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, except ones I made up.  You
know who they are!  They're the ones that run around doing bad 
things to the original cast.  ^_^  Well, most of them, anyway.


Part Eighteen
Visceral Demands


	There is nowhere like the present.

	In a future that is in the creating.


	The present, where Tomoe Souichi finds a letter from his 24
year old daughter, Hotaru, telling him she is leaving, and will 
never, again, return.

	Her empty bedroom.

	Usako's lack of surprise.

	The tears of a father.



	Hotaru lay upon the tuft of grass, staring at the clouds in 
the sky, and a few in her mind.  She'd sheltered for several hours 
as the rain blew over.  Now the clouds were patchy.  There WAS blue 
sky.  There WAS sunlight.  And she hated it.


	The assassin was still in the valley with her hostages.  They
weren't going to leave anythime soon.  She knew that now.  The 
assassin could feel her presence and gave not a sense of fear.  
Hotaru smiled.  She wished she could read the assassin's mind...
Discover the identity of the person, what motivated her to do what
she did...  But the assassin was a master of self-control, and that
included her thoughts.

	she could feel the thoughts of her hostages, although weakly.
They made no sense...  Like minds during sleep.  No logical 
procession of thought.

	She even thought she could feel the presence of other minds.
But there were a lot of living creatures within the valley, and they
all gave off thought patterns....


	What motivated Hotaru to do what she did?  Yes, she thought to
herself, what motivates Hotaru?  Damned if I know, I just go along
for the ride, as unpleasant as it has been.

	Everything she'd done over the past couple of years only 
seemed to hurt her more and more.  Saturn was becoming very annoyed
with Hotaru.  Saturn didn't like Hotaru very much.  Nor did Hotaru
seem to like Saturn a great deal.

	"Why did you write THAT kind of letter, you fool."  Saturn 
stared back at Hotaru.  The little girl sneered.
	"I had to bring a few home truths to his attention.  He has
always been a passive acceptor of things.  I wanted him to be more
than that, but he chose to be the distant one."
	"Were you ever anything other than distant?"
	"I guess I must have seemed that way to people."
	"Its because that is the way you are."
	"So what?  Its the way I am.  I like to be that way.  It 
protects me from being harmed by them."
	"You've got to stop this perception of yourself as a human 
soft-centre.  Even if people lash out at you, they're only doing it
as a defensive action, themselves."
	"No!"
	"They are!"
	"Stop it.  Stop saying things like that.  You know people only
treat you in that manner to hurt others.  You've seen it.  Those 
times...  When I was beaten...  When I was tortured.  When I was..."

	Hotaru turned on her side and closed her eyes.

	"Or perhaps you abandoned me back then.  That's why I was too
weak to fight back.  Abandoned by even the senshi I had become."
	"I never abandoned you.  The only one who abandoned you was
yourself.  And you continue to abandon yourself to this very day."
	"Leave me alone."
	"I can't.  We're stuck together in the same mind."
	"A mind in a vast, empty ocean.  Travel it far and never 
return."  Hotaru sat up, annoyed.  She stared around the small field
of grass and wondered what she was doing here.

	"Bloody hell, I'm talking to myself again..."  She stood and
started to pace around.  "Talking to yourself is one of the signs of
madness, isn't it?"

	"No..."  Said the little flower on the ground.  "Having 
flowers like me talk to you is a sign of madness."
	"Easy for you to say.  I know someone who once talked to 
flowers, and she wasn't insane.  Well, not most of the time anyway."
	"Yes, but what happened to her?"
	"She died.  Several times, in fact."
	"Well, it would seem that she has something of a problem with
life, doesn't it?"
	"I'll tell you who has a problem with life.  Try looking at 
me.  I'm a classic case.  Sick as a kid, possessed, killed once or
twice, made to live through childhood twice, forced to grow, 
manipulated, beaten, tortured, imprisoned, r..."  She began to bang
her head with her hand.

	"Bloody hell, now I'm explaining my life to a daisy."  She 
shook her head and sat down, reaching over to her backpack.  She
pulled out a small box packet and opened the top.

	She sniffed the aroma of the black cigarettes.  The fragrance
was incredible.  These things had been a vice for a couple of years
now, and the best thing was no matter how many she smoked, she 
wasn't going to cack up her lungs.  She'd have liked to stick that
one up the proverbials of the anti-smoking lobby.  Hooray for being
a sailorsenshi!

	She took one out, closed the lid on the packet, put that 
aside, took out a lighter as she tapped the end of the cigarette,
put it in her mouth and lit it.

	She slowly drew on the stick and tasted its fragrance.  
Russian black cigarettes...  Foul beasts under the most ordinary of
circumstances.  A dime a dozen through black-marketeers.  She 
chuckled after blowing out the smoke, feeling more contented now.
If she'd been really smart, she'd have brought along a couple of
bottles of spirits.  But as it was, she'd have to go cold turkey on
the alcohol today.

	Well, at least it would make her REAL mad when she came face 
to face with the assassin, of that she was sure.  She felt sorrier
and sorrier for the poor bastard with each passing moment.


	IASFU OA FWSS IASFU OA FWSS GOO JUA GOO JIPEST
	and again
	IASFU OA FWSS IASFU OA FWSS GOO JUA GOO JIPEST
	the depth of the shadow


	Night was approaching, and Hotaru had decided to find 
somewhere to sleep.  At first, she wondered whether it would be a
nice idea to sleep under the stars.  But the weather was too
changeable for that.  So it was back underneath the ledge she had 
sheltered, regardless of whether she liked the idea or not.

	The assassin was still around.  Somewhere.  Hadn't moved all.
Day, but it was hard to tell, what with the assassin blocking her
thoughts.  The assassin did feel a sense of fear, but not for 
herself.  It was for her hostages.

	Strange, thought Hotaru....  That someone with as bloody a
reputation as this nameless assassin should have such a concern for
those she held against their will.

	Of course, against HER, of all people, hostages were nothing.
Even if she killed the hostages, accidentally or otherwise, that
would just be another cross to bear.  There were so many on her back
now she didn't seem to bother how many more were dumped on board.


	She lay within her sleeping bag underneath the ledge and
looked out into the darkness.  As a child, she used to be afraid of
the dark.  The bogeymen that would roam that ebon mist, just out of
her view, always threatening to jump in and grab her.  Take her away
forever and she would never be seen again, she would die and 
everyone would be sad.

	She never realised there were REAL bogeymen out there.  And
that she would be one of those bogeymen herself.  She could not have
even begun to imagine the possibility, that she would become one of
those monsters, waiting in the darkness the grab some innocent child
who would lie awake at night, frightened of that very possibility.
A child that would always look under its bed to make sure there was
no nasty monster sitting underneath, waiting to crawl out when they
were fast asleep.  A child that would check the wardrobe for the 
same reason.  Close the curtain, in case any nasty monsters would
see them sleeping in passing, and try to get them through the 
window.  Lock the bedroom door, in case anything tried to break in.
In fact, more than simply lock that door...  Barricade it so if
anything did try to get in, it would make lots of noise and she
would wake up in time to see it....

	So many fears and phobias as a child, thought Hotaru as her
eyelids became heavy.  It was hard to stay awake in the darkness
for very long.  The lack of stimuli would force the brain to shut
things down until a time there was something to see.

	It had been that way, for so long, during her many lifetimes.
Once she had become the Senshi of Saturn in the Moon Kingdom, she
was placed into stasis, to sleep for hundreds of years until the
time had come for her to be used.  Which would only be once.  The
spoilsport senshi.

	She grumbled slightly.  It seemed a purposeless existence.
To just sit there and sleep until the time came when you wiped
everyone out, including yourself.  That was to be her duty in this
life, as well.  It never came to pass.  A cataclysm had occured
without the necessity of her needing to use her powers.  So she 
thought.  It made her feel monumentally impotent.


	She turned, hoping that looking into the rockface of the ledge
would help her sleep.  The soft, hollow echoes of nightbirds, 
hunting their prey in the darkness made her singularly nervous and
comforted.  There was, at least, life here.  She welcomed its 
undemanding presence.  Life in this form needed no input from her.
It lived as it wanted to live and ignored her.  She liked that.

	Yet those cries, like the sounds of spirits.  Spirits that
haunted wherever she went.  The spirits of those she had killed.
If there was any one person in the history of the human race who had
the blood of more people on her hands in a literal rather than 
figurative sense, she would have liked to meet them.

	She rested both her hands against her face and began to curl
up, tighter now within the sleeping bag.  She was the senshi of 
death.  Of course she would have to face death more than any other
person....  Even with the long life she would have to endure, she
would face an inordinate amount of it.

	She'd have to face her father's death.

	But then, she had chosen not to see him grow old, and die.

	Couldn't watch that.  Couldn't deal with that.

	Hey eyes became sore and she knew she was crying.  Stupid
tears, yet again.  Only obscure your vision and give you a headache.
Now she was even making little noises in her throat.

	She opened her eyes and stared at the rock, trying to halt the
flood of emotion.  Damn my pathetic nature, she thought to herself.
It was about that point that she realised she could actually see the
rock, which should not have even been vaguely possible.

	She turned slowly.  The source of light, whatever it was, was
awfully close.  Damn close!  She saw through the corner of her eye
an image.  A figure.  A glowing figure.

	It stood no more than seven feet from her, staring at her with
dark eyes.  She couldn't make out any distinctive features, just
those dark pits that watched her.

	It was a woman's figure, about the same size as her.  She had
long hair, but that was all she could tell.  The woman glowed an
intense white, perhaps tinged with blue.

	Suffice to say, Hotaru almost wet herself.

	"Hello, Hotaru."  The woman said to her.

	"Who the f..."  Hotaru struggled for words.

	"Who and what am I?  Well, I suppose you could ask that 
question.  So sorry for creeping up on you like this."

	The woman slowly descended to the ledge and sat down on a 
rock.  The glow slowly started to fade, and eventually she became
nothing more than a dim silhouette in the darkness.  Hotaru rapidly
reached for her backpack and dragged it to her.  Reaching in, she
grabbed her torch and switched it on, shining it in the woman's 
face.

	The woman squinted, putting a hand over her eyes, but Hotaru 
could see the dark hair...  Black hair...  Pale skin.

	"Oi, you, not in my face."
	"Who are you?"
	"I'm you, you fool."
	"Oh, yeah, right."  If Hotaru had trouble with words before, 
it was nothing compared to the state of catatonia she felt right 
now.
	"No, really.  I mean it."  The woman lowered her hand, and 
Hotaru could see her face.  Or, at the very least, was staring into
her own face.

	First talking flowers, and now this, thought Hotaru.  I've got
to find out what they put in those cigarettes.  She dropped the 
torch, and her likeness giggled.

	"I haven't changed much.  At least, not intrinsically."

	Hotaru picked it up and set it up so it could work as a lamp.  
She studied her likeness with fascination, as did she.

	"I guess I owe you something of an explanation."  The likeness
smiled.  Hotaru nodded.
	"You bet you do."
	"Ah, well, where should I start...  Umm..."  She looked like
she was thinking.  "Umm...  Officially you can call me by the name
we used during my time.  I'm Erebus Todhunter."  She smiled again.
"Nice name, isn't it?  Conjures up all kinds of visions."

	"Umm...  Yeah..."  Whoa....  They named them well in those 
days.  Hotaru was tempted to perform a Death Reborn Revolution on
that cigarette packet now.

	"And your name...  Tomoe Hotaru...  That's something like 'he
firefly of the Earth', isn't it?"
	"Uh...  That might be one interpretation.  I've never really
thought about it that much."  Woah, yeah.  Hotaru nodded cynically.

	"Yes, well...  I must say, our destinies and lives have been
remarkably different.  All those things you had to put up with."  
She shook her head and clicked her tongue, which seemed to Hotaru to
be the most unsympathetic sound she'd ever heard.

	"Well, excuse me.  I'm sorry what I've become isn't up to 
your.... my standards."  Hotaru scratched her head.  "Kami, I've
only just stopped talking to myself only to start again."  She 
turned away and lay down, pulling her sleeping bag high over her
head.  "I must be dreaming.  Soon, I'll wake up and you won't be
there."

	She knew this wasn't going to be the case when she sensed the
woman's close presence, leaning over her, her warm breath on 
Hotaru's neck.

	"I'm afraid I'm not a dream, little one.  I am destiny made
flesh, and you can't escape your responsibilities that easily."

	Hotaru looked back up at her.  "What responsibilities?"
	"To Neo Queen Serenity, and your destiny as the future leader
of the Sailorsenshi."

	"Future leader...?"  Hotaru spluttered.  "Neo Queen...  Oh, 
give me a break!  That's all over, in this lifetime, anyway.  There
ain't gonna be another Queen Serenity for at least a hundred years.
Maybe even a thousand.  Or, perhaps, ten-thousand..."

	"How do you know this?  Who did you ask?  Did anyone tell you
this to be the truth?"  Erebus smiled.  "I'm telling you, as your
past life.....  Get a life!"

	Hotaru snorted.  "I have one.  I have one now.  I need no more 
than that."
	"You don't honestly believe that?"
	"I've given up everything that I was.  That is the end of the
story.  I'm not going to play the destiny game, anymore."

	"That's funny.  I thought, by trying to live up to your 
reputation, as Black Saturn, you were giving in to one form of 
destiny."

	"Shit.  I am not going to play mind games with anyone, okay?
Even if it is myself.  I've had enough of that.  So just sod off!"

	Erebus sat back, genuinely surprised.  "My...  We have been
drinking in the bitters lately, haven't we?"

	"You betcha.  Now go away.  I want to get some sleep.  I have
a killer to catch."
	"You could have done that today.  But you didn't.  You sat 
back and let yourself stew."  She shook her head.  "You can't live
alone, Hotaru.  Neither of us are allowed that pleasure, because our
states of mind go into tailspins when we do."  Erebus looked 
distant.  "I was alone....  For close to a seven hundred years, 
sealed away in a crystal for a rainy day."  She chuckled.

	"Because we are the most dangerous of the senshi."  Hotaru
said simply.  "We represent the opposite end of the spectrum to that
which the Queen represents."
	"We are death."  Erebus chuckled.  "I used to hate my parents,
for giving me the name, Erebus.  Even then, before it became known
as a variant of evil, for darkness, it had a sinister ring to it."

	"Lucky you."  Hotaru said, snidely.  "What has this got to do
with your visiting me now?"
	"Hmm...  Maybe trying to impose upon you the dangers of 
allowing yourself to roam free, devoid of responsibility.  If you
thought that what you've done, thus far, has been worthy of a
genocidal maniac, that's nothing to what you might become if you
continue along your current path."

	"Easy for you to say.  I can't go back now."
	"You must."
	"I won't!  I'm not going to admit I'm wrong.  I'm not going to
say sorry to him.  Or to Usako, and all the others I've hurt.  I'm
not!"
	"Just because you don't wish to damage your pathetic pride."
	"What pride?  I have no pride.  I have nothing left."  Hotaru
sat up and banged her fists against the rock.  "I will not say sorry
to him...  For leaving him that note.  I will NOT!  I won't even see
him if he comes looking for ME!  I don't want to be around them
anymore."  Hotaru was starting to break out in tears, sobs 
punctuating her words.  "I'm not gonna...  I'm not!  They can all
fuck themselves, as far as I'm concerned.  And you know what?  Once
I'm finished here, I'm gonna top myself.  Don't think I won't do 
it."

	She panted heavily, spit flying from her mouth as she 
continued to get worked up.  Erebus remained silent and impassive
throughout this.

	"Have you finished your little tantrum, yet?"

	Hotaru laughed helplessly.  "You just don't get it, do you?"

	"Remember, Hotaru...  I am you.  I know what you're thinking
and how you think.  If you believe that threatening me with your
suicide is going to impress me, then you are sorely mistaken."  She
shook her head.  "And you will also come to regret it when the time
comes for your next birth."

	"I don't believe you.  I don't WANT to be born again.  I 
refuse to be born again.  I'm not gonna..."
	"You don't have any choice, Hotaru."
	"Bullshit.  I want to die.  I want to die so badly.  I hate
this.  I hate it so much."
	"Stop it."
	"I hate my existence and everyone around me.  I want to kill
myself and everyone with me."
	"STOP IT!"
	"Yeah, kill everything.  Wipe out everything and everyone.  I
have the power to do it, too.  I'll kill everyone and then turn 
those powers on myself..."

	Erebus slapped her.  Hotaru put a hand to her face and stared
at her counterpart.

	"Did you hear what you were saying, Hotaru?"  Erebus paused 
for effect.  "Kill everyone and then turn your powers on yourself?
Are you planning some great, genocidal murder-suicide?  Are you 
going to kill all the children and infants?  The innocent.  Those
who WANT to live, and have no quarrel with you?"

	Hotaru said nothing.

	"Now you see what I mean?  Allow yourself to continue along
this path, and it will mean nothing but a descent into further 
madness."

	"I am mad."
	"Stop thinking that way.  All things considered, you've dealt
with your experiences far better than anyone else in your position
would have."
	"I am MAD!  INSANE!  What else can I be?"
	"Pitiful?  Sad?  Mistaken?  Deluded?  These things do come to
mind."  Erebus shook her head.  "It doesn't matter what you do and
say.  You cannot impress me.  Try and think of it this way...  
You're trying to impress yourself.  You're trying to convince 
yourself that the words you say are the truth, a definitive 
statement of belief."

	Hotaru looked down, and Erebus nodded.  "You see, you don't
believe your words, either.  You're using them as a defence against
what I'm trying to tell you.  You don't want to talk about these
things because you don't want to be told you're wrong."
	"I am wrong."
	"Stop it...  You're trying to rationalise what it is you've
done.  And it isn't something that can be rationalised because it
isn't rational.  Are you a complete fool, girl, giving up on your
father like that?  And what about Usako?"
	"What about Usako?"
	"You spent YEARS looking for her, after experiencing 
everything she has gone through in her time.  Usako the Healer.
Even though Usagis are hated in this world, she is one who has 
fought that perception with kindness and creativity.  Why are you
turning your back on her?  Why can't you work with her to create a
life that is better than what you have now?  Look after yourself
and there is no need for you to die, you have all the time in 
existence to do so."

	"Have you ever thought that I do not WANT to?"
	"Oh, you want to, alright.  Ultimately, all your behaviours
over the last few years have been nothing more than little messages
to those around you...  To improve things."
	"I don't want to hear that."  Hotaru put her hands over her
ears.  "I am not going to listen to this.  I am not going to change.
I am not going to listen..."

	Erebus rolled her eyes and sat back.

	"Fine!  Be like that, then.  Don't listen to this little voice
in your head.  You really are nothing more than a child in the head,
aren't you?"
	Hotaru pulled her hands away and stared at Erebus.  "What did
you say?"
	"You're a child in your head.  You're so pathetically 
infantile.  You lash out at people at the slightest remark because
you think everything they do and say is done to hurt you.  Talk 
about monumentally stupid."

	"Stupid is talking to yourself.  No, wait...  Talking to 
yourself isn't stupid, its a sign of madness.  How the hell did you
become...  Solid?  Real?  How did you become separate from me?"

	"Simplicity in itself.  Each lifetime is a separate entity,
even if we do live concurrently.  We are, however, nothing more than
the sum of our thoughts, feelings and experiences in the life which
we live...."
	"Yes, but its more than that, isn't it?"

	Erebus raised an eyebrow.  "What is?"
	"Its the whole past life thing.  I've suffered in this life
because of what I had been in my past one.  Your life.  Your time.
And, you know, thinking about it, I begin to wonder whether half of
what I feel now is nothing more than my trying to work through 
things that have built up over all of my past lives."

	Erebus shrugged.  "That might be so.  I guess it is a 
possibility that my time, sealed away in the crystal, has bred a 
desire to experience both life and death in their full glories.
I didn't want to be sealed away...  But it was my duty.  I succeeded
in becoming the senshi of Saturn...  Not what I wanted to be.  I 
actually applied to be one of the minor senshi...  The general army
of magic users.  But, well, I guess they found something within me 
that just seemed to fit the role."
	"Yeah, suicidal mania."

	Erebus snorted.  "I didn't go ballistic at the end of the
Kingdom because I thought it was going to make things better.  I
would have preferred to have done nothing to hurt anyone."

	"Oh bullshit.  You were eager to let rip."

	Erebus now rolled her eyes and lay back.  "Jeez, what does it
take to convince you that you are a rampant idiot?"

	"How about being nice about it?"

	"I AM being nice about it.  As nice as I'm going to be.  To
myself.  I mean, why am I even bothering to talk to you?  Do you
think I want to be here?"

	"Yeah, what brought you here, anyway?"  I mean, how the hell
did you become...  Become.  You seem really good at avoiding 
answering me."
	"Umm, that's kinda hard to explain."

	"Is it Usako?  Is she responsible for dragging you out?"

	"Well, in a way, yes.  Or, at least, one aspect of her is."

	"What?  Which aspect is that?"

	"You know.  You've seen inside her mind."

	Hotaru looked away.  "I'd rather not, if its fine by you.  So,
Usako sent you, did she?  To work on me and make me feel like going
back."
	"I doubt if she's even vaguely concious of me."

	"HA!  Yeah, right.  Like I can experience all she experiences,
she can do the same with me."
	"And therefore, knows what you went through.  What you felt.
And yet she feels none of the pain you do.  I wonder why?"
	"Because those things didn't happen to her."

	"Whatever.  I guess you're just going to have to make your own
mind up on this matter.  Because, I'm afraid, Usako shall not wait
for you to become a monster."

	Hotaru paused, and looked at Erebus.  A long silence followed.  
"What do you mean by that?"  She asked, eventually.

	Erebus sat up again.  "What do you think it means?"  She 
stood.  "My time with you is up.  I'll be watching, though.  From
behind your eyes."  Erebus slowly turned and stepped away as Hotaru
watched her begin to glow once more.  Erebus stopped and turned 
aside.  "Oh, and a word of warning.  I'm afraid destiny has a way of
forcing itself into one's life."
	"W.. What do you mean by that?"

	Erebus smiled.  And vanished.


	Morning came with the same distinct air of cheerfulness that
always irked Hotaru.  Now, if only she could remember how the hell
things ended up the way they did.

	She was lying on the floor of the valley, her backpack and 
glaive lying nearby.  Slowly, she sat up and looked over at the 
ledge where she THOUGHT she had planted herself for the night.

	For a few moments, she rubbed her forehead, wondering if she
was losing touch with even her own limited sense of reality.  Did
she just have an argument with herself, in her sleep, over the
direction her life was taking?

	She shook these thoughts out of her head and crawled out of
her sleeping bag, jumping around because of the cold for a few 
moments.  She really should have brought more in the way of warm
clothes, but a senshi uniform was a senshi uniform, no matter what
it looked like.  And she'd rather be ready if she came face to face
with the assassin than have to go through the rigmarole of having
to transform first.

	 She managed to collect enough wood to make a fire, and lit
the bundle with her cigarette lighter.  Thankfully, the sky was
clear and there was no wind.  Whatever had happened to the weather
of yesterday, it wasn't obviously going to make a dramatic 
reappearance.

	She sat next to the fire, warming herself, then waited for it
to settle before she placed a billy-can from her backpack on top,
filling it with water from her water canister.

	She registered the approach of two figures.  Not so much a
physical approach...  More the signals from the minds....  Young
minds.  VERY young minds.  Children.

	Hotaru stood and looked around.  the sun was up now and she
could easily see approximately 100 feet in every direction.  Whilst
the regrowth in this part of the world was thick, mostly due to the
shelter of the valley during the cataclysm, it wasn't so great that
the landscape was totally obscured.

	Their minds weren't afraid at all.  In fact, she could feel
their happiness.  A kind of innocent, unknowing happiness.  She
wondered who they could be until she remembered that the assassin's
hostages were a couple of young girls.

	Two girls taken from a Shinto temple in the neighbouring
district.  Nobody knew why.  The assassin had just appeared one day
and snatched them.  They had put up a hell of a fight to get the 
girls back.  Something about them being the reincarnation of some
spirit beings....  Still, from what she had heard about the 
activities within that temple, she wasn't surprised the assassin
had targeted them.

	Still, it fascinated her that they were regarded as a form of
spirit being.  A reincarnation of such, no less.  She thought about
that for a while.  The temple had placed a reward for their return.
There must be something to their superstition...


	Reincarnation.  By Kami, she was getting pretty sick and tired
of the whole concept, now.  She sighed.  What to do, what to do?

	She bit her lower lip...  The children...  So strange that
they should....  They were running free, away from the assassin.  
They were playing, like children would.  She just couldn't get her
mind around it.  What the hell was going on here?  She sighed and
wondered if they could see the smoke from her fire, rising into the
sky.  Well, they probably would.  So would the assassin, but that
didn't concern her.  The criminal was still within the valley, but
not approaching her.

	She began to wonder why she would have let the children run
off and play.  That combined with the total lack of fear on the part
of the children worried her.

	She sat down and watched the water boil in the billy-can.  She
reached into the backpack and pulled out a small packet of sachets.
She emptied the contents of one into the billy and pulled out a 
knife from her jacket to stir it with.

	She could feel them now, so very close.  They could see the 
fire.  They were curious.  She smiled inwardly.  Feel...  Feel their
childlike innocence...  Their...

	Hotaru found she got a headache VERY quickly.  The minds of
the girls... their DEEP thoughts, were closed from her.  It would
seem that it would be only the shallow, moment to moment thoughts
that they would give up to her.

	She stirred the contents of the billy quietly, and saw 
something move out of the corner of her left eye.  She smiled and 
continued.  Come on, kiddies...  I'm an interesting diversion.  You
want to know what I'm doing here.  Come on....

	The bushes rustled.  Footsteps, small and quiet.  They were
curious.  They wanted to know who she was.  Yes.  But one was 
cautious.  She might be the "dangerous woman" their rescuer...

	Rescuer?

	Their rescuer told them about.  Her younger counterpart....
Yes, her sister, she wanted to go on.  But the older one wasn't 
going to let her.  They should go back and tell their rescuer of
what they had seen.

	Hotaru spun and stared in their direction.  At that moment,
they took flight.  She was only just able to catch a glimpse of
their retreating backs, a flash of long, darkish hair and ceremonial
robes, before they were gone.  Hotaru cursed.  Oh well.  She knew
where the assassin was.  No point in hurrying things.

	She was sure that the colour of the girl's hair glinted some
unusual shades in the sunlight.  Green and blue....  She shook her
head.  The concept of such hair types in the human gene pool boggled
her mind.  Of course, she'd seen worse...  Just take Chibiusa, for
example....

	Chibiusa.  Hotaru's mood ramped down several levels.  Would
she even exist, now?  Now that everyone was dead?  She remembered
that day they first met...  Back when...

	Hotaru clenched her fists.  How could they have met?  
Chibiusa's mother and father were dead.  At least, that was what she
believed to be the case.  She hadn't seen Mamoru die.  But he, like
many of the others, had not been seen since the days following the
cataclysm.

	Hotaru was satisfied that the mess in the billy was now 
edible.  Slowly, she lifted the can from the coals and placed a 
small towel on her lap, where she set it down and began to spoon
out the contents with the knife.  Good thing the knife doubled as
an eating implement.  She hated having to carry cutlery wherever
she went.

	But then, she hated porridge.  Especially if it was without
sugar or salt or something like that.  It tasted like gelatinous
cardboard.  Why she would eat it, she had no idea.  Probably 
because, in situations like this, it was so easy to make.

	Damn, her mind would wander.

	Eventually, she'd finished stuffing herself and, after washing
out the billy with a little of the water from the canister, replaced
everything in their rightful places, put out the fire, slung the
backpack over her shoulder and picked up her glaive.

	She stared at the implement.  The massive and intimidating
polearm that some people had unkindly christened the "Giant Can-
Opener".  She first heard that one about four years ago on Radio
Free Kyoto.  She had to admit, she actually found it a little 
amusing.  But then, they were paying her out, so she used the weapon
to chop down their transmitter aerials.  She chuckled to herself.
There were times when she could maintain her sense of humour.

	But the Glaive meant more than that.  It was a symbol.  Her
symbol.  A symbol of the position of Saturn.  She might have been
trying to turn her back on the past, but as long as she had this,
she wasn't going to change.  She wasn't going to stop being a
senshi.  She held it aloft and watched as the air condensed and
washed around it.  Big deal.  It was just a double-point blade
on a stick.  And it wasn't even the original.  Well, not technically
the original.  Galaxia had seen to that.  Smashing the Glaive and,
symbolically, smashing her.  Before she succeeded in reality.

	Just one swipe, she thought.  I'd love to take just ONE swipe
at that bitch.  And I'd like to collect...  Just a little.  She
lowered the Glaive and went on her way, in the direction the two
girls disappeared.


	After wandering through the scrub for some twenty minutes, she
found herself beside a river.  The river that ran through the middle
of the valley.  The river that created the valley in the first 
place.  And it was dry.

	In years gone by, the river would have been full with the 
cool waters of melted snow.  But the mountains that had collected 
the snow had been seriously rearranged by the cataclysm.  Now, with
both the geography and meteorology of the area changed irrevocably,
a new order had set in.  Little of the plant life that existed in 
the valley was originally native to the area, but was all that was 
capable of surviving without the plentiful supply of fresh water the
river once provided

	Hotaru was careful of the river, though.  She'd known 
riverbeds like this one, before.  They looked dry, but underneath 
the veneer was mud.  The kind of mud that liked to suck you right
down and hold you there.  She followed its length for ten minutes
before it came time for a raincheck.

	She emerged from the bushes, feeling relieved, musing on how
her senshi powers were capable of dealing with everything except the
basic functions of a human body.  So much for being that bit higher
on the food chain than the ordinary human.

	But it was fortunate, really, that she had chosen that 
opportune moment to deal with her discomfort.  Because, just further
down the river was a distant figure, and she knew, from the mind 
probings she had sent, she hadn't seen her.

	Hotaru ducked back into the brush, watching the figure.  Her
attire seemed somewhat strange.  Traditional would have been the 
word for them.  Like the kind of Japanese clothing used in the mid
19th century.  She studied the figure hard, but couldn't make out
any other distinctive feature.

	There was another thing.  This wasn't the assassin, either.
A mind she had missed completely with her probings.  She shook her
head.  She was slipping up in her old age.  She had only counted on
there being the three within the valley....  The assassin and her
two "hostages".  Well, it was a bit hard to call them that now.  She
hadn't bargained on the assassin having anyone else with him.  
Another hostage, perhaps, or a partner?

	She watched the figure, and came to the conclusion, from the
colouring and design of the kimono that it was a woman.  Most likely 
another Usagi, since they very rarely travelled alone.  Although 
this one had black hair.  Many Usagis had taken to colouring their 
hair to stop making themselves so identifiable.  Some had different 
coloured hair for no reason other than that was what their genes 
mitigated.  With Usagis it had always been luck of the draw.

	The woman had leaned down to the riverside, and Hotaru could
see the glimmer of water, the dry river running into a still-full 
lake.  She licked her lips and pulled her water canister from her 
backpack.  Almost empty.  She noramlly never carried water...  She 
often had too much else to drink to bother.  This time, she'd 
undercooked on certain aspects of her preparations.  That meant 
she'd have to fill up the canister somewhere.  She waited and 
watched as the woman filled up two buckets connected to a pole with 
water, and carried them away.

	She disappeared behind the line of the bush, and Hotaru took
her opportunity.  She quickly made her way along the line of the
brush and reached the far end of the waterline.  The water there
looked somewhat poxy, so she continued on to where the water became 
clear.

	Leaving her backpack on the bank, and taking a good look 
around, checking mental signals for whereabouts, she brought the
canister to the waterline and began to fill it up.

	Water pushed air aside, bubbles rising to the surface as she
checked around her repeatedly.  Eventually, the water reached the
top and she pulled it out, replacing the cap.  She turned to walk
back up the bank to her backpack, when she heard splashing sounds
from no more than three metres into the water.

	She turned and watched as something rose.  Something wet, 
slimy and definitely not your average form of wildlife.  Hotaru
reached out her hand for the Glaive, and it flew to her, its handle
slipping into her hand perfectly.  She levelled the blade at the
thing that had now stopped rising.  It had two eyes, a mouth, not
much of a nose and ears, and it was green.  Well, greenish, anyway.
And it looked vaguely humanoid.

	A Kappa.  Hotaru facefaulted.  These things were supposed to
be nothing more than a myth.  At least, that was what Hotaru had
always believed.  Stupid girl, in a world where people like her 
existed, these things were probably a dime a dozen.

	The Kappa started to make smacking sounds with its lips, and
moved forward, watching Hotaru curiously.  She backed away, slightly
nervous.  The Kappa stopped and looked at the Glaive, then cocked 
its head to one side.

	"What are you going to do to Kappa-chan?"  Hotaru must have 
jumped five feet into the air when she spin around, because she 
ended up falling onto her rear, dropping the Glaive and her 
canister and banging her head on the ground.

	The next thing she knew, she was lying on the bank with a
young woman in a kimono waving air in her face.  Her head was rested
against her backpack.  Behind the woman, the Kappa was watching 
curiously.

	"Thank Kami....  Are you alright?"
	"I.. uh.. I think so."
	"You fell to the ground when I surprised you.  I thought you
were going to roll into the water, but Kappa-chan stopped you."  The
woman smiled.  "Gomen...  I didn't mean to."
	"That okay.  I was just kinda surprised.  When the... uh... 
the Kappa... rose from the water."
	"Yes, he does tend to surprise people like that.  Not that we
get many people visiting the valley."
	"No, I can see that.  Who are you?"  Hotaru rubbed her eyes 
and looked clearly.  The woman...  It was definitely an Usagi with 
black hair, not even any blond roots on this one.  She wore a pretty
kimono, coloured yellow with black patterning, and had her hair tied
up in a red ribbon.

	"Who am I?  Perhaps I should ask you the same question.  And 
what the hell is this?"  The woman lifted up the Glaive from beside
her.  Hotaru sweatdropped.
	"That's... uh...  a Silence Glaive.  I cleave galaxies with it
for a cheap price.  Discounts for pensioners."

	The woman stared at her, then fell back, laughing.  Hotaru sat
up and took back the Glaive she had involuntarily dropped.  "What's
so funny?"
	The woman sat up again, shaking her head.  "So, you're Black
Saturn, are you?  I thought you looked like how my friend 
described."
	"Your friend?  And who might that be?"

	"Why don't you ask her.  She's standing behind you."  Hotaru
spun and saw a couple of feet.  She tried to stand, but ended up
toppling backwards, only just caught in time by the woman and the
Kappa.  Hotaru blinked several times and stared at the new arrival.

	Another Usagi.  With long red hair, tied back in a tail, and
a cross scar on her left cheek, dressed in a basic red and white
kimono, with sword, sheathed, at her side.

	"USASHIN!?!"

	"Hello Saturn.  We meet again."  Usashin smiled, sweetly.


	It was a fairly long walk back to the hut that Usashin used
as her hideaway, and the scrub was reasonably thick, although not 
impassable.  Usashin's friend had to struggle with the water 
carrier, though.  Hotaru offered to help, but the woman declined.

	Usashin introduced her friend as Kamiya Kaorusagi.  And from
the manner she described the way they'd met, shortly after the 
cataclysm, there was a great deal more than friendship involved in
their partnering.  Hotaru looked back at Kaorusagi, who smiled at
her, sweetly.  Hotaru sweatdropped nervously, and moved on to the
subject of the two girls....

	"...Yes, the two children did mention seeing you.  I thought
you might try and follow them.  One of the reasons I let them play
today."
	"But...  What if I'd done something to them?"
	"You wouldn't have.  You're not that kind of person."

	Hotaru sighed.  "So why didn't you just get in touch with me,
yourself?"
	"Because someone has hired you to catch or kill me.  I thought
it might be better to see what you would do, first."  She smiled.  
"You might not know it, but I've been watching you since you entered
the valley."

	"EH?"  Hotaru stared at Usashin.  Kaorusagi chuckled.
	"We've both been taking turns in watching you."  She shook her
head.  "You have some very odd behaviours when you're on your own, 
you know that?"  Kaorusagi pointed at an approaching clearing, where
the hut could be seen, nestling within some very thick trees.

	Hotaru stepped into the clearing with the two Usagis.  
Stopping to look at the vegetation.  "More survivors of the 
cataclysm."  She put a hand on one of the trees.

	"Yes, we tend to forget that human beings weren't the only 
things to suffer during that event."  Usashin smiled.  "I suppose 
you'd like an explanation for why I took the girls, now?"

	"That...  Would be helpful."

	Usashin turned to Kaorusagi.  "Can you see how the girls are,
whilst I talk to Saturn?"

	Kaorusagi smiled and nodded, padding across to the door of the
hut.  She placed the water next to the door and went inside.

	Usashin found herself a log to sit on, and gestured Hotaru to
do the same.  Hotaru sat on the opposite end of the log, resting the
Glaive before her.

	"Such a sinister looking weapon."  Usashin pondered.  "Have 
you had much call to use it on anyone, lately?"
	"I'd rather not say."  Hotaru looked down.  Usashin shrugged.

	"So, about these girls..."  Hotaru leaned forward and Usashin
nodded.
	"I first heard about these two girls about a month ago.  There
were stories getting about that the priets at that shrine had found
the reincarnation of two of their former high priestesses, who were
supposed to have saved the shrine from destruction during the 
cataclysm.  I, naturally, was interested."
	"There have been many strange stories about that shrine, going
back to the days long before the cataclysm...  That they were the 
branch of some secular cult...."
	"And indeed, they were.  In a sense.  You see, the entire 
shrine is a front....  For a brothel.  A child brothel.  They have
been kidnapping children from almost every corner of the Japanese
Isles for this purpose."

	Hotaru turned up her nose.  "And those scum have the ear of 
the local Governor."
	"I wouldn't be surprised if the local Governor was a member of
the group.  Well, anyway...  With the help of some friends of mine,
we raided the place one night and rescued the children from their
tormentors.  And believe me, they weren't going to let those kids 
out of their hands easily.  We had to kill two dozen of them before
they would back off."
	"The... ummm... priests?"
	"Well, who else would we?  They and their hired guards."

	"So, what happened to the kids, and why are they so determined
to get this particular pair back?"

	Usashin took in a breath.  "The other kids we managed to 
smuggle east, towards the Shin Tokyo district.  But this pair...  
Well, I couldn't leave this pair unguarded.  Those sick bastards
were right about one thing...  They are special.  That was why I
kept them here, with me.  It was an opportunity that couldn't be
wasted.  After all that had happened before, with the downfall of
the opportunity to bring Crystal Tokyo into being...  I didn't
want to let it pass...."

	Usashin looked at Hotaru earnestly.  So earnestly that Hotaru
felt a strange shiver run down her back.  What was it her former 
self had said to her?  Destiny has a way of forcing itself into your
life....

	"What do you mean?  What opportunity is this?"

	The door to the hut swung open, and Kaorusagi stepped out with
the two girls.  Hotaru watched the silent and nervous children as
they were guided across the space between them.  She felt a certain
dizziness as they stopped and looked at her.

	"Come on..."  Said Kaorusagi.  "Introduce yourselves to Saturn
oneechan."

	The older one, with dark blue hair, stepped forward.  "My name
is Umi-chan, pleased to meet you, Saturn-oneechan."

	"Uh.. Pleased to meet you."  She turned to the younger one, 
who looked at her more nervously.  All Hotaru could pay attention to
was the girl's... dark green hair.  "And, uh... who might you be?"

	"Setsuna..."  the girl said, putting a finger to her mouth.
Hotaru nodded, feeling a tight sensation in her chest.
	"Setsuna...  Well, its nice to meet you both."

	"Are you the bad lady Usa-oneechan said was coming to hurt 
us?"  Umi asked.  Hotaru shot Usashin a dirty look, to see the Usagi 
had turned away, studying the trees.

	"No.  I'm not going to hurt you.  I'll protect you, like Usa-
oneechan here."  She reached forward.  "Shall we be friends?"

	The girls looked at her outstretched hand, and guilessly took
hold of it.  "Friends."  They both said, smiling.  Hotaru smiled 
back.  For some reason, Hotaru could feel tears running from her 
eyes.

	"Oneechan..  You're crying."  Umi said.  "Are you hurt?"
	"No, Umi-chan...  I've never felt better."  She smiled again,
then took the both of them in her arms, and sobbed out loud.

	"Its okay, Saturn-oneechan.  We'll protect you."  Setsuna
smiled at her.  "We have big powers.  One day, we'll be great 
warriors."

	Hotaru lifted up her head, looking at them, and said, softly.
"I'm sure you will.  I know you will...."


	Hotaru sat back and watched the two girls play, chasing each
other around the clearing as Kaorusagi did some washing, and Usashin
started up a fire to make a meal.  A strange sense of calm had 
settled over her....  One that she didn't entirely understand.

	It wasn't something she was going to argue about, though.  She
hadn't felt this good without the usage of chemical stimulation for
some time.  She chuckled to herself.  Usashin had told her it would
be good if she sat back for a while and enjoyed the peace and quiet,
after the little revelation of the last couple of hours.

	So....  Setsuna and her strange sister were back, eh?  She
tried to ignore the complicity of Naiad's role in promoting the
cataclysm...  This life was going to be a very different one, and
she was aware of what could happen if the girl was allowed to run
off the rails like that again.

	But Umi?  What kind of name was that?  She knew the name meant
"sea" or "ocean", which suited Naiad's mysterious water powers well.
If things ran like clockwork with her development, there was a 
possibility she may replace either Michiru or Ami as the senshi of
Neptune or Mercury.  But she doubted it.  If Umi remained as odd and
eccentric as she had been in her previous lives, she was going to
retain the role of a miko.  As Setsuna was, most likely, going to 
retain her place as Pluto.

	She closed her eyes, and saw visions of her friends.  No...
going back long before that.  The original senshi, under the reign
of Queen...  Which Queen was it now?  Dammit...  Just too many lives
lived to remember.

	Queen Procellaria, that was her!  The only 13th candidate for
the position of Queen to be successful.  Oh yeah, now that WAS a 
pack of poor performers during those days.  And she was as nutty as
a fruitcake...  What did one expect when you were forced to go as
far down the line as 13?  She wondered who Queen Procellaria had 
been reborn as.  Was she an equally dopey 13th candidate, living
somewhere within Tokyo before its destruction?  Was she still alive,
today?  And why was she getting visions of Usagi's old teacher, 
Haruna-sensei, when she thought about it?


	She had been a senshi then.  Not Saturn, that time, but 
Jupiter.  Hard to believe the kind of leap she had made from one to
the next.  Things would have been so much better had she retained
the Jupiter energies....  But for some reason, it hadn't seemed
right.  Her next few lives had been a succession of uncomfortable
minor senshi postings, none of which suited her capabilities.

	And here she was, looking through entire lives as if they were
nothing more than a succession of career changes.  She shook her
head, wishing she had no memory of these past lives.  It kind of
cheapened her existence.  There had to be some point to all of this.
Life needed to be a challenge, not just a fait accompli.

	It had certainly been a challenge for the last couple of 
years.  Not a challenge she would be willing to repeat.  But now,
Setsuna and her sister were back.  And as the traditional firstborns
of the senshi and the miko, that meant the others were to follow, if
they hadn't already been born.

	Somewhere, out in that world, her friends might be alive.  
Reborn, maybe no more than babes in arms.  Hotaru shuddered.  
Saturn.  The senshi who represented old age and wisdom (she snorted 
at the concept).  She shook her head.  For her to play the role of 
mother to an entirely new generation....

	She opened her eyes again, and saw another pair staring back
at them.  She must have pulled a face in shock, because Setsuna
laughed out loud.

	"Saturn-oneechan is so funny when she wakes up.  She makes all
kinds of funny faces."  And to underline the fact, Setsuna started
pulling Hotaru's cheeks, to which she giggled painfully.

	"Ow!  Owie!  I get the point, Setsuna-chan...  Stop, please
owwwie!"  Setsuna giggled back, and let go of Hotaru, who rubbed her
sore cheeks as Setsuna climbed into her lap and lay down on her 
front.

	"Saturn-oneechan...."
	"Call me Hotaru.  Hotaru-oneechan."  Setsuna looked up at her,
smiling.
	"Hotaru-oneechan....  Is it true, what Usa-oneechan says, 
about you being able to destroy the world if evil tries to take 
over?"

	Hotaru didn't know how to answer that.  "Umm, well, only if it
is REALLY necessary.  I would never do it, otherwise."
	"So its true?"
	"Uh, I guess so."
	"Cool."  Setsuna giggled.  "That sounds really mean."
	"Yeah, I guess it does."  Hotaru sweatdropped.  She heard a
huffing sound and turned to her right, where Umi was watching the
pair of them jealously.  Hotaru giggled as Setsuna stuck her tongue
out.

	"I was here first."
	"Aww...  You always take everything for yourself."
	"Biiiiiiiida!"  Setsuna stuck her tongue out again, and Hotaru
couldn't help but laugh as the pair started to prod each other with
their fingers.

	"Lunch is ready."  Usashin smiled at them.  Both Setsuna and 
Umi smiled.
	"Wai!  Lunch!  Lunch!  Usa-oneesan's cooked us lunch!"  The 
pair left an amused Hotaru and bounded over to Usashin, who smiled
as she ladled soup into several bowls.  Kaorusagi watched them 
happily as she hung the last item of clothing on the simple line
that ran between the hut and a tree, wiped her hands and trotted
off to join them.

	Usashin looked over at Hotaru.  "You wish to join us, Saturn?"
	"Her name is Hotaru-oneechan!"  Said Setsuna huffily as she
blew ineffectually on her soup, grabbing a spoon that was sitting on
a nearby rug.  Hotaru chuckled and stood, wandering slowly over.


	The peace of the place seemed to be seeping into Hotaru's 
mind.  There was such an air of domestication to the scene that 
Hotaru had clean forgotten the purpose to which she had been sent
here.  As Setsuna and Umi quickly finished their soup, with a small
bread roll to wipe up the leftovers, they dumped their bowls and
ran out into the forest.  Hotaru latched onto their thoughts,
protectively, as if guarding them with the power of her mind.  She
lay back on the blanket which she had chosen.

	"So, Sa..  Hotaru."  Usashin had sat back against the trunk
of a tree as Kaorusagi collected the empty bowls.  "What do you
intend to do?  With us, I mean."

	Hotaru frowned.  "With you?  I hardly think I'm going to hand
you in or kill you."  She stared into the sky.  "I'm not sure what
I'm going to do."

	"You made no guarantees?  To your employers."
	"I make no guarantees.  Not to anyone."  She smiled.  "There
is no reason any of them should know what happens to you."
	"Ah, but they WILL know, won't they, if I am ever seen again?"

	"Then leave this place, with the girls.  Get as far from here
as possible."
	"No."  Usashin said, simply.  "I am not going to leave this 
place."  Hotaru sat up and looked at her.
	"Why?"
	"Because I like this place.  When both Kaorusagi and myself
discovered this valley, we knew this was the place we had been 
searching for.  There is a power to this place.  An incredible
serenity..."

	Hotaru sighed.  "But if they know you're alive, then they will
know that there is a possibility that the girls are alive, too.  And
they will come to this place in search for them."
	"Not if we change that scenario."
	"You mean I take them?"

	There was a long silence as Kaorusagi washed out the bowls and
spoons, taking them inside the hut.  Usashin watched her for a few 
moments, then turned back to Hotaru.
	"You know what they are.  What they will become.  They have no
place amongst a pair of failed Usagi clones like us."
	"You aren't failiures..."
	"Yes we are.  We failed to be the perfect Usagi, and instead
chose to be individuals.  We're both fighters, warriors...  Not 
candidates to be a Queen for a future kingdom."
	"But what am I going to do with them?  I can't travel the 
world with them.  I don't have anywhere to return to."
	"You do have one place you can return to."

	Hotaru stared at Usashin for some time, then looked down at
the ground.  "I can't.  I can't go back there."

	"Why not?"

	"I just can't, alright.  I've burnt that bridge.  I don't want
to see any of them, not anymore."
	"But you have a link with one of them.  A more important link
than you can imagine..."
	"I don't want that link.  I don't want to see her.  Can't you
understand that?  I don't want to...  I don't..."  she trailed off.

	She thumped the ground with her fist and stood.  "Dammit,
Usashin....  I don't want this kind of responsibility.  I can't
handle it."
	"Perhaps you're more responsible than you give yourself credit
for.  Destiny does not play its hand unwisely."

	"Destiny destiny destiny!  There is that word again.  I'm sick
and bloody tired of hearing about it."  She stomped around as 
Kaorusagi stepped from the doorway and stopped, watching her.  "All
things being equal, this is far better a place for them to be
raised."
	"But is equally dangerous if those who wish to abuse them and
their powers find out where they are."
	"They know YOU are in the valley already.  If they haven't 
sent someone other than me..."  Hotaru stopped for a moment.  "Hey,
wait....  I didn't detect Kaorusagi's mind when I entered this 
valley....  Just a collection of mind signals.  I thought that was
just animal life..."  Hotaru went pale.  Both Usashin and Kaorusagi
stared at each other.

	"But surely, we would have spotted someone if they had 
followed you coming into the valley..."  Kaorusagi looked at Hotaru,
who had now turned to her Glaive.  Usashin stood.

	"That doesn't mean they followed Saturn in, or entered through
the same path."  Usashin turned to Hotaru, who had beckoned her 
Glaive to her.  "Find the children, quickly!  We shall make a search
of the nearby area for signs of activity...."  Usashin put a hand on
her sword, then turned to Kaorusagi, who had grabbed a wooden sword
from within the hut.  Hotaru nodded to them and disappeared into the
forest, in the direction of the girls.


	She followed their mind trail, which was not difficult to do.
The girls had made their way back towards the lake.  She was glad 
that their thoughts remained happy....  That meant nothing had 
happened to them.  Still, it was difficult for her to make her way
through the undergrowth, trying to find some sign of where they 
were.

	And then she heard Setsuna let out a cry.  Their thoughts had
changed VERY suddenly.  Hotaru panicked and began to slice through
anything that got in her way with the Glaive....  Whole trees 
collapsed around her as she homed in on the point where she had
heard Setsuna.  Eventually, she bowled through the scrub and onto
the sand bank of the lake.  There, she could see the two girls,
staring down at a figure that lay still on the waterline.

	Several more figures approached them from behind.  Ninjas.
Kami, she hated them.
	"Umi-chan!  Setsuna-chan!  RUN!"  The girls turned to her 
voice, then noticed the approaching ninjas.  They made to run, but
the figures were upon them almost instantly, bringing them to the
ground.  Hotaru had no time to think...  She charged in, swinging
the Glaive in a vicious circle.

	The two closest ninjas only had enough time to realise what
was approaching them before they had their heads taken clean off.
Their three comrades looked up after grabbing the girls.  The first
was skewered and ripped open.  The remaining two let go of the
girls and backed away, towards the lake.  Both Umi and Setsuna
looked up at Hotaru in fear.  Her eyes had glazed over.

	She went for her quarry, whipping the Glaive around in a 
manner that was incapable of being defended against.  She caught the 
first just below the shoulder, the blade slicing neatly through.  
The second she grabbed with her left hand, pushing him into the 
water.  She brought the blade of the Glaive viciously through his 
chest, turning it a couple of times to be sure.  She then pulled it 
out and stood back, puffing heavily, her eyes running with tears.

	She turned to the girls, who hadn't moved from where they had
been let go.  They stared at her with dumbfounded expressions.
	"Are you two alright?"
	"Hai."  Umi said simply.  Setsuna just nodded.
	"What happened?  Why did you scream.  They hadn't attacked you
yet when you screamed."

	Umi pointed to Hotaru's right.  "They killed Kappa-chan."  
Hotaru looked to her right.  Sure enough, the figure of the Kappa 
lay in the water, dead and still, a ripple of dark red blood running
from its body.  Hotaru closed her eyes and shivered, then turned 
back to the girls, stepping up to them.

	"Stay close to me.  We're in danger."
	"Are they the bad men from the shrine?"
	"I most certainly think so."

	"Hotaru-oneechan..."  Setsuna finally found her voice.
	"Yes?"
	"You were really cool, you know that?"

	Hotaru sweatdropped.  "Uh, yeah."  She slung the Glaive behind
her, where it clipped on to the back of her senshi uniform.  She 
then took the two girls by the hand and quickly lead them back into
the scrub, where they stopped and she kneeled down to them.

	"Now, the pair of you are going to have to stay as close to me
as possible, or else those bad men might try and take you away."
	"Hotaru-oneechan..."  Umi looked at Hotaru, worriedly.
	"What is it, Umi-chan?"
	"Where are Usa-oneechan and Kao-oneechan?"

	"They've gone looking for the bad men."

	Setsuna shook her head.  "No!"  Hotaru and Umi looked at her.
	"What is it, Setsuna-chan?"
	"The bad men know where they are.  The bad men are hunting
them.  They'll be hurt if we don't warn them."

	Hotaru felt sick.  "Are you sure?"  She held Setsuna's 
shoulders, but all the girl was able to do was stare back at her,
mutely.  Hotaru put her arms around the girls and lifted them up.
She quickly started to make her way back through the forest.


	She placed the girls back on the ground when she arrived at
the edge of the clearing.  There was nobody to be seen, but she
could hear noises from the hut, like a soft banging noise.

	"Quietly now."  She whispered to the girls, and they nodded.
Slowly, the three of them crept across the clearing towards the
doorway of the hut.  She unclipped the Glaive from her back and
held it forward, in case anything came racing out of the open
doorway.  Motioning the girls to get behind her, she peered into
the doorway cautiously.

	Somebody was dangling from the rafters of the hut, bleeding
from a wound to the gut.  He was dead, and Hotaru could see it was
one of the ninjas.  Chalk another one up to the prodigious fighting
skills of Usashin.

	She stepped back, after having pushed the door wide open to
make sure nobody was standing behind it.  Slowly, she turned to the
girls.  "Did you see what was in there?"  She hoped they didn't.  
But then, they'd seen so much, already.  Her killing those ninjas,
for a start.  The pair of them just nodded at her, mutely.

	She closed her eyes a moment, trying to find the mind signals
of Usashin and Kaorusagi.

	Nothing.

	She struggled a bit more, and found Usashin.  Her signal was
exceedingly weak....  Oh, please, don't let them be...

	She picked up the girls and ran into the forest, following the
thought trail left by Usashin.  Eventually, they ran past the bodies
of several more ninjas, proving the pair had, at least, come in this
direction.

	Then she saw something lying on the ground.  The yellow kimono
of Kaorusagi.
	"Kao-oneechan!"  Umi stuttered as they approached the still 
form.  Hotaru put the girl's down and knelt beside the body, which
was lying on its front.  She turned her and could see the huge tear
across her chest and gut.  She cringed and looked back at 
Kaorusagi's eyes, which stared back at her.  She was still alive.

	"Kaorusagi...."  She leaned down to the woman, who smiled at
her.  "Usashin...  Where is she?"
	"...Was behind her...  Got taken out by that pair....  Killed
them before they had... the chance..."  She coughed up blood, and
Hotaru lifted up her head.  She closed her eyes and allowed some of
her healing energy to enter Kaorusagi's body.  This, at the very
least, stopped her bleeding.  Kaorusagi looked up at her, strangely.

	"Don't... concern yourself with me, you fool."
	"Dammit.  I'm not going to let them kill you."  Hotaru opened
her eyes and stared down at the woman.  She smiled back up at her.
	"Its okay....  You can heal me later....  But don't let them
hurt Usashin....  I won't forgive you if they do."

	They stared at each other for several moments, something 
passing between them.  Hotaru looked from Umi to Setsuna.  "You two,
take care of Kao-oneechan for me.  And if you see any of the bad 
men, lay low and stay quiet."

	The two girls nodded at her as she stood, picking up her 
Glaive.  She closed her eyes and homed in on Usashin's thought
patterns, then dashed through the forest, leaving the trio behind.


	As she ran through the forest, she could see more and more
bodies, strewn throughout the low-lying scrub, and could hear, in
front of her, the sounds of fighting.  She followed the noise and
happened upon a clearing, where she could see Usashin, her clothes
torn and bloodied, standing her ground against a collection of 
ninjas who were charging her from every angle.  There were a 
monstrous number of bodies lying everywhere.  Hotaru boggled at
such a scene.  It even appeared that Usashin had used her energy
blade attack, and had claimed a large number that way.  But she
was exhausting, and they just kept coming.

	Hotaru readied herself, holding the Glaive to her side.  She
began to twirl it round and let out a cry, charging forward,  Trees
that were in her way collapsed to the ground.  Ninjas that were in
those trees fell with them...  Many either being killed or breaking
arms and legs in the avalanche.

	She piled in to the first set of ninjas she could see, slicing
and dicing her way through with the double-blade.  Almost 
immediately, the ninjas were forced into a defensive, not expecting
to be facing another enemy so soon.  Those who recognised her for 
whom she was ran in terrified flight.

	Usashin was as much surprised by her appearance as the ninjas.
She managed to reach her in no more than a few seconds, the path
which she had cut through closed off as soon as she backed herself
against the samurai Usagi.

	"What... what are you doing here?  Where are the girls?"  
Usashin panted, coarsely.  Hotaru smiled.
	"They should be safe.  They're looking after Kaorusagi."
	"Fool.  You should have taken them and run!"
	"I'm not going to let you two die, just for us."

	Usashin stared at her.  "Very well then."

	The ninjas circled them, slowly.  Every so often, one would
make a suicidal charge, followed by another, from opposite sides.
A tactic that may have worked had they simply been fighting Usashin.
But with Hotaru now covering her back, it didn't have a hope of
succeeding.

	From the trees, several objects flew in their direction.  
Shuriken and helmet splitters, deflected easily with the blade of
the Glaive, its unnatural metallic construction totally unmarked
by them.

	"Who are they?"  Hotaru said through gritted teeth.
	"The hired thugs of the Shrine."  Usashin muttered.  "They
seem to have found themselves some more.  There certainly wasn't
this many when we took them on at the shrine."

	The standoff seemed to be set to go on indefinitely, when they
both heard a voice, from an outcrop of rocks at the northern edge of
the clearing.

	"Enough, Saturn!"  Hotaru turned.  On the rock stood the High
Priest of the temple shrine.  Next to him, the local Governor.  
Hotaru and Usashin stared at them for several moments as the High 
Priest waved his hand.  The ninjas backed away, following the silent
order.  Slowly, the High Priest stepped down from the rock, landing
at the base.  the Governor followed suit, with somewhat less 
successful results, falling flat on his face, quickly getting to his
feet before the High Priest blew too much steam of aggravation from
under his collar.

	"So, you have turned against the rightful rule of law, have
you, Saturn?"  The High Priest strode forward.
	"I make my own decisions, thankyou very much."  Hotaru 
replied, darkly.  "And I don't like your particular form of law."

	The High Priest chuckled.  "Like it or not, we control this
district.  And maybe, soon, many others.  Even with your immense
powers, Saturn, do you really think you will be able to weed us all
out?"

	Hotaru scowled at him as he snapped his fingers.  From within
the ranks of the ninjas, Umi and Setsuna were bundled forward.  
Hotaru felt sick as those who held them stuck the blades of their
daggers up to the frightened girl's throats.

	"We may not be able to beat you fairly, Saturn.  But nobody
said one had to fight fairly."
	"You leave them alone.  Let them go."  Hotaru quivered.

	"Hotaru-oneechan..."  Setsuna whimpered.  Hotaru raised the
Glaive threateningly.
	"This... this will be your one and only warning, scum.  Touch
a hair on the head of those girls, and...  AND I WILL DESTROY THE
WORLD!"  Usashin stared at her, shaking her head.  Even from this
angle, the threat seemed empty.

	The High Priest laughed.  "What?  Destroy everything?  I don't
think so, somehow.  Doing that would cost these girls their lives,
and I don't believe you have it within you to do that."

	"Are you so sure?"  Hotaru held up the Glaive, feeling power
surging within her as she stared, angrily at the High Priest.

	The Governor grabbed the High Priest by the shoulder.  "Hey,
steady on....  You don't know what the hell she will do."
	"Shutup.  I know what I am saying."  The Priest shot back
at him.  The Governor stepped away, nervously.

	"We aren't going to leave without these girls, Saturn, dead
or alive.  Alive, their powers shall be of use to us.  Dead, well,
that is two less we have to concern ourselves with if they were to
turn against us.  Either way, it doesn't matter to us.  All who
stand in our way suffer the same fate."

	Hotaru wanted... she wanted so badly to let rip.  But she
couldn't.  One look into the eyes of the girls dampened that fire
almost as soon as it was lit.  The High Priest laughed and tossed
something onto the ground.  Hotaru and Usashin stared at it.


	It was a red bow.  A bloodied red bow, with dark hair still
wrapped in it.  Usashin recognised it immediately.

	"No...  Kaorusagi...."  She stepped forward.  "What have you
done to h..."  Before she could go any further, three shuriken's 
flew from high above, and buried themselves in Usashin's chest.  
Hotaru watched in sickened horror as Usashin fell to her knees, 
putting a hand to her bleeding chest, finally turning to Hotaru, 
smiling.

	"Guess... its up to... you... now..."

	Then she fell to the ground, dead.

	"Usa-oneechaaaaaaan!"  Hotaru could hear the girls crying as
she shook her head.
	"D..Damn you!"

	"One final warning, Saturn.  Try and stop us and we kill the
girls."  The High Priest waved at his troops and they started to
back away.  "We have what we came for.  Do not try to stop us."

	Even as he was saying this, the light to the clearing was
getting progressively darker.  They looked up into the sky to see
clouds gathering.  Dark clouds.  The Governor panicked.

	"Oooh Kami...  You've just made her angrier."

	The High Priest gritted his teeth angrily.  "SATURN!  I'M 
WARNING YOU!  CONTINUE WITH THIS AND THE GIRLS SHALL DIE!"  He
had to shout, now, becuase the rumbling that had been distant only
seconds before was now becoming a deafening roar.  He shivered as
Hotaru's eyes went black, like empty pits.  Her senshi uniform now
lost its purple flourishing, and was totally black.

	She could see the girls, hear them, crying.  "Hotaru-
oneechan!"  Setsuna bawled.  She didn't want to do this.  She didn't
want to kill everything and everyone....  She wanted them to live.
With them, she had a reason to live, as well....

	"You were warned, Saturn!"  The High Priest gestured with his
hand, and the dark fury watched as daggers were thrust into the 
throats and chests of the two young girls.

	Hotaru stared as the bleeding and dying bodies of the girls
were dropped to the ground.  The High Priest laughed.  How could he
laugh?  How could someone laugh when they had just ordered two
innocent children to be...  To be...  Setsuna and her sister had
been...

	'D A R K N E S S   E X O D U S!"  She screamed at the top of
her voice.  The High Priest stared at her in disbelief.
	"Kill her!  Quickly!"  He pointed at Saturn, only moments
before he, the Governor, their army of ninjas and the entire valley
were engulfed in a flame of immense proportions....



	"We're lost."  Petz sniffed as Karaberas stared at the map.
	"I'm sure this was the road that lead through to Itisu 
Village."  She mumbled, staring over at Petz who sat at the steering
wheel of their truck.

	"Your sense of direction has always been crap, lets face it."
Beruche sniffed from the back seat, leaning against the ledge below
the door window, staring into the valley.

	"I know where we're supposed to go, its just that, all these
roads keep changing, and these maps are so dodgy."  Karaberas 
huffed.  Cooan leaned in from the back seat.
	"Wouldn't have been so bad had you bothered to buy a map from
a reputable store."
	"It WAS a reputable store.  How much more reputable can you go
than the local shire council office?"

	Suddenly, Beruche let out a gasp.  "What the heck..."  She 
noticed the sky was suddenly becoming darker, clouds rolling in from
nowhere, as black as the night sky.  Her three sisters looked out
through the windows and slunk back in their seats.

	"get us out of here, Petz."  Cooan croaked.  Petz nodded and
started up the truck.  It took several painful moments to select
the right gear, and then she floored it.

	The truck trundled rapidly along the dirt road, away from the
entrance to the valley.  Suddenly, there was a flash of light behind
them, and the truck was struck by a huge shockwave, causing Petz to
veer it off the road, down into a small gully.  She managed to stop
the vehicle to a chorus of cries from her sisters, in which time a
huge white flame flew overhead, missing them.  As the flame 
dissipated, Petz managed to start the truck again and drove it back
up to where the road had been.

	All that was left was an immense scorch, centered on the 
valley.  The four sisters stared in disbelief at what they had just 
escaped.

	"Thats it."  Beruche stammered.  "Next town, I'm getting out
of this travelling sales business.
	"What in Kami's name was THAT?"  Karaberas finally managed to
get out.  Petz sighed.
	"I don't know....  Thermonuclear explosion owing to a plague 
of mice."  Karaberas stared at her sister, dubiously.

	Suddenly, there was a flash in front of them.  They let out
short cries as three figures appeared before the truck.  A young,
dark-haired woman holding two young girls in her arms.  They stared
at them in shock, Cooan finally breaking their reverie by getting 
out of the truck.

	She approached the three figures cautiously, and could hear
singing.  Soft, almost inaudible lines of a traditional Japanese
lullabye.  Beruche followed her out as Petz and Karaberas stood by
the truck.

	Cooan could see the two girls had bloodied clothes, and 
thought, for a moment, that they might be dead.  But she could see
no wounds on their bodies.  They were breathing, alive, and 
sleeping.

	The soft singing came from the young woman, who was looking
at the girls with distant eyes.  Cooan stepped up and knelt before
her.

	"Hello?"  She reached forward and touched the young woman on
the shoulder.  Hotaru looked up at her and smiled.

	"Hello."  She blinked a couple of times.  "Shhh.  They're
asleep.  They've had a rough day."

	"Haven't I seen you before?"  Beruche asked from behind Cooan.
Hotaru smiled at her.

	"I don't know if we've ever met in passing.  But then, destiny
has a strange way of forcing itself... into your life."


	IASFU OA FWSS IASFU OA FWSS GOO JUA GOO JIPEST
	and again
	IASFU OA FWSS IASFU OA FWSS GOO JUA GOO JIPEST


END OF PART 18


Notes

Well, I can say now that SIU (Sailor Investigation Unit) is earning
me more mail that UID.  Not that that is a bad thing ^_^.

This chapter tended to flow out in a very stop-start manner.  One of
the aspects of UID that HAD to be worked out before the conclusion
was the redemption of the future Hotaru, and that was what brought
this chapter into being.  At first, I thought of leaving her dead,
along with Setsuna and Naiad's new lives.  But in the end, I 
couldn't bring myself to be that nasty.

Next up, chapter 19, "Acrobatic Feats of Madness".

DDFA ayanami@merlin.net.au
25th Feb 1998