Version 1.0 - 18th November 1997
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SAILORMOON
ECHO
BY DARK DAY FOR ANIME


	There didn't seem to be any sign of how she'd found her way to 
wherever it was she was.  All she knew is that she was lying on the 
floor of a reasonably large hall, and a cold floor it was, too.

	Rei lifted her head to look around.  Gothic, she thought, very 
gothic.  The stone floor stretched hundreds of metres in every 
direction, ending at walls of engraved grey stone that rose almost 
as far to a ceiling she couldn't see for the shadows.  The hall was 
illuminated by huge windows that let in a pale light that pointed to 
dark weather outside.  Even as she thought this, she could hear the 
rumble of distant thunder....  An approaching storm....  Her powers 
could at least predict that.

	She lifted herself to her knees and stared blankly around the 
room.  Try as she might, she simply couldn't remember how it was 
that she came to be here.  She sniffed and wiped her nose.  The 
moisture in the air was making breathing heavy, and congestion rose.  
Slowly, painfully even, she brought herself to her feet.

	She almost toppled over.  She was wearing the stilletos that 
came with the uniform of a senshi.  Well that made sense, as she 
looked down at the short red skirt that was part of the uniform, if 
she was amnesiac, that meant she had been in trouble, and that 
naturally meant she would have transformed into her senshi form.  
There was just one problem.  Nothing seemed to be happening.

	No attacks....  No voices....  Nothing.  The hall was empty, 
in every direction.  Either the enemy was invisible, or she had 
already dispensed with them....  And that certainly didn't help her 
find out how she got into this place.  Unless, of course, there was 
no enemy.

	She felt a slight itch in her subconcious and turned towards 
what she somehow knew to be the northern end of the hall.  A raised 
platform appeared, and atop it a shrine of some form.  In front of 
the shrine knelt a figure, darkened within the shadows.  Rei took a 
few steps back with surprise and the figure stirred, acknowledging 
her presence.

	"You're awake."  The figure half-turned to Rei.  It waited for 
some response, but received none from the inner senshi, who was 
dumbstruck.  The figure turned around fully, and Rei could see the 
light glinting off the figures eyes.  "I should have expected as 
much from a member of the inner senshi....  We do keep 
underestimating your powers....  But then, you are the last line of 
defence for the Queen."

	"Who are you?  Where am I?"  Rei found her voice at last, a 
level of anger rising, born more out of confusion than fear.  The 
figure chuckled and stood.  From the silhouetted frame, Rei could 
see that it was a woman.  The voice had been more of an androgynous 
soft husk that had made defining whether she was male or female 
difficult.  But the lines of her body were definitely female.

	The figure cocked her head at a strange angle.  "Such 
existentialist questions you ask of me.  Who am I?  Indeed, who am 
I?  What am I?  Why am I here?  Why are any of us here?  Even the 
Queen could not come up with a decent answer on that account...."

	Oooookay, thought Rei, she's an egg short of a dozen...  Best 
not to upset her.  "You think I'm mad, do you?"  The figure purred.  

	This surprised Rei.  "You...  You read my mind?"

	"Of course I did.  We are very much alike, you and I."

	Rei gritted her teeth.  Great, she thought, I'm dealing with a 
psychic psycho....  And almost immediately chided herself for 
thinking that.  Don't know if anything I think will upset this....  
Whoever she is.

	"I assure you, I mean you no harm.  When I said we were very 
much alike, I meant our backgrounds....  well, they were different 
in many ways, but we both find our origins...."

	"...In the Moon Kingdom?"  Rei didn't know why she said that.  
There was no way she could have possibly known, but somehow she had 
caught a resonance of the girl's subconciousness....  The girl 
chuckled again, and started to descend the stairs at the front of 
the platform.

	Rei could see the girl fully now, wearing the uniform of a 
senshi.  Slightly different in many respects, with an emphasis on 
more classical Japanese attire, and more colourful than the white 
and red that she wore, but definitely the mark of the senshi.  It 
was a fascinating mixture of blue and green, with the upper portion 
of the costume flowing loosely around the arms.  The collar was 
adorned with the sailor ribbon, and the remains hugged tightly 
around her belly to the traditional short skirt, a luminous blue 
with green edging.  She wore blue boots, going up past her knees, 
and had green fingerless gloves on her hands.  The senshi headband 
ended in a crystal of glowing aquamarine.  The girl's hair was long 
and black, not unlike her own, or Setsuna's, for that matter.  
However, her height was somewhere between her own and that of 
Pluto....

	Her eyes were the most hypnotic aspect....  The same blue-
green of the crystal that sat on her forehead, giving the crystal 
the appearance of a "third eye".  Her expression, however, was 
slightly vague, as if her mind was elsewhere.  To Rei, the 
expression seemed haunted.

	"I have a lot on my mind, Hino-san...."  The girl stopped 
before Rei and breathed heavily.  "It hasn't been easy, bringing you 
here."

	"Kikotsuka.... Aoi...."  Rei whispered.  The girl smiled.
	"It would appear there is still some remnant of memory within 
your mind of me.  I wouldn't trust the emotions that come attached 
to it entirely, though, they can be misleading...."

	"Kikotsuka Aoi....  Sailor Pisces....  You're one of the 
Astral Senshi."  Aoi shrugged, smiling a little shyly.
	"I never really liked my name very much.  And as for being 
Pisces...  well...  You know what its like, being the last on the 
list of the Astrals...."

	"You bitch!  You traitor bitch!"  Rei rushed forward and 
grabbed the front of Aoi's costume.  Aoi didn't seem surprised by 
the action, merely standing her ground as Rei attempted to push her 
back with anger.  That she didn't do so surprised Rei somewhat.  It 
meant there was more to this girl than met the eye, and it worried 
Rei that Aoi was still smiling.

	"I told you not to trust the emotions that come attached to 
your memories of me.  They can be misleading."  Aoi lifted up a fist 
and punched Rei several meters across the floor.  Aoi stood 
silently, smiling beatifically as Rei picked herself up.  Rei rubbed 
her left cheek, where Aoi had hit her, and tasted blood.  She stared 
defiantly at Aoi.

	"Traitor."
	"No."
	"You are!  You are a traitor!"  Rei got to her feet, 
staggering as she felt her head swim.  She pointed an accusing 
finger at Aoi.  "It was you who allowed Beryl to bring the downfall 
of the Moon Kingdom....  The Astral Fighters allowed her and her 
hoardes into the palace...."

	"Are you so sure of that?"  Aoi seemed unmoved by Rei's 
outbursts.
	"You were supposed to be guarding the palace against attacks!"
	"Were we?"
	
	Rei seemed less sure of herself for some reason.  She shook 
with anger and confusion.  "Why have you brought me here, anyway?"

	Aoi's expression changed, her smile disappearing as she 
shrugged.  "I was ordered to do so.  By the Queen....  Many years 
ago."  Aoi became distant.  "No, wait....  She ordered us to let the 
army of Beryl in....  That was it....  I think...."  Aoi looked back 
at Rei.  "I think that was it.  We were ordered by the Queen to 
allow the rout to occur, and to escape ourselves....  I think..."

	"What are you talking about?"  Rei was confused now.  
Suddenly, Aoi lifted out one her right hand, and a blue mist swirled 
above it.  Within the mist formed a gilden object....  An ornamental 
dagger, encrusted with crystals like those that sat within the 
headband on all the senshi.  The mist faded and Aoi took the dagger, 
pointing it at Rei.

	"I'm not sure what to do with this...."  Aoi said, still 
smiling in a manner that really began to annoy Rei now.  But the 
smile quickly disappeared as Aoi converged on her.  Rei tried to 
step back, only to find a wall behind her that had not been there 
moments before.  She cracked her head against the wall painfully, 
and let out a yelp of pain.  Before she could do anything else, Aoi 
had her pinned against the wall, the blade of the dagger pressed up 
against Rei's face.

	Rei stared at the blade almost comically.  Certainly, that is 
how Aoi appeared to take it, grinning from ear to ear at Rei's 
discomfort.
	"Don't worry.  I'm not going to hurt you."  Aoi whispered in 
her husky monotone.  She gripped Rei's right hand with her left, and 
planted the handle of the dagger in it, backing away as Rei stared 
at it, and her, in surprise.

	"Me?  You're giving this to me?"
	"Well I don't seem to be giving it to anyone else."
	"Wha....  What is it?"  Rei stared at the dagger, holding it 
aloft.  Despite the grey dimness of the light coming through the 
windows, the dagger glowed a hypnotic gold.  "It's....  
beautiful..."

	"Beautiful to you, perhaps....."  Aoi's voice seemed distant, 
but Rei was more interested in the dagger.  "It is the Dagger of 
Sol.  You will know what to do with it, when the time comes.  At 
least, that is what I'm lead to belie...."

	Aoi's voice stopped, her last words echoing around the chamber 
as Rei turned her attention away from the dagger.  Aoi was gone.  
The hall was empty once more.  Rei stood in the middle of the hall, 
like she had done when she had awoken.  She attempted to gain the 
psychic link she had achieved before...  But she detected no 
presence.  It was like Aoi had never been there.  Even the resonance 
normally associated with the past presence of a being was missing.  
For all intents and purposes, it was as if Aoi had never been in the 
hall.

	And then everything went dark.

	Rei awoke in front of the flame.  A small flame now....  
Having fallen asleep during her meditations had stopped her tending 
the fire.  Rei shook the cobwebs of sleep from her mind and stood.  
She was in her family's shrine....  She placed a hand to her 
forehead and rubbed it for a few moments.  Was that a dream, or some 
kind of communication....

	It often happened whenever she had fallen asleep during 
meditation....  Communication with another being with similar 
capabilities as her own.  She was worried about the sudden cut-off 
in communication, though.  That often represented contact with the 
dead.  But in most of those cases, the mind was reactive, working 
like an interactive recording....  This was very proactive....  A 
sign of a soul ready to be resurrected, but still unable to let go 
of the madnesses of the past.

	Rei yawned and said to herself that it would keep.  Whatever 
or whoever it was that had made contact with her, they weren't 
likely to do again in a hurry, that was often the case, not until 
they were ready to do so.

	As Rei turned to leave the shrine, her foot tapped something.  
Something metallic.  She looked down and spotted the dagger sitting 
within a sheath next to where she had been meditating.  She reached 
down and picked it up, slowly pulling it out of the sheath....

	It glowed in the firelight.  That same beautiful, yet eerie 
glow she had seen during the contact.  A cold shiver ran down her 
spine as she remembered what the girl....  Aoi...  had said.

	"You will know what to do with it, when the time comes."  Rei 
repeated the words.  Slowly, she resheathed the dagger and stared 
back into the fire.  

	"Why the bloody hell can't you spirits just spit it out and 
tell us in plain language what you want, eh?"

	Naturally, there was no answer.

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This fic was part of the development process for what became "Usagi
is Dead", so the date at the top is correct....  I release it now,
unchanged, for interest's sake.

   _________
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 \___________/		Appreciation Society - Adelaide Japanese
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