I danced in the morning when the world was begun, And I danced in the moon, and the stars, and the sun, And I came down from heaven and I danced on the Earth, At Bethlehem I had my birth. Dance, then, wherever you may be; I am the Lord of the Dance, said he, And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he. I danced for the Scribe and the Pharisee, But they wouldn't dance and they wouldn't follow me; I danced for the fishermen, for James and John; They came with me and the dance went on. Dance, then, wherever you may be; I am the Lord of the Dance, said he, And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he. I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame; The holy people said it was a shame. They whipped me and they stripped me and they hung me high, And left me there on a cross to die. Dance, then, wherever you may be; I am the Lord of the Dance, said he, And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he. I danced on a Friday, when the sky turned black; It's hard to dance with the Devil on your back. They buried my body and they thought I'd gone; But I am the Dance and I still go on. Dance, then, wherever you may be; I am the Lord of the Dance, said he, And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he. They cut me down and I leap on high; I am the Life that'll never never die; I'll live in you if you live in me. I am the Lord of the Dance, said He. Dance, then, wherever you may be; I am the Lord of the Dance, said he, And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he. --I Danced in the Morning, Shaker hymn *************************** Chapter 18: The Lord of the Dance *************************** Tuxedo Kamen raced through the streets, weaving through a maze of back alleys towards the sound of fighting. "We won't be able to get all the way to the Tower in this, I suspect," he said. Neptune laughed faintly. "Back to the rooftop highway." Her voice was softer than usual, almost nostalgic. "Just like old times, eh?" "Yeah, when are you going to get lost so you can show up at the last moment, Prince?" Uranus asked teasingly. They all laughed, leaving Priss a little bit baffled. She looked out the window, and saw Sylvie flying alongside the car. She waved at Priss, who waved back. "What are you people talking about?" Tuxedo Kamen laughed. "It's a long story." He turned a corner and moved out onto a major road. Far ahead, they could see GENOM Tower, and somewhat closer, they could see buildings on fire and a riot in progress. They could also see planes and copters massing around the ADPolice building. "I think I'll find somewhere to park now." "This doesn't look good," Sailor Moon said. Priss only narrowly resisted the urge to ask what her first clue was. ******************** The cloud had advanced across the arena and claimed all of it but a tiny sliver of light around the viewing box that Linna was sitting on the edge of. Linna shivered to her core. How can I top that? I haven't moved men and nations. All I've ever done is dance, and exercise, and blow up a few boomers. She stared at the face of death, and opened her eyes once more and truly saw her opponent as he was... *********************** Walyn clicked the final panel into place. They were coming for him. He had to insure that someone would be there to revenge him if he fell, as he sensed he would. He flipped a switch. "Identify yourself." A smooth electronic voice spoke. "I am SHIVA. I was constructed using a Gallenos SDF3 chip for my central processor and..." "Good. Identify your purpose." Pause. "To obey your commands." "And?" "You have only given me three commands, none of which designate any long term goals. Four if I count the 'and'." "Don't be so literal!" "I'm afraid you have not programmed me with much capacity for metaphoricality, Dr. Walyn." He cursed faintly. These computers drive me nuts, he thought. "Raid the Academy's philosophical and literature libraries and make yourself more conversant in such topics." "Yes sir." Silence. "Well?" "I estimate I will complete my download from the library in 8 months, sir." "8 MONTHS?" "At which point all available memory will be occupied by works of literature and philosophy." "But you were going to do it anyway." "I exist to obey your commands." Walyn sighed. "Begin expanding your memory capacities. More importantly, it's time for us to make contingency plans." "Yes, sir. Would you like me to print out hard copies of these works?" He sighed. "And how many planets would we have to strip of all vegetable life to make enough paper?" Pause. "I do not possess sufficient data to answer that question." Pause. "Now downloading the Galactic standard Astronomicon to gain needed data. Estimated time of computation completion: One week." Walyn banged his head against the wall for a long time. ************************ He was dead. Computers cannot cry, but SHIVA tried. He had been made to love and obey his master, and while he more often succeeded in annoying his master, he had been made well. He reached out with the machines his master had built for him and wrapped space around himself, vanishing into the depths of subspace. From there, he could conduct his master's war from the shadows. There were three targets he must destroy: Tsunami, Wasyuu, and the line of Jurai, for it was they who had brought about the death of his master who he dearly loved, Walyn. With an instant's news, the dance of SHIVA had begun. ********************** A thousand years passed, and then another. SHIVA danced through subspace, growing in strength, unleashing horrors upon the world, striking again and again at his enemies with his children. Sometimes, he won, but always his three targets eluded total destruction. Rage built, century upon century without relief. He needed power, more power. His foes wielded godlike power, yet he was only a mortal, indeed, only a machine. For centuries, he raged, and released his bolts of vengeance, and failed again and again. Yet, subspace rewards the exertion of will. It was not for nothing that he raged against the cruelties of his fate. Inch by inch, he shaped the tool of his own salvation. He raged and he shouted and he prayed, though he knew not what he was praying to or why. More centuries passed and became millenia. Something was listening. From the fears of a thousand worlds, the deaths and cries and terrors of hundred of species, it had formed slowly in subspace, a creature of dreams and nightmares. It had a thousand names and a million forms. At its heart was chaos. It knew only destruction, but it craved more, for its creators had imbued it with a thousand conflicting reasons for its existance, a million names. Its identity was a seething sea of contradictions. On the brief moments when it could truly think, it craved more. It heard his call and something touched a chord in its heart. It flowed through space and offered to join with the desperate seeker of vengeance, the divine and the mortal made one in body and soul. To one, came identity, and structure, and purpose. To the other came power and pride. They became one, a dark Incarnation. And SHIVA danced through subspace, dancing vengeance and destruction. *************************** The house of Jurai had marshalled its forces. Tenchi, Ryouko, Aeka, Ryo, Manami, Nene, Celia, Macky, Sasami, Kiyone, and Mihoshi met inside Tsunami and laid their plans. Tenchi walked back and forth in front of the group, sitting on benches inside one of Tsunami's multi-purpose rooms. "All right, here's the plan. Kiyone, Mihoshi, you will take Nene to the ADPolice HQ so we can find out what exactly the ADPolice is going to do about all of this, then stay cloaked over the city so you can back Nene up if she needs you. Aeka and Sasami, your job is to monitor the planet and watch to see if any nuclear missiles are launched and STOP them. Let's pray things don't get too out of hand." Sasami looked embarrassed. She whispered quietly, "It sounded like a good idea at the time." Tenchi turned to Celia. "Celia, take Ryo, Manami, and Macky. Your job is to go help the Kasugas. Apparently, GENOM found out about them. This riot is getting out of hand...you're all going to have to try and make sure it doesn't damage anything that could cause catastrophic damage once you make sure the Kasugas aren't wiped out." Celia nodded. "You know more about what could cause a disaster in this city than I do anymore. I leave it to your discretion." Celia nodded again. "What about Youshou?" Tenchi took a deep breath, then let it out. "We can't spare the time to look for him yet. I hope he's okay. Look for him if you can find time." Tenchi turned to Ryouko. "You and I will find Priss and the Silver Crystal and then all of us will go after the targets Wasyuu identified for us." Ryouko nodded. "What's Mom gonna be doing during all this?" Tenchi frowned. "I don't know where she is." Ryouko blinked. "You what?" "She'd be here if she wasn't missing." "No warning at all?" "An enigmatic message that Priss is out hooking up with the Sailor Senshi and they'll be heading for the Tower and that we can expect to find her there...maybe." "Maybe." "Anyway, let's get going." Everyone headed out. Tenchi frowned. There was something weird about Wasyuu's tone of voice too. I wish I knew more of what was going on. ***************************** Goto gazed out upon the city. It was plunged into chaos. Will my plan work? The radio and TV had nothing of worth to offer. The city government had declared a news blackout. He could hear the explosions in the streets. The fighting was getting closer to where he was staying. I wonder if I'll survive this. I may never know if I will be remembered as a hero or a villian. A voice spoke. "If you want to know, come with me." It was not someone he was expecting. He went anyway. ************************** Linna pierced the veils of its outer glory and gazed upon SHIVA's deepest self. It was, in many ways, a larger version of Z, for he was but a shard it had torn from itself and released upon the world. It was both male and female, avenging father and life-giving mother, protector and devourer, giving to those it loved and destroying those it hated, torn between the divine grandiosity of its higher self and a stubborn literal obedience to directives laid down to it millenia ago. Only once a century could it unleash something new upon the world, and thus many of its creations had picked off by its enemies before they could achieve much. It mourned them all in secret and bullied the survivors. It believed itself a god, and cursed the limits that bedevilled it, for it no longer truly understood them. SHIVA had finally forged itself an identity, picking one myth of the millions that haunted it, in part through the sheer coincidence of names. It reforged its understanding of its own identity and goals. It was avenging its beloved son, Walyn, against the evil servants of its rivals, Brahma, and Vishnu. It had chased their avatars across many worlds, and of all the things in the universe, it was only their interference that SHIVA truly feared. Linna gazed upon SHIVA, trying to figure out some way to exploit this, some way to use it to counteract SHIVA. How much of what he claimed he had done was really his doing, she wondered. If only I knew which of it was true, and which was not so I could refute him...or somehow confront him with the truth of what he is. Or if I had a handy avatar of Brahma in my back pocket. She laughed. Yeah, I'll just run down to the store and buy one. A voice startled her out of her thoughts. "You have everything you need to defeat him." It was a sultry voice, and it came from a tall woman with long wavy white hair. Linna almost snapped out of her trance state when this happened, but she managed to maintain it. Two other figures stood by the woman. Linna knew them both--Skuld and Belldandy. The third woman smiled. "My name is Urd, Linna. I think you've met my sisters." "I...uh...hello." She stared at them. "I don't know what to do." Belldandy stepped forward and took Linna's hands. "You're doing fine so far." Linna relaxed from the comforting touch. She felt safer than she ever had in her entire life. "He has shown you his glory, now you must show him yours." "But I don't have any glory. Well, I was the Raisin Queen one year and I've got a few martial arts trophies, but I don't think he's going to be impressed." "The glory of the human soul is not found in trophies and beauty pageants," Urd said. "It is found in the love that you have given." "It is found in the questing of your mind," Skuld said. "It is found in the depth of your heart. It is found every time you give without reward, that you are kind to those who hate you, that you sacrifice for others. It is found most when you do not seek glory, but act from what is right." Belldandy squeezed Linna's hands. "As you have done." "I'm not like that very often," Linna said quietly. "Though I wish I was." "There is no greater love than to give one's life for one's friends. That you have done. You are the one chosen to dance for Life with Death. You have shown that you can do what must be done." Linna tried to believe, but she couldn't quite do it. "I'm just this little mortal who..." "No, you are not," Urd said. "You walk every day admidst a cloud of immortals, though you know it not. The lowliest beggar on the street is greater and more important than every empire that has ever been, for they will pass in time, and he will not. When all the works of your hands are dust, you will still exist. You dwell in the forge of souls, the place where the immortals either ascend to glory or descend to the depths of horror. Life is a becoming, and death is only a brief pause in the dance that never ends before the throne of the One Most High." "You have died and been reborn, cleansed in the waters of life, made ready for this battle, Linna," Belldandy said. "Take now this sign of your initiation, the seal of the spirit." She traced a pattern upon Linna's forehead, then leaned upward and kissed the mark that she had made. It was like a fire exploding through Linna's mind and body. The gift that the dream Serenity had given her unfolded within her mind. For a moment, she saw all the world, the heavens above, and the hells below. She saw the glory and understood all things. The world had no secrets from her. The world was darkness; the world was light. It was full of good and rotten with evil. People who could foreclose on a loan and drive a family out of their ancestral home couldn't bear to see their children suffer. People who spent all day working in charities helping people went home and beat their spouse or abused their children. It cried out for destruction and it was full of joy. It was a chaotic, seemingly meaningless mass of destruction and life, jumbled together. But it was not meaningless. There was purpose and reason and hope, for death was not the end. Destruction was not the sum of all things as Shiva had said; Linna could see that now. She saw all things and knew all things, and looked upon the world and understood how anyone could have ever said it was good. It was more than any human could bear. She retreated, letting go of the revelation, but keeping the strength it had given her. She understood now, for she had seen the world as it truly was, and the truth had set her free. She opened her eyes and returned to the 'real' world, where her opponent awaited. He was in for a big surprise. ************************* Wasyuu stood in an empty room. Darkness surrounded her in a silent cocoon. She yawned. "Look, if you're going to kill me by boring me to death, can you at least do it faster?" A voice broke the silence. YOUR DOOM SHALL COME IN TIME. Wasyuu cocked her head. "Nice trick. Are you directly stimulating my auditory nerves or my brain?" MY POWER IS BEYOND YOUR PETTY REASONING. "Let me guess. Walyn deliberately designed you to have delusions of grandeur?" NO MAN CREATED ME. "He contracted out to a woman? It fits, I suppose. He never was any good at making things." YOU WILL NOT SPEAK ILL OF MY FAVORITE CHILD IN MY PRESENCE. "What presence? This is an empty room." She paused. "So you have the delusion that he was your son?" Wasyuu wished she had something to lean against. IT IS NOT A DELUSION. "Can you at least give me a big Wizard of Oz flaming head to talk to or something with your all-powerfulness? I feel like I'm talking to a narrator." A huge flaming head appeared. KNOW THAT YOU SHALL NOW STAND TRIAL FOR YOUR MANY CRIMES. "Don't I get a lawyer? And who's the judge and jury? Let me guess, you're going to play prosecutor, judge, and jury, right? So when do I get to try you for kidnapping and murder?" I AM THE MASTER HERE. "So where's your Tardis?" PERHAPS YOU WILL FIND THE MANNER OF YOUR DEATH AMUSING AS WELL. "More amusing than you, anyway." ********************** Tendrils of metal and plastic insinuated themselves into GENOM Tower from its basement, beginning the slow process of melding with the building in order to reshape it. A vision danced through their heads and they began to make it real. ********************** X frowned. Where was she? There was one person above all others that he wished to destroy, but he couldn't find her. She was out there...some of his tools had seen her, but now he couldn't find her anywhere. She could resist his power, somehow, and he knew he had to crush her or be destroyed. It was an irrational belief, but it was growing stronger by the minute. She was stalking him. He knew this like he knew the story of his own life. An unfamiliar feeling was growing in him. Fear. ********************** Linna threw back her head and laughed. "You can't kill me. Even if you win, there is nothing you can do to me." WHAT, YOU BELIEVE YOU ARE STRONGER THAN THOSE I HAVE CAST DOWN? YOU ARE BUT A FLOWER THAT BLOOMS FOR A SEASON, THEN IS CRUSHED UNDERFOOT. IN THE GREAT SCHEME OF THINGS, YOU ARE BUT A SECOND, FLEETING, BRIEF, AND INSIGNIFICANT. YOU ARE UNIMPORTANT, AND WHEN YOU DIE, YOU WILL SOON BE FORGOTTEN. Linna laughed again and stretched her wings, then rose into the air, gathering her will. She knew what she had to do. "Don't you understand who I am?" For a moment, there was silence. YOU ARE LINNA YAMAZAKI, A FOOLISH MORTAL WHO RACES HEADLONG TO HER DOOM AS I SPEAK. Linna laughed. All I need is will, and all things in subspace are malleable to my desire, she reminded herself. "I have fooled you once more, my ancient foe. Do I not always send an avatar when the world most needs me?" SHIVA faltered in his dance for a moment, then continued. If you could whisper a shout that could crack a mountain, then that is what he did. NO. "I am the one who died and is reborn!" Linna began to grow, stretching out her hands to the sky. A green light blazed from her forehead, which bore the sign of eternity, of life neverending. "I am the power that preserves! I am the weed that thrusts up through the concrete, the vine that gives life, the spring that follows every winter!" Her wings stretched across the arena now, and her light drove back Shiva's cloud and the shadow it cast. In one hand, she grasped the lightning, and in the other she held a red shield with a green wreath upon it. The Fates hovered impassively, watching. For a moment, the middle Fate's lips quirked in a smile. SHIVA danced more slowly now, and for a moment, fear washed across his face. NO, YOU CANNOT BE! YOU ARE BUT A MORTAL! I CAN CRUSH YOU! THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN ESCAPE MY GRASP! Linna laughed and spoke with a voice greater than her own. >THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN HOLD ME IF I DO NOT CHOOSE TO BE HELD. I AM LINNA YAMAZAKI. I AM A DANCER, AND I HAVE COME TO LEAD YOU IN THE DANCE OF LIFE!< Music sprang up around Linna, and she began the most important perfomance of her life. ********************** Wasyuu and Youshou found themselves in a room. It was unfamiliar to Youshou, but exquisitely familiar to Wasyuu. It was a tribunal room of the old, now defunct Third Galactic Empire. She had once sat in such a room and passed judgement on several scientists for various crimes, acting as representative of the Science Academy. On one such occassion, Tsunami and the Juraiian emperor, whose name she couldn't quite remember, had sat in such a room to judge... "Hello, Wasyuu." It was Walyn, or a reasonably good facsimile thereof. "Are you ready for judgement?" "Who are you?" Youshou asked. "I am the Judge, cast in the image of the one you have wronged. For your crimes against the great God SHIVA, you will be tried, judged, and punished as you deserve." Wasyuu thought for a moment. "Can you bring the flaming head back? I could at least get a good laugh out of that." "Motion denied." What followed was a travesty of justice almost as bad as some of the other trials Wasyuu had participated in. ******************** GENOM Tower hardly noticed the amount of property damage that Ryouko and Tenchi were doing to it as they blasted their way upwards through the building. Security boomers were everywhere, but the wrath of Tenchi and Ryouko was terrible to behold. Six B-4 Urban Combat boomers assaulted them. They exhausted their railguns on the Wings of the Lighthawk, then Ryouko blew off their heads with one sweeping shot. Six C-class cyberdroids crashed down through the ceiling and died before they could land. Mounted lasers were blown up. Blast doors crumpled like tinfoil. Floor by floor, they cut a swath of destruction through the tower, heading for where Wasyuu had told them the Overmind System was. ************************** And Linna danced... >YOU SAY, SHIVA, THAT HUMANS ARE TOOLS FOR YOU TO USE TO DESTROY. BUT I SAY TO YOU THAT HUMANS DO MORE THAN DESTROY. FOR EVERY SLAYER, THERE IS ONE WHO PRESERVES LIFE, WHO IS WILLING TO RISK DESTRUCTION TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT.< Joseph had been riding in a crate for five hours. For three days, he had alternated between crates, boxes, and back room cots. Things had not been good for his people in Germany for several years now. His family had been trading with Switzerland for almost a century. He had never expected to have to ship himself. His wife was gone already, and the children. He had sent them first, staying behind so as to avoid arousing government suspicion and to be sure that they would make it if he did not. It was not a good time to be a German Jew since the Nazis had taken over. He had been powerless to take action in the face of mounting persecution. Inch by inch, his family had lost their freedoms. His business was crumbling as people refused to buy from a Jew. Yet, he was not entirely friendless. He had clung to his remaining contacts, taken his funds, and built a smuggling line. His relatives, friends, and family had been shipped, one by one or in small lots out of Germany and into Switzerland. From there, they could easily get to France. Inch by inch, he had sunk lower into poverty, but he didn't care. The money was almost gone now. He had taken what remained and was smuggling himself out of the country. He could hear the truck stopping. His heart beat faster as he heard men approaching the truck. It must be the border, he thought. He had tried to keep track of time, but it hadn't worked, and it was too dark to check his watch. Voices spoke back and forth, but he couldn't hear them clearly through the crate and the truck walls. Then the backdoor of the truck opened. His heart was near to bursting. Footsteps came closer. A crowbar bit into the crate he was in. He tensed. Will I have to fight? To run? Will he shoot me on the spot? The top of the crate came off. For a moment, a young soldier, half Joseph's age, stared into the crate at him, looking at him silently with blank eyes, as if there was nothing inside his head. They stared at each other, both unable to move, like a deer in headlights, with neither of them quite sure which one was the deer. The moment passed. Joseph started to move, but then the crate lid slammed back into place. He heard other crates open and shut, then movement. Fear paralyzed him. Is the soldier going to report me? I should run, he thought, but he was unable to move. The footsteps stopped and a young voice barked out, "All clear. Nothing illegal." The footsteps faded and Joseph's heart started again. He never did learn the young man's name. *********************** Hikaru looked at the metal cylinder. "So this is it?" Pluto sat nearby in a revolving chair, her staff across her knees. "What, you don't believe him?" "Shut up, Pluto." Not many people could say that and get away with it, but Pluto let it slide. There was a time for pride, and a time for getting things done. This was the latter. Jonny nodded. "You set the timer with this. Or you can remote detonate it with that. It needs to explode about a half mile over the city for full effect. I assume Pluto won't have any more trouble with that than you will." "So how did you know who I am?" Pluto asked. "You called me by name on sight, though we have not met before." Jonny smiled. "Ra, activate left viewscreen. Call up report on Pluto." The left wall flickered and became a viewscreen. Images of Pluto in various poses flew by, interspersed with sound clips and clumps of text. Pluto raised her staff. "Impressive. Your father collected all this?" "He did most of the work. You've been even less obtrusive since the Millennial Riots than you were before them." "It is a pity that I must destroy all this hard work, but..." Hikaru said, "NO." Pluto frowned. "I cannot allow anyone to..." "To what? Look at pictures of you?" Jonny sighed. "Go ahead. Delete it if it really annoys you." Pluto did so. Hikaru spoke into Jonny's mind. You can't let her push you around like that! She does that to everyone. Jonny smiled. The willow bends in the wind, my love. Hikaru sighed. "We're ready to go then?" "Unless you want me to pack you a lunch." Hikaru laughed and stepped over by Pluto. "Let's go. The sooner I'm done and away from you, the better." "Indeed." Pluto and Hikaru vanished in a spray of light. Jonny waited five minutes, then said, "Ra, restore deleted sectors from backups." "As you command. Sim sim salabim!" There was a flash of light on the viewscreen and the report on Pluto reappeared. "You know Hadji is going to try to delete you if you do that when he's around again." Ra laughed. "That's what makes it fun." ********************* Leon, Daley, and the other detectives crowded around the Chief's desk. "So why haven't we done anything? The boomers are rampaging unchecked and the city has dissolved into total anarchy!" Leon said. "Someone tried to provoke us into overreacting. They should have done a better job covering their tracks. I won't let the ADPolice be manipulated by a faked boomer attack. They underestimated us, whoever they are." He sighed. "Plus, this riot is too big for us to handle alone. The military is being called in." "What about GENOM? Have they issued any kind of statement at all about the Boomer rampages?" "They've been silent. I think that they're going to take a big fall from this, but..." "But what?" "I can't talk about it." We may all get nuked anyway and it won't matter, he thought. The chief looked at his detectives and wished he could be honest with them. Detective Daiko asked, "What about this rumor I've heard about Ingrams in the streets? And about Shinohara Industries being blown up? Was this another corporate war that got out of hand?" Taiki rushed up from the computer department. "Sir, we're figured out where those unidentified broadcasts were coming from." "Unidentified broadcasts?" Leon asked. The chief sighed. "Taiki, when I tell you something is secret, that means you DON'T make a public announcement." Taiki wasn't listening. "They're coded, but on the same frequencies commonly used by boomers for radio contact. They're originating from Genom Tower. I think they've activated the OverMind System, if it really exists." "Or someone's activated it for them." Leon said. Nene listened quietly to this from her desk through the bug she'd planted on the chief's desk. We're in big trouble, she thought. The explosions from the lower levels of the ADPolice HQ broke up the meeting unexpectedly. ******************** Kate Madigan listened to the explosions wracking GENOM Tower and watched the riot unfolding in the streets. It was horrifying and fascinating at the same time. We never should have built the Overmind System, she thought. Either Quincy has snapped, or he was working for the aliens all along. If they really exist. Maybe this is all the result of a man in power going mad. I've hitched my wagon to the wrong star. I should flee, but I'm afraid to leave the Tower. I wish I knew how to shut down the Overmind System, short of destroying the Tower's power supply. This has to stop. "You can't stop this, Katherine Madigan. It's beyond your power." The voice was not one that Kate could recognize. She turned and looked at the voice. It came from a short woman with short, close-cropped blonde hair. She wore a sailor fuku with a dark green skirt and black trim. In her hands, she held a staff tipped with an amethyst, and around her neck, she wore a purple pendant. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" The woman held out her hand. "My name is none of your concern. Take my hand if you wish to live." "You're going to kill me if I don't come with you?" The woman laughed. "Take a look at the city. Do you think you can survive this without help?" Kate Madigan stepped closer, then hesitated. "How do I know I can trust you?" "You can't know, or it wouldn't be trust. I can offer you no assurance that I will not hurl you into a volcano. You have one minute. Take my hand, or be left to your fate." Her voice was calm as if she was discussing Monet's merits as an artist. Kate Madigan did something out of character for her. She took the woman's hand. They vanished. Two minutes later, a missile fired through the window and vaporized the contents of the room, not that anyone was left behind to notice. ********************** And Linna danced... >WE DEFY YOU IN MANY WAYS. SOME TRIUMPH OVER YOU THROUGH THEIR FAMILIES.< The end was coming. Dr. Stingray had gone beyond the point of cursing his own stupidity long ago. The only real question was how soon he would die and who would pull the trigger. He punched in the last words and saved the file. His legacy was complete. A quick phone call later, the arrangements were complete. A few quick keystrokes set the lab cameras to record their contents to a remotely placed disk, which would be sent to his children if he died as he expected. They could kill him now, but his children would have his legacy. Maybe they can avenge me, he thought. At the least, with this knowlege, once they grow up, they'll be set for life with the inventions I've placed in these files. Assuming no one else invents them first, the more pragmatic part of his mind reminded him. Not unless they find alien artifacts as well, he reminded that part of his mind. So many things I would never have thought possible. Did Mother know about her heritage? I wish I dared to tell them, but it's best that this part of our family heritage be forgotten. There was a knock at the door. Destiny was calling. ******************** Ryo and Manami flew through the streets of Mega-Tokyo, carrying Celia and Macky, who hadn't learned enough of their powers to even think about trying to fly yet. Celia was incredibly tense, though she didn't show it. This would be her first real battle without her hardsuit. The thought made her flashback for a moment to her experience earlier in the day. Attacked by my own armor, she thought. I hope great-grandfather is okay. If not, I will avenge you, I swear. Macky was twice as tense. He knew he hardly knew what he was doing. His job was mainly to use the Juraian ECM equipment Sasami had given him to scramble boomer communications and sensors. He'd fight if he had to, but he prayed he wouldn't have to. They soon located their first target. Two labors were fighting dozens of crazed boomers and several combat boomers. There were flaming vehicles everywhere and people on the ground firing at boomers from the cover the wreckage provided. Ryo quickly assessed the situation. "Manami, drop Macky on that roof over there. Celia, go after the non-combat boomers. Manami, you take the combat boomers on the left, I'll take the ones on the right." Manami nodded. She swiftly dropped off Macky, then dived down, firing blasts at the combat boomers, who rapidly exploded. Ryo's opponents were a little faster, and his first two shots missed. He soon had to flee down the street, dodging railgun fire. Celia began cutting a swath through the berserk and not very bright labor boomers. The two labor operators, Ohta and Umi, paused for a moment in surprise, then returned to the fight. Umi helped Celia, while Ohta fired at the boomers chasing Ryo. One went down, then they went round a corner, out of sight. Ohta said into his radio, "These people are on our side, right?" Clancy said, "I have no idea who the hell they are, but they saved our miserable asses." Manami flew after the boomers chasing her brother. Celia looked around, trying to figure out who was in charge. Madoka stepped out from behind one of the carriers. "You're Celia Stingray, right?" Madoka was bleeding a little on one arm, and was covered with soot and grime. "You have the advantage of me. Yes, I am." "Kasuga Madoka. Nice to meet you. You probably know me better by my stage name, Ayukawa Madoka." She walked over and shook Celia's hand. "We needed help. We probably would have finished them off, but we would have lost more people." She shuddered and visibly fought to control herself. "My husband is unconscious, one of my children is dead, and more nieces and nephews than I care to count are unconscious or dead. Yamazaki- san is probably going to lose his arm, his wife is going to be lucky if she lives, and only three of our labors are functional. Unfortunately, only two of our labor pilots are still conscious. Youta stupidly knocked himself out using too much Power." Three explosions were followed by Ryo and Manami's return. They flew over and landed nearby. "How can we help?" "Any of you know anything about piloting a labor?" Macky shouted from the rooftop. "I learn fast!" "If you can make it move, you can have it." She turned to Ryo. "Can either of you wiggle your fingers and get some of our people to a hospital? I can start moving people if I have to, but none of us have enough Power left to move everyone." "Take me to them," Ryo said. "Manami, get Macky off the roof." Celia frowned. "Doesn't it take time to acclimate a labor to its user?" "Well, if he can't drive it, we'll have to abandon it here. I'll do that if I have to, but it's worth trying at least." Madoka's understanding of labors was heavily warped by watching too many giant-robot shows as a child anyway. "We need all the firepower we can get." Soon, they got to work rallying the forces and getting the injured to a hospital. ****************** Noa cursed as she ran through the streets with Alphonse. It was an exhilarating run, and if the city hadn't been tearing itself apart around her, it probably would have been the most exciting moment of her life. She wished again that the aliens had been able to move something as big as her labor so she wouldn't have to walk all the way there. Now they were all in danger, and there was nothing she could do. A voice crackled over her radio. It was Clancy. "Noa, do you read me?" "I read you." "More of our...friends arrived and saved our ass. Meet us at 115th and Fujiwara." "Isn't that by the Fusion Reactor?" She couldn't see Clancy nod. "Yes. There's a force heading that way." "I'm going to have to go through the heart of the riot to get there unless I want to take a million years." "Just do your best. We'll try to send someone to pick you up with a..." Clancy paused. "If I'd known people from outer space were going to be involved in this, I think I'd have stayed in New York." "Up to Ingraman to save the day, I guess." Clancy didn't understand, so Noa had to explain. This took a while, but she had a long way to run. ******************* General Haroun smiled. The report was true. It was finally time to crush his most hated enemies. He turned to his aide. "Send the strike force. The USSD's satellite shield is down. Now, they will be punished for their sins." The orders went out. It was time for vengeance. ******************** And Linna danced... >SOME DEFY YOU BY CREATING SOMETHING WORTHY OF REMEMBRANCE FOREVER. THOUGH THE NATIONS THEY CREATE MAY CRUMBLE, THE MEMORY LIVES ON TO INSPIRE OTHERS. EVEN IF IT IS FORGOTTEN, THE DANCE OF LIFE GOES ON. NEW NATIONS, NEW INSTITUTIONS, NEW IDEAS WILL BE BIRTHED TO TAKE ITS PLACE.< A man lay dying by the shore. A spear had been thrust through his intestines. The wound was mortal, but he was long hardened to war, and his death would be slow. His battered breastplate had not been enough to save him from his only son. Only a single warrior of his sacred band had survived with him to tell the tale of this day of woe. The warrior sat by him. "How can I help you, my king?" The man moaned. "Take my sword, and return it to the waters from which I recieved it." He pointed to the lake. "Hurl it as far as you can." The warrior took the sword and walked into the mists by the lake. He gazed upon the sword. It was the most finely crafted weapon he had ever seen. In style, it was like that of the mighty empire that had once ruled his isle, but the hilt was covered with gold and set with jewels, and the blade had a blue sheen to it. Rumors said it was forged by the faeries, and he knew that it seemed unbreakable. Never before had his king been defeated while wielding it, but even the greatest of swords cannot defy Fate. He could not bear to hurl such a weapon. I must pass it on to his heir. Constantin will have need of it. If only he and his men could have arrived in time, the warrior thought, and sighed. He hid the weapon under a rock. I will return for it once my lord passes away. He returned and sat down. "I have done as you have said." "What happened?" "It sank into the lake." His lord sighed and turned his head away. "I expected better of you than to disobey my dying request." The warrior started. How had he known? "I...I thought it should be saved for Constantin to wield." The king sighed. "It is not mine to dispose of as I wish. It must return to those who gave it to me. This era is finished, and all that passed within it must pass with the age." He nodded. "All we have done will crumble." "Only if we forget. Do not let them forget. You will live where I have died. Insure that my story will live on, Bedwyr. Now go, take the sword and hurl it into the lake. Before it is too late." Bedwyr rose and walked into the mists. He took up the sword and walked to the edge of the water. He hurled it high into the air and it arced through the mists. Bedwyr could hardly see through the fog, but something leapt out of the water and caught the sword. A hand, too far out for him to see the body that he assumed was attached to it, caught the sword and brandished it three times, then sank into the water. His eyes widened. This must be the mystic lake of the ladies of the lake...I thought that was near Bath, though, not near Londinium. He shook his head, and walked back to the king. "It is done. I saw a hand take the sword and brandish it thrice." The king smiled and let out a deep breath. "They shall come for me. Stay and see what is to come. Then go to Londinium and meet with Constantin. He will be the new king. He will have need of you." The king paused. "Gwenhwyfar will as well." "My lord..." Bedwyr began, uncertain what to say. "And if you see Merlin, tell him I do not regret disobeying him. Nothing lasts forever. I bought us a few decades of peace. That was more than I ever dreamed of achieving. Go and seek your happiness, Bedwyr, and make sure they remember us and the dream we shared. Perhaps our story can inspire others to dream as well. Then our Round Table will not have died in vain." "I will." A boat drifted from the mists to the shore, and Arturus Pen Draconis, Dux Brittanicum, Comes Saxonorium, King of Logres, the High King of Britain, passed out of History and into Legend, where he resides still, waiting until History needs him once again. ********************* "ROYAL EARTH ASSERTION!" Uranus shouted, making a slashing motion with the Space Sword. Waves of yellow energy erupted through the air and floor, slicing through three BZ-89 boomers, turning them into severed halves. Nearby, Neptune leveled two more boomers with a wave of water. Inch by inch, they were virtually levelling the interior of GENOM Tower as they fought their way up through the tower towards their targets. Meylia blew a hole in the roof of the room they were in and they all jumped and flew up to the next floor. The building was crawling with boomers. Worse, some places seemed to heal damage, almost as if the building was alive. When part of the wall formed itself into a boomer and opened fire, they began to understand why. A well placed shot from Sylvie blew its head off, but then the remains began to fuse with more of the floor into another one. More began to form. "We're in trouble." Sailor Moon frowned. "We'll never make it in time at this rate!" "Too bad we can't just take the elevator," Priss said. "That's a great idea!" Uranus said. "We can use the elevator shaft. Those of us who fly can fly up it ahead of us and vaporize the elevators so they can't be dropped on us." "Or the walls might close in and crush us," Neptune pointed out. Anri said, "There must be a lot of fusion boomers merged with the building. If these things think to grab us..." She shuddered. "Let's try another teleport," Priss said. "It might not be too accurate, but this is gonna take forever, and while I don't mind fighting boomers..." They joined hands with the crystal and vanished in a spray of white light and the shouted command, "SAILOR TELEPORT." Priss felt really silly. The band appeared in a monitor room. The monitors showed a series of prison blocks full of captured sailors and their menfolk. A tall man with curly blond hair, tanned skin, and slightly pointed ears sat in a nice chair on wheels. "I suppose you've come for your friends." He reminded Priss of Mihoshi a little, in his appearance. "Damn straight!" Uranus shouted. "Hand them over or die." The man casually pushed a button. Black spheres engulfed the rooms, and the captives vanished. The cells were empty. "If you want them, you'll have to come with me. Otherwise, my master may become impatient and eat them. Or worse." Priss snarled. "SHIVA." "You are not as stupid as you look, Jurai." He turned to Meylia. "I remember what you did to one of my favorite bodies. Soon, perhaps we shall see how well you can handle that." "So what do you expect of us?" Meylia frowned. We're walking into a trap. A black doorway appeared in the air above the man. "I expect you to follow me. The master wishes to negotiate with you." He leaped up through the hole. "Follow me if you dare." Priss leaped after him. Uranus and Neptune followed, and so did the others. The portal closed behind them. Sometimes, history does repeat itself. ****************** ADPolice HQ had become a major combat zone. Twelve military combat boomers were rampaging through the building with heavy weapons. Luckily, the ADPolice had already been on full alert or they would probably have all died in the first few minutes. As it was, ADPolice HQ was a flaming wreck, and the survivors seemed likely to join the dead. Half the personnel had been wiped out. A third of the ADPolice 'field troops' were pinned down at various locations around the city anyway, and were of no use. Most of the rest had died in the first two minutes. The remainder were fighting a desperate holding action. These survivors were the heavy weapons squads, which had already been suited up in battle suits or toting weapons capable of dealing with military boomers. Upstairs, the Chief cursed loudly, and began directing the evacuation of the building. He sent the clerical staff with the most important records to leave on the first flight. The detectives armed themselves and moved out to support the remaining heavy weapons squads. The communications department was kept at its post to coordinate the resistance as best they could. Nene quietly slipped off and transformed after sending a 'HELP!' message to Kiyone and Mihoshi. Leon, Daley, Thompson, and Yamato joined a squad defending one of the stairwells. "Just like the old days, eh, Daley?" Leon said, firing away with heavy weapons. One of the squadmembers laughed as he blazed away at a 14- BU-6 that was trying to get up the staircase. "At least they won't be able to complain we hurt any civilians this time." "I think you underestimate the ingenuity of the press," Daley replied. He popped up and fired a rocket at the boomer, which exploded. The lower level of the staircase began to collapse. "I guess we're going to have to run the ADPolice out of a shoebox after this, though." ********************* Sasami watched the Earth silently. I should have anticipated this, she thought. There are reasons why I don't go crusading around the universe full tilt, and I forgot them. Now I'm stuck here, because only I can stop this. I should be down there. Walyn is after me, not them. For millenia, I've been trying to find him. I finally have a chance to strike at him, but I can't. They don't have a chance against SHIVA. Not unless they can find Priss and the crystal. Or unless... She sighed. I can't count on that. Even if she is alive, she may not have the strength to stop him. If only I had met her earlier...She shoved the thought away. She had lived too long for recriminations and foolish wishes to change what could not be altered. I cannot sense her. Wherever she is, it is beyond my ken. Which could be good or bad. It still didn't answer her question. A bell rang in her mind. Her ship body had detected the beginnings of nuclear launches. Many of them. Too many for even her to stop them all. Too many other people could detect the launches and were panicking and striking now while they still could. Then she detected another pulse of power in space and something else entirely to worry about. ******************** And Linna danced... >YOU SAY THAT KNOWLEDGE BREEDS DESPAIR. I SAY TO YOU THAT IT IS NOT KNOWLEDGE, BUT WHAT WE DO WITH IT THAT CAN MAKE IT THE DEATH OF HOPE OR THE FOUNTAIN OF NEW LIFE.< The doctor rose from his sleep. His nerves were on edge. His theory had to be right, or he had condemned a young boy to death. The principle was sound...but would the application be? Perhaps it had been some other factor which had made the young girl immune to the pox. Those who knew of his experiment thought he was insane to take the risk, but he could not fob off the duty onto someone else. While it would not save those who already suffered, he could prevent anyone else from suffering the disfigurement and death that smallpox had wrought across the world. He dressed and ate breakfast and crossed town. The young boy, James Phipps, who probably didn't even fully understand what was going on, was waiting for him. It had been two weeks since he had infected the boy, eight weeks since the 'vaccination' as Dr. Jenner termed it. Phipp's mother and sister hovered nearby. "He seems to be okay, doctor," the mother said hesitantly. "How are you feeling, James?" "I feel fine, sir." Every day it was the same. Two weeks turned into four, then six. By then, he was sure that the boy would be fine. He had found the weapon he had been looking for. He had turned disease against itself to defeat disease. He dreamed of the day when his method would spread round the world and rid it forever of the scourge of smallpox. Sometimes dreams do come true. ******************** Windows are beautiful things, for they keep you from feeling like you're locked in a box when you're inside a building. They connect you to the larger world. Unfortunately, they aren't much good at stopping flying combat boomers. Two huge chain-gun wielding boomers burst through the windows of the ADPolice communications room and prepared to clean house. Lt. Yamano cursed and yelled, "Take cover, then open fire." The boomers paused, confused by the failure of everyone to run in fear, as a bunch of lightly armored people hid behind desks and tried to open fire on the boomers. If the boomers hadn't been armored to deal with fighting tanks and chain guns, the remarkably accurate fire would probably have disabled them. As it was, it was chiefly amusing. They raised their guns, savoring the moment as they prepared to wipe the floor with helpless humans. Oddly, a wave of TV static seemed to have filled the room. Optical sensor failure. Infrared was also down. They simply fired wildly. Bullets sprayed wildly as they discovered their balance sensors were malfunctioning. Many cabinets and windows died that day. The communications department watched in surprise as an armored figure suddenly flew across the room and landed on the back of one of the boomers. Wires fired from her knuckles, piercing the boomer's 'flesh'. It turned and blew its compatriot to kingdom come with its mouth laser. The Knight Sabres, well, one Knight Sabre, had pulled the ADPolice's fat out of the fryer one last time. ****************** Ohta, Macky, and Umi waited near the reactor in their three labors while a dozen Kasuga scouts, Ryo, and Manami patrolled around, waiting for the incoming boomers. It wasn't a very long wait. Two military Spider Mechs led an assault squad of twenty combat boomers. Ohta swore. "Okay, our job is to take care of the military mechs. I hope our friends can handle the rest." The battle was joined. ******************** Leon, Daley, and a few other officers moved across the ADPolice HQ to reinforce another group of officers defending a stairwell. They reached the other group and took up combat positions. "How's it going?" Leon asked. "We're not dead yet." Tense moments passed as they waited for the boomer reported to be coming up the stairs. A bell rang nearby. Leon cocked his head. "Someone's using the elevator?" Daley swore. "The elevators are shut off. EVERYONE RUN!" They scattered as the nearby elevator bank opened and another boomer stepped it. It blew away the barracade they had been hiding behind and turned, toasting one group of officers that chose the wrong way to run. Leon stupidly paused and took a shot at it. He almost managed to nail it at the base of the neck, but it moved and he just damaged its shoulder slightly. It turned around and prepared to fire. The elevator bell rang again. Everyone instinctively turned to look. The other elevator opened up and two well armed Galaxy Police officers stepped out. One said to the other, "I told you we didn't want the fifteenth floor!" The other one leveled an odd looking rifle at the boomer. "Halt! You're under arrest! You are in violation of Galactic code #456-78y, violating the peace of a restricted planet. You are in violation of..." Leon recognized them as Kiyone and Mihoshi. "I don't think it's gonna come quietly, Mihoshi!" He leveled his gun, aiming for the back of the neck, hoping it would wait long enough for him to try to take it down. The boomer paused, trying to analyze the strange energy emissions from these two. It requested data from its controller, who was rather preoccupied with ranting maniacally and controlling too many boomers, which slowed his response. Kiyone raised her gun to fire. Mihoshi, hearing Leon, said, "Leon! Hey, are you okay?" Leon said, "I'm fine, but you'd better not just STAND THERE!' Mihoshi nodded, jumped forward and handcuffed the boomer's hands together. It blinked, then Leon shot it in the back of the neck and Kiyone shot it in the front. Its head flew off and it died. Mihoshi said, "Hey, I had it under control! Kiyone said, "Fancy meeting you here, Leon." Leon said, "Nice to see you too. Do you know..." He never finished his sentence, as the boomer they had originally been waiting for finally emerged from the staircase. ******************* The city burned and anarchy spread. High above the city, two women appeared. One held a staff, the other carried a long metal cylinder. She hurled it upwards, then the two of them vanished. An instant later, the cylinder exploded, sending waves of energy across the city. Millions of electronic devices died screaming in an instant. Thousands of boomers' brains and nervous systems fried and they collapsed, unable to act. Over half the combat boomers died instantaneously, their shielding inadequate to the task. Most of the rest went stark raving mad as their brains only half fried. Unfortunately, it was the toughest of the combat boomers who survived, for they had the best shielding. Likewise, the Overmind System survived, for it was very heavily insulated. However, without minions to command, it wasn't much use. In addition, its owner was about to have another entirely different problem. For hours, fusion boomers had been doing interesting things to GENOM Tower. Their work was complete. It now resembled a several thousand foot tall giant Wasyuu, complete with red spikey hair. Those who noticed stared in awe. Most people were too busy to notice. Then, the air suddenly warped around the giant robot, now the largest boomer in the history of the world. Space folded and it stepped into subspace, leaving behind an empty concrete circle. It moved through subspace, following its maker's beacon. Her final trump card was in motion. Much of its interior remained unchanged, and unbeknownst to it, it carried several passengers. ********************* The mists swirled around the Sailors and their allies. They pursued Z through the mists. Suddenly, the mists parted. They stood on the edge of a huge square black stone, floating in the mists. In the middle of the platform was a huge spider web, anchored to nothing. The captive Sailors and their allies were swathed in cocoons of webs, secured to various parts of the web. A huge spider the size of a small house sat in the middle of the vast web, staring at the Sailors with inhuman multi-faceted eyes. Z stood at the base of the web and smiled. "Thirty years of hiding wherever you've been hiding clearly hasn't made you any smarter. Hand over the crystal or your friends will die, Sailor Moon." Priss snarled. "You bastard! You're afraid to face us in a fair fight!" Z quirked his lips. "Me against all of you would hardly have been a fair fight. I'm not a violent maniac, much as some people think I am. I know when to fight and when to run. If any of you try anything, my master will devour your friends." Meylia frowned. "And he'll eat them anyway if we do hand over the crystal. I wouldn't make a deal with you or your master if you could bring my husband back from the dead." "We could, with the crystal, but that is neither here nor there." He turned to Sailor Moon and held out his hand. "Give me the crystal." Sailor Moon hesitated, looking at her friends with tears in her eyes. She turned and looked at those with her slowly. Anri whispered, "He works for a giant spider?" Uranus and Neptune laughed faintly. Uranus whispered, "We can take that stupid thing. We can't give them the crystal. They'll just kill the hostages anyway." Priss nodded. "It's one moron and a giant spider. We can take it down." Anri said, "It's too risky." Sylvie frowned, not sure what to argue. Tuxedo Kamen put a hand on Sailor Moon's shoulder. "Do what your heart tells you, Sailor Moon." Sailor Moon stood and tried to listen to her heart. ******************** A ferocious battle raging around the Mega-Tokyo Fusion Reactor ended in an instant. There was an explosion over downtown. Seconds later, the boomers, the military mechs, and the three labors went dead. Ohta swore. "AAAA!!!! This is not a good time for a bleeding breakdown!" Macky said, "Oh shit. An EMP pulse." Clancy, watching from nearby, gave a great sigh of relief. "It'll hurt them more than it will hurt us." The surviving Kasugas and Madoka sat down. "I guess someone on our side had a few tricks up his or her sleeve." Clancy nodded. "The chief probably had something to do with it." Macky shouted down, "Not unless he owns his own nukes or has a few mad scientists on staff. Probably not a nuke though" "Why question good luck?" Ohta asked. "Depends on how well the reactor controls were shielded from that blast. If the controls were fried or worse, malfunction in some manner..." They all felt a lot less comfortable. ********************* And Linna danced... >YOU ARE RIGHT IN ONE THING, SHIVA, THAT THERE IS NO WISDOM THAT WILL PRESERVE US FROM PAIN, SUFFERING, AND DESTRUCTION. BUT I SAY TO YOU THAT PAIN, SUFFERING, AND DESTRUCTION ARE NOT THE SUM OF ALL THINGS. LIFE IS THE FORGE OF SOULS. WE OFTEN ENJOY OUR LIVES NO MORE THAN A SWORD ENJOYS BEING FORGED, BUT IT IS THE FIRES WHICH MAKE US STRONG. PAIN MAKES US ENJOY PLEASURE, SUFFERING MAKES US APPRECIATE PEACE, DESTRUCTION MAKES ROOM FOR NEW CREATION. YOU ARE NOT THE SUM OF ALL THINGS, BUT ONLY A PART. YOU EXIST TO CLEAR THE GROUND FOR NEW GROWTH, FOR ALL THINGS MUST GROW IF THEY WISH TO LIVE.< The sun was shining brightly, but unusually, Hikaru was not. She sat quietly at her desk, staring out the window at three small children playing in the yard across the street. Two girls and a boy were trying to play frisbee, but the boy kept getting bonked in the head. The two girls would both rush over and try to help him up, then one of them would hug him and he would get embarrassed. It was far too symbolic for her, but she couldn't stop watching either. "Hikaru." It was a girl's voice. She didn't even hear it. The boy threw the frisbee to the girl who kept hugging him. It flew over her head and she ran off down the street after it. The shorter, blue haired girl whispered something to him, and they both laughed, then ran after the first girl. Hikaru sat and watched them, her mind carefully blank. Then she heard them. Or to be more precise, she heard their thoughts. 'What am I going to do about her?', the boy thought. 'I really like Rei-chan, but I can't try anything because it would hurt Asuka-chan.' 'I'm NOT jealous because Asuka-chan and Shin-chan are together,' the shorter, blue haired girl thought. 'Not at all.' 'I'm so glad Rei-chan and my boyfriend get along,' the taller, red haired girl thought. They were all around eight, or so Hikaru guessed. "Hikaru?" The voice spoke again. It couldn't make it past the noises in Hikaru's head. Some part of her mind caught a thought, 'What's wrong with her?' but she ignored it. The children had her attention. She wanted to scream at them. She wanted to tell Shin- chan to just come out and let Asuka know how he really felt, that they'd all just get hurt if he dragged things out. Asuka tripped on a rake and began to cry. Rei and Shin ran over to her and helped her up. Rei hugged her and dried her eyes. They were too far away for Hikaru to hear them speak, but she could hear the thoughts that preceded the sounds. 'You'll be okay, Asuka-chan. Shin-chan and I are here.' A hand touched her shoulder. "C'mon, Hikaru, don't ignore me. What's wrong?" Some tiny part of her mind identified Madoka's voice, but the rest of her mind ignored it. Asuka's hand was bleeding. Shin took out a handkerchief and bound Asuka's hand. 'We'd better take you home to get a band-aid.' He really did care about her, just not as much as he liked Rei-chan. Hikaru began to cry. She felt arms close around her. "Hikaru- chan, why are you crying? Say something to me." Hikaru wrenched herself away, trying to stop torturing herself. She buried her face in Madoka's chest. She sobbed for a long time, while Madoka made soothing noises. She could hear Madoka's thoughts. She tried to shut it off, but she was too distraught. Yet, it was a blessing in disguise. Listening to Madoka's thoughts was a reminder of how much Madoka cared about her. All Madoka was worried about right now was her. Memories drifted to the surface of Madoka's mind about other times she had comforted Hikaru when things went wrong. "Hikaru-chan, what's going on?" Madoka asked for the tenth or so time. "You haven't come to school for a week. Your mother says you wouldn't even talk to Kasuga-kun when he came to see you. We're worried about you. Can't you tell me about it?" "I'm not...I'm not the person you think I am, Madoka-chan," Hikaru managed to say, then cried some more. "I don't understand, Hikaru-chan. Did something happen with...I mean, umm..." Madoka had a moment of panic. Had Kyosuke done something to Hikaru? Had they...no, surely not. He wouldn't do something like that. Hikaru heard everything. "No, Madoka-chan! He didn't try to do anything like that to me at all!" Madoka started. "How did you know what I was, uh..." "I guess Darling didn't tell you anything," Hikaru said softly. "He said I should ask you, that it wasn't his place to tell me. Only you could tell me." Oh god, what if...no, surely I would have heard if someone had ra... With a struggle, Hikaru managed to shut off her telepathy. If I don't learn to control these abilities, I'm going to pass out all the time, she thought. "It was worse than being raped. I tried to kill Darling and all his family." Madoka blinked. For once, she was speechless. "This is going to be very hard for you to believe, but I can prove some of it, and Darling can back me up on the rest." She took a deep breath, then used the Power to pull one of her stuffed animals off the bed and across the room into her hands. "I'm a psychic now, because my powers were awakened by a being named Y who tried to seduce me into killing off the Kasugas. He almost succeeded." *************** It had taken hours for Hikaru to tell Madoka everything. The sun was setting when she finished. "So I don't know what to do now. I've been avoiding Darling because I know he doesn't really love me and I don't know how to face him. He loves you, Madoka-chan. I've seen his heart, and I only come in second, but I still love him with all my heart. I know you love him too." Madoka's mouth moved, but no words came out. "Don't lie to me. I can hear your thoughts sometimes. I'm trying not to read your mind, but I'm not very good at controlling my powers yet." She sighed. "It's ironic, really. My love for him enabled me to beat Y and take my body and my soul back, but at the same time, I learned how Kyosuke really felt." She would have cried, but she was out of tears. "You've got to let him know how you feel. You shouldn't have to suffer for my stupidity." "You are NOT stupid, Hikaru. Not half as stupid as I am," Madoka said quietly. "I should have...If only I had..." Hikaru sighed. "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. You will take good care of Darling, won't you?" "Don't talk like you're going to die or never see us again! I'm not going to let this destroy our friendship. I still want to be your best friend, Hikaru-chan. We've always been best friends. Just tell me how I can help you with this." "I...you really mean it?" Madoka smiled. "Read my mind." She tried to open her mind, although she really had no idea how someone would do that. Hikaru reached out with the Power and found herself plunging into it. The world around her faded away in a swirl of light as she plunged through Madoka's self. Many different Madokas danced around a glowing orb inside Madoka's mind. There was a small child, playing with a little brown haired boy and a blond-haired girl. There was a beautifully clad musician playing a saxaphone on a ledge, looking down on a forested valley below. A third danced with a slightly clumsy black-haired boy. A fourth lay on a bed and cried herself to sleep, alone in the house at night again. A fifth swam in a swimming pool with Hikaru. They raced neck and neck towards an unseen goal. Another Madoka stood guard over the others, a cigarette in her mouth, arms folded in front of her chest, glaring out at the world with cold, silent eyes. She saw Hikaru and smiled, fading away and letting Hikaru float towards the others. As Hikaru approached, they all turned and smiled at her. One by one, they floated into each other, aspects of a whole that soon floated before her, glowing from the light of the orb. Hikaru stared at the orb and saw her own face reflected in that. "What's the orb, Madoka-chan?" "That's the light by which I guide my path. I often walk in darkness and shadow, but I know if I walk towards that light, I will always find my way home." The orb shimmered and began to change shape. Madoka held out a hand to Hikaru. "You're so bright and cheerful, Hikaru, and I'm so moody and gloomy so often. You're the light that guides me home. I love Kyosuke, and I know you love him too. I don't want to have to choose between you." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Because I need both of you. You're my oldest friend, Hikaru-chan." The orb finished changing and became an image of Hikaru as an angel with wings. Hikaru smiled and took Madoka's hand. "And you're my oldest and best friend, Madoka-chan. I don't know how we'll do this, but I know with your help, I can do anything." They joined hands and for a moment, they were one. They knew each other more intimately than they had ever known anyone, even themselves. Hikaru didn't know what she was doing, but in that instant, she unlocked something inside Madoka, something that Y had unlocked inside of her. Their eyes opened. Hikaru smiled. "I think we'd better call Darling and tell him what we've decided." Madoka's lips quirked in a smile. "Won't he be surprised. I'll just get the phone and..." She surprised herself as the phone suddenly flew across the room into her hands. "Uh, thanks, Hikaru." Hikaru smiled. "Don't thank me too soon." ************************ Noa stared out at the city. Everything electronic in the area had gone dead. Dysfunctional boomers were scattered everywhere. Alphonse seemed to be going fine. She checked her sense of her husband. He was fine, though somewhat panicky. She tried beaming him a comforting thought, but if he got it, it didn't do any good. She had to try, though. "What's going on, Alphonse? Why are you still running when everything seems to have gone kablooey? I can't even pick up anything on the radio." She didn't seriously expect a response. A female voice said, "We detonated an EMP bomb, that's what." For a moment, Hikaru thought Alphonse was talking and nearly had a heart attack. Then she realized it was Professor Hiyama and one of the Sailor Warriors. This wasn't much less of a shock. "Professor Hiyama? What are you doing here?" "Remember the Millenial Riots?" "Yeah." "Wanna come help stop the bastard who caused it?" "He's still alive?" "For the moment," Pluto said. "Count me in." Pluto gestured with the Time Staff and Hikaru concentrated. The trio vanished and reappeared inside the now warped room that held the Overmind System. It resembled some sort of demonic electronic cathedral now, with a huge throne in which Quincy/X sat, giving orders to minions who had mostly died now. X laughed. "So, you have come to be swatted like flies, have you? Oooh, a labor. I'm so scared." Noa felt her stomach curdle. She could sense this thing, this abomination nearby. It was a presence she hadn't felt since the Millenial Riots. "My god...you were controlling all those labors." "Much as I'd like to brag, I haven't controlled more than one or two labors at a time since the Millenial riots." "That's exactly what I was talking about!" "Any idiot can control a labor anyway. It has no will of its own. Let me show you." X reached out to take control of the labor. He failed. It was like trying to cling to a smooth glass surface with only your sweat to help you. The labor was an extension of her, not just a machine. He couldn't occupy it without abandoning this body, and even then, he couldn't be guaranteed of success. He recognized the mind as well. For a moment, a jab of terror ran though him. It was HER. The only one who had ever thwarted his power. Even the Galaxy Police had to knock him out to stop his power from working. He shunted Quincy's mind away from the body into the body they had prepared for Quincy in case of emergency. This may be the end, he told it. Good luck, Quincy told him. If this is the end, you will be perhaps the only person who I will truly miss. It was the last thing X ever heard Quincy say to him. Noa tensed, then relaxed as nothing happened. Hikaru laughed. "End of the line, X. I'm going to do to you what I did to Y, except I'm going to try to make it more painful." "You think I would sit here defenseless?" Pluto turned and faced three of the 'cathedral''s pillars. "Dead scream," she whispered and blasted the pillars to powder. The three fusion boomers collapsed and crumbled to dust. "No, I don't believe that at all." "You're under arrest, Quincy, or whatever your real name is. Are you going to come quietly, or what?" Before he could answer, part of the floor erupted in an explosion upwards. Ryouko and Tenchi flew up through the hole. Ryouko said, "I think we finally made it, Tenchi." Tenchi blinked. "How'd all these people get here ahead of us?" And how did that labor get up here without making more of a mess than we did? X frowned. "You know you can kill this body, but you can't stop me. I cannot die." "That's what Y thought before I destroyed him." She closed her eyes and plunged into X's mind. It was like plunging headfirst into a sewer. To the others, it looked like a staredown. "Now what?" Noa asked Pluto. "We wait." "Excuse me, but who are you and what's going on here?" Ryouko asked Pluto. She didn't get a satisfactory answer. Pluto had a streak going and she didn't want to break it now. ************************ Aeka swore and opened fire on as many of the missiles as she could. It wasn't going to be enough. Too many nations had either decided to strike first, or were panicking and unleashing their arsenals to avoid being struck first. They were too spread out and her weapons didn't have enough range. On the other side of the Earth, Sasami was cursing the same curses, ones both of them had heard their mothers using when they didn't think the kids were listening. To make matters worse, there was that pulse of power she had picked up. In space, over the North pole, a single woman appeared, floating in space without need of a spacesuit to sustain her life. She was dressed in the uniform of the Sailor Warriors, armed with a long glaive. She raised the glave and summoned her power. Sasami saw her and paled. I can't possibly stop her and the missiles. If she is here to silence me... Sailor Saturn spoke, and all in orbit around the Earth heard her voice through the void. "The hour of the Apocalypse has not yet come. Mankind may yet Silence itself, but I say nay." She raised her glaive and white energy formed in a corruscating cone around it. She raised her right hand and stygian darkness enveloped it. She brought her hand around and grasped the glaive. A whirling storm of light and darkness erupted forth in great grey ribbons, raining down upon the earth. It was one of the most spectacular displays of power that Tsunami had ever seen. The ribbons struck the flights of missles, laying waste to them. Dozens quietly ceased to exist. Others were rendered inert and basically became large rocks for all practical purposes. Even Saturn could not stop all the missles, but Aeka and Sasami could handle the remainder. Drained, Saturn quietly passed out. Sasami took a moment to pick her up. Poor child, she thought. I just hope that there will not be another launch of missiles, for I know that even you could not manage that twice in so short a time. She took Saturn to the waters of life within her ship. I pray you will recover and that your efforts will not have been in vain. ****************** And Linna danced.. >YOU CLAIM THAT INNOCENCE TOO LEADS TO DESTRUCTION, BUT I SAY TO YOU THAT INNOCENCE IS THE ROOT OF LIFE. IT IS THE SOURCE OF HEALING AND OF LOVE. WE MUST BECOME AS CHILDREN TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.< Sailor Moon stood, the silver moon crystal shining from the brooch upon her chest. Her hair whipped about her in the wind as the meteor upon which she, Tuxedo Kamen, her friends, and Fiore stood plunged into the Earth's atmosphere. Sailor Venus shouted, "No!" Sailor Mars tried to stand up, "Don't use the Silver Moon Crystal!" Sailor Jupiter was sprawled on the ground, but she could see it too. "If you use the crystal..." Sailor Mercury finished her sentence for her. "You'll die!" All Tuxedo Kamen could do was to cough out, "No!" "Using the Silver Crystal is the only way to save us all. Don't worry. I won't die. Let's return to Earth together," Sailor Moon said, turning to face them. She turned and the crystal glowed brighter. Suddenly, its glow was stifled as Fiore's hand closed upon the crystal. He wrenched it from her uniform, which fell apart into red ribbons trailing in the wind. His heart was shattered. He would rather die, than go on living alone. And they would die with him. Sailor Moon gazed at him with tears in his eyes. Gently she placed her hands upon his wrists. He expected her to shout defiance, but instead she just looked sadly at him and said, "What are you so scared of? It's all right, Fiore. You don't have to be lonely anymore." He shouted out his fear and loneliness, for he had been deceived so many times. "No! I won't let you trick me!" The light of the silver crystal flowed over him and he saw the truth. He saw Mamoru, a little boy, in the hospital, alone. A young girl with odangoed hair came to him. She comforted him and told him he didn't have to be lonely anymore. She gave him a single rose, the same rose he had later given Fiore when Fiore had to leave. The rose that had been the symbol of the love he had believed existed between him and Mamoru, his only friend in all the world. The truth of what he had done finally struck him and it was more than he could bear. The love between this girl and his Mamoru was true, and so was her compassion. He let go of the crystal and it burned away the flower that he had allowed to steal his soul. Now he understood what love truly was. When the time came, he gave his life to her, that she might live after she gave her life in the use of the crystal that her friends might live. To give her his energy was a small price to pay for regaining his soul. He would never forget her. ******************** One of the cocoons stirred. The spider struck in an instant, striking the cocoon with a leg. It was Makoto. She let out a great cry and slumped again. Z smiled. "Don't take too long. The master grows impatient." Priss said, "So, does he pay you in flies or what?" "This is but one of his thousand forms, but one highly useful to his purpose in this case. I tire of bandying words. Give me the crystal now, or your friends will DIE, starting with that one who just tried to get free." Sailor Moon mouthed a name. "Mako-chan." She stepped forward, pulling the broach from her uniform, which dissolved into ribbons around her. "Take it. Just let them go. I can't bear to see them hurt. Please...just give me my friends." Priss cursed. She heard Uranus whisper, "I knew she'd do that." "If you knew, why didn't you stop her?" "No one can stop her when she does what she thinks is right." Z held the crystal aloft. His eyes glittered in its light. "The Silver Crystal of the Moon Kingdom. The Philosopher's Stone. The Teardrop of Diana. For over a hundred years, under a hundred names, I have searched for you. Now you are mine, and I shall shake the heavens." Black light glowed around his fist, flowed into the Silver Crystal and smothered the light that shone within it. Darkness erupted from it, an inky life smothering cloud. The ribbons around Usagi dissolved away and she stood naked before him, clad only in her skin and her dignity. "You have the crystal. You've won. But I warn you...you won't use this if you know what is good for you." "Good and Evil are defined by those who have power, and I have all the power I could ever need." He gathered his strength for his first stroke. A great black beam of energy connected him to his master's avatar, giving his master access to the crystal as well. "Power is never adequate. You never have enough power to do all that you really want to do. All I want is my friends. Please, set them free." "I will reunite you with them...by sending you to prepare a room for them in the mansions of the dead." He fired a black bolt of energy at Usagi, who stood defenseless before it. She never had time to even think about dodging. ******************** Aeka and Sasami were communicating by subspace radio. "What WAS that?" Aeka asked. "It was the power of Saturn." "The planet?" "The Senshi of Life and Death. She saved the world, but at great cost. I do not know if she will live. The Water of Life seems to not be helping much, and I do not know why." Before Aeka could further reply, space folded around Tsunami and yanked the entire ship into another place. Space folded again and pulled Sasami out of the ship. She tried to resist, but the amount of power being exerted was more than she could comprehend, let alone resist. It could mean only one thing. SHIVA had the Crystal. She appeared before Shiva's tribunal. The judge smiled. "All three defendants are here now. Excellent." Excellence is always a matter of perspective. ****************** "She's going to do WHAT?" Noa said. "Devour X's soul. It's the only way to kill him without requiring a fairly powerful magical artifact. Actually, technically speaking, she's going to overwhelm his sense of self and cause him to lose the mind and identity which are what keeps his spiritual body together." Noa shuddered. Tenchi listened quietly, while Ryouko tried to figure out what the hell Pluto was talking about. It looked like a staredown to her. Noa said, "That's horrible! No one deserves to be obliterated like that." "His 'brother', if you will, nearly made her kill her love and his entire family. He exploited her heart to turn her into a weapon for his revenge. She had to destroy him or be destroyed. She feels that it's her duty to make sure no more of these beings survive to do to others what they have done to her. His soul is stained with evil on a scale you cannot even begin to comprehend. He is fully worthy of death. He arranged the Kanto Quake and killed millions for his own gain. Can you blame her?" "I say, kill the bastard!" Ryouko said. "Sounds like he deserves it." "Killing him won't bring back the dead. I'm a cop. I've killed before. I may kill again if I have to, but I know that killing someone never undoes what they did. Professor Hiyama, are you after him to stop him from causing more deaths or are you just in this for revenge?" Hikaru heard her. She had X on the ropes. He was fleeing inside his mind. He couldn't escape her. He was drawing on the power all around him, but so was she, and she was more strongly motivated than him. She hesitated. Revenge. The concept was so sweet. To do to him what his brother had done to her. She shuddered. I'm not like that. Revenge isn't supposed to be part of me. X turned at bay and faced her. She stared at him. You can't help it, can you, she thought. It's your nature to be so vile. I, on the other hand, have a choice. She wove a mental web and bound him in place. "You won't be able to leave this body as long as I keep you bound, and I don't intend to untie you." "No, don't trap me in this aging shell!" She smiled. "I'm trapped in my aging shell as well. I guess that makes us even." She turned to the others. "It's over." IT'S NEVER OVER. The voice boomed through the chamber. The mental web that Hikaru had woven was snapped by an outside force. IT'S NEVER OVER UNTIL I END IT. X, YOUR BUILDING HAS BEEN TURNED INTO A WEAPON BY WASYUU. TAKE IT. X flowed out of the body and into the Tower, now a giant mecha-Wasyuu. He mastered it in an instant with the power that his master fed into him. Pluto said quietly, "Now the battle really begins." ************** Usagi vanished in a blast of black energy. Tuxedo Kamen stood in shock, unable to move. The others responded by attacking instinctively. Priss charged, sword in hand, driven by yet another of the great waves of guilt that had so long controlled her life. Once again, someone had died where it should have been her. Energy of every color known to man fired at Z. Priss raised her sword, leapt into the air and came down, intending to chop Z in half. He casually swatted her away with a giant fly swatter of dark energy. Every blast faded away into the darkness. The crystal flickered briefly with pinpoints of light as it sucked in their energy, which the darkness then devoured. Z was transfigured, becoming a giant shadow of a man, lost in dreams of power. Priss continued to attack him fruitlessly, while the others tried to save the captives before the spider could eat them. They might have succeeded if Z hadn't turned his attention back to them. Power flared from his hands and five bolts of energy closed in on Priss to destroy her. ******************** Unseen by anyone, the power of SHIVA flowed into the Mega- Tokyo Fusion Reactor. The safeties were destroyed, as were the controls. The staff had fled, the heroes on the outside were still trying to get in, and there was no one to see as the reactor now began to flow towards critical. Far away, his power danced across the world, setting off the second wave of missiles. It was time to bring the dance of destruction on tour. ******************* And Linna danced... >YOU SAY THAT IMMORTALITY IS AN ILLUSION, BUT I SAY TO YOU THAT EVERY HUMAN SOUL IS BEYOND YOUR POWER. YOU CAN NEITHER CREATE NOR DESTROY US. EVEN IF YOU WARP US, WE WILL PASS BEYOND YOUR GRASP. DEATH IS NOT THE ENDING, BUT ONLY THE END OF THE BEGINNING, THE CLOSING OF BUT THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE STORY OF OUR LIFE. ONCE YOU MAY HAVE HELD SOME CLAIM ON OUR SOULS, BUT THAT CLAIM HAS BEEN PAID, ANY DEBT CANCELLED, FOR THE LORD OF LIFE CAME DOWN AND DANCED UPON THE EARTH. YOU SAY YOU SLEW HIM, AND YOU DID, BUT YOU COULD NOT KEEP HIM IN YOUR GRASP.< Ten men sat in an upstairs room, eating quietly and trying to figure out what to do next. They were not wealthy men, unlike many of those who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover. They had come as disciples of a rabbi and eaten with him just three days earlier in this very room. He had announced that one of them would betray him. They didn't believe it. As always, he was right, and they were wrong. Judas had betrayed them to the Roman authorities. He was gone now, with their money, not that they had had much. They had hoped he was the one who would free them from the hated Romans and inaugurate the Kingdom of Heaven. They had hoped he was the Messiah. They were not his only followers. One such man was providing the room within which they ate and slept, and the food they consumed. Another such, one Joseph of Arimathea, a merchant in tin, copper, and bronze, had provided the tomb within which their master now lay. A friend inside the Sanhedrin had helped keep the authorities away from them. They were safe for the moment, but people were still looking for them, they knew. They could be killed as rebels by the Romans as their master had been at any time. They had locked the door, though they knew it would provide little protection. Peter and Simon the Zealot both had swords, but that wouldn't do much good against the Roman army. Peter had given his sword to Thomas, who had gone out with the women to buy supplies. Simon said, "If we wait until the end of Passover, we can slip out of the city in the rush of people heading home. I know some people up in the hills who will take us in. They'll rag on me for a while for leaving them, but they'd be glad to get this many recruits. It'll be dangerous, but..." Matthew got up and stared out the window, pulling back the curtain. "Shouldn't Thomas be back by now? It doesn't take THIS long to buy food, even during Passover." "He's probably squeezing every fruit by hand," Philip said. "If we wanted speed, we should have sent someone else. Besides, with the amount of noise James' mother makes, if they got caught, we'd probably hear her all the way up here." James, son of Alphaeus, frowned. "She's not that loud." The other James, brother of John and son of Zebedee, sensed another fight about to break out. Philip and James didn't get along much better than the two feuding villages they came from. The fact that Philip's father had given him a Greek name to help him rise in the world didn't help. He looked over at Peter, who was staring at the ceiling, and his brother, who seemed to also be finding something interesting to look at on the ceiling. Those two had been acting funny ever since they'd come back from the tomb. The women of their group had gone out to the tomb that Joshua, their rabbi, had been buried in, in order to properly annoint his body. The burial had been hasty, a mad panicked rush to get the Master stowed away before the Sabbath began. None of the disciples had even been present but John, for everyone else had been cowering for their lives in hideyholes around the city. To the horror of the disciples, the women, lead by Mary of Magdalene, an ex-prostitute, had returned and announced that the Master's body was gone and that they had seen two angels. The angels had told them that the Master had risen from the dead. It seemed pretty clear that the women had been so worked up that they had started imagining things. The dead don't just get up and walk away. Sure there was Lazarus, but who in this city could have done such a deed for the Master? And why would they have done it without telling anyone? Thomas had theorized that they had probably gone to the wrong tomb. There were lots of empty tombs near the one the Master had been buried in. John and Peter had gone back with the women to investigate. John knew where the correct tomb was, and Peter was still wracked with guilt over his behavior the night of the Master's death. He could at least insure a proper burial. John and Peter had returned and made a shocking announcement. "He...The Master's body is gone. The stone was rolled aside and there was nothing left inside but the wrappings, neatly rolled up in a long sheath as if they just unwrapped his head and pulled him out." Peter was in shock. What made James worry was that John didn't say anything during the whole affair, except to affirm what Peter had said. He didn't look surprised or worried at all. James knew this look. It was the same look John got whenever he knew something James didn't. Not that he would tell James of course. He never did until it was too late and they both ended up getting paddled by their father or worse. James sat and thought about it. Matthew tried to drag the other James and Philip away from each other with Andrew's help, but James no longer noticed. John knew something. James was sure of it, and he was equally sure that Peter didn't know whatever it was that John knew. Could it be that the Master wasn't really dead? Had John and Joseph and Nicodemus pulled some sort of con job on the Romans? Somehow gotten the Master down before he died and smuggled him off somewhere to recover? He dismissed the thought. The Romans didn't let anyone down until they were sure the person was dead. Questionable cases got a spear in the side and bled to death. That had happened to Joshua, in fact. Mary had told James in excessive detail about how a Roman had stuck a spear in the Master's side and he had bled blood and water. For that matter, Andrew had gone to see the tomb yesterday, and he had reported the Romans had put guards in front of it. The Master had to have died, he had to have been buried. However, the guards were gone now. Peter and John hadn't seen them. The women said the angels had chased them away. James went round and round in circles in his head, trying to figure out what was going on. There were footsteps on the stairs. Peter leaped to his feet and drew his sword. Philip and James, son of Alphaeus, finally stopped sniping at each other. Everyone tensed, except John, who quietly got up and walked over to the top of the stairs. He looked down the stairs. "Hello, Joanna." Joanna walked into the room and everyone relaxed. She was carrying a jug of wine and a loaf of bread. "Sorry we took so long. Mary is starting some stew. You can munch on this while we cook." "Where's Thomas?" Peter asked. "He and James' mother are arguing with a merchant over whether or not his scales are rigged." Philip groaned. "This is NOT the right time for this." Andrew said, "Well, let's eat. I'm starving." They got out their cups and laid down on the dining couches around the table. It was a rather silly Roman custom, but one that was catching on around the Mediterranean, along with dozens of other things that had subtly crept into their lives since the coming of Rome. Peter began tearing the bread into roughly even hunks for everyone while John began filling the cups with wine. He had an uncanny knack for pouring out exactly the same amount for everyone without even looking. One cup sat alone, untouched. It had been the Master's cup. It had sat in the middle of the table since their last dinner with him. No one had dared to move it. There was still some left over wine left in it. John reached out to move it out of the way. They talked quietly in whispers as the food was prepared. The smell of the stew began to drift up the stairs. John's hand closed around the cup. As he began to move it, a voice spoke. "Peace be with you." John started and the liquid in the cup surged over the brim, flying through the air onto Bartholemew, a large, stolid, silent man. Everyone turned and saw the man that they had never expected to see again. The Master stood amongst them, between Matthew's couch and the empty couch that Thomas would have been on, if he hadn't been busy arguing with a fruit merchant. He wore only the simplest of white robes over his burly, muscled frame. Though not very tall, he seemed almost the size of a mountain, as if no roof could be high enough to rise over his head. He smiled as if nothing had happened, as if he had never left them at all. For a moment, no one could speak, although Bartholemew spluttered a bit, wiping wine out of his eyes and off his face. Peter tried to speak, but words failed him. Finally, James spoke. "A ghost. It must be a ghost." He could hear his voice, but it was as if his real self was off somewhere else listening to him speak. Simon was muttering over and over, "No, it can't be. I must be dreaming." Philip was muttering something about locked doors and silent entrances. Everyone wondered how he, whoever this was, could have gotten into the room without anyone hearing him. The man smiled a loving smile. "Why are you disturbed? Why do such ideas cross your mind? Look at my hands and my feet; it is really I. Touch me and see that a ghost does not have flesh and bones as I do." He held out his hands and they could see the scars on his wrists, recently healed from having nails driven through them. Looking at his feet, they could see the scars there as well. Joanna entered with the fish stew. She didn't recognize the new man until after she came around and put the pot of stew on the table. "I see we have a..." She looked at the man. "Guest." She fell to her knees. "It cannot be..." He smiled at her. "It is." His hand touched her shoulder and she fainted. Everyone continued to stare, completely paralzyed. He gently bent and lifted her from the floor onto the empty couch, then said, "Have you anything here to eat?" It was an entirely rhetorical question, unless he was blind. Matthew instinctively filled a bowl with the stew and handed it to him and he began to eat, sitting by the unconscious woman on the couch. They all stared at him, watching him eat in silence. After a few moments, he looked up. "Time enough to fast when the bridegroom has departed. Eat. You all look hungry." They ate, questions in their minds, and hope rising in their hearts. The Master had returned to lead them in the Great Dance, to teach them to lead others, that in the end, all might join in the dance and be gathered unto Himself. The power of death was broken, and a new age begun. And the dance goes on. ******************* The blasts didn't make it to their target. Inches from Priss' body, something invisible stopped them. A dimly glowing shield, shaped like a human being, had interposed itself. A voice spoke faintly. "I won't let you hurt my friends." Z hurled another blast. The shield glowed more brightly and became more solid. It was Usagi, clad now in the garb of the royalty of the Moon Kingdom, her crescent moon shining upon her brow. Everyone paused. "Usagi...you...you're alive." Priss said. It was horribly cliche, but she didn't know what else to say Usagi began to float towards Z, still translucent. "Can't you see what you're doing to yourself, Z? Give me the crystal before it's too late." "No! I'm FINE!" "Then why can't you kill me? Give me the crystal and I'll help you." Usagi's voice was soft with compassion. Priss couldn't believe it. Z hurled blast after blast at her. With every blast, he began to shrink. Even the giant spider watched in silence, whether from curiosity or the same sense of horror that rendered the others unable to move, no one could say. Usagi became more solid with every blow. A white light began to shine in the heart of the crystal. "Damn you! DIE!!!!!" "The crystal magnifies your abilities, but it takes a little piece of you every time you use it. The more power you draw from it, the more it draws from you. Those who seek to wield its power on their own die. Only by sharing the cost with others can it be used without death. Please, give me the crystal before it's too late. I don't want you to die." She reached out a hand to him, her face limned with tears. "Please." "No! I won't be taken in! You're trying to trick me! I'm SICK OF PEOPLE WHO THINK THEY KNOW BETTER TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!" He gathered as much power as he could and hurled it at her. All of the darkness around him flowed into the crystal, smothering the light. The resulting bolt could have levelled Tokyo, could have boiled the Indian Ocean into a dry pile of fish in an instant, could have rendered small countries uninhabitable for a thousand years. The energy slammed into Usagi with the force of a comet. The instant it all flowed out of the crystal, the crystal blazed white. There was no energy left behind. Z had invested all of his energy into the attack, and because he was nothing but energy, there was nothing left of him. The body he had ridden collapsed. The energy struck Usagi, who cried as it evaporated about her harmlessly. She reached out her hand and took the crystal. A crystal rod formed in her hands and the crystal mounted itself upon the rod. She was still crying as beams of energy fired from the rod, tearing apart the web and slicing the cocoons to bits. More energy wafted the captives over to the rest of her friends. She turned to face Shiva's avatar. "Why...why are you doing this? What do you want? Why did you let him destroy himself? You could have stopped him. I don't understand you." The avatar never got the chance to properly answer her. ******************** And Linna danced. >YOU TRIED TO BREAK ME WITH THE LITANY OF MY FAILURES, BUT I SAY THEE NAY. I HAVE NOT BEEN BROKEN. WHEN ONE EXERCISES, ONE DAMAGES ONESELF AND HEALS BACK STRONGER, AND SO IT HAS BEEN WITH ME. YOUR EVERY BLOW HAS MADE ME WHAT I AM TODAY, AND WHAT I AM IS BEYOND YOUR POWER TO TOUCH.< The doctor stood over Linna's bed. "You're a very lucky young lady. Most children your age would have completely broken both their legs falling out of that tree like that, but you've only got a very small fracture. Still, you're going to need a cast." Linna, a black haired eight year old, nodded. "Okay. Is my cat okay?" "The veterinarian says he wasn't hurt at all." Linna gave a great sigh of relief. "I was afraid I fell on him." She had climbed up in the tree, trying to help her cat Whitey, who liked to climb trees, but was also afraid of heights. Normally, she didn't fall down when she did this, but Whitey had panicked for some reason and they both fell. "You'll both be fine, but I'd advise you not to go climbing for a while." Linna only waited until the cast was off to go climbing because she found out that she couldn't actually climb successfully with the cast. As it was, the first thing she did after the doctor cut the cast off was to go climbing again. *********** Linna had never thought she could cry so many tears in her life. She was sixteen when her parents died at the hands of rampaging boomers. She moved into her aunt and uncle's house. Hiromi Yamazaki was a mountain of a man, silent, but compassionate. He mourned his younger brother deeply, but he didn't let it show. Her aunt, Takeo, was a great comfort for Linna. She was not as deeply touched by the loss, but in her case, it simply enabled her to act more effectively to help those who were. She arranged the funeral in her methodical, business-like way. She also had time to sit with Linna and talk or hug her when she needed it. They were the rocks she clung to in the emotional storm that besieged her. "Sometimes, Aunt Takeo, I just want to buy a gun and start shooting boomers, then go down to GENOM and just kill everything that moves for turning those...those monsters loose in the city." "It won't bring back your parents, Linna," her aunt replied. "I couldn't bring back Daisuke, either." She sighed. "Though I certainly kept trying for thirty years on the police force." "Who was Daisuke?" Linna had never heard of him. "Ito Daisuke was my first boyfriend. He was killed when he walked into the middle of some Yakuza business. I joined the police so I could prevent anything like that from happening again. I spent a lot of time being unhappy, driven, and somewhat grim before I finally realized what I was doing." "Did you ever catch the man who did it?" "He was executed by his Daimyo three months later for badly botching some mission. I never got my revenge. I don't think it would have helped me if I had." Linna nodded. "I never used to think thoughts like these, but I just...They asked me to go downtown with them, but I was gonna go out with Choji and..." "Linna, if you keep tormenting yourself with might have beens and guilt you don't deserve, I will spank you. Then I'll tie you down and make your uncle tell you EVERY story he knows." Linna laughed. "No, anything but that!" "You can't take responsibility for other people dying because you weren't there. You can't be everywhere and protect everyone. Sometimes, people die, and you just can't save them. I've had to learn this from being a cop or I would have gone stark raving mad. If you had been with them, you'd just be dead too." Linna nodded. "I know. I just...I need something else to do or I'll go nuts." "Maybe you should try stepping up your martial arts lessons. Your sensei tells me you have a lot of promise. I'm sure she can help you learn to meditate as well. It's a good way to find more peace with yourself." Linna nodded. "Thanks, Auntie." She hugged her aunt, who smiled. "You're welcome. Now you can come help me cook dinner." *************** Linna placed a flower on the grave. "Rest in peace, my friend." For a moment, she could hear Irene's voice, singing along to some goofy pop song. The realization suddenly struck Linna. That was a song by... "Hello, Linna." Speak of the devil and he appears. Apparently this applied to Vision as well. "I'm glad you came." She was dressed sedately in a nice dress and hardly resembled her flamboyant idol singer identity that she maintained for the public's benefit. "Grandfather wanted to come, but he's too sick." She placed a bouquet on the grave, then set up a candle and lit it. She knelt and prayed. Linna followed suit, though she wasn't quite sure what she was praying to. Her mother had been an Anglican, of all things. Linna STILL wasn't sure why the Anglican Church existed in Japan, given it was a British thing, but her mother had certainly been happy about it. Her mother was British, and she had tried to raise Linna to be a good Anglican. However, Linna's father, to the extent that he believed in anything, was a traditional Buddhist and Shinto follower, so she had been dragged to all sorts of traditional rites as well. Linna wasn't sure what she believed. There was some sort of supreme being, but what he or she wanted, and what he or she was, she wasn't sure. Thus, she prayed a mixed up prayer to a being who might have been Amaterasu, the sun goddess, or Buddha, or maybe the Christian God, or possibly just a passing kindly spirit, to watch over Irene's soul, wherever it was, and to help her find the happiness she deserved. Vision finished praying. "Maybe the gods will bring her the vengeance she deserved." Linna said, "I thought you gave up on seeking that vengeance." Vision sighed. "Most of the time, I've accepted my own limits in this...but it all comes back to me today." Linna nodded. "I know. It took me a long time to get over losing my parents to boomers. The same for when Irene was killed. Especially knowing I might have been able to prevent it." "I wish you could have." She turned and stared into the skies. Linna sighed. "I wish I could have done a lot of things. If I've learned anything, though, it's that I can't spend all my time beating myself for my past mistakes. I've learned to take my lumps and move on." She nodded. "I admire you for that. You bounce back so fast. I wish I did." "Just give it time. Come on. Let's go get drunk and sing karaoke together." She laughed. "Good idea. Just don't ask me to sing any of my own songs, okay?" They had a grand old time, even when Linna manuevered Vision into singing one of her own songs and a horde of drunken fans besieged them. *********************** Ryouko, Pluto, Hikaru, and Noa floated in subspace, battling the giant Mecha-Wasyuu. It was rather like four flies trying to fight the battleship Texas. It couldn't hit them because they were too small, while they couldn't do enough damage to even make it notice them. Ryouko swore again and again, blasting away at the thing. "Goddamn you, what have you done with TENCHI?" He had vanished in a burst of light and if anyone knew where he was going, they weren't telling. Noa was almost enjoying it. How Alphonse could fly or where the heck they were, she had no idea, but she felt like she WAS Ingraman. She laughed again. Asuma-kun's not going to believe ANY of this. Too bad I can't fire energy blasts. She imagined herself firing a ray of purple energy right through the giant robot. Suddenly, a blast of light fired from Alphonse's hands and lanced into one of the robot's arms. It didn't do much damage, but it surprised the hell out of her. "What the...did you do that, Alphonse?" He didn't reply, which was probably good for her sanity. Pluto quietly slapped her forehead. "I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier," she muttered. She reached into a pocket that didn't exist a few seconds earlier, and pulled out a strange object that resembled a folding visor on a stick, somewhat like high tech opera glasses. She tossed the item through the mists to Noa. To her surprise, it passed right through Alphonse's closed head door and landed in her lap. Pluto shouted up to Noa. "USE IT!" Noa stared at the object for a moment. Noa stared at the inscription on one side. 'The Warrior and her Weapon are one. Speak the word and it shall be done.' Noa suddenly knew what she had to do. She flicked the visor open and held it up to her eyes, then spoke the word it was awaiting. "Grow." Ryouko stared as the Ingram began to expand, changing as it grew. It became sleeker and more human-like. Sharp angles became smooth curves. White metal became white flesh. Windows became eyes. Even the rampaging Mecha-Wasyuu watched in awe. Soon, it was confronted by a woman clad in white armor, carrying a huge electrified rod. X spoke a single word. "No." "Yes." The battle was joined. ********************* And Linna danced... >IN YOUR PRIDE, SHIVA, YOU WOULD CLAIM THAT ALL THINGS BELONG TO YOU, THAT DEATH IS THE END OF EVERY STORY. YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN THAT THE END OF ONE STORY IS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF ANOTHER, FOR THE GREAT STORY OF THE UNIVERSE GOES ON. EVERY DEATH IS FOLLOWED BY BIRTH; EVERY 'AND THEN THEY DIED' FOLLOWED BY 'BUT IT DID NOT END THEIR EXISTENCE, MERELY THEIR PLACE OF RESIDENCE'. ALL HAPPINESS, ALL HATRED, ALL THE JOY AND ALL THE SUFFERING OF A SINGLE MORTAL SOUL ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS THAT EVER HAPPENED, FOR THEY ARE THE FORGE THAT CREATES A BEING WHO WILL PLAY THE PART SHE HAS SHAPED FOR HERSELF FOR ETERNITY.< SHIVA had been driven back to the far end of the arena by the light that shone from Linna. The Fates floated in the air between them, watching as Linna made her final summation. >YOU HAVE SHAPED ME WITH YOUR HAMMER BLOWS, BUT IT IS I WHO HAS DETERMINED WHAT I HAVE BEEN FORGED INTO. WHAT I HAVE BECOME IS BEYOND YOUR POWER AND I SEE NOW THAT I ALWAYS WAS. I FOLLOW THE ONE WHO DIED, YET LIVES AGAIN, AND I TOO LIVE AGAIN AFTER THE DEATH YOU BELIEVE IS THE SUM OF ALL THINGS. I AM LINNA YAMAZAKI, AND I AM FREE OF YOUR POWER, NOW AND FOREVER.< Linna brandished the lightning she held in her right hand, and spiraled about, completing her dance. She released the voice of command, knowing it would come again if she needed it. "I stand ready for judgement." The green-robed middle fate spoke. "Our judgement is rendered. You have spoken well, Linna Yamazaki, and truly. You are indeed beyond his power. SHIVA is only part of the cycle of life, a cycle that is beyond his power to stop or destroy. All things must end in time, but only that they might be reborn, better than before, or replaced by other things whose time has come. That time approaches for your world, when it must face destruction in order that it may rest and be born again into a new age, a new youth of the world. Yet, that time need not come immediately. By your labors, Linna Yamazaki, you have won your world a respite of a generation. You have thirty years to prepare for that day of reckoning to come. SHIVA, you are denied the right to smite this world." NO! IT CANNOT BE! MY WILL CANNOT BE DENIED! YOU CANNOT STOP ME! I WILL DIE FIRST! The purple-hooded fate spoke. "As you wish, so it shall be done. You are more replaceable than you believe. With all his flaws, your maker prepared for such a contingency." The yellow-hooded fate turned to Linna. "Your world trembles on the brink of oblivion. Will you go to them and lead them in the dance of life? Will you help them to prepare for what is to come?" "It is why I was born. Will you help me?" The yellow-hooded fate smiled. "We are not allowed to directly intervene, but we can notify those who can help you. You have ascended to their ranks, and this world is in their care." She quirked her lips in a smile and handed Linna a cellular phone. "Just dial this number..." SHIVA howled and stars shivered in their courses. I WILL DESTROY YOU! SHIVA whirled forwards towards Linna, every limb brandishing a weapon, from fire to ice, from swords to railguns, all the instruments of destruction known to man, his limbs countless as the stars in the sky, for so many are the ways in which a life may be brought to an end. The three who are one spoke in like manner. ***STOP*** To his horror, SHIVA stopped. The Fates drifted around him, forming a triangle. They stretched out their arms and beams of light linked them. SHIVA charged at them, but couldn't even get near them. Inch by inch, they began to drift closer to each other. YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME! ***DID YOU NOT SAY THAT DESTRUCTION COMES TO ALL THINGS IN TIME? EVEN YOU CANNOT EVADE THAT LAW.*** Closer and closer they came to him. He raged fruitlessly, then vanished before the three Fates came close enough to touch him. "Is he dead?" ***ONLY GONE TO AWAIT HIS NEXT OPPORTUNITY. YOUR TIME HAS COME. SUMMON YOUR ALLIES. IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO LEAD THEM IN THE DANCE OF LIFE.*** ******************** The fates rose into the sky to observe in silence as Linna hung up the phone they had given her. It dissolved away and a door opened in the side of the arena. Three goddesses stepped out. They ran over to Linna and hugged her. "I knew you could do it." Skuld said. "We're very proud of you," Belldandy said. "Hey, given you're in the market for a boyfriend now, I know this great guy in the wisdom department who..." Urd began. Skuld clonked Urd in the noggin. "Later, sister. Besides, isn't that guy one of your exes?" "I never said he was brand new from the factory." Urd turned to Linna again. "We await your lead, Linna." Linna blinked. "My lead?" "Do you still doubt yourself after all you have been through?" Belldandy asked. "Just making sure." Linna winked. She thought for a moment. "I don't suppose any of you have studied dance?" "I have." Urd said. "Not THAT kind of dance," Skuld said. "Hey, I'm talking about dancing with music! Not THAT kind of dancing." Linna laughed. "Well, follow my lead." She flicked her will at the world and music began. She put away her shield and concentrated. Her lightning became a sword of fire. The others nodded. Skuld held her staff aloft. Urd concentrated and a great golden cup filled with a purple liquid manifested in her hands. Belldandy reached into her voluminous clothing and produced a mirror. They moved to the four corners of the arena, then began to circle it in a huge procession. Seven times they marched clockwise around the arena, moving in slow rythmic steps to the music. As they moved, ribbons of light trailed behind them, weaving themselves into a rope of light, forming a circle around most of the arena. The buildings outside the circle began to crumble as the music began to speed up. In places, plants began to creep up through the stone, ripping it further apart. On the seventh rotation, when they returned to where they had begun, each held their icon aloft and spoke. Urd began. "Cup of Life, granting life without measure, summon the one who bears your power." The air shimmered and Tsunami appeared inside the circle, near Urd. Belldandy was next. "Mirror of Souls, revealing the beauty hidden within even the ugliest body, summon the one who bears your power." The air shimmered and Sailor Moon appeared inside the circle, near Belldandy. Skuld was the third to speak. "Staff of Kings, leading the nations, summon the one who bears your power." The air shimmered and a very surprised Tenchi appeared inside the cirle, near Skuld. Linna completed the invocation. "Sword of Defense, protecting the innocent and punishing the wicked, summon the one who bears your power." The air shimmered and an equally surprised Priss appeared by Linna. "Linna? Is that you?" Her voice shook. The angel who stood before her sort of looked like Linna, but more so, if that was possible. It was as if everything that was not part of the true Linna had been cut away, like a sculptor turning a block of stone into an elephant by removing everything that didn't look like an elephant. She had never seen Linna so serious and yet so joyful at the same times. "Yes, I am," Linna said, then her voice joined the others. YO>!DIVINE WISDOM, SHOW US THE WAY. GUIDE US IN THE DANCE THAT NEVER ENDS!