Saturn is the sixth planet of the solar system.  It is more than
nine times further from the sun than the Earth, or about 887 million
kilometers.  It is made up of mostly hydrogen, with some helium,
methane, and other trace gases.  It is surrounded by a huge system of
rings 270,000 kilometers in diameter, but only a few hundred meters
thick.

     This is all true.

     Saturn is ephemeral, the result of the conjunction of more ley
lines of magical force than anyone has ever been able to count.  In a
magical sense, the planet does not exist.  The magic is so dense there
that it inverts the ether and shatters reality.  Since human senses
cannot comprehend this absence, this nullity, the universe covers it
with a shell, a facade of normalcy.  The rings mark the closest any mage
can approach the dread Quintessence Horizon.

     This is also all true.

     With Saturn it's all in how you look at it.

                                   *****

     Hotaru put up another poster on her wall, then sat on her bed and
gazed on it in awe.  Otoshii Godai was the lead singer for 'KLUNK', her
new favorite band.  She went and put their new CD, 'KLUNK live from
Kyoto', and spent a few minutes worshipping him.  He was tall and thin
with short messy blond hair and an odd accent that Poppa said reminded
him of the time he had gone to New York City.  However, Poppa also said
that their music reminded him of the noises that the New York Subway
makes when a train is running at full speed, and she didn't agree with
that at all.

     Hotaru closed her eyes and pretended he was singing to her.  Hotaru
had never had a real boyfriend, although she had had plenty of crushes.
Her body might be eighteen, but she was still young enough in mind to
fall in love with cute idol singers.  She was, at least, fortunate
enough to never be exposed to Hanson.

     Right as she and Otoshii-san were leaving for their world tour with
her as the band's new keyboardist, the door opened and her father,
Souichi Tomoe, walked in.  "I hate to say this, but your music is
causing cross-temporal harmonics in my crystal lattice tachyon array."

     Hotaru blinked.  "What?"

     "It's so loud it's making my new experiment shake and causing
portions of it to travel through time and vanish."  He turned and stared
at the CD player.

     She got up and turned down the music.  "You could just ask me to
turn it down, Poppa, instead of making up silly stories."

     He shook his head.  "Come with me."

     They walked through the house, heading for the laboratory.  "Poppa,
I think I want to learn to play an instrument."

     He smiled.  "That's good.  Any particular one?  I'm sure Haruka or
Michiru could help you get started."

     They descended the stairs down into the laboratory.  About a third
of the plain white room was filled with a huge web of crystal, strung
together with gold wires, silver cables, and large misshapen hunks of
lead.  Part of the lattice contained a huge flat crystal that showed
shimmering images inside it, and a variety of more normal electronic
wires ran into a large computer.  The images on the flat crystal looked
somewhat like a forest as seen during an acid trip.  There were several
places where chunks of the lattice were clearly missing.

     "What IS this, Poppa?"  Hotaru walked over closer to it.  "Can I
touch it?"

     "Not while it is running.  It's designed to view distant places.
Ideally, it should help with conducting long distance teleportation."
He pointed over to a small set of boxes wired together in the corner.
"However, now part of the lattice has vanished."

     Another chunk of the lattice suddenly vanished. Two seconds later,
one of the missing chunks returned.  "Hmm.  Maybe it wasn't just your
music."

     Hotaru waved her arms about.  "See!?"

     "Anyway, if you want, I can take you to a music store later today.
Right now, I need to figure out exactly what is going on here.  I think
Haruka is in the backyard, and Michiru is around here somewhere..."

     "They're in school, Poppa."

     He frowned.  "Oh yes.  Did you finish your homework already?"

     He was teaching Hotaru at home, since she no longer looked her
right age and it would likely bring too much attention on her if he sent
her back to her old school.  It slowed down his research a lot, but she
learned quickly, and he enjoyed spending time with his daughter.

     "Yes, Poppa."  Poppa doesn't give half as much homework as my old
teachers did, she thought.  I wish I could go to Tsunami with everyone
else, though.  Being around the house most of the day got lonely at
times.

     "Well, talk to them when they get home and then I can take you to
the music store whenever you like."

     Hotaru smiled.  "I can get KLUNK's new album, 'Symphony of Saturn'!
The first song sounded really neat on the radio.  It's dedicated to me!"
She nearly swooned at the thought.

     Souichi smiled absently.  "To Sailor Saturn, I assume?"

     "Yeah!"  Dancing about happily, she said, "They're giving a concert
here soon."  Her eyes widened.  "I've got to get tickets!"  She ran out
of the room.

     Tomoe-sensei smiled and went back to his work.

                                   *****

Naru:     I'm tired of always running
          I've grown tired of the night
          I wish I had some cunning,
          Had some power, had some might.

     We see a collage of Naru running from monsters, grabbed by
monsters, trapped inside big moss balls by monsters, etc.

Sailors:  You don't need to keep on running.
          You don't need to fear the night.
          We can save you with our cunning,
          With our power, with our might.

     We see a collage of images of Usagi and the other Sailors saving
Naru and many other people from monster attacks.

Naru:     I don't want someone to save me;
          I'd just like to save myself
          I don't want to be a helpless doll
          That must sit upon the shelf.

     We see Naru sitting at her window, looking out on the starry night
sky of the city.  One by one, lines trace the constellations.

Pluto:    If you want to have the power
          You must reach into your heart
          Look inside to find your strength
          For that's where power starts

     We see Pluto holding out an eight-pointed star, which hovers just
above her hand.

                                   *****

Sailor Moon Z:

Series Concept by Jeff Hosmer and John Biles
Primary Writer this Episode: Jeff Hosmer

Based on the Series Sailor Moon, copyrighted by a whole lot of people
who aren't us.

Episode 14
"Saturn's Journey.
 What Makes a True Hero?"

                                   *****

     Hotaru sat at her window, her arms resting on the windowsill, and
stared up at the stars.  She was thinking about a prayer that Rei told
her American children say before going to sleep:

     Now I lay me down to sleep,
     I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
     And if I die before I wake
     I pray the Lord my soul to take.

     That's pretty grim, isn't it? she thought.  I don't see how anyone
could sleep after saying that.  Actually, though, death seems to creep
into everything, sooner or later.  "I slept the sleep of the dead."
"Feels like someone's walking on my grave."  "I'm dead tired."

     She sighed and pulled her knees up to her chin.  Some people might
say I'm obsessed with death, she thought.  I certainly look the part.
All I really need are needle tracks on my arms to be a Goth poster
child.

     Her attempt to get tickets for KLUNK's concert had failed.  It had
been sold out long before she had gotten there.  So instead of being at
the concert with thousands of screaming fans (none of who loved Otoshii
Godai as much as she did, she was sure) she was sitting at home alone.
Poppa was off to help Sensei with another experiment on Tethys, Haruka
and Michiru were out on a date, and Setsuna...  Well, who could tell
with her?

     It wasn't fair, she thought bitterly to herself.  The whole tour is
practically devoted to ME.  Well, Sailor Saturn, that is.  But that's
me, so why can't I get in?

     At that moment, a very Usagi-like thought crept into her head.

     I bet they'd let Sailor Saturn in, she thought.  She stood up and
retrieved her transformation pen.  I really shouldn't, she thought
guiltily.  Pu would have a fit.

     "SATURN PLANET POWER, MAKE UP!"

     The black and silver energies of Saturn filled her, transforming
her into her heroic alter ego.  She snorted at the thought.  Some hero I
am.  Always on the sidelines, hardly ever doing anything because Pu
treats me as if I was made of glass.

     Now, how do I get to the Saturn Tour? she wondered.  Poppa isn't
around to drive me and it'd take too long to run there.  Then she
thought of the Sailor Senshi's trip to the beach.  I listened to
everything Pu told them, she thought.  If they can solo teleport, so can
I.  I just need an image of where I'm going... Poppa's device!  I can
use that!

     No sooner had she thought it then she put her plan into motion.
Running through the house as fast as she dared with her Glaive (she
almost sliced a couch in half) she made her way to the laboratory.

     Fortunately, Tomoe-sensei had left his device running.  Images
flickered through the lattice and the whole conglomeration hummed and
vibrated with strange energies.  As Sailor Saturn, she was even more
aware of the strange powers her father had tapped.  For a moment she
remembered the experiments that had inadvertently summoned Mistress Nine
to Earth, but she put that thought firmly behind her.  Pluto was helping
her father now, so there wouldn't be any more mistakes like that.

     Now, she thought, how to get this thing to show me what I want?
Moving over to the computer, she studied its screen.  All sorts of data
scrolled by in the background, but there was a menu bar across the top.
Hesitantly, she used a mouse to click on the "Search" option.

     This got her an input box:

INPUT SEARCH CRITERIA:

     Smiling, she began to type.

INPUT SEARCH CRITERIA: saturn tour

     After that, she hit the enter key and a new message appeared.

SEARCHING

     "Yes!" she said, turning toward the lattice.  Behind her, unseen,
the computer performed a small parsing function.

INPUT SEARCH CRITERIA: SATURN AND TOUR
3,104,573 entries found
First 20 entries displayed.
Hide Summaries     Ungroup Results     Next 20

     Saturn looked closely at the lattice, waiting for the picture to
form.  When it did, she saw the image of an small lighted stage
surrounded by thousands of screaming fans.  Behind the stage, the image
of the planet Saturn floated on gigantic monitor.

     "Wow, that's a great stage backdrop," she said.  She then
concentrated on the image, fixing it firmly in her mind, and summoned
her power.  Just to be on the safe side, she put a little extra push
into it.  With a flash of light, Sailor Saturn vanished.

     She wound up just a LITTLE off target.

                                   *****

     In the depths of space between the planets, something moved.
Something that could not, should not, be able to exist, but did.  What
made it so remarkable was the fact that it was alive.  It was long and
sinuous and the light of the sun and stars reflecting off its scaled
silver hide.  From this body extended four powerful limbs which ended in
wickedly sharp claws, a long, whip-like tail, and a large head that
sported numerous sharp teeth.  Two large wings also extended from its
back, flapping in mighty sweeps as it moved between the planets.  That
fact alone would be enough to send scientists into fits, as everyone
knows there is nothing in a vacuum for wings to work with.

     Those not gifted with such a myopic view of the wonders of the
universe would be too busy realizing they were looking at a dragon to
complain.

     Once this rather startling fact was dealt with (or denounced by
those same myopic scientists) one would then notice that the dragon had
a rider who seemed unconcerned by the airless vacuum he traversed.
While the scientists go into fits about explosive decompression, we will
describe him.

     Humanoid, and human seeming at first glance, he is not a native of
Earth.  Instead, his almond-shaped eyes and pointed ears denote a more
ancient race, steeped in magic and mystery, whose very name invokes the
imagery of mystic glens and mischievous sprites.

     Our more enlightened observers would say, "It's a bleedin' elf!"

     Clad in a stout gray cloak, sky blue shirt and pants, and a pair of
sturdy leather boots, he seemed to have stepped right out of some
fantasy novel.  His hair was a vibrant silver, flowing down to his
shoulders, and a short, neat goatee.  The only incongruous element was
the fact that this elf was listening to a Walkman as he rode his beast
through the starry skies... though after all the other impossibilities
surrounding this rider should make this a minor point.  After all, our
hypothetical observer might well say to himself, "If an ELF is going to
ride a DRAGON through SPACE without any sort of SPACESUIT, he can listen
to a Walkman if he pleases."

     The elf in question would have heartily agreed with the observer,
but at that moment both elf and hypothetical observer were startled by
the sudden appearance of... something moving extremely fast.  The
unknown object was surrounded by a black and silver aura and spiraled
majestically, if rapidly, toward the rings of Saturn.  The elf let out a
curse, ripped off his headphones, and stared as the thing tore toward
the rings and finally came to a stop on one insignificant ball of ice
and rock not far from the Cassini division.  Raising a silver eyebrow in
curiosity, the elf kneed his dragon gently and pointed toward the
insignificant chunk of detritus.  The dragon yawned and appeared to
consider the matter, until more urging by the part of its rider made it
move lazily in the direction he indicated.

     This leaves our hypothetical observer stranded until the next NASA
probe (which will be hypothetical itself if there are any more budget
cuts.)

                                   *****

     Sailor Saturn slowly opened her eyes.  Even that effort seemed too
much for her, but she kept them open anyway.  She was lying face down,
she noted, though her view seemed to dip and sway too much for her to be
certain.  She shook her head and then gasped as the motion sent waves of
agony through her.  Gritting her teeth against the pain, she tried to
move.  Her limbs were slow to obey, but she was gratified to see they
did what she asked of them.  With great effort, she turned herself over.

     Floating majestically above her, in all its glory, was the planet
Saturn.  She was lying on one of the pieces of ice and rock that made up
the sixth planet's rings.  All around her were hundreds of similar
chunks.  They blended together in the distance to form the rings, which
soared above her.  From her perspective, they looked like an arch from
which the planet hung.

     "Uh-oh," she said before falling unconscious again.

                                   *****

     While solitary creatures, Star Dragons do have some contact with
their kind and other intelligent species.  (Well, not the Ionian
dragons.  Everyone gives them a wide berth.  I mean, if you bathed in
sulfur and generally ate anything stupid enough to wander into sight,
you wouldn't make many friends.  They are perhaps the only species that
reproduces through accident.)

     The Star Dragon in question flapped its wings majestically as it
carried its rider toward the ringed planet.  Because of its
intelligence, it was not a simple beast of burden (and would take great
offense at such a title.)  In fact, the Dragon would probably say the
elf was ITS pet, if pressed on the matter.

     Like all intelligent creatures, it had a name.  Actually, it had
three.  One was how it referred to itself.  No one else knew that name,
mainly because it considered everyone too stupid and undeserving to know
it.  (Star Dragons are big on ego as well as intelligence.)  Its second
name was what other dragons called it, a long and majestic sounding
name, though some dragons sniggered that the twenty-third syllable
sounded close to a vulgar euphemism for bodily waste.  The third name
was for those species too benighted to be born dragons.  That name was
Bob.

     At that point, Bob wasn't too pleased with its rider.  The elf in
question seemed entirely too interested with the object that had
apparently just teleported itself across half the Solar System.  The
fact that the dragon was more prudent than curious only proved, in its
mind, its intelligence.  The fact that the elf was more curious than
prudent proved his lack thereof.  Still, they flew ever closer to the
rings.

                                   *****

     When Sailor Saturn next opened her eyes, she could make out
something standing above her.  It was a pale blur at first, so she
blinked her eyes, trying to clear them.

     The something moved then and she heard someone speaking excitedly
in a strangely musical tongue that meant nothing to her but at the same
time sounded familiar.

     Then her vision cleared and she found herself looking up at the
most beautiful man she had ever seen. He wasn't handsome like Otoshii
was.  He looked more like he had stepped out of a bishoujo manga, even
with his goatee.  The warm smile he bestowed upon her, along with the
friendly twinkle in his strangely-shaped eyes, told her she had nothing
to fear.  Those eyes, she noted, were a startling shade of blue,
swimming with gold flecks.

     The man noticed she was awake, but just stared at her for a second.
Her eyes, he noted, were the most curious shade of blue, almost purple.
As he got a better look at them, he was startled to see that they WERE
purple.  A lovely shade of royal purple, he thought, one that Julius
Caesar would have been proud to wear.

     Then he realized he was staring when he should be trying to help
the girl.  He tried another language.  "Do you speak Japanese?"

     "Y-yes..." Saturn managed.  "Who--?"

     "Shhh," the man said, bringing a canteen of water to her lips.
"Take it easy.  You've exhausted yourself with that little trick."

     Saturn drank greedily of the water he offered.  Her mouth was
horribly dry, and she was hungry, too.

     "Are you feeling alright?" he asked gently, in his musical voice.
"Are you feeling cold or faint?"

     "N-no," Saturn said.

     "Good... your air field is holding then.  Now, you just lie there
while I get some shelter up."

     "W-wait!" Saturn called, struggling to lift herself.  "Who are
you?"

     The man smiled and bowed, full and ornate.  As he did so, he hair
fell forward a bit, revealing to Saturn his long, pointed ears.  "Derith
Moontears, milady.  Hero for hire, would-be rescuer of damsels in
distress, and all around meddler."  He looked up to catch her eye again.
"At your service--oh, she fainted again."  He sighed.  "Story of my
life."

                                   *****

     Sailor Saturn woke again to the smell of something delicious being
cooked.  Her mouth began to water almost as soon as she opened her eyes.
Her stomach added its thoughts on the matter as well.

     "Stew's just about ready," said a voice.  Looking around, Saturn
spotted her rescuer.  He was stirring a rather ordinary looking pot that
was sitting on a brightly glowing rock.  They were in some sort of tent,
she noticed.  The sides appeared to be pale blue silk, gorgeously
decorated with a silver rose motif.  However, there were no openings
that she could discern, the edges meeting seamlessly.

     A soft blanket covered her.  Sitting up, she clutched it to her
chest and ducked her head shyly as her rescuer turned to look at her.

     "Now, now.  Don't be afraid.  Anyone who can teleport themselves
all the way from Earth is someone -I- should be afraid of, not the other
way around."  He smiled warmly.

     "Afraid?  Of me?"  Saturn was so surprised by the idea that she
looked up at her rescuer.  His eyes met hers and she felt like her heart
was running a mile a minute.  Then her heart seemed to plunge to her
feet.  Of course people were scared of her.  They were scared of Saturn.
Even the thought of her power let her feel it, roiling within her soul,
seething to get out and destroy.  She stamped it down and looked away.

     "Well?" Derith questioned with a twinkle in his eye.  "Should I be
afraid of you, oh mighty sorceress?"

     Saturn looked back up.  He was making fun of her?  No one had ever
done that, not when she was in uniform.  "You--!" she began.

     "Food first," Derith said, passing her a bowl of stew.  The smell
made Saturn's stomach growl again.  "You can magick me into something
awful after you've eaten."

     Saturn took the bowl hesitantly.  It was thicker than the soups she
was used to, and a lot of it was unidentifiable.  Bits of green, tan,
orange, and yellow vegetables mixed with mouth-sized chunks of meat in a
brown sauce.  Whatever it was made of, it smelled delicious.  A
tentative taste confirmed her nose's opinion and soon she was gobbling
it down, scooping it up with some of the best bread she could remember
eating.

     Derith smiled and dug into his own bowl.  They ate together in
silence, Saturn glancing up at him occasionally.  He refilled her bowl
twice when she emptied it, without her having to ask.

     "So, are you going to tell me YOUR name?" Derith asked, after she
put her bowl down.

     Saturn blushed.  "Sa--er, Hotaru.  Tomoe Hotaru," she said finally.
Despite his making fun of her, Derith HAD helped her... and she had seen
too many people turn on her once the name Saturn was spoken.

     "Is that all one word?" he asked, smiling.

     "My name," Saturn said haughtily, drawing on her memories of being
Rhea, the Senshi of Saturn in the Silver Millennium, "is Tomoe Hotaru."
True, Rhea had spent most of her life in suspended animation, but she
HAD been a noblewoman before being chosen, and she had learned SOMETHING
before her social life had disappeared.

     "'Firefly,' eh?  It's a truly beautiful name.  Fitting for you," he
said, bowing low.

     Saturn felt her cheeks flush.  How could he keep going from
insulting to charming?

     "So, should we now discuss the weather, or some other triviality,
or should we talk about what brings you out here, Firefly?"

     "Don't call me Firefly."

     "Why not?"  There was that smile again.

     "It's not... right.  We've only just met!"

     "Well, have you tired of my company already?"

     "What if I told you I had?"

     "I'd be terribly hurt."

     "Oooh!  How can you be so infuriating?!"

     "Long practice, actually."

     Saturn picked up a pillow and threw it at him.  He yelped and
tumbled backward gracefully.  Picking up two pillows, he sent them back
rapid-fire, forcing her to duck.

     "This means war, you know!" Saturn yelled.  The pillows flew back
and forth as the two combatants fought, no quarter offered or expected.
They would not rest until their foe was totally vanquished.

     Finally, Derith fell, mortally wounded with a pillow in the face.
"Alas. poor Derith, I knew him well!" he said.

     Saturn giggled, sitting down on a pillow and trying to catch her
breath.

     While still lying on his back, Derith stuck one hand up, waving a
white handkerchief.  "Will you talk peace?" he asked.

     "Nope.  Unconditional surrender only!"  Saturn ran over and held a
pillow threateningly over Derith's head.

     "Um, those terms are acceptable, I think," Derith said, grinning.
His eyes were alight with mischievous glee.  Saturn couldn't help but
giggle in return.  "Friends?" Derith asked, holding out his hand.

     "Sure," Saturn said, suddenly shy again.  As if sensing her
distress, the Saturn Power rattled the bars of the cage she kept it in.
She pushed it back down.

     "So, are you ready to tell me what brings a beautiful young lady
like you to this rather dreary part of the Solar System?"

     "Um... well, it was an accident, really.  I think I put a bit too
much power into my jump..."

     "A bit?"

     Saturn blushed.  "Well, I had never done it before."

     Derith blinked.  "You are incredibly gifted, Hotaru, both in magic
and in luck."  He winked.  "And in beauty, as well."

     Saturn hit him in the face with her pillow.

                                   *****

     Sailor Saturn looked up at the planet that was the source of her
power even as Derith began to take down his tent.  Normally she would
have watched him in awe, for no matter how he folded the tent, the pile
of cloth never seemed to get any thicker.  He hadn't even emptied the
tent before striking it.

     Now, however, her planet filled her view.  She looked at its
swirling clouds and bands of yellow and blue.  It was strange and alien
yet at the same time it was comforting.  She felt more at home near it
than she ever had in the house she and Poppa had lived in while he was a
Deathbuster.

     She stared more intensely.  The planet seemed to waver, like heat
waves rising off hot asphalt.  Her sight grew dim for a moment... then
expanded beyond all reasonable bounds.

     Every color, every shape, from all the corners of the Galaxy, the
lines came.  Straight, curved, squiggly, smooth, corkscrewed, they
filled her vision.  They never touched, no matter how she traced them
with her eyes.  Somehow they always seemed to maintain a distance, even
though she knew they had to meet somewhere.  The colors should also have
melded in a vast, incomprehensible melange, but they remained distinct
and vibrant to her.  Following the lines outward, she could suddenly see
all the parsecs they crossed, all the planets they touched, the stars
they ignited.  She could see the vast web covering the entire Galaxy,
soaring, reaching, swooping in a joyous dance through the vast empty
space.  Though to those that knew of their magic, space was not that
empty.

     Dragons gamboled between planets, fairy dust twinkled and became
stars, giants picked their noses and whole solar systems came into
being.  Ether roiled and boiled in the interstellar reaches.  Wizards
and mages, witches and sages, seers and conjurers, mystics and
sorcerers, dabblers and respected elders alike all touched the lines,
wove, wrote, sung, and spoke with them.  It filled their minds, brought
life and chaos, creativity and power.

     This was magic.

     At that moment, as the entire picture came into focus for Hotaru,
she could feel the eyes of all those who touched on magic. who used it
or abused it, regard her... and recoil.

     "NOOOOOOO!" she screamed.  "It's not ME!  DON'T HATE ME!"

     They fled.  The lines themselves seemed to bend away from her,
wavering like a spiderweb does when it catches prey for the spider.  In
that instance, she saw how fragile this beauty was, how easily it could
tumble.  She wanted to reach out, heal the breaks she saw, touch it and
add her voice to its chorus... but it rejected her.

     She sank to her knees.  "Noooo..." she moaned.  "Please, God... I'm
not evil... don't hate me... please...."

     Strong arms suddenly held her tight, supporting her.  The Darkness
came once again to claim her, but she let it come.  Someone had not
rejected her.  Someone had not fled in fear.

     As she fell unconscious, Derith stroked her hair gently and one
tear fell softly down his cheek.

                                   *****

     "Hotaru?  Hotaru-chan?"

     Tomoe-sensei wandered into the kitchen and looked around for
something to eat.  On opening the refrigerator, he found a small bento
with his name on it.  He smiled.  Having the Mistress of Time as a
fiancee had its perks.  Of course, her cooking wasn't as good as Kaiou-
san's, but he was wise enough not to mention that.

     As he munched on the food, he looked around the living room.  There
still was no sign of his daughter.  Perhaps she's asleep, he thought.
He slapped his forehead, castigating himself.  Of course, it's late.
She's probably in bed.  She's trying to sleep and I go yelling her name.

     He wandered back into the kitchen and began to make some delicious
coffee.  He found it helped him sleep.  Filling a handy beaker (his
equipment tended to migrate around the house) he took it back to his
lab.  He would just check a few things then get some sleep.

     His lab was much as he left it.  Most of the lattice array was in
place, he noted, placing the beaker on a Bunsen burner and lighting it.
He went over to a printer that was chattering quietly and began to look
over the results of the last few hours.  The graph paper was spread all
over the floor again, he noted.  No matter how he tried, he couldn't
seem to keep the chaos from spreading.  Gathering up the paper, he
started putting it into a nice neat pile.  Then he flipped through it,
studying the chart.

     "Hmm... a spike?  Quite a large one, too."

     The chart showed a huge glitch had happened a few hours ago.
Perhaps he had made his sensors a little too sensitive?  He looked over
at the lattice and saw a crowded amphitheater.  He wished for a moment
that sound came through, but looking again at the crowd he reconsidered.
It was almost definitely NOT his sort of music.  Then the Planet Saturn
appeared on the large screen behind the band.

     He looked at it.

     He looked back at the spike on the graph.

     He ran for his daughter's room, despite knowing what he would find
there.

                                   *****

     For the third time that day, Saturn opened her eyes to a blurry
world.  This time it cleared quickly, but she hoped it wasn't a sign
that she was getting used to fainting.  She didn't want to start making
a habit of it.

     "Hotaru?"  Derith's smiling face came into view.  With a start, she
realized that he was cradling her head in his lap.  She felt her cheeks
redden.  "Oh, thank heaven," he said.  "You really gave me a scare
there.  I should have warned you not to use your mystic sight on
Saturn."

     "You knew--?"

     "I didn't know," he said in aggrieved tones.  "It's just that
sometimes it can overwhelm you... You are looking at the highest
concentration of ley lines in the solar system."

     "Galaxy."

     "What?"

     "It's the largest concentration in the Galaxy.  I know.  I saw it."

     Her voice was matter of fact and steady, but Derith was looking
into her violet eyes as she spoke and it sickened him to see some of the
light go out as she spoke.

     "What did you see, Firefly?" he asked gently.

     "I saw... ALL these lines, stretching out all over the place... and
I followed them outward and it was so beautiful to see... and the lines
were connected with people and I knew them.  They were everyone who uses
magic, even a little... and they were scared of me.  T-they thought I
was evil."  Her voice cracked and she cupped her face in her hands.
"They don't even know me!"

     "Not everyone hated you, Firefly."

     "Yes, they did!"

     "I felt you, Firefly.  I didn't hate you.  A few others didn't
either."

     "You're a mage?"

     Derith cracked a grin and raised an eyebrow.  "What gave it away?
It was the lack of a spacesuit, wasn't it?  I knew I should have gotten
one."

     Saturn hit him on the shoulder, hard.  "You're making fun of me
again!"

     "Owowow!  I do it in a good cause, milady, truth.  If my antics
bring a smile to your face, I consider my wounds to be a trifle--OW!"

     Saturn hit him again, but with a faint smile on her face this time.

     "But, truly Firefly, some of us did not turn away.  I'm only a
dabbler but I could see some of them.  I could show you, if you like."

     Saturn nodded.

     Derith pulled her out of his lap and stood up.  With a few fluid
gestures and a muttered word, he summoned up a picture of a group of
people.  Some of them weren't even remotely human.  The part of her that
was Rhea recognized one or two as being Fungi from Pluto.  Another one
looked like a giant bipedal cat, his fur streaked with silver.
Elsewhere was a giant slug (there was no better term) that lived in an
ocean many parsecs away and was billions of years old.  One was made
only of energy, using a strange suit to interact with other races while
plying the void between stars in a living starship and who was possibly
older than the slug.  The humanoids were very memorable, too.  A young
girl with spiky red hair, an older woman with long blue hair and a
serene expression, and a young girl with long brown hair and wearing an
apron.

     "These were the ones I could get a reading on.  There were others,
Firefly."

     Saturn sniffled.  "Some of them didn't hate me?"

     "I don't see how anyone could, Firefly."

     "I told you to stop calling me that!"

     Derith smiled.  "Make me," he said, before sticking his tongue out
at her.

     Saturn reached for her Glaive and it was suddenly in her hands.
She was going to swing it at Derith when she realized what she was
doing.  The Glaive was perhaps one of the most deadly items in
existence.  What was she thinking?  She was Saturn, the Senshi of Death
of Destruction.  She could not play games.

     Looking at the smiling elf before her, she thought that she should
tell him who she was.  He would hate and fear her then, though.
Everyone did at first.  Except for one smiling young girl with pink
hair.  She had turned it all around.

     Saturn shook her head.  She was alone and had no easy way home.
Now was not the time to perhaps alienate the only company she had.
That's what she told herself, but in truth she couldn't bear the thought
of Derith rejecting her, like so many other had.

     "Um...?" she began to ask shyly.

     Breathing an exaggerated sigh of relief on seeing the Glaive
disappear, Derith smiled at her.  "Yes, Firefly?"

     "I was wondering... could you help me get home?  I'd try
teleporting again, but--"

     "Say no more, fair--well, okay, dark-haired, but it really suits
your eyes--"

     Saturn growled at his antics.

     "Ah, right.  Well, I need to stop by Titan first, but after that
Bob and I would be glad to take you home."

     "Bob?"

     "Me," said a very deep and decidedly inhuman voice.

     Hotaru turned around and saw the dragon, who was grinning at her...
or at least showing a lot of teeth.  "Hi!" he said cheerfully.

     Hotaru was glad to see she didn't faint... though turning tail and
running was hardly the improvement she thought it would be.

                                   *****

     It took Derith thirty minutes to convince Saturn not to blast Bob.
He wasn't sure how the battle would go, but he wasn't about to risk his
only ride in a battle with someone who could teleport from Earth to
Saturn in one go.

     "You are an ass," he said to Bob, once Saturn was calmed down.

     "Dreadfully sorry, old bean," Bob said in his best British accent.
He also didn't sound very sorry.

     "It's not me you should apologize to.  You're lucky she didn't
whack your head off with that can opener of hers."

     "It's NOT a can opener!" Saturn snapped.  "And what kind of name is
'Bob' for a dragon, anyway?"

     Bob snorted, a small burst of flame searing the icy surface of
their little planetoid.  "It's a perfectly good name, one well-suited
for the small intellects I have to deal with."

     "Thank you.  Thank you VERY much," Derith muttered.

     "Whoever heard of a dragon named 'Bob'?" Saturn persisted.  "It's
not very dignified."

     "Well, I've always been of the opinion that something that out-
masses me by several tons can call itself whatever it wants," Derith
muttered, sure no one would pay attention to him.  He was right.

     "Well, if you MUST pry, it's short for my real name, of course."

     "And what's that?"

     Bob leaned his head close to Hotaru and looked her solemnly in the
eye.  "Robert."

     Saturn eyes both the dragon and Derith in askance.  "You two belong
together," she said wryly.

     "I am SO blessed," Derith said, rolling his eyes.

     "Blessed enough to fly back to Avalon on your own?" Bob asked
sweetly.

     "You wouldn't dare!" Derith said.

     "Wouldn't I?" Bob says.

     "We are on a special mission for the elders.  Even you--"

     "The elders could wait another hundred years to get their rocks."

     "Wait a minute!" Saturn said.  "What mission?  What elders?"

     "Oops, that was supposed to be a secret," Derith said.

     "-I- wasn't the one who started blabbing about it," Bob rejoined
pointedly.

     The dragon and the elf shared a look, then turned back to the
Senshi of Destruction.

     "Um, well, you see, Firefly, we didn't exactly come out here on a
joyride."

     "Oh, do tell?" Saturn said sarcastically.

     "What my intellectually-stunted companion is trying to say is that
no one comes to Saturn without a good reason.  The magical flux around
here is too dangerous over the long term.  But the same magical flux
makes items from around here, especially from the world of Titan, very
useful in magic," Bob said.

     "Oh.  So, what are you going to do with these rocks?"

     "Oh, one rock goes a long way... a sliver for this magical sword, a
shard for that potion, a chunk for our defenses..."

     "And you claim to have a brain," Bob said pointedly.

     Derith sighed.

     "OK, so a quick stop on Titan and then home?" Saturn said.  She
didn't care what they used it for.  She just wanted to get home before
Poppa got worried.

                                   *****

     "HOTARU!"

     "Souichi-chan, screaming won't help."  Pluto rubbed her forehead.
Tomoe-sensei had been carrying on like a madman since she got home.

     Tomoe-sensei got a hold of himself.  "I'm sorry, Setsuna-chan...
it's just she's never done something like this... what was she
thinking?"

     "She was thinking like a teenager, apparently," Pluto said.  "That
doesn't worry me so much as the fact that she tried to teleport to the
concert.  If she used as much energy as your sensors registered..."
Pluto shrugged.  Since the concert hall hadn't been annihilated, Hotaru
had either controlled the energy... or was somewhere else.

     Tomoe-sensei paced around the living room.  Pluto watched him
worriedly for a long moment, then slowly spoke.  "There may be a way to
find her, Souichi-chan."

     "There is?"

     "Yes, but it's not something we can do alone," she said, summoning
her staff.  "Her power to cloak herself from another's sight is very
strong, but I think I know a way to breach it."

                                   *****

     Sailor Saturn bit back a scream and hugged Bob's sinuous neck as
the star dragon bucked and wove between the icy rocks of Saturn's rings.

     "Enjoying the ride?" Derith laughed.

     Saturn glared back at the elf.  She was currently sitting in front
of him on Bob's neck, his arms on either side of her as he held the
quite superfluous reins.

     "You are enjoying this FAR too much," she said.  Of course, to be
perfectly honest, he had given her a choice.  There had only been one
saddle, but Derith had graciously offered her a seat in front of him...
or behind him.  Then he had flashed one of those smiles that made her
knees melt.  Still, it had been the thought of sliding down Bob's tail
and into space that had really made her choose this rather snug
position... really.

     "You don't need to be so angry," Derith said, flashing another
smile.  "I don't bite."

     The smile had the usual effect on Hotaru, but she held onto her
anger.  "I do, so watch those hands," she said, trying to sound tough.

     "Ooh, kinky."

     Saturn sighed.  Haruka made looking tough seem so easy.  What would
she do in such a situation?  Ah, right.

     "Oof!" Derith wheezed as Saturn jabbed him in the midsection with
the Silence Glaive.

     "Next time, I use the sharp end," she warned.  Though, to be
perfectly frank, Derith had behaved as a perfect gentleman.  (Though she
thought that perfect gentlemen didn't tease so much.)  What was really
making her uncomfortable was how her body was reacting to sitting so
close to him.  She felt hot and chilled at the same time, her stomach
seemed to be a black hole, and her arms and legs were tingling.  If she
thought for a minute that Derith was responsible, she WOULD have
skewered him.  She wasn't going to admit that he was having an effect on
her, though, just to ask if he was doing something.

     Even the least effective Senshi had to have some pride.

     "What's wrong, Firefly?" Derith asked, seeing her face suddenly
turn dour.

     "Never mind," Saturn responded.  She sat up straight and tried to
keep her focus on the slowly approaching moon.  Titan was steadily
growing larger against the bulk of Saturn.  Outer space still was
awfully big, even for a magical creature like Bob.

     Derith reached around to cup Saturn's chin and turn her head toward
him.  She stiffened slightly, then let him.  "What's wrong, Firefly?"

     "Don't call me that!" she snapped peevishly.  "I have a name, you
know."

     "Yes, I do know, and it means Firefly," he said, his eyes glinting
merrily.

     Saturn tried to turn away but found she couldn't quite find the
resolve to do it.  "That's not the point..." she said weakly.

     Derith leaned closer to her and Saturn found herself leaning
forward, mouth opening slightly to kiss--

     Derith turned his head away.  Once eye contact was broken, Saturn
slumped slightly and found she could look away.  Slowly, she shook her
head.  Her brain felt like it was full of mush.  Part of her was angry
at having almost kissed Derith and the other part was hurt that he
hadn't gone through with it.  She didn't know why she felt this way, but
she blamed the nearest man on general principles.

     "I'm sorry--" Derith began.

     *SLAP!*

                              *****

     On one of the infinitude of icy moonlets forever circling Saturn,
something stirred.  It sensed something, an intruder in its territory.
And this time it was CERTAIN it was an intruder.  It was tired of
attacking stray ice chunks (of which Saturn had a lot) and wanted to
rend and tear living flesh (of which Saturn had little).

     With a flap of its mighty wings, its dark serpentine body lifted
off the rocky haven and flew toward the disturbance.

                              *****

     "You what?"

     "Cast a glamour.  I don't mean to do it.  It just happens."  Derith
touched his cheek again.  For such a small girl, Hotaru sure packed a
mean punch, he thought wryly.

     "I'm sure," she said, trying to sit as far forward as she could.
This amounted to about six inches however, given the way Bob's neck
narrowed and the design of the saddle.

     Derith tried again.  "Look, my people are a magical race.  We use
it without even thinking about it.  It..."  He trailed off, wondering
how to explain it.  To him, it was a basic fact of life.  But to a
human...?

     "You tried to kiss me."

     "No... I mean, Yes!" he blurted, seeing another murderous glare.
"I did, but that was the glamour, you see?"

     "Your magic made you want to kiss me."  It was a very flat
statement.

     "Yes, you do understand!" Derith said with a smile.

     *SLAP*

     "Ow," moaned Derith, holding his other cheek.

     "Lecher!  If you think I'm going to believe--"

     Derith held up his hands.  "It's the truth!" he mumbled through a
sore jaw.  "It's part of the magic!  Really!  Would I lie?"

     "Yes."

     "Harsh," muttered Derith.  "You've only known me for a few hours,"
he said in a wounded voice.

     Saturn opened her mouth to retort and then shut it again.  Derith
was right.  She was wrong to judge him so harshly.  Surely there was
some sort of reasonable explanation.  He was a pretty nice guy--

     She broke off the train of thought and glared at him.  "You're
doing it again!"

     "OK, just calm down.  It's an instinctive reaction, Firefly.  It's
not something we have a lot of control over."  Seeing her glare, he
sighed.  "Look, when you meet someone, you want to make a good
impression, right?  You want everything to go smoothly, to impress the
person, for them to like you."

     "So?"

     "When you're from a highly magical race, things tend to... well,
happen.  Some of our scholars think glamour evolved originally to help
us deal with predators.  It's... well, it's difficult to explain, but we
make others think more positively about us.  But, we can't influence
emotions without being influenced ourselves, see?"

     "No."

     Derith sighed.  He opened his mouth to try once again to explain it
when he noticed something dark moving against the background stars.
Something that shouldn't be there.

     "Bob--!" he started to yell, but it was too late.

     With a roar, the Ionian Star Dragon slammed into Bob's side.
Ionian Dragons are the most feared branch of the Star Dragon species.
Not because of ferocity, though they have plenty of that, or power,
though they are well-endowed in that regard as well, but because of
their stupidity.  Once an Ionian Dragon gets something in their heads,
it is almost impossible to get it out.  Since their thoughts run mostly
along the lines of 'Food = Eat" it tends to go very badly for those who
cross their paths, as Ionian Dragons have been known to chase their prey
for decades.  They are so stupid they will even pass up easier or
tastier prey and continue chasing their first choice.  Add to this their
nigh-immortality and incredible resistance to damage and you have one
very nasty killing machine.  Fortunately, as mentioned before, they
reproduce only by accident, so this keeps their numbers down.  But try
telling that to someone an Ionian Dragon has selected as lunch and see
if that makes their day any brighter.

     Luckily, all Star Dragons are tough customers, or Bob's side would
have been torn open by the Ionian Dragon's attack.  He rolled away as
fast as he could and readied himself for a fight.  Still, there was
almost no warning and Bob, recognizing his peril, could spare no thought
for his passengers.

     And Saturn was not strapped in.

     With a scream, she felt herself falling off Bob's sinuous neck.
Derith tried to grab her, but everything was happening too quickly.
Still screaming, she fell away from him and Bob, plummeting toward the
surface of Titan.

     "Bloody hells," Derith growled and then unfastened his own belt.
He could do little to aid Bob.  Ionian Star Dragons were WAY beyond his
league.  At least he MIGHT be able to do something to help her.
Besides, he thought as he fell away and warm Star Dragon blood began to
fill space, Bob was NOT a safe place to be at the moment.

     Together, the two spacefarers fell toward one of the most toxic and
deadly worlds in the entire Galaxy.

                                   *****

     A word must be said here about magic and how it is spread
throughout the universe.

     As shown earlier, the power that is labeled as 'magic' is hard to
quantify or qualify.  It has an element of irrationality to it that
defies easy analysis.  Rationality is the province of science.  If you
want simple, straightforward answers, become a scientist.  Magic is a
world where things do not always follow simple cause and effect, where
the same experiment will not always yield the same results, and where
intuition and insight replace experimentation and documentation.

     Still, scholars on many planets have managed to paint some broad
brush strokes on the canvas where magic is concerned.  Some scientists
have actually made some inroads as well, for certain branches of science
come very close to magic.

     In essence, all magic stems from two vast reservoirs of power, one
positive, one negative.  These reservoirs, known in the Silver
Millennium as Silver Power and Dark Power, are polar opposites, yet both
can be tapped to produce prodigious effects.  Silver Power, however,
lends itself better to creation and order, while Dark Power is better at
destruction and chaos.

     Magic is the energy of life and creativity, so there is a little of
it in everyone, both light and dark.  Magicians tap into their life
energy and use it to access the ambient magical energy of their
surroundings.  The amount of energy available, however, varies from
place to place because of the phenomenon of ley lines.

     Rather than spread evenly out form a single source, magical power,
both Silver and Dark, follows conduits of power that seem to follow no
rational arrangement.  A planet thousands of light years away from the
source of magic could have more ambient power than one sitting right
next to it because of these ley lines.  Strangely enough, the ley lines
seem to transmit both forms of power equally, despite their contrary
natures.  Scholars call this 'neutral' form of magic by the term 'mana.'

     The galactic ley lines connect planets together, like a giant
connect-the-dots puzzle.  They are not static, being known to move,
either slowly and constantly or periodically and precipitously.  If
there is any pattern to this movement, it has never been divined.  The
planets, in turn, have planetary ley lines that transmit the energy over
the surface of the planet.  Places where they connect tend to become
sites of great mystical power.  Needless to say, the more galactic ley
lines that connect to a planet, the more magical that planet is.

     Planets with no ley lines are Mana-Dead worlds.  No life can begin
there, though it can be transplanted there through scientific means.
Magic is almost completely impossible on Mana-Dead worlds.

     Worlds with few ley lines are Mana-Poor.  They can support life and
they are often worlds of great scientific and technological achievement,
for magic comes with too much difficulty to be major factor on these
worlds.

     A planet whose ley lines fall into the middle of the range is
generally called Mana-Normal.  There magic and science come with about
equal ease.

     A planet with a high concentration of ley lines is Mana-Rich.
There almost everything is magical and science is almost unknown.

     Finally, a world with too many ley lines is Mana-Toxic.  There the
power of magic is so strong that it warps and kills any life that comes
into contact with it for too long.  It may seem strange that magic, a
force necessary for life, could be fatal, but water is also necessary
for life and one can still drown.  The overabundance of magic on these
worlds quickly leads to hallucinations, dementia, mutations, and then
death.

     Titan is a Mana-Toxic world.

     With that cheery thought, we now rejoin our program, already in
progress.

                                   *****

     Sailor Saturn panicked.

     For all her grumbling about Pluto protecting her from the world
(though Pluto saw it as the other way around), Saturn had grown used to
the idea that help was always near, that she would not be allowed to get
into something too far over her head.  Before this one moment of free
fall, she had not had time to realize that the safety net was well and
truly gone, or exactly how far over her head she was.

     Her power filled her head, roaring silently in the back of her
mind, but there was little it could do in such a situation.  Saturn
couldn't concentrate enough to teleport and her blind, unreasoning panic
made it impossible for the power to take over.  Before, it had always
stepped into a void, taking over when Hotaru was a baby or asleep.  Now
it could only add its noise to her yammering, adding to the problem.

     As Hotaru, she had always loved heights, though climbing had always
been a problem for her, given her frail constitution.  One of her early
childhood memories was of her father taking her to the top of the Tokyo
Tower.  She had leaned over the railing and had been fascinated at how
little and insignificant everything had appeared.

     But she had never really FALLEN from any heights before.  Now she
was plummeting from orbit toward a planet's surface with absolutely no
way to control her motion.

     "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" she
screamed.  She kept screaming and flailing around until she felt a pair
of arms suddenly wrap around her waist.  She twisted around and found
herself nearly slugging Derith.

     "Hang on!" he shouted, reaching down to fiddle with something at
his belt.  Their rate of descent slowed suddenly, but did not stop.
"Oh, damn," he cursed briefly before fiddling some more with no effect.

     Saturn took deep breaths, trying not to pass out from fear.  She
clutched Derith desperately, trying to ignore the sensation of falling
endlessly through space.  She heard Derith's voice, but it took several
seconds for her to realize he was calling her name.

     "Hotaru!  Hotaru!" Derith said urgently.  He stared into her
panicked face, trying to keep his voice calm and reassuring.  "It's OK.
Listen to me.  It's OK," he repeated, over and over again until her eyes
focused on him again.  "I've got you."

     Saturn twisted slightly in his grasp, looking around.  Bob and the
attacking dragon were already out of sight, lost in the sea of stars.
Finally, she spoke, her voice still raw from screaming.  "Some powerful
sorceress I turn out to be, huh?" she asked bitterly.

     "Hey, don't be so hard on yourself.  The first time I got cast
adrift in space, I puked my guts out, so you're one up on me."

     Saturn turned green suddenly.

     "Oh, no, don't--"

     The rest is probably better left to the reader's imagination.

                                   *****

     "So, you see," Pluto said, "we need a trio of psychics to try and
pierce the veil that shields Sailor Saturn from our sight--"

     "Whatever!  Let's just do it!  The Rolling Stones gather no money,
you know!  This IS my partner we're talking about."

     Yumeno Yumemi watched in amazement as Sailor Pluto began to rub her
forehead as if in pain while Sailor Venus went into a full-blown rant.
The two boys, Steven Grant and Urawa Ryo, seemed uncomfortable with this
as well.

     Yumemi had been sleeping peacefully in her studio apartment,
dreaming of Moon Kingdoms, Princesses, and Knights in silver when
suddenly someone had knocked on her door.  That first sedate knock had
been quickly followed by a staccato beat, as if someone was trying to
use her door as a percussion instrument.  Finally, she got up and yanked
open her door, prepared to give whoever it was a piece of her mind...
only to have Sailor Venus, who had been hammering on her door, fall
face-first into her apartment.

     Sailor Pluto had followed her comrade a second later and with much
more dignity.  The tall green-haired Sailor Senshi then told Yumemi that
she was needed to help the Sailors find their lost teammate.  Surprised,
honored, and a little frightened over what may happen if she said no,
Yumemi had agreed to help.

     She had then been whisked away to the house of a Dr. Tomoe Souichi,
who was a friend and ally of the Sailor Senshi.  There, she had met the
rest of the Sailors, Grant, and Urawa.

     "But I'm not a psychic," she protested.

     "You dream of a Kingdom on the Moon, do you not?" Pluto asked.  "Of
a prince and princess there, of a disaster overtaking them yet their
love enduring?"

     "Well, yes... but--"

     Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask stepped forward then.  "Look at us,
Yumeno-san," Sailor Moon said.  Then they transformed into the spitting
image of Yumemi's dream prince and princess.

     "H-how?" was all Yumemi could stammer.

     "The Sailor Senshi are the reincarnated warriors of a long dead
magical realm," Sailor Pluto said calmly.  "And we exist to guard the
Princess of the Moon, in this lifetime or any other."

     Yumemi stared at all of them in shock.  Her dreams... they were
true?  Not figments of her imagination?  All those horrible things she
had dreamed of, planets shattering to give birth to foul monsters, was
true?  She felt like her head was going to explode.

     "It's OK," Steven Grant said, laying a reassuring hand on her
shoulder and ignoring Sailor Venus looking daggers at him.  "I know what
you're going through."

     "Y-you do?"

     "Yes.  Ryo and I have similar gifts.  He sees snatches of the
future, while I can see how things truly are in the present.  Like I can
see how the idea of what you've dreamed being true distresses you."

     Yumemi took a deep breath.  Nothing had changed in the past five
minutes except her world view.  Ignorance may be bliss, but knowledge
doesn't always change the situation.  So she could see the past.  That
didn't make her responsible for what she saw.  It was dead and gone,
unchangeable.

     "So, you want me to dream for you, is that it?  You woke me up to
go to sleep?" she asked, trying not to giggle at the absurdity.

     "No.  I can teach you to harness your power consciously.  All we
need from you is your cooperation," Sailor Pluto said.

     "Please," the Moon Princess said, "help us find our friend."

     Yumemi looked up at the incarnation of her dreams, the being she
had long considered to be her muse, and could only nod.  "But only if
you two will pose for me!" she said quickly.

     The face-fault was heard round the world.

                                   *****

     Titan was growing larger and larger.  Derith tried not to look at
it, though it was getting harder to ignore it.  Even more important, he
thought, was keeping Hotaru from noticing.  The poor girl was already in
a bad way.

     "Well, do you at least feel better now?" he asked.

     "I don't think I have anything left in my stomach..." Saturn
groaned.

     "Well, THAT is a relief."

     Saturn glared weakly at him.  Seeing the remains of the stew she
had vomited on his formerly immaculate clothes made her giggle.  He
raised an eyebrow.

     "Don't laugh, I'm going to give you the cleaning bill."

     Saturn really started laughing now.  The laughter, however, changed
to a series of dry heaves as her movements triggered her nausea again.

     "It's OK," Derith finally said, after she had gotten some of her
composure back.  "Free fall is like that.  You have to get used to it.
It takes time."

     "I never want to feel this way again..."

     "Well, I second that notion.  At least while I'm holding on to
you."

     Saturn blushed, ducking her head so that her hair hid her face from
his crystal-blue eyes.  "Don't..."

     "Right, I'll just let you go then."

     "Don't you DARE!" Saturn shrieked.

     Derith took a glance at the moon they were hurtling toward.  It now
filled a third of his vision and was visibly getting larger.  He was
surprised that Hotaru hadn't seen it yet.  He wouldn't be able to keep
it a secret much longer.

     "Now, listen to me, Firefly," he said seriously.  "I need to know
if you have any tricks left in you, because we have one small problem
ahead of us."

     Saturn twisted in his grasp and gasped as the world of Titan
appeared to be moving toward them.  Moving VERY quickly.

     "Can't you do something?" she asked, frantically.

     "I'm doing what I can, but it's not enough.  Titan is sucking us in
and my magic isn't strong enough to counter it.  Can you teleport us?"

     Saturn closed her eyes and mentally assessed her power levels,
trying to push out of her mind the image of the cloud-covered moon that
they were falling toward.  She had recovered some of her strength from 
the teleport that had catapulted her across the Solar System, but the
thought of trying it again...  She felt her stomach churn with more than
just the queasiness of free fall.

     She opened her eyes again.  Derith frowned.  They were wide open
with panic.  That wouldn't help.

     "I don't think I can... what are we going to do?"

     Good, Derith thought.  The panic isn't in her voice yet.  But she's
looking to me for answers.  So I better come up with some quick.

     "Okay, okay... let me think.  Do you have any power left?"  She
nodded.  "Good, good.  I think I know how we can pull through this," he
lied, but keeping a smile on his face.

     "How?"

     "Now, now... a good sorcerer never tells how he does his tricks."

     Saturn hit him on the shoulder.

     "Ow!  Seriously, I need to think about the actual magic involved,
get the spell right in my mind, okay?"

     "'Get the spell right?'"

     Derith looked at the approaching moon and sighed.  "Firefly, I
would love nothing more than to spend a few years teaching you about
higher magics, but I think you must agree that now is not the time.  So,
just trust me, OK?  I won't let you down."  I hope.

     Saturn nodded and looked a little better.  Still, she did not,
Derith noted, look at Titan if she could help it.  Just as well she
didn't, he figured.

     He ran over his spells in his mind.  It was times like this that he
wished he knew more about magic.  He was no wizard and, quite frankly,
he was glad not to be.  Spending years of his life cloistered with
books, charts, and other arcanum just did not appeal to him, especially
not while he was still 'sowing his wild oats.'  Then again, he had been
sowing his oats for millennia now, so it did not look likely that he
would ever settle down to such a life.

     Derith viewed himself as more of a 'general specialist'.  He knew
some magic, he knew how to take care of himself in a fight, he could
discourse tolerably well on matters of theology and philosophy.  However
he paid for the breadth of his knowledge by not having very much depth
in any one subject.  Versatility had saved his life many times, but lack
of certain pieces of knowledge had made things more difficult than they
should have been a number of times as well.

     Let's see, he thought.  Combat spells are out.  My escape spells
aren't going to cut it for reentry.  Nothing in my miscellaneous spells
to help out... Defensive?  Hmmm...  Shield spell might do it, if I was
stronger.  Even with my belt slowing us down, it would barely handle us
shooting through the atmosphere.... impact will kill us dead... unless.
Let's see, change a syllable here and here, take a bit from my energy
drain spell and stick it here... no, THERE!  Damn, wish I had my books
and time to look them over.

     Finally he looked at Hotaru and spoke quietly to her.  "Okay,
Firefly... this is going to take both of us.  I'm going to cast a spell
to shield us from the reentry and impact, but I don't have enough power
to make it work.  You're going to have to supply the power."

     Saturn shook her head violently.  "But I CAN'T.  I don't know how!"
She could feel the power inside her wake, the darkness waiting to be
released.  It wanted to kill and destroy.  Oh, it could save her, she
knew... but not Derith.  It couldn't care less about him.

     Derith sighed and kept his voice as level as he could.  "Then we're
both going to die, Firefly.  I'm sorry, but this is the best I can do."

     Saturn stomped on her panic and looked back at the quickly
approaching moon.  It now filled their vision and even she could tell
that they were out of time and options.  She took a deep breath.  She
was a Sailor Senshi, and it was time she started acting as one.  She had
always said that she could handle herself... now it was time to see if
she truly could.

     "I'll... I'll do my best, Derith," she said finally.

     Derith smiled.  "You know, I think that's the first time you've
said my name.  I hope I get to hear you say it again, soon."

     "Do you want me to save you or not?" Saturn asked, irritated.

                                   *****

     The remaining Sailor Senshi gathered in a circle around the three
psychics in Tomoe-sensei's basement, holding hands and waiting for some
sign of where Hotaru might be.  Inside their circle, Yumemi, Steven, and
Ryo held hands in a smaller circle, concentrating fiercely.

     A wind began to blow.  The Sailors' hair and skirts moved slightly,
then began to sway as the wind picked up, circling around the group.
Loose pieces of paper began to fly around as the wind grew ever
stronger.

     As one, the three psychics suddenly threw their heads up at the
ceiling.  Their eyes and mouths were opened wide and glowing with white
light.  Instead of shining forth, however, the light hovered over their
faces, darting one way and then the other, like smoke caught in
conflicting currents of air.  Then, as if finally making up its mind to
act, the light shot up above the psychics heads and began to coalesce.

     Above Yumemi, the light took on a yellow cast and formed a small,
round ball.  The yellow ball then burst open in shower of sparks and
revealed a ghostly figure in yellow robes.

     Steven's light shot straight up in a line, hovering above his head
like a sword before it is swallowed.  The line, somehow, pivoted 90
degrees, and became a two-dimensional representation of a figure in
green robes.  There was a faint 'whumph' and the figure swelled out to
three dimensions.

     Purple light formed a swirling spiral above Ryo's head,  The light
broke up into many twinkling points, like stars, like a galaxy of light.
Then darkness grew in the center, a large black nothing that pushed the
twinkling points of light out to the sides, where it took the outline of
a human.  Then a ghostly image of a figure in purple robes was there.

     The three figures were human in shape, but defied classification as
male or female, as they were clad in robes and hoods.  Shadows covered
their faces, but all present could feel their eyes on each in turn.

     "The Three... I thought so," Pluto whispered.  The Younger Pluto
was the only one who heard her, though, and looked at her quizzically.
As usual, however, Hime-chan would get no answers from her teacher... or
at least none that she would understand at the present.

     The Three spoke then as one, their voices male and female, loud and
soft, deep and high.

          "Three-Fold the Lady of the Night
          Child, Warrior, Hag, she is.
          Now, she has vanished from your sight,
          But not her own.

          She has sunk into herself on a world
          that orbits around her.
          Shrouded in the mists, it hides from sight
          Pursued by darkness, she seeks the light.

          The ancient lords are remembered there,
          Cast down by the gods long ago.
          This world remembers their hate,
          And bitter it remains to the core,
          Smiting all who draw breath and walk in its shadow."

     Then, the Three were gone.  Urawa, Steven, and Yumemi all
collapsed, prompting Mercury, Venus, and Mars to check them over.

     "They're okay," Mercury reported, "just unconscious... I wish I had
my computer..."

     "Why can't things ever be easy?" Sailor Moon asked rhetorically.
Then she turned to the Senshi of Time.  "Pluto, did that make any sense
to you?"

     "Perhaps."

     "That's Pluto-speak for 'I know, but I'm not gonna tell you, nyah
nyah,'" Younger Pluto groused.

     "Great... none of it makes sense," Moon said.

     "'World that orbits her...'" Mercury mused.  "If the poem does have
something to do with Saturn, could it mean one of the moons of Saturn?"

     "Great!  Ami, you're brilliant!  How many moons does Saturn have?"
Moon asked eagerly.

     "Eighteen."

     Sailor Moon's enthusiasm disappeared.  "E-eighteen?"

     "Yes, they are: 1981S13, Atlas, Calypso, Dione, Enceladus,
Epimetheus, Helene, Hyperion, Iapetus, Janus, Mimas, Pandora, Phoebe,
Prometheus, Rhea, Telesto, Tethys, and Titan."

     "How can we search eighteen moons?"

     "We work at it real hard, meatball head!" Mars snapped.  Then she
paused.  "Wait, Mercury, what was the last one?"

     "Titan?"

     "I remember from my mythology class at T&A... The Titans were
ancient gods that were cast down by Zeus and imprisoned in the Earth, I
think."

     "So, Saturn is on Titan?" Uranus asked.  "Let's go!"

     "Possibly," Pluto said.

     "Pluto-speak for 'You're right, but I won't confirm it for fear I
won't look coo--OW!" Younger Pluto said as Sailor Pluto hit her lightly
on the head with the Time Staff.

                                   *****

     The dense, methane-rich atmosphere of Titan parted violently before
a silvery projectile.  Oval-shaped and glowing brighter than the far
distant sun, the object burned a fiery trail behind it, angling through
Titan's tempestuous weather patterns with all the grace of a wild boar.
Finally, its journey came to an end as it shot between two heavily
eroded peaks and down into valley.  Its first contact with the rocky
surface of Saturn's largest moon was hardly gentle, leaving a large
crater and sending the projectile skipping upwards, but only briefly.
Gravity was quick to reclaim its prey.  For a second time, it met the
rocky soil, this time for good.  It skidded along the surface, digging a
furrow behind it, before its now quite-resistible force met an immovable
boulder of dense rock.

     For a while, all was silent.  The silver projectile lay on the
steaming rock it had heated with the friction of its passage.  Then the
freezing cold of Titan cooled the rock and the silver projectile...
evaporated.  In its wake lay two figures, both lying quite still.

     The smaller figure was the first to move.  Sitting up slowly,
Saturn looked around.  The atmosphere of Titan was like the thickest fog
she had ever seen, blown constantly by turbulent winds, but never blown
away.  She could feel the weight of the air on her, pressing down, as if
to counter the weak gravity the moon exerted on her.  It was also cold,
very cold.  She coughed then, and felt a wave of dizziness sweep over
her.  It was a familiar feeling, like the weakness that used to plague
her before she awoke to her heritage.  It passed, but only after several
minutes.  Was she succumbing to that old illness again?  The thought
scared her.  Unlike her friends, she never took good health for granted.
Each day where she could draw a deep breath without a chest spasm, each
time she could run in a grassy park, every time she moved without it
being an effort was a blessing.  Was her good health, this gift of the
Saturn Power, deserting her now?

     A low cough from behind her finally broke her free of her fear.
Derith.  She hadn't even checked to see if he had survived.  His scheme
to get them through the re-entry had worked, though it had taken every
bit of her concentration to let the silver power within her out and to
restrain the darkness.  The bone-jarring ride through Titan's sky and
the incredible impact had taken its toll as well.  But they had done it.

     Or so she had thought.  Looking at Derith now, she wasn't so sure.
He was coughing, thick wet coughs that she remembered too well from
numerous winters.  He was shivering, too, and not from cold.  These were
fever-induced muscle spasms.  She placed her hand on his forehead and
could feel it burn her palm even through the glove she wore.

     "Derith!  Derith!  Wake up!  Please, you've got to wake up!" she
screamed, grabbing him by his shirt.  She didn't know what to do, what
was wrong.  He was the expert, not her!

     Derith opened his eyes slightly and tried to grin.  "Hello... F-
firefly," he mumbled through chattering teeth.  "Did... did we--?"

     "We made it down, Derith.  You did it."

     "W-WE... did it," Derith said, coughing.  "Got... got to..."

     "What?  What?"

     "Titan... poison... can't... stay," he mumbled, his eyes closing.

     "No," whimpered Saturn.  "Don't leave me.  Not alone again.
Please."  She began to rock him back and forth.  "Please, tell me what
to do."  She coughed again and another wave of dizziness hit her,
followed by extreme chills.  A quick check of her own forehead confirmed
that she too was running a high fever.  "I'm... going to die," she
mumbled, struggling to keep her eyes from closing.

     "We all die, but there are far more glorious deaths than dying out
here, by yourself," came another voice.

     Saturn froze.  She had never heard that voice before, but she knew
who it was.  She and the voice's owner had been too much a part of each
other for her not to recognize it.  Looking up, she saw her worst fears
realized in the form of a stunning young woman.  The woman had long
black hair and a smug, superior expression on her face, a smile that did
not light up her deep violet eyes.  She was wearing a tight dress that
revealed ever curve she had, complete with a plunging neckline.  The top
of the dress was blue, while the skirt was a deep, deep black.  Two
strands of pearls where strung from the dress's neckline to encircle her
bare arms.  On the woman's forehead was a black star.

     Mistress Nine.

     "No..." moaned Saturn.

     Mistress Nine flashed a toothy smile.  "Oh, yes, Hotaru-chan.  Did
you think me forever gone?  Did you truly believe that your puerile
memories of your family and friends could destroy me?  Poor, poor, naive
child... you should have accepted what your heart told you.  Darkness,
my child, can be pushed aside by the light... but it is ALWAYS there...
lurking, ignored but never entirely forgotten.  Tell me, child, did
those lamps you collected ever keep the darkness at bay?"  Mistress Nine
through her head back and laughed.  "Every light you lit just made the
darkness outside the window darker.  You can never destroy the darkness.
I have seen how it will all end... in darkness... in cold... in
Silence."

     "No... Sailor Moon!  Chibi-Usa!  Pu!" Saturn screamed, trying to
conjure forth her saviors and protectors.

     Mistress Nine looked around, but only the fog of Titan's thick
atmosphere greeted their eyes.

     "No one's left to save you, foolish girl," Mistress Nine said.
"Not your father, not your friend, not your Princess... not even that
lying half-elf at your feet."

     "L-lying...?  Derith didn't--"

     "He knows what you are, child.  Do you think the elves of Venus
have forgotten the Senshi?  Foolish brat!  Many of them were ALIVE then.
They SAW what you did to the Moon.  They know the Silence you will
bring."

     "N-no... he..."

     Mistress Nine's voice became gentle.  "It is a fact of life, child.
Those who know of your power will always try to hurt you, one way or
another.  They will either kill you, or they will frighten you, fill
your head with misguided stories to make you too afraid to ever reach
for your destiny."  Mistress Nine cocked her head as if listening.  "Can
you hear it?  The symphony of silence, the dirge for the destruction of
the universe?  Embrace it, and you will never fear anything again.
Grasp your destiny, Hotaru-chan!"

     She could hear it.  The Darkness inside her always sang the
tempting song.  Let me out, it said.  I am empty, let the universe feed
our hunger.  End it all, and there will be peace.

     "Stop right there!" shouted another voice, though also very
familiar to Saturn.  Looking up, she saw Mistress Nine was being
confronted by...

     Sailor Saturn.

     The Senshi of Death and Destruction held Mistress Nine at bay with
the Silence Glaive, an exact duplicate of the one by Saturn's side.  The
Senshi turned to face Saturn.  "Don't listen to her lies, Hotaru-chan.
Your destiny is to stand beside your friends against the Darkness.
Remember your duties and responsibilities!"

     Mistress Nine threw back her head and laughed.  "Duty.
Responsibility.  You would condemn her to a lifetime of restraint and
fear, always fearing the next time the Darkness slips its leash.  Over a
thousand years of living with that, the china doll of the Sailor Senshi.
The one that everyone fears."

     "If need be," the Senshi replied.  "The lives of my friends and
family, the lives of all of Earth, are far more important than my
happiness."

     "Friends, family...  hmph!  Everything dies in the end.  Not even
you can stop that.  And eventually, the darkness will be loosed and the
Silence will reign!"

     "STOP IT!" screamed a third voice.  By now, Saturn wasn't even
surprised to see another Tomoe Hotaru, this one in the old red and green
plaid uniform of Mugen Gakuen.  Both Mistress Nine and the Senshi glared
at the newcomer, who quailed before them but held her ground.  "I-I just
want to be a normal girl.  I don't want any of this.  Just leave me
alone, BOTH of you!"

     "Foolish brat--" began Mistress Nine.

     "You cannot turn your back on--" said the Senshi.

     "SILENCE GLAIVE SURPRISE!"

     The three reacted with surprise and fear as Saturn brought her
Silence Glaive down in the middle of their argument and let loose a
little of her power.  The explosion blew them all off their feet,
leaving Saturn standing in the middle of them all.

     "I... am sick... and tired..." Saturn said, breathing heavily to
stave off the new wave of dizziness, "of people trying... to tell me...
what I must... do."  She looked at each of them in turn.  "Yes, I hear
the song of Silence.  Yes, I know all about my duties and
responsibilities.  And YES, I WISH I WAS A NORMAL GIRL!  WHAT DO YOU
THREE WANT OF ME?"

     "A... choice..." croaked Derith.

     Saturn looked over at Derith in shock.  He had propped himself up,
the strain evident on his features.

     "Derith--?"

     "They... you must... choose among them... Firefly," Derith said,
each word forced between clenched teeth, his voice fading quickly.
"Your... power... Saturn... needs... you... to... choose."  With that,
he slumped down, unconscious.

     "Choose?" Saturn said, looking at her three other selves.

     "Yes, and you must choose the Silence!"

     "No, your duty to--"

     "I want to be normal again--!

     "SHUT UP! SHUT UP!  SHUT UP!" Saturn screamed.  Every day of her
life, she had heard these three arguing inside her mind, the seductive
song of the Silence, the obligations she had as a Senshi, the desire
that this cup would pass... they tormented her constantly.  Now, given
separate existence by this place and her power, she FINALLY could scream
back at them for making her life a misery.

     The three shut up for once, gazing at her expectantly.  For a
moment, Saturn wondered what they were waiting for.  Then she realized
that they were waiting for her choice.  Her choice.  She almost looked
around for Pluto or her father for them to tell her what to do.  But
there was no one here to help her.  Even Derith was unconscious.  It was
all down to her, and her alone.

     No, not alone.  Never alone.

     She stopped in shock.  She looked up into the sky, unerringly
looking toward the planet whose power she bore.  She saw again those
beings Derith had shown her, all looking silently at her, and more.
Derith smiling that flippant grin of his.  The Sailors playing with her
at the beach.  Haruka and Michiru smiling down at her as a baby.  Chibi-
Usa laughing at her side.  Her father putting her at bed at night,
keeping the night time terrors at bay.  Her mother... her mother singing
a faint lullaby, shortly after she was born, before...

     The lullaby filled her mind, singing between the stars, along all
those ley lines she had seen earlier.  Those that heard it looked up,
looked at her, all connected by the vast web of life.

     "I see..." she muttered.  Looking over at her three tormentors, she
reached out and took the young Tomoe Hotaru's hand.  "I choose you,
because we share a beginning, and you are me."

     The young Hotaru disappeared.  Then, not missing a beat, Saturn
turned to the Senshi of Death and Destruction.  "And I choose you, for I
do have duties and obligations.  I will fulfill them, but not at the
cost of my humanity.  I learned that from Pluto."  The Senshi
disappeared as well.

     Now she turned to Mistress Nine.  "And I must choose you as well,
mustn't I?  Light that denies the Darkness, that fears it without
understanding its place in the universe... that's as foolish as a
child's fear of the night.  It reduces the Light to nothing more than a
night light, a feeble glimmer, with none of its glory and majesty.  Yes,
death and darkness come to all things, but that makes the Light more
precious and worth fighting for."  She took Mistress Nine's hand, and
the Daughter of the Silence vanished with a snarl.

     Saturn then turned to her planet, to all the beings it connected
her to.  Now she could see it in all its glory, see the beauty of the
pattern.  Yes, there were those who feared her, but she did not fear
their rejection anymore.  There were those who hated, but she did not
hate them for it.  Her power filled her, darkness and light both, but
she was at peace.  The Darkness, though not tamed, was quiet; mastered,
for the first time Saturn could remember.

     Reaching out with her power, she banished the sickness from her,
pushed back the toxic magic with ease.  A dome grew around her, pushing
back the atmosphere and magic of Titan.  In its place, the sun shone
over green grass, trees grew from saplings to become majestic, towering
giants.  Butterflies and birds flew and even a small clear pond sat in
the center.

     Saturn ran over to the pond and cupped some water in her hands.
She carried it over to Derith and let it dribble into his mouth.  With
the pure, clean water, she sent her power, healing him and purging his
system of the mana that had been poisoning him.  Then, holding his head
gently in her lap, she waited for him to wake.

     It did not take long.  First a fluttering of the eyelids, then he
opened his crystal-blue eyes to the most beautiful sight he had ever
seen.

     "Firefly--?"

     "Are you feeling better, Derith?" she asked gently.

     "Yes... it's not every day you're saved by an angel... but I could
get to like it."

     "Do you know who I am?"

     "Er..."

     "Did you know all along what I am?" she asked again.

     "Yes," he admitted.

     "Why didn't you say anything?"

     "What could I say?  I didn't even know that the Senshi were back in
action, let alone that Senshi Saturn was active.  But you needed my
help, I couldn't abandon you... and you were too cute to be the Angel of
Death the legends spoke about."

     "You definitely are feeling better," Saturn said with a scowl
before tossing him in the pond.  It was a long toss, but she handled it
easily, her power amplifying her strength on command.  Derith landed
with a mighty splash.

     He stood up sputtering.  "Hey!"

     "You deserved that for lying to me," Saturn said, walking over to
him and sticking out her tongue.

     "Am I forgiven, then?"

     "Maybe... maybe not."

     "Maybe not?  We'll see about that!" he said, grabbing hold of the
Silence Glaive and pulling Saturn in with him.

     Saturn surfaced, water running down her face.  "You--!"

     "Gotcha!"

     Before long, a dunking competition was in full swing.  They were
still at it when a flash of multi-colored light announced the arrival of
the rest of the Sailor Senshi.

     "Hotaru!  Hotaru!" Sailor Venus screamed, breaking free of the
others in the Sailor Teleport ring and looking around frantically.  When
she saw Derith and Hotaru, she stopped.  "Urk?"

     Saturn looked up at all of them and her face suddenly turned red
with embarrassment.  She was only glad her Poppa wasn't here.  How could
she explain this to him?

     "Sailor Saturn, it is good to see you are all right," Pluto said,
finally, while everyone else still stared at the two in the pond.
Uranus and Neptune were giving Derith their fiercest glares while, at
the other extreme, Sailor Moon's jaw almost hit the grass.

     "Um, Pu... this isn't... I mean... I didn't."

     "Derith Moontears, at your service, milady," Derith said, getting
out of the pond and bowing with a dignity none thought he could have
managed.  He took Sailor Moon's hand.  "Your servant, your majesty."

     "You didn't greet me like that," Saturn said icily.

     "Protocol, Firefly-chan.  You must do things differently for
royalty.  It is a sign of--OW!"

     "Saturn, I don't think the Glaive was designed with that in mind,"
Pluto said, "though it does serve admirably."

     Saturn put the butt of the Glaive back down and glared at Derith.
"SOMEONE has to keep this creep under control."

     Sailor Venus's eyes lit up.  "Oh, methinks she doth produce too
much!"

     "Wha--?  No, it's not like that!  Really!"

     "Come on, tell Auntie Minako everything!"

     "Since when were you my auntie?"

     "Well, she looks old enough--" Sailor Jupiter began.

     "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

     Derith stepped back from the brawl and winked at Saturn, who
blushed.  Pluto smiled slightly at their exchange, then walked over to
Sailor Saturn.

     "I sense that you have finally come to terms with your power,
Hotaru-chan."

     "Yes... did you know that this--?"

     "No, not exactly.  But I knew that sooner or later you would want
to make your own decisions about how you would live your life.  I had
hoped... that it would not have been so traumatic."

     "It was not too bad..."

     Pluto looked over at Derith, who was fielding some rather angry
questions from Sailors Uranus and Neptune.  "Good companionship often
helps, does it not?"

     Saturn blushed.

     "It's all right, Hotaru-chan.  Just remember how old you really
are.  It will be some time before you are truly ready for a real
relationship."

     Saturn blushed even harder.

     "Now, now," Derith said, popping up suddenly.  "Teasing Firefly
here is MY job."

     There was a sudden whoosh of air and Derith was sent sprawling back
into the pond.  "One job of many," Bob the Star Dragon said, settling
daintily to the ground by the pond, "and you've neglected those other
jobs long enough."

     Everyone stopped and stared at the several-ton great wyrm.  Bob's
side was rent with several bloody gashes, and one wing was tattered, but
on the whole he seemed okay.  Some of the Sailors readied their attacks,
only to stop as Saturn ran up to the behemoth.

     "Bob!  You're okay!" she said, hugging his scaly neck.

     "Ahem, er, yes... owow!  Careful, I think that boor bent that scale
backward.  But, really, was there ever any doubt?"

     "Ohh, you poor thing," Saturn said, concentrating on her healing
power.  The gashes and the torn wing slowly knitted themselves back
together, and Bob's scales took on a new luster.

     "My... My, my, my," Bob said, stretching.  "Derith, marry this
girl.  She's far more useful to have around than you are."

     "Visions of luggage are beginning to dance in my head," Derith
growled from the pond.  "Nice, SILVER luggage."

     Bob yawned.

     By now, the Sailors couldn't help but giggle at the antics of Bob
and Derith.  Sailor Moon was laughing out right.

     "Now look at what you've done," Derith grumbled to Bob.  "You've
made a fool of me in front of royalty."

     "I can't take ALL the credit for that, dear boy.  You really do
walk into these things, don't you?"

     Finally, Pluto took matters in hand.  "Come, we must get back to
Earth, and Derith has his own mission to accomplish.  There is much we
must do ourselves."

     "It would help, you know, if you would just tell us how to find the
Inner Talismans," Sailor Moon grumbled.

     "I know."

     Everyone looked at Saturn, who shrank back a bit.

     "I know where they are," Saturn said.  "Now, at least.  I can see
them."  She looked back up at Saturn, tracing down several of the ley
lines.  She could not see the future, as Pluto did, but she could see
how the lines wove together.  It was simple, but at the same time, she
knew she could never explain it.  So, raising her Silence Glaive, she
summoned her power once again.

     Silver light sprang forth from her Glaive, shooting toward Mercury,
Venus, Mars, and Jupiter.  It transfixed them, then faded.

     "There..."

     "What--?" Sailor Moon said.

     "Um, I'm not sure if I can explain it, Sailor Moon.  I just...
strengthened their ties to their Talismans... they will be drawn
together now... how, exactly, I couldn't tell you.  Sorry."

     Pluto looked down at Saturn, pleasantly surprised.  "Well done,
Hotaru-chan."

     Saturn looked down at her feet, embarrassed.

     "Well, I guess we better get going," Sailor Moon said.  "If Mom
catches me out of bed, I'm going to be in a WHOLE lot of trouble."

     "Just a minute, please, Sailor Moon?" Saturn asked.

     Sailor Moon glanced at Saturn, then over at Derith.  "Oh, no
problemo, Hotaru-chan, take your time."

     Saturn set a new world record for Senshi blushing.

     Derith looked up when she came over.  "Got to go?" he said
sympathetically.

     "Yeah... I just... I mean... I wanted... oh, here!" she finally
said, jumping up to give him a peck on the cheek.  "Thanks for
everything," she said quickly.  Then, turning to Bob, she gave the Star
Dragon another hug.  "I... I hope I see you both again."

     "Count on it, Firefly," Derith said with a grin.  "Hey, before you
go... how long will this place last?" he asked, indicating the meadow.

     "Oh... um, a few thousand years, I think... I kinda overdid it a
bit."

     "Kinda..." Derith began.

     "...overdid it?" Bob finished.

     The two shared incredulous looks.

     "Hotaru-chan!  We're leaving!" Sailor Moon called.

     "Bye!" Saturn said, before running back to her friends.  Then, in a
flash, they were gone.

     Derith reached up and touched his cheek where Saturn had kissed
him.  "I think I'm in love."

     "What, again?"

                                   *****

     The Sailor Senshi rocketed away from Saturn in a burst of multi-
colored light.  As they did, a strange thing happened.  For a second,
the planet Saturn seemed to waver, like heat waves off pavement in
August.  To those with magical sight, something even more amazing was
happening.  The uncountable ley lines of Saturn shifted, spun,
inverted... and vanished.  They were still there, only now hidden from
all detection.  Forevermore, Saturn would just appear to be a ball of
gas with a fancy collection of rings.  All because the true mistress of
this place wanted it that way.

     Tomoe Hotaru.

     This is the truest thing of all.

                                   *****

Closing Credits:

     "My road leads me far away."

     We see Nephrite telling Juno that he must go soon for a great
conflict is about to begin.

     "Though my heart tells me to stay,"

     We see Princess Serenity clinging to a worried looking Endymion.

     "When my duty calls, I must go"

     We see Pluto appearing in the midst of the ballroom at the Diamond
Gala.

     "'Twixt worlds of fire and worlds of snow."

     We cut to a shot of the solar system, with the nine planets and the
moon lined up from the Sun at the left to Pluto at the right, with the
Senshi and Prince Endymion standing on their planets as shadowy figures.

     "The road I travel will be long"

     We see the White Knight galloping down a Tokyo street on horseback.

     "To set things right, to end the wrongs."

     We see Tuxedo Mask tossing a red rose into the barrel of a gun,
which backfires and explodes.

     "But this message will I send,"

     We see Rei picking up a blue crystal, which starts to play back a
message.

     "Wait for me at Journey's End."

     We see Naru waiting for someone outside a restaurant.

     "Do not forget the love we share"

     We see Princess Serenity and Endymion tearfully bidding each other
farewell.

     "Though I must leave, my heart will stay."

     We see Naru crying as Nephrite dissolves away in her arms.

     "Do not think I ceased to care"

     We see Beryl implanting crystals in the foreheads of the four
Guardians and cackling maniacally.

     "When my duty took me away."

     We see Steven waiting at a restaurant, then sighing as he checks
his watch.

     "The road I travel will be long"

     We see the Sailors using the Sailor Teleport to travel to the ruins
of the Moon Kingdom.

     "To set things right, to end the wrongs."

     We see Umino trying to fight a monster in "Tuxedo Umino Kamen"
mode.

     "But this message will I send,"

     We see Luna trying to use a dial only phone.

     "Wait for me at Journey's End."

     We see Umino leap to his feet as Naru comes running up the sidewalk
to him with Usagi and company.

     "I have only my heart to give"

     We see Haruka and Michiru sharing a quiet moment.

     "For my life is not my own."

     We see the baby Saturn in a crib.

     "It is for others that I must live"

     We see Pluto having a frustrating time trying to counsel a young
girl.

     "But it is for you that I come home."

     We see Mamoru following a trail of smoke to Usagi in his kitchen.

     "The road I travel will be long"

     We see Capricorn vanishing through a portal.

     "To set things right, to end the wrongs."

     We see a chamber with stars for a ceiling and a horoscope on the
floor.  A man stands in grey robes in the center and stares down at the
horoscope.

     "But this message will I send,"

     We see Usagi listening to a message on the phone, her eyes getting
big.

     "Wait for me at Journey's End."

     We see a closing tableux of the Sailors, Umino, Naru, Steven,
Tuxedo Mask, and twelve shadowy figures standing on a Zodiac wheel.

                                   *****

BOB SAYS:

[The camera pulls back, back, and back until we see Bob the Star Dragon
snoozing on a mountain top.  With a snort, he turns over on his back and
wakes up.  For a moment he blinks, then he focuses on the camera.]

BOB: Oh, right... stupid contractual obligations.  Hello there, I am
Bob, a member of the species Draconis Astra (Europan).  I have been
asked by the author to explain the lesson of today's episode.  Since a
complete analysis would likely outlast your finite life spans, I will
attempt to be brief.

[Usagi runs in.]

USAGI: HEY!  This is MY--

[Bob smiles toothily at Usagi.]

USAGI: Eep!

BOB: Tell me, Serenity-sama, have you ever heard of an old saying?  It
goes 'Do not interfere in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy
and good with ketchup'?

[Usagi turns and runs away.]

BOB: Now, if there are no more interruptions... [he waits, but no one
else shows up]  Very well.  The theme of today's story is the Hero's
Journey, taken from a fine book called "The Hero of a Thousand Faces" by
Joseph Campbell.  In almost all stories of adventure, there are certain
common elements.  For this story, Tomoe Hotaru is called out of her
sheltered existence to finally be the hero she deserves to be.

[Hotaru pops up.]

HOTARU: Yeah!  No more being on the sidelines! [Bob gives her a look and
she blushes.]  Oops, sorry, Bob.  [She ducks back out of camera range.]

BOB: I begin to see why Luna warned me about this segment.  A Hero's
Journey begins with the Call to Adventure, where the protagonist is
plucked from a 'normal' life to one of adventure.  Then there is usually
some sort of Supernatural Aid (in this story, myself and Derith) who
help the hero on her journey.

[Derith pops in.]

DERITH: 'Myself and Derith?'  I seem to recall that you didn't want to 
investigate!

BOB: I think I qualify better as 'Supernatural' than you do, Obi-Wan.

DERITH: [smugly] Well, that all depends on your point of view.

BOB: To continue the quotations, 'I find your lack of faith disturbing.'

[Bob grins and Derith looks very nervous.]

DERITH: I'll just go wait over here...

[Derith pops off screen.]

BOB: Really, has no one ever thought of making this a CLOSED set?  I
think I will wrap this up early, before anything else goes wrong.  As I
was saying, Hotaru in this story follows the classic path of the
archetypal hero.  If you want to know more... READ THE BOOK!

[With that, Bob curls up and goes back to sleep.  The author pokes his
head up into the camera range.]

AUTHOR: Um, I guess that's all for now... good night, and remember, keep
watching the skis!  Er, skies... whatever.

[The image fades to black.  Before it cuts out completely, however, we
hear Bob again.]

BOB: Well, acting is all well and good, Hosmer-san, but what I really
want to do is direct...

                                   *****

AUTHOR'S NOTES

     Well, I think Bob said it all.  I want to thank my co-author, John
Biles, for helping me with the beginning and the Three's poem.  I also
want to thank Sean Gaffney, for his insight into the psyche of Hotaru
(whom he has married in a self-insertion fanfic called Made of Stone. :)
Derith and Bob are my own creations, Derith based on an AD&D character I
ran long ago, and put a lot of thought into.  Bob is... Bob.  Let's
leave it at that. :)

Jeffrey Hosmer
4 October 1998



Jeffrey Paul Hosmer
jhosmer@ix.netcom.com
http://www.tass.org/~jhosmer/