Here's the next two.  I'm pretty convinced nobody reads this, aside from
the few who've already read the whole thing, but I suppose I'll finish
just for completeness' sake.  Five more chapters to go.

As always, http://bloodgod.res.cmu.edu/smgray/index.html is the
homepage.  Tell me if there are any problems with it.

Random note: I'm writing a sequel, mostly as practice for myself in a
few different modes.  Anyone interested in prereading give me a private
message.

All the usual caveats apply.  As usual, [] is character thought and **
is emphasis.

Oh, and anime/movie references abound, if you haven't already figured
that out...

Chapter Nine
     In which defeat is snatched from the jaws of victory, Hotaru
releases some pent-up aggression, and Rei puts basic biology to work.
=20

     Her eyelids felt like they'd been dipped in glue.  Returning to
awareness was a desperate struggle, like a drowning man clawing for air,
trying to force a way past the shimmering surface.  The pain returned in
the space of breath, flaring as she moved and threatening to drown her
once again.

     Rei lifted her head, gingerly, and ran a brief mental
self-inventory.  Her side hurt the worst, a dull, numbing ache that
shifted as she turned over.  Aside from that, her arms and legs felt
bruised; she had a vague memory of raising them in defense as the
basement floor approached.  Almost unbelievably, that was it.  She
tested her hands, carefully.  [Nothing *feels* broken.  I must have
landed on something...soft...]

     The rough floor underneath shifted slightly.  Her eyes were rapidly
adjusting to the almost-total darkness; a wan emergency bulb burned
somewhere nearby, around a corner, throwing long, menacing shadows.
What she'd taken for the floor of the basement was a deep mat of green,
a thousand thousand tendrils interwoven into a kind of spongy mass that,
judging from its height against the walls, was at least a few feet deep.
She could feel the things moving around underneath her, tiny tentacles
squirming and rustling around her legs, her arm, wherever they met an
obstruction.  Rei closed her eyes again.

     [I'm not going to scream.  I'm not going to scream.]

     It was also hot, uncomfortably so.  Sweat started to blossom as she
slowly turned over, put her back against a wall, and pulled herself up
to a sitting position.  A couple of curious tendrils followed, but she
batted them away gingerly and they did not seem inclined to return.

     [Ow].  Every motion made her head throb, her side ache.  [I wonder
if my ribs are cracked.]

     Another few moments passed as she sat in silent reverie; then Rei
blinked, shook her head, and squeezed her eyes.  [Concentrate.  I can
ache after we win.  Now, where am I?]

     The light, such as it was, did not reveal much about the room, and
its being half-covered in green shoots didn't help.  A couple of massive
round objects squatted in one corner, covered in a thick layer of grime
and sprouting pipes that burrowed up into the ceiling.  A workstation
next to them, marginally cleaner, was covered with dials and gauges.  As
she listened, she became aware of a rhythmic thumping sound, accompanied
by a sort of continual whir.

     [Pipes, and pumping.  And heat.  This is the boiler room, then.  So
where are the stairs?]

     She stood up, unsteadily, and picked her way across the surface of
the green stuff.  It was creepy to walk on, but not actually all that
difficult.  Only a few shoots near her feet moved as she stepped, and by
progressing quickly she stayed on steady ground.  The boiler room had
two exits; picking the one to the left arbitrarily, Rei grabbed the
doorframe as soon as she could and peered around the corner. =20

     The next room was better lit, and dominated by a massive pit in its
center.  All the furniture had gathered at the walls, pushed aside by
the massive tide of green that had flowed out along the floor.  Several
tentacles, each about the twice the thickness of a telephone pole, swept
up out of the hole and up the stairwell; another pair burrowed their way
into the ceiling.  The staircase was nowhere to be seen.

     [That thing looks like it climbed out of that pit.  Did Resh find
it in here, I wonder?]  She shook her head again.  [Find the others
first.  The plant seems to have lost interest in me for the moment.]

[     ]She picked her way back across the boiler room to the other door
and was relieved to see the gunmetal-gray staircase, covered in a thick
coat of green shoots.  [Walking that is going to be difficult, but if it
doesn't move...]  Rei stepped out, carefully.  =20

     From the first few steps she realized something was wrong.  As she
approached the stairs, a couple of the big tentacles stirred and shifted
in her direction.  Before she'd gone more than a dozen steps, they were
in the air, snapping forward with eye-blurring speed.  She dove aside
just in time, sighting upwards against the tendril.

     "Mars Flame Sniper!"

     The bolt blew the thing apart in a spray of juices, but more of the
big ones were moving.  Rei backed up to the doorframe as they
approached, unwilling to go any farther; the thought of all those tiny
shoots covering her body was too disgusting to contemplate.  Another
blast of flame smashed one, but the vines were weaving into a sold
barrier even as they struck at her.  Without much of another option, Rei
jumped up to the unstable green floor of the boiler room, silently
willing her legs not to sink into the mass.

     They didn't, and she scrambled backwards as the large tentacles
came through the doorway.  Rei braced for another attack, but it didn't
come--the thing moved from side to side, searching, and finally withdrew
through the doorway as though it had missed what it was looking for.
She stared after it, thinking furiously.

     [It didn't hit me.  Why?]  The thing had certainly tried to strike
her when she'd gone for the stairwell.  [So it wants to keep me down
here?  That doesn't make any sense, it could have just had the little
ones tie me up while I was out.  Plus it doesn't seem smart enough for
something like that.]

     [So why?]

     The answer came as the boiler pumps pulsed again.  [Because it
can't find me.  No eyes.  The damn thing is hunting by heat.]

     [Does that help me get out?]

     She glanced up at the staircase, now filled top to bottom with a
sold web of tentacles.  [Not going to happen, huh?  I could bust through
the ceiling, but that might bring the whole place down on top of me.
What else?]

     Another nagging thought came to her.  [It's green, it moves by
growing tentacles, no visible features.  It seems to be filled with sap;
this is clearly a plant.  So what?]

     Despite the heat and the continuing pain, Rei smiled.  [I have an
idea.]

     The building shook, faintly, and she could hear an echoing boom.

=20

     Another block of tentacles, all woven together, whipped forward
with the speed of a striking snake.  Shard sidestepped casually, aiming
at the point where the stalk connected to the floor and firing a long
burst.  Detonations rocked the floor as the explosive rounds tore up
marble and plant indiscriminately, leaving a ten foot trench and a
severed stalk, leaking juices.  The mass of tendrils dropped to the
floor, twitching reflexively.  Shard drew his left-hand gun to match his
right and shouted into the dust-filled darkness.

     "Resh!  Get your ass out here!"

     "Shard."  The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.  "How
nice of you to join my little operation."

     "Resh!"

     Vines rustled again, and the bounty hunter leveled his gun without
thinking before he recognized human forms cradled in the branches.
Three young girls hung suspended from a web of tendrils, tentacles
wrapped their wrist and ankles and around their faces in a kind of gag.
Two of them were unmoving, unconscious or dead; the brown-haired one was
covered with char and burns.  The one in the center, the blonde, was
awake.  Frightened eyes found Shard's immediately.

     "As you can see, my friend, I have the situation well in hand.
Your services are not necessary."

     Shard's aim didn't waver, though his eyes wandered, searching for a
hint of the vampire's presence.  "Where is she?"

     "'She?'  You mean the last one?"  A dry chuckle floated across the
darkened lobby.  "I'm afraid my little friend got a bit rough with her.
Once I get these delivered, I'll go pick up the bits."

     Another sledge-hammer weight tentacle had been creeping quietly
along the floor; now it sprung forward.  Shard shifted his weight and
fired, the explosive shells tearing through its mass and sending bits in
all directions as it disintegrated.  Resh laughed again.

     "Shard, this is not exactly what I'd call backing me up.  Might I
enquire what you're up to?"

     "You know what I want.  Just give me the girl and you can keep the
rest of them."

     "I think my friends vaunted ice-cold fa=E7ade has cracked a little!
Fallen in love with a guardian, at that.  What fun.  Or was she just so
good in bed you can't bear to give her up?"  The voice faded, then
returned in a whisper, right behind his ear.  "What do you say, Shard?
Shall I give you her heart?  Or perhaps an arm, or a leg?  Or maybe I
should have a snack first.  I don't know if you've ever slept with a
vampire, but believe me, you don't have to be warm to have fun..."

     The bounty hunter whirled, aiming his explosive rounds; Resh
latched onto his wrist, jerking the pistol's aim upwards.  At the same
time, though, Shard's other hand swung the second gun towards the
vampire and squeezed the trigger, unleashing a hail of silver-tipped
death.  Resh saw it coming a second too soon, twisting sideways so fast
he blurred and letting go of Shard's hand.  The bounty hunter scrambled
back, firing from cover; the blasts stitched a pattern in the floor as
Resh vaulted backwards, still laughing.  Tentacles all over the room
swung inwards, and Shard cursed and dove aside as another pair of
massive stalks slashed towards him.  More were coming, and he dodged
again, trying to get to the doorway.

     The vampire had regained his feet, over by the captive guardians.
He patted the center one on the shoulder possessively, running one hand
up and down her neck and brushing her hair to the side.  "You're not
getting out that easily.  We're going to see what Iylitrio has to say
about your change of mission priorities.  I hate to admit it, but
whatever I can do probably pales in comparison to what he can dream up.
Humans are so imaginative."

     More vines wound round, and one of Shard's dodges ended badly.  He
hit the floor in a roll that ended against one of the big tentacles.
Before he could regain his feet, tiny shoots sprang out and ensnared
him, twisting around his wrists until he dropped his pistols in agony. =20

     "This is over, Shard."  The vampire used his smile to good effect.

     The bounty hunter licked a trickle of blood from his split lip.
"You're pathetic, Resh."

     "Oh?"

     "If Iylitrio hadn't given you the seed for the infinity vine, you'd
be nothing.  You'd never have gotten this far.  You can't fight me
without it."

     Resh paused a moment, then his smile broadened.  "Trying to bait
me?  I think we're both beyond that.  You know as well as I that in a
situation like this"--he waved vaguely--"one uses whatever comes to
hand."

=20

     The building was an old apartment.  It had probably been the height
of fashion the day it was built, and possibly for as long as a week
afterwards, meant to shore up a sagging neighborhood from a slide into
slumdom.  It hadn't worked, and now the empty building towered over its
crumbling neighbors like a destitute king and his beggar retinue.  Holes
gaped where the windows had been, left open or shored up with timber by
some long-ago squatter.  The front door still stood, though, a massive
oak-and-iron thing with half-a-dozen ancient scars. =20

     Saturn paused as she led Jahara up the steps.  Somewhere inside,
Hotaru struggled to keep her balance on the flow of monumental
arrogance, the power of the Senshi's persona.  She chose her words
carefully.

     "Now what?  Are they going to be expecting us?"

     "Probably not.  The spell should blind their senses as well."

     "But there'll be guards."

     Jahara shrugged, the presence or absence of guards obviously a
matter of no import.  Saturn nodded.

     "Would you like to knock, or should I?"

     "Please go ahead."

     She turned back to the door.  Jahara made no obvious move to get
ready, but she felt his presence increase as he gathered power.  Her
grip shifted on the Silence Glaive, and the metal barely whispered as it
slashed, a faint sound like 'tzing.'

     The oak door, a good four inches deep, was quartered by a sudden
glowing cross.  After a moment it fell to bits, hinges hanging forlornly
from one side, and gave them a view of the corridor beyond.  Saturn felt
rather then saw Jahara nod approvingly. =20

     "Still feeling okay?"

     The numb sensation was still there, like a weight on her mind, but
it was more than tolerable.  "I'm fine."

     "The source is down there, at the end of the corridor.  I'll go
first--"

     "Let me do it."

     The Unforgiven paused a moment at her tone, then shrugged again.
"As you wish."

     Saturn stepped through the doorway.  The hall floor was covered in
the rotted ruin of pile carpet, but whatever other furnishings it had
possessed had already been sold or converted to firewood.  A pair of
doorways stood about halfway to the end, where it stopped in another
solid-looking portal.  Her eyes fixed themselves on the doors as she
moved carefully, and Saturn tried to reach out, mentally.  That was a
failure; she snapped her attention back the physical as numb pressure
threatened to overwhelm her.

     [It's getting worse.  I feel like I'm blind.]  It was like a sound
that isn't audible until it stops.  She hadn't realized how much her
magical sense colored her view of the world; being without it was as
though she'd suddenly lost the ability to tell the difference between
red and green.  [Let's shut it down quickly, then.]

     "Hotaru?"  Jahara pulled up behind her as she paused.

     "Saturn.  And I think there's something behind those doorways."

     "Allow me."

     The Unforgiven extended his hand to the left, and there was a pulse
of green light.  The plaster crumbled and puffed into dust all at once
in a wide circle that sent most of the interior wall crashing to the
ground.  Two men, who'd obviously been standing behind the wall and
waiting for someone to cross the open space, staggered backwards while
choking on the sudden spray of grit.  They were all in black, and almost
immediately went for weapons holstered at their sides.

     "These are mine.  Handle the others."  Jahara eclipsed her view of
them just as the shooting started; Saturn saw green fire flare and
tasted the ozone tang on the air as she turned around.

     [Others?]

     The second doorway was suddenly full as well, the occupant of the
other room having to duck in order to fit through the doorway.  He was
taller then Jahara, but not by much, and seemed to be all teeth and
claws.  She caught a vague glimpse of another form behind the monstrous
one before she was forced to back down the corridor, glaive spinning and
sweeping to deflect the claws of the thing as it raged forward.

     [Pathetic.]  The thought surprised Hotaru; that attitude was pure
Saturn.  The creature could barely move in the hallway, and she easily
dodged to the side of one massive swipe and brought the Silence Glaive
around.  Scaled or not, the thing's skin parted easily for the
unstoppable blade, and it gave a gurgling scream as blood sprayed across
the floor.  Saturn stepped back neatly as the second guard, a young
woman with a long knife in each hand, jumped over the monster's corpse
to stay in front of her.

     [She...]  Hotaru barely had time for the thought before the girl
was sweeping forward, weapons held in a wicked underhanded grip along
her arms.  She parried the first set of strikes on pure instinct,
hampered by the lack of room to really swing her own weapon.  Saturn
started to back away more quickly, and the guard followed her, sensing
weakness.

     [Foolish.]  They'd backed up until Saturn stepped out of the main
door, jumping lightly backwards, meeting the girl's rush head on,
Silence Glaive spinning in a circle of wood and steel that turned every
attack.  Her opponent was no fool--she realized her mistake quickly and
started giving ground herself, but Saturn had no intention of letting
her regain favorable terrain.  As the girl took a step back, slightly
off-balance, she altered her defensive stance and let the shaft end of
the glaive strike like a quarterstaff, slapping hard across the other's
wrist.  The girl's blade went flying, and she cried out and stumbled
long enough for Saturn to turn the strike around, bringing the same
blunt end back across to sweep out her opponents legs.  The girl ended
up on the ground, both her weapons lying in the dirt a few feet away;
Saturn took a step forward and thrust.

     [Wait just a *minute*!]  Hotaru almost cried out, the ultra-sharp
edge of the Silence Glaive hovering inches from the girl's chest.  Her
eyes were fixed on the steel, holding her breath as Saturn struggled
with herself.

     [She's a *human*.  I can't just kill somebody.]

     The response came from a far older voice.  [She works with those
who would destroy our world.  She raised a weapon against us.  Her life
is forfeit.]

     [That's not right!] =20

     [It is the choice a warrior makes.]

     [No!]

     The girl blinked, and Hotaru could see tears in her eyes.  The end
of the Glaive vibrated with tension. =20

     "P...please?"

     Saturn let out a deep breath and lowered the Glaive, shivering.
"Get out of here."

     The girl moved, hand slapping across the dirt onto the hilt of her
weapon, rolling into a kick that cut Saturn's legs out.  As she fell,
the girl's other hand grabbed the haft of the Glaive, twisting it away
from her and tossing it aside before bringing the knife down towards
Saturn's throat.  The Senshi's white-gloved hands met the guard's
wrists, holding the blade in check for a moment.  Then she twitched her
head aside and let the blow fall, rolling aside herself.  The girl
reacted beautifully, yanking the knife from where it had impaled the
dirt and surging forward, but Saturn was just a bit too fast.  One of
her hands reached backed, closed around the hilt of the other long
blade, and met the charge head-on. =20

     The tableau held for a moment, Saturn stretched full-length on the
ground, one arm held straight out.  The girl arched over her, supported
by the blade driven into chest.  A second later, the guard's hand
opened, her knife clattering to the ground from nerveless fingers, and
she collapsed on top of the Senshi.

     Hotaru surfaced, staring into the girl's face a few inches from her
own.  Her opponent didn't look much older the Usagi or Makoto, her black
hair tied back, dark brown eyes slowly losing focus.  Hotaru wanted to
scream.

     Instead, she whispered.  "I...let you go."

     The girl smiled, weakly, a trickle of blood running from her mouth.
"If I didn't stop you...Iylitrio...would have...done worse."

     Before the Senshi could reply, she felt the girl jerk and then
relax.  It took her a moment to gather enough strength to push the body
off onto the sidewalk.  Her uniform was stained a deep red where the
girl had lain on top of her.  Saturn stumbled over to where the Glaive
lay and reclaimed in, using it like a staff to hold herself up.

     "Are you injured?"

     Jahara looked out from the doorway; Saturn shook her head.  "It's
hers, not mine."

     "Good.  I have dealt with those left inside."

     She followed him inside, her mind feeling numb in a way that had
nothing to do with the spell.  [I killed her.] =20

     [She deserved it.]

     [A person!  I killed a person!]

     [We cannot show mercy to those who oppose us.]

     [What?  Where does *that* come from?]

     They passed the new hole in the wall, behind which two black-suited
figures lay motionless, and stepped over the body of the reptilian
thing.

     Hotaru suppressed a sob.  "Get this over with quickly."

     The Unforgiven nodded and stood in front of the door at the end of
the hall.  He put up his hand, palm first, and bits of oak sprayed
outwards in a flash of green.  The room was just a rotted out space,
wooden floorboards showing bits of the concrete beneath; in the center
of it stood a humanoid figure, swathed in cloth and surrounded by a
shifting glow.  The pressure in Saturn's head redoubled as the figure
turned to them.  She could feel the spell shift as he moved, sawing
wildly for a moment before settling down again.

     The figure raised a hand, whether to implore them to stop or to do
some magic she couldn't tell.  Jahara moved faster, a pencil-thin beam
of liquid green fire blowing through the thing's head in a shower of
sparks.  It hovered a moment longer, and then crumpled, burning as it
fell so that by the time it hit the floor there was no more then a pile
of ash.

     Saturn stared, the pressure in her mind suddenly gone.  The
sensation was spectacular, as though some huge weight had been removed;
the world suddenly twisted into focus.  Jahara apparently felt the same
way, letting out a deep breath.

     Saturn reigned a moment longer.  "What was that thing?"

     "A demon of some kind.  Probably summoned and bound to keep up this
enchantment, without much other power to its credit."

     "Good."  She took a deep breath.  "I'm going to change...back,
now."

     [You don't have to.  We can deal with this--]

     [Go *away*!]

     She felt more separate from being Saturn then she had in years.
The Senshi's power and arrogance burned like a flame, sometimes binding
close to her will, sometimes leaving her aside.  Now Hotaru pushed them
away and watched the sparkling lights reverse her transformation.  Her
street clothes had returned, pristine and unbloodied, and she knew from
past experience her uniform would be perfect the next time.  Hotaru
stared down at where the stain had been, Saturn's conceit and detachment
suddenly gone.  Her eyes filled with tears.

     [I *killed* her.]

     Jahara knelt down, his expression uncomprehending, as Hotaru
practically collapsed against his side.  She lay quietly with her head
pressed against him as she cried.  The Unforgiven's skin was cool, not
clammy but not blood-hot; his body, up close, had a kind of vibration to
it, as though it were never completely still.  Jahara continued
kneeling, awkwardly, his hands at his sides as though unsure of what
else to do with them.

     "Are you hurt?"

     She shook her head without looking up.  "No."

     "Then what is wrong?"

     She wanted to lie against him sobbing forever, to have him put an
arm around her shoulders and hold her there.  Instead, she sniffed and
wiped her eyes, pulling away to see his features expressing polite lack
of understanding.

     Hotaru shook her head.  "Nothing.  I...I'm fine."  She watched his
eyes, trying to divine some feeling in glowing green-on-green.  For a
moment, she thought she saw something that understood, an expression of
emotion so old and deep it was almost frightening.  Then the
Unforgiven's blank mask returned, quickly enough for her to doubt
whether the lapse had ever occurred.  Jahara nodded solemnly.

     "Excellent."  He stood up.  "The spell is broken, and I can return
to my search.  And perhaps destroy whoever planned this diversion."

     "The girl..."  She stopped and swallowed.  "The girl outside.  She
said something about someone named Iylitrio."

     "Iylitrio."  He rolled the word around.  "It means nothing to me,
but I suppose we can find him.  In either case, Hotaru, it is clearly
time for you to return home.  I originally recruited you to aid me in
finding Resh, but the example of this spell makes it clear that this is
unfairly dangerous to you.  If the enemy is employing this caliber of
magic to try and stop me, you could easily lose your life in some side
effect."

     [That's it.  Just go home?]  "I thought you said you need my help."

     "I do.  Without you my task is more difficult, perhaps impossible.
But I underestimated the capability of Resh's allies and thus the danger
to you; I cannot allow you to subject yourself to that kind of harm."

     [A far cry from going after Resh and killing anything in your way.]
She studied his face again.  [There's something in there.]

     "I want to help you--"

     Her communicator flashed, interrupting.  Hotaru flipped it open as
Jahara turned away, to look around the room.

     "I'm here."

     "I just got word--Usagi and the others went to the Nakatomi
building.  Some youma's making trouble."  Setsuna sounded worried.  "Now
I can't get through to any of them.  Something gone badly wrong, Hotaru.
Uranus and Neptune are already on their way there--they were supposed to
be keeping an eye on you when this started up.  Get back here quickly,
we might need you."

     "I--"  She looked up as Jahara stared, his gaze focused through the
wall.  "I'll be there as soon as I can."  Before Setsuna could reply,
she clicked the device closed.  "What is it?"

     The Unforgiven smiled, and his power crackled around him in waves.
"Resh."

=20

     Rei stared for a moment at the half-dozen big tendrils, running
down into the pit like a cluster of fat green snakes.  They'd started to
erode the walls of the hole with typical vegetable strength, and cracks
spiderwebbed the concrete.  The room was dark save for the faint glow of
an emergency bulb around the corner.

     Her eyes, though, were not on the plant itself but the furnishings
of the room.  A desk was pushed into one corner, nearly crushed by the
weight of vines on top of it, and a couple of chairs in the other.  And
running up and down one wall--

     [Jackpot.]  A half-dozen pipes of various sizes, probably serving
the first couple of floors of the building.  [Big office building like
this has its own cafeteria.  That means power, water, drainage--and
gas.]  She sent up a silent prayer.  [Let's hope its not cracked
already, and that my hunch is right.]

     [First.]

     She leaned out of the doorway from the boiler room, watched the
tentacles stir as they sensed the change in heat sources.  [I'll give
you some heat.]

     "Mars Flame Sniper!"

     She kept the power down, lighting the table aflame instead of
blowing it to bits, and leaned back into the doorway.  The tentacles
that had been coming towards her stopped, then swung their tips to point
at the desk that was now burning merrily.  She took aim at the chairs
next.

     "Flame Sniper!"

     Another fire started momentarily.  The tentacles split their
attention between the two, poking through the burning furniture.  Rei
took aim at the pipes, licking lips dried out from the heat.

     "Flame"--[I really, *really* hope I'm not about to blow myself to
bits]--"Sniper!"

     The result was everything she could have hoped for.  Fire sliced
through all the pipes, and one of them detonated outwards in burst of
ceramic shards.  One end of it kept burning merrily, gas pressure
keeping the flame from pushing down the pipe and instead spilling flame
out into the room in waves.  The plant reacted instantly, tentacles
striking all through the flame with such force that they drove into the
concrete beyond.   Waves of heat pulsed through the room, even hotter
then the boiler behind her.

     [Now or never.  We'll see if this works.]  Rei sprinted forwards,
tentacles ignoring one more tiny heat source among the commotion.  She
vaulted the big green stalks and peered over the lip of the pit.

     [It's a plant.  Plants have roots, and this is the only way
down...]  Something glowed in there, green and wet, moisture flashing to
steam in the suddenly superheated environment.  Ignoring the crackle in
her hair and the red on her skin, Rei sighted carefully and returned to
full power.

     "Mars Flame SNIPER!"

    =20

     The double *thump* from underground caught everyone by surprise.
Resh's smile faded in an instant as the vines and tentacles twisted in
vegetable agony, tossing their prisoners sprawling across the floor.

     The bounty hunter was up in an instant, scrambling across the floor
for his guns.  Usagi's reaction was a bit slower; the vampire ignored
Shard for the moment in favor of the greater threat and stalked over to
her as she raised her wand, hands shaking.

     "Drop it."  Power pulsed in his voice, and his dark eyes ripped
into hers.  Sailor Moon's grip twitched, reflexively, and she dropped to
her knees in front of the vampire.

     "Drop it!"  The wand clattered to the floor, and Resh was again
smiling.  "Now back to sleep.  Or better yet, *die*."

     The last syllable rang out in the suddenly silent lobby, the
infinity vines tendrils lying quiescent or twitching in its death
throes.  He spun around at the click of Shard's boot on the marble,
black lightning picking up the bounty hunter and tossing him against one
of the dying stalks.  Behind him, Usagi clutched at her throat,
struggling to breath.

     "Can't beat you?  You have too high an estimation of yourself for
someone who's just a human with a few techno-tricks."  Shard's glasses
had been broken or lost, and smoke rose from his clothing where Resh's
lightning had struck.  Nonetheless, he struggled into a sitting
position, groping for a weapon.  The vampire watched benevolently, hand
raised.

     "You're *nothing*.  All of you!  I--"

     Resh's expression changed as a new light appeared on his mental map
of the city, a point of green brilliance powerful enough shine through
the magical static of the supernexus.  He faltered in mid-word, but one
does not get to be five hundred years old without being able to jump to
conclusions.

     [If I can see him, he can see me.  ]

     "Jahara."  He spat that word as though it were a curse, letting his
power fade away.  The uniformed girl behind him gasped in a breath as
his grip was relaxed.  As though sensing weakness, the bounty hunter
reached sideways, hand closing around the hilt of a pistol; Resh dove
sideways a second too late, the multiple thuds of explosive rounds
picking him up and tossing him against the wall of the building.

     "Fuck!"  Shard hunted furiously through the debris for his clip of
silver rounds.  "It's the wrong damn one--"

     There was another explosion, this time from where the vampire had
been.  Through the clearing dust it became apparent that the Nakatomi
building had a new exit.

Chapter Ten
     In which much backstory is revealed and one can cut the foreboding
with a knife.


     Cut loose from her moorings, Ami felt herself floating.  There was
a sensation of speed, of distance passing under the control of some
outside force.  When it cleared, she found herself floating high above a
city.

     It wasn't a city she recognized, wasn't any city on earth.  It
vaguely resembled the city she'd seen while visiting the future, the
palace of Queen Serenity--all crystal domes and towering spires.  There
was something to it that that place had lacked, though, a suggestion of
danger.  The glass baubles had spikes that came to needle points, and
the edges of the prisms looked sharp as razors.  There were people
moving down there, bustling though transparent tunnels or gathered in
little groups in the cylindrical rotundas.

     "Do you like it?"

     It was Eridu, or at least it sounded like him.  She couldn't see
him.  Couldn't, in fact, turn her head, as though everything was a
movie, viewed from a fixed perspective.

     "It's...pretty.  What is it?"

     "My city.  Where I come from."

     "Where?"

     "The world it was on no longer exists.  This is just a memory, my
memory, that I've gifted to you."

     "I see."  She didn't, not really, but he seemed to take it at face
value.

     "You wanted to know what I know, Ami Mizuno, so I am going to give
you the greatest of gifts.  You shall see everything it has taken me a
thousand lifetimes to gather, know the secrets I have stolen from a
thousand minds.  In short, I'm going to teach you a few tricks, so
listen up.  I thought this a fitting place to begin."

     She blinked, or would have blinked if she could have.  "Can I ask a
question first?"

     "Of course."

     "What did I do to deserve this?"

     There was a long silence.  "Let's just say that I recognize a
kindred spirit.  I realized a long time ago, Miss Mizuno, that merely
gathering knowledge without being able to show it to anyone gets stale
fairly quickly."

     "In other words, you want to show off."

     "Exactly."

     "How old are you, Eridu?"

     "Five thousand years, give or take a few."

     That was met with silence.  After a moment, he continued. =20

     "What you see, the world that you know, floats on top of the world
of energy like the scum that bubbles to the top of a pot of stew.  You
wanted to know how to do magic, and the answer is that it=92s the =
easiest
thing in the world.  Just a matter of dipping into the current and
twisting it until it does what you want.  In a sense, it's what you
already do, as a guardian.  People like you are thrown up by the flow of
a particular world as an evolved self-defense mechanism, a kind of
immune system of the universe.  The flow gives you your power, your
strength, and in turn you defend it.  A symbiotic relationship of
sorts."

     Ami nodded--tried to nod--as though she'd known this all along.  In
a way she had.  The idea felt natural, correct, perfect.  But something
was still missing.

     "I follow you so far.  But what I really need to know is the
[how]."  This was the question that had plagued her, followed her,
hounded her.  "How do you 'twist a current'?  I can think about what you
mean, but I can't feel it.  It's like I lack some sense or something--"

     "You think too much.  Learning magic is like acquiring an ear for
music, or an eye for painting, or just about anything.  You just have to
keep trying."

     Ami felt vaguely disappointed.  Eridu's epiphany had turned out to
be anything but.  [What did you expect?  The meaning of life?]

     "That would be the hard way," he continued.  She could almost see
the wicked grin on his face.  "Let me show you the easy way."

     She gasped as the city disappeared and the scene exploded into
color.

=20

     In the wreckage of the lobby, Shard saw that the blonde was the
first one on her feet, staring dully at the devastation before glancing
to her friends, lying on either side of her.  After a moment, she
squeaked and ran to another section of debris, where a black-suited
figure had just started to move feebly.

     "Tuxedo Kamen!"

      Shard ignored her.  As soon as the immediate adrenalin backwash
had faded, enough to let him move, he headed for the stairs to the
basement.  The web of tentacles that had blocked the way was now inert,
hanging like a curtain that he pushed easily aside, and the stairs
themselves were covered with dead vines.  The color of the whole scene
was gradually fading from green to a kind of gray-brown; the bounty
hunter picked his way carefully past them until he spotted a
white-uniformed form stumbling up from the bottom of the stairs.

     Rei was covered in soot and drying sap, the frills on her uniform
singed and crisped from the heat.  Shard hurried to her side, and she
didn't raise her head until he was almost on top of her.

     "Shard?"

     "Yeah.  Come on, we have to get you away from the basement."  He
wrapped an arm around her shoulders in support, though it didn't help
that he was hardly steady himself.  The pair of them lurched up the
vine-laden stairway and through the curtain before collapsing against
one of the dead stalks that crisscrossed the lobby.

     Rei pulled herself to a sitting position, next to him, and almost
immediately doubled over coughing.  It was a moment before Shard could
haul himself upright.

     "Are you okay?"

     She shook her head, eyes streaming.  "Smoke."  Another cough.
"Give it a second."

     He nodded, one hand one her shoulder; she didn't appear to notice.
Finally Rei drew one shaky, clean breath and sighed.

     "Is--"  She hesitated.  "Is everyone alive?"

     "I think so.  Something happened to the infinity vine, and I got
the drop on Resh."

     "Infinity vine."  She smiled grimly.  "I killed it."

     "Good job."  Shard leaned back against the pillar, idly massaging
his wrists.  They still ached where the vine's tendrils had grabbed him.
Rei sat in silence, apparently content just to rest.  "Resh got away."

     "I figured."  She sighed again.  "They usually do."

     "He'll be back."

     "I'm sure."  He met her gaze and shook his head.

     "Rei, all I want to do it *help* you.  How long do you think you
can keep this up?"

     She coughed again.  "As long as it takes."

     "You're going to get yourself killed."

     "Maybe."  She closed her eyes.  "Right now I'm exhausted, in pain,
and half-cooked.  I frankly don't need you sitting here saying 'I told
you so.'  Thanks for whatever part you had in this."            =20

     "You don't get it."  The bounty hunter stood up, reaching into a
jacket pocket and pulling out a fresh pair of sunglasses.  The click as
they opened sounded unnaturally loud in the stillness.  "Iylitrio isn't
going to stand for this.  He's going to make those bounties
dead-or-alive, and most likely put one on my head as well.  And I've got
pretty much one way to get back into his good graces."

     She stared at him, dully.  "Shard..."

     "If you're not with me, I'm afraid you're against me."

     "I'll watch my back."

     He sighed.  "I'm hiding out for a couple of days.  If you change
your mind, I'm in room 111 at the Happiness Hotel.  If not..."  He
hesitated.  "Goodbye."

     Rei blinked.  "That sounds like a love hotel, Shard."

     "I said I was hiding out, didn't I?"

     He felt her eyes on him as he walked slowly to the front door,
waiting for some word or cry to call him back.  It didn't come, and the
bounty hunter stepped out into the darkness, hands sitting on the grips
of his pistols.

    =20

     Rei leaned back in the kitchen chair, letting her head loll over
the back and staring at the ceiling.  Her skin still tingled, and
multiple small cuts on her arms burned with disinfectant under the
bandages.  Setsuna had pronounced her side intact, which was frankly
amazing.

     "Resh..."  Setsuna sighed.  She, Haruka, and Michiru were sitting
around the other end of the table.  Not for the first time, Rei wished
one of the others was still awake to help her talk to the Outer Senshi.
Minako was still unconscious, and Usagi had collapsed into a bed soon
after Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus had shown up at the Nakatomi building
and dragged them out a few steps ahead of the police.  Mamoru was
resting on the couch with a cut on the head and a bruised ego, and
Makoto, though she'd woken up, was staying in bed for the moment.

     [Everyone's going to be okay.  It's more then I would have
expected.]

     "You're sure he's a vampire."

     Rei nodded.  "Pretty sure.  Fangs, glowing red eyes, drinks blood."

     The older woman frowned.  "I don't know a lot about vampires, but
from what I've learned they shouldn't give you this much trouble.  In
the Silver Millennium they were treated more like a disease then
anything else, like an outbreak that needed to be contained.  They
certainly never fought a Senshi in single combat and won."

     "Resh seems to have some kind of power beyond just being a vampire.
The first time we fought, at the mall, he had a bunch of other vampires
with him.  They weren't so tough."

     Setsuna shook her head disapprovingly.  "You should have told me
about that earlier."

     "We were going to, once we found out a bit more.  None of us
expected Resh to make his next move so soon."

     Haruka interrupted.  "The important thing is what we do now.  We
need to find where this Resh guy is hiding out and finish him."

     "I'm not sure it's that easy."

     "You fought him off this time.  Once everyone is back on their
feet, with us helping you, we can take him."

     Rei shook her head.  "That's the thing.  We didn't fight him off.
Shard said that after I killed that vine thing, Usagi and the others
were still pretty much out of it.  And then he just...ran.  Something
else must have interfered."

     "Shard?"  Setsuna sounded suspicious.  [Oops.  I forgot she doesn't
know about him.]

     "He's an acquaintance of mine.  He was...of some help."

     "I see."  The Outer Senshi eyed her curiously, but didn't push the
subject.  "So what do you think made him flee?"

     "I have no idea.  I was still downstairs at the time, and not in
the best of mental states."

     "What if he has some sort of weakness," Michiru mused.  "Something
Usagi or your friend Shard stumbled on without realizing it.  If we
could figure that out, we might have an easy way to beat him."

     "If we can find him."  Haruka seemed angry, for some reason.
[Probably because the fight ended before she got there.]  "I still say
the most important thing is tracking him down--"

     "The most important thing is making sure that everyone is healthy.
Resh can wait."  Setsuna turned to Rei.  "If he attacks again, wait for
us before going in.  We're going to need all the power we can get here."

     Rei nodded.  "Speaking of which, I haven't seen Hotaru around."

     Setsuna looked uncomfortable.  "Hotaru..."

     "She met up with us briefly downtown, said she was staying with
that Jahara guy.  I don't like this, Setsuna.  Not at all."  Haruka
stood up from the table and started pacing around the kitchen.  "Some
ludicrously powerful alien shows up, basically kidnaps Hotaru, and next
time we see her she's volunteering to follow him around the city in the
middle of the night.  At the same time, a *vampire* shows up in the city
and starts setting ambushes for the Senshi."

     "Ami."  Rei's skin suddenly went cold.

     "What?"  Haruka stopped in mid-stride.

     "Ami didn't show up to the building.  We couldn't reach her."

     Setsuna nodded.  "That's not that unusual, though.  Ami's busy with
her work--"

     "Usually the communicator gets through."

     "She could have been asleep."

     "Maybe..."  Rei shook her head.  "I'm worried.  Someone should go
over there.  If someone is actually setting up traps for us, they may be
trying to pick us off one at a time."

     "I'll head over there."  Haruka was already moving, grabbing her
jacket from the back of a chair.  Michiru quickly stood to accompany
her.

     "Just check it out."  Setsuna glared, particularly at Haruka.  "If
there's anything wrong, call us before going in.  Got it?"

     "Yeah.  I'll contact you in an hour."

     Once the two Outer Senshi had hurried out, Rei also stood from the
table.  "If it's okay with you, I'm going to go get some sleep."

     "Go."  She waved a hand.  "You must be exhausted."

     [That I am.]  Rei walked unsteadily to one of the guest bedrooms,
falling face-first into one of the twin beds across from Minako.  The
blonde mumbled something and turned over in her sleep; Rei smiled into
the pillow.  [Everyone's okay.  We did it again.]  She let out a deep
breath.  [Resh and...Jahara, was it?  And Ami, and Shard.  Is there a
connection somewhere?]

     [I know there's a connection.  Iylitrio.  He wants the Senshi, who
knows why, and he's sent this vampire goon to get us.  And Shard.  So
what about Jahara?  Another one of his minions?]  From Haruka and
Michiru's descriptions, it didn't seem likely.  They said he'd fought
the vampires.  [Maybe we works for another boss?  Some kind of gang
war?]  Other then Iylitrio, she didn't know of a yakuza boss magically
adept enough to have someone of Jahara's apparent caliber on his
payroll, but it was always possible.  [Why go after us, though?  What
does he want from us?]

     Shard's face swam in front of her.

     ["Iylitrio's promised you to someone..."]

     [ So he's just sold us to someone?  Who?]  There was a blank spot
at the top of the chain; the motivation was missing.

     [Sleep first.  Answers later.]  Rei closed her eyes, too tired to
undress.  Shard's face loomed again.

     ["I'm..."]

     [In love with me?]

     [Don't be an idiot, Rei.  He's a killer.]

     [And he said he take on his boss and his whole gang.  For me.]

     [He admitted he works for Iylitrio.  It's probably just a trick to
take me captive.]

     [Probably...]

=20

     "You were not supposed to come directly back here."  Iylitrio kept
his chair turned around, facing the window.  "You can be tracked, yes?
If the wrath of the Unforgiven is to come down on my humble household, I
will be blaming you."

     "Where in hell else am I supposed to go!"

     "Maybe that is not my concern any longer."

     Resh froze.  "What?"

     "I gave you a job, vampire.  Capture or kill five little girls.
You said it would be simple, and I repeated that promise to my
associate.  Now you come back empty-handed, and I have to go to this
associate and explain why I do not have merchandise to deliver.
Understand?  You are making me look bad."

     "It's not my fault--"

     "I do not recall employing you to tell me whose fault it was.  I
want you to bring me those girls, in small pieces if necessary."

     Resh bared his teeth.  "Listen, human.  *Your* mages let the
binding spell lapse.  And your damn bounty hunter is running around like
a loose cannon, screwing things up."

     "Shard?"  Iylitrio sounded genuinely surprised.  "He is most
reliable."

     "Not this time."  The vampire snorted.  "I think he's fallen for
one of them.  Don't ask me why."

     "Interesting."  The boss sighed.  "I want results, Resh, not
excuses.  Protecting you from Jahara is proving to be very expensive."

     "Can you set up another binding spell?"

     "Not so soon.  The Unforgiven would suspect; he obviously has some
method of breaking such magic.  No, I'm afraid you are on your own for
the moment."  He leaned backwards until his chair nearly touched the
desk.  "You'll have to rely on more subtle methods than taking over an
office building and blowing helicopters out of the sky, yes?"

     Resh snarled.  "So how am I supposed to capture them?"

     "Capture if you can.  Kill them if you must."

     There was a long pause.  Finally, the vampire nodded.

     "I'll need to borrow some of your men and equipment."

     "Of course."

     "And I need access to your databases."

     "As you wish."

     Resh turned and stalked out of the office, fuming.  [Subtle, hell.
I'll show them subtle.]

=20

     Jahara stopped in front of the hotel and turned.

     "Is this place suitable?"

     "Sure."

     The mismatched pair walked up the front steps and into the deserted
lobby of the third-rate motel.  Hotaru had ruled out any of the fancier
places on the grounds that she didn't have enough cash; Jahara, she
judged, was not the kind of person who carried a lot of money around.
[And I'd rather not have to run away from the cops after he vaporizes
hotel security.]  Instead she'd guided him to a reasonably clean but
run-down place a ways out of downtown.  Her legs throbbed with every
step from the day's walking.  [At least he realizes we need to stop.  By
himself he'd probably just keep going all night.]

     The night clerk was distracted by the glare of a TV set hidden
underneath the desk.  He barely looked up as they approached, until
Jahara brought his hand down decisively on the bell.  It let out a sad
little clonk, and the attendant looked up, then further up.  The
Unforgiven waited a moment before speaking.

     "We wish accommodations."

     "F...For how long?"  The man was suddenly scrambling to be helpful,
hauling out the register and a pen.  Jahara glanced down at Hotaru.

     "Just tonight."  The clerk looked at her in surprise; she doubted
he'd even noticed her before that point.  Obvious questions rose in his
face, but he suppressed them and merely nodded. =20

     "That...that'll be..."

     "We will pay you in the morning."  Jahara took the key from his
nerveless hand and started for the stairs behind the desk.  Hotaru
followed, not entirely sure how the hotel would react to this new
policy.  The clerk started to raise a protest, but the Unforgiven
silenced him with a glare, and they made their way to the room
unmolested.  It was pretty typical as such things went, being the home
of a marginally functional television, a heating system that put out a
perpetual death rattle, and a single bed whose linens had probably been
laundered at least once in the last week.

     "Not so bad."  Hotaru sighed as she flopped onto the bed.  Getting
off her feet felt good enough that she forgave the place its problems. =20

     Jahara walked to the window, gave the scene a cursory glance, and
twitched the curtain shut.  "Indeed.  I've seen worse."

     "We'll be getting an early start in the morning, I assume."

     "I would like to.  Resh is a powerful enough vampire that he can
survive even direct exposure to the sun, but daylight will hamper his
activities.  If we can corner him before sunset, his options will be
curtailed."

     "Makes sense."  She yawned and crawled to the head of the bed,
packing one of the pillows against the headrest.  A sudden thought came
to her; Hotaru's cheeks colored.  "There's just the one bed, but...I
mean, I don't mind, if you're tired..."

     He chuckled.  "The bed is yours."

     "But where..."

     "I don't sleep."

     [I should have guessed.]  Hotaru wormed her way under the covers
and curled up on her side.  Whatever its drawbacks, the bed was warm and
soft; she closed her eyes.

     [Her life is forfeit.]

     ["P...please?"]

     Her eyes snapped open again, staring at the stains and markings on
the off-white walls.  Jahara stood against the window, perfectly still,
his shadow faint from the light that bled through the curtain.

     Some time passed, how much she couldn't say.  The Unforgiven didn't
move, didn't scratch or shift position.  Every time she closed her eyes,
she saw the girl dying.  [My fault.  I let myself do that.]  The fact
that she had undoubtedly done much worse in her previous incarnation did
not console her.  [I was done with that.  And now...]  She felt close to
tears.  [What do I do now?]

     "I can hear that you are not asleep."  Jahara spoke without moving.
"Is something wrong?"

     She paused a moment.  "How many people have you...killed, Jahara?"

     "Humans?"

     "Yeah."

     "I have lost count.  Certainly in the tens of thousands."

     [Tens of thousands.]  For all his odd gentleness towards her,
Jahara was occasionally still frightening.  "Does it ever bother you?"

     "No."

     "Why not?"

     "Guilt is no longer a part of my life.  I accept who I am, as I
accept my function.  I am a warrior, and it is the choice a warrior
makes."

     "But you of all people don't *have* to.  I mean, a normal person
might kill someone if...if their life was threatened, or their family,
or their town, or something.  But how could someone with your power ever
be threatened?"

     Another pause.  Jahara put his head on one side.  "It is true that
serious threats to me are few and far between."

     "So why kill, if not to protect yourself?"

     "Because it doesn't matter one way or the other."

     "Doesn't matter?  It certainly matters to them!"

     "Humans are mortal.  Everyone dies eventually."

     "That doesn't change the fact that you cut their lives short."

     He shifted again.  "From the point of view of infinity, all finite
timespans are zero."

     Hotaru let out a long breath and shook her head.  "You're immortal,
aren't you."

     "I suspect so."

     "Suspect?"

     "My body does not appear to change with the passage of time, and I
haven't died yet."

     "And this excuses murder?"

     "Think on it this way.  Would you hesitate before destroying one of
the lesser creatures of your world?  An insect, or a worm?"

     "I..."  She shook her head.  "I see where that's going.  Maybe it
works for you."  [But it doesn't help *me* sleep.]

     "You have your function, as well."

     "So you keep saying."

     "You should take comfort in it."

     Hotaru curled up a bit tighter and squeezed her eyes shut to banish
the images.  [The choice a warrior makes.]  [It's such crap.  He thinks
he's absolved of all responsibility, just because he's got so much
power...]

     In the war between fatigue and guilt, fatigue is the inevitable
victor.  She dropped off to sleep, slowly, trying to keep the scene from
replaying behind her eyes.

     [His function...]

    =20

     The storm broke over Tokyo in the small hours of the morning.  It
started out light, pacing itself; no theatrical thunder and lightning,
just a gushing downpour of a caliber that threatened to drown
upward-staring pedestrians.  Those still on the streets because they
needed to work muttered and cursed and unfolded umbrellas that did
little to protect them against the biting winds that drove the water in
an almost horizontal splatter; those out for fun scattered for more
hospitable climes.  Even the cars thinned out.

     When dawn came, no one noticed.  The storm clouds clustered around
the city like vultures hovering over a dying elephant, circling slowly
and pouring rain down as though someone had opened the faucet of God.
The greatest concentration hovered over the great spike itself,
connected to Tokyo tower by bonds of crackling electricity.

     The authorities took it all in stride.  They closed the tower,
battened down the windows, fired the meteorologists.  It was just rain.

=20

     Ami's computer had evolved beyond the beep, the not-so-hilarious
quack, even the slightly disapproving ding.  This was by dint of much
effort on her part, in fact, and the upshot was that she could usually
tell when the computer was doing something unusual just by the change in
the background noise, the sound of hard drives spinning up or down and
the shifting whirrs of the cooling fans.  It was the electronic
equivalent of the gently cleared throat of the best of butlers.

     Eridu, staring out the window at the rainstorm in a kind of
reverie, didn't notice the change in sound over the thrash of the
rainstorm.  And Ami herself still lay on the couch, eyes staring
upwards, unfocused and filmed over, one arm limply brushing the floor.
So the computer's plea for help went unheard, and after a while it went
ahead and did the best it could.  Incoming messages were parsed, found
to be in code, and matched against a list of possible encryptions.  The
boxes in the corner hummed to life, and more fans came on as more power
was required.  Luckily for the machine, the algorithm had already been
found and added to the list just a day or so earlier; after only five
minutes, an eternity of computer time, the mail was decrypted and added
to the growing stack.

     One of the screens flickered to life, again requesting attention;
again, there was no one to see it.  A list of names and addresses glowed
briefly on the monitor before the machine decided no one was paying
attention and shut it down again.  Satisfied that it had completed its
duties, it returned to watchfulness.

     Eridu shifted to look at the insensate girl on the couch.  His
smile had begun to fade.

Django Wexler (khaine)
khaine@mindless.com

Proof Method #6: Proof by application of superior firepower.


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