May 1, 1996

      Hikaru finished reading 'Louis XIV and 20 Million Frenchmen' just as
the strains of a waltz started to drift through the wall from Usagi's
bedroom.  It wasn't the sort of music she was used to hearing from Usagi's
room, so it caught her attention.  She got up and walked over to Usagi's
room and knocked.  The door swung open.  Mamoru, Usagi's fiancee, and
Usagi were trying to waltz.  It wasn't working very well.  Mamoru knew how
to dance, but it clearly wasn't Usagi's strong point.

      Hikaru said, "Need some help?"

      Usagi said, "Do you know how to waltz well, Hikaru-chan?"

      Hikaru laughed.  "Is the Pope Catholic?  Is the Emperor Japanese?"
She walked over to the couple.  "I wanted to go into professional dance
when I was younger, and I learned all sorts of stuff."

      She spent the next thirty minutes helping Usagi get the moves down
and giving Mamoru tips on how to effectively 'lead' Usagi.  Finally, Usagi
plopped down on her bed, exhausted.  "Wow!  You're really good at this.
So why didn't you stay in dancing, Hikaru-chan?"

      Hikaru sat down and sighed.  "I was in a car wreck and I had leg
injuries.  I can handle something like this, but anything as stressful as
professional dancing would wreck my legs permanently."  I can only manage
this because I have the Power, but I won't mention that.  

      "That's too bad, Hiyama-san,"  Mamoru said.  "It's terrible when you
can't follow your dream."

      "I've had a lot of my dreams wrecked over the years, but I'm pretty
good at bouncing back from disaster.  Like my boyfriend falling in love
with my best friend."

       "Ack!  That's awful!"  Usagi said.  "I can't believe your best
friend and your boyfriend did that to you!  You're such a nice person!"

       You're so innocent and sweet, Usagi, Hikaru thought.  I wish I was
still as much like you as I used to be.  She smiled.  "Thank you,
Usagi-chan."  She noticed Usagi's Ayukawa Madoka poster on the wall and
laughed.  "You just put that up there?"

       "Yeah!  She's such a cooool singer!"

       Hikaru laughed.  "She's the one my boyfriend fell in love with."

       "You're kidding!"  Usagi got big eyes.  "You know HER?"

       "We grew up together.  And then this kid Kyousuke Kasuga moved to our 
town..."

*****

Chapter 12:  Chrysalis


*****

      The group prepared to scatter for the night.  The leadership would
likely be up all night trying to decide on the next action, but everyone
else could get some sleep.  Linna was about to ship out when Sasami
approached her.  "Mind if I talk to you for a while?"

      "That's fine.  I know a coffee house we can go to."

      They soon got there in Linna's car, making insignificant small talk
along the way.  Linna got some coffee and a donut; Sasami got a big scoop
of ice cream.  "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

      "How could you percieve my true nature?  Very few people can see
what I am."

      "Uh...what exactly ARE you?  Just because I saw that doesn't mean I
understand it.  And I have no idea how I could see that unless it has
something to do with my martial arts training.  Master Hiromi tried to
teach me a lot of mystic stuff, but it never worked until recently like
when I..."

      "Like what?"

      "Like when I accidentally ended up in one of Celia's dreams.  If
that really was one of her dreams."

      Sasami got another ice cream cone, having rapidly finished her first
one.  "That is a very useful and incredibly dangerous talent."

      "What, visiting people's dreams?"

      "There is  much you can learn from a person's dreams.  But it can be
very dangerous.  If you are not careful, you can be trapped for the night
or even longer in some cases.  I can help you, if you'd like training,
though dream walking is not my strong point."

      "I...sure.  So what ARE you?"

      "My name is Princess Sasami of Jurai.  My name is also Tsunami, a
spaceship who has lived for twenty five thousand years.  You see..."

      It took a long time for Sasami to explain everything and even longer
to get Linna to believe all of it.

*********

      X sighed.  Another disaster caused by Z's incompetence.  At least
this time the ADPolice didn't get involved.  Uncovering those Juraiian
agents has left them rather paranoid.  There has to be some way we can
exploit that.  

      The worst part of this is that we don't know where the Juraiians
are.  With the satellites down, there's no good way to observe the entire
city to find them.  They could just be lurking in space somewhere.  X paced 
back and forth, trying to decide how to draw them out.

      We could strike at the Sabres...if Z is right, then one of them is
Juraiian, and one of them is carrying a master key...that would draw out the 
Juraiians.  However, a force capable of doing that successfully would attract 
too much attention...

      Hmmm.  There must be some way I can use Z to lure them into a trap.
Either way, I'll be rid of one threat.  Ideally, we need to capture one of
their space ships too so we don't stay stuck on this rock.  

      X would need a lot of time to think.  As usual, he wouldn't get as
much as he really needed, or even just wanted.

**********

     One might think that learning to dream walk would be fun.  Of course,
one might also think that space is full of air or that anything as pretty
as a fire can't burn you.  To start with, Linna's training began with her
being yanked out of a dream in which a gorgeous millionaire proposed to
her.

      "Hey!  I was enjoying that!"  She found herself floating in the
starry void of space.

      Sasami floated nearby, dressed in her usual garb, as compared to
Linna, who was wearing a tank-top and panties and feeling a bit
embarrassed.  She had been better dressed in the dream, but this was what
she had been sleeping in.  

      "You'll have plenty of time to dream when we're done.  Also, I
wanted to make sure you didn't send yourself somewhere I'd have to go
looking for you."

      "So what's first?"

      "First you get dressed."

      "How?"

      "Think about wearing something else."

      Linna thought about her hardsuit jumpsuit and suddenly she was
wearing it.  She thought about a donut and it appeared.  She ate it.
"Well, that's easy."

      "Just don't forget you won't get real nourishment from imaginary
donuts."

      "Won't get fat either."

      "Good point."  Sasami turned and pointed at the panorama of stars.
"These are all dreams.  There are many other ways you could percieve this,
but this is a fairly common one because it lets your mind use many
metaphors to help you percieve the incomprehensible."

      "So each star is someone dreaming?"

      "Yes.  The first step is to learn to find the dreamer you're looking
for.  The second step is to do it without getting sucked in."

      "Okay.  Let's say I want to go drop in on Nene's dreams.  How would
I do that?"

      "The essential element is you think about the person you want to
find.  The better you know them, the easier it is."

      "Right."  Linna tried to picture Nene in her mind.  It was pretty
easy.  An image of Nene in her ADPolice uniform sprang full blown into her
mind.  Soon, she started moving through space.  "So this will take me to
her dreams?"

      "As long as you stay focused.  The tricky part is stopping before
you end up inside the dream."

      Linna saw the same knot of stars from the night she had dreamed of
Celia, but this time she was heading towards a different one of the
swirling mass of binaries.  She noted briefly that one binary was actually
a trinary, which she hadn't quite noticed before.  One of them was almost
black.  "Why is that one black?"

      "He's shielding his dreams.  One of my students.  I'll try to
teach you that as well.  It's a useful skill.  Now, let go of the image of
Nene before you get pulled in."

      Linna stopped thinking about Nene, but found she was still drifting
towards one of the stars.  "I'm still moving!"

      "It's easy to find your friends' dreams and hard to stay out of
them.  Just concentrate on not moving."

      Trying to concentrate on NOT doing something is not as easy as it
sounds, though easier than trying to not itch.  With effort, Linna managed
it, for the moment.  "Now what?"

      "The next step is to find the exact one you want and observe it.
Think about it getting bigger so you can actually see what is in it."

      Linna looked at each of them, trying to intuit the right one from
the tiny images she saw inside them.  Finally, she selected what she
thought was the right one and told it to grow.  So of course, it grew
to five thousand times original size and swallowed her up.  Linna's new
skill lacked the precision her fighting skills possessed.

                          *****************

     Linna found herself standing in a vast royal hall, lined with
tapestries on the walls, with two huge thrones at one end.  Nene, dressed
in elaborate renaissance style garb, mostly pink and purple, including one
of those HUGE pleated collars, sat on one of the thrones, and Ryu sat on
the other one.  

     The room was bustling with courtiers, some of whom Linna recognized,
like Kiyone, Naoko, and Nene's mom, and others who Linna had never seen
before in her life, all dressed in the same huge expensive satin clothing.
In fact, Linna herself was dressed in such an outfit, all green and grey
like her hardsuit.

     The heralds blew a trumpet call and one cried out, "Queen Stingray of
Tokyo has arrived."

     Linna turned and saw Celia, dressed even MORE elaborately than Nene,
if that was humanly possible, striding up the middle of the hall, followed
by Priss in her hardsuit and Macky, who was wearing a 'wizard' costume--a 
blue robe covered with squiggly glyphs and a long pointed hat with the word 
'Wizzard' written on it.  Linna tried hard not to laugh.  A voice whispered to 
Linna, "Well, you found the right dream.  However, letting yourself get 
sucked in like that was not so good."

      It was Sasami.  Linna turned to her.  "I didn't think it would get
that big."

      "Well, luckily, this dream is not powerful enough to control you so
getting out won't be too hard."

       Queen Stingray and Empress Nene began having a discussion about
recent Boomer attacks from Mordor and the necessity to mount another
expedition against the Boomer Breeding Pits in the Mountains of Darkness.  
Perhaps General Priss' army of replicants would be able to hand it.  

       Linna said, "So how do we get out?"

       "Basically, you have to will yourself out.  This is easy with a
dream like this, and a lot harder if the person is properly trained."

       Linna closed her eyes and found herself back in the starry void.
She could see Nene's dream floating nearby.  "Well, that was easy."

       "You have much to learn, but that's a good start.  There's three
important things to remember.  One, you're not getting any rest while you
do this, so don't spend too much time in any one night on this.  Two, be
very careful, or you might get caught in someone's dream and not be able
to get out...and if it's a nightmare, you can mess yourself up pretty
badly.  Three, be very careful about how you use this.  Not only can it be
dangerous, but you shouldn't go traipsing around people's dreams for fun."

      Linna nodded.  "Right."  

      Not that anyone ever pays attention to these rules until they get
burnt, Sasami thought, but I gave you a chance, anyway.

********

      Ingraman flew off into the sky as the crowd cheered...and then Noa
woke up.  She laughed faintly then got out of bed, leaving her husband to
sleep a while longer.  The sun was still below the horizon, leaving the
city to survive on its own light, which was still pretty substantial,
especially on a cloudy night, since the clouds reflected back a lot of the
night lights of the city.  

      Noa's body ached from driving labors around all day, though not half
as much as it had after the first day of training her new students.
Except for a few charity appearances, Noa hadn't driven labors in years
since she retired from SV2.  As a result, her body ached in ways she'd
almost forgotten existed.

       She didn't mind.  While she loved her restaurant, she hadn't
realized how much she'd missed being a labor pilot until she started doing
it again.  I feel young again, she thought.  We may be going up against
incredible odds, but I...I don't mind.  This is all so completely insane,
but I like it.  It's probably foolish of me to be looking forward to a
good fight, but I am.  

       Should I take Hiyama's deal?, she wondered.  Those kids rely on
their powers too much...but it would be useful.  I should do it...because
if I don't, I know I'll end up needing them.  Assuming I can actually
learn what I'm doing with them fast enough to do any good.

      Having made up her mind, she went to go get some more sleep.

*******

      Priss finished another practice with her band.  Kinda odd to do
something this normal with all the crazy stuff in my life, she thought.
She went and changed back into her normal clothing and headed for her
bike.  Setsuna was waiting there for her.

      "Good afternoon."

      "Now what the hell do you want?"

      Setsuna smiled her usual infuriating smile.  "It is time for you to
be properly trained in your powers."

      "I know how to fight."

      "You know nothing.  You're a brawler who has been VERY lucky, but
luck won't keep you alive forever.  Without the toys you rely on, you
couldn't beat a decently trained fighter.  Your friend Linna has twenty
times your skill.  Maybe forty.  And there are things you will have to
confront that would crush her like a grape."

       "HEY!  I'm a damn good figher!"  Okay, Linna is better, but not
twenty times better than me!

      Setsuna laughed.  "Right.  Come and get me."

      Priss charged forward and never did quite figure out how Setsuna
grabbed her and flipped her into the nearby wall of the building.  She did
figure out how badly it hurt, though.  Getting up, she aimed a kick
at Setsuna and was pulled off her feet.  Three more attacks got her three
more beatings.  "Okay, you're not bad."

      "And you're not good."

      Priss got mad and charged her again, this time getting grabbed and
twisted around into an elbow lock.  "You also get angry, which clouds your
judgement.  I couldn't have done this if you had been paying attention."

       "Let go of me!"

       "There is a lot you must do, and not much time to do it in."

       "DAMMIT, LET GO OF ME!"

       "Make me."

       Priss tried her damnedest, but fifteen minutes of efforts to escape
proved no more fruitful than trying to plug a hole in a dam with a
toothpick.  Maybe less fruitful.  "All right.  You win.  I can't escape."

       "As I was saying.  There are three things you must do.  First, you
must find your sister."

       "Why don't you just tell me where she is since you think you know
everything?"

       Setsuna ignored her and kept going.  "Secondly, you must find the
Empyrean Crystal."

       "I already know that."

       "And third, you must stay away from Leon."

       Priss blinked.  Of all the things Setsuna might have said, that was
NOT something Priss expected.  "You can't tell me what to do."

       "Of course I can.  I know what MUST be."

       "No one can know the future!"

       "Destiny cannot be denied."

       "Screw destiny.  I go where I want and I talk to who I want."

       Setsuna let go of Priss.  "If you ignore my guidance..."

       "Then I won't have to put up with you popping up out of nowhere and
telling me what to do.  No one tells me what to do."

        "Not even Celia Stingray?"

       "I trust her.  I don't trust you."

       "Your fate be on your own head, then."

       "Just the way I like it."  Priss roared off on her motorcycle,
still fuming.  Can't see Leon, eh?  Well, screw you, witch.  I'll show you
no one pushes me around.

       Setsuna laughed once Priss was out of sight.  "You are such a
bull-headed one...and so easy to manipulate.  You'll run right to him,
just to spite me.  Just as I planned.  Now to let the 'good cop' play his
part to my 'bad cop.'"  She turned and walked away, smiling faintly.  "Or
is Tsunami the good cop...hmm.  Well, two can do the job as well as one."

 *****

      Leon and Daley examined the scene of the crime.  Someone had torn
three sailors limb from limb down at the docks the previous night.  "So
what makes you think this is a BOOMER crime?"  Daley asked the ship's
captain who had lost three of his crew.

       "What, you think a human managed to rip the limbs off another
human?  That woman wasn't natural.  I guess she might have just been a
cyborg, but don't you guys handle those cases too?"

      Leon wandered about, looking for something that might at least
pretend to be a clue.  Other than a few ashes near one of the chalk
outlines, there weren't any.

       "Yeah.  So you say she looked like a highly muscular pro wrestler
type?"

       The captain nodded.  "I'm not even sure what they got in the fight
about.  All I heard was something about Mars."

       "Like the planet?"

       "Yeah.  Something about Mars.  Having to kill Mars or something."

       "But you have no employees by that name?"

       "Not even close.  Not even something that could be misheard as
Mars.  Heck, I've never met anyone named Mars.  Maybe someone on one of
the European vessels, though.  The woman had a weird accent too."

       Daley turned to Leon.  "Found anything?"

       "Not even close.  I wish the Metropolitan Police had called us in
sooner."

       "Well, time for us to go check ships registries, then.  Looking for
a sailor named Mars.  Or anyone named Mars for that matter."

       Their search did not pay off...yet.

********

     Somewhat later, Leon had returned to ADPolice headquarters.  He
stopped by Nene's desk.  "How is the security check coming along, Nene?"

     Nene looked up, looking very nervous.  "I don't know.  I just had my
interview with the internal security woman.  She made me REALLY 
nervous."  I hope those faked records hold up or I'm in trouble.

     "Can you run a check on me for something, Nene-chan?"

     "Sure.  What?"

     "We've got a lunatic cyborg on the loose, looking for someone,
possibly a sailor, named Mars.  At least maybe looking for someone named
Mars.  Can you see if you can find anyone in the city by that name?"

     Nene nodded.  This would be fairly easy.  Just search the phonebook
and local police records.  It took only a few minutes.  "No one.  That's
'Mars' as in the English spelling, not the Japanese one, right?"

     "Try it the other way too."

     She did.  "Okay.  I found four people this way."  She printed out
names, addresses, and phone numbers.  A few more minutes and... "None of
them have police records besides a few parking tickets and the like.  Good
luck on your investigation."

     "Thanks.  At least I have my real, sane partner back."

     "Had enough of Mihoshi to last you a lifetime?"

     Suddenly, it struck Leon.  Wait...Mihoshi is Ryu's aunt.
Therefore...  He got big eyes.  

     "Is something wrong?"

     "I just had a revelation."  More thoughts ran through his mind.
Is Ryu working with them?  Is NENE working with them?  She hangs out 
with Priss a lot and I know Priss is one of the Knight Sabres...They had to
have someone on the inside to get Mihoshi and Andrea hired so easily.
Heck, to get Mihoshi hired at all.  Nene is a genius with computers.  Is
Nene working for them...what if Nene IS one of the Knight Sabres?  It
can't be a coincidence that she's dating Ryu and she knows Priss and...or
maybe I'm just paranoid.

      "About what?"

      "You've given me some ideas.  Thanks a lot for the help, Nene-chan."
I'll ask Priss.  She might tell me...or she might not.  But I have to
know.  I have to know what's going on.  Leon ran off.

      Nene blinked.  What's with him?

******

     Priss banged on Leon's door a twentieth time.  Dammit, where are you,
Leon, she wondered, then answered her own question.  He's probably at
work.

      She was about to leave when a voice startled her.  "Hello,
Priss-chan."  It was Usagi, staggering along with two grocery bags full of
food.

      Priss turned around.  "Got any idea where Leon is?"

      "Probably at work, I think.  I just got home from work myself."
Usagi fumbled with the keys to her apartment.  

      "I should have remembered that."  She turned to go.

      "Is everything okay?  You sound pretty mad about something,"  Usagi
observed, finally getting the door to her apartment open.

      "This damn woman keeps coming around, trying to tell me how to live
my life."

      "Your mom?"  Usagi put the groceries down inside the apartment and
stood in the doorway.

      Priss laughed.  "I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to claim she
was.  Just this intefering busybody who's a..."  Priss tried to rein in
the impulse to swear.  "Really annoying."

      "Want to talk about it?"

      "Sure."  Priss felt the need to blow off some steam to a
sympathetic ear.  Usagi was a good listener.
 
*************************

     Leon was getting ready to go home for the evening, when the boss called 
him.  "Yeah, what's up?"  Leon asked.

     "Ready for your bout with our Internal Security investigator?"

     "No."

     "Too bad.  She's in the office over there waiting for you."

     Crap.  This would be a lot easier if I hadn't just realized all that
stuff.  I gotta figure out what to do about it.  Damnit.  "Right."

      Lt. Yamanoto strode out of the office, looking cranky as Leon walked
up.  She glared at Leon for no apparent reason, then marched off.  Leon
sighed and walked into the office.

       The Internal Security Officer, Lt. Tara, was tall with long black
hair and light blue eyes.  She made Leon intensely nervous just by the
cool way she looked at him.  "I've heard many interesting stories about
you, Officer McNichol."

      Time to use my best charm, he thought.  "Only the good ones are
true."

      "I certainly hope so.  Am I correct in my understanding that you
were Officer Mihoshi's partner?"

      "Not of my own free will, but yes.  At least in the same sense that
two people chained together in a chain gang are partners."

      He still didn't get a laugh.  Tough audience.  "You lodged no
official complaints."

      "Because no one ever pays any attention when you do."

      She frowned slightly and made a check mark on her pad.  "So, tell me
about your experiences with this officer."

      This took a very long time and mainly succeeded in making Leon even
more nervous than before.

******

     Ryu tried to finish his homework.  Normally, this would be easy, but
Manami kept calling him on the phone and laughing maniacally at him.  He
was starting to get pretty nervous, especially since his mom was helping
her and probably grandma too if she had heard about this.  As long as they
don't douse Nene-chan with mutagens or something.

      The phone rang.  He picked it up and said, "Domino's Pizza."

      "BWAHAHA...oh, sorry."  The woman hung up.  It had been Manami.

      Ryu felt marginally better.

****

      Ryouko turned to Manami.  "I guess he still hasn't tried listening to
any music?"

      "He should have called me and bitten my head off by now.  Are you
sure you switched HIS CDs?"

       "He has the blue CD case, right?"

       "Right.  Are you sure you did the right room?"

       "He was sitting at his desk, studying.  Unless he was lost..."

       "I doubt he was lost.  What could have gone wrong?"

******

       Nene set up her stereo to copy some of Ryu's CDs, blissfully
unaware she was about to make ten copies of 'BOB and his Chainsaw'.  She
would never borrow Ryu's CDs again.

*******

     Macky ran through the exercise in his mind again, managing to clear
it of extraneous thoughts for once.  I am the willow in the wind...no,
that's not right.  He opened his eyes, "What am I supposed to be thinking
about?"

       Youshou sighed.  "You don't remember?"

       Aeka said, "You have no discipline."  She got up.  "I'll be back.
I'm taking a walk."

        Meylia sighed.  Aunt Aeka has no patience.  He's just a boy.  An
idea struck her.  "Try imagining a faucet."

       Macky closed his eyes and thought about a faucet.  That was easy.

       "Now imagine taking the faucet and turning the cold water on.  It's
an old and rusty faucet, so you might have to really put your shoulder
into it."

        Macky could see it in his mind's eye.  In fact, he'd had to fix a
rusty old faucet here the other day so he imagined THAT faucet.  In his
mind, he got out a set of tools and fixed the faucet, then turned it on,
just like he had in real life.  Water started running.  Unseen to him, he
started to glow.  

        Youshou stared.  "That was easy."

        "You have to understand how his mind works."

        "Now imagine yourself turning the faucet down to a trickle."

        Macky did so and the glow dimmed.  Then in his mind, the handle
came off and the faucet exploded out of control, just like he NOW
remembered the real one had.  "Uh oh."

     Aeka saw the explosion all the way from Funaho.

*****

     "So THEN I snuck a frog into her bed.  We could hear the screaming
all the way from our wing at the far end of the building from her."  Priss
finished another story about her days in the orphanage, feeling a lot
better than she had earlier.

       Usagi laughed.  "Remind me never to make you angry."

       "That's a pretty good resolution."  Priss laughed.  "Although from
that story about what you did to your brother...I don't think I've ever
gotten angry enough to shave someone bald when they were asleep."

        Usagi laughed.  "I bet no one ever tried to put Nair in your
shampoo, either...if I hadn't dropped it, I'd have ended up bald myself."

     There was a knock on the door.  Usagi answered it.  It was Leon.
"Hey, is Priss here?  I thought I heard her as I was coming up the
hallway."

      "THERE you are!"  Priss said.

      "You missed me?"

       "Yeah, wasted all my ammo hosing down your room, and you weren't
even home so you could die properly."

       Usagi laughed.  "You wouldn't really shoot Mr. McNichol, would
you?"

      "Not if I could use a knife instead."

       They all laughed.  "Got a minute, Priss?  I need to talk to you
about some stuff."

      "So you do want the roadie job?"

      "Do I get free beer?"

      "Only if you pay for it."

      "Fair enough."

      "Gotta run.  See ya later, Usagi-chan."

      "It's been nice talking to you, Priss-chan!  If you need a frog for
someone's bed, let me know and I'll talk to our school's biology teacher."

      Priss looked at Leon, then at Usagi.  "Okay, see if you can get a
live one."

      As Leon headed to his apartment, he asked Priss, "Should I even
ask?"

      "It'll be more fun if it's a surprise."

      Leon locked the door after they went in.  "You want something to
drink?"

      "A beer'll be fine."

      "Right."  He got two.  "You're probably going to get mad at me for
asking this, but..."

      "I'm not marrying you, Leon."

      Leon paused.  Is she just trying to yank my chain and confuse me?
"Uhh...Actually, this has to do with Nene."

     "She's taken, Leon."

      "I'm not proposing marriage to ANYONE!"

      "Did a woman with long green-black hair tell you to stay away from
me?"

      Leon felt his carefully planned series of questions and speeches
disintegrating around him.  "Unless she dyed her hair and is working for
internal security at ADPolice, no."

      "So someone DID tell you to..."

      "No one told me to stay away from anyone!  What are you talking
about?"

      "That damn busybody came around, picked a fight with me, and told me
to stay away from you.  And a bunch of other stuff.  She's trying to use
me and I HATE it when people use me."  Priss downed the entire beer in one
swig, then burped.

      "The woman who showed up in your trailer that you told me about?"

       "Yeah.  So she didn't come bug you about anything?"

      Leon shook his head.  "I haven't seen anyone by that name...She
wouldn't happen to be named Mars would she by any chance?"

      "Pluto.  Sailor Pluto."

      Leon thought for a second.  "Wait...as in the..."

      "Yeah, the Sailor Warriors.  Didn't I tell you this before?"

      He struck his forehead.  "So THAT's what that thing was looking
for...Sailor Mars.  Was there a Sailor Mars?  IS there a Sailor Mars?"

      "As far as I know, me and Pluto are it.  All the others are like
asleep or something."  I need to ask Sasami some more questions, Priss
realized.  

      "There's some kind of cyborg looking for Sailor Mars."

      "Or it could be another one of those damn droid things."

      "Droid things?"

      "Remember those weird 'boomer rampages' a few days ago?  Some kind
of magical critters named 'droids' were on the loose."

      "Magic?"

      "Do I need to do my song and dance for you again?"  Priss laughed and 
chugged down the last bit of her bottle of beer.

      "No, I remember.  How many of those things are there?"

      Priss got another beer.  "I have no clue."

      Leon steeled himself to try again.  "Priss, I don't mean to pry, and
I know we never talk about this.  It's normally none of my business, but
because of this recent affair with Mihoshi and Andrea and all...and
internal security is asking around..."

       "Spit it out, Leon."

     Leon stared at the ground as he talked.  "Is Nene one of the Knight
Sabres and what the HELL is going on?  I know something big is going on
and the Knight Sabres are mixed up in it, but I can't figure it out.  I
know too much, but I don't dare tell Internal Security about it because I
don't want to start a line of inquiry that leads right to you and to my
friends."  He sighed.  "I got grilled by Internal Security today about
this and I think she figured out I was hiding something.  If you can't
tell me anything, I'll understand, but..."

      "I can't tell you anything about the Sabres, Leon.  But I can tell
you that Genom's being run by nasties from outer space."  She paused,
waiting for Leon to freak out.

      Her expectations failed to come true, as he simply nodded and said, "Go 
on."  

      "Your ex-parter and her partner are both from outer space and so are
a bunch of other people.  We're planning to bust the aliens once we can
find them.  There's one hell of a dustup coming."

       If Leon hadn't heard Kiyone talking to those Genom agents and seen
Priss' new...abilities, he would have thought she was whacked.  However,
it explained a few things, like the rumor he had heard about someone
disabling all of those laser satellites.

       Leon stopped pacing and sat down on the couch by Priss, turning on
the TV.  "So your friends took out the laser satellites?"

       "Yep.  I wish they'd shown up a few years ago."

       Leon idly flicked through channels.  "You think you'll ever be able
to answer the other half of my question?"

       "Let's get pineapple, sausage, and lettuce on the pizza this time."

       "Right.  No apricots?"

       "We BOTH threw up the last time we tried that.  I just want to see
you throw up."

       They soon got into an argument about pizza toppings, and Leon didn't
realize Priss had switched the topics on him until much later when they
were both lying around sick from eating too much pizza after trying to
prove the other person had a weaker stomach.  Most people outgrow this
sort of behavior in college.  Sadly, neither of them had gone to college.

*******

     Priss woke up with a severe stomachache.  She stifled the urge to
moan, because she didn't want Leon to know she felt sick.  No weakness.
She looked around Leon's apartment.  No Leon.  She went ahead and moaned
for a few seconds and got it out of her system.  Bastard, leaving me on
the floor after he's already gotten up.  He could have at least put me on
the couch.  She staggered to her feet, then saw his feet sticking out from
behind the couch.  

       She laughed.  What the heck did he crawl back there for?  She went
over and kicked his foot.  "Wake up."

       The sun was just still down, she realized, looking out the window,
yet she didn't feel tired.  Leon wasn't getting up either.

       "Come on, lazy butt!"

       Silence.  He's bluffing, she thought.  She leaned over to drag him
out and shake him awake, and saw that there was a huge hole in his chest.
Leon was rather thoroughly dead.  Some kind passing soul had scrawled 'A
gift for you' on the wall next to him with his blood.

       For a moment, Priss simply stared, totally unable to believe this.
She was shaken out of her shock when strong hands grabbed her from behind
and began to crush her throat.  "Hello, old friend."  It was a man's
voice.  She tried lashing out backwards instinctively, but it was like
kicking stone.  She couldn't speak either to transform.  The voice was far
to familiar to her.  It was the voice of Largo.

       This has to be some kind of nightmare, she thought.  He's dead!
He's fucking dead!

       "You miss me?"

       She would have cursed if she could speak.  All she could do was
flail pathetically and wish she had her hardsuit.  If wishes were horses,
though, beggars would ride.  The realization also came to mind that
keeping a boomer dead wasn't easy...if Wasyuu could bring Sylvie back to
life after what happened to her...the aliens must have found some way to
put Largo back together.  Or make a new one.  Priss swore mentally,
feeling herself about to pass out.

       "I should just blow your chest open like I did to him, but this is
so much more personal and satisfying,"  Largo said.  

       For a minute, the only sound was that of bones on the verge of
breaking.  The silence ended with a whisper, "dead scream."

       Fortuitously enough (or not), Largo was perfectly positioned to
shield Priss from the blast that turned him into a small vapor pile and
still flung her into the couch.  

       Pluto said, "I told you to stay away from him.  It's not safe to be
around the likes of us."  

       A wave of rage washed through Priss more pure in its intensity than
she had felt since the day Sylvie had died.  She transformed without even
thinking about it.  "This is YOUR FAULT!"

       "I told you to stay away from him.  You ignored me.  He died.  How
is this MY fault?"

      "I...you...."  Priss' gut told her to just mangle Pluto, but
her common sense was just barely managing to rein her in.  Pluto had just
saved her life, after all.  "If you knew this would happen, why didn't you
STOP me?"

      "Only you can control yourself.  If someone else controls you for
you, then you will always be the puppet of others.  You have to learn to
take responsibility for your actions and for their consequences on
others."

       This was not the best time for a lecture on responsibility.  Priss
twitched, unable to find a good excuse to rip Pluto apart like she
wanted to, but totally lacking a good way to vent her anger.  Attacking 
the person who killed Leon was no option--'Largo', if that had really
been him, was dead.  She could feel her anger roaring inside her, and it
was getting harder and harder to ride the whirlwind without being carried
by it.  She knew Pluto was right, but knowing that didn't make her bit
less angry that Leon was dead.  At least I didn't have to kill him myself,
a tiny bit of her whispered.  This wasn't very comforting.

*******

      Linna said, "Can't we DO something?  We've got to tell her it's all
just a nightmare!"

      She and Sasami were floating in dream-space, staring into a three
foot globe that contained the nightmare Priss was having about Leon being
dead.

       Sasami whispered something about Pluto always being an idiot, then
said, "Much as you need to learn about defending yourself against
nightmares, this is not the time or the place.  She's trying to teach
herself a lesson."

       "What's this person doing in Priss' dream, anyway?  Does
she dreamwalk too?"

       "Priss is only dreaming of her.  If that was the real Pluto, I
don't think we'd be able to see into this dream."

        Linna said, "I can't just let Priss suffer like this.  She has to
know."

        Sasami could have stopped Linna from entering the dream, but she
didn't.  Instead, she followed Linna in.  

******

       "How did you know to come here, anyway?"  An awful suspicion
insinuated itself into Priss' mind, since it was congruent with her
desire, which was to mangle Setsuna.  "You watched him die and you didn't
do anything about it because you wanted to try and teach me a lesson!"

       "I have never let an unnecessary death occur that I could have
prevented."

       Priss' mind struggled to stay coherent enough for her to try to
translate that.  Something tapped her on the shoulder.  Her instincts took
over and she swung around with her sword, preparing to cut it in half,
whatever it was.  Her sword stopped about a milimeter away from Linna's
face.  

        Linna stared at Priss in abject fear, unable to speak, unable to
breathe.  Priss' face was a mask of pure rage, now transforming itself
into pure horror.  Priss stepped back.  

        A string of obscenities rang from her lips, totally incoherent.
Finally, she managed to gasp out, "Oh God fucking shit, I'm sorry Linna,
what the fuck are you doing here, I nearly cut your freaking head off."
Her voice wavered between rage and terror.  

        "Snap out of it, Priss!  It's just a dream!  Leon isn't really
dead!"

      Priss stared at Linna for a few seconds as if she had said, 'Throat
Warbler Mangrove', then turned to Pluto.  "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON
HERE?"

       "I didn't do this."

       "It's just a dream, Priss.  You and I are the only real people
here."

       Priss' rage began to ebb, replaced by confusion.  "Why the fuck
would I do this to myself?"

       "It's a nightmare, Priss.  Why would anyone be stupid enough to
rebuild Largo?  Why didn't he kill you when he killed Leon?"

       "To...to...You're right, Linna."  Priss felt more relief than she
would have ever believed possible.  "Wait...if this is a dream, what are
YOU doing here?"

        Sasami spoke from nearby, startling Priss.  "Because she is a
dreamwalker, and she wouldn't listen to me when I told her to stay out of
your dream."

       Priss blinked.  "Since when did you cruise around people's dreams,
Linna?"

       "Since when did you carry an energy sword and shout out
transformation phrases?"

       "So you're one of us too?"  Priss looked at Sasami for
confirmation.

       Sasami smiled faintly.  "Was it ever very likely that three of four
Knight Sabres would turn out to be extraordinary and the fourth completely
mundane?"

       Priss and Linna stared at each other for a moment, then Linna
laughed.  "I suppose this does sort of count as special."

       "What's so extraordinary about Nene?"

       "One day worlds will shake at her command."

       Priss began to laugh.  "Yeah, right."

       "One day she will be one of the rulers of Jurai.  More importantly,
she has a keen mind and will have a VERY long time to put it to work.
Most importantly, she has a pure and loving heart, and that in itself can
contain more power than anything can withstand."  Sasami smiled, a 
childlike smile that transformed her as for a moment, the child who had 
become a woman shone through her older self.

       Priss laughed bitterly.  "Feh.  Nene's out of touch with reality."

       "No, reality is out of touch with her.  That's ITS problem, not
hers."

        "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

        Linna was wondering as well.

        "Only by seeing the world as it should be, can we make it that way
in fact as well as in hope.  The rest of us need dreamers to show us the
way.  'One must become as a child to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.'  It is
such as them who open the way for those weighed down by the world."

        Linna decided to venture into philosophy, since things were going
that way.  "What, you're saying Nene is a Boddhisatva?"

     "A what?" 

      "A Bodywhat?"  Priss asked.

      "Someone who reaches enlightenment and returns to lead others to it,
instead of moving on to Nirvana.  I think.  Just what the point of
Nirvana is in the first place, I don't know.  Who wants to cease to
exist?"

       "It is the only way to escape the cares of the world."

       "Oh."

       "But I see it as running away."  Sasami sighed.  "Anyway.  We could
argue philosophy all night, but that's not why we came."

       Priss thought for a moment.  "Am I still dreaming?"

       "Yes."

       "Just getting that straight."

       "Priss, would you like to see what the Moon Kingdom was like?  I'd
like to show you your heritage."

        Priss blinked.  "Time Travel?"

        "No.  Linna is going to take you inside my dream."

        Linna blinked.  "I am?"  Did I forget this?  I don't REMEMBER her
telling me how to do this...

        "Will I see my...my..."  Priss couldn't quite bring herself to say
mother.

       "Yes.  Just remember.  Everything you will see is a dream.  It may
seem real, but it is only a dream, though it will be as close to the real
thing as I can make it."

        "I want to see it,"  Priss said.  

        Linna heard Sasami's voice in her mind.  'After I disappear,
take Priss by the hand and lead her out the door into dream-space, then
take her to my dream and enter it.'

        Linna thought, praying Sasami would hear her, 'That's all I have
to do?'

        'Then you have to make sure she doesn't get herself killed.  If
you die in someone else's dream...you'll be lucky to wake up as a
lobotomized zombie.'

         Linna paled.  'Priss almost...'

        'I told you nightmares were dangerous.'  "Ready?"

        "I was born ready,"  Priss said.

        Sasami vanished in a poof of light.  

        Linna took Priss' hand.  "Let's go."

        Priss looked at Linna.  "Thanks, Linna."

        "You'd do this for me, wouldn't you?"

        "That's not what I'm talking about."

        Linna decided not to pry.  "You're welcome."

        She led Priss through the door and into the world of dreams.

**********************


June 1, 1996

      Hikaru walked through the dark campus on the way back home from the
library.  It was just before midnight on a Wednesday and the campus was
deserted.  I hope I don't wake up Usagi coming in, she thought.  Usagi was
generally clonked out by 10 PM weekdays.  She's probably the only college
student on Earth who gets adequate sleep, Hikaru thought.  

      She heard voices as she came around the corner of the Engineering
building, which sits on the north side of the Quad in the center of the
Tokyo University campus.  To her surprise, she saw Makoto and Usagi
standing in the center of the quad, back to back by the statue of the
Meiji Emperor that sits in the middle of the quad waiting for drunken
students to put underwear or worse on his head.  They were surrounded by
six people that Hikaru thought were fraternity boys at first, until she
realized that the average frat boy is not blue, scaley, or clawed.  Sometimes, 
anyway.

      For a few seconds, she just stared, unable to believe her eyes.  She
could hear them talking, but she was too far away to hear what was said
clearly, at least until Usagi and Makoto both started shouting.

      "MOON PRISM POWER!"

      "JUPITER STAR POWER!"

       Hikaru couldn't believe it at first.  My roommate is SAILOR MOON?
The fight was soon in progress.  Lightning sent two of the demons flying,
while Sailor Moon clonked a third one on the head with her staff.  

       Hikaru watched for a few minutes and soon realized the two heroines
were outmatched.  I have to do something...Hikaru had not been in a real
fight for a very long time, and she had almost never used her powers in
combat before.  She thought for a moment, then realized what she could do.

      Sailor Moon lept and kicked another demon.  "There's too many of
these things, Jupiter!"  she shouted.

      "The others'll be here soon."  Jupiter grunted as she slammed one of
the demon's heads into the statue of the Meiji emperor.  "We just have to
hold out a little bit longer."

       At that point, Moon got hit by a demon from behind and fell down.
All three of the ones she was fighting got ready to grab her as she tried
to get back up.

       A straw hurled by hurricane force winds can pierce a telephone
pole.  Now imagine what a pencil could do at that speed.  As one of the
demons reached to grab Sailor Moon's face, it took a pencil through the
heart.  Ichor gushed everywhere and it collapsed.  

       A booming voice broke through the silence of the night.  "I'm
afraid you get an F for conduct, Mr. Demon."  Everyone instinctively
turned and looked to see who was speaking.

       A woman stood atop the balcony of the Administration building,
dressed in what looked like a cross between a Sailor Soldier fuku and a
business suit.  She had a fistful of pencils and pens in her hands, and
she was wearing a small red mask rather like Sailor V's.  Her hair was
long and black, her eyes green, and her figure lush.  "Attacking students
is a no-no.  I will punish you in the name of this University!"  She
hurled a barrage of pens and pencils moving at 150 MPH.  The demons
swiftly fell, writing in pain and spewing ichor as if they were showing up
in Fist of the Northstar.

      "Wow!  A new Sailor!"  Sailor Moon said.  "You're really powerful!"

      The demons started to get up.

      "Too bad my thesis committee isn't this easy to deal with...Finish
them off, Sailor Moon!"  Hikaru tried not to laugh.  I sound so hokey...I
hope my illusion power is working.

       "Right!"  Sailor Moon held up her staff.  "SHINING MOON POWER!"  A
wave of white light swept across the weakened demons, and they evaporated
in instants, crumbling to dust and blowing away in a sudden gust of wind.

       I hope Madoka doesn't mind me using her form as a disguise, Hikaru
thought.  Too bad I didn't have any guitar picks...  "Good job, Sailor
Moon!  Now I must go grade some papers.  Farewell!"  She teleported back
to her dorm.

       "Wait!  You haven't even told us your name!"  Sailor Moon shouted.

       Jupiter laughed.  "They never tell us anything at first.  She'll be
back."

       "I guess you're right.  She must spend a lot of money on pencils,
though."  Sailor Moon looked at all the pencils that now littered the
field.

      Jupiter laughed some more.  "Not any more than Mamoru spends on
flowers, I bet."

      Far away, Hikaru sat down to try and do some reading then realized
she had flung everything she had to write with at the demons and couldn't
do any notes. It was a d'oh! moment.

*****

 Chapter 13:  In Memory yet Green

*****

      Linna held onto Priss as they drifted through dream-space to
Sasami's dream.  For once, it was easy to find the right dream, for it
shone like a beacon to her.  Maybe I'm getting better at this, she
thought.  Moving Priss wasn't easy though.  It was like there was an
elastic cord attached to Priss, and the farther she moved Priss, the more
taut it became, trying to pull Priss back to her own dream.  

      Finally, they reached Sasami's dream and plunged into it.  For a
moment, the world turned into a phantasmagoric blur of whirling shapes,
pirouetting around a huge spinning nexus, and then their vision cleared.

      They stood in a devastated village by the seashore.  Some of the
buildings were on fire, and there were corpses strewn through the streets.
Priss said, "You sure we're in the right dream, Linna?"

       "Well, I thought this was the right dream."

       A child's cry cut through the night.  "Nooooooooooo!!!!"

       "Fuck."  Priss spat out and took off running through the burning
village towards the voice.  

        Linna ran after her, then realized, hey, I bet I can summon my
hardsuit, since this is a dream.  It formed around her as she ran.  

        A young girl, her blond hair tied into two fluffy bundles that
rather resembled rabbit ears, was trapped up against the side of a hut by
three hunched over humanoid figures.  They had green scaly skin and
heavily sloped foreheads more remiscent of a frog or a fish than a human,
but a largely human form with upright posture, two arms, two legs, hands,
and feet.  They did not have any eyebrows or eyelids, staring straight
forward unblinkingly.  They were armed only with simple spears, but were
menacing, none the less. 

        Priss was still transformed from earlier, and she drew her sword.
"Get away from that girl, you...whatever the fuck you are!"

      The creatures turned and gave her the sort of look normally only
found on the faces of rich people confronted by Pauly Shore or some other
human fungus.  

      Linna raised her right arm and got ready to fire at the things.
Unfortunately, Priss was in the way, so she simply did a suit-assisted
leap and came down feet first on the head of one of the creatures.  The
creature slammed into the ground, surprised, not that anyone could tell.
The second one tried to impale Priss, who simply chopped its spear into
thirds, then cut it in half.  The third one tried to run and Linna blew it
to kingdom come with her laser.  

     The little girl simply stared in awe, then ran over and hugged Priss'
legs.  "You saved me!  Thank you!"

     Priss kneeled down and hugged the little girl.  "What happened?"

     "I stopped in this village on my way to find the Tree of Life and the
Deep Ones came out of the sea and killed everyone!"  The girl began to
cry.  "I tried to heal them, but they were all hurt too bad.  Then the
Deep Ones found me and I thought I was gonna die, but you saved me!"

      "You were trying to find the Tree of Life all by yourself?"  What
kind of crazy mom lets her kid wander around looking for...uh..whatever
that is, Linna wondered.

      "An angel told me I had to save the world from all the monsters.  I
have to find the Tree of Life before they do so they'll have to go back
home to the stars they came from.  But I'm all alone and I don't know how
I'm gonna stay alive long enough to get to it."

     "Don't worry, little one, you're safe with me.  My name is Priss.
What's yours?"  Priss' voice was soft and comforting, a tone that Linna
had never heard her use before.  She could hardly believe it.  

      Linna turned and looked around the village and the nearby sea.  She
could see splashing in the water.  More Deep Ones, she guessed.  

      "My name is Serenity.  I'm from the village of Branchai.  My mommy
is named Hope and my daddy was named Fortitude.  Do you know where the
Tree of Life is?  I've been looking for it for ever so long."

      Priss felt her eyes starting to tear up.  Poor little child...how
could anyone lay such a heavy burden on someone so young?  "What are you
going to do when you find it?"

      "I want to heal the world.  I can hear it crying in pain."  The
little girl started to cry.  "All the monsters and death and
everything...it's so...so wrong.  It shouldn't be like this.  It shouldn't
have to be like this.  Why is there so many bad things in the world,
oneechan?"  She hugged Priss tightly, crying against her chest.

      Priss felt her own tears come now.  Linna tried not to watch them
cry.  "I don't know, little one.  It's just the way of the world."

      "It's wrong!  It shouldn't be this way!  There has to be some way to
fix it!  There has to be some way to make it better!"  Serenity began to
glow.  Priss looked at her and saw a glowing crescent moon on Serenity's
forehead.  White light erupted forth from her and the world dissolved away
in its brightness.

*******

       The white light faded.  Priss and Linna stood in a huge open plains
near the banks of a river.  Or to be precise, Priss was kneeling, trying
to hug a girl who was no longer there, while Linna stood nearby.  About a
hundred yards away stood a huge stone monolith, about a hundred feet tall,
covered with dried blood and strange runes that seemed to waver and move
as they looked at them.  Far off across the plains were more monoliths,
one every few miles, forming a huge V shape that stretched off to the
western horizon.  Inside the wedge, the land was a blasted heath, full of
twisted grey plants and strange phosphorescent lichens.  The few trees
looked like they were trying to claw their way out of the ground.  Outside
the wedge, things didn't look too healthy, but they weren't twisted and
vile.  The sun was high over head, a little to the east, shining down on
the huge river that ran north and south to the east of the two heroines.
Five figures stood next to the monolith--two men and three women.  They
all looked to be around sixteen years old.  One of the women had short red
wavy hair, one had long black hair, and the third was blonde, with her
hair up in two short buns on either side of her head, each of which had a
long attached pony-tail.  The black haired woman wore a suit of gleaming 
armor and carried a huge spear, while the other two women were unarmed, 
unless you counted the quill held by the redhead or the wand held by the 
blonde.  One of the men was short and stout, carrying a huge hammer. His 
hair was short and brown.  The other was tall, wearing black armor, a sword 
strapped to his belt, his hair short and black.  

      "Are you ready, Vulcan?"  the black haired woman asked the short
man.

      He lifted his hammer.  "There will be no turning back once we
start."

      The blonde haired woman smiled.  "This is why we were born.  It is
what we must do to heal the world."

      "What the hell is going on here?"  Linna muttered.

      Priss stared.  "That's her...the little girl."

      "Who, the blonde?  But she was..."  Oh yeah.  This is all a
dream...It's so vivid, I keep forgetting.  Linna felt embarrassed.  

      Priss winced.  "Something awful lives inside that wedge of
land...something wrong.  I can feel it, like a knife in my gut."

      Vulcan moved next to the monolith and closed his eyes.  The black
haired woman gestured and spread her arms out wide.  A wave of energy
rushed out and formed a dome over the group.  The red haired woman joined
hands with the blonde and with the man in the armor.  The trio began to
glow.  Their light filled the dome, which included the huge blood-stained
monolith.  

      Time passed strangely.  While it felt like minutes, Linna and Priss
could see the sun moving across the sky.  Vulcan struck the monolith with
blow after blow.  It began to shake as he struck it methodically, building
up vibrations.  Finally, as the sun almost reached the horizon, the
monolith shattered into a thousand shards of stone.  A stiff wind began to
blow from the east, rushing west into the land that had lain inside the
wedge of monoliths.  The dome grew, rushing forth into the wounded land.
>From within the dome, three voices spoke as one.  "HEAL."  

      And it was so.  The energy washed across the land and in its wake,
trees ceased to claw at the sky, grass grew green and lush, flowers sprung
up from the land, and the fungus was cleared away as if it had never been.
The monoliths began to explode as the power washed across them.  Priss and
Linna looked on in awe.  The sun set, but the wave of power continued
across the land.  The stars came out, but they weren't...they didn't quite
seem right.  The constellations were subtly wrong.  One star hung low on
the horizon, almost seeming to glare balefully down upon the land.  It
hung on the western horizon, and from it descended a swarm of flying
creatures.  Ice from the cold of space clung to their bodies, melting off
into steam as they rapidly plunged down from the heavens.  They looked
vaguely humanoid, though with batlike wings.  Their heads were twisted and
insectoid, except for the huge protruding snouts.  They had a black
chitinous exoskeleton and sharp claws upon their 'hands'.  There were
hundreds of them.  

      Linna stared.  "Holy shit."

      Priss said, "God damn.  They're screwed."  She charged forward.  It
was a suicidal fight.  Priss LIKED suicidal fights.  Deep down, what she
wanted most was to die in a good cause.  Sometimes, it was just to die.  

      Linna swore.  "If you die in a dream, you'll turn into a vegetable!
Come back!"

      "Make me!"  Crazy people, Priss thought.  I LIKE crazy people.  She
sprinted along the ground, faster than she would have believed possible.

      Linna ran after her.  "You're going to get us both killed!"

      "It's a good day to die!"  She lept into the air, slicing through
the horde of creatures as they descended upon the dome.  They died more
easily than she thought they would, falling apart and crashing into the
dome.  Their remains evaporated as they struck it, while Priss, to her
surprise, fell right through it.  

      Linna followed Priss, blasting monsters right and left.  They died
far more easily than the average boomer, not that Linna minded.  She too
dove down through the shield...

*********

      The world had changed again.  They stood on the balcony of a great
crystal palace.  The five men and women stood nearby them.  They were
older now, somewhere in their mid-twenties.  There were crowds celebrating
in the streets of the city and fireworks exploding in the air.  The man in
black armor was in the middle of a speech.  "General Pearl reports that
the last of the byakhee have fled beyond the orbit of Pluto.  As we speak,
the Great Shield is being extended to protect the entire solar system!
The Inhuman Wars are at an end!  The Silver Millenium has begun!  LET US
CELEBRATE!"

      The crowd had already gone wild, so this royal command was hardly
necessary.  Priss smiled.  "They won."

      Linna nodded.  "Looks like it.  I wonder how long this dream is
going to be."

      Priss looked around.  "I'm hoping we get to stick around for the
party."

      Linna looked up at the night sky and saw the Moon. It was blue and
green and looked remarkably like the Earth, but with the continents wrong.
Or was that the Earth in the sky?

      Flicker.

******

     Linna and Priss stood next to a long, neatly trimmed hedge, which was
itself at the edge of a large, apparently freshly plowed field.  The air
was clean and crisp, if a bit cool.  There was a row of trees on the other
side of them, paralleling the hedge, and beyond that, another field.  It
was clearly farmland, unless the local idea of landscaping was stripping
large squares of land clear of plants and plowing it for dramatic effect.  

      On the far side of this particular patch of ground, there was a knot
of trees growing close together, and next to it was a fairly substantial
two story dwelling.  Children were playing in the yard.

      Priss turned to Linna.  "You sure we're still tuned into the right
channel?"

      Linna laughed.  "We'd be back in dream-space if we somehow got out
of Sasami's dream."  I think.  I hope we're not in some farmer's dream.

      A man walked out of the farmhouse.  He was dressed in a red tunic
and green trousers, gathered shut with a black belt.  His black boots
stood out against the green grass around his home and the brown dirt as he
entered the field.  He was carrying a sack of seeds and singing a song in
some language neither Linna nor Priss knew, though it seemed hauntingly
familiar.  

     He began to walk through the field, singing and scattering seeds
behind himself as he walked.  To Priss and Linna's surprise, the seeds
sank into the soil where they fell, and the ground almost bubbled in the
man's wake.  By the time he finished sowing seeds across the field, tiny
plants were poking up from the ground where he had begun.

     Linna said, "Magic..."

     "Pretty useful magic, too."

     The man looked over and finally noticed them.  "Why hello, there.
You two new here?"

     "Uh, yeah, you could say that,"  Linna said.  

     The man wiped sweat from his brow, which surprised Linna and Priss,
since what he had been doing didn't look very strenuous.  "Would you like
to stop a while and get something to drink?  I need a rest after all that
work."

      "Sure.  I could use a drink,"  Priss said.

      The man started out across the field, which was now green with young
plants.  Priss and Linna followed, trying hard to not stomp on any of the
new growth.  

     "So where are you ladies from?"

     "Tokyo."

     "Never heard of it.  What planet is it on?"

     This was the first time either of them had ever been asked what
planet they were from.  "Earth,"  Linna said finally.

     "Ahh.  Never been to Earth.  Grew up on Mars, moved out here when I
was younger.  Lived here around thirty years now."  The man only looked
thirty.

      Priss whispered to Linna, "Where the hell are we?"

      Linna shrugged at Priss.  I have NO clue, she thought.  Maybe we're
on the Moon.  

      Their question was answered when they reached the house and got a
clear view to the horizon and saw that the reddish blur off in the
distance they had been able to see before was actually the planet Jupiter,
looming hugely on the horizon, though it barely peeked over it.

     Flicker.

******

     Linna stood in an elaborate bedroom.  A woman lay in a bed nearby,
and next to her stood a woman in green and black robes with a hood pulled
over her head.  An ornate staff was propped against the end of the bed.
The woman lying in the bed was holding a newborn infant close to her
chest.  

      The hooded woman took the baby in her arms.  To most people, it
would have seemed a baby like many others.  The little girl had no hair
yet, her eyes were squeezed shut, and she bore almost as much resemblance
to a prune as a human being, just like every other newly born baby.  

      Linna looked around.  Hey...I lost Priss!  Did she snap back to her
own dreams?

      The mother sighed.  She was tall, thin, and platinum blonde, her
hair currently not dressed in any of the elaborate hairstyles she normally
adorned herself with.  She wore a simple white shift, also unlike the
palatial dresses she normally bore.  "Must you do this?"

     Linna looked at the woman.  She looks like Serenity, she thought.
Who the hell is this person taking her daughter away?

      The woman picked up her staff, a long rod topped with an orb.
"If I do not, in 25,000 years, humanity will become extinct in the solar
system.  This one alone cannot prevent what is soon to come here,
but where she is going, she will make all the difference in the world.
She is a warrior born, and she goes to a place that needs warriors
desperately."  The woman sighed.  "I am sorry, my queen.  Cherish your
first daughter.  I swear I shall never take her away from you."  

      25,000 years?  What year is this?  Where are we?  Linna couldn't
decide whether to watch this or go looking for Priss.  I wonder why they
haven't noticed me...

      The Queen sighed.  "I know you know things I shall never know.
She..She'll have a good home, won't she?"

      "She will live a long life and know much joy."  And much sorrow, but
this is not the time to mention that, the hooded woman thought.  She
pulled her cloak around herself.  She didn't need it, but the baby would.
"There is one who waits for her there, though he knows it not.  She will
know love...once she escapes her own stubborness about it."

      I should do something, Linna thought.  But what?  

      The Queen got up and kissed her baby on the forehead.  "Take my
blessing with you, my child."  The mark upon the Queen's forehead glowed
brightly.  "Your power will awaken when you most need it."  She laid back
down in the bed.  "Go now, before I can change my mind."

      Linna recognized the mark.  It is Serenity...or a relative at least.
She looks different though.

      The woman obeyed her Queen's command.  She raised her staff, and the
world folded around her and vanished.  The Queen sighed and sank back into
the bed.  Linna stepped forward.  Remember, it's just a dream.  She
probably won't freak at me suddenly appearing in her bedroom...if she even
sees me.  "Who was that?"

     "Pluto, the guardian of time.  Can you bring me my daughter from the
antechamber, Temperance?"

     Who's she talking to?  Linna suddenly realized she was wearing a
maid's outfit.  She laughed faintly.  "Yes, my queen."  She went out to
the antechamber and got a sleeping two year old from the small bed there.
She brought the little blonde haired girl to her mother.  

     Flicker.

******

     Priss had reappeared.  They were standing on a balcony again.  A
party was in full swing all around the palace they were in, which sat in
the midst of a vast expanse of gardens.  The Earth hung high in the starry
sky above them.  Priss was visibly shaking as Linna looked at her.  Both
of them were now clad in white finery that looked VERY expensive, as did
the golden necklace that Priss was wearing, especially the gem studded
'moon' that hung from the necklace.  Linna soon realized she was also
wearing a necklace.  Hers was silver with a tiny jade version of her armor 
hanging from it.  

     Linna said, "Where have you been?  You vanished on me...Pluto was
taking the Queen's child..."

     "I was the child,"  Priss spat out.

     "WHAT?"

     "I couldn't do anything!  I could think, but that was it!  I wanted
to speak, to run...but I was stuck in the baby's body.  I couldn't even
figure out how to cry properly."  Priss shook.  "She took me away from my
mother.  Next time I see her, I'm going to kick her ass from here to
eternity."

      "The Queen let her do it...they thought it was necessary."  Linna
wasn't quite sure why she was defending Pluto.  

     Priss fumed.  "She could have waited until I was at least old enough
to KNOW MY OWN MOTHER!"  

     "At least this way you didn't know what you were missing...I think
taking you away as a five year old or so would have been even harder on
you."

      Priss was getting irritated with Linna for not taking her side.
Before she could say anything, two well dressed young noblemen swept out
onto the balcony.  "Lady Courage.  Lady Prudence.  Come and join the rest
of us.  You should be dancing!"

      Before Linna or Priss could say anything, they were swept up by the
two young noblemen, who swept them out onto the dance floor.  The mood was
infectious, and despite not really knowing what she was doing, Priss soon
found herself enjoying the dance.  There were hundreds of people dancing
to the music.  
     
     As Priss moved across the floor, she recognized someone nearby.  Hey,
that looks just like Usagi!  Whoever it was, she was wearing a beautiful
dress and dancing with someone who looked suspiciously like Usagi's
husband.  It took Priss a few seconds to remember his name, Mamoru.

     Suddenly it struck Priss.  Serenity...my mother.  Usagi.  They all
have the same hairstyle...They look like each other.  As Priss watched,
she saw her mother, the Queen, approach 'Usagi'.

     "Serenity, my daughter, you have been dancing with Prince Endymion
all night.  There are others who wish to dance with you as well."

     The younger Serenity spoke with Usagi's voice.  "Have we really been
dancing all night?"

      A girl with long black hair who was dancing nearby laughed.  "Only
for the last four hours."

      It IS Usagi, Priss thought.  But if she is the Queen's daughter...
and I'm the Queen's daughter, then...My sister is living across
the hall from Leon.  Right under my nose, practically.  She looked around
the hall.  If I see Leon here, I'm going to scream.  

     Instead she saw her fourth grade teacher, a cute redhead who was
dancing with some clumsy tall nobleman she clearly didn't like.  Priss
boggled.  Well, this is gonna make finding my sister a lot easier.  I
wonder if she even knows I exist...I guess not...I have to find her
memories...or something.  Priss tried to remember.

     Flicker.

********

     The sky was pitch black as if all the stars had been devoured or were
hiding for fear of their lives when Priss and Linna found themselves back
on the same balcony as when they had attended the party.  This time, it
was shouts of fear and the sound of running that surrounded them.  They
were still clad in the party gear they had worn before, but it was out of
place now.  They could both sense that a great battle was about to begin.

     Linna looked up.  "I guess we must be having really heavy cloud
cover.  I can't see any stars or the sun."

     "I don't see any clouds."  Priss felt horribly oppressed.  This
darkness was horribly wrong.  It was like that blasted heath inside the
monoliths.  

     It was at that moment that a huge red eye winked open in the sky and
glared down at the palace of the Moon Kingdom.  Linna could feel it
looking at her, and only the fact that Priss was watching kept her from
screaming, running inside the palace and hiding under something.  

     Priss stared at the eye.  "Shit.  It's fucking ALIVE!"

     The darkness ripped apart into seven beings of shadow who rained down
upon the palace grounds as a horde of warriors poured into the palace
gardens out of the darkness.  The palace guard poured out to meet them,
but it was clear they were horribly outnumbered.  

     "Who are these people?"  Linna asked. 

     The stars could be seen again, now, but their light seemed pale and
muted.  Priss stared at the invading army.  "They're toast, that's what
they are."  She transformed and leaped down from the balcony, sword held
high.  

     Linna sighed.  You're going to be the death of us.  Still, I can't
let these people be slaughtered, even if it is a dream.  She concentrated
and her party dress became her hardsuit.  And I REALLY can't let Priss get
slaughtered.  She charged into the fray.

     Priss fought the greatest fight of her entire life.  The fact that
this was a dream had completely slipped her mind.  This was her kingdom,
her people.  Her ancestors had moved heaven and earth to create a time of
peace, and she was ready to die to defend it.  Some tiny part of her knew
the odds were impossible, but Priss didn't worry about odds.  She cut a
bloody swathe through the enemy army, but it was too big, the odds too
heavy.  

     Linna carved an even larger swathe through the invading army.  A few
sword blows had revealed that none of the average invaders had anything
that could do more than damage her paint job, which made mowing them down
ridiculously easy.  The real problem seemed to be whether she'd collapse
from exhaustion before she could kill them all.

      Then one of the seven shadows came after her.  It was one of the
creepiest things she had ever seen, a vaguely humanoid shimmering being
seemingly forged from darkness with glowing red eyes.  She opened fire on
it and her laser simply punched a tiny hole in it which soon closed up.
She tried to engage it hand to hand, but her blows went through it without
hurting it at all.  Even the monofilament whips didn't do anything to it.
On the other hand, it's blows did little more than ding her armor and
further damage the paint job.

      Then Priss cut it in half with her sword and it dissolved away with
a loud scream.  Priss said, "Sorry to butt in, but it looked like you were
gonna be here all day."

      A loud scream cut across the battle.  Priss recognized the voice
crying "ENDYMION!"  She ran that direction, cutting a swathe through the
enemy army.  Linna followed in her wake.

       They were too late.  Bodies were strewn everywhere, the senshi of
the Moon Kingdom fallen.  A tall pale woman with long red hair and a staff
in her hands was gloating over her triumph as she carried off the Princess
of the Moon and the Prince of the Earth.  The last of the Moon's defenders
had fled, and only two cats and the Queen remained.  

       Beryl was ranting something about snakes.  The Queen ignored her
and held up a yellow wand, tipped with two things:  a crescent moon and a
shining silver colored crystal.  She spoke words of power and a wall of
light erupted from the crystal.  Priss and Linna closed their eyes, unable
to bear to look.  

       Beryl's army was ripped apart in an instant.  Many died, the rest
cast out into what would become known as the Dark Kingdom.  Soon, there
was only silence and the fallen.  

       Linna stared around in horror.  It was victory, but at too heavy a
price.  

       Priss was in shock.

       "The Silver Millenium has fallen,"  one of the cats said sadly.

       "I shall send their fallen souls to Earth, so that they might one
day be reborn and hopefully live in the peace that was denied them in this
life."  She raised the crescent moon wand and light flowed from it once
more...

      Flicker.

********

     Priss and Linna floated in a misty void, surrounded by a kaliedscope
of light and darkness, a seething sea of chaos. Things kept appearing
and vanishing in the corners of their vision.  Gently mocking voices
drifted through the void, just below the threshold of sound where
they might have understood them.  

     Priss turned to Linna. "Does this mean we're done?"  

     "Umm."  'Sasami, are you there?'

     A figure strode out of the mists, which dissolved away.  The pair
stood on the balcony again, but now the palace lay in ruins.  The garden
was gone, only a wasteland remained.  The world was bleak and lifeless,
though the same Earth hung in the sky.  The woman who had strode from the
mists was Queen Serenity.  "This is all that remains of my kingdom.  Of
your homeland, Priss."  She turned to Linna.  "So you are the one."

     Linna blinked.  "The one what?"

     "The one who has brought my daughter to me.  I thank you, Yamazaki
Linna.  I wish I could reward you, but that is not in my power.  Except
for this."  She reached out and touched Linna's forehead.  She felt an
electric shock run through her.  "You will know how to use this when the
time comes."  She turned back to Priss, who was staring at her.  "My
daughter.  I am so proud of you."

     "I haven't accomplished anything to be proud of."  It was a rare
moment of honesty for Priss.  "All I've done is fight and sing a few
songs."

     Queen Serenity swept forward and embraced her daughter.  "You have
fought with all your heart and all the considerable courage you have in
it.  I was a great queen and I could not save my kingdom from destruction.
Do not be bitter because of your past.  You will do great deeds in the
future, my daughter.  I have faith in you."

     Linna looked around at the devastation, remembering how beautiful it
had been earlier in the dream.  What a waste...such a peaceful place
destroyed.  

     "I...Is Usagi my sister?"

     "Yes.  You must find the Silver Crystal so you can restore her
memories and those of her friends.  The world will need you all soon."

     The Queen turned to Linna.  "Will you help my daughter?  She will
need someone who can help her travel through the world of dreams where the
crystal has hidden itself."

     Linna blinked.  "I..uh...me?"  Linna pulled herself together.  "Sure.
I'll help as best I can.  The crystal is in someone's dreams?"

     "The world of dreams is shaped by human will, but there are vast
tracks of it that lie beyond where people normally go in their dreams.
Some of your scientists refer to it as subspace."

     "As what?"

      Queen Serenity tinysweated.  "Anyway, the Crystal is hidden in the
deeps of this world, the very universe within which we are now.  I do not
know where it is or how easily it can be found, but I hope you can help my
daughter to find the Crystal."

      "I will do my best."

      Priss said, "We'll find it.  I swear I'll find it, mother.  I...will
I see you again?"

      "Not for a very long time.  You must sleep now.  You will need your
rest."  She began to fade.  "I love you, Courage.  I know you will not
fail."

      My name is Courage...It fits I guess.  Priss smiled, though she was
crying.  "I love you too, mother."  

      The world dissolved away and Priss and Linna both sank into a deep,
restful sleep.  Far away from them in orbit over the earth, Sasami smiled
in her sleep and rolled over.  

*******

     Nene crawled out of bed.  Ack, I'm late for...oh wait, I have today
off.  She was about to sag back into her bed when she heard noises in the
kitchen.  Great, an early morning burglar, she thought.  She managed to
find her bathrobe and her handgun and crept out into the living room, just
in time for 'BOB and his Chainsaw' to fill her apartment with noise
spawned in Hell's music department.  She screamed and so did the person
who turned on the music, who turned out to be Ryu.  

      After a few seconds, he turned it off.  "..."

      Nene put down the gun.  "You startled me!"

      "What was this doing in your stereo?"

      "All the CDs you lent me were like that!"

      "Are you sure you didn't borrow this from Manami?  Or Priss?  Or
maybe the forces of EVIL?"  Ryu pulled out the CD and looked at it, then
at the CD case.  "This looks like my case, but these aren't
my....Manami..."

       "What?"

      "Manami switched all my CDs!  Oooooooooo."

      Nene laughed.  "I guess she did get you."

      "This calls for an escalating spiral of vengeance."

      "Cool.  Can I help?"

      "Sure."  Ryu kissed Nene.  "Let's get some breakfast first, though."

      "And then we'll plot our evil revenge."

      "Exactly." 

*********

     Hikaru and Noa sat down in her living room.  "So you're ready for
this?"  Hikaru asked.

     Noa nodded.  "As ready as I'll ever be."

     Hikaru moved closer on the couch and reached out her hand to Noa's
forehead.  "This may not be pleasant for you."

     "It's painful?  I can handle pain."  Noa was very nervous.  She knew
she was standing at the edge of a line beyond which there was no turning
back.  

     "Not physically.  You'll remember things and you may not want to
remember some of them.  More importantly, you may not want other people 
to know them, but I won't be able to help learning them.  To awaken your
abilities, I have to know you...and knowing yourself OR others can be
painful, embarrassing, and unpleasant.  I've only done this twice, not
counting the time it was done to me, and that wasn't exactly voluntary.
Well, sort of.  Anyway, one of them was my best friend, but there were
still things that...well, anyway.  This is your last warning."

      "Who did this to you, if I may ask?  You say it wasn't voluntary?"

      "One of the things you're going to be going up against tried to use
me as a living weapon against my boyfriend and his family because they're
descended from Juraiians.  I nearly killed them all."  Her voice was very
faint. 

      "So the thing that did that to you is still out there?"

      "I killed it."  Her voice was very matter of fact, but sounded
tight.  "I ripped its spirit body apart and..."  She shuddered.  "I know
how they can die, but it's not pleasant.  Not pleasant at all."  She
stared off into space for a few seconds.  "Anyway.  You ready?"  Clearly,
she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

      "Sock it to me."

      Hikaru placed her hand on Noa's forehead and dived inside her mind.

                        
                        ****************

     Young Noa chased the cat down the hallway.  "Alphonse!  Alphonse!"
Alphonse didn't pay any attention.  Hikaru followed the young five year
old as she chased the cat through an open door into the main room of her
parents' brewery.  

     Noa's father grabbed Alphonse and laughed.  He was a huge burly man
with bright red hair.  "Here you go, Noa-chan."

     "Thank you, Poppa."

     Noa's mother brought over a glass to Noa.  "Here, try this."

     Hikaru blinked.  Her parents were giving her beer at age five?

     "It's too bitter."  

     Her mother turned to her father.  "I TOLD you."

     He grumbled.  "Right, right.  Shouldn't you be doing your homework,
Noa-chan?"

     Noa hugged her cat until it was almost ready to explode.  "Okay!"

     She got all the way to her room before she remembered she didn't HAVE
any homework.

                         
                        ****************

      Noa, now 17, finished gassing up her motorcycle.  "You sure you're
old enough for that thing?"  the gas station attendant asked.

      "It's not a thing.  It's Alphonse."  She paid the attendant and
stalked off, leaping on the cycle and roaring off into the night.

      Hikaru blinked.  She named her motorcycle after her cat?

                        ****************

     Hikaru watched Noa, now 21, carefully polish an Ingram by hand.
Hikaru recognized it as the Ingram that was now in Noa's restaurant.  Noa
seemed to almost be in a trance as she worked.  Another SV2 officer, who
Hikaru recognized as Noa's husband, Asuma, approached her.  "You're STILL
here?"

     Noa blinked.  "I'm almost done cleaning Alphonse, Shinohara-kun."
She paused.  "Oh wait, you needed a ride, right?"

     "Yeah."

     She clambered down from the gantry.  "I'll take you right now then,
since it's supposed to rain soon and then I won't be able to take you."

     She named her mech Alphonse too, Hikaru thought.  I wonder why the
name is so important to her.

                          ****************

      Noa turned and saw several dozen labors heading for the park, a mere
fraction of the thousands in the city.  These were different.  No one was
operating them.  "This must be something like that HOS disaster...Has
Unit 1 been called out?"

     Hikaru watched quietly.  The worst part about trying to understand
other people's memories was that you couldn't ask questions to try and
find out the context.  It was like reading a book by picking random pages.  

      He paused, and radioed for more information.  He didn't like what he
heard.  "Unit 1 was called in and is now under attack from its own
labors."

      "WHAT?"

      "Military labors are out of control at the base...the chief says
we're getting out of here now!"

      Hikaru suddenly realized what was going on.  December 31, 2000 AD.
I remember that day all too well, unlike the others.

      Noa tossed aside the person she was grappling with and tried to run
for the carrier.  The controls refused to respond.  Alphonse twitched
about as if he was drunk.  Noa swore.  "Alphonse, what are you doing?"

      She struggled with the controls.  It was like trying to walk through
marshmellows.  They weren't responding.  In fact, it felt like something
else was trying to issue contrary commands.  Noa felt a growing sense of
unease.  No, I won't let something do this to my ALPHONSE!  She growled
and concentrated.  The resistance increased, then suddenly popped.
Alphonse took off at a run for the carrier...too late.  Four labors had
grabbed it and flipped it over.  

     Hikaru blinked.  That shouldn't have been possible...I'll have to
follow this up.  Hikaru plunged deeper into Noa's mind.

                          ****************

     Noa was substantially older in this memory, somewhere in her late
thirties.  She was confronting an old man and a bunch of armed punks in a
warehouse.  "Surrender now!"  she cried out.

      The old man laughed.  "Soon, the virus we've planted in your mech's
operating system will take effect and your mech will be paralyzed.  If you
run, you might get far enough away that we won't catch you when it shuts
down."  He checked his watch.  "You have three minutes."

      "I guess I have three minutes to render you all unable to move
then."

      The old man blinked, clearly not having quite thought of that.

     Three minutes later, the men were all knocked out, or pinned on the
floor with Alphonse sitting on their legs.  Hikaru laughed faintly as she
watched.

      Noa was holding the old man up in the air.  Three minutes.  Four
minutes.  "Hmmm.  Looks like your virus needs a little work."

      The old man began to cry.

                             **************

      Shige said to Noa, "Yeah, they did put a virus in your mech.  In
fact, your mech ought to be not functional right now."

      "I guess Alphonse's immune system was just too strong for it, eh?"

      Shige shook his head.  "Humans are the immune system of mechs.  Like
I said, this mech shouldn't be able to move.  Your operating system looks
like swiss cheese."

      "But he's running just fine!"

      "Who knows.  The more we improve these labors, the less we
understand them.  Anyway, I'm going to restore your operating system from
the backups."

       She nodded.  "Okay.  I wonder what the Old Man would have thought
of all this."

      Shige said, "He'd have yelled at me for not keeping more recent
backups."  Shige looked at Alphonse.  "On the other hand, the fact that
this thing is still running after 20 years...I think he would have been
happy about that."

       "Well, with maintenance a car will last 20 years easily."

      "Shinohara-san, you don't take cars into COMBAT.  Tanks don't last
20 years of frequent combat.  We replaced Unit 2 and 3 years ago, but your
mech just keeps going."

      "That's 'cause I take extra good care of him."

      "We take extra good care of all the mechs...anyway, I need to go
work on this and you're going out with your husband tonight, right?"

      Noa nodded.  "Take good care of Alphonse."  She turned to go.

      "I always do."

      Hikaru smiled faintly to herself and followed another thread of
memory.

                                ******************

     It was a cold winter's day.  Noa was in her early twenties, but
Hikaru couldn't tell quite how old she was.  She and Asuma were standing
out in the snow in front of SV2 HQ.  He looked very nervous.  "You have
tomorrow off, don't you, Noa?"

       "Hmm?  Yeah.  Why?"

       "Interested in catching a movie with me?"

       "Sure."

       The man seemed visibly relieved.  "How about the two thirty movie?"

       "I'm going to be cleaning Alphonse."

       Hikaru laughed faintly.  She can't even tell, can she...

       "On your day off?"

       "I won't have time before then."

       "..."  He thought for a moment.  "Four thirty?"

       "Sure.  What movie are we going to go see?"

       "How about Sleepless in Shikoku?"

       "I've been wanting to see the new Gundam movie."

       "Okay, we can do that."  He looked a little disappointed.  She
didn't quite notice.  

       "Cool!  You're the only person I know who is willing to go see a
good mech movie with me anymore!"  She danced about happily.

       "You up to going somewhere for a nice meal after that?"

       "Sure.  I'm kinda getting tired of the stuff we eat here.  Then
I'll take you by my parent's brewery and see how much we can squeeze out
of them."

       "I thought you couldn't get drunk anymore because of growing up
there."

       She laughed.  "Only Mom's homecooking so to speak, if you know what
I mean."

       He was about to find out.  Hikaru smiled.  First date, I guess.
She leaped down another thread of memory.


                                ******************

     Noa, 17 years old in this memory, sat with her friends watching an
entirely ridiculous show called 'Sailor V Gundam'.  Imagine giant fuku
wearing combat mechs.  Then try to get the image out of your head before
it rots your brain.

     Hikaru blinked.  I can't believe anyone besides me watched this silly
show.

      Apparently Noa's friends couldn't believe it either.  "Why are you
making us watch this awful show?"

      "Cause I think these giant robots are just so cool!  I'm gonna be a
giant robot pilot one day."

      "But this show is soooooo bad.  It looks like five year olds drew
it...and where did Sailor V get all these mechs, anyway?"

      "You people have no imagination.  I'll have my own mech and I'll
name it Alphonse!"

      "You name EVERYTHING Alphonse!  What is it with you and that name?"

      Noa smiled.  "I just like it..."

      Hikaru tried diving down another thread of memory.

                         *****************

      Noa, age 5, ran frantically through the mall.  She was completely
lost.  I shouldna gone to look at that dollie, she thought, cause now I
can't find Mommy anywhere.  Mommy got lost!  "Mommy, where are you!"

      Poor child, Hikaru thought.  I know the feeling.  

      She ran headfirst into the legs of a huge old man.  Well, huge from
her perspective.  He was dressed in archaic garb, and looked somewhat like
a priest.  He wore glasses and had short grey hair and a bushy grey
moustache.  He looked down at the child.  "Are you okay, little one?"

      "My Mommy is lost!"  Where is everyone?  Where's Daddy?  I can't
find anyone!

      "I'll help you find her.  What does she look like?"

      "She's big and beautiful and has brown hair and she's really nice!
And she's wearing a green dress."

       "Okay."  The man began leading Noa through the mall, keeping up a
steady stream of chitchat with her.  Slowly, Noa's fear and worries faded.
"So what's your name, little one?"

       "Izumi Noa.  What's your name?"

       "My name is Masaki Katsuhito."  

        Hikaru looked at the man.  Something about him was familiar.  One
of Kyosuke's relatives?, she thought.

        Noa looked around at everything for sale in the mall.  There were
tons and tons of stuff for sale.  Then she saw it.  The perfect doll.  It
was a little Gundam mech plushie in a UFO catcher machine.  "I want it!  I
want it!"  She pointed.  It's important to point so adults know what you
want.

       Katsuhito laughed.  "You like mechs, little girl?"

       "They're really neat!"

       "I'll see what I can do."  He got out a coin and soon snagged the
doll and gave it to her.  "He'll keep you safe whenever you're in danger.
You'll have a big strong mech to protect you."

       Noa giggled.  "He needs a name."

       Katsuhito thought for a moment, looking around.  A sign caught his
eye.  "How about Alphonse?  I guess he's a French mech."

       "Yeah!  That sounds like a neat name!"  I can use that for our new
cat too, Noa thought.  

        Hikaru laughed, then suddenly realized where she knew the man
from...

                              ****************

     Hikaru stood in a vast hanger.  It looked like a trophy room.
Alphonse stood against one wall by a gantry and elevated walkway.
Pictures lined the wall by Alphonse, showing various battles and other
deeds he had accomplished.  By a second wall stood a series of statues of
people Hikaru could not recognize for the most part, though the uniforms
identified them as the members of SV2.  A third wall held people Hikaru
recognized as Noa's family from some of the memories.  Her cousins,
father, mother, and others.  The fourth wall held a single statue, Noa's
husband, Shinohara Asuma.  The statue changed as Hikaru watched it, aging
from a young and nervous man to the confident elder gentleman that Hikaru
had met before.  The pictures on the wall behind him were a mixture of
scenes.  Asuma with a toothache.  Asuma recieving an award.  Asuma riding
on Noa's motorcycle with her.  Asuma throwing a snowball at someone.
Asuma in his SV2 uniform, giving orders.  Asuma and Noa's wedding day.
Their first kiss.  

      Hikaru turned away, not wanting to pry too deeply.  In the middle of
the room, Noa floated, suspended from invisible wires.  She was dressed in
her SV2 uniform, and she looked younger than in real life, though not as
young as in some of the memories.  She had a red string tied to each of
her thumbs.  The one from her right hand lead to Asuma, the one from her
left to Alphonse.

      Hikaru smiled faintly.  I wonder what I would have seen if I
ever...She wiped the thought from her mind.  No time for regrets.  She
examined Noa more closely.  Yes, I can see it, she thought.  Her power is
already awake.  Together, they are more than they are apart.  The whole
greater than the sum of its parts.  Two humans and a machine...not your
normal love triangle.  

       Now how exactly do I explain this to her?  She thought for a
moment, then acted.

******

      Noa blinked as Hikaru pulled her hand away from Noa's forehead.  "I
can sense where Asuma is...he's eating a sandwich at the office and
reading some papers.  And I can sense..."  She looked at Hikaru.  "Am I
clairvoyant now?"

      "You had a very powerful bond with those you love.  It is stronger
now.  Together, the three of you are stronger than any foe."

      "The three of us?  You mean..."

      Hikaru smiled.  "I think you know what I mean."

*****

     Asuma sneezed and papers flew everywhere.  I guess someone is
thinking of me.  Probably Noa, I guess.  I can almost see her talking to 
Professor Hiyama, now that I think about her.  He could hear her voice in his 
mind, and he smiled.  I love you Noa, maybe even almost as much as you love 
your mech.  If that's humanly possible.  
             


John Walter Biles :  MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas         
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu       
rhea@tass.org              http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net      http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/

"Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority."
--Dr. Who, "The Wheel in Space" (Serial 43, fifth season)