Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is the creation of Nakao Takeuchi. No money is being 
made from this and no such intent should be inferred.

C&C,, public or private is welcome. I respond to all C&C....eventually

Authors Note at end of chapter

************************
"Then again, I have no idea what I'm talking about, 
so that may not be my actual opinion."
-Asa Pillsbury

The Clinic's garage was huge.   A former barn, it had become a catch all for 
everything the clinic had accumulated over the years. Desks, chairs, tools, 
stacks of wood, equipment, and boxes of who knew what. The walls were made of 
thick stone and the roof of wood topped with slate. At some point in the 
past, somebody had covered the inside of the barn with insulation and then 
wood over that, making in cool in the summer and theoretically (she hadn't 
tested that part yet), warm in the winter.

Amy Lynn knew. Having been grounded for a month following the possum hunt, 
and having nothing better to do, Amy Lynn had set herself to the monumental 
task of cleaning the garage. For two, three, and sometimes four hours a 
night, seven days a week, she'd cleaned, organized, and fixed. The end result 
was that she had her own personal two-story getaway. The bottom floor had 
room for Roller in the front half with the back half set aside as storage for 
parts and equipment. The loft she had transformed into a combination library, 
observatory, and electronic/chem lab. Sure the furniture and some of the 
equipment had seen better days, but it sufficed.

At the moment, she, Rayelene, and Bunny sat in the library section of the 
loft.

"GRAAAAAGHHHH!" Bunny screamed into the heavy gag clenched in her teeth as 
she flinched, breaking the eye contact she had been holding with Rayelene in 
a decidedly unfriendly staring contest.

"I said, don't move," Amy Lynn said in what her mother called a "doctor 
voice," and Bunny stilled. The blonde sat on one of the couches stripped to 
the waist, bra strap hanging off one shoulder, which gave Amy Lynn plenty of 
room to work. Though she had numbed the wound with some of her mom's 
supplies, Bunny was still feeling pain. Of course, that may also have been 
due to the fact that Amy Lynn was cleaning the wound with a foul smelling 
glop that the other two were fairly sure was eating away the bowl. "My visor 
picked up some sort of chemical on the blade and it could be poison so   want 
to be sure I cover the entire inside of the wound with this antidote."

"An antidote you just happened to have lying around?" Raylene asked.

"Don't be silly," Amy Lynn said absently. "Canis Major and Leo when overlaid 
by Ursa Major forms the chemical compments of a neutralizing agent that would 
be most effective on the substance." She shrugged. "Simple really. I'm 
surprised that neither one of you suggested it."

It was enough to make Bunny spit out the gag. "Suggest it? Amy Lynn, not 
everybody looks up at the stars and comes up with antidotes."

"Sure they do," Amy Lynn said, looking up from her work. "I..." she trailed 
off as she saw the looks Rayelene, Bunny and Luna were giving her. "Don't 
they?" The other three shook their heads. "But...mom said..." Her hands shook 
and Raylene came over and took the applicator from Amy Lynn's hand.

"What did she say?" Rayelene asked softly, all traces of her normally intense 
manner gone.

"She said that there was nothing wrong with me. That I was just as smart as 
anybody else. Even when I made the neighbor's dog talk. I didn't understand 
why they were so shocked, all I did was feed a formula that let it grow a 
voice box. I'm normal..." Amy Lynn stared at the others, the shock, surprise, 
and the truth plain on their faces. "Normal, I tell you," Amy Lynn tried 
again, willing herself to disbelieve their expression. "I'm not a freak..." 
Her breath came in short gasps. "There's nothing wr--wrong with making robots 
out food supplies...it's completely normal to build five megawatt lasers out 
of trashcans. It is!" Her voice had risen to a shout. "I'M NORMAL, DAMNIT!" 
and for one moment, Amy Lynn changed. �

Bunny and Rayelene beheld a vision. The creature before them was a prime 
example of femininity, with sharp curves, long, lean muscled limbs, midnight 
black skin, white hair that seemed to shine with its own light, and long, 
gracefully pointed ears. She wore Amy Lynn's clothes, stretched tight over 
her tall, athletic frame and her eyes were of the deepest black, pupils that 
filled the whole eye socket. 

Then suddenly, there was Amy Lynn again, and she fell to the floor, curling 
up in a fetal position.

Ten miles away, Malachite woke up with a start.

*************
"It had to have been Janice, not even Metallia's power tastes like that." 
Malachite paced back and forth across the main room in Nephrite's cottage, 
talking half to the man who had trained him, half to himself. "Two, maybe 
three generations back. Her grandparents died when she was a child, but the 
bodies were never recovered from the shipwreck. It must have been one of 
them."

"Could be more," Nephrite pointed out. The eldest of the generals sat in an 
easy chair, legs crossed, somehow looking the very epitome of military 
protocol even clad only in his uniform trousers and unbelted silk robe. 
"Remember that the forest nymphs of what the humans now call Ireland once 
tried increasing their numbers by madly breeding with any human they could 
get their hands on. Only one out of every hundred children was actually a 
nymph, but to this day, a new nymph occasionally is born to entirely human 
parents."

"Yes, yes," Malachite said, waving a hand dismissivly, "but what were they? 
Who and what species were they that rutted with one of Janice's ancestors? It 
wasn't our light side cousins, it sure as hell wasn't the Fae, it tasted all 
wrong for a Divinity, and Dwarves simply don't have that kind of power."

"The mountain kings do."

"But they never breed with humans, ever."

"Dragons?"

"They hate the humans, and everyone else, for that matter."

"It's also possible that its all Amy Lynn herself." Nephrite's lips twisted 
into a smirk. "This means that there's an excellent chance your own daughter 
is far more powerful then you."

"Bah!"

"I thought fathers were supposed to be proud of their daughters," Nephrite 
said.

Malachite froze, his expression one of someone wrestling with some great 
inner conflict and then he snatched his drink off the table and drained it 
one gulp before dropping into the chair next to Nephrite. "Can I entrust you 
with a secret, Teacher?"

"On my honor," Nephrite replied, surprised. It had been years since he had 
been addressed by that title.

"I'm having second thoughts." Malachite refilled his glass and stared at the 
liquid. "Dangerous, second thoughts."

"What kind of thoughts?"

Malachite raised his eyes to meet those of Nephrite's. "Betrayal."

Nephrite sipped his drink. "Dangerous thoughts indeed."

"Beryl claimed that when she awoke us, she freed us from the chains of 
humanity. That we left our weaknesses behind."

"And now you're thinking otherwise?"

"What if she lied? What if we weren't freed, but chained? If being a dark 
elf, a Sidhe of the night is truly what I am, then so be it. I have more 
power at my command then most nations. I could destroy this entire valley by 
myself and leave it a wasteland. I loved Zoisite, I truly enjoyed our time 
together. My mouth waters at the thought of leveling this Valley, of leaving 
nothing alive. My hand aches to feel the impact of my sword cleaving flesh 
and bone and watching the life drain from my opponent's eyes.

But...the night I took Amy Lynn home, Janice and I rutted on her floor like 
animals and I enjoyed every second of it. I look at Amy Lynn, and the thought 
of losing her respect and love chills me to the bone. I want to watch Amy 
Lynn grow up. I want her to be happy." He drained his glass in one swallow. 
"I can't walk the line anymore, Nephrite. What do I do?"

"The right thing."

"Which is?"

Nephrite was silent for a long moment. "You're the only one who knows that."

*************
Malachite left Nephrite's cottage and was nearly run over as Jeddite charged 
up the hill, his face one of delight. 

"Beryl is going to flay you alive," Jeddite sneered as he stopped in front of 
Malachite. The white haired general stared at him in confusion. "I faked my 
own destruction and followed the priestesses back to their hideout where they 
resumed their human identities. Your daughter," Jeddite chortled, poking 
Malachite in the chest. "Your precious Amy Lynn is Mercury's slave. Our 
mortal enemy. Not even any power she has can save her now. She will die, 
Malachite, and you will be stripped of your rank at the very least. I, 
however will be promoted for my service." Turning, Jeddite headed towards the 
manor house, leaving Malachite to stare after him.

Turning, he opened his mouth to call for Nephrite only to see the general 
emerge, buttoning his uniform shirt. "I heard," Nephrite said curtly. "Come 
on."

****
"Hello, Jeddite," Beryl was saying as Malachite and Nephrite entered the 
throne room. "Are those priestesses dead?"

"No, my queen, but-"

"You failed?" Beryl interrupted.

"Yes, my queen, however, I did-" A black crystal sprang into being around 
Jeddite, freezing him in mid sentence.

"You failed, Sweetie," Beryl said. "Nephrite, be a dear and kill those 
priestesses for me, would you? That's a good boy."

Wisely, Nephrite and Malachite left the room.

****
Amy Lynn naturally didn't believe Rayelene and Bunny when she awoke and had 
been told what happened. Stubbornly, she refused to believe her friends, even 
when Bunny swore on Rayelene's pocket bible that Amy Lynn had in fact 
changed.

Had Luna not intervened by puling on Rayelene's skirt, the argument could 
have gotten ugly.

"We can worry about that later," the Great Dane said, glaring at them. "I 
took a moment to nose in one of the craters left behind from the battle with 
Jeddite and I found something I think may be important." She picked something 
off the floor with her mouth and set it on the coffee table. Raylene picked 
it up.

It was a metal loop. At one point something must have been set in the center, 
but that was long gone. Written around it was a series of runes as though 
some kind of words or phrase.

"What is it?" Bunny asked.

"I'm not sure," Amy Lynn replied. "These almost look like a runic version of 
classic latin, but I've never heard of latin being written in runes before."

"Can you translate it?" Raylene asked.

"No. Ancient languages are a bit beyond me," Amy Lynn admitted with a nervous 
laugh. "But let me research it a bit."

All right," Bunny said with a yawn. "I gotta do a fence check at dawn anyway, 
so I should get to bed."

"I should be heading back to the church," Rayelene said. "Grandfather will be 
getting worried."

The two girls left the barn, leaving Amy Lynn alone. Picking up the loop, she 
walked over to her computer, pausing only to grab her digital camera.

****
To: alanderson@usanetconnect.com
From: dues_e@xmachina.org
Re: Translation Please.

Hi.

Saw your post in the ancient languages forum and thought I'd take a crack at 
it. Or rather, I took it to a guy I know who knows a guy.

The runes aren't even latin or anywhere near it. Supposedly, according to 
what I was told, myth claims that the ancient roman and greek gods had their 
own language, separate from the mortals who's lives they toyed with.

Even more interesting, the translation reads: "Endymiyon, defender of 
Demeter, Goddess of the Earth, Lord of the Silver Kingdom.

Now here's the weird part. The name Endymiyon is connected with a little 
known Roman myth revolving around this tiny island off the coast of Italy. 
Supposedly, Diana, the roman goddess of the moon promised the queen of that 
Island a thousand years of peace and prosperity. As a symbol, Diana gave the 
queen a piece of the moon itself in the shape of a crystal. This crystal 
supposedly contained a great deal of Diana's power.

After that, the story gets really bizarre. As the thousand years drew to a 
close, a Sorceress named Beryl seduced away four of the Islands defenders and 
transformed them into "Sidhune". The closest translation of that word is 
Sidhe, but the description of them sounds more like the Dark Elves of D&D. 
She apparently wanted the crystal's power to free some minor demigod or Titan 
or something named Metallia.

Whatever happened, Beryl and the Island's ruler slew each other in a terrible 
battle, and the queen's daughter fled with the crystal, taking sanctuary in a 
temple dedicated to...you guessed it. Demeter.

Touched by her plea, Endymiyon, who was one of the Temple's soldiers/priests 
turned to Demeter for help. Supposedly, that plea touched off a blazing row 
among the gods.   Most didn't want to get involved, others argued that this 
Mettalia could be a threat. In the end, Demeter, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, 
Mercury, and Diana decided that the crystal needed to be put out of the reach 
of mortals. So they each chose a champion and told them that they were to 
sail across the great ocean to the West until they found a place to stash the 
crystal. As a side note; Endymion was the only priest, the rest were 
priestesses.

In any case, they sailed away to the west, and were never heard from again.

If that object you have is in fact genuine, it means you're holding authentic 
proof of the old roman myths. So if they're true, who knows what else is?

Keep me posted,

-S. Meiou

*****
Authors Note: On a whim, I checked to see if there really is an xmachina.org. 
It sent me to some site from Denmark.

Also, the previous four chapters are available on my page. See my sig for 
URL.

*************
Steve "Komodo" T.
Get inside my head (but bring a flashlight) 
http://www.livejournal.com/users/pandoras_closet
Fanfics!   http://www.rcbooks.org/users/profiles.php?user=0003.dat
"Great," Nabiki said, getting up to pace as her voice began to climb in 
volume with every word. "Kasumi gets a man who worships the ground she walks 
on, Akane has three different rich lunatics, or kings, or Demigods fall in 
love with her nearly every day--and that's just before breakfast, mind 
you--and what do I get?" She glared at SETCOM's burnished black metal shell, 
her voice soft, but her tone as cold as ice. "A computer."


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