Chapter 2 comin' at ya. This one sports a bit more comic relief than
before, mainly 'cause I'm in a goofy mood. MST/C&C welcome, flames
trashcanned, yadda yadda yadda. Insert disclaimer here, you know who
belongs to me and who doesn't and I'm running out of cute little threats to
put on my disclaimers anyway.

----
Sailor Moon Aia

Chapter 2: The Third Awakens!

"You fool!" Queen Onyx threw her wine glass at Zircon. "You've wasted
valuable time and energy on these crystal senshi!" 

Zircon ducked the flying glass. BAD move. "And how DARE you duck when I
throw things at you!" Onyx stood up, dashed in a blur of motion to Zircon,
and began whaling on him with a rather large crystal shillelagh [that's a
club, for those who don't speak Gaelic] she had produced out of thin air.

"Ow! Oww! Aah! Kuso! Cut it out!" Zircon shielded his head with his arms as
best he could, but Onyx was still hitting more than she missed. Eventually,
she got bored and sat back down, leaving a bruised and dishevelled Zircon
teetering in the middle of the room. In the back of the chamber, Ruby could
be heard snickering.

Zircon stood straight again and adjusted his tunic. "My Queen, I did say
that Sailor Topaz is a -prototype-. Still in the experimental stage.
Besides, if those two freaks hadn't shown up, the Moon Princess and Sailor
Venus would have been roasted alive."

"Those 'freaks' you speak of disturb me. Those planets they claim to be
avenging...Solathei and Loquathei..."

"The worlds of the Aia solar system. Loquathei has been dead for two
thousand years." 

"Yes, yes, and Solathei is our prison planet. What's your point?"

Zircon frowned. "There's something bothering me about that...Kyrthei.
Kyrthei was under our control long before its inhabitants were destroyed,
but there's a chance that someone escaped. If that's so, there may be
another of these new senshi running around out there."

"Find that creature, then. Find it and bring it here. It will serve me, as
its people did." Onyx looked balefully at Sailor Topaz, who stood mute
against the wall waiting for instructions. "I'll give you one more chance
with that -thing-."

Ruby laughed to herself as she watched the exchange. Her two creations were
currently incubating in her laboratory, gaining strength. She had had to
give up some of her own power to bring them back to life and to bolster the
powers they had possessed before, but it would be worth it. Zircon's
crystal bimbos were nothing but shark bait. Ruby's two children would be
the ones to kill the Sailor Senshi and open the way for the Dark Kingdom to
rule Earth.

"I think I'm ready to create a second prototype. That was the other
problem. Topaz was alone there. If she'd had help, things would have been
very different."

"Very well," sighed Onyx. "Go to Solathei and pick out a slave to play
with. Oh, here, just take the crystal portal key." Onyx casually tossed
Zircon a vaguely key-shaped crystal shard. "Go whenever you need to from
now on." Zircon opened his mouth to express his thanks, but Onyx cut him
off. "Don't think I'm doing this because I like you. I'm doing it so you
won't come pestering me every time you need a slave to experiment on."

Zircon bowed and retreated before Onyx decided to beat him some more.
"Come," he said to Topaz. The crystal senshi followed wordlessly. Topaz was
mute; all she could say was "Topaz Flare Wall." Not enough power yet,
Zircon guessed.

Ruby did not voice her displeasure aloud. Onyx had just given Zircon access
to Solathei whenever he wanted it; something even Ruby, supposedly Onyx's
favorite, did not have. Her feelings were perfectly summed up by the
immortal words of a certain horse: no sir, she didn't like it. [that's Mr.
Horse, of Ren & Stimpy fame.] But that was okay. Ruby would prevail, as
Ruby always did. Zircon would make an ass of himself, as Zircon usually
did. It was all good. 

Once back in his laboratory, Zircon strapped Topaz down onto a table and
fitted a sort of cap over her head. "One more infusion of topaz energy
should do it," he muttered to himself. He opened a smalll hatch on the
machine the skull-cap was hooked to and placed a handful of yellow gems
inside. Then he closed the hatch and threw a switch. "I know this hurts,"
he said, holding Topaz's hand. "And I'm sorry. But it will make you
strong." The device hummed and what looked like glowing yellow liquid
flowed through the tubes hooked to the cap, and into Sailor Topaz. Her body
twitched and jerked and she whimpered in pain as the yellow light filled
her. When her entire body glowed, Zircon shut off the machine and unhooked
the skull-cap.

The glow faded. Sailor Topaz blinked as Zircon unstrapped her. "Master."

Zircon jumped. "You can speak now?"

"Yes. Am I complete now?"

"You are."

"Good. I would like to go play with those girls some more. It was fun until
the others came."

Zircon laughed. "And play you will. But first, I have to make you a
companion. So those others won't hurt you again."

"I would like a friend, Master." Topaz stood up. 

"What color would you like your friend to be, Topaz?" Zircon opened a chest
of precious stones. Topaz knelt before it and raked her fingers through the
gems. Finally, she smiled a hideous artificial smile and placed a stone in
Zircon's hand.

"I want her to be blue."

*			*			*

"Hi, Rei!" Allie opened her front door to let Rei in. "I'm 
sorry about running off yesterday. I had a bad headache."

"You look like you didn't sleep very well last night, either. You almost
fell asleep in class today!" Rei said as she stepped into Allie's home. The
two girls went up the stairs to Allie's room, where Rei's eye was drawn to
a strange wand on the dresser, half-covered by a towel. "I invited the rest
of my friends over to meet you, if that's okay. They didn't really get a
chance to talk to you after school yesterday."

"Oh, that's fine!" Allie smiled. "Shana and Janie go to their school. I
invited them over too. Hope you like cats...Shana takes hers EVERYWHERE."

Rei laughed. "Usagi has a cat she drags around too. Her name's Luna. I
think they're bringing her over too."

Allie looked over at Rei. "I don't know if that's such a good idea...Aradia
isn't too fond of other cats." The doorbell rang. Allie peeked out the
window, then leaned out and waved. "It's Shana and Janie! I'll be right
back." Allie left the room and headed back downstairs.

Meanwhile, Rei lifted the towel off the dresser and gasped as she got a
good look at the black wand. There was a strange symbol in the red crystal
on the end. It struck her as extremely odd, but she didn't get any bad
feelings from it, exactly...she knew it was definitely a henshin wand, but
who--or WHAT--did Allie transform into? Rei laid the towel back onto the
wand, and not a moment too soon, for Allie came back in with Shana and
Janie in tow. Introductions were made, and it was noted by Shana that
Aradia was being unusually friendly to strangers, namely Rei. Aradia had
immediately hopped out of her arms and into Rei's lap, curled up, and began
to purr and knead. The doorbell rang again, and again Allie looked out. 

"Hey, Rei, your friends are here! Why don't you let them in?" Rei picked up
Aradia and handed her back to Shana, and then she left the bedroom.

Aradia looked around, then peered up at Allie. "You remember now, don't
you?" she whispered. Allie nodded. 

"You gave me the wand." Allie lifted up the towel on the dresser. "And I
remember who you two are as well." She grinned. "What's for dinner, cook?"

Janie laughed. "I thought Mako-chan and I would cook dinner tonight. Queen
Ila would have loved to have HER in my kitchen."

"It's going to be tough to keep from calling each other our real names now,
y'know." Shana smiled.

The bedroom door opened, and in filed Mako, Minako, Ami, and Usagi. Usagi
held a black cat in her arms. Minako held a white one. "Hi, Shana! Hi,
Janie! Hi, Allie! This is Luna, my cat."

"And this is Artemis." Minako set Artemis down on the floor.

Aradia looked up at Luna, then at Artemis, and growled. Luna hopped down
onto the floor and stared at the long-haired cat for a bit. Artemis looked
at the two cats and backed away, slowly and non-threateningly. Aradia stood
up and glared at Luna. The two cats stood there, about three feet apart,
eyes locked, Aradia still growling softly. Luna just stood there, trying to
figure out what to make of the ball of hair that stood there making rude
noises at her. Finally, Aradia stood up and started moving slowly towards
Luna.

"Oh, great. Aradia does not play well with others..." Shana rolled up a
magazine and prepared to swat Aradia on the behind with it. "Knock it off,
you rude little hairball! That's no way to--" 

Then Aradia sat down and licked Luna behind the ear. Luna did the same to
Aradia. Both curled up on the floor and went to sleep. Shana looked up at
Usagi in disbelief. And Artemis, seemingly relieved, trotted over and
snuggled up between them. Luna woke briefly and smacked him on the head
with a forepaw.

"I don't get it. She hates other cats." She looked closely at Luna. "That's
an interesting marking on her forehead. It's pretty."

Luna's head came up from her paws. "Thank you," she said. Usagi gasped and
sweatdropped. Artemis woke with a start.

"Shh!" Artemis hissed.

"LUNA! What are you doing!?" Usagi cried in shock.

Shana looked at Luna and then back at Usagi. "Your cat just thanked me,
Usagi." She didn't seem too weirded out by the fact that a cat had just
spoken to her.

Artemis's forehead wrinkled up--a cat frown--and he sniffed Aradia
cautiously. "Ohhhh..." He laughed and looked up at Minako. "Hey, I think
Aradia's..."

"Why is Luna talking with these girls around?" Ami crouched down next to
Aradia and stroked her back. The ball of fur awoke, stretched, and rolled
over onto her back.

"I've never seen you girls in my life," Aradia said. "But if you've got a
familiar too, I should probably trust you. You can rub my tummy if you
like." She seemed to snicker. "By the way, 'Artemis' is a girl's name."

"IT IS NOT!" Artemis yowled. Luna laughed at both of them.

"Oh, calm down!" Luna rolled her eyes, then turned her attention back to
the long-haired cat. "A familiar? What's that, Aradia?"

"It's an animal that helps someone. Back home, having a familiar is a
pretty special thing. Only a few people were allowed to have them." Aradia
yawned and stretched, and purred as Ami rubbed her stomach. "It's something
like a protector."

"A guardian!" Artemis exclaimed.

"I guess so. Can you scratch my back please, Ami? I have an itch right
between my shoulders--" Ami complied, and Aradia's tongue poked out of her
mouth. "Ahhhhh. Thank you."

Rei observed the discourse among the three cats, then looked at Allie.
"That IS a henshin wand on your dresser, isn't it?" Allie remained silent.
"Are you Sailor Senshi too?"

"Um, Rei?" Usagi poked Rei's shoulder. "Do the math. We've already GOT
senshi from every planet."

"Maybe every planet in THIS solar system." Ami continued to scritch Aradia
behind the ears, and she purred in ecstacy. "But remember, even in the
Milky Way there are possibly thousands of planets that could support life."

"So you're saying these girls are little green men from outer space?" Mako
raised an eyebrow. "Next thing you know, the Men in Black are gonna be
beating on the door." Shana and Allie stared at her. Janie burst into
laughter.

"Actually, Allie's a tall blue chick from outer space." Allie shot her an
I-am-SO-amused glare. "Shana and me looked pretty much human, though. No
antennae here." She chuckled. "If I remember right, we had sorta long
pointy ears, but nothing weird other than that."

"Actually, I really don't care a fig where you're from." Mako eyeballed the
three cats and Ami on the floor and shook her head. "Or how well our cats
are getting along. What do you want?"

"We're just trying to do our job." Shana said. 

"What's that? Who are you working for?" Mako was about to continue grilling
Shana when she felt Minako's hand on her arm.

"Mako-chan, please. I think if they were here to do evil stuff Luna and
Artemis would have known about it. Why don't you trust them?"

"Because--" Mako spluttered-- "Because they're WEIRD and they're ALIENS
and--"

The "aliens" comment brought another gale of laughter from Janie. This
time, Shana and Allie joined in.

"Mako, we were born on Earth just like you. Hell, Janie and I are from
TEXAS! Now I KNOW everyone in the world thinks people from Texas ride
horses to school and wear cowboy hats and have oil wells in their back
yards, but 'aliens' is stretching it a bit, don't you think?" Allie was now
laughing even harder, and Janie had tears squirting out of her eyes.
"Seriously. We died two thousand years ago, and our Queen sent our souls to
this time and this place to try to do what we should have done then."

"Which is?" Mako asked, not quite as gruffly, but still not in an entirely
friendly tone.

"Destroy the Dark Kingdom once and for all."

Usagi fell over. "That WAS you yesterday! YOU two saved me and Minako!" She
grabbed Mako's arm and dragged her over such that she now stood right in
front of Shana. "See, they really ARE Sailor Senshi!"

Shana laughed. "I don't blame any of you for being suspicious." Then her
eyes widened. "Sailor Senshi...Queen Ila told us there'd be others to help
us on Earth! She must have been talking about you!"

"But Queen Beryl is gone, and so's the Dark Kingdom!" Usagi scooped Luna up
again. "So who was that crystal thing that attacked us working for?"

"Beryl had a sister." Allie sat down on the bed. "My world was under the
Dark Kingdom's control for two hundred years before she destroyed it.
Princess Onyx had control of Kyrthei, my home. If Beryl is really dead,
then I'll bet Onyx has taken her place." Allie paused and studied the
reactions of the other girls, then continued. "Onyx and Beryl hated each
other. I remember that well. They were always screaming and fighting. Beryl
was usually the one 
that backed down in the end. Onyx always got what she wanted.
Except--except one time I remember, and since I lived to tell about it,
that didn't even work out. Near the end, there were finally a few of my
people that realized they had been fools to serve the Dark Kingdom. Beryl
just wanted to send a few monsters down, make examples out of them, and
then go on about her business. Onyx went over her head and just killed
everyone." A tear fell from Allie's eye. 

"Your people worked for THEM?" Mako stood up and glared at Allie. "So what
makes you different?"

"Allie--Aylia--realized long before the rest of her people that she had
been misled and used. She fled to Solathei, my world. In time, she became
an officer in our military and a close friend of our Queen." Shana's eyes
narrowed at Mako. "I knew her personally for over a hundred of your years.
So -I- suggest -you- watch your tone, young lady."

"Shana...it's okay. You can't blame her. I know I wouldn't trust someone
whose people were loyal to Beryl." Allie sighed. "Look, what do you say we
all get something to eat? I'm starving." She smiled. "Janie--Jaana-- was
the Queen's personal chef. She tells me you're a pretty good cook 
too, Mako."

"TWO master chefs! I'm in heaven!" Usagi clapped her hands. "What are you
two going to fix us?" 

"Um..." Janie looked over at Mako, who shrugged. "I don't know. Why don't
Mako and I go to the store and see what we can come up with?"

"I want a chocolate cake!" Usagi squealed. "Yummy yummy yummy yummy!" She
jumped up and down excitedly.

"Shh! Pipe down!" Mako laughed. "We're going to make REAL food, not a lump
of sugar! She picked up her purse and she and Janie left.

Aradia looked at Luna. "That girl with the meatballs on her head...is she
always like that?"

Luna chuckled. "Most of the time."

"ALL the time," Artemis appended.

*			*			*

Sailor Sapphire's creation had gone much smoother than that of Sailor
Topaz. The trial-and-error process Zircon had gone through with Topaz had
taught him much. Plus, the slave he had picked this time was younger and
stronger, which made a HUGE difference. His new crystal senshi was already
speaking to him, and he was sure her attacks were powerful enough to
destroy those damned girls and make Queen Onyx very happy. He'd show Ruby
yet...

*			*			*

Janie and Mako walked back from the store, arms laden with bags of
groceries. "I can't get over thse shops!" Janie exclaimed. "In America, we
have these crummy supermarkets. Everything's all wrapped in plastic and
full of chemicals!"

"Oh, there's plenty of junk food here too. Usagi can smell it a mile away!"
They both laughed. Mako carried a bag of raw tuna wrapped in wax paper,
various vegetables, and a packet of nori. Jaana (who hated seafood in all
its forms) carried a nice cut of beef, a bottle of garlic sauce, and the
drinks. They intended to make some rolls of tekka-maki [tuna roll sushi,
for you uncultured swine who think the proper way to serve fish is to cook
it] and Janie was going to pan-grill the beef with some of the delicious
garlic sauce she'd found. 

Just then, Mako saw two flashes of light come out of the sky and land on
the street. One was blue, the other yellow. "What's that?" she cried,
dropping her bag. There was a muffled sound of breaking glass, and the
aroma of soy sauce wafted up from the bag.

"It looks like that weird yellow girl I saw attacking Usagi and Minako
yesterday!" Janie said. She set her groceries down and pulled her henshin
wand out of her pocket.

"Loquathei Vengeance Pow--"

"Topaz Flare Wall!" shouted Sailor Topaz. Yellow fire shot from her hands
and surrounded Mako and Janie.

"--er, make up!" Janie finished. Nothing happened. Janie shook the wand and
held it up again.

"Loquathei Vengeance Power, make up!" Still nothing.

"Let me try!" Mako held her wand high and cried out "Jupiter Crystal Power,
make up!" Again, nothing happened. "What's going on? We can't transform!"

"I can't believe this!" Janie suddenly wished she had joined the Solthasti
military instead of being a cook; at least then she'd have some magic to
use against this thing if she couldn't transform--

Suddenly she remembered her cards! She had been able to use their power to
her advantage on Solathei; why not here? She reached into her pocket and
pulled out the small cloth bag, and from it extracted a card. Not bothering
to look at it first, she threw it against the fiery wall with a grunt. 

There was a tiny explosion as its power--apparently of the Staves suit,
judging from the sudden blast of wind that blew--hit the wall. And that was
it. The card fluttered downwards, touched the blazing wall, and burst into
flames. In a split second, it was nothing more than a drift of ash.

"Great! Just great!" Janie yelled and muttered an obscenity.

"Look!" cried Mako. "It's shrinking!"

*			*			*

"What's taking those two so long?" Usagi whined. "I bet they can hear my
stomach growling for miles around!"

"Something's wrong!" Allie was looking out the window. "I just saw two
flashes of light, blue and yellow. I don't know what it is, but it doesn't
look friendly!"

"Light?" Usagi whirled around. "Just like Minako and I saw 
yesterday! They're in trouble!" She looked out the window and saw a yellow
flare. "That's that wall of fire that thing put around Minako and me! It
made it so we couldn't transform!"

"Aylia! You can get there faster than any of the other senshi once you
transform!" Aradia nudged Allie's henshin wand off the dresser. 

"Huh?" Allie caught the wand and stared at it, then at Aradia.

"When you transform, you will regain your true shape--your Kyrthasti shape!
You have WINGS, remember?"

"But--" Allie had not used said wings in ages. She wasn't even sure she
remembered how to fly.

"But WHAT? Come on!" Aradia paced around in circles.

Allie picked it up and held it high. "Okay, I'll do my best. Kyrthei
Vengeance Power, make up!"

The other senshi watched as a deep blue light surrounded Allie. Her human
mask shimmered, then shattered into a thousand pieces. Her skin was dark
blue, her eyes solid white, her hair silver. The pieces of her mask
reformed as a white bodysuit, a red collar and skirt, and a black bow. Her
wings stretched out wide as she completed her transformation, and she stood
before the awed senshi 
as Sailor Kyrthei.

"She's beautiful!" gasped Rei.

"I can carry someone with me...I think." Kyrthei flapped her wings
experimentally, stirring up motes of dust and strands of cat fur and
Post-It notes that were supposed to be stuck to her desk. They seemed
strong enough...her wingspan was about two and a half meters. Rei grabbed
her wand.

"I'll go!" She held the wand high.

"Mars Crystal Power, make up!"

"The rest of us will meet you there as soon as we can!" Usagi said. "I hope
we can get there in time..."

Sailor Kyrthei wrapped her arms around Sailor Mars's waist and lifted her
into the air. She flapped her wings and flew out the window.

*			*			*

"Whoa!" Mars had just barely avoided having the top of a good-sized pine
tree rammed up her nose; Kyrthei had dipped suddenly to avoid colliding
with a small flock of pigeons. "Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry," panted Kyrthei. "Out of practice." Her wings strained and
stretched, but continued to carry her and her passenger through the air.
She looked down and saw the yellow girl and her fiery wall, and a blue girl
milling around beside her. "What the hell..."

"What ARE those things?" Mars pulled a face and squinted. Both girls had
identical white braids down to the middle of their backs; one was bright
yellow and the other deep blue. They appeared to be made entirely of
colored glass. And they both wore sailor fuku. [The plural of "fuku" IS
"fuku," isn't it? ^_^]

"I don't like this." Kyrthei narrowed her eyes at the creatures. "These
things have some crazy powers. We better be careful."

*			*			*

Mako and Janie had tried in vain a few more times to transform, but still
nothing happened. "It's getting closer!" Mako wailed.

>From outside the wall, they heard a chilling voice say "See, it's fun.
Would you like to try, Sapphire?"

And the reply: "You go ahead. Master told me your fun was ruined last
time."

"And it's going to be ruined this time too!"

Sailor Sapphire turned around and looked at Sailor Kyrthei and Sailor Mars,
who were making a soft landing on the pavement. "Perhaps I will get to play
after all. Who are you children, and why do you try to spoil my friend's
fun?"

"I am Sailor Kyrthei, the last of my race! In the name of Kyrthei and in
the name of my Queen, you will pay dearly for this! Now tell your 'friend'
to let those girls go! Hurting people is no way to have fun!"

"It isn't? I'd like to be the judge of that, if you don't mind." Sailor
Sapphire raised her hands to the sky and shouted "Sapphire Icicle Spray!"
Dozens of wickedly sharp icicles shot from her fingertips at Sailor
Kyrthei. Kyrthei flapped her wings hard and took off, barely avoiding being
turned into a life-sized voodoo doll. One of the icicles nicked her leg,
and she yelled and swore. "Hmm...this -is- fun. She makes the funniest
faces, doesn't she?" Sapphire smiled. Topaz snickered.

"Let's see what kind of funny faces YOU can make! Mars Flame Sniper!"
Sailor Mars let fly with a fiery arrow. It hit Sapphire in the chest and
made her fall over backwards, but the crystal senshi stood up again, unhurt
and laughing.

"Can't you do better? You bore me." She began to spin around. "Sapphire Ice
Coffin!" A cold wind swirled around Sailor Mars and solidified into a chunk
of ice, trapping her. 

"Shadow Veil!" yelled Sailor Kyrthei. Darkness encircled her, and she
vanished. Sapphire shook her head. 

"How sad! She's gone," she said to Topaz...and then fell flat on her face,
having been bashed in the back of the head by what appeared to be the
shadow of a very large bat wing.

"I'm right here, you crazy bitch!" Kyrthei hissed. Just as Sapphire
struggled to her feet, Kyrthei kicked her squarely in the jaw, sending her
reeling back again.

"Sapphire Icicle Spray!" hissed Sapphire (aiming nowhere in particular),
and once again the deadly missiles flew. Being mostly invisible, Kyrthei
was able to get out of the way fast.

"Got to get them out of that wall..." she panted. She knew her invisibility
wasn't going to hold up much longer. "If only Rei were free..."

"Shabon Spray!"

Kyrthei turned around just in time to see a spray of bubbles streaming from
Mercury's fingers. Sapphire stumbled around, near-blinded. Even Topaz's
wall of fire quivered...but it held.

"Senshi! Attack Topaz! We've got to get Janie and Mako out of there before
they're burned alive!" Sailor Kyrthei's Shadow Veil shimmered, then
dropped. She was plainly visible again.

"Venus Love And Beauty Shock!" Venus cried. Her kisses struck Sailor Topaz
hard enough to make her drop the fiery wall, and Mako and Janie slumped to
the pavement, almost unconscious.

Sailor Solathei looked at the block of ice that held Mars. "I'll take care
of this!" She closed her eyes, balled up her fist, and let out a shriek as
she drove her fist into the ice. It shattered into a million pieces and
Mars was free!

Sapphire and Topaz looked at each other. "Let's get out of here," said
Sapphire.

Topaz nodded sadly. "We need Master to make more friends for us." And they
were gone as suddenly as they came. 

"Those girls are creepy," Mako finally panted. "I heard the way they were
talking. They think this is fun!"

"Who are they?" Venus helped Janie up. 

"I'm positive Queen Onyx is responsible for those things," said Solathei.
"Let's get back to the house."

Mako gasped as she saw a tall blue girl with wings and a sailor fuku
standing over her. The girl extended a hand to Mako. "Need a hand?" she
said. Mako facevaulted.

"Allie!?" Mako took the hand, and Kyrthei pulled her to her feet. "Is that
you?"

"Are you gonna live, Mako?" Kyrthei folded her wings against her back and
smiled. "That thing could have hurt you pretty bad."

"Oh..." Mako looked at Kyrthei's leg and noticed purple blood running down
to the cuff of her boot. "You're hurt!"

"Pshaw." Kyrthei shook her head. "It's nothing. I can heal it. Uh..." She
frowned. "Solathei?"

"Hm?" Solathei looked up.

"I don't remember how..."

"Oh, I'll take care of it...umm..." She shook her head. "I know I should be
able to, but I don't remember the words...Crysacha...no, that's not--AACK!"
Solathei jumped out of the way as the same small flock of pigeons Kyrthei
had nearly collided with earlier made another pass and bombarded the area
where she stood, as only pigeons can. [remember what "ach" means? heh heh
heh] "Dammit! I can't remember either!" She shook her head.

"Well, one thing hasn't changed!" Kyrthei burst out laughing. "I remember
one time..." She was nearly incapacitated by supressed giggles, but
continued... "We were fighting some measly little youma that was wandering
around outside the palace, and she decided to try one of her NEW spells..."
Kyrthei's face was beginning to take on a violet hue. "And she said
SOMETHING weird...and instead of throwing fireballs at it like she'd
planned, she buried it in these little...purple...fuzzy things about
THIS--" she held up her thumb and forefinger, about an inch apart--"big!"
She fell over laughing, as did Janie.

"No way!" Janie burst out. Solathei turned several interesting colors.

"It stopped the thing, didn't it?" she said through gritted teeth.

Mercury chuckled. "Let's go inside and I'll patch you up, Kyrthei."

Janie stood up shakily and looked down. "Oh NO!" she wailed. "The
groceries! They're toasted!" Solathei patted her arm. 

"After what you two have been through, you deserve for us to buy you
dinner!" She laughed. "Come on, let's get out of here."

*			*			*

"If I could only catch them all in one place..." Zircon shook his head.

Queen Onyx seemed not too terribly angry with him, for once. "I was wrong.
Those crystal senshi of yours show some promise after all. I've seen worse,
Zircon."

"You...you're not angry?"

"Of course I'm angry! Those brats defeated your creatures, again! But I'm
sure you'll work out all the bugs sooner or later. And two against six was
hardly a fair fight." Onyx sipped her wine and looked at Ruby. "And what
have you been doing all this time?"

Ruby smiled, although what she really wanted to do was put her hands around
Zircon's neck, squeeze slowly and firmly, and kick his feet out from under
him while she did it. "I think you'll be pleased, my Queen." She beckoned,
and two figures stepped forward.

One had hair similar in color to Ruby's, drawn back in a ponytail. His eyes
were a similar red color, and he wore the black uniform of a Dark Kingdom
general. The other had long electric blue hair and eyes, and he wore a
similar uniform. His was slightly different; it was open at the neck and
added a long cape.

Ruby ushered her two children forward. "Meet Crystal Zoicite and Crystal
Kunzite."
---

Ooo, someone's jealous. Stay tuned, folks.

--Sailor "This isn't a self-insert, I'm NOTHING like Shana, really" Solathei