Forgotten Forever by Kihin Ranno

Part Ten: Out of Time

“You have caused a great deal of damage to this timeline, Rubeus,” Sailor Pluto announced, pinning him down with her gaze.  “I do not appreciate being made to come down here to clean up your messes.”
 
Rubeus leaned to his left, spitting out a mouthful of blood.  “Why did you wait so long to reveal yourself then, Pluto?”
 
Pluto smiled serenely.  “You are hardly the foremost of my problems, Rubeus.”
 
He stiffened immediately, snarling at her like a dog.  “You have no idea what—"
 
She spun the staff around with practiced ease, leveling the Garnet Orb directly into his face.  She was pleased that he had the sense to show fear.  “That last attack was launched at you from a distance,” she explained coolly.  “If I were to fire from this range, there would be no head to lower into your gravesite.”
 
His eyes narrowed, and his Adam’s apple convulsed as he swallowed.  Centuries of watching others attempt to hide behind masks of flesh had done her many favors, and so, she knew this was a sign of terror.  “So stop talking about it.  Fire it off.”
 
“I’d just as soon not get your blood on my boots,” Pluto explained, ignoring the fact that the trajectory of the blast made it very unlikely that there would be any splatter in her direction.  “And there are other matters more pressing than the removal of your corpse.  Therefore, I am going to say this just once.”  She leaned in and dropped her tone.  It trembled with the fury of the ages, rising from the shadows within her and casting darkness on her words.  “Get out of this time.  Go back to your own.  I know what cargo you carry, and I know who you have waiting.  Serve both masters and get out of my sight.”
 
Rubeus stared at her for a moment.  “If you know so much, why don’t you do something about it?”
 
“Inaction is my burden,” Pluto said coldly.  “But when I do take action, Rubeus, rest assured that the events provoke a metamorphosis painted in red.”
 
Rubeus backed away from her slowly and then got to his feet, his eyes never leaving the ever present end of her staff.  They only flicked up to her own gaze when he was fully settled, his lips curled into a sneer.  “This isn’t the end.”
 
Pluto smiled again.  “Don’t you think I know that already?”
 
His eyes flashed in defiance, but he said nothing more.  With a wave of his hand and a flash of violet light, he was gone, leaving Pluto alone with two very battered survivors.
 
But for the moment, all was well.  Rubeus had not called a single one of her bluffs.
 

-----
 
Much to his extreme frustration, when Rubeus arrived back at the base, he immediately hit the floor.
 
Not surprisingly, only Petz was around to care.  “Master Rubeus!” she shouted.  She came down from where she was floating inside the main chamber, moving over to him briskly.  She crouched beside him, immediately preparing herself to hoist him up, and much as he loathed it, he was in no position to refuse.  He still had no idea how he’d managed to stand after being hit with Pluto’s attack.
 
But then, humiliation was a powerful motivator.
 
“I don’t understand,” Petz said, her eyes racing over every inch of his body to check his wounds.  “How could Venus have done this kind of damage?  Even in her condition, she doesn’t have the capabilities for this.”
 
“I know,” Rubeus wheezed as Petz forced him to be vertical.  He coughed again, the taste of blood filling his mouth once more.  He swallowed it.  “She didn’t do this.”
 
“Who did?”
 
Rubeus attempted to take a step on his own and quickly collapsed, hitting one knee.  He clenched both of his fists and scowled at nothing, longing to tear flesh.  “Pluto.”
 
He felt Petz stiffen beside him.  Her voice was hoarse when she said, “That’s impossible.”
 
“I didn’t imagine almost being decapitated!” Rubeus yelled, a sudden burst of adrenaline propelling him upwards.  It only lasted a second, however, and soon he was sent reeling.  He grasped a chunk of green crystal, holding on to it as if it granted him strength and sanity.
 
Petz swallowed, looking distinctly nervous for the first time since Rubeus had met her.  “Why didn’t she kill you?”
 
“I haven’t a damn clue,” Rubeus muttered.  “But she doesn’t matter now.  Do you know how to pilot the ship?”
 
Petz nodded, her brow furrowing.  “Why?”
 
“We’re leaving,” Rubeus said, glancing down and surveying the damage Pluto had done to his chest.  He was amazed she hadn’t ripped a hole straight through it.  The skin was severely charred and wet with blood, still smoking from the attack.  “Immediately.”
 
“What about Venus?”
 
Rubeus’s face screwed up in what he hoped was a truly grotesque grimace.  His jaw clenched, the skin on his neck stretching and revealing bulging veins.  “To hell with that bitch!” he bellowed.  “And Endymion along with her.”
 
Petz observed him from a distance for a second, not flinching at his outburst in the slightest.  It was a character trait he normally admired, but he tired of being ineffectual.
 
“We’ll make them pay, Master Rubeus,” Petz promised, her voice steel.
 
“No shit,” he hissed, pushing himself forward.  Petz stepped to his side in a moment, looping his arm over her shoulders and steering him in the direction of the infirmary.  “Have Cooan send word to Saffir if you can find her.  He can pass the message of our imminent return along.”
 
Petz’s omnipresent scowl deepened.  “Think Prince Demando is going to be angry for leaving Venus behind?”
 
Rubeus laughed as much as he dared.  He felt as though his ribs would break apart.  “We might be delivering his precious queen right into his bed.  What could he possibly have to be upset about?”
 
-----
 
Once Rubeus vanished, Mamoru finally allowed himself to take a moment to examine the woman who had come to their rescue.  The red menace had called her ‘Pluto,’ and her outfit certainly resembled Venus’s enough to make coincidence impossible.  Her silhouette was intensely familiar, but it was her voice that had haunted his thoughts.  Older than eternity and darker than the farthest reaches of space, he had heard her speak to him before.  He had made a mistake in his hospital bed days before.  He knew now that the girl who had slipped out of his window must have been Venus.
 
This woman was the dark angel who had visited him in the fog.
 
“Thank you,” Mamoru croaked softly, unsure of what he referred to.
 
Pluto turned and moved over to them as if her body were formed from wind, crouching down before them.  She looked at Mamoru intensely for a moment, as if acknowledging what he had just remembered.  But her attentions were soon turned to Venus, who Mamoru realized was in dire need of help.
 
“Can you stand?” Pluto asked, her crimson eyes dark with concern.
 
Mamoru looked down at Venus, surveying the damage Rubeus and his allies had done.  By all rights, she should not have been able to move at all.  Blood streaked her skin and bruises shone purple against the pale.  There were no obvious breaks, but he didn’t see how she could emerge from all that trauma without at least some hairline fractures at least.  He didn’t even want to think of the possible head injuries or the after-effects of nearly being suffocated.
 
She still held his hand.
 
Venus’s bright gaze focused solely on Pluto.  Her eyes narrowed into slits, appraising the situation.  “Who are you?”
 
Pluto seemed vaguely impressed, but ultimately pressed on.  “Much as I admire your tenacity, I’m afraid there’s little time for it.  Your neighbors have likely called the police by now, and we cannot afford to waste any more time than necessary.  We’ve already run out of it.”
 
Sensible as it sounded to Mamoru, Venus did not take kindly to it.  “Forgive me if I’m a little suspicious of some strange woman pirating our fuku, who somehow seems to know who I am and what all is happening with those… awful people.”  She shuddered, but barely paused for breath.  “I don’t trust you until I get some answers.”
 
“I am not in league with the Black Moon,” Pluto assured her in one of the most authoritative voices Mamoru had ever heard.  “I am one of you.  I’m an ally, however distant, and I mean to take you to the very place Rubeus is no doubt returning to with your friends in tow.”
 
Venus’s eyes widened slightly, comprehending.  “The future.”
 
“And not a bright one.”
 
Mamoru licked his lips, anxious to jump in.  “Look, Mi—Venus, I know that this situation isn’t the most conventional, but I’m not sure we have much of a choice right now.  You need to get Usagi and the other girls back.  If they really are on their way to the future, she’s the only way you can get there.”
 
Venus finally turned her gaze onto him, and only then did she seem to realize that she was still clutching Mamoru’s hand.  She dropped it as if she’d been holding on to a hot stove.  Then she considered him for a moment, her face quickly falling into a look of resignation.  “You’re right.  I hate it, but you’re still right.”  She looked at Pluto askance.  “I sincerely hope for all our sakes that you’re telling the truth.”
 
“Which brings me back to my former question: can you stand?”
 
Venus looked down, her cheeks reddening.  “I’m not sure,” she murmured.
 
“I’ll give you a hand,” Pluto offered.  The older Senshi turned to Mamoru briefly, asking, “Are you all right on your own?”
 
Mamoru immediately clambered to his feet, finding that he was actually in much better condition to do so.  His head still swam a bit, and he had to blink away black dots floating around his vision, but he managed it well enough.  Once he was sure he wasn’t going to tip over again, he nodded his head.  “Yes.”
 
“Good,” Pluto said brusquely as she finished pulling the blonde to her feet.  “Then you can help her.”
 
Mamoru glanced at Venus out of the corner of his eye, unsurprised to see the frown marring her bow mouth.  She took a deep breath, shaking her head.  “On second thought, I think I’ll be fine.”
 
Pluto looked at the girl skeptically.  “I have to keep my hands free for this journey, and to be perfectly honest, I very much doubt that you’re capable of withstanding it unassisted.”
 
“I trekked through the Arctic in a mini-skirt,” Venus laughed weakly.  “I’ll handle it.”
 
Mamoru shook off his instantaneous doubt that such a thing had occurred and frowned, wondering who she was trying to impress.
 
“So you did,” Pluto conceded, giving a tiny shrug.  “Suit yourself.”  She stepped closer to the both of them, her staff grasped between her hands.  “The trip will not be an easy one, but circumstances as they are, I will be with you every step of the way.  The Time Gate is no longer entirely uncompromised.  If there were more of you, I could risk it, but…” she trailed off, sighing.  “Forgive me.  Things are not as they should be.”
 
“No kidding,” Mamoru muttered, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck.
 
Pluto smiled ruefully and then lifted her face aloft, giving them one last instruction.
 
“Brace yourselves.”
 
She lifted the top of her staff high above her head, and both Mamoru and Venus watched with wide eyes as the jewel glowed bright garnet, washing the entire street with light.  The few bystanders that had remained outside gasped loudly, many finally deeming it necessary to take cover.
 
“As the Guardian of Time, I command that the heavens to open and make way the doorway of the space-time door for myself and these travelers!  I call out your true name, almighty God of Time, Chronos!”  She closed her eyes, dropping her pitch so that only the three of them could hear.  “Guide and protect us.  Grant me the strength to bring us to the future.”  She exhaled, her breath shaking almost imperceptibly.  “Lead us to victory.”
 
Pluto’s eyes opened again, this time with more fierce a look than any Mamoru had seen in his lifetime.  “The path of light to me!” she bellowed, striking the staff on the ground.
 
Light so bright it seemed for a moment as if a star had burst erupted overhead.  Mamoru heard Venus shout as he shielded his eyes, trying to look up.  He couldn’t see a thing, but he felt himself being lifted up.  He glanced down to see that a pillar of light bore down on them, forming a circle around the trio and carrying them away.  The power drilled a circle into the street, lifting up chunks of rock and debris from the road and the Aino house.
 
Just when he started to think that bringing along a window pane wasn’t going to help them much, the Earth vanished beneath his feet.  They were gone.
 
-----
 
“What do you think is going on?” Usagi asked quietly from her corner.
 
The four captives had still been told nothing.  They had heard screaming and arguing from the main chamber, but they’d heard nothing clear.  Now, hours later, they had experienced the unmistakable feeling of movement, revealing that their prison was a vessel for the first time.
 
Ami reached a hand out to touch the side of their prison.  She furrowed her brow, murmuring, “We seem to be moving impossibly fast.”
 
“What about Minako and Mamoru?” Rei queried, her voice hoarse from their earlier confrontation.
 
“They must have figured it wasn’t worth it anymore,” Makoto muttered.  Unless Usagi was mistaken, she recognized some traces of relief in the brunette’s tone.
 
Ami’s frown deepened.  “I’m not so sure we ought to write that off as a good thing.”
 
Usagi swallowed hard, pulling her knees up to her chest.  She wished that she had some way to find out what was happening, even if it meant getting in touch with Minako.  She had no idea if either of them were safe.  Ami had guessed that Beruche had not been successful in capturing Venus, that perhaps the blonde had done her enemy a considerable amount of damage.  Usagi knew she wasn’t very smart, but she wasn’t stupid enough to think that their captors would take too kindly to be thwarted by the same girl twice.
 
She shuddered, remembering the look in Rubeus’s eyes.  Something about him had shaken her, made her more fearful than any enemy she had previously encountered.  Even Beryl’s raw power or Kunzite’s lust for vengeance paled in comparison to the darkness inside of that man.
 
She had no idea what had been done in retaliation for Venus’s escape, but she prayed that Rubeus had not decided to take matters into his own hands.  If that had happened, she had no way of knowing if either Mamoru or Minako was safe.
 
Usagi shut her eyes tightly, resting her forehead on her knees.  “Where do you think they’re taking us?”
 
“Where else?” Rei scoffed weakly, her voice was surprisingly devoid of spite.  “The future.”
 
None of them spoke for a long time after that.
 
-----
 
Artemis and Luna arrived at Minako’s home ten minutes too late.
 
“Artemis, what are all of these policemen and news vans doing here?” Luna asked, not bothering to conceal the fact that she was talking.  With as much chaos as there was in the area, it was unlikely that anyone was going to be paying much attention to a pair of wandering felines.
 
He frowned, the hair on his back standing up.  “I don’t know, but it can’t be anything good.  Makes me nervous with all of them being this close to my house.”
 
Luna chuckled.  “Your house?”
 
“Shut up.”
 
The two continued to weave their way through the crowd, attempting to get a better look at whatever had happened.  The closer they got to the epicenter of the situation, the more unsettled Artemis became.  By the time they finally reached the front of the police barricade, his ears were flat against his head, a growl coiling upwards from the back of his throat.
 
“Honestly, Artemis, calm down,” Luna chastised, pushing her way through the last pair of legs.  “I’m sure everything is just…”
 
She didn’t bother to finish.
 
Artemis and Luna stared out at the unbelievable wreckage that lay before them.  The entire front of Minako’s home had been blown apart.  Luna recognized pieces of the stairs, half of the front door, and the family portrait that had hung in the front living room.  Half of Minako’s face had been burned away.
 
“Oh, God,” Artemis breathed, his whole frame trembling.  “Minako… Minako!”
 
He started to leap forward, and Luna just barely had the presence of mind to tackle him before he went running into the open air.  He fought her fiercely, wriggling beneath her weight and even taking a swipe at her face.  Finally, Luna managed to unsheathe her claws, shoving them as close to his eyes as she dared.
 
“Stop it,” she spat, trying desperately to keep her voice like iron.  “Think, you idiot.  We don’t know if Minako was even here.  I thought you said she was tailing Usagi.”
 
Artemis panted underneath her, still giving the occasional spasm to make a break for it.  “There’s blood, Luna.  Can’t you smell it?”
 
“Artemis--”
 
“They found out who she was,” Artemis hissed.  “They found out where she lived.”  He beat one of his paws against the street, yowling in fury.  “How stupid could I have been to leave her alone?”
 
“What would you have done?  Foiled their evil plans by coughing up a hairball?” Luna snapped.  “We don’t know what happened here.  We need to find out.  Split up; search the crowd; come back here as soon as you know something.”  Luna shook her claws at her partner for emphasis.  “And do not do anything stupid.”
 
Luna backed off Artemis slowly, staying close just long enough to be sure he would do as he was told.  After he darted away, Luna remained for a moment to see if those in the immediate area had any idea, but she heard nothing but confusion and disbelief in their voices.  Most of these people probably didn’t even know who lived there.
 
Luna growled in frustration and ran in the opposite direction.  She moved out of the crowd, keeping as low to the ground as possible.  The mark on her forehead was incredibly obvious for those willing to look for it, and she’d read some articles in the papers speculating on why a bunch of teenage girls would randomly be kidnapped by supernatural forces.  A number of elicit, deplorable options had been cast out, ones Luna refused to think about.  However, one tabloid had speculated that they might be the Sailor Senshi.  The last thing they needed was a cat with crescent moon stamped on their brows to be found at a crime scene.  Magic could only conceal them so much.
 
Finally, Luna made her way over to two detectives leaning against their car, reviewing some notes they had no doubt jotted down from several interviews.  The taller one sighed, folding his arms.  “What a thing, huh?”
 
“Yeah,” the stockier one conferred.  “Anyone get a hold of the owners yet?”
 
“Still looking.”
 
“Shame… So, you think this is one of those kidnappings?”
 
Luna shut her eyes and prayed to Serenity that it was not.  If Minako had been taken and Artemis hadn’t been there, it would kill him.  Even if there was nothing he could have done, she knew it would wreck him because she would have felt exactly the same way.
 
“Looks like it.  Witnesses saying some guy with red hair blew the front of the house out.”
 
“Yeah?”
 
“Yeah.  And you’ll never guess who came flying out.”
 
“Really?  Who?”
 
“One of those Sailor Senshi.”
 
“You’re kidding.”
 
“Nope.  Witness couldn’t say which one.  She was lying on the ground, crying.  Probably got beat up real bad.  And it turns out there was a man with her.”
 
Luna stiffened, and in spite of herself, whispered, “Oh, no.”
 
“What, that idiot in a turban?”
 
“No, just a regular guy.  We think he might have driven that car over there though.  We’re running the plates now.”
 
Luna’s head swiveled over to where the detective had indicated.  She swore violently in the ancient tongue when she saw the car.  She’d know it from anywhere; it was definitely Mamoru’s.
 
“So what do you figure?”
 
“I say Red had an accomplice that snatched the Aino girl.  Another witness saw her and the guy going into the house a few minutes before the explosion.  Maybe he was the boyfriend.  Anyway, she gets snatched, guy puts up a fight, Senshi shows up, and Red tries to blow them both up.”
 
Luna heaved a tiny sigh of relief.  If they didn’t immediately try to connect up Minako with a Senshi, they’d never put two and two together.  There had been plenty of others with more information than these two had, and they had never realized the truth.  Usagi’s hair was enough to reveal her identity, and no one had ever considered her as a possibility.
 
Unfortunately, that small relief did nothing to abate the terror coursing through her veins.
 
“And then Senshi Number Two comes to the rescue.”
 
Luna straightened.  None of this was making sense.  Why would Minako have been with Mamoru?  It was possible that the witness had been wrong, that Usagi had been there too.  And that would mean that either Sailor Moon or Venus had been missed by the enemy and rescued the other.
 
But if that was the case, then where were they?
 
“I still can’t believe the stuff these people are telling us,” the stockier one continued, shaking his head.  “I mean, I haven’t even heard of one of them carrying around a staff, let alone disappearing into thin air.”
 
Luna’s blood ran cold.  “It couldn’t be.”
 
“Neither have I.  And all that stuff about, uh… What was it?  Chronos?”
 
Luna’s stomach dropped out from her body.  “Pluto,” she whispered, already on the move.  She didn’t bother to hide in her desperation to get back to the meeting spot.  Artemis should already have gotten back by now, whether he’d found out anything or not.
 
She skidded to a stop when she reached the rendezvous point.  Artemis arrived half a second later.
 
“Did you—" he began, panting.
 
“I heard,” Luna said with a sharp nod.  “Sailor Pluto.  I can’t believe it!”
 
Artemis shook his head.  “I always thought she was just a myth, but I heard it from two people.  She said ‘Chronos.’”
 
“So she took Mamoru and the girls to the Time Gate,” Luna contemplated, her tail whisking back and forth.  “But why was he even here?”
 
Artemis paused, his face freezing.  “Luna, she didn’t take all of them.”
 
Luna stopped, staring.  “What do you mean?”
 
“One of the kids recognized Venus,” Artemis started slowly, fear rising in his voice.  “It was just Minako and Mamoru she took.  Usagi wasn’t here.”
 
“No, that doesn’t make any sense.  There’s no way Minako would be alone with Mamoru.  They didn’t even know each other before.  What could they possibly—"
 
“Luna,” Artemis interrupted sharply.  “She was following Usagi.”
 
Pieces of a puzzle began to come together, a picture becoming sharper.  Inevitabilities stacked up, educated guesses swimming in a stream of panic.  There was only one explanation.  Only one plausible reason for why Minako and Mamoru would be together, and that reason left her feeling as though she would be sick to death.
 
“Usagi.”
 
-----
 
All four girls jumped when Petz slid the door to their cell wide open.  “Get up,” she instructed harshly.
 
Usagi had no desire to endure any unnecessary pain, so she barely hesitated before she started to get to her feet, glancing towards the others to silently suggest they do the same.  Rei held out her hand to keep Usagi from complying further.  “We want to know where we’re going first.”
 
Petz’s lips thinned, one fist resting on her hip.  “You are not going anywhere, Mars.  I’m only talking to her.”
 
All four of them momentarily froze.  The other three began protesting loudly, pulling themselves off the floor.  Usagi shook her head, pressing her back against the wall until it was completely flush.  It was freezing.  “No.  I’m not leaving them.”
 
“You’re not taking her anywhere,” Makoto added, moving forward to stand beside Rei.  Ami quickly followed suit, her normally calm expression replaced by one as cold as steel.  The three of them formed a makeshift human shield, standing in between Usagi and whatever terrible fate undoubtedly waited for her outside those doors.
 
Petz rolled her eyes, raising a hand.  “I don’t have time for this.”
 
With a simple gesture, black lightning came pouring out of Petz’s gloved palm, slamming into her three friends with bone-crushing force.  They shrieked and flew back like rag dolls into the opposite wall.  Usagi screamed and clambered to her feet, rushing to get to them.  She saw blood and an ankle turned the wrong way, although she couldn’t distinguish who was hurt.  She barely even made three steps before Petz’s hand closed around her wrist.
 
“Come on,” she snapped, yanking Usagi out of the cell.
 
Usagi’s head whipped around to yell for her friends, panicked tears already streaming down her face.  Rei leapt to her feet as if she hadn’t just been attacked, her arm outstretched.  Usagi held out her hand, desperately trying to grab the priestess’s fingers.  Just as they might have been able to touch, the door slammed shut again.  Rei jerked back to avoid it, staring after Usagi with wild eyes.
 
“Usagi!” she shouted, her body rigid.  “Don’t let them do anything to you, understand?  Fight back!”
 
Usagi dragged her feet even though Petz pulled on her arm.  “No.  Rei, please—"
 
“Fight!” Rei ordered again.  “I’ll come for you; I swear it, but you have to promise me.”
 
Usagi just shook her head and sobbed, “Rei!”
 
“Promise!”
 
But Usagi couldn’t say anything else.  Petz had taken her from the room, and Usagi couldn’t see her friends any longer.  She whimpered at the loss.
 
“Stop whining,” Petz ordered crossly.  “It’s not as if we’re going to kill them.”
 
Usagi’s relief attempted to outweigh her grief.  She clutched at her heart with her free hand.  “What are you going to do to them, then?  Why did you take them?”
 
“Leverage,” Petz answered.
 
Alarm bells sang out in Usagi’s mind, but she could arrive at no clear conclusion.  “For what?”
 
Something flickered in Petz’s eyes.  Usagi thought it might have been disgust.
 
“For what?” Usagi repeated more forcefully, the pitch of her voice climbing.
 
“For you.”
 
Usagi’s knees very nearly gave way, but Petz didn’t allow her to fall.  She didn’t know exactly what the warrior’s words had meant, but Usagi could guess.  Her friends had been taken to make sure that she did what these people wanted.  They could make her kill; they could make her use the crystal.  They could make her do whatever they wanted because she would do anything to keep Rei, Ami, and Makoto safe.
 
They would hate her when they found out.  They would hate that she was too selfish to let them go.  Ami would cry; Makoto would pound her fists; Rei would slap her.
 
Usagi wondered what Minako would have done if she were there.
 
Eventually, Petz and Usagi made their way out of a door Usagi had not seen before, and suddenly, they were out in the open walking down a metal ramp.  She saw for the first time that they had been in a spaceship, and her stomach did a little flip when she realized that she had been held captive outside of the Earth’s atmosphere.  But this paled in comparison to where she was now, and her mouth fell open when she saw their surroundings.
 
The sky was pitch black and filled with stars that looked too close.  She wondered if the canopy of night could come crashing down on them; disaster surrounded her now and anything seemed possible.  What little plant-life Usagi could see withered as though they had never seen the sun.  Furious clouds loomed in the distance, lightning flashing within.  The thunderheads glowed green like poison.
 
But most intimidating of all was the palace that loomed before her, made of the same black-green crystal she had seen on the ship.  It resembled a rounded pyramid, similar to the other buildings she could see in her peripheral vision, although greater in scale.  Three thin points rose from the top, their tops shimmering with what could have been impossibly large diamonds.  The palace seemed to have a face – a skull, grinning.
 
Usagi cried out when Petz dragged her forward once more.  Purple light filled Usagi’s vision, and the ground swirled away from her.  When it reappeared seconds later, they were no longer outside.  Instead, they stood in a large antechamber, foreboding and made entirely out of that same crystal.  Pillars surrounded her, reaching up towards a ceiling she could not see.  She could find no source of light, and in fact, there was barely any to be found.
 
“Prince Demando,” Petz announced, addressing shadows.  “I present Sailor Moon.”
 
Usagi gasped when Petz pushed her and found she couldn’t keep her balance.  Her knees scraped against the ground, and she could not hold back a shout.  Tears pricked at her eyes, but she swiped at them furiously.  Rei had told her to fight, to be strong, not cry like a child because of a skinned knee.
 
She looked ahead, her eyes slowly adjusting to the oppressive darkness.  She barely made out a silhouette within the black, legs crossed with an air of bored elegance, chin propped up with one hand.  The form straightened, becoming rigid with alertness.  It set something made of glass on the arm of what Usagi guessed was a throne.  Liquid sloshed.  It rose and walked forward, emerging from the gloom so that Usagi could finally see the man they were all answering to.
 
He was like a ghost emerging from the pitch, dressed all in white and pale as paper.  Dark embroidery bloomed over his chest, curled and elegant.  A purple cape swept behind him, granting him unnecessary grandeur.  He reeked of aristocracy and would have looked like a monarch in rags.  Silver-white hair hung down into eyes that were so similar to and yet so very unlike Rei’s.  His lips were slightly parted.  Earrings she had seen before dangled from his earlobes.  A black crescent stood out like ink and ash against his skin.
 
He moved closer until Usagi could see something glittering in his eyes.  She didn’t know what it was, but she feared it, knowing it resembled something she had seen before.  He reached for her, and she drew back.  “Don’t touch me!”
 
He stared for a moment, surprised and maybe even affronted, but as soon as it appeared, it was gone.  He looked down at her, his eyes burning with impossible intensity, and said, “It’s all right.  Get up.”
 
Usagi’s eyes widened at the sound of his voice, black velvet and starlight.  His voice had told and withheld secrets, commanded armies, and whispered things so sinister that even night could not bear them.  She knew all of this in an instant, knew just how powerful he was and how dangerous.  Yet softness lived there as well, something soothing lurking within the insistent tone.  He’d told her it was all right before he’d told her to get up.  She wanted to believe him.
 
Slowly, Usagi got to her feet.  She kept her eyes narrowed, but she was not nearly so hard on the inside.  “Demando?” she asked, ignoring Petz’s reaction to her lack of respect.
 
Demando nodded, but it was more like a bow.  Usagi couldn’t stop her blush.  “That is my name.”
 
Usagi swallowed, glancing around.  “Where am I?”  She paused.  “And when?”
 
Demando’s lips, barely distinguishable from the rest of his flesh, curved into a smile that made Usagi’s flesh break out with goosebumps.  “Impressive as expected, Sailor Moon.”  He furrowed his brow slightly.  “No, that doesn’t sound quite right, does it?  Not when you’re out of uniform.”
 
“My name is Tsukino Usagi,” Usagi said.  Her fingers flew to her mouth a moment.  She had no idea why she’d spoken.
 
“Usagi then,” Demando continued, undeterred by her confusion.  “You are on the planet Nemesis, the tenth in your solar system.  Or ninth, depending on how you wish to classify Pluto.”
 
Usagi stared, uncomprehending.  She considered the ramifications of the presence of a tenth planet not just on this time, but of the Silver Millennium.  Had they been involved in the alliance?  Had this man’s ancestors known her mother?  How had they stayed populated for over a thousand years when all the other planets died with the era?
 
“As to when,” Demando continued, moving to her left.  His cape moved behind him like oil in water.  “We are approximately one thousand years away from your present, in the thirtieth century.”
 
Usagi very nearly lost her footing again.  “A thousand… but that’s not—"
 
“Possible,” Demando finished.
 
Usagi nodded stupidly.  “Yes.”
 
Demando moved closer to her, and though Usagi wanted to take a step back, she found herself rooted to the spot as if cemented there.  “I would love to explain all of this to you, Usagi, but I’m afraid there are more important matters to discuss.”  Suddenly, like an adder striking out at its prey, Demando’s hand cupped her chin.  She gasped and stumbled forward.  He steadied her with his other arm and tilted her face to his.  His eyes studied her intently, roaming her every feature and pore as if searching for the answers to the greatest of questions.
 
“You have the same chin,” he murmured, the pad of his thumb smoothing her jawline.  Now that she was upright, his other hand moved from her arm to her hair, his fingers combing through one of the ponytails and lifting it away from her scalp.  “You have the same hairstyle.”  He leaned forward.  “And your lips…”
 
Velvet and starlight smelled like cyanide.  Recovering from her shock filled her with fury, and Usagi tore herself away from his prying hands.  Both of her hands curled into fists, poised for battle.  “Don’t touch me!” she repeated, this time with more viciousness and none of her wonder.
 
He did not cower as she had hoped or even fly to rage as she had expected.  Instead, he smiled again, his eyes shimmering with that same ambiance that made her ill with a memory she couldn’t quite grasp.  “Those eyes… I would know those eyes anywhere.”
 
He waved his hand, and the shadows changed.
 
Usagi whirled to see what was happening behind her.  She saw a pedestal covered in intricate carvings standing in the empty room.  Light poured from its base and then flickered.  An image rose from the stone, like a television without a screen.  At first, she could make out nothing but white and some gold, but eventually, the picture became clear.
 
It was a woman, kneeling on the ground.  She was dressed entirely in silk that looked as though it had been spun from unicorn hair.  Her gold hair tumbled to the ground in twin cascades.  Pearls wound around her shoulders and dripped between her fingers.  A crown rested on her head, and it looked like it belonged.  She was possibly the most elegant, regal woman Usagi had ever seen in her life.
 
It was like looking in a mirror.
 
“Oh, God,” Usagi whispered.
 
“You can’t see her eyes here,” Demando pointed out from behind.  “But I have seen this woman before, and she has given me that very same look.  One no other living being dares to give.”  He stepped forward.  “Defiance.  Anger.  Determination.”  He stood right next to her, several inches too close.  The hair on Usagi’s arm stood at attention.  “The eyes of an angry angel.  Your eyes, Usagi.”
 
Usagi shook her head.  “No.  No, it can’t be.”
 
“Usagi…” Demando repeated, ignoring her shock and awe.  “No, that does not seem quite right either.”  He turned to her, and Usagi wondered how she could have ever thought his eyes were anything like Rei’s.  “You are Serenity.”
 
Usagi stumbled backwards, reeling.  “No.  I’m not her.  I could never be her.  Serenity died.”
 
“You were reborn.  A phoenix made of pearl and light.”
 
“No,” Usagi insisted more forcefully.  “No, I’m not… You can’t make me.  You can’t make me be her again.”
 
Demando stared at her for a long moment, appraising her reaction.  He seemed disappointed.  “You’re upset.”
 
“Of course I’m—"
 
“Petz,” Demando interrupted.  “Get her settled.  I understand it’s been a very trying few days.”
 
“Certainly, your majesty,” Petz answered in a tone so subservient that Usagi nearly laughed.
 
Usagi shook her head.  “Not until I—"
 
“I will be along later,” Demando said, his voice suddenly soothing again.  “We will discuss things at length.”
 
For all her indignation, something about him lulled her into complacency.  She felt her arms slackening and her mouth relaxing.  Before she knew it, Petz steered her away, and she was taken to still more unknown places for unknown purposes.
 
Usagi never raised a single protest.
 
-----
 
A fan snapped from a hidden corner.  “Damn it!”
 
A sigh echoed.  “I’d hoped it wasn’t her.”
 
“How dare she?  How dare she come in here and bewitch him like that?  It’s just like the old stories say, just like she did with the Earth prince.  He’s besotted!”
 
“It’s her eyes,” the man murmured, his voice full of unspoken regret.  “Like he said.  No one looks at him like that.”
 
The woman sniffed, tossing hair the color of underripe apples.  “I would look at him any way he wanted if he’d only ask.”
 
“Then you’ve completely missed the point.”
 
She snarled, her heel scraping against the ground.  “What are we going to do?  We can’t just let her… live here as his pet.”
 
“Actually, we can.”
 
“Saffir—"
 
“Esmeraude,” he interrupted tightly.  “He is still your prince.”
 
She straightened, rising to a challenge.  “I know that.”
 
“Then you will obey, and you will not question any… pets he wishes to keep.”  He paused.  “I’ll talk to him, but it will make no difference.”
 
“Wringing her neck would—"
 
“Laying a hand on her would mean your death,” he snapped.  “Do not overestimate your importance, Esmeraude.  If you mean to fall, there is no one here who will save you.”
 
She waited a beat before smiling cruelly, white teeth glinting in the half-light.  “And tell me, Saffir, if you were to fall, is there anyone who would save you?”
 
The leather of his gloves wheezed when he clenched his fist.  “You know there isn’t.”
 
She laughed.  It was possibly the most terrible sound ever uttered by a living creature.  “I wonder if you’d still save her.”
 
He did not answer.  The sound of his footsteps leaving her was the only way she knew that he had left.  He left Esmeraude standing there, staring off in the direction Usagi had been led, her fingers longing to close around throats and her tongue thirsty for vengeance.  As well as for velvet, starlight, and even cyanide.
 
“I won’t give him up that easily, little moon witch.”
 
-----
 
Venus passed out the moment they arrived in the fourth dimension.
 
Unfortunately, that was the least of their problems in Mamoru’s opinion.  As soon as he became re-oriented, he was blasted with an unearthly, soundless wind.  He crouched beside Venus’s prone form and shielded his eyes, wondering if they’d found themselves inside of a silent tornado.  He tried to get a good look at his surroundings, but there was nothing familiar enough for him to name.  They were surrounded by an endless mosaic of color, constantly blurring and shifting so that it made him nauseous if he looked too long.  They were on a bridge without supports that stretched beyond the limits of his sight.
 
Pluto stood upright and leaned against her staff, squinting, but otherwise unaffected by the tempest.  “I did warn her.  The trip can be taxing on anyone who isn’t used to it, much less those who have taken a beating as severe as hers.”
 
Mamoru looked down at the girl-soldier and found that she looked even more battered now than when they’d left.  She seemed fragile enough to break between his hands.
 
“Will she be all right?”
 
“Yes,” Pluto assured him gently, pushing her hair out of her eyes.  “Once we reach our destination at any rate.”
 
Mamoru winced as the wind somehow managed to pick up force.  “Is it always like this?”
 
Pluto frowned, more than a little perturbed.  “No.  This is the Wiseman’s doing.  He’s attempting to slow us down.”  Before Mamoru could ask who she was talking about, Pluto lifted her staff above her head, twirling it effortlessly.  Then she brought it down with enough force to shake the bridge they were standing on, and within seconds, the storm had ceased.  She smiled, satisfied.  “His title is a bit of a misnomer.”
 
“Apparently,” Mamoru murmured, more than a little impressed.
 
“I can carry her if necessary,” Pluto continued, undeterred by his admiration.  “But only if you don’t feel strong enough to do it.  There’s no telling what else that mystic has released into this realm, and its best if I have my hands free.”
 
In reality, Mamoru felt like doing nothing but curling up in a ball at that very spot and sleeping for three days; however, after everything he’d been through in the past few hours, he wasn’t about to stay in one place for too long.  He certainly had no intention of rendering the one capable fighter incapacitated.  “Help me get her on my back.  It might be easier that way.”
 
“One thing first.”  Pluto held her staff out again, furrowing her eyebrows in concentration.  The garnet jewel pulsed with light, casting a blood glow across their faces.  A moment later, a small scimitar emerged from the orb, curved like a sharp crescent.  The handle was wrought from silver and engraved with what might have been runes, although none that looked even remotely familiar to Mamoru.  Red sparkles caught the light from what might have been rubies or garnets laid into the metal.  But what made Mamoru shudder was the color of the blade – black like jet.  Swords had always seemed marvelous until that moment.  Now they even smelled sinister.
 
“Take it,” Pluto instructed.  “If something happens to me, it would not serve you well to be unarmed.”
 
Mamoru hesitated for a moment, and it was a second Pluto obviously did not want to take.  The blade vanished before his eyes, but the sudden weight at his hip showed him where it had gone.  It was now tucked inside his belt, the metal gleaming like death in the colored hall.
 
“Now let’s see to her,” Pluto said briskly.
 
Mamoru quickly complied, and once they had Venus settled, they were on their way.  As it turned out, the corridor was not nearly as long as Mamoru had believed.  It didn’t actually come to an end, but the scenery around them shifted every few minutes.  The wide rainbow hall faded away into a black forest, which turned into a desert with blue sands, which changed to a jungle made from jade. 
 
No matter what the location, silence ruled.  He could not hear their feet striking the ground, and there was nothing to indicate that there was anything else alive in the realms they explored.  This did not seem to bother Pluto in the slightest, and normally, Mamoru cherished his peace and quiet.  But the level of nothingness that stretched out for however miles they were meant to walk made his hair stand on end.
 
And there were things that needed to be said.
 
“It was you,” he said, not bothering to question it.
 
Pluto’s step never faltered, and she did not pretend to misunderstand.  “Yes.  It was.”
 
-----
 
Demando stared at Usagi’s retreating figure, longing to follow.  Her skin had been as intoxicating as he had imagined, and those eyes, those eyes, made his blood sing.  He had waited for her eternally, and now she was within his grasp, closer than ever before.
 
But there were other affairs to attend to, and he could not let her overhear them.
 
“Wiseman.”
 
What little light there was seemed to be sucked away.  Demando did not glance over his shoulder to see that the mystic had arrived.  He could feel the Wiseman’s presence without the benefit of sight.  The weight of the air had changed.
 
“Yes, your highness.  I see you have at last claimed your prize.”
 
“I have received her,” Demando corrected.  “I have not yet claimed.”
 
Wiseman chuckled.  “Congratulations, your majesty.”
 
“What news of Venus?” Demando pressed, unwilling to waste the precious seconds that he had with Serenity now that she was among them.
 
“She is no longer in the twentieth century.”
 
Demando raised an eyebrow, the left corner of his mouth turning downward.  “So Pluto finally decided to take a direct interest.  How unfortunate.”
 
“It is indeed problematic, Prince, but it can be dealt with,” Wiseman said.  “But I have other news, your highness.  Better news.”
 
“And what is that?” Demando asked, not intrigued.
 
“A man travels with them.”
 
Now Demando’s attention was arrested.  The Wiseman’s words held a possibility.  The copper scent of blood and silenced screams moved like a stream beneath an unspoken promise.  The tantalizing possibility exploded in his mind, making the arrival of Serenity – his Serenity – better than he could have imagined.
 
He turned as if pulled by an animal, and his fingers curled as if poised to rip and tear.  “Not Endymion."
 
“The very same.  His past self at any rate.”
 
Demando wondered if his blood would taste like sugar and wine.
 
“Kill him,” Demando ordered.  “Send as many droids as Saffir can spare and destroy him.”
 
“Of course, Prince Demando,” Wiseman deferred.  “I assume the order extends to Sailor Pluto… but what of Venus?  You did originally intend for all four of Serenity’s guardians to live within your custody.”
 
Demando considered his options for a moment, but the decision was quickly made.  He waved his hand, a dismissal.  “Three will work just as well as four.”
 
“As you wish.”
 
Demando prepared to leave then, having to see to the placement of the three guardians, the well-being of his assassins, and of course, her.
 
“Just one more thing, your highness.”
 
Demando stopped, his back stiffening.  “What is it Wiseman?  I have things to attend to.”
 
“I was just wondering… why tell her that we’re on Nemesis?”
 
Demando paused, and looked over his shoulder.  From just the right angle and the correct height, he could barely make out the tops of the crystal towers that marked the location of Neo-Queen Serenity’s fortress.  The windows were all impossibly high, built to accommodate a set of captives who should not be within sight of such a structure, but who had nowhere else to go.
 
“Because,” Demando murmured, “I couldn’t very well have her know just how close she is to leaving me, could I?”  He left then, prepared to deal with all of the responsibilities that came with overthrowing tyranny and enthralling his soon-to-be lover. 
 
Behind him, the Wiseman’s laugh echoed.  A death sentence.
 
-----

This was dying.

Mamoru had been on the brink of death once before after his parents’ car had flown over a cliff, so he knew.  There was little he remembered before the accident and even during the accident, but the aftermath was as clear as anything.  He’d felt his life draining from his veins along with his blood.  His head had spun on a constant, dangerous high.  He’d been as close to the afterlife as anyone could be, and he’d only just been brought back from the brink by the hospital.

This time, it had been different.  Beings from another world and a tree that bloomed death had ravaged him.  He’d been tossed around like a tennis ball and pushed to the very edge of his endurance.  For as long as he’d been conscious, he’d held on to a girl’s hand, one that also belonged to a warrior, and found comfort.  But now he was alone, lying in fog thick and endless as the sea.  He knew that her tears and determination couldn’t save him now.  Perhaps nothing could.

Mamoru thought he could handle dying, but he couldn’t bear doing it alone.

“You’re not alone,” a voice whispered in his ear, deep and throaty and older than legend.

He tried to lift his head, but his vision swam in the attempt.  He laid back down and just barely made out a silhouette.  Tall and shapely with impossibly long hair.  She was wearing the uniform of a Sailor Senshi.  She carried a staff in her right hand.
 
“Sailor Moon?” he asked, knowing it wasn’t her and yet wishing that he didn’t know.
 
“I am another.”
 
Mamoru coughed as he inhaled, wincing as every bone and muscle in his body throbbed.  “Are you going to save my life?”

“I will help,” she assured him, her voice blessedly calm.  She did not panic in the face of death.  Perhaps she’d seen it too many times before.
 
“I’m glad,” Mamoru said, unsure of another option.

She chuckled, and some tension in his body melted away.  “I would imagine as much.”  She paused, and he thought he might have heard her sigh.  “Before I can help you, there is something that I need to ask you.”
 
“Anything.”
 
A young, high voice shouted his name in the distance.
 
“Do you think all sins can be forgiven?” the older woman whispered.
 
He was not the type to give instant answers.  Her question had been pondered by theologians and moralists for as long as there had been thought.  For every analyst, there was a different answer.  It wasn’t something Mamoru had given much thought.  He’d sworn to dedicate his life to helping others, and in a way, he thought that would cancel out any minor indiscretions he might commit over the course of his life.
 
But the answer mattered to her, and he knew she couldn’t just be asking about a little lie or social faux pas.  There were some sins that Mamoru thought couldn’t be overlooked – murder and rape and cruelty for cruelty’s sake.  And yet he knew he could not say this.
 
“I think yours will be.”
 
She laughed after another moment of uneasy silence.  “You don’t even know me.”
 
“You’re saving my life,” he murmured, darkness clouding his vision.
 
She said something to him then, but he never heard it.  Her voice had faded into the shadows as darkness overtook him, and he was too busy paying attention to that young, high, girlish voice shouting his name across space and time.

-----
 
“Thank you,” he whispered, shutting his eyes.
 
“I need no thanks,” she answered softly, pushing a hanging vine away with her staff.  “Just live as you were meant to live.  That’s all I need.”
 
Mamoru swallowed, finding his mouth was unbearably dry.  He hadn’t had a drink of water since before he’d been discharged.  The dehydration was beginning to get to him.  “Did you save me because of who I used to be?” Mamoru asked softly.  “Because I used to be… someone who could help them?”
 
Pluto looked over her shoulder, her eyes briefly resting on Venus’s face before they found his own.  “I saved you because of who you will be, Chiba Mamoru.”
 
“And who’s that?” he asked softly, the weight of his passenger suddenly much heavier.
 
Pluto actually looked as though she were about to answer when the landscape changed again.  Now they were standing in some sort of grassy field.  The sky was like a pink and aqua kaleidoscope and the area bare save for a single dead tree.  The shift made her frown.
 
“What’s wrong?” Mamoru asked nervously.
 
“This isn’t right,” Pluto muttered.  She tightened her grip on her staff, shifting her stance so that her weight was more evenly balanced.  “This area isn’t supposed to appear yet.  The pattern’s off.”
 
Mamoru bit the inside of his cheek and readjusted Venus on his back.  “I’m guessing that’s not a good thing.”
 
Suddenly, Mamoru saw something move in the distance.  A wall of what seemed to be people had appeared out of nowhere, and they were quickly advancing.  They moved oddly.  Every step was slightly jerky or mistimed.  It didn’t seem human.
 
"Damn," Pluto cursed, her heels digging into the dirt.
 
"What's wrong?" Mamoru asked, although he had a sinking suspicion. The weight of the weapon on his side felt heavy, and he found himself wishing that Venus would wake up.
 
"Droids," she answered, her teeth clenched.
 
"Excuse me?"
 
"The minions of the Black Moon Family," Pluto explained, staring ahead.  She couldn’t waste time looking at him.  "They’re like the demons sent to fight the Senshi before.  A combination between magic and machine – a technology they stole.  They breathe and they bleed, but they have circuitry like any other computer would.  Quasi-living."
 
"What do they want?"
 
She raised an eyebrow thoughtfully.  "A few things," she said, pondering.  "They were sent principally to stop us from reaching Crystal Tokyo.  I would guess that Demando had sent them in part to capture Venus, but I very much doubt that he would have sent so many to do that job.  There are at least fifty of them.”  She paused and then shook her head.  “No, after all the damage she’s done to three of his assassins, he doesn’t care to leave her alive.  He has no love lost on the sisters or especially Rubeus, but he owes them something.  Her body ought to repay the debt.”
 
Mamoru’s arms tightened against Venus’s legs, as if holding on would somehow save her.  "What about us?"
 
"I imagine they’ve wanted to get rid of me for some time,” Pluto admitted, smirking.  “I’ve made time travel considerably difficult for them, although not completely impossible.  As for you…” She closed her eyes and looked regretful.  “Demando has longed for your head for as long as he can remember.”
 
Mamoru very much wanted to set Venus down so that he could be sick all over the Time Gate.  "What are we going to do?" he asked, hoping she didn't notice how much his voice was shaking.
 
"We hope that she wakes up," Pluto said, indicating the perpetually unconscious body of the Sailor Soldier.  "She’s more suited to one-on-one combat, but it would be nice to have a sharpshooter taking them out from a distance.”  Then she looked at him, and her eyes were so intense that he straightened.  “Bring her around and stay behind me."
 
Mamoru blinked, wanting to argue and wondering why in the world he felt that impulse.  "But you gave me the--"
 
"In case of an emergency," she interrupted.  She rested her hand on his shoulder, smiling kindly.  “I do not believe it will come to that just yet.”
 
"How do you know?"  His voice was hushed and heavy.
 
She shrugged and said nothing more.
 
She didn't have a chance to.
 
-----
 
Luna and Artemis reached the Tsukino’s neighborhood completely out of breath, but even when the front door was in sight, they somehow moved faster, making a beeline for the tree outside of Usagi’s window.  They crawled up without their usual grace, flinging themselves through the opening.  Here, Artemis paused on the bed, but Luna continued, meowing at the top of her lungs.
 
She looked around frantically, desperately trying to find a sign that Usagi was safe and at home.  She paused, hearing noises from downstairs.  She raced down the stairs, praying that she would find the blonde sitting on the floor, surrounded by her family, all tuned to the television.  She skipped the last three steps and dashed into the living room, gasping for air.
 
Kenji was in his easy chair.  Ikuko hovered behind him.  Shingo sat on the couch.
 
Usagi was nowhere.
 
“My God,” Ikuko whispered, her fingers covering her mouth.  “I can’t believe this.”
 
The Aino home was on the television screen, a reporter rapidly giving details Luna had already heard.  A girl and a man had gone in.  Two Senshi and that same man vanished in a flash of light.  The house was demolished.  There was no sign of Aino Minako.
 
Kenji reached up and grabbed his wife’s free hand.  “It’ll be all right.”
 
Suddenly, Minako’s parents were on the screen.  Her father struggled against three police officers, trying to reach what was left of his home.  He couldn’t be heard, but Luna knew that he screamed for his daughter.  Her mother seemed worse off, sitting on the curb and staring at nothing, completely catatonic.
 
Luna wondered how the Tsukinos would react once they realized their daughter was gone.
 
She bent her head and no longer bothered to stop the tears.  She whispered her charge’s name too softly for the humans to hear, though all she wanted to do was wail and scream like she was feral.  Artemis came up beside her, short of breath but a welcome presence.  He rubbed his head against her cheek and entwined his tail with hers, whispering in her ear.
 
Luna couldn’t hear him.  All she could hear were screams yet to be created.  All she could see were the way the Tsukinos would break when they realized Usagi was gone.
 
-----
 
The battle was unlike anything he’d ever seen before.
 
Sailor Pluto fended off the first volley of attacks with a blast from her staff, and there was still enough energy left over to take out a couple of the droids.  But the first wave was hardly the last.  Spears made of ice and electric rings came flying from every direction, and there was only so much Pluto could annihilate before they reached her.  A particularly deadly looking projectile grazed her shoulder, but Pluto made up for it when she sank the sharper end of her staff into the forehead of one of the advancing droids.
 
The droids moved closer, and Mamoru knew there was no way he was going to avoid being hit if he didn’t find cover.  He looked around for something to hide behind and quickly found a boulder he hadn’t noticed before.  He couldn’t help but wonder if it had only appeared because he had need of it.
 
He sincerely hoped not lest the droids take advantage.
 
Mamoru ducked behind the rock and quickly laid his blonde burden to the ground.  Venus stretched out on the ground before him, and the sounds of Pluto's endless battle with the droids threatened to make his sanity flee.  He decided it was better if he didn’t watch any more than he had to; listening to it was bad enough.
 
He winced at the sound of flesh being pierced and a wet gurgle.
 
“I am not cut out for this,” Mamoru muttered, one arm curling around his unsettled stomach.
 
He sat there for a moment, attempting to collect his bearings.  When it became clear that he was going to remain scattered and sick, he leaned forward and grasped Venus’s shoulder.  He shook her as gently as possible, wondering if she’d fly awake and go straight for the jugular before she knew it was him.
 
Or maybe she’d do the same if she saw his face.
 
“Minako,” Mamoru said, raising his voice above the cacophony of war.  “Minako, you need to wake up.”
 
She didn’t even wince.  Paranoid, Mamoru leaned forward and felt for a pulse at her neck.  Her heart was beating surprisingly strong for someone who’d lived through three battles in less than forty-eight hours.  He guessed that’s why she was a superhero.
 
“You’re strong enough to be conscious, then,” Mamoru informed her.  “If that’s true, you’ve got to wake up.  Pluto can’t do this alone.”
 
As if to prove his point, Pluto’s cry rocketed above the din, higher than he would have expected.  His back went rigid and sweat broke out over his skin.  He hadn’t really thought of it before, but if Pluto fell and Venus didn’t wake up, he was on his own with only a short sword to protect him.
 
With shaking fingers, he pulled out the scimitar with his free hand.
 
He shook Venus even harder.  “Minako, I’m serious.  Pluto needs your help.”  For a moment, he thought he saw the small girl’s eyelids flutter, but she didn’t stir.  He growled and shouted, “Minako, open your eyes!  We need your—"
 
Mamoru abruptly cut off at the sound of something light landing a few feet away.  Terrified as he was to look, he whipped around, briefly maintaining the childish hope that Pluto had joined him.  His heart plummeted to his knees when he came face-to-face with a pair of eyes like twin voids set into sallow flesh.
 
The droid tilted its head to the left, and Mamoru heard a quiet whir of circuitry.  On the surface, it seemed like it was fully alive, but beneath, he knew that there was a mixture of veins and wires to make it truly animate.  It was clothed in teal robes with hair like robins’ eggs pouring from the top of its head.  There was a blood red jewel inlaid in its brow with an inverted black crescent just barely visible.
 
“It’s not fair for the playthings to hide behind rocks,” the droid whined in a voice that dripped with saccharine and venom.  “You should come out so we can all have a turn.”
 
Mamoru tried to readjust his grip on the scimitar’s pommel, but his palms were too slick.  Unsure of what else to do, he thrust the sword in front of him, the tip gleaming in the rose light.  “Get back,” he threatened, hating that his voice quivered like a rabbit in a storm.
 
The droid clucked its tongue and shook its head again.  “No fun.  No fun at all to tear the frightened boy to bits.”  It jerked its thumb back to where Pluto was still fighting.  “She was much more fun.”
 
Mamoru fervently wished that he were confident enough to threaten the droid with a quip, but he couldn’t speak anymore.  He just crouched there, a shaking sword caught between his wet, trembling fingers.
 
He was not ready for this.
 
The droid sighed, but its expressionless face made its regret hollow.  “No fun at all.”  Even so, the droid lunged forward, jaws gaping to reveal an entirely empty mouth.  It reached out with both hands, sharp fingers driving for his eyes.
 
Mamoru just barely managed to roll out of the way, remembering too late that he’d now left Venus completely exposed.  He turned quickly, eyes wide with terror.  “Mina—"
 
He stopped mid-word, shielding his eyes by the bright flash of gold.  The droid shrieked in pain, halted in mid-air like it as being lifted by wires.  In seconds, it turned back and then broke apart.  There was nothing left of it now but a pile of dust and a dull red jewel, black smoke rising from where the moon had once been.
 
Mamoru gaped, staring at the now fully awake Venus.  She was lying on her side, finger pointed where the robot had been.  She collapsed a moment later, chest heaving with the effort it taken her to do that much.  She closed her eyes and hissed, “Don’t pull out a weapon unless you intend to use it.”
 
Mamoru tried in vain to suppress his shudders.  The scimitar was completely free of blood or any other blemish.  It had been a useless tool in his hands.  He didn’t want to think of the damage it could have done.  “I—" he stammered, feeling desperately alone and unsure and so out of his depth that he would envy a drowning man.  “I just—"
 
“Mamoru,” she interrupted, sharp and exasperated.
 
He couldn’t look at her, too busy staring at the blood-red jewels taunting him like her eyes might have been.  His fingers trembled, and the blade looked pathetic in his hand.  It would have been deadly and commanding in hers.  Perhaps in anyone else’s.  He opened his mouth to speak, though he was lost as to what he might say.
 
“Why don’t you put that away?”
 
Suddenly, Venus’s voice sounded surprisingly gentle, so much so that Mamoru had to look to see that it was her.  Her eyes were open again, far softer than he’d seen for a very long time.  She pitied him – for his innocence, absurdly enough.  Mamoru didn’t care.  He happily accepted it from someone other than himself.
 
He shoved the blade back through his belt and inched closer to Venus, keeping an eye out for anymore unexpected visitors.  He felt the hairs on the back of his neck start to relax as he drew nearer.  She may have been wounded, but she’d proven that she could still take care of the dangers he was hopeless against.  “Pluto’s out there by herself.”
 
“I figured,” Venus muttered, frowning.
 
“Can you stand?”
 
Venus laughed dryly.  “I can’t even sit up.”  The softness in her eyes vanished in an instant, replaced by her usual steel.  “You’re going to have to hold me up.”
 
Mamoru blinked, surprised that she’d even consider that option.  “Are you—"
 
“Hey, I’m not thrilled about it either,” Venus informed him, sighing dramatically.  “But we need to face facts.  I can’t move, and Pluto’s preoccupied.  That leaves you.”
 
Much as Mamoru hated it himself, her logic was sound.  He doubted he could keep his eyes closed for whatever part of the battle still needed to be fought.  Nightmares would dog his sleep for weeks to come, but he couldn’t leave Pluto to fend for herself.
 
It was a small consolation that Venus’s tone had lost much of its venom.
 
“Come on,” Venus instructed, hitting him gently on the arm.  “Make yourself useful.”
 
Mamoru braced himself and got to his feet.  He held out his hand for hers, and she grasped it firmly.  He pulled, lifting her as far as could be allowed before he wound an arm around her shoulders.  He felt the tension there, like wires pushed through her veins, taught and painful.  But by the end, she was upright, knees weak but steady.
 
Ready for war.
 
-----
 
Punch to the throat.  Elbow to the gut.  Forehead-to-forehead; heel-to-nose.
 
“Dead scream.”
 
Another group of droids fell beneath the attack, littering the ground with seven more smoking jewels and dust piles.  All that effort, and she was still left with half of her opponents.  More to the point, fatigue began to overtake her.  She’d taken a rather nasty hit from an energy blast several minutes before.  It slowed her down considerably.  She hadn’t heard anything from where Mamoru had hidden with Venus, and that meant she’d be on her own for some time to come.
 
“Of all the times for that girl to take a power nap,” Pluto grumbled, knocking another three droids senseless with the orb atop her Time Staff.  Even from her position at the Time Gate, Pluto had been made to deal with many of Venus’s quirks and idiosyncrasies, each one more irritating than the last.  Still, she’d allowed (and occasionally been amused by) the woman to act as she would because when the chips were down, she could always be depended on.
 
As far as Pluto was concerned, the chips were now melded into the floor, and Venus had not come.
 
The droids continued to surge forward.  Pluto now realized that she’d severely underestimated their numbers, and began to wonder if perhaps Saffir had at last learned how to make a successful cloaking device.  But now was not the time for such ponderings.  Instead, she focused on beating back the hoard.
 
Blood flew into the air as another droid tasted the Staff’s metal.  She gasped out the name of her attack more times than she could count, but still, they kept coming.  Their numbers seemed endless; the situation not hopeless, but dire.  Exhaustion loomed, but still, Pluto pressed on.
 
Suddenly, a droid lashed out at the back of her kneecap and her leg collapsed.  She wheezed when she hit the dirt and quickly raised her weapon to defend herself.  But before she could call out the name of her attack once more, she heard something entirely different.
 
“CRESCENT BEAM!”
 
Pluto turned sharply and was quickly thankful for the robot that had brought her to her knees.  A thin yellow line arched beautifully, cutting through the red dust in the air and bringing light to the shadows.  But at the end, there was nothing but grotesque carnage.  The beam cut through the droids like scissors through papers, bodies ripped apart.  A child taking toys apart with the senseless cruelty naiveté wrought.
 
But Venus’s actions were neither senseless nor cruel.  Her eyes might have been cold and defiant, but Pluto knew just how deeply she understood necessity.  It was in every gesture she stifled and every feeling she suppressed.  She had watched the earliest battles in London.  She knew the horrors the blonde had witnessed.  There had been times when she, an ageless guardian, had cast her eyes aside and thought of better times.
 
Another reason why she tolerated the flights of fancy, vexing as they were.
 
That Venus could be detached in this moment was no surprise.  That she expertly held the flinch and ignored the nausea no one could blame her for feeling was to be expected.  That she had come through in the end, Pluto realized ought to have been anticipated.  To doubt even the younger version of the warrior had been folly.
 
The only thing that made Pluto pause was to see the soldier leaning heavily on Mamoru’s arm.  To see them move together, her finger outstretched with his hands on her forearms, guiding her around in a position obviously predicated brought Pluto’s eyebrow to meet her hairline.
 
When the surrounding droids fell and the attack faded, Venus sought out her look as if she had been waiting on it all along.  The blonde blushed, frowning, but her chin raised at the last second.  A mannerism she’d copied from Mars that did not suit her.  “It was either this or crawl.”
 
Pluto chuckled at the statement, a defense that was childish in its haste.  It reminded Pluto that for all her expertise and bravado, Venus was still only fourteen.  “We can’t have that.”
 
Mamoru’s eyes, paler now than she remembered, flicked up and caught sight of what Pluto knew must be more advancing droids.  “How much longer than this go on?”
 
“I doubt Saffir sent his whole army to take care of us.  Not even a significant portion,” Pluto assured him as she dragged herself to her feet.  It took considerable effort, but she did not need to lean on her Staff just yet.  A small victory.  “I do not think there will be any beyond this wave.”
 
“Good,” Venus breathed, not bothering to hide her relief.  “Let’s get to it then.”  Without another word, Venus stretched out her hand and let out a volley of what could have been twenty of her beams, racing towards the line of droids coming for them.
 
Pluto smiled quietly.  “Nothing like the direct approach,” she muttered, and then added her smoke and light to the storm.
 
-----
 
The dust finally settled, and the trio was surrounded by piles of what had once been the enemy.  Dust and stones littered the ground like forgotten garbage or the remnants of spring cleaning.  Black smoke hung low from the fading crescents.  But they stood victorious, and with that in mind, Venus thought it would be stupid to complain.
 
She disentangled herself from Mamoru once she’d sent another beam for the final droid, staggering away.  She swayed, unsure of her own power for a moment.  Breath filled her lungs and her palms found her knees, her aching back relieved to be bent the other way.  She exhaled, eyes fluttering, but she wasn’t on the ground.
 
The dull thump that followed wasn’t that much of a surprise.
 
“You all right?” Venus called.
 
“I’m not hurt,” he answered.  It wasn’t exactly what she’d meant, but it was all she was going to receive.
 
She thought of looking at him and judging for herself, but she didn’t want to.  She remembered the first night she had transformed into Sailor V, just a few nights before she’d moved to London and had to leave Artemis behind.  The exhilaration had been intoxicating.  Adrenaline coursed through her veins like a drug, her heels scraping against the rooftops aiding her flight, her skirt brushing against legs that had never tasted the night air.  The shrieks of joy that echoed through Tokyo that night had been grumbled about the next morning.  She’d beamed like polished topaz.
 
She chose not to remember the first night she’d transformed as Sailor V to fight, but she couldn’t push away the scattered images from the aftermath.  Lying at the bottom of the shower fully clothed.  Tremors like an addict in withdrawal coursing through her limbs.  Choking on her own vomit.
 
“Pluto,” Venus said.  “Do you need to lean on that staff the rest of the way?”
 
“I don’t believe so,” Pluto answered, panting with effort.  “But if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather hold on to it.”
 
Venus nodded and pointed in a vague direction that might have been towards the tree.  “Help me get something from that tree then.  Let Mamoru just carry himself around.”
 
The pair of soldiers took a moment before they began the somewhat long walk to the dead tree.  Their feet sought out an unsteady path, occasionally stumbling.  Eventually, Pluto held out her arm, and Venus took it without preamble.
 
“Why did you give him that sword?” Venus asked softly, trusting they were far enough away to prevent his overhearing.  Of course, she doubted he would be in a position to listen.
 
“Would you rather I trusted in your ability to be awake at precisely the right moment?”
 
“He wasn’t ready for that.”
 
“None of us were ready.”
 
Venus controlled the flinch with practiced ease, but Pluto smiled as though she knew exactly what had happened.  “He’s going to be worse off now.  I know you couldn’t help it, and I know it was necessary… But it’s going to be harder.”
 
“What is?”
 
“Getting him back.”  The words tasted like food that had been charred too much.
 
For a moment, Pluto almost looked taken aback.  “I hadn’t thought that was one of your priorities.”
 
Venus paused for a moment, thinking of asking the woman just how she’d known that, but stopped.  Sometimes Venus thought she might know everything, so she avoided wasting time with the question.   “It’s Usagi’s priority.”
 
Now Pluto frowned.  “Do you think that’s wise?”
 
Venus dropped the other woman’s arm.  “Look, I don’t know what to think anymore.  I don’t even know you, but you dress like me and you act like you know me, so I’ll agree to being your ally.  But that doesn’t mean you get to tell me how to deal with this.  Usagi wants him back.  She’s risked everything for it.  She’s being held captive, and I don’t know what’s happening to her or the others.  I don’t know how to get them back—"
 
She broke off, her voice suddenly giving out.  She closed her eyes, turning her head away from the muffled retching at their backs.  “I don’t know how to get them back.  The least I can do is get him back.”
 
“And do you know how to go about that?”
 
Venus glared and held her hand aloft, index finger outstretched.  A final golden bolt of light came bursting forth, slicing one of the straighter branches from the dead tree.  Dust flew up from where it landed.
 
“No,” Venus admitted sourly.  “But at least I’ve got him with me.”
 
Venus started to hobble forward to take the walking stick, but Pluto reached it before her.  She snatched it up a second too quick, and for a moment it seemed to glow.  Venus blinked, and suddenly it was straighter and sturdier than it had been just seconds before.
 
Pluto glanced over her shoulder.  “You cannot force the tide, Venus.  There are things at work beyond your control.  I fear what may happen should you interfere too much.”
 
Venus pulled the support from Pluto’s grasp.  “And I’m terrified to think what’ll happen if I don’t.”
 
She turned to walk back to Mamoru, jumping when she found him standing just a few feet away.  His bangs clung to his damp forehead, and his skin had a grey-green cast.  But he was in one piece, and after the amount of times she’d gotten knocked around that day, Venus found herself so grateful part of her wanted to cry.
 
But later, not in front of him.
 
“Let’s keep moving,” Venus suggested, already making her way forward.  She leaned heavily on her staff and winced with almost every step, but she was determined to get out of this place and reach whatever destination Pluto had in mind.
 
Besides, Venus knew that there was no way she would be able to survive another confrontation that day, and she was in no mood to die.
 
-----
 
When they reached their destination, Petz threw her into the room and slammed the door behind her as though it were another prison cell.  Usagi stumbled, shutting her eyes, unwilling to see the dismal quarters she would be staying in until Ami figured out how to get them out of there.  But she knew it was pointless to hide from the truth for too long; she’d have to look sooner or later.  Eventually, she took three very deep breaths and opened her eyes.
 
Usagi found herself unsure the second she took in her surroundings.
 
Unlike the other rooms and hallways she had seen, this one seemed to be carved out of blue crystal that almost looked like tinted glass.  Floor to ceiling, all she could see was gemstone too translucent to be sapphire but too sturdy to be anything else.  The room went on for what she estimated was nearly three stories, with the windows not appearing until the very top just underneath what could have served as a ledge.  She kept it in mind for future reference.  It was also very sparsely furnished, equipped only with a closet jutting from the wall.
 
There was also a bed.  It was larger than her parents’.
 
Usagi swallowed and rubbed her bare arms, her flesh breaking out in fresh goosebumps.  She took a few steps forward, wincing at the sound her shoes made against the ground.  She kept them on, just in case.
 
Seeing nothing else to do, Usagi wandered over to the closet.  It was at least twice her size and nearly as long as the bed.  She couldn’t find any handles to pull the doors open, but when she laid her palm flat to its surface, they swung open as if dictated by silent command.  She gasped, but that wasn’t why.
 
The wardrobe was filled to the brim with some of the most exquisite looking dresses she had ever seen.  Usagi knew some of the fabrics used were likely more expensive than her entire collection of clothing.  She reached in and smoothed her fingers against what might have been silk. It felt like liquid in her hands.
 
She checked over her shoulder, absurdly feeling like a child invading her mother’s space.  Assured that no one watched her, Usagi reached in and picked out a dress at random.  It was the palest shade of pink, spun out of impossibly fine satin or something like it.  Someone had weaved shining gold thread into the skirt about halfway down, and had added more and more of the thread until the bottom glittered like a shattered sun.  The same gold thread had been used to stitch some embroidery around the bust line.  It reminded her of fire, but somehow rendered harmless.  Something white and filmy had been sewn to the back; it almost looked like fairy wings.
 
Usagi replaced the dress reverently and thought of taking out another.  She shut the doors instead, turning in place until her back was to it.  Then she slid down to the floor, her forehead coming to rest on her knees.  It was a position familiar to her in this captivity.
 
“I want to go home,” she whispered to an empty room.
 
Silence passed for just a few seconds too long before the room answered.  “Are you crying?”
 
She jumped, swiping at her eyes on instinct although they were dry.  She caught sight of Demando instantly, a ghost standing out amidst the dark walls.  His eyes were narrowed; he might have been worried if he hadn’t been her captor.
 
“No,” she murmured.  “I want to know where my friends are.”
 
He stared down at her a moment before nodding.  “Yes, I imagine you would.”  He took a step to the right; Usagi stiffened.  “I can assure you that they’re quite safe.”
 
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
 
“They are all here,” Demando continued smoothly.  “Each is housed in a different room on a different end of the castle.  Originally, the building was separated into quarters to accommodate four, but since one of your Senshi has managed to elude us, we have made do with three.”
 
“I’m sure Venus would be happy to apologize for the inconvenience,” Usagi said.  She hated how her voice shook, making her sound as scared as she actually felt.
 
Demando’s lips curled.  “They have been bound to their rooms.”
 
Remembering the collars, Usagi’s cheeks flushed pink with anger.  Driven by sudden adrenaline, she shot to her feet, finger pointed like a knife.  “I won’t let you put those collars on them again!  Petz and the others nearly killed them, and I won’t—"
 
“They have already been removed.”
 
Her tirade interrupted, Usagi felt her body deflate.  “Oh.”
 
“They have been replaced with these.”
 
With a flourish of his arm, Demando produced a jewelry box out of thin air.  He waited, as though anticipating her reaction; when she didn’t, he pulled the lid open as if she had not failed to meet his expectations.  She leaned slightly closer to peer inside, but she needn’t have.  She’d seen the same earrings glinting from the ears of her enemies for the past week.
 
“Will those do the same thing?” Usagi asked, fearful of having to wear them herself.
 
“No,” Demando said, his jawline becoming more pronounced.  “The collars… I find them to be outdated and unnecessary technology.  Loud and messy.  They are Rubeus’s preference.  Not mine.”
 
Usagi relaxed a little, but it didn’t take her long to remember just how much Rubeus unsettled her.  Just because this man was an improvement didn’t mean that she was safe.  They were still on the same side.  “What will these do?”
 
“These simply track their movements,” Demando explained.  “And yours.”
 
Usagi’s chest seized, and she took a step back.  “What if I say no?”
 
Demando looked at her blankly for a moment, as if this hadn’t occurred to him.  “If you say no… I said that I find Rubeus’s methods distasteful; however, I will still employ them if necessary.”
 
Without another second’s hesitation, Usagi’s hand snatched the earrings from him, and she began to put them on.  “Am I supposed to stay in here then?”
 
“No,” Demando said, gesturing widely.  “You are free to roam about the entire castle at your leisure, Serenity.”
 
Usagi winced.  “That’s not my name.”
 
“You will only be permitted to see one of your friends at a time, I’m afraid,” Demando continued, pretending he hadn’t heard.  “When you’re with them, they will be allowed to leave their rooms, but they may not step outside their section of the palace.  You will also be followed at a distance by a droid.”
 
Usagi’s blood momentarily froze.  She had no idea what a droid was, but she was willing to bet it was Demando’s version of a youma.  She shuddered again, sliding the second earring into place.  They were heavy.
 
She looked around the room again, staring out at her slightly better furnished prison.  Even with the bed, it still looked unbearably empty.  She marveled that she hadn’t been crying when he found her.
 
“Why am I here?” she asked thickly.  “Why did you take us?”
 
She heard him take a step forward.  “Surely you already know that, Serenity.”
 
Her face screwed up with pain, and her nails dug into her palms.  She spun in fury, shouting, “That’s not my name!”
 
In an instant, he had traveled the distance between them.  One arm wrapped possessively around the small of her back while the other hand found the same hollow in her chin.  That same look sprang into his eyes.  Her entire body broke out into a sweat.
 
“I will call you by the name I choose,” Demando said, his voice unbearably cool.  “You will do as I say.”
 
Usagi shook her head, trying to pry him off.  “I won’t, I—"
 
The colors in the room swam.  Oranges and pinks floated on the air like a venomous sunset.  Buzzing filled her ears that made it hard to think.  She felt her body slacken in his arms.  All the will to fight drained out of her body.
 
She stared in horror at the third eye that had appeared on his brow.
 
“You will do as I say,” he repeated, his voice graver and echoing in her mind.  “You can breakfast alone and lunch with one of your friends, but dinner will be with me.  If I wish to see you at other times, you will obey.  You will not talk about your life in Former Tokyo unless I ask you about it.  You will not miss your home or your missing friend.  You will not speak nor even think of the man that was last seen with Venus.”  He leaned in closer.  She couldn’t breathe.
 
“And I will take what I wish from you.”
 
His lips falling onto hers was like a car crash.  It bruised and tore at her insides.  She felt as though his teeth might make her bleed, like his tongue would choke her.  She wanted to rise up or push him away.  She wanted to run and cower in a corner until he left her, but she couldn’t move.  Her body was not her own.
 
She thought of Mamoru and how they still had not kissed.  She thought of Prince Endymion once upon a time and how his arms had shielded her and twirled her within hours of each other.  She thought of Tuxedo Kamen, and how, if only he were still around, he would have flown to her rescue in an instant.
 
Her eyes flickered over to the window ledge.  She could almost picture him there, cape billowing in the wind from the hole in the glass.  He would stand there, straight and tall, glowering at this man who had dared to take what was not his.  This man who had kidnapped her and now violated her.
 
But there was no one there.  Tuxedo Kamen wasn’t anywhere near, and he couldn’t save her this time.
 
Mamoru…
 
Tears welled up in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks unbidden.  The salted water traveled down the curve of her skin, meeting Demando’s.  He reared back instantly as if burned.  He gaped at her wet face and then scowled, pushing her back.  The third eye disappeared, and it felt like she could breathe again, although she could no longer stand.
 
“You think of him,” he muttered tensely, his voice quiet.  It reminded her of the moment after a lightning flash, before the thunder exploded in her ears.  “When I forbade you.”
 
Usagi’s fingers covered her mouth as if she could defend it.  She glared up at him through her wet lashes and hissed, “I won’t talk about him because I’m scared of what you’ll do to the others.  But I will always love him, and there is no spell in yours or anyone’s possession that will make me stop.”
 
Demando’s face spasmed, and his shoulders twitched.  For a moment, she thought he was going to hit her, but all he did utter a wordless shout and stalk away from her, his violet cape swirling in anger.  He vanished without opening the door, leaving her once more.
 
The moment he was gone, Usagi’s resolve collapsed.  Her arms wrapped around her body, although she wished they were broader and belonging to someone else.  She clutched at her back, her fingers digging in, and let out a quiet moan.  The tears flowed faster now, unimpeded by his presence.  She felt sick, as though she had been drugged and was only now emerging from her stupor.
 
She wanted Ami to soothe her.  She wanted Makoto to hurt him.  She wanted Rei to yell.  She wanted Mamoru to save her.  And a part of her even wanted Minako, although Usagi didn’t think she could predict her reaction.  Not anymore.  But maybe she would have made it hurt less.
 
Usagi sat there and cried until there were no more tears left in her.  And it was at the end of that breakdown, when she sat on the floor completely drained and shivering, that she realized where she had seen the look in Demando’s eyes before.
 
Beryl had looked at Mamoru exactly the same way.
 
-----
 
At the edge of a golden meadow with a thick fog hanging over the grasses, Venus caught sight of a door that led to nowhere.  She felt her shoulders droop at the sight of it, muttering, “God, this place makes no sense.”
 
“It makes perfect sense,” Pluto contradicted in an all-knowing voice Venus was beginning to find annoying.  “A door is an entrance or an exit depending on which way you come at it.”
 
“Please say it’s an exit,” Mamoru pleaded dully, dragging a hand down his face.
 
Although it was meant as something of a joke, Pluto didn’t look amused.  If anything, she looked graver.  “It is, I’m afraid.”
 
Venus paused.  “So we’re here?  At the future?”
 
Pluto nodded.  “Once you’re beyond those doors.”
 
“I don’t get it,” Venus continued, leaning heavily on her walking stick.  “You went back to the past to get us so that we could come here.  We’re here now.  Isn’t that a good thing?”
 
Pluto exhaled very slowly.  “Venus, if anything the fact that I had to fetch you at all speaks to how very dire our situation is.”
 
Before she could stop herself, Venus looked over at Mamoru warily.  He looked as though he was going to be sick again, and all he’d been given was a vague warning.  Venus pushed her head against her prop, mindful of splinters.  “I want to sleep until I’m dead.  Can we just do that?”
 
Pluto’s face continued to remain stoic.  This either meant that Venus’s sense of humor got progressively worse the closer she was to collapsing, or something really unpleasant loomed in their new future.  “Once you get beyond that door, you’ll see…” she trailed off, almost flinching.  “There’ll be a path.  Just walk down it for a while, and you’ll meet up with someone.  He can help.”
 
Venus continued to stare at the doors as if more of those robots were going to pour out of them at any moment.  “Aren’t you coming?”
 
“I can’t,” Pluto murmured regretfully.  “I’ve left the gate unguarded long enough.  There isn’t much danger of the Black Moon Clan doing any more traveling in the near future, but… there are other duties I must attend to.”
 
“How will we know it’s the right person?” Mamoru asked, sounding quite disappointed at being left alone with Venus again.
 
“You’ll know,” Pluto answered cryptically.  Then, without so much as a fare-thee-well, Pluto turned on her heel and walked in the opposite direction.  The fog seemed to gather around her like a shroud, and soon even her silhouette was gone.
 
Venus heaved a loud sigh.  “She is weird.”
 
“Yeah,” Mamoru answered without much enthusiasm.
 
“Great hair,” Venus added.  “But still.  Weird.”
 
Venus glanced over at him, hoping for some kind of response, but he wasn’t looking at her.  His attention remained fixed on the doors beyond her, beads of sweat forming at his temple.  His fingers twitched next to the blade Pluto had given him.
 
“Well,” Venus said, much more subdued.  “I guess we should go.”
 
Mamoru swallowed.  “Yeah.”
 
As much as Venus would have liked to hesitate, she figured it was better to get it over with.  Surely whatever lay beyond those doors wasn’t as bad as Pluto had made it seem.  Venus didn’t think anything could be as bad as nearly a hundred artificial enemies or Rubeus’s eyes.
 
She shuddered and moved forward, almost too quickly.  She caught her balance before Mamoru had to think to do so, and then they both moved forward.  They crossed the short distance to the door, their legs parting the mist that lay between.  When they reached the exit, they both reached forward, but the doors swung open of their own accord.  They moved slowly, tormenting them, dragging out the inevitable.  Venus braced herself against an unknown foe, held her breath, and stepped through.
 
They were outside in the blink of an eye, and from where they stood on a cliffside, they could see a crater the size of a small island.
 
The whole world seemed blue, and for a moment, it was difficult to distinguish anything.  But she quickly realized that the tiny mounds around the crater had once been buildings.  She could still make out some sharp corners and even some nearly fully formed walls.  She saw a church steeple and a sign for a grocery store.  She thought she even could make out the remains of a child’s swing set.
 
And then, directly ahead of them was a palace that seemed to be wrought from glass.  Its numerous towers stood tall against the landscape, a harsh reminder of strength resolute in the middle of so much desolation.  It was dull, lightless, and covered in black marks like wounds.  It reminded her of a tomb.
 
It took her a moment to realize that she had covered her gaping mouth with her left hand.  She closed it into a fist and slowly lowered it, but she could not look away.
 
“Jesus,” Mamoru muttered.
 
“I can’t…” Venus croaked.  “People died here.  A lot of people had to have died here.”  She swallowed and tried very hard to stop shaking.  “I thought we were supposed to be in this future.  I… I never would have let this…”
 
She trailed off because she obviously had.
 
“Where is this supposed to be?” Mamoru asked, stumbling out into the open.  He coughed a bit when he inhaled.  The air was full of dust and debris even though it looked as if the battle had been fought awhile ago.  “It… We’re still on Earth, right?”
 
Venus looked around, stepping up beside him to get a better look at their surroundings.  She caught sight of a white globe in the sky, a moon almost full.  “Same moon; same planet.”
 
“But this… it can’t be Tokyo,” Mamoru insisted.  “There’s no way the city could have changed this much.  I mean, it can’t have been more than a few decades at the most, right?”
 
“I guess so.”
 
“This architecture doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen before,” Mamoru continued undeterred.  “It’s leaps and bounds beyond what’s around now.  I mean, in our time, but it doesn’t even look like anything from our time is still around.”
 
Venus stared at the crater meaningfully.
 
Mamoru shook his head.  “But the debris.  All the pieces left, they look… They look like they’re glass.”
 
“People shouldn’t build houses out of glass; they’ll fall down,” Venus murmured, knowing that didn’t sound right.
 
“What?”
 
“Nothing.”  She shook her head, frowning.  “I mean, it looks like glass, but… it can’t be.  Because then there’d be nothing.”
 
Mamoru ran his hand through his hair.  “But what else could it be?”
 
“Crystal.”
 
Both Venus and Mamoru jumped at the sound of a third voice.  They both spun in opposite directions, pinpointing the speaker’s location at different spots.  It had been deep with a resonant quality that made Venus feel as though it were surrounding her.
 
“Who’s there?” she demanded, one arm outstretched.  She sincerely hoped she could make good on the implied threat and that her uncertainty didn’t show.  “Show yourself.”
 
“Look straight ahead.”
 
Venus swung her arm around; Mamoru turned in the same breath.  She squinted and searched the landscape for their new visitor.  Pluto had told them to meet with someone, but they hadn’t gone anywhere.  Besides, she wasn’t willing to trust someone just because of some gut feeling.  It may have worked the last time, but things were different now.  Venus wasn’t sure she could defend herself in a tight spot, and she felt as though time were running short.  The longer Usagi and the others were gone, the more danger they were in.  Venus had no time to waste on false friends.
 
Finally, Venus started to make out a shape.  He was pale, strangely so.  He seemed to shimmer as if he were barely there, though Venus guessed that had more than a little to do with the way her head spun occasionally.  As he drew closer, she began to make out a stronger silhouette.  He had donned a cape that billowed in the wind.  He wore a lighter color – lavender, she thought.  He carried a staff smaller than Pluto’s; it seemed far more like a cane.  And there was something wrong about him – about the way he moved or the speed he was walking.  He seemed to walking at a leisurely pace and yet advancing quickly.  It wasn’t right.
 
That’s when she realized it was a dead calm.
 
“Mamoru, get behind me,” Venus hissed, dragging up what little power she had left from the tips of her toes.
 
“Minako, please,” the other figure said, holding up a hand.  “Don’t waste your energy.”
 
Venus froze.  “How do you know who I am?”
 
“Because,” he said, sounding almost amused.  “I’m standing next to you.”
 
If Venus had been in possession of more energy, she probably would have leapt away.  As it was, the third party didn’t give her much time to react.  In a matter of seconds, he had traversed at least ten meters and now stood directly in front of them.  His hair blew in nonexistent wind.  His eyes were as blue as the messy sky behind him.  A sad smile played on his lips.  She could see right through him.
 
And still, she knew that she was staring into Mamoru’s face.
 
-----
 
Mamoru could not take his eyes off himself.  He knew that had to be the logical conclusion from all of this.  He had been sent to his own future; it stood to reason that he would run into his future self.  He just had not been expecting it like this.
 
“What’s…” Mamoru started, his throat suddenly dry.  “Why…”
 
“In a moment,” the transparent, masked Mamoru interrupted.  “Is she safe?”
 
“Yeah,” Venus said, staring.  “She… she stayed behind.”
 
This ghost or whatever else looked past them, towards the doors that Mamoru now realized were no longer there.  He nodded slightly, saying, “I suppose that’s for the best.  She’s safer there.”  Then he ran his eyes over Mamoru’s form, but something weird happened with the movement, like a movie that skipped a few frames.  “You’re not transformed.”
                                                                                            
“You’re telling me,” Venus muttered.
 
The older Mamoru turned to look at the soldier.  “And why is it just you?  Where the others?”
 
Venus’s cheeks burst into flame, and she could no longer meet the eyes that weren’t quite there.  Out of charity or gratitude, Mamoru decided to spare her.  “Usagi and the other girls were… taken.  By someone named Rubeus.”
 
The other man couldn’t really pale, but Mamoru imagined he would have if it had been a possibility.  “God.  What’s happening?”
 
“You’re supposed to tell us,” Venus murmured softly, only sounding slightly accusing.
 
He nodded and moved forward, directly through them.  Mamoru was expecting some kind of cold feeling, but in fact, it was more when he touched the TV screen after he turned it off.  Crackling and energized.  “I’ll explain on the way.”
 
“The way where?” Venus asked, still suspicious.
 
“The palace,” the second Mamoru answered, gesturing in the direction of the giant tomb.  “Where else?”
 
Mamoru had to admit, their guide had a point.  There were no other roofs in town.
 
-----
 
The doors closed, and Pluto exhaled fully, the air slowly leaking from her lungs until they were empty.  She waited a moment before filling them again, shutting her eyes.  They burned with fatigue; she had not slept more than eight hours since Small Lady had disappeared, if that.
 
Her forehead met the cool metal of her staff.  She winced a bit when her skin came in contact with the residual energy of the battle, but she pressed through it and found it didn’t hurt.  This was no surprise; after all, it was a part of her.  She felt as though she could have slept on her feet, so strong was her exhaustion.  But she denied herself that option.  Now more than ever, the princess had to be found.
 
“The king will know of your transgressions soon,” the voice of her Father boomed.
 
She frowned, momentarily surprised.  She should have expected him; she thought of how stretched she felt, how thin.  “I know,” she murmured, her fingers coming up to touch her temple.
 
“He will not be so forgiving of your actions.”
 
“No, I imagine not.”
 
“He does not have the power to cast you out,” He said, his tone several steps away from reassuring her.
 
“But he has the power to do other things.”
 
For a moment, there was silence and she thought He had gone.  But then He never really left; He was always there, flowing around her like the mists.  But when He did not speak, it was almost like an absence and she’d come to think of it that way.
 
“The Princess?”
 
Her fingers gripped her staff with growing ferocity.  “I have scoured the times unconnected with the Senshi, and I do not feel her there.  I believe she has been transported to another part of their lifetime.”  Her jaw tightened.  “Only both their pasts and their futures are hidden from me now.  It’s too uncertain, and something bars the way.”
 
“The Phantom.”
 
“I suspect,” she murmured.  “He is usually behind such troubles, and he is also the reason why I cannot risk taking the time to seek her out.  I told them that I doubt the Black Moon will try to travel through time, but in truth, I can guarantee nothing.  Leaving the Gate unprotected would be devastating.  There is no telling what he might do.”
 
Her chest rumbled with the thunder of His voice and the wordless musings.  Then He spoke.  “I will search them for you.”
 
Her body broke out into an instant sweat.  “You would do that?”
 
“Not for you.”
 
She controlled the wince only because she had centuries of practice.  “I did not think so.”
 
“This mistake must be corrected for the good of the timeline,” He explained further.  “If you cannot mend your own holes, I am left with little choice but to do it for you.”
 
With that, He departed in as much as He could.  She did not have the chance to thank Him; she wondered if she would have given that chance.
 
Her Father gone, she had little more to do than to go back to her silent, lonely vigil.  She stood at the Gates, amidst a sea of waterless fog, and waited.  Soon enough, she would neither be quiet nor alone.  Soon enough, the cries of a king would pull her from her post or he would come to her.  His words would sting like swords and perhaps he would bruise her for stupidity he had grown to think her incapable of.  And still, no matter what he did, she knew it would be nothing compared to her own private agony.  For her, there was no greater punishment than guilt and no greater pain than uncertainty.
 
“Small Lady,” she whispered, only momentarily startled by the tear dripping down her cheek.
 
-----
 
Mamoru had been half-expecting Venus to topple for some time now, and his concern grew all the more once Endymion – King Endymion, his future self – had finished telling them where they were.  He imagined he looked no better.
 
“I don’t believe this,” Mamoru whispered, his eyes scouring the halls of the palace they had entered only moments before.  Darkness sat in every corner now, but he could imagine a time when it had been beautiful.  He could make out the marble below the dust and the crystal underneath the scorch marks.  Chandeliers had fallen and shattered, and all kinds of decoration lay scattered on the floor.  But he believed that before war had come, it had been a kind of paradise.  It was one of the few things he could readily believe.
 
“A thousand years,” Venus breathed, one hand sliding up her bare arm, as if reassuring herself of her own existence.  “Not that I don’t appreciate the immortality, but I never thought we’d live like that again.”
 
“I would like to say that we did not expect it either,” the King murmured, his feet and scepter making no noise as they struck the ground.  “But in 1993, the year I believe you have come from, we were taken into the future – all of us, not just you two.  We saw the same fallen city you have now seen, and we learned of our destinies.  We were to be given stewardship over the planet after it died.  My Serenity would reawaken the slumbering people of Tokyo, those we managed to save.  And we would build a new Tokyo, one cast in crystal and gemstone, one meant to thrive in peace and prosperity.”
 
Mamoru watched Venus’s face contract when Endymion referred to Serenity – who he knew to be Usagi – as his own.  She seemed to pale even more, though she had the tact to try and turn her face from both of them.  “But the Black Moon,” Mamoru muttered, folding his arms in front of his chest.  “They attacked.”
 
“Rubeus and the others are the descendants of the original rebels we imprisoned by two generations,” Endymion explained.  “The original group attempted to murder the queen right after the Awakening.  Jupiter nearly died protecting her; she still has the scar.”
 
Venus swallowed hard.
 
“Serenity always pitied the children and longed to release them from Nemesis,” Endymion continued, undeterred.  “But we could not take them back, especially when we found out Demando had been born.  He became their prince, and he thinks he is their leader.”
 
“Who is the real leader then?” Venus asked, a frown further marring her bruised features.
 
“A sage they know only as Wiseman,” Endymion spat, looking truly riled.  “He is the one who marked them with the Black Moon.  He gave them their symbol and their name.”  His mouth opened as if he exhaled, but they heard no sound.  Mamoru shivered at how closely his future self resembled a ghost.  “He even made Demando a prince, capitalizing on the man’s… obsession.”
 
Mamoru furrowed his brow.  “With what?”
 
Something darker than night crossed Endymion’s face.  Mamoru could not begin to guess what it was, but somehow, Venus knew.
 
“It’s Usagi,” she whispered fearfully.  “Isn’t it?”
 
Endymion hung his head.  He didn’t need to affirm her guess.
 
“So he took Rei and the others to make her—" Mamoru swayed on his feet, things falling into place.  The answer they formed sickened him, and he had to lean on the wall for support.  He could not get her face out of his mind, back when her wide smile had made him think of childhood summers and cotton candy.  Now all he could think of was how she would look when Demando was done.  “Oh, shit.”
 
Venus dropped the branch she had been leaning on, suddenly able to stand and even walk just because of her adrenaline rush.  Her hands trembled, but her voice remained stead.  “We have to find her.  Tell me where they’ve taken her; we have to get her now before—"
 
“I don’t think he will go that far,” Endymion interrupted.  “Demando… He doesn’t want power over her.  He wants her to love him.  He’ll force his company on her, but… I don’t think he’ll force her.”  He closed his eyes, and Mamoru wondered if he was praying this prediction was correct.  “Besides, you are in no shape to go after them yet.  Not just the two of you.”
 
Mamoru and Venus exchanged a significant glance.  They had not told him yet, silently agreeing that it was not the time.  With this new knowledge in hand, Mamoru knew they could keep no secrets.
 
“It would just be me,” Venus admitted quietly.
 
Endymion straightened.  “What?”
 
“He didn’t remember,” she hissed, turning her face away.  “After the Makaiju was destroyed, he didn’t remember.  I… We don’t know why.  It’s just how it happened.”
 
Mamoru thought of Pluto and opened his mouth to explain.  Then he promptly shut it again.  Something told him this was a secret he would prefer to keep.  Just this one.
 
“I see,” Endymion said, sounding as though he were more confused than enlightened.  “That must have been what went wrong.  Why she was only able to bring two of you back.”  Endymion turned as if he stood on a platform, the rest of his body remaining still.  Both Venus and Mamoru shivered.  “So you have no memory of the Silver Millennium?  Or of the battle with Beryl?”
 
Mamoru shook his head, shame-faced under Endymion’s transparent but unforgiving eyes.  “I only know what I’ve been told.”
 
Endymion furrowed his brow, looking pensive.  “I may be able to do something about that.”
 
Venus stiffened.  “Really?”
 
“It’s a possibility,” Endymion clarified.  “But first, you must be healed.  If I were better, I would have been able to do it when we first met.  But as I am….”  He gestured down at his body that wasn’t really there.  “I’m afraid I’ve had to put you under more strain than necessary.  I apologize.”
 
Venus shook her head, her energy still propelling her forward even though her legs should not have been able to support her.  “I don’t care.  Just fix me up so that I can go get Usagi.”
 
Endymion closed his eyes.  “I’ve told you, staging a rescue of the four of them with a pair would have been almost impossible; if it truly is just you, I can guarantee only your suicide.”
 
Mamoru hung his head at this grim prediction; Venus remained unfazed.  “Pluto could help.”
 
“Pluto has her own duties,” Endymion said.  “For now, we will heal you.  Later, you may try and formulate some plan along with the strategists I can spare.  I promise you, we will do all we can to get them back.  But it will do us no good for you to be killed in a fruitless attempt.”  He paused in front of a set of double doors, which began to open with a small gesture of his hand.  “In here.”
 
Mamoru trailed after the king, although he quickly wished he hadn’t.  Judging by the noise Venus made, she shared this particular opinion.  Endymion had taken then into what seemed to be an infirmary, and it was filled past capacity with injured soldiers.  Mamoru looked around and saw men and women with missing limbs, covered in what looked to be fifth-degree burns, and bearing still more disfiguring injuries he could not immediately identify.  He knew as a future doctor, he ought to have been able to handle the scene in a detached, professional manner.  But he could not help but be sickened by the level of carnage knowing that this had all been done intentionally.  He couldn’t imagine having ever been equipped with the constitution to handle this without feeling something.
 
Something solid and heavy fell against him.  He turned just in time to see Venus nearly crumble, and he steadied her before he could think better of it.  She did not complain this time, but she did not thank him either.  She was transfixed by the cost of this war, and for a moment, Mamoru thought perhaps she was not so jaded as she tried to appear.  Maybe underneath the harshness that seemed ill-suited for her, she really was just a girl.  He wondered if that coarse strength was a mask she always wore or one donned just for his benefit.  He wondered if he’d ever have the courage to ask.
 
“The others…” she whispered.  “They’re with the people who did this.”
 
A lump lodged itself in Mamoru’s throat.  If Venus was right, if the other girls had been taken to make Usagi cooperate with Demando’s demands, there was no telling what kind of horrors they would undergo.  If Usagi refused, they could be tortured and maimed, just like these people.  After all, a normal human body could withstand the most devastating injuries imaginable.  He had no idea how much a Senshi’s body could take before giving out.
 
“She won’t let them get hurt too badly, I know,” Venus continued, sounding on the verge of tears.  Mamoru wanted to tell her she didn’t have to bother to fight them.  “But then I don’t know what price she’ll have to pay.”  Venus closed her eyes, her lips pressed so tightly together they were whiter than her skin.  “This is my fault.”
 
Mamoru started to deny this, but he didn’t have the chance.  “Hurry up,” Endymion called out several meters in front of them.  “There’s no need for you to see this.”
 
Venus let out a shaky breath and stepped forward, although she would not open her eyes.  Somehow, Mamoru managed to guide her past bedrails and scurrying nurses without being too invasive.  He assumed from her silence that she was grateful.
 
Soon after, they arrived in a private area that looked to be reserved for a more seriously injured patient.  At first, all Mamoru saw were the amount of tubes and wires.  He looked at the vitals and cringed at how weak they were.  He looked at the nurse who bowed and left when they entered, at how defeated her eyes were.  Only after registering these details did he bother to look at the patient.  Had there been anything left in his stomach, he would have been sick again.
 
The eyes were sunken, the cheekbones sharper, and the skin paler, but Mamoru would have recognized himself anywhere.
 
Venus moved forward, mouth open and eyes wide.  Beneath the shock, he could have sworn he saw pity and compassion.  It seemed even where he was concerned, she could be moved.  She reached forward, brushing the hair out of his eyes; Mamoru swore he could feel a ghostly touch skimming his forehead where her fingers would have been.  “What happened?” she whispered.
 
“There was an explosion,” Endymion murmured.  “Most of my wounds have healed, but… my body is only as strong as the spirit, and that is very weak now.  I’ve been in a coma since the first attack.  What you see now is merely a holographic projection of my thoughts.”
 
In another situation, Mamoru would have questioned how this was possible.  “What about the others?  Minako… Venus’s future self and Oda—Serenity?  What happened to them?”
 
Endymion looked grave.  “After the first attack, the Senshi went to the center of the palace.  There is a pillar that can amplify their power.  They have stood there for weeks now, forming a blockade of energy around the palace and all those that remain in the city.  You arrived within this barrier, so you probably did not see it.”
 
“What about Usagi?” Venus repeated forcefully.
 
Mamoru watched as an unbelievably profound sadness entered the eyes that were a reflection of his own.  He had seen that look in a mirror only once before; when Dr. Yakamura had come to tell him that his parents were dead and Mamoru realized he could not even remember their faces.  He had always hoped he would never look like that again.  But now his future self looked utterly wrecked over a woman Mamoru could not imagine feeling that strongly about.  He cared for Usagi.  He wanted her safe.  He even felt a strange desire to protect her although he knew that power was denied to him.  But he could not imagine loving her, not like that.
 
This was why Venus hated him; Mamoru didn’t think he could blame her.
 
“She is alive,” Endymion murmured.  “But she… I will take you to her.  Once you’re healed, Venus.”  He gestured toward Mamoru.  “From what Pluto has told me, direct contact between a past and future self would be devastating.  A paradox would form, and both of us might disappear.”
 
Mamoru took a step back before he realized he’d done it.  “I’ll be fine over here then.”
 
Venus stared at him, but reluctantly obeyed.  Mamoru folded his arms in front of chest, staring at his own body.  It resembled a corpse even with the breathing machines and other unrecognizable accoutrement.  Mamoru turned to where Venus stood, watching her take his hand.
 
And then the power came.
 
The whole room filled with a soft gold glow, and it took Mamoru a moment to realize it was seeping out of Venus’s own skin.  She inhaled deeply and closed as if in deep meditation.  The light swirled around her as if it was somehow familiar with her.  Her skirt rippled, blown by an unseen wind, and within moments, there was an even brighter flash.  Her hair and collar stood on end as tiny sparks like supercharged fireflies flew around her body.  They concentrated on the areas Mamoru knew bore serious injuries – her leg and her back.  Her skin turned a more healthy color and all her bruises and scrapes seemed to fade back into her flesh.  Then, just moments after this process had begun, the light disappeared, the wind slowly dying down.  Her clothes and hair righted themselves and the glow receded.  Her eyes opened in the same moment he let go of the king’s hand.
 
“I can heal,” he murmured.
 
“It is not something you’re meant to discover until much later,” Endymion explained.  “However, under the circumstances, I think it will be difficult if not impossible to keep such secrets from you.”
 
Venus stepped away from the body, her eyes sparkling with the vitality she had lost over the past few hours.  “Usagi.”
 
The vision of the king nodded, turning in that same unsettled way.  “Follow me.”
 
Conscious of her improved health, Endymion floated (Mamoru could not comfortably say that he walked) away from them faster.  Venus quickly jogged after him, looking as though she wanted to run forward even though she would not have known where to go.  Mamoru hesitated, staring back at the prone figure that lay in the bed; he wondered how much that display had cost.
 
“Mamoru!” Venus called impatiently.
 
“Yeah,” he answered, turning his back.  He couldn’t stand to look anymore, but he didn’t know if what lay ahead would be any better.
 
He saw nothing between the infirmary and their destination.  All that surrounded him blurred and paled.  His mouth dried as if paper had been shoved into his mouth and all of his limbs felt cold.  He wanted to stop.  He wanted to tell them that he didn’t want to see her.  He wanted anything but the answers to the questions he couldn’t ignore.  Why hadn’t she met them?  Why hadn’t she been in the infirmary if she was injured?  Why did Endymion look ill when he spoke of her?
 
Why did she love him?
 
Venus’s gasp broke him out of his reverie.  She ran forward, only swerving to avoid Endymion’s translucent form at the last possible second.  She stopped when at what looked like a crystal monument in the middle of an otherwise empty room.  Her knees hit the floor and a sob escaped her mouth.
 
Only then did Mamoru realize it was Usagi, or Serenity.  He could just barely make out her form within the stone.  She lay there like every depiction of Snow White in the glass coffin he had ever seen – hands folded; eyes closed; seeming dead yet not decaying.  He thought back to the production he and the girls had been in together and how much Usagi had wanted to play the titular role.  He’d wanted it to be Ami.  His muscles twitched as if longing to move forward, but he stayed perfectly still.  It didn’t feel right somehow, like his presence would have been an intrusion.
 
He couldn’t remember loving her; what right did he have to be near her?
 
“What happened?” he asked, only because he thought Venus could not.
 
“She’s very weak,” Endymion explained, his pale face tired and withdrawn.  “The attack that struck her… it would have killed her if she had not been protected.  Staying within that formation is the only thing keeping her alive.  When she is well enough and strong enough to fight, she’ll break free.  But until then, she recovers in sleep.”
 
The three of them remained there for what may as well have been days, none of them moving and none of them breaking the silence.  Mamoru thought perhaps both Endymion and Venus would keep up this vigil for days, as if watching the queen would somehow pull her out of her sleep.  He thought back to the fairy tale again; legend said a kiss would wake her, but her lips were guarded by three feet of what might have been quartz.  This was one damsel who would have to save herself.
 
“Perhaps you should rest now,” Endymion suggested gently.  “I can take you to your rooms; you can sleep.  And in the morning, I’ll tell you what happened.”
 
Mamoru nearly agreed, his neck already beginning to bend in a nod.  He stopped when Venus spoke, her voice a mess of broken glass.
 
“No,” she whispered, looking over her shoulder.  Mamoru was now glad he had not told her to cry before; seeing her now was unbearable to the point where he had to look away.  He’d never thought steel could break.  “No.  I will not go to bed.  I will not rest a wink until I know what happened to her.  You’ll tell us now.”
 
Mamoru squeezed his eyes shut tighter.  He prayed Endymion would refuse.  He didn’t know if he could handle any more revelations, least of all those that revealed how a city had been leveled and how a monarch had been brought so low.  He did not want to hear of Demando’s obsessions or the hand Rubeus must have played in this destruction.  He felt like a five-year-old that wanted nothing more than to go home.  It was odd to feel that way again when the last time he’d felt this way, he’d had no home to go to.
 
“All right,” Endymion whispered.  “I’ll tell you now.”
 
Mamoru’s heart sank, but he did not protest.  Perhaps it was better to rip the bandage off now rather than pull it off at a slow peel.  Maybe pain was easier to forget when it all happened at once.  He doubted it, but he was in the mood to hope.  So he opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and listened as Endymion told them the story.
 
“It all began when Serenity decided it was time to make a trip to Nemesis, the tenth planet that had become a prison.”
 


 
AUTHOR’S NOTES
 
Okay, I’m just going to come out with this: it is going to take forever and a day for the next part of Forgotten Forever to come out.  I know, I know, and I’m sorry, but here’s the deal.  The next chapter is actually an interlude (not included in the chapter count by the way) in which we will see the circumstances leading up the creation of the Black Moon, the war, and the fall of Crystal Tokyo.  It’s very exciting and whatnot, but the very sparse outline is about three pages, and lately I’ve been having this tendency to be nearly done with a chapter and realize I need more scenes.  Also, I really think I need to re-watch this arc of Sailor Moon again before I continue.  I don’t quite remember everything, and I need a refresher.  ^_^
 
So, yeah, don’t be holding your breath on the interlude, please. ^^;
 
And I also want to leave you with this thought: assuming won’t make an ass out of you, but it might not make you all that happy by this story’s conclusion.  Just saying.  Keep that in mind.
 
Anyway, I want to issue huge thanks as always to Yumeko, my most fabulous beta-reader.  And of course, another big thank you to all the readers and reviewers who follow this story.  You guys keep me going, for real.  Until next time!
 
 
Coming Soon - Interlude: No Angel Came

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