts standing over her didn't disturb her nearly as much as the fact that one of them was indeed Sailor Mercury. The redhead scrambled to her feet, a mixture of surprise and panic in her eyes. "H... hello," she stammered out as her tongue suddenly seemed to twist itself into knots and her stomach started doing aerobics on its own. She blinked in surprise as she noticed that Mercury was wearing some sort of blue plastic visor over her eyes and that she held some sort of compact device in her hand. "Are you doing okay after that incident this afternoon?" Mercury asked as she discreetly scanned Molly with her computer and read the results on her Virtual Visor. Heart rate, blood pressure, and adrenaline levels are all abnormally high, she thought to herself. Perhaps that meeting with Reish'id rattled her harder than I thought.... "I've had better days," Molly replied with obvious nervousness. Sailor Moon blinked. "Are you alright, Molly? You sound like you're a little strung-out." "I've just got a lot on my mind, that's all," the redhead replied. "Hey, how come you didn't show up this afternoon with everyone else?" she asked as the thought suddenly came to mind. Sailor Moon blushed a delicate shade of pink. "Well, I was busy taking care of some other business at the time." "Things don't always happen in just one place," Mercury added, hoping Molly wouldn't inquire further. "You said you've got a lot to think about?" She received a nod in reply and added, "Is there anything in particular you'd like to talk about?" Molly was about to stall for time when they heard a voice cutting across the park. "Oh, look, Sailor Scouts!" Sailor Moon gave Mercury a strange look as the vampire cringed. "Great, just p'takh'enn great," Mercury muttered beneath her breath as the voice's owner fairly bounded across the path towards them, toting a somewhat oversized and seemingly weighty backback. "Howdy!" Sailor V said cheerfully with a smile, her blue eyes twinkling behind the oversized red glasses she wore. "Hello, V," Mercury said somewhat tiredly. Sailor V's usually cocky, overconfident, and somewhat arrogant attitude never failed to irritate her, and today was no exception. Why V and not Sailor Venus? she thought to herself as she glanced at the backpack. A thought crossed her mind and she frowned. I hope she wasn't messing around on the black market again.... "My, aren't we in a cheerful mood," V teased as she set the backpack down with a heavy thump and a nearly silent rattle that only Mercury's vampiric hearing could detect. "Did somebody dye your cat purple or something?" "The voice of experience?" Mercury shot back, unable to resist reminding her about the time she had forcibly given Artemis a bath and grabbed the wrong bottle from the closet. It had taken two weeks to get the dye out of his normally white fur and even longer for him to start speaking to her again. "Ha ha, funny girl," V replied, her voice dripping acid. Molly blinked as she alternated her gaze between Mercury and V. "Are you two related or something?" she asked hesitantly. "You sound as bad as two of my friends." Sailor V looked at Mercury for a moment before bursting out laughing, causing Mercury to raise an eyebrow. "Heavens no," said when she could draw enough breath to speak. "Mercury's just the type that needs to learn how to let her hair down, so to speak, and to enjoy life a little bit more. She can't stand cheery types like yours truly." "Which friends are you referring to?" Sailor Moon asked before Mercury could formulate a suitable reply. "Who knows, we might even know them." "You might," Molly said with a slight shrug. "Serena and Rei. They're okay friends for the most part, but they do have the tendency to snipe at each other for sometimes hours at a time." "You know, I think I might know them," V said slowly, trying not to burst out laughing as she watched the corner of Sailor Moon's mouth start to twitch. "So what brings you here?" Mercury asked, stalling for time as she tried to figure out a way to get the situation under some semblance of control. I'm not sure which is more important, she thought to herself, getting Molly to talk about what she knows, keeping Sailor Moon calmed down, or figuring out how to get rid of Sailor V. "Oh, just a little shopping," V said as casually as she could while she fought the sudden icy chill that had started to work its way down her spine. Oh, boy, she thought, I can see this one coming down the pipe.... "Even Sailor Scouts need to stock up on this and that every now and then, you know. So what brings you two out here?" Mercury opened her mouth to give a rather evasive answer when she heard several voices coming from the bus that had just pulled up to the sidewalk at the edge of the park. A small red flag went up in her mind as she glanced at the chronometer in the upper corner of her visor. The elementary after-school bus, she thought with a heavy sigh. Fifty-someodd little kids who all just noticed three Sailor Scouts standing around, which means all hell is going to break loose in the next thirty seconds.... Sailor V frowned at the sudden change in Mercury's expression. She turned her head to look at the sudden profusion of noise and blinked. "After-school bus?" she asked softly. "Unfortunately," Mercury replied. Twenty-four seconds.... V smiled sweetly. "My biggest fan club." "Good, you go deal with them and let me finish taking care of Molly," she said softly as the bus doors opened. The kids instantly started to scramble off and began to move with all the speed and grace of a stampede towards Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon smiled and started waving to the horde, which only made them move with that much more motivation. Fifteen seconds.... V blinked hard. "Problem?" she asked in all seriousness, her concern temporarily overriding her usual streetwise attitude. "We think she might know our identities after meeting with Reish'id," Mercury answered. "I'm trying to find out how much she knows, if anything," she added as she watched the stampede draw closer, the noise level already starting to overload her vampiric hearing. Six seconds.... V smiled. "Okay, let me handle Molly. You and Sailor Moon go do some autographs and all. It's about time you spent some time basking in the public spotlight," she added as she waved her arms. "Hey everyone! Who wants to meet Sailor Mercury, live and in person?" she called out, causing half of the stampede to abruptly change course towards her. "I'll get you for this," Mercury growled softly as she was surrounded by a horde of elementary school children, all pleading that she give autographs and answer their questions about Sailor Scouts. "Maybe later," V said cheerfully as she quietly slipped away from the crowd. It's absolutely amazing how often I can get away without being noticed, she thought to herself as she glanced towards Sailor Moon. Like Mercury, she too was up to her armpits in little kids trying to get her autograph, although unlike Mercury, she didn't seem to mind the attention. "So what do you think of the rugrat patrol?" V asked quietly as she moved next to Molly. Molly blinked. "I don't see how you can deal with that many little kids on a regular basis." V shrugged. "The price of being a celebrity. You do get used to it after a few months of practice and patience, but it does get old after awhile." "So how come they're not mobbing you like the other Sailor Scouts?" Molly observed as she watched the two groups. V snickered. "Easy, I've been around longer than they have and I've done this sort of thing before. They're used to seeing me here and there, but they don't get to meet the Sailor Scouts very often. I guess you can say I'm like the old toy at the bottom of the toybox, ignored in favor of the newer ones." Molly nodded, knowing exactly what she meant. "Umm, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?" she said hesitantly, not quite sure how to deal with a minor celebrity face-to-face. "Only if I can ask you a few questions in return," V said mischieviously. The redhead blinked at that. "Umm.... sure," she said after a moment. "Okay, then, shoot," V replied as she clasped her hands behind her back. "Are you a Sailor Scout like they are?" Molly asked. "Ouch," V sighed. "Not really. Granted I've got what it takes to kick butt and take names, but not on the level of what they do. I go after people like bank robbers and drug dealers. Yeah, I've worked with them on occasion, and there have been times when I've saved their collective bacon and they've saved mine, but what they do on a day-to-day basis is on a completely different scale. Actually, now that I think about it, I wouldn't say I've worked with them so much as had either the good or the bad luck to blunder into them from time to time." Molly nodded. "So what exactly do they do?" V frowned slightly and gave the redhead a measured look. "From what I've been told about you, Molly Baker, you could probably tell me a few things about what they do." Molly blinked. "What have you heard about me?" she asked, not entirely sure she wanted to know. "This and that," V said evenly. "Mostly rumors, things like that you know Sailor Moon personally, that you know the Sailor Scouts' true identities, that you were involved with the Negaverse, more often than not as a victim of a plot as opposed to voluntarily becoming friends with some of their agents, things you'd hear on the grapevine and all. Speaking of which, it's my turn to ask you a question." Molly blinked again as she struggled to sort out the sudden deluge of information. "Okay...." she said slowly. "How much of that is true?" V asked. "What?" V sighed. "I'm just curious as to how much of that is fruit from the grapevine and how much of that is actually true. I know the Sailor Scouts personally, but I don't know their true identities, and just between you and me, I don't ever want to find out." Molly blinked for the third time in as many minutes. "What do you mean?" "Let me try to explain it like this. I have to keep my identity a secret because I've put some people in jail. If they found out who I was, they'd probably come after me once they got out. But if they know someone who does know my true identity, they'd probably go after them in order to get to me. You know what Sailor Moon and the others have dealt with. If the Negaverse were to ever find out their true identities, they could come after not only them whenever they wanted to, but their friends and families as well. The only thing that keeps them safe is the fact that once they revert to their secret identities, the Sailor Scouts effectively drop off the face of the planet." Sailor V sighed and rubbed at a kink in her neck. "I guess what I'm babbling about is that if you do know something, go talk to one of the Sailor Scouts as quietly as you can, tell them what you know, and then do your very best to forget that you know. Personally I'd suggest talking to Mercury, as she seems to have the brains of the group, but you didn't hear me say that," she added with an impish smile. Molly just nodded, her mind already deep in thought about the situation. How many times has the Negaverse come after me to get to Sailor Moon? she thought, the realization sending a dark chill down her spine. I don't know who she is, but if they think I do.... "I can hear the gears turning in your brain," V observed. "Something on your mind?" "I think I understand what you mean," Molly replied. V breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, I wasn't sure I could throw anything more at you if it didn't click," she said with another impish smile. Molly blinked before she chuckled. "Thanks.... I think." "Anytime. Hang on for a few, I gotta go rescue Mercury. She's new to the publicity thing and she's probably stressed out to the point of wanting to bite someone by now," V said as she walked over to the group of children still mobbing Sailor Mercury. "Are we having fun yet?" she asked cheerfully. "Sailor V!" the crowd replied enthusiastically. "That's me," she said as she struck a stylized pose, drawing a cheer from the horde of kids. "So how are you holding up?" she asked Mercury as she accepted a pen and pad of paper from someone to do an autograph. "This is probaby the best method of birth control I've ever seen," Mercury replied quietly as she finished what she dearly hoped was her last autograph. "But think of how much you want to be a pediatrician!" V teased. She blinked suddenly as her use of the elementary "p-word" caused about a full second's worth of silence. "You're a doctor?" a little girl asked Mercury. "I'm not, at least not yet. My mother is a doctor, though," Mercury replied. "Do you have a band-aid? I scratched myself on the bus," she said as she held out her arm. Mercury blinked as she took a closer look. The scratch was a minor one, although it was deep enough to cause it to slowly ooze blood. "Umm, I don't have...." she started to say. V clapped her on the shoulder. "Hold that thought, Doc," she said as she hurried over to her backpack. She opened it and fished out half a dozen rather questionable containers before was able to retrieve the portable medical kit she bought less than an hour ago. "Can you give this to Sailor Mercury for me?" she asked the nearest kid as she held the kit out to him. His eyes lit up at the thought of helping Sailor V and he eagerly did so, carrying it towards Mercury as if it was a major sports trophy. "Thank you," Mercury said as she knelt down and took the kit from him. She set the kit down on the ground and opened it, her eyes nearly falling out of her skull at what she saw inside. "What kind of kit is this?" she said, giving V a stunned look. V coughed lightly. "I'll tell you about it later," she said. "That should be an interesting conversation," Mercury muttered to herself as she quickly searched through the kit and came up with a small box of large band-aids, a piece of gauze, and a small bottle marked H2-O2. "What's that?" the little girl asked as she eyed the bottle warily. Mercury sighed at the question, knowing what was coming. "This is just a little hydrogen peroxide to make sure that your scrape doesn't get infected. I know it stings a little," she said as the girl cringed, "But just think of how much it will hurt if it does get infected. Now hold still while I scan it with my computer." The little girl blinked as Mercury passed her computer over the scrape and she saw things start to appear on Mercury's Virtual Visor. "What's that thing doing?" she asked as she pointed to the visor. "My visor can act like a computer monitor so I can both see what my computer is telling me and see what's going on around me at the same time, instead of stopping to look at the screen," Mercury explained as she read the results. "And since you can see how tiny the screen is, you can imagine how hard it is to stop and read when you're in the middle of a fight," she said as she handed her computer to the little girl. The girl's eyes went wide as she carefully took the compact computer from Mercury. "It's so small and light," she said incrediously. With the sensor suite now pointed at Mercury, the display was changing to show her biological readings and the little girl was absolutely captivated as she watched the tiny words and symbols scroll across the screen. "It has to be, since I can't carry a full-sized computer with me every time I want to go somewhere," Mercury explained soothingly as she quietly pried open the bottle of peroxide and dabbed the gauze in it. One of the lessons learned from Mother is always do the stuff they hate when they're preoccupied with something else, she thought to herself as she carefully wiped the gauze over the scrape. The little girl blinked as she felt a prickling sensation on her arm and looked down. "Hey!" she exclaimed, more out of surprise than anything. "Does it hurt?" Mercury inquired as she gently finished cleaning the scrape and opened the box of band-aids. The girl blinked as she realized that she wasn't in mortal agony. "N-no, not really...." she said, surprised that it really didn't hurt. "I told you it only stings a little," Mercury replied with a smile as she peeled open a band-aid and gently placed it over the now-disinfected scrape. She smoothed the adhesive tabs down securely and looked up at her. "There, that should do it." The little girl looked down at the new bandage before looking back up at Mercury, the smile spreading across her face like a sunbeam. "Thank you!" she exclaimed and gave Mercury a bone-crushing hug. Mercury was caught off-guard by the outburst of emotion and could only return the hug as best she could. "Still having second thoughts, Doctor?" Sailor V whispered in Mercury's ear, smiling at the sight. Mercury said nothing as the little girl finally released her and handed her computer back. "Thank you," Mercury said automatically. "I don't mean to be a spoilsport here, kids, but Sailor Mercury and I have to be going. It's getting awfully close to dinnertime, and even Sailor Scouts need to eat," V said loudly enough for everyone to hear her. "Besides, some of you have parents standing over there waiting for you." Mercury blinked and looked around, noticing for the first time the small group of adults standing together about twenty feet away. The children noticed this at exactly the same time and there was another brief stampede as all but three of them went running towards their parents, waving farewell to the Sailor Scouts in the process. The little girl smiled at Mercury and gave her another hug. "I have to go. Thank you, Sailor Mercury!" she said before she too turned around and made a mad-dash towards her patiently waiting mother. Mercury looked around and noticed that the two kids who remained were only waiting long enough to get Sailor Moon's autograph before they also headed towards Mom and Dad. "I think you've just made a friend for life," V observed quietly. "Perhaps," Mercury said softly, her mind already occupied with trying to figure out the feelings the whole experience had caused. "Is the coast clear?" Sailor Moon asked with a weary expression as she walked towards V and Mercury. "For today, at least. Now Mercury, tell me you didn't enjoy that," V said with another impish grin. "Don't make me bite you in front of everybody," Mercury replied evenly with a not-quite-amused look. "I told you she was stressed out to the point of wanting to bite someone," V said over her shoulder with a wink. Mercury looked behind V and blinked hard as she realized that Molly was still standing there. Uh oh, she thought, I forgot she was still with us.... "Anyway, now that the rugrat brigade has gone elsewhere, it's time for me to make myself scarce again," V said as she knelt down and quickly repacked her backpack. "Hold it, V," Mercury said with a slight edge to her voice. "I want to ask you a few questions about that medical kit." "Like...?" V replied warily. "Like what exactly it's supposed to be, where you got it, and how you paid for it," Mercury said. V raised a slender eyebrow. "And when did you become my mother?" Sailor Moon and Molly exchanged glances. "I think now would be a good time for me to head back home," Molly told Sailor Moon quietly. "You stay put for a few minutes," Mercury said over her shoulder without taking her eyes off of Sailor V. "We still need to talk about a few things." V smiled sweetly. "Oh, by all means, don't let me keep you from taking care of something of far greater importance than my shopping list. I'll just have to take a rain check and catch up with you two Sailor Scouts later," she said as she zipped the backpack closed and hefted it onto her shoulder. Mercury gave her a look that came dangerously close to melting a hole in her Virtual Visor. She closed the lid of the medical kit with enough force to dent the olive-green casing and wordlessly held it out to V. "Thanks," V said as she took the kit from Mercury and flashed a smile at everyone. "See ya later!" she said as she started jogging down the path, disappearing from view as she turned a corner. "You need to calm down," Sailor Moon said quietly to Mercury after a few moments of heavy silence. Mercury sighed quietly and muttered something toxic beneath her breath in the denizen language. "Sorry," she apologized as she deactivated her Virtual Visor and rubbed her temples. "I just don't know how she manages to always get on my nerves like that." "Knowing V, she'd probably call it a skill," Sailor Moon ventured. The vampire grunted as she closed her eyes. "The truly disturbing thing is that you're probably right," she said as she gave up trying to massage out her headache and let her hands fall to her sides. Molly shook her head. "And you're sure you two are friends?" Mercury opened her eyes and gave the redhead an odd look. "Sailor V is a completely different person once she takes her mask off," she said, referring to the oversized Sailor V Transformation Glasses. "I'm not overly fond of V, but I'm a close friend of the person beneath the attitude." "I see," Molly said slowly, trying to figure out what was sending a subtle chill creeping down her spine. She summoned the same courage she used to force herself to speak to Reish'id and drew in a slow breath. "Sailor Mercury, can I talk to you for a few minutes?" Molly almost whimpered as both Sailor Mercury and Sailor Moon seemed to stop breathing and looked at her. Sailor Moon's gaze was filled with unease and nervousness, but the carefully concealed emotions she saw in the depths of Mercury's steel-blue eyes and the intensity behind them is what truly bothered her. She knows, she thought suddenly, she knows I know.... "Of course," Mercury replied evenly, doing her best to ignore the sudden formation of ice in her veins. "What's on your mind?" It seemed like an eternity passed before Molly's lips began to move as she spoke. "I.... I think I know who you are...." she said, her voice barely a whisper. Sailor Moon blinked at her words but Mercury continued to gaze at her with almost inhuman intensity, the steel-blue eyes seeming to bore into her very soul with each passing moment. "I see...." Mercury said slowly. "And who do you think I am?" "Ami," Molly said softly, "Ami Mizuno." "Mmm, one of the students from Crossroads High School, I believe," Mercury said slowly, as if in deep thought. "So what makes you think I'm her?" Molly took a deep breath and started to talk about information taken from several different events and weaved together to form her conclusion. The explanation took several minutes to finish and Mercury's vampiric gaze never wavered from her even once the entire time. "Interesting," Mercury said when Molly fell silent. She briefly glanced at Sailor Moon and frowned slightly when she noticed that the blonde's eyes were wide with shock. She was about to whisper something to her when an idea suddenly blossomed in her mind with the force of a supernova. She blinked hard as she quickly considered her options and their potential repercussions before she decided on a course of action. I hope this works, she thought as she turned to face Sailor Moon. "That sounds amazing, doesn't it?" she said as an eerie gleam appeared in her vampiric eyes. You will nod your head and say nothing, she thought with all her willpower as she unleashed her hypnotic powers. Sailor Moon seemed to freeze in place for a moment, her blue eyes becoming even wider with shock before she slowly nodded to Mercury. Mercury turned to face Molly and took a deep breath. "However, there is one serious flaw in your otherwise brilliant reasoning," she said slowly as she focused her hypnotic powers on Molly. Molly blinked as her breath seemed to catch in her throat briefly and her mind started to grow fuzzy. "What's that?" she managed to say as she looked into Mercury's eyes and was captivated by the faint gleam she saw in them. Such strange color eyes, she thought distantly. "If I was Ami, I couldn't be in two places at once, now could I?" Mercury said reasonably, keeping her voice soft and even. "So if I'm Ami, then who is that on the other side of the street over there?" Molly blinked and turned to look, her eyes going wide as she saw a very familiar figure with short blue hair walking along the sidewalk, completely oblivious to the presence of the Sailor Scouts not more than forty or fifty yards away. Sailor Moon turned to look as well and nearly suffered a heart-attack. "What?" she managed to gasp before Mercury discreetly took hold of her elbow and lightly pinched a nerve. The resulting surge of pain forced her to fall silent as she continued to stare at the impossible visage of Ami walking along the sidewalk, disappearing from view after a few seconds. "That was Ami, wasn't it?" Mercury asked neutrally as she struggled to keep an even expression and hoped that she wasn't obviously sweating. "I.... I guess so," Molly said after a few seconds of silence. It took her another few seconds before she was able to shake off the residual effects of the hypnosis and turned to face Mercury. "Looks like you're not Ami after all, Sailor Mercury." "From what I know of Ami, she and I would probably get along quite well," Mercury said. She was still holding onto Sailor Moon's elbow but was no longer pinching her, a subtle reminder for the blonde to remain silent. "But as we've never met, that's just an educated guess." Molly blushed a medium shade of red. "Guess I was wrong about you, Sailor Mercury. Sorry." Mercury just smiled. "Just a case of mistaken identity, don't worry about it," she replied lightly. "Well, seeing how you look well enough and all, I think it's time Sailor Moon and I got back home for dinner." "Good idea," Molly said as she glanced at the horizon, trying to discern the time by the position of the setting sun. "It's about what, getting close to six o'clock by now?" "Five-thirty would be my guess, but that's close enough for anyone's stomach clock," Mercury said with a glance towards Sailor Moon. "What do you think?" Sailor Moon blinked hard as her mind snapped back into reality. "Sorry, I was thinking about something. What did you say?" she asked sheepishly. "Thinking about dinner yet?" Mercury said with a faint edge to her voice and the lightest of squeezes on the blonde's elbow. Sailor Moon blinked again at the subtle suggestion and smiled weakly. "Yeah, I guess so." Mercury gave Molly a knowing look. "Well, if she's getting hungry, then you know it's time to go." "Hey," Sailor Moon protested, more out of reflex than understanding. Molly giggled. "I guess I'll catch you two some other time, I guess." "Probably," Mercury replied. "Let's just hope the next time won't be a cause for concern for anyone." "No kidding," the redhead said with a serious nod. "Take care," she said and started walking in the general direction of her house. Sailor Mercury waited until Molly was out of her sight before she sighed heavily and released Sailor Moon's elbow. "I hope I never have to do that sort of thing again," she said softly, her voice laced with weariness. Sailor Moon whirled around to face her friend. "How'd you do that?" she said, still quite rattled from seeing both Mercury and Ami at the same time. "One moment you're standing right next to me, and then all of a sudden you're crossing the street, and then you're right back here again." "It was a hypnotic illusion," Mercury explained. "It's almost exactly like my invisibility, except that time I was making you see me when I really wasn't there instead of the other way around. It obviously worked, seeing how you both reacted like that." Sailor Moon gave her a slightly confused look. "So how come you've never told us about this trick before?" "Well.... to be honest, the idea just occurred to me five minutes ago and this is the first time I've tried something like that," Mercury admitted with a faint blush of embarassment. "I wasn't sure it would work since I couldn't see the illusion myself." The blonde blinked hard and stared at the distant sidewalk. "But.... that looked so.... so real...." she said slowly. Mercury just shrugged. "Guess that means I did something right. Come on, we need to get out of here before someone else comes along and decides to ask for our autograph." Sailor Moon shivered lightly at the thought of signing any more autographs in the near-term future. "And to think some people thrive on such things," she muttered to herself as they started walking towards a dense group of bushes. Once they were safely concealed from anyone who might have been watching them, they reversed their transformations and headed for the sidewalk in silence, Ami lost in introspective thought and Serena intent on arriving at her house in time for dinner. "So I take it our identities are safe for now?" Serena finally said they came to a halt at an intersection and waited for the light to change. Ami nodded. "For now," she echoed. "The only things that I can think of that would really screw up everything would be for Molly to either bump into Tolaris again and have him say something or to see him with one of us. She already knows what he looks like, so all she needs is to see a picture of him with a few friends and she'll start trying to put puzzle pieces together again. If she manages to put together another chain of events like she did with me, or even does so much as add another link or two to what she's already got, our 'secret identities' could very well be blown wide open." Serena nodded in understanding as the traffic light changed and they started walking across the intersection. "So what are you going to do, keep Tolaris locked inside the cathedral all the time?" she teased. The vampire gave her a reproving look. "You know I would never suggest such a thing. We just have to be more careful about what we do together in public, that's all." She blinked as something in her peripheral vision caught her attention and turned her head to look. Serena noticed Ami's gaze shifting suddenly and also turned to look, her blue eyes widening slightly at what she saw. "Hey, isn't that your mom's car parked over there?" "Do you know anyone else with an electric-blue Porsche in this city?" Ami answered with a slight frown. She couldn't see the licence plate from where she was standing, but she would have bet a considerable sum of money that it was indeed her mother's car. Odd, she thought to herself, she shouldn't be getting home until close to midnight. Unless.... "I'll catch you later, Serena," she said abruptly as she made a decision and started walking towards the car. Her mind was already becoming preoccupied with trying to figure out why her mother wasn't working right now and didn't hear Serena's slightly confused farewells. Ami was only a dozen feet away from the car when the slender figure of her mother stepped out of a small corner store with a slightly harried look on her otherwise stunning features and carrying a large grocery bag. She wasn't aware of Ami's approach until she had stashed the bag in the trunk and happened to look up at the sound of footsteps. "Hello, Ami," Doctor Amelia Anderson said, only mildly surprised to find her daughter standing in front of her instead at home studying in her room. "Hi, Mom," Ami replied as she gave her mother a hug. The hug only lasted a brief moment as the overwhelming smell of medical-strength antiseptic reached Ami's keen nose. She quickly took a step back, wrinking her nose as the smell made her eyes start to water. "I know, it is rather strong," Dr. Anderson said apologetically before Ami could say anything. "There was a major accident last night and we're just now finishing up the post-ops. I figured that since they were letting me go, I'd finish scrubbing off the antiseptic at home." Ami nodded and tried not to imagine what her mother had just gone through. "Is that why you're headed home so early?" she asked as she walked to the other side of the car and opened the door. Her mother got in the car and unlocked the passenger side door with a tap on the armrest. It wasn't until Ami had sat down, closed the door, and buckled her seatbelt that she noticed the odd look her mother was giving her. "What?" she asked cautiously. "Early? Ami, I haven't been able to leave the hospital since I checked in for work yesterday morning," Dr. Anderson said, the strain of working nonstop for so long finally starting to show on her face. "I've been up to my elbows in work for the past twenty-eight hours." Ami blinked incredulously as her mother closed the door and started the ignition. The well-maintained Porsche's V-6 engine immediately caught on the first revolution and started purring softly, eliciting the faintest suggestion of a smile on the usually mild-mannered doctor's face. The car was her only concession to lavish spending and her habit of striving to always keep it in near-perfect operating condition sometimes bordered on the fanatical. Ami had often suspected that her mother enjoyed driving the Porsche just a little bit too much, but had no real complaints as the good doctor always drove with the utmost care and caution. Her mother's words repeated themselves in her mind and Ami struggled to repress a shiver. Her mother was a highly-skilled surgeon and was more often than not called upon to work on emergency trauma cases. The hospital wouldn't have kept her on call for such an extended period of time unless her skills had been direly needed. That being the case, Ami thought grimly, she very well might have been up to her elbows in surgery. Literally. The image that sprang to her mind wasn't a pretty one and she had to repress another shiver. I can think of worse jobs, she thought as she cast a concerned glance at her mother. Dr. Anderson's dark blue hair was still securely wrapped up in her usually tight bun, but Ami noticed a sizable number of errant strands of hair that had managed to work themselves free, a sign of stress and fatigue that only those close to the doctor could discern. The few lines of age that had engraved themselves on her stern yet alluring features over the years were more sharply pronounced than usual, yet another barely-noticable indication of the physical burden on her. Ami sighed quietly to herself, not able to completely understand the sort of weight her mother carried on her shoulders on a day-to-day basis. She knew that not being able to understand was partly a good thing, as her mother said on occasion that no human being should have to see what she sometimes sees on a really bad night, but the frustration of not being able to fully understand sometimes wore on her soul as well. "Something on your mind?" her mother asked gently as she buckled her seat belt and cast a curious glance at her daughter. Ami blinked as her mind refocused itself on the surrounding reality. "I was just worried about you having to drive given how tired you are," she said carefully. She blinked again and fought the urge to cringe as her mother gave her a decidedly cool look in response. "I'll be fine, dear," Dr. Anderson said evenly without a hint of reproach in her voice. She didn't need to say anything else or to use any other tone to convey her meaning as her look communicated everything that needed to be said. Ami merely glanced away, knowing that she wasn't the only one to ever be given 'that look' by her mother. The look could have many possible meanings, although in this case Ami took it to read, "Your concern is touching, but I know quite well what I'm doing, thank you very much." "Unless, of course, you happen to be suggesting that you would prefer to drive home," she continued, a note of faint humor creeping into her voice. This time Ami couldn't stop herself from cringing at her mother's words, despite the fact that she knew that her mother was simply teasing her. They were both aware that Ami had never driven a car before, let alone sat behind the wheel of one with a manual transmission. "Of course not," Ami replied, then cautiously added, "But I wouldn't mind learning one of these months." She blinked in surprise when her words didn't draw another cool look from her mother at the suggestion of trying to learn how to drive on her Porsche. The look she got in its place was one of careful consideration. Maybe, just maybe.... she thought as the tiniest spark of hope ignited deep inside her heart. "I am sixteen, after all," she ventured. She suddenly had to fight the urge to cringe once more as her mother gave her the look again, this one seeming to say, "As if I would forget the age of my only daughter." The look unexpectedly softened after a few moments as her mother sighed quietly to herself, turning her attention out towards the evening traffic on the street. "Yes, I know," she said softly, almost sadly, as she shifted the car into gear and smoothly drove into the flow of traffic. Ami blinked at the sudden change in her mother's mood. Now that was odd, she thought as she glanced at her out of the corner of her eye. Maybe she's even more tired than I thought. Ami gave the matter a few more moments of thought before she shoved it onto one of the many 'back burners' in her mind before she turned her attention out the window and let her mind drift off to other topics. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Time and spaced seemed to twist inward on itself in an unusually graphic display of quasi-dimensional energy for a brief moment before unfolding back into its usual shape, leaving behind a rather odd assortment of individuals. "And I thought Susan's keep was a creepy place to visit," Alex observed as she studied at the dark landscape surrounding her. "Either someone needs to find the lightswitch for the sun, or I need to get out of here." "I assure you if such a switch is to be found, it would have been turned on a very, very long time ago," Mephisto replied with a raised eyebrow as he scanned the area for other life-forms. He blinked as something moved in his peripheral vision and he foused on it. "Michelle, don't move," he said very quietly. Michelle blinked as she froze, her eyes darting about as she searched for whatever it was that he had seen. "W-what?" she said nervously. She was about to say more when the darkness started to ripple a few feet away from her and a mishappen creature became visible. "Erk-burgle?" it blubbered at her, staring at her with beady eyes. Michelle's reply was to leap back into Alex's arms, screaming at the top of her lungs. The creature promptly made a shrill cry of its own and ran away as fast as it could, clearly terrified of the unexpected visitors. "I think it's gone, love, so you can calm down now," Alex said as she gently hugged an extremely upset Michelle. "To be honest, I'm not sure who scared who more." "So much for first contact," Susan mused as she watched the retreating creature. She glanced towards Michelle and blinked. "I think you can let go of Myst now," said evenly. Michelle blinked and looked down, quickly releasing her death-grip on the Shinma. Myst made an odd coughing noise as she jumped down onto the ground, carefully stretching out her legs and muttering somewhat unkind things beneath her breath. "Are you okay, Myst?" Mephisto inquired gently as he searched around for the marker he imprinted after his visit to the Moon Kingdom. "Next time I find a living soul, I'm going to eat it instead," the cat said sourly as she continued to stretch. "Human souls don't taste nearly as good as you would imagine," Susan said with a faint smile on her lips. "Thanks, Sue, we really appreciate hearing that," Alex muttered darkly to herself, still comforting Michelle after her close encounter with the unknown. "Here it is," Mephisto said as he located the marker. He glanced around before he carefully probed the fabric of space-time, carefully feeling for the tiny seam that, when torn open, would create a wormhole to the Moon Kingdom. "Wait," Susan said suddenly, her eyes narrowing. She carefully looked around them before sniffing the air. "Do you smell something?" Mephisto frowned and tested the air. "I don't smell anything." "I do," Myst said with a slight edge to her voice, her whiskers twitching violently. "Smells like.... tengu." Susan grunted softly as she exchanged concerned glances with Mephisto. "Let me guess," Alex said warily. "This tengu thing we can't smell but you and Myst can is bad news, right?" "Decidedly," the succubus replied. "As soon as the gate is open, I want you and Michelle through it, no matter what starts to happen." "Wait, Susan, what...." Michelle started to say. Susan glared at them over her shoulder. "No arguments," she said in a voice laced with steel. She waited until she got a subdued nod from Michelle before she turned her attention back out towards the darkness, small ripples of bright-red energy starting to form on her arms. Mephisto glanced at Susan's back in concern for a moment before he turned his attention to the seam in the fabric of space-time. He closed his eyes and concentrated, a wave of pure energy forming around him as a spike of quantum energy began to form. The spike began to glow as more power was fed into it until it was almost strong enough to pierce the fabric of space-time. Myst's head snapped around as movement caught her eye. "Here they come!" she yelled as a horde of creatures suddenly became visible a short distance away and began to charge forward, eager to tap into the unknown but obviously powerful source of energy. Susan's eyes began to glow as she raised her hands towards the onrushing horde, her hands balling into fists. "Get them out of here!" she snapped as the ripples of energy on her arms quickly coalesced into a pair of bright-red spheres on her fists. With a snarl, she released the spheres and sent them blazing towards the tengu mob like miniature comets. Mephisto thrust the quantum spike forward as hard as he could, catching the seam head-on and neatly ripping it open. The tear widened instantly, creating a tremendous whirling maelstrom of energy that nearly blinded everyone with it's radiance. Without hesitation, Mephisto grabbed Alex by the arm and literally threw her into the vortex. "GO!" he roared at Michelle as he turned around and unleashed a stream of sparks towards the tengu. Michelle didn't pause to look as she leapt into the maelstrom and disappeared. Myst started to change her shape in preparation of a battle when Susan grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and threw her into the vortex, her free hand still firing energy balls at the tengu. The first two energy balls had already reached the leading edge of the mob and was wreaking absolute havoc, literally exploding the flesh of those tengu unfortunate enough to be in the way. The creatures split up and began to scatter, making themselves harder targets while still drawing closer to the wormhole. "I'll handle them, get out of here!" Mephisto yelled as he let loose with another stream of sparks. "I'm not leaving you behind!" the succubus yelled back as she began to edge towards the vortex, still blasting the demons with her unholy energy. "I will catch up with you later, trust me," the Shinma said as he broke off his attack and grabbed Susan by the wrist. "Take care of Alex for me," he said as he heaved her into the wormhole and collapsed it behind her. An energy wave exploded around him as the fabric of space-time resealed itself and everything suddenly became disturbingly quiet. He turned around and studied the group encircling him, the tengu confused by the sudden loss of the source of energy and unsure what to do next. "Forty against one, is it?" Mephisto said slowly as he glanced around. He began to laugh quietly to himself, a low-pitched and decidedly dangerous sound as his form began to expand and divide. "Let's see how you vermin handle a real Shinma," he said as he unleashed his powers.... -------------------------------------------------------------------- The air, which for the past thousand years had remained undisturbed, was suddenly agitated as a whirling vortex of energy irised open and a humanoid figure was flung out, cursing loudly as she landed hard on the ashy dirt. "Of all the...." Alex began to say before another figure emerged from the maelstrom. The edge of the wormhole was several inches above the ground and she stumbled as she exited, crashing into Alex and drawing another burst of profanity. "Goddamn it, get off my.... Mich! Are you alright?" the blonde asked as she struggled to get out from under Michelle's presently unwelcome weight. "What happened?" Michelle said, somewhat disoriented by the brief time spent travelling through the wormhole. "You landed on me, that's what," Alex grunted. "I love you dearly, but you need to get off of me right now. Where's everyone else?" Michelle was about to reply when Myst emerged from the vortex, not in the least bit in control of her trajectory. She slammed into Michelle's shoulder, knocking her off-balance and causing her to fall back down on the unfortunate blonde. The burst of profanity lasted for several seconds, during which Michelle's complexion turned a vivid shade of red and Myst was able to regain her sense of direction, including which way was down. "I don't think even Susan's done that," Michelle ventured as she hastily moved herself off of Alex's foot and moved a safe distance away from the blonde's explosive temper. "Watch out!" Myst hissed as she glanced at the swirling vortex and curled up into a tiny ball. Alex barely had time to glance up before she saw a large winged shadow looming over her as it emerged from the wormhole. The blonde merely grunted and held her arms out in a vain attempt to prevent further damage from being inflicted on her already battered and bruised body. Alex somehow managed to catch Susan without breaking anything, despite the jarring impact of their collision. Behind them, the wormhole suddenly collapsed in on itself and vanished, leaving the four of them alone on what appeared to be a barren and lifeless world. Susan quickly reoriented herself and moved off of Alex. "Thank you, you broke my fall perfectly," she said as she stood up and tried to help the blonde to her feet. "I'll break something else if you don't shut up," Alex growled as she did her best to retain her balance and almost failed. Michelle glanced at the spot where the wormhole was and frowned. "Wait a minute, where's Mephisto?" The succubus glanced at the empty air and muttered something beneath her breath. "Apparently he closed the wormhole behind me in an attempt to keep anything from following us here. He said that he would catch up with us at a later time." She sighed quietly to herself and decided that it would be best not to repeat what else he had told her, at least for the present. "Myst, are you okay?" Michelle asked as she knelt down in the dust to stroke the kitten's gray fur. "What.... what is that?" Myst asked as she stared up into the sky, her red eyes opened wide in wonder. Alex glanced up in the direction the Shinma was staring at and whistled softly. "That's the planet Earth," she said as she studied the beautiful orb hanging in the sky. She glanced at the dark side of the planet and blinked. "Hey, is it just me, or are there lights on the dark side?" Susan barely glanced at the planet before studying the barren landscape around them. "You have to remember that a thousand years has passed since you last saw the planet. If memory serves, their calendar should be in the late 1900's and they should possess a startling array of technology. What you see are their cities at night, lit up by electric lights." "Umm, I take it those are different than the glowstones we use?" Michelle asked hesitantly as she looked around. "And where are we?" "Glowstones don't work on Earth, love," Alex said. "At least, they didn't last time I tried taking one there." "They still don't," Susan said absently as she looked around. "If those ruins are what I think they are, we're probably at the extreme southern edge of the Shield." Michelle blinked as she looked around the barren landscape. "What ruins?" Susan gave her a curious look. "Those ruins," she said, pointing at an apparently empty section of lunar terrain. "Umm, Sue?" Alex said slowly. "I don't see anything over there except a buttload of dust and maybe a small pebble." Myst made a strange noise. "You can't see those huge columns of marble?" she asked slowly, wondering if a joke was trying to be made. Susan's wings started to twitch as she turned around to stare at the image she was seeing. After a few moments of silence, she closed her eyes and turned her concentration inward. Her wings flexed once before they were folded flat and abosorbed into the scars on her back. "So that's it," she said when she opened her eyes and saw the world with her human vision. "We're waiting, Sue," Alex muttered, more to herself than to anyone. Susan shot her a reproving glance. "I think the Screen is still active around the Kingdom, but the bubble generator is no longer functional." "Sounds bad," Alex commented. "Now you wanna explain that in small words so the rest of us can understand it?" "I thought the Screen was a ward surrounding the Kingdom that makes it invisible to anything standing outside the Shield," Michelle said carefully. "Precisely," Susan said. "However, the Screen also cloaks anything that is inside it. In order for the people inside the Shield to see everything around them, a special generator was designed to nullify the cloaking effect within a certain radius, creating a 'bubble' of visibility." Alex shook her head slowly. "Oh, yeah, I remember now.... You explained that to Prince Darian once when he asked why he couldn't see the Moon Kingdom from his palace on Earth." Susan tilted her head to one side. "Alex, you amaze me sometimes," she teased with a faint smile. "I always thought you had been too busy playing with the inside of Neptune's skirt to be paying attention to anything I might have said then." Alex and Michelle exchanged glances before they both blushed a deep shade of red. "Umm.... we didn't think anyone would notice...." the blonde mumbled. "Can the bubble generator be fixed?" Michelle asked. "I hope so," Susan replied. "I have a question," Myst said cautiously. "What is this shield you are talking about?" "Lecture mode now in effect," Alex muttered to herself. Susan ignored the comment. "It is a barrier designed to keep the vacuum of space out and a breathable atmosphere inside the boundaries of the Kingdom," she explained. "The Shield works only on the air, so objects may pass freely in and out of it. However, as there is a total vacuum beyond the Shield, one must be careful not to get near it without protective gear." "And how close are we to the wrong side of the Shield?" Alex asked warily. Susan paused to think for a moment before she resumed her demonic form, looking around the barren landscape with inhuman eyes that could see beyond the effects of the Screen. "Why don't we start walking towards the Palace?" she suggested gently as she studied something behind the group. "How close, Sue?" the blonde said wearily. The succubus shrugged. "I'd say about seven feet behind you." "Time to go," Alex replied hastily. "C'mon, love, grab the kitty and let's get moving." Michelle carefully picked up Myst and held her in her arms as the group began walking. "How much of a walk do we have ahead of us?" she asked as she looked around the area. "Bladder's getting to you too, eh?" Alex said with a wry grin. "Starting to," Michelle replied. "I can wait, though." "Myst...." Susan said slowly as an idea hit her. "Can you warp space around us like Mephisto did?" The Shinma nodded. "Yes, but you'll have to tell me exactly where we're going or I won't be able to do it." Susan gestured. "See that building there, the one on the hill?" "What hill?" the blonde muttered to herself. "That's where you want to go?" Myst inquired. "Yes, that's the Royal Palace," Susan replied. "At least, that's what it was a thousand years ago." Myst said nothing as she studied the ruins of the palace, a mirage that was only partially visible to her inhuman vision. She imagined tendrils of energy leaving her body to cross the vast distance between her and the palace, twisting and folding space as they went. When the two points were bridged by the energy she wrapped space-time around them and reversed the orientation of the bridge, causing them to cease to exist at the first point and to resume existing at the second point. "Bizarre," Alex said as space-time unwrapped itself and the universe began to make sense once more. "Problem?" Susan inquired. "Nah, just felt like down was in sixteen different directions for brief moment," the blonde explained. "And don't even get me started on which way up felt like." Michelle looked around and blinked. "Hey, what's that?" she said as she pointed towards a building that kept fading in and out of view like a ghost. "That, I believe, is where the bubble generator is housed," Susan replied as she started walking towards it. "You three stay here. Oh, and don't move around too much or you'll disturb the corpses." Alex blinked hard. "Corpses?" she said as she glanced down at her feet. "Sue, I don't see anything...." "Which is why you shouldn't move," the succubus replied as she gingerly tried to open the stone door. The door resisted for a moment before crumbling into a cloud of dust that flickered in and out of view. "Not what I had in mind, but it'll do," she mused as she stepped into the doorway and into the small stairwell. Most of the glowstones had failed over time, but a few were still able to cast a dim glow, providing just enough light. How long has it been since I was last down here? she mused as she descended further and further into the lowest levels of the Royal Palace. Now that I think about it, I think I've only been down here that one time.... <What are you doing down here?> the voice from the distant past said, <You know this area is off-limits for a good reason.> Susan looked up, a faint smile touching her lips. "Lady Saturn," she said very softly as she came to the bottom of the stairs and entered the chamber that housed the bubble generator. She was alone, but in her mind's eye she saw the familiar figure of her childhood mentor following her down the ancient staircase, chastising her for entering the forbidden room. The generator was composed of several crystals surrounding a decidedly massive black crystal, each suspended in mid-air by magnetic fields when it was operating. Lasers emitted by the surrounding machinery were refracted through each of the smaller crystals and focused together in the large one to create a unique energy field that disrupted the cloaking effect of the Screen within a certain radius. <I suppose you're down here for a reason?> Lady Saturn said as she entered the chamber, still wearing her ballroom gown. "I just wanted to see the generator," Susan said, repeating the words she had uttered more than fifteen hundred years ago as she surveyed the room. Even though everything was covered in a thin layer of dust and the machinery hadn't been touched by a living hand in a thousand years, virtually all of the various consoles and displays still functioned. She approached the master console and immediately noticed a very weak but still readable blinking message on the panel. Code 72, she thought as she searched her memory for what it meant. Generator off-line, safeguards still intact, cause unknown. Which means it can be repaired, she thought with a small sigh of relief. <And wanted to see how it works, I would imagine,> Saturn replied with a hint of amusement in her jet-black eyes. <I swear, between your curiosity and Anna's penchant for tinkering with mechanics, I'm amazed anything still works around here.> "I wasn't going to touch it," Susan protested. "I just wanted to know how it works in case I have to fix it some day." She looked up at the network of crystals and frowned. When the magnetic fields had collapsed, the crystals had all settled down into special housings designed to hold them while the generator was being worked on. While the main crystal and most of the other crystals appeared to be normal, one of the smaller crystals was lying at a strange angle inside its housing. A delicate eyebrow was raised in reply. <And what makes you think that you'd be the one to repair it if something should go wrong?> Susan sighed. "I want to learn, just in case. I'll be around for quite some time as I'm not human like you or Mother," she said softly, knowing that nothing more needed to be said. She moved away from the console and over to the machinery to get a better look at the tilted crystal. She studied it for a moment before she carefully tried to remove it from the housing. The crystal was already badly fragmented and her light touch caused it to further shatter with a muted crack, turning into a mass of tiny shards of useless crystal in her hand. So this is the problem, she mused as she briefly studied the slivers of crystal before she dumped them into a pile on the floor and started to pick the remaining shards out of the housing. Lady Saturn sighed quietly to herself as she placed her hand over her abdomen, trying to feel the life inside her that was not even six weeks old. <Very well, Susan,> she said quietly and began to explain everything she knew about the bubble generator. Susan checked the remaining crystals as the voice continued to speak in the depths of her memory, pointing out this and that and explaining what each one did. She had only been seventeen at the time, still mastering her skills as a Sailor Scout and trying to cope with her demonic heritage, and was rather awed by the power of the bubble generator technology. She had long ago lost that sense of awe, but still marveled that such a device could function for so long with only the most superficial maintenance requirements. "So what happens if a crystal should break?" she asked in the past while she finished her checks of the other crystals in the present. <If one should break when the generator is running, the safeguards will immediately shut it down and set off more than a few alarms in the Palace. However, there will still be enough energy for the bubble to remain intact for a few hours before collapsing, giving us enough time to either regenerate the crystal or replace it before the Screen makes it impossible to see.> "So where are the replacement crystals?" <Here,> Saturn said as she gestured to a large cabinet. Susan walked over to the cabinet and tried to open it, frowning as she discovered it was locked. "You never mentioned it was locked, Jeanne," she muttered to herself as the memory of the Lady Saturn returned to the depths of her subconscious mind. Well.... she thought as she considered her options, I can't blast it open without taking the chance of breaking the replacements, and I don't have the first clue where the key might be, so.... She got a solid grip on the cabinet handle, placed one foot against the wall for stability, and heaved with all her demonic strength. The lock, solid as it once was a thousand years ago, resisted for a total of two seconds before ripping free from its housing, taking a good portion of the cabinet door with it and throwing Susan off-balance in the process. The only thing that saved her from a very ungraceful and probably painful encounter with the floor was her wings, which she furiously began flapping as soon as she lost her balance. Although she couldn't fly because her heritage had given her smaller wings than was normal for a succubus, she still had sufficient aerodynamic power to provide a forward force strong enough to stabilize her balance until she could get both feet firmly on the ground. Scale of one to ten, that deserves a three, she thought sourly to herself as she dropped the remains of the cabinet door onto the floor and looked inside the now-open cabinet. "This should do nicely," she said to herself as she carefully extracted a replacement crystal and held it up to get a good look at it in the dim light. Sighing quietly to herself, she reviewed the procedure for activating the dormant generator as she gently set the crystal down in the vacant housing, making sure it fit properly. Once she was sure that the crystal wasn't going to fracture on her again, she returned to the main console and studied the display. Satisfied that nothing else was obviously wrong, she opened the main circuit panel, pressed the sequence of buttons that would reset the generator, and toggled the reset switch. She paused as nothing happened. She was about to try the restart command again when she felt the hair on her arms start to tingle, a sign that a strong magnetic field was building up. When the subharmonic hum reached her ears, a small smile formed at the corners of her mouth. "Thank you, Jeanne," she said quietly as a cloud of dust suddenly sprung up around the generator as the magnetic fields came on-line, entrapping the crystals in an invisible web of energy and causing them to rise up into the air. A loud klaxon went off and she jumped, more than slightly startled by the sound. She had just begun to worry about what it could mean when the laser arrays powered up and sent their focused beams of light into the hearts of the smaller crystals. The crystals began to resonate for a few moments, adding a curious hum to the chamber, before they started to glow and refract the laser light into the center crystal. Susan glanced down at the console and tried to read the display. Even though the text was very dim, she could tell that everything was working just fine, despite the machinery's age and condition. A small clock in the corner of the display was counting down the time remaining until the generator was fully active and the 'bubble' could be created. "I think that should do it," she said softly to herself and left the chamber, thinking pretty much the same dark thoughts about the steepness of the staircase as she had thought the first time she had to climb them. "Well?" Alex demanded as Susan stepped out of the only partially-visible building. "Can it be fixed or what?" Susan merely smiled, waited until just the right moment, and snapped her fingers. An invisible shockwave blasted out from the depths of the building, pushing the cloaking effects of the Screen away like dirt riding the crest of a tidal wave. "Daaaaaaaaammmmmmnnnn," the blonde breathed softly as the Moon Kingdom became visible to her human eyes. "What the hell happened?" Nothing had been left intact. Most of the buildings had been reduced to rubble in the battle, and the passage of a thousand years of time only made the decay worse. The great columns of marble standing at the perimeter of the Kingdom were now little more than stumps, most of the material lying broken and scattered across the landscape. Most of the Royal Palace had been destroyed, but oddly enough the front portion and the courtyard had been spared the wrath of destruction. Michelle glanced down momentarily to try to calm herself when she spotted a decayed skeleton wearing a suit of armor and holding a sword in its bony hand. "ALEX!" she yelped as she stumbled back and nearly knocked Susan over. "Mich, what? Oh boy...." Alex said as she saw the source of her lover's sudden panic-attack. "Umm, Susan?" "I told you there were corpses around," Susan said as she knelt down to examine the remains. "Judging by the armor, I'd say she was a foot soldier. However, I don't think she died in battle." Alex took a deep breath as she sought to calm both herself and Michelle. "We don't need a graphic description, Sue." Susan nodded and stood up, looking for another corpse to examine. She found one several feet away, the tattered remains of what once might have been a suit hanging on the skeleton. "As I thought. These two didn't die from wounds in battle.... they died when the Shield collapsed." "What?" Alex and Michelle said simultaneously. "Notice how dry and stale the air is," Susan said. "Had the atmosphere been intact these past thousand years, all the decaying bodies would have had a tremendous effect on what the air would smell like right now. My guess is that the Shield collapsed shortly after the attack and the air was dispersed into the void of space." "So why are we still able to breathe?" Alex asked. "Not that I'm filing a complaint, mind you, I'm just asking," she added hastily. The succubus shrugged. "I have no idea right now," she replied. "But I think that's a secondary concern right now, as we have more important matters to attend to." Alex grunted to herself. "Like finding a place to take a piss." Susan merely shook her head. "Of course, Alex. I think there was an intact toilet downstairs," she said as she pointed to the stairwell leading down to the bubble generator. "As for me, I need to find the place where we died so I can recover what's left of my staff." "Great idea," the blonde said as she dashed towards the staircase. "I'll catch up with you in a bit." Myst jumped out of Michelle's arms and followed Susan. "I think I'll walk this time," she muttered to herself, drawing a faint smile from Susan. "Wait, what about me?" Michelle said nervously as she glanced around at her surroundings, cringing again at the sight of the fallen soldier's corpse. "Wait for Alex to finish up, then head towards the Market Square," Susan replied as she and Myst started walking, disappearing behind a ruined building after a few seconds. Michelle looked around and sighed, the sudden desolation making her unease all the more worse. "C'mon, Alex, hurry up," she pleaded softly as she turned around and glanced at the ruins of the Palace behind her. <In the Palace....> She blinked as the thought intruded into her mind, as if it had come from someone other than her. Hmm? she thought. <Retrieve the broach....> She suddenly became rigid as the mysterious mind expanded outward and took control of her body. Her aquamarine eyes misted over until they were a deep shade of red, glowing faintly in the light reflected by the Earth. "The Queen's broach...." she whispered as she moved quickly towards the ruins of the Palance. She paused to get her bearings and set off towards the lower levels, moving with the ease of one who knew her way around. While most of the royal treasures were stored in the vault buried deep beneath the crypts at the northwestern edge of the Kingdom, a few of the minor ones were kept in a museum-like room inside the Palace, guarded day and night by dedicated and elite soldiers. She was not surprised in the least to find a pair of skeletons wearing suits of ceremonial armor still guarding the door when she arrived. She barely glanced at them as she braced herself and pushed open the heavy doors, making a face at the loud grating noise they made as they slowly swung inwards. As soon as the opening was wide enough, she slipped inside and made a beeline for a simple glass case mounted on the far wall. <Get the broach....> the voice urged her as her mind recognized the golden broach used by then-Princess Serenity to make her transformation into Sailor Moon. She took a step back and shoved her hand forward, stopping a few inches away from the glass. A pressure wave blasted out from her palm and shattered the ancient glass, making a very strange sound as the shards fell to the floor. Michelle reached in and lifted the broach out of the case, examining it curiously before she tucked it away in her Lunar Space pocket and quickly retraced her steps back up to the top of the Palace and towards the bubble generator building. When she reached the building, she stopped and staggered slightly, the red in her eyes quickly fading and restoring their natural aquamarine color as the invading mind withdrew. She stopped and blinked in confusion as she looked around, wondering if she had imagined seeing something. "Oh, that feels SO much better," Alex said as she walked out of the small building, still puffing slightly from climbing the steep stairs. "Hey, where'd Susan crawl off to now?" "What? Oh, umm.... she said she was going to the Market Square to see where we had died," Michelle said with a sour look. "Joy," the blonde replied. "Bad enough we have to see skeletons aplenty, but now we get to look at our skeletons. Still, you got to admit, it's not every day that you get to see your own corpse," she said with a shrug. Michelle took hold of Alex's arms and drew close. "Let's go," she said softly. "This place is starting to get to me." Alex looked around once more and grunted. "I hear you, love. C'mon, I think the fastest route is this way," she said as they started walking. -------------------------------------------------------------------- "I don't get it," Rune fumed loudly as she walked the hallway towards the throne room. "Two of them are parked over the oceans, and the only way we can tell where they are is by a very small noise signature. And the one that we can see is still on a direct course, still moving slower than a newly hatched vep'tera, still isn't talking to us, and nobody has the first p'takh'enn clue what their intentions are. Am I right?" Si'ren took a deep breath as she followed Rune into the vast throne room and toward the Inner Chambers. "I don't like this anymore than you do," she said sourly. "At least they're keeping their distance from my fleet, and they have their orders if they should come under attack." "That's a small comfort considering your all-powerful fleet won't be able to intervene if something starts here," Rune snarled as she entered the Inner Chamber and traditional center of power in the Negaverse. "I need to know what that woman is up to." Both women started and whirled around as the doors slammed shut of their own accord, the sound of the locks engaging echoing in the sudden silence like a death knell. "Perhaps you should ask," said a voice behind them, and they whirled around once more. "Who the...." Rune began to say, then fell silent as the sight of her unexpected visitor registered on her mind. "I trust you'll forgive me sealing off this room without warning," she said from where she was sitting behind the ancient desk, "But I thought it best that the two... or as it seems, three of us have a little talk first." Rune blinked hard. She had been seriously wounded once before, when she accidentally intercepted a team of assassins who planned to kill Queen Beryl. The knife had entered her side with surprisingly little pain, but the feeling that would forever haunt her was the sensation of warmth draining away as her blood pooled on the floor. That same feeling of vanishing warmth engulfed her now as she stared at visage sitting before her. "General Nop'tera...." Admiral Si'ren said softly, she herself briefly reliving her own worst state of shock. Nop'tera nodded as she stood up, her white hair and featureless yellow eyes standing out in stark contrast to her dark blue skin and black uniform. "Admiral Si'ren, current Fleet Admiral, I presume? I must admit that, after having fought and nearly lost several crucial battles involving sea-going warships, I have developed a healthier respect for our Navy." Si'ren could only blink in surprise at the words, delivered in a calm and respectful tone. "What is the meaning of this?" Rune said as she finally found her voice. There were no irises or pupils in Nop'tera's eyes, only an expanse of yellow. The only indication that her gaze shifted from Si'ren to Rune was a slight movement of the eyelids, a movement that would have gone unnoticed by people not used to dealing with featureless eyes, one of the more rarer results of the mutation-like chaos visited upon denizens as a result of puberty. "I would like to ask the same of you, General Rune," Nop'tera said evenly. "My carrier isn't even clear of the Hinterland Rift and we get fired on, none of my communication requests on the Datalius network are answered, and since I can't get confirmation that the broadcast frequencies aren't compromised, I have to resort to sneaking into the Royal Palace. Which was not exactly an easy task," she added. "Nor should it have been," Rune replied, her dark eyes narrowed. "If I may inquire, General Nop'tera, what exactly is this Datalius network you are referring to? We have received no such communications at all from any of your carriers." Nop'tera blinked. "The Queen promoted you to Commander-General in my absence, and didn't tell you of the Datalius network?" she said slowly. "I find that a little hard to believe." Si'ren felt a cold draft blow down her spine as Nop'tera mentioned the promotion and her absence at the time. "With all due respect," she said very carefully, "Rune's so-called promotion was done according to law upon the death of the Queen and the absence of any higher-ranking member of the Army." Both Rune and Si'ren blinked as Nop'tera sighed and rubbed her temples. "So much information gets missed when you're in another dimension. I heard of the Queen's demise, of course, but not that her successor was.... uninformed. So this wasn't something that was planned, I assume? Your promotion, not the death of Queen Beryl," the Dark General amended. "It was, shall we say, anticipated by some," Rune said carefully. "But not by Beryl," Nop'tera said, saying it as a statement rather than as as question. She sighed heavily and plopped back down into the chair, one hand still rubbing her temple. "If you'll pardon my saying so, Rune, this is quite a mess for one to come home to." Rune and Si'ren exchanged concerned glances, neither having the faintest idea of how the situation was going to develop. Nop'tera quit massaging her temple and looked up, frowning slightly at the expression on their faces. "I get the distinct impression that you two have a lot on your minds." "That's putting it mildly," Si'ren observed. "Very well then, let's get to the point, shall we?" Nop'tera said. "You will find that in most cases, I am a very blunt individual and prefer that my officers be the same when dealing with me. That way, we can get right to the heart of the matter without fooling around. Is that okay with you?" Rune heard a faint emphasis on the word 'heart' and suppressed a shiver, not forgetting for an instant that Nop'tera was an eternal vampire, transformed during a Bloodmoon conjunction and never returned to normal afterwards. Most agree that such a change was a result of the powers Nop'tera developed during her childhood, but few would care to speculate about the destruction she might have caused before she learned how to control her vampiric nature. "I have no problems with the idea," Rune said carefully. "Excellent," the vampire replied with a faint smile. "Now then, what sort of questions did you have for me?" "What exactly are your intentions?" asked Rune. Nop'tera stood up and walked to the edge of the desk. "The conquest of the worlds on the other side of the Hinterland rift has taken four thousand years, and I should like to have a bit of a rest for myself and my divison. Before the usual spate of ceremonies and celebration are to begin, however, my division would like to hold a sort of memorial for our departed Queen. And once everything has been taken care of, my soldiers and I shall resume our respective posts in service to the military and the NegaForce." Rune blinked as a sense of unease made its way down her back. "I must confess a bit of curiosity as to where your division will be assigned." The dark general frowned. "The initial part of my division was drawn from the ranks of the Red Wings." Rune winced. "I thought so, but the problem is that they were disbanded three thousand years ago," she said carefully, adding a bit of faked sympathy to her tone. "Then it seems the Red Wings are about to be recommissioned." Rune frowned slightly at the tone in Nop'tera's voice. "I think it would be a somewhat simple matter to do so and have you officially appointed as the division commander." "Actually, my second-in-command has been deserving of the position for quite some time, and I should like to see it given to him," Nop'tera replied smoothly, her casual tone sending a chill down Si'ren's back. Rune hesitated for a brief moment. "If your second-in-command is to be named as the divisional commander, then what exactly would your position be?" A slender eyebrow rose in response. "I'll admit surprise that you have to ask, General Rune," Nop'tera said slowly. "As the highest ranking general in the Army with the most seniority, the laws are quite clear that I become the Commander-General until my death or retirement. Of course, I would also wield the power of the throne until a new monarchy is established, but I honestly hope that will take no more than a decade or two.... a century at most." Si'ren watched the color drain from Rune's face and discreetly took a step forward. "Speaking only for myself, General Nop'tera, I find it rather.... disquieting that you would seek control of the military after such a prolonged absence. I have no objection at present for your eventual promotion to the position, provided you haven't found retirement desirable by that time, but I do believe this is a rather sudden turn of events." The vampire nodded towards the admiral. "I will admit that one does lose touch of events when you're conducting a war, especially when it involves a dimensional shift. I am not suggesting I be handed the keys to the Imperial Castle when my carrier lands in two days, as that would be too sudden a change. No, what I have in mind is an adjustment period of a few months, perhaps a full year if necessary, to reacquaint myself with the present-day military before I take full command. As my present second-in-command would by then be in charge of the Red Wings, I would need someone with a great deal of experience to fill the position, and who would be better suited for that than General Rune?" "If I may ask," Rune said slowly as she struggled to control her reaction to Nop'tera's words, "How long do you plan on staying in the military? I can't think of anyone who would think that after five thousand years of faithful and valiant service to the military you haven't earned the right to relax and enjoy the rest of your life in peace." Nop'tera slowly drew herself to her full height. "When I joined the military so long ago," she said slowly, making sure each syllable of each word was heard, "I decided that I would serve the throne and the NegaForce until I felt that I could accomplish no more in my lifetime, at which point I would accept retirement and enjoy the rest of my time in relative peace. However, it seems I've been given the gift of an eternal lifespan, so I shall continue to serve until I am either dismissed by the Queen, discover that my lifespan is near a natural end, or until I die in the line of duty. But until such an event happens to occur, I will not retire. Is that understood, General Rune?" Both Rune and Si'ren shivered involuntarily at the icy tone in the dark general's voice. "Understood perfectly, General Nop'tera," Rune replied, somehow managing to keep her voice steady and even. "Do you have any other questions for me?" It took a great deal of control for Rune to calmly reply, "I think you've answered all of my questions for the present." A dark smile appeared on Nop'tera's lips. "Excellent. Then if you will excuse me, I must return to my division and prepare for the landing." She tugged on her uniform for a moment to straighten it out before she began to walk towards the still-sealed door. She paused before opening it and turned around to give Rune and Si'ren a thoughtful look. "Oh, about the Datalius network, Rune.... make sure most of the desk is cleared off first. Insert the drawer key into the lock on the topmost drawer, turn it all the way to the right, push inwards, then turn it a quarter turn to the left," she explained before she pressed a button to unlock the massive doors to the Inner Chambers. Rune waited until the doors closed behind Nop'tera before taking a deep breath and carefully sitting down in the cushioned chair. She studied the ancient desk and the pattern of tiny cracks ingrained in the wood for a few moments before leaning back to search for her personal set of keys. "That could have gone a lot worse," Si'ren finally commented. Rune looked up sharply, giving the admiral a piercing stare. "Oh? I've just been told we're about to be taken over by someone who hasn't set foot in the Negaverse in a thousand years and seems not to hesitate to destroy anything or anyone that stands in her way. So tell me, my dear Fleet Admiral, how could things have gotten worse?" "We're still alive, aren't we?" Rune paused to think about that for a moment. "You do seem to have a bit of a point," she finally admitted with a heavy sigh as she pulled her set of keys from her pocket. "Question is, for how long?" Si'ren said nothing as Rune inserted the key into the lock and twisted it to the far right. There was a slight resistance as she pushed the housing inward and turned the key to the left. There was a very faint clicking noise and the surface of the desk seemed to liquify into a puddle of silvery goo. "Symipa?" Si'ren asked as they watched the metallic liquid began to ooze into a new shape, slowly forming into a surpisingly sophisticated communication center. "No one said the technology was restricted to only making them into those bladed-staff weapons," Rune replied with a shrug, fascinated with the desk's transformation. "To tell you the truth, I always wondered about the supposed limitations on the molecular patterns you could make with the stuff." The console finally solidified and a display promptly lit up, the speaker making a soft beeping noise. The layout, although complex, was familiar enough to Rune for her to identify it as a secure communications request from another network user. "Well, well, what have we here?" she muttered to herself as she pressed a button and leaned foward, listening intently to the speaking. The line crackled faintly to itself for a moment before a deep voice said, "Identify yourself." Rune frowned slightly. "This is Commander-General Rune," she said. The voice replied at once. "Ma'am, this is General Ar'kanis, commanding the airborne flagship V'ral, requesting a flight path and landing clearance for approach to the Imperial Castle. ETA is approximately the thirteenth hour in two standard days." "This is not the proper channel for the air traffic authority," Rune said, her voice as cold as ice. The speaker seemed to hiss with concealed rage. "Air traffic control does not possess sufficient safeguards on the secure channel to prevent data interception. As per standard procedure, we are defaulting to contacting the closest communication network that is both relevant and possesses the necessary safeguards for this communications request." Rune stared at the speaker for a moment and was ready to lash out at the carrier's commander when Si'ren reached past her and held her finger down on the mute button. "They're using the same procedure the Navy uses today," she said softly, "So ripping him a new p'tanka won't help matters." "You deal with him, then," Rune growled as she sat back in the chair. Si'ren lifted her finger off the mute button. "This is Fleet Admiral Si'ren," she said into the microphone. "The V'ral is advised to maintain present course, altitude, and speed, and will be granted an approach vector and landing clearance by air traffic control upon final approach to the Imperial Castle. Be advised that the airspace above both oceans has been designated as restricted until further notice. Your other two carriers are ordered to stand down their radar-evasion screens and to dock at the appropriate naval shipyards as soon as possible." The speaker was silent for a full twenty seconds. "Maintain present course, speed, and altitude, acknowledged," the deep voice finally replied. "The restricted airspace warning and landing instructions will be passed on to the other carriers as soon as possible. Flagship V'ral out." "That was interesting," Rune observed as Si'ren closed the connection. "It'll be interesting to see what the carriers will actually do," Si'ren replied as she sat on the edge of the desk and gave the communications console a wary look. "With as long as I've been the Fleet Admiral, you would think that someone would have told me about this little setup of Beryl's." "You would think so, but with this place...." Rune said, then left her sentence unfinished with a heavy sigh. "I think it's time to call all the divisional and regional commanders in for a meeting." Si'ren frowned. "About...?" she prompted. "About the future of the military, and consequently the Negaverse as a whole," Rune replied as she closed her eyes and began massaging her temples. "The question is rather simple.... do we think Nop'tera is fit to remain in the military, or has she become as outdated as her fleet and should be asked to retire?" Si'ren blinked hard. "And if she refuses?" "What do you think?" Rune said softly. She heard only silence in reply and nodded to herself. "It's a shame really," she said, more to herself than to Si'ren as she reached forward and turned the key back to the right, causing the Datalius network interface to dissolve into a puddle and reshape itself back into the desktop. "You can't help but admire her devotion to her duty for close to five thousand years, but as with all things.... what goes up, even to the highest ranks of the military.... must come down." Rune stood up and looked over at Si'ren. "If you'll excuse me, Admiral, I have a few people to get in touch with," she said, then turned and left the room. Si'ren still said nothing as she slowly sat down in the chair that was positioned behind the most powerful desk in the Negaverse. She could hear the fading sound of Rune's footsteps echoing down the hallway and began to wonder what the future would hold.... and where the true danger comes from. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Susan looked up as the faint crunching noise of the footsteps reached her ears. "Feeling better?" she asked when they came into view. Alex made a sour face. "Only partially. Bladder's fine right now, but seeing all these bodies is really, really starting to spook me." "You might not want to get any closer, then," Susan suggested as she knelt back down to re-examine the small group of corpses clustered together. The blonde glanced over her shoulder to look at Michelle, squeezing her hand gently at the haunted look on her face. "It's okay, love, we're still alive.... I think." A dry chuckle emerged from Susan's throat. "Relax, you are very much alive," she said as she stood up and made a gesture. "A pity I can't say the same for your former body." Alex glanced down at the mangled remains and felt her stomach twinge briefly. "That's me, huh? I don't see how you can tell, though," she said as she tilted her head to one side. Behind her, Michelle tugged her hand free of the blonde's grip and wrapped both hands around her waist, hugging her tightly. "Well, if you look here, you can see where the rib was once broken and had mended," Susan explain as she pointed at the corpse. "Left side, third one up from the bottom. Also, I found this lying in the dirt next to the skull," she said as she held up a partially melted earring. "Ouch, looks like mine alright," the blonde said before she glanced at the remains. Most of the right arm was missing and almost the entire right side of the skull had been shattered by a tremendous force. "That looked like it would have hurt something fierce." Susan nodded. "I'll bet it did. I still can't locate my body, though. I'm not quite sure that I even have one, seeing how the blast was enough to cause this much damage." "There's a cheerful prospect," Alex muttered as she stared at her corpse. "You know...." "Over here," Myst suddenly interrupted. "I think this one had wings." "Excuse me," Susan said, more to the corpse than Alex as she gingerly stepped over the remains to walk over to where Myst was carefully examining a seriously mishappen corpse. "You alright?" Alex asked softly as she gently rubbed the arms tightly clinging to her waist. "Get us out of here," Michelle whispered, almost in tears. "Just as soon as Sue figures out what she's doing," Alex replied. They watched in silence as Susan knelt down to examine the corpse Myst had indicated. Even from a distance they could see a pair of curious protrusions at the base of what was left of the skeleton's shoulder blades. The bony nubs appeared to be intact instead of broken or sheared, which unfortunately could not be said for virtually all of the skeleton's ribs. The sight of so much skeletal damage made Alex wary to think of what the blast had been like. "So what do you think we'll find on Earth?" Alex said, trying to make conversation in an attempt to calm Michelle and herself down. She alternated her gaze between the demonic wings emerging from Susan's exposed back and the remains of the thousand-year-old skeleton. I never really stopped to think about it, she thought, but if the bones in her wings aren't solidly attached to her back, then they would need something for the muscles to hold on to. And if those protrusions on the skeleteon are what I think they are.... It took Michelle a few moments to gather the strength to speak. "I don't know," she replied softly. "Somehow I don't think the Earth kingdoms are left standing either. At least, not as we know them." Alex blinked. "What, you think the Negaverse destroyed them too?" Michelle shook her head gently. "No, something tells me they never made it to Earth, but.... you know how unstable the kingdoms were." The blonde grunted. "Yeah, you've got a point. I know Serenity did her best to convince that one kingdom to refrain from invading those barbarians to the east, but knowing them they probably decided to throw a crusade anyway. And you know those barbarians were never one to turn down an invitation to attend a small war...." "Well, since it's now past history instead of future occurences," Susan said as she slowly stood up, holding a pair of metallic rods in her hands, "I think it's safe to tell you that there indeed was a crusade in Earth's history, and that the barbarians decided to join the fun, as it were." Alex frowned lightly. "Past history now, huh? Anything else you want to share with us?" "The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the exploration of the western continent, the Renaissance, the French Revolution...." the succubus said as she walked towards them, tightly gripping the shattered remains of her staff. "Two global wars, countless localized conflicts, the Black Plague.... I'm almost sorry I missed out on that particular harvesting of souls," she added quietly to herself. "And of course all of those events you've named just happen to involve a significant amount of violence, bloodshed, destruction, and of course death, which is your favorite event second only to sex. Am I right?" Alex muttered dourly as she squeezed Michelle's hand. "But of course," said a quiet voice behind the blonde. Alex somehow managed to hold onto Michelle and whirl around at the same time, keeping her lover protectively behind her. Her eyes went wide at the sight of a scantily-clad woman casually sitting on a massive chunk of marble. Her dark green hair seemed to spill over her shoulders and flow down her back, neatly bisecting the massive pair of wings emerging from her shoulder blades. A tiny pair of wings could be seen emerging from her hair, drawing attention away from her unearthly beauty. "But then again," she continued softly, "Most succubi would find it rather arousing to be a part of such death and destruction. Wouldn't you agree, Lady Pluto?" Susan frowned lightly at her visitor's use of her official title in the Moon Kingdom. "It all depends on one's role in the situation. Who are you?" she asked, ignoring the uncertain looks she was getting from everyone else. The succubus tilted her head to one side and slowly ran her tongue over her lips. "An emmisary of our lord Hades. You may call me Megan." A delicate eyebrow rose in response. "I know I've been away for quite some time, but I seriously doubt Megan is a demonic name," Susan said. "No less demonic than Susan," Megan replied with a knowing smile. Alex carefully cleared her throat. "Umm, excuse me...." she said slowly as she alternated her gaze between Susan and Megan. "I don't mean to be interrupting what looks to be a demonic family reunion here, but can someone kindly explain what's going on?" She had already noticed that they both shared the exact same shade of dark green hair and bore a seeming resemblance, a fact that she found more than slightly unsettling. Megan gave the blonde an apprasing look. "Ooo, a human! Two of them, in fact," she said as she glanced behind Alex and gave Michelle a small smile. "I haven't had the chance to play with one in ages. Can I borrow one for a few hours?" she asked, casting a hopeful glance towards Susan. "They're avatars," Susan explained with a small smile. "Awww...." Megan replied as she gave Alex a disappointed look. "Wait a minute here...." Alex said somewhat nervously. "It's alright, Alex, I'm sure Megan didn't have any bad intentions," Susan said as she gave the pure-blood succubus a look that said she had damn well better not. She gave Susan an apologetic shrug. "I haven't had the chance to find anyone for a little stress-relief in the past few days," she said as she cast a wistful glance in Alex's direction. "And it's not my fault she's pretty." Susan nodded slowly. "Understood. I trust you're here for a reason?" Megan sighed and slid down off of the marble ruins. She was wearing an almost translucent purple ribbon of fabric around her waist that rose up to cross over her breasts before being tied off in a simple knot behind her neck. A fairly wide black loin-cloth hung down almost to her ankles from a silver belt at her waist, and a pair of black panties could be glimpsed beneath the loin-cloth. "Lord Hades is quite adamant that you return with me to the Underworld at once," Megan said as she stretched, flexing wings that were nearly double the size of Susan's wings. "And given the fact that he is not the most patient of Gods, I have no choice but to ensure that you are summoned to him in a very timely fashion. So, if you will agree to the Pact...." she said as she drew herself close Susan, the tiny pair of wings on her head fluttering slightly. "Whoa, wait a minute...." Alex started to say. Susan shook her head. "I'm sorry, Alex, but I have no choice. I'll be back as soon as I possibly can. Keep and eye on Michelle and Myst for me, please." She turned her attention to Megan and nodded. "Of course I accept the Pact." "But...!" the blonde tried to say. "I'll return her, I promise," Megan said as she took hold of Susan's arm and gave her a gentle but deep kiss. With the personal contact established by her kiss, Megan extended her demonic powers both inward and outward, opening up a dimensional rift and transporting them into the Underworld. Susan closed her eyes and savored the kiss of another of her kind as only a succubus could experience it. While the succubi could affect other beings through an assortment of indirect methods, none was as potentially dangerous or as deadly as their kiss. With it, they could tap directly into a person's soul and do as they please with the energy contained within. Having been created with an extremely strong desire for physical intimacy that few could resist for long, the succubi often turned to each other for the pleasure and sexual release they needed. Knowing the danger their kiss posed to others, a mutual agreement called the Pact was developed in which each promises to refrain from using any hostile or harmful powers when kissing the other. Violations of the Pact were exceedingly rare, as a succubus who would not be trusted by others to safely share intimacy lived a very miserable life. Megan held the kiss for awhile after the dimension shift was complete, taking the opportunity to lightly probe the outermost edges of Susan's soul. Susan was immediately aware of the probe but cautiously let it continue. Under more relaxed settings she would indulged in a probe of her own, but she was keenly aware of her current situation and wasn't in the mood for it. Megan sensed the unease in Susan's soul and gently withdrew the probe before she broke the kiss and took a step back, taking the chance to get a very close look at one of the more well-known succubi in the Underworld. "Problem?" Susan asked as she studied the surroundings. Unlike most of the Underworld, which was lit in some way or another by fire, this particular section was in total darkness save for the faint blue glow surrounding a sealed archway. To her horror she realized that they were standing before the Portal of Time, a physical conduit into the eternal flow. Usually the room would have been brightly lit by the glow of the swirling maelstrom of the open portal, but now that it was sealed shut the room looked more like a crypt than the doorway into the nexus of temporal energy. Megan shook her head gently. "No, but after you are finished with Lord Hades, you and I need to find a place to sit down and talk.... Setsuna." Susan's eyes went wide at the mention of her true-name before she managed to regain some semblance of her usual composure. "How did you...?" Megan laid a finger on Susan's lips, stilling them. "Later," she said very quietly before she gave her another kiss, this one significantly warmer than the one used to shift them between the planes. The succubus then took a step back before disappearing in a brief flash of dimensional energy. Susan barely had time to comprehend things before she felt a powerful presence behind her and heard a deep voice speaking her name. "Setsuna.... It's been a long time, my child." Susan spun around and knelt down before the wraith-like figure that emerged from the surrounding darkness. "My lord...." Hades, God of the Underworld, shook his head and pulled her up to her feet. "There is no time for formalities, child. Give me the Key." Susan looked up and held out the ruined pieces of her staff. "My lord, the Key was destroyed during the battle in the Moon Kingdom," she said almost sadly. Hades blinked as he accepted the broken staff from his avatar. "So this explains matters...." he said quietly. He turned around and looked into the darkness at something Susan wasn't able to see. "Hephaestus, can you possibly reforge this?" A shadowy figure emerged from the darkness surrounding Susan and Hades. "Let me see," the gruff voice of the God of the Forge said as he drew near, moving with a pronounced limp. He took the shattered halves of the Key from Hades, hefted them in his hands for a moment, and spat on the floor. "I told you tying her soul to the Key would weaken it," Hephaestus said with a snarl. "Enough bickering," said a third voice as its owner stepped out from the darkness. A crown of lightning bolts adorned his head, adding a glow to the room and lessening the darkness. "What's done is done. Can it be fixed?" Susan knelt down before the new arrival and bowed her head, showing the respect due to the king of the Gods while Hades gave a respectful nod to his brother. "The Key is only physically broken. The power it contains is intact, but useless until the body is reforged," Hephaestus said. Zeus grunted softly. "Back to your forge with you, then. I don't think anyone needs to remind you of the importance of that Key." The lame God sighed almost inaudibly as he made a gesture and disappeared in a subdued flash of light. "Knowing him, it shouldn't take him long to fix it," Hades said. "Once he gets to his precious forge," Zeus replied. "Might take him a bit to do just that. He never was much of a runner," he added with a dark smile. Susan said nothing and remained perfectly still as she listened, knowing that only a God like Zeus could make fun of Hephaestus's lameness and not be struck down by the artificier. She suspected that Hephaestus would get even with the Thunder God in some indirect way for the comment, usually by taking it out on his followers, and she was suddenly grateful that Fate had chosen for her to serve Hades instead of Zeus. "So this is your long-lost avatar," Zeus mused as he carefully studied Susan. "And a succubus, at that. How'd you let that happen, by the way?" "Her heritage or misplacing her for a thousand years?" Hades grumbled. Zeus chuckled. "I think her mother would be the best one to answer that first question. And in any case, we could always blame Aphrodite. You really should keep a closer eye on your avatars, you know, if only to keep surprises from showing up in a generation or two." Hades cast an unamused glance towards his elder brother. "Strange, I could have sworn that your avatar was currently involved with an alien, and if it wasn't for the incompatibility she'd probably be bearing his child by now. If you find Setsuna's heritage disturbing, try to imagine what the other one would look like." Zeus grunted to himself. "I'm trying not to," he grumbled. "I could always intervene like Ares did...." "And hear no peace from Gaea for a millenium," Hades finished for him. The Thunder God rolled his eyes. "She's just pissed because she doesn't have an avatar of her own to toy with. Although I must admit that after stopping to think about it, I could find several uses for a succubus as an avatar," he said as he eyed Susan's slender form. "Have a little respect for her," Hades said with a discernable edge to his low tone. "Setsuna's unique heritage has allowed her to perform her duties quite well for centuries, both as my avatar and as a Guardian of Time." "And allowing the Portal to close and vanishing for a thousand years is performing her duties well?" Zeus demanded, the crown on his head beginning to crackle with his anger. "What of the other avatars, then?" Hades countered. "How long ago were they reincarnated, without their memories or any knowledge of their true purpose? If it wasn't for the foresight and wisdom of their Oracle, they would still know nothing!" Zeus said nothing as he stared at the sealed portal, his legendary temper simmering dangerously. Hades took a deep breath and continued in a measured tone. "We do not know exactly what happened that caused the Portal to seal itself shut, but perhaps now that Setsuna has returned, we can find out." "Speak, succubus," Zeus said quietly as he tempered his anger. "Tell us what happened to you and the Key." Susan feared few things in life, but Zeus's reputation for taking his fury out on the bearers of bad news was certainly one of them. Taking a deep breath and trying to quit trembling, she quietly began to relate the events that took place in the final days of the Moon Kingdom. Neither of the Gods said anything as they listened to her words. She told them of the warning Queen Serenity had been given so long ago, and about the many years of quiet preparation for an invasion. Even with so much advanced warning, the actual attack had come as a complete surprise as legions of the alien warriors had emerged from the great dimensional rifts that opened up at the edges of the Kingdom. The initial losses were staggering and forced them to abandon the outer perimeter. They regrouped as they fell back and made their stand in a large ring surrounding the Royal Palace. The frontal assault against the phalanx of defenders quickly degenerated into hand-to-hand combat, and it was then that the colossal Shadow Warrior began to attack the Palace itself. A decision was made by the Queen's Celestial Guardians to split up: Four of them were to fall back to protect the Queen and deal with the Shadow Warrior while the remaining three were to remain on the front lines, defending the perimeter. Sailor Pluto led the counter-attack, unleashing her demonic powers with a fury few had ever seen as she pressed forward. Not very far behind her, Sailor Uranus was wreaking her own brand of havoc, her glittering Soul Saber cutting a path through the enemy lines and leaving an unholy mess in her wake. Sailor Neptune stayed very close to Uranus, using her Soul Mirror to ward off attacks and reflecting some of them back at their alien owners. The trio of Sailor Scouts were able to make serious progress in decimating the enemy's front lines before they encountered a small unit of elite troops led by a warrior in dark armor and holding a strangely glowing sword. It soon became obvious that the sword was every bit as powerful as Uranus's Saber, cutting down all who stood in it's path. Realizing the danger the glowing blade posed, the Sailor Scouts quickly made a radical change in tactics in the hopes of catching the warrior off-guard. Ironically, the warrior had thought of the same plan and made a surprise change in his own tactics. The two groups met sooner than expected, and Pluto found herself suddenly under attack by the glowing sword. Skilled as she was in the art of combat, her staff simply wasn't enough to hold off the elite warrior at close range. As she tried to fall back to give herself enough room to use her demonic powers, she found herself under attack from all sides. She lashed out to one side with her staff to protect her flanks, saw the warrior sieze the opportunity, and instinctively brought her staff up to try to defend against the sword stroke that, unblocked, would surely have eviscerated her. "And that's when the Key was snapped in half?" Hades asked quietly when Susan fell silent, unable to continue with the final moments of her story. "Yes, my lord," Susan replied quietly. "I.... I remember the sound of it snapping, and then.... I remember nothing." Zeus sighed quietly to himself, his anger calmed by Susan's story. "The blade had to have been their version of a Soul Reaver," he grumbled. "The Key should have been able to withstand the blow itself, but because her soul was part of it...." He trailed off and sighed quietly again. "Do you know what we had to do to keep the vibes from the Portal from tearing Creation apart?" he asked Susan. "Do you know what that damned blade cost us?" "No, my lord," Susan replied. Hades spoke quietly. "Every single one of us had to merge our powers together in a sort of brace around the Portal to keep the vibes from spreading around. With the entire pantheon occupied thus, we were unable to maintain our presence on Earth and in very short order became mere myths in the eyes of the mortals." Susan blinked hard. She knew from her time travels that the pantheon's influence began to wane after the introduction of Christianity into the region on Earth known as Europe, but hadn't been aware of their utter disappearance. Zeus grunted. "And now that we've been all but totally abandoned for the past millenia, could you imagine what it would be like if we tried to resume our roles? One whiff of our existence and the infidels would instantly start a war. I don't know how familiar you are with their present-day technology, Setsuna, but they possess sufficient firepower to incinerate the entire globe a dozen times over." "A little war now and then is good for business," Hades said lightly. The Thunder God shot him a dark look. "I see you've forgotten about that little backlog of souls you acquired during their second global war when they erased a pair of cities off the map in the blink of an eye," he grumbled. "They were all processed in due time," the God of the Underworld replied. "Besides, I said a little war, not the Apocalypse." "Are you.... gentlemen finished?" a sultry voice interrupted as a very beautiful figure stepped out from the shadows surrounding the Portal. Hades bowed his head respectfully while Zeus gave the new arrival a mild look. "What do you want, woman?" The goddess shrugged. "I heard that the Key had returned and wanted to see for myself if it were true. I see Hades's beloved Guardian has returned, looking as beautiful as ever, but no sign of either the Key or an end to this wretched confinement. Or, it seems, to the endless babble of men about the art of War," she added pointedly. "I see you're as charming as ever," Zeus sneered. Aphrodite waved her hand. "You should hear what that bloodthirsty bastard has to say about the 'impending and glorious Apocalypse'," she said, rolling her eyes. "I'll be sure to let Ares know that you think so highly of him," Zeus replied. "Although I'm still not quite sure why you haven't bedded him yet. They do say Love and War are on the opposite side of the same coin." The goddess gave him a decidedly glacial look. "Funny you should mention bedding people. I hear your avatar has found herself a rather interesting companion yet again. At least it's a male this time," she added with a smile. "It seems your avatar as well has found a lover of her own that is, shall we say, decidedly different," Zeus said, his voice edged with his anger. The corner of his mouth twisted up into a cruel smile as he added, "And what did Hermes do to you for his avatar to deserve a similar fate?" Aphrodite sighed and looked away. "I had nothing to do with that one," she said softly, surprising both Zeus and Hades with the sudden change in her mood. "In fact, I had nothing to do with your avatar as well. Not this time at least. You know as well as I do that we can't intervene in matters related to the other side." Susan remained quiet as she listened to the gods talk among themselves, their words greatly disturbing her. She was fairly sure that the avatars they spoke of were in fact the other Sailor Scouts, but the mention of alien lovers was confusing at best and her sense of unease grew the more she thought about matters. Everyone looked up as there was a subdued flash of light and Hephaestus reappeared in the room holding the reforged staff. "Try not to let it get broken this time," he grumbled as held it out to Susan. "Thank you, my lord," Susan replied as she stood up and took the staff from him. A surge of immense power began to course through her veins in the instant that her fingers closed around the dark staff. She closed her eyes and yielded to the sensation, a thousand years of hunger and longing satisifed by a touch, a rejoining of the two parts of a whole that should never have been separated in the first place. She opened her eyes and turned towards the faintly glowing archway, now able to fully sense the power eminating from within. She felt more than saw the intricate network of divine forces surrounding the Portal, keeping it perfectly still despite the immense power precariously held at bay inside. As she drew closer to the archway, she could feel the Key begin to vibrate in her hands, resonating with the power of the Portal. She closed her eyes again and concentrated on the subharmonics both the Key and the Portal were producing. She carefully began to focus the energy of her staff in a precise pattern, trying to exactly match the harmonics with that of the Portal. The divine energy supporting the Portal made things somewhat more difficult and it took her longer than usual to tune the Key. As soon as the attunement was completed the Key began to hum audibly and vibrate faster. Susan fought a momentary struggle to retain her grip, took a deep breath, and inverted the subharmonics of the Key. The whole room began to resonate as the harmonics of the Key and Portal briefly interfered with each other. The two sets of energies began to cancel each other out, nullifying the restraining harmonics surrounding the Portal and allowing it to open with a blinding flash of blue light. The light seared her eyes and burned her flesh, the intense wave of utter agony coming as a complete surprise. She was only exposed to it for a moment before she was enveloped in a cloak of sorts, reducing the searing pain to a more tolerable level. The light persisted for a few moments before fading to the Portal's normal blue glow. It took her a few seconds before she was able to move, her skin feeling like it was partially blistered and torn away. She finally managed to open her eyes and discovered that her skin was very much intact and undamaged, despite what her nerves were claiming. The same wave of light that inflicted so much agony on Susan's body only managed to give headaches to the divinities in the room. "Well, that was unexpected," Zeus commented as he blinked rapidly to clear the afterimages. "Probably a backlash of power after being sealed for so long," Hades said as he looked at the dark figure standing behind his avatar. "Setsuna, are you alright?" "I will be, my lord," she replied, not exactly sure if she really would be. She sighed quietly and leaned back against the skeletal form that was holding her. She had known who he was the moment she felt his presence behind her, shielding her from the worst of the shockwave with his shroud. Aphrodite looked at the servants of Hades and let a soft smile touch her lips. "You have interesting timing, Charon," she said. "Knowing what that energy did to me, I have no doubt that you just saved Setsuna's life. She still looks a bit shaken to me, so perhaps you should both return to the Underworld for a time. Unless your master requires anything further from his avatar," she said as she glanced at Hades. "We need to have an extensive talk," Hades said as he observed Charon and Susan, "But that can wait until she's well-rested. Until then, I think I will be rather busy cleaning up this mess. Charon, see to her comfort then return to your duties." Both the succubus and the demigod bowed to their master before Charon plane-shifted them both into a remote lair deep in the lowest levels of the Underworld. Once the shift was completed, he released his hold on her and took a few steps back, gazing at her carefully. Susan turned around and returned the gaze, a soft smile forming on her lips. "You have my sincerest thanks for your help, my lord," she said softly as she laid her staff against the wall. The infamous Boatsman of the River Styx said nothing. He was close to seven feet tall and appeared to be nothing more than a skeleton enshrouded in a black cloak. Two fiery red pinpoints of light burned in the empty sockets of his skull, a sight to inspire fear in even the most stout of hearts. "I would think that we are beyond the need to convey thanks," he finally said. His jaw never moved, but the powerfully deep voice emerged from within the depths of his hood. "You have my thanks nonetheless," Susan replied. The silence stretched on again as they carefully regarded each other, Susan's face not betraying any emotion or thought and Charon's face unable to show any. "I thought your soul was lost," he finally said. Susan sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "Not lost so much as misplaced in The Dark for a thousand years. It takes more than physical death for my soul to be lost, you know," she added, knowing full well that he was every bit as aware of her soul's nature as she was. It was another full minute before Charon spoke. "I'm glad you could return here," he said. Susan smiled. She knew that Charon was hardly the talkative type and was even less so when it came to admitting to personal feelings. "I'm glad to be here," she replied. "And if it wasn't for your timely intervention, my return would have been decidedly short-lived. If you don't mind my asking, why did you show up at the Portal?" The silence stretched on longer than expected. "Come now, Charon, surely you had a reason for taking a break from your duties," she prodded, knowing that the demigod very rarely delegated the task of ferrying the souls of the dead across the River Styx to one of his minions, even if only for a momentary respite. "Not that I'm ungrateful that you did, I'm merely curious." It seemed an eternity had passed before his voice emerged from his hood. "I wanted to see you," he said simply. Susan blinked. "You surprise me, Charon. If I didn't know better, I'd think that you were trying to say you missed me." Another eternity passed before he slowly reached out and cupped her face in his hand. A brief and nearly silent rumble emerged from his chest, almost as if he had stopped himself from speaking. With an equally quiet sigh, he wrapped his other arm around her and held her close to him. She closed her eyes and returned the embrace, ignoring the icy feeling of his skeletal form pressing against her flesh. She knew he could summon a more corporeal form when he desired, surrounding the bones with a layer of muscle and flesh, but that the effort was rather taxing and could only be maintained for a few hours at a time. As a result, he only assumed his 'softer' form for special occasions. So he did miss me, she thought as she deliberately avoided thinking about the chain of events that took place when she first learned he could assume a human form. Instead, she wondered about the implications of his apparent fondness for her and what the future might hold if she were to pursue the idea to the fullest extent. "You should return to the other avatars," he said after a period of time had passed. The low rumble of his deep voice make his rib cage vibrate against her breasts, sending an electric thrill running through the rest of her body. "I thought Hades said for you to see to my comfort," she said softly as she pressed herself harder against him. Desire started to well up in her as her body responded almost automatically to the accidental stimulation. She knew it wasn't because she needed sexual release, but because was deeply touched by Charon's unspoken affection for her. The boatsman hummed quietly to himself for several seconds, the vibration of his ribs drastically increasing Susan's state of arousal. "I don't think he meant that kind of comfort," he replied as his hands lightly traced the edges of her wings. It took her a great deal of effort not to moan. The taut skin and rock- hard muscles of her wings were rather rough and leathery, just like the wings of any other succubus. However, unlike the other succubi, Susan's wings were very sensitive and the gentlest touch in the right places was more than enough to light the fires of her passion. The sound of gentle laughter interrupted her attempts at controlling her demonic desires. "Forgive me, Setsuna, I didn't mean to be teasing you like this," he said with an obvious smile in his voice as his hands moved down to the small of her back. The sensation of his ribs moving with his laughter merely aroused her all more. "Liar," she whimpered softly, knowing that he knew full well what he was doing to her. The thing that made it worse was that she was enjoying the feelings as much as he was, and he knew it. A muted but high-pitched screeching sound filled the room as a fire bat flew into the room, its wings engulfed the bright flames of hellfire. Charon made a grunting sound as he held his hand up, keeping it away from Susan's body. The bat immediately zeroed in on his hand and fluttered over, making an upside-down landing on his wrist-bone. Susan could feel the heat of the flames across her back and wings before the hellfire vanished as the bat's wings came to a standstill. The bat quickly chittered a message to Charon and shifted uneasily from foot to foot. The boatsman made no obvious reply, but after a moment the bat screeched in acknowledgement and immediately began flapping its wings again. The hellfire returned with a soft whoosh and a blast of heat as the bat became airborne and flew away, disappearing from both sight and sound after a few seconds of flight. Susan sighed heavily. "Let me guess, you have to return to the River at once," she said as she struggled to control her rampant desires. "Duty calls," he replied as he released his hold on her and stepped back. She sighed again and looked away as she gave in to the impulse to pout for a few seconds. She felt his touch on her cheek and turned back to face him, her hand coming up to cover his. "We will meet again," he said quietly, his voice echoing slightly in his hollow chest. "Soon." "Is that a promise?" she asked as she looked into the fierce pinpoints of his unholy eyes, wishing she could see some emotion, any emotion, in their fiery depths. The silence seemed to last forever in Susan's mind before she heard him speak. "Yes, it is," he replied quietly. "I will see you later, Setsuna," the demigod said as he withdrew his hand from hers and departed the chamber. Susan closed her eyes and listened to the nearly inaudible footsteps as they slowly faded from her demonic hearing. She knew his role as the Boatsman of the River Styx was as demanding as it was crucial to the function of the Underworld, and how difficult it was for him to gain even a moment's reprieve from his ceaseless duties. She harbored no doubt, however, that he would keep his promise and see her again in the not-too-distant future. Her desires forgotten, she stood alone in the room and thought once more about the nature of her relationship with the demigod, trying to forget about the past and focusing more on the present. I've been gone for a millenium, and yet he still showed me something deeper than mere fondness, she thought. Countless demonesses have sought him as a consort, and he could have had any of them if he so desired. And yet.... Susan abruptly shook her head to clear her mind of the thought, not daring to even consider the possibilities for now. Who knows, she thought with a mental shrug as she picked up her staff. Had anyone else been in the room at the time, they would have noticed that the staff had been picked up from a decidedly different spot than where it had been laid down. She paused ever so briefly as a tingle ran through the tips of her fingers when she touched the staff. The sensation was like a phantasmal caress of an old lover, comforting and familiar yet exotic at the same time. It was like that every time she touched the staff, and as always she was reminded of the burden she was condemned to bear as the Guardian of Time. Making sure she had a secure grip, she focused her mind on the staff and tapped into its energies. She was immediately enveloped in a glowing nimbus of light as she was briefly drawn into the flow of Time, travelling the currents as a fish swims through water. The journey lasted only for an instant in her perception before she emerged from the cosmic flow in an entirely different location, accompanied by another display of temporal energy. Alex was sitting on the ground and leaning against the same rock Megan had made her appearance on. Michelle was sitting next to her, leaning against the blonde and absently stroking the ball of gray fur curled up in her lap. They were clearly occupied, however, as Alex was in the process of giving her lover yet another passionate kiss, one hand gently kneading her breasts through the aquamarine gown. The brief flash of temporal energy was more than sufficient to announce Susan's arrival. Both humans quickly turned their heads to look at the sudden disturbance while Myst's ears perked up reflexively. Susan decided from the Shinma's reaction that she had been paying very little attention to Alex and Michelle's somewhat intimate activity. "I see you've managed to keep her calm during my absence," Susan observed as she gave Alex a knowing look. "I apologize for my sudden disappearance," she said as she held up a hand to forestall the expected deluge of questions from her friends, "But believe me when I say I had no choice and that it was for a very good reason." "What happened?" Alex demanded as hastily withdrew her hands from rather familiar territory and scrambled to her feet. Michelle started to get up as well, but seemed to be distinctly uneasy about something. "I had to do a few cosmic errands as well as get this fixed," Susan said as she showed them the reforged Key to Time. It was fashioned out of an unusual type of metal, seeming to be both purple and silver in color at the same time. An intricate series of protrusions and ridges adorned the base of the staff, looking like the pattern on a key designed to fit a very complicated lock. The top of the staff had been split into two and curved back in on itself, forming a broad heart-shaped loop decorated with a pair of large red rubies and countless other tiny, glittering gemstones. Myst's eyes went wide as she sensed the power contained in the staff. "What is that?" she asked, more than slightly awed and wary of the vibes of energy she was feeling. "It's something important to the structure of the universe, or so we've been told," Alex said hastily, trying to forestall what she suspected would be a rather lengthy lecture on the origin and purpose of the staff. "She can give you a better description later, but right now we've got a problem." Susan frowned. "What is it?" she asked as she glanced around the ruins of the Kingdom, trying to see any obvious source of trouble. "There's something here," Michelle blurted out, hugging Myst tightly in an effort to remain calm. "I don't know what, but something is here. I can feel it." The frown on Susan's face deepened. She knew that Michelle was not the bravest of people when confronted with an unknown, but usually Alex's presence was enough to keep her nerves somewhat calm. She also knew, or at least had a suspicion, that Michelle possessed an awareness of her surroundings that worked on the subconscious level. Such an innate sense was exceedingly rare for a human to possess and Michelle gave no indication that she even knew she had such a gift. Something's bothering her, she thought, and whatever it was not only rattled her hard enough that Alex can't keep her calm, it is also something that everyone else missed as well, including myself. However.... "Talk to us, Sue," Alex said cautiously as she noticed Susan's expression shifting from thoughtfulness to concentration. "What's up?" The succubus ignored her as she closed her eyes and extended her demonic senses outward in a series of ripples. She immediately detected the auras around the three life-forms standing near her as well as the faint traces of a fourth that had been present not too long ago. That probably was Megan, she reasoned as she continued to expand her senses. She realized after a few seconds of concentration that she was beginning to detect a very faint and hollow echo of an aura not too far away. "Myst," she said quietly, "Can you sense auras?" The kitten blinked and leapt out of Michelle's arms. She made a face as her landing kicked up a cloud of dust and she closed her eyes, her whiskers twitching as she extended her own senses outward. "I can't sense very far because the fuzz is rather thick," she said after a few moments. "What fuzz?" Alex said warily as she glanced around, absently placing a comforting hand on Michelle's shoulder. "What are you talking about now?" "If a soul isn't claimed when the body dies, it will drift around the immediate area on the Astral winds," Susan explained as she tried to focus on the faint echo she was sensing. She frowned as the echo seemed to begin moving, but she wasn't entirely sure if it wasn't a distorted echo from the spectral fuzz in the area. "And...?" Alex prompted after a few seconds of silence. "However, if a soul is allowed to spend too much time drifting, it will eventually be absorbed by the Astral plane and thus be lost forever. When it is lost in such a fashion, it leaves behind an astral imprint of itself as it is drawn into the Astral plane. That imprint is seen as a somewhat foggy echo when one is searching for auras and it tends to obscure other auras in the immediate vicinity." "So you refer to the memories of lost souls as fuzz?" Alex asked with a frown. "How charming." Susan whirled around angrily. "Do you think I like it? Looking around and sensing little more than a personal and very painful reminder of the battle that took place in this kingdom? Countless lives were lost on that day, and while that in itself is tragic, it pales in comparison to the realization that their souls are lost as well. Do you have any idea how much it hurts to imagine it? Do you know what such a loss means to one who has a duty to see that the souls of the dead are taken to the gates of the Underworld?" Michelle started cowering behind Alex, unsure of what had brought on the sudden display of Susan's demonic temperment. Alex, on the other hand, had no one else to hide behind and did her best to weather Susan's fury. Myst was occupied trying to concentrate on something she had just sensed while giving serious consideration to the idea of finding a place to hide until Susan had calmed down. "I knew a great number of those people, Alex," the succubus continued, "I knew them well, and I knew their families well. Very, very few people deserve such a fate as to have their souls become lost for eternity, and no one.... not a single soul within the boundaries of the Moon Kingdom should have been lost." "Susan...." Myst said. "What about those two punks?" Alex replied, trying to keep herself from cowering as well. "You know which ones I'm talking about." Susan said nothing for a moment as she fought to rein in her anger and regain her composure. "After Rei and I reaved their souls from their bodies, I personally took them into Underworld," she said in a soft, low-pitched voice. "I was there when they were Judged and damned. You have my personal assurance that they are now suffering and suffering greatly for their deeds." "Susan...." Myst said again as she started to back up, staring into the air at something she could sense but not see. Susan turned around to look and immediately felt the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up. A faint chill began to surround the area a few seconds later, a chill that she recognized at once. While there were many things that could add a chill to the air, none were as distinct as the presence of the wandering souls of the dead. Michelle whimpered quietly and latched onto Alex with a death-grip. Alex frowned at the unexpected chill and shivered lightly. "Whoa, what gives?" she asked as she tried to comfort her disturbed friend. "Sue, did you turn off the heater or something?" "I believe we have company," Susan said quietly as she adjusted her grip on her staff and concentrated. What she sensed as a faint echo before could now be discerned as a very weak but definite aura that was drawing closer to the group. "Company?" Alex said, blinking in surprise. She quickly glanced around but failed to see what Susan and Myst were sensing and what had been upsetting Michelle. "Don't tell me that. Haven't we had enough surprises for one afterlife?" Susan said nothing as she stared out into the air. The source of the aura had stopped moving and was only a few feet away from her. Strange, she thought as she focused her demonic senses on the faded aura, it almost feels.... familar. Like I should know who it is.... "It's here, isn't it?" Michelle asked softly, her voice on the verge of cracking. She was trembling now as she continued to hold Alex's arm in a grip that threatened to cut off blood circulation. "There!" Myst yelped as she leapt back, her red eyes wide and her gray fur sticking straight out. Everyone tensed as a spectral mist began to form and coalesce into a humanoid figure. The process only lasted for an instant before the mist vanished and a ghostly figure stood before them. Susan blinked hard. "Impossible," she breathed as she recognized the long, dark hair and exotic beauty of one of her fellow Sailor Scouts. "Aria?" Behind her, she heard both Alex and Michelle gasping as they too recognized the spectral image. The spirit of Lady Mars nodded her head once in slow motion, her facial expression showing signs of extreme weariness. Her beauty hadn't changed, but her eyes, once a bottomless shade of black, were now a featureless black that seemed to be sparked with the light of distant stars. Susan briefly glanced at the inhuman eyes and, for a moment, could have sworn she had been staring into the depths of the cosmos. The strain of making herself visible to the living seemed to overwhelm her and she collapsed to her knees. Susan immediately rushed foward to try to help her, and nearly cried out in pain as her hand passed through the spectral form, sending a deep chill through her flesh. "Aria, can you speak to me?" Susan asked as she knelt as close to Lady Mars as she dared. It was almost incomprehensible how a soul could resist the lure of the Astral plane for a thousand years as well as retain both the sanity and willpower to manifest itself to others. Her lips moved, but she made no sound that anyone could be heard. Susan shook her head slowly. "I can't hear you, Aria. Speak slowly and I can try reading your lips," Susan said. Lady Mars seemed to sigh for a moment before she tried speaking again. Again no sound could be heard, but this time Susan was able to read her lips and understand her meaning. "This is spooky," Alex muttered quietly as she bent down and picked up Myst. The kitten hadn't been expecting such a move and nearly clawed Alex in surprise. She sighed quietly and resigned herself to put up with Alex's rapid and nervous stroking of her gray fur. I don't have much time left, Susan thought as she watched Lady Mars's lips move. The Princess and four others of her court are alive, and the Imperium Silver Crystal still stands. They were here not too long ago, but how or why I don't know. "She's alive," Susan whispered as tears threatened to flow. "Alex, she's alive. The Princess is alive, on Earth." "What?" both Alex and Michelle demanded. Michelle turned her head to look up at the blue planet floating in the sky and began to cry silently with joy. "Susan, how's that possible?" "I suppose we'll find out once we find her," Susan replied. "Aria says that four others of her court are with her as well." "Well what the hell are we waiting for, then? Let's get our butts over to Earth and start looking!" Alex said as she tried to loosen Michelle's grip and restore some circulation to her arm. "In a few minutes, Alex," Susan replied as she turned her attention back to the spirit of Lady Mars. The succubus blinked as she realized that Lady Mars's spectral state was becoming more and more translucent with each passing moment. "Aria, try to stay with us just a little longer." Lady Mars slowly shook her head, her features showing she was teetering on the brink of exhaustion. Tired, she tried to speak. I don't know why I fought this long to remain in the Kingdom, fought the pain of being alone for countless eternities. But now.... I need to rest. So tired.... "Aria, don't go," Susan said. "I can take you with us to Earth, and you can have your eternal rest with the Imperium Silver Crystal once we find the Princess. Please, just hold on a little longer." I don't know if I can, Lady Mars replied as she closed her eyes. Her hair suddenly stirred as if an unfelt breeze was drifting by and the strain became more pronounced on her face. You have no idea how tiring these past few centuries have been, how tempting it is to just relax for a moment and go with the wind.... "Is your daughter also with the Princess?" Susan asked quietly. Lady Mars's eyes opened, their spectral depths momentarily startling Susan again. Yes, she is, she said after a moment. She sighed quietly and then added, I know what you're going to say, Lady Pluto. Yes, I want to see my daughter one more time. "Then I will hold your soul inside me until I can deliver it to her and the Princess," Susan said softly. Lady Mars nodded and Susan leaned forward, ignoring the icy chill as she brushed her lips against the spectral image and concentrated. She waited until she felt the faint tingle in her lips as she tapped into the soul before she slowly began to inhale. Alex blinked hard as the spectral form of Lady Mars was suddenly broken into tiny particles of mist that was inhaled by the succubus. As she watched, a glowing blue sigil began to take form on Susan's shoulder. A memory suddenly bubbled up from the depths of her mind and she shuddered. "Oh, no...." Michelle said quietly from behind the blonde as she too remembered seeing something similar before. "Alex!" "I know, love," Alex replied soothingly. "This is only a temporary thing and she's not going to use it. I hope," she added. Susan finished absorbing Lady Mars's soul and slowly stood up, flexing her arm experimentally and casting a glance at the soul rune tattooed on her bare shoulder. "Such power she has," she said quietly. She studied her hand as she slowly curled her fingers and made a fist. Everyone blinked as her fist suddenly was engulfed in fire, the flames burning quite hot yet leaving her skin untouched. She glanced up at the looks on the faces of her friends and let the fire vanish into nothingness. "Are you three alright?" she asked. "You said you wouldn't use those.... things," Michelle said, extremely upset at the turn of events. "You promised you wouldn't." Susan cast a glance at the soul rune. "This is the only way I can carry her soul with us. And I'm not going to use her powers, Michelle. She's far too weak to survive for very long, even in this form." Myst frowned in confusion, not understanding in the least what was going on between the three avatars. "I don't understand," she said slowly. "It's a long, complicated, and evil story," Alex said, speaking before Susan had a chance to say anything. "And if it's all the same with you, I'd rather not listen to her talk about those damned things again. Besides, we've more important things to do, like finding a certain Princess." "Is she really alive after all this time?" Michelle asked, casting a nervous glance at the glowing sigil on Susan's shoulder. "Aria thinks so," Susan said as she adjusted her grip on her staff. "And that is good enough for me. Let's go," she said as she held out her staff. "Where to?" Alex said as she reached out to touch the staff. "Aria said that the Princess had been briefly sent here by the power of the Imperium Silver Crystal," the succubus replied as she made sure Michelle also got a grip on the staff. "As for where from, she thinks it might have been from the ancient island kingdom on the far eastern coast. The kingdom itself is pretty much destroyed in this era, but it still exists somewhat." Michelle nodded. "So where do we start?" "In the heart of that empire, in the city they call Tokyo," Susan said as she concentrated on the staff. The staff hummed to itself for an instant before they were enveloped in a shroud of temporal energy and vanished without a trace. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Darian blinked and looked up from the magazine he was reading. He had noticed that Dyvach had gotten unusually busy in the past hour, making several trips between the stairwell and the remaining pair of unoccupied rooms in the residential wing. However, the purpose of such activity was presently beyond him and he finally gave in to his simmering curiosity. "Hey, Dyvach?" he asked. The weaver paused it's task and gave him a questioning chime. "I don't mean to be nosy or anything, but what exactly are you doing?" Dyvach replied with a complicated series of chimes, sounding to Darian's ear like hailstones bouncing off of a xylophone. "I.... didn't catch a word of that," he said sheepishly. The weaver made a disgruntled sound to itself that Darian understood quite clearly and quickly scuttled off to the residential wing. It returned a few moments later and climbed onto the couch next to him, curling its many legs beneath its carapace and turning a faint purple color. It chimed a single word at Darian and he nodded. "Cleaning, I understand now. Didn't mean to interrupt your work." It made a flat chime in response and added another single-word chime. Darian blinked. He considered himself to be somewhat knowledgable when it came to the more 'simple' chimes of the weaver language, although he would readily admit he only understood a fraction of what Tolaris or even Ami had learned about the language. However, there were times in which he had his doubts that he was hearing Dyvach correctly. "Guests?" he repeated. Dyvach chimed an affirmative and Darian blinked again. "Are you saying you're cleaning because we're going to have guests? No, wait, keep it to the one-word chimes, please," he said wearily as Dyvach started to chime away at it's usual rapid-fire pace. "Guests, soon, friends," he repeated as Dyvach slowed down considerably. "Umm, does Tolaris know about this?" Dyvach hesitated for a moment before it grumbled quietly to itself and made a single multi-harmonic chime. Darian had to strain his brain to translate the sound. I think that was one of the ones Ami had trouble with, he thought. She said it meant both "not yet" and "too soon" about the same subject, but that she thought it was in two different contexts. Talk about your headaches.... The weaver interrupted his train of thought with a string of slow-paced chimes, most of which he was easily able to translate if not immediately comprehend. "Whoa, wait a second," he said slowly. "You want me to do what with a towel? I'm sorry," he said as Dyvach grumbled in mild frustration. "Say this one word at a time.... Okay, okay, I'll save the why part until you're done.... Umm, grab a few towels.... and put them.... where? OH, you mean my jeep! Okay, put the towels in my jeep, and.... Luna? You want me to go get Luna? Sure, but.... Wait, you just lost me on that. Take her where? Bath? No, not that, then.... pool? A big pool.... in the city? Wait, do you mean the lake?" Darian sat back and rubbed his eyes for a moment while Dyvach chimed with happiness. "Let me try this from the top, my friend," he said slowly. "You want me to put a bunch of towels in my jeep, then go get Luna and take her to the artificial lake in the center of the city. Am I right?" The resulting cheer from the oversized crystalline spider definitely needed no translation. "Okay, now comes the fun part.... WHY?" He blinked hard when Dyvach made a strangled noise as it rolled off the couch, landing on its back with its legs curled up in a classic 'dead spider' pose. Very slowly and patiently, it repeated what it said when the cleaning question first arose. The full realization hit Darian with the force of a baseball bat being slammed into the back of his head. "Dyvach, who's coming? I know you said guests and that they're friends, but who are they? I mean, are they from the Negaverse, and if so, is Tolaris aware of this?" The weaver made a grouchy noise as it flipped back over and reoriented itself. It took a deep breath tried to explain things as best it could while keeping the vocabulary down to a level Darian could understand. He let out a sigh of frustration. "This isn't working, Dyvach, I can't make sense of what you're saying. It's not your fault," he added as the weaver turned a bright green color, "I just can't translate sounds well." Dyvach suddenly froze, the colors of its carapace shifting rapidly through the visible spectrum before finally settling on a blotchy mix of dark blue, orange, and neon yellow. It then began to chitter excitedly to itself at a very rapid pace while tugging hard on Darian's leg. Darian blinked. "I hope you're not going to throw up or something.... Okay, okay, I'll follow you, you can let go of me now," he said as he got to his feet and was almost literally dragged halfway across the cathedral. "So what's going on?" he asked as he followed the weaver into the computer room. It merely motioned for him to sit in the chair while it picked up the crystalline keyboard and set it on the floor. It then sat back on half of its legs and used the other half to type away at a furious pace, accessing the mainframe with mind-boggling speed. Okay, Darian thought as he sat down in the chair and tried to figure out what Dyvach was up to. Boy, and I thought Ami could type fast. Of course, she only has two hands as opposed to how many legs? he thought, trying to get a count of the number of limbs in motion. They were moving faster than he could follow and he finally settled for estimating there where somewhere between six and eight legs on the keyboard at once. He refocused on the screen as Dyvach suddenly quit typing and sat back, watching the line of characters slowly appear on the display. Darian blinked as he realized that Dyvach had filled up the keyboard buffer and was waiting for the computer to catch up with what it had already typed in. "Hey," he said as he studied the spidery denizen text scrolling across the screen, "I think I can read some of that. Can you...." "Can you understand me now, your Highness?" the computer said in a flat monotone voice, the text turning from green to blue as it translated each word into verbal English. Darian leapt out of the chair as if something had bitten his backside. He let loose with a brief burst of profanity and added, "What did you do?!" Dyvach made a curious tinkling noise as it began to type. "I accessed the new translator program. I do not know why I did not think of this earlier," the computer replied. Darian's eyes were nearly double their usual size. "Is THAT what Serena was babbling about when she said Ami had taught it to talk?" There was a slight delay between Dyvach's typing and the computer voice translation of what was typed. "I do not know what the Princess said, but I do know that this computer program was written by the mistress." Princess? Mistress? he thought as his brain threatened to shut down from too much information at once. "Hang on, you're confusing me here...." "There is not much time for me to explain. You must take Luna and three large towels to the west edge of the lake," the emotionless voice said from the speaker. "There you will meet the rest of the Princess's royal court." "Royal court? Are they from the Moon Kingdom?" Darian asked. Dyvach made a frustrated sound as it typed furiously. "I only know what I see in what you would term a daydream. If this is not acted upon, it will change and I will not know what will happen next. Take the towels from the linen closet outside and go get Luna. I will explain when we have time." Darian paused to briefly consider the situation. Here I am, sitting in the middle of a room surrounded by technology that came from another world, I'm being told by an oversized crystal spider to take some towels and a talking cat from the moon to go meet people who probably aren't expecting me, and all of this is based on something that happened in a daydream. "Oh, what the hell," he grumbled to himself as he stood up and walked out into the corridor. Of all the things I've done since I've discovered my past reincarnation, this has got to be one of the strangest, he thought as he got three fluffy towels from the linen closet and made his way towards the front door of the cathedral. He chuckled to himself as he tossed the towels in the back seat of his jeep and climbed in. Yeah, ranks up there with talking to a sentient being who looks like a seriously overgrown spider with a translucent shell that changes colors for whatever reason, playing chess with (and losing to) a completely different species of sentient being who looks like a five-foot owl that speaks with her mind instead of her voice, and waking up butt-naked in a different dimension next to a woman from yet another sentient alien species who just happens to be the queen of the whole planet. But you have to admit, not very many people get the chance to do stuff like that. That reminds me, I still owe Ra'vel a rematch. Who taught her to play chess that well, anyway? Darian was almost at the end of the cathedral's gravel road when the thought popped back into his conscious mind. He immediately slammed on the brakes hard enough to create a geyser of gravel behind him and skidded to a halt. Wait.... when did I wake up next to Beryl? he thought as a wave of pure ice flooded his veins. He closed his eyes tightly and searched his memory of the only possible time he could have done such a thing. He remembered very little of the events surrounding his brainwashing by Queen Beryl's minions, but he was almost positive that he would remember something like THAT. I don't recall anything like that happening, but that memory had to have come from somewhere, he reasoned as he carefully resumed driving. He frowned as he thought about it. Was it a memory? he asked himself as he tried to remember the exact image that had popped up. It was like a phantom memory, something he thought he remembered doing but couldn't actually remember doing so. This is going to drive me nuts, he thought as he warily watched the road ahead of him. What I do remember is looking up from that stasis cylinder and nearly wetting myself at the sight of being surrounded by so many of Beryl's henchmen.... yeah, maybe that's what I was thinking of. I hope. He blinked as he felt his communicator start to vibrate in his pocket. I'm glad they were able to talk Ami into adding a vibration setting to these things instead of just beeping, he thought as he pulled the communicator out and glanced at the flashing icon. Had a hard time explaining to the guys at work about this 'pager' going off in the middle of the day all the time. He opened the ash tray and propped the communicator up at an angle in it before he opened the channel. "You have interesting timing, Serena," he said, keeping one eye on the tiny screen and the other on the road. The image of Serena blinked. "Oh? What'd I do this time?" Darian chuckled. "Was just about to call you in a few moments." The blonde giggled. "I guess we just know each other too well. Umm, I take it you're busy driving?" He spared the monitor a half-second glance. "Now that you mention it, I'm on my way to your house as we speak. Where's Luna?" "She's here," Serena replied as she cast a puzzled glance off-screen. "I need to pick her up and take her with me on a mission from Dyvach," he said as he changed lanes to pass an ancient truck. "I'm almost at your house now, so tell her to just get ready and I'll explain as we go." "I'll be at the front of the house," Luna said as she poked her head into the monitor's field-of-view. "You said Dyvach asked you to do this?" Darian sighed. "Long story, Luna, but yes." Luna perked her ears up as she heard his jeep. "I'll be with you in a moment," she said as she jumped down from the bed. Serena watched her leap out the window and scramble down the tree before she cast a questioning glance at the monitor. "This isn't something we should alert the others about, is it?" she asked hesitantly. "Hang on," he said as he turned down Serena's street and slowed down. He found Luna perched on top of the mailbox and drove as close to the curb as he could. She easily leapt into the front seat next to him and he quickly turned the jeep around, heading into the heart of downtown Tokyo. "Good evening," Luna said as she sat back and began to preen. "Sorry to drag you out at this hour on such short notice, but I've been told we're running against a clock of sorts," he replied. Luna chuckled. "Well, it's not like I had a hot date tonight." Darian wisely decided to refrain from comment. "Anyway, to answer your question, Serena.... Dyvach said I'm going to be meeting some people he said were going to be guests at the cathedral, and that they were, quote, the rest of the Princess's royal court, end quote." "What?" Luna and Serena said simultaneously. "I'm just the gopher boy on this one. I was told to grab three towels and Luna, and to take them to the west side of the lake," he explained as he drove down the street. "And supposedly we're going to meet up with a few people who probably won't be expecting us, according to Dyvach. I know this sounds like an oddball plan, but after what Whisper said about it being precognitive.... well, worst that could happen is that it's wrong and I get to spend a romantic evening sitting on a pile of towels by the lake with Luna." "Hey!" Serena protested. He chuckled and smiled at the monitor. "I'm only teasing, Serena." Luna shrugged in typical feline fashion. "Well, I wouldn't mind." "Luna!" "Anyway," he said slowly, trying to defuse Serena's momentary fit of jealousy. "Get this.... Dyvach started typing on that mainframe computer and the computer started translating what he typed!" "See, I told you Ami did something to it," Serena said with a smile. "I don't know how she did it, but she got it to start responding to whatever she says to it." Luna's ears perked up. "A talking computer?" "The wonders of denizen technology," Darian said as he stopped at a red light. "Five bucks says if she did it with the cathedral mainframe, she'll have her little toy computer talking inside of two weeks." Serena opened her mouth to say something when she suddenly glanced at something off-screen and her blue eyes widened. "Hi, mom," she said as she quickly closed the connection. Darian just shook his head as he picked up his communicator, closed the channel on his end, and stuffed it back into his pocket. "Sometimes it's easy to forget about her family," he said quietly as the light turned green and he began to accelerate. Luna nodded. "You have no idea how many times I've had to bite my tongue to keep myself from talking to her when other people are around. And having to go 'meow' gets really old after awhile." "Mmmmm," he said to himself as he made a right-turn and found a parking spot. "Well, here we are," he said as he set the brake and turned off the engine. The edge of the lake was only a dozen yards in front of him, separated by a narrow expanse of sidewalk and a field of grass. Off in the distance was the gazebo that the romantics seemed to favor, himself included. Strangely enough, it was empty at the moment even though it was late at night and the weather was seasonally good. The black cat purred as she stretched. "So now what?" He shrugged helplessly. "Your guess is as good as mine right now, Luna. Dyvach only said for me to bring you and the towels here. Didn't say anything about what to do once we arrived." Luna climbed up onto the dashboard and looked out across the surface of the artificial lake. "Well, we could always...." She was interrupted by a bright flash of light high over the water. The flash had barely begun to fade before there was a series of screams as several humanoid figures suddenly appeared and began to plummet towards the surface of the lake. Darian was scrambling out of the jeep when they splashed into the lake, the sound accompanied by a garbled curse that echoed quite clearly across the park. "I'm going to have to have a word with Dyvach," he muttered to himself as he ran to the edge of the railing and looked out at the water. Three heads broke the surface of the lake and immediately began to spit out the lungfuls of water they had accidentally inhaled. One quickly glanced around and gestured towards the nearest edge of the lake, which coincidentally happened to be where Darian was standing. All three appeared to be rather proficient swimmers and covered the distance in a very short time. "Hey, are you alright?" Darian yelled out as he ducked under the railing and held his hand out. A woman with close-cut blonde hair coughed loudly and grasped his hand. "I've <cough> had better <cough> days," she gasped as she hauled herself out of the water. She was wearing a white ballroom gown, and from the way it clung to her body it was obvious there wasn't much else beneath it. Next to them, a woman with dark green hair in a black gown reached up to grab the railing with one hand. Her other hand was holding onto the arm of a woman with aquamarine hair and wearing a matching color gown. With a grunt, she heaved the other woman up to the railing and pulled herself out of the water. "Is everyone alright?" she asked as she glanced at the blonde. "I think so," she replied with a sour look. She suddenly blinked and quickly glanced around. "Wait, where's Myst?" The other woman blinked once before she whirled around and dove back into the water, swimming furiously out to the point where they had been dumped into the lake. She paused to search around before she dove beneath the water. Darian heard a sound behind him and glanced over his shoulder. Luna had managed to take the towels out of the jeep and was in the process of dragging them across the grass towards the group. "Good thinking," he said as he made sure both women were safely out of the water before rushing over to pick up the towels. The woman with aquamarine hair coughed for a moment before she turned her head out to look at the lake. "Where is she?" she asked, casting a glance at her friend. A small geyser of water erupted as the woman burst forth from beneath the surface of the lake holding something in her hands. She quickly swam back towards the edge of the water and fairly heaved the object at the blonde before scrambling out herself. "Here," Darian said as he wrapped a towel around the blonde's shoulders before passing a second one to the woman in aquamarine. "You're a godsend," the blonde replied as she immediately wrapped the towel around the small gray bundle in her lap and began rubbing furiously. "Thank you," Susan said as she accepted a towel from Darian. She began to dry herself before she froze and blinked, staring hard at him. Darian blinked at the unexpected attention and noticed that the woman in aquamarine was staring at him as well. "Umm...." he said slowly. "Prince Darian?" Michelle said incredulously. "What?" Alex said as her head whipped around. Her eyes became impossibly wide as she saw that Michelle was speaking the truth. "Holy...." she started to say, for once unable to finish her usual spate of profanity in surprise situations. "Susan, is that you?" Luna said in amazement as she stared at the familiar figure, her jaw hanging down to her knees. All three women turned their heads to look at the source of the voice and blinked. "Luna!" they chorused in near-unison. "It is you!" Luna said happily as she ran over to Susan. "Indeed," Susan replied as she knelt down and ran her fingers through Luna's dark fur, hardly believing her luck at finding her. Her priorities quickly reasserted themselves and she looked up sharply at the blonde. "Alex, how's Myst doing?" Alex was about to reply when there was an explosion of water from the ball of fur in her lap, followed by a spate of decidedly unhealthy coughing. The blonde glanced down and suddenly scrambled back with a yelp of surprise. Darian blinked and tried to see what startled her. He blinked again as he thought he saw an oozing mass of.... something inside the towel before it rippled slightly and a gray kitten poked her head out. She then proceeded to finish coughing the rest of the water out of her lungs, her red eyes giving Susan a baleful look. "I'd say she'll live," Susan commented to herself as she glanced over at Michelle. "And are you alright?" Michelle nodded sourly as she finished towelling the worst of the water off of her. "I'm fine," she said as she wrung out the towel and made a face at the amount of water that splashed onto the grass. "So, your Highness, long time no see," Alex said as she stood up and began to shake the water out of her hair. Darian blinked. "Uh, I take it I'm supposed to know you?" he said slowly. The three women quit towelling themselves and gave him stunned looks. "You mean you don't remember us?" Susan asked curiously with a faint frown on her face. "It's a very long story," Luna said as she walked over to examine Myst. "He is Darian Chiba, the reincarnation of Prince Darian of Earth." "Reincarnation?" Susan said quietly. She then sighed and nodded. "I see. Forgive me, your Highness. I am Susan Meiou, avatar of Pluto and the Queen's Chancellor. This is Alexis Ten'ou, avatar of Uranus, and Michelle Kaiou, avatar of Neptune," she said, gesturing to each in turn. The blonde growled quietly. "Call me Alex, if you don't mind." "Umm, sure, no problem," Darian replied. "Are you alright?" Luna asked as she began to preen the kitten. Myst jumped back and gave her a wide-eyed look. "What are you doing?" Luna blinked hard, surprised by Myst's unexpected reaction. "I was just going to try to help get that water out of your fur," she said cautiously. "Luna, Myst isn't a lunar cat," Susan explained as she wrung her towel out. "She is a Shinma, a species of demon. She is an ally," she added as she noticed the look on Darian's face. "Demon?" he asked slowly, casting a wary glance at what appeared to be a lunar kitten. Luna also gave her a concerned look, slowly backing away from the Shinma. "Relax, she's on our side, alright," Alex replied as she tossed her towel to Michelle and began to wring the water out of her gown. Michelle frowned lightly, wrapped one towel around her shoulders, and began to towel her friend off with the other one. "Is the Princess alright?" Susan asked Darian as she did her best to dry off her back. The shock of hitting the cold water had caused her to absorb her wings and revert to her human form. A distant part of her mind told her that the same shock also caused her to drop her staff and that it was probably at the bottom of the lake by now. She sent an empathic command toward the staff and felt it unobtrusively blend itself into the temporal flow of Time where she could get it later when she wished. "She's fine," Luna replied as she continued to look over Myst from a distance. "In fact, all of them are fine. Ami, Rei, Leda, and Mina.... even Artemis is here, too." "Artemis?" Alex said as she looked up with a grin. "Aw, that sour old furball is still kicking?" "Luna, I realize that we probably have a great deal to talk about," Susan said as she shook a few water droplets from her hair, "But first we need to find a place we can stay for the night and get some dry clothes." Darian and Luna exchanged looks. "Funny you should mention a place to stay," he said. "I think someone saw you coming and made a few arrangements ahead of time, although I still don't know how the others are going to react to this one. Umm.... hang on a second," he added as he felt his communicator start to vibrate in his pocket again. "Saw us coming?" Susan echoed as she gave Luna a curious look. Luna sighed. "As I said, it's a very long story." Darian frowned as he pulled out his communicator and saw the flashing icon. "So it begins," he muttered as he thumbed the display on. "I take it Dyvach woke you up?" he said as the image appeared on the monitor. "It did indeed," the image of Tolaris replied. "And it also told me that we were going to be having a few guests in the very near future, as well as telling me you were on your way to pick them up." "What the hell is that thing?" Alex asked as she stepped over to Darian to peer at the communicator. "And who are you talking to?" "You could say that," Darian said to Tolaris as he glanced at Alex. "In fact, they're already here. Luna's with me and she knows them." "I see," Tolaris said evenly. "Do the other Sailor Scouts know?" Darian sighed. "We're working on that, but things happened too fast for us to really think this one through." Alex blinked. "You're here to meet us, you bring us towels after we get dumped in the lake, and now you're saying this wasn't planned ahead of time?" "Don't interrupt," Susan admonished her as she wrung her towel out once more and picked up Myst. "Are you alright?" she asked the kitten as she began to dry her off as best she could. "Put me back," Myst grumbled. "Just toss me back in The Dark. At least I knew how to deal with everything in there," she said as she gave up trying to assess the situation and submitted to being rubbed dry. Darian blinked as he felt a cool breeze start to blow past him and turned to look in the general direction of the cathedral. He wasn't at all surprised to see a mass of dark clouds slowly forming in the sky high over the grove of trees that hid the cathedral from sight. "I take it this isn't sitting too well with you?" Darian asked Tolaris. The Dragoon blinked. "You could say that. Why do you ask?" Darian smirked. "Call it a gut instinct. That, and a storm front is rapidly developing over a nondescript part of the forest." Susan frowned as she glanced in the direction Darian was looking at. She noticed the storm clouds forming as well and felt a dark chill slowly creep down her spine. That's not a natural storm, she thought to herself. Darian almost dropped the communicator as Luna leapt up at him, using her claws to grab hold of his shirt and climbing higher until she could see into the communicator. "Commander, we need to make a decision and fast. I know them personally and can attest that they are Sailor Scouts as well. They're also thoroughly soaked, and if we don't get them dried out soon they'll all catch cold." "And Susan is not a nice person to deal with when she's got a headcold," Alex added loudly as she craned her head over Darian's shoulder. Tolaris frowned at the unexpected voice. "Dyvach is being unusually insistent about this one for some reason. And seeing how we've got everything prepared, you might as well bring them over here for the night. There will be a great deal to discuss in the morning, however, and everyone will need to be here." Darian nodded. "Understood, but it might have to wait until afternoon." "They have school, I know," Tolaris replied with a weary sigh. "I'll go wake up Maze and the others so they know what to expect. And Darian? Don't make me regret any of this," he said and closed the channel. "He seems like a happy camper," Alex commented. "Who is he?" Darian sighed. "Tolaris is a good friend of the Sailor Scouts," he said as he pried Luna free from the front of his shirt and held her in a more comfortable position. "He may be a little stiff at times, but you'll get used to him fairly quickly. Come on, everyone in the jeep," he said as he started walking towards the parked vehicle. Alex blinked. "In the what?" "A type of surface vehicle," Susan explained as she followed him, making sure she stayed close to Michelle and Alex. She knew that they hadn't been paying much attention to their immediate surroundings and that the culture shock was only seconds away. "It is powered by a combustion engine and is usually only driven on paved roads, although I believe that 'jeeps' are also capable of being taken off-road as well." "Sounds like fun," the blonde commented as she glanced around, blinked hard, and came to an abrupt halt. Michelle bumped into her and was about to say something when she too looked around and froze at what she was seeing. Darian noticed the girls' state of shock and paused as well. "Is there something wrong?" he asked as he looked around for something amiss. "Sue... what IS this?" Alex said in utter awe and amazement. "Welcome to twentieth-century Tokyo," Susan said as she looked around. "As you can see, their level of technology has improved considerably since you were last on the planet." Darian blinked and exchanged curious glances with Luna. "You mean to say you have no memory of what has happened since the end of the Silver Millenium?" Luna asked cautiously. Susan shook her head sadly. "It is, as you said, a very long story. The short explanation is that we've been dead for the past thousand years and have only now been resurrected." "Whhhaaaaaaat?" Darian said in surprise, his eyes widening. "Hey, are these the electric lights you were talking about?" Alex said as she craned her head up to stare at a street light. "What's that?" Michelle said at the same time, pointing to a car moving slowly in the distance. "It looks like a rover, but it sounds different...." "Culture shock," Susan said with a smile as she gestured to her two companions. "I suspect it will be quite awhile before you hear the end of the questions." Darian frowned as he set Luna on the hood of his jeep and began to clean out the back seats. "They won't be the only one asking questions. Why is it they don't know about any of this, but you do?" he asked Susan. "I'm a time-traveller," she explained. "I mostly travelled between what you would call 200 BC and 2100 AD, and have a fairly extensive knowledge of the various cultures and socities between those times." Luna blinked. "Oh, that's right...." Susan frowned. "Luna, how could you forget something like that?" The black cat sighed heavily. "It's not my fault," she said quietly as she glanced away. "So much gets lost after a thousand years." "Time travel?" Darian said incrediously. "You mean, as in go back in time to see what happened, say, four hundred years ago?" "Cheer up, you'll get used to her talking about it all the time," Alex said as she continued to study the modern-era city. "No pun intended," she added, winking at Michelle and eliciting a groan from her. Everyone blinked as Myst suddenly burst into a fit of sneezes. "Perhaps we should worry about getting dry first," Susan suggested. "The temperature is starting to drop and these towels have absorbed all the water they can, so it would be a good idea to find clean clothes before we do catch colds." "Good idea," Alex replied. "My tits are starting to freeze and having them showing through this gauzy excuse for a dress isn't helping matters. Of all the colors to pick, he just had to choose white," she muttered sourly as she tugged on her gown. The fabric pulled away from her skin easily, but quickly stuck again once she let go. She glanced up and caught Darian's reflexive gaze in her direction. "Problem?" she asked lightly, the corner of her lip curling up into a faint smile. Darian coughed to himself as he turned his attention back to his jeep, feeling the blush creeping up on his face. "Come on, everyone in and make sure to buckle up," he said as he unlocked the doors. "Oooo, what have we here?" Alex said as she examined the jeep. "You can look at it later," Susan chided as she moved past her and sat down in the front passenger seat, still rubbing Myst's damp fur. "Right now, we have to get dried out and warmed up soon." "Yes, mother," Alex said with enough sarcasm to scorch a rock. Susan gave her an odd look. "Unless you want to stay cold and wet." The blonde merely grumbled to herself as she climbed into the jeep and plopped into the back seat. Michelle shook her head as she climbed into the seat next to her and fastened the belt around her waist. "Come on, Luna, unless you want to be a hood ornament," Darian said as he started the engine. He waited until Luna had jumped up from the hood to the rollbar and down into Michelle's lap before he shifted into reverse and began to back out. "So, your Highness," Alex said casually as she glanced around the city, "Where exactly are we going?" Darian frowned lightly as he glanced at her in the rear-view mirror. "There's a small cathedral hidden deep within a remote part of the forest at the edge of the city," he explained as he shifted gears and began to drive down the street. "Luna can tell you more about the past history of it, but right now it's being used as a base by the Sailor Scouts and our allies." Susan glanced over at him. "Allies like Tolaris?" "Exactly." "You have yet to tell us about him," she said. Luna sighed quietly. "They're going to have to know sooner or later," she said to Darian. "And I'd much rather they know now before they meet." "Why do I get the feeling that you're about to tell us something that we probably won't like?" Alex asked slowly as a chill ran down her spine. "You want the short or the long version?" Darian asked. "The short version for now," Susan replied. "Okay, in short, Tolaris and the others are from the Negaverse," Darian said simply. "What?" Alex, Michelle, and Susan said in unison, each voice tempered with a decidedly dangerous edge to it. "You must understand a few things," Luna said quickly. "None of them are old enough to have been a part of the invasion of the Moon Kingdom, and they have all been branded as traitors by the Negaverse for helping us." "Wait, let me get this right," Alex said, her voice laced with steel. "We're on our way to go meet with a few people from the Negaverse? Stop the jeep, I'm getting out," she said as she stood up, holding onto the rollbar for support. "Hey, sit down!" Darian yelped as he took his foot off the gas and slowly applied the brakes. "You're crazy if you think I'm going to have anything to do with those bastards," the blonde fumed, her eyes narrowed. "They destroyed our kingdom, slaughtered thousands of innocents...." "Sit down, Alex," Susan said quietly as she stared at the road ahead. Alex shot her a dark look. "Sue, I'd think that you of all people...." "SIT DOWN!" The blonde blinked hard and slowly sat down, giving Michelle an uncertain look in the process. Michelle was curled up in the seat and holding Luna tight against her. Her skin was unusually pale and she was staring off into space, listening to her surroundings but not seeing. "Mich, are you alright?" Alex asked as she leaned forward and laid her hand on Michelle's arm. Her eyes went wide as she felt how dangerously cold Michelle's skin had become. "Cold...." Michelle replied softly, trying not to shiver. "Don't misunderstand me, Alex," Susan said, her voice much calmer than before her momentary outburst. "I'm not looking forward to this anymore than you are. But if we don't get warmed up soon, we'll have a bigger problem on our hands than worries about the Negaverse." Alex said nothing as she leaned back, keeping a wary eye on Michelle and suddenly aware of the chill that was starting to creep into her bones. No one else said anything either, and the only sound heard for quite some time was the loud roaring of the jeep's engine as it accelerated. -------------------------------------------------------------------- "Move," Whisper growled as she stormed down the hallway holding an armful of towels. Dyvach was following her closely, doing its best to keep a grip on the pile of clothes stacked on top of it's carapace. Maze blinked and quickly stepped out of her way. "What exactly is going on here?" he asked, more than slightly confused by the telepath's sudden burst of activity. She didn't slow her pace for an instant as she made for the door. "To be honest with you, Lieutenant, you probably know just as much as I do. I just know that we have three very wet visitors arriving in a few moments, and with the temperature dropping outside, our first concern should be about their welfare. We can ask them questions once they're not in any danger of getting hypothermia or worse." "Need any help?" he asked, not being one to get in the way of a purely humanitarian concern. Whisper paused for half a second to think. "Actually, yes.... go make sure the showers in the main hall and the large spare room are cleared out. They're going to need to warm up, and the fastest way for that is with a hot shower." "Yes, ma'am," Maze replied as he turned around and headed back down the residential hallway. <Have clothing/towels sufficient?> a voice gently intruded into her mind as she came to the main foyer of the cathedral. <If we don't, we can always find more> she telepathed back to Ra'vel as she opened the door. <Where are you?> <Tolaris feel avian/weaver presence unwise, meet when settled> Whisper stopped before going outside, suddenly reminded of the fact that the only humans to ever have met an avian like Ra'vel were the Sailor Scouts. "Dyvach, set the clothes down here and go back to your nest," she said with a quiet sigh. It would have blinked if it had eyelids. Instead, it froze in mid-motion and gave her a perplexed chime, it's carapace turning a rather pretty shade of lavender. "Odds are they've never seen a weaver before," she explained. "We should spare them the culture shock until they're somewhat settled in first." She blinked as Dyvach began to make a noise that sounded like a piece of concrete rapidly being drawn across rusted piano strings. It took her a moment to realize that it was actually laughing out loud. It carefully set the pile of clothing down on the inside of the foyer and headed towards the staircase, it's carapace a blotchy mix of red, light blue, and an incandescent shade of green. "It's not going to throw up, is it?" Tolaris asked with concern as he poked his head in the open doorway and glanced at the retreating weaver. He knew that weavers often lost control of the coloring of their crystal shells in certain situations, the two most notable being when laying eggs and as a precursor to being forced to evacuate their stomachs. Whisper shook her head. "Dyvach found the idea of culture shocking our guests to be.... amusing." "Just as long as he doesn't throw up again," Tolaris replied with a very sour expression on his face. He caught Whisper's mildly curious look and shook his head. "Bear in mind his stomach acids are strong enough to break down virtually any type of matter into its constituent elemental particles." The telepath frowned as she sorted through her limited knowledge of basic chemistry and blinked at the results. "Umm, how bad was it?" "It was outside at the time, so didn't do any serious damage.... although it did dissolve through a good fifteen feet of solid rock before the acids and enzymes neutralized themselves," Tolaris explained. "Of course, having Dyvach belch chlorine gas for a few minutes afterwards didn't quite help." Maze blinked hard as he crossed the floor from the residential wing to the foyer. "We have a chlorine gas leak?" he asked with a small note of alarm in his voice. "Of course not," Tolaris replied. He waited until Maze was finished sighing with relief before he continued. "The only gas we have stored here is the reactor coolant. I was just telling the Captain about the hazards when a weaver has to throw up." "Yeech," Maze said as he cast a reflexive glance towards the stairwell. "Umm, this is just a topic of conversation and not a concern, right?" Whisper nodded. "I doubt we'd be standing here idle if there was a puddle of concentrated acid around." The conversation came to a halt as the sound of an engine reached their ears, shortly followed by the sounds of Darian's jeep slowly driving down the stretch of packed gravel that served as the 'road' in and out of the secluded cathedral. Whisper took one look at the group huddled in the jeep and frowned. "Are the showers ready, Lieutenant?" she said as she started forward, even before the jeep came to a halt. "Perfectly," Maze replied as he glanced over the newcomers. "You know," he said quietly to Tolaris as the women's expressions changed as they saw the denizens, "I have a feeling this might not be too pleasant. The one with the green hair is giving me chills already." "As you were, Lieutenant," Tolaris said quietly. His voice was carefully neutral but contained an edge of command to it. Maze shot him a brief glance but didn't say anything further. "They're on our side," Darian cautioned quietly as he set the brake and turned off the engine. Susan unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door, still keeping a careful grip on Myst. "With all due respect, your Highness, I will be the judge of that," she replied in a soft tone that could only be described as glacial. Whisper didn't slow her pace until she was standing next to the jeep. "My name is Whisper, and I think we can skip the formalities until you're all dry," she said as she held out a towel to Susan. Susan regarded her very carefully before slowly reaching out. "Susan Meiou. Thank you," she added neutrally as she took the offered towel. She then began to rub Myst with it while still keeping a very wary eye on Whisper. "Should I ask why you're all wet?" Whisper carefully asked as she moved over to where Alex and Michelle were climbing out of the back of the jeep. "Long story," Alex muttered sourly as she gave the telepath a look that was none too friendly. Whisper frowned slightly as the look and glanced over her shoulder to find Susan wearing a similar expression of distrust. "You three don't trust me, do you?" the telepath asked slowly as she extended a towel to the blonde. "You're from the Negaverse, aren't you?" Alex said with an edge to her voice. "I think that speaks for itself." "That's enough, Alex," Susan said, her own voice turning to steel. Alex gritted her teeth for a moment before she silently blew her breath out and took the towel from Whisper. Whisper turned and held out a towel to Michelle. "And what do you...." she said before her voice failed her. Darian had only twice before seen the color drain from a person's face that fast, and both times involved an obviously life-threatening situation. "Captain...." he said as he stepped forward and took her arm. The telepath blinked hard, her gaze fastened on Michelle's face and her world in total chaos. "S'Rel?" she breathed softly before her disciplined mind reoriented itself and jarred her back into reality. "No, that's.... that's not possible." She cleared her throat and continued. "I'm sorry, I just.... for a moment I thought you were someone I once knew." Darian glanced between the two of them and was struck with the realization that there seemed to be a more than faint suggestion of resemblance. Whisper's hair was several shades lighter than Michelle's and she was about three inches taller, but they both bore almost identical builds and seemingly similar cheekbones. He glanced up at Susan and saw that he wasn't the only one to have noticed the similarities. "Something wrong, Captain?" Tolaris asked as he reached the group with Maze right behind him. They had seen the look on Whisper's face and decided it would be best to resolve everything on the spot. Whisper shook her head. "Just a case of mistaken identity. This is Tolaris and Maze," she said as she introduced the Dragoons. "Susan Meiou," Susan replied with a faint edge of distrust to her voice. "This is Myst, and they are Alex Ten'ou and Michelle Kaiou." "I take it you're part of the military?" Alex said flatly as she passed her towel to Michelle and glared at the denizens. "Yes, we are," Whisper replied as she offered Alex another dry towel. She waited until the blonde grudingly accepted it before continuing. "I am the captain of the Psi-Corp, Tolaris is the commander of the Dragoon Legion, and Maze is a Dragoon lieutenant. At least, that's what we were before we became exiles here on Earth." Susan frowned. "Exiled for what?" Tolaris sighed softly to himself. "I fell in love with Sailor Mercury and betrayed the throne rather than destroying both her and Sailor Moon. The rest of the denizens here, and you'll meet Ra'vel and Dyvach later, are my friends who helped me and the Sailor Scouts when we had to get a few things from the Negaverse." Maze grunted. "What are friends for?" he said dryly. "Susan...." Luna said quietly from Michelle's arms, "I've known Tolaris for some time now, and he is a very trustworthy ally. I understand how you feel about the Negaverse because of the attack on the kingdom. I have to admit with a small amount of shame that it took me far longer to trust him than the rest of the Scouts because, unlike them, I retained my memories of that day." Susan frowned slightly as she first looked at Luna, then at Michelle and Alex. She knew on an intellectual level that she could trust Luna's judgement implicitly, but still had deep reservations engraved into her heart. She had just begun a little soul-searching when her thoughts were interrupted by a sneeze from Michelle. "That's it, everyone inside," Whisper growled. Susan blinked at the tone in her voice and glanced up in time to catch the expression of surprise on Tolaris's face. She then turned her attention to her human companions and instantly disliked the expression of discomfort on Michelle's face. "I suggest we do as she says," Susan said to Alex and Michelle. "Susan...." Alex said in a low tone, still regarding the denizens with open suspicion. "I assure you there will be a discussion about this, Alex. Later," she added in a tone that clearly indicated the current discussion was over. "This way," Tolaris said politely as he started walking towards the front door of the cathedral. Susan followed him without hesitation but at a rather noticable distance, pausing only long enough to cast a glance at Alex. Alex frowned and was about to stand her ground when Michelle took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. She returned the gesture with a heavy sigh and followed Susan towards the cathedral, trying to keep a close eye on the three denizens. Whisper immediately started walking towards the cathedral, but Maze hung back for a moment to talk to Darian. "So what do you think?" he asked in a quiet tone. Darian sighed quietly and leaned against his jeep. "I think we're going to have our work cut out for us. I don't know them, but I think Michelle takes most of her cues from Alex, and Alex reminds me of Leda with PMS. Susan, on the other hand, seems to have a fairly level head and seems to be the type who would at least listen to what the other guy has to say before making up her mind. I'd be wary of her, though. I'll admit that I get nervous when either Rei or Leda truly loses their temper, even Ami to some degree, but there is something about Susan that seriously scares me, and I don't know what." Maze just chuckled. "Tolaris likes a diplomatic challenge, but you won't ever hear him admit it." <Will you two get in here?> a voice blasted into their minds. Maze winced. "Yes, ma'am," he muttered as he and Darian quickly caught up to the group now standing in the foyer of the cathedral. "You didn't have to yell, Captain," he said as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him. "If you would cooperate, I wouldn't have to," Whisper replied with a mild look before turning her attention back to Susan. "We've cleared out two rooms for you to use. We're short on space, so two of you will have to share one of the large rooms." Susan almost smiled. "I don't think that will be a problem at all." "You can use the shower in the large bedroom and the one in the hall bathroom to warm up," the telepath explained as she picked up the bundle of clothing that Dyvach had left behind. "We also have some clean clothes you can pick through. We weren't sure about sizes or anything, so we tried to make a few guesses." "We're soaked to our panties, and she wants us to take a shower?" Alex grumbled softly to Michelle. "It's for the heat," Susan said without turning around as she quickly sorted through the clothing. "That would be the fastest way to warm yourselves up. You can worry about getting dry later. Here," she added as she passed a set of dry towels and some clothing to Alex. "Thanks, I think," Alex said as she glanced at the clothing. "Umm, does anyone have a pair of sweatpants they can loan me until tomorrow?" "Not a problem," Darian replied. "The residential wing is this way," Whisper said as she guided the group down the hallway. "The large bedroom I was talking about is the second door on your left, the hall bathroom is the third on the left, and the other small bedroom is the last door on the right." "Thank you," Susan replied before she turned to Michelle. "I want you in that shower before your body temperature drops any more. Warm, not hot, and don't worry about getting waterlogged." Michelle nodded and gently set Luna on the floor before she stepped into the bedroom, looking around for a moment before spotting the bathroom door at the far end. She gave Alex a brief kiss before she took a set of towels and clothing from her and quickly made her way into the bathroom. "Alex, you take the hall bathroom, and don't argue with me," Susan said, forestalling the expected protest. "Your body temperature is just as low, and I don't need you getting hypothermia. I'll bring you the sweatpants in a few moments. Now move." "Yes, mother," Alex said sourly as she moved past her and walked into the bathroom. "Whoa, who's the decorator?" she said to no one in particular before she closed the door behind her. Susan waited until she heard the vent fan start up before she turned her attention to the denizens. "While they're busy, we need to have a talk." Luna frowned. "I think it would be best if we were to wait until the three of you are warm and dry first." "I'm significantly less vulnerable to illnesses like pneumonia than they are," Susan said with a slight edge to her voice. "And what I'd like to talk about isn't something I wish them to hear just yet." "Very well then," Tolaris said as he clasped his hands in front of him. "I sense an interrogation as opposed to a conversation, but I don't think I can blame you given the circumstances." Susan paused for a moment as she regarded him very carefully. "I'm aware of the extreme length of the denizen lifespan," she said slowly. "Were any of you involved in the invasion upon our kingdom?" Tolaris blinked. "No. I wasn't born until almost three hundred years after that, and I'm older than anyone else here." Whisper cleared her throat. "I beg your pardon, Commander, but I've got almost a full century over you." The dragoon flushed a light shade of gray. "My apologies. It's not easy to keep track of everyone's age after a few hundred years." "So how old do I look?" the telepath asked carefully. Tolaris shrugged. "Truthfully? Low-end six hundred." "Thank you." Susan gave Tolaris a slightly quizzical look. "May I ask your exact age?" "Let me think for a moment," he said as he did a bit of mental math. "I think I'm seven hundred and twenty-five, but I've lost track of the exact date in the Negaverse." Susan blinked in surprise for a moment before regaining her composure. "I see...." she said slowly. "I am also aware of the 'chaos factor' in the denizen biological makeup. May I ask how that has affected each of you?" Tolaris gave her an odd look. "Excuse me for a moment, but for a human from the Moon Kingdom, you seem to know an awful lot about denizens." "You're not the first denizen I've held a discussion with that didn't involve a demand for my surrender," she replied flatly. She cast a glance at Darian before she added, "And I'm not fully human." Everyone blinked at her statement. Tolaris gently cleared his throat and gave Susan a slightly wary look. "That denizen you had a talk with.... I don't suppose he happened to have been a Dragoon Captain named Raijen, would he?" Susan stepped back as if she had been slammed in the gut with a hammer. "What? How...." she said, at a momentary loss for words. "Like everything else that's happened in the past hour or so, it's a long story," Maze said dryly. Susan struggled to regain her composure and looked at Darian again. "Then I take it that you know...." "...That Serena's father was a denizen," Darian finished for her. "Yes, we made that discovery not too long ago." Tolaris reached a decision and placed a hand on Susan's shoulder, knowing full well that he was risking serious bodily harm by doing so. "Susan, listen to me," he said softly, ignoring the sudden flash of anger in her eyes. "I am a Dragoon like Raijen. I once commanded the legion as he once did, and I have done my best to uphold the same moral values that he once taught. Yes, some of the legion attacked the Moon Kingdom, but had they known that they would be fighting Raijen's consort and daughter, they would have refused." "I was with them when they discovered Serena's lineage," Maze said. "When we met Raijen's spirit and the spirit of Queen Serenity told him that he had a daughter, I wasn't sure who was going to have a stroke first, Tolaris or the Captain. And to be honest, I wasn't feeling too good myself. What you don't realize is that we're not just special intelligence soldiers, but students of Raijen's beliefs." Tolaris nodded and removed his hand from Susan's shoulder. "And one of his core beliefs is loyalty. Not just to the throne, but to the legion as a whole and to each other. When the legion was first founded, most of those who volunteered were without living blood ties. Raijen forged the legion into a sort of family for them, and in doing so became a legend to those who served with him. We would extend that sense of trust and loyalty to his daughter. Despite the fact that even today most Dragoons are single and few with living relatives, we still hold such family values in the highest regard. And so, until she proves unworthy of loyalty either through word or deed, Serena's words would be regarded as Raijen's and acted upon accordingly by any Dragoon." "Provided the legion is aware of her bloodline," Whisper said quietly. "K'tal knows," Tolaris replied. "Don't ask me how he found out, but he asked me about it before I could bring it up. He's being very careful about how he lets that information out, since he doesn't want to tip off Rune and call the legion's loyalty to the throne into question." Susan said nothing as she glanced down at Myst, still absently stroking her damp fur. "I think I understand a few things now," she said, then paused as she heard a rather delicate chiming sound coming down the hall. She saw the looks of horror cross the denizens' faces and tensed up, unsure of what was going to happen next. She was preparing herself for a dimensional teleport when the source of the chiming came into view and she blinked hard. "You have bad timing," Tolaris said wearily as he saw Susan's expression. "I told you to wait for awhile before coming up here." Dyvach shrugged as it stepped past him, carrying a pair of sweatpants and chiming softly to itself. Susan felt Myst's claws digging into her arms in shock and she suddenly wasn't feeling too stable either. "What.... are you?" she asked slowly, unsure if the crystal spider could understand her. She had met life-forms that were far more hideous that it, but wasn't sure how dangerous it was. "Susan, this is Dyvach. Dyvach is one of the more sentient weavers that live in the Negaverse," Tolaris explained. "It can understand us quite well, although my understanding of its native language is pathetic at best." "Hello," Susan said cautiously. Dyvach chimed back a greeting and held up the sweatpants to her, adding a series of chimes as it did so. "Ahh.... I think those are the sweatpants Darian said Alex could borrow," Tolaris said after a doing a quick mental translation. "I'm not quite sure where he said he got them from, though." "Hopefully from the dryer in the lower level," Darian said. "Thank you," Susan said as she took the offered sweatpants with only a slight hesitation. "You seem to be taking this well," Darian observed. "You should have seen the others freak out when they first met it." Susan regarded the weaver carefully. "I would think that after going through as much as I have, it would take more than meeting a sentient spider to seriously upset me. Disturb, yes, but not truly upset." The door behind her suddenly opened and Alex stuck her head out, holding a very large towel against her body. "Oh, there you are.... cool, you got it," she said without preamble as she snatched the sweatpants out of Susan's grip. "Thanks, Sue," she said and closed the door. "Patience is not her strong suit," Susan said lightly. "We've noticed," Maze replied dryly. The door slowly opened and Alex stuck her head out again, the towel still wrapped around her. She looked down at Dyvach and blinked. "Umm, Sue, I have a question for you," she said slowly. "You're not hallucinating," Susan said. Alex blinked hard. "That's what I was afraid of," she said as her face turned a sickly shade of white. "Is it okay to panic now?" "Go ahead and get dressed and I'll introduce you," Susan replied with a faint smile on her lips. "Right...." Alex said uncertainly as she closed the door again. "How about if we get the heart attack over with and get Ra'vel over here?" Maze suggested as he leaned against the wall. "After meeting Dyvach, someone like her shouldn't be too difficult to comprehend." Tolaris gave Susan an appraising look for a moment and she raised an eyebrow at him. He shrugged and turned to Whisper. "Might as well ask her to join us." He turned back to Susan and added, "Be warned, however, she will probably decide to teleport in." Susan almost smiled. "Now sudden appearances and disappearances are something I'm definitely used to." As if on cue, Ra'vel suddenly winked into existence a few feet away from Whisper. She blinked when she saw Susan and chirped a greeting at her. "This is Dragoon Lieutenant Ra'vel," Tolaris said. Susan frowned. "I think I've met your species before," she said with a slight edge to her voice. "The term is avian, correct?" <Term translation correct> Ra'vel's voice echoed inside Susan's mind. <Where meet avian before?> Darian just sighed quietly as he saw Susan's eyes widen unexpectedly. "Both Ra'vel and Whisper are telepathic," he said carefully. "They can't read your mind from a distance, but they can project their thoughts." "I see," Susan said flatly. The bathroom door opened and Alex stuck her head out, this time wearing a loose-fitting blouse and the pair of sweatpants. "Okay, Sue, I think I'm prepared for.... WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" she yelped as she saw Ra'vel. "Ladies, please calm down," Tolaris said with a weary sigh. "Alex, this is Dyvach," Susan said evenly as she gestured to the weaver. "And this is Ra'vel. Now if you don't mind, I'm still a little wet and would like to warm up in the shower." "W-Wait, wait a minute," Alex stammered as she struggled to get a grip on the present situation. "They're both intelligent and can understand what you say, so be nice," Susan said as she stepped past her and into the bathroom, still holding Myst in her arms. "I'll be out in a few minutes, and both Darian and Luna are right here so there's no need to panic," she said and closed the door behind her. Alex blinked, glanced at the closed door, then looked at both Ra'vel and Dyvach. "Oh, crap, this is definitely not a good day..." she muttered. Everyone jumped as a truly piercing scream erupted from behind the group. They all whirled around to find Michelle standing in the doorway of the large bedroom, dressed in a light-colored blouse and skirt. Her eyes were nearly triple their usual diameter and she was staring at Dyvach, her skin as white as a sheet and looking like she was only moments away from either cardiac arrest or fainting. "I know what you mean, love, but don't do that again," Alex called out to her as she rubbed the inside of her ear. "Sue says everything's cool and we're just meeting the rest of them." "But.... t-that.... that's a SPIDER...!" Michelle whimpered as she edged away. "A BIG spider...!" Alex looked down at Dyvach and gulped. "Yeah, I know. His name's Dyvach, and from what I understand, he's not only smart but kinda friendly," she said as she reached down and hesitantly patted it's carapace. Darian gave the blonde a concerned look. He could see that her hand was visibly shaking as she touched the weaver, and knew that she was putting on a show in an effort to calm Michelle down. Dyvach made a cooing noise as it was patted, the crystalline shell turning a soft green color where she touched it. Alex wasn't prepared for the color change and had to bite her tongue to stifle a yelp of surprise, forcing a weak smile on her lips instead. "A VERY BIG spider...." Michelle whimpered, still looking deathly pale. Alex sighed and walked towards her. "I know you don't like spiders, Mich, and quite frankly I'm not too keen on the idea of one the size of a small pony either, but you need to calm down," she said as she took her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. "Hell, I need to calm down, but if Sue's not throwing a bitch-fit about it, then I guess it can't be all that bad." Michelle blinked and cast a nervous glance at Ra'vel. "And w-what.... I mean, who are you?" she hesitantly asked the avian. "That's Ra'vel," Alex said as Ra'vel chirped a greeting at her. "I still say Ami had the best reaction," Darian said to Luna. "Granted she didn't scream like that, but I still wish I had a picture of the expression on her face." Luna gave him a sour expression as she flicked her ears back. "I don't think I've heard Serena scream like that," she muttered. Maze chuckled. "That was actually a pretty good scream for a human," he said with a mischievous grin. "You should hear Ra'vel when she gets hyper. Well, maybe you shouldn't," he added as he thought about it. "The last time I heard her scream, it was in the in the ultra-sound range and it shattered the windows for three of your city blocks." Ra'vel shot him a dark look and made a distateful chirping noise to herself. Whisper walked over to Michelle and Alex. "Are you going to be alright?" she asked Michelle. "I know this is a major shock for you both, but I assure you that we aren't your enemies." She noticed that Alex's expression hardened when she said that, but Michelle's expression didn't change. "Do you think you can handle another surprise?" "Like what?" Alex said flatly as she edged herself in front of Michelle. "Ra'vel and I are telepathic, which means we can speak directly to your minds," Whisper explained slowly. "We can't read your thoughts without making a direct link, so you don't have to worry about any sort of intrusions." Alex frowned and Michelle blinked. "Oh, lovely," Alex grumbled. "Just what we need to think about. I hope you're telling us this for a reason." Whisper ignored the burning sensation on the back of her neck caused by Tolaris staring at her. "Yes, I am. I thought it would be wise to tell you about it now instead of having you find out about it later and worry if we've been reading your mind." "How do we know you're not doing it now?" Alex said. <I can project my thoughts, but I assure you I can't read thoughts without a telepathic link> Whisper's soft voice echoed in their minds. <If you like, you can ask the other Sailor Scouts about it> "Whoa...." Alex said as she took a step back. Darian chuckled. "Yeah, I remember being taken aback the first time she spoke to my mind like that. I heard what she said to you, by the way, and she usually doesn't broadcast openly like that." "Have pity on the psi-mutes," Tolaris said dryly. Whisper gave the Dragoon an amused look. "Commander Tolaris's brain is defective," she explained to Alex and Michelle with a grin. "He not only can't hear me, but he's totally immune to all mental forms of psionics." "So sorry, Captain," Tolaris replied, his voice tinged with frost. Michelle blinked and looked around. "Did anyone just see a flash?" There was a moment of silence as everyone looked around. "I don't think anyone did," Alex said carefully. "At least I didn't see anything." Dyvach made a single multi-harmonic chime and pointed at the bathroom door. Tolaris frowned at the translation of the weaver's words. "Dyvach said it saw a flash coming from inside the bathroom." Alex just sighed. "If that's the case, then it was probably Susan doing her time-travel stunt again." She noticed the identical blank looks she was getting from the denizens and shrugged. "She's the Guardian of Time and has the ability to move back and forth among the temporal flow," she explained. "You'd need to ask her about it as I barely understand it myself, but I know that it creates a flash of light everytime she uses that power." "That would explain what we saw over the lake," Darian said to Luna. "Time travel...." Whisper said slowly as she narrowed her eyes. "Ra'vel, do you remember those strange bursts of energy you said you were picking up on occasion awhile ago? Around the time Leda was in the Negaverse?" Ra'vel nodded slowly, then suddenly fluffed her feathers and hissed as a dull flash of light emerged from under the bathroom door. The door opened a few moments later and Susan stepped out, dressed in a rather nice blouse and skirt. She was holding her staff in one hand and Myst was carefully perched on her shoulder, looking decidedly drier than before. "Where'd you get that?" Maze asked with a frown as he stared at the staff. "I'll explain in a moment," she said as she turned to Alex and Michelle. "I just spent three days doing a little observation of the interaction between the Sailor Scouts and the denizens. Luna's right, they're not only trustworthy allies but good friends. And a little bit more in some cases," she added, giving Tolaris and Maze a meaningful look. "He started it," Maze protested as he pointed at Tolaris while everyone else blinked hard at the sudden declaration. "Lieutenant," Tolaris said reprovingly. "Hey, if you and Ami hadn't hit it off, Mina and I would never have met under favorable circumstances, if at all," Maze explained with a shrug. "Sue, what are we going to do with you?" Alex said as she buried her face in her hands and leaned against Michelle. "One minute you're saying they're more dangerous than snakes, and the next you're saying they're our pals. Hey, wait a sec," she said as she lifted her head up and glared at her. "Have you been smoking those herbs again?" "I assure you I have not," Susan replied with an edge to her voice. <Everybody hush up for a moment,> Whisper's voice echoed through their minds loud enough to make them all wince. "Must you yell?" Maze muttered as he massaged his temples. Whisper ignored him. "Now that I have your attention, let's try to get a few things clarified. Susan, can you explain what you just said?" Susan nodded and leaned her staff against the wall. "As the avatar of the Underworld, I am responsible for guarding the portal to Time. As such, I can travel through time at will. From your standpoint, I was in the bathroom for only a few minutes, but from my perspective I spent three days in the past observing you and the Sailor Scouts." Dyvach made a series of simple chimes and Susan nodded. "Yes, I know. Dyvach first met me months ago when I arrived in that time period. I'll spare you the details of that meeting, but I gave him a small gem to hold onto for awhile that would record what happened around it." Ra'vel suddenly squawked and Whisper blinked. "So that's what that was," she said as she turned to Tolaris. "Do you remember when you told us about your experiences during the Mintaka campaign?" Tolaris grunted and nodded. "Yes, I remember that gem now." He turned and gave Susan an odd look. "And I also remember finding a strand of dark green hair in the hallway that evening. Now I know where they both came from." Susan smiled and ran her fingers through her long, dark green hair. "I had snagged the painting by accident, but I didn't think I had left anything behind. Anyway, I then returned to my keep and spent quite some time viewing the images in the gem. It's one thing for a trusted friend like Luna to say you're trustworthy, but it's another to actually see how you act around the Princess and the others." Alex sighed. "That's nice, Sue, but can we get to the point?" Susan resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "The point," she said slowly, "Is that that we are in no danger whatsoever. I haven't been able to reach a decision on the trust issue from a personal standpoint, but that is something we have time to deal with. They are, for the most part, as benign as they claim to be." Maze shrugged. "Thank you, I think." "Maybe you should save your thanks until after I've had a chance to talk to Mina about you," Susan suggested evenly, then turned to Tolaris. "And you and I need to sit down in the very near future and have a long talk about Ami's condition." Michelle frowned. "Did something happen to Ami?" "Well...." Susan said hesitantly. "I can't really say if something has happened or not. You must realize that they, like Darian, are reincarnations of past individuals. They may look like them, probably almost all the way down to the genetic level, but they have been raised in this environment and would of course behave differently. Rei, for instance, retains her fascination with the spiritual but has pursued it with a startling degree of vehemence, and I don't know where Leda picked up her penchant for cooking." "She's a very good cook, by the way," Maze added and the rest of the denizens nodded in agreement. "Not just with human foods, but with denizen dishes as well." Alex sighed and glanced at Michelle. She received a rather reluctant nod and the blonde grumbled something inaudible to herself. "Thanks a lot, you just had to mention food," she said. Darian chuckled. "That's easily solved. Leda usually has two or three different things pre-cooked and stored in the refrigerator to use as a rather large snack. What would you like?" "Right now? Probably anything," Alex admitted and Michelle nodded. "Ooo, be careful when you say that," Darian cautioned her. "I once saw Ra'vel trying to eat something that was desperately trying to ooze out of the bowl as she ate it. I don't think we have any of that left, but I do know we have a few rather.... unique denizen foodstuffs stored here." "Ick...." Michelle said as she turned pale. <Fresh ne'akh good tasting> the avian telepathed with a shrug. Alex grunted. "I don't mind coffee strong enough to crawl out of the cup, but I'll pass on anything that moves on its own. Got any steak?" Whisper shrugged. "I think we still have a few oratu steaks that could be cooked easily enough. And I know everyone likes the taste of that." Alex glanced at Susan and the succubus shrugged. "Do I even want to ask what an oratu is?" Alex asked cautiously. "Denizen idea of a cow," Darian replied. "I've never seen one, but they do taste pretty good. And unlike some things Maze has been known to eat, oratu is perfectly harmless to humans." Maze made a face. "I hope you're referring to Mina's cooking and not to what she was supposed to have been cooking," he muttered. Michelle giggled and a small smile crossed Susan's face. "Perhaps some things don't change after all," she observed. "I just hope her cooking skills haven't gotten worse." "Not sure it can get any worse," Darian muttered. "So who's turn is it to cook?" Maze asked, ignoring Darian's comment while privately agreeing with his assessment. "It's still technically Rei's turn, but seeing how she's not here, I guess I can volunteer for it," Whisper said as she looked at Michelle and Alex. "But I might need a little help from you two. I usually don't cook oratu steaks suited to human tastes, so I'll need someone to tell me if I'm using the right amounts of spice." Darian chuckled. "That might not be a bad idea. I don't think you've ever eaten any denizen foods before, but for the most part they tend to be very bland. That's not to say they lack flavor," he added hastily as Whisper gave him a mild look. "It's just that denizen digestive systems aren't able to handle a lot of spice." "Ahh, I see," Alex said as Michelle nodded. "So what does oratu taste like without the spices?" The denizens all looked at Darian as he flushed. "Well.... I don't know if there are exact words for it, but it does kinda beg for a bottle of A-1 or something," he said carefully. "Leda could probably tell you better." "You mean like comparing ma'cha to dirty dishwater and v'etu to shredded cardboard?" Tolaris said dryly. "Something like that," Darian said with a faint blush. Alex chuckled. "Yeah, we always knew Leda would make a great diplomat." "That's odd, we used to say the same about you," Susan observed as she reached up and scratched Myst's ear. Michelle giggled and Alex shot her a dark look. "Keep it up and you'll be sleeping alone tonight," she growled softly at her. "Maybe we should worry about those steaks first," Whisper said carefully as Michelle blinked and gave the blonde a slightly hurt look. "Michelle, how good are you at cooking?" Michelle blinked again. "I'm not all that good, but we should be okay as long as nothing fancy needs to be done." Whisper nodded. "Fair enough. Maze, go see if you can find something suitable in the cellar. Nothing too strong, and make sure it's pale." "Not a problem," Maze replied as he started walking towards the stairwell at the other end of the cathedral. "Now if you two will come with me, we'll get those steaks started and let Tolaris and Susan finish their meeting of the minds," Whisper said as she cast a sidelong glance at Tolaris before heading towards the kitchen. Michelle and Alex exchanged looks before the blonde shrugged and they both began to follow the telepath. Ra'vel made a curious chirping noise as she moved over to Susan's side to get a better look at Myst. The Shinma's fur started to spike at the sudden scrutiny and Susan winced as she felt her claws digging into her shoulders. "Watch the claws," she admonished the kitten. "Sorry," Myst replied as she tried relaxing, still keeping a very wary eye on Ra'vel. "I wasn't sure if you could talk or not," Tolaris observed. "I know you looked like a lunar cat, but wasn't sure if they could talk as kittens." "Unfortunately, kittens can," Luna grumbled quietly to herself. "And just like human children, learning can be a rather.... taxing experience." Myst gave him a resigned look. "I'm not a lunar cat." "She's a type of demon called Shinma," Susan explained. "I met her when I awoke in The Dark and took her with us when we escaped here." Tolaris and Ra'vel exchanged slightly concerned looks and the avian made a very quiet chirping noise. Tolaris shrugged and turned back to Susan. "I'm not going to pretend to understand any of that," he admitted. "Perhaps you can explain it to me at another time." Myst blinked and gave Ra'vel a strange look as she heard the avian's telepathic voice inside her mind. "If you don't mind, I'll stay with Susan for the time being," she said slowly. Ra'vel shrugged and gave Luna a questioning look, telepathically asking her the same question she had asked Myst. Luna shook her head. "Usually I'd be delighted to, Ra'vel, but I think it would be best if I too remained with Susan for the present. There is much we have to talk about, and I suspect a lot will be said before we go to bed." Ra'vel shrugged again and chirped something at Tolaris before she fluffed her feathers and teleported out of the room. "She's still tired from yesterday," Tolaris explained. "She said to give you her regards and she hopes that we can reach an understanding tomorrow." Susan nodded. "Hopefully, but I suspect tomorrow is going to be more of a surprise to everyone than expected. How long do you think it will take for those steaks to be cooked?" "Half an hour at most," Tolaris replied. She nodded again. "Well then, I suppose that gives us enough time to answer a few more questions. You said the last bedroom was one we could use?" "Yes, the last one on the right," Tolaris replied as he gestured towards the end of the hall. "Dyvach already set it up so it can be used tonight." "If I may ask, how did you know we were coming?" she asked as she started walking down the hall. "Dyvach apparently has a precognitive sense of things, but from what it tried to tell me, it's not entirely able to differentiate between the present and the immediate future," the Dragoon explained as he fell in step beside her. "Your arrival just happened to be one of those times it could tell." "It?" Susan echoed. "Weavers don't develop gender until the later stages of their lives," he said with a shrug. "A curious aspect of their biology, but it's nothing to be worried about." Susan reached the bedroom door and opened it. The room was empty save for a somewhat large bed, a chair, and a small desk. "Goodness, and this is your idea of a small room?" she said with mild surprise. Darian chuckled. "You should see the large ones. Twice the space, the bed is twice as big, and they even have their own bathrooms." "Who designed this?" she asked as she stepped into the room and set Myst down on the desk. She walked over to the closet and opened the doors, making a quick estimation of its size. She heard silence in response and cast a mild look over her shoulder. Tolaris sighed. "A rather respected Negaverse general." Susan raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess. Someone who invaded?" "Yes," Tolaris said quietly as he sat down in the chair with a heavy sigh. "From what I understand, then-Captain Nephlyte led the charge from the south staging areas towards the royal palace." He blinked hard as Susan started to chuckle softly to herself. He cast a glance at Darian and received a confused shrug in reply. "Forgive me," Susan said after a moment, "I was just struck by the sheer irony of this. If what you say is true, then odds are he was the one we came close to killing during the counter-attack. He had dark hair that came down to the base of his shoulder blades?" Tolaris nodded. "Yes, that's him." "Interesting," Susan said as she continued to study the room. "You would be well advised not to mention any of that to Alex, as they were practically nose-to-nose at one point in the battle and wounded each other. It didn't look to be serious," she said as she stared off into space while her mind relived the past. "Just deep enough to draw blood, but still.... Tell me, Commander, what color is your blood?" Tolaris blinked at the unexpected question. "Gray." "I was just curious," she said as she sat down on the edge of the bed. She looked up and gave Darian a slight smile. "You may as well sit down, your Highness, we're not going anywhere." "Why do you keep calling me that?" Darian said as he sat down on the far end of the bed. Luna crouched for a moment before leaping up onto the desk and picked a convenient place to stretch out. She kept one eye on Myst as she did so, still not entirely sure what to think of the gray kitten. "You are of royal blood, after all," Susan replied. "A thousand years ago, maybe," Darian said with a shrug. "You never know, Darian," Luna spoke up. "You said yourself that you knew next to nothing about your parents before they died. They just might have been from a royal bloodline." "Stranger things have happened," Susan added with a faint smile. Darian cleared his throat nervously. "Speaking of strange things and bloodlines, I have a question I'd like to ask you. You said earlier that you weren't fully human?" "I'm only half-human," she replied, still faintly smiling. "I wouldn't be an avatar if my mother hadn't been a Sailor Scout." "I take it the other half is denizen?" Tolaris asked quietly. Susan sighed and glanced towards the shuttered window. "I should be so fortunate," she said quietly. "No, Serena is the only half-denizen known to exist, and that was only possible because the Imperium Silver Crystal decided to intervene for some reason. Her bloodline was only known to three people back in the kingdom, however, and it was the Queen's wish to keep that a very guarded secret. The Princess didn't even know." "She knows now," Darian said quietly. "Have her powers evidenced themselves yet?" she asked sharply. "Not that we're aware of," Tolaris replied. "And since she's only half- denizen, she might not possess the chaos factor. I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I believe you're evading the question of your own bloodline." Susan blinked before the faint smile returned to her face. "That was not my intention. I am what humans call a succubus." Darian leapt to his feet as if he had been zapped with a lightning bolt. "WHAT?!" he said, his eyes wide. "Please, sit," she said as she rose to her feet and slowly paced around the room. "My father was an incubus who had a rather long romance with my mother. She didn't exactly intend to have his child, but she didn't have any adverse thoughts to the idea either. Her only complaint about getting pregnant was that it lasted for eleven months," she added with a quiet chuckle. "Usually when a demon impregnates a human, or in extremely rare cases the other way around, the result is an alu demon. However, since mother was an avatar, her DNA was rather resistant to being over-written by father's demonic DNA. So instead of being an alu demon, I was born with my father's demonic nature with a mostly human form, resulting in a slightly atypical succubus. Darian, you should sit down before you pass out." Darian sat down hard on the edge of the bed, giving Susan an uncertain look. "I thought things like that were mere myth," he said quietly. "Demons who live in a burning lake, women who prey upon men in their sleep and steal their souls, stuff like that." Susan shrugged. "Demons do exist," she said simply. "And as for what you said about what we succubi do.... You're absolutely right." Tolaris frowned. "I'm not as well-versed in human mythology as Darian. What exactly am I missing?" "You know about the ancient legends of the Underworld?" she asked. The Dragoon nodded. "According to the Greek and Roman myths, yes. Their lord was a god named Hades, if memory serves." Susan smiled. "Good, this is going to be easier than I thought. When he created his minions, he made the succubi look like the most beautiful women any man had ever seen and imbued them with the ability to seduce even the most reserved of men. They were also given the power to free souls from a mortal's body and return to the Underworld with it." "They used their kiss to kill their victims," Darian said. "Messy at times, but most effective," Susan replied. Tolaris raised an eyebrow. "You sound as if you've done that before." "I have," she said with a casual shrug. "You have to understand that, when I was born, my mother made a deal with my father. He wouldn't interfere in my upbringing until I was 'old enough', at which point I would spend an equal amount of time living in the Underworld learning about my heritage as a demon." She stopped walking around and began to unbutton her blouse. "I was born looking human, but puberty decided to evidence itself in a rather unusual way in addition to the usual signs of femininity." Both Darian and Tolaris blinked as they noticed what she was doing. "Umm, Susan...." Darian started to say. She gave them both a soft smile as she turned her back to them and took off her blouse. She held the fabric against her bare chest as she craned her head over her shoulder to watch their reaction to the sight of the pair of dark scars running almost the full length of her back. "Ay'cha navidshi," Tolaris breathed. "What happened?" She closed her eyes and concentrated, mentally unlocking the barrier she usually kept in place around the demonic psyche in her mind. She sighed as the scars rippled briefly before exploding outward, reshaping themselves into a large set of wings. "It started when I was fourteen," she said quietly. "A gradual swelling of a pair of oblong lumps on my back. Mother kept worrying about it, but my father would always assure her that it was normal for some type of demons. It took two years before they finished growing and fully emerged. Unfortunately, the emergence was a rather painful and protracted experience," she said as she flexed her wings. "It took a few months before I learned how to reabsorb them and assume a more human form, but the scars would always remain." "Can you fly?" Tolaris asked quietly. "No," Susan said as she shook her head. "My wings are too small. They're about half the size of the wings on a full-blooded succubus. I can still use them to glide and slow my descent if I fall from a height, though." "So what about your demonic side?" Darian asked carefully. Susan turned around to look at him, still holding the blouse against her chest. She gave him a smile and watched him cringe reflexively at her faintly glowing red eyes and razor-sharp fangs protruding from both jaws. "I won't lie to you," she said softly, her voice causing both Tolaris and Darian's pulses to increase. "I've seduced more people than I can count, and I've killed with my kiss before. I enjoy doing both, and will do so again." "Susan...." Luna said quietly in a warning tone as she edged away. The succubus laughed quietly. "I am only making them aware of what I am, Luna," she said as she gave the cat a gentle smile. She turned her back to them and reverted to her human form, putting the blouse back on as soon as her wings were fully absorbed. "Jesus," Darian muttered as he sat down and tried to calm himself. Tolaris grunted softly as he checked his pulse. "Now I know how people felt about Shar-Tei's power," he said quietly as he tried to slow his heart down before something went wrong. Darian avoided looking at Susan for a moment. "You never did tell us what sort of powers she had," he said as he made an effort to control his breathing. "She generated an almost irresistable sex appeal," Tolaris explained. "She could either increase or decrease the effect as she desired, but couldn't turn it off completely, which occasionally led to more than a few problems. Thing was, however, it was induced by telepathy and never worked on me because I'm psi-mute." "Succubi are supposed to be sexually appealing," Susan said as she finished buttoning her blouse. "Makes it easier to lull our victims into a state of mind where they can be easily taken advantage of." "You scare me," Darian said bluntly. Susan blinked. "I do?" "I'll have to admit I'm not too comfortable with the prospect of having a sexual predator around," Tolaris said. "Even if you are a Sailor Scout. As I said, Shar-Tei's power caused a fair amount of trouble, the nature of which I have no desire to ever have to deal with again." Susan blinked again and slowly sat down on the edge of the bed, making sure she didn't startle Darian. "There is so much that you don't understand," she said quietly. "Unlike the other Sailor Scouts, my duty is to Lord Hades and the Underworld. It was at his direction that I served the throne of the Moon Kingdom after my mother died, but with the understanding that my higher loyalty would always remain with him, and in case a conflict ever arose I was to obey his wishes first. "Because I am have demonic blood in my veins, I am eternal. I am mortal in the sense that I can die, but my body continuously regenerates itself on a low-level. I'm pretty much immune to sickness or disease, and it's impossible for me to die of old age. I may look like I'm in my late twenties, but the fact is I'm about the same age as Tolaris." She waited until the surprise wore off before she continued. "I have been the Queen's Chancellor for over six hundred years. I have been in attendence for the birth of every Princess and every single Sailor Scout since then, and with the exception of the invasion of the Moon Kingdom, I have been there for the death of all but three of them. I helped raise each of them to be Sailor Scouts. In the absence of the Queen, I was in charge of running the day-to-day affairs of the Kingdom. Some ministers have even said that I was the throne, having been in my position for generations." She paused for a moment to sigh. "You should not fear me, your Highness, but you should respect my demonic nature. Biology requires that I and the other succubi release our sexual tensions on a regular basis, lest that tension drive out all intellect and reason until it is satisfied. It is an instinct that cannot be controlled, only reworked into a more positive experience. Sex is almost a religion for us, and we frequently seek to indulge in it as one indulges a favorite hobby. That is why I like seducing people, viewing it as a challenge with a very beneficial reward. However, I have always taken the utmost care to ensure that such.... diversions, if you will, do not have any effect on my duties or responsibilities." "Sounds like Maze," Darian muttered beneath his breath, drawing a very unamused look from Tolaris. "And the killing?" the Dragoon asked flatly. Susan looked away. "Most of the time it is at the direction of Hades or one of the other avatars who monitor the souls of the living. In that case, a soul has been deemed to have done enough for one life and is 'recalled' to the Underworld. I merely carry out my lord's wishes on the matter as I and the other succubi were born to do." She sighed quietly to herself. "And sometimes, although rarely, I kill just for the sake of doing so. Usually I seduce them quite thoroughly first to enjoy the mood, and then draw their soul out. I can't explain it, but there are times where it feels so wonderful to have a life in your hands, where you can feel it pulse beneath your lips as it is slowly drawn out." "And that is why you scare me," Darian said quietly. Susan gave him a faint smile. "I never kill friends," she said. "I may seduce them from time to time, depending on my mood and the overall situation, but that's only if they want it." Tolaris sighed and rubbed his temples. "Is this going to pose any sort of hazard to us, Luna?" he asked tiredly. Luna blinked, caught off-guard by the question. "Well, no," she said. "I can't remember of any problems with her back in the Moon Kingdom, aside from the occasional tendency to seduce a Royal Guard now and then. But even then she was very discreet about it," she said with a feline shrug. "Unlike some others I could name," Susan said lightly. She got a slightly confused look in response and she smiled. "At least I never made enough noise to wake anyone up at odd hours in the morning." Luna muttered something decidedly impolite beneath her breath. Tolaris was the only one who heard what she said and he wisely decided to ignore it, instead sighing quietly. "Susan, let me just say this much.... You and the others are welcome to stay here for the time being, provided you don't cause us any trouble. I'm not going to pretend to understand half of what you said about your biology, nor do I think I care to know. Just as long as we have an understanding of things." Susan nodded. "That we do, Commander." "Do the others know about this?" Tolaris asked as he stood up. "Seeing how I just found out, I doubt it," Darian replied. The Dragoon grunted quietly. "Tomorrow should be very interesting then," he said as he headed for the door. "I think I'm going to go to bed now. I'll give you three a tour of the cathedral in the morning, and I would appreciate it if you don't do any poking around until then. All we need is for the alarm on the vault to be tripped or the reactor controls messed with." "Understood," Susan replied. "Sleep well." Tolaris muttered something cryptic in his native language that Darian couldn't translate and quietly left the room. "I'll go see how the steaks are doing," Darian said as he stood up. "Darian, please sit for a moment," Susan said softly. She waited until he slowly sat back down before she gave him a slightly concerned look. "You truly are afraid of me, aren't you?" Darian sighed quietly. "I'll admit I'm a little.... discomforted by the idea of another specialized hunter in the house, as it were." Susan tilted her head. "Are you referring to Ami?" she asked softly. "You said you observed us in the past," he said slowly. "How much do you know about her?" "I know what she has become, but I don't know at what price," she replied. "If I had to guess, I would say that her soul is now as dark as mine. It might even be darker. However, I haven't been able to use my own senses to discern what her aura looks like. All I've seen is what was recorded through the gemstones, and they can't see beyond the physical, although they have captured some rather.... interesting developments," she added. "Such as?" he asked warily. She smiled as she stood up and walked over to the desk. "That's something that she and I will have to privately discuss," she said as she picked up Myst and scratched her ears. "I am more than a little distressed at the discovery of her vampirism, but I must confess that at the same time I find the daughter of my best friend has become.... a kindrid spirit, " she said quietly. She paused for a moment and sniffed the air. "Mmm, those steaks do smell good. Perhaps I'll give them a try after all," she said as she walked out the door and down the hallway. Darian and Luna looked at each other, silently contemplating the whole situation. He sighed softly and rose to his feet, crossing over to the desk to pick up Luna. "Well?" he asked softly as he stroked her fur. "I need to talk to Artemis," Luna replied. "I think being frozen in suspended animation for so long has damaged my memories, and I'd like to see how much he remembers about the past. Her words trigger so many memories, and I wonder what else I know about her but forgotten while in stasis. Tolaris was right, tomorrow is definitely going to be interesting." Darian nodded and headed for the door. "No kidding, but I'm starting to wonder.... what happens when you put a vampire, a priestess, a vampire-hunter, a succubus, a demonic cat, a half-denizen princess, a weaver, an avian, two lunar cats, three denizens, and four other humans all into the same room?" "One way to find out," Luna muttered sourly. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Alex and Michelle stood just outside the kitchen and stared as Whisper moved about at a fairly rapid pace. It wasn't her constant state of motion that captivated them, but the display of her psycho-kinetic powers as various objects floated around at her mental direction. "That's scary," Alex said quietly. <Psionics are somewhat common among denizens,> Whisper telepathed as she unwrapped the steaks. Behind her, a mid-sized frying pan hovered patiently in place as a concrete pan slowly migrated from the stove to the sink. <However, powers such as pyscho-kinesis, psycho-portation, and psycho-metabolism are not as common as simple telepathy> "Like we understood all that," Alex muttered. Whisper shot her an amused look. <Psycho-kinesis is using psionic powers to affect physical objects, such as levitation or reworking their molecular structure. Ra'vel is far more adapt at working with objects than I am, but I have a greater skill at projecting kinetic force. Cinnamon isn't one of the spices you usually use on steaks, is it?> "Ahh, no," Alex said as she made a face at the idea. <Just checking> Whisper telepathed as the jar of cinnamon floated back into the cabinet. <Ami often uses a cinnamon stick in her ma'cha to stir it around, so I wasn't quite sure if it was commonly used> "Do you have something with a light pepper content?" Michelle asked. <We might, but I never really paid any attention to what sort of spices the others use,> Whisper admitted. <After a rather.... explosive reaction to cayenne pepper, I tried to steer clear of anything that even looked like it might have sat next to something with a pepper content> "Ooooooh," Alex said as she winced in sympathy. "That stuff isn't what you'd call gentle. Hell, I like some spicy foods, but too much of that will tear me up." "Let me see what's in here," Michelle said as she carefully stepped into the kitchen. She paused to let the airspace clear a path for her before she moved over to the cabinet and started sorting through the jars of spice. <Thank you. Anyway, psycho-portation is primarily the ability to teleport between two points, although the actual method of doing so can vary> Alex grunted. "You mean like a dimension shift and a molecular teleport?" <Exactly, although a molecular teleport can be rather painful> "We've noticed," Michelle said sourly as she held out a small red jar of a multi-purpose spice. "Here, this should work well enough." She blinked and took a step back as an unseen force lifted the jar from her hand and moved it across the kitchen. <Thank you, S'R.... I mean, thank you, Michelle> Whisper telepathed as her skin took on a noticably blue cast. She snatched a meat tenderizer out of the array of utensils hovering around her and started pounding the oratu steaks with it, occasionally adding a dash of the spice. Michelle cast a concerned glance at Alex and the blonde frowned. "I don't mean to be rude, Whisper, but what do you keep calling Michelle?" she asked with a very faint edge to her voice. Whisper sighed quietly and flipped the steaks over to tenderize the other side. <S'Rel was my daughter> she telepathed, her mental voice sounding quiet and weary. <She was born shortly after my husband and I finished healing in the aftermath of the Mintaka campaign. Well, physically healing, at least. Wait a minute> Alex heard a sound behind her and turned around just as Maze came around the corner holding a bottle. "Question.... the Man'du clan operates from the Western Forests, right?" "I think so, but you'd have to ask Ra'vel about the specifics of each of the clans," Whisper replied. Maze shrugged. "Well, their wine isn't the greatest, but I thought that it would make a good compliment for oratu," he said as he held up the bottle of pale pink liquid. Whisper raised an eyebrow. "You picked a wine made by a tribe of avians living in a region where flowers grow as a compliment to a creature who lives its life roaming the Central Plains and wouldn't know what to do with a flower if it ever ran across one?" Maze shrugged again. "We've needed to restock our cellar for awhile now. The only pale ones we have left are things made from the Western Forests and a couple bottles made in the Southern Flatlands, and you know those only go well with seafood." The telepath grumbled something inarticulate in her native dialect and Maze smirked. "Yeah, but tell that to Tolaris," he said as he handed the bottle to Alex. "You three go ahead and enjoy that, and I'll talk to you in the morning." He paused to listen to the voice in his mind and sighed. "Yeah, you could say that. I'm not as young as I used to be." "There's something I never thought I'd hear you say," Whisper commented. "I'm almost five hundred," Maze grumped. "It's taken awhile, but I think all that field duty is starting to catch up to me." He waited as he heard the voice in his mind again and chuckled. "Yeah, well, gotta keep my exercise program going somehow." "Get out," Whisper grumbled as she tossed the steaks into the frying pan and ignited the burner. "Yes, ma'am. Night, ladies," the Dragoon said to Alex and Michelle before he turned around and walked down the hall towards his bedroom. "Uh huh," Alex said quietly as she studied the bottle she was now holding. "I take it this is your written language?" <The avian dialect of that region, yes. How do you like your steaks?> "Barbecue that bad boy," Alex said with a grin. "She means cooked all the way through," Michelle explained. <What Leda would call 'well-done'?> Michelle nodded. "Exactly." Alex set the bottle on the counter and leaned against the refrigerator. "So tell us more about your...." <Don't say anything,> Whisper telepathed quickly as she shot the blonde a dark look. She sighed and returned to her task of cooking the steaks. <I'm sorry, but I find it.... hard to verbally speak of. Not even Tolaris knows I had a child, and if it's all the same with you, I'd rather he not hear about it. At least, not with his ears. I feel that there are some things that should only be communicated mind to mind> Both Alex and Michelle blinked. "He.... didn't have anything to do with it, did he?" Alex asked carefully. The telepath chuckled. <No, of course not. At the end of the Mintaka campaign, Ra'vel and I suffered nearly catastrophic mental damage. It took a full century for my psi powers to repair themselves, and during that time I was placed on very light administrative duty in the Psi Corp headquarters. We knew we had sufficient time available in the immediate future, so my husband and I d-decided we could risk having a c-child...> Whisper looked up as she felt Michelle's hand on her shoulder. <We named her S'Rel,> she telepathed as she steadied herself. <And she was the most precious thing in our lives. Neither one of us had much in the way of family or close friends, so we never really made a big deal out of having a daughter. It was a truly interesting experience....> "Something happened, didn't it?" Michelle asked very softly. <When denizens reach puberty, a pair of latent chromosomes we call the chaos factor becomes active and rewrites our high-level DNA. What happens to us then is literally anyone's guess. Only our low-level DNA gets passed on to our children, so our powers don't get passed from generation to generation. In my case, the chaos factor resulted in my mind developing a strong psionic ability and my genes acquiring other powers. However, in S'Rel....> "Hey, easy there," Alex said as she tried to comfort Whisper as a wave of mental pain and anguish washed over her. Whisper took a deep breath and backed away from the sizzling steaks. <I'm sorry, I didn't mean to project my emotions like that. Ami once asked why we don't have a population problem with our long lifespans. The reason for that is that fewer than half of all denizens survive puberty because of the changes triggered by the chaos factor> "Oh, my god...." Michelle breathed softly, severely shaken. <The changes themselves are rarely physical. The true problem is learning to control the powers that are suddenly unleashed without warning. Both my husband and I were fortunate enough when we were at that stage to have learned how to control our powers before we did any serious damage....> Whisper fell silent as she struggled to compose herself, absently making sure the steaks were cooked properly. <From what we understand, she began to generate a rather strong electromagnetic field around her. That interfered with the power system in our house and triggered a feedback loop between her and the main conduits in the wall. The conduits overloaded and exploded in a plasma flare.... It all happened so fast.... We had just barely realized that her powers were developing when the wall blew out and the plasma ignited the air around her.... It was over in an instant....> She suddenly turned and placed a hand on Michelle's cheek. "You look so much like her," she said softly as tears started to form at the corners of her eyes. "When I first saw you, it was like she had come back to me.... And after my husband was killed, I.... I...." Alex watched silently as Michelle gave Whisper a hug and the telepath seemed to break down, holding her tightly as tears streamed down her face. She felt more than heard a presence behind her and glanced over her shoulder, nearly leaping out of her skin at the sight of Susan standing only a few inches away from her with Myst cradled in her arms. "Dammit, Sue, don't do that," she said quietly as she rubbed her chest. "Will she be alright?" Susan asked softly as she observed Whisper and Michelle, neither currently aware of her presence. "I think so," Alex said after a moment. "We just got a crash-course in the realities of life in the Negaverse from a deeply personal standpoint." It was several moments before Susan replied. "Not something you'd expect to hear about given what we know about their culture, wouldn't you say?" she said softly as she lightly stroked Myst's fur. The blonde grunted silently. "Yeah, I was just thinking about that. Sue, just what did you see in the past?" "More than enough to know that the Negaverse as a whole isn't our enemy," Susan replied. "Just a select few individuals who have the power to misguide a world into seeing things their way." "And the rest?" "They're just like us," Susan replied quietly. "They think, feel, laugh, cry, live, and love just like us humans do in our lives. The only difference is their genetic structure is more complicated than yours or even mine." "You trust them?" Alex asked as she jerked her chin in the direction of the residential wing. "One of them is giving Michelle a hug, but you're not going ballistic," Susan observed quietly. "I think I'm not the only one who's having a change of heart about our so-called enemies." The blonde said nothing as Whisper finally released Michelle and took a step back, wiping the tears from her eyes. The telepath quickly regained her composure and glanced towards the steaks, hastily flipping them over to reveal a slightly charred surface. "Oops...." she said quietly. "Relax, a little carbon never hurt," Alex said in her normal tone. "And if it's burnt-burnt, Susan'll still eat it." "What's burnt?" Darian said as he came up behind Alex and Susan. Whisper shot them a mild look. "It's not burnt, just lightly toasted." "You're not taking after Mina, are you?" Darian joked. The telepath glared him him icily. "Go set the table before I give you a headache," she suggested evenly. Alex frowned. "Do I want to ask?" she said carefully as Darian set Luna on the floor and quickly sorted through the dish cabinet. "You've obviously never dealt with an irritated telepath before," Darian muttered as he darted from the kitchen carrying several plates and utensils. Whisper shrugged. "I had to smack Maze one day and used a low-power psi spike to do it. Darian got curious what happened and asked me about it. I was still in a bit of an evil mood, so I spiked him as well." "So now would be a bad time to be curious, eh?" Alex asked warily. "No, no, go ahead and ask," Darian said from the dining room. "It's only excruciating when it lingers for awhile and tylenol doesn't seem to do much of anything about it." "What's tylenol?" Alex whispered to Susan. "A generic name for a mild pain suppressant," Susan replied. "Things like acetophenetidin, acetylsalicylic acid, and ibuprofen." "Yeah, whatever," the blonde replied as she rolled her eyes. She blinked and slowly inhaled as the scent of cooked steak wafted past her. "Oh, man, will you get a whiff of that...." Susan nodded. "I could smell it from down the hall." "Mmm, I just hope it tastes as good as it smells," Alex said as she cast a slightly ravenous glance at the frying pan. "It should," Whisper replied as she picked up a knife and made a few cuts in the steaks. "Michelle, this look okay to you?" Michelle peered at the steaks and nodded. "Oh, definitely." Whisper turned off the stove burner and took a step back. "Well, in that case, all we need now are the wine glasses," she said as the steaks floated up into the air and onto a large plate. "You two might want to move," she advised Susan and Alex as various items began to migrate into the sink. Susan merely raised and eyebrow and took a step back, intently watching the psycho-kinetic display. The freezer door opened by itself and five very cold glasses floated out, forming a wedge shape. Alex nearly jumped as the bottle of wine began to move next to her, rising into the air and joining the flight of glasses. "That's still spooky," Alex said as they made their way into the dining room. Darian had finished setting the table and was seated at one end, idly watching the aerial procession of steaks and wine. "You get used to it," Darian replied with a shrug. "What sort of wine did Maze pick?" "Something Ra'vel would probably approve of," Whisper said as she guided everything into place on the table. There was a series of very soft thunks as the steaks suddenly leapt off of the large plate and landed in the center of the dinner plates. The glasses all touched down next to a plate while the bottle gently landed in front of Darian. "It's not a good idea to try to use kinetic force on something that's been bottled in a partial vacuum," she said as he gave her a questioning look. "Ahh, I see," he said as he unwrapped the bottle's cork while everyone else sat down. "I believe the expression Leda uses is 'dig in'," Whisper said to Alex. Alex chuckled. "Nice to see some things don't change," she said as she picked up her knife and fork. She then promptly began to slice into the oratu steak with a vengeance. "Try to remember your manners," Susan said gently with a faint smile as she put Myst down in the empty chair next to her. Luna hopped up onto the corner of the table next to Darian and sat down, making sure she didn't come close enough to accidentally shed any hair near him. "Yes, mother," Alex said reflexively before she took a bite of the steak. "Mmm.... Doesn't taste like a cow, but it's still good. Thanks, Whisper." There was a muffled explosion as Darian worked the cork free from the bottle. "Umm, is is supposed to pop like that?" he asked carefully as he poured a small amount of the pale wine into his frosted glass. He set the bottle down and watched as it was promptly lifted into the air by Whisper's psycho-kinetic powers. "Actually, yes," the telepath replied as she began to pour everyone a glass. "The avians have made it a habit of bottling their wines under very low pressure to ensure the cork can't work it's way loose." "So that was a vacuum pop and not an over-pressure pop?" Darian inquired. "Exactly," Whisper said as the bottle floated over to her and filled her wine glass. "That way, you don't have to worry about a sudden decompression launching a projectile into the air." "This is good," Michelle said as she chewed on a piece of her steak. "Mmm hmm," Alex hummed as she continued to attack her steak with open enthusiasm. Susan waited until the wine bottle had filled her glass and landed back down on the table before gingerly picking up her glass. She did her best to ignore the tingling in her fingertips caused by the extreme temperature of the chilled glass and inhaled the faint scent of the wine. "It works best if you drink it instead of snort it," Alex said around a mouthful of slightly charred oratu. Susan shot her a reproving look. "Don't talk with your mouth full," she chided the blonde as she sniffed the wine again. She could only detect a tiny amount of alcohol in it and found the faint flowery smell rather pleasing. Taking a small sip, she let the flavor roll around her tongue briefly before swallowing. "This is.... definitely unique," she said after a moment. Whisper shrugged. "As Maze said, it's not the best choice for oratu, but it goes well enough with it." She took a bite of her steak and made a slight face as she chewed. She swallowed and took a rather large sip of her wine. "Although I don't think it was intended to go along with a spiced steak." "You going to be alright?" Darian asked as he cut a small piece of steak and held it out to Luna. There was a quick flash of motion and he blinked, giving her an odd look. She gave him a slightly abashed look as she not quite discreetly munched on the piece of steak. "The spicing isn't too heavy, so I should be fine, or at least until the morning," Whisper replied. "But it does taste good." Darian chuckled as he sipped at his wine. "Just as long as you don't have the same type of reaction Maze had to that loaf of garlic bread he ate." "Should we ask?" Alex said as both Luna and Whisper made sour faces. "Mina almost made him pitch a tent outside until he was finished," Darian replied with a shrug. "Sad thing was, he was probably in some rather serious pain at the time, too." "It's not fair," Whisper said with a quiet grunt. "Most denizen foods can be eaten by humans with little or no harm.... well, except the ones that would usually hurt us as well.... but we can't eat half of the same stuff that you routinely eat without having to worry about truly odd side-effects." "Like what?" Alex asked. Susan sighed. "Perhaps we should finish eating first," she suggested. The blonde smirked and set her utensils down on her empty plate. "Already did," she said as she picked up her wineglass and sat back. "Dinner was very good, Whisper, and not just because I was starving. Thanks," she said, just before she had to stifle a soft belch. Susan muttered something cryptic to herself about the upbringing of Alex's immediate ancestors and wondered where she went wrong before sighing quietly. "Then perhaps you should relax until the rest of us are finished?" she said pointedly. <One good thing about telepathy,> Whisper's voice echoed in their minds. <Can't call it bad manners for thinking with your mouth full> Darian tried to suppress a laugh and failed, momentarily spraying Luna with a mouthful of wine. He quickly grabbed a napkin and held it out to her, trying to look apologetic while still fighting a case of the chuckles. "Thank you," the black cat said acidly as she grabbed the napkin with a paw and tried to clean herself off. "Could be worse," Alex said with a grin. "You could have wound up being doused in bright red fruit punch like Artemis that one day." Luna smirked. "That one I remember." Darian finally managed to swallow the wine and gasped for air. "Yeah, but you weren't here for the purple cat incident." "Mina gave Artemis a bath and apparently grabbed a bottle of dye instead of the bottle of shampoo," Luna said with a giggle. "Oooh," Whisper said with a sympathetic wince. "I say we dye him green next time we have a party," Alex said to Michelle. "Shame on you," Michelle replied with a faint blush. "Actually, I think he'd look better if we gave him black polka-dots," Darian said only half-jokingly. "You know, give him that dalmation effect." "Hmmmmm," Alex said slowly as she narrowed her eyes, trying to conjure up the appropriate mental image. "Now that you mention it...." Susan just sighed. "I see that getting repeatedly clawed by lunar cats in response to such practical jokes has done absolutely nothing to deter you from harassing them." Alex shot her a dark look. "I don't harass them, Sue." "Too often," Michelle muttered very softly into her wine. The blonde nearly fell out of her chair. "What the hell?" she demanded as she whirled around. "Mich, who's side are you on, anyway?" Michelle gave her a hurt look and Whisper coughed lightly. "Dessert, anyone?" she offered. "I don't know if you'd like it, but we still have some le'un pudding in the refrigerator." "That's the bluish-purple stuff with the consistency of whipped cream?" Darian asked as everyone else gave the telepath a blank look. Whisper nodded and Darian sat back in his chair. "The density is kinda light for most human tastes, but I think it'd go well enough with the wine and all." Alex frowned slighty. "What kind of pudding did you say it was?" "Le'un berries are grown in the Negaverse," Darian explained as empty plates and silverware started to rise into the air and hover. "They make an okay dessert, but it's awfully light and airy. Kinda like trying to eat a fruity cloud." <I beg your pardon> said a slightly offended voice in his mind as the fleet of airborne plates and utensils slowly migrated into the kitchen sink. "Hey, I'm not saying it's bad," Darian protested. "In fact, it tastes rather good. But it's so wispy that the taste is all you're getting." <It wasn't meant to be filling, you know> Whisper telepathed back as she turned around to keep an eye on the airspace in the kitchen. <Dessert is supposed to be a treat for the tastebuds after a meal, and how can you eat dessert when you're too full from dinner?> "We manage," Alex said as she patted her stomach. She chuckled and added, "And some people more than others. I can't recall ever seeing the Princess turn down something sugary, even after a full banquet." Susan shook her head. "Which has resulted in her fair share of stomach aches at odd hours in the morning," she replied. "I think the only reason the Lady Mercury didn't forbid her all those sweets was because I was usually the one who gave the Princess something in the middle of the night instead of her. I think Amelia would only have put up with being roused out of bed once or twice before she decided to have a word with the Queen." Alex gave her an incredulous look. "You were the one always giving her that stuff? The very same Chancellor who once had a quiet but public debate with the Queen about how the Princess was being overly spoiled?" Susan shot her a withering look. "The only reason I was the one giving her the medicine was because I was pretty much the only person awake at those hours who knew enough about herbs to properly treat her. And I assure you the Princess got a lecture every time." "But I'll bet she still overdosed on the sweets," Darian ventured. "Every chance that cropped up," Susan muttered sourly. "An event that more than a few people took pains to ensure wasn't all that frequent." "A slow learner?" Luna muttered. "That can't possibly be our Serena." Her ill-timed sarcasm drew another laugh from Darian as he was finishing off his glass of wine, and the resulting explosion of mirth had the same unfortunate effect as before. Whisper shook her head. "I can get you a bowl if you want to have your own share of wine, Luna," she said lightly as Darian hastily tried to clean off Luna's soaked fur. "No, no, I think I've had more than enough," Luna said calmly while giving Darian a glare that cast his future health into question. Darian coughed lightly. "I don't suppose offering to give you a bath would help matters, would it?" he said cautiously. "I mean one with a really thorough scrubbing in warm water, not the thirty-second job that Mina gave Artemis that one day." Luna sat back and tried to preen her whiskers. "I'm surprised that she healed without scars," she muttered to herself. "Well, tell us what happened," Alex said, then blinked as a small bowl filled with purple froth floated down in front of her. "What's this?" "Their idea of pudding," Darian replied, drawing a mild look from Whisper. "Anyway, Mina needed to give Artemis a bath for one reason or another, but he apparently wasn't in the mood and threw a fit, so after a rather loud and protracted argument she dunked him in the toilet and flushed." Alex immediately clamped her hand over her mouth before her sudden burst of laughter could spew pudding everywhere. Her free hand pounded the table until she could control herself long enough to swallow before erupting into peals of laughter. "Are you alright, Susan?" Whisper asked curiously. Susan just shook her head. "I don't understand.... her mother was a very polite and refined lady," she sighed. "I simply have no idea what happened to her daughter's upbringing." "Who, Mina or Alex?" Darian asked. "Both, actually," Susan said wearily. Michelle quickly leaned forward and clamped her hand down on Alex's wrist just as the blonde dug the tip of her spoon into the mass of le'un pudding and prepared to flick it at Susan. Alex shot her a dark look and Michelle turned pale, slowly shaking her head. "Don't," she said softly. "It's not worth it." Alex gave her a soft kiss before gently prying her fingers off of her wrist. She then licked most of the pudding off of the spoon, leaving only a very tiny amount clinging to the tip, before casually flicking it at Susan. "You'd be surprised, love," she said smugly as she looked at Susan. "Oh, good, it didn't hit her hair. That would really have sucked." "I assure you, having it 'suck' is going to be the very least of your immediate concerns," Susan said with a discernible edge to her voice as she picked up a napkin and brushed away the flecks of purple on her cheek. <Your patience and restraint is admirable> said the voice in her mind. "Perhaps you should wait on your admiration," Susan suggested calmly as she finished the rest of her wine. She set her empty glass down and stood up, slowly pacing the room as she opened the top button of her blouse. "The night is not yet over." "Yeah, you need a bath," Darian said hastily as he scooped up Luna and discreetly kept a finger over her lips. "The wine is starting to stain your fur. Thank you for dinner, Captain, and if you ladies will excuse me, I will see you all in the morning." Alex blinked and watched Darian make a somewhat rapid exit from the room. "Huh.... what was his hurry?" she wondered. <Probably clearing the battlefield> Whisper telepathed as she slowly rose to her feet. <Susan, may I ask what you're doing?> Susan turned her back to them as she removed her blouse, exposing the dark scars on her back. "You have interesting aim, Alex," she said evenly as she wiped up the glob nestled between her breasts. "I'm not quite sure how you got pudding into my blouse without any of it hitting the fabric." "Oops," Alex said with a faint blush. "I don't think this is the first time you've had to clean out the inside of your shirt like that, though, since we know you like.... OW! Ow ow ow ow OW!" she yelped as she clutched at her head and whimpered. <Shame on you for saying such a thing> Whisper telepathed. "Ow, goddamn, what the hell was that?" Alex moaned as she leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees, still holding her head with both hands. She felt Michelle's comforting hand gently rubbing her back and she sighed. "Psi spike?" Susan inquired as she finished her task and rebuttoned her blouse. She received a nod and let a faint smirk tug on the corners of her lips. "I think you just saved me the trouble of having to try to discipline her. Thank you." <That was a rather crude suggestion, even by our standards> "I've got a suggestion for you," Alex said as she lifted her head up and glared at the telepath. She blinked hard as Michelle suddenly wrapped herself around her, clamping both hands over her mouth. "We've had a rough day and she's getting tired," Michelle said quickly. Alex said something to her that was almost completely muffled and she turned a bright shade of red. "That's quite understandable," Susan replied, pointedly ignoring the dark look she was getting from the blonde. "You should take her to bed and try to get some sleep. Tomorrow should be just as interesting as today is, so get some rest. Or at least try to," she added, giving Michelle a knowing look. She blushed even harder and whispered something in Alex's ear before she stood up and slowly released her mouth. "Let's go, love," Alex muttered darkly as she stood up and gently took Michelle's hand. "Do I want to ask?" Whisper said quietly as she watched them make their way down the hall towards their bedroom. Susan shrugged. "Best of friends since they bumped heads while learning how to crawl. I'm not sure when they became lovers, but that's not really my concern. Michelle keeps Alex out of a fair amount of trouble, and Alex gives her the exact type of emotional support she needs. An interesting balance, but it works for them." Whisper nodded. "I understand now. And you're awfully quiet." Susan blinked and was about to reply when she realized that she had been looking at Myst when she said it. "Indeed," she said quietly. "You people are strange," Myst said as she carefully sniffed at Susan's untouched bowl of le'un pudding. "We're not that hard to get used to," Whisper replied. "I mean, look at dinner. A few hours ago, Alex looked ready to slit my throat. Now we just got finished sharing a meal and a few jokes." Myst sat back and gave her a weary look. "I resurrected Susan from a mere ember of a soul, which in itself is unheard of. Since then, I've nearly been eaten, had my molecules torn apart and reassembled three times, been hunted and chased half-way across The Dark, catapulted through a wormhole into a strange land, nearly drowned in a lake, been repeatedly held in crushing grips by upset humans, petted like a toy, I'm still trying to figure out not only what you people keep talking about every ten minutes but why I was brought along in the first place, and you say you humans are not hard to get used to?" "Somebody needs a nap," Susan observed with a faint smile. Whisper shot her a mild look. "I'm not sure what to tell you, Myst. I'm a denizen, not a human, and I can't speak about what you went through earlier. All I'm asking is that you give us some time to get to know each other first. And if it's any consolation, I still get confused by humans as well. Umm, no offense, Susan," she added hastily. "None taken. I'm only half-human, after all," Susan replied. Whisper frowned lightly as she began to clear the dinner table. "Yes, I heard you say that earlier in the hallway. May I ask what the other half is?" "Demon, although judging from Tolaris' reaction, that probably doesn't mean anything to you," Susan said. "No, it doesn't," the telepath replied with a shrug. "I'll explain tomorrow when the others are here," Susan said as she sat down and examined her bowl of denizen pudding. "It's a fairly short story in itself, but the associated background and explanations require a long time to spell out. What is this again?" "Le'un pudding. The berries only grow in remote parts of the Western Forests, and they make wonderful desserts. The berries can also be fermented into a rather potent alcohol. Can I ask you a personal question?" Susan raised a slender eyebrow. "I can't guarantee an answer." "How old are you?" Whisper asked as she stepped to one side to allow a flock of dessert bowls to fly into the kitchen and stack themselves in the sink. "If you were a human I'd put your age at twenty-five or so, but since you said you were only half-human, I'm just curious about the effect on your lifespan." "What would you think if I was a denizen?" Susan said before she took a small taste of the pudding. Darian wasn't kidding about the density, she thought with a slight mental shrug. Whisper tilted her head to one side. "I'd put it at a quite a bit younger than Maze. Call it.... oh, three hundred even." "I can't tell you my exact age for several reasons," Susan said slowly, "But I guess you could put me in the same age bracket as Tolaris." There was a sharp clattering noise from the kitchen as the last of the flying silverware suddenly plummeted into the sink. "You're seven hundred years old?" Whisper said in mild disbelief. "Give or take a few decades, yes," Susan replied. "My demonic heritage has given me an eternal lifespan." The telepath blinked hard and slowly sat down. "Wait.... that means you can be killed, but not of old age, right?" She received a somewhat suspicious look and a slow nod in response, and she sighed to herself. "That.... might not be a bad thing, you know. Did you talk to Tolaris about Ami yet?" Susan sighed. "I know she's a denizen breed of vampire, but that's about all I know. I take it she's discovered she has an eternal lifespan as well?" "Yes, and the poor dear was quite devistated by the news," Whisper said. "Apparently she has both low- and high-level regeneration abilities, and that the low-level regeneration is bringing her growth rate to a halt. While that in itself is upsetting to her, as is the fact that she'll outlive all her friends and family unless something goes wrong, she still has an occasional crying fit when she thinks about what it's doing to her cycle." Susan blinked. "I don't quite understand what you mean." <She says her menstrual cycle is slowing down and will completely halt in three years> Whisper telepathed. <She wants to have children one day, but she can't if her body cycle is shut down> Susan's eyes went wide as the telepath's words registered on her mind. "But.... she has to have a child," she said, sputtering momentarily in her state of shock. "They all do. Their powers as Sailor Scouts can only be used while their bodies are still young. Once they reach a certain biological age they won't be able to use their powers anymore. Their powers will weaken and fade away unless it is passed down to a new generation, and we've already lost one bloodline." Whisper shook her head in sympathy. <It gets better. You know she's in love with Tolaris and giving serious thought to being his lifemate, despite an age difference measured in centuries. The two problems with that are the facts that humans and denizens can't have children together, and that even if they could, Tolaris is sterile> Susan pushed her bowl of pudding away and leaned forward to put her head down on her arms. "The first part is easy to deal with," she said. "If the Imperium Silver Crystal can do it once, it can do it again." <Ami's not royalty,> Whisper observed. <Luna once warned us how only the royal bloodline could command the Crystal, and that Serena doesn't know enough about it at the present to be able to do it> Susan stood up and stretched. "Very few people know the truth about the Crystal," she said with a faint smile. "Yes, you do need royal blood to be able to command it, and mercy upon the souls of those who dare try to command it without being part of the bloodline, but anyone can simply ask it to do something. I don't think it would listen to someone who didn't belong to one of the Houses, but the Crystal has been known to listen to reasonable requests under most circumstances. As long as you are polite and are acting in the best interests of the throne, the Imperium Silver Crystal will usually do what you ask of it." <Let's just hope she doesn't ask anytime soon,> Whisper thought with a mental chuckle. <Ami is a very intelligent young woman and surprisingly mature for one so young, but I'm not sure if she'd be prepared to deal with having a child. To say nothing of the social uproar it would cause> "Agreed," Susan said with a weary sigh. "Idle curiosity.... has any of the others expressed an interest in children?" The telepath rubbed at a small ache at the base of her neck. <I think Serena is looking forward to motherhood just as much as Ami is, maybe even more so, but that's about it. Mina is only somewhat partial to the idea and even then only in the distant future. Leda, however, has made quite clear her desire to remain childless. I don't know about Rei, however, as we've never really had any meaningful discussion about anything. If I had to take a guess, however, I'd say she agrees with Mina's mindset of not-now-but-maybe-later> "Wonderful," Susan sighed again. "I'm not sure which situation is worse, Alex's resistance to the idea of having a child, or Michelle's desire for a medical breakthrough that would let her conceive a daughter with Alex's DNA." Whisper shrugged. "Well.... roughly three hundred years ago there was a report of just such genetic fusions being performed. There were only five success stories out of a hundred, I think, and the inital reasearch looked promising until the children reached puberty." Susan winced. "The chaos factor?" "The conclusion was that natural selection knew which DNA fragments to accept and which to reject when recombining at conception," Whisper said with a quiet sigh. "Even after thousands of years of research, we still know next to nothing about the chaos genes, let alone what each individual sequence of genetic code does. With the forced fusion, it was pretty much randomized as to which sequences would be included. The end results were.... nightmarish, and a royal ban placed on further fusion experiments." Susan sat in silence as she digested the information. "Whisper," she said quietly after a few minutes, "How many pairs of chromosomes do denizens have?" "Depends on the species," Whisper said after a moment. "I think both felinoids and avians have twenty-nine pairs, but the rest of us only possess twenty-eight." "Interesting.... and how many are related to the chaos factor?" "We think only two, but we're not absolutely certain." Susan stood up and slowly began to pace the length of the dining room. "I find this very odd and more than slightly disturbing. Humans only possess twenty-six pairs of chromosomes, and it seems that the two pairs they lack in comparison to denizens is possibly related to the chaos factor. I also find it very odd how two unique species could have evolved in two completely different environments but yet possess an almost identical physical structure. What do you think?" "The favorite pet theory is that both humans and denizens have a common ancestral link, but one that might go back as far as the first multi-celluar creatures in the oceans," Whisper said casually. "Go back in time a billion years and you'll find that our planet was more ocean than land, as yours still is. Very few denizens actually care, however, as we've had a complex society thousands of years before your ancestors first got the idea of drawing on the walls of your caves with burnt sticks." "Thank you for the charming comparison," the succubus said dryly. Whisper chuckled. "Didn't mean to offend you." "Let me postulate a theory for a moment," Susan said slowly. "If the fusion experiments failed because of the chaos factor, then wouldn't they be pretty much viable if a fusion took place between beings without the factor?" Whisper blinked hard as she considered it. "I'm not a scientist, and I only have a passing knowledge of the experiments, what went wrong, and why. Your theory would hold true if the chaos factor was indeed the sole cause of the failure, but you have to bear in mind there was an initial ninety-five percent failure rate." Susan nodded. "I know, I'm just thinking about the possibilities." The telepath raised an eyebrow. "For Alex and Michelle?" "No, they both need to have separate children first to pass on their bloodline. Once that's accomplished, there's no reason Michelle can't have more children as only the first-born daughter will have the power. But that's not why I'm wondering. If Ami and Tolaris want to have a child, they'll need some form of intervention. The same holds true for Mina and Maze, and quite possibly Serena and Darian as well." Whisper blinked in surprise before she nodded. "We keep forgetting that Serena is half-denizen," she said. "Although from dealing with her, you would never have guessed it. Oh, excuse me," she said as she suppressed a yawn. "I'm not keeping you up with this, am I?" Susan inquired lightly. "Not really," Whisper replied. "I mean no offense to the others, but it is nice to have an intelligent conversation with another adult human now and then. I think I've already talked with Ami and Darian about as many topics as one can expect someone as young as they are to know about." Susan nodded. "I know what you mean. The only non-demon I've ever been able to compare notes on long lifespans with was Raijen, and we didn't have a lot of time to discuss it." Whisper chuckled unexpectedly and Susan raised a slender green eyebrow. "Is there something amusing about that?" "I was just remembering the look on Tolaris' face when he was confronted by Raijen's spirit," the telepath said, still chuckling quietly to herself. "The Dragoons pretty much revere him as a religious icon. They would probably be in awe of you if you related your conversations with Raijen to them." "What about the collective Dragoon reaction to Serena's heritage?" Susan asked carefully. Whisper sighed quietly to herself. "We won't know for sure unless we can arrange some sort of official meeting between her and the Legion. Tolaris is apparently giving serious thought to having K'tal call a mass-formation of all the Dragoons that can possibly show up, then having us sneak the Sailor Scouts in for a quiet presentation." "Inside the Negaverse," Susan said flatly. "We figure it's easier to move ten of us.... well, thirteen now, into the Negaverse rather than try to relocate a small army over to Earth," the telepath replied dryly. "And even with as much sneaking around they do while gathering information, I think they would still stick out like a vep'tera trying to hide in a stand of weeds in the Southern Flatlands." Susan tilted her head to one side. "I don't know how big a vep'tera is, but I've seen some extremely tall weeds before." "You've never seen the Southern Flatlands. There might be a total of four patches of weeds in the entire region, none of which grows higher than Luna's knees. Oh, and your typical forest-dwelling vep'tera is probably just a bit taller than you are." "Sounds like a charming place," Susan remarked somewhat dryly. Whisper shrugged. "Tolaris calls it home, although I've seen worse. I'm from the Outreaches, which is pretty much nothing but shallow swamps and rather hazardous marshes. How about you?" "I've spent most of my life in the Moon Kingdom, although I did spend a significant amount of time in the Underworld. It exists on three levels, and the one I usually inhabited was the one that was primarily a lake composed of elemental fire," the succubus replied. "Oooh," the denizen said as she winced. "I've seen a few active volcano pits in the Northern Mountains, but nothing like that." "Home is where the heart is. At least, where the Damned gets theirs cut out on a regular basis," Susan said lightly. She watched as Whisper's skin took on a pale blue cast and she raised an eyebrow. "I take it you aren't all that familar with this world's spiritual realities?" Whisper shook her head. "Not really, but something tells me I should wait until I've had a lot of sleep before I ask you to tell me about it." "Mmm, sleep," Susan said quietly to herself before she looked up at the gray kitten still silently observing them. "Do you ever sleep, Myst?" "Rarely," Myst replied. "I don't need it, but it does pass the time in a somewhat unique way. Dreams bother me, though, so I don't do it very often." Whisper blinked. "Demons don't sleep?" "Not unless they want to," Susan replied. "However, as I'm still partly human, I have a few of their weaknesses, one of which is the need for sleep. My constitution isn't nearly as frail as theirs is, though, so only a small nap every other week is sufficient." Whisper rubbed her temples. "No offense, Susan, but to borrow a human phrase.... that has got to suck. There have been days in which the only thing that kept me going was the promise of a few hours of blissful sleep." "I don't have a problem with it," Susan replied. "Usually I spend the time doing something quiet like reading or painting, or even catching up on the stack of paperwork that any administration seems to require. I sense that you're getting tired yourself," she added. The telepath sighed quietly before nodding slowly. "I didn't want to be rude by going to bed and leaving you out here by yourself." Susan smiled. "Actually, a nap sounds good right about now. Time travel is only a small strain in itself, but with as much of that as I've been doing these past.... well, four days in my perspective, but the effort is starting to take it's toll." Whisper nodded in understanding. "And if today wasn't a strain on one's nerves, then tomorrow should be five times as bad." "Surely it can't be as bad as meeting us," Susan suggested carefully. "We never knew you before," Whisper replied slowly. "I have a feeling that most of tomorrow's problems will stem from the difference between how you remember them to be and what they are today. A lot can change in a thousand years." Susan chuckled unexpectedly. "Tell me about it," she said dryly. "When I chose the spot for our arrival in this city, I was still thinking in a 10th century geographical context." Whisper blinked in confusion. "And...?" she prompted. "And there wasn't a lake there a thousand years ago." "I think we all know the results," the telepath observed. "Unfortunately," grumbled Myst. Susan chuckled as she picked up the Shinma. "You got dried out." "After my lungs were flooded with water," Myst replied. "And I think I ate something by accident. All I remember is seeing a cloud of dark shapes dart away as I hit the water, then tasted something slimy wriggling around." Susan shrugged. "You probably swallowed a small fish, which is no major concern since cats eat fish anyway and you would have had some reaction by now if you were going to have one at all." "Remind me tomorrow and I'll check to see if we have any sort of denizen fish available for dinner," Whisper said as she stretched. "It would be a good excuse as any to open one of those Southern Flatland bottles of wine." "Sounds fair enough. Sleep well, Whisper," Susan said as she readjusted the kitten's weight in her arms and started walking down the hallway towards her bedroom. "Do you plan on sleeping?" Myst asked once Susan entered the bedroom and closed the door behind her. "Actually, yes," Susan replied as she set the kitten down on the table. "As I said, it's been a rather stressful four days for me." "I don't want to sleep," Myst blurted out suddenly. "Dreams scare me." Susan paused only for a moment before she resumed undressing. "Then don't sleep," she admonished her. "Just because I'm going to take a nap doesn't mean you have to." The Shinma watched in silence as Susan finished undressing completely and reverted to her demonic form. The succubus then spent the next several minutes stretching and relaxing various muscles, the faint moonlight from the open window turning her wings almost transparent and casting her nude body in an ethereal glow. "I don't want to be alone," Myst finally said quietly. Susan her demonic ally very carefully, remembering that she had almost always been within arm's reach of her during the three days they spent in her keep in the Border Ethereal dimension. "Is your present form stable enough to persist even if you fall asleep?" she asked after a moment's thought. Myst blinked at the unexpected question. "It should be," she said slowly. "Good enough," the succubus replied as she walked over and picked her up. She then moved over to the bed and laid down on her side, flexing her wings a few times before folding them neatly against her back. Drawing the sheet over her nude body, she carefully cradled Myst against her chest and quickly made herself comfortable. "I'm not sure I wanted to be alone tonight, either," she replied quietly in the kitten's ear as her disciplined mind turned inward and methodically shut itself down. Myst sighed quietly to herself as she listened to Susan's breathing and pulse gradually even out and slow down. She estimated a full minute hadn't passed between Susan's words in her ear and when she slipped into the state of neo-oblivion called sleep. She fought to keep herself from shivering at the thought of dreaming, the uncontrollable caphony of images and voices that is unleashed by the subconscious when the conscious is completely idle. A long quiet night, she thought to herself as she squirmed slightly. She was neatly wedged between Susan's breasts with her head almost directly above her heart. She flicked her ear down to listen to the slow, steady rhythm it produced as it beat inside her chest. Such a fragile thing, life, she mused as she listened to the deep sound. She knew that right now, she stood an excellent chance of being able to stop the heartbeat if she chose to. Such a strange hypnotic sound it makes, she began to think. Imagine, sounding like that, day after day after day, for hundreds of thousands of days. Over seven hundred years of steady rhythm. A strong sound to a fragile existence. The gentle pulse of Susan's heartbeat against her cheek and the slow, steady rhythm in her ear continued to comfort her long after she was lulled into a timeless, dreamless world of sleep. -------------------------------------------------------------------- General Rune quietly walked down the seemingly endless maze of corridors and cargo bays of the underground storage facility. Situated on the decidedly hostile geographical border between the Eastern Frontier and the Outreaches, the storage facility wasn't supposed to be underground, but a relatively minor earthquake in the region shortly after it's construction turned the normally hard-packed sandy ground into so much quicksand. The end result had been the sinking of the entire facility into thirty meters of sand with surpringly few casualties. Publically the facility had been declared a total loss which led to the resignation of the engineer in charge of the project. However, the military was able to secretly restore the facility to full operations as an annex to the Eastern Division's array of military depots, not all of which were known to exist by many. "Is everything ready?" Rune quietly asked over her shoulder as she came to a halt in front of a pair of small but heavily reinforced doors. The imposing figure of Lieutenant General Ra'en grunted quietly from behind her. "As you specified," he replied. Rune nodded and reached up for the door control. She paused with her fingertips halfway to the panel and cast a glance over her shoulder. "Is there something else, Ra'en?" Much to her surprise, the massive general shifted his feet nervously for a moment. "Do you have to do this, Rune?" he said softly in a voice she hadn't heard from him in ages. He looked up at her with an almost pleading look. "I know we can use all the help we can get against Nop'tera, but...." "But...?" Rune prompted with a slight fealing of unease. "I'm worried what this might mean for the Negaverse," he replied slowly. "And I'm also worried about you." Rune blinked with genuine surprise. "Why Ra'en, I'm touched." The Eastern Division commander made a low-pitched huffing noise deep in his throat. "If this gets out of hand like I fear it might, then we're all going to be touched, and I don't mean gently by a ex-lover." General Rune smiled wryly. "Your concern is noted, General, but I've made a decision on the matter and I expect your full support." "And you will have it," he replied instantly. "However," he added as she turned to touch the door panel again, "If you don't mind, Commander-General, I'd rather not watch this." The silence seemed to stretch on for hours as Rune gazed at her ex-lover and subordinate. "Very well, then," she said softly. "I suppose I can deal with him myself. Return to your headquarters and monitor the situation with the carriers. I will contact you later about the developments." Ra'en bowed to her and left, leaving her alone in the corridor with her own dark thoughts and private doubts. Sighing inaudibly to herself, she turned back to the door panel and keyed it open. She stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, looking around the room with a critical eye. The room was furnished with the standard issue given to all single senior-grade officers living in military quarters, complete with the usual universally-despised color of towels hanging on the rack outside the bathroom. We really need to change that color, she thought to herself out of pure reflex before her gaze settled on the one non-standard item in the room: a large shard of crystal with a denizen trapped inside like a mosquito frozen in amber. Making sure the door was securely locked behind her, she stepped forward and placed a hand on the smooth surface of the crystal. The chaos factor had given her the power to create, destroy, and manipulate the molecular structure of crystalline objects, and it was this power that let her form a picture in her mind that was far more detailed than what she could have seen with either her eyes or a scanning device. Rune stood perfectly still for several minutes as her powers wandered up and down the crystal, mapping the way it was grown and testing its strength. After almost missing it twice, she finally found what she was looking for: the exact spot and frequency needed to shatter the crystal like glass and free its entombted occupant. "I'll say this for Beryl," she muttered to herself as she turned her focus inward and drew her powers together, "She knew how to create a crystal that wasn't easy to break..... Hah!" she gasped as she unleashed her powers on a point on the crystal half the size of a pinhead. The crystal didn't so much crack as disintegrate, turning into a large pile of molecular dust and tiny, dull-edged shards. Freed from the crystalline tomb, the man collapsed to the ground with a ragged moan that send a dark chill down Rune's spine. "I imagine you're a little stiff after being frozen in crystal for such a long time," she said to him. "Try not to move just yet." Much to Rune's amazement, he managed to partially stand up before he collapsed to his knees with another protracted moan. "W.... wa...." he began to say, his voice sounding as rough and dry as the minor standstorm currently whipping around the terrain above the storage facility. Rune just shook her head and stepped into the bathroom to get a glass of water. "You really are one tough p'tai," she commented. "Here, this should help," she said as she handed him the glass. He almost spilled it before he was able to securely grab the glass and down the contents in one gulp, gasping in pain as the water seared his raw throat. "Y.... you...." he panted slowly as his blue eyes slowly refocused on the world around him. "Nice to see you too," she said as she reached out and brushed his blonde hair out of his face. "I don't mean to be cruel, but you look like hell." He snarled quietly as he jerked away from her and almost lost his balance. The glass went flying out of his hand and shattered on the ground as he fought a major internal battle to stand up straight. He finally succeeded after Rune grabbed his arm to help steady him. "Easy," she cautioned him. "I've seen people who've been in far worse condition than you after being frozen for half as long inside a normal stasis crystal." "H.... have.... to.... re.... report.... to.... to Beryl...." he gasped as he steadied himself, seeming to grow stronger and more aware with each passing moment. Rune sighed and decided to let him have it. "Beryl's dead, my friend. Killed by the Sailor Scouts. Now I'm in charge, but only if I can get your help to keep Nop'tera off my back." The mention of the Sailor Scouts was enough to jolt him into near-perfect consciousness. "What? The Sailor Scouts killed her?" he gasped. "And you said Nop'tera is back?" "And they said you weren't a quick learner," Rune said without rancor. "And you haven't changed," he said bitterly as he looked around the room. "I suppose it's obvious that you freed me from Beryl's wrath, but do I want to know why?" Rune's response was the last thing he expected of her. Running her hand along the side of his face, she leaned forward and melded her lips to his in a fairly passionate kiss. He was about to pass out from oxygen deprivation when she pulled back, stared deep into his eyes, and murmured, "I need you." He paused and licked his lips, his mind still in a stasis-induced haze. "That can be taken several different ways, Rune. I'm listening." Rune wasted no time explaining. "Nop'tera has returned and is trying to take over the Negaverse. I'm trying to stop her, but I can't do it alone. I need someone like you to help me." He laughed quietly to himself. "Ah, I knew it. You've always had some sort of ulterior motive to everything you do. I guess I'd be insulted if you didn't have some sort of reason for this, but...." Her eyes flashed an instant's anger at him. "I'm not doing this just because I need your help." "Oh?" he said as he leaned forward until they were almost nose-to-nose. "Please, my dear Imperial Guard Captain, enlighten me." She sighed. "You really can't see what's under your nose, can you?" His gaze was unwavering as he stared at her. "Enlighten me," he repeated. The kiss she gave him lasted for quite some time, conveying with it the not-so-subtle hint of what the immediate future might be like. "Maybe I've always wanted to do that," she said softly to him. "You've surprised me," he said after a few moments of silence. "It wouldn't be the first time." "True, very true. And how serious are you about this?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "Serious enough to thaw you out of what most view as a justified punishment," she replied. "I really do need your help.... and for awhile, I really was curious what you were like in bed." He blinked at that. "You've surprised me again, Rune. I had no idea." She smiled at him. "You were never the brightest." "I'm touched." "You're dirty, actually," she observed as she gazed at his general's uniform. "You need to take a shower. The hot water will ease your stiff muscles as well as clean you up." "And afterwards?" Rune smiled up at him. "And afterwards we talk about why I freed you." He smiled for the first time since his entombment in crystal at the hands of Queen Beryl. "And which aspect might that be?" he asked lightly as he looked at her for the first time in a new light. "First thing's first, Jedyt," she replied. "Get out of those clothes and take a shower. Something tells me that tonight is going to be a surprise for a lot of people, and not just you...."
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