And another one down.  Before we start, 2 quick notes.  First off, the
item I'm refering to as the Star Crystal is, indeed, the black crystal
(japanese starts with a k, I believe) that Nephrite and then Zoicite use
to try to track down the Silver crystal.  I don't know where the name
came from or if it's right, but for the purpose of this story, it'll do. 

Secondly, I did a spell check on this just before sending it and
accidently let it replace several of the names... if you see anything
insane that should be a name, please let me know (Rei became red, Minako
became Maniac, and I don't remember what Naru turned int...).

Oh, if you haven't read the rest of the story, you might want to do that
before you start here.  Try http://www.angelfire.com/tn/twillia/ for the
others.  There's even a quick story list there now so you don't have to
wade through most of my pages to find what you're looking for.

As always, C&C of any kind or length welcome and loved.

Disclaimer goes here.

Part 18	

	The sun was already setting by the time Nephrite came across the black
tome.  He didn't remember seeing it the last time he had rummaged
through the stack of eldrich references, but he was too tired to think
much of it.
	He flipped open the cover and began to methodically scan the pages for
any reference to crystals, a thing that had, by this point, become
almost automatic.  
	Not more than ten minutes later, he spotted something that jolted him
to full wakefulness.
	"Silver Crystal... linked to Star Crystal by ritual... hmm..." he
mumbled as he reread the line that had so caught his attention.  A Star
Crystal?  He'd seen mention of it in one of the other texts and if it
was linked to the Silver Crystal...
	Thoughts of rest were, once again, pushed away as he set to researching
with a passion.  Maybe this was the lead that would prove the key to
finding the Silver Crystal for Queen Beryl.
	Of course, that's what he thought the last three times he found "leads"
in these old texts.

***

	Usagi wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of one white gloved
hand.  "What's about to happen?  Level with me."
	She was talking to Serenity who was sitting off to the side of the area
where the Senshi were training.  She looked up at her younger self and
asked, "What do you mean?  What makes you think something's happening?"
	"Well, either something's happening or it's about to happen.  We've
been out here for three hours already.  We usually only train for one."
	"So?  Maybe we think you're not working hard enough?"
	"No, I think you believe we're not ready for whatever's coming next. 
So why don't you just tell us what's going to happen so we can prepare
for it."
	Serenity sighed.  The problem with being around Usagi was that she knew
roughly how she thought.  Hiding things from her younger self was
becoming more and more difficult.  "Do you really believe that would
help?  Certainly, we know a lot about how the Dark Generals think and
what they're likely to do next, but think about it for a moment."
	She stood up and faced herself.  "We're trying to teach you how to
handle whatever may happen without knowing in advance.  If we tell you
everything and you go off and do it the easy way, where does that leave
you when the next big crisis comes?"  From the look Usagi was giving
her, she clearly didn't get it.
	"I just..." Serenity turned away from Usagi to hide the indecision that
was written on her face.  "I had to learn these lessons the hard way,
okay?  And besides, it's not like everything that happened to us is
going to happen to you, right?"
	Usagi was more than a little confused by all this.  "But didn't you
have Luna and Artemis to tell you what was going on most of the time?"
	"Yeah... but they usually only knew enough to make matters worse.  But
you're right.  You do deserve to know what's coming up next.  Taika and
I will work up some specific drills for you tomorrow.  Other than
that..." she sighed deeply.  "I'm really starting to see how Pluto feels
sometimes."
	"That's fine," Usagi said, nodding.  "But what's going on?"
	"Ask Taika.  She knows the story better than I do."
	Usagi shrugged inwardly.  "Tomorrow, then?"
	"Yes, tomorrow."

***

	Later that night, Serenity and Taika were in the shrine, practicing on
their own.  Of course, to anyone else, it would have seemed they were
merely sitting across from each other, in mediative positions.  In
actuality, Serenity was holding Taika's power down as she fought to
summon it up.
	Serenity, being the most powerful of the Senshi to begin with, had
already hardened her body to the stresses that summoning power placed
upon it and was now helping Taika do the same.
	Finally, after almost an hour of magical tug-of-war, Taika broke off.
	"Whew, this is rough," she said, falling backward to lay on the wooden
floor.
	"Yes, but you have to get back into shape.  You never know when you're
going to need your full strength."
	"Yeah, yeah, just let me rest for a while first.  I'm still sore from
the other day."
	"And that's a good reason for you to be training, I would think.  If
you'd been ready, that wouldn't have happened."
	"You could have warned me, you know."
	"You should have thought of it on your own.  And besides, I was
busy..."
	"Busy goofing off, I bet," Taika's voice was playful as she said it. 
"You're really enjoying this aren't you?"
	Serenity grinned.  "Whatever do you mean?"
	"This.  All of this.  Being on the front lines against an enemy and
going to the arcade and just hanging out half the time.  If I didn't
know better, I'd swear you even enjoyed doing homework."
	Serenity's grin brightened.  "It's just nice to have simple worries for
a change.  I mean, things here aren't exactly calm or safe, but... when
it comes down to it, I'm only really responsible for me.  Back home,
half of the decisions I made effected millions or even billions of
lives."
	"That's why I never hung around the palace much.  If you give them a
chance to hand you responsibility, your life becomes a lot tougher." 
She sighed and stretched out on the floor, her hands knitted behind her
head.  "Give me a nice mountain lake with a little shrine beside it and
I'm happy."
	"I never had much of a choice in the matter," Serenity paused a moment,
a new thought occurring to her.  "Well, maybe now I do, but not before."
	"There's always a choice," Taika yawned widely.  "And right now, I'm
thinking about choosing bed."
	"Yeah, we've got a long day ahead tomorrow... I promised Usagi that
we'd begin preparing for the next series of attacks."
	Taika pushed herself up onto her elbows.  "Are we still assuming that
Nephrite's going after the crystal soon?"
	Serenity nodded.  "If not, then after his next caper or two.  It's
inevitable.  I've got Ami monitoring the carriers of the crystals so
that we're alerted the second they begin."
	"Shouldn't we just go ahead and grab the crystals before the Nephrite
figures it out?"
	"No," Serenity said, shaking her head gently.  "Removing a crystal
requires releasing the youma trapped inside it.  We'd only be able to do
one at a time, anyway, and someone would figure out what was going on
before we could get them all."
	"Besides, it's good training for the girls.  They're not always going
to be able to plan out their battles like this and the more random
factors we introduce, the more better training it will be.  It's not
like we really have to get the crystals, just keep Beryl's hands off
them."
	Taika nodded at the logic.  "It's still sad that those seven people
have to become monsters.  I guess it can't be helped, though, if that's
the only way to free the crystals."  She sighed deeply at this dose of
reality.  "We'll probably get a few day left before it starts.  Is a
nice quiet week too much to ask?"
	"You did grow up in the same place I did, didn't you?  And you need to
ask that?"

***

	The entire cathedral was bathed in black light.  Not the twisted kind
of ultraviolet lamp that some people find pleasant against white cloth,
but the opposite of white light.  Everything appeared as though on a
photographic negative.
	Nephrite held himself calm as he finished the last few words of the
summoning he had, more or less, written for himself.  For a second, the
only effect was a white pulsing of the lines of the octagrams he had
etched into the floor and the steady non-light that filled the room.
	Then, slowly, real light began to push its way into the edges of the
room, forcing the black light to coalesce in the center of his sigils. 
Finally, after several agonizing moments, the object of his search
sprang into being and the sense of power that had, up until then, filled
the room faded away.
	Nephrite allowed himself a smile of triumph as he took the Star Crystal
from the center of the octagrams.  
	His plans were well under way.

***

	Serenity spent the most of the rest of the evening distracted.  She was
trying to figure out exactly how to proceed with things.  Certainly,
training the girls wouldn't be difficult.  They were picking up tactics
pretty quickly by this point.  As for the other training, Rei and
possibly Minako were almost ready to start accessing the second level
powers built into their Sancho identities.  The others weren't far
being, either.
	No, what was worrying her was how this current scenario was going to
start.  The dates were a bit off in this world, which meant there would
be no Princess Dia visit to get things started.  
	Of course, that might end up being for the best since it would, most
likely, keep Naru out of this.  
	That brought up another point she needed to attend to.  Usagi and Naru
weren't spending as much time together as they used to.  The younger
Senshi had a tendency to adopt a kind of club mentality since they spent
so much time together, working and training, that was prone to leaving
other people out.  People like Naru, unfortunately.
	It was unrealistic to expect them to be as close as they once were, but
sometimes Usagi had trouble dividing her time amongst her friends
equally.  Since Naru got along well with almost everyone in the group,
it'd probably be a good idea to plan something for all of them after the
immediate danger was over.
	A picnic would me nice.  Youma only attacked picnics about half the
time, which was, oddly, a rather low percentage for Sancho attended
events.
	And it'd be a good chance to spend some time with Endy-chan, as well. 
He was spending a lot of time working with himself, training and
preparing for exams and the like, and Serenity was starting to miss him
greatly.  
	That was the problem with being married to someone for a millennium,
you ended up rewriting the definition of "dependant".
	<Who else to invite... hmm...  Mamouro, of course, and Taika will want
Umino to go along.> She couldn't resist a slight grin at that last one. 
Somehow, the thought of Taika and Umino was becoming less humorous as
time went on, but it was doing so slowly.
	The only reason she didn't laugh out loud was the fact that he seemed
to be having a big effect on Taika's emotional well-being.  Before,
she'd always been... well, she'd always been withdrawn and a bit
antisocial.
	Now, she was happy again.  They'd all grown up too fast the first time
around, and were only now getting a chance at a real childhood.  Well,
if real childhoods normally entail fighting off wave upon wave of evil
beings hellbent on ruling the earth.
	<Hmm... I wonder if the Harukas and Michirus would like to come?  And
bring the Hotarus, too.  This might be really fun.>
	That part of her mind that was so ecstatic to not have to be serious
all the time latched on to planning a picnic and kept her occupied for
most of the evening, thoughts of the upcoming battles weren't allowed.


***

	He didn't remember how he got there.  That's how it always was.  He'd
find himself at this same window every other night, and he still didn't
know how he was getting there.
	He knew he should go back to the cathedral, he had work to do the next
day and he was still exhausted from the last summoning, but he couldn't
resist.
	After a few minutes of listening, he decided that the room's sole
occupant was asleep.  Eyes closed, he breathed deeply for a moment,
steadying himself.
	<I've got to stop this,> he reprimanded himself even as phased past the
glass of the windows. <Why am I here?> 
	As every time before, he didn't know the answer.  Something drew him
here.  To this girl.  Something powerful.
	The logical part of his mind thrashed about for a reason for these
irrational visits and finally latched onto something.  He raised the
Star Crystal and let it hover in the air above her bed.
	It twisted around so that the point on one end of it's rod shaped body
pointed toward her and began to silently pulse with that same black
light he had seen earlier.
	First, the blankets around her sleeping form seemed to fade away, and
then the pajamas.  Finally, the her skin tone and texture blended into a
uniform grey and the inside of her body could be seen.
	Organs and blood vessels didn't appear.  This light was only interested
in things of power, not matters of the flesh.
	There was nothing there.  He bent close to make absolutely certain she
wasn't holding the silver crystal, but it wasn't there.
	Silently, he cursed himself for a fool and seized the floating
crystal.  He wasn't coming back here again, he swore as he teleported
back to the cathedral.
	Of course, that's what he had said every other time he found himself in
that room, in the middle of the night.
	Through all of this, Makoto slept on.

END

Tim Williams