Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Perfect (Sailor) Soldier ❯ Chapter 04 ( Chapter 4 )

The Perfect (Sailor) Soldier

By: stefani teee a.k.a. Koneko

© Tale Spinners inc.

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Koneko-chan says!

Right… so this chapter should have less action than the previous one, that much I can guarantee, as there will be a little less mention of what Heero and Trowa and Quatre and Pluto are up to in the battlefield since we all already know what's happening. They're fighting. That's that. That is, that's about all that will happen if there is a chapter after this. I think there probably will be because I'm not going to rush the ending like I'm so prone to doing in other fics. And the meaning of 'in Dreaming' is revealed for all those (like Trowa) who didn't understand.

Oh, and the reason I'm saying 'probably', is because I write my author's notes at the beginning of the chapter (before I write the fic) and after the chapter (after I write the fic). Understand? Yes? Good.

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"Let go of me! Off! Let go!" she shrieked, struggling as the monster continued to pour into the tiny room. She was alone… alone. She was all by herself with these monsters, and she couldn't get away from them.

Cathrine had gone out a little while ago to try and get a message across to someone outside of the base, since the com-links from the base were still shot. She had been alone, and she had been terrified as she heard the sounds of screaming that were both people, and monsters alike. Relena struggled vainly as she kicked out at the face of one feminine-looking monster, with large red eyes roving around different places in her face.

Heero! She thought desperately, as she struggled against them. He wasn't going to come… he wasn't going to appear like a knight in shining armor and save her from the monsters… but that didn't stop her from wanting to see him so badly… "Pretty little princess…" hissed one demon that looked rather like a cross between a lizard and a cockatrice, holding onto her shoulders with hands roughened with scales. The touch of him revolted her, somehow drawing her out of whatever hysteria she had drawn herself into. She glared at him coldly, and refused to scream any more, but did not cease in struggling. Then she heard something.

Gunshots.

She heard gunshots.

They were coming from just outside the room.

Her heart leapt in a frenzy of sudden hope as she clawed her way closer, being perhaps, more violent than she had ever before, fighting her way through them as they didn't seem to be attempting to tear her apart like the other soldiers. Could it be…? Heero?

"Relena!"

It was Duo. But she was nonetheless overjoyed that someone had come. A glowing golden dome that the monsters couldn't seem to touch no matter what surrounded him and another bright one. She fought her way closer, as Duo grabbed her hand, drawing her into the protective circle of Helios' magic.

She was shuddering, despite herself when finally she was safe behind the glowing golden wall of light. Duo seemed to sense this, pausing in his shooting just long enough to hold her in his arms and try to calm her down. He was one of her best friends, he was used to this kind of treatment. As if she were attempting to break all of his ribs at once.

"Duo." This from the other one, Relena noticed as she let go of Duo at the reproving note in the young man's voice. "My magic cannot both protect us and continue pushing them back… that part of the job is for you to accomplish." Relena watched him in awe… it was like she had seen him before, but she knew quite well that she had never before met such a person in her life. But before… when she had been a little girl… a voice like his… she had ridden a white horse like him before… white, with a horn… and wings… yes a dream… a wonderful dream.

"Right, I'll get on that." he glanced at Relena, "Keep inside the circle, Lena-girl. We don't want them to get you." She nodded and he turned back to the job at hand and began to systematically shoot down the monsters.

The difference between the monsters outside that the others were fighting on the battlefield and the ones in here were the size. The large, armored ones couldn't really fit themselves in here so they allowed the smaller, slightly weaker ones into the corridors. That made it easy enough to get through with the shield and Duo's gun. The problem was just how many bullets he had left. He had only two ammo clips left to him, along with the half-spent one in the weapon itself. They needed to reach the hangar before that… and then… and then they'd have to see what was going to happen to them without magic and without a Sailor Senshi.

~*~*~*~

Chibi-Usa found herself thrown down to the ground in a roomful of darkness. She saw vague shapes in the corners of the large room, which she took to be mobile suits and vaguely realized she was in the mobile suit hangar. Standing up unsteadily and still clutching her burning throat, she looked around, her hand clutching her moon wand nervously.

"So you are the little one… the child of the Moon brat that destroyed my greatest servant."

She looked in all directions, turning around uncertainly, looking for any sign of the owner of the voice, but it was ringing in her ears, bouncing on every wall in the large room, echoing and re-echoing around her.

"Who are you?!" she yelled, biting her lip nervously, but trying to keep up her show of false bravado. "Show yourself!"

"Oh, but I won't do that Moon brat… you see, I have other minions at my disposal… one whom I'm quite sure you will remember…"

A spotlight flickered on, shining down on a figure standing completely still in the center of the room. Chibi-Usa's heart stopped. "No…" she whispered.

"Oh yes…" replied the same mocking voice. "You see… if there is one thing I learned from my fight with your predecessor… is that weapons can be reforged."

Chibi-Usa stared horrorstruck at what her best friend had become, at the realization that what she had feared the most had come true. She had reverted into the same being that had nearly destroyed her mind for the first time all those years ago. The woman looked up at her, leering at her. "Little girl…" she said, with a voice like black velvet… "Wiseman's plaything…"

Chibi-Usa stiffened. "You…" she managed to force out, "You bitch!" her staff elongated into the same wand she had used when she had fought with Saturn and she charged forward.

The lengths of raven hair shot forwards and wrapped around her so quickly, she had barely taken three steps before her staff clattered to the ground, and she was being lifted up into the air, one length around her throat, the other tightly pinning her arms to her sides. She struggled to breathe as she yelled mentally at herself for dropping her wand.

"Now, now, mustn't kill the weapon accidentally…" admonished the voice, but there was laughter in there, mocking laughter. "There are things that still need to be done that I need her for…" Obligingly, the length of hair wrapped around her throat loosened just the slightest, allowing her to breathe, but Neo-Moon stayed suspended above the ground, no matter how much she struggled.

"After all… she will be of much more use to me… once that meddling Pluto remembers just what a terror she became when she was embraced by the darkness." Chibi-Usa went cold. No… not again… "NO!" she shrieked. Mistress Nine's mocking laugh drowned out her screams as the shadows once again flew from the recesses of the room, wrapping around her seamlessly, crushing the breath out of her.

She couldn't see… couldn't breathe… couldn't… No… no, no, no, no, NO!

A last tremendous release of her awesome power exploded through the shadow cocoon in a spectacular display of light as the shadows threatened to explode apart. The Nameless simply continued to laugh, sending more shadows to take the place of those that Chibi-Usa's light had shot through. Instantly, the light died, drawing the room back into its shadowed darkness and the two of them watched with eyes unseeing as the transformation of Sailor Neo-Moon's past reemerged like that of some preternatural butterfly.

No… no… Helios… no… I'm… sorry… Then the last of Sailor Neo-Moon's mind vanished beneath that of the reborn Black Lady, rejoicing in her freedom once more as she broke free of the confining shadow prison with a shrill cry of laughter. Chibi-Usa's Luna Ball, long forgotten, appeared by her side instantly, the inverted black crescent moon once more overtaking that of the upright golden crescent.

~*~*~*~

I'm sorry… the words floated through the air, and Helios heard them. His heart broke beneath the immense sadness of her words. Sorry… no… Chibi couldn't talk like that, she was the indomitable one. The fighter, the rebel. She was always the quirky one, the one who could never abide by the rules of her parents, and had struck out to be by herself when she realized no one thought she could. Why hadn't he believed in her? She had trusted him to believe in all things that she said she could do… because she usually could. Why hadn't he believed?

Chibi… his Chibi…

No…

"Helios! What are you doing?" Duo yelled, as the glowing golden shield flickered around them again, making him turn from his shooting.

"Chibi… my Chibi… she's gone…" he had felt the cord break, felt her leave him… felt her wish she had said those words to him in person… how much she'd wanted to say them for so long but hadn't been able to… Chibi…

A hand on his arm brought him out of his continuing spiral into oblivion. "She doesn't want to bring you down with her…" Relena told him, her blue eyes understanding. "She'd never wanted to make you unhappy… she let nothing of what she felt bad about show… she kept it inside… don't let all that go to waste if you're just going to lie down and give up…"

"I… can't… Chibi…"

"Chibi-Usa wouldn't die just like that," Relena replied firmly. "She would've gone out with something spectacular, something like Hotaru's gundam exploding… something that everyone on this Earth could see. Let us get far enough to see… to see what we can do. We have to do something!"

"Nothing… there is nothing we can do…" the shield was flickering even more now, and Duo was looking more desperate than ever.

Relena glared at him, "Then if all you can do is give up, then you really don't care." She told him coldly. "We're in the middle of a fight here to get to her and when you realize that Chibi-Usa's presence is gone, then you immediately assume she's dead. She's not a girl who likes being the damsel in distress, but if you're the only one she has to depend on, you're going to by God save her, or I'll kill you myself!" she was shaking him now, fury written in every line in that pretty face of hers. Duo, glancing back, thought she was saying more of this as if to Heero than the man in front of her.

"How would you know-"

She cut him off. "I know you're tied to her," she snapped, "Now get up and get this shield up so we can get to Chibi-Usa and Hotaru!"

"I-"

"NOW!" she yelled at him, backhanding him across the face with all the force she could muster. "We don't have time for this… Duo and I are going ahead to find them, and if you're not coming, you can just cower in your little golden cage and wait to die!"

He looked shocked, his hand coming up to touch the reddened mark on his perfectly pale skin, his red eyes wide. Then… "Yes… yes you're right… I need to see her…"

The solid golden glow reappeared around them again. "Thank… thank you."

Relena nodded slowly, looking shocked at her own audacity. "What… what in the world…?" she asked to no one in particular in wonder.

Duo shook his head, flashing her a relieved smile, "I have no idea… but you certainly did knock some sense into him. We're almost through…" he added with gritted teeth as he reloaded the gun with his last ammo clip. "I just hope we can make it through…"

Relena nodded, biting her lip. "Who's in there? Where are Saturn and Neo-Moon?"

"The Nameless took them. Both of them. We don't know what's going on."

"Where's the other one… Pluto?" asked Relena, a familiar feeling of dread curling up from the pit of her stomach. "Is she there too?"

"No… she's with Heero… they're still fighting outside. But they attacked us from behind…"

"And the side," she told him, gesturing to the ones around them, "That's where these came from. Saturn killed all of the ones coming from behind. But we think…" she trailed off as soon as she realized just who she was speaking too.

He glanced at her. "The Nameless? He's here isn't he? Do you know who he is?"

"Well… Cathrine said… and I think I might agree with her… that it's Hilde."

He stopped short. "Hilde?!"

She nodded miserably, hating to be the bearer of bad news, especially to a friend that had become as close to her as Duo. "Cathrine… Cathrine saw her stealing the shadows… and we think she's the one who made the communications system go down so we couldn't contact you to tell you about the back attack, or the one coming from the side. She knew what was happening… what everything was going to happen…" she trailed off again into silence when Duo didn't even move a muscle, his face set into that look of complete shock.

"Do you mean… all this time… all these years…"

"No, friend Duo, that would not be possible." Helios spoke up suddenly, having of course, noticed when they were unable to push forward any more without Duo's help. "You see, the Nameless was lost in the Dreaming along with the rest of us for the majority of this century… all magical creatures were, you see. The Nameless reappeared into the world only a short while ago… a little while after you met Setsuna-san and Hotaru-chan. All of us left in the Dreaming could feel it, even under the Sleep of the Dreaming…" he looked seriously down into the face of Relena, who was once again brought back down into that wonderful memory of a childhood dream. "If what you say is true, princess, then your friend Hilde has given the Nameless form… been taken over, in a way."

Duo looked stricken, as if all his old worries, his old heartbreaks had been piled back onto his shoulders after a moment of reprieve. "So we… we have to… kill her?"

Relena turned her eyes to Helios, pleading with him. "We don't… do we?"

He shook his head, "That I am not sure… I do not know if the arcane magic of the moon wand and the Silver Crystal is enough to exorcise an entity as powerful as the Nameless from your friend. It might be that we are left without a choice in the matter. And that would only be if Saturn and Neo-Mon are…" his breath caught, betraying the emotion lying just under the surface of his wisdom, "…are still alive." He was silent for a moment, before he said, "Continue with your firing, friend Duo, while I still have power enough to keep up this shield. The Golden Crystal is not all-powerful."

"What about Pluto… could she do anything?" Relena asked slowly as Duo shook himself out of his reverie, and began clearing a path for them again.

"Pluto is the Guardian of Time, princess, but she is merely a queen, not a goddess. Her power has limits, and there are repercussions, consequences to those powers that she uses only when the need is dire. The same with Sailor Saturn, whose power cannot be measured if she were to use it all… she too has her price to pay to Death once she uses her forbidden powers. And it is mainly He who has shaped her this way." He shook his head gravely, his platinum hair flying as he did so. "She both loves and fears Him. She loves him because she is destined to do so, the circle must be completed for all to fall into place for the future… but she fears him because she had not met her Death in time before he took her."

Relena stared at him confused as she side-stepped a carcass of a monster which Duo had shot and managed to kill. "But… doesn't that mean that she would have met him then? If she died and saw him, isn't it the same as seeing him when she is alive?"

He shook his head, "That is the problem with magical beings," he said with a sigh. "The power I hold is in dreams… I have visited you before, when you were a child, do you remember?"

"Yes… but you… you didn't look like…"

He shook his head with a sad smile, "Only one woman has ever seen me in my true form in her dreams… Chibi…" he shook his head, "But I see it is important that you must know what is going on… you are no ordinary princess of this world… but what you are destined for I cannot see…"

She shook her head, "A life of political intrigue I'm sure," she told him wryly, trying as hard as she could to block out what was happening around them, and the sound of Duo's gun as he kept up his incessant firing.

"No… no I do not believe that will be your fate. But you were confused on why Saturn has never 'met' Death. She has never met him in the physical realm… where he has the consciousness to know her, love her. Because he too was destined to fall in love with her… But once she died, she was transported to another realm, one of the metaphysical where Death has no consciousness, and where in that abstract world, she is just another being that pleads for life… And he does not know her, does not remember what will happen to her once he condemns her to death. But she remembers. She remembers because she is brought back to life knowing everything, and she has to remember how he cast her away down into that vortex of death that she so fears again and again."

Duo made a startled gasp in his throat, and when Relena turned to him, he looked away instantly, focussing on thinning down the monsters in front of them. She turned to look at Helios in askance, when she noticed the satisfied look on his face. She stared between the two of them for a moment before she quickly put the pieces of the puzzle together. "You were telling all of that to me…" she accused, "only because you wanted him to hear it? Is he her Death then?"

Helios shrugged, an act that made him appear more human than ethereal, lessening the aura of great magic that had awed her when she first saw him. "That is up to him to decide. Hotaru has accepted her destiny as the life of Sailor Saturn… twice she has accepted the duty, and the burden. If it is him," he said, "And Hotaru-chan and Chibi apparently both think so, then he will be given a choice soon enough whether or not he wishes to be like her and help her shoulder the burden of the uncompleted circle."

"What do you mean uncompleted? Aren't there only three parts of the circle?"

"Yes."

"But…" she looked confused. Helios explained, "Despite what Saturn may think, she is not both Destruction and Rebirth… she can't be. She may be destroy with the power she has, but that is a power all of us possess to some degree though hers is greater than most. But no, her power is in the Rebirth, in the Silence."

"But… who's Destruction?"

Helios smiled faintly, leaning over and whispering the answer into her ear, so softly that Duo was unable to hear it, strain his ears though he did. Relena clapped both hands over her mouth to stop a childish giggle from bubbling up in her throat as she watched her friend with dancing eyes, for the moment forgetting their surroundings.

Duo glared at her, "Not the time, Lena. What did he say?"

She sobered, but still managed a wry smile, "You'll have to find out yourself."

He frowned but turned away, muttering, "Women…"

She didn't even bother deigning that with a retort.

She turned back to Helios, "When we get in there… what are we going to do?"

He shook his head, "I don't know… my magic is powerful, but it confined by what I am. I am a creature of dreams, princess, I am confined to those boundaries of dreaming."

She shook her head, "Then we need Pluto… who knows what's going on in there? Duo and I don't have any magic, no matter what you tell us about destiny. And if the Nameless is as powerful as you say…" she shook her head, "If what you say is true, then this Nameless is a monster and cannot be reasoned with."

"No, princess, I don't believe he is capable."

"Then you mean there's going to be a battle no matter what… and he has two of our friends."

He nodded, and she chewed her thumbnail, deep in thought, "Do you have any… way of contacting Pluto, even if she is on the battlefield?"

He shook his head, "I have only established such a link with Chibi… and that link was broken when she was… when she was lost."

Relena continued to chew on her thumbnail. "And the communication rooms are all the way back there…" she jerked her head in the direction they had just come, "But those are already down, so I don't believe we could have used them anyway…"

Duo looked back at her, "Doesn't Heero always know where you are?"

She stared at him, "Excuse me?"

Duo shrugged, even though his face was etched in concentration. The large double doors to the hangar bay were just ahead of them, and he was running out of ammo. "I mean you and him… you're always… connected, like. I mean, I know neither of you are psychic, really, but you always seem to know what the other is thinking… feeling… I don't know…"

"If I knew how Heero's mind worked my life would have been a whole lot simpler," Relena replied wryly, "I don't think I know what you're talking about…" she trailed off. Hadn't there been times, a long while ago, when she actually could know what he'd been thinking, feeling? Little bits and pieces of the one grand picture that she couldn't understand, but she could feel them nonetheless. "Maybe…"

"Can't you do anything about that?"

"What am I, a ham radio?" she asked irritably, "I don't know how to 'turn it on'… and I don't think it works anymore even if I could've."

"Well it was an idea… there!" he shot down the last monster, and they were at the doors. Duo kicked them open at once, and they rushed through, slamming them shut behind them, and they were plunged into the darkness of the empty hangar area.

As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, Helios cut off the glowing shield, to conserve energy, but also to allow them to see in the darkness outside of their small circle of light.

"Shh! Listen!" Relena hissed at Duo, who she knew was about to make a smart remark. There was the sound of quiet crying, once in awhile interrupted by a soft whimper.

"I think it's coming from this way…" she said, throwing her hand out to find the railing and catching hold of it, managed to guide herself along it carefully, straining her eyes to see if there were any attackers hiding in the shadows.

"Be careful," Duo hissed, his finger steady on the trigger. "I've still got a few bullets left in this baby…"

"Right. I'll remember that," she answered as they moved slowly towards the source of the sound. They were met with a staircase down from the catwalk that they had entered to. "Going down then?" she asked, shrugging.

"No other way to it," Duo agreed.

They descended slowly, Relena in the lead, despite Duo's better judgement. When they reached the bottom, they could see a corner of light that they hadn't been able to see up on the catwalk because it was behind one of the non-functioning mobile suits left behind.

Relena led the way towards that point of light, staying close to the wall as she did so, and in that dim blot of light, there was a glimpse of flamingo-pink hair…

"Chibi!" gasped Helios, stopping outright staring at the figure tightly curled into a fetal position. They were close enough at this point to hear her. "Helios… Helios…" she was rocking back and forth, her face hidden in her knees as she repeated his name over and over, a black orb clutched tightly to her chest.

"Chibi-Usa?" Relena asked hesitantly, moving forwards, "Are you… all right…?"

"Helios…" whimpered the curled-up figure in the corner, huddling to the small ball that seemed to be emitting the light from both its eyes.

Helios broke free of Duo's restraining hands, rushing forwards to her, relief evident on his face could they have seen it. He was close enough to touch her when he saw clearly for the first time just how long her hair was, falling all the way to her feet, hiding exactly what she was wearing. But he also caught a glimpse at Luna P, the little ball in her arms, and the insignia on its forehead.

"No…" he whispered, stopping in his tracks. "Not you…"

Relena and Duo, behind him, stared. "What…?" asked Relena with growing apprehension. "What's wrong with her…?"

There was laughter… a high, girlish giggle, as the figure turned her head slowly, looking up at them with ruby red eyes. A prominent inverted black crescent moon stood out on her pale skin and dark rose hair. Her painted lips curled into a vicious parody of a smile. "Hi baby," she said, sneering at Helios, "Did you miss me while I was gone?"

"How… Wiseman… he's…"

"Still dead? Why yes, he is. Traitor that he is, he deserved it." She uncurled her legs from beneath her, and Luna P levitated upwards, floating above her right shoulder.

"You remember everything… don't you? You remember the truth?" All his self-assurance, his wisdom seemed to have fallen away and he looked unsure of himself, of everything around him.

"Of course I do. Wiseman might have tricked me with delusions of my life, but I remember everything that's happened. You see… the Nameless didn't bind me by tricking me with delusions… the Nameless brought me back by crushing Chibi-Usa deep inside of me, like I was locked inside her when Serenity told us the truth. You see, I know everything… and I refuse to be caged into that shell only able to watch, never able to be." she stood up, and in her heels, she was taller than he. Dressed in a long dress that was either crimson or dark black, there was no real way to be sure, and a blood-red blouse, cuffed at wrists and throat with thick black collars, studded over with faceted stones. The long see-through stole of some red material floated around her, as if gravity had no effect on it, and the same earrings that all the Black Moon family had worn dangled from her ears.

She smiled at him again, that horrible, ruthless smile. "I am the weapon of the Nameless," she told them, laughing at them, "Because it would destroy you to know that if and when you kill me, you'll be killing your precious 'Chibi' along with me." she focused her attention on Duo, with those liquid ruby red eyes of hers. "Not only that," she said, her smile widening, "I'm not the only one."

The feeling of dread grew larger as both she and Duo turned around. Into the small beam of light emitted by Luna P, stepped a figure, tall and raven-haired. "Hotaru…?" whispered Relena, losing all volume in her voice. "What happened to-" she stopped short, as her mind raced back to what the girl had said when they'd asked her for explanations. "You're… you're Mistress Nine, aren't you?"

"So you know me." This one's words were even colder. Though Black Lady's had been tinged with an underlying layer of malice, the raven-haired beauty's evil was almost a tangible thing, her hatred something that could almost be physically felt how it radiated off her. She hadn't simply been hidden away inside her host's body. She'd been destroyed, killed. She'd lost a bout with Death… she was the less human of the two.

And she was frowning at Duo, her eyes gleaming with a sort of manic laughter deep in their darkened pupils so that in the weak light he couldn't tell if they were still violet, or had gone completely black. "You… you were the one who sent me down into the vortex… you pushed me in…"

He was silent, staring at her for a moment before, "What do you mean I pushed you in?" He was staring at her, drinking in her appearance, her new voice. This was not Hotaru, this was a completely separate entity… this was Mistress Nine. He hadn't truly believed her before, when she'd told them of the havoc she'd wreaked in 21st century Tokyo, but this proved her words beyond a doubt. The woman-for she was no mere teenager-had raven hair, the length of which he couldn't tell. Marble white skin shone where it was uncovered by her dark dress. Slender, delicate robes of pearls that encircled her upper arms and were attached to her dark blue tunic proved to be the only ornaments she wore on her dark dress, though strings of pearls, each three pearls long, dangled from her ear.

Her arms were crossed over her chest, "Saturn threw me out of her body, and I was sent to you to for you to choose my fate. You cast me into the abyss. You killed me."

"I didn't kill you!" he protested, "I wasn't even alive when Saturn, uh… well, isn't she the person that killed you?" he knew better than to be cocky in the face of such a woman as this, but he couldn't really suppress his own nature, now could he? Besides, seeing Saturn change into this woman before him had unnerved him, and he usually retaliated by being as smart-alecky as possible.

"She tore me away from the physical realm, killed me in this place. But you threw me in the abyss… you made me cease to exist. But the Nameless drew me back to the physical realm through the power of Saturn's shadow and my ties to her. The Nameless brought me back. And I shall serve the Nameless who gave me back my life when you took it away."

"I told you, you've got the wrong guy! I'm not Death! I'm just a guy who calls himself the God of Death as a codename!"

Her eyes narrowed at him, "Then you are a blasphemer of Lord Death's name," she said, her voice becoming even more chilling if that were even possible, and even Relena shivered at the woman's voice. She acted just like what Helios had said of Hotaru… she both hated Death for throwing her into the vortex, the abyss, and loved him because he was Death… One of the reasons or possibly the outcomes why she had been able to possess Hotaru for so long in the past… their compatibility and their similarities were uncanny… It also made the beginnings of a very twisted love triangle.

"That… possibly wasn't the right thing to say now, was it?" he asked Relena under his breath.

She glared at him. "No. No it certainly wasn't." then she proceeded to ignore him, because, even though he was the only one armed, he appeared the most useless of the three of them. She needed to make sense of the situation in order to evaluate it. And the only ones who had all the answers had been the three visitors; one who was currently absent and the other two… well… they were evil.

But they knew.

"Who was… is," she corrected herself, "the Nameless possessing?"

The lady with the dusky rose hair laughed, "You mean you don't know…?"

"Was I supposed to?" Relena replied, frowning in confusion. Had there been clues? Hints? But who had known? Even Pluto hadn't been able to tell them who the Nameless was… she had deducted that it had to have possessed someone, as a spiritual entity doesn't really have much of an effect in the physical realm, but none of them had realized who it was. Wait… she had forgotten.

"Hilde? Is it Hilde?"

The laughter rang out again, "Tsk. Tsk. I took you to be more intelligent than to fall for the lies of the Nameless… did you honestly mistake simple jealousy for the true darkness of the Nameless?"

"Jealousy?" Cathrine had mentioned that too in passing… but jealous of what? What could make Hilde jealous? She was one of the most together person and the one who was the happiest with her life. Or at least, she had been until Duo had pushed her enough to disturb the precarious balance of their 'friendship'. Of course, most of them had known her in relation to Duo, so… was she jealous because she wasn't around them as often as she used to? No… that wasn't right… after all, Hilde Shiebecker was hardly a social leper.

"Jealous… of what?" she asked hesitantly, as if afraid to anger them any further with her ignorance, than they already had with Duo's stupidity.

Mistress Nine stayed silent, frowning, and it was Black Lady who answered, with a look of annoyance on her face. "Must I spell it out for you?" She pointed one ruby-painted index finger at Duo. "He was beginning to take notice of the existence of another female. Previously she enjoyed the attention of this boy as a friend, until he pushed her too far, but after, she still knew he wanted no one but her, even when he realized she had found a lover. All women wish to be the center of their men's world. It is a petty thought, but it is certainly true in most cases, and this one is one of those cases. She crossed her arms, "But I am not here to help you psychoanalyze your old girlfriend," she told Duo, "We are here to keep you away from the Nameless."

It was if an unspoken treaty had ended, and everything was back on hairline trigger. Duo's hands on his gun tightened, and Mistress Nine eyed it with a raised eyebrow. "Foolish boy…" Instantly a length of her dark hair had shot out and wrapped itself around the barrel of the gun like a snake. Duo's finger spasmed on the trigger reflexively, and Relena gasped. Evil though this incarnation was, Hotaru was still somewhere in that body of hers. But the woman had already seemed to have anticipated this, and had yanked it downwards, so the bullet shot harmlessly through the floor, before tearing it out of his hands altogether and throwing it to the opposite of the cavernous hangar. They heard it clatter against the floor somewhere in the distance and their hopes sank somewhat.

Meanwhile, Black Lady had laid a hand on Helios' shoulder while he had turned to see what Mistress Nine would do, and purposely pressed the line of her body against his spine, pulling him back into her in a coquettish embrace. "You said you always wanted to wait…" she breathed into his ear, letting her tongue come out to lick up against his earlobe for just a moment, making him shiver, a specific glow in his eyes making him appear even more like a normal, human male. "You said we could only truly be a couple when I became of age… do you like what you see now?" she grabbed his shoulders roughly, turning him around to face her. "Well?"

He looked at her with the detached solemnity he had once shown a young Neherenia when long ago she had come in search of the Golden Crystal, and didn't answer. There was nothing he could say to her to make her understand. She was Chibi-Usa… he knew that. But the difference between Chibi-Usa and this woman standing before her right here and now was that he didn't love Chibi-Usa because she was beautiful, or that she was willing. This vixen standing in front of him was gorgeous, and was certainly what Chibi-Usa would look like in the future… but that sense of goodness was gone. And with that goodness gone, her Mirror, that reflected her dreams, had disappeared somewhere deep in the recesses of her body where he could not touch. Therefore, the only reason he still had a tie to the physical realm was because of his own strength of will… desperately weakened more than ever because of the shield he had erected in order for all three of them to reach this place safely. But he told her none of that, watching her with the cold eyes of a prince that had long been sought after because of the crystal he had in his possession.

Her eyes were hard, "Why don't you answer me?" she asked, "You have what you wanted, do you not? I stand before you, certainly 'of age', and still you say nothing, nor do you look upon me with any want."

"You're not my Chibi," he replied, simply, truthfully.

This enraged her. Luna P leaped into her hands, immediately disappearing behind a puff of cotton candy clouds, and reappearing as a badminton racket in one of Black Lady's hands, and in the other, a white birdie, with the inverted black crescent stamped on it. "Nothing can ever satisfy you!" she screamed, tossing the birdie up in the air, swinging at it with the racket. Helios, quite aware that the projectile would cause some harm to his person, flung himself at Duo and Relena, knocking them down to the floor and dodging the birdie that immediately exploded overhead. Another one materialized in Black Lady's hand, and Helios mentally groaned. He wanted to see this through till the end… but the overwhelming powerlessness was beginning to seep down into the very marrow of his bones and he gave a great shudder. He wouldn't be able to stay much longer in the physical realm, that was for certain… and then where would his two companions be?

There was only one way. One way they might be able to survive… even though it was a great chance he was taking, there was nothing left he could do. In one burst of magic, he erected the same golden shield he had created before, but this time, he layered on the magic to add another soundproof covering over the protective magic, Black Lady's birdie explosives dealt little damage to the glowing shield.

"What are we going to do?" asked Relena, in a hopeless sort of voice, which told more than anything how hopeless the situation actually was. When Relena Peacecraft Dorlian had finally lost hope, then you knew the situation was a bad one. "Are we going to die?"

Duo shook his head, running a hand through his hair. "I don't know what we can do, Lena-girl. We can't hide behind Helios' shield forever."

"There is very little time, friend Duo, princess. And there is little left that I can do to help you. I am not of this realm… I am a creature of magic bound to the metaphysical and my tie to this world was cut. My powers, though they may be absolute in the dream world, are limited to what they can accomplish in the physical realm because of who I am."

"What are you saying?" asked Relena, the beginning strains of fear leaking into her voice, "Are you telling me you're going to disappear?"

"Without the tie of Chibi-Usa's dream mirror, I will. The only reason I am here now is because I am just that powerful. But it won't last, and there is something I must do in order to help the two of you survive. I told you my power in the physical realm is limited because of who I am. But the power of the Golden Crystal spans more than my limits. That is why I must part with it and give it to you before I disappear."

"But this… Golden Crystal… how does it work? We're just two regular teenagers, Helios, we don't have magic like you and the Sailors."

He shook his head, "When I part with it, it will choose itself if it will bestow its magic on you, I cannot force it to. If I should disappear before it is done choosing, and in the end it rejects the both of you, it just might fall into the enemy's hands… and that is the only problem."

"No it's not the only problem… what about you?" asked Relena anxiously.

"Me?" he asked with distinct confusion. "Why would you ask about me?"

"Won't anything happen to you when you lose the crystal? You said yourself that you can't stay here in the physical realm… will you be 'dead' and brought to Death for him to judge you?"

He shook his head, "No, but I shall have no physical form, able only to watch the proceedings, but unable to affect anything. That will be up to one of you." He gave a strange half-smile. "I have offered the Golden Crystal to exactly three people before you… and never before has anyone asked what would become of me. I thank you for your concern. But time is of the essence…" he closed his eyes, and looked, for a moment, so profoundly weary that Relena's heart went out to him, wanted to hold him, comfort him. For, although he had the wisdom of any age-old scholar, he still had the appearance of a young man, nearest their own age, and for that moment, Relena felt protective.

The glowing shield around them began flickering as more and more of Helios' concentration and magic turned away from keeping the shield erect and deflecting the attacks of both Black Lady and Mistress Nine combined. The glow now centered around Helios, so bright that both Duo and Relena had to look away, shielding their eyes from the blinding light as Helios murmured several arcane spells that they could neither understand nor interpret. In the instant where the shield around them cracked and splintered in a soundless roar, the beams of light that came from Helios' body shot out, lighting up all corners of the shadowed hangar, and when Relena squinted her eyes, she thought she saw a feminine figure watching them from the catwalk above them. The Nameless?

Her attention was drawn back to Helios with a snap however, when the light suddenly diminished, and in a vague, blurry image of the platinum-haired boy could be seen behind the glow of the floating golden orb that had to be nothing other than the Golden Crystal. Even Black Lady and Mistress Nine, who had halted their attack on Helios' shield stared dumbstruck as the crystal floated up above Duo's head for a moment, sketching a circle over his head slowly, as if pondering. It did this for several moments before zipping away and doing the same thing around Relena's head. Duo had been rejected… he could not wield the power of the Golden Crystal.

Here, Black Lady screamed, staring horrorstruck at the outline of Helios, which was rapidly fading away into nothing. His eyes had not strayed to the crystal at all, they had remained watching her, even as he became nothing more than an outline. He smiled faintly at her, his voice soft and distant as if he was talking from a long way away, "Your dreams were beautiful… while they lasted."

He disappeared.

Mistress Nine watched as her partner's legs gave way and she crumpled to her hands and knees, eyes wide and staring at the point where Helios had last been before he'd disappeared. "He-lios?" she whispered, paralyzed with shock. So preoccupied was she with the disappearance of Helios, the man that destiny had creed her to love, and who had loved her back with all his heart and soul, that she missed what happened next. She might have missed it perhaps, but Mistress Nine, whose little feeling had already been taken away when she had her bout with Death, had turned away from Black Lady's display of such raw emotion. She saw when the Golden Crystal, which had been sketching a circle around and around Relena's in larger and larger circles, suddenly shot down, impacting in her chest and punching a metaphysical hole through her, eliciting a startled gasp from the blonde.

That was what it looked like to the naked eye. What the Golden Crystal was really doing was passing through the girl's natural defenses, her aura, if you will, and the extra shielding that went around her aura as added protection. No one had taught her how to create this extra shielding, she herself had no knowledge of this shielding, or her own aura at all, but it was there, and that was a barrier against unfriendly magic. But in building up this strong a shielding, any good magic that might have wandered her way would have been discouraged too. But the Golden Crystal was made of a stronger magic than Relena's shielding, and punched a hole right through it, dissipating inside of her, instantly mending the puncture in her aura the moment it was inside of her. She gasped again when she felt the strains of power, glittering golden sparkles of dancing magic, course through her very veins, spreading it all through her body, and for the first time, she felt as a Sailor Senshi might feel. She felt invincible.

But her common sense overruled this, and she watched the two women warily, waiting for them to spring at her while she was wondering what had just happened to her, and how she could put this new magic bestowed upon her to good use against them.

Mistress Nine watched in detached horror as she stared at the point where the crystal had disappeared into Relena, the point right between her breasts. The crystal had chosen her. The Golden Crystal, the parallel to a Sailor Crystal, the crystal with which all Sailor senshi are born with, except that it had been born into a male, therefore rendering its transformation abilities impossible. But it had been transferred into a female…

Relena looked at Duo with wild eyes, "Duo… what am I supposed to do…?" she asked hurriedly, glancing back at Mistress Nine, whose eyes were narrowed, and who was slowly advancing on them.

"I don't know… what was that thing?" Duo replied, also watching the raven-haired madwoman as she approached, with slow, sure steps. The madness was impossible to miss now, what had once been hidden in the depths of her darkened eyes had flared out until she radiated with it, and it was not a good idea to tangle with someone who had gone mad. Sane people you can attempt to predict what they might do… you can't say the same about someone who'd gone insane.

"The Golden Crystal…" Relena's eyes widened, "Wait. Didn't Chibi-Usa mention using a Silver Crystal?"

Duo shook his head, "Not to me."

She snapped her fingers, "Of course. You weren't there while we were walking to Hotaru's room… she mentioned that… that she fought with a Silver Crystal, just like her mom did. But… how can I use it if it's inside me?"

"I don't know…" Duo said slowly, nervously. "But you'd better figure it out quick because I don't like how she's watching us," he said, nodding his head at Mistress Nine.

"And her…" she added, gesturing to Black Lady, before realizing the woman hadn't moved.

Black Lady ignored her, ignored Duo, completely, her eyes still fixed on the very same point in space where last Helios' eyes had stared up at her. For the first time since Chibi-Usa had been pushed down deep inside her, and Black Lady had taken over, the two of them overlapped, both watched with the same horror at what had become of the man they both loved, as they were both the same person. "Helios…" she whispered, "Helios… where are you? You can't die… you're not able to die…" so softly, the others, who were busy watching Relena couldn't hear her. "Helios… come out… you can't be gone… you wouldn't leave them… wouldn't leave me… Helios?"

There was no answer of any kind, and Black Lady's entire body began trembling, her hands fisted against the floor as she fought against the tears that she had long ago perceived as weak. All the old hatreds and angers disappeared in the face of this new misery, this new sorrow, this new agony. She had watched him disappear with her own eyes.

Before, always before, even when before she'd met him face-to-face, she'd always had that feeling that he'd been waiting for her in her dreams. But as Black Lady, her dreams no longer reflected that happy, glittery world. That was what Helios had meant when he said that her dreams had been beautiful. The Nameless had crushed her Dream Mirror when she'd crushed the sixteen-year-old Chibi-Usa deep inside of the vengeful Black Lady.

The Nameless had done this.

She had taken away Helios.

Helios…

HELIOS!

Her mental scream ripped through time and space, and she allowed it to, forgetting where she was, who had changed her, the only thing that mattered was finding him, running into his arms, begging him for forgiveness. Nothing else mattered, no old grudges, no old fights… none of it. The only thing she, Chibi-Usa, Black Lady, wanted, was to have Helios back.

Back in the physical realm, Mistress Nine had turned back just in time to watch Black Lady slip bonelessly to the floor, her eyes falling shut as she did so, making all three of them pause, staring at the figure of the sprawled Black Lady on the floor.

Some instinct, some spark that just might have been Hotaru's tie of friendship with Chibi-Usa made Mistress Nine abandon Duo and Relena, and rushed towards her fallen partner, dropping to her knees beside her and shaking her shoulders in an attempt to rouse her. But the woman's mind was far away from her body, flying through the astral planes searching, searching…

Somewhere, some time, she couldn't tell if it had been mere moments, or millennia, but she heard it…

Chibi…

Her astral self stopped short, turning around and around, searching for the source of that voice. It had been his. His voice. Where was he? Why couldn't she seem him? 'Helios?' She reached out, as if blind, unable to see him… but she had heard him? Was he here?

Chibi… you came…

The light… his voice… it was coming from that bright light in the distance... could she reach it? She had to reach it. She just had to. Helios was there. And then was flying towards it, as if gravity meant nothing, as if she had wings attached to her shoulders and her feet were useless. But she was edging closer and closer to that light, to where Helios was… 'Helios…'

She burst through it, momentarily blinded by the brightness, shielding her eyes, and she stopped moving. When finally she looked up hesitantly, it wrung a gasp from her. Those trees… that lake… that brilliant sky… She knew this place… she knew this place so well… it was her dream world, the place where she lived in when the moon was in the sky and she was snug in her own bed. This was the world she had created in her dreams, and which Helios, as Pegasus had visited her nightly as a child, and when she was older, and knew who he was, continued to reappear in his human form where she could always run to him, let him hold her…

Chibi… this world… is no longer yours…

She jerked around, staring. 'Helios!' she yelled mentally, 'Helios where are you?' She wanted to see him. He was here… he was here in this world of dreams.

I am here… as I always have been…

She turned around, and there, standing in that field of bright-colored flowers that they had so often lay in staring at the ever-changing sky, stood Helios, a small half-smile on his face. Chibi… you found your way back… The look on his face was as if he hadn't believed she had been able to. She remembered that look. Instantly, some of the reality flooded back into her and she watched him with narrowed eyes. 'Why did you leave me again…?' she demanded feeling the tears well up in her eyes and hating it, hating the betrayal of her own emotions. 'Why didn't you trust me again?'

He looked sad. I am not a god, Chibi, merely a lord over dreams. When I take physical form, I am as human as you, and I have my own mistakes to make. You are thinking of why I did not trust that you would be well off on your own, away from the palace. I was against the idea because of when you decided you wanted to be independent. Don't you remember?

She frowned, twisting one long rose-colored pigtail in both her hands. 'After Pluto came back with the news that Crystal Tokyo was safe again… why would that have been a bad time?'

He shook his head, allowing his platinum hair to fly in front of his face, hiding the red gem embedded eternally into his forehead. It was right after your sixteenth birthday, a most important date in your future. You were to be the next reigning Queen of Crystal Tokyo, the entire world's attention was on you, and you set about a quarrel that cut most of your ties to the Royal Family. That would have flung the entire solar system into chaos if your mother hadn't been such good friends with the other Planetary Queens. I believed you could have done it… that you could have been perfectly well off outside of the palace walls. But of course, your timing, which even you must admit is not exactly tactful, was horrible in this case, and I had to try and discourage you, even if it was against my better judgment. I never thought it would be the start to a quarrel between the two of us.

She crossed her arms, turning away from him, abandoning twirling her pigtail, and instead began fiddling with her sheer fabric stole. 'Why didn't you tell me at the beginning, then?' she demanded. 'If you can explain yourself so well now, how come you didn't say anything when I asked it of you before?'

Sighing, he replied, I was perhaps a little angrier at you and the way you reacted to my advice than I should have been. Everything escalated so quickly, I couldn't find the words to explain my reasons to you. I told you I am not a god, and I have my mistakes to make. That was one of my greatest mistakes… another is that I was too proud to come back to you and apologize for it.

She bit her lip, refusing to turn back that he might see the tears running down the sides of her face, no matter how desperately she tried to keep them from falling. 'Why can't I stay here then?' she asked him finally, 'Why can't I stay here with you forever?'

Because you are of the physical realm, he told her, You are merely a traveler here, a visitor, no more. This may have been your creation in the beginning, but it has changed now. You have changed. This is no longer your dream world. For this to be yours, for you to be able to see this in your dreams when you sleep, you must have a Dream Mirror that reflects this world. You have none. The only reason you are here now, seeing this now, is because of your ties to me, no matter how slender they may be now that our ties that bind me to the physical realm are gone, and because of the power I have over dreams. It will not last. You will be thrown out, even if it is against my wishes.

Slowly, the truth began to dawn on her. 'I can't come back here… because I'm no longer Chibi-Usa…' She turned to face him, forgetting the tears that still ran down her face. 'I'm not allowed in this place because the Nameless crushed my Dream Mirror…'

Helios nodded sadly. You will always be my Chibi, he said to her, reaching out to her as if he could touch her from that distance between them. But until you regain that lost Dream Mirror, you will be shut out from this world.

'The Nameless… the Nameless did this to me…' Her hands became fists again, 'She changed me against my will, took me and crushed me and reshaped me…'

Gently, oh so gently his voice reached out to her, But that part of you allowed it, he said, That part of you that could only watch, but was unable to act, allowed it and wanted it, and that was what made the control of the Nameless so complete. The part of you that is Black Lady wanted it, because you never reconciled that part of you. You just shut it up inside you, and ran away from you past, and never faced it. The Nameless knew this. And the Nameless used it.

'What… what can I do?' The words echoed both Black Lady and Chibi-Usa's, both of them staring out from the same body, beseeching him, acting as one, two parts of an entire whole. For once, there was no power play, no fight for the upper hand, they coexisted as one, the definite edges where one entity ended and the other began became blurred, blended just the slightest bit.

Go back… he told her, his voice already fading, the world around her fading, Go back to the physical realm and fight against the Nameless who changed you, who made you become something that you don't want to be. Your Dream Mirror appeared from the purity of your own heart… nothing can tarnish that, not even the power of the Wiseman of old, or the Nameless now. The only control the Nameless has on you is however much you give her. Break free of her, Chibi, come back to me… his voice faded away completely and she found herself thrown out of that world she had known so well, through that limbo in which she had traveled searching for him, and was thrown back into her physical body with a jerk.

She opened her eyes with a gasp for air, not because she needed it, but because it was a reflex as she regained control of her own faculties. She found herself staring up into the face of Mistress Nine, who, for the first time, actually had a look of concern written on her features. The moment Black Lady opened her eyes however, and Mistress Nine glimpsed into them, she backed away, immediately. "You turned away from her…" she hissed, "You found him. That wretched golden boy-ungh!" She never finished her sentence because that was the moment Black Lady's eyes flashed with a familiar spark of anger, and her palm connected with the side of Mistress Nine's face with such venom that the other woman could only stare stunned as the pink-haired Lady got to her feet.

The shock wore off quickly though as she placed a hand protectively on the already-reddening blotch that marred her pale skin. "Filth… ungrateful, powerless, duplicitous filth. You wish to betray us, betray the Nameless and all that she has given us!"

Ruby red met violet-black as they stared at each other, a frown appearing on Black Lady's face at Mistress Nine's tirade. Relena and Duo watched, silent, afraid to make a sound in case they turned from their sudden quarrel and fell upon them. Relena was having trouble breathing… the initial surge of magic had been exhilarating… but now… now… her breath came out in gasps, and her entire body felt leaden. There was too much… the magic was primed for a transformation, but instead it remained inside of her, certainly not dormant because it was an active magic. Now that a female possessed it, it was a Sailor Crystal by definition, and that magic was waiting for her to transform. But here there was no Luna or Artemis to guide her through the transformation process… she knew not what to do. So she watched, and waited, unaware of the buildup of magical energy inside her body that was slowly crushing the air out of her lungs so that she lived and breathed magic, which is something that a mortal can do and survive for long.

"She took my Dream Mirror," Black Lady said in a low voice, each word trembling with barely restrained anger. "She took it and crushed it inside… she took Helios away from me. And I'm going to get him back. I have to get him back!"

The raven-haired woman laughed at her, "You know as well as I do that the Nameless cast you of your own shadow, and shaped you to her will. You cannot change back."

"Not unless the Nameless dies," replied Black Lady coldly.

"And who shall kill her? You?" asked Mistress Nine, mockingly, her hair floating about her as if in an unseen wind. "You think you are anything against me?"

"And since when have you been known to follow orders?" returned Black Lady, a fiendish expression on her face that reflected both Black Lady and Chibi-Usa. "Since when have you been just used as a weapon, as a toy, against people who were your friends?"

"They were not my friends," Mistress Nine replied coolly, dangerously. "They never were my friends. I am not like you. I am a completely different entity from my host."

She laughed, high, mocking the raven-haired woman. "You tell me I'm the weak one… A little girl did not destroy me… I was changed back because I found out the truth… you are the one deluding yourself to the lies of the Nameless, not that girl." She said, pointing to Relena. "You were the one who was so easily gotten rid of when you came into the world the first time. And the fact that you have allowed yourself to be a toy of the Nameless, that you cannot see the truth is just more proof that you have been tried and have been found lacking." She grinned, a wicked smile that made the other woman's blood boil. "It is no wonder Lord Death rejected you."

Duo was beginning edge backwards, towards the other side of the hangar, slipping slowly into the darkness to find his gun. For now, it seemed relatively safe enough to leave Relena where she was, and at the moment, she didn't look up to walking, her face already beginning to take on a dull gray tinge as she gasped for breath, the magic choking her in its intensity. She was not ready for this much magic, unlike Chibi-Usa and Usagi before her had been, who had been born with a Sailor Crystal inside of them.

With a shrill scream, Mistress Nine threw something at her; it was a blast of energy of some great proportion, that it lit up all four corners of the immensely large room as it impacted. But Black Lady was far too quick for her, having of course anticipated the Mistress's anger and had immediately summoned Luna P to her. It had instantly changed itself into a large umbrella that blocked the Mistress's provoked attack, and deflected it to the sides, where it bounced off harmlessly into the walls.

Peering out from behind the umbrella, Black Lady smiled that infuriating smile again. "What, is that all?" she taunted, snapping the umbrella closed, "Is that all the power that you boast to me?"

Lengths of Mistress Nine's long hair whipped forwards instantly, and the Lady managed to dodge three of them, though the last caught her by the wrist, forcing her to drop the umbrella with a clatter. As soon as that happened, the three she had dodged whirled around, wrapping themselves securely around her, pinning her other arm to her side, another on her neck, and another around her legs to keep from kicking.

Black Lady stopped struggling long enough to say, "Bitch." It wasn't often you saw a villian that looked as classy as the Lady swear like a common street thug, but there the obscenity flew.

Mistress Nine raised an eyebrow at her, tightening the length around the Lady's neck. "Not so brave now that you're going to die, are you?"

"Depends what way you're looking at it," Duo replied, standing behind her, "You see, you might think she's not really brave because you've got her in a choke hold by your hair. The way I see it, I think she's the brave one because she's not screaming, which is how Hotaru described your death."

"Hotaru never said any such thing," thundered Mistress Nine, rounding upon him. He had retrieved his gun, and he also had it pointed right at her face. "You lie… she never told you any details about how I was defeated."

"How do you know?" he replied, an ugly smile on his face, "How would you know, if you've been dead?"

"Because the host body I took over before and the host body I have taken over now, is the same, and I know everything that she knows in addition to my own knowledge."

Duo raised an eyebrow, but there were the beginning stirrings of confusion, "Then how would I know?"

Mistress Nine glared at him down the barrel of the gun. She could erect a shield quickly enough, but not if the bullet were fired at point-blank range, which was exactly where it was. "Do not look to me for answers of questions that have nothing to do with me. I cannot explain your guesses."

"They're not guesses, lady, I know that's how you died… and I know how she 'died' too," he said, nodding his head at Black Lady, still tangled up in the Mistress' hair. "So tell, why would I know all this?"

Mistress Nine's eyes narrowed even further, "You said you were not Death… how then would you know?"

"I'm no-" he stopped. "You said you know what Hotaru knew… she called me Death…"

"Death… Lord Death…" she was silent, staring at a point through him, eyes unfocused. "The… card…" her eyes refocused instantly. "The card! That card you carry… where is it now?" her voice had risen with each word till it neared a hysterical shriek. This boy, this little boy couldn't possible by the Death she had glimpsed through that faint cloud of dreaminess in that metaphysical world… couldn't possibly be… He had had regal bearing, and not the passing of millions of souls through his world had changed him.

Slowly, as if hesitating, keeping the gun steady at her face, he reached into his pocket, taking out the Tarot card and holding it out to her. Too late he remembered the strange occurrence that had passed when he'd done the same to Hotaru only a little while before the battle. Seeing the stricken look on the woman's face, he knew he wasn't the only one had had suddenly been torn screaming out of his body and lifted up, up into the air until they were standing on nothingness, and all around them the stars flew. Somewhere, far down below where their astral selves had been ripped free, their bodies fell to the ground simultaneously, the hold on Black Lady loosened, and with the help of a shaking Relena, was soon free of the multitude of hair.

Black Lady stared at Relena, frowning. There was something… "Helios?" she asked, peering at the shorter girl, who had collapsed to her knees, breathing through gasps. Relena shook her head, but Black Lady would not be deterred, grasping Relena's face in her hand, tilting her chin upwards as she stared into the other girl's eyes.

Golden sparkles danced in Relena's pupils for a moment before they disappeared. But that moment had been enough. Black Lady reared back, glaring down at her. "You took the Crystal!" she accused, Luna P floating into her hands. "You stole it from him!"

"No…" gasped out the blonde, "He gave it up… to one of us… it chose me… and now it's… it's…" she couldn't say much more. But the Lady had heard enough, instantly comprehending.

"He wanted to save you two…" she whispered, a feeling of great hurt sweep over her. "He cared enough to give it up to save you…"

Relena shook her head, "Save… you…" she looked up, big blue eyes pleading. "Help?"

Black Lady frowned, "Transform." The idea had never occurred to her that this could happen to a normal girl with no hereditary abilities.

Relena stared, "How…?"

Black Lady rolled her eyes, muttering something about incompetence, before thrusting her arm through Relena's shielding, through her aura, and, her hand melting through Relena's chest, grabbed the Crystal and yanked it out, depositing it in Relena's hand before the other girl could even gasp. Then she did a double take as they both stared at it, stared at the myriad of colors that washed over its initial gold. That hadn't happened before…

Staring, Black Lady looked mesmerized by the colors, her love's essence still a tangible thing, but this girl… this girl had her own particular brand of magic… a kind which was completely different from any of the other planetary soldier's magic… The image that came to her was blue, turquoise blue, and green… earthy… Earth? She blinked, startled. Yes… yes… memory rushed back to her, memory of those that she knew in the future. She had known this girl, known her when she was an adult and a Queen of Earth truly.

She was a Sailor.

She was Sailor Earth.

~*~*~*~

A ragged cheer rang out as the last of the monsters was destroyed. Their forces had suffered damages, that was for sure, but they had won. They had won a battle that had seemed hopeless from the start. They were the first to have ever faced this many monsters all at once and had defeated them.

But those sitting in the largest mobile suits, the gundams, weren't cheering. They looked grim as they turned resolutely back towards the base, giving orders as they went to tell the others to stay where they were. The battle wasn't over. There hadn't been anything on the other side of the battlefield. The real battle, was where they'd left it… back at the base.

Wufei, who had been in his own way sulking over his own personal defeat, was the most eager to redeem himself in his own eyes. As the four of them exited the cockpits of their gundams and headed cautiously for the door, they heard a wry voice from behind them. "You boys haven't forgotten about little old me now have you?"

There was Pluto, looking a little more worn out, dusty, and slightly ragged, but still holding her Time Staff and still standing upright. That won her extra points of admiration in the boys' eyes. None of the other Doctors could have handled a battle like that the way Pluto had.

"There are monsters in there." Quatre explained, peering in through the reinforced glass of the windows inside the building. "But they're just… there…"

Pluto nodded, walking up to where Quatre was, looking in through the windows to see for herself. She shook her head, "I can't risk wasting all my magic on killing those things… not with something as big as the Nameless in there…"

She looked towards the boys. "Can you boys do it? Got enough firepower in those machine guns of yours?"

Because that is what the majority of them were holding. Wufei had a mini-Uzi. "Do you think we can get through by relying on you four?"

Heero favored her with a grim smile, "If we can't manage it," he told her, "You'll have a hell of a time finding anyone who can."

She returned the smile with one of her own. "Then what say you we find out what we've missed inside there? I may the Guardian of Time, but I'm certainly not omnipotent."

As they ran in, she hid a frown. She had said the brave words… but something told her that everything had taken a turn for the worst in there… and that their friends were in big trouble…

~*~*~*~

Mistress Nine whirled around, staring at their surroundings, before turning back on Duo, advanced on him menacingly. "What did you do?" she demanded, "What magic is this?!"

Duo shook his head, staring around them, staring at his hand, which no longer held his gun. "I… I don't know…"

Mistress Nine stopped short when she noticed a violet glow in her left hand. Looking down, she realized that she still held the card Duo had held out to her, and she stared at the picture, the words beneath the picture. But as she stared, the picture began to change, in small, subtle ways. The image of Saturn, and the hints you could see of what one took to be her Sailor fuku had faded. Duo's cape, which had previously hidden the rest of her from view, appeared to float in a wind blowing opposite from the way it had been before. From the mist, Mistress Nine's body had become clothed in a dark dress, strands of pearls looping around her upper arms…

And Saturn reappeared again in the corner of the card, kneeling, with another weapon in her hands, a strange weapon that neither Mistress Nine, nor Hotaru Tomoe could recognize.

She screamed, dropping the card from a shaking hand and stepping back, away from it.

Duo stepped forward, but for the second time that day, the woman held out her hand to stave him off. "Stay away…" she moaned, hiding her face in her hands, realizing that there were tears in her eyes for the first time since she had ever been.

Stopping, the boy stared hopelessly as the woman crumpled to her knees, holding her face in her hands. I sense a pattern coming on… he thought wildly to himself, staring down at the card that had, once again, changed in appearance. What did it mean? All of them, Hotaru, Chibi-Usa, Mistress Nine… they all looked at it and immediately understood something. What was that something?

Instantly, it was as if an invisible wall had slammed down between him and Mistress Nine. There was sudden silence all around him and the backdrop of stars and galaxies and planets disappeared into darkness, as a dimly lit road appeared beneath his feet, winding off into the darkness. On the other side of the 'wall', he could still see Mistress Nine looking shocked around her, as if she were looking at something else entirely when she stared at what he saw to be the same flashes of the universe as before. But that, apparently, wasn't what she saw because she gave one last frightened look in his direction, before the 'wall' closed her off from his sight entirely. Frightened. She had been frightened. Somehow it did not seem possible.

He looked around him now, warily, wishing he had been able to snatch up the card from the 'ground' in front of Mistress Nine before the 'wall' had dropped down. He wished he had a weapon, if only to have a false sense of security. It would have been better than nothing, after all.

'Don't you realize the card doesn't matter? That it was not meant for you to see, but her?'

He looked up, his heart in his throat as he stared up at the figure in front of him, his mouth dry. It wasn't… it couldn't possibly be… 'Raina?'

She smiled that bright, beautiful smile he still remembered. 'Duo…'

'Where am I?'

She shook her head, 'You are in the land of the Dead,' she replied, gesturing all around them. 'Since I told you about this in life, They saw it fitting that I tell you all of this, even after my own Death.' Duo could just hear the capitalization of 'Death'.

'Who're They? What are you talking about?'

She smiled again. 'You never will change, will you, Duo? Always impatient to get your answers, unable to cope with not knowing…'

He shook his head, 'I've had a lot happen to me today,' he told his longtime friend, 'Do you mind not speaking in riddles?'

Raina crossed her arms, 'You are not being serious, Duo. The Keeper of Destinies, and his Fates have decreed that tonight be the night that you make your choice… I told you once that you were Death… that Death was made of three parts in order to be a whole. I told you that you needed to find your other parts to be whole. I did not tell you that there would be a choice for you to make, because while I was alive, I did not know.

A feeling of some great dread welled up inside Duo, deadening him, making his blood run cold and thin as liquid ice. 'What… choice?' he asked, stumbling on the words.

'You have a choice to be Death in truth after all. You can be the one you've always believed in… you can be the God of Death. Are you willing to accept that?'

He stared at her, his eyes searching her face for expression but found none. He frowned. 'There's more than that, isn't there? There's something else you're not telling me.'

She sighed, 'You will be bound forever to those other parts of your whole for eternity, and watch as old friends and enemies pass through before you begging for a second chance at life, which you have the choice to give them. Making that choice day by day, millennia by millennia, is a hard task, a heavy cross to bear. You must decide if the power, and the unity of you and your other parts of your soul, are a great enough cause to bear the name of the God of Death.'

He was silent for a moment. 'You're telling me… that I'm going to have to live forever… and watch all my friends come to me and ask me for more life? That for the sake of some girl that I barely even know, I'm going to take on the weight of the world on my shoulders? Some idiot who's in charge of destinies just decided that?!'

Raina pursed her lips, 'It is a choice given to you… But I have not told you all… The Keeper of Destinies has given you this chance in order to help protect that 'girl' as you call her, because otherwise, she and the woman trapped within her will die, and you will be unable to stop it. The enemy you face is powerful, now that he has been given a body, no matter how slight it is, is near invincible. Only the power of the Silence can bring about his destruction. And Saturn's rebirth… the price that she must pay is up for you to decide. Should you shoulder the burden of Death, she will confront you, instead of the entity that has stood in place for you for so long, and you will give her a choice. She can lose the last of her sanity, or you can make her pay the permanent price of her heart. She can give it to you, like you were destined to. Otherwise, should she be reborn without her sanity, she will die. Permanently.'

Duo stared at her. 'You mean, this guy just lined all these events up just so Hotaru could die?'

'So you know her name, know who she is?'

'Well… maybe a little… she told all of us herself that she was Rebirth…'

'Do you believe her?' The question was pointed.

'It's kind of hard not to…'

'Then don't be a fool… you have always known what you were going to do, even all the way back then… you just didn't sit there watching life pass you by. You were always doing something. Something's happened to you since then… and it's not for the better.'

'What do you know?' he demanded, glaring at her. 'You've been dead!'

When she frowned, her eyes were mercilessly cold, staring down at him, just as they had stared down countless of others that had doubted her in life. He had often wondered since then why such a kind, considerate person like Raina could have the eyes of a mercenary when she wished it. 'Don't take me for a fool, Duo. You know as well as I that I could always go between the worlds… in life, and now in death. I know exactly what has happened to you these past few years, and that you haven't yet accepted any of it. Get over yourself Duo Maxwell. You're starting to be as alive as I am.'

'You look positively spry for being a dead woman,' he retorted looking away. 'Why should I believe anything you tell me? No one can just get the power of Death… can they?'

'And you would know this… how?'

'Because… because, well Hotaru and Chibi-Usa and Pluto… they're like born with the magic, with all that stuff they say about their 'native planets'. And then Relena… she gets the power of Helios' crystal nothing happens. She couldn't use it.'

'I wouldn't be so sure of yourself…' she replied, waving an arm to the empty space next to her, where a slightly blurred image of Black Lady and Relena stood there, staring at the crystal in Relena's hand.

Slowly, ever so achingly slowly, Relena lifted it up into the air, and in a voice that resonated that had never resonated like that before, not even in the most important of meetings of World Leaders. She chose. The air thrummed with it, even though he wasn't even in that space. Then…

"TERRA CRYSTAL POWER… MAKE UP!"

Duo stared as the image of one of his best friends wavered and disappeared behind a wash of magic. Her clothes disappearing in an instant, but only a silhouette could be seen through that wave of magic that was so thick it was tangible. When she reappeared again, she was dressed in the same bodysuit he'd seen on the Sailors. But this was Relena. And yet there she was, the golden tiara, the turquoise sailor collar and skirt, the white gloves that went up enough only to cover her wrists. The boots colored the same as her skirt, that came up to mid-thigh.

She was gorgeous. He'd known she was pretty before. Hell, he known that she was a beautiful girl. But seeing her like this brought all that to shame. He hadn't known just how well she'd managed to hide before. Now, nothing was hidden, she was vulnerable, but only for that one moment when he could see into her heart. She had been indomitable before. Now she was a goddess. She was eternal. She was invincible.

All he could think was, if Heero could see her now…

'But he can, Duo. He sees her as he always has. He's seen her like that from the first moment he set eyes on her and set the course of their fates. She has always been that beautiful in his eyes… she has just never known the effect she has on him, though she knows the effect he has on her…'

'I take it… they're in love?'

'Beyond a doubt… trust me, it caused a-' she stopped herself with an enigmatic smile that was so reminiscent of Pluto's that Duo frowned. 'But you'll find that out for yourself I'm sure… But that has nothing to do with your choice here and now. You saw that girl make hers. Will you not make yours now? Time will not stop for your decision, Duo, though it appears as if it already is. The world still turns, the people in that world live, and the Nameless still devours.'

Duo took a deep breath, staring down into that image of what was happening down there. He caught a glimpse of both him and Mistress Nine, lying crumpled near Relena's feet. The sight of that raven-haired woman made his breath catch. Awake, she had been terrifying, evil. In sleep, she had that look of vulnerability, sweetness that he had often glimpsed in Hotaru's face. Despite what she said, insisted really, about being two entirely different entities, she couldn't lie to him here, now. She and Hotaru… no matter what they had been before… they were one now, they were one and they could never be brought apart again, or both of them would be destroyed.

'You're saying… if I choose no… if I choose that I want to be what I was before… then she'll die?' he could barely force the words out of his mouth, they were so hard to say. Why? It wasn't as if he'd been known Hotaru for long. It wasn't even that he had really even liked her when he'd met her. So why? Why did he really care that this girl, who had literally offered to kill him in order to teach him a lesson, live? Why was she so important? He repeated this last question to Raina.

'Because she has the power to bring us back… she is the embodiment of our reincarnation… life after death in this place is meaningless without the hope of returning to that world… look around you Duo. You bring us here, so that we may learn the truth. But she brings us back, so we may live.'

He stared at her for a long, long time…

What she said meant something. But…

'I can't Raina… I just can't… I'm not like them Raina, I'm just a normal guy.'

Once again, the air, or whatever else passed for air in this place, thrummed with the power of his choice. But… unlike what he had felt with Relena, when it had embraced her, like the caress of a long lost lover, it rejected him, pushed him away. And it was harder to bear than anything he had ever felt before.

'Very well Duo… you have chosen.'

Coming from her, it sounded so very final.

~*~*~*~

That's it for now. I know, I know, I'm sorry about the ending. The next part will come out soon enough, I promise. But this chapter I didn't like particularly well, compared to the others. Mistress Nine and Black Lady were kind of half-heartedly done, which I don't especially like, considering they're two of my most favorite villains from the SM world. And… yes, I made Relena into a Sailor Scout. I tried! I tried not to! But… I needed to follow up on Chibi-Usa's comment a chapter back, and none of the plot twists I thought up worked.

BUT! I promise you, there will be one hot teenage Solo in the next chapter. I guarantee it.