Sailor Moon: Shades of Light and Darkness
Volume II: Perchance to Dream
Part 4: Cost
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 4:  Cost


Maraki blades from pain will heal
And if a sword can become more
Those born to fight may someday feel
Weapons of old may still have hope.

_	_	_


The wind whipped fine sand into his eyes, and Nakiad held one hand up in front
of his face, blocking the attack.  Blinking against the sun and wind, he turned
around, taking in the scene.

There had been a majestic city here once, giant towers that had reached up into
the sky, toward the stars and the moon.  As he watched, Nakiad felt himself
drifting back into the past, his mind reconstructing the scene as it had been
millennia before.

As he had seen it.

There was little of that left now.  Above the whirling sands, stone bleached
white by the winds of a thousand years stood out painfully.  Only a few
remnants of the wondrous architecture of the Silver Millennium remained.  The
sand had destroyed everything.

Nakiad forced his thoughts back to the surface, and looked around with a
satisfaction mingled with slight regret.  All around him, people worked on the
remnants of the structure, burrowing into the sand for anything that might have
been preserved by the sand.

They had found nothing interesting yet.

Nakiad was not surprised.  His mind shuffled back through the other sites he
had remembered and had dug up.  None of them had much to offer, and he had been
forced to destroy all of them to keep the secrets of the Silver Millennium
hidden.  A note of regret passed through his mind at the erasing of such
monuments, but it could not be helped, he told himself.

"Lord Shaws!"

His eyes flickered instantly toward the voice.  It was one of the workers,
gesturing across the sand.

"We've found something!"

A hint of a bitter smile tugged at Nakiad's mind.  The day might prove
interesting after all.

He ran forward, ignoring the sand that tried to burn his bare feet.

The workers were all clustered over a dome, the top of which had apparently
just been uncovered.  Several of the men were gesticulating wildly toward
Nakiad, pointing toward something in the structure.

It was a door.

A sealed door.

Nakiad's eyes widened slightly.  All the buildings he had found before had been
open to the wind and sand, everything inside them destroyed.  This, on the
other hand-

He traced the gentle outline of the entrance with a finger.  The door was of
the same stone as the rest of the wall, and it fit into its space perfectly.
If not for the slight seam, there would not have been any way to see its
existence.  And there was no lever, no obvious way to open it.

Then Nakiad's eyes moved to one side, where a black mark jumped at his eyes.
He moved toward it, gently brushing away the fine layer of sand that covered
the black.  The marks were writing.  He brushed the rest of the sand away.

His eyes flickered with anticipation.

It was a single word, in the writing of the Silver Millennium.

Chosen.

The workers' presence vanished into the back of his mind as he dropped to his
knees, hurriedly brushing away the sand around the sign.  Just below, a faint
web of lines had been etched in the stone.  It was in the shape of a human
hand.

He noticed that his fingers were shaking as he touched his hand to the faint
outline.

A rumble came from deep inside the sphere.

As the workers faded back, astonished, Nakiad levered himself to his feet.

The sphere was opening.  With a heavy sigh, the stone door moved into the
structure, then to one side, letting light into a chamber where there had been
none for millennia.

Filled with wonder, Nakiad stepped toward the entrance.  Then again.  He felt
his heart beating as he stepped into the darkness, and his eyes adjusted
quickly to the lack of light.

The chamber was a flattened sphere, with a ladder leading down from the
entrance to the center, where a single pedestal of stone stood.  On the
pedestal, under a dome of glass, a pair of objects glittered in the light.

Slowly, Nakiad felt his legs walking down the staircase.  He did not control
them, he did not feel any part of himself.  He could have floated down without
noticing it.  For every part of his conscious mind was focused on the
pedestal.

There glittered two of the greatest weapons in the universe.

Two gauntlets.

_	_	_


Bodies slammed into Nakiad, carrying him back, off balance, and he felt his
blast cut off.  He had not had enough time.  In front of his eyes, Serena's
face was contorted with surprise and anger as the princess tried to push him
back.  Others were gripping his arms, also pushing back, and under the fog of
his dream, he felt his balance shift.

The examination table slipped away from under his legs, and he crashed hard
into the floor, bodies smashing down on top of him.  His mind, still clouded,
ignited with anger, and he forced power into his sleeping limbs.  With a
wrench, he was upright, bodies hanging on to him, then Serena lost her grip as
he tossed her lightly aside.  She hit the wall softly and landed on her feet,
dazed but uninjured.  

He slammed a fist into Darian's side and the prince went down to the floor, 
then Nakiad lifted Lita off the floor with a two handed shove.  The green 
scout also landed on her feet, but his way was clear, and the gauntlets 
on his hands ignited with red fire.  The two cats, about to spring,
hesitated, and there was no one to stop him.  The room darkened as he focused
on two figures on the other side, and the crimson energy around his hands
flared into lethal existence.

"No!" 

The yell tore through his ears, and he felt the red fire flicker when he
recognized the speaker.  Then a face jerked into his view, straight in front of
his arms, and through blurry eyes, he recognized it.

Mina.

She trembled with fear, tears flowing out of her eyes, but she did not move,
and he felt his own heart flinch.  The fire around the gauntlets trembled and
died, unable to continue.  Startled, he jerked his hands back as the pain in
her eyes cut across his soul.  Then hands were over him, grabbing him, keeping
him from moving.  He could have thrown them off again, but the pain in Mina's
eyes tore at his will, and he could not move.

"You don't understand," he whispered, finding his voice, and he felt his eyes
flash angrily as he looked at the other side of the room.

Mina turned to follow his gaze, and he felt the hands holding him relax.

It was too late anyway.



Raye felt her eyes widen at the blast, and she froze in a moment of total
shock.  A part of her mind tore to jump at Nakiad, but the staff in her hands
seemed to drag against the motion, and she looked down at the weapon.  Thoughts
flashed through her head.  

The staff had healed Nakiad.

Amy was hurt.

Then time unfroze and the others slammed into Nakiad, and the crimson attack
cut off.  Raye leapt toward Amy as the blue scout collapsed to the floor, red
and black covering the white uniform.  

"Amy," Raye whispered intently, diving toward the form.  The priestess
supported her friend with one arm.

Amy's eyes opened, and the priestess gasped.  The red scout remembered the
power of the red attack, and this time it had been focused against one person.
Not even a scout should have been able to survive that impact, and Amy's powers
had been taken away.  Raye glanced down to the blue scout's chest and saw that
the damage was not nearly as extensive as it should have been.  Amy should have
been dead.

And the blue scout was alive.

Raye frowned at her own thoughts.

Amy's eyes focused on the red scout, then the injured girl raised one trembling
hand up, toward the staff.  Raye flinched as a flash of darkness passed over
her mind, a gentle touch of warning.  Without truly realizing what she was
doing, Raye pulled the staff back, out of the blue scout's reach.

Shocked at her own actions, the priestess looked at her own hand, then she felt
Amy move.

And a hard foot slammed into Raye's stomach.

The priestess gasped, forced to her feet by the strike.  Her balance shifted,
and she staggered back, her ears ringing.  Raye's eyesight blurred against the
pain and when she was able to focus again, she saw Amy on her feet in a
fighting stance.  Before Raye could react, the blue scout's hands closed over
the staff, and another kick smashed into Raye's stomach, in exactly the same
place.

The red scout's mind, dazed by pain and jumbled by the chaotic events, could
not control her hand, and her fingers slipped.  Amy jerked away with the staff
in her hands, and Raye staggered back again, the back of her legs hitting the
edge of the bed.  The red scout sat down hard, her stomach on fire, her brain
going black.  The control of her legs failed and she could not regain her feet,
she could only watch dumbly.

Amy was standing easily, the splash of black and red on her chest unnoticed.
In one hand, she held the staff, in the other a small black crystal.  She was
smiling, and a part of Raye's mind wondered why the smile seemed sad.

On the other side of the room, the motion stopped as the others realized what
was going on.

For several moments, no one moved, no one said anything.  The other scouts and
Darian were holding on to Nakiad, though the Chosen was not trying to escape.
The two guardians merely stood there, stunned.  And Amy, well clear of all
parties, stood still, her chest heaving.  A slight red glow was in the blue
scout's eyes, and her hand was tight around the staff.

"Amy?" Serena finally asked, her voice soft in astonishment.

The blue scout was looking at Nakiad. "You have a good eye, Chosen," she said.
"But you are too late."  The white glove tightened around the crystal.

"Who are you?" The Chosen asked, his voice calm.

The black crystal shattered in the grip, and a black glow surrounded the fake
scout and the staff.  The black intensified before anyone could do anything,
then started to dissipate in the suddenly chilly air.

And out of the vanishing line of darkness, a voice floated out.  "Sorry, 
Jupiter."

For several moments, the room seemed to echo with the soft statement.

Then the darkness was gone, and everyone remained silent.

Raye felt the control over her muscles return and she staggered to her feet,
still clutching her side.



Nakiad felt the grips holding him let go and he forced himself to relax.  To
one side, Raye got up slowly, but the red scout seemed to be in pain.

He shook his head, still staring at the spot from which the fake scout had
disappeared. "There was no way you could have known." His voice rasped, but he
was too busy trying to sort out everything that had happened to pay any
attention to his own body.

For several moments, no one answered.  Then Raye looked up.

"It was not Amy," the red scout said finally, her voice an uncharacteristic
whisper. "I should have known."  She paused. "Back when we were fighting with
the fakes, the cops must have taken Lita and the fake Amy.  The real one-"  She
stopped.

Their enemy had the real Sailor Mercury, that much was clear.

A flash of anger passed through Nakiad, but he had no trouble controlling it.
The darkness no longer tore at his heart, he was in relative control of his
emotions.  Raye had lost the staff, but she could not be blamed.  He could be
blamed, but not she.  

He glared at her. "You acted as you should have, Sailor Mars."

He felt his strength ebb and his body lowered slowly to one of the beds.  For
several moments, he did his best to focus his thoughts, organize everything
that had happened.  But he did not know enough to figure everything out.

He raised his head, looking at the group.  Lita had a bandage on under her
uniform, and her side was only partially healed.  Raye had some damage from the
attack of the fake scouts.  Serena was mostly all right, though covered with
bruises like the other scouts.  Darian had lost his sword, and a long cut
crossed his face.  Both Artemis and Luna looked exhausted.  And Amy was
missing.

His mind came to Mina, her side still hurt from the bullet, the muscles tight
and twisted.  Then he flinched away from those beautiful eyes, remembering all
that he had done.

He remembered.

With sharp gestures, he tore the metal off his hands, tossing the gauntlets to
the floor.  The weapons clattered uselessly on the hard surface.

Swallowing hard, he forced himself to look up at the others.  His heart
flinched from the distrust in their eyes.   Then his mind hardened, and his
frame relaxed into normalcy.  Pain was something he was used to.

And at that decision, it was as if the others became transparent, their
mistrust fading into insignificance.  And behind the dark emotion was something
else, a happiness at Nakiad's return.  They needed him.  And he needed them.
Without them, without Mina, he would have struck the Dark Lord down.

"It is good to have you back," Darian said softly.

Nakiad nodded softly. "Tell me."  He needed to know what had happened.



Fluctra sat down on the one chair in the room, resting.  She had a few moments
before she would be summoned to give up the staff.  Eurtholl liked to make
others wait on him, to show them his power.

She looked down at the mess at the center of her chest briefly, and the red and
black splash of color wavered, then disappeared without effort.  Her talent was
useful.

Fluctra paused in her thoughts, thinking back to her experiences.  She did not
hate the scouts.  She would kill them if she had the chance, they stood in her
path.  But she did not hate them, she did not hate Jupiter, and Fluctra had 
waited until the last possible moment to get the staff.

The warrior shook the thoughts off with a toss of her head.  The scouts were
weaklings to stick together as they did, their compassion would lead to their
death.  And Fluctra would help on that trip.

She looked again at the staff in her hand, feeling the power of it rushing
through her veins.   Her grip tightened around the smooth material defensively,
and she looked at it with piercing eyes.  Like herself, it was malleable, it
could take any shape it wanted, it would obey her every thought.  It was almost
like an extension of her body, an added power that rivaled any in the universe.
They had been made for each other, with it, she could-

With a mental curse, she stopped herself.  She would give Eurtholl the staff,
she had no choice.  Even with it, she could never withstand against his wrath,
none could stand against the black power of the Dark Lord.  And when she gave
it to him, she would get her chance for power as a second in command.  And
someday, when she knew enough, Eurtholl would die.

And Fluctra would be ruler of the Universe.

Perhaps.

The staff warmed her thoughts as she sat in the darkness, waiting.



Luna looked at Nakiad as Serena finished the story.  It had taken a while to
recount, with the scouts alternating in speaking to give him all the
perspectives.  Mostly, the black cat remained silent, letting the others speak.
She had done that a lot lately, and Artemis had seemed to replace her somewhat
in the main discussions.  She did not mind that much, for he did have far more
experience than she, but it still saddened her sometimes.  Only Serena still
relied more on Luna than she did on Artemis.

"..and you woke up," Serena finished. "The rest you know."

Nakiad nodded slowly.  Over the telling, he seemed to have shrunk slightly,
lowering his frame on the bed. "So," he said heavily, "now the enemy knows
where we are based.  And he has Amy."

"Do you have any idea where-" Luna started, deciding she should take part in
the discussion.

"Amy is?" He finished for her. "No.  She could be anywhere, probably heavily
shielded.  From the way your story goes, the fake scout took her place during
that fight, and it was the fake who was with Lita in the prison.  A masterful
disguise.  Given Amy's value as a pawn, I doubt our opponent would harm her in
any way.  Nor do I think she knows anything he would want, he already knows all
he needs.  Where we live, who we are, everything."

"Do you know who he is?" Raye asked.

He laughed painfully. "No.  If Kaneth was correct, then we are fighting a
former member of the Negaverse army.  Which is nothing in terms of real
information, really.  He is holding all the cards, so to speak.  He even has
Amy, if he ever felt like he needed some leverage over us."

Luna blinked, thinking. "What about Kaneth?  Could he be the one behind this
attack, making this whole scheme?"

The Chosen shrugged slightly. "He would not have warned us, first of all.  And
he is too forthright, too honorable to carry out this plan.  Although anything
is possible."

Luna nodded. "All right, then maybe he'd be willing to help us."

Nakiad shook his head. "Kaneth told me about the enemy.  That is all he can do,
that is more than I would have expected him to do.  Eurtholl is from the
Negaverse, which keeps Kaneth from interfering by their own law.  And there is
no reason for Kaneth to be angry, for the enemy has attacked us only.  Mina's
shooting, the fake scouts, everything was directed more or less straight at us.
Although some innocents have been harmed, that was only because they had been
at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Making others go crazy is not honorable warfare," Raye replied, her eyes
flashing.  Then the red scout winced ruefully at her own outburst.

"Isn't it?" Nakiad asked thoughtfully. "Our enemy is fighting in his way.  Just
because we can not fight him in the same way does not mean it is not
honorable."

"Taking away Lita's powers-" Raye started.

Nakiad looked up curiously. "What about Lita's powers- have they returned?"

The green scout shrugged. "I don't know, I-" She closed her eyes for a moment,
then opened them. "You know, I think it is gone, the suppression, I mean."  She
looked around, surprised. "I didn't even notice, here I'll try to- Thunder."

Sparks of electricity coalesced about her tiara, then she relaxed and they
faded.

Nakiad nodded. "I suspected as much.  Clever, making it so either both of your
would be suspected or neither.  More likely than not-" He paused. "Computer,
scan the room for any negative energy of the sort noticed about me before."

"No such energy present," came the instant response.

The Chosen looked at Lita. "She was probably carrying something to block your
powers, that would be the most reasonable explanation.  Also, from your
account, probably something to keep the cops confused, otherwise I suspect your
stay would have been much more active."

"Oh," the green scout said quietly.  "Wait, computer, who am I?"

"You are Sailor Jupiter."

Darian nodded. "Yes, before, it thought you were someone else because of the
dark energy."

"Dark energy," Nakiad whispered softly, interrupting, and the others turned.
He looked up. "It is gone.  The dark power inside me, that which was trying to
break free.  But-" He paused. "I don't think that has helped me any.  Now I am
unbalanced the other way.  With all the personalities inside me, I can not
reach the positive energy inside me either."  He sighed.  "Without the staff, I
do not have the control I need."

The others did not reply for a few moments.  That was typical of Nakiad, a
blunt statement that did not do justice to the problem.

He sighed again and got up. "We all could use some time to recover, and to
heal-" He glanced at Raye. "Serena, if you don't mind using your powers, I
think the others could use them."

The princess nodded without hesitation, Luna noticed proudly. "Certainly," the
girl said. "What about you?  The bullets-"

He smiled sadly. "Don't worry about it.  All I need is some time to think.  I
don't believe we can do anything until the enemy makes his next move anyway,
and we could use the rest.  Feel free to take full advantage of the
facilities."

Luna noticed that he avoided Mina's eyes even as he walked through the door.



"The Master will see you now," the grenok said, and Fluctra nodded with
disdain.  They were such dirty creatures, most of them, though this one was
presentable enough.  Still, she felt like crawling out of her skin whenever she
had to be near one of the lowly creatures, despised by any true Negaverse
warrior.  Eurtholl had needed as much cannon fodder as possible.

Her hand tightened possessively around the staff as she walked through the
corridor.  More and more, the thought of keeping it entered her mind, but she
knew that was impossible.  

That certainty did not keep the idea out of her mind.

"So," Eurtholl's voice echoed suddenly as she entered the great chamber, "you
have been successful."  His voice sounded hollow across the distance, and she
started forward through the giant empty hall.

"Yes," she answered. "I hold the staff of the Chosen in my hands, and I know
the location of the scout's base.  I have not killed any of them-"

"Good," he interrupted. "I hope you were not thinking of doing so, for you know
I had forbidden it."

"Yes, my master.  It was only that it would have been so easy-"

"Fool," he spat, and she flinched.  He thought her so dense, but she knew
better.  Below all his scheming, he was as blind as she, just with more
experience.  Time would change that.  "I do not want the scouts dead yet," he
continued. "Forestalling that pleasure will make it that much more satisfying
when it comes."  His eyes flashed. "And perhaps, if you continue as you are,
you will get that honor."

She nodded. "Thank you, master."  The thought did not excite her, though the
idea of controlling the lives of those so-called 'defenders of Earth' was
interesting.  That foreseen pleasure seemed to reverberate through the staff,
becoming stronger until she forced herself to snap into awareness once more.

She stopped before the foot of his throne, and Eurtholl moved forward in his
seat.

"Now," he said calmly, "give it to me."

She flinched from the anticipation dripping from his voice, and reached into
her uniform, bringing out Amy's computer and communicator.

He nodded and accepted the objects, putting them on the pedestal next to the
blue scout's transformation stick.  The translucent field of energy that kept
both from being located by the other scouts remained around the objects.  "Did
they come in useful?" He asked, and she was acutely aware of his scrutiny.

"Yes," she answered. "I was able to scan Nakiad's compound.  He seems to have a
very complex computer installed, and I took readings off that as well.  I think
with that information, we should not have any trouble with-"

"I see," he interrupted. "Good.  And the communicator?"

She smiled. "It has a tracking device installed which allows us to monitor any
of the scout's positions.  A clever idea from their point of view, but a
foolish one.  The energy field blocks the tracer on this end, and we are
actually able to reverse the process, so we know their location at any given
time."

"Indeed."  He looked away from the objects.  "What about the dampening
crystal?"

"It worked perfectly, master."

Eurtholl stared at her. "Good."  His voice suddenly shifted from tolerant to
utter cold. "Now, Fluctra, give me the staff."  His eyes flashed.

Despite her knowledge of her fate if she did not let him have it, she felt her
fingers tighten about the material, and she pulled back slightly.  She cringed,
trying to force her arm to relax.

To her surprise, he did not enter a fit of rage.  He never had, in her memory,
but she would have expected it under the circumstances.  Instead, he smiled,
the smile that meant he would be laughing if he ever laughed. 

"It is strong," he hissed, "is it not?  I know all about the staff, I have
dedicated a large part of my life to finding all its secrets." He paused, and
his face grew hard again. "But, my student, you know you could never stand
against me, not even with that tool.  You do not know how to use it or how to
control its power.  And I have the might of the Dark Lord, I have the power to
destroy you.  You know that, right?"

"Yes, master," she whispered, but her fingers did not relax.

He smiled again. "It is good that you know.  I am afraid you are going to have
to give it to me, despite the power it has on you.  You are an ordinary
warrior, you stand no chance of controlling that sort of might."

He bent forward, and his eyes burned into her, drilled through her mind. "You,"
he said slowly, "will give me the staff, now."

The eyes seemed to be pulling strings in her mind, and her hand obeyed without
her brain's will.  Slowly, she extended the staff to him, and knelt down,
offering it without protest.

"Good," he said darkly, and accepted the staff.

Her eyes snapped open, and she relaxed suddenly, almost crumpling to the floor.
The power of the staff was gone, the influence had disappeared, and she was
Fluctra once more.  She was a warrior with an incredible talent, but only a
warrior.  She wondered at her own actions, surprised at what she had almost
done.  Slowly, she looked up at her master.

He was smiling, the staff grasped in both arms. "Strange, is it not?" He asked,
his voice hoarse. "To realize that your own thoughts were not yours, but caused
by the power of a mere object."

She nodded dumbly, her throat failing.

He gripped the weapon. "The potential for destruction here-"  Then his eyes
flashed. "But not yet," he said calmly.  "There is one more thing I need from
the scouts to be able to take on the power of the Dark Lord."

He reached to one side, and a large blue crystal appeared in his hand.  Fluctra
gasped.  Its shape was identical to that of the crystal used to disrupt the
pocket dimension of Sailor Mercury, but larger, far larger.  With trembling
hands, Fluctra accepted the power.

"Now go," he said, his eyes flashing.  The staff seemed to make him stronger,
more confident, and something in his stance began to worry her. Then his
features relaxed.  "But do not act immediately.  I want them to know what is
going on, I want them to think about their destinies for a little time.  And
then-" He paused dramatically. "And then the powers of the planets will be
mine."

Fluctra bowed and turned, walking toward the exit, carrying the blue crystal in
one hand.  And as she left the chamber, she paused for a moment.

Eurtholl was as much an ordinary warrior as she was, only with a lot more
power.

Silently, she wondered what would keep him from being taken by the staff's
power as well.



Lita forced herself not to flinch at the echoes of her own footsteps.  Walking
through Nakiad's darkened room was eerie, and she had shivered slightly when
the computer had told her the Chosen's location.  But she needed to talk to
him.

"Computer, am I going the right way?" She asked, her voice instinctively
hushed.  In the giant darkness of the chamber, it was impossible to tell what
was what.

Nakiad's voice came out of the blackness, startling her.

"You are."

The darkness spread away from her footsteps, revealing Nakiad.  He was standing
close to her, but she wondered how he could have seen her actions.  Even if he
were able to see through the darkness, he could not have seen her because he
was facing the other way.  Lita blinked at a strange sound and realized that it
was running water.

The green scout moved further forward, until she was to the side and back of
Nakiad, and realized that he was standing in front of a sink of sorts.  His gi
was open, his hands moving in a strange pattern, but she could not see what he
was doing from her angle.

Then his arm moved slightly and his fingers flashed red.  She drew in her
breath harshly, realizing that the color was blood.  He turned his head in
response, then raised his arm so she could see it clearly.

He was holding what looked like a short pair of forceps.  Several inches at the
end were covered with crimson, and a small red object was grasped in the metal
jaws.

Lita breathed out softly, realizing what it was. "A bullet."

He nodded, and she moved forward slightly to see better.  

Nakiad's chest was still blocked from her view by the open gi, but she saw the
sink with more clarity.  A stream of water was running, and every few moments,
a drop of red dripped from the forceps and mixed with the clean water.  Nakiad
moved the metal tool down into the stream, and below, the flow turned into a
pink.  The color faded slowly, the blood washed out.  After a few moments, he
took the forceps out of the water and dropped the bullet into his other palm,
turning slightly.  His gi flowed around him, keeping his chest covered.

He raised his hand slightly so she could look at the bullet.  It was clean
metal, distorted slightly, but the pointed end was still visible.  Slowly, his
fingers felt along its shape.

"Amazing." he asked softly. "Such a small thing could mean death, even for one
like you and me."  He rotated the metal shape a little. "It looks fragile now,
but if the person shooting it had been more confident, then I might not be
talking to you."

He placed the bullet down on the rim of the sink, where two more like it
already lay. "More for my collection," he said, his voice was heavy despite the
slight humor.

Then he was alert, again, and relaxed. "What can I do for you, Sailor Jupiter?"
He asked calmly.  With one hand, he grasped a piece of black cloth from the rim
of the sink and wiped his chest with it.  It came away tinged with red, and he
dumped it into the stream of water.  With easy, automatic gestures, he closed
his gi, then waited.  Not for the first time, Lita noticed that he did not seem
to consider a pause between two people uncomfortable.

The stream of water stopped several moments later.

"Lita?" He asked gently.

She snapped out of it, suddenly aware that she had been in somewhat of a
trance.

"Sorry," she said automatically. "Just thinking."

"It's all right," he said with a rueful smile, "we all make that mistake
sometimes."  He waited, his face neutral.

Lita concentrated on simply breathing for a few moments, then she looked back
at him.  "I'm not really sure what it is I want to say."

Nakiad nodded. "No one ever does." He gestured toward the darkness. "You'll be
more comfortable sitting down."  He led the way out into the darkness, and she
followed.  "It is about the fake scout," he said casually over his shoulder.

She should have been surprised at the way he had been able to read her.

"Yes," she said as they came to a relatively clear area with several armchairs
facing each other.  All of them were black, unsurprisingly.  They sat down.
"It is just-" Lita paused before continuing, gathering her thoughts. "I never
saw it coming.  I mean, I was there, at the prison, with someone I thought was
Amy, and yet it was one of the enemies, and I never so much as suspected it.
That creature was so like Amy, that she even defended the scouts from the cop,
well enough to make him tell the other scouts where we were.  How can that be?
How can one of the enemies seem so-" She paused, searching for the right word.
"So human."

He looked at her gravely for several moments, then breathed out.

"Because they are," he said simply.  "The Sailor Scouts have not really
experienced that problem, but you can be sure that you will be."

"What problem?" she asked softly.

Nakiad shrugged slowly, his eyes staring into the darkness around them. "That
there is no such thing as good or evil.  If you fight someone long enough-"  He
paused, pain flashing though his eyes, and his voice lowered. "Those who have
the chance often give up fighting then.  Those who do not have that choice
either surrender to the battle, or they try to fight only when they have to."
More pain flashed through his eyes.  "Only you can't.  I know."

Slowly, she looked up.  "What did you choose?"

He laughed without humor. "The choice of the Chosen, yes."  He stopped for a
moment, looking at her with those penetrating eyes. "Your own life is yours to
lead."

She nodded. "Still, I would like to know."

He did not hesitate. "You do know.  But sometimes-" His voice trailed off, and
his eyes were staring somewhere else.

"Sometimes what?" she asked softly, knowing the intimacy of the question.  But
something inside her had to know.

He continued to stare into the distance. "Nothing, Lita, nothing.  I am the
Chosen."

She nodded again, dumbly. "But you surrendered to the Dark Lord," she
whispered.

His eyes did not refocus. "I did."

And he fell silent.

For long moments, she sat there still, looking at him, but he was looking past
her, thinking his own thoughts.  

/Your own life is yours to lead./

His voice echoed through her head.

"Thank you," she said simply.

Nakiad did not reply, but she knew he heard her.  He had told her what was
important.

Slowly, she rose from the chair, then she stopped and turned back to him.  "How
can I trust someone if I do not even know if they are who they are?"

His eyes continued to stare into space, but his lips moved easily. "Trust has a
price, Sailor Jupiter," he answered faintly.  "You should know that as well as
anyone else."

Lita swallowed hard, standing still for moments, then she turned and found her
way out of the chamber.



Mina hit the floor hard, and felt Raye's full weight press down on her ribs.
The orange scouts sighed. "I yield," she said quietly.

Raye's weight disappeared and the red scout helped Mina up.  The orange scout
felt intense scrutiny, then the priestess sighed. "Man, you are out of it,"
Raye said finally. "Usually I can beat you maybe two out of three rounds-"

"One out of two, you mean," Mina interrupted, smiling slightly.  "Yeah, I
know."

"It's Nakiad, of course."

She nodded.

Raye blinked in agreement and settled back slightly. "I'm not great expert on
love, but I don't see why you don't just go and talk to him."

Mina sighed. "I should, I know I should.  But I don't know what to say to him.
In the past several days, he's saved my life, he went insane because of me, he
almost killed me, then he went into a coma over me."  Under other
circumstances, she would have smiled. "Not exactly your normal relationship
problems."

The red scout just sighed, obviously annoyed.  "Damn it, I wish Amy was
here."

Mina swallowed hard, remembering the blue scout. "I know, Raye.  It's weird,
but in all of this, I keep forgetting somehow that she is not with us.  I keep
feeling her, like she is still in my heart, but she-" She stopped herself. "I
don't know."

"It's all right," Raye said quietly. "I know how you feel.  We will get Amy
back.  We just can't do much right now, we have to wait for the next move."

"Yeah, right," Mina whispered, her mind unsure of anything.  She had thought
that some sparring would take her mind off of everything that had happened, but
the mock battle with Raye had not helped.

"Hey guys," a new voice interrupted.

Mina turned and saw Lita standing in the doorway to the large gym.  The green
scout had a strange expression on her face. "Hey, girl," Mina answered.

Lita nodded. "Where is everybody?  It took me five minutes to find the medical
room again, and there was no one there, then it took me five minutes to find
you two from the computer's directions. Not that the directions were bad, but
whoever built this place was not paying much attention to ease of access."  The
humor faded from the green scout's eyes in the tired room.  "Where's everyone
else?"

Raye replied. "Artemis and Luna went on another round of checking up on our
parents, making sure they don't go crazy quite yet.  Darian and Serena went for
a walk in the woods outside Nakiad's house."  The red scout sighed. "Serena was
very broken up over Amy, and-"  Raye broke off.

Lita nodded sadly. "I know.  It's-  I'm not sure, I think the shock has not
faded yet, because I know I should be more in pain over that, but-"

"Raye and I," Mina interrupted hurriedly, "decided that some light practice
would help us out, and Nakiad-"

"I just talked to him," Lita finished, her eyes obviously glad for the
interruption.  Mina knew how that felt.  Amy's absence was so bare against her
heart that the pain seemed to dull itself.  "Well, sort of 'just'.  About ten
minutes ago," the green scout continued, and Mina snapped out of it.

An awkward silence fell over the chamber, and the pain started back in Mina's
heart.

"So guys," Lita finally said, "can I join you?"

Mina blinked. "Um, I think I better go have a talk with Nakiad."  She caught
Raye's approving glance, and grew slightly more confident. "So you can take
over for me."

Raye nodded. "Finally, an opponent whose mind will be on the fight."  But the
priestess' eyes supported Mina silently, and the orange scout smiled in
gratitude.

"Computer," she said as the doors to the gym closed behind her. "Where is
Nakiad?"

There was a slight pause. "Nakiad is not in the compound.  He is currently near
Mirror Lake."

Mina blinked. "Where is that?"



Mirror Lake was beautiful.

The wind blew softly through her hair and she half closed her eyes against the
light of the moon.  It was night, somewhat to Mina's surprise.  Spending half
her time in Nakiad's compound and the other half fighting had dulled the time
sense of the orange scout enough that the stars had surprised her.
Fortunately, the moon lit up the ground well enough for her to see.

She was on a slight hill that surrounded one of the strangest and most
beautiful lakes she had ever seen.  All around the edge of the water, the green
spring grass stopped, giving way to unblemished rock.  And only a little
further, the rock gave way to a perfect surface of water, untouched by dirt or
snow.  The moon reflected in the crystal waters, sending dizzying ripples of
light across the lake.  And although Mina could not see below the surface in
the dark, somehow, she knew that the water was as pure as any she had ever
seen.

At the edge of the lake, the top of Nakiad's gi lay crumpled, the only object
marring the perfect beauty of the place.

Mina glanced down at herself, and realized that she was still in her scout
uniform.  She had not taken it off all day, she thought, slightly surprised,
and over the last several days it had become almost like a second skin to her.
She smiled slightly.

And without hesitating, she dove into the lake.

The water rushed at her head, then she was cutting through the surface of the
pure liquid.  The cold waters filled around her, flowed gently around her skin
and chilled her to the bone.  But despite the cold, the water was pure, cleaner
than even the air above.  She opened her eyes and almost gasped.

For as far as she could see, everything was a perfect gray.

There should not have been much light in the water, but it was there.  The lake
was impossibly clear around her, and the light of the moon penetrated it
easily, reaching deep into it.  To one side, an almost vertical wall extended
down into the depths, the wall from the top of which she just dived.  The lake
seemed to extend infinitely down, there was no bottom in sight.  There was only
the pure gray.

Mina kicked out with her legs, coming up to the surface, then her head broke
through to the air and she gasped in oxygen.  But the air felt dirty against
her face, inferior to the cold purity of the water.  Taking a deep breath, she
turned around and dove again, down to the depths.

She could see the walls on all sides now, the water was clear enough for that,
but there was no bottom in sight.  The lake was like a large well, extending
forever down, the water darkening only slowly.  She swam down with long strong
strokes, holding her breath with the impossible endurance of a Sailor Scout.
To either side, the stone walls continued down, twisting slightly in the
flowing water.

Mina felt her lungs demand air, and realized that she had been down for too
long.  She started to turn around, back toward the surface, then breathed out
bubbles in surprise.  Above her there was also nothing but the water, she could
not see the top of the giant well.  She wondered if she would be able to make
it up all the way on the air she had left, but the thought lacked fear.

The water was still cool and pleasant against her skin, and she was not afraid
of it as she should have been.  The cold washed through her hair gently,
through her face and her eyes.  And she felt a familiar mind nearby.

It was Nakiad.

In relief, she almost breathed in, which might have been suicidal.  Smoothly,
she turned back down and swam a few strokes further toward the unreachable
bottom, and there was a ledge on one wall, an outcropping of rock.  On it,
Nakiad sat in a lotus position, his eyes closed, his body relaxed.  The exposed
gills on his ribs moved slightly in a steady rhythm.

She swam down beside him, touching the ledge gently, and he opened his eyes.
For several moments, he simply looked at her with his ancient gaze, and Mina
felt the pressure in her lungs recede a little.  It was still there, but it was
not as important somehow, not as vital.

He reached out gently and kissed her, and clean air flooded into her lungs
again.  He pointed up and she nodded.

They broke the surface again minutes later, and Mina was struck once more by
the harshness of the air.  It was dirty somehow against her face, unpleasant.
After the purity of the water, the outside world was too complex, too
difficult.

Nakiad raised himself gently out of the lake, setting himself on the edge of
the pool, and Mina joined him.  He stared into his reflection, a pair of
reflected eyes looking up from the dark surface.

"I discovered this place a long time ago," he said slowly, "when I was starting
to build the complex.  At the very bottom of the shaft is a volcanic outlet.
Every few months, it spits out toxic chemicals, destroying all life in the
immediate surroundings.  It is ironic that here, closer to the surface, the
poisons make this one of the purest lakes in the world.  Things seem clear
underwater, calmer.  There are no humans there, nothing to pollute the purity
of the water."

Mina nodded slowly, breathing in the cool night air.

For long moments, he was silent, then he turned to look at her. "I'm sorry," he
said simply.

She thought about that for a moment. "What for?" she asked softly.

"For everything."

Mina looked at him seriously. "That creature- it wasn't you.  You are the one
who stopped it, but you were not it."

He shrugged. "Wasn't I?"

"No, you were not." She answered, her voice surprisingly strong.

Pain flashed in the reflected eyes. "Then why are you afraid of me, Sailor
Venus?"

She flinched from that, then forced herself to think.  She had been afraid of
him, yes.  She had been completely horrified when he seemed to have attacked
Amy.  But the crystal purity of the water was in her mind now, she could see
what she had not been able to feel before. "I am not," she answered.

He looked up at her face for a moment, and he almost relaxed.  Then the
hardness returns and he looked back down.  "Perhaps you should be."

Mina sighed.  "I can't believe that Amy-" She trailed off, the thought too
harsh to voice.

"She's alive, Mina," he said immediately, his voice gentle.  "She is too
important to harm.  We will get her back."

Mina nodded, not really believing him, but needing his reassurance.  Then she
looked at him directly.  "While you were gone, I touched one of your swords."

It took him a few moments to reply "Ah," he finally answered.

"I think I saw the future, and in it, you were standing-"

"No, Mina," he interrupted. For a moment, he was silent. "The future is not
written.  I will not spend my life trying to avoid it."

She blinked, understanding, and felt a sudden warmth around her chest.  It was
the Dailous crystal, she suddenly remembered, and she looked at him softly,
placing one hand over the necklace. "Thanks."

He looked at her for a second, then nodded silently.

She swallowed. "I also saw the past."  He waited silently. "I saw you, standing
on the moon, destroying the ruins.  Why did you?  And how did we see the ruins,
then?"

Nakiad closed his eyes. "I destroyed everything from the Silver Millennium.
There is nothing more left, nowhere I know of on Earth or on the Moon.  The few
things I recovered are all in my complex.  It is the only reminder left of that
time, other than for us."  He opened his eyes again, looking at her. "If I had
not, then humans would have discovered the ruins eventually, and if they were
able to learn from the Silver Millennium-" He paused for a moment. "They are
not ready.  What you saw was an illusion, or something similar."

Mina nodded.

Then she felt her communicator beep, and reached out one hand.  Out of the air,
the small rectangle fell into her palm.

"Sailor Venus here," she said calmly.

Raye's face appeared in the window. "Something's up.  Come to-" The red scout
glanced around herself. "Some room with lots of equipment. Uh- the computer
will tell you where we are.  And bring Nakiad if he is with you."

"Why, what is up?"

Raye shook her head. "Each scout has a communicator," she said, and the image
vanished.

Mina looked up at Nakiad. "What does that mean?"

He got up. "Amy too."

"Oh."  If the enemy had Amy's communicator, he might be able to spy on any
conversation.  Mina closed her eyes, concentrating.  Around her, flashes of
light appeared again, transparent ribbons of energy that briefly flickered
around her uniform, revitalizing it.  Although her powers were there as long as
she was transformed, it helped to redo the transformation after a while. 

"Let's go, then."

He had already put the top of his gi back on, and was running before she
finished.

She struggled to catch up with him, and he turned back for a moment, then
slowed his pace marginally so she could keep up with more ease.  Her scout
strength finally seemed to set in, and they both accelerated.

In front of them, two similar shapes appeared, and Mina grinned at the
similarity.  Darian and Serena were also transformed, the prince as Tuxedo
Mask.  They were running slightly slower, so Mina and Nakiad caught up in a
moment.

"In a rush to get somewhere?" Mina asked with a grin.

Serena concentrated on her feet. "Don't," she said between pants, "distract
me."

Darian glanced at Nakiad. "You owe me a sword," the prince said with a slight
grin.  

Nakiad nodded. "Fair enough.  I have just the thing, just not right now.  This
way," he veered off to one side.

Seconds of running later, he stopped in front of a patch of ordinary grass.
After a moment, the patch of ground rumbled slightly and moved aside, exposing
a tunnel.  Nakiad ran inside, followed by the others, and the ground moved back
into place, leaving the corridor dimly lit by ceiling lights.  The group
descended along the somewhat steep incline quickly, coming through several more
doors.

Then they were through, into a flat corridor that looked like it was part of
the main compound.  Behind them, a very thick steel door sealed shut.

"Computer," Nakiad said calmly, "where is Sailor Mars?"

"Sailor Mars is currently in tech room fifty seven," came the calm response.

The Chosen nodded, and ran off in a seemingly random direction.  Mina and the
others followed.



Lita got to her feet instantly as the others entered. "Good, you are here."

"Report," Nakiad said sharply.

Raye answered for Lita.  "A set of energy signatures have appeared at one of
the warehouses near the docks.  The signatures match those of four of the five
fake Sailor Scouts."

He nodded. "Is it on the news yet?"

"Nope," Lita replied, "the fakes are not doing anything, just standing there,
so their presence has not been detected.  I don't think anyone else can sense
those signatures.  I didn't know we could either, but the computer saw them
easily enough."

"I set it for scan mode, yes," Nakiad said. "Where are Luna and Art?"

Lita smiled. "They were in Tokyo, influencing the parents, so they went to the
site directly.  It was easier than coming back here."

"Good," he said, "we will take the portal."  He started toward the door, then
paused. "You do realize that this is a trap, do you not?"

Lita smiled and nodded, feeling herself enter her combat mindset.  Somehow,
Nakiad being there gave her balance, and she was not afraid any more.

That was probably a mistake.



A black disk of energy appeared in the air next to an old worn down warehouse.
The vertical gateway grew slightly larger, then paused.  Six figures leapt out
of the portal and landed easily on the ground below.  The disk vanished.

"Everyone still here?" Nakiad asked quietly.

"Yeah," Raye answered, "though not feeling particularly well."  The red scout
was holding her stomach, and her face was slightly green.

Nakiad smiled. "It'll wear off."

Raye glared at him for a second. "I know, that does not make it any less
disturbing.  Isn't there a way to make the thing less stomach wrenching?"

Nakiad ignored the comment, turning slightly in the late afternoon sun. "Hey
Art."

Two cat walked out of a shadow of the warehouse, and the white guardian
grumbled. "Artemis, as you well know."

The Chosen shrugged, then turned to the warehouse. "Have you had a chance to go
in yet?"

"No," Luna answered. "It's a trap, though."

"Of course," Nakiad said, then he closed his eyes.  "Four scouts are certainly
there, but I don't feel-" He paused. "I don't feel anything else.  Raye?"

The red scout nodded, also concentrating.  Although her mental powers were less
developed than Nakiad's, she had more natural talent, which sometimes gave her
an edge.  "I-" She said slowly. "I don't feel anything."

"Say," Serena whispered, "which scout is not there?"

"It's hard to tell, since they are all fakes," Raye said slowly, then she
opened her eyes. "But I think it's Sailor Mercury who is absent.  I mean her
fake."

Nakiad nodded slowly. "I would have to agree.  However, our not feeling
anything does not mean there is no trap.  Or that there will not be a trap.
Luna, Art, you stay here."

Artemis frowned. "But-"

"No," Nakiad answered instantly. "If this is a trap, then there is no way I am
getting all of us into it at once.  Keep alert, and keep the van ready."

"But-"

Nakiad grinned darkly. "No buts."



Raye closed her eyes briefly, but she still felt nothing more than the four
minds inside the dusty old warehouse.  The old door creaked loudly as it
opened, and the red scout let Darian through, then followed him.  Behind her
came Lita, Mina, Serena and Nakiad, the Chosen having taken the rear position a
moment before.

Behind them, the door squealed closed, and they moved slowly into the depth of
structure.  Darkness settled over them, shadows hiding the corners of the
warehouse.

"Where are they?" Serena whispered, too loudly for Raye's taste, and the red
scout turned, about the reprimand her friend.  But the princess was holding her
hand at her face. "Sorry," the blonde whispered.

Behind her, Nakiad raised one arm, silently pointing toward the other side of
the warehouse where large crates were stacked up high.  Four figures lingered
in the darkness there, unmoving, and Raye squinted, trying to make her eyes
adjust to the dimness of the warehouse more quickly.

"Say, Nakiad," Darian whispered, "can you still do that thing with the red
blast?"

The Chosen shook his head. "Not without the gauntlets."

"Guys," Raye whispered intensely, "can you please cut the chatter?  Do we want
to do something about those fakes or not?"

Nakiad spread his arms in apology, and at the same time, Raye sensed motion out
of the corner of her eye.

One of the fake scouts had stepped forward, and was clearly visible. Raye
raised one hand, ready to blast out fire, but the fake did not do anything.  It
was the copy of Sailor Moon, the red scout noticed with annoyance.

The fake flashed her eyes at the others. "Ah, so you have come."  Her jeering
voice cut easily through the dusty air of the warehouse. "Welcome to our little
party."

Nakiad stood straight up, seemingly unafraid. "Who are you?" He did not yell,
but his voice carried clearly.

"I," the Sailor Moon fake bowed, "am Aneres.  These," she gestured to her
sides, "are my colleagues."  The other three fake scouts stepped out of the
darkness, their faces calm.

They stared down at the real scouts for several moments, neither group
moving.

Then Nakiad's eyes flashed and he whirled in place, turning around.  A second
later, Raye felt something behind her, some sort of energy.

She turned as well, and felt her friends follow, only slightly delayed.

Between their group and the entrance through which they had come in, the air
wavered wildly, collapsing into a single point, then expanding slightly.
Halfway to the door, a figure started for form in the dim air.

It was the fake of Sailor Mercury.

The blue scout appeared out of the air, everything about her a perfect match
for Amy.  Her features were undarkened, her mind unblemished by evil vibes, her
whole being screamed that it was the scouts' friend.

Raye knew better.

Then the red scout's mind pulsed in response to a new presence in the
warehouse, a source of energy that was incredibly powerful.  The power
signature was familiar somehow, but she could not remember when she had felt it
before.

Then she remembered.

The first time they had fought with the fakes, when Amy had been taken away,
Raye had felt a similar type of energy.  But that discharge had been nothing
compared to what the priestess was feeling now.  The power was greater now, far
more powerful.

And whatever it was, the fake scout of Mercury was bringing it with her.

The scouts fell silent as the white figure materialized on the wooden floor
with a crystal grasped in one gloved hand.  The stone was an evil, hideous,
blue that pulsed with unnatural energy.

To one side, Raye felt Mina breathe in softly. "I have seen this-" the orange
scout started, her voice astonished.

"And I," the fifth fake interrupted calmly, "am Fluctra.  Say good-bye, Sailor
Scouts."

And before Raye could summon even a flicker of fire, the white hands crushed
into the azure crystal, shattering the covering that held unstoppable power.

Ugly blue power leapt out of its shattered prison and dove straight into Raye's
heart, into the red scout's body.  Dark azure energy rushed into the priestess,
tore at her mind and strength.  It burned with ease through the outer 
covering that was her physical body, then dove deeper into her soul, into the 
source of her power.  Raye screamed soundlessly with the pain, her voice 
gone, all self control gone as she felt the blue power find its target.

Something tore inside of her and the blue power seemed to cheer with success as
it continued to burn deeper inside.  With the last vestiges of control, Raye
forced her eyes to give her information, any information, and she saw.

In front of her eyes, her uniform ignited with red flame, turned back into the
fire from which it had come, and burned away into darkness, leaving her only
the gi she had been wearing before.  And with the clothes, the power vanished,
the strength she felt in her veins every time she put on the scout uniform,
every time she fought.

With horror, she realized that her powers were being taken away, and she
screamed in her mind, tried to fight back, stop the blue flames.  But they only
danced mockingly out of her reach and sapped her strength, destroyed her will.
Slowly, the world around her became only the blue energy, and the hideous power
covered her like a veil, made everything else disappear into darkness, and
nothing else mattered.

With a sigh of incredible pain, Raye, Sailor Mars no longer, relaxed and let
the blue fire burn.



"No!" Darian yelled, watching helplessly as the three lances of blue smashed
into the sailor scouts, then he was blurring into motion.  A handful of roses
lashed out at the fake scout, red flashes whistling through the air.  But
Fluctra disappeared before the missiles hit, vanishing into the suddenly cold
air, and Darian landed on his feet, suddenly bereft of a target.

He twisted instantly, back to the scouts, and his heart rose slightly to see
Serena unharmed.  Then his spirits fell when he saw the other three scouts on
the ground, covered with flickers of blue electricity, overtaken by the power
that had come from that crystal.

Serena was just standing there, obviously stunned by the sudden attack, then
she, too, went into motion, bending over Lita's unresponsive body.  Next to
her, Nakiad was looking at Mina with a pained expression on his face.

Darian leapt up to them. "What is happening?"

The Chosen did no reply for a moment, too busy looking at Mina. Finally, he
looked up. "They are under siege from within," he whispered hoarsely.

"What can we do?" Serena asked, almost crying, and Darian put out a hand to
reassure her.  But his own white-gloved fingers shook, his mind in shock.

"I do not-" Nakiad started, then he looked straight at Raye. "Sailor Mars," he
said harshly.

Darian gasped, pointing down toward the scout's bodies.  Their uniforms were
burning with the blue energy, but also with more than that.  Before the
prince's eyes, the sailor suits broke up into bands of energy and began to
dissolve.

"Sailor Mars," Darian heard through the shock. "Sailor Mars, you have to fight
it.  I taught you how, use the concentration you have already, fight back.  You
must."

But the suits continued to dissolve, replaced by the more solid, pure white of
the gis all of them had worn at breakfast so many hours before.  Even Raye
reverted, though she retained her air pressure gloves and the band on her
forehead.

"You must," Nakiad said, then Darian saw the Chosen wince as if hit by a blow,
and Nakiad breathed out slowly, looking up.  "It is too late," he whispered
hoarsely.

"Too late indeed!" cried the jeering voice from high above, and Darian jerked
his head up.  Amidst the rafters of the ancient warehouse was a floating blue
figure, the fake scout.

Darian lashed out with one hand, but Fluctra merely moved away from the flying
roses. The flowers smashed through the roof, letting the bluish beams of the
moon in, and one of the beams of light landed on the fake scout, illuminating
her in stark shadows.

The fake laughed. "Indeed," she repeated, and stretched out one hand down,
toward the ground.

Darian followed the direction, and looked at the three fallen scouts.  The blue
sparks were fading from their clothes, going away from their bodies.  The
attack seemed to be over.

Then he flinched away from a flash of blue light that ignited over each of the
scouts for an instant.  When the energy was gone, the transformation sticks and
communicators of each scout were floating over their bodies.

Nakiad reacted instantly, grasping out with one hand, but he was too late.

In a blur of darkness, the objects of power vanished, and a final sparkle of
electricity passed over the three scouts' bodies.

Above, the fake scout laughed again. "Kill them," she said calmly.  Darian
looked back up to see her hand crush another one of those black crystals, and
she was gone.

"With pleasure," a voice answered, and the prince remembered the other three
fake scouts.  Aneres, the leader, stepped forward, smiling slightly.

To one side, Nakiad lowered himself slightly against the new threat, and he
turned slightly. "Sailor Moon," he whispered.

But Serena did not hear.  Bright trails along her face traced her tears, and
her eyes were bright as she glared at the three scouts.  "No," the princess
whispered, her voice broken. "No, you are _not_ touching my friends!" she
yelled.

The broach on her chest flared with power, Darian slapped his hands over his
ears against the incredible penetrating sound that tore through the warehouse.
On the princess' head, the twin spiders burred with energy, shivering in an
impossible rhythm, sending out waves of distortion.  The prince was to one side
of her, out of the path of the strength of the blast, but he felt his knees
giving out against the incredible vibrations.

Ahead of Serena, the old wooden floor of the warehouse rippled against the
blast, and boards distorted and bent, tearing themselves up and out.  Then the
blast reached the layers of crates the fake scouts were standing on, and the
attack reached the scouts themselves as they stood, frozen in shock.

The wood of the crates was designed to withstand one voyage on a ship, and it
had already completed that trip.  It was old and thin and rotten.  None of the
crates were particularly well constructed, it had never been important that
they last.

And they were certainly not made to withstand the kind of energy that was being
directed at them.

The fake scouts did not scream as their footing burst under their feet, they
made no sound as the stacks of boxes collapsed under the incredible rippling
energy.  In slow motion, they started to fall amidst the wreckage, dust rising
to hide them.

A flare of green energy illuminated the cloud for a moment, then the boards
continued to collapse.  And Darian felt the pressure against his ears recede as
Serena cut off her blast.

Nakiad was still standing, even though he had been slightly further forward,
more in the path of Serena's attack.  But he seemed unaffected, untouched by it
all.  He was looking harshly at the destroyed crates, and Darian followed his
gaze.

There was no one there.  Darian frowned slightly.  The fake scouts had been on
top of the crates, they should have landed more or less on top, but there was
no one there, just piles of broken wood and wrecked construction materials.

Nakiad's eyes shifted slowly from the pile of destroyed crates to the three
fallen scouts and back to Serena.

The princess was sobbing, both hands against her eyes, tears slipping through
her fingers. "Not again," she gasped, "not my friends."  Darian reached out
with one hand, but it fell lifeless.  He had nothing to offer, he could not
help her.

"Sailor Moon." Nakiad said, and his voice cut through the darkness.

Serena sobbed again, but seemed to react to the Chosen's voice.  The training
had seen to that. "Yes?" she asked.

He seemed to be forcing calmness into his voice. "You did fine."

And to one side, someone groaned. "Yeah, meatball head," Raye said, and Serena
gasped.

"Sailor Mars!"  She said, her voice leaping. "You're all right."

Raye groaned slightly. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"But I-"  Serena sobbed once more, wiping away her tears.  She was smiling and
crying at the same time. "The blue electricity, and your powers- I thought they
were yours for-"  She paused in the rush of words.

Raye smiled grimly. "Maybe you should help me up, meatball head."

Serena swallowed hard. "Yes, of course, here-"

Next to her, Nakiad raised Mina to her feet, and the orange scout wobbled
slightly, holding on to the Chosen for support.

Smiling with relief, Darian helped Lita up as well.  The green scout was
shivering, he noticed.

"You all right?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah," she nodded without conviction. "It's just-" She shuddered even more
strongly. "It's like someone ripped out a piece of me, just went in and-" She
stopped.

Darian glanced at Raye and saw the red scout's bravado drop for a moment,
revealing pain. "Yeah," the priestess whispered, holding on to Serena.

Darian felt Lita start to collapse and held her up. "I'm all right," the green
scout said, her voice wavering.

"The hell you are," Darian said under his breath, and lifted her off her
feet.

"Hey!" she yelled, but did not resist too much as he put her over her
shoulder.

To one side, Nakiad had raised Mina without effort.

Raye glared at Serena. "Don't even think about it," the red scout said with
mock anger, then the priestess turned to Nakiad. "Seriously, though, I'm all
right.  You couldn't stop them from taking my powers, but I think I managed to
keep them from damaging me otherwise."

He nodded slowly. "You saw to that yourself, Sailor Mars.  You'll let Sailor
Moon help you, of course."

Raye smiled slightly. "All right, but there is no way she's going to carry
me."

The princess giggled with a slight note of hysteria, but she seemed all right.
"OK," Serena said finally, "just lean on me, OK?"

"Yeah, fine," the red scout answered brusquely.

"Come on," Nakiad said. "The police will investigate that blast eventually, and
we should get out of here.  "Besides," he said, and for a moment, Darian saw
hope in the Chosen's eyes, "we might have just gotten a break."

Nakiad did not explain further, instead leading them out of the door.

The van loomed out of the night, and Darian stopped, letting Lita down to her
feet.  The green scout seemed to be almost stable.

"Open," Nakiad ordered.  The doors of the van opened smoothly, and the scouts
gasped.

"Luna!" Serena exclaimed, followed by a mix of voices.

Both of the cats were lying on the floor of the van, seemingly unconscious.
Then Artemis raised his head slowly. "Hi everybody," he said slowly.  "Sorry we
couldn't help-" His voice wavered weakly. "The fake Amy-" His voice trailed
off.

Nakiad put Mina down on her feet and came over to the two cats.  For a moment,
he held his hand over Artemis's head, then he sighed. "They will be all right.
I think they were in the van when they were hit, so that softened the impact of
whatever Fluctra had used.  We better go."

"Say," Raye said quietly, "how safe is your compound anyway, now that they know
where it is?"

Nakiad paused. "As safe as any place else."  He climbed into the van.



Williams sighed with exasperation.  Things were not going well at all.  After
being interrogated for long hours at the somewhat damaged compound, he had been
released, surprisingly, and seemed to have been cleared of suspicions.  But
when he tried to focus back on the Sailor Scouts, something was blocking him.

He grasped his head, the headache was starting again.  Whenever he tried to
really concentrate on the scouts or the man in black, his mind fogged again, he
thought with annoyance.  Of course, that was not the only reason for the
headache.

He had spent half an hour arguing with his chief.  He was sure that the Nick
Shaws with the strange house was the same as the Nick Yacht the hood had been
talking about, and was the same as the man in black.  All he needed was a
warrant to go and search the place, and he would have something.

Instead, he had come up against a dead end.  His chief, normally reasonable
about things had absolutely refused to give him permission to so much as come
near that house.  It was almost as if there were pressure from above, as Mike
had warned Williams about.  It had taken the detective that half hour just to
convince his chief to set up discreet surveillance on the property, for all the
good that would do.  From the satellite photographs, there were kilometers of
vegetation before the actual house.  No one would be able to see a thing from
the outside.

And now this, Williams thought, tossing aside the satellite photos that had
come in only minutes before.  Another flare with the same distinctive
signature, and the destruction of a warehouse by unknown powers almost
immediately afterwards.  The two were obviously linked, but that was not good
enough for the chief.

And now everything was quiet again.

Williams lowered his face into his hands and tried to think.



Outside, Serena thought quietly, the sun was probably rising, creating
a beautiful sight to the west.  And inside Nakiad's compound, things were
looking as dark and bleak as ever, perhaps more so.

On the way back, they had ascertained that the three scouts had lost their
powers, all of their powers.  Not only was their energy drained, as it had been
with Lita, but they could not do anything at all.

Nakiad settled into one of the armchairs and seemed to relax for the first time
since they had left the warehouse.  That is, he was always physically relaxed,
but the pressure in his eyes relented somewhat.

They were in another room Serena had never seen before.  It was a sort of den,
with armchairs arranged in a jumble in the middle of the floor.  The princess
shrugged, setting herself down in one, and sighed at the comfort.

She watched the other scouts sit down as well, and her heart squeezed again at
the sight of the plain white gi each of them was wearing.  If their powers were
taken away forever- Serena forced herself to stop that thought.

Nakiad sighed.  "Well, someone had better talk, or else we will all end up just
sitting here staring at each other while the world collapses around us."

"You are the old one," Raye said, a hint of bitterness in her voice. "You tell
use what to do."

The Chosen did not seem to take offense.  But his eyes saddened slightly as he
lowered them. "Yes," he said slowly. "That I am."

Raye sighed. "Sorry," she said quietly. "Look, how bad is this power thing
anyway? I mean, is there any way for us to get our powers back?  After all,
Serena was able to-"

"It's not that easy," Nakiad interrupted softly.  He paused for a moment,
looking around the room. "Princess Serena," he used her title, which startled
the girl slightly, "is the direct descendant of Queen Serenity, and the power
she wields is hereditary.  Although it is true that a large part of her energy
is stored in the Imperium Silver Crystal, it is impossible to take Sailor Moon
away from Sailor Moon, so to speak.  In a way, that is also why the need for
the other scouts arose in the first place, because the power is hereditary.
When authority is transferred in that manner, naturally some people will be
worse at what they do than others."

Serena flashed an angry look at him, but said nothing.

He noticed it anyway. "I'm not talking about you, Serena," he said softly. "You
are doing fine.  But there have been times when the ruler was less than
perfect.  For that, the posts of the scouts were created, posts which would be
filled by the ones the most qualified to do so.  These would be a sort of
combination of protectors and consultants, without the same express authority
of the Queen, but with a lot of power and influence over the throne." He
paused, and Serena started to understand what he was saying. "You had to fight
for that post, much as I had to compete for being the Chosen.  And because the
people who filled those places would not be related in any way save by sheer
chance, there was no way to lock their power in their genes."

"So the all mighty rulers decided to put that energy into transformation
sticks," Raye said, sarcasm coloring her voice again.

Nakiad's eyes flashed. "Leave the past be, Sailor Mars," he said gently.

To Serena's surprise, Raye relented.  The red scout was not well known for
giving up, but the princess could understand it, for Nakiad was never easy to
argue with.

Lita frowned slightly. "But what about-" She stopped.

"What about what?" Nakiad asked.

"Well, sometimes, I don't know.  I've felt like I am a Sailor Scout even when I
am not, like I can feel it in my blood."  The green scout looked doubtful.

The Chosen smiled.  "Over time, any object of great power becomes part of the
wielder in a sense.  Thus, my swords are a part of me." He looked down and
Serena remembered that he had lost both the staff and the ability to use any of
his powers.  "But," he said slowly, "that does not make that power yours in any
way.  It only means that it is easier for you to use it than for other
people."

"So you are saying that this enemy will be able to use both the power sticks
and the staff, and, if he has it, your dark powers for himself." Darian said
heavily.

Nakiad nodded. "Yes.  Perhaps not as well as we could, but enough to make him-"
He trailed off.

"Invincible," Serena finished for him, her voice barely a whisper.

The room fell silent.  Finally, Artemis broke the silence. "What about the
planets?  They have interfered with the scouts helping Nakiad before, would
they not interfere with this?"

Nakiad closed his eyes. "It is not that easy," he said again, and Serena
wondered if he knew he was repeating himself. "The planets have authority over
you, but none over this enemy."

"In other words," Raye continued for him, "they may stop us from doing
something illegal, but they can not help us when someone else is doing the
same."

The Chosen did not open his eyes. "You could look at it that way, yes.  But you
are assuming that this is mere 'legality', not a real issue."

"And it is not?"

"No," Nakiad said, his eyes flashing open. "This is about balance.  Positive
and negative energy must be balanced, or they may disrupt the very universe
around them, leading to-" He paused. "Disaster.  If the enemy were to do what I
fear, then he would disrupt that balance, but there is nothing the planets can
do about that.  We can only hope that we can stop the enemy from doing what he
is."

Raye blinked. "I.. But what about you?  You combined the energy of the Dark
Lord and the Chosen together, did you not?"

"Yes.  And though those powers were the same, in a sense, they were also
dangerous to keep together.  Still, because they remained balanced and equal,
it was possible for me to keep them from disrupting anything around me.  Now,
however, without the dark energy, without that balance, I can do nothing.  I
can not even use the positive energy inside of me to fight back, there are too
many people in this body, too many memories, and the power is buried too deep.
I need that dark power for balance.  And it is gone."

The room fell silent again, and the semidarkness of the room seemed to close in
on Serena.  

Raye breathed out audibly. "So we are fighting an enemy who is smarter than we,
already holds more power than we, and just got our powers to add to that."

For long seconds, no one disagreed.

"So what do we do?"  The princess finally asked.

Serena saw Raye's eyes flash with anger and despair as one. "We die," the red
scout spat.

Serena shivered.

A white glove touched her arm gently.  The princess sighed when she realized it
was Darian, and she grasped his fingers gratefully.  The prince turned to the
Chosen.

"You said something when we were leaving the warehouse, something about getting
a break," Darian said. "I think we are about due for one."

"This is actually more of a hunch than anything else, but-"

"But you always tell us that hunches are often right," Darian said.

"So I do.  You might have noticed that this enemy, whoever it is, likes to use
objects to carry his power.  When the various fakes disappear, they generally
do so by crushing a black crystal.  When Fluctra left, the influence that
suppressed Lita's power went with it, which suggests that the suppression was
caused by something Fluctra carried.  And now, the energy used to take away the
scout's transformation sticks was carried by a crystal.  There is a definite
pattern there."  Nakiad paused for a moment.

"So?" Raye asked.

"That was just introduction," the Chosen said with the tinge of a smile. "Here
is more of an introduction.  It is often possible to find the location of the
source of a portal if you have a chance to scan the exit of it."

"Oh," Raye said, then she fell silent.

Nakiad sighed.  "But in this case, the way they were teleporting prevented
this.  You saw, they were doing so by crushing crystals, which then generated
their own teleport field, or whatever you wish to call it.  Generally, the way
those types of fields work is more roundabout than the direct creation of a
portal.  Crushing such a crystal moves you into a separate pocket universe,
from which another portal has to take you to your final destination.  The
reason for the intermediate step is that it is very difficult to create a
correctly targeted teleporter that could be carried around.  It is possible,
but I would have felt the sort of energy such a crystal would create."

"But the intermediate step has another advantage, other than being much easier
to generate.  It is almost impossible to trace.  First, there is no portal, per
se, to lock on to.  But even if we were able to scan the energy field created,
the best thing we could do would be to find the target universe, not the final
destination.  And that would not really help us much, because the portal that
leads to the final target are is generated somewhere else entirely." He
stopped.

"Um," Serena said slowly, "so how is this a break for us?"

"Ah," Nakiad answered, "but it is.  You see, this particular method also has
one problem, it is rather slow to work.  There is perhaps a second during which
the object being moved is vulnerable."

"So?"  Serena shook her head, confused.

"Oh," Darian suddenly said.

"Yes?" Nakiad asked.

"They did not have the time," the prince said slowly.

"Who didn't have what time?" Serena asked, annoyed.

Her love turned toward her. "The fake scouts in the warehouse.  They
disappeared, but if they had used the crystal, they would have been injured by
those crates, perhaps killed.  Those things were full of construction
materials, and there was no way the fakes could have retained their balance,
not with you generating that distortion thing."

"Quite," Nakiad said. "And if you remember, there was also a green flash coming
from that field of debris, which suggests a different mode of teleportation,
probably used by them as a sort of backup."

"No, I don't remember," Raye said suddenly, "I was too busy writhing in agony
to notice.  Could someone tell me what is going on?"

"Yeah, ditto," Lita added.

Serena looked at them. "The fake scouts were about to attack, so I used the
crystal spider things, and they disappeared."

Raye seemed to digest that for a moment, then she looked at Nakiad.  "So do you
know if that was a portal, and if so, can you trace it?"

"Good questions," he answered. "I do not know.  But I set the computer to scan
Tokyo for that sort of signature, and to start working on a location as soon as
a portal of that kind appeared, just in case something happened which would
prevent me from giving those orders later.  So- Computer."

"Yes," the mechanical voice answered.

"Are you currently running 'portal chronicle seven'?"

"Yes.  The program will take an estimated nineteen hours, fourteen minutes and
twenty seven seconds to finish."

Nakiad sighed. "I was afraid of that.  The problem is that it generally takes
at least three portals to locate a destination exactly, because there are an
infinite number of universes that gate could lead to.  In this case, the best
we can do is take three locations on that portal and hope they are far enough
apart so the computer can find its source just from the data received from the
three points.  But it takes a long time, and it is not very accurate."

Raye smiled faintly. "It is a hell of a lot better than nothing."

"That," Nakiad said, "I agree with."

Serena startled as a white shape landed on the back of Nakiad's armchair, then
she relaxed.

"Guys," Artemis said slowly, "does it strike anyone else that this opponent is
rather smart?  Every move we have made, he must have planned for, otherwise
things would not have been as bad as they are now.  If any one thing had not
happened, then we would not be here- Like if Amy had not been taken, she might
have been able to scan that blue crystal, or she might have figured out the
plan in the first place."

"And?" Raye asked.

"What Artemis is suggesting," Nakiad said calmly, "is that this is another
trap."

"Yes," the cat said vehemently.

"So what do you suggest?" Lita asked.

"We've already tried to put our necks into a trap, and we've lost the powers of
the scouts.  I say we don't cooperate this time. Look, we don't fall for it, we
stay here and wait for him to make another move, anything to keep him from
calling the shots."

Nakiad shook his head. "No.  He knows where we are, he probably knows our
defenses.  All he has to do to get rid of us is attack full strength here, we
would never be able to stop him."

"Then why doesn't he?" Artemis asked.

"Because," the Chosen replied, "he wants something.  He could have killed us
all at any one of a dozen times.  As far back as the mall, that assassin could
have been carrying a bazooka.  Not even I can heal after being blasted into
bits the size of a walnuts.  But that did not happen, which tells us he wants
something."

"All right," Artemis admitted, "I give you that.  But why go after him?  We
aren't safe here, but we could leave, hide out someplace else, at the temple
perhaps, and-"

"Artemis," Nakiad interrupted, and the cat quieted, obviously surprised at the
Chosen using his full name. "For some reason, he is keeping us alive now.
Whether that is because the portal is a trap or not is impossible to tell, but
for now, I think we are safest here.  In nineteen hours, the computer will tell
us if it can calculate the source of that portal, then we can decide."

The white cat paused for moments, then sighed, relenting. "All right."

"If this is a trap-" Mina whispered, her eyes unfocused.  The orange scout had
remained silent during the discussion.

Nakiad looked at his love. "What is it?"

"Think about it," Mina said slowly. "This creature was strong enough to rob us
of our powers, strong enough to create those fake scouts.  And he was able to
push Nakiad into darkness.  Think of the power he has to have.  And we are
thinking whether or not this is a trap?  Of course it is.  And we would be
fools to do step into it."

"Which is why we must," Nakiad answered.

Mina nodded slowly. "Because of Amy."

"No," he answered, "though I have not forgotten.  But if this is a trap, then
going into it would be the last thing an enemy would expect.  It is the least
likely of the things we could do, and so I think it is our best chance."

"Guys," Raye interrupted. "When the computer is done, we'll decide.  Maybe we
should table the matter for now, give everyone some time to think it over."

Nakiad inclined his head. "Sorry.  I'm a bit preoccupied."

"No kidding," Raye said. "Look, there is something I want to know, something
that has been puzzling me.  As far as I have been able to understand, the
Negaverse is more or less of a hierarchy, with the higher powered creatures
being in command.  So how could this creature have escaped notice for so long?
How could Kaneth not know anything someone powerful enough to make you, the
Chosen, insane?"

Serena listened to her own heartbeats, waiting for Nakiad.  Finally, the Chosen
sighed. "The only feasible reason is that this creature did not want to be
noticed.  In the Negaverse, it might be a lot easier to survive if everyone
thinks you are not worth killing.  And if the creature were waiting for a
chance to attack Earth, then what better place to hide?"

Raye looked at Nakiad cuttingly. "Yes, that seems obvious, does it not?"

He looked down. "Yes, it does."

"Then why did you hesitate for so long before answering?"

Nakiad breathed out evenly, and a sad smile curved his lips. "Ah, you are too
suspicious for your own good, Sailor Mars."

"And I'm usually right," she answered.

He stared at her for a second before replying. "Indeed you are," he said
heavily.  For long moments, he stared at the scouts, and his eyes unfocused
slightly. "Even after everyone is dead and forgotten, the past comes back,
always comes back.."  He stopped, and his eyes flashed slowly until he
was looking at them directly.

"Scouts, this is not the first time I have been turned by darkness."

Silence echoed through the room.

"Before Queen Beryl took over, the main council in the Negaverse was preparing
to attack the Universe as well.  The major obstacles to that were the main
power figures in the Universe: the princess and the Sailor Scouts.  But there
was another factor, which was the outcome of the battle between the Chosen and
the Dark Lord.  In history, the worse the fight went for the Chosen, the more
chance there was for a faction in the Negaverse to get something from the
Universe."  He sighed. "Princess Serena's loyalty to her cause was assured, and
the Sailor Scouts were too close to her to be corrupted.  The Chosen, however,
was always an unknown quantity."

"This was while I was still in competition for becoming the Chosen, before I
ever met any of you.  I found a letter in my room one day.  It offered a deal,
a very simple deal.  All I would have to do was drop out of the training.  In
return, I would be given something that would increase my strength a
hundredfold, that would give me incredible power.  Two objects, two weapons
that would-"  He stopped again, his eyes flickering with old pain.

"Two gauntlets," he said.

Serena's eyes widened, and she saw Mina flinch visibly.

Nakiad did not stop. "The same gauntlets that I put on when I became evil
again.  Their power enhanced the strength of the darkness."

"You refused," Mina said quietly.

"I was _tempted_," Nakiad said vehemently.  I did not destroy the letter, I
thought maybe I could get the gauntlets anyway, at some point in time.  So I
hid the letter, and half forgot about it.  Two days before Guardian came to me,
I remembered it.  My life had changed in that time, I knew Mina, I knew the
scouts.  I knew I would be the Chosen."  Nakiad's head sank down slightly. "I
destroyed the letter that day, but it was too late."

"Too late," he repeated, his tired voice echoing in the room.

"I have never told you what happened to me after I arrived on Earth.  When I
came out of limbo, I was weak, exhausted.  It had taken me thousands of 
years to regain a physical body, and I had only enough energy to do that, no 
more.  I was alone, without weapons or friends or power.  Guardian was not 
there, nor Artemis, of course.  And the eleventh century was not a particularly 
pleasant place to live.  For some time, I survived off my combat skills, and 
eventually, I was able to quit.  I never forgot my mission, and I knew I would 
need to know what had happened while I had been in limbo.  And I needed 
Guardian."

"The logical place to start, of course, would have been the Moon, but that was
impossible and would be so for many centuries.  Later, I-"  He stopped himself.

"That does not matter.  I started the search on Earth, and for many years, I
did not find anything of any importance.  But one day, I-" Nakiad stopped for
several moments.

"You found the gauntlets," Darian finished calmly.

"Yes." Nakiad said.

_	_	_


Behind him, several of the workers came close to the entrance, and two were
brave enough to step into the doorway.  The single beam of light that came from
the door vanished, and anger flashed through Nakiad.  He whirled.

"Get back!"

They flinched backward and obeyed, and Nakiad could turn back to the perfection
of the gauntlets.

They were incredible.  Like pieces of crystal, they reached up from their
stand, the lethal fingers extended, the facets of metal reflecting light
coldly.  The dome around them seemed unequal to the challenge of holding them,
nothing seemed capable of holding their might.

Slowly, hesitantly, Nakiad reached one hand forward toward the weapons.

At his touch, the dome of glass flickered with a blue flame and disappeared,
erased by a wave of fire.  Nakiad only saw that with a small part of his mind,
he was too focused on the gauntlets.

His fingers touched the metal surface.

Like a spark of electricity, the power passed through him, and he closed his
eyes, remembering.

The letter.

He had been offered these once, they were his by right. Now, he could 
take them.  Now, he would take them.

A part of his mind screamed at him to stop.  The gauntlets had been made by
someone from the Negaverse, they were evil.

But the greater part of him stood against the outburst.  He did not really know
who had made the weapons, he thought, he did not know anything about them.  And
even if they had been made by someone evil, they were only tools, weapons.  He
was the Chosen, he could handle them.

And he needed more strength, he needed to find Guardian.

His insides flinched with suppressed pain as he remembered the fight again.
Clenching his eyes closed, he forced the memory back into the background of his
mind.

Then again, he looked at the gauntlets.

The light of the sun reflected off the facets of metal, outlining the power
clearly.  He needed them, he could feel their strength, with them he could do
what he wanted to do.

With a wrench, the opposing thoughts were sent down into the depths of his
mind, and he reached out with both hands, grasping the gauntlets, lifting
them.

They came off the pedestal easily, light in his hands, and he felt their energy
burning into his veins.  Almost on their own, they melted over his hands.

For long moments, he stared at the metal claws that were his hands, unable to
look away at the dizzying shifting of facets of metal, then he was awake once
more.  He knew what he had to do.

Guardian had to be somewhere out there, on the planet, and Nakiad had to find
his mentor.  He would have to make Guardian aware of his presence.  Sharply he
turned and walked out into the light, his eyes adjusting instantly to sharp
glare of the sun.  He turned to the first worker he saw.

"Break camp." He ordered.

The worker glanced down at the gauntlets for a moment and shivered.  He stared
at Nakiad's feet. "Lord, there is a sandstorm coming, to move out now would
be-"

Anger flashed through Nakiad's mind, and he felt his hand clench tightly.  He
was the Chosen, the Universe was his to be saved.  He would not be stopped by a
mere worker. "I am Lord Shaws, and I say, assemble camp.  We leave now.  Do you
understand?"

The worker swallowed hard, glanced at the metal fist, and nodded. "Yes, Lord.
We will get ready.  But Lord, if we leave now, the sandstorm might catch us,
and then we would lose-"  He stopped. "Would it not be wiser to wait until the
storm is over, in a few hours, when it is night?"

For a moment, Nakiad wanted to press his order, then he sighed. "Very well.
But get ready now."

The worker nodded and called to others as he walked away.

Nakiad turned to face back into the pyramid, his mind flashing with anger.  
They were such fools.  He was the Chosen, he could destroy any human 
in an instant.  Pain washed over him.

It would not be a first time for him.  He had caused the end of the Silver
Millennium.

The pain seemed to reach the gloves, and rested there, resonating and
amplifying.  Then it was reflected back at Nakiad, but it was no longer pain.

It was anger.

His eyes hardened slowly.  He knew how to get Guardian's attention now.  And he
would gather strength at the same time, the kind of power he would need to
defeat the Shadow.  Divided as it was, the world could not stand against the
power of the Dark Lord.  There were too many factions, too many parties which
would never cooperate.

That, Nakiad could change.

_	_	_


Nakiad closed his eyes again, shutting out the sight of the scouts. "I was a
fool.  I was right, the Earth could not have withstood a full Negaverse attack
if they were divided, but I am the Chosen.  It is not for me to unify the
planet, certainly not the way I did it.  But I was hurting, bad, inside, I
thought I could pay back for my mistake if I could stop the next Negaverse
attack."  He sighed slowly. "Even now, I do not know how much of that was the
gauntlets talking, and how much were my thoughts."

Darian looked up. "But you realized what you were doing, you stopped, right?"

Nakiad's eyes remained closed.  "No," he answered simply.  "I never knew that
anything was wrong.  In several years, I managed to get an army and took over a
large chunk of land, continuing to expand all the time.  With the gauntlets, I
was unstoppable, no one could stand against my mental powers, no army was as
well motivated as mine.  All my goals were forgotten, only the capture of power
was important.  Thousands died-" He stopped again, and his eyes flashed open.
Pain haunted them. "I never knew anything was wrong," he repeated.

"Then how-?" Raye started.

"Guardian found me," Nakiad answered softly.  "He felt the conflict and came,
and was able to free me of the darkness."

Everyone was quiet for a minute, while Nakiad seemed to stare into space.
Finally, Darian spoke. "If-" His voice broke for a second. "If things were as
you say, why is it that none remember your attacks, why is it not recorded in
history?"

Nakiad did not look at the prince. "I did my best to make everyone involved
forget.  Although I lack the strength to erase the memories of so many people,
only a few of them could write.  The times were not conducive to accurate
recording of actions, and with Guardians help-"  Nakiad shrugged softly. "But I
kept the gauntlets, as a reminder of what I had been, so that I would always
remember, so that someone would always remember.  Perhaps that was a mistake."
His head went down marginally. "But that much, I had to do."

Mina breathed out. "No wonder you reacted to wearing the gauntlets as you
did."

He answered slowly. "I believe the enemy was able to focus on what darkness
remained in them and use that to make me more vulnerable to darkness.  After
the swords struck me, I remember almost wondering if what I was doing was
right, but once I touched the gloves,  I felt as if they flooded my mind with
darkness, with negative energy."

Again, everyone fell silent.  Finally, Nakiad looked up. "We have a day.
Everyone should get some rest."  Slowly, as if he were extraordinarily heavy,
he forced himself to his feet, and walked out.

Serena sighed, thinking, then looked sharply at Raye.  But the red scout seemed
lost in thought, and did not see the glare.

_	_	_


Fluctra walked uneasily through the huge crowd of grenoks.  She could
understand how demonstrating his power could be useful to Eurtholl, but still,
such a gathering made her nervous.  Finally, she passed out of their ranks, to
the few true warriors.  She stopped before the throne, the four fake sailor
scouts behind her.

Slowly, deliberately, Eurtholl smiled. "You were successful."

Fluctra nodded. "Yes, master, the crystal worked perfectly.  But we did not
kill the scouts, the moon princess used some sort of beam on us and we had to
use the emergency gate to get out of there."

"Ah, yes," he said, "this Serena is full of surprises?  But why is it that you
include yourself in that?  As I recall, only the other mirror scouts were
supposed to remain."

"Master," Aneres began, stepping slightly forward.

"Silence!" He yelled, and the fake scout flinched away.  Fluctra shivered at
that.  He had changed since taking the staff.  He was stronger now, but he
would not have yelled before.  It was not his way, or at least, it had not been
his way.

Eurtholl looked at her. "Now, then," he said softly, "why did you say 'we' when
you meant 'they'?"

Fluctra forced herself to remain unmoving. "Because I am responsible for those
under my command, therefore any of their actions or failure are my actions and
failures."

For a moment, he stared at her, then he leaned back, laughing shortly.  She
almost flinched at the new sound.  "Yes," he finally said, "good.  Do not worry
about it, I did not really want the scouts dead at that point.  But if the
Chosen could not keep them alive, I figured that they might as well all die
then, for I do not want-" He stopped himself, and Fluctra forced her eyes to
remain neutral.  He had never told her why he did not just kill them all, and
she knew he had something in mind.

"No matter," he finally said, and looked at her.

Understanding immediately, she raised one hand.  A circle of energy appeared
over it, and the three communicators floated down to her open palm. "The
communicators of the Sailor Scouts," she said triumphantly, loud enough for the
whole crowd to hear.  A murmur passed through the crowd of grenoks.

Eurtholl smiled and accepted the objects.  With his other hand, he took Amy's
communicator and added it to the pile, then placed all of the devices on the
floor.  "We have no further need of this," he said calmly, and with a blow of
his foot, he crushed the communicators into the stone floor.  "Now, then." He
looked at her, now very carefully.

She nodded, and raised her palm again.  Three more objects fell into her hand,
three small sticks. "I give you, the transformation sticks of the Sailor
Scouts, and their only source of power.  The Sailor Scouts are no more!"

Behind her, an explosive cheer went up from the crowd of grenoks, and even the
warriors added their voices to the cry.  Eurtholl smiled at that, then finally
raised one hand, and everyone quieted.  "Quite," he said calmly.  "Place them
next to the other stick."

Fluctra did as she was told, then stepped back, careful not to take her eyes
off the sticks.  She knew what was going to happen next, but the sheer
potential for damage frightened her.  For a moment, she remembered the police
prison where she had been trapped with Lita, and she felt slightly warmer
inside.  She had felt safe then, as she did not now, but- Fluctra cut off her
thoughts.  This was no way for a warrior to spend time, she told herself, and
she watched Eurtholl rise slowly, one hand grasping the staff.

"Now!" He said loudly, and the crowd fell completely silent. "Witness the birth
of a new era.  No longer shall we suffer as the underdogs of the Negaverse, and
no longer will the Sailor Scouts stand in our way of what should be ours.
Witness the birth of a new leader, a new age where _we_ are in control."

Fluctra saw Eurtholl's grip on the staff tighten as he held it. "This," he
said, "is the staff of the Chosen, the greatest weapon in existence.  Until
now!"

And with a liquid motion, he brought a pulsing green crystal out from behind
his back.  His bare hand tightened around it, and the covering burst, releasing
energy that dissipated into the air.  A stream of crystal fragments fell to the
floor as Eurtholl closed his eyes and gripped the staff with both hands.

On the pedestal, the four transformations sticks began to glow with a liquid
green flame, then they rose into the air, slowly circled.  They moved faster
and faster in the air, twirling about a central axis, the burning around them
getting hotter and brighter.  Fluctra took another step back as one of the
sticks broke off the vicious circle and lanced out.

It hit the staff with a clap of thunder, and in a flash of pulsating green
energy, it was swallowed up by the impossible material.  Eurtholl's fingers
grew white as the staff glowed with the green energy for a moment, then
dulled.

On the wood was a slight bluish tinge, a tinge of the power that was now
inside, the energy of the scout of Mercury.

The lights around the room dimmed as the circling of the other sticks grew
faster yet, and another broke free and spun across the distance to the staff.
Again, the weapon ignited with the crawling green fire, and a thunderclap
echoed across the room.  The second stick melted into the staff, and the
material grew dull again.

Again, Fluctra felt herself take a step backwards, and with shock realized that
she was not trying to protect herself from the incredible powers at work.  She
knew the energy was strong enough to kill her, but in her mind, she did not
care.  She was too focused on Eurtholl, on the expression on his face, that was
what she was trying to escape.

He looked insane.  His mouth scowled, and every muscle in his face twisted in
an impossible combination of pleasure and pain as the energy burned around him.
As the third stick slammed into the staff, his scowl deepened, and the light
around him seemed to brighten.  Fluctra forced herself to remain still, but the
fear in her heart did not stop growing.

And it became obvious to her that no one, not even Eurtholl could control the
power he had now.  Not even the Chosen could, perhaps, she thought, but she
could do nothing.  She hardened her stance, and forced herself to think of the
new era, of finally living without the fear of the Sailor Scouts hanging over
all the creatures of the Negaverse.

But somehow, she could not stop fearing what was happening before her.

No more than she could start hating the Sailor Scouts.

With a deafening explosion, the last of the transformation stick slammed into
the staff, and for long moments, the green fire burned on the staff, changing
it, transforming it.  Finally, it started to dissipate, vanishing into the
chill air, and Eurtholl's face relaxed, his fingers stopped being white.  And
as the green faded from the staff, Fluctra's eyes widened.

It was beautiful.

Across the strange meld of wood and metal of the original material was a
translucent rainbow film of colors, of new energy that had been infused into
the weapon.  The staff glowed and absorbed light at the same time as Eurtholl
raised it over his head.

"Behold," he said, "the greatest weapon in all the universes made even
greater!"

She flinched away from it, though she knew it was just a show.  Eurtholl liked
to make a spectacle of himself to the grenoks, it kept the filthy creatures in
line, she thought.  But this time, he seemed to believe what he was saying.

"Now," he continued. "Now, with this weapon, I can truly become more powerful
than any creature before.  For now, I can finally control the ultimate power,
the dark energy of the original Shadow, of the Dark Lord!"

And the crowd cheered.

The darkness grew in the room and the grenoks fell silent once more as Eurtholl
closed his eyes.  Above him, the staff glowed with the unearthly colors,
illuminating the area around it and sapping the light from the rest of the
giant chamber.

On the pedestal, the crystal holding the powers of the Dark Lord started to
pulse with the staff, reacting to its power.  The facets flashed, then started
humming, faster and faster, the pitch of the sound rising.  And in a
spectacular flash of black light, the crystal shattered into tiny pieces,
fragments that settled into dust on the pedestal.  Over the fragments, a dark
area of pure negative energy hung, suddenly free of its restrictions.

Eurtholl's face tensed again, the scowl reappearing, the lines drawing
themselves against his features once more, and his grip on the staff tightened.
The weapon started humming in response to the power thrust through it, and the
black sphere of power flickered, then started to rise toward the staff.

In front of Eurtholl, it stopped, now held by the invisible strands of power
generated by the staff.  The black energy was no longer free, no longer able to
do as it willed.  It was bound by the staff's incredible power, by Eurtholl's
strength, and it had to obey.

Slowly, it spread out vertically, diffusing a little, then moved toward
Eurtholl.  And in a moment of pure energy, the hum of the staff reached its
height.

And the darkness settled into Eurtholl's frame.

Fluctra held her breath as Eurtholl opened his eyes, but the mad lines on his
face did not disappear.  Dark, pure energy burned in his eyes and in his soul,
and the blackness of the room did not vanish away.

"Now!" He yelled out to the crowd. "Witness my new power!"

Black energy leapt out of the staff.

_	_	_


The ground fell away easily from her feet and Mina breathed in the clear fresh
air with relief.  Time had passed quickly.  After a few arguments, the scout
had decided that returning to their homes was not the right thing to do.  Then
they would only have to go away again, and their presence in their homes might
have placed their families in danger.

Still, Mina wished she could have gone back, just for a little bit.  The world
she was in, Nakiad's compound, her scout uniform, everything seemed unreal
somehow, as if it were not really happening.  She had spent most of the day
training with the other scouts, only finishing a little while ago, everyone too
tired to continue.  The others had gone to sleep.

All through the day, Nakiad had been nowhere.  After their conversation, he had
disappeared and had not come back.

Mina sighed softly, looking up at the starry sky.  She had not seen the sun for
two days, since Monday.  It was Wednesday night.  The computer was supposed to
tell if it knew anything early in the morning.

She breathed out, turning back toward the ground.  The fresh air was a relief,
but she would have liked to see the sun again.  More than that, however, she
wanted to talk to Nakiad.  The computer had said that he was here somewhere,
over the hill.  Slowly, the orange scout continued her walk up the gentle
grassy slope, toward a large tree at its very top.  Somehow, the ground felt
soft under her feet, even with her scout shoes hardening the contact. 

Despite the softness, she could not help but sense that something was not right
somewhere.  It was as if a dark fog had settled over the ground, an invisible
substance that chilled the air and Mina's soul.

Then she cleared the top of the hill, and gasped in wonder.

Tokyo was stretched underneath her feet.

She had known that Nakiad's compound was at a slightly higher altitude than
Tokyo since the trip to his house was more uphill than down.  But she had not
truly realized it, had never thought about the kind of view that would
create.

It was spectacular.  

A brilliant carpet of tiny lights spread out over the landscape, lighting up
the night with a million glittering fireflies.  The ocean, to one side,
reflected the pure light a thousand times, covering the entire land with
sparkling jewels, and the starry sky above joined with the city, turning
everything into a pure tapestry of light.

For long seconds, Mina simply stood there, stunned by the incredible view, then
she felt something behind her, and she turned.

It was Nakiad.

He was sitting against the tree, facing the view, hidden from the other side of
the hill.  He was looking at her with piercing eyes.

"Something is wrong," he whispered.  She blinked, not sure what he meant, and
he looked back down at the city. 

His voice echoed through the night like the wind. "Out there, and in here, and
everywhere, something is not right with the world."  He looked back at the
city.

Mina thought about that, sending her mind down into the ground, and she knew
that he was right, something was not right about the world.  But it was not
anything tangible, nothing she could hear or see.  She looked down at the city,
but it was still breathtaking.  The wrongness was there along with the beauty,
the two inseparable somehow.

She looked back at Nakiad, but his eyes were sad, and he did not say anything.
Moments passed.  Finally, he looked up at her.

"I watched the sunset today," he said quietly. "So many times, I have seen it
go down into the horizon, vanish, replaced by the darkening night.  A thousand
times, all the same.  And yet all different, each time new because the day is
new.  The day was new."  His eyes flickered with the reflections of stars. "I
watched it today."

He stopped for long moments, and Mina leaned against the tree, then slid down
to the ground.  He did not even seem to notice, his eyes staring at the city.
Mina turned to follow his gaze, toward the bustling of the city.

"So simple," he whispered softly.  He closed his eyes for a second.

Mina turned to him. "What is?" she asked.

His shoulders lifted in a shrug, and he nodded toward the city. "You ever want
to go back to the way things used to be?"

It took her a few moments to understand what he was asking.

Pain flickered through her heart. "Yeah," she answered finally, her voice
barely audible. "I love being a Sailor Scout, and I love being with you and the
others, but sometimes-  I think everyone has thought about it."  She looked at
him gently. "What about you?  Have you ever wished to be human?"

His eyes flickered, and he turned to face her. "I can not afford to," he
whispered.

"That is not an answer," she said softly.

He swallowed, hard. "It will have to do.  A weapon can never become more, a
sword can never become-"  He stopped that sentence.  "No, I do not wish to
become human, I can not afford to."

He fell silent, and Mina concentrated on breathing for a few moments.  Finally,
she looked up, about to speak, but he stopped her with his eyes and his
voice.

"I think back to the end of the Silver Millennium," he said, his voice heavy.
"I hesitated before striking, but at least I knew that I had to strike.  I knew
what I had to do, even though I hesitated.  That boy was a fool, but he knew
what was right and what was wrong.  He was the way the Sailor Scouts were a
year ago, I suppose."

"But now," continued in the same tired tone. "I _know_ that which I once 
thought to be evil, and it is not. The Dark Lord was a tool, the same as I.  
The rulers of the Universe, those who should have been the ultimate 
good created the Chosen to be a weapon.  Nothing is as it se-"  He 
sighed. "Nothing is."

He looked heavily at the city.  "I no longer know if what I am doing is
right."

Mina swallowed and found her voice. "Of course it is.  We are fighting for the
world here, for the entire Universe.  Billions of lives are counting on us to
succeed, billions will suffer and die if we fail.  Of course we have to
fight."

Nakiad sighed deeply. "The good of the many-" His head moved slowly from side
to side. "No"

The orange scout looked at him, feeling a touch of annoyance enter her eyes,
and he saw it, of course, as he always saw her emotions.

Slowly, he shook his head. "Do not be so quick to judge me, Sailor Venus."

She felt anger rise inside her. "You would give up on the world, on the
Universe, just because you are tired of fighting?  How can you?"

He looked away.

Then she was suddenly aware of his pain through their mental link.  He had
spent a thousand years full of doubt, and an eternity full of pain.  And she
felt her anger melt away, leaving like the chill of the night before the dawn's
light.

On her heart, she felt the Dailous crystal grow warm and she reached out.

Gently, she took one of his hands, and placed it over the crystal, over the
warmth that was there.



Slowly, his muscles relaxed and his eyes closed.

He was not feeling the warmth of the crystal, it did not have the power to
comfort him, not any more.  He was feeling her the heartbeat beneath that
stone, the heart of a warrior who had never given up in her life.

And the pain receded in his mind.  It was still there, but once more, he could
deal with it as he always had, once more he was Nakiad, the last of the Chosen.
He looked at the city without opening his eyes, and he saw the lives of
countless people, people who were depending on him.

He sighed, taking his arm back.

"Please," he finally said, "I need to think."

She nodded softly, and bent down to kiss him lightly on his cheek.

He felt the warmth of her lips.

Mina walked away silently in the night, but there was hope in her heart.

_	_	_


Overhead, the moon moved through the sky at its never-changing pace, marking
time more accurately than the best nuclear clock.  Hours later, it disappeared,
and hours after that the sky changed from black to dark blue, then, in a corner
of the sky, to the brilliant yellow of the sun.

The world was uneasy in the light of the day.

_	_	_


Serena sat straight up, shocked out of sleep by the klaxon.  Her breathing
relaxed only slowly, and she looked around for the source of the noise.  Next
to her, Darian was also sitting up, blearily looking around.  Though he looked
very amusing in his rumpled uniform, she did not feel like laughing at the
moment.  She felt like killing the person who had made the alarm.

Unfortunately, she knew who it was, it was Nakiad.  And killing him could prove
to be a somewhat complex endeavor.

The alarm quieted and she finally relaxed, then Nakiad's voice came on the
speakers.

"Would everyone please come down to the weapons room? Now."

Serena sighed, grumbling.  "Computer, what time is it?"

"It is ten seventeen," came the answer.

The princess blinked. "We overslept."

"No kidding," Darian said, jumping out of bed and concentrating.  His uniform
blurred, then was replaced by a fresh one and he smiled. "That's certainly
useful."

"Indeed," Serena smiled at her imitation of Nakiad's phrase.  "Moon Crystal
Power!"

Her view of the room vanished behind the ribbons of energy.



Five minutes later they were in the weapons room.  The others were already
there, the three scouts looking strange in their white gis, and Nakiad seemed
unchangeable in his black uniform.  At their feet, the two cats looked
decidedly sleepy.  Around them, the weapons seemed to make the air heavy,
filled with suspense.  Nakiad looked up at Darian and Serena and handed each of
them a plastic mug.

"Drink," he said shortly.

Darian lifted his cup and inhaled the slightly bitter taste of molash.  Without
pausing, he gulped the drink down, and his eyes widened immediately at the
potent substance.

Next to him, Serena sipped the drink, then looked up. "Ewwww. Don't you have
anything else?"

"No time to wake up," the Chosen answered.

"I'm awa-"  Serena stopped, swallowing at the samurai sword millimeters from
her throat.  Nakiad had taken it off the wall and blurred it through the air
before she could react, and she seemed to realize that she was not fully awake.
She sighed. "All right," she said, and Nakiad withdrew the blade.

"You have to be awake," he said seriously.

Serena nodded and drank.

Darian turned to the Chosen. "So what is it?"

"Bad," Nakiad answered, and glanced at the wall.  A panel slid away, revealing
a small television set. "This is a recording of a news broadcast from a few
minutes ago."

The picture flickered briefly, then stabilized on a reported who looked rather
harried.  Uncharacteristically for reporters, he glanced at the papers in front
of him and seemed to gather his thoughts before beginning.  

His voice was tense.  "In the latest news, the peace conference taking place at
Paris has finished falling apart today when the last remaining delegates got
into severe differences of opinion.  Several of the major power have armed
weapons from the previous disputes, and many of the political predictors are
fearing the consequences of such actions.  The United States responded to
China's actions by going to defense condition four, which places all their
forces are on alert. The other countries were swift to reply, fearing the
events that are unfolding, but seemingly unable to do anything. Stay with us
for more news as it appears, this is Bob Grosman, CNN news."

The image flickered and disappeared.

Lita blinked. "I don't understand.  What is going on, has everyone gone
completely insane?"

Raye shook her head slowly, her eyes unfocused. "No. It's the darkness.  The
enemy has done something to disrupt the balance of power."

Nakiad nodded. "I believe he has taken control of the staff and of the dark
powers and of the powers of the Sailor Scouts.  The current hostilities are
only the most visible of the repercussions, there are disasters being reported
all over the planet.  The weather is deteriorating, volcanoes getting ready to
erupt, tectonic plates shifting.  And if my observations are correct, then this
phenomenon is not limited to Earth."  He shook his head violently. "Whoever it
is must be stopped, or things could get truly bad."

"And now they are not?" Mina asked.

Nakiad looked at her seriously. "No one has pressed the trigger yet."

The orange scout paled visibly and nodded.

Darian looked at the screen for a few moments, then turned back to Nakiad.
"What about the location search, has it come up with anything yet?"

"Not yet," Nakiad answered, "but in a few minutes.  That is why I woke you up,
we have to get going now.  From the rough estimates, the location is on the
other side of the planet."

"Figures," Artemis said, yawning.

Raye blinked, finishing the last of her cup of molash. "Um, so are we going
there or not?  Remember, we said we would make the decision now."

Mina sighed. "I don't think we have much of a choice.  If we do nothing-"

"Then the Earth burns," Luna finished emphatically. "We no longer have the
luxury of waiting."

Raye thought for a moment. "Could this be part of the trap, to make us think we
have no other choice?"

Nakiad closed his eyes briefly, then shook his head. "No.  I do not think so,
at least.  The events are too random, too chaotic.  He would be a fool to
create such unrest, for it could spin out of his control easily.  And we know
he is no fool.  I suspected he might not be able to handle such power without
destabilizing everything."

"So there is no way this is a trap?" the red scout asked.

Nakiad laughed bitterly. "Of course it could be a trap.  And Raye could be
right.  But given the circumstances-"

The priestess nodded. "Yes, I do not think we have any other choice."

The computer chimed. "Program 'portal chronicle seven' has finished running.
Would you like to see the results?"

"Yes," Nakiad answered instantly, "Now."

The image of Earth appeared on the monitor, replaced a second later by a
wireframe sphere. A line appeared all the way through it, starting at Tokyo and
extending into the ground, then out the other side of the globe and into space.

The computer spoke again.  "The origin of the energy gateway examined was
calculated to be on this line with a probability of ninety nine point four
percent."  A point flashed along the line where the line surfaced on the other
side of the planet. "The most probable location of the source is at this point,
between twelve and fifty meters below the surface.  The probability of that
point being the source is ninety four point six percent.  The origin's location
is feasible, there have been detected no anomalies in physical location."

"What did that last part mean?" Luna asked a few moments later.

"Well, if the portal was in the center of the planet, we would know that
something was wrong," Nakiad answered.

"Oh."

"Computer, what is the geographic location of that last set of coordinates?"
Nakiad asked.

The grid was replaced once more by the globe, which rotated in space until the
flashing dot of the most probable location was at the center of the screen,
then the camera zoomed in.  "The United States of America, within the 
outlying areas of the city New York."

Nakiad looked closely at the screen, which showed the northeastern part of the
North American continent. "Computer, give me a current satellite image of the
area."

The computer paused. "No facility satellites are currently over that position.
Hacking into the global weather satellites network now.  Hacking complete,
image updated."

The screen blinked and showed black.  Nakiad sighed. "Damn.  It's almost night
over there.  Um, computer, do what you can, just give me a reasonably clear
image of the source of that compound so I can see it.  Use IR or something."

"Working."  The computer paused. "Image composite complete."  The screen
flickered and came on with a top-down view of a large city block.  But in the
middle, instead of a normal building, was something that looked like a medieval
castle, complete with turrets and high walls and many towers.  It was hard to
tell from the dark image, but the place looked very capable of defending
itself.

Darian breathed out. "Typical.  Why is it that all the megalomaniacs live
in castles."

"Hmm, yes," Nakiad said, but he seemed distracted. "This one is in a very good
location, though.  It's close to the middle of New York, close enough that
any long range attack good enough to penetrate their defenses would also create
a lot of collateral damage." The Chosen shrugged. "Of course, since they have
Amy, the point is moot."

Darian flinched, suddenly remembering once more.  Somehow, the action they had
been through kept forcing Amy's absence to the back of his mind, and every time
Nakiad mentioned the blue scout's absence, the wound was reopened.  Trying to
take his mind off the thought, he remembered something. "Say, Nakiad, you still
owe me a sword."

The Chosen seemed to snap out of his own thoughts, but he reacted quickly.
"Indeed," he said, and walked forward. "I believe you know the weapon you
want."  The others followed him.

Darian suddenly remembered the sword on the stand, the one that had seemed so
familiar. "Yeah," he answered slowly.

"Well, then," Nakiad said, reaching the nearby case, "here it is."  And he
tossed the blade across to the prince.

Darian caught it easily, and again felt that familiarity, like the weapon was
something he had known.  But he knew he had never seen the sword before, and he
did not remember it from the Silver Millennium.  And somehow, he knew that was
not it, it was not something from his previous life.  It was a familiarity that
went far deeper than that, to his very essence.  With a start, he shook of the
thoughts, then closed his eyes and wrapped the Tuxedo Mask cape around him.

In a swirl of energy, he was Prince Darian, with an empty scabbard.  He
wondered for a second why his sword did not regenerate with the rest of his
uniform, then that thought vanished as he slid the new weapon into place.  To
his surprise, it fit perfectly into the scabbard despite its different size and
shape.  That should have been impossible, yet it seemed right somehow.

Darian breathed out softly, turning to Nakiad. "Thanks."

The Chosen did not respond to that, turning to the others. "Who is coming?"

The large room fell silent.  Finally, Artemis stepped forward. "What do you
mean, who is coming?" The white cat asked softly.

Nakiad sighed. "I mean that three of us are practically useless in a combat
situation without their powers.  And you cats can not help much either."

The guardian shook his head slowly from side to side. "Nakiad, I have known you
for a long time now, you know that.  So I will not get annoyed at you for
suggesting we split up.  But we are all going."

"Yeah," Raye said, and was echoed by the others.

"Look, don't you under-" Nakiad began.

"No," Luna interrupted. "Artemis is right.  Every time we get separated,
something bad happens.  No, we have to all come, we have to stick together."

Nakiad covered his eyes, his face suddenly tired. "You don't understand.  I
felt-"  He stopped.

"What?" Lita asked. "What did you feel?"

He shook his head sadly. "Old fears.  All right, I guess I do agree, we are all
coming.  But the scouts would be a prob-  Oh."

Darian smiled. "You mean you forgot?"

Nakiad laughed suddenly. "Yeah.  I guess hubris does sometimes pay off, doesn't
it?"

Serena frowned, looking at them. "What are you two talking about?"

Lita grinned. "They are talking about the suits."



"How in the world-" Raye complained minutes later "-do I get my hair into this
helmet?"

Lita smiled from behind her faceplate as she looked at Mina's and Raye's
struggling.

Nakiad shrugged.  He was also dressed in the enhancing suit, though it did not
change his outline much.  He had no helmet, only his gi seemed bulkier, and at
several points, black metal emerged from under his clothes.  The most notable
visible feature were his shoes.  Ordinarily, they were merely soft slippers.
Now there was a network of metal around the lower part of his ankles, the setup
for the booster rockets.  "Um," he finally answered, looking at the two scouts.
"Just wrap it around your head or something."

Serena shifted from one foot to the other. "Shouldn't I wear the suit too?"

Nakiad looked at her with surprise. "Like I said before, with your powers, the
enhancements would limit you more than they would help.  Trust me, you are
better off the way you are.  You too, Darian."

The prince shrugged. "I never said otherwise.  It's not like there is a suit
for me, anyway."  He smiled to show no affront.

Nakiad looked at the two struggling scouts. "You ready yet?"

Mina sighed. "No.  But I figured it out, I just need a little more time.  I'll
finish on the way there."  Then the orange scout looked at Nakiad, and a
strange look was momentarily on her face.

Raye sighed. "You mean inside the portal?"

Mina turned to the red scout. "Well, that's what I thought at first, but then
how would we get back?"

Raye shook her head. "It does not matter- getting there is what counts."

Nakiad interrupted, "I'm afraid I have to go with Mina on this.  If this is a
trap, we might have to get out of there in a hurry."

The red scout turned to him, then sighed. "So do you have some magical
spaceship to take us there then?"

The Chosen smiled.



"I call it The Grasshopper."

Darian smiled slowly. "A more fitting name I could not have chosen myself," he
muttered under his breath.

It looked very much like a giant, three legged bug, sprawled across Nakiad's
enormous garage floor.  Around it, vehicles of all types and marks rested in
various positions, sometimes in differing stages of disassembly.  But there was
nothing around quite like The Grasshopper.

It was perfectly black.  The main body of the vehicle was a double sphere.  The
front sphere, Darian assumed, was the actual passenger space.  Blackened window
panes covered much of that sphere.  The body was actually not much larger than
the van, the prince estimated, looking at the other vehicles in the garage.
The globe behind that was slightly smaller and seemed to be made out of a more
solid metal, with no portals or seams.

From the bottom of the center of the two spheres, three legs projected
outwards, one straight forward, and two back at angles.  The legs were
gridworks of metal, very solid looking.  In the middle of each was a thicker
middle strut that went all the way to the end.  The ends of the legs made a
rather large equilateral triangle around the main body of the ship.  At the end
of each was another, smaller sphere, perhaps only a meter in diameter.  But
these were also made of the tougher looking metal.

Nakiad came forward toward the machine. "Like I mentioned before, when I joined
with the Dark Lord and with the other Chosen, I gained a lot of knowledge about
the Silver Millennium.  This is one of the results of that, one I finished only
a little time ago.  The three spheres in the periphery are sort of locators in
the sense that I can determine where they are at any given time.  On the inside
of each is something very similar to a portal, I guess.  The centers actually
go into another level of the universe.  And I can make them push against that
level to move the ship."

Darian blinked, thinking. "Three points to determine a coordinate in space," he
said quietly.

Nakiad turned. "I'm glad they are still teaching something in colleges these
days."  He smiled, but the expression was depthless. "Yes, if one of these were
destroyed, then the ship would no longer have any support on that side, so to
speak, and it could rotate about the other two, which would make control
difficult.  Fortunately, the self destruct system makes that irrelevant."

The prince nodded, his mind busy thinking about the ramifications. "Wait, if
this thing can push against-" He paused. "You mean, you can accelerate it any
way you want, as quickly as you want?  Do you realize how much this
could save the world?  You could replace all the cars and airplanes, and all
other modes of transportation."  He stopped, looking at the Chosen.

Nakiad nodded. "In theory, yes, this thing can accelerate as much as I want.
But the framework can only withstand fifty gravities of acceleration, and with
people inside, that number goes down to a maximum of ten gravities, for a short
time.  On automated flights, I've had it go up to forty Gs, and I've taken it
up to twenty five myself for limited periods of time, but the experience wasn't
particularly pleasant."  He looked at the ship. "And I'm afraid that the design
still has problems.  I have not been able to reduce the size of the locator
spheres any more than what they are.  Also, the amount of power the thing
requires is incredible.  That rear sphere, of the two main ones, is the
smallest fission reactor in the world."

Raye blinked. "Oh."  The red scout stepped back.  "Isn't that dangerous?"

Next to her, Artemis grinned suddenly. "Only if it explodes, I believe."

Nakiad looked at the white cat sharply. "The design is not nearly finished.
For one thing, it has no armaments, and no real defense other than its ability
to accelerate in any direction at any time."

Raye nodded, then turned to one side. "Hey, Lita!" She yelled across the
enormous room.  Her voice echoed, bouncing off the high ceiling and giant open
space.

"Yeah?" The green scout's voice came back.

"Stop staring at that snake and come over here!" Raye yelled.

In a moment, Lita walked up. She almost ignored the Grasshopper completely,
instead turning to Nakiad. "Where-" she asked "-did you get an Apache chopper?
And when can I try it out?"

The Chosen laughed shortly. "Some other time.  We have to go."  He walked past
the outstretched legs of the vehicle up to the passenger sphere, and a door
opened soundlessly in the black skin. "Everybody into the pool."

Inside, the whole bubble seemed to be made out of transparent windows.  Darian
settled slowly into his seat, feeling it adjust to his weight, then several
snakelike belts attached him securely to the chair.  He forced himself to
relax, glancing once around the cockpit.  One of the chairs was echoingly
empty, and in the others, the scouts looked about as out of sorts as he felt.
Even the two cats did not look very pleased in the cushions that had obviously
been designed specifically for them.  Only Nakiad looked relaxed in his chair
in front of a rather strange computer console.  The Chosen looked up and Darian
followed the other's glance.

Above, a section of the roof broke into pieces and separated slowly.  The sun
lashed out immediately through the opening, illuminating a section of the giant
room.  But the light was slanted enough that it missed the ship itself
completely.  Around them, the garage lights dimmed and shut down, leaving the
opening skylight a clear target.

As the doors stopped moving, Darian felt a slight hum behind him and remembered
that he was sitting against a nuclear reactor.  Somehow, the thought did not
help his relaxation.

They started accelerating.  The feeling of the motion was unlike anything
Darian had ever felt.  There was the sensation of the force driving him down
into the seat, but there were no tremors, no sideways motion that the prince
normally associated with vehicles.  Everything was precise, as if every motion
were controlled.

The sky door rushed up to them, then disappeared under the ship, and Darian
felt the force on him increase.

"Here we go," Nakiad said.

The ship leapt into the sky.

Darian closed his eyes against the incredible feeling.  It was as if several
people were sitting on his chest, on every part of him.  He forced his eyes
open just as the sky turned from light blue to dark blue, then to complete
black, then the stars were out above them.  The prince almost grappled at his
stomach as the ship literally flipped in its position, then Darian gasped.

Above them was the Earth.

He had seen it in movies and photographs from space, of course.  He had even
seen it in his previous life, but the feeling had been forgotten over the
millennia.  It was a giant overwhelming sphere, hovering over his head, a
blue-green ball of life.

Next to him, Serena sighed softly. "It is beautiful," she said, obviously
awed.

"Yeah, ditto," Raye whispered, her eyes only for the incredible sight.

The others just stared.

Nakiad turned slightly. "This way, we can ignore any problems down below, since
I don't think the rather agitated governments will appreciate an unknown ship
flying across their borders.  I believe the limited stealth technology on this
thing should keep the long range radar at bay." Then the Chosen's voice
softened. "Besides," he said slowly, "the view is amazing."

Darian nodded soundlessly, and felt the ship press against him again as they
accelerated.

The Earth turned under them.



Out of the sky in New York, a black ship lowed to the ground.  No radar caught
it, no UFO observer was watching the stars for people from another planet.
Perfectly blending in with the beginning night, the ship was unnoticed by
hundreds of people who could have seen it.  It came straight down, not pausing
or hovering or doing any thing a normal alien ship is supposed to do, it merely
dropped from the sky as if it were a spider who had its web cut.

It came down straight over a very large castle in one of New York's suburbs, a
castle that was largely ignored by the public.  Despite the many curious people
living around, the sudden building of the large complex passed without comment,
almost as if there was something about the castle that scared everyone away.

Only a few dozen meters up from the brick floor of the inside of the castle,
the ship started braking, slowing its descent.  No flames came from under it,
no rotor extended from above.  Its shape and motion resembled that of a spider
once more, a spider braking with a very strong line.

A few meters up from the ground, the ship stopped dead in the middle of the
air, motionless as if it were suddenly attached with iron struts to the floor
of the castle.  The high walls of the castle hid it from the sight of the
curious, concealed it from view.  Safe, it remained there for a few moments,
nothing happening.  A door opened slowly.



Lita looked down at the night castle. "Wow.  Pretty cool."  Internally, she
shivered.  It was also pretty spooky.

Nakiad was looking at the large control panel on his left forearm. "I can't
penetrate the floor with a scan, but I think the compound is underground."  He
sighed. "I only see two guards, both humans.  They are on their way."  The
Chosen flashed one of his less pleasant grins and mumbled something, then leapt
down to the ground.

Lita blinked. "What did he say?"

Next to her, Mina looked at the green scout with a strange look. "He said," and
Mina pronounced clearly. "'Les sanglots longs des violons.'"  The orange scout
jumped down to the ground.  Both she and Raye had managed to get their hair
under the helmets during the flight, though both had complained.

Serena turned to Darian. "What?"

The prince narrowed his eyes. "I'm not sure.  Come on."

They rest of the group jumped down, and the door closed soundlessly behind
them.  The ship remained there, fixed in its place as much so as if it were
resting on the ground.

Two figures came out of the night.

"OK," one of the guards said, calmly raising a gun. "Stop right there, and
raise your hands to where I can see them." Lita blinked.  The guard was
speaking perfect Japanese, not English as she would have expected.

Nakiad turned to the two figures quietly. "Who are you?"

The man smiled in the darkness. "We are the ones telling you to freeze!"

His partner raised a gun as well.

Nakiad looked straight at the first speaker. "Wouldn't you rather rest a
while?"  Lita realized what the Chosen was doing and stepped back slightly.

The guard started backing away. "Wha-" He paused, shaking his head. "What's
going on- what are you doing?"  The guard shivered.

His finger squeezed.

In a moment of horror, Lita realized that the gun was aimed directly at her
head.

She closed her eyes against the flash of brilliant light, and a hammer seemed
to slam into her head, carrying her back and into the ground.  Her mind washed
in black for a few moments, then a wave of red penetrated the darkness slowly.
In slow motion, she heard someone yell, then there was the sound of someone
hitting someone else, a sound that barely penetrated to ringing in her ears.

"Lita?"

She shook her head, the ringing disappearing slightly, and managed to focus her
eyes.  Serena was staring at her from above.

"What happened?" Lita finally managed to ask, her voice coming out unnaturally
through the helmet.

A black hand lifted her up from the ground, and the green scout was surprised
to see that she could still stand.

"Fortunately," Nakiad said, examining her, "the helmets are bulletproof."  He
turned to the two guards on the floor and bent over them. "He should not have
been able to fire," the Chosen said calmly, then stopped.  He lifted a black
crystal in his hand. "Apparently, we are not entirely unexpected."  With
another liquid motion, he got an identical crystal off the other guard, then
dropped both to the floor and crushed them under one foot. "Tricky.  Impossible
to detect, because they are entirely passive, but very effective in stopping
mental influence."

Luna walked a few steps forward. "Shouldn't we have parked somewhere else?"

Nakiad looked at her seriously. "I don't know anywhere else we could put the
thing where it would not be noticed.  And somehow, I think it would be a lot
harder to climb over the fence unnoticed than it would be to go in from here.
I did not detect any alarms inside the base, only around the perimeter."

"But you were not able to scan the actual compound," Luna said.

"No."

Lita shivered slightly, recovering from the bullet's impact.  Around them, the
many small towers inside the castle seemed to watch them malevolently.

Nakiad sighed. "I think we have to go in."  Then he glanced at Lita and pulled
out his blaster, identical to the ones of the three scouts. "Remember to handle
the neutron guns carefully.  They will punch a hole in just about any organic
substance, but will leave most inorganics alone.  So if you point it at a wall
and shoot, don't be surprised when nothing happens, and be aware that it is
still firing."

Lita nodded, lifting her own gun.  She would have felt much safer with her
scout powers.



"Are you sure this is the right place?" Raye asked.

They were underground, having gone through a huge set of heavy wooden doors to
get in.  But so far they had not seen anything particularly strange, the rooms
they had seen looked very much like replications of a medieval castle, complete
with paintings and ancient furniture.

"What about the guards outside?"  Darian asked, looking around warily with one
hand on his sword.

Raye shrugged. "It could just be the house of some reclusive millionaire who
does not like to be disturbed."

Serena thought about it, and wondered if they were really in the house of some
old rich guy.  Perhaps this was all a mistake, she thought.

"Yeah," Nakiad said quietly, "one who gives his Japanese speaking guards
crystals specifically designed to block mental influences.  I think not.
Besides, Sailor Mars, can't you feel this place?"

For a moment, the red scout remained silent, then sighed. "Yeah, you're right.
But we haven't even seen anyone yet."

"Perhaps we are about to," Nakiad answered. He raised the control panel on his
forearm up a little. "I can sense nothing behind that door-" He pointed.

It was a heavy door, very similar to the ones they had seen before.  But there
was something new about it, something unyielding.  Serena wondered how an
ordinary object could feel strong without any outward signs of power, but the
sense was there nevertheless.  An iron bar held the door closed, but the metal
seemed easily removable.

Nakiad walked forward slowly, putting his rifle in its holster along his hip.
He grabbed the bar, lifting it out of its place and placing it out of the way,
on the floor.  Then he grabbed one of the handles and pulled, keeping the
neutron gun ready.

The door squealed as the heavy wood swung open, and immediately, a rank odor
filled the room they were in.  Serena had the definite feeling she had smelled
it before, but she could not figure out where.

But at the smell, Nakiad's stance became instantly dark, and he exchanged a
glance with Artemis.

"Grenoks," the Chosen whispered intensely.  "Apparently, our enemy is not too
choosy about his company."

Serena swallowed hard, remembering Mina telling the rest of the scouts about
the creatures.  Nakiad and the orange scout had run away from a group of them
in one of the bubble universes.

Next to Serena, Raye straightened slightly. "What do you mean?"

Nakiad looked back. "The helmets filter the air, you won't smell it."

Slowly, they moved into the gloomy darkness beyond.

They were walking along a long hallway.  On either side, smaller wooden doors
were closed against them, and ahead, the passageway curved slightly, keeping
them from seeing their destination.  But they were heading down.

Serena felt her feet stick slightly to the floor and she shivered, seeing old
greenish stains that seemed too much like blood for her comfort.  "Where is
everybody?" She asked.

Nakiad did not seem to hear for a moment, then he turned. "Something-" He
paused, then turned to a door. "Perhaps we should find out."

The three scouts drew their weapons, and Serena focused her mind, ready to
attack.  Next to her, the princess felt Darian relax into a fighting stance.

Nakiad pushed against the wood, and the door opened.  When nothing jumped out,
Serena stepped forward to get a better look.

It was some sort of dormitory room, and she felt the side of her mouth twist in
repulsion.  To one side, a bunked bed was covered with hard, rotting
mattresses.  The floor was stained with different colors and filthy crumpled
rags were scattered across the room.  Several crude weapons lay on the floor,
some wrapped in dirty pieces of cloth.

It was empty.

Serena shivered. "What is this?"

Nakiad's eyes were sad as he turned away. "Grenoks."  He breathed in the fetid
air, and his eyes lowered. "But something else, as well.  Art, do you feel
it?"

The white cat looked sad. "Yes."  He turned away.

Raye's voice was annoyed. "What are you talking about?"

Nakiad turned. "Take off your helmets, all of you."

Serena raised an eyebrow as the three scouts took off their helmets, and gagged
at the smell.  The princess realized that she had gotten slightly used to the
smell, but the others had no warning.

Raye shivered.

Nakiad sighed. "What do you smell?"

Lita blinked. "Filth.  Like something rotting away, or like mold."

The Chosen looked at the others. "Is that all?"

Luna nodded. "Yes.  Why, what do you smell?"

Nakiad's eyes flickered with an instant of pain. "Something I know all too
well," he said heavily.  "Something I have caused, in the past.  Raye, 
Mina, Lita, fold your helmets, put them across your backs."

He turned back to the hallway while the scouts fumbled with the strange
helmets.  The bubbles of metal folded somehow across the middle, and the three
scouts were able to make them almost flat, after which the helmets fit into
nests on the back of the suits.  Mina and Raye did their best to get their hair
manageable again.

"Come on," Nakiad said, walking down the passage again.

The others followed.  Serena realized that the hallway was getting slightly
brighter, and wondered at that, for she had not seen any lights for a long
time.  Up in the surface layers of the castle, the light had been poor, but
some had come from the outside, the city and the stars.  But here, there was
nothing, only a faintly glowing mold along the walls.  Yet somehow, she could
see everything clearly.

Every once in a while, Nakiad pushed a door open, and most of the rooms were
the same, filthy quarters where someone had once lived, but where no one still
remained.  A few chambers seemed to be eating areas with rotting food
everywhere and lines of disgusting tables.

And everything was echoingly empty.

Serena swallowed hard when she realized they were moving in a circle, gradually
winding down a helical passageway into someplace very deep.  For a moment, the
passageway started closing in on her, and she started breathing in heavily,
then she felt Darian next to her, and the pressure lessened a little.

But it was still there.

"Nakiad."

He stopped.

"Nakiad," she whispered, "where is everyone?"

He turned to her slowly, the pain in her eyes shocking her. "Someone is
coming."

Then Serena heard it too, a sort of whispering ahead in the corridor.  The
other scouts raised their weapons, ready.  Ahead, in the dim light, the
corridor filled with bodies.  The hallway was wide enough to allow six or seven
to walk next to each other, and the passage was filled from side to side from
by the creatures that approached.  Slowly, they came out of the darkness.

They were pitiful.

The princess swallowed hard, examining the crowd that stopped opposite the
scouts.  They were monsters, inhuman creatures.  Some looked humanoid or
vaguely humanoid but the majority was not, the vast majority did not even
resemble anything Serena had ever seen.  Most carried weapons of some sort,
heavy, bludgeoning maces or blades or chains.  Those who carried no weapon had
fangs or claws that would kill just as well.

At the same time, they were bedraggled and hurt.  Most of them looked like they
had been in a battle of some sort, with cuts and bruises covering their bodies,
showing all the possible colors of blood.  All of them were covered with
filthy, obviously inadequate rags.  And although they filled the corridor,
there were not many of them, only a few dozen perhaps.

Instead of the hatred Serena had come to expect from her enemies, these
creatures looked more sad and desperate than anything else.

To her sides, the princess felt the scouts lower their weapons slightly,
obviously feeling the pity too, and a single creature stepped forward.  Serena
felt her tension return.

It was almost humanoid, with normal legs and torso.  But its skin was purple,
and it had an extra eye in the middle of its forehead and an extra arm below
its right one.  In each hand, a knife seemed hung uselessly, weapons that
seemed to have lost the will to fight.

It looked at Nakiad. "So," it said in a remarkably human voice, "we are not
even worthy as enemies any more."  Its voice was tired and full of pain. "You
lower your weapons at the very sight of us."  It raised its knives. "But I
assure you, we will not let you pass without a fight."  But even its own voice
held no conviction of that.

Nakiad sighed softly. "You do not wish to fight us," he said, his voice as
tired as the creature's.

The thing's black eyes flashed, and Serena was reminded of Nakiad's own eyes.
It stepped forward. "No, we do not," it answered. "But we have no choice."

For several moment, the Chosen did not reply, then his eyes lowered. "No," he
said heavily. "You do not."

Serena felt her eyes widen in surprise.  Nakiad was just giving up?

Her mind echoed with shock.

The creature breathed out. "So you feel it."

"How can we not?" Nakiad answered.

The creature's eyes flickered to the scouts. "They do not recognize it.  Even
after Beryl, after the destruction, they do not?"

Nakiad shook his head silently, and Serena wondered what they were talking
about.  She glanced at the other scouts and met clueless glances.

The creature sighed, and its lips twisted.  "At least in this, we can hurt our
enemies," it said, and a chorus of agreement rose from the crowd behind it.

Darian stepped forward. "Hurt us how?"

The creature looked sadly at the prince, then back at Nakiad.  "You
understand," it said.

Slowly, the Chosen nodded. "This is preferable."

"That it is," the creature said gently.  For an impossible moment, it was
frozen, and Serena wondered if maybe it would not fight.  But then its features
hardened and its arms lowered.  Slowly, it bowed to Nakiad.

Then it leapt forward, the three knives extended in a lethal flash of metal.

There was the whisper of Nakiad's neutron gun, and a hole a foot in diameter
appeared in the center of the creature's chest.  The wound was perfectly
cauterized, there was no blood as the thing collapsed to the ground.  For a
moment, it twitched, then it raised its head.  A trickle of red, human blood
came down from its mouth.

It seemed to gather strength. "Better," it whispered, "this way."  It sighed.
"Better."

Then it relaxed on the floor, dead.

Serena felt her eyes grow moist as the other creatures charged, and her fingers
dropped uselessly away from the brooch on her chest.  She could not use her
powers against them, she could not attack sentient creatures who did not want
to fight.

Nakiad's gun whispered, and a line literally cut into the attack, slicing
through the creatures.  A moment later, a second gun joined his, but that was
all.  None of the others fired.

The crowd fell silently against the blasts, not one of the creatures screaming
in pain, not one protesting.  They kept coming even though they knew that they
would die, they kept pressing forward, and the guns kept whispering.  And as
they fell, Serena saw the pain in their eyes, and her heart screamed.

They had seen something that made them attack against hopeless odds, attack
directly, knowing that they would die.

Whatever they had seen, Serena knew she would see as well.

The last creature collapsed to the stone floor.

One of the guns ceased to fire, but Nakiad did not, the whispering of the
neutron blast cutting through Serena's head.  The Chosen swept across the floor
with the beam, and the corpses turned to dust at the touch of the lethal
energy.  Carefully, without hesitation, he erased the creatures from
existence.

Then it was done.

Serena turned slowly and saw Raye.  The red scout's hands were tight around her
blaster,  smoke coming up from the barrel.  The priestess had been the other
shooter.

Two trails of tears made their way down Raye's face.

Nakiad turned slowly, his face hard and cold, but Serena flinched away from the
pain in his eyes.  He looked slowly at Raye.  "Thank you," he said quietly.

The neutron gun slipped from the red scout's hands and clattered to the floor.
"Why?" She whispered.

Nakiad put his weapon back on his hip and lowered his eyes. "It was better than
the alternative."

"Better than what?" Serena asked, her voice a bare whisper.

The Chosen turned away from her, his rifle slipping into its holster, and he
walked down the hallway, his feet noiseless as they stepped onto the ash that
filled the passage.

Serena sniffed once.

Then she swallowed hard and forced herself to follow, made herself forget that
she was stepping on those who had been alive once.  All that were left were
their weapons and some wrinkled, torn clothes.  The princess felt tears come
again to her eyes, and for once, she did not feel the need to hide them.

The smell hit her again, the rotting, pungent aroma of something that was-

And then she knew.

She shivered and walked up until she was next to Nakiad. "There is no one else
here, is there?"

The Chosen did not hesistate.

He shook his head silently.

"Then do we have to go?  Should we not leave and try to-"  She felt the walls
closing in on her again, but he did not stop.

"Yes," he answered, and his eyes were dark. "Yes, we have to."

She slowed, falling back from Nakiad until she felt Darian at her side and 
she looked up at him.  The prince smiled slightly to comfort her, and she 
felt better when she saw that his eyes were wet as well.

The scouts followed Nakiad along the corridor.

They followed him to the door at its end.

For some time before that, there had been passageways branching off, going in
every direction, but Nakiad had passed them without stopping.  Now the corridor
had ended, and another door barred the way, an unlocked one.

Serena felt the darkness coming from within and shivered once again despite
Darian's warm hand on her shoulder.

Nakiad did not hesitate.  With sharp, uncharacteristic moves, he grasped the
handles of the doors and he pulled both sides open.

And Serena's breath left her.

It was a giant cavern, lit dimly by some light from above.  The light flickered
and pulsed, unsteady as a candle, but it was enough to see by.  

It was enough to see the corpses.



The room was filled with them, groups of burned, destroyed creatures, lying in
all positions on the floor.  They covered the hard stone ground with an even
carpet, their hardened blood mixing in pools of different colors.

Serena felt herself start to shiver uncontrollably, and Darian's grip on his
shoulder tightened.  In front, Nakiad started along an aisle that was clear of
bodies toward the center of the room, his footsteps soundless in the chamber.

With her mind in shock, Serena felt herself following him automatically as he
moved to the center of the room, where a raised dais held a single chair.

The dead bodies moved past Serena, hundreds of grenoks in filthy clothes who
had died a tortured death.  Many seemed to have been fighting when they died,
or about to be fighting.  A few seemed calm, accepting their fate where they
stood.  Those were the bad ones, the ones with holes in their chests, with
missing limbs, and yet with calm, clear faces.  Serena forced herself to
breathe.  They were monsters.

She was no longer sure.

Serena felt her eyes start to dry up, as if she could not cry any more, could
not feel anything.  There was a clear circle in the room around the raised
chair, then inside it a second group, this one with cleaner uniforms and faces
that spoke of vengeance.  They were probably the true warriors, the ones who
had not been grenoks, she thought with horror.  They held no more life than
those at the back of the chamber.

Then Nakiad was next to the raised platform, and he bent down slightly, looking
at something.  Serena felt her feet carry her forward to his side and she
looked down.  She had thought that her ability to be shocked was gone, erased
by the sight around her.

But still, she gasped.

The three fake scouts.  Raye and Lita and Mina.  

Their uniforms were stained with unnaturally colored blood, and their faces
were pale.  But even in death, they looked like the Sailor Scouts, their white
uniforms dull under the layer of death on them.

Slowly, Serena raised her head and looked at Nakiad. "Why?" She whispered. "Why
must we see this?  Why could we not-"

The pain in his eyes forced her silent. "Because one day, Princess Serena, you
will rule."

Serena looked at him, and saw the pain.  And she tried to understand, she
honestly tried.

But she could not, she did not want to see this.  There was nothing she could
learn from pointless death-  She paused in her thoughts.

From behind her, another voice came. "I see," Raye whispered, and the red 
scout lowered her head. "But I wish I did not."

Nakiad was looking at Mina.

And slowly, the orange scout nodded.

Nakiad turned back to the raised platform, and Serena noticed for the first
time a pulsing transparent crystal there. "We have to go," the Chosen said
calmly. "That is a ghost stone.  There won't be anything left of this place
left soon."

Serena blinked, forcing her mind to work. "You mean-"

"Yeah," Nakiad answered, "it's a form of a self destruct system.  Come on."

He ran for the exit, and the scouts followed, their minds filled with heavy
thoughts.

The helical corridor wound around in Serena's thoughts, blurring as they rushed
for the top.  She flinched when she had to go through the place where the
massacre had been, but they knew of no other way, and she steeled herself
against the pain.  Nakiad was rushing, but somehow, the urgency was gone from
Serena's mind, there was no hurry.  It was almost as if she would welcome
destruction.

She shook off the thoughts as they ran through the door of the inner surface
out to the normal part of the house, and she focused on running as they passed
through the ancient walls.  Before, she had almost admired the old carvings and
paintings and furniture, now the sight of them turned her stomach.

Then they burst through the other door, and the night sky was once again over
her, and she breathed in relief.  Nakiad turned to the ship waiting for them,
and the Grasshopper was still there, solid as a rock.  The Chosen's forearm
panel beeped and he frowned.  "It has begun."



In a flash of energy, the transparent crystal shattered into a thousand pieces.
Out of the shards, a white fog poured out, covering everything in its
surroundings, obscuring the shards of its prison.  The white soup spread
instantly in the chamber, covering the dead bodies, and the remains of an army
vanished into the white, dissolved by the ghost crystal.  The fog penetrated
everything, dissolving death itself.

Then it twisted like a living being and spread outward and upward.



Nakiad frowned at the panel. "Something is wrong."

The moment froze.  He was turning toward the ship, his black form melting with
the night.  And to one side, a flash of light glared through the sky, tearing
the darkness apart.

The top of one of the small towers shattered into pieces of stone that crumbled
to the ground.  Underneath the stone was a hemisphere made of a dark, seamless
material.

Nakiad did not hesitate. "Scatter!" He yelled, and the princess felt herself
obeying.  The scouts exploded into every direction.

A lance of pure light slammed into the ground where Nakiad had been standing a
moment before.  The energy carved the stone easily, and Serena gaped at the
tower.  The black material that had been filled with energy a moment ago
darkened, and she paused, then the tower burst with power again, and another
lance of light leapt out of it.

Around the princess, the other towers started exploding, and she closed her
ears against the din, forced herself to keep moving.  Blasts of pure energy cut
around the scouts, keeping them separated, keeping them from moving toward the
ship.  Against the black night, the white strikes glared painful white, tearing
everything into chaos, and Serena no longer knew what was going on.  She could
only move, avoid the blasts as well as she could.

Then a flash of red blurred through the air, and a rose slammed into one of the
towers.  The black surface pulsed once, then exploded in a flash of energy.
The shock sent Serena to her knees and she had only barely enough time to
scramble out of the way of another blast.

But they could fight back.  Serena felt her eyes flash, for there was an enemy
here, something to lash out against.  An automated mechanism with no humanity,
one toward which she needed to feel no pity or compassion.  Anger rushed up
from her heart, and for once it was a welcome feeling, a relief from the
pain.

She felt the crystal on her chest pulse, and a blast of moon power silenced one
tower, then another.  Amidst a flash of metal, another tower exploded, another
small blade instantly appearing in Nakiad's hands as the first disappeared in
the explosion.

More attacks lashed out, and the flashes of the towers grew less frequent as
more and more were destroyed by the group.  There had been several dozen at the
start, enough to turn everything into chaos.  Now there were only perhaps 
five or six.

Then another tower pulsed, but this time the beam was not directed toward the
scouts.  The air around the hemisphere glowed white for a brief instant.

And a lance of fire tore out at the ship.

"No!" Nakiad yelled, hurling a metal blade at the tower.

It was too late.  The beam cut through the middle of one of the Grasshopper's
legs, slicing easily through most of the supporting structure and into the
middle strut.  A shiver of electricity passed over the ship as the attack cut
off, and Serena felt the groan of metal in her bones.  The Grasshopper moved
slowly, rotating about the two intact legs, down toward the ground, and the
damaged leg smashed into the ground, the sphere at the end taking the impact
easily.  In slow motion, Serena saw the outstretched leg bend slightly, the
structure distorted by the damage and the impact.

At the same instant, the panel on Nakiad's wrist flashed a brilliant white.

He looked at it, his eyes wild. "Everybody DOWN!"

Serena felt the ground come up and slam into her as she covered her head with
her hands.

Behind her, the ship rippled with energy and ignited into a white wash of
light.  A thunderclap struck the ground of the castle, shaking it, throwing it
at Serena.  A wave of heat rushed over the princess' back, and she heard a rush
of impossible air as it passed over her, tearing at her body.

Then everything was silent.

Slowly, she felt her senses returning, and her muscles relaxed, allowing her to
move.  She looked up and saw the others staggering to their feet.

Nakiad looked at the crater where the Grasshopper had been a second ago and
dusted himself off. "Perfect," he said darkly. "Well, at least the containment
field worked.  Everyone still here?"

Darian raised his head.  His cape had protected both him and the cats, they
were all right. "Everyone fine over here."

"Yeah," Serena grumbled, feeling her back. "Same here.  A little singed maybe,
but all right."

"Ditto," Lita said, looking over herself.  Her suit had protected her pretty
well, despite the helmet being off.

Mina nodded in agreement.

Raye turned to Nakiad. "What containment field?"

He spread his hands to show that it was not important. "The ship makes an
energy field around itself right before the fission reactor is allowed to
detonate.  Since the energy shield takes a moment to dissolve, it is supposed
to take the brunt of the explosion, containing it.  In theory."

"In theory?" Raye asked.

He shrugged. "In tests, the method works about seventy percent of the time.  A
third of the time, the explosion is not contained, or only partially contained,
which results in rather more damage.  Enough to cook all of us, and a large
area around us, certainly."

Raye glared at him. "You mean that was an confined reaction?  It was strong
enough to destroy the tower blaster things."

Serena frowned.  Something strange was going on with the ground, it was almost
as if it was becoming soft.  But it was stone, so she had to be imagining it.

Then the stone buckled under her and she stumbled to her knees, her balance
gone.

Nakiad's eyes widened. "Actually, I think there is a different reason for them
stopping their function.  The ghost crystal!  Everybody out!" he yelled,
leaping toward Serena.

Around them, white fog seeped through the stone, engulfing it, and the support
under them began to dissolve.  The Chosen grabbed Serena around the waist,
raising her.  To their sides, the scouts leapt on top of the outer wall and
outside, Darian close on their heels with the cats in his hands.

Nakiad turned, taking two steps toward the wall, then the floor sank under his
feet. "Hold on," he said blandly, and Serena felt a surge of energy under them.
The night sky leapt up toward them and her stomach sank away toward the ground.
As they cleared the wall, she realized he had used the booster rockets on his
legs, and her grip relaxed slightly.

A moment later, he touched down neatly.  Sighing with relief, she stepped down
to the ground and turned back to the castle.

It was disappearing.

The white fog covered everything, giving the structure a ghostlike quality as
the solid stone melted and folded toward the ground, vanishing, erased by the
white soup.  The fog spread out slightly as the stone structures melted with
the ground, and the white started toward the group.  Only Nakiad did not flinch
away from that substance as it moved outward.  There was a malevolence
generated by the fog, a feeling of pure, total destruction, with no mind or
thought or sense.  It was there, so it destroyed, there was no other reason.

A slight wind gusted through Serena's hair, and the fog reared against the
motion of the air, trying to fight.  But despite its darkness, despite the
potential for destruction, it was a creature of the air.  It could do
nothing.

Before Serena's wide eyes, the fog dissolved, the white tearing into streams
that vanished in the night sky.

The princess stared with astonishment at the place where the compound had been.
There was nothing but fresh grass there, clear in the night air.  Serena walked
forward slowly into the clear space, feeling the ground.

Everything was gone.  The bodies, the compound beneath, the castle.  There was
only the grass and the clear night.  She turned to Nakiad. "Was this all a
dream?" she whispered.  That was what it felt like, and for a moment, she
hoped.

He shook his head sadly. "It was real.  The ghost crystals touch the minds of
those around them, but the compound was real, it was here."

He looked around, sighing. "We should go.  I do not know how good the New York
police force is, and I suspect the enemy placed some sort of mental control on
this place to make everyone ignore it.  But that spell would be gone now, and
someone is bound to call the cops.  We have to leave."

Artemis, still in one of Darian's hands, turned. "But where?"  His voice came
out in a whisper. "This was the only place we knew of where they could be."

Nakiad nodded. "And he was here."  He turned to his arm control pad.
"Computer."

There was no response, and Nakiad frowned.  He tapped several keys, suddenly
looking worried. "I can not make contact."

"Could the pad have been damaged by the explosion?" Lita, to one side, asked.

"No," Nakiad replied instantly. "Well, yes, but I still have the link to the
satellite network.  I just can not reach the computer.  The problem is not on
my end."  He looked up, his eyes worried. "What was accomplished in bringing us
here?"

Serena blinked at the sudden question. "What do you mean?"

His face was growing harder every second.  "This place was not supposed to kill
us, if he had wanted that, he would have set the place to be destroyed as soon
as we entered.  But he did not.  We had a very good chance of escaping with our
lives. Why?"

Then Serena felt her mind startle, and she knew.  Only one thing had been
accomplished in taking them to New York, to the other side of the planet.

"To get us away from your compound," Raye breathed.

Nakiad nodded. "I can not connect to the computer, which either means that the
satellites on that end have all been destroyed, or the computer itself has been
compromised.  If the enemy had used the same type of crystal on Amy as he had
on you three, then he might well have been able to get her computer, and if
Fluctra had it-"

"Then she could have scanned your compound." Darian finished for him, amazed.
"We have to get there, now."

Above, lightning flashed, and Serena flinched away from the clap of thunder.  A
light rain started down on the scouts.

Nakiad frowned. "I have certain databases on the satellite system's computers.
I believe-" He tapped keys on the datapad. "Yes.  I have jets in many most
major cities around the world and there is one here.  It is not the fastest
mode of transportation possible, but under the circumstances, it is the best I
can do."  He sighed. "If I had had more time, I would have made more ships like
the Grasshopper, but it took me this time just to get the one to work.  The
plane is the best I can do."

Raye grinned suddenly. "I don't think we are going to complain."

To one side, sirens were approaching, different sirens from the ones Serena was
used to, but sirens still.



The rain started beating harder as they climbed the building, and Mina sighed
against the endless drops of water, debating putting her helmet back on.  But
the thing restricted her motion slightly, it was easier to keep it off now that
there was no danger.

The orange scout leapt on top of the roof with a final jump, grateful for the
muscle enhancement of the suit.  It was not quite as good as her scout powers,
but it came closer than she would have thought possible.  She turned and helped
Lita up.  Darian floated up to them, flying with marginal difficulty against
the wind, the two cats in his arms.

Mina turned to Nakiad, who was staring up at the rain, and the orange scout
felt something strange in her stomach.  It was almost as if she had seen this
before.  A similar feeling had washed over her in the hangar at his compound,
but this was much stronger.   It was not exactly the same as the memories she
sometimes had of the Silver Millennium, but it was similar.  There was just
something familiar about his appearance that she could not quite put a finger
on.

Then he looked at her, and the wind hit him, blowing his clothes back against
his body, running through his hair.  The gi, flattened against the suit
underneath, showed a strange shape, bulges showing everywhere.

Mina gasped.

His face was hard and strong, his eyes looking straight at her, unmoving,
unrelenting.  His eyes spoke of pain and danger and hatred and old sorrows.
And at the same time, there was a confidence there, a strength that went beyond
anything human.

She had seen this before.

She had seen this.

The swords.

He shook his head softly, staring straight at her. His voice was so gentle that
she could barely hear it against the rain.  "I have read too many Greek myths
to try to change fate, Mina.  I will not fear the future."

And behind him, lightning ignited, casting the light she had seen before over
his features. She had been there before, she had seen him.

She remembered.

The swords had told her of the past, and that had been true.  They had told her
of the staff and sword being important, they had told her of the blue crystal,
and that had come true.  And they had shown to her what she was seeing.

And after that image came darkness, total destruction.

"You knew," she whispered, her mind full of the darkness that had followed the
image.

He nodded solemnly. "You are not the only one who has touched my swords."

She shook her head wildly. "Then why?"  Why not try to change the outcome, why
did he have to put on the suit?  The thoughts rocketed through her mind.

He closed his eyes slowly.  "Not even I can change fate."

Then he could not change the future, he could not control what would come.  She
swallowed. "What will happen?" she asked, her voice almost lost in the
darkness.

He smiled softly, the pain fading slightly from his eyes.  His voice was a mere
whisper against the wind.  "The wisdom to tell the difference."

She swallowed, not understanding, and his smile saddened.

He looked away from her. "'Grant me the serenity to accept the things I can
not change: the courage to change the things that I can:"  He paused for a
moment. "And the widom to tell the difference."  He shook his head. "So 
many memories, and I still can not. Maybe no one can."

He fell silent, and Mina just looked at him, letting her pain flow through to
the ground.  There was nothing she could do.

Around her neck, the Dailous stone brightened slightly, feeling her need, and
warmth came into her heart.  But it was not enough.

"Guys!" Raye yelled through the rain. "What are you talking about?"

Everything snapped sharply into focus once more, the others reappearing around
Mina and Nakiad.  And the Chosen opened his eyes and looked away from Mina's
gaze.

He sighed silently. "We should go.  Come on, this way!"  He ran to the edge of
the building and jumped, landing easily on the next rooftop.  The others
followed.



Raye sighed, settling into the seat of the comfortable jet.

It had been incredibly easy, actually.  She had expected someone to complain
about people dressed as they were and carrying the weapons that they did.  But
no one seemed to notice that they were dressed differently, and after Nakiad
talked to the head of the small airport in incomprehensible English, they had
been immediately taken to a plane that looked like an ordinary private jet.

The engine rumbled, and Nakiad turned briefly. "Everyone set for takeoff?"

No one objected, and Raye smiled, feeling the pressure on her chest as the
plane's engines turned to full and they accelerated down the runway.  There was
a slight tremor, then a jerk, and they were in the air.

"Sorry for the bump," Nakiad said without turning, "it's been a while since
I've flown one of these things."  There was no humor in his voice, not any
more, Raye thought.  Not after that incident on the roof, whatever that had
been about.  Mina and Nakiad seemed to have known what they had been talking
about, but none of the scouts had understood.

Raye sighed and forced herself to relax.  It would be a long flight, although
Nakiad had told them that the jet was heavily modified and could go far faster
than an ordinary private aircraft.  However, he had been restricted to using
current technology because the jets were everywhere in the world and there was
no way he could look after them himself.  The mechanics that worked on the
planes were human, so he could not incorporate any Silver Millennium
technology.

The red scout frowned, taking off the outer gloves of the exoskeletal suit.
All in all, she much preferred her scout powers.  Though the weapons were- She
suddenly remembered the grenoks, the dead bodies and their silence as they
died, and bile rose in her throat.  She turned, hoping no one saw the tears
that started once more down her cheeks.  She had known what she had to do.

Not for the first time, she wondered why the things one had to do almost always
hurt.  She had given up too much to become a Sailor Scouts.  Her life and her
love. Now, perhaps her soul.  

What had been left of it.

Her mind hardened, and she swallowed.  It did not matter, her life did not
matter.  Not when it was balanced against the Universe.

She shook off the thoughts and turned to her hands, taking off the inner
gloves, the air manipulation ones.  She wondered why she was even wearing them,
since they were useless.  The band around her head was just so much scrap metal
without her tiara.  And wearing two pairs of gloves was and uncomfortable.  Yet
somehow, she could not take them off, they were the only things that remained
of her being a Sailor Scout.  She had given up too much to become a scout to
give up so easily.

Ahead, next to Nakiad, Mina was asleep.  The Chosen himself seemed to be
focused on flying the plane.  Next to Raye, Lita's eyes were closed, but
somehow the red scout knew her friend was awake.  In the rear, Serena and
Darian were talking.  So were the two cats.

They were flying back home, but to a home that was under siege.  They had no
powers, no strength, perhaps no chance.  Raye swallowed hard.  

She wondered if they even had hope.



<It is not right.>  The heavy voice echoed slowly through space.

<We have been over it already, we can do nothing,> another voice, a
cooler, calmer voice replied.

<But they do not even stand a chance,> another mind answered, supporting
the first argument.

<It is not fair,> the cool voice admitted. <But we can do nothing.> 
There was no doubt in that statement.

<So we let them die,> the heavy mind said, its voice hard.

<Ah,> a fourth, cunning mind entered, <do we?  There is always
hope..>

The other minds seemed to smile.

<But is the attraction great enough?> the heavy voice asked finally.
<Will they return?>

<Let us hope so,> the others agreed.

They had cast their votes, they had chosen their path.  They could not help
directly, they could not return the powers to their avatars.  But they had
given the warriors a chance.

It was all they could do.

If that failed, then the Universe might be taken over by the dark forces, and
even the giants would be destroyed.  But they had existed for eons, death no
longer troubled them.  Death can not scare those who have lived for all of
eternity.

The planets floated through space.



"All passengers, this is your captain speaking."

Raye snapped out of her dream, only realizing a second later that she had
fallen asleep.  It took her several more moments to recognize the voice.

It was Nakiad.  He had turned around in his chair to face the others, and he
looked worried as he waited for everyone to wake up. "All right everyone.  We
have a slight problem. The Japanese authorities."

Raye shook off the last of the sleep. "What do you mean?"

He sighed. "I've been listening to the radio, and apparently, the tension in
the world has gotten much worse in the past several hours.  I think the enemy's
grip on his power is deteriorating."

"And?" Raye asked.

"We had no problem exiting the US, since the plane is registered there as a
private jet.  But I think we might not get clearance to enter Japan."

"Oh," Raye said quietly.

"So what do we do?" Darian asked from behind her.

"We have no choice," Nakiad answered. "We go.  But although this plane is
rather better than a normal private jet, there is no way it is going to compete
with a bunch of F-18's.  We are definitely not going to get a chance to land
it, and I am not sure if we can make it over the border.  Hopefully, I'll be
able to get us over my compound, and we can parachute down from there."

Raye swallowed.  He did not sound very sure about it. "Just how bad is the
political situation?" she asked softly.

He turned away from her, back to the control panel.  "Bad," he answered
somberly.

"Nakiad?" Lita asked.

"Yeah?"

"I know some things about fighters and stuff, I've always been interested in
that sort of thing.  You need a copilot?"

He did not reply for an instant.  "Sure," he finally said. "Mina?"

The orange scout smiled. "It's all right.  The view is boring anyway."  She
exchanged places with Lita, and the green scout bent over the controls
immediately.

"What does this do?" she asked.

Raye shook her head at Nakiad's technical answer and lost track of that
conversation instantly.  The red scout turned to Mina. "How are things?"

The orange scout sighed. "I don't know.  Even the Dailous stone does not seem
to help any more.  There is darkness everywhere."

Raye nodded quietly.  It was gathering now, growing stronger in the air.  She
felt it even more now that they were returning home, closer to familiar
territory.  Things were wrong somehow, the air and the water under the plane
and the earth underneath the ocean.

Nakiad turned again. "We are passing into Japanese air now.  I'm flying pretty
low, but this plane is not at all stealthy.  We will be picked up momentarily,
but we will need less than ten minutes to get over my compound, if my
calculations are correct."

Raye almost smiled.  Nakiad's calculations were always correct.

The radio crackled. The voice that came over it was harsh but not entirely
unfriendly.  "This is Japanese Air Patrol seventeen speaking.  Identify
yourself."

Nakiad paused before speaking. "This is flight two oh seven from the US to
Tokyo.  We are a private jet.  Do we have permission to enter Japanese air
space?"

"Acknowledged, flight two oh seven.  We identify you as a private jet, but we
can not permit you to enter Japanese air space."

Nakiad sighed. "Air Patrol seventeen, we are low on fuel, we do not have
sufficient reserves to return to the US.  Do we have permission to land and
refuel?"

There was a long pause, then the static came on again. "Negative, private
aircraft, you do not have permission to land on Japanese soil.  Turn to heading
two forty five, you may land at Coba airport.  Refuel there.  You are now
inside Japanese airspace, change your heading now."  What friendliness had been
in the voice was deteriorating rapidly.

Nakiad shook his head. "We do not have enough fuel to reach the Philippines,"
he replied calmly. "We must land in Japan."

There was another pause, a shorter one, then the voice was back.  This time it
was audibly hostile. "Flight two oh seven, all privately owned American planes
are required to have at least one hundred and fifty percent of fuel necessary
to reach destination.  You are lying to us.  This is Air Patrol seventeen, you
will change course now, or you will be fired upon."

The radio went silent, and Nakiad turned. "They didn't buy it."

Raye sighed. "As if that was not obvious enough."

The Chosen was not listening, he was already back to his controls. "Everyone
get your seat belts on."  He turned to Lita. "Well?"

The green scout looked at her controls. "I am reading four F-18s now on an
intercept course.  There's an E-3 Sentry over the horizon, it has radar lock on
us, we will not be able to lose it."

Nakiad nodded.  "I did not think so.  Six minutes until we are over the
compound."

Raye ducked as the sound of machine gun fire passed over their heads.  In the
front window, white light streaked past the plane.

The Chosen had not even flinched. "Warning shot."

The radio crackled. "This is Air Patrol seventeen, that was a warning shot.
Change your course _now_."

Nakiad pulled on his control stick, and the plane started to turn.

The voice reappeared again, and this time there was a note of sarcasm in it.
"Flight two oh seven, thank you for- Holy shit!"

The seat fell out from under Raye and her stomach rose to her throat.  The
plane dove, seemingly straight down to the ground, and her head spun as she
tried to figure out what was going on.

The voice on the radio was shouting.  "They're going for the deck, we-" The
radio transmission turned off, then went on again. "Flight two oh seven, you
have been warned!"  Now there was no hiding the coldness in the voice.

The plane straightened out its dive, and Raye felt her inside flop down as the
pressure on her chest increased.  In front of the cockpit, she saw trees
flickering by, then the sky was there again, and they were leveling off.

Nakiad did not turn, but his voice was dead serious. "Brace for impact," he
said.

Raye swallowed hard.

A warning klaxon rang through the plane, and Lita looked up. "Missile lock, one
AIM nine M missile locked on."  The klaxon deepened, and Lita's voice was full
of fear. "It's away."

"Brace for impact," Nakiad repeated.

Lightning smashed into the plane.

Raye almost yelled as a wash of heat tore over her.  She felt the aircraft dip
its nose forward as she undid her seat belt.  In a moment of clarity, she
grabbed the helmet from her back and unfolded it with a jerk.  Smoke was
everywhere now, making her cough violently as she jerked the helmet into place.
The air she was breathing cleared instantly.

Ahead, Nakiad was fighting with the plane, and seemed to be winning because the
machine was slowly straightening out.  Next to him, Lita was yelling something
incomprehensible in technolingo.

But behind Raye was a mass of flames, through which Darian and Serena's
silhouettes were faintly visible.  The red scout jumped from her seat and
grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall.  A second spray joined hers almost
immediately, and Raye looked at Mina gratefully.

The flames flickered and died slowly, and Raye suddenly became aware of the
incredible whistling sound that filled the airplane.  The source of the sound
was obvious.  Revealed by the dying flames was a hole in the wall the size of
somebody's head, torn through the metal skin of the plane.  Raye gaped 
and faced forward, toward Nakiad.

The Chosen glanced at her. "Enhanced armor, one of the few things I could do!
Get the parachutes, we're two minutes out of our destination. I think we lost
the F-18's behind the explosion, but they will be here soon!"

Raye nodded through the whistling air, then turned toward Darian and Serena.
The two seemed all right, though soot stained both of their clothes.  Luna and
Artemis crouched within the protection of Darian's cape.  The prince pointed
toward the hole in the plane, and Raye followed his finger.

Right next to the impact was a cabinet marked parachutes, and Raye felt her own
eyes widen as she leapt toward the box, opening the lid.  Next to her, metal
groaned and twisted under the stress as Nakiad flew the plane closer to the
ground, but the red scout had eyes only for the cabinet.

It was full of shrapnel, pieces of metal hurled through the fragile box by the
explosion.  Raye ruffled through its components, tossing out the parachutes.

There had been seven once there.  Two of them had large tears, the others
miraculously escaped damage.  But two were too many.

Nakiad turned. "How many are left?"

Next to him, Lita shouted something about setting the autopilot, but Raye did
not quite make it out.  The plane lurched suddenly and started climbing, the
engines whining with stress.

The red scout turned to the Chosen 

"Five!" she yelled as loudly as he could.

He nodded and leapt out of the chair, grabbing Lita, and both of them made
their way down to the others.  The plane continued to climb at a slightly
upward angle.

"This is Air Patrol seventeen, we suggest you turn your plane around and follow
us!"  The voice was full of sarcasm now.

"The hell with you!" Nakiad yelled to the radio, then turned to the scouts.
"Put the chutes on.  I'll use my rockets."

Raye remembered the jets on his feet and nodded, suddenly relieved.  Nakiad
swung the door open.

The missile warning klaxon sounded through the ship.

Lita stepped up to the door.

"Now!" Nakiad yelled, looking down.

The green scout disappeared, and in a dreamlike state, Raye felt herself step
forward and off the plane.  The whistling of the wind and the smoke and the
klaxon disappeared behind her, replaced by the pure sound of air rushing by
her.  For the first time, she wondered how the parachutes were opened, for the
ground was coming down at her at an incredible rate.

A second later, something came out of her backpack, and she felt herself yanked
upward toward the sky.  The air stopped whistling and slowed to a gentled lull,
moving her a little from side to side.  The red scout looked up and gaped.

The parachute above her was almost invisible, blending in perfectly with the
sky.  Raye realized that it would be almost impossible to notice from an
airplane and sighed with relief.



Mina vanished in the sky, then Serena was next to the exit.  The princess
stopped, staring down. "If you think I am jumping down there, then-"  She
stopped.

Nakiad stepped close to her, holding on to the side of the plane. "Serena, all
humans can fly!"

She looked back at him, gaping. "Really?"

"Yes!" He yelled back. "But only in one direction!"

He pushed her off the plane.  Her scream vanished in the wind.  Darian grinned
at Nakiad, holding the two cats.  The prince vanished in the doorway.

The Chosen took a last look around and sighed.  He had not told the scouts, but
he had no idea if his thrusters would work as well as he needed them to.  They
had been designed to assist in jumping and he had had serious problems with
differing air pressures when testing them.

Not that he had much of a choice.

He jumped into emptiness.



Above him, the plane continued in a straight line, flying up toward the sky.
An F-18 dove out of a cloud and saw it, and the klaxon in the plane changed as
a missile approached.

The AIM-9M missile hit the fuel tanks.

A dozen seconds later, the remains of a plane crashed down in the middle of a
plot of land being developed for a shopping mall.  Fortunately, no one was at
work at that moment.

The aircraft made a very pretty fireball.



Nakiad breathed easily in the whistling air, arranging himself.  Crossing as
many mental fingers as he could, he activated the jets.

Nothing happened.

He was not really surprised.

The jets' function was to assist in jumps, size had been one of the most
important things in their design.  In order to reduce a pair of rockets to such
a small space, he had had to make a few design accommodations.  The compromise
that was causing the problem was the jets' incredible need for oxygen.  Even at
sea level, the need for oxygen was what caused the upper limit on their
power.

And now, he was not only high enough that there was a rather large difference
in air pressure, but he was also moving fast.  The faster the relative motion
of air, the less the relative pressure, that concept made airfoils work.

It also made landing problematic.  And by the time he would reach a height
where oxygen was in abundance, he might not have enough time to brake.

Desperately, he continued to try to activate the jets, but there was nothing
more than a slight whine.  The ground rushed at him, far faster than he had
imagined the motion.  He closed his eyes, doing mental calculations.  

The terminal velocity of a person falling on earth was about two hundred
kilometers per hour.  At that speed, the braking effect of the air was equal to
the attraction force of the ground.  That meant that he would smash into the
ground at one hundred and twenty five miles per hour.

He would probably survive.

But he would not be in any shape to fight even if he were to live through the
impact.  He might survive, but only to watch the Universe be destroyed.

Less than two dozen meters above the ground, the jets came on full power.

Nakiad's mind turned black.  He remembered trying to stay straight up so as not
to change the direction of the thrust.

Then he blacked out.



The pilots of jet fighters, surrounded by a special harness, with oxygen
supplied to them in the comfort of their plane, can withstand ten times the
acceleration of gravity for a few seconds without blacking out.  A normal
person can take six gravities for a relatively long time with no adverse
effect.  Nakiad himself had been able to withstand twenty five for a limited
time when testing the Grasshopper.

The jets only supplied fifteen gravities, but he was standing up and the force
was directed against his feet.  His whole skeleton was forced down, bones
grinding against each other, vital organs stretching against the tissue
supporting them.  All of his blood rushed to his legs.

But he stayed upright until he hit the ground and the jets cut off
automatically.



Mina bent over him, breathing hard.  The scouts had landed only a few hundred
meters apart, and their suits and powers had absorbed the impacts easily.  But
all of them had watched with horror as Nakiad had fallen to the ground, only
slowing down at the very last moment. 

"Nakiad!" she whispered intensely.

He groaned slowly, and her breathing slowed as she relaxed.  He opened his
eyes, slowly focusing them. "Hi Mina," he said quietly.

She sat back hard in relief. "How are you doing?"

He groaned. "I've been worse.  Some internal damage, a lot of overstressed
bones.  Nothing broken, surprisingly."  Forcefully, he sat up. "We have to go.
Where'd you dump the chutes?"

"We left them where we landed," Lita replied.

He nodded. "Good.  They are designed to dissolve after a few hours."  Slowly,
he got to his feet, wincing slightly.  "Shall we go?"



Nakiad held up his hand, and Darian halted.  Behind, the scouts did the same.

They were in the house, near the entrance to the complex.  It was open and the
steps led down into darkness, not the usual light passageway.

"I set the computer to defense mode when we left," Nakiad said softly. "If that
is still on, we might have had some problems, but I doubt that it is.
Otherwise, this door would not be open.  Computer."

There was no response.

Nakiad sighed. "Interesting.  I think this could create serious problems, not
the least of which is in finding the intruders."

"He is in your room," Raye whispered intensely.  Everyone turned to her.  The
red scout's eyes were closed her face slightly twisted. "I'm sure of it," she
said softly.

"I can not feel anything," Nakiad said, and she opened her eyes, hurt. "But I
trust you," he finished.

She nodded gratefully.

Nakiad gestured. "This way. I do not think the elevators will work without the
computer not working, so we will take the stairs."

_	_	_


The walls and hallways and stairs blurred, the different architectural styles
wearing into the backs of Darian's eyes as they rushed through the compound.
Every room was different, every place they passed through seemed to have its
own value and uniqueness.  Nakiad led the way without hesitation, going through
the maze of passageways without pausing.  The prince wondered briefly at the
amount of money it must have taken to build the complex, to buy all the artwork
and weapons and furniture.  It was certainly more money than he could ever
imagine, he thought with an internal smile.  

The brief moment of humor only intensified the dark, foreboding atmosphere of
the complex.  Although everything around him was the same, Darian had never
walked that much of the way through Nakiad's compound.  Generally, the scouts
had taken the lifts which seemed able to access almost any place from any other
place, and the prince had never truly appreciated the true scale of the
structure.  They had been going for at least fifteen minutes and there was no
end in sight.

Darian swallowed hard.  The air felt wrong somehow, as if there was something
rotting in it.  But it was not a smell, it was nothing physical, merely a type
of feeling.  And as they descended, the feeling grew stronger.  It was the same
tinge of wrong he had felt when they had seen the grenoks.  And somehow, in 
his mind, Darian realized that Nakiad was right, the power of the Dark Lord was 
too much for their enemy to handle.  The dark energy was rippling, striving to 
get out.  Eventually, it would.

The Universe would not be survive when that happened.

Darian frowned, shaking his head.  It would not happen, they would stop it.
Absently, he wiped the beads of sweat off his forehead.

"Wait," Raye breathed, as Nakiad reached for the handle to yet another door.

The Chosen turned. "What is it?"  His face was tight.  He could feel the
negative power too, Darian realized.  All of them did, the darkness was
impossible to miss.

"Something behind that door, something familiar.  But I can't quite-" Raye
shook her head. "There is too much dark energy, I can not distinguish detail
anymore."

Nakiad nodded. "I know," he said quietly. "That is why I feel nothing, the
power is too close to me, too similar.  It seems to be attracted to my mind."
He glanced at Raye. "Your powers in this are stronger than mine, now."  He
swallowed.  "Are you sure you do not know who it is?"

The red scout closed her eyes, focusing, then she gasped. 

"It's Amy," Raye said.

Darian's mind shook off the lethargy of his thoughts. "Are you sure?"

"No," Raye answered. "But I think so, I am almost sure.  And Fluctra, I think.
The fake scout, the one who attacked us at the warehouse."

Anger washed over the scouts, amplified by the dark atmosphere around them.

Behind them, Lita fidgeted. "So what do we do?"

Nakiad pulled the door. "We go in."

Darian breathed in sharply.  Blackened surfaces traced the energy that had
cleared the room of all objects.  All that was left were the walls and two
exits, one at each end of the bare chamber.  The scouts had come in through one
entrance, they could only continue through the other.  But the bareness was not
what had caused Darian's surprise.  

In the middle of the room were two copies of Amy.

They were identical, both seemingly unconscious, their eyes closed.  They were
wearing smudged gis.  They hung from a green growth that came down from the
ceiling, a growth that seemed to be at least partially alive.  Neither of them
moved.

"Which one is real?" Serena asked in a whisper.

The scout on the right opened her eyes, looking straight at the princess, and
Serena gasped.  Above, the ropes that held the right scout vanished away, and
she dropped to the ground.

"I'd love to play this game," the fake said in a cool voice, "but I really
don't have the time."

Nakiad looked at her. "Let Sailor Mercury go."

"Aww," Fluctra said in a condescending tone, "but you see, I really can not let
poor Amy free."  Darian wondered if there was a flash of pain in the fake's
eyes.  It had almost seemed like there had been.  

"And," she continued, "I can not let you free, either."

With a snake-like motion, she threw her arms out, and dust flew at the group,
too fast for them to react.  Darian felt something around his arms, and then
there was cold metal around his wrists and around his ankles.  Something threw
him backward, against the wall behind him, and he twisted hopelessly against
his restraints.  They did not even budge.  Turning his head, he saw all the
others in a similar position, with horseshoe-shaped pieces of metal holding
them against the wall.  The ends of the metal U's were sharp, and had plunged 
deep into the material.  The two cats were in a similar situation, but they only 
had one of the pieces of metal around their midsection, holding them upright 
against the wall.

Next to him was Serena, and the princess glared at Fluctra. "Ooh, you're going
to pay for that," the blonde said.  "Moon-"

"Wait." Nakiad interrupted.

Fluctra turned to the Chosen. "Yes?"

Nakiad shook his head, not straining against his bonds. "It would be futile
anyway."  He sighed. "Why do you fight us?"

The fake scout laughed. "You are my enemy."

"No.  Your master is your enemy.  He has destroyed all that have served him
with loyalty.  He killed all of his servants but you, and you are next.  He is
mad."

Fluctra looked back at the Chosen, unflinching. "Perhaps he is.  But I am from
the Negaverse."  She brought a clear crystal out from behind her back.

"Wait!" Lita exclaimed, forcing the fake to pause.  Darian turned as well as he
could in his bonds to see the green scout.  "Don't you remember the prison,
Fluctra?" Lita asked. "You spoke of the scouts then, don't you remember what
you yourself said?  You can trust us, we are not like your master.  We will not
betray you."

Slowly, Fluctra looked down. "I have never thought much of the grenoks," she
said slowly. "But in the end, I suppose I am more like they than I thought.  I
do as I am ordered."  She brought the crystal forward.  "If you think suits of
metal will save you, you are fools."

The crystal exploded into shards, and lightning struck out to the four figures
wearing suits.  The three scouts twisted in their bonds as the electricity
struck, but Nakiad remained relaxed, calm.  The lightning did not seem to touch
him, it did not penetrate to his mind.  The Chosen's eyes were the only part of
him that looked awake.

Darian looked back at the struggle other scouts and wrenched against his bonds,
but even his strength did not budge the restraints.

Then the blast stopped, and three scouts relaxed in their restraints, breathing
hard.

"No, Fluctra," Nakiad's voice rang out clearly in the room. "Suits of metal do
not win battles, people do."

Darian turned and gaped.  Nakiad was standing away from the wall, free.  All of
the external additions to his clothes were on the floor, smoking slightly, and
he was wearing only his black gi.  In the wall, the four pieces of metal were
still embedded.

"Your illusions are good, Fluctra," Nakiad continued, walking slowly forward.
"But those things held me though they could not, so they were obviously 
not real."

The fake scout stepped back.  "You think you can break through any metal?" she
asked jeeringly.

"No," he answered, "I designed this compound, I designed every single room, I
built most of them myself.  The metal might have easily held, but I should have
been able to tear out the chunk of wall with the shackles."

Darian blinked, surprised, finally realizing what they were talking about.  He
closed his eyes, doing his best to not believe that the bonds were real.  A
second later, he felt like he had done it, like he could break free.

But nothing happened.  He did not drop to the floor as he had expected, he was
not released.  Exasperated, he opened his eyes, and looked to either side.
With surprise, he saw the others free, all of them, even the two cats.  He
looked at his arms, annoyed at being the only one who had failed, and he
blinked.

He was standing a meter away from the wall, free.

Fluctra swore. "Damn you, Sailor Scouts."  The fake scout raised her head.
"Help me!"

The scout started to fade out, and a black power flashed into existence around
her hands as she disappeared.  Nakiad leapt forward, but it was too late,
Fluctra was gone.  Only the black that had been around her fingers remained.
The dark ball of power paused for a fraction of a second, then blurred in the
air.  It leapt forward, straight at Serena.

Darian reacted without thinking, his sword leaping into his hand as he struck
the black energy.  The dark stuck to his sword, tearing at it, but the blade
flashed with a dark blue energy, and black power flickered and disappeared.
Breathing heavily at the sudden action, Darian stared for several seconds at
his blade, then sheathed it.  He turned to Serena to see if she was all right,
but the princess was already next to Amy.

Nakiad leapt up and severed the rope holding the blue scout with a strike of
his hand, dropping Amy into Sailor Moon's arms.

"Amy?"  Serena asked. "Can you hear me?"

Nakiad came over, his face serious, and placed a hand over the blue scout's
forehead.  For a moment, he concentrated, then his eyes relaxed slightly.
"She'll be all right," he said confidently. "I think they were using an energy
field to keep her under, and it is taking a little time to fade."

As if hearing him, the blue scout moved slightly, moaning.

Lita stepped forward. "Does she have her-?"

"No," Nakiad answered heavily. "Like yours, her powers have been taken."  He
looked at the group. "I do not know if we can win this one, not with the scouts
like this.  If this servant, Fluctra, could do what she just did, then her
leader-  Darian, can you carry Amy?"

"Sure."  The prince took the blue scout from Serena's hands. "Where are we
going?"

Darkness flashed out of Nakiad's eyes. "To the nearest control room-"  He
paused. "No.  The med room is closer."  The Chosen's voice dropped. "And
something I might need is there."

Puzzled, Darian followed him.



Mina sighed, fumbling with the catches of her suit in the middle of the
corridor.  The thing was completely useless now, with no power, it was just
extra dead weight. "Hey, guys, hold up a minute!" she yelled.

The others paused.

Raye smiled. "Good idea."  The other two scouts in the suits worked to get them
off, and in several moments, the exoskeletons were just bundles of clothing 
in the corridor.

Mina sighed, stretching slightly in the jumpsuit that had been under the
exoskeleton.  The freedom felt good despite the lack of strength.  On her
chest, she felt the Dailous crystal warm her slightly, as if responding to her
slight relaxation, but then she glanced back at Amy.

The warmth left her. "Amy, can you hear me?"

The blue scout mumbled something, her eyes closed.

"She cannot," Nakiad answered blandly.  "Come on."

Mina suddenly recognized the corridor they were in.  They were at the med lab,
where Nakiad had lain for what to her heart had been years.  The doors slid
silently open.



"Here, Darian, just put her down," Nakiad said quietly. "We can not help her
much without the computer, but if I am right, she should come to on her own."

He turned to a wall and passed a hand over it.  A control panel slid out, and a
blank screen lit up.  The Chosen started typing quickly.

Darian put the blue scout gently on the bed, and she was surrounded instantly
by the other scouts and the two cats.  The prince turned slowly back to Nakiad,
watching carefully.

"What are you doing?" Darian asked.

The Chosen did not turn. "Trying to get the computer to respond.  Computer."

There was a brief burst of static. "Yes?"  The answer was distorted slightly,
but it was audible.

Nakiad sighed with visible relief. "Computer, scan the compound."

The machine paused. "Unable to carry out instruction.  All exterior commands
nonfunctional."

The Chosen blinked. "Explain."

"This facility was infiltrated by an unknown virus.  Specific memory
destruction occurred simultaneously with the attack.  Outer control damage, all
exterior commands nonfunctional."

"I was afraid of that," Nakiad said harshly, then turned to the panel.
"Computer, this is Nakiad, code word 'cessation'.  Activate self destruct
system."

Darian heard the scouts turn to Nakiad in astonishment.

The static behind the voice increased. "User recognized, code word accepted.
Unable to carry out instruction-"  The static suddenly got a lot worse,
blurring out the voice, then everything was silent.  And a pleasant male voice
echoed out of the loudspeakers.

"Give it up, Nakiad.  If you want me destroyed, you are going to have to face
me yourself."

Darian flinched at the hatred in the voice.  But at the same time, the words 
were beautiful, with no harshness or raspiness, just an ordinary, pleasant 
male voice.  Then it was gone.

"He is right," Amy said.

Everyone turned to her.  The blue scout was sitting up, her eyes clear and
perfectly awake.

"He is right," she repeated. "We have to face him.  I know everything he has
done, and he planned it all.  From Nakiad's change to this very instant, he had
every possible course of action you could take planned out to the end."

"Are you all right?" Nakiad asked.  She nodded. 

He shook his head slowly, pain flickering in his eyes as his body lowered.  For
long moments, he stared at the others, then he turned away. "I have no choice,"
he said, his voice heavy with age.  With slow, decisive motions, he walked to
the corner of the room and bent down. "I can not get at the light power inside
me, not without unbalancing reality completely.  The only powers that I can use
safely are my own and-"

The Chosen straightened, and Darian swallowed.

Nakiad held the gauntlets in his hands.

The same gauntlets that had turned him dark once, and had kept him that way
only days before.  Weapons carved in the Negaverse by someone who wanted the
Chosen to use hatred for power.  "Wait-" The prince started.

Nakiad turned to him, raising the gloves. "These have been the symbol of hatred
and death since the Silver Millennium.  They have caused darkness and despair,
they have taken the lives of-  Of too many."  His eyes lowered, but his voice
was suddenly strong. "It is time that they paid some of that back."

He put them on.

The metal melted over his fingers, the facets of the seemingly sold surface
moving easily with the Chosen's hands.  And though Darian watched carefully, no
shadow fell over Nakiad, hatred did not pass over the Chosen's face.  There was
only a slight tightening around the eyes, the only evidence of more pain to a
life that had lasted for eons.

The Chosen flexed his hands, a deadly obstacle, like a lethal rock.

"I am ready," Nakiad said softly.

There was nothing more to say.

Because the Chosen's voice had not changed, Darian started to hope, and on his
hip, the ancient sword almost seemed to glow.

_	_	_


Nine figures walked through the dark.

A man in a black gi and metal-clad hands walked in front, his head raised up
with strength.  Though his eyes burned with old pain, he was ready to fight.

Behind him were two people, opposites in a way.  A prince in full armor, and a
girl in a sailor scout outfit.  They, too, had tight faces, and they, too, were
ready.  To either side of them, smaller shapes made their way through
blackness, two cats that only emphasized the difference between white and
black.

Behind them walked four humans, three in overalls and one in a white gi, the
four who had once been Sailor Scouts.  Though they had no powers, and although
one of them was still weak, they were willing to give their lives for the
Universe.

All of them were.



Light tore through the darkness.

Lita pulled one hand up over her face, the light searing her eyes.  It was only
normal brightness, but in this room, it was not right.  It was Nakiad's room,
full of things destroyed and gone.  Darkness reigned over the past and the
future, it belonged here, it belonged where Nakiad lived.

The green scout pulled her hand down, slowly, and she gasped.

The room was incredible.  All the surfaces were pure white, not black as she
had expected.  The chamber extended to either side for what must have been
dozens of meters.  Some twenty or thirty meters above her head, the ceiling
arched and closed over the scouts' heads.  The inner wall, opposite to the
entrance they had gone through, was curved as if they were on the outside of
some huge sphere.  Lita's mind took a second to realize that the inner sphere
was the outside shield around the nuclear reactor Amy had spoken of.

To one side was a low bed, a few chairs, a sink, and a few closed cases with
drawers, a set of armchairs.  But extending from the furniture was a line of
transparent cases that stretched across the room, cases filled with old, used
weapons.  They were weapons that had once severely injured Nakiad, and Lita
swallowed at the length of the line of displays.

To one side was a cleared off space with a mat on it, probably for combat or
practice, and there were other things in the room which Lita could not identify
immediately.  Three empty cases where Nakiad's weapons had been, a transparent
case with a cloak.  Things hung from the ceiling, ropes and girders and beams
arranged in an intricate pattern over the group's heads.

The green scout saw everything in a single instant, she did not have the time
to examine everything in the room.  After that moment, she no longer had eyes
for the room or for the things in it.

After that first instant, she saw only him.

Their enemy.

He had chosen his position well on a throne of sorts directly in front of the
scouts.  Behind him, the curving wall emphasized his presence, his central
importance.  But he did not need the enhancement.

He was handsome, Lita thought, stunned.  His face was a model of symmetry, his
eyes perfectly clear and blue, his nose the exact right length, his lip just
barely curved at the sides with the suggestions of a smile.  Jet black hair
spread over his features, cut just above his shoulders.  He was wearing a
white silken robe, and the pure material extended over his head in an almost
translucent hood, cascading down him.  

But it was not just his face, not just the physical aspect that stunned Lita.
Light seemed to stream from him, a light that covered all of him, made him
perfect to look upon.  The green scout swallowed, unable to look away.

He smiled, and her heart leapt at the smile.  A part of her mind screamed at
her to snap out of it, told her that this was her enemy, but she could not
move, did not want to move.  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her friends
similarly stunned, and that comforted her, allowed her to remain unmoving.

"Welcome," he said slowly, and Lita thrilled at the perfection of his voice.

"Very pretty," Nakiad said.  The green scout almost screamed as the sound of
the Chosen's voice cut against her ears.  He sounded rough, rasping compared to
the previous baritone. "Not very useful, however."

And the Chosen's voice forced her to snap out of her trance.  She blinked, and
realized that Fluctra was standing next to the enemy.  Around Lita, the other
scouts were similarly confused.  Then the green scout looked back at the enemy,
and forced herself to look aside, for his perfection remained, his blue eyes
seemed to cut through her.  Tearing herself away, she saw that all of the other
girls were similarly affected, even Darian looked slightly stunned.  Only
Nakiad and the two guardians seemed to be immune.

"Welcome," the enemy said again, and Lita felt herself responding again to his
voice.  "I am Eurtholl."  He said it without arrogance or humility.  It was a
fact, said exactly the way the green scout would have wanted him to say it.

The name echoed through the head of the green scout, reverberating musically.

"I am afraid," he continued, his voice genuinely apologetic, "that I have to
restrain you.  This is temporary, of course, and you may be assured that no
harm will come to you."

A swirl of dark light appeared around Lita's hands and feet, and chains
materialized, attaching her to the floor.  She blinked, realizing that she
should be doing something, but somehow, she lacked the will to do it.  Mere
iron around her arms and legs seemed unimportant compared to the sound of
Eurtholl's voice, the view of his face.

"Do not bother to struggle," he continued peacefully, "I assure you that these
chains are, in fact, real.  In normal form, you will not be able to destroy
them, even if you were so inclined."

Lita swallowed, wondering what he meant by that.  Her thoughts flowed slowly
through the fog around her mind, but she did not feel at all changed, she felt
good.  Slowly, the thought came that Serena could break a chain easily.  The
green scout turned to her friend, but the princess did not seem to have any
wish to try to break loose.  Lita could not exactly blame her.

Then the green scout saw Darian flinch and the prince seemed to shake something
loose from his head.  He opened his eyes, and looked like he saw the chains for
the first time. "No!" Darian screamed, and his sword leapt into his hand.  The
blade arced through the air toward the chains that held Serena.

A blackness appeared around Darian, and for a moment, the spell that held Lita
flickered. Then the dark energy tightened over the prince, holding him still,
and the fog returned to Lita's mind.

"You have such a nicely crafted sword," Eurtholl continued in that beautiful
voice. "It would be a shame if I had to kill you with it."  Similar energy
closed about the two cats, holding them from moving.  Only Nakiad was left
unencumbered.

The prince made motions like he was speaking, but there was no sound.  Lita
turned back to Eurtholl, yet the blue eyes ignored her, they were focused on
Nakiad.

"Funny," the deep, clean voice continued, "I thought you'd at least bring some
weapons to fight me.  I saw some real good ones out in that weapons hallway of
yours, some real clean ones.  And some very, very nasty ones.  Tell me, Chosen,
have you told the scouts of your little bioweapon storage?"

"I have," Nakiad replied, and his voice cut across Lita's hearing once more,
dispersing the fog slightly.

"Good," Eurtholl's baritone soothed her mind, restored the cloud of comfort and
security.  "It is good that you did not bring weapons, for you know they would
not have had any power over me."  His voice was not stressed or hard as he
spoke.  He knew of his power and he was calm in it. "I hold the power of the
Chosen in my hand-" For the first time, Lita saw the staff in his hands, half
hidden by the robe.  There was a rainbow of colors over the strange surface,
and the weapon only added to Eurtholl's perfection.  The enemy was continuing,
"-and the power of the Dark Lord in my mind."

Nakiad shook his head sadly. "You hold a stick of wood in your hand, an ancient
talisman that only means something to me-"  Lita relaxed slightly at the fog,
and the Chosen's harsh voice cut less across her consciousness, the hard words
did not matter as much.  "-and to the ones chosen to be Sailor Scouts.  It can
not help you, it will not make you strong.  And the power in your mind is
hatred, darkness.  So much of it that even the ones who created it could not
control it.  You do not stand a chance.  Even now, as you show off your power,
it is slipping from your grasp, taking over."

"Silence!" Eurtholl cried, and the clouds of peaceful fog wavered.  Then the
enemy's voice softened, and the relaxation returned. "It is you who has lost
your powers, old fool."  He said it peacefully, almost as if it were a
compliment. "You were the last, you had the powers of both dark and light, and
yet you did nothing. Your time has ended, the time of the Chosen and the Dark
Lord has come and gone.  You can not reach the light energy in you, I have seen
that.  You are no threat.  Soon you will be dead, and I alone will rule the
world.  I will have all the power, yes, soon."

And Lita relaxed under the spell of the words, loosened.  The blue eyes scanned
the room silently, looking at each of the scouts in turn.

And a hushed female voice chopped into the silence.  "What about me?"

Surprised, Lita turned to Fluctra.  The green scout blinked, memories of the
prison slowly coming back, but she felt no need to move.  Lita looked back at
Eurtholl.

The fog around her mind paused as if confused.

Eurtholl was as perfect as ever, but his eyes had suddenly grown cold like ice.
His face twisted slightly.  "You dare interrupt me?"  The spell took another
step back at the slight warping of his voice.

Fluctra looked back at him defiantly. "You have killed all of your other
servants, will you now kill me too?  I have served you _well_."

Memories flashed through Lita's mind.  

The dead soldiers, lying in a giant slaughter, a floor filled with blood.  

The grenoks, burning silently under the rays of the neutron guns.  

The fog paused in front of the memories, receded slightly, fell back.  But Lita
still did not want to move, she could not.  The spell was too powerful.

Eurtholl looked down on his servant, and his eyes hardened even more. "The
Sailor Scouts are still alive, and you call that well?"

The fake scout looked at him defiantly, and the fog receded another notch. "The
Sailor Scouts died when you took the powers of these girls," Fluctra replied.
"And you wanted me to bring them back to you alive.  I have done everything as
you commanded, everything as you told me."

Eurtholl's eyes filled with darkness. "You dare to defy your master, and that
deserves nothing less than death."  Dark energy around the staff spread into
the air like black fog, and the dark veil cut through the soup around Lita's
mind.  Still, the green scout could not move, did not want to move.

Fluctra watched the black power float toward her, and she cringed for a moment.
Then the fake scout swallowed and concentrated.  Around her, the air pulsed
slightly, and her gi changed, morphed into the uniform of a Sailor Scout.  In
front of the green scout's eyes, Fluctra changed into Amy, into the Amy she had
been for a brief time before.

As the darkness closed over her, Fluctra looked straight at Lita.

Lita shivered, and the fog around her suddenly dissipated into the air, left
her free.  Lita remembered Fluctra's behavior in the cell, the fake scout's
speech to Williams.  Lita remembered the fake's vanishing into the darkness,
asking for forgiveness.

And Lita remembered the countless dead under the fortress in New York, the
countless who were now forgotten, never buried, never given any honor.

With a burst, the fog was gone, and Lita could move once more.  "No!" She
yelled, slamming forward against her chains.

The metal held, but as Fluctra disappeared under the black power, Lita saw the
expression on the fake scout's face.  Fluctra died as silently as the grenoks
killed by the neutron beams of Nakiad and Raye.  

But as she died, Fluctra smiled.

Eurtholl turned instantly to Lita, and his eyes softened, the warmth returning
around the green scout.  But Lita fought back, refused to let it settle over
her mind.  "No!  No, you will not.  Sailor Scouts, listen to me, wake up!
Remember the castle, the slaughter, they were all dead, and he did it!  He did
it!"

Raye blinked rapidly and looked back at Lita, the red scout suddenly free of
the spell.  Next to her, Mina was shocked out of her sleep, then Serena moved.
Amy flinched last of all, probably still weak from the drug they had used to
keep her under.

Raye turned to Eurtholl. "You have failed.  We are the Sailor Scouts, we will
not stand-"

"Raye." Nakiad suddenly cut her off.  He sighed darkly, and looked back at the
white enemy. "She is right, Eurtholl, whoever you may be, you have failed.  Not
even you can control every move of a human, not even you can suppress a
person's will completely.  Now enough with the soliloquies.  Why have you
brought us here?"

Eurtholl smiled. "I fear you will have to endure another monologue for that.
And Sailor Moon, do not bother to try to cut through your chains or those of
your friends.  They were designed to withstand even your power- at least long
enough for me to take notice."

Serena glared briefly at their enemy, then she sighed and turned to Darian.
The prince, still bound with the dark energy, managed a slight nod of
reassurance.

Lita turned to Eurtholl, realizing that it was better to wait and listen.



Eurtholl smiled slowly. "Actually, Nakiad, I am surprised.  I thought you would
have figured out who I am some time back."  His voice was calm, and Nakiad
wondered what the other meant by the phrase.  

"But, since you have not, I might as well tell you."  Eurtholl's eyes flashed
theatrically. "I was born a very, very long time ago, during one of the
glorious ages of the Negaverse,  during one of the times when the 
Chosen failed to stop the Shadow.  That is why I know that you are not 
perfect, that no fighter is perfect.  I grew up during that time, and I lived 
during that time, but then a new Chosen rose, one who was able to 
drive us back to the Negaverse."  Eurtholl shrugged. "Pain teaches
many things, and I have learned much.  It is far better to lay low and to wait.
I survived for millennia, hiding out, building my strength and my knowledge.
Only once I broke my own law of unimportance, only a few thousand years ago.
During the end of the Silver Millennium, I became one of the ruling council,
thinking I was powerful enough."  A flicker of pain washed over the ice-cold
blue eyes. "I paid the price for that arrogance, but I survived.  And I have
been waiting for a chance to rise again."

"Now," Nakiad finished for him, "you think that chance has come."

"Indeed," Eurtholl answered.

"You are a fool," Nakiad said calmly, watching the enemy's eyes narrow. "If you
had wanted to rule the Universe, you should have killed us once you had the
chance.  Why have you brought us here?"

Slowly, once more, Eurtholl smiled. "You lack vision, Chosen.  The reason I
brought you here should be obvious.  At least one of the reasons should be.  I
lack only one great power I want now, the power of the Moon Princess.  With the
Imperium Silver Crystal, I will have control over that power as well."

Serena turned in her bounds, jerking her chains. "I will never give you the
crystal.  And even if I did, it could not help you.  It will only give power to
those still alive, and you are as good as dead!"

Nakiad smiled to himself. "I could not have said it better myself."

But Eurtholl was not paying any attention to Nakiad, the enemy was focusing on
the princess. "Yes, princess, I know all about your power, and I need you alive
so that you can keep generating it.  You would never willingly do that, would
you?  But once you watch your friends die, once you see everything you 
love die and see that you are unable to stop me-  You will never have 
the power to resist me."

"My friends!"  Serena yelled. "No!  You will not touch them!"  Light formed
over her figures, a light that streamed around her crystal and spread to her
eyes. "You will die first!"

Eurtholl sighed with seeming annoyance. "Tut," he said simply.

A blast of black energy slammed into Serena, carried her backwards until the
chains around her arms and legs pulled tight.  The princess crumpled into a
heap on the floor, the dark power glowing around her chest.  Her eyes were open
and her chest rose and fell, showing that she was alive.  But the darkness
gathered around her mind, sapped her strength.  She would not be able to
move.

Nakiad turned back to Eurtholl, ignoring the other scouts' yells of anguish,
ignoring Darian's and the cats' struggles.

"Why have you brought me here?" Nakiad asked, shifting his balance slightly.
His bones still ached from the landing.

Eurtholl leaned forward slightly. "Well, you see, you are a special case.  I am
afraid you I want for a sort of revenge."  The enemy sighed with faked sadness.
"Typical of evil people everywhere, but still, it is a living."

For several moments, the Chosen thought, then he shook his head. "Revenge for
what?"

Eurtholl's eyes flashed. "Have you never heard of taking pride in your work?
If you had known the amount of work that was put into-  But you did not know.
Four times I failed, four.  Now I will try once again.  If I fail, then you
might as well die.  But I deserve this final chance."

Nakiad's mind whirled. "Four times?" he whispered. What was Eurtholl talking
about?  The enemy had tried to corrupt him only twice. Once at the very
beginning, by turning him to darkness.  Then again in his mind, by splitting,
or seeming to split his personality.  But that had been all.

There had been only two times.

Two-

His mind froze.

Slowly, he raised his steel-covered hands to his face and gaped at the
gauntlets. 

The room vanished under a haze of sudden anger and pain.

The gauntlets.

Four times.

He felt his chest deflate, his heart beating harshly.

"You," he whispered, his voice hoarse.

Eurtholl was saying something, but Nakiad did not hear, could not hear.  His
mind, all of his thoughts were focused on the gauntlets, on his discovery of
them, in the middle of the desert.  Placed there, on purpose, now Nakiad
knew.

Thousands had died because of him, because of the gauntlets.

For centuries, Nakiad had lived with that pain.  Slowly, his eyes rose to meet
Eurtholl's.

"..and you rejected it."  Eurtholl's voice was harsh, piercing. "But that I
could understand, you were a fool then.  Imagine my surprise when millennia
later, I felt you put the gauntlets on again.  I had left them on Earth just in
case of such an event, but I had never truly expected-  I was elated as you may
imagine.  Finally, one of the objects I had made fought against one of the
greatest warriors of all time, and you could not resist.  I felt the darkness
take you, and I knew you could not fight back."

Eurtholl's eyes flashed. "But then Guardian came and messed everything up."  He
sighed.  "And though I had two more chances, they failed as well.  But now, you
come to me, you come to _fight_ me, with the weapons I had made so many
centuries ago.  It was an astonishment to say the least."

Nakiad shook his head, his mind numb. "No," he replied vehemently, "no, it was
not surprising.  You left me no other choice, you manipulated me until I _had_
no other choice.  No wonder Fluctra's attack was so close to that med chamber,
no wonder-  No wonder about anything."  

He was no longer aware of what he was saying, he no longer knew anything but
the burning, piercing anger inside of him.  The gauntlets had take everything
from him, his honor, his purpose, his soul.

Red flames ignited inside him, and they touched something deep inside.

It was the positive energy, the white fire of the Chosen that he had pushed as
far down as he could.  If that were unleashed, then the very survival of the
Universe might be placed in jeopardy, for he could not control the power.
There were too many personalities inside him, too many minds, too much time.
He did not have the control.

The red fire darkened his mind, the anger dimmed his thoughts, and the white
energy inside boiled at the sudden emotions.  Something snapped.

And everything came into sudden focus.

If he did nothing, then the Universe would be destroyed anyway.

He had no choice.

White fire burned through his body and focused in his chest, and he felt
himself channeled into that pure sphere of energy.  In an instant of clarity,
he felt the physical connections to his body shatter.

Nakiad collapsed to the ground, the black form lying emotionlessly on the
ground.  Where the Chosen had stood was a sphere of white energy as bright as
the sun.

It was not the first time Nakiad had done this, but this was very different
from what he had done before.  He had been fighting the Dark Lord then, and he
had chosen the form to avoid fighting, to find another solution.

Now, he transformed because he wanted to fight.

But the two instances were the same in one way.  Both times, Nakiad had been
left without other options, and both times, the transformation was a weapon of
last resort.  There was no way back.

He would have swallowed hard if he were still human.  Instead, the bright
energy that was his body dimmed for a moment, then brightened again.

And the sphere of light blurred through the air at Eurtholl.



Nakiad should have known better.

He had very little control over the light powers of the Chosen.  Without the
staff, he could not focus the incredible energy, and the people inside him
clouded his mindset, sapped at his resolve.  The very anger that had prompted
the attack made it futile.

And Eurtholl had the full might of the Dark Lord on his side, focused and
perfected by the staff of the Chosen and the Shadow's sword and the scouts'
powers.

Nakiad should have known better than to attack the way he did.

Anger can cloud even the oldest mind.

In the end, that fact was the only hope the Universe had.



A wall of dark fire surrounded him in a whirlwind of darkness, hurling him
backward.  He tried to fight, but the balance of power was too great against
him.  Through a haze of energy, he saw Eurtholl laughing.

Then something hit him, and Nakiad felt the world fade into darkness for a
moment.  He opened his eyes.

His eyes.  

He was back in his body, lying on the ground, exhausted.  The white energy
inside him was a dark, tired gray.  He could not even feel it, there was no way
he could reach it again.  That was the problem with last resort techniques.

If they failed, there was nothing else to fall back to.

Then he felt his own emotions flash, but the anger did not fill him with fire
as it had before.  Instead, it morphed, changed and flowed through him, and he
felt his muscles tense slowly, one by one, and his mind hardened.  He was the
Chosen, all of the Chosen.  He was the Dark Lord.  He might not survive.

But he would never give in.

The metal of the gauntlets ignited with red fire.

"By your own weapons shall you die," Nakiad said, and leapt straight forward at
Eurtholl.

The enemy just laughed again and a black field of power surrounded Nakiad,
holding him in the air.  Eurtholl sighed. "Cute, but hardly useful."

The Chosen's eyes widened as a whirl of energy lanced out from the staff toward
his body.  He tried to move aside, but the black power holding him did not
yield, did not let him flinch away.  At the last moment, he closed his eyes and
forced his thoughts into the ground, though he was hanging in midair.  As the
blasts struck, he felt himself relax a little, loosening and rolling with the
blows.

There were five blasts in that whirl of energy.  His right arm screamed with
pain and went numb almost instantly.  A whip of electricity struck his left
arm, shocking the nerves in it into submission.  Fire wrapped around his right
leg, searing his skin through the fabric of the gi.  And a lance of pure light
slammed into his left shin.

The bone there was brittle, overstrained by the landing, it did not withstand
the impact.  He felt it shatter just as his mind finally realized that Eurtholl
was using the scouts' powers.

A fraction of a second later, the middle blast hit his chest, a ball of dark
energy that wrapped around his heart.  Abruptly, all the warmth was gone from
his chest, his heart freezing in midbeat.  A wave of darkness washed over his
brain, the pain combining with the lack of blood to blast through his defenses.
He tried to force his eyes open as he slammed into the floor, but he could not
even get himself to roll.  Things around him blurred and he felt the control
over his body scream and fall silent.

Everything in his mind turned into haze.



"No!" Mina yelled, jerking against the chains, watching with horror as the
blasts hit Nakiad.  Tears lashed out of her eyes as she pulled against the
unyielding metal.  The pain in her heart was more than Nakiad getting hurt.  He
had been hurt by her powers, the scouts' powers.

And they were still her attacks, though they had been taken away.  She had no
control over them and had no way to get them back, but they were her powers and
she could not watch them being used against the one she loved.  Her mind
flashed with the memory of the time when she had attacked Nakiad with her beam,
and the horror of that only cut further into her heart.

The orange scout looked at Eurtholl with hate-filled eyes.  Her friends, around
her, were imprisoned, stripped of her powers.  Serena was on the floor,
paralyzed, unconscious.  Darian, struggling against his black bonds, could do
nothing.  Even Artemis could only look in horror.

Nakiad slammed into the floor, hit hard and did not tuck himself into a roll as
he always had done before.  His arm was covered with ice up to the shoulder,
but it was his leg that captured Mina's eyes in an unbreakable grip.  It was
twisted at an impossible angle. It had been broken with her power, her beam.

"No!" Mina yelled, tears coming freely out of her eyes.   Somewhere deep inside
her heart, the pain she felt touched something, a source of strength she did
not have.  "No, you will not!"

Without thinking, not realizing what she was doing, Mina pointed one of her
hands forward. "Smash!" She yelled out through her blurred mind.

"SMASH!!!"

The voice echoed through the giant chamber, freezing everything and everyone.

And a beam of weak light flickered out from her index finger at Eurtholl.

Mina collapsed to her knees, crying weakly, staring with astonishment at her
own hand.  The attack had been feeble, almost invisible, but it had been
there.

It had been there.

She blinked her tears away, forcing her eyes open, looking at Eurtholl.  The
enemy was gaping, his hands tight on his staff, his beautiful face twisted by
surprise.

Mina felt her heart thud once, then again, clearly in the midst of the pure
silence.

Then the crystal around her neck ignited into a star.

In a fraction of a second, the stone turned into a firestorm of energy that
lashed around the room, burning into everyone's eyes.  Eurtholl threw both arms
in front of his eyes, protecting them from the white light.  From the crystal,
radiant, pure warmth came into Mina's heart and into her mind, burning her
tears away.

Millennia ago, someone had managed to trap the soul of humanity in a crystal,
and that person had named the stones the Dailous crystals.

The crystals of hope.

Mina felt her feet surge under her, and she was on them, the chains light
against her skin.  She did not hesitate, feeling the pure power within her.

Her voice rang clearly in the chamber once more.  "Venus Power." She said the
command, calmly, confidently, feeling her eyes burning with strength.

The staff in Eurtholl's hands ignited with a brilliant orange flame, a fire
that lit up the room in stark shadows.  As the enemy gaped, the orange light
leapt away from the weapon, up into the air.

"No!" He yelled, desperately, and a black energy rose from his body, wrapped
around the orange fire.  But the flames danced through the darkness and flew
straight.

The clean color slammed into Mina.

She gasped at the pure infusion of energy, reveled in the energy that rushed
through her body.  She had feared that she would never see such strength again,
but those doubts were gone.  All her doubts were gone.  Mina opened her eyes,
staring straight at Eurtholl, and the chains around her arms and legs shattered
into shards of iron.

"I am Sailor Venus," she cried out.

A flicker of fear passed through Eurtholl's eyes.



Through a black haze of pain, Nakiad felt something strange around him.  He was
half unconscious, his mind black, his body still on the floor.  But through the
darkness around him, he felt something around his chest.

Suddenly, a sharp ray of warmth penetrated the ice cold knot around his heart,
and he felt the darkness start to give way.  With his last wisps of will, he
send his thoughts down to that sliver of light.

And slowly, his heart unfroze.  It beat once, the sound clearly audible to his
ears, and he felt the red of blood suddenly flood his mind.  A twitch of
control came back to his body, and he felt his eyes flicker open.

"Venus Power!" 

The phrase echoed in his mind, penetrating slowly through the darkness and the
pain.  It was Mina.  It was impossible, her powers were gone.  The gesture was
a brave one, but futile.

But somehow, through the darkness and the agony, the hope in his heart
remained, and he forced himself to focus his eyes.

Before his incredulous eyes, orange fire descended on Mina's body, covered her
and transformed her.  Her sailor uniform shone with a new light as she stared
down Eurtholl and proclaimed her identity.

Nakiad sighed softly in his mind, amazed despite himself.  It had worked, he
thought.  It could not have, but it had.  

Through the ringing of pain in his ears, he heard the other scouts cry for
their powers, and he felt their strength return.  A single thought echoed
through his mind.

If they could fight, if they could get their powers back even when everything
had seemed hopeless, then he was not giving up either.

He had tried to use the light power inside him and the power of the gauntlets.
There was nothing else.

But he was the Chosen.  He forced that fact through his mind.  He was not
giving up.

With a surge of will unknown to most humans, he focused himself, sent the pain
to a corner of his mind.  Fearing the worst, he scanned his own body for
damage.

His left leg was broken, he knew instantly, but the break had been a clean one,
the bones had not cut through his skin.  His right leg, through slightly
burned, was functional.  His left arm was shocked into partial control, but he
could repair that to an extent.  His right arm, however- he forced his eyes to
look at it.  It was encased in a bluish sheath of ice, covered from the
fingertips almost to the shoulder.  He tried to move it and it screamed in
pain.  He breathed the pain out into the ground, forcing his mind down, into
focus.  If he could still feel the pain from the arm, then it was all right.

With a part of his mind, he realized the scouts were back, and Eurtholl was
talking to them, but he was too focused to listen.  Grimacing in pain, he
brought his right arm up, then smashed it as hard as he could against the white
floor.

The ice shattered and a thousand needles pierced his skin with fire, but he
forced the pain away, sitting up, slowly getting control of both arms.
Concentrating, he brought them up to his face and stared at the gauntlets.  For
a moment, he wanted to take them off, then he shook his head.  He had been
right back in the med room.  They had done enough damage, it was time that they
paid for some of the darkness they had caused.  That they would do so against
the one who had made them made the revenge that much more satisfying.

Without flinching, he grabbed his leg and twisted it back into position,
snapping the bone into place, ignoring the pain.  He closed his eyes, forcing
the knitting process to begin, just a little, enough to get the bone to stay
put for a second.  Then he brought both gauntlets down on the point of the
break and concentrated.

The metal surged with power, and the air around it turned freezing, settling
moisture on the gloves.  Nakiad grimaced as the bone froze solid, packed by
dense ice.  Pain tore through him as the muscle in the immediate vicinity froze
as well.  But the pain did not seem to matter as much, the edge of it was gone.
He flexed the leg slightly.  He had done his best to focus the freezing around
the bone, so he could retain some control over the leg.  That had caused the
need for concentration, not the actual freezing process.

Swallowing, he took note of his surroundings for the first time.  Only moments
had passed since the scouts had transformed, and the scouts were standing in
front of Eurtholl, free but not attacking.  Amy was saying something that came
through garbled through the pain in his ears.  The black energy that had been
in his chest had disappeared with the strange warm light, but it had left its
mark.

Slowly, he staggered to his feet.  His left leg was not nearly perfect, but it
would serve him long enough.  With sadness, Nakiad realized he did not really
expect to survive the encounter, not even with the four scouts.  Serena was
still in her trance, and Darian was still imprisoned.

Eurtholl had both the staff and the sword, joined into one, the greatest weapon
of all time.  And he had the power of the Dark Lord.

And Nakiad had wasted the opposite power in a futile attack.

The scouts did not stand a chance.

Nakiad wiped that thought away.

Eurtholl laughed, and Nakiad could suddenly hear again. 

"I would have thought you'd have learned some humility during your stay here,
Sailor Mercury.  But I suppose that is what I can expect from a sailor brat.
You see, my dear, though you are correct in that I no longer have your powers,
you four are no match for the power of the Dark Lord.  Only the Chosen ever
were, and I am afraid Nakiad can not use that energy any more.  And I have the
greatest weapon in the Universe or the Negaverse.  No, you four can not stand
against me."  The enemy's voice was calm and clear again, the baritone relaxed.
Only the blue eyes gave away the hatred inside, for they were cold like ice.

Nakiad stepped forward, limping slightly. "Perhaps they alone can not, but they
have help," he said calmly.

"Indeed they do," an new voice spoke.

The scouts turned, surprised.

"Kaneth." Mina said, shocked.

The four armed warrior was alone, armed only with the sword and the two knives,
but he was transformed into his natural form, obviously ready for battle.

Eurtholl turned. "Chosen, I admit, you _are_ resilient.  I did not expect you
up so soon, not after that blast.  As for you, Kaneth, I am surprised at you.
Negaverse law prevents you from interfering with my attack on the Sailor
Scouts."

The warrior shook his head. "It did, but you have broken the law when you
turned on your own servants.  Though taking out ones anger on one's vassals has
been historically accepted, killing one who had carried out your orders
perfectly is not legal.  And so I have come to stop you, for you are mad though
you do not know it."

Eurtholl laughed. "If so, then were is your army?  Where are the soldiers you
must be so proud of?  Where?"

Kaneth turned to Nakiad. "I ask permission to fight by your side," he said
formally.

Slowly, the Chosen smiled. "You are always welcome," he said, just as
correctly, and he bowed.

Eurtholl spat in anger. "How sweet.  Then die, all of you, together."  His
hands raised the staff high about his head, and black energy rushed around his
arms and body.

"Attack!" Nakiad cried, and red fire leapt to his gauntlets.  The crimson
energy lashed out at Eurtholl, striking the black around the enemy.  A split
second later, other attacks joined Nakiad's, and more, until the very air
glared with light.

Eurtholl shrieked as the strikes slammed into him.  But the enemy did not fall
back, did not yield to the stream of energy coming from his six opponents.  Out
of the depths of the staff, he brought a whirlwind of black power to the air
and sent it to strike the scouts.

Nakiad did not flinch from the dark wave of energy that washed over him, but
the fire from his gauntlets flickered.  Eurtholl stood straight under the
attacks of the scouts, not moving back.  The Chosen gasped for air, focusing.

It was futile.  The power of the old strength of the Shadow was too strong for
the six of them.  Nakiad felt Kaneth weakening.  The four-armed warrior was
throwing a sort of fire from each of his arms, but that attack was weakening.
To one side, the four scouts were slowly being forced back.

They were losing.

Somewhere in Nakiad's mind, he felt an irrational grin.  The number of times
they had been doomed over the last year was ridiculous.  Somehow, they had
managed to survive, and even win, though the price had been great.  His
thoughts dulled with the pain of the Shadow's past, the burden of eons of
suffering.  Then he felt the grin return.

He had no regrets.

He felt his thoughts flicker with an idea.

They did not have the one person who was key to the Sailor Scouts, who was
holder of the power of the Universe.  They did not have Serena.  

Her return would not shift the balance of power.

But her return was a reachable goal, and Nakiad needed a reachable goal
badly.



To one side, Darian struggled against his bonds, his exertions futile against
the black energy.  He had no energy attacks, even the rose that Nakiad had
altered had been destroyed.  He could not get to his sword, he could not even
speak, he could only struggle and watch his friends pushed back.

Then a thought entered his mind.

The thought was not his, Darian had been exposed to enough telepathy to know
that.  He forced his eyes to move and saw Nakiad staring back at the prince.
Crimson fire ignited suddenly around Darian, and he felt the black restraints
move under the onslaught.

With a surge of strength, Darian blasted through the dark energy, freeing
himself into the midst of a shower of black power.  But the thought Nakiad had
given him made Darian turn aside of the conflict.  Nakiad had had an idea.

The prince bent over Serena.

The princess was still tied by the chains, and Darian felt anger flash through
him as his sword came down on the metal links, shattering through them easily.
He glanced at Eurtholl, but the enemy was too intent on his black energy to
notice the actions of the prince.

So Darian bent over Serena, and forced the thoughts of the conflict out of his
mind.

"Princess," he whispered, raising her head off the floor.

She moaned slightly, her eyes continuing to stare into space.

"Serena," he whispered, forcing his tone to be gentle. "Serena, it is me,
Darian.  Do you remember me?"

He swallowed hard at the tiny twitch of her head.  But it was a nod, she could
hear him at least.

He closed his eyes briefly, concentrating.  "Serena, you have to fight it.  You
have to break loose, we need you.  I know it is hard," he searched for the
words frantically, feeling the others slipping back. "I love you Serena," he
whispered.

Her head rocked from side to side slightly, a frozen expression of pain still
on her face, and he sighed.  Slowly, he forced himself to look behind him, at
Nakiad.

The Chosen was silent, his gauntlets clear of energy, his face calm.  And his
eyes stared into Serena.  A black wave of energy washed over Nakiad, but Darian
somehow knew that the Chosen saw nothing, felt nothing of what was happening
around him.  Nakiad was not there.

He was in Serena's mind.

Darian felt himself swallow harshly.  In his arm, Serena moved slightly, and
his heart sang as he turned back to her.

Her eyes were focused, calm as she looked at him. "And I love you," she said
easily, and he felt new energy start to burn inside her. "Help me," she
whispered, her eyes going through him to his soul.

He put one hand on her shoulder, and his touch alone seemed to give her
strength.  She rose to her feet like a feather and turned to face Eurtholl, her
face defiant.

"Eurtholl!" She yelled out.

The enemy turned to her, and gaped, seeing her on her feet.  His staff turned
in his hands as he prepared to blast her, but the attacks of the others slowed
him down, he did not have enough time.

"Moon." Serena whispered with her eyes wide open.

White fire suddenly blazed around the brooch on her chest, illuminating her and
burning through her.  Behind her, Darian swallowed hard, watching the brilliant
flames travel down to her hands.  She threw both palms outward at Eurtholl.

A pillar of white light focused in the air and lanced through the distance
between the princess and her enemy in a heartbeat.  At the last moment,
Eurtholl threw his staff up defiantly against the storm.

The wild fire slammed into the black shield around him, throwing him back.  He
screamed as he slammed against the curving wall behind him, the white power
tearing at his defenses, then the metal under his back stretched and tore.

Darian's eyes widened as he watched Eurtholl blasted all the way through the
wall.  The enemy disappeared in the hole, a ragged circle of destruction left
behind in the metal.  Lances of energy followed him inside, and the scouts
moved forward, toward the gap in the smooth surface.

On the other side was the control room to Nakiad's power plant, and inside
that, under layers of steel and energy, was a piece of burning sun.

Serena never stopped her energy attack as she stepped through the gap, the
others following instantly, refocusing their powers on Eurtholl.

He was standing with his back to the inner curved wall, the final barrier
between Nakiad's technology and elemental power.  But Eurtholl was no longer
being blasted back, he was not bending under the attack.  Despite the added
force of Serena's power, he was fighting back.

The price of the dark energy he summoned was etched on his face.  His perfect
features were twisted now, strained under the might of the joined Sailor Scouts
and Nakiad and Kaneth.  His eyes flashed a cold, dark blue as he twisted the
staff in his grip, squeezed energy out of the incredible weapon.

And he was holding his own.

Darian put his arms on Serena's shoulders, lending his own strength, and he
felt her relax slightly.  He felt two bodies next to his legs, the two cats
were looking up at him, freed by Eurtholl's new need for focus.  The guardians,
too, gave their strength, as the crescent moons on their forehead shone beams
of light on the princess.

One by one, the other scouts switched their focus, taking their attacks off the
Eurtholl and giving their strength to the princess.  Now eight were channeling
their power through Serena, giving her their strength, relying on her.

But Eurtholl did not give in to the three beams directed at him, he fought back
with an impossible, savage power that shattered the white energy like glass.
And Darian felt Serena's strength start to fade, he felt the tears in the
princess' eyes as if they were his own.

It was not enough.



It was not enough, Nakiad screamed in his mind, doing his best to focus.
Unlike the others, he was using his inborn powers, ones he could not share it
with Serena.  He could not give her the focusing power of the gauntlets, and he
could not help her spirit, not any more.  He felt the eons of time inside his
mind scream with the strain, but he could do nothing.

Next to him, Kaneth was also weakening.  The warrior was obviously alone, he
did not even carry the power of the Negaverse.  He had come to fight despite
the odds, and Nakiad felt the strength of the warrior's spirit.  But that would
not help now.

The Chosen felt Serena weaken, he felt the scouts start to give, slowly, just a
little.  Eurtholl's power seemed infinite, unlimited.  The twisted blue eyes
stared back at the Chosen.

The enemy felt his advantage, pressed it, and grinned.

"You can not kill me!" Eurtholl screamed. "I have the power of eons of time
inside me, the power of the Dark Lord.  If you destroy me, you destroy it as
well, and then all is doomed!"

Eurtholl was wrong, Nakiad knew.  Energy could not be created or destroyed,
only transformed.  The destruction of the enemy's body would only change the
nature of the dark powers.

But as long as Eurtholl had the staff and the dark power, he was impossible to
kill.  Nothing short of a nuclear explosion could penetrate the dark energy.

Nakiad breathed out softly, knowing what he had to do.  Eurtholl had overplayed
his cards, he should have killed them when he could.

Now they would all die together.

Nakiad did not fear death.

But it would be the end of his friends as well.  The end of his love.

The scouts and Kaneth would die anyway, when Eurtholl defeated them.  Serena
would become Eurtholl's slave, a fate worse than death by Nakiad's standards.
The scouts knew their the risks, they did not wish to die but they would do so
willingly.

The survival of a universe was more important than the lives of a small group
of warriors.  No matter how close they were to Nakiad.

He had learned that.  He had not known once, in the Silver Millennium, but he
knew now.  And although Mina would die as well, he would not hesitate.

He turned his focus, switched his target, and for a moment, the fire from his
gauntlets ceased as he moved them.  

A few meters to one side of Eurtholl, buried beneath a layer of hard metal was
a power conduit that was part of an energy loop.  The loop fed the power of the
reactor back onto itself, keeping it contained.  Although there were backup
loops, they could only take on the added power gradually, there would be a gap
of several milliseconds during which the feedback field would not be there.
During that time, there would be nothing to hold the sun back.

The results would be the same as that of a self destruct, only without a delay.
He thought for a moment, pausing.  If he was careful, he might be able to
arrange a lag of a few seconds by only partially destroying the energy loop.

Then he shook his head and his mind hardened.  It would not do them any good.
If they were going to die, they might as well die there and then.

As he felt the scouts' attacks start to buckle, the crimson fire appeared
around his gauntlets.  He focused on the target.

His mind shifted into clarity as he identified the precise piece of metal he
needed to pierce, and he narrowed his eyes, forcing the red flames into a
single pure beam.

Then his hands jerked as the clear voice of the computer rang through the
chamber.

"Self destruct system activated."



What?!

His mind froze in astonishment, and the crimson flames flickered and died with
the focus broken.  His thoughts restarted slowly, then moved into full speed as
he tried to figure out what was going on.

The others heard as well, the scouts' defenses flickering with surprise.  A
black energy wave overwhelmed Serena's flame for an instant and the dark fire
struck the scouts' formation.

"Two minutes to self destruct."  

The computer.

Red alarms washed through the room, and deafening klaxons came on, adding to
the chaos in the Chosen's mind.

Whoever was controlling the computer.

Nakiad struck out at Eurtholl wildly, the Chosen still shocked but reacting
now, and Eurtholl laughed with mad energy as he blocked Nakiad's attack.  The
enemy seemed unaware of anything around him but his opponents, and the darkness
flickered wildly around Eurtholl's frame.  

To one side, Nakiad saw Amy and Mina on the floor with Lita and Raye bending
over them.  Then Serena's blast came back, and Nakiad could relax slightly, but
only Darian and the princess and the two guardians were fueling the blast now.
And Eurtholl was breaking free of the three attacks, he was blasting dark
energy in every direction, slowly moving forward.  The enemy's face was
completely insane now, the black power lashing out almost at random.

"One minute and fifty seconds to self destruct."

The voice echoed, heard clearly even through the klaxons.

Nakiad's mind continued to race, but there was no way for anyone to get out of
the compound in the time.

He flinched as a flare of energy formed to one side, and he half turned toward
it, almost lashing out automatically.

The power stretched and formed into a ragged circle, hovering vertically in
midair.

It was a portal.

Nakiad stared at it for several moments, his mind still whirling.  It had to
have been generated by the computer.  Or by whoever was controlling the
computer.

For a brief instant, he wondered where it led, then realized it did not
matter.

"One minute and forty seconds-" The rest was lost in the noise as Eurtholl
forced himself forward, his staff in front of him.  Black fire lashed out at
Nakiad, burning him.

The Chosen focused all of his energy on the enemy, doing his best to hold the
other at bay.  Next to him, Kaneth seemed to also double the power, hope now
going through them both.  Nakiad yelled without turning. "Raye, Lita, get them
out of here!!"  The sound was almost lost behind the noise of the alarms and
the energy in the room.

He felt Raye's eyes on him though he could not turn, then he felt the agreement
and almost lost his focus in relief as four of the minds in the room
disappeared.  Two cats followed the four scouts, the guardians thrown by Darian
against their will.

"One minute and thirty seconds to self-"  The numbers raced through Nakiad's
mind.

There were only four against Eurtholl now, but the enemy did not seem to
notice.  Black, rippling energy poured out of him, into the staff, and it
seemed like there was nothing else to Eurtholl, just the black power right
under the skin.  It had eaten through him, into his mind and soul, and he was
gone, only his wish to destroy lived on.

And Nakiad knew how the enemy felt, for the Dark Lord had been like that too.
But for Eurtholl, there was no hope, not any more.  No mortal could withstand
the powers Eurtholl was trying to control. 

"Darian, Serena, go!"  Nakiad yelled.

Darian stepped forward, staggered toward Eurtholl through the dark storm of
energy. His sword glinted madly in the whirlpools of power.  "No!" he yelled.

And Serena echoed him with iron resolve.

"One minute and twe-"

But Darian was in front of the portal, and he never saw the blast of ebony
power that slammed into him, tossed him through the air.  His sword flashed
with blue power as it was torn from the prince's fingers, the blade skidding
across the floor and coming to rest against the wall.

Darian was blown through the portal, gone.

And Serena stopped, shocked out of sustaining the beam.  As the princess looked
back, it was too late.

In the space of a heartbeat, a black storm of power gathered around Eurtholl's
fingers, and the blast took Serena, tore at her.  She hit the floor hard, her
eyes closed.

"One minute to self destruct."  The computer's voice was clear, and Nakiad
wondered if time were slowing down, since hours seemed to have passed since the
beginning of the countdown.

He exchanged glance with Kaneth, and saw his own emotions reflected in the
warrior's eyes.  

Now, they would die.

A wall of liquid dark formed between them and the portal, blocking it off, and
Eurtholl turned slowly to the two defenders that were left.  Nakiad raised his
gauntlets and focused for a last, futile gesture.

Eurtholl raised the staff over his head.

"Fifty se-"

The room turned into light.



Nakiad gaped as the ark of computer banks and monitors behind them flared with
incredible, pure energy.  The white light cut through the red alarm sirens,
through the klaxons, it wiped away all the noise and sound of the room.  As
Nakiad watched, shocked into stillness, the incredible power focused itself
onto one point.

It slammed into Eurtholl a moment later, shattered into the enemy's chest,
tossing him backward.  And out of the wash of blinding light, Nakiad saw the
staff emerge, unheld by any hand.

A thousand Chosen do not hesitate.  He felt his body blur into motion, and as
the incredible light dimmed slightly, he saw his own metal-covered hand close
over the staff.

As his hands closed over the ancient, pure weapon, the blur of pain vanished
from his eyes and mind, he saw things clearly.  His leg imprinted on his mind,
a limb wrenched in pain, the bone just barely held by ice.  Outward was
Eurtholl, on the floor, energy dancing around him.  And still outward, the
lights and sirens darkened slightly.

And a memory of the scouts telling him of someone named Nive helping them.

Nive.

Unive.

Univac.

UNIVAC.

He felt his own eyes widening in shock.

There had never been anyone controlling the computer.

The world unfroze again, the klaxons shattering through his mind again, but he
ignored them.  His hand tightened on the staff.  "Computer!" He yelled.
"Transfer all files to satellite net."

The voice of the machine replied, a human voice.  "Forty seconds. Unable to
carry out instruction, all external functions disabled."

"No," he yelled to the air.  In front of Nakiad, Eurtholl was moving, slightly,
dark shadows dancing around the enemy's body.  Eurtholl  was still alive, and
he still had the power of the Dark Lord.  The vile energy had eaten through the
enemy's body, there was no way to separate the two now.

Eurtholl looked up wildly, his hands closing and opening on nothing. "You can
not defeat me, Chosen!"  The darkness flared in his eyes, and a blast of pure
black smashed into Nakiad, carried him back.  The Chosen hit the floor hard,
and felt the ice in his leg shatter, his ankle twist.

The room turned into light once more, and the energy slammed into Eurtholl
again.  But this time it was met with dark power, power impossible to turn, and
the enemy withstood the attack of the computer.

A gray hand grabbed Nakiad's shoulder.  "We have to go!" Kaneth yelled.  With
two arms, the warrior was holding Serena.

"Computer!" Nakiad yelled.

Five hundred years ago he had started the compound, four hundred years ago he
installed the computer.  He had made it adaptable, logical, more so than he
could have imagined.

And the answer came, in the computer's human voice.

"Go!"

"But-" Nakiad began, fighting against Kaneth's grip.

"Five."

Eurtholl suddenly turned around, seeming to realize for the first time what was
going on, and his attacks lessened.

"Four."

The barrier of darkness between Kaneth and Nakiad and Serena and the portal
weakened, thinned.

"Three."

Eurtholl shrieked in an inhuman voice as he saw Kaneth grab Nakiad and leap
into the darkness, and the black power inside the enemy flared impossibly.  The
blue eyes turned black as vile liquid power poured out of his mouth.

"Two."

The three warriors slammed through the barrier and collapsed to the other side,
Kaneth almost collapsing from the power of the black fire.

"One."

With a last surge of strength, Kaneth grabbed Nakiad around the waist, and the
Negaverse warrior jumped.

Eurtholl watched with horror as the three disappeared into the portal, carrying
the staff and the crystal.  And for a still, soundless moment, an expression of
sadness crossed the enemy's face.

Zero.



Two hydrogen atoms hit each other at impossible speed, hard enough to fuse
together into one helium atom.  In the process, a slight amount of mass is
lost, mass that is discharged as energy.

The relative speed of the collision is incredible, and the temperature needed
for a fusion reaction exists naturally only inside stars.  The only known
artificial way to generate the head required for fusion is through a fission
explosion.

A fusion reaction sustains itself as long as it is contained and controlled.

Nothing can contain a fusion reaction.

Nakiad cheated that rule by using the very energy generated to create the
containment.  The energy of the reaction was channeled back through a loop back
onto itself.

The self destruct system interrupted one part of the loop of energy.  The field
around the fusion reaction disappeared.

The burning sun inside the heart of the metal sphere was free.



Raye hit the ground hard, flexing her legs to absorb the shock.  But she was
still hurt by the last blast and disoriented from the trip through the portal.
Unable to balance Amy's weight, the red scout felt herself dropping to her
knees.  Raye lowered the blue scout to the ground, pausing to catch her breath
for a moment.

Then Raye shook off the dizziness and leapt up to her feet, turning.

Out of the portal, the two cats flew out, hitting the ground hard as well, but
they rolled instinctively in the feline fashion, coming up to their feet.
Turning toward them and toward the portal, Raye suddenly gasped.

They were on a hill, slightly above Nakiad's house, which was about half a mile
away.  Though the red scout could not see clearly because of the forest between
them and the structure, the roof of the house was visible.  The building seemed
as peaceful as ever, undisturbed by the forces half a kilometer below.  The
scouts had approached it less than an hour ago, and yet days seemed to have
gone by.  Raye turned, suddenly feeling motion behind her.

It was Amy.  The red scout sighed in relief, helping the blue headed girl get
to her feet.  The blue scout seemed somewhat scorched, but mostly all right.

"Guys," Lita said, "could you help me over here?"

The green scout looked worried as she bent over Mina.  

Amy reacted instantly, reaching out into the air and grabbing her computer out
of its dimension, then turning the device on the orange scout.  For a few
moments, the blue scout tapped on the keys, then she sighed. "She'll be all
right," Amy said, nodding at Mina.  "She's just been stunned by the blast, and
that aggravated the partially healed damage from the bullet wound."

Raye nodded, but her mind was occupied with something else.  She stared at the
computer in Amy's hand. "Where did you get that?" Raye asked. "I thought it had
been taken away by Fluctra."

The blue scout blinked, staring at the device. "I'm-"  She paused. "I'm not
sure.  I just wanted it, and it-"

The portal flared with energy, interrupting the blue scout.  

Darian tore through the ragged circle of energy.  He seemed to have been hurled
backward by some power, and he slammed hard into the ground, collapsing into a
crumpled heap.  Raye rushed to his side.  The prince's eyes were closed and his
body was blackened with soot.  Faint smoke rose from his chest, and his hand
gaped without a sword.

He moaned slightly, and Raye breathed out slightly in relief. But he did not
say anything.

"Darian?"

Amy was scanning him. "He has burns over much of his body, but it is not too
serious.  His mind is in minor shock from an energy blast, probably the one
that threw him through. I'm not sure he can hear you."

Darian shook his head slightly, moaning again. "Serena-" He whispered faintly,
his lips barely moving. "Blast-  tried to stay, couldn't-  Nakiad-"  The prince
shook his head. "Destruct, no time."

He fell silent, and Raye felt something with a corner of her mind.  To one
side, the portal flickered suddenly, as if hit by some force.

The ragged circle vanished.

Raye gaped at the place where it had been. 

Serena, Nakiad and Kaneth were trapped inside a nuclear explosion.

The ground screamed with the force inside it.



A wave of pure energy struck the inside of the metal sphere at the heart of
Nakiad's compound.  It was a wall of pure white power unlike anything else in
the Universe, it was the unleashing of the greatest force known to humans.  It
dissolved ten meters of reinforced steel in an instant and crashed into
Eurtholl's body.  The atoms that had once been the enemy spread through the
room, now plasma, superheated gas.  The black energy shrieked, bereft of a
body.

The front wave of the explosion was already away.  The power slammed into the
biotechnology room, washing away all traces of life from it.  It slammed into
Nakiad's room, tearing through the weapons within.  In a flash, the Dark Lord's
cloak was gone, the bullets and swords and guns following it.

Less than a second after three bodies passed through it, the wave of pure power
struck the portal.

It could not destroy a portal, it could not even go through it, for the gateway
was already closed.  But the explosion's energy clashed with the rift in space,
fought with it.  The immense power of the nuclear reaction interfered with the
transportation, cut off its power too early.  In the middle of the
teleportation, the channel was cut in the middle, the end of the portal
emerging underground.

The three were very lucky.

It is virtually impossible to make two pieces of solid matter occupy the same
space at the same time.  The end of the portal slid along the density gradient
in the earth, blindly locking on to some place where it could get rid of its
cargo.

The end of the portal flickered back into existence above ground, a quarter of
the way from the house to the position of the other scouts.  A moment of cold
later, the three people inside were thrown out, and the portal behind them
dissolved into oblivion.

They were very, very lucky.

Luck does not play favorites.



"No," Nakiad gasped, getting up on his one foot, turning slowly.  The computer
was gone, destroyed.

Then the Chosen saw his house, only a dozen meters behind him, and his face
twisted. "Run!" He yelled, turning despite his broken leg.  A rush of cold
froze the limb in its position, the freezing instantaneous now that Nakiad did
not care about injuring the tissue around the break.  The staff in his hands
gave him strength.

Kaneth's eyes flashed in comprehension and he turned, his hands still grasping
an unconscious Serena over his shoulder.  The four armed warrior took a single
step.



The incredible rush of energy did not quite travel at the speed of light.  It
had to go through walls, partitions, objects.  Though the complex had been
designed to be destroyed easily, there were many obstacles that slowed the wave
of power.

The wall of plasma and radiation washed eagerly through Nakiad's chamber,
cleansing it completely, cutting through the weapons that had injured the
Chosen.  Almost with elation, the white covered the weapons room, annihilating
it and the adjoining chambers, turning the priceless collection into swirling
molecules.  Below, the biotechnology storage facility was itself part of the
explosion.  That which once was DNA that could destroy the world was now no
more than more molecules, more heat thrusting through the metal walls.

The giant training area dissolved easily, gridworks of easily moveable struts
washed over by heat and light.  Above, rooms upon rooms of all types
disappeared one by one.  The med chamber where Nakiad had lain, where he had
chosen to put on his gauntlets, disappeared, destroyed forever.  The remains of
Amy's gun, on the floor of the room, twisted into molten metal and vanished
into gas.

Pure, cleansing fire washed into the garage, swallowed up the vehicles inside,
tore through the armor of the attack helicopter as if it were mere paper.

And the full force of the nuclear explosion slammed like a sledgehammer into
the ten meter concrete walls around the complex.

The walls had been designed to withstand such destruction, except in one place.
The house was the keystone, there was no concrete under it.   The explosion had
been designed in such a way that once the house was destroyed, the rest of the
concrete around it would follow, falling down into the burning fire below.
Tons of the rock would collapse down, burying the entire complex under their
weight.

The complex had been designed well.



As Kaneth stepped forward, a sun ignited only meters behind him, a blast of
light the likes of which he had never seen.  Then the ground came up and
smashed into his feet, carrying both him and Nakiad up into the air.

The explosion reversed as the wave of supercharged energy reflected off the
concrete wall, and the ground collapsed back down.  As it did, cracks appeared
in the concrete, huge ugly flaws that shattered its perfection.  Around the
fire pit that had once been Nakiad's house, chunks of earth as large as
buildings started collapsing down into the pure cleansing white below.

With horror, Kaneth felt the ground under his feet start to slide backward, and
his stomach lurched.  The heat behind him seemed to disappear, the fear of the
explosion vanished as he felt his footing start to go down into the fires of
hell.

He ran.



A rumble passed through the ground, a rumble that might have been an
earthquake.

Lita knew better.

And the green scout threw both hands over her eyes as Nakiad's house ignited
into a sun.

The structure literally vanished, and a beam of pure light struck out straight
up into the air, flashing into the clouds.  A clap of thunder reached the
scouts position only a moment later, and Lita flinched from the sound, and the
earth was rumbling again, shaking.

Like a giant flaming bird, the finger of light spread out in the sky, burning
away the clouds, turning the ending day into the brightest noon.  The beam was
widening, and Lita realized with shock that the ground around Nakiad's house
was collapsing into the hole, into the blinding light below.  The gap in the
ground grew wider with incredible speed, swallowing everything around it,
revealing more of the glaring fire that burned inside the Earth.

Lita breathed out softly, watching the hole grow wider, watching it swallow
ancient trees and grass and life like a growing ulcer that consumed all before
it.  The things that fell into the gorge of flames disappeared from sight and
were gone forever, added to the flames.  A part of her mind wondered wildly if
she should run, but her feet were frozen to the ground, rooted in the rumble of
the Earth's pain.

Wind whipped up, hot searing air that blew from the explosion, and the smell of
sulfur and burning trees smashed into Lita's nose, shocked into her senses.
The green scout felt her legs unfreeze, and she stepped backwards, slowly.

And she saw Mina, the orange scout's eyes watching the light blindly.  The
blonde's lips moved silently. "Nakiad?" she asked the air helplessly.

Next to her, Darian had propped himself on his elbows, and his eyes were as
wide as Mina's as he stared into the fire.

Lita's heart tore.

The rumble of the earth settled slightly, the pain of the planet subsiding.
The crater's growth slowed, barely, yard by yard.  The tumor settled on the
ground, stopped spreading.  Inside, gray concrete floated in a sea of burning
red lava, molten metal and earth mixed together by the vehement fire.

Lita swallowed hard, not able to take her eyes away from the dulling red
mixture, from the fire that was starting around it.  Black soot washed over the
green scout's face, a dark omen blown by the wind, and Lita felt tears start
down her face.

She had thought that Serena had gone once before, that Nakiad had died once
before.  And they had come back once, but Serena had been drained when the
scouts had left.  There was no way the princess could have been reborn.

The fire spread slowly through the trees, slowly diminishing as it spread from
the source of heat.  In the chasm, the metal was settling down, lowering into
the ground.  The surface was sinking down to the bottom of the giant sphere,
Lita realized, and soon, it would cool, and the remains of her friends would be
frozen forever in a million tons of metal.

"Nakiad," Mina whispered. 

The orange scout had told them of her vision, of Nakiad against a blinding
light, then all being dark.  The scouts had not listened then.

On Mina's chest, the Dailous stone had fallen on the outside of the orange
scout's uniform, and the crystal flared slightly.

Darian merely stared into burning trees and the glowing edges of the crater,
his eyes burning with pain.

Only the wind made any noise at all as it blew over the scouts, bringing the
acrid fire of smoke into their faces.  The trees crackled only a few hundred
meters away from the scouts.  

"Impossible," Artemis breathed out, and Lita turned to the white cat.  But the
guardian was focused on something else, on the fire, and the green scout turned
to follow the white cat's eyes.

She did not see anything, and then the flames at one section of the ring of
burning forest spread, erased by some invisible force.



Two figures walked through the gap.



Hope lanced through Lita, as her eyes narrowed, focused through the black smoke
that covered the two figures.

Nakiad walked strongly, holding his staff with one hand, grasping Kaneth's
shoulder with the other.  And the four armed warrior carried a white form slung
across his shoulder.

The Chosen's leg was frozen at an impossible angle, obviously broken, but it
held his weight somehow.  All three figures were covered with black soot, and
cuts were scattered over their forms, blood staining their clothes.  They
looked horrible.

Lita could not remember ever seeing a better sight.

Darian staggered to his feet.  Next to him, somehow, Mina did as well, staring
at the two small figures.  No one moved toward them, no one tried to close the
distance.  It would not have been right somehow, after having survived, they
deserved to walk on their own.

As Nakiad got closer, Lita saw the pain seared on his face, the black soot
staining him.  Kaneth did not look much better off.  But there was a strength
burning in their eyes, a victory that shattered through the air.

And they were alive.

Neither of them said anything for a moment, and the scouts and the two simply
stared at each other.  Then Darian stepped forward, extending his arms, and
Kaneth nodded.  Gently, the four armed warrior put Serena in the prince's
arms.

Darian seemed to deflate at the feel of his love, glancing furtively at Amy.
The blue scout nodded, smiling, lowering her computer, and the prince
relaxed.



For a long time, nobody moved, as if they feared that everything was a dream.
Then Nakiad turned, slowly, to face what remained of his home.  Lita could not
see his face, but she could feel the sadness in his stance, in his body.  His
leg, bent in its awkward shape, seemed to emphasize that pain.

Kaneth put a hand on the Chosen's shoulder, the warrior's voice rough. "You
have my sympathy, Nakiad.  You have lost your home, your weapons, that which
you built.  You lost everything."

Nakiad turned and stared at the warrior, and a strange expression crossed the
Chosen's face as he shook his head from side to side. 

Nakiad gestured toward the fiery gap in the ground, and strength flowed easily
through his voice. "That which you see burning there is but a house, a thing of
stone and wood and iron.  There is only one thing I have lost there which is
irreplaceable."  Pain flickered through Nakiad's eyes. "But the Universe is
safe again.  And those closest to my heart have survived."

Slowly, Kaneth nodded, his rigid face unmoving. The warrior looked away from
the flames and into Nakiad's eyes  "Perhaps I, too, will some day know what
that feels like."

Nakiad looked seriously at the warrior. "You came to our aid when we needed
you.  I think you already do."

Kaneth blinked, and turned to the scouts, to Darian. "You know," he said
slowly, "if someone had ever said to me a sun's revolution ago that I would
save the life of Princess Serena from one of the people under my command-" He
trailed off.

The prince merely hugged Serena tighter to him, and the princess moved slightly
in his arms. Darian bowed to Kaneth. "I owe you."

"You owe me nothing," Kaneth said. "I did what I had to do, there is no credit
in that."

"Still," Darian said quietly.

Kaneth turned to Nakiad once more. "I am sorry I could not force the ones who
should be following me to come, but fighting with the Sailor Scouts would have
been impossible for them."

Nakiad extended his hand. "You were more than enough."

Kaneth accepted, shaking Nakiad's hand in the ancient symbol of trust and
honor.  "Thank you, Chosen."

The warrior turned, and a blue light formed around his frame, a portal
forming.

Lita blinked, suddenly realizing that Kaneth could have escaped that way at any
time, and yet he had not, he had remained until the end.  The green scout
smiled.  The warrior did not at all remind her of her old boyfriend.  But she
kind of liked him.

Then Kaneth was gone.

In Darian's arms, Serena stirred once more, and her eyes opened a little.  "Is
it over?"  The princess' voice was a bare whisper.

Darian could not speak because of the tears in his eyes.

Nakiad answered for him. "Yes, Princess, it is over."  

The Chosen turned to Mina, his eyes strange, and the orange scout came softly
into his arms.  They seemed to meld together, and Lita felt tears come to her
eyes again.

Serena settled back into Darian's arms, the Chosen's voice having calmed her.

Mina looked up at her love. "What about the darkness?"

His face hardened slightly.

Everyone turned to the burning crater.  The fire was already stopping, the
trees around the house were mostly evergreens which had not turned dry during
the winter.  Lita realized that was probably no accident.

And out of the crater, a black power rose, a visible dark shape against the
clouds.  It flew into the air and hovered in the burning smoke.

"No," Mina whispered.

Nakiad did not seem to hear her.  His eyes were focused on the darkness, and
his lips moved slowly.  "Perhaps," he said slowly in a whisper, "those who are
weapons alone may become more than that when they come together."

Mina looked at him sharply, obviously not understanding. "Why do you have
to-?"

Nakiad looked at her gently. "It must be.  The power is mine, I can hold no one
else responsible for it."

"But-"

He shook his head softly. "I did not want the responsibility and when I shirked
it, the darkness took me.  No, this is my job, my fate.  I will not try to
fight it.  I have challenged fate enough times."

Gently, he moved out of her arms and turned to the crater, to the burning
circle of fire.  The staff rose in his hands, sunlight glinting off the metal
gauntlets.

The power shrieked, seeming to feel the staff, and the darkness blurred in the
air, moving toward the scouts.  Automatically, Lita shrunk back into a
defensive posture, but the dark energy did not try to attack.  Shorn of a mind,
of a purpose, it merely hovered in the air, in front of Nakiad, waiting.

And Nakiad nodded.

Gently, the blackness settled over his frame, moved into his body.  He did not
flinch aside from the dark fog, did not try to avoid the contact.  The darkness
vanished inside.

For a second, his body was covered in black, but a light lanced out of the
darkness.  The black and white fought for a moment, then seemed to settle
together.  The powers vanished, canceling each other out, and Nakiad was Nakiad
once again.

Then he seemed to concentrate again.

More power flashed through him, and the gauntlets started to glow with their
crimson energy.  Before the incredulous eyes of the scouts, the metal claws
shifted, flowing gently over Nakiad's hands.

And in a flash of power, they disappeared under his skin, absorbed into his
body.

For a moment, his bare hands were visible, then the staff distorted between his
fingers, and it, too, melted.  And in a moment, it also vanished into him.

For long moments, his frame flickered with energy, subtle flows of color
touching his skin.  Then even that stopped, and his dropped his hands, his
fingers bare and clean.

Slowly, as if in a dream, he turned back to Mina.  In his eyes, the sadness and
pain of his past burned as brightly as ever.

But there was strength there, and hope.

Mina smiled.




Epilogue: Loose Ends


A silent voice echoes through space.

<Upload complete.>

And a pair of nonexistent eyes stares down at the world.



Detective Peter Williams sighed and buried his head in his hands, trying to
shake off the fog over his thoughts.

Something was wrong.  Not even his thoughts seemed to be his own.

First, the world seemed to have gone mad for a while, all the countries arguing
and fighting.  There had even been that news report of a plane shot down over
Tokyo, though the report had never been confirmed.  

Then there had been the nuclear explosion in the very place Williams had
thought Nick Yacht to live.

And then, just as instantly, everything had quieted down.  Things were back to
normal, everyone was feeling well again.

Everyone except for himself.

"Hey, Pete."

He raised his head and did his best to smile at Mike.

His friend shook his head. "Man, you have got to get some sleep.  Forget about
it, man, I said, you aren't going to have any luck with this.  The orders came
from way above."

Williams nodded. "Yeah, I know."  The orders had come from way up.  

No one was allowed to come anywhere near the site of the explosion, not even
the police.  The team that had arrived on scene had been recalled instantly,
after they had recovered only a few things, only one of any interest.  And the
area had been declared a national reserve, closed to the public and left alone
indefinitely.

The other order had hurt as much.  It was for Williams specifically, from his
superior, but the detective knew they had originated far higher.  He had been
ordered to get off the Sailor Scout's case, and back to his own duties.  And he
had been given a case that was comprised of drudgework.

The message had been clear.  He would forget about the Sailor Scouts, about
everything that had happened, or he might not like his job very much.  

His mind flickered back to the guy who had made the report, George Ostenburg.

Williams might not even have a job if he did not quit.

"Yeah," Williams said again. "Look, I'm going.  I just have a few things to
finish up."  Tiredly, he turned off his computer and rubbed his eyes.

Mike nodded and exited softly, leaving Williams alone in the office.  The
lights were turned off, only the lamp on his desk illuminated the room, casting
shadows.  New windows had been installed that day to replace the ones broken by
the creature.  Almost every trace of the dark man was gone now.

Except for a policeman lying in a hospital, the young cop who had tried to
protect Williams.

The detective frowned, feeling a gust of fresh air, and he turned slowly.  One
of the windows was open.

His lamp flickered and died and as he turned, he suddenly knew what was going
on.

A dark shape was behind him, a shape that had been etched into his memory.  It
was different, a little.  One leg looked like it had a cast on it of some sort,
a sort of thickening.  It was hard to tell in the light.

"We need to talk."  The voice that came out of the shadows he knew.

Slowly, he sat down on his desk, paralyzed. "About what?"

The shadowed figure sighed. "It is hard to think about us, about the scouts and
me, is it not?"

Williams nodded, not really understanding, then he felt the fog come over his
mind again. "Yes.  I can not- it hurts.  But I must."

The other nodded darkly, and a hand came out of the shadows toward Williams's
face.  The detective flinched back from it, but the fingers were bare, not clad
in metal.  And somehow, Williams knew there was no danger.

Softly, the hand settled over the detective's forehead, and Williams saw the
eyes of the other, deep, penetrating.  He had a brief sensation of falling.

Then he stopped, and flinched away from the hand. "What?" He started, then
blinked.  His thoughts were clear.

And one after another, the realizations hit him, hard.  "The-"  He stopped,
overwhelmed. "The scouts.  The girl who was shot- the other four who came to
visit her.  And there was a man."  He felt his eyes widen. "He was Tuxed- they-
oh."

The shadowed figure nodded.

Williams felt his own thoughts racing, free of the fog. "Why did I not see it
before?"

"The power of the planets is strong," came the voice. "It can fog the mind,
dull the thoughts.  The scouts must remain anonymous so they can keep fighting
with no interference from the law."

Williams blinked. "Then why tell me?"

A sigh came from the shadowed figure. "The power of the planets is strong, but
there are some people who are stubborn enough to persist in something even when
their mind begs them not to, and you are such a person.  But no mortal can
penetrate the scout's secrets in that way, not without witnessing them
transform.  The fog would have remained, and, had you not stopped, you would
have eventually driven yourself insane."

"I do not understand," the detective replied after a pause. "Why not let me?  I
tried to stop you, I tried to destroy you.  Why not let me drive myself off the
edge?"

The other seemed to smile, though there was no expression on the shadowed face.
"Because sometimes, a live friend is more useful than a dead enemy.  We do not
have enough friends in the world, not nearly as many as we will need."  He
turned.

"Wait." Williams said, and he felt his hand slip to his gun. "You can not
leave."

The figure turned, his eyes flickering with disdain to the weapon. "You can not
harm me.  But I am listening."

The detective felt his hand move away from the metal.  "What about the
suffering you have caused?"

A look of pain crossed the other's face. "The assassin, I am sorry for.  But he
died as well as he would have wanted to.  He told me nothing.  The other
injuries-  I was not in control of myself.  It is I who is responsible, of
course, but it was not I."

Williams wondered what the hell that meant, then pushed the thought away. "What
about the cop who tried to protect me in the mall?  He was just a kid, damn it,
and he's in a coma now.  He's got a wife and kids, for god's sake."

The voice was clear.  "Hawkins, yes.  He will survive."

And somehow, that calm answer reassured Williams, calmed him.  He believed this
man, though he was an enemy.  "You are the one who stopped the
investigation?"

"Yes."

The easy acknowledgment did nothing to help the detective. 

"We found a sword at the site, embedded in a tree.  One of our guys, in
ballistics, swore to us that the sword had to have been launched from the
center of the explosion to be found where it was.  But that is impossible.
Even if any metal could have survived the heat involved, in order to have made
it to the tree, the weapon had to have passed _through_ the concrete wall that
surrounded your base.  Or at least, that experts say surrounded your base."

The shadowy figure seemed to smile again. "That sword is part of history now.
Its destiny will lead it where it will, I have no wish to interfere with that.
I have changed enough of destiny already."

The figure started fading, and Williams realized it was leaving. "Wait!  I may
know who the Sailor Scouts are, but I know nothing of you.  Only your name,
Nick Yacht.  But I will find out, I swear."  The words seemed empty even as
they were spoken.

The figure turned. "I have not wish to harm you, or anyone else.  But I will
protect myself if necessary."

Williams shivered. "Is that a threat?"

And the other nodded. "Yes," he answered simply.

Despite himself, the detective felt a mental laugh.  In every movie he could
think of, the characters always backed off in that kind of dialogue, always
said that it was not a threat.

The shadowy figure was fading, and this time, Williams made no move to stop it.
Out of the darkness, the other's voice floated gently.

"My name, detective, is Nakiad."

Then he was gone, out into the night.

Williams started to rush toward the window, but the phone rang, startling him,
and his concentration was broken.  He turned to the telephone, wondering who
could be calling.

"Hello?"  His voice was surprisingly normal.

"Yes, hi, detective Williams?"

"Yeah."

"Doctor Miron."  The detective remembered in a flash. "Listen, I just wanted to
tell you about this- the young cop in a coma?  Well, he woke up, and he is
feeling much better."

The phone felt dead in Williams's fingers. "Did he say anything?"

"Something about burning eyes, some mumbo jumbo.  Just a dream, I guess."

"Yeah," Williams said softly.  "A dream."  He brought the phone down into its
cradle, gently, and looked out into the night.

Somewhere out there was a mystery, a man with infinite possibilities in his
future.

And someday, Williams would find out who Nakiad was, the detective thought to
himself.

For now, he merely stared out of his window at the setting sun.



Darian felt Nakiad behind him, but did not turn.  The last rays of the setting
sun occupied all of the prince's eyes, and thoughts occupied all of the his mind.

"Beautiful, is it not?"

Darian smiled slightly, remembering a similar conversation, such a long time
ago it seemed.  But now, he was not fighting with Serena, and there was no doom
ahead of all of them.  The doom was in his memories now.

He flinched at the pain, remembering the dead bodies, the silent death of the
grenoks.  Then Fluctra's death, just as quiet, just as willing.  They had been
sentient creatures, much like him, and yet they had died, seemingly, for
nothing.  At the time, he had been too busy to feel the pain, but it was back,
now, in his heart and mind.

He stared at the last piece of the sun.

"Will I ever forget?" He asked softly.

Nakiad came to stand next to him.  The Chosen seemed to know what the prince
was talking about. "Did you ever forget your parents?"

Darian did not flinch, he was too much in pain already to react physically.
"No," he whispered in answer. "The pain fades with time, becomes less
consuming.  But I never forgot."

The question floated softly. "Do you wish to forget?"

For a long time, the prince was silent, thinking, then he turned from the
light. "No.  If I do, then how can I say that I am human?"

Nakiad breathed out evenly. "'We forget because we must, and not because we
will.'"

Slowly, Darian nodded.  "There is pain behind my eyes too, now.  I have seen it
in the mirror, and I can feel it.  It was there before, because of my past, but
there is more now and it is fresh."

"It will fade in time."

"But never all the way."

"No," Nakiad said to the night, "never all the way."

Darian nodded.  The light of the sun was gone now, and the sky was turning
darker. "Yes," he said slowly. "I think I can live with that."

Nakiad smiled. "That is all one can ask."

The prince sighed gently.  "Is there even hope for the future?"

For a moment, Nakiad's smile vanished, then it reappeared. "The gauntlets and
the staff are part of me now, as much as all the Chosen are.  If a weapon can
become something more than itself, then perhaps, there is hope for me.  Perhaps
there is hope for all.  With all the Chosen and the Dark Lord within me, with
the power of the staff of the Chosen and the sword of the Dark Lord and
Eurtholl's gauntlets, I think I can control the power inside me.  I can not
promise anything, but there is hope."

For several moments, Darian thought about that, then he nodded gently and
turned back into the night.  Behind him, the Chosen's presence disappeared.
The prince smiled to himself despite the memories.  Nakiad had bought the
apartment over Darian's.  There was a certain comfort in that, a strength that
came from having someone the Chosen's age around.

The prince stared silently at the stars.



Nakiad stood softly in the middle of the apartment.  It had been cleared of
most furniture, only a sleeping mat left and another, larger mat that covered
all of one room.  There were no decorations, there was no need for them.
Everything he needed was inside him.

Then he remembered the scouts.

Almost everything, then, he thought gently. 

He turned away, toward the stars.  He had done the right thing with Williams,
he knew.  But somehow, he wondered if he were starting something new, more
problems.

"It never ends," he whispered toward the tiny lights, burning suns billions of
light years away.

Then he smiled to the night.  

"Nor should it," he answered himself.

Deliberately, he relaxed, and lay down on the bed.  His eyes closed on their
own volition.



Overhead, a pair of eyes watched over him as they had for four hundred years.
They had remained unknown during that time, and they would remain silent now.

But Nakiad seemed to feel their presence somehow, for his mind relaxed, his
body rested.  His eyelids flickered in his sleep.

For the first time in centuries, the last of the Chosen dreamt.



Outside it was night, and the moon shone easily over the glittering city.  But
across the world, on another continent, the sun was rising, shining over other
lives, over other people.  And men and women got up from their beds, got
ready.

Somewhere, there is always another day beginning.

A new day.

_	_	_


Eight hundred years before.

To all sides, the battlefield streched out, death covering the landscape.
Blood stained the once green grass, crimson that spread out from 
crumpled armor, once the property of brave men.  The bodies littered
the land, frozen in their deaths, snarls of pain on their faces.

A single man sat on a hill and watched the sun go down over the  
battlefield.

Reddish rays of light lashed out from under the clouds, reflecting off silver 
armor, glancing off shields and swords.

The man sighed slowly and looked at the sphere of white light in front 
of him.  Pain flickered through Nakiad's eyes, a pain that was fresh and 
deep.  To one side, a pair of gauntlets lay gently against the ground, their 
lethal facets dimmed by a layer of dried blood.

The sun lowered gently to the ground, touching the opposite end of the 
field, and Nakiad felt his heart twitch as the reddish rays illuminated 
those who had died because of him.

Those who had died by his hands.

He did not cry, he did not flinch, he merely stared.  In front of him,
Guardian remained silent.

There was nothing for either of them to say.

Guardian had convinced Nakiad to keep the gauntlets as a reminder, in the 
end, though the Chosen had been against the idea.  The  presence of 
the weapons cut against his heart.

The world glared with the last red light of the sun, and more pain
flickered through Nakiad's eyes as he turned and forced himself to look 
at the gauntlets.

They lay motionlessly, caked blood covering them, and the Chosen
looked away.  They were the same as he, weapons, made only to kill.

There was no hope in his heart.

The sun vanished.

It would take eight hundred years before Nakiad could feel the warmth 
of the sun in his heart again.

But he would.

Silently, he stared at the stars.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Thus ends part four of Perchance to Dream

Thus ends Sailor Moon: Shades of Light and Darkness.



Send all comments/questions/flames to dnk@cmu.edu

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

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