This story contains scenes of a dark nature and Lime
rated material, and thus is not suited for younger readers.
Reader discretion is advised.
 
 

On A Clear Day You Can See Forever

Chapter 17: Gods and Demons
 
 

     Minako knelt on the floor, her arms wrapped around her body.
The pain was fading, but not the terrible lassitude that had gripped her.  It
was as though no time had passed, as though everything that had
happened since those dark days had been a fleeting dream.  On some
level she had feared this very thing, of course.  She had thought to
confront her demons and vanquish them, but horribly, her strength and
will had fled, leaving her frightened and powerless.
     Had she thought she would walk in here and strike down the
tormentors?  Had she believed that they no longer held any power over
her?  How wrong she had been.  They haunted her still, rode her, and
now she would pay the price for her arrogance.  The two guards stood to
either side of her, guns trained on her as Karla looked down, the
pain-giving gauntlet held at the ready.
     "I'd thought you would be tougher," Karla murmured derisively.
She didn't recognize Minako, of course.  At least, not yet.  But Minako
remembered her, and a fine trembling trilled along the muscles of her
bowed back.  "But look at you.  As soon as events turn against you, my
pretty one, you just fold up like a cheap card table.  The mighty
Sisterhood?  You're no better than that rabble."
     Minako could see the demi-humans out of the corner of her eye,
huddled in the corner.  No one was paying any attention to them, but they
made no move to revolt or escape.  Minako remembered how it had been,
having her spirit worn down to the point where it all seemed hopeless.
She knew how they felt.
     Beaten.  Worthless.  And small.
     "Still, better safe than sorry," Karla went on.  "We have our
orders, after all."
     Giving up so easily? a voice mocked her.  So much for the great
Minako Aino.  Flaunting authority, living life on the edge?  Brash, sexy,
and fearless?  Give me a break!
     Shut up, she thought.  I can't.  I ...
     You lead them here, you stupid bitch, the voice taunted.  You
lead them into this, and now you're just going to renounce all
responsibility while you lay down and give up?  What about Ranma?
What about Rei?
     No, she thought.  I didn't mean for it to happen.  I ...
     What about your duty, and all the promises you made?  To
Artemis, to the girls?
     No.
     To your PRINCESS?
     "Red or Black, Lady Karla?" one of the guards asked from a long
way off.
     Usagi?
     "Oh, I think Red," Karla replied, a smirk in her voice.  Minako
couldn't see her, her head bowed, eyes closed.
     All those words about faith and love and duty and ...
     With her arms wrapped tightly around her body, her left hand
was under her right arm and vice versa.  With a blood-red tide rising
within her, Minako extended the index finger of each hand.  Something
pulsed in her head, images, thoughts, feelings.  They went by quickly, all
save the last one.  She saw the gardens of the palace, the walls breached,
the Earth full in the night sky, her princess standing valiantly before the
coming tide.
     Just before the end.
     The bubble burst, and golden beams of light shot out from each
finger, knifing up to catch both guards full in the chest.  Before either
man could fall, Minako launched herself up from her abject crouch, a
wordless cry tearing free from her throat.  The top of her head caught
Karla under the chin, snapping the woman's head back and sending her
sprawling.  Minako dropped onto her, driving her fist into the woman's
face again and again, that cry coalescing into the distilled essence of fear
and loss and rage.
     By the time she could stop herself, Karla lay still, her face
bloodied and raw.  The air burned Minako's lungs as she gasped, sweat
running down her back and trickling along the edges of her hairline.
     That's right, the little voice in her head said, the scornful edge
gone now.  Get up, Minako.  Always get up just one more time than you
fall down.  Earn your attitude, and keep your promises.
     Get up.
     She stood, her legs shaky as she wiped the sweat from her
forehead with the back of one hand.  Damn.  Things had gone bad so
suddenly.  But why?  Why had Karla attacked them?  Why ...?
     "Ranma," she whispered.  Faintly she heard the sounds of
struggle.  She ran to the ragged hole in the wall, peering frantically
through the haze of dust.  "Ranma!"
     "I got this guy!" a cry came back.  Incredulous, she realized that she
was watching the lithe red-head bounding around in the next room,
hammering Arj repeatedly.  The hulking torturer seemed merely
staggered by Ranma's attacks, but at least he had been driven to the
defensive.  "I'll keep him busy while you get them out of here!"
     "Hang in there!" Minako shouted back.  She turned back to the
room, taking in the frightened demi-humans.  Most of them were still
huddled in the corner, but the girl in the white lingerie was at the side of
the hanging boy, ineffectually clawing at the manacles which held him
aloft.  She saw Minako's attention shift to them and froze, but she did not
back away.
     "Please," she whimpered.  "Don't hurt him any more.  He did it
to protect me.  Please, please, please."
     "It's all right," Minako told her, advancing slowly.  "You're all
getting out of here.  Come with me."
     "No!" one of the boys shouted.  "Don't listen, Elza!  It's a trick!"
     "Like before," the other boy muttered, staring at his hands.  "Like
those other times.  Like that.  Just ... like that."
     "The Mistress is testing us," one of the girls whimpered, falling to
a heap on the floor, her tail curling around her shapely behind.  In other
circumstances, Minako might have found the sight appealing.  Now,
though, she could only stare in dismay.  She knew how badly these poor
unfortunates had been treated.  And their refusal to believe her made
sense.  The Sultana would have twisted everything, dangling false
opportunities for liberty, then punishing those who tried to grasp them.
That was part of the process of breaking their spirits and making them
believe their was no hope, no escape.
     Minako knew.  She understood.  To them, nothing would seem
too outrageous, not even a fight that appeared to kill two guards and beat
the Sultana's overseer to a pulp.  They had been taught that freedom was
an illusion.  They wouldn't trust her.  They wouldn't ...
     She looked down at her hands, a strange feeling of elation
building in her chest like heat lightning.  That's it, that little voice said
softly.  It was her voice, of course.  It always had been.  That's it.  You're
free.  And you know what you have to do.
     Yes.  She did.  She needed to show them that salvation was at hand.
And she had an idea of just how to do that.  Minako turned to the
trembling slaves, a smile rising unbidden to her lips.
     "Sometimes, I'm a sexy priestess," she told them, taking a step
forward, that elation causing her blood to throb just under her skin, full
of delicious heat.  "And sometimes, I'm a sultry dancer."  Her fingers
moved across the Crescent Compact, triggering a costume change, and
suddenly she was standing before them in her Club Kiss outfit, complete
with ears and tail.  "But really, I am ..."  Another change swept over her,
and she welcomed the feel of supple leather, reached up to trace her
fingers across the brim of her cap.  The slaves looked at her, confusion
and fear tainting their feline eyes.
     Until one of them spoke.
     "Mistress V," she whispered.
     "That's right, kitties," V beamed.  "And this is a jailbreak!"  The
room shook as if from an explosion, and in the distance V heard Arj
bellowing in pain.  She had to hurry; Arj was not only part troll, he had
often boasted about having been engineered by forbidden sorceries as a
child, altered into a brutal killing machine.  Ranma would not be able to
hurt him enough to stop him for long.  V took two long-legged strides,
firing her gleaming golden beam through the chain that held the bleeding
young cat-boy suspended.  She caught the limp youth under the arms,
held his unresponsive form as the girl named Elza brushed his long hair
back, tears streaming down her face.
     "He was just protecting me," she mumbled, her voice choked by
grief.  "They hurt him because ... he wanted to ... to protect ..."
     "It's okay," V told her gently.  "They won't hurt him any more.
I promise."
     At that moment, she became aware of the sound of booted feet
hurrying down the corridor, and moments later a number of armed
guards burst in, led by that bastard Garo.
     "Take them!" Garo shouted, and the Gan guns came up.  Black
or Red, Lady Karla? the guard had asked.  V had tasted both in her time,
and she wasn't about to be subject to their touch again.  She thrust out
one gloved hand towards the guards as Elza screamed, and a storm of
shimmering golden hearts smashed into the men, scattering them like
leaves before the tempest before they could unleash a single shot.
     "Lick me, Garo!" V shouted with deranged glee, forcing her
power out until every soldier unable to duck back through the doorway
had been thrown through the wall with bone-breaking ferocity.  She
clutched the stricken boy to her with her free arm, trying to swallow past
the dry lump in her throat as she stared at the fallen soldiers.
    An insanely powerful euphoria kept bubbling up inside her.  It was as
though, now that she had finally broken free of this shadow, she was
invincible.  A dangerous feeling, perhaps, but she needed it just now.
One of the guards rolled through the shattered doorway, and she nailed
him with a beam that dropped him in his tracks.  A second and third
rushed in together, and she snared them with her whip, sending them
crashing into the far wall with bone-crushing force.
     And then there was Garo.  Garo, the guard captain, tough and
strong and ruthless.  He had discarded his Gan gun for a more
conventional sidearm, apparently deciding that stopping her was more
important than taking her alive and unharmed.
     Smart man.
     He fired off the first couple of shots fast, sacrificing accuracy in
order to try and force her to take cover.  To V, though, it was as though
the rawboned guard captain was moving in slow motion.  The shrieks
and cries from the demi-humans didn't distract her, the shots didn't
frighten her.  She turned her body so that the limp boy was partially
shielded, bringing her finger to bear on Garo as he brought his gun to
bear on her.
     In the end, she wasn't certain whether he fired or not.  She
thought he did, but her beam lanced out at the same time, a shimmering
golden streak that entered the barrel of Garo's gun.  The gun exploded in
his hand, and he shrieked, falling to the floor in an untidy heap.  He
rolled over, guttural sounds emerging from his throat, or what was left of
it.  Metal shrapnel had torn into his neck and face, and there was a great
deal of blood.  V watched his struggles, watched them falter, then cease
as he slumped to the floor and lay still.
     An ugly death, yes, but still merciful compared to what they
would have suffered, taken as captives by the Tyrians.  She felt no
compassion for him, none at all.  He looked so much smaller than she
remembered, so much less invincible.  They all did.  She might have
stood there marvelling at that very fact had not a timid touch on her arm
brought her gaze back to Elza, who had not left her side, only crouching
in terror as the gunfire had erupted.  One of the boys was standing beside
her now, his ears twitching madly as he gazed at her with an intoxicating
mixture of adoration and worship.
     "Mistress V?" he asked softly.  "I'll take him.  He's my fuh-
friend ..."
     "It's good to have friends," V smiled.  The boy was rangy, all
smooth, lithe muscle, with waist-length hair the colour of warm
butterscotch.  He scooped his wounded friend into his arms, Elza close
by, and V turned her attention to the others.  A couple of them had
ventured near, the others still gazing at her as though she were a goddess
descended from the heavens.
     And maybe I am, V thought.  What I wouldn't have given to see
what they've seen, someone come in and strike down the hated slavers.
Well, they'll see a lot more before I'm done.  They'll ...
     A terrible thought struck her just then.  "Oh, shit," she whispered.
     "Mistress V?" the boy asked, his eyes going wide.  She ignored
him, raising her hand to her earring.
     "Rei?" she called, triggering her comm.  "Rei, come in.  Rei?
Oh, Rei, please answer!"
     But she didn't.
     "Come on, kitties!" V barked, turning to sweep the ragged group
with her commanding gaze, all hesitancy forgotten.  "Time to go!"

***

     "Interesting toys," Vanka murmured.  On her desk were the few
personal effects she had taken from Rei, including her earring comm and
her henshin rod.  "But you won't be needing them.  I must say, however,
that I am impressed.  I have seen men half again your size take a jolt like
that and stay flat on their backs for hours.  That resilience will come in
handy."
     Rei didn't reply.  Her body still tingled and burned from the
effects of Vanka's little surprise, but that was nothing to the corrosive
anger that ate at her gut.  She'd thought to play this woman, and instead
she had been played.  Had she lost so much of her edge?  Had she, in
embracing her senshi side, doomed herself and the others?
     Rei knelt before the hateful bitch, wrists bound behind her back
by cold steel cuffs.  She might be able to stand, but it would be difficult
to fight like this.  And Vanka caressed the coils of her whip, smiling as if
reading Rei's mind.  The Sultana would almost certainly like nothing
better than for Rei to resist her.
     Think, Rei gritted silently.  She sent men after Minako and
Ranma.  You have to warn them.  You can't just sit here.  Think!
     Rei had tried to communicate with the twins, but something was now
blocking her link.  Just another factor that she hadn't taken into account.
She'd thought that she had weighed the risks.  She had been certain, in
her arrogance, that she could handle the situation, even knowing
Minako's secret.
     And now this.  They would end up in some slaver's market, and
that was if they were lucky.  If they were unlucky, Vanka would turn
them over to the Sisterhood.  And with Baniesti looming, Usagi would be
left vulnerable, just when she needed them the most.
     If only she could transform, she might be able to break these
restraints.  But her henshin rod might as well have been on the moon as
on that desk.  Vanka pushed off the desk with a gentle undulation of her
hips, swaying over to where Rei knelt gripped with impotent fury.  The
pale-haired noblewoman brushed the coils of her whip across Rei's
cheek, then reached down to grip the girl's chin and tilt her head back so
that Rei was forced to meet her gaze.
     "Such temper," Vanka breathed.  "Ah, Rein.  I am going to take
my time with you.  It has been too long since I have had a real challenge.
I tire of the restrictions of this city, this kingdom.  Your queen is a mere
girl who knows nothing of the true nature of power.  Perhaps one day, the
Domina can give her a personal lesson.  The way I intend to school you
and your friends."
     Rei's teeth ground together as she fought the urge to spit.  Vanka
merely smiled, glorying in Rei's humiliation.  She walked a slow circle
around her captive, trailing her fingers through Rei's long sable locks.
The coiled whip brushed against Rei's bare arm, and a tiny bolt of pain
flared there as Vanka triggered a momentary surge of its neural charge.
     "Nothing to say?" she asked sweetly as Rei continued to stew.
"I'll soon change that.  Or maybe ... maybe you'll just sit there as I make
your friends sing.  What do you think?"
     "I think you're making a big mistake," Rei whispered, tossing
her dishevelled hair out of her face and glaring up.  A blackness was
rising in her, and she welcomed it.  It was familiar, this wanton, feral
shadow.  Once she had gloried in it.  And back then, you were never laid
low, it whispered seductively.  Back then, you would have been the one
standing.  You never knelt, not to anyone.  Make her pay for her
insolence.  Wipe that smirk from her vapid face.
     Make her pay.
     "Such wild spirit," Vanka sighed breathily, grasping a handful of
Rei's hair and gazing down into her eyes again.  "Cry out your defiance,
little one.  Scream it to the winds, to the sky.  Howl it for me."  Vanka
leaned close, her perfume enveloping Rei like a caress.  "While you still
can," the woman finished with a wicked smile.
     Then something shook the entire building, a gentle, far-off thud.
Vanka stood up, a tiny crease forming between her eyes.
     "I wonder," she mused, "if your friends are putting up more of a
fight then you did?"
     Rei didn't reply.  Hate filled her, anger and venom and baleful,
red-eyed maleficence.  And in the midst of it a light flared, a tiny pinpoint
of white hot energy.  A light that could cast deep, dark shadows.
     Instinct ruled her in that moment, and Rei bent double in one
smooth, mercurial motion, thrusting her bound wrists up behind her back,
high into the air, her motion unerring, guided by something deeper than
instinct.  The light came to her, found her, freed her.
     Yes.  At last, free.
     And very, very mad.

***

     V skidded to a halt, raising her arms to shield her face as the wall in
front of her exploded into a blizzard of dust and debris.  Arj stumbled
through the opening, arms flailing as he bellowed, sweat cutting streaks
through the dust that caked his hulking form.  Ranma slammed into him
repeatedly, bouncing off the human tank like a deranged ping-pong ball.
Arj tried to crush the red-head, but Ranma changed her trajectories from
moment to moment, spring-boarding off the floor, walls, and even the
ceiling to change her angle of attack so quickly that Arj could not keep
up.
     Which was fortunate, in V's view; if Arj managed to catch the
little red-head in a bear hug, there wouldn't be much left to bury.
     Ranma's final attack pushed Arj back into the far wall, and
before he could recover Ranma sprang back, summoning her chi.  It
formed a swirling, electric blue aura around the girl's body, causing her
unbound scarlet hair to dance as if caught in some eldritch zephyr.  V
blinked; for just a moment, it had seemed to her as though there was
something coalescing within Ranma's battle aura, a definite shape.  But
it was gone before she could be certain it had been there, and the
resourceful fighter unleashed a powerful chi-bolt that drove Arj through
the already weakened wall.
     "Nice!" she shouted.  Ranma flashed her a grin, and V saw that
the girl's top was on the verge of flying open.  Apparently, those clever
little hooks had not stood up to the stress of Ranma's hyper-kinetic
fighting style.
     "I'm gonna make sure he stays down!" Ranma shot back.  "Get
them out of here!"
     "Finish him quick!" V urged as Ranma dashed through the hole
in the wall.  "Rei might be in trouble!"
     "Got it!" came the reply, followed by Arj's vocal displeasure and
the sounds of things breaking.
     "Come on, kitties," V said, turning to the awestruck group behind
her.  "That's our way out."
     "But Mistress V," Kayle protested, shifting the limp body that he
still held cradled in his arms.  Kayle, as it turned out, was the name of the
yummy lad with the masses of tawny hair.  V also thought it might be
possible to crack an egg on young Kayle's ass, something she had forbore
to speculate openly upon only due to the seriousness of their current
situation.  "We can't get out that way."
     "There may still be more guards somewhere, sweetie," V replied.
"We need to make our own exit."  So saying, she focussed her power and
blew out the wall at the far end of the hall.  It exploded outward with
gratifying drama, sending stone and mortar sailing through the darkness
beyond.
     "Awesome," one of the girls whispered.
     "Betcher ass it's awesome," V told them.  "Now, everybody
sticks close to me until I get you through the wall.  Then you head for
that address I gave you."  They nodded solemnly.  The address would
take them to one of her safe houses, which was the best she could do for
them now.
     "But what about your friend?" Kayle panted as they ran towards
the mansion's new exit.  "Will she be all right?"
     "Ranma?  Don't sweat that, gorgeous.  She's a tough nut."  Of
course, so was Arj, but once she found Rei, V would be more than happy
to make certain that Arj never bothered anybody ever again.
     They dashed through the cool night air, V scanning the area
around them for guards.  They remained unmolested, however.  It
seemed the sudden ruckus had drawn all of Vanka's bully-boys inside.
     Perfect.
     V skidded to a halt on the carefully manicured grass, her stiletto
heels leaving deep grooves.  She cupped her hands and summoned her
power, then unleashed it on the imposing wall.  The result was, once
again, quite gratifying.
     "You'll be okay?" she asked as the ragged group moved by her.
     "We'll stay out of sight," Elza promised as she helped herd her
comrades through the hole.  "Don't worry.  We ... we can't thank you
enough.  I ..."
     "Not now, sweetie," V told her firmly.  "Work to do.  I'll check
on you later.  Now go!"
     She sent the lithe cat-girl on her way with a firm pat on a firmer
derriere, then turned and sprinted back across the grass.  Rei could take
care of herself, V told herself as she ran.  The girl had always been self-
reliant to the point of aloofness.  There was no way she would have
frozen up the way V had in there.  Yeah, Rei must be okay.  Absolutely.
     But V couldn't fight off the creeping feeling of dread in her belly.
This whole thing had gone bad without warning, and she didn't like the
fact that Rei was out of contact.  She needed to find her.  Then they could
help Ranma finish off Arj and get out of there.
     Something fluttered down out of the sky, and V dropped and
rolled, her heart hammering.  She came up into a crouch, finger extended,
only to stop herself as she realized what she'd seen.
     "Phobos!"  The diminutive girl spiralled raggedly to the grass,
landing in an untidy heap.  V ran to her, scooping the doll-like form up
gently.  "What's wrong?"
     "A barrier," Phobos mumbled, her eyes glazed.  "Can't buh-
break through ..."
     "Rei?  Where's Rei?"
     "In trouble," a voice came from off to her right.  Deimos was
crawling across the grass, her black wings twitching fitfully.  "We used
all ... our strength.  To help ..."
     "Go," Phobos whispered, her eyes seeking out V's.  "Please.
Help her."
     V nodded, setting the girl gently beside her twin.  Whatever
barrier was keeping the twins out, it didn't affect her.  She ran inside the
building, her fears now realized.
     Rei, she prayed silently.  Be all right.  Just hang in there.  I'm
coming ...

***

     Tiny shards of the table flew through the air like daggers, and Rei
felt a sting as they slashed at her bare skin.  She welcomed the pain,
though, drew it in and added it to the swirling morass of darkness coiling
within her.  Vanka drew the whip back, circling warily through the
shattered ruin of her office.  Rei revelled in the destruction that
surrounded her; the large, plush office had been reduced to a miniature
battlefield.
     And still Vanka could not finish her.
     Blood flowed from Rei's lower lip, and she tasted it slowly,
letting her tongue linger as she met Vanka's dark gaze across the no-
man's land of broken desks and wrecked furniture.  Her smile unnerved
the proud noble, she saw.
     Good.
     "An interesting trick, that beam," Vanka growled throatily.  "After I
restrain you, you'll have to tell me how you managed it."
     "You don't understand yet, do you?" Rei asked softly as she
circled away from Vanka, finding her footing with absolute certainty
despite never taking her eyes from the other woman's.  "You had all the
advantages, yet you failed to strike the finishing blow.  Now I will teach
you not to trifle with your betters."
     "Brave words," Vanka sneered.  It was a pretty good sneer.  Rei
hadn't seen too many better.  But in the end, style wouldn't help this
woman.  Nothing would.
     Rei watched with disdain as Vanka increased the whip's power
for the third time since they had begun sparring.  Slavers generally used
such whips at low power settings.  They were effective at inflicting pain
on slaves without causing unsightly physical damage.  Apparently,
Vanka was finally coming to the realization that half-measures were not
going to suffice against Rei.
     "Are you really a Tyrian noblewoman?" Rei asked lightly,
sidestepping an untidy sprawl of broken binders and paper.  "Unable to
handle one unarmed woman?  What would your Domina say if she saw
this travesty?"
     "You'll be able to ask her yourself," Vanka replied, her sinister
smile exuding malice.  Their delicate mirror dance had brought her
within range of a toppled file cabinet, and the woman stooped like a
striking hawk, scooping something from one of the burst drawers.  Rei
had thought that Vanka would try to hold her off with the whip until help
arrived, but it appeared the woman had other ideas.
     Now she had a gun.
     And not just any gun.  Rei recognized the barrel design with its
protective and guidance sigils.  It was a Gan gun.
     She smiled.
     "Just out of curiosity," Rei murmured, tossing her hair back over
her shoulder, "Red or Black?"
     "Redjells," Vanka smirked.  "Not only will you be restrained, but
your body will be subjected to intense, unbearable pleasure.  You think
your pride will protect you, bitch?  I've seen barbarian kings reduced to
tears by the embrace of these little darlings.  I'll enjoy hearing you beg,
Rein."
     Rei didn't deign to reply.  Instead she spread her arms, throwing
her head back.  By blood and by power, she intoned silently.    I summon
thee.  Bound by my will, answer to my command and lend me your
strength ...
     Vanka fired.
     Rei felt the Redjell hit, staggering slightly as it spread over her
chest, tendrils immediately slithering over her body.  She didn't allow it
to distract her, though.  Instead she lowered her head, locking gazes with
Vanka again.
     "Azakaru!"
     Her shadow came to her.  It was wild, dark, savage.
     And jealous.
     Tendrils of shadow twined with those of the Redjell, slowing its
advance.  Fire burned along Rei's nerves, pleasure so intense it was
nearly painful, but she resisted its heat.  This was not new to her, after all.
Calling on her training, she exerted iron discipline, staying in control.  If
she panicked now, or even lost her focus, she would suffer the most
humiliating defeat.
     Her bare flesh was patterned with scarlet and ebony as two forces
fought for control.  She could feel a long, oily strand circling her throat,
making its way towards her mouth.  Rei controlled her breathing
carefully, although not without effort.  Vanka was watching her, eyes
wide, and Rei felt some satisfaction at the thought that the woman had
never seen anything like this before.  Of the few Sisters who could
command Shadow Magick, only she and Saekianna could have pulled off
anything like this.
     And she would pull it off.  Deep within her, Rei could sense the
core of her own personal darkness.  She had spent a great deal of time
trying to bury that part of herself, but as she reached for it in desperation,
she realized the truth.  It had never been buried very deeply, had never
been very far from the surface.  Senshi she might be, but the darkness
which had tainted her life had also sustained her.
     And she needed it now.
     That narrow tendril was still inching towards her lips, seeking to
invade her; it was not alone.  Others snaked down her body, slowed but
not stopped by the presence of her shadow.  Another woman might have
panicked, but Rei had been forged in the Sisterhood's fiercest fires.  She
would not be bested, not by some witless fucking sorcerously engineered
blob of ooze.
     Inky blackness coiled, within and without.  She stood in the midst
of the tempest and she was unafraid.  As a girl she had called this
darkness to her, knowing that it might consume her.  Others had fallen,
but they were weak, flawed.  Not her.  Rei had tamed the shadows,
leashed them.  They were hers to command in every way.
     Her hair rippled and flowed around her as though caught in some
phantom wind, a cloak of living night.  All over her body, her shadow
extended its gossamer fingers to ensnare the writhing, squirming Redjell.
Rei looked down, meeting the blank, mindless eye that emerged from the
body of the thing.  It had no conception of what was happening to it,
unable to take any action to protect itself as Rei's shadow drew it in,
absorbing it.  The eye disappeared last, sinking into the merciless dark,
and Rei laughed aloud, the sinuously sweet laughter of a dark angel.
     "No," Vanka whispered, and Rei was greatly gratified by the fear
in the woman's eyes.  "No, that's not possible.  What are you?"
     "I'll show you," Rei replied, her voice filled with dark promise.
     Then the lights went out.
     Vanka shrieked.  Rei was certain that those who had suffered at
this woman's hands would have loved that sound.  She certainly did.  She
flowed through the sudden darkness, becoming just another shadow as
Vanka fired the Gan gun again and again, sending the foul oozes
splattering harmlessly against the walls.  None of the shots came close to
Rei, who stalked her prey patiently, savouring the fear that tainted the air
now.
     The gun clicked empty, and Vanka threw it into the dancing shadows
cast by the guttering fire.  Rei heard it clatter somewhere off to her left,
and smiled.  Would Vanka remember the whip she held coiled in her
other hand, or would she just run?  Rei glided through the shadows,
watching as Vanka regained control, putting her back to a wall and
switching the whip back to her right hand.
     So.  She was made of tougher stuff indeed, this Tyrian Sultana.
Well, no surprise there.  And just as well, really.  Rei was spoiling for a
fight.
     "I always suspected that you Sisterhood bitches were holding
out," Vanka spat, eyes searching the darkness.  "Well, we'll just have to
do this the old fashioned way.  Believe me, Rein, I have earned my
reputation.  You will regret this."
     "We shall see," Rei replied.  The office was spacious, but hardly
big enough for Rei to hide in for long, even in the dark.  With that in
mind, she had chosen her position, and as she expected, Vanka reacted
immediately to the sound of her voice.  The woman unleashed a vicious
strike in her direction, the charged whip slashing though the air with
deadly force.
     It appeared that Vanka was no longer concerned with taking her
in one piece, or even necessarily alive.  No matter.
     Rei slid forward through the cloaking darkness, just another
shadow as she flowed past the strike with mere inches to spare.  Like a
dancer she guided her body through its movements, snapping her head
forward to send her hair snaking towards the whip before the woman
could pull it back.  Long locks of sable silk snared the extended lash, and
Rei grabbed the ends, using her hair as a noose to pull the woman
off-balance.  Sweeping in low, Rei struck at Vanka's wrist, using her
sleek snare to pull the whip free from Vanka's grip as the woman cried
out in pain.  Rei pressed her advantage, the next steps in her shadow
dance bringing her up behind the woman, catching her in a submission
hold.  Vanka struggled, but now she was the prey, and Rei was in her
element.
     "Vanka," Rei crooned.  "Vankaaaaa."
     "You will never escape!" Vanka spat, straining against her
captor.  "My guards will cut you down!"
     "If your guards were coming, they would be here by now," Rei
murmured softly, her mouth close to Vanka's ear.  "And I have nothing
to fear from them.  Now.  Let us talk, you and I."
     "Bitch," Vanka snorted.  "I am a Tyrian Sultana.  Do you think
you can make me tell you anything?  Save your parlour tricks and street-
slut come-ons for the lower classes!"
     "Vanka," Rei purred, sliding her left hand up the woman's rigid
body to the crook of her neck.  Rei ran her fingers lightly across her
tender lip, collecting fresh blood.  The sticky blood was black in this
gloom, as though even her very blood was shadow.  "Do you know what
the oldest forces of human magick are, my dear Vanka?"  Rei reached up
and drew her fingers down the woman's cheek to her mouth, smearing
blood there in a ragged trail.
     "Blood, Vanka," Rei whispered into her captive's ear.  "Blood ...
and sex.  You will talk, Vanka.  You will SING."
     Rei grabbed the woman by her hair, spinning her roughly.  Vanka
gasped, beginning to struggle.  Then her gaze met Rei's.  And she neither
spoke nor sang.
     She did, however, scream.

***

     "Arj," I said.  "Can I call you Arj?"  Arj replied by scooping up a
very solid desk with one hand and hurling it at me.  I slipped by the
careening chunk of furniture, letting it sail by the tip of my nose to
shatter against the far wall.
     "GRAAAAAAH!" Arj declared.
     "Yes, Arj strong like dump truck," I agreed.  That was an
understatement.  Arj could soak up damage like nobody I'd seen since
Ryouga.  He was insanely strong and had enough fighting skill to make
him a menace.  He had taken everything I could throw at him and come
back for more.  I faced the pointy-headed behemoth at the end of a trail of
absolutely devastated rooms, my breath burning in my chest, sweat and
trickles of blood coursing down my body, my fancy Sisterhood get-up in
tatters.
     Man, I was having a blast.
     A part of me, a very small part, knew I should be more worried
about Rei and Minako.  But hell, those two could take care of
themselves.  A bunch of gun-toting thugs and some snotty slave trader
weren't going to be anything more than a bump in the road to the girls,
and anyway, I couldn't very well leave this particular bit of business
unfinished, could I?
     No.  No, I could not.  I recalled the terrified look in the eyes of
those kids.  They'd been reduced to nothing, mere property for this
supposed noblewoman and her cronies.  The way they'd been dressed left
no doubt as to what sorts of things they'd been forced to do.  And when
they refused to lick the lady's boots, old Arj was always ready to use his
strength to hurt them.  I knew the look in his eyes.  He liked the hurting.
Guys like him, they lived for it, for the screams, the tears, and the
begging.  Oh, yeah, I was willing to bet Arj was all about the begging.
He probably ate it up with strawberries and cream, then went back for
seconds.
     "I will break you," Arj rumbled, his voice full of broken gravel,
proving my theory that Arj was nothing if not predictable.  Muscles
bulged under skin that gleamed like dull steel, and the tendons in his
neck could have supported a bridge.
     "No, Arj," I replied, shifting my weight slightly to mirror his own
movements.  "You break small, scared, defenceless cat-girls.  You break
people who can't fight back.  It might have escaped your notice, you
being not too bright, but I am fighting back."
     "But you can't hurt me," Arj countered.  His grin held the sleepy
look of a starving man thinking about a deluxe beef bowl.  "You can't
stop me.  Soon, you'll run out of strength.  After all, you're only a little
girl.  And then I'm gonna tear the rest of those brazen rags off that hard
little body and show you how I keep small, scared girls in line, bitch."
     He was sizing me up, getting ready to rush me.  If he caught me
in a hold, he'd crush me; I had to keep him at a distance while trying to
find a way to take him down.  But a knot of fever-heat had tied itself
behind my eyes, way down deep, and as I held Arj's piggy gaze I smiled
back at him.
     "Arj," I said.  "I wish you hadn't called me that.  Cause I really,
really hate being called that."
     My first shot caught him flush in the nose.  It was a good shot,
and it hurt him, but there was no satisfying crunch of broken bone and
cartilage.  I flipped back, then landed a series of punishing kicks into his
midsection, dancing around him at full speed.  Rage fuelled my strikes,
but Arj soaked them up, even managing to clip me with one of his arms.
That hit was enough to send me pinwheeling through the air; I crashed
through a wall and into another room before I could recover.  I'd been
lucky to hit an interior wall, and not the stone foundation wall that the
desk had hit.
     I climbed back to my feet as Arj came plowing through the hole
I'd made, bellowing like a drunken bulldozer as he bore down on me.
His eyes promised pain, pain and humiliation.
     He probably thought I'd run.
     I probably should have.
     But I didn't.  I could sense the difference between hot and cold
chi, and even if I'd had the space to try the Hiryou Shouten Ha, I wasn't
having any luck keeping my chi cold.  Except ...
     Except there was something there, a cold core in the heat of my roiling
chi.  It was a strange sensation, like having cold tinfoil in your mouth, or
squeezing a hot dough ball with a cold, slushy centre, or walking through
hot mud and sinking through to ice.  Or maybe it wasn't like any of those
things.  That didn't matter, not really.  What mattered was that, even
though Arj had shrugged off every chi blast I'd hit him with so far, I was
going to give him another one.
     That was the thought I had as I unleashed the power within me.
Sliding into a stance, I was surrounded by a blazing blue glow as I drew
that energy closer, something I had done many times before.  Time
slowed down; Arj was coming, and I was going to meet him with
everything I had.  Time to see just what our boy was made of.
     Something was different, though.  The strange icy shard remained
within my chi like an uncharted undercurrent, changing the flow.
Something burned the inside of my right wrist, either with fire or intense
cold, but I couldn't be distracted now.  Arj seemed intent on flattening
me, and I called up all my reserves, cupping my palms, extending them.
     There was something around me, a haze, almost a shape.  It
swirled within my chi, hovering at the edge of comprehension, and part of
me burned to bring it into focus even as the rest didn't want to
acknowledge it.
     Arj saw it, too.  His piggy red eyes widened, and he actually
slowed.
     I didn't.
     Frigid music rippled along nerve-endings ablaze with heat,
drawing my whole being along the path of my chi-bolt.  It had never been
like this before.  Exhilaration so intense it was nearly pain screamed
through my head, and I rode it into Arj, over and through him, grabbing
him and hammering that impervious body with all my rage.  He
screamed then.  Arj the tormentor, the torturer, the creature who revelled
in cruelty and rape, at last was forced to taste fear.
     Sweat dripped into my eyes.  I shuddered, wiping it away with
the back of my hand.  Everything was quiet.  And pretty dark, too, except
for the sparks coming from beyond the wall I'd just blasted Arj through.
I stared down at my hands in the shadowed gloom, my throat coated with
sandpaper and my muscles trembling.
     "What the hell was that?" I whispered.  The energy that had
flowed through me had quieted now, but even in the aftermath I was
aware that I had just done something that I had never done before.  That
had been no mere chi blast.  Mere?  Damn, a chi blast was a hell of a
technique to begin with!  What had I called up?
     My only clue was the faint burning I still felt on the inside of my
right wrist.  The key resided there, under my bracer; there had been no
way to hide it in the outfit I'd been wearing, and I hadn't wanted to wear
it openly.  The key reacted to my chi, yes, but it had never reacted to
offensive uses before, not like this.
     What had it done?
     Only one way to find out.
     I moved through the gloom, being careful of my footing on the
debris-strewn floor.  The jacket I'd been wearing was totally shredded
and I discarded the remains; they were more of a distraction than
anything else now.  The torn mesh bodystocking was still hanging in
there, but not by much.  Still, what I saw when I eased through the
newest hole in Vanka's expensive house drove all thoughts of modesty
right out of my mind.
     Arj lay sprawled in a tangle of spitting electrical cables, coated
with dust and blood.  One of his legs was bent at an angle that should
have been impossible, and chunks of concrete slid off his heaving chest as
he coughed and stirred.  By the size of the indentation in the far wall,
he'd hit it with tremendous force, taking out the entire electrical panel
before collapsing under a rain of cold stone and live wires.
     Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
     The ceiling creaked ominously, and I stayed by the hole, looking
down at Arj.  That ceiling could come down at any time; I had a feeling
that Vanka was going to have some explaining to do to her insurance
agent.  Assuming I didn't get my hands on her first.
     "Bitch," Arj gasped.  "You ... luh-hittle ... BITCH."
     "Arj," I said softly, "you are what I like to refer to as a slow
learner."
     "Come here," Arj grunted, peering up at me with the one eye that
wasn't obscured by blood.  "I'm not done ... not done with you.  Not
yet."
     "That so?" I asked lightly.  The supports that held up the floor above
us had been damaged, several of them had splintered into sharp wooden
teeth that hung above Arj.  He seemed unaware of his predicament, or at
least unconcerned.  His one good eye lingered on my breasts, barely clad
in black mesh, and his grin made my stomach twist into an ice-cold knot.
     "I know," he grunted.  "I know what you need.  Arj will fix you.
Stuck-up bitch.  Won't be so big when I get through with yuh- you ..."
He broke off into a painful coughing fit, blood bubbling at the corners of
his mouth.
     "You fixed them all good, didn't you, Arj?" I asked.  I was
thinking of the cat-girl in the torture chamber, the one with the white
lingerie.  She'd had bruises on her thighs and the insides of her legs,
bruises the size of Arj's huge hands.
     He smiled.  He kept right on smiling while I thought of all the
others who had suffered because of him and those like him.  He smiled
while I thought of those who treated people like their rightful prey.  He
even smiled while I thought of another creature, one who'd kept Akane
alive until the last.  I tried to never think about what it might have been
planning.  I tried, but sometimes, in the darkest moments, that thought
haunted me, rode me, made me crazy.
     "Arj."  His one eyes swivelled, found me.  Incredibly, lying
broken and surrounded by live wires, he licked his lips as he ogled  me.
"Arj.  Listen."
     "Bitch."  He laughed, a wet, throaty sound, blood forming a foam
around his mouth.
     "Arj.  When you get to hell, you may see the thing that ate my
father and killed the girl I loved.  When you do, tell it Ranma Saotome
sent you."
     Then I picked up a piece of wall the size of my head and hurled it at
the unstable ceiling.
     The ensuing collapse was really spectacular.

***

     V eased through the hallway, stealthy as a shadow.  She'd been
careless enough for one day; she was pretty sure she had accounted for all
the household guards, but pretty sure wasn't good enough.  This entire
escapade had gone bad on them, and it was now time to regroup and bail,
intelligence on the Sisterhood be damned.
     She wondered if Ranma was responsible for the lights going out.
There was much less noise from down below than there had been, and V
wanted to go check on the red-head.  But Rei still wouldn't answer her
comm, and V's anxiety kept increasing with every room she checked.
Whatever had happened to give them away, Vanka's people had reacted
swiftly.  Had the woman herself taken Rei off-guard?
     V knew just what level of depravity and cruelty Vanka was
capable of.  Rei could be in real trouble.  She had to find her friend, fast.
This was, after all, her fault.  What had she been thinking, coming back
here?  Hells, not only coming back herself, but bringing the others?  If
anything had happened to Rei ...
     V paused, eyes narrowed.  In the pale shafts of illumination that
fell through the high, arched windows of the hall, she saw a door further
down the hallway that had been smashed.  A wedge shaped piece still
clung to the bottom hinge, but the rest had taken a terrible hit.  Not from
fire magick, either; there was no sign of charring or burn damage.
     Resuming her slow stalk through the clinging dark, V advanced
on the door, power simmering just under the fragile barrier of her skin.
She dreaded what she might see within that room, but that dread was
tempered by a welcome glow of anger.  It had been a long time since she
was able to feel anything but fear when she thought of Vanka.  Anger
was better.
     Actually, acting on her anger would be the best thing of all.  But
if Ranma and Rei suffered for her folly, then it would be a hollow victory
indeed.  V drew in a slow breath as she flattened herself against the wall
outside, thrusting all those distractions from her mind.  First nail Vanka,
she told herself.  No worrying until the enemy has been dealt with.  You
know the rules of engagement, girl, it's time you started following them.
You're no amateur.  Now.  One.  Two.
     Three.
     She burst into the room, going low as she swept her extended
finger from left to right, seeking a target.  The large room was a wreck,
the walls gouged, the furniture shattered.  From her vantage point, she
could see only one person, silhouetted against the window.  She trembled
on the edge of action, but familiarity dwelled in the stance, the line of the
body, the high cheekbones, the sleek sweep of the knee-length hair,
firelight picking out cool violet highlights there.
     "Rei!" V blurted, standing.
     "Always making an entrance," Rei replied.  Her tone was even,
but there was something else lurking in her throaty voice, something dark
and hungry.  V took a step forward, another, then stopped.  A shape lay
on the floor at Rei's feet, and even before V summoned her whip to cast a
golden glimmer through the room she knew who it must be.
     "Vanka," she said, surprised at how even her voice was.  There
had been a time when she could not even speak the woman's name
without her chest tightening in the beginnings of panic.  "Dead?"
     "No," Rei remarked, her face still cloaked in shadows.  "But she
is ... unwell.  I was questioning her, and I seem to have gotten somewhat
carried away."
     Rei's face was still shadowed, but in the soft light of her whip V could
see the girl's hand.  Shadows slithered there, alive with voracious
serpentine hunger, and the girl's gut tightened.  "Rei, I was calling you.
Why didn't you answer your damned comm?"
     "It's over there somewhere," Rei said dismissively.  Yeah,
something was definitely not right.  V followed the negligent wave of
Rei's shadow-wreathed hand and moved to the ruin of a large desk.  The
light of her whip showed something gleaming on the floor, half-buried
amongst the debris.  V knelt, plucking Rei's earring from the rubble.
There was something else there, too.
     Rei's henshin rod.
     So.  Things must have gone badly, for Rei to have been stripped
of these items.  And she had defeated Vanka with only her Sisterhood
abilities.  V stood, picking her way across the wreckage-littered floor
until she was nearly within reach of Rei.  The closer she came, the
stronger her misgivings; something prickled across her skin where it was
exposed, an aura of power that radiated like fever heat from Rei's
shadowed form.  There was something almost sinister in the set of Rei's
body as she watched V, and V had to remind herself that this was her
friend.  Rei would not hurt her.
     "Rei, are you all right?" V asked at last.
     "Quite," Rei replied, her voice a husky purr that sent shivers
skating down V's spine.
     "What in the hells happened?"
     "Vanka needed to be taught a lesson," Rei told her, moving toward V
with a sensual grace that tightened things low in the blonde's belly.
"About power.  Dominance.  And submission."
     Shadow clung to Rei's lithe form as she prowled lazily across the
room, loathe to release the sultry siren from its embrace.  It was like
watching water recede from a swimmer's body, only V quickly realized
that not all of the shadows had drained away to pool in the room's deeper
gloom.  Inky tendrils of shadow still writhed over Rei's pale skin, their
sinuous dance exerting an undeniable pull.  V felt her pulse throbbing in
her throat as her heart raced at the sight.  Rei had always evoked desire;
now, though, that erotic heat was spiced with a razored edge of menace.
     V had never wanted Rei more, and the fact that she had forgotten
where they were, even if only for a moment, was bad.  The fact that Rei
also seemed to have forgotten was worse.
     "Did she tell you anything useful?" V asked, her mouth dry.  Rei
moved closer, her smile caressing V's most delicate places with knee-
weakening skill.
     "She begged," Rei breathed.  "To stop.  Or not stop, it wasn't
actually very clear."
     "Damn it, Rei!  She has the answers we need!  This is why we
came here!"
     "Is it?" Rei asked.  They were face to face now in the gloom-
shrouded office, surrounded by destruction.  V managed not to shudder
as Rei's perfume enveloped her, a scent of sex, sin, leather, and bessin
root oil.  "I think maybe you came here for another reason."
     "What do you mean?" V demanded.
     "You needed to slay a demon," Rei said with a sly smirk gracing
her glistening lips.  "A demon that still haunted your past.  And you
have, I can see it.  The chains that bound you have been broken."
     "Rei," V said.  It was difficult to speak; Rei's eyes seemed to be
drinking her in, and her heart was pounding.  "Vanka.  We need ..."
     "I know what you need," Rei whispered, her hands coming up to
frame V's face.  Long nails trailed up the blonde's cheeks as Rei moved
against her, tossing V's cap aside carelessly, ignoring V's half-hearted
protest.  V gasped softly as Rei's fingers combed through her hair,
luxuriating in it, then twining in it and drawing her closer.
     The air was hot, heavy with the scent of desire.  V's hands were
on Rei's shoulders, but she couldn't seem to push the other girl away.
She couldn't even remember why she wanted to as Rei's lips slid along
her cheek slowly, seeking the tender flesh of her throat.  V whimpered as
that succubus mouth drew her earlobe into its velvet forge, then Rei's
breath was snaking into her ear, seeking to melt any resistance that
remained.
     "Let us celebrate our victory," Rei purred, one hand still buried
in V's mane, the other tracing delicious patterns at the small of her back
as Rei's breasts pressed against hers.  "I want you.  Now.  In the enemy's
sanctum, while she lies there, utterly defeated.  Let us consecrate this
place with our heat."
     Heat, yes.  Rei's mouth was at her throat, her chin, then on her
lips, and V moaned as she was kissed deeply.  Yet still something nagged
at her, an irritant which would not be denied.  Why?  V had always
desired Rei's attentions, her unbridled passion.  Why couldn't she just let
herself fall under Rei's spell?  Consecrate Vanka's sanctum with their
lust?  There was something darkly appealing about the notion.  With the
enemy defeated, just the two of them ... just ... two ...
     Two?
     V gasped, pushing Rei roughly away from her, panic lending her
strength.  Rei was taken off-guard, the hunger in her bottomless eyes
quickly replaced by fury.
     "What are you doing?" she asked, curling her lacquered nails
like talons.
     "Ranma!" V blurted.  "Rei, Ranma's in trouble!  He's fighting
Arj!"
     "One opponent?" Rei sniffed with a contemptuous toss of her
head.  "I hardly think that will prove a challenge for her."
     "Arj is no ordinary man!" V snapped.  Her entire body still
radiated heat from Rei's embrace, and she still felt the draw that the
sable-maned seductress was exerting.  Damn her!
     "And Ranma is no ordinary fighter," Rei replied, lips curling into
a bewitching smile.  "Still, as long as our scrappy Ranma is a red-headed
spitfire, I have no objection to her joining us."
     "She won't be joining anybody if we don't help her!" V cried.
"Rei, snap out of it!  We've got to go help her!"
     "Help who?" a voice asked from behind her.  V whirled in
surprise, nearly falling.  The sight that greeted her made her heart leap in
her leather-clad chest.
     "Ranma!  You're okay!  And half-naked!"
     "Er, yeah," Ranma said sheepishly.  V ran to her, grabbing the girl in
a fierce embrace and lifting her off her feet, spinning her around while
ignoring the red-head's protests.
     "I can't believe it!" V grinned.  "What happened?"
     "Arj got what was coming to him," Ranma said softly.
     "There's been a lot of that tonight," Rei said, and V turned to
glare at the priestess, who was watching them with undisguised interest.
     "Rei, what's the matter with you?" she growled.
     "There is nothing wrong with me," Rei assured her, beginning a
slow strut towards them.
     "This mission has gone right into the toilet, and you don't even
seem to care!" V declared hotly.
     "Why should I?" Rei asked.  The shadowy patterns on her skin
seemed to have grown to V's eyes, and were writhing in a way that
seemed entirely predatory.  "We won.  Our enemies lie at our feet, love.
That is what matters."
     "What about our mission?" V pressed.  "What about our
princess?"  Rei stopped then, a crease appearing between her eyes.
"Have you even wondered where Phobos and Deimos are, Rei?"
     Rei blinked, and it seemed to V that those inky tendrils slowed in
their undulating dance.  "The girls?" she asked, frowning.  "I ... I can't
sense them."
     "They're stuck outside," V said.  "There's a barrier.  They're
worried about you, Rei.  And so am I."
     "Stay here," Rei commanded, sweeping past them and out of the
room in a swirl of alabaster and midnight.
     "Sure," V muttered at the empty doorway.  "Nice talking to
you."
     "Um," Ranma said.  "Shouldn't we ...?"
     "Let her go for now," V sighed.  "Trust me, she shouldn't be
around either of us until she gets her head together.  Especially you, Red.
So much for the errant gust of wind, huh?"
     Ranma flushed, suddenly self-conscious.  Wearing nothing but a
tattered skirt and the remains of a mesh bodystocking was a very good
look for the busty red-head, and normally V would have taken more time
to appreciate the view.  But right now there was one last chance to maybe
salvage something from this mess, a mess she had been mostly
responsible for.
     "What are you doing?" Ranma asked as V stooped to pluck her
cap from the wreckage-strewn floor.
     "It looks like this was Vanka's new office," V told her.  "I'm
having a thought, Ranma.  Come on, help me search."
     "For what?"
     "I'll know," V said with a wry grin, "when I find it."

***

     Rei stopped in the downstairs hallway, leaning against the wall.
Her breathing had grown ragged, but when she finally lifted her hands,
they were clean.  Trembling, but clean.  Her shadow had been forced
back, once more tightly bound under her control.
     She laughed, a short, harsh bark of a sound in the still air.  She
had believed that her dark side had been buried deeply, interred along
with her time as a priestess of Dasma's order.  That particular grave,
however, had been far shallower than she had realized, a fact that
tonight's festivities had made painfully clear.
     She shivered.  The power had sunk back within her, leaving her
feeling naked, vulnerable.  That was one of the insidious aspects of
calling her shadow to the surface; it brought a great many things with it
when it rose from the murk.  The shadow granted not only certain
abilities of Shadow Magick, but also confidence, certitude, arrogance.
Shadows were not constrained by conscience or uncertainty, and
constantly inveigled the caster to sate their appetites, be they for violence,
or pleasure, or any form of indulgence.
     Rei had let her shadow slip its leash; that had been the only way
to defeat Vanka.  As it turned out, she had loosed more than just the
shadow, however.  All those old feelings, the sense of being a goddess, of
being entitled to everything she could take, all of it had returned in full
force for the first time since she'd come to this city.  It was not that she
was unaware of what was happening; she simply hadn't wanted to stop it.
     You thought you had put all that behind you, eh, Sister
Darkeyes?  Well, guess again.  Scratch the surface and find all the old
darknesses still right there under the skin.  Rei pushed off of the wall,
raking her fingers through her hair.  Gods, how had they done it?  The
history of the Sisterhood told of the Mistresses of Shadow Magick who
had once been a power within the order.  They had worn their shadows as
raiments, flowing cloaks that sheltered them, swallowing light even at
mid-day.  They had been able to form weapons from their own shadows,
supple whips, sinuous and self-aware snares that could resist mundane
weapons.  They could pass through Shadow Realm at will, and most of
all, they had wreathed themselves in living shadow at all times.
     So much of the lore of Shadow Magick had been lost in that final
battle.  What remained was a pale echo of what they had once
commanded, and yet even that tempted the soul, whispering seductive
promises of freedom, freedom from the rigid rules of humans, freedom to
rage and feed and slake every thirst of flesh and will.
     "But you should have known better," she whispered into the
darkness.  Her voice sounded hollow to her ears.  V and Ranma could
have been in trouble, had been if the state of Ranma's clothing was any
indication.  And V had been facing her demons here, braving a haunted
past, facing darkness with courage.  All while Rei had given in to her
own darkness.
     Damn it.
     Rei stormed down the hallway, almost wishing for a stray guard
to cross her path.  That only lasted until she realized that she had
neglected to retrieve her comm and henshin rod.  Idiot, she berated
herself.  Are you really a senshi?  If you don't start thinking straight,
your luck is going to run out.
     Rei had been planning to use the front door, but it appeared that
someone had made their own exit out of this hallway.  She moved
gingerly, picking her way along the rubble strewn hallway towards the
ragged hole in the wall.  Why had she told V and Ranma to stay upstairs,
anyway?  Well, if she was honest with herself, that was because she had
needed the time to regain control, and she had been a little bit afraid of
what would happen if those two were near her.  V had been a lush vision
in glossy leather, and Ranma ... Ranma had practically been glowing
with raw vitality.
     Now that she was in control, though, she couldn't just call them
to come down, since she had left her comm behind.  That thought led to
another; the Outers were on their frequency now.  If she had called for
help earlier, she might have ended up showing her darkest face to those
women as well.  She had a feeling that this was not the time for Hotaru
and the others to come face-to-face with that particular sight.  Or, gods,
Usagi.  Please, she thought, never let her see me that way.
     Rei eased out into the night, moving cautiously.  She had given
rein to her huntress side earlier, but now it was time to act like prey.
They would be fortunate to come away from this fiasco with nothing
more than bruised pride, that was for certain.
     Crossing the grass, she felt the barrier as she passed through it.  It
clung to her skin like dry old spiderwebs, and she fought the urge to
grimace.  Whatever it was, Vanka must have triggered it somehow from
the office, for it had not been there when they'd entered.
     Once through the barrier, Rei could immediately sense distress
emanating from the twins.  She found them huddled together at the base
of an old cherry tree, unable to stand.
     "Are you two all right?" she asked gently as she knelt.
     "Rei-sama," Phobos breathed.  "You're safe."
     "We told V to find you," Deimos mumbled, slumped against her
twin.
     "She did," Rei murmured.  "It was you, wasn't it?  You managed
to break through the barrier with that shot and free me."
     "We couldn't come," Phobos whimpered.  "I'm sorry, Rei-sama
..."
     "Hush, now.  You did fine.  You saved me, girls."  It had taken a
lot out of them, though, Rei could see.  She reached down to scoop the
diminutive girls up when something caught her eye, a sliding swath of
blue light racing along a section of wall down towards the front of the
grounds.  Rei recognized it, and her gut tightened.
     Damn.  The police.

***

     So here I was, half-naked, sifting through the rubble of an office
which belonged to a Tyrian noblewoman.  Said noblewoman was lying
unconscious on the floor, showing no sign of moving anytime soon.  V
seemed to have been infused with manic energy, Rei had gone all the way
to the dark side, and we hadn't managed to find out anything except that
the Sisterhood had been doing something with the Sultana.
     Boy, do I know how to have fun, or what?
     Still, V had recovered from earlier.  Okay, maybe I thought she
was overcompensating a little, but that was her business, not mine.  I
didn't want to pry, but the silence was getting uncomfortable.
     "Uh, what happened to the slaves?" I asked finally, choosing a
conversational gambit that seemed safe.
     "Huh?  Oh, I sent them somewhere safe.  And they weren't
slaves."
     "They weren't?"
     "Slavery is illegal in the kingdom, Ranma."
     "Then why were they there?" I asked, scowling at the memory of
the tableau we'd walked in on.  "They sure as hell didn't look like they
wanted to be."
     "If I had to guess," V grunted, rummaging through the debris,
"I'd say they were soft markers."
     "Soft markers?  What's that?"
     "One of the many dirty little secrets of the city's underbelly,
Ranma my dear."  V tossed aside a twisted metal drawer and glanced
over at me to see if I was paying attention.  When she caught my gaze,
she gave me a wry smile.  That smile didn't reach her eyes, though, and if
I wasn't the smartest guy in the world when it came to people, I at least
had learned when to shut up and listen.
     So I shut up.  And I listened.
     "You see, Ranma, there are plenty of dealings in this city that are,
shall we say, below official radar.  And sometimes deals go bad, or fall
through, or debts are incurred.  One way to buy some time in a case like
that is to give a soft marker to the person you owe the debt to."
     "You can give someone a person?" I asked, a chill that had
nothing to do with my lack of clothes..
     "One or more," V nodded, an ugly twist of her lips flashing across her
face briefly.  "Depending on just how deep you've gotten in, and how
bad-ass the folks you're into are."
     "You just said that slavery is illegal," I growled.  "So why would
anyone let themselves be treated like that?"
     V stopped what she was doing, straightening up and tossing her
hair back.  She fiddled with her cap for a moment, conveniently hiding
her eyes in the process.
     "It's a hard world, Ranma," she said at last, her voice soft but full of
complicated emotion.  Or maybe it wasn't so complicated.  Maybe I just
didn't want to think about it.  "People offered as soft markers are usually
in a bad position.  There are places in the city, clubs that cater to the
extreme and bizarre.  Girls and boys who are too young or can't work in
a licensed club for some reason often end up there.  The owner of such a
place certainly wouldn't be above offering his staff as a marker for his
debts without asking them to volunteer."
     Yeah.  This definitely wasn't getting any better.  She hadn't come
right out and said it, but then, she didn't have to.  I remembered our
famous fireside chat of a few nights past.  There are some less
discriminating places where the law isn't followed so closely, Rei had
said, or words to that effect.  The pieces were all falling into place, and
the picture was not a pretty one.  There was a tightness behind my eyes,
and I suddenly really wanted to go back and dig Arj up so I could beat on
him some more.  But that wouldn't change anything, not now.
     So I shut up, and I listened.
     "And demi-humans, like this group we rescued, they get treated
even worse than humans," V continued, taking off her cap and polishing
the brim with her glove.  She seemed to need to talk about this, so I let
her.  "They usually have, not only beauty and grace, but healing abilities
engineered into them that allow them to suffer terrible physical abuse
without risking permanent damage to the 'merchandise'."
     "Engineered?" I asked before I could stop myself.
     "Demi-humans were originally created through sorcerous
engineering by the Genrous," V told me.  "Mostly as pleasure slaves.
And the Genrous were rough with their toys."
     "Oh."  My stomach curdled.
     "Anyway, with soft markers, if the debt gets paid off, then the
markers are returned.  The person owed the debt picks the marker, and so
usually the prettiest and most valuable get taken.  That's good in a way,
because the person who lost you likely wants to pay off the debt and get
you back, if only for your earning potential."
     "And if the debt doesn't get paid off?" I asked.  I didn't want to,
but we'd started this, and I had the feeling that it needed to go right to the
end.  Kind of like lancing an infected boil.
     "The markers are forfeit," V said, her voice terribly soft.  "None
of this is at all legal, Ranma, but it goes on all the time.  Vanka, now,
she's a special kind of sadist.  She ... word has it that she sets up owners
of underground clubs and other people who have what she wants.  She
manipulates them into deals that seem lucrative, then has her contacts
screw them.  That way, they end up leveraged and short of cash, or they
lose a shipment they were handling on consignment, or something like
that."
     "So she picks the target, gets into business with him, and secretly
screws him so she'll have an excuse to take these soft markers," I said
slowly.  I was starting to wish Rei had left a piece of Vanka for me.
     "Bingo," V said with a dry, mirthless chuckle.  "What a piece of
work, huh?  Of course, I knew about this beforehand.  And I didn't tell
you.  I ..."
     "It's okay," I said awkwardly.  I wanted to do something, hug
her, make her feel better.  But I just couldn't.  There was still a distance
between me and other people, a chasm that might just always surround
me.
     "No," V said flatly, anger flashing behind her deep blue eyes.  "It
isn't okay, Ranma.  You had to cover for me, Rei got in way over her
head, and all for what?  Damn it, it has to be here somewhere!"
     "What?" I asked, suddenly feeling a creeping dread weighing
down on my chest.  Was she going to cry?  Man, I hoped not.  I was just
hopeless when they did that.
     "Evidence!" V blurted, heaving debris aside.  "Something,
anything, to make this not have been  for nothing!  If there's something,
she would have kept it close, and I want it!"
     I watched her sudden fury, wanting to help, pretty sure that I
couldn't.  I wished Rei would come back.  Even if she was all dark and
shadowy, I was sure she would know what to do, what to say, to make V
feel better.
     "Well," I mumbled, "if she kept it in that filing cabinet, it's
probably on the floor somewhere."  I gingerly nudged a twisted metal
drawer with my toe.
     "She wouldn't keep anything important in something as unsecure
as a filing cabinet," V fumed.  "She'd ..."  I looked over to find her
frozen in mid-sentence, eyes wide.
     "What?" I asked tentatively.
     "I'm an idiot," V said, sounding dazed.  "I mean, as the city's
premier cat-burglar, I know where people keep valuable things."
     "Banks?" I asked weakly.  Well, at least she seemed to have
calmed down again.
     "No," she said absently, navigating the room's gloom-shrouded
perimeter.  I watched in amazement as she tore a crooked painting off the
wall and tossed it impatiently aside.  "Not something you want close at
hand.  You keep it in a ... ah-hah!"
     A ah-hah?  Oh, wait.  She'd pulled another painting down,
something ugly as sin and probably valuable, to reveal a safe in the wall.
Well, that was a start.  Assuming that Vanka had any information on
what the Sisterhood was up to, and that she kept that info written down.
But hell, having something to focus on seemed to have distracted V from
the situation, so I kept my doubts to myself, moving over by the window
and pulling down the remnants of the torn drapes.  Torn?  The damned
things were nearly shredded.  Still, I managed to salvage a strip big
enough to tie around my breasts.
     But purple?  Ugh.  Really not my colour.
     I watched V size up the safe for a moment.  I half expected her to
cut it open with her beam, but instead she took out that crescent-shaped
thing she'd used earlier to change my outfit.  It flipped open, hinged at
the points of the crescent, to form a circle, and she placed it against the
door of the safe surrounding the dial.
     "Wouldn't it be faster to just blow it open?" I asked her.
     "Oh, sure," she muttered, her attention on the strange device.
"But that could end up destroying whatever's inside.  Boy oh boy, she
didn't scrimp on this baby.  A Kessler-Kartin Type III, with some nasty
enhancements.  This is high-end."
     "Can you open it?"
     She turned then, giving me one of her patented smiles, the ones
that oozed confidence and sex appeal.
     "Do greckins shit in the woods?"  I stared at her blankly, and her
eyebrow twitched ever so slightly.  "Yes, Ranma.  That means yes."
     "Got it."
     She sighed and turned back to the safe.  "Hmmmm.  Well, well.
What's this?  Something's not right here.  I can smell it."  She fiddled
with her gadget, then made a little sound of triumph.
     "That was fast," I said.
     "Oh, I haven't even started yet," V told me.  "This thing is
definitely the real deal, my friend.  These steel pinwheels are dummies,
booby-trapped.  There is a set of crystal pinwheels overlying them.  I
nearly missed those, but they're the real locking mechanism.  But how
...?  Ah.  Yes, yes yes yes.  Viscount Luriastimont."
     "Bless you."
     "He was a guy I robbed," V replied.  "Real scumbag.  But smart.
Ranma, check the skank of the house.  See if she's wearing any rings."
     I crouched down beside Vanka's unmoving body, flushing as I
realised that her blouse was open to the waist, revealing all her assets.
Having mine waving around hadn't bothered me, but seeing hers made
me blush.  Go figure.  Oddly, she didn't look as though she'd been in
much of a fight.  There was a faint red smear near her mouth which
might have been blood or lipstick, but other than that she didn't even
look bruised.  I wondered what Rei had done to her.
     I recalled the vibe she'd been giving off last time I'd seen her, and
wondered if I really wanted to know.
     "She's wearing four," I told her after a brief inspection.
     "Is one of them silver with some kind of opaque stone in it?
Probably with intricate little curlicues all around?"
     "Yeah, there's one like that.  You want it?"
     "No, don't remove it from her hand.  That would be bad.  Just
hoist her on up here, would you?"
     A strange request, but what the hell.  I grabbed the limp woman
under the arms, blushing again as I accidentally groped her in the
process.  She didn't react at all, though, and I caught her around the waist
and slowly moved her close to the safe.
     "Yeah," V nodded as she took Vanka's hand.  "I thought so.
Very nasty."
     "What is?"
     "Another booby trap," she murmured, raising the woman's hand
to the dial.  She touched the pale green stone of the ring to the centre of
the dial, and I heard a faint chime.  V gave her head a little toss, dropping
Vanka's hand.  "Bingo, again."
     "Uh," I said as she peered intently at her gadget, "what should I
do with her?"
     "Ah, just put her anywhere," V sniffed.  I sighed and began
looking for a clear place to lay Vanka down, only to have V reach out
and push the unconscious woman's body out of my arms.  Caught by
surprise, I could only squawk as Vanka's body tumbled heavily to the
floor, landing in an ungainly heap.
     "Hey!" I blurted.
     "Looks good on her," V shrugged, obviously unconcerned.
Having witnessed the secrets of her little torture chamber, I wasn't too
inclined to feel sorry for Vanka, but roughing up an unconscious woman
wasn't my style.  I scowled but held my tongue as V pulled the dial out
until it clicked, then began spinning it slowly.
     "We've got to get out of here!" Rei announced, bursting in
through the door and nearly giving me a heart attack.
     "Not yet," V replied dismissively.  "Got something here."
     "The police are outside," Rei snapped.  "They'll be in here any
time!"
     "Big deal," V returned without any apparent concern.  "We've
got enough time."
     "V!"
     I was glad to see that Rei's shadow was back on the floor where it
belonged.  She seemed to be back to normal, but V didn't even look up at
her friend, continuing to work on the safe.
     "This is an impressive little safe, Rei.  The answers we're looking
for may be in here."
     "That won't help if we're caught!"
     "Geez, Rei, where's your sense of adventure?  I used to do this all
the damned time.  Once, I went out the window just as the cops were
opening the door, no more than a second ahead of them.  To make it as a
cat-burglar, you've gotta have nerves of steel."
     "And a brain of mush?"
     "I'll go distract the cops," I said before an argument could break
out.  The girls stopped sniping and turned to look at me.
     "It's too dangerous," Rei said flatly.
     "Good idea," V said at the same time.  Rei glared at her.
     "Look, I'm fast enough that they won't even be able to get a good
look," I told them.  "I'll lead them away from you, buy you some time,
then meet you back at the car."
     I turned to go, but Rei called me back.  "One thing," she said
brusquely.
     "What?" I asked, expecting a lecture.  Instead, she reached
around me and tugged at the loose ends of my makeshift top, whipping it
off with a flourish.  She looked down at my full breasts, and although she
didn't smile I thought I saw a flash of something deep in the darkness of
her eyes.
     "Now," she said archly, "you're a distraction.  Go."
     Well, I had nothing to say to that.
     I went.

***

     V slowly turned the dial, feeling that old familiar rush.  Breaking
into things was a lot more fun than most people would have suspected.
This particular safe was a very expensive model, not to mention
something of a challenge.  It required just the right amount of pressure to
move the crystal pinwheels instead of the steel ones; a sure touch was
her only salvation.
     "Ranma will buy us a little time," Rei said from behind her.
"But not much.  We can't stay."
     "I have no desire to stay," V muttered.  "We can leave as soon as
I get this open."
     "V," Rei said, sounding exasperated.  There was a moment of
silence.  "Mina.  Tell me this isn't about ego."
     "What's that supposed to mean?"
     "It means you want to hurt Vanka, and since I beat you to it,
you're going for the next best thing.  You want to take something
valuable to her."
     "Don't give up your day job," V snorted, frowning at the
Crescent Compact's display.  "If there's any evidence of what Vanka was
doing with the Sisterhood, my money says it's in here.  Isn't that what we
came for?"
     "And we could ask the lady herself if I hadn't gotten out of
control, is that what you're trying to say?"
     "Damn it, Rei!  Why do we have to argue about this now?
Forget all the mistakes we made tonight, if we can score here then it will
all have at least been for something, right?"  V turned to look at her
friend, who showed no trace of the dark hunger that had ridden her
earlier.  Rei's deep violet eyes seemed haunted, though, holding V's gaze
with an uncharacteristic reluctance.
     "Maybe we should take her with us," Rei said softly.
     V hesitated.  Turning the tables of Vanka appealed to her, so
much so that she knew she couldn't be objective.  "Bad idea," V sighed,
shaking her head.  "There are a lot of cops out tonight, what with the
curfew thing and all.  Carting a comatose kidnapped Tyrian noble
halfway across the city could be a bit tricky.  Anyway, I want her right
here when they bust in, surrounded by illegal Gan guns and Jell rounds,
slaver gear and gods alone know what else."
     "V, how secure is that safe?" Rei asked after V had turned back.
     "I can get in, if that's what you mean," V assured her.
     "It's not," Rei replied, moving closer.  "I mean, if there actually
is some evidence, something incriminating, would she be confident
enough of her security to keep it in there?"
     "This is a very sweet little unit, Rei," V said as she worked.  "It's
tied into the building's superstructure with hardened steel rods that are
laced with protective glyphs.  Try to cut the safe out of the wall, and you
lose whatever is inside.  That's just for starters.  It can't even be opened
unless the owner personally presents a coded ring before entering the
combination.  If that ring isn't presented, or is taken off the owner's hand
first, the contents of the safe are destroyed.  I've only ever seen two other
safes of this type, you know.  A lot of paranoia went into the making this
puppy."
     "I see," Rei breathed.  "I wonder ..."
     "You wonder if Vanka was careless enough to keep records of
illegal activities?" V inquired sweetly.  "She does like her trophies, that
woman.  And she has flouted kingdom law for a long time.  Her
arrogance may have made her careless."
     "Mine certainly did," Rei replied with a bitter smile.  V glanced
at her and frowned.
     "Come again?" V blurted, astounded.  "You can't tell me that
you think you blew our cover?  It must have been me, Rei, I know that
..."
     "It wasn't," Rei assured her, raking her fingers through her hair
as she spoke.  "You see, from the time we arrived I was watching Vanka.
And I continued watching her as we talked, using all my training to stay
alert for a change in behaviour, a tell, anything to indicate that her
attitude towards me had changed.  That would tell me that something had
alerted her to our deception, and I would have acted immediately to
neutralize her and warn you."
     "She got the drop on you, Rei," V said, her gaze softening.  "It
happens.  You're only human, you know."
     "I am aware of my limitations," Rei admitted.  "But that's not the
point.  In my arrogance, I failed to account for one thing.  And that is
what nearly got us taken."
     "I don't get it," V frowned, turning from the safe to face Rei fully.
"You're saying she never showed any sign that she caught on to us.  So
how could you have known?"
     "She never did catch on to us, Mina.  That's the point.  Even while she
had me at her mercy, even when we were fighting, she kept referring to
me as a Sisterhood bitch.  She thought we were what we claimed to be."
     "Then why?  Why attack us if we were emissaries of the Sisterhood?"
     "She attacked us BECAUSE we were emissaries of the
Sisterhood," Rei replied. "Vanka revealed to me that she had been doing
business with the Sisterhood, dangerous business.  She made reference to
a transaction that would get her entire house destroyed if it was linked to
her."
     "Gods, what would be worth that risk?" V mused.
     "I'm not certain.  There are any number of things that the
Sisterhood could have supplied her with," Rei confirmed.  "Forbidden
magicks, illegal drugs and chemicals, brainwashing political opponents.
Regardless, when we showed up with our trumped-up suspicions ..."
     "We didn't realize she actually had something to hide," V said slowly.
"Holy crap, Rei!  What?  What was it?  Was she going to double-cross
the Sisterhood?"
     "I think so," Rei said.  "If so, she may have kept something that would
incriminate the Sisterhood, something that would cause great harm to her
enemies."
     "And that something could be in here," V breathed.
     "Perhaps," Rei cautioned.  "If there is any evidence at all.  But if
there is something that dangerous in there ..."
     "No sweat," V said, a preternatural calm settling over her like a
shroud.  "I'll be careful."
     "And quick?" Rei asked, glancing at the window.  "More lights.
There isn't much time."
     "Then shush and let me concentrate," V mumbled.  Hmm.  Yes,
there.  That was the second pin engaged, and now back ... yes, this was
tricky, but fortunately she had encountered such a system before.  Hah!
Vanka was planning a double-cross?  That didn't surprise V, not in the
least.  Well, Her Ladyship would drop a load in her thousand-crown
riding pants when she woke up to find her safe empty, wouldn't she?  Ah,
to be a fly on the wall when that happened!
     "Got it," V announced.  Triumphantly she turned the handle to
open the door.
     And felt a tiny tingle of magick.
     Paranoia, indeed, she thought blackly.  She probably would have
missed that magickal signature in her civilian guise; for damn sure, she
wouldn't have been able to hurl herself to the side in time.  As it was, it
was a near thing.  The door to the safe burst open as V rolled across the
floor, catching sight of something from the corner of her eye.  Wincing as
she rolled over broken wood and part of a lamp, she came to her feet
ready for trouble.  A loud siren had started whooping throughout the
house, its tone strident and piercing.
     Marvellous, V though.  A back-up alarm with an independent power
source.  But what was that magickal booby-trap?
     "Gods," Rei breathed.  She was unhurt, but the expression of
wonder mixed with revulsion on her lovely face intrigued V, and she
moved closer and looked at the floor.
     "A special little surprise, courtesy of the Sultana," Rei said flatly.
     "Whoa," V gaped.  "Is that a Jell?"
     "I think so.  But I've never seen anything like it," Rei remarked,
keeping her distance.  The Jell was far larger than any V had ever seen.
It was also neither red nor black.  It was an unpleasant snot-yellow
colour, and it made disgusting liquid noises as it writhed.  Had V not
been transformed, the Jell would have caught her, holding her helpless in
its foul embrace until someone arrived to investigate the alarm.
     But it hadn't.  Instead, it had fallen to the floor.
     And landed squarely on Vanka.
     V watched the thing ooze around Vanka's limp form, wrapping
her body tightly with its mucous-coloured tentacles.
     "V," Rei said.  "The safe.  Are there any other surprises?"
     There weren't.  Within the cramped confines of the safe resided
only one object, an oblong black case of the sort commonly used to store
computer discs.  V removed it gingerly while Rei stood ready, both of
them alert for more trouble.  When V had the case in her hands, she let
her breath out slowly.
     "All right," Rei said, raising her voice to be heard over the
raucous siren.  "Let's get out of here!"
     She ran to the doorway, and V followed, hesitating only for a
moment to cast a last look back at Vanka, who was getting to know her
new friend very well indeed.
     "Looks good on you, bitch," V whispered.
     Then she was away.

***

     "That could have gone better," Jupiter grumbled.  Mercury
agreed silently.  Then again, she thought it might have gone far worse, as
well.  She was beginning to have a sneaking suspicion with regards to
Gareth's intractability.
     "Well, Gareth did agree to help," Mercury sighed as they walked
along the street.  They were taking a roundabout path back to the bike.  It
wouldn't do to be observed by a curious shifter, after all.  They had more
than enough problems to deal with.
     "You'd have thought we asked him for the world itself," Jupiter
said in disgust.
     "Or the moon," a voice said from the shadows.  They both
jumped, and a deep-throated male laugh resonated all around.  "Relax,
lovely warriors.  We have a truce, after all."
     "Gareth," Jupiter said, a dangerous edge in her voice.  "You
nearly got yourself fried just then.  You ought to be more careful."
     "Funny," Gareth replied, moving out of the darkness with a grace
that belied his size.  "I was just thinking the same thing about you."
     Rin emerged from the alleyway in Gareth's wake, and Mercury
fought the urge to watch him move.  Gareth possessed a nearly primal
male aura, but Rin ... she could see why Jupiter had trouble resisting Rin.
There was something deeply compelling about him.  It wasn't just his
physical beauty, although that certainly was a draw.
     "Gods," Jupiter sighed, rolling her eyes theatrically.  "Is the
entire pack going to follow us home like strays?"  Mercury noted the
tension in Jupiter's shoulders, however.  She was not happy at the sudden
reappearance of the pack's two highest ranking members.  Mercury
couldn't blame her.
     "You speak like someone used to being worshipped," Gareth
remarked.  There was a dark undertone to his words; Jupiter bristled, but
Mercury knew that this was no mere verbal goad.  She was certain that
her suspicions had been correct.  Time to indulge her curiosity.
     "Ewargin, it is said that your people worship only the White
Mother," Mercury said softly.  A peculiar stillness fell over the two
shifters.  Jupiter, taken off-guard by the abrupt shift in mood, could only
stand and stare.  Mercury prayed that her friend would allow her some
room to work.  This could be a delicate matter.
     "There are none who are not pack who name me thus, girl,"
Gareth said.  His voice was a basso rumble, that gorgeous eye staring
down at her.  There was fire there, hot pride and cold steel.  She met that
gaze unflinchingly.
     "I offer no disrespect," she replied, aware of Rin's gaze on her.
     "It is not a matter of respect."  The hard-edged planes of the big
man's face cut the very night air around him.  Mercury could feel his
roiling aura, feral and barely contained by his flesh.  "How do you come
to know such a thing?"
     Many secrets were whispered in the mad places, the bad places,
the lost places where a young girl had wandered.  That was not for
Gareth to know.  But memory served here, with but a little
embellishment.
     "There were tribes of shape-shifters who made their home in the
deepest forests of Farside," Mercury said, her demeanour placid.  "Their
ferocity as warriors and love of the forest made them much beloved of the
queen, and her huntmaster was always Ewargin of one of the tribes."
     Cool power rippled over her skin, raising a prickle of gooseflesh
at the nape of her neck.  "So," Gareth breathed, his eye narrowing.  "You
truly claim to be daughters of the moon."
     Mercury was peripherally aware of Jupiter's startled glance at
Rin.  Ah-ha.  So that was it.  Jupiter must have recounted the truth of
their past to Rin, unaware of what the ramifications might be.
     "I claim nothing," Mercury told him, careful to show no anger.
"It is simply truth.  Whether your people are truly descended from the
shapeshifters of our time, I cannot say."
     "But you can say that you are the Handmaidens of the White
Mother," Gareth replied.  His voice had gone even lower, a soft, purring
growl slinking menacingly through his words.
     "You believe we mean to undermine your authority with your
people?" Mercury asked, knowing how small she seemed next to the
hulking shifter.
     "Not that I believe you, but any challenges to my authority, little
girl, and your pretty princess will bleed."
     Mercury's eyelid twitched.  It was a tiny motion, but she knew
that Gareth took notice of it.  She had to crane her head back to meet the
man's eyes, but she did not give way before him.
     "Though she is the true and only daughter of Queen Serenity, our
princess demands no fealty from you or your people," Mercury replied,
her voice so soft it was nearly a whisper.  Gareth twitched, raising his
hand to his face.  It came away wet, and he frowned.  "She may even,"
the senshi continued gently, "share her late mother's fondness for
shifters."
     A loud metallic rattling began to echo up and down the street,
starting as a faint clatter but rising quickly to a raucous cacophony.
     "Speaking for myself, however," Mercury continued, eyes
narrowed, "I believe I have taken an intense disliking to your face."
     All up and down the street, sewer grates and manhole covers
chose that moment to explode skywards.  Gareth's eyes widened and his
body went rigid.  Reflexively, he took a half-step back as solid columns
of water blasted into the night air.  There was an unholy noise as solid
metal rained to the ground, shattering asphalt, concrete and, in one
thunderous impact, an unfortunate newspaper box.  Mercury had not
moved, but Gareth's aura no longer prowled over her skin.
     "Congratulations, Gareth," Jupiter drawled, a crooked grin on her lips.
"You've made her angry.  That's a rare feat.  Two things, my friend.
One, nobody threatens our princess.  Nobody."
     "And two?" Gareth asked.  No longer did his gaze hold anger and
contempt.  He regarded Mercury with a gratifying wariness now.
     "Two?  You might want to apologize," Jupiter said softly.
     "Indeed," the big man breathed, his eye flicking to the solid
columns of water that towered above them, filled with elemental malice.
"Your point is taken.  Very well, Sailor Mercury.  I have mis-spoken.  I
would no more countenance a threat against my people than you would
against yours.  Therefore, I offer my apology to your princess."
     "I am certain she would accept it," Mercury replied, her eyes
boring into Gareth's face.  "She is, by nature, magnanimous."
     "And you are not?"  She knew Gareth would not back down any
more than this, but having given rein to her temper she was now loathe to
call it back.  Surprisingly, it was Rin who broke the deadlock.  He moved
up beside her, moving with that supple animal grace and making sure she
could see him the entire way.  Then he went down on one knee and took
her left hand, drawing it to his mouth.  He bent his head over her hand,
letting his glorious mane of russet hair spill over her arm, and even
though Mercury knew she was being charmed she had to fight the urge to
shudder.  The lithe shifter kissed the back of her hand, and her flesh
tingled even through her glove.
     "I, as well, offer my most abject apologies," Rin murmured,
tossing his hair back in a motion that sent a glossy liquid shimmer though
it.  Mercury didn't know whether to be outraged at his transparent
attempt to defuse her anger or charmed by his roguish delight at the heat
they were generating.
     "Is it your job to smooth over Gareth's provocations?" Mercury
asked.
     "Sometimes," Rin admitted.  Gareth laughed, a low, husky
sound, and Mercury let the water go, the columns growing ragged, losing
their cohesion and collapsing noisily to the ground.
     "He is quite good at it," Gareth snorted.  "Pays to be a ladykilling
pretty-boy.  Some days."
     "Gareth, you don't really think we're trying to get worshipped by
your people as goddesses, do you?" Jupiter asked.
     "I believe Gareth is more concerned about what might happen
when his people find out we really are reincarnated from the old White
Moon Court," Mercury told her.
     "There have already been rumblings," Gareth admitted.  "Your friend
taking possession of that girl who bore the spirit of a cat was noticed by
all present, you know.  As was the fight between my people and yours the
other night.  But, just so we understand each other, I am the Ewargin
of this pack.  This hunt for the Sisterhood, this is undertaken in order to
defeat our mutual enemy.  Once the vampire is dust, this truce is over."
     "Are you sure that's what you want?" Jupiter asked, looking
grave.
     "I am sure," Gareth answered, looking down into Mercury's eyes
again, "that I do not need legends of the old moon interfering with how I
run my pack.  I have seen your power, girl, and I am a man who respects
power.  But if there is any attempt to extend your authority over the
shifters of this city in the name of the White Mother, then there will be
retribution, swift and terrible."
     "Gareth," Jupiter began, warning clear in her voice.
     "He is not threatening you," Rin said, that mocking half-smile
not reaching his eyes.  "We are not the only pack in this city.  There have
been rumblings among the others as well, minor for now, but ..."
     "But we were made to serve once before," Gareth finished for
him.  "We will not be conquered again.  Tell your princess that, ladies.
We answer the call of the White Mother, but we will not answer hers."
     "As I said, the princess claims no dominion over the shifters,"
Mercury replied evenly.
     "Then there won't be any problems, will there?"  The gleam in
Gareth's eye said he didn't believe that, though.  He had delivered the
message he'd wanted to deliver, and Mercury was quite sure that this was
far from over.  Once the vampire was dealt with, the senshi might find
themselves unwittingly in the middle of a religious schism that could tear
the shifter community apart.
     Jupiter moved up beside her as the two men faded soundlessly
back into the shadows, sighing loudly.
     "Well, this is just great," she groused.  "Can't our lives ever be
simple?"
     "I guess not," Mercury shrugged.  "Best not to worry about what
we can't change, at least for now.  We have the cooperation of Gareth's
people in looking for the Sisterhood.  That's what we came for."
     "And you got the message across to Gareth," Jupiter said with a
small smile.  "Me, I was just going to fry his ass.  Wait until Usagi
hears."
     "It wasn't that big a deal," Mercury objected, her face flushing
with pleasure.
     "Sure it was," Jupiter told her, clapping the smaller girl on the
back.  "Man, I love listening to you talk!  Countenance this, fealty that.
And   'I believe I have taken an intense disliking to your face'!  That was
classic.  I thought you were gonna flatten old one-eye."
     "For a moment," Mercury confessed, her heart finally beginning
to pound now that the moment was past, "so did I."

***

     "Hotaru, calm down," Setsuna said.
     "I am calm," Hotaru snapped, then stopped with visible effort and
took a deep breath.  "All right, fine.  Calm.  See?  Now, let's take it from
the top.  You let the girls all go out on these reckless jaunts?  Without
supervision?"
     Hotaru," Setsuna sighed, "we didn't let them do anything.  It was
Usagi's choice.  And they don't need supervision.  You have to start
trusting the princess's judgement in these matters."
     "No, I don't," Hotaru growled, sounding cross.
     "Anyway, what were they supposed to do while you were gone?"
Setsuna went on, blithely ignoring her friend's temperamental outburst.
"At least this way, we might accomplish something useful."
     "I don't like our resources being stretched so thin," Hotaru
protested, pacing briskly through the study.  "Especially at a time like
this."
     "I know you worry," Setsuna said, her tone gentle.  That brought
Hotaru up short.  The dark-haired woman took another deep breath,
letting it out slowly.
     "None of them can go up against a vampire," Hotaru said at last,
not turning to face Setsuna.
     "They aren't looking for the vampire, they're looking for the
Sisterhood," Setsuna reminded her.  "When we fight the vampire, it will
be with a united front.  But we can't play it safe, Hotaru, not with so
much at stake and time running out."
     "You're right," Hotaru said, sounding glum.  "I know you're
right.  I just wish I could protect them, keep them close.  But my track
record is a little spotty, isn't it?"
     "I love that you worry about them."  Setsuna moved up behind
Hotaru, placing her hands on the woman's shoulders.  "But they are very
capable.  Now is the time for them to shine, just the way you taught
them."
     "The way we taught them," Hotaru replied, reaching up to place
her hand over Setsuna's.  "You have a point, I must admit.  But there is
another matter here, you know.  This stranger."
     "Ranma," Setsuna acknowledged.
     "I do not approve."  Hotaru's tone shifted, becoming darker.
     "Of his presence?"
     "Usagi trusts too easily.  But I was actually referring to the fact
that he is out there with that key, the one thing we know the vampire
wants."
     "We had that discussion already, Hotaru.  He would not give it
up, and Usagi sided with him.  They tried to use it as bait and failed, so it
is unlikely the vampire could be lured that way again.  For now, I
believe we should let the matter rest."
     "Talk to me, Setsuna," Hotaru said, turning to face the dusky-
skinned woman.  "You touched that key, and it affected you.  Why?"
     "I am not certain," Setsuna admitted.  "It seems to be the source
of the distortion that has neutralized the Gate of Time."
     "Does that mean it is somehow linked to the gate?"
     "I am not aware of any artifacts which are directly linked to it,"
Setsuna said, frowning.  "None save my staff.  Still, there are many
mysteries surrounding the gate.  Its origins are lost in the mists of the
past.  I do not know who made it, if it was indeed made at all and not
something that has simply always been.  I also do not know why House
Pluto came to be its guardians."
     "I wonder if Ranma knows anything about the gate?" Hotaru mused.
 "He, too, is surrounded by mystery and uncertainty.  Not only his past
and this odd curse, but just what the key is and how he came to possess it.
Those mysteries may explain why the vampire wants the key, and in this
case knowledge is definitely power.  I need answers."
     "I believe your, shall we say, direct approach earlier has lessened
any chance that Ranma might be forthcoming," Setsuna noted dryly.
     "And you think it is acceptable, allowing him to keep such
matters secret?"  Hotaru looked at her, incredulous.
     "I think that another tack might be more successful," Setsuna
clarified.  "He seems to have grown closer to Minako and Rei than to the
others.  Perhaps one of them could draw him out on the matter."
     "And by 'draw out' you mean seduce, I suppose?"  Wonder of
wonders, Hotaru actually smiled, albeit thinly.
     "Go with your strengths, I always say," Setsuna replied, answering
Hotaru's smile with one of her own.  "Which reminds me, did you have
any inkling about Rei's past?  I mean, a Sister of Shadows, Hotaru.  That
might have gone far worse than it did, back in the early days."
     "I didn't," Hotaru confessed.  "And you're right.  But then, there
are days I look back and wonder that we managed to come as far as we
did.  If we weren't faced with such a grave crisis, I would sit back with a
drink and toast whatever capricious fates allowed us to draw such
radically different girls together."
     Setsuna was about to make a reply when she spotted someone
moving through the hallway.  "Artemis!" she called.  The pale-haired
man stuck his head through the doorway.
     "Yo!" he replied cheerfully, jamming a battered fedora onto his
head.  The hat effectively covered the crescent moon symbol on his
forehead.  Luna had threatened to burn it on more than one occasion, but
so far Artemis had managed to keep his favourite hat out of the fireplace.
     "How is our guest?" Hotaru asked.  Ah, yes.  Another of many
unexpected surprises from their little sisters, Setsuna reflected wryly.
     "Sleeping," Artemis replied.  "Luna's watching him.  I got a call
from Mina."
     "Trouble?" Hotaru asked, tensing.  Setsuna didn't bother to ask.
If Minako had been in trouble, Artemis would have gone into full
mother-hen mode without prompting.
     "Not really," he remarked.  "I have to handle something for her.
She did say that they found something at the estate, computer discs or
something.  Looks promising, anyway, but she thinks Ami ought to have
a look."
     "Excellent news," Setsuna said.  Hotaru seemed pleased as well.
     "Be careful out there," Hotaru told him.  "The police are stretched
thin, but they are setting up roadblocks between districts."  Setsuna knew
that enforcing a full curfew would be a logistical nightmare in a city as
huge as this.  Some areas would be easier to police than others.
     "No worries," he said with an easy grin.  "I'll be back before you
know it.  But what can I tell you?  Those girls came through in the
pinch!"
     "Marvellous," Hotaru sighed as Artemis disappeared out the
door.  "An optimist."
     "His optimism seems justified, though," Setsuna pointed out.
"We may have finally made some progress."
     "And you would like to say 'I told you so', no doubt?"
     "Nonsense," Setsuna said dismissively.  "But with Ami and
Makoto checking with the shifters, Usagi and Mamoru at the temple, and
Michiru and Haruka consulting their oracle friend, I think we stand a real
chance of stopping this vampire's plan."
     Of course, the real question then became what the vampire would
do when her plans were thwarted.  Setsuna glanced at her friend and
suppressed a worried frown.  Once the immediate threat was out of the
way, Hotaru would go back to pursuing all avenues to tracking this
vampire.  Tracking, and killing.
     But if this creature really was the one who'd attacked Hotaru's
mother before the Long Dark, then she had survived much.  She
definitely was not going to be an easy target.

***

     Kendra noticed Raine's stare, but it took a few moments for her
to realize just why the captain of her guard was watching her.  It was
Galiraithe; not its presence, but the fact that Kendra's hand kept straying,
seemingly of its own accord, to stroke the sword that hung from the back
of her throne in a sheath that Raine had located for her.
     She couldn't help it.  Kendra half believed that the sword was
going to vanish as mysteriously as it had appeared, and was constantly
reassuring herself by touching the smooth sheath.
     Raine was worried, but then, Raine always worried.  In this particular
case, it was the mysterious reappearance of the legendary Sword of
Queens that had the lovely captain in a temper.  As powerful a weapon as
Galiraithe was, Raine distrusted anything that smacked of divine
intervention.  Kendra could hardly blame her for that.  When
supernatural forces, be they from the gods or somewhere else, took a
hand in the lives of mortals, there was no telling what the result might be.
     Kendra wasn't giving the sword up, though.
     She sighed as Hors Bunter, Minister of Defence, finished giving his
report on the progress of the transfer of troops into the city.  It would be
nearly three days before all the military personnel she had detailed for
this duty were in place, but those already on hand were being deployed
immediately.
     Much to the displeasure, she noted, of High Commissioner Yuko
Shizuku, who, as the senior police official in the city, was faced with the
daunting task of coordinating her people with the military.
     "Thank you," Kendra nodded to Bunter.  "Commissioner
Shizuku, I see you've brought the action briefings with you.  Touch on
the high points, if you would."
     The stocky woman nodded, but her sour mien was at odds with
the woman's normally equitable nature.  "Of course, Your Majesty," she
said, shuffling the folders that lay on the table in front of her.  Kendra
knew that Shizuku would not need the reports; the woman was legendary
for knowing everything that went on within the Metr