Sailor Moon: Shades of Light and Darkness
Volume II: Perchance to Dream
Part 2: Turmoil
Author: David Kogan - dnk@cmu.edu
Editor: Odango - odango@usa.net


-Disclaimer
Sailor Moon and the characters and plotlines associated with that trademark are owned by large companies with which I have no wish to fight (because I would lose).  This piece of fanfiction, however and all the characters created within are mine.

Please visit the SLD web site at http://sld.home.ml.org for
information on the SLD universe and the fanfics in it.

For more information, see the readme file.



Sailor Moon: Shades of Light and Darkness
Volume II: Perchance to Dream
Part 2:  Turmoil


Two shattered blades will line the street
A darkness rising overhead
Despair is not easy to forget
Weapons shattered, dead

_	_	_


Nakiad walked easily into the chamber, swinging a bag onto the bed and
collapsing into a chair.  Outside the plain room, through the window, the
Imperial Palace shone with a silver, breathtaking view, but Nakiad never even
looked at it.  He had seen it many times.

He had a letter.

The fact took a few moments to penetrate his mind.  The only letters he usually
received were from his parents, and those never came once a month.  He 
had gotten one a week before.

And the letters from Earth always had a characteristic seal.  This one did
not.

Sighing with interest, Nakiad forced motion into his sore muscles and picked up
the envelope.  It was completely black, with only a barely visible rectangle
for a thumbprint.  He shrugged and put his thumb on the seal.

The envelope opened easily, leaving a piece of white paper in his hand.  His
eyes scanned down the text for a minute.

Then anger flashed through his features, anger and interest at the same time.
He looked up for a moment, his eyes staring into space, and his lips moved.

"Ultimate energy focusing tool," he whispered.

Then the anger moved over him again, and he crumpled the sheet of paper into a
ball and tossed it into the wastebasket.

For long moments, he stared out into the stars, at the Earth.  Then, slowly,
with an expression on his face very much like guilt, he walked over to the
trash can and retrieved the letter, smoothing it out.  Silently, he opened a
drawer and buried the sheet of paper under a stack of various objects.

_	_	_


"What's going on?"

Peter Williams was not trying to figure out what he was feeling, it was too
complicated. Part of him was seething because he had been interrupted from his
Sunday's rest.  But a far greater part of him was elated, sending adrenaline
rushing through his system.  Finally, he had definite, complete proof that
something strange was out in the city.  And, if the phone call he had received
was completely accurate, he also had four witnesses, five if the other girl
woke up.  To top all of that off, by an incredible fluke, Peter Williams had
been assigned to the case.  For once, the opposition he had met throughout his
search for the truth was no longer there.

The officer to whom the question had been directed gestured forward. "Do you
want the short story or the long story?"  The man said, walking.

Williams followed him. "Short."  He reflected for a split second. "The long
also, but later."

"Naturally.  All right, about-" the man glanced at his watch, "an hour and a
half ago, there was a shooting of some sort at the Juuban Mall.  Barely five
minutes after that, the victim was brought here, to this hospital."

Peter raised an eyebrow. "Driven?"

The officer gave a short barking laugh. "You wanted the short version.  No,
according to observers, she was brought on foot."

"In five minutes?"

The other grinned. "Hah.  I thought you were the one who believed in impossible
creatures."

Williams forced himself to calm down.  If he did not find out what was going
on, he would not be of any use anyway.  Losing a few minutes was well worth
being well informed.

He stopped in the middle of the hallway and sat down on a bench in the
corridor.  "All right, give me the long version."

The officer nodded, then took out a clipboard. "Here's what we have according
to witness reports so far.  At the time that the shot was fired, the girl hit
was surrounded by four of her friends and a man.  The shot rang out, then
things get confused.  Reports differ, but several people say there was an
explosion of some sort, and the man turned, and I quote 'black.'"  The officer
seemed to notice Williams's jerk. "What is it?"

"Oh.  No, nothing. Go on."  Thoughts were racing through William's mind.
Mainly the same phrase was echoing back and forth, 'turned black.'  It was
almost exactly what had been said by Curt Russell, the hoodlum who had attacked
that pair in the street.  And that meant-  "Wait, is the girl a blonde?"

The officer raised an eyebrow. "The victim? Yes."

Gotcha, Williams thought incredulously.  Dammit, I got you, Nick Yaht or
whatever your name may be.  The detective forced his face to remain calm. "Go
on."

"Right.  The explosion story is supported by the damage to the mall. Afterward,
the man did something weird.  At least several people said he jumped on top of
the second or third floor balcony, which is probably an exaggeration."  Peter
had his own ideas, but he did not say anything, allowing the officer to
continue. "Then he turned around, grabbed the girl and ran out.  Her friends
followed."

"And the person who was shooting?"

"Not much is known about that.  The explosion had hit a trash can glancingly-
there were no explosives found, by the way- and we found a gun and a pair of
gloves in it.  A real professional job, if you ask me."

Peter Williams almost laughed as a thought hit him. "What was the sight on the
gun?"

"Um.  Not sure- Hey!" He yelled at a passing officer. "Stalkovsky, what was the
sight on the gun you got."

"Laser targeting.  You know, the thing that puts a red dot on the target.
Though there was a normal sight as well."

"Thanks."

"No problem."  the officer moved up the stairs, leaving the two alone.

"Impossible," Williams murmured.

"What is it?"

"It's just that I am working on exposing an assassin who works with that 
type of targeting, and who we suspect is in Tokyo even now.  That would be
an incredible coincidence."

"No kidding.  Anyway, we never found the shooter.  You people have any idea
where your guy is?"

"We have a possible address, but it's very touchy, and though we have some info
that he is there, no one has been observed entering there for a while.  Chances
are that it's a retreat in case of danger, in which case he might not visit it
for months, or even ever.  We were forced to abandon surveillance there
because of budget cuts."  The detective sighed angrily, remembering that.

"Just checking.  Anyway, according to witnesses, the guy literally blasted
through the doors of the mall, and he shows up here five minutes later.  That
would mean that he was going forty miles an hour on average.  Which is
impossible even for a car, in the city traffic."

"Next."

"Here, things get weird.  The girl was taken into surgery, and everything went
fine there, the bullet was removed.  We have it, by the way, you probably want
to see it."

"Later."

"Right.  But she is still in the coma.  The other four girls, the friends of
the unconscious girl, whose name, according to her ID, by the way, is Mina,
arrived several minutes later, having been driven by a concerned passerby.
They seemed to calm the strange man, who had seemed extraordinarily upset up
until their arrival, and even afterwards."

"Then?"

"Then the surgeon came out to tell them that she was still alive, and the man
went berserk.  After that, reports are sketchy, you will want to talk to the
people yourself.  But the man -some people said 'creature'- knocked out the
doctor, smashed through the door into the girl's room, screamed something over
her bed, and slammed _through_ the outside wall, landed on a car, and vanished.
That's it."

"Through a wall?"  The detective sighed.

"Yeah," the other said. "Industrial concrete, too.  Very good job.  I wouldn't
want to be in front of this guy when he attacks someone."

Williams sighed. "Where are they?"

"The girls, the doctor, who?"

"The doctor first."

"This way."



Doctor Straus had obviously had a long day.  One side of his face was a mix of
black, blue and red.  His glasses were on the table, one lens shattered, and
his eyes were closed.  He looked like someone had rammed him head first into a
wall.  Williams sighed slightly, remembering that the creature had done exactly
that.

"Doctor?"  Williams made his voice as soft as he could, but Straus jerked
anyway.

"Uh?  What?"

"Hi.  I'm Peter Williams, I'm the detective assigned to this case."

The other smiled crookedly. "Lots of luck."

Williams sighed. For some reasons, civilians always got a strange sense of
humor after a brush with death.  "Could you tell me what happened, in your own
words?  Before you ask, no this is not a formal questioning, and it is not
being recorded.  This is just for information."

Straus looked up tiredly. "I wasn't going to ask.  Still, it's nice to know.
What is it that you want to know?"

Williams forced a professional, detached tone.  "When you were called, where
were you?"

"In the caf.  I am on call on Sundays, so I went at once.  The door was
destroyed, but I did not have time to ask, so I went right into surgery, where
the patient was, and made sure she was being prepped.  Then I went out, and
talked to that _thing_ that was outside."

"The strange man?"

"Yes.  He seemed kind of crazy, unbalanced, and there were some weird lighting
effects on around him.  I'm not sure about that, but it was getting very tense
when the girls arrived, and I got the ID of the girl, and got the guard to call
the parents- they were not home by the way, and I do not know if they are here
yet, I do not think so.  Anyway, I went into surgery and got the bullet out,
and got her all set up.  We do not know the cause of her coma, but- well,
that's that.  We don't know.  So I went out, and the guy got totally berserk,
smashed my face, and that's all I remember.  After that, when I woke up, he was
gone. The guy had smashed through a wall, the strength of which I can attest
to, and gotten away."

"And?"

The doctor raised both hands. "And that's it.  I don't know.  I don't know who
the guy was, what his relationship to the girl was, anything.  I don't even know
who the other girls are."

"It's all right.  Look, I'll talk to you later, but you have been very helpful.
Is that bruise going to be all right?"

"Yeah, yeah," the doctor growled.

"Oh, get someone to photograph that-"

"Already done, a cop with a camera took a pic."

"Oh.  OK, then, I'll talk to you later."



"Shhh, he's here."  Williams almost smiled at that, well aware of how many
teenagers viewed his profession.  There was no way for him to know that these
particular girls had good cause to dislike cops.

"All right," he addressed the now dispersed group of pale faces, "I think we
had better talk.  I am not here to hurt you, but it's my job to figure out what
was going on here."  Not one of his best speeches, he thought quietly, but it
had been a hard day.

One girl, with black hair and rebellious eyes, seemed to be in charge of
talking, but he noticed all of them calmly.  The girl with the blue hair looked
smart, but barely in control of herself.  Next to her, a girl with a brown
ponytail seemed more angry than anything else. The one at the rear seemed more
broken up than the others, but beneath those blond pigtails seemed to be buried
a great strength.  Williams sighed slightly, for once tired of having to keep
scanning the people around him for clues.  

The girl with the raven hair spoke first. "OK, what do you want?"  Her voice
was belligerent, just shy of hostile.

"Well, if you could tell me your names-"

"I'm Raye, that's Lita-" she jerked a finger at the brunette with the ponytail,
then pointed to the quiet smart girl, "that's Amy, and the sobbing one-" the
blonde looked up with slight anger, "is Serena."

He smiled. "I'm Peter," he answered, deciding that last names were unnecessary
for the moment. "All right, let's start at the beginning.  What is your
relationship to the victim?"

The first girl, Raye, snorted. "She's our friend, what else?"

"And the man?"

This time, she seemed slightly hesitant. "We don't really know him.  I mean, we
know she was friends with him or something, but we don't know him ourselves."

"Then what happened?"

The girl sighed. "At the mall you mean?"  He nodded. "We were shopping,
obviously.  Then this guy, I don't know what his name is, comes up to Mina,
says 'hi' to us in passing, and they talk."

"What did they say?"

The girl, Raye, he reminded himself of her name, seemed to think.  "They never
got to any real conversation- just small talk."  The fire in the eyes dulled
for a moment as the girl looked down. "Then the shot."

Williams kept his voice gentle. "And?"

"He caught her, then gave her to me, and went after the guy."

"Witnesses say there was an explosion?"

"I'm not sure, but something strange did happen.  Then the guy grabbed Mina
and rushed out.  Since he went in the direction of the hospital, we followed.
Then here, he seemed mad and Amy talked to him, but he was kind of wild.  Then
the news about Mina, and that's it."

Williams frowned, feeling that something was wrong, and pieces of information
danced at the edge of his mind.  But he shrugged and nodded. "Well, all right.
Thank you for your cooperation.  I believe that the officer who was here took
your names and addresses, so we will probably talk again."

"Fine," the raven hair girl answered.  Her voice was cold again, all traces of
her momentary sadness gone.  Williams nodded, well aware that shock could dull
a person's emotions.  Now that their friend was all right, they would
recover.

He shrugged and turned toward the door, then a thought flashed through his
mind. "Um, when Mina talked to the man, do you remember what she called him?"

Raye jerked back as if surprised, then glanced toward the others for the first
time in their conversation.

The girl with the blue hair interceded. "I believe she called him Nick."

He forced his expression neutral, not showing the grin of victory inside.
"Thank you," he said calmly, then turned toward the door.



Five seconds after he was gone, the scouts gave a collective sigh.

"Jeez, I thought he'd never leave," Serena said with relief.

"Shh," Raye answered angrily.  "This place might still be bugged."  The
priestess ignored Sailor Moon's stare and turned to Amy.

The blue scout nodded, looked around and took out her computer.  A few taps
later she looked up. "Well, no one is listening.  Oh, and I found where they've
moved Mina.  I can not get a good reading on her life signs from here," she
continued pressing keys, "but she looks fine.  The doctor seems to have done
pretty well."

"But she's still in a coma?"  Raye frowned.

"Yes."

Lita interrupted, concerned. "I still can't believe he never figured it out.  I
mean, even for me, it seems obvious.  One dangerous creature associated with
the Sailor Scouts is found in the company of five teenage girls.  How hard can
it be?"

Amy shrugged. "Pretty hard, apparently.  We don't exactly look like
superheroes, anyway."

"Look, if we can cut the chit chat, we need to figure out what to-"

She turned toward the door as it slammed open.  Darian, in a suit, was
outside.

The prince stepped into the room without showing any recognition of the scouts.
Before even Serena could react, a cop came up behind Darian.  The policeman
looked extremely rushed and anxious to get somewhere as he faced the scouts.

"You know him?" The cop asked.

Raye nodded calmly. "He's a friend of ours."

The policeman sighed, glancing at his watch. "We are kind of rushed at the
moment, what with this creature and all, and he's offered to drive you home.
It's against standard procedure, but if none of you object-"

"We do not," Amy assured him.

The cop nodded. "All right," he sighed and faded out the door.

"Darian!"  Serena rushed to hug him as soon as the policeman was gone.  He
returned the embrace, kissing the top of her head, then he looked up with
worried eyes.

"What's going on?  I felt something wrong with Serena.  Not direct physical
harm, but -something-, and then when I heard about the shooting at the mall in
the news, I rushed over.  Fortunately, my boss understood when I said my
girlfriend was there.  Then-"  Darian sighed and reached into his jacket,
pulling out a cloth napkin wrapped around a small object.

He paused for a moment, then unwrapped it deliberately, holding it up for all
to see.

It was a rose.  

The same rose that had been given to Darian almost a year ago by the Chosen,
altered to be more powerful than almost any weapon.  And a month later it had
been altered by Nakiad once more, changed to reflect his state, to be connected
to his thoughts and his mind.

It was black as the darkest night.

Darian sighed, his eyes focused on the flower. "I was not completely sure what
this meant, since I did not have it with me the two times before when Nakiad
had changed.  But with everything going on, I decided to carry it around, just
in case. What happened?"

Raye sighed. "Mina's been shot, she's alive but in a coma.  Nakiad's turned
dark and got away, he's on the loose somewhere in the city.  The police may
suspect that we are the Sailor Scouts."

Darian sighed and stepped back, forgetting for a moment that Serena was
attached to him..

She raised her tear stained face away from his jacket. "And I haven't had
anything to eat in an hour."

He smiled tensely, grateful for the slight distraction.  Used to Serena's
sudden hunger attacks, he pulled out a candy bar and handed it to her with a
smile.

Serena frowned and pulled back slightly.  Her face suddenly turned serious as
the candy bar disappeared into a pocket. "What are we going to do about Mina?
And Nakiad?"

Darian nodded, not really surprised at his love's sudden change.  He was long
used to her putting on a different face in times of stress.  It was a welcome
change, though it sometimes hurt to see her carefree eyes filled with
seriousness.

Raye sat down, similarly unsurprised, but slightly annoyed. "I don't know.
Serena, I think you need to use your healing powers on Mina, that might take
care of one problem off the bat, so to speak.  And she knows as much about
Nakiad as anyone," she glanced at Darian.

"I guess," the prince agreed with a nod.  Doubt flickered through his eyes.

The other scouts nodded. "So how do we get out of this dump and get to her?"
Lita asked.

Serena looked up, fully detaching herself from Darian. "The question is, how do
we get out of here without going through a horde of cops, and then how do we
get into her room, as scouts, without those same cops stopping us?"

The prince smiled. "Well, since they accept me as your escorts, I guess that
takes care of getting out of here.  And as for getting back in, I think we are
going to have to go through the window.  We can work on the details on the way,
we don't exactly have much time to lose."

Serena nodded tensely. "All right."



Peter Williams was rushed, tired, and forced to work on a Sunday.  Despite all
of these things, he really should have seen the connection between the five
girls and the scouts.  He had been following every supernatural thing that had
happened in Tokyo for most of his career, and the scouts were as high Nakiad on
his list of interests.

But the full mental strength of five planets and a moon were acting against
him.  Even luck was against him, for the cop who had admitted Darian did not
report the incident until later.  The added coincidence of another man might
have tipped the scales even against the mental powers turned against Williams.
But the cop delayed his filing, and by the time Williams found out, he had far
greater things to think of.



"Yipe!"  Serena jerked back from the sudden weight on her shoulder.  The other
scouts glanced at her with anxiety, then relaxed when they saw the origin of
the scare.

Raye sighed at the two cats. "Hi guys.  You've missed all the fun."

Luna looked around at the fully uniformed scouts and frowned. "We heard what
happened on the news and came over as fast as we could."

Artemis swallowed hard. "They did not show who it was that got hurt but I
felt-"  He looked up at the others. "Mina's hurt bad, isn't she?"

"Afraid so," Darian answered truthfully.  "Serena is about to try to use her
healing powers, the room is right under this roof."  He stomped with one foot.
They were on top of the hospital, six stories off the ground.  Just below them,
Mina had been placed on the top floor in an futile attempt to stop anything
supernatural from coming after her.  "And Nakiad has turned dark and is loose
somewhere in the city."

The guardians' eyes flickered as they absorbed the information, and Artemis
sighed deeply.   Then he nodded.  "I'll check it out."  Nimbly, the cat sprang
down to the ledge under the window below, catching on to the protrusion easily,
then ducking to avoid being seen.  For several minutes he stared into the room
while the scouts waited, getting more and more worried, until the white cat
signaled them to pull him up.

"Well, there's good news and there's bad news," he began, his voice tight. "The
good news is that Mina is there.  But she's unconscious, and there's a nurse
there.  And more likely than not, the cops would have placed a guard on the
door.  Which means that we can't make a lot of noise."

Lita shook her head in annoyance. "Well, can't you two do something, like with
your mental powers?"

Luna sighed. "Yes, but it would take a long time, we are not expert in that.
We could make her forget she ever saw us after we leave, but making her ignore
us while we look over Mina and Serena uses her powers, it's just not what we
normally do."

Raye smiled. "Then let me give it a shot."

The black cat turned to the priestess with slight surprise. "You?"

Raye smiled tightly and nodded. "Um.  The spiritual thing, all that stuff.
Nakiad's been training me in one particular aspect of controlling other people,
an aspect he is expert at.  He had said that I actually have more potential in
this than he does, since in him it is only a latent talent, but he has been
exercising his ability for a millennium, so I have a long way to go before I
can make people ignore me and such."

Serena raised an eyebrow. "In that case, pyro, why'd you speak up?"

Amy shook her head. "Serena, please."  The blonde quieted. "Look, if you can
not make her ignore us, could you make her fall asleep?"

Raye nodded, her eyes bright. "My thoughts exactly.  I can't guarantee
anything, but-  I'll give it a shot."  She pointed with one finger down at the
roof and whispered softly. "Mars fire ignite."  Nakiad had made them work on
their powers until the command phrases had become unnecessary, but saying them
made focusing easier, and gave slightly better results.

At the moment, Raye did not want to use up her strength on using that power, so
she spoke the command.  Gently, the red scout lowered herself into a lotus
position in front of the magic flame, which burned easily on the concrete
surface.  It would hold out a while yet.

Closing her eyes, Raye tuned out the group around them, concentrating on the
room below, on the two people.  Slowly, images formed in her mind.  One of the
people's auras was dark, shaded, almost invisible.  That was Mina.  A sudden
idea occurred to Raye and she tried probing that shadow with her mind, but it
was a futile attempt.  The darkness merely swirled at the mental touch and
remained impervious.  Either Mina was in too deep a sleep to be awakened, or,
more likely, Raye lacked the kind of power it would take to awaken the orange
scout.

Forcing herself to ignore her failure, the priestess moved on to the other
person in the room.  This aura was brighter, more defined, and the mind was
full of worry.  The nurse was one of the type who actually did care about her
patients, and Mina's condition worried the woman, Raye realized gratefully.
And the red scout tried to be gentle as she concentrated on the skill taught to
her by the Chosen, smoothing the other mind, relaxing it.  Slowly, the aura
dimmed, moved slightly and dimmed again, until it was almost as dark as that of
Mina.

Now for the hard part, Raye thought calmly, training settling it.  Nakiad could
keep a person asleep with only a fraction of his will, but it took the red
scout almost all of her concentration.  If she relaxed even for a moment, the
nurse could awaken, which would be disastrous.

But there was a way around that, one that bypassed the ordinary concentration
by using a talent she was more familiar with.  Raye concentrated on the
relaxation of the other aura, then switched her focus suddenly to the flame in
front of her, moving the target of her thoughts.

And the soothing power moved with her mind, to the fire.  Raye opened her eyes,
relaxing slightly, and found her friends staring at her with concern.

"Are you all right, Raye?" Serena asked. "You've been under for ten minutes
already, without moving.  I'm not even sure you were breathing."

"Fine," the red scout answered, then got up and found herself woozy.  She
accepted Lita's stabilizing hand gratefully. "A little tired but fine."  She
pointed at the fire, which was still burning. "The nurse will be asleep as long
as the flames are there."  Or until someone made enough commotion to override
the power of Mars, Raye remembered. "And if Luna and Artemis oblige us, the
nurse will not remember falling asleep on her duty."



Artemis barely avoided landing on the nurse, as the woman had passed out right
next to the window.  Now she was snoring slightly as she lay on the floor. "All
clear," the white cat whispered to the afternoon air.  "But the nurse is in the
way, so be careful.  And don't make any noise."  He wondered how long it would
take for someone to check up on the patient, and hoped the scouts would be out
of there by that time.  Breaking and entering in the middle of a day was not
his favorite thing to do, though the white coat made sneaking about in the
night almost as hard.

He moved aside as two black shapes and four white ones dropped one by one into
the room.  Even Serena managed to traverse the jump without making overt noise
as she landed.  Artemis searched through his memory, having a sudden thought,
and realized that the scout of the moon had not really shown signs of being
clumsy for a while.  He noted that with interest, telling himself to talk to
Nakiad about the observation, then his thoughts became heavy once more, when he
remembered what Nakiad's condition was.

"Serena," he said softly.

Surprisingly, the princess did not make any retort, instead pulling her crystal
out of its brooch.  She had lost her scepter almost a year ago, Artemis
remembered, but her powers had gained from that loss, becoming more controlled,
focused.  Without an intermediary tool to stand between herself and her
strength, Serena was able to fight with considerably more focus and ease.

"Moon healing power," the princess whispered, and closed her eyes.

Artemis half shut his eyes as well as a soft beam of light leapt gracefully out
of the crystal.  The shine enveloped Mina in an aura of clean energy.  Artemis
glanced quickly at the door and realized that the daylight would hide the
healing from being visible at the crack under the door.  For once, doing things
during the day was useful.

He turned back to Mina, his mind growing worried.  Surely the immense healing
power of the crystal should have had some effect by now, he thought.  A glance
at Serena only increased his worries, for the princess was showing signs of
stress after less than a minute of using the beam.  The power was supposed to
be used for short bursts, it was not intended to last for this sort of time.

Serena swayed suddenly and the beam faltered, then died.  The scout of the moon
swallowed, then began to collapse.  Fortunately, Darian had positioned himself
directly behind her and caught her immediately, holding her up.

Mina had not so much as moved, even the EKG readout hooked up to her had not
stirred from its regular beeps.

Slowly, Serena opened her eyes, looking up at Darian. "I'm sorry," she
whispered. "I can't.. there's no reaction, I can't do anything."

"It's all right, Serena," Darian whispered soothingly, rocking her slightly,
but she failed to relax, her head shaking gently.

Raye stared at Mina for a few intense moments, as if remembering something,
then shook her head. "Maybe if we lent you our powers, it would help?"

The princess shook her head. "No," she answered, her voice gaining strength
only slowly. "It's not like that, I mean.. I can't even get to her, really.
Whatever is causing that coma, it's not something I can heal, otherwise I would
have gotten some reaction.  You have to believe me."

Lita frowned. "We believe you, Serena.  You are our leader, remember.  But what
do you mean, it's not something you can heal?"

Serena nodded. "I mean, it's not physical.  At all."

Raye blinked, then turned back to Mina, her face puzzled. "When I was scanning
the room.. I was focusing on the nurse, but I had passed over Mina as well, and
what I felt-  it was like there was some sort of dark barrier between herself
and me, one I could not breach."

Serena nodded, standing on her own suddenly. "Yes, yes, that's it exactly.
Like there's a barrier I can not penetrate."

Amy was already tapping on her computer, her visor on. "There is something
strange, anyway.  Wait a moment, I'm trying to- ah.  There's an energy
signature right over her, covering her completely."

Lita frowned. "I don't see anything."

"It's invisible," Amy replied. "And-  wait a moment."

"What is it?" Darian asked.

"Something Nakiad had said.  When he was talking about a creature who was
attacking him.. he said 'a creature with great mental powers.'"

Artemis nodded. "Yes, of course.  So whoever it was is now here, keeping Mina
in a coma.  But why?"

Lita shrugged. "Isn't it obvious?  She's a Sailor Scout, getting rid of her
would make things a lot easier."

Serena shook her head. "Then why not just kill her?"

Darian frowned at that, then nodded. "Yes.  Look, at the mall, you obviously
felt nothing," he turned to Raye, who nodded, "and neither did Nakiad, which
means that there was nothing to feel.  But- what are you generally looking for
when you do that sort of thing?"

Raye closed her eyes briefly, thinking. "Anger, maybe.  Hostility against us,
dark feelings, anything from the Negaverse."

"That's right," the prince continued. "And you obviously felt nothing like
that.  Which means that the person who shot you did not feel any hostility
against you."

Lita frowned, sitting down on the edge of the window, avoiding the nurse. "That
makes no sense.  If the person was not hostile, why shoot us?"

Artemis suddenly blinked. "Professional," he said calmly, his voice
angry and admiring at the same time.

Darian nodded. "That's my guess.  He was a professional, just doing his job.  A
human professional, because you did not feel any Negaverse presence."

Lita shrugged. "So?"

"So," Serena continued, staring at Mina, "he could have killed any one of us,
but he did not.  He was shooting at Mina specifically, and more likely than
not, he was aiming to wound rather than to kill."  She looked up at her love
for confirmation.

Darian nodded. "Exactly."

Luna lay down. "But why not just kill her? For that matter, why not just shoot
Serena and get rid of the scouts all together."  She looked apologetically at
her ward, but the princess was lost in thought.

"Could it be-?" Lita began, then stopped.

Darian looked across at the green scout. "Could what be?"

The green scout shrugged. "Well, could it be that they only knew Mina's
identity?"

Darian nodded. "Possibly.  But it still does not fit- why not shoot to kill,
then?"

Raye suddenly smiled, then frowned. "Guys, you are all forgetting one thing.
What is the greatest damage done when Mina was shot?"

Serena blinked. "Well she's in a com-"  The princess stopped herself and turned
slightly, looking out into the lingering daylight. "Nakiad!" she exclaimed
softly.

Darian blinked in surprise. "Of course."

Raye lowered her voice, reminding the others of where they were. "When Nakiad
was here, he said that he was being attacked from the outside, again, by the
same force.  Seems like an incredible coincidence, doesn't it?"

"All this just to make Nakiad dark again?  But why?  He's unpredictable, or
seems that way." Serena whispered.

Darian shook his head. "Why, we don't know yet.  But we do know that he's not
unpredictable- he acts in a systematic way, though not in a logical one."

Serena nodded. "Which means, most likely that he's going-"

"After the assassin," Luna finished, sighing.

Lita shook her head. "Wait.  This still does not explain why Mina is still
alive.  Surely it would have been a greater shock if she had died there and
then."

Everyone concentrated, then Serena turned. "Well, think about it.  If Mina had
been killed, he would have probably destroyed the assassin there and then, and
after that he would have truly been unpredictable. But as is, he had to keep
himself together to take care of her, and now he has a target that might keep
him busy for a time."

Artemis nodded. "Then we have to find him and stop him, before he carries that
task out and becomes completely wild.  Where do you think he went?"

Amy shrugged. "To the mall, maybe.  That's where it happened.  But, if all our
reasoning is correct, the assassin is professional.  Unless Nakiad has some
extraordinary method of tracking, which he well may have, going to the mall
will prove futile."

"Yes, we have to hope that the shooter is gone," Lita agreed, "for otherwise it
is too late.  So where else would he go?"

Artemis jumped up on the ledge under the window. "Home."  The others looked at
the white cat, everyone puzzled and he explained quickly. "Think about it.  He
is in unfamiliar clothes, with no weapons, on a hunt that might take a long
time.  That creature that is inside Nakiad is wild, but not stupid.  He will go
home."

The others nodded.  Lita got up quickly. "Then that's where we are going,
too."



Five minutes later, the cats had finished wiping the nurse's memory of all that
had passed.

As they were preparing to leave, Raye stopped, her forehead furrowing. "I just
thought of something."

Amy turned. "What?"

"Another reason to keep Mina alive."

Everyone looked at her questioningly.

The red scout's eyes were dark.  "Whoever is controlling Mina controls Nakiad.
Because one thing is for sure, without her, we are not going to get him free of
that darkness."  She stomped down on her own fire savagely, breaking the spell
that kept the nurse asleep. "Whoever we are dealing with, he is smart."

The others agreed grimly as they leapt into the ending day.

_	_	_


There were too many people, too many minds.  They pressed against his thoughts,
interfered with his search, creating a chaos of emotions around him.

Nakiad was at the mall, as the scouts had guessed, but he was not doing exactly
what they thought he would.  There was no looking around for clues, no
searching for a smell, or a sight that might lead him somewhere.  The animal
within him was smart, cunning, he knew that his prey would not be found by any
ordinary means.

No, there was no use searching for ordinary clues.  Instead, with all the
strength learned in a millennium of battles, with the cunning of countless
Chosen, Nakiad was searching for a mind.

The one mind that had imprinted itself on Nakiad's consciousness, a mind burned
forever into his memories, the mind he was hunting.  The mind of the
assassin.

But it was impossible.  Millions of people lived in Tokyo alone, and the
assassin had not been an evil creatures sent from the Negaverse, he had
obviously been human.  If he had been relatively near, it might have been
possible to pin him down, find him, and destroy him, but he had gotten away.
There was no way to find him. 

Yet.

The creature that had once been the Chosen was feral but not stupid.
Although the memories Nakiad had possessed were suppressed somewhat by the
gathered darkness, pushed into the background, the creature still remembered
important things.  Though nothing was clear, it knew there was a safe haven for
it, and it knew that it could find the weapon it needed there.  The same weapon
that had awakened something similar in it, centuries ago.

Weapons forged in the Negaverse.

And perhaps it could get the weapon of the Chosen and the Dark Lord as well.

It blurred, its darkness only slightly visible in the daylight, and streaked
through the streets.

_	_	_


"We're heeeere," Serena singsonged softly.  The others glared at her.

They had arrived only moments ago, the seven of them fitting with only marginal
discomfort into Darian's car.  The cats did not take up much space, and the
back seat had been designed for three.  That did not make Artemis's car
sickness any easier to deal with, though.

Darian looked around. "Now what?"

"Now we go in," Lita answered softly.

"But how?"

Amy raised an eyebrow. "Nakiad did say that he had granted us full access."
She paused. "Twice," she added with a slight sigh. "Still, I doubt that the
creature was smart enough to get the computer to deny us access once more."

Raye nodded, then pushed on the door of the large house. It opened easily,
swinging inward, but the true test of the extent of their access lay inside.
They walked cautiously inside, each wondering whether Nakiad was already here,
none daring to voice their concern.

They stopped in the living room and Artemis shrugged. "Well, there's that," the
white cat said with a tone of finality.

The access tunnel that led into the main complex was open.

"Somehow," Serena said, "I doubt he normally leaves it open like this."

"He does not," Artemis replied as he bounded down into the darkness.  The
scouts followed.

For a moment, Serena hesitated, turning to Darian. "Has it occurred to you that
so far we have never been able to beat him in a fair fight?  And this is his
home, where he lives."

Darian looked at her seriously. "We are all aware of the risks.  Let's just
hope that this darkness made him weaker, not stronger."  

Let's hope we get lucky, he thought darkly.

They followed the others into the darkness.



It had taken time to think, to remember the seemingly long unused commands in
his mind.  All the memories were foggy, difficult to see.

But he was determined, and the doors parted one by one as he grew more used to
the commands.

Soon, he would be there.



The lift opened without objection and the group piled in, fitting in easily.

Raye paused. "Um, how do we know where he is?"

Amy looked up. "Computer, is Nakiad in the complex?"

The computer's voice seemed to pause for a slightly larger fraction of a second
than necessary before replying. "The creature who was Nakiad is in the
complex."

Darian blinked. "Now there's an interesting qualifier."

Amy looked at the prince strangely, then spoke again. "Where is he?"

"He is in the armory."

"Take us there."

The scouts gasped slightly as the floor fell out from under them, and the
elevator rocketed down half a kilometer.



The room was surprisingly empty, considering that there was supposed 
to be a lethal person on the loose inside.  The lights of the large room 
were clear and bright, reflecting off the ancient and modern weapons alike, 
giving the room a slightly unrealistic air.

Raye shivered. "I feel him.  That way," she pointed.

The moved through the curving room, painfully aware that if Nakiad was there,
he would not be making any noise, nothing to warn him of his presence.  Indeed,
that would be completely idiotic of him.

"There!"



Nakiad did not turn at the scream, he had been aware of the scouts coming since
they had left the city.  Unlike the assassin's mind, theirs were different from
other humans, they were at a closer range, and they were thinking about him.

But he did not turn, did not confront them.  He already had his old clothes
back, and that lent him strength, made him more aware of the things around
him.

He had arrived via another lift from the room he had left the clothes in
before, and now he was almost directly in front of the door that separated him
from what he was seeking.



Lita gasped, seeing how close he was to the part of the wall Amy had told them
was a door.  He sprang forward, across the room, never even looking at the
scouts.  And Lita's mind focused for a brief moment, concentrated in a reflex
action taught by Nakiad himself.

"Jupiter thunder.." she intoned in a whisper.

The bolt of lightning sped true toward Nakiad, slamming into the patch of
ground where he should have been.  At the last moment he had turned aside, away
from the door, facing the scouts.

They scattered, facing him bravely, now between him and the room he was
seeking.

Lita was the closest to him, and she did not hesitate once more. "Thunder!"

This time he moved in, his reflexes far quicker than any human's could have
been as he avoided the lance of electricity.  As he moved past Lita, his hand
lashed out in a seemingly gentle motion, the stretched fingers reaching for the
green scout's side.

She threw up both hands to defend her head, unable to react fast enough, and at
the last moment Nakiad's fingers tightened into iron claws.

The green scout shrieked and collapsed to the ground, four streaks of red
across her side where the Chosen's fingers had raked her flesh, penetrating
deep.  He had not even bothered to use his powers.

"Fire!"

He ducked to avoid the lance of flames, then lashed out with one hand.  An
almost invisible force slammed into the red scout, smashing her against the
wall.

Then he turned and hissed a word at the door.  The thick barrier slid to one
side without protest, and he disappeared within the darkness of the room
beyond.



"Lita, are you-"  Serena looked up at Amy, tears staining the princess' face.
"Is she going to be all right?"  

Luna and Artemis came up near the scout, the others staying a bit back, 
Raye still crumpled near the wall.

The blue scout swallowed, tapping on the keyboard. "It's pretty bad.  Do you
feel up to another healing?"

"I don't exactly have much of a choice, do I?"  Serena glanced at Raye, who was
getting up shakily.  The red scout nodded briefly, indicating that she was all
right.

The princess turned her attention back to Lita, concentrating on the crystal.
"Moon healing."  The pure energy bathed the green scout for only a few seconds,
then Serena started to collapse.  Behind her, Darian caught her again,
overwhelmed by a feeling of deja vu.  He shook his head to get rid of that,
then let his love down to the ground.

Amy was worried. "Lita's out of danger.  The cuts are not totally healed, but
the damage to the internal organs is gone, it's just a flesh wound now.  But
Serena's almost completely drained, her powers were not meant to be used this
often.

Darian nodded shortly, then got up, changing to his prince form.  With one
smooth motion he got out his sword, raising it.  "Take care of them," he told
Amy, then looked at Raye. "You up to this?"

The red scout nodded, getting up. "He has to be stopped.  If he gets his hands
on those weapons-"

Darian almost tripped over the two cats as they dashed ahead. 

Luna paused, whispering into the blackness of Nakiad's room. "I thought he
couldn't touch the swords now."  

Artemis looked at her seriously, and his voice was dark and hollow. "The staff
and the sword are not the weapons that worry me."

The four warriors, two humans and two cats disappeared in the darkness.



Amy concentrated. "Mercury bubbles.."  A single bubble appeared, then stretched
out slightly, becoming far larger than the scout's normal fog.  But this was a
special case.  She concentrated and the bubble elongated again, then moved
slowly.  For a moment, it hovered over Lita's midsection, over the wound, then
came down, wrapping around the damage.

The soapy film flowed around the torso, hooking on to itself on the other side,
tightening.  A perfect bandage, it covered the wound without pressing on it,
and stopped the blood flow.  Amy sighed.  It was a skill hard to learn, but
very useful for minor injuries.  Yet when Nakiad had shown it to her, she had
gotten the feeling that she had used it before at some point.  Not for the
first time, she had wondered just how much the scouts did not remember from the
silver millennium.

Serena stirred, opening her eyes. "What happened?" the blonde whispered.

Amy turned to her swiftly, getting up. "You passed out.  How do you feel?"

"Drained," the scout answered weakly. "Where are the others?"

Amy shook her head. "You will not be of any help in your condition, stay here."
The blue scout faced the door, wondering if she could be of any help either.
Still, she was not about to give up.  For a moment, she turned back. "Get Lita
out of the way of the door."  The blonde scout nodded.

Sailor Mercury prepared to jump into the darkness, then turned aside as part of
the darkness suddenly became a bit brighter and a shriek of hatred tore through
it.



"What is this place?"  Raye gasped out as they moved into the darkness. "I
can't see a thing."

Artemis slowed. "It's Nakiad's room, the one Amy told you about.  The darkness-
it can not be helped."

"Do you at least know where you are going?"

Artemis nodded. "Can't you feel him?"

Raye blinked, nodding. "Yes, I guess I-"

A violent shriek silenced her, and the two humans threw their arms over their
eyes.

Nakiad was there, outlined by light, energy coursing at him.  He was grasping
one of his swords, and pure white power was tearing him, attacking him at 
his arms.  The shriek cut off as he released the blade, throwing it aside and 
both the light and the energy vanished, leaving the scouts and the guardians 
in a darkness that was even blacker than before. But at least now they knew 
where to go.  Darian stepped forward.

And a blast of energy slammed into them, hurling them aside, back toward the
door.



Amy jerked back from the shriek, then swallowed and threw herself into the
darkness.  Almost automatically her visor turned on, covering her eyes,
scanning for the others.  Nakiad's signature was not difficult to find, and she
rushed forward at him.

She was only a few meters away from the others when the blast hit them, and
the energy touched Amy as well.  But it she was further back than the others, 
and managed to retain her footing.  She scanned her surroundings 
desperately.  The blast of energy was confusing her visor, making it seem that 
Nakiad was all around her.

The blue scout blindly faced the direction in which she thought she had felt
Nakiad last, and closed her eyes. "Mercury bubble, BLAST!"

The bubbles launched into the darkness.

But instead of turning it foggier, more forbidding, the spray seemed to force
the blackness away, eating it up.  A corridor of clear light shone through the
darkness.  And for one timeless moment, Nakiad was illuminated completely.

He was staring straight at the Amy, his arms frozen.  One hand was already
covered with a gauntlet, the other was in the process of putting on a metal
glove.  Then the scene seemed to unfreeze, jerk slowly into motion.  Nakiad
finished putting on his weapon, the glove cinching tight around his wrist.  The
gloves moved fluidly, the seemingly sold metal flexing easily with Nakiad's
hand.

Darian, slightly forward of Amy, threw a handful of roses at the Chosen.

And the darkness swallowed the bubbles, absorbed them and replaced them with
the darkest night.  Amy could still see Darian, but both Raye and the two cats
had disappeared from sight, and so had Nakiad.

The blue scout stepped back, and the Chosen sprang out of the darkness, both
claws whistling through the air at Darian.  The prince froze for a split
second, his sword coming up to block the charge, but he was too slow.  The
razor sharp edges came straight at the man's throat.

A blast of fire smashed into Nakiad from one side, pushing against him, bearing
him away from the prince.  The Chosen landed on his feet, like a cat, but did
not turn toward the two attackers.  He had absorbed the flames with impossible
ease, and both gauntlets came up blindly.  Yet another surge of energy smashed
into the scouts and the prince, blasting them into the floor.  His attack was a
lot stronger this time, and they struggled to recover.

The Chosen turned slightly, the others realized that he was now closer to the
door than they were.  It was too late.  Without making a sound, he sprang into
darkness, toward the exit.

To one side, Artemis got up in the darkness, turning toward up into the
darkness. "Computer!  Seal the room, authorization, Artemis."



Serena turned instantly toward the door as it slammed shut, then regretted the
movement as her body screamed.  She was utterly drained, every muscle in her
body aching from the energy she had spent.  And yet she was on her feet, facing
the door.

Something heavy smashed into the solid surface, and it bulged out slightly, but
still Serena did not flinch.  The something slammed into the door once more,
and the princess saw five metal blades.  Something had just punctured the solid
steel.

The points smashed down amidst a shower of sparks, tearing through the metal of
the door, leaving five vertical slits in the surface.  Then two metal-clad
fists punched through the resulting holes, and the fists opened.  The metal of
the gauntlets flashed, reflecting light as the fingers flexed and grabbed the
door through the slits.

The steel screamed as it was forced aide, the doors bending and twisting as
they were separated forcefully.  Through the twisted, gaping hole, Nakiad
leapt.

The princess breathed in as he looked directly at her, his eyes a burning
black, but he did not attack, did not move toward her.  Instead, he sprang
across the room toward the lift he had come from, entering it.  The doors
closed.  A darkness flashed through the room after him.

Then he was gone, and the weight of his aura rose away from Serena's mind.

The princess almost collapsed to the ground, then turned toward the room,
forcing her knees solid.

"Darian?  Amy?"  She sobbed, wavering on her feet.

"We're all right," the prince's voice was shaky, and Serena forced herself
straight.

The two cats leapt through the remains of the door first, followed by Darian,
who hugged Serena tightly.  Raye bent carefully to avoid the twisted metal, and
Amy hesitated at the entrance.

The blue scout touched the warped steel of the entrance.  It was only so much
metal spaghetti, torn and twisted by incredible force.  "This is inch-thick
steel," the blue scout whispered tightly.  The force that had been used to just
tear through it had to have been incredible.  

The blue scout swallowed, then felt someone's eyes on her.

It was Lita, who was sitting up against the opposite wall, also staring at the
door.  The green scout blinked. "You know," she told no one in particular, "I'm
really glad he put those on _after_ he slashed me."

Amy nodded painfully, then sat back against the metal of the door and closed
her eyes, resting for a few seconds.



"Amy?  Amy, you OK?"

She forced her eyes open and found herself staring up at Raye.  It took the
blue scout a few seconds to get control over her voice. "I'm all right," she
finally whispered. "Tired, that's all.  How is everyone?"  Amy suddenly
realized that she was the only one who was unharmed.  The blue scout forced
herself up, realizing that she should be helping.

Raye sat down on sword display as she replied. "Well, we are all alive."  The
red scout sighed.  "Barely.  Lita's OK, the bubble seems to be holding."  Lita
waved.  The green scout was standing on her feet, resting her weight on a gun
case as she listened to Raye.  "Serena's asleep-" The priestess nodded at one
corner where Darian was cradling his love, "-she's exhausted.  Darian twisted
an ankle, but it's not bad.  And I think I have a slightly bent lower rib where
I hit the wall, the first time he blasted me, but that's not a problem.
Artemis and Luna-"

"We are fine," the white cat answered for her, then turned to Amy. "How are you
holding up?"

Amy shrugged. "Pretty good, considering."  The blue scout sighed and shook her
head, mentally checking everything, then took out her computer. "Given the
situation, I think we have been extraordinarily lucky.  With those gauntlets-"
A few taps later she frowned. "Well, we are all going to survive.  The bad news
is that Lita needs a real bandage, that bubble is not a permanent fix."  The
green scout nodded grimly, obviously trying not to show any pain. "And you
shouldn't be standing, Lita." Amy finished, then turned, tapping again as she
continued. "Raye has two broken ribs.  Darian's ankle is nothing serious, and
Serena should recover after some sleep.  And I'm fine, and the cats are fine.
But we do need to get some place I can take care of Lita."

Raye turned toward the cats. "Artemis, you know the layout of this place?"

The white cat nodded.

"Then lead the way."

Darian got up, only wincing slightly at Serena's weight in his hands.

_	_	_


Nakiad blurred through the falling twilight, his face invisible under a mask of
shadows. His mind, echoing with hunger and hatred, tried to think.

He had not killed the scouts.

He should have, the killer inside him was certain of that.  They were
formidable enemies, and though they lacked the power to stop him, they were
growing stronger.  Together, they might stand against him.  He should have
gotten rid of him while he had the chance.  But he could not.

Black fire burned beneath his eyes as the street rushed past him.

The dark force did not control him completely.  A fraction of his sanity was
still left, and he had a reason to fight, a goal.  The hatred of the assassin
was far greater than the fear of the scouts.

And because of that, the rage inside him had yielded to his will, because the
hatred for the shooter was great.  The scouts would survive.

For now.

_	_	_


The sun had been down for some time now, Williams thought as he listened to the
phone.

"They spotted what?" He asked.

Then he held himself back, listening again. The speaker at the other end
sounded very nervous. 

"Well, sir," the man said, "we put cops all around the place, but we were
looking for clues, we had not posted any guards to watch for things around.
And when Hawkins saw that shadow, he thought he was imagining it, so he did not
report it right away."

"But later he did?"  God, he hated conversations over phones, the detective
thought with annoyance.

"Yes, he thought it might be important."

Williams sighed. "It was.  Look, do you have a guard posted now?  If you don't,
then put some people around, watch for anything strange and report immediately.
And under no circumstances are you to give the order to fire.  Do you
understand?"

"Yes sir.  We have some people placed already, sir, and I'll get some more to
do the same.  If they see anything, I'll call you immediately."

"Fine."  He slammed the phone down and breathed out slowly.  The creature had
been there, at the mall, and had even been seen.  And it had been allowed to
leave, unhindered.

And incredible opportunity, wasted.

Williams turned.  "Hey Mike?"

"Yeah?"

"Come over here for a sec.  You've heard of this whole thing, right?"

"What do I, live in a cave?  Of course, I heard.  So what?"

"Well, I need a way to catch that thing.  Not kill it, mind you, but catch it.
I want it alive."

"Uh huh.  And I suppose you want me to do something about that."

The detective smiled slightly.  "Well, you do know all those guys at the labs.
If you could just give me a phone number, I could get out of your hair."

For a moment, his old partner seemed to think, then smiled. "OK, sure."  He sat
down on Williams's desk and scribbled down a number on a piece of paper. "Here,
call there, and ask for Doctor Miron.  He's a friend of mine at one of the labs
that supplies us.  You could go through normal channels, but it will take a lot
more time.  Got it?"

Peter smiled, taking the paper. "Thanks.  I owe you."

The other smiled again. "More than one, I believe."  The other grew somber once
more. "Look, Pete, I know you ain't gonna listen to me, but I just want this
off my conscience.  There is no way you are going to catch that thing.  And if
you do-"  He paused.

"Yes?"  Williams was serious now, watching Mike's eyes.  He had not seen his
old friend be that sincere for a long time.

"Less than a year back, remember when there were several power failures within
several months or so?  The major ones?  Anyway, a bit before the last one, a
creature attacked, you know that, and we captured this guy, even got him into a
van, taking him into custody."

"I remember."

"Then you remember that the guy broke a pair of handcuffs and burst out of a
police van, and disappeared.  And the detective in charge got demoted, do you
remember that?"

Williams's memories sank. "Yes."

"Well, I have a feeling that the guy we caught back then is nothing compared to
this thing that is loose on the city now.  And mark my words, detective,
nothing good can come out of this."  Williams's friend got up and swallowed.
"If I were you, I'd drop this here and now, understand?"  Suddenly Mike
grinned. "Well, I'd better stop with all this prophesying of doom, or I'll lose
my reputation."

Williams nodded. "Yeah."  He had never seen the other that earnest.

Mike got off the desk and started for the exit.  Only at the end did he turn
for a moment. "Pete?"

"Yeah?"

"Think about it."  For a moment, the other cop looked back at Williams with
grim eyes. Then he was gone.

For a long time, Peter Williams just stared at the phone number.



"OK, we have to think about this."

They were in a relatively comfortable room they had found by the well honed
method of guess and check near one of Nakiad's med rooms.  The couches were not
made out of leather, but neither were they of any other material the scouts
recognized.  They were very comfortable, however.  Lita looked a lot better
with the clean white bandages covering the wound, and Serena was actually
awake, though sticking close by her love.

Amy nodded. "All right.  First of all, our initial hopes have proven to be
rather futile."

Serena looked up. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we were hoping that Nakiad's power would be diminished by the darkness.
And it has been enhanced."

Darian adjusted his position slightly, getting Serena's elbow out of his
kidney, then he spoke up.  "You mean the blasts."

"Yeah.  Even back at the mall, it was visible.  He had been able to gather up
the energy from the air around him, or from the floor, I do not know.  Then he
channeled it to his hands and released it as a sort of blast in a single
thought.  I have not seen that ability before, and the focus needed to do that
sort of thing at a moment's notice is incredible.  And since his changing, he
has been able to release these blasts at will."

Lita settled back into the couch. "So either the darkness has made him a lot
more powerful, or gave him more control-"

"Or made him discover a latent talent," Artemis finished for her.

The green scout sat back. "Terrific.  Any more good news?"

Amy shrugged. "Just that he now has weapons capable of focusing these and all
of his powers to an extent comparable to the staff's enhancement.  And that he
can use those same weapons to claw his way through inch-thick steel."

"And that he can absorb my fire,"  Raye added.

Darian nodded. "He was able to do so before, though.  But this time-  In the
simulation, that one absorption and release took a lot of energy out of him, he
could not do another one afterwards.  And he seemed exhausted.  Now, he just
took the burst and kept going.  Never even flinched."

Luna nodded. "And he's on the loose in the city.  With the gauntlets, which
make him immensely strong."

Artemis suddenly got up. "Look, everybody, we're bypassing the main issue here,
the real problem."

"What do you mean?" Raye asked.

The white cat sighed. "Nakiad is not the source of our problems, he is not the
source of the power.  The enemy is where it all began."

Serena tried to relax. "But we don't know where he is. Or how to find him, for
that matter.  Or even if he exists, for sure."

Raye looked at the princess. "I think we all have to agree that an enemy
exists.  All the evidence points to it."

The others fell silent for several minutes, unable to answer that challenge.
Finally, Darian looked up. "Maybe we should try dealing with the immediate
problems, and take it one step at a time until we figure out something better.
Right now, if you haven't forgotten, I am supposed to be bringing you home from
the hospital.  And although your parents might ordinarily be relatively
lenient, they will most certainly be worried now."

Serena nodded decisively, then frowned. "But how do we know when anything
happens, then?"

Darian smiled. "I'll come back here after I drop you off."

"And I," Artemis added.  His head went down slightly, and the others remembered
that he really did not have anything now.  He had lost the two people that had
been closest to him, and yet he had shown no pain, he had gone on as if nothing
had happened.

The prince turned to the white cat. "Wouldn't you rather look after Mina?  I
could do this-"

"No," the white cat retorted. "I do trust the doctors."  The diminutive
guardian sighed. "It's not that.  Her only problem is the mental presence of
this new evil, and the best way I can help her is to try to figure out where
that is coming from.  I can do that best here."

Darian nodded, realizing that he would be grateful for the company.  He had
gotten used to living alone, but the complex surrounding him was daunting.  

"My mother is away, so I-" Amy started, then sighed. "No.  She might call, I
have to go as well."

Darian suddenly realized that Serena was looking at him sadly.

"What is it, meatball head?" He asked gently.

"Who's going to be with me, then?"

He sighed, then smiled as Luna bounded into the princess's lap. 

The black cat looked up. "Relax, Serena, I'll come with you. Does everyone
agree?"

The others looked at each other, then nodded. "All right, then."



In the end, he could not resist.  The temptation was far stronger than ordinary
curiosity.  Somewhere deep inside Williams was a driving, tearing need to
figure out what the incredible creature was.  It was a mixture of admiration
and fear and hatred that would not let go of the detective's heart.
Reluctantly, he filed his friend's advice into a side of his mind and reached
for the phone.

He did not notice that his fingers shook slightly as he dialed.

"Hello?"  The voice on the other end was surprisingly young, obviously a clerk
or a receptionist.

Williams forced his voice was calm. "I'd like to talk to Doctor Miron,
please."

"Sure, I'll get him.  May I ask who's calling."

"It's.. tell him it's a friend of Mike's."

"Sure."  The voice disappeared and Williams waited for several long seconds
before he heard anything.

"Hello?"  This time the voice was old, gruff.

"Hi, I'm detective Peter Williams."

"You know Mike?"

"Yes, he gave me your phone number."

A small part of the brusqueness retreated. "Well, then you can't be that bad.
What can I do for you today, detective?"

"Have you seen the news?"

There was some shuffling on the other side of the tube, as if the doctor was
adjusting his position. "You mean about the shooting?"

"Yes, I do.  I'm not thinking about that right now. I'm more curious about the
creature that burst out of the hospital.  I'm not certain that the event is on
the news yet, but I want to capture the creature before some idiot shoots it
with a shotgun."

"And?"

"Well, I need some way to capture it without killing it, and the obvious method
is with a tranquilizer of some sort.  But this creature burst through a brick
wall, I doubt a normal sedative would work.  Do you have something that I could
use?"

The other voice left the line empty, and after several seconds Williams
frowned. "Hello?"

The other voice flickered instantly.  "I'm still here.  I was just thinking.
Well, we do have a new sedative we've come up with.  It is unlike anything I
have ever seen, and works differently from most ordinary sleeping agents.  An
ordinary dose puts a man under for an hour, but you can increase that dose
greatly a lot without any permanent damage to the target organism."

Williams sighed with relief.  For once, something was going his way.  Even the
dread stirred up by Mike's warning faded slightly.  "If you shot someone with
the maximum amount you could without causing permanent harm, what would that
do?"

"Permanent harm to a human?  Well, let me see..." The other quieted once more
and Williams thought he could hear tapping on a faraway keyboard. Then the
voice came back, increasing in volume immediately. "There we go.  That kind of
dose would put a normal human out for forty eight to seventy two hours."

The detective felt the knot in his stomach relax even more. "How soon can you
make a few batches?"

"We have some of the stuff mixed up now for experimentation purposes, it is
only a matter of putting them into the darts.  You want us to adjust the air
pressure of the rifles, in case this thing's skin is tough?"

Williams grinned. "Yes, that would be great.  How soon can you have it
ready?"

"We can have a dozen loaded rifles with a full clip of darts ready in an
hour."

"An hour?"  His voice squeaked involuntarily from surprise.  An hour was beyond
his wildest dreams.

"Yes.  Any problems with that?"

"No, no, not at all.  I'll have someone pick them up in an hour.  Um, thank you
very much, doctor."

"Don't mention it.  Oh, and tell Mike that I consider this payment in full."
The doctor hang up.

Williams put the phone down, bemused, then looked out the windows in the large
room he shared with several other officers.  Outside, the sky was a dark blue,
the sun having vanished long before.  And yet somehow, the detective knew that
they day was not over yet.

He turned back to his desk and decided to switch gears slightly, to distract
himself from the problems with the case at hand.  A few strokes on his keyboard
brought up the file on the assassin case he had been working on for months. 
There was a possible address-

The phone rang.

He grasped it off the hook automatically. "Hello?"

"Is this detective Peter Williams?"

"Yes."

"Good.  I'm calling from the hospital, about the girl who had been shot."

He had almost forgotten, he swore at himself.  She was a key to all of this
somehow.  "What about her?"

"Well, I'm her doctor, I'm the doctor who was in charge of her surgery.
Anyway, I was in to check her, and I found something rather strange.
Impossible, maybe."

Williams sighed, annoyed at the human tendency to drag things out. "What is
it?"

"She's healed."

"What?"

"I mean, not healed healed, but-  Look, this is going to sound crazy.  First of
all, her coma's unaffected, and we have no more idea as to its cause that than 
we had before.  But when I took away the bandages to work on the bullet 
wound, I found-"  The surgeon paused, but continued without prompting. "The 
wound was almost completely healed.  Not all the way, but- well, as if a week or 
two had passed after the operation, two weeks under expert care.  There is a 
definite scar, and the tissues are not completely mended, and there are still
restrictions on her movement, but it is far beyond anything that could have
happened by chance.  I am at a loss to explain it.  I sent her through an MRI,
which is ordinarily very expensive, but in this case, the hospital will pay for
that.  And we found that inside, the wound was just as healed as it is on the
outside.  It's impossible."

Williams sighed at the new problems.  He wondered briefly what an MRI was, then
decided he did not want another technical explanation.  "OK, look, thanks for
telling me."  He sighed.  Another mystery to think about, he thought calmly,
then turned back to another idea. "Listen, are her parents there?"

"Yes.  We informed them as soon as the other girls gave us her ID."

"OK, good.  Could you ask them if the girl.. um, Mina, has a boyfriend?"

He could almost feel the doctor frowning. "Well- all right, sure.  Be right
back."  The phone clicked as it was put down on a hard surface, and Williams
waited patiently.  Outside, stars were coming out, shining gently over the
brightly lit city.  The contrast of the glaring lights of the street and the
tiny pinpoints in the sky seemed to strike something inside Williams.

The doctor's voice snapped the detective back to reality.

"They say they aren't sure.  Certainly if she does, they don't know."  The
surgeon sounded apologetic. "They have an definite English accent though, if
that helps. English- maybe they are used to not knowing what their daughter
does."

English accent.  Something in Williams's mind clicked, but he wasn't sure quite
what it was.  He paused. "OK, just checking.  Thanks."

"No problem.  I'll tell you if anything else peculiar happens.  Though I am at
a loss for anything that could surprise me more."

"OK, bye."  He waited for the other to acknowledge, then put down the phone and
turned toward the computer once more.  Enough time had passed for the screen
saver to come up and he banished it with a wave of his mouse.

But before he could get to work, the phone rang once more. "Hello?" He asked,
now annoyed.  For once he regretted having his own line in addition to the
standard one everyone shared.

The voice was familiar and it took a moment for the detective to figure it out.
"He's here," the speaker said breathlessly."

"What?  Who?"  Suddenly, Williams realized that it was the same guy he had
talked to only a little while earlier, the cop in charge of the mall  "You mean
Nick?"

The other's voice flickered. "Huh?"

Williams swore at himself. "I mean the creature."

The other seemed too distracted to deal with the name.  He went on
breathlessly.  "Look, it's here.  It arrived a while ago and it took a while 
for my men to spot him because it's getting dark."

"A while ago?"

"About ten minutes, maybe.  I called your private line immediately, but it was
busy."  Williams remembered, he had never bothered with call waiting.

"And?"

"Actually, I'm not even sure it's him.  If it is, he's changed clothes from the
description given before, now he's dressed in black.  But it has to be him."

"Why?"

The other snorted. "He came in without being seen, which means he must
have jumped from another building onto the mall.  And he's crouching on the
rails of the third floor balcony, near where the shooter was."

"OK, great.  Tell your men to stay well clear."

"Already done.  I'm not stupid.  But it's strange, though-"  The other
paused.

"What?"

"It's just that he's not doing anything.  He got to the building unseen, then
hopped onto the rails and that's it.  He hasn't moved since, not even a muscle.
As near as we can tell, his eyes are closed, and- well, he seems to be
concentrating."

"Concentrating?  On what?"

"How should I know?"

Williams sighed.  Nerves were obviously taking toll on the other end.  "Look,
I'll be right over.  Don't do anything until I'm there.  If he moves, give him
plenty of room and get me on the radio.  Do not shoot under any
circumstances.  Got it?"

The other seemed annoyed, but agreed. "All right."

Williams threw down the telephone and turned briefly toward his computer.  Not
even bothering to shut it off, he turned the screen off so it would not burn
out, then he rushed out the door.  He was halfway down the staircase before he
remembered with annoyance that the sleepy darts would not be ready yet.
Frowning, he reminded himself to call on the radio to have them sent to the
scene as soon as they were done.

He jumped out the door to the parking lot, noticing without surprise that the
lock clicked behind him.  The building had been dark as he had passed through
it, everyone from his sections had already gone home.  Though a part of the
building was still lit, he worked in a department where people actually
slept.

Sometimes.



"Um, mom?"

"Serena, you're home!"

"Great," Sammy grumbled under his breath as he headed back up to his room,
hiding his relief.

"Well, of course, I'm home, mom, why wouldn't I be?"  Serena blinked,
remembering about Mina, and realized that her mother must have heard.

The worried parent hugged her tightly. "I heard on the news about your friend,
and about that creature and, well, we were terribly worried when you did not
come back immediately.  Your father is out looking for you right now and," the
parent's voice changed from relieved to angry, "where have you been?"

Serena thought fast. "Well, we wanted to stay a little longer, and then we got
stuck in a traffic jam and it got messy because the guy driving us did not want
us to take the bus-"

The princess sighed with relief when her mom's voice lowered considerably.
"Very correctly, too.  Wouldn't want you out alone, what with that _thing_
and all. Would you like to have some hot cocoa?  We can talk over it about 
Mina, if you wish."

Serena forced a smile. "Sure."  She could not talk about being a Sailor Scout,
or any of the problems relating to that, but the events of the day had taken
their toll.

Upstairs, Luna gradually relaxed, realizing that her pupil was not going to say
anything incriminating.  The black cat closed the window through which she had
come in and lay on the bed for a nap, sure that she would wake up when Serena
would come in.



Detective Williams stared incredulously at the black form above him.  At first
glance, the thing did not appear to be particularly large or powerful.  It was
certainly nothing like the monsters that had attacked Tokyo before.  According
to witnesses, those had been generally freaks, often a mixture of human and
animal.  But the creature Williams was staring at was the same size of a normal
person.  The thing even looked like a man.  Unconsciously, Williams started
thinking of the creature as a person, as a 'he'.

The creature radiated a feeling of power, a dark power.  He was crouching on
the rails of the third floor balcony, and yet seemed perfectly relaxed despite
the amazing display of balance.  He was black from head to toe, loose 
coveralls hiding everything but the face.  Williams's mind labeled the 
clothes automatically as a karate uniform, but the material had a faint 
leathery texture that was somehow visible across the distance.  The 
texture of the fabric could not possibly be seen from the first floor, 
but Williams had learned long ago to trust his instincts.  Detective 
work required that belief.

The clothes were not what drew the most attention, the hands were.  They were
clad in some kind of steel, like the ancient gauntlets of medieval knights in
Europe William had read about.  The detective took a pair of binoculars from a
cop next to him to take a closer look.

The hands were as motionless as the rest of the creature as Williams focused in
on the gloves and gasped slightly.  The gauntlets were obviously made out of
some metal, but the gleam of the material was like nothing the detective had
seen before.  But the strangest thing about the gloves, Williams thought, was
that they seemed to be made out of solid metal, with no hinges or any other
device that might allow them to move.  They might be potent weapons, and they
gave out a sort of chilling radiation, but they would immobilize the other's
hands.  Williams stared at them for a few moment, wondering why his conclusion
seemed wrong.  Somehow, the creature did not seem restricted at all in its
movement.  Even when motionless on a rail, it radiated an impression of cool
fluidity.

Shaking his head, Williams moved the binoculars higher, toward the creature's
face, trying to make it out.  For the first time, the detective noticed the
shadow that covered the creature.  It had not interfered with the view of the
gauntlets, but the darkness did make seeing the face harder.  Still, it was
quite plain.

But something was wrong.

Williams took the binoculars away from his eyes for a moment, and rubbed the
bridge of his nose.  Something very peculiar was going on.  He focused the
binoculars again on the other's face, and examined it carefully, then blinked
and put the instrument aside.

To his right, the cop Williams had taken the eyepiece from accepted it back and
humphed. "It's not that easy."

The detective sighed. "I don't get it."

"I know.  You can see his face perfectly, and yet you can not see his face at
all, right?"

Williams blinked. "Yeah.  Yeah, that's what it seems like.  I mean-"

"It's not you," the other officer interrupted.  "At least, not your eyesight.
The thing does something to its face, so no one can make it out- sort of.  It's
difficult to explain."

The detective nodded. "I know what you mean.  It's sort of like I see him, but
can never remember what he looks like."

The other cop raised an eyebrow. "He?"

"It," Williams amended, then realized how strange the impersonal pronoun
sounded.  The creature looked like a man, and seemed as intelligent. "Or he.
We know nothing about him, and I guess I find it easier to call him a 'he'.
What's he doing?"

The other cop shrugged. "To each his own, I guess.  That thing scares me,
frankly.   As for what it is doing- nothing.  That's what I said on the phone-
it got there, sat down, closed its eyes- we can see that much- and seemed 
to fall asleep."

"Really?  That's interesting."  

"Um, detective?"

"Yes?"  He asked incautiously, not really paying attention.  His mind was
trying to figure out the different time periods that had passed.

"What do we do now?"

Williams finished calculating and turned to the other policeman. "We wait.  I
want him alive."

"Sir?"

"A set of sleepy guns will be arriving soon."  If all the times Williams
remembered were right, the detective thought to himself.  His calculations had
told him that the hour needed to process the darts was almost up.  He had
called the lab from his car, and had told the clerk there to deliver the
weapons directly to the mall.. Hopefully, they would arrive in time.  "We'll
use those on him."

The other looked with hesitation at the creature perching above. "Will that
work?"

"The sleeping agent is powerful enough to knock out an elephant,"  Williams
said with more confidence than he felt.  A very large area of doubt had settled
into the detective's heart when he had first seen the creature, and that doubt
refused to leave.



Nakiad sensed the crowd gathering below and ignored them.  They hardly
mattered.  If they wished to do anything hostile to him, he would know it
immediately. Only for a moment, when the new officer had arrived, he had felt
something strange, like a familiar shadow, but the feeling disappeared.  Mere
humans could not harm him. And he had other proprieties.

He felt comfortable now, more relaxed.  Before, the people around him had
pressed into his mind, made him confused.  Now, with his own clothes separating
himself from the environment, he was almost perfectly in control.  And the
gauntlets helped even more  The silent steel focused his powers, calmed him and
gave him strength beyond mortal belief. With them, he was ready.

So he sat there and searched without moving a muscle, combing through the city
with his mind, searching for a single familiar thought pattern.  Before, the
possibility of finding one mind had been nonexistent.  Now, he had a chance,
and no matter how small it was, he was going to try.



The cop next to Williams sighed. "I swear, it's impossible for any human to
stay in that position without moving."

The detective ignored the other, concentrating on the time.  Half an hour had
passed since he had arrived, and the guns should be there at any moment.  If
the creature would only stay for a little while longer, Williams would have the
chance of a dozen lifetimes.

Once more, he wondered what exactly the creature was doing.  He seemed to be
concentrating on something, almost as if he were looking for something.  But
for what? Williams wondered.

His mind played idly with the pieces of the gigantic puzzle.  The two definite
times the creature had been seen, he had not been alone, but with the girl.
The same girl that was in now in the hospital.

Her name was Mina, Williams remembered, and she was somehow in the center of
all of this.  The first time, if the hood had been telling the exact truth, the
creature had reacted violently when the girl had been threatened.  According to
the lengthy report from Curt Russell's interview, the creature had been calm
right up until the attack on his girlfriend.  And he had gone berserk
afterwards, almost killing the one who had tried to hurt Mina.

And the second time-  Williams paused, his mind finally making the connection.
"Of course," he whispered, startled.

"Of course what?"

He turned to the other cop, working his thoughts out. "Don't you see?  He only
appeared when the girl is, so there must be some link between them.  And when
the assassin hit her."  Thoughts rushed through the detective's mind, as if
breaking through a deep fog.  

The creature was after the assassin.

"What, sir?"

"Nothing.  Never mind, it was nothing."  In his mind, Williams was sighing with
relief at figuring it out, surprised how much time it had taken.  Somehow,
every time he thought about the girl and the creature, his mind grew slow, his
thoughts moving only barely.

He wondered about the assassin, and the weapons found in the trash can.
Really, Williams thought, it would be too much of a coincidence for that
assassin to be the same one the detective was investigating.  Williams did not
notice the imperceptible pressure on his mind that was touching his thoughts,
turning them away from the scouts.  He remembered what he knew of the assassin,
remembering the sparse reports.  The detective had been after the killer for
some time, never able to quite catch up.

Williams snapped out of his thoughts when the officer next to him gasped.

"What is it?" the detective asked, annoyed.

"Look, sir."  The other pointed up to the dark man.

The creature's body had remained motionless, but he had turned his head and his
eyes were open.

Williams swallowed, hard.  The eyes burned with a black fire.

And they were looking straight at the detective.



Nakiad would have missed it, should have missed it.  But his mind was
concentrated on only one thing, on the mental image he had of the assassin.
All of the power he had available, enhanced by the power of his gauntlets, was
being focused toward that goal alone.  When the newly arrived policeman
turned his thoughts to the same assassin, the metal match was too close.  To
Nakiad, it was as if the detective's mind suddenly had the assassin's shadow on
it.  And though Nakiad could not read what the detective was thinking, the 
mental aura was unmistakable.



The crowd of cops scattered as the creature slammed into the floor, not a dozen
meters away from Williams.  The creature was staring directly at the detective,
and his body did not seem to have suffered from the six meter fall.  Absorbing
the impact had been an easy and fluid gesture, as if the creature did not think
the jump worth thinking about.

Williams froze for a moment, did not move, his body paralyzed by the sudden
danger and by the nearness of his prey.  Nakiad stepped forward.

Behind the detective and to one side was a cop, a young man who had only
graduated from the academy several months before.  He had a wife, and kids.  He
had never been faced with this sort of danger.  And he had read far too many
novels where aliens came to destroy the human race, had heard too many rumors
of people being drained of their energy.

When Nakiad stepped forward, the youth screamed, his thoughts flashing.  His
gun came up on its own and pointed at the Chosen's chest.  The fingers squeezed
the trigger before either the cop or Nakiad had time to think.



Nakiad had felt the man too late, for the cop had not held any hostile intent,
he had been merely frightened.  And when the darkness finally felt the gun come
up, Nakiad did not bother to move.

The bullet missed him completely, smashing through a window as the Chosen had
predicted it would.

He had not predicted that the other cops would react as swiftly to that as they
did, he had miscalculated their tension.  When a dozen guns fired at him, he
had only begun moving.

Three of the ten bullets smashed into him.



Williams gasped, swinging around at the man who had fired, then the detective's
mind screamed when others started shooting as well.  Almost as if it were in
slow motion, the detective saw the puffs of impacts of the bullets as they hit
the creature's chest.

The dark man collapsed backwards at the impact, turning as he did so,
minimizing the target area.  Then he crouched and blurred into blackness,
launching straight up off the ground.

The creature landed on the second floor balcony, and his arms flashed out
before any of the policemen could change their aims.  The metal gauntlets
flashed malevolently in the artificial light of the mall, and the air in front
of the creature blurred, distorted by something that passed through it.  The
crowd of cops collapsed to the floor, smashed aside by an invisible blast of
energy.

Only when the shots were thus cut off did Williams realize that he was
screaming.

The creature did not wait, he leapt off the balcony and landed soundlessly next
to the young cop who had fired first.  The youth never saw the dark fist that
hit him, but every cop saw the policeman's gun in the creature's hands.

The gauntlet closed, and fragments of the gun trickled gently to the ground.
One part of Williams's brain noticed with a detached interest that the metal
gloves moved quite fluidly.  The rest of the detective's mind was busy
screaming at him to move.

Gently, the young cop's body collapsed to the floor, and Williams's eyes
widened when he saw the blood that covered the youth's chest.

Then the shadowed man leapt into motion once more, ignoring the stunned
policemen around as he closed the distance between himself and Williams.

The detective had just enough time to wonder why the creature was so interested
in him when it landed two steps away.  Two metallic, smoothly moving gloves
came up and the eyes of the creature lanced into the detective.

Williams tried to scream, tried to move, but his body was frozen.  The black
eyes tore into his own eyes, into his mind and heart.  Somewhere, he heard
shouting, but it far away, almost inaudible.

A dart appeared in the creature's neck.  The darkened man turned slowly, as if
distracted and Williams found himself able to move once more.  The
detective turned as well, almost falling, but managed to throw himself in a
direction opposite from his attacker.  Williams almost crowed when he saw cops
behind him.  They were pointing rifles at the creature.  One of the guns
puffed.

Williams turned to see the dart bounce off black cloth, then he ducked to the
floor.  Behind him, a dozen guns went off in unison.

The creature screamed, two more darts appearing in its neck, then staggered
forward.  Another dart appeared next to the others.

The metal glove clawed the ground only a few inches from Williams's head as the
creature crumpled to the ground.

The detective closed his eyes and concentrated on simply breathing.  When he
opened them moments later to find his attacker still on the ground, Williams
managed to stagger to his feet.

The creature lay prone on the floor, its arms not even twitching, the metal
gloves immobile steel once more.  But the detective knew better, those
gauntlets were lethal.

"OK," he began, then paused to clear his rather tight throat. "Help me over
here."  He bent down toward the body, grabbing it by one hand, partly expecting
it to come alive, aware that the gauntlet that could make sushi out of a
revolver would probably make short work of his wrist.  But the creature did not
move.

Another voice yelled. "Help me!"  

Williams turned.  It was the cop who had been in charge before.  The officer
was bending over the youth's body. "Hawkins is hurt.  Someone call an
ambulance."

Several of the cops with rifles came to the officer's aid.  Others kept their
rifles pointed at the prone creature.  A glance at their uniforms told Williams
that they were from the lab, not used to hazardous duty.

Williams turned to one of them after seeing that the youth had enough
assistance. "Help me," he ordered, forcing his mind off the blood on the young
cop's uniform.  He had no time to think about that.

The policeman from the lab handed his rifle to a cop next to him and grabbed
the creature's legs.  Together, they lifted the unconscious body off the
ground, and Williams grunted.  The shadowed man seemed heavy somehow, as if his
density were greater than that of an ordinary human.

"I've got a question for you," Williams gasped out.

"I'm Ian Sotanaz.  You must be detective Williams."

The detective nodded as well as he was able considering the weight. "Nice to
meet you.  I was thinking about the creature, and I wonder if maybe putting him
in jail might be a bad idea.  He burst through a pretty solid wall a few hours 
back and did not seem to suffer any harm from that.  Plus, I want someone 
to take a look at those bullet wounds.  He did not particularly slow
down from them, but they had to have done some damage."

The other nodded, catching on. "So you want to keep him under?  Well, we do
have more of that drug back at the lab.  It all depends on how well he responds
to it.  And there are medical facilities there, certainly."

"Good, then that's where we are going."  Williams nodded to the other cops and
they started moving toward the exit."  Several doctors passed quickly by them.
Already, there was a crowd of cars with flashing lights outside. 

Williams paused. "Oh, thanks for showing up when you did, by the way.  No
telling what that creature might have been up to."

The other smiled. "No problem.  You should thank Doctor Miron, though.  He's
the one who thought you might need some people who are used to the rifles, in
case things were getting tight."

The creature was heavy as they carried him into the night.

_	_	_


Darian sighed, relaxing for the first time since the shot at the mall as he
stretched out in the chair.  He glanced across the darkened room at Artemis and
frowned, the relaxation gone again.

The white cat was lying there, just staring into space without moving.  The
prince sighed, this time sadly.  "How are you doing?"

Artemis looked up, and his eyes flashed with sarcasm.  "Just fine.  One of the
people I care most about is in a coma and the other has been changed into a
malevolent creature who is probably killing people even now.  And I am stuck in
a dark room with a person who asks how I am doing while this is going on. Yes,"
the guardian said harshly, "I feel fine."  The guardian's eyes wavered.

Darian stared in mild surprise and Artemis sighed, putting his head down on his
paws. "Sorry," the white cat whispered slightly. "I'll be all right, Prince
Darian.  Just let me be for a while."  The guardian closed his eyes.

Darian nodded, walking softly out of the room.  Behind him, the light turned
off.  The cat's eyes, open once more, stared blindly into the darkness.



It took the prince a few minutes and some advice from the computer to find a
relatively comfortable room in the maze of halls and passageways.  The resting
place he found was a curious mix of the modern and the antique, with old
furniture walls and floors, but with a large projection TV similar to the one
he had at home and a panel he had come to recognize as the entrance to the
refrigerator.

He decided to watch some TV, but could not find the controls for the projector,
nor any sort of remote control.  Finally, he sighed, collapsing into an
armchair and just stared at the white screen.  It took him a few minutes to
finally get it, then he felt somewhat stupid. "Computer."

"Yes?"

"I'd like to watch some news, please."

The projector came on silently and the image of a reporter stood out sharply
against the screen.  The woman looked very concerned as she looked down at an
official looking piece of paper.

".. concerned that the captive-"  Darian sat up slightly "-might be suffering
from malnutrition because of the lack of the necessary kind of bamboo 
in this area."  The prince blinked tiredly. The woman looked up, putting 
on a fresh face. "Now, here is an inside look at the way zoo animals are 
really treated by their masters.  Follow our camera crew as we examine 
the malnutrition panda bears in what zookeepers call an 'authentic 
recreation of their natural environment,"and see for..."

Darian sighed. "Computer, could you turn the sound down?"  He relaxed slightly
when the voices reached a barely audible level.  If anything important were to
come on, he would hear, but the reporter was not nearly as obnoxious when she
was quiet.

He forced motion into his body, levering himself out of the amazingly
comfortable armchair.  His whole body was aching from the fight with Nakiad and
the stress of the whole day.  At least the ankle was not too bad, he thought,
trying to cheer himself up.

The refrigerator was empty, but he had come to expect that. "Computer."

"Yes."

"I'd like some coffee please."

"Certainly."  The machine paused for a moment before continuing. "Ready."

"Thanks," he answered reflexively, forgetting that he was talking to a machine.
Inside the white cabinet was a cup of hot coffee.

He sat down at the armchair again and looked at the screen, blinking to keep
his eyes open and inhaling the coffee-bean aroma deeply.  Five minutes later,
he was holding the cup in one hand, empty, too lazy to return it to the
cabinet.

The program about zoo animals ended some time later and a newsman talked about
the weather for a while.  Then a worried news anchor came on the screen.

"According to unconfirmed reports, police have apprehended the creature who had
burst out of the city hospital this afternoon.  Here, you can see police cars
rapidly leaving the district mall, where the creature is supposed to have been
caught, and heading rapidly toward this building, which turns out to be a
government owned lab.  The question is, ladies and gentlemen, what exactly is
this creature, and what are the police intending to do with it?  Standby for an
interview from an expert on these matters, a man who had been illegally
imprisoned by the police for almost a year before he was finally set free.  All
that and more, after this."

The commercials did not wake Darian up any more than the coffee.

Several minutes later, the projector turned off automatically, set to power
down fifteen minutes after no one was watching it.

And the gigantic complex became silent once more.

_	_	_


"Please tell me you have good news," Williams said tiredly.  

It was Monday.  

Just barely.

In theory, he was supposed to be home, sleeping.  Instead, he had been up for
twenty hours, had been working for most of Sunday, and now had been explaining
what was going on to his boss for the past half an hour.  At least, it had
taken fifteen minutes to describe what was going on, then another fifteen to
convince her to let him go ahead with his plans.

Doctor Miron raised an eyebrow. "Well, the good news is that he's asleep, and
tied down more or less securely.  For the moment."

Williams sighed, rubbing his eyes.  He really needed some sleep.  Miron had
turned out to be a very competent looking man, perhaps forty or fifty years
old.  The detective had trouble telling the ages of anyone older than he was.

Finally, Williams gave in. "And the bad news?"

"The bad news-  Well, come, I'll show you."  The doctor walked down the hallway
and through a barred door that required him to show his ID. "This is the more
secure area of the facility," he explained calmly, then continued.

They walked through several hallways, just long enough for Williams to get
lost, and they came to a room guarded by two men in police uniforms.  The two
had obviously been well chosen for their duty.  Both were considerably larger
than usual, and muscles bulged under their uniforms.

Williams wondered why they did not make him feel any more secure.

Doctor Miron nodded to the guards and showed his ID once more, and the two
opened the heavy door.

Inside was a large room with a sort of iron cage inside, where heavy bars
separated the room into two sections, one on the inside and one on the outside.
Two guards defended the door on the inside as well, and several other people
were clustered around medical equipment Williams could not immediately
identify.  Overall, the clinically sterile room looked more like the inside of
a hospital than a prison, the only deterring feature being the iron bars.

The creature was lying on a hospital gurney on the other side of the cage.
Several more people in white were gathered around him, and instruments were
hooked up to it in various places.  The detective frowned slightly.  Both the
black gi and the metallic claws were still on it, and the figure was still
shadowed.  Even at close range, the weird effect was in place, it was
impossible to figure out exactly what the creature's face looked like.  One
black sleeve was rolled up to allow an IV needle to penetrate the flesh of the
forearm.  And although the creature was in leather restraints, somehow the
detective had serious doubts as to how long the creature could be held by
them.

Miron shrugged. "I need to talk to the detective.  Alone."

Though he did not direct the words to anyone in particular, the others nodded
and filed out of the room.  Only the two guards remained against the door,
their eyes staring straight ahead.

The doctor motioned for Williams to come forward as he opened the gate of the
cage.  "I don't want to alarm them any more than necessary."  He closed the
gate behind him and locked it, then walked forward into the clear space around
the bed.

Williams smiled bitterly to himself.  Apparently, alarming him was not
considered a problem.  Then he looked at the creature and frowned.  "Wait a
second, I remember- at least several bullets hit him.  How much damage did they
cause?"

The doctor smiled coldly with a detached, medical interest. "Well, that's one
of the strange things.  As you can see, we have been unable to get his clothes
off yet.  One of my assistants pointed out to me that the black stuff is
similar to a gi, though there is no belt.  But although it may look like
ordinary cloth, it is anything but."

The detective nodded. "Yes, there's a slight- I don't know.  Kind of a leathery
texture to it."

"Perhaps.  When we tried to remove it, we found that there is no way to get it
off."

Williams blinked. "What do you mean?"

Miron sighed.  "Well, there are no seams, no zippers, nothing.  It looks like
it was made out of a single piece of cloth."

"But how could that be- No, it does not matter.  Why not just cut it off,
then?"

The doctor sighed again, with the same detached clinical calmness. "We tried.
With a good scalpel, it is possible to start cutting through the material, but
it is incredibly tough.  Moreover-"

"What?"

"Maybe you should try it yourself.  Here."  He was holding a scalpel blade.

The detective shrugged and grasped one piece of the gi, holding it firmly away
from the creature, then moved forward with the scalpel.  As he started cutting,
he wondered why he was doing this instead of getting the creature better
restrained.  But for the moment, his curiosity was winning.

The material was tough, impossibly tough for something that thin and that
flexible.  The scalpel just barely moved into it when he sliced as hard as he
could.  Then the blade froze.

He jerked at it angrily, but it did not give.  Surprised, he bent forward to
get a closer look and saw the blade was surrounded by the gi.  The black
material had grown right around the scalpel, trapping it.

Angry, he pulled as hard as he could, and the scalpel broke free. "Jeez."  He
stared at the blade.

"Exactly."

Williams shook his head in wonder. "But it did cut."

"Look again."

The detective looked at the material.  Then he blinked and looked again,
carefully.

The cloth was unbroken. "I don't understand."

"Neither did we.  After five minutes of doing that, we finally gave up and left
it on.  It did not interfere with the IV, since we were able to roll it up.
But one of the people who was trying to cut it in the first place was curious
and brought in an argon laser and cut the thing with that." The doctor sighed
tolerantly. "We're pretty loose here, this being a lab and all.  Sometimes
people do things that might be considered strange, but we make a lot of
discoveries that way.  Anyway, the material was incredibly resistant to even
that, and only burned slowly, but he managed to get a piece of it away from the
whole."

"So where is it?"  He looked around.

"That's the curious part.  The piece dissolved after a few minutes."

Williams sighed.  Every time he thought he could not be any more surprised,
something new came up.  "It dissolved?"

"That's not the weird part.  When the piece dissolved- disappeared, that is,
the assistant in question checked back at the place where he had cut it from.
The cut was gone, regenerated."

"Did you manage to find anything before the piece dissolved?"

"She managed to look at it under a microscope."

"And?"

The doctor sighed. "As far as she could tell, it was some sort of organic
symbiont."

"Japanese, doctor, please.  I don't speak medicobabble."

Miron smiled genuinely for the first time.  "It is alive, and is in a symbiotic
relationship with this creature."

"You're kidding."  Williams blinked.  "No, you are not kidding.  Isn't that
sort of symbiotic relationship impossible with a human?"

The doctor shook his head. "On the contrary, there are billions of creatures
that live in some form of symbiosis with humans.  Most of these are no larger
than bacteria, but they are there.  E. Coli, for example, live in your
intestines and help you digest things.  And there are hundreds of other.  But-
This-" He gestured at the creature. "This is beyond anything any human has ever
seen, I think.  This symbiont is a complex creature.  Not only that, but it has
the strength of a spider's web, which is one of the toughest materials on the
planet, weight for weight.  If we knew how to create something like this- it
would be worth billions to some.  I mean, just the idea would make many
scientists go somewhat berserk."

Williams felt a sarcastic smile.  "You're telling me we've caught Spider
Man."

Miron did not even smile. "It gets worse.  You asked about the bullets- well,
the answer is, the gi is as good as kevlar armor.  Soaks up impacts like a
sponge.  Although it would not stop a large caliber bullet, or an armor
piercing one, the ones that it got hit with were none of that."

The detective nodded. "22's.  They're standard issue."

The doctor looked at Williams's own holster. "Yours isn't."

The detective looked briefly at the other, wondering where a lab guy would have
gotten that good at identifying weapons. "I wasn't shooting."

Miron nodded. "Smart of you.  Though from what I hear, it seemed rather
interested in you when it attacked."

"Yes, I know.  I have no clue why though," Williams lied.  He knew it had
something to do with the assassin, what he didn't know was how the creature had
known that the detective knew something. "What about the gauntlets?"

"The gloves, you mean?  As far as we can tell, they are also in a sort of
symbiotic relationship, though we doubt that they are alive, per se.  But as
you can see, they seem to be made out of solid metal, yet they move freely when
he moves.  And when he doesn't, they are as strong as any metal I've ever seen.
Maybe stronger."

"Tantalum, maybe?"

The doctor seemed to reappraise him. "An educated cop."  He shrugged.
"Stronger. Whatever it is, we haven't been able to get it off."  He sighed.

Williams nodded. "There's worse news?"

"Yes.  When it first came in, it took us ten minutes or so just to get the IV
needle into him.  His skin is incredibly strong.  Not like the suit, but still.
Then, once we got needle in, we began having problems."

The detective sighed heavily. He did not need this.  He needed sleep.  "What
kind?"

"It started to wake up.  At least, according to the instruments- its heartbeat
began to speed up, all the signs pointed to waking up.  We immediately shot in
another dose of the same stuff that had worked before, but it had very limited
effect.  In the end, we had to double that dose just to keep it under- that's
already ten times the dose needed to put a human to sleep for seventy two
hours.  And in ten minutes it began to wake up again.  We've had to double the
dose every five to ten minutes in the past half hour just to keep it under."

"Double the dose?"  He looked at the creature.

"In theory, it is possible to fight drugs like this.  All humans do it to 
some extent.  But this particular sleeping agent, for various reasons, is 
very difficult to absorb.  And yet its system is getting rid of the drug with
incredible speed.  And each time we add more, it seems to adapt faster the next
time, and it takes a larger dose to keep it asleep.  If things keep going like
this, we are going to run the danger of destroying the osmotic balance in its
system, because of the enormous doses."

"Incredible," Williams breathed.  He did not know what an osmotic balance was,
but he had understood enough.

"We can't afford to do that, though, we might lose an incredible physical model
if we do."  Miron paused, then looked at the detective carefully. "What is this
thing?  And how can we keep something like that prisoner?"

Williams sighed. "I'm not sure you can."  He paused for a moment. "Listen, get
as many people working on it as you can- find out everything you have time for.
But when you can't keep it under any more, tell your people to get clear
fast."

The doctor nodded and they walked out of the cage.  Miron paused to lock the
door while the detective continued.

Williams stopped, suddenly aware that something was wrong.  The two guards who
had been standing next to the door like statues seemed looser somehow, more
relaxed.  As he watched incredulously, one of the men yawned and slid to the
floor, his eyes closed.  The other followed.  The detective bent down to check
on one when the doctor's voice interrupted.

"Detective Williams?"

Williams did not turn around, feeling the cop's pulse.  "Doc, come look at
this."

The other's voice seemed small somehow, but there was a definite urgency in it.
"I think you should take a look at this instead."

Slowly, Williams turned around, and experienced one of the strongest feelings
of deja vu in his life.

The creature was awake.

And the dark gaze was on the detective again.

The ice-black eyes leapt into the detective and he felt his own muscles freeze
solid, his mind shocked into numbness.  Williams watched with a surprising
absence of fear as the creature rippled with power.

The leather restraint on the left arm snapped easily.

To one side, Doctor Miron threw the keys to the cage to one side of the large
room, then stepped away.  Williams saw this, noted it, but did not move.  It
did not touch him, it was too far away to matter.  The doctor turned and
said something, but the sound seemed to be missing.  Then the white-clad man
loosened slightly, tried to suppress a yawn and collapsed to the ground.

The creature seemed quite calm.  The left hand carefully withdrew the IV needle
from the other arm and let it hang loose, dribbling clear liquid on the floor.
Then the other restraints tensed and snapped, and he was free.

Williams swallowed, feeling the blackness of the other's mind and reality
returned in a rush.  He was standing only meters away from a creature which
could leap straight up from the first floor of a mall to the third.  And the
only thing separating them was a bunch of prison steel bars.  For once, those
bars seemed incredibly thin.  But the detective's body was frozen, refusing to
obey.

Two metal hands grasped adjacent vertical bars, and Williams felt tension leap
into the black arms.  With a scream, the bars moved sideways, the metal cross
bracket cracking and falling to the floor in two pieces.  The detective
wondered why the guards outside the door had not heard the shriek of the bars.
The creature stepped calmly through the gap in the metal, brushing the strands
of steel aside as if they were mere decorations.

He stopped a meter away, and for the first time, his eyes really focused on
Williams, allowed to see all the way inside.

In his mind, Williams screamed, but his mouth remained motionless.  He was
falling through a bottomless darkness, falling through space, yet his body
remained there, he knew it.  Only his mind was gone.

What do you want from me? he screamed soundlessly.  Images flickered through
his mind, a confusing jumble of hatred and despair.  Then everything focused on
a single picture.

Williams gasped as the image formed in his mind, clear and perfect in front of
his mental eyes.

It was the girl.

What about her?

The world began to slip away from him again.  He tried to say that he did not
know but words did not come.  He pleaded, wondering what the other wanted, then
suddenly understood.

"You want the assassin."  He was not even surprised that his voice worked.

The darkness that swept through his mind was full of loathing, but the
detective knew that he was right.  He wondered where the assassin was, then
remembered the computer.  Only a few days before, the detective had received
the tentative address of the assassin.  And although he did not remember it, it
was still on the computer-  Williams tried to say something, but his mind was
fading, overwhelmed by the darkness.

Nakiad had blasted through the door before the detective hit the floor.
The guards outside the door slept as well.



The dark animal that had once been Nakiad swept through the city, leaving a
black trail of hatred in its wake.

But Mina did not move in her coma.  Darian and Artemis slept the sleep of the
exhausted.  Serena was out like a log, and Luna was trying to stay asleep with
one of the princess' arms across her back.  Amy was asleep, her mother having
talked to her for a full hour on the phone.  Lita turned over to her other
side, grumbling softly before lapsing into dreams.  Not even Raye, meditating
in front of the sacred flames felt anything, she was too tired.  All of them
were.

They slept as if they knew that they would need all the energy they could
get.

They slept as if they knew that the worst was yet to come.



"Detective?   Detective?"  The voice came from somewhere far away, and Williams
tried to look up through blurry eyes.

He groaned, reaching up. "What is it?  Can't you see that I'm sleeping-" He sat
up straight, the events of the past day coming back to him in a single bolt of
light. "What happened?"

The officer sighed. "You're all right.  We were worried there for a while, when
the others woke up and you did not."

William shook himself and tried to remember what had happened after the
creature had broken free.  He remembered the doctor throwing the keys across
the room, then- He shivered.  Darkness, so black he could not remember, a fog
across his mind.

The voice became concerned. "Are you all right, detective?"

He swallowed hard. "Yes, it's fine.  Just bad memory, I can't remember.  What
happened?"

"Well, we heard the commotion- I mean, it was slamming through walls over
there, not too quiet, and we rushed up.  The guards were asleep, and so was the
doc, and so were you.  But they've woken up almost right afterward, and it's
taken us almost ten minutes to get you out of your trance.  Can you tell us
what happened in there?  Doctor Miron says that he threw away the key, then he
blacked out."

Williams swallowed again, unaware of how pale his face was. "Yes," he whispered
hoarsely. "Something.  It wanted something from me."  The detective felt
strange in his mind, as if he did not belong.  Idly, he realized that he was
thinking of the creature as 'it' again.  The impersonal pronoun made breathing
easier, and he felt himself start to recover.  It was a strange sensation, as
if he were rising from a black fog.

The other's voice was coming from far away.  "It wanted something?  What did it
want?"

The detective screwed his face trying to remember, but his mind was so foggy.
Something Williams knew about, about the girl.  The shooting- "The assassin,"
he gasped out.

"What assassin?  The one at the mall?"

He swallowed. "I think it thinks that the assassin who shot the girl was the
same one I am working on now.  I don't know how it got that notion.  And-"
Williams reeled, suddenly almost laughing.  One of his cases was about to get
rid of another.  

And there was nothing he could do about it.

"And?"

He closed his eyes, remembering. "The computer.  It's going-  Come on!"  He got
up, too suddenly, his head still dizzy, and grasped for support.

The other officer held him up. "Whoah, relax a little.  You aren't fully
recovered yet.  What about the computer?"

"You don't understand," Williams panted out, "the computer has a possible
address for the assassin."

"Don't worry, all the accounts have passwords.  He couldn't possibly-"

"You don't understand," the detective answered painfully. "I left it on.  And I
don't-"

"Don't what?"

He looked up mournfully. "I don't remember the address myself.  And the
computer was on, I left it on."

The officer nodded to someone out of Williams's line of sight, and somebody
else helped hold the detective standing. "Come on, then.  Detective?"

"Yes?"  He was recovering, he thought.  Slowly, but recovering.

"You said that it got the idea that the assassin was the one who had shot that
girl."

"Yes, I know."

"_Is_ it the same assassin?"

Williams laughed, briefly and bitterly. "With my luck?  Very likely."  He
forced himself upright, shaking off the help. "We have to go."



In the second story window a black hole gaped, an opening large enough to drive
a car through.  Only a few fragments of glass were scattered on the pavement
below, which meant that the window had been smashed in from the outside. 
The detective smiled painfully, feeling the need for humor.  At least they 
would have no trouble eliminating suspects.  Not that many people could 
jump up from the street to a second story of a building and
smash through bulletproof glass.

It took them five more minutes to get through the various security checks to
the room, and then a minute or two more for Williams to adjust to the sight of
what had once been his office.

At first, it looked like a tornado had gone through it.  

He looked around once more and decided that that had been an incorrect
assessment.  The destruction was far more profound than that.

The damage was not as widespread as it was powerful.  It was almost as if the
creature was demonstrating just what it was capable of.  If so, then its
efforts had been very successful.  To one side, the bulletproof windows had
been smashed inward, glass spilling over several desks.  The creature had
apparently leapt through the window from the outside, since the desk right next
to the gaping hole was damaged severely, as if some large weight had landed on
it.

The path of the damage was purposeful and direct, and for a moment Williams
wondered how it had known where to go, especially in the dark, after the place
was shut down.

The detective's part of the room- He blinked, then walked over to look at it
again.

The desk had been cleared completely of almost everything, a pile of stuff on
the floor testifying to the force that had swept everything away.  The computer
was in the center of the desk, alone.

Its top had been open as neatly as if someone had taken a can opener to it.
Next to the computer was a small metal box that apparently had been ripped out
of the machine.

Williams reached up and picked the small box up carefully, but it fell apart in
his hands, tiny metal fragments tinkling back to the desk.

Doctor Miron, who had shadowed the detective all the way from the lab, frowned.
"What is it?"

Williams sighed, picking up one of the pieces that had fallen.  It looked
almost like a slice of a CD, but it was golden rather than grayish. "This-"
Williams said bitterly, "is what is left of my hard drive."  He laughed once.
"Smart son of a bitch."

The doctor blinked. "How so?"

"Now it has the information on the assassin, and I do not.  It could have
easily smashed the whole computer flat with the table, but I think it 
wanted me to know how smart it was.  It's a warning of sorts, get it?"  
Somewhere, Williams knew it was not particularly funny, but it 
seemed like a gigantic joke.

"And are you going to heed that warning?"

Williams smiled crookedly. "I was never particularly smart."  He picked up the
phone from the floor and cursed when there was no dialing tone, then went over
and picked up the phone from the desk next to his.  His fingers dialed in a
number too rapidly for the doctor to follow, then he waited.

"Come on," the detective whispered, then paused. "This is Detective Peter
Williams, so cut the crap, all right?  I'm having a bad day."  He paused once
more, than sighed. "All right, sorry.  I've had a bad day.  I'd like a pizza
with onions and celery."  Another pause. "So kill a cow.  There, satisfied?"
He waited for a moment, then seemed to interrupt. "Look, I know it's late, but
call him and get him there now.  I need that address."  Williams looked over at
the doctor and sighed, waiting. "Yes, I know you can't have him say have him
say the password over the phone, so wake him up and get him there in person,
have him open the computer himself.  Fine.  Good."  He paused, then hung up and
turned once more to the doctor.

"So?"

"There's good news and there's bad news.  The good news is that the address is
on another computer.  The bad news is that there is no one there at the moment
who has the password, the password can not be said over the phone, and the
person will take maybe half an hour getting there."

Miron nodded and sighed. "Are you even sure that it was the address the
creature was after?"

Williams laughed once more, harshly.  The humor was fading. "No," he
answered.

_	_	_


Norge Sicar was not worried.  Or so he told himself.  But it was true that the
movements of the cloth he was using to polish his gun were a lot jerkier than
usual, and he was breathing a lot quicker than he should have been.

The incident in the mall had scared him.  He was a professional, and he had
carried out over a dozen assignments successfully, with almost no problems.
Assassins who made mistakes did not survive. And this time, there should have
not been any problem.

True, the location had not been to his liking, but he should have been able to
carry it off.  That creature- He breathed out softly, halting his movements and
trying to wipe out that darkness from his memories.

No one should have been able to hear that shot from across the mall, no one.
Sicar should have been able to escape unnoticed as always.  But instead, that
thing had shot something at him, had almost killed him.  And if it had not
stopped for some reason, he would not have escaped.

He forced himself to calm down once more.  He was away now, and everything had
turned out to be all right.  The money had been deposited to his account, an
incredible payment for the unusual job.  He wondered once more why he had not
been supposed to kill the girl outright, but wiped that thought out of his mind
as well.  It was not for him to question an assignment, especially not one so
lucrative.

He wiped the gun one last time and placed it into the suitcase.  The apartment
he was in was supposed to be a safehouse, and was a good distance away from the
mall, but he did not feel safe yet, nor would he until he left the city.  If he
ever smiled he would have done so now as he pondered whether to leave his
business permanently.  The payment was enough to guarantee an extremely
pleasant retirement in a country where no law could reach him.  Still, even
before he had had enough money for that, but something always kept him going,
not stopping.  But this time, the creature-  He froze.

Something was not right.

The building was silent as far as he could hear, only the sounds of the night
coming through the window.  But it was not a sound that had alerted him, but a
feeling in his gut, a sixth sense that most professionals learned to trust over
their careers.  Those that did not-  Sicar smoothed into motion.

One hand opened the suitcase silently, the other withdrew the gun he had just
finished cleaning.  With quiet movements, he screwed on the silencer and faced
the door, retreating into a darker corner of the room and taking careful aim.

Nothing happened.

He swallowed hard, not moving.  Like the ancient ninja, he had long trained his
body to remain motionless for hours if circumstances required it.

Sicar did not as much hear the footsteps as feel them, coming toward his door.
And in a flash of darkness, he knew it was the creature and swallowed.  It was
death that was approaching his room, death as surely as if it were a cloaked
figure with a scythe.  And it was not disguising its approach, for he knew it
could have been silent.

He looked down at his hands, gratified that they were not shaking.  He did not
fear his own end, not since the time-  He refused to think about that, focusing
on the moment.  He was not going to spend his last moments of life thinking
uselessly about the past.

Something hard slammed against the door, hard enough to make the heavy wood
squeal and the hinges bulge.  He was in a very old hotel it what had once been
one of the richest areas of Tokyo, which was why he had chosen it.  The door
was made out of wood, real wood, precious in the country.  It would not give
easily.

The heavy oak exploded inward, turned into a cloud of soundless chips of wood,
flying toward him, making no sound.

He did not hear himself scream, did not remember squeezing the trigger of the
gun.  But it fired once, twice.  Then a black hand closed on the barrel,
crushing it and another grasped the assassin by the throat.

For a timeless moment, Norge Sicar found himself staring once more into the
bottomless eyes, and in that instant, he made his peace.

Then the darkness smashed into his mind, questions pouring at him, tearing
through his sanity.

A bubble of darkness surrounded the apartment, and no one heard the shrieks of
pain.

_	_	_


The sun rose slowly over the city, and with it, the screams quieted, then died.
A black shape leapt out of an apartment window minutes later, the darkness
fading from the room.  Below, a dozen police cars halted in front of the
building.

For long moments, everything was silent, then a single shape appeared at the
entrance to the room.  It was Williams.

He took one look at the room and swallowed hard.  For several seconds, his lips
moved without saying anything, then he forced his eyes aside. "My god," he
whispered hoarsely, then the smell hit him, and with it the reality of what
must have happened.

The room had been taken apart piece by piece.  No piece of furniture larger
than a fist remained, and wood shavings coated the floor liberally.  To one
side, scraps of fabric that seemed to have once been part of a suitcase lay in
a heap, with fragments of metal mixed inside.

But it was not that that shocked the detective.

The whole room was red with blood.  Crimson covered every surface imaginable,
from the floor to the ceiling, obscuring the whitewashed walls, hiding the
damage to the bed, covering everything.  And it was painfully obvious that all
of that blood had come from one person.

The detective reeled as his eyes took in more detail.  Chips of white which
were probably remainders of bone mixed with the red, other colors equally
garish mixed in with the gore.  A gray puddle that looked like it may have been
brain tissue once was in one corner.  A partially squashed eye was in
another.

Strong arms caught him as he reeled, held him up. "My god, he repeated
tonelessly.

There was no piece of the assassin left large enough to even identify him as a
human being.

Behind him, he felt someone turn aside and heard the sounds of throwing up,
then the world started spinning around his head.  Not counting the dreamless
slumber imposed by the creature, he had been awake for almost twenty four
hours, and the added shock was too much.  He wondered at the lucidity of his
own thoughts as he fainted.



"Hi mom, dad."

Serena's parents nodded but did not take their eyes from the screen.  Their
faces were noticeably pale as they watched the screen.

"Guys, what is it?"

The blonde flinched at her mother's voice. "Serena, go into the kitchen
please."

"But, mooom-"

"Now."  Her mother's voice softened slightly. "Please, dear."

Serena blinked at the tone, then nodded and went into the kitchen, closing the
door.  The princess turned to the black cat who had followed her. "Luna."

"I'm on it," the guardian agreed, then walked softly through the door.



".. and now, another update on the creature who seems to be loose in Tokyo.
Some of you may think the police are doing their best to protect the people of
Tokyo, and some may have doubts on that account.  Perhaps this story and its
consequences may make you think over your allegiances.  As you know, yesterday
afternoon there was a shooting at the Crossroads district mall, in which one
girl, whose name has not yet been disclosed, was shot.  According to confirmed
reports, however, she is now at the district hospital and is listed as being
comatose.  More news on her, and the people who were with her is unavailable at
this time."

"A far greater worry appeared at the same time, however, a worry that applies
to all of us.  Some sort of creature appeared at the mall right after the shot
was fired.  This could hardly be a coincidence, and although no lives were
taken by that creature, it escaped, and seemed to save the girl's life by
taking her to the hospital in the first place.  As you know, only minutes later
it, quote 'leapt through a second story building, smashed through the glass,
fell to the ground and escaped,' according to witnesses."

"That story you know already from yesterday's report, but this you do not.
Last night, the police allegedly apprehended the creature, and took it to a
science research lab that works closely with the department.  But they allowed
this creature to escape only minutes later, as you can see from this photograph
that shows the hole in the lab."

"The creature then seemed to have crossed half the city, undetected and
uncaptured by the police, and broke into a police station, where its actions
are still held under security and have not been released to the media.
However, it is known that the creature emerged from the building unharmed only
minutes later, and disappeared."

The reporters paused, and his face grew sad. "Ladies and gentlemen, only a few
hours ago, police have come to the scene of a gruesome murder.  Although the
police department has refused us access to the apartment where the homicide had
been committed, we were able to catch a few seconds of tape through the window
from the roof of the adjacent buildings.  We recommend that women, children and
sick people should not view this if possible."  The reporter's face
flickered.

The TV screen flickered, and everyone in the room gasped.

Through the window, the apartment was covered with red.  Though the picture was
unsteady and repeated after only a few frames, it was obvious that the crimson
color was blood.  It covered everything, only blocked out by the cops standing
at the far edge of the room.



Serena sat up straight immediately as the black cat had entered the room.
"Luna, what's wrong?  You look terrible."

The guardian paused for a few moments, then Serena's parents came into the
kitchen.  The girl's mother paused. "Serena."

"Yes, mom?"

"We have decided that you are not going to school today."

"I'm not going-"  A brief flash of elation was immediately replaced by worry.
"But why?"

Her mom looked at her strangely. "I thought of all the people, you'd be the
last to question such a thing."

The princess paled. "What's wrong, you guys?  I can feel, you're hiding
something from me."

Her father nodded to her mother and the woman sighed. "Look, that creature at
the mall, it's on the loose.  And-"

"Mother?"

"And it's done something terrible."

The princess felt fear rising in her. "What?  What did it do?"

"Serena," her dad interrupted sharply. "Go to your room."

The girl swallowed hard, but obeyed.  Behind her, the parents exchanged worried
glances.



The princess sat hard on her bed, then turned to Luna.  For once, her face was
serious. "Luna, what happened?  What did Nakiad do?"

The black cat sighed, filled with pain. "Call the others."

_	_	_


"Oh, man, not again."  Williams sat up with a headache, then remembered the
room and emptied his stomach to one side.  The smell did not help his senses
any.

The blurry person in front of him smiled grimly. "You aren't the first."  It
was the doctor's voice, Miron's.  "Here, drink this."

It tasted like water, but his eyesight cleared remarkably and he calmed quickly
as he gulped to clear his throat of the aftertaste of the vomit.  His stomach
almost rebelled, but settled in a few moments. "What was that?"

"Water."  The doctor paused, then sighed. "There was a slight sedative in it,
but that's to calm you down.  You have to get some sleep, though, soon."

Williams pushed with his arms. "Later.  Report," he said to the first uniformed
shape he saw.

The policewoman sighed, taking off red covered gloves. "Well, the good news is
that there is plenty of tissue for DNA scan," she answered, her mouth twitching
only slightly in disgust.  "But the bad news is that whoever he was, he was
human."

The detective sat down on the edge of the table he had been lying on.  Idly, he
noticed that he was still in the apartment building.  "Do we know who-"

The woman shook her head, shivering. "There is no way to find out yet, not
enough evidence."  Her professional composure began to break down. "My god,
detective, what happened in there?  It looks like he's been passed through a
combine, then what was left was sprayed all over the place.  There isn't even a
whole bone left, I can't even find the teeth.  What the hell could have done
this?"  Her eyes were wide.

He sighed. "Only one creature that I know of."

She shivered again. "It's loose in the city, isn't it?"

He nodded shortly.

She blinked, then set her face grimly.  "Then we have to find it, and destroy
it.  Now."

He clenched one fist. "Look, dammit, we don't know what his motives are.  If
this is who we think it is, then the genetic test will confirm that this is the
assassin.  In that case, perhaps it was justified."

She stared at him wildly. "Have you _seen_ that room?  Nothing could justify
that sort of savagery."

To one side, Miron nodded. "I'm afraid I have to agree with her.  That thing
has to be destroyed, before it starts going after other people."

In his mind, Williams sobbed wildly from the stress, but he kept his face
composed. "Dammit, don't you understand?  This thing, it knows things.  That
incredible suit, the powers.. We could learn so much from it, if we just-"

The doctor place one hand on his shoulder and he quieted, looking up. "We will
learn from it- after it is stopped.  But I will not condone risking the lives
of innocent people for an experiment."  He looked somber.

Williams threw his arm off, getting up sharply. "What do you know, anyway?"  He
was almost yelling now. "You're just a lab guy, I'm the detective.  How could
you know how it feels-"

The other's eyes interrupted him. "I know," he said quietly. "I've been in your
place.  That's why I transferred to the lab, why I spent four years at night
school just to get away from it all.  That's why I know you have to kill it."

The new voice cut across Williams's ears. "And I am afraid that I have to
agree."

It was Mike.

The detective stared at his old friend. "Et tu?"

The other officer's eyes were not sympathetic. "It's the way it has to be,
detective.  You know it is."

For several moments, Williams stared into space, then he sighed. 

They were right.

"I know," he finally said. He raised his voice slightly. "Put out an APB on the
creature, tell them to shoot to kill.  And use high caliber, armor piercing
rounds, his clothes are as strong as a kevlar vest."

Mike nodded. "It's already been done.  The chief called the shots.  She's been
going nuts ever since some news idiots managed to get a shot of the room."

"They wha-?"  He didn't finish the question, and looked around the room
brokenly.  It was out of his hands now, really, he had no control.  He wondered
if the police would manage to kill the creature and sat down on the bed.
"Doc?"

"Yeah?"  The answer was soft.

"I'll just take that sleep now, if you don't mind.  All right?"

"Sure."  Before Williams could say anything, the doctor was continuing. "We'll
wake you up if it's spotted."

Gratefully, the detective sighed and lay back on the hard table, closing his
eyes.  For some reason, finding a bed just did not seem very important.

_	_	_


Darian nodded somberly, looking at the screen.  It was divided into four parts,
one for each of the scouts.

"Yes," he said heavily, "I turned the news on as soon as I woke up."

Behind him, Artemis was pacing. "I should have seen it," the white cat
murmured, "I should have stayed awake."

Darian looked behind him briefly. "We all had to rest, you're not to blame.  I
was just as asleep as you."

"Um, guys," Amy interrupted. "You're forgetting something- we need a plan of
some sort.  You do realize that the police can not afford to try to capture him
anymore."

Raye frowned. "Why not?"

"The publicity," Luna said, moving Serena aside a little to be caught by the
communicator's camera. "They are all blaming the police force and the city.
It's into politics now- they can not afford to try to capture him anymore."

Lita nodded grimly. "So they'll use deadly force."

Darian sighed. "Almost certainly.  So what do we do?  Obviously we have to find
him- but how?"

Serena fidgeted. "We have a slight problem.  My parents are not letting me out
of sight, or out of the house."

"I suspected that might happen," Artemis said, "is it a problem for anyone
else?"

Amy shook her head. "I talked to my mom yesterday, she won't call until this
evening at least."

Lita shook her head, but Raye looked doubtful. "I don't think grandpa would
object," the red scout said, "but he might suspect something is wrong."

"He already does," Artemis said quietly for Darian's ears alone.  The prince
smiled, remembering, but did not reply.

"OK, then," Luna said calmly. "Serena is staying home-" The blonde scout looked
rebellious but did not say anything. "-she can keep an eye on the news and talk
to all of us.  The rest of us have to split up and look over the city, we have
to try to find Nakiad, and find him before the police do.  Understood?"

The others nodded.

"How do we split up, then?"

Artemis came out from behind Darian. "I think for a search mission, one person
will be enough, but we'll have to stay in constant contact.  Luna and I-"

The black cat interrupted, glancing at Serena. "I'll stay here.  You go with
someone, you can't keep up with a scout on your own."

The white guardian nodded and glanced at Darian, who blinked in agreement.
"Then it's all set, then."



Serena turned to Luna, her eyes flashing. "What, now you don't trust me to even
stay at home on my own?"

The black guardian sighed. "It's not that, it's just that- well, I don't want
to leave you alone."  The cat wondered how she could describe how protective
she felt of the young princess, despite everything that the girl had made it
through.  The fact that Luna was fairly new to her job made things even
harder.

For several seconds, Serena stared at the cat, then the girl sighed. "I know,
Luna.  I'm sorry, it's just that-"  The girl turned to her window, staring out
of the city and the sentence trailed off.

I know, Luna answered silently, lying down next to the princess.  I know.

_	_	_


"Yo, where'd it go?"  The policeman stared at the end of the dock.  "I could
have sworn he'd gone this way."

His partner came up slowly, her gun out. "I saw it too.  Think it jumped in?"

The man shrugged, running his eyes over the calm blue. "No way.  The water's
freezing, it'd never survive.  Besides, if it had dived in, it would have come
up for air already."

"Maybe," she shrugged. "Or maybe that thing doesn't need air."

"Think we should report it?"

"Sure.  But no one's going to find it if it did go in."



The water closed over his head, sealed off the air, the morning, the sun.
Ahead of him, metal claws parted the water, thrusting his body forward.  The
water was cold, incredibly cold.  But the temperature did not sear his skin,
did not tear through his eyes.  It settled against him, pressing in gently, and
seemed to almost become part of his dark power. 

He rand water over his gills silently, swimming down toward the depths, where
darkness prevailed even in the brightest day, where the sunlight never
penetrated.  There, he rested, moving only enough to keep water running over
his gills, his body silent.  Away from the noisy minds of the city, he closed
his eyes.

His gauntlets were covered with blood now, dried blood, old and clotted.  For a
moment, as the assassin's screams had deafened him, the hunger for death within
had been satisfied, the darkness had retreated slightly, and he had felt almost
as if he had reached a balance.

But not enough.  The black hatred burned within him yet, and it the death of
the one he had sought had made it stronger, not weaker.  The dark power 
hungered for more vengeance, more blood.  And so he had prolonged the 
death of the assassin, trying to find the identity of the real enemy.

But the man had been a professional, his mind hardened by years of killing, and
there had been no way to get the information.  Now the blackness within Nakiad
was surging once more, seeking a new release.

He opened his eyes, staring at the metallic gloves.  The salt water flowed over
them, loosened the blood, washed the red away.  Fragments of it drifted out
into the blackness, out of sight, disappearing forever.

The blackness surged, overpowering even the small control there was left as he
watched the blood float away.

He wanted more.

_	_	_


Nothing.

"What do you mean, nothing?" Serena asked, worried again.  For hours, the
scouts had been scouring the city, looking for that creature.  The city was
panicking, almost literally.  School had been canceled, which was the only good
thing Serena could think of.  But the groups of scouts had found nothing, not
even the slightest trace of Nakiad's presence.

"I mean," Raye answered, annoyed, "that I can not even feel his presence, and
certainly can not find him.  It's like he disappeared into thin air."

The princess sighed. "Anyone else?"

The others, all linked into the same communication, agreed with Raye.  
Nakiad had vanished, and was impossible to find.  And if he had 
retained all of his training, then he could remain hidden indefinitely.

Artemis cleared his throat.  Darian and he had taken the communicator they had
found at Nakiad's house, the communicator the Chosen had used at one point
to alert the scouts to the danger of the knight.  "Scouts, you forget that this 
is good news," the white cat said calmly.

"Meaning what?"  Lita asked, irritated.  The sun was already almost down.  The
searching had taken a lot of time, and had been exhausting.  She had not
complained about her wound, but it obviously hampered her, for she had
searched the smallest area of all the scouts.

Artemis sighed. "Meaning that we originally thought that after destroying the
assassin, he would go berserk and start attacking innocent people."

"At least that would tell us his location," Raye grumbled softly.

"Raye!" Luna reprimanded, shocked.

"No, think about it," the red scout protested. "As it is, we do not know where
he is, or what he is planning, or what he is going to attack.  We know nothing-
and that worries me.  He himself had taught us that surprise is a deadly
tool."

Luna lowered her head. "Maybe, Raye, maybe."

"So what do we do now?" Amy asked.  She had stayed out of the argument until
then.

Darian seemed to frown. "Keep searching, obviously."

Serena sat up. "Maybe we should regroup at Nakiad's house, look for something
that may help us.  He believes in being prepared- did you ask the computer
about anything that could help us capture him?"

Darian paused. "No, I haven't."

Next to him, Artemis frowned. "He told me about one thing.." He trailed off. "I
think we should check it out. Scouts?"

The others agreed, only slightly reluctant.  They had had a long day, and were
all tired.

The prince paused before turning off the comlink. "Serena?"

The princess was already getting up. "I'll be there.  My mom and dad are busy
downstairs, and they checked on me a few minutes ago, so they aren't likely to
do it again for several hours.  Sammy- well, I can take care of him.  I'll be
there."

"Good," the prince said emphatically, then the communicator beeped several
times as the others broke the links.

_	_	_


Williams yawned, then felt his back twinge and forced his eyes open.  He was
not lying on the table any more, apparently someone had moved him to a couch
while he slept.  Unfortunately, the couches in the cheap apartment building were
somewhat less comfortable than an oak board, and he felt like someone wearing
ice skates had walked over his back.

He sat up in the bed, forcing himself all the way awake, then walked over to
the window.

The sun was setting. "Jeez," he said quietly.

"Good evening," someone said behind him.  He twisted immediately, only relaxing
when he realized it was Mike.  His friend looked tired.

"Anything?" Williams asked, his voice hoarse.  He had not thought that he would
sleep that long.

"Well, right after you fell asleep, a pair of cops thought they had seen it
near the docks, but it disappeared and we haven't heard from it since.  A
couple of scubadivers went looking in the harbor, but, well, it's cold out
there, and that's a lot of water to search.  If it drowned, it'll turn up on
the beach eventually.  Also, we did a genetic test on the blood in the room."

Williams was surprised that his stomach did not even twinge.  Probably because
he had not eaten anything in a day, he thought with annoyance. "And?"

"It's a match with the hair sample we had of the assassin.  He was definitely
the victim."

He sighed. "Then it did have a reason."

"Perhaps.  We also scanned the room for fingerprints and found nothing."

"Gee, I wonder why?"

"It gets worse.  Back at the lab, they had withdrawn a sample of the creature's
blood, to do a DNA scan.  But the sample dissolved only minutes afterwards, we
only found out now."

Williams refused to be surprised. "How does that work, anyway?"

"Well," a new voice said, "we aren't sure."

"Doctor Miron," the detective identified him.

"Indeed.  We think that the lysosomes, that's the vesicles that carry digestive
enzymes in each cell, have something to do with it, but there should not be
enough of a pH gradient in blood cells to dissolve through the nuclear and
outer membranes."

For a long minute, Williams tried to work through the sentence, then gave up.
It had been a long time since his last biology class. "So no one has seen the
creature."

Mike shook his head. "No."  He paused. "How are you feeling?"

The detective stretched. "Better.  I am going out there."

"What?"

"After it.  Dammit, I don't know what it is, but something tells me I can find
it."  He saw his friend start to interrupt and continued quickly. "Listen, back
at the lab, with, it learned where my office was.  Have you thought how?  Well,
I'll tell you how- it went into my brain.  Just stared at what I was thinking
of, and I couldn't do a damn thing about it.  And-"

Miron waited before prompting. "And?"

He sighed. "And ever since then, I felt kind of a link to it, I don't know what
it is about.  But I think I can find it.  Or-"  He paused. "Or, it will find
me."

They stared at him for several moments as if her were crazy.

Mike sighed. "I don't suppose I can talk you out of it, so I guess I am going
with you."

Williams shook his head. "No.  First of all, you shouldn't even be working on
this case.  What are you doing here, anyway?"  Technically, the other was his
superior, but Mike had been answering questions as if the detective was the one
in charge.

His friend shrugged. "I can put off my cases for a while."

"Which does not answer my question.  Did the chief send you to watch over
me?"

"Listen, you have to understand, this is politics now.  The people upstairs
have to close this case fast, before the people start panicking, or else they
will lose their jobs.  And no one trusts you to pull the trigger."

"That's because I'm not going to."  He sighed. "Fine, but you follow my
orders."

His friend looked at him seriously. "Only as long as they don't interfere with
your safety, or anyone else's."

"Fine."  Then a strange feeling passed through him.

"What is it?"  Miron asked, concerned.  "Are you feeling all right?"

Williams shrugged off the help, feeling his own eyes widening. "It's moving."
He looked straight at Mike. "Get me a chopper."



A single gauntlet broke the surface of the water, cutting through it smoothly,
separating the darkening blue.  Framed by the orange flames of the setting sun,
Nakiad rose from the harbor, his gi black once more, the gauntlets pure, clean
steel.  The water had wiped the last traces of blood from his body, cleaning
him.

But the fire that burned in his eyes and in his heart was blacker than ever.



Artemis sighed deeply.  They had been discussing the situation for almost half
an hour, and had gotten nowhere.

Raye looked up.  "Nakiad told us that he had been working on new weapons since
his meld with Guardian."

Amy's eyes widened. "Of course.  The knowledge-"

Serena blinked. "Yes.  The added knowledge of eons of ancient technology and
the perspective of so many people made him appreciate the value weapons can
sometimes have.  Until then, he had been very adverse to building anything like
that, but now- I don't know."  The princess smiled slightly at the complex
thought.

Lita suddenly raised an eyebrow. "What about the suits?"

Raye shook her head. "No, he specifically said those would hamper us more than
help us if we were in scout mode."

Artemis shrugged. "That old information must be hard to remember, I'm sure that
was not his first failure. He turned up toward the ceiling a little, 
automatically.  They were in one of the upper levels of the complex, next to a
lift access. "Computer."

"Yes," the melodic, slightly mechanical voice replied immediately.

"Did Nakiad leave any instructions, anything that might help us capture him."

The computer paused. "No.  But he did leave instructions in the event of an
emergency."  Amy frowned slightly at the qualifier, but did not say anything.

"What?  No, on second thought, just get us to those instructions, or display
them, or whatever you need to do."

The lift opened, and the scouts piled in.  None of them flinched when the floor
dropped out from under them, since they were all well used to the peculiarities
of Nakiad's elevator system.

The lift halted smoothly then opened into a room they were well versed with.

The weapons room.

Darian frowned. "I don't remember anything in particular that was special
here."

"It is not here," the computer replied unbidden, startling them.  "Follow the
light."

The room's brightness toned down, then a line of light that did not have any
obvious source appeared along the metallic floor.  The scouts gave a collective
shrug and followed.

The path led to a door, similar to the one that led to the power suit room.
But the room they entered was much smaller and brightly lit.

Along one side were large panels with symbols on them.

Artemis raised his head. "Computer?"

The air in front of them glowed in answer, making the scouts jerk back.  A
vague outline appeared in the air, a shimmering figure forming.

It was Nakiad, in full battle attire, his face was grim.

For several moments, everyone stared.

Amy raised an eyebrow.  Her visor had come up instantly and she turned slightly
to the scouts. "A hologram."

Nothing happened for a moment, then Nakiad shifted in his stance slightly.

"Sailor Scouts," he said formally, again startling the scouts.  His voice was
realistic, and seemed to be coming from the figure.  It was a very admirable
illusion.

"I am obviously not there.  While there is a chance that I am merely away for
the moment, it seems unlikely that you would be in dire straits at such a time.
Therefore, I presume that I am either dead, or have been compromised by the
dark forces within me."  The image blurred slightly, then refocused. "The dark
forces it is.  Scouts, it is imperative that you capture me as soon as it is
possible.  If that is impossible-"  Nakiad paused, then looked at them
seriously. "Then you have to destroy me.  It might be difficult to understand
for you, but it has to be that way.  In that form, I am incredibly dangerous,
to myself and to anyone around me."

"You might think the creature is just a dark animal with no thoughts, but I
know for a fact that it is not stupid. Remember, no matter how it might
seem to act, I am still inside it, it carries my knowledge with it.  The
memories may be blurred, and the emotions raging inside are overpowering, but
the knowledge will be there.  Including memories of this recording.  In the
event that I am compromised, I will do my best to hide this from the creature,
but I do not know if I will be able to.  I do not think I will."

The image blurred for a moment once more. "I have not had enough time to
prepare for this contingency, but I did get a chance to work on some weapons
for you.  I have never tested them on myself, so that I would not have
experience avoiding those attacks, and will have to rely on theoretical
knowledge.  The weapons might give you an edge you would lack if you were
fighting with your standards attacks.  If you were, you would-"  He paused,
then shrugged. "You have surprised your enemies before."  The hologram frowned.
"And I assure you, if I have turned dark, then I am your enemy.  I will not
stop from killing any of you."

The image sighed and stayed still for such a long moment that it seemed over,
then he looked up. "Sailor Scouts, remember this: I believe in you.  Fight
well."

The image flickered and faded out.  Above, the lights came on strongly once
more, fully awakening the scouts.  Several spotlights came on, shining over the
strange panels.



There were six all together, each the size of a normal human being.  The
symbols were in their centers, and seemed to be intended for each scout.  The
symbols of the five scouts' origins were there, as well as a rose symbol.

Amy frowned, tapping on her computer. "I can't tell what's there, there's some
sort of interference."

Lita smiled. "Then I guess we'll just have to take the direct approach."
Without hesitating, she came forward and stood directly in front of the symbol
of Jupiter.

A brief light flickered over her, then the sign of her planet ignited for a
moment.  The edges of the panel glowed and twisted somehow.  In a flash of
energy, the metal cover was gone.  Out of the gaping hole, several objects slid
out.

The obvious one was the gun, which Amy's mind labeled as an energy weapon of
some sort.  It was easily as long as Lita's arm, and as thick.  Unlike most of
Nakiad's modern weapons, this one retained the metallic hue of its making
rather than being covered with the strange, light absorbing black the Chosen
normally used.  The blaster looked very simple.  At one end was the handle for
one hand, in the middle another.  Under the first hand was a single contact
button and at the opposite end of the barrel a single hole.

Above the blaster, however, was something a little stranger.  It looked a
little like Amy's visor, except that it was green and had things at the ends
that looked like they hooked over the ears.

The green scout reached out to touch the metal of the gun, then almost jumped
back when Nakiad appeared once more.

"Sailor Jupiter.  This is the most powerful of the weapons, in sheer brute
strength.  It emits a high energy blast of radiation which will fry everything
in its path.  In an energy-by-energy comparison, it is perhaps ten times more
powerful at the highest setting than your own thunderbolt, though less
flexible.  The gauge at the bottom sets the power, on a logarithmic scale.  The
other control is the width of the beam, which varies from an angle of zero,
which is a straight beam, to a five degree angle, which is more of a spray.
The visor goes over your eyes.  It connects to the blaster to create a
primitive targeting assembly.  Not an overly complex weapon, but it gets the
job done."  For a moment, the hologram smiled slightly. "'Nothing like the
direct approach, huh?'"  It grew grim again.  "Try it."

The scouts flinched as the opposite wall slid into the ceiling, making the room
a little longer.  At the revealed end, part of the wall slid out a little, and
the scouts saw circles etched in the metal in the shape of a bull's eye.

Lita shrugged and put on the visor, fumbling only slightly with the ear
catches, then grabbed the gun.  It slid easily into her arms, and the weight
did not seem the hamper her.

The blast was almost noiseless.  A whisper passed from the weapon and the air
ignited directly in front of the nozzle.  A pencil thick beam of bluish white
light lit up between the weapon and the center of the target, then vanished.

Lita looked down at the weapon disparagingly.  "That wasn't particularly
impressive."  She turned to the hologram, but it was merely there, unmoving.

Raye, meanwhile, had walked over to the other end of the room. "Um, Lita, you
might want to take a look at this."

The other scouts walked over to look at the target.  It was still red around
the edges, but the damage was unmistakable.  "Jeez," the green scout whispered,
her gloved hands tightening on the weapon she had held so carelessly only a
moment ago.

The target had been a four inch thick piece of metal.  With that single burst,
Lita had cut a hole all the way through it, and through part of the wall behind
it.  The hole was also far thicker than the pencil beam, the metal having
melted for almost an inch all around.

Amy looked at the green scout with a smile as Lita's eyes ignited. "Wow," the
tall girl said. "That wasn't even the highest setting." She turned to Nakiad.

The image flickered again, and he continued.  The recording must have been made
interactive, in pieces designed to respond to their actions, Amy realized.
That explained the slight pauses and the way he seemed to have understood that
he had turned dark.

Meanwhile, the Chosen had started talking. "The purity of the metal kept the
hole very straight, but in real life, materials subjected to such a sudden
change in temperature will react in unpredictable ways.  Do not be surprised if
you aim the thing at a rock, and it explodes.  Any strong porous material will
tend to react the same way.  One more thing-  If this weapon were directed
against me, I might or might not be able to absorb the beam if it hits
directly, probably not at the highest setting.  However, because the blast is
so precise, it will at worst cut a perfectly cauterized hole in me, which is
something I can regenerate with relative ease.  Do not fear for my life."  The
hologram's eyes flashed with slight darkness. "It is not worth much the way I
am now," he said calmly, then vanished.

The green scout looked at the weapon carefully. "I think I'm in love."  She
grinned. "Who's next?"

Raye shrugged. "Why not."  She stood on the spot next to the sign of Mars and
did not flinch as the light played over her.  None of the scouts were surprised
when the panel twisted in on itself and disappeared.

The red scout looked at the objects, puzzled.  

It was a pair of gloves.

Several of the other scouts shivered, and one of Lita's hands stole down to
where a bandage still covered her partially healed side.  Though that had not
been done using the gauntlets, the memories were too similar for comfort.

Raye reached out, picking up the two gloves.  They seemed to be made out of a
material similar to Nakiad's gi, but white, matching her outfit.  The two were
also thicker, as if something were in the middle of the layer of materials.

The hologram appeared again, startling the scouts slightly.  "I tried to make
the weapons appropriate to each person.  These gloves will not create any kind
of destruction on their own.  Instead, they are an enhancement to your own
powers, which are direct enough that an energy gun might have been redundant.
I am not sure myself how they work, but the blueprints were in my mind after I
joined with Guardian.  It seemed important to my mind somehow, so I built them
and tinkered with them until they worked.  These create very low level
forcefields at locations determined by the user.  Although this might not seem
particularly useful- well, it is easier if I demonstrate it.  Put the gloves
and the band on."  The image froze.

"Band?"  Raye asked, then saw it, above the place where the gloves had 
been.  It was actually half of a circle of metal, almost flat, about the size of her
tiara.  Understanding, she took the tiara off and placed the band on the inside
of the golden circlet, where the band adhered easily.  She put the tiara back
on.

Amy frowned. "How do you feel?"

The red scout shrugged. "The same."

"According to the computer and the visor, that thing is very complicated.  As
near as I can tell, it picks up biochemical signals-"

"You mean, like from my mind?"

Amy shook her head. "If I am reading correctly, then it is picking up signals
from your tiara directly, which is connected to you.  So it might be a mental
control device, but then I have no clue how it works."

Raye nodded and put on the gloves over her scout gloves.  It was slightly
uncomfortable for a moment, then the outer gloves almost seemed to adjust their
size, and her hands was loose again.

Nakiad unfroze. "With the combination of the mental link and hand signals, you
should be able to control the forcefields easily.  It may seem impossible, but
the link is designed in a way that should make the controlling process
instinctive."  He almost smiled. "Of course, at this point, you want to know
what this is good for.  The forcefields themselves are not powerful enough to
do damage. As you know, your flames are magical, in the sense that they will
burn anywhere, even with no fuel.  However, unless you make them into a
firebird, which is very energy draining, the fire will go out in a direct path,
which is not always convenient.   The forcefield projected by the gloves is, in
a sense, nothing more than an area of air that has a different pressure than
the air around it.  In your training, you probably found out that such pockets
of pressure can affect your attacks significantly."

Raye blinked. "Oh."

"I think the only way you'll see," the hologram was continuing, "is to try it
on your own.  Go ahead.  The mental link takes its information directly from
your tiara, which is part of you in a very physical sense.  That should make
the controls easy."  The image froze.

The red scout shrugged yet again and put out a hand. "Fire."  A burst of flames
appeared just beyond her fingers and rushed out at the far wall.  Then it
stopped in midair.

Even Raye looked surprised, then the priestess concentrated.

The fire burned in midair for a few moments, then jerked back and forth several
times.  Suddenly, it seemed to be hit from front and back and it flattened,
spreading out into a circle.  In a moment, there was a weak wall of flames
across the room.

Beads of sweat were appearing on Raye's forehead, and she breathed out
suddenly, letting the concentration go.  The flames flickered and disappeared.
Raye slowly smiled at the gloves. "Maybe I could get to like this after all."

Nakiad unfroze again. "It will take a little practice to get used to the mental
commands, but generally, all you have to do is remember that what you want to
happen will happen naturally.  Do not try to force it.  Good luck."

The image flickered and disappeared.

Raye smiled again. "Two down, four to go," she said, looking at the panels.
Then her face fell, realizing that Mina wasn't there. "Me and my big mouth,"
the priestess murmured, stepping aside.

Serena turned to her. "It's all right, Raye," she said with surprising
gentleness.

The red scout smiled gratefully. "Your turn, meatball head.  Hope Nakiad has
something good in store, 'cause you can use all the help you can get."

"Oooo," Serena muttered. "Why you little-"  She stopped, glancing at Darian.
"Might as well."

Amy turned to the chamber as it was revealed by Serena's presence.

It held something strange, two somethings, actually.  Each was shaped like a
small spider. A transparent flat crystal was the body, and similar crystals
made up fine legs extending from the center.  The whole thing, including the
legs, was about the size of a fist.

Nakiad appeared once again. "Princess Serena."  He bowed formally, his eyes
flickering, surprising the girl. "You may imagine that it was rather difficult
to find anything to add to your powers, and no weapon can truly match your
strength.  But I did manage to come up with these.  One of your latent talents
is a sort of spacial disruption.  Basically, those meatballs on your head
aren't just for show.  I believe you actually used that ability once, when you
had first become Sailor Moon, but the ability is buried deeply enough that you
have not used it since.  These crystals go over the meatballs," he said the
word without rancor, "and will create a sort of disturbance- you know what I
mean from your own experience.  The two link up directly to your tiara and will
react to your thoughts with no further prompting.  Have fun with them, I'm sure
you'll find _someone_ to practice on."  His eyes were smiling as he started to
vanish.

Raye suddenly frowned, suddenly realizing what the Chosen had meant.  "Why,
you-"  But the image was gone, and the red scout turned back just in time to
see Serena smile widely at her. "Wait, Serena, these things-"  The spiders were
already in place.

Then the floor turned liquid around the scout of mars and she covered her ears,
the supersonic vibrations screaming through Raye's body.  The room seemed to
flex around the priestess, the floor coming up against her legs, the others
warping in a slow arc around the vibrations.  The red scout flashed her hands
out.

"Aaarrgghh!!  Serena, cut it out!!!  I swear, I'll tell Sammy about that comic
book collection you swiped from him!"

The princess blinked and the vibrations disappeared.  "Oh, Raye, I didn't
notice you there," Serena said innocently.

The red scout growled, and a flame appeared in front of her.  The red fire
moved forward slowly, seeking out Serena.  Raye's eyes were focused on the
princess, the red scout's gloves moving slightly to control the attack.

Darian sighed. "All right, Raye, come on."  The girl frowned, but relaxed and
the flames disappeared.  

The prince turned to his love. "Serena."

The blonde sighed as well. "OK, fine.  I apologize, Raye.  I didn't think it
would be that bad."

Raye growled slightly, but nodded. "Accepted.  Spider head."

The princess did not reply, for once having the sense to stay out of trouble.

Darian, meanwhile, turned to the panel. "Amy, you want to go next?"

The blue scout shook her head. "No, you go ahead."  She felt slightly sick
about the prospect of using another weapon, particularly on Nakiad.  Her own
attacks were bad enough, but at least they were generally nonlethal.  The idea
of using the sort of blaster Nakiad had given Lita made Amy shiver.

The prince glanced at her as if he knew what she was thinking, then stood in
front of the rose image. "I guess this is for me."  The rose flashed and the
panel inverted.  But instead of an object, there was only another small panel
on it, like a stand of some sort.

The hologram appeared once more. "Prince Darian."  Nakiad's eyes flickered as
if he were thinking. "You know my feelings on weapons in general.  It is far
wiser to increase your own skills than it is to rely on weapons that could
fail.  And although sometimes weapons are necessary, and even sometimes
advantageous, I do not really believe in them.  Hand to hand combat skills are 
far more important.  Though you sometimes do not think of yourself as an 
equal to a Sailor Scout because you lack any energy attacks, the roses are 
just as potent."  Nakiad looked straight at the prince. "Particularly one rose.  
I trust you have it with you."

Darian nodded, and reached into his jacket, taking out the cloth that concealed
the rose, then unwrapped it.  The tension in the room jumped noticeably.

In Darian's white gloves, the rose burned with black fire.

The prince forced his face calm as he held up the rose to the hologram.

Nakiad unfroze again. "You all have noticed that these recordings seem to
respond to your actions, and have probably guessed that there are several
versions of each for different possibilities.  I just want you to know that
because otherwise it might seem strange that I know what I know.  I do not- but
I made recordings for many contingencies.  Those slight changes in the image
are the segments of the recording changing from one to another."  The image
flickered. "Darian, as you know, I have changed this particular rose twice.
The first time made it possible for it to be used as a weapon against shadows,
in the same way that maraki can be used for that purpose.  The second time I
changed it was to make it reflect what I am and how I am." The image
flickered. "As you probably guessed, the reason the rose is burning black is
that I am taken by the dark energy inside me."  The hologram paused, then
sighed. "Perhaps the third time is the thing.  Prince Darian, please place the
rose in contact with the inner panel."

The prince reached out hesitantly and touched the black petals of the rose to
the metallic plate.

And that segment of the room ignited into energy.  

The metal turned sparkling white in an instant, and that white transferred
slowly to the rose, burning away the darkness, taking over.  It traveled up the
individual petals, and Darian moved slightly as it moved up the stem.  The
energy stopped when it reached the prince's fingers, and he relaxed when it
started to fade.  After a moment he straightened out as if a spell binding him
in place had been released.

The entire rose burned white for a few more moments, then slowly faded.  The
stem turned green once more, the flower red.  But for a moment, when the power
was almost gone, Darian closed his eyes, and for that split instant, the white
energy seemed to cover all of him.  Then it was gone.

The hologram unfroze, and the hologram was completely calm now. "That flower
now holds a piece of the energy of the Chosen.  A very small piece, but a much
larger one than before, and one independent of my own being.  If I am right
about everything, it is one of the few things that has a chance of turning me
back.  I do not know how likely that is, however.  If it fails-"  He paused,
then went on, his voice hard. "If it fails, you know what you have to do."

Darian bowed silently to the hologram as it faded out, and put the rose back
into his jacket.

Amy sighed. "I guess it's my turn."  She did not exactly have much of a choice.
She stood in front of her panel, which glowed and unfolded much like the
others.

The blue scout shivered when she saw the gun inside.

It was smaller than Lita's by a good bit.  The biggest difference between the
two was their complexity.  The green scout's weapon had been simple, straight,
smooth.  This one was looked a lot more convoluted, though the major lines were
still simple.  But the handle and much of the barrel of the gun were covered
with rows of buttons.

"I know how much you dislike fighting, Sailor Mercury," Nakiad said behind her.
Shocked by the appearance of her weapon, she had not noticed the hologram's
presence. "And you might be surprised that you were given this sort of weapon.
However, you have a distinct lack of offensive capabilities, other than for the
freezing blast of bubbles, and you must have some attack capabilities.  This
blaster has a far lesser power than Lita's, but it is much more versatile.
Most obviously, very few of its attacks are lethal."

Amy blinked, listening more carefully as he continued. "The gun is designed to
link up directly to your visor and your computer- you can see that there is a
depression on one side that is specifically meant as a place for the computer.
The full list of capabilities will be downloaded once you place the machine
there.  However, as an overview, here are some of the more useful things.
Besides the ordinary energy blast, it can fire ice darts, which are basically
small icicles with any chemical you want in them.  Once they hit a person, the
ice dissolves, leaving no trace of a bullet.  The chemicals range from a simple
sleeping drug to a poison that will kill anything in a fraction of a second.
These things can naturally be replaced by anything you want.  The weapon can
also fire several types of stun beams and stasis fields, as well as other, more
exotic things.  It might take a while to figure out how to use all of them, but
with the computer and the visor, it should not be too difficult for you to
learn.  Also, the button controls are only in case you are not in Sailor
Mercury form, the weapon will work through your visor directly when you are in
scout uniform.  I think you might enjoy figuring out what this can do more 
than you think."

Amy smiled a little for the first time since she had seen Lita's blast.  He had
never had any trouble reading her, she thought, even when he was not there.  

The hologram started fading, then refocused, and he looked straight at the blue
scout.  There was a definite smile in his eyes. "By the way, this is not a true
hologram, that is too bulky and difficult to manage.  What you are seeing is
merely a reflection.  A very good one, but not a hologram.  Just thought you
might like to know."  Nakiad almost smiled, then he turned serious. "Good luck,
Sailor Scouts." He said formally, and he bowed to all of them. "Believe in
yourself."

And he disappeared.

Amy felt herself relax slightly.  He believed in them, how could they do any
less?  She placed her computer in the slot in the gun, then she breathed out
softly as her visor filled with information.  She wondered briefly what a
chemothermal circadian rhythm disrupter was, then got lost in the
information.

"Um, Amy?"

She snapped out of it, looking down at the black cat. "Yes, Luna?"

The guardian sighed. "OK, you're back.  You haven't so much as blinked for
several minutes."

Amy startled slightly.  "Oh.  Um, sorry guys."

The others just shook their heads in disbelief, then Raye turned to look at the
one panel that was still unopened.

Artemis followed her gaze and sighed. "I suppose we should see what is inside.
I don't think Mina would mind, given the circumstances."

Raye nodded briefly, and stood in front of the panel.

Nothing happened.  After a second, Nakiad's hologram appeared. "Only Sailor
Venus can access here," he said, and there seemed to be a tinge of sadness in
his voice.  The image disappeared.

Raye shrugged. "I thought as much.  I guess that is that."

Artemis nodded. "I suppose."  He looked slightly doubtful.

Amy blinked, snapping out of the information again, then looked up. "Um, it's
getting late.  We should go out searching again, now."

The others nodded, but Artemis shook his head. "I think maybe we should stick
together this time, though.  Something tells me-"  He faded out.

Darian looked at the cat. "What is it?"

"Nothing, Darian.  Shall we go?"

Luna shook her head. "Someone has to stay here."

Darian nodded seriously. "I agree.  And maybe someone ought to go to the
hospital to check on Mina."

Slowly, everyone's eyes shifted to the two cats.

Artemis groaned. "Fine.  I guess we aren't of too much use in combat anyway."

Luna nodded. "But be careful.  Promise."

"Cross my heart," Serena answered, serious for the moment.



"Master, the Scouts are on their way."

Eurtholl smiled softly. "Good."

Fluctra frowned. "Do you wish me to try to stop them?"

He grinned malevolently at her. "On the contrary, my student.  I wish them the
best of luck."

He would have laughed then if that sort of thing were characteristic of him,
but it was not his style.  He merely smiled as he observed his plans
unfolding.



The helicopter rushed through the night, the front light turned on,
illuminating a swath of the black ground below.  Williams cursed the darkness.
The sun had long set by the time they had gotten the helicopter, and he could
feel Nick Yacht moving somewhere, he felt it in his mind like a barely visible
shadow flitting away at his mind.

"Which way?"  Mike asked loudly.  The police helicopter made a lot of noise as
it passed by.

Williams shook his head. "I don't know."  He concentrated, trying to get a feel
for the flitting shadow at the edge of his consciousness.  But though he
thought he felt the distance between him and the creature, he had no way to
figure out which direction the thing was in.  "Just pick a direction and go in
it, I'll tell you if we are heading the right way."

Mike nodded curtly and made hand signals to the pilot up front, who was
practically deaf because of the headphones he was wearing to communicate with
the ground.  The helicopter tilted forward slightly and they accelerated.  Next
to the pilot, the sniper adjusted his posture slightly, absorbing the turn with
the harness that kept him facing out the open door, always ready to fire.

Well, detective, Williams thought to himself, can you find a creature you can
feel the distance to?  He remembered high school math with an inward smile, how
to find the center of a circle from three points on the circle.  Then he frowned,
remembering the problems he was facing.  The girl was still in a coma, that had
not changed, he had made sure of that.  The young cop who had been injured in
the mall was still in critical condition.  And the assassin-

Williams gasped.

The feeling was like staring at a picture with a candlestick on it and suddenly
seeing two faces.  Williams froze, then grabbed the pilot's shoulder.
Fortunately, the man was experienced and the vehicle only swerved a little.

"Right!" Williams yelled. "Fly to the right."

The helicopter turned obediently, flying into the new direction while the
detective's mind raced.  Something with the assassin, he thought frantically.
It has been in his mind once, and the assassin had to be the link.

It might have been true, and it might not have been, but now he knew where the
creature was.  He had felt it stop moving, it was just standing in one place.

It was waiting.

The helicopter raced over the black city, the buildings and streets blurring
into a fog of light and darkness.

Williams gasped.  "There!"  He pointed to a rooftop where he had seen
something, an even darker blackness against the black background.

The searchlight jerked erratically, then hit it, a glaring black spot against
the illuminated rooftop, then the light moved away as a gust of wind came up.
The pilot got control of the aircraft easily, and once more the light slammed
against the dark figure.

It was just standing there, looking up at the helicopter without shading its
eyes, staring directly at the light.

Waiting.

The helicopter twisted in midair as the pilot turned it, and only as the sniper
was raising his rifle did Williams realize what was happening.  Wildly, he
jumped out of his seat, slamming into the gunman, bearing the weapon down.

Mike grabbed him. "What are you doing?" He yelled.

"No!"  He shook his head at the sniper, who pointed the barrel down for the
moment.  Williams looked seriously at his friend. "It is just waiting there.
Don't you understand? It's just standing, not attacking anyone.  It has seen my
mind, and it wants something from me.  Or it is just curious."

"Yes!  And that's why we have to destroy it."

"No."  He motioned to the pilot, pointing down.  The man frowned, but Williams
just made the same motion again, and the aircraft's rotor slowed slightly, the
vehicle moving down, closer to the roof.  The detective faced his friend again.
"I have to face it, I have to find out what it wants."

"No, dammit, I am-"

"You have no choice."  Williams did not think, did not hesitate.  "You can
shoot, but not unless someone is in danger.  You promised."

Without pausing, he slid out of the helicopter and dropped to the roof.

It was not far, but still the impact was more than he had expected, and his
knees complained.  He looked up at the helicopter as the aircraft turned once
more, allowing the gunman a clear shot at the creature.  He hoped it would not
do anything stupid.  This time, the bullets were large gauge, armor piercing
rounds.

He faced it again, for the third time in two days.  But this time, he was
ready, and he steeled himself.

Again, images assaulted his mind, tore through him, images he did not
understand and could not figure out the meaning of.  Dark things, black
feeling, emotions.  Death, pain- Williams suddenly realized he was feeling the
death of the assassin and cringed at the sensation.

"What do you want from me?" He yelled desperately across at the dark shape.

It did not move, just standing there in the night, framed by the brightness of
the helicopter's beam.

Then Williams felt the answer, and his stomach spasmed as the feeling passed
through.  The answer was not in words, not in thoughts or images.  But it was a
sensation, a feeling that Williams recognized, and reeling, the detective knew
what the creature wanted.

Blood.

He shivered and stepped back, suddenly hoping the sniper would shoot.  The
darkness that had just flooded his mind repulsed him, unbalanced his mind.  He
shook his head, his eyes bleary, but his mind slowly clearing, and his vision
snapped into focus.

The creature was moving.

It screamed out into the night, and raised both claws, obviously preparing to
leap forward.  And as Williams realized it was going to get shot, he knew he
did not want it dead, did not want it to get killed.  Not yet.

The heavy chopping noise of the helicopter seemed to slow, almost stop, and he
thought he could actually hear the individual blades pass overhead.  A single
clear gunshot rang in his ear, a puff of yellow light appearing near the
helicopter's side.

And the black form of the figure bent backward, obviously hit, hurt.  A splash
of red showed against the night of the fabric, reflecting the light better than
the dark fabric.

The creature staggered back to the edge of the five story building, clutching
at its chest.  A second shot rang out, and Williams heard it separately as
well, saw the flash of the bullet as it got deflected by the metallic
gauntlets.  Then again.  The bullet hit the creature, in the ribs, and it
staggered back once more, one of its feet catching on the slight bump at the
edge of the roof.

Williams did not realize that he was screaming as the last bullet hit the
creature in the exact middle of its chest.  Time blurred, and for a split
second, the black shape was clear against the night.

Then it toppled backward into the night and vanished.

The world tilted and snapped back into full motion.  William jerked forward
toward the ledge, and looked down, leaning over it.

He was just in time to see the creature land.  Incredibly, despite the thirteen
meter drop, it hit feet first. It collapsed in on itself, toward the ground,
and Williams could almost feel the impact in his own feet.  But it did not fall
to the ground, did not roll.  It collapsed down as far as one could possibly go
while remaining on his feet, and remained there for a moment.  The detective
felt the air over him move, the helicopter moving forward to see what had
happened.

And Williams's eyes widened.  After taking three bullets in its body, after a
fall that should have killed it, the creature was alive.  Surrounded by ripples
of invisible power, it straightened out, slowly, painfully.

Two metal-clad fists opened and cold steel lashed up, directly at the
detective.

Gasping, Williams threw himself backwards as the air in front of those gloves
shimmered, he threw himself away from the ledge.  In front of him, where he had
just been standing, the ledge exploded upward, showering him with debris.

But the blast had not been aimed for him.

Williams looked up just as the invisible force struck the helicopter.



It hit just aft of the cockpit, at the very beginning of the long tail that
supported the smaller rotor.  Without making a sound, the metal crumpled
inward, twisted in the incredible power that hit it.  Incredibly, the blast had
not created a spark large enough to ignite the fuel that started gushing out of
the long fuel tank.

The tail rotor died as the tail twisted at an unnatural angle, and the pilot
fought with his controls.  Slowly, the helicopter twisted in the air, then
started falling as the main rotor gave out and started to slow down as well.

The machine smashed into the rooftop hard only seconds later, jarring Williams
with the impact.  Three figures leapt out of it, racing away as a small spark
ignited a flame.

Williams got an impression of an igniting sun a moment before the blast knocked
him off his feet and to the hard roof.

He got up seconds later, his feet shaking only slightly, and looked with wonder
at the wreck that had been the machine.  The others were picking themselves up
off the ground and the detective went slowly over to give them a hand,
shielding his face from the inferno a few meters away.

Smoke washed over his eyes, the smell of burning fuel filling his nose and
mouth, and he coughed violently as he approached the others.

"So, Mike," he said, helping his friend up. "Still think it was a good idea to
shoot it?"

The other groaned, getting up and glanced over at the others.  They seemed
fine, if a bit shaken up, and nodded reassuringly as they walked slowly over.
Mike turned back to Williams. "It was going to attack, you know that."

"Yes," he sighed. "I know."  He remembered briefly the dark images in the
creature's mind and shivered. "I wish we had never met it in the first
place."

The pilot coughed, nodding. "I can't agree more."  He looked over at the wreck.
"I doubt we will have to wait long for someone to come to help us.  No one
could have missed that."

The sniper nodded, then walked carefully to the edge of the roof, where the
small barrier had been torn out by the invisible blast.  He looked down at the
street.

Williams laughed shortly. "If it had wanted to stick around, we'd all be dead
now."  He was surprised at the vehemence in his own voice.

The sniper shook his head. "It's not that.  It's just- I hit it.  Once, I saw
the bullet bounce off those claws of his, but three times, I know I hit him.
And it fell down from the roof of a five story building.  It should be dead."

The detective laughed without humor. "It should be.  But it is not.  And we
won't find it, or anything to do with it today."

Mike touched his shoulder. "Don't be so sure," he said, his voice strange
enough to make Williams turn around. "Look," his friend pointed.

It took a second, but he saw it, clearly visible from the five story building
against the background of lower structures.  Several white shapes leaping from
rooftop to rooftop, standing out against the darkness.  A moment later, he saw
another shape with them, a black shape that had been hard to see before.  Then
Williams realized why he was able to see more clearly with each moment.

They were heading straight for them.

Mike seemed to be grinning. "The legendary Sailor Scouts.  So they do exist,
after all."

The detective looked at his friend with surprised. "You mean, you doubted it?
After all the witness reports?"

The other shrugged. "One never knows."

The pilot and the sniper remained in the background, silent, as the white
shapes approached, moving with impossible leaps from building to building.
There were five of them all together, four smaller white shapes and one
slightly larger black one.  Williams frowned, remembering the accounts of the
witnesses.  There were supposed to be five white Sailor Scouts, who were girls,
and the one man who called himself Tuxedo Mask.  One of the scouts was
missing.

He squinted slightly, surprised.  Two of them were carrying what were obviously
weapons of some sort, something the Sailor Scouts were known not to do.  He
forced himself not to flinch as they leapt onto a near rooftop, then up to
theirs, one by one.  They landed several meters away, then came together in a
group.  Williams looked quickly at the other policemen behind him, and sighed
with relief when he realized that none of them had been foolish enough to draw
their guns.

He turned back to the group of scouts, who seemed to be having a discussion.
The detective could not hear what they were saying, but one pointed to the
wreck and to the damaged side of the building.  Then he flinched as one of the
scouts with a gun looked straight at him with an unfriendly gaze.

She looked away immediately, then the group seemed to reach a consensus of some
sort.  The other girl with the weapon held the weapon in one hand for a moment 
and pointed the other hand at the burning wreck of the helicopter.  A fine spray 
of mist lashed out at the fire, dispersing the flames, and in a moment, the fire 
was out completely.  The scout looked at Williams with a far softer gaze than 
the other had, then leapt toward the damaged part of the wall, over the 
policemen's heads.  The other scouts leapt followed her easily, leaving only 
the one who had looked at the cops so malevolently before.  She leapt forward 
toward them, and landed right in front of the detective, startling him.

She looked at him darkly, hefting the weapon.

Williams swallowed. "Who are you?"  He asked, somewhat flatteringly, cursing
his voice.

She glared. "We are the Sailor Scouts, defenders of justice."  She said it
calmly, with no arrogance.  It was a fact.  She gestured expansively around
her, to the remains of the helicopter and the damage to the roof. "This does
not concern you."  She moved the weapon meaningfully, pointing it at him for a
moment.  "Stay out of it."

The scout glanced at her friends, who leapt down at the site of the damage and
disappeared the same way the creature had.  The she nodded and followed them.

Williams stared for a few long moments at the disappeared group. "The hell I
will," he whispered intensely.



They had been searching the city for several minutes when they saw the
helicopter crash, and had gone to investigate.  The whole area was full of
Nakiad's energy signature, and even Amy felt it.

The blue scout absorbed the impact of the five story fall easily with her legs,
grateful for the scout ability to make impossible jumps.  She had disagreed
with Lita's telling off the police who had been at the site, but something had
to be done about them.  Being a scout had taught Amy early that cops were
rarely a good thing.

The blue scout sighed, pausing for the others as they landed next to her.  "Now
what?  We do not know where he went.  Raye, can you feel him yet?"

The red scout shook her head angrily. "Not yet.  I mean, I can feel the aura
around this whole place, but not him in particular.  Remember, I'm not even
sure I will be able to if we get close enough, I only think so."

Darian was looking at something on the ground. "We may not have to feel him, at
least not yet.  Look."

It was blood, drops of it on the ground. 

The prince looked up at Amy. "The cops, probably.  But he's still moving.  Amy,
can your visor follow that?"

"Easily," the blue scout answered, already tapping the information into her
computer, then she looked back at the others. "But we have to do it fast.  It
won't take long for him to stop bleeding."

Lita sighed, adjusting her blaster. "Depends on how badly he's hurt."

Amy smiled as the visor began to pick up the trail of blood, then she frowned.
"Let's hope it's bad enough to weaken him.  Follow me."

Surprisingly, the path of blood stayed on the ground, passing through the thin
alleyways of the area.  They were in a very old section of the city, where many
of the buildings were abandoned and many of the alleys were somewhat less than
safe for the average citizen.  That Nakiad stayed on the ground instead of
going to the rooftops suggested that he was hurt pretty bad.

The scouts followed Amy closely, but the blue scout was getting worried.   The
blood trail was becoming sparse quickly, too quickly.  Several times she had to
pause to allow her visor to locate another drop.  Then she stopped.

Lita came up to her. "What is it?"

Amy sighed. "The trail has stopped."

Behind them, Raye blinked. "Oh," the red scout said, almost with surprise.

The others turned to her. "What is it?" Serena asked, surprisingly serious.

"I don't think we need the blood trail any more.  I can feel him.  He's close,
very close."  For a few moments, the red scout remained motionless, then she
swayed and seemed to catch herself. "I'm all right," she assured, then paused,
sighing. "He's in that building," she pointed forward to the end of the dark
alley.

Darian shimmered as he transformed into his prince form and drew his sword.
"Does he know we're here?"

Raye shook her head. "I don't think so.  He's been hurt pretty bad, shot I
guess.  But he's healing incredibly fast, we have to attack now if we are to
have an advantage, while he is distracted."

The others nodded.  "Then I guess now it is."

Amy sighed, adjusting her own gun, scanning down the list of functions in her
mind as they approached the foreboding structure.  It was an old, brick, three
story apartment building.  The windows were barred by wooden boards, and a sign
with a demolition date was prominently displayed.  The building had only weeks
to live, Amy noted with a tiny piece of relief.  At least, if the neighborhood
was annihilated, it would not be much of a loss. 

Amy swallowed, forcing the thoughts to the very back of her mind.  Fortunately,
her gloves absorbed sweat magically, and her grip on the gun remained strong as
the scouts walked in.



Lita tightened the grip on her weapon and looked around at the building.  It
looked strange through the green tinted visor, very spooky.  And the way the
target tracking mechanism bounced all over the place in trying to acquire a
solid target was not particularly pleasant.

Subconsciously, she shifted her weight slightly forward, to the aggressive
stance Nakiad had not quite been able to stop her from using.  "Um, Raye?"

Next to her, the red scout was flexing her gloves, also looking around.
"Yeah?"

"Where is he?"

Raye shook her head. "I can't tell.  I know he's close, for sure.  But which
way- in this building, almost certainly."

Serena sighed. "It's a pretty large building.  By the time we finish looking
through it, he may already be finished with his healing enough to leave."

"Then we have to split up," Darian said calmly.

Serena sighed again. "I know.  Amy, what do you say, which way?  I don't
suppose your visor can see him."

The blue scout, behind them, shook her head. "No, nothing."

Serena nodded. "All right.  Amy, Raye and I will check to the right, and Darian
and Lita will check to the left.  Yell if you find anything, and come back here
if you don't, we'll repeat with the other floors."  Lita looked up at the
damage to the ceiling and wondered if that would be necessary.  The first few
floors were joined by large gaps in the dividing floors.  "Split up again, but
only if you have to," the princess finished.

Lita blinked, not only at Serena's sudden shift in character but also at her
not placing Darian and herself in the same group.

The green scout nodded even as the others did, surprised a little at herself
for the instant agreement and even more so at Raye's similar acquiescence.

The other three scouts vanished into the darkness of the building, and Darian
was right behind her. "You want to take point?"

Lita nodded, swallowing. "Sure."  She tightened her grip on the gun, and moved
out into the darkness.

They hit a hallway almost immediately. "Now what?" She whispered.

The prince shrugged nonchalantly, but Lita was gratified to see that his grip
on the handle of the sword was making his hand pale.  "We split up again."  He
did not seem all that comfortable with the idea. "If he kills you, scream."  He
tried to grin, but it had not come out very funny.

Lita shivered.  Somehow, in the simulated fights against Nakiad, she had never
been afraid.  She had known that she would almost certainly lose, and she
always had, but she had never been afraid.

The hallway closed in tightly on her, the darkness coming close together now
that she was alone.  Though the green visor seemed to brighten things somewhat
with some sort of light enhancing, it was not nearly enough for comfort.

She walked through a doorway into a huge room, made when several floors and
connecting walls had been knocked out.  Piles of bricks littered the floor
everywhere, and pieces of what had once been ceilings stuck out in strange
places.

Nakiad was standing in the middle of the room.

She breathed out slowly, forgetting to scream at the strangeness of the
meeting.  He was standing with his eyes open, facing her, and he obviously saw
her.  Yet he did not flinch, did not move away or try to hide.  Lita swallowed,
seeing dark red against the blackness of his gi, knowing that it was blood.

The green scout hesitated, her gun moving down a fraction of an inch, away from
its target.  Though her visor beeped, locked on perfectly, she suddenly was not
sure she could fire at her friend, at the love of a friend.

Then she remembered the news broadcast with the death of the assassin, and
shivered.  His own words came to her mind.  He would be able to regenerate the
damage to himself, she thought determinedly, but he could not do the same for
others.

The gun came up in a single movement, locking on to the stationary target
easily, and Lita's hand tightened just a little. A single, natural, fluid
motion.

And a lance of blue-white fire lanced out of the muzzle with a whisper of
danger.

Incredibly, it missed.  At the last moment, when the beam was almost 
touching him, Nakiad seemed to melt into a liquid, moving aside from the
glaring beam.  It missed him by millimeters, the glow reflected even off the
light-absorbing fabric of his clothes.

And he sprang forward without changing direction, flowing directly at Lita as
if he were following the beam in like a targeting laser.

Behind him, the wall exploded, superheated by the incredible power of the
energy weapon, but neither one of them noticed.

Lita moved back a little, her aim wavering, then dragged the beam, slightly,
aside, to target Nakiad directly.

He flowed away from the light like dark water, pooling around it, moving just
enough for it not to touch him.  Then his shape seemed to grow once more as he
leapt at the green scout.

And he was there.

She saw in a glaring instant one gauntlet coming up, the fingers locked in a
lethal blade, as his body slammed into hers.  Barely, the green scout turned
the heavy weapon sideways, blocking that hand.

The claw smashed into the gray of the weapon, tearing through as if it were
made of matchsticks, ignoring the impossibility of it.  But the glove did not
make it to Lita's heart, the green scout thought dazedly, stumbling backwards
away, away from the onslaught.

Then the other metal hand blurred, and Lita felt a hard metal fist slam into
her side, where the bandage covered barely healed flesh.   A wave of red washed
into the scout from the impact, tearing through her muscles, blurring her mind.
She blanked out.

She was on the floor, looking up through a haze of pain.  Above her, Nakiad
finished shredding her blaster into scrap metal with his gloves, then one hand
closed again into an unstoppable blade, aimed for her.

The green scout tried to move, tried to get out of the way, but the red fog
that surrounded her sapped away her strength, held her limbs down,
motionless.

Nakiad prepared to strike, the blade beginning to move.  Lita wondered if it
was strange that she felt no fear.  The metal gauntlet came toward her
throat.

Then another black shape slammed into Nakiad from the side, smashing him aside
by sheer brute force, and they both vanished from the green scout's view.

She was in too much pain to feel any relief as the darkness took her.



Darian screamed silently, seeing Lita on the floor and Nakiad over her,
shredding her blaster.  He had come to the explosion at full speed, but he
seemed to be already too late, for blood stained Lita' side, blood that had
soaked through both the bandage on her side and her scout uniform.

Silently, his training took over, and he rushed forward at Nakiad.  Somewhere
in his mind, a part of him was astonished at the idiocy of attacking the Chosen
so crudely, while another part wondered where the other scouts were.  Surely
they had to have heard the explosion, he thought with curious detachment as he
slammed into his friend.

At the last moment, Nakiad seemed to feel him and turned toward the onslaught.
One gauntleted hand came up, and the prince's blade was caught in an iron grip
instead of tearing through flesh.

But the full-power body rush forced the Chosen back, moved him away from Lita's
motionless body, and Darian wondered if the injuries Nakiad had received from
the police had made the Chosen weak enough to beat.

Then the other shifted his weight, and the prince knew it was too late to do
anything.  One metal hand caught Darian's stomach easily, and he realized that
now he was the only one moving.

His grip was torn from his sword as Nakiad, planting himself firmly in the
ground, used Darian's momentum to throw him forward, over the Chosen's head.

The prince saw the wall coming at him and did the best he could under the
circumstance to make sure it did not hit his head.  

He almost did it.  His shoulders took most of the impact, but his head hit the
wall, hard enough for everything to start fading in and out as he slid to the
floor.

Somehow, he ended up facing Nakiad, watching him through a blur of pulsing
darkness that was his head.  The Chosen held the sword in a metallic grip, and
the gauntlets squeezed.

Sparks of energy lashed out from the magically enchanted blade, but the
darkness in those gauntlets was older than any human remembered.  The sparks
clashed and lanced at each other, fighting, flashing.  The lights began to
reflect within the prince's skull, within his eyes, dazing him as he watched
incredulously at the cracks of white light that were appearing along his
blade.

With a crash of lightning, the sword exploded into energy, white power lashing
into everything around it, then disappearing.  The metal blade glowed once,
twice, finally fading away.

And it turned to dust in the Chosen's armored hands, black ashes that flowed
through those metal blades to the floor, piling below.  Then the pile pulsed,
and disappeared.

A shiver went through the prince and the momentary chill seemed to make his
head pound even worse.  The darkness hit the back of his head and spread
forward, obscuring his sight.

Like Lita, he did not have the strength to fight the black.

His last impression was that Nakiad had suddenly been replaced by a brilliant
white light.



"Darian!" Serena yelled, and a blast of pure energy tore through the air.
Nakiad blurred at the last possible moment, hitting himself hard against the
ceiling.  The metal claws dug through fragile material, and he was able to
hold on, hanging upside down.

Then a blast of icy fog slammed into him, tearing through his clothes, singing
him with the cold.  It did not dislodge him, though, and he looked down,
calculating his next attack.

He did not have the time as a hail of sleepy icicles blasted at him, so he let
go easily, dropping straight to the floor.  Above him, the ice crystals shot by
Amy's blaster shattered against the brick, showering him with small transparent
pieces.

Nakiad bent slightly as he hit, not absorbing the impact of the drop as well as
he should have.  The combination of the recent bullet wounds and the ice attack
had left him relatively vulnerable.

As he hit, the floor beneath him rocked once, then shivered with hypersonic
vibrations, slamming against his feet.  He only barely held his balance against
Serena's disruptive powers as his senses were assaulted by the confusing sound,
destroying his inner ear balance.  He rocked forward slightly to compensate for
the ground's motion, but too far, and lost his center.

Two fireballs curved in the large room and ignited into his back.  Unable to
withstand the impact, Nakiad let it take him down, throwing himself into the
floor.

Scout minds cried silently in triumph, and one pressed a trigger.

But Nakiad had used the impact with the floor to coil his muscles like springs,
and he released that energy suddenly, the pain from the impact of the fireballs
only making the spurt of power stronger.  In an incredible movement, he threw
himself up and backward from a kneeling position, landing several meters behind
where he had been, on his feet, in a fighting stance.

A stasis energy field pulsed for a moment where he had been knocked down, then
disappeared with no creature to lock on to.

Nakiad shrieked in anger, the pain overwhelming him, and both metal fists
lanced forward.

"Moon Power!"  Another spear of white light lashed out at him, but this time he
was ready, and he did not move.

Roaring with anger, he concentrated, and the metal gauntlets seemed to blur,
the air in front of them disrupted by his energy blast.  But the power of the
moon was greater, stronger, and the white beam continued forward toward him,
slowed but not stopped.  Next to Serena, the other scouts prepared to attack
again.

The Chosen shrieked with vengeance and hatred, and the air in front of him
blurred once more, then rippled.  As the scouts froze in astonishment, the
blasts from the gauntlets flickered, then focused into an intense red energy
field.  In a flash, that red overwhelmed the scouts, destroying their senses.

The crimson power tore through the building, overpowering it and the scouts,
going into every corner of the old structure.

Then it was gone.

And with it Nakiad.



Serena threw up her arms against the incredible red power, trying to make a
forcefield out of her power, but it was too late.  The blast tore through her
own attack and slammed into her, throwing her against the opposite wall,
draining her strength, tearing her arms away from her.  It filled her eyes and
her mouth and her world, and she screamed silently as she fell.

_	_	_


"Sailor Moon?  Sailor Moon, are you all right?"

The ground underneath her seemed to rumble a little as she opened her eyes and
tried to make out the red blur in front of her eyes. "Oh, hi Raye," she said
moments later. "Just fine.  What happened?"  She tried to move and found it
surprisingly painless.  The impact had not really done more than jar her.

Raye sighed. "He's gone.  But that's not our main problem- we have to get out
of here, now.  The blast damaged the foundation, I think.  The whole place is
coming down."

Serena nodded and suddenly found herself on her feet, stable.  Apparently all
her training was paying off.  "The others?"

Raye sighed. "I don't know yet, I haven't had a chance to check."

The princess looked at the other scout seriously, realizing that Raye had come
to Serena first.  Thanks, the blonde thought silently, and the other nodded,
seeming to understand.

To one side, Amy coughed. "I'm all right, guys."

They unfroze, remembering their situation.

"Darian," Serena said, panicking a little.  The prince was lying on the floor,
a trickle of blood making its way from under his hair down his forehead.

The building shivered again and he groaned. "What happened?"

Serena knelt down. "It's all right.  How are you doing?"

The prince shivered. "My sword, he-"

"What?"  Serena noticed that the sword was missing from its scabbard.  She had
been too focused on the prince himself, and Nakiad had been facing away from
her, so she had not seen the destruction of the weapon.

He shook his head. "Nothing.  It does not really matter.  Can you give me a
hand up?"

"Of course, Darian."  She noticed that though he was obviously dazed, he took
care to keep his full weight off her hand.

"Guys!"  It was Amy, and she sounded worried.

Serena looked over at the other two scouts, who were kneeling over Lita.

Amy looked up. "Lita's hurt pretty bad, and the building is about to collapse,
I don't know if it can hold on much longer.  Darian, can you make it with just
Serena's help?"

The prince smiled. "Yes."  He looked tenderly at his love. "Anywhere with you,
princess," he whispered.

Raye nodded, putting her hands under Lita's shoulders. "Then we can get Lita.
Come on."

"Here, I'll help," Darian said confidently, stepping forward, then swayed and
almost collapsed to the floor.

Serena caught him neatly, keeping him straight. "I don't think so."

He smiled thanks and leaned on her as they made their way out of the building.
Several times it shook, but they managed to get out and go a little way down
the alley before they had to rest, and the building still stood wearily.

Lita groaned as she was set down on the ground.  Next to her, Darian slid
quietly to a sitting position, leaning against the wall next to him.

The green scout opened her eyes slowly. "Did we get him?"  She asked slowly,
unaware of the red stain running all the way down one side of her uniform.

Amy sighed, looking at the damage, tapping on her computer. "Not exactly."

Behind them, the building rumbled again, and something heavy crashed down
inside it.  As if that had started a chain reaction, the structure shivered,
then collapsed in on itself in only a few seconds.

Serena looked back at Lita, who had been staring at the building with
half-closed eyes.

"OK," the green scout whispered, her voice very quiet. "I'm impressed."  Her
voice began to fade out.

Amy swallowed, looking at her computer. "From what I can tell, Nakiad's hit was
exactly on her previous injury, which makes the problem worse, but that is not
the major thing to worry about.  The impact also broke the lower four of her
ribs, and-"

Raye frowned. "And what?"

The blue scout sighed. "Those lower ribs, the shorter ones, do not quite make
it across to the chest, they do not join with the opposite ribs.  As a result,
when hit correctly, they can actually be driven into internal organs-
Naturally, the Chosen's strike was right on target.  From what I can tell,
there is a lot of internal bleeding, and several organs are damaged."

"So I'll just heal her," Serena said confidently, kneeling down beside the
fallen scout.

"It's not that easy," Amy replied. "The damage is complex enough that your
powers might be unable to fix it, but I suspect that they will work.  The
problem is that the wound will not be healed completely.  Another problem is
that you would be almost completely drained."

The princess nodded, placing a hand over her friend's bloody side, visibly
steeling herself against the sight of blood.  "I don't see how I have any
choice."

Amy thought about it for a second, then shook her head. "No, you do not."

"Moon power," Serena said calmly, and her eyes closed.  Her hand began to glow
with a faint light, and Lita shifted slightly as if relaxing.

Reaching a silent agreement, Raye and Amy placed their hands on Serena's
shoulders, lending their strength.  Behind the princess, Darian placed one palm
on the princess' back, unable to transfer his own energy in the same way, but
lending what moral support he could.

In a moment it was all over, and Serena deflated slightly against the
reassuring grips of her friends. "That's," she sighed, "as good as I can get
it."

Lita opened her eyes slowly, then looked down at herself and shivered at the
sight of the large amount of blood.

"It's all right Lita," Amy said hurriedly, taking out her computer, "it's not
as bad as it looks."  Nevertheless, the blue scout quickly typed on her
computer, checking things. "Yes, the healing went nicely.  But you are far from
recovered, and any stress under current conditions could make for damage that
would be, in the long run, irreparable."

Lita nodded silently. "Thanks," she said very slowly, "Serena.  Feels much
better."  The princess nodded and moved over next to Darian, also leaning
against the wall."  The green scout looked over at the fallen building. "What
happened?"

Raye sighed, sliding down to the ground and sitting back. "Well, if that had
been a latent talent, then I'd say that he's gotten full control over it now,
wouldn't you agree?"

"And that's not all he has control over," Darian said with a sigh, touching one
finger to the rivulet of blood on his face.

Amy looked at him seriously, taking out her computer again. "Let me take a look
at that."

"It's fine," the prince said, shaking his head. "Not even a concussion."

Amy frowned. "On the contrary, that was a pretty severe blow," she said,
tapping on the small computer.  Then she breathed out with a tired sort of
relief. "But you don't need any healing, I don't think.  You'll be all right in
a few minutes."

"Thanks," he said with slight sarcasm, relaxing against the wall he was leaning
against. "I wish my head would agree with you."

Serena smiled at that and sat down next to him,  reaching out to take his hand,
gripping it tightly. "Now what do we do?"

Raye stared straight ahead. "He has to be stopped."  Her voice was dead
serious.

The others did not reply for a few moments, then Lita raised her head slightly.
"I hate it, but Mars is right.  He has to be stopped, he has to be stopped now,
and by whatever means necessary."  The green scout closed her eyes, resting.

Darian looked at the injured green scout, his eyes resisting, but then his face
set into hard lines.  He nodded, just once.

Serena shivered, still holding his hand. "I don't suppose we have much of a
choice, do we," she whispered.  It was not a question.

Everyone remained silent for a few moments, then they turned to Amy.

The blue scout looked up from the speck of dust she had been inspecting
strenuously, and her face was pale. "I hate this," she said hoarsely.

But she nodded.

The others relaxed slightly, then Darian adjusted his position against the
wall. "How?"

Lita opened her eyes. "Last resort," she said calmly.  The words spun through
the others' minds.  

Five faces hardened.

Darian moved his hand out of Serena's grip, and pulled a rose out of his
jacket.  It was red again, having been changed from that color to black and to
white and back once more in the past several days.  The flower looked identical
to all the others he threw, but it was not.  He had been in possession of the
one he held for a longer time than any other, and the subdued tingle of power
left by the Chosen's repeated touch was unmistakable.

For a long moment, he stared at the beautiful symmetry of the flower, then he
brought it up to his nose, inhaling the fragrance. "Amazing," he said quietly.
"It still has its scent."  He looked into the pained faces around him. "I
wonder if that will be true after tonight."  The prince paused, then forced his
mind back to reality. "Nakiad said that he was not sure that it would stop him,
but it might.  I can almost feel the power within it, burning to get free."

Serena looked at her love with pain filled eyes, then her hand went up,
seemingly against her will, to her tiara.  "Darian?"  He voice was a bare
whisper.

"Yes, princess?"

She shivered slightly at his use of her title. "Remember, in the Negaverse, the
Dark Kingdom?"

He closed his eyes gently, forcing himself still against the black chill that
had invaded his body every time he remembered himself as he had been, a servant
of Beryl. "Many times, I wish I did not."  Then he was sorry, remembering that
it had been her plight that had made him remember, realizing that she might
make that out to be an accusation. "I did not mean the way-"

She held up one small hand. "I know, Darian.  At the end, with Queen Beryl,
remember?"

"Yes."  He shivered slightly, unable to keep still. "I was going to kill you,"
he said in a whisper. "Then you used the tiara-"  He closed his eyes,
remembering the way the light energy had felt on his dark mind, the way it had
torn through him.  "But it did not change me back, the locket did.  My love for
you did."

The princess blinked her gratitude, half closing her eyes as well. "I know.
But maybe, together, the rose and the tiara will heal-"

"Or, failing that-" Raye interrupted harshly.  Everyone understood what she
meant.

Serena looked up at the red scout, about to reply angrily, then saw the pain in
the priestess' eyes, and for a moment, Serena was reminded of Nakiad.

"Serena, can you even use your tiara? It has failed before," Amy said.

The princess sighed softly. "I have tried it in training, and it has worked.  I
no longer have the need to be an ordinary teenager again.  I wish it were
possible- but-" She stopped.

Raye swallowed, obviously aware of what she was saying. "We have to," she said,
but her voice sounded lost.  "So it's decided."

None of them moved, all reluctant to get up.

Then Amy looked up, almost emerging from the shadows. "It might work.  But you
are forgetting a more immediate problem."  She gestured helplessly at her
computer. "First, we have to find him.  Raye?"

The red scout shook her head. "It's no use.  His mind is shielded somehow
against me, you saw it yourselves.  I can only feel him when he is close by,
feel his direction then.  And even that's only approximate, after we get to a
certain distance, I can't even feel which way he is, only that we are very
close."  She shut her eyes tightly. "It's like looking for a fire with a room
thermometer.  If you are close enough, the thermometer will register a
temperature change and you might be able to find the direction in which it goes
up.  But once you get close enough, the temperature gets out of the 
thermometer's range, and you can no longer tell which way to go."  She 
sighed. "I can't explain it much better than that."

Lita groaned slightly. "So we can't even find him."

"I can."

The new voice came sharply out of the night.



The group startled slightly, jerking to their feet.  Only Lita remained on the
ground, looking up at the shadowed figure.

Raye frowned, flexing her gloves. "Who are you?"

"The question," the figure said calmly, stepping out into the light, "is who
are you, exactly?"

Lita growled. "It's the cop."

The other inclined his head slightly. "Detective Peter Williams.  And you are
the legendary Sailor Scouts."

Darian looked at him calmly, ignoring the drying rivulet of blood that crossed
his face. "What do you want?"

The detective sighed. "The same thing you do, I suppose.  I want to get rid of
the creature that is plaguing the city.  From what I've gathered, you have the
same goal, and you don't seem too successful.  You," he turned to Lita," need
to be in a hospital."

"You'd be surprised," the green scout spat out vehemently as she thrust herself
to her feet.

The detective eyed her with slight respect. "With that much blood loss, I'm
surprised you can even stand."  He turned to the others. "I want to make a
deal."

"A deal?"  Raye asked, shocked. "Why should we trust you?  If I could count the
times you police have interfered-" She shook her head. "How do we even know
this is not a trap?"

"He's alone," Amy suddenly interrupted.  The others turned in time to see her
look back down at her computer and continue tapping furiously.  Her visor was
up, and gibberish-like symbols were reflecting off it.  Amy did not look up,
concentrated fully on whatever it was she was doing.

The others watched her for a moment, turning back when no further explanation
was coming.

"Look," the detective said. "You don't trust me, and that's fine, because I
don't trust you.  You've been seen with this dark creature before, I think.
But it seems that this has gone a bit out of hand."

"I'll say." Serena answered calmly. "So what's your deal?"

He looked at her calmly. "I tell you where he is, and you work with us to
apprehend him.  Then you come in with us, and we ask you a few questions, real
friendly-like."

Raye looked back at the others, still in a fighting stance. "I don't like this
one bit.  Not working with the cops, and especially not coming in with him.
I'd go for no deal."

Lita sighed, relaxing a little. "We do need to know where Na-" She stopped
herself from saying his name in time. "Where he is.  And we haven't been all
that successful so far."

Serena nodded. "True, but the last measures might work.  If we knew where he
was."  She sighed.

Darian placed a hand on her shoulder. "It looks like we are going to have to
make the deal.  We have to know where he is in order to stop him, otherwise he
might injure innocent people."

Serena closed her eyes for a moment, then sighed. "Everyone agreed?"  No one
objected, and the detective seemed to relax. "All right-"

"No need," Amy interrupted harshly.

The was a slight hiss in the air, and the detective breathed out suddenly, then
clutched at his chest with both hand, digging for something.  "Ice?" He asked,
but his eyes were already rolling out.

He collapsed to the floor a moment later.

Everyone turned to face Amy.  The blue scout was holding her weapon level, and
it was obvious that it had been one of her icicle blasts that had knocked out
the cop.

"Amy?"  Raye asked, keeping her voice neutral.  All of them knew that the blue
scout was not prone to doing things rashly.

"I know where he is," Amy answered coolly, raising her weapon, "and I didn't
want the detective to figure that out, so I shot him with a low-strength sleepy
dart.  Very effective, but it not last for long."

Darian blinked. "How," he asked slowly, "do you know where Nakiad is?"

The blue scout almost smiled, but her eyes were sad. "He said he could find
Nakiad.  But how in the world could the cops track him, when even we can not?
He is not so stupid as to let the police simply see him."

Serena blinked. "Homing beacon."

The other girl nodded. "Almost.  But the problem is that one has to actually
get one of those onto a person, and Nakiad would almost certainly know it and
would get rid of it.  Unless of course, it was very difficult to get out."

Darian leaned back against the wall, sighing. "The bullets.  You're a
genius."

"Thanks," Amy said, "but I was incorrect.  There is no group of rapidly moving
homing beacons in the immediate vicinity, not according to my computer.
However, there is a triplet of moving radiation signatures, which amounts to
the same thing."

Lita frowned. "A triplet of whats?"

"Isotopes," Amy explained briefly, then sighed. "Think of them as substances
that broadcast a specific frequency of radiation.  What's important is that I
can track them."

Darian nodded. "So basically, the cops shot him with radioactive bullets.  Very
safe.  And what you are saying is that you know where he is, so you got rid of
the cop."

"Good riddance," Lita said.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Raye asked carefully.

Serena flinched when everyone turned to her.  "Who, me?" She asked, the girlish
part of her returning for a moment, then retreating rapidly under the weight of
the circumstances. "We go after him."  The princess swallowed. "But I'm not
sure what we have will be enough.  We need Mina.  Lita-"

The green scout sighed, raising one of her hands to her head. "In other words,
you don't think I can do any good fighting him in my condition, so you want me
to go and do my best to wake Mina up."

Serena nodded, her face serious.

Amy sighed. "Lita, Serena's right.  The healing is far from finished, and if
you get into a fight now, you will not be able to help.  But if you can wake
Mina up-"

"Yeah, I got it." The green scout grumbled, getting to her feet. 

Amy held up her hand, tapping a few keys on her computer. "You will be able to
find us through your communicator.  I have been working on the communicator's
abilities to track each other for some time now."

"Got it.  I'm going."  For a moment, she looked back at the building. "Lost my
gun, too.  Anyone see my visor?"  No one answered and the green scout sighed.
"Buried as well, I suppose.  I'm going, I'm going."  The tall girl took a few
steps, then turned around to look seriously at the rest of the group. "Good
luck, guys.  I'll do my best."

She disappeared in the night.



Darian sighed. "One down, four to go."  He looked over at the unconscious form
of the policeman. "Shouldn't we do something about him?"

"I guess," Raye answered, frowning, and grasped the cop, propping him up
against a wall. 

A slight smile twitched in the vicinity of Darian's face. "Not exactly what I
meant."

The red scout turned for a moment. "Um, someone should call Luna and
Artemis."

"On it," Serena answered, taking out her communicator. "Chosen."  She waited
for Luna to pick up what had once been Nakiad's communicator.

Luna's voice came in faintly through the small device. "I'm reading you,
Serena.  How is it going?"

The blonde scout did her best to hide her apprehension, and smiled briefly when
Darian took her hand in his. "Not terrific.  Nakiad got away for the moment,
but Amy's found a way to track him.  Lita's been hurt, so she's going to the
hospital to try to get Mina up.  The rest of us are going after Nakiad."

The black cat frowned. "Do you have a plan?"

Serena nodded, serious. "Don't worry, Luna.  Call Artemis, tell him what is
going on- he is at the hospital now, I believe.  Wish us luck."

"Serena!"  The black cat yelled, and the princess stopped herself from severing
the link.  The guardian sighed. "Good luck, Sailor Scouts."  The image
vanished.

Serena looked up, all vestiges of innocence gone from her face and voice.
"Let's go."



"The scouts are going after Nakiad again, master."

Eurtholl nodded. "Good.  I like it when the good guys forget who their real
enemy is.  Do you think they will succeed?"

Fluctra shook her head. "He is the Chosen."

Eurtholl's voice held a buried smile like the blade of a knife. "In name only.
Right now, he is naught more than an animal.  And, he will not be able to use
the power of the Chosen, what much he has of it."

"He is strong still."

"Indeed.  I would not want either him or the scouts to be destroyed
prematurely."

"Master?"

He smiled openly. "You heard right.  I think it is time I released the spell.
Is the homing setup ready?"

"Yes, Master."

"Excellent."

_	_	_


"All right," the worried voice said. "You may go in, but don't touch any of the
equipment."

"Thanks," Lita said quietly, slipping through the door, then closing it behind
her.

The green scout was in normal clothes once more, having managed to transform
without staining anything with partially dried blood.  She glanced momentarily
at Mina's motionless form then walked over to the window and opened it.

Artemis jumped in easily and stared up at the tall girl. "I talked to Luna,
what's happening?"

Lita frowned. "The others are going after Nakiad, it's a long story.  Has there
been any change in Mina?"

The white cat sighed. "Nothing.  I've tried everything I know, including the
mind meld, but I just can't get through.  Something is blocking her mind, and I
don't know what it is, only that it is evil.  It's frustrating."

The green scout closed her eyes for an instant. "Then I hope the others meet
with more success."  She took out her communicator, then frowned and looked
seriously at the cat.

"What is it?"

"They're at the mall."  The tall girl sighed. "Somehow I doubt that is a
coincidence."



Raye focused carefully on their objectives, doing her best to filter out the
screams of the people running away as fast as they could.  She smiled for a
moment, wondering how the management of the store felt about all the commotion,
then forced her mind to focus.

It was the same mall.  She had not even been surprised at that, and their
familiarity with the structure helped somewhat.  His presence there also showed
that Nakiad did have a certain logic to his madness.  But not much of a one.

She was blocking his thoughts, his mind, but her strength was not enough, she
could feel him still.  It was getting worse, the darkness in his heart.  Back
in the abandoned building, he seemed almost in control, with the darkness
guiding his actions but not overriding simple logic.  Now-  She shivered,
interrupting her own thoughts.  The attack in the building seemed to have
triggered a torrent of black energy in his soul, and the darkness 
overpowered him, took over.

And it would not be stopped.

The red scout forced herself calm once more, ignoring the furnace of darkness
that tore at her mind. Somewhere deep inside, Raye no longer thought that the
Chosen could be stopped.

But he had to be.

She opened her eyes, looking down.  They had planned this, on their way there.
She was on the third floor balcony, near the roof.  Directly across from her,
on the other side of the three story gap, the red scout felt Amy's quiet mind.
Below the red scout, on the second floor balcony was Serena, and below that, on
the ground was Darian.  She felt their minds, grateful for the training that
allowed her to do so, grateful to Nakiad.

The same person she was about to destroy.

In her mind, she was crying, but her eyes were dry, focused.

The Chosen was in the middle of the aisle, almost directly between Raye and
Amy.  If this were to work, the red scout would have to be perfectly calm.

It had to work.

She shivered and looked across at the blue scout, who appeared on the other
side.  Amy nodded quietly, her blaster ready.

Raye swallowed hard, looking down at Nakiad.  The Chosen had not attacked
anyone yet, he had merely smashed through several walls to stand where he was,
and remained there.  Yet the red scout knew he had to be aware of them, their
positions were obvious even to one without his mental powers.

Slowly, he looked up at her.



A wave of ice rushed through Raye as she felt him touch her mind, felt him read
her intentions.  Then something cold seemed to hit her thoughts, slow them
down, and she staggered back from the edge of the balcony.

She was the only target, she realized with a patch of incredible clarity
surrounded by a sea of black.



A split second later a wave of ice lanced out of Amy's outstretched hands,
leapt down at Nakiad.  His focus on Raye was such that he did not see the
attack until the last moment.

They had planned well.  The blast was not very powerful at first, but spread
over a large area, so Nakiad could not avoid it by moving.  But in an instant,
Amy focused the blast, tightened it.  And the Chosen realized that the danger
was very real.

Perhaps it was the damage done to him by the bullets, or the previous battle,
but he did not react fast enough.  The first fine icy mist did not damage him,
but it slowed him a little, and a spear of absolute cold hit him directly a
moment later.

He hunched down against the blast, stabilizing himself, and threw both arms
over his head to defend himself.  The blast of ice continued for a few more
moments, obscuring him in a white mist that rose above his head.

Three stories up, a slight blue figure wavered, exhausted, and the blast cut
off.

Slowly, the mist dissolved, revealing Nakiad.  He was in the same position as
before, motionless, and from the dark shoes to the metallic gauntlets, he was
covered in a thick layer of ice.

The gloves ignited with a red fire that lanced into the covering, tearing
through it, weakening the structure.  It was only ice, hardened water, it did
not have the kind of strength to stop Nakiad.  Amidst a shriek of anger and
shattering of glass, he burst free, sending sharp translucent splinters in every
direction.

Then he collapsed in on himself a little once more.  Though he was
fundamentally undamaged, the temperature of his body had been dropped
drastically, and reactions were slow.

He did not respond as quickly as he should have to the next attack.

Pillars of fire slammed down next to him, and he shrank back as pure orange
fire spun into a solid wall around him, cutting him off from the rest of the
mall.  Controlled by Raye's gloves, the fire stabilized in that position,
surrounding him.

Had he been in full strength, he would have leapt through it immediately, it
was not powerful enough to stop such a jump.  But his reactions were slowed,
his mind numbed by Mercury's blast, and the flames seemed like an inferno to
ice-bitten flesh.  So he shrank back, unaware of his surroundings, unaware of
the locations of the scouts.

And for that moment, they knew exactly where he was.



Serena closed her eyes as the vertical fire slammed down around her teacher,
and the princess forced herself to move.  They all knew that it would not take
him long to recover.

"Moon Tiara.." She whispered, praying that this would work.  When she had used
it on Darian, it had almost killed him, weakening him enough to let him see the
truth.  But the prince had been in perfect health, and Nakiad was wounded.

Only her training kept her from hesitating, the training the Chosen himself had
been in charge of. 

"Magic." She said the word quietly, and let the glowing disk go.



The raging fire around Nakiad flickered against the brilliant light of one of
the most powerful objects on the planet, and as the forward edge of the golden
disk touched the crimson wall, the red flames were erased.  All around the
Chosen, they died, flickering out of existence.

He was staring straight at the tiara a moment before the glowing disk hit the
center of his chest.



Serena threw up both her arms in front of her eyes as a soundless star ignited
at the point of impact, blinding her.  The energy turned the world a brilliant
shade of light, blasting through her eyelids into her eyes.  For long moments,
the light continued, tearing into the air.

Then it was gone.

The tiara made a clink when it hit the ground.

Slowly, the princess lowered her hands, blinking away the white afterimages
that seemed to be burned in her retina.  She looked down.

An expression of pure pain was engraved in Nakiad's face, his mouth was
twisted, his eyes tight.  The gi on his chest was a grayer black than usual,
the material burned by the incredible power of the tiara, and his chest rose
and fell with obvious pain.  Even from her distance she could hear his ragged
breaths.

He breathed out again, sinking slowly to his hands and knees as wisps of smoke
rose from the gloves, and Serena looked down in wonder.  He was beaten, she
thought incredulously.

Then he took a deep breath, and she felt his strength return in a single rush.
The gi on the black back turned solid once more, the muscles underneath
tightening.  Slowly, Nakiad's head came up, and the wild eyes stared up at the
princess.  The metal gauntlets pushed against the ground, the arms tensing.

And he was strong again.



Darian watched with unbelief as Nakiad straightened out, and the prince stared
at the small tiara lying on the ground.  Darian's lips moved but his voice made
no sound.  One of his white gloves tightened around a rose, around _the_ rose.
He raised it, keeping himself in the shadows.  Nakiad was staring up at the
second floor, at Serena, he could not see the prince.

Then the Chosen raised his hands and the tips of the gauntlets turned red with
power.

The prince's body reacted before his mind did.

"No!" Darian screamed, and the rose lanced outward.  He watched it with
despair, tracing its path through the clear air.

Wild with pain, Nakiad never saw it coming.  In a frozen moment, Darian saw the
Chosen looking down at the rose.

The flower was embedded in the center of Nakiad's burned chest.

Then white light tore through everything once more, and the prince tried to
wipe the anguish from his mind as Nakiad shrieked.



The rose ignited an impossible shade of white, brighter than the tiara's
impact, and two metal gloves clutched impotently at it, trying to pull it out.
But it was too late.

The white flared again, burning, tearing, and liquid energy thrust into the
Chosen's chest.  Everything in the path of the power ignited, turned white,
shone with impossible brilliance.  The white erased the black of the gi,
spreading over his chest, spreading through his inside, out toward his arms and
his mind.

It reached his head and his thoughts froze in a single impossible wave of
pain.

Four pairs of eyes stared in wonder at the figure of blinking light, at the
frozen statue whose arms clutched at its chest, at the pure expression of
pain.

The rose pulsed once more with the white, then a wave of red washed over it and
it became ordinary once more, then turned an ashen color.  A moment later, it
dissolved into dust, drifting slowly to the floor, followed by a darkening
figure.

Nakiad hit the ground hard with his stomach as the light faded from his body,
left him black once more.  The gauntlets, clear and quiet, did not move, nor
did the rest of him.  He was not even breathing.

Smoke was rising from the dark gi, and energy flickered several times over his
motionless frame, then even that was gone.

And all was silent.



Blackness danced in Nakiad's mind, behind closed eyes, driving him insane.  He
had to get up, had to move.  He could not give up yet, he had to get vengeance
for that which he loved.

What did he love?  The question echoed in his mind.

It did not matter, came the black answer, echoing deep inside him.  He tried to
shake off the pain with a will forged out of a thousand years of training, with
the hatred of eon-old dark energy.  The white fire had burned through his veins
like molten iron, but it had not destroyed the darkness, it had merely damaged
his body.  The darkness was beyond that, it was strong, stronger than
anything.

He had to move.



A breath tore through him like fire, ignited his lungs.  One arm shivered, the
black fabric flinching against the power it contained, then a metal fist
slammed into the floor.  The other arm repeated the motion, and a soundless
force rippled through the air.  The scouts and the prince stared with horror as
the arms tensed, bringing up the body, then the legs moved, lifting the Chosen
to his hands and knees.  Another surge of strength, another soundless shriek of
power, and he was standing once more.

His eyes opened.

They were full of black fire.



Serena stared at him. "Impossible," she whispered.  Even at her distance, she
had felt the power of the rose, of the tiara, she had shared some of the pain.
It had to have worked, and yet it had not.

She knew what she had to do.  The princess closed her eyes, concentrating,
bringing up power from inside herself.  He had withstood her power before, but
he was hurt now, hurt with incredible energy, and he was only holding himself 
up with his will.  And though that strength was beyond her mind's grasp, it 
would not withstand her full power.  It could not.

Serena felt his gauntlets come up, felt the red fire ignite, the fully
developed talent about to erupt, but she did not open her eyes.  Instead, she
released her own fire.

And a lance of moon power met the crimson inches away from the Chosen's
gauntlets.



There was no sound.  The two energies met silently in midair and stopped, each
held off by the other, neither advancing.  The red burned stronger at that
distance than it had ever before, but the white was the power of the moon, it
would not be stopped.  Once, Serena had allowed herself to be stopped by that
new power, but not again.  Slowly, the white advanced, and the red contracted,
flowing back to the gauntlets, burning richer and deeper as it got close to its
source.

Then the white struck.

The moon energy struck the metal, still not making any sound, and shattered the
red barrier, coating metal with pure power, and for a moment, Nakiad's stance
relaxed.

Then his eyes burned black and the red fire surrounded him.  As if in slow
motion, the white power on his hands turned a hideous shade of red.

And the lance of moon power dissolved, exhausted.



Raye exhaled softly as the red wave of energy approached them, watched it come
closer.  There was no time to do anything and somehow she accepted that, let
fate do as it would.

The world turned immaculate red.



A three-story-tall tsunami of pure crimson energy slammed into the inner side
of the building, turned the giant display windows into glass powder, tore
through concrete and parquet.  The two scouts and Darian vanished in that cloud
of red energy and glass, engulfed in incredible power, swallowed by the crimson
hurricane and never released.



Amy watched her friends vanish in a cloud of red fire with an open mouth.  Her
visor beeped back energy readings that were well off the scale, but for once her
scientific curiosity did not rise.  She had not interfered because of the clear
plan before, and now her friends were gone- at least out of the battle,
possibly dead.  She forced herself to look at the visor reading, but the energy
interfered with the equipment, she could see nothing.

Slowly, she looked down at Nakiad.

He was standing still with his back turned, breathing heavily, and his
gauntlets were by his side.

Her hands found the trigger and squeezed without the unnecessary intervention
of her mind.

At the last moment he staggered to one side, and the stasis blast slammed into
the tiled floor of the mall, shredding it.  Nakiad regained his balance almost
immediately and looked up at the girl, his stance strong once again.

He leapt.

Amy thought she saw an aura of red around him as he rose straight up and landed
in front of her with one impossible jump.  Her blaster shot again, but the
blast went wild as a gleaming claw tore into the weapon, ripping it out of her
hands, shredding the metal as if it were paper.

His eyes were insane.

The image of him staring at her with a burning black gaze froze in her mind.
His gi was torn, blackened with soot in the middle of the chest, and tiny
rivulets of blood covered him.  But the gauntlets were clinical and precise as
they slashed for her face.

She faded back and five edges of metal swept inches away from her face, then
her back slammed into a wall.  Not a store display window, but a wall, sold and
unyielding.

His eyes grinned madly and one metal claw locked around her neck, pressing in.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt her carotid artery blocked, felt
the metal edges press in, and she knew that in a moment, the razor sharp edges
would tear into her throat and she would be dead.

But she did not move, did not do anything.  Her power was gone, the weapon he
had given her destroyed.  She had only terror now, pure horror as she stared
into his eyes, unable to look away from the black force burning within.

The edges of the glove turned, preparing to cut.

But Amy did not die.

Nakiad's hand did not move, but he blinked.  Slowly, his head turned, breaking
the eye contact between himself and Amy.  He looked down.

The glove continued to press on the carotid artery, and Amy felt her mind start
to fade, sinking into blackness.  She wondered quietly what would possibly make
him stop like that, and came up with only one conclusion, a conclusion that a
part of her brain said was ridiculous.

She heard a voice, a girl's voice, say a word, miles away. 

"Nakiad."  

Just once.

And darkness took the blue scout.



He released the girl, relaxed his grip, let her slip silently to the floor.  As
if he were no longer in control of his own actions, he turned slowly and stared
along the main aisle of the mall.

Lita looked grimly across the distance at the one who had taught her.  To one
side, Artemis stared sadly at his friend.

And slightly behind them and to one side stood Mina, pale but conscious.



Without thinking, Nakiad jumped, over the railing, down three floors.  He
landed silently, his feet absorbing the impact.

The darkness burned behind his eyes, and as he stared at the three small
figures, it rose within him like a searing tornado.  Thoughts flickered through
his mind, memories and fragments of conversations, images.

He remembered death.  Like a cold dark hand it had seized his soul a thousand
times, twisting it, hardening the exterior.  He remembered her death,
remembered the assassin.

He remembered the assassin's final screams.

And now she was there, alive.

It was too much.  Hunching down, he breathed in and let out a wail through
clenched teeth, and inhuman wail.  Inside, the blackness took everything,
covered all of his mind and body.

Mina and Artemis both remained still, only Lita, her expression set, interposed
herself.

And the Chosen turned into a blur of darkness.  The distance between them was a
hundred meters at most, yet every leap that carried him forward at an inhuman
speed seemed to take seconds to complete.  Lita crouched down, wincing
slightly.

He slammed into the green scout, a locomotive into a car, he sent her flying
away to one side, Lita hitting Artemis, both crushed into the ground, 
motionless.

Through the darkness, indistinct from motion, he saw Mina with tears coming
down her face as she stared at him.

"Nakiad," she said.  It came out less than a whisper.

One claw blurred in a lethal arc, aiming for her throat.

And something within him snapped, he felt the darkness break, a heavy weight
slammed into his mind.  He screamed once more.

Too late, the claw pulled back.



Mina closed her eyes on the tears, forced herself to stand still.  She had hurt
the one she loved once before, she would not betray him again.

A lick of fire grazed her throat.

She opened her eyes slowly, realizing she was not yet dead.  A drop of hot
liquid was running down her throat.

Nakiad was just standing there, breathing hard, his frame obscured by shadows,
his eyes burning with darkness. But he was not attacking, he was not even
looking at her.

He was looking at his gauntleted hand, at the drop of red on the edge of the
middle finger.

The darkness flickered.  She held her breath, waiting.

Then his expression blacked and the eyes burned with darkness once more.  The
shadow returned to him, cloaking him like a skin tight garb.

He laughed, shortly, madly, looking at the drop of blood, then the claw lashed
out straight for her throat.

She did not close her eyes this time, just let herself relax.

The claw stopped.

She focused her eyes and looked at him with astonishment.

He looked insane.  Every muscle in his body was taut, the black gi stretching
wildly to compensate.  The gauntlet tensed, reaching for her throat, but his
eyes clenched and did not let it, the fire burned and did not burn, everything
was opposite, light and darkness together, burning, fighting.  The blackness
flickered.

Like a wounded lion, he roared, the tendons in his necks standing out because
of the tension, his face carved out of stone.  The shriek went on and on,
tearing at Mina as if it were physical, echoing through the building.

Then Nakiad's frame flickered once more, and Mina looked at his eyes.

They burned with darkness still, but a transparent tear was coming down from
one eye.

The tension peaked, and darkness covered him, everything was there, both good
and bad, and light and black, everything.  Mina's eyes blurred, unable to
comprehend what she was seeing, unable to distinguish one image from another.
It was as if Nakiad had just doubled, his physical shape splitting in two, a
shadow and the normal him.  But they occupied the same space, the same time.

The shadow, the darkness, flickered.

And Nakiad shrieked again as if he were being torn apart.  The shadow stretched
and pulled and he screamed as if every fiber in his body were being pulled
apart.

As it was.

The shadow ripped through him, tore free of the physical body, of the
restraints of a soul, and it rose up above him, an utter darkness, separate
from his flesh, finally free.

Nakiad looked at his love with clear eyes. "Mina," he whispered.  His voice was
hoarse.

The black above him shrieked, and the tear in the Universe that it was tensed,
about to attack.  Mina shrank back from it.

But it did not move.  An invisible, utter black head seemed to turn.  A
nonexistent wind seemed to pull it, move it.

The thing looked back at Mina, and unseen eyes flashed malevolently.

But something was calling it.

And it went.

The blackness faded slowly in the air.



For long heartbeats, Mina stared into the empty space, then looked back at
Nakiad.

He looked back at her, his eyes completely clear.  Then he closed his eyes, and
his mind, and his legs folded.  He collapsed to the floor.

Quickly, she knelt next to him.  "Nakiad?" She whispered urgently. "Nakiad?"

He did not respond.

_	_	_


"Detective?"

He groaned, waking up yet again in a state of complete disorientation.

"Detective."

"Report," he asked, forcing his weakness away.  Now was not the time for
relaxing.

The other seemed confused at the sudden activity, but replied with remarkable
speed. "Sir, the signatures you asked about were traced.  They are at the 
Juuban district-"

"Mall," he finished, laughing bitterly.

"Yes, sir.  How did you know?"

"Lucky guess," he answered miserably.  "Damn them anyway."

"Damn whom?"

"Never mind. Are you sure it is there?"  

Another voice replied. "We aren't exactly sure.  The satellite we were using
passed overhead and is gone, and it's difficult to get time on the few others
that are capable of seeing the signature."

"Then we'd better go before he gets away.  And help me up, will you, Mike?"

His friend gave the detective a hand up, then turned grim. "Look, I'm not sure
exactly what happened, but I do know that something is not right.  People don't
just fall asleep in the middle of the street, especially not you, not in the
middle of a case."

"Look, just forget it, will you?  It's a long story, I tried to do something
and I failed.  Where's the car?"

"Right there.  Pete, that girl who was in the hospital in a coma?"

The detective slammed the door. "Yeah?"

"She's gone."

He blinked and did not reply for several moments. "I see."

The road blurred as he stepped on the gas and they rushed into the night.
Above him, the flashing sirens seemed to fade, the road turned calm and smooth.
His mind worked furiously.

Something was wrong, something he should see, but could not.  He thought back
to his conversation with the scouts.  There had been four of them and the man,
but he remembered reading reports of five scouts.  And the girl at the hospital
had been with four others.  And a man had come to see her.

His mind seemed to blur as he thought, sinking in a gray fog, and the road
became the only reality.  He concentrated, trying to put it together.

But his thoughts were blurry, too blurry.  It was as if a black force was
pushing against his mind, keeping individual facts separate, impossible to
connect.

He breathed out explosively, relaxing, letting the matter go, and the darkness
receded.  The road refocused once more, and he was able to think again.

But every time he thought about the situation with the scouts, a whiteness came
over him mind.



He should have seen it, the answer was staring him in the face.  But the scouts
were protected, their identities kept secret by the planets, held closed to all
eyes.  No mortal could easily penetrate that secret, not without certain
sacrifices.  Anyone else either stopped thinking about the mystery, or sank
deeper and deeper into the white fog, until the fog was the only thing left.



"There it is."

The mall was familiar to him now, almost like an old friend.  The three
stories, the enormous parking garage, he had memorized all of it before.

But now it was different, the detective thought.  Several police cars were
already there, a line of cops keeping the large crowd of onlookers well clear
of the building.  And the mall  itself was quiet, impossibly quiet.

A whole section of it flashed with white light, once for a few moments, then
again.

Williams stopped the car feet away from the rear of the crowd and leapt out,
staring up at the white glow.  It came through the large panes of glass on the
outside of the structure, the panes of glass that let daylight in.

Then something changed, and Williams blinked as the white light turned red,
then his breath hissed out.

A three-story tall section of the mall exploded outward.

The onlookers screamed as a blast of crimson energy smashed through the panes
of glass, through the concrete surrounding them, and people froze in terror as
the debris slammed into the crowd, pushing it back, collapsing it.  Williams
shrank back against the door of the car as the powder rained down around him,
but the large pieces had not reached his position at the back of the crowd. 
A hint of acrid smoke washed over him, then that was gone.

Above, the unnatural force died out, and screams filled the air, the screams of
injured people who had not wanted to hurt anyone, who had only been curious.
He turned to Mike. "Call the hospital-"

The other, still in the car, nodded, staring with shock at the building. "We
had done that already, just in case.  Man, oh, man-"

"I know," Williams said.

The light inside the damaged portion was gone, all the lamps probably destroyed
in the incredible blast, and the section was dark, silent.  Black, empty
windows, charred and damaged by the blast stared out accusingly.

He thought he heard a scream from inside the building over the panicked yells
of the injured.  It seemed to come from deep inside, an inhuman shriek, but it
was too faint for him to be sure.

The detective suddenly realized he should be helping those hurt, then an
ambulance pulled up next to him, and the sound suddenly returned to his world.
All around him was the sound of sirens, ambulances were unloading doctors as
fast as they were arriving, and policemen were surrounding the building.

He blinked, wondering how long he had been standing there, motionless, then
wondered how he could have heard the scream over the noise of the sirens.

It did not matter.

He looked over at his friend and pulled out his gun. "I'm going in."

He pulled the safety back and chambered the first round.



Eurtholl did not laugh.  But the grin that came across his face filled the
large chamber, seemed to reflect off the walls.  Eurtholl did not only posses
energy, he reveled in it.

In front of him, in a large crystal, the blackest fire in the two universes
burned, the power of the Dark Lord, the strength of eons.  Cackling, deadly,
sheer black energy that could melt through flesh, destroy cities, annihilate
whole worlds.

Across the chamber, Fluctra entered, already in her new form.  He raised his
head, smiling.

"Master," she said, bowing, "we are ready."

The other four came in, and his grin widened as he looked on the five figures.
The five were dressed in immaculate, white uniforms, with slightly varying
color schemes.

They were the Sailor Scouts.

"Begin the next phase," Eurtholl said with relish.

Fluctra nodded, and all five of them disappeared.

He turned back to the dark energy, extending two hands toward the black fire,
continuing to grin at the coldness that came from the crystal.

Things were going even better than he had dared to hope.

.
.
.
.
.
.
Thus ends Turmoil, part two of volume two of Sailor Moon: Shades of Light and
Darkness.


To be continued..............


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