[FFML] [FanFic][SM][NETTG] Terra in Tokyo Ch. 23 (of 27) "The Queen is BACK, Baby! So Let's Go Save The World! ...Or not?"

[Benjamin A. Oliver]

Should I post this now or wait?  I shall post this now!

What has gone before:  Terra Incognita, resident Black Hole Mary Sue
of this fanfic, became a hero, saving the Sailor Senshi multiple
times, and it turns out she was an adopted Princess of the Moon
Kingdom and the greatest Sailor Moon there ever was.   Tuxedo Kamen /
Prince Endymion even kinda sorta fell for her.  She was able to
control her hairstyle through shapeshifting and was about to come home
triumphant.  But... oh yeah, she also turned out to be a mass
murderer, having killed all of the Sailor Senshi in cold blood,
brutally, in her past life.  And... then Sailor Pluto tried to punish
her for it and sent her into the cold soul-destroying depths of
eternity.  But, oops, turns out Terra is actually the GALACTIC
DESTROYER, a NINE BILLION year old ELDRITCH ABOMINATION with UNLIMITED
POWER, bent on DESTROYING EVERYTHING IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE,
FOREVER--MWAAHAHAHAAHAAA!!!

...where was I?  Oh, anyway, Terra accidentally turned a
brutally-injured Sailor Pluto into her loving, subservient youma slave
and she's on her way home now to face her mother.

What else?  Oh, the rest of the Sailor team (and Zoidberg--er, Tuxedo
Kamen) are off in the Dark Kingdom trying to rescue Princess Serenity
and Sailor Venus from the clutches of Bruce, the EVIL WHITE ARBYFISH.

Did I miss anything?  No?  Okay, let's go blow some more stuff up!!

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. The shamanistic magical
scrolls are the express property of Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune and her
descendants and I defy anyone to tell her differently.  ArbyFish
belong to Daniel Oliver and are used with permission.  Gotta have
ArbyFish. Wouldn't be proper if we didn't.

Warning: This chapter may contain ArbyFish.  And poodles.  Okay, maybe
not poodles, but still.  Watch out for them poodles.  Rawr!


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

---Chapter 23:  The Queen is BACK, Baby!  So Let's Go Save The World!
...Or not?

	The drive home helped Terra to collect her thoughts.  She dared not
say anything, lest Setsuna interpret it as a command and inadvertently
crash the car, and after the debacle with the nefarious entity named
the Galactic Destroyer, Terra didn't really feel much like talking
anyway.  Setsuna had insisted that she sit up beside her in the front
seat, and the Star Light Knight sprawled across the two back seats.

	Setsuna smiled at her and switched the radio to the girl's second
favorite music.  "Enya is probably best for your mind right now,"
beamed the driver.  "You aren't in the mood for Finnish death metal at
the moment.  Am I correct?"

	"Um," said Terra uneasily, "thanks.  Yeah, you're right."  She still
felt rotten about what happened to Setsuna, who had accidentally been
enslaved by a magical pattern that the girl had thought was a healing
spell.  It didn't matter that moments before, the woman had done
everything in her power to try to kill her.  Brainwashing someone and
removing her free will felt really wrong.  Terra felt evil enough with
just the freakish entity she had sealed away inside herself... who
actually WAS herself, or something.  She could still feel it probing
her mind periodically for weaknesses and looking for a way out;
looking for some way to convince her that killing everyone and
everything was in some way an agreeable thing to do.  She was getting
tired of smacking herself in the head to stop those errant thoughts.

	When they arrived, Setsuna quickly got out and opened the door for
her.  Terra thanked her quietly and went to the door, where her mother
anxiously awaited her.

	"Hello!" greeted Kasumi brightly.  "You're looking much better.  You
look nice in black.  And such cute bows!  Your skin looks perfect and
all of the green looks like it's--"  The girl slipped into her
mother's arms and instantly started crying.  "--gone?"  The woman's
expression became concerned.  "What happened?  Did you pass
Meiou-sensei's test?"

	"It went badly," Terra replied in a cracking voice with her face
buried in Kasumi's shoulder.  "There was no test."  She thought about
telling her about what had happened and how she was really this crazy
galaxy-destroying monster from the beginning of the universe, but she
could not find the words.  "Mom, I want to go take a nap by myself--is
that okay?"

	Kasumi released her.  "Of course, dear."

	"Here," Terra said to her two companions, pointing at her mother,
"could you explain to her what happened?"  Her frazzled mind looked
for more vocabulary but found none.  "I'm... yeah.  Something.  Stuff.
 And things."

	Not stopping to wait and see what happened, the girl hurried inside,
went upstairs, yanked off her jagged Sailor Galactic Destroyer
transformation device, found some pajamas, and sought solace in her
big fluffy pillow.

...

	Kasumi, while initially relieved at her daughter's apparent full
recovery, worried about the girl's new distant, distraught attitude.
Setsuna and the Star Light Knight explained what happened.  After
that, the woman herself needed some time to clarify her thoughts.
This was a delicate situation indeed, if it had come to this.

	She had gone back upstairs and prepared to knock on her daughter's
door, but paused to consider what happened to Setsuna.  Terra had
somehow altered her mind, but, if anything, she was back to her old
self as long as Terra wasn't part of the conversation.  The time
guardian's desire for justice had obviously gone too far, and her
other dark thoughts including frustration at herself had poisoned her
mind for over a thousand years.  Without them as her focus--her
obsession--she was actually a very pleasant person to be around.  She
retained her intelligence in other matters; she was just as articulate
and thoughtful as she remembered.

	If anything, Kasumi thought cynically, being turned into a youma
slave was the best thing that had happened to the poor tortured soul
in a long time.

	She asked Setsuna to make a fairly complicated tea blend, and cookies
to accompany it.  Mentioning that they were for Terra, any potential
objections ceased.  Kasumi wanted some uninterrupted time with her
daughter.  Besides, she recalled that, on one special occasion--just
once--the Keeper of Eternity had made the best baked goods in all of
known history.

	Meanwhile, Thomas, the Star Light Knight, did not seem to have
anything to add since Setsuna had been so thorough.  The tall armored
man soon found himself alone in the living room watching TV, leaning
back in a flimsy chair with his big, clompy combat boots propped up
against the coffee table.  "Ha-ha, I love this part!" he exclaimed at
the antics of Dark Schneider and Tia Noto Yoko.  "KABOOM!"

	It was nice to see, though time had passed, some things would never
change.  After a while, Kasumi mustered the courage to speak and
knocked on Terra's door.  "Terra dear?"

	"Yo!" the girl replied sloppily.  There were a few heavy footsteps as
she staggered over and popped the door open.  She appeared to be in
perfect health.  Her eyes showed no sign of fatigue and her hair
hadn't gotten messy despite the fact she'd spent a while in bed.
Nevertheless, she had a certain weariness about her, like life had
lost all its meaning in the past little while and she was just going
through the motions because it seemed like the thing to do at the
time.

	Kasumi put a hand to her cheek and thought about how to approach the
conversation.  "How are you feeling?  Are you feeling all right?"

	Terra shook her head.  "No, not really."  She looked down.  "Say, how
many nice, brave, honorable Sailor Soldiers have you ever killed in
your lifetime?  Apparently, I've killed them all at least once."

	So, thought Kasumi, it was going to be THAT kind of talk tonight.
"Oh my," she said.  "Let's sit down to discuss this."

	"Oh my indeed!"  Terra slumped against the doorframe momentarily
before the woman led her back to the bed and sat her down, then joined
her.

	"Let me start by saying," Kasumi said, "you did not kill Sailor
Pluto, as such.  She will be all right, for now."

	"If you can call that all right," Terra said, looking at her lap.

	"She may yet make a full recovery, given time."

	"Hmph.  Mom, can you tell me something?"

	Kasumi nodded.  "What?"

	"Am I evil?"

	"N-no," Kasumi replied instantly.  "You're not evil."  She forced an
upward curve in her lips, but even her famous smile couldn't look
totally happy in the face of real honesty.  "What would make you think
that?"

	"You know what I did, right?"

	Kasumi nodded slowly.  "Yes."  Of course she did.  She knew more than
the girl probably imagined.  "I know."

	The girl examined her fingers.  Blackness pulsed beneath her skin
before fading back to normal again.  "So how can I NOT be evil?"

	"I think," Kasumi said carefully, "you're just a little misunderstood."

	"Misunderstood?  Mom, I'm a MONSTER!  I killed all those people and I
can't even bring myself to remember completely.  I turned Meiou into
some kind of demon robot or something!"

	"Look," the woman cast her eyes downward and sighed, "I don't know,
dear.  Setsuna was--or is--the wisest person I've ever known, and she
was--IS--a very good old friend."  She looked into Terra's eyes.  "But
she has the tendency to polarize her views too sharply, and that makes
her prone to errors in judgement sometimes.  A little too clever for
her own good--so sharp she would often cut herself.  A lot like me at
times."

	"I nearly killed her with my own powers!"

	"From what I understand, you stopped your powers from destroying her
entirely.  Besides, it was mostly self-defense."

	"She's a freaking ZOMBIE SLAVE because of me!"

	"You're a better person than you know," Kasumi insisted, and this
time gave a real smile.  "Have you forgotten the other things you've
done as well?"

	"Doesn't change anything."  Terra ran a hand through her hair.  "I
still don't feel any better about it.  Good things don't erase bad
things."

	Kasumi breathed a small sigh of relief.  "Good.  I'd be worried if
you did start feeling better about it.  It shows you still have proper
morals."

	"Mom," Terra hissed, "there's some awful beast inside me, and it's
all I can do to keep it from breaking out!  Every time I close my
eyes, there it is, staring right back at me.  What's worse is I AM
that beast, apparently, on some level, and that feels really nasty!
What's more, it was this THING that killed my friends in a past life,
and it looks like it was my fault after all!  I'm no heroine; I'm a
demon!"

	"You are and can still be a hero," Kasumi retorted.  "How many times
have you saved your friends?  And you've stopped the Dark Kingdom from
taking over the world at least three times now.  And now, you have
access to some great power that maybe," she fought to find something
inspiring to say, "maybe you could use to save your friends again!"

	"Why should I?!" Terra shouted angrily.  "I'm feeling very confused
and scared right now.  I mean, look at the things I've found out about
reality.  No, no, look."  She started counting things off on her
fingers.  "Tin foil is really made of ALUMINIUM!  The Anglican church
was founded just so King Henry the Eighth could divorce his wife!  I'm
really a reincarnated murderer and destroyer of worlds!  Everything I
knew is a complete and total LIE!  WAAAAH!!!"

	Kasumi hugged the crying girl and hushed her.  "Look, I understand
what you're going through," she soothed.

	"No you don't!" wept Terra.  "No one can!  No human, at least.  No
one on THIS planet, surely!"

	"What's to understand?  You've discovered a terrible secret and are
trying to figure out who you really are."

	"Hah!  More like WHAT I really am!"

	"Terra, you're not the only one who's had to face a past life you're
not that happy with."

	"Oh, right, there's my so-called 'FRIENDS,' who couldn't help but try
to kill me the instant they found out who and what I was!"

	"They were in shock.  In just a few minutes, they remembered a
lifetime.  They didn't know how to deal with it all."

	"We worked together for months!  I admit, I could have been a better
Sailor Soldier, but I still had my moments.  They wouldn't listen to
me, they wouldn't show mercy.  And neither would you if you knew the
truth!"

	"I DO know the truth."

	"Oh yeah?!  Spill it for me!"

	The tall woman smiled, deciding that now was the time to tell her,
but she needed to ease her into it.  "Terra," she whispered into her
ear, "I want you to listen to me.  But first, do you know who I named
you after?"

	"You named me Terra Incognita because 'Here There Be Dragons' was too
long to fit on the birth certificate?" the girl snarked.

	"No," Kasumi almost laughed, "I named you after a hero.  A real hero
of the likes I had never before seen."

	Terra looked at her.  "A hero?  This is new.  You never told me about
that.  Who?"

	"You see," Kasumi continued, "there was this brave young woman I met,
a long time ago.  She came from a far away land, scared and confused,
and she arrived when I and the people I cared about were in grave
danger.  I at first thought she was someone else.  I tried to keep her
from hurting people, but the second she found out who I thought she
was, she forgot her own troubles and started helping me instead."

	"What did she do?"

	"The impossible.  Every challenge that I thought madness to even
stand directly against, she fought through.  She turned certain death
into a fighting chance to live.  She never gave up."  Kasumi held her
daughter close.  "I saw what she did, and I thought about it for a
long time.  I thought, 'Now, that's the kind of person I want to be
like.  That's the kind of person I want my children to become.'"

	"Who--?"  Terra's mouth started to hang open a little.  "What was her name?"

	"Can't you guess?" Kasumi asked.  She stroked the girl's coarse hair.
 "Terra Incognita, Hero of the Final Great Silver Millennium War.  The
greatest Sailor Moon there ever was."

	"Mom...."  Her daughter froze before pulling back and looking into
her eyes.  "How did you know about that?  When I talked to you about
what happened, I never told you the name of the Silver Millennium--"

	"--Alliance," Kasumi finished her statement.  "When I died, Terra was
Queen for less than an hour, and saved over twenty million people,
reborn and otherwise, including all of her friends' lives.  Including
mine."  Tears formed in her eyes.  "Do you have any guesses yet?"

	"Mom--?!"  Terra's eyes went wide and she stood up.  "You're--?!"

	Kasumi nodded, parted her bangs and pointed at the platinum roots of
her dyed-brown hair, and for a moment held it up in a pair of
ponytails to complete the vision.  "When I lived in the Moon Kingdom,
you knew me as Queen Serenity.  It's time for me to drop the act."
She wiped away the carefully-crafted age lines by her eyes and at the
edges of her cheeks, leaving clear unblemished skin.  "Your father
always said I looked better without makeup on anyway."

	Terra froze, and her eyes went wide when the realization of this new
reality settled in.  "Oh my!!"

	Kasumi Incognita, formerly known as Queen Serenity of the Moon
Kingdom and leader of the Silver Millennium Alliance, nodded
emphatically.  "Is it good to see me again?  It is for me to see you,
every day, my daughter, the hero."

	Terra looked like she was about to faint from this revelation.  That,
or get a huge migraine headache.  "Whoa," she whispered, holding her
head with her eyes wide.

---

	The faint, dying white dwarf star that served as the Dark Kingdom's
poor excuse for a sun rose above the horizon.  It was the only point
of light in a vast, black sky.  The patches of fetid green energy that
some of the most wretched youma used for nocturnal illumination
flickered out when morning broke.

	Partly disguised by the ambient light, a rip in the fabric of
space-time opened a few feet above the ground.  Unlike many vortexes
of its kind, it did not swirl.  Rather, it flowed and spit out person
after person.  First came Tuxedo Kamen, then Sailors Mars, Mercury,
and Jupiter.  Next followed Luna and Artemis, and finally Arby the
ArbyFish.

	Theirs had not been a difficult journey, nor a hard landing.  They
stepped lightly onto leeched grey Dark Kingdom soil, crunching as they
went.  Sailor Mercury led the way, scanning the terrain with her
souped-up Radio Shack laptop and viewing the results on her visor's
heads-up display.

	"We're here," Mercury announced after a while.  "This is definitely
the Dark Kingdom, and I've found Usagi's and Minako's trail."

	"That fast, huh?" Jupiter asked.

	Mercury nodded.  "That fast."  She typed seemingly random characters
into her computer.  "And they're both alive and well, about five miles
in that direction."  She pointed toward the tall ominous black castle
in the distance.

	Luna breathed a tension-relieving sigh.  "Good, then we still have a
chance to rescue them."

	Artemis shook his head.  "I just wish we didn't have to go way out
into the middle of youma territory to do this."

	While most of the others seemed uncertain about the situation they'd
thrown themselves into, Sailor Mars was the very image of firm
resolve.  "I say," she intoned, "it's about time we took the fight to
them!"  Across her back was slung a large knapsack filled with dozens
of scrolls with arcane lettering on them.

	"Hey Mars," Jupiter said, "when we all rushed off to get stuff to
help us win this, why did you run down to the shrine basement to pick
up a bunch of moldy old pieces of paper?"

	"Ahh, that is a secret."

	"And why's it say 'forbidden' in big red letters all over 'em?"

	"There is a saying," Rei replied quickly.  "With great power comes
great responsibility, and to think otherwise is a slippery slope away
from humility and towards potential darkness.  If I had a decade to
improve my abilities as a Sailor Soldier, I would do it, but we don't
have a decade.  We have maybe an hour or two.  I'm afraid, to defeat
the Dark Kingdom and rescue my grandpa in the time we've got left,
I'll have to take the slippery slope."

	"Those scrolls are a slippery slope?" inquired Jupiter.

	Mars nodded emphatically.

	"I don't get it."

	"Oh, you'll see."

	Arby remained curiously silent, grinning at some unfathomable inner
joke as he hopped behind them, carrying his mallet.  Tuxedo Kamen
wordlessly scouted the way ahead of them, directing them away from
youma patrols and other scattered creatures of darkness.  He seemed
deep in thought, looking back and forth at the Sailors beside him, and
ahead towards where they would likely find Usagi and Minako.  They
reached a large boneyard, where he motioned them to a halt.

	Skeletons in busted armor and other disintegrating attire lay strewn
across the field, pierced by ancient spears, arrows, and javelins.

	"What's this?" Luna asked as she hopped up to see the land full of
old remains.  "Oh dear."

	"They've been here for thousands of years," noted Ami, who had just
completed a scan.  "They were human."

	"Humans in the Dark Kingdom?" wondered Jupiter.

	Artemis nodded.  "Yes.  Before the fall of the Silver Millennium
Alliance, Princess Terra went berserk and started killing a everything
in her path, including, I might add, all of the Sailor Soldiers."

	Jupiter rolled her eyes.

	"We remember," said Mars.  "We were there."

	"Oh!  Right, sorry.  Anyway, Queen Serenity came as quickly as she
could and finally managed to subdue her.  If I remember right, most of
the elder Sailor Soldiers and the army that was gathered with them
were killed in some transdimensional explosion that Terra made."

	"It was pretty bad," agreed Jupiter.  "Gone, just like that."

	The white cat padded over to a broken breastplate and brushed aside
some dust, revealing a crescent moon etched into the metal.  "See?
The insignia of the Moon Kingdom.  This is part of the army old
Terrifying killed."

	"Yuck," blanched Jupiter succinctly.  "To think, our Terra was once like that."

	Luna shook her head.  "Really, I can't picture her as evil.  It just
isn't like her.  I still think you misjudged her."

	"Maybe," admitted Jupiter.  "But these memories I've got of her are
really tough to ignore."  The other girls nodded their agreement with
the assessment.

	"You should have waited until your heads stopped spinning from
remembering it all," muttered Tuxedo Kamen.  "Now not only have we
lost Terra, we might also lose Usagi as well."

	"Not to mention Sailor Venus," added Artemis.

	"We won't lose them," insisted Mars.  "We will find them and protect
them."  She stared at the bones before forcing herself to look away.
"First, though, let us take a moment to pay our respects to our fallen
friends of ancient times.  Let us not forget their struggles and what
they--ARBY!!"

	Arby picked up a skull in one flipper and started playing with it
like a sock puppet, then grabbed another and held a conversation
between them.

	"Ow ya doin' Murray?" he said with one.

	"Ow ya doin' George?" he responded with the other.

	"Lovely day for a picnic, wouldn't yew agree?"

	"Oh yes, quoite indeed!"

	The creature, seemingly for the first time, noticed the others
staring at him.  "Wot?" he asked innocently.

	"That's kind of," Ami whispered, "morose."

	"And disrespectful!" Rei hissed.

	"No, no.  It's Theater!"  Arby held up one skull high.  "Alas poor
Yorick and such.  Oye knew 'im, her ratio between the badgers... and
the toothpicks!"

	Ami stared for a moment longer, then waved him off and said, "Err,
just forget it.  Let's move on."

	Arby smiled at them and hopped towards them as they continued their
path.  "'Ere, wouldja care for some more bidity?"

	"No," said the left skull, "we've 'ad quoite enough bidity as it iz."

	"'Ave we now?" Arby asked.

	"Quoite!" said the right skull.

	Arby shrugged and tossed the skulls over his shoulder before moving
on.  "Roight!"

	The two craniums crashed loudly into the bone piles behind them,
spraying the dusted remains of the army every which way.  With all the
flying debris, no one saw the first skeletal hand twitch and flex.

	"Way to go, Arby," muttered Sailor Jupiter.  "There went our surprise attack."

	"I'm... certain no one was alerted by that," Luna said uncertainly.

	"Are you kidding?" said Mars.  "That was loud enough to wake the dead!"

	Mercury shrugged.  "I suppose we shall have to get used to it.  At
least we've got our own deranged ArbyFish with us to counterract
anything Bruce might try on us."

	Completely unrelated to what had been set in motion behind them, the
group came upon a perfectly innocent-looking cardboard box, propped up
with a medium-sized twig with a bit of string attached to it.  There
was a plate of something vaguely edible underneath.

	Ami scanned it with her computer.  "It's a trap."

	Jupiter raised an eyebrow.  "And a really lame one, at that."

	"Yeah."  Artemis walked around it.  "What kind of psycho would fall
for--ARBY!!"

	The ArbyFish had gone underneath the box, speaking with some
admiration, "'Aven't seen one a' these in YEARS!  Roight proppa'
craftsmanship, tew."

	"Arby, it's a BOX held up by a STICK!" Luna protested.

	"A'course!  Wouldn't be a proppa' piece a' architecture otha'woise."

	"Get out from under there!" urged Artemis.

	"No, no, look!  There's CHEESE in 'ere!"

	"It's a trap," repeated Ami.

	Arby looked around the insides of the box.  "Oh.  So it is.  Roight!"
 He purposefully flicked away the stick that had been holding it up.
Predictably, the box fell down on top of him.  Unpredictably, a
metal-mesh sack popped up from the ground surrounding it, closed fast
with a chain drawstring, and dragged the encased creature at high
speed away into the distance.

	Everyone slapped their foreheads in disbelief.

	Makoto's shoulders slumped.  "So, there went our fish defense."

	No more time remained to think on the subject, as a chorus of low,
ethereal moans drew their attention from behind.  They suddenly beheld
a platoon of ghostly soldiers.  Their armor and other attire, though
badly tattered, was solid, as were their bones.  In place of their
flesh was a gauze-like semitransparent aura that gave the impression
of various layers of skin, muscle, and sinew.

	The moans had a pattern to them, and included phrases in the ancient
Lunar tongue such as, "Slain in duty, no one left to mourn," "Our
graves defiled," "The dead seek your company," and, "Join us,
Soldiers."

	One by one, the living heard their names called.  "Mars... Jupiter...
Mercury... Luna... Artemis... Endymion...."

	Leading the detachment were four figures that probably had been
female in life, thought it was tough to tell at that stage of
decomposition.  They wore the remnants of what looked like Sailor
Soldier outfits.  The leader, who still had a few strands of blonde
hair left, raised a skeletal hand and beckoned them to come closer.

	"Join us," the decrepit soul urged menacingly through its permanent
grin.  "Let us drain the life from you as was done to us!!"

	Tuxedo Kamen glanced at the others as he readied his cane.  Everyone
else seemed to be steeling for a showdown as well.  "It's never easy,"
he breathed.

---

	Sailors Moon and Venus had hidden for the remainder of the night in
one of the many jagged basaltic outcroppings that constituted the
terrain several miles away from Queen Beryl's dark palace.  Usagi felt
grateful that they'd managed to get away from their enemies for a
little while.  However effective Sailor Venus had been in protecting
her, whatever she did totally sapped her powers dry.  Minako had been
out cold for hours since they finished escaping the castle.

	Usagi had to admit, she felt pretty tired too, not to mention hungry.
 She'd kept watch over her friend as best she could, without hardly
dozing off very much at all, or so she thought.

	Finally, sleeping beauty awoke.  She squinted in the near-darkness
and sat up, holding her head.  "The others haven't gotten here yet?"
she asked almost instantly.

	Usagi shook her head and looked down at her broken Sailor
Communicator.  "No, and I don't know how they'll find us."  She
brightened.  "But at least we got away from Bruce and his cronies."

	Right then, they heard a slow, sarcastic clap that sounded like it
was made by a very small pair of furry seal flippers.  "Bravo!" Bruce
cheered malevolently.  "Bravo on your escape.  Certainly, you must
have become the most powerful Sailor Soldier in the universe, Sailor
Venus.  Surpassing Super Soldier and ascending to Eternal Soldier in
such a short period of time is no mean feat."

	Minako grimaced.  "He followed us!"

	"I never lost sight of you," Bruce noted while motioning for his
sizable youma entourage to move closer.  "It was so amusing to watch
you run in terror and writhe in discomfort in this rocky alcove."  He
drew his switchblades and began to hover in a three-meter-radius
circle about them.  "But now, it's time for an agony of a little more
substantial nature."  He snapped his right flipper.

	A simple birdcage--albeit with a glowing organic piece of electronics
fused to the side--rose from the ground.  Inside, perched upside down
like a bat from a bird swing, was Arby.  Upon seeing the two girls, he
fluttered over and clung to the wire wall.  "Oh, g'day!" he said
promptly.

	Usagi glared.  "You little freak!  Haven't you put us through enough already?!"

	"Oye moight 'ave," Arby said secretively, "but wot if Oye hasn't?"

	Usagi raised a hand and noted, "Uh, hey, I was talking to Bruce."

	Bruce grinned at her.  "Had enough, moon child?  Did you really enjoy
that sweet little ironic torture chamber that much?  I designed it
myself.  Unlike ordinary mechanisms of that nature, it doesn't put you
through anything too surreal.  There's a point where the human mind
ceases to process guilt and pain--really, everything shuts down when
you're finally driven mad.  No, what it puts you through is a real
torment.  You're fully aware of yourself and capable of feeling
remourse.  Tell me, do you still blame your best friend Terra for
killing all of you in a past life?"

	Usagi recoiled as if slapped.  "I-I wasn't thinking straight!"

	"Oh no," Bruce mocked.  "You were quite in control of yourself.
Honestly, blaming and trying to kill such a sweet innocent little girl
like her?  She was your best friend practically since she came to
Japan!  And you call ME a freak."

	"Stop it," Venus demanded.

	Bruce swooped over to the cage that held Arby.  "I may delight in the
suffering of others, but I dare say some of you have it worse.  At
least I take a personal interest.  You take a dear comarade, call her
a monster, and then judge her according to some stupid law that was
made by some silly person ages ago."

	"You're speaking nonsense," Minako shot back.  "And you don't know
what you're talking about.  A creature such as you can't possibly know
the depths, horrors, and passions of human nature!"

	Straight-faced, the White ArbyFish laughed at them once.  "Oh no?
Let me tell you something."  He paused.  "No, let me ask you
something.  Have you ever wondered why I've gone after you so
fiercely?  Tell me your reasoning."  Bruce folded his flippers and
tapped his tail patiently while they came up with an answer.

	Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus looked around for an easy escape route,
but they were blocked off on all sides.  They looked at each other,
and finally Usagi answered, "Umm, because you're an evil amoral mutant
thingamawhatsit with a nasty attitude and a taste for blood?"

	Bruce considered the answer.  "Mmmmm... half-right.  But, no."  He
kicked the cage maliciously.  "The truth is, I'm here on a mission to
avenge a wrongful death."

	The girls stared at him.

	Bruce stuck a flipper out towards Arby.  "THIS 'FISH IS A GENOCIDE!!!"

	Arby waved proudly, but Usagi and Minako continued to stare.

	The White ArbyFish started to pace around while explaining further.
"Arby, the progenitor of the ArbyFish species, reigns as a tyrant over
all the races of my people--all the colors of the ArbyFish, save one."
 He reached back and pulled a thin chain from underneath his cape.
Dangling from it was a small golden locket shaped like a heart.  He
clicked it open, looked at the images therein, and sighed in sad
frustration.

	"Look at her."  Bruce shoved the locket at Arby's face.  "LOOK AT HER!!!"

	Arby steadfastly avoided looking at what his captor wanted him to
see.  "Nope!  There shall be no locket-viewings whoile under house
arrest.  It's a Tradition!"

	"Bah," Bruce spat, and tossed the locked aside.

	Usagi picked it up from where it landed and looked inside.  There was
a picture of Bruce, looking at least a little happy, and on the
opposite side there was a rather cute ArbyFish--if those things could
ever be called cute--with pink fur and a ribbon.  Something clicked in
the girl's mind.  "Arby killed your one true love?"

	"Bingo!  Give that girl a prize."  Bruce bitterly tossed her a large
knitted sweater.  "He ordered the wholesale annihilation of the Pink
race.  The so-called 'ethno-genetic cleansing' swept swiftly across
the galaxy, slaying them all for no other reason than they were the
wrong color."  He sneered at them.  "And among them was my cherished
Ribbons."

	"Eew."  Arby recoiled slightly.  "A Pink-sympathoizer!"

	"I LOVED HER!!!" Bruce shouted at him.

	"We can't very well have THAT," Arby said.  "Goin' round lovin' PINK
ArbyFish.  The tenants of society would go bankrupt and foreclose on
their mortgages!  Then who'd pay back the lending 'shrooms, eh?"

	"In any case," Bruce brought the conversation back to a focus, "I
must have my revenge."

	Usagi frowned.  "You're going to kill Arby?"

	"If only it were that simple!  No, he must suffer first, and I shall
accomplish this by taking away everything he holds dear, starting...
WITH YOU!!"  He pointed at Usagi.

	Usagi took a step back, looked around, and pointed at herself.  "Me?"
she said in a small voice.  "But... I'm not anyone important to Arby."
 She looked frantically at the Green 'Fish.  "Arby!  Tell him I mean
nothing to you!  Fast!"

	"No, no," Arby said with a grin, "Oye loikes yew.  Yew's me Friend!"

	As Bruce advanced toward her, Usagi scrambled back and cried, "No!
Really!  He hates me!  And I, er, hate mushrooms too!"

	"We's gonna get MARRIED, we is!"

	"ARBY!!!"

	"Your death shall be slow," Bruce seethed, "so as to set an example
to the rest!  DIE!!!"

	The creature lunged at a major nerve bundle at Usagi's neck, but
Minako let out a great yell, activated her Super transformation, then
drew her own blades and parried each of the strikes that followed.

	"This fight is between you and me!" Super Sailor Venus hollered.
"You will not harm the Princess!"

	Bruce didn't seem at all concerned.  "Oh, I think I will."

	"I will protect her with my last breath!"  A golden aura sprang up
around the young woman.  "I will avenge my friends' death--the pain
and death that YOU caused!"  Her blades glistened in sync with her
words.  "On behalf of the planet Venus, love, beauty, justice, and
supermodels everywhere... I WILL SET THE PRISONERS FREE!!!"

	Even as his own weapons skidded and crackled against Venus's swords,
Bruce continued to look amused.  "Ohohoho, what is this?  Another one
of your girlfriends, Arby?"

	"Nope," Arby said with a shake of his head.  "Doesn't mean a thing to me."

	"Hah," laughed the girl, "no, I am his greatest treasure.  Fight ME first."

	"Really now?"  Bruce chuckled.  "No, you've got an overblown sense of
vengeance.  It'll get you into trouble someday."

	"Look who's talking."

	The chuckle became a snicker.  "Let me tell you something, child.
The hour I tortured and killed you and your English friends may have
been the most horrific moments in your life and a the greatest change
in yourself and your sense of purpose, but to me... IT WAS MERELY
LUNCHTIME!!!"

	With fangs bared and vorpal daggers flashing, the White ArbyFish
pressed his assault on the girl.  Usagi could only watch in awe as
sparks and tiny pieces of crystal flashed in long swatches as their
weapons collided.  Occasionally, a tuft of white fur or a strand of
yellow- and orange-blond hair would go flying from some poorly-timed
dodge.  This was no gentlemanly exchange of blows where one might
stand back at some point and ask the other to yield.  On the contrary,
it was a no-questions-asked, no-holds-barred duel to the death where
dirty tricks and severed limbs were very likely possibilities.

	Amused, Arby started munching on a bag of pop-shrooms.  Seeing the
dumbfounded Usagi next to him, he offered her some, which she
wordlessly grabbed handfuls of and started stuffing into her mouth
while watching the fight unfold.

---

	Queen Beryl watched the events from the glass scrying sphere atop her
staff.  She boggled at every insane escalation of power the Sailor
Soldiers went through.  "Aye yai yai!!  General Nephrite!"

	The last of the Dark Kingdom's four greatest warriors appeared and
knelt before Beryl's jagged throne.  "Yes, my queen!"

	"Have you SEEN this??!"

	Nephrite nodded grimly.  "I have seen it in the stars, but I never
before dared dream such a thing possible.  One of those Sailor brats
is matching an ArbyFish blow for blow!"

	"What?  Someone's fighting Bruce?!"  Beryl paused and switched her
scrying over to where Bruce and Sailor Venus fought.  "Wonderful!
Spectacular!  Finally we shall be rid of that scallywag!"

	"But if she can defeat Bruce, she must possess a truly awesome power--"

	"Which she shall have to expend to win.  Let them fight it out and we
will be there to finish off the last one standing!"

	Momentarily stunned by Beryl's impeccable grasp of the situation,
Nephrite's worried expression faded to one of pleasure.  "Excellent
plan, m'lady."  He paused.  "But why were you surprised when I first
entered?"

	Beryl waved her hand over the glassy sphere and there appeared the
image of a field filled with a legion of undead warriors.  "What you
see here takes place not very far from our fortress."

	"What is it?"

	"Three Sailor Soldiers have awakened all of the denizens of the
accursed cemetery."

	"Isn't that good news?" Nephrite wondered.  "That wretched lot sucks
dry anything that comes their way.  Nothing survives more than a few
seconds."

	"The battle has lasted nearly ten minutes now."

	Nephrite's jaw dropped.  "Impossible!"

	"Apparently not."

	"But they would have to possess incredible power, far beyond anything
we've ever seen from them!"

	"Indeed.  And those sailor-brats don't show any sign of weakening.
They have almost made it through!"

	"Are they as powerful as the Elder Soliders of old?"

	"If they have lasted this long, they may very well be!"

	"What shall we do?"

	"Queen Metallia is not yet fully revived.  Take the combined THING
that Bruce made out of our Seven Great Youma and execute the Sailor
Soldiers the second they escape the graveyard!"

	"Yes, at once!"

---

	Tuxedo Kamen flung a rose at the ghost that wore the attire of an
ancient Sailor Venus.  The projectile passed straight through the
ectoplasmic entity, as did his cane when he attempted to strike.
Sailor Mercury created a cloud of cold mist in hopes of blinding the
enemy, but they ignored that as well.

	Though all heroes and heroines fought with equal bravery, the only
one who actually had any effect against the ghostly guardians was
Sailor Mars.  The Soldier of Fire chucked a seemingly endless supply
of small paper wards at the army, mystically stunning any and all that
approached her.

	Still, the legions of undead were far too many in number, and
enclosed them in a rapidly-shrinking circular clearing.  Sailor
Jupiter's lighting bolts and martial arts moves ineffectually passed
through them all as well, and the two cats could do nothing but hiss
menacingly at their enemies.

	Mercury frantically scanned with her computer, which drew a total
blank.  "It's no use!  No matter what frequency I use, I can't get a
firm reading on any of them!"

	"None of you can win this battle," Sailor Mars emphasized as another
flurry of wards once again brought the army to a grudging halt.  She
turned and faced her friends.  "Mercury, when it comes to science,
technology, and medicine, you are our expert.  Jupiter, I do not know
anyone who can match your fighting prowess.  Tuxedo Kamen," she
hesitated, "you're the best gosh darn rose-thrower I've ever seen!"
She straightened.  "But in the realm of the supernatural, I am the
main force to contend with."

	"Then get us out of here," Tuxedo Kamen said softly.

	Mars shook her head.  "No, I need to be here.  I'm not clear on
everything, but I know this is a fight from which I must not run."
She drew a scroll from her pack.  "I will clear the way for your
escape."

	"Hold up!" Jupiter protested.  "What are you saying?"

	"This might be goodbye," Mars began sadly, but shook herself out of
it and smiled.  "Oh, no don't worry about me.  It's not like I'd
really lose to these things."  She cracked open the seal around the
scroll in her hand and unfurled it.  "Save Grandpa for me," she
whispered softly.

	"What?!"

	"Source of all power," the priestess intoned while running her
fingertips across the words of the scroll she read, "purifying fire of
the infinite realm--"  The arcane characters glowed a fiery blue as
her hands touched them.

	"Black magic?" wondered Luna.

	"Shamanistic, actually," Artemis corrected.  "But I thought the
secrets to mastering that kind of power had been lost!"

	Mars motioned for the others to move out of the path between her and
the fortress in the distance.  "Let your light cleanse all darkness
before us."  The scroll levitated in the air when she let go and
cupped her hands toward a segment of the undead army.  Her voice
echoed as she finished the incantation.  "Elmekia Flame!!"

	A large burst smashed into a cluster of soldiers, burning and
scattering them.  Most in the way were effectively incapacitated.
This left more than enough of a clearing for a small group to pass
though to the edge of the graveyard.

	A bead of sweat dripped off Rei's brow.  Apparently, casting the
spell had taken a little more effort than she had been prepared for.
"Get going!  Our princess needs us!"

	"You don't have to tell me twice!" replied Jupiter, and ran though
the break in soldiers.  The others, a couple of them reluctantly, left
Mars to herself and followed after the brunette.

	"Good luck," Tuxedo Kamen whispered to Mars as they departed.

...

	Rei nodded to herself.  There was something very personal about the
situation the ghosts were in.  They too had faced the horrors of
Princess Terra's wrath, only much more severely.  What's more, these
wretched souls probably included several close friends that she didn't
quite remember fully at the moment.  It was practically an obligation
to find a way to free them.

	Only a small nagging doubt at the edge of her mind reprimanded her,
"You dolt!  Now you're alone in the middle of a thousand blood-sucking
wraiths, with only a bag of scrolls and wards to defend yourself
with!"

	Still, Sailor Mars felt little fear of her surroundings.  Dealing
with nasty spirits had long been part of her work at the shrine.
Occasional glimpses into the astral plane had brought her face to face
with far more unpleasant things.  She felt confident that her little
bag of tricks would help smooth over the odds for her.  After all, it
had done so quite well already, and she hadn't even gotten to the more
powerful items yet.

	"Source of all power," she said dramatically as she read another
scroll, illuminating the words in the same manner as before, "spear of
light, flame of the beyond, strike down the enemy that stands before
me.  Elmekia Lance!"

	The result was considerably less impressive than the Elmekia Flame
had been.  Only one minor spectre was knocked down by the energy bolt.
 It was roughly about this point that Rei regretted not bringing the
extremely heavy book that explained what each of the spells did,
rather than just grabbing a duffel bag and stuffing it full of ger
grandpa's scrolls.  All she knew was that the Elmekia and Rah
incantations were supposed to be effective against evil spirits or
creatures from the astral plane.

	She might possibly be able to defeat the onslaught by quickly
repeating the Elmekia Flame about a hundred times, but even one of
those didn't pack nearly enough punch for the amount of effort it took
to cast.  At best, and half-killing herself trying, she felt she could
do that another twenty times.

	"These spells need a little more power," Sailor Mars concluded.  She
checked her anti-evil wards and discovered she only had one handful
left.  Many of the spirits who had been stunned by one remained
immobilized, but the wards had started to burn off.  They wouldn't
last long enough to win this fight.

	Rei randomly grabbed another scroll, cracked open the seal, and
started reading.  "Source of all power, light which burns beyond
crimson, let thy power gather in my hand.  Fireball!"

	A burst of flame shot forth, several dozen times more powerful than
her own Sailor Soldier attack.  This attack didn't take much effort at
all for Mars to cast.  However, it washed over the undead without
effect.  Clearly, ordinary fire would not do any good here.

	Sailor Mars used the last of her wards to stun the wretched beings
nearest to her, buying her another few seconds.  She checked through
the scrolls she hadn't tried.  At the bottom of the pack was one that
stood out, written on pure white parchment.  In ancient lettering on
the seal, instead of a warning of dire consequences if used, was an
inscription that read, "Use in case of big freaking ghostly army of
the undead coming right at you.  Believe me, you'll know it when you
see it.  Love, Amelia.  P.S. - Precognition is AWESOME!"

	Suddenly, Rei really wished she'd read the seal inscriptions more
carefully before she'd left for the rescue mission.  She cracked this
one open, and began to read, but couldn't even start because the ghoul
dressed like Sailor Venus had lunged past the stunned throng and
grabbed both of her wrists.

	"My, you have so much energy," Ghoulish Venus shrieked.  "Let me
relieve you of it!"

	Rei cried out in pain when she felt the enervating sucking motions
begin.  Then she yelled again when she felt a pair of claws clamp onto
her head.

	"Join us, little Sailor Mars," a ghoul added, dressed in the same
manner as Rei.  "We can be a family again."

	Rei's eyes went wide when she saw the new creature up close.  Now she
knew why she felt so constrained to stay.  She was looking straight at
her mother from a past life!  Just like Artemis said, they had died
during the final days of the Silver Millennium Alliance and ended up
here, in an endless torment, constantly being corrupted by the power
of the Dark Kingdom.

	Two others, the remains of the elder Mercury and Jupiter, closed in
to share in the draining process, grabbing onto her shoulders and
sides.  The girl was almost completely restrained, and the scroll that
meant the salvation of herself and others lay useless at her feet.

	"Let me go and I will free you all!" Sailor Mars pleaded.

	"LIES," Ghoulish Mars screamed.  "YOU WILL DIE LIKE THE OTHERS!"

	Rei twisted and pulled at her captors, growing ever weaker by the
moment.  Though she drew powers from the whole planet of Mars, the
amount she had couldn't last forever.  She could feel the scroll right
under her feet--too far away for her to see or touch with her hands.

	Still, she had to do something--ANYTHING!

	Flailing, Mars kicked off one of her high heels and stuck her big toe
at the top of the scroll.  Her eyes went wide when the words of the
spell suddenly appeared in her mind.  "YOU WHO ARE NOT OF THIS WORLD!"
she shouted the incantation.  "PITIFUL, TWISTED CREATURES!"

	Everyone stopped and stared at her as a great white light surrounded her.

	"What are you doing, poppet?" Ghoulish Mars demanded.

	"BY THE LIGHT OF PURITY I POSSESS--"

	"You can't win!" protested Ghoulish Venus.

	"--I BID THE BEGONE TO THE NEXUS OF OUR TWO WORLDS!"

	The light around Rei became incredibly intense.

	"MEGIDO FLARE!!!"

	A pulse of burning white light radiated from Sailor Mars, ripping
through the spectres that mobbed her.  Particulates of black tore out
of the ghostly manifestations and vanished into the brightness.
Throughout the rest of the graveyard, it had a startling effect, like
a hot knife cutting through the butter of space-time in this realm of
darkness.  A pillar of light reaching into the sky spread outward,
brightening everything in a wide radius.  Even the white dwarf star in
the sky suddenly didn't seem so dim.

	Rei panted with effort and sank to her knees.  The scroll that helped
her drive away the darkness crumbled as the magic inside faded away.
The ghoulish remnants of the elder Sailor Soldiers of the Silver
Millennium Alliance had been flung back several meters, into the
waiting arms of the army.  Within the light, and beginning with the
closest and extending back to the furthest, the undead qualities of
each spirit melted away to return the soft features they had in life.

	Stunned by their sudden transformations, the soldiers took a moment
to regain their bearings.  The elder Sailor Soldiers in particular
were struck by the situation.  Venus looked at her gloved hands, then
at her spectral friends.  She whispered something to the elder Mars
and motioned for her to approach Rei.

	The ancient Sailor Soldier approached the girl and knelt before her
sorrowfully.  "I am Erato, former Empress of Mars and your predecessor
concerning that which is of the sacred flame.  Young one... we are so
sorry for what we have done!"

	"The spell worked," Rei breathed with relief.  "You're free!"

	"You have indeed cleansed us from the foul taint of Queen Metallia's
energy," Erato agreed.  "For thousands of years we have fought in this
realm, striving in what limited way we could to undermine the foul
plans of the Dark Kingdom."

	"What happened?"

	"No one can endure the presence of such evil indefinitely without
becoming stained with its presence, not even such brightly-shining
spirits as ourselves."

	"You have not moved on?" inquired Rei.  "Neither to rebirth nor the
next world, perhaps to receive the rewards of your undying bravery?"

	Erato shook her head.  "No.  The manner of our deaths was far more
profound than that which any ordinary being on Earth or in the
boundaries of the Alliance would ever attain.  We have been trapped
here, and so remain to this day."

	"But I freed you!"

	"You have freed us from Metallia's taint, at least for a time.  But
if we remain here much longer, the evil will once again overcome us."
The former Empress of Mars pointed to a streak of black creeping up
her own neck and back upon the bodies of the other ghosts.  "To truly
free us, we must find an opening in the astral plane to return to our
home dimension."

	"Astral plane," mouthed Mars, remembering something she had read
about her spells, the Rah spells in particular.

	"We haven't much time," Erato whispered sharply.  A few soldiers had
already been overcome by the returning evil power.  The elder Sailor
Soldiers were holding back the ones they could.  "Flee, Sailor Mars!
Our princess must be reclaimed and Queen Metallia must be stopped!"

	"I stayed behind to save you!" Rei shouted.

	Erato smiled wryly.  "It is far too late for us, beloved.  You do not
possess the power--"

	Rei cracked open the scroll with a warning label that read, "Do not
use under any circumstances."  She ran her fingertips along the mystic
characters and began the incantation, "Source of all souls which dwell
in eternal and infinite..."

	Erato's eyes widened.  "Hang on, I know that spell!"

	"Everlasting flame of blue--all strength hidden deep within!"

	"That could probably do it," the elder Sailor Mars concluded.  She
motioned for the other ghostly Sailor Soldiers to gather the army
together as tightly as they could come.

	"Let the power within my soul be called forth from the eternities!"

	"Are you certain this is such a good idea?" inquired the elder Sailor Mercury.

	"Oh, come on, what could possibly go wrong?" beamed the elder Sailor Venus.

	"Hush, you two!" Erato called back to them.  "I want this to work!"	

	Rei took a deep breath before finalizing her incantation.  The last
word came out in a grand shout that comic book artists would
invariably put in a jagged speech bubble filling up half a page.  As
it was, the shout echoed across the landscape.

	"RAH-TILT!!!"

---

	The remainder of the rescue team were thrown to the ground when a
blast the size of a tactical nuclear warhead exploded behind them.
The ground shook and a fierce wind gusted across the parched
landscape.

	"GREAT FREAKING JUMPING SPACE MONKEYS!!" shouted Artemis as he clung
to Tuxedo Kamen's cape in an effort to keep from being blown away.

	"Oh dear!" cried Luna from Sailor Jupiter's grasp.  "Was that the
graveyard?!  Did Sailor Mars just--"

	"It looks like it!" replied Jupiter.  She cupped a hand over her brow
to keep enough dust out of her eyes to see.

	Clutching her computer closely, Sailor Mercury scanned the rapidly
rising mushroom cloud.  "I'm detecting elevated radiation levels,
arcane residual substances, and a LOT of ectoplasmic artifacts!"

	"What does that mean?!" demanded Artemis.

	"Someone just cast a spell that tore a hole in the astral plane!"

	"Is Sailor Mars all right?" asked Tuxedo Kamen urgently, as if he
were about to run back and attempt to assist her.

	Mercury held up her hands helplessly.  "I can't tell through all the
interference!"

	"Of all the interference, what you should be most worried about is
your own!" exclaimed a condescending voice.

	Mercury looked around.  "Who said that?"

	"Yeah," Jupiter added, "and who'd come up with such a cheesy phrase?
It's like somebody tried to come up with some snappy stage entrance
line and failed completely."

	General Nephrite of the Dark Kingdom stepped out of the dust cloud
and all-concealing shadows.

	Luna hissed at him.

	With his arms folded and a grin on his face, Nephrite said, "My lines
may not be snappy, Sailor Jupiter, but rest assured, my powers are."

	"Your powers are snappy?" inquired Mercury.

	Nephrite nodded.  "Yes, and to demonstrate," he snapped his fingers,
"say hello to some of your old friends!"

	A gigantic shadow-beast clawed its way onto the scene.  Its sinewed
black muscles rippled in the cloud of darkness about it.  The creature
let out a tremendous intimidating howl at the heroic team.

	Mercury quickly scanned it, and boggled at the results.  "That can't be right!"

	Jupiter looked at her inquisitively.  "Huh?"

	"That creature contains all of the energy patterns of the people who
were captured and turned into youma when we were searching for the
Rainbow Crystals, only much, MUCH more powerful!"

	"That's right, Sailor Mercury," Nephrite affirmed.  "Our so-called
'ally' Bruce has enabled us to fuse our Seven Great Youma into one
incredibly powerful shadow warrior!  Its energies have grown
exponentially with the addition of each youma.  Behold, and die by its
power!"

	The shadow warrior howled in anticipation, then reared back and fired
hundreds of large black energy spears into the air, which cascaded
downwards as great rockets of evil.  Some of the spears landed early
and exploded dramatically.  The rest sped toward Tuxedo Kamen and the
rest of the group.

	"Everyone, GO!"  Artemis dodged out of the way of one energy spear,
used another as a springboard, and leapt into Nephrite's face, claws
and teeth at the ready.

	"No."  Tuxedo Kamen stood his ground.  "We're not leaving anyone
behind this time!"  He pulled out his cane and extended it into a
quarterstaff.

---

	The battle with Bruce seemed to be going much better than expected.
Minako had sustained only a few minor cuts, and the White ArbyFish was
marred by several direct and deep hits.

	"Light Crystal Wink Hawk Ribbon SLAAAASH!" Sailor Venus named one of
her new attacks.  She blocked one strike with a small panel-shaped
barrier.  Then, she touched the barrier with her sword and spun it
into an arc of light that cut through the air like a razor made of
flowy cloth.

	Bruce blocked the sharp hard light construct, but its force was too
much for him to fully absorb.  "CURSES!"  He tumbled backwards and hit
the ground with a powerful thud, cratering on impact.  Grimacing, he
growled both in anger and in pain when he moved slowly to get back up.

	"Oooh, all right!" cheered Sailor Moon.  "You got him!"

	Sailor Venus panted with effort while resting on her crystal blade.
"In the name..." she breathed, "of Venus, and of all things beautiful
and fashionable, and for my friends... I will punish you, Bruce!"

	"Feh."

	The girl twisted her swords around, leapt up into the air, and
focused her energy at the tip of the blades.  "Victoria's Secret
Soaring Beautiful Blade Revenge STRIKE!"

	Arby, from his cage, held up a qualification sign that read, in
symbols, "Shitake-Mushroom.Portabellow-Mushroom/Mumbling-Moscow-Clown-Mushroom."

	Bruce growled again.  "You have truly earned my wrath!"  He spun
around once, deftly parrying the descending attack with a vorpal
switchblade and flung his other weapon at Venus's neck.

	The warrior of beauty and fashion caught the blade with the edge of
one of her swords just before it would have hit her neck.  The
weapon's momentum forced her to stumble backwards.

	The White ArbyFish formed a mystic seal with careful positioning of
his flippers.  A glowing symbol appeared on his cape.  He removed the
article and flung it at Minako's feet.  At the same time, he flung
another weapon at her at an angle that forced her to adjust her stance
to deflect the attack.  When she stepped on the fallen cape, her world
changed and warped around her.  A bubble of alternative reality
engulfed her, and in the outside world she could only see Usagi's
confused, worried face rippling through the ether.

	Minako's weapons suddenly became too heavy to lift.  Thorns sprang up
from the ground and caught her legs, digging in deeply and making her
cry out in pain to ensure she wouldn't move.

	"Ha-hah!  Got you!"  Bruce hopped up easily, playing with the thorns
and branches like a child might play with a favorite stuffed animal.
Spiny serpents, insects, and tree lobsters skittered through the
underbrush.  Poisonous-looking flying things lunged through the air to
sting Sailor Venus, adding to her cries.

	"You're in my personal territory now," Bruce said with a malevolent
smile.  "Any suffering you now endure will surpass all that you have
previously felt."

	Minako clenched her teeth and tried to force back the agony so she
could continue to function and stay lucid.

	Bruce folded his flippers and looked at the girl thoughtfully.  "How
shall we begin?  Physical pain or emotional pain?  Do you have a
preference?  Please, this will direct our activities for the next
while.  Be honest, what would you like to feel?"

	Venus whimpered when she failed to compensate for the messages her
nerves were sending her.

	"Very well, I shall make the order for you."  Bruce coughed politely.
 The amount of thorns and spiny things doubled.  "First, the basics.
Perhaps you might remember this!"  He jumped behind her and drew an
elongated switchblade.  It burst into flame and he rocketed towards
her.  "A THOUSAND YEARS OF PAIN!!!"

	"Oh no--not again!!" Minako shrieked.

	Usagi cringed in sympathy, then gagged and finally had to turn away.

---

	Kasumi patiently remained seated on the bed while she awaited her
daughter's response to her revelation.  The girl had been silent for
several minutes.  She eventually got up and paced across the floor in
front of her.  At times, she would point towards her and her mouth
would open, but she stopped herself before she said anything.

	Finally, the teen's shoulders slumped and she sank to her knees.
"I don't know where to start," Terra admitted in a slightly whiny
voice.  "Mom, you're... not who I thought you were.  Are you even
really my mother?"

	"It depends how you define that," Kasumi said, then mentally kicked
herself for trying to be mysterious when her daughter needed direct
answers and she needed them right now.  "In this life, I am the woman
who raised you, weaned you, named you... gave birth to you."

	"Are you SURE?" Terra pressed.

	"Oh yes," Kasumi said without a hint of doubt.  "I was there."  She
paused.  "Would you like the birthing center recording?  I did
self-hypnosis.  No anesthetic--but hardly felt a thing."  She then
considered that she may have gone from giving too little information
to too much.  "Ah, well, if you want to see it, I have the tape."

	The girl looked for a few seconds like she might actually want to,
but then she appeared to decide against it.  "If you seriously have a
video like that, it might be even more traumatic for me than staring
into the face of the Galactic Destroyer."  She shook her head.  "But,
Mom, your hair--?"

	"I'm a natural platinum blonde, yes."

	"And here I thought you only dyed your hair because you'd gone gray
when you were very young."

	"Oh no," Kasumi replied.  "That was just a cover because I didn't
want anyone from the Silver Millennium Alliance recognizing me."  She
thought about that and added, "At first.  After a while, I kept doing
it because I rather enjoyed being a brunette."

	"Oh yeah, and about the hair.  How is that I'm a redhead and you and
Dad are both white-blonds?"  Terra paused.  "If I AM your real
daughter.  I could have believed it if you were a darker shade like
brown, but not... yeah."

	"Terra, I AM your mother, biologically and otherwise."  At Terra's
doubtful expression, Kasumi added, "I had the same doubt once too, as
did your father.  We talked it out."

	"Um, while it takes a big deal to get Dad worked up, when he's mad,
he's mad.  When I was born a redhead he must have thought you cheated
on him!  You're telling me you two just worked through it in a
conversation?"

	Kasumi shook her head.  Her daughter certainly was not allowing her
to put much of anything delicately today.  "Very well.  We had an
argument.  There were accusations of infidelity.  Swords were drawn;
oaths were sworn.  Our first home was badly damaged in the battle."

	"That sounds more like it.  And then?"

	"Before either of us was permanently injured, we came to an
agreement.  Then I had all of us tested.  Three independent labs
agreed: we passed the maternity and paternity tests.  You're ours."

	Terra threw her arms up into the air.  "Okay, I'll take it on your
word that you've got evidence that you're my real mom."

	"As far as any of us knew," Kasumi said, "up until a few months ago,
you were completely normal.  Your resemblance to any possible past
lives I thought was just a coincidence.  I thought perhaps I
remembered your face incorrectly.  It's not as though I brought along
any photos from the Moon Kingdom for comparison."

	Terra did not seem satisfied, but she changed the subject with her
next question.  "But if that's true, why didn't you have a problem
with me fighting as a Sailor Soldier?  You even drove me to where the
battles were going to be a couple of times!"

	"Terra, I felt that if the Dark Kingdom were still hanging on, it
would have been just barely.  A few teenagers with training wands
could defeat them.  I did not fully understand about the other things
that were going on that would make things a life or death struggle.  I
thought you could handle it."

	Kasumi noticed the girl shaking her head.  "Look," the woman
continued, "I felt that I might as well have been taking you to
softball practice for all the danger you would have been in.  Do you
remember what a mess I was when I brought you home from the hospital
after the battle at the airport?  It caught me by surprise that any of
you had actually gotten any more hurt than you would have at a
sporting event!  And after then, you and the other girls were all
doing so well that I stopped worrying quite as much."

	This conversation went on for a while.  The girl was so full of
doubts and questions that Kasumi had to explain quite a lot about her
reasoning about why she had acted as she did.  It seemed tough for
Terra to accept that she had not been lied to, as such, or
deliberately misled.  It must also have been a difficult thing for her
to realize that her mother was not perfect and sometimes made logical
mistakes.

	"And why did you adopt Terrifying anyway?!  You knew what she was, didn't you?"

	"Yes, I knew.  I believed firmly that, if I were to show her a better
path than the way of destruction--to show her love--I could change
her."

	"That has got to be the dumbest, most boneheaded thing I've ever
heard of!  I met Big, Clawed and Nasty, and short of killing it, the
best I could come up with was sealing it away!  You wanted to try to
change a nine-billion-year-old galaxy-destroying monster's viewpoints
through the power of love?!"

	"If you put it like that," Kasumi said, "no, it does not make sense.
But you should not judge me unkindly for that.  You did not know
everything that was going on.  You were not there!"  She paused.
"Well, you WERE there.  Kind of.  Maybe."  She shrugged weakly.  "I
saw potential--she looked so peaceful, so innocent, and I thought it
was an opportunity I shouldn't pass up."

	"And look what happened because of it."

	"Indeed.  I lost everything."

	"And so did everyone else because of you."

	"I admit it wasn't one of my finest moments."  Kasumi felt that her
daughter's attitude was borderline mean, but she also felt like she
deserved a lot of the remarks.  She herself had often berated herself
for the suffering her actions had indirectly caused.  "There were some
things I should have done differently, but I do not regret sparing
Terra the first time.  That was the right choice and I stand by it."

	"I still think it was a bad idea."

	"And yet here we are and you haven't destroyed the planet."

	Terra shook her head.  "Give it a few more days."

	The things they talked about came and went.   New topics could get
covered, but they kept coming back to two major points; the first
being why Kasumi had hid her Queen Serenity identity, and secondly,
what Kasumi wanted to do with her now.

	"Why hide my identity from you and the girls and anyone else that may
have been reborn?" echoed Kasumi.  "As you pointed out, I didn't
exactly do a sterling job as queen in the last few years if it.  It
was, after all, under my leadership that our civilization was
completely wiped out.  People would have been angry and I just wanted
to have my fresh start and move on."

	"But why not at least tell Princess Serenity that you were still around?"

	Kasumi shook her head.  "That would be too awkward.  The Princess and
I," she paused for a second to consider how to phrase it, "had a
strained relationship towards the end.  What care and love I should
have lavished on her I gave to Terra instead.  We were polite enough
towards each other during meals and during the day, but I could have
been a much better mother to her."  She sighed.  "I know Ikuko; we
chat sometimes.  She's a good woman.  She's done so much better with
Serenity--Usagi--than I ever did."

	Terra half-nodded, not saying anything else for a while.  Eventually,
she asked, "So what do I do now?"

	"If you would like to help," Kasumi said, "your friends are in
trouble, and, if you believe you can control it, you have been blessed
with an incredible power that could save them."

	"No!  I can't use this power again."  The girl shook her head.  "If I
do, I feel like I could lose my mind!  And what kind of trouble are
they all in THIS time?  Couldn't it at least wait till after I talk to
a shrink or something?"

	"I'm afraid they were too hasty and rushed into the Dark Kingdom
without a plan.  I felt a great disturbance, and I fear Rei may
already be lost.  Any more time we waste may jeopardize the rest of
their lives as well."

	"Heh," Terra laughed sadly, "I remember when I first met Rei.  She
saved me from a snake.  Then I saved her from Jadeite," her tone went
bitter, "and then she--well, Princess Serenity--sentenced me to death.
 Oh goodie, I REALLY want to go save them now!"  She pounded her head
on the wall behind her a few times until she felt she'd made her
point.

	"They didn't know what they were doing," Kasumi reassured her
daughter.  "You're not Princess Terrifying.  Trust me, I'm in a
position to know the difference."

	"Mom," Terra protested wearily, "I don't really know who I am
anymore.  I think of myself as Terra, Terra Incognita, a sweet li'l
ditzy Japanese schoolgirl from Ireland.  And yet, I also seem to be
this great big transdimensional being with the power to blow up the
universe."  She shrugged.  "I don't even know who you are anymore!  At
first, you're my doting and loving mom, but the next moment, you're
Queen Serenity from the past.  Terrifying feared you, hated you and
everything you did.  I need time to think this out!  You can't just
throw me back into battle without so much as a how-d'ya-do!"

	Kasumi Incognita looked quite saddened and more than a little hurt.
"I'm sorry, sweetie.  I just thought that...."  She trailed off.

	"Thought what?"

	"The girl I met in the Moon Kingdom--Terra Incognita--wouldn't give
up even when she faced an enemy armada by herself.  She hardly blinked
in the face of a towering giant of a monster.  I thought you might
consider, ah, working through this as well?"

	Terra gave a wry smile.  "That was before she had a towering giant of
a monster stuck inside her own head.  I thought I knew who I was then.
 The world had gone mad, but I could hold on to that--I knew who I
really was, and nobody could take that away from me."  She looked
down.  "And now something has.  Mom, who am I?"

	"I don't know," was what Kasumi instantly thought in response to the
question, but she also knew that saying so in this situation was not
going to help things.  She was not completely clear on all of the
details that were involved--how COULD all of this have happened in the
way that had been explained to her?  But Terra was obviously confused
and distraught and so she needed something to anchor herself to.  She
intended to provide that anchor as best she could.

	"Who AM I?" repeated Terra impatiently.

	"I suppose," replied Kasumi, "you are who you have always been."

	"What do you mean?  That being... what?"

	"Please bear with me."  Kasumi considered her next words carefully.
Telling her that she was definitely just a confused normal human girl
with a monster trapped inside her could ruin her credibility and make
her stop listening.  On the other hand, saying that she was really a
monster that had just taken human form to survive could drive her off
the deep end and make her start breaking things.  She wanted to be
honest, but she did not know precisely where the girl's own
fabrications ended and where the truth began.  "You say you have a
monster in your head that wants to destroy everything.  Why haven't
you done as it asks?"

	"Because I don't want to kill people like that!"

	"Why not?"

	"Why not randomly go out and kill people?  I don't know--maybe
because it's WRONG?!"

	"What makes it wrong?"

	"I don't know--it feels bad!  Are you saying that I SHOULD?!"

	"No," Kasumi replied quickly.  "I'm not saying that.  I'm trying to
show you who you are by asking you what you want."

	"Why not just tell me?"

	"I am telling you.  You are what you want to be--you are how you
think.  Maybe other people want you to be something else, but you are
what YOU decide to be.  I tried to make Princess Terra into a good
person.  She faked it for a while, but then she snapped and couldn't
take it anymore.  That's what I want to avoid with you."

	"Are you saying that I'm not a good person?!" Terra shot back.  "I AM
Princess Terra!"

	"Are you?" Kasumi asked.  "I really wonder about that.  What would
Princess Terra do when given the opportunity to unleash destruction
across the land?  Would she seal it away and try to fight it?"

	"Heck no!" Terra replied instantly.  "She'd...."  She trailed off and
a look of understanding filled her eyes.  "Oh!  That's... actually a
very good point."

	"Now ask yourself," Kasumi said, pointing at Terra's heart, "what
would you do if presented with this situation:  Your friends were
mistaken about you, and you had a fight.  Now they're in trouble and
you have it within you to help save them.  What do you, Terra, as you
are now, want to do?"

	"I want to help, but," the girl looked at her hands, brushed her hair
back, and looked at her mother, "I don't know if my head's in the
right place yet.  The way I'm feeling right now, I just want to, like,
go someplace and eat ice cream, nonstop, until I've had enough."

	"You just want to drown your sorrows?"  Kasumi frowned slightly.
"Your friends are in trouble."  Her voice was almost pleading.  "Can't
you overcome your doubts and help?"

	"Not sure I can.  Not yet.  It's too soon."  The teen sighed.
"Please don't ask me again about that.  Please don't make me go out
and try to use these powers again.  Promise me you won't.  I just
can't handle it right now.  I'll lose my mind!"

	Kasumi hesitated.  The Sailor Soldiers were in danger--barely more
than children, out there fighting a foe that was far more tenacious
than she had previously imagined.  But, Terra needed her mother right
now--she needed kindness.  "All right," Kasumi said uncertainly.  "I
promise."

	There was a knock at the door and a second later, Setsuna walked in,
carrying a tray with tea and cookies on it.  She smiled at Terra,
placed it on the nightstand, and walked out, shutting the door behind
her.

	"Those would be for you," Kasumi said and stood up.  Conflicted, she
debated what to do next.  Her daughter seemed stable enough for right
now, but it felt like a bad idea to try to send her out to fight,
considering everything else she was dealing with.  There was no
choice, then.  The woman forced a smile.  "Terra dear, I'm going to go
out for a while.  You know my number.  Call me if you need anything.
Rest up and I hope you feel better soon."

	Terra looked glum, but she nodded.  "Okay, Mom.  I'm sure I can keep
it together until you make it back."

	"I wouldn't mind if you went out for ice cream either.  Whatever you
need.  Take someone along to watch you if you do.  Setsuna or your
knight friend."

	"The Star Light Knight wants to kill me, Mom."

	"I'll have a word with him.  You'll be safe from him at the very
least until I come back."

	"Promise?"

	"Promise."

	"Thanks, Mom."

	The woman walked out and softly shut the door behind her.

...

	In the living room area, the Star Light Knight played a game of chess
with Setsuna across the coffee table.

	"Checkmate," Setsuna said, and knocked over his king.

	"What?!" S.L.K. asked in shock.  "Again?!  That was five moves!"

	"Your defeat was already written in the web of fate before you picked
up the first piece," replied Setsuna with no small amount of smugness.

	Kasumi walked in.  "Thomas?" she said, "Meiou-sensei?  I need a
favor.  A few favors, really."

	"For you, babe?" S.L.K. said cheerfully.  "Sure!  You look better
without that awful makeup on, by the way.  Made you look old."

	"That was the point," Kasumi said, and looked at the other woman.
"And you, Meiou-sensei?"

	"I may be able to assist with some things," Setsuna said with reservation.

	"Thomas," said Kasumi, "I need you to not to have any conflict with
Terra right now.  Put off your revenge.  We have bigger things to
worry about."

	"Easy enough," agreed the man.  "Don't think I could take her out now
if I tried.  Besides, she'd probably blow up the planet if I pushed
her.  Or, y'know, turn me into her brainless minion.  AGAIN."

	"I would suggest," said Setsuna, "that the 'brainless' part is still
in effect for you, my ex-love."

	"Oh yeah?"  S.L.K. glanced at Setsuna.  "Tell me again how great a
time you're having with that 'absolutely wonderful' mind control thing
you're under?"

	Setsuna appeared to ignore his remark.

	"Hah!  That's what I thought."

	Kasumi turned towards the guardian of time.  "Meiou-sensei," she
said, "I need a few artifacts--tell me if you have them.  I need a
disguise pen, a transformation locket or wand attuned to Lunar energy,
and a weapon that uses the same power.  Can you help me with that?"

	"Perhaps I may."  Setsuna's expression was neutral.  She stood and
walked over to the window as if measuring the long-term consequences
of providing the objects in question.  "For what purpose?"

	"Please," insisted Kasumi.  "It's to help Terra."

	"In what manner of the word 'help' do you mean?  Would you attempt to
destroy her?"

	"No.  I intend to use them to fight an enemy so that she does not have to."

	"Then of course."

---End of Chapter 23

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

(Sailor Mars casts the Ra-Tilt)

Sailor Nuke(stumbling around drunk, carrying a mug of spiked cool-aid
and wearing a party hat):  Ohh, yeaah, baby!!

Sailor Kawaii(also wearing a party hat, sidles away from Nuke):  Errr!

(The winds and subsequent fallout proceed to make the Dark Kingdom
even LESS inhabitable than it was before)

Sailor Nuke(stumbling around drunk and wearing a party):  Today (hic!)
we learned, once again, that all our problems can be solved by nuclear
weapons!  (downs the glass and passes out from the joy of it all)

Sailor Kawaii(looks around):  Ah, yes, but today, we also learned a
more important lesson!

(Terra mopes about and spends a lot of energy NOT going off to save her friends)

Sailor Kawaii: You can save yourself a lot of effort if you act cute.

(Kasumi reasons with Terra to go save her friends)

Sailor Kawaii:  People won't bug you so much if you're cute, rather
than if you're dark and gothic.

(Kasumi PLEADS with Terra to go save the world and her friends)

Sailor Kawaii:  So, if you're not in a world-saving mood, at the very
least, you can try and stay under the heroic radar.  Being small and
cute is the way to do it!

(Terra goes off for ice cream instead of saving the world)

Sailor Kawaii:  Sailor Kawaii says!  Tee-hee!

Sailor Nuke(wakes up):  Yahwhatchamacallit!  Sailor Nuke sez!  Bweheheheehaa!



Plot?  What's that?  I see no plot.

Thanks for reading! ^_^  Might take me a couple more extra days to get
the next four chapters up to snuff.

-- 
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