Ranma, Minako, and Rei found their plan to infiltrate the estate
of Tyrian Sultana Vanka der Gris falling apart when it was revealed that
the lady of the house was not only in league with the Sisterhood, but also
intended to double-cross them.  In the ensuing chaos, Rei tapped into the
darkness she had thought buried with her days as a Sister to escape
Vanka's trap, while Minako faced her past and, with Ranma's help,
defeated the Sultana's guards.  Minako cracked open the Sultana's safe,
and the trio escaped with computer discs that hopefully contained info on
what the Sisterhood's plans were.
     Meanwhile, Mercury and Jupiter discovered that the truce with
Gareth's werewolves was getting complicated.  Gareth revealed that the
shifters of the city threatened to be caught up in some sort of religious
conflict as rumours of the history of the senshi circulated.  The White
Moon Princess might try to exert her authority over the shifters who
worshipped the moon, and he warned that if that happened, he would
take action.
     The Queen's cousin, Gar, revealed to be historical figure Garven
d'Or, had been alerted to the presence of the Crimson Queen's gate
beneath the palace, and ventured into Shadow Realm.  The Crimson
Queen's true identity was known to him, as they shared a past; she was
Hild, who had once been ruler of a demon realm in another reality.  He
offered her a trade; Fenrir, a powerful weapon lost to her ages before, for
a piece of equipment that had come from one of the ancient dimension-
spanning ships.  While she did not understand why he would seek such
a lopsided deal, the chance to regain a weapon like Fenrir was far too
tempting.  Their trade completed, he fled to Aethyr Realm, seeking the
mysterious crystal Osiren that imprisoned the Dark Lady, but found his
way blocked by his father, the mysterious creature known as Dragon.
     Hild, meanwhile, tormented the captive Peorth, who had served
the heavens in another life while Hild ruled the underworld.  Forcing
Peorth to use scavenged technology, Hild replayed the incursion into her
realm by Ranma and the senshi, only to discover that Ranma wielded one
of the few things that frightened her, a lost remnant of the ancient war: a
hyperlink key.  Enraged, Hild threw caution to the wind and decided to
hunt Ranma down and end any possible threat to her freedom.
     While Rei and Minako joined with Usagi to heal their emotional
wounds, Artemis found a sanctuary for the escaped Tyrian slaves that
Minako had released and Makoto discovered the dark secrets that bound
Yoshi and Rin's pasts.  In the darkness, Wynneth watched the minutes
tick down towards her ultimate plan, confident that the tide of events was
now inexorably leading to the result she desired.
     And Ranma, disturbed by the suspicion that the key had helped
him kill the nigh-invulnerable Arj, decided to try to replicate the strange
effect on his chi.
     With disastrous results ...
 
 
 
 

     This story is a work of fanfiction.  As such, it owes a great
debt to the creators of the characters used herein: Rumiko
Takahashi, creator of Ranma, and Naoko Takeuchi, creator of
Sailor Moon.

     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 18: Underworld
 
 

     Huge bolts of black lightning slashed through the air around the
ship, followed by peals of thunder so loud that I felt them in the soft,
vulnerable core of my gut.  Whatever I'd ended up in the middle of, it
was bad and getting worse.
     Story of my life.
     Still, the only thing that concerned me was the little girl and her
friends.  She was at the centre of all this, and if the key had somehow
taken me to where she was, then at the very least I wanted to get some
answers.  The raucous thunder had drowned out their voices, but as I
clung to the heaving bulkhead I could make out their words again.
     "Crimson Thorn was crippled by the attack," the bronze-skinned
woman told her, mouth set in an angry line.  "She spun into the rift.  In
her condition, I don't know if she'll make it to realspace."
     "It does not matter," the big guy gritted.  "Darsiensis is no more.
He is dead, along with his guardians, and his key is lost to Outside.  We
are the last."
     "And so I must finish what he began," the girl said calmly, her
voice carrying even through the howling winds.  Illianka, that guy'd
called her.
     "No!  That would leave you vulnerable!"  The man turned so I
could see his profile.  His eyes glowed bright red, his long dark hair
swirling in the wind.  His skin gleamed like polished metal, but it was
scorched in places, as was his armour.
     "That no longer matters," she told him.  Illianka had to look way
up to meet this guy's gaze, but somehow there was no question which
one of them was in charge.
     "Illianka, the war is over," the woman declared.  "Everybody
loses.  What more can we do?  It's the end."
     "There is one thing, Griffon."  The girl smiled then, and I
realized something.  No songs, no rhymes.  She was like she'd been for a
short time back in Aethyr.  In the moment, she'd called it.
     "Hey!" I shouted.
     "You will try to sever the remaining hyperlinks," the woman
called Griffon declared, a crooked smile on her striking face.  Her short
red hair danced in the gale, and she pushed at it impatiently with one
mailed hand.
     "Yes," Illianka said, smiling gently.  "All else may be lost, but if
I can break those links, I can preserve this sphere."
     "One lost sphere adrift in an ocean of darkness," the man spat.
     "My duty," she told him.  "My last duty.  And yours, my loyal
guardians.  You must go, hold them back.  I need time to finish what my
brother started."
     "Hey!" I shouted again.  They should have been able to see me,
but nobody was paying me the slightest bit of attention.  What the hell
was going on?
     "I am not going anywhere," the man declared arrogantly, drawing
himself up to his full height and crossing his arms.  The ship shuddered
again, and the three fought for balance.  He caught the little one as she
stumbled, and she smiled up at him, a smile far older than belonged on
such a young face.
     "You must," Illianka said softly.  Softly, but I could hear her, even
from here, even through the noise and the wind.
     "That witch crippled White Destiny ," the man growled back.  "She
cannot protect you.  We have not even been able to restore basic control
functions.  And none of the others have returned.  For all we know, they
are dead and only we remain."
     "Dragon," Griffon said, putting her hand on his broad, armoured
shoulder.  "She knows."
     Wait a minute.  What did she say?
     "I refuse to leave," he said, glaring at the woman as he bit off his
words with grim precision.
     Did she call him ...?
     "You must," Illianka said.  "Time grows short.  The Eye sees
naught, and the effect is spreading quickly."
     "I will not abandon you!"
     "Griffon?"  The girl turned to the bronze-skinned amazon, who
just shook her head wearily.  Then the woman went down on one knee
and took the little girl's hand in hers, bringing it to her lips.  Illianka's
hand looked lost in Griffon's armoured gauntlet.
     "I will protect you, my Lady Warden," she said.  "To the end."
     "I know," Illianka replied.  "Thank you, Kaneera."
     Griffon stood, turned, and strode to the far rail.  Then she
casually flung herself over the side.  That left just Illianka and Dragon.
But it couldn't be the same Dragon, could it?  Even though those eyes
glowed red, just like his had, this guy was human.  Well, sort of.  Just
what was happening?"
     "Excuse me?" I shouted again, pulling myself past the edge of the
wall and onto the open deck.  "Hey, you!"
     "I will not leave you," the big guy repeated, ignoring me.
     "You must," she said, taking his huge hand in both of hers and gazing
up at him.  No anger, no fear.  The storm was getting worse, and off to
the left I saw something big soaring through the air, something with
large, golden-bronze wings.  "My duty is not to survive.  It is to protect.
You know that, Dragon."
     "You have given up!  I will not tolerate that!"  He, unlike
Illianka, looked pissed.
     "Dragon," she said.  "I do not fear what is to come.  You have
always been there for me.  I know it is much to ask, but I need you to put
aside your feelings and be there again.  One last time."
     "No," he said, and his anger seemed to be draining away as he
stood there.  He crouched down and took her by her slender shoulders.
"Not the last time.  No matter what happens, I will return.  Do you
understand?"
     "I do," she told him, smiling that gentle smile again.  It was tinged
with sadness now, but it never faltered.
     "Then promise me you will wait for me.  I will not leave until
you do."
     She stared at him, the two of them buffeted by the gale-force
winds.  I wasn't sure why I could hear them so clearly over the thin
wailing of the storm, but that was far from the weirdest part of this whole
thing.  I took a step towards them, another, but they didn't acknowledge
my presence.  I was beginning to think that they never would.
     I was beginning to think that I wasn't really here.  Or that they
weren't.
     "I promise," she said.  Whispered, really, but I heard her as
clearly as though I was standing right next to them.  "Be strong, Xieter."
     "Always," he said, his fierce expression softening.  "I was first to
your service, and I swear I shall be last to leave it."
     That seemed to comfort her; for a moment, I could see a very
human expression on her face, one of vulnerability, need.  Then it was
gone, and he was standing.  With a crisp salute, he turned and strode
across the deck directly in front of me.  His glowing eyes never so much
as flickered in my direction as he walked to the rail and, as Griffon had,
leapt neatly over and into the storm.
     Moments later, something huge soared above the tempest-tossed
ship, and the form of Dragon circled us, climbing higher and higher.  So.
It was him, after all.  As he climbed, I squinted.  Through the barbed
black lightning and chaotic rainbow sky, I saw things far in the distance,
black jagged things.  There were a lot of them, and it seemed to me that
they were coming towards us.
     And that, far off, they were wailing.  The hackles on the back of
my neck stood up at that desolate sound, and my mouth went dry.
Fabulous.  Just fabulous.  What were the chances that these things would
ignore me the way everyone else did?  With my luck, slim and none.
     I dropped my gaze to Illianka again.  She was standing in the
middle of the deck, hands clasped together and head bowed.  I moved
gingerly away from the little shelter I'd had and towards where she stood,
only to be brought up short when she raised her arms above her head.
Between those slender hands hung a key, glowing fiercely against the
broken sky.
     No.  Not just a key.  My key.  The same key.  I knew it was the same
one, somehow.  I remembered what Dragon had said to me back in
Aethyr

     (SHE WAS WARDEN ONCE, AND NOW EVEN DEATH
OFFERS HER NO PEACE!)

     and wondered if I was really seeing the past, the time when this girl
had still lived.  Was the key capable of showing me this?  Or was it her
doing, somehow?
     I shouted to her again, but she didn't react.  Well.  Could she
ignore me if I touched her?  Time to find out.
     Or so I thought, but before I could move something stirred
around my neck.  The key, which had been hanging there, had begun to
glow, and as I watched it floated up in the air, mirroring the position of
the one Illianka was using.  I grabbed the key, feeling it pulse under my
skin, but I couldn't force it back down.  A blue glow began to solidify
around me, and through it I could see Illianka standing there, knew these
were her last moments alive.  Things moved through the blue haze, black
and hungry, and the sky split open with a sound like the world ending.
     I screamed into the wind, my battle cry swallowed by the sound
of reality shattering ...
     I blinked.  I was standing on grass, my throat sore, my hand held
above my head.  I brought it down slowly, my muscles aching as though
they'd been struggling against some incredible force.  I opened my hand,
stared dumbly at the key.  It lay against my flesh, dark and quiet.  A
quick look confirmed that I was still in the back yard, not on an airship
facing the end of the world.
     Whatever I'd just experienced, it wasn't here.
     It had ended a very, very long time ago.
     I tightened my hand around the key, feeling its smooth hard
surface press into my palm.  Was it the truth, what I'd seen?  If so, then
something made sense to me finally.  I couldn't find a gate from this
place because there weren't any.  Illianka had talked about breaking all
the hyperlinks to this place to protect it from something.  Somehow, I'd
gotten in, and now I wasn't getting out.
     So.  Gates, amplified chi attacks, and now seeing the past.  What
other surprises did this little thing have in store for me?
     And would I survive them, where Illianka hadn't?

***

     Setsuna heard Hotaru's voice and shook her head, focussing on
her friend's concerned expression.
     "What?" she asked.
     "I said, is anything wrong?" Hotaru repeated.  "You had the
strangest look in your eyes just then.
     "No, nothing," Setsuna assured her.  And she was quite certain
that was true.  Just for a moment, she'd thought she sensed something, a
tingling, prickling heat deep inside her body.  A sensation somehow
similar to what she felt when close to the Time Gate.
     But that was quite impossible, of course.
     She stood, stretched.
     Yes.  Quite impossible.

***

     Wynneth lounged indolently on the high-backed throne.  It had
been carved out of what appeared to be an immense gemstone of deepest
jet with lovely veins of pale green snaking through it.  Even she did not
know what sort of stone had been used in the dim recesses of the past to
make this commanding seat.
     She watched with idle amusement as her protege, once a Tyrian
noblewoman, revelled in the act of drinking the blood of her prey.  Cyrie
was a quick study, and the strapping young man beneath her moaned
with helpless pleasure as his life drained away.
     Still, Cyrie's inexperience was showing.  Only the most beautiful
mortals were privileged to taste the ecstasy of Wynneth's dark kisses, and
that rule extended to all her subjects as well.  Yet Cyrie, in her hunger
and haste, had chosen a man who, while hardy, was plain of face, verging
on ugly.  It was bad enough that Cyrie should have lowered herself to
feed on less than the best that the mortal world had to offer.  Worse still,
she was allowing her hunger to goad her into gorging herself on hot
blood, abandoning the predatory grace her mistress demanded.
     She was presenting quite a spectacle.  Wynneth supposed it was
fortunate in a way that Cyrie had chosen so poorly; it would have been a
waste to kill a thoroughbred.  At least, in so clumsy a manner.
     Wynneth did not intervene, however.  She had instructed Cyrie
once.  She wished to see just how far Cyrie would debase her gifts before
she decided on the depths of the new vampiress's punishment.  Ah, well.
The young ones often needed constant discipline.  Many did not survive
the early days, when bloodlust overcame their instincts for survival.
     And punishing Cyrie would be an amusing diversion as the last
hours of human domination ticked inexorably away.
     The far-flung strands of her web remained untangled.  Events
were proceeding as she desired.  In fact, things had turned out even better
than she could have hoped.  The girl who possessed the key had always
been the only x-factor in her plan, at least the only one of consequence.
Now that she knew the girl was allied with the White Moon Court, her
task had been made simpler.  The Warden would be drawn into her web
along with her allies.  Wynneth would simply have to wait for the strands
of her web to begin to twitch as her prey struggled against the inevitable.
     Wonderful.
     Her wraiths knelt in silent ranks around the periphery of the great
hall, and as Wynneth smirked with satisfaction a rustling seemed to pass
through their number, as if an intangible wave had swept over them.  In
the same instant she felt it, a sense of power that thrummed along the
underpinnings of reality, its song one of unbearable beauty, its purity
searing images into her mind's eye ...
     (wings black and gold)
     (a ship of desolate beauty)
     (the key the key THE KEY)
     Wynneth opened her eyes, the last traceries of that enigmatic fire
fading from her limbs.  She had slumped back against the throne; the
carved shape that topped it, the fanged head of a beast lost to the ages,
loomed over her impassively.  She felt disorientation, but no pain.
     The key.  Yes, but not the light which had burned her in the past.
This had been something other, a resonance of a power far greater than
that which she had experienced thus far.  She had known the key
possessed great secrets, hoarding them within its crystal depths.  But
those secrets were hers to unlock, hers and hers alone.
     Perhaps she had been hasty in dismissing this Warden as a threat.
Had knowing so much of how the tide of destiny flowed made her
complacent?  No, she was justified in her confidence.  No mortal could
stand before the coming storm.
     But that girl did possess the key, and her mindless thrashing
would generate ripples of uncertainty.  Not enough to divert an
inexorable tide, no, nothing could do that, not now.  What the Warden
could do was muddy the waters, make it harder for Wynneth to act with
precision, with absolute certainty.  And while a part of her welcomed the
challenge and the prospect of the hunt, if any possibility existed of the
Warden unlocking the key's full potential before the appointed time, then
she must be prepared to act.
     Wynneth rose with unearthly grace, all eyes in the chamber upon
her imperious form.  Even Cyrie had sensed that something was wrong.
She crouched over the now still form of the young man, eyes gleaming as
she watched Wynneth from her knees.
     "Go forth," Wynneth commanded, her throaty voice velvet-
wrapped steel.  "Go into the human world.  Watch for the girl, the one I
have shown you, the one who possesses the key, but do not reveal
yourselves.  I am to be informed the moment she is found.  Go!"
     The air was alive with the rustling of robes as her loyal servants
fled into the surrounding shadows, flying forth to do her will.  For a
moment, Wynneth considered stirring their hidden sisters to action ahead
of schedule.  The ensuing chaos might bring the Warden out of hiding.
     But she reconsidered almost immediately.  The Warden had
roused the power of the key, true, but the power she had sensed had been
fleeting and unfocussed.  Caution was warranted, but panic was not.
Unless events warranted, the schedule must remain unchanged.
     She strode across the cold stone to stand above Cyrie.  Wynneth
smiled as the pale-haired woman cringed beneath her.  That smile was
not, she knew, at all comforting.
     "You have disappointed me, Cyrie," she said softly.
     "Mistress," Cyrie whimpered, dark blood trickling freely down her
chin.  "I am sorry ..."
     "No, you are not," Wynneth replied.  "Not yet."
     And smiled again.

***

     Shadows lay deep across the cold crystal, clinging in billowing
layers like tenebrous spiderwebs.  In the deepest of these shadows she
waited, motionless and silent.  Something other had entered; she could
taste it on the hatefully stale air.
     It stopped, hesitating.  Hesitation was not one of her faults; she
struck.
     He shouted, tumbling back from the blur of her motion to fall
into a dim shaft of glimmering light, and only recognition stayed her
from a fatal blow.
     "You," she hissed softly, disbelief twining through her voice.
     "Banri," Gar said tightly.  "Don't you ever get tired of doing
that?"
     She didn't answer, pulling back slightly.  The blood she had
scented upon his entrance was his, she saw, and not the miasma of some
mystic predator which had somehow found its way to her Mistress's
resting place.
     "You look awful," she said at last.  "What happened to you?"
     "I had a disagreement with a wyrm," he gritted.  "A hand?"
     She reached down, grasping his wrist and pulling the big man
effortlessly to his feet.  His clothes were torn in places, burned in others,
and blood streaked the side of his face.  One eye was swollen so badly
that it was nearly shut, and to judge by the ugly purple swelling along his
side, he had some broken ribs.  Still, he bore the pain with a stoicism that
did not surprise her.  She remembered Garven d'Or well.
     "It hasss been a long time," Banri said softly.  "I trussst that
affection for my Mistresssss bringsss you?"  Menace, faint but
unmistakable, coloured her words.  It had, after all, been a VERY long
time, and relationships changed.  On the outside.
     Nothing changed, here.
     "A very lovely sailor girl brings me, actually," Gar muttered.  "I
..."
     "The princessss?" Banri hissed, hope blossoming in her chest.
"She ssssent you?"  Exaltation filled Banri's entire being.  The princess
had kept her promise!  She was, even now, seeking ways to free the Dark
Lady from her cold bondage!
     "Sent, sure," Gar winced, taking a halting step.  "Listen, I need to
see her."  He held something up in his left hand, and Banri frowned,
tongue flicking out between her parted lips, lightning-quick.  It tasted
like a thing of the Old Ones, and she was mistrustful of such devices.
Still, if it would help free her Mistress, then she would allow its presence.
     "Thisss way," Banri told him, striding quickly to the centre of the
chamber.  Gar followed, but much slower, and she waited with
undisguised impatience at the side of her Mistress's crystal cage.
     "You can free her?" Banri asked as Gar limped his way to her
side.  He did not reply for a moment, gazing down at the figure trapped
within the crystal.  A melancholy wistfulness displaced the grim
determination on his rugged, battered face, kindling fondness in Banri's
heart.
     "Ah, Dee," he muttered softly.  "Of all of them, you deserve
better than this."  Then he turned to Banri, his normally mischievous eyes
grave.  "I only know that I have to place this here," he told her, bending
stiffly.  The strange device did not react in any way as he placed it gently
atop the gleaming crystal, although she watched closely for any reaction.
     "That'sss it?" she demanded.  "What happenssss now?  How long
mussst we wait?"
     "I'm following a glimpse of the future," he breathed.  "Now you
know all that I do."
     Then he smiled.
     And collapsed.

***

     Dragon was a statue, power thrumming in the razor-edged lines of
his body.  He tried not to show his frustration; it had never helped, not at
any time in the past.  It certainly wouldn't help now.
     "YOU CAN LET ME GO NOW," he rumbled through his
clenched jaw.  "HE'S GONE."
     The slight girl only smiled indulgently, her hands still held out
towards him.  He had trouble focussing on her without going cross-eyed,
owing to the fact that she was standing on the long, tapered shelf of his
nose.
     "You should cherish him," she chided softly.
     "I SHOULD EAT HIM," Dragon snarled.  "SLOWLY.  WHY
DID YOU HAVE TO INTERFERE, LITTLE ONE?"
     "I?  You are the one who has interfered, Xieter.  He merely
follows the dictates of his heart."
     "HEARTS LIE," Dragon said curtly.  "TRAGEDY WOUNDS
THEM, AND IN THEIR GRIEF THEY LEAD THE UNWARY TO
MADNESS.  AND IDIOT OFFSPRING."
     "Was it so bad, to hope again?  Even if for so short a time?"  Her
gentle voice once would have brought him surcease from his pain.  Now
it only served to remind him of his many failures.
     "WHY WILL YOU NOT REST, LITTLE ONE?  YOU HAVE
GIVEN ALL THAT WAS IN YOUR POWER TO GIVE.  THEY CAN
ASK NO MORE OF YOU, OF ANY OF US."
     "Shall I leave them to wander in the dark?" she asked by way of reply,
and for a moment it was as though she was with him again, all of her.
Just for a moment, but ah, what a glorious moment it was.  "To wander,
lost and alone, without even a feeble light to guide the way?"
     "LET THE GODLINGS PROTECT THEIR WORSHIPPERS.
LET WARS COME AND GO.  LET SECRETS BE BURIED.  BUT
LET THEM DO IT ALL WITHOUT THE KEY, THE TOWER, THE
EYE.  THESE THINGS HAVE PASSED BEYOND THEIR
UNDERSTANDING.  I AM THE LAST GUARDIAN OF THESE
SECRETS, AND I WILL NOT SEE THEM DISTURBED.  LET IT
REST, ILLIANKA.  LET IT ALL REST."
     She was slipping away again, drawn by the inexorable pull of the
beyond.  The power holding him in place unravelled, but Dragon held
still nonetheless as the slight blonde girl pirouetted lightly on his nose.
     And she began to sing.

     "The Eye doesn't see,
     The Eye doesn't know,
     It was blinded a long time ago,

     But the Wardens still know,
     And the Wardens still see,
     And now there's one who's found a Key,

     But the Dark took his love,
     And left him alone,
     Lost and mournful and far from home ..."

     She leapt into the air, then faded from view.
     Gone, but not forgotten.
     Dragon sighed heavily, relaxing from the frozen stance she'd held him
in.  He shook his wings out carefully, craning his head this way and that,
then turned to look at the stark magnificence of the crystal palace that
floated at the edge of the Abyss.
     Gone, indeed.  The Osiren had granted his idiot son entrance.  He had
never understood the ancient edifices; they had stood upon this world
long before he had arrived, and if thoughts truly resided within those cold
crystal depths, he had never been able to divine them.
     He sighed again, his wings generating a cacophony that was
nearly music as he shook them one more time.
     Then his form glimmered, fairy light chasing itself around the
edge of each metallic scale, and he stood on the night-shrouded plain,
man-shaped and man-sized, his inhuman eyes filled with searing light.
      I won't, Illianka, he thought, staring out at the endless night
contained in the Abyss.  I can't.  Guardian no longer, I am nothing but a
big flying grave marker for a world that was supposed to be wondrous,
but could not endure.  Hope is poison.  I grant merciful death to such
foolish dreams.
     So stop asking what I cannot give.  Your duty is ended, and mine
as well.  I only hope that the promise you made me is not what holds you
here, away from the rest you have earned.
     He stood that way for a long time, clutching pain that had not
faded with time close to him, like an old friend.
     It still hurt, but it made him feel alive again .
     For a little while.

***

     The door opened on a scene of such idyllic beauty that it should
have been set in some sun-dappled forest glade, not a neat yet nondescript
bedroom.  Still, Michiru was momentarily breathless, a supple heat
blossoming low in her belly.
     Oh, my, she thought, gaze lingering on the three young goddesses
posed in a diorama of exquisite loveliness.  If only I had the time to
indulge myself.
     "Hi, Michiru," Usagi said lazily, glancing up from Rei's lap.  She
lay on her stomach, cheek resting on her crossed arms, the lithe line of
her back exposed by the low-cut silk nothing she was barely wearing.
Her unbound hair spilled across her slender shoulders, pooling around
both her body and Rei's in a shimmering golden curtain.
     Ladies," Michiru murmured, entering the room.  "I trust I am not
interrupting?"
     "Just basking in afterglow," Minako purred.  The girl was
kneeling behind Rei on the bed, her honey-blonde locks pinned up in a
loose mass atop her head, one stray strand falling in intriguing disarray
over her left eye.  She was busy brushing out Rei's long, sable mane with
a look of absolute absorption.  The top of her two-piece negligee was
cropped scandalously short, showing the underside of her breasts with
every breath.  The bottom seemed to be little better than a slender thong.
     "Sorry about the bathroom," Rei murmured, a mischievous
sparkle lurking deep within her violet eyes as she traced her nails along
the groove of Usagi's spine in languorous patterns that made the princess
wriggle and sigh contentedly.
     "I was wondering about that," Michiru confessed.  "How did you
manage to get it so thoroughly wet?"
     "Enthusiasm," Minako offered.
     "Abandon," Rei clarified.
     "We did kinda get carried away, huh?" Usagi asked, her meek
tone belied by the look of utter satiation on her lovely face.  Oh, Michiru
thought, to have been here just thirty minutes sooner.  She kept her
thoughts to herself, however, her expression faintly disapproving.
     "I should say so," she told the girls.  "I have never been one to
discourage the blowing off of steam at appropriate times.  However, that
bathroom is a total disaster."
     "No problem, Michiru," Minako said, treating the girl to one of
her trademark grins.  "When Artemis gets back, I'll get him right on it."
     "You do torment that cat, Minako," Michiru acknowledged.
"But making him clean up after your assignations?  How cruel."
     "We'll take care of it, Michiru," Rei assured her, evoking a bleat
of protest from Minako.
     "I am glad to hear it," Michiru replied, letting her gaze linger
again over the breathtaking view.  Not so long ago such a vista would
have been unthinkable.  These girls really had come quite a distance
since those early days.
     "How was your night?" Usagi asked, snuggling down into Rei's
lap before looking up at Michiru out of the corner of one crystalline-pure
blue eye.
     "Futile," Michiru admitted.  "Though I hear that the trip to the
Tyrian estate may have borne fruit."
     "Ami's working on that now," Rei said, watching Michiru as the
woman sidled over to the bed.
     "That hardly seems equitable.  You three bask, Makoto comforts
her fallen wolf, and Ami works?"
     "The girl loves her puzzles," Minako shrugged.
     "And it would be counterproductive to stand over her shoulder,"
Rei added, continuing to watch Michiru from under lowered lashes.  "It
only serves to make her self-conscious.  Don't worry, we'll stay on top of
her."
     "Oooo, now there's a mental picture," Minako smirked.
     "Indeed," Michiru murmured, reaching down to lace her fingers
in Usagi's unbound hair.  She slowly raised them, letting the incredibly
soft locks spill like liquid through her fingers and down onto Usagi and
Rei, then reached down to trace her nails over the nape of Usagi's
exposed neck.  "However little I enjoy spoiling such a lovely scene, I
should point out that we could be called to action at any time.  It might
be wise to exercise restraint for the rest of the night, all things considered.
Some things simply must not be rushed."
     "Voice of experience?" Minako asked, grinning again.
     "What if we invited you to join us?" Usagi murmured drowsily.
     "Ah, Princess," Michiru replied, heat slithering through the core
of her at that.  "I already have Haruka.  What would I do with three more
helplessly devoted suitors?"
     "That sounds like a challenge," Rei said softly, her dark violet
eyes peering up at Michiru from under long, sooty lashes again.  Michiru
returned the look with a smile that only hinted at her hunger.
     "Fire and water," she told the girl.  "They could not help but clash.
The results could be ... unpredictable."
     "Unpredictable can be most delightful," Rei replied, a dark edge in her
voice.  Indeed.  Seducing and then bedding Rei would certainly be
interesting.  Of course, although Rei was certain to be justifiably
confident of her skills, Michiru was no one to be trifled with in the
bedroom.
     Or out of it, for that matter.
     She let her fingers slide down the line of Usagi's back, treasuring the
soft moan that her touch elicited, finally lingering in the gentle curve at
the small of the girl's back as she held Rei's stare, allowing some heat to
build there as her fingers twined with Rei's atop Usagi's flawless skin.
     "Delightful," Michiru breathed at last, her voice low and throaty.
"Indeed.  A pity we do not have time to explore this further just now.
But as I said, there are some things which must be done ... properly."
     "Then we should pick this up at a later time," Rei said softly.
     "We will," Michiru promised, holding the girl's gaze just a little
too long.  Then she smiled, pulling her hand back to Usagi's vocal
dismay.  "But for now, there are matters I must attend to.  And you three
would be wise to get some rest.  With luck, we will have a target to strike
very soon."
     She was aware of their stares on her as she left the room, and put
a languorous sway in her hips, pausing at the door to toss her hair before
leaving.
     When the girls had been their charges, they had been, by unspoken
agreement, off-limits.  Well, the girls were all grown up now.
     And Rei had issued a woman's challenge.
     Michiru was not one to back down from such a challenge.
Interesting times ahead.  She smiled as she walked on down the hall.
     Yes, interesting times.  But business before pleasure.
 
***

     "Wow," Minako sighed, wrapping her arms around Rei's neck and
pressing her barely-clad breasts against the girl's back.  "Did you see
that?"
     "Michiru flirts all the time," Usagi nodded, sighing deeply.  "But there
was something different just now."
     "I believe," Rei said, amusement and desire tinting her words,
"that we have just been designated fair game."
     "Cool," Minako beamed.  "I so want her."
     ""I want to watch Michiru and Rei do that thing they were just
doing," Usagi said, her blue eyes sparkling.  "Where they seem to be
having a civilized discussion, but everything they say or do, every little
thing, just makes them hotter and hotter, until finally they rip each
other's clothes off.  I LOVE that!"
     "It was something," Minako admitted, breathing into Rei's ear.
She rubbed gently against the girl's back, the delicate friction of silk and
engorged flesh making her gasp, and Rei reached up to gently disengage
Minako's hands from around her shoulders.
     "If you keep doing that," she said softly, "we won't be getting any rest
any time soon."
     "I know," Minako sighed.  "Princess, order me to behave."
     "That is so hot," Usagi purred.
     "Hey, that's not helping!" Minako objected, her face flushed.
     "So why do I have to be the responsible one?" Usagi pouted.
"Rei, tell her to behave!"
     "I have a better idea," Rei told the girl, gently extricating herself.  She
finally managed to slide off the bed, tossing her hair back as she stood.  It
was nearly dry, flowing like thick heavy silk, and Rei favoured Minako
with a sultry smile.
     "Thank you, Minako," she said.
     "I know a way you can thank me," Minako replied, scooting
across the bed towards her, a wicked smile gracing her lips.
     "There are some things I want to take care of," Rei told her as
Usagi rolled onto her back kittenishly, watching them with lidded eyes.
"But I will definitely show you my gratitude later."
     "But," Minako asked, eyes wide with feigned innocence,
"whatever shall Usagi and I do alone?"
     "We could do that thing we did in the bath again," Usagi offered,
wriggling fetchingly.  Rei watched her, considering for a moment putting
off what she was about to do.  She shook her head, chastising herself
silently.  This interlude had been sweet, but Michiru was right.  This
sense of peace could be shattered at any time, and there were a few things
she wanted to do while there was time.
     "You could start," Rei said sternly, "by mopping up all that
water in the bath."
     "What?" Minako blurted, her outrage far more sincere than her
innocence had been.  "Why us?  You helped make that mess, Rei!"
     "True," Rei murmured, reaching down to cup Minako's face in
her hand.  She held the girl's startled gaze for a long, heated moment,
then let her fingers slowly trace across that soft, perfect cheek and down,
pausing to brush secret places with just the right amount of exquisite
pressure.  "But I."  Brush.  "Can be."  Caress.  "Very."  Stroke.  "Very."
Rub.  "Persuasive."
     Minako's eyes were wide, a crimson flush spreading down over
the swell of her breasts, and her breath was coming fast and hot.  "Oh,"
the girl breathed at last.
     "That's not fair," Usagi said as Rei went to retrieve the silk robe
that matched her ivory negligee.  The princess did not sound at all
upset about the injustice of Rei's demand; in fact, she seemed to be
enjoying Minako's predicament.  Rei suspected that Usagi fully intended
to further Minako's torment.  The girl was indeed far from the innocent
Rei had always believed.
     "I know," Rei said simply.  "I'm a bitch.  See you soon."
     Belting the robe tightly around her narrow waist, she paused to check
on Phobos and Deimos who still slept soundly, comfortably ensconced in
a drawer full of lingerie.  Then she blew a kiss to the two lissome blondes
and swept out of the room.

***

     When the knock came at the door, I was sitting on the end of the
bed, staring at nothing in particular.  Thinking about the key and what it
had shown me tonight wasn't getting me anywhere, and I sure as hell
couldn't sleep; a distraction was just what the doctor ordered.
     Or so I thought when I called that the door was open.
     I'd been half-expecting Minako, and dreading Hotaru.  Rei, however,
her I hadn't been expecting at all.  Watching her as she came into the
room, shutting the door behind her, made me feel painfully
self-conscious.  I was wearing only a pair of shorts and a tank top, and all
my exposed skin seemed to prickle as Rei came near.  Okay, not just my
exposed skin.  Hell, shouldn't I have been getting used to this by now?
     Her dark hair gleamed in the dim light of the lamp, looking even
darker against the white silk robe she wore.  She had a glass in one hand,
a dark towel in the other.  I stood up, tugging nervously at my shirt,
wondering if I was in some kind of trouble.  Again.
     "Hey," I said cleverly.
     "Hi," she replied.  "I was hoping to talk to you for a few minutes.
Is this a bad time?"
     "No, not really," I shrugged.  It wasn't like thinking about the
key was doing me any good.  Stuff like that was out of my league
anyway.
     "Good.  First, though, there's some unfinished business.  May I?"
She raised the glass she held in her right hand, and I could see that it was
full of water.  Cold water.  Damn, and I had just turned back.  Still, at
least she had asked first.  Minako would have just doused me.  Curious
about what she was up to, I shrugged and nodded.  Rei moved up to me
and upended the glass, and I went from looking down into her eyes to
looking up as cold water and the change trickled over my skin.
     "That really is quite amazing," Rei said softly, handing me the
towel.  I mopped the water off of my breasts, trying to act casual.
     "You get used to it," I sighed.  "So, um, what's up?"  Rei
reached out and plucked the towel from my hand, setting it aside.
     "Just this," she said.
     And kissed me.
     A shudder ran up my back as her lips slid across mine, slowly at
first, hungry but not demanding.  I breathed in her perfume, felt her hair
across the back of my arm and realized dimly that my arm had slipped
around her waist.  Her mouth was hot and sweet, skilled, making a kiss
into nothing less than a work of art.  Rei's fingers twined idly in the loose
hair at the nape of my neck as every bone in my body turned to molten
slag; I was fairly sure that I whimpered somewhere in there, although
whether that was just before or just after her tongue traced slowly along
the inside of my mouth I couldn't say.
     I only realized that I'd closed my eyes when I had to open them to
look at her.  Rei had pulled back, but her arms were still around me, and
I was having trouble thinking straight.  Her body felt good against mine,
warm and soft and curved in all the right places.  I remembered Minako
kissing me in the subway tunnel when we'd first met; that had also been a
surprise.  The two girls had very different styles of kissing, though, and it
struck me as ridiculously profound in that moment that girls should have
kissing styles.  Did I have one?  Why was I still holding her?  Was that
high-pitched hum in my head a sign that my brain had melted?
     "Um," I said softly.  "I, um.  Wow."  I stepped back, suddenly
self-conscious beyond measure.  One of my hands had been resting at the
small of her back, the other buried in her hair.  It was really soft, her hair,
and smooth.  And oh hell, was I in for it now.  How do I get myself into
these messes?
     "Uh, hey," I babbled idiotically, proving that some things never
change.  "What, uh, why ... I mean, not that I didn't ... because I did!
Really!  I'm just ..."
     "Like Minako, I feel that a kiss is a very effective way of
showing my gratitude," Rei told me.  Minako would have teased me.  Rei
just stood there, letting me have my space, but the way she seemed
utterly self-composed after laying a hell of a kiss on me wasn't helping
my mental state at all.
     "Gratitude?" I echoed.  "Um, you're welcome?  I mean, I don't ... I
didn't do anything that much."  I winced inwardly at that.  Sure,
Saotome, tell her that her kiss was for something trivial.  Idiot.  Now
she'd be all insulted, and when Minako found out, she'd be mad, and I
was going to be dodging thrown objects from angry women for a freaking
week.
     "No?" Rei asked, looking ever-so-slightly amused as she raked
her fingers through her hair before tossing it back over she shoulder.  If it
had been Minako, I'd have thought she was doing that on purpose,
knowing how luxuriant and touchable it looked when she did that.  But
Rei ...
     Well, okay, she was probably doing it on purpose, too.  She
tugged her glossy white robe into place, and I had a bad moment,
thinking of how I'd been the one responsible for the sash being loose and
the gap at her throat being wider than when she'd come in.
     "Ranma, do you remember when we lured the wraiths to the
warehouse?" she asked in her low, throaty voice.  "Do you remember
rushing in to break the contact between me and the wraith when things
went bad?"
     "Oh.  Well, yeah ..."
     "Do you remember breaking us out of Shadow?  Taking action at
the estate without hesitation, simply because Minako asked you to?  Do
you remember when I asked you to watch out for her when we went back
in?  Because I remember all those things.  And, in short, I wanted to
convey my thanks in a very personal and intimate way."
     "Oh," I said, feeling breathless.  Being the focus of Rei's
attention was a little dizzying.  "But, um, why did you turn me into a girl
first?"
     "No offense," she replied, tiny motes of light dancing in her violet
eyes, "but I much prefer kissing girls to boys."
     "Oh," I said again.  That's me, I like to find something that works and
stick to it.
     "However," she went on, that utterly self-possessed smile
lingering around the edges of her mouth, "that wasn't what I wanted to
talk to you about."
     "Oh," I remarked, wincing inwardly.  I was beginning to sound
moderately stunned, even to myself.  "I mean, uh, okay, so, what's up?"
My body was still humming with the aftereffects of that kiss, and I was
very aware of the fact that we were alone in this room, neither of us
wearing much at all.  My tank top had pulled tight across my breasts with
the change, and there was no way to hide the effect that Rei had had on
me.  Feeling self-conscious, I turned and sat on the end of the bed,
wishing for something to occupy my hands.  My hair brushed against the
small of my back where it was exposed by my cropped tank-top as I
moved, and I realized that I had the perfect excuse to keep my attention
focussed on something other than Rei.  Uttering an exasperated sigh that
was not entirely feigned, I pulled my hair over my shoulder and started
combing my fingers through the strands, separating it so I could tie it
back into its customary braid.
     "You should leave it down," Rei said, her voice thrumming
across the sensitive nerves inside my ear.  I swallowed; she was standing
close again.
     "I guess I'm just used to wearing the braid," I shrugged,
elaborately casual.  "Been doing it for years.  It's gotten pretty long, so,
you know ... more practical."  Rei moved around the bed, picked
something up from the small night stand, and then the mattress shifted as
she slid onto it behind me.
     "In that case," she breathed, "allow me."  I sat, stunned, as she
pulled my hair back, drawing her fingers through it, playing with it and
letting it fall.
     "Uh, yeah, I mean, that's okay ..." I babbled.
     "Oh, it's my pleasure," she assured me throatily as she began
brushing it out.  "With Minako around, I don't get to do this nearly as
much as I'd like.  It's sort of her trademark.  She'll be jealous."
     That was just what I was afraid of.  "You say that like it's a good
thing!" I protested.
     "Hold still," Rei instructed, tugging my hair gently, then making
a satisfied sound as I complied.  "Better.  So, Ranma, are you concerned
about what Minako might think?"
     "What's that got to do with anything?" I asked, feeling a hot
flush creep down my neck.
     "Everything, actually," Rei told me.  She leaned close, close
enough that I could smell her intoxicating perfume, could feel her breath
on my skin.  "Minako is what I wanted to talk to you about."
     "What ... what about her?" I asked.  My mouth was sandpaper-
dry as I spoke.
     "How do you feel about her?"
     My dials jumped right into the red at that, conversational red alert
sirens wailing in my head.  "What?  What do you mean?"
     "It isn't that difficult a question, Ranma.  You like her, don't
you?"
     "I ... I ...."  I sat there as she began braiding my hair, suddenly
glad I didn't have to look her in the eye.  Some part of me wondered if
she hadn't chosen her position knowing that it would be easier for me this
way, but most of me wondered what the hell I was going to say next.
     "Ranma."  Her voice was a soft, supple sigh, brushing through
my hair in a touch that was almost more intimate than fingers could
manage.  "You are a very strange person.  You face down terrors that
would send most people fleeing without hesitation, but the prospect of
admitting you like a beautiful girl fairly paralyses you."  Her hands
paused in their work, and I shuddered as her finger touched the delicate
skin at the nape of my neck and traced down lazily to the edge of my
tank top.  "You're blushing all the way down to your toes, you know."
     "You don't ..." I began, then stopped.  I felt hot, flustered.  Rei
didn't relent, though.
     "Don't what?  Understand?"  She resumed her work, her touch
deft and sure.  "You're right, I don't.  I suppose that comes from my own
arrogance."
     "I didn't say that," I mumbled.  Great, now I'd offended her.
     Or had I?  She laughed, a low sound that resonated in my belly.
"Oh, my dear, I can be honest about myself.  I am arrogant.  I lived my
life for a long time believing that I knew better than anyone else, you
know.  I'm aggressive and nosy, and I'm certainly not above involving
myself in the affairs of others.  Minako is a maniac, but she's our
maniac."
     "And you don't want to share her?" I asked slowly.  Talking
about stuff like this was not my thing, and frankly I didn't see where it
was going.  Was Rei going to tell me to stay away from her friend?  "I
thought everyone here was into that kind of thing."
     "Sexual politics are complicated, Ranma.  Make no mistake, the
more people you have involved together, the more difficult things can
become.  But that's not really what I'm getting at."
     "I guess I'm just dumb," I sighed when she didn't continue.  It
felt kind of nice, what she was doing, but that sensation was all tied in
with a whole bundle of others, like that belly-tingling heat, and the
certainty that I was doing something wrong, that someone would come
into the room and start screaming and throwing things.
     "You are not dumb," Rei told me, and it sounded like she was
smiling.  "But you are out of your element.  I don't know anything about
your culture really, only what you've told us.  So I don't know if your
reticence is considered normal where you come from, or whether it
springs from your loss."
     My heart spasmed.  "You mean Akane," I said.  My voice
sounded hoarse to my ears, distant.  Rei paused again.
     "Akane?" she asked.
     "My fiancee."
     "Oh.  I'm sorry, I ... didn't know."
     Genuine regret edged her words, and something loosened in my
chest, relaxing a tension I hadn't realised was there.  "Oh.  I thought you
meant ... I mean, I told Minako."  And I'd assumed, in that moment, that
Minako had told Rei.  I hadn't made it a secret between us, not
specifically, so why did it seem like I was relieved that she hadn't talked
to Rei about it?
     "Minako would not betray a confidence, Ranma," Rei
murmured, her hands weaving the braid once more.  Like she knew what
I was thinking.  Like she could see right through me.  Sometimes it felt
like everyone could see through me.
     "It wasn't.  A confidence, I mean."
     "Perhaps not, but I scarcely think it was an easy thing for you to
talk about."  I thought about the atmosphere between us on that night.  It
seemed like a hundred years ago instead of less than a week, me and
Minako up on that rocky point, drinking under the lighthouse.  "You
opened up to her.  She would not treat that lightly."
     "I know."  And I did, somehow.  She was pretty special, was
Minako.  So why was it so hard for me to admit that I liked her?  It was
like saying it would make it real, somehow.
     And I just couldn't.
     "Back to my point," Rei went on after a time.  "Let us say, for the
sake of argument, that you like Minako."
     "Okay," I said cautiously, trying to ignore the tidal rush of
sensation in my chest.
     "Have you given any thought to the long-term implications?"
     "Long-term?" I asked, blinking.  "Rei ..."  I sighed, stopped, tried
to get my thoughts in some kind of order.
     "I don't think I've ever spent much time thinking about the future," I
went on finally.  "There was a period of time when I settled down, but
that ... didn't last."  My throat tightened, and I paused.  Rei didn't remark
on it, for which I was grateful.  "And since then, I've lived day to day," I
said finally.  "I never really think about the future.  Not next year, or next
month, or next week.  Sometimes, I think that's the only way I could go
on.  Just get through every day as it came."
     "And now?"  Her voice was soft again, breathy, and I was glad I
couldn't see her eyes.  I didn't want anyone looking at me the way she
sounded.
     "Now?" I echoed hollowly.  "Now, I don't know.  I think I've
lived more in the past few days then I have in the past two years, and
that's gonna take some getting used to."
     "The question, Ranma, is how much can you get used to?"
     "Meaning?"
     "Meaning if you and Minako were to get together, what would
your expectations be?"
     "I really haven't thought about that," I confessed.
     "Could you share her?" Rei asked.  "With Usagi?  With me?  Or
would you want her to be yours, and yours alone?"
     Whoa.  Now there was a question.  Could I be with a girl who
was in love with other people at the same time as she was with me?  I
mean, these folks seemed okay with it.  Hell, they expected it.  It was part
of their culture, their society.
     I, on the other hand, wasn't.
     "I don't know what you want me to say," I mumbled at last,
trying to buy time.
     "I don't want you to say anything," Rei replied.  Damn, I wished
I couldn't feel that voice tickling down my nerves all the way to the pit of
my stomach.  "I want you to think.  Would you want her to give up
sleeping with other people?  Assuming she would, could you be happy?
You'd know she loved others, wanted them.  It would be like clipping the
wings of a beautiful bird so that she could be yours alone, wouldn't it?"
     "You're saying it's unfair to even consider it?"  I felt a flush of
irritation, something that was shading towards anger.
     "Just listen," Rei repeated calmly.  "What about the other side of
the equation, Ranma?  You with Minako, and with other lovers?  If you
embraced our ways, then the two of you could have a circle of friends
and lovers.  Both of you, together.  Could you accept that, be happy with
it?"
     "I don't know."  My voice sounded hoarse in my ears.  It had all
been there, of course, all of this.  Rei was just laying it out for me in a
way that I hadn't really considered.  Could I ask Minako to be mine?  I
mean, that was what people did when they were in love, right?  They
became a couple, they spent time together ... how did that bit go from the
wedding vows?  "Forsaking all others, 'til death do you part"?  That was
romance and love and the whole deal, wasn't it?  One man, one woman.
Those were the rules.
     At least, they were the rules I'd grown up with.  But Minako was
different.  Once upon a time, I'd have thought that a girl who was proud
of sleeping with a bunch of people, some of them also girls, was some
kind of crazy slut.  I mean, normal people just didn't do that, did they?
     But I was a long way from home.  And Minako?  She might be a bit
crazy, but I couldn't think of her as a slut.  Her deranged charm reached
out to the people around her, drew them in.  She was funny and bold,
outrageous and free, and her sexy aura was as much a part of her as her
dedication to her friends.
     Yeah.  I liked her.  I really liked her.
     But would that ever be enough?
     "There," Rei murmured, tying a slender cord around the end of
the braid.  Twitching the soft, unbound end of it across my cheek, she
leaned in and smiled at me.  "All done.  Braid and inquisition, I mean."
     "Rei ..."
     "Ranma, you don't owe me any answers," Rei said softly.  "And
gods know, this is a bad time for personal matters.  But if all goes well,
the crisis will soon be over, and I think you need to think things
through."
     "I will," I told her, hoping my inner turmoil didn't show on my
face.
     "Great," she said, sliding off the bed.  "Because Minako's my
friend, and I'll be very unhappy if she gets hurt."
     "Got it."
     "On the other hand," Rei added, tossing her hair back and giving
me a frank appraisal, "if you decide to, shall we say, go native, I see
many intriguing possibilities ahead."  She placed her hands on my
shoulders, fingers tightening pleasantly as she leaned down to stare into
my eyes from only inches away.  "You do fascinate me, Ranma Saotome.
I would like to get to know you better.  Keep that in mind while you
weigh your options.  A little incentive, if you like."
     Then she kissed me again, but this time it was soft, languorous,
nowhere near as hungry as the earlier kiss had been.  She pulled back,
her eyes sparkling darkly, and smiled.
     "Sleep on it," she suggested huskily.
     Then she turned and left, and I flopped back onto the bed, heart racing
so fast that I felt dizzy.
     My life just never got any simpler.

***

     "That Artemis," Minako scowled, hands on her hips.  "He's
going to get it when he gets home, I tell you."
     "Oh, come on," Usagi smirked.  "It's not actually his job to clean
up after you, y'know."
     "Who says it isn't?" Minako sniffed, surveying the passably dry
bathroom haughtily.  "It's his sworn duty.  He knows how bad I am at
this stuff."
     "You're not bad at it," Usagi teased.  "You just don't like doing
it."
     "Damn straight.  And that Rei!  She's got a lot of nerve, playing
Queen of the Castle like that!  Are we really going to let her get away
with that?"
     Usagi smiled at that.  It was a fabulous smile, sweet but at the
same time sexy, knowing even.  The girl moved across the bathroom with
a slow, slinky stride, gathering her hair up on top of her head as she sat
gracefully on the edge of the tub as if it were a throne.  She slowly
crossed her long, slender legs, kicking her foot idly as she arched her
back.  Minako watched the damp silk of Usagi's negligee pull taut across
her breasts with great interest.
     "Don't worry, Minako," Usagi purred, gazing at her from under
lowered lashes.  "I can handle Rei."
     And the incredible thing was, she actually could.  If Minako
hadn't known the two girls and had seen them on the street, she would
have pegged Rei as calling all the shots.
     "Oh, Princess," Minako sighed, falling to her knees before the
girl and bowing her head to kiss that bare, bobbing foot lightly.  "Rei has
been very naughty.  Please punish her."
     "You want me to punish her, do you?" Usagi asked, an
expression of aristocratic aloofness on her face.
     "Most sternly," Minako pleaded, rubbing her cheek against
Usagi's bare foot.
     "Well, she does deserve it," Usagi allowed idly.  "Running off
when there's work to be done.  There is something to be said for high-
maintenance women, Minako, but they don't clean worth a damn."
     "No, Your Highness," Minako agreed, parting her lips slowly
and letting them slide over Usagi's big toe.  She took the toe into the
velvety soft heat of her mouth, sucking lightly as she pulled back, letting
her tongue draw a slick line along its underside.  Usagi's delicate shiver
was a delicious reward.  Minako smiled, kissing her way to the sensitive
instep of the other girl's foot, pausing to nip lightly.
     "Careful," Usagi whispered, leaning forward to trace her
fingertips across Minako's cheek.  "We just got this bathroom cleaned
up.  It would be a shame of you had to do it all over again."
     "Me?" Minako squawked.
     "Well, you are the instigator here," Usagi teased.
     "That's it," Minako declared firmly.  "Punishment time, baby."
     "You forget," Usagi sniffed, "that I'm a princess."  She gazed
down at Minako with a mischievous gleam dancing in her eyes.
     "You forget," Minako replied solemnly, "that I know your
weakness."  She smirked as Usagi's eyes widened.
     "No ..." Usagi began.  But it was too late.  Minako reached up
behind the girl's knee and began gently prodding and tickling as Usagi
batted at her ineffectually.  Emboldened, Minako's fingers worked their
way up to Usagi's ribs and belly, always one step ahead of the giggling
girl's hapless efforts to block her.  Finally, breathless, Usagi toppled
forward into Minako's arms.  They sprawled onto the cold floor together,
rolling over each other in a luxuriant swirl of blonde hair, alternating
pale and honey, both girls laughing and pawing at each other.  They
finally fetched up near the door, Minako pinning Usagi with her body as
she mercilessly tickled the gasping princess into submission.  Tears of
laughter streaming from her eyes, Usagi writhed under her in a manner
that Minako found most fetching.
     "Okay, okay!  I'll duh-do it!"
     "Do what?" Minako asked, pausing briefly.
     "Clean the bathroom," Usagi squeaked breathlessly.
     "And let me watch you handle Rei?"
     "Oh, she'd kill muh ... eeee!  Yes, okay, OKAY!"
     "Promise?"
     "I promise," Usagi gasped.  "Oh, Minako.  Stop.  I'm dying."
     "I don't know," Minako murmured, staring down into eyes as
blue as her own.  "Idle hands, you know.  What ever shall I do with
them?"
     In response, Usagi reached up and grasped Minako's hands,
pulling them up gently to her lips, where she kissed them, gently and
thoroughly.  Unable to use her elbows to prop herself up, Minako found
herself lying on top of the other girl, only two thin layers of silk between
their heated flesh.  Usagi took Minako's index finger and drew it into the
pink softness of her mouth, staring boldly at the other girl as she
replicated Minako's earlier advances.
     "How's that?" she asked when she finally allowed the captive
digit to escape its sweet prison.
     "Much better," Minako sighed.  Usagi shifted, then winced.
     "I think you're on my hair," she told Minako ruefully.
     "We're a little tangled up," Minako admitted.  Gingerly, she
extricated herself from the silken snarl, gathering her hair back up into its
loose knot.  She stood and helped Usagi to her feet, plunging her hands
into the princess's pale gold locks and helping her tame them.  By the
time they returned to the bedroom, they had recovered from the tickle
fight, and Minako felt a welcome warmth suffusing her body.
     "Ah, fun," she sighed as they entered to find Rei had not yet
returned.  "I've missed it.  Things have been so crazy lately."
     "We haven't had enough time together," Usagi agreed.  "Any of
us."  Minako smiled as Usagi's arms wrapped around her from behind
and hot breath tickled her ear.  "Mina."
     "Mmmmm?"
     "Are you okay?  Tonight must have been hard for you."
     "Being with my girls," Minako assured her, reaching up to stroke
Usagi's cheek, "is the best medicine there is."
     "I hate that you had to go through that."
     "I didn't go through it alone, Princess.  That's what counts."
     "Hey, Mina?"
     "Yes?"
     "What's up with you and Ranma?"
     Minako blinked.  She hadn't expected that question.  Usagi
nipped her earlobe playfully and pushed her onto the bed, then crawled
onto the soft mattress beside her.  Minako turned so that she could face
Usagi, and they snuggled close together, limbs loosely intertwined.
     "What's up with me and Ranma," Minako repeated.  "Hoo, boy.
That's complicated, Princess."
     "Complicated isn't like you, Mina," Usagi said softly.  "You're
really falling for him, aren't you?"
     Minako chuckled softly.  It sounded a lot more melancholic than
she'd intended.  "It's funny, Usagi.  It seems like he's been a part of my
life for a lot longer than just days.  There's just something about him,
you know?"
     "I know," Usagi said.  "I've seen.  I've talked to him a few times,
tried to get him to open up, but he guards his heart the way people do
when they've been hurt.  You're the one he's easiest with."
     "Yeah?"  That thought made butterflies swirl drunkenly in her
belly.  Oh, Aino, she thought, you have got it bad.  "Still, you know, it's
hard for him."
     "I understand that.  It's just ... I've never seen you like this."
     "Like what?"
     "You always go for what you want.  Full speed ahead, throwing
caution to the wind, no regrets.  You're that way with everything, and I
love it."
     Minako basked in the intimacy of the moment, the closeness both
physical and emotional that they had woven around them.  She had
missed this, these simple moments when they could talk like this, like
sisters, sharing everything.  She never felt the need to put on a brave face
around Usagi.  The girl had always accepted her as she was.  That was
one of her gifts.
     "I'm kind of in unknown territory here, Usagi," she whispered,
twining her fingers with the other girl's and sighing happily as Usagi
squeezed her hand.  "He's not like anyone I've ever known.  I mean, I've
bedded rogues and rebels, bad boys and bad girls, and there've been some
pretty intense personalities along the way.  But I never felt out of my
depth before.  Ranma, he's ..."
     "Special?"  Usagi's eyes were filled with quiet understanding.
     "Yeah," Minako breathed.  "Special.  I'm afraid to push.  I'm
afraid not to push.  I'm just petrified that I'll screw this up.  And that's
not me.  You know?"
     "I know," Usagi told her.  "So just be you.  Hearts always find their
way, no matter what."
     "You," Minako teased gently, nuzzling Usagi's nose with her
own, "are the only person I know who can say something like that and
make me believe it."
     "I have sworn to use this power only for good," Usagi said
solemnly.  She held Minako's gaze for long seconds before they both
dissolved into giggles.  It felt good, it felt right.  It was the tonic they both
needed after so much drama and conflict.
     "Hey," Minako said when the giggle fit finally subsided enough
that she could speak again.
     "Mmm?"
     "Where do you suppose Rei got off to, anyway?"
     "Maybe she went looking for Michiru."
     "Oooo.  I wouldn't want to miss THAT show," Minako purred
lasciviously.
     "No kidding.  Geez, is that the time?" Usagi asked, her gaze
falling on the bedside table's small clock.
     "Yeah," Minako sighed.  "I suppose we should try to get some
sleep."
     "Not yet," Usagi told her, sitting up.  "I want to check on
everyone, maybe call Mamo-chan and see if he's having any luck.  And
you just know that Ami's sitting in front of the computer, totally into
some techno-babble-thingies.  We should make her a snack."
     "You are such a sweetie.  And I should check in with Artemis,
find out if he's heading back here.  But after that, Princess, we really
should catch some shut-eye.  I have a feeling we'll be needing it before
too long.

***

     Mamoru took a sip from his coffee, watching with feigned
indifference as headlights swept across the empty street to rush towards
him.  He only relaxed when he could make out the characteristic two
high-one low pattern of lights that indicated the car careening heedlessly
in his direction was a vintage Harrier.  The low slung car slid to a stop
next to his, the long tapered fins and beak-like hood scoop gleaming in
the diffuse radiance of the adjacent spotlights.
     Mamoru held up the grease-stained paper bag that sat on the hood
of his car as Yu popped open the gull-wing door and levered himself out
of the deep bucket seat.
     "Kran's chicken balls!" Yu crowed.
     "Extra spicy," Mamoru confirmed, shaking the bag.
     "Boys, everybody knows," a low voice came from inside Yu's
car, "that chickens don't got balls."
     Mamoru hid his surprise as Meaghan Piakesti pulled herself out
of the passenger side of the old road demon, still dressed as she'd been
when he'd seen her earlier.  Well, yesterday, technically, as it was
nearly three in the morning now.
     "Meag tagged along," Yu said without a trace of self-
consciousness.
     "Well, you did promise to call me if you came across something,"
Meaghan said lightly.  Mamoru could tell, though, that underneath that
audacious exterior she was wondering if her presence was welcome.
He'd called Yu, after all, not her.  Yu was his partner.
     And she hadn't just come because of the chief's little task force.
Mamoru knew his partner better than that.
     But for all his faults, Yu wouldn't have brought Meaghan here
just because he was trying to bed her ... or, knowing Yu, already had
bedded her.  So Mamoru gave her a grin with just a hint of that old Chiba
charm.
     "Hope you like extra spicy," he said.
     "Boy-ah, I AM extra spicy," she said primly, and they all
laughed.  Yu took the bag from Mamoru, then accepted a brightly-
coloured cardboard cup and peeled back the lid.
     "Sorry, Pi ... Meaghan," Mamoru said, recalling her earlier
admonition as she joined them leaning against the fender of his car.  "If
I'd known you'd be here, I'd have brought you a coffee."
     "Black, for future reference," she said, giving him an easy smile.
She seemed different away from the job, a little softer perhaps, warmer.
Some people were like that, they could leave the job behind at the end of
the day.  Unlike his mother, for instance.
     Meaghan intercepted Yu's coffee, took a sip, then made a face.
"Gods!" she spluttered.
     "Large triple-triple," Mamoru commiserated.
     "You want any coffee with that, Yu?" she asked wryly.
     "Leave me alone," he pouted.  "It's late.  I need my food groups."
Mamoru glanced back over his shoulder as the acrid smell of Kran's
lethal extra spicy sauce assailed his nose, barging in uninvited as Yu
opened the cardboard box.  Hastily-rigged spotlights pinned the haggard
police tower, which bore the indignity of having all its scars thrown into
harsh relief with the stoicism of an old campaigner.
     "Old girl'sh looked be'er," Yu remarked.
     "Yeah," Mamoru sighed as Meaghan bit tentatively into one of
the chicken balls.  "How was earlier?"
     "The bar?  Good turn out," Meaghan remarked, making a
satisfied sound as the chicken ball met her approval.  "Couple of folks
asked after you."
     "Everybody's on edge," Yu added.  "All this vampire talk was
bad enough, but now it's open season on cops?  And we've got the
military to deal with.  That ought to go well."
     "They're on our side," Meaghan pointed out, fastidiously
nibbling at her food.  Mamoru was amazed that she hadn't broken out in
a sweat yet; Yu's upper lip was beaded already.
     "Jurisdictional disputes are a bitch," Yu said with the air of
someone who knew all he wanted to about the topic.  "Coordinating this
thing is gonna be a nightmare."
     "One nightmare at a time," Mamoru said.  Yu offered him a
chicken ball, but Mamoru shook his head.  The coffee was bad enough.
Add spicy food to that at three in the a.m., and he'd certainly regret it in
the morning.
     "Speaking of which," Yu muttered, swallowing his mouthful of
magma-hot chicken bits and sucking the sauce off his fingers, "it's nice
that we're just some displaced cops taking a look at the old home base
and all, but how about the real reason we're here?"
     "I got nothing," Mamoru sighed, taking another hit off his coffee.
"The Weasel crapped out, Arsinus skipped town, and apparently
somebody punched Big Harkey's ticket last week."
     "Vampire related?"
     "Getting caught in the wrong bed related," Mamoru clarified.
"Nothing there."
     "Stoolies have such a brief shelf-life," Yu said with the philosophical
air of someone often disappointed by petty informants.  "I also came up
empty.  Everyone's running scared."
     "Damn."  Well, it had been worth a shot.
     "Meag, on the other hand ..."
     "What?" Mamoru sat up, nearly crushing his coffee cup in his
eagerness.
     "Hey, easy," Meaghan cautioned him, holding up the hand not
occupied with snatching another chicken ball.  Still not sweating, too.
Viernan hot blood would tell, he supposed.  "Now, we in ETF don't run
in the same circles as you guys," she began, eating the chicken ball as if it
were a delicate pastry and not a stomach searing fast-food abomination.
"But I do know people.  I'm not sure how useful this'll be, Mamoru.  The
parameters you gave Yu were pretty vague, you know?"
     "Parameters," Yu grinned.  "Gods, I love a woman who talks
dirty."
     "Illiterate bozo," Meaghan sniffed.  "Anyway, I know a guy in
Intel One, and he owes me a favour.  So I got him to do a search on stuff
that crossed their desks in the last six months.  You know how many pies
that lot have their fingers in, and this stuff isn't real official."
     "But, bless their paranoid little hearts, they keep track of all the
stuff their undercover agents dig up," Yu pointed out.  "Including
weirdness and rumours and assorted underbelly of the city stuff.  There
might be a lead in there somewhere."
     Meaghan dug inside her battered flight jacket and handed
Mamoru a rolled up sheath of papers held together with a wide blue
rubber band .  "If we could have gone through channels, I could have
gotten you more," she said apologetically.  "But off the record, I let him
know we were running an op here.  None of the names of the operatives
are in there, so you won't be able to follow up on anything you find with
them."
     "No problem," he told her, taking the copied reports gratefully.
"Seriously, thanks.  This might really help."
     "Or not," she shrugged.  "The task force's gone through that
stuff, I'm sure.  Looking for info on a group of beautiful women instead
of one probably won't make that much difference.  Listen, Mamoru, I
know that you don't want to give up your source, but if there's a chance
that this vamp has friends ..."
     "I wouldn't sit on that," Mamoru assured her, watching the
concern ease in her expression.  "These women may have some sort of
link to the vamp that they don't even know about.  Really, I'm grasping
at straws."
     "Straws are all we have to grasp at," Yu sighed, fishing the last
chicken ball out of the soggy box and eyeing it with indecent satiation.
"Ah, Kran, you've done it again."
     "Listen, boys, the guard detail is giving us the eye," Meaghan
remarked, gazing off towards the guard shack that protected the entrance
to the main garage.  "I'm going over, see if anyone I know has the watch.
Later, Mamoru."
     "See you, Meaghan.  And thanks again."  She waved, sauntering
off across visitor's lot, weaving now and then where the pavement had
been damaged in the attack.  Mamoru spared an appreciative glance as
she walked, and Yu slapped him on the shoulder with the hand that
wasn't stained with Kran's secret sauce.
     "Quite a woman, eh?" his partner grinned.
     "You get to see her dance?"
     "Oh, yeah.  Well worth the price of admission, my son.  And her
contact at Intel came through, too.  Knowing those reports, most of it's
garbage, but ..."
     "No, Yu, I appreciate it.  Really."
     "Yeah.  You know she went over there so we could talk."
     "A keeper," Mamoru grinned.
     "She's playing hard to get," Yu shot back.  "But I'm hard to
resist, so it's okay.  How's by you?  Everything okay on the home
front?"
     "Why would you ask that?" Mamoru asked warily.
     "Mamoru.  It's me.  I'm a freaking genius.  Plus, we've known each
other long enough that I know when you're brooding.  Is it Usagi?"
     Mamoru sighed, shrugging his shoulders and leaning back
against the cool metal of the fender.  "Not really her.  With everything
that's going on, her friends have been with her pretty much constantly."
     "Ah.  The ones you don't approve of."
     "That's not what I said," Mamoru objected.  Although it was
true, in a way.  Perhaps not fair, but true.
     "She hasn't had as much time for you," Yu nodded, rubbing the
backs of his knuckles across his chin.  "Her bed is full, I'm guessing?"
     "Kind of," Mamoru said glumly.  Either Rei or Minako, possibly
both, would be in it right now.
     "They won't share?" Yu asked with a wicked gleam in his eye.
     "Oh, that's not a problem," Mamoru assured him.  Minako, at the
least, would have no problems in that regard.  "It's just that I prefer a
little space between me and her friends.  It makes perspective easier."
     What he couldn't say was that he'd been close with them once, in
a previous life.  And still he wondered, if he hadn't trusted them so
implicitly, would things have turned out differently?  If he'd been
suspicious, even unreasonable, could he have changed the course of
events?
     In the end, though, he hadn't been able to save her either.  And it
might not have made any difference.  So why did anxiety feast on his
heart when Usagi was leading her girls into danger?
     "Perspective?" Yu snorted.  "Listen, pal.  You can't be rational
with women.  It just doesn't work.  I can see you're worried about her,
but come on.  She's a big girl, and despite a charming klutziness she's
pretty good at taking care of herself.  I swear your parents cursed you by
naming you the way they did.  You don't have to protect everyone."
     "It'd kill me if anything happened to her," Mamoru said, facing
Yu.  He knew that the honesty of his emotions was plain on his face; with
Yu, he could say something this raw and not be afraid.
     "I know.  But you need to give her space, man.  Smothering her
won't help."
     "You're right," Mamoru sighed.
     "And trying to get between her and her friends definitely won't
help."
     "Right again."  Well, he knew that.
     "Listen.  Bedroom politics can be deadly, Mamoru, but I've been
there.  Talk to her, suggest some ground rules, but by the gods do not
issue ultimatums.  That's death on relationships.  Trust me, I know."
     "Ground rules?"
     "Yeah, you know.  She has to make time for the two of you to be
alone together, especially if you two aren't sharing with the others.
Whether or not her friends can sleep in the bed with her while you're
there, whether you can have friends in bed while she's there ... trust me,
man, people think this stuff just happens on its own, but it takes work.
How many of these friends is she bedding?"
     Mamoru thought.  "Two that I'm pretty sure of," he said.  "But most
of the others, if not all, will probably be willing.  You know Usagi."
     "Yeah," he smiled.  "She does have a way about her, doesn't she?
Look, Mamoru.  You don't have to be the bad guy.  Just talk about it
with her, no accusations, let her know how you feel.  If anyone can
juggle ... um, how many?"
     "Potentially?  Eight," Mamoru said, counting all the senshi, but
leaving out Ranma.  For the moment.
     "Yeah, that's complicated," Yu nodded.  "But she could juggle
that many if anyone could.  It'd be easier if you had bed partners in that
group too, though.  No possibles?"
     Gods, he didn't want to think about that.  Or maybe the problem
was, he did.  "Anything's possible, Yu."  The older man laughed, and
Mamoru pushed off the car with his hips, stretching.  "Thanks for the
advice.  And the info."
     "Thanks for dinner," Yu replied, crumpling up the bag the food
had come in.  "I'm gonna go see if I can't get Meaghan to succumb to
my charms.  You get anything out of that mess ..."
     "I'll let you know," Mamoru told him, feeling badly that he
probably wouldn't.  Yu would want to help, but Mamoru was not
dragging his partner and friend into this mess if he could help it.
     Maybe Yu was right.  Maybe he did try too hard to protect
everybody.  But that was his nature, and he wasn't going to deny it.
     With a last look at the craggy police tower, Mamoru slid into his
car, started the engine, and headed back.

***

     "You know, Raine, a woman of your position should rest when
she can."
     Raine didn't turn from the window as Greely joined her in the
great hall, simply watching his reflection.  If she looked closely, she
could notice his limp.  He was very good at hiding it; his old injuries
must be playing up.
     "Is that what you used to do, Tam?"
     "Ah, my dear," he sighed, leaning against the broad stone
window ledge and staring out at the sprawling lights of the capital.
"That was a lifetime ago.  I was a much younger man then."
     "I notice, Lord Greely, that you didn't answer the question."
     "Busted," the older man grinned ruefully.  "As the younger folk
say.  No, to be honest, there were many sleepless nights.  Especially after
I became Her Grace's guard captain.  It was a lot of responsibility.  Been
reading reports?"
     "Yeah," Raine said, letting the word drain the air from her like a
deflating balloon.  "Military and police checkpoints are getting set up,
neighbourhoods are getting swept, intelligence is getting studied, and at
least forty people have been shot since nightfall for being in the wrong
dark alley or park at the wrong time.  Or, in one case, for trying to sneak
into their own house late.  The populace, they are getting twitchy."
     "And no sign of the vampire."
     "And no sign of the gods-be-damned vampire.  Priests can't find
her, cops can't find her, bloody V Division can't find her and I sure as all
the hells can't find her."
     "It helps to take it all on yourself," Greely said knowingly.
     "Ah, screw you, old man."
     "Best offer I've had all night."
     "I just feel so helpless," Raine said in a low, frustrated voice.  "I
should be able to do more."
     "Your people are properly deployed," Greely told her,
straightening.  His bearing in that moment spoke of his military
background, and there was steel in his eyes.  "Your lieutenants are
always within reach of Her Majesty's summons, the palace guard is alert
and prepared for any eventuality.  Must I remind you, Raine, that your
duty is not to find vampires or even to protect this city?  Your duty is to
protect your queen, and as long as you do that, then you will have
fulfilled your most important obligation."
     Raine nodded, turning from the window to face him for the first
time.  "Well spoken," she said grudgingly.  "And you're right, I do need
to be focussed on things I can do.  But I feel like there's a giant set of
gears driving the city, and they're starting to spin faster and faster, and if
no one gets a handle on them they're going to just fly apart."
     "A fanciful notion," Greely remarked, arching one eyebrow.
"Somewhat unlike you, Raine."
     "I like to wax philosophical on occasion," she grunted.  "A little
known fact, that.  Did you know that there was a marked increase in
plumbing problems in the week leading up to the Long Dark?"
     "I beg your pardon?"  She glanced at Greely, unable to tell if he
was more startled than amused by her question.
     "It's true," she told him wryly.  "Skip told me earlier."
     "Ah.  The intrepid Professor Lewdine has been reading the RO's
Crisis Codex," Greely sighed.  "Cross-referencing events that
immediately precede various crises in our history has, if I recall, been an
endeavour of limited success.  It seems unlikely, for instance, that the
kingdom's plumbers foresaw the Long Dark."
     "Yeah," Raine admitted, stifling a yawn.  "One of many, what'd he
call them, charming statistical anomalies.  And Skip says that there's
more raw data on the days leading up to the Long Dark than any other
event.  Since it was a completely unique event, though, it's hard to tell
what's significant and what isn't.  Monster attacks fell off dramatically in
the days running up to it, for instance, but we don't know why, or if that
fact is somehow related."
     "The problem, of course, is that we didn't know it was coming,"
Greely pointed out.  "So nobody was studying events looking for patterns
until afterward, and by then a lot had happened."
     "Bingo.  Skip says there aren't enough red flags to associate our
vamp's presence with any known events, though.  So that's something."
     "Or nothing."
     "Gods, Tam, don't make my head hurt any more than it already
does."
     "Sorry."  They stood there for a time, both staring out at the
lights.  Raine sneaked a look at Greely's profile, noting that the dapper
man seemed unaffected by the lateness of the hour.
     "I wish Gar was here," she sighed at last.
     "Now, there's something I never thought I'd hear you say,"
Greely declared, raising one eyebrow.
     "Don't get me wrong," she scowled.  "I still think he's a bloody
rogue.  She needs him here, and as usual he's off somewhere, probably
drunk and banging everything that moves.  I'm sorry, Tam, I know you
two go way back.  You once served his family, after all.  And it must be
difficult for him sometimes, having lived through that nightmare.  But
that doesn't excuse his behaviour, or the cavalier way he treats his
responsibilities.  I'll never understand your fondness for him, nor Her
Majesty's."
     "But?"
     "He can make Her smile when no one else can," Raine admitted,
rubbing the back of her neck with her palm.  "He helps keep Her
grounded.  I don't like it, but I can't deny it, either.  He's good for Her
state of mind.  Plus, when he actually does work, he gets results."
     "Been taking out Her frustrations on you, has She?" Greely asked
with disquieting insight.
     "Events have been weighing on Her of late," Raine admitted.
     "Well, it's a good thing Gar isn't here," Greely said with a wry smile.
"You very nearly paid him a compliment just then."
     "Look, Tam, I know you don't talk about the old days, but
you're the only one who knew him back then.  Was he always like this?"
     The question seemed to take the older man by surprise, and Raine
regretted it as soon as she'd finished speaking.  Tam Greely had been a
Royal Guardsman a long time ago, and his present title had been granted
as a result of the action that had ended his career, but his past in the
outland provinces remained shrouded in mystery.  People in royal circles
did not discuss the outlands.  They certainly did not talk about what had
happened to the members of the royal family who had been all but exiled
there years ago.
     "Let me put it to you this way," Greely said at last, just as she
was beginning to think he would not answer.  The whip-thin old
campaigner rose up on the balls of his feet as he talked, hands clasped
behind his back.  "Gar hasn't changed since the day we first met."
     "So he's always been a pain."
     "I'm afraid so."  A crooked smile graced the man's face, one
tinged with fondness but also with a shadow of pain.  Talking about his
past would never be easy for him, Raine knew.
     "That figures.  Listen, I'd better turn in.  Her Majesty'll be
having another early morning briefing, and I don't want to be yawning
my way through it."
     "Wise," Greely nodded in that calm, aggravatingly sage manner
of his.  Had Raine not known of his past, she never would have guessed
he'd ever been anything other than a royal advisor.
     "You coming?"
     "Oh, old bones don't always rest easily," he told her wryly.  "I
believe I'll putter about, see if I can't scare up some clue as to where
Gar's gotten off to.  I'm actually beginning to worry about him."
     "You aren't going to find anyone to talk to at this hour," Raine
snorted.  "Not unless you break curfew and venture out into one of his
favourite haunts."
     "That won't be necessary," Greely assured her.  "I know how his
mind works.  I owe him a favour, so perhaps I can repay it by getting him
back here before Her Majesty loses all patience."
     "Good luck with that, Tam.  Really.  Playing nursemaid to that
lunatic isn't a job I'd want."
     "Good night, Raine."
     "Good night, Tam."

***

     Setsuna closed the door quietly and crossed the room, lowering
herself into a plush armchair.  "You should get some sleep," she told the
room's occupant.  "It's late."
     "I'm not tired," Hotaru told her, not looking up from the files she
was examining.  Setsuna made no comment.  Hotaru certainly didn't
look tired.  In fact, she seemed energized, as if she drew vivacious energy
from the night itself.  Setsuna always worried when that happened;
thoughts of Hotaru's darker nature were never far from her mind.  But
there were no other warning signs, and so she kept her concerns to
herself.
     For the moment.
     She did glimpse, however, a telling photo in the pile of papers
that Hotaru slid into a worn manila envelope as she was sitting down.
Hotaru wasn't obvious about it, but Setsuna could tell her friend was
trying to keep her from seeing what she'd been looking at.
     And no wonder.  Hotaru's thoughts had apparently taken a
worrisome tack.  It was to be expected, really, ever since the revelation
that the vampire in question might be the same one who had violated
Hotaru's mother.  Hotaru had seized on that tenuous relationship with a
zeal that was disturbing, if not surprising.  For Hotaru Tomoe, the
appearance of this vampire represented a chance to face the demons of
her past.
     And exorcise them.  With prejudice.
     Setsuna worried, though, that this burning need for revenge
would blind Hotaru to everything else.  She also worried that Hotaru
would try to take the entire responsibility for destroying this creature
upon herself.
     Which would explain the file she'd been perusing.
     Setsuna made no mention of what she'd seen.  She knew better
than to try to argue with Hotaru, especially about this.  It would be far
more prudent to stay alert and to be prepared to help her friend when the
moment came.
     "So, have you found anything useful?" she asked.  She couldn't
help but notice that some of the files had red borders on them and were
marked TOP SECRET.  Hotaru did seem to have access to material that
most people did not, courtesy of her highly placed sources.
     "Nothing so far," Hotaru told her absently.  "I've been hoping to
find some reference to this vampire in the records from before the Long
Dark.  If we knew who she was, we might be able to figure out where she
would go to ground.  No matter how powerful she is, she has to hide from
the sun.  And she'd want someplace secure, somewhere she felt safe."
     "You think she has followers in the city."  It wasn't a question.
     "Followers?"  Hotaru looked up, dark eyes filled with loathing as
the lamplight picked out gleaming highlights in her raven hair.  "Blood-
drugged slaves, more likely.  Once they were under her spell, they'd do
anything to protect her."
     "But she could be anywhere," Setsuna sighed, closing her eyes
and feeling weariness rise like an implacable tide.  "This is the largest
city on the entire continent.  Finding one person is not going to be easy."
     "She will not remain in hiding for long," Hotaru said in a low voice.
"After all, her hunger has already driven her to feed.  Unfortunately, that
may not help us unless we catch her in the act.  There should have been
some trace left on the victims, a mystic residue that could help track her.
But the priests and mystics examining the victims from the both the bar
and that church have been unable to sense anything of the vampire at all
on her victims."
     "I hadn't heard that," Setsuna said softly, sitting up in her chair.
"That may explain why she was so bold."
     "She's toying with us," Hotaru breathed, her voice tight.
"Manipulating others into doing her bidding, giving us tantalizing
glimpses and then vanishing like a ghost.  There has to be a way to draw
her into the open."
     "It'll be light soon," Setsuna said, unsettled by the hard-edged
gleam in Hotaru's eyes.  "We certainly can't draw her out into the
daylight.  And if we're right, she'll have what she wants by midnight
tonight.  Whatever that is.  That brings us back to the Sisterhood."
     "Any progress with those discs?" Hotaru asked, some of the
hectic light fading from her gaze.
     "Last time I checked, Ami was still hard at work.  You know her,
she won't stop until she solves the puzzle.  And Mamoru just got back.
Apparently he got some files from a friend in the department.  He's
sifting through them, looking for anything that might be Sisterhood
related.  That's a longshot, but it's better than sitting on our butts
waiting."
     "They can't hide from us forever," Hotaru said with a dark
conviction that was nearly predatory.
     "They don't need to," Setsuna reminded her.  "Only for another
day.  We'd better hope that Ami has some luck with those discs, or we're
going to have to do something drastic."
     "Like asking the princess to forget about her promise?" Hotaru
asked, raising one perfect eyebrow.
     "The police can't find the vampire," Setsuna sighed, "but with
their resources, maybe they could track down the Sisterhood."
     "I'm surprised you would even consider going against her,
Setsuna."
     "I'm considering asking her to be pragmatic," Setsuna replied,
rubbing her eyes and yawning.  Damn, she needed some rest.  "I must
admit, I don't hold out any great hopes for getting her to change her
mind, though."
     "Well," Hotaru said with a wry smile, "at least you finally know
how I feel.  She won't go back on her word.  You know that."
     "Yes, I suppose I do.  So let's hope that it doesn't come to that."
     Hotaru leaned back in the chair, steepling her fingers and turning
slightly to stare out the window.  "Hope will only take us so far, my
friend.  If nothing breaks by the time the sun rises, then we're going
hunting.  And if we have to kick in every door in this city, we are going
to find what we're looking for.  I will be damned if I'll just sit here and
let this witch ruin any more lives."

***

     "Wow," Haruka remarked as she sorted through the paperwork
in front of her.  "Who knew that beautiful women were involved in so
many shady dealings?"
     "Men," Mamoru told her.
     "For shame, Mamoru," Michiru chided.  "That is a cynical and
bitter viewpoint."
     "It's hard to be optimistic," he told her, "at this hour of the
morning."
     "Point," Haruka admitted.  Mamoru sipped his coffee and rubbed
the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.
     "Well," Michiru murmured, looking up from the table.  "I find it
hard to believe that a group of the Sisterhood's finest seductresses
engaged in a series of snatch and run robberies in clothing stores in the
market area over the past month."
     "Doesn't seem their style," Mamoru admitted.  "Nor does
running a casino and hotel scam where they pretend to be an advance
party for famous entertainers like Yuki Oh, Mas Trenta, even the Regal
Rock Revue."
     "Is nothing sacred?" Haruka sighed.
     "Apparently not," he told her glumly.
     "Think the Sisterhood might have bought thirty cases of Machti
assault rifles?" Michiru asked.
     "That REALLY doesn't seem their style," Haruka snickered,
flipping through the pages.  "Oh, but I can beat that.  This guy here's
been selling military toys, according to this.   No assault rifles, but he did
sell a Rhino IV to a guy who claimed to be a priest of Rittner."
     "I don't think even a god of war advocates buying hot armoured
vehicles," Mamoru snorted.
     "He did have some female clients," Haruka went on.  "Sold them,
get this, Viernan shifting camouflage netting, a Bander armoured car
with plow blade attachment, and a Massovelli Waterbug.  What in the
hells is a Massovelli Waterbug?"
     "The military used to use those," Mamoru told her.  "They can
lay down temporary bridges.  Useful if you're assaulting an enemy
position across a river."
     "Or reviving a sealed goddess?" Michiru asked.
     "Not likely.  Here's a good one.  Six women who looked, and I
quote, like freaking supermodels, unquote, took this poor old fool for six
exotic sportscars.  Huh.  No Ferengettis, though."
     "Ferengettis?" Haruka asked, perking up.
     "The Nightmistress seems to have a weakness for expensive
cars," Mamoru told her.  "She had a Ferengetti, a Shadow I think, before
Usako flattened it."
     "Usagi wrecked a Ferengetti?" Haruka squawked.  Michiru gave
Mamoru a long-suffering look.  "I mean, those cars are art!  They're
hand made by Kensi Ferengetti and his best people!  There are probably
only about fifty in the entire kingdom!"
     "When good cars happen to bad people," Michiru sighed
dramatically, earning her a glare from her partner.
     "Well, she didn't get it from this guy," Mamoru shrugged, "but
given her taste for luxury automobiles, I'll put him in the 'possible' pile."
     "Realistically, what should we be looking for?" Michiru asked as
she riffled through the pile of reports in front of her.
     "It's hard to say," Mamoru told her wearily.  "This is part of
police work, ladies.  Sometimes something jumps out at you.  Off the top
of my head, though, I'd say be looking for something the Sisterhood
would use for this ceremony of theirs.  Drugs, slaves, possibly real estate.
They have to perform it somewhere, after all."
     "Think they needed two hundred counterfeit Ni-So watches?"
Haruka muttered.
     "Does anyone need two hundred counterfeit Ni-So watches?"
     "So I should keep looking?"
     "Good idea."

***

     Rei glided along the darkened hallway, bare feet making no
sound as they sank into deep carpet.  She'd always loved this time of day;
the sun would be up soon, but right now everything was quiet, still, and
utterly peaceful.  It would be easy to forget, in an atmosphere like this,
the dangers that lurked all around.
     She was not the only one awake.  The light had been on in the
kitchen, and quiet voices as she'd passed the door indicated that Haruka,
Michiru, and Mamoru were awake, at least.  Probably Hotaru, as well,
although given their mutual antipathy it seemed unlikely that Mamoru
and Hotaru would be working in such close quarters.
     Rei did not tarry to find out what they were working on.  If they
found anything, they certainly would not keep it secret.  A quick check of
the house had found Setsuna lying on a couch with Luna curled up on
her legs in one room, Makoto snuggled into the curve of Yoshi's body in
another.
     Ranma slept alone, and poorly, at least to judge by the short time
she'd watched him.  Rei considered waking him, but decided against it.
Nightmares left one terribly vulnerable, something she was painfully
aware of.  She might very well have overstepped the bounds of his
cultural propriety by saying as much as she had to him, but she had
decided that it was necessary, and did not regret it.  But no one could
take the
next step for him.  It was up to Ranma to decide how much he was
willing to let any of them behind the walls he had built up around his
heart.
     At any rate, her concerns at the moment lay elsewhere.  She
padded through the darkened house until she reached the room where
Ami toiled away on the discs from Vanka's safe.  Faint light limned the
bottom of the door, blue-white and harsh, and Rei knew that Ami was
still planted in front of the computer.  The lithe priestess opened the door
quietly and peered inside.
     Just as she'd surmised, Ami was sitting there, head in her hands,
making small, frustrated sounds as she glared at the screen.  A plate sat
on the table next to the desk, empty save for crumbs.  At least Ami had
eaten a meal.  Rei was quite certain that the girl hadn't rested.
     Rei moved up beside Ami's chair, taking care not to startle the
girl.  "Good morning," she said softly.
     "Mmm," Ami breathed noncommitally.  Rei looked down at the
screen and grimaced.  Computers were far from her best thing, and the
symbols on the screen were so much gibberish to her.  Unfortunately,
Ami did not appear any more enlightened.
     "Not going well?" Rei asked sympathetically.  She did not want
to hang over Ami's shoulder while the girl was trying to work, but she
knew full well that, left to her own devices, Ami would neglect herself as
long as the answer to the puzzle eluded her.
     "No," Ami mumbled.  "These symbols are linked with some kind
of mystical encryption key.  I can't make heads nor tails of it, never seen
anything like it.  Nothing I've tried works, not even transforming and
scanning them with my visor."
     The girl's frustration was blunted by fatigue, and Rei knew her
assumption had been correct.  Ami had become engrossed in this puzzle
to the exclusion of all else.
     "Have you slept at all, Ami?"
     "Nuh-uh," Ami muttered, nudging her glasses up on her nose
with one finger as she stared disconsolately at the screen.  Sighing, Rei
raked her hair back with her fingers, tossing it over her shoulders in a
heavy cascade of sable silk.  The motion caused her robe to pull tight
against the swell of her breasts in a way that Rei judged to be heart-
stopping, yet Ami paid not the slightest attention.  Typical.  Still, Rei
found her vanity pricked by Ami's inattention; she had long been aware
of her striking beauty, and had become quite accustomed to stares and
admiring glances.  Accustomed, yes, and if truth be told, she had even
come to regard such reactions as her due.
     Frankly, she just did not like being ignored.
     Rei slipped behind Ami's chair.  The girl was wearing blue
sweatpants and a rumpled white t-shirt, and Rei rested her hands gently
on Ami's shoulder's for a moment, feeling a twitch shudder through the
tight muscles there as Ami reacted to the unexpected touch.  Then Rei
leaned forward a bit, running her thumbs down the muscle behind Ami's
shoulders and kneading firmly.  Ami's gasp was sweet to her ears, and
Rei smiled as the girl arched under her hands.
     Ignore THIS, she thought wickedly.
     "Oh," Ami breathed.  "Rei, don't ..."
     "You're tight," Rei breathed, letting the edge of a low, sensual
purr creep into her voice.  She leaned in more, kneading harder at the
same time as her posture brought her silk-restrained breasts against
Ami's back.  Ami made a sound deep in her throat, and Rei resolved in
that moment not to stop until the girl was limp as an old dishrag.  Ami
was tougher on herself than anyone else could have been; her failure to
decode the discs would curdle like old milk if it was allowed to.
     "Relax," Rei crooned.  "Damn it, girl, you are a bundle of knots.
Have you even moved from this chair since you sat down?"
     Ami made no reply, for in that moment two things happened.
First, Rei slid her hands along Ami's shoulders, letting her thumbs ride
up the back of her neck and squeezing again with exquisite firmness.
     And second, a whisper of magick skittered across her skin.
     Ami yelped, jumping out of the chair so abruptly that Rei
stumbled back, falling unceremoniously on her shapely ass.  Rei just sat
there for a moment, stunned, as Ami bounced up and down in clear
agitation.
     "Ami?" Rei asked.  "What's wrong?  Did I pinch a nerve?"  She
knew she hadn't, but perhaps by being so tactile she'd pushed a button
that the reticent girl hadn't wanted pushed.  Giving Ami an out would
save her from having to articulate anything awkward or embarrassing.
     "Did you see that?" Ami blurted, pointing at the screen, then
turning to look down at Rei.  "Rei, what are you doing down there?"
     "Nothing," Rei grumbled, shaking her head.  Honestly, Ami could be
exasperating sometimes.  She climbed to her feet and tugged her robe into
place.  "And no, I didn't see anything."
     "It's gone," Ami said, shaking her head.  "But it was there, just
for a moment.  I SAW it, Rei.  And I felt ... something."
     "Magick," Rei nodded.  "I felt it too.  Did you trigger something
on the disc?"
     "I wasn't doing anything," Ami said, running her fingers through
her dark hair, tousling it in a manner that was all the more fetching for
being completely artless.
     "I was," Rei said, fighting the urge to be petulant.  Ami seemed
to have completely forgotten her in the excitement of her breakthrough.
Geniuses, Rei thought darkly.  They're all the same.  Then something
occurred to her, and she let her temper fade as quickly as it had come.
     Ami was still staring at the screen, taking her glasses off and rubbing
the bridge of her pert nose as if she could bring back what she'd seen.
"Ami, can I ask you something?"
     "Mmmm?"  Distracted again.  Rei sighed and moved so that she
was partially blocking Ami's view, which caused Ami to blink owlishly.
"What?"
     "Ami," Rei repeated.  "Listen.  Could we have affected what you
saw on the screen?"
     "We?"
     "You and I," Rei said softly.  "That magick was just a touch, but
it felt familiar to me.  I think we raised that synergistic power between us
again."
     "What?"  Now she had Ami's attention again, and a pink flush
coloured the girl's cheeks.  "You mean, like ... no.  That couldn't be."
     "You enjoyed my touch," Rei pointed out, and the flush on Ami's
face darkened.  "Come now, Ami.  This is important.  Your body is
stressed, your senses dulled.  It's only natural to feel something if
someone gives you a shoulder rub, right?"
     "I guess," Ami said slowly.  Rei was willing to bet that Ami
hadn't had many shoulder rubs.  She w