I'm Here to Help
by Mark Doherty(mdoherty@mailbox.uq.edu.au)

Chapter 2

The first chapter is available via e-mail request. It is also archived
at the Sailor Moon Romance site(under MIKE Doherty, mutter,
mutter, grumble), and is in the Artemis and Luna fanfic site,
in the Saturday September 20 zip file (the 1st one). Just go
to the Anime Turnpike, it'll get you to the Artemis and Luna site.

Sailor Moon and associated characters/background were created by
Naoko Takeuchi. No disrespect is intended in their use.

I'd appreciate any and all comments on the story.

The intervening years between now and Crystal Tokyo are all a bit
vaguely set up. If anything set up here directly contradicts something
in the anime/manga history of CT, I'd like to know now, before I get
too far along.

To make life easier for the readers, "journal entries" are marked
with * * * at the start and end.

+++++++++++++++++
                                * * *

The Great Ice.

The end result of a devastating battle with an awesome invader.
Ice blanketed the world, covering everything, everyone. It lasted
for decades, centuries.

And in the ice, trapped as if in amber, were the people who had survived
the last fights before the white prison engulfed us all. It is for the
removal of this ice, above any other deed, that Serenity is worshiped.

Once, in a scouting foray into Crystal Tokyo, I picked up a book from one
of the libraries. It was one of those anthology type things, a collection
of memoirs from ordinary people about their time in the ice. There was a
motto embossed onto the back cover, no doubt supposed to inspire the
drones who bought it. I have the book here, in one of my retreats, as a
reminder of what I truly fight against.

The book's motto goes like this 'We remember the horror of the dark times,
of the Great Evil, and stand glad that with her majesty, Neo-Queen Serenity
to protect us, we will never endure such as the Ice again.'

I read through the book once. All it amounted to was a lot of wailing and
moaning. 'I wake at night screaming', 'Not since Hiroshima has such
tragedy been felt by so many of a community', and 'I thank kami-sama, and
I especially thank Neo-Queen Serenity, that I am free from that nightmarish
ice.'

Unbelieveably blind idiots! They have no idea. Serenity was protecting them,
their minds were shielded from the horror of being encased in ice, of the
bitter cold, of not being able to move, of sensory deprivation, of wanting
to scream and scream and scream...

They have no idea. To them it was just a bad dream, a nightmare to keep
them awake for an hour or so at night. Their minds were nowhere near fully
conscious.

Mine was. I was awake. For every single second.

People worship Serenity for breaking the ice. They think I should be
grateful to her for freeing us.

Their slavish devotion has blinded them. I was there at the final fights.
I may have collapsed, completely drained of energy, before the very final
moments, but I was there. I saw the streets overrun with unnatural
creatures, I saw friends and enemies unite against the common foe, I saw
Sailor Moon die. I saw the enemy's master gloating, wreathed in flames.
Flames!

The opponent, despite its vast power, had shown no ability or aptitude
to wield ice. It was a creature of fire, for pity's sake! It claimed to
have been born out of a sun. It makes no sense that it would use ice as
its final desperate blow, as the legends that have sprung up about the
final fight claim.

On the other hand, it would have made perfect sense for Serenity to do it.
The Ginzuisho gave her the power, and ice is an enemy of flame. Since the
enemy's master had underlings attacking throughout the world, it might have
made sense to Serenity to utilise such a desperate attack. But for the
enemy to do it? No, no I really don't think so. I am not quite gullible
enough to believe that.

And as for her freeing me: she didn't. It took me just over three hundred
years, and I drained all the energy I had absorbed during the entrapment,
but I freed myself. Half an hour later, Serenity did the same thing, but
for the entire world.

Life is like that sometimes, I suppose.

    - Writing on a loose piece of paper that was being used as a bookmark,
      in a book entitled 'The Great Ice: Tales of Ordinary Survivors'.
      The book was in a small nuclear shelter in the remains of St
      Petersburg; the shelter had been converted into living quarters.
      Found by a scouting party from Crystal Tokyo, 2494.

                                * * *
+++++++++++++++++

He had the experience of centuries. The knowledge of ages. The power to
equal a Senshi at her pinnacle. Well, once he regained enough energy he'd
have the power of a Senshi, anyway.

And he couldn't afford dinner, and he didn't have anywhere to sleep for
the night. He looked up at the starred sky for a few minutes, before he
looked down to the necklaced crystal he held in his right hand.

"This is not a bad roof. Defensible, hidden from the view of the
neighbouring structures by virtue of height. Safe as I'll get until I
get money, I suppose. I've slept in worse places. For that matter,
I've spent decades at a time sleeping in worse places than this."

He pulled his cloak tighter, shivering at the slightly cool night air.
He'd put it back on to combat the temperature. He didn't like the cold.

It was so peaceful here. Not the cardboard peace of the future city, where
nothing bad happened, and peace was as normal as the air breathed in.
Rather, the peace of this time's Tokyo was a settling peace, a calm that
said 'Something bad could happen any second. A mugging, a murder, even
perhaps a terrorist attack. But for the moment... for this moment, there
is peace.'

That was a true peace. It was peace BECAUSE it was momentary, because it
was at best fleeting. It was peace because peace had meaning here, instead
of being a comfortable, soul-numbing fact-of-life like it was in the future.

"I suppose I should rest." He looked at the crystal again. "You'll watch
over me, like always?" He did nothing for a few seconds, and then he
smiled. "Thank you, my friend."

He put the crystal down, then he laid back on the roof, using his bag
as a pillow. "Wake me if I am needed." he muttered to the crystal,
before closing his eyes.

+++++++++++++++++

The youma walked down the empty street. He was another of Jadeite's long-
term deployment youmas, his Earth disguise was as a police officer. The
average energy generated by a crime in progress was impressive, whether it
be a robbery, a domestic dispute or, best of all, a murder or one of the
other crimes that generated strong emotions. Still, it was a tough job for
the youma to act out a role as self-constraining as observing the law. What
he really wanted was some action, a chance to do some violence, like fight
against someone worth taking on, maybe that Moon girl Jadeite had been
sending out 'kill on sight' orders for.

So, being bored, the youma welcomed what he saw when he turned
into the next street. A vagabond, dressed in a tattered cloak, was
propping himself up against a wall. The way the vagabond was leaning
over into the alley next to him lent evidence to him being a drunkard
as well. The retching sounds sort of helped the youma reach that
decision.

"Had a bit too much to drink, pops?" the youma asked as he stopped
in front of the man. He hid his disgusted smile; in his land, if someone
had been acting like this they probably would have been sacrificed
to Metallia.

The drunkard swivelled around, swayed a bit, groaned, and then
slurred out a strangled "Wha?"

The youma snorted in disgust. Typical drunken idiot. Still, maybe
he'd get lucky and the fool would go into one of those rages that
he'd seen some of the drunks do. Then, at least, he could get
some decent energy from the man, anger generated so much more energy.
If he claimed that whatever lethargy the vagabond experienced was from
a hangover or something, he'd be home free from his human 'bosses'. It
was an easy way to get some extra energy above and beyond his quota,
for 'just-in-case' situations.

"Oh... Hello... hello offisher."

"I think you'll be coming with me." The youma said authoritatively.
His eyes narrowed. There was something about this situation that
was wrong, his instincts nagged at him.

"Fair go, offisher." The vagabond rested a gloved hand on the youma's
shoulder. The youma idly considered just how badly breaking the man's arm
would affect his cover. "Spare a bit of change for a 900 year-old, energy-
sucking, rebel-leading killer from the future?"

"What?" The youma said, understandably confused. His eyes
widened. Alcohol. That was it, there was no smell of alcohol!

The hand tightened on the youma's shoulder, as the vagabond dropped the
drunken pretence and tossed the creature into the alley. The man jumped in
after the Dark Kingdom resident. "*sigh*  Forgive the trickery, 'offisher',
and forgive me. Goodbye."

A minute later, the vagabond walked out of the alley, dusting off his
gloved hands. "Too easy. Just like last time, it was far too easy.
Disturbing."

+++++++++++++++++
                                * * *

We were proud, we were strong, we fought for what we felt was right.

We fell before the Senshi like wheat in a thresher.

We were the ones who came out of the Great Ice, who listened to
Serenity's offer: purification or leave the Earth, and we were those
who decided to fight for the right to freedom on our home planet.

Murderers, thieves, at least one who was insane, scum. Poets, political
activists, students, normal people blessed or cursed with power. All we
had to unite us was the belief that Serenity's cause was wrong.

I guess belief alone wasn't enough.

We took on false names, as a way to ensure that our families would be safe
from any possible retribution, and to give us a sense of teamwork, of
solidarity. Some even tattooed black, upside-down crescent moons on their
foreheads, in parody of Serenity's own mark. Those who didn't take the
tattoo, like me, wore headbands or armbands or something with the black
moon sigil. It was a symbol of our rejection of Serenity, and symbols were
important.

Onyx, Amethyst, Topaz, the list went on. We were the children of the Earth,
and our chosen names reflected that.

We spent what little time we could afford on training ourselves. I spent
it gathering energy; the last fights before the ice had drained me near
dry, and then I had used every iota I regained over the years I was trapped
to free myself. Onyx, our default leader, taught some of us the magic
required to construct droids, to help in our fight. Where he had gained his
knowledge, and for that matter, who and what he was, none of us knew. Like
many of us, he kept his past a mystery; pasts didn't matter, we were
fighting for the future.

Finally, unready as we were, we launched our attack, just as the first
groups of people unwilling to accept Serenity's rule left the Earth.

Onyx took on Pluto, and they disappeared in a flash of light. Pluto
reappeared some years later, Onyx didn't.

Opal gathered every bit of his power, jumped into the middle of the Senshi,
and... well, he literally exploded; he shortcircuited his own powers in
an attempt to get rid of the enemy. Unfortunately, it didn't work. Still,
it knocked Venus unconscious. Damn, I respected Opal. He was as mad as
anything, but he had guts. Unfortunately, they didn't do him much good when
they were splattered across the battlefield.

Garnet got knocked out by Jupiter. I believe that she was later exiled,
thrown off the planet in the last transport to leave the Earth.

Serenity hadn't taken the field yet, and so I engaged Mars.

The fight went on, my friends and teammates fell one by one, sometimes
knocking out a Senshi with them. I got slightly lucky, Mars was knocked
out by a stray blast, I think it was from Quartz. Sadly, he was new to his
power, and he did not heed his own limits. He burnt himself out, literally,
in that fight.

Eventually, we were down to two, and so were they.

Then, we were down to one.

Sapphire.

Sweet Sapphire. I will get them. Sooner or later, I'll get them. Upon my
soul.

    - Seventh entry in a set of private journals that were kept in the
      library of a small house near the northern most tip of Japan,
      dated 2443.

                                * * *
+++++++++++++++++

"I consign you to the void. Take peace in its emptiness."

He watched the youma turn to dust as it died from a combination of fatal
injuries and a critical life drain. His body glowed green from the influx
of energy.

The man sighed, as the glow faded. He looked around at the small apartment.
It was the best place to catch them, in their homes, or in other secluded
places. Less chance of interference or random factors. He sat down in the
sole chair, a rickety wooden affair that could barely take his weight, let
alone that of the youma who had owned it. He reached over to the small
cabinet that was next to the chair, opening the drawers one by one. In the
second drawer, he found a few coins.

He flicked through the small change the youma had. "I guess you only get
lucky once when it comes to hoards of cash. Maybe most of these youma
give their money to their leader, whoever that is. Pity, I could really
do with some money."

He looked down at his necklace, before he reached down and drew the
crystal out from his shirt. "Rob a bank? Don't be ridiculous."

He leaned back on the chair, ignoring the dangerous creaking from the
wooden seat. "Why?" he asked the crystal, surprised.

He thought about it. "Because it wouldn't be right."

+++++++++++++++++

"You shouldn't slack off like this, Usagi." Luna admonished her young
charge, who was lying in her bed, giggling, as she flipped through a manga.
"We should be out searching for the Moon Princess."

Usagi sighed, lowering the manga so she could look at the cat. For a small
black cat, Luna certainly did a good mother impression. "Why, Luna?
What's so special about this Moon Princess anyway? I mean, you just came
into my life one day, said I was Sailor Moon and I was supposed to find
this 'Moon Princess', but you never said _why_! Why am I Sailor Moon? I
never wanted to be a warrior, why can't people like Sailor V do the
fighting?"

"For the moment, it's best not to say." And I can't really remember why,
the cat thought to herself, cursing the large gaps in her memory. "But we
need to find the Moon Princess, to protect her. Without her, the evil of
the Dark Kingdom will certainly win out. Right now, you're all we've got,
and until we find the other Senshi, you're the princess' only help." Luna
sighed inwardly at that thought. Why couldn't the girl show a bit more
motivation?

+++++++++++++++++

Jadeite let the dusted remains of the youma sift through his fingers. He
looked at the scorch marks on one the surrounding walls of the small
shop. At least this one had managed to get off a blast before she died,
for whatever good that did her.

The youma general resisted a small urge to sigh. Another one of his
long-term operatives dead, with no evidence on who did it. That made
the seventh in five days.

There was no way that this was the work of Sailor Moon. That child couldn't
possibly be able to find his youma this quickly, let alone dispatch them
with so little damage to the surroundings. His pride refused to accept that.

He briefly contemplated telling Queen Beryl. No, no he wasn't quite that
stupid. She was already overreacting over Sailor Moon, making it plain
that she wouldn't take hearing about another youma killer without some
sort of proof. She'd just think he was making excuses, and when Beryl
started thinking that... He clenched his dust covered fist.

Keeping secrets from Beryl was a recipe for 'demotion'. There was only
one thing to do, try and get rid of this second trouble-maker before
she or he came to Beryl's attention.

+++++++++++++++++

"Stop fooling around, Sailor Moon!" Luna shouted from the sidelines as
Sailor Moon desperately dodged the attacks of an angry youma.

"What... do... you think... I'm doing... out here?!" Sailor Moon wailed in
between her clumsy (but effective) dodging. There were no bystanders in
the park, luckily the lateness of the hour had made sure that only the
combatants were around.

"I always wondered who taught Moon how to dodge like that." the cloaked man
noted as stepped out of the shadows behind Luna.

Luna scurried back a little, her muscles bunched to jump away if the man
attacked.

"Hello, little talking cat. Don't worry, my fine feline friend, I told Moon
I was here to help, and I did not lie."

Luna's eyes narrowed, her gaze exuding suspicion. This must be the man Usagi
had told her about. He obviously knew she wasn't a normal cat, no point in
faking stupidity. "If you're here to help, why haven't you attacked that
youma yet? Or don't you have any power?"

"Of course I could intervene. But look at her."

The cat and the man looked over at Sailor Moon, who was running away from
the youma, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"There, you see? She's still learning how to fight. If I stepped in, she
might start relying on me to bail her out. Then, when I'm not there, she
could get killed." And then would I be able to find the Neo-Queen, if the
Senshi's leader is dead before the last battle? Best not to risk it, the
Senshi are the ticket to my life's goal.

"What she needs right now is support, not for other people to butt into
her battles. If she's really in trouble, I'll help, but otherwise, relax.
As long as someone's giving her moral support, something along the lines
of--" A rose thudded in front of the charging youma, startling her into
stopping.

"Don't fear this monster, Sailor Moon!" Tuxedo Kamen urged from a nearby
lamppost. "Look within yourself, you have the courage and power to defeat
it." Having said his bit, he flew off into the shadows.

"Yes, yes something like that." the cloaked man agreed as Sailor Moon took
the words to heart and used her tiara to kill the creature. "Huh, knew she
wouldn't need help."

"You were right this time." Luna noted as Sailor Moon went through a
victory pose. "But what happens when you're wrong?"

"Then I'll be wrong. Don't worry, the Grim Spectre is not quite ready to
add Moon to His realm yet." He stared at the youma dust pile, sighed, and
muttered "What a waste."

"Just who are you, anyway?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know that myself." Sailor Moon added as she walked over
to the pair. "Why did you just sit there like that? Didn't you see me
getting chased? Why didn't you help me!?" Tears started to shimmer in her
eyes.

"I was confident in your abilities, Sailor Moon. As for me, I'm nobody
important. I'm just searching for someone, a queen, in fact. Once I find
her, a lot of the world's troubles will be over."

"A queen?" Sailor Moon, pondered this for a few seconds as Luna tried to
make 'careful of what you say, we cannot trust him yet' paw signals in the
background. "Gee, I wonder if she's got anything to do with this Moon
Princess you keep going on about, Luna."

Luna sighed, hanging her head. So much for paw signals.

"A princess?" the man hummed, before he smiled, his mouth stretching into
a full grin. "Well, every queen was a princess once." He resisted the urge
to dance. This 'Moon Princess' almost certainly had to be Serenity. It was
all going to work out, Sailor Moon would eventually lead him right to her.
For once, life was good.

+++++++++++++++++
                                * * *

It's peaceful here, my love. I think you would have liked your resting
place; nature always was your element. That is why I scattered your dusted
remains here, long ago.

Despite the time we had together, you never told me exactly what you were.
Some sort of half-youma, or a gentle oni, or a human with lycanthrope-like
abilities. It didn't matter to me, you were you, and that was all that
mattered.

Do you remember, during the rebellion, just before we launched the attack,
how we promised each other we wouldn't die in the fighting? How we'd
have a drink afterwards?

Just another broken promise, snapped by Uranus and Neptune. Their combined
attacks ripped you away from me forever.

No last words, never getting to say goodbye, just time to share a last
pain-filled glance, saying as much with the eyes as we could... and then
you were gone.

It was the mindset of the Senshi, the warrior morals that allowed them to
kill 'monsters' without remorse. To them, you were just another soulless
droid, like the others we had created for the battle. Kill or be killed,
it was war after all. I understand. I cannot forgive.

I can never forget, never forgive those who killed you. I would have got
them then and there, they were weakened by the battle. But then Serenity
joined in, and I lost the chance for vengeance, possibly forever.

I find it so hard to remember some things. My school years, my sister's
face, bits and pieces of my life fall by the wayside as time goes on. I
have forgotten so much. But no matter how long I live, no matter what
happens, I will never forget you.

I miss you, Sapphire.

I miss you.

    - Contents of a note, left with a bouquet of wilted flowers on the
      outskirts of Crystal Tokyo, at a grassed plain that was once a
      cemetery, 2771.
                                * * *
+++++++++++++++++

He leaned back on the park bench, staring at the night sky. He was back
in the current time's clothes, his bag lay next to him. His necklace was
on top of his shirt, and he was talking to the crystal.

"She was so trusting, my friend. Oh, she might have been annoyed that
I didn't help her in her fight, but she never seemed to think I was
actually an enemy."

He cocked his head. A few seconds passed, and then he said "Why didn't
I stick around longer? Expedience, my friend, expedience. The longer I
stayed talking to them, the more chance I might have slipped out
something... incriminating. Best to keep it to short talks, swaggering
heroic rescues, those sort of things which will leave a good impression of
me to them."

He looked at the gibbous moon for a while. "Moon Princess, eh? You don't
think that all those legends that sprung up after the rebellion were true,
do you?"

He paused. "No, no you're right. Reincarnated warriors who once lived on
a hunk of airless rock. Huh, I remember how angry that made me when I
first heard it. As if 'being a princess in a past life' is a legitimate or
good 'reason' to take over the world."

He hooked his hands behind his head, using them as support. He
blinked, and then looked down at the crystal. "How long do I think it
will take to find Serenity? As long as it takes, my friend. As long as
it takes. It's not as if we've got anything else to wait for."

He could do many things to change history, if he wished it. He could gather
a bit more energy, and then go destroy landmarks, like the Tokyo Tower. He
could kill off people like the Senshi, or ensure that important historical
events, such as peace signings, didn't happen. But there was no point:
there were no guarantees that anything he did would give him the future
he longed for, except for destroying Serenity herself. She was the linchpin,
the nexus, the critical turning point. Everything else was secondary,
Crystal Tokyo might still survive unless he got rid of its creator.

A few more appearances around Moon's battles, maybe actually helping her
out on a few of the fights to show her he wasn't just a big-talking
weakling, and she should be convinced of his 'sincerity'. The other Senshi
obviously hadn't joined yet, Moon and her cat needed every ally they could
get.

He'd be all too glad to help out.

+++++++++++++++++

"I don't think we should trust this man too much." Luna muttered, sitting
down on Usagi's bed. "We know nothing about him, and he just stood by and
did nothing while you were in danger. There's just something about him that
worries me. I think you should be careful around him, until we're sure
he's on our side. Giving away any of our secrets to him could be
dangerous."

"Maybe we shouldn't trust him until he learns the secret handshake." Usagi
replied, flopping down onto her bed. "So he's no Tuxedo Kamen. If he wanted
to do something to hurt us, he could have ambushed me back at the salon,
or he could have helped the youma today. I think you don't like him because
he's just like you, someone who thinks they know what's best."

Luna sniffed. "He's nothing like me. And I do know what's best, thank you
very much." She sighed. "Just don't tell him anything until we're sure about
him, alright?"

"Okay, okay." Usagi groaned.

+++++++++++++++++

He looked through the small refrigerator that was in the apartment
of his latest kill.

"I suppose it's too much to find milk or cheese or something RECOGNISABLE
in here." he muttered. "What is this stuff?"

He blinked. "I guess you're right. It'd have to be food from this Dark
Kingdom place." He reached in, and pulled out... something. "This sort of
looks like a demon I killed once. Only, this thing is uglier."

He looked at the food for a few minutes, weighing his hunger. He blinked,
and then glared at his chest, where the crystal rested under his clothes.
"Easy for you to say, you don't have to eat it." he muttered.

He hesitated for another minute, before he shrugged. "Oh well." He took a
bite, chewed a few times, and swallowed. "Disgusting." he noted, before
taking another bite.

"I'm not sure I like the amount of youma we've been finding." he said
conversationally in between bites. "This Dark Kingdom must be very close
to something big, invasion or something, to have this amount of youma
cannon fodder running around."

He grinned. "True, true. The more of them, the more for us. The way this is
going, I'll be at powers way beyond the young Senshi within another week or
two."

+++++++++++++++++

He walked through the cram school, his cloak ruffling around him. He'd
detected the youma's energy on one of his walks through the city, and so
he'd found a secluded place, changed out of his 'civilian clothes' and
teleported into the building.

He could feel the aura of a Senshi. There was no doubt who that was, Moon
seemed to still be the only active Senshi around, unless that V girl over
in Europe was one too.

He smiled. It was time to do something suitably heroic to make sure
that he was on Moon's good side. Posture a bit, mouth off a couple of
rousing speeches, the sort of thing he vaguely remembered the Senshi
doing a lot during this time period. He heard loud noises coming out of
one of the rooms he was heading towards; explosions, a couple of
screams, shouting...

His smile widened. Sounded like a typical Sailor Moon fight from this part
of her career, if the couple of fights he'd spied on so far were any
indication. He reached for the door as he prepared his energy for a fight.

He blinked. Wait. There was a second Senshi in there...

"Shabon Spray!"

His face paled. "Mercury." he breathed, in barely a whisper. He backed
away, edging into the shadows of the wall, and teleported away.

+++++++++++++++++
                                * * *

She nearly got me yesterday. I was fighting off Jupiter, and then I saw
her running towards me, her power gathering in her hands. I froze, somewhat
ironically. Luckily, self-preservation kicked in, I dodged her attack, and
I managed to escape.

Sailor Mercury. The second Senshi I encountered, just after my less
than joyous meeting with Mars.

I fear her.

I don't fear Jupiter or Mars, and they've both put a lot more power and
passion into trying to take me down. I don't fear Venus, and she's come
the closest to finishing me off. I don't even fear Serenity, and I know
what she could do with the power she commands.

And yet, I fear Mercury. There are two reasons. Firstly, I have always
found her intelligence, her analytical mind to be offputting.  Mercury
is deceptive. She is the quiet before the storm. The problem is, she is
also the storm. Just when you think she's a timid little flower with no
guts, you see her stand fearlessly before an entire squad of droids as
she releases one of her attacks.

Her power, will, and intelligence make her deceptive, and that is
something to be careful of.

The second reason? Ice. She attacks with ice.

    - Found, along with a bunch of related files, on a derelict computer
      system in the ruins of a town in SouthWest China, 2595. The files
      were difficult to recover, perhaps the owner of the system thought
      them to be irretrievable and therefore safe.

                                * * *
+++++++++++++++++

The youma walked into his apartment. There was something wrong in
here. His danger senses weren't screaming, but they were whispering,
and that was enough.

"Take peace with your goddess, or demoness, or whatever you wish
to call her." The cloaked man stepped out of the small toilet room.

The youma grinned. "So, you're this youma killer I've heard about?"

"A youma killer, yes. Nothing personal, just need your energy. If
there was another way, I would take it."

"Don't worry about it. There's nothing personal about--" The youma
shed his glamour, and rammed his right arm(which ended in a blade-
like point) through the man's side, "THIS either. Did you really
think you'd get away with this forever? You did a fine job of killing off
the energy gatherers, but that's no fine accomplishment. All we had to do
was replace them with warriors like me, and your death was inevitable."
He twisted his arm a little, not wanting to end it for the man before
he'd received a measure of pain equal to all the deaths he had
caused.

"You know..." the man gasped through gritted teeth. "That really
hurts."

"Oh? Oh, I'm so sorry. Nothing personal, just need your head, for
my general, Jadeite."

The man smiled. "Information." he noted, as he started to glow. He
brought his right fist down, shearing through the appendage in his
left side. The youma screamed, and the man paled from his act, which
had forced the shorn-off appendage to cut through more of his side.
"Information..." he repeated as he pulled the limb out, ignoring the
blood for the moment, "is, like knowledge, power. Thanks for the power."

His hand glowed. "You're worth spending energy on. Take that to the
grave as a compliment, my large, dangerous friend." He pointed his
hand at the youma, who had recovered from the pain and was about to
bring his other limb up to attack. The cloaked man's hand burst with
green energy, which lanced into, and then through the youma.  The youma
had time for a half-strangled scream, before he collapsed into dust.

"So, the farmers have been replaced with warriors." He smiled,
clutching at his bleeding side. "Good, good. I was beginning to worry
about how easy this was."

+++++++++++++++++

He staggered out of the apartment block, his right hand clutched around
his left side.

"An ambush." He noted calmly. "You have to respect a good ambush.
That was almost a good one."

He pulled his hand away, and looked at it. It was covered in sticky red
blood. Almost red blood, anyway, the liquid was full of small glowing motes
of green... something. Energy, perhaps.

"Wonder if I should get a blood transfusion." He mused, before laughing.

He cut off his laughter. "Don't worry, my friend. It will take a bit more
than a second-rate ambush to finish me off."

He smiled, returning his bloody hand to his side.

"Ah me, ah my. This calls for a bit of petty revenge against this 'Jadeite'
fellow. Trying to kill me by proxy hardly seems fair."

+++++++++++++++++
                                * * *

Can I die?

I remember a quote... it's on the tip of my tongue... it was something
about death. Wait, I remember. Something along the lines of life being
a disease with a 100% casualty rate. Or something like that.

I guess I've developed an immunity to life, then.

I'm not aging. I've been in dozens of fights that would have killed off
a normal person. I'm just NOT dying.

Will I live forever, outlasting the Earth itself, to float in the vacuum
amongst the stars?

No. No, I take comfort that I shall eventually find the peace of
eternal rest. After all, one day even the stars will die.

    - Tenth entry in a set of private journals that were kept in the
      library of a small house near the northern most tip of Japan,
      dated 2443.

                                * * *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As always, C&C appreciated. I'm very curious about what people think
of the youma killer, since he's not much of a good guy. Near the
end of the story, I might put in a couple of journal entries from
the other side. Mars, perhaps, would have some interesting things to
say from the Crystal Tokyo Senshis' point-of-view.

************  
Mark Doherty  -  mdoherty@mailbox.uq.edu.au
The Weekly FFML Synopses Lists are at:
http://www.uq.edu.au/~zzhdoher

My fanfics will be back on the web sooner or later.

"Time grows short, but I remain tall."