----------

	It was late at night when Makoto heard the knock at her
door.

	Curious, and a little cautiously after the incident after
the health club, she laid her book down and strode across her
apartment. She opened the door, not lifting the latch or the bar
that kept intruders from forcing their way in.

	"Heya, Honey."

	"Haruka," Makoto stated flatly.

	"Isn't it nice to see me?" the tall blonde woman asked
rakishly.

	Rolling her eyes, Makoto lifted the latch and allowed her
door to open. Haruka strolled in without being invited, wearing a
linen shirt and jeans. While very masculine in appearance, the combo
didn't do anything to hide Haruka's gender.

	Makoto wasn't sure, but she thought she smelled a hint of
alcohol on the woman's breath.

	"Did Michiru kick you out again?"

	Grinning, Haruka tapped Makoto's nose with her thumb. "Got
it in one."

	"What did you do?" Makoto asked in exasperation.

	"It's not what I did, but what I'm about to," the woman
replied, leaning over her hostess.

	"Haruka, what are you--MMPPH!!"

	Makoto had absolutely no way to dodge the hungry lips that
sought hers out, nor did she attempt to escape them until entirely
too much time had passed.

	Finally, remembering where she was and what she was doing,
she pushed Haruka away roughly. While Haruka was faster, Makoto was
stronger and larger. She knocked her guest to the floor.

	Haruka landed gracefully, smiling up at the indignant girl
she had just stolen a kiss from.

	"What are you doing?!" Makoto demanded. "What about
Michiru?"

	"Michiru's convinced I'm the root of all evil," Haruka
replied. "I'd much rather spend my time with someone who's not
interested in throwing things at me. I don't mind a little wrestling
if you're in the mood, though."

	"Stop, Haruka," Makoto protested as the woman who just
kissed her hopped to her feet and began to try to embrace her again.
"I thought we weren't going to do this again."

	Haruka paused, a little stunned by the dark-haired girl's
words. Her hesitation gave Makoto the opportunity she needed to push
Haruka away again.

	"Why?" Haruka demanded petulantly.

	"You're drunk," Makoto said, "and you're mad at Michiru. And
I don't think I can take another one-night stand."

	There were several seconds of silence between the two.
Makoto couldn't help but wince at the alternating expressions of
hurt, betrayal, and unfulfilled desire in Haruka's eyes.

	"Please, Haruka, don't do this to me. I can't even look
Michiru in the eyes anymore after last time."

	Dejectedly, her expression shifting from burning desire to
smoldering rage, Haruka walked across the apartment and allowed
herself to flop back against Makoto's sofa.

	"So what is it this time?" Makoto asked, trying to salvage
the already-bad situation. "Did Michiru find your stash of porn? You
didn't try to pick up a girl in front of her again, did you?"

	Haruka rolled her eyes. "She blames me because you guys
didn't tell us about the new invasion."

----------------------------------------
Hidden in Darkness

A Bishojou Senshi Sailor Moon fanstory

by Chris Jones

Chapter 2: The Knight-Protector
----------------------------------------

	Makoto started uneasily, unable to meet the accusation in
Haruka's eyes. She backed up guiltily for a few seconds, but then
found her ire again.

	"Like it even matters," she retorted indignantly. "You and
Michiru both break out in a rash if the Starlights so much as pass
through town. If you didn't sense this one, it couldn't be much of a
threat, could it?"

	"Who are you to say what's a threat and what's not?" Haruka
asked coldly.

	"And who are you to say that I won't protect the Princess?"
Makoto retorted, her voice rising. "At any rate, it really doesn't
matter. These guys are laughable. I very nearly *accidentally*
killed their leader."

	Haruka blinked.

	"It was almost a joke. They were using an old scheme we had
seen a few times before. The only thing that made it at all notable
was that they appeared to be from the Dark Kingdom."

	Haruka growled angrily. "That should have been your first
tip-off! You should have called us the second you--"

	"Stow it, please!" Makoto shouted her down. "Like I said, I
went head on with the leader. She had one, maybe two good shots in
her before she ran away. I mean that, too. She *ran* away. She tried
to 'port out, but couldn't manage it. We were all so surprised we
let her go."

	"You should have hunted her down," Haruka picked. "You
should have called *us* to hunt her down."

	Makoto didn't dignify that with a response.

	"So Michru's really upset, huh?" she asked after sitting
down next to Haruka.

	"Yeah. Not at you guys, though. She's pissed at me," Haruka
answered, her words slurring slightly. "She goes on and on about how
much I've damaged our trust. She spends a lot of time angry about
that any more."

	"Attacking the Starlights wasn't really a good idea," Makoto
noted.

	"They're invaders. We have to keep them out."

	"They were refugees, Haruka. Now they're honored guests.
Seiya's probably as in love with Usagi as you are with Michiru. You
gonna keep him from seeing her when he wants to?"

	Haruka glared, shooting a dark, brooding expression at her
hostess.

	"Oh, and Sailor Clam and Sailor Squid from the Crab Nebula
count as honored guests as well," Makoto continued. "And anyone from
planet Mau or Sirius or--"

	"OKAY, ALREADY, I GET THE FUCKING POINT!"

	"Do you?" Makoto asked. "You know how well the both of you
react whenever anyone from outside shows up. We fought with the
Canine Sailors for a week before we were able to make up."
Makoto paused, suddenly trying her best to keep a straight face. She
couldn't help but snicker into her hands. "Of course it helped that
Usagi brought a jumbo-size bag of dog-biscuits along to that last
fight."

	Haruka tried her best to maintain her angry expression, but
just couldn't manage it. After a few seconds, she started to snigger
along.

	"I think..." Haruka guffawed into her hands. "I think I
would have lost it that time too, if Minako hadn't started sniffing
their tails."

	Both women collapsed into giggles. Both of them were wiping
away tears of laughter by the time they managed to calm down.

	"To this day," Makoto said. "If you get up behind Luna and
shout 'Dog Star Hydrant Jet', she'll jump three feet into the air
without bending her knees."

	Haruka shook her head, her eyes lost in the memory. "Why...
why can't it always be like that? Why does it always have to be a
fight-or-die-trying battle?"

	"I don't know," Makoto said. "It didn't have to be, the time
with the Starlights. They gladly accepted our help, but you two
drove them to the point of desperation. It was too late for all of
us before they were able to help Usagi against Galaxia."

	Haruka hung her head, guilt flashing across her features.
The tears of laughter became tears of remorse for just a second.

	"Listen, you can crash here tonight. I'll go talk to Usagi
tomorrow, and maybe she can say something to Michiru. You know that
Usagi's never blamed you for what happened, ever."

	Haruka nodded somberly. "Maybe that's for the best."

	"I was about to go to sleep anyway," Makoto said. "You can
sleep here on the couch. I'll get some blankets."

	Haruka sighed and helped Makoto put down a bedroll on the
sofa. She lay down and watched the dark-haired woman turn off the
lights. She listened as Makoto stepped into her small bedroom.

	"And you can stay put," she commanded, just before she
closed the bedroom door.

	Haruka waited all of twenty minutes before she abandoned the
couch and tiptoed over to the door. She opened it quietly and
stepped inside.

	She didn't come back out.

* * *

	"Hey kids!" Minako shouted. "How are you all doing today?"

	"Dandee-rific!!" the scream came back from her audience,
dozens of children repeating her catchphrase from 'Rabbit Room'.

	"Who wants to hear a song?" 'Kitty' asked from the stage.
She turned around, pointing her microphone in all directions. All
around her, small children were clustered around the raised platform
in the center of the shopping mall's concourse. Shop keepers and
salespeople from the stores in the mall were all standing in their
doorways to watch the show.

	"We wanna hear 'Sunny Sunday'!" A little girl in the front
cried. The cry of 'Sunny Sunday' was taken up by the rest of the
kids in the crowd and more than a few of the adults.

	Grinning, eating up her audience's attention, Minako burst
into a song and dance routine she knew by heart. It wasn't as good
as her *real* job, but it was satisfying. It felt good to make so
many people so happy-- almost as good as it felt to make *her*
happy.

	"I wanna be with you on a sunny Sunday afternoon..."

	Down in the crowd, Usagi was circulating, signing autographs
and accepting the dozens of hugs the children proffered to 'Bunny'.
For just a few seconds as she tried to dislodge a particularly
clingy pre-schooler, Usagi mused on the absurdity of her situation.
A few years ago, she would have never thought herself capable of
memorizing lines, let alone being a full-time television
personality.

	It all really started in her last year of high-school. After
the war with Galaxia, so many things had happened. The elemental
form of Chaos, which had been concentrated in the galactic cauldron
by Sailor Galaxia, was set free by Usagi's last, desperate strike.
Galaxia was freed from her self-imposed alteration and Usagi got
what she had been fighting for, the lives of all her loves. The
forces unleashed by the galactic cauldron had brought them all back.
Indeed, all the worlds that had been crushed by Galaxia's rein of
terror came back to life once all the Sailor Crystals were released
back into the cosmos.

	Once Usagi managed to return to Earth with her loves, little
things like school or work seemed so inconsequential. She spent all
the time she could with Mamoru, Rei, Ami, Makoto, Minako, Hotaru,
Setsuuna, and even Haruka and Michiru, despite how combative they
had been when the Sailor Starlights arrived on Earth. Everything
else was so meaningless to her that it ceased to matter.

	Accordingly, her already mediocre grades plummeted. By the
middle of her second year of high school. Usagi was in serious
danger of flunking out. It was Mamoru who began to force her to
study and repair her grades. He was ruthless, but the reward he
offered in return was too much for her to pass up.

	The looks on her mother's and father's faces when he asked
permission for her to move in with him was a memory that Usagi would
treasure for the rest of her life. The stunned expressions they wore
when Usagi informed them that she *would* be going with Mamoru
despite what anyone else wanted was her proudest. It was the first
time she had shown any backbone as Usagi rather than Sailor Moon.

	With Mamoru's help, as well as the help of the other girls,
Usagi managed to fix her grades and start preparing for entrance
exams. She managed to get into the same university Minako was
admitted to. It wasn't a top-rate school, but it was near everyone
else's schools, so she could spend time with her friends when she
wasn't studying.

	Studying had not really given her any aim, however. Usagi
knew that sometime in the distant future, she would be Neoqueen
Serenity, but didn't really understand how or when it would happen.
She didn't even know when Chibi-usa would be born for that matter.

	Not knowing what to do, she followed Minako in signing up
for a major in Media Production, figuring that it would be easier
for the both of them if they always took the same classes. Of all
the Sailor Senshi, they were both the most easily distracted and
least studious. Having two minds on the same goal could only help
them.

	'Rabbit Room' was something that Minako concocted for their
sophomore television production project. Usagi was responsible for
the original design of the costumes and the basic plot of the show.
It generated a lot of interest and support, so the two of them did
the show for the rest of the their time in college. It earned them
dozens of credit hours and helped them both in a large way to
graduate.

	Once they graduated, both girls found they still wanted to
do the show. They already had a small audience and a winning
formula, so Minako called in some of her old media contacts from her
modelling and voice-acting days to pitch the show to local stations.
It was rapidly picked up and 'Rabbit Room' got professional writers,
a director, make-up artists, and a legion of puppets. After only a
couple years, Usagi and Minako were famous... at least to the
children of Tokyo.

	"And how are you doing?" Usagi asked a little boy with
brightly colored blue eyes. "Do you like the song Kitty is singing?"

	The boy 'eep'ed and hid behind a woman's back.

	"Oh, I'm sorry, honey. I didn't mean to frighten you," Usagi
cooed apologetically.

	The woman, a slender girl with short blonde hair, bowed to
her.

	"He's very shy, and doesn't know Japanese well, yet."

	"That's okay," Usagi said. She thought that the little boy
might also have been upset by her makeup. She found that a few
children were a little upset by her face-paint. She did her best not
to frighten them, but some children were just easily scared.

	"You're from overseas?" Usagi asked the woman.

	The girl-- she looked familiar to Usagi for some reason--
nodded. "I think we're fitting in pretty well."

	For the first time, Usagi noticed another child staring up
at her. Despite the summer heat, the little girl was wearing a
hooded jacket and long jeans. In the shadow of the hood, all Usagi
could see were the glint of eyes-- red eyes, like a rabbit's.

	"Kelly, please don't pester Miss Bunny," the girl in front
of Usagi scolded when the little girl began to tug on the sleeve of
her costume.

	"Oh, it's okay!" Usagi assured her, kneeling down to try to
get a better look at the child. "What's your bear's name, Kelly?"
she asked, gesturing to the stuffed animal the little girl was
holding.

	"Dunno. Brooke just gave him to me," she replied, clutching
the stuffed toy close to her chest. Usagi still couldn't see inside
the little girl's hood, but when she glanced at the child's hands,
she started.

	Kelly didn't have any fingernails. Her fingers had the right
number of joints, but they ended in stubs rather than what was
normal. Also, Usagi realized in the strange light of the mall
concourse, her skin appeared very slightly green.

	She glanced up at the girl's guardian, Brooke.

	"Kelly has a skin disorder," the girl said dispassionately.
It was as if she had the line memorized. Strangely, her eyes
couldn't quite meet Usagi's when she said it.

	Determined not to let such a disfiguration bother her, Usagi
leaned in and kissed Kelly on the cheek, forcing her hood back a
little. The child squeaked, but didn't protest when Usagi threw her
arms around her. Usagi stared into Kelly's bright eyes and smiled as
warmly as she could. "I'm glad you came to see me today. Tell me
when you decide what you want to name your bear, okay?"

	"Uhm," Kelly agreed, nodding. She grinned, an expression
Usagi could only just see in the darkness of her hood.

	"I'm glad I got to see you too," she told the little boy,
who was still hiding behind Brooke's legs.

	The little boy nodded, but turned to place more of his
guardian between himself and the actress.

	Usagi laughed, reached out to ruffle his hair, and headed
back off into the crowd.

	After a few seconds, the little girl looked up at her
guardian, a ray of light from above illuminating her pale green
cheek.

	"I like Bunny," she said. "She's really pretty."

	"See," Brooke said. "Not all of them are like the Sailor
Senshi. Aren't you glad we came out here to see her?"

	"She was really nice, Brookite," the little boy agreed, his
voice quavering. "She kissed Kaliborite and she touched my head."

	"Brooke and Kelly, Jasper," the girl corrected
automatically. "Hopefully, everyone we meet will be just as nice!"

* * *

	Makoto woke, half expecting the empty spot next to her in
the bed.

	She sighed deeply, holding her hands to her face. No doubt
that Haruka felt at least as guilty as she did.

	"I promised myself I wouldn't do this anymore," she
whispered to herself.

	Grumbling darkly, she glanced at the clock. It was well
after noon, but her assistant manager usually ran the restaurant on
weekends so that Makoto could have a day off. Makoto tried to look
in on the place once or twice, but it wouldn't be the end of the
world if she didn't appear.

	She would have time enough to put the pieces of her
shattered ego back together.

	The hell of it was that she could tell Haruka to stay away
from her over and over again, but her body just... responded... when
the woman came to her. Makoto cursed herself for being weak and
wondered how long it would be before her indiscretion started to
hurt those around her in a more serious fashion.

	Standing, she kicked the bed frame, hoping to work out her
anger at her self and at Haruka. All she managed to do was break her
toenail and bleed all over her sheets.

	After she showered, bandaged her foot, and dressed, Makoto
decided to make the best of a really shitty day and go out for ice
cream. Misery loved company, and if she remembered correctly, Usagi
and Minako would both be getting off work in just a few minutes. She
called Usagi and Mamoru's answering machine and left a message. Just
the mention of ice cream would be enough to send the blonde-girl
running. Rei would probably respond to a similar message left on her
machine and Ami readily agreed to come when Makoto called her cell
phone. Minako wasn't answering hers, but that was probably because
she was with Usagi and had already heard the message.

	She locked up her apartment and headed out on foot for the
Crown Fruit Parlor where she had instructed all her friends to come.
She kept wincing at her sore toe, but decided to bull on through the
little bit of pain she'd earned herself.

	It was outside the Crown that she saw a most unusual sight.

	A Youma General was painting a sign on a storefront.

	At least, that's what Makoto thought it was.

	At the second glance, she confirmed her observation. It was
'Callie', or whatever her name was, the aerobics instructor from the
Youma-run health club she and her friends had busted up the week
before. Rather than her uniform, however, she was clad in a pair of
shorts and a tank-top. She was carefully painting an 'hours of
operation' sign on the front of a new health-food delicatessen a few
doors down and across the street from the Crown. Another youma, the
girl Makoto recognized as Achorite, came out a few minutes later
with a tray of tea. The general and the youma spent a few minutes
sipping their tea, and then went back to work, looking for all the
world like a honest shop keeper and her assistant.

* * *

	"We never did figure out how Jadeite set up all his little
business fronts so quickly," Minako noted as the group sat inside
the crown about a half hour later, suspiciously eyeing the last-
minute decorating work going on across the street.

	"It is a little difficult to imagine Jadeite and Nephrite
doing 'fixer-upper' work," Rei noted in an amused tone. "I wonder
how hard it was to get paint out of those uniforms."

	"I always thought that the Dark Kingdom had a huge stockpile
of gems and precious metals," Ami theorized. "It wouldn't be
difficult to buy a business outright and then come in after the fact
and have youma drain energy from the people inside. The fact that
these youma seem to need technology to drain people's energy hints
at some kind of loss of ability."

	"That would go along with what we saw at the health club,"
Makoto agreed. "And why the general was such a pushover."

	"I wonder what they could be collecting energy for?" Usagi
said despondently. "Why can't they just leave us alone?"

	All of her friends looked at her with concern. She had come
in happily and ordered one of the largest sundaes on the menu, only
to push it away when Makoto pointed out the new business. It wasn't
like Usagi to be so anxious or apprehensive, even when they were in
the throes of combat with a new enemy.

	Rei, in particular, had been thrown off kilter by her
friend's behavior. Her usual snapping, snobbish tone had gone
completely out the window. She was sitting hip-to-hip with Usagi and
kept looking at her in worry. The others pretended they didn't
notice Rei's arm around Usagi's waist or the way Rei kept stroking
the upset woman's cheek. Still, both women were still participating
in the conversation, so their usual banter was not as badly
disrupted as badly as it could have been.

	"Here's an idea," Makoto said. "Suppose after what happened
at Point D happened..." she paused a second. There was a horrible
enormity of what happened that she was glossing over that each of
the women around her still had a difficult time with. "Suppose that
after all that, that the Dark Kingdom wasn't completely destroyed.
We know that Beryl, Metallia, and all four of the generals were dead
afterwards, but suppose, just for a second, that some of the youma
in the Dark Kingdom survived when Metallia, Usagi, and the Silver
Crystal went toe to toe."

	"It's possible," Minako said quietly.

	"Now," Makoto continued, "after ten years or so, they're
just getting strong enough so that they come back and try to start
all their old crap back up. Maybe they want revenge. I dunno."

	Ami shook her head, "But why start their old schemes back up
when we've already proven we can beat them?"

	Minako nodded at Ami. "And why not attack us directly? If I
was a Youma general, I'd do something to draw us out into the open,
like Kunzite was always trying. Also, they may not know who we are,
but I *know* that all the Generals knew who Tuxedo Mask was. Why not
go after him, too? Mamoru hasn't noticed anything, has he?" she
asked Usagi.

	Biting her lip, Usagi shook her head. "Oh no! You don't
think they would, do you?"

	Minako jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the youma across
the street who were doing their best to set a ladder against the
store front without knocking it over. "Don't you think they would
have, already?"

	Outside, a curious little drama played out as Achorite
struggled to keep the ladder upright and steady as her boss
attempted to clean the rain gutters over the top of the store.

	"I guess you're right," Usagi said, a little bit of the
humor returning to her voice. "What could they be doing with it?"

	"With the energy?" Minako asked.

	Usagi nodded.

	"I keep thinking about the second device Artemis found," Rei
said. "The one that they burned in the warehouse behind the health-
club rather than letting us find it. It was quite a bit larger than
the little things they had underneath the exercise bikes. If it was
drawing energy, I'm certain that one of us would have noticed it."

	"I'm fairly certain it was what set my computer off," Ami
admitted.

	"Artemis didn't bat an eye until he was on top of it, and by
that time it was too late," Minako seconded Rei. "Instead of sucking
energy in, maybe it was pouring energy out."

	"Or using the energy for something else," Makoto said.
"Maybe it was a weapon of some kind, targeted at Mamoru's house."

	Usagi gasped out loud, her hands going to her mouth.

	"Through two high rises, the high school, and a water
tower?" Ami held up her computer, which was displaying a map of the
neighborhood with a glowing line drawn between the warehouse and
Mamoru and Usagi's apartment."

	"Maybe not," Makoto conceded. "Geez, you'd think they'd
never used a ladder before," she said, rolling her eyes at the scene
across the street."

	"We're going to have to investigate," Minako said, trying to
keep from laughing as the youma general did her best to keep from
falling from the rain gutter. Achorite struggled to get the ladder
back into position.

	"They know the two of us," Rei noted, gesturing at Makoto.
"We had better stay behind. If the rest of you go, it should be
okay."

	"I'll get Mamo-chan to come, too," Usagi said, finally
digging into her ice-cream. "Tonight, for dinner?"

	"Sure," Minako agreed. "And if it turns out that the food is
toxic, we can always swing by Makoto's place after we burn the place
to the ground."

	"Uhm... about that," Makoto said, a little guiltily. "I
talked with Haruka last night. She was pretty upset that we left her
and Michiru out of the loop when we went to the health club."

	"She was angry?" Usagi asked.

	Makoto shook her head. "She was... upset. She told me that
Michiru thinks we don't trust them any more."

	"We don't have any reason at all not to trust them, do we?"
Rei quipped sarcastically.

	Usagi took a deep breath, and looked at Minako for support.
Minako nodded back at her.

	"Let's call them and tell them what we're planning," Usagi
said decisively. "I belive that Haruka and Michiru will do what is
right."

* * *

	"Dammit, Akie, will you hold the fucking ladder STILL?!"
Cobalt yelled.

	"Sorry!" Achorite apologized, doing her best to balance the
ladder against the new deli's awnings. "I'm trying not to tear the
fabric."

	"Better the fabric than me!" Cobalt snapped back. "I
swear... if levitating wasn't so costly in energy..."

	"Sorry! Sorry!" Achorite repeated. "Watch out for the--"

	"Ow," Achorite said, staring dispassionately at her thumb
where she had just lacerated it against an unfinished edge on the
rain gutter. She sucking her thumb in her mouth, hoping that no one
saw the green smear of blood running into her palm. With her free
hand, she smeared mud and leaves over the blood left on the sharp
edge.

	"Are you okay," Achorite asked anxiously after Cobalt had
scrambled back down the ladder.

	The general nodded and pulled her thumb out of her mouth.
She quickly clamped her other hand down over the wound.

	"It's nothing, but it's bleeding. I've got to get a bandage
on it or people will ask questions."

	Achorite nodded, and opened the door of the delicatessen
open. The two just missed five interested women stepping out of the
Crown Fruit Parlor across the street.

	After tending to her injury, Cobalt stepped back out into
the delicatessen's dining room, where two other youma were getting
ready to open shop.

	"Okay, ladies," she said, interrupting them. "Hematite,
Inderite, it's entirely possible that the Sailor Senshi will show up
like they did at the health club. We all got out of there okay, but
we very nearly didn't."

	She pulled up her tanktop, showing a painful-looking
greenish-black patch on her side. "I'm still healing from where
Jupiter blasted me, and I put everything I had into shielding. If
the Sailor Senshi show up, run."

	Achorite nodded in agreement.

	"I don't want any heroics," Cobalt continued. "I just want
the both of you to get the hell out. If a police officer asks about
it, say you were running from monsters or something like that.
Just... get out. Let me take care of the Sailor Senshi when the time
comes."

	Both girls nodded and went back to their tasks.

	Cobalt pulled her top back down and shook her hair out.
Hopefully, the Senshi would never notice, and she'd be okay. Even if
they did, perhaps they would pull a profit in energy before they
were forced to abandon yet another new shop.

	It was as she was absorbed in her thoughts that the door
opened, and a young woman walked in, leading two children.

	"Brookite," Cobalt addressed her unemotionally. "I thought I
told you to stay away. Do you know how much danger you're putting
yourself in?"

	"Less than if I stayed home," Brooke replied, gulping.
"Graphite's missing. She disappeared while we were shopping. I don't
know if the Senshi got her, or what. "Bandy's looking for her, but I
don't know what else to do or where else to go if they know where we
live."

	Cobalt took a deep breath and rolled her eyes. "Nobody else
has called me for any emergencies. Graphite's always been flighty.
Maybe she found a boyfriend or something?" she suggested.

	Brooke shrugged. Cobalt realized she was trembling in fear.

	"Okay," she finally said. "It's nothing, but you can stay
here. Kaliborite and Jasper can play in the back room until we find
her. When we do find her, you go back to your apartment and never
contact me again, okay? It's far too dangerous."

	Brooke nodded thankfully. "I promise," she agreed.

* * *

	"Hello?"

	Damn, Makoto thought. It's Michiru. Can she tell just by
listening to me? Does she know? How long has she known?

	"Uhm, Hi," Makoto greeted her ally, talking hesitantly into
the phone receiver. "Is Haruka there?"

	"She's... indisposed," Michiru replied quietly.

	"Okay. Err... Listen. We think that the Dark Kingdom is
going to make a new move tonight, and thought that you two might
like to be in on things when we go to investigate."

	There were several seconds of silence on the other end of
the line.

	Finally, Michiru spoke hesitatingly. "I... appreciate that."

	Makoto sighed thankfully. She had carefully gauged what she
was about to say in order to bruise as few feelings as possible. "If
you meet us at the Hikawa shrine before seven, we'll all go at once,
okay?"

	"That would be... nice," Michiru offered hesitantly. "I'll
tell Haruka. Hopefully, we'll see you then."

	After hanging up the receiver, Makoto wondered how long it
would take for her heart to stop pounding.


* * *

	"I told you I'd be perfectly fine," Luna quipped as she and
Artemis lighted on a fence rail in an alley near the Crown Fruit
Parlor.

	"Would you *please* quit jumping around like that?!" Artemis
admonished. "My heart leaps into my throat every time you do that ."

	"Oh, calm down, flea-brain. It's not like I've never done it
before."

	"Never pregnant, at any rate," Artemis quipped.

	He didn't bat an eye when Luna sunk her claws into his
foreleg. She had been a lot more loose with those for the last few
months. Artemis suspected that it was a symptom of the hormone
imbalance, but couldn't say for sure.

	Half the time, Luna was just kittenish as when Artemis first
met her, so many millennia ago on a world long since passed. The
other half, she was a pregnant bitch on wheels.

	"Please, be careful," he pleaded with her. "I'd die if
anything happened to you or our child, Luna."

	"Okay, okay. Quit nagging, Artemis. I thought I was supposed
to be the nag."

	Artemis wisely kept his mouth shut on the comment. At least
the cravings were over by this point, he thought to himself.

	"I'll be careful, okay?" Luna promised.

	Artemis sighed and gestured towards the end of the alley
with his paw. "I'm pretty sure it's this way."

	After a few minutes, they stopped, In the alley were two
small children, both about six years old. Neither of the cats wanted
to try to dodge past them to get closer to the back of the
delicatessen since they both knew very well what small children were
capable of. In the tensing of their muscles and twitching of their
tails and ears, both cats communicated a need to study the situation
from afar before making any further move.

	"D'you think we're gonna get in trouble?" the little girl in
the coat asked.

	"Don't think so," the blue-eyed little boy replied. "Cobalt
might yell, but she's always yelling about something. Brookite won't
be mad at us."

	"I'm glad," the little girl said. "I like Brooke and don't
want her to be mad, but it was so hot inside."

	"Why don't you take the coat off, Kaliborite?"

	"Brooke says I'm not supposed to. If people see me, they
might get upset."

	"There's nobody back here but us," the boy said.

	Artemis suppressed a growl in the back of his throat as he
began to examine the girl. The alien odor of youma had already
permeated the alley, sharper in his nostrils than the trash or rot
around them. On closer examination, he could tell that her strange-
looking hands, the only part of her body exposed by her clothes,
were pale green in shade. She was almost certainly a denizen of the
Dark Kingdom, and if his guess was right, so was the boy.

	Kaliborite bounced the teddy-bear she had received earlier
in the day on her knee, making cooing noises at it.

	"There are kitties," she said, not looking up from her bear.

	Luna hissed quietly under her breath.

	"Kitty, like we saw at the mall today?" the little boy asked
eagerly.

	"No, real kitties, Jasper. Like we saw on 'Nature World' on
the television last night."

	"Oh," he replied, not giving any clue which he thought was
the better of the two.

	"M-meow..." Artemis offered lamely, stepping hesitantly into
view. "Run, Luna!" he whispered. "I'll hold them off for as long as
I-- what are you doing?"

	Strangely, Luna had gotten a glazed look in her eyes and
stepped out in view of the two youma as well. She began to purr
softly.

	"Are they dangerous?" Jasper asked.

	"Dunno," the little girl said. "They've got fangs and claws,
but they're small. I don't think one could kill you."

	Artemis was screaming inside his head. All he wanted was for
Luna to run away to safety before something horrible happened to her
or his unborn kitten.

	"Should we feed them? Maybe they're hungry. There's lots of
food here, so we can spare some," the boy suggested.

	Kaliborite shrugged. "Wait. No. The girl kitty has baby
kitties inside of her. I heard Akie tell Brooke not to give the food
to pregnant people since it might hurt them. It might hurt kitties,
too."

	"Baby kitties?" Artemis heard Luna whisper under her breath.
"Multiple kittens? Not just one?"

	"I've got some food we brought from Brookite's house,"
Jasper said pulling a plastic bag out of his pants pocket. Inside
was a rather squashed ham and cheese sandwich. He unsealed the bag
and tore the sandwich inside into three roughly equal pieces. One
piece he handed to Kaliborite. The other he stuffed whole into his
own mouth. The third was torn yet again in half and placed down on
the asphalt in front of the two cats.

	"Are they going to fight?" Kelly asked.

	"They don't look mad," Jasper said.

	Indeed, Luna was purring.

	"What are you doing?" Artemis hissed madly as Luna stepped
up to sniff at the sandwich fragment.

	"My babies are hungry," she said with a dreamy look in her
eyes. "And I smell ham."

	"Luna!"

	It was already too late. Luna was nose deep into the
sandwich, nibbling the ham and cheese from in between the crushed
bread. She was purring loudly.

	To their credit, neither of the young youma tried to advance
on the cat or even reached out to per her. Both seem perfectly
content to watch her eat in silence.

	Eyes wide with panic, Artemis sidled up next to his mate,
and put on a show of eating the sandwich. Maybe, he reasoned, these
youma would be placated if he and Luna played their sick little
game.

	Looking up, he saw two red glints from inside Kaliborite's
hood as she stared happily down at him. There was no malice there.
Indeed, as she crushed her teddy-bear in a fierce hug, all he could
see in her shadowed expression was joy.

	When Luna had eaten all the meat from the piece of sandwich
she had been given, Artemis dropped the fragment of sandwich and
nosed at Luna's flank until she ran off. He followed her.

	Once they were out of sight of the two youma, Artemis began
to scold Luna.

	"What were you thinking?!" he demanded in a high-pitched
tone. "They could have attacked you at any minute?"

	"Why would they attack me?" Luna asked dreamily.

	"They were YOUMA, Luna!"

	"They were little children," she said. "Anyway, did you hear
what the little girl said? She could tell I was pregnant. She said I
had 'kitties' inside me! Kitties! As in multiple kittens. How many
do you think I'll have, Artemis? Hmmm?"

	Artemis staggered.

* * *

	"Actually, it's quite good," Michiru noted, taking a bite of
her sandwich.

	She and Haruka were sitting at a large table with Usagi,
Mamoru, Minako and Ami. They all had sandwiches and a bowl of soup
that had been brought to them by a youma waitress. Along with the
other customers, they were happily eating, enjoying the fare of the
new restaurant.

	"So there is or isn't anything wrong with it?" Mamoru asked.

	"That's a problem," Ami said, around a mouthful of soup. "It
depends on what your definition of 'wrong' is. There's nothing toxic
about the food. It even has a few vitamins and minerals that most
people don't get enough of. What it doesn't have is any kind of
caloric content."

	"So if you ate it and nothing else for long enough..." the
man surmised.

	"You'd starve to death," Ami finished, taking a large bite
out of her sandwich.

	Haruka stirred her soup, her eyes darting around nervously.
She was fidgeting nervously and her gazed flicked rapidly between
the different waitresses, all of whom had candy-colored eyes or
strange shades of hair.

	"Still, isn't that what people want?" Minako wondered
quietly. "Being able to eat anything and everything you want?"

	Usagi gestured to a line at the bottom of the bistro menus
clipped to a lazy susan in the middle of the table. "Pregnant women,
the elderly, and persons who are seriously ill should consult a
doctor before eating food that is part of a low-calorie diet," she
read out loud.

	"You really would expend more energy eating here than you
ever would gain back from it," Michiru noted. "It's devious, and
could prove to be a trap for anorexics or bulimics. I played violin
for a ballet company's orchestra once. Those poor girls..." she
shuddered.

	"But they are draining energy, right, Ami?" Haruka asked,
her words coming from in between clenched teeth.

	"It's the tables," Ami answered her. "If you'll notice, the
table tops appear to be an odd combination of schist, quartz, and
polished basalt that doesn't really occur naturally anywhere in--"

	"Cut to the chase, please," Haruka prompted her.

	"There are mechanisms inside the table that are draining
energy, but at a rate even slower than they were at the health
club."

	"How slow?" Haruka asked.

	Ami jotted a figure on her napkin and handed it to the
blonde woman. Haruka stared at her, her lips moving as she did the
math in her head.

	Michiru glanced at the number. "So, if they are pulling so
very little energy, why not use the funds necessary to build this
place and buy alkaline batteries... or a diesel generator?"

	"They have a generator," Mamoru said quietly. He began to
tremble quietly, and his face contorted with quiet rage. "At least
they had on when I was there. I don't remember it very well, but I
do remember Kunzite forcing the youma to try to absorb energy from
it. He killed them-- electrocuted them-- by the score."


	He shook his head, trying to dislodge the horrible memory
from his skull. Usagi laid a sympathetic hand on his arm and put her
head on his shoulder.

	Mamoru exhaled and continued. "Youma can't live on pure
energy. They have to absorb life energy from their prey. Also, all
of the technology in the Dark Kingdom had been designed to use
stored life energy. All the little tricks that the generals were so
proud of were little more than the reflected life energy of their
victims."

	"So, isn't that enough?" Haruka asked impatiently. "Can't we
get on with it and trash this place?"

	"Is everyone doing allright?" their ruby-haired waitress
asked as she stepped back up to the table. She didn't seem to notice
Haruka, and to a lesser degree, Michiru recoiling away from her.

	"I'd like another iced tea, if you don't mind," Mamoru said.
"We're just fine otherwise, thanks."

	"Is that it?" Usagi asked after the waitress walked away to
get another glass of tea for Mamoru. "Is that all they're doing,
eating life energy?"

	"Maybe Luna and Artemis will find out more tonight," Minako
said.

	Wordlessly, Haruka got up from the table and stormed away.

	The rest of the group, and even the other patrons in the
restaurant watched her wordlessly as she slammed the door open and
ran from the deli.

	"I'm sorry," Michiru apologized for her after the background
chatter had resumed around them. "You can't understand how difficult
it is for us to see an encroachment such as this and *not*
immediately attack. It's taking everything I have to keep from
blasting our waitress when ever she comes to the table."

	Usagi sighed, her eyes staring down at the pretty marbled
table-top.

	It was only a few seconds later that the screams began.

* * *

	Shuddering, Haruka ran down the street and turned the
corner. She dodged into the alley leaned up sickly against the wall.

	After a few seconds, she leaned over and began to cough,
finally vomiting back up the half-sandwich she had just eaten. It
was horrible, terrible, but it felt better to be free of anything
youma-spawned. The sick taste in her mouth and the acid burning in
her throat were far better than the knowledge that she had eaten
something created by a youma.

	Haruka staggered away from where she had been sick, tearing
at her hair in rage and confusion.

	"The princess is wrong!" she cried to herself. "Why can't
she see what kind of danger she's putting us all in? How can she
expect us to stand for this."

	She slumped against a wall, bawling and yelling
incoherently, torn between duty and love. Why couldn't the princess
see what she was doing to her?

	"Graphite?" a high-pitched voice called out. "Jasper! It's
graphite. I thing something's wrong with her."

	Haruka blinked, the world in front of her coming back into
focus.

	"Graphite, are you okay?" a small creature in front of her
asked.

	Haruka's muscles locked in horror as a small, green youma
reached out to touch her face.

	She screamed and backhanded the creature as hard as she
could.

	"Kaliborite!" Another voice screamed. "Get away! Run! That's
not Graphite!"

	"URANUS STAR POWER!" Haruka cried, raising her
transformation wand.

	An eternity later, a second or so of brightly flashing
lights to anyone who was watching, Sailor Uranus, slayer of
creatures from beyond, stood over Kaliborite, ready to kill.

	"WORLD SHAKING!"

* * *

	The delicatessen shook as if a bomb had gone off.

	One of the patrons, an older woman, began to scream. Those
around her tried to console her, saying that it was just a minor
earthquake.

	Then the screams from outside the shop began. There was a
flash of light and an explosion. Bricks and broken glass began to
fly past the shop windows.

	Without a word, Michiru leapt from her seat. She was
followed by Usagi, Ami, Minako, and Mamoru, who threw a bill down to
cover their expenses.

	They transformed into Sailor Senshi as they ran, dodging
into alleys and side streets as they followed the violence.

	"What's got into her?!" Venus yelled as a particularly
violent seismic explosion sent shards of brick and asphalt spiraling
into the air.

	Neptune shook her head, her face contorted in dread.

	"Up here," Tuxedo Kamen indicated, leaping to the top of a
building. Being more experienced in the art of the chase, he led the
women higher and higher, until they were leaping from rooftop to
rooftop, gaining on Sailor Uranus and whomever had inspired such
devastation in her.

	"The Sailor Senshi are trying to kill a little girl!"
someone shouted on the streets below. Sailor Moon's stomach churned
as she heard the cry. Surely not. Surely Haruka could not possibly
be planning on...

	But, there in a park at the end of the alley, Sailor Uranus
was slowly stalking a diminutive figure, one hand raised above her
head to deliver yet another seismic attack. People were streaming
from the park and surrounding streets, eager to get away from the
violence.

	"Uranus! NO!" Sailor Neptune shouted, pleading.

	The scene before them was horrible. There was nothing
resembling mercy on Uranus's face, only a horrible hatred, both of
self and of what was before her. Her shaking arm was raised high
above her and her fist was glowing with an unreleased attack. She
was about to deliver a killing blow, and everyone who saw her could
tell.

	Before her was a trembling child. Her hooded jacket had
protected her from the worst of the shrapnel from Uranus's attacks.
She had apparently not been directly hit with one yet, but was so
exhausted from running that she could only cringe in terror against
a tree as she waited for the warrior to slay her.

	Her hood had fallen back sometime during her flight. For the
first time, the Sailor Senshi could see the little girl for what she
really was. Her head was bald and her skin was pale green. She had
red eyes and a lipless mouth that was open in a wail of terror and
horror. The youma's strange, stubby fingers were clenching a small
stuffed teddy-bear close to her body.

	"Please, Graphite, no!" the youma begged, her body
convulsing with her cries.

	"WOLRD--"

	**SHING**

	Uranus was brought up short as a rose embedded deeply in the
ground in front of her. She stared down at it, and then up in horror
at Tuxedo Kamen, who had another rose ready to go. This one was
aimed quite a bit higher than the last one.

	There was a flash of light, but not from any attack. Sailor
Moon appeared between her and the tiny youma in a yellow, crescent-
shaped flicker.

	"Teleportation?" She said in shock. "How--"

	Her back to Uranus, Sailor Moon knelt down and wrapped her
arms around the screaming child.

	"Shhh... it's okay now. It's okay. Nobody will hurt you,"
she said, gently rocking the screaming little girl.

	"Move, Sailor Moon!" Uranus demanded, raising her fist once
again.

	"It's okay. It's okay. You're Kelly, aren't you?" Moon
asked. "Have you named your bear yet?"

	Sailor Moon's comforting arms around her, Kaliborite began
to calm and shook her head, still crying.

	"It's okay," Moon repeated once more. "Do you ever watch
'Rabbit Room' on T.V.?" she asked. "Would you help me sing 'All the
Children in the World?'"

	Kelly nodded hesitantly, still clutching her bear close to
her body. "All... All..."

	"All the little children play in the morning..." Sailor Moon
began in a signsong tone.

	"MOVE, USAGI!!" Uranus screamed, her entire body shaking.

	"--And then they play at lunchtime," Moon continued, raising
her voice slightly so that the child in her arms could not hear the
screams as clearly.

	Uranus tensed as she saw movement out of the corner of her
eye. She flinched, and saw Neptune standing next to her. Her hands
were raised, ready to attack, but not pointed at the youma clutching
its body against Sailor Moon's.

	Michiru's 'Deep Submerge' will hit me in the chest, Uranus
realized. There were tears rolling down her partner's face and she
was shaking, almost unable to stand. Her mouth was opening and
closing with wordless pleading. Uranus could only make out one
phrase.

	"Please don't do this."

	The others were around her too. After a few seconds she
realized that a clear, glittering blade of ice had formed in Sailor
Mercury's hands and was poking into her side. Sailor Venus's hands
were glowing even brighter than her own, ready to produce a particle
beam that would burn her, or even kill her.

	A second later, she felt the heat from an open flame and
realized that Sailor Mars was standing just behind Sailor Mercury,
ready to follow the blue-haired woman's icy attack with burning
punishment of her own.

	Finally, she felt a pair of gloved arms wrap around her from
behind her. One hand slid gently down Uranus's breastbone until it
rested between her breasts. The other closed on her side, just below
her raised arm.

	Sweating, shaking, Uranus could feel the static electricity
begin to build behind her.

	"Please," Jupiter's voice was almost calm. "Don't make us do
this, Haruka. The princess will never forgive us if we have to kill
you."

	"Am I the only one who can see what's going on here?!"
Uranus screamed, her own voice breaking and sobbing.

	"Yes, you are," Jupiter told her. "And if you continue to
act, I'm going to stop your heart. I will NOT let you harm her or
the Princess. Do you understand me?"

	For just one second, while she was singing to the frightened
youma child, Sailor Moon glanced back at Uranus. In that second, it
wasn't Sailor Moon staring at her, but Princess Serenity.

	Serenity's gaze was horrible, terrible. It spoke at once of
the love the princess had for Uranus, but also of the incredible
betrayal and disappointment the princess felt. There was kindness in
that gaze, but also a stinging reproach. There was no trust
whatsoever in that terrible stare.

	In that second, Sailor Uranus's heart broke. Screaming,
bawling, she collapsed to the ground. Her transformation broke,
leaving only Haruka Ten'ou where Sailor Uranus lay. The woman cried
and wailed like a lost child whose mother had just abandoned her.
Michiru collapsed to the ground, burying her face in her hands.

	In a spray of confetti, General Cobalt materialized. She was
carrying with her one of the waitresses from the delicatessen and a
small little boy.

	"Kaliborite!" Jasper screamed, running to embrace the girl,
still held in Sailor Moon's arms.

	"It's allright. She's safe now," the sailor-suited woman
assured him.

	"Please don't hurt her," Jasper pleaded. "She can't see
color, only radio waves. She thought that lady was Graphite." He
gestured to Haruka's collapsed body in fright. "Please,"

	"It's okay," Sailor Moon assured him. "It was a
misunderstanding, but everyone's just fine now."

	"Sailor Moon..." General Cobalt began, gulping.

	"Look, Kelly," Sailor Moon began. "Brooke is here to take
you home!"

	"Brooke?" the little girl asked.

	Sailor Moon gestured to the worried-looking woman. Not
hesitating, Kelly stood and ran to the woman and began to cry into
her uniform.

	Sailor Moon stood and gestured to Cobalt. "I think we have
had a horrible misunderstanding today. I don't think any of us wants
to fight. Do you?"

	Seeing five Sailor Senshi around her, all with their attacks
charged up and ready to go, almost broke Cobalt's nerve. She shook
her head, not trusting her own mouth.

	Cobalt jumped when Sailor Venus grabbed her arm.

	"Listen, Callie or Cobalt or whatever your name is" the
blonde woman told her. "I'm not sure what you're up to, but tonight,
I'm not going to push it. We'll just let sleeping youma lie with the
fishes, okay?"

	Cobalt nodded, fairly certain that Venus had just horribly
butchered the phrase.

	"What I do know is if you hurt people in this city, I'm
gonna rain down on you like a ton of bricks," Venus continued.
"Draining energy and feeding people dangerous food comes really
close to hurting people. Do you understand me?"

	"Y-yes," Cobalt said, horrified that the Sailor Senshi had
already discovered the length and breadth of her latest plan.

	"Now, I don't know about the rest of us, but I'm fairly
certain that Sailor Moon intends to watch you get away again. Can
you teleport out or do you need us to give you a head start?" Venus
offered.

	Humiliated, Cobalt grimaced and grabbed Brookite's free
hand. Once she was sure that both Kaliborite and Jasper were in
contact with her, the four of them disappeared in a flash of
confetti.

	Venus exhaled. "We need to get out of here before the cops
show up," she commanded. Indeed, all the Sailor Senshi could hear
sirens in the distance. Flashing lights began to play on nearby
buildings.

	"We'll take Haruka," Sailor Moon said. She had already
helped Tuxedo Kamen to lift the woman's slender body. "Sailor
Jupiter, would you go with Sailor Neptune?"

	Her throat suddenly dry, Jupiter nodded.

* * *

	Back at the delicatessen, Brooke and all the other
waitresses hovered around Jasper and Kelly, trying to make sure they
were okay. Cobalt was busy shoving every bit of food in the kitchen
into a large trash can, grumbling under her breath all the while.

	"Brook!" Kelly said after the noise died down enough for her
to speak. "I named my bear."

	"What did you name it?" Brooke asked, thankful that her
charge had survived her ordeal.

	"I named it 'Bunny'!"

	The refrigerator door handle broke off in Cobalt's hand, but
she didn't say a word.

* * *

	Later, in the living room of the opulent apartment Haruka
and Michiru shared, Makoto sat on a low divan, sipping at the cup of
coffee and wondering why she hadn't run when Michiru invited her in.

	"Drink?" Michiru offered, stepping into the room with two
small tumblers full of a pungent amber liquid.

	"Please," Makoto replied, gladly taking the mixed drink. She
began to sip at it, eager for the stress relief.

	"What do you think will happen to Haruka?" Michiru asked
calmly after sipping her own.

	"With Usagi, there's no telling," Makoto replied. "There's a
lot of strength and determination there that she's very careful not
to show the rest of us. If she has to, she'll tear Haruka down and
rebuild her from the ground up."

	Michiru sighed deeply. "Will I even recognize her
afterward?"

	"We all became different people once she got hold of us,"
Makoto stated. "What's probably going to happen is that Haruka will
be forced to go on 'Rabbit Room' a few times and sing songs to
puppets and small children until she snaps."

	The aqua-haired woman shuddered. "I don't think she's ever
worn a leotard in her life."

	"Well, there's a first time for everything," Makoto agreed,
doing her best not to crack a grin.

	Even Michiru was having a hard time keeping a straight face
at the idea of Haruka wearing face paint and a costume like Usagi's
or Minako's.

	"What makes that really amusing is that Haruka has every
episode of 'Rabbit Room' on tape. She already knows all the songs,
even if she'd never admit it."

	Makoto covered her mouth to keep from snickering.

	The laughter turned bitter after just a few seconds.

	"So--"

	"I was going to ask you--" Michiru accidentally spoke over
the top of Makoto's words. "I mean..."

	"You go first," Makoto urged her, already knowing what was
coming. She felt like she was falling down a deep hole, but couldn't
bring herself to try to stop it from happening.

	"I would like to think," Michiru began, "that what Haruka
and I have together is thicker than blood or water. I would like to
think that we are partners in all thing and that our relationship
means more than just... sex."

	Makoto swallowed, suddenly wishing she had water rather than
the dry drink in her hand.

	"I'm not going to pretend like we haven't had a lot of
problems lately," Michiru continued. "But... we're stronger than
that. At least I thought we were. I mean... when... when... when..."
Halting her stammers, Michiru took a long sip off her drink. She
closed her eyes and opened her mouth to speak again. "When do you
decide you were even interested in that sort of thing?" she asked
Makoto.

	"I'm not," the tall woman replied. "Or at least I keep
telling myself that. I guess it started in our last year of high-
school. There was a big get together at the temple. We even sent the
two of you invitations, but you were busy. We were talking about the
kind of boys we were interested in, but I think all five of us
realized that we haven't even been serious about anyone since we
fought Shadow Galactica. We were sitting there talking, and I
remembered something Seiya said to me just before he, Taiki, Yaten
and Princess Fireball left for planet Kinmoku."

	"What did he tell you?" Michiru asked, eager to finish the
conversation.

	"Minako and I were saying something about trying to find
boyfriends after the fight was over and he said," Makoto bit her
lip, "'You seriously think you can devote your life to someone other
than *her*?'

	"And when I remembered that and I looked at Usagi in her
pajamas there in the middle of the night, there was nothing I wanted
more than show her how dedicated I really was."

	"I've often felt the same way," Michiru admitted. "And I
think Haruka feels it more keenly than I do."

	"After that, it was like a new world had opened up. After I
began to be able to look at Usagi in that kind of light, it wasn't
long before I was looking at everybody like that. Ami, Rei, Minako,
even you two. I even kissed Minako on a dare one night because we
were both drunk," she admitted. "I think she's begun to realize the
same thing I have. We may have flings or even be in love, but when
it comes down to it, who else is going to understand what we are,
what we do, or how we feel?"

	Michiru nodded in understanding.

	"Then, one night last year... you were out of town for some
kind of concert I think... Haruka came into my restaurant. We
talked. Both of us had a couple drinks. And then... when it was time
to go home, neither of us wanted to. We were both so lonely that..."
Makoto lowered her eyes, unable to continue. Finally, getting her
voice back, she started to speak again. "Let me ask you a question.
How did you know? Did Haruka tell you?"

	"Haruka talks in her sleep," Michiru explained. "Especially
if she's having erotic dreams."

	Makoto lowered her face in shame.

	"At first, I didn't think anything of it, because she's been
dreaming about Usagi almost as long as we've known her. I hear the
rest of your names occasionally, usually just as Haruka rolls over
and pulls the sheets off the bed. Your name didn't start coming up
regularly until a few months ago. Even when I was certain that you
and she had been... indiscreet... I didn't worry about it very much.
We both had girlfriends before we met and neither one of us was a
virgin the first time we were together. I thought it was a fling,
and nothing more."

	"And then..." Makoto prompted.

	"And then she wasn't screaming your name out so much as she
was pleading with you not to tell me about your affair," Michiru
said.

	"You must hate me," Makoto said, freely admitting her guilt.

	"No, I don't hate you," Michiru said. "I'm angry that Haruka
tried to lie to me and I'm insanely jealous."

	"I've been trying to break it off," Makoto explained, her
words not really making her feel any better. "But, I've been weak.
It's so hard to say no when..."

	"More than anything," Michiru said when Makoto failed to
finish her sentence, "I'm jealous that I've been excluded from
something that's obviously become an important part of her life."

	Makoto blinked. She wasn't expecting that.

	"Oh, Don't get me wrong. I don't trust you as far as I can
throw you," Michiru added. "On the other hand, we could probably
both throw each other quite a distance."

	"What are you saying?" Makoto asked calmly.

	"Haruka's heart has been broken," Michiru said. "And she
will need as much love and comfort as she can get in order to heal.
When she comes to you... please don't send her away. It's also going
to be a difficult time for me. If I come to you, don't send me away
either."

	Makoto did her best not to spit her drink all over Michiru's
fine hand-woven rug.

	Michiru's face was impassive as she said it. Her sea-colored
eyes gave Makoto no hint as to what was going on inside her head.
Just around her mouth, however, there was a tightness. It was a tiny
trace of need... and of curiosity.

	"Are you--"

	"I'm saying that Haruka and I always have and always will
share all parts of our lives. If you intend to share in Haruka's
life, you cannot exclude me," Michiru stated firmly. "Do you think
you can live with that?"

	The corners of Makoto's mouth turned up. She was trying as
hard as she could not to smile. Inside her head, a voice was
shouting 'slut' and 'whore' just as loudly as it could. Another part
of her was already beginning to examine Michiru on a deeper level.
Besides being beautifully attractive, talented, cultured, and
intelligent, the Senshi of Neptune knew what it was like. They had
fought in battle together, not always on the same side, but often
enough. They were sisters, in a way, and both knew what dedication
really felt like.

	There was no going back after this, Makoto realized. She
knew that she would have a very long life and that any action she
took now would commit her for a very long time.

	"I don't know," she finally said. "But I'd like to try."

* * *

	Much later, Kaliborite and Jasper sat in the apartment they
shared with their guardian, Brookite, happily watching 'Rabbit
Room'. Bunny the teddy-bear was safely held in Kelly's arms as she
watched. Even if she couldn't see the color of the television, she
could see the faces of the figures and hear their voices. She loved
the real Bunny, because the real Bunny had saved her life... or was
it Sailor Moon who had done that?

	It didn't matter. The songs sounded the same regardless of
if Sailor Moon or Bunny sang them.

	"Today we have a special guest!" Bunny announced on the
television. "It's Princess Puppy from the K-9 Kingdom!"

	"I'm so gonna make you guys pay for this," the new figure on
the screen said. She was a tall, slender woman, with short, light-
colored hair. She was wearing high-heels, a leotard, floppy ears,
and face paint.

	"Come sing a song with us, Princess Puppy!" Kitty demanded,
taking the new girl by the hand. "Let's sing 'Love is All You Need,'
okay?"

	Puppy was about to protest, but Bunny looked at her in
pleading, meaningful way. After just a few seconds, Puppy's resolve
broke, and she started to sing hesitantly in a voice unused to song.
Bunny and Kitty started to lead her in a dance routine choreographed
to interact with the puppets and some of the children in the
audience.

	Kaliborite, who was getting better and better at looking
human every day even if she couldn't see what they really looked
like, smiled happily at the display on the television. Princess
Puppy didn't look happy, but Kelly could tell that she loved Bunny
too, and would do whatever it took to make her happy.

- - -

~to be continued...

'Rabbit Room' originally came from a Ranma/SM story that never went
any where. In that version, 'Bunny' was Akane and Usagi was pissed
off that Akane had 'stolen' her image:

* * *

	"His name is Ranma Saotome," Ami said, bringing up the
picture on her PC. It was from a newspaper clipping that showed the
finalists in a martial-arts tournament. In the picture, Ranma was
standing on another young man's head and flashing a 'V' sign at the
camera "Twenty-two years old. He runs a dojo in Nerima District with
his wife and their parents. I'm guessing the woman he was with is
his wife, Akane Saotome."

	"Oh, baby," Makoto murmured as she stared at the picture.
"What a hunk. He looks just like my old--"

	"He's married, remember?" Minako interrupted her. "Even if
he is gorgeous. What about his wife, Ami-chan? Can she be easily
distracted?"

	Ami rolled her eyes and double-clicked on a video file,
causing a small window to display on her monitor. She made an
adjustment so that it filled the screen. It showed the woman Rei and
Usagi had seen earlier wearing a leotard, a tuxedo jacket, face
paint, and bunny ears. She was conversing with a pair of puppets and
two small children.

	"She's a bunny... in a tuxedo?" Usagi boggled at the image.

	"She plays a character called 'Usagi-chan'," Ami coughed,
trying not to laugh at her friend's reaction, "on an early morning
children's program."

	"Why haven't I heard about this?" Usagi asked in irritation.
"She's stealing mine *and* Mamo-chan's trademarks!"

	"It's because you're never up early enough, Usagi," Makoto
said. "Actually, I've seen this show before. Six A.M. on channel 32,
right? It's on just before my workout show," she explained.

	"Look!" Akane said in the video window. "Our friend, Miss
Horsey, has come to visit us!"

	A redhead tromped out on stage as the children clapped and
squealed in glee. She was wearing a fluffy horse costume with a
lopsided head that kept threatening to fall down over her face.

	"Hey, kids," the redhead greeted the children. She looked
absolutely miserable.

* * *

As always, all C&C is welcome. The plot is pretty much final, so you
shouldn't expect it to change too much based on C&C. Discussion on it
is still quite welcome, however.


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