[This story probably merits an "R" rating.  Merry Christmas!]

                              Serena & Luna:
                     The New Adventures of Sailor Moon

                                Episode 105
                       Love and War on the Homefront

    Serena stepped out of the airport, stretching and yawning.  The 
transatlantic flight had been fairly turbulent, and all she wanted to do 
was go to the hotel that the newspaper had booked for her five days in 
this American city and zonk out.

    She looked at the skyline, and marveled at the strange architecture.  
Then she hailed a cab.

    "Where you want go?" said the young Asian man in the driver's seat.

    "I ... not speak good Eigo ..." Serena began haltingly.

    "<Howsabout this then?>" he asked in Japanese.

    "Stekke!  <They really do speak Japanese here, just like in that 
Blacksmith Dogs manga ...>"

    "<Well, I do, but I grew up in Kyoto.  Where to, Miss?>"

    "<The Hilton, please.>"

    And so Serena was driven to the Hilton, feeling safe and secure.  
After all, even though she was in a foreign country, what could happen to 
her in a town with such a cute name like Gotham City?

                                 *   *   *

    She'd put it off too long already.  Every minute that she didn't go 
was a minute where she wouldn't have to look at his handsome face, hear 
his strangely gentle voice, and see the hatred in his eyes.  The hatred 
that she had caused.

    But ultimately, Raye Hino was strong enough to climb the ninety nine 
stairs to the Hikawa Temple where she had grown up.

    Serena hadn't exaggerated the extent of the disrepair that the shrine 
and its environs had fallen into.  Why had Chad let this happen?  Even if 
he was furious at her ... why would he take it out on the shrine?

    Raye turned to walk toward the center of the shrine, where the sacred 
fire would be burning ... when she heard it.

    Swish, swish, swish.

    Raye turned in the direction of the noise.

    Swish, swish, swish.

    Chad stepped around the corner, his eyes on the ground, pushing the 
broom before him, gathering the dust up, and then allowing it to rest 
where it gathered.

    He lifted his head to look at Raye.

    The broom dropped from his hands.

    Raye looked into his eyes, the eyes that had so often been obscured by 
his hair, and saw, for only a moment, a look of anguish and loneliness 
there.  Then it was covered by rage, which turned to a sullen apathetic 
expression, in the blink of an eye.

    "You came back," Chad said, in a low tone.

    "Yes."

    "You shouldn't have."

    Raye swallowed.  "That remains to be seen, doesn't it?"

    Chad knelt to pick up the broom, then rose, holding it like a staff.  
"You can stay as long as you want.  After all, this was your grandpa's 
temple.  But stay the hell away from *me*."

    "I'll do my best," Raye whispered.

    Chad gave no sign of hearing her as he turned around, and began to 
sweep away from her, quickly.

    Raye stayed where she was for a moment, trembling.  Serena hadn't 
exaggerated that, either.  He had become one of the handsomest men she'd 
ever seen -- almost as handsome as ... some of the men she'd met in show 
business -- but the spirit that had eventually led her to become attracted 
to him was gone.

    Burnt out.

    Raye walked to the inner sanctum of the shrine, and opened the door, 
preparing to greet the fires.  She had taught herself, as she `grew up', 
that she had only *thought* that she had seen things in the flame.  That 
it had been a combination of her own naivete, and her near fanaticism for 
her grandfather's teachings, that had made her think that there was a 
spirit here.

    None of these attempts at revisionary history prepared her for the 
sight of the ashes where the fire was supposed to be.

                                 *   *   *

    Mina sipped at her coffee, and took a drag on her fifth cigarette of 
the morning.

    Things were not working out.

    Not long after Serena had let her go -- no, not exactly let her go, 
but gave her permission to make her own path -- she had come up with an 
elaborate plan to clear Sailor Moon's name, and return most of the money 
she'd stolen while wearing that guise.

    She'd mailed the police a letter puporting to be from one of Sailor 
Moon's "Moon Goons" (she was rather proud of that idea) who wanted to cut 
a deal.  In exchange for the immunity, the Goon would reveal the 
wherabouts of the "Moon Squad's" hideout.  Further negotiations would take 
place over phone, at a phone number that Mina had bribed someone at the 
phone company to set up for her a few years ago -- one which led through a 
complicated series of junctions and interchanges, to Mina's cellular.

    When they made the call, Mina would (using a gruff, masculine voice) 
tell them where the secret hideout was, pretending to have been grossed 
out by some weird, Western religious rituals that Sailor Moon was trying 
to lure people into performing.  (Something about ... pon farr, or some 
other junk.)  When the police stormed the "secret hideout", they would 
find most of the money (at least, the parts Mina hadn't needed), and a 
mocking letter from "the Moon Bandit", which berated the police for 
believing that someone as innocent and good as Sailor Moon would ever be 
involved in robbery.

    And the banks would get the money back, and Sailor Moon would be 
absolved, and Mina could get on with the second part of her plan for 
redemption, namely finding Artemis.

    Unfortunately, things weren't working out.

    She hadn't gotten any calls on her cell phone.

    So she spent her days sitting in a coffee shop, staring at the 
abandoned building she'd stashed the money and letter in.  The staff would 
certainly remember her when they were interviewed by the police, but they 
wouldn't be able to report her as anything other than a blonde with dark 
sun glasses and a surly disposition -- and with things the way they were 
in Japan these days, such individuals were pretty widespread.

    She sat, and wondered about how she had gone so far wrong, and what 
would have happened if things had been different -- if Artemis hadn't been 
injured in his attempt to give her back her memories.

    It hurt to think about Artemis.  He had had a handful raising her, she 
knew now, and she had repaid his efforts by becoming a criminal 
mastermind.

    <HEY!> shouted the more realistic part of Mina's conscience.  <You're 
over-dramatizing just a tad, aren't you?  You weren't exactly a saint, but 
you're not the devil incarnate, either.  You stole, you hired yourself out 
as muscle a few times.  It's not like you killed anyone, for crying out 
loud!>

    Mina ignored that part of her conscience as the rantings of a 
personality that was too sick to see the awesome vileness of itself.  
Heck, the fact that she heard aspects of her personality talking as though 
they were separate from the rest of her consciousness was proof that her 
initial suspicions were correct -- the mixture of her "true" memories from 
the imperfect mind-meld that Artemis had initiated with her cover memories 
had driven her quite nuts.

    Mina sighed.  She was a crazy woman, trying to regain some sense of a 
moral compass, by hatching elaborate schemes to lure the police to an 
abandoned building.

    She started in on her sixth cigarette this morning.

                                 *   *   *

    "<Riddles should be a thing to entertain and enlighten those who are 
wise enough to puzzle them out, not something used to boast of one's 
upcoming crimes!  Even if Patricia McKillip forgives you, I won't!>"

    "Who are you and why are you shouting at me in Japanese?"

                                 *   *   *

    "WHY?!"

    Chad turned to look at her.  "Why what?"

    "Why did you let the fire go out, damn you?!" Raye shouted, almost on 
the verge of tears.

    He rose up from where he was kneeling with a toothbrush, dusted off 
the folds of his robe, and walked over to her.

    She had never appreciated, until that moment, just how tall he was.  
He was a full head and shoulders over her, and he leaned in towards her 
face until their noses were only an inch apart.

    "Because," he said quietly, "I didn't give a shit."

    Her hand was flying before Raye realized what was going on.  It 
slammed into his cheek with a tremendous cracking noise, almost like the 
sound of a bullet.  He swayed momentarily, the red mark glowing on his 
cheek.

    "How DARE you!"  Raye screamed.  "I don't care if you hate me or not, 
but how dare you allow my grandfather's temple to come to this because of 
it?!  We took you in when no one else would, when you were just a burnt 
out vagabond nobody singer ... and you were happy here!  WHY?"

    He stared off in the direction that his head had turned after she 
slapped him.  "You don't understand," he said calmly.  "You never did."

    "Then for the sake of all the kamis, TELL ME WHAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND!"

    He turned back to stare at her again.  "I was happy here.  Through all 
the hard work, the weirdness, the ... through all of it, I was happy.  
Because *you* were here.  Even though you never once gave me ANY sign of 
caring, I could tell myself that you knew I existed.  And I could hope."

    His face twisted.  "And then your grandfather died.  And you walked 
away, never once looking back."

    "I ... I couldn't do anything about the way that you felt about me!  I 
didn't *do* anything to invite it!" Raye cried.

    "You didn't do anything to prevent it, either.  When you walked away 
.. you never looked back.  I cried out, `Raye, please come back, I can't 
do this on my own' ... and you never looked back.  If you had just turned 
back, even once, and said, `Go away, Chad, I don't love you and I never 
did', I could at least have had some ... closure, or whatever the hell 
they call it.  But I didn't get it."

    Raye closed her eyes.  All she had to do was just tell him that she 
didn't love him ...

    ... and she didn't ...

    ... exactly.

    She opened her eyes again, and he had gone back to brushing the tiles 
of the path leading under the second torii.

    Wordlessly, she turned, and went back to the house.  Night was 
falling, and she couldn't deal with this right now.

    As she lay in bed that night, sleepless, she never once heard him open 
the door to come in the house and go to his room.

                                 *   *   *

    It was after her fourth cup of coffee that Mina heard the explosion.

    She crushed her cigarette, and, along with the rest of the people in 
the coffee shop, dashed out into the street to see what had blown up.

    Up the street, a building was in flames, and a huge, dark ... *thing* 
was smashing into it.  The thing reared back, and Mina realized what it 
was.

    Not a youma, but one of the new breed of roboticised construction 
machines -- the ones that looked like something out of a giant robot TV 
show.  They were a fairly rare sight in this area, getting more use in the 
Harbor district than in downtown Tokyo.

    Mina reached for the transformation pen that she carried in her coat 
pocket ... then relaxed.

    She wasn't going to use Sailor Venus' powers, until she was worthy of 
them.

    And after all, it wasn't like there were lives at stake ...

    It was then that the shrill cry of a child rose above the sounds of 
the mecha's rampage.

    Not in the burning buliding, but in the one next to it.  The one that 
the collapsing structure was going to fall onto ...

    NO.

    Mina turned, and running down an alley, produced her pen.

    "VENUS ..."

    In her, molten gold began to bubble.

    "POWER ..."

    It surged, waiting to explode.

    "CHANGE!"

    And the gold came forth, surrounding her, changing her ... but not to 
Sailor Venus.

    She emerged from the other end of the alley in a red, white and blue 
sailor fuku ... and a mask.

    Sailor V had been reborn.

    She leapt up, ran across the roof of the building towards the one from 
which the screams issued.  Mina dropped onto one of the appartment's 
balcony, only distantly hearing the cries of the crowd and the noise of 
the mecha as she looked for the child.

    The little girl was too small to reach the handle of the apartment's 
door, even though she jumped furiously.  She was also in a state of blind 
panic, and when she heard the footsteps behind her, she let out a high 
pitched scream before she even turned around.

    Sailor V dashed forward, pulled the door open, and grabbed the little 
girl under her arm as she dashed into the hallway.

    She set the child down, looked for the stairwell, and pointed the girl 
in that direction. "RUN!" she cried, and turned back to look at the 
balcony.

    The mecha was peering in, its single cyclopean eye glaring like a 
laser.  Mina was tempted, very tempted, to fire one of her own Crescent 
Beams at it ... but that wouldn't be appropriate.

    Instead, she drew herself up into a rigid posture, and prepared to 
deliver a blistering rebuke that would have put one of Serena's usual 
speeches to shame, when the cyclopean eye revealed that it *was* a laser.  
<Odd for a construction robot to have one of those,> Sailor V thought 
distantly as she sidestepped the beam.

    Mina sommersaulted through the balcony, landing on the mecha's main 
torso.  She searched through her memories for the schematics of this type 
of Mobile Suit -- she was relatively certain that she had seen them 
somewhere, fairly recently -- and soon intuited that she was clinging to 
the crew compartment.

    Sailor V scowled at the opaque surface.  And then, realizing that it 
was a futile gesture that was only useful as an intimidation tactic, she 
raised her hand behind her, clenched it into a fist, and slammed it into 
the canopy.

    It shattered.

    Mina was falling through the window before she realized what had 
happened.  She'd underestimated the designers -- the one way glass that 
the mecha used as a windshield had not been enough to stand up to her 
full-strength punch, after all.

    She was lying on the control panel of the big robot, staring up at the 
pilot, a young man of about eighteen years of age, who stared at her in 
horror through his thick glasses.

    "How dare you ... be such a mean, nasty guy?" Mina demanded, as she 
was unable to think of anything better at the moment.  And then she 
slugged him.  One shot, knock-out.

    The giant robot ground to a stop.

    Mina stood up, feeling the bruises all over her body.  Her right hand 
throbbed from the stresses to which she'd subjected it.

    And then, suddenly, she heard the sound.

    Chanting.

    She turned to look, confusedly, at the crowds below.

    They were chanting.  Three syllables, over and over.

    "Sai-lor V.  Sai-lor V.  Sai-lor V."

    They didn't see the aches and pains that she was feeling.  They didn't 
see the stains on her soul.  Why were they cheering?  For all they knew, 
this was just some promotion for the new Sailor V TV series.

    "Sai-lor V!  Sai-lor V!  Sai-lor V!"

    Or maybe ... maybe all the strangeness of Tokyo life had made them 
ready to accept any apparent hero who did the right thing.  Who saved 
lives.  Who risked her own.

    Maybe ... the condition of the hero's soul wasn't such a big deal 
after all.

    Mina closed her eyes, and listened to the sound of redemption.

    "I won't let you down," she breathed to the crowd, and flipped them 
the V-for-victory.

    And then she leapt out of the mecha's cockpit, and disappeared into 
the evening.

                                 *   *   *

    Raye pulled herself out of bed, and looked at the clock.  It was only 
five in the morning.  If she had slept at all, she didn't remember it.

    She walked into the hallway, rubbing sleep out of her eyes.  She 
passed the dining room, where Chad was slumbering at the table, and walked 
into the living room, before she realized what she'd just seen.

    For a moment, Raye considered going to him and trying to get him into 
his own bed ... but finally decided that it wasn't worth it.  If he wanted 
to spend the night in an uncomfortable position like that, let him.

    She wandered through the living room, which didn't appear to have seen 
much living in the past four years.  A tape was lying in the old fashioned 
VCR that Grandfather had finally been persuaded into buying ...

    A tape with her name on it.  Her name, scrawled in pencil.

    Raye stared at the VCR for a full minute before she pushed the tape 
in, turned the TV on, and set the VCR playing.

    She'd only seen the scene that was displayed on the TV once, not long 
after it had been filmed.  She hadn't liked watching herself do the things 
that she'd done anymore than she'd enjoyed doing them ...

    Raye heard movement behind her, and turned to look at Chad, who was 
standing at the entrance to the living room, staring in shock.

    "You *BASTARD*," she hissed at him, shaking in rage.

    "I ... I ... I ..."

    "You *knew*," she continued, starting to walk slowly towards him.  
"You *knew* why I left, why I couldn't look back ... you knew, and you ... 
you ... you purchaser of kiddy porn!  Did you enjoy *wanking* yourself 
over me, you hypocritical, self-righteous SON OF A ..."

    "I *didn't*!" Chad cried, backing away from her.

    "Then WHY DO YOU HAVE THAT TAPE, *ASSHOLE*?"

    "Because I ... I didn't want anyone else to see it ..." he whimpered.

    Raye blinked.  "Run that by me one more time?"

    "I couldn't stand the thought of people watching you ... like that.  
So I tried to find all the copies of it that I could ..."

    Raye turned back to look at the screen once more.  Her face twisted.
"If you couldn't stand it," she whispered, "why didn't you destroy them?"

    "I ..."

    "Because it was a good way to remind yourself that I only deserved to 
be held in contempt," Raye interrupted, turning back to look at Chad with 
new anger in her eyes.  "I was the scum of the earth, while you were the 
noble one who kept my reputation from being further besmirched.  Right?"

    Chad couldn't meet her eyes.

    "For the longest time," Raye said slowly, "I told myself that I could 
never come back here, because I didn't deserve to be cared about by 
someone like you.  Someone good, and decent, and pure ..."  She shook her 
head.  "Kami-sama, what a fool."

    She started to walk away.  "I'm leaving.  You made this place what it 
is, Chad.  You deal with it."  She paused at the doorway.  "You deal with 
what you've made yourself into, as well.  Then, maybe, we can deal with 
each other."

    Raye opened the door.  She half-expected to hear him cry out, pleading 
with her to stay.

    He didn't.

    She walked through the door, and slid it shut behind her.

    Raye walked down the steps to the street level.  When she got to the 
bottom, she let out a long, deep sigh.  It was long past time for her to 
start to forgive herself.

    Then the dark-clothed men jumped out of nowhere, one of them slammed a 
chloroformed rag to her face, and Raye knew nothing at all.

                                 *   *   *

    Mina watched with amusement as the police salvage crew tried to tow 
away the large mecha.  After their third attempt, she decided to head 
home.  The crowd was abuzz with the name of Sailor V -- and they weren't 
talking about the TV series.

    She walked along the street, feeling carefree ... like a bird.

    Then a large man shoved her into the suddenly open door of a car that 
had slowed down to a crawl beside her, and stepped in soon after.

    The car sped off.

    The huge black car pulled up to the airport doors, and the side door 
hissed open.  Serena and Luna fell out, followed by their luggage.  Then 
the door slid shut again, and the car roared off again.

    None of the Gothamites around the doors seemed unduly impressed by 
this.

    "<Oh sure!>" Serena shouted at the car which was rapidly moving out of 
sight.  "<Don't thank me or anything!  It's not like I didn't lead you 
right to all those weird people!  It's not like you would never have found 
them without me!  Nothing like that!  Jerk!  Snob!  I don't care if you 
are handsome underneath that mask, you're still a jerk and a snob!  No 
wonder the only one who hangs around with you is that weirdo in the red 
vest and green tights!>"

    Luna was covering her eyes with her paws.  "<Is that crazy woman in 
the skintight gray suit gone yet?>"

    "<Hst!  Luna!  People are watching!>"

    Luna uncovered her eyes, and went into her "I'm-just-a-cute-cat- 
nobody-heard-me-talking" act.

    Serena checked her watch.  "Aie!  <We're gonna miss the flight to San 
Francisco!  Hurry, Luna!>"

                                 *   *   *

    "Master?"

    "Yes, Lackey."

    "We have secured them."

    "Mars and Venus."

    "Yes."

    A single sigh of pleasure escaped the Mastermind.  "Good.  And now the 
others."

    "Our sources indicate that Mercury will be arriving shortly, and that 
Tsukino has not yet established contact with Jupiter.  What are your 
orders concerning them?"

    "Capture Mercury.  Tell our watchers in San Francisco to attack 
Jupiter when and only when Tsukino encounters her."

    "As you command, Master."  The Lackey bowed, turned ... then 
hesitated, and turned back.  "Master ... regarding Mars."

    "What of her."

    "Master ... after you have taken your vengeance on Tsukino, what will 
your intentions be towards her?"

    "I have not yet considered.  I will most probably execute all four of 
them."

    The Lackey swallowed.  "Master ... would it not be simpler and less of 
a drain on your resources to erase their memories once more, such that 
they ..."  He trailed off.

    The Mastermind was looking directly at him, something that had 
happened only once before.

    And the Lackey shuddered at that memory.

    "Lackey."  The Mastermind's voice was as soft as a caress.  "Are you 
.. questioning my will?"

    "No, Master, I was simply offering alternatives --"

    "Alternatives.  To my will.  It is Mars, isn't it.  You still retain 
feelings of ... caring for her."

    "No!  No, Master ..."

    "Lackey.  I understand.  I do what I do, because of the love that 
Tsukino destroyed.  Can you not see that?  Speak the truth.  Do you yet 
care for Mars?  Fear no retribution."

    The Lackey bent his head.  "I do."

    "Ah, Lackey.  I lied."

    And before the Lackey could muster what feeble defenses remained to 
him, the mastermind's hands were around his throat, the Mastermind's eyes 
were burning into his soul.

    It was agonizing.

    "Forget not that which you are, Lackey.  You are NOTHING.  I raised 
you up from NOTHING.  And I will make you NOTHING once more if you dare to 
question my will again.  Tsukino will die.  All of them will die.  Because 
they could all come between me and what I desire.  Will you share their 
fate?  If not ... who is the Mastermind?"

    "You are," the Lackey gasped.

    "Who is the Mastermind?"

    "You are!"

    "Who is the Mastermind, Lackey?"

    "YOUUUU ARRRREE!"

    "Never again forget that."

    The Lackey dropped to the ground.  The Mastermind was already seated 
once more.

    "Go."

    And the Lackey went.

                             To Be Continued.

    Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and brought to North America 
by DIC.  This story, which incorporates aspects of a motion picture held 
under copyright by others, is nonetheless copyright 1996 by Chris Davies.

    Nobody Sue Me Okay?

Chris Davies, Advocate for Darkness, Part-Time Champion of Light.
"I am not a very nice person anymore." - Rand al'Thor, "Crown of Swords"
http://www.ualberta.ca/~cdavies/hmpage.html