SAILORMOON STORIES ± WRITING MAIN

His mind remained blank as he looked over the palace grounds. It was as if his heart wouldn't, couldn't accept what his eyes saw as fact. Again and again his gaze fell upon the oak trees, their height and power telling him incontrovertibly how much time must have passed. The warm summer sunshine felt good upon his hair again, and the breeze that drifted by seemed created especially for his delight. He would never have thought that he would miss the smell of pollen. If he had been gone so long . . . what was Usa doing now? Did she still rule in Crystal Tokyo? His eyes closed halfway and he checked again the silver cord that held him to her. She lived and was in good health - more than that he couldn't say. A faint pull on the connection told him what direction she was in and it pointed towards the palace proper. That told him that she must still rule there - he couldn't imagine her living in the palace if she was not queen of it. But so much time! . . . his mind couldn't comprehend it.

The sun began its descent from the high heavens and Mamoru watched with serious eyes as the light played over the sparkling spires of Crystal Tokyo. With aching heart he slowly came to the realization that there was no way to know what had happened, the passing ages seemingly taking place in so short a span of time. His mind kept blanking out, his emotions tumbling over each other in chaos. The lowering sun was shining in his eyes before he moved, finally stretching long bones before gazing soberly down the small incline that lead through the palace grounds. He had to know, had to understand for himself how things had changed - even though he knew that if he truly let himself appreciate what had happened to him, he might go mad from it.

With hesitant stride he began to walk towards the palace proper, descending into a formal garden that was well cared for, lushly surrounding the crystalline presence of the palace. As he wound his way closer and closer his pace got slower and slower until finally he halted unmoving by a small copse of trees, shade reaching out and enfolding him. People and activity had been apparent even from a distance and skillfully he had avoided either, evading notice and scrutiny until he stood here, almost near enough to the walls to touch them. Everyone seemed to be passing through a number of inset doors, moving back and forth from inside to the gardens. Bright jewels glittered on both the men and women, as couples and groups swayed back and forth in easy formation. Snippets of conversation drifted past his mute ears and Mamoru wondered idly what would be the best way to get inside, to see Usagi. His heart spasmed and his face closed down in a grimace of pain - that casual thought hurt him as a knife might, bright and keen.

Usagi. His Usako, now uncountable years of living behind her. "Oh gods of my fathers," he thought to himself in sudden despair, "how much time has it been? Oh cruel gods, will she even recognize me?" He breathed shallowly and willed his emotions back into some semblance of order. People passed him unaware as he struggled to control himself, a darker shadow among others. Minutes passed and Mamoru held himself as still as midnight, sharp confusion in his mind. Desperate to restore his faltering sanity, he grasped desperately at his bond to her, the silver cord falling into his spirit fingers like a lifeline. Still as strong and bright as the day he realized he loved her, his golden child, it sang its simple song into his soul.

safe and happy alive and well safe safe safe . . ., the little song went round and round his heart, his Usagi singing her contentment into his deepest awareness. Fiercely he willed himself to believe that that was all they needed, that her love sang to his like music across the waves of their separation. That was all they had left, it would have to be enough.

Conversations whirled and coalesced around him and he realized vaguely that there was some event coming due, that each person was anticipating it to judge by the references and sly tones. The doors apparently led to the Great Hall where this event was to take place. Mamoru blinked as he picked that tidbit out of the passing air - he didn't recall commissioning doors to be opened onto the gardens, the Great Hall should have been totally enclosed. It seems someone had changed the plans, another jarring note of discontinuity, a certain sense of the surreal settling over him.

And then a passing group, louder than the rest, spoke of something that sealed his nebulous intentions - Neo Queen Serenity was to be there, presiding over the ceremonies and he knew without even thinking about it that he would be standing inside the hall when she appeared. His hunger for her was acute and abrupt in his body, and his intentions crystallized in that moment. It didn't matter that she might not know him, as much as that might kill him should her gaze pass over him without recognition. It didn't matter at all - to see her was enough at this moment, to know she still walked the earth as he did, breathed the same air. A memory of her perfume in the long ago corridors of the palace was a taste on his tongue, a deep burn in his spine.

He started to step forward but realized suddenly that all these new courtiers had been dressed in their finest, regardless of the earliness of the hour. He looked down and realized that at the last he had been looking over maps and schedules and was dressed accordingly; a comfortable pair of faded denims snugged to his long legs that had been popular in his youth, a loose shirt of softest gray tucked haphazardly into the waistband, tied with careless cord at his throat. Hardly the attire of someone attempting to gatecrash an imperial party. He stepped hastily back into the concealing shadows and began to summon a quick change of clothes, his form as Prince of Earth or even the protector of Sailor Moon with its formal tuxedo. The energy gathered as it always had before, its familiar presence soothing his anxiety that he would be unable to do this, a legacy of the hours when he had tried to call power in to his hands and it had not answered. Potential swirled over him, sparks shifting in multihued tones over the edges of his body but it refused to frame itself into a familiar pattern. He struggled in long moments to make his mind form the image of his transformation but it kept breaking apart into flame tipped chaos.

Realizing futilely that it wasn't responding as it should, Mamoru attempted to release the summoned power back into the earth that he had called it from but was unsuccessful. As soon as reversed his grip on it, pale flame leaped up around him, startling him as it drew on the unchained earth power and coated him in liquid light. It only lasted a few heady moments and then began to recede in lapping waves down his body. He heard faint, amused laughter in his mind and his heart chilled at the dawning horror that the flame creature had taken him as its new host, abandoning the machine in the instant he had broken it. An intense feeling of smug satisfaction radiated through him for a moment and then it was gone as if it had never been. Shaken, he wondered if he was always going to have an interfering alien entity joined to his soul - but then had to grin wryly to himself that Usagi was joined there as well.With a shrug that was pragmatic in its acceptance, he determine not to concern himself with ramifications, his sanity was questionable enough as it was. So far the creature had only asserted itself to amend his choice in clothing. He decided to hold judgment in abeyance, realizing that his emotional stability was in a much more precarious position than his physical one. Looking down at himself he wondered idly if the flame creature had any sense of fashion.

It seems that it did, for he was still dressed in his accustomed black although in a style wildly different from his own. The colour was the only similarity, for the material seemed to be of some cross between heavy silk and softest suede. Soft black boots graced his lower legs, comfortable with the ease of long use. The pants were snug down his thighs, flaring slightly at the bottom to accommodate the boots, a slim piping of gold running down the outside seams. It was the tunic however that made him wonder what era the vortex creature had pulled this outfit from. Cut from high neck to his mid thigh it was heavily embroidered with gold patterns and glinted with gemstones. Fingering the high cut collar, he could make out the heavy scrollwork design that seemed to continue down the front of the tunic in geometric patterns. There were no sleeves, baring his muscular arms to the caress of the slight breeze and it fastened asymmetrically over his right breast, narrowing to a triangle at his waist. Slit at the side to allow for his long stride, crimson jewels blazed at each fastening and a chain of them ran from his shoulder to the fastening seam on his chest. The whole seemed a study in black, gold and bloodred and seemed a trifle barbaric against his normally restrained dress choices.

In concern he ran his hands through his hair but encountered no other decorations that might have magically appeared. On a sudden hunch he touched his left ear and winced as his fingers encountered a cold stone. With trepidation he unfastened the earring and brought it to where he could inspect it. Perhaps half the size of the tip of his smallest finger, it seemed to be a ruby of such a deep red it was nearly black. It winked somberly at him in the lowering sun and he passed a thoughtful finger over its finely etched facets. It was beautiful, no question, and Mamoru replaced it slowly back into his ear. Wistfully, he wished he had an idea what he looked like from the outside, but suspected it was more than formal enough to pass muster. With luck, everyone would mistake him for some outland prince and not the interloper he was.

Stepping forward, Mamoru let himself be drawn into the light streaming from the open doors that led to the place his heart might break.

---

The assembly was glittering, enchanting. Encircling the room was a promenade that led to the gardens, blocked off from the main room by tall graceful columns of marble - the same marble he had chosen to grace this place with its warm pinks and cool greys. The throng of people wove in and out between the columns, adding sparkle and wit to this place. Between the rising columns the dome arched high overhead, the bright crystal reflecting and spangling the main floor with streaks of rainbow. Stained glass windows paced the length of the upper walls, adding to the sense of brilliance and life as the descending sun struck chords of transparent colour along the floor.

To his left were a set of ornate double doors, perhaps twice the height of a tall man, imposing and regal. To his right was a dais, tiered with six long and shallow steps that lead up to a double throne. Each step had an ornate chair that led down in alternating sides from the throne itself, forming a staggered wide triangle with the two imperial thrones at the apex. It was difficult to tell at this distance, but each chair appeared ornamented differently - it was obvious each of the senshi sat there for formal recognition. In the back of his mind where his logic was hiding, he approved of the arrangement. Anyone needing to reach the Queen would have to run a gauntlet of her strongest warriors. Whimsically he wondered what would happen if he just walked up and sat down on that second throne. A wicked sense of humour filled him and he toyed seriously with the idea, almost taking a step towards the open area, imposing and so far away.

A man and woman walked by, wrapped in each other and their laughter jarred him out of his black humour and he stared at them with something approaching shock. He was suddenly overwhelmed again, seeing this room finished and vibrant with life. This was the place where he would have been married, where he and Usagi should have ruled together for the years he seemed to have lost. Overcome with mental vertigo, he leaned against the nearest column and let its cool strength support him. Every time he thought he was beginning to get a handle on this, it overwhelmed him again.

The people ebbed and flowed around him, his inward gaze and barbaric clothing a deterrent to them all. He almost seemed a malign presence in the brightness that encompassed this hall, dark and brooding, and all but one avoided his direct gaze or notice. This one was bolder than the rest, a young woman dressed in butter yellow with curly dark hair and inquisitive eyes. From some space away, she studied him under lowered lashes. Although this was not her first High Assembly she was not so far away from it. It still fascinated her, the power contained in the individuals in this room, the maneuverings and struggles that took place behind open fans and with quiet conversations in corners. And although it was impossible to know everyone in this place by sight, she knew she would have noticed this man before.

He was stunningly handsome, his blue gaze a casual study in brilliance and danger. His clothing was almost unrelieved black, but with a wealth of scintillating gems gracing the high points of his lean form. Black hair gleamed softly, framing a face seemingly made entirely of sharp angles and predatory intent. He shifted restlessly, and a stray beam of colour tinted sunlight hit his hair and for a moment he seemed encased in a rainbow before it faded away. He leaned casually against a column, so still and contained that he seemed almost a frightening force, as if at any time he would uncoil like a serpent or a fierce animal and rend everything in the hall. She shivered delightfully in the vividness of her own imagination, eyes bright with mischief and curiosity. His slow gaze seemed to piece right through everyone, as if he could see everything and cared nothing for it. His eyes drifted in her direction and suddenly she felt exposed, immediately turning to talk to the nearest person to her. When she dared to glance back at him, his smouldering gaze had returned to the center of the room. With perfunctory words, she excused herself from her unwitting accomplice and began to wind her way closer to him. She had this feeling that something infinitely more interesting than another marriage proposal for the queen was about to occur tonight, and she knew it centered on this strange man somehow.

Mamoru stood there and watched the sparkling crowd flow by him. He could see into the main room past the gently curving archways and his eyes kept being drawn back to the double throne at the end away from the main doors. It was achingly empty and a cool analytical voice told him that the queen would need to arrive soon -- after everyone had assembled but before the power machinations got too far under way. As he stared broodingly at the empty dais, his peripheral vision told him someone was approaching - not simply passing by, but making a line directly for him. He waited until the butter yellow dress was nearly at his elbow before he turned his gaze away from the fascinating panorama before him.

Her gaze was direct and inviting under heavy curls of glossy brown. Mamoru had met many such gazes before but this little slip of a girl seemed more kitten than coquette. Her eyes seemed as full of mischief as they were of curiosity and the rosebud of her mouth seemed quivering on a grin. Although he didn't let his expression cool to warn her off, neither did he answer that incipient smile. Instead he waited for her to say whatever she felt she needed to say -- soon Usagi would enter this room and everything else would be background any ways.

" I haven't seen you before and I thought I knew everyone. Is this your first time for a Great Assembly?" she inquired sweetly, trying to draw this stranger into conversation. This close, the hairs on the back of her neck were rising, as if he exuded some potent force that she couldn't see but her body could sense. For a long moment she thought that he wouldn't even acknowledge her, but then that long neck inclined in assent and a smoky voice said, "Yes. I don't believe that I have been here before."

She tried to smile brilliantly, knowing that nothing less than her best effort would interest this man. "I am well pleased that you are here though," she attempted to say with the correct amount of warmth and flirt, "I thought I would die of boredom before the ceremonies started."

The man seemed to visibly hesitate, and his eyes raked scathingly over the crowd before returning to her. "This ceremony. I came here . . unexpectedly and I am at a loss. Why is this gathering here?" Again there was that slight hesitation and she wondered what he had really meant to say there. She almost dared to put a hand on that tight arm but a small glance to his closed face warned against such overt familiarity. Instead she opted to answer his strange question. Didn't everybody in the empire know what this day was? Maybe not in foreign, faraway places that this man obviously came from. His blue gaze was steady upon her and she felt a small trembling inside caused simply by the pressure of his regard.

"Why, today is the day of each year that the Neo Queen allows those with titles and lands to challenge for the right to sit on the double throne of Crystal Tokyo." His indrawn breath was sharp and she looked at him in astonishment. If possible, his face had become cruel ice and his gaze was like lethal shards of glass. A frisson of fear touched her heart before his expression melted away, as if he simply turned another countenance to the world while his true face lurked still in the taut eyes. She was spared any possible rejoinder as a subtle movement through the air warned her of imminence and she turned with the rest to face the center of the hall, his keen gaze passing over her head like a cold wind.

---

A man dressed in sombre clothing now stood near the dais, unmoving in the ebb and flow around him. An ornate staff was in his hand - otherwise he was unremarkable. He stepped forward the three precise paces that placed him directly in front of the double throne. The room seemed to be waiting for this man to move as the crowd began to clear away from the center aisle. He raised his staff and brought it down sharply on the marble floor - by the second tap the room was quieting and the sound echoed clearly through the hall. Upon the third stroke, the room was eerily hushed and his voice rang out distinctly in the calm. "Lords and ladies of the court, I give you Neo-Queen Serenity, Princess of the Moon and Queen of Crystal Tokyo." His voice was melodious and deep and Mamoru took a moment to appreciate the sheer artistic merit of having that voice in the court.

And then all thought ceased as through a small archway to the side of the dais came the senshi. He straightened unconsciously, making his companion give him a sharp look that he didn't notice. Like a phalanx or an honour guard, they came in pairs - each dressed as the princesses they were. First Rei and Minako arm in arm, followed by Ami and Makoto, looking as fresh as morning sunshine in their regal splendour. At the last came Michiru and Haruka, Michiru resplendent in a dress of ocean green. Mamoru grinning wryly - all of them were dressed in ball gowns of rarity and beauty, except for the rebellious soul of Haruka - who cut a shining figure in a white suit with accents of the same deep green as Michiru's dress. Each of the senshi pairs took their places on the smaller chairs on each of the dais steps, with Rei and Minako sitting closest, most able to have a quiet conversation with whoever sat on the throne.

And then she came.

His throat clenched unexpectedly and his vision swam with an onslaught of sudden emotion. This was not his Usa, his beloved girl of the sunbright hair and explosive temper. This truly was Serenity - dressed in a gown of purest white that had only tracings of gold in its embroidery, stately and regal as she paced to the dais. Silver hair flowed to the floor and her face was calm and composed before her court. In one slim hand she carried her staff of office, its delicate length supporting the quiescent power of the Illusion Crystal, seemingly a mere decoration at this moment. Cradled in the crook of her other arm a small gray kitten was softly seen. As she passed each pair of guardians on the dais steps, they sank to one knee before her presence. She mounted the steps under his hungry gaze and then turned and sat regally on the double throne. On cue, the senshi rose and seated themselves, turning their still faces to the assembly.

The small ceremony was apparently over as the room began to move again, small conversations springing to life around him. Mamoru took his first breath of release. He questioned why he was here; so much time having passed, it was almost ludicrous to think that she would still need him, still love him the way she had always done. She had ruled here alone for so long, and had ruled well by all appearances. The beauty on the throne had only a picture's resemblance to Usagi; only an artist could have traced the memory of a beloved face in that of a stranger's.

He stood in blank shock for long moments, with a half hysterical feeling that he should just walk out the way he came in and let the memory of her fade from his heart, no doubt the way hers had done. As his dizzy thoughts whirled around his head, the melodious man stepped forward again and this time the buzz died down with an aura of predatory anticipation.

"You are called before this assembly and before her Majesty the Queen to hear the petitions of the claimants to the double throne, that you may hear their voices and see their contest. On this, the 430th year of the reign of Neo Queen Serenity, we ask that all claimants step forward and announce their candidacy."

The people began to murmur and reshuffle, and then a single man strode forward into the emptiness before the imposing dais. His hair was a bright red, his eyes a piercing blue and he walked with the arrogance of confidence in every line of his body. Mamoru detested him on sight. He walked the requisite number of paces to the center of the aisle and as if by pre-arranged formula, announced himself.

"I am the Alain Vissan, Lord of Orinai Province, Baron of the Wisenden Reaches, Grand Marshal to the Northern Levies, and I claim my right to vie for ascension to the throne of Crystal Tokyo and the hand of Neo-Queen Serenity in marriage."

Mamoru's lips drew back in unconscious savagery and he leaned forward, hands flexing at his sides. The girl in the yellow dress stared at him in curious appraisal but he continued to ignore her, concentrating on the drama in front of his unbelieving eyes. How dare this upstart announce his intention to marry his Usa! It fell out of his head that he had just been contemplating leaving himself, and instead focused with burning intensity on the man standing alone in front of the assembled court.

Lord Alain seemed poised and calm as Serenity inclined her head in regal dignity from the throne. Haruka was the one to rise from her chair on the lowest step of the tier, pacing forward so that she stood directly in front of the young Lord. Her eyes were steady on his and Mamoru could sense the seriousness of her intent even from where he stood.

"Your first test to prove your worth to ascend the double throne is to show the strength of purpose that will guide the empire. You stand before me, star of wind, fighter of skies and you will defend yourself." With that, Haruka reached elegantly to her side as if grasping an invisible sword hilt. As she drew her empty hand forward, the blade of legend appeared as if being drawn from an invisible scabbard. The court stirred restlessly at its appearance, its menacing gleam unwavering before Lord Alain. With calm determination he drew his own sword from its elaborately jeweled sheath. The blade itself was unornamented and Mamoru's estimation rose a small notch at the economy of movement in its motion. Here, it seemed, was a master swordsman.

This seemed to be a test of purely physical skill as the advance and riposte danced before his eyes. Haruka did not release the deadly striker attack that he knew the blade was capable of. It was hard to say since he was no real expert on swordsmanship, but it seemed she was holding her own skill back a little. Eventually the contest ended as if by pre-arranged signal as Haruka stepped back and saluted her opponent, silently declaring the draw. Lord Alain seemed as calm as before but Mamoru could sense the faint sheen of the exertion on his brow. Haruka might not have been exerting her full strength but it had not been a walk in the park either. She stepped aside to stand silently before her chair, the sword of legend apparently resheathed at her side in an easy motion, although he knew it was merely reabsorbed into her body.

Lord Alain ascended one step to stand on the lowest tier of the dais. Now it was Michiru who stepped forward to confront the claimant, and Mamoru wondered what she could do for a test of worth. He privately doubted that drowning the man in a Reflection would really prove anything worthwhile. From the same space that Haruka had used to bring forth the sword, Michiru reached and brought forth her Mirror.

"You have passed the first test, that of outward strength. Now you face me, star of deep waters, fighter of embrace. Mine is the test of truth. Face yourself." And with that, Michiru brought up the Deep Aqua Mirror and a blinding white light burst out of it to surround the form of Lord Alain. The light was pure and cold and Mamoru had a sneaking suspicion that the hapless, paralyzed Lord saw the truth about himself at all levels, all dark corners illuminated in the merciless light of the mirror. After long moments, the light faded and the mirror again reflected only dark shadows. Lord Alain looked shaken but still undeterred, his private battles with his own demons obviously long conquered. Michiru remained stone faced as she returned her mirror and stepped aside, gracefully waving him onward to the next step on the dais.

The butterfly at his side brought her hands to her mouth in burgeoning excitement. "Oh, he's doing so well, Sailor Neptune is such a difficult test! I wonder what he will do for the next one though . . ." Lord Alain had already taken the next step, so she was spared Mamoru's sharp question about the nature and purpose of these testings. Frustrated, he turned back to the drama, unwilling to miss any nuance.

This time it was Ami who stepped forward, her soft blue hair a specially welcome sight to him. He wondered abstractedly if she had gremlins deep in her eyes as she always had before during important occasions, but it was too far away to tell with any certainty.

"You have passed the second test, that of inward strength. Now you face me, star of water, fighter of wisdom. From water comes life and with life comes death. Mine is the test of courage." She brought her hands together and suddenly a fog began to swirl over the dais floor. Mamoru watched in astonishment as the droplets condensed out of the air and realized how great Ami's control had become. The created cloud began to swirl in earnest and then with an audible sound hardened into solid ice, trapping Alain's feet to the ground. The fog continued to climb his body and the ice rose like a creature with a mind of its own. Quicker than he would have believed possible it rose to cover his head and where the Lord had stood was an ice statue in the rough shape of a man.

He looked down at his companion in concern and realized that she was gnawing on her fingertips in her distraction. She smiled at him haplessly and whispered, "This always makes me nervous. I know that if he doesn't free himself quickly she will dissolve the ice and let him go - but I'm always afraid she'll wait too long."

"How many have passed this test?" he asked in a voice of question.

"In all the years of the trials, only two have made it past Mercury and of those two, neither passed the next test."

The statue didn't move and Mamoru began to wonder just how long Ami would continue to hold the impudent Lord in suspension. The crowd began to stir in its anxiety and Mercury began to raise her hands again. Suddenly the ice began to shake and then shake again. Finally the chest section fragmented entirely and the ice burst away in shards. Mamoru noticed absently that the fragments became fog even before they hit the ground but his attention was taken up with tense posture apparent in Lord Alain's posture. His chest was heaving and Mamoru imagined that he must look truly shaken now, perhaps the sheer feeling of being trapped had unnerved him somehow. Mamoru winced and realized that he could sympathize. Mercury inclined her head and stepped aside to allow him to take the next step. The woman in yellow clutched at his arm in glee, but Mamoru noticed that the man took the next step only after a long moment to compose himself.

The next one to step to the forefront was Makoto, beautiful with her hair in lustrous strands and the warm brilliance of her green eyes. "You have passed the third test, that of life in the face of death. Now you face me, star of thunder, fighter of protection and mine is the test of death in the face of life." Makoto reached outward and a long rod coalesced in her hand. It looked like ordinary wood, dark and smooth with the patina of long use. It was perhaps half as tall as she was, yet she handled it easily, grasping it firmly in one hand at the full extension of her arm. Lord Alain reached without haste or hesitation and held it firmly, wrapping long fingers around the core of it.

Mako's expression became fierce and Mamoru could almost hear the thunder in the skies echoing the call of her power. For long moments the two stood there, facing off with the staff between them. Then the staff began to crackle with lightning, sharp and brilliant. Streamers of blue white energy began to surge and snap up and down the length of the rod. Makoto seemed unaffected, her hair beginning to wave gently in an unseen breeze but Lord Alain was obviously suffering. Standing on the cold marble as he was and holding a rod of chained lightning the electrical charge was routing through his hand and down to the floor. Mamoru could almost smell the singing cloth from where he stood. He watched the unequal struggle, wondering what the purpose of this test could be for. Lord Alain struggled to hold fast to the staff as it became increasingly more painful. In a burst of insight Mamoru realized that was the point and the purpose. Makoto had temporarily created a powerful energy source and was requiring Alain to simply hold it. It mimicked to him the way he needed to support Usagi when she used the Crystal. Her whole body would become filled with the pure merciless energy and touching her to give her his strength was like plunging his hands into the raging heart of the sun. Makoto was testing the man's ability and determination to hang on through intense pain.

It seemed he would win this contest as well, and the crowd began to murmur with anticipation as he continued to grimly hold on. The lightning twisted like a living thing in Makoto's control and it almost seemed to snarl at the interfering man. The power leaped higher and Mamoru could feel the intense light imprinted itself on his eyes. With a muttered curse not far from a real shriek, Lord Alain jerked his hand away from the rod and cradled his spasming fingers in his other hand. His handsome features twisted into a brief snarl of rage and disappointment, but then he bowed most correctly to the illuminated form of Sailor Jupiter and retreated back down the steps of the dais between the guarding presences of the senshi. At the bottom he turned and bowed again, this time to Serenity who still sat unmoved on the throne. Then he moved away into the crowd, his supporters enclosing him away instantly from prying eyes. On the steps, Jupiter stood until the Lord had disappeared before retreating back to her own seat of power, small lightning still crackling in her hands as she finished the discharge of energy back into the air she had drawn it from.

The non descript man stepped forward again and rapped his staff of office on the floor twice, echoing sharply in the rising hum of conversation. "The first claimant to the double throne is defeated." He rapped the stick once again on the floor. "We call on any others to step forth and announce their candidacy." The murmur of the crowd swelled and died as eager eyes searched the room for more sport but no other brave figure stepped forth. The man rapped his staff twice and called again for any other challengers to appear. He was raising his staff to call for the third, and presumably the last, time when there was a disturbance at the large double doors that marked the entrance to the great hall.

It almost seemed as if it was some sort of scuffle, and Mamoru could only make out a few guards and their waving weapons clustering around someone who was making a lot of noise. The crowd exploded into a frenzy of whispered excitement as a hundred necks craned to see what was happening. Although he couldn't make out was was being said, it seemed fairly urgent going by the tone of determination in the voice of the central speaker. The guards seemingly made a collective decision and the mob sorted itself out into an impromptu escort and began to move rapidly down the center aisle towards the queen on the dais. The senshi all came to their feet in a rush and Mamoru watched as the little group hastily made its way before the queen. The man with the musical voice and the staff uncertainly stepped to the side as the four guards came to a halt perhaps a dozen paces away from the lowest step. Hesitantly, an older man in a stained smock took a few shaky paces away from the safety of his hulking escort. The senshi obviously knew this man and Mamoru saw Makoto and Ami exchange a quick, baffled glance before turning back to the unfolding scene.

One of the guards spoke up into the silence, Mamoru couldn't see which one from his angle. "My queen, we bring to you this one, the head of the gardens, your servant Shinra, who claims an urgent matter he needs must lay before you now."

At the sound of his name, the man sank to his knees and started to visibly tremble. Serenity looked a little astonished herself but raised a slim white hand to still the incipient whispering. "Speak your news worthy Shinra, you have come before your queen bearing news of great import and we will hear your words now, in this place and time." Her pure voice washed over Mamoru like a benediction and he lost the next few moments in the sudden noise inside his mind.

When he was able to focus again, the man named Shinra had bowed his head over clasped hands and although Mamoru couldn't see it, he knew the man had to be shaking convulsively. It wouldn't be often that a man of his stature would come face to face with his Empress on a formal occasion. Tentatively he started, "My queen. . " He stopped to clear his throat again and tried again, this time a little louder. "My queen, the doors of the Shrine to the Eternal Fire are cracked wide open and in monstrous pieces upon the ground. The roses are dust and the Great Fire burns no longer!"

They all sat stunned upon the tiered rows, Serenity seeming to absorb only the surface words and not their deeper meaning. Then the crowd cracked open into uproar as Serenity's face began to register shock and her eyes became large pools of deepest marine. Her head started to shake slowly in the negative as she said, "You jest worthy Shinra, surely you jest. No one could force those doors open with anything less than the full power of the Illusion Silver Crystal." She licked her dry lips unconsciously and rose to a standing position, one hand clenched convulsively on the staff that held the Crystal, the other flexing agitatedly at her side. The senshi mirrored her bewilderment, and the assembled court was hushed again observing her rigid stillness. She reiterated again, slowly and clearly as if trying to get the man to reconsider his words, "No one could have broken in to extinguish the Great Fire."

"My queen," said Shinra in a humble voice, "the doors were shattered from the inside. It's as if the Great Fire exploded, tearing them from the very walls."

"From the inside?" she nearly whispered. She was unmoving on the elegant dais, cold and serene as a wax doll, face pale and sharp.

"Mamo-chan!" she cried and instantly the senshi turned to her as one and began to feed her power. For so many years had they been together that physical touching was not necessary anymore and Mamoru could almost see the instant linkage of power as Serenity's call went forth on a wave of pure raging emotion. He knew that she would instinctively be attempting to reach him on all the lowest levels where they were connected, and he could only close his eyes in helpless anticipation of that undeniable grasp around his heart. Inside, he could feel the silver soul cord swelling with the strength of her desire to find him, and wildly, futilely he tried to shield himself away from her demanding summons.

The imperative call of Serenity began to surge through him and with slitted eyes he braced himself for that irresistible summoning, waiting for his soul chain to stretch to an intolerable level, a low groan of pure agony rising through his chest. The silver tie in his heart began to tug on his will, and he realized that this one thing he never had control of. He could feel the golden fire of heady power reacting in confusion, a bright heat in his veins as if it sensed a threat to its new host. Animal-like, he could almost taste its indecision, its desire to protect him from outside invasion. But this overwhelming power surge was as much a part of him as the colour of his eyes or the flavour of destiny, part of his soul and the power division inside him began to tear his mind apart. It seemed to want to defend him and his body was awash with conflicting waves of pure fire and silver call. He felt as if his sanity was starting to fragment in those two conflicting necessities. In his mind's eye, Mamoru envisioned the form of a containing shield like the one that had held him, a passive resistance against this new unexpected torment; and in a heartbeat it was there - a shimmering wall of cradling force that encased but did not damage Serenity's call.

Dimly he realized that she still called him, still pulled on his heart, but it was not an urgent thing anymore. He stood there in shock and let the waves roll over his psyche, finally realizing after long moments that whatever he had taken away with him from out of the fire meant he could walk away now, that nothing forced him to remain. For perhaps the only time all his combined lifetimes he could leave, that the love of Serenity was not a strangling silver hair wrapped around his heart like a chain.

His back was braced against the cool marble and his fists were aching from the strength of his grip clenched against his side. His dazed eyes opened and his brilliant storm eyes fixed on the wavering form of Serenity. He blinked, and the vision of silver and gold shattered and reformed.

Freedom.

It tasted like salt and a fierce unequalled heat. He swallowed convulsively, his love and confusion lodged in his throat. He flexed his abused fingers unconsciously and licked dry lip, passing a hand over the tight planes of his face and straightening from the slight crouch he had fallen into.

Beautiful Serenity. Visions of his beloved Usa formed and reformed in his mind's eye. Hair as golden as the purest sunlight, a questioning hand on his arm and the love and trust in her eyes. Tears of pain, tears of joy, a spirit as bright as the Illusion Crystal and as indomitable. The girl she had been, the glimpses of the woman she would become - that was his Usako, the girl-not-yet-woman who had loved him unconditionally through all their lifetimes together. Never before had she been this figure of power and authority, the cold light of the Crystal summoned effortlessly, the true authority of a queen on her face and in her body. This was a stranger on the dais, no matter that his soul was connected in all its deepest levels to her.

His head came up slowly and his sight slowly hardened as he watched with an impassive face as the call of Serenity faltered and died, all the senshi stepping towards her as the linkage broke apart into a visible shower of crackling sparks. "Why doesn't he answer?" she nearly whimpered. In unaware mimicry of his earlier pose, she passed a shaking hand over her face, tears streaking down her cheeks.

"Mina, there's nothing," she said brokenly. "It is still as it has always been, and the fire still encloses him, pushes me out." Her voice was raw but still bell pure, all her own agony laid out for his sensitive ear to hear. "Mina, he can't hear me!" she cried aloud, and Venus took her hand tightly as Rei moved in to gently push the queen back into a sitting position on the throne. The shocked silence of the court burst into hysterical babbling and Mamoru realized he was breathing again as a shaken intake of air made him give a queer half-sob.

"You."

The voice was small and clear. Mamoru had forgotten his inquisitive companion at his side and he turned in startlement to look into her eyes fully for the first time. Her brown eyes were wide and clear and he noted absently the small green speckles that floated across the iris. She gazed up at him with a measure of conviction, certainty and a growing excitement. "It's you," she breathed again.

His face spasmed into a grimace of pain and he tried to bring himself back under conscious control. The past few minutes had shaken him badly and the realization of his new strength had left all his emotions raw and scraped. He began to edge himself away, thinking of escape away from this scene of agonizing confusion too strong to be endured. His mind began to clamor at him, a quiet place to think, to reevaluate who he was, who she was.

The young woman laid a light hand on his arm, preventing his motion away. He looked at her with a face as closed as granite and waited for her to remove the intrusive arm. They presented a picture of tense calm in the furor of the room.

"She's calling for you," said her soft voice, low and wondering in his ears. "She's been waiting for you for longer than anyone can remember. And, oh gods! You're here . . now. Why are you standing here? Go to her!" Her expression was wide open, trusting and vulnerable. Mamoru could see the instant hero-worship, the adulation in her eyes as the image of romance thrilled her naive soul.

He deliberately made his voice harsh as his gaze sharpened to a sharp, smouldering fire. "She is not the person I loved." He stiffened and his fists clenched again in agitation. Her soft mouth opened in imminent denial and he brought one hand up in a swift, slashing motion. "I have changed beyond recognition and she is not as I remember. The girl I loved was as pure as summer's light and as open as a flower. She . . ." he said, waving a hand at the cluster of women next to the double throne, " . . . has been queen for longer than I have lived. I don't think we would have anything to say to each other anymore." His angry eyes were intent upon hers and her face was shocked white under that smoky glare.

She whet her lips and made as if to speak but the words seemed to freeze in her throat at the cruel ice in his expression. He waited for long moments, eyes raking her soft features and pale, shaken skin. Finally he stepped back and turned away, her hand losing its tentative grip on his arm. Unwillingly his eyes moved beyond her again and rested on the woman in the white dress, the one that looked so much like, and yet unlike, his Usa. His breathing was harsh again in his ears and the noise and motion of the crowd was like a swarm of crazed mayflies beneath his gaze. Waves of confusion, anger and unreasoning love coursed through him, shaking his fragile emotions like a leaf in a windstorm, a faint trembling in his limbs whispering to him of the need for control. Never before had he been given this choice, all compulsions fallen away, his soul solely his own if he chose it to remain so. He felt so raw with aching need that he wondered if he would fall away from the world.

A breath of springtime air was at his shoulder, her clean scent washing over his nostrils. He didn't turn to acknowledge the hesitant touch on his shoulder, and her hand fell again to her side.

"Faith," she finally whispered, nearly in his ear as she stood behind him. His spine stiffened in shock and his eyes went blank. "Such a small word, that," she mused, "that it can encompass so much. Four hundred years ago, two lovers were torn apart. And now two strangers meet across a crowded room and wonder what it is that they see in each other's eyes." He closed his long lashes and let the waves of truth run through his heart. The small voice faltered, then spoke again at his shoulder. "The only thing that anyone can say is a truth when nothing else is certain . . is that what was right and true once can be right and true again." The small sounds ceased and Mamoru could only feel the easing of his heart and the sudden quiet of the raging storm of his emotions. Once before he had heard truth into the echo of another's words; it was not something he would mistake again.

Faith. He had loved her for so long and she had been the princess in his dreams, the one that held him, that relied on him, that enfolded him in a surety that had never wavered. Surely his Usako still existed in the strong slim body of this imperial queen. It had taken a small slip of a girl to remind him of something that he ought never to have forgotten.

He opened his eyes, looking again upon the frantic noise and motion of the court, the tense knot of private despair on the dais. "Yes," he breathed gently, all of his life wrapped up in that unadorned word. He turned to face her, this nameless girl who had said a truth that he had lost. "Thank you," he said simply and raised one of her slim hands to his lips. "You have returned to me something that I had feared forever lost beyond retrieval."

She blushed and slipped her hand from his after a moment. Her eyes twinkled and she gave a lopsided smile. "The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. I am pleased to have met you . . . my lord."

Mamoru smiled back, looking but not seeing the echo of regret deep in her soft eyes. He turned purposefully this time, and began to walk with long, unhurried strides to the still clear center aisle. People began to eddy and swirl around him, making way like waves parting in a sea. Something in his countenance brooked no argument and the whispering began to center on his presence. He strode out into the clear space, a lone figure in black, winking jewels at wrist and shoulder. He walked forward down the aisle and the court moved as one, falling silent before that imperious, commanding stride. The drama and tension was obvious and the room once again attained that crystal silence of anticipation.

As he drew closer, the senshi on the dais turned back to face the room and Mamoru could see the expressions of shock and dawning realization in his peripheral vision. But it was Serenity's face under his calm gaze, the pale shaken skin and the beloved blue of her eyes. Her lips formed his name but no sound emerged.

Soberly he came forward, long legs covering distance like a panther on the hunt, and he stopped where the Lord Alain had so many eternities ago. The court was hushed, waves of tension and eagerness in the air like a shimmering curtain.

With a clear ringing voice he spoke, his eyes fixed on the face of the queen. "I am Chiba Mamoru, Prince Endymion of the Earth, Guardian of Illusion and bearer of the Golden Crystal. I claim my right to the throne of Crystal Tokyo and the hand of its beloved ruler."

The senshi were frozen as if in stone, a tableau of surprise and confusion. It was Haruka that moved first, drawn back down to the first step of the dais as she had done for years untold. He met her eyes as calmly as he could and saw the fierce joy contained in her own gaze.

She whet her lips and spoke huskily at first, then with more assurance. "I am Ten'ou Haruka, king of the distant sky, fighter of wind. You must prove your strength of purpose before this assembled company. Defend yourself." Again the legendary talisman appeared in her hand and with a powerful grace she brought it up and down over her head in a beautifully executed strike. It would take his head from his shoulders and for a moment Mamoru had no idea what to do about the gleaming death above his head, curving for his throat. Then his two hands came up with swift motion and with simple economy trapped the bright blade between his upright palms. He gazed at her, the straight edge of the keen steel between their eyes. His eyes went blank and unexpected fire bloomed between his hands, travelling the swift length of the blade. Haruka recognized the immediate threat and with a shocked curse threw herself backwards, releasing the blade into his hands as she fell backwards to avoid the power strike. She looked at him with wonder in her eyes as he grabbed the hilt of the sword with swift movements and reversed it, offering it back to her over his arm. Shakily she arose from her fallen position and with a smoky smile he released the captured sword to her hand and she resheathed it. Then with an unexpected move she sank gracefully to one knee and brought his right hand to her cheek, cropped blonde hair under his startled gaze. "Welcome home Endymion-sama," she said simply.

She stood and moved back to her seat, standing before it like an honour guard. Mamoru took one step to the next level, this time meeting the eternally calm gaze of Michiru. For the assembled people she gave her name and titles but her eyes spoke only of contented happiness to his. Her Mirror came up and the white light of forced truth washed over him, and his doubts and fears became apparent in the cruel twisted shadows of his soul. His own demons were as if exposed again in the flickering flames of his long entrapment. He silently accepted that he would never be perfectly worthy of the love of Usagi. The light left him and Michiru repeated the same greeting as her lover Haruka, her cascading hair soft under his hand. "Endymion-sama," she said clearly, and then moved away to her place of honour.

This time it was his Ami, her fierce joy barely contained in the mobile quivering of her lips. Shaking, she spoke her words and with a fluid motion the mist began to swirl at his feet. As the cold air began to wrap around him, he flexed his power channels, bringing a surge of nearly living energy through his veins. He could feel the ice trying to form around his body but the heat expanding from him prevented it. Mist and rain and shattering ice crystals surrounded him as Mercury strove to encase him. The crowd began to murmur in quiet astonishment as it became apparent that Mercury couldn't even begin to hold this tall, proud stranger.

With awe in her eyes, Ami gave up the unequal struggle and the mist streamers melted away into the air. To one knee she went, bright hair a coronet under his gaze. She clutched his hand to her face and he could feel the dampness on her cheek as she cried for joy. "Mamoru-kun, we have missed you so!" she whispered softly, her fingers threaded through his.

Unnoticed by any in the Great Hall, a small gray shadow blanched and bolted from the room on paws of streaked lightning.

After long moments she stepped aside, proud face held high. Makoto came forward and the long rod of power coalesced in her hand in a heartbeat. Her expression was eager and Mamoru met her gaze unflinching as his lean, strong fingers grasped the smooth wood. Lightning flashed between them, lighting Mako's face like a demon in a play. Her hair lifted in the energy currents and Mamoru could feel the surge and twist as lightning danced along his body. Higher and higher she drew her power and Mamoru opened his channels to absorb it, letting the overflow wash over and through him to crackle ominously against the floor. The light was intense and difficult to look at, two dark shimmering figures standing in the midst of a storm of thunder.

With a grin as wide as a wolf's, Mamoru ended the contest. Rooting himself to the earth he sank his awareness into the planet, the deep slow beauty enfolding him. He opened his nexus points and began to deliberately pull the lightning into himself, routing it through his body and down into the earth, faster and faster. Makoto realized instantly what he was doing and her eyes widened in consternation and respect as her own energy was being pulled from her control. She struggled to retain it, but Mamoru's control of energy forms was too strong and with a gasp she released the rod before he could drain her entirely. Lightning crackled a few more times in his grip and then the staff was only wood again, held in the grip of a tall, black-haired man who smiled at the woman who went to one knee in front of him. Makoto gave him no words of greeting, only the tears on her cheeks giving her away. Strength and beauty were hers as she stood again, taking back her wooden stave to let it vanish back into the power grid she had pulled it from. She stepped aside to allow him free passage, the wisps of her hair nearly brushing his face.

Now there was Mina, the shining star of her planet. With unhurried pace she stood before him, her softly lit hair like a fire's corona on her shoulders. "You have passed these the tests, but now you stand before me, star of beauty, fighter of love. If you would stand beside our queen, your love must be as true as the eternal stars." As she spoke she unwound her girdle of linked hearts, dropping the coils gently into her hand. With a fluid motion, lazy and quick she snapped her belt forward and he brought up his hand to instinctively defend himself. The chain wrapped itself over his arm instantly like a living snake might, constricting gently. It glittered dully there and Mamoru had time to wonder what this test actually was. His answer came in a few seconds. "Love me," she said simply and the chain flashed a rainbow of color.

Mamoru felt the power slam into his partially open channels, a wave of imperative force and intent. Under his shocked gaze, Minako began to glow with soft radiance and stars shimmered in her hair. She was beauty incarnate, the singing power in his veins whispering a song of maddening desire. The urge to worship at her feet was nigh irresistible and his sight saw only the deep blue turning of her eyes.

She smiled at him and her beautiful voice matched the feeling thrumming through the strangling heartchain. "Name the one that you love," she commanded.

He looked at her with brilliant eyes, his arm tingling in the grip of her subtle power. "Tsukino Usagi," he said clearly, "the Princess of the Silver Millennium and the beloved of my heart."

Mina's smile was brilliant and the heartchain slithered away from his arm to coil once again around her slim waist. She knelt and kissed his hand, pressing her long lashes into his palm. "Does this mean I'm not your favorite anymore?" she said slyly even as tears dampened her cheeks. His chuckle was low and delighted and she raised her bowed head to smile into his eyes. "Welcome home Endymion-sama," she said huskily.

He ascended the the hard won step, this time to meet the chill gaze of Rei, she of the warrior's spirit and priestess of the world. Her eyes were like agates and Mamoru wondered in alarm if he was going to have to face a trial by fire or art of combat. She looked cold enough to try and roast him alive. She didn't announce herself as had the others, throwing aside all convention and ceremony.

"Who are you to come here and give my queen grief with the memory of a long beloved face?" Her voice held neither anger nor challenge, merely implacability. This was not what he had expected and he could only look at her in a kind of shock. Rei's face was all cold lines and austere expression and Mamoru began to feel that chill in his bones. "You wear the form and face of our lost one, but your clothes are outland and your power is alien. I do not accept you and you shall not pass."

Mamoru gaped momentarily, his mind blank with the sheer rejection of it all. This was Rei, the one with clearest sight, the brightest perception. There was no way she could not know who he was under the outward changes. Anger and betrayal tinged his voice as he replied.

"What has changed?" He challenged her clearly, his bold eyes seeking some recognition from hers. The thought formed that he could simply push her aside, physically or mentally but immediately rejected that simplistic view. This exchange of words was a test somehow - he had to discover the riddle and solve it to gain that crucial step. "I am still Chiba Mamoru, protector and guardian as I have been through three lifetimes. Yesterday I walked into a carefully laid trap - today I have freed myself to find things changed beyond all belief and recognition. It is you that have changed, warrior of Mars, not I."

Her long eyes narrowed in contemplation and her gaze travelled the length of his lean body, seeing the tension and anger coiling in his bones. "Show me your power," she said simply, switching her attack and throwing him again off balance. Mamoru scrambled to follow her thinking as rapidly as he could, realizing that she didn't mean him to raise power against her but not able to immediately grasp the deeper meaning. Long moments passed as Rei waited and Mamoru thought about power. The smallest connection was made in his quick mind and he suddenly flashed a wolf's grin at her. If she wanted to see his power, he'd give her an eyeful.

He planted both feet firmly on the tier, shoulder width apart for greatest balance. He began to raise his hands up as if in supplication to the heavens even though he maintained eye contact with Rei, a small laugh still upon his lips. As his palms came level nearly level with his head, he began to open his power conduits, to show her what his strength had become during the long fight of his entrapment. He knew that Rei would be able to see the channels even when empty but he wanted them all to see, to understand. Earth was under his feet, deep and slow; fire was in his heart; fierce and bright. He stood as if a statue of himself, ice pale and draped in deepest black.

Green fire began to bloom as his feet, drawn from earth's heart, a singing force that was clean and bright. Sinuously it climbed his body, drawn through the vacuum of channels that he opened effortlessly to guide the flow. Unknowingly his head tilted back and his long eyes closed, savoring the pure feeling of the earth's heartbeat coursing through his body. His arms and legs shimmered with the coiling streamers of energy - wrapped as a long forgotten statue might have been with vines for support. He knew vaguely that he shone in the sight of the mesmerised crowd - that the senshi would sense the true source, unmistakeably scented with earth's roots. Rei would see further yet, would know that only the major channels were filled - something that any of them would do when holding power before striking.

With an uknowingly cruel smile, he drew on what they did not know, what Rei had subtly asked him to prove. The deepest black of his hair began to wave as fire bloomed between the soft threads. Golden flame, scintillating and brilliant raced down from the sun's corona on his head, flooding through and around the pure earth source, filling him down to the smallest passageways. Elation filled him - he had been fighting for his life when this had happened before - the feeling was undescribable. He let the two powers play over and through him, revelling in the exquisite sensation of near limitless energy. Dimly he wondered if this was what Usagi felt when she handled the Crystal in all its glory.

To those of the court, the tall man on the stairs had become a creature out of legend, crackling with unbridled colour that surged and flowered over his straight form, rivalling the spangled light coming through the stained windows. Myth had spoken of the birthright of the queen's warriors, but few indeed had seen any more than the smallest manifestations of strength. The one that stood and accepted the challenge of Mars was frighteningly alien to them. The crowd stirred uneasily, but waited for the judgement of their warrior princess.

The senshi saw differently - all were born to this power, familiar with the singing voice that whispered to them in the midst of battle. They all saw past the outward play of shifting color to the true source he was drawing it from - solid earth beneath his feet, a bright fire that came from within. Wonderingly, they waited for Rei to proclaim him prince and lord.

The princess of Mars saw the open channels, saw with carefully disguised shock the precise control that separated the two forces into discreet entities. To her othersight he stood as the Tree of the World, Yggdrasil, the roots of the planet holding him together, bright power whispering along the branches, and a corona of leaves that rejoiced in limitless strength. And her straining perception saw further yet, past the man on the stairs, through the Tree that stood in the otherworld to the core of Mamoru - that was still untouched, untapped. All that he showed her was not all that he was - the Golden Crystal remained quiescent, hidden from her direct sight.

If Serenity saw anything else, she remained silent.

Mamoru allowed one last caress of power to thrill along his spine, and then with soft reluctance began to release his hold, letting the pressure ebb as the passageways began to empty. Rei watched with outward calm, inner turmoil carefully hidden as she picked her way through the minefield of words that she needed to say, for the test he had yet to pass. Finally he stood before her again, a tall man with eyes still reflecting beauty.

"I see you, Chiba Mamoru, prince of earth," she said in a deceptively simply voice, acknowledging what she had seen to all - the intimate connection of earth that only a starseed bearer would be able to command. "But I still do not recognize you," she continued implacably. "You have hidden the greatest part of you, the part of you that has changed beyond all reckoning. If you would pass, you will show me all that you are, and all that you are not."

Mamoru's face went blank as stone and Rei thought she might have seen anger, or perhaps fear in his eyes before he shuttered his eyes with long lashes. The room was deathly quiet as everyone waited for his response. Ami bit her lip but remained quiet. She had to trust that Rei knew what she was doing, was attempting to reach some unseen goal that Ami couldn't immediately fathom. Provoking Mamoru would not have been wise at the best of times - Rei was courting disaster with her blunt rejection.

All Mamoru could feel for long moments was a wash of rage followed by soul deep reluctance. He had given her what she asked for, proof of the most intimate kind that he was all that he claimed he was, and all that he had learned in his long struggle. She was demanding the unreasonable, and she knew it too by the light of battle in her eyes. His frustration leaped to new heights and his hard fingers began to clench. This was too much to ask, and he raised hot eyes to tell her so.

Eyes of softest brown looked directly into his from her vantage point on the step above him. Her face was cold, sharp lines telling him that she disapproved of him, the tension in her body saying as clearly as if she had spoken it that he had failed somehow. It was her eyes that stopped him, for he could see clearly into their depths, saw the hope and encouragement that she was trying to give him. He was missing some crucial understanding, and he hesitated, sharp blue eyes searching the unseen currents buried in his opponent.

Finally he spoke aloud, voice strong and deep. "You are asking me to open my very soul, to let you stand in the heart of me and see with my eyes."

"You understand me perfectly, prince of earth," she said unperterbed by the dawning horror in his voice. Rei saw Ami and Makoto trading shocked glances, saw in one sweeping look the odd grin on Haruka's face. She dared not wonder at what Serenity's expression might hold so she ignored them all, conscious again only of the tight face in front of hers, and the heavy prickles of the queen's stare on her back.

"You are skilled, priestess, and you do not need my permission to see into the soul of someone," he countered deftly, searching for a way to avoid this requirement.

She nodded her head in agreement and her mobile mouth twisted in acknowledgment of his parry. "Then you will still hide the true essence of yourself and I will not let you pass without this. You were strong before this, earth's joy, but now your power is beyond my skill. You will give yourself to me, wholly and without reservation, or you will leave here without that which you most desire." Rei hoped fiercely that her inner turmoil didn't show, that Serenity didn't demand an explanation before she was able to force this admission from him. This was necessary, and she didn't have the luxury of time to explain it to anyone.

Mamoru was silent a moment longer, sullen jewels winking in the diffused sunlight as demons howled in his mind. When he spoke again his voice was still deep and strong, but his words were pleading. "Rei, you of all people understand exactly what you are asking of me. In all of my lifetimes, only two have stood where you demand entrance." He stopped a moment as sharp memory overcame him. His voice was husky as he continued. "In a garden under moonlight I saw a girl with eyes of bluest summer and she has lived within me ever since." He opened his hands in supplication. "The second time a demon broke open my body and ravaged my soul with fire - I live only because the demon loves eyes as blue as sky as much as I do. Both times," he said, his eyes steady upon the face of Mars, "I was violated. Neither time did I choose the invasion to happen, although one is the reason I live, the other nearly my death. Do not ask this of me, Mars! I don't think I can bear another voice in my heart."

Rei was as still as a statue, but she forced her heart to harden against the desperate plea in his voice. Her body ached with the force of his unconscious rejection and her voice was correspondingly harsh. "This is required of you, prince. If you would pass me, you will give me the keys of your power and you will give me access to what you most wish to remain secret."

The room was deathly quiet, and Mamoru could only hear the frantic racing of his heartbeat. He swallowed convulsively, unwilling to define to himself why his reluctance bordered on hysteria. Finally he nodded his head in abrupt assent. "Only because it is you that asks this, sister of my soul's twin. Only for you, and only for this reason," he said finally in a voice of smoothest silk. He spread his arms wide in a gesture of welcome and Rei could see the lowering defenses. Before he could change his mind, she slipped in and down with the lightest of touches. She had barricaded herself tightly for this, but was still nearly overwhelmed with the sudden onslaught of pure emotion that roiled through his mind. Like a bright bubble on a maevolent sea, she desperately cast line after line of tethering thread back to her body, trying to find stability in this frightening maelstrom of surging power. One of her lines caught, held tenously to something and she recklessly poured more strength into the bond. With a shock she realized that she had grabbed Serenity somehow, and that her queen was beginning to feed her the power to ride the turbulent waves. Secure now that she would not become lost in the complexity that was the prince, she rode the surface tensions of anger and betrayal, dark despairs lurking underneath the smoother patterns that comprised his very self. She balanced there for a moment, before braving the darker waters that contained what she needed to know.

To the others, nothing changed except for the unnatural stillness of the two figures. Mamoru remained with arms outstretched, Rei with one hand that she had reached out to touch the smooth curve of his breastbone. Serenity sat on her throne, eyes closed, watching closely what her friend was doing to her beloved. She allowed this because she had no choice and because she believed that somehow, Rei knew what she was doing. She trusted to her friend to do whatever was right and she played out her strength to hold Rei to her body, not willing to trust that Rei could find her own way back. His soul had the most complex, compelling and dangerous beauty she had ever seen and she had fallen in love with him before she realized the cruelty of it. She would not let him trap another.

Rei let Serenity's tenuous grasp settle around her before she took the plunge into the darker depths that surrounded the emotion wracked consciousness of Mamoru. What she needed to know was buried deep, intertwined with his power and the Golden Crystal, a dark thread of some carefully hidden thought that she had sensed vaguely when the pure light of the Deep Aqua Mirror had flashed. Down and down she plunged, a bright spark of fire in a world of flaring madness and coiling darkness. Power rippled and surged through her sight and she clutched Serenity's passive awareness to her breast as she fell. Rei realized coldly that she could die here, cut off from her body if Mamoru's restive power surged against her in anger or terror. Silently she accepted that risk, and that if she did perish here, Serenity would know what had triggered the upwelling of death in his heart. It would have to be enough.

Finally she stopped falling and she looked around vaguely, trying to get her bearings. Power conduits branched everywhere, and she extended her essence to feel the strength of his body tied up in this small chamber. The light began to brighten around her and suddenly he was there, Prince Endymion of her youth, armour and sword at his side - the way he had looked the night he died. Rei knew that was Serenity's thought and felt her queen shiver through their linkage before she pushed that connection out of her mind.

"Where are we?" she asked the manifestation of Endymion, waiting to see he would admit to this deeper knowledge.

"We are where you wanted to be, warrior of Mars," he said mockingly, stepping forward with unhurried step. The light brightened again and she realized that it was his form that was glowing faintly, casting the shadows around them into deeper relief. A small pedestal was revealed in the burgeoning light, a crystal couched upon it in seeming negligance. Mamoru stopped by the small stand and rested a possessive hand upon the round form. "You stand in the heart of Chiba Mamoru, priestess, a place you seemed to desire most greatly to be in. And now that you are here, what is it that you wanted to see?"

Ami watched in astonishment, shivering a little at how uncanny they looked. When Mamoru spoke, his voice was clear and strong, yet Rei's lips moved with his in perfect mimicry. Rei was bathed in the lightest of red glows, touching highlights in her hair. Mamoru also showed the barest traces of golden power and his body seemed to shiver every now and again. If she didn't look at them straight on, she thought she saw the faintest reflection of silver over the two of them but it was gone as soon as she thought she saw it. She compressed already worried lips and listened in frustration with the rest of them as the ghostly conversation continued.

Rei looked around and raised her hands to her arms, shivering a little. "So cold Mamoru-kun, so bleak." The walls were stripped to bare rock, echoing passageways leading from the small space. The only decoration was the pedestal and crystal under his hand, smaller still in the darkness of this place. "Where is the light of your heart Mamoru, the joy of any life that lives under the sun? I see only cold and barren walls, sense only power feeding through the darkness.

The spririt form of Endymion grinned wryly at her and waved a negligent hand, which only made her shiver more. "You look priestess, but you do not really see. This is all that there has ever been. I have always been this empty at the core of me, holding only power and responsibility. Look at the darkness that surrounds us, Rei, tell me what you see in its depths."

Rei looked at the deeper shadows, the darker places that fled from the golden light around his form. At first she didn't want to truly see what it contained, suspecting already that she had demanded more from him than she was really ready to take. She cursed her pure sight, for she couldn't even pretend not to understand what she saw there, coiling and snaking through the currents of emotion. "Has this, too, always been here Mamoru?" she said as gently as she could.

"Always," was his equally gentle reply. "Only she ever saw this part of me, saw it, accepted it, and still tried to change it. Only she keeps it from devouring me entirely." As if in reponse to his acknowledgement, the dark current swirled towards him, wrapping tendrils of its unique power around his shimmering form. He seemed all the brighter for the darkness coiling around him, not diminished by the shadow, but enhanced by it.

"Someday you will die of it, you know," she said vaguely, struggling to maintain some sort of conversational tone. She had known he was a driven man, with greater depths that only Serenity really saw into - but this was a more that she could really cope with. Her long memory of friendship with a man of casual laughter suddenly cracked into a different picture, broken edges softened with raw, wounding compassion. A small current of silver strength flowed into her and she tried to stand a little straighter, to accept what she saw only too clearly now, what Serenity had somehow known all along. "None can stand against a death dream that strong, that complete, for long and remain alive or sane." Frighteningly, she wondered if that was what she had sensed earlier when he challenged Michiru for dominion, the start of the final dissolution between his iron will and his nigh overwhelming desire to die.

Endymion laughed a little and then his form blurred and reformed into the more familiar form of Mamoru, casual clothes hugging his lean body. He lifted the small crystal away from its cradling stand and walked towards her, dark shadows flickering and flowering around him. Here in his center, his form was that of an avatar surrounded by an whispering evil, a light against the greater dark. Rei wondered if that was a deliberate image that he gave her, or something unconsious, that he would percieve himself always surrounded by shadow. She was distracted from her musing as he came closer to her, his eyes carrying a soft smile. "I will never die of that particular shadow," he said with surprising calm. "Once that might have been a truer statement than you know, but it has not been that way for years beyond counting. That depth of despair might have claimed me once - but a moonlit girl changed that and I will never allow myself that easy escape. Look at what you came to see Rei, look and be at ease with me." With unhurried hands he raised the crystal to her and gave it to her grasp. Wonderingly she raised it to her eyes, crystal lights playing over her awestruck face.

The interior of the crystal was murky gold, depths a slow turning wealth of color. It began to brighten in her hands and Rei suddenly realized that she held the Crystal itself, its only match the one carried by her queen. Before she could panic entirely, his hands came up to cup hers and his face bent to watch the brightening globe. Her gaze travelled with his and she saw what he was giving her to see, to know.

Ami's heart was beating like a trip hammer. Mamoru - a death dream? Strong enough that she could sense Rei's terrible fear even from where she stood, her linkage vibrating with the horror and compassion streaming from the warrior of Mars. Ami risked a look at Serenity, where she sat as cold marble upon the double throne. Her long eyes were closed but her face reflected none of the horror that reverbertated through the rest of them, none of the despair that that only now leaving them through that instant's linkage. The truth that had shocked Rei had washed right over Serenity, leaving her untouched. Looking at the calm face of her queen, Ami suddenly understood. Mamoru had always been the darkest of them all, always the one driven by mysterious forces and desires, always the one to walk his way alone. And whatever Rei had found, Serenity had already known - known and had not flinched. Ami resolved that her faith in her friend would not be shaken, no matter what terrible thing Rei had discovered.

Rei watched the globe as it cleared, a soft image forming in its center. Mamoru's hands were warm over hers in this chill place and she shivered again in a different kind of reaction. The vision became closer and she bent towards the Crystal. Suddenly it snapped into place and Rei clearly saw the soul of Mamoru.

Usagi slept on the bed, a dawning sun playing over the brilliance of her long hair. Every line of her face seemed as fresh as clearest water, loving drawn from his memory. Her eyes played over the scene, noting absently the detail in the recollection, the pure truth of his regard for her. The image was as beautifully etched in the Crystal as the rest of his soul was coldly bare. Then her sharp regard saw the lizard on the pillow, a painfully bright image against the softness of the rest of it. Her eyebrows frowned, and carefully she reached out to touch the image contained in the Crystal with her othersense, trying to get an idea of the nature of this incongruity.

It wasn't like putting her hand in a raging fire, but only because it did not burn her, merely overwhelmed her sight as a bright light in darkness might have. Scintillating power ran through her and she let it slide through her mind, carefully sorting the tastes and textures of it. The lizardbeing was not natural to the Crystal, but seemed to be melded with it just the same. She caught the flavor of metal, and a sense of an unnaturally long memory, flavored with alien experiences. It seemed to regard her at the same time as she watched it, but she sensed no overt threat, no hostile intention. Carefully, it gave her mind a brief touch, a taste of who/what/why it was and Rei withdrew back to her ethereal body, eyes thoughtful. Alien it was, but not malignant - not in any way that she could sense. It was the source of the strange fire that had bloomed in Mamoru's hands, a quasi intelligence that had been constructed at some point in the far distant past - one that had been set to guard. Its brief touch had told her that it had shifted its intent from the machine it had been with to the man who housed it now. Rei worried, but realized that it was merely another type of power, and not immediately dangerous. Mamoru seemed to have accepted it unconditionally - the fact that it had become an icon in his framework told her more intimately of its nature than if he had described to her what had happened. To try and remove it now - it would be like ripping his power entire from him, guaranteed to drive him to insanity before he died.

Rei brought her eyes up again, and looked at the avatar-form of Mamoru as he held her and the Crystal. More and more clearly, she could see the cords that held him - the gold light of the Crystal which contained his power, black darkness of cord that was his tortured soul - and the silver that wove the two together, kept them from destroying him. With hands of spirit, she reached to touch those esssences - this was what she needed to see, needed him to understand about himself before he could pass this test. She touched it and then she swarmed up her link to Serenity, back to the world of the living, carrying her stolen treasure with her.

In the world above, Mamoru suddenly stiffened and his eyes opened in horror upon the girl in front of him. Rei's hand clenched against his breastbone, and Mamoru's breath left him in a rush as pain and fear crossed his features. Jolted out of the spirit realm, his features mirrored sudden confusion, his hands beginning to rise to defend himself. "Rei, what are you doing?" he cried as her hand pulled upon something unseen. The look on Rei's face was still calm, but her outstretched, clenched fist was like iron.

"This is your test, Mamoru-kun, and you face me, star of fire, fighter of war," she declared abruptly. "Three desires bind you, each of which would destroy you, each of which would destroy those around you. You are the most dangerous creature I have ever faced, a beloved friend returned changed beyond all recognition." Her free hand came up uncannily, guided by whatever she still saw in the spirit world and made a gesture in the air, one that looked like she was threading something. That hand suddenly clenched into a fist, raised above her head as if threatening him with something terrible. "Answer me with full honesty Mamoru, your life depends upon it," she warned as tears began to leak slowly out of his unknowing eyes. "Which desire do I hold in my hand?" she demanded.

His voice was nearly a cry, sharp and terrible. "Power," he said and his fists clenched suddenly against his side in an agony of restraint. "Pure power, earth's heart next to my heart, fire singing in my veins like blood," he continued, answering Rei's question.

"How much power, Mamoru, how much power do you hold?" she asked intently.

His face was tight with suffering but Rei's hand didn't release its punishing grip. "Down and down, warrior of Mars, you can feel the heat of the molten rock against my skin," he whispered in answer. "Rain falls upon my cheeks, the rise of the oceans caresses my hands. My power is the earth, immeasurable. If I should desire it, continents would crack and the oceans would boil. How much power is that, Mars? This planet is a marble in my pocket, a plaything if I should choose it." His voice was rising in power, and the forgotten courtiers began to react in shock, a murmuring swelling in the crowd, approaching a terror that none of them could see. Alone, a woman in a yellow dress went numb with the idea, a white light in her head.

"Power corrupts Mamoru, and I know longer understand you as the friend of my youth. What is to keep you from using that power to rule absolutely? None could withstand you, none would dare try. What is to keep you from tearing open this planet on your whim?" Her voice was again cold as cracked ice, her tone a whip of pure command.

Mamoru's breathing was harsh with agony, the long muscles in his body wracked with the pain of whatever Rei held. Ami knew she didn't want to know, didn't want to understand what the far-seeing priestess saw, what drove her to hurt this man who was the best of all friends. "Nothing holds me, priestess," he said finally through clenched teeth. The crowd stilled again to frozen immobility as the tall man knelt on the stairs, proclaiming his dominion. "Nothing holds me. The ginzuishou alone would destroy me but the damage would already be done. I alone keep myself in check, I alone claim responsibility to hold the power inside me, untapped."

"And if I do not accept your word, your strength to keep yourself in balance with such a great power?" Rei said remotely.

His voice was calm suddenly and Ami at least could hear the wry humor running through it. "Then you must destroy me now priestess, for none will ever hold me in this bondage again. My word is all I can give you, and it is the only thing that binds me. Here on my planet of birth, my power wells beneath my feet like water." Suddenly he grinned and Ami blinked at the pure insolence of it. "You ask me of the strength of power, yet you hold it yourself and can feel its depth. Why are you even asking me, Mars?"

Her voice softened as she looked at him. "You needed to admit that to yourself, that you alone are responsible for what you do, for what you can do. The ultimate judge and jury is yourself, for you alone know when you have abused this strength."

Mamoru closed his eyes and nodded at her. "I have always known Rei, I have always understood this," he said.

"Then this part of the test you pass, for strength defines what you are, and what you will offer to the people of Crystal Tokyo." She made a releasing gesture with her second hand and Mamoru's face eased a little, his breathing less harsh. Her deft fingers made another plucking motion and although his expression didn't change one iota, his tension became apparent. "And this desire, what do I hold in my hand?" she asked again.

"Love," he said gently.

"You lie, Mamoru," she said equally softly. "Love is a pale shadow to this. Name this desire that unbalances you to the point of insanity."

His teeth snapped at her but the smile still tugged at his tight lips. "O brat of a priestess, that I ever agreed to let you see this," he said. "Love is the right word, the same way you could say that a lighted match is similar to a firestorm." Mamoru's face suddenly became drawn and tight as he gazed up into the eyes of the listening woman. It was as if he spoke only to her, as if the room full of listeners did not exist. "It has been my obsession for years and it kept me alive even before I met her when I wanted only oblivion. My life is consumed with it, subsumed by it. At her demand, my life is as nothing. Twice I have died to protect her and even if I knew it to be the final death, that I would never again stand at her side, I would step into it with my arms wide. Only power contains it, distracts me from it. Obsession doesn't even touch the surface of it - she is everything to me. I would sacrifice this planet if I thought it would save her."

"Then where is the balance of it, Mamoru-kun?" Rei asked quietly, eyes intent upon his drawn face. "That overwhelming need to protect her is as dangerous as the pure power you hold. You would strip a planet of life in order to save one woman, simply because you alone could do such a thing."

"She is everything to me - and she holds the keys that keep me balanced between power and oblivion. Her smallest laugh is more important to me than food - the touch of her hand more dear to me than water. And she alone gives me the strength I need, gives me light to show me the tightrope I walk." His mouth twisted into something like cruelty and his voice was suddenly accusing. "Damn you Rei! That need is deliberately buried deep inside me, through the Crystal that contains its power. Why have you forced me to examine it again?! It nearly drove me mad the first time I understood it - why do you force me admit its hold over me again?" Rei continued to look at him and finally he dropped his eyes as his palms spread upwards in mute supplication. "She is the balance for it," he snarled at her in admission. "If she were cruel, mad, power-hungry . . . I would give her my world because I would have no choice. But she loves me Rei. Loves me as no other ever has or ever will again. She would never demand it, never wants more of me than that I love her in return. She holds me fast like the moon over the tides - and she keeps me locked in the blue of her eyes." He took a deep breath and again looked squarely into the eyes of Mars. "She keeps the balance, because I cannot."

"Then this part of the test you are freed from, for you depend upon another's strength instead of your own." Her second hand moved again as if releasing a puff of down, and Mamoru's head dropped with the release of emotion roiling through his heart. His chest heaved with a deep breath and he raised stiff hands to rub the tears from his cheeks. Rei's hand, outstretched through all this time, came back to her chest, still clenched with the third, unseen smoky thread. "Then name the third desire Mamoru-kun, name your last and final test."

The room was as hushed as a church, the last of the day's sunlight still somehow colouring the room incongrously with the joy of life. "The last desire of my self," he mused quietly as stray light touched the depths of his hair, flickered alien fire in his eyes. "O you know the third thing you hold Rei - something that you never knew before until you stood within my heart." She nodded at him, her expression suddenly desperately compassionate. His small smile tried to absolve her of its guilt, its necessity.

"Death." The word was clear, unadorned. Now that he had said it, Mamoru felt a sudden easing in his chest, a lightening of the darkness he had carried so long. He raised his eyes finally to the woman on the throne, the one that had understood this right from the start somehow - had understood and had recklessly pledged herself to him anyway. "All of my life, in this time or that, it calls me somehow - so tight inside me that each day that I wake I am somehow surprised. It follows me, holds me, waits for me around this corner or around that one. And each time that it comes for me - I have to remember to fight, that it can't have me just yet." Serenity's eyes were accepting upon him, clear and bright and for an instant, he saw only the love in her eyes as pure as the first time he met her in a moonlit garden.

"Never have I seen such a darkness in another before Mamoru, never would I have thought to look for it in you." For the first time, Rei's voice shook with her own emotion. "What keeps you fighting such a geas? For so deeply is it wound through you, that to attempt to cleanse it away would drive you to dangerous unblance, and the oblivion you so desperately crave at the heart of you."

His gaze returned to her soft brown eyes. "Life keeps me here, Rei. You of all should know, should understand. Shadow only makes the light taste sweeter." Rei remembered the spirit world, where he had been wrapped in shadow and glowing like the son of a god. "Understand me Rei - death is what keeps me alive. Always I live because I know that death calls me. One day," he said raggedly, "it will have me. But not today Rei. Each day I say, not today."

"Then the third test you pass, because you understand that some things no strength can resist. And because you know the demon in your heart so intimately that you call him friend." Her hand opened and the watching court could almost see the release in his body as the plucked spirit thread sank once more into him. "Power and responsibility, obsession and love, death and life . . . three desires bound into one whole, each of which alone would destroy you and destroy those who love you." Her voice lit with joy and suddenly her face was transformed with the release of tension. "You have passed the last test Endymion-sama, that of spirit. Welcome home, my prince!" She cried silently and her arms came around him in a hug that was as much a need as a greeting.

Finally she stood aside as all the others before her had done and he ascended the last step to face her - the pale queen on the throne. All expression slipped from his face and his breath caught in his throat as she rose to stand steadily before him - slim and imperial in her moonlight gown and silver hair. Tears were on her cheeks like softest rain but she seemed not to notice or care. Without taking her gaze from him, she reached up to her long staff and the Illusion Silver Crystal was in her hand, a glowing diamond rose of pure power. The room was as still as midnight and Mamoru could hear his breathing echoing in his blood.

"Prince Endymion of Earth," she began in a strong voice untainted with hesitation, "you stand before the double throne of Crystal Tokyo, having passed all the tests to prove your right of ascension. Now you face me, fighter of justice, star of mystery - I am Neo-Queen Serenity of Crystal Tokyo and you will prove yourself to me that you are still the equal of my heart."

The motion was fluid and familiar and Mamoru felt a keen sense of deja vu as she brought the Crystal in cupped hands to between the soft swell of her breasts. The ginzuishou lit like a silver flame and power, raw and uncontrollable slammed into him. The ginzuishou was incomparable and he struggled to retain his identity, absently healing his body again and again just as he had done once before. It threatened to blow him away, to shred his very self apart in the wind of its light. Concentrating, he brought his hands up in front of his chest, mimicking the stone statue pose of Serenity.

The golden light sprang forth like sunlight, like a raging firestorm, like an irridescent curtain of liquid gold. Silver shot through the golden light, mingling and twining like two flowers and Mamoru stood before his queen, the Golden Crystal a ball of power between his strong fingers. No longer subsumed by her raging power he stood tall and unconquered, matching the effortless beauty flowing from her. Her tears were falling again and the two Crystals floated out of their hands to rise above them as he stepped towards her. "Beloved," he whispered as her arms came up and he stepped into her desperate embrace.

---

Kitten paws are soft as velvet and Diana made no sound as she careened down the long hallways. Her breathing was harsh in her own ears and she ran as if a pack of hungry wolves chased her. He was here - as Diana at least had never truly believed he would ever be. The faces of the senshi, Serenity's frozen gaze had said it all. Thrilled and scared beyond words to say, she ran for the one that truly needed to hear this before any other.

Skidding, she turned the final corner and plied to an abrupt halt in the middle of a small room, sumptuously painted a rather interesting shade of purple. Pillows were scattered everywhere as usual and Diana noted in a corner of her attention that her mistress had no doubt been trying on all her dresses again - probably to figure out which one she was going to wear at the formal reception tonight. It was a matter of much concern judging by the plethora of outfits discarded on the floor, bows and fripperies draping the chairs and bed haphazardly.

A muffled sound drew her attention and Diana was finally able to make out the direction of her friend. A pair of legs wiggled out from under the bed, closely followed by the rest of a small body, bright pink hair made dusty by her excursions into the nether regions of childhood nightmares.

"Found it!" cried the little girl triumphantly, clutching a ribbon in one chubby hand. She stood up, unconcerned about the state of partial undress she was in and turned, brushing her hair back absently with one hand and leaving a grime streak on her face. Her happy eyes fell upon the panting form of Diana in the middle of the room and a wider grin appeared on her face.

"Hi Diana, what are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be attending that boring Assembly so you could Luna all about it when she got back." Question seemingly forgotten as soon as she uttered it, Chibi Usa moved away from the bed and towards the child sized mirror hung upon the wall. Already her hands were tugging on her hair in preparation for the new ribbon addition.

"Small Lady," started Diana urgently, " You have to get dressed NOW! You need to come to the Great Hall right away!" Diana jumped onto a convenient chair in her agitation and then again to a desk so that she was more nearly a height with the dimutitive form of the princess. "You have to come now!" she reiterated, tail lashing.

Chibi Usa barely looked over her shoulder at the tense cat, hands busy with trying to braid the gray ribbon into her bouncy ponytails. "Diana, can't you see that I'm BUSY right now? What's so important that it can't wait til dinner tonight? I'm sure mama is busy with things right now . . . I'll see what she wants later, ok?" Patting her hair, she inspected the ribbon decision carefully before clapping her hands in approval. "You've haven't seen my grey dress anywhere, have you Diana? The velvet one . . you know which one I mean. I thought it was in the chest but I couldn't find it anywhere. . ." One hand waved around in the air as if to indicate the current shambles of strewn clothing, no doubt made in her dress finding mission. She looked about ready to dive back into the offending closet again, and Diana spoke hastily, trying to break into Chibi Usa's monofocused concentration.

"Small Lady, you have to come now! Get dressed right away and come to the Great Hall with me - there's no time to waste with searching around!" Her impassioned plea brought no response and Diana mightily wished her mother hadn't decided to take these few days off with her mate. Luna could have spoken to this child-not-child and gotten what she wanted within the first few words. Mumbles and various noises started to emerge from the yawning closet as the small girl began again to quest for her favorite dress. Standing on all fours, Diana fluffed her fur and yowled warningly, sparks nearly flashing from her eyes in her anger.

"Princess Usagi Small Lady Serenity! Get out here, get dressed and get going! I said there's no time to waste and I MEANT IT!" The last was nearly howled and she was smugly gratified to see a small shocked face peeking out from the closet door.

"Wow," said Chibi Usa appreciatively. "That was really loud, even for you. What's so exciting in the Great Hall that I have to go right now? It just people pretending to be important in front of mama."

Diana sat down on her haunches again and contemplated the bemused princess. Carefully, realizing the desperate importance of this news to her charge, she enunciated slowly, "Get dressed. Come to the Great Hall. A tall man with black hair is challenging the senshi - and winning. Princess Haruka greeted him as a prince." Diana watched the still puzzled face of Chibi Usa intently.

Finally the girl said hesitantly, emerging a little more from the depths of the closet, "Diana, other men have challenged before and won the first few matches. I don't understand what is so * urgent * that I have to drop everything now."

"Small Lady," she tried again, "He passed the first three tests without even trying. Neptune knelt before him and I heard her name him Endymion, speaking as if he were higher royalty than she." Chibi Usa's gaze was still blank and Diana grew impatient at the denseness of her student. "Endymion, Small Lady, Endymion. Surely you remember ancient history better than this - Endymion, beloved of the moon goddess Selene." A dawning light began to grow in Chibi Usa's eyes and Diana completed the sentence Small Lady had been waiting all her long life to hear. "I think it's your father," she said softly.

"Oh." The only thing that moved in the entire room was Chibi Usa's eyes as they got larger and larger. Suddenly her face flared into a fierce flush and she raised shaking, unknowing hands to her hot cheeks. "Oh!" she said again, helplessly.

The moment of paralyzed immobility passed and without another word she dived to grab the nearest clothing, regardless of colour. For the first time Diana changed herself to human so she could help her princess dress to meet her lost father.

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