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

A Bishojou Senshi Sailor Moon fanstory

by Chris Jones

Author's Notes
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WARNING - Long winded rant ahead! There are some few non-humorous
Omake, but most of this is just rambling...

First of all, I want to extend a big thanks to everyone who commented
on my story or made suggestions. Thank you all!

'Hidden in Darkness' was a story originally entitled 'Dark Kingdom
Future/21st Century Senshi' It was two unrelated concepts that didn't
come together until Usagi and Rei walked into Cobalt's health club
and started making cracks about the poorly disguised youma girls
working the counter.

There were a few pieces of the original, like the piece here, that
simply never made it into the story because they were the wrong time
period or had the wrong tone.

----------

	Ami's day started roughly when she came in and found that the
cleaning people had unplugged her computer workstation some time the
previous evening, interrupting a long spreadsheet analysis. It was
worse when she tried to restart the calculation only to find that the
spreadsheet file had corrupted.

	Realizing that there was really no other way to proceed other
than to carefully recreate the spreadsheet from other data files on
her hard drive, she counted to ten, exhaled deeply, and went to the
break room to get a soda. When she arrived, she found that the
vending machine was plastered with a large 'out of order' sign.

	"I will not get mad," Ami said out loud. "Coffee is just as
good as soda. I will--"

	"Hey, Mizuno-san. You know where this green stuff came from?"
an intern asked her from behind.

	Ami turned to see that the coffee pot that man was holding
was filled with a thick, green slime.

	She gritted her teeth and fled from the break room back to
her workstation.

	When she saw that the firm's security personnel were
clustered around her desk, she realized her day had just gone from
plain bad to truly shitty indeed.

	Just like she had resisted the urge to pull out the small
computer in her vest pocket to finish her analysis task in seconds
rather than days, she also resisted the urge to surreptitiously scan
the three security personnel for supernatural energy.

	It had been more than five years since Galaxia's disastrous
reign of terror on Earth and better than 8 months since any one of
the Senshi had encountered any supernatural or alien beings. Those
they had encountered were clearly 'flukes', and posed no real threat
to Earth, at least with the Senshi in residence.

	Likewise, the three burly men surrounding her in a
threatening manner were just doing their jobs. They had no real
desire to injure her, and didn't deserve to have their privacy
invaded by being scanned if they weren't being threatening.

	The black-suited security personnel led Ami through a series
of well-lit corridors and the airy atriums that Takawa Medical
Industries was well known for. They drifted closer and closer to the
center of the medical complex, getting into darker and darker areas.
Finally, Ami found herself alone in a darkened office with somber,
recessed lighting. The desk in front of her was chrome and black
matte. It didn't even have a computer on it. For the first time, Ami
suspected that she might be in real trouble.

	After several minutes, a dark-suited man walked into the room
from the opposite side of the desk. He was carrying a stack of
documents with him. His expression was calm, but his bloodshot eyes
spoke of long nights of work and painstaking study. Ami recognized
him as Taketa Gennou, chief security officer for the company.

	She bowed politely, her nervousness starting to show on her
face.

	"Mizuno-san," Gennou said after dipping his head slightly.
"Have a seat, please."

	Ami sat down in the chair one of the security officers
brought over. She was beginning to become truly nervous.

	"Do you know why you're here?" Gennou asked.

	Ami shook her head.

	"I suppose that's a good sign," he said. "Let me explain. Two
months ago, you submitted a request to payroll to correct your
paycheck," Gennou said as he glanced down at a sheet in front of him.

	Ami nodded. "It was off by several yen."

	"Fourty-three yen," Gennou read. "You missed the next week of
work because of mid-terms at your university, but the week after
that, you applied for another," he paused for a second, "thirty-two
yen correction."

	Ami nodded, anxious to get everything straightened out.

	"The next week, you submitted a problem report to payroll."
He picked up a sheet of paper, which Ami recognized as containing her
own handwriting. "You believed your taxes were being figured
incorrectly."

	"That's correct," she said.

	"For the next month, you repeatedly submitted payroll
adjustment requests, all of them for less than fifty yen. Three weeks
ago you suddenly stopped submitting requests.

	Ami felt her ears began to burn. "My paychecks have been
correct since then."

	Gennou nodded, holding up xerox copies of 3 paystubs.
"Indeed."

	Ami began to fidget.

	"What you may not know, is that three years ago we fired an
individual, a head programmer in information services, and pressed
charges against him for illegally altering the payroll system. It
seems he was the greedy sort, and thought that his skills entitled
him to write his own raises. He started by modifying the tax code in
the software, changing it so that it deducted slightly too much from
everyone else's paychecks and funneled that difference to his own
private account. Nobody even noticed twenty or thirty yen missing
from their paycheck each week, especially when the amount missing
always balanced in accounting."

	Ami began to blush deeply. Her hands were clenched and her
knuckles turned white.

	"Once I discovered the discrepancy, I took the appropriate
actions. What I did not do, however, was recommend that the software
changes be fixed. In fact, one of accounting's duties is to refund
the shortages, which only ever add up to a few thousand yen, tacked
on the end of year bonus checks all our employees receive."

	He took a deep breath and leaned back in the chair he was
sitting in.

	"I'm not going to ask if you changed the software, Mizuno-
san, because I have already eliminated all other possibilities. What
I will ask is why, and how?"

	It took Ami several seconds to get her vocal cords to
function. Her face was bright red and he hands were shaking.

	"I... I... I realized that there was a problem with the tax
code after figuring my salary," she finally managed to state. "I
tried bringing the problem to the programming staff, but... but I was
ignored."

	"So you decided to fix it yourself."

	Ami gulped. "I was just trying to keep from having to bother
payroll all the time. I didn't realize that I was going to get the
extra money back anyway," she said sheepishly.

	"Now I want to know *how* you did it," Gennou said. "There
was no trace of any intrusion anywhere in the system. The log files
haven't been tampered with, and program has been in continuous
operation since before the change. Somehow, and I don't know how, you
changed the source code, recompiled and replaced the binary *while*
the program was running and *without* letting the system know you
were there."

	Ami suddenly felt weight of the tiny computer in her breast
pocket pulling against her like a lead brick. She hated to lie,
but...

	"I used a computer I built at home.


----------


Obviously, that was going to be a story about Ami protecting her
identity from her corporate employers. While entertaining, there's no
clear resolution to such a story. It's just not that interesting to
write. I kept the same format, however, which was something I started
in newRanma.

Writing themed, episodic chapters tends to be habit forming after a
bit. When I started newRanma, the first several chapters were written
all in one huge lump. There was really no clear separation for me
between different chapters. Ranma gets injured. Ranma goes to the
hospital. Ranma gets better. Ranma has a period. As far as I was
concerned, it was all one chapter that happened to get conveniently
divided. Then, when I started seriously thinking about posting
newRanma, I had a great idea for an visual image... Kunou standing
over Ranma's body trying to decide if she's trying to seduce him or
if he should call an ambulance. The theme took on a life of its own
and became the entire first chapter of newRanma. I did it again in
later chapters. Like I said, I like to find perfect 'visuals', images
so stunning that they demand a descriptive essay, and work my stories
around them.

Haruka? I have a love-hate relationship with Haruka. I can't watch
Sailor Moon S or Stars without screaming out loud because she's so
fucking dense! It infuriates me to see the way she treats Usagi and
the others. It galls me that she gets away with it. It turns me
purple that she and Michiru murdered Setsuuna and Hotaru at the end
of Stars-- something that very notably did *not* happen in the Sailor
Moon manga, BTW. Yet, at the same time she's so careless and dense,
she really does love Usagi... almost as much as she loves Michiru.
Thus, when I originally intended to make her a bad-guy in the story,
Makoto's tormentor, she came out as a sinning protagonist instead.
Her part got a lot larger towards the end, especially when I realized
I could do so very much with her using Ytterbium's youma squadron,
Silicon in particular, as foils against her. More than anything else,
Haruka and Usagi's relationship is about repentance and forgiveness
to me, and it came through in the story.


ANC - Annoying New Characters

Cobalt and her crew originally came from ideas I had thinking about
the inevitable discussion: Is it right for the Sailor Senshi to kill
so many living creatures?

Cardians (not in the manga) and Droids are specifically stated to not
be sentient. They are portrayed as highly stupid, disposable
machines. The Seven Shadows (again not in the manga), and Sailor
Monsters, which are both humans forced into becoming monsters, are
healed instead of destroyed. Daimons, and to a lesser extent Lamunes
(Dead Moon Circus's shadow monsters from SS) are in a grey area.
Daimons are murderous aliens. It's either kill or be killed with
them. They still appear to be sentient creatures, however. They're
much less sentient in the manga, BTW. It's never clearly stated what
the Lamunes are other than evil, circus-performing spirits. Since the
DMC appears to hold regular performances outside the context of
harassing Chibi-usa and Pegasus, it's apparent that they have some
sort sentience or private life. It's played for humor in SS, but some
of them claim relationships to others and try to seek revenge against
Sailor Moon for killing their kin. Obviously, this is also a kill-or-
be-killed situation too. It's creepy, but the Sailors are protecting
humanity as well as Earth and human lives are threatened by these
monsters.

The youma seemed to be the best developed and most intelligent of the
Sailor Moon antagonists. It's obvious from watching Sailor Moon that
they have some sort of structured society. If you get into the manga
mythos, it's also hinted at the many are human in origin. There are a
few lines in end of the first Sailor Moon arc that recount the end of
the silver millennium from a political point of view. The people of
earth *wanted* to go to war with the moon. Endymion's relationship
with Serenity was strictly taboo because of this. Whether this was
because of Beryl and Metallia's influence or just an effect of the
political climate is never discussed. However you look at it, though,
if you pay attention at all, a great deal of the forces that attacked
the moon were human. It's possible that some of the youma-- going
back to the anime mythos-- were transformed humans. It's entirely
possible being that most of the youma shown can assume human forms
that human men who aided Beryl and Metallia and youma women
interbred.

In my version of the Sailor universe, I decided to go with seemed
like the most diabolical route-- that there were a limited number of
youma either created by Beryl and Metallia or found by them and that
the leadership of the Dark Kingdom multiplied their numbers by
breeding them with willing human men. There are a few problems with
this approach, but it also neatly fits with the inconsistency of why
all the youma, with a very few exceptions, are female. It also opens
us up to the concept of a 'pure' race of youma... monsters like the
DD girls that killed the Senshi at the end of the first season... and
a half-breed race that served as slaves, doing all the menial labor
necessary to run even a very small society.

Since the Sailors were inexperienced, underpowered, and didn't really
understand what they were doing, they had no choice but to protect
themselves in the best way they could... by killing their enemies
instead of healing or converting them... as they manage to do later
in the series. If reexposed to those youma-- and Cobalt is more youma
than human-- would the Sailors react the same way or would they take
a more gentle approach?

Cobalt, and to a lesser degree Kaliborite, Achorite, Silicon, and
Lead, are the warm, feeling youma that the sailors have to deal with
rather than blow away.

Names? Cobalt's name comes from her 'true' appearance. In her 'human'
form, Cobalt is nearly six feet tall, muscular and ridiculously
slender. (One reader pointed out that there was no way Cobalt could
weigh as little as I mentioned at the end of Chapter 1.) Cobalt in
her real form is a Shiva-like figure. She has six muscular arms that
end in bird's talons rather than hands and transparent blue flesh
that you can see her bones and organs through. Her skin is tinted
like cobalt glass. 'Callie' is kinda a weak alias that even Cobalt
doesn't try to hold up very well, despite the fact that the people
who love her use it.

Graphite (Carbon), Lead, Germaniun, Silicon, and Tin are all period
six semi-conductors on the periodic table.

Ytterbium has always been my favorite spot on the Periodic table.
Kaliborite? I needed something that 'Kelly' would expand to decently.
Kaliborite, Achorite, and many of the other mineral names come from a
geology textbook. Most Sailor Moon villains are named after minerals,
with the notable exceptions of Sailor Galaxia, The Amazon Trio and
the Amazoness Quartet (Both sets of which eventually wind up as the
Sailor's allies). I decided to go with the conventions Naoko laid out
instead of coming up with stupid-sounding names myself.

Is Cobalt a lesbian?

One of the major themes in Sailor Moon is love between women in
platonic, romantic, and sexual contexts. The Sailors all lean towards
lesbianism because of their deep, abiding love for Usagi and for each
other. Even by 'S', Makoto is pretty far gone. She talks less about
her old sempai and more about how wonderful Haruka is. In Stars, the
only males the women seem to really care about are Mamoru and the
Starlights... who are really assexual/female aliens. Minako seems to
be the only one of the bunch who seems to be fully hetero, and even
she has her moments... such as the infamous 'groping' picture of her
and Usagi from the Sailor Moon manga.

Hmm... I think I scanned that a while back for the Yuri ML. Here it
is:

http://www.furinkan.net/mina-usa.jpg

A great picture-- not explicit, but highly suggestive.

Rei's love for Usagi goes well beyond platonic, and all the girls
have repeatedly demonstrated that they would be happy to die for her
as many times as need be.

Romantically, Cobalt is unattached and undecided. She has never had
time nor the stimulus to care about a relationship, hetero or homo.
If she did so after coming to server Usagi as Sailor Metal Kingdom,
her relationship with Usagi would probably only affect her by making
more options available rather than limiting them.

Don't ask me about Achorite. ^_^

Sailor Metal Kingdom? WTF?!?

We have a Moon Kingdom, don't we? I could be wrong, but I don't think
it's ever said that the 'Earth Kingdom' is ever named like the Moon
Kingdom. (And why don't they call it a Queendom?) That said, the
crystal motif is fairly apparent all throughout the manga and anime,
from Endymion's crystal sword to Crystal Tokyo. I don't think it's
out of line to call it the 'Crystal Kingdom'. Where is Beryl queen
of? Did they called it the Dark Kingdom before they invaded the moon?
Atlantis? I called it the Metal Kingdom. Besides, 'Sailor Metal' and
'Sailor Cobalt' both sound a lot more stupid than 'Sailor Metal
Kingdom'.. to me at least.

I used the Crystal Kingdom and the Metal Kingdom in another story...
one that I never finished... in which Serenity had been corrupted by
Metallia rather than Beryl:

----------

	The next morning dawned with a sky full of clouds. Even
though the Moon was obscured, it still weighed heavily on everyone's
minds. Just after first light, reporters and lookers-on began to
gather around the front gate of the Crystal Palace. As those
assembled staked out their places in the crowd, the media began to
prepare. The reporters' sound and video crystals almost outnumbered
the real people there, creating the illusion that the crowd was
speckled with red and green dust from the balcony overlooking the
front gate.

	As the new liege of the Crystal Kindgom, Endymion called a
press conference not much later. The first half of the conference was
fairly abrupt. Endymion took no questions, simply stating that his
father had died, finally succumbing to the wounds dealt him by
Serenity's assassins.

	He then introduced King Wotan of the Fire Kingdom and King
Lazarus of the Salt Kingdom. Both managed to arrive for the
conference at Endymion's request. Although Queen Hassan of the Earth
Kingdom was not able to attend, a large video monitor showed her
black face as she witnessed the conference. Queen Beryl, representing
the Metal Kingdom, stood with them as well.

	Wotan was an immense man with thick red hair and a bushy
moustache and beard. Across his back, he wore the immense sledge that
was the treasure of the Fire Kingdom. While the Fire-Kingdom
permitted no analysis of the hammer, it was written that the hammer's
head was forged from the molten tears of the Earth-Goddess and that
the shaft was living wood culled from the world-tree by Kami-sama.

	Lazarus was a thin man with dark brown skin. He was a desert
dweller and bundled himself with layers of cotton in the relatively
cool Crystal City morning. His clean-shaven face was almost hidden by
his turban and his scarf, but he allowed none of his thick clothing
to cover the pendant around his neck. The crystal in the center, the
Earth Tear, glowed slightly in the morning light. Many a king of the
Salt-Kingdom had used that crystal to raise the dead from their
slumber. The cost, of course, was their own life in return.

	All that was visible of Hassan over the video monitor was her
face and shoulders. What could be seen of her gave hints to the rest,
however. She was a completely bald young woman, although it wasn't
clear if her condition was natural or self-imposed. She had a broad
nose and a wide mouth. If she was smiling, it would be a huge smile,
but she scowled at the video crystal in anger and sorrow. Endymion
knew as he glanced at the monitor that she had Shield of Harmony
somewhere on her person or nearby.

	Beryl, with her long red hair loose and cascading down her
back, stood on the other side of Endymion. Her long hair fluttered
about in the cool breeze, flowing around her silver colored gown,
occasionally flicking against the Staff of Forbearance she held in
one hand with a tiny static pop. The Staff was an oracle, and could
also be used to channel vast quantities of energy.

	Endymion himself stood in his black armor. As a gesture, he
hadn't repaired the cracks created by the Elder Uranus's sonic attack
or cleaned the soot and dried blood off. At his side, he bore the
Crystal Blade.

	As the assembled kings and the crowd below watched, the first
part of the proceedings ran as expected. Earlier that day, a young
girl had been selected at random from the Crystal Kingdom's birth
records as was ordained by the oldest traditions. Trembling, she now
stood before her king.  Witnessed by the other monarchs, the tiny
waif, a commoner by birth as dictated by the ancient rules, placed
the quartz crown on Endymion's head in the ancient ceremony of
coronation. Breaking with the ancient traditions, however, there was
no fanfare as Endymion was crowned.

	After the girl was reunited with her parents, Endymion
stepped forward to address his people and the world. His expression
was grim and full of anger. He stared out over the crowd at length
before he spoke. Sensing that his seriousness had permeated the
crowd, be started to speak.

	"As many of you know," he began, "The Silver Millennium has
ended. Queen Serenity of the Moon Kingdom has betrayed the Earth and
all mankind. Dozens of Terrans, including my father, are dead at the
hands of her magical spirit assassins. We have no indication that she
intends to stop the killing at a score or ten score, either. As we
speak, horrors beyond my ability to describe have been unleashed upon
the moon. Those who do not serve her are given as human sacrifices to
increase her power.

	"Queen Beryl, as high-priestess of the church of Metallia,
belives that Metallia herself has become insane and has utterly
possessed Serenity. I have seen the woman with my own eyes. Possessed
or not, she is completely and utterly given over to evil. She
radiates Dark Power and kills the soil where she stands. Beryl has
ordered all temples to Metallia destroyed and the worship of Metallia
halted system-wide. I will comply with her wishes here in the Crystal
Kingdom. If Metallia has become insane, I wish no one on Earth or any
of the other worlds to suffer as her slave."

	He paused for several seconds as a few weak cries ran through
the crowd. He began again, forcefully shouting in righteous anger, "I
have seen those I love tortured and murdered. I have seen atrocities
unspeakable by man or animal. I have seen the devastation first hand,
and I tell no lie when I say that war is coming. Serenity's lust for
death and power will not be quelled until every flicker of life in
the system is snuffed out.

	"Thus, I formally and wholeheartedly declare war against
Serenity and her kingdom of darkness. As my sister queen, I shun her.
As my ally, I disown her. I fully pledge the resources of the Crystal
Kingdom and my own life if need be to destroy her. May the Crystal
Sword leech away her life."

	"I pledge the Fire Kingdom to the destruction of the Dark
Kingdom," Wotan spoke out. "May the god-hammer, Mjolnir, crush
Serenity's bones."

	"I pledge the Salt Kingdom to the destruction of the Dark
Kingdom," Lazarus agreed. "May the Tear of Earth never find her
soul."

	"I pledge the Earth Kingdom to the destruction of the Dark
Kingdom," Hassan announced over the video link. "May the Shield of
Harmony protect us from her murderous intent."

	"I pledge the Metal Kingdom to the destruction of the Moon,"
Beryl uttered. She felt a great unease as she said so, and wondered
why she had broken with the others. "May the Staff of Forbearance
burn away her evil." she stated. "And may it never be used to aid
Metallia against us," she found herself muttering quietly. She shook
her head and raised the staff slightly. "There is one more voice to
be heard, though. Will you allow it to speak, Endymion?"

	The King nodded. They had discussed this beforehand after
all.

	"Then come forward, Serenity of the Moon."

	As gasps of shock and dread ran through the crowd, the
curtains at the back of the balcony fluttered slightly. Three figures
stepped through, and walked to the front of the balcony. Endymion,
Beryl and Lazarus stepped aside respectfully.

	The first figure on the right could vaguely be identified as
Sailor Venus. Most of her face was swathed in bandages. Only one blue
eye, her nose, and a shock of short, newly grown blonde hair stuck
out. One arm was in a black plastic cast, and one leg was in a quartz
brace. She walked unaided, choosing to limp forward rather than stoop
to using a cane or a crutch. On the far left, Sailor Jupiter stood.
She was apparently uninjured, but her eyes spoke of grief and pain.

	In the middle, Serenity stood. No longer clad in the long
white gown befitting her station, she wore a short fuku like her
guardians. Instead of yellow or green, hers was royal blue and her
knee-boots and the bow on her chest were both blood red. Perhaps more
striking than her appearance as the younger Senshi of the Moon were
the other changes to her appearance. At some point the night
previously, she had simply sawn the dumpling-shaped buns and the
attached ponytails off her head, leaving her hair quite short and
ragged. In one gloved hand, she held the Crescent Moon Wand. The
Silver Crystal shone brightly, far more brightly than was warranted
in the morning light. In the other hand, he held a long loch of
violet-black hair.

	Her eyes were full of tears and she was visibly trembling,
either in rage or grief.

	"Metallia slew my mother's spirit," she announced quietly.
All throughout the crowd, reporters rushed to turn up the gain on
their audio crystals. "And then the creature that remained in my
mother's body began to slay and torture my friends and my family. My
father is dead. My cousins are all dead or possessed by youma." She
held the lock of dark hair aloft. "Sailor Saturn is dead at her
hands, and Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune corrupted by her dark
power. All the elder Sailor Senshi are either dead or corrupted. I
and the rest of the inner Sailor Senshi would be dead or corrupted if
we had not been rescued by King Endymion.

	"The Queen of the Moon is dead," Serenity whispered. "And I
am now the Queen of the Moon. I cannot stand by as my people are
enslaved and tortured! I cannot forgive the cryings of the innocent
as they are sacrificed to Metallia!" she finished in a scream.

	She was visibly bawling before the assembled masses. Tears
were already evident on the faces of Jupiter and Wotan and tears
began to run down Beryl's face as well.

	"Even if Kami-sama could forgive all her evil, I cannot!"
Serenity screamed out loud. Her fist clenched around the Moon Wand.
"In the name of the souls of the Moon I will punish her!"

	Serenity collapsed against Endymion, crying into his
breastplate. Both Venus and Jupiter moved to embrace their queen. It
was Beryl, ultimately, who nudged the girl back into the spotlight.

	After several minutes, and a few crying jags as Serenity
bawled herself out to world-wide viewership, she knelt on one knee on
the balcony.

	"People of Earth," she called out. "I cannot demand you to
save my kingdom for me. I ask, though, because my kingdom has been
wholly taken hostage by Metallia. For every crying Lunar voice that
you cannot hear through the airless void between worlds, I, Serenity,
beg for the help of the people of Earth. If the souls of the Moon are
to ever know peace, then the Moon Kingdom must fall to the might of
the Earth."

	There wasn't a dry eye in the house as Jupiter and Venus led
their queen away, crying on Jupiter's shoulder all the while.

----------

While 'Dark Serenity' never went anywhere, mostly due to
inconsistencies in what I wanted to write, I tended to keep the back
story for the Silver millennium I laid out there in mind when writing
'Hidden in Darkness'.

If you're interested, you can read the rest of the first little bit
of 'Dark Serenity' here:
http://www.furinkan.net/fanfic/darkserenity.txt

Of course it isn't a complete story and probably never will be, but
there are some interesting ideas laid out there. The Metal Kingdom,
what was the Dark Kingdom before Serenity banished it, and what it
will be again after the end of 'Hidden in Darkness' is the most
visible concept there.

Is this 'Sailor Domination', the story I mentioned at the end of
'newRanma'?

No. 'Sailor Domination' is a porn-without-plot lemon that happens to
share the same back story I laid out in 'Dark Serenity'... with a few
key changes. Here's a  non-lemon snippet from the first chapter,
which is still unfinished:

---

	Princess Serenity kneeled before her mother, pleading for all
she was worth.

	"What can I do? I try so hard to get them to listen to me,
but they seem intent on destroying themselves and hurting everyone
else in the process!"

	The queen's face was troubled. "They are your senshi to
command, my daughter."

	"I can't do that," the princess said sadly. "I can tell them
how I hope they'll act, and I can tell them what I think is right.
When it comes right down to it, I just don't think I can *make* them
do what I want to. I love them all too much to force them."

	The queen sighed. She smiled at her daughter. "It has always
been so with you. You lead not with your word, but with your heart.
Unfortunately, that may not work to save someone intent on damning
herself."

	"Is there any other way, Mother?" Serenity asked. "Is there
anything else I can do?"

	The queen put a finger to her lips. "There may be a way."

	"Please, tell me, Mother. Tell me what I have to do to save
my senshi!"

	The queen turned and gestured out at the featureless dream
horizon. With a broad sweep of her hand, the fog and haze of slumber
transformed into a vast panorama.

	Princess Serenity was staring at the Silver Palace, the
luxurious castle on the moon in which she had spent her previous
life. Its elegant spires and towers shone brightly against the inky
blackness of night that surrounded it. It was one of the most
beautiful sights she had ever seen. Two teardrops rolled down her
face, each given for a place that she could never call home again.

	"The world you live in now is a different place than this
pale memory. It has different values and different taboos. You are
perhaps the only person who will ever understand the difference
between the two, my daughter. This difference is what will save your
wayward senshi."

	The princess nodded, urging her mother to continue.

	"There are two items that still survive here that will show
you what to do," the queen instructed her.

	The two suddenly seemed to be moving. They flew through
crystalline corridors and rainbow-lit promenades. They ascended a
tall spiral staircase that was wrought entirely out of silver.
Finally, they ended up outside a small, beautifully decorated
doorway.

	Princess Serenity recognized it as her own. Wordlessly, she
opened the door, and stepped inside.

	The queen stepped in front of her. "This was your sitting
room. Here," she intoned, reaching out toward the intricately-carved
bookcase next to a settee made of crystal and silver. She removed a
single dog-eared, leather-bound volume from the shelf, showing it her
daughter.

	"This tome will instruct you. It may be difficult for you to
accept in your new life, but the information herein will save you.
Now..."

	Suddenly, the princess and queen were flying again. This time
they moved generally downwards, past the beautiful scenery of the
palace and into more utilitarian and mechanical rooms below. Princess
Serenity could actually feel it as they descended below the surface
of the moon.

	Finally, they ended up in what looked like a laboratory or a
workshop of some kind. Against one wall there were ten cylinders,
each filled with bubbling liquid. There were strange-looking
computers and oddly labled controls all around. The queen gestured at
one such control panel labeled with each of the Senshi's symbols.

	"The magic that lets you fight your enemies and save your
friends and loved-ones comes from within, my daughter. There are
other magics that assist you, however, such as the spell that changes
your costume and disguises your identity."

	Princess serenity nodded, guessing at the purpose of the
control panel before her.

	"This device is infused with the very best technology and
magic that our poor kingdom had to offer," the queen said. "To this
day, it still lives on in your locket and your senshi's
transformation wands. You will need it if you are to save your
senshi."

	"I understand, Mother. Can I make this device work on earth?"

	"I don't know," Queen Serenity admitted. "But I can tell you
who will. Even though he may not remember, Lord Artemis created this
wondrous device before he came to serve you and your senshi. If
anyone can restore it, he can. Bring him here and set him to work."

	"I will do as you have instructed me, Mother."

----------

I'll just let you guess what's in Princess Serenity's diary or what
she's planning on doing with the disguise control panel.

It was a hard call to decide to make 'Hidden in Darkness' a non-lemon
since it is a story very much about love. The problem was that the
only realistic pairs for the plot I wanted to write would be
Makoto/Haruka, Rei/Cobalt, and Usagi/Cobalt. Lemon scenes featuring
ANCs characters are pretty boring, at least IMHO, and making one
chapter out of five lemony seemed kinda pointless. The Cobalt matches
were fairly unrealistic since she has only known the Senshi for about
a month at the end of 'Hidden in Darkness'. Despite the fact that I
think it would have worked well had this been a shorter story, or had
a slightly different plot, I decided to go non-lemon.

*sigh*...

What's next?

More Clan revisions. I intended to be working more on them then I
have, but work is being a real bitch right now. My company just got
bought out by our largest competitor and the corporate shakeup has
been... interesting. Not very painful mind you, but difficult to deal
with. No, don't worry about me. My job is fairly safe since I'm the
only artist in the whole building. Unless our new parent decides to
dissolve the company entirely-- which they cannot do for at least
three years due to contracts signed at the time of purchase-- I'm not
in any danger of becoming homeless. I've also been dealing with some
family illness. I wrote a rant about my wife's kidney problems. It's
available on my rant page:

http://www.furinkan.net/display.php?pageid=51

Also of note is the 'Sailor Domination' I snipped above. I have rough
outlines for all four chapters, but only a full outline for the first
one. I don't have a lot of the text written, and none of the lemon
scenes, which will obviously be the largest section of the story.

I've been watching several new anime series, both via fansubs and
DVD's bought at BestBuy. I've had ideas for fanstories related to
Hellsing (Alucard and Cellas are the coolest vampires *ever*),
Azumanga Daioh, and Fruits Basket.

If you haven't seen FB yet, I highly encourage you to do so. As far
as I'm concerned Fruits Basket is destined to become a 'classic' in
the same league as Ranma, Sailor Moon, Tenchi, and Slayers, even
though it's a shojou story.

As always, I have a few ideas for original stories, but nothing of
note. I just don't get excited about my own characters the way I do
about others'. I guess I need to have Cobalt, Achorite, Taiyoko, and
Dr. Makuna battle against Akuji.

Eugh...

Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed my story as much as I
enjoyed writing it.

C.


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