UsAgI iS dEaD uSaGi Is DeAd HiP hIp HiP hOoRaY
by DARK DAY FOR ANIME

Diclaimer - Sailormoon is owned by Takeuchi Naoko and Bandai, so
these characters really belong to them.  I'm just abusing them in a
manner most would describe as nothing short of scandalous.  I hope
nobody sues me for it.  I'm a great deal poorer than they shall ever be.

Part Four
The Bells of Erebus



	The young girl with the dark hair and the Silence Glaive sat
atop the small building, looking down upon the garden courtyard,
not thinking.  Her mind was blank, empty, devoid of all neurological
processes.  Yet she was not dead.  There was no reason to think,
here.  And that was because she didn't know where here was.  Nor
could she vaguely remember who she was.  Or what she was.  Or even
what the honorific "she" meant.  Devoid of a thought base, the girl
sank into a state of intellectual torpor.  And she stayed there.

For years.

Not aging.

Not thinking.

Not anything.

And then there was an explosion.  One that ripped a goodly portion
of the city away.  This city of eternally linked buildings.  For the
first time in a very long time, she moved.  Her mind began to work.
Slowly, at first, then with increasing haste as the explosions
spread through the honeycomb of bricks and mortar.  She stood and
watched as missile-like projectiles struck the city from above.
Slowly and surely, she lifted her head to the sky and watched as
a silent black-metal dirigible floated overhead, dropping small
needle-shaped bombs from angled holes in its base.

	One flew in her direction.  Straight at her.  She decided,
then and there, that it was time to run.

	She leapt off the building, over the rooves of several others
and felt herself being pushed forward by the shockwave of the blast.
The heat it gave off was incredible.  She almost envisioned her
fuku and flesh being seared from her back.  But she knew better than
to believe just anything.  Even if she didn't want to, she ended up
believing in this city, and here it trapped her.

	"Help me...."  A soft whisper that came from nowhere struck
her ears as she flew over a small stadium.  One whip of the glaive
on the metal rim of the stands was enough to propel her clean across
the gap.  She landed on the other side and momentarily looked back.

	Whatever it was that had been floating in the sky had decided
to take pursuit.  It was travelling twice as fast as before, and its
missiles were being shot out with equivalent ferocity.  Large
portions of the city were disappearing within fireballs of totally
breathtaking magnitude.  The flames that shot out of them were the
most beautiful iridescent shades of the spectrum.  For a moment, she
was dazzled.

	"Help me...."  The voice again.  She stared around.  There
didn't seem to be a specific direction from which the voice
originated.
	"Yes, I shall help you.  But how?"
	"Destroy it."
	"Destroy what?"
	"Destroy it."

	She looked up into the sky.  The dirigible was getting
painfully close now.  It had stopped firing madly as it saw her
pause and decided to take a better aim.  She held up her glaive,
pointing at the object.

	"Destroy that?"
	"Destroy it."
	That was more than enough information.  She sneered at the
object.  "Indeed.  I must destroy it.  I live to destroy."  She
began to chant.  Words this body had never before uttered, yet were
strangely familiar.  The glaive began to ring, producing a noise
not unlike a manic jet engine.  The dirigible fired a missile, with
deadly direct accuracy.  There was a blast of fluorescent green that
levelled close to twenty buildings around where the girl stood.  And
yet, when the blast cleared, still she stood, still chanting, an
almost insanely happy gleam in her eye.

	"DARKNESS AXIOM!"  She shouted.  Her voice echoed across the
city with a force that shattered windows for billions of light
years.  No problem for the city.  As soon as the windows were
smashed they were replaced.  An entire building, however was
another matter.

	Her glaive sliced in the direction of the dirigible, and it
split in half.  Billions of litres of black ooze poured from the
two halves as they collapsed to the ground, much of it falling over
the girl.  She opened her mouth and drank freely the liquid black.
The taste was unbelievably sweet, and she felt the desire to hunt
more of its kind to relive this sensation.  As the two halves came
crashing down either side of her, the liquid that had stained
itself on her body fizzled and dissipated, leaving her as clean as
before.

	"More...."  She said through gritted teeth.  "I want to kill
more."
	"Left, in a day."  the voice echoed.  She turned to her left
and stared out into the distance.  Nothing but buildings there, the
same as before.  In a day, however.  Were there even days here.  It
meant twentyfour hours of her time.  Travel straight in that
direction for twentyfour hours without stopping and she'd find what
she most desired.

	She began with haste, licking her lips in anticipation.


	She stared out of unfamiliar eyes with unfamiliar thoughts 
running through her mind.  Secret messages calling to the mind of 
the woman who stepped through the rear door of the large building, 
marching the reluctant young girl she thought she recognised from 
somewhere into the bare corridors.

	Usagi tried, more than once, to link with her.

	All attempts failed.  But the reverse was another story.


	There is no place in a hospital that can be said to be quieter 
than the morgue.  Quiet as death, so to speak.

	It had been rather busy in the preceding hours, after 
receiving up to 15 bodies the previous day, each requiring a 
certification of the manner of their deaths.  In the case of one
particular blond-haired girl, it wasn't all that difficult.  What 
with the vast majority of her mid-section unavailable for scrutiny.

	She was still laid out in the "cold room", where bodies were
kept reasonably fresh, much like walk-through coldstores.  At least,
the orderlies did their best to position the top bits with the legs
in a manner that looked reasonably like this was how they sat when
the girl was alive.  They did this when the parents had to identify
her.  They really didn't know what else to do afterwards.  The
coronial investigation seemed to be stalled for some reason.  Nobody
was sure why, but there was a feeling that, due to the nature of the
death, and the fact that no evidence was found at the "murder" site
to support anything other than spontaneous combustion, the higher
ups weren't in a hurry to bring about a result.  Nobody expected
there to be one.

	What nobody at the hospital realised, as yet, was that a
result was already in the offing.  Twice, even.

	The orderly was sitting some distance from the door to the
cold-room, leaning back in his chair, trying to read a report sheet
at the makeshift desk.  His predecessor had stuck the desk there, as
there was no actual office for those who operated the morgue.  It
was quieter here, anyway.  Nobody visited the morgue unless they had 
to, and half of those were pretty quiet to begin with.

	It was because the quiet had suddenly been broken that he fell
out of his chair, banging his head on the floor rather painfully.
He got to his feet, rubbing the back of his head and staring into
the cold-room.  What the hell was that, anyway?  It sounded like
metal tinkling.  Almost musical....

	He stepped forward and stared disbelievingly through the
thick clear plastic curtain streamers that fell from the top of the
doorway.  Inside, by the body of the girl, stood a woman with long
dark-green hair, dressed in what appeared to be a somewhat ornate
sailorfuku, holding a priest's staff in one hand.  The other hand
touched the girl's face.  There was an extremely sad expression on
the face of the woman.

	The woman noticed his presence and looked up, her expression
changing to that of a smile.  "Hello."  She said.
	"Uh, hi."  He said back.  The woman waved her free hand in his
direction.
	"Sleep and forget."  He did, as he fell to the floor, out to
the world.  Setsuna inwardly shrugged.  There were some benefits to
her powers, even if they only ever seemed to bring her grief.  She
turned back to Usagi's body.  The girl's face was caught in the same
expression of shocked surprise that it had upon death.  Setsuna
shivered...  Even the eyes were still open, staring up at her,
almost accusingly.  It was you who killed me, they said, what are
you going to do about it?  Are you here to apologise?  Its too late
for that, now.
	No, Setsuna thought.  Its never too late.  She clanged her
staff onto the floor, closed her eyes and waved her free hand over
Usagi's face.  For a few moments, nothing seemed to be happening.
Then Usagi's pale death pallour brightened, her body convulsed, and
she began to breathe through lungs that, only seconds before, didn't
exist.  Setsuna smiled.  She hadn't lost her touch.

	Then Setsuna quivered.  She backed against the rear wall and
fell back in pain.  Oh well, at least she could die now knowing
she'd at least absolved herself of something.  Using her power to
turn back small pockets of time, just another one of those things
she wasn't allowed to do under threat of death.  She often wondered
just what the hell she WAS allowed to do.

	Then again, if she had been allowed, she would probably run
amok in time, and that would be bad, wouldn't it?  She wondererd,
sometimes.

	Darkness overcame her, and she fell sideways to the floor with
a soft thud, just as Usagi sat up and stared blearily around the
room, wondering where the hell she was and what the hell she was
doing in a place this cold with no clothes on.

	"Brrr...  What the hell is this?"  She quickly slipped off the
bench she was lying on and began to dance on the spot.  "Jeezuz, is
it Winter already, or something?"  Usagi noticed a sheet, sitting
on the bottom end of the bench.  For a moment she considered
wrapping it around her.  It was only when she picked it up that she
realised the entire centre of the sheet was covered in blood.  She
let out a small cry and dropped the sheet.  All this occurred in 
about three seconds.
	
	"What....  What the hell is going on, here?"  Usagi looked at
herself for a moment, and was horrified to find dried bloodstains
around the middle of her body.  "Oh God, whats been happening here?"
She stared around the room.  Then she spotted Setsuna.
	"P...Pluto...."  Her concern for herself was momentarily
forgotten as she ran over to the side of the fallen senshi.  For
some reason, Setsuna's pallour seemed to be dissipating, almost as
if she was fading into a translucent shell.  When Usagi touched her,
it felt like touching the beached body of a jellyfish....  No
substance whatsoever.  "What the hell have you done?"  Usagi wanted
to pick her up, but thought better of it.  There was only one thing
she could do to help Setsuna now, that was use the....

	"Well, being naked naturally means I have absolutely NO use of
the Ginzuishou....  Damn."  She thought to herself as she reached
out to touch Setsuna, wishing like hell she could save the woman.

	Then Setsuna stood up.  Just like that.  No ifs.  No buts.  No
maybes.  She stood up and looked like a human being, not the product
of a giant jelly mould.  Usagi fell back as Setsuna let out a small
cry of surprise.  She also did a small rain dance across the floor.

	"Ow, shit, heck, damn, effing ow, ouchie, itaiii, 
iiiitatatatatatatatatatata.... yowowowowow!" Setsuna suddenly 
stopped and stared around the room, eventually spotting Usagi, who 
was attempting to achieve a sense of modesty by placing hands in the 
right positions.
	"My Princess..."  She said.  "I realise that the thought of my
dying may have been rather upsetting to you, but did you really feel
the need to stick that much of your energy through me to achieve the
task of bringing me back?"


	Hotaru awoke from a less-than-satisfactory sleep feeling like
she'd just run a marathon.  "Well," she thought, "thats pretty par
for the course for me."  Slowly, she swung her legs around from out
of the covers and sat on the edge of the bed.  She closed her eyes
and counted to three, then stood.

	"OW!  OW!  OW!  Ohhh, that hurts."  She said through clenched
teeth, making balls of her fists.  Her entire body was rigid,
shaking as the pain shot through her body like needles of torture.
She'd grown another half inch whilst she was asleep.  At this rate
she'd catch up with the others in no time.  She just wished the
process had been a little bit slower.

	There was a knock at her bedroom door, and she heard her
father's voice.  "Hotaru-chan, are you alright in there?"
	"Haaaaaiii.  I've just grown a little more in my sleep."
	Her father opened the door and stepped in, never caring much
for such niceties as modesty and privacy.  "I told you what would
happen if you went to bed late.  You always get these little growth
spurts when you go to sleep later than you should."
	"Aww, dad.  You know that's bull.  I get them half the time
that I sleep early."
	"And just what were you doing out so late last night, young 
lady?  Hmm?  Some kind of party, hmm?"
	"D...  Didn't you hear?"
	"Hear what?"
	"Didn't I tell you?"
	"What?  Tell me what?  You know I'm too busy working to hear
everything that goes on in your life."  Her father sniffed and
scratched his head.  "Don't think I've slept in five days.  I better
get some now."
	He turned around to walk out.  Hotaru shook her head.
	"Don't you want to hear where I've been?"
	"Hmm?"  He turned around and looked at her, blinking.  He
coughed and stuttered.  "Yes.  Well, okay, where have you been,
young lady?"
	"At a wake."
	"Hmm?  A wake?  For whom?"
	"Tsukino Usagi.  You remember her, don't you?"

	"Usagi.  Usagi...."  He went off into his own thoughts and
Hotaru sighed.  With a shake of her head she stepped past him and
out through the hallway, into the kitchen.  There, she opened the
fridge and looked inside.  For a moment, she was tempted to get
herself a glass of milk, but remembered she was supposed to be
lactose intolerant.  She was also allergic to orange juice, and
to any caffeine products, including both tea and coffee.

	"Lets face it," she thought to herself, "I'm allergic to
life."  She wondered under what bad sign she had been born.  She
quickly stopped wondering.  She KNEW what bad sign she'd been born
under.  Sighing, she pulled a carton of apple juice from the fridge
and shut the door.  She placed the carton on the kitchen bench and
reached up into the cupboard for a glass when she heard her father
scream out.

	"USAAAAAAAGIIIII!?!?!?!"  Hotaru brained herself on the
cupboard as she involuntarily attempted the world record high jump.
Her father came charging into the kitchen, taking her by the arm.
	"You're talking about THAT Tsukino Usagi, aren't you?"
	"We do only know one, Dad."
	"How CAN she be dead?  Isn't she supposed to be the
reincarnation of Princess Serenity?"
	"Not any more, obviously."  Hotaru sighed and pulled herself
from her father's arm.  He stared at her for her seemingly callous
comment.
	"H...How could you say that?  I mean, like THAT?  How could
you just fob her off like that.  She's DEAD, Hotaru.  The Princess
you're supposed to protect.  To defend with your LIFE."
	Hotaru gritted her teeth.  "ALRIGHT, damn you.  Don't you
think I KNOW that.  EH?  Don't you think I realise what we've done
is wrong, EH?"
	"What YOU'VE done??"  Hotaru shuddered, inwardly kicking
herself for what she'd said.  Her father stepped forward, taking her
by the shoulders, and momentarily surprised by how tall she actually
was now.  "I think you'd better tell me what's been going on, young
lady."
	"NO!"  Hotaru wrenched herself from him and stepped around him
intent on returning to her bedroom.  He grabbed her on her way past
with greater intent.
	"I'm NOT asking you to.  You WILL tell me what has been going
on.  I want to know."  Hotaru looked aside, seemingly frustrated by
her own inaction.  Her father spoke more softly.  "You're going to
have to tell me sometime, Hotaru.  You're not the kind of person
who can bottle stuff up.  Thats only ever made you sick."
	"You understand NOTHING about me.  I'm not some weak child who
doesn't understand anything.  Leave me alone!"
	Hotaru shook off her father and charged out of the kitchen.
He clenched his fist and closed his eyes.  "Good move there, old
son.  Push her further away from you."  He opened his eyes and
stared ahead.  He would have to wait until later.  She'd tell him
eventually.
	He stood there for a few moments longer, thinking, praying,
that what she said didn't mean what he thought it meant.


	Minako coughed, sniffed, and sat up staring in the kind of 
bleary-eyed manner most have after waking up approximately in the 
middle of a dream.  It had been about running away from a large army 
of people who were pursuing her through a cityscape.  Then she found 
herself in an almost desolate landscape, yet starkly beautiful.  She 
wondered where she'd seen that before.

	"I wonder how Setsuna's doing."  She thought.  Then she
wondered why she even had that thought and turned to the others.
Rei was turning in her sleep, looking fairly annoyed with something.
Makoto was dead to the world, mouth wide open and drooling.  Naru
was turned away from her, so she couldn't see what she was doing.
As for Chibiusa...  The girl's hair...  Was pink again...

	Minako stared in disbelief and reached forward to touch
Chibiusa's shoulder, when she realised she was reaching over the
spot Ami should have been sleeping.  Minako looked around for the
blue-haired girl, but she was nowhere to be seen.  Minako slowly
got to her feet.  Ami went outside for fresh air earlier that
morning, but surely she came back in....

	"Rei-chan..."
	"Whdizitgwaywannanutherfivemnits."  Rei mumbled.
	"Rei-chan, Ami's gone."
	"Sprollygntatakealeakgbacktasleep."  Minako looked down on Rei
with annoyance.  The girl just had NO sense of responsibility.
Minako huffed and rapidly changed into some street clothes, combing her 
hair into a sense of unkempt normalcy.  She then stepped into
the dim sunlight of 10.30 in the morning with a feeling that
something wasn't quite right.


	"....That's about all I've got to say."  Usagi sat back in her
seat, smiling as Kikotsuka rubbed a hand across her face, and her
partner stared off into space.  Usagi had been able to answer all of
their questions about her past.  All of those they knew, of course.
If they'd had EVERY little piece of information, they might have
found Usagi's smugness rather less than irritating.
	"Listen..."  Aoi put her hands hands up, looking across the
small desk in the middle of the equally small interview room at
Usagi.  "We have a body sitting in the morgue of the local hospital.
Now, that body belongs to someone, right?"
	"Well of course it does.  But its obviously not mine."
	"Whose else could it be?  Over a hundred people saw you die.
Hit by some bolt of energy.  These include your best friends, who
were with you at the time."
	"Well they must be wrong.  It most certainly wasn't me."
	"Oh for f...  It WAS you.  your parents identified you.  It
was YOU.  Even the few tests we've been able to take of the body
proved it to be yours."
	"So you admit it was MY body, do you?"
	Aoi threw her hands in the air in frustration.
	"No no no no no!  I meant the body was proven to be that of
Tsukino Usagi.  Dental records prove this to be the case."
	Usagi found herself involuntarily picking at her teeth.
"Well, you can check these ones out if you like.  I mean, if you
really want proof of my being who I KNOW myself to be."
	"Aww, look, this is not some school prank.  The remains were
human, and they were said to be yours.  The face is untouched, and
I'm looking at it right now.  You can't be her.  That girl was
most definitely dead and most definitely Tsukino Usagi!"
	Aoi felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to Akunatsuka.
"What?  What do you want?"  She snapped.  he sighed and shook his
head.
	"Don't get yourself all wound up.  You're as red as a
beetroot, you know that?"  Aoi could have socked him then and there.
She stood and walked to the front wall of the room, trying to regain
her composure.  Akunatsuka turned to Usagi and smiled.  She smiled
back, sweetly.
	"Yes?"  She asked.  He chuckled.
	"I take it you would be willing to undergo tests to prove you
are who you say you are?"
	"Of course.  Any test, I'll take it.  If for no other reason
than to get you off my back and get on with life."
	"Any test?  Even a genetic one?"  Aoi asked offhandedly, not
turning.  Usagi looked at her for a moment.
	"Uh, of course."  Usagi wondered what was crossing the woman's
mind.  It occurred to her that her voice seemed remarkably calm and
fay for the mood she had been in only moments before.  There was an
increase of energy in the room.  The same energy that had been
blocking her attempts to establish a link with the woman's mind.

	Suddenly, something seemed to dawn on her....  A genetic test.
This body was the product of Jadeite's Youma Spawning Machine.  It
wouldn't carry any of the original Usagi's genetic makeup!  The
smile left her face and she was more than disturbed when she heard
Kikotsuka chuckle.

	Aoi turned, a beatific smile on her face, eyes burning a deep
blue.  For a moment, Usagi wondered if the woman was attempting to
do the same to her that she had tried, and failed, to do.  She was
rescued when the duty officer entered the room.  Kikotsuka and
Akunatsuka turned to meet him.

	"Officer Taeki enters the room."  Akunatsuka said for the
benefit of the recording of interview.  Taeki sighed and looked
at Usagi for a moment.  A smile returned to her face as the officer
turned to Kikotsuka.
	"Can I speak with you for a moment?"  Taeki gestured outside.
Aoi turned to her partner.
	"Interview suspended at 11.02am."  Akunatsuka switched off the
inset recorder and removed the cassette.  He stood and followed
Aoi and Taeki as they stepped into the corridor.  He turned to Usagi
before he closed the door.  "You stay seated."
	"What else am I going to do?"  Usagi gestured expansively.
Her recently resurrected smile aggravating him.  He shut the door
quickly.

	Usagi leaned back.  Well, it looked like Setsuna had been
doing her job.  "What are you up to, eh?"  She thought of the woman
and began to worry.  Of all the senshi to know she is alive, she
would have preferred Setsuna to have been the last.  But then, she
probably knew what would happen beforehand.  which begged the
question...  Why did she allow the killing to take place, and what
role did she play in the events, if she did know what was going to
happen.

	The more she thought about it, the more it bugged her.  Then
her right hand began to quiver.  She stared at it, holding it out
in front of her.  It started to get worse....


	"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, MISSING?"  Taeki cringed under Aoi's
splenetic rage.
	"That's what the hospital said.  According to the management,
one of the orderlies who was put in charge of the morgue at the
time was found unconcious on the floor, and the girl's remains
were gone."
	"OH FOR KAMI'S SAKE!!!"  Aoi stepped away and began to bang
her head against the nearest piece of wall, making all within
visual shot stare at her.  Akunatsuka began to worry that the
stress might be getting to her.  He couldn't blame her.

	"So, what do we do now?"  Akunatsuka turned to Taeki.  The
duty officer shrugged.
	"Looks like the old man will spit the dummy pretty soon.  Its
less than a day and he's already had enough."
	"I'll tell you what we do."  Aoi turned suddenly.  "We go to
the hospital and BUST HEADS until we get some answers.  A body just
doesn't go missing.  Someone has had to have taken it, and in all
likelihood, its still in the hospital somewhere.  Theres something
going on here we don't understand yet, and I'm damned if I'm going
to let it slide."

	There was a crash and a sharp cry from within the interview
room.  The trio turned and looked at each other.  Akunatsuka opened
the door.

	Usagi was on the floor, clutching at her right arm, groaning
in pain.  She stared up at them.  "Help...  Help me...  It hurts so
much."  Akunatsuka stepped in and knelt beside her, Aoi following
him.  She turned to Taeki and gestured to him.
	"Call the medic.  It may be nothing but we better make sure."
	"Right."  Taeki dashed away as others crowded around the door.
Akunatsuka lifted Usagi into a sitting position and studied her arm.
It was convulsing uncontrollably, in a series of tonic-clonic
seizures.  No sooner did it begin to settle than it would begin
again.  The most disturbing aspect was the manner in which it would
distort itself, twisting into angles and positions neither Aoi nor
Akunatsuka thought possible.  Then, with another jerk, they could
hear a cracking noise, and Usagi let out a scream.
	"Shit!  Its breaking its own bones."  Aoi cried out.  Two
more officers entered the room and kneeled beside Usagi.  Akunatsuka
had gripped the arm with both his hands and held it straight with
all his strength.  Usagi was kicking and bucking wildly.  The
convulsions now seemingly spreading through her shoulder into her
upper body.  Aoi stood back against the rear wall, disbelievingly
shaking her head.  What the hell else can go wrong now?  It almost
seemed as if the girl was trying to kill herself....

	Taeki and the RMO pushed their way through the crowd in the
doorway.  The RMO stared down at the three men trying to hold
Usagi down.  "What are you doing?"
	Akunatsuka looked up at him.  "She's causing herself an
injury.  The convulsions are getting worse."
	"Is it epilepsy?"  Taeki wondered aloud.  Suddenly, Usagi
thrashed with intensity not seen before.  Akunatsuka was thrown back
against the wall and it took the combined strength of the two other
officers and Taeki to stop her flying across the room.  Akunatsuka
watched in a daze as the RMO tried to attend to her.  Then he turned
to where Aoi had been standing, and saw her slipping from the room,
her face a mask of fear.  Oh jeez, he thought, she's lost it.  He
got to his feet and pushed through the crowd just as the CO of the
branch arrived at the scene, demanding to know what was going on.

	Akunatsuka ignored him and continued to push through the
gathering crowd in the passage outside.  He could see Aoi dashing
along the passage and towards the front office.  Once clear of the
crowd he broke into a jog in the hope he could catch her.  He hoped
she wasn't going to do anything stupid.

	Back in the interview room, the RMO had managed to get as far
as shining a torch into Usagi's eyes.  "Definitely a seizure of some
form.  Her pupils are dilated, not registering the change in light
at all."  He turned as the CO entered the room.  "I suggest we call
an ambulance right away.  At the rate this girl is thrashing about,
she'll give herself a cardiac arrest."
	"Alright."  The CO turned to the crowd in the doorway and
waved generally, trying to look in charge.  "Someone call the
hospital.  Get an ambulance here NOW.  Tell them their missing body
is thrashing about in one of our interview rooms."
	"SHIT!"  The CO turned to see Taeki getting thrown back.
Then the RMO went flying, crashing across the table.
	"LET ME GOOOO!"  A voice resonated from Usagi's throat.  She
kicked the other two officers from her, both bowling over the CO.
Then she jammed the fingers of her right hand into the floor.

	There was a flash of light.


	Akunatsuka saw Aoi pushing her way through the security doors
and into the public area.  He followed her, calling her name.  She
looked back, her face a mask of fear.  She began to mouth something
to him as she backed her way through the front doors.  then she
looked past him in shock.  Akunatsuka could hear a rushing sound,
then found himself flying towards Aoi, others flung with him.

	Pieces of glass, metal and concrete seemed to crash all around
him as he landed some two hundred yards from the front of the
station.  There were screams and the sound of secondary explosions.
He wondered why he was still alive.

	He lifted himself up and sat back, surveying the scene.  There
were people running in blind panic in all directions.  He couldn't
see Aoi at all.  She had to have been thrown by the force of...
Whatever it was that had thrown him.  An explosion?  He turned to
look back at the station and his world fell away from underneath
him.

	There was very little of the building left.  What was left was
well alight.  People were staggering away from the ruin, their
clothes alight.  Without thinking, he pulled off his jacket and got
to his feet, staggering over to one of the victims, throwing the
jacket over him in an attempt to smother the flames.  The man
collapsed to the ground, sobbing in pain.  Akunatsuka sat beside
him, shock beginning to encroach on his senses....

END OF PART FOUR


Notes

Heeheehee.  Well, this is roughly half of the original fourth part.
I'd intended for "The Bells of Erebus" to concentrate on Hotaru.
Unfortunately, too many of other necessary plot threads were getting
in the way.  So you'll have to read the next chapter to see why
Saturn was in the Eternal City.  Then the true meaning of this
chapter's title will become clear.

I have been reminded that Jadeite is sitting around somewhere.  I
haven't forgotten him.  He was going to appear in the second half
of this chapter, but considering the second half of this chapter is
now the next chapter, you'll just have to wait for him as well.

In the next chapter, Setsuna tries her best to explain to a newly
resurrected Usagi what is going on, and pays a visit to Jadeite,
before being rudely interrupted by.... Usagi.

Hotaru is tormented by visions of the Eternal City, and meets up
with the City's janitor....  Usagi.

Meanwhile, Ami is aimlessly wandering the streets, tormented by the
guilt of what she and the others have done, only to bump into....
Usagi.

P.S. - RMO means Resident Medical Officer.  CO means, naturally,
Commanding Officer.  Yes, I do watch Thames Television's "The Bill".

Any comments, criticism and outright abuse should go to 
ayanami@merlin.net.au

The abuse shall be used in the next chapter of Sailor Python.  ^_^

DDFA