REVAMPED LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Whatever else may have changed in this story 
of mine, trust me - the Sailor Senshi still belong to Kodansha and 
Cloverway, and the Samurai Troopers are the legal property of Sunrise and 
Bandai Entertainment. So are all of their related friends and associates. 
I am only borrowing them for a few chapters, and I intend no harm. So 
let's all remind ourselves that it's just a fanfiction and we really 
should relax...

CONTINUITY NOTE: This story takes place roughly between the "SuperS" 
and "Stars" seasons of Sailor Moon (after the Dead Moon Circus, but 
before Sailor Galaxia). For the Troopers, this is between the "Gaiden" 
and "Kikoutei Densetsu" OAVs (after their trip to New York, but before 
their trip to Africa). 



                      RONIN SUMMER: CONVERGENCE

  A Bishoujou Senshi Sailor Moon / Yoroiden Samurai Troopers cross-over

                          by Morgan Hudson

"Convergence (n) - the approach of an infinite series to a finite limit."



Chapter 4: Many Happy Returns

	Fei Lian was tired, and wet, and aching. He always ached, a 
constant throbbing pain in his side that burned its way from his hip to 
his shoulder with every breath. He had not taken a single hit in his 
entire battle, but blood dripped from between the scales of his mail coat 
from an injury he had recieved eons ago. He had been slowly bleeding to 
death for the past thousand years, since his last battle with the great 
archer of the heavens had ended in his utter defeat. Had the Archer 
carried just one more arrow, Fei Lian would not be able to enjoy even the
hollow shell of an existence he still had. He had wandered the globe for 
ages, slowly fading in stature until only this pathetic form was left to 
him. He had thought that his chance for vengeance had been forever lost. 

	When Arago had appeared before him, Fei Lian had assumed it was 
but another in the long line of people seeking to take out their wrath
on him in his time of weakness. They had fought through the skies of the 
Dark Kingdom and the Dynasty for weeks, and it had felt briefly as though
Fei Lian was truly alive once more. Only afterwards had Arago revealed to 
him that the great archer was still alive, that he had somehow cheated his
fate and was once more bending his bow in defence of the earth realm. 
Surely, Arago had said, the mightly Fei Lian, whose deeds were legend 
amongst humans and youma alike, deserved to face his greatest enemy in 
glorious combat once more? How better to end his days in this world than 
clutching at the throat of the Archer one final time? 

	Fei Lian had thought this a very good idea, indeed. He had learned
from the Demon Lord Emperor that his mortal foe went by the name of Touma 
Hashiba now, and resided across the sea in the land of Japan. The spirit 
of the archer inside the boy had called out for his weapon, and the human 
now carried the Sho Ha Kyu as though it were his own. Fei Lian had 
travelled to the town of Naniwa, called 'Osaka' by its more recent 
inhabitants, but the boy had already left for Edo. When he reached the 
part of Edo known as 'Shinjuku', he found that his enemy had escaped him 
yet again. Worse, the boy and his friends had managed to stop Arago's 
invasion. Knowing all too well how Arago would respond to his failure to 
stop Touma from arriving in time to help his companions in their fight, 
Fei Lian had wisely gone into hiding for a few years. It had seemed once 
again that cruel fate was keeping him from his rival. 

	Now, at last, after so many delays, he had finally faced his 
greatest enemy once again. Fei Lian had assumed that he would be elated, 
excited at the chance to see his foe so greatly reduced in stature as to 
take up residence within a pathetic mortal. Instead, he had spent the 
whole battle dealing with the archer's pesky junior partner, a girl by 
the name of Jupiter. The warriors he had battled had been mere children, 
barely even worth his notice. The enemy he had dreamed of beating, the 
rival who had spurred him on for so many years, had given in and 
surrendered to his fate with barely even a whimper. 

	The whole thing had been a giant disappointment. Part of him hoped
that they actually did manage to get out of the Castle of Eternal Regret, 
where he had imprisoned them. The other parts of him had no such opinion 
whatsoever: the only way that Tenku no Touma could escape from a place as 
foreboding as that would be for him to truly become one with Klarios, and 
Fei Lian had a permanent reminder in his side as to how dangerous the 
archer could be if properly enraged. The Prince of the Heavens had a very 
volatile temper, far worse than that of his earthly brother Endymion. 

	Xiang Yao looked over at him, and Fei Lian met her serpentine 
stare as steadily as he could. He knew her well from their days past: she 
would gut him like a fish the moment it seemed like she might get away 
with it. The only things that had stayed her hand so far were the name of 
Radanthus the Unconquered and the fact that he still bore the simple cedar
puzzle box that had contained her for the past eleven years. One wrong 
calculation on her part, and he would send her straight back to the Castle
without flinching. Xiang Yao was a killer - there was no love between the 
two of them. She was free merely because his current master Radanthus had 
need of a killer, and Fei Liang had promised to deliver her in exchange 
for a chance to fight Touma Hashiba. 

	"You look so unhappy," she purred throatily, running her clawed 
fingers through her long mane of raven hair. "Aren't you pleased to see 
me, Fei Lian? After all this time we spent apart, no kind words for an 
old acquaintance?" 

	"Beneath me, this was," he growled morosely. "Unprepared, my foe. 
Without satisfaction, shall I die." 

	"You could always go in and get him," Xiang Yao said with a smirk.
"I'll stay here and hang onto that pesky little box for you." 

	Fei Lian frowned suspiciously at the woman. "That eager, I am 
not," he admitted. "Your own business, you should be minding. To live with
my decision, I shall learn." He took a step away from her and placed one 
hand protectively over the pouch on his hip. Inside that pouch resided the
archer and his apprentice; Fei Lian feared no other thing in the universe 
so much as what he was carrying at the moment. Despite his own morbid 
thoughts earlier, he felt his spine shiver in a way that had nothing to 
do with the cold or the rain. 

	The archer's last words had been to swear that he was going to 
get out. Obviously, that was impossible: the Castle of Eternal Regret had 
only one door, and there was no other key to it save the one in Fei Lian's
own hands. The only way to get free was for another to imprison the one 
who had sent you there in your place. Touma Hashiba was denied even that 
slim hope at freedom, for he himself had been the one who opened the box 
and sent himself there after the girl who had been defending him. Fei 
Lian should be ecstatic, secure in the knowledge that his only real threat
was forever sealed away. 

	Still, the thought nagged him: they might get out. Somehow, they 
might get out...

	Fei Lian considered dumping the puzzle box into the nearest, 
deepest ravine he could find. He had heard that Norway was good for that 
kind of thing. A quick glance at Xiang Yao reminded him why that was not 
a good idea. Without the box, he would have no way of controlling her when
they were away from Radanthus' opressing gaze. It was his only defense for
the time when she decided it was worth her effort to try to kill him. In 
Xiang Yao's twisted little mind, it was only a matter of time before she 
reached that decision. He had no choice but to hang on to the cursed 
thing. It was all that could protect him. 

	But they might get out...

**********

	The phone was ringing, and Seiji Date was trying to meditate. With
an exasperated noise, the blond teen leapt to his feet and strode quickly 
out of the dojo, throwing open the rice paper screen and blinking in the 
bright sunlight. Shielding his eyes with one hand, he walked through the 
rock garden and around the koi pond, careful not to disturb anything with 
the wide hems of his pleated hakama. Grandfather would have his head if 
he disrupted the internal harmony of the carefully raked sand or upset 
the delicate sensibilities of the fish. One wrong step and it would be 
push-ups with a load of bricks on his back again.

	Crossing the large open area between the dojo and the house, Seiji
slipped his sandals off on the porch and eased his way through a half-open
screen door that led into the tea room. The telephone was in the front 
hall, on the other side of the room, and he allowed himself to show a bit 
of haste in leaping over the low-set lacquered table instead of going 
around it like he should have. Pushing through another screen, he reached 
over and grabbed the phone before it could stop ringing. 

	"You have reached the Date residence," he said calmly, reaching 
down and playing idly with the large dial on the front of the antiquated 
old telephone. "I'm sorry, but the master of the house is not in at this 
moment, and the lady is not recieving calls. If you would like to call 
back at a more convenient time, I would be honoured to record a message 
for you..."

	"Seiji! It's Ryo, man! What's up?" 

	"Ryo?" Seiji's eye widened and he stood up a little straighter. 
"Ryo, what's going on? I thought you and Shin were going south for the 
summer to hang out with Shuu! Is there some kind of trouble? What did you 
do? Do you need bail money?"

	"Uh... sort of, nothing, and probably later," Ryo answered, as the
line crackled with static briefly. "Shuu and Shin are fine, and I'm okay, 
but we are having a bit of an issue down here. Remember that evil twin of 
Shin's from way back when?"

	"No," Seiji replied honestly, looking left and right suspiciously 
before covering the reciever with one hand and cradling it closer to him. 
He knew he was supposed to be alone in the house, but with his family 
there was no way to be sure. It wasn't that his mother and grandfather 
didn't know he was a Samurai Trooper - it was more that they might insist 
on tagging along and helping if they found out something was up. Or worse,
insisting he take his sisters with him. 

	"So he never told you either, huh? Well, apparently he had one, 
and the guy was less dead than Shin thought. He showed up in Yokohama and 
tried to attack us, or something. I missed that part because I was buying
some takoyaki. They got the best takoyaki here, Seiji, I'm telling you..."

	"Could you get back to the evil twin, please?"

	"The what? Oh, right. So, anyway, there was some kind of thing 
with that, and then we had to run down to the beach, right? Because good 
Shin thought that evil Shin was going to do something down there, and he 
was right. There was seaweed and tentacles everywhere, man! People were 
screaming and running around like Godzilla was attacking. It was pretty 
rough for a bit, there, Seiji:  we really could have used that Thunderbolt
Cut of yours. If Sailor Moon hadn't showed up, I would have been-"

	"Wait, wait," Seiji interrupted, waving his hand as if Ryo could 
see him. "You've totally lost me, Ryo. Back up and do it again, and this
time just stick to why you called me. Okay?" 

	"Okay." Ryo took a deep breath. "World. Danger. Big time. You. 
Come. Bring sword. That simple enough for you?" 

	"I'm already out the door," Seiji promised, scribbling a quick 
note on the nearby writing pad with a convenient pencil and sticking it 
into the doorframe where his grandfather would be sure to notice it later.
He figured he could pack a bag and be gone in about twenty seconds: he 
always kept an emergency suitcase ready in case his older sister Yayoi 
decided to visit and he had to go hide out in Canada for a couple of 
weeks. Catch the train from Miyagi to Tokyo, and transfer in Shibuya to 
the Yokohama line, and he could be there in about two hours. Hopefully 
Ryo and the rest of the guys would be able to keep themselves out of 
trouble for that long. Without him or Touma there to keep them under 
control, it was not likely. 

	He'd better bring some bail money, just in case.

**********

	"Well, that takes care of Seiji," Ryo said, hanging up the phone 
and turning back to the small conference taking place at the kitchen 
table. Shuu Rei Fuan's family ran the best restaurant in Chinatown; their 
kitchen was therefore amply supplied with all the mu shu pork and ginger 
beef that a group of hungry teens could ask for. The piles of bamboo 
baskets towered over the heads of the people themselves as they chatted 
amongst themselves. Shin Mouri stood in the corner, still busily shaking 
the giant wok and occasionally tossing a small flurry of chopped 
vegetables into the air before expertly catching them back in the pan. 
Shuu Rei Fuan was presiding over the table, which apparently consisted of 
pointing out various dishes in random order and insisting that their 
new guests try some. 

	Usagi Tsukino needed very little convincing. The slender blonde 
was already working her way through her third plate, putting her a mere 
half a plate behind Shuu Rei 'the walking garbage disposal' Fuan himself. 
At the rate she was going, Ryo suspected she was going to come out ahead 
in the long run. So far, the only thing they had gotten out of her since 
sitting down had been a series of "ooh"s and "aah"s over how great the 
food was. She was a very focused girl, but he had no idea where she was 
putting any of it.

	Sitting quietly between Usagi and Shuu sat Rei Hino, a young 
Shinto priestess who would be very attractive if she didn't always look 
like she had just bitten into a lemon. Ryo wasn't sure how she had managed
to get a whole plate to herself sitting between those two voracious 
appetites with arms, but every so often she would lash out with the back 
of her spoon and swat at a hand that was creeping too close to her own 
territory. She was very discreet about it, and Ryo was sure that nobody 
else had even noticed yet, but he had a good eye when it came to things 
like that. His own plate, on Usagi's other side, was suspiciously empty, 
and he glanced over at the blonde as he sat down. Oh, she was good.

	Shrugging philosophically, Ryo reached out and snagged a fresh 
dumpling from its steaming basket. There was a moment of unexpected 
resistance as he tried to move it to his plate, and he looked over to see 
Ami Mizuno holding it in her chopsticks as well. He smiled, and she 
blushed slightly before letting go. Raising his eyebrows, he offered it 
to her, and she politely shook her head, taking an intense interest in 
something on the floor. 

	Ryo had yet to make sense out of Ami. She seemed nice enough, but 
every time he tried to talk to her she got all embarassed and started 
acting like her shoes were the greatest thing in the world. Maybe she was 
just a little shy about the whole 'Sailor Mercury' thing? He guessed he 
would be a bit embarassed around people once they knew his secret identity
too, if he had one. Or cared what people thought. 

	"So is that everybody on your team?" Rei asked, batting aside 
Shuu's hands and sneaking herself some fried rice before it all vanished. 
"We tried to get ahold of Minako and Makoto, but Mako-chan's not answering
her phone and Luna said Minako had gone out for a little while." 

	"Well, that's Seiji. Technically, we should call in Touma too." 
Ryo sighed and bit into his dumpling. "Unfortunately, we have no way of 
getting in touch with him. Nasuti said she saw him yesterday, when he 
stopped by the university with some girl he's been tutoring..." 

	"Oh, yeah!" Shuu said, between swallows. "I helped get him set up 
for that thing: poor guy broke his telescope, or his microscope, or 
something. Needed money for the repairs, so we sold him on eBay. I told 
him I would just give him the cash, but he said he wanted to earn it." 

	"You sold your friend on eBay?" Ami asked, shocked. 

	"Do you remember who won the bid?" Ryo interjected. 

	"Sorry, don't recall." Shuu shrugged and dug back into his meal. 
"Some girl in Tokyo, I think. Touma was all upset about needing to get 
the train tickets on short notice."

	"Well, that explains that," Ryo said, satisfied. At least he knew 
where Touma was. It always worried him when something big started going 
down and the Samurai Troopers were scattered all over Japan; he could 
never be sure that the enemy wouldn't go after somebody other than him. 
Ryo preferred it when evil stuff was happening to him instead of any of 
the other guys. He knew that he could handle it, and he didn't have to 
feel guilty about not being there to help himself. At the very least, he 
always felt a little bad that his friends might be suffering while he was 
comfortable. A guy should be able to suffer alongside his friends if they 
were in some kind of trouble. If Touma could not be someplace that Ryo 
could keep an eye on him, then it was comforting to know that he was 
somewhere safely out of harm's way. At least one of them would be safe 
for a while. 

**********

	Touma Hashiba clung desperately to the slick ropes that supported 
the flimsy bridge that he was trapped on. An endless chasm yawned beneath 
his feet as the wind tugged and jerked at the rickety old planks until 
Touma was nearly upside-down, holding himself onto the bridge through 
the sheer strength of his arms. His hand slipped slightly, and a winged 
lizard soared past under him, croaking morosely as it flew over the 
dappled shadows that swallowed any sign of ground. 

	Gritting his teeth and struggling to get a foot back on the wildly
swaying bridge, Touma slowly pulled himself back up. His armoured hands 
skidded and slipped on the wet braids of rope, and he banished his dark 
blue shell with a thought. His bare hands caught much more easily on the 
coarse fibers, rubbing his palms raw as he moved hand over hand above 
the endless gulf. He had not come dressed for a hell dimension: he was 
wearing nothing but blue jeans and sneakers along with a loose pale green 
overshirt that did little to keep out the frigid cold of the howling wind.

	With herculean effort, Touma finally managed to get his ankle 
wedged firmly between two planks and started to haul the rest of his 
body up after it. The wind twisted the bridge just right, and he cried out
as the wood shifted and grinded around his leg. His shoulder was already 
badly damaged from his battle with Fei Lian earlier: his entire left 
sleeve was caked with thick red blood that was not completely dry. He 
could feel the blisters on his hands from the constant rubbing of the 
ropes against his damp skin, and now the bones in his ankle were being 
slowly turned into powder by two planks that were moving like a millstone 
along his foot. The only thing he could look forward to was that if he 
fell, he would either be eaten by one of those croaking leathery beasts 
or (possibly) die of old age long before he reached bottom. 

	He really hated this place. He had hated this place when he had 
been five years old, and he especially hated it now. The Castle of Eternal
Regret loomed in the distance, a stone forest of gleaming spires and 
forboding gates that waited on the other end of the bridge for him like a 
hungry spider watching a fly struggle in its web. The other end of the 
long and winding bridge faded into nothingness: there was no ground, no 
sky, no existence to hold it up. Its ropes moored in aether,the planks 
merely emerged fully formed from the swirling mass of protoplasm into 
which it receded. 

	The wall of ghosts. The wraiths lived there, whispering their
mad cries of desolation into the minds and souls of anyone foolish enough 
to remain there long. Touma was not sure where the spirits had come from,
and he was not sure he would ever find out. Had they been previous inmates
of the castle, trapped within the box even after death? Had whatever foul 
sorceror built the castle conjured them up to guard its outer perimeter? 
Maybe they were just natural inhabitants of whatever other plane was 
hidden inside the damned puzzle box. All Touma knew was that it was the 
wraiths who came out when the box was opened, and it was the wraiths who 
drew mortals within. Their touch burned like acid, and their words were 
poison poured freely into any ear that was willing to hear it. Staying 
there was foolish, and trying to go deeper into that morass was pointless.
The only choice he had was to go further in. Everything in this realm was 
designed solely to guide its visitors to their inevitable resting place: 
the castle itself. 

	For a moment, Touma hung limply from the whipsawing bridge, 
overwhelmed by the sheer pointlessness of the whole endeavour. He was 
doomed. There was no escape from this place, only an ever-narrowing 
series of options until you were wedged so tightly in the halls of that 
monstrous place that there was no room to breathe. He had been wrong to 
come here. He never should have opened the box in the first place. He was 
so stupid! What had he been thinking? He couldn't last in here, he 
couldn't make it out. He was nothing but a stupid, foolish little boy who 
had finally found a problem that his so-called intelligence couldn't get 
him back out of. It was better just to let go, let the fall or the 
creatures or something get him. End the whole farce. His fingers loosened 
their grip slightly. 

	Shaking his head furiously, Touma scowled and forced his hands to 
close again. Those thoughts were not him. It was this place: it sapped 
your will, made you second guess every decision you had ever placed any 
faith in. The Castle wanted you to give up; it dredged up every bad 
memory or imagined deficiency that it could find in you just to trick you 
into thinking that there was no point in carrying on. Most of the people 
sent here didn't even die from anything other than their own ennui. He 
was not going to give in to that. Somewhere out there, Makoto needed him.

	"You can't beat me," he growled to himself, twisting the ropes 
firmly around his hands and feeding them through his fingers as he eased 
his way along the bucking and swaying planks. "Not that easily! I've 
already been through this! I have faith in my armour, and in my friends, 
and in myself! I am going to find Makoto, and I am going to beat you, 
because you are NOT smarter than me! Do you hear me? Whoever you are, you 
are not smarter than me!" 

	The only response from the world around him was a slight shift in 
the howling of the wind, but Touma had not really been expecting an answer
to his challenge. The important thing was that he not give in to the 
constant, smothering regret that filled the air here. He would curse, he 
would scream, he would rail at the heavens if he needed to, as long as it 
helped remind him of his own determination to succeed. He was a Samurai 
Trooper, the warrior of Intellect, and he was going to take this entire 
dimension apart if he needed to in order to get Makoto Kino back where 
she belonged. 

	She was his kohai. She belonged with him. 

	The ropes sawed at his hands, and the blood flowed freely from 
his injured shoulder as he dragged himself towards the rocky cliff that 
was almost in reach. He was so close to the end, and he was not quite at 
the beginning. The thought came unbidden, and it threatened to break him 
for a moment, but he bit his lip and forced his hands to keep moving like 
the wonderful machines that they were. That was all a body was, really, a 
marvelous and intricate machine that did what it was told. The fact that 
it was cold and tired and in all kinds of pain had nothing to do with the 
task at hand, so he rejected it and kept going. 

	After what seemed like forever, Touma felt cold stone scrape 
against his shoulders and opened his eyes. He had made it. He was on the 
other side of the gorge. Hanging his head back, the blue-haired teen let 
out a long laugh of relief and carefully braced himself against the rock 
wall behind him. Finding a convenient handhold, he pulled himself over 
the lip of the canyon and stiffly crawled out onto level ground for the 
first time since he had arrived in the dimension. 

	A squat, toad-like demon almost twice his size stared into his 
face from a few inches away, and Touma's heart sank. It smiled, its thick 
rubbery lips pulling back to reveal row upon row of gleaming steel needles
for teeth, and a thick gobbet of drool dribbled from the corner of its 
jaws. It gripped a long staff with its pudgy, three-fingered paws, the
massive cleaver-like blade glinting coldly in the early morning light. 
There was no neck, or even really a torso for the creature: it seemed to 
be a solid column of muscle from the tip of its stubby tail to the edges 
of its cracked and swollen lips with their hideous teeth. 

	"Listen up, Princess Toadstool," Touma said, his expression blank.
"I am having a very bad day, over here. You don't want to be part of it. 
So backing the hell off might be a very good idea right now, get it?"

	With a wordless roar, the demon spun its cleaver and slashed at 
him. Touma ducked and rolled out of the way, the heavy iron blade chipping
at the stone. Landing on all fours, he forced himself to ignore his sore 
shoulder as he cartwheeled into a handstand and effortlessly caught the 
blade between his feet when the demon struck a moment too late. One quick 
twist of his body sent the cleaver spiralling over the edge, and the 
creature gurgled with disapproval. 

	"I'm looking for a girl," Touma said, flipping into a crouch from 
his inverted position and trying not to show how much that last move had 
taken out of him. "She's about yay-tall, long brown hair in a ponytail. 
Sounding familiar? She would have come this way a while ago. Point out 
which way she headed and I won't need to break out any of my fun moves." 

	The demon's only response was to open its mouth wide in a 
squealing roar before hurtling towards him. Touma shifted his weight to 
the left, realised there was no time to dodge, and tried to reverse 
direction as the creature barrelled down on him. Something in his ankle 
chose exactly that moment to snap, and the boy collapsed to the ground 
with a yelp of pain as the monster's bloated carcass slammed down on top 
of him. 

	Touma grimaced as he gripped his opponent's jaws. The demon's 
entire body quivered with the strain of trying to close its teeth around 
the teen's waist, as its thick tongue paddled against his torso inside 
the damp, foul-smelling cavern of its gullet. Only the hands firmly 
clenched and braced against both sides of its mouth were preventing Touma 
from becoming dinner. Kneeling under the enormous pressure of his 
opponent's weight, Touma braced himself with his good leg as his feet 
dug deep troughs in the moist soil. Sensing victory, the beast threw 
itself forward as hard as it could, every muscle in its frame devoted to 
forcing Touma the rest of the way down its throat and into its stomach. 
Touma's knee buckled, and both opponents found themselves tumbling 
backwards over the edge of the cliff. For a moment, in mid-air, they 
seperated from each other and Touma flailed for a handhold. 

	The boy's fingers brushed against a root jutting from the side 
of the canyon wall, and he grabbed onto it with nearly superhuman 
determinaton. He was not going to come this far and lose now! If he had 
been planning to fall to his doom, he would have done it hours ago and 
saved himself all the trouble. His entire body jerked as his fall came to 
a sudden stop, and his bad leg jangled with pain yet again as the falling 
demon decided to latch onto his foot. Looking down at the beast as it 
tightened its grip on his ankle and began to pull itself up his leg, Touma
lifted his other foot and began to methodically kick it in the face. Its 
grip slipped and slid as he kicked at it, until it was once again clinging
to the sides of his foot. Every instant that it was hanging there, Touma 
could feel the muscles in his leg strain and pull themselves to the point
of tearing. He couldn't bear this much weight, not for much longer, he 
was going to have no choice but to let go and accept his defeat... 

	Touma scowled at the ideas worming their way into his head again 
and slowly began to pry his captured foot out of its sneaker. The shoe 
came off with a barely audible pop, and the demon found itself falling 
freely into the darkness. Opening its jaws one final time, it let out a 
warbling cry as it receded from sight. Touma hung from the twisted root 
for several minutes, waiting to hear some sign that the creature had 
struck bottom. Hearing only the lonely howling of the wind, he sighed 
wearily and pulled himself back up onto solid ground again. 

	He was half-expecting another monster to be waiting for him when 
he got there. Instead, he found himself alone on the barren plain that 
stretched from the edge of the chasm to the walls of the castle. The whole
area was cracked and jagged, with a constant uphill climb just to reach 
the doors. Makoto could be anywhere amongst all these cracks and crags. 
There were monsters and worse hiding around every possible corner, just 
waiting for him to slip up so they could eat him. The ground was littered 
with sharp rocks and twisted vines that were covered in thorns, and he had
a bad arm, a missing shoe, and a limp. 

	With a groan, he began to hobble in the general direction of the 
Castle of Eternal Regret. May as well go inside, he supposed: he was 
already having so much fun just getting there. Bending down, Touma scooped
up the halberd from where it had been dropped and began to hobble across 
the open space, using the weapon as a crutch. The wind picked up again, 
and the faint sound of chiming metal filled the air. 

	A form appeared in the distance, slowly fading into view as it 
neared. It was swathed in robes of blue and white that billowed around its
gaunt frame, and the golden rings that dangled from the elaborate head of 
its ebony staff rang and chimed like a chorus of bells as they swayed in 
the breeze. A conical hat made of woven straw  was pulled down low on his 
bowed head, and only the tip of his pointed chin was visible beneath its 
wide brim. Thick, luxurious hair the colour of fresh blood swayed behind 
him like a cloak, flowing in the breeze as he came nearer. Each step 
seemed to make him just a little more real than he had been a moment 
before, filling out his form and making him solid in stages. Reaching 
Touma, the robed figure stopped and nodded his head in greeting. 

	"Shutendoji." Touma made a face as though he had just tasted 
something unpleasant. "I should have expected you'd be showing up 
eventually. You always did like to hover around when carnage was involved.
What is it now? Didn't think I looked miserable enough, yet?" 

	"Rest assured, Tenku no Touma, I am no more pleased to be here 
than you are to see me." The monk frowned from beneath the shadows of his 
hat and tightened his grip on his staff. "I have come here to help you, if
you could stop being a fool long enough to figure it out." 

	"You're really not very good at this spiritual guidance thing." 

	"You're really not very good at paying attention," Shutendoji 
snapped angrily. "Stupid samurai! Could you not see that this was exactly 
what your enemies wanted? With the warrior of Tenku sealed away in this 
place of exile, the rest of the Samurai Troopers cannot form the armour 
of Kikoutei! Only together can the five great Yoroi Senshi hope to prevail
over the threat of evil: is any of this sounding familiar yet?" 

	"Hey, watch it!" Touma pointed a warning finger in the former 
Masho's direction. "Just because you're dressed like Kaos, it doesn't mean
I have to stand around and take this kind of abuse from you! There was no 
way I was going to just walk away and think about myself when Mako-chan 
was trapped in here!" 

	"Oh, so it's Mako-chan, is it?" Shutendoji raised an eyebrow. "I 
was not aware that you two were so close. Tell me one thing, warrior of 
Intellect: if you are so intelligent, why did you not simply turn the 
box upon your opponent when he had placed it in your hands? He would have 
been banished, the girl freed, and the problem over. If you are so certain
of your infallibility, perhaps you can explain that."

	Touma opened his mouth to say something, then paused. After a 
moment he closed his mouth, lowered his finger and slapped himself on the 
forehead with his good hand. The truth was, he had not been thinking 
straight. Ever since he had failed to keep Makoto from being captured by 
Fei Lian, he had been so obsessed with getting her back that he had lost 
sight of what he was doing. It was bad enough that this place was trying 
to dredge up every self-doubt he had ever had about himself, now he was 
reacting by being so bull-headed that he couldn't even be civil to one of 
his own allies. Shutendoji might be an enormous jerk, but Touma knew 
better than to turn down his help. Maybe if the guy weren't so busy being 
right about everything it would make him easier to bear, but still.... 

	"Look," he sighed, running his fingers through his hair, "I'm 
sorry, okay? It just... everything's been going wrong, and I need to find 
Makoto, and there's this voice in the back of my head that keeps telling 
me I'm never going to pull it off. I've barely even been here a couple 
of hours, and it already feels like I'm going to be stuck here forever. I 
know it's not me doing it, and I'm fighting it as hard as I can, but it's 
really messing with me. You're right: I should have known better." 

	"Very good," Shutendoji said, nodding curtly as he crossed his 
arms over his chest. "Now put those thoughts out of your mind completely."

	"What?" 

	"To charge ahead without acknowledging mistakes is rash. To dwell 
on them when nothing can be done is madness. You were so determined to 
prove your invincibility that you overlooked a possible solution - now 
that you realise it, do not do so again. This place will only offer you 
one chance at escape, Touma Hashiba: you must let neither pride nor pity 
prevent you from seeing it. You are here, now. Let all else slide from 
your mind." Shutendoji glanced over at the boy and frowned sternly. "Yes, 
even the girl. If she truly matters to you, then you must forget her. Let 
your mind be clear of all the voices that drive you." 

	"I don't know if I can," Touma said plaintively, as he folded his 
legs under himself and sat cross-legged at the monk's feet. "I mean, I've 
never tried before..." 

	"Then how do you know that you cannot?" Shutendoji asked, gently 
placing his hand on the boy's injured shoulder. "The wraiths have troubled
your spirit, Touma Hashiba. Bound by rage and torment, you are no help to 
anybody." 

	Touma dutifully closed his eyes and breathed deeply, placing his 
hands in his lap as he tried to clear his mind. Seiji and Ryo had 
mentioned Kaos walking them through rituals like this back in the day, but
their first mentor had never really spent much time with him. Honestly, he
was probably the least spiritual Trooper in the whole group - he usually 
preferred to stick with things that he could go over in his mind and make 
sense out of. Just trusting in something was not really his forte. 

	A small flicker of blue light flared to life briefly on his 
forehead, then faded. The boy's brow furrowed, as though he were trying to
remember something that was not quite clear, and the spark flickered 
again. Shutendoji looked down at Touma and moved his hand from the teen's 
shoulder to rest it on top of his bowed head. A golden sigil burned 
brightly from beneath the monk's hat, and Touma's own symbol glowed feebly
in response. 

	"Clarity of thought," Shutendoji said quietly. "Precision of the 
mind. This place is pervaded with the rage and despair of its inhabitants,
but it cannot affect you if you are at peace. Focus on this single moment,
Touma Hashiba." His voice became softer, almost sorrowful as he continued.
"The future is unavoidable, and the past... cannot be changed. Regret is 
the constant companion of all men, Touma. There are always things we wish 
that we had done, or not done, or that we had not needed to do when the 
time was upon us. But to focus on these things leads only to hesitation, 
and a samurai must never hesitate to act when he is needed. Free yourself 
of hesitation, samurai, and you shall save your friend." 

	Touma opened his eyes, the clear blue light of his forehead sigil 
reflecting deep within them. 

	"The voice," he said shakily. "The voice in my head... it's gone."

	"Well done," the monk assured him with a clap on the back. "Let me
tend to your wounds, Tenku no Touma, and then we shall search for this 
Mako-chan of yours together. And if I may make a suggestion? Put on your 
armour. We have far to go, and if we fail here there will be nobody to 
rescue us." 

**********

	A white shadow moved through the darkened court of Radanthus the 
Unconquered. Flitting from one piece of cover to the next, the small 
figure moved with a furtive grace that seemed out of place in its crude 
surroundings. The light of the burning torches glinted softly off of its  
pristine ivory uniform as the intruder stepped around the slumbering 
bodies of Radanthus' youma. Somewhere nearby, Fei Lian had to be waiting. 
They had met on other occasions, and he knew the youma was smart enough to
realise that he could not hope to capture a warrior of light like Sailor 
Jupiter without expecting a rescue attempt.

	Word had spread quickly, after Fei Lian had sealed Jupiter away 
within the Castle of Eternal Regret. Xiang Yao had dreamed of freedom for 
a very long time: the fulfilment of her hopes had gushed through the 
realm of Elysion like a tide of raw sewage. Her perverse glee had carried
an image of the two who would be taking her place in that dread prison: it
was not unlike her to take sick pleasure in the misfortune of others. 
Clearly, her time in the Castle had only increased her bitterness and 
hatred for all living things. That in itself was a disturbing thought, but
the fact that one of those captives was a friend of his beloved Chibi-Usa 
was more than enough to move Elios into action.

	Entering the facility had been easy. Elios was a denizen of the 
land of dreams - he had simply hidden himself inside the head of one of 
Radanthus' minions and let himself out again when the time was right. That
particular demon was currently sleeping soundly in a dining hall three 
floors down. 

	A shape moved in the darkness ahead, and Elios froze. His golden 
eyes narrowed as the ageless priest of illusion quickly wove a spell 
between his fingers and cast it towards the guards like a net. An 
intricate web of glistening threads drifting noiselessly through the air 
and fell upon the youma as they made their way up the corridor. Silently,
the trio of creatures slumped to the floor, snoring gently. Elios nodded 
to himself in satisfaction and glided onwards. Fortunately all of the 
opposition he had encountered thus far were weak minded and easily led 
into his realm. There would be a bloody mess to clean up when he got 
back, he was sure: youma were not known for having tasteful dreams. Still,
it was a price he would gladly pay. Better to send them elsewhere than 
deal with them in this place. 

	Elios just hoped his luck held out. The priest had no idea what 
he was actually going to do once he encountered his foe, much less how 
he was going to free Sailor Jupiter from the ancient puzzle box once he 
had it. No spell or illusion was going to work on a creature as powerful 
as Fei Lian; only one warrior had ever so much as equalled the youma's 
sheer power, and Elios knew quite well that it was not he. Still, he had 
no choice but to try. He owed Chibi-Usa that much, at least.

	She had said that they were best friends. If he let one of the 
Sailor Senshi down, he would never be able to face her again. Calling in 
any of Sailor Jupiter's other friends was risky at best: Radanthus was 
watching all of the current Sailor Senshi very carefully, and the last 
thing Elios wanted to do was alert the Demon Lord that he was on to him. 
If Fei Lian was too powerful for him, Radanthus was not even worth 
imagining about confronting. Only somebody like Prince Endymion could hope
to hope to have a chance against Radanthus. 

	Elios wished that he could dare contact his liege. No matter how 
dreadful this vile place might be, he would feel stronger if he were by 
Prince Endymion's side. In the old days, he would never have even tried 
something like this without at least gathering a few heroes to aid him on
his quest. Sadly, Mamoru Chiba was being watched as carefully as all the 
other Senshi. More carefully, in fact, now that Radanthus had been 
unpleasantly surprised by Sailor Jupiter's appearance during his last 
attack. There would be no chance to approach Prince Endymion for aid. 

	A spear pricked against the base of his skull, and Elios froze. 
With a sick ratcheting noise, two massive curved blades spang shut on 
either side of his neck, clasping around his throat like a crab's 
pincers. The fair-haired priest of Elysion choked as his captor tightened 
the mancatcher's grip and roughly dragged him out of concealment. 

	"Well, well - if it isn't My Little Pony." Elios' captor was clad 
from head to toe in a suit of crimson and ebony armour. The chitinous 
plates slid dryly against each other without even a whisper as he hefted 
the boy into the air and pinned him against a rock wall. The youma was 
not wearing his helmet, and Elios was shocked to see what looked like a 
perfectly normal human staring back at him. That was when he noticed the 
eyes. They were the dead, unfeeling eyes of a oncoming shark. 

	"Badamon mentioned there was something fishy going on around 
here," the youma continued, sneering at his captive, "but I never would 
have dreamed that it would be someone like you. Guess that's a good thing,
huh? Me, not dreaming. Must have made it easier to sneak up on you. The 
name's Nise Suiko, by the way. Just in case you wanted to know who's 
putting you in the cage." 

	"A valiant effort," Elios choked in warning, "but the priest of 
Elysion will not be held captive again!" His golden horn flared with 
power, flooding the cavern with blinding light. Nise Suiko cursed and 
recoiled, his grip on the mancatcher loosening. Elios' tunic ripped and
tore as his wings unfurled from his back and, with a single mighty thrust,
rocketed him down the corridor. Skimming along the far wall, Elios pried 
at the blades around his throat with his fingers as the polearm trailed 
under him and raised sparks from the rocky floor. There had to be some 
kind of release somewhere on the cursed thing! 

	He flapped his wings furiously, trailing ivory feathers as he 
soared around the corner and upset a trio of Radanthus' guards. The youma 
howled and slashed widly at him with their halberds, but Elios nimbly 
dodged and weaved around their attacks before continuing on his path. At 
this rate, he was going to be lucky if the entire castle wasn't alerted 
to his presence. Any moment now, those youma were going to alert the rest
of the castle and any hope of rescue for Sailor Jupiter was going to be 
ruined.

	Wait a minute! Elios spread his wings wide, catching the air on 
his pinions and halting his flight in mid-air. What was he thinking? He 
couldn't just run away like this! He had made up his mind that he was 
going to do this for Chibi-Usa: what did it say about him if he just 
gave up the second he was in danger? He had run from Queen Beryl, he had 
run from Queen Nehelina, and the Amazon Trio, and every other foe that 
had ever faced him. Was this the kind of friend he wanted to be for his 
princess? The kind who was always in need of rescue? 

	His golden eyes narrowed, and the winged boy snorted in derision. 
He was not going to be afraid of this 'Nise Suiko' creature. He was going 
to stand his ground and fight. There was still a chance. Turning on his 
heel, Elios pried the weapon free from his neck and spun it experimentally
in his hands as he flew back the way that he had come. He was not very 
experienced with weapons, but he knew better than to try to fight that 
monster bare-handed. 

	The guards were barely even a challenge. Still shocked by his 
intitial appearance, they were not expecting his sudden return. Holding 
the polearm in front of him so that it stretched the length of the 
corridor, he had soared into them and knocked all three sprawling. Elios 
snagged the first one to rise in the jaws of the mancatcher and hurled 
him clumsily into the other two as they struggled to their feet. Their 
retalition passed harmlessly through the feathers of his wings and he 
hastily crowned all three with the mancatcher's closed pincers. A quick 
spell was enough to insure that all three would be remaining asleep for 
a very long time. Elios piled the three youma together against the wall 
and wiped his forehead on his sleeve. He had to admit, that had gone a 
lot better than he had expected it to. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad, 
after all. 

	Nise Suiko rounded the corner and skidded to a stop, his dark 
eyes widening slightly in surprise. Elios allowed himself a smile. His 
enemy had not been expecting him to stay around and fight. The youma 
had probably thought he was just a normal boy, too scared to hold his 
ground against someone nearly half again his size. Well, he would have to 
show Nise Suiko that even the lowest of Endymion's servants was willing to
give their all against the forces of evil. With a shout, Elios charged 
forward and swung the polearm like a bat. Nise Suiko ducked and blocked 
the strike with his forearm, backpedalling slightly under the ferocity 
of the blow. 

	"Woah! I'll give you credit, kid; you got some guts in you. No 
brains, maybe, but guts at least puts you ahead of most of the pansies 
I've been slapping around." With a loud snapping sound, a trio of razor 
sharp blades swung into place over his right hand. Each one was nearly a 
foot long, with serrated edges and a black finish. He slashed with them, 
and Elios hopped out of the way, flapping his wings to gain some height. 

	"Nice trick with the wings, Pony-boy: Badamon told me you needed 
to be fully transformed to use those." Nise Suiko stepped off of one of 
the fallen guards, using the groaning youma as a springboard to launch 
himself at Elios and swipe at the boy's face with his claws. Elios 
flinched back, and hit his head against the ceiling. Grimacing, he dropped
down to the floor and held his weapon menacingly in Nise Suiko's general 
direction. Flight indoors was not quite the advantage it appeared to be. 

	"Badamon knows very little about me, Nise Suiko," Elios bluffed, 
hoping that the youma might be more cautious if he was not sure what to 
expect. "You'll find me full of surprises."

	"I'm beginning to get that," the youma admitted, reaching behind 
him and drawing a wicked-looking dagger from the sheath on his shoulder. 
"For starters, that creepy old priest figured that you would be out of 
here like a bolt of lightning the second you knew we'd caught you. I was 
afraid I had dropped the ball on this one, and here you are nice enough 
to hang around and get captured all over again. Remind me to put you in 
the really comfortable cell when this is over."

	"I warned you once," Elios reminded his opponent. "I will not be 
held captive again!" He barrelled towards Nise Suiko, a nimbus of 
coruscating energy swirling around his form. His footsteps seemed to echo,
as though they had somehow doubled. Halfway down the corridor, his run 
became a gallop. 

	"Uh-oh," Nise Suiko said, and fourteen hundred pounds of angry 
winged horse slammed into him horn-first. Gripping the golden horn firmly
in both hands, Nise Suiko was pulled off of his feet by the power of the
Pegasus' charge. The youma clung frantically to his precarious position 
as the horse swung its head from side to side, slamming him against the 
walls and ceiling as it barrelled down the hallway. Anything was fine, 
he figured, as long as he didn't wind up under those hooves....

	With a final whinny, Pegasus whipped its head around and flipped 
the armoured youma over its back like a bad penny. Unable to turn around 
in the tight corridor, the winged horse shimmered and changed back into 
the white-garbed form of the boy priest. Elios grabbed a discarded 
halberd from the floor and raced back to where Nise Suiko had fallen, 
chopping downward with a fierce cry. Stone chipped and flew on either 
side as Nise Suiko rolled out of the way, barely avoiding the strike. 

	"You're good, kid, but you lack finesse." Nise Suiko stepped on 
the back of the halberd's blade, using his weight to keep it embedded 
firmly in the floor no matter how hard Elios struggled to get it free. 
"Can we please just call this quits, now? You're starting to get on my 
nerves."

	"No! I'll never surrender to you!" Giving up on the halberd, Elios
quickly snatched up another of the guard's discarded weapons. 

	"Uh-huh, yeah. Right. You're on what now, your third weapon? I'm 
barely even scuffed. Like I said, I'm giving you credit for actually 
sticking around to fight me, but that charity is just about over. Give up
now, or I am going to have to peel you like a grape."

	"Not while you still hold Sailor Jupiter!" 

	"Oh, so this is about a woman? Okay, I understand now." Stepping 
inside Elios' reach, Nise Suiko shot his arm out with inhuman speed and 
slapped his opponent in the face. The sound of the strike echoed through 
the barren hallway like a gunshot, and Elios reeled back. The world 
spun hazily in several directions at once, and it was all he could do to 
maintain his grip on the spear he was holding. 

	"Snap out of it, you little snot! You can't kill me, you can't 
put me to sleep, and you haven't got a chance in hell of beating me. You 
got in a couple of lucky shots, and that's IT. If you had a brain in your 
head, you'd call it a day and get out of here while I'm still feeling 
generous. Keep this crap up, and somebody's going to mistake you for an 
actual hero and turn you into pulp. Probably me. Get it?" 

	Elios shook his head to clear it and looked back at Nise Suiko. 
The youma was right - even after everything that Elios had done, there 
was barely more than some dents in his armour to show for it. Maybe he 
could still beat Nise Suiko, but how much longer would it take? The sound 
of their fight was bound to draw attention eventually, and then Elios 
would be outnumbered. Even if he won, he would still need to find and 
defeat Fei Lian after he made it past the armoured youma. He wished that 
Chibi-Usa were here, or Prince Endymion. He could use their wisdom and 
experience. 

	Was he a coward to flee, or a fool to stay? He just couldn't tell,
and there was too much relying on him to be wrong. He needed help. He 
couldn't do this alone. 

	The spear clattered to the ground, and Nise Suiko smiled with 
relief. 

	"Glad to see you're showing some sense, kid. No offense, but even 
I'd be a little squeamish to have to slaughter a twelve-year old. Now 
you just come along quietly, and... HEY!"

	The light of Elios' golden horn flared again, and Nise Suiko was 
left rubbing his eyes in a suddenly vacant corridor. There was no sign 
of the boy priest, and no clue as to where he might have gone. Probably 
snuck back into the realm of dreams, the flighty little bastard. Grumbling
sourly, Nise Suiko blinked furiously and tried to get the spots out of 
his vision. He was getting seriously sick of that kid and his horn. Now 
he was going to have to go back to Radanthus and report that he had failed
to capture the intruder. 

	Or was he? Nise Suiko looked around and grinned wickedly. Nobody 
had seen the little brat except for him and those three guards over there.
Even Badamon hadn't been sure that anything was up; he had just said that 
it felt like somebody might be using magic up there. Maybe those guards 
had been the ones who had been messing around with the magic. Maybe they 
had been spies for Lady Kayura, and Nise Suiko had caught them. A few 
minutes' work with his knife and they'd be in no condition to argue. After
all, if a cabal of subversive traitors wanted to resist capture he could 
hardly be held responsible for what happened, and there had obviously 
been a battle here. Just a little bit of work, and he might just get out 
of this smelling like a rose. 

	Besides, who cared if the kid got away? Nise Suiko was pretty sure
he had managed to make it clear what was going to happen if he ever ran 
into Elios again. No way the kid could be stupid enough to try coming 
back after something like that. 


**********

	"Toshitada," Touma asked his companion as the two young men 
picked their way through the barren field of rocks, "what do you know 
about this Fei Lian guy? He said he was my mortal enemy..."

	"And so he is," Shutendoji agreed, bracing himself with his 
shakujo staff and stretching out an arm to help the blue-haired teen 
over a particularly difficult crevice. "I would dare say that Fei Lian 
has been your enemy for a very long time, Touma. He is the eternal enemy 
of all who have ever borne the name Hashiba." 

	"Why? What did any of us ever do to him?" 

	"You exist," the monk explained simply, tilting his straw hat back
on his head and shading his eyes with one hand as he looked into the 
distance. "That is all the reason that Fei Lian requires to seek your 
doom. He knows that only a scion of the Hashiba clan can hope to defeat 
him, for only they can wield the Sho Ha Kyu, the weapon of his nemesis."

	"The Archer," Touma said, skidding down a loose pile of gravel 
and carefully maintaining his balance. "But who was the Archer?" 

	"He had many names," Toshitada said in reply. "The Archer was not 
one for staying around long enough for formal introductions. Most people 
simply called him whatever they wanted: the important thing was that he 
always came when he was called. Kaos knew him as Nomios, the eternal 
wanderer. I have always suspected that he might have been someone called 
Prince Klarios, myself: there is little record of what happened to him 
after the fall."

	"Okay, so a long time ago this Nomios guy fought Fei Lian and 
took him down. Good for Nomios, and all -I mean, it's nice to know that 
the good guy won- but what does any of that have to do with me?" 

	"Guess," the monk replied dryly, giving his companion an acidic 
glare from beneath the brim of his hat. Touma glared back at him with a 
flat expression of distaste. 

	"I don't believe in reincarnation," he said quietly.

	"Fei Lian does," Toshitada said with a casual shrug. "As far as 
he is concerned, you are the reincarnation of his bitterest enemy. To him,
you are Shen Yi, destroyer of the nine suns and bearer of the silver bow.
You are the Mouse Catcher, the Shining One, the Lord of the Heavens. You 
are Prince Klarios; you are Nomios the wanderer. You are all of these 
people, Touma Hashiba, and they are you. Can you not feel this resonating
within the heart of Tenku? Do you not sense their strength flowing through
your mystic armour?"

	"Klarios..." Touma mused, stroking his chin as he looked 
thoughtfully into the distance. The emblem of Intellect flared upon his 
brow momentarily, then faded as he shook his head and grinned lopsidedly 
at the monk. "Sorry, man: it's just not ringing any bells." 
	
	"Good," his comrade said bluntly. "If you are wise, you will keep
it that way. The past has a bad habit of trying to force its way into the
present, Touma Hashiba. Focus instead on what is occuring now." 

	"Now? I'm just worried about Makoto. I need to know that she's 
all right, or at least what I can do to help her if she isn't. She's my 
kohai, and I'm scared because something might be happening to her and 
there's nothing I can do about it." Touma scratched the back of his head 
and scuffed his armoured foot on the ground. "I, uh, guess you're not to 
familiar with that emotion, huh?" 

	"I think I vaguely recall feeling that," the monk admitted after 
a brief pause, "but only once. And it was a very long time ago." 	

	"Really? What happened?"

	"I died." 

	"Oh. So... I'm guessing you don't want to talk about it?" 

	"Not really."

	The two men walked on in silence for a while, the rocks crunching
under their feet as they continued across the rock-strewn field. The wind
sang mournfully across the plain, and the golden rings of Toshitada's 
staff clinked softly against each other. He walked with his head bowed, 
lost in thought. Touma smiled as he listened to the chimes, and spoke. 

	"I pray," he said, "that all beings everywhere hear the sound of 
the Shakujo: that the lazy become energetic, that precept breakers become 
virtuous, that the untrustworthy become reliable, that the stingy become 
generous, that the angry become merciful, that the foolish become wise..."

	"And that the arrogant become humble," Toshitada finished, looking
back over his shoulder at the other boy and smiling faintly. "I was not 
aware you knew the Nine Prayers, Touma Hashiba. You do not seem to be the 
religious type."
 
	"My Grandfather was a priest," Touma explained. "He ran a shrine 
in Nagasaki. Mom and Dad used to send me there when they were fighting. 
Or getting counseling for their fighting. Grandpa knew more about training
priests than raising kids, so he kind of just mixed the two together. That
was how I met Shuu; he used to hang out at the shrine when he was little.
I kind of forgot about those days until recently." When they came back to 
bite me in the ass, he added silently. It had been at his grandfather's 
shrine that he and Shuu had accidentally let out the demon that had been 
sealed within the puzzle box the first time. Xiang Yao had caused a lot 
of trouble before they had managed to stuff her back where she belonged. 
Now she was free, and he was stuck in her place. 

	"Her name was Setsuna," Toshitada said abruptly. "She came to me 
in a time of need. I was confused, conflicted, new to my powers and my 
responisbility. I had never been a Samurai Trooper before: I only knew how
to be a Masho, and I knew that was not the right path. Somehow, she saw me
down in that pit of corruption and despair, and she came for me. She 
taught me things I would never have suspected to learn on my own, things 
that you would not believe if I told them to you. She was MY senpai, the 
guiding light that showed me a path away from the darkness of my soul."

	"Wow." Touma stopped walking, his mouth hanging open. That had not
been what he had been expecting from the usually taciturn Toshitada Koma. 
Since when did the former Masho open up to any of them? They had always 
gotten the impression that he kind of resented having to show up and help 
them at all. So Toshitada Koma had a sad story to tell? He never would 
have guessed. "So, who was she? Why did she-"

	"She was... I think that she was lonely." Toshitada stopped and 
turned to face Touma, his face concealed as usual by the shadows of his 
broad hat. "Setsuna had been alone for a very long time, longer than you 
or I could hope to imagine. If I was allowed to bring one such as her 
even a moment of respite -the slightest bit of comfort- then that is all 
I ask of this world." 

	"Deep," Touma said. "So, when you say 'comfort'... do you mean-?"

	"I think we have shared enough for one day," Toshitada answered, 
and continued walking. Touma shrugged and raced after the monk, skipping 
from rock to rock in an attempt to keep up. He supposed he was better 
off not knowing, now that he thought about it. Toshitada was a lot easier
to handle when he was being snarky and distant. Caring and sharing were 
not high on his agenda, and Touma was fine with that as long as they 
were going in the right direction to find Makoto. After all, it wasn't 
like there was anybody else who could help her. 

**********

	It was the middle of the night, and even the most desperate of 
shopkeepers needed to admit that they were not going to get any more 
customers.

	One of those shopkeepers was an elegant and frustrated woman 
who called herself Perrine Etrange. For the past few years, she had been
doing everything in her power to hold together the small family business 
that she and her sisters had begun shortly after arriving in Tokyo. As 
far as any of the other shopkeepers who worked in the area knew, she was 
just one more entrepeneur trying to keep her head above water in the 
difficult times they all had to face. She was a bit of a recluse, not 
quite as active in the community as her younger sisters Carole and 
Berenice, but as the oldest it was only right that she accept the burden 
of responisibilty. Bills needed to be paid, and ends needed to be met 
even if she had to stretch them until they squealed. 

	The local community had a lot of misconceptions about Perrine 
Etrange. Perhaps the largest of these was that she came from France. 
Perrine did not blame any of them for making this mistake: it was largely 
based on the fact that she had lied to them. Running a beauty salon was 
hard, especially since nobody knew anything about Perrine or the rest of 
her family. Pretending to be from France helped lend them an exotic air 
that made them stand out a little from the rest of the crowd. Besides, 
being 'French' was a useful excuse whenever she needed to explain any of 
the countless difficulties that they had with the Japanese lifestyle. If 
you couldn't blend in (and Perrine knew very well that her siblings could 
NOT), then the second best thing was to have an easy explanation for any 
of your inevitable oddities. If something got strange looks or started to 
arouse any suspicions, all Perrine had to do was laugh airily, tell them 
that this was merely how things were done in France, and get whoever had 
screwed up the hell out of there as quickly as possible. 

	Her life had somehow managed the art of being both boring and 
terrifying at the same time. Perrine spent the entire day giving facials 
and filing fingernails while her customers prattled on about their mundane
little lives until she was almost willing to ram her file into their 
necks just to give them a complaint worth listening to. Then, after all 
the rest of the girls had gone home, she got to stay up all night going 
over the books and realising that they were one more 'incident' away from 
moving into a cardboard box in the alley unless she managed to pull off 
an accounting miracle. So far she was relying on the age-old technique 
of staring at the numbers until they changed into ones that worked. 

	Berenice should be the one doing this. Everybody knew that 
Berenice was the smart one. Unfortunately, Berenice was also busy with  
her part time job volunteering at the hospital. She said her latest 
patient was some kind of doctor, or professor, or something. Had a young 
daughter and a laugh that reminded her of their old boss. Perrine was 
hardly going to deny any of her family the chance to be happy: it was the 
whole reason they had agreed to run off and start the salon in the first 
place. 

	A sudden clatter in the back room broke through her reverie, and 
Perrine looked up in surprise. She had already locked all of the doors, 
and there was no way that there could be anybody in the shop except for 
her. Had Carole come back for something she forgot, and just not wanted 
to disturb her? The rest of the girls did have keys.... Just in case, 
she decided to check. The last thing she needed was to get robbed. 

	Gracefully, Perrine reached under the counter and pulled out a 
baseball bat. Resting it on her shoulder, she stopped to look in the 
mirror and carefully tucked a few strands of emerald hair back into 
place. She adjusted the collar on her navy jacket and smooted the silver 
spangles that covered its front with one gloved hand as she quickly 
practiced her evil glare. Yeah, she could still be pretty menacing when 
she wanted to. Maybe she could convince whoever it was to go away without 
needing to hit them. 

	She strode confidentally across the store, her white patent 
leather shoes clicking on the marbled tile as she neared the door to the 
back room. Hefting the bat, she gripped the door handle and wrenched it 
open with a single tug. 

	"All right," she said defiantly, "That sign clearly reads 
'Employees Only', so if you aren't related to me, Mister Bat and I are 
going to have to get all 'Wicked Witch of the West' on you. And I happen 
to be extraordinarily GOOD at being wicked!"

	"Wait! Please!" A small boy with a mop of ivory hair cowered in 
the back corner of the storeroom, holding his arms over his head. The 
first thing that Perrine noticed was that the child had been dressed 
entirely in white before he had gotten soaked in that vat of mascara. 
That was going to be a pain to get out, she could tell. The second thing 
she noticed (which surprised her, since she would have expected it to be 
more obvious) was that the boy also had a horn growing out of the top of 
his head. "I mean you no harm! I'm a friend of Sailor Moon!" 

	"Sailor Moon?" Perrine reluctantly lowered the bat. "You know 
Sailor Moon?" 

	"Yes," Elios replied softly. "And I know you too, Petz. Eldest 
of the Akayashi Sisters, who served Crimson Rubeus in his quest to find 
and destroy the daughter of Princess Serenity. You four were one of the 
Senshi's bitterest foes."

	"Yeah, well, that was a long time ago. I run a beauty salon, now. 
So if you want me to listen to you, you'd better be in the middle of a 
manicure and I'd better be getting paid for it. Otherwise you can just 
get the hell out of here, and tell Sailor Moon that we appreciate her 
patronage, okay?" 

	"My name is Elios, Petz. I am the guardian of the realm of 
dreams..."

	"Really? That's very interesting. MY dream is to make rent this 
month, so either pay up or go away!" Petz tossed the baseball bat aside 
and walked back into the store, sighing despondently. Elios quickly 
followed after her, brushing as much of the makeup as he could from his 
priestly robes. 

	"I know your dreams, Petz - you are always so very sad when you 
visit my lands. I know whose jacket you wear, and why. I am sorry for your
loss." 

	"If you have a point, you'd better get to it fast," Petz said 
warningly. "I don't like where this conversation is going." 

	"The Sailor Senshi are in danger, Petz. Radanthus the Unconquered 
is moving against them, and I cannot reach them without alerting him. He 
watches the Senshi closely - but he does not yet watch their friends. YOU 
are a friend of the Sailor Senshi, Petz of the Akayashi. I need you to 
help me."

	"You've come to the wrong place," Petz said firmly. "My name is 
Perrine Etrange, now, and I am a perfectly normal young woman. The most 
I could do to help the Senshi is give them half-off on a facial, and 
that's cutting my own throat. I've never heard of this Radanthus fool, but
if he wants to fight the Sailor Senshi he's an idiot. Those girls do not 
need anybody's help."

	"I think you are not aware of how bad things have already become.
Sailor Jupiter has been captured within the Castle of Eternal Regret!" 

	"Never heard of it. Besides, she'll be fine. I'm from the future, 
remember? I know these things. Not that it's been helping my investments,
lately..." With a groan, the green-haired woman set her hands on her desk
and stared down at a list of numbers that just would not balance. "Even if
I wanted to help Sailor Jupiter, what good would I be to you by myself? 
I'm washed up, no good without my powers." 

	"Let me take care of that," Elios replied. "I can make you strong 
again, Petz, and you shall not be alone. I will give you the power of 
thunder, to wield against the enemies of the Sailor Senshi." 

	"But I have responsibilities! I have bills to pay, and books to 
balance, and... and...." Petz scowled and picked up the accounts in front 
of her. With a shrug, she hurled them across the room. "You know what? 
Screw it. You wait here, and I'll go get my costume."

**********

	Elios and Petz made a few more stops along the way, and the 
pattern formed pretty quickly. She would hang back and look menacing in 
case someone tried something, and Elios would explain the situation to 
whoever he was currently speaking to. It was a bit surprising to see just
how many former villains there were, hanging around the greater 
metropolitan area. Luckily for Petz she had thought to bring some business
cards and was discreetly handing them out to everybody they met. She was 
still less than certain why they had stopped by the zoo, but Elios had 
spent a very long time talking to what had appeared to be a tiger and a 
hawk before giving up. As the priest had explained it, the animals had 
been willing to help, but had no way to escape without drawing attention. 
She had left one of her cards at the aquarium: apparently the fish there 
had expressed an interest.

	"So, let me get this straight," one of their companions said, 
holding the card in front of her with both hands and squinting at it as if
she had never seen one before. "If I go to this place, and I show one of 
the women there this piece of paper, they will put mud on my face?" 

	"Pretty much, yes." Petz agreed, nodding happily.

	"And that will make me more attractive?" the elfin girl asked, 
raising an eyebrow. 

	"Oh, definitely. I'm sure it will make you a much, uh, nicer 
shade of... green." 

	"It certainly is nice to be back in Tokyo again," the only other 
male in the group said with a debonair smile. "Don't you think so, Ann?"

	"I still want to know why the creepy lady with the feathers wants 
to put mud on my face," Ann replied, giving her masculine partner a 
suspicious glare. "YOU don't think I need to be any more beautiful, do 
you, Ail?" 

	"Well," Ail said with a shrug, "I guess it couldn't hurt."

	"Ail!" Ann gasped in outrage and punched her partner in the 
shoulder. "How COULD you? That has to be the single worst thing you've 
said to me since we left this place! I'm never helping you again!" 

	"Oh, come on," Ail replied, draping an arm around Ann's shoulders 
and hugging her to his side as he fanned a handful of cards. "You know I'm
no good at doing this kind of stuff without you, Ann. Forgive me? I'll let
you pick your favorite cardian..."

	"Can you please keep it down a little?" Elios asked, gathering 
the small group with his gaze. "These are the most important members of 
our team yet, and we must succeed in recruiting them!" Walking up to the 
large and imposing wrought-iron gate, he pressed a small buzzer and 
waited. 

	"May we assist you?" the elecronic box asked in a crackle of 
static. 

	"Yes," Elios said confidently. "Is this the Tomoe residence?" 

	"It is," the box confirmed, sounding slightly annoyed. 

	"Excellent! I was wondering if I might speak to Souichi Tomoe and 
Kaori Kuromine. Are either of them accepting visitors today?" 

	The gates shuddered, and began to open, and Petz smiled despite 
herself. Whatever else she might think of this Elios fellow, he definitely
had something in mind. She had a suspicious feeling that whoever they 
were up against, she was going to be very happy that she was on this team
and not theirs.

**********

	Kaori examined the eyeglasses suspiciously as Elios stood nearby, 
his hands clasped behind his back. They seemed like perfectly normal 
glasses, except for the glowing rune that completely obscured the right 
lens. The boy had simply snapped his fingers and they had popped into 
existence in mid-air. Between that, the glowing horn on his head, and 
the fact that he appeared to have a pair of elves with him, she was 
tempted to believe that he was telling her the truth. 

	"And you're saying that these will help restore the Professor?" 

	"Oh, they will do more than that," Elios reassured her. "With 
those on, he will be better than ever. It isn't a permanent fix, I'm 
afraid, but my power of illusion can provide him some clarity of thought 
for a while, so long as he wears my talisman. The rest of the healing will
only come in time."

	"Why do they look like this?" 

	"I pulled the image from the both of your minds. It holds great 
signifigance to the two of you, so I decided to use it." 

	"Please, Kaori," the slender man in the overstuffed armchair 
said, speaking for the first time since their guests had entered, "the 
least we can do is humour the boy. He seems earnest enough, and his story 
does help explain a few things that I had been wondering about. Like 
why I'm the headmaster of a crater, for one thing. That always seemed odd,
because I don't remember BUYING a crater..."

	The baby he was holding gurgled, and Professor Tomoe bounced her 
gently on his knee as he smiled over at his red-headed scretary. 

	"Besides," he concluded. "Hotaru seems to like them. Don't you 
Hotaru? You like the funny-looking people. Yes, you do! Yes, you do!"

	"I still don't like it," Kaori argued, folding her arms over her 
chest and glaring down at the grinning Elios and his strange looking 
compatriots. 

	"We're not asking you to like it," Petz snapped, poking the other 
woman in the shoulder. "We're just telling you what's going on. Now 
whether you want to admit it or not, you owe the Sailor Senshi just as 
much as my sisters and I do." 

	"They helped us find a home," Ann added, wrapping her arms around 
Ail's waist as he patted her on her head. "We did so many things to them, 
and then they helped us. I just hope our tree will be okay without us 
there to look after things."

	"I'm sure Fiore is taking excellent care of it," Ail reassured 
her. "He's very good with plants."

	"I still don't know exactly who these 'Sailor' people you keep 
talking about are," the professor said, "but if what you say is true, 
then they've saved us all from countless dangers in the past. And if they 
have done anything to help my little Hotaru, then I would be more than 
happy to assist them in any way I can. I'm not sure exactly what good a 
geneticist will be to your cause, but..."

	"What we need is someone smart and good at puzzles," Elios 
explained with a grin. "Between Petz and the cardians, I think we'll have 
more than enough firepower. I'm hoping that you might be able to help us 
figure out how to free Sailor Jupiter when we get to her." 

	"I'll do what I can," Professor Tomoe promised, and donned the 
eyeglasses. The rune covering his right eye glowed and spun briefly 
before settling down into its usual pattern. Rising from his seat, the 
slender scientist hugged his daughter close and kissed the top of her 
head. As he turned to face Kaori, the sun glinted off of his lenses, 
causing them to glow. 

	"Kaori," he said sternly, "fetch my lab coat. I'm off to do some 
experiments in the field."

	"Not alone you're not," Kaori corrected him. "If this boy can 
whip up some kind of magical thingy for you, he can make one for me, too. 
I'm coming with you, or you'll wander in front of a lightning bolt, or 
something. Where will your darling little Hotaru be then?"

	"Hmmm... I must admit, I hadn't considered that." Tomoe looked 
concerned for a moment, then nodded. "All right, Kaori, if the little 
horned child and his strangely dressed friends can find some kind of way 
to help you, I suppose you can come, too. But who will take care of 
Hotaru while we're away?" 

	"That Haruka girl said to call her if you ever needed anything," 
Kaori suggested, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "I think we still have 
her number. Why not have her come by and baby-sit for a few days while 
we're performing our tests?" 

	"Capital idea!" Professor Tomoe shifted Hotaru into the crook 
of his arm and thrust a finger emphatically into the air. "I couldn't 
have thought it better myself!" 

	Elios smiled calmly as Kaori took the baby away from the 
scientist and hurried off to find a phone. Since the Amazon Trio had 
turned down his offer, he supposed he had enough power left to bring 
back Kaolinite. If nothing else, she would make sure that nothing happened
to the Professor while they were storming the castle. Chibi-Usa had told 
him all about Hotaru's father and his nutty secretary. In fact, it had 
been Chibi-Usa who had told him about Petz and her sisters, as well, and 
about Prince Endymion's alien friend Fiore, which had led him to Ail and 
Ann. He was glad he had been paying so much attention. 

	The old ways were the best. This time, he was going to hit that 
castle with a team to support him. Maybe they weren't heroes, exactly, 
but they would definitely not be what Radanthus was expecting. The next 
time Elios ran into Nise Suiko, things were going to go a lot differently.
With warriors like these to support him, Sailor Jupiter was as good as 
free. 

	He just hoped that his enemies hadn't come up with the same plan.

**********

	Badamon fought the urge to cackle insanely as he ran his ragged 
fingertips over the smooth surface of his latest acquisition. He needed 
to touch it, just to be sure that it was really there. The giant block 
of crystal was so cold that his hands would stick to it if he wasn't 
careful, and a thick shroud of mist poured off of it as the air condensed 
into fog. It was gigantic, at least eight feet long and four feet wide. 
Even from here, he could feel the dark energy crackling deep within its 
heart. 

	Irduk knelt reverently nearby, his qrotesque helmet with its 
fanged visor doffed in respect to the presence of his commander. Radanthus
had sent the brute to insure that Badamon was loyal to his task, but the 
monstrous youma would serve only to report the priest's success. He had 
done it. It had taken every one of his Ankoku Priests nearly seven months 
of scouring the depths of space, but he had recovered the last great 
artifact of the Dark Kingdom. 

	The spells were almost childishly simple for him to undo, now that
he could see the shape of the crystalline matrix that bound the former 
general. Badamon circled the ebony plinth and scratched ancient runes of 
power on each of the key structural points of the prison. A splattering 
of blood was required, but since he had lost the skin off of his left 
hand lingering too long on the frozen exterior, he had more than enough of
that to go around. He chanted the darkest incantations, speaking words 
with the power to tear his throat from his body, and the green ichor of 
his blood fizzed and spat from his flayed lips as he did so. The very 
torches themselves dimmed as his spell filled the air and dampened all 
light and sound. Every syllable he spoke was like having his mouth filled 
with cotton as his tongue froze and his jaw muscles trembled with the 
natural inclination to not say the words he was forcing through his teeth.
His last vestiges of humanity, he knew, trying to preserve themselves at 
the final moment. As if he still had any more need of them. 

	Taking his place at the head of the massive block, Badamon raised
his blade above his head and called out the exhortations required of him. 
The magic funelled into him and scoured through his body, looking for the 
tiniest shred of a soul to claim and finding nothing. Badamon had done 
away with that pesky part of himself long ago. Gesturing to Irduk, he 
frantically summoned the lumbering brute over. The muscular youma rose to 
his feet and crossed the distance between them, looking vaguely confused. 
Badamon reached out, his arm stretching and warping as it glowed with all 
the shifting colours of the rainbow and plunged into Irduk's chest. The 
youma stiffened, coruscating black energy swirling in and out of his 
body like a snake chasing through the warrens of a timid little mouse. 

	Badamon didn't even blink as the youma howled and disintegrated. 
After all, the dark powers would have wanted one of them, and Badamon 
himself was hardly an option. It was always good to keep a minion or two 
on hand to help with tricky spell components like that. 

	The block of black crystal shuddered as the runes etched onto its 
glossy surface burned with dark magic. Slowly, lines of blue flame spread 
from each rune to form an intricate web of crackling energy that enveloped
the entire plinth. The cavern itself began to shiver in anticipation, 
rocks sloughing off of the roof and walls to clatter loudly on the floor 
and spray basalt chips throughout the area. With a sudden rush of air, 
the entire thing exploded. Badamon howled and ducked behind his tattered 
cloak as shards of rock and crystal showered the cavern and a fierce 
wind screamed the mournful wail of a crazed banshee. 

	The rumbling and shuddering came to a stop, and a single human 
form was all that remained of the giant black gem that Badamon had spent 
so much energy searching for. Slowly, the young man lowered his arms, 
still raised in a defensive gesture, and looked around the chamber in 
confusion. Reaching up with one spotless white glove, he absent-mindedly 
brushed some small splinters of rock out of his golden hair. He was 
tall and slim, dressed in a uniform the colour of wet shale with blood 
red piping on the jacket. His delicate features twisted first in 
puzzlement, then in anger as he growled and clenched his fists. 

	"You BITCH!" Grinding his teeth together, the young man thrust a 
menacing finger in Badamon's direction. "Take me to Beryl, foul one, NOW, 
or so help me I shall-"

	"Cannot! I cannot!" Badamon pleaded, cowering and wringing his 
hands together. "Queen Beryl is dead, oh great and merciful lord! We have 
plumbed the darkness for ages seeking to rescue you from your icy tomb! 
Please, master, please, do not blame me!" 

	"Dead?" Jadeite gave Badamon a look of horror. "No! She can't be 
dead! Not Queen Beryl! How in the ten hells am I supposed to kill her if 
she's already dead?" 

	"Kill?" Badamon blinked rapidly as he tried to make some sense 
out of the general's response. "We... We were not expecting quite so... 
violent a reaction, master."

	"Well, what WERE you expecting? That insipid woman put me in a 
giant damned ice cube! Of COURSE I'd want to kill her!" Fuming, Jadeite 
walked over to Badamon's work bench and shattered it with one strike from 
his fist. "Who put you up to this, priest? Kunzite? Zoicite? If they think
for one second that I would bow and scrape to the likes of them-" 

	"No! No! It was Radanthus the Unconquered who ordered your return,
Lord Jadeite! All of your rivals are long dead, killed by the Sailor 
Senshi!" 

	Jadeite glared at him, and Badamon slapped his own hands over his 
mouth. Somehow, he suspected that he had just managed to find the exact 
wrong words to say and fit them all into a single sentence. The young 
general walked calmly over to where the priest was cowering and lifted 
him by the neck until they were staring eye-to-eye. 

	"I'm sorry," Jadeite said, with a quiet chuckle. "I've clearly 
been trapped in eternal slumber for a little too long, and it must be 
affecting my hearing. For a second there, it sounded like you said that 
Saior Moon and her little friends had actually managed to beat us." 

	"Well," Badamon croaked, "not ALL of us, Lord Jadeite..." 

	"Oh, no." Jadeite shook his head and chuckled again. "No, no, no. 
This shall not do. Sailor Moon, triumphant? The little girl who needs the 
guy in the tuxedo to come and save her all the time? I think not." 

	"Lord Radanthus is of a similar opinion, Lord Jadeite," Badamon 
managed to squeak, as Jadeite's grip on his neck steadily tightened. "He 
wishes to parley with you, to correct Queen Beryl's mistake! Clearly, your
comrades were less than sufficient for the task that she should have left 
to you all along! Had you remained in charge, Sailor Moon would not be 
troubling us now! He has already contacted your armies, and they await 
your command! Could you please release me? If my head pops off, it will 
take me all day to reattach it." 

	"Whatever." Jadeite released his grip, and Badamon fell to the 
ground in a clattering heap of bones and rags. Quickly sorting himself 
back out, the dark priest scuttled off ahead of his new comrade, pausing 
only to turn and gesture for him to follow. 

	"Come, oh powerful one! My master eagerly awaits you!" 

	Jadite followed, and did his best to tune out the chattering 
little priest. So, the Sailor Senshi had somehow managed to overcome Beryl
and the rest of his allies? He had to admit, it was annoying that he was 
going to miss the chance to get his revenge on his Queen, but at least 
darling little Miss Moon and her friends Miss Mercury and Miss Mars were 
still hanging around. He wondered if they had missed him as much as he had
missed them? Regardless of how his meeting with this Radanthus fool turned
out, Jadeite already knew exactly what he was going to do. He wouldn't 
rush, oh no: he had waited too long for a chance to play to just ruin all 
his fun in one shot. 

	He had no intention of just killing the Sailor Senshi. That would 
only leave him unfulfilled and depressed. No, he was going to do something
far better. 

	He was going to HURT them. 

**********

To Be Continued...