I am the guardian of time. Some call me Sailor Pluto; others, Setsuna Meiou.
Unlike others, I have little to recap, only to foretell.

For the last seven years, every night, I have had a dream.

In this dream, I see a young woman standing beneath a bank of clouds, three
circles of light rotating around her body, the symbols that mark them rendered
illegible by the speed of the rotation.

The woman is clad in skin-tight black pants wrapped about the ankles with cords,
her torso is covered in a turtle-necked skin-tight white shirt and over that she
wears a long black trench-coat which is blown back and flares in an unseen wind.
Her sleeves are rolled up and both arms were reaching out towards the heavens.

On her left arm, five parallel scars glow with eldritch light, on her right arm
a tattoo of some kind snakes up to disappear under her sleeve. A power radiated
from her, a power that even now I can neither place nor understand. A bright
light flares from her forehead, and there is something terribly wrong with her
eyes.

In her hands, she holds a terrible weapon, and as I watch, she raises it against
a foe beyond conceiving, a foe without a face or a name.

A voice that I recognise as my own tells me this vision is a warning, of events
that must not come to pass. This voice tells me that I have come to the final
moments of the universe. This voice, myself, tells me that I must stop this
future from coming about no matter what I must do or how I must damn myself.

The woman in this prophecy I have come to know as Ukyou Kuonji. And every night,
I have watched her raise the weapon in her hands and destroy the world.

I have fought with my entire soul against this prophecy. At times, I have
despaired of it, and at times I have almost come to accept it. I have tried to
kill Ukyou, to stop her, to influence her, and finally even to help her. All of
it has proven equally fruitless in halting the relentless advance of the
prophecy.

Now Ukyou has come to face the terrible foe. Now the time has come to see an end
to it all. And just as in my dream, it seems I and everyone else in this
universe will be able to do nothing but watch.




                             C&A Productions Presents

                          A Work of Blatant Self-Insertion


                                   Hybrid Theory


                             Chapter 30: In The End


	"It never ends.
	"I guess I never really thought about it before. But it really never
ends. It just goes on and on. This boundless thing we call 'existence' never
stops. It stretches out into infinity. We all move along it, and not everyone
makes it, but it never ends.
	"One moment becomes the next. One challenge gives way to the next
battle. One life ends, and another begins. Each decision leads to the next, and
the next, and the next. There is no final state. We're not travelling towards
anything, because no matter what destination we reach there is always somewhere
else to go from there.
	"That's a lot to accept. Most people never have to. But I touched it. I
felt it. I saw the whole thing, stretched out forever in front of me. It's a
heavy thing. It can break you. It can make you despair.
	"But it also means one thing you didn't count on.
	"It means that even if I lose this battle, it will go on. Even if can't
win, this fight will go on. If I fall, someone will stand up in my place. So
don't think this is the end. One day, you will pay for this. One day, someone
will take you down. And life will go on.
	"Because I am sure that while existence is eternal, you are not. So come
on, you self-righteous son of a bitch! Give me everything you got!"

*

	Ukyou woke up with a gasp.
	She sat bolt upright in bed, sweat clinging to her skin. She was naked
and cold, and shivered under the thin blanket. It was dark in the room, too dark
to see anything. There was rain outside. She could hear it beating against the
walls and ceiling like a tiny percussion orchestra. She felt drained. Empty.
	"Ukyou?"
	She looked down, even though she couldn't see anything. Aaron's chi
senses had sharpened to the point where he no longer needed eyes to tell certain
details. It was Akira. She was slowly sitting up, rubbing the back of her eyes
with one hand. Ukyou paused.
	"Are you okay, Ukyou?" Akira asked, her voice still heavy with sleep. A
hand reached out and brushed against her arm. Ukyou felt a trill of warmth
spread from the brief contact. "Damn, you're cold."
	Akira did something. Aaron could feel the flare of chi as Akira flicked
her hand. A fraction of a second later the light came on. The girl was pulling
herself out from under the covers. She was wearing a pair of brown pyjamas that
was one size too large and was covered in pictures of French pastries. Her eyes
fixed on Ukyou's for a moment and she frowned in that cute little way she had.
	"This is what you get for not sleeping with any clothes on," Akira
chided, as she stood up. "I'll go get another blanket."
	"No, I..." Ukyou reached out to her. She wasn't certain why. Akira
paused, the fabric of her sleeve caught between two of Ukyou's fingers.
	"Well..." The girl paused, and tapped her chin with her free hand as if
considering something very important. "I guess... I might be able to help warm
you up a little. You know, or I could go get a blanket, or some clothes..."
	"Akira... how did I..." Ukyou trailed off. She had been about to ask how
she got here. But even as the question formed in her mind, the answer formed
too. They were in a motel just outside of Tokyo. They had stopped here for the
night instead of camping out like usual because of the rain Ukyou had sensed
coming. Ukyou even remembered the lecherous grin the motel manager had tried to
conceal while Ukyou paid for the overnight stay.
	"Is something wrong?" Akira asked, her voice suddenly serious. "Danger?"
She knelt down next to Ukyou. She was asking if Ukyou sensed any nearby danger.
Of course, Ukyou didn't. She didn't even sense anything so much as a strong chi
adept within a kilometer.
	"No..." Ukyou frowned. "I just... had a bad dream?"
	A sympathetic look appeared in Akira's eyes. She slid closer to Ukyou,
pulling her head down onto her shoulder. "Those again, huh?"
	"Again..." Ukyou murmured.
	"Well, I guess it makes sense, given the timing." Akira ran a hand along
her back. Her touch was intimate, but not arousing. Ukyou relaxed in her
embrace. "You've been under a lot of stress lately."
	"Yeah..." Ukyou agreed. Akira shifted and suddenly they were lying under
the covers together. Ukyou was now staring up at the ceiling, while Akira lay
underneath her with her arms cradled around Ukyou's waist. There was something
very comforting and familiar about it. Ukyou knew that Akira had often helped
her get back to sleep like this. Ukyou had always had trouble sleeping. It was a
trait she had inherited mainly from Aaron.
	"Nabiki assured us all the paper-work went through." Akira spoke softly
into her ear. "So don't worry. Tomorrow is a good day, Ukyou. You'll see."
	"But..." Ukyou wasn't certain what she was objecting to.
	"It doesn't matter if its been a year since you last saw her..."
	"Two," Ukyou corrected. The word just came to her. It sounded very
correct, but also left her feeling sad and hurt.
	"No matter how long it's been, it won't matter." She kissed Ukyou on the
side of the cheek. "Now get back to sleep. We still have a long drive tomorrow."
	Ukyou wasn't certain she wanted to, but the gentle warmth of Akira's
presence and the soft cushion of her body eventually lulled her away from the
conscious world. As she was drifting away, a part of her wondered briefly why
she didn't find any of this strange.
	She pushed that part of her away, and just let herself have this one
moment.

*

	The ride into Tokyo took about four hours. The streets were nearly empty
when they started, but quickly filled as they moved closer and closer to the
rush hour traffic. The rain had left the roads looking clean and dark. The
breaking clouds had pulled away the scent of smog and overcrowding, leaving a
fresh salt tang in the air that reminded Aaron of his youth. They drove in
silence, Ukyou keeping her head against Akira's back and her arms around the
taller girl's waist.
	She could hear Akira's heartbeat through the leather of her jacket. It
was a steady, even rhythm that only increased slightly when Ukyou wrapped her
arms around her waist, then went back to its leisurely pace. There was something
indisputably real about the sound of that heartbeat. In the bright light of
morning, with the cool November breeze rushing over her face, the sound of that
heartbeat drove away the lingering traces of bad dreams. The reassuring sound of
Akira's heartbeat made her discomfort from last night slowly drain away.
	But it refused to vanish entirely.
	She knew how she had gotten here. She remembered most of the trip. They
had started in Halifax when they had heard the news from Nabiki. Normally, Ukyou
would have been on the first flight but Nabiki assured her that it would be a
few months before all the legal paperwork went through. They had time. So they'd
made their way slowly across the continent, camping out and discussing what they
were going to do when they went back to the cottage Ukyou had bought. They would
need to make space, which meant giving up either Ukyou's library or Akira's
machine shop.
	From San Francisco they had managed to book passage on a ship willing to
ferry over Akira's bike. Ukyou spent the crossing mainly practising her drawing.
Akira spent it mainly annoying the engineer about the ship's systems. The ship
had made port in Osaka and Ukyou had taken the chance to drive out and visit her
parent's graves. Then it was a few more days drive to Tokyo proper. If
everything worked out according to the timetable Nabiki had given them, they
would arrive one day before Ukyou could see her again.
	All the details were there. She could remember them as vividly as usual.
Sure, some things were hazy, and some weren't. It was the nature of memory to be
that way, so Ukyou didn't really question it. However, Ukyou kept thinking there
were more questions she should be asking. The one she kept coming back to and
back to was: is this real?
	Of course it was. It was a foolish question to ask. She could hear
Akira's heart. She could feel the air, smell the faint odour of the city. It had
been years since she'd allowed herself to get so philosophical about such
things.
	To Aaron, a part of all this would still be a world of make-believe. Oh,
he had long ago learned to accept the reality of the people around him. But the
fact was that his first exposure to Akira, and Nabiki and all the rest was as
characters in stories. They were dreams and fantasies. None of that mattered,
however. This was real. This was now. Every sense he had developed told him so.
	And something deeper too. In that part of their mind that existed
between them, they could sense it. They could feel the weight of this world. It
existed. So, why was Ukyou doubting it?
	The bike came to a stop. Ukyou looked up.
	The Tendo Dojo.
	Akira gently unwrapped Ukyou's arms and gave her a smile before walking
inside. Ukyou hesitated a moment, then followed her. The dojo was just as she
remembered it. Over there was the koi pond, and there was the tree where she had
hidden when she looked for...
	Ukyou paused. For a moment, she had felt something shift. It wasn't
something she had really perceived. She couldn't even be sure it had happened.
The sensation she got was like she had been watching a movie and someone had
left a single frame as a blank white square. Realistically, the single frame
would flicker past the screen so fast that the eye couldn't even make it out.
But the brain would, subliminally. That was the sensation she had gotten, except
far more profound.
	A moment later she felt the presence of Paradox. It was a very little
bit. But she frowned and... and did something. She reached out her hand and
clenched it around thin air. There was a hiss as a thin blade appeared, clasped
in her fingers. Blood flowed down her wrist as the blade cut into her flesh.
Then with a slight effort of will, Ukyou healed the sword. It collapsed into a
mote of light, which slowly drifted away from her open palm before fading from
view in a ray of sunlight.
	A surge of joy filled her. An idiot grin spread across her face as
comforting warmth spread through her entire body. It had just felt so right, so
perfect. There was nothing that compared to the feeling she got when she did
that. The knowledge that she had restored something from nothing, and ended an
eternity of pain.
	"Ukyou! What happened to your hand?"
	Ukyou was brought back to earth by Akira's worried shout. The other girl
ran up to her and grabbed her wounded hand. She frowned down at the thin,
shallow cut, wiping away the blood with a burst of water chi. Kasumi was walking
out behind her and the girl made a soft sound before turning and running back
inside. Probably for the first aid kit, Ukyou thought absently.
	"Another Paradox Sword?" Akira asked, her voice soft. Ukyou nodded. The
girl sighed, a long-suffering but accepting sound. "Did you catch it before it
did any damage?"
	"Yes," Ukyou replied. "I think..." She paused. "I was thinking about the
first time I came here, looking at that tree over by the koi pond. You know, the
one that overlooks the back porch and..." Ukyou shrugged. "It was nothing."
	Akira glanced up at her. "If you say so. Come on, let's get you inside."

*

	Five lines, four in parallel with the fifth slightly shorter and offset
from the others. Ukyou frowned down at the scars on her arm. She lifted her arm
up and looked at it in the glare of the lamp. She reached out with her bandaged
hand and wrapped her fingers around her forearm. It wasn't a perfect fit, but it
was rather obviously a close one. A hand had done this.
	But not hers.
	"Akira?"
	Her girlfriend was in the centre of the dojo, practicing a few slow
kata. Normally Ukyou would have been enthralled, but she kept being drawn to
those scars. There was something off about them, and she couldn't figure out
what.
	"Yeah?" Akira stopped and rotated to face her.
	"When did I get these scars?"
	"Scars?"
	Ukyou held up her forearm... and blinked. Her flesh was completely
unmarred. She stood up slowly. "There were..."
	"Ukyou?" Akira took a step forward.
	"I have scars. Five scars, on my arm..." Ukyou realised she sounded
borderline hysterical, but found she felt borderline hysterical.
	"Ukyou, you don't have any scars." Akira held her hand out placating.
She grabbed Ukyou's wrist and began to stroke the smooth skin. "See. Perfectly
normal arm."
	Ukyou jerked her arm away. Akira looked hurt for a moment, then the
expression faded quickly. Ukyou opened her mouth to apologise, then closed it.
She looked down at her arm.
	There HAD been scars.
	Ukyou closed her eyes. How had she gotten them? It would have hurt. She
imagined the pain, the pain of having someone crush her arm with such force that
it warped the shape of her arm...
	Akira grabbed her and shook her a little. "Ukyou!"
	"What?" Ukyou opened her eyes.
	"You were zoning out there? Was it more Paradox?"
	Ukyou mumbled a brief response before she turned her head slightly. Yes,
it could have been Paradox. The scars had been there, and then not. That could
explain it. Somebody could have... have un-willed them, or something. But there
was nothing. Just the world, full of a billion glowing soul lights filtering
back and forth to the Oversoul.
	"There's no Paradox," Ukyou replied.
	"Good." Akira relaxed and let her go. "Listen, Ukyou. I think maybe you
should find something to do." Akira paused. "Keep yourself occupied. You're
spacing out too much lately." She shrugged and walked over to pick up a towel.
"It probably just stress, but better safe than sorry."
	Ukyou blinked slowly. "I..." She realised abruptly she had no idea what
she could do to pass time. When was the last time she'd had a chance to just...
kill time? "What should I do?"
	"You could go putter around the kitchen," Akira suggested mildly.
	"I'm not making you cookies," Ukyou responded dryly.
	"But..."
	"No," Ukyou said sternly. "Besides, Kasumi is busy preparing dinner for
everyone."
	"Ukyou, you can cook using rocks and stream water," Akira pointed out.
	"Maybe." Ukyou crossed her arms. "But I'd rather not."
	"You could draw," Akira shrugged. "Or write, or..."
	"A journal!" Ukyou shouted, happily. She reached out and grabbed Akira's
shoulders. "Do I have a journal?"
	"What?" Akira blinked. "Not that I know of..."
	"Damn, that would have been too easy, I guess," Ukyou muttered.
	"Shouldn't you know that?" Akira asked, her voice edging towards worried
again.
	"Right, right, of course..." Ukyou backed a few steps away. "Listen, I
think I'll just take a walk. I want to clear my head before the others show up."
	"I can come with..."
	"NO... I mean, that won't be necessary." Ukyou held up her hand. "I'm
not going to do anything stupid. I promise."
	"Okay, now I know I'm not letting you go anywhere alone," Akira replied
laconically.
	"Ha," Ukyou grunted. "No, seriously. I just... everything's changed so
much, Akira." She stepped back. "I need to just absorb it all. Especially if I'm
going to not make the same mistakes as last time."
	"I don't think I should..."
	"Sorry, Akira," Ukyou said, and took one more step back, and ghosted
through the wall. Akira gave a startled grunt, but by the time she reacted Ukyou
had already leapt back and over the wall. She choose a direction at random and
vanished into the streets of Nerima. "But, my arm had scars..."

*

	Setsuna tapped a fingernail against the table. It was a bad habit. It
could damage not only her fingernail, but the fine wood of the table. However,
it helped her think. She needed to choose a design, and now. The show was in
three days, and the seamstress would need all that time to put together
everything. Granted, there were people who could sew faster, but none that had
Koboyuko's feathertouch.
	She decided to step away from the table, and leave the sketches behind.
She walked over to the single window that overlooked the rest of Tokyo. It was
a beautiful day. The rain last night had given away to a virtually cloudless
sky, and the moisture in the air gave a refreshing quality to Tokyo's usual
heat. Of course, there was little you could do about the smell.
	For a moment Setsuna closed her eyes and imagined a different view
outside that window. Marble pillars and majestic arches gave way to sparkling
fountains and impossibly delicate minarets. But, that was gone now. She opened
her eyes back to the present and looked out across the city for a few more
minutes. Maybe if she looked long enough, inspiration would strike.
	"Pluto!"
	"GAH!" Setsuna fell back, clutching her heart. The young woman had
popped down headfirst into her line of sight. She was hanging upside down from
the roof. Setsuna landed with an ungraceful grunt, just barely keeping herself
from doing more than sitting down harshly. "Ukyou?"
	The woman twisted, phasing through the ceiling and window lintel in a
flare of purple sparks. She landed in a crouch on the ground in front of her.
Her black hair was tied back in a ponytail and she was wearing a long trenchcoat
over a white blouse and black slacks. She stood up with a frown.
	"Sorry about that, Pluto," Ukyou said. She offered her hand. Setsuna
took it and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. She resisted the urge to
rub her behind. "I was just concentrating so much on keeping a low profile, I
forgot..."
	"It's okay," Setsuna replied, waving the incident away. "Why did you
come here? Some sort of crisis?"
	"I... I don't know."
	Setsuna stared at the girl a moment. Ukyou looked confused. She kept
rubbing one hand against her forearm. The hand was covered in bandages, Setsuna
noted with concern. "Your hand..." She reached for it.
	Ukyou pulled the hand away. "It's okay. I healed some Paradox earlier
and the sword cut me."
	"You say that so casually," Pluto laughed.
	"Yeah... I do." Ukyou replied seriously. "You'd think I did it all the
time."
	"Ukyou, are you okay?"
	"I wish people would stop asking me that," Ukyou muttered.
	"I'm your friend, you come to me, obviously upset..."
	"No, please, I'm sorry." Ukyou backed towards the window. "I just... I
thought you might be able to help me."
	"Help you?"
	"With this?" Ukyou asked hesitantly. She held up her forearm.
	"What about it?"
	"It has no scars."
	"I can see that."
	"But it did."
	"No, it didn't."
	"Pluto! Damnit, you of all people..." Ukyou trailed off.
	"Also, stop being so formal," Setsuna frowned. "I've learned to put
Sailor Pluto aside when I don't need her. I would appreciate the courtesy of
being addressed by my name, rather than my title."
	Ukyou stared at her. "I..." Ukyou looked at her bandaged hand. "That
didn't sound wrong at all. It sounded perfectly right."
	"Ukyou, I think I should call Akira..."
	"NO!" Ukyou was suddenly holding her wrist. Setsuna hadn't even seen her
move. "Please... I don't want her to be caught up in this."
	"But you want me to be?" Setsuna said with a frown.
	"Because you already are!"
	"Already are what?" Setsuna shouted.
	"You were there, at the end!" Ukyou moved her grip to Setsuna's
shoulders. "YOU WERE THERE!"
	"There for what? You're not making any sense." Setsuna didn't raise her
voice, or let it quaver. But she wanted to run. She was scared. Ukyou was
acting... unhinged. And the idea of am unhinged Ukyou was just about the
scariest thing Setsuna could think of. If she used the Third Circle in this
state, she might just...
	No. That didn't bear thinking about.
	"Everything's right, Pluto!" Ukyou cried. "It all... it all is so...
okay! So, why do I keep..." She stepped back. "Why don't I have any scars?"
	"You want scars?" Setsuna asked softly.
	"What?"
	"Is that what you want, Ukyou? Scars?"
	"Of course not..."
	"So... what about them, then?"
	"Because they're my scars!"
	"I don't recall you ever getting any scars, Ukyou."
	"You were there!" Ukyou accused. "I know you were. I can't see it, but I
know it." She tapped her chest. "Here. I can tell. You were right there, when
I... when I..." She looked down at her hand, which had come to rest over her
heart.
	"Why don't you sit down. I'll make some tea..."
	"I don't want any damn tea!" Ukyou roared. "I want you to remember!"
	And Pluto remembered.
	She gasped, and stumbled back, grabbing her head. She felt like someone
had just set off a nuclear bomb in her head. But she remembered. She remembered
all of it.
	She remembered the prophecy. She remembered the battles against Ukyou,
then in support of her. She remembered the mad green sun and the doomed little
girl and Ukyou's desperate hopeless attempt to save her. She remembered Ukyou
reaching her and...
	And...
	Nothing.
	Ukyou screamed. Pluto looked up. Ukyou had fallen against the wall. Five
swords had appeared and were slashing at her. She was using her undamaged arm to
ward them off. They paused, and then as one they flew in, chopping into her
flesh. Swords of Hate, Pluto realised suddenly.
	Ukyou grit her teeth as the blades sawed into her flesh. She reached out
her bandaged hand and touched the blades... and they collapsed, dissolving away
into motes of light that rose up into the ceiling and slowly faded from view.
Ukyou took a few sharp breaths.
	There were now five parallel scars on her arm.

*

	Akira knelt by the window. She placed her fingers next to the splatters
of blood on the floor. Her eyes narrowed. This didn't look like the result of a
fight. But it looked violent, nonetheless. So... either Ukyou or Setsuna was
bleeding. Judging from the scattered remains of a first aid kit, somebody had
tried to help someone else out.
	Akira sighed and stood up. "Anything, Nabiki?"
	Nabiki shook her head. "I'm not a psychometric," she explained. "And I
still can't follow Ukyou."
	"What about Setsuna?" Akane asked. Her tone was worried. Akira couldn't
blame her. The only reason they were even here was because of what Nabiki called
'a psychic scream' from Setsuna. Then nothing.
	"Still nothing," Nabiki said softly. "You said Ukyou was..."
	"Ukyou didn't hurt her," Akira growled out. She shook her head. "There
must be something big going on."
	"It is like Ukyou to think she can handle things by herself," Akane said
with a sigh.
	"To be fair, she's mainly right." Nabiki shrugged. "What? Don't look at
me like that. Do you seriously think there's anything in the world that can
threaten her?"
	"Well, either way, they're not here," Akira said, trying to squelch her
worry. "Come on, we haven't exhausted all the possibilities yet."

*

	"A dream," Pluto said.
	Ukyou looked up. The three girls were walking out of Pluto's apartment,
not talking much. Then again, they could have been all in psychic contact, but
they certainly didn't look that way. Akira paused by her bike and said something
about splitting up. The other two nodded.
	"This all has to be some sort of... mindgame. It's an evil dream," Pluto
continued. "Like the one you had in Elysium, except on a bigger scale."
	"Elysium?" Ukyou asked. She knew the term, but she couldn't remember
having ever been there.
	"It's..." Pluto looked at her for a moment. Then she shook her head.
"You really don't remember, do you?"
	Ukyou stood up. The wind up on the roof was playing havoc with her long
bangs but she didn't mind much. "Sorry. I still don't."
	"So... why do I remember, but you don't?"
	Ukyou shrugged and looked over the edge again. Akane and Nabiki had
vanished, but Akira was still there. She was sitting on her bike, shading her
eyes as she looked up at the building across the street. Ukyou felt an
irrational impulse to go and tell her what was going on. But at the same time,
she knew that Akira was...
	She remembered a sense of emptiness. It was like a lurching inside her.
There had been something there, a precious beautiful connection, and now it was
gone. It had been taken from her. She didn't know how she had lost it, but she
knew it had something to do with Akira. And Akira didn't fill that void. She
wasn't a part of her.
	So she stayed away.
	"Maybe you don't want to remember?" Pluto asked.
	"Pluto... is Akira..." Ukyou's voice dried up, but she kept talking. "In
this other... other timeline, is Akira...?"
	Pluto ducked her head. "I... can't say for certain."
	"Don't play games, Pluto."
	"She was your fetich soul. She absorbed your Paradox for you. While you
were fighting... that connection suddenly stopped, and all the Paradox she had
been holding flooded into you. I only know of one way that can happen."
	Suddenly the wind on the roof was much more cold. Akira turned to look
up at their roof. Her eyes fixed on the exact spot where Ukyou was. Ukyou made
her not notice. She couldn't notice. She must not notice her.
	Akira frowned in that adorable way of hers, then started up her bike and
roared out of view around a corner. Ukyou let out a deep breath. "Who did this?"
Her voice was colder, more vicious than she would have thought.
	"The Nameless, I would imagine." Pluto speculated.
	Ukyou felt something. It was dark, and cold and powerful. It was hatred,
and more than that. Suddenly the Silence Glaive appeared in her hands. Her
fingers clenched it, to the point of pain.
	"I'll destroy him," Ukyou said, her voice thick.
	"I don't think it's that easy," Pluto cautioned.
	"I'll find a way."
	Pluto looked away. "First, we have to find a way out of this dream. Some
way of breaking its hold on you."
	"Where do we start?"
	Pluto paused before responding. "At the beginning."

*

	Ukyou stood on a street. It could be any street in Japan. There was a
sign in front of her. She walked up to it and ran her fingers along the metal.
"Nerima Ward..." she said aloud.
	There was a flash.
	Ukyou was standing in a tree. Her gaze looked down across the yard of
the Tendo Dojo into the living room. The entire family was there. Akane, her
long hair tied with a small bow, and both of her sisters looking young and
healthy. "He's not here..." Ukyou stated aloud.
	Another flash.
	This time Ukyou was in an alley, buttoning up her shirt. Akane was
standing there, blushing slightly and looking unsure of herself. Ukyou ran a
hand through her bangs. "My name is Ukyou Kuonji," she said with a short bow.
"Sorry for the misunderstanding."
	"Akane Tendo," Akane bowed back, dipping only slightly deeper. "It was
my fault. I leapt to conclusions..."
	Pluto lifted her staff again, only to have Ukyou place a hand on it. She
gazed intently at the image. The younger Ukyou in the image the timegate had
created seemed to be considering something. Finally she opened her mouth.
	"Actually, Akane, you're right. I was following you. And I was doing it
for probably the wrong reasons. You see, there's this boy named Ranma and...
well... I like him very much..."
	Ukyou lowered her hand. Pluto frowned and paused the playback. "What is
it?"
	"Is that what happened?"
	"Excuse me?"
	"In the real world. Is that what happened? When Akane and I first met?"
	"I'm not certain," Pluto admitted. "It was seven years ago. I'm smart,
but my memory isn't eidetic." She looked at the Time Key Staff for a moment.
"Why?"
	"I felt..." Ukyou paused. "A... a something. Like deja vu, but exactly
the opposite."
	"That narrows it down," Pluto murmured.
	"I remember that," Ukyou hissed. "I know how that went. I told Akane
everything, about myself and Ranma and the agreement between our fathers, and
about the one Genma made with her father..." She trailed off. "I remember it
all. Not clearly. It was seven years ago. But... it feels odd. Like I
experienced it before, but completely differently."
	"Shall we move on?" Pluto asked.
	"Indeed..." Ukyou agreed after a moment.
	Pluto shifted forward, stopping only at the pivotal moments. There were
few people who knew how time actually worked. It wasn't a river. It existed more
like a tree. Every time something different could happen, it did in two
different worlds. Everything from the position of an electron, to the explosions
of stars, the reality split off into multiple worlds.
	Most of the time, the changes were so minor most people would never
notice. In this case, the different worlds ran... close together, for lack of a
better world. Layer upon layer of worlds were created from the changes in
position of subquantum particles or the minor decisions one made in everyday
life. Such things became primary timelines.
	Large decisions branched out their own worlds. The timelines became too
incompatible. In one world, there was a Hitler. In another, there wasn't.
History, thus, happened differently and in such a way that the timelines drifted
further apart. Such branches were common.
	So it was easy for Pluto to 'fast forward' through the past. She just
looked for the places where the most major timeline shifts happened, where the
splits between major timelines started. She had done this once before regarding
Ukyou's past.
	And the results of this viewing were disturbing her greatly. She knew
what Ukyou's timeline was like. It was unnatural. There had only ever been one
Ukyou. So, if a timeline shifted so much that it became incompatible with
whatever Ukyou was doing, that timeline had simply... vanished. Swallowed up
into nothing. Knowing what she did now of Paradox, Pluto knew what was
happening.
	Ukyou could not split off into multiple versions of herself, so if a
world tried to split too far away from what she was experiencing, it suddenly
had no Ukyou. Except it needed Ukyou. She was a part of it. Part of its history.
But now it had none. Paradox. Contradiction. Enough for Oblivion to find that
timeline... and destroy it.
	Pluto didn't mention this to Ukyou. The girl didn't need to know.
Especially considering that this wasn't happening this time around. Oh, there
was still only one Ukyou. She existed alone, and didn't split off into multiple
selves if the timelines diverged too much. But each time a timeline shifted too
far away instead of vanishing it...
	It just kept going. It was impossible, but it was happening. And Pluto
couldn't help but think that Ukyou was the one doing it. Somehow, Ukyou was
keeping entire realities from breaking down. The very thought frightened Pluto
to her core.
	"Wait..." Ukyou said, holding up her hand. "Go back one."
	Pluto looked over. She had hardly been paying attention to the specific
scenes playing out in front of them. She knew it was all phantoms and illusions,
conjured by the Nameless to... to do something to Ukyou. As requested, she
willed the timegates to flip back to the last major focal point.
	"Chris..." Pluto murmured. Ukyou was standing on a roof with what looked
like a police officer. Except the officer had inhumanly dead eyes. He was
shouting at her, his hands curled into fists.
	Ukyou looked down for a moment. "Chris, you deserve to know the truth."
She looked up. "And I think I can help you with your problem."
	The policeman stopped, his eyes narrowing. "Who are you?"
	"Chris, it's me... it's Aaron." Ukyou smiled lopsidedly. "Or, that's
half the truth." She stepped forward. "And if you take my hand, I can make the
pain stop."
	Chris' eyes widened. "Aaron..."
	Ukyou raised her hand. Around Chris, there was a hissing sound. He
looked around, as the air began to ripple. Holes began to open up. Blades began
to slide out of those holes. "What the hell is going on!"
	"Paradox," Ukyou explained. "But don't worry, I can fix it..."
	"Go on," Ukyou said softly. "I remember this part."
	"I..." Pluto stared at her. "You can heal Paradox?"
	"Yes." Ukyou looked at her. "I've always been able to."
	"Can you still use the Third Circle?" Pluto asked, trying to keep her
voice steady.
	"I..." Ukyou trailed off. "I don't know. Sometimes..." She shook her
head. "Show me more. There must be some crack in this prison. Something that can
break the hold the Nameless has on us. Something... important."
	"Right..." Pluto murmured, and turned her attention back to the Gates of
Time.

*

	"I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help," Tethys said. Akira waved her
hand dismissively and closed down the connection. She leaned back in the chair
and covered her face with her hands.
	"No luck?"
	Akira peeked between her fingers as Akane walked into the room. Shampoo
was with her this time. The purple-haired Chinese girl seemed bored. Akane, for
her part, had her usual intense look.
	"None." Akira sighed. She ran a hand over the crystal ball. "If there's
some kind of crisis Ukyou ran off to deal with, it's nothing the Youma Kingdom
have picked up."
	"I was speaking with Purgstall," Akane said. She walked over and sat in
a large chair. "He said there was no political crisis he'd heard of."
	"The old man knows what he's talking about," Shampoo agreed. She crossed
her arms and walked to the window. Technically this was Nabiki's apartment, but
everyone tended to make themselves at home. It didn't hurt that Nabiki spent so
much of her time not actually living in her apartment. "Great-grandmother and he
are busy working on the peace accords." She frowned. "Isn't this a terrible time
for Ukyou to vanish? I thought tomorrow was-"
	"Yeah," Akira sighed out, cutting her off. "Nabiki's working on finding
some reason to delay if Ukyou doesn't show up in time." She bit her lip.
	"Isn't this exactly the reason that she was taken away in the first
place?" Shampoo asked.
	Akira wasn't even aware of moving. She just found herself grabbing the
other girl by the collar, holding her against the wall. "It wasn't Ukyou's
fault!" she snapped.
	Shampoo stared at her coldly. "Don't get angry with me." She brushed
Akira's hand away. "The fact is, that Ukyou has a lot of enemies. Even being
near her is dangerous. Especially if she keeps looking for crises to solve."
	"Shampoo..." Akane warned. "This isn't helping." She turned to Akira.
"Maybe Ukyou is having second thoughts. She hasn't seen her in... two years?
Three?"
	"A long time," Akira said. "She wanted to be sure she could control it.
Not hurt anyone by accident anymore." Akira looked down at her hands. A memory
flashed through her mind, her arms twisting and bending like taffy as she
screamed... then the memory was gone. She didn't even really know when it had
happened, or why. She was fairly certain that whatever had happened, Ukyou had
just... fixed it. She'd made it go away. Only that one image, disconnected from
any sensation or emotion, remained. Akira kept meaning to tell Ukyou about it,
ask her about it. She had never gotten around to it.
	"I think Ukyou's just scared of the responsibility," Shampoo insisted.
	"Shampoo!" Akane snapped.
	"You know I'm right, Akane." Shampoo snorted. "She likes playing the
hero, but she never sticks around to fix things in the long term."
	"It isn't like that," Akira snapped. "Ukyou just realises other people
are better at that kind of thing. Nabiki, Cologne, Purgstall..." She trailed
off.
	"Then maybe Rose should keep the child?" Shampoo asked softly.
	"That's different!" Akira snarled.
	"Why do you care so much, it's not like she's even your-"
	Shampoo crashed into the wall hard enough to punch a hole through it.
Akira wasn't even aware of leaving. She came to on the sidewalk, when Akane
caught her shoulder. Akira managed not to lash out at her.
	"Hey, Shampoo wanted to let you know she's sorry," Akane said.
	"Why didn't she come down to say so herself?" Akira snapped.
	Akane smiled. "Because I think you broke her shoulder. And she's scared
of you."
	Akira grunted and crossed her arms. "Whatever. She crossed a line. After
everything Ukyou and I went through..."
	"I know how much you care about her, them... both of them," Akane said.
"Listen, Shampoo can be a bit abrasive. I think she's just on edge. The last
time Ukyou vanished like this, it was because of Galaxia..."
	"It turned out okay, in the end," Akira replied defensively.
	"Yes. It did." Akane nodded. "Then again..." She turned her eyes away.
	"What?" Akira felt her anger rising again. She knew she shouldn't push
this. She wasn't going to like what Akane had to say.
	"It's just..." Akane paused. "It turned out okay, as far as we
remember."
	"Yeah..."
	"Well, sometimes I wonder, if it really did turn out okay." Akane sighed
and adjusted the hem of her skirt.
	"What are you suggesting?" Akira growled.
	"Just... if Ukyou decided to just change all of us... how would we know?
She could just alter the past, or the present, or anything else. You know what
she did." Akane gestured up into the sky. "She just... willed Galaxia away. Her
and all her armies. Across the entire universe, all at once. Ukyou just... fixed
it." Akane snapped her fingers. "Like that."
	"And that's a bad thing?" Akira asked incredulously.
	"No! Of course not!" Akane paused. "It's just... a lot of power. She
could do a lot with that."
	"Well she didn't!" Akira snapped. But Akira remembered that single
image. Nothing but a flash in time. It could just be a nightmare, half
remembered in the morning. The idea that Ukyou would... would edit her, was just
unthinkable. Because if she could, then everything about their relationship
was...
	No. That wasn't true. It couldn't be.
	"Yeah, you're right..." Akane laughed. She rubbed the back of her neck.
"Sorry, I guess I'm just being a little morbid. This is Ukyou we're talking
about. She wouldn't even let us give her a medal or put her name in the papers."
She chuckled a bit. "If there is anyone humble enough to trust with that kind of
power, it's Ukyou."
	"Damn straight," Akira said, nodding. "Now, we just have to figure out
where she went."
	"The problem is, that as long as Pluto's missing too, they could be
anywhere... or anywhen."
	"Well..." Akira smiled. "I'll just have to trust in fate, then."

*

	The conference room went silent for a few long minutes as Purgstall
finished his speech. He sat down, adjusting the papers in front of him. The
image in the background of Gyro's death, caught in freeze-frame, lent his words
a solemn reality. A grumble of dissent stirred among the crowd, but was quickly
silenced when the elegant elfin-faced man at the head of the table tapped his
finger once. Everyone turned to face him.
	"Purgstall, I'm putting you in charge of finding out about these new
threats." He frowned. "This, combined with the problems in America and Italy,
worry me. Perhaps it is not the right time to come out into the open, after
all." He paused. "We can not risk our operations, not at this late stage." He
stood up. "Do what you feel is necessary to prevent any further lose of Chronos
resources."
	"Yes, my lord..." Purgstall said with a smile, bowing as the man walked
out. The scene faded to white again.
	Ukyou nodded. "I remember that fight."
	"Against Gyro?" Pluto asked.
	"Yeah..." She looked down at her hands. "I was still getting a handle on
my powers. I might have lost it. But in the end, I overpowered him." She
shrugged.
	"And by facing him..." Pluto murmured. "You prevented all the horror
that was to follow."
	"Horror?" Ukyou asked.
	"In the original timeline..." Pluto trailed off. "I won't go into the
bloody details, but let me say this. Chronos did not decide to be peaceful.
Their forces rose up violently across the globe, slaughtering anyone who
resisted and throwing all the metanormals into research labs so they could be
studied or converted..."
	Ukyou felt sick. "Why didn't I stop it?" she shouted.
	"You... were busy at the time." Pluto shrugged. "You went to England, to
fight the vampires."
	"The what?"
	"The vampires." Pluto raised one of her eyebrows.
	"Never heard of them. Some sort of criminal cartel?"
	"You've... never heard of vampires?" Pluto seemed aghast. "Undead
creatures that feed on the blood of the living?"
	"Uh... no." Ukyou shrugged. "Seems kinda silly."
	Pluto turned back to the timegates, and began to scan through it again.
For some reason, she kept focusing on England and Minako. As she continued to
scan through the young woman's early career as a superhero, she continued to ask
Ukyou questions. "Have you ever heard of Millennium?" Ukyou indicated she
hadn't. "Alucard?" Ukyou hadn't heard of that name either. "Dracula? Nosferatu?
Bram Stoker? None of this is ringing a bell, is it..."
	"No," Ukyou said, frowning. "Why, is that something else from the
original timeline?"
	"Yes..." Pluto allowed the images of Minako to fade out. "Vampires
are... horrific things. They attacked England, and killed nearly everyone there.
From there, they invaded the rest of Europe and spread like a plague across the
globe."
	"Well..." Ukyou looked down at her hand. "I suppose there is no reason
to miss them."
	"Yes..." Pluto said with a sigh. "This world, everything in its history
is so different from the one I know." She looked at Ukyou, her eyes sad. "But
nonetheless, I think that may be the key."
	"The key?" Ukyou looked up. They'd been at this for what felt like days.
Pluto told her that in reality, no time at all was passing. Which was good,
because Ukyou still had to be back in Nerima by tomorrow. If she wasn't, then
she would miss... would miss...
	"So far, every change I've seen between the real timeline and this one
is something you caused." Pluto held up her staff. "Either because you made a
different choice, or because you had a lot more power. Even the ones that seemed
to be part of someone else's work can be traced back to you by the ripple
effect. America didn't become a military state because it never got into a war
with Chronos which never happened because Purgstall convinced Arkanphel to play
more peacefully with the rest of the world which happened because you defeated
Gyro in single combat."
	"That was quite a mouthful," Ukyou said with a chuckle. She lowered her
hand from her forehead. She kept feeling she was forgetting something, but
couldn't focus on it.
	"Yes, well, it's the truth." Pluto swung her staff around and the air
around them filled with images. It was Ukyou, in any number of places. In some
of the images, she was fighting. In others, she was laughing, or crying. In a
few of them, she was just sitting by herself. "I was beginning to think the big
difference here was that you gained access to your Third Circle powers so much
earlier." She flicked her staff and the images changed, this time displaying all
of Ukyou's friends. "And that spread out through all your actions and effected
the entire world." She banished the images with another flick of her arm.
"Except that I think there is one difference you didn't cause."
	"The vampires?" Ukyou asked.
	"Yes." Pluto nodded. "We've been looking for some way of tracing this
back to the Nameless. Some mistake he made when he created this illusion. And
this is it. This is the chink in the armour."
	"So... what do we do?" Ukyou asked.
	"Maybe Nanami can help us?"
	"Nanami?"
	"A woman who was turned into a vampire against her will." Pluto replied.
"You met her briefly. The Nameless used her to try and..." She trailed off.
"Anyway, I think we should go meet with her."
	"Right..." Ukyou nodded. "Then let's not waste time. I have to be back
by tomorrow morning."
	Pluto looked at her. Her gaze was sad, but quickly vanished behind a
mask of determination.

*

	The explosion sent a tremor through the floor that almost knocked Ranma
off his feet. He stumbled, bracing himself with a grimace. There was another
explosion and one of the walls nearby blew inward, showering them with debris.
Ranma's hands blurred as he caught all the dangerous bits. He sighed as another
blast caused the floor to buckle.
	"What is it with you and these exploding bases?"
	Chris slowly tottered to his feet, wiping the blood from his mouth with
the back of his hand. "Don't think you can escape this time, Ranma!" he shouted.
	"I swear you, like, rig these things to explode beforehand!"
	"Nonsense!" Chris shouted, clenching his fists.
	"You do!" Ranma pointed at him. "You totally do!"
	"I do not!" Chris shouted back, also pointing. "I have no idea what
you're talking about!" A chunk of the ceiling the size of a refrigerator
crashed down between them.
	"Oh Chris..." Pink shouted sweetly, sticking her head in from the other
room. "The place is exploding, over."
	"I noticed," Chris growled, his eyebrow twitching.
	"Well, you may be immortal, but me and Link are not," she said,
vanishing through the archway. "So, we'll be leaving now! Bye-bye, over!"
	Chris sighed and rubbed his face with one hand.
	"Hey, you're the one who chose to become a supervillain," Ranma offered,
shrugging.
	"I am not a supervillain!" Chris shouted, clenching his fist while veins
bulged in his forehead. "Just because all my bases explode every time you beat
me, does not make me a supervillain!"
	"What about the evil monologues?" Ranma asked, sidestepping as a Greek
column crashed down where he had been standing.
	"They are not monologues," Chris growled. He slipped backwards as a
pillar of fire disintegrated the floor where he had been standing. "I would
think you, of all people, would understand my situation and..."
	"Blah, blah, blah, Ukyou shouldn't be god, it should be you, you're
going to steal her power and so on and so forth," Ranma interrupted, waving his
hands. "Listen, this place is getting a little too explodey for me. So, why
don't I just punch you while you scream something cliché and vanish into the
self-destructing fortress?"
	"Damn it, Ranma!" Chris snarled. "I. Am. Not. A. Supervillain!"
	"That'll do," Ranma shrugged and punched him in the face. Chris shouted
in pain and flew back, his body vanishing into a hole that was suddenly filled
with a torrent of flame. Ranma frowned. "Well, no one could possibly have
survived that!" he called, and turned to make a break for it.
	It was a pretty standard self-destructing villain fortress escape from
that point. Ranma dodged collapsing walls and ceiling, evaded pits of fire and
other explosions and engaged in other feats of superhuman athletics. Eventually
he leapt out of one of the entrance, chased by a tongue of flame and a trail of
smoke as the building finally collapsed entirely behind him.
	He almost forgot to smile for the camera.
	"Nice shot!" Ran shouted, pulling down her camera.
	"What can I say?" Ranma said, posing on one of the chunks of rock that
had been sent flying from Chris' latest fortress.
	"Something quotable?" Ran suggested as she took out her notebook.
	"Uh... Justice has once again triumphed over... uh..." Ranma scratched
his neck. "Did I already use that one?" Ran nodded. "How about the spirit of
friendship?" Ran nodded. "Okay, I got it." He cleared his throat. "The passion
of youth will always overcome..." He trailed off at her flat look. "Not that
one, too!"
	"I'm afraid so," Ran replied apologetically.
	"Life is too short to spend it on speeches!" There was a flash as the
setting sun glinted off golden hair. "True heroism is not fickle celebrity but
instead the pure desire to stand up and do what is right, as any citizen with
the will and power could do if he so chose."
	"Wow!" Ran shouted. "That's good!" Her pencil scribbled madly.
	"Yeah, and I bet she was up all night thinking of it," Ranma said,
sticking his tongue out at her.
	Minako stuck her tongue back out at him and leapt down off the rubble.
"It's not my fault I'm a natural at this."
	"Natural at hogging my glory!" Ranma accused mock-seriously.
	"Oh, don't be that way," Minako laughed. "We're a team. The virtuous,
famous and lovely Sailor V, champion of the common man, and her kid sidekick
Ranma Saotome, the kung fu boy."
	"I'll show you kung fu!" Ranma shouted, leaping at her just slowly
enough that she could dodge. She laughed as she led him on a merry chase away
from the collapsed hideout. Out of the corner of his eye Ranma thought he saw
Ran give him a weird look, but the expression quickly vanished behind her
notebook.
	Minako had just reached the edge of the island and was turning around to
face him when her eyes widened. Ranma skidded to a stop and glanced over his
shoulder. Sometimes Chris would throw one last surprise at them after they
stopped his latest scheme. But that wasn't what he saw. Instead he saw a sphere
of purple energy slowly fading from existence. Two young women were inside it.
Ran was behind them, blinking and shielding her eyes from the dust their arrival
had blown up.
	"Ukyou? Setsuna?"
	Ukyou looked at him and smiled, thinly. Something seemed off about her
smile. It almost looked forced. As for Setsuna, there was something entirely
wrong with her bearing. She seemed more closed up than normal. She looked at
Minako, and blinked.
	"Sailor V?" she asked.
	"Huh?" Minako replied intelligently.
	"I thought you wore armour..." She trailed off. "But of course, you
wouldn't in this timeline."
	"Hey, hey!" Ran shouted, appearing in front of them. "What are you two
doing here? I thought tomorrow was the day you finally got the government out of
your life."
	"Yeah..." Ukyou nodded. There wasn't much enthusiasm in her voice. "I
had to come and find out something."
	"Well, if you were worried about Chris, there's no need," Ranma crowed.
"I already destroyed his fortress, again."
	"Chris?" Ukyou's frown deepened. "Is he still trying to go Third
Circle?"
	"Oh yes," Ran answered, nodding. "I think this time he was trying to tap
the world's ley lines or something like that." She glared at Ranma. "Somebody
didn't let him explain himself before he started the punching."
	"It was boring!" Ranma complained.
	"Besides, it's just the same old stuff." Minako crossed her arms.
	"Hey, you don't think Chris would be stupid enough to try and kidnap..."
Ran trailed off slowly, looking at Ukyou.
	Ukyou's eyes flashed. "He and I have already had a talk about getting
her involved in his little experiments." She ran a hand through her bangs. "We
have an... understanding when it comes to my family."
	Ranma felt a chill pass down his spine at those words. It was times like
this that he remembered the only reason Chris could keep coming back from the
dead like he did was because Ukyou had felt so bad for him she had just... made
him immortal. But he pushed aside those thoughts.
	"So, what are you looking for?" Ran asked.
	Ukyou looked at Setsuna. The Senshi of Time looked back at her. "Well,
Minako should have some residue on her."
	"Residue?" Minako shrieked. "Ew! Ew! Get it off!" She danced around,
looking for stains on her Senshi uniform.
	"Spiritual residue," Ukyou explained.
	"That's supposed to make me feel better?" Minako screamed at her.
	"Uh... yes?" Ukyou paused. Then her hand snapped up and she grabbed
Minako by the forehead. Ranma shivered. He hadn't even seen her move. Minako
went still. The light of her Senshi symbol glowed between Ukyou's fingers. Ukyou
dropped her hand as the Venus icon faded. "Nothing."
	"Like... oblivion nothing, or just... normal nothing?" Setsuna asked.
	"Normal nothing," Ukyou explained. "Minako is perfectly normal. The
Third Circle has never touched her."
	"Just like Nanami..." Setsuna chewed on her lower lip. "This can't be
right. There has to be some sign, some trace we can follow."
	Ukyou shrugged. "You're the one who would know where to look?"
	"Ranma, have you ever heard of a man named Alucard?"
	Ranma paused. "Uh... no?"
	"Too much to hope for," Setsuna sighed. "Well, there's only one other
person I can think of..." Setsuna trailed off.
	"Who?" Ukyou asked.
	"Also, what is going on here?" Ran leapt between the two. "Inquiring
minds want to know!"
	"Please, not now, Ran." Ukyou waved the girl away. "Well, Pluto?"
	"I..." Setsuna paused for a long time, obviously struggling with some
decision. "There's no choice then. Ukyou, what do you remember about Hotaru?"

*

	"Thank you, Mr. Peori." Akira said into the phone. "Yes, I'll be certain
to let you know the moment I hear anything."
	She sighed and flipped the cell phone closed. It had been a long shot.
Ukyou only rarely went to visit Aaron's family. Despite seven years to get used
to the idea, there was still a lot of social awkwardness between the Peoris and
their son-turned-daughter-turned-god. Still, Akira didn't like to think what
would have happened with Ukyou's psyche if she hadn't had some family to ground
her in the real world, even if it was a half-family.
	Akira had barely closed the phone when it began to ring again. She
flipped it openly and almost shouted hello into the mouthpiece.
	"Whoa! Akira, watch the ears," Ran called back, her voice distant in
only that way the telephone could make it. "I take it from that reaction you
probably aren't going to be able to help me."
	"Ran..." Akira pinched her nose. "Sorry. I'm just... a little on edge."
	"I guessed," Ran replied, her voice crackling softly. "Anyway, I was
going to ask you about Ukyou, but I think I might know more than you."
	"You've seen her?" Akira asked sharply.
	"She just showed up out the blue with Sailor Pluto, did some funky god-
scan on Minako and vanished."
	"Vanished?" Akira said, suppressing a curse. "Do you have any idea where
she went?"
	"She mentioned some girl named Hotaru..."
	Akira stopped listening. She dropped the phone. Hotaru. Why would Ukyou
reopen that old wound? No, this was not right. They had both sworn to leave the
girl alone. She was living a normal life now. She ran over to her bike, trying
to remember Hotaru's address.
	Even as she peeled out with a screech of protesting rubber she barely
heard Ran shouting at her over the dropped phone. Akira made a mental note to
apologise later. But for now, she had to prevent Ukyou from making another
mistake.

*

	Ukyou froze.
	The house was nothing special. It was two stories, with a neat little
front yard, and was located in a cozy little neighbourhood. The setting sun gave
it an air of melancholy. It looked about as harmless as a house could look. Even
the spirit of the place was utterly quaint. There was nothing supernatural or
dangerous about it. Two people lived inside.
	Yet Ukyou couldn't take a step forward. Her breath was caught in her
throat. Her heart was pounding faster than it had in months. Her palms were
sweating.
	She... remembered...
	Her hand touched her forehead. Images seemed to drift unbidden out of
her subconscious. There was a man with a mask, holding a frightened girl. There
was a girl screaming for her father. There was a hallway full of hot air and the
child's scared eyes as she looked-
	No, don't go there.
	She lowered her hand. The images faded. The last thing she saw was a
cloud of swords, roaring through the air towards her. But when she opened her
eyes, it was just a house.
	"Are you okay, Ukyou?" Pluto asked.
	"I'm fine..." Ukyou murmured, waving her aside. "Just... fragments."
	"Maybe those were your true memories?" Pluto said. "The ones not created
by the Nameless." She frowned. "It appears coming here was a good idea, despite
my misgivings."
	"I suppose," Ukyou admitted. She sighed. "Let's get this over with,
then."
	It was only a short walk to the front door. Ukyou half expected it to
feel longer, but it was actually almost pleasant. The doorbell gave off a cheery
chime. They didn't have to wait long before the door opened.
	Ukyou stiffened as a white-haired man peered out. The arcane symbol
etched into the glass plate covering his left eye gleamed sinisterly and his
smile widened unnaturally- Except he had no arcane diagram. He just had two
normal human eyes and his smile was not at all unnatural. It was just a friendly
smile of a man greeting someone at his door. Not exactly genuine, but enough for
civility.
	"May I help you?"
	Ukyou opened her mouth. She saw the man, lying on a field of green
grass, a red stain congealing on his shirt. His blank eye stared up into the
sky, and a girl sat beside him, crying and crying...
	"We're here to see Hotaru," Pluto stepped in, knocking Ukyou out of the
phantom memory. The man glanced at her, his eyes travelling up and down her
outfit. For a moment Ukyou thought he was admiring the view, but his eyes
narrowed.
	"Oh, really?" He stepped out and closed the door behind him. "I'm afraid
she's not available."
	"It's very important that we see her," Pluto insisted.
	"That's what you people said the last time." He looked at Ukyou. "I
remember you now. After what you did last time, you can forget being able to see
Hotaru. She's recovered and is living a perfectly normal life now."
	"What I did?" Ukyou asked. For the life of her, she couldn't remember
what that was. She knew it was bad. She'd done something without thinking and it
had... had...
	("Because I hate you!" Hotaru roared. Her little hands curled into
fists. "And my one selfish wish before the world dissolves, is to see you die!")
	Ukyou braced herself against the wall of the house. Her mind was
spinning. Had that been a memory? It seemed likely. The girl, Hotaru, she had
looked like something from a horror movie. Her skin had been pale, her face
covered in blood, her little teeth a field of fangs. What had happened to her?
	Why did Ukyou deserve that much hatred?
	Pluto grabbed her shoulder. "Mr. Tomoe, I understand that your history
with the Sailor Senshi has been... delicate. However, there is something we need
to talk with your daughter about. It may very well be the most important thing
in the universe."
	"Damnit!" he shouted. "I don't care about your big concerns!" He slashed
his arm in front of them. "All I care about is my daughter. If you freaks want
to drag her back into that world, I won't have it. Now get off my property!"
	"Mr. Tomoe..." Pluto trailed off under his glare.
	"If you're not gone in five seconds I'm calling the police," he informed
them.
	Ukyou frowned. Why was she listening to this? She didn't have to deal
with him. She could just walk through him. She wouldn't even have to hurt him.
Akira even described the process as vaguely pleasant, but that might have been a
biased account. And if Ukyou didn't feel like walking through him she could make
him see reason. She could...
	Her perception scaled back, and outward. She could feel the world
unfolding around her. All the millions of little connections that made it up,
were suddenly clear as day. She could see the soul of Suichi Tomoe, his concern
for his daughter and his mistrust of them. It was such a small thing, those tiny
lights. She could just... move them. It would be no more difficult than mod-
chipping a game console, or loading a pair of dice or...
	No. She lowered her hand and suddenly all the extra perception just
vanished.
	"Father, there's no need to get upset."
	All three of them looked at the door. It had opened soundlessly. The
young girl who stood on the other side couldn't have been more than fourteen.
Her large purple eyes stared at Ukyou. She looked young and healthy, and she
even smiled. Somewhere inside, Ukyou felt her heart slow down.
	"Hotaru, please go back inside..."
	"No, father." Hotaru shook her head. "I may no longer be a Sailor
Senshi, but I have not forgotten my duty." She looked at Ukyou again. "Please,
come inside. I made some lemonade. We can discuss your crisis over that."
	"I... thank you." Ukyou smiled and nodded happily.
	Hotaru stepped aside to let them in. Ukyou paused only long enough to
exchange her shoes for guest slippers before walking directly into the living
room. Pluto followed her more warily, but Ukyou sat down without any
reservations. Pluto knelt next to her. Hotaru spoke with her father briefly and
he frowned but walked off into the house.
	"You seem happy," Pluto said.
	"Yes, I am..." Ukyou said with a sigh. "She's... alright."
	"Yes, she is..." Pluto murmured softly.
	"Whatever I did, it can't be that bad."
	There was a clack as Hotaru set a glass in front of her. Ukyou thanked
her and took a small sip. It was tart. Needed more sugar. She declined to say as
much. Hotaru finished serving Pluto and herself before sitting across from them.
She took a sip of her glass.
	"You're such a pitiful creature, Ukyou," Hotaru said, her pleasant tone
not wavering. "A few happy endings and all your righteous indignation drains
away."
	Pluto gasped and shot to her feet. Ukyou's hand snapped out, catching
her glass before it could tip over. The girl didn't react. She merely took
another drink of her lemonade and set it on the table. "Please sit down, Pluto.
There's no need to be so rude."
	Pluto stiffened and began to reach for her Time Key Staff. Ukyou
gestured for her to stop, then indicated her former position. The green-haired
Senshi paused, indecision obvious on her features for a few moments. Finally she
sat down, very reluctantly.
	"You know why I'm here," Ukyou said. It wasn't a question.
	"Of course." Hotaru smiled. "He still speaks to me, Ukyou." She closed
her eyes and beamed. "In fact, now I can hear his voice more clearly than ever.
You cleared away all that annoying static."
	"The Paradox," Pluto gasped.
	Ukyou clenched her temple. She remembered walking forward into a cloud
of swords. The pain blossomed all around her, driving into her arms and legs and
chest. But she kept healing it. The pain of the Paradox was nothing. She just
had to heal it away. Hotaru's face floated before her, her eyes staring and
shocked as Ukyou reached through the swords for her. The swords were vanishing,
becoming light. But more swords took their place, which became more light and
then... and then-
	"Congratulations, Ukyou," Hotaru said. "You won."
	"I... won?"
	"Yes." Hotaru gestured to the glass. "Please, drink."
	"What did I win?"
	"Everything," Hotaru offered.
	"I don't understand."
	"No. You don't want to understand. You do know what I'm talking about.
If you didn't, you couldn't have gotten here." Hotaru refilled her glass from a
pitcher in the centre of the table. The ice and lemon slices floated in it like
wraiths.
	"Where is here?" Pluto asked sharply.
	"Heaven." Ukyou blinked. Pluto opened and closed her mouth a few times.
"Nirvana. Yu Shan. Valhalla. Whatever you want to call it." Hotaru shrugged.
	"Are we dead?" Pluto asked in a strained voice.
	Hotaru laughed. "Oh, dear no. Quite the opposite. It wouldn't be much of
a paradise if everyone was dead." She picked up her glass. "Besides, thanks to
Ukyou, the dead can't walk around bothering people anymore." She took a long
drink, forcing Ukyou to consider what the girl had just said.
	She looked down at her hand. She remembered placing it against Hotaru's
forehead. She could almost feel the blood from the girl's constantly oozing
wound. She recalled the desire in her, the overwhelming need to just fix the
girl. She knew it was impossible. There was no way she could save Hotaru. But
still, if only she could undo what had happened to her... make it so that she
didn't feel the pain she had felt...
	"No more vampires..." Ukyou whispered. Pluto looked at her. Hotaru
raised an eyebrow. Ukyou felt herself begin to shake. "That was... that was..."
	It was all rushing back at once. The confusion and the pain almost
overshadowed the few moments of happiness. But they seemed all the brighter
because of that. And she remembered wanting so badly to fix Hotaru. She
remembered her mind trying to seize upon anything. She remembered needing it.
And the thought that had flashed through her mind just before something had
opened up all around her.
	"No more vampires," she repeated. "I did it. I... I removed them. I
wanted them gone, and then they were." Ukyou looked at Pluto, her eyes widening
in fear. "Good god, Pluto. I just... I just unmade them!"
	"You destroyed all the vampires?" Pluto said, failing to keep her voice
steady.
	"No, I didn't destroy them... I erased them!" Ukyou stared at her hands.
"I needed to fix Hotaru, to relieve her of her pain. And the world seemed to
unfold around me and it all seemed so simple. Vampires are just a painful
concept. No good ever came out of them. It was so easy, to just will it away.
To make the entire universe change and remove the very essence of them..." Ukyou
trailed off.
	"And so you created this world, Ukyou." Hotaru indicated Ukyou's glass.
"This is your heaven, Ukyou. Maybe it's not perfect. But you would never accept
an utterly perfect world, would you?" Hotaru stood up. "Nothing went really
wrong here, Ukyou. None of your friends were tortured to death. You were never
mentally and physically violated. You never abandoned anybody. The world didn't
explode into violence. The universe is at peace... all because of your wishes."
	"It's a lie!" Pluto shouted, leaping to her feet again. This time Ukyou
didn't save her glass in time. The clear yellow liquid pooled on the table.
"This whole world, it's a lie!"
	"Is it?" Hotaru replied, smiling. "You and Ukyou are so alike." Hotaru
walked around the table and reached for Ukyou's bandaged arm. Ukyou hesitated,
then allowed the girl to take it. "You both cling to your pain so tightly." She
slowly unwound the bandages as she spoke. "You let your scars define the shape
of your lives." The bandages fell to the floor, revealing the still fresh cuts.
"Why is it so hard to just... let them heal?" White light poured out from
Hotaru's fingers as she kneaded the scars. Gentle, comfortable warmth spread
across Ukyou's arm. She shivered. But when Hotaru pulled back her hand, the
scars were still there. "Still stubborn," Hotaru chided.
	"This place is an illusion," Ukyou said, standing up and cradling her
arm.
	"No, it isn't." Hotaru shook her head. "It's real. As real as your old
world was. The people here, they live and breathe and have souls. They have
memories and histories." She shrugged. "What does it matter that they were spun
out of whole cloth when you woke up this morning?" She gestured to the walls.
"The old world was just over seven years old, no matter what the history books
said."
	"I want to go back," Ukyou insisted.
	"To what?" Hotaru challenged.
	"To my home."
	"This can be your home, Ukyou," Hotaru asserted. "All your friends are
here. All of them, including the ones you lost. Akira is here. She's on her way
here, even as we speak."
	"Stop it, Hotaru," Ukyou growled, her body shaking. She remembered. She
remembered the feeling of emptiness within her. The sudden lurching certainty
that her connection with Akira was no more. And a moment later, the Paradox
exploding around her in confirmation.
	"You could make a life for yourselves here," Hotaru pointed out.
"Everything that was taken from you. You can have it back."
	"I want to go home!" Ukyou screamed. There was a flash of silver as she
lashed out, chopping the table in two with the Silence Glaive.
	Hotaru paused. She tilted her head, as if listening to some far off
voice. Then she nodded. "Very well. I'll take you there." She turned to Pluto.
"I'll need to borrow your power."
	"I... of course..." Pluto said. She stretched out the Time Key Staff.
Hotaru placed one hand on the Garnet Orb. Just as she did there was a bang as
the front door flew open. A figure in black ran in.
	"Ukyou!" she shouted.
	"Go faster!" Ukyou hissed.
	"Ukyou, what are you-"
	And then they were gone.

*


	Ukyou kept her eyes closed for the trip. But she could feel it
happening. They moved through time and space. She could feel the very concepts
of the universe bending around her. There was something profound moving behind
Hotaru's hands. Not just the girl. There was a power there.
	She recognised it.
	Her eyes snapped open as the bubble of nulltime faded around them,
letting back in the feel of the real world. She fixed her gaze on Hotaru. The
girl was smiling. But there was something more there, behind her eyes. It was
larger than her. It was bent and folded into her to the point of bursting. Her
purple eyes returned Ukyou's gaze. Behind those eyes, there was nothing but
Hotaru.
	"Hotaru... what happened to you?"
	"I told you, Ukyou," Hotaru said with a pleased sigh. "I can hear the
Nameless much more clearly now." She reached up and clasped her hands over her
breast. "I can feel him, inside me. He is with me. He is a part of me, as he is
a part of all things."
	"This is..." Pluto murmured, distracting Ukyou. She looked around.
	This was the Tendo Dojo. The training room was unchanged. The lacquered
wood floors still had that faintly oily scent to them. The walls looked as if
they had been repaired frequently, but with great care. There was a shrine in
the far corner, and tatami mats opposite it.
	Ukyou wandered over to the large sliding doors. Her hand reached up and
brushed the screens. She could feel beyond those doors. The part of her that was
Aaron could feel people out in the house proper. They were... afraid and
concerned. They were concerned about her, Ukyou realised.
	"We haven't left," Pluto said. She pointed her staff at Hotaru. "You
didn't take us back!"
	"Don't!" Ukyou warned. "It won't do any good."
	Hotaru smiled. "I did exactly what you asked."
	"Don't play word games with us!" Pluto shouted, but she lowered her
staff. "You know what we meant."
	"Ukyou, Pluto may not be able to sense it, but you can." Hotaru held out
her hand. "Stop looking at the world with those limited eyes. Stop seeing it as
fields of chi or mana. Stop understanding things as something within them." She
stepped forward. "Let yourself see, from a different point of view."
	Ukyou stared down at the girl. Then she changed herself. Her perception
became bigger than reality. Her understanding became larger. The world ceased to
be people and places and things. It became potentials. An infinity of infinities
folded out and out, stretching on forever. Uncountable worlds all existed, all
entwined within the same space. All of it was touching in more ways than there
were numbers.
	And yet she didn't lose track of herself. A part of her remained in that
room, staring down at that little girl. Her body was there, a part of who she
was. She realised with mild surprise that this too, was part of the plan. One
being, two souls. Two points of view. Infinity and finite. Within and without.
	"Good," Hotaru said. Except it wasn't Hotaru. Or it wasn't all Hotaru.
Her potential self was overshadowed by something far grander. It echoed through
all her destiny lines, across all her beings. It vibrated through her and around
her. "You're finally seeing."
	"You aren't Hotaru," Ukyou said.
	"I am," the girl said, she giggled. "And I am the Nameless." The
potentials around her shimmered and flexed, the Third Circle equivalent of a
shrug. "That name, that concept, is one you branded my overself with. It serves
a purpose, in its own way.
	"But you fail to understand its implications," the Nameless-within-
Hotaru said.
	"Let her go," Ukyou hissed.
	"I can not." The girl pouted. "I need her. Without her, I can not speak
to you."
	"Are you afraid I'll fight you directly?" Ukyou clenched her hands into
fists. She could feel the world around her begin to vibrate in tune with her
will. It was... a surprisingly mundane feeling. She had expected a headrush, or
some sort of intoxicating sense of purpose and power. Instead, she just felt
aware.
	Hotaru laughed. And Ukyou could tell that it was Hotaru laughing. The
overentity entwined through all her potential selves did not vibrate in tune
with her amusement. "Please, Ukyou. You don't have a chance against the
Nameless." She shook her head. "No, Ukyou. He needs me to speak with you because
without me he has no voice."
	"No voice..." Ukyou murmured.
	"No voice, no name, no identity..." Hotaru looked away. Ukyou could feel
the attention of the overentity swirling around Hotaru's soultree. Fingers of
intangible presence stretched out across the web of lives that touched Hotaru's,
trailing up and down the timelines of their lives like a violinist tuning an
instrument. "Your great enemy, Ukyou," Hotaru said, "is Nothing."
	Ukyou could perceive the phantom presence as it floated along the web,
and as its tendrils touched her own potential she realised it was... like a
morning mist. No, even less. There was no weight to it, no focus. It was
diffuse...
	"Don't touch me," Ukyou snarled. Ukyou flared her own presence, and the
Nameless retreated. "You're a ghost."
	"A useful term," the Nameless-in-Hotaru said. "I was once like you,
Ukyou. I was once... a mortal. I think. I..." Hotaru's face frowned and she
rubbed her temple. "I can't remember, anymore. My past, my purpose... it's gone.
It faded away long ago." She sighed, and Ukyou felt herself shudder.
	She had once managed to erase herself. She had vanished, allowing
herself to be folded up inside the identity of Lotus Infinite. But even then,
she had been able to say she had some sense of self. No matter how much Bison
tried to erase her, she retained some small spark of herself. Even if it was a
twisted parody of a human being, unlike anything she had been before, it had
been something.
	"I am nothing," the Nameless-in-Hotaru said. Her face twisted into a
scowl. "Once, long ago, I ascended to the Third Circle. And in so doing, I
created a Paradox backlash so large it annihilated everything I was. My entire
universe was gone. Everyone that had existed with me was gone. There was
nothing, Ukyou. NOTHING!" Hotaru roared and curled her hands into claws.
"Nothing but the power. I had escaped the Paradox, but at the cost of
everything. I was... I was nothing."
	Hotaru shivered, and then visibly calmed herself. When she spoke, her
tone was more level. "I do not remember how long I spent like that, existing as
mindless, diffuse power. I cannot even remember..." She trailed off. "In time,
I discovered I could touch the timelines of others. Or maybe they could touch
me. When my overself touched the soul of a person who had been removed from the
Oversoul, it picked up some traits of that person. For a moment, I was alive
again...
	"And then the Paradox found me," Hotaru hissed out bitterly.
	"Paradox never goes away..." Ukyou murmured.
	"Precisely!" Hotaru shouted in triumph. "The Paradox that I had created
in my ascension still existed. And it trailed me. It could not be said to hunt
me. Paradox has no mind. It is merely Oblivion, seeking to consume. And because
I could perceive it, it could perceive me." Her voice grew thick. "The life I
touched was consumed by Oblivion, as was the entire world. This happened again
and again. Eventually, by accident and design, I discovered I could touch a
world but lightly."
	The overself inside Hotaru stretched out and Ukyou felt it spinning
itself smaller and smaller. Until it was nothing more than a filament. It
flicked across the soultrees, touching here and there. Where it touched, a
ripple spread. Small ripples, echoing off each other.
	"I found people like Hotaru," The Nameless-in-Hotaru explained. "Souls
that could survive some exposure to Paradox. These souls I touched more deeply.
I invested a part of myself in them. Or perhaps they defined me. Does it really
matter?
	"The point is that they became points of reference. Things outside
myself that I could use to define myself..."
	The filaments withdrew into Hotaru. "But it was never enough," her voice
was thick. "It was like watching a picture of a perfect family. It was like
someone describing a good meal. It was like an echo of an echo of a lover's
voice." Her hands curled into fists. She squeezed her eyes tight.
	"If I touched the world, it would die. It would be torn apart by my very
presence. I was too large for existence." Tears began to leak out from behind
her eyelids. "And if I withdrew... I would just lose it all. Even the memory of
it would vanish. I can't know what I've lost! How many times have I almost
existed? HOW MANY?
	"IT'S NOT FAIR!" The Nameless screamed with Hotaru's voice. "All I want
is to touch! All I want is to see! I want to remember, and be remembered. I want
to feel and experience and grow and change and exist!" Her eyes snapped open.
"All the things you take for granted, I can never have."
	Hotaru turned and walked to the centre of the room. Her body was calm,
but the thing entwined within her soul was writhing with violent energy. "Even
this body, this soul and identity... this is not real. Hotaru has allowed me to
use her voice, but I know that I can touch her only like this. I am closer to
Hotaru than any other fetich soul I have ever touched, and still it all feels
empty." She looked down at her hands. "These hands are not my hands. This voice
is not my voice. Even these words are the ones that Hotaru chooses to express my
presence. Even the feelings I experience are just a reflection of her. I am
nothing."
	"What do you want with us?" Ukyou asked.
	"I want to be you."
	Ukyou froze. She could feel the Nameless stirring within Hotaru. Its
tendrils reached for her, in the overspace. She hardened herself, twining the
Ukyou and Aaron together so tightly that even his intangible spirit could not
fit between the cracks.
	"Please... Ukyou." The Nameless-in-Hotaru turned to look at her, her
voice sad and haunted. "I've been trying so long to create one like you. You are
the culmination of an endless string of experiments." She stepped forward. "You
achieved the Third Circle, and retained yourself." Her voice slowly grew
stronger, more hopeful. "You didn't just brush against it, and then retreat
away. You weren't torn apart. You conquered the Paradox. You achieved what I
never could, because I lacked the very identity you had."
	Hotaru offered her hand. "The two parts of you, that was the key." She
laughed and skipped around Ukyou. The Nameless thing within her soul quivered
excitedly. "So many failures... but you did it! The key was making you BOTH go
Third Circle at the same time. If one of you had made the transition before the
other, the stress would have torn you apart. But you could just... heal the
Paradox. You could free it. You can exist, as two things at once, as God and
Mortal." She fell down and started laughing. "You are a perfect thing!"
	She stopped laughing abruptly and her expression turned serious. "I did
all of this, so I could create you." She stood up, her head looking down. "I did
it, so I could become you."
	"No..." Ukyou hissed, backing away.
	"You don't need to fear me taking over," the Nameless-in-Hotaru said,
snapping her head up. Her expression was earnest. "I am nothing. I could not
overpower your mind if I wanted to. I would just... fuse into you. My power, my
presence, would become a part of you. Whatever identity I had, wouldn't matter.
It would vanish in between Ukyou and Aaron. It would act like the glue." She
held out a hand imploringly. "My power, all of my power, would be a part of
you."
	"No..." Aaron groaned.
	"You would be God." The thing-and-Hotaru paused. "You could be MORE than
God. You would be everything. You could have everything."
	"No."
	Her eyebrow twitched. "Why? Why reject me?"
	"I don't want to be god!" Ukyou roared.
	"What choice do you have, Ukyou?" Hotaru asked. "Look beyond this world.
Look at the Oversoul. Look at all the world out there. What do you see?'
	Ukyou stretched herself out further... and she didn't find it.
	"Your world is gone, Ukyou," the Nameless said. "You changed it, in that
moment when the two of you ascended. I just... stepped in and made it better."
She gestured around. "THIS is your home, Ukyou. This is your world. This is what
you have fought for." The Nameless-in-Hotaru smiled. "Only better."
	"I know..." Ukyou looked down. "You changed everything." Her hands
clenched. "I don't care. I won't submit."
	"Why not?!" the Nameless-in-Hotaru shrieked.
	"You DARE ask that!" Ukyou roared. "You... you tortured me! You
tormented my friends! You created an entire world, just so you could make it
explode! You're a sick, emotionless monster! You killed my friends, just to
provoke me! You teased me with love, just to motivate me!
	"NO MORE!
	"I am not your puppet!"
	The Nameless went very still. The thing entwined in Hotaru's soul,
folded and bent to fit between the branches of her destiny, flexed. The girl
gasped and collapsed to her knees. Blood oozed from her eyes and the corners of
her mouth.
	"Leave her alone!" Ukyou roared.
	"Or what?" The Nameless replied, her voice icy. Ukyou paused. She felt
a cold sweat break out on her skin. "What will you do, Ukyou? How will you stop
me?"
	"I'll..." she trailed off. She had the Third Circle, right? She should
be able to fight the Nameless now. "I'll fight you!"
	"You can't harm me, Ukyou," the Nameless-in-Hotaru replied coldly. "I am
Nothing. I have no body to bruise, no mind to shatter, no soul to abuse. I have
no destiny to rewrite, no purpose to be twisted." She stood up, her body moving
jerkily, like a marionette. "You can't fight me, Ukyou.
	"I suffer no such limitation."
	Ukyou screamed. She fell to her knees. Her overself shrieked as the
Nameless lashed out. It was nothing like any attack she had ever felt. It struck
her everywhere at once. It was in her past, and her future. It was in her body
and mind and soul. It spread through every part of herself. It wasn't just pain.
It was the reality of pain. It was the definition of pain. She was being remade
into living pain.
	And just before she snapped like a twig, it stopped.
	She knelt, panting on the ground. Hotaru stood over her, looking down at
her with a smile of dreadful joy. "You seem to think you have a choice here,
Ukyou." Hotaru's fingers curled around her chin, lifting it up. She could feel
the Nameless coiling itself tighter and tighter into the girl's destiny. "I did
not go through all this trouble to give you a choice. You will allow me to
become you."
	"Never..." Ukyou hissed.
	"Oh please, don't pretend you have that kind of strength, Ukyou," Hotaru
said with a snort. "I chose you very carefully. I know that, in the end, you'll
break."
	Ukyou started, the Nameless and Hotaru smiled. "Oh yes. I was very
careful. I could have chosen anyone. I can create people out of whole cloth. I
can forge entire realities. Did you think you were special? Stronger than other
souls?" She chuckled. "Far from it. You are flawed, terrible human beings. Ukyou
and Aaron, two beings that seem strong and reliable, but that fold in the
critical moment." She released Ukyou's chin, letting her drop back to the
ground. "And you've proven me right again and again. You know that when you
can't win, you'll compromise. You accept me, even if it makes your skin crawl."
	Hotaru leaned down and hissed into her ear. "I WILL have my identity."
She straightened and backed up a step. "So... you get to choose, Ukyou," she
said in a tone that suggested the exact opposite.
	"Either you allow me to become one with you...
	"Or I destroy everything."
	"You... wouldn't..." Ukyou gasped.
	"Really?" Hotaru-as-Nameless chuckled. "Hotaru wants me to. It's such a
compelling emotion. Even as a pale reflection, it's very strong. I've never felt
a desire this strong in all the memories I scraped together for myself." She
knelt in front of Ukyou. "I would enjoy it. I would enjoy casting this whole
mess into Oblivion."
	Her smile was vicious. "After all, I know how it's done now, Ukyou."
	Ukyou's blood went cold.
	"Even if you refuse," she explained. "I can just do this again.
Different people. Or the same. Doesn't matter to me. I can try it over and over
again. I've done it before, I can do it again." She laughed. "I have forever! I
AM forever!" She stood up, throwing her arms out.
	It could do it. It would do it. It had already done it. How many times
had someone been here, in this position? How many other "perfect beings" had the
Nameless created with its twisted experiments? How many times had she herself
been here, in this place, faced with this choice?
	It would think nothing of scrubbing the entire experiment. It would
start over again. It knew how to make it work. It just had to keep trying, until
finally someone submitted. How many more worlds would have to suffer? How many
more innocents would it create, just to torment? Not just the fate of herself,
and Hotaru and everything she held dear was at stake here. The fate of
uncountable billions of souls that did not even exist yet was in her hands. If
she did not stop this madness here, it would just go on and on until the
Nameless won.
	She couldn't fight it. There was nothing to hurt. There was nothing to
struggle against. Slowly, very slowly, she rose to her feet.
	"Are you ready?" the Nameless-in-Hotaru asked. Ukyou looked at Hotaru.
The girl smiled. "I know how you feel about me," Hotaru said, and Ukyou could
sense it was her voice now. That there was nothing of the Nameless in these
words. It was letting Hotaru speak for it now, figuratively instead of
literally. "You think that by saving me, you can redeem yourself." She pulled
back her bangs, revealing her forehead. "You lost your child, Ukyou. You had her
taken from you. Bison practically tore the girl from your womb. He twisted and
corrupted it, destroyed it to make room for himself. And even when he was
defeated, you needed to save Rose. You gave up your child.
	"And that's why you fixated on me," Hotaru said. "You hadn't even
thought about me until after you knew there was no way to get your little girl
back. Then, suddenly, I became all-important." She sighed. "I am not your child,
Ukyou. I am not your redemption. You tried to help me, in the only way you
could. You failed. I was lost.
	"But you thought to yourself, 'If I can save Hotaru, that means I saved
the child. I saved the girl I lost because I was too weak and selfish to defend
it.' That would make it all right." She shook her head. "Like everything else,
it was just another selfish desire."
	Hotaru stretched her arms out. "I can never forgive you, Ukyou. But you
don't have to get my forgiveness. This isn't about me. This is about you. Your
choice here can make it all worthwhile, Ukyou. You can either justify all the
suffering, and make it okay. Or you can be stubborn, and have it mean nothing.
And if you choose to fight, you make me right. You prove that you're just a
selfish bitch who can't handle responsibility."
	"You're wrong..." Ukyou hissed. She closed her eyes.
	"Wrong?" Hotaru sighed. "Ukyou... you think you need to save me. I don't
want to be saved. I want it to end. But if you want redemption... you don't need
a substitute child."
	There was a whisper as the screen door of the dojo slid open. Ukyou
stiffened. There was a presence there. It was a small presence. It stepped into
the room. Ukyou didn't look. She couldn't look.
	"Mama?"
	"No..." Ukyou moaned.
	"Mama, is that you?" The presence took a few steps closer. Ukyou didn't
look at it. Aaron didn't focus on it. It existed as a shadow at the edge of
their perceptions. "They said... they said it's okay to see you now."
	"You bastard..." Ukyou growled, squeezing her eyes shut. That way, she
couldn't look. She couldn't see.
	"Mama? I... I was lonely. Mr Tofu is nice, but I... I missed..." The
presence stepped closer. "Mama? What's wrong? Why aren't you saying anything?"
	"Damn you..." Ukyou growled at the Nameless. She still didn't look, even
when the Presence touched her. Little hands touched her leg. Warm hands. Real
hands. Child's hands. A girl's hands. She couldn't look. If she looked, she was
lost. She would crumble. She would do anything to not have to unsee this. So she
couldn't see it.
	"Mama? Why won't you look at me?" The presence's hands grabbed the side
of her coat, and began to tug at her. The voice began to grow annoyed. "This is
a terrible game, Mama. I don't like this game."
	"Your choice, Ukyou," Hotaru and the Nameless said.
	"Mama! Please, look at me! Say something! MAMA!"
	"I..." Ukyou swallowed her words.
	"You can have it all, or you can have nothing, and I win either way."
	"Please! Mama, please! JUST LOOK AT ME!"
	"DAMN YOU!" Ukyou shrieked, and made it all go away.

*

	Sailor Pluto realised she was out of her element. As Ukyou and Hotaru
confronted each other, she understood that there was another confrontation going
on outside of her ability to perceive. There was something huge behind Hotaru,
something within and around her. Pluto could no more perceive it then she could
see all existence at once. She had the dreadful feeling that whatever was beyond
Hotaru was bigger than the entire universe.
	Pluto might have been able to handle that. The problem was what she was
sensing coming from Ukyou. Pluto shuddered as she felt the presence of the girl
expand. It didn't seem to be just one presence. There was a duality to it. Yet
Pluto could not pin it down. Ukyou's presence was growing. Growing faster than
Pluto could conceive. It flooded out from her, and as it did, she changed.
	When Pluto had first been revived in this world, Ukyou had appeared as
she once had seven years ago, long before her misadventures had left their marks
on her. Now, as the feeling of Ukyou continued to grow and grow the image of the
girl was shifting. The crude cuts on her arm weathered and deepened into shallow
scars. The colour of her eyes darkened, and the shape of them shifted into lotus
flowers. Her unscarred arm burned with purple light as tattoos etched themselves
into her flesh in a swirl of sparks. The symbol of Neptune flared brightly on
her forehead. Her clothing shifted with the change. Instead of a shirt and pants
she wore a tight white and black bodysuit with cords strapped around the shins.
Her trenchcoat flapped behind her in an unseen wind.
	Ukyou did not notice these changes. She rose to her feet after being hit
by some sort of attack, her face twisted in pain. Pluto had not even sensed
whatever it was the Nameless had struck her with, and was glad. She could barely
follow the conversation happening between them. She could hear the words, but
there was something happening beneath and above the level of mere words.
There was a form of communication happening between them that Pluto couldn't
hope to understand.
	And Ukyou's presence was still growing.
	Pluto closed her eyes. This was just like the final moments of the
confrontation in Elysium. As Ukyou had rushed through the Swords of Hate,
brushing through the Paradox, Pluto had felt something changing then, too. Ukyou
had been curing the Paradox, and that is what Pluto had convinced herself she
had seen.
	It wasn't. She had been witness to Ukyou's ascension to godhood. There
was simply no other way to adequately describe it. Ukyou's soul had achieved a
new state. Her physical body was still present, but a part of her was now larger
than any mere body. Pluto was beginning to think that soon it would grow larger
than the entire universe. She would have all the powers of the Nameless. That
was what Hotaru claimed, and Pluto believed her.
	Pluto looked down at her Time Key Staff. She hated this. It was the same
as before. The feeling of uselessness had returned. What could she possibly do
in comparison to such powers? The Nameless had played her like a fiddle. It had
created Destiny, and firmly fixed her place in it. Ukyou was growing into a
being much like it, as it had planned. A being that would not suffer its single
limitation.
	There had to be something Pluto could do. Something she could say. But
while she could hear the words of Ukyou and Hotaru, the meaning of them seemed
to slide around her. She had tried to shout something, to give Ukyou
encouragement, but Ukyou had ignored her. Now Pluto realised that Ukyou was not
ignoring her: she just could not perceive her. Ukyou, Hotaru and the Nameless
had grown beyond Sailor Pluto. To them, she was as significant as a bacterium.
	Then Pluto saw the girl enter the room. She realised instantly who it
was. She knew what it was that Ukyou had been waiting for, what memory of this
false/real world had eluded her. She felt her heart sink. There was no way that
Ukyou could resist this.  But there was something about the child that refused
to stick in Pluto's memory.
	It was like she wasn't all there. As long as Ukyou didn't look at her,
the child didn't seem to be fully real. The girl walked up to Ukyou and began to
demand her attention. Ukyou ignored her. Ukyou clenched her eyes closed and grit
her teeth. Pluto took a step back. She could sense Ukyou's will wavering. Then,
like a damn, it burst.
	"DAMN YOU!"
	Sailor Pluto reflexively raised her staff and shielded herself. She
stepped outside the flow of time, and still she was almost destroyed. The
destruction was instantaneous. One moment, there was a Tendo Dojo, then there
wasn't. One moment there was a Tokyo, and an Earth for it to sit upon and a
universe for it to exist within. The next moment, they were all gone.
	Pluto gasped and fell to her knees. She held up her staff. She was in a
bubble of empty time, one she had somehow created. They were back in Elysium, or
something very much like it. Except that there was nothing here; no fragments of
fading dreams, no howling swords, no deserts, no soullights... nothing. Just an
empty plain, as far as she could perceive. Pluto realised with a certain
grimness that she was the last living thing in the universe.
	Ukyou stood on the featureless plain, her attention turned downward. She
was looking at her hands. Her expression was shocked and horrified. Hotaru was
gone. But even as Pluto thought that the girl's voice echoed out of everywhere.
Above them, stormclouds began to gather. Hotaru was laughing.
	"Does it feel better now, Ukyou?" Hotaru asked. "You did it. You really
did it."
	"I..." Ukyou fell to her knees. "No... I didn't mean..."
	"That's what it means to be God, Ukyou," Hotaru lectured. "Your will is
reality. Your desire is law. Your thoughts are truth." She laughed again. "And
so, when the universe became too great and painful for you to endure, you wished
it away..." Ukyou closed her eyes. "...and it left."
	"Ukyou..." Pluto gasped. This was it, she realised. This was the moment
of Prophecy. She looked down at her Time Key Staff. She knew she shouldn't have
survived that. There was no way she could have reacted. No... she had been
saved. The Nameless had intervened. It had made her do this, the one thing that
would save her for long enough to witness this.
	It had played her again. She was a part of this. In a few seconds, Ukyou
would raise to her feet. She would draw out the Silence Glaive, not out of
necessity, but out of familiarity. She would do it only out of what felt right.
An attack needed a weapon. Then, she would strike at the Nameless... and it
would crush her. She and Ukyou and Hotaru and their memories, all that was left
of everything they had known, would be wiped out.
	The End of Time.
	Ukyou was standing up. She was clad in skin-tight black pants wrapped
about the ankles with cords, her torso was covered in a turtle-necked skin-tight
white shirt and over that she wore a long black trench-coat which was blown back
and flared in an unseen wind. Her sleeves were rolled up and both arms were
reaching out towards the heavens. On her left arm five parallel scars glowed
with eldritch light, on her right arm a tattoo of some kind snaked up to
disappear under her sleeve. A power radiated from her, a power that Sailor Pluto
could neither place nor understand. Now Sailor Pluto saw the woman's face, and
it was undeniably Ukyou's face, though a bright light flared from her forehead,
and there was something terribly wrong with her eyes.
	No.
	There was one thing missing.
	The clouds overhead swirled and shifted, and a human figure began to
descend from them. It was Hotaru. She was the vessel of the Nameless' final
judgement. She would destroy Ukyou for her impertinence. Her body overflowed
with such twisted power that it made Pluto's blood chill. It was a wrongness.
Paradox, Pluto realised. The Nameless was using Hotaru to store all its Paradox
as it prepared to strike at Ukyou.
	Pluto narrowed her eyes. There was still something missing. She should
know this, this had been her entire life for seven years. Every night she had
seen this moment. She grasped the Garnet Orb on the end of her staff with one
hand.
	She was supposed to send back an image now. She was supposed to send a
warning to herself. She could feel the strength of the Nameless on her, his
great will. It was more profound than she had ever imagined. Filtered through
Hotaru's body, she had not understood it. But she could feel the press of
Destiny upon her. She could send back a message. She HAD to send back an image.
	So this could all start again. The Nameless wanted a life, and Ukyou
could provide it with that life. It would do this, again and again and again.
This was the point where it all ended, and all began again. Once the Nameless
crushed this obstinate Ukyou, it would just create another, and if that one
failed they would be back here... again and again until it got it right.
	Pluto's mouth opened. She remembered the final moments of Ukyou's
ascension, back before this world had been forged anew. She remembered Ukyou
touched Hotaru and the girl changing. Her pale skin flushed with life. Her
bloody forehead healed. Her ruined clothes were replaced with a well-maintained
outfit. Nanami had gasped as the warmth and colour of her body had returned, as
Ukyou wiped the concept of vampires from the fabric of reality.
	And then she remembered Ukyou standing up, cradling the sleeping Hotaru
in one arm. She had looked out, at something only she could see. She had spoken
into that void.
	"It never ends.
	"I guess, I never really thought about it before. But it really never
ends. It just goes on and on. This boundless thing we call 'existence' never
stops. It stretches out into infinity. We all move along it, and not everyone
makes it, but it never ends
	"One moment becomes the next. One challenge gives way to the next
battle. One life ends, and another begins. Each decision leads to the next, and
the next, and the next. There is no final state. We're not traveling towards
anything, because no matter what destination we reach, there is always somewhere
else to go from there.
	"That's a lot to accept. Most people never have to. But I touched it. I
felt it. I saw the whole thing, stretched out forever in front of me. It's a
heavy thing. It can break you. It can make you despair.
	"But it also means one thing you didn't count on.
	"It means that even if I lose this battle, it will go on. Even if I
can't win, this fight will go on. If I fall, someone will stand up in my place.
So don't think this is the end. One day, you will pay for this. One day, someone
will take you down. And life will go on.
	"Because I am sure that while existence is eternal, you are not. So come
on, you self-righteous son of a bitch! Give me everything you got!"
	At that moment, Pluto's memory stopped. The Nameless had done its worst.
It had tried to break Ukyou's spirit, and failed. Now Ukyou was fighting it
again. It was a hopeless attack, but Pluto realised that Ukyou remembered
those words. Ukyou knew what was going to happen, and still she would fight.
	Because it would all start again. Maybe next time, if they failed, the
next Ukyou would succeed? Except...
	Except that there was a flaw.
	Pluto wanted badly to transmit the message. She wanted to set the events
of the universe in motion all over again. It needed to be done. She knew that.
There was no hope of winning this time. The only hope was that next time, some
version of Ukyou would be able to win. If she could master the Third Circle
to the level that the Nameless had before this confrontation...
	Third Circle.
	Three circles.
	They were missing. Three circles of light that orbited Ukyou, each made
up of little bits of data. That was what was missing from this vision. This
wasn't the exact same vision. This wasn't what she had foretold.
	This wasn't Destiny.
	Ukyou lifted up the Silence Glaive, ready to strike. From the set of her
face, she was aiming for one final clash of raw will. She would lose. But she
wasn't Destined to lose.
	Pluto dropped the Time Key Staff. She dashed in front of Ukyou and, with
all her strength, grabbed the Silence Glaive as it began to descend. Ukyou's
eyes widened as the attack of will she had been gathering dissipated. Pluto
hissed. She could feel herself unravelling. The void of this place, its utter
absence of anything, was eating away at her very being. She had foolishly
dropped her only defence. Even now, the Time Key Staff had already faded away.
	She didn't have time.
	"Ukyou..." Pluto gasped in pain. She couldn't explain it all. She needed
to tell Ukyou what she had guessed, and quickly. "Remember your life, Ukyou!
Remember it all!" Her words were fading away in her own ears. "Remember-"
	Sailor Pluto said no more.

*

	Ukyou laid Pluto on the 'ground' of this place. She closed the woman's
eyes. Her chest rose and fell slowly. She was alive, but only just. Ukyou had
protected her from the emptiness, but only just. She could still feel the raw
hatred, the anger of the Nameless battering at them both.
	There were two soft taps as Hotaru set down. The air around her was bent
and distorted. It was Paradox. The Nameless wasn't even trying to be subtle
anymore, so the Paradox was everywhere. It had consumed everything. Her... no,
THEIR world was gone. All of their friends. Everything they had cared for.
	They still felt the anger. The mindless anger that wanted them to lash
out at the Nameless. They had almost given into it. They had almost lost
everything.
	"Pick up your weapon." It was Hotaru's voice. It was the Nameless'
words.
	"No," Ukyou said, standing up. She left the Silence Glaive on the
ground next to Sailor Pluto. They had come so close to attacking, and Pluto had
reminded them at the last minute what was important.
	Life. Life was important. Life was hope.
	"I will destroy you!" Hotaru screamed. The world around her exploded,
Paradox causing reality to run like wax. The threads of reality began to
unravel, the ends of them burning away backwards into the past.
	Ukyou snapped her hand out and grabbed the edges of the fraying
timelines. She wrapped them around her fingers, and with her other hand she
pulled the frayed ends out, healing them. The effort created more Paradox, but
the other half of her healed that just as fast.
	"You can't win by just defending yourself," Hotaru informed her. Ukyou
looked into the girl's eyes. There was a bit more than just Hotaru there now.
She could see the Nameless behind those eyes. It was thick inside her. It was
clinging to her reality, burying itself in her identity. "I'm not going to spare
you, Ukyou." Hotaru brought up her hands. "You had your chance for forgiveness.
You had your chance for salvation. You could have chosen to just put aside your
stupid pride for one moment. You could have been God. You chose this path. You
chose destruction. So live with your choice, Ukyou. Pick up your weapon!"
	"I won't," Ukyou said, tightening her grip on the few remaining
timelines. She realised that they had manifested physically. The world around
them was filled with threads of light, sparkling in the darkness. There were so
few of them, and so much darkness.
	Hotaru snarled and grabbed a nearby thread. It burst apart into a shower
of black sparks. Ukyou hissed as a potential future vanished, the sparks burning
her hands.
	"I am the Nameless," Hotaru informed her. "I have more power than you
can imagine. Do you think you can resist me? I've been doing this for countless
epochs. You've been doing this for less than a day!" Hotaru struck again, her
fingers shattering timelines wherever they went. Ukyou cried out a little with
each one, feeling parts of herself that might be cease to exist in rapid order.
She couldn't heal them fast enough!
	"Pick up your weapon, Ukyou!" Hotaru screamed. "Give me the pleasure of
seeing you die, with the full knowledge that even your best was futile." Hotaru
walked towards her, occasionally destroying a thread as she did. Ukyou gasped
and fell to one knee. "You don't have any choice!"
	"There... is always a choice." Ukyou forced the words out. She looked at
Hotaru's eyes. There was less of the Nameless there now. It was cloaking itself
deeper inside Hotaru with each passing moment. Ukyou wondered why-
	And the answer hit her immediately. It was creating Paradox. More and
more with each strike. That was how it was destroying the timelines. Ukyou could
heal the timelines, but not quickly enough. More and more Paradox was building.
And Paradox was drawn to beings of the Third Circle.
	The Nameless... was a powerful Third Circle being. Perhaps it was THE
most powerful Third Circle being. So, with every strike it made, it had to hide
further and further behind Hotaru's identity. Without her, the Paradox would
tear it apart. It literally had nowhere else to go.
	Ukyou had rejected it. The universe had been destroyed in a fit of
pique. Sailor Pluto was barely real, maintained only by Ukyou's will. It only
had one vessel left. If Ukyou could destroy her...
	Hotaru punched her. The blow sent Ukyou sprawling. She gasped as she
lost her grip on a number of threads. They spun off into Oblivion, vanishing
into the perpetual emptiness.
	"Yes... that's it, Ukyou..." Hotaru sneered. "Look at me with that
intent to kill." She leapt forward, her foot lashing out in a flying kick. Ukyou
kicked to her feet and blocked with her forearms. The blow sent her skidding
across the floor. "Fight me." She ran forward, driving a blow at Ukyou's face.
Ukyou dodged sideways, but Hotaru stepped in and drove her other fist into her
stomach.
	Ukyou coughed and toppled to her knees. "Fight back," Hotaru snarled.
Her next blow sent Ukyou flying. Stars exploded across her vision. "I'm enjoying
this primitive game, Ukyou." Ukyou landed on her back. Hotaru appeared standing
over her. Ukyou clenched her hands tighter around the timelines she was holding.
"Fight me!" Her foot settled on Ukyou's neck. "Can't you at least give me this
last request?"
	Ukyou started to laugh.
	Hotaru's eyes widened. Her mouth opened and closed. The pressure from
her foot eased.
	"Hotaru..." She spoke to the girl still there, whatever part of her was
still there. "Remember life, Hotaru. Remember your life."
	"Remember life?" Hotaru shrieked. Her foot came down, almost crushing
Ukyou's throat. "I remember my life, Ukyou! I remember pain and misery. I was a
tool, a prize to be shuffled from person to person. Even you never really cared
for me. I was just a way of salving your guilty conscience! And when I was
useless to you for that, you threw me away." The pressure on Ukyou's throat
increased. "I hate you, Ukyou. I hate this cursed existence. We are all tools!
We are nothing but pieces on a board. We exist to fulfill our roles and be cut
down when no longer needed.
	"The Nameless showed me the truth, when I died." The girl leaned down.
"Your very existence was poison, Ukyou. The Third Circle effect that was
attached to you created Paradox. It burned away every timeline but your own,
dooming trillions of souls. Do you think I'm going to weep that it's gone?"
Hotaru's eyes narrowed. "I saw it, and knew I had to help end it. I had to put
an end to that mockery of a universe, the only way it could be." She lifted up
her foot. "With your death!"
	Ukyou caught the descending foot and pushed Hotaru off-balance. She
flipped to her feet and landed clutching her throat. With a thought, the
physical damage was healed. Hotaru steadied herself and snarled.
	"Hold onto that memory, Hotaru," Ukyou told her.
	"Hold onto it?" Hotaru snarled and launched another assault. Ukyou
parried the blows, trying to keep the threads from touching the girl. "You want
me to remember all that pain and misery? You bitch! Just fight me, so this can
end the way it's supposed to!"
	"Hold onto that memory and ask yourself, Hotaru..." A blow crashed past
Ukyou's defences and she staggered backward. She willed the pain away. Willed
the damage away. She had to reach Hotaru. She would have to reach Hotaru now.
There was no way she could keep on fighting.
	"Ask yourself, if it's more important to have revenge on me, or to save
the world from that fate?"
	Hotaru's fist came to a halt. It quivered in the air, just in front of
Ukyou's face. The girl's eyes were wide. Ukyou could feel the Nameless shifting
inside Hotaru's soul. Ukyou didn't say anything. There was nothing else she
could say. No amount of speechmaking would reach the girl. She had made her
point. Either Hotaru would see it, or she would not.
	Ukyou slowly released the threads she was holding. She uncurled her
fingers. She spread her arms to her sides. She smiled.
	"No..." Hotaru cried. Her eyes began to shimmer. "NO! FIGHT ME!" Hotaru
stepped forward and punched Ukyou in the chest. The blow lacked any strength.
"It's not supposed to be this way! FIGHT!" Again, Hotaru punched her. Again, it
was barely felt. The girl began to flail at her.
	The Nameless surged.
	"Why should I listen? Why should I care?" Hotaru shrieked, her body
quivering. "It's all pointless! I am a tool, just like you. We'll both die.
Heroism? That means nothing! It's a word, a pretty word created by society to
encourage people to be stupid for its benefit. Justice? There is no such thing."
A tear ran from her eye. "Love? Even if love exists, it is nothing more than a
fading dream. It can not last. It can not be eternal. Your family will die! Your
friends will abandon you!"
	Once again Hotaru stepped in and she brought both fists down on Ukyou's
chest, hard enough to drive Ukyou down a bit. Ukyou gasped. The girl collapsed
against her. "The Nameless can destroy it all. The Nameless can defeat us all.
There is no resisting him. Nothing you can offer me, he can't take away. So what
should I fight him for, Ukyou?" She sobbed. "Name me one thing I can believe
in!"
	Ukyou wrapped the girl in her arms.
	"You."
	Hotaru froze.
	The Nameless roared. Its anger burst across the landscape. Ukyou clung
to Hotaru, holding her as tight as she could. The girl was no longer crying. The
nothingness around them was pulling in, faster and faster. The Nameless was
releasing all its power. They would be annihilated. Nothing Ukyou could do would
stop it. She closed her eyes.
	Hotaru sent her flying. Ukyou's eyes widened. The girl stood with one
hand extended. Ukyou landed. She could see Oblivion collapsing in towards
Hotaru. The girl's expression was grim. The threads of her souls were being
consumed.
	"Hotaru!" Ukyou yelled.
	"I will never forgive you, Ukyou," Hotaru said, her voice gentle.
	The Nameless surged. But Hotaru closed her eyes and... and she held it.
It was inside her. Somehow Hotaru wrapped her soul around it, as if was spinning
millions of threads to envelope it. Hotaru gasped as Oblivion reached her
physical form. Her body was beginning to unweave, from the inside out.
	"Hotaru, no!" Ukyou stood up. "You don't have to do this!"
	"Someone has to..." Hotaru gasped. She clutched her head. The Nameless
was trying to escape her. It sensed, with whatever primitive survival instinct
it had outside of the personalities it stole, the end coming. But Hotaru clamped
down on it. "It's too far inside me..." Hotaru fell to her knees. "It was too
greedy. It wanted to feel your death, to punish you... it got careless..."
	"Hotaru, let it go!" Ukyou stepped forward, but the force of Oblivion
held her back. She thrust her hands into it and began to heal. She restored
reality where there was none. But it was too much for her. She wouldn't reach
Hotaru in time.
	"I can't..." Hotaru chuckled. "It will just flee this world." She
shuddered. There were great holes in her. Her entire left arm was missing. Her
stomach was gone. Both legs were in pieces. Her right eye was a gaping pit.
"...like it always has before."
	"Let it!" Ukyou shouted. "I can save you!" She pushed her hand forward
as much as she could. White sparks erupted around her outstretched arm as she
healed more and more of the damage the Nameless was causing by its very
presence. Its struggle to escape was producing Paradox faster and faster. "Just,
please, give me your hand!"
	"If it doesn't end here," Hotaru explained as her other arm began to
vanish and another hole began to grow in the side of her face. "It will just go
on and on." Hotaru smiled. "You reminded me, that I can't let that happen. No
matter how much I hate you...
	"Thank you."
	And then she was gone.
	"HOTARU!" Ukyou screamed.
	The Nameless fluttered for a moment. Then, without its host to protect
it, caught without an identity to corrupt in the sea of its own Paradox, it
finally returned to what it had been all along: nothing.
	Ukyou let out a wordless howl. She squeezed her eyes shut. They were
burning. Her jaw was clenched so tight it ached. Her heart was crushing itself.
Her lungs shrinking. She couldn't breathe.
	Then she opened her eyes.
	She looked out at the empty universe. She looked down at her hands.
	"No. It doesn't end like this."
	She stood up. She closed her eyes again. She took a breath, and let all
the pain seep out of her as she released it. She wasn't certain what she was
doing, but it didn't matter. She was not going to let it end this way. Not after
everything that had been paid. She was going to go home.

*

	It was like a weight lifted from Natalie's shoulders as she climbed off
the train and stepped into late evening London. Of course, it wasn't the same
London that she'd last seen as a girl, before her Da had moved them back to
their little farm outside Saint-Dizier.
	It was way too damn clean, for one. Not just the lack of garbage in the
streets and gutters. The London she remembered smelled of a thousand things,
smoky and sweet and wet and disgusting all at once. Now it was... clean. At
least it probably smelled like it to almost anyone else. Hopping past an
alleyway, she distinctly caught a whiff of piss. Even the great and wonderful
Link couldn't quite scrub the smell of generations of hobos and drunk teenagers
out of the stone, it seemed.
	Natalie grinned. She didn't have any real reason to dislike the 'new'
London, or the new England in general, or its architect. Hell, in the bad old
days when Umbrella had still been kicking around, it didn't look like anyone
alive would ever be in London again. But damnit, London SMELLED. It was as much
a part of the city as that ridiculous giant clock. Some things just shouldn't be
cleaned up.
	Oh well. Natalie had no intention of letting that ruin her time off. She
leapt up onto a nearby rooftop, drawing a few interested second glances from
passersby. Well, it might get her in a bit of trouble to be so conspicuous, but
she didn't feel like taking the underground. Besides, this was one view of
London she hadn't gotten as a kid.
	It didn't take long to reach Soho. She hopped down into a mass of people
thronging on their way to work, or from a bar, or maybe to their second or third
bar. Only one person noticed her this time, and was probably too drunk to be
surprised, judging by his breath. Gin-and-tonic, Natalie's nose told her. She
responded to his stare with a wink and vanished into the press of people before
he could respond.
	It was almost quaint to be stared at again, for her abilities to be a
thing that was wondrous rather than mundane. It reminded her of the first time
she had seen grainy footage on TV of a battle that had taken place at some
airport in Japan. There was a flying man and a woman who seemed to command huge
waves of water, fighting a small group of people who looked like high school
students. She and Da had both stared at the screen as the announcer repeated,
seemingly to convince himself as much as the viewers, that this was real
footage, not special effects. Then they'd cut to the speech the American
president had given earlier that day...
	Natalie shook the memory off. This place was making her nostalgic. Or
maybe it was the lack of sleep. Reaching her destination, she swung open the
door under the tacky neon sign. She'd smelled the curry from outside the
restaurant, but she still inhaled gratefully as she opened the door. The recipe
was the same. The exact same. She was sure of it, even if as a child she
couldn't estimate right down to the gram how much cardamom was in the mango
chutney. And since it was the same, then...
	"Hasari! What, you are still in business?"
	A head poked up over the tandoor in the back, blinking owlishly out in
the dimness of the restaurant. Natalie stepped through the patrons, raising her
voice again. "You cannot trust a German to do anything right, I guess." That got
a few unfriendly-sounding grumbles from the few customers here this late, but
Natalie ignored them.
	The man blinked owlishly at her. He'd gained a few pounds, a few more
lines criss-crossing the golden-brown skin of his face, a few more streaks of
grey in his greasy hair. He smelled of sweat and dough and spice. After a
moment, his face broke out in a wide grin. "Nat! Well, I'll be damned!" His face
may have been Indian, but his coarse voice didn't carry a hint of an accent.
"And here I thought they were being tough on immigrants, but looks like they'll
let any stray cat in."
	"Ha, I am here on business." Natalie lowered her voice, pitching it so
only Hasari would hear. "Just a few days. I am amazed you have any customers.
Must be the drink in them. The street doesn't stink enough to make your food
smell good anymore, you know."
	"I always thought a pint made a good appetiser," Hasari replied amiably.
"Prawn puri for you, Nat?"
	"Aaaah, if the undead hordes of Umbrella cannot kill me, what can one
stomachache do?" Natalie leaned up against the wall. "There's papadams with
that, of course."
	"Of course." He tossed one still hissing with oil to her; she took a
satisfyingly crunchy bite. "I'd give this on the house to you, but I heard you
got a good job." He looked her up and down critically. "Although you wouldn't
know it to look at you. What do they feed you frogs? Asparagus and spring
water?"
	"Well, you know, the fat ones got eaten first. Except you. Some things
even a zombie won't stomach, eh?"
	He shrugged. "Most of us were evacuated when the plague reached London,
except the nutters who wanted to fight. So, what's it like being a Gendarme? You
shoot fire out of your arse now or something?"
	"No," Natalie grinned. "You must think I am Japanese. I suppose that is
what my flat chest and your advancing senility gets me. I jump high, punch hard,
can smell a dead German from three miles away, and use guns to shoot him. It is
a lot of mind-numbing boredom mixed with occasional terror and not enough pay,
which I hear is a lot like soldiers everywhere, but at least the uniform isn't
too ugly."
	"How's your Dad?"
	"Uneaten, which is more than I can say for a bunch of the neighbours,
unfortunately." Natalie shrugged. "But we can all say that. I'm glad you're all
right. Although I figured you'd be out in the countryside enjoying retirement."
	"Ah, I tried, but I got bored sitting around eating that wonder fruit
and drinking out of rivers. I need a hobby for the next time I retire. Or at
least some fit little bird to keep me distracted." He gave Natalie a sly
sidelong glance. "One with a bit of a meat on her bones."
	"If you're lucky, maybe that will mean she can cook," Natalie retorted.
	"So what's brought a big-shot Gendarme over here, anyway? Spying?"
	"Yes, spying, which is why I am here talking with you. Besides, what
would be spying on, a bunch of plants? No, I am bodyguard to the French
ambassador."
	"Well, you're doing a jolly good job," Hasari observed dryly.
	"Silly Englishman, this is my time off. A bodyguard can hardly do their
job if they are asleep. I can only hope your food will not incapacitate me too
badly for tomorrow."
	"Wait, does that mean you're just down from Eden?" At her nod, a wistful
expression came over his face. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
	Natalie hesitated a moment before responding. "Yes, it is that." And
just a bit too showy, she didn't add. The seat of England's government was a
city without a single brick. A magnificent, impossibly huge palace was its
centre, a palace of vines and flowers where flittering insects provided light
and chairs would grow obediently out of the walls as you tapped them. Fountains
of crystal-clear water dotted the pristine plant city, the fàn liáng trees and
their sublimely delicious, nutrient-filled fruit growing nearby. The air was
clean and filled with the scent of a million flowers which somehow didn't
irritate even the most sensitive nose.
	It WAS beautiful, almost impossibly so. It lightened the spirit just to
be in it, even one as cynical as Natalie's. But it also stood as a stark
reminder of its architect. Standing in Eden, you knew damn well who the real
power was in England, no matter what titles and power the lords and ministers
elected to live there supposedly had.
	Natalie shook her head, smirking at her suspicions. There were a hell of
a lot less beneficent overlords than Link, honestly. Her attitude was her
father's fault - his poetry and his organic farming and his ranting about
conspiracies and corporations and the power of the people. She always secretly
suspected her Da had been disappointed to be born just a bit too late for
Marxism to be fashionable, so had settled on democracy instead. "Yeah, it is
definitely something. You don't go often?"
	"Too many loiterers, so they passed a law. Can't stay in Eden except on
official business or a tour, and the waiting list for those're months long. I
went when I got my license, though."
	A bell rang as the door swung open; Natalie didn't pay any attention,
but Hasari brightened and waved. "My favourite customer! See, Nat, at least one
Frenchwoman isn't too stuck up to eat good British food."
	Another Frenchwoman? That was a bit curious. Only former residents of
the United Kingdom were allowed to live in the restored islands so far, to
'avoid placing strain on the infrastructure'. Could have been living here
before, though. Natalie cast a glance back, preparing some sarcastic comment
that died forgotten in her throat.
	She knew her.
	This woman had saved her and her father's life.
	"Ciel!" she exclaimed happily.
	The woman halted in the act of pulling out a chair and looked up,
blinking owlishly. She hadn't aged a day in the last eight years, though she was
wearing regular clothes instead of the pseudo-religious uniform Natalie
remembered. She smelled of Indian spices and soap and some sort of incense and
something Natalie couldn't quite put her finger on...
	"Do you remember me? We were worried something had happened to you-"
	Their eyes met. A small sound escaped involuntarily from Ciel's lips.
Natalie fell silent. There was something wrong, but she had no idea what it is.
"Are you alright?" she asked slowly.
	"Who are you?" the other woman breathed.
	"Oh, I'm sorry," Natalie said, feeling uncharacteristically clumsy. "My
name is Natalie Clement. Umm, you may not remember, but you saved my Da and me
when Umbrella invaded France eight y-"
	"I don't know you," Ciel said. She shook her head emphatically, and her
voice suddenly rose, jagged with something like fear. "Who ARE you?"
	Natalie took a step forward. "I-"
	Ciel flinched backward. The chair she'd been pulling out fell on its
side, and a hand flew up to her forehead as if she were in pain. "I don't know
you!" Everyone was staring at them now. "You don't know me!"
	Natalie just stood there, open-mouthed, trying to decide what to say.
Had something happened... captured by the Germans, maybe? They'd done something
to her mind? But what would she be doing in England, then?
	She blinked. In the space of that blink she heard the bell on the door
ring. When her eyes opened, Ciel was gone. "Wait... where did she go?"
	"Where'd who go, Nat?" Hasari asked calmly.
	"That woman who was just here!"
	"Who?" He peered around her. "Someone skipping out on the tab?"
	Natalie spun around. Everyone in the restaurant was calmly eating their
dinner. A few were talking quietly amongst themselves. Nobody was looking at
her. But one chair was still incongruously lying on its side.
	She ground her teeth. "PUTAIN!"
	Ignoring Hasari's concerned voice behind her, Natalie dashed out the
door. What the hell was going on? She weaved around a drunkenly staggering old
man, spinning to check the street, but Ciel was nowhere to be seen. She lifted
her face and scented the air. There!
	A moment later she landed on the roof of a nearby building. She caught a
glimpse of a startled white face and then the woman had spun and was gone,
leaping from rooftop to rooftop. At least she was real, after all, no matter
what the hell she had just done back in the restaurant.
	Natalie gave chase, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. She quickly
realised she was outmatched at this. The other woman was faster, knew the city
better, knew how to hide better than Natalie knew how to look. It wasn't ten
seconds before she lost sight of Ciel, only a few more before most traces of the
woman vanished from her senses. But as had been the case many times in the past,
her sense of smell saved her. It was the incense. Probably some Vatican scent,
or maybe just a personal favourite. She followed the thread of that unique
scent, and occasionally would catch glimpses of the woman as they weaved through
the city. But she wasn't catching up, and wouldn't unless she could slow Ciel
down somehow. Damn it, if she had her gun, she'd-
	She'd what? Take a shot at a woman she owed her life to? Natalie ground
her teeth as she ran and leapt from rooftop to alley and back again. Suddenly
the smell was weakening, too. Natalie noticed a drinking fountain had been
destroyed, cleaved in half like it had been struck with a sword. Water gushed
from the exposed pipe beneath where it had been. Ciel must have figured out how
she was being tracked. Well, she could follow the water-
	"Hey, what do you think you're doing? HA!"
	A form flew out the twilight, landing almost right next to Natalie. No
matter how distracted she was, though, she was still a veteran of the war
against Umbrella. Her body moved almost before she realised someone was there.
Flipping backwards, she then rolled to her feet, feeling the cool, sturdy trunk
of a tree against her shoulders. She reached for her gun, cursed as she realised
again it was still back in Eden.
	"Oh, that was a pretty good move!" the voice laughed. It was male,
adult. She couldn't see the newcomer well in the darkness, but she smelled him.
He was excited - his pores were opening and starting to perspire, his breathing
had sped up, adrenaline was flooding his bloodstream. He ate a lot of rice and
wore silk - probably Asian. "But I don't think you know who you're up against
here!"
	"Ranma!" Another figure walked out of the darkness. The scant light
glinted off gold. But not real gold - it smelled too clean, not earthy. "What
the hell are you doing? Who is this?"
	"I dunno," the first figure said, then said "Ow!" as the second whacked
him on the side of the head.
	"Then why are you starting a fight, you dummy?"
	"But there was this huge bang-"
	Some damn random do-gooders. Natalie rushed past them, but stumbled to a
halt a few steps later. It was too late. The scent trail, already faint, had
already faded. She didn't know what the woman had done, but she was damn near
undetectable when she wanted to be, apparently.
	"Hey! Okay, I still wanna know who you are-"
	Natalie whirled on him in a fury. "You stupid oaf! You fool! Tete te
pine! You idiot! Connard!"
	The man stepped away, taken a bit aback by her swearing. Now closer, she
could recognise him easily even in the dim light. Of course, he was famous. This
didn't mollify her in the slightest. "The great Ranma Saotome, runs around at
night poking his nose in something that is none of his business! Do I look like
a zoalord? Ha? A zombie, a werewolf, a demon, a monster, ha? Well? MANGE MERDE!
If you are so blind and stupid, it is a wonder you can find your dick with both
hands to piss!"
	The other woman walked forward, holding her hands up placatingly. Not
surprisingly, now that she had recognised Ranma, it was 'V'. "Hey, calm down,
alright? We're here to help. Why don't you explain what's going on-"
	"I-" Natalie began to snarl, then cut herself off. There was no point in
staying angry, especially since punching Ranma Saotome was starting a fight she
wasn't going to win. The woman was gone; maybe they knew something about her,
anyway. "I was chasing someone. She got away when you stopped me, though."
	Ranma blinked. "Someone else? Seriously?" He looked around. "Weird, I
didn't notice anyone. Hey Minako, did you see who she was chasing?"
	The blonde-haired woman shook her head. "We thought it was just you. I
guess this dummy thought you were the one breaking stuff."
	"Yeah, sorry 'b