Nakiad looked at the screen, then put it away, brightening a little.  At least
that was one thing he could take care of.

"Computer, bring up the schematics of lab Ami was talking about."  A panel in
the wall next to him slid aside soundlessly, revealing a screen.  The computer,
with microphones all over the house, automatically analyzed the conversation,
figuring out which plans he was talking about.

Behind him, Guardian appeared. The white globe of light pulsed slightly.
Nakiad did not turn around, continuing to study the schematics. "You haven't
been around a lot lately."

The white sphere bobbed a little. <I've still been following your
progress.>

"Mina, right?" The Chosen sighed, turning around.

<Partly.  You are too important to just give yourself up> the way you did
out there.

"I knew Sailor Moon was on the way.  I needed to buy some time, all right?"

<True, but not the whole truth.>  Guardian seemed to sigh mentally. <If
the Princess had not come in time?>

For a moment, Nakiad merely looked at the protector, then he, too, sighed. "I
do not know."

<Yes you do.>

Yes, the man thought, I do, but if I admit it even to myself, then I might not
be able to go on.  He cut off that line of thought, continuing aloud. "You said
'partly,' just then, what is the other thing?"

The white light hesitated. <There is another problem.  We have thought that
the Dark Lord does not have the power to cross into the Universe.>

"Yes, all he can do is send monsters against us.  But because of the number of
creatures he can send, he has to be stopped.  And I don't know how."  I don't
think he can be, Nakiad did not say, making sure to bury the thought where
Guardian could not see it.

<We were wrong.>

"What?"  Involuntarily, he said it aloud, and cursed himself for betraying his
surprise so obviously.  He had thought the mental training had made him almost
invulnerable to being startled, but apparently it just took a shock severe
enough.

<The calculations on the power needed to move between dimensions was based on
going from the Universe to the Negaverse.  Apparently, those placed in Eternal
Sleep are in a separate dimension->

"Second law of interdimensional transport," Nakiad finished for Guardian. "The
amount of energy required for a portal varies directly with the size of the
source Universe and inversely with the size of the destination one."  He
finished the quote, a cold feeling settling somewhere in the area of his
stomach. "It is easier to make a portal from a pocket universe than it is from
a large one.  Can he do it?"

Again, Guardian hesitated. <I am not sure.  But there is a good chance that
he can.>

Nakiad sighed.  After several moments of silence, Guardian disappeared.

There was nothing more to say.

The Chosen studied the schematics, going over a plan in his mind.  Getting the
swords back was now his top priority, even though he knew they would not help.
It would be nearly impossible to heal them in time to stop what he feared was
coming.  Beside which there was a good chance the police had not found all the
shards.

Then he remembered something else. "Computer, how much time passed between the
beginning of the first attack and the second?"

The mechanical voice answered almost instantly, the instruments having
automatically recorded both disturbances. "Approximately eleven hours, three
minutes and four point five seven nine seconds."

<Guardian>, Nakiad called silently.  He felt the other listening. <Why
was there such a long time between the attacks.>

The other answered without appearing. <The Dark Lord would not have stood for
insubordination, he would have wanted the next attack as soon as possible.>
The protector seemed to be thinking out loud.< And though the knight is
cautious, he would not disobey the Shadow in this.>

Nakiad thought for a moment. <Could it take that long for the knight to
gather enough energy to cross the gap between the universes?>

<There is nothing that states to the contrary.>

<Then the next attack will be at about 5 in the evening.>

The other paused, then seemed to give the equivalent of a mental shrug. <That
is as good a guess as any.>

Nakiad glanced at the monitor.  It was almost noon.

*	*	*

"What do you think is up, man?"  The two security guards stood by the door,
trying to appear fierce.  They were both failing rather badly, being ordinary
policemen, but they were doing their best.  Especially considering that they
did not know why they were guarding a science lab.
"I dunno, but they said on the news that we got some sort of strange metal from
the fight scene."
"So we're guarding a bunch of scrap metal."
>From across the street, a black burning gaze landed on the two security guards,
and went unnoticed.  For several seconds, it remained there, then dissapeared
once more.

"Probably."  The man yawned suddenly, his hands going up above him. "I feel
sleepy all of a sudden.. like.."  His eyelids flickered a little, but he forced
his eyes open.

"Yeah..." the other agreed between yawns, "me... too..."  Both slid silently to
the floor of the entrance while pedestrians passed them, apparently without
seeing anything strange in two cops lying on the street.

A black figure detached itself from a shadow, coming forward.  It came across
the street smoothly, and although it was quite visible, no one seemed to pay
any heed.

The figure slipped inside the entrance, the door closing without a squeak.

Inside, the real security began. Unlike the officers at the entrance, these
were trained professionals.  They paced the corridors while hidden cameras
tracked any movement and lasers protected from any intruders.

None of these measures did any better than the two cops.

*	*	*

"I call upon the power of fire.. Oh sacred flame, guide me to the place of the
next attack."  Rei intoned the words as they came from deep inside, someplace
where her conscious and subconscious joined together in one.

Behind her, four scouts sat silently, observing the ritual.  Behind them, two
more figures, slightly larger, sat in similar silence.  Almost invisible, two
cats remained in the back, the flickering of the fire reflected in their feline
eyes.

Rei concentrated, her brow furrowing as her fingers wove mystical signs in the
air.  The flame surged and she relaxed, though no one saw anything.

"It's another alley, in the bad part of town," the red scout told them calmly
as the fire settled down to its normal height.  She smiled, turning around. "I
doubt that this happens by chance."

Nakiad shook his head. "I understand that a lot of people might interfere with
teleporting, so a deserted place is usually the choice for coming in.  And the
last two sites are crawling with cops right now."

"And you are sure the attack will happen at five?"  Serena sat back with a
sigh. "Positive?"

"Princess-" He paused, remembering her dislike for the title. "Serena, nothing
is impossible, especially in this case.  But I think there is a fairly good
chance that the time will be five."

The group exchanged series of glances as each thought about the encounter.

Artemis came forward, his white coat emerging suddenly from the shadow. "If you
recall," he said grimly, "we did not make much of an impression on him last
time."

"Hey, I did," Serena protested, an annoyed Rei jerking her back too late.

"True," Luna agreed, coming forward as well, "but the knight survived.  And you
exhausted your beam."

Lita glared at the leader of the sailor scouts. "Well, at least you made some
sort of an impression on him.  None of our attacks seemed to harm him at
all."

Nakiad seemed to jerk himself out of his thoughts as he heard that. "That is
not entirely true.  Each strike damaged him, but not none of the attacks
individually was powerful enough to stop him."

"So what do we do to destroy the creature?  And can you help?"

Nakiad sighed. "The answer to the second question is no, I'm afraid.
Technically, I'm not allowed to help, but as long as the help does not involve
the power of the Chosen, I can do whatever I want.  However, with the power or
without, there is really nothing I can do.  But you *can* destroy him,
trust me on this."  He looked meaningfully at Serena. "Even Sailor Moon alone
can, I think, for the knight is not as powerful as Beryl was, just
different."

Ami looked at him penetratingly. "If that is so, then why are you worried?"

He glanced at her and sighed. "I don't really know the true capabilities of the
knight, and I cannot help you.  When he went after me, you saw, I could do
nothing but try to avoid him."  He paused, looking around. "But that is not
all.  There is another problem, a far graver problem.  So far, we have only
been fighting the one creature that the Dark Lord has sent us."

Mina sat up suddenly. "You mean, he could send more with him?"

"I do not think so.  No, he probably barely has control over one of these
creatures, I doubt he wants to release two at the same time.  However, he
obviously has the ability to release as many creatures as he wants, which makes
for a huge problem.  Even if you defeat the knight, you will have another
creature ready to fight you.  And that could go on forever, and he is bound to
find one that is stronger than you."

Lita grinned. "Beryl never did."

"Beryl always trapped her strongest warriors in those crystals."  Lita looked
down. "But this is not all," Nakiad continued. "I have assumed that the reason
for these attacks is revenge, to destroy those who caused him to be trapped,
and partially planning.  For if we are out of the way, when he gathers enough
strength to make a portal, there will be no one to stop him."

Ami looked at him steadily. "And now you think that may not be true."

Nakiad sighed. "Guardian was checking that.  He was wondering if it was
possible for the Dark Lord to make a portal, because he is in a bubble universe
as opposed to the Negaverse."

"And?"

The globe of light appeared over the group. <"And he has a good chance of
being able to.">

The scouts let out a collective sigh, and no one talked for several seconds.

Artemis suddenly curled up in a ball, as if he was cold. "What can we do?"

Nakiad hung his head. "It is what *I* should be able to do that is
important.  It is my job to stop the Shadow when he attacks, but there is a
severe problem with that."

"The swords," Mina finished for him.

"Yes," he sighed. "I have recovered the pieces, and being a part of me, they
are capable of healing from damage as long as I am alive.  But they have been
shattered, and it would take time for them to join together, and more time to
become as strong as they once were.  Time we do not have."  He sighed once
more. "I fear that destroying the swords has been the Dark Lord's plan from the
beginning of the attacks, and in striking out against the knight, I merely
played into his hands.  And now.."  He trailed off.

Luna came up, leaving a sad looking Artemis behind her. "Can you fight him
without the swords?"

Artemis shook his head. "No, Luna.  The staff of the Chosen has been passed
down from Nemesis, the very first Chosen.  It takes the shape of the weapon
best suited to its host.  But it is necessary to face the Shadow, without it,
he would be as helpless as-"  The white cat smiled a bit. "As a kitten."

"No Artemis," Nakiad stopped the white cat suddenly. "I *can* fight him."


I just can't win, he did not say.

Everyone heard anyway.

For several long minutes, the temple was silent, the sacred fire burning lower
than it had in years.  Then the Chosen stood up.

"It is still half an hour before the projected attack.  But I want you there
now, to be ready, just in case."

Mina glanced at him strangely. "What about you?"

He did not seem to hear her at first, then shook his head. "I'm going to go
back to my place.  I need to do something."

"Then what about us?"  Suddenly Serena changed from being too confident to
being scared.

"Princess."  He stressed the title slightly as if to remind her of it. "You
have the power within you to destroy him.  And you always have your friends."
She nodded, but still looked unsure. "I'll make it."

I hope, he added to himself.

The sun sank slowly behind the clouds, getting closer to the horizon, beginning
to tone down the stark shades of the day.

Once more, a feeling of cold surrounded a deserted street, somewhere in the bad
part of Tokyo.  A shadow seemed to concentrate in one place, slowly forming
into a coherent shape.  And once again, the knight appeared.

He was no longer damaged, as he had been the last time he had attacked.  The
side that had been scorched black once more shone with the dull gray, identical
to the rest of the armor.  The hand that easily held the heavy mace did not
seem tired, none of the armored plates drooped in a way that would suggest
weakness.  The knight had recovered, and was ready to fight once more.

But this time, the scouts were also ready.  Standing several meters away from
him in a semicircle, they faced him steadily, not letting his power get to
them.  To one side, a sixth black shape stood, holding several roses with one
hand and a cane with another.  On the other side of the semicircle, two cats
stood together, slightly behind everyone else.  As he glared at them from
across the distance, they focused, forcing themselves to hold still.

The knight, too held his place.  There was no way for the scouts to know
whether that was because of the absence of Nakiad, who might have been the
knight's primary target.  Or whether that hesitation was caused by the person
in the center of the scouts' formation.
Sailor Moon stood calmly, holding to herself any fears she might have had.  In
one hand, the Moon Scepter was held lightly, ready to be brought up to an
attack position within a moment's notice.

It might have been that weapon that caused the knight to pause, or it might not
have been.  But for whatever reason, for long seconds, the creature held
still.

Then the mace moved fractionally back, as if cocked slowly for a throw.  And
the knight sprang into action, leaping forward toward the formation of the
scouts.

Almost instantaneously, Serena reacted. The scepter moved up, pointing at the
armored figure. "Moon Scepter Elimination."  The words came calmly from the
princess's mouth, pronounced easily.

And a beam of power leapt forward, at the gray figure.

At the last moment, the knight tried to dodge, get away from the power that
attacked him.

But he was too late.

The beam struck, carrying within itself the focused power of the Imperium
Silver Crystal.  It hit the creature full in the armored chest, slamming it
backward.

The mace was tossed out of its grasp, landing on the ground as its wielder was
slowly forced back from the scouts.  The armor at the point of impact began to
glow red from the energy.

As the scouts watched, the red glow brightened, going to orange, then yellow.
Almost white.

But the effort of forcing all of that power was costing the princess.  Sweat
formed on her forehead, the arm holding the scepter began to shake.  And the
other scouts, intent on the knight who had seemed impervious before, did not
see it in time to help her.

As the armor on the knight seemed about to collapse, flexing from the impact,
as creature was forced back even more, the beam faltered.

And died.

The scouts, the two cats and the prince, all of them looked at the princess as
she settled back, exhausted.

Almost immediately, they started toward her, to help her, lend some of their
own power to give her the strength needed to finish the fight.

While all of their attention was focused on the princess, the knight suddenly
straightened out.  The front of the armor seemed close to being destroyed,
waves of distortions contrasting with the otherwise smooth gray metal.

But the creature was still alive.

And it reacted with inhuman speed, with an instinct of survival that was
hammered into all of the denizens of the Negaverse.

As the others, sensing motion from him, turned to face the armored figure, it
leapt forward with an impossible jump.

Landing in the center of the distorted semicircle.

The scouts surrounding the princess jerked back, none more than a step, all
involuntarily.  It is merely human instinct to get away from danger that comes
that quickly.

The only ones that did not move were Darian and the princess.

Five roses slammed into the knight's side as the figure reached forward.  The
flowers bounced off ineffectively, as before.

Serena opened her eyes with an effort to see two metal gauntlets close over the
Moon Scepter.  She tried to jerk it back, but the force in those hands was
enough to match that of the Chosen.  She never stood a chance.

With a jerk, the knight ripped the Scepter out of the scout's grasp.

And the metal fingers tightened, crushing into the Scepter.

The Moon Scepter was a tool of power, a weapon capable of many things.  It was
made of a material designed to withstand many energy blasts, a lot of
strength.

But not the kind of power that was being thrown against it now, not the kind of
material that could shatter the swords of the Chosen.

It seemed to breathe out hard as it collapsed, in the grasp, the portions under
the hands turning into powder, the length of the scepter crumbling.  The
resulting surge of energy threw the knight back, turning the metal clad hands
black, throwing him out of the scouts' formation.

And the fragments of the scepter tinkled to the ground, landing with the sound
of broken crystal.

As the scouts watched, horrified, the fragments seemed to pulse with the energy
trapped within, then wavered.  Before the astonished eyes of six warriors, the
pieces dissolved into vapor, blown away by a stray gust of wind.

*	*	*

Nakiad sighed, looking at the information displayed on the screen.  According
to it, he could get the power to travel to the pocket dimension in which the
Dark Lord was.  He had enough power, but there was no way he could do it.

For the bubble universe could be anywhere, and there was no way to find its
location.  The only way that existed to get there was to be trapped in the
Eternal Sleep.  And the only two who knew the secret to that, Nephlyte and
Beryl, were dead.

Nakiad sighed again. Even if he could reach the other, there was absolutely no
way he could do anything, not with the state he was in.  The Chosen glanced
down, where the two swords lay on the pedestal, all the shards collected and
placed in the proper combination.
It had not been hard to put them together, for the swords were part of him.  He
only had to feel which piece belonged where, and place it at that point, where
it adhered as if by magic.

The amazing thing was that the police had managed to do something right for a
change.  Every one of the hundreds of pieces had been in the lab, every single
one of any size.  Someone must have gone through that alley foot by foot with a
metal detector for that kind of precision.

The rest, the microscopic pieces that either were not recovered, or were placed
somewhere else, did not really matter, the weapons could heal themselves.

They would heal, yes, but by the time that happened, it would be far too late
for the Universe.

And he was helpless to hurry them any.

"... this just in.  The police have reported a break-in at the main science and
technology center today by an unknown force.  The chief of police of Tokyo
claims that there was nothing of value stolen."  Nakiad smiled a bit. "..and
everything was proceeding according to plan.  The police deny any connection
between this break in, the disturbance last night, and the one this morning-"

"Distortion scanned in projected location."  The computer's voice abruptly
interrupted both the television program and the Chosen's thoughts.

So, Nakiad thought, it has begun.  The knight was attacking.  He had spent more
time thinking that he had realized.

But there was nothing he could do, really, no way in which he could help the
scouts.

For several minutes, he pondered that thought, wondering.

He reached a decision.

Turning aside from the screen, he walked to another wall of the room.  A panel
slid aside, revealing a small, dark chamber into which he stepped.

He spoke one word.

"Armory."

The computer rocketed the lift down into the shaft.

*	*	*

For a few moments, everyone but the knight remained motionless, startled by the
sudden reversal.  But then the creature reached for his mace, grasping it with
one hand, and, as he did, his strength seemed to return.  The ripples the
Scepter's power left on his armor seemed to smooth, as if an enormously
powerful hand brushed aside the imperfections, making the metal strong once
more.

And the knight sprang into motion.

At the same time, the scouts seemed to unfreeze.  Serena, obviously completely
drained, and now shocked by the destruction of her weapon, started to collapse,
caught at the last moment by Sailor Jupiter.  Darian, seeing his love caught,
reversed his course, throwing himself at the knight.

And almost getting his hand smashed by the heavy head of the mace.  At the last
moment, he managed to dodge sideways, and strike at the knight with his cane.

An armored hand caught his arm easily in midair, and tossed him aside as if he
were not worth wasting energy on.  The young prince slammed into the wall of a
building and slid to the ground, unconscious from the impact.

A beam of energy interlaced with fire and bubbles slammed into the knight,
three scouts attacking.  A short moment later, a dragon made of lightning
smashed into the figure as Serena regained her feet and Lita was able to
release her.  A bird of fire followed rapidly, then a blast of frozen air.

For a few moments, it seemed as if the attacks were holding the armored figure
back, buffeted by the energy directed at it.  Though it seemed as impervious as
ever, it was obvious that the blast of the scepter left it damaged.

It was not enough.

With a surge of strength, the creature brought the mace around, throwing it
directly at Serena.  The princess, still in shock, could not react fast enough,
and Sailor Jupiter dove at her, throwing her out of the way.

But it was not fast enough, for the mace grazed Lita's side and arm, throwing
her to the ground in pain.  The mace smashed into the ground, showering the two
scouts with pieces of concrete, and they stayed down, not moving.

The heavy weapon abruptly jerked itself out of the ground, and, ignoring the
scouts, flew back to its owner.

The knight leapt forward before the other three scouts could react, attacking
with inhuman speed.  From one side, two cats leapt forward, their claws
extended in a futile effort to stop the metal figure.  The creature did not
even bother to brush them off as they hit the armor, painfully bounced to one
side.

Then the knight was in the middle of the three scouts.  One metal hand slammed
into Ami's side, sending her flying to land on the hard ground, unconscious.
The other gauntlet caught the mace as it returned, gripping it easily by the
handle. The weapon went to the other side, trying to hit Rei.  The red scout
dodged into the swing, avoiding the mace but getting hit on her head with the
metal hand holding the weapon.  She collapsed to the ground without
resistance.

A barrage of meteors slammed at point blank range into the knight, bouncing off
the metal plates.  He seemed to huddle for a moment, fighting the flow, then
straightened.  One hand reached out, grasping Mina's arm, the other drew the
mace backward, cocking it for a swing.

It whistled through the air toward her side.



Darian opened his eyes half way, the world spinning around his eyes, his ears
ringing.  With a painful movement, he forced everything into focus.

Around him, scouts littered the ground, all unconscious or unable to move.  To
one side, Lita lay on top of Serena, both covered with concrete and blood, both
apparently out of it. The prince could feel that Serena was alive, though in
shock, but Lita-  He saw the green scout's side lift and fall, and sighed in
relief.  At least they were both alive.

But to the front-

To either side of the knight, Rei and Ami lay on the ground in crumpled heaps,
obviously unconscious.  But the thing that horrified Darian was Mina, held
immobile by the knight.

While the mace was ready to strike.

Tuxedo Mask tried to force himself to move, but he was too far away.  He opened
his mouth, nothing but a squeak coming out. There was nothing he could do but
watch as the heavy weapon started to come across.

The a brilliant flash of light partially blinded him.  For a moment, Darian got
a feeling of deja vu, as a blast of white energy slammed into the knight from
somewhere above.  The blast was followed by another, and another, continued in
a straight of white bursts.
The armored figure was forced back, releasing Mina, bathed in pure white
flames.
Darian looked up, trying to distinguish the source of the blasts, but the
flashes merely blinded him, and he looked down once more.  He counted the
scouts mentally, then wondered who was creating the blasts.

The knight, grasping at himself, still holding on to the mace, seemed almost
frantic.  The flames continued to attack him, slamming into his armor.

Then a blast seemed to miss, impacting on the pavement below.  The rest of the
string of attacks followed, until it stopped and Darian figured out that the
knight had disappeared.
Slowly, the prince staggered to his feet.  He raised his head, trying to make
out who their rescuer was.  A black figure stood on top of a building, holding
something in its hands, looking down. It was already getting dark, and the
clouds gathered around whoever it was, hiding him in the shadows, obscuring his
face.  But there weren't that many people Darian knew who dressed in all
black.

The black shape seemed to crouch for a moment, then leapt down from the
building, landing lightly.

"Better late than never, huh?" The prince asked lightly.

"On the contrary," Nakiad responded seriously, "I believe my timing is
perfect."  Held easily in one hand, the object Nakiad had noticed before swung
back and forth.  It looked something like a shotgun crossed with an uzi, then
all of that on steroids.  A slight trail of smoke rose from the barrel, blown
away by the wind.

To one side, Ami and Rei began to move slowly with the help of Mina.  The
orange scout glanced gratefully at the Chosen, then turned back to her task.
To one side, meanwhile, Serena got from under Jupiter, somewhat shaken.

Then Darian noticed the blood on Lita's side.  He had seen it before, but it
had not really registered on his conscious mind as human blood, the result of a
serious injury.  He moved there quickly, followed by Nakiad.

Lita stirred a little, and raised her head to look at the princess. "Did we
win?" The green scout asked weakly.

Serena shook her head. "Oh, Lita, you're all right," she said in relief. "I was
worried that-" she broke off suddenly.

Lita raised her uninjured hand weakly toward Serena. "Hey, girl, don't be like
that.  It's not that bad."  She demonstrated by sitting up with a little help
from Darian.  The other three scouts came up as well, gathering around the
inured girl.

Ami examined the wound with a scan from her computer. "It looks worse than it
is," the blue scout sighed in relief. "Though the wounds are pretty nasty, they
are also shallow.  they should heal pretty easily, as soon as we can get you
cleaned up."

"Where are Luna and Artemis?"

"Right here," Artemis answered, coming up with the other guardian. Both cats
looked a little bedraggled, but obviously not badly hurt.  "I think we had
better leave."

For a few moments, everyone was a bit confused, then Nakiad sighed. "I am
beginning to hate the police."

"What?"  Then Darian heard it too. With their better hearing, the cats heard
the sirens first, but everyone could hear the rhythmic alarm approaching.

Luna came up to them. "How about we finish this somewhere else?"  She paused,
looking up. "Lita, you feel up to getting up on that roof?" The black cat
pointed to the building with one forepaw.  A fire escape ladder was drawn up,
making a gap of some five or ten meters at the bottom, something that would not
have been a problem for a scout ordinarily.

"Sure," the green scout nodded. "I'm fine, really."  She winced a little at
saying that, but seemed able to move.

"Let's go, then."

*	*	*

Well, there go the cops, Darian thought looking down from the rooftops.  Below,
several of the cars were leaving while more were arriving.  Unlike the previous
attacks, this one did not leave much evidence.  Only in two places was the
pavement damaged at all, and scorched in a bunch of others.

"Darian?"  Nakiad called him over, and the prince walked up to the rest of the
group.  Lita had been expertly bandaged by Ami, with cloth that Nakiad produced
from somewhere on his belt of pouches.  The material was black, like almost
everything the Chosen wore, but it had been pronounced sterile by the blue
scout, so it had to be OK.  Darian shrugged mentally, not having any knowledge
of medicine beyond first aid.  He thought back to the time when Zoicite had
wounded him, when he had not even bandaged himself. There had been other things
to worry about then, of course, but that wound had hurt him. And it had been
obvious to everyone around, giving him away to Serena.

Getting her involved with that fight.

Then he smiled a little, remembering the revelation he had about who she was,
and the one she had about him.  It had been quite a day.  And not with a
particularly good ending, he remembered, turning grim.

Nakiad had been talking, the prince suddenly realized, and forced himself to
pay attention. The Chosen was talking about the weapon he used to attack the
knight, hefting it in one hand as if it were a visual aid.  "...it could not
have caused any damage, it merely frightened him because of the scrambling
effect it has on exterior perception."  Ami nodded while most of the rest
looked blank and Nakiad almost smiled. "It confused him.  But it is no match
for his armor, nothing short of a nuclear explosion is, and he will realize
that as soon as he checks out the damage, of which there is none.  The only
reason he really left was because it was an unknown at a time when he was
already damaged."
xxx
"So basically, what you are telling us is that weapon only scared him off,
without hurting him."

"Right, Ami."

"Um, guys," Darian interrupted. "Those cops might take it into their heads to
check the roof out. Especially if they have a chopper somewhere around here."

Nakiad nodded. "If the next attack continues in that pattern, then it will be
at about four, tomorrow morning."  Serena looked at him in horror at the early
time, without making the slightest effect on his expression. "I think we need
to talk, and plan for that attack.  Do you think you can all come to my place
for the night?  You can tell your folks that you are staying over at Rei's or
something."

The scouts did not answer, but Luna nodded. "Yes, we can arrange that."

"Good," Nakiad sighed and fell silent for a few moments before continuing.
"Lita, you need any help to get home?"

The green scout flexed her arm gingerly, then with more confidence. "Naah, it's
not nearly as bad as it looked.  I'll be all right."

He nodded. "Still, I think we should come with you to your house, at least,
just in case."  Several of the scouts nodded, and she relented.

"All right, then, let's go."

*	*	*

"So, you failed me again."  The Dark Lord smiled to himself, looking at the
knight.  The minion had done well in causing the swords to be destroyed, well
enough to forgive his mistake.  And the creature had disarmed the princess, the
leader of the Sailor Scouts.  But he was the Shadow, the Dark Lord.

He did not forgive.

The knight seemed to merely stare in his direction. "This is the last time.  If
you do not destroy at least a part of the sailor scouts, or the Chosen, then-"
He let his voice trail off as he glanced toward the minion in the crystal,
almost free.

The creature seemed to glare once more, then turned away.

So did the Dark Lord, satisfied.  The warrior was angry now, both at the
Shadow, and at Nakiad for tricking him.  And anger fueled the power of those
serving the dark forces, those who served under the Dark Lord.

So, Chosen, he thought darkly, you are not entirely out of tricks yet. But that
does not matter, for your swords are destroyed, and no amount of artifice will
save you now.  With satisfaction, the dark figure glanced over the almost
completed  gateway, the passage to the Universe.

The knight moved a little, catching the Shadow's glance.  The other now seemed
to glare at the creature that had stood next to him in his prison of Eternal
Sleep.  The entrapped warrior was almost free, a thin layer of crystal
separating him barely from freedom.  Dark, red eyes burned with a ferocity as
it seemed to strive for freedom.

The Dark Lord turned away, waiting.

He had waited millennia for the day when he could take over the Universe
unobstructed.

He could wait a while longer.

*		*

"Oh, Luna, what am I going to do?"  Serena cried to the black cat.

All of the scouts, as well as the two guardians and Darian, were assembled at
Nakiad's rather eccentric house.  The room they were occupying at the moment
was large enough to hold all of them comfortably, but it was cast in dark,
somber tones.  Nothing in the room was black precisely, but every color was
subdued, giving an impression of grief.

In the time it took to come there, Serena had gotten over the shock that came
with losing the battle, and almost losing her life.  Now the reality of the
situation was sinking in.

She had lost the Moon Scepter, the single most powerful weapon she ever had.

And the only thing with enough power to let her destroy the knight.

"Serena," the black cat sighed, hanging her head. "I do not know," she
admitted. "The Scepter was a gift from Queen Serenity, one of great power.  I
do not know if you can fight without it, and I do not have anything with that
kind of strength.  I am sorry, I can not help you this time."

Nakiad and Artemis exchanged glances, and the white cat spoke. "You want to
try, or should I?"

The man shook his head. "I suspect that you are better at it, you try it."

The cat nodded. "Serena."  For several moments, the girl did not respond, then
finally lifted her head. "It is kind of difficult to explain-" he paused,
gathering his thoughts, then continued. "You are the Princess of the Moon.  As
the direct heir to the throne, you receive the power and the responsibility
that comes with that position, such as the crystal and the need to fight the
Negaverse.  But the way this happens is more direct that you might think."  The
scout slowed in her crying, listening to the cat. "Remember, when you were in
the starlight tower?  What happened to the Rainbow Crystals then?"

The sadness in Serena made the answer take a while to get there. "They came to
me, and formed the Imperium Silver Crystal," she finally answered.

"Right," the cat agreed. "But why?"

"Because.." She paused. "Because Zoicite cheated?"

Artemis stared at her. "Partially, perhaps.  But not the only reason.  Remember
what you did when the crystals came, remember what was happening."

"I.. Darian got hit by the crystal instead of me.. and I was crying."

"Yes.  And the crystals came to *you* Serena, they came to your tear.  Do
you know why?"

"Because..."  The girl paused for a long moment. "Because I'm the Princess?"

The cat smiled. "Yes Serena, you are the Princess.  But the crystals did not
come to you because they recognized you as the heir to the Moon Kingdom."  The
scout looked doubtful, but did not interrupt. "In fact, they did not come to
you at all."

"Wha-  But we saw them," Rei objected.  Artemis glanced at the red scout and
she fell silent.

"Then what did they do?"  Serena asked quietly.

"They did nothing.  You did it, Serena, *you*.  You brought the crystals
to yourself, subconsciously, and you united them into the Imperium Silver
Crystal."

The girl shook her head. "I do not remember."  But she seemed thoughtful. "But
even if I did, why does that matter now?"

"Because, Serena, the power of the Moon is not in any of the objects you carry.
It wasn't in the wand and it wasn't in the Scepter.  In a way, it isn't even in
the crystal, though it holds the energy for you like a battery holds energy for
a flashlight."

Serena merely looked at him, not understanding, and the cat continued. "The
power of the Moon is in you, the Princess, not in anything else.  And as the
Princess you have the ability to call on that power whenever you wish."  The
cat paused. "If you believe that you can."

The room was silent for several seconds, then Serena blinked. "But I was never
able to do anything before I got the magical objects.  So I need them, I need
them to fight."

The white cat glanced at Nakiad, and the man nodded, interrupting. "Serena."
She looked at him. "They are nothing but tools.  Do you agree with that, at
least?"

She seemed to think for a moment, then nodded. "Perhaps, but they made me who I
am."

"No, Serena," the Chosen stopped her. "In the end, no tool is more powerful
than the person that wields it.  The power of a hammer is not in the thing
itself, but in the arm of the person using it.  And so, the strength of the
Scepter was naught more than your strength put forward in a focused way."

"But...  Then I need the scepter to focus my powers."

Nakiad sighed. "Let me try something else.  Scouts, to attack, you need to
speak certain words to summon your powers, right?"

The scouts did not answer for he had told them several times in the training
that they did not need to.

"Wrong.  Listen to me. Mina, remember when we were training, before I felt the
Dark Lord awaken.  When you were in the virtual world.  What did you do
inside?"

Mina wrinkled her forehead, obviously trying to remember.  Then she brightened.
"Well, those two beasts were attacking us, and they were anticipating our
attacks by the words.  So I tried striking with the beam without saying
anything, just by concentrating."  She looked at Nakiad. "But nothing happened.
I felt something strange, but nothing happened."

The Chosen smiled. "But it did.  The world you were in was not real, it was
imaginary, designed to interact with you as if you were there.  But you were
not, you were inside mechanical suits whirling in a sort of a cage.  So I made
the program to recognize it when you used your powers, and approximate their
real effects.  In fact, if you recall, you were not there as Sailor Scouts,
because you would have destroyed the suits with your blasts, since they would
have come out in real life."

Mina nodded. "So nothing happened because nothing *could* happen."

Nakiad smiled a little again. "But it *did* happen.  When you
concentrated, you summoned your power, outside of the program parameters."

She looked at him carefully as he continued. "And you almost burned a hole
through one of your gloves."

Mina sat back, surprise plainly written over her face. "Then.."

"And the rest of you scouts.  All of you, at some point in your training, have
tried to attack without saying the words that summoned the power.  Usually,
those attacks either failed, or were very weak.  But the fact that you could do
it at all points to one thing.  Mina, you used your power without ever being a
sailor scout, without using your transformation stick.  You had the power, and
you used it."

The scouts looked at him not speaking, and he finished. "The power is in you,
not in the words you speak, not in the tools you use.  Now, Serena, do you
understand?"

The blonde looked at him strangely. "I am not sure."  Nakiad sighed, looking at
Artemis helplessly, then the girl continued. "But I believe you."

The two looked at her, then at each other, and smiled.

The white cat then turned serious.  "But remember Serena, you have to believe
in yourself.  The power is within you, you have to let it come out, but you
also have to control it."
Serena nodded once more. "I understand."

"Good."  Artemis smiled. "In fact, great."

Then the scouts noticed something strange.  The room, so somber and dark
before, seemed to have brightened with everyone's mood, lightening the group's
feelings. The dark colors seemed to have grown brighter, the light seemed more
evenly distributed.  Even Artemis, usually somber, was smiling.

"All right," Nakiad interrupted the celebratory mood for a moment.  "We have to
get up pretty early tomorrow, so everyone better get some rest."  The two
guardians nodded, supporting the statement. "There are rooms for everyone, in
whatever combination you choose, just out that door."  He sighed. "I'll join
you shortly, I guess."

Mina looked at him strangely and seemed about to protest, but he looked back,
shaking his head slightly, and she relented.

The scouts filed out of the room slowly, glancing back at Nakiad as they left
him alone in the again somber room.

He sighed, turning around and leaving through another exit.  After several
seconds of walking, he came to another door, a black entrance set deeply in the
wall.  After a second's hesitation, he stepped forward.  The door slid
noiselessly to one side, opening the way into the black room.

Nakiad ignored the darkness as if he were used to it, as if he had been in the
place so many times that he memorized where everything was.  His feet took him
unerringly to one side of the large chamber, where a small pedestal stood.

On top were the two swords, lying easily on a soft material.

Nakiad closed his eyes, remembering what Guardian taught him of his weapons.

When the first Chosen was created, Nemesis, her weapon of choice was a staff, a
simple piece of wood interlaced with Maraki, a yard and a half in length, an
inch in diameter.  She used that weapon when she fought the Dark Lord, the
first to do so. Somehow, with her strength in it, the stave was able to
withstand the attack of a Maraki blade.

Then she died in stopping the Shadow, the only remainder of her being Guardian,
a creature of energy alone.  The staff had been thought lost forever in that
battle, unrecoverable from the arena of combat, or destroyed by the Dark
Lord.

Time passed in the Universe, the staff forgotten by many, only Guardian keeping
the memory of the Chosen alive.

So when over a thousand years later, the threat loomed again, a new Chosen was
picked from the best fighters of the Universe.  And something unexpected
happened.

As soon as the Chosen was picked as such, the staff returned.

Not even Guardian, with the combined knowledge and experiences of all the
Chosen, knows why or how the weapon traveled through time, finding each of the
warriors picked to fight the Dark Lord.

But it does.  And for every one of them, it takes up whatever shape its wielder
wishes, as if in recognition of their sacrifices.

When Nakiad was approved as the Chosen, a millennium ago, he found the staff
lying next to him in bed when he woke up the next morning.  And when he grasped
it, when he felt the power of the weapon, power from the best warriors of the
Universe, he knew it was the only thing that could hurt the Dark Lord.

For it was not just a piece of wood, it was a portion of every one of his
predecessors, their courage and their strength, their wisdom.

And their will.

And the weapon returned to him again, when he found himself on Earth, alive
somehow after the battle.

Nakiad sighed, thinking about the two swords lying in front of him.  For every
fighter, the staff takes one alternate form, the form of whatever weapon that
Chosen prefers in normal life.  For him, it was the two thin swords, with
blades of Maraki, capable of withstanding almost any attack.

Almost any.

Nakiad snapped out of his thoughts.

On the pedestal, the fragments of the swords were already joined together,
forced to a whole by the power of Nakiad's will.  At every point where the link
had been made, a white line glowed brightly, as the healing process of the
weapon continued.

But it was going slow, far too slow for it to be of any help to him in the
fight that was coming.  The clean break of the Staff in their last encounter
had taken almost a month to completely regenerate, and the swords had not even
been damaged then, only the staff.  Now, the Maraki blades were in shards, each
piece carrying power within itself, but not enough to bond them as quickly as
Nakiad needed it.

The Chosen closed his eyes, sighing. "I promised, my Queen.  But what can I
do?"

The blackness of memories swept aside his thoughts, buried them far away where
he lost them for a time.

*	*	*

It was a thousand years and a universe away, yet it seemed as real as what was
happening here and now.

The Dark Lord slipped away from his own sword, laughing as he vanished before
Nakiad's eyes.  A physical pain added to the mental one as the Chosen realized
that in his hesitation he failed, and he felt himself slide backward.

The Shadow's sword, with which he had planned to destroy the Dark Lord, faded
from his grasp, the arena blurred.  A fog obscured everything he saw as he
floated through the air, afterimages flashing at him from the corners of his
eyes.  But when he turned to look, he saw nothing, felt nothing.

Am I dead? He wondered, but the question lacked the urgency he would have
thought it carried.

For he deserved to be, he knew that.  He had failed, in his hesitation he had
allowed the Shadow to escape, and he deserved to die.

Time might have passed, or it might have been standing still, he had no
knowledge of that, no way of telling.

The fog around him was complete, hiding everything around him, taking away all
of the references that Nakiad needed to understand what was going on.  His
usually accurate time sense was not working at all.

And so he floated, not fighting the currents of the air, not letting himself
hope.

A second might have passed, or a century.  He had no way of telling, no clock,
no time piece.  Even his thoughts seemed to run unnaturally, not letting him
judge by them.

But he was not to rest there forever, for he felt something.  It was hard to
perceive at first, the weakness of it making it almost impossible to even feel,
but it was there.  As if someone had tied a string to him, and was pulling the
man somewhere, somewhere against the direct current of the fog.

<Help me.>

Did he really hear that?  The voice seemed to come from nowhere, as if Guardian
was speaking to him, but different, much different.  The protector's thoughts
were always strong, inspiring, whereas the voice he thought he heard was weak
and far away.  A part of his mind told him he should be able to recognize the
voice, though none of his memories that should have told him who it was seemed
to be there.

But for some reason, an urge to fight came over Nakiad, and he tried to move,
move himself against the fog, toward the pull of the invisible string, toward
the unknown voice.
And nothing happened.  His arms continued as they were, spread out slightly to
either side, his legs slightly separated and relaxed.  It was as if he had
never tried.

He forced another jerk, and it also failed without reaching his body.

<Help me.>

The voice was louder and seemed closer, but it was also weaker, as if the
speaker was tired.  With sudden inspiration, Nakiad looked within himself, his
eyes closing somehow, though he had no control over the rest of his body.

In his mind, he imagined himself moving, moving with the string, against the
current.

A strange feeling took over his body, as if something was happening, but he did
not dare to open his eyes.  Some part of him that was almost instinctive told
him that if he lost the concentration, he would lose all that he had gained.
For a period of time the length of which he could not tell, he felt himself
moving toward the location of the voice.

Then he stopped.

He felt the fog stop flowing over him, the string stop its pull.

For a time, he did not know what to do, then realized he had no choice.

And he opened his eyes.

He was in a small darkened chamber, lit only by a slight bluish glow that came
through the windows, and the light of the stars.  Outside was the landscape of
the moon, with the buildings of the Imperial Palace covering the ground.

He recognized the place from the surrounding landscape, for he had never been
there. It was one of the few rooms in the Imperial Palace forbidden to all but
the Royal Family.  It was a single round room, on top of a tower that rose high
above most of the other buildings, and Nakiad had wondered sometimes what was
there.

But he did not concentrate on his surroundings for long, as there was something
else he automatically focused on.

Sitting on her knees on the floor was a person in a long white dress, with two
lengths of hair coming down from her head to the ground.

It was Queen Serenity.

In front of her, lying on the ground, was the Imperium Silver Crystal, glowing
slightly against the stone floor, illuminating a small circle of gray.

The Queen did not move, her head bowed toward the ground, her eyes closed.
Somehow, Nakiad understood that she could not see him, but she had been able to
summon him here, and it had to be for a reason.

But there was no way he could tell her that he was there.

He did not need to, for she seemed to know he was.  Or she thought he might be,
and hoped for it, without being sure.

"Chosen."  She said the word suddenly, making him jerk back a little.  He found
out that he could control his body to an extent, though it had no substance.
He could not exit a circle drawn on the floor, and he could not actually move
the parts of his body separately, not counting his face.  But he could think of
where to move with his mind, and his body obeyed.

Serenity continued to speak. "I do not know if you are here or not, but I pray
that you hear me now.  It seems impossible for someone to survive an encounter
with the Dark Lord, but the images the crystal had given definitely say that
you are alive, in a way."  The Queen sighed. "But the images are also hazy at
best, impossible to truly distinguish."

"I hear you, Queen," Nakiad answered, but Serenity did not react.  He realized
that if she did not know if he was there or not, and could not sense it one way
or the other, then she probably could not hear him.

"I have felt your encounter with the Dark Lord, it reflected in the crystal as
such combat always does, and I know what has happened.  I could feel your pain,
your sense of failure, at the least. Know, then, Chosen, that you have stood up
against the ultimate warrior of the Negaverse, and you have survived.  In that,
you have accomplished something that no one ever did."

Nakiad looked at her, trying to see if she knew what really happened.  Somehow,
he thought she did, for the holder of the crystal had many powers.  And if she
did, she was not blaming him.

"But there is also danger, both now, and in the future.  The crystal has told
me this much, at least, and I know some of what is to come."

He frowned, feeling grief coming from the Queen.

She drew in a haggard breath, then continued. "I know, that in a very small
time, this will all be over."  What?  He wanted to yell out, but kept silent.
His training taught him self control, and she would not hear him.  And he
needed to hear her. "A new warrior seems to have taken over in the Negaverse,
someone called  Queen Beryl.  She has already launched a strike against Earth,
and she will be coming here next."

"We will not be able to withstand the attack."  Though the voice of the Queen
did not change, Nakiad saw the face grieve.

"The Moon Kingdom will be destroyed.  And I will die with it."

"What?"  He could not stop himself from saying it, but the Queen did not
hear.

She shook her head slightly. "I do not grief for my death, nor should you.  I
have lived long, and I have been happy.  I have been blessed with a wonderful
child who can carry on my line.."  Her voice trailed off, then strengthened.
"That is the only thing I am sad about.  I will never see my daughter again."

Nakiad looked at her in horror, for he was realizing something.  The shift of
balance in the Negaverse was probably due to the strange combat he faced with
the Shadow.

If he had killed the Shadow, it might not have happened.

It was his fault.

The destruction of the kingdom was on his head.

The death of Queen Serenity was his fault.

"I'm sorry, my Queen."  But that would do nothing, she could not hear him, she
could not see him.

And yet, she did not blame him.

The room became blurred for a moment, and Nakiad blinked the tear away
furiously.  If Serenity could face her death so calmly, then he could face his
fate as well.

He could not escape his responsibility, and he would not try to.

A sudden hardness came from inside him, as if a promise was being made, a pact
within himself that he had to create.

And he was calm once more.

The Queen fell silent for several moments, as if knowing the effect of her last
statement would have on him, and was waiting, then she continued. "I know that
in the end, I will use the crystal, and that somehow, I will succeed in
trapping Beryl back in the Negaverse.  And I know that somehow, in some way, my
children, and all who are here on the Moon, will be reborn in new bodies, back
on Earth, a long time from now."

"It is that which worries me, Chosen, for the rest of the things the crystal
can tell me are very vague.  I know that the Princess, along with her court,
the Sailor Scouts, will be reborn at a time when there is need for them, and I
know that evil will threaten the Universe once more.  But I do not know whether
it is Queen Beryl breaking free of the Negaverse, or something different.  All
I know is that the scouts will be needed."

Serenity sighed, pausing for a moment, then continued in a slower voice. "The
crystal also showed me your future, to a certain point.  When you regain some
power, you will be rematerialized on Earth, just as the Dark Lord has come back
to the Negaverse every time he is stopped.  But after that...  I am not sure in
what way that will be, but I suspect that you need only wait until you have
enough power, then wish yourself there. The crystal says that a long time will
pass before the Dark Lord breaks free.  And you will face him, and you will
fight once more for the balance of power."  Once more the Queen shook her head.
"But after that, the future gets blurred, difficult to read.  The outcome of
the fight is not known, for that would cause paradox, but it is not the last of
the battles you will have.  A very short time after, your destinies come
together again in a single instant."

The Queen sighed. "You must know this.  The crystal does not tell me what
happens in that encounter, merely that there is one. But after that, there is
nothing I can see about you, nothing the crystal can see.  After that, your
destiny is your own."

"Nakiad."  For the first time in all the years he had known her, she used his
given name. "According to the crystal, the Dark Lord's return and the rebirth
of the scouts will be at approximately the same time.  But you cannot help them
any more than they can help you, for the fight of the scouts is their own.  If
they do not triumph of their own accord, it is the same as if they lose." She
bowed her head lower. "I know your feeling for Sailor Venus, but remember.  If
you try to help them before the return of the Dark Lord, it might mean the doom
of the Universe."

The Queen breathed deeply once, inhaling and exhaling, and the crystal pulsed.
During the conversation, it had grown dimmer, and now was almost extinguished.
"When you regain enough strength Guardian will find you, and he will be able to
tell you more."

"Nakiad."  She looked up suddenly, staring at him, though he knew she could not
see him. "There is one more thing.  When the crystal told me of your future, it
flashed dark, as if there are black times ahead of you. I do not know if you
win or lose, and I can do nothing about that now.  You are as ready as you have
ever been. But no matter what happens, no matter how bad things get in the
future, I want something from you." She paused, looking straight at him. "It is
not for me to ask anything from you, but I ask for this alone."

She seemed to gather courage, the crystal growing brighter for a moment,
illuminating her face in stark shadows. "Don't ever give up.  No matter how bad
things may seem, there is always hope."

The Queen's voice began to fade, the crystal almost completely dark now, and
Nakiad jerked.  "I promise, Serenity."  He knew she could not hear him, but it
did not matter.  "I promise."



Nakiad sighed, opening his eyes. "And I never have," he spoke aloud.

Then he sighed, looking down at the swords.  But what can I do? He thought
silently.

<I do not know.>  Guardian answered, appearing behind him. <Every Chosen
that has ever been needed the staff to just keep the Dark Lord in the Negaverse
for a thousand years.  You are the only one who has ever managed to survive the
encounter.  But without the staff..>

<Without the staff, I am helpless.> Nakiad finished for him.

Guardian seemed to think for a moment. <I wonder..>

<What?>

The light pulsed. <There are so many memories.>  Nakiad sighed,
remembering that Guardian contained the combined experiences of an uncounted
number of Chosen. <There might be another way.>

<What other way?>

<I do not know.  But there is rarely a real life problem that has a single
solution.>
Nakiad sighed. <But you have no idea what it is.>

<No.>  For several moments, Guardian was silent. <But.. about the staff.
Remember what you told Serena.>

He thought for a moment, then had it. <In the end, no tool is more powerful
than the person that wields it.>  Could it be that he had the ability to
defeat the Dark Lord without the staff? "But that doesn't work," he protested
aloud. "The staff contains in it the power and knowledge of all the Chosen.  It
gives me strength and power, and it balances the advantage of the Dark Sword.
Without it, I would be cut down in a moment."
<The statement is true, nevertheless.>  Guardian answered. <This, at
least, I know.>
"Then there should be a way to defeat the Shadow without the weapon, and there
isn't, so it's *not* true."

Guardian paused. <Perhaps.>

Nakiad glared at the other, then sighed and walked out of the room.

Behind him, the white light hung for a few moments in the air before
vanishing.



He paced slowly down the darkened hallway, past the doors of the scouts.  He
could feel their mental presence behind each door.  Serena and Darian were
sleeping in one room, the prince probably staying with her to let her relax
before the battle.  For a moment, he paused by the door, thinking about
something, then realized that it was none of his business and moved on.

Lita and Rei were in rooms opposite each other, the red scout's mind suggesting
that she was meditating instead of sleeping.  For her, it probably amounted to
the same thing.
In the next room, Luna and Artemis were asleep, the generally worried minds
relaxed in the slumber.

Through the next door, Nakiad felt Mina's regular breathing.  For a moment, he
stopped, wondering why she had sent Artemis away, but the answer was obvious.
For a moment, his hand slid slowly to the panel that would let him inside, then
he remembered the last time they had been together before a fight.  He jerked
the arm back angrily, and forced himself to keep going.  Then he stopped, and
felt to her with his mind, concentrating.  With a gentle force, he smoothed out
her thoughts, letting her rest in peace.  This much, at least, he could do.
The mental link between them allowed them to sense each other's feelings, but
it took all of his mental discipline to be able to do even as much as he did.

Ami occupied the next room, and she was not asleep.  No crack of light slipped
under the doorway, which sealed the entrance completely, but there was no way
Nakiad could mistake a sleeping mind for one that was awake.

He knocked softly on the door.

"Come in."  Her voice came through, muffled slightly by the door between them.
He pressed a button next to the entrance and the door opened outward.

Inside, Ami was sitting at a desk with the lights on.  In front of her was her
computer, ready and obviously working.

Nakiad sighed. "I thought I told everyone to get some sleep."

Ami looked over at him. "Well, you aren't, obviously."

"Aren't what?"

"Asleep."

He forced himself to relax. "I don't need as much as normal humans- or scouts,"
he added before she could say anything. "And I was on my way."

Ami nodded. "Right."  Somehow, she did not sound convinced. "Look, there's a
virus in my computer, and I need to get it out.  There's a possibility that
it's going to be needed tomorrow."

He nodded, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "So where did you get it,
anyway?"

She glanced at him sideways. "Actually, as near as I can tell, the computer I
hacked into to get the location of the swords was protected with it."

"I suppose it's pretty bad, since you are still up.  Seems that you should have
been able to get rid of it long ago."

"It's a nasty little sucker.."  She trailed off, almost speaking to herself.
"Adapted itself to a system made thousands of years ago on a different
planet... then keeps coming back after I kill it."

"Coming back?  How is that possible?"

"Well, it seems to die, but in doing so, it integrates itself with the programs
around it, making them part of itself.  So what I get is a larger problem."

Nakiad suddenly straightened, as if he was surprised, thought the scout did not
notice, busy tapping out a sequence of keys.

She smiled. "There, it's gone," she said, turning it off and putting it to one
side.   Then her mouth stretched in a wide yawn. "Sorry," she smiled
apologetically, "normally I'm a night owl, but it's been a rough day."

"I'll go," he answered, distracted, "I have to do something anyway."  He got up
quickly.

"Is something wrong?"

He glanced back, obviously preoccupied. "No, nothing.  Goodnight."  The door
closed behind him, and Ami stared for a moment at his exit, the second one to
do so in several minutes.



"Guardian."

The white light appeared a split moment later, summoned by Nakiad's command.
<What is it?>

He needed to hear his own thoughts, so he kept talking out loud. "Can you be
destroyed?"

The light seemed to think. <Not as far as I know.>

Nakiad looked at the other.



<That's suicide, bloody suicide.>

"Yes," Nakiad answered grimly. "Do you have any other ideas?"

The light paused. <No>, it admitted finally, <but there is no way this
can possibly work.>

Nakiad looked at him for several moments. "You are probably right."  But I'm
not giving up.  I'm not! He swore silently.

<Very well.>

Slowly, as if unsure of himself, the Chosen lifted one hand, reaching out to
touch the globe.  As his fingers contacted the shining surface, a blinding
light filled the previously dark room.

*	*	*

"Wake up, meatball head."  The voice was gentle, but the injunction was not,
and Serena groaned, slowly opening her eyes.  She found herself staring into
Darian's eyes from several inches away.

"Morning, muffin."  She suddenly remembered that she had asked him to stay with
her during the night.  She straightened out, shaking off sleep with a speed
that might have astonished Luna, had the black cat been there to see it.  To
Serena's surprise, she did not feel any aches from the seemingly uncomfortable
position in which she spent the night.  She had expected her clothes to chafe
during sleep, but Darian had insisted on them, for some reason.

The princess sighed.  She was not as ignorant as some of her friends believed,
she thought darkly about Rei, thought.  Still, she knew it would be
uncomfortable sleeping the way she did, in Darian's arms, for a long period of
time.

Only it hadn't been.

If anything, she had one of the best nights of rest in her life, without even
sleeping an overly huge amount of time.  Now, the sun was shining, birds were
singing, and she was ready to face the knight.

Sun?  Birds? Serena snapped her eyes open, looking at the patch of space that
seemed to be a window.  She was absolutely sure that the rooms they occupied
were deep underground, as was most of the Nakiad's house.  Then Serena
remembered that it should be before three in the morning, since the attack was
to come around four, and they had to be ready by then.  And there was no way
there should have been this much sun that early in the day.

Darian followed her gaze to the window as she tried to lever herself out of the
large armchair, and smiled. "Oh.  I already tried to figure out how that
works."  He walked over to the window, behind which impossibly green fields
stretched out for as far as Serena could see.  With a slight smile, he reached
out with one hand, stretching it out to the window, then stopped.  It was as if
there was a wall there through which the hand could not pass.  Darian's smiled
increased a little as he exerted force against the wall, pushing his hand in.
The scene around his hand began to distort, losing its depth and becoming only
part of a picture.  After a moment, he released the scene, letting it go back
to the way it was before. He shrugged.  "Seems to be some kind of illusion."

Serena shook her head in wonder. "Well, I like it."  Then she paused, becoming
aware of another feeling. "Um.. where's the bathroom?"



"Tea, coffee, molash?"

Mina sat down at the table with a sigh, rubbing her eyes a little.  All of the
others were already seated around the table, and looking at her. "Um.. what's
molash?"

Nakiad almost smiled. "Kind of like coffee, only stronger."

Lita suddenly interrupted him. "Don't try it, Mina."

"Why not?"

The green scout made a gagging sound. "Because it tastes horrible, and feels
like swallowing fire."

Nakiad turned toward her a little. "It did wake you up, didn't it?"

"Yeah, but so would a cup of battery acid, but you wouldn't want to drink that
now would you?," Lita grumbled darkly. Still, the scout looked amazingly awake
compared to everyone else, her eyes wide open, and her face calm. "Why didn't
you drink it, then?"

The Chosen shook his head. "I don't need it."  He raised his cup, filled with
tea, to his lips, sipping.

Mina sighed, smiling a little. "I'll take the coffee."

For several moments, the scouts continued in silence, stoking up for the fight.
For a moment, the orange scout wondered just how large the underground complex
really was, since she did not remember the table or the room, so she had not
been there before.

Nakiad put his cup down softly, looking up. "All right, Scouts.  And guardians,
and Darian," he added with a sigh. "In a bit over-" he glanced over at the
clock on the wall "-forty five minutes, the knight will strike again.  Or
should anyway.  Your job is simple, keep him busy while Sailor Moon uses her
power to destroy him."

The others looked at each other a little strangely, but did not object.  Serena
did, on the other hand. "What if I can't do it?"

"But you can, princess, and you will.  You have the power within you, all you
have to do is let it come out."

"But.."

"Serena," Nakiad stopped her, "the main thing is to believe in yourself.  If
you can do that, you will be able to destroy the knight."

Darian looked at her. "You can do it, Serena, believe in yourself."

The girl sighed and nodded. "All right.  I will try, but.."  She saw a black
cat frowning at her and smiled. "Hey, relax, guys, I can do it."

The black cat shook her head in exasperation. "Big Serena.. little Earth," she
muttered, or something to the same effect.  Several of the scouts frowned at
Luna, but no one asked.

The Rei looked at Nakiad. "Then what?"

"What do you mean, Mars?"

"I mean, you've told us that once we destroy the knight, the Dark Lord will
continue to send monsters after us for as long as he wants.  We can't just let
that happen, we have to do something about it."

He nodded, his expression sad. "I know.  There are two problems, basically, the
immediate and the long term.  Right now, a knight is planning to wreak havoc on
Earth unless it is stopped. That is a job for you, the Sailor Scouts."

"But there is also another problem, a far more serious one, that of the Dark
Lord.  He is the true root of the situation, and until he is gone, we will not
have any rest." Nakiad stared at  Rei. "But that is not a job for the Sailor
Scouts, the Dark Lord is my duty.  Just as you must fight the creature whom he
sends, I must fight the Shadow himself, and stop him."

"But how?"  Lita interrupted him. "I thought you didn't have enough power to
get to the Negaverse."

"Actually, I do not need it, for the bubble universe is easier to get to.  But
that problem is not important anyway, because I have no way of finding out
where the pocket universe is."
"But," he stopped. "Sailor Scouts, do not despair yet.  I do have an idea."

"You have a plan?"

Nakiad sighed. "Well, no.  But I do have an idea about one."  He shook his
head. "Do not worry about that, it is my concern, and mine alone.  It is my
responsibility that he became trapped in the universe he is in, and it is my
duty to stop him from doing any more harm."

Ami looked at him strangely. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah," Lita agreed, "do you know what you are doing?"

He looked at them calmly, with no expression on his face. "Trust me."

Re sighed. "Do we have a choice?"

"No, you do not."



He waited, continuing to sit as everyone filed out of the room to get ready for
the fight.  Only Mina lingered behind, waiting for the rest to be gone, then
she faced him.  Nakiad did not let any expression cross his face, expecting
this.

For a long moment, they merely looked at each other, then Mina sighed. "I sent
Artemis away last night," she began in a conversational tone, then paused.

For a long moment, neither spoke, then Nakiad relented. "I know."

"Do you love me?"

The question cut through him like a sharp blade. "Of course."

"Then why didn't you come?"

Because the last time did not work out so well. He looked at her for a long
moment. "Because I had no right."

A look of pain flashed briefly through her eyes. "You are going to go after him
again, aren't you?"

"I told you, I have no way of knowing where the universe I need is-"

She cut him off. "But you are.  I do not know how, but you are planning to
challenge him again."

He sighed to himself, keeping his face from moving.  He could not lie to her,
not without her knowing.  The link of true love was far too strong for that.

She waited for him to respond, then took his silence as an answer.

As it was.

"The last time, you were barely able to defeat him.  Now, your swords are
destroyed.  He has the ability to send an infinite number of creatures after
us.  And you are going to stand up to him again."

It's the only way, Mina.  How can I do anything less?

"How do you plan to win?"

He stared back at her.

"You aren't are you?" Her eyes began to fill with tears. "You plan on
sacrificing yourself for no reason, without any hope of being able to stop
him."

With one hand, he reached out, gently lifting her chin until she was looking
into his eyes. "I am not sacrificing myself."  A surge of hope sparkled through
those beautiful eyes, then was put down. "I do not know how much of a chance I
have against him, or even if I have a chance.  But there might be a way."

He looked directly at her. "I'm not giving up."

For a long moment, she looked at him in silence, not moving.  And there, he
knew that if she did not allow him to stay, he might not be able to refuse her.
He had broken a promise to her once, it would be almost impossible to do so
again.

You must, a voice inside him said, no matter what she says.

But can I? Another part of him asked quietly.  Even if I can refuse her, will I
have the will to go through with it?

She sobbed, twisting her chin out of his hand, then paused.  Then she nodded,
just once, jerking her head up and down.  "All right.  I.."  She looked back up
at him. "I can no more stop you from your fate than you can from mine. The last
time..."  Nakiad remembered with pain how she made him promise not to go alone.
"I have no right to stop you."

"But-"  She looked at him even more intensely. "Promise me that you will at
least try to come back."

He looked at her in silence for a few moments, and she seemed to sigh. "I'm
sorry," she said quietly. "I did not mean to ask you that."

She began to turn away. "Mina."  With that one word, he stopped her. "I
promise."

Slowly, as if she did not quite believe, she turned to face him.  He nodded
somberly. "I promise."

And she came into his arms.

It was several minutes before they separated a little. "Mina."  She looked at
him easily, her eyes still glistening with tears.  She had been crying all of
the time, the emotions of sorrow and relief joining in one to confuse her
emotions. But there was something else she had to know.

"I have to tell you this.  We are joined by a mental link, you know that.  When
the swords got broken, you felt an echo of my pain, when I'm in danger, you
feel it, and the other way around.  Now, as a crisis approaches, that link will
become stronger, as the one between Darian and Serena does.  You might be able
to feel what happens to me."  He looked at her sadly. "Mina, I do not know what
will happen, but no matter what, you must keep fighting.  You are Earth's last
defense against the knight and ones like him, just as I am against the Dark
Lord."

Mina looked at him in silence, then nodded.

"And Mina.  Remember, in the end, I am the Chosen.  I can not truly die."

She looked at him sadly, then turned away to go and change.

I hope, he said silently to the corridor in which she disappeared.



Darian adjusted his hat, frowning not for the first time at the way his clothes
were shaped. Just because something looks romantic, he thought a bit angrily,
does not mean that it is good in combat.  At the moment, he would have rather
preferred the kind of clothes the Chosen wore, a loose-fitting gi that did not
hamper his movements.

Well, Darian thought once more, actually, this doesn't confine me in any way,
but it sure looks ridiculous.  With an automatic motion, he checked the
position of his cane, and reached inside his jacket to check for several roses,
ready for deployment.  In the process, he brushed against the rose Nakiad had
changed, and a strange tingle went through his fingers.

"Darian?"  He turned around to find Serena standing behind him in full scout
costume.  The prince smiled a little, making sure that she could not see.  She
was never more beautiful than at times like these.  Except when she starts
pigging out of- he cut his thoughts off before they could make a list of times
at which the scout looked more lovely, to him, at least.

"What is it, Princess?"  He took one of her gloved hands, bringing it up to his
lips in a gentlemanly fashion, until she stared blushing.

"Darian," she berated him a little, though she was obviously very pleased.
Then she became serious. "I don't know about this power thing.  I mean, what am
I supposed to say, what do I do?"

"Serena, you don't have to *do* anything.  The power is within you, all
you do is let it out, reach for it with your mind and release it.  There are no
words you have to say, if I understand correctly, nothing you have to really
do.  Just let the power flow."

"I.."

"You can do it Serena, I believe in you."

She smiled a little, her features relaxing. "Thanks, Darian.  I.. I think I
needed that."  He looked at her with a bit of worry as she walked toward the
other scouts.  It was almost unheard of for her to be serious, let alone so
somber.  The last time- he winced, remembering Alan and Ann attacking them
both, and Serena placing herself between him an the blast.

You can do it, Serena, he whispered silently after her.

A hand lay down lightly on one of his shoulders and he turned around, a bit
surprised.  He had not heard anyone come up to him.

It was Nakiad.  Oh, he thought with sudden understanding.  Of course I would
not hear him come up.  The prince had always thought of himself as quiet, his
friends always berating him for sneaking up on them, but the Chosen was
something else.

"Darian, I need to speak with you."

The Chosen seemed somber, even for himself, and Darian wondered if it was
contagious.  First Serena, now him. "Sure, what is it?"

The other seemed to be distracted. "Remember the rose?  The one I-"

"This one?"  Darian asked, taking out the flower Nakiad had altered to be able
to fight shadows.

"Yes."  The Chosen glanced at it, then held out one finger to the
fragile-seeming flower. And touched it.

Darian suddenly had a vision of bright light passing through the extended digit
into the rose, infusing the flower with energy, but at the same time his eyes
told him that nothing happened.

Then Nakiad pulled his hand back, and seemed about to turn around. "Wait.  What
did you do?"

Darian sniffed the flower carefully, finding nothing wrong with it, and nothing
different as the Chosen answered. "You will know."

Without understanding, the prince looked after the other as he went to the
scouts, then looked at the rose.  Somehow, he knew it would not work against
the knight, so it couldn't be that, he thought calmly.  Then what?

With a shrug, he put it away into his tuxedo.

He would find out soon enough, most likely, he thought.



"All right, is everybody ready?"  Luna looked around at the scouts.

They were standing in front of the portal that Nakiad had the ability of
making, preparing to jump through.

"Are you sure the coordinates you gave us are accurate?"  Lita asked the red
scout who was standing beside her.

"As sure as it is possible to be about anything."  Then Rei turned toward
Nakiad for a moment. "Say, where in all of this is Guardian?  You know, the one
who is supposed to protect you and help you?"

The other looked a bit strangely at Rei. "He's here," he answered.  Rei
remembered that the protector was usually invisible and shrugged mentally.  If
he did not want to show, that was none of her business.

"All right, scouts," Luna interrupted. "It's time.  Let's go."

Steeling their stomachs against the violence of the passage through the gate,
they leapt through.

After a few moments, the portal closed, leaving no trace of itself behind.



As always, the transfer between one side of the portal and another felt
instantaneous.  And at the same time long, as if she had spent forever
traveling in a dark space, hurtling through the universe.  This time, Serena
noticed, it seemed to take even longer than usual, perhaps because of the
seriousness of the battle they were going to.

Then suddenly it was over, they were back outside, the well of black that was
nowhere.  Serena fought a wave of nausea that passed over her body, one of the
effects of the gateway that Nakiad could not work out.  It had been getting
better over the month that she used it, but it was still extremely
uncomfortable.

They were in the park, Serena noticed with surprise, then realized it would be
the largest deserted place in the vicinity.  And Nakiad had said something
about portals being easier to make where there were few people to distort
energy.  The sun was not up, and the trees were hanging in an unearthly fog,
concealing many things that should have been clear.  It was as if the park
itself was hiding from them, as if the very trees were on the other side of an
impossibly dark universe.

Concentrate, Serena, a startlingly serious voice came from within her.  This is
important.

Out of the corners of her eyes, she saw her friends in two lines to either side
of her, ready to fight on her side.  A wave of gratitude washed over her, as
effective as the nausea that passed before.  I will not fail you, my friends,
she swore.  I might not be able to defeat this thing, but I am going to try.

No, Serena, a the inner voice said, you must not just try.  You must do it.

Then the princess became distracted from her thoughts as a feeling of cold slid
through her body.  Ahead of her, it was as if someone lit a furnace that
generated cold instead of heat.  The freezing waves came over her, chilling her
mind, but she held steady.  Though before she had been much farther away from
the point of actual appearance, she had felt this before.

I can handle this, she said silently.

Then the air half a dozen yards away from her began to distort, flexing as if
it was no mere gas.  It turned dark all of a sudden, taking the rough shape of
a humanoid figure.
Then the knight appeared.

Despite her previous encounters with him, she flinched away from the
malevolence he radiated, stepped back a little in her mind.

I can't do this, a voice inside her whispered frantically, he is too powerful.
He will swing that mace, and I will be gone, just like that.

Then something made her turn, move her head to one side.

And her eyes met those of Darian.

And she broke free of her fear.  The feeling of cold remained, it was not so
difficult to get rid of.  But an equal warmth, an courage equal to the other's
hate came to her, and she faced the knight.

It seemed to be hesitating, probably unsure what it was supposed to do.  As far
as it knew, the princess was supposed to be helpless, so why should she be
here?

Serena smiled to herself, thinking that, then concentrated.  You are about to
get a major surprise, Negatrash.

With a deliberate motion, she closed her eyes.

Around her, the world seemed to recede a little, the things happening outside
fading a little. Somewhere, on the edge of her consciousness, she knew the
knight had attacked, leaping for her, but her mind ignored that.  A split
moment later, she felt a discharge of power from one of the scouts, and the
knight's position moved away from her.  She felt waves of energy arching around
her, shouts coming from the scouts, and impacts of the mace against the
concrete.

But somehow, none of that mattered.

She felt for power within herself, reached for it.

Closer, getting closer, coming up to the surface.

And.

Nothing there.

With despair, she felt around herself for energy, something to use against the
knight and found nothing.

Then she felt something else.  The crystal, burning with its own power, ancient
energy trapped there for all eternity.  Power that was hers to command and
control as the rightful heir to the throne of the Moon.

She reached into the crystal, gathering that power, then stretched out her
hand, pointing at the knight.  She felt the hate around him without needing to
open her eyes, and she let the power go.

Something was wrong.

She opened her eyes suddenly, and saw the beam coming from her hand.  It was a
blast of energy coming straight at the knight's chest, impacting there.

But the creature did not move back, did not tremble.

For the beam was weaker, far weaker than it should have been, and it was not
enough.  With an almost negligent gesture, the knight turned away from Serena,
facing the rest of the scouts.

No!  Serena screamed in her mind, and felt her strength fade with the beam.
Her legs suddenly refused to hold her as she watched her friends try to beat
away a stronger enemy.

But she did not fall.

Strong hands grasped her shoulders, keeping her upright.  The knight seemed to
glance in her direction, then leapt straight toward her.  At the last moment, a
wave of meteors swept the creature to the side, the mace strike whistling
through air.

Her fiends continued to keep the knight away, but they could not do so for
long.

The grip on Serena's shoulders changed, suddenly she felt herself spun around
so quickly that she lost her orientation.

Nakiad was in front of her now, holding her once more by her shoulders.
"What happened?"

"I don't know," she cried back at him, "I just don't know.  I took the power
from the crystal, and used it, but it wasn't enough."

His face changed. "No, princess, that is not what you have to do.  The power in
the crystal is only a fraction of the strength given to you.  And you cannot
use that strength, it is not something that can be wielded like a weapon.  It
is part of you, Serena, no one else."

A surge of anger went through Serena. "I can't do it. Let me go!"  With all her
strength, she twisted in his grip, trying to break free.

His hands did not so much as budge from her exertion, they did not even
tighten.  It was like trying to break free from a statue made of stone, the
stone did not resist, but neither could you move.

"Listen to me, Serena.  Look within the power of the crystal, to its source,
and find the power there.  Look within yourself."

She mutely tried to break free from his grip, and his gaze softened. "Do it for
your friends."

He looked at her with his strange eyes. "Do it for Darian."

The plea went into her heart, cutting away resistance.

She could not refuse.

Abruptly, she forced herself to relax, to stop struggling.  Almost immediately,
Nakiad's hands released her, let her turn back to the battle.  Her friends, the
Sailor Scouts, her love, Darian.  Even Luna and Artemis were there, trying to
distract the knight.

They were counting on her.

She could not let them down.

Once more, she closed her eyes, concentrating, looking within herself.

She looked deeper, to the brooch she always wore, to the power of the Silver
Imperium Crystal.

It could fit in the palm of her hand easily, and yet it contained the power
that stopped Queen Beryl, that saved her friends, a power that brought all of
the scouts back to life when they died in that final fight.

That power had to come from somewhere.

She looked within it, tuning out the sounds of the fight around her,
concentrating on that one spot.  The crystal seemed to pulse, then enlarge,
encompassing the things around it.  For as far as she could see, it stretched,
a transparent talisman of power.

But the power had to come from somewhere, someone.

She saw it, in one corner, like a mote of dust hanging in the transparent web
of facets.  With an effort of will, Serena forced her consciousness there,
moved herself to that point.

It was a person, she saw as she came near, a human hanging lifeless in the
glass, energy coming out of her, a human-

A human who was dressed in a long white robe.

And as Serena approached, the truth became evident, obvious.

It was herself, the Princess of the Moon.

But she was not moving, holding still with her eyes closed, trapped forever in
the crystal.

And Serena understood what she had to do.

With a thought, she extended her hand to the other girl, still in the web.  And
the princess opened her eyes, moving slightly, looking at Serena with
surprise.

And held out her own hand.

They touched.

With an effort of will, Serena crushed the prison that held the princess
separate, freed her from the prison of her own mind's preconceptions.

And the crystal in Serena's mind exploded with energy, her energy.  It was not
the power of the Moon, it was not Serenity's strength.  It was *her*
power, Serena's power.

That was why forcing it did not do anything, because you can't tell your arm to
move and expect it to.

You just do it.

With a thought, she was back in her body, ready to do anything.  And she felt
powerful.  It was not an addition of energy as much as an alteration of it, a
changing of the way she felt about it.  Before, she got it from the crystal,
from the wand, from the locket, from the scepter.

Now, it was *hers*.

She opened her eyes deliberately.  She stopped concentrating.

<It is not something that can be wielded like a weapon.  It is part of you,
Serena, no one else.>

She did not need to concentrate to bring the energy there, it was already
there.  All she had to do was let it go.

And she did.

A flash of light as brilliant as the sun lanced out from her, impacting on the
knight just as he was about to raise his mace overhead.  The beam smashed into
him, bending his armor once more, heating up the metal plates.

He bent in pain, collapsing away from her as the beam continued, stumbling
away.
And Serena felt the other scouts offer their power to help her, to lend their
strength.  With gratitude, she accepted, for her power was the same as it had
been before not being increased.

Just changed.

Now she could use it when she wanted, without relying on tools or crystals.

Because it was *her* power.

She felt the strength of the beam increase as the scouts added their own energy
to hers, felt the armor of the knight start to buckle.  The power of the five
scouts was too much even for that creature's legendary strength to handle.

As the grass around him began to scorch from the heat, he collapsed to the
ground, feebly holding up one hand as if trying to escape.

But it was too late.

With a final effort, with a shriek of tearing metal, the armor broke.

Then it was over.

On the ground, a heap of scorched metal lay lifeless, dead.

And Serena almost collapsed with relief.  Once more, two strong hands caught
her before she fell to the ground.

"You did well, princess," a calm voice whispered to her.

"Thank you," she whispered in return.

Somehow she knew without turning that his face was grim. "It isn't over yet."

*	*	*