USAGI IS DEAD II DEAD IS USAGI
by DARK DAY FOR ANIME (Mark A Page)

Diclaimer - Sailormoon is owned by Takeuchi Naoko and Bandai, so
these characters really belong to them, except ones I made up.  If
you vaguely know anything about Sailormoon, you'll spot them a mile
off.  "Ahoy there, Cap'n, I sees me an original character."
"Steer clear of them, helmsman.  They can be nasty when the weather
turns bad."


	Miste Kiele had a dream.  She dreamt of a burning palace, of 
death and war and thousands of years of misery.  And she dreamt that
it was all her own fault.

	Then she dreamt of the past, of burning towns and farmlands,
and of a short lifetime of misery.  These events were not her fault.
These events were caused by others.  But they forever scarred the
girl who grew up amongst them.

----o

Part Three
Weirdness in Eternal

----o

	Tranquility softly strode the halls of the Moon Palace.  The
high-walled darknesses and echoes once so familiar to her had taken
on a strangely alien hue and ring.

	She was alone, now.  Blesses peace from the days of 
preparation.  Her inauguration as Queen was but a week away, and the
travel expenses to the homeworld were under review from the finance
committee.  Not that she wouldn't be able to tell them where to go
if they so much as barked, she was to be Queen, after all, but it
annoyed her that these matters were being brought up before such an
important event.


	Two months ago, Princess Serenity abdicated her right to the
throne, under the consultation of Mercury.  Serenity had left the
palace to take over the position of Duchess of the Western Lands...
It had been an uneasy transition since the passing of her mother.
Nobody had wanted to admit to her that they thought she wasn't right 
for the throne.  A strange process, thought Tranquility....  The 
senshi and miko had the right of veto over who could and couldn't 
become Queen.

	The process had worked reasonably well.  As well as could be
expected, all things considered.  From thirteen possible candidates,
the first of which being the line of Serenity, the choice of Queen
of the Moon Kingdom of Sol must come....  Only once did the line go
down all the way to the thirteenth candidate....  As unexpected as
that was, and as imbalanced as the candidate turned out.  Still, it
provided the check and balance thought necessary for the stability
of the Kingdom.  And stability was everything.


	Why Mercury should have chosen to become Serenity's adviser,
Tranquility had NO idea.  She didn't no the Mercury senshi, Miste
Kiele, all that well, and what she did know of her didn't enthuse
her on cementing a relationship.  But she WAS the Mercury senshi,
and a relationship she HAD to forge, along with all the others.

	She didn't know all of them.  She hadn't met many of them, 
just yet.  There had been no reason for her, as a courtesan with the
second right to the throne, to fraternise with the likes of the 
senshi and miko.  Her chance encounters had not always been 
friendly.  The senshi were protective of the old Queen, and often
zealous when it came to guarding her.  A mere stroll through these
palace halls was enough to raise their suspicion.  As for the 
miko...  They remained a reclusive group, often only making 
appearances during festivals and holy days, and never all together.
She knew Ares Palisan well, and Scylla Matash.  Boy, did she know
Scylla Matash!

	The First Refrain Water Miko was well known for her frequent
complaints.  She was an habitual malingerer, and a chronic pedant.
If something was even slightly wrong with the formalities of ritual,
within the holy days of the Kingdom's calendar, you soon knew about
it.  And it was usually up to poor Ares to do something about it.
She felt sorry for the young woman, sometimes.  As the First 
Refrain's Fire Miko, she was often the figurehead of the entire Miko
Caste, and took a lot of responsibility onto her shoulders.  The
vagaries of clergical duty.


	She stopped as she approached a fountain pool, glimmering in
pale light of the sun, let through by a single skylight.  The blue
tiles leant a calming aquatic effect on the rippling light from the
surface.  Tranquility had come here more than once, her private 
little haven.  When she had learnt of the passing of her mother, she
had come here to cry.  Alone.  She was guarenteed to be alone, 
because nobody ever used these walkways.


	She shifted her loose, flowing robes and sat on a small ledge
at the base of a pillar, staring into the pool.  She wasn't sure if
she had dozed off or not, nor how long she had been sitting there,
because she didn't hear the approach of the figure, or was even 
aware of its presence, until she felt the hand on her shoulder.

	She turned, almost half asleep, and saw a face that convinced
her she was dreaming.

	"N..  Naiad?"  Tranquility blinked.

	"Hello, Tranqs."  Said the blue-haired young woman, in the
equally blue robes of her Miko office.  "We meet again."

----o

	The door opened behind Usagi, and she fell through onto the
corridor floor beyond.

	"An' just what do we 'ave 'ere, then?  A young ladylike, 
bangin' an' crashin' again' t' door.  We can' 'ave this, then."

	Usagi looked up into the face of a burly, unshaven man in a
security uniform.  after this initial surprise, she turned and 
pointed at the "thing" that had been threatening her in the 
stairwell.

	"B....  But...  There...."

	The man looked up from the floor at the half-formed figure,
still attached to its grisly home body by its fleshy tendrils, on 
the stairwell wall.

	"Alright you, be off wiv ya, now!"  The man pointed at the
thing.  "We can't 'ave you frightenin' the 'otel guests, can we?"
It dropped its outstretched arms and looked disappointed, slowly
turning and melding back into the wall.

	The man shut the door and helped Usagi to her feet.

	"I be sorry about t' stairwell.  We get lots o' complainin'
from t' people in t' 'otel abou' tha'.  I 'ave told t' management
abou' it, but do ya thin' th' bother t' do anythin' 'bout t'?"

	Usagi shook her head.  The man sniffed and looked down at her
attire, or lack of it, not with an unappreciative eye.  Usagi stared
back at him, dubiously.

	"Yon lady is no' dressed t' be runnin' roun' t' 'otel."  He
shook his head, chuckling.  "Wha' happen' t' you now, love?"

	"I was kicked out of my room.  Or, at least, my room kicked me
out.  I've been trying to find the management ever....  Hey, watch
where you're putting your hands...."

	The man quickly whipped his right hand away from her butt, 
putting it behind his head, giggling.

	"Well lookit that.  Wonder how tha' got there, now."

	Usagi sighed.  "Who are you, anyway, Hotel Security?"

	He nodded.  "That be wha' I am.  T' best in t' 'otel.  I keeps
order throughou' t' enitre 'otel."

	Cute accent, thought Usagi.  She eyed the security guard.  Not
only was he unshaven, he even looked unwashed.  She could hardly 
believe that someone like this was keeping order within the bounds 
of the hotel.  Well, it was no ordinary hotel....

	Still, he looked like a dirty old man, and the thought of 
being in the presence of such an individual whilst attired in 
nothing more than her undergarments was not high on her list of 
favourite things to do.

	"Uh... so...  If you could just guide me to the Front Desk, or
the Office of Management, I'll be on my way...."  Usagi swallowed as
the security guard leered at her.

	"Ah, I's be quite happy t' guide ya's...  Umm..."  He thought 
for a few moments, eyeing off her bust.  She placed a hand across 
them, which caused him to avert his gaze to the ceiling.  "Ya's be 
on t' righ' track, usin' t' stairs.  If it was't for dat thing in 
there, I's be sure more people woul' use it.  I mos' cer'ly wouldna 
use t' lifts."

	"Why?"  Usagi frowned at him.  He looked back down at her, 
smiling lopsidedly.

	"B'cause t' lifts be dangerous like.  One NEVER use t' lifts 
in dis place, unnerstan'?"  He leaned forward.  Usagi could smell 
alcohol on his breath, and a few other smells besides, making her
recoil with disgust.

	"S... so... where...?"

	"There be another stairs like, at t' end of dis corridor."  He
pointed past her.  Usagi chanced a look, then quickly turned back to
him.

	"How far is it?"

	"It be not far.  Jus' look fer t' Activity Room.  It be through 
thar.  Bu' I warn ya's...  Don' let anywho in t' Activity Room convince 
ya t' join dem in their games....  It can be...."

	"....Dangerous...  Yes, I get the idea.  Well...  Thanks for
everything."  The guard nodded and Usagi backed away, keeping him in
sight.  Eventually, as she saw he wasn't making any moves to follow
her, she turned and quickly strode along the corridor.

	The guard smiled and rubbed his chin.

----o

	"You know..."  Tranquility stared off into the waters of the
pool.  "I had a dream...."

	"Tell me about it."  Naiad, who had sat next to her, stared at 
her introspective friend.

	"It was about a young girl.  An ordinary girl, who lived in a
city, very different from any we know of, or understand."

	"Did this girl have a name?"

	"I can't remember now."  She thought for a few moments.  
"Naru, I think it was."

	"Naru....  A strange name."

	"I thought my dream may be of offworlders.  But this Naru was 
human, like you and I."

	"Sometimes we interpret things in the only manner to which we 
are capable.  You perhaps saw her as a human because you could only
understand things from a human perspective."

	"I doubt that.  Still, here I am talking about a dream I had
with someone I thought I'd never see again.  Strange, is it not?"

	Naiad smiled.  "We all do strange things with the lives we are
given.  I abandoned life within the Academy for the Seminary."

	"I never would have thought..."  Tranquility turned to Naiad.
"...I remember that day, when you told me how you thought you'd 
somehow missed your calling....  And I blurted out the Miko idea to
you..."  She chuckled.  "You seemed offended at the concept."

	"I was offended...  But perhaps not in the way you think.  You
gave voice to thoughts that had been running through my mind.  The
forwardness of it all was what offended me...  But it ultimately 
guided me."

	Tranquility shook her head.  "What happened to you, after you 
ran away from the Academy?  Everyone was so worried about you...."

	Naiad shrugged.  "Their worries were for nothing.  I follow
the ways of the spirits, and they guided me."

	"But to where?  I mean, I know you made it to the Seminary,
but where did you go between then and now?"


	Naiad turned and leaned her head back against the column.
"Where indeed.  There were many places I wandered in those 
intervening years.  Perhaps, you could say, I did it all in madness.
For only the foolish or the insane would do what I did."  She 
smiled.  "I wandered.  What else can I say?  I lived off the 
kindness of others, and saw the Earth and the other worlds of this
system, as they exist."

	"And this lead you to the Seminary?"

	"No.  That occured entirely by accident."

	Tranquility sighed.  "How DID you end up in the Seminary, 
then?"  Naiad smiled, closing her eyes.

	"It was on Mars, I think, that I found myself joining one of 
the relief agencies after the earthquake of Noctis Labyrinthus.  The
then serving 3rd Water Miko visited the scene as part of the 
Palace's aid involvement.  She... felt my presence, and sought me 
out."

	"I never knew the old resident of the Piscean house.  I didn't
know YOU were the current resident.  I'm not starting my time as 
Queen on the right footing, am I?"  Tranquility took a breath and
shook her head.

	"Do I detect an element of self-doubt?  You don't think you're
the right person to take up the mantle of Queen, do you?"

	Tranquility didn't answer.  Naiad continued.

	"It all seems a bit much, to have come from such an ordinary,
if well-moneyed, background.  To believe you are worthy of such a 
prize.  Ever since you were divined as the successor to the line of
Tranquility, you have studied, and were prepared for, this event.  
This eventuation.  And still, you see yourself as an ordinary 
person."

	"I'm not ordinary."

	"Ah yes, but you SEE yourself that way.  Others won't, but how
they see you doesn't matter as much as how you see yourself.  
Because you aren't ordinary.  I've known that for a very long time."

	Tranquility turned to her.  "What do you mean?"  Naiad smiled,
knowingly.

	"Aww, come on Tranqs.  We can't have shared... what we shared,
and not know each other....  I've had the ability to see within the
soul of people for quite a long time...  The early, awakening powers
of myself as a miko....  And with the relationship we had...."

	"H.. how much did you see?"

	"Not much.  Enough."

	"How much is enough?"  Naiad was surprised by Tranquility's 
stern tone.  She turned from her almost dreamlike musings to face 
Tranquility's darkened expression.

	"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that I've seen into your 
deepest thoughts.  At that time, I didn't have the power to do 
anything more than skim over the surface.  See the feelings others
held for me."

	Tranquility's expression softened, but she remained uneasy.  
"I never really knew how much to believe you.  Not after the 
events... with Astute."

	Naiad turned away, closing her eyes for a moment as if she had
been stung.  "Astute, yes.  I hear he is to be your consort, now."

	"Yes, I am going to marry Astute."

	"Do you want to marry Astute?"

	"Are you saying he won't make a good husband?"

	Naiad shrugged.  "It is your duty to marry and produce heirs 
to the line of Tranquility.  Astute shall be a good father to your
children, I'm sure."

	"But you do not agree with our coupling.  Is that what you're
trying to say?"

	"Tranqs, you come from a good home.  A well-moneyed home.  You
were never found wanting.  But it wasn't an aristocratic home.  Such
is the way for the line of Tranquility.  Astute's family was part of
the established aristocracy.  They live in a very different world 
from that which we have experienced...."

	"You know this for sure?"

	"Your dream, Tranqs....  If I may be so bold to interpret it.  
The girl, Naru.  She is YOU!"  Naiad prodded Tranquility.  "She is 
the kind of person you want to be."

	"Me?  Oh don't be ridiculous."

	"Ah, to be ordinary.  We can't be, you know that?  We can't be
ordinary.  We were born with something inside of us that mitigates
against this."  Naiad stared off into space.  The same kind of 
dreamlike expression she had had before.  It was not an expression
Tranquility remembered existing on the face of the Naiad she knew
within the Academy.

	"Can you hear that?"  Naiad said, suddenly.

	"Hear what?"  Tranquility listened, then shook her head.  "I
can't hear anything other than the fountain."

	"Precisely.  The mysterious element of water, chattering away
to itself."  Naiad smiled and closed her eyes.  "I'm surprised that
you found this place so pleasing, Tranquility.  You never struck me
as someone who required the calming effects of the voice of water."

	Tranquility frowned, then listened to the fountain, bubbling
away.  She soon found the gentleness of the water's note, along with
the rippling light around the walls and high ceiling of the chamber,
making her drowsy.

	She fell, into vast clouds of blue.

----o

	The moment Hotaru arrived at the front entrance of the 
hospital was the moment the banging on the front door stopped, soon
followed by the sound of shattering glass.

	Kameju and two of the nursing staff stood back from the door
they had been trying to hold shut as a gang of five men layed into
it with baseball bats.

	"What the hell is going on here?"  Hotaru grabbed Kameju as he
made for the inner door.  He turned and stared at her in panic.

	"They want the Healer..."

	"Eh?"

	"They want Usako the Healer.  They're part of the Anti-Usagi
legion.  They want to kill Usako the Healer.  They know she's in 
here."

	"What the f..."  Hotaru was showered with glass, and felt 
herself being dragged away by Kameju.  "Wait..."  She gasped.  "I 
can hold them off....  Get your patients somewhere safe."

	"Oh no you won't."  Kameju gripped her arm tightly.  "Did you
see what one of them was carrying?"

	"What?"  Hotaru blinked at him as he threw her into the arms
of one of the nurses and jammed the large, wooden inner door shut.

	"A Rubicon.  An anti-magical device."

	"A RUBICON?"  Hotaru wrestled herself from the nurse's grip.
"Where in hell did they...  And how the hell do you know..."

	"No time to argue.  We have to barricade this door."  Kameju
pointed to the door and the two nurses nodded, running into the
nearest rooms and dragging out items of furniture.

	Hotaru stood back from the three medical staff, and ran into
someone.  She jumped and turned.  It was only Makoto.  She put a 
hand to her chest, breathing easier.

	"What the hell are you doing here?  I thought I told you to
look after the others."  Hotaru glowered at the taller woman, who
was staring at the door.  From beyond, they could hear the sound of
the entry alarm.  It didn't last long.  With one almighty crash, the
alarm was silenced.

	"I heard the smashing...  I thought you..."  Makoto stammered.

	"I can look after myself, thankyou very much."

	"Who...  Who is it...?"

	"Apparently, anti-Usagi types who want Usako.  They must have
heard she would be staying here for the night."

	Makoto punched a fist in the palm of her other hand.  "Then I
say we give them a taste of our powers."

	"No can do."

	Makoto deflated a little.  "Why not?"

	"Do you remember that little box Rubeus used on the Usagis
when you arrived on Earth?"

	"That Rubicon thingy, yeah."

	"Well, they've got one."

	"But the one Rubeus used only worked on Usagis."

	"Yes, but according to Arachne-sama, and my father confirmed
this, it was possible to adjust the device to block all elemental
signals."

	Makoto blinked.  "Nobody told me that."

	"Nobody thought you'd understand."

	"I refute the suggestion that I'm stupid."

	Hotaru sighed.  "Nobody has ever thought you were stupid, 
Makoto.  Pig-headed, yes, but stupid...."

	They both cringed as the gang began to beat against the inner
door.  Makoto shook her head.  "Rubicon or not, looks like we're 
going to have to fight...."

	"Then we're going to have to take them by surprise.  Hotaru
smiled.  Makoto frowned at her.

	"How?"

	"We attack them from where they won't be expecting us!"

----o

	Outside, a gathered crowd came to watch the scene of wanton
destruction in various states of support and distress.

	Overlooking them all, from the top of a three story building,
was a small white shape, with long pointy ears and yellow hair in
odango ponytails, dressed in a sailorsenshi fuku.

	"Puuuu...."  Said the figure.

----o

	"Oh, this is such a great idea."  Said Makoto as she squeezed
through the side window.  "I'm amazed they didn't think of this."

	"Aww, shuddup!"  Hotaru, standing in the small space between
the hospital and the side fence, gripped Makoto's arms and dragged
her through the window.  CereCere pushed her head through the tiny
gap.

	"Good thing you two went on a diet.  A week ago neither of
you would have succeeded in getting through there."  They both
glowered at her.  "So, what do I do?"

	"You take on their frontal assault if and when they get 
through the second door."

	"Aww.  I always miss the fun."

	"This isn't going to be fun."  Hotaru took a deep breath and
gestured to Makoto to follow her.

----o

	The first thing Tranquility wanted to do was scream.  So she
did.  It isn't often that one found themselves floating through the
atmosphere of some unidentified world when your previous position
had been as far from thus as was possible.

	After she stopped screaming, she soon realised she wasn't
falling, but floating.  She looked up into a vast blue sky, with a
single, brilliant blue sun.  Below her, and around her, were the
whispy trails of blue and white clouds that seemed, to her eyes at
least, go on and on and on into raging, boiling oceans of gas below.

	Then she heard another scream, from above.  She looked up and
saw a figure falling, albeit in a kind of controlled fall.  A Sailor
Teleport!

	She watched with fascination as the figure flew past her, not
even registering her existence.  She blinked a couple of times....
Surely, that was Atrenar Kesseille, the Senshi of Jupiter....  She
wore a similarly coloured uniform, and had very similar facial 
features and hair, but she was slightly younger than she remembered
Kesseille being.

	She watched as Kesseille made for a small object which seemed
to be sailing amongst the clouds.  She was surprised that she hadn't
noticed it before.  Eventually, Kesseille disappeared from sight, 
and the object behind clouds.

	She felt clouds, swallowing her up.

----o

	Naiad took her hand away from Tranquility's forehead, and 
smiled.  The Queen to be shifted uncomfortably in her sleep, resting
her head back against the column.

	Naiad, now standing before her, turned to the fountain pool 
and held two fingers up, inline, before her mouth and whispered a
prayer.  She put her hand down and nodded.

	"Thankyou."  She said softly to the water.

	In dreams we find warnings of what is to come.  Or what has 
already been.  She recounted the line taught to her by the previous
3rd Miko of Water.

	Perhaps it was time to investigate this world a little deeper?


END OF PART 3

DDFA (Mark A Page) ayanami@merlin.net.au
28th Mar 1998