Review: In part one, an ancient vampyre named Aethan came to Japan on a 
mysterious mission, and accidentally encountered the Sailor Scouts in 
their civilian identities.
Okay, here's part two.

	"Raye said he was evil?"
	"Yes," Minako sighed.
	"But she didn't say why?"
	"No."
	Artemis blinked.  "I don't see the problem here ..."
	"He didn't *seem* nasty!"
	Artemis mulled this over.  "You've got a crush on him, haven't 
you?" he asked in long-suffering tones.
	"AGGH.  No."  A long pause.  "I don't think so."
	Artemis stared at his protege as she lay flat on her back, 
staring up at the ceiling.  Why did she have to be such a romantic?  At 
least half the time she was as rational and reasonable as Amy ... but let 
her get one look at an attractive male specimen, and she'd start thinking 
up crazed schemes to get to know the guy better.  She was so like Serena 
in many ways ... and also ...
	*ENTIRELY too much like her mother ...* the oldest part of 
Artemis' mind whispered, but Artemis managed to jerk himself back from 
that line of thought.  It hurt entirely too much to remember the mother 
of the one whose soul Minako was heir to.
	"Well, what does it matter, anyway?  You'll probably never see 
him again."
	"Yeah ..." Mina sighed.  Then she jerked herself to a sitting 
position.   "Unless ..."
	Crazed scheme time, right on schedule.  "Forget it, young lady," 
Artemis announced in his most authoritative voice.  "Your parents said 
you were to stay in the house this weekend while they were away.  And I'm 
going to see to it that you do!"
	"How?" Mina asked calmly.
	Artemis paused in mid lecture.  How WAS he going to ...
	She was out her bedroom door in an instant, down the stairs to 
the door leading out two seconds later, and on the street before Artemis 
could close his mouth around the sound "Er ..."
	Artemis had never seen her move so fast in the five years they'd 
been together.  Such raw potential!  Such talent!
	*The next time Luna complains about how much trouble Serena gives 
her*, Artemis thought as he leapt through the bedroom window to the tree 
outside, *I'm gonna smack her so hard ...*

	"So now you think he might be trouble?" Raye asked cooly.
	Mina nodded, trying to keep a look of sincere concern on her 
face.  It was actually pretty easy, even if she did feel like a turd for 
lying to Raye like this.
	"And you want me to locate him with the fire?"
	"Yes.  It's our responsibility to keep tabs on potential threats 
.. we can't go on letting them come to us, and letting the enemies pick 
the place and time of conflict.  Sooner or later, one of us is gonna get 
really hurt doing that ..."
	Minako found it easy to say that, because it was true.  She had 
been growing increasingly concerned about the lack of tactical planning 
the Scouts used.  Lita had expressed similar concerns, but more in the 
line of the lack of physical conditioning the group had -- "We can't just 
rely on magic forever, y'know!"
	But she'd apparently sold Raye on the idea of tracking this 
adversary, at least.  "Right, let's do it now," the young priestess 
exclaimed.
	They knelt before the flame.  Raye's chanted invocation caused 
the flame to blaze with an odd, eerie light.  Minako couldn't repress a 
vague shudder.  She was as pious as the next person, but the thought that 
Raye was calling on forces from beyond made her very nervous.  Mina would 
have prefered it if her friend was just a psychic, rather than a ... go 
ahead and think it ... a sorceress.
	And then his image appeared in the flame, surrounded by 
blackness.  But the picture itself seemed to blaze with light ...

                     *              *             *

	Something stirred, took notice that someone was attempting to 
interfere with a creature that the something took an interest in, and 
took steps to thwart such interference.

                     *              *             *

	The flame went out.
	Raye gasped, and nearly folded double.  "Amida!" she gasped.
	"Raye!  What happened!"
	"I don't know!  Something ... snuffed out the fire like it was 
little more than a match!"
	Raye tried to stand, failed, and decided to stay on the floor for 
the time being.
	"I got a reading on ... that thing's location, though.  It's 
staying in a hotel not far from the airport.  If we go there, we might be 
able to catch it."
	Mina took an appraising look at Raye.  The dark-haired girl was 
out of breath, flushed, and trembling.  "Nuh-uh.  I'm going after him 
alone.  YOU'RE going back to bed until you feel better."
	"IT, not him.  And I'm fine."
	Mina drove a finger towards the bridge of Raye's nose.  Raye fell 
back, but Mina managed to tap her in between her eyebrows.  "If you were 
fine, you'd have been able to block that one.  I can handle ... it.  I've 
got a little more experience at doing this sort of thing than you do, 
remember?  If things get too harry, I'll call in Lita and the others, all 
right?"
	Raye sighed, and gave a weary nod, which more than anything else 
convinced Mina that she was probably on the verge of exhaustion.  At any 
other time, she'd probably have argued that point 'til doomsday.
	Minako helped get Raye into bed, left a note telling Chad to 
give Raye some peace and quiet, and sprinted to a bus stop on a route 
that lead to the station.
	She wasn't sure just what she would do with him ... she couldn't 
bring herself to think of the guy as an IT ... when she found him ... but 
it wouldn't be as nice and easy as she'd originally planned.

                         *            *           *

	"A very fine sword," the ancient one murmured, rubbing it with a 
delicate touch.
	Aethan didn't bother responding to such an obvious point.
	"What are these?" the old man asked, pointing at the sigils 
inscribed on the blade.
	"Ogham sigils ... hieroglyphs made by druidical priests ages 
ago.  I don't know what they mean or represent."
	The old curio dealer set the sword down on his desk, and raised 
his eyes to Aethan.  "This is an enchanted blade, is it not?"
	Aethan nodded.
	"And you came to me, hoping to learn of its history, and perhaps 
greater powers than you have been able to manipulate?"
	"True."  It never hurt to let them think that you were just a 
little more greedy, or a tad more ambitious, than you actually were.
	"I can tell you nothing ... this sword should not exist.  It is 
not of any recognizable school of swordforging, and the markings are 
alien to Japan."
	Aethan sighed.  The ancient one was the greatest expert on 
katanas alive.  If he could not identify the blade, it was unlikely that 
it would ever be identified.  He took the blade, secreted it among the 
folds of his trenchcoat, and turned to go.
	"Where did you obtain the sword?"
	Aethan paused, saw no reason to lie to the man, and replied, 
"From an angel."  And then he exited the old man's store.
	He walked along the city streets, whistling the Chanson de 
Roland, and watched the setting sun.  Aethan was unlike most of his kind, 
in that he had never feared the sun ... he had never been compelled to go 
to ground by day, nor had he dreaded the sun's caress as he would a 
burning brand.  He often thought of the sun as a brother, perhaps ... 
like him, always there, watching over the doings of mankind.
	"Sleep well, brother," he whispered in the Anglo-Saxon of his 
youth.  "I will still be here tomorrow ..."
	At that point, Aethan's ingrained instincts for self-preservation 
took over so that he would be able to fulfill his promise, and he ducked 
and rolled under the sword stroke that would have taken off his head.
	Aethan landed on his buttocks in an alley, staring at his 
unexpected opponent.  The man was tall, and almost as pale as an albino 
.. his skin was leathery, as though it had been subjected to 
environmental extremes beyond Aethan's ken.  He wore a floppy hat that 
covered, but did not conceal his eyes.  And in his right hand was a sword 
nearly five feet long.
	Had not the face told Aethan the man's identity, the sword most 
certainly would have.  "Quincy ..." Aethan muttered.
	"Do you know who I am?" the man asked in his low, quiet voice.
	Aethan didn't bother to nod in response.
	"Surrender, Aethan DeGales, and I shall make your dying swift.  
Resist, and you shall suffer greater torments than you can imagine ..."
	"Pass on both, thanks," Aethan replied, with greater humor than 
he felt.  He flung himself in a leap skywards, landing just a foot from 
the edge of the roof of the building.  He had only a second to draw 
forth his sword before the man's own leap carried him to Aethan's level, 
and their swords rang out in the first blow.

                     *            *          *

	Wait a minute.
	Minako whipped her head around to see what she had glimpsed out 
of the corner of her eye.  On a rooftop nearby, two men were fighting 
with swords ... and although she wasn't keen-eyed enough to make out 
their features, she was certain, somehow, that one of them was the 
mysterious foreigner.  Mina yanked the stop signal cord, and raced off 
the bus the moment it came to a stop.
	She was more than a block away from where they were dueling.  
Mina wondered momentarily why nobody had stopped to watch the fight ... 
then realized that this was an area of Tokyo that was often used to film 
the fight sequences of sentai and chambara television shows.
	How appropriate.
	She scooted into an alleyway, and not stopping, she called out 
"Venus Star Power!"
	The magic ... there was no other word for it ... took hold of 
her.  Even though she was still running, there was a sensation of 
stillness.  Her clothes seemed to melt away, and then her flesh as well, 
leaving only a spiritual essence.  The lights that whirled around her 
pressed in close, and formed her costume and body.  As always, the 
transformation was a rush.  She felt more alive than she ever did as a 
normal person, more like what Minako Aino was supposed to be.
	Sailor Venus had arrived.
	A simple leap took her up the side of the building, and she 
surveyed the two combatants.  She had been right, one of them was the 
stranger from the airport ... while the other was a man she'd never seen 
before.
	"Hold it!  Stop fighting!" she cried out.  "I demand to know what 
goes on here!"
	The two combatants paused ... and stared at her.  "Who the hell 
are you?" the taller, paler one asked.
	Well, it always worked for Serena ... "I am Sailor Venus, 
champion of justice, protector of the innocent; in the name of Venus, I 
will right wrongs and triumph over evil ... and unless I get some 
answers, that means YOU!"
	"Go AWAY."
	The stranger from the airport growled those words.  They seemed 
strangely ... compelling to Minako.  The temptation to obey them was 
almost overpowering ... but fighting it with all her might, Minako held 
her ground.
	"What did you do to me?" she demanded.
	"Mind tricks, DeGales?" the other man sneered.  "Is there no end 
to your depravity?"
	"It was the simplest way I could think of to get rid of her, 
*Quincy*."
	"NEVER CALL ME THAT."
	The tall, pale man's face was blazing with hatred and fury.  
Before Mina could do anything, he leapt up, across the alley gulf, and 
stood on the other building.
	"You cannot escape me, DeGales!  I will hunt you down, across a 
thousand thousand years if I must ..."
	And then he turned, raced across the roof, and dropped into the 
next alley, out of sight.
	"From the way he was acting, you'd think I was the one running 
away ..." the stranger sighed, and turned to go.
	"Hey!  What do you think you're doing!" Mina protested.
	"Leaving."
	"I'm not letting you go anywhere until you answer some questions!"
	He raised an eyebrow.  "Indeed?  And how do you propose to stop me?"
Sarcasm dripped from his voice.
	He'd asked for this.

	The girl gestured, and began to intone the words "Venus ... 
Crescent ..."
	Had Aethan been just a tad faster on his feet, he would have been 
over the wall in an instant.
	"BEAM!"
	The pulse of raw, annihilating energy raced towards him, punching 
through his lower left ribcage and lung, and exiting through the back.

                       *         *           *

	Somewhere, someone was pulled out of a very interesting dreaming, 
by the sensation of one of her minions being used as the target for 
energies that she had thought banished from the world for thousands of 
mortal years.
	Sighing, she dispatched an avatar to deal with the situation, one 
that was familiar with the minion in question.
	And then she went back to sleep.

                       *           *          *

	Mina stared in horror.  She'd thought that the thing ... the man 
would be as resilient as any of the Dark Kingdom's Generals.  But instead 
he was as easy to damage as a normal human would be.
	*Amida ... what've I done?!*
	He was standing stock still, looking down at the large hole in 
his chest.  He didn't seem to be breathing.  Maybe he had already died of 
shock, but hadn't fallen over yet.
	She took a step towards him.
	He raised his head, and said in a remarklably calm tone, "That 
hurt you know."
	Her eyes bulged.
	"In fact," he continued.  "I would have to say that that was the 
second or third most painful experience I've had to date.  In fact, I'd 
do just about anything to avoid another one like it."
	He dropped the sword he was holding in his hand.
	"I surrender."
	Mina began to breathe a little easier.  "I still want some 
answers ... who -- and what -- are you?"
	He stared at her for a very long moment.  "My name is Aethan 
DeGales, of Sussex.  I was born nearly fifteen hundred years ago.  And I 
am a vampyre."
	That's when he fell over.
	Minako let out a short shriek, and ran to help him.  He was still 
conscious, but just barely.  "Lady ..." he whispered, as she held him in 
her arms, "Lady, would you mind if we went somewhere else to answer the 
rest of your questions?"

                        *            *              *

	"Ooh ... Darien ... ooh ... OOOOOOOOH."
	The problem with being the mentor / property of a girl who knows 
who she's destined to be with is that you have to put up with her 
periodic dreams about what she'll do when she's with him.
	Luna closed her eyes, and tried to drown out the increasingly 
agitated noises from Serena's bed.  It was, of course, useless.  The only 
way that she'd get any sleep tonight was to head out to the roof, and 
sleep under the stars.  It would be uncomfortable -- too many memories of 
the long years she'd spent searching for Serena without any clear idea 
what she was looking for -- but she desperately needed rest.
	So Luna crawled out onto the windowsill, and started to plan her 
ascent.
	"PSST!  Luna!"
	Luna looked down into the yard of the Tsukino household, and saw 
Artemis staring up at her.
	"If I've told you once, old silly, I've told you a thousand times 
.. I'm not interested," she said.
	"I'm not here for YOU, dark, skinny and kawaiikune ... I came to 
see if Mina had come here."
	"Who are you calling sexless, you ... you ..."
	"Luna," Artemis sighed, "we don't have time for this.  Did Mina 
come by, or check in at all?"
	"No ... why?"
	"She went to check on that guy that they saw in the airport.  You 
know, the one Raye had a conniption fit about?"
	Luna thought.  "Serena may have mentioned something about it, yes 
.. you let her go alone?"
	Artemis snorted.  "You may have noticed, it is difficult, 
approaching impossible, to get them to do anything they don't want to 
do.  And she wanted to go alone ... she's got a crush on the weird guy."
	Luna sighed. *Oh great, another Molly incident.  That's all I 
need.*  "Should I wake up Serena so we can go find her?"
	"Unfortunately, Luna of the Silver Millenium, you will not be 
able to wake her up."
	Luna twisted around to stare at the intruder in Serena's bed 
room.  She was tall, black-haired, and wearing a white toga, leafing 
through one of Serena's anime magazines.
	Artemis was on the windowsill, seconds after Luna turned away.  
He stared at the woman for a second, shook his head, and stared again.  
"Oh, crud," he muttered under his breath.
	"Hm.  This is an interesting sounding one.  "Lensman:  Young 
Kimball Kinnison is turned into an all-powerful lensman by the friendly 
alien Mentor to defeat the evil Helmuth ..."  No, not as interesting as 
it looked.  Stupid, in fact."  She tossed the magazine aside.
	She had been speaking loud enough that Serena would almost 
certainly have woken up at this point, had she been able to.  But Luna 
could tell that Serena was sleeping peacefully, and even her sleep talk 
had subsided.
	"You needn't worry about your princess.  I've simply sent her 
into a deeper sleep so we could talk without interruption."
	"Who are you?" Luna demanded.
	"I am currently known as Madeline.  You may, if you wish to be 
informal, call me Made."
	"Luna, for the sake of all that's holy, be careful," Artemis 
whispered to her in the secret language of the Silver Millenium.
	"And what do you want?"
	"I don't want anything.  I require, and will have information 
from you.  By hook ... or by crook."

(To be continued.)	

"The road you walk is thorny ... through no fault of your own.  For, as 
the rain enters the soil, the river flows to the sea, so do tears run to 
their predestined end.  Your suffering is over.  Now find peace for 
eternity."
		from "The Wolf Man; or Destiny" (1940)