Mina's head bobbed back and forth as she watched Raye pacing across the 
room. Raye's clothes had been doffed-and now lay in the corner of the 
room-for her temple robes. She was collecting various paraphernalia and 
packing it in a satchel that lay on the floor.

"I hope this is enough," she said.

"Enough for what?" Mina asked.

Her question went unanswered as Raye remembered something. She rushed to 
the fire room and grabbed some blank wards.

"I need to be ready," she said.

Nothing more was said so Mina decided to interpret Raye's words as an 
answer. Raye was moving past her again so she grabbed the priestess' 
wrist. Raye snapped out of whatever she was in.

"Where are going?" Mina asked more concerned now than dubious.

"To the train station," Raye said quickly. She tried to leave again but 
Mina jerked her back.

"Where on the train?"

Raye looked around, her eyes darting back and forth as if she was trying 
to read the answer she needed off the back of a buzzing fly. Then she 
looked back at Mina with a smile that seemed a little to manic to be 
assuring.

"Let's find out," was all she said before tugging Mina off to the 
station.

When they arrived, Raye strode straight up to the ticket booth.

"How far does this train go? South?" she asked.

"Kumamoto, Kyushu," the man inside said without looking up. That book 
sure must've been important, Mina noted. But if Raye was upset over his 
lack of enthusiasm, she cared about as much as he did.

"Round trip, please," she said.

Mina tried to protest again. "Raye, what are you doing? You can't go all 
the way to Kyushu."

Raye paid the man--who still hadn't looked up to see who he was 
serving--actually thanked him, then started for the platform.

"What are you talking about? School's out for a while, this is the 
perfect time to go." She adjusted her satchel to the other arm.

"That's not what I mean and you know it."

Living up to it's name as it pulled into the station like a round being 
cocked in a gun, the bullet train hissed as the doors opened. Raye 
looked as if she was going to start throwing the disembarking 
passengers, just so she could board that much sooner.

"What about the others, what will you do about them?"

"Just tell them where I'm going," she said as she pushed past the last 
person and flashed her ticket to the conductor. Mina tried following.

"Your ticket, miss?" he said to her as Raye moved down the aisle.

She ignored him. "But you don't even know where your going," she called 
after her friend.

She was asked for her non-existent ticket again and left the cab. The 
door whooshed closed behind her as she stepped back on to the concrete. 
As she watched her reflection mottle on the polished steel as each car 
pulled past silently on their magnetic cushion, she saw the train more 
as a receding rocket--minus the fiery tail--than what it was. An alien 
rocket, having stolen Raye from Tokyo, never to return. As it drew 
father away accelerating to its limit of 260 km/h, she wouldn't have 
been surprised to watch the train lift up from the track and start 
heading for the edge of the atmosphere and beyond.

She finally left the station as the train disappeared into the tunnel, 
arms hung, head drooped, and heels dragging.

-S----------M----------D-

"Well that was interesting," Callisto said as he watched the image of 
the blond girl leaving the station.

Chaos said nothing. He had never known the Sailors to suddenly divide 
their forces. In all the accounts he had received in the last five 
years, nothing had separated them. He found it unsettling. Despite his 
namesake, he preferred a little order once in a while; it made killing 
his enemies that much easier.

He shifted the view to the girl on the train. Where *was* she going, and 
how would it affect his plans? Not one for endless internal debate, he 
decided to find out.

"Callisto," he said, his voice being amplified by the room before it 
could be quashed.

"Hai?" The soldier turned, his chin supported by one hand, that hand's 
elbow supported by the other.

"I want you to make preparations to go to Earth."

"After her?" he inquired using his chin hand to jerk a thumb at the girl 
on display.

Chaos made an evil smile. "No. The others. See how well they can handle, 
their numbers reduced."

"Hai, Chaos-sama," Callisto said, bowing again but sharing the smile. He 
was almost a complete antithesis to Chaos, except for a shared passion 
for all the ways they could draw blood.

-S----------M----------D-

Three pairs of hands slammed atop the table holding up three bodies 
while three pairs of eyes stared uncomprehendingly at a fourth.

"She went *where?*" three voices asked at once.

"Down to Kyushu," Mina said quietly.

Lita and Amy sat back down, tucking their knees back under the pinewood 
table in Raye's room. Mina had called them over there despite the fact 
that Raye was probably past Kyoto by now.

Serena wasn't so quick to rest. Yet instead of whining, she got really 
angry. "What the hell does she think she's doing? All we need now is 
another enemy to show up and--"

Lita stopped her in mid-sentence. "An enemy? Serena, our powers haven't 
been used in almost two years. You know why? Because there are no more 
enemies to fight."

Serena turned on her comrade. "You say that now," she said poking her 
finger at Lita, "but just wait. I'll bet this is part of a new enemy's 
ploy."

Mina and Amy looked at each other wide-eyed. A new enemy was always a 
possibility. Could Raye's sudden pilgrimage be a foreshadowing? And, 
more importantly, could Serena be *that* intuitive?

Lita stood. Serena stood as well--though certainly not to match. Her 
friend, who had towered over her to begin with, had grown taller in the 
last two years bringing her to five-feet-nine.

"Care to put your purse on that? Oh, I forgot, you still hafta feed your 
face tomorrow."

Serena turned red with anger. She jammed a fist into the pouch of her 
overalls and extracted two crisp, folded bills.

"Two thousand," she said defiantly and threw the bills on the table.

"I'll see that." Lita said and grabbed her wallet, pulling out an 
identical pair of brown bills from amongst the many.

"Just wait, were going to be attacked tomorrow."

"Thank you, Amy said pocketing the money. "I'll hold onto that, if it 
means you two will calm down."

"Fine," Serena said sitting down.

"This is going to turn out to be nothing," Lita said.

-S----------M----------D-

<I hope this won't turn out to be nothing,> Raye thought as the train 
crossed onto Kyushu Island. She hadn't slept all night, yet she felt 
more energised than when she had left Tokyo. When the train pulled into 
the station at Kumamoto twenty minutes later, she was pushing the door 
open just to leap onto the platform ahead of everyone else.

She looked out from the hill she was on. Kumamoto looked completely 
untouched by hand of modernisation. In a valley framed by mountains 
growing deciduous trees and the occasional patch of bamboo, the town 
looked to be more grown itself father than built. Most of the houses 
looked like they dated back to the Meiji era. Only a few of the 
residences had property walls, the rest were either standalones or 
tracts of one-room danchi apartments. It would have been like a page 
from a history book if not for the train station; it only reason for 
being here was to transport the few people who worked in Honshu or to 
bring in the tourists to the ryokan inn and resort on the far mountains. 
Raye would have found it simply breathtaking if not for one nagging 
thought: <What now?>

And again she was answered. Exploding out of the ground in front of her 
was a burst of flame ten feet high. At this point however, Raye had been 
expecting it. The flame raced out along the streets leaving a burning 
trail in its wake.

She had lost sight of it as it wound through the buildings and was 
cursing for not following if immediately when, suddenly, another 
fireball plumed from the mountain beside the resort. When she peered 
into the centre of the preternatural blaze, she could see the 
distinctive shape of a Torii gateway, which she interpreted as: go to 
the temple.


-S----------M----------D-

Callisto finally materialised above Tokyo. It wasn't that he expected to 
make the two hundred thousand light-year jump that quickly, but space 
travel was always so boring.

<No matter,> he thought. <The real fun will soon begin.>

He descended onto an island in the middle of a lake in one of Tokyo's 
parks. In the background, he could hear cicadas chirping for enjoyment 
of the park's visitors. He snared the closest one he could with an 
energy string, clenched it in his fist and used his thumb to crush it 
windpipe.

"God, it'll be good to destroy this planet," he mused, dropping the 
bird. "But, first thing's first."

He leapt up about thirty feet so he could gaze into he cityscape beyond 
the park grounds, hoping to glimpse the Sailor Soldiers one more time 
before he killed them. His hair and clothes started to flutter about, 
blown by a wind produced only for him. His breathing became ragged as he 
collected his energy around him. With a cry, he started blasting the 
island with a pillar of jaundice yellow light. His limbs and cape were 
blown backwards when the pillar struck.

A shockwave tore at the water causing high waves, drenching the 
shore-side picnickers. When the spied the man in the middle of the lake, 
they leapt up and ran leaving their belonging behind.

With a final grunt, a skin of Callisto's soul tore off his body and he 
dumped the last of the energy he'd collected on his trip into the 
island. The wind died down and the island crackled before the light 
faded.

Callisto's eyes widened and a manic, toothy grin spread across his face, 
contorting his feature into a demon-like visage.

"Now rise," he commanded the lump of earth. "Rise, Golem Cyclops!" He 
broke into a fit of psychotic laughter.

The features of the small island started to pull together as if the 
ground was being into a storm drain. The whirlpool continued pulling in 
mud from below the surface until it coalesced into a single feature. In 
place of the island an eye opened. Displacing gallons of water a second, 
the golem rose ten feet, forty feet, ninety feet into the sky.

As Callisto pulled back to admire his creation with the smile of a child 
in a candy store, a bull in a china shop, and Ryoga having found the 
Tendo dojo, the golem opened its mouth with a wet sucking sound and 
howled at the sky.

-S----------M----------D-

Lita, who was reclining with a Diane Mott Davidson book, sat up bolt 
straight when she heard a cry--a sound like a shot elephant, an air raid 
siren, and a hungry T-Rex all being blasted through a 2000-watt 
sub-woofer--and rushed to the window of her apartment.

The apartment block she lived in was nothing special. Two floors, homes 
on one side, businesses on the other, and not even painted--save the 
doors--but the cinderblock construction kept the place relatively warm 
and cool when she needed it. She could have afforded better--much better 
in fact--but she liked the view of the nearby park. As a tidal wave 
rushed towards her however, she began to rethink her decision.

Slamming the window shut as fast as she could and pressing her whole 
weight against the glass, she hopped to stave off the wall of water. 
When the wave hit, the whole building shook with its force. The window 
glass rattled and the frame groaned with both pressures, deciding which 
way to yield.

"Not going to happen," she told the window. "Not going to *fucking* 
happen!"

When the wash died and Lita stood back up what she saw coming from the 
lake both chilled her bones and electrified her soul. She rushed out to 
the upper level walkway to make sure no one had put a movie screen in 
front of her window.

Her building was one of a pair arranged facing each other across a 
parking lot. Most of the cars had been pushed from their spaces and a 
few were strewn into the street. Her car, fortunately, was parked in the 
underground garage, though she suspected it might be a little 
waterlogged right now. As it was, the two apartments across from 
her--the ones closest to the lake--had been nearly demolished. Giving a 
weak smile, she said, "Thanks," to the camera, [You're welcome--Ed.] and 
rushed back inside.

Kicking aside some of the bric-a-brac that had fallen over when the wave 
hit, Lita rushed to her room and went straight for her closet. Reaching 
to the back, she pulled out an old hope chest that had belonged to her 
mother. Digging inside her pocket, she extracted a ring of keys and, 
finding the right one, unlocked the chest. Lifting the top, she pulled 
out a tinted glass-covered case that held her henshin stick and 
communicator. A few of the others may have still carried with them, but 
she figured that with their disuse in the past while--and the fact that 
she had almost dropped her henshin stick down the garbage 
disposal--they'd be much safer back here. Now, she was just glad that 
she was caught at home instead of halfway across the city.

Grabbing the communicator, she opened a frequency to every Sailor that 
could hear her.

"Oh, God. I never thought I'd be saying this again," she said 
breathlessly. When she heard the electronic beeps signalling that others 
were reporting to the communication, she shouted into the two-way 
speaker, "Alert! I repeat, this is a Sailor Alert! I need everyone who 
can get to my place immediately! You'll know why when you get here and 
yes, I know I owe you two thousand yen, Serena!"

She closed the communicator without bothering for replies. Dropping the 
communicator into her pocket, she bent down to retrieve something she 
now realised was never worth packing away.

"Jupiter Crystal Power! Make up!"

-S----------M----------D-

Raye left her satchel in the room she was given so she never heard the 
telltale beep of her communicator.

"I'm so glad you could take time to visit our humble temple," the priest 
said as they walked down the main pathway towards the shrine. Raye 
plucked a leaf from one of the bamboo stalks and twirled it in her 
fingers.

"Actually," she said, "this is not really a visit. Rather, I 
was...compelled to come here."

"Ah," the priest said clasping his hands together. "You're here because 
of the flame."

Raye stopped suddenly and turned to the priest. "How do you know about 
the flame?"

"It's in the shrine. Let me show you," he replied except he was talking 
to air since Raye was running for the shrine, her gari clacking loudly 
against the stone.

Nearing the shrine Raye stopped again. Now she felt something else 
tugging at her, wanting to draw back to Tokyo. What was going on?

The priest caught up to her, though a slight out of breath. He adjusted 
his white robe. "The shrine is this way, Hino-san."

She shook her head. Right, the shrine, the visions; that's only why she 
was here for crying out loud.

At the doorway, she removed her gari and padded into the hall. It looked 
no different than any other sacred place. Folding screens and colourful 
tapestries--some of which seemed to be more than three hundred years 
old--adorned the polished pine walls. Some tatami mats covered identical 
flooring. The only difference was the long red carpet that led to a 
large fire in the centre of the room.

"The carpeting was put here near the turn of the century when more 
European explorers started travelling to Japan." The priest was no doubt 
reciting a speech planned for tourists. "Most of the ornaments and the 
shrine itself however, have been here since the fire began burning, over 
a thousand years ago."

"One thousand years?" Raye repeated. So much for three hundred.

"Yes. A magical flame. It requires no wood to keep it burning and, 
though some have tried, it cannot be extinguished."

"A flame burning for a thousand years..."

"~A thousand years...~" came a voice.

"What was that?" the priest exclaimed.

"~A thousand years of waiting...~"

"Waiting for this day..." Raye offered, her voice almost trance-like.

"~This day...the day I am revived.~"

A single lick of flame pulsed from the fire striking Raye in the chest, 
burning straight into her soul. But she welcomed it like a mother seeing 
her child for the first time.

The priest however panicked. Panicked and froze on the spot, unsure of 
what to do and unable to do it.

The flame receded leaving not so much as a scorch mark on her robe. The 
fire grew, burning faster, and a figure stepped out. The priest 
stiffened even more.

Walking across the floor, yet burning nothing, the flame-filled figure 
stopped directly in front of Raye. Half the perspiration on her face was 
from the impossible apparition before her, the other half from the 
anxiety she felt over what to do.

She saw her arm moving up by itself but didn't do anything to stop it. 
Her palm drew closer to the flaming man and she could feel the heat 
rippling off it, but it was more like the heat of a hot bath, 
comforting, no harmful. She grasped the figure by the arm and at once, 
the fire brushed itself off and disappeared.

What was left behind was a very attractive man. Tall, thin, and with a 
slender face, he wore robes identical to Raye's. His hair was long and 
dark, black but slowly changing to brown in the light from the fire 
behind him, a brown so concentrated it was almost red. The same red--the 
colour of iron--was set into his eyes. Raye hoped the warmth she felt in 
her cheeks was because of the heat; the priest didn't care, he was 
dumbstruck by the sight before him. A man erupting from flames, even if 
he saw it only once in his life, it was once too many.

"Thank you, Mars," he said, his voice deep and beautiful as his face, 
with a bit of a rasp underneath. "I have been encased in that flame for 
a thousand years hoping to see you again one day."

Raye blinked as soon as she digested his words. "Mars?" she asked. "You 
know who I am?"

He nodded slowly, a soft smile on his thin lips.

Suddenly, she felt that tugging again. The man must have felt it too 
because his head snapped in the direction of the sensation. His features 
darkened as soon as realised what it was.

Turning around, he aimed his palm at the fire. It responded by 
collecting together into a floating sphere. Balling his hand into a 
fist, the sphere condensed further until it formed a long, eight-sided, 
red crystal. It flew towards him when he dropped his arm and he caught 
it in his other hand.

A red light formed around him and Raye.

"We have to go," he said.

Before Raye could utter a protest, her satchel materialised in front of 
her and they disappeared through the roof of the shrine.

The priest--having finally gained motor control in his neck--turned to 
look at the empty box with its hanging prayers.

"The eternal flame," he said before he fainted.

-S----------M----------D-

Rising above the temple, rising up until she could see the whole town of 
Kumamoto, they took off faster than Raye believed possible.

"Where are we going?"

"To Tokyo," he said.

"Why? What was that we sensed?"

"Take a look," he said pointing to a globe that formed on the inside of 
the vessel. It crackled red, then produced a picture that showed some 
kind of monster.

"Uh, can we skip the in-flight movie?" she asked flatly.

Saying nothing, he pulled the focus back until she could see the Sailors 
running around. Her eyes widened.

"Oh no. This is happening now?"

He looked out the side of his eye and she had all the answer she needed.

"How long until we get there?" she asked.

"Twenty minutes."

"Not good."

"Can't do better."

"Like hell."

He gave a moment of thought, then ground his teeth together, trying to 
summon more power. Pressing his palms against the barrier, they sped up 
a little. Stepping back, he said, "Fifteen."

"Sumimasen."

"No problem."

She looked at the globe again. "Hang on, guys..."

-S----------M----------D-

"*Fuck!*" Jupiter exclaimed as the golem punched the roof of the 
building. A two-second hesitation and she would have been under its 
fist. She had led it away from her building when it spotted her but that 
proved to be an error since now she was helping it destroy the downtown 
core.

Uranus and Neptune were the first ones to respond followed closely by 
Venus, but they had already suffered injury thanks to the golem.

"If I don't get some help soon--"

"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"

Multiple streams of water flew at the hand that was on the building. 
They splashed across the roof and soaked into the golem's forearm before 
freezing solid.

As Cyclops tried to pull its arm free, Jupiter used the opening.

"Jupiter Oak Evolution!"

Dozens of green energy balls started slamming into the shoulder of the 
golem and Jupiter didn't stop until she had cleaved the arm from its 
socket. Whatever wasn't already frozen on the arm, crumbled to the 
street below.

Mercury landed on a building across the street.

"I owe you," Jupiter said into her communicator.

Mercury smirked and tugged on the boom mike beside her cheek. "I'll 
collect later," she transmitted back.

"Anyone come with you?" Jupiter said, meaning Sailor Moon.

Mercury pointed down the street a little.

"All right," came Sailor Moon's voice. "Time for the heroine to make her 
entrance. I am Sailor Moon, and in the name of the moon--oh, *shit!*"

She was cut off as Cyclops rushed the building like a football player. 
The armless side hit and Sailor Moon was flung forward. Taking a couple 
of bad hops down the other side of the golem, she started to fall to the 
pavement below.

Mercury was ready to drop down--if only to give her life to save to save 
Sailor Moon--when a black blur passed her.

With only feet left between her and oblivion, Sailor Moon closed her 
eyes and prepared for the worst. When she started moving back up again 
she opened her eyes, expecting to see an angel. She saw the next best 
thing.

"Tuxedo Mask," she said.

"Accept no substitutes," he said. "Hang on."

Shifting Sailor Moon into one arm, he used the other to grab a lamppost. 
A couple twists later, they were standing on the sidewalk. She was ready 
to give him a kiss when she had to jump out of the way of some falling 
concrete. They looked up to see the golem push out of the building with 
a new arm, only this one was made from girders and re-bar, concrete and 
electrical cables.

"Don't suppose a rose will stun this one." Sailor Moon said craning her 
neck to look up at the golem.

"Uh uh," Tux agreed.

They ran as Cyclops smashed the pavement with the new fist.

-S----------M----------D-

Raye wanted to smash the image in front of her for all the good it would 
do.

"How long?" she asked again.

"One minute."

She was ready to bite off his head. "They don't have a minute!"

"I can't go faster," he said calmly.

"And I can't wait. Mars Crystal Power! Make up!"

Once her transformation to Super Sailor Mars was complete, the man said, 
"See, you managed to wait fifteen seconds."

"Don't start with me, pal," Mars said, a vein popping over her left eye.

Forty-five excruciating seconds later, she could finally see her 
friends. "All right!" she exclaimed. "Drop me off here."

"You got it." The red bubble disappeared and they started falling.

"One good shot to the head should do it. Mars Flame--"

"Supreme Mars Power! Transform!"

"Huh?" Looking up, Mars saw the man burst back into flames only to have 
them coalesce into armour. She recognised the design but she didn't 
believe it; she almost missed her landing because of it.

Unsheathing a longsword, he held it above his head. More flames burst 
from the hilt, doubling the length of the sword three times over. With a 
short cry, he slashed the sword down between the neck and shoulder of 
the golem. His momentum wasn't enough to cut through; the blade stuck at 
the waist. It was enough to severely hinder the golem however, 
and--dousing the flames--he pulled the sword free and dropped to the 
road.

Sailor Moon stared at his armour and he caught her gaze.

"Princess," he shouted. "Aim for it eye!"

Sailor Moon looked back and forth a couple of times. "You talking to 
me?" she asked pointing a finger at herself.

"Yes. The eye is it's most vulnerable spot."

Sailor Moon looked up and steeled herself against the golem.

"Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss!"

The energy coursed through the golem and in a final howl it 
disintegrated, the dirt and mud smoking away to nothing.

-S----------M----------D-

Callisto glared at the Sailors and the newcomer. How dare they destroy 
his lovely creation?

He was set to go after them when he heard Chaos' voice.

"~Callisto, I'm pulling you back.~"

"But Chaos-sama--"

"~Don't disobey me! Or I'll send another to kill you!~"

"Hai, Chaos-sama."

He thought nothing but murderous thoughts all the way back to Citadel.

-S----------M----------D-

"Prince, it is good to see you again."

Tuxedo Mask removed his top hat and mask at the man's request. "Forgive 
me, but I still don't know who you are."

"Of course, I shouldn't expect you to remember."

Uranus, Venus, and Neptune helped each other to join up with the group.

"Allow me to reintroduce myself." He held his right fist to his heart 
and bowed to one knee. "I am Cato. The general of your forces on Mars."

TO BE CONTINUED...

Author Notes:
Okay, don't kill me. I know that this idea has been done to death, but I 
told myself that come hell or high water, I *would* write this fic. 
Mostly because, if I didn't, the voices would never shut up. ^w^
But I'm hoping I can put a new spin on an old clich�. I had this story 
in development for over a year, since before I joined the FFML, and I've 
done quite a bit of research to make sure it doesn't come out sounding 
unbelieveable. (Hell, I spent a month on coming up with character names)

I chose to use episodes instead of chapters--this was before I knew SMZ 
existed--because I know that it'll give me enough space to go into 
sufficient character development. And the 'D' in SMD is just an 
arbitrary letter, I blindly pressed a key on the keyboard and this is 
what came up. I'll ascribe meaning to it later.

C&C is always appreciated, but don't send me a thousand messages about 
the swearing, it's just the way I write. Ja na.


- Shakudo -
Eternal Worshiper of Makoto Kino, Ukyo Kuonji, and Sayuka Kumashiro
Holder of the files of Ranma Nibun no Usugurami and Sailor Moon D

Email: shakudo@hotmail.com
NEW URL: http://members.tripod.com/Shakudo/main.html

I love the way those cute little anime girls say, "kawaii!"




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