Sailor Moon - Warriors of Ether
by David Farr

Disclaimer: The characters of Sailor Moon belong to their copyright holder.
They are used here with permission for fanfiction purposes.

Author's Note: I'm not satisfied with this part, so I'm asking for any and all
	comments. Please make it specific. "I don't like it" isn't useful, 
	however "I don't like such and such" is.

Part 8

*****

	Katsuko reached up and felt along the top of the door frame. Sure enough
she found the spare key amongst the dust. She paused and stared at the key
sadly. Lita was the only member of the Sailor Scouts who didn't have someone
checking up on her, a very depressing thought that Katsuko banished quickly.

	The key slid into the lock and the door opened with a click. A gentle push
swung the door open to reveal the empty apartment. Even unoccupied for a
couple of days, the apartment still carried the smell of cooking. With a
smile Katsuko remembered Serena's tales of Lita's meals.

	"Hello? Lita? You home?" Katsuko called hopefully. It was always possible
that Lita hadn't been able to answer the door.

	The apartment stayed silent. Frowning Katsuko started looking around. The
main room held a simple stereo and Television, a few pieces of furniture. A
bag sitting on the sofa turned out to contain exercise clothes.

	Katsuko swept into the kitchen. It was the work place of a master cook.
Utensils hung from hooks; a spice rack held a large selection of condiments,
all neatly arranged. The stove was well cleaned and the only thing on the
bench was a plate full of small cakes.

	The bedroom was sparse, just a bed and a wardrobe. A set of night clothes
had been set out on a chair, waiting to be worn.

	The bathroom contained only a shower and a vanity. Katsuko checked to make
sure Lita's toothbrush was still there. It was.

	Katsuko sighed. Just like the other three scouts Lita had simply vanished.
The only good thing was that with Lita there was no family left behind to
worry. Some comfort.

*****

	Luna sat watching Raye. Unfortunately so did Chad. 'Two days,' she fumed
silently. 'They haven't left her alone for two days!'

	After the hospital had released Raye to her Grandfather's care Luna had
hung about waiting for a few minutes alone with her in order to try the Luna
Mind Meld. Only Chad and Raye grandfather hadn't left her alone for more
than a minute.

	All four of the remaining scout mainstays were starting to run out of
patience. Both Darien and Artemis had taken to vanishing off on searching
missions. Katsuko was spending her time a little more constructively, using
her family connections to put out feelers. Luna still felt that Raye was
still their best lead.

	"Raye, what are you reading?" Chad asked, leaning to look over the girl's
shoulder.

	Raye looked up from the book and smiled pleasantly at Chad. "Advanced Data
Communication Standards," she replied in a quite voice.

	Chad stared at her in disbelief. Luna sighed, sometimes she wondered about
that boy. After two days Raye's strange behaviour shouldn't surprise him,
yet here he was looking like a stunned fish.

	The ring of the phone snapped Chad out of it. He shook his head, stood and
strode out of the room. Luna's ears pricked up, listening to the phone
conversation. It sounded like the beginning of a long discussion, so Luna
decided to seize the day.

	Luna leapt up onto the table and walked proudly onto Raye's book.

	Raye smiled at her. "What do you want kitty?"

	"Raye, we have to talk," Luna announced.

	The surprised girl shot backwards. "You-you talked!"

	"Yes, as I said, we have to talk about you and the scouts."

	"What would I have to do with the scouts?"

	Luna rolled her eyes. "You're Sailor Mars!"

	Raye smiled and shook her head. "Me, Sailor Mars? I don't think so, she's
so... so... fiery, I don't think I could be like that."

	Luna looked down at the table. Well talking wasn't going to help, she'd
knew it would come to this. She quickly raised her head and locked eyes with
Raye. The crescent moon on her forehead shone, then shot beam of light at
the girl.

	Almost immediately she felt resistance. This wasn't a simple case of
dredging up repressed  memories, instead something, a spell, was working
against her, attempting to keep Raye in her other persona. But the spell
wasn't evil, in fact it somehow felt familiar.

	In Rei's mind the dam shattered, and for a brief moment Rei fought Raye.
Backed by the force of Luna's mind the girl's true self quickly overcame the
other personality to regain her body.

	Luna collapsed to the table as the link broke. The battle had been hard and
she was just a little cat.

	"Luna?" Raye asked, her voice shaking. "What's happening?"

	Luna looked up, here heart filling with dismay. "I was hoping you'd be able
to tell me."

	"What do you mean?"

	"Raye, the others are all missing. You were our only hope for a lead."

	"Missing, how?"

	"I think we should get Katsuko, Darien and Artemis in on that discussion."

	"Right!"

	Behind them the door was quickly pulled closed and Chad walked back to the
phone to slam it down on the hook. What he had seen confused him, but he
wasn't just going to confront Raye with tales of a talking cat, she'd say he
was crazy.

	Raye threw the doors open. "Chad!" she snapped. "I'm going out and don't
argue."

	Chad smiled to himself. The old Raye was back.

*****

	Darien sighed and walked into the bar. Koan, the manager of the Pigeon's
Nest stood behind the bar, and as usual Tashiro sat sipping a drink.

	"Ah, Darien my boy, come share a drink," the older man called, waving at
the stool next to him.

	Darien gave him a quick smile and took the seat. "Thanks Tashiro."

	"So, what'll it be?" Koan asked.

	Darien, too used to Katsuko's super service looked at him confused for a
few seconds, before ordering a beer.

	"What's up? You look like you've lost a friend," Tashiro commented as Koan
filled a mug.

	Darien gave another sigh before answering. "Serena's gone missing."

	Tashiro gaped in surprise. "You're kidding?!"

	"She went out the other night with her girls friends and most of them
haven't been seen since." As Darien answered Koan put the glass of beer
before him.

	"Bad business that." Tashiro frowned. "I hope they're okay, be terrible to
lose a group of pretty young girls." He stared thoughtfully into space.
"That girl Amy missing too?"

	"Yes, how did you know?"

	"Dominique was complaining she hadn't shown up to their study sessions."

	"Oh."

	The ringing of the telephone called Koan away.

	"So that's where you've been the last few nights, eh? Out looking for your
beloved girlfriend."

	Darien picked up the glass and raised it.

	"Actually he's here now," Koan said into the phone. He turned to Darien.
"Darien, Katsuko want's to speak to you."

	Darien raised an eyebrow, and took the offer handset. "Katsuko? Yeah. She
is? Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah. Okay, I'll be there in ten minutes." Darien handed
the phone back to  Koan, then ran out.

	Tashiro turn to stare at Koan. "Looks like good news."

*****

	Imp crawled into the fiery office of the Lord of Hell. The large demonic
entity sat behind his desk, reading a report from one of his generals.

	Imp cleared his throat. "My Lord. I have some ah... mixed news."

	Lucifer look up at the scrawny creature. "What is it Imp?"

	Imp glanced around nervously. "Well, ah, the human heroes known as the
Sailor Scouts seem to have been defeated. Spies report that they were lost
in a battle three days ago."

	"Surely this is good news."

	"Yes, it would, but you see, it wasn't by us."

	Lucifer leaned forward. "So the Angels have the power to destroy them."

	"Ah, no, it wasn't them either."

	Lucifer laughed. "Your telling me that they were defeated by a natural
monster?!"

	"I don't know master, but if so, it worries me that such power exists in
the world now."

	"You worry too much Imp. Come, we must plan to take advantage of the
humans' weakness."

*****

	Raye paced across the main room of the church. Katsuko, sat stroking
Artemis, watching her. For his part Artemis was enjoying the attention, it
kept his mind off his missing charge. The final member of the waiting
quartet, Luna, sat watching her male counterpart in disgust.

	Raye stopped walking and turned on Katsuko. "Where is he?!" she demanded.

	Katsuko gave her a small comforting smile. "Probably caught in traffic. It
can be murder getting up here at this time of day."

	Raye snorted and continued her pacing.

	"Do you find that helps you keep in shape?" the other woman asked suddenly.

	Raye shot her an angry glare, but didn't answer.

	The loud banging of the knocker on the door echoed through the building.

	"Finally!" Raye exclaimed as Katsuko urged Artemis off her lap.

	Katsuko smiled calmly as she swept across the room. The hinges groaned as
she pulled on the door. "I must remember to oil those," she commented. 
Darien stood impatiently without. "Come in please Darien."

	"Now that he's here can one of you tell me what's happening?!" Raye
demanded.

	Darien scowled at her. "You don't know?"

	"Of course I don't!"

	"Calm down, both of you." Katsuko snapped. "Raye, why don't you start with
what happened the other night."

	Raye glared at Darien for a second, then paused to collect her thoughts.
"The night out had been Mina's idea. We planned to just swing down to the
mall and hit the shops. Serena managed to convince me to join in, you know
how she is." Raye smiled faintly.

	"When we reached the shopping district I spotted a new clothing store. It
was strange, the others hadn't wanted to go in, they decided to wait
outside. I must have lost track of time, because the next thing I know I
hear the crack of Jupiter's thunder.

	"I quickly found a place to change, then hurried towards the battle. When I
arrived they were still fighting some giant monster. It didn't look like an
Angle or Demon, more like some of the creatures the Negaverse sent after us.

	"Mercury was down, it looked like she'd taken a blow from the monster, and
Venus was quickly checking on her. Jupiter was busy trying to get in
position for another attack. Sailor Moon was being her usual clumsy self,
wailing as the monster took time out from sparring with Jupiter to keep her
busy.

	"Anyway, I shot off a Celestal Fire from a distance. It wasn't enough to
damage the thing, but I did distract it long enough for Sailor Jupiter to
release a Thunder Clap. The thing, whatever it was, was knocked down, and
Jupiter yelled at Sailor Moon, who pulled out the sceptre and dispatched the
thing. Next thing I remember I'm waking up from a strange dream about being
Amy."

	"Which brings us up to now," Luna added.

	Katsuko frowned. "I'm afraid it wasn't a dream. While the men folk were out
scouring the city, I was chasing some more offical channels. What I
discovered is perhaps more shocking. There was evidence of a Rei Hino, an A+
student, who went missing three days ago. Stranger was the description, she
was almost an exact duplicate for our Raye."

	Artemis frowned. "So someone found a girl who resembles Raye, had a similar
name, and planned to put her in her place."

	"Sounds like too much of a coincidence to me," Darien commented.

	Katsuko nodded. "That's what I thought, so I just did some checking before
you all came round. All the evidence of the fake Rei has vanished, including
the report of her disappearance. In fact my contact at the police department
didn't remember giving me the information in the first place."

	"That's powerful magic," Luna gasped. "Someone is going to great lengths to
cover their tracks."

	Katsuko shrugged. "It certainly kills all our leads."

	"But it does leave us with a hope of finding the other scouts."

	"I've started a search for people of similar names, things like Ami with an
i or Minako, but I'm not holding out much hope."

	Darien smiled. "One thing I've learnt since becoming involved with Serena
is never to give up hope."

	Raye sorted. "Yeah, she'll probably come knocking at the door selling
cookies or something."

	As if on cue, the booming of the door knocker echoed once more through the
building. All five presents froze and turned to stare.

	"Oh, if that's her this is too much!"

	Katsuko gave Raye a withering look and swept across the room to the door.
Again the hinges shreeked as the door swung open. "Namoyi! What a pleasant
surprise."

	The teenager at the door smiled wainly at the woman. Katsuko noticed
immediately she wasn't her normally perky self. Dark bags hung under her
eyes and she walked with a slump.

	"Hi Katsuko, I need to talk to you." Her voice was a tired whisper.

	"What's the matter? You look terrible."

	"I haven't been sleeping well since the last couple of nights."

	Katsuko frowned. "Why not?"

	Namoyi shook her head, trying to clear it. "I've been having these strange
dreams."

	Katsuko reached out and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Why don't
you come in and talk about it?"

	"Thanks."

	Katsuko lead the girl into the house. "Oh, you know Darien of course."
Darien smiled at her as Katsuko did the introducutions. "And this is Raye, a
good friend, she's a Miko at Cherry Hill temple."

	Namoyi stared at her for a few seconds. "Oh, of course, you were chasing
that boy, yelling at him."

	Raye blushed as Darien chuckled. "Chad been singing again?"

	The black haired girl glared at Darien before turning to Namoyi. "You said
you were having bad dreams, why don't you tell them to me, maybe I can
help."

	Namoyi nodded. "It's really strange, it starts off in this crystal city.
Everything's beautiful, sunny, then the sky darkens. Suddenly I'm somewhere
else, its a beautiful palace and the earth is hanging in the sky. Finally
I'm standing in front of this huge horrifying castle. I go inside and wake
up screaming. The strangest thing is that each scene was something I drew
before I started having these dreams."

	Raye glanced at Darien, a frown on her face. "And how often do you have
these dreams?"

	"Almost as often as I close my eyes."

	The group fell into silence for a few seconds before Luna mewed and brushed
up against Katsuko's legs. Katsuko scooped up the cat. "Excuse me, I think
Luna here wants to be fed." The others nodded thoughtfully as Katsuko strode
away.

	"Okay Luna, what is it?" Katsuko hissed.

	"She's giving off some strong energy, could she be affected by one of the
enemies."

	Katsuko shook her head. "No, I'd know it if she was."

	Luna frowned. "Then is she another one of the Warriors?"

-----

-----------
Rarstarr,
David Farr
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~djfarr/
djfarr@ihug.co.nz