[FFML] [FanFic][SM][NETTG] Terra in Tokyo Ch. 6 (of 27) "But It Was Just a Dream."

[Benjamin A. Oliver]

Heya!  Story continues.

Disclaimer:
This story is based loosely on Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon by Naoko
Takeuchi. This is a non-profit fan work created as a tribute, and no
infringement is intended. All rights to the characters, settings, and
situations of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon belong to Naoko Takeuchi,
Koudansha, TV Asahi, and Toei Douga, and DIC. ArbyFish belong to
Daniel Oliver and are used with permission.  Gotta have ArbyFish.
Wouldn't be proper if we didn't.


Nuke 'Em 'Till They Glow!!
Terra in Tokyo
Final Mix

---Chapter 6:  But It Was Just a Dream.

	Terra wanted to throw up, but that was probably just from a minor
case of the flu coming on.  What really bothered her right now, the
death of all her friends, still hadn't fully registered in her mind.
No, that wasn't true.  She knew all too well that, despite her best
efforts, she failed to save or even aid significantly her friends.

	Sure sucks to be you, doesn't it? a voice from inside the girl's head
said.  "Shut up," she moaned in reply.  She'd already been through
enough insults from the four generals who killed the other girls as
well as a working over earlier by Arby the ArbyFish.  Her mind's
remarks weren't helping very much.

	"What?  I didn't say anything," the Star Light Knight said, "and
neither did I."  He twitched and pounded on his own head.  "Quiet,
you!"

	Terra turned her thoughts to the Star Light Knight, who had enough
strength to stop a combined attack from all the generals without much
effort.  He hadn't seemed winded, like he'd arrived in a hurry or
something.  He only interfered in the fight when she was in danger.
The failure of a Sailor Soldier finally found the strength to speak.
"Why... why didn't you save them?" she asked.

	S.L.K. glanced at her.  "Finally snapped out of it, huh?"

	"Why?"

	"Why didn't I save them?  Why didn't YOU save them, if they're so
important to you?"

	Sailor Chibimoon choked back the tears.  "You're so strong!
Crazy-strong!  And I... I don't have any power--!"

	"BALONEY!" S.L.K. shot back.  "And by that I mean the cheap stuff
that rots five minutes after you open the package."

	Terra shook with confusion at his remark that gave way to a
flabbergasted rage.  "What do you mean?!"

	"You've got more raw power than I do!  More than anyone else could
ever have!  Don't you know who you are?!  I figured that, since you
weren't doing anything about it when they were in such obvious mortal
danger, you must have wanted it that way.  It's your own dang fault
for not helping those people back there."

	"But I thought you loved Sailor Moon!" Terra protested.  "You're
always out there, helping her and showing her how to use her powers
better!  Didn't that mean anything?!"

	"Not really," S.L.K. said.  "There was a mix-up and I thought she was
you.  But, just after you showed up this time, something happened to
Sailor Moon that would never happen to you.  It was waaay simple, but
what she said, I know you never would.  Not in any lifetime, not in
any sailor suit."

	"So you caring about her was a mistake," Chibimoon sniffed.  "And
everything she liked about you was a lie!  You... you jerk!"

	S.L.K. found a quiet rooftop and set the girl down.  He stared at
her.  "You know," he whispered, "I've been called a lot of things in
my life, but coming from you, how you just said that, really hurts.
And I don't care what people say.  I don't care what ANYONE says.  I
thought I didn't care about what you say, but I guess I do."

	"Whatever."  Terra sat down, holding her arms around her legs.  "You
big jerk," she repeated quietly.  "Usagi's dead and you can't say
anything nice about her."

	"Hah.  Just blondie?  No grieving for tuxy, brainy, tomboy, or firebrand, huh?"

	Terra winced.  Thank you, she thought sarcastically, for slicing the
wound back open, and rubbing salt and vinegar into it.

	"You're welcome," S.L.K. replied.  "Now maybe next time you'll
actually get up and DO something when your next batch of friends get
into danger."

	Sailor Chibimoon sighed and shook her head.  "And you're a mind-reader, too?"

	"Not usually.  I do dabble, though."

	Looking back towards the airport, Terra saw a large black vortex
open.  She watched an army of vaguely human-shaped figures pour out.
The blackness spread wider, and fires began across the city as the
enemy began its work.  "This is horrible."

	S.L.K. leaned against a chimney, folded his arms, and nodded.  "Yeah,
that's what they'd do, isn't it?  The heroes are all gone, so it's
time to party.  Looks like a pretty good foothold they've got there.
Still spreading, too."  He looked like he was working out some figures
in his head.  "If they stopped right now, and if I didn't worry about
collateral damage, all that'd take me a couple hours to mop up.  Oh!
Would you look at that.  They're taking human prisoners, draining
them, and leaving them as broken, empty shells.  Looks like... about a
thousand casualties in the past minute alone."

	Terra found herself speechless.  She heard the stifled screams in the
distance, along with the chattering of the approaching foes.

	"But don't worry," S.L.K. said.  "It'll all be over soon, thanks to
you.  After all, if you can't be bothered to lift a finger to save
your best buddies to stop the end of the world, I suppose you've got
something better in mind.  Please, tell me, I'd love to know your
plan."

	"I--!" Terra was struggling for words.  "Even if I have power, I
don't know how to use it!"

	"Pish posh, and all that rot," S.L.K. waved off her remark.  "If
those other kids really meant anything to you, you'd have found a way
to use your powers."

	"But I do care about them!" Terra protested.

	"Or did, rather.  They're kind of toasty right now."

	"How can you be so insensitive?!"

	"Because I have no sympathy for you.  If you were me and had been
through all I've been through, you'd have no sympathy for you either.
Why?  Because you won't do anything except feel sorry for yourself,
you little whiny baby.  Next time, if you care about anything, protect
it, like I'm protecting YOU!"  S.L.K. glanced over in the direction of
the airport.  "Oh, here come those generals again.  And they've got an
army this time.  A truckload of youma teleported in behind us--I know
you didn't see them--so we're surrounded.  Looks like we're going to
have to fight."  He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.  "I
LOVE fighting."

	Terra stood up and saw what the man was talking about.  She looked
back at the knight and said, "But I can't fight!  I don't have any
weapons."

	S.L.K. sneered at her like she was some sort of dirty, wet ferret.
"Look, if you really care about anything, you'll figure out a way to
fight to protect it.  Whatever you can get your hands on is a weapon.
If there's nothing to grab, then your whole body is your weapon.  And
when your body's broken and you can't use it anymore, then your spirit
is your weapon!  And that only gives out when you give up.  But you're
right: if you've already given up, you have no weapons."

	The girl's mind worked steadily to pick apart all of the knight's
statemement.  "You can't be right.  People die all the time, and
they've got TONS of motivation!  You can't tell me all those others
who've died in wars and stuff didn't care enough or give it their
all."

	"What other people?  I'm talking about YOU!"

	Flying like some kind of magic vampire, Jadeite approached with his
monstrous entourage.  "Ha-hah!  There you are."

	S.L.K. tilted his head at Terra and said, "Right now, you're looking
kind of upset.  Hey, no big deal, I understand.  After all, I've just
been ragging on you ever since those other kids died, and I won't
fault you if you want me dead right now.  Tell you what, I'm going to
do something really stupid and life-threatening right now.  They've
probably gone and revived their demon goddess by now, so all their
youma and generals have all kinds of new funky, gnarly powers they got
from her.  So, I'll probably get killed pretty easy if I don't have
any backup.  If you want me dead--and that's fine by me--just keep
sitting there and don't worry about it.  On the other hand, if you
want to make a difference, now's the time to start."  He gave her a
casual two-finger salute.  "Cheers."

	The man left Terra to process his words.  Yes, she was upset.  No,
she didn't want S.L.K. dead as such, even if he was being such an
uncaring brash fellow about the whole thing.  What he said about the
demon goddess looked fairly true, what with the giant horned shadow
descending out of the vortex over the airport and all.  Sailor
Chibimoon wanted to make a difference, but how?

	As S.L.K. approached Jadeite, the knight started toying with him.
"Hey, Jed!  Whassup?"  He raised his hands wide and feigned a friendly
manner.  "Remember all the fun times we had back on Mars?  Get over
here.  I've got something I want to show you."

	"Kill this buffoon," General Jadeite ordered his heavily-armored
youma entourage.  "He's not worth my time."

	"Yesss, massster!" the juggernauts hissed.

	S.L.K. looked emotionally hurt.  "Not worth your time?  After I
kicked your lousy donkey around town and back that first time?  Jeddy,
Jeddy, Jeddy, for shame!"  He took out his gun, backhanded one of the
giant youma away, and fired four shots at the general's head.

	"Forty-four magnum, steel-jacketed," Jadeite said as he caught the
bullets effortlessly with one hand, "PLAY-DOUGH!"  He threw the rounds
to the ground.

	The Star Light Knight then took out a bucket of water, labeled
"Spring of Drowned *CUTE* Girl."

	Jadeite rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, please!  Not that sorry old
trick again.  I'm immune to that now, thanks to our Great Leader."

	"You are?"  S.L.K. frowned, then shrugged and tossed it onto the
closest monster.  "Well, waste not, want not."

	"WAAAH!" the cute black-haired ten-year-old ex-youma cried, before
S.L.K. kicked her away, off the side of the building.  The remaining
youma closed in and pinned the man to the roof.

	Jadeite grabbed the knight's arm and, in a shower of shredded
electronics and metal, ripped it off.  "A machine?  Hah!  So, you
weren't reborn after all."

	Terra gasped.

	"Hey, it's hard to stay solid without the right kind of power.  I did
what I had to for survival," S.L.K. said.  "But I guess we can't count
on that now, can we?  So, here's my final gift."  The armor on his
chest cavity slid aside to reveal a device with a digital counter on
it, which was only a couple of seconds away from zero.  He took it out
and thrust it up against the general's face.  "THERMONUKE TO THE
HEAD!!!"

	The device fizzled and let out a puff of smoke.

	S.L.K. frowned.  "Oh, bugger it."

	Jadeite smirked, then took the device and looked at it.  "All of this
kind of technology stops working in the presence of our Great Leader,
including your bombs and your clockwork body, it seems."  Without
another moment's hesitation he ripped the knight's head off and threw
it aside.

	"GYAAH!" Terra shrieked as the robotic head landed in her hands.

	"The horror," S.L.K. said, his voice slowing and grinding to a halt.
"The horror...."  The artificial excuse for a cranium went dark and
cold.  Terra dropped it and started scrambling away.

	"Let's see now," said Jadeite to Terra.  "That was all of your
friends, wasn't it?  We found that feisty feline of yours and gutted
it as well.  What a shame you won't live to see it."

	Terra Incognita turned around and saw the blast the general was
generating.  It looked bigger than any of the other ones that had been
used before.  Plus, it was tinged by an evil, sparking
energy--probably that of the demon goddess mentioned by her robot
ex-protector.  The girl glanced at the black lightning raining down
from the sky, which was stricken by the vortex.  The gigantic shadow
rained beams of destruction upon the helpless city.

	Somebody had to stop this, Terra asserted to herself, but even now,
it was too late.  Tens of thousands were already dead, her friends
gone, and a demon goddess resurrected.  There was no possible way
anyone could hope to defeat even the generals, much less that huge
thing.  But, like she'd often been told, an attitude like that would
get her nowhere.

	"All right, mind," Terra forced out through clenched teeth as her
determination escalated, "find me a way to fix this, and no arguments
this time!"

	A burning blackness arose within her.  It felt like what had happened
when she'd been grabbed in a sensitive spot while taking the bus home
earlier.  Only, it was stronger this time; more coherent.

	Jadeite's blast sped towards her.

	The girl grappled with an existentialistic concept, and pulled.

	The energy burst slowed, gradually at first, and then stopped, as did
all of the general's and monsters' movements.  Time and space bent
around Terra as she tried to look around.  Her movements were very
much restrained, but it was quite obvious that she had gotten time to
stop.

	Now we're talking, thought Terra.  So, she had a power, and it was
manipulating time.  Very well, she considered, let's see how far this
new gift of mine goes.  She yanked on time with all her might.

	The energy ball began moving backwards.

	YES, Terra shouted within herself.  Let's go further!

	Engaged in an agonizing tug of war with the events that passed, the
girl dragged time along second by second.  S.L.K reassembled, talked
with her, and carried her backward to the airport.  Her friends were
restored to life, though they hung helpless in the air.

	Then Terra couldn't take it anymore.  Her mind burned.  However it
happened, whether by expending effort to send her brain patterns back
in time or by actually changing the universe around her, it expended a
lot of effort.  It was like trying to hold her breath while running a
marathon; she couldn't keep it up for any longer.

	Time slammed back to normal speed and Sailor Chibimoon fell gasping
for breath, red-faced with a sudden effort.

	"Chibimoon!" Sailor Moon cried.

	"You just got here and you've already fainted?" Zoicite observed with
no small hint of amusement.  "Don't pass out just yet.  We want you to
see this."  He pointed his hand at Sailor Moon.  "Die!"

	"NO!" Chibimoon yelled, but it wasn't a despairing yell of the
helpless this time.  She'd already witnessed her friends' deaths once.
 Never again, she vowed.  But, part of her mind protested, she still
had no weapons.

	Yet another part of her mind recalled the words of the Star Light
Knight:  "Look, if you really care about anything, you'll figure out a
way to fight to protect it.  Whatever you can get your hands on is a
weapon.  If there's nothing to grab, then your whole body is your
weapon."

	There was nothing to grab, Terra noticed, when Zoicite fired.

	"STOP!" she shouted, and grabbed hold of time with all her might.
Whatever metaphysical muscle she had for manipulating time was
extremely sore.  She couldn't reverse time.  In fact, she couldn't
even fully stop it.  The ball flew in slow motion toward its terrified
target.

	Block it! a voice in her mind commanded.  She would have nodded, but
it seemed that her body as well was affected by the slowed time.
Nevertheless, she forced herself to move.  Pebbles from the runway
tore free under her boots as she advanced.  The out-of-shape muscles
in her legs burned a little as she used them to run.

	If that energy ball took half a second to hit Sailor Moon, Terra
calculated, I will have to travel faster than a speeding corvette to
save her.

	Somehow, mystically, she caught up with the ball.  She tried to push
Usagi out of the way, but she wouldn't budge, held fast in the air by
Jadeite's magic.  Plus, little bruises instantly appeared on Sailor
Moon's skin as she touched her.

	Terra turned and faced the energy ball.  She stuck out her hands and
cupped them against it.  The energy started pouring from between her
fingers, which it started to sear.  The girl adjusted her grasp and
pushed at several locations, reforming the ball until it no longer
headed toward Usagi.

	As far as deep time swimming went, it was time for Sailor Chibimoon
to come up and take a breath.  When she did, her world erupted into a
white screaming mass of pain.  The dull ache in her legs was actually
an intense agony distributed over several fractions of a second.  The
skin under her gloves was scorched from contact with the energy blast,
and the rest of her body just ached.  She again fell to her knees,
which throbbed with such pressure they could have been hearts
themselves.

	However, Terra did see the energy ball speed away from Usagi, and
impact at several times its original velocity.  It hit Zoicite's face
and exploded quite spectacularly.

	"AAAAAAAAAAAUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Zoicite screamed, clutching at his
face, which was scorched beyond all recognition.  "IT BURNS!  IT
BURNS!!!"

	Kunzite's mouth fell open.  "Zoicite!"  He dashed over to catch the
injured general as he fell.  "But... HOW?!"

	"WHAT!?" shouted Jadeite.  He looked at the brown-haired general near
Sailor Jupiter.  "Nephrite!  Kill the others, NOW!"

	Despite the pain, Sailor Chibimoon refocused her determination.
"NO," she intoned, rising to her feet.  "I WILL PROTECT THEM THIS
TIME!"  The power within her flickered, but remained strong.  She
grasped time again and pulled it to nearly a halt.

	Nephrite had just lifted his hand to prepare another blast.

	Terra dashed towards him.  Time was even more compressed than before,
but this time her legs protested just as bad as when she had started
this latest temporal manipulation.  She had to stop that other general
from killing her friends as well.  While it was true she had no real
weapons, she would find a way.

	No, she corrected herself.  She had a weapon.  Her whole body was her weapon.

	The girl forced her legs to move faster as she sped toward her
target.  Her knees rattled and little by little her muscles snapped.
The soles of her boots left long dark marks on the runway as they
scraped away.  She drew back her right fist and thrust it toward the
general's face.

	The bones in her fist cracked and broke on the hard skull of General
Nephrite.  As she followed through with the blow, her wrist was
crushed and the innards of her arm fragmented.

	Kinetic energy, remembered Terra, equals mass times velocity squared.
 Therefore, the size or strength of her arm was exponentially less
important than how fast she threw the punch.  By her rough
calculations, it must have been somewhere just under the speed of
sound.

	She didn't see what kind of damage she did to Nephrite's skull.
Instead, she lost control of her body as gravity failed to provide her
with sufficient traction.  She flew, spinning and falling, past the
general and skidded a good long distance before stopping when she hit
a thick concrete wall, which cracked from the impact.  Whatever her
sailor suit was made of, it managed to survive the skid relatively
intact.

	Chibimoon dreaded what her body might feel like when she crashed back
to normal time, but she couldn't maintain the warp any longer.  Her
fears were well justified.  She barely had enough breath to scream,
the pain was so intense.  Both her legs were badly broken, on top of
the arm she sacrificed.

	"Sailor Chibimoon, no!" Sailor Jupiter cried when she saw what state
her new friend was in.  "I'll get you for this, you--"  Then she
stopped when she discovered that Nephrite was in far worse condition.
"Oh, YECCH!"

	"Incredible!" exclaimed Sailor Mars.

	"How timely," noted Mercury.

	The fallen general twitched and gurgled from his crushed, misshapen
head.  Green ichor poured out of his mouth.  It was a miracle--or some
sort of horrible curse--that he was still alive, for however long that
would last.

	"Nephrite!" Kunzite shouted.  He flew over to Nephrite's location
with Zoicite, glanced at Jadeite, and vanished along with his two
maimed comrades.

	"You'll pay for that," Jadeite growled at Chibimoon.

	Terra cried out in pain again when she tried to move.  "Oh, I paid
for that all right," she said weakly.  She would likely never walk
again, for one thing, and she'd need to relearn how to write with her
left hand.  That is, provided she survived.

	"Troublesome brat," Jadeite said, "now that you're done interfering.
I'll just finish you all off now."  He stuck out his hand and a long
sharp crystal sword appeared in it.  He raised it over Sailor Mars'
head.

	"No," Terra whispered.  This time, it really was the whisper of a
poor defeated soul.  She had given her all and sacrificed her
body--that rather pretty body she'd hoped to use for modeling next
week--but had only managed to remove three generals from the equation.
 One of them seemed quite capable of killing everyone by himself.
Besides, she remembered how fearsome he'd been in tearing apart the
Star Light Knight, the mighty man--er, robot--who hadn't ever even
flinched before.

	Then she remembered his words:  "And when your body's broken and you
can't use it anymore, then your spirit is your weapon!"

	How can my spirit be my weapon? she wondered.  She had no energy
attacks, no flashy moves she could prance around and call out.  What
could she do besides hold time in her metaphysical grasp?

	If only she could leave her body... or project her spirit and have it
fight.  Her power pulsed within her.

	"Mind, help me figure this one out!"

	Meanwhile, Jadeite slashed downwards at Mars's neck...

	...only to have his blade parried by another sword!

	The new weapon flared into existence, starting with the edge that
held back Jadeite's sword, and worked its way back to the hand that
held it.  Sparkles danced in the air and became the wielder's body.

	Before Jadeite stood a youngish woman that looked sort of like Terra,
dressed in ancient Roman soldier-style garb.  She wore a shining white
breastplate, armored skirt, plated boots, and a sparkling helmet with
a gem at the forehead.  She flickered every once in a while, as if her
existence wasn't quite certain.

	"I'm not done interfering yet," the shimmering female soldier said.

	"Clever, girl, very clever," Jadeite said, glancing back at the
broken redhead back up against the wall.  Terra had her eyes closed
and her remaining hand raised toward where the new soldier stood.  She
sweated and trembled, looking as if she was trying to solve a
particularly difficult problem for a life-or-death math exam.

	"I am the Sailor Knight Centurion," the white Roman-style soldier
said, drawing Jadeite's attention back to her.  "Created only to
fight, I am your opponent."  She parried the general's sword and
pushed him away from Sailor Mars.

	"And a solid spirit projection," Jadeite whispered as he and his foe
circled each other with their swords locked, seeming rather fascinated
with the idea.  "With a mind of its own, even.  It looks like we
underestimated you after all.  Those are quite difficult to make,
especially when you are that badly injured.  Let's see if your skills
are as impressive as you are incorrigible."

	He stepped to the side.  "If I move like this...."

	The Sailor Knight Centurion made a comparable motion and thrust at
him, but he parried.

	"Very good.  Do well and we may not destroy you.  You could become a
very valuable youma in the service of our Great Leader."

	"Shut up and fight," S.K.C. shot back.

	What followed was a mighty duel.  Both fighters seemed to excel in
the art of fencing.  Jadeite's style seemed rather gentlemanlike,
whereas S.K.C. relied on more antique brute-force methods used by
soldiers to just bring down the enemy.  At first, neither gained the
upper hand against the other, but the projection was quickly running
out of stamina.

	During a particularly grueling melee, their swords locked, but the
blade of S.K.C. flickered out of existence at just the wrong time and
at just the wrong place.  Jadeite's sword slid through and bit her
deeply in the chest.

	Terra cried out in pain, and S.K.C. staggered under the blow.  White
light energy bled out from the gash.  She tried to hold the wound
closed, but the leak continued.

	Jadeite shook his head.  "Tsk tsk, and I had such high hopes for
you."  In his next motion, he lopped off S.K.C.'s head.

	Chibimoon shrieked and Sailor Knight Centurion tore apart under the
wake of damaged psychic forces.

	After taking several breaths to help her recover, Terra looked up and
saw the general looming over her.  He lifted his hand and she
levitated upwards into the same frozen position her friends were in.

	"It looks like you'll have to feed Queen Metallia's resurrection,"
said Jadeite, "just like the rest of your friends.  It's been nice
dueling with you, Sailor Chibimoon, but now is when you die."

	"You people have said that before," spat Chibimoon, "but I stopped
you each time."

	The general looked her over battered form and said, "No, I really
think you're done for this time."

	What now?! Terra screamed at her mind.  It had been so helpful thus
far, maybe it had some sort of suggestion.  Maybe she could make
area-effect blast waves.  Perhaps she could rewind time again and try
some other plan.  But no, all those felt impossible.  She could hardly
use any of her limbs anymore, and the burning blackness inside of her
had nearly faded away.

	"I'll run you through with my sword," said Jadeite.  "I don't want to
burn that pretty skin of yours.  I'll hang it up on my wall as a
trophy when this is all over."  He looked closely at her face, seeming
to revel in her defiance.

	"It doesn't scare me," replied Chibimoon.

	"Oh, and that of your friends as well.  I want to remember this
moment for a long time."

	That remark sort of helped rekindle the fire inside of her.  "YOU...
JERK!!!"  Terra clenched her teeth, grabbed hold of time, crunched it
as much as her remaining strength would let her, and she launched her
head at Jadeite's face.  The resulting crack threw her right back into
normal time.

	Jadeite stood there, seemingly paralyzed with his mouth open and his
eyes wide.  Green ichor flowed down his forehead, just as red blood
flowed down Terra's.

	Sailor Chibimoon fell to the ground as the trap spell dissipated.

	The youma general staggered backwards, clutching his head.  He looked
like he was in quite a lot of pain from the strike.  It took him half
a minute to recover and refocus back on his most stubborn opponent.
"You think you're really funny, don't you?!  Well, I'll show you
funny--"

	Then Jadeite shrieked in surprise when a large spike of ice forced
its way out his chest.  He stumbled around and cried out again when he
saw the burst of flame hit him head-on.

	"AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGH!!!"  A bolt of lightning struck the man, and
finally a glowing golden disc impacted on his midsection.  The area
around him burned bright with the tsunami of powers hitting him.
Where the golden disc struck, his chest and waist flowed away as they
vaporized into ashes, followed by the rest of his body.

	"You're right," Terra coughed.  "That WAS pretty funny."

	The four Sailor Soldiers stepped forward, breathing harshly from
their ordeal.  Mars walked over and kicked Jadeite's ashes to make
sure they wouldn't react or reform.

	"An ignoble end to an ignoble man," Mars said.

	Tuxedo Kamen, held up by the Star Light Knight, limped over to where
everyone else was.

	"I'm not fishing you out of the ocean next time, Tux-boy," said the
knight.  "So you better watch yourself."

	"Why did you save me, anyway?" asked the tuxedoed man.

	"I don't know, I just got the idea I might want to have you around
later, for some stupid reason."

	Sailor Moon came up and hugged the Star Light Knight.  "Thanks for
rescuing Tuxedo Kamen.  He's a big help to Chibimoon, and she needs
the moral support."

	Tuxedo Kamen saw Terra's condition.  Agape, he asked, "Chibimoon!
What happened?!"

	"She took on everyone by herself and saved us all," said Jupiter.
She didn't speak very loud, though.  She also looked very worried
about Chibimoon's injuries.

	"I'm just glad it's over!" squeaked Sailor Moon as she knelt down
next to Sailor Chibimoon.  "Chibimoon!  Are you okay?"

	"Oh yeah," Terra lied softly.  "Fine."  Her fading vision and total
body numbness spoke otherwise.  "So, everyone... did I finally make a
difference?"

	"Of course!" said Sailor Moon.

	"You saved us all," whispered Mars.

	"You did the impossible," added Mercury.

	Sailor Moon nodded.  "You single-handedly defeated four of the Dark
Kingdom's finest warriors!"

	"Negamafoozles," Terra said derisively.  "Gotta whack 'em, you see."

	"You saved your fellow Sailor Soldiers," beamed Usagi.

	"I'm glad you finally found your powers," congratulated Jupiter.

	"For however long they lasted," Terra whispered, "yes."  I'm going to
die, she thought.  She had skull fractures, broken limbs, her spine
was probably messed up and she was likely bleeding internally.  She
couldn't feel her heart beating and her breathing was becoming
increasingly shallow.  A faint ringing began in her ears.  If she had
unfinished business, now was the time to get it out.  Not really much
of anything, except to notify her family.

	Chibimoon coughed up a little bit of blood.  "Usagi... Everyone, it's
getting dark.  Tell my mom what happened.  She'll understand."

	Sailor Moon frowned.  "What do you mean?"

	"She's dying, nitwit!" Mars said.

	"She can't be dying!" retorted Moon.  "Right, Chibimoon?  You can't
be dying!  You're my best friend!"

	"You're my best friend too, Usagi," Terra whispered.  "It's been nice
knowing you.  And thanks for putting up with me."

	"Chibimoon!" protested Usagi.

	"Please, call me Terra."

	Terra didn't hear what the others were saying since her hearing faded
out as well.  But just before her vision was gone, they seemed to be
shouting, shaking her, and moving about frantically.  Just before
everything went black, she thought she could picture each of them as
children--long-time friends, in a life long ago.

	I would have liked to know them longer, she reflected.  But dying a
heroine and surrounded by friends didn't seem so bad after all.

---

	Any regrets?

	No.

	Would you have liked to live longer?

	Yes.  Oh, yes.

	The girl's vision came back to her.  She found herself walking in a
sort of temple with many white marble pillars.  She wore a white dress
with gold trim.

	There was a bright white light ahead of her.  She strode forward.  Is
this what they talked about?  A tunnel and a bright light?

	In the light stood a tall woman.  She had platinum blonde hair in a
style like Usagi's and wore a long white strapless wedding gown.

	"You did a very brave thing," she said.  "Against all the odds, you
saved them all."

	"No, no," Terra said.  "I failed, but I got another chance."

	"Even so, you did it that second time."

	Terra looked down.  "I guess so."

	"Do you know who I am?" the woman asked.

	The girl looked up at her.  There really was something familiar about
her.  Then little veils over her memory were ripped aside and she
caught an important glimpse into her past.

	"You were my mother," Terra said, "in a life long forgotten.  It's
good to see you again."

	The woman pulled her into a warm embrace.  "Rest," she said.  "For
now, your work is over.  Sleep, in the peace that I can bring you."

	Terra looked up at her and smiled.  Here, everything was so warm and
peaceful.  After all that she'd been through, it would be very nice to
have a break.

---End of Chapter 6

And now it's time for... MIND YOUR MANNERS!!! with Sailor Nuke!

(Scene of the Senshi getting killed.)

Sailor Nuke:  Sometimes, you have to deal with other people who have firepower.

(Scene of Terra breaking her arm on Nephrite's face.)

Sailor Nuke:  That just means you have get your own firepower sent
right back at them!

(Scene of Terra manipulating time to reflect Zoicite's blast back at his face.)

Sailor Nuke:  Brute force ALWAYS works best.  Sailor Nuke sez.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAA!!!

Sailor Kawaii(off reading a cute magazine):  Hmm?  Oh, right.  And if
you have to use firepower, do your best to look cute while doing it.
Sailor Kawaii says!  Tee-hee!



...still here, after all that?

Thanks for reading! ^_~

-- 
Benjamin A Oliver
benjamin.a.oliver at gmail.com

Technical Writer / Translator
M3 Engineering & Technology

Master of Science in Management Information Systems
Eller College of Management
University of Arizona

Writings: Fan Fiction
http://boliver.florestica.com/

Webcomic: Nuke 'Em 'Till They Glow!! The Early Years
http://nettg.com