(To review:  An ancient vampyre, Aethan DeGales, has come to Japan.  He 
has found himself in battle with a person called "Quincy", and been the 
subject of one of Sailor Venus' "Venus Crescent Beams".  Meanwhile, a 
mysterious figure called Madeline has come to Artemis and Luna, demanding 
information.)


	He stood on the field of Hastings, broadsword in hand, mail shirt 
across his torso.  Before him, the werewolf ... some mercenary that 
William the Bastard had hired, perhaps not even knowing the man's true 
nature.  The creature had laid waste to two score of Harold's troops, but 
it was no ordinary warrior that it faced now.  Aethan Sussesson closed 
with the adversary, and began to fight the greatest battle of his five 
hundred year-long existance as a walking corpse ...
	And then he woke up, and decided that the hole in his chest was 
definitely the second most painful experience of his existance.  The 
wounds he'd gotten killing the werewolf were nothing on this.  He could 
feel the tissues of his lungs and bones slowly growing back together, 
healing the wound.  It was agonizing.
	He was lying in a darkened room ... judging by the decor and the 
stuffed animals, a young girl's room.
	The young girl whom he had met in the airport was standing in the 
doorway, looking pensive.  There was no sign of the goddess who'd put the 
hole in his chest.
	"Hey ... how'd I ..."
	She spoke without looking at him.  "Sailor Venus and I are pretty 
good friends ... she decided to stash you here while she went looking for 
the other guy you were fighting."
	Aethan considered the explanation, and rejected it.  "Not true."
	Now she swirled to look at him.  "Huh?"
	"Sailor Venus just happens to know one of the two or three people 
I've met in all Japan?  I don't believe in coincedences like that."  
Aethan peered at her ... and figured it out.
	"You ARE Sailor Venus."
	Her jaw dropped.  "What?"
	"How many blue-eyed blondes can there BE in Japan?"
	She seemed to be searching for an effective response to that.
	"Look ... I promise I won't go tell the Weekly World News that 
Sailor Venus is some teenager named ... what's your name again?"
	"Nice try, buster."
	He sighed.  "I'm at your mercy, right?  Any time you want to, you 
can blow my head off with that ... Circle Square or whatever you call 
it.  Now, I will give my solemn oath that I will not seek to cause harm 
to you in any way ... if you will only just admit that I'm right."

	Dilemna.
	For some reason, the magical effect that kept even people who 
should be able to see the similarities between the Sailor Scouts and 
their normal selves from reasoning the secret out was not working on the 
.. thing that called himself Aethan DeGales.
	Minako chewed her lip.  She'd be as dumb as Serena on her worst 
days if she trusted a GAKI, for heaven's sake ... but ...	
	"How do I know that your word is worth anything?"
	A look of intense anger flashed across his face.  Mina strongly 
suspected that she had touched a nerve.  "I have never broken my sworn 
oath.  NEVER."
	Mina doubted that.  He was reacting too angrily to have been so 
guiltless as he claimed.  But clearly, his sense of honor was strong 
enough that he became outraged by those who impugned upon it.
	"My name is Minako Aino, and my friends call me Mina.  And I am 
Sailor Venus."

	"All right ... now, why did you come after me?"
	"I wanted information from you ... one of my friends got a wierd 
feeling from you, like you had some sort of connection to our enemies, 
creatures from the Negaverse."
	"The Negaverse."
	Mina nodded.  Aethan considered.  "And this Negaverse is ..."
	"I'm not too sure about that.  Sailor Mercury's best guess is 
that it's another dimension.  It's not an anti-matter universe, though 
.. it's supposedly a place of terrible darkness, and monsters ..."
	"Well ... I can understand why your friend Mercury would think 
I'm from there, but I'm not.  Truely.  I was born fifteen hundred years 
ago, in the region that would someday be called Sussex.  When I was 
sixteen years old ... I was out hunting after dark, and this strange, 
dark haired woman ... tore my throat out.  The next morning I was healed 
completely, but I had strange abilities ... I healed swiftly, I was 
stronger than anyone else in the village, and I didn't age.  But I had to 
drink blood ... to survive."
	"You didn't make any ... pacts with infernal forces?"
	Aethan stared at her.
	"The only vampires I've ever read or seen anything about are gaki 
.. who are more or less demons -- and Bram Stoker's Dracula, which I 
saw while I was in England."
	"No, Minako.  I did not trade my soul for immortallity.  I became 
what I am ... more or less against my will."
	She flinched.  "I can sympathize with that ..."

	And she told him everything.  The Silver Millenium.  The Kingdom 
of the Moon.  The War against the Negaverse.  Dying.  Being reborn.  
Being awakened by Artemis.  Her time in England.  Returning to Japan.  
Dying again, and being resurrected by the power of the Silver Crystal.  
Remembering a second time.  Adventures since.
	"I wouldn't trade what I've become for anything ... but I wish 
.. I just wish I'd been given more of a choice in what I became."
	Aethan stared at her, almost as if he wasn't hearing her.  Minako 
wondered what was wrong.  "Is something ..."
	"Minako ... that is an incredible story.  You are either the most 
deluded woman alive ... or you are telling the truth ..."
	"Of course I'm telling the truth!"  What was wrong with him?
	"It IS an incredible tale, you must remember ... possibly the 
strangest story I've ever been told, and I've heard thousands, believe 
you me."
	"It's true.  It's all true."
	He sighed.  "Life on the moon.  Ancient wars against shadowy 
forces.  Talking cats.  It's all too much for me to handle at one go.  I 
need a rest."
	"Okay," Minako nodded.  "I need some sleep tonight too ... can I 
get you anything to ..."  She broke off.  Baka, offering him something to 
drink.  Baka baka.
	He quirked up in a semi-smile.  "No, Minako-chan.  That won't be 
necessary ... I've already had enough this evening."
	She didn't want to know.  She had to know.  "Did you ..."
	
	His smile faded, and was replaced with a vague sorrow and 
regret.  "Yes.  I don't have to kill those I feed from, but this time ... 
I did.  I could say that it was necessary, that society won't miss him 
.. but I won't."
	Minako started to back away.  He closed his eyes, and rolled so 
his face wasn't looking in her direction ... so she couldn't see the hurt 
he felt at her horrified expression.  You deserve it, monster, he told 
himself.  Why ... why do you go out of your way to destroy the feelings 
that those around you have for you?
	When will you be able to let them come close?

                       *           *            *

	"I must confess," Artemis said with a calm he didn't feel, "it is 
a strange thing to see one of your kind here on Earth, in these days."
	The woman calling herself Madeline stared at him with amused 
interest.  "Do you know what I am?"
	"I suspect that I do.  And I suspect also that you won't confirm 
or deny any of my guesses."
	She smiled.  It wasn't a nice smile.  "No wonder that in your old 
age Queen Serenity made you her sage counselor, Orion of the Silver 
Millenium."
	ORION!!!!!!
	Artemis jerked his mind back from that agonizing, horrible 
memory.  Another woman, named Artemis, dying in agony because he had ...
	"I had almost forgotten Orion," he said in a dull, dead tone.  "I 
hate and curse you for reminding me of him."
	"You may hate and curse me at your leisure.  But you will tell me 
of the one called Minako Aino.  Now."
	And since there was nothing else to do, Luna and Artemis told 
Madeline all they knew about Mina.  Luna was amazed at the sheer number 
of details about Mina that Artemis was able to remember without being 
prompted.
	Madeline stood still, considering what had been said.  Finally, 
she shook her head, and sighed.  "I cannot find fault in your actions, or 
in hers.  It is unlikely that she will be a negative influence on my 
protege.  He may be one on her, however."
	"Your protege is the man they encountered in the airport?" Luna 
asked.
	"Correct.  His name is Aethan, and he is an example of the 
subspecies of humanity termed "vampyre".  You would, I think, be wise to 
prevent him from engaging in his predatory habits on Minako."
	Her tone changed, becoming somewhat apologetic.  "I regret having 
to interrogate you in this manner, but the destiny of entire 
civilizations, not just that of Earth, rests on Aethan's shoulders at 
this time.  Had we met at another time, it is possible, even likely, that 
we could have had a great deal to discuss."  Her eyes seemed far away.  
"I remember the Kingdom of the Moon well.  It was with no small amount of 
shame that I allowed its destruction."  She shook her head.  "Ah well.  
It was long ago and far away ... yet objects in the rear view mirror ..."
	She faded from sight.
	Luna collapsed, out of sheer exhaustion from the questioning 
she'd just undergone.  "What manner of being *is* she?"
	"A legend ..." Artemis murmured.  "Before the Silver Millenium, 
it is said that a race of immense power fought a war in which our forces 
would have been annihilated in an instant.  The war was against forces 
from another universe ... beings of darkness ... forces of light."
	"And she's one of these beings that fought the war?"
	Artemis padded over to where she had dropped the anime magazine.  
He stared down at the stills from the "Lensman" movie.
	"I think so, yes.  They haven't been forgotten, after all.  And the 
only way legends can die is if they're forgotten."

                         *            *            *

	She stared down at the youma.  It was pleading for its life.  "I 
was just following orders ... I didn't want to harm them ..."
	She calmly, and without saying a word, lifted her hands, and blew 
the creature's head off with her Crescent Beam.
	Minako woke, choking back a scream.  She had curled up on the 
living room couch after leaving Aethan in her bedroom.  It was about six 
in the morning.  Light was just beginning to stream in the window.
	*Oh gods, when am I going to stop having the nightmares?*
	She hadn't done anything worse that Serena had ... why should she 
have less peaceful nights than Serena?
	That wasn't fair.  Serena had never killed an adversary when it 
was begging for mercy ... or at least she didn't talk about it, and Mina 
was fairly sure that she'd heard the details of every single one of 
Serena's adventures either first-hand, second-hand (from Raye and Amy), 
or third hand (from Luna via Artemis).
	It had been a youma.  It had nearly killed several people in the 
supermarket it had worked at.  It didn't deserve mercy.
	But what about Nephrite?  If one of the greatest forces of the 
darkness could reform even a little ... Mina wished Serena had never 
babbled her account of the General's self-sacrifice that night after 
they'd met.  It had been better when she'd had moral self-assurance.
	She got up off the couch, stretched, and padded into the kitchen 
to get some orange juice.  There was a scratching at the door, and it 
occured to Minako that she hadn't seen Artemis since she'd run off 
yesterday.
	She opened the door, and a white streak burst in.  "Okay, where 
is he?  What'd the two of you do?  Huh?  Where?"
	"He's in the bedroom ..."
	Artemis' jaw dropped.  "You DIDN'T!"
	"ARGH!  Hentai Cat!  No, I just left him there ... hey, how'd you 
know he was here?"
	"Let's just say that your vampyre friend has friends in high 
places!  VERRRRRY high places.  Places WE don't need trouble from."  
Artemis seemed to calm down.  "Did he bite you?"
	Just to drive Artemis crazy, Mina gave the appearance of giving 
it a great deal of thought.  For three minutes, she hemmed and hawed.  
Artemis' eyes got bigger and bigger ...
	"The answer is no.  I did not."
	Aethan was standing in the entrance to the kitchen, looking even 
paler than usual.  The bandages that covered the hole in his chest were 
gone, revealing new, bone-white skin in its place.  He had approached 
without making any noise.  He was staring at Artemis as one might stare 
at a ... well, a talking cat.
	"Aethan DeGales, I presume?" Artemis said weakly.
	"I am currently known by that name, yes.  You are the one named 
Artemis, I take it.  Now ... which friends in high places were you 
referring to?"
	"Does the name Madeline mean anything to you?"
	"Yes."
	They stared at each other in stony silence for a moment.
	"Who is Madeline?" Minako asked, deciding to make the peace 
herself.
	"My guardian angel.  She gave me my sword, ninety-six years ago.  
Since then we've had occasional meetings, usually when she wants 
something done and I'm the only one who can."
	"Guardian angel ..." Well, thought Artemis, that's one way of 
looking at it ... Artemis wouldn't have wanted one of THOSE looking out 
for him, but perhaps this Aethan was of sterner stuff.
	"Was there anything else?  I wouldn't want to abuse your 
hospitality more than I had to."
	"Wait a minute!  You're just leaving?" Minako protested.
	"That is my plan ..."
	"I want to know about the one you were fighting ... you called 
him Quincy.  Do you know him?"
	Aethan sighed.  "I know of him.  Most of my kind do.  He is a 
slayer of vampyres, possibly the most talented and dangerous one alive.  
His name is Quincy Harker."
	"Any relation to Johnathan and Mina?" Minako asked, to lighten 
the mood.
	"Yes."
	She swallowed.  "Then ... the stories about ..."
	"They are true.  Vlad Tsepes, called Dracula, did arise from his 
grave as a vampyre.  He did come to England a hundred years ago, and 
there engaged in a conflict with several individuals associated with 
Abraham "Bram" Stoker.  Whether he died in the manner that Stoker 
described is ... a mystery, even to me."  That admission clearly rankled 
him.
	"And the descendants of the characters in that novel have taken 
up vampyre hunting?" Mina asked.
	He paused for no longer than a second.  "Some of them, yes."
	The small pause told Artemis that there was something more going 
on here than met the eye ... something that Aethan wasn't saying.
	"Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll be leaving ..."
	"Um ... are you really going to go to the airport dressed like 
that?" Mina queried delicately.
	Aethan considered himself.  The white shirt that he had been 
wearing was ruined, as was his trenchcoat.  It would be better to get a 
change of clothes ... such as that which he'd left in his hotel room.
	"It would be dangerous for me to go back to the hotel ... Quincy 
no doubt has it under surveillance."
	"I can go!" Minako interjected.  "He won't recognize me, after 
all ..."
	Aethan paused ... and sighed, and nodded.  "He wouldn't, either.  
I cannot ask you to do this for me, Minako-chan."
	"It is my obligation, Aethan-kun.  I caused your injury, and so 
it is only right that I assist you to avoid further injury."
	"Thank you," he said simply, and bowed.

                           *          *         *

	Turn the key in the lock, slowly let the door swing open, giving 
a view of most of the room.  Step in slowly ... the suitcase lies open on 
the bed, more or less still packed.  Step closer slowly ... all senses 
alert ... slowly ...
	Quincy stepped out of the shadows and put a knife to Minako's 
throat before she could even let out a noise.  "Don't scream," the hunter 
whispered.  "I promise, I won't hurt you.  But don't scream."

                           *          *          *

	The phone rang in the Aino living room.  Aethan let it ring a few 
times, staring at it.  Mina had gone out nearly half an hour ago.
	He picked up the phone.  "Mishi-mishi?" he said.
	"Aethan?" quivered Minako's voice.
	Then a harder voice interrupted.  "Sending young girls to do your 
work ... is there no end to your decadence, vampyre?"
	Aethan didn't say anything for a very long moment.
	"I've got her, Aethan.  I'll kill her.  I swear I will.  Unless 
you meet me to have it out once and for all ..."
	"And I swear, by all the gods that may or may never have been, do 
you harm one hair on her head, they will be forced to invent a name for 
the death you suffer."
	"Meet me at the Genom Industrial Park, Aethan.  Warehouse 665.  
In an hour.  Or they'll be finding pieces of her for the next twenty 
years."
	Click.
	"He has her," Aethan said quietly.
	"What are you going to do?" the white cat asked, just as quietly.
	"What I can."


                           *          *          *

	He had not spoken to her since they arrived at this warehouse.
She was becoming very afraid of this tall, pale man ... and Minako, even
more than most of her friends, hated being afraid.  It would be a simple
matter to transform to Sailor Venus, and beat the living crap out of him 
.. if he hadn't tied her arms behind the chair, and if he hadn't been 
carrying that strange sword.  He was standing, looking out of a second
story window in the warehouse in the Industrial Park.
	"I was lying, you know." Quincy said.  "I lied to him when I said
I'd kill you.  I won't ... no matter what."
	"Why should I believe you?"
	"You don't have any reason to ..." he said, shrugging.  "It doesn't 
matter, in the long run.  I do what I have to do, to win the war."
	"He told me who you are ..." Mina said, quietly.
	"Did he?" he asked carelessly.
	"He told me that your name is Quincy Harker."
	He tensed for a moment, and she could see anger building in his 
eyes.  Then it all went out of him, and he slumped.  "I don't have any
right to that name."
	"So what do you call yourself?"
	He turned and stared at her with a look of terrible sadness.
	"I call myself Damned."
	She didn't have an answer to that.  He turned back to the window.
	After several moments, he spoke up again.  "Here he comes ... he's
going into the warehouse ..."
	Minako strained her ears, but couldn't hear the sound of any door 
opening into the building ... "So what will you do when he gets here."
	"He won't."
	"But ... you summoned him to this warehouse."
	"No ... I summoned him to Warehouse 665.  This is the next one 
over."
	The explosion rocked through the warehouse, and the bright flame
rose up in the window.
	Mina's jaw dropped.  It wasn't possible.  He couldn't have ...
	"I rigged it ... before I kidnapped you ..." Quincy explained, 
trying very hard to maintain a stern, straight face.  Mina wasn't sure if 
he was trying to suppress laughter or tears, or possibly both, as he 
untied her, and let her run to the window.
	The other warehouse had collapsed, utterly.  Flames roared across 
the wreckage and rubble.
	Quincy came up behind her.  "Fifteen years I've been hunting him, 
and suddenly he's delivered into my hands by the strangest set of 
coincedences I've ever been ..."
	Mina spun around, murder in her eyes, and slammed her palm into 
his cheek with all the force she could muster.  He didn't even blink.
	"I probably deserve that, for dragging you into this," he said, 
quietly.
	"You deserve one hell of a lot worse!  You just killed a friend 
of mine!"
	"They don't know friendship.  They don't know love.  They only 
know anger and hatred and desire ..." Quincy said, with the air of one 
who had explained this many, many times before ...
	... and suddenly he trailed off.
	And his eyes went wide.
	And his lips formed the word, "No."
	And Minako turned around to stare out the window to the point 
where Quincy was gazing.
	And saw, standing still, and firm, and unbent amongst the ruins, 
Aethan DeGales.
	He stood, wreathed in flame, the flame that by rights should be 
consuming him.  He stood, his sword unsheathed, and the fires that burnt 
around it were of a purer kind than the fire that was reducing the 
warehouse to cinders.  He stood, and the fire of his sword and the fire 
in his green eyes were one and the same.
	Minako had barely a second to leap to one side before he burst 
through the window, having leapt from the ground to the second story in a 
heartbeat.  Aethan seized Quincy by the collar of his shirt, lifted him 
into the air, and, in a voice of doom, whispered:
	"You have *officially* pissed me off."
	And with that, he flung Quincy through the hole he had made in 
the wall, and leapt after him.
	Minako considered jumping down after them, but decided that she 
was still shaky enough that it would be dangerous ... so she retraced the 
route they had taken coming into this building, down stairs, and out the 
front door.  Whatever plans she'd had to interfere were lost the moment 
she saw what was going on.
	The duel that they were fighting was a horribly beautiful thing.
	Two masters of the sword, one supernatural, one less-so, locked 
in mortal combat that would almost certainly mean the death of one of 
them.
	Which made it all the more horrible that Quincy couldn't do a 
thing.  He was hard pressed to defend himself.  Aethan was moving faster 
than the human eye could follow, making dozens of attacks in a second, 
not even bothering to parry ... because all of Quincy's efforts were 
devoted to stopping the strikes.
	Minako couldn't understand ... if Aethan was that much faster 
than the hunter, why hadn't he reduced his adversary to so much sliced 
meat?  And then, with lacerating clarity, the answer came to her.
	*He* *was* *pulling* *his* *blows*.
	Every time he even came close to landing a strike on Quincy, he 
stopped the blade, as little as a centimetre from his foe's skin.  The 
pressure of the air displaced by the blow no doubt caused some bruising, 
but not enough to slow Quincy down.
	Aethan wasn't so much playing with his opponent as demonstrating 
to him, beyond all reasonable doubt, that he was so far beyond him in 
ability, that should he wish Quincy dead, it would be already done.
	The last blow rang out across the pavement, and Quincy's sword 
was struck from his hand, and went flying across the way to stick into a 
concrete wall.  It wobbled, a bit.
	Aethan stared at his disarmed opponent.  "Were I a more civilized 
person, I would allow you to regain your sword.  But I'm not."
	And he swung his sword downward at Quincy's neck.
	Minako couldn't, no matter how she tried, bring herself to look 
away.
	Quincy let out a final scream of defiance.
	Which trailed away as he realized that he was still alive, and 
that Aethan's sword was poised, no more than a centimetre from his neck.
	"And were I the bloodthirsty, vicious monster you believe I am 
.. I would take your head as a trophy.  But I'm not.  Completely," he 
amended, only somewhat self-consciously, as he nicked Quincy on the side 
of his cheek.
	The wound cauterized instantly, from the heat of the blade.
	After the agonized screaming died down, Aethan pulled Quincy 
unwillingly to his feet.  "I am going to let you live, Quincy.  The gods 
above look down, and scream to me that I should kill you now, and prevent 
you from becoming a true menace.  But I have never listened to the gods 
when they told me to do something I did not wish to do."
	"Wuh-wuh-why?" Quincy sobbed.
	"In part, for the love, honor, and respect I have for your 
father, wherever he may rest.  In part, because I do not wish to tarnish 
Minako's eyes with the sight of your headless corpse.  But most of all, 
for a very simple reason -- you came THIS close," he said, holding his 
index finger and thumb a minute distance apart, "to killing me.  In over 
eight hundred years, no hunter has ever come so close to destroying me.  
And you have done so WITHOUT harming the innocent."
	Aethan sighed.  "It may be that a time of darkness is coming, 
Quincy.  There is ample evidence of it.  In that time, vampyres may 
become a true threat to humanity, rather than simply a parasite lurking 
in the shadows.  You are the greatest vampyre hunter that will ever be, 
Quincy.  You are humanity's salvation, should we vampyres ever lose touch 
with our OWN humanity.  Do you understand?  I let you live, because there 
may be worse things awaiting which I will not be able to stand against 
.. and in the twilight of the world, I have faith that you, alone 
amongst vampyre hunters, will stand with the forces of light."
	He released Quincy from the grip of iron that he had held him 
in.  "Now go.  And do not come against me again."
	Quincy backed away, turned and headed for his sword.  He paused, 
once, after he pulled the blade from the wall, and spoke to Aethan 
without looking at him.
	"I am still Damned."
	"If you choose to be."
	"And you are still a monster."
	"Yes.  But your father wanted both of us to be more."
	Quincy almost turned to look at Aethan, but he did not.  He 
walked away, alone, unbowed.
	Minako approached Aethan cautiously.  "Are you all right?" she 
whispered.
	"I am, thanks to Artemis."
	"What?"
	"Artemis warned me that Quincy might be trying to trap me, so I 
took certain ... precautions."
	There were so many other things she wanted to say, but she knew 
she never would.  And she saw, too, that he had much that he wanted to 
say to her, but would not.
	There were tears in his eyes, she could see now.  "Why are you 
crying?" she asked.
	"For him."
	"Why?"
	"He did not choose to be what he is, Minako-chan.  Any more than 
you or I.  I told you that he was related to Jonathan and Mina Harker?"
	She nodded.
	"A half-truth.  He is Mina Harker's child, true, but Jonathan was 
not his father."
	Mina knew, immediately, who Quincy's father was.  And how it 
could be that he was the child of a woman who had lived a century ago, 
yet look as though he were in his twenties.
	"When a vampyre ... shares his blood with a pregnant woman ... 
strange things happen to the child.  The child is born ... with strange 
abilities.  And when the child dies, it is doomed to rise again as a 
vampyre.  Many of the famous "living vampyres" of history are examples of 
this.  Most choose to embrace the darkness within.  Some few strive for 
the light.  He is of the latter kind."
	He paused, and when he spoke again, it was clear that he no 
longer spoke to Minako, but to the other, who had left them.
  	"The road you walk is thorny ... through no fault of your own.  
But as rain enters the earth, and rivers flow to the sea, so do tears 
flow to their predestined end.  Your suffering is not yet over.  Farewell, 
Quincy Draculea ... Vampire Hunter D."


Epilogue.

	Damnation.
	The Wiseman had been so certain that this strategem would work.  
Although he knew not how, the vampyre called Aethan DeGales had an 
important part to play in between his present and the future of Crystal 
Tokyo.  It had been so simple to draw the hunter Quincy's attention to 
the presence of the creature, and let things proceed from there.  How had 
Aethan's destruction been averted?
	"Simple."
	The female voice behind the Wiseman was deceptively calm.  The 
Wiseman turned and stared at the one who had, without his knowledge, 
entered his private sanctuary.
	"Who ... and what are you?"
	"I have been known as Madeline, and what I am is ... none of your 
business.  I am the one who has prevented your designs against Aethan 
DeGales from reaching fruition."
	"HOW?"
	"By warning him, through intermediaries, that he would be walking 
into a trap by going to the warehouse unprotected.  Let that be a lesson 
to you, Wiseman.  While the slightest noise can start an avalanche, the 
smallest twig can change its course."
	And then the woman abandoned her mortal form completely, and the 
Wiseman stared up in horror at the creature of light and geometry that 
was before him.
	*And let this be another lesson.* it sent telepathically.  *Know 
that with which you deal.  Never again interfere with any of my 
proteges.  Or the wrath of my people shall be great indeed.*
	"No ... no!  You are a myth, a legend, a writing in a story long 
forgotten!  You do not exist!"
	*Legends do not die, unless they are forgotten, Wiseman.  And 
there are still those who remember Arisia.*
	And then it was gone.  And the Wiseman knew that never before had 
he been so close to a final destruction.


The End.

Author's Notes

	Sailor Moon was created by Takeuchi Naoko and brought to North 
America by DIC.  Vampire Hunter D was created by Hideuki Kikuchi and 
brought to North America by Streamline Pictures.   Aethan DeGales was 
created by me (well, actually he was created by Lillith, but that's 
another story ...)

	Whew.  61K.  That's the longest thing I've ever written for the 
net.  Possibly the strangest story I've ever written, even though I took 
a lot fewer risks with this one than with either of the two before it.

	Next up, as promised, is "Live Long and Prosper" ... which will 
be another dark (as in tragic story).  I probably will not even start 
writing it until next Saturday (it's Sunday, March 24th as I write this), 
as it is probably going to be as hard (emotionally) to write as "Five 
Minutes".

	Aside from the two anime I've crossed in this tale, there are 
quite a few other influences on this story.  Just to give you an idea of 
what went into the making of this tale ...

Music
Annie Lennox's "Love Song for a Vampire"
Bonnie Tyler's / Nikki French's "Total Eclipse of the Heart"
Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)"
Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "It's a Kind of Magic"

Literature
"Dracula" and "Dracula's Guest" by Bram Stoker
"Hotel Translyvania" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
"The Dracula Tapes" and "Thorn" by Fred Saberhagen
"The Summer Tree", "The Wandering Flame", and "The Darkest Road" by Guy 
	Gavriel Kay
"Galactic Patrol" by E.E. "Doc" Smith

Film & Television
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Highlander
Highlander II (sic): The Quickening
The Wolf Man
Babylon 5, especially the episode "Comes the Inquisitor"

Miscellaneous
A year and a half of listening in on and participating in the doings of 
	the newsgroup alt.vampyres.  If any here lurk there, Aethan bids 
	you good-day.

Well, I've said my piece.  As always, commentary and criticism are 
welcomed, and encouraged.

Chris Davies.