Years before the fall of the Silver Millenium:

	Ruby had a large stack of gold and silver coins on the 
table.  Only his hideous inability to bluff had kept him from 
cleaning out his card companions completely; wise people 
don't play cards with someone who has time powers, even if 
he was better at speeding or slowing time than seeing the 
future.  The Moon Kingdom Lords and Ladies with whom he 
was playing, however, were not aware of this.  Ruby didn't 
consider he was cheating, since his lack of skill counteracted 
a lot of his raw talent.

	The other Guardians, however, had scattered to other 
business.  Several of them were attending on Prince 
Endymion, while the rest, who had never been to the Moon 
Kingdom before, were scattered about the palace with some 
of the Senshi and various nobles, who were showing them 
about.  The lady who would have been Ruby's escort, 
however, had been off on business, although she was 
expected to return soon.  He wondered what Sailor Pluto was 
really like; he'd heard stories, but they often contradicted 
each other.

	Diamond walked in with a lady on his arm, which 
surprised Ruby, as Diamond never seemed to have much luck 
with the ladies.  He didn't try very hard, for that matter.  
She was tall and beautiful, with deep red-purple eyes and 
long green hair.  Man, he's scored a good one, Ruby thought.  

	"Ruby, I'd like you to meet Lady Cassandra," Diamond 
said.  "She was interested in meeting you."

	"A pleasure to make your acquaintance," she said.  
"Hmm, playing Montello?"

	"Yeah," Ruby said.  "Ever played it?"
	
	Several of the lords and ladies looked at each other.

	"Not very much," she said.  "Mind if I join you?"

	"Go right ahead," Lord Patience, a big burly dark-
skinned man, said.  

	"Deal me in," Diamond said, sitting himself between 
Cassandra and Pluto, and grinning fit to die.  This made Ruby 
nervous.

	Cassandra proceeded to begin to bankrupt Ruby.  She 
saw through every bluff, and knew exactly when to fold 
because she couldn't win.  Rather quickly, Ruby concluded 
that Diamond had set him up.  In fact, from the way 
everyone was grinning, they'd all set him up.

	When he was finally wiped out, he said, "You said you 
hadn't played this very much!" to Cassandra.

	She grinned.  "That's because no one will play with me 
because I always win."  Sticking out her hand, she said, "I'm 
Sailor Pluto.  Nice to meet you, Guardian Saturn."

	"Diamond, you fink!"

	Diamond began to laugh.  "If only you could see your 
face!"

	At least I didn't fall for the 'magically conjure the 
cards you need' trick of his this time, Ruby thought.  
"Cheating at cards isn't very nice!"

	"Then why do you use your powers?" she asked, still 
amused.

	"It's good practice."

	"Because he's wretched without them," Diamond said.  
"C'mon, let's go see the fireworks display."

	"I am NOT wretched without them!"  Ruby insisted as 
he tagged along after them.  He turned and bowed goodbye 
to the other card players.  "Thanks for the game, no thanks 
for not telling me I was being CHEATED!"

	"You're a sore loser," Diamond said.

	"I'll make you a sore cheater!"  He chased Diamond 
down the hallway as Cassandra laughed behind them.

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

	Children of Fire
	A Sailor Moon/Ranma Elseworld

	Chapter 10:  Recruitment Drive

	http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/SMR/

	By
	John Biles

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

	Setsuna caught herself moping about losing her staff 
again and frowned.  I need to find something to distract 
myself.  She hadn't been able to focus all day because of 
this.  Even an hour of Bust-A-Move III:  Revenge of the Beat 
hadn't cheered her up.

 	It was symbolic of all her frustrations.  She'd lost half 
her power, her math class was driving her insane, and she 
was in the process of losing her only love.  Why can't I get 
through to him?  Why?  We're destined to be together.  She 
could feel it.  Why is he fighting it so hard?

	She began to cry, curling up on herself on the sofa and 
sobbiing into the endcushion.  I just feel so all alone in this 
house, she thought.  I don't want to be alone.  I spent 
thousands of years watching other people have lives; is it so 
wrong for me to want to have one myself?  Ruby and I hardly 
got to spend any time together before it all came to an end.  

	A hand touched her shoulder, and she started, falling 
off the couch.  It was Ranma, looking very worried.  
"Setsuna, are you okay?"

	"I'm okay," she lied, not able to admit why she'd been 
crying.  She got back on the couch.

	"You're lying," he said, vaulting over it and landing next 
to her.  "I could...I could feel you were in some kind of trouble 
all the way from the donut shop."  He put a large bag of 
donuts on the table.

	"Your father will be mad if he doesn't get his donuts," 
she said faintly.

	"Pop ought to go buy his own donuts anyway," Ranma 
said, hesitantly putting a hand on her shoulder.  "What's 
wrong?"

	"You really...you really knew?" she asked hesitantly.

	"Don't ask me how...I guess it must be my time powers 
or something," he said.  "What's wrong?"

 	"I feel so lonely.  I feel like..."  She couldn't quite bring 
herself to say it.  

	"Yeah, living in this house by yourself must suck 
sometimes," Ranma said.  "Well, I ain't got nothing else to do 
today, so I can hang out with ya for a while before the Senshi 
meeting.  In fact, lemme go get my homework and we can 
work on it together, okay?"

	"Okay," she said faintly, then pulled him back down 
when he started to go.  "But can't you stay just a little 
longer before you...go get your homework?"

	He sat back down.  "Okay.  Wanna play cards?"  Then 
he cocked his head slightly, and laughed.  "Then again, maybe 
that's not a good idea."

	"What?"

	"Don't tell me you've forgotten."

	Her eyes widened and she laughed.  "Well, yes, I do tend 
to win."

	"One of these days, I'm gonna take you to Vegas, and 
then we can both get set up to be rich the rest of our lives."

	She smiled at the thought.  "We could go right now."

	"What?"

	"Sailor Teleport makes for a cheap trip."

	"Geez, you never used to be this...uh...I mean, 
Cassandra generally wouldn't have ever..."  He remembered 
another incident.  "Then again..."

	"I do my duty, but my duty doesn't exclude me having a 
little fun.  I've already done my duty to guard the gate of 
time...this life was supposed to be a vacation in comparison."

	Ahh, I get it, he thought.  You're feeling depressed and 
want to do something fun.  "How about a game of 
badminton?  You've still got the set up in the backyard, 
right?"

	"Okay.  One game of that, and then you go get your 
homework, and we'll work on it."  She got up, feeling a bit 
better.  He knew I needed him, and he came, she thought.  
We DO still have our old bond.  I can win him back.  And I will, 
she thought.  I will.  

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

	"I don't remember how to assume a human form anymore," Luna 
said to Ikuko-neko and Kenji-neko.  "Although it would be handy, 
sometimes.  It was a tricky flip, though."  She racked her brains.  
"Something like..."  She leaped airborne, spinning sideways thrice and
flipping backwards twice in the process.  This made her utterly dizzy,
though she landed on her feet.  A three foot crystal column studded with
gems fell on her a second later, along with several small rods tipped
with gems.  "So THERE'S where I put that karaoke machine..."  Luna
muttered as she crawled out from under it.

	Kenji-neko said, "That's a karaoke machine?"

	"Well, it's the Silver Millenium equivalent.  Orchestra-Crystal.  
Hmm."  she tried to simply think herself human, hoping for a moment that 
she had simply been taking the wrong approach.  This didn't work.  She 
tried to remember what her human form had looked like.  Dark hair and
pale, she was fairly certain.  She started visualizing that, trying to
fill out every detail.  That didn't do it either.

	"Try something else," Ikuko-neko said.

	Luna did a half backflip that spun in the air, leaving her to land 
facing the other direction.  A golden waffle iron appeared.  "Hmm, I
guess that's the spell for summoning waffle irons."

	Ikuko tried it, but messed up the spin, landing face first.
Golfballs rained down on her head.  "It's harder than it looks."

	"Here's an easy one," Luna said.  "It creates a transformation
pen for anyone with supernatural powers in the immediate area.  Of
course, with Ami gone, it probably won't do much, but..."  She did a
simple backflip. Nothing happened.  "As I said."

	"Hmm, could you try doing that by Usagi to see if she's the Moon 
Princess?"

	Luna stared.  "You know about..."

	Ikuko-neko laughed.  "No one ever remembers to keep secrets when 
cats seem to be sleeping near them."

	I suppose sooner or later we'll have to tell Grandpa Hino and
Ranma's father, Luna thought.  "It's worth a try."

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

	"Hey, I've found her!"  Ami said.

	"So quickly?"  Mamoru asked.

	They were over at Setsuna's, where Sailor business could be
transacted without inconvenient parental intrusions.  "Well, she doesn't
have any mystic defenses, so that makes it easy," Ami said.  

	"We shall beard the sorceress in her lair!"  Kunou said.  "Where
is she?"

 	"Hold on, let me signal everyone," Ami said.  "Then we can mount
a rescue mission."

	"Make it quick.  We must needs hurry to her rescue before they 
perpetrate some unspeakable foulness upon her very flesh!"  Kunou said.

	"They will come as quick as they can," Setsuna said.

	"Then may the gods aid them to fly like the wind."

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

 	Yusaku kicked the head off the practice dummy, imagining it to be 
Kyosuke.  Big dummy, he thought.  One of these days, you'll make Hikaru 
so mad she stops protecting you, and THEN...then you'll pay.

	A man walked up to him.  "Not bad.  You look like you're a pretty 
good fighter."  He was tall, with long wavy brown hair, dressed in a nice 
gray suit.

	"I am," he said.  

 	"My name is...  Zai Batsu.  I have a certain interest in martial
arts, as I run a dojo myself.  Where do you train?"

	"Well, I'm in the Karate club, but I've also been training at the 
Hikawa Shrine.  They've got a really good instructor there."

	"Can he do this?"  Zai punched through a solid concrete pillar,
which shattered.

	"Wow!  I've never seen him do that."

	"Would you like to learn how?"

	"Yeah!"  That'd show Kyosuke, Yusaku thought.

	Zai smiled.  "Now, this is what you have to do..."

***********

	Kunzite frowned.  "We're being used."

	Zoicite looked down at the greenhouse they'd set up to trap the 
senshi.  "We're the ones doing the using."  He pointed at Michiru, who 
was hanging from the branches of an apple tree.  "There's the bait, and
we've planted plenty of hooks."

	"What I want to know is why Jadeite couldn't get away from the 
Senshi."

	"He was a fool.  They probably simply blindsided him."

	"Or maybe Tourmaline sold him down the river."

	Zoicite said, "Yes, but she has nothing to do with this plan, so
what does it matter?  Beryl herself told us to do this."

	"Perhaps Beryl sacrificed him for some reason."

	"If Beryl wanted him dead, she would have killed him herself.  Why 
didn't she leave him to their tender mercies?"

	"I don't know, and it's making me paranoid."

	Zoicite kissed Kunzite's cheek.  "Don't worry.  Beryl drained this
one dry of all her useful information, then gave us her so we could lure
the Senshi into a trap.  And that's all.  I already checked her, and she
isn't rigged to explode, so why worry?"

	"I smell a rat."

	"That's my job," Zoicite said.  "Stick to what you know."

	"What I know is that I don't trust this."

	"Now, now.  We can't lose.  If they rescue her, I can track her
life force to their base.  If they lose, we capture them.  What could
possibly go wrong?"

	"Too much.  Especially if they have Endymion.  Especially if he
has the Golden Crystal."

	"Beryl still has it.  She took it from his father."

	"It vanished about twenty years ago."

	Zoicite's eyes widened.  "It WHAT?"

	"And even when she did have it...she's so pale because it burnt
off her skin the one time she tried to use it, and Metallia had to give
her new flesh.  The king's dying curse made it poison to her, I think."
He shuddered.  "We should not have killed him."

	"We had no choice.  Light must yield to darkness, so that the
cycle of days may turn.  Summer yields to winter to let the land rest for
the spring to come.  The Silver Millenium had ceased to grow, become
stagnant, but refused to die to make room for new growth.  He was a weed
we had to pull.  We have passed through our winter in the Dark Kingdom.
Now it is time to clear the fields of Earth again, so that they may be
planted with better seed.  And then it will be OUR summer."  Zoicite
squeezed Kunzite's hand.  "Perhaps this time Endymion will understand why
we had to do what we did and join us."

	He shook his head and smiled.  "Usually, I'm the one who has to 
comfort you."

	"Usually, it's because I've done something stupid.  But not
today.  We cannot lose."

	"No plan is ever foolproof.  And we're definitely dealing with
fools."

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

	"But I don't know HOW to transform voluntarily," Mamoru said to 
the serried ranks of transformed people.  "And I only half-remember all 
those things you said I did."

	Luna said, "Well, maybe I can help."  She did an elaborate
backflip, and a mechanical pencil plated with gold and silver with roses
carved in filigree.  "There's a transformation pen for you."

	He picked it up.  "This is a pencil."

 	"But it's your pencil.  See the roses?  That was the sign of the
ruling family of the Golden Kingdom.  Now hold it aloft and  
say...umm...hrmm...I'm not sure."

	Mamoru facefaulted.

	Guardian Uranus said, "I don't remember the Prince HAVING a 
transformation phrase."

	".7 mm lead power?"  Prudence suggested, then laughed.

	"Golden Power," Guardian Saturn suggested.

	"Earth Planet Power," Pluto said.

	"If he turns into Captain Planet..."  Mars began.

	"Silence!"  Kunou bellowed.  "Let him think."

	Kodachi reached over and squeezed his hand.  "You can do it, my 
love."

	"I'm surprised you even wanted to come along on this," Mamoru said 
to her.

	"I want to kill her myself," she replied, smiling in a way that
made him very nervous.  "But my brother is right.  You must listen to the 
stillness within yourself."

 	All were silent, and he quieted his mind, trying to listen for a
clue.  Finally, a voice whispered, 'Earth Planet Power'.  "Earth Planet
Power?"  Winds rushed in, forming a vortex around him, ripping off his
clothing and reforming it.  To his incredible embarrassment, he found
himself in a Sailor uniform, with a black skirt, white top, and black bow
tie.  His eyes widened as he looked down at himself; he was glad that at
least his body hadn't changed to match it.  

	Most of the group began to laugh, while Luna and Kunou both
stared in abject shock.  Saturn laughed so hard he fell down.  Kunou
finally looked down at Luna.  "Remind me never to get your help with
dressing."

	"THAT wasn't supposed to happen!"  Luna said.

	"Probably your magic only makes items for women, Luna," Mercury 
said.  "Just think about going back to normal, Mamoru."

	He thought VERY hard, and quickly his clothing returned to normal.

	"Maybe I can awaken your old self with a kiss," Kodachi said, and 
quickly kissed him before he could protest.  He stiffened as she kissed 
him, and stayed stiff as she pulled away.  She blinked, then frowned.  "Oh 
great, I forgot I was wearing my paralysis lipstick today."

	"Statue Power, Make Up!"  Usagi whispered, giggling.

	"How long is he out for?"  Mercury asked.

	"About an hour," Kodachi and Pluto said in unison.

	Everyone turned and looked at Pluto, who said, "I just had a
feeling.  Really.  Stop staring at me!"

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

	"I scan twelve plants that have been infected with youma energy," 
Mercury said.  "They're placed near all the entrances or near her."

	Everyone hunched around her computer screen to stare at the tiny 
map.  "But where are the youma themselves?"

	"They don't show up," she said.  "They must be relying on the
plants, mostly, though."

	"Guardian Uranus could reshape the glass to be open in the middle, 
giving us a way in and out," Pluto suggested.  "Bypass the main guards 
and go for the center."

	"If I had any clue how," Guardian Uranus replied.  "All I can 
remember are a few simple tricks for getting weapons and clothing."

	"You always made it look easy," Pluto said.

	"Thanks, but I don't know how."

	"That's the way to go, though," Shampoo said.  "Just break glass, 
bypass doors."

	Saturn shook his head.  "There must be some other trap for that.  
They can't possibly be dumb enough to think we wouldn't realize you can 
break the walls of a greenhouse.  Could be mechanical so a check for 
youma energy doesn't find it."

	"We could try teleporting," Mars said.  "Although it would use a lot 
of our energy."

	"I think they've got wards up," Mercury said.  "If we only had
Venus, she could use her light powers through the glass and pick off the
youma from outside."

 	"Or Mercury could fill it with fog, and then Jupiter could conduct 
the electricity through those metal struts that hold the glass, and 
through the fog, and zap them all.  But we don't have Jupiter either,"
Saturn said.

	Prudence stepped forward and said faintly, "I do lightning."

	"Hey, great!"  Saturn said.  "We can zap them all and..."

	"But if we do it like that, we'll zap Michiru too," Pluto said.

	"Oh."

	"Canst thou fill only half the place with your fog, maiden of the 
mists?"  Kunou asked Mercury.

	"Yes.  In fact, I probably couldn't fill the whole thing if I
wanted to."

	"Then we can use that to clear one of the entrances for an
assault."  He looked at the screen.  "The very tree which holds her fast
is one of the plants turned beast?"

	"Yes."

	"I shall deal with that tree while the rest of you deal with its 
deciduous minions.  We can go in, rescue her, then retreat and turn off 
their water supply so they wither as a punishment for their evil."

	"Maybe we could just put weedkiller in their water supply and
turn on the sprinklers," Saturn suggested.

	"Takes too long," Mercury said.  

	Guardian Uranus looked at the building again, then at Mercury's 
computer, then grinned.  "I've got an idea."

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

	From a few blocks away, Zoicite and Kunzite watched the building 
through a scrying crystal they had hidden within it.  They'd glimpsed the 
Sailors peeking in.  For a while, there had been nothing, but then 
streams of water had burst up from amidst the greenery, seemingly from
the ground itself, dousing all of the various youma plants except for the
tree holding their bait.

	"It seems Mercury has gained a remarkable control over her powers 
swiftly,"  Zoicite said.

	"No, those are machines of some kind dispensing the..."

	Then lightning erupted from the metal struts and grounded itself
in the streams of water, and thus in the unfortunate youma plants, all of 
which crisped, turned black, and fell over.  A few seconds later, one of
the doors was kicked in and a man weilding a wooden sword, Sailor Mars,
Sailor Pluto, Guardian Uranus, Guardian Saturn, and two red haired
amazons charged in.  "My aqua tressed goddess, I have come to your
rescue!"

	Michiru woke up and stared in shock.  "Kunou?"

	He charged forward, and the Dark Tree snaked out a branch, 
grabbed him and tossed him into a rosebush.  

	"Uranus, cut her loose while the rest of us keep it busy!"
Saturn shouted, then charged it.  The two Amazons and a returned to the
battle Kunou attacked the tree, holding it off while Uranus began to cut
the vines binding Michiru to the tree with a mini-spatula.  Mars and
Pluto hung back, unable to blast the tree with a clear line of sight and
watching for trouble.  Luna perched on Mars' shoulder, watching her back
for her.

	"Well, this plan has gone south," Zoicite said, frowning.  "How
can they just kill all those poor, innocent plants?"

	"We must strike now.  I've been wanting to test my strength
against theirs," Kunzite said.  "Let us go."

	There was a flash of light, and they appeared in the greenhouse.  
"Injurers of innocent plant life!  I won't forgive you!"  Zoicite 
shouted, becoming so agitated that he turned into a woman again.
"Dammit!  See what you made me do?"

	"INNOCENT?"  Mars asked.  "You turned them into killers!"

	"You want to see killer plants?  I'LL SHOW YOU KILLER 
PLANTS!"  Zoicite put forth her power and infused every plant in the 
place with youma energy, then stumbled from the exertion that took.

 	"Zoicite, no, not like..."  Killer tomatoes grabbed Kunzite,
pulling him down into a mass of green fuzzy vines and sun-ripened red
spheres.

	Pluto managed to leap and avoid a barrage of exploding thorns
from several rose bushes, but her jump meant Mars got hit by them.  She
went flying, shrieking in shock, only to land admidst deadly pansies
which held her down.  

	Saturn got pulled up into the tree's branches where he couldn't
dodge as the tree suddenly grew in power, while Usagi wrestled with the
tree to keep control of her staff and Shampoo found herself tangled in 
swift-growing vines.  

	Uranus cut Michiru loose just in time to get hit in the head by
an exploding pineapple and fall down, stunned.  Michiru looked around 
panickedly, while Kunou took three pots of begonias down for the count.  
"No foul flowering plant shall overcome my power, for I am Tatewaki 
Kunou, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High!"  Lightning stabbed down 
behind him, vaporizing a saguro cactus. 

	I think I may have overdone it a bit, Zoicite thought, waving her
hand and getting the tomatoes to release Kunzite.  "Tomatoes, bring me
the head of....urk..."  A ribbon suddenly tightened around her neck like
a noose, lifting her into the air as she struggled to breathe.  Kodachi,
holding the other end of it, sank down into sight as one of the ceiling
support girders acted as the pulley for this transaction.

	"Surrender now, or your butch little girlfriend gets it," Kodachi
said.

	"Lightning," Kunzite replied.  A bolt of lightning fired from his 
hands, destroying the end of the ribbon Kodachi held and flinging her 
across the greenhouse, right into the embrace of one of the rosebushes,
now turned black by youma energy.  

	Mars ripped loose from the pansies as Kunzite caught the falling 
Zoicite.  "MARS FIRE SOUL!"

	Kunzite snapped his fingers and the gout of flame evaporated a few 
feet from him.  "Not bad.  But not good enough.  This is how you do fire.  
FIRE TORNADO!"  A spinning pillar of flame immolated its way through 
the plants and nailed Mars, who howled in agony as it struck home.  

	Usagi managed to pull Saturn away from the Death Tree, and Pluto 
took it down for the count with a Dead Scream.  The trio soon found 
themselves beset by more angry plants, and unable to come to Mars' aid.  
The sprinklers near Mars kicked in and quickly doused the flames on her.

	Kunou fought his way through to Michiru, just as Uranus got back 
up.  "My sea queen!  Have they harmed you?"

	She stared at the ground, looking ashamed.  "Not much."

	Not much was too much for Kunou.  The insult to his lady and the 
injury to his sister was more than he could bear.  He leveled his sword 
at Kunzite.  "YOU!  This is your fault!  I will slay you for this or die 
trying."

	Kunzite smiled.  "Come and get me."

	"DIE!"  Kunou shouted, charging forward, the plants parting to
let him through.

	"No, Kunou, it's a trick!"  Uranus shouted, recognizing too late
the stance that Kunzite was getting into.

	It was too late.  Kunou's mightiest strike missed as Kunzite
moved to one side and adeptly combined judo with kinetic energy magic to
hurl Kunou further in the direction he was already going, through the
glass, and out into traffic.  Uranus couldn't bear to watch the result.

	Michiru's eyes widened for a moment, and then her face turned ice 
cold.  Luna looked up from struggling with carnivorous catnip and saw the 
sign of Neptune flare forth.  Wrenching herself loose, she did the 
appropriate flip in the air and caught the resulting transformation pen
as she came down.  "Michiru!  Use this and shouted, "Neptune Power, Make
Up!"

	Michiru's rage wavered and she stared in shock.  "You talk?"

	"Take it!  Do it!"

	Michiru grasped the pen.  "NEPTUNE POWER, MAKE UP!"  
Power rushed over her, and she transformed.  "DEEP SUBMERGE!"

	A wave of water rushed towards Kunzite, who looked contemptuous.  
He snapped his fingers.  The wave struck him anyway, knocking him down 
and into the arms of hungry melons.  They swiftly died at his hands, but 
he was wobbling a bit as he stood.

	Saturn had fought his way over to Mars, and helped her up.  Mars 
said, "Why'd he stop my fire but not her water?"

	"Energy is his to command," Pluto said.  "But water is not energy.  
Guardian Uranus, with her powers over matter, could laugh off Neptune's 
attack if she was well enough trained, but couldn't stop yours very 
easily, if at 
all."

	"Right!  Then we'd better help Neptune the way we helped Prudence 
augment her attack to get all the youma," Saturn said.

	The Senshi fell in around Neptune, who was wavering between 
looking terrified and angry.  Usagi put a hand on Neptune's shoulder.  
"Don't be afraid.  We can beat him.  I'll go get your fiancee."  She 
sprinted off as the Senshi and Guardians joined hands with Michiru, and
Kunzite and Zoicite joined hands.

	At first the two attacks held even, lightning against fire, but
then slowly, inevitably, the attack of the Generals began to gain ground,
for they were both surpassingly strong and experienced.  
	
	It was then that the rose came down from one of the ceiling girders 
and sliced through Zoicite and Kunzite's attack, turning it off as if it 
came from a faucet.  "Kidnapping innocent young girls and corrupting a
place of beauty like this into a death trap isn't very nice.  Looks like
you need a lesson in respecting nature!"  A tuxedo-clad, masked man stood
there.

	The five-warrior empowered attack slammed forward, knocking 
Kunzite and Zoicite down and apart from each other.  Then two arrows came 
down, pinning Zoicite's wrists to the ground.  A third would have taken 
her through the throat if Kunzite hadn't deflected it.  He tossed it back
at Shampoo, empowering it to explode on contact, only to have another
rose shoot it out of the sky.

 	Time to cut our losses, he thought.  "Endymion, it's nice to see
you're alive.  Still the same fool as before, unfortunately.  We'll deal
with you later."  

	Zoicite wrenched herself loose and began to heal her wrists as
they teleported away.

 	"Kunou!"  Neptune shouted and ran out to the street, where a crowd 
had gathered.  Mercury was performing first aid on him with Usagi's help 
while the truck driver who had hit him was jumping about alternately 
expressing guilt and yelling at Kunou for leaping into traffic like a 
fool.  

	She quickly ran over to him.  "You idiot!  What did you think you 
were doing attacking someone magical with a wooden sword?  You could 
have been KILLED!"

	"Would have been worth it to take him with me," Kunou muttered.

	"It would not," she said.  "And you lack the training or power to
have 'taken him with you'.  Five of us together couldn't stop him without 
Endymion's help."

	Inside, Endymion dropped down and quickly checked Kodachi.  
Seeing she hadn't sustained fatal energies, he said to Shampoo, "Can you 
make sure she's okay?"

	Shampoo nodded and went to work while he ran outside.  

	Saturn said to Mars, "Are you SURE you're okay?"

	"I'm fine!  I've had worse," she said.  Not much worse, but...

	She's lying, Saturn thought.  "We'd better go check on Kunou."

 	"Endymion will take care of him,"  Pluto said.  "But you two
should go with him.  I will take care of Mars."

	Uranus and Saturn ran off.  Mars said, "I am fine."

 	"Once we treat those burns, you'll be fine," Pluto said.  "I never 
thought I'd have to treat burns on you."

	"I can't believe he could just...I mean, fire is MY specialty."

 	"Fire is your attack, and one of your strengths, but the spirit
way is your true calling," Pluto said.  "Even with his strength so much
greater than yours, he would find it hard to overwhelm you with regard to
spirits.  But fire is part of his specialty, the magic of energy.  But we
can talk about this while we patch you up."

	Outside, Endymion knealt by Kunou.  "His injuries are grave."

	"Yes, he needs to go to the hospital," Mercury said, then
hesitated.  "They can probably save him.  I radioed an ambulance."

	Endymion laid his hands on Kunou's ribs, making Kunou wince.  "I 
will ensure it."  He closed his eyes, and they both began to glow.

	Kunou visibly relaxed, and his eyes closed.  Several contorted
limbs bent the wrong ways bent back to normal.  His bruises faded as if
he had been healing for weeks or months.  When Endymion stood back up,
Kunou was still somewhat hurt, but not badly.  Endymion then fainted and
turned back into Mamoru.

	"He's not going to die himself now, is he?"  Usagi asked nervously.

	"No, he'll be fine," Guardian Uranus said.  "But he probably can't 
handle spending so much energy; healing always exhausted  him."

 	A police siren whined its way into their consciousness.  "Oh, this
is going to be too much fun to explain,"  Saturn muttered.

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

 	"I STILL can't believe you convinced the cops that the Yakuza was
to blame for all of this," Usagi said to Naoko at the victory party, such
as it was.  

	"I guess I look trustworthy," Naoko said faintly.  "Or maybe they 
suspected the truth and didn't want to believe it."

	They were at Setsuna's house.  They had made sure Kunou got to the 
hospital okay, and Michiru had, to their surprise and her own, chosen to 
stay there with him.  Kodachi and Mamoru had done the same.  Everyone
else had gone back to Setsuna's to relax and discuss how the mission had
gone.


	Setsuna brought Ukyou, Ranma, and Rei some tea, then sat down in 
a nice plush chair.  "Two generals at once.  That was almost a total 
disaster."

	"I can't believe Shampoo nailed Zoicite's hands to the ground,"
Rei said.

	"Shampoo no have powers," she said from another plush chair.  
"Shampoo need every edge she can get."

	"Get Ami to build you some gadget arrows, oneechan!"  Usagi said.  

	"..."

	Ami cocked her head thoughtfully.  "Hmm, that's a good idea.  I 
have a lot of old schematics for various things in my computer."

	"Just call her Purple Arrow," Ranma said, grinning.

	"Bullseye!"

	"Target Girl!"

	"Arrow Lass!"

	"Shampoo, the Disposable Assassin!"

	"Shampoo is NOT disposable!"  She looked over at Usagi, then 
grinned.  "Shampoo not going to be only one to go down in flames with 
silly name."

	"Stick Girl!"

	"City Huntress!"

	"Meatball Head!"

	Usagi growled at Rei.  "Don't call me that!"

	"How about 'Badly Educated Woman', then?"  Rei asked, grinning.

	"I'll show you badly educated!"  They began to wrestle on the
couch, knocking Ukyou and Ranma on the floor.

	"Badly mannered, anyway," Setsuna muttered.  "Break them up, 
Ranma."

	"I ain't getting in the middle of that," Ranma said.  "Only fools
dive into a catfight."

	"I think they're enjoying it," Ukyou said, observing it.

	A second later, Rei was in the hallway, and Usagi was in the
kitchen.

	"Am I good?"  Ukyou asked.

	"You're the man," Ranma said.  "Uh, I didn't mean that like..."

	She laughed and slugged his shoulder.  "Well, sometimes, you're
the woman, so I don't mind."

	I mind it when I'm the woman, he thought.  

**********

	Michiru sat in the hospital, watching Kunou sleep and trying to
figure out what she could possibly tell her parents.  Saying she'd been 
kidnapped by beings from another dimension probably wouldn't cut it,
especially since she couldn't remember most of it, except for a few
moments of torture.  There had been a woman with red hair...Beryl...and a
voice that had echoed inside her head, a voice with no body, just an evil
presence.

	Of course, it was possible her parents had run off again and not
even noticed, although Uncle Shige would have noticed.  He's likely
climbing the walls, she thought.  But what could I possibly tell him?

	Mamoru came back, with Kodachi trailing after him.  I can't
believe she followed him to the bathroom, Michiru thought.  I hope she
didn't try to follow him in.

	"Mamoru will take you home," Kodachi said.  "I will stay with my 
brother."

	"I wish I could have done more for him," Mamoru said.  Or that 
I remembered what I did and how I did it, he thought.

	"You did enough," Kodachi said.  She looked over at Michiru, and
to Michiru's surprise, smiled at her.  "I promise I won't bite my own 
brother."

	Michiru laughed.  "Goodbye, Kodachi."

	As they left, Mamoru asked, "So what are you going to tell them?"

 	"I have no idea," Michiru said.  "Uncle Shige has probably called
out the JSDF to find me.  My parents left for another tour just before I
got kidnapped, so I don't know if he's told them yet.  He might have
decided to wait until he knew for sure what had happened to me."

	"You could just tell them that you and Kunou became so smitten
you had to run away together for a while," Mamoru said.

 	Michiru laughed.  "Best not to get their expectations up."  She
sighed.  "I don't know what to...I mean, he risked his life for me.  He
could have died, and...I just..."  She looked over at Mamoru, trying to
decide whether to say it.  "I couldn't have done that."

	"Then why did you get so angry when he got thrown into traffic?"

	"Because I thought he was going to die, and he deserved better.
He was fighting to save me, and...I've hardly ever gotten that angry.  It 
was sort of scary, really."

	They walked out the front doors into the parking lot.  "I think
you impressed Kodachi."

	"She likes angry people?"

	"I think she thought you were just using Kunou to get his money.  
But now she's not so sure."

	It's my parents who want to do that, she thought.  Not me.

***********

	Genma faced off with Ranma.  "Where have you been all day, boy?  
We were supposed to spar this afternoon."

	"Had to go help some friends with stuff," he said, assuming a 
fighting stance.

	Genma charged forward, unleashing a flurry of punches, which 
Ranma easily parried.  "Not bad, boy."  He added some kicks to the mix, 
and began to drive Ranma back across the yard.  "Well, you took Rei with 
you, so I'll let it slide this time.  THIS time."

	Ranma leaped over Genma and kicked him in the back, then took a 
roundhouse kick to the stomach as Genma spun about, his speed greater 
than his bulk would normally imply.  "So when do I get to learn something 
new?"

	"When you're ready, boy.  Until you master what you've got now, 
you won't be ready for anything new."

	Ranma bounced off two trees and the temple to come down at 
Genma from an angle, only to have Genma dodge to one side, grab his foot, 
and help him slam into the ground.  "I think you're getting faster, Pop."


	"No, you're just sloppy.  You're relying too much on your natural 
speed instead of skill.  But here's your chance to do something new.  Try 
doing that to me."

	"Right!"

	Genma bounced off two buildings and one tree, and came down foot 
first like Ranma had.  Ranma side-stepped and grabbed Genma's foot to 
slam him down, only to get kicked by the other leg, lose his grip, and 
fall down.  Genma hit hard, but quickly rolled to his feet.  "Now that's
what you should have done to me, boy."

	This went on for nearly an hour, and by the time they finished,
most of the residents of the temple were watching.  Rei broke it up by
saying, "Dinner is served!"  Genma vanished out of the way of a punch,
and was inside the house before Ranma even realized he was gone.

	Some things never change, Ranma thought.

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

	"You're alive!"  Shige said, grabbing his niece.  "I've been
tearing my hair out, wondering what happened to you!"

	She hugged him back.  "Are my parents back yet?"

	"No, they're still gone.  I hadn't called them, because I didn't
want them to worry when we didn't know what had happened to you.  Kunou
told me a 'foul sorcerer' had kidnapped you, but we never got a ransom
note or anything."  He let go of her and sat down on the couch.  She
joined him.

	"This nutcase thought he was a sorceror," she said, having
crafted her cunning, but hopefully plausible lie.  "He needed a 'virgin
sacrifice'.  So he kidnapped me.  Kunou's family's security force managed
to rescue me, and the guy killed himself.  It's over, and I'm glad."

	Shige shook his head and sighed.  "There's a lot of lunatics
around.  I'll call your school in the morning and let them know it's all 
resolved."

	I can't believe he's buying it this easily, she thought.  Although
he's probably just so happy to have me back that he doesn't care at the
moment what exactly happened to bring that to pass.  

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

 	Rei felt her tired muscles relax as Usagi scrubbed her back.  I
have to admit Amazons give good back rubs, she thought.  Even when
they're doing something else.  "Thanks, Usagi."

	"No problem," Usagi said.  "I always do this for big sister."

	"Then she's lucky.  I'm used to taking baths alone, except when I
had a friend stay the night, and that hasn't happened too often."

	"I can't see why,"  Usagi said.

	"A lot of girls thought I was either bossy or creepy."

 	Usagi nodded.  "You've told me that before, but I just...you seem 
really nice to me.  Well, except when you are being bossy."

	"Gee, thanks," Rei said with just a dab of acid.

	Usagi's hands came up and gently kneaded Rei's shoulders.  "But 
sometimes a woman has to be bossy."

	Rei wiggled a bit.  "Mmmm, good.  Can I get you to massage my 
legs after we finish bathing?"

	"Sure," Usagi said.  "No problem."

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

	Ranma struggled with his homework.  "I hate writing poetry," he 
muttered to himself.

	Want some help?  Ruby asked.

	Normally, Ranma would have told him to go bite himself, but he
was sufficiently aggravated to take any help he could get.  Sure, he
replied inside his head.  But it's got to have sparrows in it.

	Sparrows?  Ruby asked in surprise.

	Weren't you listening?  Ranma asked back.  When the assignment
was given out?

	I usually sleep through your schooling, Ruby replied.

	Ranma filed that for future reference.  Anyway, Achika-sensei
gave each of us a bird to write a poem about.  How am I supposed to write
a poem about SPARROWS?

	I suppose one of the love sonnets I wrote for Cassandra wouldn't
help, then, Ruby said.

	Not really, Ranma said.  Unless you compared her to a sparrow.

	That boggled Ruby into silence.  Ranma tried to concentrate, then 
was hit by inspiration.  He scribbled out, 

	'I look at the sky,
	The sparrow looks down at me,
	It eats my left eye.'

	That'll have to do, Ranma thought.

	"Now we know what really happened to Odin, I see," Setsuna said.

	Ranma started.  "Geez, how can you be so sneaky?"

	"I have a knack," she said, smiling.  "Stuck on the sparrow?"

	"Sick of the sparrow.  You're doing falcons, right?"

	She nodded and sat down by him.  "Oh, and we're supposed to do 
quatrains, not haiku."

	"What's a quatrain?"

	She frowned.  "You were sleeping in class."

	"Ami was sleeping too."

	"She was not!"

	Ranma laughed.  "She was.  I had to throw a paperwad at her head
to wake her up.  Achika-sensei is less fun than watching paint dry.  So
what brings you over here?"

	"Having geometry problems."

 	"Well, I can help you with that if you help me figure out a better 
poem."

	"Okay, let's do the poem first."

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

 	Rei felt her legs relax, and she gave a tiny happy moan.
"Thanks."

 	"No problem," Usagi said.  "Um, Rei, I have to tell you
something."

 	"If you drooled on any of my manga again, I'm gonna kill you,"
Rei said.

	"No, no, not on the manga.  Um, that didn't come out right."

	"You wet the bed?"  Rei asked teasingly.

	"No, no!"  Usagi said.  "I...uh...remember when I...uh...kissed
you?"

	"How could I forget?"

	You should ask her to do it again, Eowyn whispered.

	Rei groaned.  Oh great, the peanut gallery is back, she thought.

	'I won't forget either,' the bed said.  'You two looked pretty
silly down there.'

	Rei's eyes widened.  I'm hearing voices again...

	Just the spirits, Eowyn said.

	"Well, I...you see, I have to either marry you or kill you now,"
Usagi said.

	'Marriage!' the bed shouted.

	'Kill!' the dust bunny under the bed shouted.  A chorus of other
voices shouted it down.

	But you're still too young to get married, Eowyn said.  Ask if
you can be her lover for a while instead.  Or does everyone get married
this young in this time?

	"Shut up!"  Rei shouted at all the voices.  "Be quiet!  I can't
hear anything or think!"

	Usagi jumped back and eeped.  "I'm sorry, Rei, I'll...uh...be
quiet now."

	"Not you," she said, then what Usagi had said really sank in.
"You have to marry or kill me?"

	"Well, you see, if I kiss an outsider woman, it has to be either
the kiss of death or the kiss of marriage.  So, uh..."  Usagi looked
nervous.  "I just...I mean, I know it isn't binding for you or anything,
but I wouldn't mind you being my battlesister, but on the other hand..."

	"I can't marry a woman!"  Rei said.

	Why not?  Eowyn asked.  I was going to marry Princess Serenity
and be her guardian-spouse.

	Smoke literally poured out of Rei's ears, a minor hazard of
having fire powers.  You WERE GOING TO WHAT?????

	The Queen of the Moon traditionally took a husband to produce 
children, and a guardian-spouse, who was usually one of her Senshi, 
although ocassionally a qualified male showed up, Eowyn thought. The
Earth Kingdom did the same thing, where the King took a wife to bear
children, and a guardian-spouse for protection, usually a male.
Sometimes the guardian-spouse was mostly symbolically married, while
other times they might be much more intimate.  

	But...what about you and Jadeite?  Rei thought.

	Eowyn sighed.  He was my first love.  Then, right as we began to 
think of marriage, Queen Serenity decided I would be Princess Serenity's 
guardian-spouse.  At the same time, her engagement to Prince Endymion 
was announced, and Jadeite was able to convince King Endymion to appoint 
him as the Prince's guardian-spouse.  In that way, Jadeite and I were 
able to ensure we would be able to be together.  

	As time passed, I came to love the Princess, and she to love me.
It would have been very wonderful if we hadn't all died horribly, Eowyn 
thought.

	"Rei-chan, why are you so silent?  Are you mad at me?"  Usagi
asked hesitantly.

	"Eowyn is trying to make my head explode," Rei muttered.

	"Stop it!"  Usagi said sharply.  "Leave Rei alone!"

	Does that mean...did Jadeite and Endymion..., Rei asked hesitantly.

	No, he only requested the position so he could stay near me, and
so it would still be possible for us to be wed, Eowyn replied.  It really 
angered Kunzite, who I think DID have feelings for Prince Endymion.  He
started seeing Inanna after that, but I sometimes think Beryl might 
have...promised Endymion to him.  Although I've heard rumors that would
indicate she wanted Endymion herself.

	Oh man, what if Usagi DOES want to marry me, Rei thought.  
Maybe she kissed me deliberately...

	Then you are quite lucky, Eowyn thought.  For I am sure she is 
Princess Serenity reborn.

	Usagi came over and stared into Rei's eyes.  "Eowyn, leave her
alone!  She has the right to live her own life!"  

	Just like her mother, Eowyn thought.  I will be silent, but I
advise you to kiss her while you can.  And Eowyn's voice faded out.

	"She's gone," Rei said.  "So, this Amazon marriage thing..."

	"It's not exactly the same as marrying a guy.  It makes you
battle partners, and you aren't necessarily sleeping together, although
most who take the Oath of the Sacred Band do...uh...have sex.  Usually,
you have a male husband too, so you can have kids.  In fact, technically,
anyone one of you marries becomes married to the other one as well.  If
you do it with an outsider, it brings them into the tribe, although they
have to pass certain tests first.  But I'm sure you'd pass them easily.
Unless they make you do the one where you have to balance hot soup on
your head and...I'm rambling."

	"It doesn't matter that you kissed me by accident?"

	"Amazons aren't supposed to kiss anyone by accident.  I
mean...the council of elders might decide it didn't count.  Or they might
decide it didn't count, but I'd have to work the fields as punishment for
a year for being sloppy.  Or they might decide to induct you immediately.
I think Great-Grandmother would like you.  Or...they might decide it
would have to then count as Kiss of Death, in which case I'd have to kill
you, and I wouldn't like that."

	Rei looked over at Usagi, and was suddenly intensely aware of her 
closeness.  Her eyes took in the curves of Usagi's body, and her nose 
could smell the faint lemon scent of the shampoo they'd both used on
their hair.  She felt a strong impulse to just kiss Usagi and get it over
with, to wrap her arms around Usagi's body, to surrender to the desire
which was welling up inside her.  Ranma could just...

	The door opened, and Ranma walked in.  "Hey, Rei, what time are 
you gonna go to bed?  Setsuna and I are gonna need at least another half 
hour to finish our homework and... oh, hi, Usagi."

	Rei sprang halfway across the room up onto her bed.  "I think I'm 
going to bed now, so everyone had better clear out.  Just creep in when 
you're ready for bed, okay?"

	"Okay," Ranma said, and left.  

	Usagi stared nervously at Rei for a second, then followed him.

	Now what, she asked herself.  I thought the other day it was just
the potion, but...  She shuddered.  Maybe it only amplified feelings
people already had.  Although that would mean Ken and Gosunkugi...no,
maybe it was the potion.  Maybe it's just lingering after effects.  

	I think not, Eowyn said.

	Shut up, you're dead, Rei thought, then flopped down on the bed
to think.
	
*************

 	Ranma-chan crept into the room, hoping to not wake Rei up.  Just
as she pulled the sheets over herself, Rei said, "Ever have days that
make you want to just run screaming into the sunset?"

	"Every day."

	Rei laughed a little at that.  "Guess what Usagi told me today."

	"That Pop defeated her in combat, so now she has to marry him 
too?"

	Rei boggled at the thought.  "No, she said that since she kissed
me, she has to either marry me or kill me."

	"..."

	"Why?"

	"Amazon law strikes again.  I can't believe she'd think something
like that counts outside her crazy village, but..."

	"Well, if you did marry her, I'd only have to deal with two
fiancees," Ranma-chan mused.

	"What, you WANT me to marry her?"

	"Huh?  I didn't say nothing like that!"

	"You were saying you'd be better off if I did marry her!"  Rei
sat up and frowned through the gloom at Ranma-chan.

 	"Well, it would keep Pop from being able to force us to get
married, if you'd already married Usagi, since you couldn't marry two
people.  Although I'm not sure who would get to wear the wedding dress to
the ceremony.  I suppose you are more feminine than Usagi, so she'd be 
wearing the suit."

	Rei started to retort, but couldn't quite bring herself to yell
at someone who'd just called her feminine.  "Well, you're not off the
hook.  I got the impression they can marry more than one person."

	"Damn.  Hmm...Ahh!  A woman has to wait six months to remarry, 
right?  And polygamy is illegal, so if you and Usagi got married, then 
got a quickie divorce, we'd have six months where our parents couldn't
try to make us get married."

	"Well, why don't YOU marry Usagi, then?"

	"Wouldn't help.  Men don't have to wait."

	"That's a STUPID rule!"

	"Hey, don't yell at me, I didn't make it!  Besides, if I married
Usagi, Shampoo would have me in a box being mailed back to China the next 
morning.  Plus, Usagi doesn't really want to marry you, does she?  I'm 
sure she'd go along with it just to get out of her obligation.  And then
Pop couldn't do nothing."

	"I got the impression that marrying her would involve a lot of
tests and hoop jumping and whatnot."

	Ranma-chan sighed.  "You got a better idea?"

	"Not really."

	She shrugged.  "I'm sure you and Usagi can figure something out.  
Shampoo might know some technicality you can wiggle through."

	"I'll ask her about it, then," Rei said.

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

	"The Council of Elders is pretty strict about such things, to
teach people to be careful about what they do.  They'd probably insist
you get married for at least five years, and forbid Usagi to marry anyone
else during that time, except Ranma, since she got hitched to him before
you."  Shampoo paused to eat more of her waffles.

	"So, an Amazon can have more than one spouse of each...uh...sex?"  
Rei asked.

	"Amazon can only have one wife, but as many husbands as she can 
afford.  Most only have three or four."

	Rei boggled for several minutes, eating her cereal instead of
speaking.  Finally, she said, "And the men don't mind?"

	"Men born in village know their place.  Outsider men sometimes 
cause trouble; either they learn to follow our ways, or we exile them."

	"But if you all get married by being beaten by someone..."

	"No, that unusual way to get married.  Most Amazons find man and 
woo him; being beaten by an outsider male and having to marry him is 
rare.  
Idea is to bring him in and tame him, so he can father strong children."

	"What, use him as a stud?"

	"No, men not good for nailing things together."

	They stared at each other in confusion for a few seconds, then 
finished their breakfast to cover that state.  Finally, Rei said, "So
you just want Ranma for breeding stock?"  She could hardly believe it.

	"No, Usagi really loves Ranma," Shampoo said.  "She big dummy for 
liking him, but love makes big dummies of all of us.  Little sister has a 
big heart and falls in love easily.  If he breaks her heart, Shampoo will 
make him wish he'd never been born."

	"It's not his fault!  She's the one chasing him!"

	"If he was real man, he would settle this, not drag it out.
Shampoo is surprised you're not angry at him for letting it drag on."
Shampoo gave Rei an assessing look.

	"I'm not happy about it dragging out either!"

	"Then why don't you do something about it?"

	"I don't want to get married yet!"

	"But you don't want him to marry anyone else, either."

	"Right!"

	"Why?"  Shampoo grinned in a way that extremely irritated Rei.  
"Usagi try to take Ranma off your hands; you no have to marry Ranma if 
Ranma marry Usagi."

	"Because Ranma shouldn't have to marry someone because of some 
stupid foreign law he didn't even know about!"

	"Shampoo thinks you're just jealous."

	"I am not!"

	"Then why you care who Ranma marry?"

	"Because I want to date him!  I just don't want to marry him!
I'm too young to get married!"  Rei shouted, then slammed a hand to her
mouth.

	"So you do like Ranma."

	"No!"

	"You just said you wanted to date him."

	"I was lying!"

	"Shampoo think you lying now."

	"I'm sitting."

	"Ha.  Ha.  Ha."  Shampoo said, grinning, then continued, "Shampoo 
going to tell Ranma you said you wanted to date him."

	"No!"  Rei said.  "Don't!"

	"Why not?  Why you not want him to know?  This some silly 
Japanese custom?"

	Rei stared at the table in defeat.  "I don't think he likes me
like that."

	"Shampoo thinks Rei is right.  If Ranma really liked any of you,
he'd go for that one and get the others to give up.  Either that or Ranma 
likes having four women chasing him.  Or maybe he's just too dumb to know
what he wants."

	"He just isn't ready to get married, and if he picks any of us,
he'll have to marry the one he picks," Rei said.  "I just wish we could
try going out without having to have this kind of pressure."

	I can't believe you'd want to go out with that jerk Ruby, when 
Princess Serenity herself wants to marry you, Eowyn said.

	SHUT UP!  Rei shouted at her past self.  I can't marry a girl!

	Sure you can, Eowyn replied.  I could feel you found her
attractive.

	I did not!  I didn't!  Rei shouted back.  That was you playing
tricks with me!

	You want her and you know it, Eowyn said.

	Grandpa came in, yawning.  "Don't you have school today, Rei?"
	
	She looked at the clock and realized she was fifteen minutes
late.  "Oh just bloody great." She sprinted off.

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

	Out on the porch, Ranma got up.  "Time for me to start hoofing
it."

	Ukyou, who was dressed in her new school uniform, said, "How do
I look?"

	"Ya look great.  So how are you paying for T&A anyway?  I thought 
it was pretty expensive."

	Ukyou laughed.  "The Dark Kingdom is paying for it."

	"What?" he asked in confusion.

	"Haruka got a LOT of money from 'Mr. and Mrs. Stanton', so she 
offered to loan me the money.  I'll pay her back eventually."

	"Man, that was really nice of her."

	"She felt like it was her fault I got kicked out of Blue Sky and
lost my scholarship."  There was a honk from down the hill.  "And now
she's here to take me to school.  I guess we probably ought to..."  

	Rei sprinted out of the house, ran over Ukyou, and vanished down 
the hill in a cloud of dust.

	"...ask Rei if she wants a ride..."  

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

	"Ken, you can't just live under your bed," Tsubasa said, kneeling 
down by Ken's bed.

	"Yes, I can.  And I'm never coming out.  Not ever," Ken said.

	"No one knows about what happened except for me and Gosunkugi.  
Well, and that ninja girl, and Shampoo, and Usagi, and...well, no one at 
this school.  And we won't tell anyone."  Tsubasa tried to make his voice 
soothing.  "You'll fail your classes and get expelled if you don't come 
out."

	"I'll take the bed home with me," Ken said.

	"Man, you're acting crazy."

	"What if she's out there?  What if she...does that to me again?"
Ken sounded more scared than Tsubasa ever remembered him being before.

	"Ken, this is a boys' school.  No women allowed.  That's why
they kicked Ukyou-sama out."

	"She's a ninja!  You could be her in disguise!"

 	Tsubasa sighed.  "If you don't come out, I WILL tell everyone.
In detail."

	"But you didn't even see it!"

	"That'll just give me more room to be creative.  Hmm, so how big 
WAS the vat of Jello?"

	"THERE WAS NO VAT OF JELLO!"

	"Ahh, but with no one to gainsay me, who will know?  Let's see, a 
twenty foot diameter vat of lime and cherry jello.  You sprayed whipped 
cream on him and..."

	Ken leaped out and began to throttle Tsubasa.  "NO LIME JELLO!  
NO LIME JELLO!"

	The door opened and Taiki stuck his head in.  "Hey, you guys 
planning to...Ooops, I see I'm interrupting something."

	"Save...me..."  Tsubasa gurgled.

	Ken let go of him.  "Just don't go telling no lies."

	"Lies about what?"  Taiki asked.

	"Nothing," Ken said.  "We'd better get going."

	"In your pajamas?" Tsubasa asked.

	"Ack!"

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

	Michiru sat with her friends at school and ate lunch.  Something 
strange was going on.  Uncle Shige hadn't remembered in the morning that 
she had ever been missing.  The school and her friends had forgotten as 
well. 

	Maybe someone did something to make them forget, she thought, 
although I wish they'd warned me first.  I'm going to have to go talk to 
the other Sailors she thought.

	That brought the whole strangeness of finding herself to be a
magical warrior to mind.  I need to learn more about our mission here,
she thought.  I'm still not clear on what's going on.  And I've got to
find some way to keep them from striking at Kunou while he's in the
hospital.  Although he does have Sasuke with him.  Hmm, I'd better see
about asking Mamoru if he can watch over him some.

**********

	Tsubasa sat under a tree and ate lunch.  A shadow fell across
him.  Looking up, he saw Gosunkugi.  "Hi, Hikaru."

	Gosunkugi sat down and got out his lunch.  "I need you to find 
someone."

	'There's someone over there,' a rock pointed out helpfully.

	"I doubt he wants me to find just ANYONE," Tsubasa snapped at 
the rock.  "I knew I should have disguised myself today, but I was afraid 
Ken would freak out even more."

	Gosunkugi shuddered.  "Please don't remind me."

	"Geez, you guys are acting like it ain't natural for guys to do 
something like that."  He paused.  "Well, maybe not EXACTLY like that, 
but you know what I mean."

	"I AM NOT GAY!"  Gosunkugi shouted as best he could.  A shout 
from Gosunkugi was like a mild cry of surprise from most folk.  Several 
people turned and stared anyway.  Immediately, he shrank in on himself.

	"You're gonna end up as a black hole if you don't stop collapsing 
inward all the time," Tsubasa said.  "Anyway, who do you want me to find 
for you?"

	"Well, you see..."  Gosunkugi began staring intently at a handy
tree root.  "She was on the...thing...with us.  The cutest girl I've ever
seen in my entire life."  His voice became a little deeper and healthier
sounding.  "I think I'm...but I don't know where she goes to school or
where she lives or anything, and before the...disaster, I was afraid to
approach her, and afterwards, I just wanted to go home and die."

	"Do you remember her name?"  This wasn't as sarcastic as it might 
sound; Tsu knew Gosunkugi had a tendency to completely blank out around 
women he liked.

	"Mizuno Ami."

	"I'll see what I can do."

	For a while, they sat and ate in silence, and then Gosunkugi said,
"So you like that Ukyou girl?"

	"She's my destined love," Tsubasa said.  "Hopefully, I'll have more 
luck this time around."

	Gosunkugi blinked.  "Huh?"

	"Do you believe in reincarnation, Hikaru?"

	"I'd like to think I didn't do anything bad to deserve my life," 
Gosunkugi replied.

	"You shouldn't be so negative," Tsubasa said.  "You're not
missing any limbs or senses, are you?"

	"I have a bad sense of smell."

	"All humans have a bad sense of smell."

	'You smell bad too,' the tree noted.

	"Shut up.  I can have you cut down," Tsubasa snapped at the tree.

	"Why do you talk to things?"  Gosunkugi asked.

	"Because they won't ever shut up if you don't talk back to them.  
Anyway, you've got talents you should be proud of."

	"Name one."

	Tsubasa took out a coin.  "Call it."

	"Huh?"

	"Call it."

	"Heads."

	It came up heads.  "Call it."

	"Tails."

	It came up tails.  "Call it."

	This repeated about fifty times, with Gosunkugi making the call 
every time.  Finally, Gosunkugi said, "Okay, so I'm good at predicting 
coin flips.  But what use is that?"

	"You won eighty thousand yen in the hall poker tournament last 
month."

	"I got lucky."

	"Your luck at cards and anything else with a random element is 
uncanny.  That's a talent."

	"But my luck at everything else sucks."

	"That's because you don't try hard enough," Tsubasa said.  "Don't 
worry.  I'll fix you up with this Mizuno girl and turn your luck around."

	Gosunkugi looked intensely nervous.  "You sure of that?"

	"Trust me."

**********

	Setsuna and Ranma sat at the table, arguing over a math problem, 
while nearby, Ami, Usagi, and Shampoo were conferring on ideas for gadget 
arrow heads.  "Shampoo like glue arrow idea," Shampoo said, "but Shampoo 
not think it possible for boxing-glove arrow to fly.  Not more than five 
feet, anyway."

	"All we need is some tarnite," Ami said, "and we could make 
anything fly."

	"Or Feldspar's powers, but then we wouldn't need bows,"  Usagi 
pointed out.

	"Shampoo never hear of tarnite."

	"Well, all we need is a...class three transmuter," Ami said,
checking her computer's databanks.  "Whatever that is."

	"Unless she recovers more of her memories, it'll take about a
year for Guardian Uranus to reach that level of skill,"  Setsuna said.
"Maybe longer.  Tarnite probably counts as an impossible metal at current
mana levels."

	"See, Shampoo right.  Now, about this acid arrow..."

	The doorbell rang.  Setsuna got up and went to the door.  It was 
Michiru.  "Hi, is the...it is the right house."

	"Come in, come in," Setsuna said.  "Homework is at the table,
arrow construction workshop is over at the coffee table."

	"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about what exactly is going on."

	"Ahh, well, come over to the table and Ranma and I will give you the 
scenario."

	Michiru followed Setsuna over to the table, and the two warriors
of time began explaining everything to the senshi of water.

	Meanwhile, Luna finally woke from her nap.  "I knew I forgot 
something," she said, and went over to Usagi.  "Hey, Usagi-chan, can I 
have a moment of your time?"

	"Sure!"  Usagi said.  

	Luna leaped in the air and did a triple axel.  A brooch fell to
the ground.  "Ahah!  A transformation brooch."  It was made of gold and 
shaped like a heart with a huge ruby inset onto it with a silver crescent
moon inlaid on the ruby.  "Now, put this on and say...umm...I have no
idea, actually."

	Usagi facefaulted.  Once she recovered, she picked it up and
pinned it to her blouse.  "Hmm.  Probably something like... MOON POWER, 
MAKE UP?"

	There was a flash of light, and a lengthy transformation sequence
I'm sure you've all seen so many times you have nightmares about it by
now.  Sailor Moon instinctively struck a pose.  "So does this prove I'm
the Moon Princess?"

	"Well, unless there was a Sailor of the Moon I've forgotten about, 
yes," Luna said.  

	"Cool.  So what's my special attack?"

	"I have no idea, since the Princess didn't actually fight very
much.  Except with her brother."

	"History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, then as a farce?"  Ami 
asked.

	"Something like that.  Try and reach within yourself," Luna said.  
"Seek the answer that bobs up from your inner heart."

	Sailor Moon closed her eyes and let words rise into her mind.
"Moon Bow!"  She shouted, and light grew in a crescent between her hands, 
forming a bow of shimmering silver.  A quiver of arrows appeared on her
back, shining and flickering in and out.

	"Cool!"  She looked around for something to shoot.

	"Not in the house!"  Setsuna said.  "You can practice in the 
backyard."

	"Okay, be back in a little bit, then," Sailor Moon said, heading
for the kitchen rear door.  Setsuna got up and headed for the front door.
Before either of them made it, the doorbell rang.  "I'll get it!"  Sailor
Moon said.

	"Not like that!"  Ranma said.  "Think Secret ID!"

	Setsuna opened the door as Sailor Moon dove into the pantry to
hide.  "Hi, Ukyou, Haruka, Rei," she said.

	Sailor Moon emerged, covered in flour.  "You need to close those 
bags more tightly."

	Haruka began to laugh loudly, while Rei and Ukyou chuckled.  Rei 
said, "Usagi, what are you..."

	Luna came out.  "We have confirmation.  She's the Moon Princess.  
Or as you can call her right now..."

	"The Lovely Sailor Soldier Moon!"  Sailor Moon said, saluting.  
"Who now is going to be the Bathing Sailor Soldier."  

	"So when do I get to join the...hey, what's SHE doing here?"
Haruka said, frowning at Michiru.

	"Hmm, I suppose I could try seeing if I could make you a 
transformation pen," Luna said.

	"She's one of us now," Setsuna said.  "And you'll have to set any
feuds you may have aside."  She looked at Ukyou and Haruka firmly.  "You
never did apologize for splashing her."

	"Hey, that was an accident!"

	"I suppose trashing Mamoru-san's car was an accident too," Michiru 
said coldly.

 	"Look, that's all over and done with," Ami said.  "Can't we all
just get along?"

	"I didn't do nothing to that guy's car!  So why do you have two 
boyfriends, anyway?"

	"I do not have two boyfriends!  My parents engaged me to Kunou 
against my will and Mamoru is just a friend!"

	"Sounds like a pretty close friend to me!" Haruka shouted.

	Setsuna stood up and walked over to Haruka.  "You WILL apologize.  
You too, Ukyou."

	Haruka's eyes narrowed.  "You can't tell me what to do."

	"Hey, I didn't do anything!"  Ukyou protested.

	"I risked my life and lost my greatest possession in an effort to
defeat people who wanted to turn you into a monster, Ten'ou Haruka.  You
owe me.  But there's an even better reason."

	"What?"

	"You two won't be able to work together if you hate each other."

	"Work together?"

	"Luna, if you will," Setsuna said.  Luna did one of her special
flips, and a transformation pen appeared.  Setsuna picked it up.  "You
are Sailor Uranus.  Neptune was your partner, among other things, in the
Silver Millenium.  You two must learn to get along, or it will be the
death of you.  I have SEEN it."  She held out the transformation pen.  "I
can't make you take this.  I can't make you work with Neptune.   But I
won't put up with childish bickering because you're too proud to
apologize for something that was your fault.  Did you splash her with
your car?"

	"Well, yes, but..."

	"No buts.  You splashed her, accident or not.  I ignored this
before because I don't like telling people what to do, but I can't
tolerate this kind of bickering among us."

	"Who died and made you queen?"  Haruka said sharply.

	Sailor Moon stepped forward nervously.  "She's right.  Senshi 
shouldn't fight with each other.  I know you can't just change how your 
heart feels and suddenly like her, but if we fight each other, we'll all
die."  She took Haruka's hand.  "When you fight, you need to be able to
trust the people you're fighting with completely, and if you hold onto
old grudges, you can't do that."

	Haruka stared into her eyes, then the grim expression on her face 
faded.  "I...I'm not sure if I want to...I mean, I don't know how I could 
do this and still be able to fulfill my dreams."  Her voice was 
uncharacteristically hesitant and faint.  "I'd like the power, but I
don't know if the cost is worth it."

	Most of the room's inhabitants shifted uncomfortably, feeling
like they were listening in on a private conversation through a keyhole.

	"You don't have to decide now," Sailor Moon said.  "Take the 
transformation pen.  You'll know what to do when you're ready."

	Haruka reached over and took it from Setsuna without looking,
then put it in her pocket.  "I hope so."

	Sailor Moon reached over and squeezed her shoulder.  "You will.
You always do the right thing in the end.  Come out back and help me
practice my shooting, will you?  You too, Ukyou."

	"Okay," Haruka said, letting herself be dragged off, while Ukyou 
tagged along silently behind them.

	Setsuna stood and flapped her mouth wordlessly.

	"Don't worry, little sister will get you your apology," Shampoo
said to Michiru.

	"She just..."  Setsuna said.

	"Demonstrated you catch more flies with honey than vinegar?"  Ami 
said.

	"Something like that," Setsuna muttered.  She turned and looked
at Ranma thoughtfully, and came back to the table to finish explaining 
matters to Michiru.

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

	"I'm sorry I splashed you," Haruka said to Michiru an hour later, 
when she, Usagi, and Ukyou came back in.

	"Me too," Ukyou said.  "But we still didn't deliberately trash
your boyfriend's car."

	"He's not my boyfriend!"  Michiru said sharply, then softened.  
"Apology accepted."  I have to work with this thug, she thought.  I'm 
engaged to a stupid man with a big ego, and I have to work with a stupid 
woman with a big ego.  At least Ten'ou doesn't have a sister who dislikes 
me, but on the other hand, Kunou has some sense of propriety and honor,
which I think Ten'ou utterly lacks.  And I owe him.  Let's not think ill
of someone to whom I owe a debt.  But this moron...  Mentally, she ground
her teeth.

	She's kind of cute, Haruka thought.  Too bad she's a bitch.  She
needs to learn to fake a smile better or someone's going to slap her.
Just my luck to get stuck with a stuck-up snob.  Assuming I want into
this gig, which I'm still not sure about.  "No problem."

	If I could tap the lightning going back and forth between them, I 
could probably power Tokyo, Ami thought.    

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

	Naru was surprised by a tapping at her window and relieved when
it was just Usagi, although that made her nervous in a different way.
"Uh hi," she said.

	"Hi.  I came over to apologize for what happened on the group
thing and to ask your advice on something."

	"It wasn't your fault," Naru said.  She sat down at her desk and
let Usagi sit on her bed.  "But if I ever find that ninja...I guess I'll
yell at her a lot."

	Usagi laughed.  "The other problem is sort of related.  You see,
I sort of...uh...engaged myself to Rei."

	"..."

	Usagi explained the whole situation, watching Naru boggle more
and more.  "So, now you see..."

	"Ummm...so if you kiss an outsider woman, then you either have to 
marry or kill her?"

	"Yeah."

	They stared at each other for a few seconds, then it sunk in on
Usagi.  "Oh great."  Usagi fell back on the bed.  "I just...I...I'm
sorry, Naru.  I can't believe I...Great-Grandmother will KILL me when I
get back to the village, I think."

	"Surely they wouldn't count something you did when you were under 
the influence of a love potion," Naru said.

	Usagi sat back up.  "Hmm, good point.  You really had me worried 
for a moment there.  Especially since I can't marry two women at the same 
time.  Now, if one of you was male..."

	"So what are you going to do about you and Rei?"

	"I have to marry her or be disgraced."

	"Isn't that a really stupid rule?"

	"Well, yes, but I don't make the rules."

	"What if you don't go back?"

	"But...it's my home now.  And if I don't stay in good standing, I
can't get them to help me find a way to cure my parents and brother.
Well, at least my parents.  I think Shingo likes being a talking cat."

	"Have they made any progress at all in eight years?"

	"Well, no, but that's because they're training me to be good
enough to recover the artifact that can cure them."

	Naru frowned.  "It sounds to me like they're just using you,
while you don't get anything out of it."

	"Great-Grandmother has taken very good care of me, and taught me 
a lot," Usagi said defensively.

	"Usagi, would you really kill me or Rei just because you kissed
us by accident?"

	"No, never," Usagi said.

	"Does Japanese law apply in the Amazon village?"

	"No."

	"Then why do you say Amazon law applies out here?"

	"Amazons carry their laws with them."

	"You're not a diplomat, Usagi.  You can try to live by Amazon law
if you really feel that loyal to it, but no one else here but Shampoo is 
going to go along with you."  Naru tried to rein herself in from
becoming too sharp.  "If you want to marry Ranma, marry him because you
love him, not some stupid law.  And since Rei won't marry you, you should
just forget that ever happened."

	Usagi stared at the ground.  "But if I ever want to go back to the 
Amazon village."

	"DO you want to go back?"

	"Sometimes I don't know," Usagi said faintly.

	"Then you need to figure it out.  And soon."  Naru sighed.  "I'm 
sorry for chewing you out.  You didn't come here for that."

	"No, you're right," she said.  "I'm more than just an Amazon now.  
I'm Sailor Moon, and I'm probably the Princess of the Moon too."

	"What?"

	"Oooh, let me tell you all about it," Usagi said, launching into
the full tale.

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

	The next day, Mizuno Souichiro sat at his easel, trying to
concentrate.  Kasumi was upstairs vaccuming, and the noise made it hard to
think.  This was made worse by a vague feeling of dread that he could
neither shake off nor identify its cause.  

	The doorbell rang, and he got up, feeling his dread deepen.  Maybe 
I'm about to be audited, he thought, although I've nothing to hide from 
the tax man.  

	He soon reached the door, and opened it again.  Brown eyes stared 
into his, and even if the rest of her had been hidden by a mask, that 
would have been enough for him to know his sister had finally returned.  

	In silence, they stared at each other, taking in the changes since
last they had seen each other, for he had grown much thinner, and her
hair was now two feet longer and a deep purple in color.  She
straightened her golden blouse, and he laughed, remembering she'd never
been good at getting clothing to quite fit her right.  

	Then she lunged forward and hugged him.  "It has been so long,"
she said.  "I've missed you very much."

	His dread did not go away, but it was joined by an immense relief
at knowing she was alive, even though he deeply feared she now worked 
against her own world.  But even so, she was his sister, and he had
missed her deeply.  "I've missed you too."  

	He had played out a dozen different scenarios for this meeting,
but none of them had included her showing up alone and hugging him.  His 
brain turned into a pile of mush.  "Won't you come in?  I can have Kasumi 
make you some tea.  Wouldn't that be nice?"

	"Yes, that would be wonderful," she said.

	"Actually, I'll make the tea, Kasumi is busy vaccuming."

	Soon, they were in the kitchen, and he was explaining about his 
divorce, although he wasn't sure how they had gotten onto the topic.  "We 
might have been able to hang on if we'd had more time for each other, but 
we both had to work constantly, and when we came home, we'd quarrel over 
everything.  But we weren't really quarreling over that so much as..."  

 	He tried to find the words.  "You know Ryoko.  She can't believe
in things she can't see, while I..."  He sighed.  "Sometimes I'm too
ready.  I knew you were alive, though I wasn't sure where or how, and she
was sure you were dead and I just needed to get over it, and we just...
it all fell apart.  Plus, I hated my job, and I took it out on her.  I'm
much happier now that I don't have to be a salaryman anymore.  For a
while, I lived off my inheritance when Father died, but now my paintings
sell well enough that I'm making money."  He paused a moment.  "Did you
know that Father died a year after you vanished?"

	Her eyes widened.  "He's dead?"

	Souichiro nodded.  "Yes, he had another heart attack."

	"But he was so young!  I mean, he wasn't that old.  I mean..."
She stared at the floor.  "There's just us now, then."  She shuddered,
and then she began to cry.

	He was trying to comfort her, all thoughts of her working for an
evil empire forgotten, when Kasumi walked in.  "Uncle, do you want me
to..."  Her eyes widened.

	Still whimpering a bit, Michiko turned to face her daughter.  
"Kasumi, you've grown up to be so beautiful."

	Kasumi, aware of being covered with dust and her apron stained in 
interesting patterns from cleanser mishaps, didn't feel so beautiful.  
All she could do was stare at Michiko.  Except for the purple hair, she
looked just as Kasumi remembered, right down to the golden blouse and
green skirt she'd been wearing the last time Kasumi had seen her.
"M...Mother?"  Part of her brain registered her uncle's warning, but most
of it simply rejoiced that her mother had returned.

	Michiko rushed over and swept her into an embrace.  "My daughter!"  

	For several minutes, all they could do was whirl about, hugging
each other and crying.  Souichiro finished making the tea, and his sense
of dread reasserted itself.  He tried to decide what to do, what he could
do.  She seemed just like she'd been when she left...maybe she
wasn't...no, I couldn't possibly feel this worried if there wasn't
something wrong, he thought.  But what?

	He loved his sister, and had missed her very much, but if she was 
working for an evil queen who wanted to unleash an evil god, he couldn't 
let her get away with it.  Except that there wasn't that much he could do
to stop her.  

	Then he remembered something Ami had given him, a small box 
with a panic button that would send her and her Senshi friends a 'come 
save me' signal.  It was back in the painting room by his easel.  

	"Going to the bathroom, be right back," he said, and slipped out 
while Michiko and Kasumi worked on a tearful reunion, and quite possibly 
didn't even notice him at all.

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

	Two communicators beeped in unison, and the teacher's head 
snapped around.  "You are NOT to bring your pagers to class," 
Achika-sensei said.  "Bring those up here right now.  I'll give them to
you after school is over."

	Bloody hell, Ranma thought.  Someone's in trouble, and we won't 
even be able to check...or it could be Usagi got bored and...no, she 
wouldn't signal everyone.  He dug out the small white and red keyboard and
video window, which was about the size of a calculator, then started
heading up the aisle.

	Blushing slightly, Ami got up, quickly checking the message
window on the communicator.  It indicated that her father had hit the
panic button.  Oh no, she thought.  How am I going to get out of school?  

	The fire alarm then went off.  Achika-sensei frowned.  "All
right, everyone evacuate in an orderly fashion."

	As they began to evacuate, Setsuna grabbed them both out of the 
stream of kids in the hall.  "We've got to transform and run to your 
father's house, Ami."

	"But we'll get in trouble," she began, then sighed.  "There goes
my perfect record.  Let's go before it's too late to save...I guess we're 
going to have to teleport."

	"I'd rather not because it takes a lot of energy, but we don't
have time to run ten miles across Tokyo," Setsuna said.  "Off we go."

***********

	"It wasn't until recently that we found a way to get back to
Tokyo," Michiko said.  "I came for you as soon as I could, Kasumi.  I'm
sorry it had to be so long."

	"When do I get to see everyone else?"  Kasumi asked.

	"I can take you with me right now," she said.  "You too, brother.  
And I want to go see Ryoko and let her know I'm alive.  She was like a 
sister to me.  And I'd like to see how Ami has grown up.  She must be
very beautiful like her mother now."

	"I'm very proud of my daughter," Souichiro said.  "She's smarter
than I'll ever be."  Stall for time, he thought.  Stall for time.  "I'll
call Ryoko and see if she's home."

	"Good idea.  It takes a lot of energy to travel between
dimensions, so we should pick everyone up on one go," Michiko said.  

	"Between dimensions?"  Kasumi asked.

	"Everyone else is still back there, doing our usual work,"
Michiko explained.  "We all work for the Queen."

	"Queen BERYL that is," Mercury said.  "Who wants to feed us all
to Metallia and rule the Earth...what will be left of it.  So, you've
come to steal my family, Moonstone?"  She stood in the doorway, flanked
by Pluto and Guardian Saturn.  "Mentioned how your boss freed the Seven
Scourges and slew billions of people?  Venus was once the pearl of the
Solar System, now it's nothing but barren rock and endless acidic storms.
Mars doesn't have an atmosphere any more, and the moons of Jupiter have
been laid waste.  The Shining Towers fell, and everyone was butchered.
Have you told them about THAT?"

	"Serenity destroyed our world!  The Gemworld was a peaceful..."

	"There was no Gemworld!  The Dark Kingdom's armies came from 
the EARTH!"  Pluto said sharply.  "Beryl has filled your mind full of 
lies!"

	"I remember what happened!  I remember Serenity's face, laughing
as we died!  She sacrificed us in her quest to become a goddess!"

	"She did no such thing!"  Pluto fired back.  "It was Beryl who
sought power that was not rightfully hers!  You've had your memories
tampered with!"

	"No, you're just a liar!"

	Lots of inconclusive yelling back and forth followed, finally
ending with Michiko turning to her brother and her daughter, and saying,
"You believe me, don't you?"

 	"Of course I believe you, Mother," Kasumi said, stepping over to
her.  

	Everyone stared at Souichiro, who said softly, "I wish I could
believe you, my sister, but I know you've been tricked.  I've known
something dark and terrible took you almost the moment you vanished."  He
stepped closer to her and offered her a hand.  "I want to believe you
because I don't think my sister would ever willingly serve something
horrible, but I can't believe my own daughter is working for the forces
of evil either.  Do you really think anything Happousai would do could
really send you somewhere that wasn't awful?"

	For long seconds, she stared at him, and Mercury held her breath,
not wanting to fight her aunt, but knowing she couldn't let her take her 
father away either.  Then slowly, Michiko reached out her hand and
clasped Souichiro's.  "My brother, I would never lie to you.  I swear
that all I have told you is true."

	"If it's true, then why do you steal human energy like vampires?"

	She winced.  "Most of us can no longer survive on food, for there
was nothing to eat, only energy to be absorbed in the realm to which
Serenity banished us.  We need enough energy for us all to escape, or we
will gradually wither away, for the last sources of energy are giving
out.  We do what we must to survive."

	He stared at her.  "You're rationalizing.  Why can't you feed on 
animal life force, if you have to do it that way?"

	She shrank slightly under the gaze of his stare.  "It's too low
yield.  Imagine if you had to kill a hundred cows for a single meal for a
single person."

	"With the mineral wealth of your realm, you could buy every cow on 
Earth," he said.

	"It would be hard to..."

	"Harder than running scams to steal people's life force?  Harder
than leaving a trail of destruction and turning people into monsters?"
He tried to rein himself in.  "Do you think Mother would approve of
this?"

	"Mother knew you had to do what you must in a war."

	"So you're at war with humanity."

	"No!"

	"So it's just banditry?"

	"No!  We do what we must to survive!"

 	"So you live entirely on human life force now?  Skulking about and 
feeding on the living?"

	"Mother is not a cannibal!" Kasumi snapped.

	"What else do you call feeding on human beings?"  He snapped back.

	The senshi shifted about, wanting to say something, but afraid to
cut into the family argument.

	Now Kasumi stared at the floor, looking disturbed.

	"You'd understand if you could remember how it was, back then,"  
Michiko said desperately.

	"Whatever Serenity may have done then doesn't justify using
humans as food now," he said.  "This isn't like you, Michiko.  I'm sure
she's done something to you."

	"All she did to me was to help me remember who I really am.  And 
I'm proud of my accomplishments.  I'm the one who found the way to open 
the gateway back to Earth. And I..."

	"Metallia is one of the Seven Scourges!  If that gate isn't
closed, she could escape to..."  Mercury began.

	"If that gate is closed, everyone in the Dark Kingdom will wither
and die.  We'll be trapped forever and slowly dwindle away to nothing if
we're cut off from Earth's energy supplies again." Moonstone said flatly.
"I won't let that happen.  This argument is a waste of time.  We're
leaving."

	"No, wait!"  Mercury said, leaping forward.  "Don't go!"  She 
managed to grab her father's hand just as he, her aunt, and her cousin 
were limned in a purple aura.

 	Time seemed to slow to a crawl as she focused her will, trying to
hold onto her father and keep him from being taken by Michiko.  She felt
as if her arms were going to be pulled off, even though he wasn't
physically moving, but she dug her heels into the carpet and pulled,
shouting something incoherent.  

	There was a pop, and her cousin and aunt vanished.  Her father 
toppled down on top of her, and she nearly bashed her head on the nearby 
coffee table.  "I did it," she whispered.

	He began to cry, and the two warriors of time quietly absented 
themselves to the next room, leaving father and daughter together.

	Guardian Saturn said, "We should have just blasted her."

	"Maybe," Pluto said.  "She probably would have just teleported
and come back in the middle of the night.  She still might.  And if they 
figure out who we all are from this, then we could all be in for a lot of 
trouble."

	"We beat Jadeite."

	"Because he stuck around to fight.  Although maybe if we'd rushed 
her, we might have been able to prevent her teleporting."

	"Geez, where is everyone?"  Saturn asked, looking around.  "They 
should be here by now."

	"They probably didn't think to teleport or else they were too
tired from PE to do it," Pluto said.  

	Saturn sighed.  "We're gonna get our ass kicked at school, and
we didn't manage to stop Moonstone."

	"We saved Ami's father.  That's a victory," Pluto said.

	"He almost got through to her.  If we could have kept her..."

	Pluto took Saturn's hand.  "Don't think about the almosts.  She
won't hurt Kasumi...well, physically, anyway.  We'll have more chances."

	Well, I have to admit I won't mind having an excuse to kick
Kasumi's self-righteous ass, Saturn thought.  "I guess we'd better start
thinking of excuses to give them at school."

	"Ami got a call from home that her house was on fire, so we went 
with her to put it out."

	"That the best you can do?"

	"Maybe we should just not go back, ever," Setsuna said.

	"Ami can claim a family emergency; her cousin got kidnapped.  As 
for you and me...umm...Forget it.  I'll never think of an excuse.  Let's 
just go catch a movie or something, okay?  If we're gonna get in trouble,
at least we can have some fun first."

	"They don't show any movies this early."

	"Dammit, there's got to be something we can do."

	"If my staff wasn't broken, we could get back right after we
left."

	"Wouldn't that create a time paradox?"

	"Not as long as we stay away from our other selves until the
duality vanishes.  Maybe Mr. Mizuno has some movies we could watch here."

	Guardian Uranus and Sailor Mars came running in.  "Sorry we took 
so long. It took a while to get out of class, and then we tried to run 
here before we thought of teleporting, and..."  Uranus said breathlessly.

	"Looks like we'll get to have a big 'Truant Senshi' party," Pluto 
muttered.  

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

	Genma and Grandpa Hino were waiting for them when Ranma, Rei, 
Usagi, Ukyou, and Shampoo got home.  "Your school called, boy."

	"Yours too, Rei," Grandpa said.  "Did you two skip school together?" 
he asked sternly.

	"Yeah, so what?"  Ranma asked, deciding that since he had no good 
excuse, he could at least sink with his flags flying.

	"Good!"  Genma said.  "You should do more things with your 
fiancee."

	The five kids facefaulted.

	"But don't do it again," Grandpa Hino said.  "I told them I
called you home to deal with a family crisis, but I can't kill off a
relative every time you get bored."

	"I think my grandmother has died about seven times," Ukyou said, 
counting on her fingers.  Everyone stared at her.  "Don't tell me you've 
never skipped school."

	"Since you're here, boy, you can warm up for your teaching
tonight!  KIYA!"  Genma launched himself at Ranma, sending everyone else
leaping out of the way.  

	Ranma leaped up and kicked Genma in the head, knocking him 
down.  "I expected that, old man."

	"Good, good, but you'll have to do better."

	Everyone else headed inside to get ready for dinner while father
and son bonded through beatings.

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

	Tsubasa knocked again, hoping he hadn't gone all the way across 
town for nothing.  Just as he was about to give up, the door opened.  
Naoko came to the door, dressed in a light blue blouse and a knee-length
green skirt.  She was wearing small thunderbolt earrings.  "Uh, hi!" she
said, then began to fidget nervously.  "Can I...uh...you want to come in?"

	Tsubasa did a quick check to make sure he wasn't disguised as the
tax man again.  Since he wasn't, he said, "Sure."

	She took him into the living room and got some tea and cookies
from the kitchen.  "My folks are gone for the evening," she said very 
nervously.  "So, what, um...brings you over here?"

	"Hikaru wants Mizuno Ami's phone number, and I was hoping you 
had it."

	She looked a little disappointed.  "Yeah, I can give it to you."

 	I wonder if she wants to... he thought.  Well, maybe I should
find out.  "Hey, about what happened the other night..."

	"Uh huh?"

	"My heart's been given away to someone else, and even though she 
doesn't like me, I can't just give up on her.  But if I could, then I 
would be on you like glue.  You're really attractive."  Should I
reassure her that I don't think she's a slut or anything?, he asked
himself.  I mean, it wasn't her fault or anything.  "I'm not mad because
your mom did that, although I hope she doesn't do that sort of thing very
often.  Hiring ninjas and all that."

	"Mom's not prone to it," she said.  "You really think I'm
attractive?"

	"Yeah, although you tend to dress in ways that doesn't show you
off to best effect."

	"Really?"

	"Yeah."  Ahh, I know what she needs, he thought.  He put down his 
tea.  "Come with me; you shall learn how to dress up at the feet of the 
master."  

	Before she quite knew what he was doing, she was on her way out
of the room in tow behind him.

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

 	Ranma felt just a little nervous teaching classes with his father 
watching him from the porch, but he did his best not to show it.  Right 
now the students were busily sparring.  While he was busy giving tips to
a girl named Maiyama who had just been bested by Ayukawa, he heard one of
his students scream, and in an instant, he crossed the yard with a leap
to where that unfortunate fellow was.

	A quick check revealed that Taisho was down with a possibly broken 
rib.  Hino Yusaku, a cousin of Rei's, was standing over him, gloating.  
"Hah!  That's what you get for saying I punch like a baby!"

 	"Hino!  A true martial artist doesn't hurt people simply because
they taunted him," Ranma snapped.  "You've probably broken a rib."  He
called to his father, "Call a doctor, Pop."

	"Well, I also wanted to see if it would work," Yusaku said.  "Now 
that I know it does..." he cut himself off.

	He's gunning for someone, Ranma quickly intuited.  Probably went 
somewhere and wheedled some special technique out of some sensei, and 
now he's testing it before he uses it on some enemy.  I won't have that 
in my class, he thought.

	"So who are you out to get?"  he asked.

	"Kasu..."  Yusaku's eyes narrowed.  "I am not out to get someone."

	"I'm not teaching the Art to people so they can use it to bully
others,"  Ranma said flatly.  "Who taught you this technique?"

	"None of your business!"

	"I am your teacher!  No one is supposed to get their ribs broken 
deliberately in my classes!  Now, tell me," Ranma said, trying to loom 
over 
the kid, which didn't work well, since he was only slightly taller.  

	"Tell him, Yusaku," the Ayukawa girl said.  Her voice was harsh.
"Or shall I tell Hikaru about how you broke someone's ribs?"

	He winced and backed up.  "Hey, he shouldn't be here if he
doesn't want to risk getting hurt."

	Everything else had ground to a halt, and now they were
surrounded by a circle of students and temple residents.  Gotta do this
right, Ranma thought.  Can't afford to screw it up.  "I think you'd be
singing another tune if YOUR ribs had been the ones on the line," Ranma
said.  "I will NOT tolerate this sort of behavior.  Who taught you this
move and what was it?"

	"It was some kind of weird thing.  He just, like poked the guy's
chest, and suddenly Taisho was down howling," one student offered.

	Probably a pressure point trick, Ranma thought.  Mostly useful 
against people who aren't good at blocking, since if you don't hit 
exactly the right point, it doesn't do anything.  

	"I'm leaving," Yusaku announced.  He turned to go.

	"You're going to apologize for breaking his ribs is what you're
going to do," Ranma said flatly.  "Because if you leave without doing
that, you're never coming back here."

	"You're a lousy teacher, anyway!  I've seen your father slap you 
around, and he's right.  You're sloppy, and you rely too much on being 
faster and stronger than anyone else.  I've got a better teacher now, who
isn't a wimp like you.  So bite me."  He walked away, and the circle of
students parted for him.

	"This isn't like him," Ayukawa muttered worriedly, then more 
harshly said, "Yusaku, if you don't apologize to this boy..."

	"You'll what?  You have a reputation for being tough, but when it 
comes right down to it, you're really as much a wimp as Kasuga.  No 
wonder you like him."  He headed for the steps.  "You're all a bunch of
pansies!  Martial arts isn't for sissy people who worry about being hurt!
It's for crushing your enemies beneath your feet and listening to the
lamentations of their women."

	Ranma had to resist the urge to laugh at that, which was easy,
because his urge to pound Yusaku flat was much, much stronger.  You
little bastard, calling me a pansy!  I am NOT A PANSY!  If a crowd of
students hadn't been watching him, he would have simply attacked him, but
he knew he had to set a good example.  "The Art is for self-defense and
self-mastery, not for beating the crap out of people because you're a
pathetic bully," Ranma said.  "If anyone's here to learn how to maim
people, you can just leave with Yusaku, because that's not what I'm going
to teach.  And if I find out you've attacked Taisho again, or any of my
other students, Yusaku, I will make you regret it."

	Yusaku reached the steps.  "Wimp.  You won't even hit me if I
don't try to strike you first."

 	"Something's wrong with him," Ayukawa whispered to Ranma.  "He's 
NOT normally like this.  He can be a hothead, but he's not a bully, and 
he never got into martial arts to hurt people."

	Then Rei came storming out of the house.  "Yusaku you moron!  
Where the hell are you?"

	An ocean of hands pointed at him, and she strode towards him.  
"Yusaku, you're going to apologize RIGHT NOW!"

	"I am not.  If he can't handle an injury, he shouldn't have been 
sparring with me."  He glared at Rei.  "And this is none of your 
business, so 
get out of my face!"

	"My temple, my business!"  Rei said.  "You want me to call
Grandpa down on your head?  And your parents?  I will!"

	"I'm not afraid of them, and I'm not afraid of you!  He got what
he deserved, and so will..." He cut himself off again.

	"Okay, you asked for it.  Hey, GRANDPA!"  

	Yusaku turned to run, and she grabbed him.  He hefted Rei and 
tossed her at Ranma, who caught her, then ran down the stairs.

	"Yusaku, you coward!  Don't you dare run away!"  Rei shouted.

	Ayukawa simply shook her head.  I've got a bad feeling about
this, she thought.

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

	Back at Naoko's house, she looked at herself in the mirror.  Her
face had been washed clean and makeup applied in an expert manner,
softening her somewhat sharp cheekbones and drawing attention to her
bright eyes.  She wore a peach blouse with a high neck and very short
sleeves, along with a matching skirt that went down to just above her
knees.  "Don't guys like it when you show off your cleavage?" she asked.

	"Only if it's impressive.  Otherwise, it looks like you forgot to
button your shirt.  You've got some of the best arms and legs I've ever
seen," he said, squeezing one of her muscled arms to demonstrate, "But
all that exercise means you don't have very large breasts.  So you don't
want to rely on them to draw men in.  This way, you combine a certain
amount of demureness with showing off your best assets.  Well, your best
asset after your smile."

	She smiled at him.  "Do you think he'll like this, then?"

	"It would help if I knew who 'he' was," Tsubasa said.

	Gulping nervously, she whispered, "His name is Ranma."

	He looked at her thoughtfully.  "Well, he does like athletic
women, but really, you ought to try for some guy who is a little less
taken."

	She sagged.  "I know.  I'd have more luck trying to get SMAP to fall 
in love with me."

	"Or CLAMP."

	"Or the Prime Minister."  She sat down on a handy chair.  "I just 
don't know what to do."

	"I don't know.  I wish I knew what to do about Ukyou, myself."  He
looked thoughtful for a moment.  "Well, I propose an alliance.  We both
need to break Ukyou and Ranma up if either of us is going to get the one
we want."

	"Well, I also need to get rid of all the others too."

	"I'm sure we can come up with some sort of plan if we put our
minds to it.  Let's get some paper and start brainstorming.  Or at least
braindrizzling."

	Naoko laughed.  "You really think we can do this?"

	"We'll never know if we never try."

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

	Later, Ranma sat on the porch, drinking tea and wondering if he'd 
done the right thing.  Maybe I should have pounded him flat.  He'd gotten 
a tongue lashing from Taisho's parents for not doing that, and they'd 
withdrawn him from the class.  Most of the other students hadn't said 
much, although the Ayukawa girl had told him she'd see about trying to
get Yusaku to apologize.

	Genma came up to him.  "Thinking about the boy?"

	"Yeah."

	"You did the right thing.  Beating him up would just be bullying,
and you couldn't let him stay.  What I suggest you do is train Taisho to
be able to beat that move, and let him settle matters with the boy
himself.  Otherwise, he'll always be wondering when Yusaku might come
after him again.  And find out who it is that Yusaku wants to beat up with
his new trick."

	"And I wanna know who taught it to him.  And what exactly it was.  
Did you see it, Pop?"

	"Somewhat like a pressure point move, but..."

	"But what?"

	Genma poked Ranma's chest.  "Got any broken ribs?"

	"No."

	"That's exactly where he poked.  Now maybe if I poked hard
enough, but...it didn't look like a hard blow."

	Ranma frowned.  "Are you sure you saw it right?"

	"Yes.  Had to be the Bone Breaker, but...He's not good enough to 
pull it off.  You need intense chi training, and there's five other moves 
you have to master first.  There's no way someone could quickly teach it 
without going through the preliminaries, which would take months or
years.  Plus, the boy doesn't have the kind of movement style of a true
chi master."  Genma got up.  "I will begin making inquiries tomorrow."

	"Thanks, Pop."

	He grabbed Ranma and tossed him airborne, "You need to be more 
alert.  Now, try to stop this!"  He followed up by leaping after Ranma.

	Grandpa came out and watched them go at it.  You left out another 
possibility, he thought.  The boy may be under the sway of an evil 
spirit.  Time to call his parents, I think.

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

	Gosunkugi very, very hesitantly knocked on the door, afraid Ken 
would be home, but wanting to know if Tsubasa was back yet.

	Ken opened the door, saw him, and screamed incoherently.  
Gosunkugi responded by also shouting in panic and running away as 
memories of their last encounter flooded his mind.  Doors flew open and 
people stuck their heads out, watching him go.

	Ken closed the door and staggered back to his bed.  Why am I being 
such a total freak over this, he asked himself.  It's not like I chose to 
have mad, passionate sex with Gosunkugi of my own free will.  He
shuddered, trying to clear various images from his mind.  

	I need a woman, he decided.  I need to find someone, have mad 
passionate sex, and get the poster boy for creepiness out of my head.  Or 
at least have a date.  Maybe Rei will go out with me.  She's cute.  That 
Naru girl was kinda cute too.  

	He got a piece of paper and started listing dating possibilities
for himself, and soon he felt much better.

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

	"I don't need a bodyguard, Saotome," Grandpa said for the tenth 
time as he walked down the street toward the house of his nephew.

	"Yes you do," Genma repeated.  "If the boy can do a Bone Breaker, 
then I have to be here to protect you."

	"I can protect myself."

	"I could never forgive myself if I let you go into danger alone," 
Genma said.  "I owe you."

	"Well, it does no harm," Grandpa said.  "And some of the rites do 
work better with an assistant.  Do you still remember the Exorcism of the 
Single Flame?"

	"You're not going to make me wear the candle, are you?"  Genma 
asked nervously.

	"I see you do remember it."

	They bantered back and forth until finally they reached the right 
house.  Grandpa Hino knocked on the door.  A middle-aged man, short and 
stout in a nice suit, answered the door.  "Uncle!"

	"Good to see you, Hayao.  I'm here to see if I can help your son."

	"I should have told you about this sooner," he said.  "Yusaku has
just been out of control lately.  I don't know why, and he won't explain,
but he obsessively practices martial arts, and he keeps breaking things
in the backyard."

	"What sort of things?"  Genma asked.

	"Mostly boards and dummies made up to look like a dark haired boy 
in the uniform of his school.  I suppose he must be mad at the fellow for 
some reason."

	"You should have called me earlier," he said.  "Is he in his
room?"

	"He's in the backyard."

	Genma and Grandpa went to the backyard, where Yusaku was busy 
turning bricks into rubble.  He looked over at them.  "Hello, 
Grandfather."

	"Yusaku, you broke a boy's ribs.  You need to apologize to him," 
Grandpa said.  

	"He deserved it for being weak," Yusaku said.  

	"So if someone broke your ribs, you'd deserve it?"  Genma asked.

 	"Yeah, but no one's good enough to do that," Yusaku said proudly.

	Genma cracked his knuckles.  "Let's put that to the test."

	Grandpa put a hand on Genma's shoulder.  "Breaking his ribs won't 
solve anything."

	"People who talk about the weak deserving what happens to them 
tend to shut up when they get pounded flat themselves," Genma said, 
striding forward.  "Prepare for the Wrath of Heaven, boy."

	Yusaku got into a fighting stance.  

	Genma studied him.  The boy doesn't move as if he has the skill
to pull off the Bone Breaker.  It must be some sort of trick.  He assumed 
his own battle stance, which strongly resembled a lazy slouch.  

	Yusaku charged to the attack, and Genma gave ground, dodging the 
blows easily, and parrying the few that showed any danger of hitting him.  
He quickly discerned, however, that Yusaku was slowly speeding up as he 
got angrier.  "Stop running and FIGHT me!"

	"You want to be hit?"  Genma asked.

	"This isn't the hundred yards dash!"

	"Fine."  Genma rolled to one side of the boy and swept his legs,
then flipped back away from Yusaku onto his feet.  "Your turn."

	Yusaku got up and snarled, then charged foward, striking wildly.  
Genma avoided the blows, but one of them hit a small tree and snapped it 
in half.  

	He must be very strong, Genma thought, to break a tree with such a 
clumsy blow.

	"Stop playing with him," Grandpa said, sighing.

	Genma tried to decide whether he should risk letting the boy get
a blow in, then decided he could try to extract the secret from the boy 
once he was beaten; he didn't like having his own ribs broken.  He
retreated towards the house, then used it to springboard a double flip
over Yusaku, followed by a roundhouse kick from behind that drove him
into the wall.  

	He followed up with a barrage of punches, keeping him pinned to
the wall.  Yusaku's ability to take punishment impressed him, so he added 
more force.

	Then Yusaku gave a great scream of rage, and an glowing red aura 
surrounded him.  It felt like flame, and Genma instinctively leaped back.  
Yusaku turned around, his face a twisted mask of hate that made Genma 
nervous.  He gave a great incoherent cry, and then he began to swell, 
growing larger and turning a deep purple, sprouting tusks and a strange
character on his forehead. 

	Grandpa reacted swiftly, slapping an evil ward onto his forehead,
and the transformation halted, leaving Yusaku-Oni frozen.  

	Then a voice spoke from above.  "I can't have you doing that to 
Wrath," the man said.  Grandpa turned and saw a man with long wavy hair, 
wearing a snazzy grey and red uniform, floating in the air above him.  A 
strange ten foot tall armored warrior hovered in the air next to him.  
"Avarice, deal with the fat old man.  I'll deal with this."

	Avarice opened fire with a barrage of razor edged hundred yen
coins, sending Genma running for cover.  Meanwhile, the uniformed man
fired a bolt of silver energy at Grandpa, who also ducked for cover.  The
man then levitated down and pulled the strip from Wrath's forehead, and
somehow reached into Wrath's chest without damaging it, removing an
orange gem.  


	Then Grandpa kicked him in the butt, knocking him off his feet,
and the gem into the air.  He leaped and caught it.  "I don't know what
this is, but I can't let you..."  His sentence was interrupted by Wrath
kicking him halfway across the yard.  The gem went flying, and the
uniformed man caught it.

	"Very nice.  Wrath, you are free to take your revenge, then you
must return to serve me.  Avarice, attend me."

	Avarice finished barraging Genma, retreating to the uniformed
man's side.

	"Who are you and why are you doing this?"  Genma demanded.

	"The Stars Rule All," the uniformed man said.  "I but do their
will.  You may call me Nephrite."  He then vanished with Avarice.

	Wrath turned to Grandpa and Genma, and grinned a hideous, toothy 
grin, cracking his knuckles.

	Genma said, "Hino-sama, get out of here!"

	Instead, Grandpa charged Wrath, dodging two swift punches from 
Wrath and slapped another spirit ward on his forehead.  Wrath tore it off 
and ate it.  Grandpa's eyes widened, then widened more as Wrath broke his 
right arm with a simple poke.  Grandpa collapsed from the shock.

	Genma charged, then rolled past Wrath to make him turn.  Sliding 
between the massive oni-like being's legs, he grabbed Grandpa and ran 
into the house, doing his best to not make the arm worse.  "Call a
doctor.  Better yet, you'd best take him to one."

	"What's going on?"  Yusaku's mother asked semi-hysterically.

	"I'm about to cover your retreat.  Take him and go!"  Genma 
frowned at the thought of the beating he was about to recieve.  He would 
have simply run for his life if it had been anyone else besides Hino-sama 
(or his son), but he couldn't leave him to the monster's tender mercies.
I will find that sorceror and make him pay for this, he thought.
Somehow.

	He charged out the door just before Wrath could come batter his 
way in.  Throwing everything he had into a full leaping kick, he managed 
to knock Wrath off his feet and across the yard into the pile of bricks.  
They shattered as Wrath got up.

	Genma pressed his attack, getting in more punches and kicks, and
at first he thought he was going to win.  Then he realized that Wrath had 
simply closed his eyes and was focusing himself.  The character on 
Wrath's forehead flared, blinding Genma for a few crucial seconds.

	During those seconds, Wrath grabbed his right arm, and he felt it 
break.  That shut Genma down for several more seconds, as he briefly 
panicked due to the realization that Wrath had done that without even 
having to apply much real force to his arm.  He must be able to shatter 
bones with a touch, Genma thought.  

	I need speed, he thought.  Unfortunately, I'm not built for quick 
movement.  Not at the level I need.  But maybe I can still fight a mobile 
enough battle.  Just can't let him touch my legs under any condition.

	He grabbed the top part of the small tree that had been broken 
earlier, and using it to extend his reach, managed to keep parrying 
Wrath's blows until finally he heard the family car pull out.  

	Quickly, he leaped away onto the roof of the house, hoping Wrath 
couldn't follow.  I need to find some way to get reinforcements, Genma 
thought.  Those Amazons will finally come in handy.  

	"You want a fight?  Come and get me!"  he said.

	Wrath followed him out to the street, then turned and ran the
wrong way.  Genma tried chasing after him, but Wrath managed to lose him
after a long chase.  Time to go get help, he thought, although the
necessity of it galled him.  Although how we're going to...ahah, I bet
he'll show up on the news.

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

	"He turned into a bone-breaking monster?"  Usagi asked, surprised.

	"Where's Grandpa?"  Rei demanded.

	"Hino-san took Hino-sama to a doctor.  And I need to see one too 
for my arm."  He winced; he'd rigged up a sling, but he was going to need 
a cast, he knew.

	"Dammit, I should have pounded him flat while I could," Ranma 
said.

	"Well, you'll get your chance, boy.  Once I get a better sling
rigged up, we'll go get him."

	"You shouldn't fight with your arm broken," Rei said.  "I'll make
you a sling, but then you're going to a doctor."

	"I have to stop him."  Genma's conscience and sense of self-
preservation warred.  "But I suppose going to a doctor wouldn't hurt."

	"Rei, take him to Dr. Tofu," Ranma said.  "The rest of us will
find this...Wrath."

	Rei frowned.  "I should..."

 	"Come on, Rei," Genma said.  "I want to go too, but I need to take 
care of this arm first." 

	She frowned and gave in.

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

	"I have a lock on him," Mercury said.  The Senshi were up on a 
rooftop from which they had a good view of Juuban.  

	"Good.  Let's get moving," Guardian Saturn said.  "Where's he 
heading for?"

	"He's moving down Twentieth," Mercury said.  "He must be going 
roof to roof, or else going THROUGH buildings."

	"I have a friend who lives near there," Neptune said.  "I hope
she doesn't get stuck in the middle of this."

	"He's probably after Kasuga Kyousuke, so your friend is likely
okay,"  Guardian Saturn said.

	They got moving, and Luna said, "This could be one of the Seven 
Shadows, so we have to be careful."

	"Where'd he come from?"

	"Queen Serenity sealed them away with the Silver Crystal, which 
broke into pieces to keep them sealed.  This means we might be able to 
recover the pieces, but it also means the Dark Kingdom might get them as 
well.  Each Shadow and Rainbow Crystal is sealed inside someone."

 	"They don't die if the monster is freed, do they?"  Sailor Moon
asked nervously.

	"No, they turn into the Shadow.  Which means you have to turn 
them back instead of killing them."

	"How?"  Sailor Neptune asked.  "Our powers are good for killing
and maiming, not transforming."

 	"Once you weaken the Shadow enough so it can't fight off the
effect, Sailor Moon can focus her power through her transformation brooch
and drive out the evil energies, turning them back to normal."

	"How?"

	"I'm sure it will come back to you."  Because I have no clue how 
exactly it works, Luna thought.

***********

	Kasuga Kyousuke sat in Bobson's Ice Cream with Hiyama Hikaru, his 
pseudo-girlfriend.  She was gushing over how wonderful her sundae was 
while his mind drifted elsewhere and his mouth ate his chocolate cone on 
automatic.  

	When the front window shattered, he and Hikaru both dived under 
the table, and ended up in a panicked embrace.  She snuggled up to him 
while he peeked out.  A huge purple-skinned oni with the character for 
'Wrath' on his forehead had just smashed its way in and was looking 
around.  

	"What is it?"  Hikaru whimpered.

	"Some kind of strange monster," he replied.  "Be very quiet and 
hopefully, it won't notice us."

	"KASUGA, I CAN SMELL YOU!  SHOW YOUR COWARDLY FACE!"

	Kyousuke winced.  I'm in serious trouble, he thought.  I could 
teleport, but then Hikaru would know about my psychic powers and...but it 
beats us both dying.

	Before he could make up his mind, a female voice shouted, "Come 
out with your hands up!  Your rampage is over, Wrath!  The Sailor Senshi 
are here, and we're shutting you down!  I am the Lovely Sailor Soldier
Moon, and in the name of the Moon, I'll punish you!"

	"And the Guardians of Earth are here too!"  Guardian Uranus 
shouted, wishing she'd thought of a good speech.

	"And one angry Amazon," Shampoo said.  

	Wrath ignored them and continued his search, smashing up the place 
in the process.  This lasted until Sailor Moon and Shampoo both shot 
arrowsat him (a Moon Bolt and a crude electro-arrow, one of the first of 
Mercury's designs), which got his attention.  He turned and charged,
shrugging off the arrows, a Dead Scream from Pluto, a Retributive Strike 
from Prudence, and a Deep Submerge from Neptune.  Guardian Saturn 
resolved to learn a ranged attack while Guardian Uranus bounced spatulas 
off Wrath in a futile manner.  Mercury pulled back and began running a
scan for weak points and a second scan for the targets of his anger.

	As per the worked out plan, Guardian Uranus enaged him with her 
Mega-Spatula, using its superior length to keep him too far away to touch 
her, while most of the Senshi and Guardian Saturn began evacuating 
people.  

	Wrath finally got hold of the mega-spatula and folded it into a 
donut, so Guardian Uranus summoned up a sword, resolving to figure out 
how to conjure a mega-spatula in the future, since she prefered fighting 
with one.  For one thing, it didn't give her as much of a reach
advantage, and now she had to give ground heavily to avoid letting him
touch her and break a bone.  

	To her regret, she found herself backed up against a wall.  
Damnation, she thought.  "Hey, look, it's Kyousuke!"  she shouted.

	He turned and looked, and she rolled to one side and got past him.  
He gave chase, and then Mercury shouted, "He's got a glass jaw!"

	Another barrage of attacks tried to nail his jaw, but didn't have
any luck, since precision was not the strong point of any of their
powers.  Senshi scattered in every direction as he closed in, except for
Shampoo, who simply stood her ground, grinning and shouting taunts at
him.  "Ugly tattoo boy, come and fight Shampoo, if you not too chicken!"

	"Big sister, he's going to..."  Sailor Moon began.

	He closed in on her, still chasing Ukyou, who simply leaped over 
Shampoo, shouting, "Run, Shampoo, run!"

	As he closed in on her, Shampoo grasped the silliest of the
prototype arrows, the one she'd only taken along because her little
sister had insisted on it, due to reading too many comic books.  Perhaps
little sister had a premonition, Shampoo thought.  The arrow had a range
of maybe five feet at best and was about as aerodynamic as an angry cow,
but five feet was all she would need.

	Swiftly, she reached back, took the arrow, nocked it, and let it
fly at Wrath's jaw.  The purple boxing glove full of heavy weights which
served as the arrow's head smacked it at an angle, and sent him sprawling
as his feet and legs tried to keep going.  As he laid on the ground,
dazed, Shampoo shouted, "Do it now, Sailor Moon!"

	Sailor Moon leaped down, praying she would be able to get this to 
work.  Words came to her mind as she grasped her brooch with one hand.  
"MOON HEALING ESCALATION!"  A yellow crescent moon opened on 
her forehead like a third eye, and pure yellow light shone forth from it, 
turning Wrath back into Hino Yusaku.  She sagged to her knees, exhausted.  
"I did it."

	"Looks like someone already got his Rainbow Crystal," Mercury said.  
"I'm going to work out a program to search for the rest, so we can try to 
get them before Nephrite does."

	Hikaru came staggering out of the building with Kyousuke.  "That 
was Yusaku?"

	Guardian Saturn nodded.  "That's him.  You know this punk 
monkey?"

	"Yes, but he never turned into a monster before."

	"An evil man named Nephrite did this to him," Pluto said.  "He 
should be fine now."

	"Who are you?"  Kyousuke asked.

	"We're the Sailor Senshi, defenders of the Earth, fighting for a
better future," Sailor Moon said.  "Can you get Yusaku home?"

	Kyousuke nodded.  "We will."

	"Thanks," she said.  "We'd better go check on Grandpa and..."

	"We'd better learn to keep our secret identities secret," Pluto
said sharply.

	"Oh yeah.  Bye!"  Sailor Moon said to Kyousuke and Hikaru, and 
then they took off.

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

	That evening, Genma and Grandpa lay about the house, complaining 
about their injuries.  After an hour of that, Rei reached the point where 
she couldn't take it any more and went outside to feed her ravens.
"C'mere, Demos and Phobos," she shouted, scattering seed for them.

	'We're coming,' Demos said.

	Rei started.  "I'll be imagining the tub is talking to me next,"
she muttered.

	'No, you've just finally awakened enough to talk to our souls',
Phobos said while Demos started stuffing his face.  'Demos, don't be a
glutton.'  She could hear him cawing at the same time as his deep voice
echoed in her ears.

	"I can talk to animals now?"

	'Those you know well.  Eventually, you'll be able to talk to any
spirit.  Of course, a lot of them have nothing to say.  You're not
just...DEMOS, LEAVE ME SOME FOOD!'

	Demos tried to look innocent, which isn't easy for a raven.  
'Nevermore?'

	'Excuse me, I must stomp Demos.'  Phobos and Demos began 
fighting full force over the scattered seeds, while Rei laughed.

	That's kind of cool, she thought.  Although one thing I need to
learn is how to make the spirits NOT talk to me.

	She started when Ranma said, "Pop didn't give you any trouble, did 
he?"

	"No, he was a good patient," she said.  "I wanted to go fight
Wrath, though."

	"We should have gotten Mamoru from the hospital, too.  We need to 
give him a communicator."

	Rei nodded.  "Get Luna to get him one."  She looked off towards
the house.  "Sooner or later, we're gonna have to tell Grandpa and your
dad."


	"Yeah, I know.  They feel better knowing Yusaku got stopped before 
he could hurt anyone, though.  But I suspect he's gonna get his butt 
kicked again once they're up to it.  We still need to find out where he
got his special training."  Ranma frowned.   "They wouldn't have been
hurt if I'd dealt with him when he disrupted the class."

	"You couldn't know, Ranma," Rei said.  "You did the right thing.
If you'd beaten him up, it would have just looked like bullying.  I think 
expelling him and making sure his parents knew why was the right thing to 
do."

	"Thanks," he said, brightening up.  "Did you ask Shampoo about..."

	"She said Amazons don't have quickie divorces for women."

	"Damn.  Well, never mind," he said, sighing.  "I guess I'll just
have to come up with another plan."

	"I wish we could just date without having to all worry about
getting married," Rei said very, very hesitantly.  She could feel her
heart start beating faster.  

	"Me too," he said, and she felt her heart speed up more.  Did it
mean he wanted to date her?  Or just that he wanted to be free to date
someone else?

	"I mean, I'd do it if it would do any good, because then we'd
both be free to...you know.  Without having to think of marriage or
anything.  I mean, we're just in high school."  Her brain began carefully
turning into mush.  

	"Yeah.  I wish I knew if I really liked Setsuna or if it's all
just the Bastard's work.  I mean, sometimes I want to just grab her and
run off to a dark corner and just make out like wild dogs, but I can't
tell if..."  Ranma rambled on, not really aware of the reaction he was
inducing in Rei.

	Still the same self-centered bastard he's always been, Eowyn
said.  You should give up on him and hook up with Serenity.

	Rei growled at both of them.  "Are you going to let him tell you
how to live your life?"

	"No, but I mean, what if...I just can't tell what I really feel
as long as I know he's able to make me feel stuff.  I hardly really know
Setsuna, but sometimes it's like I've known her forever.  And...shut up,
Bastard.  This is Rei, not Eowyn!" he snapped, then sighed.  "Bastard is
trying to tell me to tell you off."

	"Yeah, Eowyn won't shut up either," Rei said, feeling a burst of 
sympathy for Ranma.  "Of course, you know what would really piss them 
both off."

	"Eh?"  The realization struck him.  "I...uh...I got yelled at the
last time I did something like that, just to..."

	She stepped forward, feeling bold, and took his hand.  "You owe
me a kiss anyway.  I want to know how a man kisses."  I want to figure
out how not to sound so cheesy, she thought.  "Kiss me, Ranma."

	Watching him sweat and come apart, she wondered how he could 
have ever kissed Ukyou on the roof.  "Well, uh, I guess..."  Then 
something switched on in him, and his face resumed his usual confidence.
She wondered if he was putting up a front, or if he really DID want to
kiss her and was glad for the excuse.  

	He swept her into a kiss that shocked her with its passion, his
arms embracing her, and his lips pressing hers so hard she would have
fallen down if he wasn't holding her up.  After her shock wore off, she
embraced him and returned the kiss.  It felt wonderful, and she felt her
body stir.  Reluctantly, she broke it off before her body started writing
checks that weren't going to be honored.  The fantasy that briefly
flitted through her mind of having Ranma and Usagi at the same time
confirmed her in her decision, though she wanted to kiss him more.

	He gulped as she stepped back.  "Wow."

	She smiled.  "I feel better now."

	"Glad to, uh...have been helpful."

	"I'd better go do my homework now, and so should you.  Talk to 
you later, Ranma," she said, skipping off before she could do something 
she might regret, leaving him staring after her with his mouth open.

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

	Nephrite sat in his 'cathedral of the stars' and frowned.  Two
Rainbow Crystals gained, but the Senshi had defeated Wrath before he
could unlock his full power by fulfilling the drive which had shattered
the lock on his old self.  There was reason to believe the Senshi would
now know of the Crystals' existence as well.  Still, the Crystals were
more important than the Shadows, and once he had all of them, he could
reawaken any reimprisoned Shadows.

	"Emerald, attend me," he announced.

	Emerald, one of the youma forced on him by Beryl came in.  Tall 
and thin with long green hair, light green skin and a predilection for 
wearing brown clothing, she reminded him of a tree come to life.  "What?"
she demanded.  "I was busy collecting energy like you told me to do."
She was also rather rude.

	"Go to Beryl and tell her I have two of the crystals and a lead
on the third."

	"Where do you hope to find it?"  Emerald asked.

	"Loose lips sink ships," he replied.  "Just tell her what I told you, 
then return to your duties."

	"I don't see how gathering energy will lead us to..."

	"You're not here to think," Nephrite said.  "Now, GO."

	In a flashy spray of green light, she left.  Wasteful, he thought.  
We're not here to show off.  Still, she does do a very good job of collecting 
energy.  I shall have to enquire as to who trained her and congratulate
them.

	He summoned the image of his next target, studying it carefully,
and wondering how one of the shadows could have been reborn as such an 
innocent looking little girl.  Still, not every book has an honest cover, 
he thought.  Perhaps she pulls the wings off of flies in her spare time.
He shrugged.  I follow the will of the stars, he thought.  But I don't 
always understand it.


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

"The connection is so abstract, that we have people whose job 
it is to make sure the paperwork doesn't get totally disconnected 
from the world.  Theoretically, I handle millions of dollars a day, 
but it is less real than this e-mail. I have never seen our product. 
I have never seen the sales people.  I have never seen a customer."
--Robert Lane describes his work as an accountant.




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