[This one will need some explanation.]

[A while ago, a group of very talented authors gathered together and
declared themselves the Fanfic Revolution, dedicated to the prospect that
Sailor Moon fanfic (and particularly Sailor Moon hentai fanfic) did not have
to suck.  For a variety of reasons that seemed like a good idea at the time,
I had to turn down their invitation to join.]

[And then Adam Jones, a member of the Revolution wrote a story entitled
"Desperately Wanting", which ended very ambiguously.  So his colleague,
Erica Friedman, wrote a continuation, "Pandemonium".  And their colleague
who writes under the alias Sailor Chibi Kamen wrote a conclusion to the
story, "Downward Spiral".]

[And I *hated* the conclusion.  Loved the story, hated the ending.  So I
went to the Revolution, and begged them to let me in so that I could with
good conscience implement my own solution to the problem at hand.]

[And they graciously consented to let me try, and now there are seven
members of the Fanfic Revolution instead of six.]

[So.  In order to understand what the heck is going on here, you'll have to
go to http://come.to/hauthor and read the stories under the "Group Pojects"
heading, collectively titled "Desperately Wanting".  Just a warning, the
first story is a lemon and the entire series is fairly dark.]

[When you get done, then you can read this one.]

                               Racing Time

                     An Inevitable Outcome Production
                           In Association With
                          The Fanfic Revolution


	With an anguished wail, the princess raced to the emaciated corpse 
that hung by its own hair.  While the young priest stared in shock, she 
fumbled with the black rope that encircled the ivory throat.  The 
long-cool, limp body fell, its neck frozen at an odd angle.  Eyes that
once shone with life stared back, dull.  Tears streamed down Usagi's face, 
unchecked.  "Rei ... Rei, please, don't die!  Don't die ... please ..." 
Her voice cracked, trailing off.  "Nnoooooooooooooo!"  She hugged her 
beloved fire close, rocking back and forth, willing her to come back.  Her
crescent moon began to glow.

	The princess' grief was felt by all, and they mourned with her.

	After a few moments, and after a few moments more in which 
Yuuichirou gently extricated the corpse from her arms and left to call the 
authorities, she sat in the room alone.
	
	And grief mixed with guilt.

	<I want to run away and hide,> she thought.

	And then the vision filled her mind once more, contrasting the 
sights of Rei resting in her arms, Rei screaming in hatred at her, and 
Rei's empty eyes looking down at her ...
	
	<I can't,> she thought.
	
	Slowly, painfully, she came to her feet.  For a moment she lifted 
her eyes to where Rei had hung ... and turned and ran out the doorway.
	
	Once upon a time, Tsukino Usagi had unwittingly broken speed 
records as she dashed to school.  On this day, she broke her own record.
	


	The other musicians had been baffled by Hotaru-chan's sudden 
breakdown after the recital's conclusion, but the polite yet stony 
attitude of the tall woman she called "mama" had prompted them to give 
them both space.
	
	As Setsuna held her weeping foster child in her arms, she quietly 
berated herself for not seeing this possibility sooner.  No one could see 
all of time, no.  But just as SHE had blamed herself, ultimately, for not 
seeing through the disguise sooner, Setsuna chose to bear the guilt for 
not thinking to look for a tragedy.
	
	<And so there remains only one final act.>
	
	She heard the pounding of the feet seconds before the princess 
burst through the door, her hair mussed by the speed of her passage, and 
her breath coming in gasps.  "Setsuna-san," Usagi said in a voice that she 
probably intended to be a shout but which became a croak instead.
	
	"No," Setsuna replied calmly.

	Usagi drew in a deep breath, and continued in a more normal tone.  
"You *have* to let me go back and fix this!  I can't ... she ... she was 
in the future!  She was in Crystal Tokyo!  But --"
	
	"She *was*.  She's not anymore."  Setsuna looked down at Hotaru, 
whose tears had ceased to flow with as much force as earlier.  She gently 
let go of the girl, stood up and turned to look at Usagi with a calm, firm 
expression.  "I told you, then, that the future was always in motion, and 
that you would have to work to make that future a reality.  You have 
failed, and now there will not be a Sailor Mars in Crystal Tokyo."
	
	"But there were four senshi generating that force field!  If she's 
not there, who --"
	
	"I don't know.  Perhaps it will be Uranus or Neptune.  Perhaps it 
will be Saturn.  Perhaps another senshi will rise to take her place.  I do 
not know.  But what is, is."
	
	"No!   I won't accept that!  I refuse --"
	
	"Princess," Setsuna addressed her formally, "what you are doing is 
a normal part of grieving.  But I cannot permit you to willfully change 
history.  Will you go back and fix every mistake that you ever made?
	
	"No, just this one!  Just the worst mistake I've ever made!  
Please, Setsuna-san!  Help me save her!"

	"You don't know what you're asking.  You --"
	
	"I am *not* asking!" Usagi screamed.  "I am the Princess of the 
Moon!  You are one of *my* senshi!  You *will* do what I tell you!  Now 
send me back in time!"

	"No," Setsuna said quietly.
	
	Usagi stared at her, as her obvious grief and guilt began to mix 
with a new, third emotion.  Anger.
	
	<So be it,> Setsuna mused.  <She can be as angry with me as she 
likes, it will not -->
	
	And then the future became impossibly dark and grim, and Setsuna 
knew that she had only a second to prevent it.  "No," she whispered and 
reached out to grab ahold of the girl's shoulders --
	
	"Fine!" Usagi yelled, jerked back and ran out of the room as fast 
-- no, faster -- than she had entered it.
	
	"No!" Setsuna said aloud, as she pulled out her transformation pen 
and began to dash after her.
	
	"Setsuna-mama, what's wrong?" Hotaru asked as she tried to keep up 
with her.
	
	"Everything!" she snapped as she saw Usagi run into the stairwell 
and begin heading up the stairs.  Heading after her, she quietly cursed 
the luck that Hotaru's recital had taken place in her school.
	
	For, as with virtually every school building in the greater Tokyo 
area, some enterprising student had figured out how to unlock the door at 
the top of the stairwell to the roof.  And hadn't bothered to lock it 
again after the end of the day.
	
	As Setsuna burst through the door, Usagi had already climbed over 
the railing.  As the emerald-haired soldier of time took a step towards 
her, Usagi extended her arms so that she leaned backwards over the edge.  
"One step and I jump!" she snapped.
	
	Setsuna froze.  "Usagi-chan," she said, *very* calmly, "this is 
inappropriate.  Killing yourself will not bring Rei back --"
	
	"I have two choices," Usagi interrupted.  "I can either fix the 
mistake that I made, or I can make it worse by doing this.  Which are you 
going to help me to do?"
	
	"This blackmail is unbecoming of someone who claims to be a 
princess!"
	
	"Fine!  I'm not a princess.  I'm a miserable, selfish, dishonest, 
cowardly wretch who wound up killing my best friend -- my *LOVER* -- 
because I couldn't handle how I felt about her!  If I can't make amends 
for that, somehow, how can I possibly rule Crystal Tokyo?  What are you 
going to do, Setsuna-san?  WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?"
	
	Meiou Setsuna closed her eyes.
	
	Sailor Pluto opened them.
	
	"All right," she whispered.  "You win.  I will send you back in 
time a month and a day.  You will have *one* chance to make this right.  
And whether you can or cannot, when you return, you must face the 
consequences of your actions."
	
	Sailor Pluto lifted her staff, and then drove its blunt end into 
the roof.  And there was thunder.
	
	"The gate is open," she said, and her voice seemed to resonate as 
she did.
	
	"Where is it?" Usagi asked, as she felt her arms begin to tremble 
at the strain of holding herself steady.
	
	"Behind you."
	
	And Usagi turned her head just slightly, and saw that, indeed, the 
gate was a few feet behind and below her.  To reach it, she would have to 
jump.
	
	She closed her eyes, whispered Her name, and let go of the 
railing.
	
	And fell into the gate.
	
	As before, she felt a sensation somewhere between flying and being 
pulled inexorably forward, and she could not feel duration at all.  The 
only sound was her own heart beat.
	
	It ended.
	
	She blinked and realized that she stood at the very bottom of the 
steps of the shrine.  Above, grey grim clouds crept closer to the earth, 
as the dying light of day caressed the autumn leaves.  Usagi gasped as she 
felt the heat once more ... the same heat as on that night, a month ago.
	
	With that realization, she ran once more.  Her legs screamed with 
the pain of her third mad dash of the day, for she had always been a 
sprinter, not a long-distance runner.  She ignored them.  She had to be at 
the top of these stairs, and she had to be there now.
	
	She took the last three in a prodigious leap that would have been 
the envy of Minako, and dashed forward.  And all at once she could run no 
more, and all but collapsed as she lowered her head between her legs and 
tried to keep her stomach from emptying.
	
	"Usagi?" she heard that voice ... oh that sweet, sweet voice ... 
ask in tones of puzzlement and confusion.
	
	And she realized that she didn't have the first idea what to tell 
her, or even how to look in her eyes.
	
	"Rei-chan," she said between gasps.  "You ... I ... you ..."
	
	"What's wrong?" the voice asked, confusion turning to concern.
	
	There was only one possibility.  "Rei-chan," she said quietly.  
"Mamo-chan is coming, here.  To see you."
	
	She saw the hand reaching out to touch her face stiffen.  "Why 
would Mamoru-san come --"
	
	"That doesn't matter.  Rei-chan ... I trust you.  I ... I trust 
you completely.  Whatever you do ... I know you don't do it to hurt me.  
But ... but when he comes, tell him to take off his mask!"
	
	"What?" Rei asked as concern surged back to confusion.  "Usagi ... 
I don't understand ... why would --"
	
	"Just tell him that he's wearing a mask, and that he should take 
it off!" Usagi yelled.  She *couldn't* face those impossibly dark eyes 
again.  And so she turned and ran away, hearing Rei call her name once 
more.  
	
	Down the steps, moving faster and faster, until at last she 
stumbled and fell.
	
	Through the gate that opened before her.
	
	Again, flight.  But this time it ended in a sudden stop as she 
slammed into the ground.  A moment passed as she regained her wind, gazing 
down at the concrete surface of the school roof.
	
	She lifted her head to gaze at Setsuna and Hotaru -- no, at Pluto 
and Saturn, who looked at her with calm, unrevealing expressions.
	
	"Did it work?" she whispered.
	
	And after a long moment, Pluto answered.  "Yes.  It worked.  Rei 
demanded that `Mamoru' take off his mask, and `he' did ... revealing that 
she was Usagi.  They quarreled, and many hurtful things were said.  But 
the action that led to the tremendous guilt which killed another Hino Rei 
never took place, and so she lives.  The rift between her and her princess 
is slowly healing.  They are together tonight."
	
	Usagi closed her eyes, and whispered a quiet "Thank goodness" ... 
and then realized the paradox.  "Together, tonight?" she asked aloud.
	
	"Yes.  Because Usagi never had cause to come racing to this 
building and make demands of me that she backed up with a threat to take 
her own life."  Pluto was silent.  "Our princess is with those she loves.  
And you ... you are a pretender to her throne."
	
	And all at once, Usagi realized why Saturn wore her senshi 
uniform.
	
	"I'm sorry, Usagi-san," Saturn whispered as she readied her 
glaive.
	
	Usagi slowly came to her feet, and looked up at the moon in the 
sky and the earth all around her for the last time.
	
	It was a world with Rei in it.  A world where Rei knew that she 
loved her.  A world that she had raced against time, death, and her own 
failings to create.
	
	"I'm not," Tsukino Usagi replied.
	
	And with a silent cry, Saturn launched her attack.
	

                          And if the music stops
                    There's only the sound of the rain
                          All the hope and glory
                        All the sacrifice in vain
                             If love remains
                        Though everything is lost
                          We will pay the price
                      But we will not count the cost

                                                   -- "Bravado", by Rush
	
	
	The mystery of the strange lights on top of the school was never 
solved.
	
				The End
				

	For Adam, Erica, and Kas, and the rest of the H-Author list.  No, 
you're not chopped liver.

	Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and brought to North 
America by DiC, MixX Publications, and Pioneer Enterprises.  This story, 
incorporating characters and situations held under copyright by others, is 
copyright 1999 of Chris Davies.
	
	Nobody Sue Me Okay?

Chris Davies, Advocate for Darkness, Part-Time Champion of Light.
"Get yo' hands off'n mah Utena!" -- Shinohara Wakaba, Revolutionary Girl
Utena, "For Friendship, Perhaps" (dub)
Fanfics: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/banks/277/index.html
Fanfic Revolution: http://come.to/hauthor/