Ok, here's the situation.  About a week ago, I wrote a Sailor Moon story.
Because I was using Mr. Davies universe, I mailed it to him for permission
to post as that would be the polite thing to do.  He writes me back with
some corrections on spelling and usage, and says that he like the story.  At
this point, it doesn't have a title, so he suggests 'Because you loved me'.
I copy it to another letter, do some formating, but leaving it mainly raw.
I think about it, and think about it, and finally, name it 'You must love
me'.  I send it out to Ronin, and leave to go pick up the new Neon Genesis
Evangelion tape.  I get back, check my mail, and, low and behold, there is
something from Mr. Davies.  An edited copy of my story that he did.  He had
added some parts, formatted it, had given it a title, and made a good thing
even better.  So, I thought that I would post this one, and let you all
share in a kind of magick.  Now that the FFML is back, I thought I would
send it through again.  Let me know what you think.  And let Chris know too.
Anyway, without further procrastination on my part, koko wa...

Because ...

A Sailor Moon story by J.D. Farber,
Assitanced, edited, and inspired by C. Richard Davies.



        The woman tossed in her sleep, caught in the middle of a dream.  She
knew it was a dream, and even though that was supposed to give her power
over it, it didn't.  It was the same dream she had had hundreds of nights
before, and the same dream that she would have hundreds of nights after.
She hated it, but she needed it to keep her sanity.  Random images flowed
through her mind, as though they belonged to someone else.  

	And in a sense they did.  

	A little brother that she loved, and hated.  She saw him grow up,
to adulthood, and be lost forever to her.  She couldn't remember what had
taken him from her, just that she loved him for coming into her life, and
hated him for leaving it.  

	She saw a friend, her best friend, at her wedding.  The friend's
pale blue dress shimmering in the dreamlight.  She too grew up and grew
away.  

	The woman's mind cycled through a host of people, before finishing
on one person.  This was a person that both the woman who was dreaming,
and the girl who's dreams they were, recognized.  She was leaning over the
girlwoman, looking into her face and smiling.  There was a shadow over the
upper left half of her face.  The womangirl knew that she had caused this
girl pain, but here she was, smiling as if all she desired in the world
was to see the girlwoman smile.  

	The womangirl's mind exploded, white lances of depression and
pain shooting through her mind.  The depression, the pain, coalesed into
one single thought.  <My body, my heart, my love, all belong to him but my
soul is yours.  It always has been, and it always will be.  I love you,
and I always will...>

        <...Mars.>

***************************

        The First Queen of Crystal Tokyo, the Lady Serenity, bolted
upright in her bed as the dream crashed around her.  She looked over to
the peacefully sleeping form of her husband, the Lord King Endymion.  Her
blonde hair was soaked in sweat -- and other things -- as were the satin
sheets of the bed.

	With a look at her King to confirm that her dream had not awakened
him, she got out of bed and drew a robe around herself.  Her hair flowed
freely behind her, out of its usual style as she padded silently down
the hall. 

	 She reached the terrace, and gazed upon the city of Crystal 
Tokyo.  She gazed out beyond the city lights, beyond the stars, into the
very heart of creation itself.  

	And she cried.  

	Quietly at first, not more then a few tears slowly making their
way down her cheeks.  And then harder, and harder, and soon, she was
racked by sobs.  She collapsed onto the floor.  <Rei-chan...no, you are
not Rei, as I am no longer Usagi.  It hurts, Mars-chan.  It hurts so
much,> she thought to herself.  <I feel it in the pit of my stomach, an
emptiness that seems to consume me.  Sometimes it hurts so much I want to
take a knife to cut it open so that it can bleed out.>

***************************

        The Commander-in-Chief ot the Royal Crystal Tokyo Defence Force,
High Lady Mars opened her eye.  She could feel her Queen's distress and
need for her, yet couldn't understand what was distressing her.  It had
been a beautiful day, and she had spent it with Jupiter, Mercury and the
Royal Family.  Even though Venus' ghost had hung over all of them, it
was as though she smiled to bless their revels,  They had gone out for a
picnic in the countryside, in a place untouched by the cloak and dagger of
politics.  It was a special day, after all.  

	Today was the King and Queen's... wedding... anniversery.

        <Dear God, that's what it is.>

        Mars leaped out of bed, grabbing a robe as she ran out of her room,
asking the fire within her to lead her to the Queen.  As she reached the
terrace, she could hear the sounds of a woman crying in anguish.

	Mars rushed to Serenity's side, and wrapped her in a tight
embrace, allowing the woman to cry into her shoulder.

****************************

        Slowly, Serenity calmed, and became aware of her surroundings.  She
moved her head back to see who it was that had found her, and was shocked
to find Mars' face not inches from her own.  She gazed up at the eyepatch
over her left eye ... and almost began to sob again.  <Not this. Not her.
I think I could handle anyone else but her right now.>  

	"Mars..." Serenity said quietly, not trusting her voice to go
above a whisper.  She steeled herself, and stood up.  "Thank you Lady
Mars.  That will be all.  Good night."  Serenity turned and started to
leave.

        "Serenity, what's wrong?  Tell me." Lady Mars asked the Queen's
back.  The Queen didn't answer, she just kept walking away.

        Mars was getting angry.  <Here I am, dragging my butt out of bed
because Serenity is in pain about what happened all those centuries ago,
and now she's giving me the brush off?!>  "Serenity, talk to me.  I know
something is bothering you, so why don't you just tell me."

        Serenity kept walking.

        <That's it.> "Look, Usagi, you are obviously hurting, or else-"

        Mars didn't get to finish her sentence.  Serenity's slap cut off her
train of thought.  "Do not ever call me that again!  I am not Usagi, not
anymore ... but right now, I would give up everything to be her again."  

	Mars stared, shocked.  Serenity, seeing this look, continued.
"You do not understand.  I would do anything to be Usagi, and to have all
of you be as you were then.  To go back to the simpler times.  To be able
to hold someone I love dearly, who loves me, and make love to her, and
tell her that I love her.  But I cannot.  Usagi could have done that,
but Serenity cannot.  And I think it is killing me that I cannot tell you
that I love you and always have."  Serenity started to break down again,
and began to fall into Mars' arms.  Mars stood there, numbly catching her
as her words took effect in her brain.

        "You ... love ... me?" she whispered as she knelt down, taking
Serenity with her.

	"Yes.  The song that Minako sang that day ... I gave it to her.
It was for you ..." Serenity murmured as she clung to her tightly.

	After kneeling on the marble floor for a few minutes, Mars cupped
Serenity's face with one hand, and raised it.  She stared into Serenity's
eyes, and what she saw startled her.  The eyes she was gazing into were
not Serenity's, nor were they Usagi's, nor Sailor Moon's.  These were the
eyes of Love.  All the love in the universe were in these two eyes, filial
love for the brother she had lost over a thousand years ago, platonic love
for the friend she lost with her brother, parental love for Small Lady,
romantic love for Endymion...and Mars.  

	Mars stared into Serenity's liquid pools of blue for a moment
longer, seeing her fire looking back at her ... then kissed her.  

	It was a strong, passionate, tender kiss of old lovers that had
never coupled.  With this one kiss, Mars felt the emptiness in Serenity,
and she knew how to fill it.  With this knowledge, she picked up her
queen, and carried her to the Queen's bedchamber.  Mars laid Serenity down
on her bed next to Endymion, and whispered into her ear, "As I have your
soul, remember always that you have mine."  Serenity smiled to Mars, and
Mars kissed Serenity again, before leaving.

	To Small Lady's room she went, and knelt beside the fourteen year
old's bed.  "Wake up, little one, we have work to do this night."

	It took a long while to get Small Lady up, and an even longer time
to explain what had to be done.  A bit to Mars' surprise, the Royal
Princess of Crystal Tokyo was not shocked to learn that her mother held
feelings for one of her guardians.  <But then again,> Mars reflected to
herself while leading Sailor Li'l Moon to the Gate of Time, <children are
always learning from our examples.>  And she wondered, as she had a
thousand times before, about Small Lady and Sailor Saturn.

	But that was none of her business.

	"Just do what you have to do, and then come back, okay, Reenie?"
she said to her.

	"Geez, Mars-san, I've only done this a dozen times," Small Lady
said in mock exasperation, before smiling sweetly, and unexpectedly
kissing Mars on the forehead.  She hopped into the Gate of Time and was
gone.

	Mars counted to three before she turned to look at Sailor Pluto,
who had just now materialized beside her with an outraged expression.
"Have none of you paid attention to me while I explained about the dangers
of meddling in your pasts!" she hissed.

	"Pluto, Serenity is dying.  She doesn't realize it, but she is.
She started to die more than nine hundred years ago, when a song that she
had Minako sing drove me to tears and then flight.  She thought that I was
crying because I was hurting from the injuries -- both of the body and of
the heart -- that I had suffered for her sake." Mars tapped the eyepatch,
and continued.  "She did not know that I loved her, because I had
foolishly sought to spare her feelings.  I did not know that she loved me,
because I was too blind to see it.  Small Lady has gone back to change
this ..."

	"Don't you understand!" Pluto interrupted.  "You cannot know that
the future you create will be any better than this!"

	"Yes I do," Mars said, and the timewinds blew.






	Small Lady stepped out of the gate of time, and swallowed as she
looked up at Pluto's glowering face.  She turned to look at Lady Mars, who
was standing close by her mother and father.  "Mission accomplished!" she
said proudly.  "I told Rei-momma, and told her to tell me when the time
came."

	"You did well, daughter," Serenity said, smiling.  "Now it's well
past your bedtime, so let's get you home.

	Small Lady made a face.  "Mommmmmmm, I'm fourteen years old!  I'm
a pretty sailor suited warrior for love and justice!  Why can't I stay up
late?"

	Serenity coughed.  Pluto turned her full glare on Small Lady.
"Princess, every second you're not in bed is one in which I am considering
your punishment for this.  I suggest that you be elsewhere."

	"Geei'msuddenlyverytiredithinki'llgotobednow!" Small Lady said
quickly, and dashed off.

	Pluto turned to say a few words to the parents involved in this
little affair ... and saw Serenity laughing at something Mars had said,
saw Mars pretending to get angry, saw Endymion smiling at the them ... saw
three people who loved each other.

	For a second, Pluto considered yelling at them to break it up ...
and then, suddenly, the bright power that she had served all the days of
her life -- the bright power whose identity she was only beginning to
guess at -- said six words into the silences of her soul 

	IT IS AS IT SHOULD BE.

	And Pluto smiled, stepped back into the gates of time, and resumed
her guardianship.

Onaji kuni ni umareta no             Born on this same planet
Miracle Romance                      Miracle Romance
Shinjite iru no                      I believe in
Miracle Romance                      Miracle Romance

Editor's Notes

	This is all J.D. Farber's fault.

	Apparently, Ms. Celine Dion's rendition of "Because You Loved Me"
on the Academy Awards (March 24, 1997) was so heartwrenching for him after
having read "Celebrations", in which that song plays a considerable role,
that he wrote up a fairly good story dealing with what he saw as the loose
ends of the story.  He then sent it to me, asking for permission to
publish.

	Hopefully, he's stopped crying by now.  J.D., I know Verbena are
very into "life in all its bloody glory", but I really think you should
get a grip ... <said the guy who burst into tears while he was listening
to Les Mis.>

	Anyway, I cleaned up some of Mr. Farber's problems, fiddled with
the style a bit, and expanded on the ending.  The story above is the
result.

	It is NOT an official "Chris Davies Sailor Moon Timeline" story.
It was inspired by my stories, and I like it a lot ... but what it implies
about Serenity, Mars, and Endymion in the future should not be taken as
canon for my future history.

Author's Notes

	Isn't amazing what music can do to a person?  It sings to our hearts and
our minds.  It sings to our souls.  I had the fourtune of reading
'Celebrations' while listening to Celine Dion sing "Because you loved me"
live.  I also had the fortune to be writing this while listening to Madonna
sing "You must love me".  Two great songs that sing opposite to each other.
Kind of like Sailor Mars and Sailor Moon, respectivly.  At any rate, I think
that's enough deep thoughts for this post.  On to brighter stuff.

I stopped crying!!!  Now we all do Dance of Joy!! :)


	Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and brought to North
America by DiC.  This story, while incorporating elements of motion
pictures and stories held under copyright by others, is copyright 1997 of
J.D. Farber.

	Nobody sue him, okay?

        (Thanks Chris.  Never thought to put that in.)