[Previously, on The Further Adventures of Sheila Tenkai:

	The Black Moon Crisis has begun, and the Crystal Tokyo Resistance
Movement, led by Queen-Pro-Tem Priss Asagiri, is in dire straights.  A plan
has been concocted, however, to exploit the time travel capability of the
Black Moon Family and prevent the Crisis from ever occuring.  In the midst
of these events, the death of Sheila Tenkai's lover Misa von Fogler drives
the eldest Senshidottir to volunteer for the suicidal mission to Nemesis,
the Black Moon.]


	A few hours before when "dawn" was supposed to be, not long after I
finally gave up on sleep, I got up from the hospital bed that I'd been
laying on for hours and made my way out of the infirmary.

	In the hallway, I was challenged by a guard, one I didn't
recognize.  After confirming my identity -- she was very embarassed when
she realized who I was -- she pointed me in the direction of the armory.
I thanked her and was on my way.

	The armorer, a mostly bald man who spoke in a Scots accent, blinked
as I stepped in.  "Ms. Tenkai?" he asked.

	"I thought I should pick up some gear for the mission tomorrow," I
said without preamble.

	"But ... ma'am, aren't you an exotic close combat specialist?" he
asked, using the current military jargon for a martial artist.

	"Yeah, but I think I'm going to need a little more firepower this
time."  I gave it a bit of thought.  "What've you got in the way of
battlesuit arnaments?"

	He looked really startled at that, but tapped at the computer
console anyway, bringing up a holographic display of the armory's
inventory.  "Well, we have quite a few beamsabers."

	I shook my head.  "Okay by themselves, but I don't like the
thought of toting around the recharging harness.  What about actual melee
weapons?"

	"We've quite an assortment --"

	"Show me your bastard swords," I suggested.

	"The system prefers the term hand-and-a-half swords, ma'am, but
anyway ..."

	A display of several swords appeared in the holograph.  I found
one that, if I was reading the scale right, was about as long as I was
tall, and silently indicated it.

	The armorer gaped at me for a moment, then swallowed and read off
the catalogue number.  He headed off into the stacks of equipment.  A few
minutes later, I heard him grunting in effort.  I hopped over the desk and
went to help him out.

	I had actually read the scale wrong.  It was actually just a bit
longer than I was tall.  I took the hilt out of his hands and hefted it
fairly easily, getting used to the feel of the grip.

	I felt the armorer watching me as I wielded the sword that he'd
been having difficulty even lifting.  I gave him a quick smile.  "My
strength is as the strength of ten ... because my heart is pure," I
quoted.

	"Yea verily," he muttered.  "Um, anything else?"

	I considered.  "Do you have any of those portable photon torpedo
launchers?"

	He paled.  "Uh ... I think we might.  You're really getting loaded
for bear, ma'am."

	I smiled politely, and wondered why he took a step back when I did
that.

                      An Inevitable Outcome Feature

                           Written and Directed
                           by C. Richard Davies

                        The Further Adventures Of
                              SHEILA TENKAI

                               Chapter Two:
                                   Dawn;
                               Preparation.



(OP Sequence:  Images of Sheila -- of course -- Erica, Michelle, Ryouko
Mizuno, and the Inner Senshi flashing past in a frenetic, music videolike
atmosphere, while a sped-up version of Meat Loaf's "I Would Do Anything
For Love (But I Won't Do That)" plays.  The final image, over the lines 

   But I'll never stop dreaming of you every night of my life, no way.
   And I would do anything for love, oh I would do anything for love
   I would do anything for love, but I won't do that, no I won't do that.

is of Sheila, leaning against a picture window through which we can see
Twentieth Century Tokyo.  We pull away from the window to see that she is
standing a floor beneath where Erica and Michelle stand, holding each
other closely.)

	Before I get any nasty letters from military scientists, I'm fully
aware that referring to a semi-portable fusion beam cannon as a "portable
photon torpedo launcher" is a mistake by definition.  A fusion beam
projector jackets its pulse of star-hot hydrogen in a cyllindrical force
field that makes it *look* somewhat like a conventional missile, but I
confess that I don't know where the term arose.  Photons, particles of
light, aren't really involved in the system at all.  It's really as crazy
as referring to a monofilament-edged blade as a "laser sword", because it
can cut as cleanly as a laser beam ...

	In any event, I got myself fitted with the harness to make
carrying both my sword and "gun" a little easier, along with a small
number of cells for the launcher in a specially sealed hip pouch.

	"Well, wish me luck," I said with false cheer.

	"I don't know that I should," he said with an oddly contemplative
expression.  "Supposin' that you only succeed *because* I wished you luck?
Then we'll never have had this conversation, and I won't have wished you
luck, and you won't have suceeded, and --"

	I held up a hand.  "Don't.  You're making my head hurt."

	I walked out of the armory, and started heading down the corridor
to the main assembly area.  It was about two hours before when dawn was
supposed to be.

	I heard a very soft footstep behind me.  Much softer than any of
the sentinels.

	Before that thought had really crystalized, I had drawn the sword
out of its scabbard and whirled.

	The point of my sword was at her throat.  She was a little shorter
than I was, with a very tanned skin, deep brown eyes, and jet black hair,
dressed in a tight black dress that left very little to the imagination,
its v-shaped neck sloping down to display quite a bit of cleavage.

	"Isn't it customary to ask, friend or foe?" she inquired calmly.

	"Consider it asked," I bit out.

	"You have very sharp ears ... most people wouldn't have heard me
approaching --"

	I applied a smidgen of pressure to the sword, just enough to press
it bit further against her throat.  She stopped prattling, and smiled.

	Thus showing her fangs.

	"Vampyre," I muttered.

	"My mother named me Marisol," she corrected.

	I thought a moment, and remembered where I'd heard the name.
"You're DeGales' childe, aren't you?"

	She closed her eyes and inclined her head in a polite bow.  My
eyes are almost as sharp as my ears.  I saw the faint look of pain in her
eyes just before they closed.  I drew back my sword and sheathed it.
"You're the one who helped engineer the downfall of the `Nobles' in
Europe."

	"Essentially, yes.  I had ... help, but that's neither here nor
there.  You are Tenkai, are you not?"

	I nodded.  She smiled again, her fangs no longer in evidence.
"Then we two are comrades, for I have also volunteered for this morning's
mission."

	We started to walk together down the hall.  It was a bit
surprising to learn that "our side" had a vampyre agent.  While the
handful of the kindred that had survived the Wars of Unification weren't
persecuted as long as they didn't assault people for their blood, most of
them tended to stay far away from Crystal Tokyo -- the magical defense
field seemed to cause them pain.  Gennosuke Kuonji was the only one who
seemed to be willing to put up with it.

	On an impulse, I asked, "So what was Aethan DeGales like?"

	Marisol shrugged.  "I barely remember him."  At my expression, she
exclaimed, "Madre de dios!  It was nearly eleven hundred years ago!
Perhaps the Senshi can remember things from that long ago with perfect
clarity, but I cannot!"  A sigh escaped her lips.  "We argued constantly,
but I seem to recall that he was always very polite in his disagreements
with me.  He was ... very civilized."

	"I see," I said, and we walked in silence for a while.

	A moment later, she snorted, "If you're curious, ask Dame Venus.
She knew him much better than I *ever* did, if the rumors are true."

	<Oh, no bitterness here, no ma'am,> I thought.  Apparently I
thought just a bit too loudly, for she suddenly rounded on me.

	"Does it surprise you that I'm bitter?  That I feel no gratitude
towards the Senshi for bringing me and mine 'into the light' as it were,
uprooting generations of tradition, letting the mortals know that, yes,
there is magic and mystery and oh yes vampyres *do* exist, but we've got
them under control, so don't worry, and above all don't *fear*."  Her eyes
were narrowed, and her fangs made her next words come in a hissed.  "I
*liked* being feared."

	"I guess when you put it that way, I'm not surprised," I replied
bluntly.  "But I am a little surprised that someone as bitter as you
volunteered for a mission to save the world."

	She snorted.  "You oughtn't be.  I've seen the ruins of Sydney.  I
know what the Black Moon can do."  A very twisted smile ghosted across her
face.  "Compared to the way it *could* be, I like this world the way it
is.  As it stands now, we are tamed predators; were the Nemeses to win, we
would be competition ... and we'd lose out, I think."

	We walked down the hallway in silence after that, which made it
easy for me to hear the voices coming from one of the base's loading
docks.  I gestured for Marisol to go on, which she did without looking
back as I looked into the large room.

	Noa was seated in her son Shinji's stomach -- Shinji being a
sentient Ingram X patrol labor -- which was opened up.  I immediately felt
like a sleaze for eavesdropping on them, but what they were saying grabbed
me and didn't let go.

	"... but I'd like to go with you," Shinji said.  His voice had
modulated a bit in the half century since his birth, such that he now
sounded like a seventeen year old.

	"I know you would," Noa replied, gently.  "But there's not enough
room in a cutter to take you with us."

	"That's not the only reason, though, is it?"

	Noa nodded, smiling sadly.  "You're right, Shinji ... I don't want
you to get into this war any more than you have to."  She was silent, then
continued.  "Later today, when the evacuation starts ... you do your job,
but you keep your head down, too."

	"Kaasan, you *do* know that my primary memory banks and processors
*aren't* located in my sensory turret?" Shinji asked in a deadpan tone.
"That yours are is one of the mysteries of humanoid evolution which --"

	Noa laughed then, and I was a bit startled to realize that I was
smiling as I stood in the shadows and watched them.  She gently slapped
one of the control panels of the labor's cockpit.  "Baka.  Of course I do.
That's not what I meant."

	"Kaasan?" he asked in a quiet tone.  "Why is it all right for me
to fight in the evacuation, but not in the war?"

	Noa was silent for a long moment.  "Because ... that's not why you
were made, Shinji.  You ... and me also, I guess ... we are protectors.
Defenders.  Not soldiers."

	"But ..."

	"I'm going up there, today, because I'm the only one who can do
the job.  I don't like it."  She snorted.  "And the idiots at the
Planetary Defense Forces have tried to flatter me my sending a ... no, I
don't even want to think about it.  But the point is, if you have to fight
someone when you're protecting someone else ... that's one thing.  What
we're going up there to do is ..."  She tried to find the words, then gave
up.  "... something else."

	"Okay," Shinji said finally.

	Noa hopped down out of the open cockpit, and patted Shinji's lower
leg as it sealed up.  "Be good," she said, "and I'll see you when I get
back."

	"Hai," he whispered as she walked toward the entrance, nodding at 
me by way of greeting.  I accompanied her as we walked down the hall. 

	"So ..." I said, looking for something to say.  "How has the RSF
tried to flatter you?"

	Noa grimaced.  "The MS that they sent us is an Ingram Zeta, a
scaled-up lookalike of the original Ingram.  The manufacturer originally
wanted to name it an 'Alphonse' in my *honor*, but I talked them out of
it.  It's a fairly light suit, lighter than one of BAT's Valkyries, which
I trained in  -- but it should do the job."

	"And the cutter?"

	She shrugged.  "Cutters all look the same to me -- overly big
backpacks on mecha fail to impress, somehow."

	Ritsuko was standing outside the doorway to the conference room.
"Chief Izumi," she said, nodding in greeting.  "Sheila, could I have a
word?"

	I nodded as Noa headed into the conference.  As the door opened, I
heard a rather familiar voice speaking in there.  "-- at least six
battlegroups of Marines, including my own unit --"

	"Ah, no!" I protested to Ritsuko.  "Those idiots in Northam sent
*her*?"

	"Sheila, I want your word of honor that you won't --"

	"That I won't what?  I've never started *anything* with her, and
you know it!"

	Ritsuko frowned.  For her to be showing that much emotion was a
singularly bad sign.  "You know very well that you *have* provoked her at
times.  I will grant you that she always accelerates the conflicts between
the two of you from the verbal to the physical, but you *do* sometimes
start them!  And I don't want it to happen this time, we can't afford it!"

	"All right!" I yelled at her.

	"Your word, Sheila.  Palladin's Oath."

	"Oh for ... may the oath I swore in the presence of Queen
Serenity and Lady Jupiter, and before Goddess, be held as broken if I
insult or provoke my cousin in any way."  I glared at her.  "Satisfied?"

	She nodded.  "Yes.  Now that I've gotten them from both of you, I
*am* satisfied that neither of you will --"

	For a second after I realized what Ritsuko was saying, I stared
at her, then threw my hands up in the air and headed into the conference
room.

	Ryouko was standing at the foot of the table, pointing at a holo-
diagram of the expected order of battle for the assault on Nemesis.  Her
long blue hair was, for once, done up in a bun on the back of her head,
suiting her fatigues.

	Her face, which hadn't been very animated as she discussed the
order of battle, froze completely when I stepped in.  She found her voice
about a moment later.  "Tenkai.  Nice of you to join us."

	"Right," I said without much enthusiasm, and took the last vacant
seat at the table, next to Noa.  Lina was sitting on the other side of the
table, staring oddly at Marisol beside her.  There were also two men in
the room, dressed in Royal Marines fatigues -- a Corporal and a Sergeant,
neither of whom I knew.  Another woman that I didn't recognize was
also present, while Priss was sitting at the head of the table, and I 
noted with some surprise that she was wearing her hardsuit, minus the 
helmet.

	"Well, now that the entire strike force is here, I suggest that we
go over the insertion plans," Ryouko continued.  "At oh-seven hundred,
coordinating with the Planetary Defense Forces assault on the Dark Tower,
here in Crystal Tokyo, the cutter `Spirit of '41' will launch, ideally
to rendezvous with the rest of the Armada within the hour."  The hologram
displayed the outline of the cutter, which then reduced in size in
contrast to the large group of ships that surrounded it ... leaving no
doubt in my mind who had designed this.

	As if to confirm this, Ryouko continued.  "When given clearance by
CINC-Armada, the cutter will make a rapid strike approach on Nemesis, with
full coverage by the fleet elements not otherwise engaged.  On landing,
we're to immediately begin to make our way to the suspected location of
the Time Gate.  Upon obtaining control of the Gate ... well, essentially,
we're on our own from then."

	Neither of the other two Marines looked comfortable with that
statement, while Lina almost grinned at the thought.  It was good to see
that she was enjoying herself.  I guess.

	"Okay," Priss said, standing.  "Since it's ..."  She looked at her
wrist, then sighed.  "Bloody heads-up-displays," she muttered.  "Anyone
got the --"

	"Oh-five hundred forty-two, your Majesty," the two Marines said in
chorus.  They didn't even have to check.

	She glared at them.  "*Kill* it with the `your Majesty' bit, all
right?  Anyway, you're all dismissed, be at the launch site -- just
outside the complex's main doors," she added, for my benefit, " -- in
plenty of time.  Sheila, Ryouko -- I'd like a word in private with the two
of you."

	Everyone else filed out.  Ryouko and I busily avoided meeting each
other's eyes.  Finally, when the three of us were alone, Priss sat back
down again.  "I've recieved some information that the two of you should
probably know.  Your mothers *are* alive, and so is Serenity."

	I stared at her.  "Seriously?"

	"Your ... ahem, Ms. Asagiri, what exactly is the source of this
intelligence?" Ryouko interrupted.

	Priss looked over her shoulder, at the wall of the conference
room, for a moment.  Then she turned back to us.  "I can't tell you that."

	"I see ..." Ryouko said slowly.

	"Uh ... right," I said, nodding.

	Priss let out a long sigh.  "I *told* you they weren't gonna
believe me," she said, throwing an irritated glare back in the direction
she'd looked earlier.  "Hell, *I* don't --"

	"All right," came an ethereal voice from the direction she was
staring.  And then, slowly, a figure began to take shape in that corner of
the room.

	"Prince Endymion?" I gasped.  His form was basically insubstantial
-- at certain angles, you could see right through him.

	"Yes," he said, nodding.  "Sheila, your step-mother, and Ryouko,
your mother, are both fine.  They are powering the shield that keeps the
Palace from being taken by the invaders.  The Queen was critically injured
within the first few seconds of the invasion, but has been placed in
suspended animation -- as have I.  However, I am still able to project my
astral form from where I am sleeping --"

	"And thus interrupt people trying to get sleep of their own,"
Priss muttered.

	"I *said* I was sorry, Dame Priscilla," the Prince muttered in
turn.

	"What about the Princess?" Ryouko suddenly asked.

	The Prince's face became guarded.  "She is safe.  That is all that
I can or will say about the matter at this time.  After the resistance
evacuates from this base," he changed the subject, "I will be taking
control of it, in preparation for the next phase in our conflict with the
Black Moon."

	"Whoa, back up.  Next phase?  Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't
we going to stop this thing from even getting started?" I asked.

	The Prince shook his head.  "The outcome of your mission is
unknown to us, Sheila.  We have to make contingencies for all possible
situations, however."

	Ryouko nodded, but I was still a bit confused by his answer.  I
guess the Prince guessed it, because he said, "Sheila, it's important to
understand that this time travel that you're about to embark on is 
something completely unpredictable, when it comes to how it will affect 
the battle that we're fighting here.  For all we know, when you go back in
time, you'll end up in a universe that diverged from ours at the instant 
of your arrival ... and we'll still have to fight."

	I shook my head.  "I can't believe that."

	He shook his head.  "The sad thing is, what we do and don't
believe --"

	"NO," I said, raising my voice to a member of the royal house for
the first time in my life, "I *can't* believe that."

	For the briefest of moments, the images of what they'd done to
Misa's corpse danced behind my eyes ... but I started to lock them, the
fury and the grief away.

	My face must be really expressive ... either that or the Prince is
really good at judging blank expressions.  "I'm sorry," he said, quiet and
sincere.  "I regret your loss."

	I couldn't answer that.  It was too much of a strain keeping a
hold on myself.

	"Loss?" I heard Ryouko mutter behind me.

	"Outside," Priss muttered in response.  Aloud, she said, "Uh,
Sheila, if you could hang around here for a few minutes ... I think
there's one more person who'd probably want to say goodbye to you."

	I nodded.  It was all that I could manage right then.

	I heard Priss shoving a protesting Ryouko out through the door.
After a few minutes, I was once more in control.  I looked up and saw that
I was alone ... Endymion having faded back into the walls, I guess.

	A moment later, I heard the door open, and turned to greet Priss.

	It was Ryouko.  She was staring at me, her face even more of a
cold mask than usual.  She began to say something, then her eyes quickly
darted to the side, and she said "Ah.  I thought that I'd forgot those."
She marched over to the table, and picked up a datapad that she'd been
referring to during the briefing.

	I'm not sure what moved me to try, but I decided to engage in some
small talk with her.  "So, how have you --"

	"My opinions of you have not changed," she said, not looking at
me.  "Nor those I have of ... others."  She took a long breath.  "But I
regret your loss.  She ... was a professional.  I respected that."
Another one.  "And I am not so ... base ... as to not feel sympathy for
the heartbreak you have suffered, unnatural though it is."  She abruptly
turned, and headed towards the door.

	"Thank you," I said quietly.  I don't know whether she heard me as
she marched out.  I wondered ... and still do ... how much that had cost
her.

	Maybe as much as hiding my pain cost me.

	A few minutes after that, Sylia walked in, half-carrying her
eldest daughter.  The one they'd named after me.  Nene Sheila Asagiri-
Stingray, who hadn't yet started to call herself Ennis all the time, was
fast asleep.  I suppose that Sylia misinterpreted the look on my face as
one of confusion.  "I exercised my command priveliges to make sure that
She Who Must Be Obeyed would get some sleep before the evacuation," she
said quietly.

	I nodded.  It was strange ... no matter how my feelings about
Priss had fluctuated since we'd fallen out, I had *never* been able to
feel comfortable in the presence of the woman she'd chosen instead.  It
wasn't due to any sense of competition ... it had more to do with the fact
that she didn't seem to acknowledge that there *could* be any competition.
That she saw herself as so far above me that there wasn't any point in
being angry at anything I did.

	But that was probably just me being jealous of her emotional
control.

	I eased Nene-chan into my own arms -- at fourteen, she was
beginning to be just a bit too bulky to carry, but she was light enough
that I barely noticed -- sat down at the table, and started to hum a
lullabye that I'd used a time or two when I was babysitting her.

	Slowly she awoke most of the way.  "Sheila-obasan?" she asked
sleepily.

	"Hai," I whispered.  Priss and Sylia were trying to keep little
bits of Twenty-First century Japanese culture alive in their children.

	"You look so sad ... why are you sad?"

	I figured that there was no point in lying to the child.  "Because
the Black Moon frightens me, Nene-chan ... it scares me a lot.  And I
have to go there, today."

	"But you shouldn't be scared," the child told me with the
certainty possessed only by the very young.

	"Really?" I asked, my heart almost breaking again at the peace in
her eyes.

	"Yes.  Serenity-obasama won't let anything bad happen.  She
promised me."

	The Queen -- who was currently in a coma, if her husband had told
the truth -- had promised this child that wouldn't let anything bad
happen.  And so much had.

	So I don't know why the words gave me hope.

	They did, though.

	"Arigato, Nene-chan," I whispered.  The tears which I had expected
to flow as I talked to the child were mysteriously dammed.  I began to
whisper the words of the lullaby once more ... a lullaby my mother had 
sung to me, one that my biological mother had once recorded on a tape lost
in time.

	"Cosmic child," I sang quietly.

	She was asleep again in moments.  I returned her to her mother's
arms, half-afraid that I'd never be able to let go of her if I didn't.
Sylia was looking at me with an expression that I'd almost describe as
perplexed.

	I nodded to her, and decided to head out the door before she could
work out what questions she wanted to ask me.  "Well, you take care of
yourself," I said by way of farewell.

	"Live," she said in response, just as I reached the door.

	<She *couldn't* ask me to do something *easy*>, I thought.

                             To Be Continued

(ED Sequence:  A reworking of "Heart Moving", the first Sailor Moon ED,
over a red tinted background. We see a female figure whose hair is tied
back in a long ponytail kneeling beneath a tree, as a wind blows her
ponytail back at varying degrees of speed.)

Author's Notes

	Damn.  That wasn't what I intended to write at all when I started
this, a little under a year ago.  I still have 4K worth of the all-out war
scenes that were going to dominate this chapter, leading up to the assault
on the Time Gate.

	Oh well.  Next time.

        "Sailor Moon" was created by Naoko Takeuchi and brought to North
America by DiC.  "Bubblegum Crisis" was created by Toshimichi Suzuki and
others and brought to North America by AnimEigo.  "Mobile Police Patlabor"
was created by Yuki Masami and brought to North America by U.S. Manga
Corps, Manga Video, and Viz Communications.  (BUY THE MANGA!)  "The
Slayers" was created by Hajime Kanzaka and brought to North America by
Software Sculptors.  Sheila Tenkai, Ritsuko Urawa, and Ryouko Mizuno were
created by Chris Davies, deriving inspiration from a variety of sources.
This story, while incorporating elements from these and other films and
magazines, is copyright 1998 by Chris Davies.

        Nobody sue me, okay?
	
	Oh, by the way.  I'm back.  And I'm not leaving.

Chris Davies, Advocate for Darkness, Part-Time Champion of Light.
"Damn it all, how am I supposed to sit here and wallow in self-pity and
disgust with all this racket going on?" -- Yuusaku Godai, Maison Ikkoku.
http://www.ualberta.ca/~cdavies/hmpage.html