REVAMPED LEGAL DISCLAIMER: the Sailor Senshi belong to Kodansha and 
Cloverway, and the Samurai Troopers are the legal property of Sunrise and 
Bandai Entertainment. I am only borrowing them for a few chapters, and I 
intend no harm. 


                      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 7: Preparations

	Nana Asahina had never been a very good person. She had learned 
at an early age that there was little point in looking for the best in 
her fellow man - in her experience, there was never much to be found. It 
was much easier and more fun to poke around a bit and drag out all the 
dark and ugly secrets that people wanted to hide. Everybody had something 
that a girl could use against them, if she was willing to look hard 
enough. Secrets made Nana money hand over fist during her years in high 
school: nobody could hope to cheat on a test or vandalise a locker 
without having to pay for her silence on the matter. Some of the things 
she had found out about had been carefully squirrelled away and saved for 
later use, just in case any of her classmates became important when they 
grew up. After graduation, she had gotten a job fetching coffee for a 
local rag called the Weekly Dokkiri. The editor had never appreciated her 
talent for reporting, but after a few weeks she was able to impress the 
heck out of him with some photos of him enjoying a night out in the 
Roppongi district with several girls who were not his wife. Her promotion 
had followed with lightning speed. 

	Once she had access to a newspaper that was willing to print her 
various stories, she had become even more dangerous. As she had suspected 
years ago, several of her former classmates had indeed grown up to be 
very important people, and she still had a very thick and dog-eared folder
that was just brimming with all their dirty childhood secrets. Nana had 
been able to break scandals about countless celebrities without even 
needing to leave her own apartment. After the first of her former victims 
felt the tip of her poison pen stabbing into their careers, the rest had 
quickly realised that little Nana Asahina was not quite the forgotten 
spectre of their school days they had hoped she was. The smart ones had 
helped her move into a much bigger and fancier house, while the stupider 
ones had helped to keep her name in the paper. In her own way, she had 
been grateful for them all. 

	Somewhere along the way, however, something had gone wrong. Nana 
had never realised that her pet hobby of outing various movie stars and 
idol singers who had been trying to keep their homosexuality in the closet
(along with salacious, if dated, photographs) had accidentally caught the 
interest of a demon named Zoicite. Apparently, between attempts to conquer
the planet there had been nothing Zoicite had liked better than to curl 
up with the latest tabloids and see who Nana was going to skewer next. At 
the time, Nana had not even known that there *was* a Dark Kingdom, let 
alone that one of its rulers had been among her biggest fans. She had 
been completely unaware that Zoicite was hanging on her every word, and 
worse, sharing those words with his own lover in the interests of good 
gossip. Zoicite may have died without meeting his favorite reporter, but 
the name of Nana Asahina had stayed with his lover's mind. When Kunzite 
had found himself needing a new convert to the side of the Dark Kingdom, 
the choice had seemed obvious, and Nana Asahina had found herself being 
transformed from a vicious reporter into a slightly more vicious youma. 
She might have stayed that way forever, if Sailor Moon had not undone 
Kunzite's work with one wave of her magic wand. 

	It sometimes occured to Nana that Sailor Moon had likely been 
trying to do her a favour by changing her back into her mortal form. It 
was hardly as though the young warrior of love and justice could have 
known the effect that her Moon Stick was going to have. Sailor Moon seemed
to think that people were naturally decent: it never would have occurred 
to her that her Moon Healing Escalation might remove more than just the 
taint of the Dark Kingdom from someone's soul. She never would have 
guessed that some of that evil that was getting scrubbed away was supposed
to be there. To Nana's horror, she had been made to come face-to-face 
with all of her various shortcomings and deficiencies. Sailor Moon had 
forced her to realise that deep down inside, she was just a sad and lonely
young woman who was trying to manipulate people because she was afraid 
that nobody would be her friend unless she forced them to. That for all 
of those years, she had just been projecting her own self-hatred onto the 
people around her; assuming that they were all as bad as she thought that 
she was. Nana Asahina had been forced to see all of the pain she had 
brought onto the people around her, and she had not even had the luxury 
of pretending that they had done anything to deserve it. It had been the 
single worst moment of her entire life.

	Afterwards, she had tried to turn over a new leaf. She had quit 
her job with the Weekly Dokkiri and tried to find work with a more 
respectable paper, only to find that respectable editors did not want to 
hire someone with her reputation for playing in the shallow end of the 
ethical pool. Her own work spoke against her - there were a lot of very 
wealthy and powerful people who were not happy with the way she had 
treated some of their friends. There were even more people who were not 
too pleased with the way she had been able to push them around in the 
past, and they had no desire to see her get ahead in the world. She lost 
her house in a 'mysterious fire' that had somehow managed to spread to 
several warehouses on the other side of town where she had kept the few 
belongings that were not in her home. Less than a month later she had 
nearly been run over by a speeding car on her way to the store. She might
have put it down as an accident, if they hadn't followed her for three 
blocks and tried again afterwards. It did not take long for Nana to 
realise that she had enemies who were playing a little too rough for the 
new and 'improved' version of her to keep up. 

	The problem with being Nana Asahina quickly became that she had 
no friends. Her old self had not felt the need for them, and her new self 
had far too much bad press to hope she might make any. Everybody thought 
that she was a liar: who would believe her if she said that someone was 
trying to kill her? Especially when she had to admit that it might be any 
one of a hundred different people she had been blackmailing for the past 
two decades? Nobody would be willing to help her. Nobody had any reason 
to help her. She was a penniless, homeless, hopeless wreck of a person. 
Her only redeeming feature was that she was not as bad as she used to be, 
and whenever she tried to explain that to people, they assumed she was 
lying to them again. Nobody would be willing to help her. The only hope 
she had was to find a way to help herself.

	She had left Juuban, settling down in the Kabukicho district of 
Shinjuku. There, amongst the bakuto and the gurentai and the hostess bars 
with their constant red lights, she had managed to eke out enough of a 
living to keep her going while she worked on her next step. She knew that 
revenge was pointless, and that she would never be truly free from the 
power of her enemies as long as she remained in Japan. Nana Asahina was a 
dead end: a useless personality that had long ago lost any chance at 
getting out of the hole she had dug for herself. Nana Asahina *did* have 
one last trick left, though: she had the power to become something else. 
Something strong, and vibrant, and powerful enough that no mere mortal 
could ever hope to harm her again. Nana Asahina could become a youma. 
Surely it couldn't be too hard: she had already been one before, hadn't 
she? 

	As it turned out, reversing the work that Sailor Moon had done to 
her had been much harder than she had thought. Almost two years had 
passed before she was able to get even the slightest clue as to what she 
needed to do to make her dream come true. Fortunately for Nana, who 
had already taken to calling herself by her youma name in preparation for 
the time she changed back, Kubukicho was the kind of place where someone 
could get literally anything they desired if they knew where to look for 
it. Nana had needed to spend a lot of time in shadowed alleyways and 
musty old bookshops, but her reporter's instincts eventually led her to 
a master of the occult who knew how to get what she wanted. He had warned 
her that the powers she was meddling with were too great for her to 
understand, and she had nearly laughed in his face. Too great for her to 
understand? As opposed to the faceless hordes actively trying to murder 
her every day? At least the Dark Kingdom had nothing against her 
specifically. It had taken her days of pleading, cajoling, and even 
threatening, but she had finally convinced him to teach her how to summon 
the Ankoku Priests. 

	The Ankoku Priests were special, even by the standards of the 
youjakai. Legend held that there was nothing beyond -or beneath- those
ministers of darkness. Through their own unique embracing of cruelty and 
hatred, they had reached a strangely austere existence in which their 
dedication to evil was as unshakeable and complete as any monk's faith in 
the teachings of Buddha. Their power was a thing of awe,and they were 
reknowned for their willingness to assist any mortal in seeking out the 
path to evil. The Ankoku Priests had come to Nana Asahina, and they had 
gladly returned her to her former glory. 

	There had been a price, of course - there always was, when dealing
with the Ankoku. So far as Oniwabandana could tell, however, it had been 
a surprisingly small one. It was almost a relief to realise that she was 
free to be bad again after so much time spent as a spineless weakling. 
Being good had done nothing but make her miserable, anyway, and with the 
help of the Ankoku Priests, she had been able to make sure that nobody 
could ever change her back into her pathetic human form again. She was 
Oniwabandana, now and forever.

	Grinning slightly under her mask, the youma blew a gentle kiss 
towards the cloaked priest floating past her hiding place as he drifted 
down the rocky corridor. The gaunt figure raised his head and turned 
his dread gaze in her direction, thin and bloodless lips twitching in a 
cruel smile. With a bob of his head, he accepted her salute and continued 
on his way. The fortress of Radanthus was crawling with Ankoku Priests, 
and since she could not hide from them it seemed only prudent to offer 
them her respect and act as though nothing strange was going on. The 
wraithlike Ankoku were not her goal, anyway: it was their leader Badamon 
that she had been sent to spy on. Jadeite did not trust the rotting old 
cleric, and she had volunteered to see exactly what he and Radanthus were 
really up to. Everyone knew that Jadeite would not be able to remain 
neutral forever: at some point he was going to have to decide to either 
support Radanthus, or oppose him. The information she gathered was going 
to go a long way towards helping him make that decision. 

	She was tempted to just make something up and go home right away. 
Radanthus was basing himself out of the Crimson Nadir, and it was not a 
place that was friendly or inviting by any stretch of the imagination. In
theory, the papers she had tucked safely down the front of her uniform 
marked her as an official envoy from Jadeite to Radanthus, and thus gave 
her a valid reason for being present if she was discovered. With those 
papers, she would probably only be subjected to a week or so of public 
torture and humiliation before they returned her to her master. That, 
of course, assumed that anybody bothered to take her alive. It was more or
less a given that someone like Nise Suiko was not going to be stopped by 
a few official documents. The papers were more of a gesture from Jadeite 
than anything else: a physical reminder to her that he did not consider 
her to be expendable. They meant that he cared. This was her big chance 
to make an impression on somebody who was pretty important in the Dark 
Kingdom, and she did not want to blow it. 

	She had heard the other youma talking in the camps, and Jadeite 
sounded like he was one of the better people to work for. He was very 
kind and considerate to his subordinates, in that he did not have them 
randomly flogged for his own amusement. By Dark Kingdom terms, that was 
almost too good to be true. Serving under Jadeite was like winning the 
lottery as far as a youma could be concerned. He was generous in times of 
plenty, fair in times of famine, and -which was important- understanding 
when things went wrong. Nobody wanted to work for someone who would kill 
them the second they made a mistake. Most youma only served masters like 
that when they had no other choice. 

	Oniwabandana waited a few moments to see if anyone else was going 
to come down the corridor after the Ankoku Priest had passed. Seeing no 
sign of any patrols, she gently eased her way up the wall and crawled 
onto the ceiling. Demon Lords like Radanthus tended to place traps or 
alarms in their floors and walls, but the ceilings were usually relatively
clear. Added to the fact that almost none of the youma guards she had 
passed so far ever seemed to bother looking up while scanning the area, 
this meant that she had already made it past most of the basic security 
without even breaking a sweat. She had to admit, being a ninja was pretty 
useful sometimes.

	Gauging the distance, she gently drew one of her kunai and 
threaded a metal cord around the small hook on the weighted end of the 
throwing knife. With a burst of energy to boost her strength, she drove 
the blade smoothly into the rocky surface of the ceiling and looped the 
wire around her wrist so that it would spool out behind her as she 
advanced. Magical powers were pretty useful, too, sometimes, and this one 
might just be able to get her out of a pinch if she needed it. Only an 
idiot would just hurl herself into the deepest parts of this fortress 
without some kind of insurance. Now the only problem was that she had no 
idea where she was supposed to go. Aside from crawling around randomly 
and hoping to bump into one of the people she was looking for, there was 
no real way for her to locate her prey. She had never been inside this 
fortress before. Radanthus had expressed no interest in a pathetic convert
like herself: he wanted only the strongest and most powerful youma for 
his crusade. 

	Even as a human, she had never liked to be considered weak. She 
may not have been born a member of the aristocracy, like Radanthus,but 
she still had a number of tricks that made her someone to be reckoned 
with. Oniwabandana closed her eyes and bowed her head, her aura 
flickering and writhing around her body as the ghostly images of multiple 
arms and legs began to emerge from her body. There was a sudden flash of 
dark purple energy, and a swarm of identical women raced out from their 
starting point, each one trailing a thin metal wire from her wrist as 
she charged off in a different direction from all of the others. 
Scrambling through the shadows and careening wildly along the ceiling, 
they spread through the castle. When one reached a fork in the path ahead 
of her, she paused only long enough to produce another copy and send it 
hurtling down the new pathway to explore further before continuing on her 
own journey. 

	There was no way for Oniwabandana to be certain how long she was 
trapped in that strange limbo, her mind divided amongst hundreds of 
different bodies and splitting into more at an exponential rate. None of 
them were really her -they lacked her scintillating conversational skills,
for example- but each one was an integral part of her. It felt as though 
she were somehow not dividing, but growing larger: stretching in every 
direction until the essence of her being had filled the castle. Each tiny
little replication was like a finger, gently probing through the dark and
forboding corridors as she fumbled for some sign of Badamon. They had only
one goal on their minds: as her attention split further and further, there
was only room for one thing. Every one of her split forms had the same 
strength, stealth and agility of Oniwabandana herself, leaping from shadow
to shadow and quietly flitting from one piece of cover to another as they 
continued their relentless search. 

	One of her fingers suddenly released a quiet shriek, and went 
permanently numb. Oniwabandana recoiled instinctively, her myriad bodies 
scrambling into the nearest dark corners and lunging for cover even as 
she began to recover enough higher function to analyse what had happened. 
There was a faint memory of glowing sigils, and then a sudden fiery death 
that had enveloped every fibre of that one replica's being. Glowing 
symbols meant mystic wards, she recalled, mulling hazily over the markings
that she had seen but not registered as that body had approached them. She
began to shrink, replicas throughout the castle abruptly fading into 
nonexistence as she focused her mind back onto the task at hand. She had 
seen wards like that before. She had learned them in the back alleys of 
Kabukicho, shakily repeating the marks of the ominous priest that had 
shown them to her. Still more copies vanished, as she racked her brain 
to remember what had been so important about those wards. 

	After a few moments, the remaining -and thus real- Oniwabandana 
was crouched a mere arm's reach from the wards in question. They were 
similar to the ones she had been taught by that mysterious man in that 
dark alley all those months ago, but not quite the same. The wards she had
been taught were marks for use in protecting the caster while calling upon
creatures that might not have one's best interests in mind. These were 
forged from the same sigils, but their design practically bled with 
malice. They were exactly the kind of discreet and dangerous symbols she 
would expect to find guarding a sorceror's inner sanctum. Judging from 
the power she could feel pouring off of each mark, they were strong 
enough to atomize almost anyone who got within less than a foot of them. 
That meant they had not been put up by a mere dabbler like herself. This 
was not the work of someone who merely saw the dark arts as a means to an 
end - they were the masterpieces of someone for whom black magic was an 
end all unto itself.

	In other words, Badamon. Apparently, he did not wish to be 
disturbed. As Oniwabandana did not particularly care what Badamon wished, 
she began making preparations to disturb him, anyway. It was her job. 

	The easiest way to deal with wards was not to touch them. This 
was sometimes easier said than done, but Oniwabandana had always been a 
very ambitious girl. Badamon was definitely a powerful sorceror, but she 
was fairly certain there was a way around him this time. There was nothing
wrong with the wards that had been set, but they had not been tailored 
specifically for her. How could they be? Badamon had no reason to suspect
that she even existed. That gave her an edge. 

	Badamon had set his wards to block random youma from getting close
enough to his chambers to bother him. The wards in question were not 
unlike land mines: waiting quietly for someone to set off the trigger so 
that they could blast whatever was nearby. Most youma would be scared off
just by the ominous glowing words in a cryptic and evil tongue that they 
did not understand. Oniwabandana, however, was just enough of a mere 
dabbler in the dark arts to know that the wards were only dangerous from 
one direction. They were put in the ceiling and set to go off when someone
went *under* them. 

	Oniwabandana melted into the shadows and felt her body tingle as 
she phased into the jagged and clouded crystals of the ceiling. Most youma
could not turn intangible. If Badamon had known that she could, he might 
have spent the extra time to build better wards. Swimming through the 
stone, she arced gracefully over the glowing symbols, feeling a slight 
chill even as she passed above their sphere of influence without so much 
as a flicker in response. As she neared the dark priest's chambers she 
could make out the muffled sounds of his dry, croaking voice. Clearly he 
was upset about something, if he was audible through solid crystal. 
Curious, she poked her face through the surface of the rock and took a 
quick look around. It was a shame they had let the palace go to waste 
like they had: if it was still in the shape that it used to be, she could 
have seen them clearly even while still inside the wall.

	The dark priest was crouched in the centre of the ovoid chamber, 
his hands combing over a glowing orb that Oniwabandana could not quite 
make out from her position. His tattered robes swirled and rippled around 
him as though he were encircled by violent winds, yet the pages of the 
open tomes scattered around him did not so much as move. The only source 
of light in the entire room was provided by twenty-two carefully arranged 
iron braziers, each in the shape of a different monstrous creature. Sigils
and marks had been carefully prepared on the floor in a fine red powder 
that writhed and re-shaped itself as Badamon focused on the task at hand. 
Oniwabandana made a face and fought the sudden urge to go back out into 
the corridor and pretend she had been unable to find the vile man. There 
was something about the whole scene that she did not like at all. 

	The light from Badamon's orb flickered, and a faint nimbus of 
ghostly light rose into the air to funnel itself into a small black 
crystal that was hanging above the dark priest's bowed head. As 
Oniwabandana watched, he spoke in a deep, sonorous tone that reverberated 
through the floor and walls of the castle until it seemed to be coming 
from every direction at once. She could not make out the words any better 
than she had been able to when they had been muffled by the crystal: they
were dark words, words that warped the very fabric of reality until she 
could feel the tickling sensation of something flowing out of her ears. 
With a sense of unease, Oniwabandana reached up and gingerly touched her 
earlobe with a single fingertip. As she had suspected, her entire hand 
came away coated in blood. Anything that needed to be said in a language 
like that could not possibly be saying anything worth translating.

	With each word, the crystal pulsed and throbbed as though it were 
some kind of strange, petrified heart, still beating despite having 
changed to solid rock. A figure moved in the shadow, and Oniwabandana 
shrank back further into the darkness as Nise Suiko emerged from where he 
had been standing against the far wall. She had completely overlooked him,
in that black-and-red undergear armour of his. Without his crimson battle 
armour, he actually looked fairly harmless: just another sullen young man 
with a tousled head of shaggy red hair and the kind of face that might be
cute if it would just stop frowning all the time. How was it possible that
this could be the same armoured juggernaut who had steamrolled through 
half of her camp just a few nights ago? He looked like a kid. He didn't 
even look like a particularly dangerous kid. 

	Nise Suiko exended his hand, and the glowing crystal fell into 
his waiting palm. Curling his fingers around the talisman, the young man 
smirked and bowed slightly before Badamon as he slipped it around his 
neck. As he staightened, a massive cloud of billowing scarlet vapour rose
from the ground beneath him and enveloped his form. When the smoke 
cleared, he was clad from head to toe in overlapping plates of chitinous 
armour that rasped dryly against each other as he lifted his arms and 
flexed his fingers experimentally. He stood nearly a foot taller in the 
yoroi, and a long, sickle-like blade jutted upwards from the crown of his 
helmet until it almost brushed against the ceiling. Where once had stood 
a fairly average looking boy, there was now an armoured behemoth, a 
monster sheathed in crimson, with a wicked ivory faceplate concealing his 
features and a featureless black visor where his eyes should be. Blades 
and spikes jutted from his body, and his entire being radiated with 
sickening menace.

	Oniwabandana gulped and pressed herself against the wall. He had 
looked a lot smaller when they had been out in the open. In here, amongst 
the cramped confines of Badamon's chamber, the twisted youma warrior 
seemed like some kind of giant. Steeling herself, she quickly formed a 
square with her thumbs and index fingers and made sure he was centered 
in it. Her right eye flickered, and made a muted clicking sound as she 
recorded the image. Moving slightly she shifted her focus to Badamon and 
grabbed a few more pictures, trying to get as much of the moving glyphs 
and braziers into the scene as possible. Maybe someone back home would be
able to recognise some of the books, or symbols, or something. She made 
sure to get a few good shots of the crystal, too, as Nise Suiko tucked it 
inside his breastplate. There was no telling what Jadeite might find 
useful.

	"We've hit a bit of a snag," Badamon was saying, as Oniwabandana 
stopped to focus on what was going on again. "Xiang Yao has been freed 
from the Castle of Eternal Regret, and apparently she will be getting in 
our way very soon."

	Nise Suiko cocked his head to one side, a dim red glow emanating 
from beneath the peaked brim of his helmet. 

	"Radanthus has given her the task of destroying the Sailor Senshi 
in your stead," the priest explained, standing and waving his skeletal 
hand in a sweeping gesture that caused all of the various books scattered 
about to slam themselves shut in unison. "What's worse is that she seems 
as though she might actually succeed at it. She is too intelligent and 
dangerous for us to leave out there unchecked."

	"Unchecked," Nise Suiko muttered with an air of disdain. "Let me 
guess: that means you want me to handle things and get roughed up again 
while you stay here in your little fortress of doom, fresh as a daisy. 
Am I right?"

	"I have never known you to be so reluctant to fight, Nise Suiko."

	"Hey, even I get slowed down a little sometimes. Whatever that 
Jadeite guy did to me, it *hurt*. Getting shocked by his little Bugrom 
harem girls wasn't exactly fun and games for me, either. Those crazy 
witches nearly fried my pendant, Badamon! If there had been just one more 
of them, they might have broken it! Do you think I want to find out what 
happens if someone does that?"

	Oniwabandana perked her ears up slightly and leaned forward a 
little. So... the crystal was important, then. Badamon had been putting 
a lot of magical power into it, almost as if he was trying to refill some 
kind of reservoir: could that be what was making Nise Suiko so damned 
indestructible? Maybe even the source of his power? She shifted her 
position slightly and raised her hands to frame one of the books closest 
to Badamon - she could almost make out the writing from where she was 
sitting.

	Something bumped against the ninja's knee, and she glanced over 
to see one of the towering stacks of books beginning to topple. Oh, no. 
No, no, no! If those fell, she was as good as fish bait. Quickly, she 
hurled her arms around the stack of ancient tomes and pulled it back in 
the opposite direction it had been leaning in. A single book slipped from 
the top of the stack and fell towards the floor, landing silently on 
Oniwabandana's swiftly outstretched foot. 

	"Did those books over there just move?" Nise Suiko asked 
suspiciously, and Oniwabandana felt her heart stop as she froze. She was 
stuck - if she made even the slightest motion while he was looking in her 
direction, it might give her away. She couldn't even bolt for it: the 
second she moved her foot, the book would fall and they would know that 
someone else was in the room. 

	Badamon turned and looked directly at her. Oniwabandana's breath 
caught in her throat as she waited for him to blast her out of existence 
with a single crackling bolt of eldritch energy. She couldn't hide from 
the Ankoku Priests, and Badamon was their leader... she should have known 
that a spiritual entity would be able to sense her energy....

	"Things move all the time around here," he said crankily, and 
turned back towards Nise Suiko. "Don't let it bother you."

	Oniwabandana sighed in relief. He hadn't seen her. He had been 
looking right at her, and somehow he hadn't seen her. Carfully, she inched
her leg over the top of the stack and let the book slide off of her foot. 
Inching away from the still unstabile pile of tomes, she began to crawl up
the wall. Things were getting too dangerous at floor level for her: better
to take a few more shots from the ceiling and then call it a day. After 
all, it wasn't as if she had tried her luck quite far enough already - she
still needed to find a way to spy on Radanthus the Unconquered. 

**********

	There came a point in every endeavour when a man had to just 
shrug and admit that he had no idea what the hell he was doing. Shin Mouri
had reached this point roughly two days ago, but something kept drawing 
him back to the massive pile of charts and maps that were scattered 
haphazardly over the Fuan family's dining room table. He had been 
gathering information on every current, thermocline, and reef within a 
hundred miles of the local coastline, racking his brain for some kind of 
magical neon sign that would point out where Nise Suiko was hiding. There 
was a lot of ocean around Yokohama: when a guy could breathe underwater 
and didn't have any problems with pressure or water conditions, he could 
hide almost anywhere in them indefinitely. For all Shin knew, Nise Suiko 
might not even be in the area any more - it was entirely possible that 
his enemy had caught a passing pleasure cruise and was halfway to Alaska
by now. Nise Suiko could be off killing baby harp seals and choking out 
polar bears just for shits and giggles, as far as Shin had been able to 
discern. It sounded like the sort of depraved thing that maniac might do 
for fun. 

	The screen slid open with a rattle, and Shuu Rei Fuan emerged with
a yawn. Shin's friend was wearing a rumpled pair of orange pajamas with 
white stripes that hung off of his stocky frame like a tent of flannel, 
and his tangled mop of hair seemed determined to point in every direction 
possible until it found one it liked. A toothbrush hung indolently from 
the corner of the Chinese boy's mouth, and he scratched the back of his 
head as he stared at Shin blearily. 

	"Oh, Shin!" he said, after a long pause. "Sorry, pal - forgot you 
were here. You cooking breakfast, or what?"

	"Breakfast?" Shin raised an eyebrow and leaned through the 
doorframe he was leaning on to catch a glimpse at the clock in the 
kitchen. "Well, I'll be. I guess it is almost breakfast time...."

	"You mean you didn't SLEEP?" Shaking off his early morning stupor,
Shuu yanked the toothbrush out of his mouth and pointed it at his friend 
as though it were some kind of weapon. "That's two days in a row, man! 
You gotta get your mind off of this Nise Suiko thing before it makes you 
sick." 

	"I can't bloody well shrug it off and grab forty winks, okay?" 
Shin snapped, slamming his teacup down on the counter and running his 
fingers through his hair. "There is a dangerous killer somewhere out there
right this minute, doing God knows what, and he's wearing MY FACE! Do you 
have any idea what that feels like? How do you expect me to sleep knowing
something like that? I've got to find him, Shuu, before he hurts anybody 
else."

	"Give me a break," Shuu snorted, rolling his eyes. "You don't 
want to protect anybody - you just want another chance to lay into the 
guy. He kicked your ass, and now you won't be happy until you've kicked 
his back. It's only natural, man."

	"That's got nothing to do with it," Shin argued halfheartedly, 
walking over to the table and shuffling through the charts as though he 
was looking for something. "I've just got to find him before he hurts 
anybody, okay? I've got to stop him. It's got to be me." 

	"Why is this such a big deal, anyway?" Shuu wondered, rubbing his
chin as he took a seat at the table across from Shin. "I mean, so what if 
he kind of looks like you? If you ask me, he's not even that good a copy. 
I mean, I can tell the difference between you two pretty easily."

	"Really?" Shin raised one eyebrow suspiciously. "And how, pray 
tell, can you do that?"

	"Well, for starters, he's bright red and you aren't," Shuu said in
reply, spreading his arms and shrugging as he leaned back in his chair. 
"Besides, no evil twin could hope to copy your limp wrists and girlish 
figure."

	"Oh, piss off," Shin said, swatting his friend on the head with 
a folded up map and tossing it aside as Shuu chuckled good-naturedly at 
his joke. Shin knew full well that he was far from the most masculine of 
the Samurai Troopers - actually, ever since Touma's growth spurt last 
summer, he was one of the smallest members of the whole team. Only Shuu 
was shorter, and the stocky Chinese boy made up for it with his girth. 
Compared to Shuu, Shin was built like a toothpick. Compared to the other 
three Troopers, he was lucky if he came up to their noses. He was doomed 
to spend his life looking like a perennial kid brother, despite the fact 
he was the oldest person on the team. Unless he counted the Masho, in 
which case he came several centuries shy of that mark. 

	Chimes jangled softly in the distance, and both boys turned in 
the direction of the front door. The rest of Shuu's family were still 
asleep, and there were no deliveries planned for the restaurant until at 
least eight, so that left only option for who could be coming in at such 
an ungodly hour. Looking back at each other, the pair grinned in unison 
and launched themselves out of the living room, tearing down the hallway 
as fast as their bare feet could carry them. Shuu elbowed Shin aside and 
hurled open the bamboo screen door leading to the main hallway, throwing 
himself at the person's back as they were taking off their shoes. A 
battered old Converse high-top sneaker with neon green laces bounced down 
the hall as Shuu landed on top of his quarry like a guided missile, and 
the two disappeared into a brief tangle of flailing limbs. Stumbling into
the corridor a few moments later, Shin skidded across the slick wooden 
floor and bounced off of the opposite wall before righting himself and 
staggering over to where the other two were struggling with each other.

	"Hello, Ryo," he panted, grinning joyfully. "How's tricks, mate?"

	"Somebody get this oaf off of me!" Ryo Sanada choked, as Shuu 
forced him to the ground and placed the taller boy in a vise-like 
headlock. Laughing maniacally, Shuu began to rub his knuckles forcefully 
across the other boy's scalp.

	"This is for not telling us what you were up to, Ryo!" Shuu said 
sternly, pausing every so often to rap on a particular spot of his 
leader's head before returning to his assault. 

	"Ow! I give, okay? Ow! I said I'm sorry!" 

	"It was awfully poor form of you to just scarper off last night,"
Shin admonished their friend and Shuu stopped rapping on their friend's 
head long enough to start mussing up his already tousled black hair. 
Reaching behind him, Shuu grabbed one of Ryo's ankles and wrenched his 
leg back, causing the other boy to howl in pain and give him an angry 
glare. 

	"Hey, watch the wrestling moves, Shuu! Who do you think you are, 
Tiger Mask? Shin, tell this guy to quit bending me into a pretzel!"

	"We were worried sick about you," Shin said, ignoring Ryo's 
complaints. "How could you just run off into the night and not even tell 
us what your problem was? We would have helped, if you had just reminded 
us!" 

	"Don't worry about -OW! Hey, that hurts!- any of it, Shin," Ryo 
explained. "I was a little out of it last night -Seriously, Shuu, cut 
it out!- but I'm feeling a lot better now. Really. " 

	"No more moping around, feeling sorry for yourself?" Shin asked, 
tilting his head to one side and examining his friend's face. 

	"No more, I swear," Ryo said fervently, shaking his head 
vigourously as Shuu shifted position and sat on the small of his back, 
gripping one of the other boy's legs under each arm and forcing Ryo's 
feet back until they nearly touched his shoulders. "So, call off your 
maniac, okay?"

	"Say it like you mean it," Shuu said chidingly. 

	"I mean it! I mean it! I'm moving on with my life, I promise! 
Sweet merciful gods, can't I tap out, or tag somebody, or something?" 

	"He sounds like he means it," Shin said thoughtfully. 

	"Yeah," Shuu agreed. "He smells kinda pretty, too. Like dainty 
perfume. Dainty *girl's* perfume. I'm pretty sure there's some lipstick 
on his collar, too. Think we should let him up so he can tell us all the 
salacious details of his night out?"

	"Well," Shin mused, "we *do* enjoy salacious details... Okay, let 
him loose." 

	"Thank you," Ryo said blandly, as Shuu clambered off of him and 
he crawled back to his feet. Reaching down, he tugged off his other shoe 
and dropped it right next to Shin's own carefully polished penny loafers 
amongst the rest of the footwear that was lined up in the genkan. Exhaling
loudly, the dark-haired young man tried to smooth out his hopelessly 
disheveled clothing. 

	"Well, I always wanted a reason to iron my socks," he muttered, 
giving Shuu another dirty look. Shuu merely grinned and shrugged in 
response, still flushed slightly from the exertion of their scuffle. 

	"Hey, you don't hear me complaining. You're pretty wiry for a 
little guy. Plus, I think you punched me in the eye when I wasn't 
looking." 

	"You're lucky that was all I punched you in, buddy," Ryo shot 
back, smirking slightly as the trio walked back towards the main dining 
room. "I wasn't exactly expecting to get ambushed today - for a second 
there, I thought some Dynasty soldiers were trying to get frisky with me."

	"And, speaking of great openings," Shuu drawled, draping one 
muscular arm around Ryo's shoulders, "weren't you going to tell us all 
about your late night escapades? With a girl who you currently smell 
like? And who we are assuming has your other shirt?"

	"Masterfully done, Shuu old bean," Shin commented, patting his 
friend on the back. "Couldn't have been more subtle if you were ringing a 
bell. Still, now that the topic *has* been brought up, I must admit to a 
passing interest in the tale, myself...."

	"There's not much to tell, guys," Ryo said defensively, shrugging 
off Shuu's arm and flopping onto the sofa with his fingers laced behind 
his head. "I just went out for a while, cleared my head, got a few things 
off my chest...."

	"We don't care what you got off *your* chest," Shuu interjected, 
grinning suggestively as he leaned over the back of the couch and loooked
down at the reclining boy. "Get to the part with the girl, man - and she 
better have been hot. If she wasn't hot, it's totally okay for you to lie 
about it. We won't mind, will we, Shin?"

	"Well, a bit of embellishment is expected," Shin agreed, as he sat
on a nearby ottoman and moved it closer to where Ryo was stretched out on 
the couch. "This isn't exactly the sort of thing that happens every day, 
after all."

	"I think you guys are blowing this way out of proportion," Ryo 
warned them. "It's not like I ran off to some seedy love hotel, or 
something."

	"See?" Shuu moaned. "That's the kind of thing you could have lied 
about! If you had lied about that, it would have made the story, like, a 
million times better! Shin, make him tell the story better!"

	"Where did you go, Ryo?" Shin asked curiously. 

	"The Daisekai Chinatown Museum," Ryo replied, smiling gratefully 
at a chance to ignore Shuu's continued whining. "You know, they've got 
this awesome thing there - it's called the Tower of Time, and it's just 
like you're really outside, with stars all over the place...."

	"I'll bet that the Sailor Senshi all really enjoyed that," Shin 
replied calmly, leaning in slightly. "What was Rei's favorite part?"

	"Oh, well, Rei and Usagi were off shopping or something, so-"

	"So you went with Ami Mizuno," Shin concluded. "By yourselves, I 
assume?"

	"Well, we didn't track down Mistress Nine and Shutendoji to be 
chaperones, if that's what you're asking," Ryo admitted, looking a little
confused. "What's the big deal? We just went to a museum." 

	"At ten o'clock in the evening? Alone?" 

	"It was the only decent place that was open! And yes, we went by
ourselves! What are you getting at, Shin?"

	"Nothing, yet," Shin assured his leader. "It's funny, though - I 
always thought you didn't like going places where there were crowds. That
museum would have been pretty crowded, that late at night. It's a popular
place."

	"Well, I couldn't stay all night in her hotel room, could I? Then
you guys would have been asking even worse questions."

	"You could have come back here," Shin pointed out. "Shuu and I 
were both still up, and she could have helped us plan a strategy for 
taking down Nise Suiko."

	"Yeah, *that* would have been a real nice date," Ryo replied 
snarkily, then paled and winced as he realised what he had said. 
"Aw, nuts...."

	"The prosecution rests," Shin said, leaning back and winking at 
Shuu as he smiled happily. 

	"So, dating Ami Mizuno behind our backs, eh?" Shuu clucked his 
tongue disapprovingly. "Man, the least you could have done was make up 
some kind of smutty story to placate us. You must be new at this."

	"Look, we're not dating, okay?" Ryo argued, then paused and made 
a strange face. "At least, I don't *think* we're dating. I mean, she 
didn't say that we were dating. Isn't that the sort of thing a girl tells 
a guy?" 

	"Usually, that's the sort of thing a guy is expected to figure 
out for himself," Shin explained, and Ryo groaned. 

	"Man, I hope we get attacked by a demon soon, or something," he 
muttered, covering his face with his hands. "I could use the distraction.
I am seriously in over my head, here."

	"Don't worry about it," Shuu said consolingly, shaking his head 
in sympathy to his leader's obvious discomfort. "Trust me, Ryo: girls 
always have stuff like this worked out years in advance. You might be a 
little confused right now, but I can guarantee you that Ami Mizuno knows 
exactly what she's doing."

**********

	For perhaps the first time in her life, Ami Mizuno did not have 
the slightest idea what she was doing. Usually, she was the girl that 
everyone else turned to for a plan, the one who always kept her cool when 
the rest of her friends were losing theirs at the top of their lungs. She
was not used to feeling so disoriented. Most of the past evening was a 
blur of colours and images that didn't seem to be in quite the proper 
order to make any sense, as though she had viewed the whole night through
a kaleidoscope while falling down a hill. It was a dizzy, light-headed 
feeling that she had begun to associate with the presence of Ryo Sanada. 

	Not that she was complaining - there were many delightful perks 
to be found in the presence of Ryo Sanada. For one thing, she was willing
to admit that he was very cute, if you were into handsome, noble, heroic
types. He carried himself with a sort of dignity and clarity of purpose 
that almost reminded her of Tuxedo Kamen. Ryo had nothing near Tuxedo 
Kamen's poise or grace, of course: he was still a bit rough around the 
edges in that area. There was something wonderfully wild about the way 
his dark hair hung playfully over his smoldering blue eyes.

	Those eyes still made her knees feel a little watery, but it was 
nowhere near the sheer, heart-clenching terror that she used to get when 
she met his gaze. Ryo Sanada had a way of looking at Ami that made her 
suspect he was about to do *something*, and that she would be expected to 
have an appropriate response prepared. He was unpredictable, to say the 
least: Ami could almost feel her brain working in new and unexpected 
patterns just trying to figure out what he was going to do next. The only 
thing worse than trying to guess what he was plannng was trying to make 
sense out of what he had already done. 

	He had kissed her. She wasn't complaining about that part - as far
as she could tell it had been a very good kiss. The main problem was that 
she really had no idea what he had meant by it. They had talked the entire
way back to her hotel afterwards, and somehow the boy had managed to 
completely avoid saying or doing anything that might give her even the 
slightest clue as to how he felt about her. Every time she had tried to 
get even a hint of what was going on in that adorable head of his, it was 
like some kind of internal warning system had told him to change the topic
before she could learn anything. It was infuriating. In retrospect, Ami 
was beginning to think she should have slapped him the second he had even 
tried to kiss her. 

	Ami blushed slightly and buried her head between her shoulders. 
At the very least, she guessed that she probably should not have kissed 
him back. Definitely not as much as she had. Her blush deepened, and she 
cleared her throat self-consciously as she tucked her dark blue bangs 
behind one ear. Okay, so she might have been a little forward on that 
one. So what? It had taken almost sixteen years to get to that kiss and 
there was no telling how long it might be until her next one. Was it 
really so bad if she had enjoyed it? 

	Before Ami was able to decide on an answer to that particular 
question, the elevator chimed happily and opened its doors with a gentle 
hydraulic hiss. Checking the display to make sure she was on the right 
floor, Ami stepped out into the lushly carpeted hallway and began making 
her way to her room. As she walked, she caught herself humming a tune 
under her breath that she could not recall the words to. It had been 
playing at the Daisekai Museum, when she and Ryo had been walking through 
the 'Corridor of Time' together. Some kind of old Shanghai jazz, as far 
as she could recall - the kind that they had banned in the Fifties for 
being overly decadent. All in all, it had been a very pleasant evening. 
She would have to see if Ryo felt like doing it again some time. 

	Fumbling in the front pocket of her jeans, Ami fished out the 
card key she had been given when she signed in almost a week ago. Of 
course, it had been her who had needed to set up the hotel, as well as 
all of the transportation for her friends. Poor Usagi was useless when it 
came to arranging almost anything, and Rei had very sensibly pointed out 
that since Ami was already handling everything for two of them, it only 
made sense to take care of all the details for the whole group. At least 
it was only the three of them to take care of on this trip - Ami was so 
used to looking after Rei and Usagi that it was practically second nature
to her, but having to juggle Minako and Makoto at the same time would 
have been exhausting.

	Ami swept her card through the lock, and it beeped cheerfully to 
let her know that she had done it correctly. Turning the handle, she 
pushed the door open slightly and began to ease her way into the room. 
She had better be silent, she decided - it was pretty late, and the last 
thing she wanted to do was accidentally wake anybody....

	"Hello, Ami," Rei Hino said, jerking the door fully open and 
smiling wryly at her friend. The raven-haired girl was still dressed in 
the white denim jacket and matching skirt she had worn shopping with 
Usagi, her sleeveless turtleneck shirt shimmering slightly as the light 
of the hallway danced over the delicate swirling patterns that covered 
the fabric. A small white hat with a sunflower tucked into the band sat 
atop her head at a jaunty angle which was completely at odds with the 
angry look in her dark eyes. Ami had seen that look on Rei's face before,
but it was usually directed at Usagi. This was the first time she had 
been on the recieving end of it. Usagi was right - it was kind of scary.

	"Hello, Rei," Ami said, smiling politely. "Does something seem 
to be the matter?" 

	"Of course not," the other girl replied sarcastically, crossing 
her arms under her breasts and leaning against the doorframe. "Usagi and 
I got back here almost three hours ago, and you were nowhere to be found. 
Do you have any idea how worried Usagi was? For all she knew, you could 
have gotten attacked by that Nise Suiko freak, or some other kind of 
monster! She was about three seconds away from waking up every Sailor 
Senshi in Japan and getting them to come down here to help her search for 
you!" 

	"Oh, hey, Ami!" Usagi said cheerfully, poking her head around 
Rei's shoulder and waving. "How long have you been gone?"

	"She certainly doesn't *seem* very upset," Ami noted carefully. 

	"Trust me," Rei growled between her clenched teeth, giving Usagi 
a dirty glare, "She was VERY WORRIED about you. She's just... hiding it 
really well."

	"What are you talking about?" Usagi asked, blinking in confusion.
"You're the one who was calling all the hospitals and asking if they had 
anybody with blue hair, remember? I was the one telling you that she was 
probably off getting a can of juice."

	"She was gone for three hours!" Rei yelled, throwing her arms into
the air and storming into the room as Usagi shrugged reasonably and sat 
down at the small side table where Ami had left all of her schoolwork. 

	"So? Maybe she went home for it," Usagi argued reasonably as she 
picked up a pencil with a large tuft of pink fur on the end and began 
scribbling into a small notepad that was covered with silver crescent 
moons. "Everybody knows that Tokyo is the best place to get canned juice, 
Rei - it's common knowledge."

	"Wait a minute," Ami interjected, pushing her way into the room 
and nudging past Rei. "What are you doing over there with all my notes, 
Usagi?"

	"Nothing you can prove," the blonde girl said defensively, deftly 
tucking the notepad into one of the pockets of her green denim shorts and 
grinning innocently at her suspicious friend. "Besides, this isn't about 
what I may or may not have copied off of you! This is about why you're 
wearing Ryo Sanada's shirt."

	"It is? Why would it- I'M DOING WHAT?" Ami looked down and made 
a strangled noise. Sure enough, that white sweater with the big orange 
'R' on it was not something that had come from her closet. It was 
definitely Ryo's shirt. How the heck had that - oh, right! They had been 
walking home, and she had been cold, so he had offered her his sweater, 
and she had tried very hard not to squeal excitedly. She must have 
forgotten to give it back when he dropped her off at the hotel, and for 
some reason he must have forgotten to ask for it. 

	"Ami!" Rei gasped, giving her a horrified look. 

	"It's not what it looks like," Ami swore, quickly slipping the 
shirt off and setting it safely aside for later.

	"I'll say," Usagi agreed, frowning thoughtfully. "I was kind of 
assuming that Ryo would end up with Rei, since they both have fire 
powers...."

	"What kind of stupid logic is that?" Rei asked, looking offended. 
"Just because a guy can toss around some fireballs does not mean I'm 
going to be interested in him! I happen to prefer older boys, Usagi: the 
Samurai Troopers are all too goofy for my tastes. Uh, no offense, Ami."

	"None taken," Ami assured the raven-haired girl, taking a seat on
the edge of the nearest bed. It was probably best to wait until her 
friends were done arguing before she asked for them for any dating advice.
Like, for example, how she was supposed to know when one had actually 
occured. Or how best to go about making sure she received another. She 
had very little reference material to go by when it came to male/female 
relationships - there were surprisingly few manuals on the subject. At 
least, there certainly were none in her house, and she had searched very 
thoroughly. Usagi had managed to not only get a steady boyfriend, but she 
had even managed to re-get him on at least four different occasions that 
Ami could remember off the top of her head. Compared to wooing a 
brainwashed, evil, and amnesiac Tuxedo Kamen, winning over simple old Ryo 
Sanada would surely be child's play. 

	"Oh, come on!" Usagi exclaimed, poking Rei in the chest. "You 
can't honestly tell me that you haven't noticed! Did you see him in that
wetsuit on Nango Beach? I know I saw you checking him out!"

	"Okay, so maybe I noticed a little," Rei admitted, blushing 
slightly as she stepped back. "There's a big difference between looking 
and actually wanting to be with a guy, Usagi!"

	"Not to me there isn't!" Usagi crowed victoriously. "I've never 
checked out a guy I didn't fall immediately in love with!"  

	"He's too short," Rei said dismissively. "I mean, he's barely even
as tall as I am! A guy should be taller than his girlfriend, or else it 
just looks funny."

	"Well, if that's the case then Mako-chan's going to have to settle
for a basketball player," Usagi argued. Sighing dramatically, the blonde 
girl clasped her hands together in front of her and leaned back, her eyes 
glistening with dreamy emotion. "Height shouldn't matter, anyway. Not if 
true love can find a way into your hearts...."

	"This is so unfair," Rei grumbled. "I can't slap you, and Luna's 
not here to do it for me."

	"Come on, Rei, what have you got to lose? Who knows, you might 
even manage to not be miserable for once. It's not like you'll ever meet 
any cute boys staying up at that shrine of yours, and I'm not going to 
just sit here and watch you turn into a spinster when there are perfectly 
good guys you could be dating."

	"What is wrong with you?" Rei asked, with an exasperated groan. 
"Why is my love life any of your business, anyway?"

	"Because I say so," Usagi replied simply, sticking her tongue out 
at her friend. "And I'm the Moon Princess. So there."

	"You're the Moon IDIOT, and I'm leaving!" Grabbing her purse from 
the bed, Rei stormed out of the hotel room and slammed the door violently 
behind her. The sound of her grumbling slowly receded into the distance, 
and Usagi turned to Ami with a cheerful smile. 

	"She always hates it when I win," the blonde girl said proudly. 
Taking a seat next to her friend, Usagi swept her long twin ponytails out 
of the way and gently patted Ami's knee. 

	"Now," she said, with an impish grin, "tell me more about Ryo 
Sanada. Is he cool? Does your heart go all squishy when you look at him? 
Oh, Ami, I'm so excited for you! Now you and Ryo can go on double dates 
with me and Mamoru, and we can make them wear matching tuxedoes, and all 
the other girls at school are going to be *so* jealous when they find out 
that you're dating a Samurai Trooper -once we tell them what one is, I 
mean- and he can walk you home from school, and carry your books, 
and...."

	"I'm not entirely sure that's how this works, Usagi," Ami said 
nervously. "Now that you mention it, I'm not even sure if Ryo lives in the
same part of Tokyo that we do. Once this is over, we probably won't be 
seeing each other again for a very long time."

	"Really? I can't lose a shoe without hitting my boyfriend," Usagi 
said, stroking her chin thoughtfully. "Any chance you can get him to move 
to Juuban when this is all over? Where the heck does he live, anyway? 
Shibuya? Shinjuku? Maybe you could take a bus, or something."

	"I think he lives in a cabin in the woods," Ami replied meekly, 
hanging her head as Usagi frowned at her. 

	"Great choice in crushes, Ami. Real convenient." After a moment, 
the other girl sighed. "Oh, well - I guess you can't control who you fall 
in love with. We'll just have to work with what we've got. Now, the first
thing we've got to do is get you a new wardrobe...."

**********

	The woman who most people called Perrine Etrange shivered and 
pulled her jacket around herself a little tighter. A few hours ago, she 
had still been in Japan, where dawn was only just arriving. Her sisters 
were probably waking up to hot coffee and pastries, like they did every 
morning when Carole was in the mood to do some cooking. Berenice would 
probably be finding the letter that she had left them any minute now. She 
had told them that she was going on a business trip to Taiwan. Like almost
everything else she had been saying lately, that was a lie. 

	Perrine sighed and rubbed her forehead with her gloved fingertips.
Even though she couldn't feel it, she knew that it was there: the inverted
black crescent moon that had marked her for so many years had returned 
to its former resting place. If her sisters had any idea what she was 
doing, they probably would have tried to stop her. Worse, they might have 
tried to come with her. The last thing Petz wanted to do was drag any of 
her other siblings back into their old lives as the Ayakashi Sisters. 

	Admittedly, they might have made better allies than the strangers 
she was paired with now. Petz glanced across at the woman seated next to 
her and scowled slightly. Elios had paired up the different people on 
their team for this part of the mission, and her partner had made it very 
clear that she would rather have been teamed with someone else. Frankly, 
the feeling was rapidly becoming mutual. It wasn't even really like Elios 
had even invited her - she had demanded that he take her along. As if 
a secretary was going to be of vital importance. 

	Petz snorted. Sure, if the Dark Kingdom needed some filing done, 
then maybe she could see the point, but she doubted that would happen. 
Elios needed people who could handle themselves in a fight, not some 
love-struck executive assistant who was obviously tarting herself up in a 
vain attempt to attract her boss' attention. Really, who wore stilleto 
high heels with a lab coat, anyway? And her sister Celimene said that 
*she* was desperate...

	"Is there something wrong?" Kaolinite asked calmly, turning her 
head and looking at her partner. She was almost annoyingly perfect; every 
strand of her blood-red hair was perfectly in place, and she sat in the 
cramped seat of the airplane as comfortably as if she were enjoying her 
own personal balcony seat at an opera. She was dressed like she might 
be on her way to one, in fact, with a slinky black dress that clung to 
her every curve and dipped almost scandalously low in the front to show 
off the large ruby amulet nestled between her breasts. It was also slit 
so high up the sides that the whole gown practically counted as two 
seperate pieces of fabric, and Petz would not have been caught dead in it
even if she *was* convinced she had the body to pull it off.

	"Nothing, darling," she replied. "I'm just a little uncomfortable 
on planes, that's all. Wondering how you were holding up."

	"I'm fine," Kaolinite responded, shrugging and looking past Petz 
out the window. "You know, I still say that we could have gotten here 
faster if I had flown us myself."

	"All the way across the ocean?" Petz snickered. "On what, your 
magic broomstick?"

	"Broomsticks are for amateurs," Kaolinite said, smiling politely 
as her pupils glowed with a soft crimson light. "I stopped working with 
props a long time ago."

	"If you ask me, we've been given the short end of this particular 
broomstick," Petz grumbled, crossing her arms and making a cross face. "I 
mean, of all the people to send to the North Pole, why did he have to pick
us? He could have sent those creepy alien children."

	"Ail and Ann have many skills," Kaolinite replied, shaking her 
head slightly, "but subtlety is not among them. That Ann girl probably 
would have started blowing up random pieces of the landscape as soon as 
someone commented on her hair. Besides, you know how vulnerable Elios 
said they are without their tree. It's better for them to infiltrate the 
Dark Kingdom directly. Surely whoever is behind this will be looking for 
recruits: those two and their cardians will seem like a blessing to him."

	"So we get to freeze our buns off in the middle of nowhere, and 
they get to make themselves comfortable in some palace and wait for us to 
show up," Petz concluded, her scowl deepening. "Where are we going, 
anyway? I've never even heard of these places."

	"We'll be landing at Eureka," Kaolinite explained. "Professor 
Tomoe pulled a few strings and was able to get us permission to use the 
Environment Canada weather station there. As far as anybody knows, all the
equipment that you stowed so safely in the overhead compartment is going 
to be for tracking Arctic stormfronts. Considering the entire base has a 
population of eight, we should have no problem slipping away. We'll stop 
in Alert for supplies - there's a heavy supply shipment every summer from 
Montreal, so they won't notice if we take a few things. Since there are 
only five people living there, I doubt anyone will even know we stopped 
by. And before you ask, Alert is about eight hundred miles from the North 
Pole. By that time, we should be close enough that the gear Professor 
Tomoe and I designed will be able to locate any dimensional tears where 
our reality and the Dark Kingdom are crossing over." 

	"Again, I am forced to notice that everybody except us seems to 
have a much easier way of getting to the Dark Kingdom." Petz interjected, 
tapping her foot against the back of the empty chair in front of her. 

	"That's because the Professor wants us to seal up any of the 
tears we find, too," Kaolinite said with a slightly exasperated sigh. "You
have no idea how much dark energy might be leaking through any of those 
portals - and they've been open ever since Sailor Moon fought Queen Beryl,
if Elios is to be believed. Based on our prior experiments with these 
kinds of energy, you do not want to know what it might be doing up there."

	"I'm very familiar with what might be going on up there," Petz 
admonished her partner. "It's not like I'm new at this. Polarised wave 
differentials were my old boyfriend's idea of pillow talk."

	Whatever Kaolinite was planning to say in response to that was 
left forever unspoken, as their plane chose that exact moment to buck 
like a startled horse and hurled both women into the ceiling with enough 
force to make the world spin. As they both tumbled back down into their 
seats, sprawled over the backs of the vacant chairs in front of them, a 
red light began to flash wildly and oxygen masks dropped from the panels 
above. 

	"Who dares attack us?" Kaolinite hissed, crawling over Petz and 
glaring out the window. "I'll fry them in their... oh, my."

	Petz quickly righted herself and squeezed in next to the other 
woman to see what she was looking at. The sky outside their tiny plane 
was changing hues rapidly, shifting from putrescent green to deep violet 
with a disturbing pulsing sensation that reminded her of a hearbeat. The 
sky rumbled with evil intent, and huge sheets of blue lightning sparked 
and rippled around them. In the distance, the black clouds spiralled and 
began to take shape in the heart of the darkness that surrounded the 
entire northen tip of the island they had been flying towards. 

	"I think we can safely avoid using the Professor's equipment to 
find the closest tear," Kaolinite said flatly. 

	"I think I should have gone to Mount Osore with those creepy alien
children and left you to handle this by yourself," Petz added in a 
strangled tone as the plane shuddered and made a low groaning noise that 
she did not like the sound of. She almost couldn't believe that she had 
volunteered to go back to her old life so easily. How could she have 
forgotten the part of her old life that included things like this?  

	"It looks like it's enveloped nearly the entire northern tip of 
Ellesmere Island," Kaolinite noted, squinting slightly as she focused her
vision on the heart of the disturbance. "Based somewhere on the Milne Ice 
Shelf, I think. North of the grounding line." 

	"What the hell does any of that *mean*?" Petz snapped, giving her 
partner a venomous look. 

	"It *means* that thing is sitting on top of a giant block of ice 
with no ground under it," Kaolinite snapped back, her eyes flashing 
crimson again. "Like a huge sheet of ice that's just hanging off the edge 
of the island. Alert is probably already somewhere under that mess - we've
got to stop it before it can spread any further." 

	"Is that going to be before or after it shakes us out of the sky?"
Petz asked, as their ride shuddered and groaned again, dipping to the left
without warning and sending both women falling free into the centre of 
the fuselage as the entire plane spun around them. Landing on the ceiling
with a heavy thump, Petz cracked her head against the rails and bundled 
netting holding together their equipment. 

	"You go check on the pilot," Kaolinite ordered, pointing towards 
the sealed door that led to the cockpit. "Make sure this plane gets landed
safely, or all the Professor's hard work will be for nothing!" 

	"Me? What are you going to-"

	Before Petz could finish her sentence, Kaolinite had hurled 
herself through the side of the plane. Arms and legs spread wide, the 
red-haired sorceress spun and tumbled through the air, soaring free of 
the rattling plane and orienting herself a few feet off of its wingtip. 
Her hair streaming behind her like a pennant, Kaolinite stretched her 
arms along her sides and brought her feet together, darting forward 
as she rocketed deeper into the turbulent sky. How the woman had managed 
to make it through the window without breaking the glass was something 
that Petz did not want to think about until later. 

	"Okay," she said to herself, working her way towards the cockpit,
"so I have to handle the plane. Whatever. Can't be *that* much harder than
flying a UFO...." 

	Clutching the flimsy netting with one hand, Petz quickly shook 
off the heavy parka she had been wearing. Warmth was nothing compared to 
mobility, and her costume was like a second skin to her. Without the bulky
coat to slow her down, she was much more agile. Swinging from the overhead
netting, Petz somersaulted down the aisle and slammed into the door feet 
first. The door wisely gave way, breaking open on its hinges and yawning 
to accept her as she tumbled into the cockpit and skidded to a halt 
against the pilot's chair. 

	Looking down at the pilot, Petz made a face. Well, so much for her
getting out of having to land the plane by herself. She was no medic, but 
she was pretty sure people in this time period still needed their organs 
on the inside to be considered alive. Gingerly taking the empty seat next 
to the gently steaming remains, she gripped the controls in front of her 
and scanned the various displays. Okay, so it was not going to be quite 
the same as piloting a UFO. For one thing, she had no idea where the 
mind/machine interface was located. For a fleeting instant, she wished 
that Sapphire was there to show her what to do - he had always been so 
good with clunky old antiques like the one she was sitting in.

	Stupid Kaolinite just had to go and leave her with all the hard 
work, didn't she?

**********

	Pirouetting in mid-air, Kaolinite swatted aside another of the 
bat-like creatures that had swarmed her, her magic reducing the slavering
beast to ash even as another of its brood latched onto her back and began
tearing at her with its sickle-like claws. With a low growl, the young 
witch struggled to pull the beast off of her, her fingers scrabbling 
against its leathery hide. She had made it barely a hundred miles away 
from the plane before the foul things had risen from the ice floe like a 
cloud of gnats, biting and clawing and screeching at her with their 
horridly shrill voices. Obviously, things had been going rotten in this 
part of the world for some time now without anybody noticing. She would 
have to remember that for her own use, if she ever decided to be evil 
again. 

	Of course, she reminded herself, as the loathsome creatures 
flocked over her body, she had to be careful about thinking things like 
that. The Professor had told her that he liked *good* girls, now, so 
that meant she had to be on her best behaviour until he changed his mind.
After all, it wasn't like she really cared one way or the other what she 
was doing, as long as it was with the right people.

	She fell from the sky, the monsters crawling over her in a giant 
mass of flapping, screeching, slavering flesh that had her pinned so 
tightly she could barely twitch. They were layered over her, beasts on top
of beasts on top of even more beasts as they all fought to claim her
blood. Kaolinite bit her lip and breathed a spell as she stopped 
struggling against them and felt the first pair of fangs pierce her skin. 

	There was a sudden explosion of flaming scarlet light, luminsecent
against the deep purple air as the entire mass of writhing monsters were 
enveloped in a crackling eldritch fire that consumed them entirely. Only 
Kaolinite was left, alone in the sky as she clutched the wound at the side
of her neck and grinned savagely in victory. Her pyrotechnic display had 
sent the few surviving youma fleeing from the air in search of easier 
prey, and left her with a free path to the heart of the disturbance.

	Clenching her fists, she flew into the face of the raging winds, 
letting the storm buffet her as she soared towards the source of all the 
trouble. As the Professor had feared, the growing instability caused by 
Metallia's death throes had caused the negative energy of the Dark Kingdom
to start bleeding into the real world. If left unchecked, it might have 
festered in this lonely corner of the planet for decades before anybody 
noticed it gathering strength. Their enemy Radanthus would be able to get 
too much use from something like this for them to leave it lying open for
him. 

	As she neared, the air itself seemed to thicken, sticking to her 
and resisting her advance as though she were trying to fly through the 
web of a giant spider. It was more like swimming than flying, only worse: 
swimming usually involved water. This was like swimming through chunky 
tapioca pudding. Gritting her teeth, she tried to force her way through. 
Elios had sworn that the amulet he gave her would boost her strength until
she was back up to her former power levels. There was no way she was going
to let a simple tear in the fabric of reality overwhelm her when she had 
that much magical strength at her disposal. 

	The ice beneath her moaned like a wounded thing, and cracked open 
with a chorus of snaps and pops. Pausing her forward press, Kaolinite 
looked down and hissed as her breath caught in her throat. The air had not
thickened to stop her advance, but to slow her down long enough for more 
insidious magics to work their way through the soil. The glaciers of this 
island had been in place since the dawn of time, churning away at the 
ground as they wore their way towards the sea, and there were any number 
of things buried beneath the miles of ice. 

	One such thing, apparently, was the gigantic skeleton that was 
only beginning to rise from the growing rift in the glacier's surface, 
its ponderous skull grinning blankly up at her as it rose on the tip of 
a seemingly endless series of vertebrae as thick as her leg. Kaolinite 
had no idea what kind of fossil she was looking at - a Brachiosaurus, 
maybe, or a Diplodocus - but there was a deliberate menace in its sinous 
motions that was quite out of place for a simple herbivore. 

	Lightning crashed nearby, splitting the air with a peal of thunder
as the skeletal monster opened its jaws and released a stentorian roar. 
A single bony limb emerged from beneath the ice and dug deeply into the 
snow covering as it began to lurch out of the chasm it had been buried 
under for millenia. Kaolinite gulped as she stared at the creature in 
mouting fear. It wasn't even half out, yet, and already it's chisel-like 
teeth were gnashing far too close to her heels for comfort. With a 
moment's concentration, she called upon the winds to lift her a little 
further up. Whatever was powering that abomination, at least it could 
only stretch so high. She would just stay out of its reach.

	Like a striking cobra, the huge skull launched itself at her, its 
vertebrae popping and seperating as its neck elongated even farther than 
it already had. Dark streams of viscous black protoplasm stretched from 
one floating piece to the other as the abomination's jaws snapped shut 
mere inches from Kaolinite's face. Stumbling back, the young witch 
plummeted towards the earth as the beast snapped its neck like a giant 
whip and smashed the side of its rock-hard skull into her body. Knocked 
spinning, Kaolinite gasped for breath as she spiralled through the sky 
and desperately tried to summon the power to halt her fall before she 
struck the ice below.

	There was an explosion of snow as Kaolinite impacted with the 
frozen ground, disappearing into a thick cloud of powder. Eager to finish 
off its prey, the skeletal sauropod lunged forward with its jaws gaping 
wide. The swirling flurry of snow parted and cleared, carried away on the
howling wind, and the creature stopped in mid-strike, an almost puzzled 
look on its bony features. 

	Kaolinite was sitting comfortably in the middle of a vast cushion 
of her own hair, completley unharmed. The once waist-length hair now 
stretched for miles, folded and piled on top of itself until it had been 
formed into an impromptu crash pad. Smiling grimly, Kaolinite launched 
herself back into the air, pushed and propelled by the streaming crimson 
locks that seemed to be moving with a life of their own. Like a red comet,
the witch hurtled past the confused creature, circling its head and 
binding its jaws in a thick train of hair that stretched and clutched the 
beast's skull with Herculean strength. With a flourish, Kaolinite dropped 
back down towards the ground, dragging the dinosaur's head behind her like
a dog on a leash.

	Skimming close to the ice, Kaolinite laughed as the beast's head 
crashed into the ground and was dragged behind her, raising a deep furrow 
in the glacier's surface and filling the air with a cloud of ice and snow 
so thick that it pelted against her skin like hailstones. This was the 
most fun she'd had in years. 

	Bellowing mightily, the skeleton tried to pull itself free, 
jerking Kaolinite backwards in mid-flight and slamming her into the snow 
unexpectedly. Quickly bracing herself with another thick lock of hair that
wrapped around several nearby boulders and lashed her tight, she pulled 
the dinosaur forward with all her might. As its skull emerged from the 
thick cloud of swirling snow like an oncoming train, she raised her arms 
above her head and called out to the heavens, her hands glowing with 
mystical energy. The beast's head surged towards her, its empty eye 
sockets glowing with malice as she thrust her hands in front of her and 
unleashed a torrent of crimson power, slamming into its snout with enough 
power to shatter a mountainside. 

	To her surprise, the beast lowered its head and forced its way 
onwards, the crackling streams of her mystic bolts flowing off of its 
bony carapace with no damage. Kaolinite had no time to dodge as its bony 
crest crashed into her like a battering ram, hurling her back and tearing
her hair as it shrank back to its regular length. Of course, she realised,
as she caught herself in the middle of her fall and soared back towards 
her gargantuan opponent. The creature was ancient, hundreds of millions 
of years older than any spell she knew. Whatever magic was fueling either 
of them now meant nothing compared to the sheer power contained within 
those bones. Direct attacks were not going to get her anything but 
defeated. 

	Ducking under its attempt to crush her between its teeth, she 
weaved around its elongated neck and swooped through its cavernous 
ribcage, firing crimson bolts of energy behind her to dissuade pursuit. 
Hopefully she would be able to find some kind of weak point, and at least 
it couldn't knock her around with its head while she was inside of it. 
Her hair unfurled in all directions, wrapping tightly around each of the 
giant fossilized ribs and pulling them inwards with tremendous force. The 
bones cracked and splintered, releasing a blast of crackling black 
electricity that caused Kaolinite to scream out in agony. Falling free 
from the bony cage, the witch tumbled onto the ice in a senseless heap.

	After a few moments Kaolinite twitched, and began to move, lifting
her head and looking up just in time to see the monster's massive skull 
descending on her, maw gaping wide. With a desperate leap, she hurled 
herself upwards between its teeth, the creature's mouth slamming shut 
beneath her feet as she darted out through the empty space in its lower 
jaw and flew above its head. 

	The sauropod roared, and a strange blue glow formed in the shadows
of its mouth. Reacting quickly, Kaolinite tried to form a shield as a hail
of needle-like energy bolts rained past her. Her powers responded, forming
a translucent panel of mystic force and deflecting the majority of the 
onslaught. The young woman winced as several of the small blue needles 
pierced her veil, however, burning jagged streaks along her exposed legs 
and lancing across her cheek. The shield had been too slow, her power 
reacting to her command too sluggishly to work perfectly. She was getting 
sloppy, and that meant she was getting tired. Fighting the winds of the 
storm and the bitter cold of the Arctic was bad enough without the added 
strain this battle had been putting on her. 

	Swivelling its head to a new position, the skeletal beast opened 
its mouth and unleashed another barrage of mystical blue arrows. Kaolinite
spun and gestured, moving her shield to block the new attack even as its 
force threw her backwards. The abomination stomped the ground, the ice 
cracking and splitting with its tremendous weight even as its lengthy tail
whistled through the air and snapped across Kaolinite's back like a giant 
bony whip. Crying out, the witch was hurled expertly into the chasm that 
her opponent had formed in the glacier. 

	Damn, she thought fuzzily, as she splashed into the frigid waters
of the Arctic Ocean. She had been so concerned with the thing's head that 
she had forgotten about its tail. The cursed thing was so big that she 
had completely lost track of where the rest of it had been. She should 
have known better. She sobbed, the air escaping from her lungs and 
bubbling around her before floating lazily towards the thick layer of ice 
that covered the ocean's surface. 

	The Professor would be so disappointed if he could see her.
	
**********

	Petz ran across the glacier, snow churning around her thigh-high 
leather boots as she raced towards the giant skeleton that loomed over 
the landscape. Kaolinite had been knocked out of the sky almost a minute 
ago, and she still hadn't gotten back up again. If those two hadn't been 
fighting all over the ice shelf, she might have been able to catch up to 
them in time to make a difference. It was beginning to look like she might
just be arriving in time to avenge her partner instead of rescue her. 

	She hadn't even liked Kaolinite that much. It wasn't as if they 
were ever going to be inviting each other over for sleepovers, or 
anything. A few minutes ago, Petz would have been willing to bet that she 
would not have cared if the other woman had vanished in a puff of smoke 
and never returned. 

	None of that mattered. They may not have liked each other, but 
they had been partners, and Petz of the Ayakashi was not the sort of 
person to take that kind of thing lightly. She had lost far too many 
partners -lost nearly the entire Black Moon Family, in fact- and the idea 
of losing another was maddening. With a ferocious cry, she hurled a 
sizzling ball of lightning straight into the side of the beast's head. As 
it turned and noticed her, she skidded to a halt and took a defensive 
stance. Without Kaolinite, there was no way that she could work all of 
the machines that they needed to get into the Dark Kingdom and close the 
rift. Without Kaolinite, the whole mission was a loss, and this monster 
had just killed Kaolinite. 

	"You made me FAIL, you miserable wretch!" Petz shrieked, her voice
somehow audible even over the howling of the wind and the constant groan 
of the shifting ice. "Do you have any *idea* how much I hate failing?" 

	The wind rose, lifting the top layer of snow into the air like a 
thick fog of fluttering crystals that danced around her as Petz clenched 
her fists and two gleaming bolts of lightning tore through the sky to 
slam into the ground on either side of her. Instead of fading, however, 
the two bolts flared and grew larger, forming twin columns of crackling 
electricity that towered into the sky even as they churned deeper into 
the ground. With a curt nod, Petz sent the gleaming beams surging forward,
ripping up great trails in the ice as they crashed against the giant 
skeleton's body and exploded in a flash of brilliant light. 

	Rocked back slightly, the creature released a loud bellow and 
struck the ground with its tail, creating a booming noise louder than the 
thunder as the ice cracked and shattered further. Unpertrubed, Petz raced 
forwards, scrambling up the side of one mountain of ice as it moved and 
shifted, then leaping nimbly to the top of another before launching 
herself at her enemy with a bloodcurdling screech. The skies were filled 
with lightning in this strange place, and Petz knew exactly how to use it.
In rapid succession the best found itself being struck by bolt after bolt 
of sizzling energy, cracking away at the mighty bones of its massive body 
and churning the ice around it into a thick slurry. Reeling from the sheer
ferocity of the assault, the beast staggered backwards before lifting its 
head and retaliating with a burst of gleaming blue bolts. 

	Petz dove for cover, the lethal shots raining down on her and 
ripping through the surface of the glacier. With a curse, she darted out 
from hiding and raced towards the next towering ice structure as steaming 
blue darts of energy chewed the ground behind her feet. The last thing she
needed was one of those things to pierce her - she liked her body with 
exactly the number of holes it currently posessed. 

	The ice buckled and gave suddenly under her weight, cracking and 
tilting sharply upwards in a wide sheet as she stepped on it. Digging her 
nails into its glossy surface, Petz dragged herself over the massive ice 
floe and dropped down behind it, a flurry of blue darts sailing over her 
head as she landed in a crouch. 

	Petz scowled and looked down at her hand. Obviously her usual 
attacks were not going to suffice against this monstrosity. Why was it 
that whenever she had the Sailor Senshi in this kind of predicament, they 
always seemed to come up with some sort of last minute rescue or new 
attack that saved everybody? More importantly, why couldn't *she* do it? 
She knew that she was at least as powerful as Sailor Jupiter was: Elios 
had told her so when he restored her powers. So why was she still stuck 
tossing thunderbolts at this thing? 

	Maybe she wasn't. 

	Petz concentrated, and a thin web of golden electricity began to 
form between her fingers. After a few seconds it flickered and died, and 
she frowned. Clenching and opening her fist, she tried again. This could 
not possibly be that hard: she had *seen* Sailor Jupiter use this attack 
before. If Sailor Jupiter could do it, then it only stood to reason that 
Petz could do it better. As soon as she figured out the trick to it, at 
least. 

	The beast's tail cracked through the sheet she was hiding behind, 
shattering her cover and raising a huge wave of frigid seawater that 
deluged the entire plain. Soaking wet, Petz scrambled out of the way as 
the creature swung its tail in a semicircle, leaping over the massive 
vertebrae as they tried to sweep her through the ice. The black feathers 
that adorned her shoulders were a sodden mess, and tinkled like tiny bells
as they quickly froze on contact with the air. Forcing herself to ignore 
the frost forming on her eyelashes and hair, Petz took off running towards
a promising snowbank that might be able to conceal her for a moment before
the monster began using that breath of its again. The once smooth and 
featureless glacier had been cracked and shattered in so many places that 
it was like trying to maneuver across the surface of the moon. Her only 
advantage was that she was so much smaller than her opponent that it was 
almost impossible for it to get a good glimpse of her now that there was 
so much terrain to hide behind. 

	Muttering under her breath, Petz rubbed her arms and blew into 
her hands before flexing her fingers and trying again to summon the 
lightning in her hands. She was starting to shiver uncontrollably, and her
exposed skin felt clammy - the parts of it that still had any feeling at 
all. She was tough enough to handle a little exposure, and her powers 
would be more than able to warm her up later, but for the moment she 
needed to focus on the giant undead dinosaur trying to turn her into 
paste. 

	With a faint flicker, small bolts of lightning began to hum and 
buzz between her fingertips. Grinning eagerly, Petz carefully focused on 
maintaining the web of power that was slowly growing in her palm, until 
it had formed a glowing orb roughly the size of a softball. Normally, this
would be the point where she lobbed it at something, but maybe... Brow 
furrowed in concentration, she lifted her other hand and felt the power 
beginning to tingle in those fingers, as well. Placing her hands together,
Petz let the surging electricity flow freely through her palms and 
carefully began to form the power as if it were soft clay, molding it and
compressing it until it had taken the shape of a large disc.

	The ground shook, and the monster neared. Rising from the snowbank
she had been using for cover, Petz gave the crackling disc an experimental
toss, flipping it into the air and catching it again on the way down 
before sending it flying with a flick of her wrist. 

	"SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!" Petz crowed victoriously, pumping her 
fist as the disc sailed into the side of the creature's head and exploded 
in a shower of sparks and flying pieces of bone. Smoke pouring from the 
side of its ruined skull, the monster's legs buckled as it sagged to the 
ground. Tail thrashing, it pawed at the cracked and damaged ice, 
struggling to draw itself back up to its full height. Beneath the 
behemoth, a dull red glow began to form under the ice, finally breaking 
free as a web of fierce crimson energy that tore through the surface of 
the glacier on all sides of the beast. With a final wail and a geyser of 
seawater, the monster fell through the ice and plummeted below the waves. 

	Petz stared in amazement at the giant crater in the ice. The 
hole itself was more than a mile deep, and the water beneath... there 
was no way of knowing. Slowly, almost cautiously, a thick tendril of 
sopping wet hair slithered up from the black water and gripped the edge 
of the gigantic hole. After a few moments, it was joined by another, and 
another, until finally Kaolinite herself emerged, pulled out of the sea 
by her crimson mane. The woman was dripping wet and shivering like a leaf
in a hurricane, her eyes glazed and slightly unfocused.

	"See?" she said, her teeth chattering as she lowered herself to 
the ground and tried to look as imperious as possible when covered with 
seaweed and shuddering uncontrollably. "I t-told you we were p-past the 
groundline."

	"You look horrible," Petz said bluntly, hugging herself for 
warmth and trying to rub some feeling back into her arms. 

	"You look about as g-good as I do," Kaolinite replied, gasping 
for air. "Let's g-get back to the p-plane."

	That was a good idea, Petz had to admit. There would be some 
towels and blankets back there, not to mention some shelter and a dry 
change of clothes for the both of them. They could rest up and regain 
their strength there for the night. 

	"I w-want to g-get the Professor's equipment," Kaolinite 
continued, with a dangerous look in her eyes. "W-We'll need to do more 
t-tests before we c-close this thing for g-good."

	"Oh, right." Petz rolled her eyes and shook her head as she rubbed
her brow with her fingers. "Of course. We'll be wanting to get right on 
that, won't we?"

	"How did you m-manage to harm it?" Kaolinite asked, as they began 
the long walk to their plane. "It was too old for m-my powers...."

	"It wasn't older than mine," Petz explained with a shrug. 
"Lightning's been around for a while. Is there any chance that we could 
maybe stop long enough to warm up a bit before unpacking all that gear? 
No offense, but you look like you need a hug. Or at least some soup. And 
I *know* I do."

	"We'll be f-fine," Kaolinite stammered, pausing to reach down and 
rub her legs before continuing the walk. "All that m-matters is getting 
to the Dark Kingdom and s-sealing this rip behind us."

	"Whatever you say, partner," Petz agreed. "Right now, I'm just 
glad you're not dead."

	"N-never heard that one before," Kaolinite admitted with a 
chuckle. "Okay, m-maybe we could s-stop for *one* cup of coffee... 
partner. B-but just one."

	"Deal," Petz replied with chuckle of her own. Maybe she had been 
wrong about Kaolinite - it had been known to happen, sometimes. At the 
very least, there was more to her than just her filing skills. They might 
have a chance against this Radanthus the Unconquered guy after all. 

	Between the two of them, the Dark Kingdom wasn't going to know 
what hit it.

**********

To Be Continued...