Here comes my revision of the second chapter of this (eventually)
somewhat dark Sailor Moon epic.

Any and all comments, positive or negative, are welcome from newcomers
and old fans alike.


           Aaron Nowack
"Never let reality get in the way of a good hypothesis."
http://www.geocities.com/anowack/


Shades of Gray
A Sailor Moon Fanfic
By: Aaron Nowack

Chapter 2: To Fight Fire With Fire

        "May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't."
                -General George S. Patton Jr.

***********************************************************************
Disclaimer:  Sailor Moon is owned by Naoko Takeuchi, whose creative
talents far exceed my most humble own.  Distribution and other rights to
Sailor Moon belong to lots of different companies that I do not own.  I
make or imply no claim to ownership of Sailor Moon or its characters.
However, the text of this fanfic and all original characters presented
within are mine, and should not be used without permission. Thank you.
***********************************************************************

        Sailor Pluto was swearing. This is something of an
understatement, actually.  Somewhat like saying the ocean was wet or a
nuclear explosion was dangerous.  Over the past few subjective hours,
Pluto had exhausted the less polite areas of every language she knew,
and even the few she didn't for good measure.  To say that any of her
fellow Senshi would have been shocked to know of this was another
gigantic understatement.
        The Senshi tended to regard Pluto, who they also knew as Meiou
Setsuna, as an emotionless, all-knowing being, hardly human.  Nothing
could be farther from the truth.  Pluto hid her emotions, and normally
hid them well, but she did have them.  And as for her omniscience?  It
seemed to her that she never found out anything until it was too late.
And she was all too human.
        Pluto had just found out that Ares, of all people, had somehow
been sent to the present, instead of dying or being imprisoned as she
had assumed, an assumption that now seemed dangerously foolish.  It had
taken only a minimum of effort to find out how and why.  She knew that
the other Champions were around as well, and would be Awakening soon.
She also knew what they were far too likely to do, and far too likely to
succeed at doing.
        The Champions would certainly see Crystal Tokyo, the Utopia she
had worked so hard for, as an abomination.  They would be willing to
fight, kill, and die to stop it from being built.  No, they would wish
to stop her from building it.  It was possible - though unlikely - that
they could be convinced that Crystal Tokyo was a desirable future.  They
would never accept her means to that end, though.  And if they fought,
they would likely succeed.  They might not win, but it would be easy to
push humanity off the path Pluto had carefully laid out for them.
        The timestream was already confused, too many possibilities
opening up.  If only she had had some warning, some time to prepare.
Then she might have been able to contain things, would have had time to
make a plan.  As it was, she could only improvise.
        Very well then.  If she had to improvise, best to start now.

***********************************************************************

        "Ick... multivariable calculus... let's see partial derivative
of f(x, y, z) with respect to x plus partial... damn it I can't
concentrate not with-"  Ikawa didn't finish the thought.  He didn't want
to think about it.  He was definitely not going to think about magical
kingdoms and being a defender of justice and living a thousand lives
and... no, he was just going to be a normal student studying at a table
in the park and waiting for his friends, at least for awhile.
        Needless to say, Ikawa was distracted.  This time yesterday, he
was just another face in the crowd, and now he was the reincarnation of
an ancient warrior with a sacred mission to uphold and a war to fight.
He knew he would do both of those things.  It was part of who Ares was,
and he was Ares.  The first thing to do would be to awaken his brothers-
        "Hello, Ikawa."  The words interrupted the young man's stream of
thought.
        Ikawa looked up, shutting his textbook. "Oh, hi Motoki, hi
Mamoru!"  His two friends sat down next to him.
        Mamoru smiled at him.  "You looked a little spaced out there,
Ikawa.  What's going on?"
        "Oh, nothing much.  I was caught in a monster attack yesterday,
and I was thinking about it."
        Motoki nodded.  "The one down at the Osa-P?"
        "Yeah, that's the one," Ikawa replied.
        A new voice joined in the conversation.  "I heard about that on
the news.  Was there really a new Sailor Senshi involved in it?"
        "Not exactly, Shoju," said Ikawa as the speaker sat down.  "The
new person didn't look like a Senshi, and he was male anyway."
        "Sort of like Tuxedo Kamen?"  Mamoru said with a smile.
        The last member of the gathering group interrupted before anyone
could answer.  "Studying hard, or hardly studying?"
        "Well, we weren't going to start without you, Tamori," Shoju
answered.
        Tamori sat down.  "Well, let's start.  Who else is having
problems with the calculus assignment?"  With that, the group settled
down to more mundane matters.

***********************************************************************

        "So, basically, neither of you know more than you did yesterday,
right?" Makoto asked Rei and Michiru.  Both had just divulged the
results of their separate attempts to determine the scale of the new
threat - if that was what it was.
        "Well, I'm getting a feeling of... pain, I guess," Rei
responded.  "But, other than that, you're correct."
        The Senshi, still minus Pluto and also without Haruka, who was
at the Tomoe residence taking care of Hotaru, were once again meeting at
the Hikawa Shrine.  So far, the meeting had mainly been a rehash of
yesterday's conversation.
        Ami took out her computer.  "Well, most of the data files my
computer is set up to search are passworded, encrypted, or corrupted.
However, I did manage to find one piece of information that applies to
this Ares."
        Everyone perked up at that.  "What?" asked Usagi eagerly.
        Ami punched in a few commands.  "Gather round, and I'll show
you."  The Senshi swiftly moved to positions where they could examine
the Mercury Computer's screen, which read:
        "BIOGRAPHICAL DATA: PHOEBE, DAUGHTER OF AURORA,
        OF THE LINE OF VULCAN, FOURTH PRINCESS OF MARS

        BORN: 7976 SA
        BONDMATE TO DEINAS OF MARS: 7999-8001 SA
        SENSHI MARS: 8002-8046 SA
        ENGAGED TO DEINAS, CHAMPION ARES: 8003-8005 SA
        MARRIED TO DEINAS, CHAMPION ARES: 8005-8025 SA
        ENGAGED TO GUARDIAN JADEITE: 8040-8046 SA
        KILLED BY GUARDIAN JADEITE: 8046 SA"
        Rei stared at the screen. "Phoebe is... was me in the Silver
Millennium, right?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
        Ami nodded.  She knew the questions that would be coming.
"That's correct."
        Minako glanced at Rei.  "You definitely had an interesting love
life, Rei."
        Rei continued to stare at the screen.  "This... Guardian
Jadeite... he's the same person as the Jadeite we fought, right?"
        Ami nodded once more.  "I believe so."
        Usagi gasped.  "You were engaged to Jadeite?  How would that
happen?" she asked, staring at Rei as though she had grown a second
head.
        Ami was the one who answered that.  "I wondered that when I
first saw this information. I believe from my research that Beryl's four
generals were once highly placed members of Endymion's court.  It seems
as though they betrayed him to Beryl, allowing her to seize the Earth
relatively easily.  Of course, that's mostly conjecture."
        Rei shook her head weakly.  "This is a lot of bombshells at
once, Ami."

***********************************************************************

        Jadeite was pleased.  Of course he couldn't show it. Officially,
the attack had been a disaster.  An Overlord and four youma wiped out,
and new enemies appearing?  Beryl would have torn the whole palace down
by now. Jadeite might have too, except that the battle against the
Senshi was of little importance to him at the moment, except as an easy
way to be rid of rivals.  The time to deal with them had not yet
arrived.
        But, one must keep up appearances.  "Soul Flame!" Jadeite cried
out, throwing a firebolt into the crowd of youma.  "This is truly
disgusting!  I demand that one of you who has some shred of battle
prowess come forth!  If Sithar is the best you can offer, we may as well
give up now!"
        Inwardly, Jadeite laughed as one Ixitar stepped forward.  Ixitar
was the Overlord of Grim Respite, once one Jadeite's vassals.  And like
all but the tiniest handful of them, not one Jadeite felt he could
trust.  The tiger youma bowed once before saying, "Allow me to take up
the battle, Lord Jadeite. My servants are many, and we will crush the
Sailor Senshi under our claws and gain vengeance for our queen."
        Before Ixitar could move, Jadeite raised one hand and sent a
bolt of energy at him.  The Overlord tried to dodge, but was too slow.
As well, he was surprised when instead of being torn to pieces, he was
engulfed in an aura of power.  Jadeite spoke.  "Take this energy, the
little that Sithar was able to gather, and use it wisely.  Now go, and
bring me the Senshi's heads on a platter."  Ixitar vanished.
        Jadeite then strode out of the throne room, silently shaking
with laughter.  Another who could have been a threat, gone.  Now to work
on locating the other Diamonds.
        In the shadows of the throne room a voice spoke. "He is
eliminating the weak and foolish, the ones who would make up the bulk of
any opposition."
        "True.  He's clever.  He lets them volunteer, so that none could
openly accuse him of doing so.  And thus, when revolt comes, the rebels
will be too weak to stand against him." replied the other.
        "Any open revolt would destroy what's left of the Kingdom, no
matter who wins.  But, it looks like it will come to that eventually.
What can we do about it, though?" asked the first.
        If the second voice had been human, it would have smiled. "We
have discussed a possible option before."
        "Difficult."  That was an understatement.
        "But not impossible."  The next thing to it, maybe.
        "Aye."  With that, the two plotters went on their way.

***********************************************************************

        *BEEP*
        The sound came from Ami's computer, and she quickly called up a
new program.  "Um... youma energy signal, only one this time, and
its..."
        "RAVAGE!!!!"  The roar seemed to shake the building.
        "...right outside the Shrine," Ami finished weakly.
        "Well, let's transform and take it out," Makoto said.  "After
yesterday, one youma is nothing."
        "Right!" Everyone pulled out their henshin rods.
        "Mercury Star Power!"
        "Mars Star Power!"
        "Jupiter Star Power!"
        "Venus Star Power!"
        "Neptune Planet Power!"
        "Moon Cosmic Power!"
        "MAKE UP!!!"
        With that, the Senshi raced out of the shrine.  The youma was a
large one, but not so large as Sithar was.  It had the appearance of a
woman-tiger, and it turned to the Senshi with a feral grin.
        "Taking the bait so soon!  How could a band of schoolgirls like
you have defeated Overlord Sithar!"
        Sailor Moon struck a pose. "We are the Sailor Senshi, and in the
name of the Moon, we will punish you!"
        Ravage laughed, and nine more tiger youma appeared.  "Get
them!!!  For Ixitar!"  The youma rushed at the Senshi.
        "Deep Submerge!"
        "Burning Mandala!"
        "Sparkling Wide Pressure!"
        The three attacks forced the youma back, and now only seven
youma remained.  Ravage growled. "You are tougher than you look. Tiger's
Claw!" She swiped one of her claws at the air, and the Senshi barely
managed to dodge the force knives the attack had created. However,
unfortunately for Ravage, this wasn't enough, as the Senshi unleashed a
barrage of attacks which left her alone and stunned.
        "Moon Spiral Heart Attack!"
        And that, as the saying goes, was that.

***********************************************************************

        "Not very effective, were they, Ixitar?"  the mocking voice came
from behind the Overlord of Grim Respite.
        "Shut up, Asphara!"  Ixitar growled.
        The other youma laughed.  One of the rare female Overlords, she
appeared to be an ordinary, if rather attractive, human with blonde hair
and green eyes.  If, that is, you didn't count the bat wings that came
out of her back.  "How are you going to fulfill Jadeite's commands
without servants?"
        Ixitar was silent.
        Asphara continued.  "I'm sure my consort would be willing to
loan you enough energy to make more... if I ask him."  That was the
case.  It was well known the Ishamanar doted on his consort.  One might
even say he loved her... if one was willing to face Ishamanar's rage
when he discovered someone said that.  To a youma, love and justice were
abominations.
        Ixitar got to the point.  "What's in it for you?"
        Asphara giggled.  "Would you believe me if I said the joy of
doing a good deed?"
        Ixitar scowled. "No."
        Asphara's mirth faded.  "Too bad, because you're not getting
another answer.  Take it, or you can go crawling back to Jadeite."
        "I'll take it." Ixitar said, though he knew he was making a
mistake.
        The scrying device went dim, and the image of the two Overlords
vanished.  "Interesting."
        "She is a wonder."  A strange gleam appeared in the speaker's
eyes.
        "Why do you show me this?"
        "I'm setting Ixitar up for the fall, of course.  He's still far
too loyal to Jadeite, even if that human doesn't realize it."
        "He was in Jadeite's legion, wasn't he?"  The conspirator did
not pause for an answer.  "Why bring her into it, though?"
        "She believes it merely another part of my efforts to gain
power.  She might suspect we plan to take down Jadeite, but no more."
        "Not your... other option?"
        "No."  The conspirator paused.  "I do not believe it is an
option, though."
        "Why suggest it, then?"
        "You misunderstand me.  We were meant to find that book.  We
will do what must be done.  We have no choice."

***********************************************************************

        Ikawa, Mamoru, and Tamori were wandering about, making small
talk and generally enjoying the afternoon.  Mamoru was subtly guiding
them towards the Hikawa Shrine, as that was where Usagi was supposed to
be, and he had briefly felt that she was in danger earlier, and wanted
to make sure she wasn't hurt.  He probably would have felt that, but it
never hurt to be sure.
        "So anyways," Tamori said, "I think I'm going to apply for the
lab assistantship that the new genetics professor is offering."
        "Professor Tomoe?" Mamoru asked.  The former daimon container
was about to start working at their college, having been reassigned as
there were no plans to rebuild Mugen High.
        "That's the one," Tamori replied.  "The ad said that if things
worked out, there was a chance the assistant could rent a room at his
house too, which is good, because I think Shoju's ready to throw me
out."
        "Eh?" asked a puzzled Ikawa. "You're good friends, why would he
throw you out?"
        "We just weren't made to be roommates, I think.  I like it dark,
he likes it light. I like soft music, he likes loud music.  I'm a
morning person, and he's more of a night person.  We're just getting on
each other's nerves."
        Just up the street, Rei turned the corner, jogging.  She paused
a moment to catch her breath, and was surprised when she felt something
run into her and knock her down.
        The man who had knocked her down offered a hand to help her up.
"Sorry about that, I wasn't watching where I was going."
        Rei got to her feet.  "Don't worry about it, it's nothing."
        The man smiled.  "Listen, how about I treat you to a snack to
make up for it, OK?"
        A voice from behind the man spoke up.  "Watch out, Ikawa.  This
is how she got me to be her boyfriend."
        Ikawa turned around.  "This is your girlfriend?  Funny, she
doesn't look like a meatball head."
        Mamoru laughed.  "No, Rei's my old girlfriend, from before
Usagi."
        "Raiding the cradle, aren't we?" Tamori asked.
        Rei groaned.  She meets a nice looking man, and he has to be one
of Mamoru's friends.  Great.  Who knows what he's told this Ikawa about
her.
        Ikawa grinned.  "That's Mamoru, not me.  Listen, I'll just go
get... Rei here something to eat to apologize, and catch up with you two
later, all right? If that's OK with you, Rei?"
        Rei smiled and nodded.  She had gone jogging to distract herself
from endlessly turning the issue of Ares over in her head, and it looked
like she had found the perfect distraction.

***********************************************************************

        "Ok, Hotaru, here's your milk... huh, where'd she go! I put her
down on the quilt just a minute ago!"  A soft sound from underneath one
of the armchairs interrupted Haruka.  She stepped forward and swept the
baby girl into her arms.  "There you are, Hotaru!"  Haruka frowned.
"Since when can you crawl?  I don't think you should be moving quite
yet."
        *BZZ*
        "Huh? Oh, the doorbell.  Wonder who it is?"  Haruka, still
holding Hotaru, went to answer the door.  Standing there were Mamoru and
a blond man she didn't recognize.  "Hello, Mamoru. Who's your friend?"
        "This is Inusha Tamori, Haruka.  He's here to see Professor
Tomoe about the lab assistantship he's offering," Mamoru replied.
        "Oh."  Haruka shifted the baby she was holding to a more
comfortable position.  "The professor is down in the lab.  If you could
hold Hotaru for a minute, I'll take him down there."
        "Of course."  Mamoru took the girl as Haruka lead Tamori down to
what had once been the Death Buster's lab.  He sat as he waited, and
momentarily Haruka joined him.
        "Any news about our enemies?" Haruka asked him as she took baby
Hotaru and began to feed her.
        Mamoru shook his head.  "None that I know of.  I did think I had
sensed Usagi in danger earlier today, but the feeling vanished so
quickly I'm not sure.  I ran into Rei a couple minutes ago and she
didn't say anything, so I doubt anything serious happened."
        Haruka nodded and turned Hotaru over so she could burp the baby.
"I wonder who that Ares person was though. He obviously knows about the
Silver Millennium, since he called Sailor Moon Serenity."
        "What I worry about, though, is that if Ares does turn out to be
an enemy, well... he said he was the Champion of Mars. What if there are
others for the other planets?"  Mamoru said with a frown.
        "And if they are enemies too?  Especially since we have the Dark
Kingdom and whatever it was that lead Michiru on a wild goose chase
yesterday running around?  I'm worried too.  If that's the case, we're
going to have a long fight ahead of us, and it's going to take all the
power we can get."  Because Hotaru was currently facing the wall,
neither Haruka nor Mamoru noticed the sigil that briefly flared on her
forehead.

***********************************************************************

        "I've looked at your transcript, and I'm somewhat impressed,"
said Professor Tomoe.  "that's a pretty heavy course load, and you're
doing rather well.  Are you sure you'll be able to handle working with
me on top of that?"
        "Thank you, professor, and I believe so,"  Tamori nervously
responded. He glanced around the dark lab.  Most of the equipment he
recognized, but there were some things that didn't look like anything he
had seen before.
        Professor Tomoe continued.  "Let me tell you what I'm doing
here, and then if you're still interested, you can start next week and
we'll see how it works out.  Where to start... the official report on
the destruction of Mugen High says that a gas main blew and caused the
explosion. Actually, what happened was the Sailor Senshi managed to stop
an evil group known as the Death Busters from summoning an alien called
Pharaoh 90 to destroy the Earth."  Tomoe decided that mentioning that he
had been the leader of that group would not be the best of plans.  "What
I'm working on now is deciphering their technology and the biology of
the monsters they used."
        Though Setsuna had been able to restore most of his memories of
the past few months, Tomoe recalled nothing of the science he had used,
if it was even science.  "If you don't believe in the Sailor Senshi,
magic, and monsters, or if you don't want to get involved with them, I
suggest you turn down my offer.  If that doesn't bother you, I'd be
happy to work with you."
        Tamori wasn't sure what to think.  Sure he believed in the
Senshi and monsters, you didn't live in Juuban for long without running
into one or the other.  However, he was a bit shocked.  He had been
expecting some relatively mundane work, but an offer to be on or
actually beyond the cutting edge of science was an unexpected
opportunity.  Really, there was no choice.
        "I'll take the position."

***********************************************************************

        Ixitar barely repressed the urge to snarl.  What in Great
Metallia's name was Asphara up to?  All seemed well. He had been given
the energy, and two dozen youma awaited his command.  He had enough
energy to send them over- there! That was the trap.
        He didn't have enough energy to send his new servants and
himself along.  He should have seen this coming.  If he left enough
servants home to let himself go through, he wouldn't have enough to keep
the Senshi off of him and they'd kill him, but if he sent them all he
wouldn't be able to supervise the attack and it would fall apart like
the last one and Jadeite would burn him to a crisp!  Ixitar spent a few
moments cursing silently.
        Why, oh why, did most of the Senshi have to be together for
once?  If one or two had showed up alone, he was sure ten youma would
have been able to kill them.  But no, it didn't work out that way.  He
would have to come up with a simple battle plan the youma could easily
follow.  Perhaps... yes that's it.  Send half to the same point as the
earlier battle, and send the rest somewhere else, like the place Sithar
had attacked!  Force the Senshi to split their forces, or have a dozen
youma rampage through the city unchecked.  He might get out of this
alive.  Maybe.  Just maybe.
        But probably not.  The dire record of youma failures against the
Senshi suddenly seemed far more applicable than it had when he had
volunteered for this.

***********************************************************************

        Ikawa and Rei were walking down towards the Osa-P shopping
center, talking about the recent monster attack there.  Each giving a
properly modified account, of course.  The current topic of discussion
happened to be one Ares.
        "I don't know, he seemed kind of dangerous to me," Rei said.
        "Dangerous, yes, but not to us.  Did you see him wipe out that
youma with one shot?  If he had wanted to, he could have leveled the
whole shopping center, and the Senshi wouldn't have been able to stop
him."  Ikawa replied, inwardly chuckling.
        "Yeah, but that youma had been weakened by the Senshi when he
showed up! Besides, I think Sailor Mars's Burning Mandala is just as
tough as the Flame Strike thing Ares used,"  Rei rebutted.
        Ikawa snapped his fingers.  "Ah, you're a Mars fan, I see.  Did
your hair like hers and everything."
        Rei snorted.  "I'll have you know that Sailor Mars does her hair
like me, not the other way around."
        Ikawa laughed.  "Right."  Whatever more he might have said was
drowned out by rage-filled cries and screams of panic coming from up the
road.  Both of them stopped instantly, and thoughts of finding a place
to transform almost instantly filled their minds.
        Ikawa was the first to speak.  "Stay here!  I'll go see what's
happening!"
        Rei nodded in relief.  She wouldn't need an excuse to leave!
"Right."  Ikawa raced off.
        Neither had any intention of doing as they had said. As soon as
the other was out sight, each ducked into an alley, pulled an item out
of subspace, and said a brief set of words.  A moment later, Ares and
Sailor Mars were running towards the site of the latest youma attack.

***********************************************************************

        Haruka shut the door as Tamori and Mamoru left.  Looked like
she'd have to be more careful about discussing Senshi business around
the house once he started coming regularly.  Oh, well.  It was the
professor's house, after all.  He could pick who got to live there.
        She was shocked when Sailor Pluto appeared out of thin air in
front of her.  Pluto, apparently more calm then when Haruka had last saw
her, spoke.  "Transform quickly.  There's a youma attack at the Hikawa
Shrine, and the Inners aren't in a position to get there in time.
Neptune's already on her way."
        At the Shrine, Ixitar's strike force was pleased to note that no
Senshi were around, and they set to draining energy, sending it to the
Kingdom as soon as they gathered enough to survive the transfer. Jadeite
had ordered the change in procedure.  It meant that more energy was lost
between dimensions, but it meant that the loss of a youma wouldn't lead
to the waste of large amounts of energy.
        Being newly formed and barely sentient, the youma did not pay
particularly close attention to their surroundings.  Thu, they were
caught entirely unprepared when the Senshi arrived.
        "World Shaking!"
        "Deep Submerge!"
        "Dead Scream."
        The attacks swiftly eliminated a fourth of the strike force, and
a second barrage had destroyed a like number before the shocked youma
could react.  Then the six remaining leapt into hand to hand combat with
the Senshi.
        Neptune expertly dodged one claw swipe and delivered a powerful
kick to its originator.  Pluto fended off two youma with her Time Staff,
while Uranus wove over and under youma blows, striking with impunity,
and with deadly force. Though Uranus was the best, none of the three
Outer Senshi were slouches at melee combat.
        However, youma could take a lot of damage, and shortly a few
lucky blows on their part left none of the Senshi untouched, though at
the cost of one of their number.  If they had been slightly more lucky,
Neptune would have been taken out of the fight.  If the fight went on
like this, there was a good chance that they would succeed in killing,
or at least seriously wounding, one of the Senshi.
        But the fight didn't go on like that.  Instead, a familiar voice
came from a nearby rooftop.  "SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!"  Unfortunately
for the youma, they still had not learned to keep an eye out for sudden
attacks, and one of the youma was vaporized by the ball lightning.
Sailor Jupiter leapt into the gap, striking out with powerful blows.
        This distraction gave Pluto a moment of peace to demonstrate
that the Dead Scream was just as deadly at close range as at a distance.
With only four youma left, and an equal number of Senshi present, the
outcome was really inevitable. It was now merely a question of how long
it would take the Senshi to slay the remaining youma.
        As soon as that question was settled, Pluto vanished without
another word.

***********************************************************************

        Sailor Mars leapt in front of the youma.  "You think you would
have learned your lesson last time, youma!  If you attack the Earth, the
Sailor Senshi will..."
        "Flame Strike!"  The blast eliminated one of the youma, and
incidentally interrupted Mars's speech.
        "...punish you."  Mars concluded weakly as Ares leapt in among
the youma.  "Burning Mandala!"  Another youma fell, leaving only ten to
deal with.
        Inside the pack of youma, Ares surrounded his sword with a fire
aura and easily sliced through one of the tiger-women, cutting it in
half.  The two halves disintegrated before they could hit the ground.
With effortless efficiency, he loped off a claw that got too close, then
dodged under another blow.
        Mars stood back from the melee, not trusting her hand to hand
skills, and strafed the area with another Burning Mandala, which slew
two youma, one of which was the one that had been wounded by Ares. There
was a chance that Ares could have been hit, but Mars deemed it an
acceptable risk.  After all, Ares wasn't really an ally.  Was he?
        Ares dodged another swipe and casually ran a youma through.  As
the corpse dissolved, he spun around and plunged his flaming blade into
another beast.  Five left... ouch, that had hurt.  One of the youma had
managed to land a solid blow, though Ares's armor had absorbed most of
the strike.  Time to back away for a bit.  Ares leapt up and back, over
one of the youma.
        Mars continued to strafe the area, and another of Ixitar's
strike force fell.  Two of the youma had begun to charge her when a
Flame Strike from Ares incinerated one, and a quick Fire Soul took care
of the other.  Mars briefly wondered why this batch of youma seemed so
much weaker than those she had faced when she had first become a Senshi.
Or was she just that much stronger?  A truly interesting question, but
not one she had time to ponder now.
        Ares ran forward, decapitating one of the youma with one stroke,
while Mars launched a few more Fire Souls at the second, burning it to a
crisp.  The two fire warriors stared at each other as the corpses
dissolved.  Mars found herself drawn to Ares's eyes. They were cold and
hard, showing no sign of emotion, mirroring his utterly composed face.
Mars oddly found herself wondering whether he or Pluto would win a
staring contest before turning to a more important question.  What to
do?  Should she attack, introduce herself, run, or what?
        The seconds seemed to stretch into minutes as the two sized each
other up.  Finally Ares broke the silence.  "Well, well.  We meet again,
Phoebe."
        It took Mars a moment to remember that that had been her name in
her previous life.  "I suppose so," Mars responded slowly, still
weighing her options, but the thought that she had apparently at one
point been married to this person threatened to throw all tactical
considerations out of her head.  "What now... Deinas?"  If he thought he
could distract her by using her old self's name - and she had to admit
to herself that she was distracted - she could certainly return the
favor.
        For the first time, some emotion appeared on Ares's face, a
rueful half smile.  "I'm not entirely sure."
        Mars took a step closer, slowly gathering energy for an attack,
but not summoning one yet.  Something about the man seemed... dangerous,
and she wanted to be sure she had the drop on him.  "That makes two of
us, then."
        Ares let out a harsh, bitter laugh.  "Who would have thought
that we wouldn't kill each other on sight?"
        Mars tensed.  An enemy, then.  Well, maybe.  There might be
another explanation for his remark.  She resisted the urge to curse.
This uncertainty was getting annoying.
        Ares too tensed, his hand tightening on his sword as he saw Mars
stiffen.  He too had been gathering energy, and now he began to gather
faster.  He had to be ready if the Senshi was about to strike.  His
sword warmed beneath his gauntleted hand as his own attack trembled on
the verge of going off.
        This did not go unfelt, and Mars reacted almost instantly, hands
coming up with surprising speed.  Flames rushed into them, and with a
shout she sent them pouring out.  "Burning Mandala!"
        The blast threw Ares back into a wall.  Resisting the urge to
curse himself for being caught flat-footed, he rolled to one side to
dodge a Fire Soul, and smiled as he noticed that Mars was gathering
energy for another Burning Mandala.  That gave him enough time to ready
his own attack.  "Flame Strike!"  A torrent of white hot fire spurted
out of his sword.
        Mars managed to dodge the worst of the firebolt, but this
disrupted her own attack.  She quickly realized that Ares's Flame Strike
must take less time to cast than her Burning Mandala, so if she kept
trying to get off her more powerful attack, she'd lose.  Therefore, she
decided to stick with the faster Fire Souls, and launched two at her
enemy in rapid succession.
        Ares cursed silently as he dodged the attack.  Mars had wised
up, and if she used the Fire Souls well, he wouldn't get enough time to
launch a Flame Strike, and wouldn't be able to get close enough to
attack her physically.  He had to hope that she would run out of energy
before she got lucky.  Then, his thoughts were interrupted as he leapt
out of the way of a trio of Fire Souls.
        Mars also wasn't happy.  She wouldn't be able to keep this up
all day.  She had to get Ares into a position where he couldn't avoid
the firebolts, all while keeping up a constant barrage to prevent him
from using his attack on her.  Hopefully, the others would arrive soon.
Wait a minute, she quickly gathered in as much energy as she could and
launched five quick Fire Souls.  There was no way Ares could dodge that!
        She was right. Ares swiftly determined which of the bolts was
the weakest and avoided the others.  The hit was still damaging, but not
lethal or incapacitating.  He quickly leapt forward.  That should have
drained her, he should be able to get in a good hit or two.
        "Shine Aqua Illusion!"
        Ares swiftly changed direction to avoid being flash frozen. Damn
it!  He had forgotten that Mars had allies, while he had none.  He
definitely needed to get his brethren awakened, and soon.  That is, if
he survived this.
        "VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN!"
        This time, Ares was too slow and the chain caught him, leaving
him trussed up, though still standing.  His sword had been dropped, but
he had triggered the subspace access rather than letting it fall to the
ground.
        Sailors Moon, Mercury, and Venus leapt down onto the
battlefield, observing the numerous scorch marks that covered the street
and most nearby buildings.  Venus held up one hand.  "Don't try anything
funny, or I'll blast you!"  Ares remained silent.
        While Mercury checked the exhausted Mars's relatively minor
injuries, Sailor Moon stepped up to the captive.  "Are you hurt?"
        For an instant, something flickered in Ares's eyes, but his face
soon smoothed.  "I'm not about to die on you, Serenity."
        "Good," Sailor Moon said.  "Do you want to talk?"
        Ares was silent.
        "If you promise not to attack, I'll have Venus let you go,"
Sailor Moon continued.
        "Why should you trust me?" Ares said.
        "Why shouldn't I?"
        Ares stood unmoving for a moment.  Then, he spat at the ground
in front of Sailor Moon, rage in his eyes.  "Don't mock me, Serenity."
        Sailor Moon took a step back, surprised.  "I'm sorry," she said
as she tried to figure out why the man had reacted so poorly.
        Ares raised his face and looked her in the eyes.  Then in a
harsh whisper that didn't reach the other Senshi, he spoke.  "For now, I
will leave peacefully.  You have the advantage here.  But, rest assured,
we will meet again."  Ares spat once more and vanished.
        A few meters away, Ikawa shakily stood up and left the area.  He
hadn't wanted to try a teleport without more experience in this body,
particularly combined with a detransformation, but he hadn't had a
choice.  Now, he should probably go find Rei.  This little 'date' hadn't
gone to well, but she had been kind of fun to be with.  He wouldn't mind
'dating' with her again.  Nothing serious, of course.

***********************************************************************

Author's Random Revised Ramblings

1) Another revision done.  I'm still not totally happy with it
(particularly the way Rei and Ikawa meet), but I think it's about as
good as I can make it without major plot changes, which I'm trying to
avoid.  Ideally, someone would be able to read the sequel having only
read the original version, and wouldn't notice any discrepancies.

2) The most major rewrite in this chapter is how the fight between Ares
and Sailor Mars starts, and then Ares's subsequent conversation with
Sailor Moon.  I'm trying to make the Champions a little less
bloodthirsty and a bit more hesitant in these early chapters.  The other
change is to support what was basically a retcon in the later chapters
of the original - that the Champions didn't know that the Senshi had no
memories of the Silver Millennium at first.

3) The original version of this fic can be found at
http://www.fanfiction.net/~AaronNowack

The revisions of the prologue and Chapter 1 have not been archived
anywhere, but are available on request.

4)Re-reading the original version of this chapter was kind of a bad
experience.  Parts of it just seemed really horrid to me, and I have a
feeling that, as a reader, I'd have given up on this story a few
chapters in.

I wonder how many people did.

5) Wow, that last note was really morose.  I can't end on a downer like
that.  Um.... yay, I'm getting a new computer!  The almost five-fold
increase in processor speed should result in, roughly... a five-fold
decrease in writing speed.  Modern games, here I come!

Released: November 01, 2000
Revised: August 13, 2003

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