[Continued from part A]


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


Miyo walked slowly toward the Olympus.  There were butterflies in her
stomach; she felt sick with anticipation.  She had been dreading this
moment, and at the same time, longing for it.  Would she be welcomed, or
rejected?

However this meeting went, she thought, when it was over, in a way, she
would be free.

Just getting this far had been difficult.  Everyone kept _watching_ her
all the time, and it had been hard to slip out, get away from her
family.  Who'd have thought a concerned family could be such a nuisance?
Artemis would have been a big help, but she hadn't seen him for a day or
so now.  Well, sooner or later he'd show up.  She hoped.

(She remembered when Artemis had asked her: [Do you trust me?]  And,
shame-faced, she'd had to answer, [No.]  Now the boot was on the other
foot.  It was so funny, she could cry.)

Now, she stood in the street, looking up.  The Olympus building towered
over her.  She stared up at the name, cut into the stone over the main
entrance, and wondered vaguely why Rei had picked that name.  Or had
someone else built it ...?

She was waffling, she finally realised.  Trying to delay the moment.
Clenching her fists, she turned sharply and stalked down into the
car-park.

On the second level down, she stopped outside a plain, unmarked door in
the rear wall.  There was a combination, she remembered, looking at the
keypad beside the door.  Artemis had given it to her when she'd been
here before, but she couldn't remember --

[Wait.]  She closed her eyes for a moment, and let her thoughts grow
still.  Her hand rested lightly on the keypad, unmoving.

(As she lies on her bed, the white cat stares at her and says, [Miyo,
just lie back, and relax.  Relax ... and remember.]  And: they pause
outside the door in the car park, and the cat recites numbers and she
punches them in, wondering what she's doing here.  And: she's standing
outside her house in the early morning, and he says, [How well do you
remember?]  And: [Really?  You remember _everything_?]  And: she stares
into his eyes, and they seem to grow, swallowing up the world.  And:
[Relax ... and remember], and: he recites numbers, and ...)

(numbers)

Her hand moved quickly, pressing the keys.

The door clicked, and she pulled it open.  Inside, in the stairwell, she
rubbed her head, which was beginning to ache.  That had been ... harder
than she'd expected.  Artemis had opened a door in her mind that day,
but trying to control it consciously would obviously take practice.

Shaking her head to clear it, she started up the stairs.  Three steps
up, the reason she was here suddenly came back to her and she stopped
dead.  She didn't want to do this; she wanted to turn, run ...

She shook her head again, sharply.  No.  No more running.  No more
stalling.  Time to put an end to it.

Time to face the music.

                    --**--

"Captain?" said Mitsukai.  "There's something happening inside.  I think
... it might be a burglar."

"Oh?" said Hiiro, raising his eyebrows.  "This could be interesting."

                    --**--

Itsuko yawned and stretched, and finished towelling her hair dry.  Her
last class of the day had been a bitch.  She'd slept poorly the night
before, and today her timing was slightly off and that had thrown the
whole class off too.  It had been a chaotic mess.  Most of them seemed
to enjoy the confusion -- the younger ones, anyway -- but even so, it
was a bad kind of precedent to set.

It wasn't as though she had to teach classes, of course.  The Olympus
was turning a reasonably healthy profit, and she could have sat back and
relaxed if she'd wanted, let the instructors she hired take care of it
all.  And, she thought sourly, gone as crazy as a loon within two
months, with nothing to do.

Running a gymnasium wasn't a bad life.  It was quite satisfying, mostly.
But it sure wasn't what she'd had in mind for her life, way back when.

The thought of 'way back when' brought Makoto -- no, Miyo -- back to her
mind, killing her momentary good humour.  Miyo, and the reason she'd
slept poorly last night.  The last several nights, actually.

Artemis had been back twice since the night he'd brought Miyo to see
her.  He'd apologised both times, but Itsuko hadn't had the heart to
blame him anyway.  From what he'd told her, Miyo had been in a pretty
bad way that night.  It didn't sound like she was doing any better now,
either.  If only she'd listened, just a few seconds longer ...

Miyo had good reason to be upset, Itsuko thought morosely.  [I wanted to
apologise to her ... and a fine mess I made of it!]  There had, after
all, been some truth in the accusation Miyo threw at her.  Old habits
died hard, perhaps.

[What a pair of screw-ups we are!  I've gotten too cynical ... and she
can't trust anyone any more ...]

She finished dressing, and walked slowly out of the changing room.  It
was after seven in the evening.  She thought about heading back upstairs
to eat in her rooms, but the idea of another evening up there alone was
unbearable.  That left --

Well, that didn't leave too many alternatives at all, really.

She had been alone for most of the last seven hundred years.  Always
moving around, taking identity after identity.  Never daring to settle
down for long, for fear that people would notice that she didn't age.
Never daring let anyone get too close, for fear that they'd discover the
other great secret she carried ...

The only one she'd been able to confide in, in all those years, was
Artemis; and even that was difficult.  They didn't really see eye-to-
eye, and until recently he seldom visited.

There'd been times when she'd thought about ending it all.  Not many,
but a few.  But there was always the chance that, somehow, the Senshi
would be reborn yet again.  She held on for that.  And even when, as the
centuries rolled past, she finally gave up hope, there was still duty.
The evil was still out there, somewhere.  If it stirred again, someone
had to be there to fight it.

Now, of course, it was stirring again with a vengeance.  And the Senshi
had been reborn after all.  So why did she feel worse than ever before?

She groaned, turned to the stairs, and started up them slowly.  There
was still one, faint chance of reconciliation.  Something she hadn't
dared to try yet, because if it didn't work, then the last hope for the
two of them was gone.  She could still call Miyo on the telephone, beg
her to listen.  She dreaded it, but if that was what it took --

As she opened the door at the top of the stairs, she stopped suddenly.

The lights in her rooms were on.  There was music playing.  And the air
was thick with a wonderful odour.  Cooking smells ...?

As she watched, dumbfounded, Miyo poked her head out of the kitchen and
said, "Hi!  I thought you'd never get back.  Come on in, the dinner's
nearly ready."

Surprising them both, Itsuko burst into tears.

                    --**--

"Hmm," said Hiiro, amused.  "Well, I don't think that sounds like a
burglar."  He removed his earplug.  "All right, false alarm.  Stand
down, Mitsukai."

"Yes, sir."


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


"Bendis!" exclaimed Beth.  "You're back!  Where've you _been_?  I
haven't seen you since Monday!"

Bendis jumped in through the window.  Her fur was dirty and bedraggled,
and she looked tired.  "Looking for that girl," she said with a sigh.
"I told you."

"What girl?"  Then Beth remembered.  "Oh!  You mean ...?"  Her eyes
widened.  "Did you find her?  Is she a Senshi?"

"Yes, I found her," said Bendis with a sigh.  "Eventually.  At least
this time I knew which face I was looking for ..."

"What?"

"Never mind.  I don't know if she's a Senshi yet.  But I found out where
she lives.  I'll be able to check her tomorrow."  Beth opened her mouth
to ask another question, but Bendis wasn't finished.  "In the meantime,
there's something more important to take care of," she said.  "Do you
have anything to eat ...?"


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


They ate slowly, sneaking quick looks at each other.  After the initial
catharsis, neither of them seemed to be able to think of anything to
say.  But it didn't matter, for now.  The tension, the urgency, was
gone.

Once, Rei excused herself, a stricken look on her face, and hurried out.
Miyo stared after her, concerned that something was wrong; but Rei came
back a minute or two later, a small control pad in her hand.  She
manipulated it for a few seconds, holding a finger to her lips, then
laid it down on the table with a sigh of relief.

"What is it?" Miyo asked dubiously.

"It's a -- well, a safety policy."  Rei shook her head.  "Don't worry.
I'll tell you later."  She resumed eating, looking unconcerned.  After a
few moments, Miyo followed suit.

Afterward, they carried mugs off coffee through into the living room.
They sat, and exchanged nervous smiles.  And then, finally, it was time
to talk.

"On Saturday I asked you, how've you been?" said Rei quietly.

Miyo took a deep breath.  "I've been --"  She stopped, staring down at
the floor.  "Well, to tell the truth, I've been pretty shitty, for the
last week," she said.

Rei laughed mirthlessly.  "Same here," she said.

"I --"  Miyo struggled to find the words she wanted.  "Why?" she asked
at last.  "After all that time, why did you have to bring it up again?"

Rei did not answer at once.  "Because I was afraid," she said slowly.
She looked Miyo in the eyes.  "Seven hundred years," she said.  "Seven
hundred and -- what? twenty-two years.  It's a long time to carry a
grudge."  She looked away again, and took a careful sip of her coffee.
"After a hundred years or so, I would have given anything to have seen
an old friend again.  Eventually, I realised that I'd have given
anything to see you, too.  I think that's when I found out that ... none
of it mattered to me any more.

"And then you came back.  And I was so afraid ..."

Miyo stared at her uncertainly.  This was a side of Rei that she'd
seldom seen: a Rei totally open; the Rei under the shell, as it were.
Not wanting to break the mood, she said quietly, "Afraid?  You?"

"Me."  Rei gave a quick smile.  "When Artemis told me he'd awakened your
memories ... all I could think was, She's going to remember it all,
we're going to start fighting again, and I just want my friend back ..."

She took a deep breath.  "And then Artemis brought you up here, and took
me by surprise.  And I needed to know if you could ... let it go, but it
all came out wrong and ... and oh damn, I didn't want to start crying
again --"

Miyo hesitated for one moment longer.  Then she got up and went to sit
by Rei, and took her in her arms.  They clung to each other for some
time, until Rei finally stopped shuddering.

[All this time,] Miyo thought bitterly, as she held her friend.  [All
this time, and I never thought that she might be hurting as much as I
was ...]  Her own cheeks were wet with tears.

At last she said quietly, "Can we ... forget it all, do you think?  Let
it go, pretend it never happened?"

"I don't think so," Rei answered.  "I'd like to, but ... I don't think
that's possible."  Miyo sighed, but before she could speak Rei went on,
"Maybe the best we can do is ... is to say, we both made mistakes.  But
that doesn't mean it all has to end.  Maybe we can ... go on anyway."

"I'd like that," Miyo replied gently.

Rei pulled away from her.  "In that case," she said ... and there was a
definite glint in her eye ... "Supposing I give you a hand with the
dishes?"

Miyo almost agreed without thinking.  But -- "Excuse me?" she said, a
challenge in her voice.  "_Who's_ going to help _who_ with the dishes?"

"Didn't you tell me, a couple of thousand years ago, that the cook
always does the dishes?" asked Rei innocently.

"No!"

"Oh?  I could have sworn that --"

"Rei!"

They stared at each other.  The moment was deceptive; it was so much
like old times, so familiar and comfortable, that it would have been easy
to let it slide, to fall into the well-remembered patterns.  And yet,
here and now, just as they were edging back over the brink --

And then, finally, Rei laughed.  "All right.  You help me, then.  Come
on, let's get this over with ..."

And Miyo let herself relax, and followed her into the kitchen.  Maybe,
just maybe, this could work after all.

                    --**--

And later, they sat back with fresh refills of coffee, and talked about
everything under the sun.  About what it was like, running a gymnasium
of all things.  (Rei laughed).  About being back at school again, after
all this time.  About shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax, and cabbages
and Kings ...

"After the Fall?" said Rei at one point.  She made a face.  "That was a
bad time.  You're lucky to have missed it."

"No, really," Miyo prompted.

"Oh."  Rei shifted uncomfortably in her seat.  "It was, well ... you
must have gotten an idea, in history classes or something.  The whole
world was falling to pieces.  Everybody was starving, nobody knew how to
do anything any more, and I wasn't much better off ..."  She shivered.
"Eventually I found a farm where they took me in.  I did remember a few
things, I knew enough to keep them all alive for a while.  They never
asked if I was -- you know, me -- but I think they guessed.  Then, after
a couple of years, raiders came, and they tried to defend themselves,
and all of them got killed, and I had to run ..." Shaking her head, she
said, "It was like that for a long time.  Decades. Eventually things
settled down a little, but it was just, you know ... look, I'd really
rather not talk about it.  Not tonight."

"Why didn't you use your powers to help them?" asked Miyo softly.

"My powers?"  Rei stared at her for a long time.  At last she said, "Come
with me.  I'll show you."

She led Miyo through into her office, and carefully pulled the curtains
shut. Then she opened her desk drawer and took out a small object.
Tossing it to Miyo, she said, with an odd smile, "Recognise it?"

"It's your henshin stick," said Miyo, puzzled.

"Normally I keep it ... well, hidden away in a safe place.  But I saw
myself holding it in a dream, last week, so I got it out again.  Toss it
back here."

Miyo obeyed, and Rei stared down at it for a few seconds.  Then, taking
a deep breath, she held it up in a familiar gesture and shouted, "MARS
ETERNAL MAKE-UP!"

Nothing happened.

"Rei --" began Miyo, shocked.

Rei's face was pale, and her hand was trembling.  "It's been three
hundred years since I dared to try that," she said in a voice that was
little more than a whisper.  "I didn't think it would ..."  She trailed
off.  "No.  Never mind that.  But I'm not Sailor Mars any more, Makoto
... Miyo.  I'm sorry."

"Rei, what happened?"

"Not Rei," the other whispered.  Then, louder: "Not that either."  She
looked up at Miyo sharply.  A little colour was coming back into her
face, though she still looked pale and shaken.  "Do you understand?  I'm
not ... what I was.  I'm not Sailor Mars.  And I'm not Hino Rei, either.
My name is Itsuko now.  Pappadopoulos Itsuko."

Patiently Miyo repeated, "What happened?"

Itsuko shook her head wearily.  She looked old, in that moment; old and
tired.  "I don't know.  I never ... when I woke up, after it was all
over, I realised I was back in my --" she made a face "-- civilian form.
I couldn't change any more.  I found my henshin stick nearby, but I
couldn't use it.  I tried changing without it -- you remember what a
bitch that is -- and I couldn't do that either.  It just didn't ..."
She shrugged.  "When Serenity died, maybe my power died with her.  I
don't know."

"I'm so sorry," Miyo said softly.  "I never dreamed ..."  Hesitantly she
added, "Does it ... hurt?"

"Hurt?" Itsuko repeated.  "To be cut off from the power?  To be a ... a
pitiful _shadow_ of what I was?  To know that there are people that need
my help, and I can't give it any more?"  Her voice was rising.  "To know
that now, especially, you need Sailor Mars back, and I can't do it?"
She almost spat the words out.  "_Hell_ yes, it hurts!"

Miyo recoiled from the rage and the pain in her voice.  Itsuko spun on
her heel and stalked over to her desk, where she slammed her henshin
stick back into the drawer.  After a moment, in a tight, controlled
voice, she said, "I'm sorry.  This isn't turning out to be much of a
reunion after all."

"Any reunion is better than what we had before," Miyo said firmly.  "Rei
... no, wait.  Itsuko.  Are you sure it's permanent?  If there's
anything I can do -- or Artemis may have some idea --"

"I talked to Artemis about it, five hundred years ago," Itsuko said with
a sigh.  "He thinks I just ... burnt myself out, in that last battle.
It's happened before, apparently, in the Silver Millennium."

Miyo raised her eyebrows.  "That's right.  I'd forgotten about that.
Sailor Neptune, the third one back before Michiru.  She --"  She closed
her mouth suddenly, remembering that that Sailor Neptune had committed
suicide.  Not the most tactful thing to say, not now.

Itsuko didn't seem to notice, fortunately.  She simply looked glad of
the change in subject.  "That's right.  You remember it all, don't you?
Artemis said."  She managed a faint grin.  "So, what was it like?  What
am I missing?"

"Save your envy," Miyo advised her dryly.  "It's just confusing.  It was
all so ... different, then.  Beautiful, wonderful, yes, but not like
Crystal Tokyo.  It's hard to relate that life to now.  It just gets in
the way ..."  She blinked.  "In some ways, it's actually better now.
Did you know that this is the first life when I've actually had a
family?  Both times before, I lost my parents.  The first time around, I
was only seven."

Itsuko made a face.  "Seven?  What an age to lose your folks."

"Well ... yeah.  But I didn't mean it like that.  It's just, I think I'm
actually better off, this life, than I've ever been.  For a while there,
after my memories came back, I didn't see that.  But now I've had a
chance to ... you know, let things settle down ... I really think I'm
better off."  She rolled her eyes suddenly.  "Even if I _do_ have to go
back to school, and be a kid again.  I can handle that.  And ... well,
even if my family _do_ think I've gone nuts."

Itsuko raised her eyebrows, and Miyo flushed.  "Um ... well, you know.
With three sets of memories, it's kind of hard sometimes to -- are you
laughing at me?"

"Perish the thought," said Itsuko hastily, her face suspiciously rigid.
"Let me guess.  You've been acting strangely, and saying all sorts of
incomprehensible things in front of them --"

"You don't have to put it like that --"

"--and it probably doesn't help that you disappear at odd hours, to go
and fight as Sailor Jupiter, ne?"

"No, I've been okay there, actually --"  Miyo sighed.  "You're right,
though.  That's going to be a problem, sooner or later.  And then, this
last week, things have been kind of rough, and my brothers caught me
talking to Artemis, and I was kind of upset, and ..."

Itsuko nodded slowly.  "If there's anything I can do ...?" she offered.

Miyo smiled.  "Actually, I think I'm going to be all right on that
count ... now," she said.  After a moment, Itsuko smiled back.

                    --**--

And later yet:

"Why did you pick Papa -- Padapo -- Pappado -- whatever it is?" asked
Miyo, with some difficulty.

"Pappadopoulos," Itsuko said easily, with a grin.  "'Cause it's such fun
to hear people trying to say it, why else?"

"No, seriously."

"Really?  Oh, well ... I can hardly go using my real name, of course.
Have you _seen_ that awful viddy program?  Just imagine the results if
everyone knew who I was.  I'd never have another moment's privacy, I'd
be buried alive ..."  Itsuko blinked.  "Mind you, it might be really
good for business --"

"Rei --"

"No, no.  Itsuko, remember?  Dangerous to get that wrong.  Well ... I've
had a lot of names, over the years.  Usually I try to pick something a
little oddball.  If people think I'm weird to start with, it covers up a
lot of mistakes I could make.  Being half-Greek is handy, since none of
the Hellenic enclaves survived.  And I learned a bit of the language, a
long time back.  It's like a false nose."

Miyo was not quite sure she'd heard correctly.  "A false nose?" she said
cautiously.

"Yeah.  You see what I mean?"

"I'm sorry," Miyo said at last, shaking her head, "but that doesn't make
any sense at all."

"No, really.  A false nose.  You know -- if you want to disguise your
face, you wear a big false nose.  Or something like that.  Everybody's
too busy looking at your nose to see the rest of your face at all."
Itsuko blinked at her.  "You see?"

"So ... everyone's too busy thinking you're weird because you're Greek,
to notice that you're weird in other ways too?"  Itsuko nodded.  "That
has got to be the silliest idea --"

"Hey, it works!  Really!  Maybe I'll try being German next time, I think
I could fake that ..."  Itsuko snorted.  "What can I say?  It's a pain
in the ass.  Every twenty years or so, I pretend to die, then go off and
start again as someone else.  It's getting difficult, creating a new
identity, but I have some contacts -- people I've done favours for, over
the years, and so on.  It's ..."  She shrugged.  "It's how I live."

"How long have you been here, then?" asked Miyo, suddenly concerned.

"I'm about due to move on, actually.  The last few lifetimes, I've been
trying to hold onto this building, which makes it a bit harder, but ...
I figure I'll go on holiday and have an accident.  Something like that.
My niece, who lives overseas, will inherit.  In a few years, enough to
blur people's memories of me, she'll come back and move in.  She'll look
a little different from me -- maybe I'll let my hair grow again -- and
she'll talk differently.  I'll have to shut down the gymnasium first, of
course -- that's a shame, but there's too much chance people might
recognise me.  And then ..."

She sighed.  "Who am I kidding?  That's what I'd been planning to do.
But I can't move on, not now.  Not with this new Senshi crisis coming
on.  I may not be Sailor Mars any more, but I think I can help a little.
I hope.  And anyway, it's ..."  She hesitated.  "It's dangerous to
attract attention, at the moment."

Miyo sat up a little straighter, her eyes narrowing.  "Dangerous?  What
do you mean?"  Something made her add, "Is this anything to do with that
'safety policy' gadget you had before?"

"In a way.  Yes."  Itsuko stood up and walked over to the curtained
windows.  "About two weeks ago, Artemis was here.  We think somebody saw
him ... and recognised him."  She turned, and saw the expression on
Miyo's face.  "Yes.  This place is under surveillance.  I don't know who
it is.  You probably saw on the news, there were some odd anti-Senshi
feelings out there for a while?  Well, the majority opinion seems to be
pretty positive at the moment, especially since that fire, but I'd be
surprised if all that distrust has just vanished.  There are a lot of
whackos in the world.  I sent Artemis away, and he's been very careful
when he comes back --"

"So that's why he made me come in by the carpark entrance."

"Yes."

"But -- I mean, have you thought that they might have ..."  Miyo trailed
off, fumbling for words.

"Bugged me?"  Itsuko smiled at Miyo's dismay.  "Oh, yes.  The suite is
bugged, all right.  The rest of the building probably is, too.  That's
what my 'safety policy' is for.  It sends a false signal -- blocks the
bugs, substitutes an innocuous conversation for whatever is actually
happening.  Don't worry, it's safe to talk."

"Safe?" demanded Miyo.  "How can you call it 'safe'?  How can you just
stay here, knowing somebody's watching you --"

"Calm down.  In the first place, they're _not_ watching me ... I hope.
They're watching for Artemis, and if he stays away, sooner or later
they'll quit watching.  Or ease it off enough for me to get out, anyway.
That's the second point: the worst thing I can do is to panic.  That
really _would_ attract attention, and attention is the last thing I can
afford."

"Damn."  Miyo shook her head.  "I wouldn't like to be in your shoes ..."

Itsuko snorted.  "Well, I'm not exactly happy about it, either.  And I
do have one or two ideas about dealing with it, but there's nothing I
can do right now.  The important thing is that as long as I stay calm
and act normally, I'm probably safe."

Miyo wrapped her arms around herself, shivering unconsciously.  "I'd
been thinking ... well, hoping ... that maybe we could meet here.  You
know, me and ... the others.  You could sit in, too, of course.  But
now, well ..."  She smiled feebly.  "I guess not, huh?"

Itsuko raised her eyebrows.  "Actually, that could still work, you
know."  Miyo started to protest, but she went on, "Think about it.  The
Olympus is a natural meeting place for teenagers.  A couple of the
smaller rooms at the back get used in the evening by local clubs right
now.  Nobody'd look twice at a new group that started coming in."

"You think so?"  Miyo started to look hopeful.

"Sure.  I mean, you wouldn't be able to have training sessions here, of
course.  That'd be asking for trouble.  But if you want somewhere where
you can get together and talk things over, that's no problem."  Cocking
her head to one side she added, "You'll need some kind of cover, though.
Right now people could be a little _too_ interested in a group of girls
who're total strangers but suddenly start meeting together."  Then she
grinned.  "I do have a few schemes in mind --"

"You sound just like Minako," said Miyo, a little nervously.

"Mako-chan!  That's a horrible thing to say!"  They both laughed.  "All
the same," Itsuko went on, "what do you think?"

"Well --"  Miyo shrugged.  "I'll check with Artemis, see what he says."
She shot a look at Itsuko.  "Um, does this mean I can tell Dhiti who you
are?"

Itsuko hesitated.  "Let me think about that, okay?" she said at last.

Miyo did not try to hide her disappointment.  "Okay," she said
reluctantly.  She added, "There's probably not much point just yet,
anyway.  Not with only two Senshi."

"Two?" asked Itsuko, frowning.  "Don't you mean three?"

"Eh?  No, I -- oh.  You mean Sailor Venus.  But we still don't know who
she is."

Itsuko groaned, then laughed.  "Tell Artemis to get a move on, then.
The sooner he tracks Bendis down, the better."

"What?  Tracks her down?"

"Hasn't he told you yet?  Typical.  He -- well, no.  I wouldn't want to
spoil his story."  She laughed again.

"Oh, come on, you can't just drop hints like that!  Please!"  Miyo
folded her arms sulkily.  "You're just like him, you know -- always
picking on me ..."  But at that point, she could no longer keep the
glare up, and had to start laughing herself.  "Oh, it's so good to be
able to talk to you again," she said with a sigh.

Itsuko raised her eyebrows.  "Likewise," she said.  "But it does have
its downside, too.  For example ... well, have you noticed what time it
is?"

Miyo glanced at her watch and yelped.

"And it's a school day tomorrow, too," said Itsuko mock-sympathetically.

"AUGH!  MY PARENTS ARE GOING TO KILL ME!"  Miyo suddenly became a
whirlwind of activity, frantically gathering up everything she'd brought
with her, and trying to find where she'd hung her jacket when she came
in.  Itsuko sat back and watched her, enjoying the impromptu Usagi
imitation.  After an amazingly brief time, Miyo sprinted out the door,
with a hastily muttered "Bye!"

A silence fell in the suite.  Shaking her head in amusement, Itsuko
started to clear up the coffee mugs and plates of snacks they'd gone
through during the evening.  There was a sudden knock on the door and
she looked up, startled.

Miyo poked her head back through the door.  "Um ..." she said
hesitantly.  "You mind if ... well, I mean, could I ... well, would you
mind if I came back, you know, tomorrow or something?"

Itsuko smiled.  "Kino Makoto, you are welcome here any time.  Day or
night.  You should know that."

Miyo's face split into a broad grin.  "Yeah ... yeah!  Thanks!"

The door slammed and she was gone.


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


Bendis prowled through the streets, following a tall, slim girl.  It was
early Friday evening, and her prey was out of school uniform.  Her
clothes looked expensive, though she seemed to have a taste for dark,
sombre colours.

She was definitely a Senshi.  Bendis had finally managed to touch her
for long enough to be sure.

The question, as it had been with Beth, was which Senshi she was.
Bendis was pondering ways and means of finding out.  She had,
regretfully, abandoned her idea of using the same tactics she'd tried
before.  Beth's cautions about pianos notwithstanding, she was sure that
the idea was basically sound; but she had an uneasy feeling that the
girl might not see it the same way.

There had to be a better way of doing this, she thought irritably.  Why
couldn't she have waited a few months before getting into that argument
with Artemis?  There was so much he'd never taught her ...

The girl turned a corner, and Bendis hurried a little to keep her in
sight.  She was keeping her distance, trying not to be noticed, but it
did make it harder to keep an eye on the girl.  Where on earth was she
going, anyway?  The streets were getting crowded, it was becoming
awkward to dodge feet.

[Suzue,] she thought.  Have to remember that.  [Itagaki Suzue.]  At
least she finally knew her name.

The girl slowed a little, and Bendis finally saw where she was heading.
She stifled a groan.  [This is going to be awkward,] she thought, as
Suzue headed into the theatre.

                    --**--

"I don't know about this," said Dhiti, looking up at the posters
dubiously.  "It doesn't look that good."

"Oh, come on," said Kin impatiently.  "The first two in the series were
terrific! Anyway, just a couple of weeks ago you were talking about how
_much_ you wanted to see it!"

"Yeah, what's up, Dhiti-chan?" said Miyo, grinning at her.  "I'd have
thought you'd enjoy a movie with so much ice in it."

"Stick it up your nose, Hayashi," Dhiti grouched.  She studied the
posters for 'Icewalker III' again, and tried to hide her misgivings.  It
wasn't that the animation didn't look good.  It was just that ...

"At least you look a bit more cheerful today," she said, not wanting to
complete the thought.

Miyo smiled.  "I got some good advice from a friend, and I took it," she
said softly, throwing a quick glance down at Dhiti.

"Oh, it was nothing," said Kin modestly, polishing her nails on her
blouse.  "Any friend would have done the same."

"_You_?" said Miyo, startled.  "What are you talking about?  You told me
to pull the sock out of my ass!"

"Hey, that was good advice!  The way you were acting --"

"Good advice?  That's the sort of advice I'd expect from my worst en--"
Miyo stopped suddenly, and looked thoughtful.  "Actually," she said
slowly, "come to think of it, maybe that _was_ good advice."

"You see?  No-one ever listens to me till it's too late," said Kin
mournfully.  Then she stole a sly glance at Miyo.  "Mind you, in your
case it was probably more like a _pair_ of socks ..."

Miyo giggled.  "More like a _dozen_ pairs," she snickered.

Dhiti winced, and put her hands over her ears.  "I don't want to hear
this," she said loudly.  "I am _not_ listening to this ..."

"Hmm."  Kin looked up at her sidelong.  "And I wonder just what _you've_
got stuck up there today?"

"Look, let's just get the tickets, all right?" said Dhiti hastily.  She
hurried toward the ticket stand, and the other two followed her, still
giggling.

As she stood in line, Dhiti wondered what was the matter with her today.
Normally she'd have been the one making the off-colour suggestions, and
Hayashi would have been pretending to be outraged.  But then, Hayashi
had been acting bubbly all day; it was clear that, whatever had been
bothering her (and she still wouldn't say what that was), it had finally
been resolved.  So, if one of her best friends was happy again, why was
Dhiti feeling out of sorts?

She scowled, feeling like a fraud.  The truth was, she knew perfectly
well what was wrong with her today.  She'd been feeling depressed ever
since Kin arrived.  Kin, and her news that Liam had asked her out on a
date.

It wasn't fair.  Dhiti had said that once before, but suddenly it was
starting to seem real.  Kin and Liam were clearly interested in each
other, and she was fairly sure that Mark and Miyo liked each other too,
even if they were both a little too weird to have admitted it yet (and
the idea of Mark dating someone who was, in a sense, thousands of years
old was pretty weird in itself) ... and that left poor old Dhiti all on
her own, and wasn't _that_ a sucky feeling.

And then those damn posters had to show Icewalker with his arms around
Tsurara, the woman of the Ice Folk, in a classic pose.  Just to rub it
in, as it were.

It wouldn't be so bad, she thought glumly as the three trooped into the
theatre, if she at least had any prospects.  But she'd never met a boy
she'd been interested in.  There'd been a few sniffing around her, from
time to time, but none of them could keep up with her.  She was, it
seemed, as slippery as ice.

"Come on, Dhiti," said Miyo as they squeezed past a boy and girl holding
hands to get to their seats.  "It can't be that bad."

"Can't it?" said Dhiti, looking down at the couple.  "If you say so."

Rather to her surprise, the girl she was stepping past looked up at her
and said, "Excuse me, but did she say your name is Dhiti?"

                    --**--

[] Energy trace detected.
[] Analysis:  Silver Millennium [prob 91.175%].
[] Hypothesis:  ?? Mercury Computer [prob 46.483%].
[] Trace obscured, ?? subspace pocket [prob 69.026%].
[] Tracking.

Smile.

                    --**--

"Excuse me," Nanako said to the dark-skinned girl who was treading on
her toes, "but did she say your name is Dhiti?"

The girl looked down at her, clearly taken aback.  "Yes," she said after
a moment.  "Why?"

"Oh, nothing," said Nanako easily.  "Sorry.  I thought I recognised you
for a moment."

The girl, Dhiti, stared down at her for a second longer, as if she were
crazy, then shrugged and moved on down the row.

"What was that all about?" asked Eitoku.

Nanako hesitated.  "Oh ... just someone I didn't expect to be meeting
here," she said finally.  She squeezed his hand, and felt him squeeze
back.  "Hush, now.  The movie's starting."

                    --**--

Bendis crouched under an unoccupied seat, and tried to keep one eye on
Suzue and one eye on Icewalker.  It wasn't easy; she kept getting
distracted by the action onscreen.  She wondered if she should try to
call Beth somehow, then remembered that Beth was out with her mother
tonight.

Well, it probably didn't matter.  She'd just sit here and enjoy the
movie, and worry about Suzue afterward.

                    --**--

It was a pretty good movie, Suzue thought.  She watched as Icewalker and
his little band of allies from the Ice Folk mounted their assault on the
Frost Fortress.  Unbeknownst to them, Icewalker's true love Tsurara had
broken into the fortress by night, disguised as a man, to confront the
evil wizard, Shimo, who'd killed her parents.  But Shimo had taken
her younger brother Hyoga hostage, and she was forced to throw down her
weapons or see him die.  At the critical moment, Icewalker burst into
the throne-hall, and while Tsurara rescued her brother, he engaged Shimo
in furious battle.  They launched massive attacks at each other:
Icewalker hurling his trademark fiery bolts at Shimo, who responded with
whirling clouds of energy-sapping ice crystals, and frigid bombshells
that burst into hails of razor-sharp ice shrapnel.  In no time at all,
the Fortress was crumbling into ruin from the force of their battle,
shattered by massive explosions --

A _real_ massive explosion went off inside the theatre.

For a few confused seconds Suzue could not see, blinded by smoke and
dust.  Then she managed to make out the screen again.  There was an
enormous hole in it.  Standing in the hole was a --

A monster?

Some kind of ... of creature.  Vaguely manlike, but immensely tall and
thick, its body all angles and planes.  It glittered with a madly-
dancing rainbow of colours -- the film was still playing, reflecting off
its skin.  Or was it skin?  It gleamed; it looked as though it were
made of ice.

[How appropriate,] she thought hazily.

Then the creature moved: swiftly and surely, with none of the
awkwardness she would have expected.  It leaped forward toward the
movie-goers.  Most of them just sat and watched, stunned.  This couldn't
be a publicity stunt, could it?

It raised an arm, and brought it down on the first row of seats.
Fortunately, nobody was sitting there.  A fraction of a second later,
the seats weren't there either.  There was an indescribable shattering
sound, and the air was filled with splinters and flying pieces of
wreckage.  Suzue heard somebody scream in pain.

The monster threw its head back and let out a roar: a deep, resonant
sound, thoroughly chilling.  Finally, panic began to set in.  People
began to stand up, shout.  Then, in one frenzied rush, the whole
audience seemed to make a single, mass dash for the doors.  There were
more screams as people were crushed or trampled underfoot.

Suzue sat tight.  Partly it was because she was waiting for the crowd
around the doors to clear.  Partly it was because her legs didn't seem
to want to support her.  She felt faint ... strange.  She hunched
herself back, trying to avoid the monster's attention.

She wondered why she did not feel afraid.  The fear was there, yes, but
it was as it it were sealed away.  She was trembling, but not because
she was afraid.  She felt an urge to ... to _do_ something, but she had
no idea what.

The creature smashed more seats, then stood still for a moment, moving
its head back and forth.  As if looking for something, she thought.
Something, or someone?  Then, to her horror, it stooped down, picked up
an armful of wreckage, and threw it with terrific force.

The crowd was thinning, but there were still a lot of people clustered
around the doors, trying frantically to get out.  The wreckage smashed
into a sizeable group.  Suzue was fairly sure that she saw blood splash.
She heard screams of agony, and several people fell.  Apparently
encouraged, the monster roared again.

As it made its way further down into the theatre, still blasting out its
challenge, she poked her head around the corner of a seat to get a
better look.

That was a mistake.

The movement must have caught its attention.  It swung in her direction.
She squirmed backward, horrified, but it had clearly seen her.  She
almost thought she saw a gleam in its eyes -- but that, surely, was
hyperbole.  Surely?

It stepped toward her, and raised one enormous fist.  She scrambled back
again, retreating seat by seat down the row, never daring take her eyes
off the thing.  Step by step, seat by seat, it followed her.  And then
she felt the wall at her back.

Nowhere to turn, nowhere to run.  No way out.  She was going to die.

She felt a sudden burning sensation on her forehead.

And at that moment, a voice rang out across the theatre.

                    --**--

"I am Sailor Jupiter!  Movie theatres should be places of innocent
entertainment, not bloodthirsty butchery!"

"I am Sailor Mercury!  Er, what she said!  We are the Sailor Senshi, and
on behalf of the planet Mercury --"

"-- And the planet Jupiter --"

"We'll punish you!" they chorused.

Mercury stole a glance at Jupiter out of the corner of her eye.  "I am
_so_ embarrassed," she muttered.

"Can it," murmured back Jupiter.  She raised her arms and shouted,
"SUPREME THUNDER!"  And with a roar of energy, the bolt lashed out and
caught the vitrimorph squarely in the chest.  It bellowed in what
might have been pain, and reeled back.

"It's glowing again," said Mercury.  "Why do they _do_ that?"

"Maybe you should scan it and check?"

"Umm, not right now," gasped Mercury, leaping frantically to avoid an
armful of rubble hurled at her at what looked like supersonic speed.
She took aim and shouted, "ICE SPEAR!"

The vitrimorph dodged her shot with uncanny quickness.  Then, to her
shock, it took aim at her and let out a roar that almost sounded like it
had words in it.  And a bolt of pale-yellow energy leaped out from its
finger, straight back at her.

She ducked, barely evading the shot.  As it passed her, missing her arm
by no more than a centimetre, she felt its blazing heat.  "I think we're
in trouble," she gasped.

"Yeah, but did you notice?" called out Jupiter.  "It may be able to fire
those shots at us, but it's more vulnerable, too!"

"Hit it from two sides at once?" suggested Mercury.

"You got it!  Let's go!"

                    --**--

Bendis followed the vitrimorph down the row of the seats, keeping to the
shadows, as it advanced toward Suzue.  She was burning to help somehow,
she was pretty sure that she could distract the creature before it got
to the girl ... and yet, the girl herself would be more help than
anything, if only she could take her Senshi form.  If she only waited a
second longer ...

There.  The vitrimorph raised its arm to strike ... and a symbol burned
on Suzue's forehead.  The symbol of the planet --

Bendis blinked.  She certainly hadn't been expecting _that_.

Never mind.  Now, at last, she knew; finally, she could act.  She
gathered herself to spring.  She would hit the creature on the shoulder,
distract it, make it turn away, give the girl a chance to escape while
it went after her instead.  [Piece of cake,] she thought smugly,
carefully ignoring the rather strong possibility that she'd be seriously
hurt herself.

And at that moment, a voice rang out through the theatre.  She looked
around, startled.  Sailor Jupiter announcing herself, followed a moment
later by Sailor Mercury.  How had _they_ gotten here so quickly?  Never
mind.  They were throwing their attacks, the vitrimorph was distracted;
now was her chance to act --

She looked back to where Suzue lay, her planet symbol still bright on
her forehead.  But there was someone else there too.  And she screamed
in outrage.

"Noooo!  Not _now_!"

                    --**--

Artemis found a sunny spot outside the theatre to doze in while the
girls went inside.  He'd been following Miyo, staying out of sight,
since her outburst on Saturday.  Just in case, he told himself firmly.
He'd seen that she had made things up with Itsuko, and was glad, but all
the same ... he didn't really feel that he wanted to talk to her again,
not just yet.  Moon Cats had feelings, too.

When he heard the explosion, though, and the screams that followed it,
he forgot his anger immediately.  There was trouble, and that, in the
end, was all there was to it.  While Miyo knew what she was doing, Dhiti
was still pretty green ... and the hell with pride.  He streaked into
the theatre.

It took him a little time to get inside without being trampled by the
rush of escaping people.  By the time he made it, Miyo and Dhiti had
already gotten out, changed, and were heading back in.  He followed
behind them, watched as they began their attack on the vitrimorph.

When Mercury suggested they split up and hit it from opposite sides, he
started to call out a suggestion of his own.  Then, suddenly, he froze.
There was something else in the theatre -- a strange feeling, almost
familiar somehow ...

Finally, he recognised it.  Another Senshi?  Here?

He ran down the aisle, looking right and left.  At last, near the front,
he saw her.  A girl lying against the wall, her skirt up around her
hips, her hair wild around her terrified face, and on her forehead shone
the symbol of --

He blinked, astonished.  _Uranus_?

He shook his head, and started toward her hastily.  Time to ask the
obvious questions later.  For now, he had to give her her henshin stick,
so she could transform and help the others --

Then, from behind him, he heard a wail of rage and frustration.  "Noooo!
Not _now_!"

He whirled -- to see the absolute last person he'd expected to find
here.

"It's not fair!" Bendis hissed at him.  "I found her first!"

"B-bendis?" he stuttered.  Involuntarily, he took a step toward her.
Her eyes widened; instantly, she spun around and fled.

Torn, he watched her go -- wanting to follow, knowing it was too late.
She'd been faster than him for a good while now; he had no chance of
catching up.  But oh, how he wanted to --

Never mind.  Right now there were other, more important things to worry
about.

He ran back to the girl's side.  She stared at him as he approached her,
and flinched back when he spoke.  "Are you all right?" he asked gently.

After a second or two her mouth moved.  "Wh -- what --" she began.

"I'm sorry, but there's no time to explain," he said.  "You're just
going to have to trust me.  Here --"

He spun about madly, stretching out with his will for what he wanted.
After a second, it came.  The henshin stick fell to the floor with a
faint clatter.  He nosed it toward her.  "Take it," he said.

Hesitantly she reached out and picked it up.  "What -- I don't
understand --"

"Hold it up, and say the words, 'Uranus planet power, make-up.'"

She stared at him.  "This is some kind of silly dream --"

He stole a quick glance behind him.  Jupiter and Mercury were still
playing cat-and-mouse with the vitrimorph, but which was cat and which
was mouse seemed to be debatable.  It looked like a stalemate, and in
battle that was a very dangerous position.

"Just do it!" he urged the girl.  "The others need your help!"

She, too, stole a glance out at the battle that was raging.  "This can't
be happening," she whispered.  But then she took a deep breath.  She
gathered herself, stood up smoothly, raised the stick toward the
ceiling, and cried out:

"URANUS PLANET POWER, MAKE-UP!"

The power descended.  It lifted her, held her in its grip, etching out
around her a circle of energy.  The circle flared -- a sudden burst of
light, a ghostly web of force, taking her, claiming her.  Shifting the
universe around her, making her what she had to be.  The brightness was
too much; he had to shield his eyes.  Then it collapsed; the glare
faded, the figure within spun to a halt.

The Senshi of the Sky stood before him.

She looked down at herself.  "No, not _me_," she wailed suddenly.  "It
can't be _me_!"

"Sailor Uranus," said Artemis, softly but very clearly.  "The others
need your help."

"But --"  She closed her eyes.  "All right.  I'll try."

                    --**--

Bendis' first reaction had been fury.  After all the effort she'd put in
to find Suzue, now Artemis was just going to waltz in and take over?
Talk about injustice.  Then, when he started toward her, she panicked.
It was blind instinct.  She had a very good idea of just how upset he
was going to be with her, and she was not at all eager to face that.
Not yet.  Not ever, preferably, though she was uncomfortably aware that
there would have to be a reckoning someday.

So, she ran.  Down the aisle, and out through the hole that the
vitrimorph had blasted in the rear wall.  And outside, blinking in the
late sunlight, she stopped, and tried to think what to do next.

Call Beth, was her first reaction.  The more Senshi the better when
fighting those things, as far as she could see.  But there were two
problems with that.  First, she had no idea where Beth was -- she had a
vague memory that the girl was going out shopping this evening.  Second,
Beth didn't have a Senshi communicator.  [Now why didn't I ever think to
give it to her before ...?]

So Jupiter and Mercury were on their own with this one.  Oh, and Uranus
of course, she thought bitterly, once Artemis finished awakening her
powers.  Damn him!

Then she remembered that Artemis really _would_ have his paws full with
a new Senshi.  And Jupiter and Mercury could certainly do with some
hints, since they hadn't had the benefit of her training.

And really, she thought ruefully, there was just no way she could run
away from a fight.

Muttering a curse, she turned and dashed back into the theatre.

                    --**--

Sailor Jupiter was still going strong, but Sailor Mercury was beginning
to flag.  She ducked out of sight for a moment to gasp for breath,
shaking her head frustratedly.  She just didn't have the stamina for
this kind of fight.

This blasted monster was quite different from the others.  It didn't
seem to be orienting on either of them, for a start.  The last two had
picked on one Senshi and attacked her persistently, all but ignoring any
of the others.  This one seemed happy to direct its attacks at anyone.
Maybe that was because they'd come in together?  And then those shots it
fired -- they were hard to dodge, and it could do them so fast!  It took
her a couple of seconds to get off an Ice Spear, but this thing could
fire two or three shots in the same time.

Hitting it from two directions at once had been a good idea.  The
trouble was, so far they'd been unable to manage it.  It seemed to have
an instinct for their tactics; whenever they began a simultaneous
attack, it appeared to sense it and dodge in plenty of time.  It had
taken a couple more hits, and they seemed to have hurt it, but not
enough.  It was moving noticeably slower than when the fight began, so
perhaps they were wearing it down.  The question was, who would wear
down whom first?

She crouched down behind a seat, dodged along the row a little way, and
stole a quick glance over the top.  The vitrimorph was roaring and
clutching its shoulder, where Jupiter had just managed to clip it.  [Way
to go, Miyo!] she thought.  Taking a quick breath, she stood up and
prepared to fire off her own shot.  But at that moment, someone else
decided to join the fight.

"MUSIC OF THE SPHERES!"

It sounded like the faintest chiming of bells.  There was a faint glow
in the air, stretching out from the palm of the woman who'd shouted; if
the theatre hadn't been darkened, Mercury was sure she'd never have
noticed it.  And suddenly, her teeth ached.  [Some kind of sonic
attack?] she wondered.

Who on Earth was that who'd cast it?

Whoever she was, whatever she'd just hit it with, it was having an
effect.  The vitrimorph seemed frozen in place.  It almost looked as if
it were vibrating.  She was sure that the steam coming out of its ears
was her imagination, though.

The newcomer dropped her beam suddenly and sagged back, as if exhausted.
Well, Mercury could sympathise with that.  She'd lost count of the
number of Ice Spears she'd cast this evening, and she was about ready to
sag too.  And that beam had looked pretty potent.

Who on Earth --  And where had she come from?

The vitrimorph was starting to move again.  No time for idle
speculation.  Mercury threw her Ice Spear and leaped for more cover
before the enemy could retaliate.  As she landed she saw her attack
strike home; the vitrimorph was still moving too slowly to dodge it.
This time when the Ice Spear hit there was a sharp cracking sound, and
she saw splinters of crystal fly.

"Looks like Uranus seriously weakened it," said a voice.  "That gives me
an idea."

She looked around, but for several seconds saw nothing.  Then, finally,
she made it out: a small cat, with the full moon on its forehead.  It
was a tabby, almost invisible in the darkness.

"Who are you?" she said stupidly.  Then: "Wait a minute.  Bendis, right?
Good!  Is Venus here?"

The cat didn't take her eyes off the vitrimorph.  "She can't make it.
Look, when Uranus attacks again --"

"Uranus?  Sailor _Uranus_?"

"Shut up and listen!  Get ready to attack.  When Uranus hits it again,
throw your Spear at the same time."

"Right.  That might work.  What about Jupiter?  We need to get her to
hit it too --"

"No!  It's the physical impact that's going to do the damage!  Her
thunderbolt might just fuse it back together!"

Mercury blinked.  [Great,] she thought, [now I've got to start studying
physics.]  Wait a minute, though, maybe the idea did make a kind of
sense?  "Sonic attack," she said slowly.  "I ... see.  I think."

Bendis glared at her.  "Well stop thinking, and get ready to attack!
Honestly, what's Artemis been teaching you?"

Mercury opened her mouth to reply, then carefully closed it again.
[That's one uppity cat,] she thought.  All the same, she realised
grumpily, she did have a point.

She sneaked a peek over the row of seats.  Jupiter was manoeuvring
around for another attack.  There was a streak of blood on her face.
[When did that happen?  No, Hayashi, stay down, let us handle it --]

"MUSIC OF THE SPHERES!"

Mercury jumped up and roared out, "ICE SPEAR!"

The two attacks struck home.  And then the air was filled with flying
crystal shards.

When Mercury could see again, she looked over to where Bendis had been
standing, to thank her.  But the cat was gone.

                    --**--

Jupiter stood up slowly, rubbing at a dozen new cuts on her arms and
face.  She'd been standing entirely too close to that explosion.  Pity
they didn't have Hotaru here --

And who on _Earth_ was that new Senshi?

The three of them trudged toward each other, carefully brushing shards
of crystal out of their hair and clothing.  She finally got a good look
at the newcomer, and recognised her colours with a start.

"Sailor Uranus, I presume?" she said.  It wasn't Haruka, though.
Another old friend lost.

"Umm, I suppose so," said Uranus.  She looked dazed and tired.  "This is
all so -- it's just --"

"Yeah, I know."  Jupiter grinned at her.  "Don't worry.  You'll get used
to it.  Listen, we ought to --"

"Sailor Uranus, I presume?" said Mercury, hurrying up to them with a
grin on her face.  "Hi, I'm Mercury -- I guess you've met Jupiter --"

Jupiter scowled at her.  "Dhiti, this is no time for --"

"How touching," said someone.  A cold, grating voice.  They looked
around wildly, but there was nobody in view.  Then, almost as one, they
looked up.

There was a woman hanging in the air.  Jupiter had a sudden sense of
deja vu.  How many times had she seen this scene played out ...?

"A reunion of old friends, I see," the woman said.  She was dressed in
midnight blue, with silver trimmings at her waist and wrists.  The
steady flickering of the movie, which was still, inanely, playing on
uninterrupted from the projection booth, made it hard to make out her
face.  It could not, however, disguise the enormous glowing jewel
embedded in her forehead.

"And now there's another one of you," she continued.  "How sweet."

Jupiter scowled up at her.  "Who are you, and what do you want?"

"'Call me Ishmael.'"  The woman's laughter was like a buzz-saw cutting
through crystal.  "And I want ... I want ... the Moon.  On a platter."

"You're crazy," said Mercury, shocked.

She smiled benevolently.  "Am I?  We shall see ... when the Moon is
full."  She laughed again.  "In the meantime, you seem to have won the
day, so I must be going.  Rest assured, little Senshi, we will meet
again."  She raised one hand, and they saw something glittering attached
to her wrist bracer.  "I guarantee it."

"Don't jump to conclusions," Jupiter called out.  "SUPREME THUNDER!"

The levinbolt lanced out, catching the woman by surprise.  It was not
aimed at her, though.  It struck the object on her wrist squarely, with
a shower of sparks.

The woman in blue stared at her wrist in shock.  The device that had
been mounted there was shattered, ruined.  Blood was dripping from where
it had been.

"The unkindest cut of all," she whispered.  Then she raised the wound to
her mouth and sucked it.  When she lifted her head again, her lips were
stained red.  She grinned.

"Bravo, little Senshi," she said.  "Another victory.  Enjoy it while you
can."  She bent her head to the wound again, and as she did so, the air
around her seemed to shimmer.  In another moment, she had vanished.

"I think I'm going to be sick," muttered Mercury.

"Save it for later," Jupiter advised her.  "Right now, we've got another
problem.  I recognised that thing on her wrist.  It was a tracker; she
probably used it to find us here."

"So?"

"So ... it was Crystal Tokyo technology.  And none of that works any
more.  So how was she able to use it?"

They both stared at her: Mercury in growing dismay, Uranus in utter
confusion.  "You mean --" began Mercury.

"I don't know what I mean.  For now, I think we should get out of here,
and go somewhere where we can talk."  She winked at Uranus.  "It seems
introductions are in order."

                    --**--

Nanako watched them leave from her hiding place in the back row.  When
they were safely gone, she stood up and stretched, brushing a thin
sprinkle of crystal fragments off herself.

"That," she remarked to nobody in particular, "was _much_ better than
the viddy program."

She had seen the Senshi at last!  And a new one had appeared!  They'd
called her Sailor Uranus -- such a pity that Nanako had been looking the
other way when she changed ...

Oh.  And Jupiter had called Mercury 'Dhiti.'  So, that theory was
confirmed.  [And I actually spoke to her when she wasn't transformed ...
I think I'll recognise her when I saw her again ...]

She made her way out of the theatre, humming softly to herself.  [Now,
should I tell Hideo about this or not?] she wondered.

Out on the street she started to look around for Eitoku.  They still had
a date to finish, after all.  As she hunted through the crowd who were
still staring at the theatre, she bumped into Iku, of all people.  The
girl looked as if she'd just run a marathon.  Nanako debated telling her
an edited version of what had just happened, but at that moment she
finally saw Eitoku, a little distance away.  Well, Iku could wait.

The rest of Nanako's evening was very enjoyable, in quite a different
way.


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


Artemis ran quickly through the streets, his mind whirling.  So many
unexpected things, all cropping up at once.  Sailor Uranus ... Bendis
... a new enemy ... and of all things, functioning Crystal Tokyo
technology!

He had followed the three girls out of the theatre, watching them just
long enough to make sure they got away safely.  He expected they were
heading for Miyo's or Dhiti's house.  Good, that should be safe enough.
It gave him time to carry out his own errand.

He reached his destination, finally: the Olympus building.  Now, if only
Itsuko could tell him what he needed to know ...

He made his way up to Itsuko's suite.  This took some effort; he could
not reach the keypads to get into her private stairwell, so he had to
follow quite a circuitous route.  It was an embarrassingly hackneyed
solution, but sometimes ventilation ducts were just the way to go.

A little over an hour after he left the theatre, he dropped to the floor
in Itsuko's kitchen and stood for a minute, panting.  Then he set out in
search of Itsuko herself.

She was in the living room, watching the news on the viddy.  She glanced
up as he nosed the door open.  When she saw who it was, she raised her
eyebrows silently and tapped a key on her control pad.  Then she nodded.
It was safe to talk.

"I take it there was something about us on the news tonight?" he asked.

"A battle at a movie theatre.  They didn't have many details.  Was there
some kind of problem?"

"Not exactly."  Artemis hesitated.  "Itsuko, this may sound strange, but
... have you seen Setsuna lately?"

"Setsuna?"  Itsuko looked completely taken aback.  "What on Earth ... I
mean, no.  Not since the Fall.  I thought --"  She hesitated.  "Well, I
suppose I always assumed she'd died with all the others.  Why, did you
see her?"

"No.  But, well, I was hoping you'd know how to get hold of her --"

There was a knock at the door.

They exchanged glances.  That hadn't been the door to Itsuko's suite; it
had been the door to the living room itself.

"Come in," Itsuko called.  Her hand reached down under a cushion and
took hold of something.  Artemis prepared himself for action.

The door opened, and a tall, beautiful woman with long, green-black hair
walked calmly into the room.  She gave them a curt nod.  "Rei, Artemis,"
she said.  "I believe you wanted to speak to me."

                    --**--

Itsuko managed to close her mouth after ... not more than a year or so.
"Setsuna," she said.  "What -- how --"

"I'm using the name Fumihiko Sadako, at the moment."  The newcomer sat
down gracefully, without waiting for permission.  "I believe you're now
calling yourself Pappadopoulos Itsuko?"

"Yes, I ..."  Itsuko finally managed to gain control of herself.  She
released the weapon she'd been holding.  "Yes, for the last twenty years
or so.  How did you -- no, wait a minute, that's a stupid question --"

"Let's get to the point," Sadako suggested.  "Artemis, you wanted to see
me about something.  Well, here I am."

"Umm."  Artemis looked nervous.  Itsuko wondered just what had happened
at the theatre earlier.  "Well, we ... we found a new Senshi today."

Itsuko blinked.  Sadako simply raised an eyebrow.  "Ah.  That would be
the new Sailor Mars, I assume?"

"No, it -- dammit, Setsuna, that was pretty tactless of you!"

"Oh?"  Sadako looked back to Itsuko.  Itsuko simply stared back at her,
trying to keep her face perfectly expressionless.  It wasn't easy; that
question had hurt.  A lot.

"Itsuko," said Sadako gently.  "You knew this was coming.  You knew that
the torch had to pass onward."

After a moment, Itsuko bowed her head.  "Yes," she said.  "I knew it."
There was more than a trace of sarcasm in her voice as she added,
"Forgive me if I can't ... accept it quite as easily as you."

"I have to accept many things.  Don't make the mistake of thinking I
enjoy it."  Itsuko looked up hotly; but Sadako was no longer paying any
attention to her.  "You said it was _not_ the new Mars?" she said to
Artemis.

Artemis stirred.  "Er, no.  It was ... ahh, it was Sailor Uranus."

"Uranus?" demanded Itsuko, startled.

Sadako's face became very still for a moment.  At last she said, "Ah.
That would be your great-granddaughter's doing, I suppose?  How very
enterprising of her."

"Umm, yes ... she was there, but she ran for it when I arrived."

"Your family relations are not really my concern."  Sadako almost looked
as if she were suppressing a smile, but it was hard to tell.  "What _is_
your problem?"

Artemis took a deep breath.  "Are you going to want to take command of
her?  The Outer Senshi have always been, well, almost a separate group,
usually taking their orders from you.  I mean --"

"I know what you mean."  Sadako cocked her head in thought.  "It won't
be necessary.  That role for the Outer Senshi is no longer required.  Go
ahead and take her into your group."

"What?"  From his surprised look, Itsuko realised that he'd been hoping
for this, but hadn't expected to get it so easily.  "I mean ... are you
sure?  The Outer Senshi --"

Sadako shrugged.  She was definitely smiling now.  "If there were a
Sailor Moon you could ask her, of course.  She would have the ultimate
authority."

Itsuko glared at her suspiciously.  "Is that some kind of hint?  Damn
it, why can't you ever just come out and say what you mean?  Is there
going to be a new Sailor Moon or not?  Or did Serenity manage to send
herself forward somehow?"

Sadako shook her head.  The smile was gone.  "If you want predictions,
try a fire reading.  Don't ask me to be your oracle.  The future is too
delicate a web for me to risk that way.  You know that."

"Yeah, that's what you always say," Itsuko grouched.  "But you're still
the one who can pop forward whenever you want and see what things are
going to be like.  Do you call that protecting your 'delicate web'?"

"I call it irrelevant."  Sadako's tone was cold.  "I am no longer able
to travel in time."

"What!"  Itsuko and Artemis stared at her.  "What happened?" asked
Artemis, horrified.

"The Gate of Time is sealed.  I no longer hold my talisman.  I am bound
in time now, just as you are."

"But ... how?  Why?" asked Itsuko.

Sadako sighed.  "The Fall had many repercussions.  Some of them were far
worse than this.  You might consider the loss of the Ginzuishou, for
example.  In any case, I do retain some abilities.  I still see the
probabilities, the branching of the world-lines.  I can still choose
paths, with some difficulty.  But I am undeniably ... less than I was."

Itsuko said hesitantly, "So ... you don't know how all this is going to
end up?  What the future's going to be like, this time?"

Sadako's expression was grim.  "I know how it _must_ end up.  If it does
not, there _is_ no future.  But the path ..."  She shook her head
slowly.  "The path is unclear.  The world-lines are blurring.  I can see
only a little way."

"But --"

She stood up suddenly.  "Enough.  Artemis has his answer, and you have
... perhaps more than was wise.  I must go."  She started toward the
door.

"Wait!" cried Artemis.  Sadako looked back.  "At least tell us where
you're staying," Artemis suggested.  "Where can we contact you, if
necessary?"

Sadako smiled.  "Don't worry.  I'll be seeing Itsuko again, before very
long."  She closed the living-room door behind her.

The cat and the woman stared at each other for a long moment.  "Well,"
said Artemis at last.  "That was --"

"Wait," said Itsuko suddenly.  "Wait a minute."  There was one more
thing she had to say to ... to Sailor Pluto.  One more thing, something
that she'd been thinking about for quite a few years now.

She opened the door and ran after Sadako, catching up with her just as
the taller woman was opening the door into the stairwell.  Sadako raised
her eyebrows as Itsuko ran up, but did not speak.

Itsuko took a deep breath.  "We always used to wonder about you," she
said.  "How it must feel, just ... surviving on like that.  I mean,
you've never said how long you've been -- doing what you do -- but ..."
She fumbled for the words.  "It's just ... after the last seven hundred
years ... I think maybe I have an idea what it must be like for you.  I
just wanted to say that."

"Seven hundred years?"  Sadako's expression was unreadable.  Then she
shook her head.  "Wait twenty times as long again.  Then you can tell me
that."

Itsuko stared at her.  "That's how old you are?"

"No.  But it will give you an idea of the perspective."  Sadako closed
the door behind her, and was gone.


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


Suzue walked home slowly.  She felt dazed.  She had spent the last hour
at the house of Sharma Dhiti ... who it seemed was Sailor Mercury.  The
real Sailor Mercury, not a fake after all.

And she had been talking to Hayashi Miyo, who was Sailor Jupiter.
Another legend brought to life.

And earlier at the theatre, she had unmistakably met Artemis.  _The_
Artemis.

And they had told her that she was one of them.

This was all impossible.  Unthinkable.  Dreadfully wrong.

[What do I do now?] she thought, bewildered.  [Oh, Mother, what am I
supposed to do now?]

She walked up the path to her front door and let herself inside quietly.
She almost forgot to remove her shoes; that was how confused she felt.
She went through to her room, nodding to her parents as she passed the
family room.

At the door of her room she hesitated.  Then she left it, unopened, and
went on to the door at the end of the passage, and into the family
shrine.

It was small and simple, as was fitting.  Theirs was a small and humble
faith.  She bowed to the altar, dipped her finger in the little bowl of
oil, and sketched the sacred mark, the crescent, on her forehead.  Then
she knelt down before the altar and tried to pray.

It was no good.  The words wouldn't come.

She raised her eyes to the painting on the wall above the altar, the
painting of her goddess.  And in her heart she cried out to her:

[Oh, blessed Lady Serenity -- oh, holy Mother -- what am I supposed to
do _now_?]


------------------------------------------------------------------------
     S   A   I   L   O   R       M   O   O   N       4   2   0   0
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                E N D   O F   C H A P T E R   S E V E N
------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEXT:  A conspiracy is unmasked; so is a Senshi; and a training session
goes horribly wrong ...



------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author's Notes
------------------------------------------------------------------------
And so we reach the one-third mark in this story.  Seven chapters down,
fourteen to go.

It wasn't intended to be this big when I started.  I began with a very
simple idea: what if Crystal Tokyo didn't last nearly as long as nearly
everyone expects it to?  The usual assumption seems to be that once CT
is founded everyone will live happily ever after.  There are exceptions,
of course, and a few series have shown a CT that is hardly a paradise.
But still, Utopia or not, CT is generally held to be the endpoint.

But, I thought, what if Crystal Tokyo was destroyed?  Perhaps the story
would have to begin all over again.  Some of the faces might be new, and
some of them might be the same old ones, reborn yet again.  A fresh
start, in a distant future that's a mixture of familiar and strange.
(And in this chapter, we finally get a glimpse of how and why that
future was shaped.)

Where does it go from here?

Well, the enemy behind the Serenity Council still hasn't quite shown its
face ... and there's still the mystery of who or what destroyed Crystal
Tokyo in the first place.  A lot of questions (though not all) will be
answered in chapter 9, when the story of the Great Fall is finally told.
>From there, the story continues to build up to a climax in chapter 12,
and thereafter takes a change in direction, developing toward the
ultimate confrontation with the Enemy.

A few miscellaneous notes:

-- Probably my biggest regret on writing this is that in most cases I
   was not able to choose character names with the same level of meaning
   that Naoko Takeuchi did.  A few characters do have names that were
   picked for a reason, but in general where someone has a particularly
   appropriate name, this is accidental.

-- It's an unfortunate coincidence that the name of Third Tokyo sounds
   rather like the Tokyo-3 of "Neon Genesis Evangelion".  But I was
   writing about Third Tokyo before I ever saw my first episode of NGE;
   a coincidence is exactly what it is.  ("Second Tokyo," if you were
   wondering, was Crystal Tokyo itself.)

-- I've mentioned computer storage devices called "MS-readers" and
   "MS-chits" once or twice in the story.  I just want to emphasise that
   "MS" stands for "Mass Storage," and not a certain software company.

-- These chapters seem to be getting longer and longer.  I'm sorry.  I'd
   like to say they're going to drop back to a more reasonable length,
   but I can't.  (I thought this one was going to be relatively short,
   and it ended up the longest to date!)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Comments to:
    macspon@ihug.co.nz
Sailor Moon 4200 web-page:
    <http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~macspon/fanfic/sm4200.html>

Thanks to my pre-readers, Sandy Drobic and Bob Schroeck.
Draft version:  3 October, 1998.
Release version: 10 October, 1998.