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