Empire of the Sun
By Sophia Prester


Disclaimer: The main ones are where they usually are. *Special* 
disclaimer at the end of this chapter!

Author's notes: The boring stuff's at the end as usual.



Chapter Eight: Past Imperfect



Thursday, July 5
Sometime around 3:00 a.m.



	Who was it who'd said that in each dark night of the soul, it 
was always three in the morning? Jason thought it had to be either 
Fitzgerald or Faulkner, but he was always getting those two mixed up. 
Maybe it was Hemingway. Ahhhh...hell with it, he concluded, taking 
another swig of beer.

	He'd managed to keep himself together since leaving Taiyouko's 
building, but then, he'd had distractions. On the train ride out of 
the city proper, a couple of Canadian college students grilled him 
for information on what to do, where to eat, and so on. When they 
asked him where they might be able to score some dope, he treated 
them to a little lecture on the Japanese prison system, and how it 
was *not* something they'd want to write about in their travel 
diaries.

	When he got back to Keisuke's place, he was ambushed by three 
dervishes by the name of Megumi, Satoru, and Daisuke. The fourth 
dervish was out playing softball. Keisuke's four kids were even 
bigger sports fanatics than their father, and they practically 
dragged him to the local park to play basketball with them. He 
protested theatrically, but that only made the kids laugh and pull at 
his arms even harder. God, it brought back memories... *Good* 
memories, this time. He could have stayed out there for hours, but no 
one dared be late to dinner, not at Akiko's house, no sir! Then, 
after dinner, he and Keisuke stayed up until midnight playing cards, 
drinking beer, and swapping stories about bizarre and memorable 
cases.

	Eventually, everyone in the Takamori household was in bed, 
sleeping the sleep of the just. He, on the other hand...

	After three hours of tossing and turning, he gave up. He left his 
room as quietly as he could, snagged a couple of beers out of the 
fridge, and sat out on the back step to think.

	If only he hadn't screwed up the directions to Taiyouko's 
apartment!

	At first, it wasn't any big deal. That Makoto Kino girl seemed 
pretty nice-- and those macaroons were the best he'd ever had. Too 
bad she was only in high-school. Given that she was living on her 
own, he'd guessed that she was at least in college. Good thing her 
friends had shown up before he could ask her to dinner and get 
himself into an awkward situation.

	Yeah, sure. Sure it was a good thing.

	He pounded his fist on the step. Why did it have to be *them* 
of all people! He'd recognized them right away. They'd hardly changed 
at all.

	Mercury.

	Mars.

	He'd thought about seeking them out. He hadn't planned on just 
meeting up with them out of the blue. There had been no time for him 
to prepare. No time for him to steel himself.

	There had been one, blood-freezing moment when he'd thought 
that Mars had recognized *him*. What would he have done if she had? 
He wondered if he would have had the strength to do the right thing.

	Hell, did he even know what the right thing was any more? He 
used to know, a long time ago. Maybe.

	He flung the empty beer bottle out into the night, reached out 
with his mind, snapped it to a halt, and let it drop quietly into the 
trash bin.

	If only he could talk to Frank Pembleton about this whole mess. 
The Jesuit-educated detective was forever wrestling with issues of 
faith, conscience, and ethics that would make a bishop give up and 
turn in his pointy hat. Frank truly believed in justice and law, and 
in the kind of right and wrong that was far more than simple 
adherence to the rules. He was also clear-eyed enough to know that 
the real world often ran hard against those ideals, and that day-to-
day living was a constant battle between heaven and hell.

	Jason had no trouble believing that. The things he'd seen had 
him just about convinced that hell was winning by a twenty point 
spread.

	When you spent your life chasing killers, it was much, much too 
easy to start resembling that which you hunted. Time and again he had 
seen how easy it was for good men to cross the line between killer-
catcher and just plain killer. It was even easier to turn a blind eye 
when someone else stepped over that line.

	Frank hadn't turned a blind eye. Instead, he simply quit the 
force in moral disgust over the whole Luther Mahoney thing while 
Jason was still lying comatose in the hospital.

	Jason ran his hand along the front of his tee shirt as if 
feeling for the scar on his chest. When he woke up in the ICU, he had 
a breathing tube down his throat and two centuries of alien memories 
in his head.

	No, even if Frank had stuck around, there was no way that Jason 
could have talked to him, not unless he wanted a nice long vacation 
in the psych ward.

	The one nice thing about this trip so far was that he finally 
had proof that he wasn't crazy. The shock of recognition he'd felt 
upon meeting Chiba could not be explained away, no matter how hard he 
tried. The prosecution rests, ladies and gentlemen.

	Jason held up the bottle and twirled it around, watching the 
beer slosh against the sides. The big question now was: had Chiba 
recognized him? A whole lot rested on the answer to that one.

	He finished the beer and chucked the empty bottle out towards 
the trash can. This time, his mind held it in the air for a while, 
letting it spin around like a compass needle.

	Why did he have to run into *her*! Of all people!

	The bottle imploded into a million fragments. The tattered 
label fluttered down into the trash, but the razor-sharp shards kept 
swirling around like a galaxy.

	He saw *her*, and he remembered. He remembered her face, and 
the last time he had seen her in that other life. How on earth could 
he have been so... so... *stupid* to think that he could ever deal 
with seeing her again? He shivered and swallowed, praying that the 
beer was not about to make a quick and unpleasant exit. Every time he 
tried to push back the memory, she loomed before him again, the look 
in her eyes washing over him like frigid rain.

	"Leave me alone," he whispered. "Please, just leave me alone!"

	He looked at the remains of the bottle spinning in midair. The 
glass shards slowed in their orbit and tumbled randomly, twinkling 
dust motes reflecting the glow of a streetlamp.

	Those eyes continued to stare at *him*.

	"It wasn't me," he muttered. "This is *not* my problem!"

	If he kept repeating that, he might actually start to believe 
it. He let the pieces of glass sift through his mental hold. They 
fell like thousands of shattered stars.

	He had never asked for any of this! He didn't want these alien 
feelings and memories that threatened to rise up and erase him and 
all the hopes and dreams he had built up over twenty-eight years. 
They weren't very big dreams, he admitted, but they were *his*. He'd 
worked hard for them. Why did he feel like he was being asked to 
sacrifice them to someone he'd never truly met? Why should *he* bear 
the guilt for things he'd never done?

	He picked up a bottle cap and tossed it up and down absently.

	If you wanted a definition of "unfair", then this situation fit 
the bill just fine. The problem was, he couldn't just leave it at 
that. "Unfair" was a damned poor excuse when there were things that 
needed to be put right.

	Funny. He could almost hear his mother saying that to him. No, 
not *saying*. Yelling.

	Gradually, without even thinking about it, he began to make the 
bottle cap dance in the air, spiraling up in elaborate pirouettes, 
then swooping down to slalom through his fingers.

	He would have to find a way to get Chiba alone, and unguarded. 
Then, he could decide what to do next. Maybe he'd find out that he 
still knew how to do the right thing.



7:23 a.m.


	Usagi got an earlier start to the day than she'd planned. Luna 
clawed her awake at what must have been the crack of dawn to tell her 
that her communicator light was blinking.

	"I *tried* tapping you with my paw," said Luna, her muffled 
voice emerging from the depths of the laundry hamper. Usagi had not 
taken kindly to being awakened. "It's not my fault you're a sound 
sleeper."

	"Nnngfff." Usagi slapped her hand down randomly on her 
nightstand until she felt her communicator. She fumbled around with 
it until it made a noise.

	"H'lo?"

	"Usagi-chan, it's Ami."

	"Wh'timezit?"

	"Never mind that," Ami said. "We need to meet after school at 
Rei's place--I'm calling everyone else, too. Could you tell ChibiUsa-
chan and Mamoru-kun?"

	"Hnnghh?"

	Ami sighed and gave Usagi a brief summary of what had happened 
the night before.

	"Oh. Th's nice. Bye." She clicked off the communicator.

	Then, the ear-brain connection finally kicked in. Usagi's eyes 
slammed open.

	Ten seconds later, she had told ChibiUsa about the meeting, 
grabbed a fresh uniform off its hanger, and laid claim to the 
bathroom.

	It was early enough that she theoretically had time to relax 
and get ready at a more leisurely pace, but the dash-and-scurry of 
her morning routine was too deeply ingrained. Besides, if she kept up 
her normal frantic pace, she didn't have time to think about the 
implications of Ami's news.

	The phone rang as Usagi was racing by. She screeched to a halt 
and picked it up.

	"Hello! Tsukino residence!" she panted.

	"Usagi-chan?" asked a woman on the other end. "Is that you?"

	"Uhh..."

	"I know, it's difficult to remember these things early in the 
morning," said the woman. It was hard to tell if she was joking or 
just being sarcastic. "Is your mother around?"

	Usagi shook off the feeling that she had somehow tumbled down a 
rabbit-hole. A lot of Mom's old friends expected her to remember them 
automatically, even if they'd last seen her seventeen years ago. 

	"Sure! May I tell her who's calling, please?"

	"Taiyouko Seidou."

	The rabbit-hole feeling returned, except that this time, what 
had been a mere tumble was now a full-out free fall. "Uh, hold on. 
I'll get her." She put the handset down on the kitchen counter. For a 
moment, she seriously considered slamming it back down on the 
receiver, but that would only make things worse.

	"Mom! Telephone!" she yelled. She grabbed her briefcase and 
pulled on her shoes as quickly as she could. "It's a Taiyouko 
Seidou!"

	"No way!" Ikuko hurried down the steps and into the kitchen. 

	"Taiyouko-chan?" she shrieked in delight. "I don't believe it! 
It's the strangest thing, but I was just thinking about you the other 
day..."

	Usagi slipped out the door as quickly as she could and scurried 
down the walkway before her mother could notice she was gone.

	What she'd forgotten was that very little got past Luna. The 
plump black cat managed to haul herself over the fence and land right 
in front of Usagi, nearly getting trampled for her effort.

	"Usagi! What on earth has gotten into you?" Luna demanded. 
"You're nearly twenty minutes early for school and you didn't even 
eat your breakfast!"

	Amazing. Luna could somehow manage to sound critical about 
*anything*. Usagi kept walking.

	"I'll stop at the bakery and pick up a danish or something. I 
wanted to get out of there before Mom got off the phone. That lady 
detective just called. The one that visited Mamo-chan."

	"Artemis told me about her," said Luna. If she was surprised, 
she hid it well. "What on earth was she calling about?"

	"She knows me. No, not about that!" Usagi said when she saw the 
cat's eyes go wide in alarm. "She knew *me*. She said we'd met a long 
time ago. It sounds like she's an old friend of Mom's or something."

	"Oh, dear. This does complicate things, doesn't it?" The cat's 
ears tilted back. "I doubt it'll be too long before your mother tells 
this detective all about your engagement to Mamoru-kun."

	Usagi's stomach flipped over. She hadn't even thought of that.

	"This is bad, bad timing. It will be nearly impossible for you 
to investigate these golems if this woman comes snooping around. 
Perhaps you should go back home for a moment and find out why this 
woman is calling, and why now of all times," suggested Luna. "Artemis 
said that Mamoru felt something powerful when those two detectives 
came in..."

	The cat stopped when she saw Usagi's expression, and lashed her 
tail in disgust. "Mamoru-kun didn't tell you about that either, did 
he?"

	"No." Usagi stopped and set her briefcase on a nearby bench. 
She opened it started rummaging through the mass of papers and 
assorted junk, searching for her cell phone. "He didn't."

	She found the phone and hit speed dial.

	"Be that as it may," Luna continued, "we should try to learn 
more about what this person wants and who she is. What if she's--"

	The phone stopped ringing. Usagi shushed the cat. "Mamo-chan? 
It's me," she said before he could even say hello.

	"Usa-ko? What are you...is something wrong? Are you all right?"

	She was *not* going to start yelling. She was *not* going to 
hurl accusations at him. "No, nothing's *wrong*. I was just a little 
startled when I got a phone call this morning."

	"Okay," he said, the word coming out as more of a question.

	She sat down on the bench. "It was that detective you warned us 
about. Remember, you gave her card to Rei so she could do a reading? 
She called our house this morning."

	"What? Why would she call you?"

	He sounded only mildly curious, but there was something odd 
about his voice. Usagi remembered what Artemis had said about the way 
he'd smelled that day.

	"She wanted to talk to Mom. It sounds like they're old friends 
or something. This is getting weirder and weirder by the minute, 
Mamo-chan. I don't like it."

	"Usa-ko, relax!" He had better not be laughing at her! "It's 
probably just a coincidence."

	"I don't care if it's just a coincidence! Once she starts 
talking to Mom, you know she's going to find out that we're engaged. 
You were the one who was worried about her snooping after the rest of 
us and finding out our little secret!"

	Silence. Then, "I see. What do you want me to do?" he asked. 
The fact that it sounded like a sincere offer only made it worse. How 
about telling me the truth, she felt like asking.

	"I don't know," she said. Then, before she could stop the words 
from coming out: "Maybe there's something you *haven't told me* about 
her visit!"

	Luna backed under the bench and cowered out of tantrum 
distance.

	"Usa-ko, what on earth are you talking about?"

	"Artemis talked to me the other day," she said with no other 
explanation.

	There was another moment's silence.

	"Okay. Artemis talked to you, and...?"

	He was acting like he had no idea what she was talking about! 
Guys could be clueless, but this was absolutely ridiculous! "Well, 
for one thing, Artemis told me that you sensed something powerful 
when those two detectives came by yesterday. Then, I got a call from 
Ami this morning. She and Venus ran into a bunch of golems yesterday, 
*and* a new Sailor Senshi!"

	"Usagi-chan, keep your voice down!" Luna hissed.

	"Usa-ko, it sounds like you have enough to worry about, so 
please let *me* worry about these detectives," he said. "I told you 
before that it's probably nothing."

	Uh, Mamo-chan, didn't you hear me say something about a new 
Senshi? How can you say...

	"Nothing? I'm sorry, but you feeling something powerful around 
the same time some big-and-nasty attacks Hotaru and another Senshi 
shows up is *not* nothing!" She took a deep breath. She was furious, 
but she was not going to let this turn into a fight. "How can you be 
so sure that this doesn't have something to do with what happened 
when you were six? Artemis said that they asked you point-blank if 
you knew if anyone might want to kill your parents!"

	"It was an accident!" he shouted. Usagi nearly dropped the 
phone. "I told those people that over and over again! Why doesn't 
anyone want to believe me?"

	"I'm sorry," she whispered. She wished she could say more.

	I'm sorry that I don't know how to make you face up to whatever 
it is that's scaring you.

	I'm sorry that this is going to tear you to pieces before it's 
all over.

	She wished Mamo-chan was there with his arm around her. He made 
her feel not just safe, but strong. She always felt so vulnerable 
without him. When he was around, she could believe that everything 
would be all right. When he wasn't there, she sometimes felt nearly 
crippled by her inability to watch over him and protect him.

	Now she felt doubly helpless because he did not know that he 
needed her help. His voice had been so shrill when he'd shouted at 
her. She'd never heard him sound like that before, and she prayed 
that she would never hear it again.

	She heard him sigh. Exasperation? Resignation? Relief?

	"Usa-ko, they only ask those questions because they have to. 
It's part of the job. Please, don't tell the others about this. I 
don't want them to blow this out of proportion." He laughed, but it 
sounded tinny. Maybe it was just the phone. "I could just see Minako 
deciding to 'play detective,' and end up leading those two right to 
our 'extracurricular activities.' If we play it cool and keep to 
ourselves, maybe they'll just go away."

	How dare he say that about Minako? She had more experience 
keeping her Senshi nature a secret than any of them--and she had 
worked closely with the police at that! Usagi also didn't believe 
that those two detectives would be going away any time soon.

	Mamoru went on with his lecture, and gradually, the tension 
began to ease. "Besides, if they are working for 'the enemy' or 
something, chances are Rei will find it out when she does a reading 
on that business card I gave her. Until then, try not to think about 
it so much. I love you, Usa-ko, and I hate to see you worry."

	As she continued to listen, the warmth of his voice coming 
through the phone buoyed and reassured her. Maybe everything would 
work out all right in the end. She'd figure out some way to get him 
through this.

	"I love you too, Mamo-chan. We're meeting at Rei's right after 
school to talk about this new Senshi business. Can you make it?"

	"Sorry. I really wish I could, and I'm not just saying that. 
I've got clinicals tonight. They've got me on the burn ward--it 
absolutely sucks me dry. It's unbelievable how much pain some of 
these people are in," he said with something like awe. "It hits me 
like a wall every time I walk into the ward."

	Usagi smiled even as she felt tears sting her eyes. These 
third-year clinicals always left Mamo-chan exhausted--and not just 
because of the killer hours. She was both wonderfully proud of him 
and horribly concerned for him at the same time. "Are you able to do 
anything for them?"

	He was quiet for a moment. It was as if he became tired just 
thinking about it. "Not as much as I'd like. It doesn't take much to 
accelerate the healing in some of the minor cases, but with the 
really bad ones... giving them enough energy to let them get just an 
hour's pain-free sleep is almost too much for me."

	If he could, he'd give even more. He never said so, but Usagi 
knew he would. He would take every last drop of their pain and never 
think twice about it. So why couldn't he face whatever it was that 
was tormenting him now?

	"Have I told you how much I love you?" she said, her voice 
trembling. "Take care of yourself, okay? I'll talk to you tomorrow."

	He gave her his love, then went off to do whatever it was he 
did with his mornings.

	Usagi started to put her cell phone away, then paused. She hit 
a different speed dial number and waited as the phone rang.

	"Usagi-chan, I hate to nag, but you'd better get moving if you 
plan to pick up breakfast on the way to school."

	"Breakfast'll have to wait," said Usagi, who barely noticed 
Luna's expression of shock. The phone stopped ringing.

	"Hello?"

	"V-babe? Hi, it's me. Listen, I'm sorry to bother you, but 
could I speak to Artemis?"



9:17 a.m.


	"Keisuke-san, it's been a while since I've lived in Japan, but 
I seem to remember that there was this general attitude that 'the 
nail that sticks up gets hammered down.' I also know that it's still 
not that easy for women to get anywhere professionally. I'm glad 
she's done well for herself, but I just can't see how Seidou's made 
it as far as she has."

	Out in the hall, Taiyouko had a man in a business suit backed 
up against the wall. Keisuke had identified him as being a prominent 
defense attorney. At first, he'd worn a look of indignation at being 
reprimanded by this woman. Now, it looked like he was nearly ready to 
do a full-out face-on-the- floor bow of apology.

	Keisuke shook his head. "She should know by now that if she's 
going to walk down the hallway with a bunch of files or a Fed-Ex box 
under her arm, people are going to assume she's an office lady."

	The two of them turned back to reviewing their case notes.

	"You've worked with her for four years?" Jason asked. "How come 
you're still alive and sane?"

	"Only by the grace of God," was the dead-pan response. Keisuke 
was a devout Christian, but had a relaxed sense of humor about his 
faith that Jason couldn't help admiring. Jason had to wonder how he'd 
ever gotten paired up with Taiyouko in the first place.

	"To take your hammer and nail analogy a little bit further," 
Keisuke continued, "I guess you could say that Seidou-san is the nail 
that not only sticks up, but bends and swivels when you try to hit it 
so that you only end up dropping the hammer on your foot." Keisuke 
looked around, making sure that no one was paying too close attention 
to their conversation. "To be honest, I think they're afraid to let 
her go or to chastise her too harshly. She doesn't sweep things under 
the rug, but she knows how to be discreet about politically sensitive 
cases or about cases that we'd rather not see in the headlines. 
Besides, I think Harada-san is scared of her."

	"No he's not," said Taiyouko. Both men jumped. Neither one had 
seen her approach. "I am always perfectly nice and pleasant to him. 
How's everything coming on tracking down the man who called in the 
accident?"

	"I've got a current address, but no phone number. Keisuke-san's 
got his old motor vehicle records," said Jason. "By the way, Seidou-
san, was your friend in London able to find anything out about that 
old friend of mine?"

	Taiyouko shook her head. She sat down at her desk, and slipped 
the Fed-Ex box into her tote bag. "Barbara said it might take a day 
or two before she could get to it. I'll let you know as soon as I 
hear anything. So boys, show me what you've got."

	Keisuke remained silent, so Jason took that as his cue to 
begin. 

	"Well, I've traced our Mr. Semyon Renko--you never told me he 
was a foreigner, by the way--to an address in Kamakura." He shoved a 
piece of paper across the desk to Taiyouko.

	"His papers said he was a Japanese citizen," said Taiyouko. "I 
remember noticing the funky name, but he didn't have an accent, so I 
didn't think much of it at the time. Besides, he checked out as 
nothing more than a good Samaritan with a mobile phone."

	"People really had car phones back then?" asked Jason, earning 
dirty looks from the two older detectives.

	"Yes, Wonder-boy. They came in handy when you were running late 
on a woolly mammoth hunt." Taiyouko studied the address. "Kamakura, 
huh? That's only about an hour from here. Nice place," she said, 
looking at the address. "Beaches, mountains, old buildings, that kind 
of thing. It probably costs a mint to live there. Did you find 
anything else?"

	"According to his records, Renko was originally from Siberia, 
if you can believe it, from some town called Vanavara. I checked the 
atlas, and it's truly at the ass-end of nowhere."

	"People really *live* in Siberia?" Keisuke asked. "I thought 
that's just where Stalin sent people he didn't like."

	"Good work. Two points to Detective Wright. Anything else?"

	"*I'd* like to know how he got Japanese citizenship," said 
Jason. "I know that for me, even though I was born here, it would be 
damn near impossible. This guy became a citizen in eighty-one, back 
when the Soviet Union was still the Soviet Union. That makes his 
being a Japanese citizen even stranger, if you ask me."

	"You've got a point. I'll look into it," Taiyouko said. "I 
should be able to tell if anything looks fishy with the situation. In 
the meantime, let's plan on paying Renko a visit in the next day or 
two. Also, see if there's anything interesting about this Bora Bora 
place or whatever it's called."

	"Vanavara," Jason corrected her. After less than a week in 
Tokyo, he was already pronouncing 'v's more like 'b's, but this time 
he emphasized them.

	"Thank you, Henry Higgins," Taiyouko snapped. "Keisuke, did you 
find anything we can work with?"

	"According to Motor Vehicles, our Renko-san was the proud owner 
of a 1987 Mercedes sedan from December of 1986 to August of 1987. It 
was a custom import from Germany. Any guesses as to what color?"

	"Pink?" asked Jason. Taiyouko bopped him over the head with a 
steno pad.

	"Dark green," Keisuke said smugly. "Just like the car that 
chased the other one off the cliff."

	"That's still only a theory, Keisuke. I want Watanabe's opinion 
on those photos, and I also want to run it by some people on the 
accident investigation team. Still, it's interesting that he ditched 
the car in August. Less than a year old and right after the Chiba 
incident. That's definitely one of those things that make you go 
'hmmm.' Does it say if he sold the car, junked it, or what?"

	"It says here that the car was reported stolen. I'll follow up 
and see if that turns up anything else."

	"Good boy. I was digging through Chiba's school records and 
found a nice little discrepancy that we need to check out." She 
looked around her own desk, and shuffled through the ever-present 
piles of paper. "I was just looking at it this morning... now where 
did that thing go?"

	Taiyouko cast a quick look around the office. Most of the other 
detectives were off on their own cases. A couple of the interns were 
working to scan documents for the Met's archives.

	Taiyouko got up and walked over to another intern who was 
sitting quietly at a desk, reading some papers that were clipped into 
a file. Jason recalled that her name was Saori Something-or-other. 
The poor girl was clearly oblivious to her impending doom.

	With one smooth motion, Taiyouko plucked the file out of 
Saori's hands and held it up over her head.

	"Found it!" she called out across the room, waving the file for 
all to see.

	Saori's face was so red she looked like she'd been roasted over 
an open fire.

	"You just stay right there, Mishima-kun. I'll talk to *you* in 
a minute." Taiyouko flipped open the file to a page she'd flagged 
with a lime-green plastic paperclip and dropped it on Keisuke's desk.
"Here it is. His school records say that he was went into foster care 
for a couple of years starting in 1989, after a stay in the 
Fushiawase Home for Boys. That's as far back as the records go."

	Jason automatically translated the name. "The Ill-Luck Home for 
Boys? Is that supposed to be some sort of joke?"

	"The kanji are read as 'facing eternal life' but the pun's 
obvious when you say it out loud. It's like something out of 
Dickens," Taiyouko said. "Add to that the fact that I couldn't find 
any official or unofficial record of the place, and the fishy factor 
in this case officially reaches high stink. Keisuke, see if you can 
track down the social worker who handled Chiba's foster care 
placement. I'll talk to Chiba himself and see what he remembers about 
where he was before going into foster care."

	"I'd be happy to come along with you on that," Jason said. 
There were some other things he hoped Chiba might remember. If the 
man had truly recognized him, then his presence might help knock 
loose a few of those memories.

	He was so excited by the possibility that Taiyouko's flat 
refusal took several seconds to sink in.

	"I don't want him to feel hounded," she explained. "The two of 
you stay away from him for now."

	"But..."

	"Wonder-boy, do I have to remind you that you're only supposed 
to be an observer? I shouldn't even be letting you help with the 
research end of things."

	She the turned to look at Saori, who was sitting perfectly 
still where Taiyouko had left her. The embarrassed flush had given 
way to deathly pale. Taiyouko waved her over with a sharp flick of 
her hand. 

	"Mishima-kun, get over here."

	Saori did as bidden. She stood by the trio of desks, eyes 
downcast and hands folded docilely in front of her. Taiyouko swiveled 
her chair and looked up at the intern, tapping her fingers together 
as she studied the girl for what seemed like an eternity.

	"You know I could have you thrown out of the program for what 
you just did," Taiyouko finally said.

	"Yes, ma'am," Saori whispered.

	"If I report this to your advisor, there's a good chance you'd 
be expelled."

	Saori turned even paler. She squeezed her hands tightly 
together to keep them from shaking.

	"Mishima-kun, look at me when I'm speaking to you," Taiyouko 
ordered.

	Jason watched, instinctively holding his breath. Saori was 
standing, and loomed over the seated detective, but he once again 
felt that strange sense of inversion. Taiyouko seemed to be looking 
*down* at the hapless intern. Her pupils were little more than angry 
pinpoints, making her pale hazel eyes look like those of a raptor.

	"If you feel that keeping a friend out of trouble is more 
important than seeing that justice is done, then you need to consider 
a different course of study. Chiba *is* a friend of yours, correct?"

	Saori swayed under Taiyouko's glare. "Yes, ma'am."

	"If you really want to help him, then you will do *exactly* as 
I tell you, is that clear?"

	"Ma'am?" Saori blinked a few times. Was Taiyouko offering her 
an out? Both Jason and Keisuke leaned forwards, taken in by the 
suspense.

	"We think that he's a material witness in the murder of his 
parents." Ignoring Saori's gasp of surprise, Taiyouko continued as if 
she were giving directions for an exam. "For his own protection you 
will tell him nothing about this investigation unless you clear it 
with me."

	The blazing cold in her eyes faded to a mischievous twinkle. 
"Clearly the only way to keep you out of trouble is to put you where 
I can keep an eye on you. Here are the ground rules. One, you will 
work with Detective Takamori. You will do *nothing* on this case 
without his express approval. Keisuke, you okay with that?"

	"Do I have a choice?"

	"No. Two, if you have what you think is a brilliant flash of 
insight, don't act on it unless you have reason to think that someone 
is in immediate danger. Otherwise you tell me, or Takamori, or even 
Wright. Understood?"

	Saori nodded, too overwhelmed with relief to say anything.

	"Keisuke, you have anything for our girl to work on?"

	"Yes I do," came the enthusiastic response. Keisuke opened the 
old evidence box from the case, and pulled out a thick pile of green 
and white pin-feed computer paper. The text was badly faded dot-
matrix printing in a jerky, uneven format. "Here are all of the 
records of 1984 Hondas registered in Japan at the time the crime was 
committed. Go through them all, pick out the ones that are maroon 
wagons--if it's not stated, you'll have to do a VIN number search 
with Honda."

	"Check out anything that says 'red' or even 'purple' as well. 
You know how people are with colors," Taiyouko said helpfully. "After 
that, track down the owners. Once you've finished doing that, we'll 
take a look at any of the records where you couldn't find addresses 
or tax information after...let's say 1989 just to be on the safe 
side." She tossed the now glassy-eyed Saori a highlighter. "Here. 
You'll need this."

	"Welcome to the exciting world of police work," Jason quipped. 
He was starting to get a pretty good idea of how Taiyouko operated.

	"Oh, and when you have a chance, give your friend a call and 
see if you can find out what time he typically gets back to his 
apartment in the early evening." Taiyouko grinned, and once again 
Jason thought of hawks and other things with sharp eyes and even 
sharper claws. "I think I might take Chiba for a little ride in the 
country and see if I can't jog his memory a bit."

	In the meantime, thought Jason, he'd do a little unofficial 
investigating on his own. There were some other memories in Chiba's 
mind that might need to be jogged loose, and they were nobody's 
business but his own.



4:30 p.m.


	A new Senshi? Impossible. No matter how much she racked her 
brain, Luna could find no way to account for such a thing, logically 
or otherwise. Mentally, she hissed and spat at the blank spots in her 
memory. Queen Serenity's magic rarely failed, but Luna supposed that 
given the complexity of putting her and Artemis into millions of 
years of suspended animation, and the desperate circumstances that 
Her Majesty had been in at the time, she could make a few allowances.

	Artemis spoke for both of them. "Sorry, but I don't remember 
anything about any Sailor Sun, not even the barest hint of a rumor."

	"You two didn't know about Saturn and the others, remember?" 
Makoto snapped, indicating the Outers with a nod of her head. She was 
still fuming about the fact that she had missed an encounter with the 
golems.

	The group had once again gathered at the Hikawa Shrine and had 
crammed themselves into Rei's bedroom. They were all gathered around 
the table, except for Haruka, Michiru, and Setsuna, who were leaning 
up against Rei's bed. Michiru had her head on Haruka's shoulder and 
was half asleep. She didn't smell right to Luna. Was she coming down 
with something?

	"We'd never actually *met* Uranus and Neptune during the Silver 
Millennium," Luna pointed out. She tried not to react to Makoto's 
surliness. "We did say that we knew *of* them, but didn't know if 
they were real or not."

	She did not mention how the memory had not slid into place 
until they had encountered the pair. This matter of convenient recall 
troubled her. They always seemed to remember the important things 
when they needed to, but could they always count on that happening in 
the future?

	"This Sailor Sun girl is real, all right," Minako said. "That 
attack of hers was no joke. What did she call it, Ami?"

	"I think it was 'Plasma Flare,' but I could be wrong. I was a 
bit distracted at the time." She opened her computer. "Fortunately, I 
had set this to scan the area while we were fighting, so I was able 
to get a reading on her attack."

	"She has a *blood* based attack? That's... that's just... 
yuck!" Usagi said.

	Ami and Setsuna both gaped at her in disbelief.

	Usagi held up her left hand to show off her ring. Even now, 
Luna observed, she took any excuse to flaunt the diamond. "Helloo-oo! 
I'm engaged to a medical student, remember? I've learned more gross 
things about gross anatomy in the past year than I ever wanted to 
know in my entire life."

	"There's another definition besides the fluid in blood," Ami 
stammered, still staring at Usagi as if she'd grown a second head. 
"Plasma can also mean a highly ionized, electrically neutral 
gas. Well, it's not really a gas, but close enough. It's something 
that you might find in the heart of a star."

	Haruka let out a long, low whistle. "The heart of a star? 
You're saying that this new girl could be as powerful as Usagi or 
Hotaru?"

	Ami shook her head. "Unless she has something else up her 
sleeve, I seriously doubt it. Her Plasma Flare was nearly as hot as 
Rei's stronger attacks, but much more diffuse. It was more like a 
blast of super-heated air than a jet of flame. It had more of a 
concussive element to it than Rei's attacks, but nowhere near that of 
your World Shaking."

	"That's still pretty damned powerful. I don't like it," Haruka 
said. Her gray eyes were the same color as looming thunderheads.

	"Neither do I," said Setsuna. "The Sailor Senshi were meant to 
be representatives of the habitable worlds--or worlds with habitable 
moons." She took a deep breath and Luna noticed that she would not 
look the others in the eye. "As with every rule there were some 
exceptions, but I would swear on my life that there never was or 
would be a Sailor Sun. It never would have been allowed."

	"There's no Sailor Sun in the future," Diana volunteered. Luna 
nearly fell off Usagi's lap and Artemis's jaw fell slack. Diana 
*never* came forward with specific information about Crystal Tokyo.

	"She's right," said ChibiUsa. "Puu told me that Ceres, Juno, 
Vesta, and Pallas were the last of the Senshi."

	Setsuna double-blinked. "I did?"

	"Uhhh..." ChibiUsa giggled nervously. "You *will* tell me that 
they were the last of the Senshi? Someday? Maybe?"

	Luna saw the glare Diana turned on her princess and wondered if 
she looked like that when she got annoyed with Usagi. She hoped not. 
It was hardly attractive.

	"At least she seems eager to work with us, not like... um, Iron 
Mouse or Aluminum Siren," said Ami, neatly avoiding a verbal land-
mine at the last possible second.

	Haruka's expression discouraged any further comment on the 
matter, but Michiru had the good grace to look embarrassed.

	"What surprised me was how *happy* she was to meet us," Ami 
added.

	"If you ask me, she was *too* happy to see us," Minako 
grumbled. She hiked up her shirt. "See, I've still got a bruise!"

	Rei reached over and yanked the shirt back down.

	"It's just us girls!" Minako exclaimed.

	"Rei-chan, please take your hand off my eyes," said Artemis.

	"She was rather...enthusiastic, and I don't think she had a 
good idea of her own strength," Ami said.

	"Enthusiastic?" Minako's eyes bugged out in disbelief. "Ami-
chan, that girl was several bricks short of a picnic and there was 
nobody--and I mean *nobody*--home!"

	The silence that followed was one of those awkward ones where 
everyone waited for someone else to make the obvious joke.

	Ami's struggle to keep a straight face gave way to hesitation 
and embarrassment. "I think that what Minako-chan is trying to say is 
that this new Sailor Senshi..." she twisted her fingers together. 
"Well, I can't be certain, not without a chance to observe her some 
more, but she seems as if she might be mildly retarded."

	"Ami-chan!" Luna exclaimed. Usagi protested as claws sank into 
her lap. "That's hardly a nice thing to say about someone you've just 
met!"

	Ami closed her eyes and seemed to be counting to ten. "I don't 
know how else to describe it, Luna. I'm using the term in its 
clinical sense based on what I could tell about her intellectual 
level, emotional level, and impulse control. From everything I saw, 
she was acting more like a kindergartener than a young adult."

	Luna felt Usagi's breath in her ear. "Luna, don't you *dare* 
say anything!" she hissed.

	"Please! I'm not trying to be funny! She looks as if she's our 
age, but she can barely grasp basic concepts. She didn't even know 
the days of the week! When I tried to tell her how to get here she 
lost track after just a few simple directions, and she got so 
frustrated I was afraid she was going to throw a tantrum. I also 
don't think she really knows what kind of damage she's capable of 
doing. Right before we got to the junkyard, I think she managed to 
blow up a barrel of diesel fuel with a stray shot."

	Luna flicked her tail. Usagi might still be learning to think 
beyond the moment, and she often let her emotions cloud her judgment, 
but Luna knew that the girl was more intelligent than even she 
herself realized. Minako could be feather-brained to an aggravating 
degree, but when she was concentrating on something, it quickly 
became obvious why she had been appointed leader of the Senshi. It 
sounded, however, as if Sailor Sun's problems were far more than just 
an annoying quirk of character. Plus, if Ami was correct, this girl's 
power was on a par with that of Jupiter or Mars.

	The idea that such a person had poor self control and even 
poorer judgment was terrifying. She turned towards Artemis. The 
corrosive stench of worry surrounded him like a fog. He caught the 
look in her eye and nodded.

	"I can't speak for Luna," he said, "but after I woke from that 
long sleep Queen Serenity put us in, it was weeks before I could 
think straight. I was barely able to remember my own name." It was a 
good explanation, but he didn't sound as if he believed it.

	A memory flickered across Luna's mind. A girl with red hair 
cradling a white cat and singing softly. Her own anxiety as the two 
vanished from her sight and hearing. Anxiety turning to panic as a 
pair of large, capable hands scooped her up and as she found that she 
was too weak even twitch her tail in protest. But all the stranger 
did was hold her against his shoulder and speak softly. The low, 
masculine voice rumbled through his chest and practically shook her 
entire body.

	"You've had a long nap, Miss Kitty, but it's time to get up 
now."

	What exactly *had* happened when she and Artemis had woken up? 
This was the first time she had remembered any details about that 
time. Who were those people? Unfortunately, before she could pin down 
anything else, Ami's voice knocked her back to the present.

	"So in other words, she could have woken from a cold sleep and 
still be trying to get her bearings?" she said, but she sounded 
dubious. "She seemed to know what those golems were, though."

	"I still can't believe I missed the fight!" Makoto said, 
banging her fist on the table.

	"So you've said," Rei snarled. "Several times."

	Minako shrugged. "Hey, we did ask you if you wanted to come along, 
Mako- chan."

	"That's not the point!"

	"Anyhow," said Ami, raising her voice, "we have a new Senshi 
and a new kind of monster. Some of us have also been having dreams 
about the past. I don't think this can be coincidental."

	"That's what I keep telling Mamo-chan," Usagi mumbled.

	"What was that?" asked Luna. She thought that Usagi had decided 
to keep quiet about Mamoru's problems until she'd had another chance 
to speak with him and Artemis could check things out some more. Luna 
also wanted to be there to smell for herself if Usagi and Artemis had 
been right about Mamoru's reactions.

	"Nothing. Ami-chan, you and V-babe didn't get hurt at all, did 
you?"

	"Nope. Piece o' pie."

	"I didn't have quite so easy a time," Ami said. "My fog didn't 
have any effect on them at all. A Shabon Spray Freezing did hold off 
one of them long enough for me to get away, but Sun was the one who 
ended up destroying it. With a length of copper pipe, actually, not a 
Plasma Flare."

	"Hold on a sec!" Haruka made a time-out gesture. "I don't get 
it. Saturn's attack didn't even slow the golem down, and Venus and 
Mercury were able to take out *three*?"

	"What's that supposed to mean?" Minako snapped. "Ami-chan and I 
have been Senshi longer than any of you besides Usagi-chan, and I was 
a Senshi well before she was! We know what we're doing!"

	"Jeez, Mina! Take it easy!" Artemis growled. "She has a point."

	"Hey, don't take it personally! I'm just saying that out of all 
of us, the Princess here is the only one who's more powerful than 
Saturn," Haruka said. "It just doesn't make sense that one of your 
*least* powerful attacks would destroy one of those things."

	"No. I suppose it doesn't," Ami said. Her cheeks were flushed 
and she spoke crisply. Luna had long suspected that Ami was more 
sensitive about her relative weakness as a Senshi than she let on. "I 
do have a possible explanation, however."

	"You *did* know how to destroy them going into the situation," 
Hotaru said. "You didn't have to waste time like I did trying to 
figure out how to fight them."

	"There is that," Ami said, somewhat mollified. "Also, the 
golems that we fought weren't quite the same as the one you faced, 
Hotaru-chan. I went out to the construction site the other day, and I 
dug through what was left of your golem. I found four shards of 
crystal that glow blue whenever I or any of the other Senshi get near 
them." She started rummaging through her backpack. "I showed them to 
the others, and... well, apparently I left them back at my 
apartment." She smiled sheepishly.

	"So why didn't the goblins we destroyed have them?" Minako 
asked.

	"Is there a chance you could have missed them?" Setsuna asked. 
"I know you're normally quite thorough, but if it was dark..."

	Ami shook her head. "I scanned with the computer, and it found 
nothing. Given that the crystals have the same molecular structure as 
the Ginzuishou, they should have been easy to spot."

	Luna tried not to look too smug about the stunned expressions 
on the Outers' faces.

	Ami waited until she had everyone's full attention once more. 
"I think the chances of this new enemy being connected to the Silver 
Millennium have increased rather dramatically."

	No one disagreed.

	"Ami-san, do you think that the crystals were what made the 
golem immune to my attack?" Hotaru asked. She beamed when Ami 
applauded her answer.

	"That's *exactly* what I'm thinking. I'll have to take another 
look at them, but this time in Senshi form." She then handed a sheet 
of paper to Hotaru. Luna couldn't see what was written on it. 
"Hotaru-chan, does this look like the mark you saw on your golem's 
forehead?"

	Hotaru studied the paper for a moment, then nodded hesitantly. 
"I think so. It has the same *sort* of look, anyhow."

	Setsuna leaned over so she could see. She looked at the mark 
for a moment, brows drawn together, then she shook her head. "It 
looks more like brush calligraphy than carving, doesn't it? I wish I 
could tell you something about it, but I have no idea what it is or 
what it means."

	Rei reached out across the table. "May I see?" She took the 
paper and studied the character for a while, rotating the paper this 
way and that. Luna caught a glimpse of a roughly triangular character 
with a large dot at one corner. "Something about this looks familiar. 
Ami-chan, do you mind if I keep this for a while?"

	"Not at all. I keep thinking that I've seen it or something 
like it somewhere else, too. I just wish I knew why that one golem 
had crystals and these others didn't. The more information we can 
gather on these things, the better. Speaking of information, Setsuna-
san, could you give us a quick overview of what you remember from the 
Silver Millennium?"

	Setsuna rocked forward onto her knees and held a large object 
up over the table. An overstuffed ring binder landed in front of Ami 
with a "whumph." Minako's drink tipped over.

	"There are two more binders out in the car," Setsuna said 
darkly. "Let me know when you want them."

	"Oh." That was all Ami had to say for the moment.

	Hotaru pulled the binder over to her and started leafing 
through it.

	"It's not very well organized, I'm afraid. There are also a lot 
of gaps in the account. You see, I was--"

	"Stuck at the Gates of Time," Rei and Makoto muttered in 
perfect unison.

	"There *is* that," Setsuna snapped. Everyone flinched. They 
were not used to seeing a Setsuna who could be so easily ruffled.

	"I could sense the flow and flux of time," she continued, "but 
it's not like anyone had bothered to provide me with a big-screen TV 
with a satellite feed to the Moon Palace. What I was going to say was 
that although I--my prior self, I mean--was alive long before the 
Silver Millennium, I wasn't always there when something important 
happened. Sometimes, I might have been there but not have realized 
that what I saw or heard *was* important."

	She leaned in beside Hotaru and tapped at the binder. "Also, a 
lot of what's in here is based on hearsay. After I was stationed at 
the Gates, I did have visitors from time to time, and I heard bits 
and pieces from them. Mostly gossip, but there were a few things 
worth writing down.

	"Anyhow, I seriously doubt that this Sailor Sun is for real, 
but I'll have to give you a little background so you can understand 
what I mean. The oldest beings in the universe were not so much 
living creatures as ideas and principles. Justice, Peace, Time,"--
here she unconsciously circled one hand over her heart--"Hope, Order, 
and even Chaos."

	"The...you mean the same Chaos that I..." stammered Usagi. 
Setsuna nodded. "Oh my," she said softly.

	"Chaos was not always evil," Setsuna said. Her voice had grown 
quiet, and her eyes did not seem to be fixed on anything in the room. 
"That's another story, though, for another time. These Ideals were 
born straight out of the Galaxy Cauldron, long before the first and 
mightiest stars, and they considered themselves older brothers and 
sisters to these stars.

	"As time went on," she continued, "other beings and other forms 
of matter were created. How, or by whom, I don't know, but planets 
began to form around stars, and the Ideals began to have offspring. I 
wouldn't call them 'children,' exactly. They either created these new 
beings out of matter and put some of their essence into them, or the 
beings sprung out of the combination of two Ideals, the splitting of 
one Ideal into two, or the refinement of one Ideal. For example, 
Divine Love might give rise to Romantic Love." She shook her head. 
"I'm sorry. This barely makes sense, even to me. For all I know, I 
have it all wrong."

	"So," said Ami, "the story of Athena springing fully formed 
from the head of Zeus might have come from the way these Ideals 
created their offspring?"

	"That's better than I could have put it myself," Setsuna said, 
and Luna could smell the frustration fading away from her. Once that 
the frustration was gone, Luna could smell something else. She 
couldn't quite pin down what it was. How odd. She looked at Artemis, 
and he nodded. He'd sensed it too, then.

	"The universe was soon full of 'living' beings of many, many 
kinds. The strongest of these, as I said, associated themselves with 
the stars. Sol, the Sun, was considered one of the most important 
stars because one of its planets, Earth, was the *only* planet in the 
universe where organic life came into being. Again, I have no idea 
how or why this happened. Earth's inhabitants were born from the 
planet itself, made of matter, but having souls, and nothing like 
that had happened before or since."

	Towards the end of that speech the rhythm of Setsuna's voice 
suggested that she was reciting some old piece of poetry.

	Setsuna studied Ami, ChibiUsa, and Michiru for a moment. 
"Remember those characters that Usagi and Minako showed to us? Out of 
those, only Rosamund and Lamia, the ladies of the Greenwood and the 
Waters, were neither Ideals nor the children of Ideals. They were 
both completely of the Earth and not from the Cauldron." Again, it 
sounded if she was quoting from something. "The other inhabited 
worlds--Mau, Coronis, Kinmoku, and so on--were first settled by 
people and creatures from Earth."

	"What about Queen Serenity?" Minako asked. "What about us?"

	"I'll get to that later." She smiled softly, but it was forced. 
"Until I started doing this project, I had no idea how much some of 
these memories...hurt, so please, be patient with me. I also want 
Mamoru-kun to be here when I talk more about Earth, if that's all 
right with the rest of you."

	Haruka was the only one who voiced any unhappiness about the 
idea.

	"Haruka," Michiru said sleepily, "don't raise a fuss, please? 
I'm sure that whatever it is can wait."

	Haruka agreed, but the scowl did not leave her face.

	Luna wasn't entirely happy with the situation, either. She 
would have to talk to Setsuna one-on-one to go over that story. If 
there were any nasty surprises, it might push Mamoru even further 
into denial than he already was. She also wanted to know what that 
smell was and what was prompting it. It wasn't worry or fear, but it 
came from the same family of smells.

	"Because of its importance, there were *four* different Ideals 
associated with the Sun," Setsuna said. "Hyperion, Ananke, Astraea, 
and Helios."

	"Helios!" ChibiUsa exclaimed, and Luna could have sworn that 
she saw little hearts light up in the girl's eyes. Minako giggled and 
batted her eyelashes, and Diana merely rolled her eyes.

	Setsuna smiled her usual mysterious smile, but this time it was 
to hold in a laugh. "Helios was a younger Ideal, and his story is 
rather interesting--and *very* long. After the wars with Chaos, 
Helios became the spiritual guardian of the Earth, which meant, by 
the way, that he gave up a lot of his power. Many Ideals were 
weakened, splintered, or even killed in those wars.

	"It was after this that Hyperion, Ananke, and Astraea formed 
the Eunomia to keep order in the Solar System as planetary life 
spread over the Earth and beyond. I'll go into more detail later, but 
for now it's enough to say that they did the dirty work involved with 
restoring the Solar System to peace. Earth's creatures ruled 
themselves with the one High King over all, while Queen Serenity 
ruled the rest of the Solar System. At the beginning of the Golden 
Kingdom and the Silver Millennium, the Eunomia stepped down as 
absolute rulers, but they managed to stay... involved in things.
"The Eunomia acted as advisors to both the Queen and the High King, 
but as I recall, when they said something, it wasn't exactly a 
suggestion. They also maintained their rule over the Sun, and used 
its fires as a prison for those who fought against Queen Serenity and 
who refused mercy even after they were defeated."

	"Wait a minute," said Usagi. Her eyes squinched shut. "I think 
I remember from...no, not from back then...ah! from when we were at 
the ruins of the Moon Palace! You know, right before we fought 
Beryl."

	"That's right!" Makoto said. "Didn't Queen Serenity say 
something about the Sun being really active that year, and some evil 
escaping into the Earth?"

	Setsuna's eyes lit up as wonder and hope swept over her. 
"You...you mean you talked to Serenity? How? When? Did she..."

	Ami shook her head sadly. "A few months after we first became 
Senshi, we encountered a hologram of the Queen," she explained. 
"There wasn't much energy left, but she was able to speak to us for a 
little while. I don't know if there's any way to restart the program, 
or how much of what we saw was really the Queen or how much was some 
sort of copy. I'm sorry, Setsuna-san, I truly am."

	As Ami finished her explanation, Setsuna's shoulders sagged and 
she appeared to grow smaller, somehow. Luna had never seen her look 
so vulnerable.

	"Oh." Setsuna's voice was hollow with disappointment. After a 
little while, she began her story again. "Well, you understood her 
correctly. Serenity had absolutely no authority over the Sun, and 
could never have appointed a Sailor Sun, and I *seriously* doubt that 
the Eunomia would have appointed one. They were far too jealous of 
their power and rank. I don't even know why they stepped down in the 
first place. I thought it was a joke, when I first heard about it. I 
suspect the only reason why they stepped down without a fuss was 
because Hyperion was head over heels in love with Serenity."

	The spontaneous and collective "awwww!" that followed this 
statement kept the room in giggles for nearly two whole minutes. Even 
Setsuna seemed much more cheerful after that.

	"But how can you be sure that something didn't happen after you 
became Sailor Pluto?" Ami asked once things calmed back down. "Could 
something have changed so that they had to appoint a Sailor Sun?"

	Setsuna shook her head, not to negate what Ami had said, but in 
puzzlement. "Queen Serenity came to visit me all the time," she said, 
but there was just a hint of doubt in her voice. "I can't understand 
why she wouldn't tell me about something like that."

	She was quiet again for a long time. "I'm glad to hear that 
this girl isn't any more powerful than Mars," she finally said, 
"because I'd hate to think of something so bad that the Eunomia would 
have given their *full* power to a Sailor Senshi."

	"Um, I hate to ask, but how bad is bad?" Minako asked.

	Setsuna looked straight at her, garnet eyes meeting blue.

	"Remember how I said that Chaos had not always been evil? How 
it had been one of the first Ideals to emerge from the Cauldron? 
After Chaos decided that the only thing it cared about was gaining 
more and more power for itself, there was a terrible, terrible war 
that lasted for thousands of years." She reached up to brush 
something from her eye. "I...my prior self lost so many people back 
then. So many were killed. So many became less than what we...what 
they had been before."

	Usagi was trembling, and it was all Luna could do not to bush 
out her tail and dash out of the room. So many emotions pouring 
through the girl at once! How could she stand it?

	"In the end," Setsuna continued, "the only ones who were able 
to defeat Chaos and seal it back in the Galaxy Cauldron were the 
three who would become the Eunomia. That's what I meant when I said I 
didn't want to know what they would consider to be bad."

	Luna tumbled to the ground as Usagi jumped to her feet and ran 
outside.



6:40 p.m.


	The drive home was sheer hell.

	"God *damn* it, Setsuna! The way you told your story, you made 
it sound like there's another Galaxia running around out there!" 
Haruka said. "Of course she'd react like that!"

	Hotaru kept to herself in the back seat. She had shrunk into 
one corner, hands neatly folded in her lap. If she could have, she 
would have become invisible, unnoticeable. She wished she had her 
Discman with her.

	"How many times do you want me to apologize, Haruka? All I was 
trying to say is why I thought that this Sun person is most likely an 
impostor. The girl isn't powerful, therefore she wasn't meant to 
defend against another foe like Chaos."

	"That may have been what you meant, but it *wasn't* what she 
heard. Also, why wouldn't you tell us about Earth? I felt like you 
were deliberately pointing out that you were *not* going to talk 
about it."

	"I didn't want to say anything until I had a chance to talk 
with Endymion...gah! I mean Mamoru. It just didn't feel right, like 
I'd be talking about him behind his back or something like that."

	"Is that the only reason?"

	Just shut up, thought Hotaru. You're only making it worse. 
Setsuna said she's sorry. She said she'd tell us the rest of the 
story. Please just shut up, both of you.

	"Haruka, I told you all back there that this is *not* easy for 
me! I will tell you everything, but it's going to take me a while. 
I'm deliberately going back over all of these memories for the first 
time in this lifetime--which is something I'd never have done if it 
weren't for this--and it feels like these memories are of things that 
happened to me in *this* life. Don't you get it?" She tapped one 
finger to her temple. "Up here I'm reliving what it was like to lose 
*family* during the Chaos War! Well, I'm sorry if I was too wrapped 
up in myself to watch every single word I said and think about how 
others might interpret it!"

	Haruka let out a long, low breath. "Don't be like that. You 
know how hard it was on Usagi-chan when Galaxia killed every one."

	Shut up. Shut up shutup shutupshutupshutup...

	"I'm as unhappy about this Sailor Sun thing as you are, 
Setsuna, but that's--"

	"Haruka dear, please just let it go," Michiru murmured.

	Hotaru jumped. She'd thought that Michiru-mama was asleep 
again.

	"Fine," Haruka said quietly, and that was the last word spoken 
on the way home.

	As soon as they got home, Setsuna went straight up to her room. 
Hotaru quietly followed her, and knocked on the door frame to get her 
attention.

	"Setsuna-mama, do you have another copy of that thing you gave 
to Ami-san?"

	"I'm almost out of paper," Setsuna said. "What little I have I 
need for my physics report. I'll make you a printout as soon as I 
have time to pick up some more printer paper." She turned on her 
computer and turned on her television and went to work without a 
further word to Hotaru.

	Hotaru's shoulders fell. Setsuna could have been more polite 
about it, but she wasn't in the mood to start anything. If she did, 
Setsuna wouldn't be the one getting into trouble.

	She found Michiru in the kitchen, putting things together for 
dinner.

	"Would you like some help, Michiru-mama?"

	Michiru turned and smiled at Hotaru, but her eyes showed 
nothing but weariness. "That's sweet of you, Hotaru-chan, but I've 
had a rough day, and I'd really rather be alone right now."

	Pause. "Oh. Okay."

	She heard someone clearing her throat in the other room. 
Haruka-papa stood just outside the kitchen, giving her the old evil-
eye again. Hotaru walked out into the hall hesitantly, wondering what 
it is she'd done *this* time.

	Haruka-papa walked with her over to the staircase. "Michiru's 
had a rough week," she said. "Try not to bother her if you can help 
it, okay? And hey--I'm sorry you had to listen to all that in the 
car."

	Hotaru nodded, then turned and ran up the stairs before she 
said anything she might regret.

	Michiru was having a bad day. Michiru was having a bad week. 
Everyone was so worried about Michiru that they were walking on 
eggshells!

	Hotaru dashed into her room, being sure to slam her door loudly 
enough so that everyone would know she was upset. Why didn't people 
fuss over *her* when she was having a bad day?

	For a minute or two, she considered calling the Tsukino 
household and inviting herself over for dinner, but in the end she 
decided it probably wouldn't be a good idea, not after Usagi had run 
out on them like that. ChibiUsa eventually brought her back, but then 
Haruka had insisted they go home as soon as everything looked like it 
was under control.

	Usagi had told them that she would be fine, Hotaru recalled. 
Even so, Haruka-papa and Setsuna-mama went on and on about as if 
Usagi had had a complete nervous breakdown. If Michiru-mama hadn't 
said anything, they'd *still* be arguing.

	Hotaru flopped down on her bed and stared at the ceiling. She 
wondered if there was any way she could get out of dinner without 
creating another fuss.

	No one would care about her and her problems. No one ever did.
Oh, I went through that when *I* was fourteen, they'd say. Everything 
seems so bad when you're that age. Everything's a crisis when you're 
fourteen. You're blowing it all out of proportion. You're making a 
big deal over nothing. You'll get over it. Poor baby. You'll grow out 
of it.

	"As if that's supposed to make me feel better," Hotaru 
muttered. She supposed she was being selfish and petty and self-
centered, but right then she just didn't give a damn. Hurt was hurt 
and that's all there was to it.

	You just feel that way because you're fourteen. It's all in 
your head. It's only hormones. It's nothing but growing pains. That 
means that nothing you're feeling right now is important, or even 
real, so go away and stop bothering us, kid. You'll understand when 
you're older.

	How could they know, thought Hotaru, if they couldn't see the 
turmoil that was in *her* head? How could they be so darn sure that 
it was "just fourteen?"

	She rolled over onto her side and hugged her knees to her 
chest. She wanted to stand in the middle of her room and scream her 
head off, but that would bring everyone running and they'd either get 
mad at her, or worse, try to cheer her up.

	The last time she felt this bad was in the days when Papa was 
not-Papa and Mistress Nine was trying to take over her body.
The pain and seizures were no longer there, but she couldn't escape 
the feeling that things in her brain were trying to turn themselves 
inside out. Cyborg. Freak. Alien. Destroyer. How much more worse 
could things get?

	As she fought back tears (she wasn't about to go down to dinner 
after she'd been crying--dinner would be bad enough as it was), 
Hotaru tried to think back to what ChibiUsa had said to her the other 
night to make her feel better, but the words would not come to mind.

	"I'm only fourteen," she whispered. "How am I supposed to know 
what I'm supposed to do?"



Friday, July 6
2:00 a.m.


	Usagi was sound asleep, but there was a faint smile on her 
face. A slight fluttering beneath her eyelids betrayed the fact that 
she was in the middle of a dream.

	I wonder what she's dreaming about, thought Luna. Probably her 
wedding. With that smile, it had to be something nice.

	She padded over to her mistress's pillow and lay down, tucking 
her front paws beneath her chest and curling her tail along her side 
so that she formed what Usagi had laughingly dubbed a "catloaf."

	ChibiUsa was curled up right next to Usagi, with one arm flung 
over her future mother's belly. After what happened at the shrine, 
ChibiUsa had insisted on staying with her that night. Diana was 
there, too. She slept with her back pressed against Usagi's other 
side, her head tucked and front legs curved so that she looked like a 
furry comma.

	Luna started to purr. It wasn't often she got to see all three 
of her 'daughters' sleeping so sweetly like this. Usagi murmured 
something in her sleep, and one arm moved to encircle Diana ever so 
gently. The little bell on Diana's collar jingled softly as she 
snuggled into Usagi's embrace.

	Luna's heart melted within her. She thanked the moon that Usagi 
could be content, even if it was just for this little while.

	When Usagi had run out of the shrine, Luna and ChibiUsa were 
quick to follow. Rei, Makoto, Minako, and Ami were not far behind 
them. When they found her, Usagi was grasping one side of the shrine 
gate, clinging to it as if it were a lifeline.

	ChibiUsa quickly proved that she had grown in more than stature 
over the past year. She turned to the rest of the Senshi, who would 
not stop asking Usagi if she was all right, if there was anything 
they could do, and so on. Even if Usagi had answered, they wouldn't 
have heard her over the noise.

	ChibiUsa forced herself in between Usagi and the others. "Guys, 
could you go back to the shrine? Please? Let me talk to her alone."

	"We just want to make sure she's okay," Makoto protested.

	"We'll be quiet," Minako said. "We promise!"

	Rei shook her head and gave her two friends her best "stern 
miko" look.

	"Please," ChibiUsa said.

	"You'll bring her right back, won't you?" Ami asked quietly.

	ChibiUsa nodded, and the four girls headed back to the shrine.

	Luna waited quietly as ChibiUsa hugged Usagi from behind and 
rested her cheek against Usagi's back.

	"You won't have to fight all alone this time...Mama," she said. 
From up on top of the shrine gate, Phobos (or was it Deimos?) cawed 
softly in agreement. Luna had almost forgotten that they, too, had 
given their all in the last fight.

	Usagi straightened up a little. "She's hurting so much," she 
whispered. "She had all that hurt inside all this time and she never 
told us. Why? Why couldn't I have been there for her?"

	You could have knocked Luna over with the proverbial feather.

	Luna felt shame burning within her. She had come out here 
expecting to find a despairing or even hysterical Usagi. Despite 
everything she had seen over the past three and a half years, she had 
almost forgotten that Usagi was no longer the girl who had wanted to 
quit during that first battle when she had done no more than fall and 
scrape her knee.

	Over the past year, Usagi had confided to Luna her fears of 
facing yet another insanely powerful enemy, but that was not what had 
her upset.

	"My mother was everything to Pluto, wasn't she?" Usagi 
whispered. "Didn't you see the way she looked, when she thought that 
Queen Serenity might have survived? I..." her voice caught on the 
words.

	There were tears and trembling, yes, but over another's pain. 
She didn't even mention her own.

	Usagi let go of the gate and stared down at her hands. Had she 
hurt them somehow?

	"I defeated Chaos. Me. How can I possibly be that strong?" she 
wondered.

	"You *are*," said ChibiUsa. She held Usagi even tighter. 
"That's what Papa always told me. 'Sailor Moon is invincible,' he 
always said."

	"Am I? Was I?" Her voice was shaking wildly. "Could I have 
saved the Moon Kingdom somehow? If I had been stronger," she said, 
laying one hand over her heart, "if I had kept my head after Endymion 
was killed, if I hadn't..."

	"Usagi!" Luna snapped. Her heart was racing. As far as she 
knew, ChibiUsa didn't know that Serenity had killed herself in her 
past life, and she didn't want her to find out like this. "Please, 
believe me when I tell you that there was *nothing* you could have 
done! You didn't have the Ginzuishou back then. Queen Serenity was 
the one with that power."

	Usagi stared at her as if finally realizing that she was not 
alone out there by the gate.

	"Things are different now," Luna said, more softly this time. 
"You can't allow yourself to waste time and wear yourself down by 
always thinking 'what if' or 'if only.' We may find answers by 
looking back at our pasts, but we can't change the past itself."

	Usagi brushed at her shirt and shorts, which were covered with 
dust from the old gate. "No, we can't, can we?" she said quietly. She 
seemed to be thinking things over. A host of expressions flitted 
across her face. Worry, fear, doubt, confusion, surprise, and then 
finally she smiled, just a little. "Things *are* different now."
The smile deepened, and Luna wondered what on earth Usagi could be 
thinking about.

	ChibiUsa finally let go of Usagi and rubbed her shoulder 
roughly but affectionately. "C'mon, Usagi. Let's go back before the 
others get worried and come out here again."

	"Okay. Lead on, squirt."

	"You'd better watch it, Usagi! Mama says I'm probably going to 
end up being taller than she is, and you know what *that* means!"

	Usagi hip-checked ChibiUsa, making her stumble a couple of 
steps. "In your dreams! Right now you're still a squirt, Miss 
Squirt!"

	ChibiUsa shoved back. "Am not!" she tried to say, but she was 
giggling too hard.

	The two of them carried on all the way back to the shrine, 
rough-housing and teasing like sisters.

	Luna and Diana simply looked at each other then started 
laughing themselves. The expression on Diana's face must have been a 
mirror image of the one on her own, and Diana knew it, too. Luna 
didn't know what came over them next, but as one they dashed after 
the two princesses and did a crazy slalom between their ankles as if 
trying to trip them, then laughed themselves silly at the girls' 
shrieks of surprise and outrage.

	Somehow, the four of them managed to pull themselves together 
before going inside to tell the worried Senshi that everything was 
okay. Usagi explained that what Setsuna had said had merely startled 
her, and that she had stayed outside so long because she was 
embarrassed about acting like such a loon.

	The four Outer Senshi left immediately after that, only taking 
time for the briefest of goodbyes.

	The others hung around much longer. They could tell that Usagi 
was still upset, but once she suggested going out for ice-cream, they 
knew that she would be all right.

	Luna scooted in closer to the sleeping Usagi, and rested her 
head in the crook of Usagi's shoulder. Through some miracle, she must 
have said just the right thing back there at the shrine. Usagi had 
been thoughtful all evening, and Luna caught an occasional whiff of 
doubt or anxiety, but other than that, Usagi seemed to be just fine.

	Luna lifted her head, yawned luxuriously, then put her head 
back down and quickly fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.



5:30 a.m.


	Once she'd gotten her coffee, Taiyouko turned on her computer. 
There was a brand new message from Barbara Havers.

	>>>Good morning, Sunshine :) Found info on S.C. Ellwood as per 
	request. You were right about the immigration thing. No record 
	of return to U.K. in '98.

	Taiyouko grimaced and took another sip of coffee. When she had 
done her own inquiries, she had found that this Ellwood person had 
entered Japan in January of 1998, but that there was no record of 
departure. That could have been a clerical oversight, but it was 
stretching probability to have the exact same error occur in England.

	>>>I forwarded your enquiry to Lynley

	"Bloody hell!"

	This wasn't meant to be an official inquiry and Barbara had to 
go and forward it to her supervisor! Oh, if she caught any trouble 
for this, she was going to take every single ounce of it out of 
Wright's hide!

	>>>and he said that SCE's kidnapping is a closed case because 
	SCE couldn't or wouldn't name who did it and because the family 
	has a fancy pedigree and a title going back to William the 
	Conqueror. As you can imagine, the Powers That Be bent over 
	backwards to keep it out of the press.

	Well, well, well. Yet another case swept under the rug by an 
officious hand. It may have been the lurker's prompting, but she had 
a nagging desire to see a photograph of Wright's missing friend.

	>>>Lynley said he'd forward info on the case, if you promise to 
	let him know before anything goes public. He did give me 
	Elwood's phone number--from his own personal address book! It's 
	unlisted, so you'd never be able to find it otherwise. Every 
	time I forget he's the eighth bloody Earl of la-di-da Atherton, 
	he tosses something like this at me. He also told me to warn 
	you not to expect any cooperation from Ellwood. You'd think 
	that the victim in a kidnapping and assault case would be eager 
	to see justice done, but not here. He won't admit it, but 
	Lynley's curious to see if you turn up anything.

	>>>TTFN, Barbara

	Taiyouko shook her head in sympathy. She knew what it was like 
to be haunted by a case. It could do things to the brain. Hearing 
voices, developing groundless suspicions, believing in conspiracy 
theories... The next step usually involved going out into the streets 
wearing coat hangers and tinfoil on your head and ranting about 
government mind-control rays or the Trilateral Commission.

	The lurker asked what coat hangers had to do with anything.

	"Oh, shut up!"

	As it vanished back into the dark of her mind it peevishly 
asked if she had noticed that yet another case with a hostile 
victim/witness was tied to Jason Wright.

	"If I had a hundred yen for every victim I've met who refused 
to testify against her attacker, I could afford to have someone 
vacuum you out of my skull!"

	Even so, she had to admit that the thing had a point. She was 
just annoyed that it had formulated the thought before she could. She 
jotted down the phone number. Maybe there was some way she could 
arrange to be present when Wright made his call.

	She got her second cup of coffee and flopped down on the couch. 
This had better be worth getting up at o' dark early.

	Taiyouko checked her watch. It was 4:45 yesterday afternoon in 
New York, and unless she was deep in the middle of something, Anita 
was probably getting ready to pack it in for the day.

	She re-read the note that was scribbled on the overstuffed 
envelope that she was in the FedEx box she'd received yesterday.

	**Call me before you open this. --Anita**

	The overseas connection took only a couple of seconds to get 
through.

	"Twenty-seventh precinct," barked a voice on the other side of 
the world.

	"Lieutenant Anita VanBuren, please," Taiyouko said. "This is 
Detective Seidou. She's expecting my call."

	Despite the brusque manner, the receptionist was quite helpful, 
and put her right through without giving her any hassle.

	"VanBuren here."

	"Anita? It's Taiyouko. I got your package."

	"Hey, girl! Talk about good timing. I was just finishing up in 
here. By the way, Ed and Lennie say hello, and Lennie said to be sure 
to ask if you were coming back to New York any time soon."

	"I wish I were," Taiyouko said with genuine warmth. Despite all 
of the craziness, she had loved her time in New York. "To tell you 
the truth, I'm going to need a vacation once this case is over, so 
remind Lennie that he still owes me that dinner."

	Anita laughed. "Oh, believe me, he hasn't forgotten. I think 
he's got something of a crush on you."

	"There's no accounting for taste," Taiyouko said, but she was 
smiling. She wouldn't mind getting to know Detective Briscoe a little 
better. "Why did you want me to call?"

	"I've got some off-the-record information for you on your Mr. 
Jason Wright that'll help you make sense of what's in that envelope. 
There's a detective in our sex-crimes unit who used to work homicide 
down in Baltimore." A sly tone entered Anita's voice. "I had no idea 
that you two met when you were here last January. It seems you made 
quite the impression."

	Taiyouko winced, knowing what was coming next.

	"John Munch says to give you a nice big hello."

	She slumped even further down, wondering what on earth she had 
done to deserve this. Might as well get it over with...

	"What did he have to say about me?" Taiyouko asked wearily.

	"Just that you kneed him in the groin for no good reason."

	Taiyouko sat bolt upright. "No good reason? He bloody well 
deserved it, thank you very much!"

	"That I can believe," Anita said, her usual wryness cranked up 
a few more notches. "Lucky for you, however, he was willing to let 
bygones be bygones and tell me all about your Mr. Wright. The two of 
them were on the same shift down in Baltimore."

	"Really," Taiyouko said, drawing out the word. It might be fun 
to see how Wright reacted if she did a little name-dropping. "What 
did he have to say about him?"

	"Munch says that when Wright first joined the squad he was 
obnoxiously bright, friendly, cheerful, and more than a little cocky. 
He also had a reputation for being something of a daredevil, even 
before he joined up with the squad. He'd do dumb-ass things like 
going into a building where he knew there was an armed suspect, or 
jumping eight feet down into a culvert to chase someone on foot, that 
kind of thing. Munch said that he and a couple of the others had a 
running bet on how long it would be before Wright wound up in the 
E.R."

	"I'm hearing the past tense a lot, Anita. I'm guessing that 
something interesting happened. It also sounds like Johnny-boy 
doesn't like Wright very much."

	"Well, you know Munch. He spent nearly twenty minutes going on 
about how Wright skunked him out of fifty dollars--don't ask me how 
much that is in yen--over a game of pool."

	It was well over six thousand yen, Taiyouko figured. "It 
couldn't have happened to a nicer person. So, what else did he have 
to say?"

	"Wright's brother was with the Baltimore fire department when 
an old row house caught on fire back in January of ninety-eight. From 
what Munch says, it was practically a holiday tradition in some 
neighborhoods--the houses aren't kept up and a lot of tenants use 
ancient space heaters or even set fires in trash cans to keep warm. 
Unfortunately, one of the tenants in the building had decided to 
upgrade his operation from selling marijuana to selling marijuana 
laced with PCP."

	Taiyouko sank back against the arm of the couch and marveled 
yet again at the absolute stupidity of mankind. "Let me guess. He was 
brewing it himself and when the flames reached his lab..."

	"Exactly. The entire place went up like someone had set off a 
bomb," Anita said. "Jacob Wright was one of three firemen killed in 
the explosion. From what I understand, there wasn't a whole lot left 
to identify."

	"I see." Wright had worked Narcotics before going to Homicide. 
There was a sick sort of irony to the situation. She felt a twinge of 
pity for the boy.

	"Munch says that afterwards, Wright barely spoke to anyone. Not 
too long after that, Wright and his partner were suspended--go ahead 
and open the envelope."

	Taiyouko tipped the papers out of their envelope. There were 
three packets of paper instead of one. She recognized Jason's name, 
and she was pretty sure that one of the others was Jason's current 
partner. She did not recognize the third name.

	"Who's this...Michael Kellerman person?" Taiyouko asked, 
stumbling over the unfamiliar words.

	"Ooh! You butchered *that* one, girl!"

	"Would this be a good time for me to point out how you 
constantly mispronounce *my* name?"

	Anita laughed. "Anyhow, you'd better take a read for yourself. 
Wright was involved in a pretty nasty incident that got the whole 
squad in a twist. You'll find most of the juicy stuff in the 
Kellerman file. After he was suspended, Wright went off somewhere to 
lick his wounds. He was gone for nearly three months and damn near 
got himself fired for good."

	"What happened when he got back?"

	"Zombieville, according to Munch. He says it was the kind of 
thing that would make you a believer in alien abduction. Wright 
started drinking a bit more than usual--not steadily, just a couple 
of real benders. He came close to getting run in on a drunk and 
disorderly one time, and later on he ended up putting a fist to 
Kellerman's jaw right in the middle of the squad room."

	Interesting. Anita had just shown her a whole new panel of 
buttons she could push. Still, even the American police couldn't just 
overlook that kind of behavior.

	"How on earth did he manage not to get suspended a second 
time?"

	"Those were my words exactly. Munch said that Giardello--their 
commander at the time--felt that Kellerman had it coming, and that's 
why Wright got off with the proverbial slap on the wrist. The whole 
mess finally ended with two cops handing in their badges, three cops 
dead, and four more in the hospital, including Wright. Now I don't 
know why you wanted this information, but I'll tell you what jumped 
out at me. You say that Wright came over there on the IPA exchange 
program, correct?"

	"He certainly did. Goody for me," Taiyouko said, circling one 
finger in the air in mock enthusiasm.

	"I've seen the requirements for these programs, Taiyouko, and 
they are *strict*. Wright's got a three month suspension and a 
borderline assault case sitting in his file. And those aren't the 
only strikes against him. He's got two write-ups in there for use of 
excessive force back when he was in Narcotics. I don't care how good 
his clearance record is, there is simply no way that boy would *ever* 
be chosen for the program, not with those black marks against his 
name. In my opinion, someone had to have been pulling at some mighty 
big strings."



8:25 a.m.


	Michiru felt the empty space next to her and she slowly opened 
her eyes. Haruka was finally gone. Michiru had been dying to consult 
her Mirror, but something told her not to do so when anyone else was 
around. Even though the others had suggested that she use the Mirror, 
they hadn't pressed too hard on the matter. She wasn't sure what she 
would have done if they had.

	She pushed herself up to a sitting position and leaned back 
against the headboard. Fortunately, the university health clinic had 
given her the diagnosis she'd subtly encouraged them to give--mild 
sleep apnea due to stress. It was nice to be able to give Haruka a 
rational explanation for what had happened the other day, but Michiru 
hated that it was a lie.

	Ever since she started spending time in this new underwater 
life, she kept coming close to telling her lover the whole story, but 
she always stopped before saying anything. Deep in her bones she knew 
that this had to be kept a secret. She knew it as a fact. She knew it 
the way she had known that Saturn was a danger to the Earth and all 
who lived on it. There was something that had to be put right, and 
she was the only one who could do it.

	If she spoke too soon, all could be lost.

	Keeping this a secret from Haruka was the hardest thing she had 
ever done in her life. It was even harder than that horrible time 
when each and every day she had to tell herself that killing a 
partially crippled twelve-year- old girl was the *right* thing to do.

	Now, as then, she fired questions at the issue from every 
angle, desperately trying to find some other answer, to find some way 
of doing what needed to be done with less cost to herself or the ones 
she loved. When she and Uranus had worked to stop Saturn's awakening, 
they had been together. Their initial, tentative partnership soon 
became fast friendship, and friendship became love so tumultuously 
that it was as if they had always had each other to lean on since the 
beginning of time.

	This time, she was on her own.

	This time, she could lose Haruka. Every minute she spent awake 
she spent worrying about what would happen when Haruka discovered the 
truth. Her stomach was so twisted up she could barely eat. What 
little she did eat, she threw up more often than not. It was easier 
to sleep than to suffer the gnawing worry. It was only getting worse. 
Michiru couldn't be sure, but more and more it seemed that Haruka 
suspected that something was wrong.

	Michiru could read the worry in her lover's eyes. Haruka had 
been even more attentive than usual, but still, after a couple of 
days, she never asked what was wrong. Michiru had told Haruka that 
she was under stress, that she was fighting with her mother, and so 
on. In a way, all of it was true, and she knew that Haruka wanted to 
believe it. More than that, Haruka wanted to believe *her*.

	Oh, how she wished she could tell Haruka what was happening to 
her, and all about these fabulous night journeys through the deepest 
oceans! She daydreamed about taking Haruka with her on these journeys 
so that they could explore all of these wonders together. She wanted 
to show Haruka everything she had learned about the deep and 
perpetual currents, the myriads underwater volcanoes, and of the 
abyssal rifts that led down to the core of the earth itself. She 
wanted to take her lover to swim with her among pods of mother whales 
and their young. They would hold each other tight as they lay 
together in bed, and they would go to the Great Barrier Reef and the 
Sargasso Sea, just the two of them, together, the way it was meant to 
be...

	But no, she told herself. It was a nice daydream, but that's 
all it was.

	Michiru crossed her arms over her chest and hugged herself 
tightly. The pulse of the ocean was with her all of the time now. It 
didn't just take a disturbance for her to sense what the ocean was 
doing. She was so close to meeting that singer at the bottom of the 
ocean. It was the thing that had drawn her on, night after night in 
these dreams, this promise of getting closer. Now, it was almost time 
to encounter this thing face-to-face. She shivered with anticipation, 
and yes, a little fear.

	She now heard the song even when she was awake. At first, she 
thought that it was only the memory of the song that she was hearing 
in much the same way that she might hear a pop song and get a verse 
stuck in her head. It soon became apparent that this was not the 
case. The song shifted. It changed with the tides. It was a living, 
ever changing thing, playing an infinite theme and variation.

	Yesterday, after leaving the house, she found a pay phone and 
called her advisor to tell him that she'd be out sick that day. 
Practicing with her quartet was impossible, not with that phantom 
song running through her mind. If she played, she knew that she 
couldn't stop from trying to play along with that tune that no one 
else could hear.

	She also knew that despite all of her talent, she could never 
even hope to play anything so beautiful as that song.

	After killing an hour or so at a coffee shop to make sure that 
everyone had left the house, she went back home and went to sleep.
She was no longer quite so sure she wanted to meet the singer, but 
she knew she had no choice. There was no point in putting it off any 
longer.

	Michiru extended her right hand, and gave the mental command 
that summoned her Mirror. It appeared in a swirl of aquamarine light 
and Michiru gasped in surprise. Was this why she had to wait until 
she was alone?

	Instead of the blue-green enamel oval she had expected, the 
Mirror was now made of...silver? Its frame had changed to something 
out of the eighteenth century, with clean, classical lines, and only 
a scallop shell at the top for adornment.

	What on earth was going on, she wondered, but something swam 
into focus in the Mirror, and all thoughts of merely cosmetic changes 
were swept aside as the song built to a thundering crescendo.



11:30 a.m.


	The woman hadn't been called by her real name in decades.

	She hardly even thought of herself by that old name any more. 
Sometimes, she still thought of herself as Serafima, but except for 
one person, no one had called her that since the siege of 
Volgograd...no, it was Stalingrad in those days, wasn't it? It didn't 
matter. Names were fluid, transitory things.

	These days, she normally thought of herself by the name others 
called her. Mother.

	It had been nearly ten years since anyone had called her by 
anything but the Japanese variant of that name. How did that phrase 
go...when in Rome?

	She walked through her house, checking in the girl's room. No 
one there.

	Even though she was still learning to think in Japanese, it was 
important that only that language be spoken in the house and 
surrounding compound. That was essential, if the child was to be 
properly educated. Mother sighed. No matter what she did, getting 
that girl to learn *anything* was an uphill battle.

	If the girl wasn't in her room, she was probably in the 
cloister garden, soaking up the sun.

	When Mother had acquired the house, the cloister garden was 
planted with a chaotic array of greenery and flowers that were 
presumably meant to mimic a woodland glade. Mother preferred a more 
formal, European style, so the garden now had low, boxwood edged 
parterres filled with marigolds and chrysanthemums. Everything was 
smooth and serene and golden. There once was an ancient cherry tree, 
but it had overgrown its allotted space, and so it was removed. A few 
potted topiaries, carved into perfect cones and spheres, were evenly 
spaced around the cloister, alternating with potted orange trees. In 
the exact center of the garden was a sunken basin containing a school 
of ornamental goldfish.

	And there was that silly girl, splayed out on the ground as if 
she hadn't a care in the world. Mother shook her head, and walked out 
into the garden. Sailor Sun didn't even look up. She remained flat on 
her stomach, kicking her heels up in the air. One white-gloved arm 
was sunk halfway into the pool, and she was frowning in 
concentration.

	Mother walked over and flipped down the back of the bright 
yellow mini-skirt. Honestly. Why couldn't the Senshi wear something 
more modest for their uniform? She could have told the girl that she 
was treating the world to a view of her underpants, but that would 
only make her miserably ashamed and impossible to deal with for at 
least an hour.

	Sun made a grab at an orange and white bubble-eye. Despite the 
fact that it was about as streamlined as a potato, the fish easily 
evaded the girl's grasp. Over the course of the past two years, an 
accelerated Darwinian selection had given rise to the fastest strains 
of ornamental goldfish known to man.

	"Please don't do that. You know you only end up crushing them, 
dear."

	"I'm sorry! I don't mean to grab so hard, but they're so 
*slippery*! Why won't they let me hold them?" she whined.

	"Remember what I told you? Fish like to be looked at. They 
don't like to be touched. Why don't you feed them, instead? That's 
always fun."

	Mother snapped her fingers, and one of the servants came 
running. Mother gave him a brief order, and he left again. A minute 
later, he came back with a stale loaf of bread.

	Sun took the bread eagerly, and began flinging huge chunks of 
it into the pond. The fish scrambled for it, acting as if they hadn't 
been fed some perfectly good pellets that very morning.

	"Am I *really* going to get to see the Sailor Senshi tomorrow?"

	"Yes, dear. You will."

	Sun tossed another huge chunk of bread into the pond, and 
laughed as the fish once again came boiling greedily to the surface. 
Mother held her tongue. It was not so long ago that half a loaf of 
stale bread was the difference between life and death, not something 
to toss to the fish for idle amusement.

	She couldn't help smiling a bit, though. It was good to be 
living in a time of relative peace, when fish were fed good, white 
bread and were looked at as pets, not as a source of desperately 
needed protein.

	It would take time, work, and yes, massive sacrifice, but 
Mother knew that the day would come when no one would ever need 
starve again. She fingered the carved pendant she wore at her throat. 
Hers was a terrible burden, and she had made many difficult choices, 
but in the end, it would all be worth it. It had to be.

	"Mercury *promised* that she'd meet me," Sun repeated. She 
sounded a little worried. "What if she isn't there?" She paused, 
thinking hard about the matter. "What if she gets lost?"

	"She won't get lost, dear. Mercury promised she would meet you 
tomorrow at the place where you killed the golem. You do remember 
where that is, right?"

	Sun rolled over so that she could sit up. The rest of the bread 
fell into the pond, forgotten in her enthusiasm. "It was so neat! 
Venus killed *two* of them all by herself! She just pointed at them," 
she said, pointing straight at Mother, "and zap!"

	"It sounds like someone's been training them quite well." She 
imagined that Serenity's cats would be able to help the girls 
reconstruct much of what they had learned from better, more capable 
teachers. "Did they have a lot of trouble with the golems?"
Sun giggled. "One of them chased Mercury all over the junkyard. It 
was really funny."

	"I doubt Mercury thought it was very funny," Mother said 
sternly. "You need to be careful about laughing at people, remember? 
Do you like it when people laugh at you when you do something wrong?"

	Sun thought about that for a while, then shook her head.

	"Very good. I have a brief errand to run, so I'll let you sit 
out here in the sun for another half-hour..."

	"Awww!"

	"...and then I'll send someone to bring you inside, and you are 
*not* to argue or beg for them to give you five more minutes, do you 
understand?"

	The girl nodded, but she was pouting again. Mother bit her lips 
together and reminded herself that she was not going to give in.

	She'd been working with Sun for nearly two years, *trying* to 
mold the girl into a proper soldier, someone who could work alongside 
the Senshi. The girl was a good enough fighter, but her mind... Well, 
you had to work with what you were given, and they'd had very little 
choice in the matter.

	At first, Mother thought that maybe they'd made a horrendous 
and costly mistake. To get the girl to retain anything in her head 
for more than five minutes at a time, they had to repeat things over, 
and over, and over, knowing that one bout with confusion or 
frustration could very well knock them right back to the starting 
line. That made the girl nearly impossible to scold. Repetition, 
reward, and praise were the only things that consistently worked.

	Then there were the questions--the *interminable* questions! 
Sun was so much like the Elephant's Child in Kipling, full to the 
brim of 'satiable curiosity. At first, Mother tried to train the 
habit out of the girl, but after a while, she began to enjoy and look 
forward to the somewhat surreal conversations that they'd have. For 
Sun, because of her memory, everything in the world was brand new 
every morning. It was hard not to be caught up in that wonder and 
enthusiasm, and after a while, it ceased to be quite so annoying.

	Maybe it was familiarity, maybe it was that Mother had poured 
so much of herself into the girl, but she discovered that she had 
grown rather fond of her little soldier. If she wasn't careful, she 
might allow herself to forget what was at stake, and become lax about 
Sun's training.

	That could be disastrous.

	"Good girl! We need to work some more on your manners before 
you go to meet the Senshi. I want to be sure that you'll make a good 
impression. Now, would you like me to have Takeo-kun bring you some 
magazines to look at while you're sitting out here?"

	"Yeah!" A broad smile lit up her face. All was forgiven, and 
very likely, forgotten.

	As she walked out of the garden, Mother signaled to one of the 
servants and told him about the magazines. Just before she 
disappeared into the house, she heard a faint splash.

	"Dear, please! *Don't* touch the fish!"



11:55 a.m.


	It was never difficult to find Kakos. If he wasn't in the 
sculpture room, all one had to do was follow the trail of slime, 
insect wings, and corroded linoleum.

	Skotos drifted down the underground corridor. Thanks to those 
hideous fluorescent lights, there were very few hard shadows, but 
Skotos had learned how to travel in the faint shadows *above* the 
light fixtures. Normally, it could travel even in full light, but not 
when it was carrying a burden.

	Fortunately, Kakos was in the first place it looked. The 
sculpture room was lit only by a couple of incandescent lamps, so 
Skotos was able to take nearly solid form.

	The sculpture room was nothing more than an outdated boiler 
room under the local elementary school. It wasn't an ideal place to 
work, but Skotos and Kakos hadn't been given much choice.

	Kakos worked at a wooden platform made of two-by-fours, 
reinforced plywood, and cinderblocks. The concrete floor was not only 
pitted with acid, but spattered with random blobs of mud, clay, wax, 
and to Skotos' mild surprise, chunks of pink insulation and scraps of 
duct tape. What on earth was Kakos up to now?

	Two forms stood on the platform. Both were roughly human-
shaped. One was stationary. The other moved around it in a shifting, 
constantly buzzing cloud. Kakos's bulk was masked by a writhing skin 
of insects, grubs, and spiders. Occasionally, the living skin would 
part to show a patch of slimy gray-green underneath, and let a drop 
of gummy acid fall to the floor. For whatever reason, the insects 
usually steered clear of Kakos's huge, frog-like face.

	Skotos drew itself together into a small, fine-limbed shadow by 
the side of the platform. It looked rather like a rapidly done and 
impressionistic charcoal sketch of a child.

	It bent down and picked up a bit of the insulation. "What is 
this for?"

	"Exper'ment. Din't work."

	Skotos drifted into the air and circled the golem. It noted 
that Kakos appeared to be building this one on a metal armature. "Are 
you still trying to improve them? Why?"

	"'Erself din't say not to," Kakos said, "an' it gives me 
somethin' to do, right? It's not like she lets me get out an' about 
any. 'S torture, it is, listenin' to all them kiddies runnin' round 
up there between classes, and me not bein' able to go up there an' 
have meself some fun. B'sides," he said thumping one hand to his 
chest and noisily squashing a host of insects, "I got the soul of an 
artiste!"

	Kakos laughed. It was a hiccupping, gurgling noise that sounded 
as if it was just this side of erupting like a backed up septic tank. 
"'Ere. Wanna take a closer look?"

	Kakos swiveled the gooseneck lamps away from the golem so that 
Skotos could see it more clearly. Skotos drew in closer and became 
solid enough to give the armature an experimental wiggle. The metal 
skeleton appeared to be nothing more than unconnected sections of 
rusty rebar.

	"Didja see the bits o' glass in there? I snuck out last night 
and shattered the window in the principal's office."

	Indeed, several fragments of glass peeked out from the latest 
covering of clay and mud. Skotos slid back down to the ground. 
Interesting that Kakos had admitted to sneaking out.

	"The metal and glass won't animate," it said.

	Kakos picked up an old paint bucket full of clumpy mud. He 
poured in a half- liter of pig's blood and gave it a thorough stir. 
"Don't need it to. The clay an' mud around it'll move just fine. This 
beauty'll do a lot of damage when she's done. So, did 'Erself send 
yuh down 'ere for somethin'?"

	"Yes. She believes that someone might try to attack the old 
man."

	Kakos grumbled tectonically. "Don't know why 'Erself just don't 
do away with'im. 'Es a liability, 'e is."

	Skotos made a motion that could have been interpreted as a 
shrug. "I wouldn't tell Her Ladyship that if I were you."

	"Nah. Course not. I ain't stupid. So what does 'Erself want me 
to do 'bout it?"

	Skotos moved its burden through its form and dropped it on the 
edge of the platform. Once the burden was released, it expanded and 
faded in relief. It suspected that Her Ladyship assigned it these 
painful tasks as a reminder of just how much it owed her.

	"I know how yuh feel," Kakos said. "It's a relief when 
somethin' like that passes. I know that I need a good cup o' coffee 
in the mornin' to get things unblocked..."

	Skotos really, really did not want to hear about its partner's 
digestive problems.

	"Do you have any golems ready to be shipped out for marking?" 
it asked. "Her Ladyship wants to send at least four out to protect 
the old man."

	Kakos jerked its slimy head towards the back wall. "Yuh. Got 
seven blanks. Three of 'em are the new, improved model, all crystaled 
up and ready t'go. I was gonna break up the others fer parts." It 
laughed again. "They keep teachin' the kiddies 'bout recyclin'. 
Figger I should do my bit for the envir'ment, hey?"

	"Don't break them up." Skotos indicated the pile of crystals it 
had put on the edge of the platform. "Load up the four blanks with 
these. Her Ladyship said she'd send a truck by this afternoon to pick 
up whatever you had."

	A stream of fire ants, carpet beetles, and millipedes flowed 
down Kakos's leg and over to the crystals. They swarmed around the 
crystals and carried them swiftly back up their master's leg and over 
to his hand.

	Kakos counted out eight crystals. "Huh. These are different." 
It jumped off the platform, and hopped like a toad over to the blank 
golems. It quickly sorted through the crystals and inserted two into 
each of the four not-new and not-improved golems. "There we go! Not 
sure what 'Erself is up to, but so what? 'Ours is not to wonder why, 
ours is but to do an' make others die.'"

	"Absolutely. I have to say, Kakos, that your hanging around a 
school has changed your character somewhat."

	"Can't 'elp it. The lessons carry down the air ducts. All I'll 
say is that it's good to actually be doin' somethin' fer a change." 
He paused, apparently thinking something over. "Funny, though. Now 
that we're goin' forward after all these years, it's even 'arder to 
wait, innit?"

	"I know what you mean," Skotos lied.

	Unlike Kakos, Skotos found it easy to be patient. It was 
designed to wait, after all. It was the gloom in the cave, the 
despair in the heart, the dark of the coffin. Yes, they had waited 
for nearly a century for this plan to take shape, and in an abstract 
way it could understand Kakos' desire to see carnage and to feast on 
the bodies of the fallen. Still, after an eon of imprisonment, Skotos 
was delighted to see that its essence still inhabited this earth. It 
was forbidden from direct action, but oh, how the past century had 
entertained!

	It had frolicked along the Somme in 1916. It hid in the 
corruption of gas-burned lungs and followed hundreds of thousands of 
soldiers as they sank into the shell-churned mud, never to see 
daylight again. In 1918, just ten years after its release, it sat in 
a cellar in Ekaterinburg and laughed itself sick as bullets and 
bayonets mowed down a family that had once been one of the most 
powerful in Europe and Asia. Only a year later it watched from 
sickroom corners as a simple influenza virus wiped out millions of 
lives--many of them young and strong and full of promise--as it would 
watch a still deadlier virus rampage through Africa in the latter 
part of the century. It wandered through Oklahoma when dust storms 
hid the sun and despair darkened the eyes of mothers whose bodies 
were too starved to offer even a sip of milk to their squalling 
brats.

	It marveled at the minds that created places like Bergen-
Belsen, Dachau, and Auschwitz. It was astounded by the resolve of a 
man who named himself after steel, and who systematically purged his 
nation of its brightest lights and greatest minds, sending them into 
the darkness of death or simply into a frozen wasteland where their 
light was dulled and eventually extinguished by the rigors of day to 
day survival.

	Such darkness! Such lovely, lovely darkness! And how wonderful 
that Skotos did not have to possess or coerce anyone to make this 
darkness spread like a brush fire. Some of this darkness came from 
the stricken Earth itself, but much, much more came from the hearts 
and minds of humanity. Even better than the darkness that spread on a 
global scale was the darkness that plagued mankind at hearth and 
home. Lovers throughout the world destroyed each other emotionally 
and physically, and called it love. Parents feasted off of their 
children's dreams, or even broke the little darlings to pieces in 
body and spirit. As the darkness continued to spread, the humans 
became less and less aware of it, and except for a few interfering 
souls, were content to watch their friends and neighbors be consumed 
by darkness and despair. Why, to truly plunge this world into 
everlasting darkness, Skotos would barely have to lift a finger (not 
that it *had* any fingers, of course).

	With that kind of advantage, thought Skotos, how could they 
*not* win?

	Kakos hopped back over to the platform. "Tell 'Erself that 
she's got 'er four golems, an' four others for the usual purpose. Did 
she ever say why she wanted those three wi'out crystals?"

	"No. I didn't think it was any of my business," Skotos said. It 
thought for a bit. "Four and four is eight, Kakos. You only have 
seven golems."

	"This one'll be done by the time the truck gets 'ere. She's 
'bout done," he said as he used a putty knife to smear the mud and 
blood mixture over the golem's body, covering up the metal and glass. 
"I just got to put some more clay on top. I already got the crystals 
in 'er." He smiled at the golem, revealing a mouth full of acid-
blackened teeth so jagged that it suggested he had teethed on cast 
iron and bricks. "'Ere love, how's about a kiss?"

	Kakos lunged forward, his wide open mouth revealing row upon 
row of serrated teeth. He clamped onto the golem's head and ripped 
out a chunk of clay, mud, and glass. He chewed once, twice, then spit 
the wad out onto the floor, where it continued to burn and dissolve 
in Kakos's acid sputum.

	He smiled again, gazing lovingly at the screaming, smoking 
mouth his kiss had given the thing. "Is this a great job or what?"


					#  #  #


Author's notes: 

In Chapter Nine, Mamoru takes a nap, Saori goes on a virtual tour of 
the Japanese countryside, and Makoto makes plans for the weekend. We 
find out that Mamoru makes a lousy cup of tea and that Usagi, oddly 
enough, is not afraid of snakes. In other news, Jason goes through 
his wallet, something's *really* bugging Rei, and Ikuko reveals 
something surprising about her past. Taiyouko and the lurker set a 
trap, while Rei wonders if her dreams are nothing more than a house 
of cards. Last, but not least, there's a tribute to the Ramones, and 
a glimpse of some potentially deadly ducklings.


For the bit about Metallia escaping from the Sun, see p. 25 in volume 
three of the manga.

Special Disclaimers: Anita VanBuren, Lennie Briscoe, and Ed Green are 
all property of NBC Pictures and Wolf Films. John Munch was the 
property of Fontana, Levinson, and Baltimore Pictures, but has since 
moved on to the Law & Order universe. Barbara Havers and Thomas 
Lynley are the creations of Elizabeth George (highly recommended 
reading).