A Month Late, On A Computer Not Far Away...
		     (unless you're in like Australia or something)



					SAILOR
					 WARS

Episode 2.5: Rolling Thunderpeal, The Headsman's Blade That Causes Readers To-



Wait, we did this last time.

Oh, screw it, just read the story already.





                              C&A Productions Presents

                         An Sidestory Chosen By (some of) YOU!


                      Hybrid Theory XP... Third Time's The Charm

			       	  Live From Techzas




	Whoever said space was big and empty was lying, Akira thought with
annoyance. She was leaning over the controls of her ship, looking out the window
at the planet below. It was the seventh star system she had seen in as many
days. The solar body here was smaller than the one back at Earth, or so the
instruments told her. With a few quick commands she could bring up its type, the
orbits of all the planets in its system, all sorts of strange information. Not
that she cared much.
	She missed Earth. On Earth, she had herself and the road. The highway
travelling through the empty wilderness, the dirt road through the mountains,
the winding coastal parkways... those were empty spaces. That was freedom. Space
was... exact. You had to calculate orbital trajectories and relative velocities.
Trips had to be painstakingly precise. A course off by even a tenth of a degree
when it started could end up placing you hundreds of lightyears away from where
you wanted to be. There was no capacity for wandering. There was no art to it.
	She found herself wishing the enemy ships would spot her, like they had
three systems ago. The surge of adrenaline as the spacecraft came after her,
particle beams and lasers filling space all around her as she rushed the ship
through its paces, that was something fantastic. Every bit of her attention, all
of her instincts had to be focused on keeping herself and her passenger alive.
There was no room for stray thoughts.
	Akira didn't really know how the drive of the starship worked, and
considering its origin she wasn't certain she wanted to. All she knew was that
it took a little over a day for the thing to recharge and that she had to be
parked near a star for it to happen. Which left her a lot of time to think. She
didn't want to think. She wanted a few months off. Just a few months to get away
from Earth and her search. Two years of fruitless effort. Everyone else had
given up, except her.
	And now she was ready to give up.
	"Ugh," Akira groaned, rubbing her face with one hand. "That's it. Sleep
now. I'm starting to sound like a girl's comic." She slipped away from the
controls, setting the proximity alarms to go off if anything came too close to
the deceptively fragile spaceship Tethys had constructed. "Plus I'm talking to
myself."
	She pulled the door to the rest of the ship open and gingerly walked
out. The ship was big; maybe she would be lucky. The ship itself was shaped
something like a crystal formation, a series of irregular rods radiating back
from the control node. The crystal rods contained the living quarters and common
areas of the ship, as well as the arcane interstellar drive that Tethys and her
scientists had cobbled together. Technically speaking, the ship was supposed to
be able to hold maybe half a dozen people at once, or less and some cargo. At
the moment, there was only herself and her passenger.
	So, of course, she ran into him the moment she started up the corridor
towards her quarters.
	"Akira, how pleasant of you to join us," Touga said, smiling as he
floated in the corridor. His long red hair billowed around his head slightly,
giving his aquiline features an otherworldly quality. Akira frowned and pressed
her hands against the walls to slow herself to a stop.
	"I need to get some sleep," she informed him crisply.
	"Certainly I wouldn't think of denying you," Touga replied, floating to
the side to let her pass. She noticed that he positioned himself in the hall
such that she would have no choice but to brush against him in some manner to
get to her room. She fought down the desire to deck him. Technically, this was
his mission, and people didn't respond well to diplomats who were covered in
bruises.
	"Touga, can we stop playing games like this?" Akira asked in annoyance.
"I've already told you I'm not interested."
	"You expect me to spend all my time on such a long trip by myself, when
there is such a lovely young lady aboard?" Touga said with just the right hint
of self-deprecation that let you know he was being both sincere and joking
around at the same time.
	"I'm gay," she let him know for the tenth time.
	"True," he said with a smile; his eyes had become diamond-shaped. "But
that shouldn't stop you from enjoying yourself now and then."
	Akira pinched her nose and glared at him. Then she snapped herself to
the side, planted her legs on the wall and spun around him in a flash. He
blinked as she slid through the space around him like a contortionist, slipping
through the space he left without so much as disturbing a lock of his hair.
	"I'm going to bed now, Touga. I suggest you get some rest too. The next
system, we finally get to meet the Jurai."
	"Why do you dislike me so much, Akira?" Touga asked as she started to
float away. Akira paused. She knew his tone was probably faked, but it sounded
contrite enough that she felt compelled to answer.
	"It has nothing to do with you, Touga."
	"I see..." Touga mused. "Then it's the company I keep? Of course, Tethys
is a demon. She admits as much. But you are working for her as well."
	"Just this once..." Akira grumbled. After how boring and useless this
trip was, Akira would never go into space again. No, once she got back to Earth
it would be time to head off in search of Ukyou again. Maybe the information
Tethys had would be worth it, maybe not. It hardly mattered anymore.
	"I'll see you later then, Akira," Touga called out cheerfully.

*

	"...so, as you can imagine, it nearly caused a diplomatic incident! But
luckily, mother Funaho spoke to them while the medical teams were summoned. The
ambassador apologised, and Ms. Airi apologised as well, and so it all turned
out well. Although I've heard they haven't been seen in the same room since.
	"Oh! There's going to be a Three Lights concert on the planet of Demood,
near the border. I'm going-"
	Ayeka snapped her mouth shut, chiding herself. "Please erase that last
sentence."
	There was a happy little chirp as the GPNet avatar obediently erased the
words from the letter. Ayeka cleared her throat and continued.
	"Sasami and I are planning to watch the concert. Tell Ryoko that if
she's not been causing any trouble, I might send her a recording of it." Ayeka
giggled a bit to herself. Ryoko actually despised the Three Lights. 'Prancing
girly-boy twerps' was her description. The mere offer would probably enrage her.
"I've heard that the situation has stabilised in your area. I'm sure that soon
the blockade will be broken and you'll be able to visit your home..." She
sighed. "No, please delete that sentence as well. Instead, make it: I've heard
that the situation has become quiet in your area. I hope that is so, and you are
all well. We all miss you here, especially Sasami, and hope to see you soon.
Fondest wishes, Princess Ayeka Masaki Jurai." She paused. "End letter. Please
send it."
	There was another happy little chirp as the GPNet avatar bundled up the
scroll upon which it had written Ayeka's letter. She gave it a little smile, to
which it chirped happily again. Really, they were perhaps just a little too
lifelike for Ayeka's tastes. Mihoshi had liked the things, but then, she liked
almost anything small and cute.
	"Writing a letter, Princess?"
	Ayeka jumped, spinning around in her chair, and then relaxed. "Oh...
Captain Shoten. I didn't hear you enter."
	The captain of the Hiryu was a distant cousin Ayeka had met only twice
before this voyage, a veteran of several campaigns even before the Sailor War
had begun. She was thin, with a severe bearing that accentuated her austere
uniform, and close-cropped pale green hair. "My apologies, Princess, but you
asked to be notified as we made our final approach to Demood."
	"Oh... yes, of course. Thank you, Captain."
	Shoten eyed the GPNet messaging device sourly. "Is it wise to have sent
a message, Princess? The secrecy of your presence here is of the utmost
importance."
	Ayeka glanced back at it guiltily. "I didn't give any indication of my
position... these messages are untraceable..."
	"I find it a good strategy to not make such assumptions in wartime,
Princess."
	"Umm... yes. You are probably right." Ayeka flushed, feeling scolded.
"I'm sorry."
	"You needn't apologise to me, Princess," Shoten said. "In any case, it's
too late to do anything about it now. However, I suggest you make your
preparations for this rendezvous." She paused for a long moment. "The concert
will begin only an hour after you arrive."
	Ayeka blinked. "So soon? Oh dear! I'll have to hurry to get a good seat
to get that recording for Sasami and..." she trailed off, and flushed even
hotter than before. "Um, yes, thank you. I will."
	Shoten sketched a small bow and departed her quarters. 'Her' being quite
literal, since Ayeka's clandestine passage aboard the Hiryuu had been simply
accomplished by her being smuggled into Captain Shoten's quarters. Few would
think to look for something untoward there, and fewer still had the authority to
enter and check. Of course, now Ayeka felt even more like an unwanted guest than
usual.
	She sighed and stretched. There was no use worrying about her cousin's
opinion of her. Ayeka knew she wasn't merely some spoiled child to be babysat.
While it was true that the chance to see the Three Lights in person had played
a... certain role in the timing of this meeting, the location was unavoidable,
as close to Earth as Jurai-controlled space still extended at this point.
	Besides, the concert provided excellent justification for the Juraian
patrol ship to linger in the area. There had been more than one Sailor incursion
on Juraian worlds during Three Lights concerts in the past, so keeping a close
eye on the proceedings would be prudent. Ayeka was really rather proud of her
plan. That it gave her a chance to see Yaten in person was just a... a side-
benefit. An important side-benefit, since for some reason they seemed reluctant
to ever come to Jurai itself, but...
	"Princess!" The joint voice interrupted her thoughts, then one of the
voices continued, "Will you be requiring your wardrobe?"
	Ayeka nodded at Azaka and Kamidake. "Yes, please."
	"Princess, we will prepare ourselves as well!"
	Ayeka sighed, then affixed the two with a glare. It was hard to meet the
gaze of her two guardians, inasmuch as they resembled nothing so much as giant
logs, their only 'facial features' being a single expressionless lens in the
middle of their structure. Nonetheless, they shrank back a bit at her
expression. "We've talked about this. You are not accompanying me. This is an
incognito mission, and you two stand out too much."
	"Princess, we realise that you are correct."
	"And therefore, we prepared disguises!"
	She stared. "Disguises?"
	"Yes, look atop us!"
	She looked. "That's a... palm tree top?"
	"Yes, we will thus be mistaken for innocent trees."
	"But you're floating off the ground. And have sigils on you. And lenses.
And you talk."
	"...hmm. Perhaps a trenchcoat, then..."
	Ayeka massaged her brow for a moment. "No."
	"But Princess...!"
	"You're staying here and that's an order!" She softened her tone a bit.
"It's just a concert and a diplomatic meeting. Don't be so concerned."
	"We'd still rather you had an escort, Princess."
	"I will be fine," she said firmly, and waved them aside. "Please let me
prepare now, it won't do to be late."
	Ayeka clucked her tongue as she sorted through her clothes. She'd need
to pick something that disguised her identity, but wasn't too obviously designed
to do that. Not too obviously rich either - that would draw attention - but
Ayeka was self-aware enough to admit she wouldn't have the faintest clue how to
act like the poorer sort of space tourist. A happy medium was called for.
	Oh yes, and it couldn't rumple too easily. The concert was likely to be
crowded.
	She found herself replaying the conversation with Captain Shoten in her
mind as she sorted through her clothing. Not to mention a few other
conversations during the voyage. She felt her face heat again, but this time she
was at least fairly certain it was anger. This mission WAS important. As dubious
as many were on Jurai about the prospect of diplomatic contact with the so-
called 'Queen of the Dark Kingdom', she remained their only viable method of
contact with Earth. After the disaster at the Pleiades, they didn't have the
luxury of picking or choosing allies, even if some didn't want to admit it.
	But there was more to it than that.
	This Queen Tethys had promised them information about Galaxia. Jurai
needed that information, whatever it was. But even more so, Ayeka needed that
information.
	She understood why she couldn't be at the front lines with... Tenchi.
She'd had it explained often enough to her. Yes, technically Tenchi was Juraian
royalty as well, but his power to command the Light Hawk Wings made him
irreplacable. Yes, the trustworthiness of Ryoko was under some debate, but her
contributions and ability to make fast responses to Sailor incursions were
essential. Ayeka was powerful and willing to help, yes, but she was too
important for that duty. She'd wondered bitterly at the time, how exactly being
told how important she was could make her feel the complete opposite.
	But fine. She understood she couldn't fight with Tenchi. She did her
best to help him anyway, sending the most cheerful letters she could, to lift
his spirits. But just because she couldn't fight didn't mean she couldn't
contribute.
	The Juraian Empire and the Galaxy Police had been fighting a war against
the Sailors for over two years. The first attacks had been thought by some to be
a strange disease, turning people into twisted, violent parodies of themselves.
But the arrogant message the being that called herself Galaxia sent to the royal
family had dispelled that notion. Since then, several other of Galaxia's
commanders had been identified. They called themselves 'Sailor Senshi', and some
possessed powers that rivalled that of Juraian royalty. They spread the 'Sailor
plague' on planets, attempting to overwhelm the inhabitants before help could be
sent. Sometimes, through some terrible means, they destroyed whole worlds,
wiping them clean of life.
	The problem was, as Ayeka saw it, was that nobody was asking the right
questions about this. Many fought them, of course. And many were trying to find
out what terrible weapon the Sailors used to annihilate worlds, and why they
only used it on occasion. But the problem went deeper than that.
	These creatures shouldn't exist. As the firstborn princess of the royal
hour, Ayeka had received the finest education Jurai could provide. She had
learned about the cultures of the galaxy, studied previous wars. There had never
been any mention of beings like these 'Sailors'. In thousands of years, nobody
had ever used such powers. What was even more disconcerting was how they and
their master Galaxia had sprung into being. Almost overnight, the Juraians had
not only found themselves at war, but war against an enemy they soon found had
already conquered over half the galaxy!
	It was inconceivable. How could this have been accomplished without any
warning, any indication of the doom that was about to overtake the Empire?
Nobody knew. It didn't seem like an important question, with the enemy at the
gates.
	Ayeka couldn't blame anyone for that opinion. But she was sure it WAS
important. In fact, she was sure it might be the most important question of all.
What did Galaxia want, besides domination? Where did she and the powers she and
her minions wielded come from? It seemed scarcely believable that everything she
learned as a child had been wrong. And yet, it seemed like the only option to
her.
	She'd asked Washuu, once. But Washuu had just laughed. "No, no,
Princess, everything you learned was correct. I know, I created that curriculum
myself! It was totally true! It was just also completely and utterly wrong."
Ayeka had protested that didn't make any sense, and Washuu had laughed again and
said, "I know! It's great, isn't it? If you ever find out why, Princess, you let
me know."
	Ayeka had felt at the time she was being made fun of. She often felt
that way talking to Washuu; to be fair, she strongly suspected everyone else did
as well. But she also didn't think the little scientist was lying. What she
learned HAD been true. She knew many relatives who had travelled the breadth of
the galaxy in their youths. She had read Galaxy Police logs of exploration going
back dozens of centuries. The universe they knew had BEEN the universe.
	Then it had all changed.
	If she could just find out why... then maybe that would also explain
Galaxia. Ayeka hoped she was right, because she was afraid that if they didn't
figure out what Galaxia truly was, they wouldn't be able to stop her.
	Not that many shared her opinion. Not anybody did, really. There was no
foe that Jurai couldn't defeat. Their power was the greatest in the universe.
Once, Ayeka would have agreed without question. That too was what she'd been
taught as a child.
	But then, before she met Tenchi, she would have felt a human manifesting
their own Light Hawk Wings was just as impossible. Maybe her experiences had
made her more open-minded than the rest of her family.
	Or maybe, she admitted ruefully, she was just so young that she hadn't
had the first-hand experience to be sure the universe was the way it was. So it
wasn't so hard for her to believe it was suddenly all different...
	"Crew of the Hiryu! We've established orbit."
	Ayeka jumped again, but this time no-one was behind her; Captain
Shoten's voice was instead carried over the broadcast system of the treeship.
	"Those requesting shore leave should gather-"
	Ayeka gasped. She'd lost track of time. Looking down at the garment in
her hands - no, that clearly WOULD rumple, given the effects of it being in her
apparently very tight grip for the past few minutes. She hurriedly grabbed at
something else. She wasn't going to prove Shoten's low opinion of her right by
being late.
	Whatever this Tethys knew, Ayeka would find it out. She'd do her part to
fight for Jurai and the galaxy, just like Tenchi.
	And she'd need to make sure she got good tickets. On the side closest to
Yaten.

*

	"Seiya, you should relax."
	Seiya grunted and paced back over to the porthole, snapping a bottle of
water off a table as he did so. The planet was just coming into view now. Half
of it vanished into its own shadow. It was a planet of purple oceans and green
earth.
	"He's always nervous before a concert, Taiki," Yaten said, leaning back
in one of the luxury chairs the captain had provided. Taiki shrugged and went
back to studying the program. Seiya didn't know why he bothered. They had done
the same concert more times than Seiya could count. Planet after planet after
planet. Always seeking, always hoping their music would reach her... and always
leaving disappointed.
	"Taiki, what do we know about this place?" Seiya asked, his voice coming
out sour.
	Taiki paused. He adjusted his ponytail and walked towards the porthole.
"Planet Demood." His voice was quick and precise, businesslike. "Population over
three billion sentients. Native species, humanoid. Signatory of the Jurai
compact and officially under the jurisdiction of the Galaxy Police. No known
Sailors exist in the system. The closest planet along several hyperspace vectors
to the Pleiades cluster. While the war seems to have stalled several systems
away for now, the authorities are nonetheless on high alert for any Sailor
activity."
	"Tch, what a bother," Yaten groaned. He let his head flop back in a
gesture of exaggerated ennui, his long white ponytail brushing the floor. "We'll
have to be extra careful to keep our true forms well-concealed, then."
	Seiya glanced at Yaten, who always looked mildly annoyed when the matter
of their disguise came up. But to tell the truth, there were a lot of times when
Seiya just plain forgot about his true form. He looked down at himself. He was
currently wearing a loose t-shirt and a pair of brown slacks. His body was slim
and fit, athletic. And male.
	How long had it been since he'd been a girl? How long since he'd assumed
the form of Sailor Starfighter? Five months? Six? There was that battle on
Minbar... but they'd been forced to revert to their disguise when the GXP had
cracked down on the entire star cluster with an iron grip. Seiya smirked. Even
Yaten couldn't complain about their disguise then.
	Nobody expected Sailors to be male. Then again, when the entire army
that was systematically destroying your civilisation was one gender, it might be
understandable if you stopped looking at the other so suspiciously. Still, maybe
he was getting a little too used to this body. Not that it was all bad. There
was no doubt it offered certain freedoms that his female form didn't. And there
was all the girls that squealed with delight every time he walked into a room.
The feeling of their eyes following him as he moved with careless grace and...
	He shook aside those thoughts.
	"While the level of security is bound to be higher, we should have no
problem. The Jurai Empire itself is sponsoring this event. I hear one of their
battleships is going to be coming into system so the crew can go on shore leave
for the performance."
	"Really?" Yaten perked up. "So we might be performing for royalty."
	"Unlikely," Taiki said with a shrug. "While every treeship captain is
technically a member of the Jurai nobility, most of them are far removed from
the royal line itself. Also, after the recent defeats they're unlikely to risk
any of their second-generation ships in such a location." Taiki frowned,
adjusting the collar of his starched shirt.
	"Too bad." Yaten yawned. "All this tactical talk is boring. I'm going to
take a nap. Hopefully we won't be on this planet too long-"
	"SHUT UP!" Seiya yelled, smashing his fist against the transparent
steel. "Is that all you can think about, getting off this planet? Just finishing
the concert? Is that it? IS THAT IT?!" He spun on his bandmates, his face
twisted into a snarl. Taiki raised an eyebrow, Yaten stared at him dumbly.
	"Have you forgot the reason we're here?" Seiya pointed at the planet
with his water bottle. "Have you forgotten what we are looking for?"
	"Of course we haven't," Yaten replied stiffly.
	"But this is just another concert," Taiki added calmly. "According to
my research, the galaxy has more than twice as many inhabited planets than our
records would have indicated. The Princess could have fled to any one of them.
The odds are literally astronomical that she will be here..."
	"The message we received..." Seiya growled out.
	"That message could have come from anyone," Taiki asserted. "Or it could
be a trap. Galaxia is also searching for Princess Kakyuu, remember."
	"No..." Seiya threw the bottle against the ground. It failed to shatter
satisfyingly, instead just sort of plopping onto the deck with a wet slosh.
"Whoever sent that message knows something about where our Princess is." He
looked down at the bottle as it rolled about. "What was that phrase in the
message..."
	"The Light of Hope." Yaten looked out at the planet.
	"Yes." Seiya looked up at them again. "We all sound like we're losing
hope. For nearly two years we've been fleeing from Galaxia. We left our friends,
our families... on the hope that we could find a way to fight back."
	"Tch, that isn't possible." Yaten snorted, turning away with a sullen
expression. "Galaxia can't be stopped. Not even the almighty Jurai fleet can do
it, it seems."
	"He's right, Seiya," Taiki replied. "The Light Hawk Wings the Jurai
ships can produce are tremendously more powerful then anything we had
encountered before we were forced to abandon Kinmoku." He paused. "When I heard
how they were able to hold off Galaxia's forces, I admit I allowed myself to
hope. But things have changed. It appears that even the Light Hawk Wings aren't
enough." Taiki turned away as well. "But we can keep running. One day, we'll
find the Princess, and then we can all find a new place to start over. Fighting
Galaxia is pointless."
	Seiya grit his teeth and clenched his fists impotently. He couldn't put
his feelings into words. He could feel their future slowly drifting away. It
would be all too easy for them to... to lose themselves in this. At his heart,
in the core of his being he was Sailor Starfighter. Champion. Seiya Kou was just
a mask he wore. But it was a comfortable mask, a soothing mask. He could lose
himself in this life. Music star, travelling the universe to the adoring cheers
of billions of fans. It was a life without the need for war.
	But the message had changed everything. No, he knew that this planet,
this planet he had insisted they come to over the other's objections, was
important. There was no proof that the message had come from the Princess, even
if it had addressed them by their real identities. And while the message hadn't
been signed, it had smelled faintly of the olive blossoms from their homeworld,
her favorite perfume. The message had said that their Princess was looking for
'The Light of Hope', and that this planet could lead them to that.
	He turned back to the planet, now beginning to loom large through the
viewport. "Princess... I won't give up. I will find you. I will find the Light
of Hope." He smiled at his reflection in the glass-like porthole. "And not on
some distant planet, not on some far away day. Here. Now. This place." He placed
his hand against it. "I believe. I believe we can win."

*

	"This isn't Earth..." Akira murmured.
	"Hmmm?" Touga turned to her. "Did you say something?" He blinked, his
club-shaped eyes looking confused.
	"Don't you..." She could see in his eyes that he didn't get it.
"Never mind." She walked past him. It was impossible to explain it. She had felt
it the moment she had placed a foot on the planet's surface. This place wasn't
Earth. The sky was purple, run through with white clouds. The people here looked
human, but had skin the colour of carrots and a weird sort of gait to them. It
took Akira a few minutes to realise that they had legs like cats, walking on
such long feet that it looked like they had backwards-bending knees. The cities
here were massively different. The buildings were rounded, and the cities were
spread out such that no two houses were closer together than five meters. To
someone who had grown up in the urban sprawl of Tokyo, where you couldn't own a
car unless you proved you had enough room on your property to park it, it was
amazing.
	But it was more than just the obvious bits. It was all the little
things. The air here smelled different. It made Akira both faintly dizzy and
faintly hungry, like the smell of freshly baked cookies. She weighed more, just
a bit. Most people wouldn't have noticed, but she could feel her foot dragging
just a touch as she lifted it. The grass was shaped like tubes here, instead of
blades.
	She was not on Earth. She was on an alien planet, hundreds of lightyears
from home. She was walking through a city populated by natives from another
world. Certainly she could encounter strange things on Earth. She had spent a
couple of weeks in Tethys' icebound city surrounded by rejects from a fourteen-
year-old boy's sex nightmares. She had fought giant eel-men, ancient demonic
gods and evil cults. She herself could punch through concrete and jump across a
four-lane highway.
	But she was on another planet! That was so... cool. She just couldn't
stop smiling. No matter how frustrating the last few weeks worth of cramped
spaces and questionable company were, she decided, this was worth it. This was
just what she needed. True, this would bring her no closer to finding Ukyou, but
it had... it had been a moment of transcendent joy. Just stepping onto the
surface of a truly alien world, of understanding that the universe was so much
larger, so much fuller than she had ever imagined it could be had snapped
everything into a sort of perspective.
	Because when you thought about the fact that, according to Tethys, there
were literally millions of inhabited worlds out there... and that was just the
ones Tethys knew about in this galaxy! There were billions of galaxies out
there, each with millions of systems with billions of people living on them.
Compared to that, Earth was so tiny.
	Akira had begun to despair of ever finding Ukyou on it, but now she knew
that the Earth was really a very small place. She knew, intellectually, that the
area she had to search was no smaller, but she still felt like it was.
	"Wait here," Touga said suddenly. Akira looked at him. He was walking
towards a huge crowd. There had to be over five thousand... people there. Not
just the orange-skinned natives, but dozens of other species. Some of them were
almost indistinguishable from humans, others were even more outlandishly bizarre
than the natives. There was at least one cluster of people that looked almost
but not quite like humanoid great danes with shaggy hair. There was a three-
meter-tall insectile thing with huge gossamer wings that glimmered with rainbow
lights, wearing a giant white shirt with the picture of three human-looking men
on it.
	Akira glanced past the crowd and saw the stage. It was a pretty
traditional clamshell-like thing, except for the giant rotating three-
dimensional holographic pillars that floated on both sides of it, with a third
being projected into the air overhead. The speakers, if that was what they were,
floated on tiny pods that were being meticulously adjusted into place by
technicians.
	"Here you go," Touga said with a smile, offering Akira a thin white and
blue strip.
	"What's that?" Akira asked.
	"Your ticket. Hold out your hand." Akira did so without thinking and
Touga slapped the strip against her wrist. Instead of cracking, the strip
circled around her wrist and forged itself together, a green gem appearing where
the two ends connected. Akira blinked. "To let you in," Touga explained.
	"Yeah..." Akira tried to dig her finger under the band, which was on
pretty tight but didn't feel tight at all.
	"Don't do that. If you break the gem you'll be kicked off the grounds
when the concert starts," Touga explained.
	"Really?" Akira frowned. Then she shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me. I
don't even know why I'm here."
	"Wh-uh... what do you mean?" Touga replied quickly, his eyes had
abruptly become clubs. Akira glanced at him, but let whatever that was slide.
	"You're the diplomat. My job was to get you here. You make contact with
this..."
	"Jurai princess," Touga stated.
	"...Jurai princess. You don't need me for that. I'm not exactly good
with... uh, people in general I guess. Especially not high-class people. I grew
up in the slums." Akira adjusted her leather jacket's collar.
	"Nonsense," Touga replied smoothly. "You have elegant manners, and I can
see a level of refinement under your veneer of crudeness."
	Akira grimaced. She had spent too much time pretending to be something
she was not. Yes, she could pull off the shy, demure woman thing that was so
socially encouraged in her homeland, but she had never felt comfortable with it.
Truth be told, she had always preferred kicking her feet up on the table, with
an ice-cold drink in her hand and cookie crumbs covering her stomach, than
kneeling formal style.
	"Idol singers just aren't my thing, especially not pretty-boys. Maybe
I'll go exploring. You know, walk the city. See the sights." Akira smiled as she
looked around. "I mean, I can almost feel it, how this place is... different.
It's deeper than the air and the water and the soil. The energy of this place,
the soul of it... it's so alien. I wonder what it will feel like if I do some
real training..."
	Touga blinked and his eyes changed to diamonds. "And what happens if
there is some sort of trouble?" he asked.
	"You expecting some?" Akira crossed her arms.
	"...not really," Touga admitted slowly. "However, I can hardly defend
myself if anything dangerous happens. Unlike you, I cannot fight without
transforming into my partner. And I don't think that would be wise, given the...
attitude these people likely have towards magical beings like Kairos at the
moment." Then he perked up. "Not to mention that this princess might have the
ability to sense magic. Everything I say might be suspect because of my partner.
However you are entirely normal, and thus more likely to be believed."
	Akira frowned at him. Then she shrugged. "Okay."
	"That's it?"
	"Yeah, sure. You make good points. You want me to argue more?"
	"No, that will be fine. On that note, please do not mention my partner
to the princess, regardless of what happens. It would be a complication these
negotiations don't need."
	"Sure," Akira shrugged. "I won't mention her. You. Whatever."
	He nodded, then looked towards the stage. The holograms had changed.
They had become three slightly transparent projections of three different
teenage boys walking towards each other. On the stage the three actual singers
were walking on. The crowd began to murmur, then growl, then roar with approval.
	Akira took a moment to examine the Three Lights. From what Touga told
her, they were one of the most popular musical acts in the entire galaxy, and
the prime reason they had chosen this planet. It was conveniently within a few
weeks travel of Earth, which while not at the maximum range of their ship, was
about as far as Tethys (and Akira) were willing to trust a spaceship that had
been designed from the ground up less than six months ago.
	The three of them looked rather similar. All of them were tallish - or
maybe that was just the giant holograms skewing her perceptions - with slim,
almost feminine builds. In fact, for the longest time Akira was certain they
were women. Women trying very hard to disguise their true gender, but women.
Akira was an expert at the cross-dressing game, after all. But considering one
screaming teenage girl nearby was waving a giant poster with the three of them
wearing swimtrunks on it, Akira figured her instincts had to be wrong in this
case.
	The lead had black hair, and the other two had brown and white hair. All
three had near-identical ponytails and wore near-identical suits, distinguished
only by having a differently coloured rose on their lapels.
	"...search...mingle...here..."
	"What?" Akira shouted.
	"I'm going to go search for the princess!" Touga yelled again. "You
should stay here and mingle!" She could barely hear him over the cheers of the
crowd.
	"Mingle?" Akira yelled, allowing her distaste to show on her face.
	"Yes, Tethys' spell should translate any of their languages for you,"
Touga explained, leaning in uncomfortably close so he could pitch his voice more
softly. "Just see what you can overhear. You never know what might be valuable
knowledge."
	Touga waved, his heart-shaped eyes flashing, before he turned and
vanished into the crowd.

*

	"Control yourself," Touga thought at his partner. She stopped in mid-
motion. Kairos grumbled as she slowly put away the cards she had withdrawn from
her cleavage. Touga wished he could just relax, but his new "partner" had a
disturbing habit of doing the most ridiculous things. Frankly he was beginning
to think that the arrangement had not exactly been worth it.
	Certainly having a youma bonded to his soul granted him power. Kairos
was actually very powerful. Her magic allowed her to manipulate probability
itself. The problem was that Kairos was insane. And not just normal youma
insanity. A mere psychopath he could have dealt with.
	Kairos... liked to play.
	"You should chill out, Touga," Kairos drawled as she leaned back in her
chair, extending one of her long pale legs and placing it on the makeup table.
She giggled. "God doesn't play dice with the universe, but that doesn't mean we
can't."
	"Just remember we're here to perform a job," Touga growled. He hated
this. He didn't have any real control over Kairos at all, aside from the ability
to force the transformation back to his human form. Of course, that really
wasn't an option here. The last thing he needed to have happen was for anyone to
connect him to Tethys' scheme.
	Ah, speak of the devil. The door swished open and three young men walked
into the dressing room. They stopped in place, staring at Kairos. She smiled at
them and arched her back a little.
	"Hello boys," she drawled. Touga sighed. "What?" Kairos snapped.
	"You don't have to be so obvious," Touga replied. "Sexuality should be
wielded like a scalpel, with precision and forethought, not like a
sledgehammer."
	"Maybe for men who are trying to get in a woman's pants," Kairos said
with a smirk. "But us chicks just have to use the great equaliser." Kairos
grabbed her breasts and pushed them together a few times.
	"Please stop that," Touga said with the telepathic equivalent of a
mutter.
	"What, don't like breast fondling from the other side, huh, Mr. Lady's
Man, well-"
	"You're speaking out loud, you idiot. They can hear everything you're
saying."
	Kairos froze. She slowly turned her attention back to the Three Lights.
They had taken the time while she was distracted to circle around her. The
black-haired boy in the lead was standing before the door. The white-haired one
had circled to the left, leaving the brown-haired one on the right. All of them
had their hands in their pockets, obviously preparing to transform.
	"Uh... could you pretend you didn't hear all that?" Kairos asked
cheerfully.
	"Who are you?" the leader challenged.
	"What do you want?" the white-haired one snapped.
	"Did Galaxia send you?" the brown-haired one asked more calmly, but no
less dangerously.
	"Well, maybe..." Kairos grinned. "I heard something about a Light of
Hope and decided to come check it out."
	"No way!" the leader shouted, stepping forward. "How did you know about
that?" The other two looked shocked.
	Touga felt Kairos relax, even though he himself was as nervous as he had
ever been. It was an odd disconnect, experiencing the physical sensations of
Kairos while keeping his own emotional reaction. He hadn't understood how
intimately connected the body and mind were until he had started sharing his
with a demonness.
	"My great leader told me all about her," Kairos said, bouncing to her
feet. Which was technically true, Touga thought. Tethys had let them both know
about the Light of Hope and Princess Kakyuu's search for it. Of course, Touga
had no idea how she had learned about that, or the secret identities of the
Three Lights, but he didn't need to.
	"We won't let you stop us!" the leader said, pulling what looked like a
gaudy headset from his pocket. "Sailor Starfighter, Make UP!"
	Kairos backed up, blinking as a flash of kaleidoscope light surged out
from the singer. When the light dimmed, the boy in front of them had changed.
Most importantly, it was no longer a man. She wore a pair of hyperabbreviated
shorts and a bikini top with attached sailor collar, opera gloves and thigh-high
stilleto-heeled boots; all in glossy black leather of course. If she couldn't
have killed him with a gesture, Touga would have laughed.
	"Wow, and he complains about my wardrobe," Kairos said, breaking out
into a fit of the giggles.
	"This isn't funny!" Sailor Starfighter shouted, stepping closer. The
other two looked at each other and nodded.
	"Sailor Starmaker, Make Up!"
	"Sailor Starhealer, Make Up!"
	"Oh no, I'm overwhelmed!" Kairos shouted in mock horror, pulling her
hands to her cheeks.
	"Stop hamming it up," Touga growled. "They might decide to kill you
without talking."
	"Heh, you idiots can't kill me." Kairos said, dropping her arms as the
Sailr Starlights walked closer. "Not if you ever want to see the Princess."
	"What do you know about her?" Starhealer demanded, her long white
ponytail snapping as she turned suddenly to present Kairos a reduced profile.
	"You didn't say please," Kairos pointed out, feinting towards him and
suddenly reversing back to backhand Starmaker in the side of the head. Touga
grunted in appreciation. It appears that his own combat skills were starting
to rub off on his partner. The girl flew back into the wall.
	"Bitch!" Starhealer shouted. "Star Sensitive Infer-"
	"NO!" Starfighter grabbed her partner's wrist, stopping the circular
energy blast from fully forming. "We can't kill her, she might know where the
Princess is."
	"Maybe I know something, maybe I don't?" Kairos smirked as she flipped
past them, landing next to the door. "The question you three have to ask
yourselves is: what are you willing to wager?"

*

	Haruhi Shoten strode onto Hiryu's command deck calmly. She kept her
hands locked together behind her back, and her stride even. Her uniform was
immaculate and her face the picture of serene competence.
	Most of the bridge crew was absent. Along with the majority of the
troops, they had gone down for shore leave. Hiryu was technically running on a
skeleton crew. Not that it needed one. Hiryu was perfectly capable of running
only on himself, as he would often tell Shoten at length. He was always
complaining about all the gadgets and gizmos that had been cocooned around his
body and how much power it took to keep them all working.
	During those times, Shoten would just smile and indulge him. She knew
that her treeship wasn't really annoyed about going around with all the
secondary equipment. Like herself, Hiryu had an almost irrepressible love of
space. While he could travel through hyperspace by himself, even taking her
along for the ride if he wanted to, that would have been it. Hiryu appreciated
the crew and didn't really begrudge them the support system that kept them
alive.
	He did, however, hate being a warship.
	Shoten frowned. She could feel the sadness still in her bondmate. The
Jurai trees didn't have emotions in the same sense humanoids did. Like regular
trees, they experienced life on a seasonal level. The destruction of a half
dozen of his brothers and sisters was still hard for him. Shoten could
understand. She had lost good friends. Friends she had know for hundreds of
years had died in the Pleiades disaster.
	And she had been forced to watch, helpless. She had been forced to run.
It wasn't fair. She wanted to do something to pay those bastards back. But all
she could do was patrol the sector and escort a spoiled brat of a princess on a
fool's errand.
	"Isn't Seiya hot?"
	"No way, Taiki has those soulful purple eyes..."
	"Ladies..." Shoten growled. The three young girls that had been left on
the bridge snapped around, their eyes widening.
	"C-captain Shoten!" one of them gasped. The three were standing in front
of one of the deep range probe monitors, back to back so that Shoten couldn't
see what was on the screen.
	"We didn't see you come in, ma'am," another one explained.
	"And we certainly weren't misusing the sensor system to monitor the
concert down below instead of doing our job!" the last called out.
	"You weren't?" Shoten allowed a smile to cross her features. The three
junior officers paled. The captain only ever smiled when she was going to enjoy
something, and that rarely meant other people would share her joy.
	"Well, uh..." The first one to speak began to flail behind her blindly,
trying to reach the controls.
	"You three had better-"
	MURDERER!
	Shoten snapped her head around. That had been Hiryu! She felt a wave of
hatred pour out of her tree, nearly driving her to her knees. A gasp escaped her
lips and she grabbed a nearby railing to keep up. She hadn't felt anything this
intense from Hiryu since...
	"Quick," Shoten gasped. "Monitor all incoming gravity-"
	"Captain, a ship is emerging from subspace!"
	"Identify!" Shoten forced herself to stand. "Bring it up on the
display."
	"Yes, ma'am!" A two-story-tall holographic screen appeared at the front
of the bridge. It showed a section of space where the stars appeared to be
rippling and twisting as if caught in whirlpool. "These... these readings can't
be right!"
	Shoten bit her lip as the space in front of them suddenly shredded. A
ship emerged, twisting trails of blue and silver pseudolight warping around its
planes and angles. There was no real sense of scale in the image, but Shoten
knew from bitter experience that the enemy ship was nearly three times as large
as her own. Not that size mattered much. Theoretically, the Light Hawk Wings
were the most powerful force in the universe. A second generation treeship like
Hiryu could produce three of them on demand.
	"The enemy ship is scanning us!"
	"Lifeform detectors are coming back positive for 'Sailor' patterns!"
	"Multiple teleport signatures detected! The Habuki-Samoflange defence
screen is preventing incoming teleports!"
	"Multiple 'magic' pattern spikes, the enemy is charging main batteries."
	Shoten forced down her fear. "Deploy the Light Hawk Wings. Place
ourselves between them and the planet."
	"Captain! The new protocol is to retreat from any direct confrontation-"
	But the girl didn't get a chance to finish. Shoten's orders hadn't been
meant for her. Hiryu shifted in space. She could feel it as he pulled on the
near infinite reserves of the Jurai treeships. She could almost see the wings
forming, phasing into existence in a shower of white sparks. Three feather-
shaped shields of indestructible incandescent light.
	"Incoming fire!"
	Space went from being empty and cold to full of burning plasma. Bolts
and beams of red and green light lanced out from the other ship. The Light Hawk
Wings rotated, spinning in place faster than unaided perception could perceive,
intercepting each attack and snuffing it out without so much as a ripple. On the
screen Shoten could see a few of the space yachts that had been unable to flee
the territory go up in brilliant plumes of vapourised metal and explosions of
light. The barrage continued for almost a minute, with the skeleton crew
reporting each fatal strike on a nearby ship.
	Shoten felt her blood boil. Those people were just here for the concert.
There was no reason to destroy them! Then the barrage ended as quickly as it
began.
	"C-captain... we're being hailed."
	"Put them through." This was it. Either she was going to live, or she
was going to die. But somehow she knew whose face she would see a fraction of a
second before it appeared on the screen.
	"Captain Shoten, what a surpise."
	"Z," she snarled.
	Z was humanoid, though what race it was impossible to tell. He might
have been Juraian, save for his slightly pointed ears. He had green hair, short
and spiked. His right eye was gold, and the left eye had been replaced by some
purple substance that was also growing out through his forehead in a series of
irregular spikes. He wore a brown coat, open in the front.
	"You don't sound happy to see me, again." Z smiled, displaying his
fangs. "How is Seiryo? You two left so abruptly... I almost feel unloved."
	"He'll live," Shoten growled. "Which is more than I can say for you."
	"Now now, captain, let's not engage in empty threats." Z raised his arm
into the screen. "Lest you forget..."
	And there they were, appearing out of nowhere in front of the massive
ship. Five Light Hawk Wings flashed into existence. Then as the freak-eyed
maniac grinned and twisted his hand, three of the wings vanished.
	"Our light hawk wings are being neutralised!" one of the officers
screamed.
	"That's impossible!"
	Shoten grabbed the railing tightly. Of course, only a half-dozen crew
had survived the last battle with this monster. And she had been under strict
orders not to reveal the true reason for the disaster.
	"Our shields are gone! We're utterly defenceless!"
	"We have to get out of here!"
	"NO!" Shoten shouted. "Prepare to fight using conventional weapons."
	"Well now..." Z smiled. "Not running away. Trying to avenge your dead
comrades?" Another wave of hatred from Hiryu pulsed through Shoten. "Except I
don't think so." Z chuckled. "No, there has to be some reason you're not running
away. It can't be to protect that planet, after you fled so quickly the last
time..." Shoten bristled. "Now... what can it be? Something important ON the
planet, perhaps?" Z leaned in to the screen. "Something even a captain of a
second generation treeship would be willing to die to protect?"
	"Open fire!"
	"Y-yes, ma'am."
	Of course, it was futile. Jurai warships were not outfitted with the
kind of weapons that a Galaxy Police cruiser could deploy. But even if this had
been one of the most powerful GP dreadnoughts, it still would not have pierced
two Light Hawk Wings.
	"Oh, don't worry about betraying your secret, captain." Z chuckled.
"I wouldn't insult you by expecting you to yield to mere torture when you've
already shown your willingness to sacrifice your life. But still..." He abruptly
stopped smiling, his eyes going cold and hard. "Waste not, want not, they say.
Goodbye, Captain Shoten."
	"You basta-"
	The world dissolved into green fire.

*

	Ayeka sat down with a happy little sigh as the intermission started. She
was covered with sweat, and felt almost light-headed. She wiped her brow.
Someone nearby, obviously seeing her condition, offered her a bottle of water,
which Ayeka accepted with a grateful "thank you". She gulped it down thirstily,
sparing only a quick glance around to ensure nobody was watching as she lifted
her veil to do so.
	The concert was... exhilarating. It was much bigger than she'd expected.
The formal revues and plays Ayeka had attended in her youth were nothing
compared to this, and it was not simply due to the fact that the subject matter
was comparatively sedate. The Three Lights had a... power. Something in their
singing always felt like it was calling directly to her, and at the same time it
seemed lonely. The combination enthralled her. Even more than watching Yaten.
And it was only stronger seeing them in person, here.
	Poor Sasami would be so upset that she couldn't come. Ayeka adjusted the
position of the video recorder cunningly hidden in her hairband. At the very
least, she could bring something back for her...
	"Hey, is this seat taken?"
	Ayeka jumped a bit, then giggled nervously. "No, of course you may."
There was nothing to worry about, she chided as she turned to face the newcomer.
It was perfectly normal for someone at a concert to...
	She blinked. "Umm... why are you wrestling that man?"
	The young man who Ayeka was talking to had a pleasant face, with short
brown hair and matching eyes. He was smiling in a friendly manner even as he
placed another man in a headlock. The man in the headlock looked vaguely
familiar, but Ayeka couldn't place him. The young man wore a black jacket with
spiked shoulder pads, and loose black pants. Strangely enough, they were of the
strange denim material that Ayeka only ever remembered encountering on Earth.
The man he was holding had a wooden expression and was struggling weakly.
	"Oh, he was trying to prevent me from sitting here. I asked him if he
was reserving the seat, but it seems not. You said nobody was sitting there,
right?"
	Ayeka blinked slowly, then looked around. Indeed, nobody was sitting in
the seat the young man was nodding towards. In fact, nobody had sat anywhere
near Ayeka throughout the concert. Five seats on each side, and a similar amount
at front and back, were empty. That had been very convienent for watching the
concert, but now that Ayeka looked around, she noticed it was also rather...
anomalous. In fact, other than the ones around her, she couldn't see so much as
a single empty seat anywhere at the outdoor stadium. Certainly none near the
stage.
	She stared at the man in the headlock again. He still looked familiar.
In fact... "Wait. You were the man who sold me my ticket." The man didn't
respond aside from continued attempts to escape the newcomer's grasp. "And gave
me the water a moment ago. Why are you interfering with this person trying to
watch the concert?"
	The newcomer stared at her for a long moment, then looked down at the
man struggling in her grasp. "So... you don't know this guy?"
	"Umm... no."
	"Huh. So, you're not a space princess, by any chance, are you?"
	Ayeka lifted her hand to her mouth and laughed. She was certain it
sounded quite natural. "Umm... what a ridiculous notion! I'm sure I haven't the
faintest idea what you could be speaking of!"
	"Huh. Well, then, not-space-princess, if you don't know these people,
you have some very dedicated stalkers."
	Ayeka blinked. "Stalkers?"
	"That would be the half-dozen guys trying to prevent anybody from
sitting next to you."
	Ayeka looked around. "I don't see anybody."
	"You need to look down."
	Ayeka did. She stared at all the crumpled bodies for a moment. "Umm...
did you..."
	"They really didn't want me to sit next to you."
	The boy sat down in the chair, still holding the struggling man in a
headlock. With his free hand, he held out something from the concession stand.
"Want a cookie?"
	"No..."
	"Good, more for me." The boy popped the treat in his mouth. "Mmm, alien
cookie."
	Ayeka felt quite confused.
	Then a sudden suspicion stuck her. Leaning forward, she looked at the
man struggling in the newcomer's apparently very firm grip. Now that she thought
about it, he was obviously Juraian. She gritted her teeth. "Did my father send
you? Or was it Captain Shoten?"
	The man paused. "Ummm... that is... no?"
	"I'm not sure he's telling the truth," the newcomer drawled.
	"Nor am I," scowled Ayeka. She could feel her face flush with anger and
embarassment under the veil. "Please tell whoever sent you that I am more than
capable of taking care of myself!" Seizing his arm, she yanked off the green gem
of his entry bracelet.
	"Wow." The newcomer blinked, staring down at his suddenly empty arm. "He
vanished."
	Ayeka, with perhaps a little more roughness than was strictly necessary,
gave the same treatment to the other sprawled, unconscious Juraian guards; like
the first, their forms flickered for a moment and then disappeared with a soft
sound as soon as their entry bracelets were broken. "Yes, without an entry
bracelet, trespassers are transported to a holding cell outside the stadium."
	"They go 'zwee' when they vanish," the boy commented with bemusement.
"That's neat. I'm so used to 'zoi', now, I guess."
	"Sorry?"
	"Never mind, just reminded of somebody that's really best left
forgotten. So, you are the space princess?"
	Ayeka slumped in her seat, cursing Shoten and her father equally and
grateful the veil covered her still-burning cheeks. Thanks to them trying to
'protect' her, she had managed to give the all-important first impression of
being a... a royal idiot, bluntly. That her own obviously woefully indequate
skills at realising what a 'normal' packed concert was like had sealed her fate
didn't help. "I do apologise. I presume you must be the representative of
Tethys?"
	"Nope. Not at all." Ayeka gasped, but the boy held up a placating hand.
"Don't panic. I'm not the representative, but I do work for her. Well, I'm doing
this for her. I don't like her that much, really." Now Ayeka was feeling rather
confused again. The boy held out another baked sweet. "Sure you won't reconsider
that cookie?"
	Ayeka nodded slowly, not quite certain what else to do. The boy suddenly
looked chagrined as Ayeka took the cookie. His fingers twitched once or twice,
as if he wanted to seize it back, but then his hand dropped.
	"The real ambassador is around here somewhere," the boy mentioned. "I'm
just the pilot and bodyguard. A nicer one than yours, I hope."
	"Umm, yes," Ayeka said, then drew herself up and dedicated herself to
trying to undo her previous impression. "I am, as you have surmised, Ayeka
Masaki Jurai. I apologise again for the misunderstanding and inconvenience.
Might I ask your name?"
	This time it was the boy's turn to blush, which put a surprisingly
feminine cast to his face. "And here I am Japanese, and forgetting that." He
inclined his head deeply. "My name is Akira Kazama." He looked up and paused. "I
don't have a business card, though. Sorry."
	"That's quite all right," Ayeka said, wondering idly what a business
card was. "Pleased to meet you."
	"Likewise."

*

	Akira had to admit she actually kind of liked the princess. Despite not
knowing her for very long, and despite an undeniable bit of prissiness, this
Ayeka didn't seem as stuck up as she expected. Then again, the closest thing
Akira had ever met to royalty was Tethys, and Tethys held court in a comfortable
office with oak bookcases and potted plants. Besides, Ayeka was awfully cute, if
the eyes peeking out from behind that modest veil were any indication.
	Still, she could sense something was wrong. There was a feeling in the
air. The hairs on the back of her neck were rising. For some reason she kept
looking upward. It was like... She remembered standing on the ruins of Tokyo
Tower, staring up at the sky where the death god had almost managed to claw
its way into reality. The feeling here was almost the same. Like something
terrible had already happened, and she was just now feeling the ramifications of
that.
	Ukyou probably would have been able to tell what it was that bothered
Akira.
	Damn it. She closed her eyes and looked down. She had to stop that. She
grabbed her wrist and squeezed.
	"Are you okay?" Ayeka asked.
	"Yes..." Akira released her wrist and took a deep breath. "It's just-"
She cut off and threw herself at Ayeka, tackling the girl to the side. Ayeka
gave out a startled cry as Akira pulled her down into the aisle. A flash of
yellow light lanced through the air above them.
	There was a crack and a blast of air, followed by a wave of heat. Akira
cursed.
	"Get off me!" Ayeka yelled.
	"Sorry," Akira called, leaping to her feet. She scanned the area, but
was unable to tell much of what was happening. The crowd was screaming and
running, dissolving into a panicked mob. The chi of the area was spiking as
everybody began to give in to their fear. They were screaming, but even with
Tethys' magic Akira couldn't understand a word over the babble of voices.
	Ayeka stood up slowly, glancing around. Akira noticed a group of people
stampeding towards them. "Get do-"
	Then the group slammed to a halt, their bodies flashing with blue-white
lightning. Akira blinked, before realising that the air between the two of them
and the crowd was full of tiny floating... logs? They looked like little logs,
as if harvested from bonsai trees. At the same time, there was a strangely
technological look to them. As Akira looked around she saw that the floating
logs completely surrounded her and Ayeka, preventing the crowd from trampling
them in their panic.
	"Are you doing this?" Akira asked the princess.
	"Yes..." Ayeka frowned. "It's part of my heritage."
	"That's so awesome!" Akira gushed. "You have alien superpowers!"
	"Er, yes..." Ayeka looked at her askance. "But I fear that this
situation is still not good. I can't seem to signal the ship..."
	"Hold on a second..." Akira closed her eyes and brought her fingertips
to her brow. She tried to practice the meditation techniques Ukyou had taught
her. She had to empty the mind, eliminate her self. Only then could she filter
her perceptions through her void chakra and...
	"They're coming this way!"
	...she could just hear somebody shout conveniently. She snapped her eyes
open as the crowd parted. A white blur was racing through the crowd, being
pursued by three female figures. The three women were firing at the fleeing
alien with energy blasts from their fingertips.
	Akira moved instinctively in front of Ayeka as the white figure
reached them. Then Akira saw who it was. Her name was Kairos and, from what
Akira could tell, she was Touga's evil female alter-ego. She dressed like a Las
Vegas showgirl, complete with fishnets, a ridiculously oversized top hat and a
peacock feather tail. She had alabaster skin and eyes that constantly shifted
between four card suits, just like Touga. She was also about ten times more
annoying than Touga.
	All he did was hit on Akira. Kairos... played.
	"Pardon me!" Kairos yelled and flipped up and over the two of them. A
blast of light flashed in behind her, obviously aimed at the youma-woman's back.
But without her to intercept it, the attack would have drilled right into Ayeka
had it not been for her shield. The blast pattered off the shield in a brief
aurora of blue-white sparks.
	Kairos landed in a crouch behind Ayeka. The three girls landed in front
of them, standing together in what almost seemed like a choreographed pose.
Akira raised an eyebrow at their... abbreviated outfits, but placed that thought
aside for later.
	"Sailors!" Ayeka gasped.
	"What?" Akira asked. She was only familiar with a few people who called
themselves Sailors, and they were all dangerous people. Sailor Pluto had been a
psychopath out to kill Ukyou, and her two cohorts Uranus and Neptune had been
just as dangerous.
	"Get out of our way!" demanded the one on the right, the shortest,
white-haired one.
	"We have no business with you," the taller, brown-haired one on the left
pointed out in a more reasonable but considerably colder voice.
	"We're after that thing!" declared the middle girl, the cute black-
haired one. "Don't get between us!"
	Akira sighed. She looked back at Kairos, who was looking as innocent as
she was capable of. She looked at Ayeka. It was hard to see Ayeka's expression
through the veil she wore, but she looked both scared and angry. Akira pulled
the last cookie from the bag she had bought and flipped it into her mouth.
	"I'm sorry, I can't let you hurt my friend."
	"Your friend?" the black-haired girl growled.
	"Yeah." Really, Akira didn't consider Kairos (or Touga) her friend. But
saying 'I can't let you hurt the person I'm currently defending even though I'm
not technically being paid to or have any investment in their well-being aside
from a vague promise to a person I actually kind of dislike but you know I keep
my word even when it's inconvenient and besides I want an excuse to beat
somebody up because I just spent three weeks in a cramped ship and want to have
some good old-fashioned violence' was too long to really be flippant.
	"She knows where the Princess is!" the white-haired girl shouted. "And
we're not letting you stop us!"
	"Princess?" Akira looked back at Ayeka and instantly regretted it as the
girl's eyes widened in shock. The three Sailors also gasped. "I'm sorry, girls,
but I can't let you get near the princess..." Akira paused. She hadn't meant it
to come out quite that way, but she shrugged the misspoken line off.
	"Ayeka, why don't you let me through this shield. You concentrate on
keeping yourself safe." The Jurai princess nodded her head, her long purple hair
bobbing as she did so. Akira stepped through the field towards the three
Sailors.
	"Maker, Healer..." the black-haired one said slowly. "Try to circle
around and get the clown-"
	"I'm not a clown!"
	"... just get her. I'll deal with this one." The girl settled into a
fighting stance. Akira resisted the urge to chuckle at it. It was rude to mock
your opponent. Plus, she could shoot lasers from her fingertips. There was every
reason to be cautious.
	"Fighter, be careful!" the white-haired one replied, then leapt to the
side, trying to circle around Ayeka's shield.
	"Come on then," Fighter said, holding up her hands. "If you know
anything about the princess, you should tell me now."
	"I'm afraid I can't do that." Akira shrugged. She clenched her fist and
began to gather her chi. The other girl didn't react as Akira pulled more and
more of her spiritual energy. Any martial artist back home would have already
attacked, but this girl either couldn't sense the build up of energy or didn't
consider it a threat. Akira frowned. "Listen, I've never been one for banter.
Can we just fight?"
	"Fine!" Fighter roared and leapt forward, thrusting her hand. "Star
Serious Laser!"
	A yellow beam lanced out from the Sailor's outstretched fingers. Akira
was already moving, her body slipping sideways even as she rushed forward. The
beam of light was actually dreadfully fast, Akira didn't trust herself to dodge
it unless she could predict where the other girl was aiming. Thankfully, she
telegraphed her moves badly. As she raised her palm up, Akira made a note to not
make any stupid jumps or other moves that would leave her unable to evade for-
	Oh wait, the girl wasn't dodging.
	Akira slammed her palm into the girl's sternum and released her built-up
chi. She dumped as much as she coud at the last minute for good measure,
multiplying the force exponentially. There was a crash like a wave breaking
against a reef and a hemisphere of blue force rippled through the air out from
Akira's palm. The Sailor was caught straight on, not even managing to roll with
the blow. Akira watched as her opponent careened across the concert, ripping
seats from the ground and scattering them like tenpins. She finally came to a
stop when her body punched through a metal-sided vehicle of some kind. Even
then, the force was enough to cause the bus-sized vehicle to tip over, kicking
up a cloud of dust.
	Behind her, Akira could hear the rest of the fight die down.
	"F-fighter!" one of the Sailors cried out in horrified shock.
	"NO!" The white-haired girl ran past Akira towards the overturned
vehicle, her eyes wide and frightened.
	Akira could have struck her. The girl was totally open, so concerned
with her friend she wasn't giving a thought to defence. She passed close enough
that Akira could have used an elbow-strike to her temple to put her out. The
girl likely wouldn't even feel it. But Akira paused.
	Then, just as she was about to run out of range, more of those weird
little floating logs appeared in front of her. The girl yelped in pain as she
ran into the field, causing lightning to flash across her body. This time Akira
felt the surge of chi. She looked back at Ayeka. Whatever those were, they
weren't just some hypertech machines. They were focusing the princess' chi in
some way. And the amount of chi the girl was putting off was... staggering.
Akira hadn't felt anything like that since Tethys.
	"Damn you!" the white-haired Sailor shouted, jumping back. "Star
Sensitive INFERNO!" She unleashed a blast of light and noise into the field, but
it wasn't having any effect. Akira frowned. Ayeka had her hand outstretched to
project the field. It must have left her open, but the girl hadn't done a thing
to attack her. She was trying to break out.
	To get to her friend.
	"Ayeka, let her go," Akira said.
	"What?" Ayeka looked at Akira, her red eyes widening. "We can't let
these monsters escape! They'll destroy everybody on this planet."
	"Monsters don't cry over fallen comrades," Akira explained.
	"Whoa, ladies!" Kairos said, suddenly leaping between them. "Why don't
you two just take down the bad guys and..."
	"I won't attack them if they aren't attacking me," Akira said simply.
	Ayeka looked at Akira oddly. Then her eyes narrowed. "I'm sorry, but
I've seen what these monsters can do. These Sailors destroy whole worlds. I
won't le-"
	Ayeka's voice cut off into a noiseless gasp and her eyes shot open. She
fell forward, staggering like she had just been punched in the gut. Akira
appeared beside her, grabbing the Jurai princess before she fell to the ground.
Her veil had come loose, and it drifted to the ground.
	"Ayeka?" Akira shook the girl slightly. "Ayeka!"
	"That... wasn't supposed to happen," Kairos mused.
	The two sailors had stopped as well. They looked up and then frowned at
each other. Their expressions were almost resigned. Akira looked at Kairos, who
looked as confused as Akira felt.
	"Well now, imagine this..."
	Akira turned quickly, looking towards the stage. There was a man there.
He wore a brown jacket over a wine-coloured shirt and blue slacks. His hands
were in his pockets and he floated casually above the stage, leaning back
slightly. His face might have been handsome except for the dark purple spikes
emerging unevenly from his forehead and his grotesque purple eye.
	Akira froze. The moisture in her mouth vanished. Her throat tightened so
much her breath came in a thin whistle. The muscles in her legs began to buckle
and the only thing that kept her from collapsing was the knowledge she would
drag Ayeka down with her.
	Akira had never felt anything like this before. She had felt chi, the
life force of people, for many years now. In the last few months, she had begun
to refine her senses. She had felt the energy emitted by every human soul, from
the weakest sickest child to the greatest martial artists who had cultivated
their spirit to a fine-honed weapon. She had felt, at a distance, the
unrestrained power of a zoalord. She had been in the presence of demon queens
and fought more than a few actual demons in her time. But the power of this man
put all that to shame.
	The worst part, the absolute worst part, was how casual his energy was.
There was no spike of killing intent, no martial focus. His aura was completely
at rest, and it dwarfed anything she had ever seen the same way the sun dwarfed
a bonfire.
	"Two Sailor Senshi, on this little planet," the man said, smirking at
the Sailors. "So was that the power I picked up? What a waste."
	"Z," the brown-haired girl snarled.
	"Oh, you've heard of me?" The man smiled pleasantly.
	"Galaxia's puppet," the brown-haired Sailor continued, her voice full of
disgust. The man's expression darkened.
	"I'll let that pass this once, Sailor," Z warned. "But don't ever call
me that again."
	"Damn..." the white-haired girl looked between the stage and the toppled
transport. "Maker, what do we do?"
	"It would be such a waste of resources for me to fight you," Z said. He
nodded his head and twin flashes of bright light appeared on either side of him.
They resolved into the shapes of young women. Like the two women who currently
had his attention, they wore sailor collars, but there the similarity ended. The
one on the right was thin with purple skin and a skintight Chinese print dress
with dragons winding around it; she carried a whip curled seductively around her
hips. The one on the left was shorter, and carried a pair of sabres with pink
blades and heart-shaped guards.
	"Sailor Dragontail, Sailor Sabre, take their Star Seeds."
	"Yes, sir!" they shouted in unison, leaping into the air.
	"Damn!" Maker shouted, jumping to the side. "Watch out, these are no
ordinary phages!"
	"Phages?" Akira muttered. She had no idea what was going on. She just
knew that she had to get herself and Ayeka out of here. The princess was slowly
coming around. Whatever had shocked her was apparently passing. Akira looked
around for a moment as blasts of magic and attacks passed across each other. She
couldn't spot Kairos. Not that Akira could blame the youma for running as soon
as she could.
	"Star Gentle UTERUS!" A spherical shockwave of magic exploded from the
brown-haired Sailor's hand, causing Sabre to leap out of the way. However, she
seemed more amused than hard-pressed.
	"...she didn't just say that," Akira muttered to herself as she began to
carefully pull Ayeka away. She had to get the princess to safety no matter how
much she wanted to find out what was going on. She didn't know who the good or
bad guys were here. Best to not get involved. Yeah, that was it...
	"MAKER!"
	Akira's head snapped up. Damn. The brown-haired girl had been pinned to
the ground, a blade shoved through her shoulder. The phage-woman's black eyes
were wide in sadistic glee as she twisted the hilt, causing the Sailor to
scream. The white-haired girl tried to run towards the two, only for a whip to
snake around her knees and send her roughly into the dirt.
	"Pathetic," Z sighed. "It appears my Sailor Killers are more than a
match for the real thing." He shrugged. "Still, don't finish her off right
away." He smiled. "I highly doubt Captain Shoten gave her life to protect a pair
of Sailor Senshi. There must be something here you're after." He gestured with
one hand and Sabre twisted her blade again. Maker screamed. "I'm certain you'll
tell me what it is."
	"NEVER!" the white-haired Sailor shouted, only to have Sailor Dragontail
slam a heeled foot into the back of her head.
	"Show respect," the phage-woman said with a mocking lilt.
	"Captain Shoten?" Ayeka said, raising her head.
	"Ayeka, this isn't our..."
	"Did you say... Captain Shoten?" Ayeka continued. Her eyes rose up to
lock on Z. Akira swallowed painfully. Akira wanted to warn her not to say
anything. That no matter what she did, she did not want to draw that man's
attention. But the words stuck in her throat. "What did you do to Captain
Shoten?" Ayeka shouted.
	"Hmm?" Z glanced at them. "I killed her, of course."
	"You.. you... YOU MONSTER!"
	Akira was thrown to the side as Ayeka exploded forward. There was a
flash of blue-white light that travelled up from the girl's feet to her head,
leaving her clothing transformed. She was now clad in a jacket with a high
collar that was cinched tight at the waist like a kimono and whose hem framed
her hips. Her loose pants rippled and even her face had changed, covered in some
sort of dark war paint that, when combined with her red eyes, gave her an almost
demonic appearance. She drew back one hand, a floating ring around her bicep
spinning, and a wall of force began to build in front of her.
	The chairs between her and the stage didn't just get brushed aside as
she rocketed towards the man, they exploded. The ground in front of her cracked
and shattered, scattering around her like the wake of a speedboat. A twisting
contrail of screaming air formed behind her.
	The man staggered back, his eyes widening. Ayeka broke onto the stage,
thrusting her fist at him in a wordless scream. The entire front third of the
stage shattered around her; great clouds of debris, some pieces the size of
watermelons, crashing out in all directions.
	And as the smoke settled, Ayeka was standing there, her fist extended. Z
was holding up one hand, his palm directly in the path of her attack. Between
the two of them, a semi-transparent pane of white force had appeared. It was
shaped somewhere between a wing and a blade.
	"No... not possible..." Ayeka gasped.
	Z smiled. His inhuman purple eye widened. "Princess Ayeka!" His voice
was full of twisted joy, like a cat who had just watched a bird land in front of
him. "Now this IS quite the surprise."
	Akira wasn't certain when she arrived on the stage. She was already
half-way across the shattered platform when Z's hand snapped out, clamping onto
Ayeka's throat. "Oh, Princess... you don't know how happy I am to see you..."
	Akira didn't bother trying to announce herself. She didn't yell for him
to let go. She just came in silent and hard, her body coiled down as she slid
across the last few meters on the balls of her feet. Her entire body slipped
around into a spinning axe kick.
	Z's hand caught her ankle, dragging her to a sudden jarring halt. Akira
just barely managed to plant her foot so she wasn't thrown onto her face by the
sudden reversal of her inertia. "Excuse me, Princess." He turned to Akira. "I'm
sorry, who are you? I'm afraid I try to make a habit of not killing people I
don't know." With a deceptive twist of his wrist he launched Akira across the
stage. She screamed as she smashed into one of the hologram projectors with
enough force that the machine broke apart around her. Then she went through the
wall behind that, then she slammed into the ground hard enough that she drilled
three meters into it. "Now remember... if you come back, we've already met." she
heard Z say as her vision began to dim.

*

	"Oh, dear princess, I cannot tell you how much I have looked forward to
this meeting," Z commented, almost casually. His smile lacked any warmth,
however; more like a savage baring of teeth. "I've spent months wondering just
how I could get your good friend Tenchi's undivided attention. And here, it
seems, the chance I've waited for has fallen into my lap."
	Ayeka was strangely calm. She knew she should be panicking. Somehow, a
heretofore unknown compatriot of Galaxia had found her here. More incredibly
still, he had used the Light Hawk Wings. Captain Shoten was dead. Help, as the
unfortunate Akira had found, was nowhere to be found. Really, Ayeka had every
reason to panic several times over. But suddenly, she had found her thoughts
absolutely lucid.
	She could not be captured by this man.
	He wanted to use her against Tenchi. Tenchi, fighting against a foe who
also wielded the Light Hawk Wings, in a battlefield of his enemy's choosing...
no. She wouldn't let that happen. Any more than she'd let an implacable enemy of
Jurai use her as a hostage in the middle of a war. She had responsibilities. She
had to escape. And if not to escape, then to not be taken hostage... by whatever
means necessary.
	But to try and escape, she'd need to know more of what she had gotten
herself into. "Who are you?" she snarled. "How did you find this place?"
	"Find?" Z titled his head slightly, getting a better look at her. "I
followed a rumour. Something about a 'Light of Hope', or some nonsense." He
chuckled. "Not that it matters now."
	There was a crack and a flash of light. The air suddenly filled with an
acrid scent. "Ah, it looks like the heroic marines have arrived." He twisted
Ayeka's head so she could see the large open-air stadium. Jurai marines were
charging into the area, their sidearms filling the air with blue-white flashes.
Z waved his hand and three Wings of the Light Hawk appeared between them and the
stage. The incoming fire slowly petered off as the marines began to realise
that what was in front of them was not, in fact, an illusion.
	Light Hawk Wings, the secret power of the Jurai family, were the most
powerful force in the known universe. They could even hold back the event
horizon of a black hole for a short time. Up until a few years ago, the only
things capable of producing them were the royal treeships of Jurai. Then, there
had been Tenchi, a miracle child.
	And now there was this man. She could see the stunned despair settle
over the troops. There had been a lot of them, most of them getting leave for
this very concert at Ayeka's request. And they could do nothing for her. But
they were Jurai royal marines. They would die before they would leave her. She
wanted to cry out, to order them away, but Z's hand tightened slightly.
	"Let's watch for a few moments," he told her as she gasped for air. "I
want to see how my Sailor Killers deal with the best Jurai has to offer."
	From both sides of the stadium the strange Sailor-women appeared,
brandishing their weapons. Ayeka closed her eyes and turned her head, unwilling
to watch, as the sound of battle started up. Z laughed. "Spoilsport."

*

	Seiya woke up to discover a whole new definition of pain. This was not
merely agonising. It had gone right past the point where current galatic
languages failed to describe it. The songwriter inside him wanted to coin new
and interesting words about his pain.
	Then he managed to remember what had happened. One moment he had been
attacking that arrogant boy in the leather outfit, the next... the next he was
here. A weak groan escaped his lips and he opened his eyes. He was inside
something. His body was plastered into a dent in a metal wall. That boy had hit
him, he recalled vaguely. He had hit him hard enough to embed him in metal. Then
he looked up and saw that there was a great gaping hole in the ceiling, the
shattered metal twisting inward towards him. The attack had hit him hard enough
to punch him through one metal wall and into another.
	His fingers found purchase on something and he levered himself into a
sitting position, avoiding the sharp edges of the broken metal. He brought his
other hand up to his chest and... oh yeah. She brought her hand up to her chest.
Oh fuck, she wished she were a guy right now. It had to hurt less than this.
There was just so much less there to be hurting, after all.
	But she needed to remain in sailor form. Because she could hear fighting
outside, and didn't think that this would be a good time to rest. Plus she was
fairly certain her mortal form couldn't survive this level of damage.
	Fighting back the pain, Seiya climbed to her feet and dimly realised she
was in a vehicle of some kind. The entire thing had been knocked over onto its
side. Seiya winched and clenched a hand over her heart. So, knocked through a
metal wall, denting another wall and toppling over a large transport. If Seiya
saw that guy again, he would have to make certain not to provoke him so much.
	Gritting her teeth, Seiya leapt up, using one hand to pull herself out
of the hole. She stopped, her eyes widening. The stadium was a war zone.
Soldiers were fighting two phages. No, they weren't fighting. They were being
butchered.
	Whatever those phages were, they weren't normal. Seiya had been fighting
the demons for years, and knew that while their forms were bizarre and their
powers more so, they really weren't much of an actual threat. But these two
moved with a speed and power that no phage she had ever seen could. One of them
slipped in and around the soldiers, the twin sabres in her hands flashing around
in neat little circles, leaving almost poetic showers of blood in her wake. The
other strolled seductively through the stadium, cracking her whip so fast the
weapon couldn't even be seen. Men over a dozen meters away were being tossed
around by her casual strikes.
	And on the stage was Z.
	Seiya froze. She had only ever seen Galaxia's new lieutenant from a
distance, but even those brief glimpses let her know the man was dangerous. He
was holding up a woman by the neck, his face twisted in a rictus grin. It took
Seiya a moment to realise that the woman was the same one who had been with the
leather-clad man who had defeated her so handily. She had transformed into some
sort of combat form, but that had apparently not done her much good.
	And at the bottom of the stage, unconscious and bleeding, were her
comrades.
	"Tai-" Seiya was cut off in mid-shout by a sudden crippling flare in her
chest. She bent over, coughing and gasping, the pain in his chest spreading
outward. Tears leaked from her face as she rolled off the top of the transport
and landed behind it. Damnit, she couldn't even talk.
	It took a few seconds for the pain to dull to the point where she could
think clearly again. When she could, she realised that she was actually kind of
lucky. While the strike had knocked her clear of the battle, it had apparently
kept Z and his phages from realising she was here. Plus the pain had kept her
from announcing herself.
	Now, she just had to figure out a way to save her friends. The option of
running wasn't even considered. She had lost everything. She had lost her
princess, lost her homeworld, lost her very identity as Sailor Starfighter,
champion of justice, and she was not about to leave the last thing she had
behind. But it was still clear, no matter how much it hurt her pride, that this
was a fight she needed help in.
	Seiya frowned. That man. The one who had defeated her. He seemed to care
about the purple-haired girl. He had gone out of his way to protect her. Plus,
quite frankly, he was obviously more powerful than Seiya. So... if she could
just find her...
	Mind made up, Seiya began to circle around the fight itself. It felt
terrible, and not just because her chest flared in protest with each step, but
because she felt like some... criminal skulking around this close to a battle.
People were dying. Good people.
	Taiki would say that those same people would chase her down and kill
her. That if the Sailor Starlights were in the middle of a battle with phages,
the Jurai military and Galaxy Police were as likely to just carpet bomb the
entire area into the ground than try and figure out who was on whose side. Yaten
would say that it wasn't their problem. That the fight didn't concern their
goals, so why should they care?
	But Seiya had never believed that. She had almost blown their cover over
a dozen times because... sometimes, damn it, you had to step in. Sometimes it
was right to stand between those with power and those who couldn't defend
themselves, and damn the consequences. So doing nothing while those men died
hurt more than her almost certainly crushed ribs.
	It didn't take her long to find the man. When she did, a brief moment of
despair filled her. He was unconscious, drilled into the earth with enough force
that he had left a huge trench. He was curled up into a ball, having
successfully twisted to take most of the impact with his back. Seiya looked at
this for a long moment, then saw that the man was still breathing.
	With a grunt she began to climb down into the trench. She landed next to
the man with a wince and a gasp of pain. Tentatively, she reached over and
grabbed his shoulder...
	Only suddenly her wrist was caught in a vicelike grip. The man's eyes
snapped open, but didn't seem to be focused on anything. Seiya froze and decided
to stay frozen. One strike had taken her out of the fight previously and she did
not fancy finding out what this man was capable of doing when he felt really
threatened.
	Finally the man's eyes settled on Seiya. "You..." he said, his voice
strained. Seiya could see blood on his lips. His face was beautiful, soft and
gentle-looking. Seiya found herself caught in his eyes for a moment. "What do
you..." The man still held Seiya's wrist, not apparently aware of that fact.
	"Have..." Seiya gasped and clenched her chest again. "My friends, your
friend... in danger..."
	"What's wrong with...?" The man sat up, pulling Seiya in closer. Seiya
gasped and lost her footing, tumbled into his lap. For a moment Seiya was
pressed against him. He was... very soft. The leather of his outfit was
surprisingly supple.
	The man was blushing fiercely. "I see... your chest." He looked down at
her. "Hold still a moment." She brought up her free hand, extending two fingers.
"I'm not very good at this, so don't move."
	Then the man began to touch her. Seiya felt her cheeks flushing as the
man began to rhythmically tap her breasts and upper torso with his fingers. Then
she began to realise the pain was draining away. In fact, with each tap she felt
something... flowing into her. Just a little bit. It was like the water of a
warm lagoon, flowing straight into her wounds and soothing them away.
	"There." The man pushed her back a bit. "Now be careful, you're not
actually healed. I've just... uh..." She frowned. "What's that word for the drug
that they use on you before surgery?"
	"Anaesthetic?" Seiya was surprised by how easily she talked now.
	"Yeah, that." The man paused. "You can get off now."
	"Oh!" Seiya scrambled off. "Sorry." Seiya flashed her roguish grin, the
one that had made a billion girls across the galaxy swoon.
	The man didn't even look at her. He was standing up. "Hmm." He looked
towards Z. "We have to rescue Ayeka somehow, and your friends if we can."
	"You're willing to trust me?" Seiya asked, surprised.
	The man looked at her. "How about I explain my feelings about teamwork
and friendship AFTER we've saved our friends from a fate worse than death?"
	"Right..." Seiya held out a hand for the man to pull her up. Normally
she would never have done so. There was just something too... girly about it.
But considering that she was injured (even if the pain was mostly gone), she
would go for it. It certainly had nothing to do with how splendidly muscled he
was, now that she got a good look at him. After all, Seiya was about as gay as
you could get. Even before she had started posing as a male pop star, she had
been known as a ladykiller back home. She'd never even so much as looked at a
man as anything but a rival for a girl's affections before.
	To tell the truth, it was kind of...
	The man took her hand and pulled her up, only to pause suddenly and look
down at her wrist. Seiya blinked. "What's this on your wrist?" the man asked.
	"That..." She looked down. Oh yes, the ID bracelet. It didn't look like
the ones the audience had purchased to get into the concert. It had been neatly
hidden and integrated into her male forms suit, but stood out badly against her
Sailor forms costume. "It's the bracelet for the concert..."
	"How accurate are you with your laser?" the man asked quickly, looking
up at her. Seiya blinked. "Because I think I have a way to save everyone. We
just need a distraction..."

*

	The plan was not to be hiding under an overturned parfait stand. The
plan was not to be shaking and holding a hand over his mouth to keep his breath
from being heard. The plan was not, in other words, going well.
	Here was the plan: Touga was supposed to accompany Akira on her trip
into space. Akira was a genius prodigy when it came to operating vehicles, even
if the girl herself barely realised this; thus, she was the only person who
could be trusted to safely operate the highly experimental craft. This would
allow him to meet up with the Jurai princess on this world.
	The plan involved Tethys and Touga tricking the Sailor Starlights into
getting into a fight with Akira and Princess Ayeka. It would be easy. Tethys
spread a few rumors about 'the light of hope', and the Starlights would come
calling. Then Touga and his partner would trick them into thinking Akira and
Ayeka were their enemies. Ayeka's entire society was under constant threats from
Sailor attacks and the only three Sailor Senshi that Akira had ever met were
murder-happy ones. It was child's play to get them to fight each other, which
was why Touga had let his partner do it.
	That, and it wouldn't do for anyone to know how much Tethys was pulling
the strings.
	Then when Ayeka and Akira managed to defeat the Sailor Starlights, the
Jurai marines would arrive and kill them off before any annoying questions could
be asked. Touga would appear, using cunning and charisma to cement a friendship
forged in adversity between the two girls, and convince the princess that her
people and Tethys had common cause. With Kairos pulling on the strings of
probability every now and then, the plan was certain to work.
	The plan was for him to get a cushy post as an ambassdor to a rich and
powerful world. The plan was for him to sleep his way through the royal family,
earn their trust and win valuable information for Tethys. It was such a good
plan. He had quite liked the plan.
	The plan did not include a nigh-omnipotent purple-eyed freak man who
could produce the fucking Wings of the god damn Light Hawk at will showing the
fuck up. Oh fuck. Oh fuck, fuck, fuck. Touga was screwed. He was going to die.
He was too pretty, young, charismatic and humble to die!
	His internal monologue was also being affected too much by Kairos,
obviously, but he put that aside for the moment.
	Kairos had suggested they make a break for it. Of course, that wasn't
really an option. Only Akira had the reflexes and experience to pilot the ship.
Without her, they were stuck on this planet. And from what he knew of Galaxia
and her minions, the one thing she seemed to hate above all others was
survivors. Plus, even if he managed to escape, there was the matter of reporting
back to Tethys.
	'Oh yes, Queen of Darkness, I just returned here without the
experimental ship you invested a large portion of your valuable resources into.
Also, that girl you just recruited is dead. And so is Princess Ayeka. This
probably means any chance of an alliance with Jurai is shot to hell. If they
don't just assume your overtures were a poorly concealed trap and act
accordingly, they'll assume you can't even guarantee the safety of any of their
diplomats. So, I managed to be about as abject a failure as is possible.'
	Tethys was a reasonable despot, far more so than he suspected most of
Earth's rulers were. But the first time he had met her, Tethys had brutally
murdered a man in front of hundreds of witnesses for being an abject failure.
First impressions such as that were very hard to get past.
	No, Touga knew one thing. If he didn't do something, then they were all
going to die.
	"Come on, partner, it's not really that bad!" Kairos replied chipperly.
	"Yes it is. In fact, it's worse." Touga looked towards the stage. He
could see Akira approaching it now. She was alive. That was good. She was also
accompanied by Sailor Starfighter, which was not so good. "It looks like our
ride is about to kill herself being heroic."
	"Then let's make certain she doesn't have to!" Kairos leapt to her feet
and rushed out from behind the overturned concession stand. Touga was stunned to
silence, unable to so much as think a dirty word as Kairos ran up onto the
stage. "Don't worry," Kairos said with the telepathic equivalent of a wink,
"I... have a plan!"
	Oh god, he really was about to die.
	"You there!" Kairos shouted, stopping only a meter from the casually
dressed god-monster. "This farce ends now!"
	The man turned to look at Kairos. His eyes narrowed and he frowned.
"You... you're like a phage. Except you've been..." He turned his head slightly.
"Well now. I never thought of that. An interesting way of removing the weakness
of the design."
	"Huh?" Touga thought, but Kairos wasn't the kind given to caring about
what her opponents were doing.
	"I hereby challenge you to a shadow game!" Kairos called out in a deep,
booming voice. She drew out a back of cards. "We each draw one card from the
deck. Whoever wins gets the princess!"
	"That's your plan?!" Touga didn't have breath to gasp with, but he tried
very hard.
	"I had to create artificial star seeds to perfect the Sailor Killer, I
never thought of using actual complete souls..." Z mused as Kairos rushed in and
thrust the cards into his face. "What's this?"
	"Pick a card!" she demanded. Bemused, Z did so. He still held Ayeka
with his other hand. "And now my card!" Kairos let out a deep breath and placed
her fingers on the deck as she closed her hands.
	Touga felt himself tensing up.
	"Behold!" Kairos stepped back, flipping the card into the air and
scattering the rest of the deck across the stage in a flurry of white and black.
She caught her card with a flourish and thrust it face-first at Z. "Witness
despair! The queen of hearts!"
	Z raised an eyebrow. "I'm not certain what this card means." He held out
the ace of spades.
	Kairos tilted back a bit, her eyes widening. "Uh... it means.... it
means you lose!" She dropped the card and pushed her palm at him. "MINDCRUSH!"
	"Was that supposed to do something?"
	"Yes?"
	"Like what?"
	"Distract you for another two seconds?"
	Z blinked, then he turned just as Akira appeared behind him in a blur of
motion. The woman's hand flashed forward, cracking through the air. Z snarled
and pulled around his arm, raising another Light Hawk Wing between himself and
Akira. But that hadn't been her target. Akira's hand flashed past Ayeka. The
princess vanished in a flash of pseudomotion.
	"What the...?" Z looked startled. Akira wasn't pausing, she was reaching
for her own wrist. Then Z caught her hands in his. "Clever." He smiled, a
dangerous smile. "You removed the wristband, and Ayeka was teleported away. Too
bad it was also futile. I'll track down her position after I tear you..." He
trailed off.
	Akira looked up at him. He frowned down at her. "This... no. It can't
be..." Z muttered. "You ceased to exist."
	"What are you...?" Akira began, but was cut off.
	"Star Serious LASER!"
	From just offside, a flash of light appeared, streaming through the air
and zipping across Akira's wrist. She gasped in pain, a gasp that vanished with
a soft electronic popping sound. Z staggered, again.
	Kairos' eyes tracked Sailor Starfighter as the girl began to dash around
the stage, trying to get a good position to fire on her comrades that had been
tied up at the bottom of it. Touga could immediately see that she had been
forced to give up on saving them right away, when Z caught Akira so easily. He
could also see Z's face twisting into a snarl of rage. His hand was raising up.
Kairos gasped as she felt massive energy spiking in front of him.
	Touga wasn't certain what did it. Later, he would claim it was his
heroic impulse. But he knew that was a lie. But for whatever reason, he shouted
for Kairos to save her. He knew that they would need Sailor Starfighter alive.
	Acting quickly, Kairos flipped her hand, sending the card she was
holding singing through the air. She didn't wait to see it catch Starfighter's
wristband. As she put the next part of Touga's plan into action, she just hoped
that Z didn't decide to vapourise the planet.

*

	"...talking about?"
	Ayeka let out a long-held breath when Akira appeared in the holding
cell. "Thank goodness. Are you all right?" she inquired.
	The boy didn't appear to be too badly harmed, though a mottled bruise
had risen on his cheek where Z had first hit him. "Wait, where are they? Damn,
the plan was to save the other two while I had him distracted..."
	Ayeka blinked. "Save? Who are you talking about?"
	"That damn idiot!" Akira growled. "This wasn't the plan!"
	"Plan?"
	Suddenly, there was another slight hum and another body occupied the
cell with them. Akira turned and-
	"Princess, it's one of THEM! Get down!"
	Her bodyguard's attempts to shove her down failed, mostly because Ayeka
shrugged them off. Another body popped into the holding cell, some red-haired
man, but Ayeka dismissed him as she stalked forward to confront the monster.
	"You!" she growled. "You won't escape this time!"
	The Sailor, whose own expression had been twisted in anger as she
appeared, stared at her in incomprehension for a moment. "Oh. Uh-oh."
	Her guards, giving up on getting her out of the way, took up positions
on each side of her. Despite the injuries Akira had earlier inflicted upon them,
their movements were calm and professional, although a few were limping. Each
held a pistol levelled at the Sailor.
	The Sailor held up her hands hastily. "N-now wait, this has all been a
big misunder-"
	Ayeka opened her mouth to give the order to fire, but suddenly Akira was
there, interposing himself between Ayeka and the Sailor.
	"This woman just saved my life," Akira declared. "If you want to kill
her, you'll have to kill me first."
	Ayeka blinked. Before she could react, the guard to her right yelled
"Fine!" and pulled the trigger. Or, at least, Ayeka presumed that had been his
intention. Instead, he went flying at a ninety degree angle away from his gun,
which lazily spiralled up into the air. Ayeka blinked again. Now she realised
why she hadn't noticed the last time Akira and her guards had clashed. In the
space of that blink, five of the seven guards had gone down, and she suspected
the only reason the other two hadn't was the sudden barrier of force Ayeka had
erected between them. Akira frowned, rubbing his fist which had crashed into the
selfsame barrier, and eyed Ayeka warily.
	Ayeka considered her next move carefully. After a moment she spoke,
making sure to put enough imperial frostiness into her tone to ensure that Akira
understood the seriousness of his situation. "Akira Kazama. Despite my initial
inclination, I want to extend you the benefit of the doubt and not assume this
is some sort of vile plot. But for your own sake, you had better explain
yourself. You're defending an enemy of all that lives, while at the same time
its compatriots are killing good men and women outside."
	"I should hope you don't think it's a trap," Akira snapped. "What, our
evil plan was to save you from the omnipotent purple-eyed freak out there so we
could attack you while we're outnumbered? Don't be stupid."
	Ayeka felt her eye twitch, just a little bit. "That," she said,
measuring each word, "was why I was giving you the benefit of the doubt."
	"Now now, ladies," a new voice interjected. Ayeka and Akira tore their
glares from each other and glanced at the source of it. It was presumably the
same man that had entered the cell moments ago. Ayeka had not seen him before,
but was almost involuntarily struck by his... beauty, for lack of a better term.
He was tall, with skin like an alabaster statue, and long red hair that flowed
elegantly down around a charcoal-grey, military-style uniform with red piping.
His face was smooth and fine-featured, his easy smile the sort that could calm a
heart and set it to beating furiously at the same time. The oddest thing,
though, were his eyes. The pupils were the shape of diamonds.
	"We won't get anywhere fighting each other, nor do we have the luxury of
time to waste upon it. I doubt Akira knows any more than she has said - this
woman has saved her life. That being the case, why don't we let the Sailor
explain herself to you, Princess Ayeka?" He bowed gracefully. "You are of course
famed throughout many worlds for your graciousness and modest restraint. Please,
forgive my boorish companion and listen to this Sailor's tale, outlandish as the
very thought may be." Raising his head, he smiled again.
	"Well, I..." It was suddenly just a little hot in the cell. Possibly due
to how many people were crammed into it. Yes, that was clearly it. "I am, err,
that is, I see the wisdom of your counsel..." she trailed off.
	The newcomer flashed that dazzling smile again, his diamond eyes warm.
"Forgive me for my rudeness. I am Touga Kiryuu, the emissary of her majesty
Queen Tethys of the Dark Kingdom. I saw the chaos and hurried to help as best I
could... but that's not important. With the situation as serious as it is, it's
imperative we gather information as quickly as possible."
	Ayeka nodded, the thought of what was going on outside suddenly driving
all... distracting thoughts from her mind. People were dying - people HAD died,
for her. She needed to make sure it wasn't in vain. "You're right. Akira, Touga,
let's call a truce. I'll listen to this... creature, but if it makes any hostile
moves..."
	"Uhhh, don't worry, I won't!" the Sailor piped up.
	"Don't be nervous," Akira said to the Sailor. Up until now he had been
silently gazing at Touga, looking almost as if he'd swallowed something sour,
but now his expression had softened. "Just be honest and things will work
themselves out."
	"Honesty..."  the Sailor said, licking her lips. "Honesty, eh?" she
repeated. "Okay, I can do that."
	And suddenly, she was surrounded by a flash of light.
	And then...
	And then...
	Akira reacted first. "Wait... you're one of those..."
	"Seiya?" Ayeka said. She felt numb, except for an odd sort of tingling.
	"Uhh, yeah," Seiya Kou of Three Lights, the most popular band in the
Juraian Empire, responded. He rubbed the back of his head. "You see..." then
suddenly he coughed, cutting himself off and lowering the hand to clutch at his
chest.
	"You're... a Sailor?"
	"K - kind of," Seiya gasped out.
	But...
	That meant...
	"YATEN?!" Ayeka gasped. "Is... is he also..."
	"Uh, yeah. Umm... sorry?"
	This was... this was... a SCANDAL!
	If anyone on Jurai found out she had watched the videos of and purchased
the single album of and maybe possibly happened to have secretly stashed a
poster in her bedroom of a... of a... SAILOR...
	"I'm going to be the laughingstock of Jurai," Ayeka moaned. "Barred from
inheritance! Stripped of my rank!"
	"Umm, Princess, it's probably not that bad-" Akira began.
	"Probably set adrift in unknown space. I would never be able to face
Tenchi again!"
	"Look, a lot of people have confused genders," Akira said, holding up
his hands placatingly. "He had me sort of fooled too, it's not so bad!"
	"My name striken from the history books... oh Sasami, I need to warn her
or she could share my punishment! Although wait, I believe Taiki is her
favourite... but he must be one of you too, isn't he? Isn't he?" She didn't even
wait for Seiya's mute, wide-eyed nod. "Oh Sasami, I didn't know! I didn't know
when I bought you their first album! You have to believe me!"
	"We believe you, Princess!" one of her conscious bodyguards cried,
clasping her arm.
	"...I mean, you'd never believe how many people have mistaken ME for a
guy! It's not so bad, really!"
	"Oh, that I had never been born rather than bearing such shame..." Ayeka
lowered her head to her sleeve. Then she blinked and raised it again. Something
had tickled the back of her brain. She stared. "Wait, what did you just-"
	"You're a GIRL!?" Seiya shouted.
	Akira blinked. Slowly, a dull flush covered his... her face. "Umm...
yeah..."
	"I KNEW IT!" Seiya leaped to his feet, pumping one fist in the air. "I'm
still gay!"
	"Still - wait, what is that supposed to mean!?"
	Touga coughed loudly into his sleeve. Everyone turned to him. One
eyebrow was arched, the pupils within now the shape of spades. His perfect
features showed just the slightest hint of impatience. "If I could draw
everyone's attention to the battle outside once again..."
	"Umm..."
	"Yes..."
	"Of course..." Ayeka murmured. Her face was hot again. "Please explain
yourself, Seiya. Is it somehow possible for Sailors to take a human guise?"
	Seiya shook his head. "No. Or rather, what you've been calling 'Sailors'
aren't, really." He leaned against the wall, wincing and rubbing his chest
again. "Look, I have to make this quick, so please believe me, Princess, but
what you've been fighting aren't Sailors, no matter what they call themselves.
They're phages - monsters created from the corpses of regular people who have
had their Star Seeds removed by Galaxia or her minions." He gestured toward the
wall of the enclosure. "Star Seeds are what Galaxia is really looking for, but
those of most people flicker and burn out in moments, leaving only phages. The
true Star Seeds are inside people like me, the real Sailor Senshi."
	"That's impossible," Ayeka snapped. "Am I to believe that Galaxia, too,
is one of these phages?"
	"No," Seiya sighed. "Galaxia is a Sailor Senshi, I admit. But she's no
ally of mine, any more than she is of yours." He looked up, his eyes hard.
"She's a monster. She came to my planet and destroyed it. My friends and I
barely escaped with our lives, and we've been hunted ever since. That's why we
took these male disguises. That's what she's been doing to all of us, Princess
Ayeka... all of the Sailor Senshi. All over the galaxy. One by one, she finds us
and takes our Star Seeds. If she isn't stopped, the power of the entire galaxy
will be in her hands."
	"Other Sailor Senshi?" Ayeka repeated, uncertainly. "Just how many are
there?"
	"More than you can imagine. There's one for every world in the galaxy.
But most of them are hidden, only awakening in a time of crisis." He nodded,
seeing her expression. "Yes, Jurai must have one too."
	"And... if they're taken by Galaxia..."
	"The Star Seed isn't just the power of a true Sailor Senshi. It's the
very lifeforce of the planet they are sworn to protect. If it's taken..." he
trailed off, his face twisting as if he was remembering something painful.
"Without it, the planet dies. And everything on it."
	No.
	It couldn't be true. It was impossible. Thousands of years, the greatest
minds of the galaxy... they couldn't have not known this, if it were true. There
was no way.
	And yet... how many times had it happened? That a planet under attack by
Galaxia's forces had suddenly been struck by a horrible... disease, for lack of
a better term? Plants and animals died, the soil became grey and inert, the air
cold and stale? Even the Sailors, or phages or whatever they were called, died.
The only survivors of such blighted worlds were those that were evacuated before
the blight. The secret of this effect, the so-called secret weapon of Galaxia,
had been hotly debated from the Imperial Palace to the Jurai Science Academy.
And just as hotly debated was the reason it was so erratically used. Sometimes a
planet suddenly died at the very onset of an invasion. Sometimes battles raged
for weeks and the phages were eventually exterminated, and nobody knew why this
time it had not been used.
	It was impossible. And yet, at the same time, it made perfect sense.
	What was it Washuu had said?
	"All right," Ayeka said. "I think... I believe you."
	"Princess?" one of the guards exclaimed in shock.
	"I believe you," Ayeka repeated, pleased her voice sounded far more
certain than she actually felt. But this was what she had wanted, she reminded
herself. To find the truth that might save her people from destruction. She
would have been foolish to expect that to happen without any risk. "But I want
you to come back with me to Jurai. You clearly know more about Galaxia and these
phages than we do, to say nothing of these Sailor Senshi. If we're to win this
war, we need to know what you know."
	Seiya looked into her eyes for a long moment. His gaze was hard. "Only
if we rescue my friends."
	"Seiya..." Akira began hesitantly, then stopped as if she herself wasn't
sure what she was going to say.
	"They've surely been captured by now," Touga said sternly. "And quite
possibly had their Star Seeds removed. Escape will be difficult enough; fighting
Z would be a suicidal risk you can't reasonably ask the crown princess of Jurai
to take."
	"Maybe not, but I'm not going anywhere without them," Seiya snapped.
"They're my friends. They're my only - that is, my only companions from my
planet. I won't abandon them to Galaxia, no matter what."
	"That's good enough for me," Akira said, stepping beside him. Touga
opened his mouth, but her expression apparently made him think better of it.
	"Then let's go," Ayeka said. "We're just wasting time here."
	Touga turned to her, his expression chagrined and eyes the shape of
clubs. "Princess, not you too."
	"Galaxia is my enemy as well," Ayeka reminded him. "And I won't just run
and hide while a man who callously killed a member of my own family threatens a
planet that is under Jurai's protection." Of course, she had been seriously
considering doing just that - it was still really tempting - but she brushed
that aside. She had responsibilities. Not just to Captain Shoten, and not just
to this planet, though they were important enough. Whatever Seiya and his
friends knew, Jurai also had to know to have any hope of winning this war. So
there was simply no choice but to not only live, but succeed and bring him back.
	Touga sighed, but it was a more indulgent than exasperated sound. "Well,
it would do me no good as a diplomat to let my contact - to say nothing of my
pilot - head into danger alone. If you've made up your mind, princess, then I
suppose I will simply have to make sure you stay alive." He smiled, his eyes now
the shape of diamonds.
	Ayeka nodded. "Then it's agreed. We'll rescue your friends, Seiya."
	He grinned roguishly. "Call me Sailor Starfighter, princess."

*

	"Aren't you going to go after them?"
	Z turned slightly. The woman that had stepped out of the shadows did not
look all that dangerous. She was thin, with long blue hair and bright blue eyes
that always seemed half-ready to close for a restful nap. She wore an outfit
that was somewhere between a long coat and lingerie, mostly in blue shades with
hints of white at her ears and wrapped around her stockings. The only real
splash of non-blue in her attire was her golden bracelets. Her posture was
slouched and she appeared to be holding in a yawn. She obviously wasn't paying
attention to much of anything.
	Z wasn't fooled for a second. Of all of Galaxia's minions, he was most
wary of Sailor Aluminium Siren. Not because of her power, which was honestly
laughable. He was wary of her because he knew that despite her outward
appearance of laziness and nonchalance, she was the kind of person who didn't
miss anything. And everything she noticed was filed away in her brain for later.
	"I could destroy them myself," Z pointed out. Then he shrugged. "But
then, this would be a pointless exercise."
	"Yes, but then I could get back to Zero Star Sagittarius," Aluminium
Siren whined. "I'm hungry."
	"We still haven't located this 'light of hope' they were looking for
here."
	"Oh, I'm certain it will pop up eventually," the woman sighed.
	Z smiled, turning away from her. "Galaxia wants to see my Sailor Killers
in action. I think this is a perfect opportunity, don't you?"
	The woman pouted. "It sounds so bothersome..."
	"You don't have to watch, if you don't want to," Z suggested mildly. He
was very careful to keep his reactions simple and controlled. He couldn't let
his excitement show. That woman... that woman had something about her. He had
almost seen it. The signs were all there.
	She could be the Counterreactor.
	If she was, then he would not need Galaxia anymore. He hated being that
woman's errand boy. He hated helping her create her little wars and her precious
chaos. It reminded him of... of That Time. The point where he had lost
everything. But she was the only person he knew of who had ever touched it,
touched the power beyond that of the Chousin. The power greater than even the
gods who had created all reality. He had to bend knee to her in the hopes of
ferreting out that secret.
	The problem was that he suspected Galaxia knew exactly why he was
working for her. He suspected that she knew about his plans to destroy her along
with all the other sick gods of creation. He suspected she found his ambition
amusing, in the same way a man would find a precocious pet amusing.
	But if he could find the Counterreactor again...
	"Perhaps if we let these fools run, they will lead us to the Light of
Hope," Z said aloud. Aluminium Siren glanced at him out of the corner of her
sleepy, droopy eyes.
	"As you say, you are in charge..."
	"If you want to make yourself useful, why don't you take these two up to
the ship?" Z chuckled at the unconscious bodies of the Sailors. "But leave their
star seeds intact for now."
	"Oh..." Siren tapped her lips. "Galaxia won't like that. She wants pure
star seeds."
	"She'll have them." Z's smile spread wider. "But first, I want to find
out all about this Light of Hope." He gazed out across the stadium, his eyes
meeting those of his two prototype monsters. They nodded solemnly and vanished.
They knew exactly what he wanted.
	He wondered how far he would have to push the girl. Well, if she was the
Counterreactor, then he would know soon enough.

*

	The side of the building bulged outward, then exploded in a shower of
sparks. Akira waited for Ayeka to lower her hand. Whatever kind of power that
girl had, it was certainly impressive. Akira had seen things that were probably
more powerful. She'd seen an evil god try and rip a hole into her world from
the place beyond time to devour the souls of all humanity, for instance. But
that was... that was something else.
	This was a girl, who was throwing around enough chi to vapourise a small
city. The thought of Ayeka being trained in actual martial arts like the kind
that was so popular on Earth both frightened Akira and excited her. Akira almost
wished she had an idea how to train someone. Ukyou would have known how to draw
out Ayeka's potential...
	Damn.
	The bodyguards were fanning out, covering as much of the area with their
weapons as they could. Akira followed them, with Seiya a few steps behind. The
Sailor had returned to her 'battle form', since she was still injured from
Akira's earlier hit. Touga moved last, constantly glancing around for any sign
of danger.
	They were in some sort of parking lot, or the equivalent for the
vehicles on this planet. Akira stared across the lot, her eyes widening
slightly. Back in Japan, it was actually pretty rare to even own a car these
days. Even then, most cars looked the same. Oh, Akira could go on for days on
end about the differences between a Toyota and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, but
in the end they were all the same basic design. You had an internal combustion
engine which turned gasoline into torque which turned the wheels and made you go
forward. Add a few bells and whistles here and there, change the efficiency of
this part and that, and you had almost every single thing Akira had ever driven.
	Compared to that, this place was a madhouse. There were vehicles here
that Akira couldn't even fathom the purpose of.  There were things shaped like
eggbeaters or clams, things that hovered and things that had spider-legs. But
she could almost guess how some of them worked. There was one thing that looked
like nothing so much as a ski-doo mated with a jet engine, and she found her
fingers itching.
	"So, what's the plan?" Akira asked.
	"We need to rescue my friends," Seiya reminded them.
	"Yes, but we can't fight Z head on," Akira replied. "We need to get away
for a while. Find someplace to hide while we think this out."
	"The ship," Touga pointed out. "We could use the warp drive to move off
planet. Since Galaxia's sensors can't track it, we should be safe."
	"Good idea," Akira admitted. She didn't like Touga much, but he was cool
under pressure.
	"You have a stardrive that can't be tracked by Galaxia?" Ayeka asked,
eyes widening.
	"Yeah," Akira waved her off. "Now all we have to do is get th-"
	"AHHH!"
	Ayeka staggered and fell forward, clutching her side. Her eyes were
closed. Akira was already moving, her body lifting up as she thrust her leg at
the thing now standing behind the wounded princess.
	There was a crack as her boot was caught on the flat of a sabre. The
thing staggered back. Its black manic eyes narrowed. It was a woman, wearing
some sort of enameled breastplate and a long skirt that reached down to her
ankles. She had sabres in each hand and a sailor collar around her neck.
	"Look out!" Seiya warned. Akira could just see the other creature
appearing. This one wore a skin-tight Chinese dress with a hem that barely
covered her hips and stilleto heels. Her whip snapped out, catching two of the
Jurai guards. One of them went flying, driving into a parked vehicle with enough
force to dent it. The other simply collapsed to the ground, blood flowing from
the ruin that had once been his face.
	"Touga, take the princess," Akira yelled. She landed in a crouch,
standing in front of the sword-wielding phage. The woman-shaped-thing just
grinned.
	"I can handle myself..." Ayeka gasped, still clutching her side. Red was
seeping through the side of her outfit, and even through the dark warpaint Akira
could see the colour draining from her cheeks. There was no telling how deep
that wound was.
	"Star Serious LASER!" Seiya called, firing a beam of light at the other
phage. The purple skinned woman bounced up and over it, landing on a large
transport of some kind. "Damn, they're too fast..."
	The one facing Akira laughed. It was a soft, disturbingly lucid chuckle.
"Well, well..." The woman raised her blood-stained sword in front of her face.
"I've never tasted royal blood before..." She leaned forward and began to slowly
lick the gore from the blade. "Mmm. This tast-urk..."
	Akira's foot dropped  and she skipped back a step. Her kick had driven
the thing's sword directly into its face. Served the creepy bitch right for
doing something so stupid within striking distance of an enemy. The phage
staggered back, the blade dropping out of her head slowly. Akira began to turn
to help Seiya deal with the other one...
	She barely ducked the blow in time. She snapped her head around, staring
up at the thing in disbelief. Its face was whole again, looking like it hadn't
even been nicked, much less had a half-meter-long blade shoved through its
mouth.
	Akira slid sideways, barely pushing away fast enough to avoid the next
slice. The ground where the blade hit cracked open. The phage spun, tracking her
with its other blade. Akira tumbled backward, trying to get behind it. It was
fast, but not faster than her.
	For a few precious seconds, Akira's world narrowed down to two flashing
silver lines. She could stay one step ahead of it, and if she did so long enough
then she could find a pattern. Her breath came faster and deeper as she focused,
drawing on her chi. Then she saw it. Immediately she stepped into the thing's
range.
	Her arm came up, forearm colliding with its elbow with enough force to
pulp a tree. Akira channeled the force through her and into the ground, making
it crack up and around her. Akira's free hand snapped out, a palm strike to the
back of the thing's neck. Her intention was to rip its head clean off with a
burst of chi.
	She almost lost her own head instead. Her block should have halted the
phage's backhand swing. It would have, if it had a human elbow. Instead, the
thing's arm twisted and popped, bending grotesquely to slash at her. Akira
sensed the danger just quickly enough to twist her head to the side.
	A red line of pain carved its way across her face.
	Akira exploded. She wasn't certain how she did it. She panicked and just
knew she needed to get the thing away from her. Somehow, her chi blasted out in
a shockwave, sending the phage flying back. Akira collapsed to her knees, her
eyes wide.
	Then a whip snapped around her neck. She was yanked to her feet, and a
foot smashed into the small of her back. The spiked heel dug into her leather
jacket painfully. A rich, silky voice spoke from behind her.
	"You shouldn't fight so hard, dear..." it said. "You're making yourself
all sweaty and dirty with blood." Akira was scrambling at the whip, gasping for
air. She could see Seiya running towards her, but the sword-wielding phage
landed in front of her. Touga was carrying Ayeka, and the four surviving guards
were looking on in horror.
	A hand began to caress her cheek even as the phage forced her to her
knees, continuing to drive the point of her shoe into Akira's back. "You don't
have to die like this, pretty little thing. Maybe, if you ask nicely, Z can turn
you into a Sailor Killer, like us."
	"You'll love it," Sabre said, parrying Seiya's laser attack with her
blade. The beam reflected into a nearby vehicle, cutting a line through it for a
second before the entire thing went up in a fireball. "Of course, you'll be
incapable of love, so you won't actually love it. But you'll also be incapable
of regret, so it evens out."
	Akira grit her teeth. No. She was not going to die here, on some planet
she couldn't even remember the name of, fighting a war that didn't even really
involve her. She had to get back to Earth. She had a promise to keep. She had a
woman to find. Her eyes settled on the aircycle she had spotted earlier.
	She had to get out of here.
	She let go of the whip, letting it snap taut around her windpipe. She
now had only a few seconds before she either blacked out from lack of air, or
the monster crushed her neck like tin foil. Her hands latched onto the
shoulderpads of her jacket. She liked those shoulderpads. She had spent hours
painting the little skulls onto them, and securely fastening the spikes. With a
pair of simultaneous rips she tore them from her jacket. She pumped as much chi
into them as she could, dumping as much as she could force into the material. It
was remarkably inefficient, and left her feeling lightheaded, but the pads began
to glow. Then she threw them with all her might, one for each phage.
	Sailor Sabre sidestepped hers, and the one holding Akira just ducked.
But Akira hadn't been aiming for them. She'd seen when Seiya's refracted beam
had caused the other vehicle to explode. If she was right, that was where the
fuel tank was. With a twin pair of thunks the pads sunk into two vehicles and
the chi stored in them exploded out all at once.
	The ships went up a moment later. The blast wave knocked Sailor Sabre
over. The one holding Akira was far closer to the explosion, and cried out as
the shockwave slammed into her back. She stumbled forward, the whip going slack.
Akira couldn't even waste the time gasping for air. She reached back, grabbed
the thing's hair, and pulled it over her head into the ground. Then she jumped
up and stomped on its face for good measure.
	A snap of her hand tore the whip from around her throat and she began
gasping as she ran through the flames. She saw Seiya first. The girl was staring
at Akira, her eyes wide.
	"Do you... know how to pilot these things?" Akira said, pointing to a
trio of identical looking one person scooter-rocket things.
	"Uh... in theory."
	Akira shoved her towards one of them. "Get going then. We can't fight
those things here." Akira could already see two figures standing up through the
smoke. She looked at Touga. "Touga... tell your 'friend' it would be really nice
if we just happened to find the keys or whatever to these things lying around.
Unless you know how to hotwire a space-scooter."
	Touga frowned. His eyes closed, and when they opened again they were
spades. "Done. Just hop on, they were carelessly left running."
	Akira nodded and held out her hand. "Give me the princess."
	"But..." Touga frowned.
	"I'm the better pilot. You and Seiya just make a run for it, I'll
protect everyone."
	Suddenly she heard blaster fire. She turned to see the Jurai guards
letting loose with their sidearms. The two phages had leapt back to avoid the
sudden attack, but it wouldn't hold them for long. Ayeka winced as Touga handed
her over.
	"Get going, princess!" one of the men cried. "We'll hold them for as
long as we can."
	"No... you don't..."
	Akira didn't bother to let her finish. She just pulled the princess in
close and leapt onto one of the skycycles. Her eyes scanned over it in confusion
for a moment. Ayeka grunted and her hand reached out, double-tapping a large
green button. There was a hum, and then the cycle began to rise off the ground.
A circle of dust plumed up all around them.
	"Touga, Seiya, make a straight run for the ship!" Akira ordered.
	"What about you?" Seiya shouted.
	"I'm going to make certain we aren't followed!" She reached out and
grabbed the handlebars. It was just another bike, she told herself. Just a bike
that had another axis of movement. She already knew all about two, one more was
simple. Right?
	"Hold tight, Ayeka, this isn't going to be a smooth flight."
	With a roar, the bike screamed up into the air.

*

	Ayeka grabbed onto Akira's waist with as much strength as she could. The
sound of the repulsor field that powered the aircycle roared underneath them as
the girl put about five times more power into it than was neccesary to lift them
off. Dust exploded up all around them as the bike shot straight up. Ayeka
couldn't help but look at the fight below. Her men, her bodyguards that she had
never asked for, were falling one after another.
	For a moment Ayeka's eyes met those of the sword-wielding Sailor. The
thing peeled back her lips in a grim parody of a smile. Then she leapt over the
crowd and sprinted towards the remaining aircycles.
	"They're coming after us!"
	"Of course..." Akira yelled back. "That's why I sent the others on
ahead. They'll chase you down no matter where we go, but they don't care about
them."
	"What?" Ayeka protested. "You never said..."
	"Because Seiya would have insisted on staying to protect you, and
frankly, she'll only get in my way." Akira turned around and grabbed the
handlebars of the vehicle. "Now which button is forward..." Ayeka gulped.
"Nevermind, found it."
	And then they were off.
	Ayeka had been on spaceships before. She had ridden shuttles into orbit
at escape velocities. She had flown across the entire universe, surpassing the
very speed of light. Therefore she understood that technically she wasn't really
going that fast, relatively speaking.
	She tried telling her stomach that, but it had apparently been so caught
off-guard it was still back at the landing pad. Akira leaned forward over the
handles, revving the primitive fusion engine to its fullest. The repulsors
surged, creating a growling sort of whine. Ayeka made the mistake of looking
down, watching as the backdraft of the repulsor created a wake in the grass as
they fled the city. Fleeing people blurred past too quickly to make out their
features. The cycle slalomed through the few ships that were attempting to flee
from the Sailor attack, easily outpacing them.
	"Oh goodness..." Ayeka cried, clutching Akira tighter. She felt her side
twinge in pain.
	"Don't worry, I won't let anything hurt you!" Akira promised, yelling
over her shoulder.
	"Don't make promises you can't keep!"
	Ayeka's head snapped up. Sabre twisted around from the other side of a
huge airbus, one hand on the controls of a much larger and more powerful-looking
aircycle. In the other hand she held one of her duelling swords. Akira twisted
the controls and suddenly Ayeka was jarred sideways as the bike jerked down and
to the right. The Sailor's blade cut through the air above their head in a
silver flash.
	Akira dropped them, Sabre pursuing all the way down. Much too quickly
they ran out of sky. Akira's hands and knees shot out, brushing the ground as
she forced the cycle to spin almost in place, sending them off almost exactly
ninety degrees away from their previous course. Sabre shot past them, her more
powerful machine literally tearing a trench in the ground with its repulsors as
she struggled to turn it to follow them.
	Then Ayeka didn't have time to worry about their pursuer.. The natives
of Demood apparently liked nature, since there were a large number of trees and
shrubs all over the place. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but Akira had
yet to pull them up. Ayeka screamed as the aircycle slid sideways, passing close
enough to a tree that her hair brushed against its trunk.
	Akira, despite all logic, seemed to relax as she slowly accelerated
their vehicle. The tension in her muscles leaked out as the girl clenched the
controls, yanking them only at the last possible second to avoid anything that
came up in their path. Ayeka would have thought she was insane, except for the
feeling of... of pure confidence rolling off her. It was like an aura of utter
certainty was seeping out of the girl's pores and enveloping Ayeka in its
comforting embrace.
	For one brief, glorious moment, Ayeka did not doubt at all that they
would survive this insanity.
	"Dragontail TORNADO!"
	"SHIT!"
	Akira leaned back, pushing on the controls as a cyclone of wind roared
into existence in front of them. The cycle climbed and flipped almost vertical
as she tried to get the full force of the repulsor field pushing them away from
the unexpected attack. Ayeka screamed as she began to lose her grip.
	Akira's hand snapped back, cathcing her. The aircycle bounced backwards,
throwing out a blast of force as Akira gunned the engine. The force was enough
to disrupt the approaching cyclone. One-handed, Akira ran her fingers across
the console, then grabbed the handle again just in time to turn their backwards
bounce into a safe landing.
	Above them, Sailor Dragontail was riding another of the larger, more
intimidating black gunmetal aircycles. She had her whip in one hand, which she
was beginning to spin in their direction.
	"Of course they have ranged attacks," Akira drawled. "Princess, I need
my hand back."
	"Oh... yes..." Ayeka murmured. She grabbed the girl again, determined to
hold on tighter this time. Damn. Why didn't she see that attack coming? The
wound in her side wasn't life-threatening... but only because she was of royal
Jurai blood. All her energy was currently tied up in preventing her insides from
spilling out across the landscape, meaning she was as helpless as a newborn.
	"Sabre SWALLOWCUT!"
	Akira spun in place, pulling Ayeka to the side. The aircycle rotated,
spinning like a top. Ayeka only saw a silver-blue flash and another of red. She
heard Akira curse. There was a cut along the back of her jacket now, and an
angry-looking red line oozed there. Ayeka blanched.
	"Damn, no choice, we need cover." Akira gunned the engine again  and
they took off. The two Sailors fell into place behind them. Ayeka wondered what
Akira meant, then she saw the city approaching quickly.
	"No!" Ayeka protested. "There are innocent people there!"
	"I know, but if we stay out in the open, we'll be toast. All they need
is one lucky shot!"
	Ayeka bit back her reply. She hated the idea of drawing their fight into
a populated area, but what choice did they have? Besides, if they lost here,
then everyone on the planet would be dead before tomorrow. Right? The worst part
was that the two Sailor Killers seemed to sense Akira's plan, and were
deliberately holding back. Ayeka knew that their vehicles were faster, and that
they had ranged attacks. They could have overtaken Akira at any time, but they
were waiting... no, not just waiting, HERDING Akira into the city. Ayeka
couldn't see the boyish girl's face, but she could feel an edge of disgust and
hatred seeping into Akira's aura. Then they reached the city limits, and Ayeka
didn't have much more time to contemplate Akira's mood.
	The first attack came just as they began to reach the traffic of the
city. Sabre shot forward. Her cycle roared as she pushed it into melee range.
Dragontail pulled higher up. She was cutting off their retreat.
	Akira waited until Sabre was almost on her. She dropped again, repeating
her earlier escape. Sabre anticipated it, bringing her blade down in a vertical
arc.
	"Take the controls!" Akira yelled. Then suddenly her hands snapped out,
her palms clamping together on the flats of the blade. Ayeka had a moment to
gape in panic, then somehow she pushed forward, reaching around Akira to grab
the control handles. The ship was shaking violently. It wasn't supposed to be
engaged in these kinds of manoeuvres!
	The aircycle jerked, almost twisting out of control. Akira gasped as she
almost lost her grip. The blade plunged towards her face. Sabre cried out in
triumph. "Hold it steady!" Akira yelled.
	"I'm trying!" Ayeka snapped back. She looked around. Akira still had her
foot on the accelerator, depressed all the way down. They were speeding up just
as they were beginning to reach the heavier traffic. Much larger aircars and
transports were trying to peel away from the mid-air melee, but they were much
slower than the sportster Akira had picked. One particular vehicle, a large
cargo transport with three cylinders hanging from its bottom, was directly in
front of them.
	"It's not too late to surrender!" Sailor Sabre crowed, her voice barely
audible over the roar of the repulsor fields.
	"Consider this my witty comeback!" Akira yelled. Her hands snapped down
and to the side, pulling the sword away from her even as her head shot forward.
It smashed into the Sailor's grinning face. The girl-thing cried out as she was
knocked back. Akira pulled, beginning to wrench the weapon free-
	"AKIRA!" Ayeka yelled.
	"UP! UP!" Akira yelled back.
	Ayeka twisted the controls up. The aircycle responded slowly. Ayeka
realised she was screaming. She also realised she didn't care. Out of the sky
dropped Sailor Dragontail, her field blasting Ayeka's hair flat. There was a
crack like thunder-
	Akira's arm appeared above Ayeka. The whip was snapped tightly around
her forearm. The leather sleeve was torn, but not destroyed. Unfortunately,
Sabre's weapon was now free. The other Sailor growled and slashed at Akira.
	Akira pulled on the whip, dragging down the other cycle with sheer brute
strength. She used the brown coil to parry the incoming blade. Then Ayeka saw
the other ship hit the top of the transport. The impact sent a riot of sparks
across its top. The repulsor also pushed the ship down.
	Just enough so that their cycle shot over the top of it. Ayeka looked
back. The transport was behind them so fast it made her heart skip. The bottom
of one of the containers plowed into the earth. The entire ship snapped up
straight.
	Ayeka felt the cycle buck in her grip. She turned her attention back to
the front. Dragontail was fighting with Akira, sawing her whip back and forth,
and the cycle was jerking in response. Akira was flowing and arcing her body
around it, always keeping the surprisingly durable leather whip between her and
Sabre's blows. Akira's feet, still on the pedals, suddenly released the
accelerator and hit the brake.
	Ayeka fought the controls, but it was no use. They began to spin. The
inertia yanked on Sailor Dragontail and, with a little help from Akira, pulled
her free of her seat. Sailor Sabre pulled away from them, arcing up and to the
left to avoid being caught in the now completely out-of-control vehicle's
motion.
	Behind them, the transport had disintegrated. The cylinders had broken
free and were pinwheeling throught the air. In front of them was a cross street.
Dozens of ships were flashing through the intersection at three different
levels. Below them people ran screaming in all directions as the ship spun
towards the ground. Above them the rest of the traffic flew on, trying to peel
away from the danger. Ayeka saw all this in flashes as her world dissolved into
a kaleidoscope.
	There was a crash as Dragontail slammed into the front of the bike. With
one hand she grabbed on. Akira was thrown back, the whip unwrapping from her
arm, but then pushed herself up, using one hand to hold onto the seat of the
aircycle. Her legs flashed in a tight circle, striking at the Sailor. The woman
parried one blow with her forearm, but the second caught her in the cheek. Her
face caved in and she slid forward, off the cycle.
	Then Ayeka was in freefall. She wasn't certain how she had lost her grip
on the vehicle, but she had. She was plummeting toward the surface now. Akira
snapped her head around.
	The cycle rocketed into the intersection. One of the cylinders crashed
beside them, sending up a plume of dust, Another was spinning up and through the
patterns of interweaving cars. Many tried to veer out of its path. Many failed.
Most of those that did ended up veering straight into the flight path of some
other poor ship.
	The sky lit up with explosions.
	Akira reached out for Ayeka. Ayeka reached for her. Their fingers
brushed each other. A nearby explosion sent Ayeka and Akira flying apart. Ayeka
lost all perception of up or down. She screamed and threw out her hands. Her
shield popped into existence. She could feel the blood suddenly spurting from
the wound in her side.
	A ship smashed head on into her, the front crumbling inward. Ayeka
winced as she was driven sideways for a second. She could see Akira falling
below her, or was it above? The girl was leaping at Sailor Dragontail.
	The purple-skinned monster spun around, her face having restored itself.
Her whip cracked out, spinning in a circle. A tornado sprung from it, lancing up
through the air at Akira. Akira spun, placing one palm and the side of her foot
against a passing vehicle that was augering into the ground at several hundred
kilometers per hour. Then she pushed off, just avoiding the blast.
	When asked later what was the most impressive thing Ayeka had ever seen
in all her years of space travel, Ayeka would not talk about stars going nova or
nebulae or any of that. She would remember one woman moving with the grace of a
flowing river. She would remember Akira dancing between the spinning chaos of
aircars and explosions, always one step ahead of being crushed and ripped to
shreds. She would remember her spiralling down behind Sailor Dragontail, her
entire body rotating as the Sailor struggled to keep up. Then the girl drove a
palm into the back of the thing's head, a blast of blue light rippling outward.
It took the monster's head clean off.
	Before the blow was even finished Akira hooked it with her feet and
kicked it away, everything except the whip. Her hand snapped up, clasping the
leather strip. She spun, kicking off a aircar that was under her for a fraction
of a second before leaping up at Ayeka.
	Only then did Ayeka realise that she was still falling. Which meant
Akira was above her, and had just kicked down. The girl pulled back the whip and
yelled something at Ayeka.
	Ayeka's shield went down. There was a crack as the whip snapped tight
around her ankle and a brief flare of pain. Then she was being pulled up until
she was being held against the other girl in a surprisingly gentle grip.
	"AYEKA!"
	"I..." The world was swimming. Ayeka had lost too much blood. She
couldn't breathe.
	"HOLD ON!"
	There was a brown flash and Akira managed to snag a passing vehicle.
They were dragged up and away from the ground. Akira cried out in pain as her
shoulder popped. They sailed up and through the maelstrom for a few seconds,
aircraft of every design spinning and turning around them at every angle...
	Then a silver-blue flash passed through the air overhead and suddenly
Akira was holding onto about ten centimeters of leather. There was a roar as
Sabre flew in, her aircycle twisting sideways so she could pass between two
tanker transports.
	"For fuck's sake..." Akira growled. "Ayeka! A shield would be nice."
Ayeka could hear her voice drifting in and out. "Ayeka! AYEKA! Damn it!"

*

	"I really think you should just tear out their star seeds."
	Z sat on the edge of the table, letting one leg dangle over the edge.
The Sailor Starlights hung from manacles that floated just beneath the ceiling.
Their bodies were covered in a few bruises and burns. Dragontail and Sabre had
been a little zealous in securing them. Thankfully, Z had designed the manacles
to suppress their second order abilities.
	Not that he was afraid of them. However, constant escape attempts were a
nuisance.
	"You'll have to forgive my companion," Z said to them in a pleasant
tone. "She has a bit of a one-track mind."
	"She's a pawn of Galaxia, just like you!" the white-haired one, Sailor
Starhealer, snarled.
	"Really?" Aluminium Siren said, tapping her lip.
	"You betrayed your people, your entire world, just to spare your own
life," the brown-haired one cursed. "How does it feel to sacrifice your entire
world for slavery?"
	"Well, it's probably not as glamourous as being a pop idol," Aluminum
Siren replied, her voice not even carrying a hint of irony. "Maybe I should have
run away for that instead?" she asked innocently.
	The brown-haired one winced. The white-haired one glared at her, cheeks
flushing in rage. Well, he knew which one of them was the weak link now. That
would be good. Z smiled and leaned back further.
	"I'm sorry, that was impolite of her," Z cut in. "Apologise to the
girls, Siren."
	"Oh so?" Aluminum Siren looked at him, her big innocent eyes
fluttering. "Did I say something wrong?"
	Z sighed theatrically and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Forgive her, I
think Galaxia removed her brain along with her star seed." Z glanced at the
golden wristbrands that marked Aluminum Siren as one of the Sailors who had
made the devil's deal with Galaxia. Life as a soulless slave. He suppressed a
shudder.
	That could have been him.
	That HAD been him.
	"Just get it over with," Sailor Starhealer snarled. "We'll never join
Galaxia!"
	"Join Galaxia?" Z made himself looked perplexed. "Why would I ever think
you would do that?" The white-haired Sailor frowned at him. "Actually I just
plan on killing you and delivering your star seeds to Galaxia." The brown-haired
one - Starmaker, if he recalled correctly - blanched. Even Healer lost some of
her fire.
	"Then let me..." Siren said, her innocent features suddenly darkening as
she brought her wrist up and together. Z grabbed her hand and pushed her arms
down. The blue-haired woman looked startled at how quickly he had crossed the
room.
	"If they're dead, they can't tell us anything," he informed her.
	"We'll never talk," the brown-haired one insisted.
	"Really?" Z turned to face her. He smiled and stepped in front of
Aluminum Siren as he started to walk forward. "Do you see this?" Z tapped the
side of his head, right next to his artificial eye. Sailor Starmaker met his
gaze with difficulty. "It's an implant of my own devising. It can see time."
	The girl's jaw dropped open. "No, it cannot see the future. Nor even the
past. It can see time itself." Z smirked. "The infinite flow of probability that
flows from one moment to the next. So, not exactly seeing the future, but the
weight of potential future. Damned thing used to give me the strangest
headaches." He shugged. "But the point is, that I can see the blossoming of
potential all around you. So don't try telling me you will 'never' talk, Sailor
Senshi. I know from never."
	Z was standing right in front of her now. He reached up and stroked her
chin. She pulled her head back as if burned. He shrugged it off. "I just want
to know why you were here. I know about the Light of Hope. I know it's what
dragged you to this worthless planet. I intercepted the message in the flows of
time." His eyes narrowed. "I want to know what it is."
	"Why should we tell you?" Starhealer shouted. Z turned to her with a
smile.
	"I said I was going to kill you." He stepped back. "I never said
anything about your friend."
	"Starfighter!" the brown-haired Sailor gasped.
	"That's right." Z glanced over his shoulder at Aluminum Siren. She was
drinking from a juicebox, seemingly unconcerned with the conversation. "Galaxia
won't like it. But if I give her two star seeds, she'll be satisfied." He turned
back to them. "If you tell me what I want to know, I'll leave your friend be.
I'll call off my phages on the planet, and she'll be able to move on..." He
paused. "Provided the Juraians don't kill her."
	Starmaker glanced up at him. Z kept his face carefully dispassionate. He
could see the blossom of potential beginning to open up further. It was always
fascinating, watching one of these moments. Everything in the universe had
millions and millions of possible futures, all branching off in a million
directions. But for the most part, the variations were dull and dry. The destiny
of a rock wasn't much changed. People were far more interesting. They were
always capable of so many wonders and horrors. Every one of them was pulled so
many ways.
	And then there were moments like this. Momentous decisions could effect
the courses of not only one person's destiny, but those of everyone around them.
They could change the entire universe. Starmaker was in the middle of one of
those decisions, her potentials growing faster than even Z could keep track of.
	Her head fell. The potentials slowed down back to a more reasonable
pace. Z sighed.
	"Not going to talk, I see."
	"They're probably just looking for their princess." Aluminum Siren was
delicately chewing on the end of a candy-stick. The two Sailors gasped. Z
turned to her.
	"Princess?" He frowned. "The only princess on that planet is Ayeka. And
the Jurai Royal Family would sooner kill a Sailor Senshi then employ one."
	"Not her." Aluminum Siren shrugged. "Princess Carwash or Cockfight
or...'
	"Kakyuu!" Starhealer burst out, then immediately looked like she
regretted it.
	"Yes, Princess Kakyuu." Aluminium Siren gave the captured Sailor a
thankful and honest smile. "Thank you, that's been bothering me all day." She
turned to Z. "Anyway, when Galaxia destroyed their home system, she didn't meet
with as much resistance as we thought. The most powerful star seed of the
system, the one held by Princess Kakyuu, the leader of the Starlights, fled
before she even got there. It wasn't long into the campaign before these three
fled as well."
	"Princess Kakyuu?" Z frowned. "Is she the Light of Hope?" He closed his
natural eye, focusing on the flow of time around them. The potentials around
this planet were very strange indeed. He hadn't seen anything like it... not
since before he'd been forced to flee Tokimi. And the potentials had grown
stranger since Kakyuu had been mentioned.
	They were collapsing.
	That simply didn't happen. The universe was always splitting. Each
quantum event created billions of offshoot universes, expanding and expanding
the timeline out into infinity. Potentials did not collapse. Sometimes the
potentials grew faster or slower, but they never actually shrunk.
	Except for one reason.
	"Well?" Z turned to the captured Sailors. "Are you going to answer me?"
	They remained tightlipped.
	Z sighed and turned to Aluminum Siren. "Take that one. Torture her."
Starhealer's face drained of colour.
	"But I just had my nails-"
	"Sailor Aluminum Siren." Z allowed the full weight of his power to fall
into his voice. The girl looked at him suddenly, her eyes widening. He stepped
up to her. He let his power blossom slightly. The lifeforce of the gods. It
surged beneath his skin. The potentials around Siren began to slow and slow. "Do
not forget who I am. Take this Sailor away. Torment her. Use the phages. Use
your imagination. Make her scream. Make her beg. I don't care what you do...
except you will not kill her. But I want her broken."
	"Y-yes..." Siren gasped, stumbling around him. She grabbed the control
off the table and started hovering Starhealer out of the room. Z waited until
they were gone. Then he turned to the other side of the room.
	Two large wooden objects loomed in the corner. They had just barely
survived the attack on the Hiryu. He had salvaged them on a whim, mildly
interested in the fact that two machines would have such potentialities
surrounding them. He was familiar with the concept of Jurai guardians. They were
semi-sentient automatons, infused with the Jurai power and tasked with the
protection of and service to the royal family. No doubt these two belonged to
Princess Ayeka.
	He smiled. He would have them do his work for him. With a slight effort
of will, he focused on them. The Jurai guardians drew on the 'secret energy' of
Jurai, just like the treeships. Like them, what they were really doing was
tapping into a fraction of the power of the Chousin, the great goddesses.
Compared to him, their power was infinitesimal. He could nullify Light Hawk
Wings. The act of suppressing these machines was so small he hadn't even been
aware of the drain until he ceased it.
	The machines came alive with human-like gasps.
	"Where are we?"
	"What have you done with Princess-"
	"Shut up." Z waved his hand,suppressing just enough of their power to
render them quiet. "Now, listen to me..."

*

	Seiya pulled on the handles of the aircycle, skidding to a stop in mid-
air. The red-haired guy, Touga, slowed to a more sedate stop. They were coming
up to a series of canyons, which the man had told her hid Akira's ship.
	"What's the matter?" Touga called back. "Do you sense trouble?"
	"No..." Seiya looked back at the city. There were explosions. She
couldn't see them, but she could hear them. There were ships peeling out of it
at all speeds, some racing for orbit while others skidding along the curve of
the planet. "Damn it..." She began to turn the cycle around.
	"Don't be an idiot," Touga called. "You'll get yourself killed."
	"Don't you care about your ally?" Seiya called back.
	"Akira can take care of herself," Touga replied calmly. "I would only be
a hindrance to her in this fight. However, if you want to go, I won't stop you."
With that, the man tapped his console a few times and swept down into the
canyons.
	Seiya sat on the cycle, a frown on her face.

*

	Sabre came in like a vengeful comet. She rose up, using her knees to
hold her aircycle steady. Her blades flashed as she extended them to the side.
Akira tossed away the remains of the whip, pulling Ayeka, who had reverted to
her normal clothes, in to her side more tightly. She could feel blood flowing
over her. It wasn't the fountain that it had been a few seconds ago, but
whatever technique the purple-haired princess had been using to hold back the
flow had obviously failed. She was bleeding out.
	"Sabre SWALLOWCUT!"
	Akira was good, but even she couldn't dodge in mid-air without something
to push off of. So instead she concentrated as much chi in her hand as she could
and tried to parry the incoming blasts. The first one nearly chopped through her
hand, flaying the skin off her palm and just barely missing cutting Ayeka in two
as it swept past. Then Akira's hand erupted with light as she parried the second
blow, knocking it aside.
	Sabre's machine spun on its side as the phage pulled in close. She was
going to pass to the side of them, striking with her blades. She wasn't really
trying to hurt them, just keep Akira too busy to find some way of keeping them
both from slamming into the ground at three hundred plus kilometers per hour.
	"Sorry, Princess..." Akira murmured. Then she threw the woman at the
phage.
	Sabre's eyes widened. She had never expected such a move. The
unconscious girl slammed into Sabre's side with enough force that the phage
was knocked clear off the aircycle. Akira floated beyond them... her hand still
holding onto the unfurling cloth from Ayeka's shirt. With a snap of her wrist,
she pulled Ayeka back, slamming her against the side of the aircycle and pulling
it towards Akira.
	Akira hated having to do it, but a few bruises were better than a messy
death. Thankfully the bike came within arm's reach before they both slammed into
the ground. With speed born of desperation, Akira grabbed the controls and
pulled Ayeka in behind her, struggling to prevent the crash.
	The aircycle brushed the ground, ripping a trench in it, before shooting
up again. They were past the intersection, back into a one-way flow of traffic.
A quick look back confirmed there was no immediate pursuit.
	Akira needed to stop the bleeding first. Her fingers flashed out,
jabbing a few pressure points along the princess's side. She hoped Juraian and
human physiology were close enough for this to work. With a final pulse of chi,
Akira tried to reboot Ayeka's shield. The white glow had been holding in the
blood up until a few seconds ago....
	It was with great relief that Akira saw the white glow appear on the
girl's side. The flow of blood halted instantly. Akira carefully placed Ayeka
against the seat, using one hand to steer between the ships while she pulled off
her jacket with the other. It was a lost cause anyway, she told herself with
some regret.
	While Akira tied the princess to the bike with her jacket, she kept
pulling the ship up. She needed to get up out of the traffic. That disaster had
cost too much. Those weren't empty drones, there had been people in those-
	Her instincts saved her as she abruptly pulled to the side. A sword
flashed through the air, slamming into the roof of a passing ship the size of a
sedan. There was a flicker of motion and then Sabre appeared, clutching the
weapon's handle. Akira peeled away, trying to gain altitude. Sabre threw her
other blade, sinking it into the side of a passing cargo hauler. Then with a
flicker she appeared on the side of the vehicle, clutching the weapon. Even as
Akira tried to steer away, she tossed her blade again, once again vanishing and
appearing where the weapon sunk into a ship.
	"Teleporting..." Akira moaned. Of course. She winced as she placed her
maimed hand on the controls. Her chi wasn't healing the injury fast enough, and
her blood made the controls slick. But she couldn't afford to fail now.
	The next few minutes passed in a blur. Akira's focus narrowed and
narrowed even as she expanded and expanded her awareness. She had to be able to
see the entire area as much as possible. She had to keep track of the entire
corridor of traffic, even as she focused on slaloming through it and avoiding
Sabre's attacks.
	The phage was always just behind her. Her silver-blue attacks cut
through the air, turning the airtraffic into a obstacle course. Ships too large
or too slow to get out of the way were caught flush with the crescent-shaped
beams. Most of those caught split in two, their halves tumbling away from each
other. Some exploded. Akira wove between them. She ducked under a exploding
airyacht, then flew up and between two halves of a ship as it slowly
disintegrated.
	Slowly, traffic thinned. Soon, Sabre wouldn't have any other ships to
teleport to while she pursued Akira. She would start getting desperate.
	She pulled herself up briefly along the side of one of the buildings.
Her reflection raced her in the smooth glass. Sabre appeared in the side of the
building, her hand clutching the sword she had thrown in front of Akira. Akira
grinned and amped up her engine.
	The repulsor blew the side of the building apart, creating a shower of
glass. Sabre was caught by surprise, her body shredded by the attack. The engine
pulse had bounced Akira and her passenger safely away from the explosion. Akira
looked around.
	The air around her had almost entirely cleared out. Any ship not caught
in the battle had managed to depart the area. Akira throttled up, hoping to
escape the city soon. From the city it was only ten kilometers to the canyon
where Tethys' spaceship was parked. Hopefully the weapons on the ship could
handle these things.
	Then one of the skyscrapers in front of her exploded. Akira threw the
aircycle to the side, gasping as the entire side of the building blew outward
like a waterfall of glass and dust. Out of the cloud of debris emerged a huge
shape. It was a ship, almost three times as large as any Akira had seen to this
point.
	On top of it was the formerly headless Sailor Dragontail. She was
smirking, holding onto the top with one hand. Akira could see the driver through
the window. It was a man... or had been. His face was black and covered in
yellow warning labels, and he wore a similarly-decorated sailor costume. He was
laughing.
	"Oh come ON!" Akira screamed. "I blew off your head! That means you're
dead! The blowing off of a person's head means they have LOST! That's the RULE!"
	"Sailor Pilot, take them down!" Dragontail called out, pointing.
	The magically transformed pilot veered the huge ship towards them. There
was no way it was as agile as Akira's ship, but it didn't have to be. It was the
size of two buses parked end to end and three buses tall. They had a flyswatter
the size of a building, and Akira was the fly.
	Akira pulled the cycle vertical, pushing the repulsor right into the
oncoming ship. The aircycle bounced backwards, trying to stall out. Akira
fought with it, trying to make out the controls through the blood that had
seeped across them. She spun the ship, bouncing it off a building. Somehow she
steered the ship up and towards another building.
	The starship slammed into the building Akira had just bounced away from.
Its side tore a hole in the structure. Akira flew up and over it, angling the
field to bouce them away again. Then she spun the controls, turning the ship so
it bounced off another building, leaving a crater in the side of the structure.
	Like the ball in a ping-pong machine Akira didn't so much fly as
rebounded. With every bounce she cranked up the repulsors a little, gaining a
bit of momentum. The engine was redlining. She could feel it overheating. The
starship was behind her now, zig-zagging across the city, trying to catch her.
The buildings along its path were shredded and toppled like toys.
	Akira growled. There were nearing the edge of the city. Soon, there
would be no cover, nothing to bounce off of. The ship was going critical. The
safeties that Akira had bypassed were flashing warning signs. She wasn't going
to make it.
	"Star Serious LASER!"
	The beam came in from straight ahead. Akira passed within inches of it.
It lanced back, striking the canopy of the starship and melting it away. Then it
plunged right into Sailor Pilot's chest. The phage didn't even have a chance to
scream as he disintegrated.
	And the beam kept going. Akira could see Seiya, Sailor Starfighter, up
ahead. She was wincing and pulling her hand up, struggling to maintain the beam.
The orange-white lightbeam cut up and through the rest of the starship. Akira
saw Sailor Dragontail's eyes widen in fright as she leapt to the side, avoiding
the blast.
	Then the entire starship exploded.
	The shockwave rippled through the city like a tsunami, ripping the tops
off of buildings. It also caught Akira's ship and sent it tumbling like a leaf.
She gunned the engines and prayed, hoping to ride out the blastwave.
	Seiya pulled her aircyle in, riding the shockwave with more luck since
she wasn't caught as close to the blast. She was screaming, but Akira couldn't
hear her. Akira pulled Ayeka free and threw her again. Seiya's eyes widened, but
she reacted better than Sailor Sabre had. With a gasp she managed to catch the
princess in both arms as Akira whipped past.
	Akira stood up on her ship as she pushed the engine past its maximum.
This was insane. It should not work at all. She would be blown to pieces. The
ground was coming up too fast. She closed her eyes.
	"Ukyou..."
	Then she leapt backward, thrusting both hands downward. Her chi exploded
from her palms even as the aircycle exploded. The force of the explosion would
have thrown her backward, had she not already been travelling at far too fast a
speed. Somehow the force of the explosion cancelled out her momentum, and for a
moment she was hovering in freefall, buoyed by a wave of chi that kept the
blastwave from tearing her to shreds.
	Then the moment passed and she slammed into the ground. She tumbled
across the earth, spinning end over end. She felt her hip crack and her shoulder
shattered. Then she came to a rest against the side of a rock the size of a
house, leaving a series of cracks in it from the force of her impact.
	Akira tried to rise, failed, and tried again. She managed to sit up just
as Seiya came down, still holding the unconscious Juraian princess over her lap.
"Holy... you're still alive?"
	"Only because I'm too stupid to realise I should be dead," Akira
replied.
	"At least those freaks are..."
	"No..." Akira coughed. Damn. She could barely breathe. "Don't know how,
but they don't die..."
	"Then we have to get out of here..."
	"You're right." Akira nodded. "Head to the ship. I'll..."
	"If you're about to offer to nobly sacrifice yourself, shut the hell
up." Seiya leapt down from her bike, carefully placing Ayeka against the stone.
"We'll just have to find a way to kill those things."
	"Damn..." Akira sighed, then winced as it hurt. "Can't exactly argue
with that." She reached up with her good arm and tried to drag herself to her
feet. She looked out across the rocky plain that existed between the city and
the canyons Akira had decided to hide Tethys' ship in. She could see two figures
marching towards them. "Better get ready."
	"Princess Ayeka, thank the maker!"
	"At last, we found you!"
	"What?"
	Akira blinked and looked side to side. Two huge logs had appeared on
either side of them. They had kanji engraved in their fronts, one in red and the
other in blue.
	"She's hurt!" the one on the right said.
	"A Sailor! She must have done this!" A lens at the top of the log began
to glow. Akira groaned.
	"No! We're her friends!" Akira called, throwing herself between the two
and Seiya. "Those are the bad guys!" She pointed towards the approaching phage.
The log-robot things hesitated. "Listen, you can ask Ayeka later. But if you
attack us now, those things will kill us all. You have to get us out of here."
	The logs seemed to consult each other silently. "Very well. Please come
along peacefully."
	"Huh?" Seiya said. Then she gasped as a field of blue force appeared
around the three of them. A moment later, the world around them flickered and
blurred as they teleported en masse. Akira, who never had liked teleporting,
finally blacked out.

*

	Ayeka thought it was funny that she was the only one awake. But then, as
the only one who'd been unconscious during the battle with the phages, perhaps
that explained why she could not rest now.
	Akira had yet to wake up. They had all agreed to rest and wait for her
to regain consciousness, as much because everyone else needed to recuperate as
out of any politeness. Touga had gracefully retired to his own quarters; Seiya
was curled up in the corner of the room that had been roughly converted into an
infirmary. Even Azaka, hovering protectively at the interior of the door, had
his lens dimmed in rest mode, and she suspected Kamidake was similarly
recovering outside the door. Of course, they would spring to life at any
untoward movement, which was part of the reason Ayeka had remained still and
quiet. It wouldn't do to cause a commotion and wake everyone else up simply
because she herself couldn't sleep. Besides, it had given her time to think.
	That she owed her life to all of them, now, had been the first thing
she'd realised. The worst of the wound Sailor Sabre had given her had healed,
for which she must have had Akira to thank, though she hadn't a clue how. It
still shook her to contemplate how close it had come to being fatal.
	That had led her to thoughts about her guards, her own people, who
hadn't been so lucky, had such healing powers, or such strong allies. She hoped
some of them had survived, and felt wretched that was all she could do. The
natives of Demood, as well. She didn't even want to contemplate how many lives
had been lost in the running battle between Akira and the Sailors.
	It wasn't that she hadn't seen death before. But it hadn't been so...
personal. Nor so many. And not for her sake. Which only made her more keenly
perceive how insulated she had been, which had made her feel worse.
	And made her think of Tenchi. Usually that subject brought her more
comfort. Ayeka had only spoken with him directly a handful of times since he had
been pursuaded to come with them off his home planet. She had been sure, at the
time, that it was the right thing to do. In a space of scant months, Earth had
warped almost past recognition. People with strange abilities had suddenly been
in the news everywhere, great battles had broken out daily, and shadowy figures
of great power had been seen at work, their motives and origins and abilities
unknown even to Washuu. Not days after they'd left, Tokyo had apparently been
almost annihilated in a great battle. Compared to that, Jurai, ever-green and
eternal Jurai, had seemed a solid rock of stability.
	Of course, she'd known about the war. But at the time, she hadn't
understood the magnitude of it. When they'd asked Tenchi to fight, she'd been
enraged, but her protests had changed nothing. Tenchi was only too eager to do
something, anything to avoid sitting around the palace and moping. It had been
over a week before Ayeka had been willing to speak to her parents again. There
was selfishness involved, of course. She'd wanted to have that time with Tenchi.
She'd wanted to show him all the wonders of Jurai, which she herself had also
been absent from in her long journey across space, and then her stay on Earth.
She'd wanted to rediscover them with him.
	But it wasn't just that. She knew Tenchi was important. The reason,
she'd been told, why everyone concerned had agreed to persuade him to leave the
planet was because he was so important, and his abilities so remarkable. His
ability to generate the Light Hawk Wings, and to transmute matter... if he'd
stayed on Earth, he'd have been noticed too soon by the strange and powerful
beings that had suddenly infested it. They would have come for him, and it would
have sparked a conflict that could spell disaster. So why, why, she had raged,
if that was so... why had they chosen to put him in danger here?
	Now she realised the truth. They were using Tenchi as a weapon, not out
of callousness, but out of desperation. Just like they were using Ryoko. They
needed them. But nobody had been willing to tell Ayeka this, because what nobody
had wanted to admit to her was that Jurai was losing this war.
	Of course, that was perfectly obvious, now that she'd seen the reality
of it. Her eyes opened, it was remarkably clear how ill-suited Jurai and her
allies were to even fight this war. The enemy could strike anywhere, at any
planet, and even their objectives had been unknown until now.
	Ayeka had heard about all the victories, of course. Many planets had
been saved. But others hadn't. The planets taken by Galaxia were dead and
lifeless. They didn't need to be guarded, and to attempt their recapture was
pointless. And what did all the victories mean, ultimately? The enemy's armies
were the very people that they were trying to protect, and their victories cost
the enemy nothing but time. They could always try again, after the Juraians had
left, with another phage army. Many ministers had bragged before the Pleiades
disaster how the war was grinding to a standstill, how they were checking
Galaxia's might. But what difference did it make? Even if they stopped every
Sailor incursion, even if every planet survived, all that each victory meant was
that Jurai and her allies had once again succeeded in killing scores of their
own people.
	The only way to win this war to destroy its architect. And nobody knew
where Galaxia was, or even what she was. But she apparently had in her thrall a
servant who could himself control the Wings of the Light Hawk. Which meant she
was more powerful yet.
	Ayeka sighed. She missed the days when that thought would have extracted
an indignant 'Impossible!' out of her.
	"Thinking depressing thoughts, Princess?"
	Ayeka resisted an urge to start. The whisper had reached her ears, but
it was a whisper nonetheless. She looked over. Akira was still on the makeshift
cot which had been prepared for her, but now her eyes were open. "Don't feel so
bad," she whispered again. Her lips barely moved, but the sound still reached
Ayeka's ears clearly. "At least you got a real bed."
	Ayeka flushed. Since Touga had explained this was the ship he and Akira
had travelled here in, that meant this was Akira's room, and consequently her
own bed that Ayeka was resting in. "I apologise..."
	"Don't worry about it. I take it we all escaped, then?"
	"Yes. Are you feeling any better?"
	Akira flexed her arm slightly, and blinked. "Surprisingly, yes. More so
than I would have expected. How long was I out?"
	"Only about five hours," Ayeka whispered back. "However, we were both
treated by Touga. He said the ship contained life energy, which aside from
providing it its power, could be used to speed healing."
	"Huh," Akira mused. "Clever. Wonder why I didn't think of that."
	"According to what I've heard, it might be your tendancy to ram yourself
head-first into the ground at excessive speeds."
	Akira grinned ruefully. "You might be right. It's a habit I should get
out of - no, stop it."
	Ayeka blinked. "Stop...?"
	"You were about to thank me for saving your life. I could tell from the
I'm-gonna-apologise-for-my-life-being-such-a-bother look you suddenly got on
your face. So, don't. We're comrades-in-arms now, saving each other's lives is
what we do. And I wouldn't have made it through that without your help anyway."
	Ayeka laughed a little into her hand. "Very well. My, you certainly do
speak your mind."
	"Probably why I get mistaken for a boy. So, shall we wake up these
sleeping beauties?" Before Ayeka could respond, Akira pushed herself up on her
arms. "Hey, rise and shine. Don't we have some ass to kick?"
	"Wha - Princess!" Azaka sputtered, his lens flashing to life. "Are you
still resting?"
	"No, it's fine," Ayeka said drawing herself up as well. "Please awaken
the others as well. Considering the message we were given, we shouldn't delay
any longer..."
	"Of course, Princess!" Azaka replied. He swiveled and exited the room,
hesitating next to the sleepily yawning Seiya, but then proceeding, possibly
feeling the force of Ayeka's glare at his back.
	Ayeka had thanked Seiya for saving her already, when she had heard what
had happened. The Sailor Senshi had laughed it off, which, more than anything
else, had convinced Ayeka that everything she had discovered, everything she had
been told, was true. Jurai had been cleverly manipulated into believing every
Sailor was a monster, when in fact, people like Seiya were indispensible
guardians.
	Which made her even more determined that somehow, they would make it
through this, would rescue Yaten and Taiki, and make it back to Jurai. So Akira
was right. Which reminded her... "You should know about the message as well,
Akira."
	She glanced at Ayeka. "Message?"
	"My guardians here were captured and then released by Z to bring his
message to us." Ayeka took a deep breath. "It's not really any of us he came
for, it seems. He's looking for the same person Seiya, Yaten and Taiki came here
to find. Someone called Princess Kakyuu.  So he's willing to let us all go, but
only if we bring her to him."
	"Not all of us," Seiya broke in. "He never said anything about letting
Yaten and Taiki go." She grimaced. "Not that I'd turn over the Princess to that
monster in any case."
	"Huh," Akira said noncommitally, brushing some unruly hair out of her
eyes. "So, what's the catch? I doubt we get to sneak away and leave him hanging
on our answer."
	Seiya snorted. "Yeah. He said he'd know if we left the planet. Something
about its 'potentialities'. And if we did, he'd blow it up."
	Akira raised an eyebrow. "He can do that?"
	Seiya shrugged. "I don't know the guy. Maybe. I'm sure he could do a
hell of a lot of damage."
	"It's not something we want to risk, in any case," a new voice offered.
Ayeka glanced over as Touga entered the room. Azaka and Kamidake hovered behind
him, too big to all fit in the small chamber. The Dark Kingdom ambassador's hair
and attire looked as immaculate as if he were about to go to a formal ball. He
offered her a faint smile, which she returned hesitantly. Her face, she was
uncomfortably aware, suddenly felt overwarmed, as if she'd been out in the sun
too long.
	It wasn't that she was attracted to him. She had already met the love of
her life. But the Dark Kingdom ambassador was certainly quite a sight to look
at. Even his alabaster skin and his odd eyes - currently shaped like diamonds -
just added to his exotic appeal.
	No, she wasn't attracted to Touga, exactly. But the prospect of getting
to know him better during diplomatic discussions wasn't exactly unpleasant, she
had to admit. Assuming, of course, they all got back to Jurai alive.
	Akira, for her part, seemed to be far less impressed by Touga's
immaculate appearence, if her suspiciously narrowed eyes were any indication.
"Well, Touga, I wouldn't have expected you to be speaking up to voice your
concerns about the fate of this planet," she drawled sardonically.
	"You wound me, Akira," Touga said, his faint smile unperturbed but his
voice sincere. "The fate of a planet is far too weighty to be dismissed
casually. Please don't mistake my past concern for my companions and the
Princess for indifference to the innocent victims on Demood. I'll gladly do
whatever I can to help."
	"You're right. Sorry," Akira conceded, though she didn't sound entirely
convinced. "So, now that we're all here, what are we going to do?"
	"Well, as to that, while resting I was considering the matter," Touga
said. "I have noticed something that might be important. Namely, that our foe
appears to be unaware that Princess Ayeka has joined forces with Seiya here." He
half-turned, nodding in acknowledgement at Azaka. "The guardians told us that
when he reactivated them, Sailor Starmaker was in irons in the same room, which
he made no effort to hide. I suspect that was a deliberate show of his
unfriendliness to 'Sailors', and that he thus actually expects a positive
response to his demand. He's assuming that if the princess knew where this
Kakyuu was, she would gladly turn her over to him for her own life, figuring
they're both enemies of Jurai."
	He looked back at Akira. "I further suspect, by his reaction to you,
that he is equally ignorant of who we are, or what party we work for. Most
likely he has dismissed us as merely nosy interlopers. So, we do have one
advantage in this situation - he won't be anticipating Seiya's possible
interference, nor our own."
	This time Akira really did look more chagrined. "Good thinking, Touga.
You're probably right, he definitely didn't seem to be expecting me to attack
him back at the concert."
	Seiya grinned ferociously, leaping to her feet. "And if he doesn't
expect her to have help, then we can sneak attack the bastard!"
	"He still has the Wings of the Light Hawk," Ayeka cautioned. "Even if
he's taken off-guard, with both I and Akira injured, can we defeat him?"
	"You're right," Seiya conceded, "but there must be some way to take him
down. The fact is, I don't think my Princess is even on this planet. I
haven't... I mean, I didn't feel like she was here. No signs. And we won't give
up Ayeka, either, which means we've got to fight. All we have to figure out is
how to win."
	Akira chewed her lip. "Maybe we could sneak on his ship, try to find
something to use against him. Damn, I wish I wasn't injured..."
	"In fact, I think that's possible," Touga noted. "As Akira knows, I have
a contact on this planet, Kairos. You've already met," he said to Seiya.
	"Who..." she blinked, then scowled. "Wait, that damn clown-girl?"
	Touga blinked for a moment, suddenly looking uncharacteristically
awkward, as if he was straining to say something but also straining just as hard
to hold it back. "I realise you met under poor circumstances," he finally said.
"I apologise for her behaviour; she was attempting to gather information, which
she often does by pretending to know more than she does. Nonetheless, her skills
will be invaluable on a covert operation such as this, so I'll ask you to
forgive her for the sake of our common goal. Given the injuries to Akira, you'll
need to be our infiltrator, and you'll have little chance of doing so on your
own."
	Seiya shrugged, her expression regaining its usual good humour. "Sure,
okay. It won't be the first or last weirdo I've teamed up with, that's for sure.
And like you said, this is more important than good first impressions."
	"Injured or not, I'm not just going to sit here," Akira snapped.
	"I never expected you to," Touga said, his smile broadening to dazzling
intensity. "After all, the obvious distraction to an infiltration attempt by
Seiya and Kairos is us giving him what he wants... or a reasonable facsimile."
His eyes had become little spades, gleaming wickedly. "Now, Akira, doesn't every
little girl dream of being a princess?"

*

	"See, I told you it'd all work out fine."
	"Yeah, you told me. I still don't believe it, but you told me."
	Kairos grinned as she stepped out of the ship's hatch. The plan was
beautiful in its simplicity, like all good plans were. Z had destroyed the
Juraian ship, but knew nothing about the ship she and Akira had taken to the
planet; the ship which had successfully eluded detection by Galaxia's forces
during the trip from Earth. And even if it was low on fuel after using its
stores of life energy to get Akira and the Princess back on their feet, it still
had enough for a jump or two. So while Akira and Ayeka used those stupid
floating logs to go meet their host, the ship would serve as their undetectable
route to infiltrate Z's ship.
	All that beautifully simple plan required was that their blind,
unplanned jump into the interior of Z's ship with an experimental craft she'd
never tried to pilot take them to an unguarded, empty room that was large enough
to hold the Dark Kingdom ship, rather than straight into Z's personal chambers
or the engines or halfway through a wall. Simple!
	Simple so long as the pilot was Kairos, the enchantingly beautiful and
devastatingly mighty youma of chance and fortune, that was.
	"Don't be so pleased with yourself," her silent partner cautioned. "This
was merely the first part of our plan."
	"As if you're any less constantly pleased with how clever you are," she
sneered back. "I don't see any need to be subtle about it."
	"Umm, who are you talking to?"
	Kairos blinked and then chuckled nervously, realising she'd said that
last bit out loud. Unvocalised thoughts had never been a strong youma trait.
"Sorry, sorry, never mind! Let's get going, Sailor Starfighter."
	Seiya walked up to the door, which slid open noiselessly at his
approach. The room they'd landed in appeared to be some sort of large, near-
empty storeroom. Or wait, no, those were bunks that were buckled against the
smooth metallic walls. So, probably quarters for the transportation of a good-
sized regiment of troops.
	Kairos's lip curled at the spartan furnishings. No self-respecting youma
would let themselves be packed like sardines into a can. Phages and youma were
more or less cousins, both humans with a portion of their souls removed and the
ensuing void filled in with magic, but she had little respect for them. Youma
were elegant individual living weapons, but phages were little more than
mindless beasts. Their minds were simple, their powers inadequate, and their
fashion sense absolutely deplorable. Really, their only redeeming features as
minions of terror and death were their savagery and numbers. It was really quite
embarassing to be so closely related to them.
	Seiya had carefully peered out the door, then slid her head back and
beckoned Kairos forward. Looked like the coast was clear, not that Kairos had
any doubt.
	"Follow me," she whispered as she passed the Sailor Senshi, who nodded
and did so. Kairos didn't have the faintest clue where she was going as she
chose a direction, but that didn't shake her confidence one bit.
	Ayeka had reported that she had heard rumours that Galaxia's forces at
the Pleiades had possessed a weapon that could somehow bypass the Light Hawk
Wings and transform crew members into phages, paralysing the crew as they
attempted to hold off attacks from within and without. What information Queen
Tethys had given them before they had embarked on this journey also indicated
this might be the case, and the fact that Z himself used those selfsame Wings
only added credence to the story. It would be a delicious piece of irony to turn
his own toy on him. Of course, that required it to be on the ship, and for
random chance to reveal a way for Kairos and Seiya to steal it without alerting
anyone.
	Simple.
	Kairos hummed a happy little tune as she strode down the hallway,
earning her annoyance from Seiya and Touga both. She ignored them with confident
ease, and chance bore out her seeming carelessness. Sometimes they turned
corners just in time for doors to slide shut down the hall in front of them,
sometimes they passed by other corridors where phages or other humanoid
creatures stood, backs turned. Kairos' stride never wavered. They were never
noticed.
	Some youma resented the new order, railed that they were now expected to
merge with the humans they had regarded for thousands of years as little more
than a food supplies and occasional playthings. None complained to Queen Tethys
directly, of course, but there was still a strong thread of discontent. Some
even whispered that the Queen, a former youma herself, had somehow betrayed them
all, sold them out to the humans and used their weapons somehow to overthrow
Beryl and Metallia.
	Kairos wasn't one of them. Admittedly, it didn't hurt that she'd been
confined to an isolated corner of the Dark Kingdom in the inglorious position of
floor cleaner for several centuries before Tethys had destroyed Beryl. Kairos
had never been fond of authority, or strictly following orders; tendencies -
along with her love of involving her fellow youma in completely harmless and
certainly not rigged at all gambling games - which had been what had gotten her
in trouble in the first place. The iron-fist-in-a-velvet-glove of the new Queen
wasn't really much more to her liking than the velvet-glove-less rule of the old
one, especially since Tethys was far less easily flattered or predictable.
	But freedom, sweet freedom! Travelling the outside world and then the
universe, meeting strange and interesting people and then bilking them of their
money or information or virginity or all three, that was a prize worth any
amount of bothersome necessity to obey Tethys' instructions at the same time.
And as for being merged with Touga Kiryuu...
	Well, he DID often cramp her style, granted - she loftily ignored his
somehow-elegant snort of disgust - but in truth, they were very similar. She
didn't really understand his obsession with gaining long-term power and
influence, when taking whatever they wanted right now was so much easier, but
his quick mind saw possibilities even she missed, and he had a gift for
manipulation that often left her filled with admiration, if impatient. And being
merged with him, sharing their spiritual power, had raised her own innate
abilities to heights scarcely imaginable before. Together, they'd learned how to
twist the winds of fate to their own purpose, and now talking to exactly the
right person in the room, happening to step by just in time to catch the lady or
gentleman as they slipped, and whispering exactly the right sweet nothings into
an ear required no more effort than rolling snake-eyes on dice ten times in a
row.
	Sometimes less. In truth, when Touga was in charge of their little
partnership, they got distracted significantly less. But that was only because
he didn't know how to get caught up enough in the fun of the moment.
	All in all, the last year had been the best of her millennia-old
existence. She intended every future one to be just as interesting.
	"Which means we have to somehow survive this idiotic, suicidal plan,"
Touga reminded her.
	"It was your idiotic suicidal plan," she reminded him sweetly, making
sure she was not vocalising the thought this time.
	"Being the most preferable of an unpleasant array of options does not
lend it any real virtue."
	"Oh, stop grumping," Kairos admonished her partner. Abruptly, she
stopped walking. "Look, we're here anyway."
	Just in front of them, in the endless boring blank corridors that seemed
to traverse Z's ship, was a door. There was nothing special at all about the
door, except that Kairos abruptly had felt she didn't want to walk any further.
Which was all the clue she needed.
	Seiya stopped walking a moment later, and raised an eyebrow quizzically.
Kairos grinned at him, and took a step forward, then stopped again. Some
annoying rudiment of caution, probably all Touga's fault, gripped her, and with
a subvocalised grumble she knelt and slid her head beneath the sensor so she
could place an ear to the door without it opening.
	"-damn it! Why can't I just go down and find the bitch again?"
	Suddenly, she was very grateful for that annoying rudiment of caution,
as she recognised the voice of Sailor Dragontail. There was a slight rustle as
Seiya knelt by her to listen as well.
	"Because, Dragontail, you're going to kill her. And Z wants her for some
reason." That was Sailor Sabre. Seiya's eyes widened as she too realised who was
there.
	"What, doesn't Galaxia have enough damn minions already? I'm already
itching to kill half those trumped-up Animamates. Did you hear what that
insufferable overgrown moth Papillon said about my outfit?" Dragontail growled.
	"You're just angry because you got your head blown off," Sabre chuckled.
"Don't be so careless next time."
	"Oh, as if you're one to lecture me about carelessness! How did that
sword feel going through your brainpan, huh?"
	"Look," Sabre snapped, her calm suddenly evaporating. "I'm no more
thrilled about Z's interest in that homely little girl than you are. But right
now, we should just be happy he didn't decide our failure to capture them wasn't
worth our summary executions!"
	"Homely little girl?" Dragontail said, voice turning sly. "What an...
interesting choice of words."
	"What?" Sabre sounded annoyed.
	"Not that she isn't, of course. But it's not like you to notice...
unless..."
	"Oh, don't you go on some stupid flight of fancy," Sabre snapped
peevishly.
	"Why so defensive, Sabre?" Dragontail laughed. "You almost sound jealous
of Z's interest in that girl."
	"N- now what did I just tell you?" Sabre growled. "What a ridiculous
notion! You know perfectly well I'm no more capable of love than you are, and
even if I was, Z wouldn't be involved. I mean, just look at that... eye of his!"
She sounded decidedly flustered, both Kairos and Touga noted with interest.
	"Love, no," laughed Dragontail. "But jealousy, rage, and of course lust
are something else again, now aren't they?"
	"Oh, quit it," Sabre snapped. "That's true, but Z? Come on. That eye,
ugh!"
	"That's true," Dragontail mused. "And that tacky jacket he wears..."
	"Hey, there's nothing wrong with his jacket."
	"...of course not," Dragontail replied drily.
	"I was just saying! There isn't!"
	"If you say so, Sabre dear."
	"Anyway," Sabre said, hastily changing the subject, "what I'm just
saying is we should take the Soul Extraction Device and yank out the Star Seeds
of everyone on the whole planet."
	Success! Kairos nearly pumped her fist. Her inimitably astounding powers
of fortune had brought them to the information they needed.
	"Oh, come on. Using the SED would take too long and you know it."
	"But it'd make us both feel better."
	"Mmm. But so would mass slaughter. I think..."
	Now Dragontail would lead them to the armory, where the weapon
undoubtedly resided. And she wasn't even planning to use it, so there was no
need to fight her. Another outstanding success for the mighty powers of Kairos
where idiotic, suicidal planning failed! She turned her head to grin
triumphantly at Seiya, who had doubted her.
	"...I'll go to the gym and work out."
	Oh, poopy. Kairos sighed. Well, nobody said this would be simple.
	"Except you," Touga unhelpfully reminded her.
	"Okay, okay."
	"Several times, in fact."
	"OKAY! I thought you didn't like such unsubtle smugness?"
	"You're rubbing off on me," he silently smirked as Kairos fumed. "But I
have a plan."
	And so he did, Kairos realised. She smiled as she instantly absorbed the
details. "Why you sly little manwhore! Well, we'll just have to get little Seiya
to play her part, then."
	"Yeah, sure," came Sabre's voice from the other side of the door. "Kill
a few for me. I don't really feel like it."
	Kairos slipped back from the door, Seiya following. They briskly walked
back down the corridor, slipping into a side passageway. When they were far away
not to be overheard, Seiya whispered, "Okay, they must know where the weapon is.
But how are we going to find out?"
	"Don't worry," Kairos smiled. "I can get that information from Sailor
Sabre."
	"You can?" The Sailor Senshi's voice was dubious.
	Kairos tipped her top hat at her. "Sorry, dear, but a good magician
never reveals her secrets. Just trust me. But I'll need you to make sure Sailor
Dragontail doesn't come back to interrupt."
	"Uh... I hate to say it, but I don't think I can-"
	"Of COURSE you can!" Kairos hissed, spinning Seiya around by the
shoulders and giving her a good shove down the corridor. "Defenders of love and
justice always rise to the challenge, or so I'm told. Go down past the next
three doors and turn left, and you'll catch her on her way. Look, we don't have
any choice, right?"
	Seiya squared her shoulders. "All right. I'll do what I can."
	"That's the spirit," Kairos giggled. "Just one piece of advice. I know
Sailor Senshi, and I know they love to jump out and yell and tell the opponent
just how naughty they are before the fight, right?"
	Seiya looked back at them, blinking. "Umm... okay, what's your point?"
	"Well maybe, just this once, I'd suggest shooting her in the back with
no warning. I know, I know," she said, holding up a hand to forestall Seiya's
response, "It's not really very super justice-like, but you know, nobody will
ever know if you do it just this once. Except me. And I'll never tell. It'll be
just our little secret, promise!"
	Seiya stared for a minute longer, then shook her head and walked away.
Kairos chuckled and headed in another direction, circling around to go back to
the room, though making sure to leave more than enough time for Sailor
Dragontail to get far away. As she turned the last corner to approach the room
where Sailor Sabre was, she abruptly become a he.
	Touga brushed an errant strand of hair from his eyes. Truthfully, he
didn't think Seiya could win a fight with Dragontail even if she took their
advice. But he was far more certain of something else: that the phage held a no
less nasty grudge against Seiya for blowing her up than she had against Akira
for removing her head. Which meant she would undoubtedly linger on repaying
Seiya more than long enough to let Touga do his own work.
	He smiled slightly. The expression - one of many he'd carefully
practiced in the mirror growing up - was warm and pleasant, but held just a hint
of a mysterious secret. The smile was almost guaranteed to arouse curiosity as
to just what was hidden behind it.
	"Jealousy and lust indeed," he repeated. His own association with Kairos
was sometimes rewarding, sometimes infuriatingly frustrating; yet for all her
insanity, knowing her mind had taught him there wasn't nearly as much difference
between the average half-soulless monstrosity and the average human as either
thought. The revelation hadn't surprised him at all.
	The door slid open, and Sailor Sabre's head snapped around to focus on
them. She was polishing one of her swords. Her face, obviously twisted in
frustration, was now slackening in surprise. Touga smiled, and opened his mouth
to issue a carefully-worded greeting.
	"Why hello there, Sailor!" somehow emerged instead, in an embarassingly
husky voice.
	Touga silently swore. Reminding the sniggering imbecile inside his head
that they both had plans that included living out the day, he carefully regained
control of his voice and expression. "Do you mind if I come in?"

*

	Seiya took a deep breath, then spun around the corner. Sailor Dragontail
spotted her almost instantly. The phage was flowing to her feet, uncurling her
new whip. Seiya was already aiming. Her fingertips started to glow.
	"Star Serious-"
	There was a crack and a flash of pain across her wrist. She staggered
back, hissing and losing the attack before it could go off. Dragontail had a
large, predatory smile on her face,
	"Well, well, what have we here?"
	"Where are my friends?" Seiya snarled. Best to try and confuse her as to
why they were actually here. Not that he didn't care...
	"I believe the white-haired one is being tortured to death," Dragontail
said with a sinuous shrug. Seiya felt the blood drain from his face as he
cradled his wrist. "The other? I think Z has her."
	"Damn you..." Seiya took a deep breath. She needed to draw this one off,
away from Kairos and her attempt to trick the other phage into revealing the
location of the star seed extracting weapon. So she did the only thing she
could.
	She ran.
	The thing's mocking laughter echoed behind her. Seiya tried to tune it
out. She knew that she was grossly overmatched. These weren't normal phages.
This one had survived an explosion from a starfreighter. But it had dodged away
from her attack. Her only hope was that her attack might actually do permanent
damage.
	But it was faster than her, stronger than her, more skilled than her.
Akira had overmatched Seiya with distressing ease, and these things were as
skilled, if not moreso, than her. Even trying to snipe from range was out. It
had a ranged attack of its own, and Seiya had no trouble believing the phage was
better at using it.
	There was a flash from behind her. Seiya tried to turn away from it but
the whip smashed across her back. She cried out in pain and tumbled down the
corridor. Somehow she managed to get back to her feet almost as quickly and keep
running.
	"That's it. Run, little Sailor Senshi...," the thing whispered, its
voice seeming to come from right behind Seiya. She spun, firing behind her. Her
attack scorched a mark into the wall, but hit nothing. Then she felt the whip
kiss across her ribs and she collapsed to her knees. "I may not get to kill the
master's new pet, but I can have my revenge on you."
	Seiya turned. The phage was walking out of a side corridor. Her stride
was sensual and suggestive, but Seiya felt nothing but disgust. The phage was a
mockery of humanity, a soulless killing machine.
	"Oh, that expression..." Sailor Dragontail grabbed the whip with both
hands. "That expression won't do at all." It pulled the whip taut in front of
its face, licking the black leather. "Before I kill you, I'll see true terror on
your face."
	"I'll never fear you," Seiya vowed. She needed to think of some way to
win this fight. There had to be some place she would have the advantage. Some
environment that could compensate for her lack of speed and power. A place that
would make up for Sailor Dragontail's superior reach and mobility.
	"Oh..." Dragontail looked disappointed for a moment. "Then I suppose
there's no need to waste time."
	Seiya screamed as the phage struck her, hard across the face. Her head
snapped back and she tumbled into the wall. Then a second and third strike
slammed her into it harder. Then more. She lost track of the attacks.
	Seiya tried to run, but the thing caught her ankle and dragged her to
the ground. It kicked her into a wall. It picked her up and threw her down the
hall. It wasn't going for elegance or torment anymore. It was just beating Seiya
to death. And as it did, it talked.
	"I only wish I could do this to your friend," Dragontail purred. "It's
so... cathartic." At this point the thing was carrying her by the neck. The whip
was currently binding her wrists together behind her back. "But in a few hours,
she'll just be one of us."
	"One of..." Seiya coughed. "What do you mean?"
	"That biker chick, the one who blew my head off..." Dragontail slammed
Seiya face-first into the wall. "Z's going to make her one of us."
	"No... Akira won't..."
	"You think he'll give her a choice?" Dragontail laughed. It ground her
face against the wall. "Do you know what I was before Z found me?" The thing
laughed. "I was a nurse. A pediatric nurse. I healed sick children." A sneer
traced its way across the thing's woman-like face. "But Z saw the potential for
such beautiful madness in me. He saw malice and pain where others saw kindness
and tenderness." It smiled almost nostalgically. "All he had to do was strip
away my weaknesses."
	Dragontail pitched Seiya down the hall and she landed with a crack in
the corner. She was certain her shoulder had dislocated. "And when Z is finished
with this 'Akira', she'll be just like me. Twisted and broken from everything
you know. She'll delight in suffering, chaos and death. I'm certain the two of
us will get along very, very well." It leered. Seiya stared up at it.
	"Ah, there it is," the thing purred. "A look of pure terror." She shook
her head. "You Sailors are so predictable. No matter what I do to you, you'll
never back down. But threaten your friends..." She pulled back her whip. "Now, I
have no more use for you. Your star seed will make a fine addition to Galaxia's
collection."
	With a laugh it slashed out with the whip. There was a crack as it broke
the sound barrier. It moved faster than Seiya could even percieve.
	Her forearm screamed in pain as she somehow managed to catch it. The
rawhide snapped around her arm, and with her other hand she grabbed the slack,
pulling it tight. "I won't let you," Seiya said.
	"A bit of will left?" The thing smirked. "All the better." It yanked on
the whip, trying to rip it free of Seiya's grasp.
	"I won't let you." Seiya pulled back. She knew she was no match for this
thing. But somehow, it didn't manage to pull the whip free. Its eyebrows raised
in shock.
	"I." Seiya stood up. "Won't." She pulled on the rope, causing the thing
to take a stumbling step forward. "Let." The phage tried to recover, but Seiya
snarled and ran towards it. "YOU!"
	She collided with the thing with her wounded shoulder. The pain sent
black stars across her vision, but she sent it tumbling back. The whip fell
out of its hands. The phage crashed to the ground.
	"H-how?" the monster stammered. "You're no match for me!"
	"Not today," Seiya told it. She uncurled the whip and flung it behind
her. Then she saw the thing's eyes widen and its lips tremble. It was afraid.
	That didn't last long. With a roar, it launched itself at Seiya, its
hands curled into fists. Seiya screamed and rushed it. She had no plan. She had
no hope of winning. She was going to anyway. Akira was her friend. Akira had
healed her. Akira had saved her life. Akira had stood up for her when she had
every reason not to. Seiya was not going to let this thing hurt the first friend
she had made in two years!
	A punch landed in Seiya's gut. She felt the ribs Akira had cracked
earlier snap again. Another punch slammed into her side. She felt something
inside her break. Seiya led with one hand. She reached out, grabbing the thing's
hair. It snarled and punched again, and again and again.
	The force of the blows lifted Seiya into the air. Her back bowed. The
air exploded from her lungs. One blow landed right above her heart, and she felt
it stop beating. She was dead. She had died. It had killed her.
	She shoved her dead fingers under the thing's chin. She was a Sailor
Starlight. She protected those things precious to her, even in death.
	"STAR SERIOUS LASER, BITCH!"
	Sailor Dragontail's head ceased to exist.
	Seiya slumped to the ground. Dragontail's body stayed upright for a few
moments. Then, slowly, it began to dissolve. Motes of light began to peel away
from its body. They were small at first, but grew larger and more frequent in
the next few seconds. In a few seconds the body of the phage had completely
dissolved away into a slowly expanding field of starmotes.
	It was getting dark. The magic that had somehow sustained Seiya's body
was giving out. Well, there were worse ways to go... She looked up. She could
swear she saw someone in the fading motes of starlight. It was... a young woman?
She looked happy as she leaned down over him. She wore a white uniform, and her
face was like Dragontail's, but kind. Her hand rested on Seiya's heart.
	"Thank you..."
	Then she was gone.
	It took Seiya a few minutes to realise she wasn't dead. She grabbed her
heart, feeling the steady beat. Her body was still battered, but not nearly as
badly as she had thought. Had she seen that? Or was it a hallucination?
	With a pained grimace, Seiya rose to her feet. It appeared the old
saying was wrong. She wouldn't be able to rest even when she was dead.

*

	"Touga," Kairos laughed silently, "you're feeling unsubtly smug again."
	Touga didn't bother dignifying her with a response, but did allow a
smile to flit briefly across his features. Eight minutes WAS a new personal
best.
	"Oh, Z, please forgive your most humble servant!"
	Touga leaned forward, whispering softly into his companion's ear. He
pitched his voice harsher, lower. "Forgiveness? Forgiveness doesn't come so
easily, my servant."
	He allowed his hand to drop, letting the end of the whip lightly tickle
the back of her neck. A shudder ran up Sailor Sabre's entire body. She opened
her mouth to plead for "Z's" forgiveness once again-
	"Now tell her what a naughty, naughty girl she's been!"
	"Shut up," Touga coldly informed his partner. "You're interrupting my
concentration again."
	"Sorry, I can't help it. What a sap!"
	He smiled again despite himself. Truthfully, even he had been mildly
surprised at how smoothly this little operation had gone, but then, Touga Kiryuu
was nothing if not good at adapting to the roles other people desired of him.
	Touga turned his attention back to Sailor Sabre. She was quite
thoroughly trussed up in several of Dragontail's whips, a process he'd been very
careful with, remembering how the phage's joints had popped out of place when
fighting Akira. She was also blindfolded, all the better to facilitate the
illusion of "Z".
	"...never fail you again! I sweeeeear!" The note of pleading in her
voice was actually quite fetching, Touga thought.
	"Typical! Chauvinist pig."
	"I told you to shut up," he reminded Kairos, then turned his attention
back to Sabre. "Perhaps I will forgive you. Perhaps. But you will have to prove
your... loyalty." He lingered just long enough on the last word to be rewarded
with another shudder.
	"Yes, yes, anything, my dearest Z-"
	Touga flicked the whip sharply. "Who said you could address me by my
name?"
	The expected apologies and 'masters' followed. Touga ignored them as he
carefully chose the next series of words. When she'd paused for breath, he
spoke. "You'll need to prove yourself all over again."
	"Anything, oh, anything!"
	Well, she seemed to be quite in the moment by now. "I doubt it," he
sneered roughly. "Can a miserable failure like you remember even the basics of
her training?" She swore fervently in the affirmative. "Then listen closely,
servant. You will bring me the SED."
	She stiffened slightly, her voice losing its pleading note. "Wait, how
do you know about..."
	"Sailor Sabre," Touga said slowly, voice dripping menace. "Were you
given permission to ask questions?" The whip flicked again as she paused. "Were
you?"
	A dreamy smile reasserted itself on her face. "Oh no, no, master Z,
please forgive me!"
	"Again I should forgive you? Do you even remember where the SED is?"
	"Oh yes, master, it's in the second armory!"
	"And how will you get it?"
	"I'll take my keycard and-" she suddenly shut her mouth again, but it
was too late. Touga's keen eye had seen the slight, involuntary movement of her
head. He strode over, opening the cupboard the phage had tried to look at.
Amongst the spare whips - Dragontail appeared to have quite a collection,
actually - was indeed a simple blue card. "Hey, wait a minute..."
	Touga coughed lightly. Doing that deep-throated voice was a bit of a
strain on the neck muscles, but at least he was finished with it now. "Thank you
for your cooperation, Sailor Sabre. I think you're forgiven."
	She paused for a long second, then jerked up from the bed. "Why you...
untie me RIGHT NOW!"
	"I'm sorry, but I have no time at the moment. Perhaps we will meet
again." Touga passed his hand in front of the door, which slid open.
Predictably, Sailor Sabre whirled and lunged. Even blindfolded and bound, her
aim and the power in her legs was certainly impressive. She flew through the
open door like a guided missile, and just as unerringly passed through the
corridor outside and smashed head-first into the opposite wall. A very
recognisable impression of her features was left imprinted in the metal of the
wall as her abruptly boneless body slid to the floor.
	After a few experimental pokes to verify her unconsciousness, Touga
dragged Sabre back inside her room. He briefly considered trying to kill her,
but wasn't certain he'd trust Kairos' powers to do more than just wake her up
again. For all they'd learned together, she was far from the most combat-capable
of youma.
	"Jerk!"
	Besides, seducing Sabre again wouldn't be too difficult if the chance
came up, since he wagered her prospects of a relationship with Z to be rather
dim. If this entire endeavour went south and his allies were captured or killed,
it would be handy to have someone on the enemy's side who could be persuaded to
vouch for his trustworthy character and potential usefulness to Galaxia's
forces.
	Smiling to himself, he walked out of Sailor Sabre's room, letting the
door close behind him.

*

	Akira really didn't have anything against dresses. In fact, she thought
they were very nice. They could be a lot more flattering than pants and shirts.
The way the fabric fell just came off as more classical and refined than casual
clothes. The cut of the hems and neckline could be as revealing as the tightest
fabrics, while still containing an air of concealment and mystery. In short, a
well-designed dress was a thing of beauty that turned even the roughest girl
into a lady.
	So Akira actually liked dresses. She just didn't like wearing them. The
skirts were confining, the tops uncomfortable, the entire production demanded an
attitude and grace to pull off that Akira wasn't really comfortable with. The
problem was that she knew she was good at it regardless.
	From the reaction of Seiya and Touga when Akira had walked out of her
room, and Ayeka's proud little smirk that she had done such a good job hiding,
Akira knew that in this dress she looked good. Very good. Unconsciously she
found herself falling into those old patterns again. The graceful and gliding
steps, the careful and bashful looks and the demure and feminine poise were
thing she had spent ten years perfecting. Just as with her martial arts skills,
she was a master at putting on a show of feminine grace.
	Maybe a year ago she would have been able to do this without feeling
vaguely unpleasant. But until a year ago, she had been lying to herself. She had
been concealing her true personality so far behind the pose of a perfect young
lady that she had begun to develop an unhealthy dual identity. Then Ukyou had
shown her that you had to be true to yourself, even if you didn't always know
what that meant.
	So putting on the dress had felt almost like a tiny betrayal. She raised
a hand up to her hair, which Ayeka had lengthened using some sort of hairbrush-
like device. Not too much, and she had also dyed the hair red to match the
description Seiya had given them of Princess Kakyuu. Well, hopefully this
would be short and sweet.
	The door in front of them opened. The Jurai Guardians, who had flown
them up from the surface inside them, parted as they swept to both sides and
placed themselves on either side of the door, Akira almost strode through right
after them when she remembered her place.
	Ayeka moved in first, clad in a shimmering purple kimono patterned with
lavender leaves of a type Akira didn't recognize. Her obi was golden, and Akira
suspected it was actual gold thread. She moved with sedate ease as she strode
into the room. Akira could just see beyond her to the rest of the room.
	It was a banquet hall; not a huge and ostentatious one like Akira was
expecting, either. It was actually just barely large enough to fit the table
with room to walk around at all sides. The table could comfortably sit six,
maybe ten if the people involved were friendly. The rear wall was a picture
window that stretched around halfway down the right hand side. The planet Demood
spun slowly outside the window, mostly dark since the sun was behind it at this
time.
	And in the chair opposite them, slowly getting to his feet, was Z. Akira
almost froze. She could hear Ayeka announcing her - or rather, announcing
Princess Kakyuu - but the words didn't seem to register. All she could think was
that this had gone way out of her control.
	She was injured. Her leg and arm still hadn't healed fully. Worse, she
couldn't even try and speed up the healing for fear that Z would sense the chi
at work and see through her disguise. But even if she could fight at her best,
she knew she was no match for this man. She had gotten him dead to rights, a
perfect attack from an unepxected angle and he had defeated it with the same
ease with which she would a fly, and all the indifference as well. He was faster
than her, stronger, and had access to a power that (if Ayeka was to be believed)
could hold off the force of black hole.
	Ayeka was looking at her, and Akira realised she was supposed to be
doing something now. Steeling herself, Akira walked into the room.
	"As requested, I have come to throw myself at your mercy. In exchange
for the lives of those on this planet." The words sounded much better than they
had any right to. Any nervousness Akira felt could be attributed to the fact she
was surrendering to a powerful enemy.
	"Please, no need to be so formal," Z said. He was wearing the same brown
jacket and black slacks he had before. He slid out his chair again. "Please
sit." Akira watched as the man's eyes ran up and down her body. She didn't like
the look in his eyes. They looked so... eager and possessive. It was like he was
ogling a bag of gourmet cookies rather than a human being. There wasn't
anything leering or sexual in his face, but what she saw there was worse.
	Darker. Hungrier.
	"Of course..." Akira demurred. She walked up to the table and almost
pulled out her own chair, then stopped herself at the last moment. Azaka and
Kamidake appeared behind her and Ayeka, somehow levitating their chairs back as
the two sat in eerie unison. "You are a gracious kidnapper."
	"And you are a courteous hostage," Z replied. He gestured at the plates
arranged around the table. Akira noticed there were four places set, but only
three of them here. "Please, let us eat and discuss our new alliance, Princess."
	Something about Z's tone made Akira nervous. He couldn't have seen
through their ruse already, could he? The plan was simple. Akira was too injured
to fight, as was Ayeka. therefore the two of them would distract Z. In the
meantime, Touga (or more accurately his 'servant' Kairos) and Seiya would sneak
on board using Tethys' ship. From there, they would hopefully find a weapon to
use against Z. It was a thin hope, but it was all they had.
	If Z saw through the ruse, it was all over. But he didn't say anything
else, and his gaze remained on Akira with that same disturbing intensity. He
must be fooled, Akira told herself.
	So, right, delaying. Also, which utensil was she supposed to use? Akira
surreptitiously observed Ayeka out of the corner of her eye, trying to mimic the
other woman's actions.
	"You certainly are being more polite than you were on the surface,"
Ayeka observed, her voice polite but frosty.
	"Ah, yes..." Z ran a utensil across his plate idly. "I'd apologise, but
I don't really care to." He smiled at Ayeka. "Frankly, the very sight of you
makes me angry. It is taking a good deal of willpower to not to choke the life
out of you this very moment." He chuckled dryly. "The thought of delivering your
lifeless corpse to Tenchi makes me... almost giddy."
	Akira took a long drink. It wasn't so much the words he was saying that
made her throat go dry. It was the casual, indifferent and utterly sincere
manner with which he spoke them.
	"What grudge do you bear against Lord Tenchi?" Ayeka snapped, Z's words
obviously getting through her decorum.
	Z frowned. "I'd like to say it's something profound and justified. It
would certainly make me sound more... admirable." He shrugged and popped some of
the noodle-dish into his mouth. "But the truth is I'm jealous. I hate him
because he has everything I do not."
	"But you have..." Ayeka trailed off.
	"You were going to say 'more power', isn't that right?" Z gave a small,
humourless smile. "No, princess. This isn't about power. This is about life." He
leaned back. "This is about gods, and the playthings of the gods."
	"Playthings?"
	"Oh, of course, you wouldn't see it that way." His smile grew vicious.
"After all, your own sister is one of them."
	"Sasami? What does she..." Ayeka trailed off. "You mean Tsunami."
	"Tsunami?" Akira couldn't help but ask.
	"Oh, it's a fine story," Z said, leaning forward, placing his elbows on
the table. "No, Princess, don't bother. I'll tell." He smirked at Akira. "You
see, many thousands of years ago the world of Jurai was attacked. By who doesn't
particularly matter. But the enemy was able to penetrate their defences, and
even the Imperial Palace was attacked. The youngest daughter of the royal line
was involved in an accident." His eyes gleamed.  There was something hauntingly
familiar about his expression. "She was thrown off the edge of a balcony and
plummeted hundreds of meters to her death." And here his voice took on a mocking
tone. "Or she would have, had not the great and powerful goddess of Jurai
intervened to save the child's life.
	"The goddess saved the child, but in so doing she gained a physical
existence in this world. Now, she lives as the child's reflection... influencing
her..."
	"Stop!" Ayeka slammed her palm into the table. "You make it sound so
sinister!"
	"Oh, that's not the right tone at all," Z replied, still mocking her.
His tone was still oddly familiar. It made Akira feel vaguely ill. "You see,
Tsunami, the goddess in question, did this for only the most pure and noble of
reasons. Her motive was just to save the child." His eyes narrowed. "It
certainly had nothing to do with gaining the ability to ingratiate herself with
Tenchi. After all, this occurred thousands of years before the boy was born. How
could she have known what would happen?"
	"You're just twisting the facts!" Ayeka accused.
	"No, Ayeka, I'm stating the truth." The mirth drained from his tone. "We
are all pawns of the gods. They rule the cosmos, and to them we are just
curiosities." His tone started growing cold, and that too was blood-chillingly
familiar. "Do you know why the goddesses created the universe, Ayeka?"
	"I-"
	"What about you... Kakyuu?"
	"I'm sorry, I've never given it much thought," Akira admitted. She
really wasn't into philosophy.
	"Why would the gods create such a universe? A universe full of pain and
misery, or war and chaos? Why create people like us? People with the capacity
for love and compassion, with the ability to feel so much for each other and yet
be constantly driven to war with each other? If they wanted to, the gods could
have made a world where there was no pain, and no loss, a world with order and
peace."
	He leaned in towards Akira some more. "Yet they didn't."
	"What does this have to do with Ayeka?" Akira asked.
	"I'll get to that." Z waved a hand dismissively. "You see, Kakyuu, the
secret is that the gods want a world of chaos and strife. They want us to
suffer. They want to punish us and hurt us. They'll fracture our lives. They set
enemies against us. They destroy our homes. They kill our loved ones. They make
it so that we will never know peace. And if you survive, if you persevere, they
just keep pushing and pushing.
	"Until we break."
	There was something about his tone. It was almost hypnotic. Akira found
herself thinking of Ukyou. She remembered how the girl had seemed to live a
cursed life. So many enemies had come to her, for no good reason. Eventually she
had been driven away. Driven away from her home. From her friends. Until finally
she had vanished. Until there was noone searching for her anymore... except
Akira.
	"They want us to break, Kakyuu." He smiled bitterly.
	"Oh, not because it amuses them. They WANT something from us. They want
to find something in us. They want to find something larger than themselves.
That's what they are looking for, Kakyuu. They are looking for that one person
who will be pushed so far that eventually they will just... go beyond their
limits. Go beyond all limits. They want to make something greater than a god."
	Akira was frozen in place.
	"You're lying," Ayeka snarled. "Sasami... Tsunami is not like that!"
	"Oh really?" Z turned to her. "I'm a result of your sister's kindness,
Ayeka. Or, more accurately, I'm a result of her indifference." His smile grew
vicious. "Ask your little sister about her true family some time. Ask her about
Tokimi. Ask her about how her dear sister decided that to find the perfect
being, she would create chaos and war. That she would randomly warp space and
time, create dangerous anamolies and bizarre phenomena and inflict it on the
universe." Z's body began to shake slightly. "Ask her about my people, my race.
Ask her where her kindness and protection was when my people were being
slaughtered by the war her sister created. Ask her where her forethought was
when Tokimi ripped apart space around me, while I watched my parents die! ASK
HER!" He stood up, slamming his hands into the table.
	The table exploded. Akira managed to throw herself back, sliding against
the way. Ayeka was able to avoid the worst of the debris as well. Z stared down
at the damage, his face twisted into a snarl of hatred, Akira found her pulse
quickening. There was something so damned familiar about all this...
	"Then that bitch, that bitch that had destroyed my life..." His entire
body trembled. "I survived her 'test', I survived her 'experiment', you see. I
developed the Wings of the Light Hawk. I briefly touched on the power of the
gods. But it wasn't enough for her. She had to know: why? Why me?" He curled his
hands into fists. "So I became her pet. Her toy. She used me. She played with my
body and mind, trying to dissect what made me so... special." He spat the last
word, as if it left a bitter taste in his mouth. "But what could I do? Even
with five Light Hawk Wings, I'm no match for Tokimi."
	Akira felt something twisting in her stomach. That was what was so
familiar. He was the same. His tone, his words, his outlook... they were the
same as Ukyou's. Akira remembered that cynicism. She remembered the mocking
tone. She remembered the cold, implacable fury. It was just like Ukyou's. Just
like her cold rage at the unfairness of the world. Except instead of being
turned inward as self-loathing, this man had turned his hatred outward. To the
gods, to Tokimi, to Ayeka and Tenchi, and the entire universe.
	He had nothing, Akira realised. Even at her darkest, there had been a
spark of hope in Ukyou's life. She had never given totally into despair... or
had she?
	Akira stepped forward, her eyes narrowing. "Are we supposed to feel
sorry for you now?" Z's eyes snapped up and focused on her. "So you had a hard
life. Tough. Lots of people live hard lives without becoming psychopaths."
	Z sneered. "I think it's time to end this charade." He clapped his hands
and the door opened. Akira turned quickly and watched as a figure walked in.
	Akira recognised her, vaguely. It was the brown-haired Sailor from the
concert. She was still in her abbreviated battle outfit. Her face was downcast
as she walked into the room. Akira froze up.
	"Sailor Starmaker," Z addressed the woman. "Remember our deal. All you
have to do is answer one question for me, and I'll let your friend go. Seiya
will live, and Yaten's torment will end."
	"Bastard," Starmaker growled, her eyes screwed shut.
	"Perhaps." Z waved the comment aside. "If you want, I could send you
back to your cell. The acoustics there are to your liking, right? You can hear
everything happening to Yaten, can't you? I know you're the sort of person who
hates to be left out of the information loop."
	"Just ask your damn question!" she snarled.
	"Is this woman here Princess Kakyuu?"
	The girl opened her eyes and looked at Akira. Akira stared back, her
eyes wide. The Sailor stared at her for a long time. Then, she looked guiltily
away. "No."
	"Was that so hard?" Z said with mock sympathy.
	"Z... you have to understand-"
	"Save it, Princess." Z snapped, and Ayeka fell silent. He turned back to
Akira. "I believe you broke our agreement. I had a very specific request." He
held up his palm towards her. Akira tensed. There was nothing she could do to
defend herself, but that wouldn't stop her. She would sell her life dearly. But
Z's hand panned away from her and pointed at the planet.
	"NO!" Akira roared and leapt at him. There was a flash of white and she
went crashing into the wall.
	"Z, stop!" Ayeka screamed.
	"You promised!" Starmaker cried out.
	"Then stop me," Z said, looking directly at Akira.  She stood up and
walked over in front of the viewport, spreading her arms wide. It was a futile
gesture, and Z chuckled at it. "Not like that, you fool."
	"I can't stop you," Akira said. "But you'll have to kill me to get to
them."
	"Heh, of course. You don't even know what you're capable of. You have no
idea what you will become." Z laughed. "Just like Misaki."
	"Misaki?" Ayeka paused. "Mother?"
	"Yes, just like her."
	"What does she have to do with this?" Ayeka snarled. "What do you have
against my family?"
	"Against Misaki? Nothing. Up until some time ago, in fact, she was my
only hope." He smiled. "But then something changed. The universe shifted, and
the potential left her. She ceased to be the Counterreactor."
	"Counterreactor?" the Sailor asked.
	"The weapon that can kill even the gods. The weapon which can destroy
Galaxia, and Tokimi and all the rest of the things which think they control our
lives." He looked back at Akira. "And you..."
	That was when the wall behind him disintegrated. Seiya came running
through the gap, battered but ready to fight. Z reacted quickly and spun,
striking at her with his outstretched hand. Seiya went flying back. Starmaker
cried out and attacked, a blast of light exploding from her fingers. Azaka and
Kamidake sprung forward, launching pulses from their eyes. Akira began to gather
chi, cursing the lack of foresight. She should have started gathering power as
soon as the ruse was blown.
	But she need not have bothered. None of the attacks even fazed Z. His
wings encircled him like a cocoon, protecting him entirely from their feeble
attacks. His face was a study in cold rage. "Please, I'm trying to..."
	Then Akira saw it. Kairos dropped from the ceiling behind him, and she
was holding a cannon of some kind. There was a golden lens at the end, and she
pointed it straight at the man's back. She started pulling the trigger...
	Only to have Z spin and kick it out of her hand. "Did you really think
that would work?" he snapped.
	Akira leapt, driving a foot towards him. Her leg protested as her kick
connected with the force field. Her skirt tore itself to ribbons with the sudden
movement. But hitting him hadn't been her real purpose. She slapped out,
catching the cannon in mid-air. It flew down and straight into Ayeka's grasp. Z
turned to her, bringing up his hand. Akira threw herself between them.
	He hesitated. Akira grabbed his wrists. She had no idea what he wanted
with her, or what this Counterreactor business was all about, but she realised
one thing. He wanted her. She should have realised it sooner. He had seen
through the ruse right away. It had started on the stage, down on the planet. He
had seen something when he'd looked at her, something that had surprised him.
Something he wanted very badly.
	Something he was desperate for. So she gambled that he wouldn't risk
actually harming her. Z snarled as he tried to throw her off, but he wasn't
using his full strength. The two Sailors attacked from both sides, but the
Light Hawk Wings materialised, nullifying their attacks.
	"Ayeka!" Akira called. "Fire the weapon!"
	"You... you're in the way!"
	"Do it! Shoot us both!"
	"If you lose your Star Seed, you'll be worse than dead!" Seiya called.
	Z's snarl smoothed into a smile. "She's right. You'll become a phage, a
monster that lives to kill. You'll be my slave. That weapon is what I used to
create my Sailor Killers."
	"Ayeka!" Akira snapped. "SHOOT!"
	There was an anguished cry and a flash of golden light and Akira knew no
more.

*

	Ayeka lowered the cumbersome weapon, her arms shaking. Was it over? Z
was slumped against the far wall, his eyes closed. Akira was lying in front of
him in the remains of the table. Her face had gone pale. Seiya was standing,
using a chair to prop herself up. She looked like she had been worked over by a
pissed off Ryoko. Sailor Starmaker - Taiki, Ayeka reminded herself - was holding
a ready stance. Kairos was crouched near the door, her body tense.
	Z opened his eyes. Ayeka felt her heart skip a beat. The monster slowly
rose to his feet.
	"Shoot him again!" Seiya yelled.
	"It... it won't work..." Ayeka said, her voice cracking. All the
moisture in her mouth had dried up.
	"Very good, princess." Z said. "Though I admit, that thing packed more
of a punch then I was suspecting."
	"What...?" Seiya looked between the two of them.
	"What, did you really expect that I would build a weapon capable of
destroying me?" Z said with a snort. Her crossed his arms. "What kind of fool do
you take me for?"
	"You used us..." Ayeka said. She realised suddenly why Akira had been
able to get into that brief grapple with Z. He outmatched her so much that even
her strength at perfect health had been no contest. Injured, she would have been
even less capable of overpowering him. He had allowed himself to be grabbed, so
that Ayeka could... Ayeka could...
	She dropped the weapon to the ground. It cracked against the floor and
rolled to a stop against the wall. Z chuckled. "Ah, if only I had a recorder." Z
rubbed at his lapels. "It's almost a shame I have to destroy you."
	Then the room suddenly flooded with light. Ayeka looked down and saw a
flower blooming from Akira's forehead. It gave off a light, a radiance so bright
that the rest of the light in the room seemed to dim in response. Z stepped
forward, the light flashing up to cast the angles of his face in sharp shadows.
The result was horrific, his inhuman eye and the purple horns burrowing out of
his forehead looked even more disturbing.
	"Well, well, moment of truth, so to speak..." Z said, holding out his
hands over the flower. The petals bloomed open, revealing a perfect diamond that
shimmered in the light. At its heart pulsed a miniature star. Ayeka gasped. She
heard Seiya give out a choke and Taiki whisper.
	"Star Seed..."
	"We are all made of stars," Z said, spreading his hands over Akira's
prone body. "Inside each of us, is a small spark of the divine." He leered down
at the Star Seed. "When the gods created the world, they gave us all this gift.
The potential to exceed our limits is buried deep inside everyone."
	His hands came together, and he gestured. The diamond slowly began to
rise. As it did, the flower on Akira's forehead dissolved into white motes.
	"NO!" Seiya screamed. "Leave her alone!"
	Seiya screamed as she slammed into the Wings of the Light Hawk. Z wasn't
even looking at her. Her body collapsed against the wall, smoking. Taiki
screamed, wordlessly firing a bolt of energy. Another wing appeared, the bolt
splashing against it.
	"Normally by this point, the star seed would have gone dark..." Z
explained as the gem rose up to between his hands. "You see, normal people are
born with a simple soul. It can not survive long outside the body. When it is
removed, something... something else filters in. Dark magic? No, I think not.
It's the antithesis of the divine spark. Some force I can't name, some twisted
non-force that rips apart souls... it is what fills the heart of every phage."
	Ayeka slowly began to gather her power. She felt her side protest as the
force field she was using to protect it vanished. Logs began to float around her
as her power amplifiers materialised out of subspace.
	"That is what initially drew me to Galaxia, you know." He looked at
Ayeka, and smiled. "She created this plague. She created it to protect herself.
Galaxia, you see, is a being who touched the ultimate power. The force that even
the gods fear. With it, she remade the fabric of the universe."
	Ayeka felt her power reaching its peak. She didn't move as the logs
around her began to concentrate in front of her. Sparks began to run between
them. Z wasn't even concerned.
	"And she brought back something with her. A horror from the edge of
infinity. A horror that devours. It devours life and sanity. It devours souls.
It kills gods." Z began to laugh.
	Ayeka screamed and launched her attack. She didn't aim at him. Instead
she focused all her might on Akira. If she couldn't save the woman's life, she
would save her from a fate worse than death. But Z's wings interdicted the
attack. The focused blast of Jurai force exploded out along the length of the
white ribbon. Her attack flew into the wall, creating a crack in the viewport.
	"That's what I need, Ayeka. That's what I need for my revenge!" The glow
of the gem cast all of his face but his monstrous purple eye into darkness.
"Once upon a time, your mother would have been the receptacle for this darknees.
She would have become the nullifier, the anti-god, the soul destroyer. The
Counterreactor. I admit, I never knew how it happened." A white flash appeared
in the shadow as he smiled. "But that doesn't matter. She was spared that
future. And I lost my one lead on the true Counterreactor.
	"But fate, it seems, has given me a new opportunity."
	"Z, don't do this," Ayeka pleaded. She fell to her knees. "Please."
	"You don't understand, Ayeka..." He shook his head. "You just don't
understand. The gods MUST die. One day, this girl will stand at the edge of that
power, the edge of that darkness, and she will choose to let it consume her...
just as your mother would have." His hand clasped down over the gem, cutting off
its light. "Some distant future will destroy her." He began to chuckle. "Her
fate is already sealed." His fist began to tighten. "All I'm doing..." His hand
spasmed and there was a cracking sound. "...is helping her get there a bit
sooner!" Blood began to drip out of his hand.
	Ayeka watched as the purple blood gathered at the bottom of his hand.
It swelled and swelled, growing bloated. She felt time slow down as the drop
began to dangle from his fist. Then with a dreadful finality it fell and
splattered against Akira's forehead.
	Everything went to hell.
	Akira screamed. Her body arched and her eyes shot open. Her hands opened
and flew out to her sides. Her scream was wordless and full of rage and pain.
Ayeka slapped her hands over her ears.
	The walls exploded. The crack Ayeka's futile attack had made blew
outward, ripping the side out of the ship. Z started, gesturing in that
direction and protecting himself with a Light Hawk Wing. Seiya's voice was
muffled by the roar of escaping air. Taiki tried to grab onto something as she
was swept out into space... Ayeka seized them all. She collapsed to her knees.
Her forcefield strained for a moment, but held. She had caught Seiya and Taiki.
Kairos was nowhere to be seen. Had Ayeka missed her?
	The floor beneath them cracked and shattered. Ayeka clutched her side
and strained to keep her field intact. Acting on instinct, Taiki grabbed Seiya
and dragged her closer, allowing Ayeka to concentrate her force a bit.
	Akira was still screaming. But there were words in it now. Her body was
flickering. There were two Akiras, imposed one over the other like two images
on the same screen. One was Akira in the torn dress Ayeka had lent her, the
other was a woman who looked... older. Not much older, but her hair was longer
and she was taller and more developed. She wore a green and brown shirt and
black riding pants. She was... she looked like she was dying. She was covered in
blood, blood that streamed from her eyes and nose and ears and even pores. Only
her eyes shined out of the crimson mask of her face. One moment, the other Akira
would appear as a faded afterimage, then the next it was the real Akira.
	"Leave her alone!" Akira roared and shot to her feet. The floor gave
way, and Ayeka watched in horror as the entire ship near them simply... peeled
back. It wasn't exactly being destroyed, it was just pulling away from them,
like an image in a funhouse mirror. The stars suddenly seemed much closer. They
floated around and between them.
	"Is this it?" Z said calmly.
	Akira's eyes weren't focused on anything. Her body kept flashing between
the two images, the forms of them blending together. Her eyes were... there was
nothing there. No compassion or hatred, no anger or concern... just nothing. Her
hand curled up and out, like it was grabbing onto something. She was saying
something, but the words kept fading in and out. Ayeka couldn't hear it.
	Then she began to giggle. It was a childish sound, but devoid of any
innocence, or even malice. It was devoid of any meaning at all.
	"I... the past..." Akira hissed. "...make it ... never existed...  kill
Angel..."
	"GIRL!"
	The scene in front of her stopped. Z was standing up, standing on
nothing. His fist was held in front of him, purple blood leaking through his
fingers. "You belong to me, now," he told her.
	Akira's face twisted sideways. Her face remained pointed at whatever she
was yelling at. She continued screaming, her words still fluttering in and out.
But at the same time, her face twisted to the side. It made Ayeka's stomach
turn. Akira face tilted to the side, bending at an almost unnatural angle as if
she were trying to see around some strange obstacle. Z faced her, his lips
quirking up in a smile.
	"I have your Star Seed..."
	"Z..." Akira said. "...don't care about the... all go away..." Her
laughter echoed from nowhere and everywhere. For a moment Ayeka thought she felt
Akira standing behind her, caressing the small of her back while she breathed on
her neck. For a moment she saw Akira pressing herself against Z. She saw Akira
twisting Seiya's head off like a top. She saw-
	"I control your power," Z informed Akira. "You will serve me."
	"...Ukyou will die... hopeless... any cost..."
	"No."
	The word came out clearer than the half-heard conversation. Z narrowed
his eyes. "Woman, you think you can resist me? I have your soul..."
	"Keep it," Akira said, her twisting face breaking out into a smile. "Not
gonna need it no more."
	Z suddenly looked apprehensive. He backed up a step. The laughter around
him suddenly began to fill with whispers. Ayeka could just barely make them out.
It was Akira's voice, but at the same time it wasn't. It was a chorus of
childish taunts. They ran together, but she could make out the thrust of it.
	"...you should have died, too..."
	"...betrayed your family..."
	"...failure..."
	"...abandoned..."
	"...unloved..."
	"SHUT UP!" Z roared, stepping forward as he flared all five of his Wings
of the Light Hawk. They spread out across the sky, huge ribbons of pure white
light. Akira smiled, reached out, and curled her fingers around the edge of the
white ribbon-blade.
	That wasn't possible. While the Wings looked like nothing but ribbons of
light, in reality they were powerful fields that protected anything beyond them.
The gaps between the wings didn't really exist. The entire field was actually an
impenetrable wall that stretched across multiple dimensional planes. It was only
the amount of power the field projected that determined how many "wings" were
visible.
	Akira grabbed the edge of the wing and, with a snort and a flick of her
wrist, bent it like wet taffy. A sound escaped Z's throat. A scared, small,
pitiful sound. Something dropped from his hand to the 'ground' with a clink.
Akira reached out and grabbed another nearby wing. Then she proceeded to wrap
the wings around his body, tying his arms to his chest with them. She grabbed
two more and hogtied his legs behind his back. The fifth she balled up like a
wad of putty and shoved into his mouth. Z could only stare, nearly crying in
naked fear as Akira disassembled his ultimate defense with ease.
	Ayeka could also only stare. That could not happen. That hadn't
happened.
	Akira looked down at her handiwork. "Bye bye." She waved a little wave
and pushed him out into space. He slowly drifted back and, before a heartbeat
had passed, vanished from view into the depths of space.
	"Now to fix it all..." Akira said, her face widening in a smile.
	Ayeka looked down. She could see a diamond there. It was cracked down
its length. Light was seeping out of it. The star in the center was being
eclipsed.
	"Akira, stop!" Ayeka said, throwing herself in front of the girl. Akira
looked at her. Her face that was here and her face that was somewhere else both
suddenly focused on Ayeka. Somehow Ayeka suddenly knew that there was a great
deal at stake here. Whatever future this Other Akira had come from, she had one
chance to change it. Here and now.
	"Akira, I don't know you..." Ayeka scooped up the Star Seed with one
hand. "I don't know what terrible choice you're making. But you can't do this. I
can tell, in my heart, that what you are about to do is wrong. You're changing
time..."
	"I can fix it," the two Akira voices said with an odd echo. "Angel won't
have to grow up with him. Ukyou doesn't have to be tortured. I don't have to
kill all those people..." Akira began to tip back and forth. "...fix it... make
it not real... shadows..." She grabbed her head. "...too many voices... too
many... can't hear..."
	"AKIRA!" Ayeka screamed. "You don't have to listen to me, but listen to
yourself!" Ayeka held up the star seed in her hand. "Listen to the voice inside
you!"
	Akira's eyes focused on the gem in Ayeka's hand. "My... soul..." Then
she smiled. "Of course..."
	She reached out and grabbed the gem and Ayeka-
	-lowered the cumbersome weapon, her arms shaking. Was it over? Akira was
lying in front of her in the remains of the table. Her face had gone pale. Seiya
was standing, using a chair to prop herself up. She looked like she had been
worked over by a pissed off Ryoko. Sailor Starmaker - Taiki, Ayeka reminded
herself - was holding a ready stance. Kairos was crouched near the door, her
body tense.
	Z was gone.
	"I... what..." Ayeka stumbled.
	Akira groaned and woke up. She looked up at Ayeka. "Did we win?"
	"I..." Ayeka looked down at herself. She looked at the weapon. Her hands
went numb and it clattered to the ground. Had that really happened? Akira
groaned and got to her feet slowly.
	"Oh man, I ripped the dress you gave me..." Akira said apologetically.
	"It's... okay..." Ayeka replied mechanically.
	"Hey, why is everyone looking at me so funny?" Akira said as she looked
around the room. "What, did I grow a second head or something?" Ayeka felt her
world sway. "Hey, Ayeka... it was a joke... Ayeka..." The world was dimming out.
"Oh man, not aga-"

*

	"Oh, hey, Princess."
	Ayeka looked up as Akira leapt down from the top of the odd crystalline
ship. She landed with ease, despite falling nearly two stories. Ayeka took a
deep breath and forced herself to smile.
	"I heard you were leaving today."
	"Yeah..." Akira threw a towel over her shoulder. "I have to get back."
She looked over her shoulder. The sun was setting behind the hills, and the
stars were beginning to come out. "There's stuff I have to take care of at
home."
	Ayeka opened her mouth and closed it again. A part of her told her it
would be a bad thing to mention what she had seen up there, on Z's ship. A part
of her wanted to believe she hadn't actually seen it. That it had been some
elaborate fever dream caused by loss of blood, and that Touga's story was true.
His plan had really worked, the star seed ripping gun had somehow driven Z off
and saved all their lives. It was a very big part of her.
	"I... came to see you off."
	"Thanks," Akira smiled shyly. "You didn't have to, if you didn't want
to..."
	Ayeka flinched a little. Of course the girl had noticed. Ayeka had been
avoiding her for the last week. Avoiding her because of exactly what she was
feeling right now. As long as Akira wasn't near her, as long as she couldn't see
the other girl, she could forget the memories. She could imagine she had not
seen some bizarre double-focus Akira bending the Wings of the Light Hawk between
her fingers-
	"No," Ayeka bowed her head and clapped her hands together. "I've been so
busy with examining the ship and trying to learn as much as we can about
Galaxia..." The lie came easily to her lips. Akira nodded and leaned against the
ramp into the crystal spaceship. "I'm sorry I haven't been down to see you."
	"No problem," Akira waved her away. "After everything that happened, I
think I prefer being on the ground. Things make more sense with solid earth
under your feet." She chuckled dryly. Her hair waved softly behind her in the
breeze; she had decided she liked the longer hair that had been grown for the
disguise, much to Ayeka's discomfiture."I'd rather not spend time on a
spaceship, really."
	Ayeka nodded. She leaned against the ramp as well. For a moment they
just stood there in companiable silence. Ayeka looked to the sky. Somewhere up
there was Z's cruiser, it and all the secrets it held. Secrets the Jurai Empire
needed badly. Secrets about Galaxia, the Star Seeds and the Sailors. So many
people had died for those secrets, but they had found them.
	In a small epiphany, Ayeka realised she had done it. She had set out
into the universe to find the secret of winning this war. She had found it. She
had learned more about Galaxia's war in one day than the Galaxy Police and the
Empire had learned in two years of fighting. She had found even more than that.
She had found allies. People like Akira and Touga who, while strange, were
powerful and helpful friends. No doubt this Tethys would make a fine ally for
her people in the war against Chaos.
	And people like the Starlights.
	As if summoned by the thought, the Starlights were there. They appeared
in a flare of pink light, descending from the heavens and stepping out of the
glare. They were in their combat forms for the moment, though they had spent
most of the last week in their civilian identities. They looked much better.
	Yaten, especially, had been in rough shape when they had found him...
her. Apparently one of Galaxia's minions had been tormenting her in the dungeon
of Z's cruiser until she had left for, as Yaten put it, 'a lunch break', and
simply failed to return. They had found no sign of the woman aboad the ship,
even as they cleared out the few remaining 'normal' phages. Now, she looked
positively healthy. Apparently quick healing was another Sailor Senshi trait.
	"Yo!" Seiya called, waving to them as she approached. Akira nodded and
waved nonchalantly. Ayeka stood straight and gave a more formal greeting, which
Taiki and Yaten returned.
	"Here to see me off, too?" Akira asked.
	"Yeah, I couldn't let you go without a proper send-off," Seiya said.
"After all, if you hadn't been willing to be a bridge of trust, none of us would
have survived this."
	"We're in your debt," Taiki added.
	"Anytime you need help, let us know," Yaten continued.
	"We're friends," Akira replied simply. "Friends fight to defend each
other." She shrugged. "That's the way it works." She paused for a moment. "So
what happens for you guys, now?"
	"We're going to Jurai with Ayeka," Taiki reminded her.
	"We're sick of running away," Seiya pointed out. "No more hiding and
fleeing from Galaxia. It's time we all got together and beat her." Akira
grinned.
	"What about your princess?"
	"I will be helping them with that," Ayeka promised, looking at the three
Starlights. The three nodded in thanks. "After all, every ally we can get is
worthwhile. And Princess Kakyuu may still have discovered her 'Light of Hope'."
	"I think you already did," Akira said, standing up. "Well, I better get
going. Earth isn't going to get any closer." She started up the ramp.
	"Wait!" Seiya called. Akira turned around.
	And Seiya grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her into a long deep
kiss. Well, long for about two seconds. Than Akira punched her so hard she flew
ten meters before tumbling to a stop.
	"What the hell was that for?" Akira shouted, her cheeks burning.
	"Heh, told you I wasn't letting you leave without a proper send-off,"
Seiya said with a groan. "By the way, I like you with long hair."
	Akira brushed the ends of her hair with her fingers, then frowned and
turned up her nose. She stalked into the spaceship as Ayeka, Taiki and Yaten all
laughed. A few moments later the ramp shifted up, merging seamlessly with the
rest of the crystal ship. The air around them stirred for a moment as Akira's
ship floated slowly into the air. With a soft thrumming sound, it vanished.
	Ayeka looked skyward for a moment. The Starlights, still chuckling,
started walking away.
	'The Light of Hope.'
	Ayeka looked at where the ship had vanished, then back down to her own
hand. Should she have said anything? Why was she the only one who seemed to
really remember anything that had happened? Had she remembered it, or was it a
fantasy? It was too good to be true. A young woman who would carry the weight of
the universe on her shoulder some day, and her small part in helping her retain
her humanity.
	It was a nice dream. She brushed a bang back out of her face. Her
fingers brushed against something.
	Then, Ayeka suddenly remembered her recorder. She reached up hesitantly
and touched it. She had turned it on at the concert and forgotten to turn it off
since. With a few clicks of her fingers she accessed it. The data was
there for everything: the concert, the attack, the chase, the desperate
plan... everything right up to the moment Ayeka fired the soul extracting
device.
	Then static.
	The next image was Z gone and Akira waking up. According to the
timestamp, not even a single second had passed. The static might well have just
been a glitch.
	But it was five minutes long.
	Ayeka shuddered and looked down. Then, quite deliberatly, she singled
out the static on the tape and hit erase.

*

	Galaxia's throne room did not really exist in the universe itself. It
was at the metaphorical center of it. If you wanted to reach the closest thing
to its location, you would travel backwards, away from the spinning orbits of
the galaxies, opposite the thrust that was spreading the stars thinner and
thinner across the heavens. You had to walk backwards through the paths carved
by the big bang, to the very place where it had all started. A journey back in
time, at least in a symbolic sense.
	The place had a few names. Some called it the Galaxy Cauldron,
birthplace of the stars. Others called it the Graveyard of the Galaxy or the
Last Refuge of Dying Stars. According to legend it was here that Sailor Galaxia
had summoned up the very incarnation of Chaos to fight it for the fate of all
creation in an effort to create peace. It was here she had won that battle, and
lost it as well.
	It really wasn't that impressive. A tiled glass floor, stretching out of
sight into the distance in all directions was accented by the starscape that
hovered above and below it. The only real decoration here was the throne, a
golden seat with a back made of thick, transparent crystal. Z hated this place.
It was the main reason he was always looking for excuses to find something to
do.
	Up until now, he had always been able to justify his adventures.
	He knelt before the golden throne. The woman on it stared down at him
with impassive malice. Her skin was charcoal black and her eyes were red like
blood. Her long hair was red and gold and curled up neatly on her head. She wore
golden armour, designed with a skirt of metallic bands and a sailor collar.
	Galaxia.
	"So... allow me to summarise this," Galaxia said. "You managed to not
only fail in capturing the star seeds of three Sailor Senshi..." Z kept his face
down, but could still see the women around Galaxia shifting and staring at him.
"You also allowed Princess Ayeka of Jurai to escape your clutches with
information about our real plans and goals. Plus..." Z could see Heavy Metal
Papillon sneering at him, her large scythe propped over her shoulder. Next to
her, Aluminum Siren was giving him a wide-eyed look of disbelief. Her partner
was next to her, and there were about a half dozen other Sailor Animamates
around as well. "Plus you lost your vaunted warship, your experimental weapon,
and managed to give Jurai, my enemies, not one but two new allies. Have I
accurately described the depth of your failure, Z?"
	"You have," Z admitted. The Animamates began to murmur among themselves.
He felt his hackles rise, but repressed the urge to silence them. He hated them.
They had, one and all, sold out their people for a chance to live as Galaxia's
pawns and puppets. They had given up their free will for their lives. It was
something he would never be able to do.
	"And what have you gained from this foolishness?"
	Z closed his eyes. He remembered. He remembered the woman's cold brown
eyes staring straight into him. That had been it, the power of the
Counterreactor. He remembered what he had seen with his special eye. The horrors
he had seen as he had looked at her. He had, for one mind-numbing instant, seen
it all. He had seen her kill him a million ways. He had seen him kill her a
million more. Not just potential, but actual realities. She had shown him the
truth, and his mind had shied away from it. He could barely remember anymore.
His mind had simply stopped processing the images he had seen with his cursed
left eye. He shuddered.
	There were things that had never meant to be discovered. There were
secrets that even the gods had never unravelled. Now he knew there was a reason
for that. When he had first come to serve Galaxia, he had asked her about the
ultimate power, the power she had touched all those years ago in her fight
against Chaos. She had looked him straight in the eyes and told him, "Do not
search for it. You will not like what you will find."
	She had been right.
	"I learned that your wisdom is greater than I thought," he admitted,
though it left a sour taste in his mouth.
	To his surprise, Galaxia smiled. "Then you are finally of use to me."
	Z looked up, shock etched across his features. He realised dimly that he
had not seen the moment of decision making, the point where all the possible
futures based on Galaxia's choice of what to do with him had been laid out. She
had known all along. She had known what she was going to do here. She had
probably known since before he had left to pursue the 'Light of Hope'.
	"Stand up," Galaxia bade him rise with one hand. "I would not have my
prime lieutenant kneel before me. I have no use for another sniveling worm."
	"My lady!" Heavy Metal Papillon protested. "He is a-"
	"You forget your place," Galaxia said softly. Papillon blanched and
stepped back, whispering apologies. She turned back to Z. "Now that you have
seen the foolishness of your quest for power, I can begin to use you the way I
wished from the beginning." She stood up.
	"My lady..." Z hesitated. "There is the matter of what I saw..."
	"I am aware," Galaxia nodded. "There is much I must tell you." She
paused. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep an eye on the situation. Sailor
Iron Mouse."
	"Yeep!" A white-haired girl in a white pyjama-like outfit scrambled out
of the crowd of Animamates. She stood nervously in front of Galaxia and Z. "Y-
yes, Lady Galaxia?"
	"Proceed to Earth. Monitor it. Report back to me if you discover
something of interest."
	"Y-yes ma'am!" The white-haired girl bowed a few times then scrambled
away again.
	Galaxia gazed after her and then turned back to Z. "The rest of you,
leave us." She walked closer to him. "Z and I have much to discuss in
private..."
	Z felt a cold wind blow across his skin. But he nodded. What choice did
he have, anymore?


				To Possibly Be Continued...

(But hopefully not, because that'll mean we're behind again and there's only one
and a half chapters left to write, for pity's sake.)


Author's Notes:

Epsilon: (dies)

Blade: Right. So, uh, sorry about that "it'll be done in a week" thing.

Epsilon's Ghost: Too... much... writing...

Blade: For some reason, we decided NOT to go with the other first-place choices
(Ranma stuff, Tarou/Athena/Sakura stuff) and write the gripping tale of how
Ranma, Minako, Tarou, Athena, Sakura, Herb, and Akane all travel to Japan to
fight Zoalord Rienzi and his laser-breasted zoanoid beach babes. No, seriously,
that was our other plan, and it would have been called "The Magnificent Seven",
which would possibly involve us having to threaten Linkin Park into recording a
song named that.

Epsilon's Ghost: Silly... writes... faster...

Blade: Yeah, but then Epsi just HAD to have his skycycle chase ripping off
Attack of the Clones, so instead we went with the other first place vote
(Juraian War) and the second place vote (Akira). Nobody voted for more Kairos
except me, but that's because I'm smarter than you.

Epsilon's Ghost: Too... many... characters...

Blade: Right, so see, we wrote one sidestory, and it had three heroes and a
villain and comedy, and it was nice and short. Then we wrote another sidestory,
and it had five heroes, two villains, comedy and minor tie into the actual plot,
and it was longer.

Epsilon's Ghost: We're... sooooooooo... stuuuuupid...

Blade: So I'm not sure why we decided to write a story with three heroes... and
a villain... or four villains... and two sidekicks... and two more heroes... and
one sort of grey guy, or two, depending on how you count... and another
villain... and Sailor Iron Mouse, who barely qualifies... and a whole shedload
of ties directly into the ongoing plot... and we expected this to take like
100k.

Epsilon's Ghost: Soooooooooo... stuuuuuuuuupid...

Blade: And as for comedy... yeah. Okay, so, we may be sorry about this. This is
the single most manic-depressive thing we have ever written. Or read. I mean,
seriously, the story goes:

"HAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA!"
"Wait, everyone's dying!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, gender confusion antics!"
"No, seriously, people are dying!"
"Wow, Kairos is sure hahahahahahahahaha crazy as shit!"
"Dramatic slow-mo pans of people being blown up in spaceships!"
"Dramatic self-sacrifice!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!"
"LOVECRAFTIAN HORROR!"
"The end."

Epsilon's Ghost: Neeeeeeeevvvvvvver.... agaaaaaaaain...

Blade: So I have no idea, really, how this will be reacted to. Much less what
category to put it in. You only get like three genres at fanfiction.net, you
know. We promise to take lithium next time. But if you don't like it, just
remember: you voted, so it's all your fault. If one more person had voted for
Ranma, well, it would've been Rienzi's BreastForce for everybody.

Epsilon's Ghost: Demooooooocracy.... doessssssssn't.... wooooooork...