day21

Previously:

     Separated by the Sisterhood's attack, the group struggled to reunite. Both Yoshi's senses and
the strange synergistic power that had grown up between Mars and Mercury aided the groups, but an
unexpected complication entered the fray. Inquisitors from Alieva's order, tipped off by Vanka der
Gris' treachery, entered the tunnels and encountered the senshi and, assuming them to be part of the
Sisterhood plot, immediately engaged them in battle. Rei's past dealings with their leader
complicated matters even further, but the arrival of Phobos and Deimos created a diversion that
allowed V to take Vestra Carlina hostage. Meanwhile, the Sisterhood unleashed the rogue
succubus, Maia, on Moon and Tux. Tux fell under her spell and the princess was forced into a
fierce battle for her lover's life ... and her own. Wounded, she nonetheless managed to kill Maia and
rescue Tux.
     The rest of the group encountered the Nightmistress who, realising the jig was up, had
already unleashed her attack on Alieva's temple, apparently out of sheer spite, and slipped away in
the ensuing chaos.
     Escaping from the city's perilous underground, the victorious group ran straight into another
problem; a swarm of succubi had isolated part of the city and lured Ranma to them in order to take
the key for their mistress, Hild. Mara ordered the succubi to keep the senshi busy while the wolf,
Fenrir, killed Ranma. The battle raged fiercely while Wynneth, realising that the senshi were about
to fall to Hild, decided to intervene. She used the Genosphere as a trojan horse, unleashing her
wraiths within the palace and then attacking Hild's succubi.
     Ranma, driven to the edge by despair, used the key to call up a power he did not know he
possessed, a Storm Dragon made from his chi. That construct wounded Fenrir and destroyed the
Genosphere, scattering the airborne succubi and wraiths but causing untoward consequences,
including a communications blackout.
     At that point Wynneth unleashed a power she had summoned with the coming storm,
smashing the palace defences and levelling the seat of power for the entire kingdom. Ranma, lost in
a berserker rage, remained unaware of this development as he managed to destroy Fenrir. Then, out
of control, he turned is rage on an unsuspecting Mistress V ...

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 21: Zero Hour

     V tried to shout, but the breath had been driven from her body by the force of the impact.
Black dots swam in from the edges of her eyes, doing some sort of demented water-ballet all over
her field of vision. Still, after a few moments things began to register. Things like the way the
torn-up field was receding beneath her, along with the savagely beautiful silhouette of Ranma's
dragon. Her unbound hair streamed down from her head, trailing behind her.
     She was upside down.
     And flying.
     The broken roof of Memorial Stadium came into view, then fell away below her smoothly.
V shook her head, sending ripples through her hair as it streamed in the cold wind. Someone's
shoulder was pressed into her belly, and an arm held her legs tightly.
     Rescued, and just in the nick of time. But who?
     Her hectic ascent slowed, and V gasped as the arm holding her legs loosened, allowing her to
begin sliding. She squawked loudly, but was unable to grab on to anything as she was
unceremoniously dumped. The storm-bruised sky spun wildly, righting as fingers grabbed her wrist
in an iron grip. The battered senshi spun, hanging from the hand of her rescuer, who peered down at
her with a calculating look.
     "In Niffleheim," Mara said wryly, "we had a word for how things went down here. We
called it a clusterfuck."
     "You saved me," V gasped. Things were still a little scrambled, but there was little doubt in
her mind that taking the brunt of Ranma's attack would have been catastrophic, if not fatal.
     "So I did," Mara agreed, curls whipping around her narrow face as the gale rose and a
sudden torrent of rain slashed across them in an icy sheet. "Now you get to return the favour. Make
a little deal with me, as it were."
     V wasn't fooled by Mara's bright smile. This wasn't likely to be a deal she wanted to make.
Craning her head to look down, she considered her options. Slim, she thought glumly, meet none.
     "What kind of deal?"
     "Look, blondie, here it is. Everything's gone into the toilet here. I got one chance to stay off
my Queen's shit-list, and that's if I bring her that key. So you help me, and I help you."
     "You want me to help you kill Ranma?" V asked slowly.
     "Don't look at me like that," Mara snorted. "Your so-called friend would have killed your
tight little ass back there."
     "He's out of control!"
     "An excellent reason to ice him," Mara pointed out. "Her. Whatever. Look, you tell me his
weak spot, I punch his ticket, he doesn't kill you, my boss doesn't punish me."
     "That's insane! No way!"
     "Blondie, I don't think you're seeing the big picture here," Mara sighed. "You guys have
bigger problems right now than some punk-ass kid with a hyperlink key. Or did you miss the
show?"
     V had no idea what Mara was talking about until the woman rotated in place, causing the
sprawling cityscape beneath them to turn until V was facing towards the sea. It took her a few
moments to process what she was seeing. She was looking towards the tempest-tossed waters, out
across the city, but something was wrong with the view. There. Where the spires of the palace
should be was only a tattered pall of smoke rising into the roiling skies.
     The palace. It was ...
     It was GONE.
     "What," V whispered. "What ... gods, what did you DO?"
     "Wasn't us," Mara informed her casually. "Somebody else called up some very nasty mojo
to pull that little stunt, and the prospect that they might not be finished doesn't exactly fill me with
joy. So, one last time. Do you help me, or do I drop your pretty blonde ass and go pick another
candidate to play 'Let's Make Mara's Day'?"
     V swallowed. Hard. The palace had been destroyed. Ranma was caught in the grips of
some sort of berserker rage, and none of the others could help her. Frankly, things didn't look so hot
for her.
     So she did what she usually did when reason and planning failed.
     She did something batshit crazy.
     "Time for Plan B, Mara!" she shouted, extending the finger of her free hand. The golden
streak of light sizzled through the air inches in front of Mara's face, causing the woman to shriek and
flinch. It also caused her to loosen her grip on V's wrist.
     V twisted, breaking the woman's hold. This better work, she thought as she started to fall, or
my improvising days are over. Tucking into a ball, she rolled over, summoning her whip as she
turned. When Mara came into view again, she hurled the gleaming length of it up with terrified
exhilaration, catching Mara low across the shin and crowing with delight as the shining links slid
down and encircled the startled woman's ankle. V felt the tension through her back and shoulders as
she swung at the end of her whip, but that was okay. There was no way she was letting go.
     "You are one crazy bitch!" Mara shouted, face flushed with rage and fear.
     "You have no idea," V grinned, heart still trying to pound its way through her black leather
corset.
     "You're not safe down there, dumbass!" Mara gritted, extending her hand, palm down.
     "Ah ah ahhh," V cautioned, pointing her free hand up. "You don't want to do that, Mara."
     "You shoot me and you'll fall, moron."
     "True. But if you shoot me, I'll fall, too," V countered. "In that case, I'd have nothing to lose
by shooting back. If I go, I'm taking you with me. So let's go down. Slowly."
     Mara stared at her, frustration stark on the planes of her narrow face. With a little distance
between them, V could counter any of Mara's attacks, ensuring they both fell to their deaths. And
Mara knew it. V was counting on Mara's sense of self-preservation to end the stand-off.
     She wasn't counting on Mara having another trick up her sleeve.
     The air above the woman began to glow, and a strange pattern resolved itself out of
nothingness. With a smirk, Mara soared up through the centre of the pattern.
     Taking V with her.

***

     The rain quickly intensified, plastering Mars' hair against her scalp as the wind drove it at
them in sheets. The sight of the seat of the kingdom's power crumbling under the assault of darkness
had left them all shaken, but there was nothing any of them could do about it now. They had their
own priorities.
     She led the small group towards the stadium, Mercury bringing up the rear. The more
injured members of their group stayed in the middle, flanked protectively by the blood-matted gray
wolf. Mars hoped the sudden chaos, coupled with the breaking storm, would keep the succubi at
bay. They were in no condition to deal with another attack right now. They needed to get V and
Ranma away from Fenrir and make good their escape.
     It was hard to hear anything over the din of the pounding rain, and the brittle snap of thunder
wasn't helping in that regard either. With the comms still out, Mars had no idea what was happening
inside. Hopefully, V had managed to calm Ranma down.
     Otherwise, this was going to be unpleasant.
     They entered through the hole that Ranma and Fenrir had made, helping each other climb
over the loose debris. At least it was dry inside, and Mars made another attempt to raise V.
     Nothing.
     "Any idea what's affecting our comms?" Jupiter asked as she carefully shook out her sopping
ponytail.
     "Maybe it's related to whatever manifested itself in the storm," Mercury speculated. Silence
greeted her words. None of them had said anything about what they had witnessed. There was, it
seemed, nothing to say. The attack had crushed the palace utterly in seconds, and for all their
power, there was nothing the senshi could do now. The palace, and everyone in it, was beyond any
earthly help. They were not.
     At least, not yet.
     "This way," Mars said finally, wringing water out of her sodden tresses. The spattering of
drops on the floor only accentuated the quiet; in here, away from the ragged hole in the wall, the
storm's fury was blunted by heavy concrete and steel walls.
     Quiet? With Ranma fighting Fenrir?
     Dread began nibbling at her gut with tiny, ragged teeth as she ran along the narrow corridor,
the others following behind. Yoshi moved up beside her, limping but obviously game, but Mars
didn't need the wolf's nose to know where V had gone. A steel door hung open ahead, the lock a
melted mass of metal. Mars darted through the doorway and sprinted up the stairs, nearly losing her
footing on the loose concrete that littered the narrow risers. She caught herself, though, and made it
to the top, skidding to a stop high above the field.
     The devastation was truly impressive. Brightly coloured seats had been flung hither and
yon, steel railings were shattered, and the playing field was a battleground of raggedly plowed
furrows and smoking craters. Rain poured in through the ruptured roof, forming a bizarre indoor
weather pattern, but the falling water was the only movement to be seen.
     "Holy crap," Jupiter muttered as she made it up to the top. "What a mess."
     "What's going on?" the princess asked from below them. "Are they all right?"
     "Good question," Mercury said in a low voice as Tux struggled to reach their position with
Moon still in his arms. "Anyone see them?"
     Nobody did. Mars scanned the field quickly, looking for any sign of their fellow senshi.
Dread provided a painfully real image of a crumpled form, black leather streaked with red, lying
broken on the ravaged field, but it quickly became apparent to her that V was not down there.
Neither was Ranma.
     The absence of bodies loosened fear's grip, but not by much. There were holes and wreckage,
places where a human body might lie hidden. Fenrir, on the other hand, could not hide so easily.
     And of the unearthly wolf, there was also no sign.
     "Yoshi, wait!" Jupiter jostled Mars as she tried to grab the injured wolf before he leapt down
to the seats below, but Yoshi evaded her easily despite his injuries. Cursing while cradling her
injured arm, Jupiter clambered clumsily over the bent railing and followed.
     "Mars?"
     "No sign," she called back to the princess. "Of any of them."
     By the time they had all reached field level, Mars' unease had grown to something
approaching frantic worry. Mercury and Jupiter had spread out, but there was no attack, no
ambush, no Fenrir.
     And no V, no Ranma.
     Nothing.
     "My scanner still won't work," Mercury growled, frustration clear in the line of her back as
she tried to scan the area. "I can't find them!"
     "Scents are confused," a deep, gravelly voice informed them. Yoshi was standing on the far
side of the largest crater, partially transformed back to human. He towered over Jupiter, his face and
limbs still covered with shaggy fur. He turned his beast's eyes on them, shaking his head as though
to dislodge bad thoughts.
     "Can you find them, Yosh?" Jupiter asked. She, too, seemed to be perturbed rather than
reassured by the absence of evidence. Had Fenrir done something with their friends? Or had the
succubi returned?
     "The wolf," Yoshi growled, a bestial tone tainting his words. "Its scent is all around, but
most strong in there." He nodded curtly to the huge crater, then gave a twitchy half-shrug, moving
quickly away from the torn-up floor. "V, her scent comes down to here, and then ... nothing."
     "It just stops?" Mercury asked. Yoshi nodded.
     "Ranma was close, there," Yoshi continued, moving at an easy lope across the artificial turf
of the stadium floor. "Went out through there."
     Mars frowned. A large hole had been smashed in the far wall, leading out into the storm.
     "So, what? Fenrir grabs V, Ranma pursues?" Tux asked. Mars could see the obvious strain
in the man's stance, hear it in his voice. That was no great trick, she knew; the others were no doubt
aware it as well, but no one wanted to suggest he put the princess down. She certainly wasn't going
to. Coming from her, such a suggestion would only serve to harden his resolve.
     "But why?" Mercury asked as they moved toward the gaping wound in the concrete wall.
"Could Ranma have hurt Fenrir badly enough to cause him to retreat?"
     "Well, Ranma was hurting him," Jupiter pointed out. "Even when we weren't. Maybe the
wolf got smart and ran."
     "Taking V wasn't smart," the princess told her. "Ranma won't stop chasing Fenrir if he has
V."
     "Funny," Jupiter said with a wry chuckle. "We've known the guy for such a short time, but I
agree with the princess. Ranma won't give up if V's in trouble."
     "And neither will we," Mars said. They had reached the hole in the wall, and peered out into
the storm. Visibility was limited and getting worse by the second, but there was no sign of Ranma or
V, much less the huge wolf. Fortunately, there was no sign of Mara or her succubi allies either,
which meant that now was as good a time as any to slip away.
     "This hole isn't big enough to have been made by Fenrir," Mercury mused, examining the
shattered concrete.
     "Maybe not, but something went that way," Jupiter told her, gesturing at a snapped tree and
two crushed cars with her good arm.
     "Then we follow," Mars said simply. They stepped carefully through the hole into a small,
partially sheltered alcove. There would be a decorative garden here later in spring, but now there
was only sodden dirt verged by winter-brown grass, scattered chunks of concrete flung in a
fan-shaped pattern out onto the street. Rain, driven by the howling winds, managed to reach them
even there, and Mars knew that the storm would end up being a mixed blessing. It would neutralise
the succubi's aerial advantage, but it would also hamper the group's efforts to locate their friends.
     "The rain is going to wash his scent away quickly," Yoshi rumbled. "I'll see how far I can
track him." With that, he was gone into the teeth of the storm.
     "We should get moving," Mars said. "Put as much distance between us and this place as we
can before those damned succubi come back. I'll take the point."
     "No," Mercury said. Mars blinked.
     "What?"
     "I'll take the point," Mercury told her.
     "Look, your tactical advantage is neutralised with the interference," Mars began, frowning at
Mercury's uncharacteristic intransigence.
     "True," Mercury admitted. "But look at that storm. Fire magicks will be at a severe
disadvantage out there. Both my power and Jupiter's are unaffected, even enhanced. Lots of natural
water and lightning. Jupiter is hurt, so I'll take the point."
     Mars opened her mouth, closed it as she heard Jupiter stifle a laugh. She wanted to argue.
Of course she should go. She always took point. Plus, she was worried about Ranma and V, and
she ...
     Damn it. Mercury was right. If she was honest with herself, she knew Mercury was right.
But it galled her, and she had to fight to swallow the argument that rose to her lips. Judging by the
look on Moon's face, Mars was not the only one astonished by Mercury's takecharge
pronouncement.
     That's what I get for stirring her up, Mars thought ruefully. Sometimes I miss the days when
I could intimidate people.
     Mercury gave her a sweet smile and even winked before sprinting out into the storm. Jupiter
didn't bother to hide her grin as she waited a few seconds, then followed. Mars tried not to be
irritated by the situation. Characteristically, she failed miserably.
     "Fine," she said, aware that her tone was verging on petulance. "Princess ..."
     "I've got her," Tuxedo Mask informed her. Mars' famous temper flared at the sight of the
pair. Despite her earlier resolution not to say anything, it was obvious that Tux was running on
fumes, and with her pride pricked, she found herself abandoning tact.
     "We need to move fast," Mars snapped. "Just let me take her, would you?"
     Moon looked from one to the other, clearly torn. Tux, for his part, met Mars' glare with an
icy stare of his own, and Mars could have sworn she smelled the heavy scent of roses in the
rain-laced wind as he straightened.
     "I said I've got her," he repeated, his bearing in that moment recalling his regal heritage.
"You just watch our backs."
     With that, he shifted the princess's battered form in his arms and did something Mars would
have sworn impossible. He ran out into the icy rain, moving with his usual speed and grace.
     Mars stared after the pair, her wounded pride and temper forgotten in the moment.
Impossible as it seemed, there was no sign that Tux had recently been the victim of a succubus's
appetites. It should have been at least a full day before his strength returned to anything near
normal. He had clearly been running on pure grit and stubbornness, and she gave him credit for
that, but she'd fully expected to have to carry both of them before long.
     The warm scent of earth and flowers lingered, and as she prepared to follow the others,
something caught her eye. She turned, then knelt to get a better look at the ground where Tux had
been standing.
     There. The impression of his footprints. As she watched, fresh shoots of green grass pushed
up through the sodden earth, filling the shape of the man's footprints in seconds. Several small
flowers pushed up in the wake of the grass, growing several inches high and blooming before her
astonished gaze.
     "What in the hells?" she whispered. In truth, she knew little of the basis for, or extent of,
Tux's powers, but she'd never seen anything like this before. He did seem to have some link to Earth
Magicks, what with his roses and all. Had he somehow drawn strength directly from the earth itself?
And why did he seem to have been unaware he was even doing it?
     Troubled for no reason she could really articulate, she stood and set off after the others.

***

     "So much," Mara said cheerfully, "for mutually assured destruction. I take it you know
where we are?"
     V swallowed the lump that had formed deep in her throat, hoping her fear didn't show. The
sight of Mara silhouetted against the baleful light of a swollen Nemesis told her all she needed to
know.
     She was in deep shit.
     "So," Mara continued, clearly taking V's silence for assent, "there's no need for histrionics,
right? Your last visit to our neighbourhood was pretty wild, at least from what I saw. This time
you're all alone, and if anything happens to me, well, there goes your ticket home. So let's be
reasonable, okay?"
     "Sure," V said, her mouth dry. "I can do reasonable."
     "That's what I like to hear!" Mara's voice was full of joviality, but V didn't miss the
undercurrent of malice. There was no way she could trust this woman, demon, whatever she was.
The best she could do was play along, try to turn the situation to her advantage.
     Oh, yeah, she told herself sourly. Trapped in Shadow with a murderous woman of unknown
abilities who wants me to give her Ranma on a platter. No way to contact the others, and even if
there were, Ranma was in the grip of some sort of berserker rage, half of the team was injured, and
they really had no way of reaching her here anyway.
     On the plus side, it wasn't raining in Shadow. Not a cloud in the blood-tinged sky.
Whoopee.
     "But you know," V went on, maintaining her bead on Mara, "if I tell you what you want to
know, what's to keep you from just stranding me here anyway?"
     "You don't trust me?"
     "Nothing personal. I have deep-seated issues with trust," V assured the smirking woman.
"But you see where I'm coming from."
     "Oh, sure," Mara replied. "But, see, agreements, contracts if you will, between my kind and
mortals are sacrosanct. If we make a deal, I'm bound to it as much as you are."
     "Gods," V breathed, eyes widening. "You ... you're worse than a monster. You're a
LAWYER."
     Mara unleashed a clear, genuine peal of laughter at that as V struggled to take in the details
of her surroundings without losing her focus on her captor. They had drifted lower in a lazy arc,
towards the roof of the stadium. Oddly, there was damage to this version similar to that inflicted by
Fenrir ...
     Whoa. Wait a second.
     "A lawyer," Mara chuckled. "Damn it, blondie, there's no reason to be insulting."
     "Sorry," V said sweetly. There, in the periphery of her vision, a pall of smoke and dust
rising into the sky. Yeah. Okay. Time for the Mistress V Special, Mark II: wild improvisation with
a side order of looney, hold the odds. Because it had worked so damned well the first time. "It's just
that, well, you were talking about needing Ranma to placate your boss ..."
     "So?" Mara's inquiry seemed casual, but V wasn't fooled. The woman was canny and on
her guard, despite having all the advantages.
     "Well, I don't think that's going to be an issue any more," V pointed out. "What with the
attack on the palace and all."
     "I told you, we didn't ..." Mara trailed off, comprehension flitting through her narrow eyes,
and she wheeled, something akin to panic taking hold of her expression in the space of a heartbeat.
     Two things happened nearly simultaneously. First, Mara's gaze fell upon the smoking,
shattered ruin of the Shadow palace, off in the distance behind them.
     Second, V released her whip and thrust her free hand out, sending a storm of tiny, gleaming
hearts knifing through the still, dank air of Shadow and into Mara, taking advantage of the
momentary distraction to blast Mara's slender form, sending it pinwheeling loosely through the sky.
     V didn't have time to admire her handiwork, though. She tucked herself into a ball as she
fell, spinning to bring the roof of the stadium into view. They had drifted closer to the dome, true,
but the drop was going to hurt nonetheless. She barely had time to brace herself before the gray
dome rushed up to meet her, the force of the impact driving the breath from her in a rush. V rolled,
losing her bearings as she struggled to draw a breath. Her legs were numb, black spots danced
around in her eyes and the sky spun crazily.
     She was down. And she was rolling off the damned curve of the dome.
     V tried to slow her descent, but her body didn't want to obey, and the battering from her
tumbling wouldn't let up.
     Then it did, and she was in free-fall again. Desperately she flung out her hand, catching a
glimpse of the roof's edge through a storm of blonde locks. Grabbing at as much of her scattered
concentration as she could, she threw all her strength into summoning her whip, sending it snaking
out. For a heart-stopping instant she was sure nothing would happen, but a string of familiar
gleaming motes finally coalesced into the sinuous form of salvation as she plummeted, and the whip
slithered up to wind around the neck of one of the gargoyle statues.
     At least, she hoped it was a statue. If it was real, she was going to be in even deeper trouble,
something she hadn't thought possible only moments ago. V gritted her teeth and drew the whip
slowly tight, letting her momentum carry her body into an arc along the side of the stadium's wall.
Just snagging the gargoyle would have probably pulled her arms from their sockets; as it was, she
held on for dear life, gasping for breath as she swung in a long arc, her body spinning at the end of
the whip and bouncing two or three times off the cold concrete wall..
     After a few long, dizzying swings coupled with delightful, bone jarring impacts, she had
regained enough of her faculties to extend the whip and lower herself to the plaza below.
Thankfully, the gargoyle was indeed every bit as inanimate as its counterpart on the other stadium,
and as her boots hit the ground V murmured a quick thanks to the goddess of bravos and
madwomen.
     But there was no time to waste. She had to get out of this plaza; it was wide open, devoid of
cover. Fighting to get her breathing under some semblance of control, V half-limped, half-sprinted
to the far end of the open plaza, ignoring the itch that had begun to crawl along the flesh between her
shoulder blades. Even if her sucker-shot had KO'd Mara, there were plenty of other dangerous
things in Shadow, like wraiths, and the strange beasts they'd fought before. And that wasn't even
taking into account the horrors that could be lurking here unbeknownst to lovely blonde senshi; after
all, until recently, nobody had realised that this Crimson Queen had created a court of succubi here.
Not to mention the Black King.
     By the time V reached cover, it felt like an army of ants was skittering down her back. Way
to give yourself the screaming heebiejeebies, Aino, she thought blackly as she plastered her back to
the wall of a narrow alley. Shadows were deep here, and V weighed the danger of moving deeper
into the alley against the threat of aerial attack. Succubi had filled the sky before that explosion
scattered them like so many leaves, but V had no idea how great a percentage of the Crimson
Queen's forces they represented. Any succubi that hadn't been in this realm's palace might still be
lurking about. Not to mention incubi emboldened by their rivals' misfortune.
     Or the vampire's wraiths. Yeah, the alley would do just fine.
     Cautiously, V summoned a short length of whip and set it to spinning. She didn't want to
create too much of that golden light. In this place, light would draw attention. No, just enough to
reveal any hazards was the way to go.
     She snorted. Hazards. Like, for instance, being trapped in Shadow Realm with no way out?
Yeah, that might qualify. Grimly, V pushed on, orienting herself as she reached the far end of the
alley. She had a rough idea of where Mara should have landed. Assuming that the woman had been
incapacitated by V's attack, the best plan of action was to find her before she recovered and force her
to take them back out of Shadow. Okay, it was a pretty thin plan, but right now it was the only
thing standing between V and the gnawing sense of panic uncoiling from her gut.
     Had the others even seen what had happened to her? When the dust settled, they would look
for her, but it would never occur to them that she might be here. What then?
     V thought of the strange link that Rei and Ami shared and felt a pang of jealousy. What she
wouldn't give for that link right now. And how weird was it that Rei and Ami, of all people, were
linked in such a way? Their powers were diametrically opposed, not to mention their natures, and
anything involving mind-blowing sexual ecstasy? That was Minako territory, all the way.
     Her comm still wouldn't work, which was no surprise. She knew from experience that she
wouldn't be able to sense Artemis's presence, although that didn't stop her from trying. She was cut
off, alone. Even Ranma ...
     Ranma. What had happened? That chi manifestation had been glorious, terrifying, and the
only thing capable of stopping Fenrir. But what had it done to Ranma? Was he okay now? Would
he be looking for her? Maybe that key, whatever it was, could help him find her here. It had gotten
them out last time, after all.
     And she had no doubt he would search for her. They had known each other for such a short
time, but V felt the bond that was developing between them. Ranma might be all reticence and
wounded distance on the outside, but he was the kind of man that followed his heart with a
vengeance. And V knew that, however confused that boy was, she had taken up residence his heart.
     And when he finally found her, she was going to kiss him until his spine melted. Then she
was going to let him find a way to make it up to her for almost eating her with his chi dragon.
     Those thoughts helped distract her as she flitted like a ghost from shadow to shadow, staying
close to the high walls of the buildings here, using her whip for light only when absolutely necessary.
As the minutes crawled past, her chances of finding Mara before something found her danced further
and further from the realm of reasonable.
     And then something grabbed her from behind.

***

     Cold.
     It chased me out from wherever I'd been with its dull, frigid ache, and dimly I thought I
might have been feeling it for a while. Then wet joined the festivities, and a whole raft of physical
sensations came riding along just behind.
     I pulled in a shaky breath, another. Opened my eyes. I was lying on pavement, wet
pavement, and frigid lines of rain were drilling into my back, hitting the ground so hard that they
formed a mist where they bounced back up. It was hard to move, took forever to get my arms to do
what I wanted, which was to lift me off the ground.
     I was lying in the middle of a street. Water ran down my face, coursing maliciously from the
end of my nose as I peered around blearily. I'd woken up in some pretty strange places in my time,
but rarely one as bleak as this. Not to mention that I felt like I'd had every ounce of strength rung
out of me, with freezing water rushing in to fill the void.
     This wasn't good. At least there was no traffic, I thought fuzzily as I tried to muster the
strength to get up. It would suck to get run down in the road after ... after ...
     After what? What the hell had happened, anyway? Disjointed images flickered across the
inside of my skull, fighting, running, the usual crap ...
     Fenrir.
     I'd thought it had been cold before, but this new frost settled into my soul, where the mere
physical misery couldn't reach. I struggled to reach my knees, fighting off drowning waves of
light-headedness and nausea. It had all been going bad, the succubi, the giant wolf, Mara, all of
them. So I'd ...
     I'd what? I remembered hopelessness, despair, and above all, anger. I'd wanted to strike
back against them, all of them. Had I? Fenrir had been charging, and I'd tried to reproduce whatever
effect I'd used against Arj. Things got hazy, then. It all seemed vaguely dreamlike, unreal.
     And now I was here, caught in the teeth of a wild storm, no stadium, no Fenrir, no senshi.
     Alone.
     My heart started racing. Alone. Where was everyone?
     Gone, the little voice in my head mocked me. All gone.
     No. Just like before. Just like ... like home ...
     Or are you still home? Did you ever leave?
     I fell back on all fours, driven down by the storm's fury combined with sudden dread.
     Maybe you passed out on the street in Nerima. Rescue, another world where your friends all
survived, where you weren't a failure, what a sweet dream ...
     "No." My voice was lost in the drumming rain, the snarling wind.
     And then travelling, finding lovely senshi who befriend you, take you in? And want to share
you in ways you can't imagine? Really? What a pleasant dream to pass the last moments of your
hopeless life ...
     A feeling of unreality settled over me, the comforting detachment somehow familiar. There
were flashes of memory, of wandering alone, of bodies and carnage and fighting ...
     "NO!" I came up again, shuddering, clawing at the rain like a madman. And maybe I was
just that, a madman, the last madman in Japan, maybe the world, lost in a fever dream and waiting
for the end. They'd find me soon, follow the screaming, and then I could go down fighting, and it
would end, there'd be peace and I could rest ...
     It was like I could feel it happening, the cogs and gears of my mind just starting to spin out
of synch, thought and memory jumbling, getting dim, getting LOST. And for a moment, I just
wanted to stay there and let it happen. I was vaguely aware that this particular madness had fallen
on me once before, after Ukyou had died (years ago? Seconds?). And I'd been left alone. Was still
alone. Had always been ...
     Something was digging into my waist. That shouldn't have seemed important, but the
sensation cut through the mental fog, demanding attention. Fingers made clumsy by cold scrabbled
weakly at the waistband of my pants even as I wondered why I was bothering.
     Why ...?
     The outline was curved. A metal crescent, tucked against my skin. I'd put it there, when ...
     Minako. Her Crescent Compact. She'd made me dry clothes. I gasped, and it was like
pulling the world back into me along with the cold and the wet.
     She was real. It was all real. Wake up, Saotome. Wake the hell up, GET the hell up, right
NOW!
     I shook my head, water spattering off my sodden hair. I was still shaking, but not just from
the cold. I'd been right on the edge of something, something very bad, that ever popular abyss,
maybe. And I'd been that close to sliding over the edge. A part of me had wanted to.
     But now I was back.
     "V?" I called. My voice was hoarse, weak, and I could barely hear myself over the din of the
storm. I staggered to my feet after two attempts, nearly falling the second time. Standing there,
swaying, I knew I was in bad shape. It wasn't just being drenched in icy rain, either. I had all the
strength of a wet noodle. Whatever I'd done, it had drained my reserves.
     But had it worked?
     "V! Mars! Princess? ANYBODY?"
     Nothing. Damn it. No sign of Mara, the succubi, or Fenrir. Had the others escaped, or had
they been captured? And where the hell was I, anyway? I turned slowly, realising that even though
I was in the middle of a city street, there'd been no traffic at all since I'd woken up. The buildings
around me seemed run down, maybe even abandoned. It reminded me of the neighbourhood V,
Mars and I had passed through after escaping the subway tunnel, the one near the border to the old
city. But, for all I knew, the city was full of mostly abandoned areas like this.
     None of which helped me. All I really needed to know was where the others were, and there
didn't seem to be any indication of that. If I'd had one of those little earring communicators, I could
have called them, but that was not happening. Hell, without knowing where I was, I couldn't even
find my way back to Minako's place. Or Ami's house, since that was likely where they'd go.
     If they were okay.
     I shook my head fiercely and immediately regretted it as a wave of dizziness hit me.
Dwelling on things I couldn't control would get me nowhere. Doing something, anything, was better
than doing nothing.
     I turned slowly. There. That way felt right, somehow, a faint sense of rightness like a
half-forgotten memory. Maybe it was nothing, but it was all I had.
     Gathering the few wits I had left, I wiped the water from my eyes and set out through the
raging storm.

***

     V struggled as she was pulled into darkness, stumbling against something yielding, warm. A
hand was clamped over her mouth, and as she and her assailant were propelled back to a sudden stop
against a wall, a strangely accented voice hissed into her ear.
     "Merde! Stop struggling, they'll hear us! Please!"
     V froze, and in that moment something flashed by outside the doorway she'd been pulled
through, a winged form bathed in crimson light and flying only feet above the ground.
     A succubus. And moments later, another. As V balanced the threat outside against that of
her unknown benefactor, the very air seemed to tremble with the force of a cry that resounded just
below audibility, grinding atoms of air against each other. V had no wish to know just what was
capable of making such a sound.
     She very nearly found out anyway. Something blocked out the corrupt moonlight, and
although she could make out no details, the embattled senshi's senses cried out at its nearness. It was
huge and yet seemed to move without making any sound at all.
     Until it unleashed another of those dreadful cries.
     And then it was gone.
     "A mixed blessing," that exotic voice breathed hotly into her ear. "It is tracking the succubi.
They will not have time to search for us."
     V pulled the slender hand away from her mouth, spinning neatly as she put some space
between her and the stranger. A shadowed form slumped against the bare wall, hands held up in a
placating gesture, making no move to attack. Which made sense. As V's racing pulse finally began
to slow, she realised that this woman had saved her life. Had she continued on, she'd have run
headlong into the succubi, as well as whatever Shadow beast was hunting them.
     "Who the hells are you?" V hissed, mindful to keep her voice low. Safety, in this place, was
certain to be nebulous and fleeting.
     "A friend," was the reply. The woman moved slowly away from the wall and into the
uncertain light, and V let her, keeping a respectable buffer of space between them. She was dressed
in unusual clothes of a style V had never seen before. The two women were of a height, the stranger
wearing her glossy dark hair in a smooth, shoulder length cap, a long ponytail falling in back to her
ankles. She was slender and well-built, and her face ...
     V stiffened, bringing her hand up as those aristocratic features were revealed. Adorning the
pale skin of the woman's forehead was a diamond marking, with similar patterns on each cheek.
And V had seen markings not totally unlike those before.
     "You're like Mara," V said flatly.
     A torrent of verbiage in a flowing language V had never heard before erupted from the
slender beauty's mouth. "I am nothing like Mara!" she spat, her eyes catching the crimson light as
she raised her chin haughtily. "And I never will be, no matter how Hild tries to tempt me!"
     "Right," V said slowly. The woman's anger seemed genuine. "Uh, sorry. Those markings on
your face ..."
     "We are opposite numbers, Mara and I," the woman told her, a bit stiffly. "But come. We
must not tarry here. I used what little strength I had managed to hoard in my escape, and they will
be searching for us."
     "Us?" V raised one eyebrow. "Look, lady, thanks for the help and all, but I have problems
of my own right now. We should split up ..."
     "Non! You must listen ..." V stepped back instinctively as the woman wrapped her arms
around her body suddenly, a soft cry escaping her lips. A soft light suffused the small, sparsely
furnished room as a form coalesced from the woman's back, and all of V's suspicion and wariness
was forgotten in an instant.
     "What in the hells?" Her voice sounded faint to her ears as she gaped, awestruck. The
female form that rose behind the stranger was wreathed in pale radiance and something more, a
sense of rightness, of purity and goodness that pushed at more than just the physical darkness of
Shadow. Blonde hair tumbled around angelic features, the eyes which sought out V's deep and kind
but burdened with a sorrow that the senshi wanted, in that moment, to banish, no matter what it
took.
     Especially if it had something to do with the dully gleaming chains wrapped around that
glimmering form.
     "Rose," the woman gasped, reaching up to touch the bound spirit. "It's all right. Calm
yourself." The phantom named Rose keened softly in response, and V found herself drawn towards
the pair inexorably, all suspicion forgotten.
     "What happened?" V whispered.
     "Rose is part of me," the woman replied, her voice tight. "By binding her, Hild has bound
the greater part of my power."
     That name again. "Hild?"
     "Mara's mistress. The succubi call her the Crimson Queen."
     "Oh. Her. Yeah, I've heard she's bad news."
     "You have heard correctly."
     "Listen, uh ..."
     "I am Peorth."
     "Call me V. I can try to cut through these chains with my magick." Peorth shook her head.
     "Pure mithril," she informed V.
     "Say, there's some kind of lock here," V breathed, moving for a better look. "I've never seen
anything like it before, but ... well, locks are kind of a specialty of mine. If I had my tools, I could
try to get it open."
     "Nothing would please me more than to be free of this bondage," Peorth told her as Rose
reluctantly disappeared back into her mistress's body. "But right now, time is short. The Warden is
in terrible danger ..."
     "What? How do you know about him?" Without Rose's influence, V felt suspicion
beginning to worm its way back in. What in the hells was going on?
     "I was Hild's prisoner," Peorth told her. "She used my link to captured Aesir technology to
watch you the last time you were here, and again when Mara attacked you earlier. But when the
sphere was destroyed, we lost contact ..."
     "Sphere? What sphere?"
     "An artifact constructed by a Genrous named Silkaine," Peorth replied, a trace of impatience
tinging her words. "Listen to me, there is little time! Your friend, the Warden, has called up a wild
power he may not be able to control!"
     "You're not kidding," V muttered.
     "I was fortunate to escape," Peorth told her, edging towards the doorway. "Hild's stronghold
was hit by some unknown force. I didn't think anything in Shadow could breach her defences."
     "The palace in our world was destroyed," V said, her stomach knotting as she recalled the
sight. "Mara said that she didn't do it."
     "Yes," Peorth mused. "Catastrophic effects in your world can be translated into this one,
although the degree of effect seems random. Hild's palace was not completely destroyed, but the
damage was great enough to free me and separate us long enough for me to escape. I can't imagine
what could have damaged the human queen's palace that badly, though. Still, Hild will soon have
her few remaining forces searching for me. And, assuming Mara or the succubi brought you here,
they will be looking for you as well. It is fortunate we found each other."
     Yeah ... yeah." V's skin prickled lightly as a happy thought came to her. "Hey, Peorth.
Mara actually brought me here through a portal she generated. Can you do that, too?"
     "Ordinarily, I could get you home," Peorth said. "But my power is almost completely
neutralised. Although ..."
     "What? You have an idea?"
     "Indeed," Peorth said after a long moment. "Come. We must hurry."

***

     Mara winced as she pulled herself from the remains of the wall she'd hit on her way down.
Damn that girl! She was sneaky, and damned strong, too. Mara'd barely been able to pull together
a shield on the way down. Even so, she'd been knocked senseless. No telling how much time had
passed.
     Her trump card was gone.
     Damn. She didn't have the key. She didn't have the sphere. She didn't know what had
happened to the succubi who'd been with her. Fenrir was toast. And Hild's palace had suffered
significant sympathetic damage from the attack in the other realm.
     Hild was going to be in a truly foul mood. And she had a way of taking those moods out on
her loyal minion.
     "Man," Mara gasped, slowly climbing to her feet. "This day just keeps getting worse and
worse ..."
     So. What to do? Return to the palace and face the music? Nope, not yet. Back to the
mortal realm, then? Huh. Warden or not, the kid had broken Fenrir, and now he was consumed by
battle rage. No way was Mara going up against that.
     That left searching the area for the blonde cupcake. Mara owed her some payback, and if
she gave Hild a playtoy who was personally acquainted with key-boy, that might help her case.
     Shaking dust and small bits of rock out of her hair, Mara gave her clothes a desultory
dusting and took to the air. She didn't hold out much hope of finding V in one piece. Even if the
crazy minx had survived the fall, Shadow was a very dangerous place. As the minutes dragged on
with no trace of her quarry, Mara began to despair. This was starting to look like a waste of time.
V might already be dead.
     Or not. There, a ruckus on the ground. Pulse speeding up, Mara grinned and rocketed
groundwards. As she came close to the empty boulevard, though, she saw something quite
unexpected. A woman was fleeing down the middle of the street, a human woman. Behind her, a
pack of Shadow Hounds tore at their prey, a snarling wraith.
     Weird. It looked to Mara like the wraith had brought the woman through, only to get
ambushed. In fact, the Hounds overwhelmed the creature even as Mara watched, several of their
number breaking from the pack to pursue the woman. With prey's uncanny instinct, she chose that
moment to look back and scream.
     Yeah, Mara thought with grim amusement. That'll help. Still, she altered her course,
swooping down to snag the woman a few seconds before the Hounds would have brought her down.
Mara held the woman tightly around the waist, soaring high above the street and out of reach of the
hunters, who bayed their displeasure. Mara grinned and gave them the finger.
     "What ... oh, gods," the woman gasped. "Gods. Who are you? What is this place?"
     "First time in Shadow, huh?" Mara asked casually.
     "Shadow?" The woman's eyes were glazed with shock. She was quite beautiful, Mara
noted, even in her current state. Her glasses were askew across the bridge of her aquiline nose, her
raven hair had begun to escape from a tight bun, and her full lips were parted with panicked gasps.
She wore a white lab coat liberally sprayed with red, and Mara was quite certain that it was blood.
And not the woman's, either.
     "I'm Mara. And you are?"
     "Muh-Mariko. Indis."
     "So, what's your story, Mariko Indis?" She was a looker. The succubi would be more than
happy to have her as a pet. That, however, would not help Mara with Hild. And Mara had no doubt
that, whatever damage the palace had suffered, Hild would have survived. The woman was the
consummate survivor.
     "The lab," Mariko said slowly. Their bodies were pressed together, and Mara could feel the
woman's heart against her own chest, vibrating like the wings of a hummingbird. "Oh, gods, they
killed Professor Lewdine. He tried to stop them. With a coat rack. He tried ... they killed him."
     "Yeah, I got that part. Tell me about this lab, Mariko."
     "What? The lab? In the palace. We were studying the sphere, and they came out of it.
Wraiths. They shouldn't have been able to do that. And they killed. Everyone. Almost."
     "Not you." A lab in the palace? Interesting.
     "The thing, that wraith, it took me," Mariko said, breathless. Her eyes began to focus on
Mara's face. "It brought me here. To its mistress. I think ... I think she's the vampire. I think ... but
those things attacked, and ..."
     "Mariko, you work with stuff like the sphere a lot?"
     "What? Why, yes, I ... I'm the senior ... I work under Professor Lewdine."
     "Not any more. I assume that's him all over your pretty lab coat?"
     "Oh, gods," Mariko whispered, looking down. "This can't be real. This ... who are you?"
     "You know a lot about secrets, I'll bet," Mara mused. Not what she'd been after, but better
than a kick in the ass with a frozen boot. "Magickal tech, stuff the human queen got her hands on."
     "I don't know what you mean." Mariko's eyes were wide, but she finally seemed to be
getting her bearings. Too late, girl, Mara thought. You've already spilled too much.
     "Sure you do. You know, I work for a woman who could probably use someone with talents
like yours. Or you could go back down with them." Mara tilted, feeling the tension arc through
Mariko's body as the ground came into view below, Hounds still snarling around the scattered
remains of the wraith.
     "Please." Mariko closed her eyes. She didn't want to see. That was good. That was very
good.
     "Well, then," Mara beamed. "Let's make a deal."

***

     "Raine, wake up."
     Raine didn't want to wake up. She felt like a hundred pounds of shit in a ninety pound bag.
She tried to shoo the voice away, but although it was gentle, it was certainly insistent.
     "Raine. You are needed."
     "Greely," she mumbled. "Go away."
     "I assure you," her friend said, his tone as dry as the Wastelands, "that will not be a problem.
Raine, listen. You need to find Gar. The Queen needs him near. It's very important. Remember
that."
     "Tam, I don't want to hear that." Gar would be lucky if she didn't skin him alive, that
scoundrel. He ...
     "Raine."
     Her eyes opened. Or one did. There seemed to be a problem with the other one. She was
lying on her back, and Raine felt a moment of panic, as though she had forgotten something very
important, something crucial. She blinked rapidly, and the face that came into focus above her
wasn't that of Tamiten Greely, but of Queen Kendra. Was she sleeping in Kendra's lap? Raine tried
to spring to her feet, but she only made it a short was before collapsing back down, coughing.
     "Easy," Kendra said, helping ease her back down. "Take it easy, Raine. I'm not sure how
bad your injuries might be."
     Injuries? What in the hells?
     And then it came rushing back, and Raine reached up, ignoring how her hand shook as she
gripped the young queen's shoulder and pulled herself up. Something had attacked the palace.
Morris had been reporting from the watch, and then ... and then what? A deafening roar, light and
heat, a jumble of sensations. Raine's head swam for a moment, and she raised her other hand to
touch her face. A makeshift bandage covered her left eye. Or what was left of it. Which, it seemed
to her, was not much. Damn.
     And they weren't in the control room anymore.
     "How bad?" she asked, looking around carefully.
     "Whatever hit us, it blew through the palace's defences," Kendra told her, still supporting
Raine. "I can't even imagine what kind of power that took."
     "The others?" But she knew already. Greely. That hadn't been a dream. She'd lived in this
city too long to mistake a parting message from a shade of the dead.
     Goodbye, old man. I'll miss you.
     "Raine, we were deep inside the palace. Everything was coming down. There's no way
anyone survived. Tam, all my ministers, the staff, the guards ... they're all gone."
     It was too much to take in, and that was a small mercy. All her guards, handpicked and
trained by her. Hinari, that girl in the kitchen who always got her Kennarian tea. Yaster Fenni,
whose teasing she secretly enjoyed every time their paths crossed. Too much. She was Captain of
the Royal Guard, even if that force currently consisted of only her. And there was a job to do. She
took a deep breath.
     "But we're alive," Raine noted. "How?"
     In reply, Kendra pointed to something lying beside her on the smooth rock. Galiraithe. The
blade seemed to almost shimmer in the dim yellowish light.
     "I don't understand, Majesty."
     "Whatever power hit us, Galiraithe reacted to it," Kendra said, her eyes dark as she gazed
down at the legendary blade. "It surrounded me with a glow, and the wave of darkness ended up
punching me down through the floor. Far down, by the looks of it. You threw yourself at me as the
roof started to collapse, which is the only reason you're alive."
     "I see." Incredible. There were many legends surrounding the sword carried by every queen
since the kingdom had been founded, but Raine had never heard of anything like this. "Galiraithe
protected you."
     "Only me," Kendra said, her voice edged with anger. "None of the others."
     "Majesty ..."
     "They were right there, Raine! Greely was only a few feet away! I could have grabbed him,
too! Or ..."
     "Apparently, it doesn't work that way," Raine said firmly. "And that is not your fault."
     "Don't lecture me, Raine."
     "Then don't dwell on what might have been." Raine gave the young queen a level stare.
"We've all experienced the vagaries of great power in our lives. Why do the gods save one but not
another? Why are some judged worthy to wield great magicks, while others labour in mediocrity?"
     "That's not the same!"
     "Maybe." Raine shook her head, instantly regretted it. "Ow."
     "You caught the edge of the shock wave," Raine said immediately, reaching out to steady
the other woman. "And I lost my grip on you when we reached bottom."
     "Bottom." Raine looked around at the curved walls. A tunnel beneath the palace. But not
the one she should have been looking at.
     "This isn't one of the emergency access links, is it?"
     "No," Raine said. "It isn't." She climbed slowly to her feet, taking inventory of her injuries
as she did so. She was a mass of bruises, and it felt like she might have a cracked rib or two, but the
runes inside her battered breastplate had already kicked in, helping mask the pain. Those spells
would heal lesser injuries, but they were limited in power, meant for emergency battlefield use. And
no healing rune would help her eye.
     Still, she could stand, and she would be able to function. That was what mattered.
     The tunnel they were in was smaller than the main links that ran under the palace and served
many purposes, mostly in times of war. Their existence was not widely known, but they were still
heavily patrolled, and access to the palace's lower levels was controlled through a single chokepoint.
     This tunnel had to be below that network. The soft light came from magestones set in the
wall, and Raine considered the possibilities
     "Most of the tunnels from the First Sidhe War were sealed long ago," she said at last. "I
think this has to be one of those. Maybe it was missed, or deliberately left off the maps of the time."
     "Where does it go?"
     "Well," Raine said, looking behind them, "we can't go back." If there'd still been access to
the surface from that way, it was gone now. Whatever force had let them survive the descent to this
level had brought the tunnel down behind them. It was completely choked with rock. "If this is one
of the old accessways, it would have been mainly used as an escape route during siege."
     "Well," Kendra murmured, moving up beside the battered captain, "let us hope that's still the
case."
     "Hmmm."
     "What?"
     "Most of those tunnels led either to the harbour or to the eastern districts. We should hope
for the former. Otherwise, we're in for a long walk."
     Raine automatically checked her gear as she worked the kinks out of her battered body. Her
guns were in place, as well as the extra ammo. And her sword as well, which was good. Her
armour was dented and scratched, but not pierced; the runes were still doing their work. Her rib was
barely an itch now, and her knee, which felt stiff, was similarly benefiting from the runes inside the
high boots she wore.
     "Raine."
     "Majesty?"
     "Something broke the palace defences. It very well may be waiting up there for us."
     "Well, Majesty," Raine grunted, adjusting the bandage over her eye. "That's why you have
me."
     "I knew I kept you around for a reason. Can you walk?"
     "The Grievs are made of stern stuff, Majesty."
     "That's why they make such excellent guardsmen," Kendra said with a faint smile.
     "Indeed we do. Come on, Majesty. The enemy's taken their shot. Now it's our turn."
     Steeling herself against the unknown threats of this forgotten burrow, Raine set off into the
gloom, the young queen at her back.

***

     The world was drenched in icy rain and cloaked in a raging gale, but Yoshi stood in the teeth
of the storm as though it was a calm day in the first blushes of spring. Jupiter felt a rush of heat
under her sodden skin at the sight of him, naked and rain-slicked, easy, feral grace radiating from his
rangy form even when standing still.
     In that moment, she ached for the warmth of her bed, his heat beside her. Or on top of her ...
     Bad, she told herself sternly. Focus. V and Ranma are still missing in action.
     Shaking her head, Jupiter sluiced the water out of her eyes with one gloved hand and moved
out to meet the werewolf. His wounds seemed to have closed, and the rain had washed the blood
away. Silver hadn't been used; he'd be as good as new in no time. Her shoulder still hurt like hell, a
dull, rotted-tooth throb, and she envied him his ability to heal. Senshi healed pretty quick, but not
that quick. She had a day or two before she'd be back to normal. Still, she'd taken her arm out of
the makeshift sling for the moment. She wanted the mobility if it should prove necessary. It'd hurt,
but she was willing to pay that price.
     A low flat industrial building sat off to one side of their position, a warren of small streets in
front of them. A small, boarded up building, little more than a shack really, slumped wearily at the
nearest intersection, and beyond that, a wasteland of old stone and brick warehouses crowded the
narrow streets.
     This neighbourhood had seen better days, that much was certain.
     "Hey, Yosh," she called. Even with the din of the rain, he had almost certainly heard her
coming, but she didn't want to spook him. It had been a hard day.
     All around, she added silently.
     "He went straight through there," Yoshi said, not turning. "Never turned from this path. He
knows where he's going."
     "Or he's following Fenrir," Jupiter guessed.
     "No other scents," Yoshi stated. "And now Ranma's is completely washed away. I'm no
more good to you."
     "Yoshi ..."
     "I have to leave." He turned to her, and Jupiter saw why immediately. He'd reverted to full
human form, but there was a wildness in his pale eyes that she well knew. Yoshi was dangerously
close to the edge.
     "The moon?"
     "I can feel it," he told her, a rough edge lurking in his words. "Stronger than usual. The
lunar alignment, it's unpredictable for us. I have to go."
     Stay, she wanted to say. But he couldn't. She could protect him from many things, but not
from himself. Even if it was hard to accept, she had learned long ago that it was the truth. "Be
careful," she said instead.
     He stepped forward, catching her off-guard, and then she was pressed against the lean
muscle of his chest, head tilted back as he kissed her. It was hot, his mouth, hungry, and she could
taste the untamed need in that intimate contact, desiring to break its leash and consume them both.
But even in that moment of careless passion, when his hand slid around her waist to draw her near
he was careful not to bump her injured arm.
     Jupiter thought she might whimper as the kiss re-ignited her earlier thoughts of bed and
intimate heat, but all too soon Yoshi tore his mouth from hers and was gone, running into the
sheeting rain.
     "Whoo-hoo!" a cry rose from behind her. "Hot stuff!"
     "Princess." Jupiter's brow furrowed slightly as she watched Tux and Moon emerging from
the storm. She certainly hadn't expected them to be so close behind her. And the way Tux was
moving, easily yet coiled with dangerous grace, was a surprise to her. The succubus had left him
about as strong as a ratty washcloth, but he was certainly looking his old self now.
     "He got something?" Tux asked as they drew near.
     "He had to leave," Jupiter told him. "The moon. It's getting too strong. And the rain's
washed Ranma's scent away."
     "Damn."
     "But Yoshi says he never deviated. Straight line, all the way. We can keep following this
path."
     "Easily enough," Moon added, clinging to Tux's shoulders. "Wherever the path leaves the
street, something smashed holes in fences. And buildings. And everything else that got in the way.
But why would Ranma do that?"
     "You two stay here a minute," Tux said, his eyes suddenly narrowed. "I'll be right back."
     "Trouble?" Jupiter asked as he set Moon gently on her feet. Tux just shook his head and
vanished quickly into the shimmering gray rain.
     "I love a man with broad shoulders," the princess sighed, leaning on Jupiter for support.
     "Me, too," Jupiter admitted, recalling the feel of Yoshi's broad back under her hands, hot
even through her gloves. "How you doing?"
     "Okay," Moon told her. She'd changed her outfit back to her fuku, but her leg still looked
bad. Jupiter was sure she was lying about being okay, but let it go. The princess wouldn't rest until
they found V and Ranma. And she wasn't alone. "Mercury?"
     "Up ahead, I guess," Jupiter shrugged, supporting the bedraggled princess with her good
arm. "I hope we catch up to V and Ranma soon. Even in senshi form, this rain's damned cold."
     "They're okay," the princess told her firmly. "I know it."
     Ever the optimist. Jupiter wanted to believe that was true, but she was beginning to have a
bad feeling about the path they'd been taking. Before she could articulate her suspicions, though,
another familiar form emerged from the storm.
     "What's happening?" Mars asked, raking her long, wet hair back with both hands as she
approached. Jupiter fought the urge to scowl. She and the princess looked like drowned rats, yet
somehow Mars managed to appear sleek and elegant, as though she'd just emerged from under some
tropical waterfall like some wanton nymph. Water glistened on her limbs and seemed to bead
lovingly along the edge of her high cheekbones.
     I hate the way she does that, Jupiter thought darkly.
     "Yoshi had to go, Tux is checking something, Mercury's out in front," the princess
summarised.
     "No sign of the others, then?"
     "Afraid not," Jupiter sighed, fighting the urge to be irritated. It seemed she spent an
inordinate amount of time struggling not to be irritated with Mars, although this was a comfortably
familiar irritation, and not the anger that had grown up between them of late. Which was something,
anyway.
     "Hey!" Mercury appeared from out of the storm just then. Jupiter had thought that Mars
looked good wet, but Mercury strode up to them clad in tamed rainwater, a fey sprite dancing across
the storm tossed urban landscape. And neither of them was wearing the remains of a tshirt over their
tattered fuku. "Where's Yoshi? Did he lose the trail? Because the damage continues that way."
     "Yeah, he had to leave," Jupiter said, trying futilely to keep the rainwater from running into
her eyes. "The trail is clear?"
     "For a little ways," Mercury told her. "It heads into the old towers near Femguri Park."
     "Yeah," Jupiter said, her earlier misgivings returning. "Ranma's heading straight into some
bad territory. If we don't catch up soon, we're going to end up in the Zone."
     "You don't suppose he's following something there?" Mars mused. "Fenrir?"
     "Oh, please, let's hope not," the princess moaned. "That's all we need."
     "Bad news," Tux declared, leaping down from a nearby streetlight and damned near giving
Jupiter a heart attack.
     "What now?" she growled. Bad weather, missing friends, injured comrades ... how much
worse could it get?
     "There's a police street post just up by the old bypass. Pretty well fortified, I hoped to find
someone there, get some info."
     "And?" Mars asked.
     "They're pulling out," he told them grimly. "It's not just your comms. Citywide
communication is down, wireless anyway, and most phones, but they got through to 78 Division,
near the river. There are reports of monsters appearing all over the city."
     "This is news?" Jupiter asked archly.
     "New monsters, types nobody's seen before. Details are sketchy, but some of them are
reported to be extremely resistant to magick."
     "Oh, swell," Jupiter muttered into the silence that followed. "Any around here?"
     "The post's senior officer hasn't seen any, but they have orders to retreat to Division, help set
up a secure perimeter. There's wide-spread panic in some areas ..."
     "They hear about the palace?" Jupiter interrupted.
     "Yes," he replied heavily. "That's not helping matters."
     "Okay," Mars said. "We need to get moving as fast as possible. Mercury and I should flank
the main path, looking for any sign of Ranma or V, while you guys go right up the middle. If we get
separated, we meet at the old Twin Towers Bridge at the outskirts of the Zone."
     "Sounds good," Jupiter said. This time, Mercury didn't bring up Mars' tactical disadvantage.
Dangerous or not, they needed to speed things up.
     In silent agreement, they turned and vanished into the raging storm.

***

     V dropped into the narrow courtyard, flattening herself against the cold stone wall. Peorth
was already there, her eyes anxiously scanning the blood-tinged sky for any sign of trouble.
     "So far, so good," V panted. They'd been going all-out for some time, putting distance
between them and the area where V had shaken Mara off. "I kind of expected more pursuit."
     "Hild sent almost all her subjects across with Mara," Peorth said absently. "To corner the
Warden. Given the state of her palace, she's certainly holding most of those who remain back to
guard her treasures from scavengers. She hoards mysteries, and she hates to lose something she's
acquired." The woman gave V a smile tinged with wry amusement. "Like me."
     "So she will be hunting us."
     "Hunting me, cherie. I doubt she knows about you yet. Yes, she'll keep what few succubi
she can spare dogging my trail until she can take up the chase personally."
     "How insulting," V breathed with a crooked smile for her new comrade. "She values those
other treasures more than you."
     "Not so," Peorth admonished. "But she probably feels she can afford the time to secure her
other treasures because, no matter how far I flee, I cannot escape her realm. And I know enough of
Shadow from my years as her tool to avoid its many snares."
     "But you said ..." V began, breaking off as Peorth ducked through a high, arched gateway
and sprinted along the outer wall. V followed, shadowing the other woman until they reached a
narrow street fronted by four storey buildings.
     "Hey," V gasped. "Slow down. If you can't leave ..."
     "Not on my own," Peorth agreed, her slender shoulders heaving with the exertion of their
latest run. "But with you, we have a chance."
     "Me? I'm no Shadow Witch, Peorth."
     "No, you are the next best thing, V. I observed your power during the earlier fight. It is
based in Light, the antithesis of Shadow. Your power is especially effective against Shadow
creatures ..."
     "So what? If Mars were here, maybe we could find one of those Shadow patterns and cross
back, but I can't just carve a hole in Shadow Realm!"
     "Not quite," Peorth informed her, lips curving into an enigmatic smile. "But you are not far
from the truth. The relationship between Shadow and your plane is not well understood, but I can
tell you that the two realms have drawn closer together, perilously so, since the death of the Azakaru
Queen."
     "The Azakaru have a queen? I didn't know they even had gender," V blurted. "And she
died?"
     "Murdered," Peorth told her. "How, I cannot conceive, for the Azakaru are an ancient race,
believed to be as old as the Osiren or the Phantom Guard. And part of the natural order of Gaia."
     "Who did it?"
     "Even Hild could not discover that," Peorth said wryly. "But it happened fourteen years ago.
Just before the event your people call ..."
     "The Long Dark." V's mind raced. Mysteries. She loved them, and longed to pick Peorth's
brain further. What was Peorth, anyway? Mara's opposite number? If Mara was some sort of
demon, did that make Peorth an angel?
     "Since then, the barrier between Shadow and your plane of existence has been weakened. It
is possible to cross even without Shadow Magick. Not safe, but possible."
     "I'm listening."
     "We need a place where Shadow is held, drawn by forces beyond this realm, into a pool of
rawest darkness. Unleashing an antithetical magickal force with enough power should sunder the
barrier."
     V opened her mouth, closed it. Banri. The fake Banri. Jupiter's lightning attack had hit it,
and they'd been thrown into Shadow. So that was why ... wait. That meant the fake Banri was
actually some sort of Shadow artifact. That damned vamp again.
     "Sunder the barrier," V said slowly. "I think I've encountered this sundering recently. It was
not gentle."
     "Indeed," Peorth replied. "The transition would be violent. Our options, however, are
hardly ..."
     A sharp crack split apart the cool, dead air, and both women jumped as the sound rolled over
them. Something was rising into the sky in the distance, and V gaped as it roiled, coalescing from a
shapeless morass into a huge face, hundreds of feet high. It was a woman's face, haughty and
beautiful, mocha skin contrasting perfectly with hair of purest platinum, and on her forehead and
cheeks were the ubiquitous markings, this time six-pointed stars. Those perfect lips parted, and a
word thundered forth, an auditory avalanche that cascaded across the sterile landscape of the
Shadow city.
     "PEORTH!"
     V felt the cry in her bones, and even as the last echoes died away she realised she was still
shaking. The apparition's mesmerising eyes swept the ground all around with an intensity that
loosened the senshi's knees and threatened to drop her to the ground. V clung to the wall, trying
three times to speak before she finally wet her dry lips and managed to croak, "Hild?"
     "Yes," Peorth hissed. "She has finished stitching together her defences, and now she'll come
for me. Quickly!"
     Peorth set off at a dead run, no longer clinging to the tenebrous shadows of the city, and V
followed, panic lending her feet speed. She had no desire to meet this Crimson Queen in person, not
after that little display.
     "How far?" V shouted. Even though Peorth had a head start, V quickly caught up to her.
     "Not far," Peorth replied grimly. She appeared to be trying to look in every direction at once
as they raced down the narrow street. They had come to an older neighbourhood, one that in the real
Saeni would have been noisy and full of squalor and activity, much of it illegal. This place was still
far enough from the barren zone b