My name is Link, and this is not my story, though it's one I'm well-familiar
with. Listen closely, because I will only tell you once.

In another time, another place, a man named Chris lived. There was nothing
remarkable about him, nor about the world in which he dwelled, by the standards
I measure such things. Then he died, and both his world and his existence
changed forever.

He found himself in a world like his own and yet unlike his own, a world that
was a hodgepodge of characters and events and objects and forces he'd thought
imaginary. Moreover, he found himself bodiless, a drifting spirit that inhabited
the bodies of the recently dead. In these bodies, he could take advantage of the
knowledge and skills of his deceased hosts, but only at a terrible cost. Every
move he made, action he took, thought he had caused the body he inhabited to
suffer unnatural decay, which took its toll on his mind as well. He could
survive only by finding new bodies to leap to, a situation that horrified the
still-human portion of him. Chris travelled to Japan, the home of many of the
people he 'knew' from his old life, hoping that a superhuman body could sustain
him longer than a mundane one, and that with the knowledge and power he found
there, he could halt the rotting altogether.

Of course, he could only do this by killing selected targets to take advantage
of their abilities, their positions, their knowledge. Of course they were
faceless, unimportant, meaningless people whose deaths meant nothing to the
world. Chris comforted himself by telling himself these deaths were horrible but
necessary, these deaths would be the last.

In Japan, he planned to take the life of Akane Tendo, a superhuman sufficiently
weak to be killed by the skills he had available, but found himself unable to
kill someone he saw as not only an innocent, but an innocent he was
uncomfortably close to knowing. But while his murder attempt was aborted by his
own end, it brought him into conflict with Ukyou Kuonji, who showed knowledge
that only Chris or someone else from beyond the world knew. Chris demanded to
know where Ukyou got this information, but Ukyou and her own otherworldly
companion refused to tell him the truth, angry and repulsed at what Chris had
become and his angry, desperate demands.

Chris proved he was not a person to take this hostile reaction lightly. He found
and successfully took the body of another martial artist, Kodachi Kunou, and
meticulously planned another confrontation with Ukyou where he would hold the
advantage. To do this, he kidnapped Akane Tendo, as well as her sister Nabiki,
questioning them. Akane pleaded with Chris to not fight Ukyou, whom she'd come
to think of as a close friend, but Chris was adamant that the Ukyou Akane
thought she knew was actually someone else entirely. Ukyou came to rescue her
friend as Chris had planned, and he defeated both her and her companion Ranma.
Even helpless, Ukyou and her companion Aaron refused to tell Chris the whole
truth, instead letting him believe that his friend Aaron was dead. Chris
accepted this and departed to find new solutions to his problem, freeing Akane
and attempting to mend fences with her before he left.

His travels took him to China, where his search for knowledge took him to the
Nyuuchezu village, where he spoke with Cologne, whom he considered to be wise
and learned. He bribed her with some of the information he knew about her world
from the comics he'd once read, as well as appealing to her native curiosity.
She told him that she could not help him directly, but told him of the Three
Circles of power. The First Circle: the realm of the physical, of the possible
(no matter how remotely so), and of chi. The Second Circle: the realm of the
mystical, of the impossible, and of sorcery and unworldly power. Neither Circle,
Cologne informed Chris, could possibly have caused his strange condition,
particularly since her well-honed senses could not detect any hint of chi or
magic animated the dead body Chris inhabited. She thus postulated the existence
of a Third Circle, a power even more profound than that of magic, and also mused
that someone, for some reason, must have caused what happened to him. Chris
thanked her, promising to repay her for her help in the future, and departed.

At this point, the body of Kodachi Kunou had lasted him far longer than any of
his previous ones had, and the urgency of his initial quest had dimmed somewhat.
Stung by the reactions he'd received from Ukyou and Akane, he wanted companions,
someone he could make a positive impression on, even friends. This is where I
begin to matter, for it was I that he chose to approach. At that time "I"
consisted of two people, myself and a doppleganger named Pink - though neither
of us knew which was real and which the shadow. Chris believed the duality of us
to be twins, as did most others. At that time, our great shared passion was
revenge upon Shampoo, a girl who had tormented us for most of our life, and who
was also Cologne's great-granddaughter. Chris gambled that he could win us over
by offering to assist in our defeat of Shampoo, rationalising his actions to
himself by thinking we could help preserve his body with our skills in
herbalism. As it turned out, we were pursuaded, though I was extremely
reluctant, a fact that makes me laugh now.

It was not enough, however. Though Pink took well enough to Chris, I barely
tolerated him, and since Pink was an unsubtle sociopath, her acceptance
initially made Chris bemused and uncomfortable. Again he returned to the side of
Akane Tendo, attempting to make what he felt was a reasonable request. Akane,
however, rebuffed him harshly in her lingering fear, which had two interesting
lingering effects. Akane, a soft-hearted sympathetic girl, felt bad about
hurting Chris, despite the fact she had every reason to hate and fear him.
Chris, for his part, starting brooding on how such a soft-hearted girl could
possibly hold a grudge against him.

This disgusted Pink, who had been thrilled with the power Chris had shown in
defeating our enemy Shampoo and obliging her to serve us in restitution for her
torments of us over the years. She had quickly figured out that Chris really
didn't want or need our help so much as our companionship, and had quickly begun
to enjoy the thought of having such a powerful protector. For my own part, I was
less enthused, but it's simple honesty to admit that I also took advantage of
the opportunities offered by Chris, while still despising him personally. Pink,
however, wanted to find out more about Chris and thus get him more firmly under
her thumb. She seized upon an opportunity to read his journals - with Shampoo's
unwilling help - and found out far more than she had ever expected: the truth.
That Chris came from beyond this universe. That, to Chris, we were nothing but
figments of someone's imagination. That his seemingly preternatural knowledge
about everyone of consequence and future events was merely his recollection of
comics or video games or cartoons. She revealed this triumphantly to Chris, as
well as our own duality. Chris, realising how dangerous Pink could be, was going
to kill her. But she had caught him in a trap of rather admirable brilliance for
someone as tactically inept as Pink: by revealing our origins, she had let him
now that by killing her, I might very well also die. And Chris, rather than risk
the death of "innocent" me, talked himself into believing Pink was really
harmless.

That was seven years ago, and even now, thinking of it makes me laugh and laugh.

Around the same time, Chris finally succeeded in winning Akane over to "his
side", initially through telling her the truth as he saw it: that Ukyou was
using Akane, manipulating her to be out of the running for Ranma Saotome's love.
He convinced Akane that he was seeking redemption, got her assistance in saving
the Sailor Senshi from the malevolent entity Chronos, and finally got her
promise to travel with him and serve as his "moral compass" after a second
violent encounter with Ukyou had terrified his little soul. Akane got Chris to
promise never to kill anyone in exchange for her aid, which she no doubt thought
was a very meaningful gesture. Of course, by the time she had, my other half had
already killed her first replacement body to present triumphantly to Chris.

We travelled for some time together. At first too naive to really understand the
depths of my other half's disregard for anyone other than herself, the two
quickly grew openly hostile after Pink murdered a second body for Chris: a young
boy with the power of a god also, amusingly enough, named Chris. By this point,
Pink had used Chris to gain herself significant power and was increasingly...
erratic, a fact I myself nearly missed due to my increasing fascination with the
nature of this strange, contradictory, impossible world we lived in. Both Akane
and I nearly paid dearly for underestimating her, but an unlikely saviour
emerged in Shampoo, who "killed" Pink by breaking the mystical connection
between us, causing her to fade from existence screaming for help right before
Chris's eyes. He attempted to save her with his stolen power, and almost did,
but his belief in the possibility of what he was doing faltered and she
vanished, affirming my reality.

Chris, again, proved to be vengeful. He hunted down and butchered Shampoo,
getting around his promise not to kill by forcing her to commit suicide rather
than do the deed himself. He did this in front of the helpless Akane, who turned
away from him in horror and disgust. Thus, in a single stroke, Chris lost both
the woman who had loved him, and the woman he'd sought for so long to earn the
love of. But after his initial vengeance, he reacted with considerable calmness,
immediately setting out on an overarching plan to bring about what he called
"the perfect possible future". In essence, while Chris was certain his
connection to the Third Circle made him a god, he didn't wish to rule as one, at
least not openly. Instead, he intended to surreptitiously overthrow the great
powers of the world one by one, and subtly encourage a climate of conflict and
great deeds, which would inspire people to become independant and powerful,
overthrowing tyrants themselves without need for Chris, but always with his
watchful eye making sure the "heroes" never lost to the "villains" at any time
where all humanity lay in the balance.

Of course, to bring about this world, an enormous amount of people would have to
die. While I had by then chosen to throw my lot in with Chris for reasons of my
own, his promise to Akane not to kill hampered his ability to bring about the
future. Thus, while consolidating his power in many other ways, he also rescued
a certain girl, Angel, whom his otherworldly knowledge assured him had great
potential. He then carefully molded her, physically and mentally, for the task
he had planned for her. He cared for the girl, but always at a distance,
cultivating in her mind the godlike image he wished for her to hold of him. He
arranged for her to train with many powerful masters, unlocking her potential
and turning her into a daring, aggressive swordswoman with an uncanny awareness
of her environment. He built her up to believe that he had chosen her from some
great task, and let her dangle long enough without knowing what that task was
that the task became nearly as mythical, in Angel's eyes, as Chris himself. By
the time he revealed the truth to her, Angel so firmly believed that to serve
Chris was not only a great cause, but the only cause worth serving, that she
fell into line as his assassin despite every personal reservation she had
against it, tossing aside loyalty and friendship in order to serve as an
instrument of Chris's perfect possible future.

And where was I? Unimportant to this discussion, and really, none of your
business. Suffice it to say I continued to serve Chris for my own reasons, and
do to this day.

Chris, in the last year, has been busy indeed. Through means unknown even to me,
he has created an unliving doll, a frightening thing of emptiness and chaos
named Kalia, whose likeness he whimsically appropriate from a character that
does not exist (something which is, frankly, rather appropriate). As well, he
moved to help the reemergent Ukyou and her friends defeat the tyrant M. Bison -
by killing a strategic someone, of course. And then he unveiled an even grander
plan, luring the vampires of Millennium into open war with France, allowing
France's counterstrike to destroy Millennium, and simultaneously destroying the
source of France's superweapons and killing everyone in France with both power
and ambition. His plans were almost foiled by a joint plot between his old ally
Cologne and the mastermind of France's superweapons, Agito Makashima, but Chris
turned the tables and killed Agito, defeated Cologne utterly, and also defeated
the Chronos zoalord Frederick Von Purgstall when he tried to rescue her. Only
his long-ago made promise to Cologne to repay her for her help stopped him from
having his doll kill Cologne, Purgstall, and those irritating brats that
followed them around, but he nonetheless achieved every goal he'd set out for
and walked away to pursue even loftier goals.

Only about half of the great powers of the world Chris pledged to destroy
remain, but they are arguably the strongest: the United States and its allies,
Chronos, and the Dark Queen Tethys and her domain. The latter of which, Chris
now has set his sights upon, and has brought myself, Kalia, and Angel along to
bring about Tethys' demise, as well as dealing with some secondary threats to
him in the form of Hotaru Tomoe the so-called Death Messiah, and Nabiki Tendo.

That is the past, which you should all know.

The future? Well... that's something you're just going to have to wait and see.



                              C&A Productions Presents

                          A Work of Blatant Self-Insertion


                                   Hybrid Theory


                             Chapter 27: Meteora


	She came awake with a scream.
	Her body was shaking, covered in a sheen of cold sweat. The fur blankets
she slept under had been thrown off the bed and all the way across the room.
She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, shivering
in the quiet for a time.
	"Just a dream..." she told herself. The words sounded hollow, like dust
in her mouth. She smiled a little. What would the world think of her now,
quaking in her bed like a frightened child? She was Tethys, Queen of Darkness.
She had stood up to Arkanphel, Millennium... the best and the worst the world
had to offer without batting an eye.
	And she was scared. Scared of one slip of a girl.
	They said her eyes were black and the shape of lotus flowers now, but to
Tethys they would always be grey. Cold, emotionless eyes. Staring straight into
her soul.
	"When you look back on this day, remember that the only reason you still
live, is because I CHOSE to let you do so."
	The words rose unbidden from the depths of her mind. She remembered
vividly lying sprawled on the concrete floor of the ocean cathedral, her body
still spasming from the electrical current Ukyou had nearly killed her with. The
current that would have killed her, had Ukyou not pulled her free of the source.
And still she would have died had the part of her that was then Hayato not
intervened, not refused to die.
	They had beaten her. Together, the two of them had been more than Ukyou
was. But she had somehow reversed it, somehow won. Worse, she had won without
even needing to use her miracle power. Their defeat had been utter, humiliating.
	Not again. Tethys wasn't that person anymore. She and Hayato were one
now. He was her and she was him. Together they had defeated Beryl. Together they
had defeated Metallia. Together they had faced down forces that could crush them
like ants, and emerged the victor. With no miracle power. And now, they would
destroy Chaos, the very force of conflict itself.
	Tethys was not afraid of Ukyou any longer. She sneered in the silence of
her private bedchamber. The bed she hadn't shared with anyone since... since...
Tethys shook her head, discarding that thought. What was important was that this
was her chamber. This was her world. Her kingdom. Her rules. Ukyou would come to
her.
	She would come because of the Messiah. Ukyou would chase her to the ends
of the Earth. Well, this was the end of the Earth. The cold, bitter end. Even
the Messiah had found it impossible to break her security, to fight her way to
the heart of Tethys' power. Of course, Tethys could have crushed the girl at any
time. Not easily, perhaps, but she was certain she could win. But to destroy the
Messiah before she had drawn Ukyou to her was a waste.
	No, Ukyou would come to her world. And then, Tethys would have her. She
would come with her friends, with Ranma Saotome the great warrior, with Nabiki
Tendo the queen of the underworld, with Sailor Pluto who had served Tethys
loyally for two years...
	With Akira.
	Tethys started.
	There had been a sound. She was certain of it.
	She spun, looking around her bedchamber. It was dark, the light was
diffuse, purple and black shadows turning everything into a looming monster. She
stood up slowly, gesturing and shaping a weapon out of random moisture in the
air-
	Cold steel pressed against her neck. Cold steel held from behind her.
Tethys froze. Her heart skipped a beat. That cold emotionless voice whispered
into her ear from a hair's breadth away.
	"You were stronger then, and faster then. You had more tricks than me
then. You were my superior in every way. But I won." The voice cut through
Tethys' courage like the cold steel weapon Ukyou held against her throat. "And
you made one mistake. You chose the wrong person to hurt. Nobody treats my
friends like that."
	Tethys felt the blade cut through her and it was terrible and cold. It
was the utter lack of heat. The utter lack of life. The end of everything.
Oblivion itself tore at her soul. Her body spun as it dissolved into blue
sparks, fading away into the nothing from which her soul had been summoned so
many millennia ago. She looked up one last time into Ukyou's shadowed face, and
her cold grey eyes.
	She came awake with a scream.
	Tethys looked around her room. Well-lit. Her body was warm, perfectly
dry. Her blanket rested comfortably in her lap. She snarled and cast it aside.
	She was sick of fighting dreams.

*

	Akane found Mamoru standing alone in one of the fields behind the
school. The place was full of rose bushes. But even now, they were dying. The
cold was getting to them. The icy chill of winter had settled down on the city,
blanketing each morning in a glittering fog that sunk through your clothes and
sapped the heat from your bones.
	"Hey," she called, stepping up beside him. He was holding a red rose
between his fingers, worrying it back and forth so the blossom constantly
shifted. She looked down and frowned. The thorns had dug into his fingers,
leaving little trails of blood down the length of them. She tsked and grabbed
the flower, tugging it free of his nerveless fingers. "Damn it, Mamoru. You hurt
yourself."
	"Sorry..." he murmured in response.
	Akane stared at him, trying to summon up the will to be angry. Marz had
died over a week ago. He had to get over it, to move on. Except how could she
yell at him about that? It wasn't like any of them had moved on, or done
anything, since then. She had come out here to give him the pep speech, the same
one she had given far too many times since she had agreed to lead these people
seven years ago. But now the words felt like dust in her mouth.
	"I should have been stronger," Mamoru said finally.
	"That's stupid and you know it," Akane snapped. "You've trained as hard
as anybody. You did all you could. Ikazuchi killed her. You have to remember
that."
	"But we're responsible for that." He looked up at her now, his eyes
ringed in dark circles.
	"No, we're not!" She grabbed his lapel. "Chronos killed her. Chronos
killed all the people in this town. She died trying to save lives. Don't you
DARE dishonour her memory by giving up now!"
	"That's not true, Akane."
	Akane stiffened and turned around slowly. The figure standing at the
edge of the rose garden was short, beautiful in the same way a porcelain statue
was. But her skin had a healthy glow, and there was a warmth... a sad kindness
in her eyes that made Akane's blood run cold just in comparison. Her long blonde
hair trailed out behind her as she walked towards the two of them. She wore
armour of burnished silver, inlaid with gold, almost fancifully thin and molded
to the form of her body. In her wake Akane could see the rose garden visibly
revive. Wilting flowers straightened, darkened petals grew vibrant.
	"Princess..." Akane breathed, almost without meaning to. She bowed her
head. To her side, she could just see Mamoru staring at the vision before him,
his eyes sparkling with... more life than Akane had been able to get out of him.
	"You should apologise, Akane," the vision asked, her voice clear and
bright. It was the tone of voice a forgiving mother used on a naughty child.
	"I... I don't understand..." Akane stammered.
	"This, none of this, should have happened." The Moon Princess walked up
to her. "I understand, Akane." She placed a gauntleted hand on Akane's shoulder.
The metal was warm, soft. Akane found herself straightening, growing more
cheerful just to be worthy of that touch. "You have been lost and alone, without
guidance for many years. You have struggled against the darkness and as all
things mortal must, you have fallen back so that you would not be consumed." The
Princess leaned forward and whispered into her ears. "I forgive you, for all
your sins. You may rest now."
	Akane felt as if her heart would burst. She wanted to cry. It was like
all the pain, all the misery of the last seven years was flooding out of her.
Every dead friend, every bloody battle, every murder and every failure... they
were a sick knot, a tight ball of sickness in the centre of Akane's gut. It had
grown, bit by bit, moment by moment so slowly that Akane didn't realise she had
even been filled with so much pain until it was suddenly gone. The Moon Princess
smiled at her, the golden crescent on her forehead flaring as the years of anger
and struggle and hate left Akane. It left her standing there, awed, renewed,
refreshed...
	Drained. Empty.
	Akane staggered back, suddenly clutching her forehead. She felt the
familiar throb of the Star Seeds in her vest pocket, beating like a heart
against her chest. The Moon Princess frowned, just slightly.
	"You still carry around a heavy weight, Akane," she said, smiling again.
She offered her hand out, palm up. "I could lift that burden."
	Akane instinctively grabbed the pocket, the fabric straining. Her eyes
widened. "No. No. It's my burden to bear."
	"Very well. But we shall talk of this again," the Princess promised.
Then she stepped back and gestured for Akane to follow her. "I believe you
wished to speak with me?"
	"I... what?" Akane stumbled and followed along in the silver-clad
vision's wake. Somehow, she felt twenty years younger around this girl. Like she
was a toddler trying to keep up with her big sister.
	"You came to Ohtori, confronted my friends, destroyed Akio's machine,
and started us on this path so that you could talk to me." Akane could only nod
mutely. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to talk with you until now. My work keeps
me very busy. You will, however, be glad to hear that I have pushed the zone of
safety out another fifty kilometers. Three more nearby towns now come under my
protection."
	"I see..." Akane looked around. They were starting into the city proper
now. The buildings were still mostly ruined. The charred remains of the fire,
the shattered bricks of the road; Akane forced herself to look at it all. At
least they'd removed the bodies. "Do you know why we came here?"
	"I've talked with Luna about it," the Princess answered calmly. A group
of young men, working to remove a shattered car from the road, spotted them
approaching. At first, they just stared slack-jawed. Then, nearly as one, they
fell to their knees. Akane could hardly blame them. The Moon Princess had saved
them from hell with a single stroke. The Princess managed to conceal a brief
look of pity, then allowed the full force of her beatific smile to come down on
them. She brushed each of their shoulders with her fingers, whispering a small
blessing. The men stared at her, their eyes shimmering with tears, until Akane
lost sight of them.
	"Don't think I wasn't aware of the troubles happening in the outside
world, Akane..."
	"Troubles! Is that what you call it?"
	Akane turned sharply, the Princess following more sedately. The woman
walking down the street towards them was clad in golden armour, and her blue
eyes flashed as she stalked towards them. Her hair snapped behind her as she
marched up to the pair. Rei was walking behind her, trying futily to pull her
back by one arm. The armour-clad girl shook off the fire Senshi with a snapped,
"No, now IS a good time, Rei."
	"Ah. Sailor Venus," the Princess said with a small nod of her head. "I
was hoping I'd get a chance to talk to you during this lull in the crisis."
	"My name is Minako," the girl snapped.
	"May I call you Mina?"
	That took Minako back. She stared at the petite blonde. "My name is
Minako Aino," she repeated.
	"I see." The Princess bowed. "I am Princess Serenity, but my friends
call me Usagi."
	"Princess," Minako said, bowing stiffly.
	Serenity sighed, a look of motherly disappointment crossing her
features. "You obviously have something you need to say. Why not get it off your
chest? Unless you wish to speak privately..."
	"No," Minako snapped her hand down. She glanced at Akane and Rei.
"Anything I have to say, they can hear."
	"Go ahead, then."
	"Where were you?" Minako growled.
	"I thought that was the problem." Serenity shook her head slowly. "I had
more pressing matters. There is a great wound in the land of drea-"
	"Don't give me that bullshit," Minako cut her off. "Artemis and Luna
have already talked a great deal about that. I overheard." The golden champion
stepped forward, until her armour almost touched that of the Princess. "You
didn't find out about that until two years ago. Where were you until then,
Serenity?"
	"She was gathering her strength!" Rei broke in suddenly. "She needed to
learn how to master her powers. Back then, we were just children. Stupid. Weak."
Rei pulled Minako away from the Princess and forced her to look the other Senshi
in the face. "In case you don't realise what we are, we are the Sailor Senshi.
Our JOB is to protect the Princess. Our JOB is to defend her. It's not our place
to doubt her!"
	"I'm capable of fighting my own battles, Rei," Serenity said, her voice
carrying the first trace of true authority that Akane had heard all day. Rei
looked at her, and backed up a step. "I would repeat what Rei said, but she has
most of it correct. I was marshalling my strength. The world would not be served
by me dying in a fruitless battle."
	"Fruitless?" Minako stared at her. "What about the lives that would have
been saved?"
	"What about the lives that will be lost if we fail?"
	For a long time the street was quiet. Akane looked back and forth
between Minako and Serenity. She... wished she knew what to think. Her first
reaction was that Minako was obviously wrong. How could she know? She hadn't
been there. She hadn't been there to see Usagi gain her full power. She hadn't
been brought back from death itself by this slip of a girl. She had no
understanding of what Akane had felt, what she had touched out there beyond the
edge of life. Akane had brought something back, something profound, something
great.
	Something huge and awesome.
	But...
	"There's no point yelling at each other," Akane said finally, stepping
between the two. "We can argue about what the past was until the sun sets, but
that won't change anything. Whatever it was that happened then was then. We
should deal with now."
	"Yes, of course." Serenity smiled at her and Akane felt a little like
genuflecting herself in the presence of this saint. "You always were wise beyond
your years, Akane. Let's us talk about what the future holds. Perhaps you can
start with telling me about our old friend Chris..."

*

	"What time is it anyway?" Ranma muttered, pulling his blanket a little
tighter around his shoulders.
	"Six thirty-three a.m.," Pluto responded idly, sipping a cup of tea
between her hands.
	"You sure?" Ranma asked, frowning up at the dark sky overhead. Pluto
looked at Ranma for a long moment. Ranma blinked. Then chuckled nervously and
rubbed the back of his head. "Right. Eh-heh. I guess you would be."
	Ukyou leaned back against the rock they were using as shelter. A smile
played over her lips as she watched Nabiki teasing Ranma for his blunder. Sailor
Pluto allowed Nabiki to rib the boy a bit without much in the way of comment.
But she had a sort of quiet way of saying things in a sincere tone; little
things that, when you looked back at them a few seconds later, you realised were
really rather humorous or sarcastic.
	This was... nice.
	The five of them had started this journey northward on a dour note.
Nabiki, of course, was worried desperately about Ryouga. Ranma, for his part,
was equally worried about Minako. Apparently she had gone missing a few weeks
ago in America. Just up and left without telling anyone. Ukyou privately
suspected it had something to do with the massive battle between zoanoids and
'insurgent forces' on the coast of Japan. The battle that had ended when a dome
of silver light had sent every zoanoid fleeing.
	Pluto had been down because she had been leaving her friend behind. But
Rose needed to stay in Bangkok. Without her there, the people of the country
could not begin the slow process of healing. Ukyou herself had felt a sort of
melancholy about leaving what was the closest she would ever come to a daughter
behind.
	Oh... she was still biologically capable of bearing children, she
suspected. But...
	Akira walked into camp just then. Ukyou had known she was coming long
ago, but even so seeing her here, right in front of her, was comforting. The way
that the first thing Akira's eyes rested on were Ukyou, the way the tension in
the girl drained away a little bit now that she could see Ukyou herself, it made
Ukyou feel... strange. Warm and comfortable.
	Whatever it was that was between her and Akira now, it was different
than what she had felt for Ranma. Her love for Ranma had been... consuming,
demanding. It had burned in her veins. But Akira seemed to demand less of her.
Or her feelings for her did. It was confusing. It was weird. It kept Ukyou
constantly off balance.
	Ukyou rather enjoyed it.
	"Did you find anything?" Pluto asked.
	"No," Akira replied curtly. Pluto didn't frown or otherwise react, she
just took another sip of her tea and nodded, as if expecting nothing less.
	"Strange. Shouldn't we have run into some youma patrols by now?" Nabiki
said, stirring their small fire with a stick. They had been forced to provide
their own firewood for the last few days now. The tundra was irksomely clear of
anything resembling useable firewood. Still, there were ways to overcome such
limitations when one had supernatural powers to throw at the problem. "We're
pretty close to the edge of Tethys' territory now. Tomorrow we should hit the
glaciers." She frowned. "Then a long walk across the icecap."
	"It's just a little cold," Ukyou commented.
	"Easy for you to say," Nabiki groused. "Some of us don't have martial
arts techniques to keep the cold at bay." She fingered her bulky jacket. "We
have to rely on good old-fashioned goretex."
	"We should have run into somebody by now," Pluto abruptly brought them
back on topic. "Usually by now we'd have gotten some swift transportation..."
	"Something must be stopping them from coming this far south," Ranma
said.
	A silence descended on the camp. Akira took this opportunity to sit down
next to Ukyou. She had passed on her motorcycle leathers and gone with some fur-
trimmed pants and a jacket the colour of deerskin. She looked over and started
when she realised Ukyou was staring at her. A flush crept up her cheeks.
	"Would you stop that?" she asked, softly.
	"No." Ukyou smiled.
	"This isn't really the time..." Akira murmured, looking nervously around
at everyone else. Nabiki was making a point of examining her nails. Pluto was
busying herself with the teapot. Ranma was shuffling his feet and idly doodling
on the wall of the ravine with his finger.
	"Okay." Ukyou shrugged. "But, you know, if we're going to be a couple,
there has to be a time when it is okay for me to stare at you."
	"We can talk about this. There are things we have to talk about, but...
just, not now... okay?" Akira murmured.
	Ukyou frowned and sighed. "Okay, Akira."
	"Thank you," the girl murmured again. Ukyou knew she would have to have
a nice long talk with the girl about this relationship they had going. Ukyou
supposed that a large part of Akira's shyness, her reluctance, had to do with
being Japanese. Ukyou had seen this with a lot of the girls she knew, growing
up. Always doing everything but actually confronting their emotions. She smirked
a little and chuckled to herself. Not that she had any right to talk,
considering how much she and Aaron had repressed their 'feminine side'. Still,
Ukyou would have expected the girl to be more open about her feelings. Instead,
she seemed... afraid.
	Ukyou knew it was stupid to try and delay it. Tomorrow, either one of
them could be dead. They didn't live the kinds of lives where you could act like
shy schoolgirls, always inching around your actual feelings and blushing and
worrying about the smallest little bits of intimacy. Plus, Ukyou knew that Akira
was in special danger.
	Because she was close to Ukyou. She was one of those people Ukyou cared
about. Ukyou looked up, into the night sky. It was always night, this far north.
The stars were a brilliant sea. Was that were it was? Beyond the stars? In the
dark between?
	"Who are you..." she whispered to the night.
	"Excuse me?" Nabiki asked.
	"Nothing..." Ukyou looked at her. "Just... contemplating what I have to
do."
	Nabiki looked at her. She slumped slightly. "Ukyou, you know why we
haven't encountered any patrols, right?" Ukyou didn't answer. "She killed them,
Ukyou. She kills everything in her path."
	"I'm not here to fight Hotaru," Ukyou said, her voice strained. They had
gone over this before.
	"She's going to want to fight you," Nabiki insisted. "You know, the only
thing keeping her from killing the whole world is the fact that YOU have the
Silence Glaive. Without it, she can't channel the Silence completely. She can
only make little deaths. But if she pulls that thing away from you, she'll wipe
out the entire planet."
	"You're probably right," Ukyou replied, helping herself to some tea.
	"You were willing to kill your child to stop Bison," Nabiki pointed out
coldly.
	"I was." Ukyou agreed. "But this isn't the same. Hotaru... I know this
isn't her. I KNOW it. I... I spent time with her, Nabiki. I watched her laugh
and cry. I watched her mourn and celebrate. And, in the end, I abandoned her.
Hotaru isn't a monster like Bison. She's a hurt child."
	"Seven years ago, maybe," Nabiki snapped. "But now? Do you have any idea
how many people she's killed?"
	"Lotus Infinite killed a lot of people, too," Ukyou pointed out. Akira
flinched. Ukyou didn't react, but she did note the reaction with interest.
Something else they would have to talk about. Unfortunately, Akira had avoided
any chance of the two of them talking together alone since the night of the
party.
	"That isn't the same," Nabiki retorted.
	"It's exactly the same," Ukyou insisted. "We both became the pawns of
monsters. Akira and you saved me. I will save her."
	"Pawns?" Nabiki frowned. "So you still think there is somebody else out
there?"
	"I know it, Nabiki," Ukyou insisted. "Me and Chris, we're part of...
something. A plan. Our enemy hasn't shown itself. We don't even know its name.
But it's using Hotaru. It's using her because of what she means to me. It WANTS
this battle. Well, I'm through running away from it, and I'm finished playing
its game. I will find a way to save Hotaru, and defeat it."
	"How?" Nabiki asked bluntly.
	"Whatever it takes," Ukyou said calmly.
	"You sound just like Chris," Nabiki snorted.
	"Maybe he and I aren't so different after all." Ukyou shrugged.
	"Would you two stop it?" Akira asked gently. "Listen, we can't know what
we'll do until we do it. So why waste time arguing?"
	"Keeps the heart pumping and the blood flowing," Ukyou replied with a
little smile.
	Ranma chuckled. "On that note, who wants to get in a little sparring
match before we start out again for the day?"

*

	The cold was bitter, this far north. They say it was the kind that sunk
into your bones, but they lied. By the time you got this far north, you could no
longer feel your bones. The wind howled across the icy plains, driving straight
through the thickest coat like it was morning mist, ripping the heat out of your
body and sending it spiralling away into the icy wastes.
	An empty featureless plain, endlessly dark, stretching in all
directions.
	They had made their way up the glaciers without much trouble. Between
the three martial artists and Pluto's own powers, getting up the sheer ice walls
of the frozen north was child's play. They had made it all the way up here,
without once encountering a single youma. Not so much as a scout, seen at a
distance. Between Nabiki, Ukyou, and Pluto, they should have been well aware if
anything came anywhere close to them. But there was nothing.
	"That's it," Pluto said, pulling her coat a little tighter around her.
She had to shout to be heard over the roar of the wind. Everyone squinted and
shielded their eyes, staring at the hazy object in the distance. It looked like
a mound growing out of the ice, a black thing the shape of a coffin lying on the
ice shelf. And it was still several dozen kilometers away. The thing had to be
gigantic.
	"That mountain?" Ukyou asked, frowning. She was wearing nothing heavier
than her good old-fashioned trenchcoat. Though, in a concession to the weather,
she had switched from a skintight outfit to something more masculine and
concealing. She had also taken to wrapping cords around her ankles, to prevent
the snow from slipping into her boots. Nabiki wouldn't have noticed it, except
that Sailor Pluto had spent a long time staring at Ukyou's feet while she was
doing that.
	"Yes. That mountain is the surface portion of Tethys' kingdom," Pluto
explained.
	"But it runs deeper than that?" Ukyou crossed her arms. She was the only
one here who didn't seem to mind the cold. Ranma, surprisingly, was having the
most trouble with it. For a guy who had just fought and defeated Bison in a
spectacular aerial battle, he was surprisingly clumsy when it came to walking
across ice.
	"Much deeper." Pluto looked at Akira for a moment, and the brunette
looked away pointedly. "Almost a mile deep." She looked down. "We're probably
already over the outskirts of the city."
	"City?" Ranma said, his teeth chattering slightly. "Great, an entire
city full of people we have to fight..."
	"No, Ranma, most of the people who live in the city are..." Nabiki
trailed off. Her mouth fell open, the cold air stealing the moisture from her
throat in seconds. She brought her hand up to her chest, trying to calm the
sudden beating of her heart.
	He was here. Beneath. Within the city.
	"Nabiki?" Ukyou looked concerned. "Are you okay?"
	"I..." Nabiki looked at Ukyou, then away. The woman had a way of knowing
things, so best not to give her more hints than necessary. "I'm okay. This damn
cold is just getting to me, is all."
	"The air is very comfortable inside," Pluto informed her. "We'd best
start walking. It's still several hours away at our current pace."
	Nabiki opened her mouth, then closed it. She looked around at everyone.
They were staring at her. Each looked concerned, in their own way. Even Sailor
Pluto was frowning slightly.
	"I'll be fine..." Nabiki croaked. "I just... this city. It's full of so
much darkness."
	"You feel it too?" Ukyou murmured.
	"Yes. All the monsters that live here. Their minds are... inhuman.
It's very uncomfortable." She took a deep breath. "I think I'm going to need
some time to get used to it. I'm still recovering from my fight with Bison. I
don't want to rush into anything."
	Ukyou frowned. "I don't think it's a good idea to wait. Aside from the
cold..."
	"I'm not suggesting you wait," Nabiki snapped. "You should go on ahead."
Ukyou raised an eyebrow, gazing at Nabiki levelly. "Tethys is waiting for you up
ahead. If you don't come to her, I'm certain she'll come to you."
	"So she already knows we're here..." Akira sighed.
	"Of course she does. She knew the moment we started across the ice
shelf. Probably before." Nabiki snorted. "You know how far her reach extends,
Akira. Not to mention how..." Nabiki trailed off when Akira stared at her
darkly. She didn't have to read minds to know what that look promised if she
didn't stop. Nabiki closed her mouth and looked at Ukyou again. "Besides, we
both know it's you she wants to talk to. Ranma and I are just not as important
to her."
	"Hey," Ranma grumbled.
	"No offence, Ranma," Nabiki smirked.
	"Hmmm..." Pluto tapped her toe against the ice. Her long green hair
snapped and cracked in the wind behind her. "Perhaps Nabiki is right. Tethys did
send Rose and me back into the world to invite you to meet her. I don't believe
you have anything to fear from her."
	"You WOULD say that," Akira snapped. "Tethys is a monster. She has no
humanity left in her at all." She looked at Ukyou imploringly. "We should avoid
her."
	Pluto, who looked slightly offended at Akira's rebuke, turned to face
the other woman. "I think you're letting your personal feelings taint your
reactions, Akira."
	"I don't have any feelings for Tethys," Akira hissed.
	Ukyou was looking at Akira strangely, but she stepped between the two of
them quickly. "Cut it out, you two. You've been doing nothing but snipe at Pluto
since Southtown, Akira. And you have tried to kill me repeatedly, Pluto. So
neither of you are exactly winning me over by arguing like this."
	Akira looked chagrined, bowing her head and looking away when Ukyou
chastised her. Pluto, for her part, merely let her ubiquitous frown emerge again
and resumed tapping her foot. Ranma was sitting nearby, scrawling something on
the ice with his foot.
	Ukyou walked closer to Akira and placed a hand on her shoulder. "This
city, this is where Hotaru is coming, Akira. I HAVE to come here. And I'm not
going to do it like a thief in the night. For all I know, the reason Hotaru is
coming here is to kill Tethys..."
	"And you want to warn her, is that it?" Akira snapped suddenly, pulling
away from Ukyou and knocking her hand off with a swipe of her arm. "You don't
know Tethys, Ukyou. Not like I do."
	"How do you know her?" Ukyou asked softly, so low that Nabiki cold
barely make it out over the roaring wind.
	Akira blinked, then looked down and clenched her fists. "I..."
	"That isn't important," Pluto said suddenly, stepping between Ukyou and
Akira. "Tethys has made many enemies, done many immoral things over the years.
Akira has every reason to mistrust her, and me for that matter."
	Ukyou seemed taken aback by Pluto's sudden defence of Akira, as did
Akira herself. Finally Ukyou sighed and nodded. "Okay. We'll deal with that
later. For now, we need to go introduce ourselves." Ukyou looked over her
shoulder at Nabiki. "I'd really like you along for this one, Nabiki."
	"Don't quite trust Tethys... or Pluto?" Nabiki asked wryly.
	Ukyou smiled back. "Believe it or not, Nabiki, just having you nearby
makes me feel better. Your refreshingly honest hatred of me gives me a sense of
perspective."
	Nabiki couldn't help but chuckle. "No. I don't think that Tethys wants
to speak to me, or Ranma. Why don't the three of you go on ahead?" Nabiki looked
at Akira directly. "I'm certain there is a lot you have to talk about without us
around."
	"Huh? Since when am I not going?" Ranma asked.
	"Since you're not about to leave me defenceless and alone in the middle
of an arctic wasteland?"
	"No offence, Nabiki, but you're about as defenceless as a polar bear."
	"Ranma, do you ever open your mouth except to put your foot in it?"
	Ranma blinked. She grabbed him by the wrist and began to drag him away
from the others. "I'm surprised Minako never taught you the rules, Ranma."
	"Rules?"
	"For dealing with women," Nabiki said. "Rule one is, don't compare a
woman to a giant, fat, hairy animal."
	Nabiki looked over her shoulder. Ukyou had paused for a moment, then
began to walk towards the mountain in the distance. Nabiki kept dragging along
Ranma, until she was certain they were out of even Ukyou's phenomenal earshot.
She released him, making him stumble a bit as he tried to catch his balance on
the ice.
	"Okay. Now we need to find another way into the city," Nabiki informed
him.
	Ranma blinked. "But you said..."
	"I lied," Nabiki told him.
	"Lied?"
	"Listen, Ranma. We're too late."
	"Too late?"
	"Yes. Hotaru is already here. She's in the city below."
	"Shit! We have to tell Ucchan..."
	"No. We do NOT." Nabiki slid up on her toes to face Ranma eye to eye.
"Ranma, you've been around for the last seven years. You KNOW what Hotaru has
become."
	Ranma fidgeted. "Yes..."
	"How many people have died because of her?" Nabiki drilled into him.
"Not just the ones she's killed personally, but all those that have been killed
in her name. That sycophantic cult of oblivion. You've fought them more than
once, haven't you?"
	"And I always won..." Ranma muttered.
	"That's right. But Ukyou isn't ready to face this. She hasn't had seven
years to get used to the idea, like you and I have. Hotaru may look like a
little girl, but she's a killer. She has to be stopped."
	"And you want us to do it?" Ranma sounded doubtful.
	"We have to, Ranma," Nabiki hissed. The she smiled. "Besides, you're
Ranma Saotome. The best there is. Who defeated Bison? Ukyou?"
	"No..." Ranma was preening just a little bit. Nabiki knew now was the
time to go in for the kill. His pride was always his weak point. With his mind
distracted, he would never even see the knockout blow coming.
	"And don't you have to make up for what you LET happen to her, Ranma?"
	Ranma's mouth snapped shut and he stared at her. It was a dark, angry
stare. "That isn't fair, Nabiki."
	"I'm not being fair."
	He ground his teeth and nodded. "Fine. But we're only going to see
what's happening. Not even I'm stupid enough to take on the Death Messiah by
myself..."

*

	"So... how do we get inside?"
	Pluto lifted her hand from the black pyramid. It was huge, larger by far
than the pyramid of Giza, more grand still than anything the Aztecs had built.
It was nearly large enough to be called a mountain. The cold wind snapped and
cracked around it, breaking on its sharp corners and buffeting in all
directions. Snow and ice, driven by the wind, whipped around them.
	Not for the first time, Pluto wished her uniform came with a pair of
pants.
	"Technically there is only one entrance," Pluto said, turning to face
Ukyou. "Tethys is paranoid. She keeps its exact location secret. There are
rituals that can attract its attention, allowing one passage into the city
itself. Or Tethys can allow you to enter, if you don't know those."
	"So, you work for her, right?" Ukyou leaned against the pyramid, not
seeming to notice the numbing cold radiating from it. "You know the way in,
right?"
	"I used to," Pluto said with a shrug. "But... I just tried summoning the
portal, and got no response."
	"Changed the locks on you," Akira muttered.
	"Akira... I know you don't trust me. After what happened you have every
reason not to, but..." Pluto trailed off. She could understand why Akira was so
angry at Tethys. After what had happened between the two of them, Pluto was
hard-pressed not to call the youma queen the kind of monster Akira claimed she
was. What Pluto didn't understand was why the girl hated Pluto herself so much.
	She had protested against the plan from the beginning. She had tried to
do something, anything to save the refugees.
	Ukyou chuckled, either missing or no longer paying attention to the
words being exchanged between her companions. "I bet I know what she wants."
Ukyou pushed off the pyramid and turned around. She extended her arms, her coat
snapping behind her. "Fine, Tethys. You want me to ask, I'll ask. Please let me
in."
	The reaction was almost instantaneous. The black pyramid began to
shimmer, a great sound like the hiss of steam escaping from a million kettles
roaring forth. A rainbow of lights formed in the reflective surface before them,
and then a second later it was gone. Instead there was a tunnel leading off into
darkness. The sound died instantly. Ukyou lowered her arms and shook her head.
	"Man, we are all such drama queens..." she muttered before starting into
the tunnel. Akira hesitated a moment, waiting at the threshold. Then she frowned
deeply and crossed over forcefully. Pluto came last, not bothering to look back
to see the portal close behind them.
	The walk took only a few minutes. It was just long enough that even
someone of Ranma's speed would have trouble sprinting it before someone at the
other end could react. At the end they stepped out into light again, walking
forward onto a platform of blue-black ice, ringed on the other three sides by
short safety rails.
	And out below them, stretching for kilometers in all directions, was the
City of Black Ice. They were at the apex, their heads barely meters beneath the
ceiling of the cavern in which the city stood. The cavern itself was a pyramid,
stretching down and down and out, three great walls rising around the city until
they reached this point. The walls were traced with a galaxy of lights,
flickering pinpricks of light, in every colour of the rainbow, shimmering and
shifting like the aurora borealis. It kept the city in a state of perpetual
twilight, giving it an eerie quality of always standing on the cusp of...
something.
	The 'city' itself could hardly be called as much. It was really a series
of interconnecting structures, fluid and organic with shapes that looked eroded
and worn away rather than chiselled or carved. The entire thing resembled
nothing so much as a brobdingnagian coral reef, connected by tubes and whirling
nautilus shell patterns with great gaping caverns and rifts. Directly beneath
them was the Great Rift. Once, it had been the heart of the Dark Kingdom, the
dark abyss into which Queen Serenity had cast the rebels thousands and thousands
of years ago. Now it was a three-hundred-meter-across gap in the city, a pit of
darkness full of bubbling lights whose colour had never been described in any
human language. Steam, thick and slow, rose from that abyss. Huge ducts and
valves lined the edge of the pit down into the heart of the city, siphoning away
the steam to provide heat in the distant edges.
	Here and there, Pluto could see tiny shapes moving along the tops and
sides of the massive interconnected structure. Humans, looking from this height
to be barely larger than ants. The refugees that Tethys had collected over the
years. Those who had pledged themselves to her service.
	"There are so many of them..." Ukyou mused, leaning over the edge, not
caring a bit about the many-story drop beneath her.
	"Tethys takes the ones who have nowhere else to go," Pluto informed her.
"Those driven from their homes by Millennium or Chronos. And not just from this
world, either. The struggle between light and darkness extends beyond just this
planet. Tethys has found people from all across the galaxy and given them
refuge..."
	"Like hell," Akira snapped. "They're puppets. Things for Tethys to use
and discard with as much care as..." She floundered, trying to think up a
suitable reply.
	"Hotaru is down there," Ukyou replied softly.
	"She is?" Pluto blinked. "How? Nobody should have been able to get in
without..."
	"My permission?"
	"I was wondering when you'd make an entrance," Ukyou said with a smirk.
She rose up and turned to face the Queen of the Dark Kingdom.
	Tethys was wearing one of her more risqué outfits. It was the colour of
the ocean at midnight, with a faint silvery sheen as if moonlight rippled across
her body. It was a one-piece dress that ran from neck to ankle but which clung
so tightly to her torso there was no need for a neckline. The dress was slit up
one side nearly to her hips, and her long legs were clad only in a pair of black
pumps. The dress was sleeveless, but she wore opera gloves of the same colour
that came most of the way to her shoulder. Her only jewelry was the tiara with
its golden crescent-and-lightning-bolt symbol that she always carried on her
somewhere. Her long blue-black hair hung over one shoulder and she smiled at
Ukyou, standing casually in the centre of the platform.
	"It's been a long time, Ukyou," Tethys said, her voice unreadable.
	"I wish I could say the same," Ukyou replied. She looked over at Akira.
The other woman was looking down, her cheeks flushed and her fist curled into
fists. Her body was literally vibrating with repressed emotion. Pluto was
surprised that Akira hadn't already attacked her.
	"Ah, yes. Your amnesia," Tethys said with a chuckle. "Trust me, you
aren't missing much. The last seven years have been boring without you around."
	Ukyou opened her mouth to reply, then closed it. She took a deep breath.
"That's enough. I don't have time to exchange snappy banter with you, Tethys."
Ukyou quirked her head to the side. "Or is it Hayato? Huh. Now how did you pull
that off?"
	Akira snapped her eyes up, looking at Ukyou dumbly. Pluto too, stared at
her. What was Ukyou talking about? From the look on Tethys' face, she had said
something meaningful.
	"Just a trick we picked up," Tethys informed her blithely.
	"I see..." Ukyou shook her head. "Let's get everything out in the open,
then. You know why I'm here, right?"
	"You're after the girl," Tethys said with a nod.
	"Good. Now. What I want to know is why I'm here." Tethys raised an
eyebrow at Ukyou's statement, and the girl explained, "Why are we talking,
Tethys? Is this a trap? Is this still about what happened between us seven years
ago? Or is it something else? Am I supposed to believe that you've become one of
the angels while I was..."
	"Was killing women and children as Bison's toy?" Tethys said with a
sneer. "No, Ukyou. I don't care what you believe about me." Tethys walked
towards the edge of the platform, and Ukyou stepped aside to give her room.
"Frankly, your opinion of me doesn't matter one whit." She reached down and
placed a hand on the rail. There was a sound like crystal cracking, and suddenly
the ground underneath Pluto lurched. She realised that the platform was now
drifting, separated from the wall and buoyed by Tethys will. "But if we're going
to be frank, then yes you are here for a reason. You're going to give me
something I very much want, Ukyou."
	"Why?" Ukyou asked defiantly.
	"Because if you don't, Hotaru is doomed."

*

	It was strange, the kinds of things you think about when you were
waiting to die. Cologne had once read that there were five or six stages people
went through when they were going to die. She couldn't remember what they were,
but sitting there in her cell, she decided they were all bullshit. She was
pretty certain the first one was denial, and she hadn't gone through that. She
had known that the moment she took Frederick back to Chronos that she was not
going to walk out of their clutches again.
	The only question, she supposed, was if they would give her the honour
of a clean death, or if they would violate her body and soul and turn her into
one of their living weapons. Either way she would be dead.
	Her eyes were closed as she meditated, but she knew the dimensions of
her cage. It had metal walls, metal bars. She knew about these cages. The walls
were over a meter thick and made out of solid steel. The bars were made of one
of those new 'super-alloys' and were much too close together for anything larger
than a kitten to squeeze between. It was a cell designed to hold people much
stronger and more potent than Cologne. For good measure, there were two hyper-
zoanoids stationed outside.
	Cologne hadn't so much as gotten off the bench in the cell for anything
except retrieving the food they gave her and personal needs. If she had wanted
to escape, she would not have come here. She needed to stay, because if she fled
there was a chance they would not do anything for Frederick.
	He had been breathing. His body had been so cold, but he had been
breathing. He was so still. His eyes had stared upward at nothing until Cologne
had closed them. It was like his soul had been ripped out with his zoacrystal.
But he was alive. So Cologne had brought him to the one person that might be
able to save him. And she would sit in this cell and accept whatever punishment
they required of her if it meant he would live.
	"...don't think she's listening."
	"Try again, then."
	Cologne frowned. Words were sinking through her deep meditation. But she
shouldn't be hearing them. Because if she was hearing them, people had not
listened to her.
	"Hey, old hag!"
	"Nope. Still nothing."
	"I saw her face twitch!"
	"No you didn't, that was just her normal face twitch."
	"Oh."
	Certainly they wouldn't be here, Cologne reasoned. She must be
hallucinating. Over a week in this cell and she was beginning to lose focus,
lose touch. She was experiencing wishful thinking. If she didn't open her eyes
and...
	"OLD HAG! WAKE UP! THIS IS NO TIME TO BE TAKING YOUR OLD PERSON NAPS!"
	"Oh! That time her face definitely twitched!"
	"Hmm. I must need to be louder. VesVes, could you get me a megaphone?"
	"What the hell are you doing here!?" Cologne shouted, leaping to her
feet and stalking over to the bars. The Quartet smiled at her. Cologne's eyes
immediately moved to PallaPalla. She was dressed the same as always, but was
looking much better than she had the last time Cologne had seen her. The colour
had returned to her cheeks and the life to her eyes. In fact, she looked more...
alive and happy than Cologne remembered her ever having been.
	"We're busting you out, obviously," VesVes said, crossing her arms and
smiling.
	"Are you insane?" Cologne snarled. "Wait, don't answer that." She held
up a hand. "What part of 'never go back to any Chronos facility' did you not
understand? I know for a fact that I told you it one hundred times. I counted. I
also explained it one hundred times. I made certain even PallaPalla knew what I
meant."
	"Well..." CereCere shrugged. "We waited a few days for our injuries to
heal. You know, just hiding out..."
	"We hardly even had any fun!" JunJun felt the need to point out.
	"And certainly didn't almost blow up Iceland," VesVes said.
	"How can a place called Iceland have so many volcanoes anyway?" CereCere
complained.
	"Girls..."
	"But they had the best hot springs!" PallaPalla noted happily.
	"Oh yes. There was this one place, the water was so hot you weren't even
allowed to be in it for over five minutes," JunJun added.
	"All we wanted to do was stay in longer. It isn't our fault that by
diverting some of the heat to..."
	"GIRLS!"
	The Quartet came to a stop and stared at her.
	"Can we get back to why you're here?"
	"Oh, right. We're here to rescue you."
	"I told you not to come for me."
	"But..." PallaPalla looked at her, her eyes seeming to grow larger. They
quivered and shimmered with unshed tears. "We missed you!"
	"Meaning you had nowhere else to go," Cologne pinched her nose and
sighed.
	"Well, that too..." CereCere said. "But we really did miss you."
	"Never mind. You have to leave, now." Cologne glanced at the
hyper-zoanoids that had been guarding her. There were garlands of flowers around
their necks, and they looked very peaceful slumped against the wall together.
Cologne had to imagine the one without the spikes would regret the situation
later, however.
	"Sure." VesVes held up her orb and spiralled her hands around it. It
floated forward, growing as it did. When it hit the bars it was the size of a
door, and it vanished in a flash of red light, along with an equal amount of
bars. "Let's go, old hag. We'll just go pick up Mr. Purgstall and..."
	"I can't leave," Cologne told them. "You have to go."
	"But..."
	"I tried to explain this to you before. But you four are in danger
and..." Cologne trailed off. She snapped her head up, her eyes widening. "Leave!
Now!"
	"But..."
	It was already too late. The door opened, and in walked the one man
Cologne wanted to see least of all. His wrinkled face was sporting a rictus
smile that didn't reach his inhuman eyes. He was wearing a grey suit, with a
black object that Cologne couldn't seem to focus on attached to his hip. The
Quartet looked at him. Then they did something that made Cologne blink.
	"Oh, hey! It's Mr. Gyro!" PallaPalla called, waving.
	"Hey, are you being mysteriously nice or blatantly evil today?" JunJun
asked, also smiling.
	That seemed to slow Gyro down. His face twitched, but he smiled. "DEAR
girls..." he said in his husky baritone. "I am your friend. I thought I already
proved that to you."
	"What do you want, Reichmann?" Cologne asked, tensing herself. He wasn't
transformed. Maybe if she struck fast enough she could give the girls time to
escape. He had contemptuously swatted her the last time, but he had been in
battle form and she had been carrying around eighty extra years.
	"Cologne, I'm shocked at your hostile... reception," Gyro's lips
tightened, a hideous parody of a smile. "Who do you think has been arguing for
leniency in your case? Who has been convincing the council not to just kill you
and your... traitorous patron out of hand?"
	"Hey, that's uncharacteristically nice of you!" PallaPalla said
approvingly. Once again, Gyro twitched, but he continued.
	"I have been waiting for your... girls to show up." He gave a
dramatic sigh. "Because I want to help you and Purgstall, but I can not."
	"What do you mean?" Cologne asked.
	"Purgstall is dying. Slowly but surely, despite our best efforts.
Without his zoacrystal, his injuries will kill him." Gyro tapped the black
object at his hip. For a moment, Cologne thought she could see... a sword? No,
it was much too small... or was it? She was having trouble focusing her eyes
again. "Arkanphel can not restore him. Not so long as his zoacrystal is damaged.
Whatever... cracked the crystal did a very... irreversible job."
	Cologne felt a shudder run up her spine. She saw the Quartet similarly
blanch. The memory of that girl made her skin crawl.
	"The difficulty is not the damage, but what was left behind in the
crystal..."

*

	"The question you have to ask yourself is, how much are you willing to
do to save the life of one girl?"
	The platform floated over the city, slowly. The people below paused to
look up. Some pointed and shouted, others merely lowered the brim of their hats
and moved along. Ukyou gripped the rail of the platform as she looked down among
them. Not everyone down there was human.
	A few were obvious about it. They looked like any other youma. Bright
colours, flamboyant outfits, and exclusively female. But others were not so
blatant. There were seemingly regular people down there that Ukyou could feel
the demon inside of. She and Aaron could sense the dark energy wrapped in and
around their souls. When Hayato and Tethys had first formed their strange union,
Aaron's senses had not been nearly so good as they were now. But he believed
that they must resemble very closely what the two of them had once been.
	How could they stand it? Two voices in one body; it was the nightmare
Aaron and Ukyou had lived for... one year? Seven? Except there were differences,
of course. From the way Pluto and Akira had described it, the unity that those
in the crowd with human and youma souls had was... voluntary. Ukyou could not
even begin to comprehend the mindset that would lead one to do something like
that.
	Much less what Tethys and Hayato had apparently done. Their presence,
their soul... it was neither human nor demon. It wasn't blended together, or
patched into one body. It was a strange unity. There was no way to separate out
what she had once been. Whatever unity those two had achieved, it was so
profound that there was no going back.
	Was that what would happen to them, some day?
	Ukyou found that the thought did not frighten her as much as it once
did.
	"Ukyou?" Tethys frowned.
	"I heard you, Tethys," Ukyou replied. "The question just didn't merit a
response."
	The platform dipped down below the top of the city. They slid into one
of the giant gaping caverns, the huge organic cave that existed between the
interconnecting 'buildings' of the City of Black Ice.
	"Don't be flippant with me, Ukyou," Tethys snapped. "I'm talking about
something serious."
	"The question is meaningless, Tethys," Ukyou insisted. "I don't know
what I would be willing to risk to save Hotaru. I love her. I love her as much
as I did seven years ago. It tears me up inside, to think of her suffering. I
want to say I would do anything to stop that. But I can't. Because I don't have
that choice now, Tethys. I can't know which way I'll decide until the moment I
make that choice."
	Ukyou noticed Akira look away at that. Of course, Ukyou would have had
to be blind not to see the tension between Tethys and Akira since she had gotten
here. There was a sense of... something shared, something intimate between them.
The hatred that radiated from Akira was so crisp and clean, it focused her chi
so sharply that Aaron couldn't help but feel it. It raised a frightening,
protective... jealous feeling inside of them.
	Tethys, for her part, looked mildly annoyed with Ukyou's answer, so
Ukyou continued, "Why don't you cut the sales pitch and give it to me straight.
What do you mean that Hotaru is doomed?"
	Tethys paused. "Very well." She looked up at Ukyou. "There is a fight
going on here, Ukyou. A fight that is taking place on a whole different level
than the ones even you are aware of. There are forces in this universe, primal
forces older than mankind. They would tear the universe apart. Chaos. Oblivion.
Other things for which we don't even have names."
	"Go on..."
	"We are the pawns of these forces, Ukyou." Tethys gestured off to the
side and Ukyou turned to see a group of youma walking by. They were laughing and
joking, until suddenly they ran into a group of young human men. Ukyou tensed as
the two groups paused in the middle of the skyway they were crossing. "Do you
know how youma are made, Ukyou?" Ukyou shook her head.
	"You take a human being, and you rip out a portion of their soul. It
could be their dreams, their hearts... it doesn't matter. You mutilate their
very spirit, and you pour magic into the hole inside them. That is what it takes
to create a youma, to create one of my kind."
	"Then those..."
	"Yes. They were once human. A long time ago, when we first invaded the
Moon Kingdom, we were human beings. An army. Then, when we were banished here by
Serenity, Metallia... remade us. She made us demons, to better serve her needs."
	As Ukyou watched, one of the humans made a comment, which made the other
humans laugh. Then the youma joined in. Soon, they were all laughing, and they
went their separate ways,
	"Pawns. Made to fight. Made to die." Tethys' voice filled with
bitterness.
	"By Chaos," Ukyou replied, drawing on Aaron's memory. "Metallia was a
child of Chaos, wasn't she?"
	Tethys smiled thinly. "Yes. I'm not surprised. You always did know more
than was healthy for you." She gestured. "Chaos created us. Not directly, but it
was the will of that black beast that set us in motion. Our only purpose was to
feed its sick hunger. Hunger for conflict. Hunger for struggle and hatred."
Tethys clenched her hand into a fist. "But if we ever won, it would end the
war. So we were built flawed. Sick and damaged, in the very soul. We lacked that
human spirit which allows us to... to struggle on, like humans do. So when human
champions rose against us, we always lost.
	"I'm going to change that. I'm going to end the will of Chaos." She
looked around, her voice growing more satisfied. "This is my prototype. Humans
and youma, living together. Working towards peace, together. Merging together.
Becoming more than what they were. This is my defiance against Chaos."
	"This is nice, but what does it have to do with me or Hotaru?" Ukyou
asked.
	"Because Hotaru is the same as me, a puppet." Tethys looked around. "She
is as much damaged as I was. Her master is Oblivion, but it is no less dangerous
than Chaos. Perhaps even more so.
	"I could destroy her, Ukyou." Ukyou tensed, her fingers curling as if to
grip a weapon. "Oh, don't overreact. I've spared her life thus far. I withdrew
my sentinels from her path. I allowed her to 'sneak' into my city. I know
exactly where she is at all times, and I know exactly what she is looking for.
Her powers do not concern me. She needs to touch me to inflict her Silence on
me, and other than that she is just a vampire. A being that draws its power from
blood." Tethys gestured and a globe of water condensed in the air in front of
her. "I am not too worried about one whose power is based on a liquid."
	"No, I spared her because I sympathise. I want to save her, just like
you, Ukyou."
	"I can't stand this anymore!" Akira shouted, stepping between the two of
them. "Don't believe any of her lies, Ukyou!"
	"Akira, Akira..." Tethys shook her head. "I think you're letting our
past interfere with your feelings towards me."
	"Feelings? FEELINGS!" Akira stepped up to her. "What would you know
about feelings!?"
	Tethys leaned forward, placing her face just in front of Akira's.
"Everything you taught me, Akira."
	"Akira...?" Ukyou stepped towards the taller woman. She looked at Pluto,
but the green-haired woman refused to meet Ukyou's gaze.
	"Oh, didn't she TELL you, Ukyou?" Tethys purred, looking up past the
brunette. "About the time we shared together?"
	"Shut up..." Akira whispered, too low for anyone but Ukyou to hear.
	"I suppose it's easier for your relationship if she doesn't bring up the
messy truth, isn't it?" Tethys mused. "Better to believe she is the faithful
one. The one who never faltered, not even for a minute. The one who never gave
up on you. It's so easy to believe that. So SIMPLE."
	"Shut up," Akira said, her body shaking.
	"But seven years is such a long time, isn't it?" Tethys stroked a hand
along her cheek. "And she is only human. She has needs. And even she can't
maintain the faith forever. It was so simple... just an offered hand, in a
moment of weakness... you'd be surprised at how GRATEFUL-"
	"SHUT UP!" Akira screamed, and suddenly Tethys was slumped against one
of the rails, her head twisted to the side. Akira was standing, her body still
curled in the follow-through of her punch. Her breathing was ragged, her eyes
wide and shaking. Ukyou knew she should say something, but she was... shocked?
Yes. She was probably in shock, she realised dimly.
	"Did that make you feel better, Akira?" Tethys asked, standing up. The
bruise on her face faded, vanishing without a trace by the time she reached her
full height. "Punching me won't change what you did."
	Ukyou looked at Pluto again, and this time the woman did meet her gaze.
It was sad... pitying. It was true? Akira and Tethys...
	But...
	But...
	"Makes you think about what else Akira hasn't told you? Like how she
erased your memory of the last seven years?"
	"Erased..." Ukyou blinked.
	"How do you..." Akira gasped, then looked at Ukyou, her expression
stricken.
	"No, Ukyou. I may be a monster, but if I am, so is she," Tethys stood
up. "The difference between me and Akira is that I realise that I have to be a
monster. That I will make a better world, a world with no place for monsters
like myself."
	"Akira... is this..." Ukyou tried to find something to say.
	"I know you rely on her, on her faith, Ukyou. But you're relying on a
lie." Tethys snorted. "The truth is that the world is harsh and cruel. Even
Akira knows this. She was once willing to make the sacrifices necessary to save
the world, to put an end to Chaos. She was my greatest ally. My most trusted
lieutenant.
	"She once even killed a thousand people for me."
	Akira gave a small cry and stumbled away as if struck. Tethys merely
smiled. "So, Ukyou. Who do you trust? I've never lied to you."

*

	"I can't believe her!" Rei shouted, smashing her fist into the wooden
wall. It made a satisfying cracking sound that echoed around the small room, but
now her hand hurt. She began to pace, trying to hide her hand behind her as she
shook it to chase away the shooting pains.
	"Can't believe who?" Akane asked. She was sitting on the floor, holding
the two halves of her sword, frowning at the fracture that had neatly bisected
it. She was still wearing that black bodystocking under her otherwise more
normal skirt and blouse combo.
	"You know who I mean," Rei growled out. "Sailor Venus."
	"I think she prefers to be called Minako," Akane replied, holding up the
blade to her eye and sighting along it. She sighed. "It's hopeless."
	"Damn right she's hopeless!" Rei spun to face her. "She's given up
everything that the Sailor Senshi stand for!"
	"I meant repairing my sword, actually." Akane placed the shattered
weapon beside her. "A dear friend of mine gave me this sword."
	"Akane-"
	"You met her, I think." Akane cut Rei off. "She was a pigheaded,
arrogant girl. One who almost never had a kind word for anyone. Frankly, I think
if we hadn't met how we did, we never would have been friends."
	"What does this have to do with anything?" Rei said, forcing her voice
to be civil.
	"We were brought together by Sailor Moon." Akane let that sink in for a
moment. "And then she died, fighting for something she believed in. At first,
she fought because of stubborn pride, but I like to believe that at the end, she
fought because she realised that some things are worth fighting for. That the
risk, that the cost... whatever that may be. That it's worth it somehow."
	"I..." Rei tried to think of something to say, but couldn't.
	"However she went about it in a stupid fashion," Akane admitted
ruefully. "She gave up her life... and in the end I have to wonder if what she
did made any difference at all." Akane looked up at her. "But SHE believed it
did. I don't know why she chose to give up her life that day, fighting a battle
she couldn't hope to win. I'll never know. And there are days I curse her for
it, and days I thank her for giving me courage."
	Rei rubbed her forehead and sat down. "So what are you saying, Akane?"
	"I don't know..." Akane admitted. "I was just telling you a bit about
this sword." She held up the hilt and the section of blade still attached to it.
	Rei felt her eyebrow twitch. "So, do you agree with Minako or not?"
	"I don't know her, Rei." Akane held up her sheath and she experimentally
slid the half-blade into it. She shook it a few times and noted it stayed.
Apparently that was good enough for her, so she put it down. "I don't know what
kind of life she's had." She looked up at the other girl, her eyes narrow. "But
don't think she doesn't have reasons for what she believes in. I've heard about
her, Rei. She was there in England, seven years ago when Millennium killed
almost everyone. She's been fighting the good fight for the last seven years."
Akane smiled. "If you think she's annoying, pray you never meet her boyfriend."
	"Boyfriend?"
	"A more annoying man you will never meet, Rei." Akane said. "A macho
hero type. The kind of guy who thinks that there isn't any problem he can't
solve by punching it hard enough. The infuriating part is how often he's right.
He and I have had a couple of major arguments over the years. I think his way of
doing things is reckless, directionless, with no long term goals and no chance
of accomplishing anything meaningful in the long run. He thinks I'm too cautious
- in his words, a 'pansy' - and that I'm willing to lose by inches rather than
risk everything at once."
	"Sounds like he doesn't understand how much there is to lose," Rei
pointed out, crossing her arms.
	"Maybe," Akane shrugged. "I don't know anymore, Rei." She looked out
the window. "I don't want to believe that life is like he says it is. I want to
believe that there is something greater. That there is a world that can be
better than this one, and that together we can go there. But seven years I've
been fighting to bring about that world, and it just keeps getting further and
further away. It makes it hard to believe."
	"You have to have faith," Rei told her, grabbing her hand impulsively.
"Sailor Moon can do it, Akane. We can't doubt."
	"You're right, but..."
	"But?"
	"Hasn't this all struck you as... odd, somehow?"
	"What do you mean?"
	"Do you ever get that feeling, Rei? That feeling like you know what's
supposed to happen? Not definitely, but it's like that old game of hot and cold.
The closer you get to it, the more you can feel it? It's like the true future,
the correct future... it CALLS to you. It stirs something inside you."
	Rei paused. "Yes."
	"You do?" Akane looked surprised.
	"I feel it all the time, Akane." Rei looked down. "I dream about it,
sometimes. Or I used to. All my dreams lately... they've been full of darkness
and they feel so WRONG. Like something is eating away at them. But in those
dreams, I always felt a light. A light of hope. I knew that if we could just
find it, that everything would turn out okay." Rei stood up suddenly, clenching
her fist. "That's what pisses me off so much! Minako can feel it too. You can
tell! Ever since we came here, I've felt like this was RIGHT. That this is the
way it's supposed to happen. I thought it was Akio, but now that his machine is
gone it only feels STRONGER."
	"Yeah," Akane sighed and slumped. "I've felt it too, ever since you
rescued me and took me to Katsuhito's shrine. Ever since I met Washuu. Like this
is how it is supposed to go."
	"So, what's wrong, Akane?" Rei frowned. "If you know, down in your
heart, that things are going okay, why are you fighting that feeling?"
	Akane didn't answer for a long time. She got up slowly and walked to the
window and looked out over the still mostly-destroyed city. The wind blew
through her shoulder-length hair and she adjusted her hairband to keep her bangs
out of her eyes.
	"Rei... has Washuu ever done anything... strange?"
	Rei raised an eyebrow, then chuckled. "Akane, everything Washuu does is
strange."
	"No, I mean..." Akane floundered for a moment. "Ever since you started
working against Chris. Has she... been acting strangely?"
	"You'll have to be more specific," Rei pointed out. "She's been a lot
less silly since then. Not totally, but more focused." Rei paused. "Sometimes
she scares me. What Chris did... what ANGEL did, it was very personal to Washuu.
It was personal to me too, and to Katsuhito, but Washuu took it the worst of all
of us. When she found out, she just sort of... went blank. It was like she
couldn't even see us. Then..." Rei shuddered, remembering the ominous feeling of
presence, the overwhelming sense of being near something so profound it made her
entire body scream to be away. Even remembering it now, years later, Rei was
still afraid of that Washuu. That Washuu who had seemed less a human being, and
more a god. "But she got over it. She's just been very focused on getting to
Chris."
	"Right..." Akane rubbed her knuckles against her chin. "Of course. I'm
sorry, I guess I'm just used to being paranoid. After what Chris did, Washuu's
actions are only natural."
	At that moment, there was a polite knock on the door. Rei walked over
and got it. Katsuhito smiled at her, his body briefly in shadow except for the
gleam of his glasses. He stepped through into the room without waiting for an
invitation. "Ladies, I trust you are well?"
	"Yes," Rei said, blinking.
	"Good, good." The old man turned to face Akane. "Ah, Akane. I keep
forgetting to give you this." He held out a long wrapped package. Akane took it,
raising an eyebrow. "It's a new sword, a wooden one. It's carved from the wood
of a Juraian tree."
	Akane unwrapped the package and her eyes widened at the finely carved
blade she held. It was the colour of warm caramel. She held it out, swinging it
as much as she could in the confined room. "This is... thank you. This blade is
magnificent."
	"I'm glad you like it," Katsuhito smiled. "It used to belong to my
daughter."
	"Thank you," Akane said, bowing. The old man gestured for her to rise,
looking somewhat embarrassed.
	"I'm afraid this isn't entirely a pleasure visit," Katsuhito told her.
	"Oh?" Akane asked mildly, seemingly occupied with sliding the bokken
into her belt.
	"You asked me to check with Washuu, about helping out that girl?"
	"Nanami!" Rei gasped, stepping forward. She clenched her fists again.
"Did she find some way to help her? Luna and Artemis said..."
	"Whoa, whoa..." Katsuhito gestured for her to calm down. "It's good news
and bad news."
	"What's the good news?" Akane asked.
	"Washuu thinks she may have a way to help her. But..." He frowned and
ran a finger along his moustache. "You see, her dreams are the key. It is how
the Oblivion got inside her. If we try to interact with her dreams here, we'll
only punch a hole directly to Oblivion and destroy her and much of the
surrounding area."
	"That's the bad news?" Rei asked, slumping.
	"No, this is still the good news." Katsuhito smiled. "You see, we can't
affect her dreamscape directly. But we could try indirect methods. We would need
to find a person close to her. Someone whom she felt a deep connection with..."
	"Her brother!" Rei broke in, excited. "She was always concerned about
her brother. Could we use HIM to help her?"
	"Possibly," Katsuhito said, nodding sagely.
	"Is there any way to find him?" Akane asked. In her excitement, Rei
almost missed the subtle suspicion in Akane's voice. Almost. She glared at
Akane, who was ignoring her to look at Katsuhito.
	"Yes. In fact, we already looked for compatible dream waves. We located
one in the North Pole."
	"The North Pole..." Akane frowned. "The Dark Kingdom, you mean."
	"Yes," Katsuhito replied. "Unfortunately we noticed several other
things."
	"Such as?" Akane closed her eyes and laced her fingers together.
	"The fact that he is in close proximity to both the Death Messiah, and
our mutual friend, Chris."
	"Damn..." Rei's eyes widened. "That can't be good. Tethys, Chris and the
Messiah of Silence in the same place... that won't end well."
	"Not to mention that another of Akane's old friends is there. A girl by
the name of Ukyou..."
	"Ukyou?" Akane looked up sharply. "She's... she's ALIVE!?"
	"Apparently so."
	Akane frowned and grabbed the handle of her new sword. "We have to go,
then, don't we?"
	"Of course we do!" Rei said. "Sailor Moon doesn't need us here, Akane.
But if the two of us go and find her brother, we might be able to help Nanami."
	"You're right." Akane looked at the old man. "So, how do we get there?"

*

	It wasn't supposed to be this way.
	Ukyou was not supposed to be looking at her that way. Her eyes were not
supposed to be cold, distant. For three weeks now, Akira had seen another side
of Ukyou. She had seen a side that gave her warm looks. A side that opened up to
her. A vulnerable human being beneath the facade of ice she had built up around
her feelings. Now...
	Akira clenched her fist until her fingers dug into her palm. She glared
at Tethys, hoping to burn the monster away with the sheer force of her will.
Tethys was not supposed to be here, smiling smugly at her. She was not supposed
to look so confident, so assured.
	One year ago. Had it only been a year? It felt like a lifetime. Akira
had pushed this past, these feelings so far away she thought she would never
have to face them. For the last three weeks, she had been avoiding them.
Avoiding Ukyou. Avoiding herself.
	And now it was all out in the open. Oh, Ukyou didn't know the details.
But why did she need to? It was Akira's sin. It was her decision, and now she
would have to face the consequences.
	"Why don't you tell her the truth, Akira?" Tethys said calmly, brushing
off her dress. "About how much you were willing to do for me?"
	"Damn you... you made me..." Akira hissed. But the accusation sounded
hollow even to her ears. She wanted deeply to believe that Tethys was
responsible. That she had been forced to do it. That was a lie. Because it
wasn't the fact that she had done it that had made Akira leave. It had been what
she had learned afterward.
	"Very well," Tethys said with a chuckle. "Pluto knows well enough. Why
don't you tell Ukyou exactly how pure and innocent her friend here is?"
	"Tethys, I don't want..." Pluto whispered.
	"Tell her," Tethys said, her voice thick with authority.
	"It was a little over one year ago..." Pluto began slowly. "Rose and I
had been here for less than a year, but Akira had been here longer than that."
She paused and as Pluto talked, Akira felt her memory going back to those
moments. How she had been... happy here. How she had felt like she was making a
difference. Fighting the good fight. Oh, certainly she had spent a great deal of
time on the road, wandering the earth, finding problems and solving them... But
this place, for those three years, had been HOME.
	"Akira was travelling in space. She was Tethys' most trusted lieutenant.
She was in charge of making certain one of Tethys' diplomats returned safely
from the planet Jurai."
	Akira could see it, the strange controls of the ship Tethys had
presented her with. Little more than a two-person shuttle, barely larger than a
small car. But the controls had been instinctive. Akira had taken to piloting
with the same aplomb she had to motorcycles. Running Galaxia's blockades had
become something of a game, a game she was very good at.
	"On her way there she encountered a ship of refugees. One thousand
people fleeing the destruction of their homeworld by Galaxia's forces. They were
on their way to Earth..."
	Akira could still see the 'ship'... little more than a freighter, a
block of metal in space running on fumes and leaking exhaust from its engines.
She could hear the desperate pleas of the distress signal. And she could hear
Tethys' voice over the radio, telling her the awful truth.
	"One of the people on board that ship has a Star Seed, Akira. Galaxia
knows this and she will chase it to the ends of the universe. If those people
reach Earth, Galaxia will follow. And she will kill everyone. Everyone.
Arkanphel? Millennium? The Americans? Nobody here can stand up to her. She alone
can rip out the souls of everyone on the planet at once. I can't fight her,
Akira. Maybe in ten years, maybe after I've had a chance to grow in power, but
now... not now."
	Akira's hands cramped. They curled around phantom controls of a phantom
ship. Her thumbs rested on a pair of raised triggers. There had been no choice,
really. They were too close to Earth. They didn't have enough fuel, enough air
or water, to turn around. Galaxia would chase them. She would hunt them. She
would kill them.
	And if Akira helped them, she would die herself. She and everyone she
cared about. Her friends. Her brother. The woman she had promised never to give
up on...
	It was a mercy, what Akira had done. One moment of light and fire, then
the cold emptiness of space. Akira told herself that they hadn't even seen it
coming. They hadn't felt a thing. She had to believe that.
	"...but Akira didn't know the truth," Pluto pointed out suddenly, her
voice fierce. "Tethys KNEW that the people on board that ship didn't have a Star
Seed. Galaxia was not chasing them. She bragged to us later, me and Rose. She
said that it was a test. A test of what kinds of choices Akira would make. A
test to see if she could look past her 'shallow morality' and see the bigger
picture." Pluto's voice was filled with disgust and she was levelling a
dangerous look at Tethys. "Unfortunately for her, Akira overheard. What happened
next... wasn't pleasant."
	"So that's the story, is it?" Ukyou said softly.
	"Ukyou..." Akira moaned. She wasn't looking at her. Ukyou was staring at
Tethys. At her smirking face. Tethys knew she had won. Ukyou could never trust
Akira now. Now after she had done all that and... and LIED about it. Lied to
everyone, including herself. It went against everything Ukyou stood for.
	"That's it, Ukyou," Tethys said smoothly, stepping forward. "I bet you
think I was cruel, that I was evil to bring this up, Ukyou, and you would be
right." Tethys held up one hand, uncurling it in front of her face. "You're
right. I am evil. But the difference between me and Akira is just that I admit
it. That I'm willing to face myself, and what I am. I'm willing to do what is
necessary. Pluto and Rose both agreed with me. Akira did not. She did not see
that the illusion of morality holds us back. It plays into the hands of our
enemies." Tethys brought her other hand up and spun, extending her hands
outward. "This whole world is full of evil people, who in their hearts will do
evil things. But I will change that. I want to destroy it, Ukyou. That part of
the human spirit that can be evil. The part that will allow people like myself
and Akira to exist.
	"The part that turns innocent young girls into killers. It's Chaos,
Ukyou, the evil in everyone's heart, that I'm fighting. And it is your enemy,
too. You came here looking for a way to save Hotaru, and I can show it to you."
She stopped her slow spin and faced Ukyou again, extending her hand. "I admit, I
don't have the power. I can not create the new world, a world that doesn't need
people like me. But you can. And I can show you. I can help you save one girl's
soul, and all I ask in return is that you save all creation."
	Ukyou looked at the Dark Queen for a few moments. Then her cold
expression warmed. Her black lotus eyes softened and her thin lips curled up in
a little laughing smile. "I'm surprised at you, Tethys."
	"Surprised?"
	"Did you really think this would work?" Ukyou walked forward. "Show me
that everyone can be evil, and I'll join your crusade? I have to admit, this was
an elaborate plan." Ukyou paused, only a few steps away from Tethys. Well within
reach of her Silence Glaive. Then she turned and walked over to Akira.
	Akira stared as Ukyou reached out and grabbed her hand, she pulled the
unresisting limb up and placed it against her heart. "Do you think I care what
Akira did? Do you really think it matters?"
	"Ukyou..." Akira breathed. Tethys's expression darkened.
	"Yes, Akira isn't perfect. I never asked her to be. I never asked
anything of her. And she never asked anything of me. All we have is whatever
feelings we share, at this moment. Erasing my memories? Bison told me about
that, and so what? Frankly, I don't want to remember Lotus Infinite. Serving
you? Killing people? I'd be a bit of a hypocrite to say that one bad decision in
her life made her a person I can't care for."
	Ukyou stepped to her side, her fingers lacing between Akira's. "If you
hoped to win me over to your cause, Tethys, you're going to have to come up with
something more powerful than the old 'everyone is really an asshole, down
inside' bit."
	Tethys's expression darkened further, and her voice was cold and
dangerous. "You have too much faith in your feelings, Ukyou."
	"Maybe." Ukyou chuckled. Akira was just looking at her, her head
swimming. Ukyou didn't care? It didn't matter? Could it be true? "I have to
admit, this was a good plan, however."
	"Plan?" Tethys frowned.
	 "Oh, not your plan, Tethys. But you're a part of it. You and Akira,
Hotaru and I, Nabiki and Ryouga. Pluto. Rose. Ranma. It's all led us here,
hasn't it? Coming together." Ukyou smiled thinly. "We're all pawns of destiny,
pieces on a board bigger than ourselves. It's all drawn us here, together. In
fact, there are only a few major players missing from the..." Ukyou trailed off.
She looked up, back towards the top of the chamber. "I spoke too soon. Looks
like the gang is, in fact, all here."
	"What is it?" Pluto asked.
	"You felt that?" Ukyou asked Tethys.
	Tethys glanced at her, then up. Her frown turned into a snarl. "So,
attacking my kingdom, are you?" She raised up one hand. "I'll show you not to
trifle with me!" She clenched her fist and smiled.
	"What's going on?" Pluto asked. Akira was still staring at Ukyou,
dumbfounded. She had wasted all this time, trying to run away from the thing she
had wanted so bad after she had finally caught it. She had thought she had grown
up seven years ago, but it looked like she was still a child. Still thinking she
wasn't worth the happiness she fought for.
	"I think Chris is attacking Tethys," Ukyou mused. "Or maybe he's after
something else..."
	"Chris?" Akira started. "Here? That would mean..."
	"Yes. Angel. And someone I don't recognise and..." Ukyou frowned. "No...
that can't be right..."
	"Heh," Tethys smirked. "Innovative. That actually held me back. But I
haven't spent seven years idle!" Tethys gestured again, but her concentration
seemed to totally be on what was happening somewhere above them.
	"She's distracted..." Ukyou said. She looked over the side. The platform
had stopped directly above the great rift. She looked at Akira. "Akira, I'm
going after her. Hotaru is here, in the city. I have to talk to her. This may be
the only chance I'll get to do that alone!"
	"You can't!" Pluto snapped, stepping in front of her.
	"You can either stop me, or get out of my way," Ukyou informed the Time
Senshi flatly. "I have to know, Pluto. I have to talk to Hotaru, and learn what
exactly it is I'm really fighting. What it is that we're all fighting."
	Pluto frowned. "Very well. But I'm coming too."
`	"Akira..." Ukyou turned to her. Akira looked at her, then at Tethys. The
Dark Queen was so absorbed in whatever distant battle she was fighting that she
wasn't even seeing them. Akira was very tempted to punch her again. But she
resisted.
	"Go, Ukyou." Akira looked at her friend, the woman she loved. "You have
a soul to save, and so do I." She smirked. "After all, you forgave me, but
someone has to forgive her."
	Ukyou looked at her a long moment. Then she clapped a hand on Akira's
shoulder. "We'll meet again, then."
	Akira placed her hand over Ukyou's. Then she smiled. "Promise?"
	Ukyou laughed. "Yes. I promise."

*

	"Damn, there are so many people here," Ranma muttered.
	"What did you expect? I said it was a city of over a million people,"
Nabiki pointed out.
	"Yeah, but..." Ranma shrugged. He wasn't certain what it was, but this
entire place set him on edge. He blinked. Wait, of course he was certain what it
was. This entire place was a magical fortress built under a glacier of frozen
water, powered by dark energy, filled with soul-eating demons and inhabited by
millions of people loyal to a woman who called herself the Dark Queen.
	Frankly, if Ranma hadn't been on edge, he would have thought there was
something wrong with him.
	"Also, didn't Pluto tell us there was only one entrance?" Ranma asked.
"That doesn't explain that tunnel we came down in."
	"Tethys may be paranoid, but she isn't stupid." Nabiki snorted. "No city
of this many people can only have one entrance, Ranma. Or more accurately, it
has to have more than one exit. Just in case anything goes wrong. The trick is
knowing where to look."
	"And how did you..." Nabiki interrupted him with a level stare. "Oh...
right. Mind stuff."
	"Come on, we're almost there." Nabiki picked up the pace, moving through
the crowds of people here with distinct ease. The people in the city really
didn't look any different than any others. They came from all the races Ranma
had seen, and a few he hadn't. There were people here with blue and green skin,
some with antennae on their head. There had been a man with the head of a dog at
one corner, hawking fish to passersby. There had been one woman Ranma was
certain wasn't a youma, but who had been wearing nothing except curling strips
of white fur. Of course, Ranma hadn't gotten a good look at her, since she
resembled a... the bad things, a bit too much for his taste.
	Besides, Minako would have gutted him if she caught him staring at what
was, essentially, a naked chick.
	"Where exactly is there?" Ranma asked idly.
	"Near the end of the market," Nabiki muttered. "He's alone. That's good.
It means we won't have to worry about Hotaru showing up." Nabiki paused. "Ranma,
he might not want to go willingly."
	"Well, can't you just..." He waved his fingers near his temples. Nabiki
grimaced in disgust.
	"I'd... it's just..."
	"Hey, fine." Ranma smiled at her. "If you don't want to mind-whammy
him..." He cracked his knuckles.
	"We're not here to fight, Ranma!"
	"Okay..." Ranma grumbled, walking along behind his ex-fiancee.
	At first, Ranma didn't recognize him. The man was taller than the boy
Ranma remembered, and Ranma's memories were shaky at the best of times. It was
the fangs. He still had the same little fangs that flashed when he spoke. He was
arguing with a shopkeep, a short English man. Ryouga had filled out even more in
the last seven years. He was more muscular than Ranma, probably with at least
ten kilos on him, but still with the sleek frame of a natural fighter. His black
hair was long, clumsily cut, and his bangs drifted down over his face a bit. He
wore a brown coat and green pants stained here and there, both covered in rough
patches. Around his neck he wore a scarf of yellow cloth with black checkerboard
marks across it.
	Nabiki had paused, and was just staring at him. Ranma looked at her. Her
cheeks were flushed and her breathing short and shallow. She kept clenching and
unclenching her hands. She looked for all the world like a teenage girl trying
to work up the courage to talk to a cute guy, rather than the Queen of the
Underworld, about to confront the bodyguard of the Messiah of Silence.
	Ranma reached out, and patted her on the shoulder once. He smiled as
best he could. He really had no idea what he was doing, but Minako had told him
that girls liked it when guys smiled at them and tried to be encouraging.
Whatever it was, it seemed to work. Nabiki took a deep breath, steeled herself
and walked forward. Ranma waited a few beats, then followed her.
	"Ryouga."
	The boy paused, turning slightly at the sound of his name. He narrowed
his eyes and looked at the source. Nabiki looked back at him. He had to tower
over her by at least a head, and he looked down at her, rising to his full
height as he did so.
	"It's... been a long time," Nabiki said, her voice scratchy.
	"Nabiki," Ryouga said, his voice cold with anger. "I thought I told you
never to come near me again."
	"And I've honoured that," Nabiki said softly, looking down. "But I had
to come, Ryouga, I've been keeping track of you and-"
	"Of course you have," Ryouga snapped, cutting her off. "You're here for
her, aren't you?" he accused.
	"What? No! Well..." Nabiki trailed off.
	"Don't try to deny it," he snarled, stepping forward. "I won't let you
or anyone else hurt her." He sneered. "What, the psychotic plant lady didn't
succeed, so you came yourself?" He pushed her shoulder and Nabiki cried out,
more in surprise than pain, and stumbled back. "Go away, Nabiki. If you come
after Hotaru, she WILL kill you."
	"Hey!" Ranma grabbed Ryouga's wrist. "Leave her alone, tough guy."
	Ryouga looked up the arm, finally letting his eyes rest on Ranma's face.
"Saotome."
	"Yeah, that's right, Ryouga," Ranma started. "Listen, we're not here
about Hotaru. We were friends once and-"
	There were few times that Ranma was ever taken off-guard. But all he got
for a warning was a bloom of pain across his cheek, then the sensation of
flying. He managed to roll, hitting the wall with his feet instead of his back.
The thick black ice cracked as he touched it. He slid down, shaking his head.
	"We were never friends, Ranma," Ryouga informed him, slowly pulling back
his hand.
	Ranma rubbed his lips with the back of his hand. There was blood. He
frowned. "Ryouga, I'm going to try once more to be reasonable..."
	"Reasonable?" Ryouga stepped towards him, stretching his fingers at his
side. "You think I don't know what's going on? Nabiki's last assassin failed, so
now she's getting the one person who ever defeated me to come." Ryouga smirked.
"Well, Ranma, you'll find I'm just full of surprises."
	"Ranma! Ryouga! Stop this!" Nabiki shouted. Ranma looked around.
Everyone was staring at them. Ranma grinned.
	"Hey, he started it," he told her. Then he exploded across the tunnel
towards the boy. Ryouga met him, screaming. Each threw a blow, their auras
suddenly exploding around them; Ranma's a deep blue, Ryouga's a thick green.
	And the city around them exploded. Shards of ice flew in all directions
as the floor buckled and burst under the strain of their impact. Then they were
falling, floating down into the pits between the tunnels of the city. Their arms
and legs flashing, the air cracking as they delivered blows at speeds faster
than the eye could see. Ranma didn't quite chuckle. Ryouga snarled and cursed.
	Well, if Ryouga was spoiling for a fight so bad, far be it from Ranma
Saotome to deny him!

*

	"A giant black pyramid, huh?" Angel commented, whistling as she looked
up at it. "So how do you get in?"
	"Forcefully if we have to," Chris replied, "but that may not be
necessary. Link?"
	The woman was already examining the pyramid, hovering her hand over it
but not quite touching it. Finally, she looked back. "It's just a trick of the
stone, not an entire new enchantment for each visitor. The tunnel remains
inside... it would be more correct to say the pyramid rotates than that the
tunnel moves, but it's actually more complex than that. I could attempt to
figure out the weave she uses, but she'd certainly notice."
	Chris waved that aside. "We're not here for a social call, after all.
Where is the tunnel now?"
	Link stared at the pyramid again, sliding alongside it, still careful
not to quite touch the stark black stone. In the air above, her dragon coiled
and uncoiled, seemingly untouched by the wind, though icicles had formed on it
midway along the trip here. Chris hovered above a snowdrift, face and posture
calm. Kalia was beside Him, as she almost always was. She was giggling to
herself about something, but Angel tried to ignore her.
	"Here," Link said finally. She had moved several steps to the right,
and pointed at a particular block of stone. "Beneath this, about two meters
directly inward."
	Chris nodded at Angel. "If you'd do the honours of announcing us, then?"
	Angel felt a shiver running down her back, even through the thick multi-
layered parka that was protecting her from the arctic winds. Despite everything
else, despite being sure that Chris could handle any eventuality, she still
prayed that Tethys wouldn't immediately rise to confront the intrusion as she
stepped forward. Bison had been terrifying enough, and Angel had never even been
close enough to see him - or her, she guessed - clearly. The few times she'd
been in the presence of a zoalord were just as bad. Being near Saffron, too.
	Some beings just reminded you of how frail and human you were.
	But Chris was as calm and steady as ever, so she swallowed and ignored
the tight knot in her stomach. Sizing up the imposing stone structure, she drew
her fist back. The snow around her began to hiss, and steam rose as she poured
all the limitless power from her tattoos she could handle into her fire chakra.
Then she threw all the strength-enhancing chi into her fist as she swung forward
with all her might.
	The effect was spectacular, but then, it usually was.
	Chris clapped politely as the dust cleared. A section the size of a
largish bus had been knocked out of the pyramid wall; the part immediately
around the impact point had been pulverised, and the surrounding chunks sheared
off by the shockwaves. In the centre was the promised tunnel, a two meter wide
passage into darkness. "Excellently done," Chris noted. "Well, she knows someone
is here now. Let's go."
	They walked into the tunnel, which was pitch-black for a moment, but
then several shàyù crawled from Link's sleeves and flew into the air, their
bodies glowing like miniature lanterns. It was only cool in here, surprisingly,
not bitterly cold as it had been outside or like Angel would have expected from
the 'City of Black Ice'. But then, she supposed, people did live there.
	After a moment of walking, Chris raised a hand for a halt. "This is far
enough for the moment. I expect Tethys is trying to get a fix on exactly what we
are. Sensing me or Kalia ought to be beyond her until she gets much closer, but
we will all need freedom of movement in the city to accomplish our tasks, which
will require a distraction. Link, kindly create that distraction."
	Link nodded slightly and stepped forward. One hand emerged from her
sleeves and scattered a number of small objects to the tunnel. "I'll create a
self-generating forest," she explained. "It should act like chaff, millions of
lifesigns obscuring our own." She frowned and reached the hand into her other
sleeve. "I'll just need some water-"
	Angel never even saw it coming. All of a sudden she was spinning end
over end, which took her a moment to realise. It took her a further moment to
determine she was underwater. Her mouth opened, maybe to say something, maybe
just to gape in surprise, and she choked. She looked around for a pocket of air,
something, but the lights had vanished and she was in pitch darkness.
	And then the light returned. Violet flared, and suddenly the water was
gone. She toppled to the floor, retching the water from her lungs. She could
barely see for a moment, for the water had been replaced by steam thicker than
the densest fog. But the light cut even through it, and she made her way to
Chris once she could stand again. He was surrounded by His purple flames, and
spared a glance at her as she drew near Him. "Are you alright?"
	"Fine," she gasped.
	He nodded, then raised an arm. A burst of power flared from His hand,
blasting the steam away in all directions. The tunnel was lit again, this time
by His aura of power. By the light, Angel could see the last of the water
draining away from them. "I think that's her way of saying she wasn't overly
impressed by our entrance," Chris noted wryly.
	A muttered Chinese curse caught Angel's attention, and she looked to the
right, immediately suppressing a laugh. Link was sprawled on the tunnel floor,
legs and arms spread out in an ungainly fashion. Her outfit was soaked, and the
force of the water burst had torn most of the pins from her hair. Shàyù dropped
from her sleeves as she moved, flailing helplessly in the water. As she crawled
back to her knees, Link angrily swept the hair from her face, revealing that one
of the pins had dug into her scalp to leave an angry gash in her forehead. She
continued to curse under her breath as she struggled to her feet, forcing Angel
to suppress another laugh.
	"I'm sorry," Chris said apologetically. "I should have guessed she'd
realise what you were trying to do and act. I should-"
	"Should nothing!" Link snapped peevishly, finally drawing herself up.
"Don't do me any favours! If you or she thinks this will stop me - ME! - from
growing whatever I please, you both can sit back and watch! All she did was
provide me with water!" She stepped forward, hiking up her long sleeves and
irritably swatting aside a shàyù that was stuck in the folds of the now-sodden
fabric. "Now stay out of my way!"
	"Of course," Chris murmured, smiling and drifting backwards, though He
watched carefully down the tunnel. Angel stepped back as well. Once she would
have been shocked to see anybody talk like that to Chris, but that was before
she realised that Link was like that to everyone when she was angry. The
strangest things set her off, too, sometimes.
	Link set herself and stared at the ground again, then sharply looked up
into the dark void before them. Her eyes narrowed. "Not this time, you trumped-
up youma bitch," she snarled.
	This time, she did feel it coming. A slow rumble that started deep in
her bones and slowly grew until the entire tunnel was shaking. A blast of air
hit them, intensely, pushed by the wall of water heading towards them. Angel
looked at Chris, but He shook His head, the slight smile still on His features.
	So she turned back to Link. The Chinese woman's soaked robes were
plastered against her slim figure as she raised her arms. Her long black hair,
free of constraints, now streamed backwards in the rising breeze. Her face was
set in a ferocious scowl of determination. Her hand raised, dipping her
fingertips into the blood that trickled down her face. Then, even as Angel's
eyes finally perceived the wall of water roaring up towards them, Link shouted
and whipped her hand out in front of her. The blood on her fingertips hung in
the air behind them as she drew a complex pattern. The air flashed just as the
water struck.
	Angel flinched involuntarily, but she didn't get any wetter. Link
staggered back as if struck, and her face was still screwed up in furious
concentration, but her eyes sparkled with triumph. Before her, the wall of water
pulsed and twitched, but moved no further. The lines she had drawn in the air
with her blood glowed vivid, burning red.  Abruptly they faded almost to black
and the wall of water advanced a few centimeters, but Link muttered another
curse and the seal she'd formed lit up again and continued holding it back.
	"No, I can't hope to match you for power or even hold you off for longer
than a moment," Link growled, reaching back and delicately dabbing her finger in
her blood again. "But I don't have to." She lowered her hand, letting a few
drops of the red liquid fall on the tunnel floor before her. They bubbled and
hissed, and then suddenly spread into a tiny flat reflective pool. The shield
holding off the water shuddered again, but held. Link's face was now white with
strain, but her eyes were even more viciously joyful than before. "I'll show you
that even you can't brush me aside, Tethys!"
	Her hand rose again, sharply. For a moment, nothing happened, as the
seal on the water flickered even more ominously. Then the pool of Link's blood
spread out in tight, thin lines through the grooves in the stone floor. The
scarlet trails branched out and intersected in an intricate pattern that Angel
could almost determine the form of before they drove into the wall of water.
	Green erupted outward. The speed of it was incredible. Angel didn't have
her air chakra activated, but even so, her eye was far faster than any ordinary
person's. Despite this, even to her the water seemed to vanish in the blink of
an eye, replaced by a bulging barricade of bark, vines, and leaves. Link stood
for a moment, her face twisted in triumph, then abruptly swayed, her eyes
rolling upwards, and nearly fell over backwards.
	Chris was there, steadying her just as she lost her balance. For a
moment Link hung there against His arm, then her eyes refocused. She flinched,
her entire body shuddering, and drew so quickly away from Him that she nearly
toppled over in the other direction. Chris didn't really react, but Angel
noticed somewhere along the way He'd stopped smiling. "Did you do it?" He asked
softly.
	"Of... course," Link said, breathing heavily. "I could have... done
something like that... seven years ago."
	"Not against Tethys," Chris said.
	"No, I suppose not," Link muttered, hardly seeming any happier for the
praise. "The main trick was to make sure it replicated faster than she could
turn her power on the plants to destroy them. Not hard, when her entire city is
made of ice. Magical ice, perhaps, but the difference isn't as great as she
thinks." A spiteful little light suddenly danced in her eyes. "She'll remember
me now."
	"No doubt, though she'll have other concerns soon enough," Chris
replied.
	Angel wondered what He meant for a moment, then snapped her head back,
looking around the tunnel.  But they were the only ones there. "Kalia?"
	"She'll find her own way," Chris said, the smile returning. "She always
does. Now it's time for you to head out, Angel."
	Angel stared blankly at the impenetrable mass of vegetation for a
moment. Link rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers, and with a sound like
rending cloth, the plants drew apart, leaving a passageway.  "Okay," Angel
shrugged.  "But aren't we all going?"
	"In a moment," Chris said. "I took the liberty of doing some research,
and there's a few things I think Link ought to know about our... dear friend,
Nabiki Tendo. I'll walk with her for awhile."
	Angel shrugged again, and then her sword leaped from her sheath. A few
well-placed cuts later, and her sodden parka fell to the tunnel floor. She
stretched, glad to be free to move again, and re-belted her sword to her now-
bare thigh.
	"Be careful not to be seen," Chris cautioned. "There are many powerful
foes here."
	Angel grinned as she fed chi into her air chakra; this time, the light
that streamed into the tunnel came from her as her tattoo lit up like a bonfire.
"Don't worry about me. I'll find where Tethys has stashed Alucard before anyone
even remembers I'm here."

*

	The first sign that there was something wrong was the thunderous crack
that resounded throughout the city. The people stopped, their eyes drifting
skyward. From those places with a view of the great black, star-dotted ceiling
there came a collective gasp. A single crack, appearing as thin as a hair,
traversed the pyramidal complex from one end to the other.
	For a moment, the people stood there, uncertain what to do. Then the
crack came again, and another line formed in the ice. With a roar of protest a
thick chunk of ice, the size of a football field, broke free. It slid downward
slowly at first, then with increasing speed. Its descent was almost lazy, and
strangely graceful. When it struck the city below, it broke into a cloud of grey
mist, filled with razor-sharp shards of ice and hurtling chunks larger than a
human moving at terminal velocity. Nobody heard the screams over the cataclysmic
destruction.
	The people were already running, fleeing for their lives. In less than
twenty seconds, the peace of this city had been shattered. A place that had
become a refuge, a place that many had fled to in order to escape the chaos of
the world outside, now suddenly violated.
	From the rift the fallen iceberg had come from, there came a small green
thing. It appeared like a flower stem, uncurling itself from the earth like a
bean sprout on fast forward. Except it was growing downward, and it was the size
of a city block. Again and again across the ceiling the ice shattered and
cracked, sending icebergs plummeting like asteroids into the city below. Out of
these voids came more and more of the strange blooms.
	One by one the strange plants reached their full extension, becoming a
green shaft pointed straight down at the coral reef-like structure of the city.
When they were finished the city held its breath. There were no more cracks, no
more explosions, no more rains of deadly ice from the sky. Just dozens of
flowerless stems pointed straight down.
	A second later, the shafts rocketed downwards like spears, extending so
fast that few could follow their descent. One after another they crashed into
the devastated city. Where they came down, great clouds of yellow dust exploded
outwards, swiftly blanketing anything nearby in a thick choking cloud. A
phantasmagoria of plants burst forth from where the pollen had settled on the
black ice. Everything from tiny flowers, to thick pines to other stranger things
came forth. Great pulsating vines, thick and red, burrowed through walls and
tunnels, tearing apart those citizens too slow to get out of their way. Even
among those who did, there were screams and deaths, as the pollen shot forth,
choking anyone caught in the expanding clouds.
	Tethys rested her hands on the rails of her floating platform. So far,
none of the chaos had reached anywhere near the Great Rift. She frowned.
	"What an inconvenience," she stated. She flipped her head, letting her
long hair fall behind her. The petty little magician that had invaded her city
seemed to be quite skilled. Not that she could win. Even this wasn't beyond
Tethys' ability to fix.
	Unfortunately it was interfering with her ability to sense her
opponents. Among the trees and plants there were life forces, hundreds or them,
thousands of them. Each beating strong and loud, the magical equivalent to
throwing up smokescreen. Tethys knew her senses were not refined enough to
pierce the deception.
	"Ukyou, we seem to be..." Tethys trailed off. She looked around the
platform. She was alone. "Now that was just rude," Tethys said with a sigh,
shaking her head. Unfortunately, it would be just as hard to track down Ukyou as
it would to track down her attackers. She turned again, preparing to summon up
some of her more powerful minions-
	"HI!"
	For the second time that day, someone crashed their fist into Tethys'
face. Unlike before, this blow was powerful enough to send her flying off the
platform, shattering the guard rail like a dry noodle. She continued on,
crashing through a tunnel as wide as a four-lane street without pause. Her body
skipped like a stone across half the city, tearing divots and trenches through
the buildings. Finally she came to a rest on the side of a nautilus shell-shaped
structure.
	"That... hurt quite a bit," Tethys informed no one in particular as she
raised to her feet. She adjusted her jaw with one hand, resetting the bone as
she liquefied the torn tissue before regenerating it healthy once more, causing
the pain to vanish as if it had never been.
	She then looked around. She distinctly remembered seeing a white-haired
girl in a strange bodysuit just before the blow had struck her.
	"Up here!"
	Tethys craned her neck, looking to the top of the nautilus. The girl was
walking along a thin stalagmite of ice that grew from the top of the building,
her arms extended to her sides and her body rocking back and forth as if she
were traversing a tightrope. Except she was walking up the icicle.
	"I suppose this is the point where I ask who you are, except I don't
really care," Tethys said with a shrug, and gestured with one hand. The entire
top of the building exploded, the ice flashing upward, shattering into a million
razor-thin daggers that spun into the sky, tearing everything apart in their
wake. Tethys knew the girl would disintegrate in the centre of the blast, her
body flying apart under the assault.
	She KNEW it.
	So why was the girl standing there, sitting on top of the icicle, her
legs kicking back and forth idly, like nothing at all had happened?
	"Hey, not caring has gotten you this far, why should I buck the trend?"
the girl said, her voice cheerful. "My name is Kalia, since you don't care so
much. How are you today?"
	"I've had better days," Tethys said, tapping her foot impatiently. She
blinked. She hadn't MEANT to say that.
	"Yeah, sucks to be you, I guess," Kalia said, nodding sagely. "I'm here
to kill you, so that probably won't help."
	"At least you're honest," Tethys admitted, smiling.
	The girl cocked her head to one side and placed a finger to her lip.
"Mou. Or am I supposed to delay you until someone else gets here to kill you? I
can't decide."
	"Why don't we just fight each other? Then, if you kill me, you were here
to do that, and if you don't you were just here to delay me," Tethys said
helpfully. She started, staggering back through the air, overcome by a sudden
wave of vertigo. What had just happened to her?
	"Now, I know that you're basically invulnerable to physical damage of
all kinds," Kalia said, floating off her perch and down towards Tethys. Tethys
frowned and rose into the air to meet her. She absently weaved her outfit into a
more appropriate battle form, summoning her ice lance as she did so. They met in
mid-air, floating less than a meter apart. Tethys' long hair billowed out behind
her and Kalia just sort of smiled lightly, like she hadn't a care in the world.
"You can turn into water, negating any blow that strikes you. And even if I did
hit you, you can just instantly regenerate from it."
	"That's true," Tethys smirked. "So unless you have something special up
your sleeve, why not give up and die now?"
	"I think it would be a better idea if, for some insane reason, you just
decided not to use those powers."
	"Agreed," Tethys said. Then blinked.
	The next thing she knew, her arm was broken in five places. She
screamed, falling back and clutching it. Kalia smirked at her, holding up both
hands in a sort of apologetic fashion. Tethys hadn't even seen her move. What...
what was this girl?
	"I forgot to mention this earlier, Tethys, but I'm unfair," Kalia said,
and then she laughed.

*

	Akane hated teleporting.
	It wasn't that teleportation, at least the kind employed by Washuu, was
particularly unpleasant. In fact, if you didn't pay attention closely, you might
not even notice any effect whatsoever. It also wasn't that she hated it on an
intellectual level. She had no idea how it worked (she had been too intimidated
to ask), nor did she have any moral objection to its practical uses.
	It just always left her feeling... strange. Like she had lost something,
but couldn't remember what.
	She also preferred to do it with her eyes closed, so she only opened
them once Rei announced that they had arrived. She looked around the chamber
they had arrived in. It was a large domed room, the walls glittering black, and
there was a slight chill that radiated from them. Instinctively Akane drew in
more of her fire chakra, warming herself back up to comfortable levels. The
combat suit she wore was surprisingly good insulation, but it wasn't actually
designed for the cold. Rei, despite wearing far less than Akane, didn't look
particularly uncomfortable.
	Katsuhito didn't even look like he had noticed their current situation.
He was staring down at the wristband that Washuu had given them to protect
against Akio. Akane reminded herself to berate the short redhead later about
that. Those things had proven practically useless. She had meant to do so when
they'd left Ohtori, but Washuu herself hadn't arrived to personally teleport
them.
	In fact, Akane hadn't even seen Washuu since they'd left for the academy
over three weeks ago.
	"Hmmm... it appears we arrived just in time," Katsuhito said softly.
	"What do you-" Rei cut off as a titanic roar filled the chamber.
Everything shuddered, rocking and bouncing. Akane staggered, barely managing to
keep her feet under her while Rei fell ingloriously on her ass. Katsuhito, for
his part, didn't even so much as twitch. He simply slid his hands into his
sleeves and looked at the two of them.
	"The city is under attack," he said.
	"You think?" Rei grumbled, standing up. "What have you gotten us into
this time, old man?"
	Before he could answer, there was another crash. This time Akane had
better luck holding her stance, while Rei was able to keep her footing with more
difficulty.
	"We don't have much time," Katsuhito told them. "The devices on your
wrists are tied into Washuu's computers back at home. She's locked on to the
genetic signature of Miss Kiryuu's brother. You two better go quickly."
	"Right..." Rei looked at her wrist. "Now how do these things..." She
blinked as a miniature hologram, a nearly flawless three-dimensional map of what
Akane could only assume was the cavern complex they were in, appeared floating
over her wrist. There were four blinking lights on it, three clustered together
near the bottom and one somewhat distant, not that far away from them. "That's
handier than most things she builds." Rei started as the projection turned
abruptly into a small child-like version of Washuu which smacked her on the head
with a tiny pink and blue hammer. It reverted back to normal and Rei blinked,
rubbing her forehead. "That hurt..."
	"Just because she isn't here, doesn't mean she isn't paying attention,"
Katsuhito pointed out, smiling jovially.
	"Right, so what do we do once we find him?" Akane asked.
	"Place this on him." Katsuhito threw her another armband. She looked at
it. "Washuu can use it to teleport him away." Akane looked from it to him.
	"Where are you going?"
	Katsuhito looked at her. Then he adjusted his glasses so the shine of
them hid his eyes. "I'm going to go provide a distraction."
	"A distraction?" Akane asked.
	"Well, we don't want anyone interrupting us while we rescue Nanami's
brother, Akane," Rei said with a sigh.
	"Of course," Akane murmured. Something about this seemed... off.
	But Katsuhito was already walking away, towards one of the four exits
from the room. A tunnel that sloped up and in the opposite direction they were
going. Akane watched him leave until Rei grabbed her arm and started pulling her
in the direction of their objective. She shook her head.
	Whatever doubts she had, they could wait until after the current crisis
had passed.

*

	Someone could say that this was a fight seven years in the making. It
was no doubt a clash between two masters of the art. The classic struggle, the
unanswerable question. The immovable object. The irresistible force. In the
first five seconds of the battle they realised each other's measure, and
realised the other wasn't going to hold back.
	So neither did.
	Ryouga flew upward, his body carving a line through the City of Black
Ice. A green meteor, trailing a line of light behind him. He hadn't even paused
when Ranma had hit him. His hands came together, concentrating his power. His
body went nova, light catching and reflecting through the sheen of the black
ice.
	"JISATSU BAKUHA!"
	Ranma was following him, running through the column carved by Ryouga.
Ryouga screamed, releasing the blast of energy straight down. His aura collapsed
into it, forming a ball of light no larger than a baseball. It fell far faster
than gravity had any right to drag it. The city around it imploded, huge
sections of ice and entire tunnels collapsing in towards the centre of the
attack. There was no way for Ranma to dodge it, not in the tight corridor that
he was travelling.
	So Ranma reached up one hand, and caught it. His body flew backwards
until his feet sunk two inches into a thick sheet of ice. His face was a mask of
concentration. Then the ground around him erupted upward, a circular mass nearly
five meters wide exploding all at once. There was a pulse of blue-green light,
and then the cloud of shrapnel fell down around him.
	Ranma was breathing heavily, but still standing.
	"Nice trick," Ranma said, smirking.
	"There was no way to block that," Ryouga accused. He was standing about
fifteen meters above his opponent, so they had to yell. Ryouga knew that attack
should have worked. It was the Jisatsu Bakuha, the Suicide Blast. Every time
Ryouga used it, he literally tore out his own soul, filled it with chi and
launched it like a nuclear bomb. Using it should have killed him. He could feel
the strain of it, draining him, but he didn't die.
	Because the last time he had used that technique, a woman had wished
that he wouldn't die. And so he wouldn't. Ever.
	"I didn't block it," Ranma said. "I just sort of..." He shrugged.
"channelled it around me."
	"It seems Nabiki chose well," Ryouga growled. The one person, aside from
Hotaru, to have ever defeated Ryouga in martial arts. Nabiki certainly knew how
to pick them. Wasn't she ever going to stop ruining his life?
	Ranma had somehow managed to climb up to his level in the few seconds it
took Ryouga to say that. "Hey, get a clue, Ryouga. I'm not here to kill you."
	"No, just Hotaru!" Ryouga leapt at him, and the fight began again. For
now, they kept it to the mundane. Punches and kicks, leaps and blocks, an
exchange of blows as speeds that cracked the air and tore the surroundings to
shreds with even their near-misses. More of Ranma's blows got through than
Ryouga's, but they were like drops of water against a mountain. Most of them
Ryouga didn't even feel. Ryouga only managed to get in one blow, a deceptively
gentle looking little push with the ball of his thumb.
	The strike sent Ranma flying nearly a hundred meters across the city.
Ryouga bounded after him, cursing all the while. He'd have to rein back. He
wasn't fast enough to follow through on hits like that. He was just giving Ranma
a chance to recover while Ryouga caught up.
	Ranma was waiting for him, and he parried Ryouga's incoming jumpkick
with his forearm. There was a soft clank as Ryouga was knocked to the side.
Ranma skipped back, sliding around a few more of Ryouga's attacks. "Why do you
care so much about Hotaru, Ryouga? You've been with her for all these years. You
KNOW what she is!"
	"I have nothing else!" Ryouga told him. A missed strike smashed into a
building some thirty meters across, causing the entire side to rumble in. "I've
lost everything, Ranma. My pride, my honour, my humanity. Nabiki stripped it all
from me one piece at a time!"
	"Pal..." Ranma suddenly flashed through Ryouga's guard to look him
square in the eye from less than an inch away. "Get over it, already."
	Ryouga staggered back. "You don't understand..."
	"Wah, wah, wah..." Ranma slid in, driving an elbow into Ryouga's gut
hard enough that Ryouga actually had the wind blown out of him. Not that he
needed to breathe anymore, but it was still uncomfortable. "If you whine this
much, it's no wonder the girl planning on killing everything is the only one
willing to put up with you."
	"Shut up!" Ryouga swung, just missing taking Ranma's head off. "After
all the sacrifices I've made..."
	"Whatever, Ryouga," Ranma slid backward, hitting Ryouga a hundred times
in a heartbeat. None of the blows even registered. He hissed, shaking his
steaming knuckles. "But if you claim you have nothing, you oughta look again."
	"Look at what?" Ryouga stalked forward.
	"At the simple truth," Ranma said, frowning. "Like... you ever wonder
why you never get lost anymore?" Ryouga paused. "Or maybe wondered why you
always seem to know the best way to sneak Hotaru and yourself through some
populated region without getting people killed?"
	"What are you saying..." They both started and looked up.
	And then their world was white and noise and pain.
	Ryouga wasn't certain how much later it was when he pulled himself out
of the mound of crushed ice, but he realised that his body had already started
adapting to the cold to prevent hypothermia. He groaned as he used his breaking
point technique to open the last little bit. Then he started as he looked
around.
	The ceiling, it was sprouting... grass?
	"Did someone just drop a mountain on us?" Ranma asked, standing up
slowly nearby.
	"I'm surprised you survived," Ryouga grunted.
	"Almost didn't." Ranma blinked. "Wow. Iceberg. Maybe Tethys got sick of
us tearing up her city?"
	"No..." Ryouga leapt suddenly, grabbing Ranma. Ranma started, but
realised that the grab wasn't a tackle or hold, and that Ryouga was already
bounding out of the crater they were in. "Worse."
	"What..." Then Ranma's voice was drowned out as a giant green stalk
fifty meters across shot from the ceiling to the city in less than a second. It
shattered into the coral-like city, sending up a cloud of yellow and white dust
in its wake.
	"Hey, I could have dodged..." Ranma said, before Ryouga slapped a hand
over his mouth.
	"Shut up, you idiot, and don't breathe until we're clear!" Ryouga
snarled. The yellow dust was falling around them. Ryouga flared his aura, the
green nova pushing most of it away. Ranma frowned, and let Ryouga lead him.
Soon, they were clear of it.
	Then Ryouga released him atop another building. The two looked as the
dust began to sprout and grow. Flowers and brush and strange fungus and even
weirder things were growing out of it now. "So, she's back too..."
	"Who?" Ranma asked.
	"This crazy plant lady, tried to kill me and Hotaru once." He looked at
Ranma. "Nabiki will be in danger. This stuff is poisonous to humans."
	"Right..." Ranma started to turn. "You coming?" he asked, pausing.
	"I have... someone else I have to save," Ryouga informed him, and then
ran off in the other direction.
	"We'll finish this later, then!" Ranma promised, before taking off
himself.

*

	The press of the fleeing populace was almost too much. It was a
stampede, great masses of screaming and panicking people running with no other
thoughts in their head but to get 'away'. Ukyou grimaced as she pushed against
the rush, trying her best not to hurt anyone. Pluto followed in her wake. At
first, the Senshi had tried to use her authority to get the crowd to calm down.
But they were too far gone. There was nothing they would listen to.
	"We should take another path!" Pluto shouted over the roar of the crowd.
She grunted as someone pushed her hard from the side, trying to get her to move
out of the way. Ukyou ignored her, trying to visualize a way past the rush. She
could try going up the walls or along the ceiling, but wasn't skilled or fast
enough to maintain that for very long. It was times like this she wished she
remembered how Lotus Infinite had done her phasing trick.
	Then Ukyou sensed it, a person falling over nearby. In a few seconds
they would be under the feet of the stampede, crushed by the frightened mob.
Ukyou grimaced and acted.
	The Silence Glaive materialised, extended directly over her head. It
gave off a low hum, a menacing sound that rippled through the crowd, slowing
them down. Then Ukyou summoned the Silence, forging a wall in mid-air, shearing
straight into the ice in front of her. The crowd was not so panicked as to run
suicidally into the rippling wave of the barely visible barrier. Which was good,
because Ukyou had no intention of letting them.
	Then Ukyou felt it.
	Of course, Ukyou had been aware of Hotaru since she had gotten here. She
had sensed the ominous empty void that was now the girl's aura even before she
had walked into the Dark Kingdom. It was a black hole, a sucking abscess in the
metaphysical plain. In a normal person, chi flowed in and out, like tides in an
ocean or breath in the lungs. But not with her. Power flowed in, and nothing
came out.
	No warmth. No spirit. No feelings or emotions. Not a single trace of
humanity escaped the spiritual void that was Hotaru.
	Except now. Ukyou could feel the void focus on her. It knew. SHE knew.
Hotaru knew she was here. Ukyou could feel something, a sensation something like
suction against the edge of her skin. She was being assessed, evaluated.
	Ukyou evaluated in turn. But there was something else there, in Hotaru's
empty darkness. It flowed out of the emptiness. It wasn't real. Not the way
other things were. It was wrong, it was alien...
	"We have to hurry," Ukyou told Pluto.
	The Senshi of Time looked at Ukyou and nodded. She stepped in front of
Ukyou, and now that they had the crowd's undivided attention, her orders got
through. The people began to organise, disperse. The panicked mob was becoming
an orderly evacuation.
	Then Ukyou looked up sharply.
	The man walking towards her was old, but unbent. He walked with his back
straight and his eyes bright. His grey hair was tied back in a simple ponytail,
and his white and blue priest's robes were crisp and spotless. He carried a
simple wooden sword at his side. But it was no ordinary sword. It had a power to
it.
	Just like the old man. In fact, Ukyou had never sensed anything quite
like the man approaching her. He was full of an energy that could not quite be
called chi, and not quite mana. It was like somebody had taken the First and
Second Circles and blended them together, seamless and whole. And as she
focused, Ukyou could see the edges of something around him, a field that
inhibited his power somehow. No, not inhibited, channelled... forced it to shape
around him into... An illusion. A disguise. The appearance of an old man, and
underneath she could sense his youthful vitality.
	Then she recognised him. The name came unbidden to her lips, drawn
directly from Aaron's memories.
	"Yosho."
	"Ukyou," the man said, bowing slightly, but keeping his eyes on her. His
manner was polite, but his energy was tense. He was hyped for a battle. "I'm
glad we had a chance to meet. But while I'm somehow not surprised you know that
name, on Earth, please call me Katsuhito."
	"What are you doing here?" Ukyou looked at Pluto, then back at him.
"You're not working for Tethys, are you?"
	"Me?" Katushito chuckled. "No. My family has made certain arrangements
with the Dark Queen, but I am not here about anything that concerns them."
	"This isn't a coincidence then," Ukyou said flatly. She lowered her
weapon slowly, sliding it up under her arm and keeping the point towards the
ground. She was already preparing herself. The deadly cold calm was coming over
both her and Aaron as they instinctively began their separate yet connected
tasks.
	"I can't let you get to the girl, Ukyou." He held up his sword, the air
snapping from the speed he drew it. "If it's any consolation, I'm sorry."
	"Why are you interested in Hotaru?" Ukyou asked.
	"I can't tell you," he said simply.
	Ukyou looked at Pluto. "Pluto... Setsuna, whatever you prefer to be
called. I..." She closed her mouth. It had long gone past a question of trust
with Sailor Pluto. The woman had fought with her to destroy Bison, had nearly
died, had lost her best friend and betrayed a sadistic dark queen for Ukyou.
Even so, Ukyou knew Pluto would still kill her if the chance arose. And she
feared that once Pluto met Hotaru... "Pluto, you have to go on ahead. Hotaru is
moving, but I think I can sense where. You have to delay her."
	"By myself?" Pluto gasped. "But as Sailor Saturn alone she was stronger
than..." She trailed off at Ukyou's expression. "I'll... try." She looked at
Katsuhito. "If you can keep him busy."
	Katsuhito smiled at Pluto, and he slid sideways, gesturing past him.
"Please, be my guest."
	"What?" Pluto blinked in surprise.
	"You may continue on your way." He looked at Ukyou, his glasses
gleaming. "Ukyou and Hotaru must never meet. I think you'll figure out why, when
you see the child."
	Pluto looked at Ukyou, then Ukyou gestured her over. She quickly
whispered a few directions into her ear, then Pluto was off. She dashed past the
old man, and the once she was out of sight, the deceptive old Juraian firmed up
his stance once more.
	"So... you're not going to let me past unless I beat you, is that it?"
Ukyou asked, beginning to approach him. She swung her glaive around a few times,
the weapon humming through the air.
	"In so many words? Yes," he said. "It's for your own good."
	Suddenly they met, their weapons smashing into each other again and
again. He moved with a speed and deftness that belied his appearance, fading
back and away from her strikes, parrying them just enough to keep the glaive's
longer reach from becoming an issue. Then he knocked her weapon to the side,
throwing her off balance. But instead of following up he leapt backwards,
landing further down the corridor. He gestured for her to come at him again.
	"You know, I really hate when people tell me that," Ukyou growled, and
rushed towards him.

*

	Nabiki was a practical sort of person. Somebody else in her situation -
Ukyou, for example - might be wallowing in self-pity and angst at this point.
She, however, was engaged in the productive task of evaluating the current
crisis and how it had spiralled completely out of control despite both her best
intentions and all logic.
	This involved a lot of cursing. And hitting things.
	It was therapeutic.
	However, her knuckles were hurting, so she decided to instead find
something else to do. She took a deep breath and focused. The static being
thrown up by Link's phantom life forces was very impressive. Nothing that, say,
Ukyou could not have punched through with a little effortm, though.
	The problem was that Nabiki had no intention of doing that. Because Link
was not the problem here. The problem was the walking hole that was Hotaru.
Nabiki had thought, over the years that she had kept tabs on Ryouga and his
journeys with the tiny psychopath, that she had understood Hotaru. It was easy
to believe that when the girl was literally half a planet away.
	It was much harder when she was in the same city. The problem was that
Hotaru, unlike Chris, was not disconnected from the Oversoul. She wasn't a
phantom. She was a part of this universe, a sentient entity like any other with
its own part in the vast cosmic tidal force that was humanity's subconscious.
But she was a wound, a cancer.
	No, that wasn't right. Hotaru was just a part of it. An earthly
reflection of something vaster and deeper. It was a chill void, an all-consuming
emptiness at the very heart of what was reality. A rip, a tear... No. No words
did it justice. No words except one. Oblivion.
	The end of everything.
	And it was out there, devouring the entire universe. One soul at a time.
	Nabiki realised that she had been ignoring it for years. She had danced
along the edges of it, not wishing to gaze into that abyss. She had seen signs
of it a few other times. The best example was the time when she and Akira had
been within Ukyou's mind.
	"Oh god..." she gasped. "It all makes sense..."
	The darkness, the consuming void. The one inside Ukyou's mind was just
like the one that existed beyond Hotaru's. The Silence. That was what Ukyou had
done to herself, rather than face her destiny and her guilt all those years ago.
She had given in to it. But...
	But Akira had brought her back?
	How was that even possible?
	Suddenly the chamber Nabiki was in rumbled and tilted, throwing her off
her feet. She scrambled for a handhold on the slick black ice, but found none.
She crashed into the corner hard, cursing. The entire room had been spun
sideways, tilted forty-five degrees.
	Then what had been the floor began to bulge. Once, twice, three times it
pulsed, the bulge growing larger each time as a web of cracks erupted around the
ice. With a sound like shattering glass the bulge erupted inward, showering
Nabiki with tiny slivers of ice. She ducked, pulling her hood up to protect her
face.
	A huge blue-green tendril, the colour of rotten cheese, emerged through
the hole. It sprouted, noxious fungal growths rapidly spreading across every
surface it touched. Tiny yellow spores, glowing like fireflies, began to fill
the air.
	"Oh please..." Nabiki wrapped her hand around her sword. "Link, I'd
rather not waste the wish here."
	Nabiki smiled as the spores in the air seemed to hesitate, then began to
float around near the top of the room. Wherever they touched, the ice turned
green. Nabiki watched cautiously. She was putting on a brave front, but knew
that there was a real danger here. Unless she could find Link, she couldn't hurt
her with a telepathic attack of any kind. Trying to break through Link's psychic
'static' would likely force the woman to attack. At which point it would be a
race between Nabiki's power and Link's.
	Ranma would have risked it. He would have been confident of his own
victory. Akira would have risked it. Even Ukyou would have risked it. But Nabiki
had never had what one would call a surfeit of courage. So instead she began to
gently probe around, hoping to find a mental connection to an ally quickly. One
who could come to rescue her.
	The thick vine-like plant above her waved back and forth a few times
before finally rearing into the air like a striking snake. Its tip began to
bulge and stretch, making a sound like a man about to vomit. Tears began to form
along its edges as it bulged out further and further. Thick red goo dribbled out
between the cracks, welling up between them like jelly pushed out of a sandwich.
The stench forced Nabiki to cover her nose. It was thick and coppery and smelled
like almonds.
	With a final spasm the tip of the plant ripped open, its sections
peeling back like a banana. There was something white and distorted within it,
the shape covered by so much ichor and bile that it was impossible to make out.
The plant shuddered once more then fell forward, crashing into what had once
been the wall with enough force to make the entire room shudder again.
	Nabiki stared at the slurry of red and green and black ooze that was the
thing. A figure was rising up from the morass. One of Link's dopplegangers, a
perfect recreation of what she had looked like seven years ago, from her short
hair to her strange Chinese circus outfit. The thing busied itself with brushing
the ooze off its body.
	"Is this the point where you threaten me?" Nabiki asked brightly.
	"Hmmm?" It continued idly cleaning itself. "Oh, yes, you still have a
wish. Chris was wondering about that."
	"I may not be able to kill him, but you I suspect would be less of a
problem," Nabiki said with a smile. She idly probed the thing and felt the force
of the transmitter there. It was even more powerful than normal, but that only
made sense considering the psychic static it would have to break through. Nabiki
withdrew her awareness before she could tip off Link. The longer Nabiki stalled,
the more chance that help would arrive.
	"Please, Nabiki. We both know you're not going to waste that wish on me.
Not now that you've felt what Hotaru has become," Link's decoy said with a tiny
smile.
	Nabiki was about to return a comment when she heard the movement behind
her. Really, was Link that predictable? Then again, this was the girl who had
thought that sneaking into her house while whispering 'sneak, sneak' was a good
plan. Nabiki turned and looked at the figure emerging from a nearby passage.
Nabiki had never seen the older Link with her own eyes, but she knew her by
description: her long hair, the blue gems embedded in her headdress and robes.
Nabiki focused, and unleashed her entire mental will.
	Bison had been able to withstand the full power of Nabiki's will. But he
had been something beyond human by that point. A torn and mangled soul infused
with power. Link's brain should snap like a twig under the pressure of...
	There was nothing there. Just a weak transmitter like in all of Link's
other dopplegangers. She watched as the thing in the passage fell back, its body
disintegrating into ooze and leaves without a mind to support it. But...
	Then a hand grabbed her arm. Nabiki started and looked down, then up at
the woman. Of course, the sheer power of that psychic transmitter. Nabiki didn't
think any more, she acted. She gathered her will and-
	The ground was cold under Nabiki's cheek. The screams were dying out
now, the echoes fading away. Her body shuddered and spasmed. Sweat ran down her
forehead. She groaned, placing a hand underneath herself. She levered up,
moaning. The pain... it had been...
	"Ah, you've recovered," Link said, chuckling to herself. "You see,
Nabiki, you are the single most powerful psychic on Earth. Nothing I know of can
possibly prevent you from using your powers. Even my fastest-acting poisons
can't get to your brain quickly enough to prevent you from destroying me in the
process."
	"What did you... do to me?" Nabiki gasped. Her voice was hoarse; from
screaming, she realised dimly. The pain had been so intense, so pure and
all-consuming, that all other thought, all other awareness had been washed away.
	"A tiny thing. Just the smallest little Second Circle shaping," Link
pointed out. "You see, I can't STOP you from doing anything. But... a bit of
feedback, maybe?" Link crouched down, coming into Nabiki's line of sight. Her
long black hair, now revealed, was falling around her shoulders, being pulled
strand by strand out of the clump the slime had stuck it into by the tiny
insectile creatures that served her. More of them had removed the robes from the
doppleganger and were bringing them towards her. "That barrier, between us and
everyone else. It's small, but when you cross it, it makes a resonance. I just
increased that. For a normal person, the effect would be... insignificant."
Nabiki looked down at her arm. There, where Link had touched her. It was
burrowed through her jacket, buried partly into her skin. A tiny piece of blue
crystal like the ones on Link's robe. She reached for it, but as soon as her
hand settled on it she screamed again.
	Panting, Nabiki laid on the ground again while Link tsked. "Nabiki,
Nabiki. I've had YEARS to plan for this. I stayed up for weeks at a time, just
dreaming up ways to kill you." Nabiki hissed and reached for her sword... "And
of course, that including taking this-" Link purred as she stroked the metal
blade of the Wishing Sword with one hand. "-at the first chance I could."
	Nabiki stared up at her.
	"You may start running now. Please do. I will very much enjoy it."

*

	At the best of times, D-Point was a maze. Tethys had literally shaped
the entire city with her magic, drawing deep water from far beneath the frozen
pole and shaping it with magic like the ebb and flow of the tides before
freezing it into this city. It had never really been designed for humans to live
in. Oh, people had managed to turn it into a city, a rather busy one at that.
But getting from one area to another in it had never been easy.
	That was before the city was being torn apart by giant killer plants.
Pluto cursed as a caved-in section blocked her route, backing up and starting
down a side passage. She was beginning to lose track of where she was going,
and she hadn't had that good an idea in the first place.
	Of course, did she even want to reach Hotaru? Sailor Saturn had been the
most powerful of the Sailor Senshi before reincarnating. With one blow she could
wipe out an entire planet, cleansing it of all life. Granted, Ukyou had taken
her weapon from her, but even without it Saturn would have been a terror. That
was before she had been made into one of the undead.
	So what was Pluto even supposed to do when she met up with Hotaru? She
had lost the Time Key Staff, and with it the ability to control the flow of
time. Her martial arts training under Rose had been useful, but had not
increased her power nearly enough to allow her to fight the Messiah of Silence
one on one. She was having a hard time picturing any outcome to a battle between
her and the undead Senshi that did not end up with Pluto dead.
	Yet she was going to do it. Because Ukyou had asked her to. Ukyou, who
by all rights she should be trying to kill. Yet Pluto had become swept up in the
strange girl's presence like everyone else. Pluto kept running, sprinting
towards the clam-shaped chamber at the end of the corridor. She was going along,
just a leaf in the hurricane, unable to see what was coming, only able to pray
to whatever gods were listening that she would end up somewhere safe and whole
once it was all over.
	Then pain flared across her face and she gasped, her body smashing into
the wall and sliding along it. She collapsed to the ground, groaning. The hit
hadn't been hard enough to really damage her, not with her magically-enhanced
physique, but she was still seeing spots in her eyes.
	"Pluto?" There was a soft sigh. "I can see why Ukyou started getting
sick of you."
	Pluto looked up. Chris was there, his tiny child body floating with his
legs crossed as if he were sitting back in a deep and comfortable chair. He was
holding his left hand up against his forehead and his good eye was closed. He
shook his head sadly from side to side.
	"I was expecting Ukyou, actually. Did she get lost?" Pluto stood up. Her
anger began to rise up inside her. Chris opened his eye, giving her a half-
lidded stare. "Do we really have to go through this? I really have no need or
desire to hurt you anymore. Can't you just accept that I'll win?"
	Pluto's fingers curled and uncurled. She could summon her magic, but not
nearly as fast as he could. If she'd had the Time Staff... who was she kidding?
Ukyou overmatched her in every way, and that was seven years ago. Every fiber of
her, everything that was human wanted to kill him. To strike out even in futile
defiance.
	But Pluto was above that. If she was the kind of woman who gave into
useless emotion, she would have broken down a long time ago. Every person she
had ever cared for was dead, so what did she have to lose in this fight? Maybe
if she died here, it would even upset the prophecy itself. Except Pluto didn't
believe in throwing your life away on futile gestures.
	She forced herself to relax. "What are you doing here, Chris?" she
hissed, unable to keep the hatred from her voice.
	"The same thing you are, Pluto," he replied, smiling a ghostly little
smile now. He gestured with his right hand. "I'm here to take care of Hotaru."
	"Kill her, you mean," Pluto replied sharply.
	"Hotaru Tomoe died seven years ago. She just needs to be reminded of
that fact." He chuckled. "Although I do recognise the irony of that statement."
He floated a little closer. Pluto backed up a step. "Oh, don't give me that
look. You would have tried to kill her when she was still alive, and you're
condemning me for getting rid of one of the world' greatest menaces?"
	Pluto wanted to argue with him, but what was she supposed to say? She
HAD considered killing Sailor Saturn, before the child had even awakened to her
powers.
	"Really, Pluto, I know we got off on the wrong foot, and I certainly
don't blame you for..." he paused. "Holding something of a grudge. However, I
also know you are a practical woman. So consider this:
	"That prophecy you are so scared of doesn't apply to me. I've fought
Ukyou twice and thrashed her twice. She's alive only because I let her go. I
exist outside Destiny, outside Fate. I write my own future." His smile widened
and the purple deathlight in his ruined eye grew brighter. "I can stop Ukyou any
time I wish. If you're scared she'll destroy the universe, don't worry... I
won't let her.
	"But only I can make you that promise."
	"So... what?" Pluto stared at him. "You want my loyalty? After what
you've done?"
	"Like Tethys did anything less practical in pursuit of her dream?" Chris
snorted. "I had hoped you'd be less hypocritical than Ukyou. But really, I don't
need your loyalty or your help, Pluto. If you'd just be willing to step back and
let things flow out the way they should, that would be fine. So why not consider
carefully what I said?"
	Pluto was suddenly distracted. A stale wind was blowing down the
corridor. To call it cold would have missed the point entirely. It had no heat
or cold. It leached away everything, every sensation, every eddy of air, every
soft heartbeat. The entire room filled with an awful, expectant silence.
	"The guest of honour," Chris said, breaking the spell with a simple
smirk. He unfolded, rising to a standing position, his feet still hovering
inches above the black glassy floor.
	Pluto couldn't move. Her body was frozen, numb. She knew this sensation.
She KNEW it. She woke up every morning to it. It had crawled into her very soul,
settling down in that deep part of her that she never chose to acknowledge.
That feeling of wrongness. The indescribable feeling of being in the presence of
a thing which was the antithesis of everything that made sense, the existence of
the Other that had been used to frighten children since the dawn of time itself.
	She appeared in the doorway all at once. Not so much walking into view
as fading out from the darkness. For a moment, she was nothing but a shadow
among shadows. A cruel silhouette cut out of the darkness, filled with a yawning
void that defied all description, a black so terrible it sucked in all light,
all life, all hope...
	It was HER. For seven years, Pluto had awoken sweating, cold and
shivering at the memory of the terrible moment of What Would Be. For seven years
she had known that Ukyou Kuonji would stand on a featureless plain, beneath a
raging sky. She would be marked by Destiny, one step at a time so that you would
know what was coming. She would grip a weapon of ancient power to fight a foe of
terrible majesty. With Ukyou's first blow, the whole of Creation, all time and
space and possibility, would be erased.
	But Pluto had never once stopped, had never once thought about who it
was that Ukyou was to be fighting that day. It had never even occurred to her to
seek out the force that Ukyou would be willing to fight, willing to risk all of
Creation to destroy. But that foe stood before her. Pluto knew it. She knew it
as surely as she knew her name, knew the colour blue, knew all the certainties
of her existence.
	Then the girl stepped out of the darkness. Her skin was white, gone
beyond pale to the icy perfection of alabaster. Her black hair bobbed around her
head, and her Senshi uniform had been bleached colourless and floated around
her, its edges torn and frayed. Blood, brilliant red and glittering in the azure
twilight of the City of Black Ice, flowed from the symbol in her forehead. What
had once been the symbol of her connection to the holy forces of Queen
Serenity's reign, now a perversion. Out of the darkness a great weapon came,
floating loyally over her shoulder. It was taller than she was, a great sword as
thick across as a tree trunk with a wicked hook on one end filled with vicious
spikes.
	The Messiah's bronze eyes met Pluto's for a fraction of a second.
Understanding passed between them. Pluto knew who she faced, and so did the
girl-child before her.
	"I know it's a terrible cliche, but: we meet at last," Chris said,
bowing slightly. The Messiah of Silence's eyes flicked to Chris. She said
nothing. "Allow me to thank you for your laudable quality of, whenever you have
set your goal, taking a literal straight line towards it."
	Chris raised his left hand and snapped his fingers. There was a flare of
purple light, a blast of heat and flame that roared across the room. Pluto threw
up her arms. The sword behind the Messiah moved, shifting in front of her with a
flicker of pseudo-motion. But even though the blast was deflected by her weapon,
she was not the real target.
	As Pluto lowered her hands she saw that the walls of the clam-shaped
building they had been in had melted away. A lattice hung in the air all around
them, a web constructed of hundreds and hundred of meters of paper, tied off in
tiny triangles, woven together again and again in intricate patterns, forming
Japanese ideograms. As Chris lowered his hand the room became bathed in purple
light again, but this time diffuse. Millions of tiny characters, glowing soft
violet, had appeared on every exposed bit of the lattice.
	The Messiah staggered, stumbling forward. Her hand snapped up, grabbing
the top of her giant blade as it drove itself into the ground. Her expression
did not change, but her entire posture had lost much of its majesty.
	"It gave me a wonderful chance to prepare," Chris said, chuckling.

*

	The tunnels down this far were narrow, looping back around on
themselves, randomly moving up and down without apparent rhyme or reason. The
light here was dimmer, the receding edge of twilight. Akane considered allowing
her own anima to flare, but her aura would likely give away their position.
	"He should be just up ahead..." Rei said. "At least if we don't
encounter another cave in."
	"Yeah..." Akane frowned. They had encountered a few people, fleeing the
destruction of the city. Heading towards emergency exits or shelters of some
kind, she hoped. None of them had been heading down this deep into the polar
ice. Not like their target, who had been leading them a merry chase for the past
few minutes.
	Akane slid to a halt, her hand resting on the hilt of the sword
Katsuhito had given her. For some reason, it had grown warm to the touch. Up
ahead the passage suddenly widened. There was a huge set of doors there, but
they hung open. Two figures, large women with green and brown skin, lay
unconscious by either side of the gateway. Akane could just see beyond the
doors, to some sort of great chamber beyond.
	"What is this?" Akane asked, walking forward cautiously.
	"I don't know," Rei replied. "It's massive, however. We're nearly six
hundred meters down and that chamber is almost three kilometers wide..." Rei
perked up. "But he should be nearby. He's just inside the entrance..."
	Rei trailed off as Akane sprinted into the room. They had to get this
finished. Akane was beginning to feel antsy, as if she was missing something
important. She dashed into the room and slowed, then skidded to a stop again.
Her breath left her, and for a long moment all she could do was stare.
	The ship was huge, and Akane had never seen anything like it before. It
was slender and elegant, with long graceful curves that appeared to be made of
finished wood covered in plates of mother-of-pearl. The central hub of it was a
dome, surrounded by a trio of tiny orbs with what looked like mandalas carved
into them that floated independently of the ship's main body. Huge curving fins
swept forward and back from the central core, giving the impression of a sleek
fish-like creature.
	"A Juraian tree ship?" Rei said with a gasp.
	"You mean, the aliens? This is a space ship?" Akane asked incredulously.
	"A rather important one, as well."
	Both girls spun at the smooth, cultured voice that came from behind
them. The man that stood there was tall, a head taller than Akane, with long
thin limbs and a narrow androgynously beautiful face. His red hair was long and
graced his shoulders with a few stray strands. A long lock of slightly lighter
hair fell down in front of his right of his sapphire eyes. He wore a grey suit
with red trim, accented by flourishing epaulets and golden cords that ran down
the right side of his body. He smiled as his smoldering, but not aggressive,
gaze met Akane's. It took her a moment to realise the irises of his eyes were
shaped like... diamonds?
	Her hand reached up and wrapped around the Star Seeds hidden in her
shirt pocket. Her heart was beating very quickly for some reason. Still,
grabbing the Seeds seemed to be calming her down. It was like some sort of...
physical wave of disinterest flowed out of them.
	"I'm afraid I won't be taking it, however," the man said, walking
closer. Akane frowned as he approached, and stepped forward, tightening her grip
on her sword. He paused, his eyes narrowing slightly - they looked like spades,
now - but he managed to keep his smile. "There are a few other ships in the
hangar, smaller ones. We could use them to escape..."
	"We're not here to escape," Akane told him firmly. "Are you Touga
Kiryuu?"
	His expression darkened slightly, but still managed to look polite.
"Yes. But who do I have the honour of addressing?"
	"My name is Akane Tendo, this is Rei..." Akane trailed off. She realised
dimly she had forgotten Rei's last name. "My friend," she covered quickly. "We
need to talk to you."
	"Well," the man stepped to the side. "I would love to, but from the
sounds outside I don't think we have much time before this entire city
collapses."
	"You're running away?" Rei broke in.
	"Of course I am," Touga replied, turning to address her. He stepped
sideways again. "I'm not a fighter. I highly doubt that Queen Tethys needs my
assistance in this conflict."
	Akane snapped out her blade, placing it to his side and preventing him
from taking another step. "Good. If you're leaving anyway, we can do this the
easy way. We need you to come with us."
	"Well..." He smiled again. "I'm certain we can talk about that aboard
the shuttle..."
	"Not like that," Akane snapped. "We need you to come with us because
your sister is sick."
	"Sister?" Touga blinked.
	"You remember Nanami, right?" Rei asked, her expression confused.
	"Oh. Yes. Her." Touga shrugged. "I'm afraid I can't help her. Sorry."
	"You haven't even heard what the problem is yet!" Akane barked.
	"Oh." He looked at her, his expression suddenly contrite. "Sorry.
Please. What is the matter?"
	"Your sister's soul was ripped out by a being with undefined but near
cosmic power to extract a magic extradimensional crystal  and it - her soul,
that is - may very well have been consumed by the incarnation of the end of all
things."
	Akane paused. Rei looked at her. Touga nodded studiously.
	"When you put it that way, I am quite certain I can't help her."
	"Oh yes you can!" Akane retorted. "A little girl genius scientist told
me that your soul could... uh., resonate or something with Nanami's and... bring
her back..." Akane waved her hand a bit. "I didn't really understand that part.
But it was very compelling at the time."
	Touga was just staring at her now, his eyes half-lidded.
	"I don't care how silly it sounds!" Akane snarled. "You have to come
with us!"
	"And if I say no?" Touga asked, crossing his arms.
	Akane frowned. She'd never really considered that. Now that she did, the
entire situation struck her as so utterly... pointless. Not that saving Nanami
wasn't important. But...
	If they were just supposed to kidnap Touga like a couple of jack-booted
thugs, why didn't Washuu just teleport him out of the Dark Kingdom at any time?
	"Listen pal," Rei snarled, stepping up to him. "Nanami was one of the
few decent people I met at Ohtori and she doesn't deserve to live the rest of
her life as a vegetable."
	"Ah. I see you wish to force the issue, then." He smiled. "Then I
suppose I'll have to..." He paused and looked to the side and muttered just loud
enough to be heard, "Do I really have to say it?" Akane blinked, as did Rei.
Touga looked annoyed. "But it's so..." He trailed off. "What do you mean you
won't help unless I-!" He growled. "Very well."
	He turned back to them and, his expression bored and his voice having
become a monotone. "Then I suppose I'll have to... put on my game face."
	There was a puff of smoke, like one would see in a cheap Vegas parlour
magic trick, that briefly obscured Touga from sight. Then a long white hand
extended from the top. There was a small explosion of playing cards that
scattered the smoke and Akane saw a figure spinning in the centre of it. The
figure came to a stop.
	She was a woman, first off. This was impossible to miss, as she wore a
skin-tight black leotard and fishnet stockings complete with black pumps. Her
skin was white and her hair was green, with a single long forelock of a lighter
green colour that came down in front of her left eye. A long ridiculous peacock
feather headdress completed her outfit, the feathers dyed green and purple and
red. Like Touga, her eyes had little card suits where her iris and pupils should
be. At the moment, they were hearts.
	"Ha ha!" she laughed. "Now you face the awesome power of KAIROS! The
youma of luck and sexy!"
	"Luck and sexy?" Akane asked disbelievingly.
	"He... he turned into a girl," Rei said, stunned.
	"Oh, that's right. You've never seen this kind of thing before," Akane
said, snapping her fingers.
	"You have?"
	"Old friend of mine had a similar condition and-"
	"Ex-CUSE me!" Kairos shouted, stamping her foot. "I'm about to pronounce
your doom here."
	"I'm sorry, that was rude of me," Akane said. Then frowned, shaking her
head slightly. What had possessed her to say that?
	"You should be sorry, Miss I'm Certainly Not Carrying Around A Sword To
Compensate For Anything, Nosiree," Kairos said, chuckling into the back of her
hand.
	"WHAT did you just say?" Akane felt her hackles rise.
	The youma smirked and stamped her foot again. Four posts snapped up from
the ground and a green rectangle fell from the ceiling, landing on them to form
a table. Kairos sat back, suddenly on a tall stool with a deck of cards in her
hands. "I have complete control over luck and destiny. Can you possibly defeat
me at a game of fate?" Kairos laughed, flipping and shuffling the cards in her
hands. She was certainly very good at this, Akane thought: she could even do
that thing where she made the cards leap from one hand to the other. "Now, face
the Deck of Unfortunate Destiny!" She smacked the cards down on the table. "Why
don't you cut the deck and test your fortune?" A small smirk formed on her
perfect features as her eyes shifted to spades.
	Akane shrugged and did as she was asked. Her sword was involved. The two
halves of the table fell down on either side of Kairos, and the entire deck of
neatly bisected cards floated through the air around her. Her skin had, if
possible, turned even more white. Her eyes had become little clubs.
	"Not quite what I meant," Kairos said slowly.
	"I'm sorry, I guess I was thinking with my compensation tool," Akane
snapped back.
	"No matter!" Kairos leapt up. "The wheel of destiny keeps on rolling, as
they say." She posed, holding up one hand. "Karma is a bitch and so am I!
Face... the Indestructible Karmic Roulette Wheel of Doom!" She brought her hand
down and a giant wooden roulette wheel plunged down from the shadows overhead,
spinning straight towards them. Akane raised an eyebrow and looked at Rei.
	"Flame Sniper!"
	Ashes settled down around them.
	"My Indestructible Karmic Roulette Wheel of Doom!" Kairos shrieked,
bringing her hands to her cheeks.
	"Well, it was made out of wood," Rei explained.
	"But... but... that was my Indestructible Karmic Roulette Wheel of
Doom!"
	"I hate to break it to you, but I think you misnamed it," Akane said,
pinching her nose. Only a week ago, she had been fighting hyper-zoanoids in a
desperate win-or-die battle to save the lives of thousands of innocents.
	"TOUGAAAAA!" Kairos shrieked. Her eyes had turned to diamonds. "W- what
do you mean you won't help?" She paused. "But you'll feel it too if they start
hitting me!" She growled and stamped her foot. "What kind of advice is 'then
don't get hit', you bastard!?"
	Kairos looked up at them again. "Fine, one more game of fate for you.
This is my ultimate technique... the Fuzzy Dice of-"
	Akane punched her in the face. It sent the white-skinned youma sprawling
across the black floor. Akane then stepped on one of her wrists, causing the
woman to gasp and her club-shaped eyes to focus on Akane. "Listen, I'm really
not in the mood for this. Can't we just..." Akane waved her hand. "Skip to the
part where you surrender, so I don't have to beat up someone who makes me feel
vaguely like I'd be hitting a child?"
	"Hah!" Kairos snorted. "You underestimate me. I don't need tools to
change the wheel of fate!" Akane sighed and limbered up her sword arm. "Ack!
KairosDesperationAttackHighlyImprobableField!"
	Akane gasped and stumbled back. There was an enormous flash of light and
a sound like a million slot machines hitting jackpot all at the same time. She
held up her hand over her eyes and...
	There was a feeling from the Star Seeds. It was like they were
shivering, pulsing in tune with some outside energy for a moment... and then
suddenly everything went back to normal.
	Akane looked around. "Are you okay, Rei?"
	"I'm fine," Rei said. She looked at the youma still lying on the ground.
"What did you do?"
	"I..." The youma woman sat up. "I..." There appeared to be nothing at
all that had changed. The entire room was just like before. "I don't know. I've
never done that before."
	"Never done it?" Rei snarled, a spark of flame jumping between her
fingertips.
	"AHH! Don't blast me!" Kairos whimpered and cowered. "I swear! I just
released all my luck-aspected magic at once..." She opened one eye. "I was kinda
expecting something more spectacular than-"
	At that point, the entire ceiling exploded.

*

	It was a weird thing to get used to, being a pariah. Oh, Minako was used
to being hunted. She had spent more years on the run than she really cared to
think about. Yet even when she was running for her life from Millennium or
Chronos, she had still managed to be a... symbol. She was a hero of the people,
the Golden Champion who stood up for the way the world should be, to show it
what it could be.
	Even in the heart of Chronos-controlled countries, Minako had enjoyed a
bit of good will. There had always been someone willing to give Ranma and her
access to an attic or basement for the night, someone willing to smuggle them
through a checkpoint or slip them some money just because of who they were.
While she was public enemy to over half the world, nobody had really hated her.
Even the zoanoids she had fought were more likely to either respect or fear her
than hate her.
	But the people of this town hated her. Oh, they were pleasant enough.
They were always smiling, always cheerful to her. But unless she spoke directly
to them, she was ignored. Ignored until she turned her back. Then they would
stare, and whisper and turn away. Sometimes she would walk into a room and half
the people in it would suddenly have somewhere else to be.
	Just the other day she had come to one of the buildings they were trying
to rebuild and offered to help. She had scouted outside the city, but Chronos
had pulled back and seemed unwilling to attack directly again. So she wanted to
feel useful, like she was doing something. But shortly after she had asked, the
work crew had found other things they needed doing, other places they needed to
be. In less than a half hour she was alone in the ruins of what had once been a
house, holding a two-by-four and wondering where everyone had gone.
	So she was alone here. No one trusted her, no one liked her. All because
she dared to speak ill of... Usagi. She refused to think of her as 'the Moon
Princess'. Minako sat on top of a local church, the cold December winds blowing
her hair out behind her. Why was she even still here?
	"There you are," Artemis said, leaping up over the edge. He began to pad
towards her, and Minako began to smile. Then the black cat, Luna, leapt up right
behind him. Minako's smile dropped. Ever since she had gotten here, Artemis had
spent all his time with his fellow moon cat.
	It was strange, being jealous of a cat. Especially since the two were
the last survivors of their race and old friends on top of that. Really old,
like thousands of years old. They had every right to want to spend time catching
up. Minako hated feeling jealous, but she couldn't help it.
	Maybe it was because Ranma was still missing.
	"This is the most out of the way place I could find," Minako told him.
She smiled. "I think the people here don't like me."
	"No wonder, with all the talking you've been doing around the city,"
Luna said, frowning. Minako noticed there was a small octopus trying to climb
its way over the edge of the roof, but chose to ignore that.
	"So you think Usagi is right, too?" Minako asked.
	"What I think or not about her doesn't matter," Luna said defensively.
"What matters is that she is the Moon Princess, and controls the Silver Crystal.
She is our leader, and we should support her."
	Minako considered that. She could just picture Ranma's smirking face,
and hear his cocky voice flippantly respond. "I'm sorry, I don't do the whole
'respect for authority' thing," Minako said, trying her best to capture Ranma's
tone.
	"Mina," Artemis said, putting a paw on her thigh. "You're being too hard
on Usagi. I mean, what do you expect out of her?"
	"Expect?" Minako stared down at him. "I don't expect anything, Artemis."
She stood up, his fur tickling her skin as it fell away from her. "I just don't
respect someone who has to be dragged kicking and screaming into saving the
world."
	"That's unfair," Luna snapped. "She hasn't complained yet, has she?"
	Minako was trying to figure out how to respond to that, when suddenly
she was distracted as a new figure landed on the roof. She slipped into a combat
stance immediately, thankful she hadn't bothered to return to her civilian form.
The figure was thin, muscular, wearing a suit of dark fabric with white patches
on it in the shape of bones. A long red scarf rippled around his neck.
	"Here, Little Octopus?" the man said, looking down at the tiny land
octopus that was sitting on the edge of the roof. The octopus nodded and
gestured towards Minako with one of its cute little tentacles. The man (?)
looked up at her. "Ah, of course! This would be the place, then!"
	"Who are you?" Minako asked. So far, the man had not made any hostile
moves. He did look strange, but Minako had long ago learned not to judge by
appearances.
	The man seemed to brighten, which was hard to tell with his face-
concealing mask with its skull deco. He stood up straight, clenched his fists
and sharply tucked them in by his sides. "Where there is wrong to be righted..."
He shifted quickly, standing with one arm extended towards the horizon and the
other curled up near his head. "Where there is evil oppressing what is good..."
He balanced on one leg, like a flamingo, leaning forward with his arms extended
as if he were caught in mid-stroke while swimming. "Where the people cry out for
a champion... they will find..." He rapidly spun, kicking and punching and
finishing with a thumbs-up in her direction while he posed with one fist on his
hip. "The ultimate hero... SKULLOMANIA!" His scarf cracked in the wind to
punctuate his introduction.
	"Oh, man," Minako moaned, looking down at Artemis. "Did I ever sound
like that?" He raised a paw, and jiggled it side to side. She sighed and rubbed
her face. "Great. Were you looking for me, uh, Skullomania?"
	"Not exactly!" he said, now standing with both hands on hips. Well, said
was the wrong word. He boomed. He said everything as if he was shouting out to a
large studio audience. "I was actually looking for Akane Tendo!" He shielded his
'eyes' with one hand and scanned the city. "But I cannot seem to find her!"
	"Oh, you must be someone from Akane's resistance movement," Minako
replied softly.
	"Yes!" He posed again. "I have very important news for her! I followed
her pet octopus here, so perhaps you know where she might be?"
	Minako frowned. Last she had heard, Akane was still with Rei. "I have no
idea, she must be somewhere..."
	"She is nowhere in the city!" Skullo exclaimed. "I know, I've checked
with everyone."
	"Nowhere?" Minako frowned. She didn't know Akane that well, but she
didn't seem the type to run off without telling anyone. "What about Usagi?"
	"Usagi?" He looked perplexed, which was quite a feat considering he had
no visible facial expressions.
	"Sailor Moon, the Moon Princess... have you talked to her yet? She might
know where Akane is."
	"No, I have not!" He turned and stared out over the city. "I will do so
right away!" The sun gleamed behind him as his scarf snapped and cracked in the
mind. There was a long pause. "Uhhh..."
	"Come on, I'll take you to her," Minako said with a sigh.

*

	Ryouga hated to admit it. He hated it with a passion that surprised him.
He hated it with a physical visceral impact, that twisted his guts up and made
the back of his throat slick with anger. After seven years, it was time to face
it once again.
	Ryouga was lost.
	He lashed out, striking a nearby wall. The entire wall, and a good
portion of the next wall, crashed outward in a huge wave. A cloud of shattered
ice and torn plants settled down in front of him. He bit back a frustrated curse
and started walking forward again.
	He was walking in circles, he knew. He had no real evidence of this, but
he knew it in his gut. He had been doing so well. For seven years, he had not
once gotten lost. In fact, his sense of direction had become almost
preternaturally astute. He'd been able to find his way to places he'd never been
before. He'd been able to find all the short cuts, all the secret ways that
allowed himself - and later, Hotaru as well - to avoid crowds and attention.
	He stopped, closing his eyes and placing a hand against another wall. He
tried to remember when exactly he had lost himself. He'd been running along. He
could vaguely feel where Hotaru was, and he knew he needed to get to her. If
only to try and prevent... He had been trying to get to her, while Ranma ran off
to go see to Nabiki. Then, there had been a moment of sudden pain, like somebody
had filled his brain with burning thermite. It had passed quickly but when he'd
stood up he'd realised almost immediately that he was lost. He had no idea where
he was in relation to anything outside of his immediate line of sight.
	He felt helpless and alone.
	Like he had seven years ago.
	Just like he had when he and Nabiki had been fighting off Aptom and
Nabiki had allowed their minds to become a little TOO closely linked. When he
had learned exactly what she had done to him. How she had deceived him and
played him for a fool. His entire world had been shattered. He had hated himself
for so long that the idea that he was innocent, that Nabiki had been behind all
his guilt and shame, had left him unable to feel anything.
	Especially since, especially since...
	How could he hate Nabiki? After what she had come to mean to him?
	There had been no way to escape the rage, the growing hatred in his
heart. He hadn't wanted that. He had wanted, for a brief moment, to not know.
	So, he'd tried to kill himself.
	And she'd brought him back.
	"Damn you..." He growled, opening his eyes and looking down at his hand.
"Why couldn't you just let me GO?" he snarled.
	Instead, he had been forced to live. To live with the pain, with the
shame, with the hatred. He'd been forced to live as a freak. A freak that would
never die. For seven years he had been running from those memories, trying to
ignore them. Trying to pretend they hadn't existed.
	But just seeing her face. Just seeing it once. Seeing the look of
genuine REGRET in her eyes...
	It had opened a wound that he'd hoped had long since healed. So, better
to fight than think, and Ranma had been there and eager to aid. But now, he was
lost and alone and helpless to do anything about it.
	Ryouga sighed and started walking again.
	There was a distant flash of light, reflected dimly off the black ice.
Ryouga blinked, and heard a crack. He looked down, watching as the ground
beneath him began to snap. For some reason he didn't try to run or jump away,
just watched in sort of muted awe as the ground crumbled out from beneath him.
He fell down, feeling oddly disconnected from what was happening until he
smashed into - and through the roof of - a corridor a couple of dozen meters
below where he'd started.
	Then he remembered that even if he couldn't die, falling hurt. Groaning,
he began to brush bits and pieces of powdered ice off his clothes as he stood
up. He was just resigning himself to the fact that where he'd landed was pretty
much the same as where he'd left when something slammed into his back.
	Ryouga barely registered it; he didn't even so much as stumble. Whoever
had hit him fell back, gasping out an abbreviated scream before landing on the
ground. Ryouga knew who it was before he turned to look.
	Nabiki stared up at him. Her face was covered in a sheen of sweat. Her
eyes quivered in the twilight of the city. Blood ran down one arm, the sleeve
ripped off to reveal something small and blue burrowed halfway into the skin
just under her shoulder. The flesh around it was torn and ripped, as if someone
had been scratching and clawing at it. Ryouga's eyes involuntarily moved to
Nabiki's other hand, and the blood on her fingers and under her nails.
	"Ryouga..." Her voice was tremulous.
	The corridor shuddered. Ryouga looked up, past Nabiki, into the darkness
of the tunnel she had been fleeing through. He could hear something approaching.
It made a noise, a rustling sort of sound, filled with abrupt sharp cracks like
hundreds of whips snapping one after the other. A low, almost imperceptible
clacking filled the air, like many many teeth chattering at once.
	A thick green vine, covered in thorns as large as a man's thumb, snapped
out of darkness, burying itself into the wall. Nabiki gasped and turned around,
her eyes widening in fear. A blue glow filled the area, soft at first but
growing brighter and brighter by the moment. It was coming towards them.
	Soon, Ryouga could make out the outline of a figure. There was another
whip-crack as a vine snapped out and clawed into the ceiling. For a moment, he
thought the figure was floating, but then as she grew closer he could see the
truth. She was not floating, she was being carried.
	Like snakes, the vines curled and twinned around her body, looped around
her arms and legs. They hung from the ceiling and the walls, sunk into the
floor and twisted forward, dragging her wraith-like down the corridor towards
them. Ryouga narrowed his eyes. It was her. Link. The woman who had almost
killed Hotaru. She floated towards then, and spring followed in her wake.
	The glow came from the gems encrusted throughout her flowing robes and
dangling from her headdress. Wherever that soft blue light fell, flowers
bloomed. Red and yellow and blue and all the other shades of the rainbow, a
garden of sudden and striking beauty welled up behind her. It was so beautiful
it made a severe contrast to the floating cloud of insectile... things that
floated and swirled around her.
	The monstrous procession slowed, then stopped. The woman came to a halt,
hanging in the air a few dozen meters down the corridor. Just within speaking
distance, just outside of easy attack range. She held a sword Ryouga remembered
very well. Her earth-brown eyes flickered across Nabiki, then settled on him. He
gazed back at her.
	He looked down at Nabiki. She was staring at Link, her hand clutched to
her heart. Her eyes bulging with fear. She looked towards him. This woman, who
had ruined his life so much...
	Ryouga looked back up at Link, and with deliberate slowness stepped in
front of Nabiki, throwing one arm to the side to shield her from view. Link
laughed.
	"First Hotaru and now her?" Link didn't smile, but her eyes glittered
with mirth. "Honestly, Ryouga, what is your attraction to these women? If I'd
just hurt you more last time, would you be my willing slave as well?"
	Ryouga allowed himself to smile. "I guess I'm just used to having a
miserable life."

*

	Nobody saw Angel as she criss-crossed the city. By now, she'd been
across it three times. The toxic jungle that was slowly overcoming the city
helped, but was hardly her only recourse. She skimmed from rooftop to rooftop,
dropped into alleys, flipped behind architectural flourishes, was past a youma
soldier in a flash when his gaze wavered for an instant. Her every glance took
in everything, every threat and avenue and hiding place and route all at once.
She was the wind. There was no crack she could not slip through.
	So far, nothing. Not that she'd expected to find it very easily. But she
had a few clues to go by. Alucard's body was dangerous, Chris said, though he
hadn't known precisely why. It was also a closely-guarded secret. Nobody would
be near it. If there were guardians, they would be only ones that never left.
That meant a remote place, hidden somewhere. Of course, Tethys could just seal a
chamber in ice, but she also had little reason to fear an intruder in her own
kingdom. Angel had little doubt she could spot the signs of where the Dark Queen
kept her most secret treasure, but she hadn't done so yet.
	But she had time. She constantly fed more power into her air chakra from
the limitless supplies her tattoos gave her. She blazed across the city, unseen
and undetected. Every building got a casual glance, every wall an inspection,
every guard detachment observed for a moment to see where they might be avoiding
checking. Like the wind, she swept over everything, leaving nothing untouched.
	She almost missed it. Leaping over a rooftops, faster than the human eye
could follow, she kept an eye on the detachments of soldiers around her like she
observed everything else. In a blink of an eye, they would have been gone. But
before that blink, Angel watched one group of youma, well-trained soldiers,
superhumans all, accustomed to living in a city of ice, suddenly fall. Not in
battle. They just... slipped. Every single one of them. All at once. They fell
down in a confused jumble of arms and legs and curses and Angel stared. How the
hell had that happened? Nothing had attacked them.
	And as she stared to the side, her feet kissed another rooftop and she
shot forward and suddenly she smashed into an unyielding body and was flipping
end over end. She tried to look to figure out what had happened and break her
fall, but something was blocking her vision and then suddenly it was over.
	Angel groaned. She was lying on her back. Her vision had cleared, and
she glanced around groggily. The building she was on curved up like a great
wave. Cunningly designed blends of darker and lighter ice gave it the illusion
of a foaming crest, or had before Angel's fall into it had snapped a good chunk
of it off. She must have slid down afterwards, coming to rest in the middle of
the roof where the 'wave' plateaued. She looked behind her, and her eyes fell
upon what... or rather, who, she had crashed into. Now, at last, she blinked.
	"Oh, shit... Ranma?"
	He stared back at her. Then he grinned. "Hey! I owe you for that sucker-
punch last time!" He leaped to his feat, and Angel groaned again.
	So much for her timetable.

*

	Perhaps if Sailor Pluto had not been so scared she could barely breathe,
she might have been having a crisis of faith. Chris, the man who had killed her
best friend, right in front of her. The man who had killed a woman Pluto had
trusted and believed in when she had very much needed both. A man with a god-
complex, and the ability and willingness to toy with a force that could
potentially unmake all Creation. And the Messiah of Silence...
	The end of the world made flesh. The final enemy that would face Ukyou
at the end of time and bring about utter annihilation.
	It would have been hard to choose which of them she wished to win.
	As it was, she was busy cowering in a corner of the room and hoping to
god that she would not be noticed. She had already tried to flee, but the cage
of interwoven wards prevented her from leaving. Getting too close caused the
purple pictograms to flare, driving her back.
	Presumably they would also prevent the Messiah from escaping, not that
she had tried. The pale girl-shaped monster was stoically defending herself,
positioned in the exact centre of the cage, as far from any of the wards as
possible. Her body flickered and shifted, moving too fast for Pluto to follow,
evading the streams of purple flame that Chris directed from his perch of safety
just outside the cage. Her dread blade, pale grey and floating, flashed around
her in delicate arcs, parrying those attacks she was too slow to evade fully.
	"Come now, Hotaru, not even going to attempt to escape?" Chris said, his
awful mutilated face smiling. "Of course, I did spend a great deal of time
perfecting this technique. Do you know how hard it is to use the Orochi's energy
to maintain holy spiritual wards? Especially ones I had to design to defeat not
only your Oblivion-based powers, but also all your Sailor Senshi magic AND your
vampire nature as well?"
	"I am impressed," the Messiah replied. She stepped backwards as a jet
of flame erupted from the ice at her feet, melting a hole. "But this won't help
you, Chris," the Messiah's voice was full of... pity. Dylek caught a flame as it
curled through the air to follow her.
	"Ah yes." Chris nodded, he floated outside the safety of the interlaced
wards, his arms raised to both sides, gesturing and directing like a conductor
as the flames flared out of the structure of the cage. "This is the part where
you use your keen insight, your special acumen to see into my innermost self.
This is where you disarm me with words, goad me into a fatal mistake by bringing
up some terrible burning secret from my soul, is it not?"
	"All things are weak and broken inside," the Messiah replied. "I merely
give you the truth. You will not defeat me here, Chris."
	"I'm certain you believe that," Chris said with a chuckle. "But, Hotaru,
I write my own destiny." And with that, he threw his arms up, his head tilting
back as if to signal the crescendo.
	Up until then, there had been one or two blasts at a time. Suddenly,
there were dozens. Pluto gasped and fell to the side, barely avoiding being
cored through the middle by one. The Messiah merely smiled, and lowered her
hands, a gesture of supplication. The flames flickered and flashed all around
her, but none seemed to touch her at all.
	Then the fires went out, and Chris' plan was revealed. Where each line
had been, there was now a strand of diamond-shaped wards, glowing purple in the
twilight. With a series of hisses and cracks they wrapped around her, binding
her in a dozen cords, pulling her body up and back into the air, lacing her
wrists and ankles together and jerking them above and below her respectively
until she was trussed up in mid air. A final cord snapped around her head,
wrapping twice around her face and under her jaw, closing her mouth with an
audible snap. Dylek was pulled away, ripped across the length of the chamber to
become entwined among the lattice of the cage.
	"Some people are very confident and would want to test their debate
skills with a person renowned for defeating people like you have," Chris noted,
summoning a ball of fire in his hand and forming it into a lance. "I don't feel
the need to prove anything.
	"Goodbye, Hotaru."
	Pluto held her breath. Chris pulled back his javelin, carefully aimed,
and released in one smooth motion. The flaming projectile spun through the air,
as inevitable as sunset. The Messiah did not even so much as twitch, her eyes
merely looked up. For an instant, they were full of such... compassion. A deep
overwhelming sadness filled the Messiah's bronze eyes, a sadness that ripped at
Pluto's heart.
	Then the blast tore through her chest, ripping a hole through her entire
body the size of a basketball. Pluto stared, her heart skipped a beat. Then she
saw something, a flash of light reflecting off of something small...
	A crystal star, a multi-pointed star, the one on Hotaru's chest. It had
been knocked through her body by the blast of hellflame but was miraculously
unharmed. Pluto realised dimly that Chris couldn't see it, that it was flying
through the air in the perfect place such that the only angle from which it
would not be visible was his. Then the star flashed through the cage, propelled
by Chris' own flame. There was an almost inaudible snap, and Pluto saw two ends
of a severed cord begin to drift downward.
	The Messiah jerked, her eyes filling with pain and her mouth desperately
trying to open for a scream, but the wards binding her held tight. Chris
chuckled.
	"Of course, I could just burn you to ashes right here and now," Chris
said. "But I really am interested in what you know, Hotaru. It's just that I
don't HAVE to talk to you to learn everything you know." He smirked. "All I need
is your head." He held up his hand again, summoning another javelin. "We'll just
have to find out how much of you has to be destroyed before the remnants of your
soul let go of what's left of your body."
	Pluto knew she should do something. She knew she should act. The wire
cage behind Hotaru was unravelling. Pluto had never really studied mortal magics
like this, but she knew that such wards were complex affairs. The slightest
damage and the power could be lost. And if this cage was as complex as Chris
claimed, it would only be more delicate, more fragile.
	It was falling apart. Chris released another blast, this one blowing a
hole through the Messiah's hip. He was focused on the girl, not even noticing.
Pluto could do any number of things to stop this. She could destroy the Messiah
herself. Her magic would be enough to vapourise the girl's head, she knew that.
Even without that, all she had to do was open her mouth, say something.
	She could stop it.
	But she didn't.
	God help her, she had no idea why, but she didn't.
	Chris was summoning a third javelin when the entire thing fell apart.
The glowing ideograms on the wards first flickered, then died. It started behind
Hotaru and swept through the entire structure like a wave. To his credit, Chris
reacted quickly. His javelin was launched half-formed, and it expanded as it
spun forward, becoming a ballista bolt the size of a small car. But it was too
late. Dylek leapt free of its bonds and flashed in front of Hotaru. The bolt of
hellflame winked out into nothing the moment it touched it.
	The Messiah sank to the floor slowly. Then with a snap she pulled her
hands apart, rending the wards holding her. With a negligent flick of her arms
she removed the rest. Chris, meanwhile, floated down to land on the remains of
the floor. Dylek floated cautiously, keeping between them.
	"I did not say," the girl noted sadly, "that you could not defeat me,
Chris. I said that you would not." As she spoke a thick black substance, the
colour of dried blood, seeped from her wounds. It slowly permeated the holes in
her, throbbing organically and filling the air with a sickening smell. Then the
colour of the gore faded, until the Messiah stood once again, apparently whole
and untouched.
	"Well, plan B, I suppose," Chris said with a unconcerned shrug.

*

	The sound was what hit Akane first, a crack and rumble, like an
avalanche. She looked up just in time to see something come flying through the
ceiling of the hangar. The black ice blossomed out around it, a line of
shimmering powder forming in the object's wake and the rest of the ceiling
exploding downward in concentric waves. It looked like some bizarre flower,
beautiful and bright.
	Rei was lifting her arms, drawing flame from the thin air, her mouth
forming into a small O. The youma was cowering, throwing her hands up over her
face. Akane just felt herself staring, her eyes following the progress of the
thing sent plummeting through the ceiling.
	It was a girl, no older than fourteen. She wore a white uniform with
large red crystals over her arms, shoulders and feet. There was a spear of ice,
a shaft as thick as a telephone pole, lanced straight through her torso. She was
smiling, her eyes sparkling with mirth as she was sent flying back into the
giant Juraian treeship. The ship shuddered and rocked back as the girl hit it
with enough force to knock it several meters sideways. The lance that had
carried her smashed into the ship, burying itself into the alien armour like it
was sliding into a block of soft butter.
	The ceiling was collapsing towards them. Rei was releasing a wave of
flame, but it would not be nearly enough. The youma was scrambling to her feet,
trying to run. Akane just continued staring at the girl. Her irises had narrowed
to pinpricks and she laughed, a sound that was lost under the deadly roar of the
falling ceiling.
	Then she looked at Akane. She whispered, and the words somehow reached
Akane's ears.
	"This never happened."
	And it hadn't.
	Akane started, staggering back. She craned her neck, staring at the
hangar. It was pristine. The ceiling was untouched. The Jurai ship was exactly
as it had been, still moored in the same spot with not so much as a nick in its
paint. Rei was lifting the youma woman up by the collar, her expression a mask
of anger.
	"Rei, what...?"
	"In a moment, Akane," Rei snarled. "I have to convince the jerk hiding
inside here to come out and talk to me..."
	"No, Rei, did you SEE that?" Akane asked.
	"See what?" Rei turned to face her.
	"The girl and the ceiling exploding and the ship and..." Akane didn't
know how to describe it. She could remember it, all of it. But it was like it
had never happened. She remembered it the same way she remembered her father
telling her ghost stories as a child. She remembered it the same way you
remembered the plot to a good book you'd long since forgotten the actual words
of. "Don't you remember?" Akane asked, her voice sounding more frightened than
she wanted it to.
	"Akane..." Rei released Kairos and walked over to her. "Is there
something wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
	"I... I might have..." Akane rubbed her temple. That girl in white, with
her bronze skin and the strange triangle on her forehead. It was fading, like a
dream. Akane grit her teeth and forced herself to grasp onto it. She had to
remember, but remember what... "Rei. We have to go."
	"Go?"
	"We have to go," Akane said quickly. "Before I forget. We have to go
find that girl..." Akane tapped her wristband, calling up a map of the complex.
If the angle she remembered was right the girl had come from... "Here. She has
to be here. Or was here. Or..."
	"Who are you talking about, Akane?" Rei frowned.
	"I don't know!" Akane snapped. She sighed. "I'm sorry, but it's
important, Rei."
	"What about Touga? And Nanami?" Rei looked over her shoulder and noticed
Kairos trying to sneak away. "Hey! Who said I was done with you?" A blast of
flame in front of the youma stopped her in her tracks.
	"Rei..." Akane didn't want to say it. She had no idea how Rei would
react. Rei had been living with Washuu for years. She trusted the woman. She was
her friend. "Rei, if Washuu wanted Touga so badly she would have grabbed him
herself. This is..." Akane frowned. "We're wasting time. Running around doing
errands. But I saw something, Rei.  I know where we have to go!"
	"I'm not abandoning Nanami!" Rei snapped back.
	Akane looked at her, and nodded. "You're right. I'll go myself." Akane
turned away, examining her hand. It was shaking. "But Rei... I... just ask
yourself. Why didn't Washuu come with us to Ohtori? There's something here that
doesn't feel right. I feel like I'm dancing to somebody else's tune again, and I
gave that up seven years ago.
	"No. I saw something else. That girl, when she looked at me... I felt
like my soul was shivering in terror. Every bit of me was afraid. Every instinct
I have, every bit of me just wants to forget her. To give up. I'm so scared
right now, I can barely breathe."
	Akane started walking, clenching her hand into a fist to stop the
quaking. "Every instinct I have is telling me NOT to try finding out any more
about that girl. That I'm asking for trouble. And you'd be right to accuse me of
abandoning Nanami, of running off based on something I can barely even be
certain was real. But I HAVE to.
	"Because something about this, about all of this is wrong. Fundamentally
wrong. And I won't let this go until I know the truth."
	Akane was halfway to the entrance when she heard more than saw Rei fall
into step beside her. Akane looked at the young women. Rei was frowning.
"Understand, I'm just coming along because you're going to get yourself killed
otherwise."
	Akane smiled. "Thanks."

*

	"I don't suppose you'd just forget you saw me?"
	"'Fraid not," Ranma said, shaking his head.
	Angel stood up slowly, patting dust off her legs. Then she reached down
and grabbed the hilt of her sword. Ranma backed up a step and began to dance
back and forth on his heels. He was looking forward to this. Maybe if he beat
Angel quickly enough, he might be able to get Chris himself to come out and
fight him.
	The tattoos on Angel's face blazed and Ranma started moving. He barely
even saw her sword strike, but somehow his hand came up and there was a crack of
metal on metal. Angel danced backwards, frowning.
	"Metal armguards?" she asked, sounding surprised.
	"Yeah, damn things are cold this far north, but I figured I'd be
fighting you sooner or later." As he spoke Ranma came forward, his body
uncoiling like a striking snake. Angel shifted sideways, dodging his first blow
in a blur of motion. His second and third blows she had to deflect with the flat
of her blade.
	"Guess that comes from the whole 'betrayal' thing?" Angel said, sounding
bored. She turned with her last parry, spinning in a tight arc to deliver a high
arcing slash.
	"Pretty much," Ranma said, stepping inside the arc of her swing. He
rammed his forearm against her elbow, stopping her and smashing his shoulder
into her back at the same time. She gasped and went flying back.
	Ranma saw the glow of her tattoos switch from her face to her stomach.
She drilled into the building behind her, sending cracks up the side of it.
Ranma shook his head and walked forward slowly. "You're faster than me, but
doing fancy stuff like that just leaves you open for too long," Ranma pointed
out.
	"I guess you're right," Angel said, getting up slowly. She wasn't even
so much as winded. There was a smirk on her face. She reached out and placed her
hand on the side of the building. Suddenly the light travelled down to her hips.
"Or maybe I just wanted some room."
	Ranma raised an eyebrow as her fingers sunk into the wall and she
lifted, almost negligently tearing the entire structure from its foundations.
It was a huge spherical thing, all glittering and black, and must have been as
big as a three-story house. She lifted it over her head with one hand, her other
still clutching her blade.
	"Okay," Ranma said slowly. "I guess we take this up a notch."
	Everything happened at once. He charged, and she brought the building
down. He snapped one arm up, his arm strained as the weight threatened to
overwhelm him.  He let his feet skid out from under him, turning his charge into
a baseball slide. She leapt, her sword slashing out, and the entire building
cracked in two.
	Then she was moving up and through the falling halves. He dug his
fingers into the ice, creating ten tiny trenches as he came to a halt. Then he
was backflipping, using his hands as a pivot. Like a gymnast. Ranma rotated in
midair and landed on the shorn edge of the building just as it began to hit the
ground. Angel was sliding backward along the opposite half of the building,
using its edge like a rail.
	Ranma's feet seemed to vanish as he charged up the edge until he was
level with her. Her blue eyes glittered as the tattoos around her face flashed
gold. Then her blade started singing through the air. A pattern of strikes and
parries, of swings and thrust and feints came in at him. His forearms spun and
arced, catching those blows he could not avoid with a step right or left.
	They continued like this, both sliding along the edges of the building
as it slowly fell apart, the bottom of it crashing into the rest of the black
city. An exchange of blows at speeds that made the very air around them whirl
and rip like the heart of the hurricane. Their eyes met, and Ranma allowed
himself to smile.
	This was the most fun he'd had in days.
	Finally the building slid far enough apart that their attacks couldn't
reach each other. Ranma leapt backwards as his perch began to shatter beneath
him and Angel did likewise. They landed on ledges of the icy city, a distance of
about four street lines dividing them. In between them the building completed
the final moments of its spectacular crash.
	"Not bad, kid," Ranma shouted.
	"Kid? I'm only six years younger than you!"
	"And you're five years too early to beat me," Ranma said, sticking his
tongue out at her. Angel raised an eyebrow.
	"Can't you take this remotely seriously?"
	Ranma thought about that for a moment. "Nah. Not really."
	Angel rolled her eyes.
	There was a heartbeat of silence between them.
	Then the ground nearby shattered as a giant black and grey mushroom
erupted from the ice. Angel shifted, flashing sideways through the air towards
it. Ranma followed her, and landed on the mushroom's cap a split second after
she did. She twisted backwards, slashing twice with her sword and releasing
clouds of spores from cuts in the fungus. Ranma went up, a perfect aerial
somersault tucking his arms up to keep them from touching the toxic miasma. As
he landed, Angel struck.
	He caught her blow on his bracer and was forced back. He was standing
between the two clouds now as they slowly drifted together. Angel struck again,
her blow coming in too fast for him to do anything but dodge. Clever girl,
trying to force him to commit until the spores could get him.
	Ranma turned the tables by smashing a foot into the mushroom and sending
a spray of the yellow dust geysering straight up at her. She cursed and
backpedalled, spinning her blade so fast it knocked the spores aside with a gust
of wind from its passage. Ranma copied her technique, snapping his body down and
then thrusting both palms out with enough chi to create a powerful burst of aura
that scattered the dust motes.
	Angel was already running, and Ranma followed her quickly. She leapt up,
turning sideways and running along the side of a nearby wall. Ranma smirked and
easily kept pace with her. She would run out of wall in a few meters, then
either be forced to turn to face him or to dash out over a cliff that dropped of
about a thousand feet and...
	And she was jumping out over the cliff. Ranma sighed. He could
understand not wanting to fight him, but was a hundred story drop really that
much more inviting? Grumbling, he followed.
	Only to discover that she was not apparently committing suicide. She
spun at the last moment and her sword traced out, snapping off a section of the
wall. A thick slab spun free and with a kick she propelled it under her. Still
blurring with golden light, she planted both feet on the rotating slab and
stabilised it. Just in time to hit the side of the cliff, which was actually
just shy of a sheer drop.
	Promptly, she began skiing down it.
	Ranma landed on the side of the cliff, rolling himself into a ball. For
a few dizzying moments he tumbled end over end, only barely in control. He was
accelerating far too fast for his tastes, but if he tried to slow down he'd
likely lose her.
	So instead he gritted his teeth and spun, moving with the momentum.
Angel stared, wide-eyed, as he tumbled past her. Her skidding descent was
throwing up a wake of powdering ice behind her, forming a v-shape around her
body. But it was also slowing her down. Ranma easily shot past her, and once he
did, he snapped his legs down.
	There was a great boom as his foot hit the side of the cliff with the
force of a cannon shot. Great chunks of glassy ice snapped off, tumbling down
into the abyss. But he stopped in place. In fact, he actually gained a few
inches. Another mighty kick and another section of cliff wall flew off, and he
was now moving upward. He didn't need any more strikes that powerful to stop
him, but he let loose anyway.
	The chunks he cut loose tumbled free, smashing into the cliff again and
again lower down. Even the supernaturally reinforced city could not take that
and soon there was an avalanche of cascading black ice beneath him. He, however,
was charging straight up at Angel.
	She glanced down at him, her lips pulling back from her teeth in a
frustrated smile. Then she stopped trying to slow her descent and came straight
down. They met with a crack like a thunderbolt. Sparks flew as her blade and his
bracers collided again and again. But he got in two shots through the blur of
her attack. One hit her side, forcing her feet off the board. The other caught
her while she was stunned, rapping her hard against the back of the wrist with
his knuckles. Her hand opened reflexively, and her sword floated free.
	She grabbed it with her free hand, but before her fingers could close on
the hilt Ranma smacked the flat of it with the back of his forearm, sending it
flying to her right. Her foot snapped out and up, kicking the thing on the
reverse of the edge and spinning it up over her head, where she made another
grab. Ranma drove his foot into her shin, sending her backwards.
	All that time, they had been in freefall, and at that point they caught
up with the slightly slower avalanche. Angel's feet moved almost independent of
thought, finding purchase on collapsing bits of ice, some no larger than a
fingerwidth. She flipped and danced, Ranma just barely managing to keep up with
her as the two continued to fight over the sword. It glittered and twirled,
seeming to dance through the air, almost floating as their strikes and grabs
kept pushing it around them.
	Their auras grew as they kept pushing more and more chi through their
bodies. Angel's violent golden glow and Ranma's tranquil blue suddenly began to
catch in the shower of ice around them. It caught the glow, refracting and
reflecting it like a thousand prisms. Suddenly they were fighting in the centre
of a sparkling rainbow, still plummeting down into the darkest depths of the
underground city.
	Ranma's grin slowly faded. He had the edge here, but not by enough. Her
speed was overwhelming and only grew with each passing heartbeat. The only
reason she hadn't gotten the sword back already was because Ranma was simply
that much better than her. He knew the ways of aerial fighting, of using the
motions and strengths of his enemy against them, better than she did. But every
moment she was closing the gap, not with skill but with sheer inhuman speed.
Already there were times he couldn't even see her move, where she made three
strikes and grabs in the time it took him to register even one.
	Ranma hated to admit it, but she was just better at his strengths than
he was. Sure, he had trained more, but Angel belonged in the air. With the
infinite power of her tattoos she could afford to just be faster, more buoyant,
more mobile than he could. He needed to change the equation.
	Finally Angel made a mistake. A palm thrust hit him in the chest,
pushing him above her and nearly emptying his lungs. The sword was spinning
between them, out of reach of Ranma's arms, but within hers. But she had
committed too much to the attack, too much speed for even her to bleed off her
momentum quickly. She slipped forward and instead of grabbing it, her other hand
smacked palm-first into the hilt and the sword rocketed upward, traveling high
into the air. So high, that Ranma couldn't see it as it shrunk out of sight.
Angel's eyes widened.
	Ranma almost laughed.
	Then he plummeted into her, rushing her in an unsophisticated tackle.
She might have dodged, but her eyes narrowed and the light of her tattoos
shifted from her face to her hips again. Air to Fire. Speed to strength. She
was going to try to overpower him when he grappled.
	Ranma, however, had no intention of doing any such thing. He pulled his
arms back at the last moment, and spun to her right, dancing upside down across
a few pieces of falling ice. Then with a push of his heels he launched past her.
She made a grab for him, but he was already too far beneath her. With a smile,
he began running down the avalanche, using a few of the pieces of rubble to slow
himself minutely as he went along.
	With a final roar the avalanche crashed into the bottom of the cliff.
Ranma leapt up at the last second, defying physics for a few moments as he
danced along the top of the destruction, untouched by it. He watched as Angel
just plummeted straight into the cascade, the Earth chakra on her stomach
glowing bright yellow.
	Ranma landed among the debris, panting and sweating. Fighting Ryouga
earlier had pushed his limits, and this fight was pushing them even more.
Thankfully, he only needed a few seconds to catch his second wind. The settling
cloud of mist gave him that time, as it hid everything from sight. He muted his
aura with an effort of will, just in case Angel might try something like a sneak
attack. Not that he was too worried; the glow of her tattoos was like a beacon.
She gave out a lot of chi like that, and even Ranma could follow her trail now.
If she tried to run or sneak up on him while still using her magic crutch, he
would know. If she didn't...
	Well, she wouldn't get far.
	The mist finally settled and Ranma turned as he saw Angel standing atop
the rest of the rubble. She was also panting, her hair covered in a sheen of
sweat. The chakra tattoos on her chest were glowing, and as Ranma watched, the
bruises he had placed across her arms and legs were visibly fading. Ranma
smirked and started towards her. She snapped up into a defensive stance,
adjusting her tattoos to her face again.
	"So, wanna give up?" Ranma asked.
	"You know I won't," Angel snapped back. She reached down and removed the
sheath of her sword, brandishing it like an impromptu blade.
	"I know. But I'm the good guy, we're obliged to ask," Ranma said,
smirking.
	The fight this time was far more brutal. Ranma and Angel met, their
strikes smashing against each other with enough force that the shockwaves sent
the powdered ice flying in all directions. A hundred times a heartbeat they
struck and were rebuffed, their feet shifting and sliding along the unstable
rubble and slick fragments of razor-sharp ice.
	Ranma lost track of time. There was nothing he could do but concentrate
on the fight. Attack turned into parry turned into riposte with a fluidity that
baffled even Ranma. He found himself acting mostly on instinct, still struggling
just to equal the girl's unnatural speed. He started parrying blows three or
four moves before Angel even launched them. He was relying totally on his
ability to guess ten strikes ahead. If he guessed wrong even once, he would
likely lose.
	Thankfully, here on the ground, he had narrowed her options. While she
could come at him from nearly any angle of above, behind, forward or the sides,
he at least didn't have to worry about her getting beneath him. He steadfastly
refused to engage her in the air, not unless she looked like she was going to
try and retreat again. But Angel, it seemed, had resigned herself to this fight.
	A fight, he realised dimly, that he was winning. Oh, he wasn't wearing
her down. Not really. He had yet to land another blow on her, and her energy
supply was nearly infinite. No, he was winning because he was eating up the one
thing that Angel did not have.
	Time.
	She was getting more and more desperate as time rolled on. Making more
mistakes. At her speed, those mistakes had not yet translated into a sudden
reversal, but Ranma knew it was only a matter of patience. He didn't have to
fight to win, just fight to stall. Eventually, her own driving need to complete
her mission, whatever that might be, would finish her off.
	Their eyes met over an exchange of blows, the air between them full of
the flash and flicker of their fists. He saw his own face reflected in those
blue eyes, and he saw her expression fall slightly as she understood. With a
cry, she broke off, leaping ten meters back. Ranma hopped forward, halving the
distance just so she wouldn't get the idea of trying to escape again.
	"Face it Angel, all I need to do is stall. YOU have to defeat me. I win
by default."
	"That isn't very honourable," Angel grumbled.
	"Nah. It's okay. As Minako always tells me..." He paused and scratched
his head. "Uh, forget it. She never told me anything that I ever actually
understood anyway."
	Angel's eyes had been flickering across the rubble as they spoke. The
sheath of her sword was cracked and beginning to bend under the strain. She must
have been looking for a new weapon, something she could use against him. Then
she took a deep breath.
	"Fine then," she said, closing her eyes for a fraction of a second. "One
last round. Winner takes all, deal?"
	"Sure, why not?" Ranma said, shrugging.
	Angel roared and lifted her hand, igniting her fire chakra again. Her
fist smashed into the rubble and it exploded up around them both in a geyser.
Ranma's hands blurred and deflected anything coming too close to him, as Angel
rose up through the cloud.
	She kicked, sending a dozen huge thin slabs of ice falling towards him.
Ranma turned sideways to dodge one and bent back to avoid the next, then snap
rolled forward under the next two. He glanced at the ice. She was forming a wall
around him. Great slabs of black ice, shining with an almost mirror sheen. Then
Angel vanished.
	Ranma frowned. He could still feel her. The chi she put off was too much
to miss, but his senses weren't accurate enough to pin her down like Ukyou or
even Akira's might have been. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flicker of
white hair and black jacket. He lashed out, and his fist shattered a black
mirror.
	"Ah. Clever," Ranma said. "But I watched Enter the Dragon like, fifty
times when I was a kid."
	Ranma spun through the air, his fists and hands lashing out, crashing
the nearby slabs of reflecting ice. Then one of the images grabbed his wrist and
pulled him forward. Angel was suddenly in his face, her fire chakra burning. A
wordless scream escaped her throat as she brought her sheath up at his head.
Ranma dumped all his chi into his arm as he iron-arm blocked the attack.
	The sheath shattered, scattering fragments around him, one of which cut
a line across his chest. His arm screamed in pain and he knew without a doubt
that the bone had been broken. A clean break, he hoped. Without pausing he
brought his broken arm, still thrumming with chi, up and into Angel's temple. He
screamed, but she fell back, her eyes crossing and her body losing all sense of
grace.
	He sucked in a deep breath as he slumped, allowing his arm to hang low
like a heavy weight dragging him downward. He kept his chi focused on the arm,
hoping that the life force would help minimise the damage. Angel, however, was
barely able to stand. His blow had very nearly taken her head off. It had also
very nearly shattered the bones in his arm to powder.
	Then Angel looked up, and smiled.
	Ranma had just enough time to blink before red hot pain lanced into his
good shoulder. He screamed, staggering back. He stared. There was a sword,
buried up to the hilt in his shoulder. It had gone straight through, coming out
through his underarm. It was her sword.
	Angel was standing up, and Ranma stared at her, dumbfounded. She had...
The sword had fallen all this way, and somehow she had KNOWN exactly where it
would land. That was... that was nuts. She had planned that all along?
	Ranma watched in amazement as the golden glow on Angel's hips
intensified and she stepped forward. With neither arm working, Ranma could do
nothing to prevent her fist from crashing into his face like a sledgehammer. He
was sent flying back, only barely aware of anything but the pain. He crashed
into a wall, something that refused to give, and slumped forward.
	No... he wasn't going to let this happen! He was Ranma Saotome. Nobody
beat him twice! He just needed a clever plan to defeat her with both arms
crippled. While he was busy thinking of one, he slipped into comforting
darkness.

*

	"She doesn't want to be disturbed now," the woman told her forcefully.
Minako frowned. The girl was taller than her by a good half foot. She had long
brown hair, hard green eyes and rosebud earrings. She was also carrying a
fencing sword on her hip. Not a foil or some other sport weapon, but a rapier
with a long thin point that looked like it was meant to be used.
	Minako felt like she should know this woman. It tickled at the back of
her mind. But it didn't seem important. What seemed important was getting into
that room and talking with Usagi. And NOW.
	For some reason, on the walk over she had begun to feel... like she was
walking down a tunnel. A dark tunnel with a very bright light at the end, but
one that was getting narrower and narrower as she walked. But it was the only
way to the light. She had to walk it. She felt... like she NEEDED to do it.
	"I need to get in there," Minako snarled. She wasn't certain where the
anger was coming from, but she didn't really care either.
	"So you can yell at her again?" the woman snapped, crossing her arms
under her ample chest. "I don't think so. You have no idea what it's been like
for her. What she had to do..." The words were right, but there was something
off about the girl's argument. Her words were full of conviction, but it felt...
false.
	"Perhaps we can wait until anoth-" Skullo began, but Minako cut him off
with a glare. He meekly slid back.
	"I AM going in there to see Usagi," Minako informed the brunette.
	"Not if I have anything to say about it," the brunette replied.
	"As a matter of fact, you don't," Minako said, allowing her power to
build up a little bit. It wasn't anything blatant, but her armour started to
shine a little bit more and her hair began to shimmer in a light that hadn't
been there before. The building they were in was a broken-down dorm just off
campus, with barely any electricity and most of the furniture covered in ghostly
sheets. "Now, are you going to step aside, or do I move you?"
	The woman stiffened, and her hand clenched for... Minako blinked. She
hadn't reached for her sword, instead she had tried to grab something with the
other hand. Like she was reaching for something that wasn't there. The motion
had been oddly familiar to Minako. Like she did it herself a great deal. But
whatever she had reached for wasn't there.
	The realisation of this seemed to hit the woman hard. Her expression
went from angry to sad in a heartbeat. It was like she had lost something,
something precious and wonderful. Minako felt her own anger draining away.
Suddenly those green eyes were fragile, not hard. Suddenly she wanted to comfort
this girl.
	But she didn't. Instead she pushed aside the suddenly unresisting woman.
"Come on, Skullo. Time for our audience."
	"Oh, right! Of course!" Skullo replied, allowing himself to be led by
the wrist as Minako pushed open the door and walked into the little dorm room.
"I do hope that... oh my!"
	Minako stared.
	Usagi was naked, covered only in a single bedsheet which just barely
managed to keep her decent. The man in bed with her was also naked, and making
no such effort to conceal it. He was also the most beautiful man she had ever
seen. If an angel had fallen from heaven and landed on earth, he would look like
this man. He had a perfect face and slim muscular chest, well-toned arms and
legs and piercing but unchallenging eyes. His purple hair fell around him in a
halo. He was smiling.
	It was wicked. Minako had never been quite certain what that word meant
until she saw that smile. It was a wicked smile, and there was no other suitable
way to describe it.
	Usagi had risen to her feet, clutching her blanket around her. "What are
you doing?" she demanded.
	"I..." Minako faltered for a moment. What was she doing? She was barging
in on Usagi and her boyfriend... who Minako was certainly not sneaking peeks at
out of the corner of her eye. She had a perfectly good boyfriend... who didn't
have purple hair or quite the same...
	"Get out of here." If the words had been said in embarrassment, or even
anger or any other way, Minako would have obeyed without question. But the words
were imperious. They did not demand to be obeyed, they EXPECTED it. Minako felt
the anger rushing back in. It was like something outside of her just filled her
body with rage.
	"No," she snapped. "You can dally with your pretty-boy later. Right now,
I need to talk to you."
	Usagi's eyes hardened a bit, but then they softened. She sighed and let
her blanket drop. Minako heard Skullomania yelp but he need not have worried. As
the blanket fell Usagi was suddenly wearing her silver and gold-etched armour.
She looked at the man on the bed apologetically, then stepped outside, gesturing
for Minako to follow.
	The man on the bed just smiled at Minako. He was smiling as if he was in
complete control. Minako turned her back to him and deliberately walked out.
	"...I tried to stop her..."
	"There, it's not your fault, Makoto." Usagi brushed her hand along the
other girl's cheek. Minako realised she was brushing away the woman's tears. "It
isn't your fault. Besides, I don't need you to protect me. Go home."
	"But... I need to..." Makoto twisted her hands inside each other.
	"I thought we agreed, Makoto. You don't need to protect me anymore. I
can save myself. Go. Be with the person you love." Usagi smiled. "I didn't go
through all the trouble of setting you up just so you could leave her lonely."
	Makoto's face twitched once, then she smiled and turned, walking away.
Minako frowned, watching her leave.
	"Walk with me, Minako," Usagi invited, and started out of the building.
Minako looked back at Skullo, who looked out of his depth. She gestured for him
to follow, which he did reluctantly.
	"You hurt Makoto's feelings," Usagi chided once they were outside.
	"That woman?" Minako frowned.
	"Yes." Usagi paused, then made up her mind about something and
continued. "She was just like you, once. She was a Sailor Senshi, a warrior of
love and justice." Minako stared. "She wanted to fight. To struggle and battle
for peace. She was very good at it, as well. She had a talent for fighting. She
wanted to leave, to go into the outside world and fight evil just like you were.
	"She just didn't understand," Usagi completed sadly.
	"You stopped her?" Minako asked sharply.
	"Stopped? Please, you make it sound like I forced her to stay," Usagi
looked vaguely offended. "No, I just made her understand. I showed her why I was
right and she was wrong. Why her way, why YOUR way can never win."
	"My way?" They were entering the city now. The people stared, with love
for their Princess, with hate for the Judas who opposed her.
	"All this pointless struggle, all this needless, endless HATE..." Usagi
bit off the last word. "Do you think it will really matter, in the end? You kill
and you kill and you kill, and what have you accomplished in the end? You save
one life that will be in danger again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next."
	"That's one more day they wouldn't have lived otherwise!" Minako shot
back.
	Usagi nodded, accepting that. "And do you think that makes you a hero,
Minako? Do you think that makes you anything but a killer?" Minako had no reply
to that. "Akane was so caught up in fighting evil that she destroyed the thing
that had protected this paradise. She was so obsessed with the good fight that
she lost sight of all the lives she placed in danger. SHE is as responsible for
this carnage as Chronos is. Is that what you want to end up like, Minako?"
	"No..." Minako wasn't certain if she was agreeing or denying.
	"I understand why you're so angry, why you hurt so much. Because you
think this war can't be won. You think that we can't save the world. That all we
can do is fight off the end one day at a time."
	"Yes..." Minako looked at her, clenching her fists. "That's it exactly.
Evil exists, Usagi. I've seen it in the hearts of good men and bad. I've seen
monsters who look like children, and saints who look like things out of your
nightmares. This isn't a WAR we can fight, Usagi. It isn't something we can win,
or lose. It's just LIFE. It just IS."
	"Listen to yourself, Minako..." Usagi said sadly. "You've lost hope."
	"No... I found hope!" Minako roared back. How DARE she question Minako's
dedication? "After what happened to my family, I lost hope then. But I found it
again. I found it again because I realised that no matter how many monsters I
slay, it will NEVER be enough. That if I drive myself towards an unattainable
goal, all I'll do is drive myself crazy! I've found hope...
	"Hope is one child who will live to see tomorrow. Hope is watching the
sunrise. Hope is the heartfelt thanks of the people you save today, this moment.
Hope is what we do now, here."
	Usagi looked at her with such pity, such sadness that Minako felt her
words had become dust. "I don't blame you for feeling that way," Usagi said.
"Because you're right. You cannot win this war."
	Minako looked around suddenly. They had entered the graveyard. The
makeshift graves of all those killed in the battle. Minako felt a shiver run up
her spine.
	"So you agree?"
	"Agree? No." Usagi quickened her pace. They came to the top of the hill
and there they found a man in front of one of the makeshift graves. He wore
black, and he was bowed over the grave, his forehead pressed against the wooden
cross. "Mamoru, would you step away from there for a moment?"
	"What?" Mamoru looked up. He was handsome, in his own way, but his face
was dark with sorrow. "Princess... of course..." He stepped away from the grave,
looking confused.
	"Look, Minako." Usagi gestured and a small crystal appeared in her palm.
Minako's throat caught and her heart skipped a beat. "YOU can not win this war.
But I can!"
	Usagi raised the Silver Crystal above her head, and the world was filled
with light. Minako felt it flow through her, and she fell to her knees and wept.
It was glory. It was awe. It was pure. She had never felt it before, but she had
no doubt: this was the glow of everything that was good and true in the
universe. This was the shine of all things warm and beautiful. It was the light
of hope.
	When the light vanished Minako could only hold herself and sob. Usagi
was also on her knees, breathing hard, sweat on her forehead. She looked like
she had just run halfway across Asia and back. Mamoru was staring in
astonishment, staring at the young woman lying on the ground before the
grave marker. She was beautiful; lithe and trim, with short blue hair. She was
naked, and she took a deep breath... then Mamoru was suddenly holding her,
blocking out anything from view.
	It wasn't anything crass. He was crying, sobbing in pure joy. He was
clutching the woman to his chest. "Marz... Marz... oh thank you... thank god...
never leave me again... never..." he was murmuring.
	"Mamoru dear?" Marz said, her voice drowsy. "Where are we... I... I was
somewhere else..."
	"Shush," he pulled back, smiling. The sorrow had vanished, replaced with
a warm, grateful smile. He brushed her face with his thumb. "You're alive.
You're with me. That's all that matters."
	"I..." She seemed like she was going to say something. But then she
leaned in, placing her head against his chest. "Yes. You're right."
	"A miracle..." Skullomania breathed.
	"Th-thank you..." Mamoru said to Usagi, his voice cracking. She smiled
at him.
	Minako took a deep breath, and slowly rose to her feet. She steeled
herself. "I'm supposed to be impressed?"
	All three looked at her in shock. Minako clenched her fists and stared
at them all. "Is this it, Usagi? Your great argument? This?"
	"I think you don't-"
	"This is a parlour trick!" Minako cut her off. "You think this will save
the world. One life? ONE LIFE? Is that it, Usagi? Is this your argument as to
why I should trust you, why I should just surrender the struggle and let you do
as you please?"
	Usagi's eyes hardened. "I wanted to show you how meaningless the deaths
you fight to prevent are."
	Minako stood there, stunned. Then her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"
	"You don't know what I've been trying to attain here, Minako," Usagi
said. "I'm not after temporal power. Fighting Chronos, fighting Millennium,
fighting Shadowloo or the Dark Kingdom or Galaxia? Meaningless. Because evil
will always exist." Usagi looked away, towards the setting sun. "Unless I make
it not exist. Unless I change the world."
	"Change the world?" Minako asked slowly.
	"The power of miracles. The power to revolutionise the world. The power
of Dios. The eternal thing. The shining thing. The ultimate force. The Third
Circle. Call it what you will, but it's all the same thing." She turned to
Minako again. "The power to change the world. Not just fight it, not just live
in it. Not just change a little piece here or there. The power to change the
world, the UNIVERSE. To declare that up is blue or space is time or that evil
does not exist. The power to reforge the world into something better, cleaner,
purer. Without sin or hate or killing."
	"That's impossible," Minako breathed.
	"No, it's not." Usagi looked at her. "I've seen it. The Rose Gate. The
barrier behind which it is sealed. I've seen the artifacts of that power. And
you have, too."
	"What?"
	"Anthy's eternal torment. Your powers' ability to destroy undead. Not
even I am so anathema to them as you are. It is a relic of God. The Third Circle
touched you and remade all reality so that you could be a vampire killer." Usagi
held up her hand, the crystal in it. "And you've met Ukyou. You KNOW what her
power is like. How it saved you from the brink of death. You FELT it touch you."
	Minako started. How had Usagi know about that?
	"That is why I brought you here, Minako," Usagi said formally. "Because
you have been twice touched by the Third Circle. You, more than any other person
save Ukyou or Chris, have been altered by the power of God. The power to save
the world from evil, forever.
	"I had hoped that your loyalty to me, to my cause, to my memory from
your past life... that it would be enough to convince you. That you would be
willing to give me what I need."
	"What do you need from me?" Minako asked.
	"I need that power, Minako." Usagi held out her hand. "I need a sword
with which to cleave the barrier of infinity, and only yours will do."
	Minako stared, her heart beating. Sweat ran down her brow. "And if I
refuse?"
	"Then I will have to find another way," Usagi said sadly.
	"Then no," Minako growled. "I won't give up... give up what is a part of
me. I want to keep fighting. I won't let you do this alone."
	"In the end, we can only do this alone," Usagi said.
	"Listen to yourself, Usagi," Minako snapped. "You're sounding insane.
The power to change the world? A fairy tale! You can't do it, Usagi!" Minako
snapped her hand down sharply. "You can't just wish away the problems of the
world! Trust me, I know someone who tried and they'll tell you how hollow wishes
are."
	"I can save the world," Usagi returned, not accusing, just certain.
	"You're just telling yourself that," Minako shouted. "You just want an
excuse to lay in your bed and fuck a man more evil than..."
	"Than what?" Usagi snapped. "More evil than what? Than you?" Usagi
flicked her hair to the side. "Akio is evil, but even he hasn't killed as many
people as you have, Minako." Then she paused. "And in the end, I will fix him. I
will redeem him. I will change the world so he and his sister can be saved just
like everyone else."
	"No, you won't!" Minako roared. "You'll fail! And you'll drag down
everyone else with you. You'll destroy the world, watch it die by inches,
because you want to save it all at once!"
	"You should understand!" Usagi roared back. "You should believe in me!"
	"What? Because I'm a Senshi?" Minako shook her head. "Sorry, Usagi. It
doesn't work like that. I'm not your puppet. I will believe in my own dream!"
	"You HAVE to help me!" Usagi pleaded, suddenly looking sad again. "We're
running out of time, Minako. I can't fight Chronos forever. I CAN'T. I need what
you have, to ascend..."
	"You'll never have it, Usagi, because it's not mine to give," Minako
insisted. "It belongs to every person who has ever died because I was too slow,
too weak to save them. It belongs to their memories. It is the thing that keeps
me going, that makes me keep fighting for each single precious life!" Minako
swept her hand across the graveyard. "THEY are the ones who own my power, Usagi.
And until they tell me to turn it over to you... I will never stop fighting."
	Usagi looked at her, her expression hard. "So be it." She raised her
hand into the air. The crystal gleamed. Was she going to... But just returning
one person had almost killed her!
	"Serenity, no!" It was Luna, she and Artemis must have followed them.
Luna was standing on a gravestone and shouting. "You mustn't! That much stress
will kill you!"
	"I have to," Usagi said, the glow in her crystal beginning to shine
brighter.
	"Stop this!" Skullomania said, suddenly grabbing Minako. "Tell her to
stop this! We can't... that light... we can't lose that light!" Minako just
stared at him, opening and closing her mouth soundlessly. She should do
something, she realised dimly.
	"Serenity!" Mamoru shouted, trying to stand up, getting ready to tackle
her. Then the blue-haired girl, Marz, grabbed him and dragged him to the ground.
	"NO!" she shouted. "You can't interfere, Mamoru!"
	"Princess! You have to stop before it's too late!" Luna pleaded.
	"No." Usagi frowned. "I HAVE to do this. If this is what it takes... let
them live. Let them all LIVE!"
	Minako felt something wrench inside her. She toppled to her knees again.
She gasped. The light exploded outward, so bright that nothing could be seen.
Nothing except her. Usagi, Sailor Moon, Princess Serenity... outlined in white,
her armour looking thin and fragile over the body of a little girl. A little
girl defying the very nature of the world. She was screaming; a wordless,
meaningless scream of pain. It was too much. It was too much power. The universe
would not give up its hold on the dead so easily.
	Minako tried to stand, to do something. She had to stop this. She would
do anything to stop this. Anything but watch this good, but misguided, woman
throw her life away over a point of personal philosophy. This was never what
Minako had wanted! She had wanted to make Usagi do something, but not like this!
	Never like this.
	Usagi was crumbling, falling over. Her body was beginning to split apart
from the inside out. There was too much power. She would die. Minako reached out
her hand...
	And the world CHANGED.
	There was no other way to describe it. You just suddenly knew that the
entire world, the entire universe was different now. The light winked out.
Minako blinked. Usagi stood in the graveyard, unharmed, not even so much as
tired. She was looking up at the sky, a cheerful smile on her face.
	"I understand now," she said to no one. Then she gestured, and her
crystal pegasus appeared from thin air. She slid up onto it. The sun had set,
but she was bathed in the moonlight.
	"Wait... where are you going?" Minako asked.
	"To fix things," Usagi told her. Then she turned on her horse and went
north, galloping at first but the pegasus's wings soon carried her into the air.
She flew north until she was out of Minako's sight. She flew north and left her,
and hundreds of confused, joyous people that had been dead moments ago stared
after her in wonder.

*

	It was just like seven years ago. He was moving like a man possessed,
dodging and striking in a poetic economy of motion. His blazing green aura
roared and snapped around him; the colour darker, more violent than the briar
patch that had erupted around him. Just like seven years ago, he was constantly
moving, because wherever he set down became a field of death. Thick vines and
clouds of toxic gas came in from every direction.
	Wherever his fists went, there was nothing but destruction. His blows
tore tree-trunk-thick vines in two, his hand crushed insects and pods and all
manner of things. Once, a great cloud of insects had swept in on him, but his
aura had exploded out around him like a miniature nova, crushing the tiny things
against the walls and ceiling of the tunnel.
	But he was fighting a losing battle, and Nabiki knew it. In terms of
speed, strength, agility and skill Ryouga outclassed any one thing that Link
sent against him. But Link had a seemingly endless supply of suicidally loyal
servants she could throw against him. Even that might not have been enough.
Ryouga was much stronger now than he had ever been while travelling with Nabiki.
	He was strong enough to shatter this entire structure, to bring down
most of the city in his rage. With his aura alone he could devastate entire city
blocks, shatter whole buildings if that was his wish. But Ryouga was holding
back.
	In seven years, Ryouga had not learned the fine control, the precision
power of Ranma or Akira. He was a weapon of mass destruction, and his preferred
tactic was to throw all his power at his opponent and save nothing for defence.
After all, why did he have to worry about tactics? He was the man who could not
die. But now, he was holding back, not striking out with his full power.
	Because of Nabiki. Nabiki knelt on the floor, staring up at him. The
battle had shifted and moved while she watched and now it was taking place in
the shattered remains of the city above them. Link's toxic jungle was rapidly
eating up the few remaining safe areas for Ryouga, forcing him further and
further away. Nabiki had seen Ryouga's face when he realised this. She had seen
him draw up his hand, begin to gather his power for his most devastating attack,
the Suicide Blast that would cut through anything Link had like a hot knife
through butter.
	But he had hesitated, and nearly lost. The swarm of insects had come in
again, sensing his aura concentrating in his hands. He had just barely managed
to push them away with another pulse of his terrifyingly powerful chi. Nabiki
had distinctly heard Link's sigh of relief. She had heard it for the same reason
Nabiki was certain Ryouga had held back his attack, because Link was standing
less than a meter away.
	Oh, not that Link was being stupid. She was holding the Wishing Sword in
her right hand, while making certain to keep her left facing towards Nabiki.
Also, even if Nabiki had been quick enough to reach it she would have to first
go through the cage Link had grown around her with vines that conducted, of all
things, electricity. Even if Nabiki had been able to get through that, there was
the bed of soft red sporepods she was kneeling on, that had a tendency to expel
a cloud of sleep-inducing pollen if Nabiki moved.
	"I have to admit, when I first saw Ryouga I was worried," Link said; a
tiny creature crawled out of her long hair and began to remove the sweat from
her forehead one drop at a time with its tiny proboscis. "God works through
coincidence and his arrival was certainly coincidental, considering you can no
longer lead him around like a dog." Link shrugged. "But now that I seem to have
the situation well in hand, it just confirms my suspicion.
	"Your part in the tale God is weaving is finished," Link finished, her
mouth setting in a thin line.
	Above them, Ryouga roared and pulled free of a pair of vines that had
wrapped around his shoulders. His fist sunk into a large venus-flytrap-like
mouth and a second later it exploded outward in a spray of green and black
ichor.
	"You haven't beaten him yet," Nabiki pointed out lamely. She wanted to
say something witty, something scathing and memorable, but she couldn't. She
could barely even focus on Link's voice. Her eyes had not left Ryouga and his
battle. She felt her heart beating faster, her mouth drying as he struggled
against the jungle.
	"Oh, are you hoping the tide is going to turn?" Link shook her head.
"That someone is going to rescue you? No, I'm afraid that any of the... few
people that care enough to come for you are quite occupied at the moment." She
chuckled. "Or are you merely hoping that I'll make..." She paused, as if the
next words tasted bitter in her mouth. "An unsound tactical decision? Some
idiot's mistake?" She frowned. "Like forgetting about some of his abilities, or
using the same strategy twice just because it worked the first time or
merely assuming he's harmless even though he's still fighting?
	"No, I'm quite certain I won't get to kill Ryouga, or even utterly
defeat him," Link crossed her arms. "But I don't need to. All that is necessary
is that I make certain he can't follow me quickly enough. Without your guidance,
he'll never find me again."
	Now Nabiki could see it, driving him further and further away. Link
wasn't actually trying to harm Ryouga, just drive him back. Far enough that
she'd be able to take Nabiki and run? Or was she going to even bother? Nabiki
felt her blood run cold.
	She had faced the possibility of her own death a number of times, far
more often than she wished. In fact, she had been in far worse situations than
even this. She still thought the moment that she would relive in her nightmares
forever would be when Bison finally decided to show her what a real psychic
could do.
	No, really, it was a wonder she was still alive. Link had everything she
wanted. She had the sword. Why bother tormenting Nabiki, why even risk letting
someone like Ryouga show up? As the question formed in her mind, Nabiki felt a
good portion of her fear evaporate. It was not so much that she wasn't certain
she could die at any moment, but now she knew there was something else going on
here.
	Nabiki was careful here. She kept her voice soft, pleading. She had
always been good at suckering people. In fact, she had often wondered why she
kept her old skills polished at all, considering how much easier her telepathy
had made her life. But now, she was grateful she'd never lost track of her
mundane tricks. "But... but why... why are you doing this, Link?"
	Link sneered. "You mean aside from Chris asking me to kill you?"
	"But..." Nabiki took a deep, exhausted breath. "But you and I both know,
you're not working for Chris any more than I am."
	Link paused. Her eyes narrowed and she looked down at the Wishing Sword.
Nabiki noticed that her thumb was resting against the edge, hard enough that a
few drops of blood had run down the blade, dripping from the tip onto the
ground. Slowly, ever so slowly, she raised her head and her eyes came to rest on
Nabiki. Nabiki wanted dearly, at that second to know what Link was thinking.
More than she had ever wanted to know what someone was thinking before. And Link
knew it. You could see it in her eyes. The way the edges of her lips kept trying
to smile, but not quite managing it. Link was so used to frowning that for her a
smile was a wholly artificial expression, one she only put on with deliberate
irony. Now, now her face was trying to smile by itself for perhaps the first
time ever.
	"At first I was wondering whether the power in this sword was tied to
your life force, or something like that," Link explained laconically. "But... as
it turns out, it's not." She quite deliberately turned her attention back to
Ryouga. He was getting slowly further away. The area around him was a devastated
wasteland, but still the rising jungle forced him back. "So what were you
asking... oh, yes. I see nothing wrong with following Chris' orders, so long as
they coincide with my own interests."
	It took Nabiki only an instant to realise that Link was not going to
offer any more information. True, she had answered the question, but she was
holding back more, and both of them knew it. Link wanted Nabiki to ask. She was
enjoying it, she was savouring it the way a sommelier would a fine French wine.
A few years ago... heck, a few weeks ago Nabiki might very well have refused.
But Nabiki swallowed her pride with surprising ease.
	"So, why torment me like this?" Nabiki managed to keep her voice
sounding defeated and tired. "Why waste all this time talking to me, forcing me
to watch all of this and keeping me helpless? We both know you could probably
kill me and escape Ryouga."
	"Why? Because I can't torture you to death physically. No, don't bother
asking why that is. I have my reasons, and it was never really my... passion
anyway." Link shook her head. "But I factored a certain amount of time for
letting you come to grips with just how utterly I've beaten you, before the
end."
	"I wasn't even aware I was your enemy," Nabiki said softly.
	"Oh please. You have every reason to hate and fear me, Nabiki. I've been
a thorn in your side for years. Working around your powers, showing you up every
now and then. Tweaking your nose when you got too full of yourself." Link
chuckled. "Granted, the reason you hate and fear me is because of how much I
hate you. Because until I started making your life hell, you'd never even have
remembered my name.
	"But why?" snapped Nabiki, some of the frustration in her voice real.
"What have I ever done to you?"
	"You've done nothing to me. It's what you ARE," Link said softly, giving
her a sidelong glance. "Look at you. Queen of the underworld, isn't that what
they call you? The world's greatest broker of information. And, of course, so
powerful a psychic. Some would think my defeating you here to be a far more
impressive feat than if I'd destroyed Hotaru... more fools they. But what did
you do to earn any of this? Nothing!" She waved her hand dismissively before
Nabiki could respond. "Oh, yes, you expended effort in building up your little
operation, and you've been earning your keep with Ukyou. But you miss the point.
What did you do to DESERVE your exalted place in this company? What effort did
you expend to become the mighty power in the world you are? You were lucky. You
were in the right place at the right time to be so very angry at Ukyou for
turning your petty, meaningless little world upside down that you determined you
had to play with the big boys. And then everything fell into your lap. Ryouga,
for instance. And that sword."
	"I took a bullet for this sword," Nabiki reminded her coolly.
	"I've taken far worse than that for far less reward," Link sneered. "But
don't mistake me. It's not just that you have such power, such... importance,
that makes me despise you. Plenty of people are like you. The chosen ones. But
you... you're special."
	Link turned for a moment, raising her arm to direct some aspect of the
battle. Nabiki strained to see, but Link blocked her view. Just another petty
little bit of revenge, she groused, sinking back and then coughing slightly as
even that tiny movement released more spores. Finally, the woman faced her
again, and this time the good humour had evaporated from her face.
	"You're the one, the ONLY one that could take everything away from me,"
Link hissed. "Seven years of work, of effort, of research and induction and
discovery... of practical prostitution to that undead bastard! Relying on HIM
for power, for protection, for access to sources I'd never get near because I
just wasn't lucky enough for Ukyou to be a fan of me! And you could take it all
away. Only you." She clasped her arms tightly around herself, still careful to
hold the sword nowhere near Nabiki's cage.  "This is only the second time we've
met. The first time, you hadn't made any wish. Until now, until I'd made sure
you were helpless, at any time since then you could have reached into my mind.
You could have taken everything I know, everything I've worked for." She stared
downwards. "Power is meaningless. You were far more powerful than me. So is
Ryouga. It means nothing, as you can see. The only thing that defines us as who
we are is the roles we play. The only way I can define myself is by my
knowledge. The things I know that nobody else knows! The secrets of Chris and
Ukyou and what brought them here." Her head snapped up, eyes boring into Nabiki
with feverish intensity. "Right now, Chris is fighting Hotaru. Ukyou will be
fighting as well. Who, I can't say. Maybe Angel, or Tethys, or that damn
monstrosity Chris created. But I do know what will happen. Only me." She paused,
then grimaced. "Well, perhaps not only me. Only five people know more than me
about this universe right now. But by the end of all this, there will be fewer
than that. And none of them know the things I know." She caressed the Wishing
Sword absently; at some point, her hand had been healed and the blood removed.
"So do you understand why, Nabiki? You could have taken that away. In a
heartbeat, in a flash, you could have ripped my secrets from me and told them to
Ukyou, told them to anybody. Other people could merely kill me. But only you
could take away everything that makes me REAL. I'll never let you do that."
	She crouched beside Nabiki, still holding the sword away from her. "And
you never will. Even if I have to escape, I'll kill you first. Even if I cannot,
the toxic miasma of this jungle will kill you once I stop holding it off. Even
if it does not, that shard of crystal will kill you in a few hours. Should you
actually succeed in removing it by force, it will kill you in so doing. In the
end, Nabiki, you're just a frail human being, just like you were seven years
ago. Killing you is so extraordinarily easy that you can rest assured that only
God's grace has kept you around this long."
	"If God likes me so much, he's had a rotten way of showing it so far,"
Nabiki said wryly. Despite the seeming madness of Link's words, her rant had
been oddly compelling. Maybe that was how Mussolini - or Bison - had gotten
people to follow them, by being so convinced of what they said that they could
even convince you.
	Link's lip curled derisively. "You have no idea how extraordinarily
blessed you have been. No idea at all. But as cathartic as this is, the time for
it has come to an end." Straightening, she drew aside with a swirl of her
forest-green robes.
	Nabiki stared. Ryouga wasn't getting further away anymore. The bright
glow that surrounded him had intensified, and he was charging. No more did he
bother to knock things aside; instead, he simply destroyed them with main force.
Slowly, deliberately, he was advancing towards the great plant that was Link's
pavilion. This cost him - even at this distance, Nabiki could see blood staining
his clothing. Once, briefly, he stumbled. But a moment later, with a renewed
flare of power, he continued his inexorable advance.
	"He finally figured out my plan," Link mused. "Took him long enough.
Dolt. But I still had no intention of leaving him at my back. That would be an
idiot's mistake." She turned to Nabiki again. "Incidentally, Nabiki, you haven't
by any chance become a vampire while I haven't been looking, have you?"
	Nabiki blinked, tearing her eyes away from Ryouga. "Vampire?"
	"I didn't think so."
	And suddenly three golden insects flew from Link's voluminous sleeves.
Nabiki didn't even have time to draw back before they skimmed through the 'bars'
of the plant-cage. One latched onto each arm, one to the back of her neck.
Nabiki reached up to try and swat the last one off, but suddenly they yanked her
forward with incredible speed and power for such tiny insects. Directly into the
electrified bars.
	Nabiki's vision returned as the sound of her scream reached her ears.
She slumped forward. Her heart hurt. Her face was pressed into the tough vines,
and the flesh pressed against them felt burned. The electricity, however, had
stopped arcing into her. And as she looked up, a fist was hurtling towards her
face.
	This time she didn't black out briefly, but did cry out again as she
fell back into the soft blossoms. Spores erupted around her, and she couldn't
help but breathe some in. Coughing, she tried to rise again, but her vision swam
and her muscles alternately spasmed and burned. There was blood on her face, and
she vaguely wondered if her nose was broken.
	"I imagine that will do," Link said with satisfaction. "Ah, yes. Look at
that. I once read that Ryouga Hibiki would do anything for a woman who showed
him the slightest hint of affection. Clearly, a more accurate word would have
been 'attention'."
	Nabiki managed to focus through the drowsiness and confusion, She could
see Ryouga: he was no longer just pushing forward, he was charging, he was
screaming. His aura was blasting out in front of him as he ripped and shattered
anything in front of him with berserk strength. But he had given up all thought
of defence. A vine slashed past him, sinking its thorns into his arm. He ripped
it apart, but the thing still clung to him tenaciously, rivers of blood pouring
down his body. Link sighed.
	"Ah, I suppose it was too much to hope the same drug would effect him
twice. Remarkably adaptive, but not nearly enough." Link gestured. "Watch."
	Nabiki could see it, but there was no way Ryouga could. They were hidden
behind a pair of giant toadstools that Ryouga was running between without a
care. He was busy ripping apart a swarm of bug-like creatures, one of them with
his teeth. Thus he didn't notice when four vines snaked out, catching his wrists
and ankles in neat little loops.
	Then everything around him died, all at once. It just turned black, and
rapidly dissolved into black dust that blew away on the wind. Half the toxic
jungle, gone in the time it took Nabiki to blink. Ryouga was left suspended in
mid-air, his arms and legs still caught in the strange blue-green vines. He
growled and yanked with one arm, but the vine merely stretched, and he yelped as
his other arm was pulled back just a violently. He blinked, then slowly tried to
pull his arms together; however, Nabiki could see what Link had done.
	His own strength was working against him. The vines effortlessly
transferred the force across each other; if he pulled in one direction, he would
be pulled in the other just as strongly. Maybe if Ryouga had been more clever,
more skilled, or even just less furious and able to think clearer he could have
escaped, but he was not and he would not.
	Nabiki wanted to cry. She should have warned him, but she couldn't. She
could barely breathe. Her every muscle was on fire. Her system was full of who
knew what toxins. Her nose was broken. She was trapped. Trapped like a rat.
	Link gestured and then rose up into the air, supported by a mound of
thorny vines. She raised one hand and one of her creatures made a small incision
on her thumb. She was going to use her blood. Of course, Ryouga had adapted to
her second-hand poison, but Link would have other tricks.
	Nabiki rose up, and the cage she was in suddenly filled with spores. She
clamped her mouth shut and pinched her nose. Oh fuck, she'd forgotten it was
broken. Unable to contain her gasp she breathed in a cloud of spores. Her vision
was darkening. She wouldn't even see it. She had come all this way, fought all
this time to save Ryouga, save Ryouga from the path SHE had set him on. She had
to make up to him for what she had done, and he was going to die. Or worse.
	Because of her. Link would torment him because Nabiki cared about him.
He would suffer again because of Nabiki. No. Not again. He had saved her, saved
her more times than she wanted to count. It was her turn. She was sick of being
afraid. She was sick of failing.
	She reached out with her mind. The pain was immediate, all-encompassing.
It blocked out all thought. It also drove the sleepiness from her mind. She
focused, kept the power going. Somehow, she got her body moving. She walked
forward and touched the bars. They flashed blue. The skin on her hand sizzled.
She couldn't feel it, not above the pain in her head.
	With a wordless, noiseless scream she tore the bar apart. She had no
idea how. She didn't care. She staggered forward. Her legs gave out. They
wouldn't move. The pain, for a moment she'd let her concentration slip and the
pain just changed. Her arms were twitching, her heart fluttering. For a moment,
she felt it stop. Then she bit her lip, focused her power again. The feedback
was intense, it blocked out the other pains. She crawled forward.
	There was no room for thought. No room for a plan. She had no hope for
what she was going to accomplish. She just moved. She had to get to him. She had
to save him. Even if it cost her everything.
	If someone had seen her, they might have gaped at the insane grin on her
face. So this was what it felt like to be one of the good guys.
	Thorns sunk into her palms. Thorns tore at her chest and stomach. They
ripped gouges from her dangling legs whenever they bounced against the column.
Nabiki climbed, heedless of the damage. She couldn't see what was happening. She
couldn't hear. There was nothing but the next handhold, the next breath-stealing
lift of her arm, dragging the dead weight of her legs up. The feedback was going
to tear her brain apart. But she had to keep it, block out everything else. It
was a delicate balance, just enough feedback to make her able to act despite the
pain, but not enough to cripple her. But it grew harder, it required more
concentration with each injury, with each tiny nick or scrape or cut.
	Then Nabiki saw it. Link's foot. She was standing there, imperiously
gesturing at Ryouga as he struggled vainly to get free. Ryouga was beyond
words. His eyes were glowing green pits. His fanged mouth roared and snapped,
almost like a vampire's. Link was laughing as one of her creatures drew a drop
of blood from her palm. Its tiny wings unfurled and soon it would take off
towards Ryouga...
	"NO!" Nabiki shrieked and her hand wrapped around Link's ankle. She
pulled, weakly. It was not enough to cause Link to do more than stagger. But it
drew her attention. Link stared down at her, her eyes widening. She kicked,
smashing her foot into Nabiki's face. Nabiki's grip tightened as she was nearly
knocked free.
	But she almost took Link with her. Ryouga was roaring. Link was
screaming, but Nabiki could no longer hear it. Her world was a narrow tunnel,
and everything outside of it was fading away. She pushed herself up with her
other hand, trying to climb onto the top of the pillar, while pushing Link at
the same time.
	Link flailed her arms back, and her eyes narrowed. Then Nabiki heard her
shriek the next words. "Fuck you! FUCK YOU! Die, you bitch!"
	Nabiki had heard there were times when people were stabbed and they
didn't even realise it until they fell over dead. This was not one of those
times. She felt the sword slide into her abdomen. She knew it punctured
something vital, because the pain wasn't just sharp, it was also spreading,
rapidly spreading through her entire body.
	But she laughed. Because Link had stabbed her with the most convenient
weapon on hand. Nabiki's hand wrapped around the blade of the Wishing Sword.
	"I wish..." she said, blood pooling from the edge of her lips.
	Only then did Link realise her mistake. For a moment, Nabiki saw the
struggle in Link's mind. 'Can you kill me in time?', Nabiki thought. Can you
kill me before I finish? Is this all part of God's plan? Nabiki smirked. She was
dying, but she didn't care. Because she'd won, and Link knew it.
	"Damn me," Link said in a tiny little voice.
	Link released the hilt of the sword and leapt backward. A wall nearby
exploded outward and a great dragon snaked out. It had treebark skin, and moss
for a beard and amber eyes. Link landed on the thing's back and began shouting
something. It was already rising by the time Nabiki pulled the blade out of her
gut.
	Oh god, that had been a bad idea. She'd worry about dying later,
however. She staggered forward and swung clumsily. The sword smashed against
Ryouga's arm, not even so much as scratching it. Her second swing hit home, and
suddenly his arm was free. Then she was falling backward.
	Something grabbed her, holding her up. Ryouga had escaped with
surprising speed. Either that or she was losing all track of time. She looked up
at him, but he wasn't looking at her. He was looking up. His hand was raised up,
and the aura around him was collapsing inward and inward.
	"Not this time!" he roared, and for a moment a tiny multi-pointed star
appeared in his hand. Then it flashed green and shot into the sky. Nabiki
watched it rise, overcoming Link's dragon with disturbing ease. It caught the
thing in the tail and flashed straight through it without stopping. The thing
exploded outward in a shower of gore, and Link fell.
	Ryouga roared again, drawing power for another shot. But Nabiki grabbed
his arm. "No..." she wheezed. "She knows... something..." She was blacking out.
Ryouga looked at her, but his eyes... did they soften? Or was she just losing
her grip on reality? Still, the aura around him weakened and he aimed more
carefully, releasing another blast, much smaller, much more refined towards the
plummeting woman.
	Nabiki never saw it hit. At that point, the darkness took her.

*

	"FLAME SNIPER!"
	The debris in front of them literally melted away, vapourising away into
a cloud of steam. Akane pushed her way through the cloud, wiping it away from
her face. Rei followed her silently, uncertainty on her features. Akane chose
not to think about that. She knew that there was something profoundly important
going on here. Ever since she had started running after that strange girl, it
seemed that the entire universe was out to stop her. They had encountered more
cave-ins, dead end tunnels and bottomless gorges since that decision than...
Akane probably had in her entire life. Plus, every instinct she had told her
this was the wrong course of action.
	So, when the mist finally cleared and she could see the room beyond,
Akane was a little surprised.
	It was a throne room. The ceiling was clear, impossibly thin ice that
hung almost five stories overhead. Thick, deceptively delicate-looking fluted
columns stretched up to support the roof, looking like something out of some
Greek fantasy. The floor was black, but full of glittering lights. Akane
realised dimly that it was an entire galaxy of stars, slowly rotating beneath
their feet.
	And in the centre of the room two women duelled. Akane recognized the
strange girl from the hangar. She moved with a disturbing fluidity, her short
white hair flashing around her in something like a halo. Her opponent was a
woman Akane had never met before, but instantly recognised.
	She had blue skin and short hair of a slightly darker shade of blue. A
golden crescent symbol decorated her forehead, and she wore armour that seemed
to be made of graceful waves caught in mid-crest, shaped to fit her curves and
leaving most of her body only covered by a dark blue skintight suit. The black
ice of her armour glimmered with multicoloured firefly lights. In one hand she
wielded a long spear made of ice, a delicate-looking weapon that looked unwieldy
for combat but that she wielded with startling efficiency. One of her arms was
hanging limply by her side.
	For a long moment, Akane and Rei could only stare at the fight in front
of them. Just watching made Akane's eyes hurt suddenly, like she hadn't blinked.
Her eyes began to water and a pressure began to build up behind them. She
watched as Tethys swung her spear around in an intricate pattern, forcing the
floating figure of the girl to dodge again and again until she was trapped next
to a pillar. Than Tethys' spear went through the surprised-looking girl's
stomach-
	Tethys flew backwards, her head rocking to the side and blue water
erupting from her mouth. She smashed into a pillar, sending a crack up its
length. The girl floated in place, her hand extended from her punch. She had
never gone anywhere near a pillar. As soon as Tethys had begun her attack the
girl had easily swatted it aside and countered.
	Akane gripped her head and shouted. She... she remembered something
different. It was like there were two worlds, two realities she had lived. Rei
grabbed her as her feet went out from under her.
	"Akane!" Rei shouted, concern in her voice. "What's wrong?"
	"I..." Akane was at a loss for words. How could she describe it?
	"Akane... Tendo..." Tethys gasped, rising slowly to her feet. Her spear
hung limply in her hands. The huge bruise on the side of her face deformed her
beautiful face. "What are you...?"
	"False prophet?" The girl said, sounding pleasantly surprised. "Well,
look who just keeps doing what she isn't supposed to." The girl giggled and
floated back. Her voice echoed across the chamber; it was the sound of a child
devoid of all humanity, all sanity. "Chris doesn't know you're here... Ah. God
works in mysterious ways." The girl's eyes narrowed as she placed a hand on the
delicate-looking but massive throne at the far end of the room. "I guess I'll
just have to try direct and brutal for once!"
	Akane could only stare as the girl flung the throne at her in a fastball
pitch. The massive black chair was streaking across the throne room so fast that
Akane couldn't have dodged it if she wanted to. Her hand seemed to raise of its
own volition, trying to impose her sword between herself and it. Like that would
help...
	"GET DOWN!" Rei shouted, tackling her to the side. They collapsed to the
ground and Akane realised dimly that the throne should have flown right over
them, but it wasn't going to, because it had been thrown right at where the two
of them were and...
	It stopped, hanging in midair. Then it shattered. Akane covered her eyes
and when she opened them she saw Tethys extending a clenched fist towards them.
She was panting. The girl was looking at her oddly.
	"Oh poo," the girl huffed. "I forgot about you."
	"A decision you will come to regret," Tethys retorted.
	"Let's get out of here, Akane," Rei said, pulling Akane to her feet.
	"But..."
	"This isn't our fight!" Rei shouted. "We aren't supposed to be here."
	"Nope!"
	Akane's eyes widened as the girl appeared right behind Rei. Her hand
reached up and grasped the fire Senshi's neck. The massive red gem of her
gauntlet twinkled in the twilight. Rei didn't even get a chance to gasp as her
head began to pull away from her body in a shower of red gore. Akane screamed
and stabbed out, not caring, not thinking at all. Her sword struck that red orb
tip-first. For a moment, the wood bent back. Then Akane felt a flush of warmth
through it and the blade snapped forward. The gem seemed to explode-
	Rei smashed into the wall. She blinked. Her neck was perfectly intact,
but there were large bruises on it. Akane shuddered, her entire body shaking
like a leaf. The girl was floating back, the gem on her wrist perfectly
unharmed.
	"I guess some of God's favour remains," the girl said, frowning. Then
she smiled. "But not enough."
	Akane was under attack before she could figure out what had happened.
She moved on instinct, her sword flashing left and right, parrying punches and
kicks as the girl flew through the air, her limbs snapping out so fast they were
nothing but white and red flashes. The girl's face was right in front of her,
her Cheshire cat smile never wavering. Akane made the mistake of looking
straight into her eyes.
	There was nothing there.
	A hand snaked past her defences, palm striking her in the chest. She
felt her heart skip, and the world seemed to slow down. The girl brought her
other arm up sharply, knocking Akane's sword aside and sending it skidding
across the floor. Rei was shouting and Akane could see Tethys running towards
her but they were both too slow. The girl drew her hand back, her fingers
curling into claws...
	A flash of silver, a sound like a tuning fork striking middle E and a
puff of breeze. Akane fell back, sitting down hard. The girl had fallen
backwards, her face contorted into a hiss of surprise and anger. Between them
was a slim weapon, long and silver-grey with a twofold blade buried in the
centre of the galaxy. It hummed and vibrated as Akane skidded back.
	And the ceiling was falling. A delicate rain, a falling cascade of
razor-sharp ice. It was all still coming down in slow motion. A figure in black
was in the centre of it, a long black shadow rippling up and above her head as
she seemed to glide to the ground. She landed in a crouch, her coat floating
down around her. Her black hair was tied back in a loose ponytail. She rose to
her feet, and reached out with one hand to grasp the glaive buried in front of
Akane. There were five scars on the arm. The ice came down around her and Akane,
but by some miracle it struck neither of them.
	Ukyou looked over her shoulder. "Akane, are you alright?"
	"I..." Akane blinked. "Yes."
	"Good." Ukyou turned her attention to the girl hovering in the air in
front of her. She snapped her weapon from the ice and brought it to bear on
the... creature in one smooth motion. "Kalia."
	"Shouldn't you be looking for your dream girl or something?" the thing
called Kalia replied, smiling coquettishly and lacing her hands behind her back.
	Ukyou paused for a moment. "You..." Her eyes narrowed, the black lotus
shapes seeming to absorb the light around them. "You're... paradox. The
backlash. Why? Why did Chris create something like this..." Akane got the
impression Ukyou wasn't talking to the girl.
	"Forgive him, lord, for he knows not what he does," Kalia said with a
laugh. Then she attacked.
	It happened so fast Akane didn't even see it. But Ukyou did. There was a
loud clang and the two leapt back away from each other. Ukyou landed, her weapon
held behind her. Kalia came to a stop in mid-air, her hands hanging low as she
began to wave her fingers hypnotically.
	"Look out, Ukyou!" Akane warned. "She can... she can..." Akane faltered
again, unable to explain it.
	"I can handle this," Ukyou said softly in response, and then she rushed
forward. She turned sideways, pushing off a column and leaping into the air.
Kalia met her, and the glaive was parried by the girl-shape's forearm. Ukyou
didn't even pause. She kept striking, again and again, her body twisting in mid-
air as she somehow maintained her altitude while driving Kalia down and down.
	A hand came to rest on Akane's shoulder and she almost screamed. Then
she looked up to see Katsuhito's smiling face. One of the lenses of his glasses
was cracked. Akane hadn't even felt him arrive. "Come along, you can't be here,"
he said.
	"What? But we have to help..."
	"We can't help Ukyou with this battle," he informed her, pulling her to
her feet. Ukyou had managed to get Kalia to the ground, and now the two of them
were exchanging blows along the top of the artificial galaxy. Ukyou's movements
were fast, efficient and brutal. Every parry she was forced to make flawlessly
transformed into an attack halfway through. Kalia fought with no style Akane
could discern. Her movements were wild, chaotic, seemingly ineffective, but then
out of nowhere she would rebuff an attack and shift the momentum. "Ukyou is the
only person here who can fight that abomination on its own level."
	The battle was shifting back and forth, the advantage changing so fast
Akane could barely keep up. One moment Kalia would be battering Ukyou back with
a series of devastating blows that Ukyou barely avoided, the next Ukyou was
coming within millimeters of removing the girl-thing's limbs with her wicked
looking blade.
	"Wait, that thing... she's not... she's not changing things anymore..."
Akane breathed.
	"Exactly, but all of us are just..." Then Katsuhito trailed off. Ukyou
had just finished a massive strike, her blade swinging up and around her with a
artistic flourish as she struck the floor, sending a crack through the cosmic
map. Kalia had been forced to leap back and away to avoid it, landing near the
back of the throne room. Ukyou smiled. It was then that Akane realised that
Ukyou was now standing between them, all of them, and the monster in human
guise.
	"MAGNUS NIHILO!"
	Ukyou's words vibrated across the throne room as she brought down her
weapon, slamming it into the floor. Everything in front of her just... vanished.
Floor, pillars, wall, shards of broken ceiling; it all seemed to unravel, the
surface of it peeling away to reveal that there was nothing inside. Not air, not
even the void of space, just nothing. In the space of a single heartbeat, an
area the size of a baseball field disappeared. The tip of Ukyou's weapon was
left at the edge of a sphere that had been cut out of the City of Black Ice.
	Kalia was floating, right where she had been standing. Ukyou's eyes
widened.
	"This is where you say 'im-impossible!'" Kalia said, and suddenly she
rushed in, striking Ukyou across the face with the back of her hand. Ukyou flew
back, crashing into the wall over the entrance so hard the entire thing smashed
apart, burying her.
	"Well, shit," Katsuhito said.

*

	Akira shivered a bit. Normally the City of Black Ice wasn't a very cold
place. It wasn't ever particularly warm. It generally had that sort of cool air
running through it that reminded you that autumn was going to end soon and
winter's icy grip was settling in. But this place was different. This place
wasn't meant for any living being to enter. The air here was as cold as a raging
blizzard outside. The air you breathed out didn't just puff into steam, you
could feel ice forming along the rims of your lips.
	Akira walked to the edge of the pathway. It was cut into the side of the
wall, a pathway that orbited the entire Dark Kingdom. Once upon a time Akira had
jogged along this path, circling the city multiple times while she debated in
her head the morality of what she was doing in this city. This place had always
been unnaturally cold. She remembered once dropping a orange off the edge and
into the icy white mist below. The small fruit had frozen solid even before it
hit the rolling white fog, and the sound of its tiny crystalline form shattering
far below had echoed for a long time.
	Akira raised her eyes, looking out across the thin bridge of ice that
spanned the gap to the far wall. There was a single door there, and beyond that
door was a room. Akira shivered again, rubbing her bare shoulders. She wished
she'd worn something thicker under her jacket. She narrowed her eyes and began
across the narrow span. It was barely thick enough for her to stand with both
heels firmly pressed together, and even with her skill Akira chose her path
carefully.
	The last time she had done this, she had only gotten halfway across
before Tethys had shown up to stop her. Whatever was in that room was secret.
Yet another secret that Tethys had kept. Kept even from Akira. Akira felt her
fingers curl into fists, the leather of her gloves cracking in the sub-zero air.
	Tethys was always good at protecting her secrets, at keeping them safe.
That was why Akira had begun to trust her, begun to really truly care for her.
Because Tethys had been willing to tell her secrets. She had told Akira about
her origins, about her life in the Dark Kingdom. She had told Akira of how she
had come to love Jadeite, in her own way. She had told her of the loss she
experienced, of the rude defeat thanks to Ukyou.
	And she had told Akira about her other half. The man Hayato, whose body
she had absorbed, whose soul she had fused with her own. The mortal boy whose
humanity she had incorporated into herself. The boy that had taught her the
meaning of love, and caring and dedication to something bigger than yourself,
something grander than blind obedience to an empty god. Late at night, when no
one else was awake to hear, Tethys had told her about the struggle to regain her
own humanity.
	And Akira had believed her. Had she loved her? Akira frowned as she came
to a stop halfway across the chasm. Even when things between them had seemed
brightest, Akira had held back. She had shared her thoughts, her dreams, her
feeling with Tethys, but she had held back from physical intimacy. Was that why?
Had Tethys sensed that Akira was still pining for Ukyou, the woman Tethys
hated... was that why...
	But the point was moot now. She took a long breath as the lithe figure
emerged from the dark portal. The girl started, the bang over her right eye
flipping up momentarily to reveal her startled blue eyes. Akira shifted sideways
and lifted one arm into the air in front of her.
	"I used to live here," Akira pointed out, answering the unspoken
question. "I guessed where you would be."
	Angel frowned and started across the ravine. She was dressed in the
swimsuit-like outfit she had been wearing in Thailand. The red material
stretched taut over her curves, with sections of mesh revealing her elaborate
elemental tattoos for all to see. Her black leather jacket looked too short for
the weather, but the tattoos on her inner thighs were glowing merrily. Her
steel-plated boots flowed across the icy bridge. She carried her sword in one
hand, the blade whispering through the air idly. Her sheath was gone. And across
her face, down her chest and staining her right hand were tiny crimson droplets.
	"I hoped I wouldn't see you again, but I guess this was bound to
happen," Angel said, her tone fatalistic.
	"We don't have to fight," Akira said. She had to try, after all. "I saw
what you did to Ranma." Akira paused. "You could have killed him."
	"Yeah," Angel was less than a meter away when she stopped. "Is he okay?
He looked pretty bad when I left."
	"I used my jacket as a tourniquet," Akira explained, shivering slightly.
"He's tough. He'll live."
	"Good. I didn't want to kill him. He's a good guy. The kind of guy the
world needs."
	"You don't have to go on killing, Angel," Akira said quickly. Time was
short, and there was no more left to waste dancing around the subject. "I know
you think you do, but you don't. You have the choice to stop."
	Angel raised one eyebrow. "Well, yeah. Of course I do. You don't think
I'm aware of the choice I made?" Angel looked down at her sword. "I chose this
life, Akira. I believe in what I'm doing."
	"No you don't," Akira countered. "You believe in HIM." She tensed,
adopting a more aggressive posture. Angel slid backward, raising her sword in
front of her. "You may have been spying on me for him, but while you were doing
that I got to know more of you than you probably wanted me to. You don't believe
in the killing, Angel. You believe in the cause."
	"And you're saying you wouldn't kill for a cause you believe in?" Angel
snapped, her eyes narrowing dangerously.
	"No. Just the opposite. I've... I've killed more people than I want to
remember, Angel," Akira admitted. The truth of the statement must have gotten
through to the girl, because she hesitated. "The difference between us was that
I learned that you can't kill for someone else's cause. You have to believe what
you're doing is right because it's right."
	"Bullshit," Angel growled out. "That kind of thinking is great for
people like Ranma, who don't realise what's at stake. It's great for heroes. But
some people have to do the important work. While people like you and Ranma are
busy congratulating yourselves on how righteous you are, the world slides
towards Oblivion. Somebody has to stop that, Akira. Who's it going to be, you?"
	"If I have to," Akira answered. Then she struck without warning or
hesitation. The blow landed in her gut and sent the slightly shorter girl
skidding back on the narrow bridge, a cloud of icy air exploding from her mouth.
For a moment, just a moment, Akira was afraid the girl would lose her balance,
but then she righted herself, crouching and sinking her fingers into the side of
the bridge with an audible hiss.
	"Heh. So that's the way it's going to be, taka-taka?" Angel said grimly.
She rose to her feet, her tattoos flaring as the light travelled up to her face.
"Well, let me remind you that unlike last time..." She wiped a bit of blood from
the edge of her lip with her thumb and tsked at it. "I won't be holding back."

*

	It was a battle of dead children. Pluto would have found the irony
amusing if it were not so deadly serious. Two tiny figures, neither of which
would have stood taller than her waist, both of which would have been harmless-
looking and innocent were it not for the gore that covered their faces: their
battle was unlike anything Pluto had ever seen.
	The ground between them exploded as they came together, their fingers
lacing together for a moment. Purple fire and darkness blasted out from them, a
wave of destruction that ripped apart everything it touched. Pluto leapt
backward, shielded herself from the worst of it.
	"Did you think you could kill me with that?" Chris laughed as the two of
them struggled. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I am beyond your power."
	"You may be beyond the Silence," Hotaru acknowledged, her face betraying
no strain, "but you are not beyond the power I represent."
	"I suppose we'll just have to see, won't we?" With a roar, Chris pulled,
ripping one of the Messiah's arms from her socket. The girl didn't even blink,
her face snapping down and her jaw distending like a snake's. Her teeth sunk
into Chris' other arm and ripped it off at the elbow.
	His leg snapped up, catching her in the jaw and sending her spiralling
up and away. Her body smashed into a wall, crashing through it with a
crystalline crack. Chris jumped backward as the demon blade snapped through the
air, nearly impaling him. With a flick of his wrist a long thin tendril of flame
formed, which he snapped like a whip towards the vicious hook-ended blade,
forcing it back.
	The wall cracked again and the Messiah stepped forward. Thick ropey
strings of blood boiled out of her stump, rapidly forming into the shape of an
arm and then solidifying back into flesh. She reached up with her new hand and
pulled the forearm from her jaw. Dylek flipped back, hovering just over her
shoulder. Chris came to a halt, floating in the middle of a crevice between two
buildings.
	"It's old and dead," the Messiah said, not really complaining. "Empty."
	"No, my power is not in my blood," Chris said. He held up his stump.
"Though I see you're not just another freak chip abomination. They gave you the
full treatment." He chuckled and purple fire erupted from his torn elbow,
curling and twisting around itself to form a forearm and fist made out of
coruscating sheets of living flame. "Not that you have a monopoly on fancy
tricks."
	"So I see," the Messiah replied. Pluto stared down at the two of them
from her high perch. They had been at this for several minutes, and she had not
seen so vicious, so devastating a battle before. Neither one of them cared about
their bodies, and damage to their physical forms seemed to be at most a minor
inconvenience. The Messiah's form looked pristine from her near instant
regeneration, while Chris's body was riddled with tiny tears and holes which
seemed to bother him not at all.
	With a flicker of motion Chris suddenly dived in two directions at once.
His bodies were partially transparent, and as he moved he flicked his good hand.
Tiny slivers of purple light, like needles, erupted rapid fire from both images'
fingers. The Messiah stepped back, allowing Dylek to fall in front of her and
parry the attacks.
	Then the images vanished and Chris appeared from the shadows behind her.
He screamed and leapt, driving his knee into the side of the girl's head. Her
body rocked to the side, but her hand swept up, her fingers curled into claws
and caught him in the chest. Both staggered away from each other. Then Dylek
spun around her, its thick blade arcing towards the boy's face.
	Chris parried with his hand of flame. Purple sparks ran along the edge
of Dylek, falling like molten steel from the weapon and melting holes into the
black floor. Again and again Dylek struck, its massive bulk moving impossibly
quickly. Chris met it always with his conjured arm. Soon the flames had fallen
so much the two fought in a small lake of water that was rippling and falling
off the edges of what had once been the building.
	The Messiah snarled like a beast, charging through the water, geysers
flying up behind her with each step. She came in on the side Dylek was not
attacking, and Chris met her with his other hand. His limb flashed like a strobe
light, seeming to teleport from position to position without passing through the
space between. The Messiah was a frenzy of motion, her body twisting and
striking all at once, water erupting around her. The flames of Chris' hand
hissed as the water fell around him.
	Pluto looked down at the carnage. This fight was beyond her. She had no
illusions of anything else. But she had to do something. Every instinct told her
that she could do nothing, but she was a Sailor Senshi. She had to do something!
It was her duty!
	Her hand rose and she whispered. "Dead..." The orb of power slowly
formed on her fist. She concentrated, forcing more and more power into it. Her
attack was all she had left of her time powers, and without the Time Key Staff
Ukyou had shattered she should not have been able to reach even half the power
she had once had. The Dead Scream didn't just blast people, it created a field
of temporal stasis, a null zone in time itself that flung itself at any
opponent. When it struck, the power it released was greater than a mere physical
strike, it ripped at the target's temporal self. And the more power she
concentrated into it, the more dangerous it became... for her target and
herself.
	She lined up her shot carefully. Her body was straining with the power
she had conjured. She would only get one shot like this, so she had to make it
count. The Messiah and Chris were still duelling, his body floating further and
further back as he was forced to give ground to the vicious two-pronged assault
of the corrupted Senshi. Then one of the Messiah's strikes got through and her
fist emerged from his back as she smashed through his chest. Chris reached up,
grabbing her neck and...
	"SCREAM!" Pluto roared.
	The ball of temporal power rocketed down and into the melee. It struck
with pin point accuracy, smashing into the back of the Messiah's head. For a
moment there was just a shower of purple light as the Dead Scream exploded in
all directions... Pluto held her breath. Her only hope was that she had totally
eradicated Hotaru's head, to prevent Chris from gaining access to her memories
and powers.
	"You need not have worried," a voice said behind her.
	Pluto's eyes widened as a hand snapped around her shoulder in a grip of
iron. The other grabbed the side of her head and twisted it to the side. How?
She was still... but as the light cleared, all Pluto could see was Dylek
hovering where the Messiah had once been and a very surprised-looking Chris.
	"You survive until the end, Pluto," The Messiah informed her coolly.
"But nothing said what condition you were in."
	Then the fangs sank into her neck. She wanted to scream, but the sudden
crippling pressure cut off all sound, all breath. The pain raced up and down her
body, the stabbing fire of it raging through her nerves as her brain seemed to
shut off. This is how the deer feels, some distant part of her thought. This is
the paralysing fear the prey feels when the predator finally sinks in its teeth.
But the fiery pain wasn't the worst of it. It was the numbing, deadening
draining sensation that followed shortly thereafter. That, and the animal
sucking sound.
	Finally she was released, her limp body collapsing to the rooftop. She
was dimly aware that she was still bleeding, her carotid artery no longer
spurting but now just sort of weakly gushing onto the black ice. Every heartbeat
was driving her that much closer to death.
	The Messiah wiped off her mouth and leapt back down to the battlefield,
a spray of water falling upwards around her when she landed. It was getting
cold. Things were going dark.
	"Well, you'll just be more dangerous now that you've fed," Chris said to
the Messiah. While the girl had been busy he had been struggling with Dylek, and
he now held it by the hilt in his conjured hand. It writhed and shifted, trying
to escape his grip to no avail. "But why didn't you kill her?"
	The Messiah had no response. She merely began to stalk towards him. The
sound of her footsteps in the water echoed across the city.
	"Oh, that's right. You're the Messiah, the messenger of God." Chris
snapped his fingers. "Which means you believe in Ukyou's prophecy. The one
Sailor Pluto has to be alive for to send back in time." Chris smiled, and held
Dylek behind him. "Well, I suppose if you believe that..." He snapped his hand
around like a discus thrower and the giant demon blade was hurled through the
air, spinning like a buzzsaw towards Pluto. "...you should do something about
this."
	Pluto couldn't even work up the strength to blink. For a moment, as the
blade came in, she was almost relieved. He was right, after all. If she died,
maybe the Prophecy died with her...
	Then the Messiah appeared before her, her arms thrown to the side. Dylek
carved through her tiny child's body like a scythe through wheat. Her head and
torso went flying in one direction while her legs and one arm shot to the other,
a shower of blood glittering briefly in the purple light. Dylek slammed into the
ice, burying itself halfway up its length. It had missed Pluto by inches, thrown
off course by the Messiah's sacrifice just enough to miss her.
	Chris chuckled as he seemed to vanish and reappear. His foot smashed
down on the Messiah's wrist. Even torn in two, she didn't seem to care. Her
bronze eyes stared up at him impassively. Chris grabbed his fiery arm with his
good one and drew it back, ripping it free of his elbow, and the entire thing
snapped into the shape of a spear.
	"I wanted to get a peek inside your head, but you're more trouble than
you're worth," he apologised. His arm drew up-
	"You have caused quite enough damage."
	The light came from everywhere. It burst from the shadows. It flared
from the water. It radiated from the ceiling and the walls. Pluto wept. It was
warm and beautiful. Was this death?
	No. It was life. She recognised that voice.
	Chris only paused a second, then his hand started down, the flame
beginning to leap from his palm. Then the light flared again, a brilliance so
intense it blinded. He screamed, a scream of surprise and... pain? When the
light cleared Pluto could see Chris lying in the water, which sparkled and
glimmered silver around him. Smoke curled off his body as he slowly rose to his
feet and looked around.
	The black ice was now perfect flawless crystal. Radiant silver light
shone through the city. A woman on a white-winged crystal pegasus was before
him. She wore armour of silver, etched with gold. Her long hair flew out behind
her, two golden ponytails. On her forehead the golden crescent of the Moon
Kingdom flared. Pluto felt her strength returning, just bathed in that light.
Chris, however, was staggering back, shielding his eyes.
	"And yet another Sailor Moon character shows up at the last minute to
bug me," Chris muttered.
	"Chris, once you were my ally, and for that reason I would love dearly
to show you mercy," the Moon Princess said. "But there can be no mercy for you
except death. I am truly sorry, but your existence is a wound that must be
healed."
	"Yes, yes, I'm used to ingratitude," Chris replied snidely. "But before
you get around to punishing me in the name of the moon, don't you think you
should take care of that first?" He cocked his thumb towards the torso of the
Messiah. The Messiah was staring at the confrontation, her eyes glassy and
distant.
	"Yes. I suppose that too is for the best," the Princess intoned gravely.
"I can not heal that which wishes to remain dead." Her hand swept out and in a
flare of silver fire the head, torso and arm of the Silence Messiah was
consumed, leaving not so much as a trace of ash. Chris raised his eyebrow.
	"Wow, somebody actually listened to my advice," he said. "Well, my job
is done here, so I'll be leaving. If you..." The Princess gestured again and a
javelin of light flashed from her fingers and lanced through his shoulder. He
screamed as his body was driven into the ground. The flesh around the lance
blackened rapidly and Chris' scream of surprise turned into a scream of genuine
pain and anger. His good eye bugged out in pain and his body began to writhe.
	The Princess turned away from him, slowly climbing down from her
pegasus. Pluto wanted to warn her, tell her to turn back. The woman was ignoring
him. She was just turning her back on perhaps the most dangerous person in the
world. The Moon Princess smiled and walked towards Pluto, her smile warm and
forgiving. Chris was pulling at the lance, trying to rip it free.
	"I'm... dreaming..." Pluto whispered.
	"No, but your long nightmare is finally over." She leaned down and
pressed her hand against Pluto's neck. "Be whole, once more."
	There was no sensation of healing, just a sudden absence of pain. Pluto
blinked and stood up slowly, leaning on a long staff to prop herself up as her
strength rapidly returned. Only once she was standing fully erect did she
realise she was carrying the Time Key Staff in her hands.
	"Okay! To hell with this," Chris roared. He was standing now, the
blackened ruin of his arm hanging on by sheer force of will. The spear was still
embedded in the ground behind him. He had torn the top off his shoulder off to
free himself, Pluto realised. "First off, you HURT me. Nobody can hurt me! Least
of all Sailor-fucking-Moon. Second off, you ignored me. ME. Nobody ignores..."
Then he trailed off and his eyes fell on Pluto. "You... that... HOW?"
	"I restored her," the Princess explained.
	"You can't! Ukyou shattered that staff! She has the Third Circle. You
don't have the power to fix it!"
	"It appears I do," the Princess explained, stepping towards him. And as
she walked towards him, Pluto saw something new and wonderful in Chris's
expression.
	Fear.

*

	The air in the throne room grew colder. Akane reached up and laced her
fingers around the Star Seeds. She stepped away from Katsuhito, her sword
raising up before her. Kalia just stared at her, and out of the shadows that
little girl laugh echoed.
	"Akane, get back!" Katsuhito warned.
	"I don't let my friends fight alone," Akane informed him. She breathed
out and focused, allowing her aura to waft up around her. It glimmered red in
the twilight of the throne room. Its flickering light danced across the swirling
galaxy. Then another figure stood up next to her. Akane looked at Rei, who
shrugged and smiled thinly.
	"So it's some sort of incomprehensible evil god-child out to kill me,"
Rei said. "Piece of cake."
	Katsuhito sighed and stepped up on her other side, his own sword
raising. His stance was similar to Akane's but slightly looser, more fluid-
looking. Kalia's smile glimmered. The air behind her seemed to darken... no, not
darken. It was stretching, as if the huge gulf behind her was growing larger and
larger. Its dimensions receded further and further from sight until they
vanished from sight into a indistinct fog. Akane glanced around them. The entire
throne room had become... emptied. Unreal. Like the place where Ukyou had
unleashed the power of that glaive. The floor now flowed off endlessly into the
distance, with an unbroken pattern of pillars stretching as far as the eye could
see.
	Then Kalia moved. Her body snapped right and she flew in a tight arc
towards them. Katsuhito leapt to meet her, his sword blade flashing towards her
neck and cutting dee- He missed, his blade flashing just over her head. The blow
cleaved a pillar apart, sending it tumbling backwards.
	Rei's hand snapped up, flame forming at her fingertips. An arrow of fire
erupted and she unleashed it. Kalia's hand came up and she caught the bolt on
one of her jewels, the heat sizzled through he- The arrow vanished, snuffed out
in mid-air. Rei could only gape as the woman slid in, skidding along the ground.
She came in right next to Rei.
	For a moment, the two stood there, next to each other. Rei trying to
bring her magic to bear, Kalia leaning forward, her eyes lost in shadow and her
smile gleaming. Then she snapped back and up, her arm coming up in a tight arc -
and she spun forward lifting her leg up to drive it into Rei's midsection - and
she jerked sideways, driving an elbow into Rei's chest -
	Akane screamed and fell back, her mind blanking. The next thing she knew
was that Rei was crashing into a pillar hard, her impact sending a crack snaking
all the way to the top of it. Kalia was dashing across the ground towards her,
her hand pulled back for a claw strike. Or was she? There were six of her, no
seven, no twenty - Akane's eyes widened as she drew her blade up to parry the
attack. There was no way, it was - she was everywhere.
	This is no illusion, Akane remembered thinking.
	"Akane, to your right!"
	Akane reacted instantly, spinning leftward and flicking her blade right
in a cross-body block. She caught Kalia's extended arm, knocking it aside. The
girl was thrown off-balance, and suddenly there was only one of her.
	Then Ukyou leapt at her, her blade coming in hard and fast. The weapon
flashed and Kalia ducked, then slid backwards as the crosswise slash reversed
into a sweep. Ukyou had a few tears in her coat, but no other apparent injuries.
	"Keep your head, Akane," Ukyou warned her as she let Kalia retreat
little. "You weren't anywhere close to her attack there."
	"I..." Akane looked at her. "How did you do that?"
	"Do what?" Ukyou frowned.
	"Make her... REAL!"
	Ukyou seemed about to ask Akane what she meant when Kalia blindsided
her. The blow caught her in the back of the head and sent Ukyou tumbling. Kalia
came down from her backhand and her other hand snaked out, striking for Akane's
chest. Akane gasped and leapt backward. The fingers of the girl-thing's hand
sunk into the vest Akane was wearing; she could feel them brush against her
skin-
	Then Ukyou grabbed Kalia from behind, her arm wrapping around the
thing's neck. "Leave. Her. ALONE!" Ukyou roared as she lifted Kalia over her
shoulder and smashed her into the ice hard enough to send a spiderweb of cracks
radiating in all directions. Ukyou pushed away from the girl and kicked to her
feet, summoning her glaive with an idle gesture. "I won't let you hurt any
more of my friends!" she screamed, and brought the blade down.
	Kalia twisted in place, catching the edge of the blade on one of her
gauntlet gems. Black sparks erupted from the impact. "You didn't say Simon
Says," Kalia responded with a giggle, and pushed Ukyou back. Ukyou slid back
along the ice, and her weapon slashed out. It was too fast for Akane to even
follow, but she saw the ground around Kalia seem to rip itself apart as cuts
appeared all about her. Kalia backed up, her hands pinwheeling about her. Black
sparks... no, not black, EMPTY, little pieces of nothingness flashed around her,
spiralling out in all directions.
	And around Ukyou Akane could feel something. It was great and terrible.
It wasn't a power. She was familiar with chi, and she had been around magic
often enough in her life to realise that it felt nothing like this. She
recognised it instantly. It was the certainty, the awesome crushing need that
she had felt back in Tokyo seven years ago. It was the purpose she had felt
drawing her in since she'd met Washuu and gone to Ohtori to save Sailor Moon.
	It was Destiny. Except that it was nothing diffuse and vague now. It was
pure and refined. Ukyou had just suddenly erupted with it. Except there could be
no normal word for it. She did not radiate it like light, she did not bathe in
it like water, she did not burn with it like flame. She WAS Destiny.
	Akane had only ever once before felt this. Beyond this life, when Gyro
had killed her, she had felt this. Just this. Pure purpose. Pure need.
	"I'm not going to let you do it," Ukyou shouted as she leapt up and
started duelling Kalia in the air. Her body flashed from pillar to pillar as
Kalia danced and swirled through the air like a ballerina, deflecting and
dodging her attacks by hairs. "If it is my destiny, then it is my destiny. I
will face it! But you will not hurt my friends. You will not hurt the people I
love! Not again...
	"NEVER AGAIN!"
	"Yes, that's it, give in to your anger!" Kalia said in an exaggeratedly
deep voice, then laughed lightly. "You poor girl, you're so close. So close that
you can't see what is right under your nose."
	"You feel it, don't you?" a voice said near Akane's ear. She started and
backed up. Tethys was standing near her, her face watching the battle above them
impassively. "Ukyou's power. The Third Circle, you feel it. I can see it on your
face."
	"Yes..." Akane looked up at the battle again.
	"You are a puppet, Ukyou," Kalia said, knocking the woman back. Ukyou
smashed into the ground, cratering the ice. She was on her feet instantly. She
leapt, her blade extended. Kalia bent her body around the blow. "You dance to
the strings of God." The girl-thing's backhand was caught in Ukyou's free hand.
"You can't blame me or God for your poor choices." Her knee smashed into Ukyou's
body, bending the woman around it. But Ukyou smashed the blunt of her glaive
into Kalia's face and drove her away.
	"You, of all people, are free to choose your own Destiny," Kalia
explained, wiping away something that looked like blood from her lips.
	"Why aren't you doing something?" Akane asked Tethys. Tethys merely
looked at her, then crossed her arms and frowned.
	"She can't, Akane," Katsuhito said. "Kalia's power can not be countered
by limited beings such as us."
	"Limited?"
	"She has no soul, Akane," the monk explained softly as the two continued
to duel back and forth across the infinite battlefield. "It is the soul that
defines who we are, what we are. Even now, there are an infinite number of
Akanes and an infinite number of Katsuhitos watching this. We are having a like
number of conversations. But each of them is slightly different."
	"A puppet?" Ukyou was shouting. "I may be a puppet, but I see the
strings now. I know there is a person beyond them, running the course of my
life. Using my friends, my family, against me like pieces in a game." Sparks of
unreality wafted through the air as the two met. "How to get Ukyou to do
something? Hurt one of her friends. Get her to go somewhere? Kidnap the daughter
she never knew. Provoke her. Incite her. Force her to play along! Not anymore! I
don't care about Chris, or you or whatever nameless thing it is that is doing
this to me. I won't let it go on anymore!"
	"But we don't hear those words, Akane. We don't experience all the other
worlds. Because we have souls. That makes us REAL. That makes us able to be one
person and only one person. It grounds us in this reality," Katsuhito continued.
"Kalia exists outside of that. To her, all things are happening. Every possible
reality all at once."
	"My god... that's horrible," Rei gasped. "How can she be sane?"
	"You question answers itself," Tethys replied.
	"Ah, defiance in the face of Destiny." Kalia smirked, flying up over
Ukyou. She kept rising, spinning up and around to avoid Ukyou as the woman tried
to close on her. Finally Ukyou ran out of pillar to climb as Kalia flew up into
the sky. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, Ukyou. For your
problems are larger than that." The girl held open her hand and Akane saw a
flash of yellow there. Then it began to grow, until it was an orb of
golden light.
	Akane gasped and clutched at her vest pocket. One, only one was there.
Her mind flashed back to the near-fatal blow from earlier. She must have grabbed
the seed when...
	"Look out, Ukyou!"
	"WORLD SHAKING!"
	When Kalia brought her hand down the ball of power trebled, then cubed
in size. It was the size of a city bus. Ukyou screamed and flipped her blade in
front of her. "Aegis Sileo!" Ukyou vanished into the yellow light. The ball
continued, striking the ground. Everything exploded. Pillars five meters away
from the point of impact vanished into dust as the shockwave rushed over
everything. Akane remembered screaming and holding on for dear life.
	When it cleared, there was a hole in the ground and Ukyou was nowhere in
sight. Akane was on her back. Rei had taken cover behind a pillar that had
partially survived the impact. Tethys stood near the edge, utterly unharmed. She
was looking down the hole.
	Kalia laughed. "Now, False Prophet, where were we?" In an eyeblink the
creature was in front of her. Katsuhito yelled, leaping at her from the side.
Kalia looked up at him. "Oh yes, and you know entirely too much for your own
good."
	Akane could only stare as the girl seemed to walk casually past
Katsuhito, idly tilting her head to the side to avoid his strike. Her fingers
ran along the outside of his gi and then she stopped behind him. Katsuhito
stumbled to a halt, his eyes widening behind his glasses. Akane looked behind
him and her blood froze.
	Kalia was holding a human heart. It was beating feebly in her hands,
spraying the side of her face with scarlet. She smiled and rubbed it against her
cheek, like one would a kitten. "Mmmm. It's warm..."
	"KATSUHITO!" Rei shrieked and ran towards him, her hand extended.
	"Damn. I wish I'd thought of something pithy to-" Katsuhito choked, then
stumbled forward. The sparkle in his eyes went out, and he collapsed into Rei's
arms.
	"Katsuhito? Katsuhito! Old man, don't you die on me!" Rei was screaming.
"Not again... I can't lose... not you, too.. not like this..."
	"You BITCH!" Akane roared, tears blurring her vision as she charged.
Kalia seemed to fade sideways; then there was a flash of yellow light and
Akane's chest exploded in pain. She flew backward and crashed into the remains
of one of the pillars, sending a cloud of powdered ice up around her.
	Then Ukyou appeared. She shot up through the floor, her body emerging in
a fountain of purple sparks. Purple lights ran up one of her arms. The glaive
sunk deeply into Kalia's shoulder, popping one of the orbs there like a balloon.
The thing's face did not so much as twitch. Ukyou reversed her grip, ready to
pull the blade sideways and tear Kalia in two.
	"That's right, Ukyou," Kalia said giggling as she dropped the heart from
her wounded arm with a wet splat. "Use your power. Keep killing Akira."
	Ukyou froze.
	Kalia's hand snapped out and wrapped around Ukyou's neck. She wrenched
her body back, tearing the glaive from suddenly limp fingers. "Oh, did you
finally figure it out?" She floated upwards, wrapping her other hand around
Ukyou's neck now. The glaive clattered to the ground beneath Ukyou.
	Ukyou's fingers scrambled along the girl's arms as her eyes bugged open.
"How does one strangle a ghost?" Kalia asked. "By showing the ghost that by
abusing her power, she is killing the woman she loves." Kalia's smile was small
now, small and full of malice. "I care about Akira. She is my counterpart,
Ukyou. As Chris created me to serve as the funnel into which he could pour all
his negative self, so too did you choose Akira. All the paradox, all the
backlash produced when a mortal mind tries to reach the most divine power, to
alter Destiny itself... did you think that just went away, Ukyou?"
	Ukyou's face was turning white. "Didn't you wonder why you haven't felt
the pain since that day, Ukyou? Didn't you once stop and consider why the power
that had ripped you apart, almost killed you even as it saved you, why it was
suddenly consequence-free? You never thought to ask HOW Akira brought you back
from Oblivion. You never once thought about what happened to her while you
abused that power that once scared you so much you couldn't even contemplate
using it. You never wondered why, at the end of every fight you have been in
since then, your dear Akira has been leaking blood like a sieve. From her mouth,
from her eyes, from her ears... just like you used to."
	"Ukyou!" Akane held up her hand. She was surprised she could even move.
But as she looked down at herself, she saw a soft blue glow coming from her
chest, one that dimmed with each passing second. That blow should have killed
her, she understood. But she had been protected. She looked up suddenly. The
feeling of imminent Destiny around Ukyou was weakening.
	"What, letting go of the power?" Kalia giggled, her voice echoing across
the chamber. "Why not use it? Oh, but you can feel it now, can't you? You can
feel it tearing her apart. You know you could free yourself. Maybe outpower me.
Maybe summon the Silence against me. Maybe vanish through my fingers like a
ghost. But it would kill her, wouldn't it? And you would never hurt my dear
sis-"
	Kalia screamed as ten giant barbs of ice smashed into her, driving her
away from Ukyou. The barbs had pierced her arms and legs and her torso. She
fell to the ground and when she hit she vomited up something that looked like
blood but smelled like... like nothing at all.
	Tethys walked forward, gesturing and conjuring more spears of ice in the
air. "As I figured. You can choose your own reality. You can force others to
exist in the world of your choosing, thing without a soul. Everyone except
Ukyou. She's real to you, isn't she? So if you want to HURT her, you have to be
real too. Real enough to be vulnerable."
	"Heh," Kalia coughed. "It appears the game is not over yet. God's
puppets protect his prodigal daughter still." Tethys raised her hand and the
spears lanced forward. Kalia raised her hand and Akane saw the star seed
glittering there. "Sailor Teleport!"
	She was gone before the attacks hit.

*

	Angel waited. A slight updraft, sweeping through the vast cavern, passed
through her hair. She could hear it, hear the faint echoes from far below the
chaos that had swept through the city. The unlimited chi channelled from the
tattoo on her face through her air chakra made her AWARE, made her able to
notice every stimuli affecting her, to clinically analyse them all individually
or at once. She was aware of every tiny pit and imperfection in the ice beneath
her feet, could tell the height of the ceiling above and depth of the pit below
just from the echoes of the faint sounds. She could hear the throb of the blood
in her veins, swelling and relaxing in counter to the beat of her heart. And she
could hear Akira. Closer. Closer now.
	Angel opened her eyes. She could see hardly anything but the black
leather sole of Akira's boot. It was only centimeters away from her face. Angel
flicked her eyes up, seeing Akira's face locked in a silent roar as she
attacked. On one level, Angel was fully aware of how time passed, but on
another, the world always seemed to stand still, to hold its breath when Angel
used her air chakra. The boot was closer now. It almost brushed her eyelashes.
Angel sighed and let the world explode into action.
	Her hand gripped Akira's ankle as she spun to the side, sidestepping the
jumping kick.  Her feet left the ground, her entire body twisting along with
them, and her own boot cracked into the side of Akira's head. Angel released her
and flipped aside as the older woman crashed to the ground. One boot touched the
impossibly slender ice bridge and she was instantly balanced, while Akira
scrambled for purchase, only for a moment, before returning to her feet and
attacking again.
	Angel fell back under the onslaught. Faster she might be, but she had a
healthy respect for Akira's skill. When Angel had fought Akira the first time,
she'd found being faster didn't help much.  One moment of carelessness, one
mistake, and she could find herself pinned, or hurled into the abyss below.
	So she wasn't careless. She ducked and weaved and danced, her entire
body whirling around at speeds faster than most people could even see, evading
Akira's blows. A few experimental pokes with her sword broke up the rhythm of
Akira's attacks, caused her to hesitate. Then Angel struck, her leg slashing out
and cutting Akira's legs out from under her. She pounced with her sword, but
realised almost too late that Akira had anticipated this gambit. Her fist was
already arcing up in counter to Angel's strike. Angel was fast, but even she had
to obey her own momentum. If she followed through for a crippling strike, she'd
have to take the hit full-on.
	So she changed the angle of her swing. It slashed a long, shallow cut
along Akira's arm, weakening her strike at a critical point. Akira's punch
glanced on her jaw. Even that caused Angel to wince as she let the impact knock
her backwards; Akira hit hard. Harder than Ranma, even. But it wouldn't matter.
The blow had knocked the upper half of her body from the tiny bridge now. Angel
closed her eyes again, feeling the air rushing around her, feeling time slow to
a crawl. Now, just one leg was still over the bridge; the edge passing beneath
her knee. She smiled, eyes snapping open, and dug her leg down. The heel of her
boot dug into the ice, gave her just enough traction to bend her body like a
bow, swinging around beneath the tiny bridge. Her hand snapped up, gripped the
other edge; she allowed her foot to rise and let go, and then time started again
as she shot up like a bullet. Akira had figured out what Angel was doing; she
was turning. Her hands were coming up to defend herself. Too late. Pivoting her
entire body as she rose, Angel drove both feet into Akira's side, under her
guard. She shot backwards, half-spinning, and plunged off the edge. Akira
wouldn't fall, Angel knew, and was proved correct a moment later as both hands
reached out and desperately gripped the ice, digging gouges into the edge. She
started to pull herself up, but paused as her nose met the tip of Angel's sword.
	"You can't win," Angel said softly.
	Akira didn't reply for a moment. Angel stared down at her opponent. Her
face was white, though not from the exertion of fighting Angel. Blood was oozing
from the corner of her lips, from her ears, from one eye that she was blinking
repeatedly to try to clear it. Despite her powerful ability to heal herself from
injury, the few cuts Angel had given her were oozing more and more over time.
	"Not like this," Angel continued. "Not while you're being killed from
within." Her sword didn't move so much as a millimeter, and neither did Akira.
	"Oh?" Akira responded after a moment. Her voice was gritty with strain,
but calm. "So you knew."
	Angel nodded. "Chris told me. He noticed what Ukyou was doing to you
when He fought you."
	"Nice of him... to mention it."
	"Chris can help you, you know. What you're suffering is the effects of
Ukyou's use of the Third Circle. She channels them into you, but he can show her
how to stop-"
	"I'm not asking him for any favours, and neither is Ukyou."
	Angel sighed again. "Why not?" Akira made as if to reply, but Angel
shook her head. "No, don't give me those answers. Don't tell me it's because of
anything He's done. Honestly, Akira, you barely know Him. You're just working on
hearsay."
	Akira quirked an eyebrow. "So I should at least hear your hearsay first,
I guess." She almost smiled her quiet little grin, but at the last moment
coughed, then turned her head and spat something red.
	"Yes," Angel said seriously. "You should."
	"So talk. Looks like I'm stuck anyway."
	"Listen, Akira," she said. "It's not a question of methods. It's a
question of necessity. This world - no, even more, everyone in the world, in the
universe, needs Chris. Only He can ensure that somebody doesn't come along and
kill everyone, end everything, make everything you've ever fought for be for
nothing. Only He can make sure there's nothing that ever destroys all the
heroes." She rushed forward, trying desperately to make her point, to make Akira
FEEL what Angel knew. "I've felt her power before, Akira! I've felt Galaxia!
It's like nothing you can even imagine! If she comes here in force, none of us
will be able to stop her, and she'll destroy everything!  And who knows what
else is out there! Even worse things? Someday, Akira, someday the heroes are
going to lose, and that will be it. There will be nothing left, not even ashes
to rise from. That's why we need Chris. To make sure it doesn't all end."
	Akira paused for a long moment. Her eye was closed now, blood crusted
through the lashes. "That may be true. It may even be true that Chris could save
us. But even so, I'm not going to work with him."
	"Why NOT?" Angel cried, frustrated. "Chris isn't a monster. If you join
Him, and you don't like what He's doing, you can talk with Him! He'll listen to
your concerns! He listens to me!"
	"Did he ever not do anything because of you?"
	Angel sighed. "No. But that's because when I found out why He does
something, it's always for good reasons."
	"I'm sure they are," Akira said seriously. "Good for him and what he
wants. And you want to think that's good enough for you, too. But that's where
you're wrong, Angel. It's not good enough. You don't agree with Chris; you just
think he must know better than you."
	"And why wouldn't He?" Angel shot back. "He's a god! He's not like us!"
	"So's Ukyou, or so you say," Akira said calmly. She let go of the edge
with one hand to wipe some of the blood from her mouth. "She doesn't agree with
Chris either."
	"She's abdicated her responsibility!"
	"Maybe. But aren't you doing the same thing, Angel? Why try to recruit
me? That isn't your orders. Do you just want me to join Chris so you can be
reassured you made the right choice after all?"
	"NO!" Angel shouted. She grit her teeth. Akira was getting under her
skin. If she got too angry, she'd get careless. When she spoke next, she
measured her words. "I just don't want to kill you. Don't you see? I can't just
leave you like Ranma. With what Ukyou's doing to you, you'll bleed to death!"
	"So? Chris will just kill me sooner or later anyway."
	"That's ridiculous!"
	"Yes he will. I know too much about him. Secrecy is his weapon. He can't
create the world he wants if people know about him, because then they will be
looking for him, fighting against him, ruining his perfect possible future of a
humanity that's blissfully ignorant of how he's controlling it. Me, Pluto,
Nabiki, Rose, Ukyou... eventually he's going to have to kill all of us. Unless
we join him. Because if he doesn't, we're going to keep fighting him forever,
and then we'll muck up everything. The loss of our lives, while tragic, just
isn't worth risking the whole human race. And you know that's exactly what he'll
think, because he's right - as long as we're alive, we won't let him win. You
know that, Angel."
	Angel stared down at her for a long moment. Her blood still throbbed in
her ears. The breeze still whispered through her hair. Why couldn't she find the
words? Why couldn't she convince people like Chris had convinced her? "Why won't
you understand?" she grated out. "I don't want to kill you!"
	"I know," Akira said with a slight nod. "And I do understand. But I
won't agree."
	And then her hand, the one she'd dropped to wipe the blood from her
mouth, shot up. Angel swore as she realised her mistake, plunged her sword down,
but at the same time the hand exploded with blue fire, ripping the bridge apart
like tissue paper and hurtling Angel up into the air. She flipped back, landing
on the caveward side of the remaining bridge.
	"Angel." She looked up; Akira was on the side of the bride leading to
the city. A fresh slash decorated her cheek, but she was smiling slightly. She
reached up, and rubbed at her crusted-over eye... then she opened it. Angel,
blinking, suddenly realised that somewhere along the line her wounds had, in
fact, stopped getting worse. "I'm not bleeding anymore, Angel. And I'm through
talking. So stop holding back." Her smile abruptly became a small little frown.
"You said you wouldn't, and I find it sort of insulting when someone does that,
anyway."
	"Fine," Angel grated. She took a step forward. And then, suddenly, the
world was bathed in silver light. Akira shouted in surprise, but Angel screamed
in pain. As that light touched her, her tattoos suddenly twisted and writhed,
twisting her flesh. It felt like they were trying to rip themselves free, to
flee towards the source of the light. She took another stumbling step forward,
and fell to one knee as the pain ripped through her. But the markings had been
bound to her by Chris, on a deeper level than flesh. A moment later, the light
faded, and they still remained.
	Angel looked around. The bridge was still broken, but it had changed
from dark ice to gleaming crystal. She looked up, and saw so had everything
else. The entire chamber, a forbidding vault of darkness, was now a shimmering
cavern of crystal. Rainbows of light played down all around them.
	"Who..." she breathed, and then was suddenly struck by a certainty that
came from the depths of her very being. Something was wrong. Something had
happened that wasn't supposed to. Something dangerous. She dropped her gaze,
fixed it on Akira, who was still looking around in bewilderment, blocking the
path to the exit. "I have to return to Chris."
	Akira stared at her. The expression on her blood-stained face was calm,
but her eyes were hard. "I won't let you."
	Angel narrowed her eyes. "You won't stop me."
	She exploded forward, her air chakra blazing like a bonfire. She was
upon Akira before the woman could do more than take a step back. She drove an
elbow towards Akira's chest, which was blocked. Spinning, she slashed out with
her sword towards Akira's neck. Akira's hands shot up, knocking the path of the
blade over her head, but it left her midsection open. Angel simply lifted her
leg and drove it into the pit of Akira's stomach, doubling her over and causing
her to hack out some remaining blood. Then Angel flipped up in the air, the heel
of her boot catching Akira in the chin, reversing her momentum and sending her
flying back through the air.
	Angel completed her backflip just as Akira hit the ice. Before she could
possibly react, Angel was there and struck. But again, Akira had anticipated the
attack before Angel even launched it, and as Angel's sword slashed down, Akira's
palms slapped around the blade, halting it. For a moment they strained against
each other, then Angel smiled grimly.
	"It's over, Akira. All I have to do is activate my fire chakra and you
can't possibly hold my sword back. I'll cut you in two." Akira paused for a
moment, but said nothing. "I'm going to give you one last chance-"
	"That's not my style," Akira said, cutting her off. "You asked. I said
no. Just accept it and do what you think you have to."
	"Fine, damn you!" Angel swore. In the blink of an eye she shifted her
power from the speed-enhancing air to strength-enhancing fire. She plunged down,
and her sword sliced through the crystal bridge like the proverbial hot knife
through butter.
	Except Akira had moved.
	Angel was suddenly flying back, her cheek aching. She spun in mid-air,
touching down where she knew the bridge was, hopped back to perch at the very
edge of the ragged gap. She felt it trembling as the slender bridge, now with a
chunk ripped through the middle, strained to hold her. She had only a few
seconds before it collapsed. She looked up. Akira was standing in a defensive
stance, just beyond where Angel had struck. Her expression was sad. "You were
wrong, Angel. Now it's over. And you've lost."
	"We'll see about that!" Angel cried, shifting back to the air chakra.
Her boots slammed into the crystal bridge as she ran forward, the impact a point
of no return for the weakened end of it, but Angel was already at Akira before
the shudders even reached the gap she nimbly stepped around. Her sword danced,
flashing out and out again, wide arcs preventing Akira from keeping her arms
close to her chest, then short stabs forcing her to step backwards to avoid
being skewered. In less than a second, Angel had cleared the gap, reached
relatively stable ground. But Akira still stood in her way. As the broken pieces
of the bridge tumbled into the abyss, Angel feinted to the right, then flashed
to the left, her sword driving forward for Akira's heart. She could at least
spare her ex-friend a lingering death.
	She realised before impact that Akira had anticipated her move, had
already moved to avoid it. But she still had to obey momentum. As her sword
carved a painful strip from Akira's side, Angel tried to pull it back, but
Akira's hand snapped around her wrist.
	"How." Angel gasped. "Even Ranma couldn't-"
	"Unlike him, I've watched you fight before," Akira said. "And I'll have
you know that on very good authority, I've got a higher power level than Ranma."
	Then her kick shattered Angel's kneecap. Angel screamed and flailed at
Akira with her free hand, but the woman simply let her go and stepped back.
Angel almost collapsed, but drew back, balancing on her good leg. She shifted
her power to the healing water chakra on her chest. Had to heal this-
	Akira was suddenly upon her. Angel swung her sword but she ducked
underneath. Before Angel was even sure what was happening, her world was turned
upside down and her face slammed into the unyielding crystal. A moment later she
was aware of how her arm was painfully twisted behind her back, a knee holding
it down. Her injured leg was twisted, and she screamed for a moment before
biting her lip to stop it. She quickly shifted to the fire chakra, ripping free
of Akira's grasp. But the woman melted away from Angel's blind grab at her, and
before Angel could turn around, an elbow slammed into her head. She took another
swing at the source, sparks dancing before her eyes, but again Akira was gone.
As she tried to push herself up onto her good leg, she saw Akira had stepped
back, again, and reassumed her defensive position.
	"You..." she snarled.
	"It doesn't matter which of your tattoos you use, Angel," Akira
explained calmly. "Without being able to walk, no amount of air chakra will let
you get past my guard. If you use the fire chakra, I'll just hit you. If you use
the earth, I can grapple you again, and I'll pull your joints from your sockets.
And you won't get the chance to use water."
	Angel gritted her teeth. The doorway lay just beyond Akira. It might as
well have been a thousand kilometers away. The woman, injured, weak, still stood
between them like an insurmountable wall. This was why Chris had warned her not
to display her powers too openly. They were a trump card; they were the gift
He'd given her to overcome her limits. But they didn't make her invincible.
	No.
	This wasn't happening.
	She never failed.
	She had been chosen.
	She wouldn't let Chris down! Angel leapt forward, her air chakra
exploding to life. Her sword flashed through the air, reflecting the light from
the crystal walls. She aimed for Akira's heart, she moved like the wind, but
Akira was moving before Angel had even totally left the ground. Angel was all
too conscious of how Akira moved underneath her, how her fists slammed into
Angel's unprotected stomach. She roared, trying to bring her sword around to
stab her opponent from behind, but one hand seized her shoulder, swinging her
towards the ground with incredible speed.
	And then she remembered nothing at all.

*

	Ukyou was leaning against the wall, rubbing her neck and looking
thoughtful. The throne room had returned to normal now that Kalia was gone.
Akane hadn't even seen it happen. One moment they were in an endless room, the
next she blinked and everything had returned to normal. Except for all the
damage Kalia had inflicted.
	That remained.
	Akane placed her hand on Rei's shoulders as the young woman continued to
sob softly. Akane had only known Katsuhito for a few months, and during that
time they had not grown especially close. But... he was a good man. A very
irritating man, but a good one. The memories Akane would carry of him would be
nice ones.
	Rei, however, had lost the next best thing she had to a father. For
years this old monk had been her mentor and her parent. Nothing Akane could say
would begin to make her feel better now. It was time for Rei to grieve.
	Akane stood and walked towards Ukyou. The young woman had changed so
much, and yet not changed at all. She was still so young, her figure so
childlike compared to the people Akane had watched grow over the years. Her
black hair was still in a ponytail, and she still wore a trenchcoat, which she
was clinging to herself.
	But now she looked... almost inhuman. The scars on her arm seemed to
stand out more, and the tattoos on the other hand had an unnatural mechanical
quality to them. Then there were her eyes, black lotus shapes that looked up at
Akane as she approached.
	Akane sighed and sat down next to her.
	"Hey."
	"Hey."
	They sat there for a moment. "I'm sorry, Akane." Akane looked at her. "I
can't make what happened between us better, but for what it's worth I'm sorry.
I..." She sighed. "I want us to be friends again."
	Akane smiled. "What ever made you think that stopped?" Ukyou smiled at
her as well. And Akane was shocked to see how open and genuine that smile was.
"So, what happened? I thought you were dead."
	"I spent seven years killing people and fucking a psychopath, had a kid,
lost my memory." Ukyou paused and scratched her chin. "You?"
	"Been leading a losing battle against Chronos," Akane shrugged. "Saved
the world from Pharaoh 90. Might have doomed us all in the process."
	"Indeed."
	Then, for some insane reason, they started laughing. It was just a
giggle at first. Then it quickly devolved into body-shaking guffaws. Akane fell
against Ukyou, and Ukyou slapped the wall a few times. Akane realised she was
crying. And so was Ukyou.
	But it felt good.
	"I hope you two are having fun," Tethys hissed once they stopped. "It
must be nice to be able to ignore everything happening around you."
	"I'm not ignoring it, Tethys," Ukyou said slowly. "I'm trying to decide
what to do. What that girl told me..."
	"It was true, wasn't it?" Tethys insisted, crossing her arms and glaring
down at Ukyou. "You ARE killing Akira. Every time you use the Third Circle, all
the backlash you create is being funnelled into her."
	"Yeah..." Ukyou said slowly.
	"You only care about yourself, Ukyou," Tethys hissed. "I fail to see why
Akira is so devoted to you. I think she would be better off with you dead."
	Ukyou looked up at her. "No. She wouldn't." She stood up. "Speaking of
Akira... I have to go now."
	"Going to fix what you've done?" Tethys snarled.
	Ukyou sighed and pinched her nose. "Yes, Tethys. As a matter of fact I
am going to try."
	Tethys was about to say something, when Akane suddenly shot to her feet.
Ukyou looked at her. "What is it?"
	"It's... Destiny! The same feeling I had with you! Except... pure!"
Akane's eyes widened. "It's..."
	Then a wave of silver light washed over them. Tethys cried out in
fright, but when it passed she was unharmed. Instead, the entire palace had been
changed. Where once they had been standing in a city of black ice, they were now
in a city of gleaming crystal. The galaxy of stars still swirled beneath them,
but now all the lights were gold specks, like fireflies.
	"Sailor Moon," Tethys breathed. "She's here."
	"And fighting Chris!" Ukyou exclaimed. "But Hotaru is..." She frowned.
"Hotaru is running away from that fight, it seems."
	"What?" Akane frowned.
	"This would be..." Ukyou trailed off. "No. No, I have to go find Akira.
With this jungle around it's still hard for me to pinpoint Hotaru, but Akira I
CAN find." She turned to Akane. "I have to go, Akane."
	"Ukyou..." Akane fell silent. What else was there to say?
	Ukyou ran to the edge of the sphere she had cut out of the city and
leapt out of view. After a moment, Tethys made a sound and ran to leap after
her.
	That left Akane alone.
	"There she is, girls!"
	Akane's eye twitched. Oh no. Not...
	"Akane Tendo! Champion of righteousness! At last I have found you once
again. Fear not of the dangers of this city, for it is I-"
	"Can it, Skullo," Akane said, turning around. She wasn't surprised to
see Patoratsyu with the deluded 'justice fighter', but was surprised at the four
girls accompanying him. They were the strangest quartet Akane had ever seen, and
she had been fighting Chronos for seven years.
	She petted her pet land octopus as he leapt up onto her shoulder and
made little cooing sounds. Meanwhile the four girls were running towards her.
They wore scandalously-revealing circus outfits, especially considering they
looked all of thirteen. Also they had the most elaborate hairstyles Akane had
ever seen, each one a less probable shade than the last.
	"Are you sure this is her?" the one with green hair said, crossing her
arms.
	"Akane Tendo is taller than this," the one in pink insisted.
	"And she has eyes that can turn men to stone!" the blue-haired one said,
snapping her fingers in front of Akane's face. Akane blinked.
	"Also, bigger tits," the red-haired one said, poking Akane in the
chest with one finger. "I distinctly remember bigger tits."
	"Will you cut that out!" Akane shouted, waving them away from her and
fuming.
	"See, this can't be Akane," the greenette said to Skullomania. "If she
was really annoyed, she would have chopped us in two with her sword like she
always does on TV."
	"No, no, I assure you that this is Akane Tendo!" He paused. "And she
only hits people with the wooden sword when she's mad at them."
	"You stay out of this!" Akane snapped at him. He backed up, waving his
arms defensively. "You four, who are you and why are you looking for me?"
	"You're really Akane?" the red-head asked suspiciously.
	"YES I AM!" Akane shouted back.
	"Mmm hmmm..." the bluette was now cradling her head against Akane's
chest. Akane clenched her fists and began to glow. "You don't say...
fascinating..."
	"I told you to stop that!" Akane punched downward, but somehow the girl
moved just before Akane hit and all Akane managed to do was throw herself off
balance.
	"Hey you guys, it really is Akane. The nice lady in the magical stone
told me so," the blue-haired girl told the others.
	"Magic stone?" Akane looked down at her vest pocket. It was glowing
slightly. Also, now that she focused on it, she could feel it tugging on her...
towards the direction of Sailor Moon.
	"I thought you lost your powers?" the greenette accused.
	"I did, but only a doofus couldn't hear what the nice lady in the stone
is saying."
	"Oh, right..." the red-head looked around. "Well, I heard it, too."
	"So did I!" the pink-haired girl lied well.
	"I... so did I! I was just teasing you!" the green-haired girl lied less
well.
	Akane felt a headache coming on ,so she cut them off. "Now that we've
established who I am, who are you and why are you here?"
	"Oh, we're the Amazoness Quartet!" the red-head said and the four of
them posed in front of Akane. Skullomania twitched, his hands clenched into
fists and sweat appearing through his mask. "The four lovely young children
adventurers!"
	"And we need to find Sailor Moon," the green-haired girl continued.
	"If we don't, the old man will die!" the bluette explained.
	"She's the only one who can heal him! Without her, he'll surely die!"
	"So we had to find Sailor Moon and we remember somebody telling us that
you knew who Sailor Moon was..."
	"But we didn't know who you were, so we couldn't find you."
	"But we DID know who Skullomania was, and he said he was your friend and
so we-"
	"I get it." Akane held up a hand to forestall them. She looked off into
the distance. She could feel the power of Sailor Moon's destiny. She was
fighting something, Akane could tell. Chris, Akane realised suddenly. Her hand
reached down and touched the star seed. It was pulling her towards the battle.
She looked over at Rei. "I..." She looked at Skullomania. "Skullo, could you
stay with... with Katsuhito's body, please?"
	Skullomania looked at her for a long moment. For once, he sensed the
gravity of the situation. "Yes, of course. I will protect his body with my
life."
	"Rei..." Akane placed a hand on the girls shoulder. Her eyes were
bloodshot. "Come on. Sailor Moon is here. We should go see her."
	"I..." Rei blinked away a few tears. "Yes. Let's go."
	"You four..." Akane paused. "On second thought, just you," she pointed
at the pink-haired girl, who seemed to have the least tendency to babble. "Tell
me everything."
	And so she did, as Akane led them through the city. The tug on the star
seed was growing stronger, serving as a perfect dowsing rod leading them
straight to Sailor Moon.
	"The old man was in France. He'd gone there to save Cologne..."
	"Cologne?" Akane started. She hadn't seen the old woman since...
	"Yeah, the old hag was there trying to kill some evil guy named Chris.
Apparently he killed her great-granddaughter."
	"I know." Akane closed her eyes. "I was there."
	"Something else that monster has to answer for," Rei snarled.
	"Anyway, we went there to save Cologne but it was a trap and there was a
lot of monsters. But Frederick showed up to save us all with a giant lightning
bolt!" Akane frowned. 'Frederick?' That name sounded familiar. "But even after
he took care of all the monsters, there was still Chris. And he had an evil not-
right-at-all girl with him!"
	"She was scary!" the blue-haired girl cried. Akane shushed her and
indicated for the dignified girl to continue.
	"The girl attacked the old man and tore out his magic crystal. Then she
broke it." Magic crystal? Akane frowned. Maybe a heart crystal? Or a star seed?
Akane had encountered so many magic crystals in her life... "But the worst part
was what she did to it."
	"She filled it up with something wrong!" the green-haired girl said.
	"Paradox," the bluette broke in. "The paradox backlash. That's what it
is."
	"Paradox?" Akane asked.
	"We don't know what it is," the red-head explained. "But it's real bad
stuff, like an infection in reality. It wears away at it, rots it from the
inside out."
	"And as long as it's stuck in the crystal they can't fix it," the pink-
haired girl continued. "That's why we need Sailor Moon. She's the only one who
can purify the paradox, extract it from the crystal without destroying it in the
process."
	"But that isn't the worst of it. You see, the paradox is all that's
holding his crystal together."
	"What?"
	"Whatever was done to the crystal should have shattered it," pink-hair
explained.
	"But the paradox is keeping it in one piece. If the paradox vanishes
suddenly, the crystal will shatter and he'll die."
	"So we have to get to Sailor Moon before whatever it is that's causing
the paradox stops happening!" the blue-haired girl insisted.
	"I see..." Akane nodded. It was as good a reason as any. Maybe she would
talk with Sailor Moon. But first they would have to get to her and help her out.
If she was fighting Chris, then-
	The city in front of them exploded. Akane threw herself in front of the
Quartet, extended her hands to block them from the debris. Rei stepped forward
as well, conjuring a wall of flame that stopped most of it. The Quartet mainly
shrieked and dove for cover behind Akane.
	Purple light flared as a figure shot up out of the mist. Lances of dark
fire launched from his fingertips as he fired again and again, drilling down
into the mist like a machine gun. He was screaming, his voice barely human as he
roared with fury.
	And the mist parted, blasted away in a flash of silver light. The figure
which rose from it was Usagi, Sailor Moon, the Moon Princess - but also much
more. Her silver armour didn't just gleam, it WAS light. Pinions of light,
ephemeral as dreams but too bright to look at flared from her back as she
flashed up towards Chris. A barrier of light blinked into existence each time
one of his attacks came too close to her. When the purple flames reached that
barrier they just vanished, snuffed out like candles in the breeze.
	And in her hands she carried a sword. It was no ordinary sword. It was
the perfect sword. Akane found her mouth drying up, her eyes moistening at the
sight of it. Akane had once thought that Akio might very well be the model for
all mankind. If he was, then this was the model for all swords. Perfectly
shaped, perfectly balanced, an instrument of sublime war.
	Chris pivoted in midair, trying to dodge the attack of the ur-sword. But
the blade somehow caught him just above the hip. His scream this time was full
of pain and panic. Black rot rippled out from the impact, consuming the entire
hip. But to his credit, he reacted quickly. His one good hand shot up and he
unfurled his fist just in front of Usagi's face.
	There was a blast of purple fire, it roared and flashed, casting the
entire world into shades of violet.
	"Usagi!" Rei screamed.
	"No!" Akane shouted, and started forward. But a figure jumped down in
front of her. Long green hair and a Sailor Senshi outfit in white and black. She
extended a key-shaped staff in front of Akane, stopping her.
	"Don't interfere," she warned.
	"Sailor Pluto?" Akane frowned. She vaguely remembered the woman, but
last she had heard she was trying to kill Ukyou.
	"Yes, Akane Tendo," Sailor Pluto smiled, a relieved smile. "You need not
worry. Everything is fine."
	Chris was laughing above them, but his laughter cut off abruptly. The
fireball he had created was shrinking. No, not just shrinking. It was reversing,
erupting backwards in time. Finally it became a spark hovering just in front of
Sailor Moon's face. The Moon Princess reached up with one gauntleted hand and
crushed it between two fingers.
	"Nice trick," Chris snarled, floating back. He gestured and a whip of
flames appeared in his hand. "But I won't fall for such petty illusions!"
	His hand snapped up and three times he struck. Sailor Moon effortlessly
parried the strikes. But on the last strike Chris vanished, only to appear
behind her. He drove a knee towards her head, and Sailor Moon wasn't even moving
to block it. Then he flickered and vanished, appearing again in front of her,
driving his hand towards her heart-
	And her fist backhanded him across the face, sending him flying into a
nearby crystal building hard enough that he broke through the roof and collapsed
the entire thing on top of him.
	"My power is no illusion, Chris," the Moon Princess said, in a voice
filled with pity. "It is your power that is the trick."
	"We should do something," Akane said.
	"No, Sailor Moon can handle him." Pluto smiled again.
	"But..."
	"Akane. I understand why you want to destroy Chris yourself," Pluto
said. "But only she can do it. The Moon Princess explained it herself. His
existence is a mere shadow. He died and yet he clings to life at the expense of
others. His soul is already too full of chaos and paradox to be saved. His only
salvation is death."
	Akane didn't respond. Mainly because she wasn't certain she wanted to
destroy Chris. Oh, she hated him for what he had done to Shampoo. She knew he
was beyond saving... but there was still a part of her that pitied him. No
matter what he had done, he was still a victim in all this, and she couldn't
control the way her heart felt.
	"Go get him, Sailor Moon!" the pink-haired girl cheered.
	"Yeah, get him back for hurting Mr. Purgstall!" the red-head added,
pumping her arm and hooting.
	"Purgstall?" Akane turned to her. "Frederick Von PURGSTALL? As in
zoalord Purgstall? That's who you're here to save!?"
	"Of course," the girl replied, blinking. "That's who we said, right?"
	Akane felt her stomach lurch. Purgstall. A Chronos zoalord. The man had
been trying to kill her for seven years. He had worked against her at every
turn. He had turned her every victory into a defeat. He had engineered the
program which had turned her homeland into a nation of willing slaves. He was
everything she had sworn to oppose.
	There was a crack followed by the clatter of shifting crystal as Chris
pulled himself out of the rubble. "So, Akio finally decided to make his move?"
he chuckled. "Sent his pet Senshi out to defeat me, did he? I guess he moves up
a step or two in my plan once I'm finished with you."
	"Akio has nothing to do with this, Chris," the Moon Princess replied. "I
was drawn to you. I can feel the sickness in your soul, the burning paradox
which fuels your dark power."
	"Right, tell me another-"
	"You thought you could get rid of it?" Usagi sighed. "You built yourself
a puppet, a puppet in the shape of a girl. You built her from the bits and
pieces of Juraian technology you stole from Mihoshi's ship." Chris was staring
at her now. Sailor Moon's punch had rotted away the cheek opposite his maimed
eye, making his visage truly hideous, but now he looked shocked. "But it
wouldn't work, not until you poured into it all your rot and pain. Everything
the Third Circle gave you from trying to abuse its power to cling to your
unnatural life. Did you not think that the power was rejecting you, Chris? Did
you not think it was not meant for mortal hands?"
	"And what? It's meant for YOURS?" Chris exploded into the air once
again. He whipped out a series of paper wards and sent them spiralling towards
Usagi. She cleaved them with her sword, but he was inside her guard. Fire lanced
along his body and up in front of her. But he was already spinning away from
that. Usagi blocked the fire with her hand. Chris appeared behind her exposed
back and stuck, kicking her with all his might.
	His shin exploded when it came into contact with her armour. The flesh
just rotted away and the bone inside shattered into a cloud of dust. He screamed
and fell to the ground, clutching his stump. She had hurt him, Akane realised.
Not just the body, she had hurt CHRIS.
	"I want there to be another way," Usagi explained softly. She turned
towards Chris. "When I... when I finally saw the truth, I realised there
couldn't be. You came across the gap between worlds, across the barrier, and you
brought something with you, Chris. It's a poison. I see it now. Your very
existence poisons the world. When you created your puppet, you gave that poison
shape and form. Now it spreads your sickness to everything it touches, leaving
bits and pieces of itself behind. Bits and pieces of your poison, infecting this
world. Until I remove you from it, the world can never be clean."
	"So, you think you're God? I'll show you," Chris growled. His remaining
eye was bugging out in rage. He stood up, floating to his feet. "My power..."
	"Stolen power," the Moon Princess said. She gestured. "Power which I can
finally put to rest."
	A wave of light flashed across the battlefield. Chris didn't even have a
chance to dodge. As it flowed over him it seemed to be ripping something from
his skin. Something purple and black. It hissed and screamed, the power clawing
at his flesh as it tried to burrow back into the body and escape. But it was
drawn out. For a moment, Akane thought she saw a face screaming in the shadows
it formed, and then it was gone. Just like that.
	Chris collapsed, the entire front of his body scorched and rotting. He
tried to push himself up, but whatever power had allowed him to fly was gone. He
started shaking his head, his voice emerging as a cracked whisper. "No... no...
this isn't happening..."
	"I'm sorry Chris, I wish I could save you," Sailor Moon said, holding up
her sword. "But you must be cleansed."
	("The girl attacked the old man and tore out his magic crystal. Then she
broke it.")
	Akane felt her mind turning.
	("You built yourself a puppet, a puppet in the shape of a girl.")
	("And he had an evil not-right at all girl with him!")
	Something was coming together in her mind. Something important. But she
didn't want to think of it. She knew that if she thought of it, there would only
be trouble...
	("But the paradox is keeping it in one piece. If the paradox vanishes
suddenly, the crystal will shatter and he'll die.")
	("Now it spreads your sickness to everything it touches, leaving bits
and pieces of itself behind.")
	"NO!"
	Akane didn't realise what she was doing until she was already standing
in front of the body on the ground, her arms extended to her side. Usagi paused,
her eyebrow raising
	"Akane, what are you doing?" Rei shouted.
	"Get out of the way, you idiot!" one of the Quartet shouted.
	"Stand aside, this has to happen!" Pluto screamed.
	"...this isn't happening... this isn't happening..." Chris moaned,
rocking back and forth on the ground like a child.
	"You should move, Akane. I'm not certain I can finish him off with you
in the way," Usagi pointed out.
	"No, you can't kill him," Akane said evenly.
	"Are you insane?" Rei started forward. "Do you know what he did?"
	"He has to live, Rei!" Akane opened her mouth, and realised what she was
about to say. If Chris died, so did Frederick Von Purgstall. Why should she
care? He was evil. He had done more harm to Japan and the world than Chris had
by a factor of ten. So what if he died?
	Akane looked at the Quartet. They were just children. Children trying to
save their father.
	"If Chris dies, all the taint he left in this world goes with him,"
Akane pointed out.
	"That's kind of the point," Rei snarled.
	"But the taint he left behind is currently keeping a man alive. If he
dies, then so does this man." Akane looked up at Sailor Moon. "But you can save
him first. If you kill Chris, he dies now. If you save this man first, you can
always come back for Chris later."
	"Akane, that's stupid..."
	"No, she's right, Rei," Usagi said. She floated down towards the ground
and rested her feet on it. A pegasus made of crystal appeared out of nowhere,
neighing slightly. Its black onyx eyes were glassy and empty. "If this man can
be saved, I must save him. I am not a butcher. If he dies because of this taint,
then I may not be able to fix it once Chris is no more."
	Rei stared at Sailor Moon, her eyes widening and her mouth opening and
closing. Akane looked away. She'd done the right thing... hadn't she?
	"Somebody take me to this man, I will save him." She looked down at
Chris. "I have taken away most of his power, but he is still dangerous. Guard
him until I return."
	The Amazoness Quartet made excited sounds and scampered over to the
glorious Princess, one of them taking her by the hand. The other three raised
three orbs and, with a gesture, they were gone. Akane deflated a bit as the five
simply vanished. She looked over at Chris, who was still rocking and moaning on
the floor.
	"I can't believe it's finally over," Pluto said, her voice thick.
	"Is it?" Akane asked. She hunched down, looking at Chris still.
	"I was actually a little worried, " Pluto said to no one in particular.
"Sailor Moon seemed so... awesome and powerful. For a moment, I thought the
power had corrupted her. But seeing how she cares more about one man's life than
the salvation of the universe makes me feel better."
	"I'm still not sure it was a good idea," Rei said quickly, crossing her
arms. She was glaring down at Chris. "We should have finished off Chris
quickly."
	"It doesn't matter about Chris," Pluto told Rei. "Sailor Moon ended the
Prophecy. Don't you see, she has the power to change Destiny! Even if Chris
escapes, he's still not that powerful."
	"Change Destiny?" Akane asked.
	"He destroyed Hotaru, the Messiah of Silence, before she and Ukyou could
meet and destroy the universe in their battle," Pluto explained.
	"But Hotaru is still alive," Akane said, blinking.
	"What? But I SAW her die!"
	"Ukyou says that Hotaru ran away shortly after Sailor Moon showed up..."
	Pluto stared at Akane, then looked around. "Wait, wait... where... where
are her LEGS? Where is her sword?" She was beginning to look worried now. She
turned towards Akane. "We have to-"
	"Can't you people do ANYTHING right?" a new voice cut in.
	Akane turned around and blinked. Washuu was standing, with one foot on
Chris. She had her arms crossed and was glaring at Akane. Rei looked slightly
pale, and for a moment Akane was glad she hadn't seen the young-looking woman
appear.
	"Who are you?" Pluto asked.
	"Heh. I'm Washuu Hakubi, THE greatest scientific genius in the
universe!" She made a v-sign at Pluto. "And I was within seconds of finishing
off Chris once and for all when Ms. Empathy here had to go and ruin it
all."
	"Ms. Haku-" Pluto was cut off as Rei slapped a hand over her mouth.
	"Call her 'little Washuu'," Rei warned in a hiss. Akane nodded quickly.
	"Two years of planning, two years of manipulating and you had to spoil
it all, Akane," Washuu pouted. 'I'm very put out with you." She looked down at
Chris. "Thankfully he seems too out of it to have noticed and his friends are
all defeated like I wanted. I should be able to salvage this. I'll just have to
put him on ice for a little bit."
	She gestured and a door appeared in mid-air. It looked perfectly normal,
except for being made out of some red material Akane did not immediately
recognize. She hefted up Chris with one hand and threw him through the door,
which opened just in time to accommodate him. "Now, the problem is, he can't
suspect my involvement or everything goes to hell." She looked over. "Guess I'll
just have to make certain no one knows."
	Akane shivered at the sinister sound in Washuu's voice. The girl smiled
dangerously and reached into her pocket, pulling out a small silver wand with a
red lens on the end. Pluto tensed, Akane did as well. Rei just sighed in a long-
suffering way.
	"Look at the pretty light, everyone," Washuu chirped and there was a red
flash. Akane blinked. Pluto and Rei seemed dazed. "Sailor Moon defeated Chris
and you all watched, but he ran away at the last minute and she went to chase
him. You all decided to stay here and help Ukyou or something, I don't know..."
	"What are you talking about?" Akane insisted. Washuu looked at Akane.
She snapped her fingers in front of Akane's eyes and Akane made a swipe at them,
forcing Washuu to skip back. Washuu shrugged and flashed the red light at her
again. Akane shielded her eyes and glared. "Stop that! You'll give me a
headache."
	"Is this thing broken?" Washuu looked down into it and it flashed into
her face. She blinked, staggering around in a daze. "What... what am I doing
here?"
	Akane walked up to her. "Are you-"
	"HAH!" Washuu poked her in the ribs with the wand. "Gotcha! Just
kidding. I'm immune to this thing, obviously." She looked at Akane and frowned.
"Though why YOU are escapes me." She paused. "Maybe something to do with why you
could see what Kalia was doing as well?" She shrugged. "Oh well, it just means
you'll have to come with me." She grabbed Akane by the wrist. "Can't risk having
you spilling the beans."
	"Wait, what?"
	Washuu turned and yelled back over her shoulder. "Akane went with Sailor
Moon and..." Washuu looked at her. "You won't need this. The Seed only
interferes with what Usagi needs to do." She held up her hand, which had
Neptune's Star Seed in it. Akane gasped and made a grab for it but Washuu had
already thrown it at the ground by the Senshi's feet. "...Akane left with Sailor
Moon and left that behind, something about not needing it anymore and blah
blah."
	Akane stared at the crazy woman as she was dragged into the door.

*

	ZX-Tole placed a hand on the guardrail and looked out over the city. It
looked so calm from up here, so empty. The Pillars of Heaven were the tallest
buildings in the world, a trio of skyscrapers that rose above everything else in
the area by hundreds of stories. They were interconnected at all levels by a
series of skyways, which allowed employees of Chronos to shuttle cleanly from
one building to the other without difficulty. At the very top of the building
was a single large structure that was supported over empty air by graceful-
looking bridges that came from the corner of each of the three towers.
	Up here, at the very top of the building, humans were not advised to
exit. The air was thin up here, making it difficult for normal people to
breathe. But ZX-Tole wasn't human. Even in his stealth form he was gifted beyond
normal people, with increased strength and stamina that had surprised more than
one fool who had thought to catch him unawares.
	His knuckles turned white. What was he doing here? Back in this city,
kilometers away from the front line, was not the place for a warrior. The
situation at Ohtori was serious. It was the first time that Chronos had ever
lost territory since they had halted the war with America almost seven years
ago. It was already emboldening the other members of the Resistance. They had
suffered more attacks on Chronos installations in the last few days than in the
entire last seven years.
	At the very least, he should be out there putting down brush fires. He
should be doing something, anything. Instead, he was here...
	"Commander? Ah, there you are!"
	"Ikazuchi." ZX-Tole didn't turn to look. The neo-zoanoid walked up
behind him, coming to a halt a few meters away. The snow crunched under his
heels as he moved. "What did you want?"
	"I've come to report that I have fulfilled our orders," Ikazuchi said
quickly. "Of course, was there any doubt that-"
	"Ikazuchi," Zx_Tole cut him off. "What do you think of our orders?"
	"I..." Ikazuchi must have looked rather confused. Which was
understandable, since ZX-Tole had never asked for his opinion on anything
before. Then again, Ikazuchi was never one to hold it back. "I'm not certain
what you're asking, ZX-Tole. The orders were rather simple. I had the top ten
floors cleared of all people..."
	"Yes. Rather strange, don't you think?" ZX-Tole leaned forward a bit,
enjoying the brief sensation of vertigo. "Emptying some of the most important
floors of every guard, every scientist, every technician. Especially with L-...
with Purgstall in there."
	Ikazuchi made a thoughtful noise. "Perhaps they believe the two of us
alone are good enough for this duty? The others may well be needed back at
Ohtori..."
	"Scientists? Technicians?" ZX-Tole snorted. "No. Something else is going
on here, Ikazuchi. Something I'm not certain I like."
	"ZX-Tole?"
	"I shouldn't have run, Ikazuchi," ZX-Tole said suddenly, sighing.
	"Excuse me?"
	"I should have stayed and fought Sailor Moon."
	"B-But... not even I could have prevailed against such a force as she!
Her foul magic unmade even Red Cyclone, who I must admit was almost even at my
own level of evolutionary perfection!"
	"It would have been a warrior's death," ZX-Tole continued grimly, having
barely registered Ikazuchi's response. "Elegen, Thancrus, Derzerb... they all
died fighting. My brothers. The men I had grown to trust with my life. Each of
them died fighting this enemy, fighting Akane and her soldiers."
	"Akane Tendo can not be blamed for their-" Ikazuchi suddenly sounded
defensive.
	"Don't worry, I don't blame her." ZX-Tole smirked. "It was my fault.
Akane was a better fighter than I gave her credit for. Her people wanted it
more, and so they won. That's the sort of thing that happens on the field of
battle." ZX-Tole looked down once again. At this height, it was impossible to
make out the people below. "At least against her it would have been an
honourable death. You can understand that, can't you, Ikazuchi?"
	"I... yes." Ikazuchi walked up to the guardrail and placed his hands on
it. "I can understand honour. But why are you talking this way, Commander?"
	"I..." ZX-Tole decided to hold back his suspicions. How Gyro's
foreknowledge of the location of Ohtori had been a little too convienent. How he
hadn't pushed the issue since the initial battle. All the things that had
worried him about the zoalord for years, adding up. "Ikazuchi, the zoalords have
less control over you than they do over regular hyper-zoanoids like me, don't
they?"
	"I..." The young man looked confused.
	"Don't deny it," ZX-Tole pressed. "The process they used on you was
rushed and incomplete, and they left you with almost your entire original
personality intact. I once saw you take a mental blast from Gyro that would have
killed any other zoanoid."
	"I always assumed I was such a loyal vassal I required no further
measures..." Ikazuchi said softly.
	"I..." ZX-Tole looked back down at the city. "If I'm ever doing
something... something that goes against everything I believe in. Something that
goes against everything Chronos stands for. Something... dishonourable..."
	"ZX-Tole?"
	ZX-Tole spun and grabbed the younger man by the top of his gi, clenching
the fabric tight in his fist. He lifted the boyish man up off his feet until
they were staring face to face. "If I have no control, if I can't stop myself...
YOU have to do it."
	"Do... do what?" For once, the foppish brat seemed stunned wordless.
	"You have to stop me, stop me from..." ZX-Tole had no idea what he would
do. But he repressed a shudder. "Promise me, Ikazuchi. I'm not like those
monsters at Millennium. I kill, but I don't enjoy killing. You have to stop me,
if it goes too far."
	"I..." Ikazuchi nodded mutely.
	ZX-Tole released him and started towards the door back into the
building.
	"ZX-Tole... how will I know?"
	ZX-Tole paused and considered the question for a moment. Then he smiled.
Gaster, Elegen, Thancrus, Derzerb... he had lost his greatest friends over the
years. But this boy, this arrogant stupid boy. He was his friend, too. He was a
good man, under all that bombast. You might not be able to trust him not to fuck
up, but you could always trust him to be... well, to be Ikazuchi. "You'll know,"
ZX-Tole said before stepping through the door.

*

	"Katsuhito's dead."
	Angel looked up. Rei was standing outside the icy bars of the cell. She
looked angry. She pretty much always looked angry, but not surprisingly, this
was more serious than usual. Angel, for her part, just felt tired, and her head
still hurt. "I'm sorry to hear that."
	"Sorry?" Rei snapped. "SORRY? Is that all you have to say for yourself?
After all the time Katsuhito spent helping you, after all the time he trained
you, after he saved your life, after you were responsible for his death, all you
have to say is 'sorry'!?"
	"I didn't kill him," Angel said quietly. "I'm sorry he died. What more
am I supposed to say?"
	"You didn't kill him? Oh no, of course not. It's not like YOU didn't
start us down this path, after all. It's not like YOU weren't responsible for
what happened to Mihoshi. It's not like YOU haven't been supporting a
psychopathic murderer. He had his doll Kalia do it because you were busy
elsewhere, I guess!"
	Angel sighed. "Okay. Sure, then. I would have killed him if he'd tried
to stop Chris. So if you want, I'm responsible. I'm still sorry it had to
happen."
	"Had to happen?" Rei growled. "Oh, right, you think he's some destined
god saviour of the world. I guess you missed the part where Sailor Moon beat him
like a child."
	"What?"
	"Or you missed the part where Ukyou and Tethys beat his doll. Where you
were beaten by a woman who was already crippled from blood loss!  Where SHE was
beaten by a normal human with no powers!" she finished, pointing across the hall
to the other occupied cell.
	"Describing Nabiki as that is hardly accurate," Link corrected with a
snort. "And in fact, it was her and Ryouga that beat me. More accurately still,
I beat me. But do carry on. I enjoy watching you shattering Angel's illusions."
	"Shut up!" Angel snarled at the other prisoner, who held a hand over her
mouth as she chuckled softly. She had woken up only slightly after Angel, both
of them already imprisoned. Angel didn't know how bad she had looked before she
had healed herself - she guessed her face at least had been bruised up, along
with her wrecked knee - but Link was covered in small bruises and scratches;
easy to see, for she only wore a white shift. Her robes, earrings, hairpins: all
traces of the blue crystal Link normally dripped with were gone. She looked...
surprisingly young and vulnerable now, just a skinny, pasty-complexioned young
woman with long black hair and stick-like limbs. Tethys herself had shown up to
explain the 'special features' of their cells shortly thereafter. Even the
strongest punch Angel could deliver only caused the bars to bend and near-
instantly snap back into place; all the blood from Link's cuts seemed to
vapourise instantly in the air. Link had seemed perversely pleased at the
precaution. "Sailor Moon? What are you saying?"
	"You know this Third Circle thing that your boss is so obsessed with?"
Rei exclaimed triumphantly. "The one that makes him so special and divine?
Sailor Moon reached it first."
	"That's impossible," Angel said.
	"And then she proceeded to beat him like a dog," Rei continued without
even acknowledging Angel's statement.
	"That's not possible!" she repeated. "Sailor Moon's just a human. She
can't reach the Third Circle."
	"If you like," Rei said, leaning down and smiling in a vindictive way,
"I can get Sailor Pluto in to confirm it for me. And if there's anyone who's an
expert on the Third Circle, it's her."
	Angel stared, uncertain of what to say.
	"So," began Link casually, "did your little band actually kill Kalia?"
	Rei looked annoyed at the other woman speaking up again, but answered.
"The last I saw her, there were several spears of ice the size of my arm stuck
in her and she was running scared from Ukyou and Tethys."
	"Mmm. So, 'no they didn't', then. And Chris? After Sailor Moon thrashed
him, did she... finish him off?"
	"Are you actually believing her story?" Angel snapped. "You know Chris
can't-"
	"Can't what?" said Link mildly. "Lose? Oh, dear stupid girl. Chris can
lose. I'll have you know that one time, Ryouga Hibiki smashed him into a
weeping, incoherent mass of ruined flesh. He never did thank Ukyou for saving
him that time, either... but then, I think that's one incident he's put quite
firmly out of his mind."
	"You stay out of this!" Rei snapped. "I don't know why you hung around
with that psychopath, but at least you did it honestly, not sneaking around
making people trust you under false pretenses like this little traitor. People
like her make me sick."
	Link actually laughed. "Of course. Please, don't let me interrupt your
undoubtedly satisfying self-righteous tirade." She drew back into the shadows of
the corner of her cell.
	Rei glowered for a moment, but then turned back to Angel. "And as for
you-"
	"Oh shut up, Rei," Angel said. "I didn't see anything that happened and
I'm not taking either of your words for it. If Sailor Moon was some all-special
divine being, what the hell has she been doing for the past seven years? Chris
defeated Millennium. Sailor Moon, so I hear, has just been hiding in a fairyland
kingdom having sex with the next best thing to the Devil."
	"She was holding off the end of the world!" Rei roared.
	"Sure she was."
	"Oh yes, you're just so very cool about this, aren't you? You're like
this with everything. You don't care about the lives you destroy, as long as
your precious god is right. You told me your parents were revolutionaries. I
wonder what they'd think of you, slaughtering innocent people to help out the
sick dreams of an even worse oppressor than the one they were fighting."
	Angel's head snapped up. "Don't you DARE compare Chris to Chronos, Rei,"
she said, her voice clipped. "Don't you dare. My parents died fighting for
something they believed in, and-"
	"And you'd have butchered them without a second thought if he'd told you
to, right? Just like-"
	Angel didn't even realise she'd moved. Her hand hurt. She realised she'd
hit the immovable bars, hit them so hard her knuckles were bleeding. She
realised she'd gotten up right around then. She hit them again and again, barely
feeling the pain, her voice hoarse as she screamed at the woman, not even sure
what she was saying, just knowing it was something angry. Hurtful.
	Rei just stared. Her expression was angry too, and she opened her mouth
as if to shout something back, but then a shadow crossed her features. Without a
word, she turned and walked away.
	"GO TO HELL!" Angel called at her retreating back. No sound had come
from the other cell, but Angel imagined Link was laughing to herself again.
Retreating to the corner of her own cell, she sat down. She didn't activate her
tattoos to heal the injury she'd done to her hand; the pain felt good, somehow.
Lowering her head onto her knees, she waited for Chris to come.


				To Be Continued...


Blade: Holy shit, this was long.

Epsilon: And next chapter's even LONGER!

Blade: Hell, we haven't even finished it yet, even after taking a month off!
That's how long it is!

Epsilon: We have failed in our bid to not become Robert Jordan.

Blade: Except with less spankings and more lesbians.

Epsilon: But why can't we combine the two?

Blade: We've replaced spankings with punching people in the face. See, it
happens to Tethys all the time!

Epsilon: Well, she does call herself the Dark Queen and dresses kinda
dominatrixy, so that makes sense.

Blade: So, in that case our equivalent to "crossing arms under your breasts" is
coughing up blood?

Epsilon: And yanking on the ponytail is giant set-piece battles sets in
climactic and awesome locales, such as Angel versus Ranma, which in our
incredibly humble and unbiased opinion, is pretty much the best fight scene ever
written in the history of language.

Blade: Anyway who disagrees, feel free to meet me on top of an avalanche
plummeting down a cliff in a city created from black ice, and we'll settle the
issue like God and Uwe Boll intended.

Epsilon: But if you think those were awesome, just wait until you see the giant
set-piece battle that occurs next chapter!  I will only give away this: it
involves (censored for spoilers) (censored for spoilers) motorcycle out of a
(censored for spoilers) and (censored for spoilers) (censored for spoilers)
building-sized (censored for spoilers) that is raping (censored for spoilers)
and then (censored for spoilers) (censored for spoilers) (censored for spoilers)
monstrosity the (censored for spoilers) of (censored for spoilers) moon so hard
it (censored for spoilers) in two.

Blade: Don't miss it!  And don't miss this, either!


*

	Akane was pretty certain that being bored at a time like this was bad.
She knew that there was a lot of important things happening. Maybe even some
critical ones. From what she could glean from Washuu's cryptic answers to her
questions, the fate of the entire universe might well be decided in the next few
minutes.
	So she was certain that she wasn't supposed to be running her hand along
the edge of her sword and trying to think of something to do. It struck her as
wrong, somehow. How do you justify being bored, when the entire universe was
hanging in the balance?


		Hybrid Theory Chapter 28: Reanimation

Blade: EXCITING!