----------

	The room had been called the 'Great Hall' at one point. It
was Beryl's old throne room, where she had labored furiously over
her staff, casting enchantments and divininations to aid the spirit
of Metallia. It was here that she spent literally thousands of years
in preparation for her last, final fight with the forces of her
enemy, and it was here that everything fell apart on her.

	It would be easy to say that the spirit of Beryl lingered in
the room, casting a chill over everyone who dared come inside. This
would be a misnomer, since the only thing that marked the vast room
was devastation. One whole side had been collapsed. The crystalline
ceiling had crumbled, hanging morosely over vast boulders of
precious and semi-precious stones. The tile floor had cracked. Most
of the tiles had shattered and lay in fragments. If you looked to
the front of the room, you could see something that vaguely
resembled a throne. It had been destroyed, melted, reformed, and re-
destroyed so many times by various pretenders that it more closely
resembled a modern sculpture than a seat of power.

	The three who sat in the room now paid no attention to the
throne. They gazed instead at a glowing shaft of crystal that had
been placed in the center of the room. They were arranged around it
like hikers around a camp fire. Unlike campers or Boy Scouts, there
was no sing-song or weenie-roast.

	After some time, a new figure came into the room. It was
tall, but hidden behind a long robe and concealing hood. Behind it
was what appeared to be a young girl, no older than sixteen. She was
pretty, but thin to the point of emaciation. Her hair was a mousy
grey color, without luster or shine. Nervously, she followed the
robed figure up to the other three.

	Only briefly did they look up at her.

	"You don't have to wear that alien form here," a tired voice
said from inside the hood. "We're not liars or cowards here. We're
not ashamed of the way we look."

	The girl nodded and gulped. Trembling a little, she closed
her eyes. Seconds later, her hair disappeared entirely and her skin
turned a pale orange color. Her hands were each replaced by four
opposing hooked claws and her bare feet became talons, which
skittered across the broken tile floor.

	"Much better," the robed figure said.

	The youma opened its mouth, a human voice coming from inside
it. "Is this okay? I'm supposed to be with the children."

	"You're doing just fine," she was told. "You're helping the
children in ways they could never understand. You want to help them,
don't you?"

	The girl-turned-youma nodded.

	"But you're unsure. Tin is uncertain of her path, my
sisters," the robed figure said in a louder voice. "She knows that
what Cobalt is doing is wrong, but cannot bring herself to strike
against someone who calls her 'friend'."

	The other three youma looked at her curiously and
suspiciously.

	"You can only over come your weaknesses if you want to,
Tin," the figure said, gesturing. "Do you want to overcome your
weaknesses, Tin?"

	The youma nodded, her clawed hands clenched fearfully in
front of her face.

	"Then let us begin."

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

A Bishojou Senshi Sailor Moon fanstory

by Chris Jones

Chapter 4: The Lady in Waiting
----------------------------------------

	In another darkened room, the sacred flame of the Hikawa
shrine blazed incandescently, nearly licking the wooden ceiling of
the room.

	It roared wildly, flickering in all directions. Tendrils of
flame whipped around the room. Any motes of dust that happened to
float down would be instantly and irrevocably vaporized.

	In the middle of it all was Rei Hino. The flames leapt up
and curled around her, but did not burn her. Not even the tips of
her raven locks, which swirled around her in the updraft created by
the blaze, were singed by the roaring fire. The blaze would have
melted a candle at twenty feet, yet failed to cause a single bead of
perspiration to form on Rei's face.

	She kneeled calmly while the sacred flame whipped higher and
higher. Her hands were clenched together in front of her,
forefingers extended, and her prayer stick lay across her knees. Her
swirling hair gave her the illusion of dynamic motion, but Rei was
perfectly still.

	Silently, her eyes already closed, Rei reached down beside
her and lifted a small strip of cloth. She raised it and wrapped it
around her face. The fire reached out hungrily for the new addition
to the mix, but abated when Rei began to tie the cloth, a blindfold,
behind her head.

	She raised her prayer stick and began to swish it back and
forth, cutting the air in front of her. Her mouth moved in unspoken
syllables. For the first time, sweat appeared on her brow. It was
not from the heat of the fire, but from exertion.

	Her hands moved back and forth, drawing the prayer stick
across the solar glare of the flame again and again and again. After
a time, the prayer stick was placed on the floor next to Rei. She
began to cup her hands, making intricate gestures. The flames
reached out, encircling her arms yet not burning her.

	She continued on like that for more than an hour, both with
gestures and prayer stick. It was almost like a battle. It was as if
Rei was advancing and retreating from an unseen enemy, seeking out
its weaknesses and looking for an opportunity to strike.

	The flame was chaos. To step into the room would mean
certain incineration for anyone who was not Rei.

	Finally, after some time, the flame began to retreat. Rei's
arms were trembling and the syllables coming out of her mouth were
louder and more strained.

	In defeat, she rested her mouth and her arms. The sacred
flame abated. In seconds, it was no longer the deafening inferno,
but a small fire. Rei rose and stepped to the back of the room.
Still blindfolded, she reached down and lifted two small, cut logs.
She returned to the firebox and placed them inside.

	"Thank you," she said.

	The flame flickered.

	"Hello Setsuuna," Rei said, reaching up to untie her
blindfold.

	Giving no indication how she arrived or how long she had
been there, Setsuuna Meiou stepped out of the shadows and into the
light cast by the flame. The Time Key was held in her hand, it's tip
resting gently on the hardwood floor and held out from her body at a
slight angle. The Garnet Orb atop the staff-like key flickered, but
whether this was a reflection of the flame or from some internal
light inside the orb was unknown.

	"A blindfold?" the woman who was Sailor Pluto asked
curiously.

	"My vision clouds my Sight," Rei Hino replied, smiling
enigmatically. "Would you like some tea?

* * *

	Several minutes later, Rei and Setsuuna sat at the table in
the temple's tea room. Rather than a tea ceremony, Rei provided a
more European tea service with milk, sugar, and slices of lemon, and
a tray of cookies.

	"Home baked," Setsuuna noticed as she tasted a cookie.

	"Makoto's," Rei explained with a grin. "If I'm here by
myself, I try to stick to simple dishes and frozen stuff. I can
always get a meal at her restaurant, though."

	The two sat in silence, sipping tea and nibbling cookies.
Outside, one of Rei's ravens cawed, breaking the stillness of the
afternoon.

	"So, how have you been?" Rei asked. "We haven't seen you in
quite a while."

	"I'm working as the school nurse at Juuban high again,"
Setsuuna said. "It's mostly to keep an eye on Hotaru, but I can't
keep up with the idiots who scrape their knees and hammer their
thumbs on purpose. I'm afraid I've grown quite popular."

	"It's your skin tone," Rei suggested. "It looks very exotic.
High school girls all get artificial tans now, but they look trashy
and fake. You're the real deal, and the your fan club knows it."

	Setsuuna pursed her lips.

	Rei poured herself another cup of tea and allowed her gaze
to linger out over the temple lawn.

	After a few seconds, she could sense Setsuuna's growing
agitation.

	"Yes?" she asked, her expression slightly amused.

	Setsuuna didn't answer her.

	"You didn't come to have tea and cookies?" Rei said
impishly. "I'm not hounding you for information about the future? Is
that it?"

	"You've matured quite a bit since we last met," Setsuuna
replied, obviously stung by Rei's remarks.

	"If you spend any time at all with Minako and Usagi, you
learn patience or you go mad," she replied, laughing. "With you,
I've learned that the only thing begging for information does is
make me frustrated and you smug."

	"Ouch," Setsuuna winced, her lips pouting. "I'm not that
bad, am I?"

	"I'm teasing you," Rei assured her. "Still, if you do have
anything to share, now would be a good time. I assume you're aware
of what's been going on."

	Setsuuna nodded. "That's why I've come. Not that your tea
and cookies aren't excellent, but..."

	"Okay, okay!" Rei said, laughing. "What's up? Invaders from
the past? Napoleon's organizing to march on Crystal Tokyo? Genghis
Khan wants a piece of the Silver Millennium?"

	"Nothing so grand," Setsuuna admitted. "I merely wanted to
ask you your feelings about the princess taking the children of the
Dark Kingdom into her confidence. The three of us, Neptune, Uranus,
and Pluto, are the guardians of the Solar System. It's our duty to
guard the approaches to Earth from those who would invade rather
than the Earth itself like you and the other Inners. An incursion on
Earth from another dimension, invasion or not, raises certain alarms
and concerns."

	"I can understand your concern," Rei agreed. "Quite
honestly, I'm pretty concerned myself. Even if Usagi trusts Cobalt,
who's to say we can trust everyone Cobalt trusts? At the same time,
how can we not help them if they are truly in need?"

	Rei sipped at her tea.

	"And what of the attack on the refugees?" Setsuuna asked.

	"That's a more serious matter," Rei said. "I'm not sure
what's going on. We don't know if it's a power struggle or something
more serious. Usagi and Ami have both spent time talking to Cobalt,
and even she doesn't seem to know what's going on other than her
people are disappearing. The youma Ami killed downtown was
apparently one of the missing, and certainly fits in your definition
of 'invader'."

	Setsuuna nodded. "That is upsetting."

	"Now, you tell me something-- no, not about the future," she
said before Setsuuna could say anything. "I've been trying to find
out more about Cobalt in my visions, but I can't. I can't see her
fate, her destiny, her past... anything. I've been trying for days,
but it's like trying to get water from a dry well. I can't help but
feel like we'd have better luck figuring out what's going on if we
knew something, anything about her and how she fits into this
world."

	Taken off guard by Rei's question, Setsuuna put a long-
nailed finger to her bottom lip in thought.

	"Perhaps the problem is not what you're looking for," she
said after several minutes of thought, "but how you are searching.
We're human, and we see the world in three dimensions, even me. We
know that there's more out there. Scientists can even model it with
math and equations, but nobody can visualize that."

	Rei nodded in agreement.

	"When you look at the future, at a person's destiny, you
think of them as being a thread in a tapestry, interlocking and
interweaving with all the other threads in a complex pattern."

	"Yes," Rei acknowledged. "I've often used that metaphor to
try to understand how something or someone works when--"

	"You understand that it's only a metaphor, then," Setsuuna
interrupted. "The problem with metaphor is that it limits
understanding. In this case, it's something that a human mind can't
understand anyway, so you're not really losing anything. To try to
see it from another perspective, however, you have to go beyond your
metaphor and look for a better view."

	"But which view?"

	"In this reality, there are many parts to play," Setsuuna
continued, standing, the Time Key in her hand. "Some roles, like
yours, are keystone to existence. They are the threads that hold the
rest of the tapestry together, if you will. Some roles are not like
that. Rather than the tapestry, try instead to visualize life as a
banquet with many guests. Some of the guests have been invited and
have places at the table that have always been reserved for them.
Some--"

	"Like Cobalt," Rei interjected.

	"--are interlopers. They touch only lightly upon the world,
but may share in the banquet nonetheless."

	"Damn," Rei swore. "She has no fate," she stated, her eyes
working back and forth over an image only she could see now that
Setsuuna had unlocked the perception in her mind. "She's not even
supposed to be here and will never really fit in, so how could she?"

	"Cobalt will be, for her entire life, a round peg in a
square hole," Setsuuna summarized. "She fits, but not comfortably.
Her only destiny will be to exist."

	Rei's fist pounded the table angrily, causing the tea tray
to jump. Setsuuna jumped, startled by the return of her comrade's
fiery nature.

	After Rei sat and fumed a while, Setsuuna bowed her head
slightly. "I'm sorry if I've upset you."

	"No, it's not you its... dammit." Rei shook her head, trying
to clear her angry expression. "You shouldn't worry about my
problems. I'm just angry that I can't find anything else out. It's
not your fault."

	Setsuuna nodded. For a second, Rei had the impression that
she was talking to a woman much younger than herself despite what
she knew of Setsuuna's history.

	"Would you like to see Grandpa?" she changed the subject
after a few more seconds of silence. "He's out by the trees."

	"Certainly," Setsuuna agreed. "How is he?"

	"Crotchety and perverted," Rei said, rising. "His cataracts
are getting worse, but he doesn't want to have them operated on.
It's giving him a lot of trouble, but he won't admit it."

	The two stepped through the open shoji. Rei led Setsuuna
behind the temple into the area of the property that was more
heavily wooded than its surrounds. After a few seconds, they came
across Rei's elderly grandfather, the priest of the shrine. He sat
on a low stone, sipping tea from a cup he held in one hand.

	Setsuuna could see that a half-hearted attempt to rake the
leaves from around the trees had taken place but the man had either
tired or grown frustrated with his task and leaned his rake up
against one of the trees while he rested.

	The man's eyes, usually narrowed in a squint, blinked once
or twice before resuming their almost-closed appearance.

	"Why, if my loving granddaughter hasn't brought me another
cute acolyte to train!" the man exclaimed happily.

	"It's Setsuuna, Grandpa," Rei informed him, her voice gentle
and quiet.

	"Why, it is!" the man said as the tall, dark-skinned woman
leaned down him embrace him.

	The look that passed between Rei and Setsuuna was not seen
by the old man, but he could sense the tension in the air
nonetheless.

	"What is it, ladies? Is something wrong?"

	"Not a thing, Grandpa," Rei assured him. "Setsuuna just came
over for tea. She's working at the high school."

	"Oh, yes," Setsuuna agreed. "It's more challenging than I
ever realized."

	The three continued to chat for some time, the elder Hino
eagerly basking in the presence of two beautiful women.

	Rei and Setsuuna never said anything, but they almost
eagerly soaked up every witticism and the sage advice from the man's
mouth.

	After all, he wouldn't always be there, and there was
nothing either of them could do about it.

* * *

	In a place of darkness, confetti began to swirl. After a few
moments, Cobalt appeared. Her slacks and blouse shimmered for a few
seconds, and became a dark grey uniform.

	"Cobalt," a voice said from the darkness.

	"Ytterbium," Cobalt replied warmly, her face alight.

	"Cobalt, so careful to conserver even the tiniest hint of
energy has wasted enough to teleport here?" the other youma asked,
stepping out of the darkness. She was clad in a long, dark robe.
Limping slightly, she stepped out of the darkness, her arms extended
to embrace Cobalt.

	Cobalt bit her lip at the sight of her old friend. Ytterbium
seemed to have aged even more in just the last few weeks. The lines
on her pale, green face were deeper than Cobalt remembered and her
limp seemed worse.

	"How are you doing?" Cobalt asked, looking for a place to
sit down.

	Ytterbium gestured her over to a low, stone bench a few feet
away. The two sat together, Cobalt doing her best to aid Ytterbium
as she took her weight off her good leg.

	"Oh, things could be better," the older youma said, the scar
on her cheek flushing for a second. "But we all know that. Look at
you, spending so much time on Earth that you don't even bother to
use your real shape when you come here."

	Cobalt's cheeks flushed, and she glanced away from the
person she considered to be her mentor. "It's hard to get out of the
habit. When you look human for weeks on end--"

	"I know," Ytterbium assured her. "I know. I assume this
isn't a social visit. I've never known you to waste energy for
personal reasons."

	Cobalt shook her head. "I need advice. Things are proceeding
much differently than we expected them to. Sylvanite, Titanite, and
Graphite are dead, and four others are missing."

	"Yes, I heard," Ytterbium noted. "Killed by the Sailor
Senshi no doubt."

	Cobalt shook her head. "That's the strange part. Sailor
Mercury killed Graphite, but I think that Graphite murdered
Sylvanite and Titanite. I know that she tried to kill me and
Achorite."

	Ytterbium's face was unperturbed, but Cobalt could tell how
much agitation her words had caused. The scar on Ytterbium's cheek,
which flushed with her moods, was almost luminescent. The veins
stood out in her neck and on her face.

	"There's something you're not telling me," Ytterbium said
cooly.

	"We..." Cobalt cleared her throat. "I made contact with the
Sailors."

	"Are you an idiot, girl?!" Ytterbium demanded, showing her
anger for the first time. "Do you have any idea what they're capable
of? They've slaughtered hundreds of our kind and are responsible for
the deaths of thousands more!"

	"I know that!" Cobalt said. "But... if not for Sailor
Mercury, Akie would be dead."

	"What?!"

	"When Graphite attacked her, Sailor Mercury saved her life.
Achorite would be dead if Sailor Mercury hadn't saved the both of us
from Graphite."

	Ytterbium shook her head sadly. "May Metallia forgive us."

	"Don't think I haven't said the same thing to myself about
five thousand times," Cobalt said. "Even before that, Sailor Moon
saved Kaliborite's life. She's also already given us a *lot* of
energy. We're even talking about opening the gym back up."

	"You sound like you've already made your mind up about
Sailor Moon," Ytterbium said, somewhat coldly. "But think about
this: Can you trust everyone who Sailor Moon trusts? Have you
considered that the Sailors may be using you in order to learn more
about us so that they can strike our weak points?"

	Cobalt's face darkened slightly. She bit her lip, unsure of
how to answer.

	"You really should be in charge," she told Ytterbium. "It's
difficult to lead everyone, and more and more, I find that I don't
know how to deal with the problems we're encountering."

	Ytterbium's scar flushed again. This time, her face betrayed
her emotions. There was longing and even envy there, as well as a
biting disappointment. For the first time she laughed, more to cover
her bitter feelings than for any other reason.

	"You've said it yourself, Cobalt," she prompted.

	Cobalt nodded in agreement. "A leader who can't survive in
the battlefield isn't effective," she agreed. "I know... I know.
You've taught me a lot, but I still can't help but feel that you
would be doing a better job than I would."

	"That may be true," Ytterbium said. "But we'll never know,
will we?"

	* * *

	In the abandoned throne-room, the cold blue chill of the
crystal had been replaced by an image of Cobalt and Ytterbium's
conversation. The four youma there watched curiously, taking careful
note of everything that was said.

	Some time after Cobalt had disappeared and the image had
gone blank, the hooded figure came back into the throne room and
approached the four.

	"Cobalt has allied herself with our enemy," Lead said
emotionlessly, looking up at the hooded person.

	"Indeed," the figure replied. "Cobalt has forgotten her true
self and now seeks to destroy us all. How should we handle this
criminal act?"

	"We attack now!" Germanium shouted, jumping to her feet. She
clawed the air in front of her, the rage bubbling up inside her.

	"But..." Tin gulped and bit her lip, a human expression that
looked strangely out of place on a youma's face.

	"What is it?" the figure asked her. "Do you not agree with
your sister's plans?"

	"I... well..." Tin stammered, noticing the burning glares
being directed at her.

	"Go ahead," she was urged.

	"If... If we attack now, won't we be killed just like
Graphite was?" Tin theorized. "If Cobalt really does have the Sailor
Senshi on her side, can we really stand a chance?"

	"I'll gut all the Sailor Senshi!" Germanium declared. "It
doesn't matter how many of them there are."

	"Do you have a better idea, Tin?" the hooded figure asked
her.

	"I don't know if it's better, but..."

	"Out with it," Silicon urged her.

	"When I was on Earth," Tin began. "I found out how humans
deal with problems like this. I met a human who... who... took care
of things like this... quietly and discreetly. I can get in touch
with him very quickly."

	Lead and Silicon looked at Tin impassively, no judgment in
their expressions. Germanium glared at her with a killing rage.
Desperately, Tin looked to her leader for guidance.

	The only thing she could see under the dark hood was a
toothy grin.

	"We'll try Tin's plan first," the figure said, "as an
experiment. After all, what will it cost us? If Tin fails, then
we'll attack."

* * *

	Rei was rather surprised the next day to receive a call from
Usagi, asking for a favor.

	"What?"

	"I was hoping that we could use your Kareoke stuff," Usagi
clarified. "They're going to try to bring over a few more of the
children tonight and--"

	"They? You mean Cobalt and her lot? You want me to
voluntarily invite youma into my home and let them use my recording
equipment?" Rei clenched her teeth, trying not to swear over the
phone. Despite what she had told Setsuuna the previous day, the
blonde woman had a special talent for driving Rei to the point of
exasperation. "Haven't our secret identities been leaked enough,
Meatball-head?!"

	There were a few seconds of silent static on the phone
before Usagi replied.

	"I think only Cobalt knows who we are, Rei-chan," Usagi
said. "But I understand if you don't want to do this. The children
don't have any clue the way normal, nice people behave, or how to
have a good time or anything. I know you don't want to let them into
your house, but I wish you'd reconsider."

	"Usagi--"

	"Haruka's having a really hard time, too. She's been staying
with me and Mamo-chan for the last few days--"

	"I know, Usagi. I was there when--"

	"--And she really hates the youma, even the little kids, but
she's trying really hard to not be so mean, so she wants to help
too," the woman rambled. "Maybe, if we can't come to your place, can
you come to our Apartment and help us set up our stereo so that we
can sing and stuff?"

	Rei boggled, trying to reason her way through Usagi's
jumbled request.

	"It would really mean a lot to me," Usagi said. "And I think
it would help Cobalt and her friends not to fight with us in the
future."

	If Usagi's incessant begging didn't wear her down, the pure,
pleading tone of her voice would, Rei realized. Defeated, she
sighed.

	"Okay, you moron, you can bring them here. You realize that
I don't have any kareoke tracks for little kids, don't you?"

	"I've got a few CD's with songs from the show," Usagi said.
"I'll bring them with me when we come."

	"You realize Grandpa's going to be here, don't you?" Rei
criticized. "What are we going to tell him when a horde of youma
descend on the shrine for cake and ice cream?"

	"I thought Grandpa was having trouble telling people apart
because of his cataracts," Usagi defended. "Besides, everyone we're
bringing over looks normal... well... except for Kelly-chan, and
she's doing a lot better."

	Rei didn't even try to figure out what Usagi was talking
about. Utterly overwhelmed by Usagi's request, she sat about trying
to figure out how to youma-proof her house and her sound studio in
the few short hours before the horde arrived.

	Rei grimaced for a second after hanging up the phone It
wasn't like the sound studio was really making her the money it was
supposed to, but it was still an important to her.

	A couple years ago, when Rei graduated with a fine-arts
major, the show-business world was *supposed* to have opened itself
up to her. She very quickly found out how dense and impenetrable it
really was. While Usagi and Minako managed to find an odd niche with
their children's show, what Rei really wanted was to break into the
Pop music scene. The first production company she managed to get an
audition with canceled on her before she ever got a chance.

	Rei didn't really expect to pass her very first audition,
but the out-of-hand dismissal was hard to bear.

	The second audition she simply failed. The third... Rei kept
telling herself that she refused the contract for her own safety.
She passed the audition, but afterwards, the head of the small
production company indicated that the only reason she passed was
because of her body. If she didn't share it with him, she wouldn't
be eligible for a contract.

	Rei tried to press sexual harassment charges, but was
advised by a lawyer that she would spend far more on court charges
than she would ever receive in compensation, even if the judge
decided for her.

	She found out the day after she had auditioned for a fourth
company that the general manager was being brought up on child
molestation charges. She never received an rejection or an
acceptance notice of any kind, and was glad for it.

	After that, she failed several other auditions. She finally
passed an audition with a smaller company and was in the process of
signing her contract when she was informed that the company was in
bankruptcy protection. They very much wanted her to perform for
them, but any profits she earned for the company would be used to
pay the company's debt, and she would not receive any compensation
unless the company managed to stay solvent.

	By this time, Rei had been working full-time at the shrine
and part-time as a receptionist in an office complex, so she had a
small sum saved up, along with a significant amount of money in a
trust fund set up by her father. Rather than humiliate herself
further, she purchased a high-end Macintosh, almost a hundred
thousand yen worth of audio software, and building materials to
build her own recording booth. The others helped her of course,
especially Mamoru, when it came time to start carpentry work on an
old storage room in the back of the temple.

	With what Usagi referred to as her 'kareoke stuff', Rei
wrote, performed and produced her own music. She sold CD's online
and had audio files available for download on her web site.

	The money she earned wasn't a fortune, but it did allow Rei
to eventually quit her part-time job. She was slightly jealous of
Usagi and Minako's marginally broader following in children's
television, but had come to the conclusion long ago that the music
industry was so corrupt that there was no place in it for her. This
way she could still sell her music and keep her soul too.

	It was also nice to have her friends over from time to time
to use her 'kareoke stuff'.

	The real problem now was keeping her recording equipment in
one piece, a task that would be difficult even if real children were
coming to visit, let alone disguised youma.

	In the end, Rei opted to hide her expensive condenser
microphone in a locked cabinet in her studio and replaced it with a
much more disposable dynamic mike.

	Makoto was busy at her restaurant, so Rei ordered several
pizzas. She bought several bottles of cola and, after serious
thought, cake and ice-cream.

	The pizzas had just arrived when Usagi, Mamoru, Haruka, and
the blue-haired woman Rei recognized as Cobalt crested the top of
the steps leading up to the temple. Behind them was a small group of
what appeared to be six perfectly normal small children.

	"Rei-chan!" Usagi greeted her, running up to the front
steps.

	Rei suffered the blonde woman's clumsy embrace with a smile,
doing her best not to glare at her visitors.

	* * *

	"This is Markie," Usagi gestured to what appeared to be a
six-year old girl dressed in overalls and a cartoon-printed tee-
shirt.

	"Hi," Rei replied a little lamely, unsure of how to deal
with the children.

	After she had ushered everyone inside to eat pizza, Usagi
decided to introduce everyone to their hostess.

	"And this is Opal, Chrissie, and Millie," the blond woman
continued.

	Marcasite, Opal, Chrysolite, and Millisite, Rei thought to
herself as she was being introduced to the small group.

	"And I think you've already met Callie, Jasper, and Kelly-
chan," Usagi finished.

	Rei blinked, suddenly unsure of herself. If she was correct,
Kelly-- Kaliborite-- had been the small, green, hairless youma that
Haruka had been trying to kill in the park a few days previously.
The little girl Usagi introduced had pale skin and silvery-white
hair.

	After a second, she noticed that Kelly was still clutching
the teddy-bear she had in the park.

	"She's color-blind," Mamoru whispered in Rei's ear. "At
least I think that's what's wrong. She can't see humans well enough
to perfectly emulate their appearance."

	Indeed, when Rei began to examine her guests a little more
closely, she noted many such inconsistencies. Kelly still hadn't
managed fingernails, for example. None of them had eyes or hair
colors that would pass as 'natural', and two of her guests, Chrissie
and Millie, were having a very difficult time trying to figure out
how to eat their pizza.

	Rei had provided knives and forks, even though even she
never bothered using them with something like pizza. The two young
girls both experimented with trying to use the utensils like chop
sticks before giving up and looking to Cobalt-- 'Callie'-- for
guidance.

	Cobalt, Rei noted, was very careful to let all six children
see exactly how to lift a slice of pizza, fold the crust so the
toppings didn't fall off, and take small bites as she ate.

	"I guess I should have ordered something less messy," Rei
apologized when Millie managed to dump a wad of melted cheese and
pepperoni in her lap.

	"No," Cobalt disagreed, helping Rei to clean the girl up.
"Chrissie and Millie just arrived today. They don't know anything
about Japanese culture, but they're going to have to learn if
they're going to fit in. That means making all the mistakes that
human children do," she whispered.

	"Miss Bunny... I mean Tsukino-san," Markie said after Usagi
started serving ice cream.

	"You can call me Bunny if you like," Usagi told the little
girl in an amused tone.

	"Is it supposed to be this cold?" the youma child asked,
pointing to her dish of ice cream.

	"That's the best part of ice cream!" Usagi exclaimed. "It's
cold and sweet, and it makes your tongue feel all tingly. Don't you
think so Haruka?"

	The tall woman jumped when Usagi addressed her. Rei noted
that she hadn't eaten anything and was paying a lot more attention
to keeping herself between Usagi and Cobalt than anything else.

	"Uh, yeah," she said defensively, her arms crossed over her
chest. "Ice cream's okay."

	"Millie's having problems with her spoon, Haruka," Usagi
said. "Do you think you would help her?"

	For a second, Rei thought Haruka was going to refuse. The
tightness around her mouth and in her arms indicated that the woman
was about to do something violent. After a few seconds, however,
Haruka seemed to succumb to Usagi's pleading stare.

	"Sure," she said, gulping. She sat down next to the little
girl with a bowl of ice cream and demonstrated how to eat it. "Be
careful you don't eat too much at once, because it might give you a
headache."

	She flinched, and her eyes bugged out when Opal put one hand
on her arm.

	"Are you really Princess Puppy?" she asked the tall woman.

	Haruka's jaw clenched. Again, she looked to Usagi. Once
more, Usagi's pleading gaze was the direction she needed.

	"Yeah. Yeah, I'm Princess Puppy," Haruka admitted somewhat
sheepishly. "But only for a little bit. I usually race cars and
motorcycles."

	"You're a race car driver?!" Jasper exclaimed. "I watch
racing on television! Do you ever race on television?"

	"Ah, occasionally. The last big race I was in was a rally in
Hokkaido," she replied, warming to her subject. "It wasn't really
big, but it was on pay-per-view. Personally, I really like speed
competitions rather than rallies, but I don't get many opportunities
to drag-race any more."

	"What kind of car do you drive?" Jasper asked.

	Rei watched Haruka begin to explain some of the finer points
of auto mechanics to the children, seemingly forgetting that she had
been, minutes ago, ready to murder them. It was at once chilling to
see her interact with the youma and strangely cathartic to see her
getting along so well.

	"You're really serious about this, aren't you?" she
whispered to Cobalt.

	"Serious about keeping them safe?" Cobalt said defensively.
"I'll do anything it takes to protect them."

	"Serious about teaching them to be human, I meant," Rei
replied.

	"Isn't that the same thing?"

	"Hey, everybody, let's go sing," Usagi said, holding up two
brightly colored CD's. "Haruka will sing with us too."

	"Do I have to?" the short-haired woman pleaded.

	"Only if you don't want to do a solo dance number on 'Rabbit
Room' tomorrow."

	"Oh."

	"Ye gods," Rei noted quietly. "This is going to be bad."

	"I don't understand," Cobalt replied. "Is her voice
unpleasant?"

	"Not... unpleasant, no. It's gotten quite a bit better since
she was fifteen. Have you ever watched 'Rabbit Room?'"

	Cobalt shook her head.

	After twenty minutes of listening to Usagi and Haruka sing
to the children, Cobalt was seriously considering teleporting away
and abandoning the children to their fates.

	"I feel like my brain has been turned to slime," she
admitted to Rei.

	"You want to go out back and listen to nothing for a few
minutes?" the priestess suggested.

	Cobalt glanced nervously at the children. Rei guessed that
she had intended to keep a careful eye on them, not really trusting
them alone, especially with Haruka.

	"And you'd be a fool if you did," she whispered under her
breath.

	"Excuse me?"

	"Just thinking to myself," she whispered to Cobalt. "If
you're worried about it, I think that Usagi's got Haruka on a pretty
short leash. I don't think you've got a lot to worry about."

	Hesitantly, Cobalt nodded. Almost eagerly, she followed Rei
from the room and out of the temple. In a few moments they had
retreated deep into the wooded area behind the temple and were
sitting against the stone wall that separated the temple grounds
from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the city.

	Cobalt looked immensely relieved to be out of the ruckus.
She closed her eyes and rubbed briefly at her temples. For a few
seconds, with her eyes closed and her strangely-colored hair and
pale skin darkened by the shade of the trees over head, she looked
absolutely human to Rei.

	"Why does it matter so much to you?" the dark-haired woman
asked.

	"That they're able to pass for human?" Cobalt asked, her
eyes opening.

	Rei suddenly felt like she was talking to something alien
again.

	"It's the only way for them to survive," the blue-haired
woman replied. "My goal... our goal has been for our grandchildren
to never know they are in any way different from humans at all."

	"I meant about evacuating them, but you answered my
question," Rei said. "I hope you know what you're doing," she added.
"And I hope Usagi knows what she's doing."

	To her credit, Cobalt managed to mostly hide her look of
offense.

	"I see you trust me about as much as I trust you," she
quipped.

	Rei laughed. "I was thinking something very similar just
this morning." She stood and stretched. "I think Usagi and Haruka
have the kids captivated. Why don't we go get something to drink and
see if we can avoid killing each other off in the process?"

	Amiably, but nervously, the two left the temple grounds in
the direction of a nearby fast food shop. They were so busy watching
each other that neither one noticed the late model sedan parked just
outside the temple.

	* * *

	"So tell me something," Rei quietly asked as the two sat
over their sodas, looking out at street in front of them. "You
teleport, right?"

	Cobalt nodded. "It's very difficult. I can only manage it
once or twice a day."

	"Usagi did it the other day," Rei said, explaining her
curiosity, "when Kelly was in danger. All the rest of us have been
trying it ever since, but we can't manage it. Usagi hasn't said
anything about it, and we can't figure it out. Do you know how it
works?"

	Cobalt bit her lip. I shouldn't tell her, she thought.
That's why they're being so nice to me. They just want my secrets.
"Honestly?" she stalled.

	Rei nodded.

	"Honestly, I usually have the easiest time teleporting if
someone else is in danger and I have to be there to help them," she
said, not really answering the question.

	Rei sighed deeply. "Damn. I was hoping you could tell me
more."

	"Why do you even care?" Cobalt asked, not quite able to keep
all the accusation out of her voice. "It's not like you didn't
completely eliminate all the generals and devastated the Dark
Kingdom without being able to do it."

	"We can teleport, if we're together," Rei admitted. "I think
Pluto can do it by herself, but I've never seen her do it. Even when
we do manage it, it's crushing. If I... we could somehow do it by
ourselves, maybe we would be there the next time..."

	"What?" Cobalt was a little stunned by the sudden burst of
emotion from the woman next to her. She could clearly see the tears
beginning to form in the corners of her eyes.

	"You said that we 'devastated' the Dark Kingdom," Rei noted.
"Do you have any idea how that happened?"

	Somewhat taken aback, Cobalt shook her head. "I... I was
not... anything... then. I was just a scrounger who managed to
escape the slave pens."

	"I was a frightened little girl who had followed her best
friend into the pit of hell," Rei said. "You say *we*. Usagi was
doing her damndest to stop them from killing everybody! It was never
*we*. It was always just *her*!"

	"What were you, dead?" Cobalt asked reproachfully. "You were
there supporting her, killing off any of *my*-- what?" she asked,
startled by the sudden incendiary glare on Rei's face.

	"The youma Beryl sent to attack us when we stormed D-point
picked us off one by one," Rei said. "We had a simple choice to
make. Lay down our lives fighting so that she could go on, or let
them kill her instead of us."

	Cobalt blinked.

	"I survived the longest," Rei said, her voice dead. "I only
killed one of them, but I lived long enough to see her one last
time. Because I had to die, she had to fight Beryl and Metallia all
alone. I couldn't be there for her when she needed me most."

	Horrified, Cobalt remembered what Usagi said at the
hospital. "At the end, all my hardship did was kill all my friends.
It took the man I loved away." She felt sick to her stomach when she
realized that the woman wasn't talking about casual acquaintances or
childhood boyfriends. She was talking about...

	"But..."

	"Why am I here, talking to you now?" Rei asked, wiping the
tears from her eyes. "Because she brought me back, that's why.
That's how incredible she really is. She brought us all back. She's
done it twice now, once when she fought the Dark Kingdom, and once
more a few years ago when she fought Shadow Galactica. When it
really mattered, I wasn't there to help her."

	Rei was quiet for several minutes. She wiped her eyes on a
paper napkin, horribly streaking her otherwise flawless makeup.

	"I'm sorry," Cobalt said, trying to keep her voice neutral.
"I didn't know."

	"There's no way you could have," Rei accepted. "It's just...
there have been a few times that, if I could have teleported, I
could have been there for her when she needed me. It's a hard thing
to bear. Listen, I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to unload on you. I'm
going to go check my face, and then we'll go back and see if Usagi
has finished poisoning young minds," she joked with a half-hearted
laugh.

	Cobalt nodded. She stepped outside the burger shop when she
realized that Rei was planning on spending a bit in the ladies'
room. She looked up at the sun for a second, the bright light
dazzling her eyes.

	I had no idea, she thought. Beryl really did kill them all,
but it didn't even matter. How could I ever have hoped to stand up
to an enemy like Sailor Moon?

	It was only because she turned away from the sun before
temporarily blinding herself that Cobalt saw the shadowed figure in
the alley behind the burger shop.

	She would have like to have said that it was some mystical
instinct or her powers that warned her. It was, however, simple dumb
luck that she chose to dodge to one side in panic.

	She could just hear the silent pop from the long, modified
rifle aimed at her. The bullet *should* have gone through her chest.
Instead, it hit her just above the elbow. Gore and green blood
sprayed all over her. More began to spurt out of the twin wounds in
pulsating, gushing torrents.

	She felt the bullet ricochet off her humerus. She heard the
window shatter next to her. It was only in the next few seconds that
she felt the agony of having been so violently shot.

	I thought firearms were illegal in Japan, she thought to
herself as she staggered backwards. She immediately felt stupid for
thinking it.

	A second gunshot hit a parked car on the street behind her,
missing her face by inches. The third, she realized, would probably
not miss.

	Clutching her ruined arm, Cobalt dove behind the car, hoping
its bulk would shield her from further attack. Indeed, a third shot
shattered the vehicle's windshield.

	"MARS SPIRIT FLARE!"

	Cobalt winced as her world suddenly became too hot to bear.
She could see white-hot flame stream over head. There was an
agonized scream, the stench of burnt flesh, and then...

	"Oh my god!" Sailor Mars cried out. "He's human!"

	"Don't worry 'bout me, thanks," Cobalt complained, trying to
cover her useless, spurting arm. "I'm fine."

	She looked up to see the sailor-suited woman standing over
her. Sailor Mars eyes kept darting between the attacker-- very sorry
attacker, if Cobalt wasn't wrong about the smell of burnt human
flesh-- and the youma General's wounded frame.

	Wordlessly, Mars knelt, pulling at the bow of her costume.
It came away in a single piece. Much to Cobalt's agony, she stuffed
it into the gaping wound.

	"I killed him," Mars said, tears coming to her eyes again.
"He was human and I killed him."

	"The dozens of youma you've killed don't bother you?" Cobalt
asked groggily, spots beginning to swim in front of her eyes.

	There was a tortured groan from the other side of Cobalt's
hiding place. She forced herself to her knees and looked around to
see a badly charred figure in front of the restaurant. It was a
man... rather *had* been a man. It was now a burned lump of
twitching flesh.

	In horror, Cobalt realized that her attacker wasn't dead
yet. In fact, he was trying to crawl away.

	"Oh, Metallia," she swore.

	There was a black, crescent shaped flash in front of her and
Sailor Mars. Out of it stepped two figures, both Sailor Senshi.
Cobalt had not met either of them yet. The tall woman with long,
dark hair was glad in black and dark green. The shorter woman, with
short hair, was clad in violet and indigo. Both women carried long
staves. Cobalt, her eyes dazzling in the sun for a second, realized
that one was a polearm. The other looked like nothing more than a
ridiculously large key.

	Rei, on her knees next to Cobalt, stared in silent pleading
at the pair.

	"Sailor Saturn," the taller one-- Pluto, Cobalt guessed--
commanded. "Please see if you can help."

	"He's badly injured, Pu," Saturn replied, kneeling down over
the charred assassin. "He may not survive."

	"Please try anyway," Pluto said. She knelt next to Mars and
Cobalt.

	"Oh, God, Setsuuna. I thought he was a monster."

	"He is a paid assassin," the woman replied, starting to
examine Cobalt's wound. "There wasn't any other way you could have
stopped him."

	Cobalt glanced back at the assassin to see that his burns
had mostly faded. He still looked like he was in agony, however.

	"Can you help her?" Mars asked as Saturn stood, rather
shakily.

	Resolutely, Saturn stood and walked over to where Cobalt was
being cared for.

	Vaguely, as the lights dimmed around her, Cobalt realized
that people were streaming all around them. Some were screaming and
shouting. Most of them were just trying to get away. Cobalt was also
beginning to realize that she was mostly numb.

	"She's bleeding to death," Pluto noted, almost
emotionlessly. "The artery has been severed."

	"I can't help her, Pu," Saturn said, breathing heavily. "She
has too much youma blood. My powers will only make it worse."

	Almost bemusedly, Cobalt realized that her body was mostly
numb. She couldn't really feel anything.

	"No!" Mars cried, her voice tinny in her ears. "You have to
help her!"

	"Saturn can't help her," Pluto said. "But you can. If she is
a youma, then she can absorb your life energy."

	For a second, Mars was repulsed by Sailor Pluto's
suggestion, but then she looked down at the weakly moving woman in
her arms.

	"Cobalt will be, for her entire life, a round peg in a
square hole," she remembered Setsuuna saying earlier. "She fits, but
not comfortably. Her only destiny will be to exist."

	How could I even think about taking that away from her?

	"I understand," Sailor Mars replied resolutely.

	For the rest of her life, Cobalt would remember the reddish-
white flare that seemed to cover her body. She wasn't draining
energy, as Sailor Moon had allowed her to, but having it pumped into
her body so powerfully it was like she was being lifted aloft on a
column of fire.

	I ought to be on fire. I ought to be burned worse than the
guy who shot me.

	Instead, the fire coursed through Cobalt's body like cold
water. Every inch of her was ablaze, but it didn't hurt. The
tendrils of flame, swirling around her, licked her like a lover's
caress.

	Cobalt came to, feeling like she had been dipped in oil and
set alight. Every part of her felt crispy. She looked down and
wondered why her clothes weren't smoking.

	A quick glance at her arm confirmed that the wound in her
arm, while bloody and aching, was closed. At first she thought she
must have been dreaming. Then she realized that the ground around
here was still covered in splatters and puddles of her own green
blood.

	Pluto, Saturn, and Mars had detransformed. Rei was still
holding her upright, shaking pretty badly herself. The dark-haired
woman who was Sailor Pluto had taken a small vial from the pocket of
her dress suit and was sprinkling a dark black powder of the blood
on the ground, making it dry up and crumble into dust that rapidly
blew away in the light breeze.

	Cobalt could already hear the sirens.

	"We should leave," she said, her voice raspy. She swallowed,
trying to get some moisture back into her throat.

	"And leave him there?" the young woman who was Sailor Saturn
asked, pointing at the man lying on the ground in front of them. "He
shot you!"

	Cobalt shuddered. The man, while whole and mostly unburnt,
looked like he had come unhinged. His eyes were wide and staring,
and he was crying in a low keening tone. He was still, rather
ineffectively, trying to crawl away from the group.

	"Indeed," the other woman, Setsuuna, said as she sprinkled
the last of the vials contents over Cobalt's shirt and jeans. "He is
not even an invader. He's a criminal, and needs to be dealt with in
the appropriate fashion."

* * *

	"Well?" Germanium demanded angrily. "Has your hit-man done
his job?"

	In her mousy human form, Tin shuddered, clenching her jaw.
"He was arrested before he could kill Cobalt," she said. "There were
police all around his apartment, so I couldn't find out anything
more."

	"We attack," Germanium declared, storming from the room.
"Tin has failed as I knew she would. Now it's my turn. I'll show
Cobalt who should be in charge! Silicon, Lead, are you with me or
against me?"

	"I'm ready," Lead said, staring bitterly at Tin. Silicon
nodded her agreement as well.

	"And you'll take us there, right?" Germanium demanded of the
robed figure that had walked into the throne room just behind Tin.

	"Once you've adequately prepared, I will," the figure told
them. "It won't do you any good to go off half-cocked. Besides, I
can't survive on Earth for very long. I need time to replenish my
energy after escorting Tin back and forth."

	Lead, and Silicon marched dutifully after Germanium to make
their preparations.

	"I'm sorry I failed you," Tin said, her face towards the
ground.

	"You didn't fail me," the robed figure said. "If anything,
you've provided a learning opportunity. Do you see, Tin? Do you see
why we can't trust humans now?"

	"But--"

	"Do you finally understand how full of guile and deception
they really are?"

	"But we really haven't lost anything but money and jewels,
right?" Tin asked timidly. "I mean... I failed this time. I know
that. But, sooner or later, aren't we bound to find someone who'll
be able to help us?"

	"You really think that?" the hooded figure asked

	Tin gulped. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry."

	"You're not who I thought you were, Tin," the figure said,
throwing back her hood. The face behind was twisted in rage and
betrayal. "Even after all that happened, you still think just like
all the rest!" She held her clenched fist in the air angrily.

	"No, Ytterbium!" Tin pleaded, biting her thumbnail. "Please!
I'll change! I'll be--"

	*ZARK*

	Tin's lifeless body fell to the floor like so much
slaughtered meat. A small puddle of green blood began to pool
underneath her.

	"You won't be a liability to us," Ytterbium said darkly
before pulling her hood back up.

* * *

	After the police arrived on the scene and arrested Cobalt's
assailant, they tried to get her to go to a hospital.

	Cobalt refused, claiming that she was merely the victim of a
failed mugging attempt and that she was shaken but unhurt. Instead,
she was escorted back to the temple by the three women who had just
saved her life.

	Rei's grandfather was supervising the children as they sang,
so the three took Usagi and Haruka aside to tell them what happened.

	Usagi was distraught and cried all over Rei, who bore up
with determination.

	Haruka was stunned, but angry.

	"I'm still trying to figure out why Cobalt was attacked,"
Rei said after Usagi managed to calm down. "And how did you know
about this?" she asked Setsuuna.

	"I... ahh... found out just a little while ago," Setsuuna
admitted in a roundabout way. "I pulled Hotaru-chan out of class so
we could help as soon as we could. Oh, I obtained this telephone
record on the way back here," she said, pulling a computer printout
out of her purse.

	Rei, Haruka, and Usagi looked at the printout. "This would
be the guy's number," Haruka noted a line at the top of the page.

	"This printout is dated for next week," Rei said in
bemusement.

	Setsuuna coughed. "If you look here," she said, trying to
return to their original discussion. "He was contacted late last
night by a 'Tina Kurosuka' from her home phone. I checked Kurosuka's
records, but none of them are legitimate. They are all clever
computer forgeries."

	"That would be because Akie and I made them," Cobalt said
darkly. "It's Tin! First Graphite, and now Tin! Tin set me up to
die!"

* * *

	Later at the shrine, after an impromptu Senshi meeting
involving all nine Sailors listening to Cobalt tell them all she
knew about the four missing youma girls, Cobalt approached Rei as
she was busy cleaning up after her friends.

	"Uh, listen. Thanks for earlier," she said, holding her
still-sore arm. "You didn't have to help me, but you did."

	"Don't mention it," Rei told her, her face still looking a
little weak from the sheer amount of energy she had pumped into
Cobalt earlier in the day. "You needed help, and I was there."

	"You did more than that. You *gave* me your energy. Nobody's
ever done that before except for Sailor Moon."

	Rei stopped in her tasks, looking suspiciously at the youma.

	"Well, Usagi's just like that. She's generous to a fault,
even if it comes back and bites her in the ass. I just try to make
sure that she doesn't get hurt too badly when it does."

	"She's not the only one," Cobalt said.

	Several seconds of harsh silence passed between the two.

	"Listen," Cobalt finally blurted out. "Like I said, I'm not
really sure how the teleport works, but this is how I do it..."

- - -

~to be continued

Thank you everyone who commented on the first three chapters! Like I said 
before, All C&C is welcome, but the plot of the story is pretty final 
already, so please don't expect me to change the plot based on your comments.
C.


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