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 8: Showdown
 

     Gulls dove and swooped over the water, the mid-day light
picking out points of gleaming white on their bodies.  Minako
fancied that they were doing it because for the sheer exhilaration of
dancing on the winds, and not merely to scavenge garbage from the
shallow waters.  Whatever their true nature, though, sea gulls had
the most mournful cries; the sound always made her feel
melancholy.
     "You're awfully quiet," Ranko said.  They were sitting on
the hood of her car, parked near the remains of an old dock.  It was
a nice quiet place to come and think; the sound of the waves against
the rotted old pilings, the cry of the gulls and the frenetic sounds of
the city, soothingly distant.  Minako dumped the last breaded
octopus ball out of the greasy cardboard container into her palm
and popped it into her mouth.
     "Thinking," she mumbled as she chewed.
     "About Rei?" Ranko asked cautiously.
     "Yeah," Minako sighed.  "About Rei."
     "Should I ask?"
     "Probably not," Minako told the red-head wryly.  "It's
complicated.  Let's just say the fact that she didn't transform to
fight those demons shook me up some."
     "You don't do a sailor transform thing, though," Ranko
pointed out, draining the last of her soda and crumpling the cup
between her palms.
     "I do, actually," Minako told her.  "I just modified my
costume.  Rei was using a type of power I've never seen her use
before."
     "Some Dasma dark-priestess thing?" Ranko asked.
     "Yeah, you could say that."  Minako leaned back against the
cool windscreen, lacing her fingers behind her head.  "You know,
Ranko, sometimes we just make things so complicated for
ourselves.  You'd think caring about people would be enough, but
then there are misunderstandings and wounded egos, and of course
pride always manages to get in the way too.  You see what I'm
getting at?"
     "Weirdly enough, I think I do," Ranko muttered.  "Pride has
put me in a few tight spots in my time."
     "Heh.  Yeah, I know the feeling.  Sometimes you can try to
do the right thing and end up messing everything up, too.  I just feel
like we had it just in our grasp to make things better, then wham!
Everything went spinning in different directions, and the longer we
wait the further apart the pieces get."
     "You always think there's going to be enough time to make
things right," Ranko said softly.  "Until one day, there's no more
time.  And you're left wondering what could have been."
     "Exactly," Minako said emphatically, surprised by how
astutely Ranko had summed up her feelings.  "That's it exactly.
Seeing Rei like that made me realize how serious this thing is.  I
never thought she'd choose her old life over us, but what if she
really does?  She's so stubborn that she might really do it."
     Ranko had no answer to that, and they sat in silence for a
time, listening to the lonesome cries of diving sea birds.
     "It's nice and quiet down here," Ranko said at last.
     "Yeah," Minako replied.  "This dock used to be used to
bring supplies into that old rail line."  She gestured off to the left
where an expanse of rusty steel rails lay overgrown with scrub
brush, disused and forgotten.  "Those lines led to the manufacturing
plant in Tassik district, but it was lost when the Old City appeared,
and the company that ran all this never recovered.  I guess it wasn't
worth anyone's while to rebuild this close to the ruins ... or maybe
ownership is still in dispute."
     Minako glanced over at Ranko to find the red-head staring
at her, and she smiled self-consciously, something she rarely did.
     "What?" she asked the petite red-head.
     "It's just ... you seem to know an awful lot about the city,"
Ranko said.  "Like the old subways and forts and stuff, and the
lighthouse, and now this.  I just didn't expect it."
     "Pretty smart for a bimboid sex-kitten, you mean?" Minako
asked archly, and Ranko flushed.
     "I ... I didn't mean ..." the girl stuttered.
     "Aw, forget it," Minako sighed, waving her hand
negligently.  "I get it all the time.  People act like that's all there is
to me, but what am I going to do?  I'm not ashamed of how I am.
Why should I be?  I can like to have fun AND have the odd brain
cell."
     "I really didn't mean to sound that way," Ranko mumbled,
her face as red as her hair.  "I guess, um, maybe I did judge you
though, sorta.  And it was kinda unfair and, um, well ... sorry.  I
didn't mean anything by it.  Really."
     Minako raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised by Ranko's
apology.  It was awkwardly delivered but charmingly sincere, and
she smiled at the girl.
     "I like a girl who can admit to her mistakes," Minako said
huskily.
     "I learned to do that the hard way," Ranko admitted with a
weak grin.  "And, honestly, after seeing you in action I don't think
you're some bimboid.  And I'm not just saying that."
     "Thanks," Minako grinned.  "That's sweet.  Kind of.  But,
to actually answer your question, there is a reason I know so much
about the city's history.  You see, my father was an historian who
specialized in the history of the city."
     "Really?"
     "Yup," Minako said proudly.  "And my mother was an
archeologist.  She was always dragging him away from his books
and into some old tunnel or ruin or something.  They were quite a
pair, all right.  He was shy and she was bold.  He was a thinker and
she was a doer.  But together they were something pretty special."
     "That sounds incredible," Ranko said.
     "Oh, it was," Minako told her.  "My childhood was full of
adventure.  I heard stories of the city at my father's knee from as far
back as I can remember.  It seemed that every building or place I
asked him about, he knew something important about how it had
come to be.  And my mother taught me to climb walls and negotiate
ruins almost as soon as I could walk."
     "Wow," Ranko said.  "So what do they think about what
you do now?  Working in a club, I mean?"
     "Oh, they're both gone," Minako replied.  "The Long
Dark."
     "Oh," Ranko blinked, obviously taken aback.  "I'm sorry, I
... didn't know."
     Minako noticed how troubled Ranko was, and recalled the
story the girl had related that morning.  Surely part of Ranko's
distress related to the loss of her own family, not to mention this
Akane girl.
     "That's all right," she told the red-head.  "It's not like I
can't talk about them any more without it hurting."
     "Really?"  Ranko was trying hard to seem casual, but
Minako could tell that she'd captured the girl's attention.
     "Uh-huh," Minako replied, stretching her long legs out
along the hood of the car.  "See, in the beginning it was pretty bad.
I loved my mom and dad a lot, and to lose them both at once was
pretty awful.  But I wasn't alone.  During that time, a lot of people
lost the people that they loved.  But I remember one thing
especially clearly from that time.  I remember seeing a grown man
sitting in the street, just sitting there.  He wasn't hurt, at least not
physically, but his eyes were just ... blank.  That man had given up
on everything and was just waiting to die.  And he wasn't alone,
either."
     She closed her eyes and stretched, feeling the warmth of the
spring sun penetrating her skin.  It felt nice, full of promise of long
summer days to come, and she felt herself smiling.
     "I knew then that no matter what happened, I didn't want to
end up like that," she went on, opening her eyes to look up at the
sky.  "My parents had given me life, and they'd loved me and
taught me and cherished me.  I owed it to them to make the most of
my life."
     "But you must have missed them," Ranko said softly, and
the grief that lurked deep within those words made Minako's heart
ache.
     "Oh, yes," she told Ranko.  "I still miss them.  But when it
got to be too bad, I'd remember something my mother had said
about my grandmother when she passed on, and it always helped
me."
     "What did she say?" Ranko asked, trying to watch Minako's
face without looking like she was staring.
     "She said, "Good-bye, mama.  I'm glad I knew you."  I
thought that was the simplest but most beautiful way to put it, and
through the years I just always tried to remember.  Whenever I was
at low ebb, I'd call up my memories of our time together and smile,
and I would be glad I'd known them, even if only for a little while."
     "Did that help?" Ranko asked, looking away.
     "Yes," Minako said simply.  "Yes, it did.  And through the
years, I decided to live life to the fullest, every single day.  I saw
enough death as a child to realize that it was a fact of life, but I
became determined that when my time came, I wasn't going to
have any regrets.  Some people don't understand, but what can I
do?  I'm okay with what I am.  I take life in big bites and I push my
luck and so what if some folks don't approve?  Life's too short to
be timid, that's what I think."
     She stopped, feeling a tiny flush rise to her cheeks.  She
hadn't intended to go quite that far; she'd just wanted to broach the
subject of survival with Ranko, maybe show the girl that memories
didn't have to be painful.  She stole a glance at the red-head, who
seemed to be lost in thought.
     "You make it sound almost easy," Ranko said at last, and
Minako thought she sounded a little envious.
     "Not easy," Minako chided.  "I'm not saying that.  There
were bad days for a while, but fewer and fewer as time went by.  I
guess you know how that is, right?"
     "Yeah," Ranko murmured.  "Yeah, I guess I do."
     "Maybe it would be easier to talk about it."
     "Um," Ranko replied.  "I don't want to seem ungrateful or
anything, but I really don't want to talk about that any more than I
have."
     "Okay," Minako said with a smile.  "I understand.  But
think about it.  It can be helpful."
     "I will," Ranko promised.
     Minako leaned back against the car.  It was almost time to
forsake this quiet oasis and fling themselves back into the heart of
the city and their search for answers, but she didn't want to go
quite yet.
     "I hope you didn't think I was too out of line last night,"
she said to Ranko.  "I mean, I was kind of pushy.  I didn't mean to
insult your customs and such."
     "It's okay," Ranko shrugged.  "I'm just not used to being so
open with that stuff, that's all."
     "Yeah, but you are in an interesting position," Minako said,
turning her head to look at Ranko.  "I mean, you can experience
what it's like to be both sexes.  That must be wild!"
     "Are you kidding?" Ranko snorted.  "The first time I turned
into a girl, I freaked out totally.  It was so ... what?"
     "Girl?" Minako asked.  "You mean boy."
     "No," Ranko frowned.  "I mean when I fell into the Spring
of Drowned Girl and ended up with this body for the first time."
     "Wait a minute," Minako said, holding up her hand.  "I
thought you were a girl who turned into a boy."
     "Wh-wh-what?" Ranko stammered.  "What are you talking
about?  I'm a guy!  A GUY!  This body is my curse form!"
     "Huh," Minako mused.  "Really?  I just assumed, I guess.  I
mean, you were a girl the first time I saw you.  And, well, Ranko is
a pretty girly name, you know."
     "That's not my real name," Ranko grumbled.  "It's just a
name I used to use when I was in girl form sometimes.  I use it now
as a girl to avoid awkward questions."
     "Not your real name?" Minako echoed.  "Well, what IS
your name then?"
     "Ranma," the red-head told her.  "Ranma Saotome."
     "Huh," Minako said.  "Ranma.  Hmmm."
     "What?" the other girl asked suspiciously.
     "I can't decide," Minako said gravely, "which I like best.  I
mean, you are a charming girl, after all."
     "I'm not girly!" Ranko blurted.  "I can't believe you thought
I was!"
     "What else am I supposed to think," Minako asked, eyes
twinkling with mischief, "when you wave those around?"  She
levelled a finger at the swell of the girl's full breasts where they
pushed tautly at the black silk of her shirt, and Ranko's face
tightened.  Minako sighed to herself.  She really wished that she
could draw Ranko into a little harmless flirtation, but even the
suggestion of it still made the girl close up, and Minako figured it
didn't take much to understand why.
     "Well, now you know," Ranko grumbled, sliding off the
hood of the car.  She picked up her garbage and sauntered over to a
rusty old dumpster to dispose of it.
     Minako sighed again.  Ranko, or Ranma, was turning out to
be quite an interesting person, and one she wouldn't mind getting
to know better.  But to do that, she'd definitely have to compete
with the ghost of a dead girl.  And she just didn't know if she was
up to that.  Even if she was, Ranma might not be ready.  In fact, he
might NEVER be ready.
     And really, didn't she have enough problems in her life
already?
     She watched the red-head's graceful form walking away
from her, gazing straying downwards.  At the very least, boy or
girl, Ranko or Ranma, that one was fun to watch.
     Minako placed her palms on the hood and levered herself
off the car, walking around to the driver's side, grabbing her purse
from the back seat before sliding in.
     "What are you doing?" Ranko (or Ranma, as she supposed
she should think of him now) asked.
     "I'm going to call Artemis and see how things are going,"
she replied absently.  "He ... oops.  Damn."
     "What?" Ranma asked.
     "My phone," Minako sighed, pulling it from the cluttered
depths of her purse.  "I dropped it a few days ago, and it's been
acting up ever since."  The display was dark, even though the unit
should have been on and fully charged.  Minako hit it lightly with
her palm, and the display fluttered to life.
     "Better?" Ranma asked, getting into the passenger side.
     "Yeah," Minako muttered absently.  "Something must be
loose.  I wonder if it's the battery.  Probably the sigil disc, though,
since those are so expensive and hard to replace ..."
     She was cut off by the musical tone of the phone, and she
grinned wryly at the displayed number.
     "Artemis," she sighed.  "Probably worried when he couldn't
get hold of me."  Worried, perhaps, about the Outsider?  Minako
stole a glance at Ranma as she pushed the button to answer the
phone.  Even if Ranma really was the Outsider, Minako was more
certain by the minute that the girl posed no threat to them.
     "You've reached Minako Aino, lascivious sex goddess," she
purred into the phone huskily.  "If you'd like to be nibbled on, press
one.  If you ... yes, Artemis, I'm finally here.  What ...?"
     Minako pressed the phone more tightly to her ear, sitting up
in the seat as all traces of playfulness evaporated.  She was
peripherally aware of Ranma's intent gaze on her as she listened.
     "I understand," she said crisply.  "Where?  Yes, I know it.  I
can be there in about forty minutes.  What about Usagi?  She has?
Good.  Okay.  Don't worry about me, tomcat.  You just watch
your tail, and Luna's too.  I'll see you soon."
     She ended the call and set the phone down on her lap, biting
at her lower lip.  This was not good, not good at all.
     "What's wrong?" Ranma asked.
     "Remember what I told you about the Sisterhood that Rei
used to belong to?" Minako asked.  "Well, they tracked Makoto
down at her place earlier and tried to grab her."
     "Is she okay?"
     "Yeah," Minako nodded.  "Yeah, she got away.  But to be
safe, we can't go back to my place for now.  We're going to meet
the others and figure out what to do."
     "Oh," Ranma said.  It looked like she was going to say
something else, then she stopped herself and sat back in the seat.
Smart girl.
     Minako started the car, remembering what Rei had said to
her.  Stay away from Saekianna and the Sisterhood.  Had Rei
known what was going to happen?  That was sure to be the
question the others would ask as well.
     Minako jammed the car into gear and gunned it, sending the
nimble vehicle spinning through a half-turn and rocketing towards
the collapsed gate.
     This was turning into a bitch of a day.

***

     They arrived at the meeting place a little later than Minako
had thought, due to traffic being heavier than usual.  There had
been more monster problems, and the police had been forced to
shut down part of the expressway.
     The sprawling park had an official name which nobody ever
used.  Commonly, it was known as Cherry Park due to the clusters
of cherry trees there.  With the weather warming, the blossoms
would soon be spectacular and the park would be crowded with
people.  Now, though, it was the middle of a work week and there
was plenty of room in the parking lot.  Minako spotted Makoto's
bike right away, parked off by itself on one side of the main lot.  As
she drew closer, she could see a small crowd around a park bench
set along the path; it appeared as if they were the last to arrive.
     Bringing the car in beside Makoto's bike, she climbed out
and went to meet the others, Ranma following close behind.
     "Everybody okay?" she asked.  There were nods all around,
although Usagi was sitting hunched over and looked as if she was
mildly ill.
     "Hey, how's my princess?" Minako asked, crouching down
beside the girl and taking her hand.  Usagi smiled wanly.
     "Okay, I guess," she told Minako.
     "Where were you, anyway?" Artemis demanded.  "I was
trying to reach you for over an hour before I finally got through!  I
was worried that something had happened!"
     "My phone's still on the blink," she told him.  "And I'm
afraid I have some more bad news."
     Suddenly she became the centre of attention, and she felt
Usagi's fingers tighten around her own.
     "Let's have it," Makoto sighed.  She looked delicious in a
dark, form-fitting leather riding suit unzipped to mid-chest, but
Minako figured this was not the best time to mention that particular
fact.
     "I went to the club today to find that it had been bought,
literally overnight," Minako told them.  "One guess who was behind
that."
     "You can't be serious!" Artemis blurted.
     "Oh, I am," Minako said grimly.  "And the one and only
Nightmistress is the new boss.  Aaaaand ... she's been asking
around about Mistress V, how often she visits the club, et cetera."
     "Oh, this is just fantastic," Makoto growled.  "They're
really making a move!"
     "I guess it's a good thing we got out of the house when we
did," Luna said, hovering protectively near Usagi's shoulder.
     "Actually," Minako pointed out, "I always got paid in cash.
And the information in my file is, shall we say, a little misleading.
They won't get my address from there."
     "But Rei knows where you live," Makoto said.  Silence
followed that, and Minako bit back a sharp retort.  She waited to
see if Usagi would say anything, but the princess just sat with her
head bowed.
     "That's true," Minako said, standing.  "But she's also the
one who warned me that the Sisterhood's activities were probably
aimed at the senshi."
     Usagi's head came up sharply at that, her eyes seeking out
Minako's.
     "You talked to her?" Usagi asked, eyes practically
swimming with emotion.
     "I ran into her at the club, then again during a little street
fight with some baddies," Minako told the girl, aware of everyone's
eyes on her.  "All she would say was that I should keep away from
the club and keep all of you away from the Sisterhood."
     "Easier said than done," Makoto grumbled.
     "I won't believe she knew anything specific," Minako went
on.  "If she'd known there was a plan to snatch Makoto, I know
she would have warned me."
     "Well, why is she with them at all?" Makoto asked tightly.
     "I didn't say she was," Minako shot back.
     "She's obviously been in contact with them, though.  I
mean, if she knows enough to warn you about their plans," Makoto
pointed out.
     "She was at the club to see the Nightmistress," Minako
admitted, hating the way Usagi practically flinched at that.  "That
doesn't mean she's been talking to her about us."
     "Look, let's not argue about this," Ami broke in, surprising
everyone.  "We can all just agree that we have to be careful right
now without worrying about blame.  That's what's important,
right?"
     "Ami's right," Artemis said gravely.  "Our priority is to
make sure that we're safe before we start worrying about what to
do next.  One thing seems clear, though.  The Sisterhood is actively
targeting the senshi."
     "But they went after Makoto, not Jupiter," Minako
frowned.  "Unless they knew ..."
     "They only sent one Sister," Makoto said, standing with her
arms crossed.  "She never said anything about Jupiter, and I didn't
transform in front of her."  Her gaze was somewhere off to the side,
avoiding all the others with deliberate casualness, and Minako felt a
hundred questions bubbling up inside her.
     "We can talk about this later," Artemis said firmly.  "First,
we need a sanctuary, someplace to hole up and talk this through,
come up with a plan."
     "Mamoru's?" Makoto asked, glancing at Usagi.
     "His place isn't that big," Usagi mumbled.
     "And I don't think he'd be thrilled to have all of us around,"
Minako pointed out.  "Although we are going to have to get him
into the loop pretty soon."
     "My place," Ami said.  She blushed as everyone turned to
her, but pressed on.  "Nobody knows where it is, and there's lots of
room.  I think it would be perfect."
     "Great,"Artemis beamed.  "That's great, Ami.  I think we
need to regroup and get our heads together before we try and sort
through this thing and decide what to do next."
     "Okay, I can get behind that," Makoto said.
     "Me, too," agreed Minako.  "Let's go.  Ami, directions?"
     As Ami started explaining the route they would need to
take, Minako glanced at Makoto's brooding form and frowned
again.
     The brief account of what had happened earlier piqued
Minako's curiosity, and she really wanted to talk more about it with
the other girl.  She had a feeling, more intuition than anything, that
there were answers to be had about Makoto's anger, if only she
could ask the right questions.
     Things were beginning to get ugly, and the senshi needed to
be united; now more than ever.

***

     Ami clung to Makoto's waist as the taller girl guided her
motorcycle along the twisting road, trying to suppress the doubts
that were nagging at her with sharp, tiny teeth.  There were certain
to be awkward questions when the others saw where she lived, and
Ami still wasn't sure how she was going to handle them.
     Foremost in her mind was how Rei's past had exploded in
the girl's face.  If her own secrets were exposed, how would the
girls react?  They were her friends, and she didn't want to
disappoint them, didn't want them thinking less of her.  Of them all,
though, only Makoto knew about her activities as an information
broker, and even Makoto didn't know where some of the more
esoteric tidbits came from.
     Still, the group had been in trouble and Ami had reacted the
only way she could have.  There were so many bad memories
surrounding that place; the least it could do was to provide
sanctuary now, in her time of need.
     Almost reflexively, she tightened her grip, and the tall girl's
helmeted head turned.
     "You okay?" Makoto called back, her voice muffled by the
helmet.
     "Yes!" Ami replied.  "Um, the turn is coming up, okay?"
     "Got it!"  The bike roared along, and Ami sighed deeply,
letting her head rest against Makoto's back.  She would have been
too scared to drive a motorcycle herself, but riding with Makoto
was exhilarating, like flying.
     The road they were on wound down into the wooded river
valley, running parallel to the expressway at first but then dipping
so that the other road was out of sight.  There wasn't much traffic
at this end of the valley, due to its proximity to the border zones
and the Old City.  The road's surface was cracked and pitted, but
Makoto manoeuvred easily around the worst of the damage.  Ami
doubted Minako was having as easy a time of it behind them, but a
quick glance over her shoulder showed that at least the others were
keeping up.
     The driveway came into sight, although it was so
overgrown with ragged bushes that it would have been easy to
miss.  Ami tapped Makoto on the shoulder and the tall girl nodded,
slowing the bike in response.  She pulled over to the shoulder at the
end of the narrow drive, and shortly afterwards Minako pulled up
beside them.
     "Man, what a lousy road!" Minako complained.  "This
neighbourhood's been flying under City Works' radar since the
Long Dark, methinks!"
     "I didn't know there were any houses still down here,"
Usagi said, shooting Ami a concerned glance.
     "It's a little off the beaten path, but it's quiet," Ami said,
striving to sound casual.  "There's a gate just around the bend back
there.  The combination on the keypad is 96141, just so you know."
Just the act of sharing the gate code felt at once frightening and
wonderfully intimate, almost dizzying.  Makoto gunned the engine
and lifted her feet off the ground as the bike surged ahead, the car
following slowly.
     The trees and brush crowded the edges of the drive, which
was more of a problem for Minako's car than the bike.  Ami had
never bothered much with tending the grounds; of them all, only
Keiichi had really cared much for that sort of thing, and he was
gone these many years.  A couple of the others had made cursory
tries at keeping up the grounds after the headmaster's
disappearance, but one by one they also had gone, and with one
small exception, Ami didn't much care what the grounds looked
like.
     Makoto pulled up to the barred gate set in an imposing
stone wall, stopping beside the pedestal with the keypad on it.  She
keyed in the code Ami had given, and the gate clanked and swung
open slowly.  They drove through with Minako and the others close
behind, following the winding drive through the trees.  When they
reached the open area that revealed the neglected front lawn and
the main building, Ami tried to see the place as they must be seeing
it, with fresh eyes.
     The main house was three stories in most places, more in
some where turrets and gables broke the roofline.  The style was
old; Ami knew for a fact the building had been built early in the last
century, and featured intricate patterns in the heavy stone, carved
gargoyles and beast-men along the roofline, and heavy wooden
shutters covered with warding symbols.  Rising as it did from the
ruin of the neglected grounds, it must have seemed at once
breathtaking and imposing.  Makoto pulled up the circular drive
that led to the front door and stopped, kicking the bike's stand
down and pulling her helmet off to gape at the house.
     "Welcome," Ami said quietly, "to my place."

***

     "A school?" Minako asked as they walked through the
marble-tiled foyer.
     "Yes," Ami replied, nodding.  "It was a private school, set
up after the Long Dark.  There were never that many of us
attending here, and the school has been shut down for some time
now.  I stayed here because I didn't have any place else to go."
     "Until Hotaru recruited you," Makoto said.
     "Yes," Ami sighed.  "And after things went bad, I just came
back."
     "It's awfully close to the border here, Ami," Usagi
murmured with a worried glance.  "And isolated, too.  Doesn't it
scare you to be so far from help?"
     "By road it's quite hard to get to, but there is a path down
by the river that leads to the Donnra Drive bridge," Ami pointed
out.  "From there I can reach the north part of Gerrissimi ward in
about fifteen minutes on my bike."
     "You have a motorcycle?" Usagi asked, aghast.
     "Bicycle," Ami corrected her with a smile.  "Come on, I'll
show you around."  The group moved off, but Makoto hung back,
tapping Minako on the shoulder.  The two girls lingered, watching
the others pass through a doorway and out of sight.  Minako
glanced at the taller girl, suppressing a sigh.  Makoto clearly had
heavy thoughts on her mind, and seemed intent on sharing them.
     "Ami seemed a little evasive outside about this place," Minako
murmured, hoping to steer the conversation in a safer direction.  "I
wonder why?"
     "She's never talked much about her past, even to me,"
Makoto answered with a shrug.  Her form-fitting leather jumpsuit
was unzipped in front again, and the shrug did spectacular things to
her full breasts.  Minako had to remind herself to focus on the
matter at hand, hard as that was.  "But that can wait.  How did
things go today?"
     "Things?" Minako asked, trying to hide her alarm.  Had
Makoto heard about Rei's battle already?
     "You've spent the most time with the Outsider," Makoto
said patiently.  "I wondered if she's ..."
     "He," Minako corrected.
     "Pardon?"
     "Ranma's really a he, as it turns out."
     "Ranma?"
     "That's his name."
     "Uh-huh," Makoto said, eyes narrowed as if this piece of
information was somehow particularly incriminating.  "Well, I was
wondering if HE had done or said anything, you know, strange or
unusual.  Anything, I don't know ...
     "Suspicious?" Minako offered helpfully.
     "Exactly," Makoto said, nodding for emphasis.
"Suspicious."
     Everything about Ranma was pretty much either strange or
unusual; regardless, Minako made a show of contemplating the
matter carefully.
     "Well, now that you mention it," she said slowly, "there was
one thing that seemed a little odd."
     "Really?" Makoto asked, practically quivering with
attentiveness.  "What happened?"
     "Well," Minako breathed, leaning closer so as to confound
eavesdroppers, "we were walking down the street, when suddenly,
his eyes began to glow red, and his head spun around, and he
screamed out, 'I have come to feast on the flesh of the innocent!'
You can imagine my surprise."
     "Swell," Makoto growled.
     "'Bring me your puppy dogs and kitty cats and yea, even
your adorable bunny rabbits that I might kill them in all sorts of
horrible ways', he says ..."
     "Can't you be serious for just one second?" Makoto
snapped.
     "Serious?" Minako shot back.  "I'm tired of serious, girl!
Everything is so serious now, so full of dread and despair and
hopelessness and I am just bloody sick of it!  We used to be able to
relax together, to laugh and joke and have fun!"
     "Maybe it escaped your notice, but things aren't going so
great right now, what with Rei bailing and weird goings-on and
Hotaru being a vampire and now this Outsider thing," Makoto said,
her temper beginning to flash behind angry green eyes.  "And you,
you're just tired of having to be serious?"
     "Don't say it like that!" Minako cried.  She clamped her jaw
shut, swallowed the angry retort she'd been about to throw at the
other girl.  Instead, she just looked at Makoto, really looked at her.
The whole thing with Rei had polarised the group, scattering
emotional land-mines around the landscape with careless abandon,
but for the first time Minako forced herself to try and forget her
feelings about what was happening, her own needs and
uncertainties, and to see Makoto's.  Her searching gaze made the
other girl suddenly uncomfortable, but Minako found that she could
see some of what was going on behind Makoto's eyes if she looked,
if she really looked.
     Makoto's anger was familiar to them all; her temper, while
easily provoked, also tended to pass quickly.  There was another
element to her anger, though, an old, deeper pain that rarely
surfaced.  Minako knew she was seeing that anger now, not some
fleeting mood, and she saw something else, more clearly than ever
before.
     That anger was tangled up with fear; whether that fear was
for herself, their princess, or all of them together Minako wasn't
certain.  But looking into those verdant emerald depths, she was
reminded at a visceral level that this girl, difficult as she could
sometimes be, was her friend.
     And she was hurting too.
     "I miss you," Minako said softly.  That wasn't what she'd
been going to say, but her heart had leapt into the gap, as it was
wont to do.  "I miss the way we used to be together, all of us.  I
love your smile, your laugh.  You used to hold a lot of yourself
back, in the beginning; that's why your smiles became so precious.
They showed that you started to trust us, to open up around us.  It
happened with ALL of us, remember?"
     "I remember," Makoto said, the tension flowing slowly out
of her body.  "You always used to try to make me laugh, doing
outrageous things all the time."
     "And I was pretty good at it," Minako pointed out.
     "Yeah," Makoto said with a wry smile.  "I guess you were.
You got me a few times."
     "I want that back," Minako said, her voice soft, gentle.  "I
want our life back."
     "I'm sorry, Minako," Makoto replied, her face sombre.
"But I'm not sure we can go back anymore."
     "But we can try," Minako told her.  "Even if it hurts us, we
have to try, we have to trust in our hearts to lead us back."
     "It's easy for you, isn't it, Minako?  Your heart tells you to
just believe and everything will be okay."  Makoto's gaze dropped
as she turned away.
     "And yours doesn't?" Minako asked.
     "It's easy for you," Makoto repeated, her mouth set in a
hard line.  "But me, I believed once.  I believed with all my heart,
and I trusted the wrong person."
     "Makoto ..." Minako said softly.
     "Can't you understand?" Makoto asked, her tone pleading.
"Can't you?  I'm afraid, Minako.  Usagi, she means so much to me.
If I was the one at risk, then I'd take the chance, but how can you
ask me to risk our princess?"
     "Because she's worth it," Minako said with utter
conviction.  "Because WE are worth it.  I'm asking you to
remember that, Makoto.  When the time comes, remember what we
are, the five of us together.  That's all, just remember."
     "You really think you can fix this, don't you?" Makoto said
with a hoarse laugh, shaking her head.  "What if Rei really is gone,
though?  What if she chooses her old life over us?"
     "If you really believe she would do that," Minako asked
gently, "then why didn't you transform right away when the Sister
attacked you?"
     Makoto didn't answer, but Minako saw the truth in the
other girl's eyes.
     Pushing Makoto always made her stubborn, though, so
Minako just smiled.
     And walked away.

***

     "So no luck?" Artemis asked.  Usagi blinked, taken off-
guard.  She'd been brooding, trying to concentrate on the events
that were overtaking them, but failing.  Even the news she had
about Hotaru had taken a back seat to one thought.
     Rei.
     She wanted to see Rei, to talk to her.  She wanted Rei to fix
her with that faintly contemptuous glare in her exotic violet eyes;
she wanted Rei to tell her to stop being such a wimp.  It was almost
like a physical craving.
     It was all well and good for her to tell the others that
investigating the recent mysterious occurrences had first priority,
but in every unguarded moment her thoughts returned to her fiery
senshi.  Where was she now?  What was she doing?  Did her heart
ache from their separation?
     "What?" she asked blankly, aware that Artemis was staring
at her.
     "Luck," he repeated patiently.  "With Mamoru."  She shook
her head, looking up as Minako followed Makoto into the room.
     "Here you are," Minako said briskly.  "Where's Ami?"
     "She went upstairs to check her computers," Luna told her.
"She said something about information drops or something like
that."
     "Information drops?" Minako frowned.
     "Ami's an information broker," Makoto said, sitting on one
of the sofas in the spacious sitting room.  Dust puffed up in a cloud
as she sat, and Makoto grimaced.  Most of the furniture they'd seen
so far was covered with white sheets to keep off the dust, and the
rest looked as though it was seldom used.
     "Information broker?" Artemis asked.
     "Yeah," Makoto replied, stifling a cough.  "She has her
computers filter out stuff from different sources and sells
information.  She used to do it before Hotaru found her, so I guess
it was natural to go back to it.  I use her myself; that's how I got a
lead on the shifter I bagged the other night."
     "Isn't that dangerous?" Usagi asked, a vague sensation of
alarm chiming in her chest.
     "She does all her business at arm's length through an alias,"
Makoto assured her.  "Don't worry, Usagi.  She doesn't put herself
in danger."
     "But if she's an old hand at this, she might have come up
with something good for us," Minako nodded.  "Cool.  I guess
that's why she made the association with Ranma and the incidents
in those cities so quickly.  I swear, sometimes that girl is almost
spooky."
     "Ranma?" Luna asked.
     "Uh, yeah," the red-headed girl said sheepishly.  "Me."
     "I thought your name was Ranko," Usagi said, feeling
confused.
     "Apparently, she's also really a he," Makoto grumbled.
     "It's just the body," Ranma replied, a bit testily Usagi
thought.  "I mean, geez, did everybody think I was a girl?"
     There was a general murmur of assent, and Ranma flushed.
     "Well, I'm not," the girl protested.  Usagi took a look at the
way the petite red-head filled out her clothes and wondered how
she was supposed to think of Ranma as a boy.
     "Well, this place should be safe, at least for a while,"
Makoto sighed, leaning back against the couch gingerly and lacing
her fingers behind her head.  "So maybe we'll have time to catch up
with all this stuff, like shape-changing Outsiders and the Sisterhood
and all that."
     "Speaking of which, you never answered my question,"
Artemis said to Usagi, causing her to start guiltily.
     "Oh," she replied.  "Um.  What question?"
     "What did Mamoru have to say?"
     "Oh.  Well, he was pretty busy," Usagi began.  She knew
she would have to tell the others about her talk with Haruka and
Michiru as soon as possible.  If she was honest with herself, she
could admit that she was only delaying because the others would be
furious.  That morning she had been determined to prove herself,
but Michiru's words had been gnawing at her since she'd left the
cafe.  Yes, sneaking behind the backs of her senshi was unworthy of
their devotion to her, and they were going to be not only angry, but
also hurt.
     But she HAD to tell them.  Not only was Hotaru not their
enemy, but a vampire was loose in their city ... quite possibly the
same one who had created Hotaru in the first place, according to
Haruka and Michiru.  The trick, of course, was deciding how to tell
them.
     Before she could begin, however, Ami came back into the
room.  Usagi felt relief at the interruption, but that feeling was
short-lived.  Normally Usagi had no trouble getting a read on her
reticent friend, but now Ami had brought down steel shutters
behind her blue eyes, allowing no view inside.  Usagi's gaze darted
to the sheet of paper in the other girl's hand, her heart plummeting.
     "Ami?" Makoto asked.  "What is it?"
     "Gods, not more bad news," Minako moaned.
     "I have my systems set to trigger certain protocols if any
input is detected which indicates the presence of sailor senshi," Ami
said, her voice soft and carefully modulated.  She stood stock still,
not looking at any of them.  "Data is automatically accumulated and
tagged for my attention."
     "Okay," Artemis said cautiously.  "And?"
     "There was an incident earlier today," Ami went on.
"Down by the expressway."  Usagi saw Minako flinch guiltily.
     "Um, Ami," Minako began, eyeing the paper with distinct
unease.
     "Three girls took out a group of monsters," Ami went on,
her voice toneless.  "From initial descriptions and the odd picture
gleaned from local security cameras, it is clear that the first was
Sailor Venus, or rather Mistress V."
     "Ami, wait," Minako said, taking a step towards the other
girl.  Ami turned her gaze on the blonde, stopping her in her tracks,
and Usagi felt a sense of foreboding creep up her back with icy
claws.  Her eyes were pulled to the paper in Ami's hands, and she
knew in that instant that she did not want to see what was on it.
     "The second girl exhibited remarkable martial arts abilities,
according to one eyewitness, and her physical description matches
Ranko's.  But the third ..."
     "What in the hells is going on?" Makoto asked, rising to her
feet.  "Minako, what are you hiding?"
     "Let me see that."  Usagi barely recognized the brittle voice
that silenced the room as her own.  Minako turned to block Usagi's
path, her eyes clouded with a jumble of emotion.
     "Usagi, wait," Minako implored.  "Just wait, okay?"
     "Were you even going to tell her?" Ami asked, and now
finally emotion was creeping into her voice.
     "Tell me what?" Usagi asked, and now the sense of dread
was nearly overwhelming.  "It's Rei, isn't it?  Minako?"
     The blonde stared at her, struggling to speak, and Usagi
finally brushed past her.
     "No, Usagi, listen to me."  Minako's words tumbled out as
she grabbed at Usagi's arm.  "You believe, remember?  You believe
in her, and that's important.  You ..."
     Usagi took the sheet from Ami with her free hand, ignoring
Minako's pleas.  It was a picture printed off a computer printer, or
part of one.  Usagi guessed numbly that what she was looking at
was an enlarged portion of a larger shot; the picture was somewhat
grainy, but she could see what she needed to see.  A girl had been
caught, frozen in the act of spinning around.  Her dark hair curved
around her body, hiding part of her face, and one of her hands was
raised to hold a ward in front of her like a weapon.
     The picture was black and white, but Usagi would have bet
that the coat that swirled around the girl's lithe form was red.
She'd given Rei that coat, after all.  She couldn't see all of the girl's
face, but what she could see was more than enough.  There was no
way she could mistake Rei; the girl's form, her being, was engraved
upon Usagi's consciousness.
     The black spidery patterns that lay across every inch of
Rei's exposed skin, though, were something she'd never seen
before.  Something she'd never dreamed she would see on that
perfect pale skin.
     Shadow wards.
     Grief bubbled up inside her, everything she'd been trying to
hold in bursting free at once.  With a cry, she flung the picture away
and ran, past arms that tried to hold her, past alarmed cries, away
from everything.
     Just away.

***

     Minako stood, transfixed by the sight of Usagi as she fled
the room, sobs tearing free from her throat.  She noted how
Makoto picked up the fallen picture, how the girl's eyes darkened
as she saw what was on it.
     Minako didn't have to see it to know what it showed.  And
she understood the shock the others felt; she'd seen it in person,
after all.  It had affected her, too.
      But ... but it was still Rei.  It was.
     "What have you done?" she asked Ami, her voice paper
thin.
     "You knew," Ami replied, her brow creased.  "You knew,
and you weren't going to tell her."
     "How could I?" Minako cried.  "You saw what it did to
her!"
     "Only the strongest of the Sisterhood can wield Shadow
magic that way," Ami said softly, her lower lip trembling ever-so-
slightly.  "There are rumours that you can't be Nightmistress unless
you can call your own shadow to you.  That's what you saw, isn't
it, Minako?"
     "I'm going after her," Luna announced, starting for the
doorway.
     "No, let me," Minako blurted.  "I have to ... to talk to her.  I
have to ..."  She broke off as Makoto moved to block her path.
     "No," the taller girl said.  "You've done enough."
     "Move," Minako said, her voice catching in her throat.
     "No."  Makoto was implacable, but not angry, and that
somehow made it worse.
     "Move!" Minako shrieked, tears burning at her eyes.
"Damn you, Makoto, don't you get it?  This is it!  If I can't make
her see the truth, then this is it, it's over!  We might as well forget
about ever being a team again!  You can't tell me you don't care
about that, because I know better!"
     "Look," Makoto said, her voice terrible in its gentleness.
"Look."  She held up the picture so that Minako could not help but
see it.  "It's already over, Minako.  She's made her choice."
     "No!  She hasn't chosen anything, damn you!  She's just
afraid!  Makoto, it isn't too late, not yet!  It isn't!"  Tears spilled
down Minako's cheeks now, and she made no attempt to stop them
as they traced arcs down to her chin.  She could feel it all slipping
away, inexorably, and she had to make them listen, listen and
understand.  There was still a chance.
     "Mina."  Artemis' voice was hushed, grave.  She wouldn't
listen, though.  She wouldn't be told to be sensible, to accept things
the way they seemed.  Not her.  She wouldn't accept it, she
absolutely would not.  Clenching her fists, she rushed by Makoto,
running through the doorway and deeper into the unfamiliar house.
     She ran through long hallways, past rows of doors closed
tightly like sentries guarding dark secrets.  The details were a blur;
there was a sense of disuse about much of the house, but that
seemed to filter directly into her subconscious.
     Finally she stopped, shoulders heaving as she paused,
panting, at a branch in the corridor.  There were twin doors at the
end of this new hall, and they were standing carelessly ajar. Minako
tarried a moment longer, fighting to compose herself before heading
down.  This was bound to be difficult enough without her having
another outburst.
     The doors lead out onto a stone patio ringed by a matching
waist-high rail.  Usagi stood at that rail, leaning heavily against it,
her head bowed and her slim shoulders shaking.  Minako took a
deep breath, making sure to wipe the remnants of her own tears
from her cheeks before venturing out.
     The yard might have once been landscaped, but years of
neglect showed here.  The grass was overgrown, bushes ran to
riotous profusion and the large pond beyond the patio was covered
with leaves, the water dark and uninviting.
     "Usagi?"  Minako flinched at the sound of her voice in the
silence; Usagi didn't react at all.  Minako moved across the leaf-
strewn patio, stopping directly behind her stricken princess.
     "Usagi?" she repeated.  "I want to explain it to you.  Why I
..."
     "It doesn't matter."  That hoarse whisper didn't sound at all
like the girl Minako loved, the princess she was so devoted to.  It
sounded broken, defeated.  Desolate.
     "You can't lose hope," Minako went on, trying to hide the
desperation in her voice.  "Not now.  Not after we've come so far.
     "Can't lose hope?" Usagi echoed, the line of her back
painfully rigid.  "She promised me she'd be with me, that she'd stay
with me until the end.  She promised, but she went off to that
woman, didn't she?  She's wearing HER colours, not mine, and she
never even bothered to say good-bye.  I guess Saekianna was right.
I guess I am just a naive little girl after all."
     "No!" Minako clenched her hands into fists, trying to will
Usagi to understand.
     "Just go away," Usagi whispered over the sough of the
breeze.  "Please.  I ... I just want to be alone."
     Minako could only stare as Usagi's shoulders slumped, that
horrible tension evaporating and leaving an equally painful air of
defeat in its wake.  Usagi was not a girl who sought solitude when
life wounded her; she shone in the company of others, always
willing to comfort or be comforted.
     But Minako knew that Usagi meant what she said.  Her
princess didn't want the comfort of her loyal senshi's shoulder to
cry on, and wasn't that partly Minako's fault?  She'd kept the truth
from Usagi, after all, thinking to spare her the shock of knowing
Rei had forsaken her senshi persona totally, but she had only ended
up adding to the betrayal.  And all because she hadn't wanted to
force the issue with Rei.
     Silently she turned, taking one last look at the lonely figure
of her princess to harden her heart.  Then she slipped back inside
the house, feeling resolve flow through her body.  It burned, but she
welcomed that heat as it lessened the ache in her chest.
     This had gone far enough.  Usagi needed Rei, and Minako
was going to make that happen.  There would be no more talking,
no more discussion, no more arguing about taint and darkness and
what was best for Usagi.  Rei was going to face her princess even if
Minako had to drag her haughty, high-tempered ass back here
kicking and screaming.
     Of course, she didn't know where Rei was.  But she had a
good idea who would.
     And since that woman had gone to so much trouble to get
her attention, it seemed only fair that Mistress V should respond to
the invitation.
     And perhaps show the Nightmistress of the Sisterhood what
it meant to trifle with the hearts of Minako's people.

***

     I shared the roof with several gargoyles and a naked female
figure with the head of an eagle, her wings spread wide.
Fortunately, my companions were all stone.  Or maybe that was
unfortunate; after watching another emotional scene, I was in the
mood to scrap again.  At least that was clean, simple.
     Not that I understood the situation completely, but I
guessed that Rei choosing to fight without her senshi powers had
hurt Usagi in some personal way.  Maybe it had something to do
with this Court of the White Moon thing Minako had mentioned.
Usagi had been a princess or something, not that I was too clear on
how that worked either.
     Minako had asked me not to mention seeing Rei, and I'd
agreed.  Now, of course, it seemed like that had only made matters
worse.  The others were all upset, so I'd found a kettle and
retreated to the roof to get away from the intense emotional vibes.
It wasn't like I didn't have my own problems to worry about, like
what this whole Outsider thing might really mean, and if someone
was actually tracking me through the key and killing innocents as a
challenge.
     I poured the contents of the steaming kettle over my head,
that familiar tingle sweeping through me as I changed.  The heat of
the water quickly faded in the cool night air, and I reflected that it
was a wonder I'd never caught pneumonia.  Somewhere below
there was the sound of a slamming door, and I found myself peering
over the edge of the high roof despite my best intentions to remain
uninvolved.
     From my vantage point I saw Minako storm out from the
front porch, blonde hair streaming out behind her.  The pants with
the flared legs and sleeveless top with the plunging neckline were
plainly visible since she'd forgotten her black coat (or Rei's black
coat, as it were).  She had her keys in her hand and was making for
her car when Artemis chased her out onto the large paved loop
where the vehicles were parked.
     "Don't go off like this, Mina," he begged her.  She spun,
and I could see she was still upset, although she seemed to be
channelling it into determination now.
     "This ends tonight, Artemis," she shot back.  "I won't let
this go on any longer.  It's destroying us, and I won't just sit back
and watch.  I'm going to make Rei talk to Usagi."
     "This is reckless, Mina," Artemis maintained, crossing his
arms and trying to stare her down.  "What about Usagi?"
     "She'll be safe here.  No one knows this place, remember?
But it won't be much of a sanctuary if her heart is breaking."
     "Mina, wait!"  She ignored him, stomping over to her car
and sliding behind the wheel.  He followed her, still trying to make
her see reason.  I felt for him; she seemed like the stubborn type.
     I had some experience with stubborn women.
     "You don't even know where she is!" he shouted above the
roar of the engine.  "Where are you going?"
     Her only reply was to make the tires squawk as she
accelerated away, leaving Artemis standing there watching her
taillights recede down the curved drive until they disappeared.
Then, with a disgusted sigh, he turned around and went back inside.
     I sat back, leaning against the steep pitch of the roof.  I
could understand Minako's feelings, the urge to do something
about the mess they were in.  I could also understand Artemis'
frustration.  If this Sisterhood was hunting them, then they
definitely needed to regroup and plan their strategy.
     Not really my problem, though.  Nobody had asked me
what I thought; in fact, I'd been mostly ignored, except for the
occasional glare from Makoto.  Well, that was fine.  Whether or not
I was the Outsider, I was an outsider in a more mundane sense.
     I stared at the sky, which was becoming more and more
overcast as the sun touched the horizon, spreading darkness earlier
than usual.  I had an idea where Minako might be going, as it
happened.  She'd been pretty wound up after coming out of her
club, and now I knew why.  If Minako couldn't find Rei, she'd
probably just go after the person at the top and ask her.  At the very
least, it would give her a chance to vent her aggressions on
someone.
     Hell, that was what I would have done.
     Not that it was any of my business.  No one had asked for
my help.  And anyway, she was gone.  What was it to me?
     But, a little voice reminded me, she has to go the long way
around.  If what Ami said is true, you can go nearly straight to the
bridge, and from there catch a ride down towards the Triangle.
You wouldn't end up that far behind her.  If you wanted.
     Yeah.  If I wanted to, I probably could.  But maybe she
wasn't going to the club after all.  And even if she did, there wasn't
anything I could do there.  This was a personal fight and it didn't
involve me.  Minako could fight her own fights and take care of
herself.  Even if the girl she called her princess was crying, that
didn't mean she'd do something stupid.
     Or dangerous.
     And anyway, it was really none of my business.
     Yeah.
     Yeah ...
     The solitary wind blew, rustling the leaves on the trees as it
passed through on its way to no place in particular.
     It was getting cold, up here on the roof.

***

     Saekianna was preparing to leave when a gentle tap came at
her study door.  At her bidding, the door opened to admit the Black
Rose.
     The woman was exquisitely beautiful, her intricate silk robes
flowing softly with her every demure motion, her long midnight hair
bound up with gleaming jade combs atop her head.  Her poise was
perfect as she bowed her head to the Nightmistress; her flawless
porcelain skin and dark eyes that seemed to draw the room's light
into their gorgeous depths were breathtaking indeed.  She was at
once delicate and ravishing, as enticing as her namesake.
     And as dangerous.  As a rose had thorns, so did this vision.
Her elegant manner and bewitching beauty were her finely honed
weapons; those combs in her hair might have sharp tines coated
with mind-befuddling drugs or poisons, the flowing lines of her
robes almost certainly concealed tiny vials and darts, and at least
one of her long ruby nails was painted with a substance that, if it
broke the skin, could paralyse a man in seconds.  Saekianna knew
the woman had once strangled a sorcerer in his own bedchamber
with her unbound hair, calmly walking out through his mansion past
unwary guards with the dead man's book of spells under her robes.
     "Yurina," the Nightmistress murmured.  "I was not
expecting you."
     "I beg your pardon, Nightmistress," the woman replied, her
voice soft and melodic, as pleasing to the ear as her appearance was
to the eye.  "Ordinarily, I would not trouble you unannounced in
such a manner.  If I am intruding ..."
     "Of course not," Saekianna said smoothly.  "But I am
leaving shortly."
     "Indeed," Yurina murmured, taking the seat offered with
languid grace and settling her robes carefully about her with her
pale, slim hands.  "It is about just that matter that I wish to speak
with you."
     Saekianna hid her consternation with practised ease as
Yurina pulled a fan from the sleeve of her robe, opening it carefully
to reveal a pattern of black roses on red silk.  That fan could also be
wielded as a weapon, something that would have seemed
unthinkable to an outsider watching this delicate woman and her
precise, supple movements.
     As head of the Maidens of the Rose, Yurina embodied one
aspect of the Sisterhood's power, an aspect which had once
encompassed the Sisterhood itself.  In ages past, when men had
ruled the empire that had once covered almost all of the known
world, women had been possessions, property.  They had been
expected to serve their men in all ways.
     But still it had been possible to wield a kind of soft power,
and as the Sisterhood had been born into such a world, they had
cultivated arts which allowed them to exert influence.  They could
beguile and enchant, both with their own charms and with magicks
and drugs.  They could manipulate and spy, ignored by the
powerful as tactics and secrets of state were discussed.  And, when
necessary, they could kill, swiftly and unseen.  Such murders in
those days were always attributed to shadowy clans of assassins;
no man had suspected that the women of his harem could be
capable of such bold and deadly action.
     As the empire of the dreaded Genrous had fallen and the
complexion of civilization had changed, the Sisterhood had
embraced other, more direct powers and become a force openly
acknowledged.  There were still those, however, who argued that
the Sisterhood's real strength still lay with the discrete application
of that soft power.
     Yurina was one such woman.  As Black Rose, she had
position and prestige within the Sisterhood, and although she could
not openly challenge the Nightmistress it was not wise to ignore
her.  Saekianna had forged an alliance with Yurina out of necessity,
one which had allowed her to topple Griitna; had the Black Rose
been able to wield Shadow magicks, she very well might have
challenged for the position of Nightmistress herself.
     Saekianna sensed that she and Yurina were about to clash
once again, as they had many times since she'd taken power.  Such
clashes were conducted with silken words and tiny gestures, but
they were no less fierce for forsaking volume and open displays of
anger.
     "I take it, then, that you disapprove of my plan?" Saekianna
said softly, leaning back and steepling her fingers.
     "It is not for me to disapprove," Yurina replied, lowering
her eyes demurely.
     "Come, Yurina," Saekianna sighed.  "Let us not mince
words."
     "Very well," Yurina said, her rosebud lips curving into a
maddeningly enigmatic smile.  "Let us speak plainly then, for time
grows short.  There is a lesson to be learned in Vi's failure,
Nightmistress.  Whether we agree that it was necessary to retrieve
this girl you wanted, the means were direct to the point of being ...
vulgar."  Yurina raised her fan for a moment, only her dark eyes
visible as she gazed up at her Nightmistress though long, sooty
lashes.
     "This is an old argument," Saekianna said simply.
     "Indeed.  However, had I been given the task of bringing
this girl in, I would have insinuated my way into her confidence,
gained her trust, and found the flaws within her which would have
allowed us to bend her to our will.  The root of our power lies
within the old ways, Nightmistress, a fact your predecessor
ignored."  With one slow, elegant sweep of her hand, Yurina folded
her fan and ran her nails almost absently along its length.
     "I do not doubt your skills, oh Black Rose," Saekianna
replied, choosing to ignore the veiled threat in those pretty words.
"But we simply did not have that kind of time.  And, I must point
out, we still do not.  Much as I wish we could spin a fine web
around our adversaries, sometimes direct action is necessary.  This,
I assure you, is one of those times."
     "This sailor girl may very well rise to the bait you have set,"
Yurina conceded.  "And I have no doubt you wish to test your
strength against hers.  I ask, however, that I be allowed to
accompany you tonight."
     "We do not have time for sweet, honeyed traps," Saekianna
told the woman.  "Much as I enjoy watching you work, Yurina,
Baniesti is nearly upon us.  These sailor girls are an unknown
factor, and if I do not take their measure our plans may be
disrupted."
     "You are correct," Yurina confessed.  "That is more your
strength than mine.  But the unexpected cost you your prize earlier
today.  If I am near, I may be useful should another ... unfortunate
episode occur.  And, as you have said, success is vital."
     "She may not come," Saekianna said, trying to hide her
irritation and mostly succeeding.  She did not like the implication,
veiled though it was, that she might prove unable to handle this
sailor girl.  She knew better than to press Yurina on the matter,
however; the woman would simply flutter her eyelashes and deny
she'd meant any such thing.
     And the most irritating part was that Yurina was right.  It
would not hurt to have a hidden reserve in case something did
happen.  Yurina, like her maidens, did not wield significant magic
and thus her absence would not affect the preparations that
were underway.
     "Just as you say," Yurina agreed, bowing her head.
     "Very well," Saekianna said briskly.  "You will accompany
me to the club, and see if you can find out any more about any of
our targets.  And if the girl does show, you may observe her
defeat."
     "You are gracious, Nightmistress," Yurina murmured.  She
rose in a rustle of silks, bowing again to her superior.
     "Change into something appropriate and meet me
downstairs in twenty minutes," Saekianna told the woman.  Yurina
nodded and glided to the door, but then paused.
     "Have you considered the possibility," she asked quietly,
"that all of these senshi may come tonight?"
     "Do not trouble yourself," Saekianna told her with a hard-
edged smile.  "I have plans for that contingency."
     Yurina smiled back and left the room in a whisper of silk
and a tantalizing whiff of perfume.  Saekianna rose from her chair
and walked to the window, gazing out across the carefully
manicured grounds.  The Black Rose may have had an agenda, but
her points had validity.  It was the Sisterhood's way to use guile
and subterfuge, weaving a careful snare around those they would
manipulate or defeat.  Saekianna knew that there was danger in the
route she was taking, and for a moment she wondered if she should
delay her plans, let Baniesti pass this time and lay low, taking the
time to ensnare or destroy all possible obstacles to success.
     But just as quickly as she had the thought she dismissed it.
Missing this chance meant waiting nearly two years, and conditions
would never be as good as they were now.  If the White Sisters
somehow discovered her plan, then she might never succeed.  No,
there would always be risks no matter how carefully they planned
and schemed, but if she acted quickly and decisively then she would
bring the Sisterhood's greatest desire to fruition.
     The light glinted off the signet ring she wore as she held it
up in front of her face.
     "Tonight," she whispered.  "Tonight you will taste the
blood of the enemy, my sweet, after so very long.  I can feel it.  She
will come."

***

     "Don't look at me like that," Makoto growled, making
Luna start.
     "Like what?" the dark-haired girl asked, her brow furrowed.
     "Accusingly," Makoto replied, crossing her arms.  "This
isn't my fault, you know."
     "But you do feel vindicated, don't you?" Artemis asked.
"You were right about Rei after all."
     "Hey, I didn't want to be right!" Makoto snapped, feeling a
rush of anger at Artemis' words.  "I'm not happy with the way
things turned out, okay?  But better that we know now than have
Usagi go to bed every night thinking that Rei might come back.  At
least now we can get past this.  Somehow."
     Makoto's words were certain; she hoped the others couldn't
see that her heart wasn't.  She felt a pang in her chest at the
thought of Rei lost to them, wearing the colours of the enemy.
That wasn't the way it should be.
     But that was how it was.  Betrayal was a terrible sin, and its
stain could not be washed clean by wishing.  All she could do now
was try to heal her princess's heart while she protected her friends
from the darkness that seemed to be all around them.
     "How is she?" Luna asked, anxious, and at first Makoto
thought the question had been directed at her.  Then she caught
sight of Ami, who just sighed and shook her head.
     "I made up a room for her," the quiet girl told them.  "But
she's absolutely inconsolable.  She won't talk to me at all."
     "Maybe I should try," Luna said, standing, but Artemis put
his hand on her arm and drew her back.
     "Let her be for a while," he told Luna.  "I think she needs to
be alone."  Luna looked at him, clearly torn, but at last sank back
down on the couch beside him.
     "Where's Ranko, er, Ranma, anyway?" Makoto asked,
glancing around.
     "He asked me for a kettle earlier," Ami shrugged.  "I
haven't seen him since."
     "He didn't go with Minako, so he's got to be around
somewhere," Artemis said.  "Although I think he's the least of our
troubles."
     "Yeah, well, I'd feel better if I knew what he was up to,"
Makoto grumbled.  "Think I'll have a look around."
     "Wait, I'll come with you," Ami said quietly, moving to
stand beside the taller girl.  Makoto flashed her a brief smile,
leading the way out of the room and into a wide hall.
     "That Minako, what a maniac," Makoto muttered as they
walked.  "What does she think she can do, running off like that?
Even if she finds Rei, what can she do?  That picture was pretty
plain; Rei isn't a senshi any more."
     Makoto caught sight of Ami's expression out of the corner
of her eye and stopped abruptly.
     "Ami," she said, "you aren't feeling guilty about showing
Usagi that picture, are you?  Because you did the right thing, don't
think you didn't.  Minako was wrong to hide the truth."
     "Usagi is heartbroken," Ami replied, misery in her voice.  "I
took away her last hope, didn't I?"
     "It was a false hope," Makoto reminded her gently.
     "But why?  Why would Rei abandon her and ... and all of
us?  Isn't there anything we can count on in the world anymore?"
Ami wrapped her arms around herself as if she were cold, not
looking anywhere in particular.  "I hate it, this feeling.  It feels like
the world is collapsing, and I'm going to lose everything good.  For
so long, I never thought there would be anything in my life like all
of you, and now ... now I ..."
     Makoto took Ami gently by the shoulders, feeling the
thrumming tension in the smaller girl's body as she turned it to face
her.
     "Hey," she said.  "Ami.  I'm not going anywhere, okay?  I
promise, I'll be there for you whenever you need me.  I promise."
     Ami's blue eyes rose hesitantly to meet hers, and although
they were suspiciously shiny no tears fell, and the girl finally
managed a smile.  It was beautiful, that smile, and Makoto
treasured it.  It had taken Ami so long to open up to any of them,
and Makoto was never quite certain why the two of them had
become such good friends.  But they had, and that friendship was
important to her.
     "Thank-you," Ami said, her gratitude warm and genuine, its
honesty making Makoto shiver slightly.  "That means a lot to me."
Then her expression darkened slightly, and her eyes slid off to the
left.  "But there are things I haven't told you, and now that you're
here you probably have a lot of questions."
     "Some," Makoto admitted, puzzled by Ami's sudden
reticence.
     "I've been thinking a lot about it lately," Ami went on.
"Since this whole thing with Rei, I mean.  About the past, and the
hold it has on us.  There are things about my past I wouldn't have
wanted exposed the way Rei's secrets were.  I wonder if things
might have turned out different, if it hadn't been sprung on us the
way it was."
     "Ami!"
     "If it was all in her past, then maybe all we've done is drive
her away," Ami went on doggedly.
     "Rei doesn't let other people push her around," Makoto
mumbled, unnerved by Ami's words. "Anyway, I'm quite sure there
isn't anything in your past as bad as what she was hiding."
     Ami looked up at her, seemingly on the verge of saying
something.  Finally, though, she just sighed and looked away.
     "There's something else," she told Makoto just as the taller
girl was about to press the issue.  "After I got Usagi settled, I
checked my nets.  Rin Suzuki is leaving messages on public drops,
wanting to meet with you tonight.  He doesn't specify where ..."
     "I know where," Makoto said with a long, slow exhalation
of breath.  "That guy never quits, does he?"
     "You won't go, will you?"  Ami's blue eyes were wide,
beseeching.
     "I don't really want to leave you guys so short," Makoto
muttered.  "But with everything that's going on, we can't afford to
have a whole clan of shifters after our butts too.  Maybe I can strike
a deal with Rin.  He likes me, after all."  She delivered this last with
a flirtatious smile, but Ami was having none of it.
     "I'm not worried about being short here," she told Makoto.
"Nobody knows this place.  I'm just worried about you going out
there with no back-up.  It's probably a trap, you know."
     "The meet is in a public place," Makoto assured her.  "It'll
be okay."
     "So you're going."  Ami glared at her, and Makoto fought
the urge to dig her toe into the floor and squirm.
     "I brought this trouble on the senshi, Ami.  If I can clear it
up, then I owe it to all of you to try."
     "You really don't want to ask Rin for a favour, do you?"
Ami asked her.
     "No," Makoto said wryly.  "Not really.  He's the sort to
take advantage of a situation like that.  But I'm no fainting lily, you
know.  He wants me, and I can use that against him.  Relax,
everything will be fine."
     "You keep in touch," Ami said, stubborn now.  "If you miss
a check-in, then we'll come after you."
     "Fine," Makoto sighed, secretly pleased by the other
girl's concern.  Too many nights after their break-up she'd gone out
without anyone to worry about her.  She was finding that she'd
missed that.  She'd missed it a lot.  "But it'll be okay."
     "Don't do anything reckless," Ami urged.  "And hurry back,
all right?  Usagi will need all of us to get through this."
     "I will.  And if Minako calls in, tell her to come back, would
you?"
     "Not that she'd listen to me," Ami sighed, rolling her eyes,
"but I will."
     Makoto hesitated a moment longer, wondering if this was
really a good idea.  After all, the Sisterhood was still out there;
what if they were looking for Jupiter as well as Makoto Kino?
     The alternative, though, was to huddle in this ruined
mansion like a timid mouse, hoping nothing bad would ever
happen.  And that just wasn't her style.  She'd go get Rin and his
bunch off the senshi's backs, lightening the load on her princess's
slim shoulders.
     And if Rin gave her any of his lady-killer attitude, he was
going to be one sorry pussycat.

***

     It had been a piece of cake, getting inside unseen.  After all,
she knew the place like the back of her hand.  Now that night had
fallen, the place would be packed as usual, which might have
allowed her to blend in and check things out surreptitiously.
     If that had been her style.
     But she'd come here to answer the subtle challenge issued
by Saekianna der Kae, and she wasn't going to play that woman's
game.  The Nightmistress of the Sisterhood might be accustomed to
making people dance to her tune, but Minako Aino was nobody's
puppet.
     Nor, needless to say, was Mistress V.
     She'd taken a voluminous hooded cloak from one of the
upstairs rooms and put it on, sweeping down the stairs and across
the crowded floor, taking in her surroundings as she went.  There
was no sign of Saekianna, but V knew she was there; the woman
had parked her fancy car in the manager's spot.
     There was also no sign of Rei.  V had hoped that her friend
might be here with Saekianna, only because that would make her
easier to find.  Otherwise, she was just going to have to convince
Saekianna to tell her where Rei was.
     Which might be fun ...
     V approached the stage where the house band was
playing softly, wondering how many spies the Sisterhood had in the
room looking out for her.  The staff might even have been
encouraged to tell their new boss if they saw Mistress V, and the
girls wouldn't have necessarily seen anything strange in that, would
they?  V was something of a celebrity locally, after all, and the
owner might just want to meet her.
     Well, V wasn't about to make it hard on them.  She reached
the foot of the stage and leapt up, the cloak billowing around her.
The guitar player, a lanky, quiet looker everyone called Rawlie,
frowned and backed up a step.  V noticed that his playing didn't
falter even for a moment.  The mournful wail of the sax died off,
though, and V found herself in the sights of a pair of blazing blue
eyes belonging to Madoka, a stunning brunette with a legendary
temper to match her musical talent.
     "It's not open mike night, sweetie," the girl said with
deceptive softness.  V recalled the rumours of how Madoka had
been nicknamed "the Pick" during her younger days running the
streets; even now, it was common knowledge that crossing her was
a bad idea.
     V just smiled, though, whipping the cloak off in a theatrical
gesture that sent it spinning into the crowd.  An excited murmur
arouse as both patrons and staff recognized her, and V basked in
that rising undercurrent in spite of herself.
     "Aw, come on," she said, shooting Madoka a sly, knowing
smile.  "Just one song?  I'm in the mood."
     "You should leave," Madoka murmured, moving closer, her
sax hanging by its strap against the girl's body.  Madoka's gaze
locked with V's, and in that instant V saw that the sax player knew
something was off.  She'd obviously developed good survival
instincts out on the street, and V was pleased that the tempestuous
girl had tried to warn her.
     "That would be rude," V returned, "seeing as the new
owner has gone to so much trouble to draw my attention."
Madoka studied her face carefully for a few moments, then smiled
knowingly.  It was a smile that made V want to see what kind of
music the girl could really make.
     "So," Madoka nodded, fingering her sax.  "What's it to be
tonight, then?"
     "Vows in Moonlight," V told her, basking in Madoka's
approving smile.  The music had trailed off, and everyone's
attention was focussed on the stage now.  V strode to the mike
stand, gripping it with her gloved hands and waiting as the slow,
sensuous sound of the sax started up, her body swaying in time to
the music.  Then the faint throb of the drums and bass joined in, and
finally she began to sing.
     The song was a slow, torchy number, and V purred through
the lyrics, her husky voice lingering in all the right places.  She
gazed out from under the brim of her cap, revelling in the way all
eyes were fixed upon her.
     Gods, but she loved being the centre of attention!
     All eyes, of course, included those she'd come to capture.
As she sang, she searched the room slowly, and while she didn't
spot Rei she did find Saekianna.  The woman stood against the
back wall by the bar, arms crossed as she watched V's impromptu
number.  Her lovely features were carefully neutral, but V thought
she was probably getting the message.  The song was, after all,
about two lovers who pledged their hearts by lovely moonlight.
And even though many trials parted them, they never lost hope, and
in the end they were reunited under that same moon, finally to kiss
under its cool pure rays.
     The last notes of the song wove their way through the
warm, smoke-filled air as V bowed her head, hands cradling the
mike to her face.  There was a moment of silence, then the crowd
erupted, dancers crowding toward the edge of the stage as they
clapped and whistled and called for more.
     Ordinarily she'd have been inclined to oblige them, and
nobody would have complained; not even Madoka, whose band had
just been upstaged.  But not tonight.  Tonight, a different dance
would take place, and only two people were invited.
     "Thank-you, everyone," she called out, beaming at the
crowd.  "It's nice to see everybody having a good time here
tonight.  I don't think we'll be having any uninvited visitors for a
while."  She struck a pose, and the crowd roared at her reference to
the recent wraith attack.  Her defence of the club had only
increased her popularity, and the trouble apparently hadn't hurt
attendance at all.
     "But I've hogged the spotlight here that belongs to the
band," she went on.  "I hope you'll appreciate their music while I
take a break and go talk to someone.  I'll see you all later, okay?"
She turned and blew a kiss to Madoka, who inclined her head with
easy acceptance, although her blue eyes held a grave look.  She also
bestowed kisses on Rawlie, the little blonde bassist whose name
was Hikaru, and the drummer, a good-looking guy named
Kyosuke.
     Then she was down off the stage and moving easily through
the crowd, smiling at the praise and squeals and occasional lewd
comment.  A tall guy approached her, sleek russet hair the same
shade as his silk shirt, asking for a dance.  She promised to keep
him in mind with a casual wave.  Then two of the girls zeroed in on
her, eyes sparkling.  The shorter of the two, Mimi, bounced on her
toes and thanked her breathlessly for her actions the other night.
Lia, the statuesque brunette, was more direct, leaning in to kiss her
cheek.
     Not to be outdone, a petite porcelain beauty with long midnight
hair and a dangerously brief black cocktail dress rose on her tiptoes
to press her crimson lips tantalizingly against V's mouth.
     "Hurry back," the girl whispered, dark promise in her eyes.
     "Only if you'll be waiting," V replied, slipping away with
practised ease.  She felt a flash of anger as she reached the edge of
the dance floor; this was her place, her sanctuary.  How dare
Saekianna buy it up and taint it for nothing more than some petty
power play?
     The woman herself still stood by the bar, looking like a
queen holding court.  Well, good for her, but V was not one of her
subjects, and she wasn't going to let the Nightmistress dictate the
terms of their meeting.  She'd gotten Saekianna's attention, now
she was going to make the woman work a little.
     V strode through the tables and booths, taking time to smile
at several of her sometime coworkers, finally wandering to the edge
of the seating area.  Then, abruptly, she turned away from the bar,
moving with long but unhurried strides through a camouflaged
door that led into the staff section of the club.
     Familiar as she was with the club's layout, she slipped
through the maze of narrow hallways to the back door.  She met no
one along the way; all the girls were out front, tending to the paying
customers.  Once through the door she was out into the cool night
air.  Spring's promise softened the days, but this night still had a
lingering bite of winter's chill clinging around its edges.
     V moved easily through the darkened alley, sliding from
shadow to shadow, alert for any of Saekianna's minions.  Her initial
scouting of the area hadn't revealed any lurkers, but she was
dealing with cunning and dangerous adversaries here, and it would
be a mistake to forget that even for a moment.
     There was a multi-level parking garage down the street,
with a small surface lot running along one side.  The club's manager
had a reserved spot at the back of the surface lot, and V headed
there, drawn by the gleaming beacon of a low-slung red Ferrengetti.
She stopped beside it, running one hand sheathed in gleaming black
leather lightly over the car's sharp lines.  The woman had taste, V
had to admit.
     Then she leaned back against the car's flank, crossed her
arms, and waited.
     It didn't take long.
     No more than two minutes had passed before she spotted a
swirl of windblown platinum hair and purple silk.  Saekianna
crossed the lot, her face unreadable.  V fancied, though, that she
saw a glimmering of irritation there, and suppressed a smile.
     Get used to it, lady, she thought.  Your night is only going
to get worse from here on in.
     She waited until Saekianna was standing only a few feet
away, then raised her gaze lazily, staring up from under the polished
brim of her cap as insolently as humanly possible.
     "I hear you've been asking around after me," V murmured
by way of greeting.  She let her eyes linger on the purple silk blouse
with its fancy cuffs and the dark pants that clung to long legs in a
way that should have looked cheap but didn't.
     "Indeed I have," Saekianna replied.  "For the record, I
dislike people who lean against my car."
     "Fair enough," V replied with a faint smile, not moving.
"For the same record, I dislike people whose schemes affect those
under my protection."
     "I'm certain I don't know what you are speaking of,"
Saekianna sniffed, her expression giving nothing away.
     "Tell me," V said softly, "that the Sisterhood didn't buy this
whole place just to get my attention."
     "You think a great deal of yourself," Saekianna smiled.
"Not that you are necessarily unjustified.  And that outfit suits you
more than a sailor fuku, I must say."
     The two women smiled at each other dangerously, gazes
crossing like naked steel.
     "Well, here we are, then," V murmured.  "I don't know why
you've set your sights on the senshi, and I suppose it wouldn't help
to tell you that you're in over your head."
     "It wouldn't, even if it were true," Saekianna told her with a
courtly bow of her head.  "But tell me, do you not serve the White
Lady?"
     "We serve only our princess," V said with fierce pride,
pushing off the car with her hips and standing ready.
     "Ah, the tales of the White Moon Court," Saekianna
breathed.  "Fascinating.  Could they be true?"
     "You have bigger problems at the moment," V pointed out.
"Like the fact that you have gone out of your way to irritate me.
And that you have answers I want."
     "Have I indeed?" Saekianna smirked, no trace of caution in
her stance.  "What a coincidence, there are questions I wish to ask
you as well.  It appears that we must clash, my lovely Venus, and
the winner will have her way with the loser.  That is how we do
things in the Sisterhood."
     "Don't be so sure you'll win," V said, all traces of her smile
gone now.  "You don't know what you're up against."
     "Foolish girl.  I always get what I want, haven't you
realized that yet?  It appears that you are the one ignorant of what
she is up against."  Saekianna raised one hand slowly into the air,
and V tensed to move, only to be brought up short by a rush of
light-headedness.  She blinked, surprised, as one foot seemed to
miss its footing and skid slightly on the pavement.
     "Oh, dear," Saekianna purred, her dark eyes gleaming.
"Are you feeling quite all right?"
     V felt a queasy chill in her stomach.  What the hells was
going on?  She swallowed, shifting her weight slightly.  Something
just felt off; her muscles were a bit slow to respond, her balance
was a little uncertain ...
     Drugged?  But how?  The woman hadn't even touched her
...
     V raised her fingers slowly to her lips, which were tingling
now, ever so slightly.  Saekianna laughed, a low throaty sound.
     "Did you think you could challenge me on your terms, girl?"
The woman placed a contemptuous emphasis on that last word.
"You thought you were so smart, so in control, but you were in my
web, sweet little butterfly.  You should have been more careful."
     Saekianna's hand described a lazy pattern in the air, and
suddenly she was holding something dark and roughly cylindrical.
V's eyes widened even as she cursed herself silently, and she tried
to bring her arm up to attack.
     "Come, White Moon girl, and see our power," Saekianna
whispered with sweet venom.
     And something dark coiled out of the woman's hand,
lashing out at V.  She tried to react, but she was slow, so slow ...
     The whip slashed across her body, trailing fire as it threw
her back against the side of the car.  She gasped as the breath was
driven from her body, rolling away to stagger back.  Saekianna's
whip, she saw with dismay, was no mundane weapon; it snaked and
danced in the air as the woman slowly advanced on her.  V raised
her hand and fired a Crescent Beam, but her aim was unsteady and
her opponent slipped away, darting between parked cars.
     V moved as quickly as she could along the wall of the
parking garage.  The drug must have been of the slow-acting type,
if that harmless-seeming little kiss back in the club had been the
culprit, as she suspected.  Her only chance was to either escape or
take Saekianna out before its effects overcame her completely.
     But if the delicate little doll who'd delivered the envenomed
kiss was also a Sister, then Saekianna might have more
reinforcements lurking in the wings.  The Sisterhood was not
renowned for its dedication to fair play.
     That left escape.  Saekianna would have to be cautious for
the moment, knowing that V's beam attack could strike her down
from a distance.  She had to open up some space between them; if
she could gain enough of a lead, she could transform into plain old
Minako and hide in the club, where she would look like just one
more inebriated clubgoer.  Saekianna would have no reason to
make a connection between her and Mistress V.
     Gathering herself, she paused, listening for any clue to
Saekianna's position.  She heard nothing, and decided to go for it.
Bold action was all that would save her now.  She summoned her
own whip, sending it snaking quickly up to twine around a light
standard towering above the top deck of the parking structure.  In a
flash she was climbing, trying to ignore the vertiginous spinning in
her head and the itch between her shoulder blades as she braced for
an attack.  Despite the slowly increasing weight in her limbs, she
made it up to the top of the four level garage in a flash, chest
heaving as she swung onto the top over the waist-high retaining
wall.
     Made it.  She would never bitch at Artemis again for
making her train so hard.  Now she had the advantage; from here,
she'd be able to see Saekianna and pick her off at her leisure.  She
leaned carefully over the wall, extending one hand, forced to steady
it with the other.
     She spotted Saekianna quickly, almost right below her, then
something was blurring through the air straight up at her.  She
barely had time for shock before the lengthening whip caught her
square in the middle of the chest.
     Pain exploded inside her, white hot, as she was thrown back
by the impact.  Her body spun loosely in the air before hitting
something; a car, by the sound of breaking glass.  Then she
collapsed heavily to the cold concrete.
     Her senshi form was much tougher than an ordinary person,
but the attack, coupled with the effects of the drug, left her dazed,
struggling to gain her feet.
     Her hair hung in her face as she tried to look up; her cap
lost either during her abbreviated flight, or in the sudden stop at the
end.  A gleaming length of whip was wrapped almost exactly where
her own had been, and as she blinked through the haze it shortened,
drawing Saekianna up with it.  The maddeningly superior smile on
the woman's face as she stepped easily to the top deck made V
want to scream, but she merely gritted her teeth and rose shakily to
her feet.
     "Going so soon?" Saekianna asked, setting her whip to
dancing in the air around her.  "I don't think so."
     V fell back against the damaged car behind her, focus
narrowing as she brought her hand up quickly.  Just one shot, she
though through the pain and drug-haze.  Just one and I'll put her
arrogant ass right back down where it came from ...
     She fired, a perfect shot.
     Saekianna's whip coiled, blocking the beam.
     V gaped.  Had it blocked the beam, or had that ebony
surface actually absorbed it?
     "Is this the best you can do?  What a disappointment you
are," Saekianna pouted.  "Still, perhaps your screams will entertain
me for a time ..."
     V forced herself to concentrate; if her beam couldn't get
through, then she needed something that Saekianna couldn't block.
She tried to summon a storm of golden hearts to overwhelm the
Nightmistress' defences, but Saekianna struck first, that enchanted
whip snaking out to strike at V viciously.  Again and again it
struck, forcing V to the defensive.  Her body felt so heavier by the
moment, her normal grace deserting her.  It was all she could do to
remain standing as the lash struck again and again, leather tearing
away to reveal bare flesh streaked with fine trickles of blood.
     She tried to time a move between strikes, but the whip
changed course in mid-strike to coil around her neck, cutting off
her air.
     "Oh, my dear," Saekianna said, not even sounding winded.
"You aren't planning on trying to duck out early, are you?  I have a
party planned, you see, and you are the guest of honour.  We are
going to talk, you and I, about your people, and you're going to tell
me all about them.  You're going to tell me everything I want to
know."
     The horrible part was, Saekianna could probably make good
on her threat.  V felt panic bubble up inside her as she clawed at the
iron-hard coils of the whip.  How had her plan gone so wrong?
She'd only wanted to help her princess, and now she might be
forced into betraying her?  That couldn't happen, it couldn't!
     But Saekianna drew her closer, reeling her in with a
knowing smile on her face.  V was having trouble keeping her feet;
her outfit was in tatters, barely clinging to her body, and her vision
kept blurring and shifting.  She couldn't seem to summon the focus
necessary to use her powers.
     She couldn't do anything.
     She was going to lose.
     Saekianna had her at arm's length now, giving her battered
body an insultingly slow once over.  The smile on the other
woman's face said it all; she was enjoying herself.
     With a hoarse cry, V threw herself forward, trying to land a
blow, but Saekianna met her feeble effort with contemptuous ease,
jamming the handle of her whip into V's solar plexus.  Dark bolts of
energy arced through V's body from the point of contact and she
screamed aloud, convulsing.  Before she could collapse, however,
Saekianna grabbed her by the throat and pushed her up against the
light standard, pinning her easily.
     "What a pathetic performance," the cruel beauty sneered.  "I
do hope the others provide more sport than you did, dear Venus.  I
do think I'll enjoy breaking you, though.  You are quite beautiful
..."
     V struggled to focus on Saekianna's frowning face.  Her
arms weighed a ton each, and she couldn't lift them.  Her whole
body was so heavy, battered mercilessly and lulled by the drug in
her system.  She longed for the strength to hit the other woman
right in her smug face, just once.
     "What is this?" Saekianna murmured.  "There is something
you're hiding from me, girl.  Subtle magic ... a glamour?"
     V felt panic rise anew as Saekianna's mesmerizing eyes
narrowed.
     "Yes," the Nightmistress hissed.  "It IS.  Why are you
hiding your appearance behind such magic, girl?  Show me.  Show
me the truth."
     Saekianna's fingers tightened around V's jaw, forcing her
face up as she examined it closely.  V's attempts to raise her own
hands only resulted in weak trembling, and she grit her teeth, trying
to keep from weeping in impotent rage.  Somehow she felt
Saekianna probing at her protective magic, and she focussed on one
thought; don't let her see the truth.  It was all she could do now to
deny the woman total victory, and she clung to that thought
desperately.
     Snarling, Saekianna jammed the whip's handle into V's
body, again unleashing those excruciating bolts of dark energy.  V
screamed again, helpless, her focus shattering.  Through the
swirling dark, she saw realization dawn in Saekianna's eyes, heard
the whisper of disbelief.
     "You ..."
     Then the darkness closed in around her, and she was falling,
falling forever ...

***

     Rei had prescient flashes, had been having them all her life.
They were the short, blindingly bright version of a vision; brief and
powerful, they came upon her when they would, unlike the way she
could sometimes focus her power by touching an object or by
meditating.
     She was nearing the club when it hit her.
     Minako was in trouble.
     Just that.  No details, no visual component, but she had
come to learn these flashes were more than intuition.  Minako was
in trouble, bad trouble.
     She hesitated.  That was all well and good, but what could
she do?  She didn't even know where Minako and the others were.
     Damn, this was maddening.  What could be the ...
     She was distracted by a flash of light, looking up reflexively.
Lightning?  But no, although clouds were scudding in, there was no
rain, no lightning.  And there had been a sound, a familiar sound ...
     Her skin prickled.  Minako's power.  That had been the
flash; she wasn't certain if that was prescience or intuition, but
suddenly she was certain it was right.  She felt a dizzying rush of
power, a strange feeling of being inside and outside herself at the
same time, and a sense of urgency.  But where ...?
     (mistress)
     Her head snapped up, her gaze coming to rest on the
parking structure she was walking past.  Up there.  She wasn't
certain how she knew, but she did.  She had to go up there.
     Someone else might have wrestled with doubt or ignored
the strange compulsion altogether, but Rei was accustomed to
trusting her inner self.  She turned and darted across the street, long
legs scissoring as she banged through the battered steel door at the
bottom of the dank concrete stairwell and raced up the stairs, two
at a time.
     She was nearly halfway up when she heard the first scream.
     Her heart clenched; that had been Minako's voice.  Rei
continued, cursing to herself as she ran.  The cracked stairs seemed
to go on forever, rising up into the wan light of bare bulbs huddled
behind steel cages, and as she finally neared the door that led out
onto the top deck she heard another scream.  She burst through the
door, images colliding with her consciousness in a dizzying
kaleidoscope.
     Across from her, she could see V's battered body pinned
against a pole, leather outfit in tatters, her head slumped forward
limply.  Saekianna was holding her there, an expression of disbelief
on her face.  Banri coiled languidly in the air, her tip sliding along
an expanse of V's taut flesh like a hungry snake.
     All this she saw in an instant, understanding instinctively what
had happened.
     Damn you, Minako, why didn't you listen to me?  Why
didn't you stay away?
     That anguished thought was all she had time for; in the next
instant, everything changed.
     Something blurred through the air between Saekianna and
V, a furiously spinning disc of black and yellow.  There was barely
any space between the two women, but somehow it knifed through
what there was, and Saekianna reacted instinctively by pulling back.
That opened up some space, just enough for a black-clad body to
drop into with uncanny grace.
     Saekianna lost her grip on V as she backpedalled, taken off-
guard; she tried to bring Banri up, but before she could the
newcomer's leg extended sideways with piledriver force, propelling
her back to tumble across the concrete.  Rei could only gape as the
newcomer neatly caught V's body before it could hit the ground,
scooping her up in his arms and pivoting to face Saekianna, who
was already climbing to her feet.
     Ranko?
     He stood, his blue eyes awash with the elemental force of
his battle spirit, his long dark braid snaking out on the same breeze
that tousled his dark, unruly bangs.  V's body might have been
weightless for as much effort as he seemed to expend to hold her,
and Rei wondered how badly her friend was hurt.
     "Well, now," Saekianna growled as she regained her feet.
"A hero to the rescue.  How sweet.  I'll only say this once, boy.
Give her to me or you'll join her."
     "Not going to happen," Rei heard Ranko say defiantly, and
something inside her seemed to loosen, like a muscle that's been
cramped so long that you become accustomed to it.  Ranko was
protecting a girl that he hardly knew, putting it all on the line to do
what he thought was right.  It was so simple when you looked at it.
     So what about her?  How could she be so confused, when
things were so simple?  At the end of the day, could she say that
she'd given everything she could to protect what she loved?
     Because that was what was important.  Not how much she
hurt, or her fears and insecurities.  Funny.  Funny how she'd lost
sight of something so basic.
     The stairwell door was partly shielded by a large van, and
she saw through its tinted windows more forms moving towards
Saekianna, three, no, four ... and another lagging behind.  Ranko
was going to have his hands full, trying to fight the Sisterhood and
protect V at the same time.  That would be difficult, and dangerous.
     By himself.
     "You should never come between a woman and what she
wants, boy," Saekianna was saying, lashing Banri into a black fury
of motion.  "It's time you learned that lesson."
     Banri began to snake out, and Rei was there, standing
between Saekianna and her prey.  She saw her former lover's eyes
widen, saw Banri brought up short.  There was confusion in
Saekianna's gaze, but none in Rei's own heart for the first time in
days.
     "Go," she said over her shoulder.
     "But ..." Ranko muttered, glancing at the approaching
women.
     "I'll handle it," Rei replied, her voice steely.  "You keep her
safe, or you'll have to answer to me.  Got it?"
     He hesitated a moment longer, then nodded curtly.  His legs
tensed, and then he was gone, leaping out into space as Saekianna
cried out.  Rei stooped and retrieved the flying disc from where it
had embedded itself into the concrete, watching in amazement as it
crumpled into soft cloth as she pulled it free.
     Nice trick, she thought wryly as she faced Saekianna.  One
of the other Sisters tried to rush to the edge of the deck, and Rei
raised her hand in a warning gesture.  The other Sisters were
looking at their Nightmistress, who was staring at Rei with absolute
incomprehension.  And there, behind the Sisters, Rei saw ... was
that Yurina?  It was, the Black Rose herself.  Well, this was bad.
     But she felt no fear, only exhilaration.  Her gaze sought out
Saekianna's, and she waited.
     "What are you doing?"  The woman's voice was hoarse,
raw with disbelief.  "She was mine.  I had her.  Rei, you have no
idea what you are doing!"
     "Yes I do," Rei replied calmly.  "Listen to me, Sass.  Let it
go.  Whatever is going to happen, you have to leave them out of
it."
     "Are you mad?" Saekianna shouted.  "You know why I'm
doing this!  Rei, this is what we always wanted!"
     "All I want is for you to forget about the senshi, Sass.  If
you don't, there will only be heartbreak."
     They stood there for long moments, the uncaring wind
moaning around them.  The disbelief in Saekianna's eyes was
fading, something darker creeping in from around the edges.
     "The Aino girl," she hissed, too low for the others to hear, and
Rei tensed.  "And you knew, didn't you?  You knew the whole
time."
     "Sass ..."
     "And how many others, hiding behind pretty glamours while
they do our enemy's bidding?  That lovely amazon?  Your precious
blossom, Usagi?  Is even she White, Rei?"
     "Don't do this," Rei said softly.  "It doesn't have to be this
way."
     "You have forgotten who you are, Rei!" Saekianna snarled.
"How could you protect them when they threaten us and everything
we're trying to accomplish?"
     "They don't!"
     "You are pledged to the Dark Lady, body and soul!  You
have betrayed your oath, Rei!  Why?  Tell me!  Damn you, tell me!"
But Rei didn't speak; there was nothing she could say that would
satisfy Saekianna now, and she knew it.  The others were edging
forward, and she readied herself to meet their attack.  She
recognized most of the girls, had trained with them.  And she'd
been better than any of them, except Saekianna.  But was she better
than all of them?
     "No."  Saekianna whispered it, her voice torn by the gusting
wind.  "No, it can't be.  You can't truly ... have fallen in love with
her.  Not you, Rei."  Saekianna's dark eyes fixed on her, and Rei
felt a pang deep in her chest; this woman had meant something to
her once, as much as anyone could have in those days, and this
wasn't easy.
     "Not you, Rei," Saekianna said, her voice nearly pleading.
"You were strong, and glorious.  You couldn't have fallen like that.
Tell me, Rei.  Tell me you don't truly love a girl so ... unworthy."
     Rei was silent, feeling the weight of their eyes, knowing that
each moment she occupied their attention Ranko was bearing V
further and further away.
     "Say it, Rei."
     Nothing.
     "SAY IT!"
     She slid one foot across the concrete, and as she did so her
arm brushed her coat lightly.  There was something in her pocket, a
familiar weight, and although it was impossible she knew what it
was.
     Her henshin rod.
     Saekianna's shoulders jerked, the tendons in her neck
standing out rigidly against her pale flesh.  Slowly she brought
Banri up, lashing her once, sharply.  The crack was loud, sharp.
Definite.
     "I am Nightmistress," Saekianna said, no sign of doubt in
her eyes now.  "You will answer to me, Sister."
     "I am no Sister," Rei said, her chin rising.  "Not anymore."
     "Forever," Saekianna hissed.  "Ours, forever.  Take her!"
     Rei's hand was dipping into her pocket as she thrust out a
ward, when suddenly there was a moment of disorientation like
she'd felt before, then a fluttering sound, and ...
     (shield your eyes, mistress.  quickly!)
     She didn't understand, but understanding wasn't all there
was.  Her heart told her to trust and she did, throwing up her arms
as a tiny sun blazed to life in the space between the attackers and
herself.  The nova light washed everything out with its actinic glare,
and Rei squinted even though she wasn't looking at it, feeling the
light's intensity almost like a physical pressure.  There were startled
screams from the other women, who had no doubt thought
treachery and surprise to be their weapons alone.
     (run, mistress!  run!)
     She didn't question.
     She ran.

***
 

     Saekianna stumbled, lashing about blindly.  Her vision was
slowly clearing, although she already knew what she would see.
     Rei was gone.
     Betrayed me, she thought, alternating between numbness
and fury.  Rei, of all people.  I waited all this time, I finally found
her, and she ...
     It was inconceivable, but the awful truth had been rubbed in
her face.  Rei had interfered, had let Venus escape.  Rei had
challenged Saekianna, denied her own destiny.
     All for that little ... White ... bitch.
     Worse, she had consorted with the enemy.  She'd known
Venus' true identity, Saekianna had seen it in her eyes.  Dark Lady,
had Rei violated every belief she'd once held so dear?
     "Nightmistress," someone gasped.  She turned, barely
making out the blurry outline of one of the Sisters staggering
towards her.  "She's gone ..."
     Saekianna lashed out, knocking the woman flat with Banri.
&n