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

Chapter 4

I haven't at all been in a writing mood for the last couple of months. Still,
here's something at long last.

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

Comments are always good to hear. Don't hesitate to dissent, I don't mind.
But please try to be polite, some of the C&C, especially about Serenity, has
been only just short of rude.

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

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

The Purification.

Huh, 'The Brainwashing' is what it should have been called. A 'spiritual
cleansing to stave off the darkness', the pulp authors of Crystal Tokyo
like to call it.

Is it just me, or do words like that belong in a child's fairytale? Are
people really so simple that they could believe such a pile of unmitigated
whitewashed rubbish? While we're at it, perhaps we should all link hands with
Mr Fluffy the Friendly Bunny and giddily skip down Happiness Lane.

There was, I vaguely recall, once a saying about cures being worse than
the curse, or the cold, or something like that. The Purification was such a
'cure'.

The rebellion was over. Every rebel still alive and accounted for, besides
me, was in space, heading towards whatever Fate chose for them. I was
hiding out in the ruins of Osaka. Like most cities, it had been destroyed
in the final fights before the Ice. Unlike Tokyo, however, there weren't
over a million survivers of the time in the Ice.

There were only scattered handfuls.

Tokyo's bane also proved to be the catalyst for its boon. It was... is a
mystical nexus point for trouble. As such, it did - and in some ways still
does, in fact - suffer from a higher than normal rate of monster
attraction. This bane also proved to be a boon, because it also attracted
anyone who could throw around a magical spell or energy beam to the city. At
the time of the Great Enemy there were quite a few teams of paranormals -
from all around the world - living in Tokyo, all of them itching to blast
whichever hapless monster happened to get in their way.

This concentration of 'heroes' in one area proved to be the rest of the
world's downfall. There were no Senshi in Chicago to stop the invading
monsters. None of the fangirls of the Senshi - all those other Sailor
women - were in Kiev to save the people. No Star Warriors in Berlin, none
of the Elemental Guard were in Melbourne. No Neo-Knights to protect Mexico
City, no Crystal Protectors to stop the deaths in Beijing. No me to help
Hong Kong.

We were all in Tokyo, and the rest of the world burned.

Oh, there were a decent amount of survivors here and there. In a few
places, there were still protectors of one kind or another to delay the
destruction. Here and there, the normal armies lasted long enough against
the supernaturally superior foes to make a difference. And finally, the
Ice destroyed the remnants of the enemy, and all it took then to be a
survivor was having lived long enough for the cold prison to have saved
them.

It is a grim testament to the enemy on how few that turned out to be.

My thoughts wander. What was I... oh yes. Osaka. I had just killed off a
youma that had been threatening a band of ragged refugees when my senses,
attuned to massive energy usage, made me turn towards Tokyo's general
direction.

It began not with a bang, or a flash, or the singing of an angelic choir.
It began with a sigh. Was it Serenity, sighing at the 'burden' of having to
go to the effort of windwiping the people? A sigh from the collective people,
in sheeplike anticipation of their own free-wills' doom? Or a sigh from the
planet itself, as it mourned the start of the 'cleansing' - the amputation
of a large and important part of its soul?

Perhaps it was only me, sighing in despair as I saw the final evidence of
the defeat of the rebellion. The white glow of the light of the Purification
washed over the wrecked city like a wind-blown mist, settling on the people
who had come out of their shelters to watch the spectacle, human instinct
having served them as well as my energy senses had, to tell them that
something was happening.

As the light settled first on, and then into everyone, I saw expressions of
peace start to cover their faces, like... like a DAMN drug haze. I felt
the power seep into me...

The mixing of my power and Serenity's is literally the textbook example of
how certain energies - magical or otherwise - don't, shall we say, _interact_
very well. Luckily the power of the Purification was so necessarily diffused
that the usual (quite spectacular) pyrotechnics did not occur. But the point
remained: the Purification did not... could not work on me. I was the same
after as before, if in more pain from being bathed in the ginzuisho's stream.

So I stood there, my fists clenched in pain, as history was made. The people
around me wept - presumably from some sort of 'happiness' at being half of
what they used to be. I felt like weeping too, for in a large and important
way, humanity died that day. For without hate, rage, all the 'negative'
emotions, can we truly be called human? I don't have the answers, but I do
know that this emotional castration was one of the worst things I have ever
seen. No. No, not _one_ of. It was the worst.

The world had changed, and I had not changed with it. Though it would take
the Crystal Tokyoites another century to name me as such, it was at that
moment, as I watched the energy glow depart, that my choices narrowed and I
truly became an outsider.

And so the Earth was purified. Its ability to generate monsters was
cauterised. Forever our planet was 'free from the tyranny of new monsters
springing from the Mother soil'.

There was just one thing. One small, insignificant thing. Barely worth
mentioning, really. Oh, just a small problem.

Most of the monsters that had plagued us didn't come from Earth.

    - Words told to a small village in the south-east part of South America
      by a man who helped brought an end to a 'plague of demons who had
      threatened our village', as the village heads put it. The tale,
      apparently from the late 24th century, was retold to members of
      Neo-Queen Serenity's Royal Guard when they offered the village their
      protection in 2442. The offer was politely refused.

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

He leant against a building, blending in with the shadows. His eyes followed
the battle as his lips barely moved, whispering to the crystal that hung
unobscured from his neck.

"Look at them. Four strong, and still nothing compared to what they will
become. The unlikely leader, the quick-tempered bitch, the living light
bulb lighter and... and the ice girl. All we need is the happy psycho, and
we'd have the complete matching set of inner flunkies. I wonder if Serenity
came before or after the outer ones joined the cavalcade of fun?"

He blinked as Jupiter and Mars got caught in an energy attack from the
youma. "You really have to admire their courage, eh my litle friend? Look at
them. Look at their auras. So weak, when you consider how powerful they
turn out to be. So weak, and yet they still fight. They still win." He
paused as Sailor Moon healed the youma, turning it back into a very dazed
young man. "They just do it very, very badly. Look at them. The mightiest
women on this planet, a bunch of amatuerish young girls. How depressing."

The man turned his head slightly, his eyes picking out a faint, retreating
aura glow. "At least Endymion was about as useful as he ever is. 'I have
faith in you, Sailor Senshi. Now fight this dangerous beast while I run off.'
Simpering little coward."

He shook his head, closing his eyes as he leant his head back against the
cool concrete. That crystal... he couldn't remember ever seeing anything
like it... not that _that_ meant too much when it came to him. But he knew
crystals. He knew a lot about them. And it worried him that these crystals
that the Senshi, Endymion, and that Dark Kingdom pansy of a general had been
squabbling over, they all seemed familiar. Worryingly familiar. These
crystals they were like... like a reflection in water, a picture so distorted
that you couldn't make out the true shape of the mirrored image.

And what, he wondered, did they reflect? There was something about these
crystals that made him uneasy. And being uneasy made him edgy. But then
again, being edgy kept him alive.

"I've got to get home! I'm not going to get a full night's sleep now, thanks
to Zoicite! It's not fair!" a voice wailed from nearby.

He turned his gaze to a dark patch of trees, his eyes half-lidded from
boredom. It had been, after all, just another youma attack. Maybe the
crystals, and the similarity of Moon's 'healing' attack to some of Serenity's
tricks had been worrying recent additions, but it was all still pretty
boring.

The man's eyes picked out the four Senshi's auras, and he pulled the hood of
his cloak slightly further down on his brow, an involunteery sign of
puzzlement. Why had the girls retreated into a pile of bushes? A sudden
pressing need for nature's toilet? Or perhaps they had hidden clothes there,
to change into whatever civilian identities it was that they had. Or maybe...

His eyes widened as he saw the auras shift and change. "Gods..." he hissed,
straightening against the wall. "What in all the hells...?" He rubbed his
eyes, and stared again. They were curious auras, to be sure, but they didn't
radiate the same patterns as the Senshis' did. He blinked once, as the auras
crept out of the darkness, resolving themselves into four girls dressed in
completely normal clothes. There wasn't a rediculously short skirt in sight.
Not one of them was making a silly hand gesture. They looked... they looked
like ordinary girls. These couldn't be the Senshi, could they?

He frowned as he heard snatches of the girls' conversation. One of them
comparing somone to her sempai. The blonde saying something about a
'Mako-chan' cooking dinner tomorrow. And, after a few more snatches of
conversation, something about an odango-atama. His eyebrows raised.
Odango-atama?

"We'll see you at the temple tomorrow, Rei." The tallest girl called out to
the girl with long black hair, just after the four had seperated to walk
to their individual destinations.

Rei? REI? That was Rei!? But... but her aura wasn't the same. It wasn't the
same at all. Whatever it was she had done to disguise herself, it was no
simple glamour. What in all the hells had the girls just done? His eyes
narrowed as he shifted his now completely alert body off the wall.

'Let them have their private lives', he had thought when he had first
encountered Sailor Moon, after his time journey. 'They can do what they
want, as long as they lead me to Serenity', he had decided.

But... "There is no way I'm going to let this slide." He started to follow
the dark haired girl, keeping his distance, often letting her out of
physical sight, using his energy tracking abilities to keep him on her tail.

He sighed. Stalking. How banal. Next he'd be 'finding out the Senshi's secret
identities and threatening to tell the world.' He sighed again. He missed the
old Mars. If he had tried to follow her, by now they'd have been in a bitter
battle filled with insults, taunts and threats where one or both of them
could quite possibly die. Damn, he was starting to miss those fights. They'd
been a lot of fun.

Still, he couldn't let this lie. He'd thought auras to be almost
unchangeable. Certainly, they could get weaker or stronger. But to be
able to change them so radically? He'd sooner believe that Sailor Venus
was 100% sane.

But these girls may have somehow just done it. And if it could be done, that
meant that Serenity could be anyone. His fists clenched. Anyone. Within a
year or two, hundreds of young girls would imitate the hairstyles of the
increasingly seen Senshi. Especially the most distinctive hairstyle, Sailor
Moon's. Serenity's hairstyle.

If Serenity's aura was masked like the Senshi's apparently could be, then
he had to find out how to see through the glamour. Finally, he had something
to occupy his mind while he waited for Serenity's appearance. He'd find a
way around this curious little magical effect. There certainly wasn't much
else to do, besides the occasional hunt for youma.

And, he mused to himself as he crept through the shadows, who knows? Perhaps
this was the key to ending it. Perhaps he could be a lot closer to finally
finishing this than he had ever hoped.

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

Rei crept across the temple grounds, hugging the night-blessed shadows,
as she tried to sneak to her room. She wasn't so worried at whatever
punishments her grandfather might give her for being out this late, but
she could just hear the words if he caught her: 'Out seeing a boyfriend,
eh? Starting young?' would probably be the least embarrasing line used.

She could do without the old man getting the wrong ideas about her - it
was bad enough when he was trying to get her friends to become temple
maidens. She could just see him embarassing her in front of the other girls
about it, if she let him get any funny ideas. And so she snuck.

"You're distributing your weight wrong." a voice whispered from so close
that Rei almost had to clutch her chest from the sudden leap of her heart.
"And you should drape that dark hair of yours over your face. That way
there's less chance of you being seen from a window."

"Who's there?" she hissed, glancing around, readying her defenses. "Come
out or I'll--"

The green-haired man stepped out of a pool of shadows, one hand raised in
a gesture of peace, the other carrying the handle of a bag. He had changed
out of his cloak, and back into his streetwear. Rei's eyes narrowed slightly;
she hated the way he could just pop up like that. How did he do it? How did
he hide in shadows when he was wearing a white shirt?

Her eyes narrowed even more. A dirty white shirt. Her nose wrinkled slightly.
More pressing questions were put aside for a moment, as she asked, slightly
acidically, "When was the last time you had a bath!?"

"A while." he admitted. "The public baths cost money that I can ill afford
right now."

"Well you smell disgusting. And what do you think you're doing, sneaking
up on me like this? If you want to talk to me - something you should have
done a while ago, I think - you could at least have the decency to do it
during the day!"

His smallest lingering doubts that this wasn't Mars disappeared. He'd
recognise her subtle social touch and gentle way of speaking anywhere.
Besides, complaining about his hygiene had always been one of Mars's
favourite opening lines in their fights. Except for that one time when she
had caught him while he was in one of Crystal Tokyo's public baths, of
course. But the less remembered about that particular fight, the better.

"Who are you? Really?" Rei crossed her arms and scowled, still angry at the
humiliating interrogation her friends had subjected her to after this man's
little 'revalation'.

He cocked his head, considering the question. Dozens of words ran through
his head - killer, crusader, lover, hater, rebel, hero, villain. He discarded
them all. Trite, hackneyed, none of them truly meant anything. There was no
true way to answer the question without revealing the truth - and who would
believe that? In the end, she was an enemy. But that didn't mean he had to
lie to her everytime.

The man blinked, and settled for the best explanation he could use. "Who am
I, Rei-chan? I am a man with too many memories."

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

I have been called a lot of things over the years. A lot of names, a large
deal of which I have forgotten. I tend to give myself nice, simple names
when I need an alias. Ryu. John. Abis. Miguel. Hikaru.

Other people, however, like to give me grandious ones. Like a name can
somehow encompass my nature or something. I only remember a few now: Orion
of the Crystal, The Final Hunter, The  Ageless Wanderer, Starchild, Youma
Destroyer, Grim Protector...

Soulless Killer, Murderous Bastard, Evil Scum...

The names come and go. A couple have stuck with me, however. The first is
what I am most commonly known as to the Crystal Tokyoites. Simply, they call
me Outsider. I think it came from something I said in one of my earliest
battles with Mars - 'I am on the outside looking in, Mars, and I do not like
what I see.'

Hah, I wouldn't even remember that quote if the Tokyoites hadn't used it as
the banner quote for practically every biography they have attempted on me.
To their polite and close-knit society, the name they gave me is probably
supposed to be a subtle insult. As far as insults go, it suits the people of
Crystal Tokyo: it's as pathetic as they are.

There is another name. I suppose, out of so many centuries of names, it is
the closest thing I have left to a true one; it is the name closest to my
heart. It is also happens to be what the Senshi and the Royal Couple call
me. It is the one I chose, when I was a rebel. And most importantly for
me, it's an easy one to remember.

I think it was just before our ill-fated attack on the Senshi's encampment.
The others in the rebellion wanted me to select a name.

Because I did not achieve hibernation, like almost everyone else had during
the Great Ice, I had already begun the spiral into the haze that is my
atrocious memory. After all, I already had over three centuries of memories
to contend with, most of them about the seeping cold, when most everyone
else only had to deal with flashes and glimpses of the ice to intersperse
their normal lifespan of memories.

One of the things I lost to that memory haze was my name. It's funny,
really. To keep sane in the icy forever, I thought about my friends, about
my enemies, about my family. I thought about all the power I had pumped
into the Great Enemy, and how it had still stood, seemingly unaffected,
afterwards. I thought about life, love, should haves, could haves,
would-haves-if-onlys. And I dreamed - of peace, of happiness, of freedom.
Especially freedom. I dreamed of having power to escape the ice. Dreams of
power...

And it helped, it helped me to survive. But I never thought, I never dreamed
about my name. And when I freed myself, I realised I could not remember it.
And it didn't matter.

All that mattered was the fight I was about to engage in, alongside the
other rebels. We had gathered. We had seen our efforts to divert Serenity
from her selfish power trip fail. We had weighed the options - leave or
accept Purification, and found them wanting. We prepared to force a new
option. We prepared to fight. It was all some of us knew how to do.

We knew it wouldn't be as easy as one flashy battle. They had the impetus
of legend on their side - the Senshi had been famous by the time of the days
just before the Ice, and Serenity's appearance was just a legend that hadn't
had time to be called that yet. To get support for our side, we knew we had
to project an image that inspired people.

It was Onyx who suggested it. 'We fight for our Earth, let us take on names
that reflect this'. Or something like that. It helped that taking on new
names, new identities would protect our families from any paybacks, by
either the Senshi or by the slavedogs that were some of their oh-so
adoring populace.

I admit, I was ambivalent to the idea. What is in a name, after all? A name
wouldn't stop raging fire, or crackling electricity, or will-chilling ice.
As to protecting my family, I no longer had any outside the rebels. And so,
as the others selected, I stood, I watched, and I did nothing.

But the others would have none of it. I knew Opal and Sapphire from before
the Great Ice. Diamond, apparently, had seen me in the final fight, when I
was at the peak of my sacrifice-given energy. And Onyx... well, who knows
how Onyx found out anything: he was annoying that way. They were all
confident in my abilities, they all urged me on.

And they all agreed. For the good of the group, I had to select some sort of
name. Something appropriate to the others, to show our rallying of diverse
people, all as Children of the Earth.

Sapphire had chosen her name for the colour of her hair and fur. Opal had
decided on his because apparently his father had been a miner of the stuff.
Topaz had an heirloom that was made of that mineral, and Zircon just had an
inferiority problem. Amethyst had always liked that particular gem, and for
all I know, Onyx was always Onyx. The reasons for the rest of the rebels'
names I have since forgotten, unfortunately.

Finally, tired of the constant urgings, I agreed to take a name. I looked at
the gathered fighters. They looked back, waiting for my decision. I looked
at my little green crystal. I looked back to my comrades, and I smiled,
having chosen my name. Really, it was obvious.

Emerald.

    - Personal diary, dated 24 March, 2731.

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

He sighed, resting in the steaming bath. Rei had, after trying to get a
lifetime of answers out of him, offered this bath to him. He'd been mildly
shocked, to tell the truth. That was the worst thing about the girl - just
when you get used to her being a ravening bitch, she'd show a glimmer of
kindness.

Then again, he had stunk. Perhaps she'd just got sick of trying to quiz him
while keeping her nose wrinkled.

"So what's your story?" he called out to the bathroom's window.

There was no reply.

"Come on." the man continued, putting his hands behind his head. "You've
been spying on me and Rei-chan from afar for the last half-hour. What's your
story?"

A shaggy-haired head popped up at the window. "What is it with this Rei-chan
rubbish?" Yuuchiro snarled. "My story? What's yours? I've never seen you
before, but Rei's been hanging off of every word you've said."

"Naughty, naughty. Spying on a private conversation. How gauche. You're
jealous, aren't you? You're actually jealous of some vagabond she dragged
off of the street. That's sweet in a way, I suppose. But I don't know you,
and that speaks more volumes than you shall ever know. Will you be there
at her side as long as she needs you? I think not. I think that I know not,
in fact."

"You're wrong. I'll be there for her, as long as she ever needs."

"Some promises can't be kept, no matter the will that drives it. Remember
that. Don't worry, my jealous little friend. I am not trying to win Rei
over as a girlfriend or anything. We are meerly..." he struggled for a
moment, trying to think of a way to say it, before he gave up. "We sort of
go back a long way."

"You're not interested in being her boyfriend?" Yuuchiro asked suspiciously.

"Let's just say she's a mite bit young for me. I'm interested in a more...
mature woman than this young Rei. Now please go away, you are truly bothering
me."

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

Rei stared at the temple fire, trying to wring the truth from the words the
man had given her.

"Thank you for the bath, Rei-chan. I am grateful."

She gritted her teeth. "Would you stop calling me that? Do you know how much
grief I'm getting from the others because of your 'lovers in the past'
speech!?"

"I'm sorry." he lied as he stepped up next to her, staring into the fire.
"Get anything?"

She blinked. "You know about the fire?"

"Psychic visions through an elemental medium? It's more common than you
know. In the time I remember, you were quite well known for your fire
readings."

She hesitated. "Emerald..." she grimaced - he claimed he couldn't remember
his real name, and that 'Emerald' was the one she had called him by in
the past - but it was still a stupid name for a guy. "When I look in the
fire, I..." Pride in her abilities made her hesitate again. She didn't want
to admit that she had failed.

"Can't see me?" he finished. "I don't know how you remember the Silver
Millenium. But my memories came to me gradually. At one point, I had to do
something as a defensive measure, or else I may have died. And that something
is the reason why I can't be seen in your fire."

"But how...?"

"I can't explain it." Because if I did, he thought, you might work out a
way around it.

"Fine. Fine, be that way. What about the fights? If you're my... uh... friend
from the past, why don't you help more in our fights?"

"Is that what you want? Truly? To scream like a little girl until the big
brave hero comes to save you?"

"That is _not_ what I said! No, I don't want that!"

"Then what's the problem? Look, if you really need help, I shall give it.
But until then, I know that you and the other Senshi can handle the tasks
that have been sent your way. I have confidence in your abilities."

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

They stood on the temple steps, looking at the darkened sky.

"So you really can't remember your childhood?" Rei asked.

"No. No, as I said: just too many memories. Far too many memories. With all
of it swirling around in my head, some things just inevitably disappeared.
My name was one of them."

"Too many memories? What are you talking about?"

"How much do you remember of your previous incarnation?" Emerald replied.

"Almost nothing." She admitted slowly.

"Imagine if you could remember. Imagine all those memories floating around,
mixing up..."

"You don't mean that the memories of your past life in the Silver Millenium
have swamped the ones from your current life?" Rei was horrified at the
thought. If it was true, if he'd lost even his name thanks to his previous
life, then could it happen to her? To the others? Could they all lose
themselves to the past?

"The time where you and the other Senshi served your queen is easier for
me to remember than the time of my childhood. My childhood memories are not
gone. They're still there, all the memories. But they're all shoved into the
background of my mind. Don't look so worried, Rei. I doubt you will suffer
from this problem of forgetting. Who knows, one day you may wish you could
forget like I do. Besides, I still remember so much. I remember you standing
calm against a swarm of monsters." And I remember ordering them to head off
the other paranormals as I took you on in that final rebel's battle.

He smiled. "I remember another time, when you called a storm of fire to
protect your queen." I also remember having to use a building as a shield
when you threw that storm at me. "I remember you wreathed in flames, an
angel of fire, an angry vision of beauty..."

She coughed, looking slightly embarassed. "Don't you remember anything
else besides me?"

"Hmm? Oh, of course. A fine palace, with the Senshi serving and protecting
their queen. Jupiter tending a garden full of great trees in a small park
near the palace. Villages being attacked by this or that monster. Snatches
of words here, part of a scene there, and so on. Sometimes clear as day,
sometimes as murky as night. But yes, a lot of my memories seem to be of
you." Of course, there's a lot of Serenity too, but I'd be a fool to talk
of her, I might let something slip.

"I see. Look... I don't want to be rude..."

Sure you don't, he thought.

"...but I'm already seeing someone."

By choice or by death, they will leave you eventually, Emerald thought.
No immortal love waits in the wings for you, Mars. Come the future, you'll
be alone. "That Yuuchiro guy?"

"What? Yuuchiro? No! No, it's someone else. Besides, even if you did know a
previous version of me, you don't know _this_ me and I don't really know
you."

Actually, Emerald thought, in the future we know each other perhaps better
then we know ourselves. Each others quirks, weaknesses, strengths, what
we'll say, what we'll do, how we fight...

"You do understand that it couldn't work out between us, right?"

You sound like you're trying to convince yourself. Gods, if we weren't
always seriously trying to kill each other, we'd make a... decent couple.
How thoroughly depressing. The closest thing I have to a soulmate is the
person who most wants to kill me.

Emerald smiled a reassuring smile, and said "It's okay, Rei-chan. I
understand how you must feel, with someone like me dropping into your
life like this, so soon after you find out who you are. Whoever this
person is, he's obviously a lucky man." Lucky he doesn't get immortality
and have to live with your 'forceful personality', that is. "I promise, I
won't get in the way. I just want you to know, no matter what happens, no
matter what is said, if you ever find yourself alone... I'll always be
there. Always." No matter how much you wish it otherwise.

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

Nothing is forever. But what does it matter if it feels like it is?

The seconds, the minutes, hours, years, centuries tick by. How long until
it is millenia? Or more?

How long until there is a resolution?

It's not about who I am. As nice as it would be to blame Serenity for my
being a killer and an energy vampire, I cannot. I cannot blame her for my
immortality, or even for my seemingly eternal quest. I chose to be who I am.
I chose the side I am on. Those are all my burdens of conscience, for me and
me alone to bear.

Crystal Tokyo, the Purification, the exile - volunteery and otherwise, the
blinkered 'good-evil' attitude that defines Crystal Tokyo, and, I am almost
certain, the Great Ice itself... Ah, now those are burdens for Serenity to
bear.

We are each other's mirror, immortal reminders of who we are and what we did
to become that. We are both children of crystal: humanity is but a distant
memory for us both. We are the obstacles to each other's happiness - a free
world for me, a truly safe one for her. We are each other's eternal hell.

It is irrational, it is stupid, and it is the height of foolish musing, but
sometimes I think more than all the other things, more than the centuries of
reasons, the things I hate most about Serenity are the things about her that
remind me of me.

I think we are both tired of this neverending dance between us. Sooner than
never, that is all I know, one day I die. Or she dies. Or we both die.

There are no other ways anymore. That is all that is left to me and her, an
ending. Above all, I crave an ending.

    - Part of a set of personal journals, found after the Black Moon Crisis
      in a well-kept house, in northern Australia. This entry was dated 2850.

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

He watched from the shadows as the (now five) girls detransformed after yet
another fight. His eyes traced out the differences in the auras - before and
after - and he slightly smiled.

He was close. He was close to an answer. Soon enough, he would figure out
this... this disguise of the Senshi's. And then, perhaps, Serenity could die
at long last, wherever and whoever she was.

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

"So..." Minako smiled, looking at Rei as she helped the temple girl get some
food for the other girls. "I've been trying to get to know you all. I hear
from the others that you're dating two guys. Someone called Mamoru, and some
other guy...?"

"Don't you even think about starting."

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

In a high tower, at a moment of tragedy, seven crystals - parts of a whole -
became one once more. The ginzuisho settled into the crescent of its owner's
weapon, glowing with the light of rebirth.

Sailor Moon reached out.

And Princess Serenity clasped the handle of her weapon, ready to defend her
love.

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

Emerald leaned against the park bench, his eyes closed. His face was relaxed
as he drew power from the elements. The soft wind blowing through his hair
and ruffling his slightly grimy, now off-white shirt. The electricity from
the nearby sputtering streetlights. The steady heartbeat of the earth beneath
him, the gently swirling water of the large park lake...

His face was relaxed from his energy meditation, his body semi-limp, although
still tense enough to spring to a defense if needed. His senses, the mystical
ones that had little to do with sight or touch or any such mundane workings,
reached out, gently touching the auras of every living thing around him,
making him feel like a part of his surroundings for once, instead of some
sort of forever-outsider. A smile started to twitch at his lips.

He stiffened. His smile dropped as his eyes shot open, startling a couple
who had been walking by. As the young lovers hurried off, Emerald turned
his head to the left, staring up through the masking set of tree branches
to the outline of a distant building.

"Serenity..." he hissed, his eyes narrowing as he slowly turned his body
towards the tower. He stood slowly, never taking his gaze off the tall
building. His fists clenched and unclenched as he stared at the monolith.

One step, two, then three, and he was in the light-lit shadows of one of
the sheltering trees. With one final clenching of his fists, and set
determination on his face, he faded from view, leaving behind his bag and
the glasses he used to hide his eyes.

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

It pays to be patient. And I am an intensely patient man.

But there are limits. Civilisations have risen and fell in less time than
my fight against Serenity.

The simple facts are that Serenity is an extremely powerful woman. She is
openly protected by four of the five true Senshi that I know to be still
living, and the fifth one, Pluto, is no doubt shielding her queen in her
own way. As well as Endymion, there are the Royal Guards, all of whom have
more power than normal humans. Finally, there is the Royal Court - a large
deal of the 'lords' and 'ladies' are paranormals - offspring of various
paranormal survivors of the Great Ice.

Against this veritable army I have myself and a small green crystal.

Oh, there are small pockets of humanity that count me as a friend, for
destroying one threat or another to their village. Some youma too, for
that matter - I do not kill as indiscriminately as some would like to
imagine. But they are all farmers, normal people (and monsters), they are
not fighters.

Or, for the ones that do have power, they are either, quite rightly, scared
of facing Serenity, or they believe they have no reason to. I could not
possibly use any of them in a fight, they would only die needlessly in a
battle they could not win. Only once have I directly used normal people's
help in Crystal Tokyo, and the entire Mr Fluffy the Friendly Bunny TV Show
affair - where I had the support of two very young aides, Michiko and
Kensuke - convinced me that solo was the only way I could go when it came
to facing the Senshi.

It is a lonely fight. And at times, it seems that it will be a fight that I
shall never win. However, I will not give up. I will never give up. But
sometimes...

Sometimes I just get so very tired.

    - Computer personal log (voice recording), left in a small dwelling in
      Crystal Tokyo that had been believed to be abandoned. The timestamp
      places the message just before the failed Serenity assassination
      attempt of 2876.

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

And so I finally gave him a name. Ok, I gave him several. What did you expect
with his cavalier attitude towards names? Emerald was his name from the
start, BTW, I just had reasons not to use it. Why did I name him after the
female with the most annoying laugh in any of the SM series? To fulfill my
sense of irony, I guess. I have reasons, don't worry.

The idea of the rebels taking on their names was to give a way of explaining
why the future Dark Moon clan members had theirs - Demand and Rubeous aren't
exactly normal names. And most mineral names are non-gender specific. If I
use the true Emerald in the story, I'll use the Japanese name for her -
Esmaraude. Or something like that.

Oh, BTW, how do you spell Yuuchiro again? HATE that name. :P

************  
Mark Doherty  -  mdoherty@mailbox.uq.edu.au
My spam/fanfics are at - 
http://www.tass.org/~mdoherty/index.html

"Time grows short, but I remain tall."