Tales of the Senshi
    -Only Human

Authors forward:  Is this a series?  Kinda.  I don't really expect it to follow
any sort of linear continuity, though the parts of the story will eventually all
fit together as I get around to writing them.  I make no excuses for the
disharmony, and take full responsibility.  I don't know...it just feels like
this story wants to be told in this disjointed way.  Maybe it'll make sense to
all of us in the end.  Or maybe I've been staying up too late. ^_^

Disclaimer: Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi(sp?), and whomever else it
belongs to.  It's certainly not mine, and that's probably a good thing, to be
honest.

	He stopped.
	He finally stopped.
	The monster, the demon...no, this was no ordinary demon, this was a Demon
General, far more powerful than any simple drone soldier, had led his pursuer on
a merry chase.  From rooftop to rooftop of apartment buildings and convenience
stores.  Through back alleys and across busy intersections.  Into parks and
around what passed for houses in this city.  Halting here, in this abandoned
factory lot, he paused, and then smiled a fanged toothy smile.  The one who was
his hunter dropped down from the decaying steel and concrete of the derelict
chemicals factory whose very foundation still stank from whatever had seeped
into them during its time of life.
	The general imagined how it would look to their mutual pursuer.  The one
who hunted them both, the same way the man now behind the demon had stalked him.
Oh, the reasons were somewhat different to be sure, but that one had stopped
some distance away, while this one...heh...this one just kept coming.
	It must have looked really....cool, yes, cool was the word...to see the
man's midnight trench flailing in the air as he dropped a distance that should
have killed the human.  One hand clutched tightly around his staff, which
almost...almost glowed with the runes of power and magiks and ki that the man
channeled through it.  Still, if one had the eyes to see, the brilliance of the
man's weapon would have been almost blinding; the demon knew...knew all too
well.  The demon heard the man land on his feet in a crouch, catching some of
the impact of the landing with one hand.
	Then he'd look up.  The demon idly wondered how often he practiced that
maneuver...he'd seen it done in the movies these humans made often enough.  He
wondered if those that made such shows would sue for copy write infringement.
Heh, still, the demon supposed everyone had their quirks.
	How utterly clich�.  The hero, if this man could even be called such,
fighting the monster who terrorized the masses and drained them of their
precious living energy to advance his own campaign of conquest and colonization.
Honestly, the demon thought the universe had the most dismal story telling
ability...it was all variations on the same general theme.  Good versus evil.
Light versus Dark.  All just the same thing, the balance of Yin and Yang
constantly struggling for dominance...never once realizing that one needs the
other to survive.
	The Demon General knew this.  He knew his rulers and those both
subordinate and peer did not.  He also knew the man behind him knew these
things.  But most of all, he knew that they both had something to prove.  Maybe
that would be enough of a change from the norm...maybe this story would have
something new to offer.
	Who was he kidding?  Somewhere, sometime, two such as they must have
dueled.  Two of them with full knowledge of what it was they were about, what it
was they were really doing.
	Two with such...honor.
	The general crossed his arms, but did not turn around.  "You have not
attacked."
	The man said nothing.
	"I've watched you fight our soldiers.  Our demons, our imps, and all
manner of nightmare creature...you and your kind have fought them all.
Sometimes you win.  Sometimes you don't."
	Still nothing.  The demon chuckled.
	"You're just a normal human.  Weak.  Vulnerable.  Your kind's only use to
anyone is as an over glorified spiritual copper-top."  A slight flash of energy,
heh, he was getting to the man...but only for a moment.  "Depending on others to
save you.  Yet, you...you and your group do not.  You train, you build weapons
and armor, you devise strategies to protect both yourselves and those innocents
around you.  You do not wait for someone to save you.  You save yourselves."
	"Are you going to tell me why you broke off from the skirmish going on in
Shinjuku and led me here?  Or are you just going to talk me to death?" the man's
grainy, and slightly annoyed, voice asked of the general.
	He turned, and got his first real up close look of the man whose group had
been the death of so many.  His hair was a sandy auburn color, mixed in with a
shade of grey reaching his shoulders in length.  His eyes were a dark blue,
almost black color and would reveal nothing about him even were this the middle
of the day rather than this moonless night.  The man's face, what he could see
of it, had a slight tan upon it in addition to features that spoke of both a
mixed European and Native American ancestry.  Common in the area the humans
called the United States.  His presence in Japan was a bit of a mystery
considering what the demon knew of encroachments into that other continent...the
man should have had his hand's full there.  Yet, for some reason he was here.
	He smiled in anticipation.  Not that it mattered for this.  Nothing
mattered, BUT this.
	"You fight.  Not just for survival, but because you have something to
prove."  The demon unclipped the leather strap on his chest that held the
scabbard and flaming sword on his back; letting it fall with a metal clang to
the concrete floor. "Well so do I."  Kicking it over to the side, he continued,
"I've watched you fight.  You give your enemy's weapons back to him so they
might die in battle.  You give our troops a chance to leave your world.  So many
little things you do that one in a war should not do, yet a being of honor, heh,
he would do."  The general unclasped the bracers around his wrists and tossed
them to either side bouncing some distance away.  He grasped the glowing
amethyst gem that hung loosely from a deceptively weak looking chain around his
neck.  With a sharp tug he broke the metal mesh, pulling the gemstone from him.
"Haven't you ever wondered...just how good you really are?" he asked,
considering the glow in the gem before him.  Nonchalantly he tossed the gem
behind him.
	The man's eyes narrowed.
	"Look about you." The demon gestured around.  "No one around for a
kilometer or more.  Nothing to damage that either of us would consider
important."  He ripped his dark red silken shirt from his body, exposing the
well toned chest and grey flesh underneath.  "And best of all...no one to
interfere."  Your ally certainly doesn't seem like she is going to help you, the
demon thought with elation.  She's just watching.
	The man straightened out, relaxing his ready stance.  "What do you get out
of this?"
	"Nothing.  Nothing but the fight.  No distractions.  No rules.  Just using
what nature gave us to tear each other apart."
	The man smiled sardonically, "One would think nature gave you a distinct
advantage in that area."  He brandished his staff as if explaining one of the
ways he compensated for that lack.
	The general smiled in anticipation.  The demon had struck the man's
vulnerability.  It was the same as his own...he knew it!  "One wonders.  One
truly wonders if that is really the case.  I'm sure the other wonders the same
thing.  The curiosity burns through his veins like holy fire...I can feel it.
He wonders if he really needs the enchantments, the enhancements, the weapons,
and tools."
	The demon felt it then.  Energy.  LIFE energy.  It was what the humans
produced and what they fed upon.  It flowed off of the man in a comparative
torrent, weaving itself into patterns so complex that the demon was certain the
man was only instinctually aware of.  A clatter of wood upon concrete shook the
demon out of his musings of the human's preparations for battle.  His eyes
traced the source to see the man having tossed his weapon away.  His trench coat
and gloves followed shortly.  Oddly enough, he also pulled his shoes off.
	Oh, of course, the general realized.  It's how he was jumping from roof to
roof and running fast enough to keep up with me.
	The man cracked his neck from side to side.
	The demon flexed his hands, popping the claws in his fingers out for
attack.
	They paused for a moment as they studied the other.
	Something metal dropped to the floor in the background.
	Both exploded into a flurry of motion.

------------------------

	She winced as the Demon General's claws tore a deep gash in the man's arm.
	"Damnit!"
	From her perch on a neighboring office building nearly three kilometers
away she was treated to an uninhibited view of the mortal combat at the ruined
chem plant via her mystically enhanced sight and hearing.  There she watched as
the man barely dodged a sickly green energy blast from the grey monster's eyes
only to find himself sailing through the collapsing brick and mortar wall of the
building when the demon used his inhuman speed to deadly advantage, plowing into
the man before the man could recover with a well aimed shoulder rush.
	Her white-gloved hands tightened upon her weapon in frustration.  She had
to let this happen.  HAD to...he'd never forgive her if she interfered.  She
knew him well enough to know that, if nothing else.  THIS was everything he ever
wanted.  In fact that someone like her was watching made it even better.  That
it was herself watching he'd probably think would be the ultimate victory.
	MEN!  Stupid, Baka, Egotistical, Masochistic, MORONS!  Every one of them!
Just because they couldn't handle being saved by women!  She added an extra
'Baka' because this one never wanted to be saved by ANYONE.  Never mind the
'association' he belonged to had more than its fair share of like-minded women.
	He had proven himself long ago to her, but not in his eyes.  He was
fighting something way out of his league, and now it was time for him to be
looking for some help.  But NO!  He had to break off from the battle and follow
the general here, like a lamb to the slaughter.  HER kind would have a bit of
trouble with something like this, much less a normal human!
	The wind shifted blowing some of her dark shoulder length hair across her
violet eyes.
	The man walked from the hole in the building covered in dust, his shirt
and blue-jeans ripped in several places, blood flowing freely from several cuts
and one big gash in his left arm.  He walked straight up to the waiting demon
lord.  It was a site that would be fanservice for a girl in the movies...both
the man and the demon were exceptionally well built, covered in well toned
muscles though in different ways.  The man was quite a bit smaller than the
demon, in both stature and mass...indeed the monster dwarfed him considerably.
Where the monster was mass however, looking deceptively slow moving, the man was
optimized for speed and strength...at least as far as being human went.  Aside
from his body, the demon himself had stunningly good-looking features, high
cheekbones and strange golden eyes that gave him an exotic tinge.  Long platinum
blond hair only added to the effect.  Even without a human glamour, he'd be hard
pressed to find a girl that wouldn't go 'ga ga' over him.
	Or he would have, were he not bent over at the waist, his mouth open in
that strange little scream that produced no sound because all the air had been
forcibly pushed from his lungs, a look of surprise/pain flooding his features.
He backstepped out of the fist that had been reamed into his stomach, surprise
changing to a grim satisfaction.
	"Wow!"  How had the man done that?!  Normal humans aren't strong enough to
damage even the weakest of a demonic species in a physical battle, and he was as
normal as they come.  Aside from the weak magiks and fighting skills he'd
learned, that anyone could learn he claimed, he'd never shown her anything of
that...or had he?  Her eyes narrowed as she called her powers to further enhance
her senses.
	The man began weaving around the other's attacks.  He was by no means
moving very fast, at least not as compared to the monster he was facing.
Somehow though, he was avoiding every strike and energy beam sent his direction.
Complex patterns of blows intertwined with mana, which literally crackled in the
air around the general, were intercepted and returned with stunning precision
with results the woman could hardly believe.
	Somehow...somehow whatever the man was doing was harming the Demon
General.  It was not possible, and yet, the proof to the contrary was unfolding
right before her unbelieving gaze.  It was not perfect to be sure, the monster
was far too fast, but whatever was happening was well enough refined to tell the
man to not be wherever the demon would next land an attack.
	Blue threads of light became visible to her, after a moment.   They
connected to other, much larger threads that seemed to spring from all things,
whose colors shifted and changed without seeming rhyme or reason.  They twirled
and intertwined with each other in patterns of such intricate complexity, her
mind boggled at the concept to what she was seeing.  And there at the source of
the blue, was the man dodging and striking, weaving and attacking.
	The demon moved through the web, his energies reacting with it, sending
pulses back through it and into the man.
	He knew.  HE KNEW!  The woman couldn't help but gasp at the realization.
The web of ki the man had woven in with the energy of the world itself was
penetrating the demon and sending him the general's intentions long before he
struck.  The man also drew strength from this connection; his counter-blow's
filled with his energy and the energy of all life surrounding.  It was weak, so
very weak, but it didn't NEED to be strong.  A thousand little hits could be
more effective than a few big ones, and this man was dishing those out in
spades.
	Maybe at first, the demon had a chance, before the man had finished this
complex pattern of life energy around him. Afterwards, however?  Perhaps if the
monster had understood what was happening, some sort of strategy might have been
devised.  Still how does one fight the will the man had connected himself too?
How does one unravel billions of threads, woven together and connected to the
very life energy of the world?
	It was a rhetorical question at this point.  The fight was almost over.
The speed, the strength, the energy...even the overwhelming heat that the demon
had used to sear the air and melt the ground beneath them in his final moments
on the offensive...all for naught.  Moment by moment, inch by bloody inch, he
was being pushed back by the mortal...by the HUMAN...whom he had challenged.
	"Anyone can do this.  Given time anyone can do this," she spoke in awe.
If he could do this...what could *I* become were I to learn, she wondered.
	As suddenly as it started, the man ended it.  The demon long since put on
the defensive, just...stopped, falling to the ground in a heap of broken limbs,
seeping the black ichor that passed for their blood.
	Suddenly she felt a mystical disturbance above them.  Her attention
diverted from the two below, she cast her gaze at one of the windows of the
factory to see a circular black disk, far darker than the obsidian of this
night, appear.  Roughly man shaped it materialized into the visage of someone
she only knew to be another of the general's of the recent demonic invasion.
	"NO!!!" She sprang into motion, leaping from rooftop to rooftop in a blur
of motion, hoping to all that was holy that she'd make it in time.

------------------------

	"So...how...was...it?  Questions...answered...for both...of us."
	The man gazed down at the weak and vulnerable Demon General who was
smiling the smile of ultimate satisfaction and answered, "I thank you."
	The demon laughed, or tried to.  It came out as more of a tortured cough.
"No.  Thank...you."  He put his back to the nearby wall, and pushed himself to
his feet.  "Know that I was Byleth.  Remember."
	"I am Marcus," the man replied simply.  He blinked suddenly, staring at
the demon long enough to make the general wonder why the man had not delivered
the killing blow.  The man put his hands to his chest when he felt something
amiss.  His hands met something wet and warm...and they came away covered in his
blood.  Confusion, yes a great confusion, crossed his features before he fell to
the cement below.
	The demon glanced up, no less perplexed, to see one of his fellow
generals; his hand lowering from delivering a well placed energy attack.
	"MASTIPHAL!" he screamed in fury.  "YOU BASTARD!  YOU CHEATED ME!"
	The general in question jumped down next to Byleth, narrowly avoiding what
appeared to be a spear crashing through the window he had just stood in.
	"We don't have time for your foolishness, Byleth.  We just lost a goodly
amount of our forces to that little army in that little skirmish uptown, and we
can't afford to lose you too."  A portal similar to the one that brought him
here appeared on the wall behind him.  "Conscious or not, you're coming with
me."
	"Death..."
	The one who had thrown the spear landed on the ground some distance away.
She flung her hand out, and the weapon flew from the windows, returning to the
hand of its mistress.
	"Reborn..."
	The two generals spared a glance at the woman clad in the white and purple
fuku.
	"REVOLUTION!"
	The two leapt through the portal, just before a beam of absolute
nothingness streaked from the glaive, utterly destroying the derelict factory.
Yet, not a hair was harmed on the one named Marcus' head.
	Rushing to his side she turned him over, desperately trying to heal his
wounds with her power.
	In English, he said, "You know...that won't work, Firefly."  His hands
grasped hers, bringing them to his lips in a familiar gesture.  "I am already
dead..."
	She shook her head desperately.  "No...please no...there's still
time...Usagi can..."
	"It is my time.  Better like this...than to wait for the other death."  He
smiled up at her gently.  Brushing her tears away he quipped, "'sides...they say
that making love is the little death.  Making love with you...that was the
really big death...how could I avoid it?"  She choked back something that was
part laugh and part sob.  How could he possibly joke at a time like this?  But
that's how he is.  It's part of what she fell in love with...and now he was
leaving her.
	They'd had only had a year!  IT WASN'T FAIR!
	"A year...but also a lifetime.  That has to count for something."  She
hated that.  He always knew what she was thinking!  She hated it.  She hated
that she couldn't....
	Who was she fooling? She loved it just as strongly as she loved the rest.
No matter how much it might have pissed her off.
	"Did you see?  Did you see what happened?"  She nodded.  "Will you
remember?"  She nodded.  "Love you...Firefly."
	His grip on her hands relaxed.  "No...please no..." she cried softly in
denial and loss as she embraced him.
	It wasn't until Sailor Mars and the friend of Marcus' she only knew as
Victor arrived next to her that she laid him down gently.
	Her left hand reached out, closing his eyes.  "Love you too...my lonely
one."

----------------

	In the dimension of fire and death that served as the home of the recent
demonic invasion, Byleth seethed.
	He had been beaten by a human...a HUMAN of all things!  But Marcus had
beaten him fairly!  Proven that humans were capable of being far more than
victims and sheep!  Byleth had been cheated of his honorable death by that
sonuvabitch, Mastiphal!  Damn him!  Damn him to whatever pit would take him
after a Senshi destroyed him!  Still...
	"A debt of honor now exists between us, human known as Marcus...and I
always pay my debts."

Well, hope you enjoyed this little ep.  Send comments, good and bad, to
kthardin@tenchifanart.com


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