THE CROSSTIME ADVENTURES OF ATHENA AND SHEILA
OR
BUCKAROO TENKAI, ACROSS THE MANY DIMENSIONS :)

By
Chris Davies
Jeff Hosmer

With Assistance From:
Sean Gaffney

Crystal Tokyo
September, 2980

     Sheila was finishing up on the initial stages of a peer review of a
study of a new work of Senshi history, dealing with the career of Sailor V,
when the sprite materialized over her desk.  She blinked and adjusted her
glasses as the little construction of light (which resembled Her Majesty
the Queen) began to speak in a rapid-fire manner.  "Sheilaplease-
cometomylaboratoryassoonasyoupossibly--"

     "Whoa!" Sheila interrupted.  "Slow down a mite.  I can't understand
you when you speak that fast."  It was a lie; she could clearly make out
each of the words that the sprite was saying, but she disliked being spoken
to at that rate.

     The sprite let out a huge sigh, bowing its head as it did.  It then
spoke clearly, enunciating each word.  "Sheila, please come to my
laboratory as soon as you possibly can.  Signed, Lina Inverse.  RSVP?"

     "Tell her I'll be there shortly," she assured the sprite.  While she
and the timelost sorceress were hardly intimate, she did respect her enough
to come when requested.  The sprite bowed, and derezzed.

     Sheila pulled off her reading glasses, and dropped them in her
blouse's right pocket.  She checked the window, and decided that a jacket
would not be inappropriate for today's weather.  Then she strolled out the
door to her office.

     The College of Occult Studies was located a fair distance away from
the rest of the University's buildings, largely for safety's sake.  Sheila
enjoyed the autumn wind as she strolled along the path, and smiled slightly
as she caught eye of a few people glaring irately at her -- specifically at
her light jacket, in weather that forced them to wear much more heavy
clothing.  <Temperature tolerance is a wonderful thing,> she thought
cheerfully.

     She stepped into the bounce tube located at the entrance to the
college, and requested Lina's lab.  The tube accelerated her to the very
top floor of the building, and Sheila noticed that the two floors below
that were entirely unoccupied.

     Knocking on the door to the lab resulted in a cry of "Enter!"  Sheila
did so.

     The floor of the lab had been carefully scrubbed to a pristine
condition, before the circles and shapes had been diagrammed on the floor,
using what Sheila thought were copper and iron filings, and possibly
powdered gemstones.  Lina herself was standing a few feet away, barefoot
but clothed in her usual tight pants, along with a white T-shirt.  She was
sweaty, but happy looking.  Sheila thought she looked very yummy like that,
but the sorceress had made her preferences clear long before this.

     "Hey, Lina.  What's happening?" Sheila asked.

     "I'm a genius, that's what's happening," Lina said, grinning
maniacally.  "I have FINALLY figured out a way to get back to my own,
proper place in the universe, where magic works the way that it's SUPPOSED
to work, and --"

     "Really?" Sheila asked, trying to forestall one of Lina's rants.
"That's incredible."

     "Innit though?" Lina said, nodding.  "It's a blending of my own high
sorcery and the ritualized stuff that I've picked up in this continuum.
The thing is, I've got to have an inhabitant of THIS universe for the
process to work."

     "And you picked me?" Sheila asked, as she started to pull off her
jacket.

     "You're the first person I thought of calling.  Plus if it doesn't
work you're tough enough to probably be able to survive the backlash."

     Sheila started to pull her jacket back on.  "Backlash?" she asked in a
remarkably calm tone.

     "Well it's not like I've been able to field test it to get all the
bugs out of it," Lina protested.  "I'm PRETTY sure that nothing will go
wrong, and the worst case scenario is that we both get hit with a lousy
Manabolt, and you've taken that in the past."

     It was true, but it also wasn't something that Sheila cared to repeat.
Still, Lina was so eager... and now she was making puppy dog eyes at
Sheila.  <Damn my hormones,> she thought briefly, then nodded.  "Okay, I'm
in."

     "YESSSS!" Lina exulted.

     "I don't suppose the ritual involved is Tantric in nature?" Sheila
quipped.

     "Uh... what's that?" Lina asked, blinking.

     "Never mind," Sheila sighed, pulling off her jacket.  "What do I have
to do?"

     "Just stand in... uh, THAT circle," she pointed.  Sheila went where
she was bidden, being careful to not disturb the carefully traced lines.
For all the Inverted Wizard's sneering comments about ritual, she had
obviously applied herself very carefully to the steps involved in this one.

     Lina took her place in the large circle at the center of the diagram.
"What this should do is... well, it's kind of a reverse exorcism.  It will
banish me and everything in this circle away from the continuum which you
and everything in your circle is native to, back to my native continuum."

     Sheila nodded.  "Sounds logical.  Start anytime you're ready."

     Lina took a deep breath, and began to speak softly and forcefully,
calling her attention to the forces of the universe and asking, not
demanding, their assistance in this manner.

     The problem with the forces of the universe is that they tend to be
easily annoyed by unexpected requests.

     The first indication that Sheila had that something was going wrong
was when the lines of the diagram began to melt.  She looked at Lina and
realized that her face was taut with strain, sweat poring from her face
even as she chanted.  "Lina, stop the spell, NOW," she barked.  Lina was
beyond hearing, however.

     Sheila started to search for some way to disrupt the process.  In her
right pocket -- <ah-HA!> -- a pen.  She held it like a dart, with the blunt
end directed at Lina's forehead.  <The hardest part of this,> she thought
with dark amusement, <will be throwing it SLOW enough that it doesn't
penetrate her braincase.  Oh well.>

     The pen darted towards Lina's head, just as her eyes blazed open and
she let out a long breath.  "Stopped i--" she said.

     It hit.

     The magical energies that Lina had managed to grasp and hold back went
wild with her loss of consciousness, and the world fell away from Sheila.
She had the sensation, for a few horrifying moments, of falling for
infinity, and then everything went black.

                                   *****

The Moon Kingdom
c. 23,000 BC

     Athena, Senshi of Mercury, slowly opened her eyes and greeted a new
day.  She stretched and then smiled as her hands met two warm bodies on
either side of her.  Somehow she and Innana had gotten between Kunzite and
Zoisite.  Not that she minded.  She knew the soft feel of a woman's skin
just as well as the hard muscles of a male.  <Very hard,> she thought with
a grin that would have made Zoisite tremble had he seen it.

     She considered waking them in her best fashion, but nature was making
its usual demands, so she decided to take care of it first.  She slowly
wriggled her way out from between the tangled mess of bodies, pausing only
briefly to run her hands over this or that part of someone's anatomy.
Finally, she got out and took care of her business.

     She was just about to get back into the bed when there was a faint
knock at the door.  She sighed and went to answer it.

     The pageboy outside nearly jumped out of his skin as she opened the
door.  Athena's eyes twinkled as the poor boy tried to keep his eyes level
with her face and not look at the rest of her unclothed body.

     "Yeeeees?" she asked, drawing the word out slowly.

     "Um, the Elder Mercury wishes to, er, see you... in her lab!" he
blurted out, his cheeks red with embarrassment.

     "Oh, bother," Athena said.  "I was just getting up."  She yawned and
stretched shamelessly.  Before the page could respond, she leaned close to
him, holding his frightened eyes with her own.  "Do thou go and tell her
that I wilt be along shortly," she said.

     The pageboy turned and ran off, but not fast enough to avoid a swat on
the rear by an amused Athena.  "Certes, yon boy hath potential, once he
gaineth some seasoning," she said.

     "Teasing the help again, dear?" came an amused voice from behind her.
Zoisite wrapped his hands around her waist and leaned down to kiss and
nibble on her neck.

     "Ooooh," Athena murmured.  "Tis just mine Elder, who wishest to see
me."  She turned in Zoisite's grasp and began to kiss his chest.

     "Shouldn't you be going, then?" he asked, his breathing growing more
ragged.

     "In a moment," she answered, pushing him back in the room and kicking
the door closed behind her.

     Half an hour later, Athena knocked on the door to her mentor's lab,
garbed in the uniform of Senshi Mercury.  She had learned from long
experience that it was better to be safe than sorry where the Elder Mercury
was concerned.

     "Enter!" came from within the lab and the doors opened magically.  The
room was filled with the tools of magic and gadgets of science.  Something
was always bubbling, glowing, burning, or emitting noxious fumes, though
the room's mistress never seemed to mind.

     The Elder Mercury was a short, beautiful woman with long fiery red
hair and a slightly distracted look about her.  Athena paused to study her
mentor, whose slim, boyish figure was quite attractive, though her tastes
did not run the same way as Athena's, or at least not as far.  There was a
touch of the exotic in the Elder Mercury's looks as well, for her eyes were
almond-shaped and her ears slightly pointed, the signs of a touch of fae
blood.

     "Ah, Athena," Elder Mercury said.  "Good, good.  I need your help with
a small experiment."

     Athena sighed.  "I was involved in an experiment of mine own making,
just now," she said.  "Twas rudely interrupted by thy summons."

     "Oh?  What was it about?"

     "The conjunction of heavenly bodies."

     "Any results?"

     "Well, the earth moved," Athena said with a sly grin that disappeared
as her innuendo flew right over her teacher's head.  "I think it doth
require more intensive study," she said.

     "Well, it's good to see you keeping up with your studies," Elder
Mercury said as she puttered around her lab.

     "What doth ye require of me?" Athena finally asked.

     "Oh, it's most exciting," Elder Mercury said.  "My instruments have
detected a most interesting phenomenon.  It seems to be something--or
someone--traveling through the very fabric of space and time."

     "From Beyond the Great Shield?" Athena asked, startled.

     "No, no.  There is no Dark Power associated with it," Elder Mercury
said dismissively, then she added, "I think."

     <That was reassuring,> Athena thought.  "Mine question doth remain,
good teacher," she said.  "What doth ye require of me?"

     "We," Elder Mercury said, "are going to capture this thing for study."

     Athena blinked.  "That doth seem more dangerous than prudence should
dictate.  E'en if the means was present--"

     "Oh, tish tosh, we have the means right here," Elder Mercury said,
tossing something at Athena.  It was small, faceted, and glowed with a
silver light.

     The younger Mercury nearly dropped it.  "Thou STOLE the--"

     "Shhhhhh!  Not so loud!" Elder Mercury hissed.  "I did NOT steal the
Empyrean Silver Crystal.  I borrowed it for study.  The Queen has let me
study it before."

     "Methinks that those permissions were not unlimited in their scope nor
encompassing this purpose," Athena muttered.  However, her mentor was
notoriously single-minded when it came to her projects and she knew the
Elder Mercury hadn't even considered that Queen Serenity might object.

     "What was that, Athena?" Elder Mercury said.

     "Nothing, teacher," Athena said, carefully putting the Silver Crystal
down on a nearby table.

     "No, no, keep a hold of that.  We'll need it."

     Athena began to feel a tingling in her hands from holding the Crystal,
like electric sand ants were crawling under her skin.

     "What doth ye propose?" Athena asked, her accent deepening as the
tingle got worse.

     "When my devices detect this traveler's 'closest' approach, you will
project your will into the Crystal and pull it into our world, into that
binding circle," Elder Mercury said, pointing at the only clear section of
the lab.  A pentagram in a circle was inscribed in the floor, inlaid with
precious gems and metals.

     The tingling was now moving up her arms and Athena twitched in a vain
attempt to relieve it.  "Surely your greater power would better meet this
task," she began.

     "No, no!  I need to watch my instruments.  Don't worry, this slight
exposure to the Silver Crystal won't hurt you at all."

     Athena opened her mouth to complain about the tingling when one of the
crystals on the table before Elder Mercury began to chime.

     "It's time!" Elder Mercury said, grabbing several other crystals and
wands of certain rare woods.  "Hurry!  Project your will into the Crystal
and bring it to us!"

     Athena had no intention of doing any such thing, but the Crystal had
other ideas.  It began to strobe brilliantly, filling the room with its
silver light.  The tingling covered her whole body and as she raised her
hand before her eyes, it seemed to have a silver sheen.  Dimly, she heard
Elder Mercury shouting something but then everything vanished into
whiteness.

     When her eyesight returned, Elder Mercury could only gape in surprise
at the spot where her student had stood.  She was gone and the Silver
Crystal with her.  That thought was only beginning to sink into her stunned
brain when she felt a presence behind her.  Turning, she found herself
facing the enigmatic Guardian of Time, Sailor Pluto.

     "It has begun," the green-haired woman said with a satisfied nod.  She
then vanished with a wave of her Time Staff leaving the Elder Mercury with
many questions, no answers, and a LOT of explaining to do.

                                   *****

The Bazaar, Deva
Yeah, I got the time.  What's it worth to yez?

     The first thing that Sheila noticed, as she regained consciousness,
was just how much her head hurt.  It was worse than the first time she'd
been drawn out of coldsleep, worse than the hangover she'd had after the
party her mother had thrown when Sheila had gotten her Master's, and almost
as bad as she'd felt after sobbing herself to sleep the night after...

     She shook her head, deciding not to think about it.  It was getting
better.  That was when she noticed the smell, and let out a disgusted gag.
<Sweet Goddess,> she thought, <have I landed in some sort of landfill?>
She pushed herself up from her prone position, and looked around,
cautiously.  She was in some sort of an "alley" that formed between two
canvas walls -- tents.

     There was a substantial collection of trash dumped unceremoniously in
the alley.  Sheila muttered a particularly foul oath that she'd picked up
from her mother.  In Crystal Tokyo recycling wasn't just a good idea it was
a necessity.  The six hundred years of the Dark Ages had slowed, but never
STOPPED humanity's exploitation of the planet's resources.  The majority of
Earth's people that had agreed to the Unification had done so as much out
of desperation for resources as out of gratitude for Serenity's expulsion
of the daemon-spawn that had plagued them.  As the thirtieth century
approached its close, things were no longer that bad... but Sheila never
stopped being appalled by the WASTE that earlier eras had tolerated.

     Lina was nowhere to be seen in the alley.  Sheila quickly came to her
feet, and started to head towards the street she could see beyond the
alley's exit, when the groan finally reached her ears.

     She whirled, and saw a pair of blue-booted legs sticking out of one of
the larger piles of trash a few meters away.  Suddenly the trash shifted,
and the woman to whom the legs were attached rolled into a seated position,
with an irate expression on her face.  "Thanks ever so much, oh my Elder,"
she muttered, "for granting me such a central role in thy plan."

     Sheila gaped for a moment.  The short-cropped blue hair and slightly
rounded face were unmistakable, even if her uniform hadn't been.  "Aunt
Amy?" she gasped.  "What are you doing here?"

     Athena, in her turn, twisted to look at the one who was addressing
her.  She could not say that she had ever seen her before, and regretted it
immensely.  The unruly mass of red curls on top of the woman's head
contrasted with the tight, long braid of hair that was currently draped in
front of her shoulder in a MOST appealing manner.  Following that braid
drew Athena's attention to her... ahem, "talent," to use a rather annoying
Jovian euphemism that had enjoyed great popularity when Jupiter had first
used it not long after her arrival at the Moon Kingdom.

     She was dressed in extremely odd attire, however -- an open, oddly
HEAVY doublet, blue in shade, over a tight red blouse.  Her hosiery was
white in color, and hugged the lengths of her legs tightly down to just
above her ankles.  Her footwear resembled the sandals that Venus wore, save
for the fact that they were black-hued.

     Athena was oddly bothered by the fact that the woman was staring at
her as though she knew her.  "Do I know you, madam?" she said in a haughty
manner, imitating her cousin Aurora momentarily, to give herself time to
think, to consider whether she HAD met this woman before.  She started with
her first governess, whom she'd seduced on her thirteenth birthday, and
considered each of her dalliances with other women.  The problem was that
they tended to blur together...

     Sheila blinked.  <Oh, CRAP.  What if this is Amy from further back
along the timeline, from before I was born?>  She didn't know that the
Senshi had ever gone dimensional traveling, but she didn't know that they
hadn't, either.  Even her mother tended to brush off her requests for
information about their cases after the destruction of the Dark Kingdom.
"Oh, excuse me.  I... you look a bit like a relative of mine, and I got
confused.  Are you all right?"

     Athena nodded.  "I confess that I am a bit... out of sorts in the wake
of... whatever has just occurred.  But I am rude to thee.  I am Mercury,
Senshi of the Moon Kingdom.  And you?"  Something about her features DID
resonate within her mind, but Athena was fairly certain that she bore no
resemblance to any of the complicated branches of the Martian nobility.

     Sheila quietly prayed that nothing of the shock that she felt showed
on her face.  <Goddess and Thy Daughter, the SILVER MILLENIUM!>  Sheila had
always accepted her mother's and her aunts' accounts of the prehistoric
civilization that had been the origin of their powers.  She knew full well
about the archaeological discoveries that had confirmed that human
civilization was far older than had been commonly accepted in the century
before her birth.  But to actually be talking to --

     Wait a minute.

     "Um, atashi wa Ten'kai Shaala desu.  Hajimemashite," Sheila answered
in her rusty mother language.

     "Douzo yoroshiku," Athena replied, smiling.  <Shaala?  That name DOES
sound familiar, for some reason.  Wait, wasn't that the name of a Senshi of
Mars from a few hundred years ago?  Oooh, I almost wish that I'd paid more
attention to that section of my history class instead of trying to get into
the instructor's toga.  Almost.>

     <HOW?  How can someone from ten thousand years before the common era
speak the Japanese that was being spoken in the twentieth century?> Sheila
wondered, almost on the verge of panic.  <Wait... maybe the Senshi of the
Silver Millennium had telelinguistic capability.  It might be necessary for
them to do their duties.>  "Would you like a hand getting up?"

     <What an opening,> Athena marveled.  "Thank you, yes."  She extended
up a hand, and prepared herself to manipulate the balance between them in
such a way as to catapult herself into a close embrace with the slightly
taller woman.

     Unfortunately, Athena seriously underestimated Sheila's strength.  For
a second, she was slightly awed by the amount of power and restraint that
she felt in Sheila's hand gripping her own... and then her slight push
threw them both off.  Sheila went stumbling back onto the ground, with
Athena lying on top of her, with her head in between Sheila's breasts.

     Sheila's last thought before she passed out was quite simple.  <Oh
Goddess, I think she tried to cop a feel on me.  Ryouko's gonna kill me.>

     Athena let out an annoyed snort as she watched Sheila's eyes slam
shut.  "Thou," she said, "hast no tolerance for pain whatsoever, hast thou?
Foo.  That rules out any number of games..."

     It was at that point that the part of Athena's mind that HAD accepted
and taken to heart the Elder Sailor Mercury's teachings grabbed hold of the
parts which were entirely given to avoiding loneliness by the pursuit of
carnal pleasure, and shook them violently with a reminder.

     "The Silver Crystal!" Athena hissed, terrified.  She rolled off of
Sheila's unconscious body, and began to search furiously through the pile
of garbage into which she had fallen.

     The Crystal was nowhere to be found.

                                   *****

     A little under a kilometer away, Lina Inverse found herself regaining
consciousness under much the same circumstances as Sheila had.

     Except that her headache was a LOT worse.

     "Rackafrackin' not-trusting interfering sailor Senshi wannabe," she
mischaracterized Sheila in a low mutter.  Wherever in all the multiverse
she'd wound up as a result of the miscast ritual, it didn't have the
feeling of home.  In other words, she was stranded.  Again.

     Lina decided to pout for a few seconds, during which she stared at the
multi-faceted silver whatsis that was lying a few feet away.

     A second passed.

     Then another.

     Then yet another.

     "Y'know, I think Sheila must have hit me harder than I thought, 'cause
that thing sure as hell looks like the Silver Crystal," Lina commented to
no one in particular.

     Still another second passed, and then Lina's hand stretched out and
grabbed the Silver Crystal, staring at in stunned amazement.  "I'll be
dipped in -- IT IS!  THIS IS THE KEY TO THE UNIVERSE!"

     "Yeah, from what we can tell, you're probably right.  So why don't you
make life easier for yourself and just hand it over, okay?"

     Lina whirled, not letting go of the Crystal for one second.  Standing
behind her was a group of five creatures -- they were tall, vaguely
reptilian beings with reddish skin and horned heads -- all dressed in
wizardly apparel.

     And then Lina realized something, and smiled.  While this place, this
world, was not home... its magic had far more in common with her native
world's magic than Crystal Tokyo's did.

     And Lina Inverse was very, very good at magic.

     "Make me," she sneered at the Deveels, and prepared for combat.

                                   *****

     After the initial panic, Athena got a hold of herself.

     "Now, the situation couldst be worse," she said to herself.  "Verily,
the Silver Crystal tis lost, and I am stranded far from home, but the
scenery is nice."  Her gaze dropped back to the unconscious Sheila.  "Very
nice."  She then shook her head.  "I must see if she knows where the
Crystal is and where we are," she said.  Then a mischievous gleam appeared
in her eyes.  "Perhaps I can rouse the maiden in the traditional manner."
With that, she knelt between Sheila's legs and leaned forward to plant a
very intimate kiss on her unresisting lips.

     Sheila was struggling back to consciousness when she became aware of a
VERY pleasant sensation.  <It must be Misa,> her befuddled mind thought and
it surged back toward the realm of wakefulness.  Someone was kissing her, a
very feminine and enthusiastic someone, and Sheila returned the favor with
vigor, her tongue dueling playfully with her partner.  Then the other
person pulled back and Sheila opened her eyes.

     "Thou art most definitely awake, hmmm?" Athena purred.  Sheila's kiss
was the kiss of someone who was experienced with pleasing another.  That
opened up all sorts of intriguing possibilities.

     "Ack!" was all Sheila could say.  <AUNT AMY kissed me!  And she was
really, really good at it!>

     "Mayhap you are not quite restored," Athena purred, excited by the mix
of confusion and arousal she saw on Sheila's face.  She must be unversed in
the love of a woman... and I do love to educate the ignorant.  She
moistened her lips and lowered them to Sheila's again.

     "Um, no!  No!  I'm quite awake!" Sheila stammered, pulling away as
fast as she dared.  <Remember, this isn't Aunt Amy... but, man, I thought
Misa was bad!>

     Athena just smiled and rested her hand on Sheila's thigh.  "Perhaps
then thou might answer a few questions for me?  Where am I?  Is this thy
home?"

     Sheila took a good look around, trying unsuccessfully to ignore
Athena's hand.  "Um, no, I don't think so.  I was involved with a spell to
return someone from my world to her own... maybe she sent me there
instead."

     "Ah, so twas thy spell mine Elder detected.  We tried to intercept
thou as thy spell traveled by our world, but it seems the Crystal sent me
along with thee."

     "Um.... Mercury... I don't mean to pry, but where did you pick up that
accent?"

     "Why?  Dost thou not like it?"  Athena mock-pouted and was very
pleased to see her companion flush.

     "No, no, it's not that... I mean... well, on MY world, there is a
Senshi Mercury who looks a LOT like you."  <But if Aunt Amy kisses anything
like you, I'll be VERY temp--surprised!  I'll be surprised!>

     "Oh?  Very interesting.  I wouldst like to meet thy Mercury some day,
to see what similarities we might have."

     <Not too many, I would wager,> Sheila thought.  <And Ryouko would
definitely kill me if I brought you home.>

     Then something Athena had said percolated to the top of her mind.

     "Wait a second, did you say 'Crystal?'  As in Silver Crystal?"

     Athena's hand stopped rubbing Sheila's thigh and her face became
guarded.  "Yea.  How doth thee know of it?"

     "My world also has one."

     "Ah.  Well, mine is not here, so mayhap it stayed behind on my world."

     Suddenly, a bright explosion of silver light filled the sky.

     "I wouldn't go and place any bets on that," Sheila said.

     The two young women exchanged glances and took off at a run.

                                   *****

     The world of Deva trembled.

     "Yeah!  Take that!  And that!  Oh, you want some of this, too?"

     Lina Inverse was enjoying herself.

     Ever since her arrival in Crystal Tokyo, she had heard horror stories
about the Silver Crystal and how it exacted a horrible price of anyone who
tried to use its power and that it would only fully work for the Royal line
of the Moon Kingdom.  Those tales seemed false, however, for it practically
seemed to be EAGER to give her the power she needed.  So she used it.
Again and again and again.  The gathered wizards of Deva were blown away
like scarecrows in a hurricane and Lina just threw her head back and
laughed at their pitiful magic.

     "Enough!" yelled a voice finally.

     Lina paused, the Silver Crystal still clenched tightly in her hand.  A
Deveel in very rich robes (but not wizard's robes) was gesturing
plaintively to her.  She was also, she noted, standing in the center of a
vast circle of devastation.  Even she was impressed with how much damage
she had done.  She hadn't been able to cut loose like that since her
arrival in Crystal Tokyo and it felt GOOD.

     "Oh, Great and Powerful Sorceress, I am Hay-ner of the Deva Merchants'
Association.  Please, we pray of you, have mercy on our poor shops.  We
will grant you anything in our power if you would just leave us in peace."

     Several of the non-Deveels in the crowd gasped at that.

     <Hmmm.  Maybe THEY can get me home,> Lina thought.  Her mystical
senses (which also seemed to be enhanced by the Crystal) had already told
her that a LOT of dimensional traveling was going on in this place.  And
besides, that 'Great and Powerful Sorceress' stuff sounded pretty good.
She adopted a haughty and imperial attitude.

     "I was attempting to return home when I was accosted by several thugs
who thought they knew magic," she said.  "However, I am uncertain of my way
home... though I have the power to get there, of course."

     "We can provide you with the means to find your home, oh Great and
Powerful Sorceress, if you would but promise to not damage our places of
business," Hay-ner was quick to put in.

     <Hmmm, sounds like a good deal,> Lina thought.  "Agreed."

     Unfortunately, Lina had never heard of a famous saying in the Bazaar:
When you think you've gotten a good deal from a Deveel, check your arms,
then your legs... and then your relatives.

     Two Deveels in cheap suits sidled forward with literally reams of
paper.  "Sign here, here, and here," they said, putting the yellowed
documents in her hands.

     "Wait, what is all this?" Lina said, trying to make sense of the
squiggly marks that she assumed was writing.

     "Oh, just a binding contract," they chorused.

     Lina debated asking for a translation, but that would mean admitting
the Great and Powerful Sorceress couldn't read it, and she wasn't about to
do THAT.  "Fine, fine," she muttered, and signed where they indicated.

     "Good.  Now, one moment, as we find your way home," Hay-ner said,
turning to a very old-looking Deveel in a robe of black silk covered with
silver arcane runes.  The old Deveel listened carefully and then began to
mutter and gesticulate.  Lina watched in interest.

     <Maybe they're going to open a portal right here,> she thought.  <Or
summon some sort of spirit who will speak in annoying riddles as to how I
get back home.>

     Lina was almost looking forward to that.  She had ways of making
spirits talk plainly, she thought as she cracked her knuckles.

     The robed Deveel's spell seemed to be reaching a climax.  As Lina
watched, a great circle of darkness opened in the air before him.

     "Lina!" someone cried.

     Lina looked over her shoulder and saw a very out-of-breath Sheila
standing next to Sailor Mercury (she thought.)

     "Oh, Sheila!  There you are.  Hey, look what I found!  Ain't it cool?"
She gestured with the Silver Crystal.

     "Give that back, thou thief!" Sailor Mercury said, running toward the
sorceress.

     "Hey, no biggie," Lina was quick to say, figuring the Senshi and
Palladins were going all over the multiverse looking for the Crystal.
"These guys are finding me a way home."

     Lina turned back to the portal, eagerly waiting what it would bring.

     The Deveel made one final gesture and someone stepped out of the
portal.

     Lina froze.

     <Skimpy costume, check.>

     <Incredible figure, check.>

     "Ohohohohohohoho!"

     <Annoying laugh, check.>

     Lina reached over and grabbed Hay-ner by the throat.  "WHAT is THIS?"
she growled.

     Hay-ner gasped for breath.  "Our magic summoned the one thing in the
multi-verse that would lead you home."

     "HER?"

     "Results are guaranteed!  I don't know how, but she'll get you home
somehow!" the Deveel gasped, his face turning purple.

     "Ohohohoho, Lina-chan!  Is THIS where you got to?" the newcomer said
in a high-pitched voice.

     "Hello, Naga," Lina said between clenched teeth.

                                   *****

     "Um... Lina, is this a friend of yours?" Sheila asked hesitantly,
eyeing the dark-haired woman's attire.  It was one thing to go traipsing
around in private like that -- she thought of Misa's collection of lingerie
for a moment, and then furiously got back on track -- but this place wasn't
so temperate that she would have wanted to go wandering around in a
swimsuit.

     "Permit me to introduce myself!" Naga exclaimed.  "I am Naga the
Serpent, Lina Inverse's greatest rival and --"

     "Oh!  Yeah!  She mentioned you... you're Gold Fish Shit, right?"

     Naga lowered her head and sighed.

     Lina, meanwhile, had slumped down on one of the pillars she had
knocked over during her mild, reasonable, rampage earlier, and was covering
her eyes with her hands.  "Not Naga.  Anybody but Naga.  I'd rather have to
deal with Shabranigido again than Naga.  I'd rather marry Gourry and STILL
not get my hands on his sword than have to deal with Naga."

     Under other circumstances, Athena would have responded to that last
bit with a double entendre of her own, whilst trying to chat up this VERY
attractive female who resembled her Elder, but there were pressing matters.
"Madam, I must repeat my demand that ye give back yon Silver Crystal at
once!  'Tis not a toy for such as ye to be entertaining thyself with!"

     Lina glowered at her.  "Look, I said I'd give it back!"  And she
handed it over, peaceably.

     Or tried.  As she thought to do so, an odd thought occurred to her.
<Hey, since when does Lady Mercury talk like some courtier?  She doesn't!
She's very formal, but not THAT formal -- this CAN'T be her!  No way am I
giving up this thing to some phony!>

     "And I will!" she continued.  "Just as soon as I find a way home."

     "Thou art placing thyself in grave danger merely by possessing it!"
Athena shouted.

     Lina stood, genuinely angry now.  "Well, maybe I LIKE danger!"

     "Okay, okay, calm down!" Sheila interrupted.  "Look, let's take this
off the street, find somewhere we can discuss matters --"

     "-- over a candlelit dinner, mayhap?"  <I must get her on my side, I
am ill prepared to go to battle with a wizard of this young girl's power
who hath the Silver Crystal as well!>

     Sheila looked around frantically, and then spotted something utterly
out of place.  "How about over there?" she said, pointing at the Yellow
Crescent Inn.  She stared for a moment at the place she was pointing.
<Wait a minute.  Yellow Crescent?  But I...>

     "All right," Lina groused, "I am pretty hungry, now that you mentioned
it.  You're paying, right?"

     "Uh..."

     "Let's go," Lina beckoned for Naga to follow, which, not unlike feces
trailing a goldfish, she did.  Athena followed as well, determined to keep
an eye on the Crystal, which the sorceress was still holding tightly onto.
Sheila took a few seconds to wonder in blind panic how in the world a
restaurant she'd worked in for a few weeks when she was teenager had opened
up a franchise in some weird parallel dimension, and then took off after
them.

     "Welcome to the Yellow Crescent Inn, may I take your order?" said the
bored looking gargoyle behind the counter.

     "Hum.  I'll have an Old Yell, a Y.C.L.T. (whatever that is), a
quarter-pounder with cheese, filet of fish, a hamburger, a cheeseburger,
tasty golden fries, a soft drink, some hot apple pies --"

     "Uh..." the gargoyle interrupted, "I think you should know that we
aren't doing that promotion anymore... you're not gonna get a free meal if
you sing the whole jingle."

     "Promotion?" Lina asked, blinking.  "Jingle?"

     Normally, gargoyles, being stone, do not sweat.  This was one of those
days, however.  "You mean... you really want all that food?  Even though
it's gonna--"

     "She's paying," Lina replied, gesturing at Sheila.  "Now, where was
I..."

     "Ma'am?" he asked Sheila in a weak tone.  "I don't mean to offend or
anything but... can you please show me some proof of ability to pay?"

     "Sure," Sheila replied, and produced her Crystal Express credit card.
<Pluto indicated that she'd gone to some effort to make sure that these
things were valid anywhere in our universe... and others.  I really hope it
works.>

     The gargoyle, whose name was Gus, stared at the credit card for a
second.  It wasn't a Pervertcard, which was why he wasn't fawning all over
the customers, but something about the name rang a bell.  "Just a second?"
he temporized, and checked the clipboard of accepted credit cards.

     In an ancient script near the top of the list, he found it.  "Crystal
Express: DEFINITELY accepted.  If being used by a green-haired humanoid
female, give her whatever she wants, and then pray to whichever deity you
feel so inclined that that's all she asks of you in your lifetime."  Gus
shivered.

     "Yes, ma'am, we definitely accept this card," he said aloud.

     "Oh good!" interjected Naga.  "I'll have one of whatever Lina-chan is
having!"

     "Same here," Sheila added.

     "Goodness, such strange and bizarre foods!  Tenkai, dear, thou hast
eaten in this place ere now... tell me, which of these doth serve best as
an appetizer for... other things?"

     "Awk."

                                   *****

     "Lina, you really ought to give it back," Sheila insisted as she
chewed down on her fries.

     "Look, I don't buy this story about how it's dangerous for anyone not
of royal blood to even touch this gewgaw.  I'm touching it, I'm using it,
and I feel fine."  <Well, except for the hollow feeling in my gut.  But
that's just hunger.>

     "Okay, Lina, time for truth... no, touching the Silver Crystal won't
harm anyone--"

     "Ah-hah!"

     "--directly."  She drew in a deep breath.  "Do you know why my mother
adopted me, Lina?  Why she adopted all my younger brothers and sisters?
Anyone can touch or even use the crystal, but there's a price for power.
My mother helped Lady Mars to use the crystal once to save the Princess'
life --"

     "Eh?" asked Athena.

     "--but doing so sent her menstrual cycle into overdrive.  She went
through menopause when she was in her TWENTIES.  Lady Mars' reproductive
system was completely burnt out by--"

     "Excuse me," interrupted Athena, "but what thou describes sounds quite
unlike the price of the Crystal that I am familiar with."  She turned to
gaze at Lina.  "The Crystal grants power, but it makes demands upon the
user as well.  The life force of the user becomes more and more bound unto
the Crystal, until she cannot live without it.  Yet, to use it too much is
to court disaster, for if all the life force of she who wields the Crystal
is drawn unto it, death is certain as well!"

     Sheila blinked.  <But... AUNT AMY told me about the price of the
Crystal.  She wouldn't lie to me about something like that.  Wait a
minute... oh Goddess, could that be it?  This is actually another world's
Mercury, instead of Aunt Amy's earlier incarnation?>

     <Hey, that means... NO!  Don't GO there!>

     Lina stared at both of them, appalled.  "That's crazy!  The two of you
can't even get your stories straight, and you expect me to just give up the
Key to the Universe to this spacey flirt who can't even talk like the real
Mercury?"

     "What problem hast thou with my speech?" Athena bit out.

     "No!  I won't do it!" Lina shouted, ignoring her.

     "Wilt not?" Athena asked.  "Or CAN not?"

     Lina defiantly held out the hand in which she clenched the Silver
Crystal, and extended it towards Sheila.  "You, I trust with this.  Her, I
don't.  Here," she concluded, and willed her fingers to let go of their
grip.

     They refused to obey her.

     For a moment, raw panic suffused Lina's features, but then she got it
under control, and retracted her hand.  "On second thought," she said
slowly, "who knows what she might have done to you?  The two of you are
being AWFULLY good friends..."

     "Lina, you're being paranoid.  Just give me the Crystal and --"

     "Do NOT tell ME what to do!" Lina snapped.  "NOBODY tells ME what to
do!"  She stood up, and angrily strode away.

     "Lina!" Naga called after her.  "Are you gonna finish your fries or
can I have them?"

                                   *****

     Sheila turned to Athena and tried not to sound as worried as she felt.
"I'm sorry, she's not usually like this, but--"

     "The Crystal doth affect her mind already.  I hath heard stories of
this, but ne'er seen it before.  Is she one who finds the practice of power
addicting?"

     "That's Lina-chan, ohohoho!" Naga interjected with another scary laugh
that caused all the other customers to move away.  "She just loves
destructive magic.  That means, of course, that she lacks the subtlety to
be a true mage like, say, me."

     Sheila stared at the scantily clad sorceress for a moment and then had
an idea.  "Shouldn't you go after her?  Make sure she doesn't get into any
trouble she can't handle?"

     "Oooh, you're right.  That silly little girl will get into all sorts
of trouble without me.  Look what's happened to her since she disappeared!"
With that, Naga leapt to her feet and charged out after Lina.

     "Very nice," Athena commented.  "That doth finally leave us alone."

     Sheila began to sweat.  "Look, Mercury--"

     "Thou," Athena said with some emphasis, "may callest me Athena.  Twas
my name before I was called to serve as Senshi."  She eyed Sheila.

     "Um, I don't know ..." Sheila said, watching Athena as a mouse watches
a cat.

     "I have never had a lover from another dimension," Athena purred,
sidling closer.

     "Ack!"  Sheila almost fell out of the booth.  "Look, Athena, I don't
think--"

     "Dost thou not find me attractive?" Athena pouted.

     <Oh, goddess... if I say yes, it'll lead to something I'll have a hard
time explaining to Misa.  If I say no... I'd be lying my ass off.>

     "It's not that I don't find you attractive," she said, "but... well,
every time I look at you, I see my Aunt Amy."

     "And that doth bother you?"

     "Of course it does!"

     "Not as much as ye protest, methinks."

     <Oh, boy,> Sheila thought, her hormones mounting another attack on her
reason.  <I've got to change the direction of this conversation and fast.>
"Look, we need to get the Silver Crystal from Lina.  That's more important,
isn't it?"

     Athena backed off with a sigh.  "Thou art right.  Such a task would be
a monumental effort, howe'er.  Already her life doth seem to depend upon
it.  We must get her to Queen Serenity soon, so that the damage can be
undone."

     "Any ideas as to HOW we do that?"

     "This world doth seem overrun with travelers from other dimensions,
and full of merchants to boot.  Methinks twould not be hard to buy what we
need."

     "That's brilliant!" Sheila exclaimed, seeing the possibilities in that
statement.  She might not be lost forever now, and Lina could get home.
She hugged Athena and gave her a kiss on the cheek.  "You're a genius!"
Then, blushing, she backed off.  "Um, sorry, I didn't mean..."

     "Nay, do not apologize," Athena said with a grin.  "I enjoyed that
very much."

     <I've got to get her and Lina home before she makes me do something
I'll regret,> Sheila thought.

     <If we are heading home soon,> Athena thought, <I must redouble mine
efforts on this lass, for I may never see her again.  Twould be such a
pity.>

     The two headed off into the Bazaar.

                                   *****

     Lina stomped down one of the Bazaar's twisting, labyrinthine roads, if
it could be called that.  The definition of a road in Deva is practically
"any place not occupied by a business."  It was made worse by the fact that
everyone was on foot.  The roads, such as they are, were either muddy or
dusty, depending on the weather.  The merchants didn't want potential
customers to speed past them in some vehicle and were definitely too cheap
to pave a road that didn't need it.

     "Oh, Lina-chan!"

     With a sigh, Lina turned to face her self-proclaimed rival.
<Remember,> she told herself, <you're the more powerful mage, and you've
faced monsters and challenges that would send serpent-girl running for the
hills.  It doesn't matter that she's got a body that would turn on a blind
man.  She's petty, vindictive, and REALLY annoying.  I've got her beat
where it counts.>

     As usual, her mantra didn't help when she saw every vaguely humanoid
and vaguely male being salivating over Naga's barely covered curves.

     "Really, Lina-chan, why did you run off like that?  I mean, we haven't
seen each other in ages--"

     "That is something I LIKED about being trapped in a low-mana world,"
Lina snapped.

     "Oh?  No wonder you need that bauble."

     "This is no 'bauble' Naga!  Look at it!"

     Lina held the Silver Crystal up.  At first she was afraid she wouldn't
be able to open her hand again, but as long as she kept a firm grip on the
Crystal, it seemed she could do what she wanted.

     Naga focused her senses on the Crystal and gasped.  It was rare that
something penetrated her arrogance, but the power levels she sensed from
the small gem were staggering.  But a closer evaluation worried her even
more.

     "Lina..." she said seriously, "that THING is linked with you."

     "I know, it's the only way to use it is to link with it..."

     "No, I mean it's sucking hard enough on your soul to give you
spiritual hickeys."

     "I'm sure YOU are the expert on that."

     Naga refused to be baited, and that worried Lina more than anything
else did.  "Seriously, Lina, it's got its hooks in deep.  It looks almost
like a possession..."

     Fear turned to suspicion suddenly in Lina.  "Oh, I see... you want to
take it from me too, don't you?  Well, you can't have it!  It's mine!  My
precious," Lina said absently, cradling it.

     "Lina, it's affecting your mind, you have to get rid of it!"

     "SHUT UP!" Lina screamed, gesturing at Naga.  The Silver Crystal,
sensing her anger, eagerly supplied her the power.

     Fizzle.

     Lina looked at her hands in shock.  That should have been a Manabolt
powerful enough to level a Crystal Tokyo city-block.  She searched with her
mystic senses to find the cause.

     "Why those slimy bastards..." Lina growled.  "That contract!  They
made me bind my own power!"

     "One should always read the fine print," said an oily voice behind
Lina.  She turned and found Hay-ner standing there.  "The contract you
signed locks away your destructive magic while in the Bazaar, in
perpetuity."

     Lina punched him in the mouth, knocking him over and into a nearby
stall.  "Lock away THAT," she snarled.  Then she turned back to Naga.
"Well, I guess I'll have to get creative," she said, raising the Crystal.

     Naga began to sweat.  Whatever that thing was, it was seriously
powerful and Lina was rapidly losing her capacity for reason where it was
concerned.  But what really bothered her was the fact that it was pointed
at HER.

     The Crystal flared and Naga tried to dodge, but one might as well try
to sidestep a tidal wave.

     Lina smirked, looking over what was left of her rival.  "Now, I am OUT
of here!" she cried.  Holding the Silver Crystal up, she vanished in a
burst of silver light.

     Sheila and Lina ran up moments later.  "What happened?" Sheila cried.
"Where's Lina and the Crystal?"

     "Here be Naga's clothes, but where is Naga?" Athena said, pointing at
the bundle.

     The bundle moved.  "I'll tell you where she ith," came a young voice
with a pronounced lisp.  An adorably cute little girl with long purple hair
stuck her head out from under Naga's cloak.  "She'th gone, leaving me like
thith!"  The girl looked no older than 11 or 12 and wrapped the cloak
tightly around her thin, lanky body.

     "Naga?" Sheila said.

                                   *****

     "IT'TH NOT FAIR!!!" Chibi-Naga screamed as she pounded the plastic
covering of the tables back at the Yellow Crescent Inn.

     "Tenkai, didst thou ever plan to have children?" Athena asked quietly.

     "I had given it some vague thought before this," Sheila replied.

     "Verily can I understand why this might cause one to reconsider such
an act," Athena said, nodding.

     "You two!  Thith ith all your fault!" Naga shouted as she pointed
wildly in their general direction.  "If you hadn't brought Lina here, she
wouldn't have done thith to me!  You cotht me my breathtth!  Of all the
thingth about me, I liked my breathtth the motht!"

     Sheila blinked.  "Huh?"

     "My BREATHTTH!" Naga lisped furiously, pointing at her chest in
emphasis.

     Athena rolled her eyes.  "Of course.  We shouldst be more concerned
about thine attributes than about the prospect of a half-mad sorceress
gamboling about the cosmos with the most powerful magical artifact in
creation at her disposal."

     "YEAH!" Naga agreed, nodding furiously.

     "So anyway, you say that you saw this crystal... feeding on Lina's
soul?" Sheila pressed.  When Naga nodded, self-pityingly, she turned to
Athena.  "That would mean that this IS your Silver Crystal, then.
Apparently, when my world's Crystal exacts its price, it looks like silver
fire is burning into whoever is paying."

     Athena frowned, and for a moment Sheila was struck by just how much
she DID look like Aunt Amy.  "And she has used it to slice her own passage
unto another dimension.  The situation groweth graver with every passing
moment, for who can say unto whose hands or talons the Crystal may fall
when it drops from her fingers at her death?"  Didn't sound a thing like
her though.

     "There is one upside, though," Sheila pointed out.  "Unless she
happens to drop in on some library world and bones up on the subject, she
doesn't know anything more about dimensional travel than she did when she
accidentally sent herself from her world to mine the first time.  In other
words, she's shooting blind."

     "'Tis not so much of an advantage as 'twould seem to be," Athena
countered.  "Did she have control over her choice of destination, then
could WE deduce wither she were bound from her personality.  As it stands,
we are as blind as she is.  Nay, moreso."

                                   *****

Somewhere else.
Some other time.

     The amount of power that Lina had at her disposal was absolutely
amazing.  It was almost breathtaking what she could do with it, now that
she had escaped the confines of the binding.  No, not breathtaking...
DIZZYING.

     That was why her head felt like it did.  The power made her dizzy
that's all.  Old spell formulae that her old master had tried to teach her
but she just hadn't been able to grasp were finally beginning to make
sense, which probably added to her dizziness.

     Thinking of her master and his fate made Lina swallow.  <I've got...
I've finally got enough power that nobody will ever be able to do that to
me.  Nobody will ever be able to mess with ME again.>

     <But I still don't know how to go home.>

     She rallied.  <Wait a minute!  Sure!  I can use this thing to find my
way home!  All I have to do is find out a way to use it!>

     "Hey, Silver Crystal," she said aloud.  "Take me to a place where I
can learn more about your power."

     She flashed out.

     A second later, the Superdimensional Fortress Macross defolded in the
orbit of Pluto, where she had been standing for a few moments before.

                                   *****

The Bazaar, Deva
Later than the last time you asked.

     "If I may intrude..."

     Sheila looked up at the bruised Deveel that was standing near her.
"Yeah?" she asked.

     "You were, I believe the associates of the young woman causing a
certain amount of havoc, earlier today?  The Great and Powerful Sorceress
Whatever Her Name Was?"

     "Yes?"

     "Would you happen to know where she is at the moment?"

     "HEY!  I remember thith guy!  He'th the one who cut that deal with
Lina-chan that brought me here!"  Naga zoomed over and started kicking Hay-
ner in the shin repeatedly, without visible effect.  "Monthter!  Fiend of
the blacketht pit!  THITH ith all YOUR fault!"

     Hay-ner stared down at her, perplexed.  "What a strangely precocious
child.  In any event --"

     "Why dost thee wish to know?" Athena asked slowly.  There was
something strangely sinister about these beings... perhaps it was racial
memory, for they aroused in her feelings not unlike those that were caused
by discussing the Things from Beyond.

     "Yeah, why?" asked Sheila, mentally preparing herself for a fight.

     "It is my intention to sue her for battery," Hay-Ner said shortly.

     Athena and Sheila facefaulted.  Naga kept right on kicking Hay-Ner.

     "No," Sheila finally said, "we think she used the powers of... her
talisman to dimensionally travel away from here."

     "Oh, drat," Hay-Ner muttered.  "Ah, well.  It's fortunate for her that
I'm not overly vindictive, or I'd hunt her down no matter which dimension
she visited!  But, since she's left our dimension, I suppose there's no
real point in holding a grudge.  Well, I'll be off then..."

     "Uh... just a moment!" Sheila interrupted.  "If you WERE that
vindictive, how would you go about it?  Hunting her down, I mean?"

     Hay-Ner gave it some thought.  "I would probably employ one of the
better wizards hereabouts to track her down... say, the Great and Powerful
Skeeve and his associates.  Their offices are located not too far from
here."

     "Thanks!" Sheila said quickly, and stood.  "Come on, let's go!  She's
got a heck of a lead on us!"  She dashed out the door, Athena following
quickly behind.

     <Not bad for a day's work,> Hay-Ner thought to himself.  <A referral
fee from Skeeve, a fee for information from those two -- to be collected at
once on their return -- plus the judgement in my favor when I take that
"Great and Powerful Sorceress" to court.  Not bad for a day's work at all.>

     He realized that Naga was still busily kicking his shin, so he looked
down at her, smiled a particularly ugly grin, and cheerfully said, "Is that
the way people in your dimension offer gifts of food?  For that is a
particularly tasty looking leg."

     Naga looked up, saw the way that the Deveel was smiling at her, and
let out a hollow shriek as she fled after Sheila and Athena.

                                   *****

The Moon Kingdom
A long time ago.

     Lina materialized in the burning ruins of a once great city.  She
stared confusedly at the broken, Greco-Roman architecture all around her.

     "Wait a minute..." she muttered to herself.  Greco-Roman architecture?
Burning ruins?

     She looked up in the sky at the blue-green planet that hung there.

     "Oh, great!" she muttered.  "This thing dumped me into the Moon
Kingdom!  How am I supposed to learn ANYTHING about how to use this crystal
from a bunch of people who were too stupid to use this thing before it was
too late?"

     She had learned about the Silver Millennium not long after her arrival
in Crystal Tokyo, nearly a decade before, and her opinion about its
residents hadn't changed very much since then.  Given the power of the
Silver Crystal, and the ability to use it, there was no way that Beryl
should have been able to triumph.  Queen Serenity had either been an idiot
or insane to let things go as far as they had.

     The fact that the ruins were burning indicated that the final battle
had begun.  Lina started to hurry down the street, intending to use her
magic to turn the tide... when she saw her.

     She had long red hair, and was dressed in a blue gown that had seen
better days than these.  Her face was scorched and bleeding in places, and
she looked very tired and worn.  But in her eyes there was nothing but a 
cold, determined expression, and she walked across the ground of the Moon
with a sure step, as though she owned every square inch.

     Lina recognized her from the stories: Beryl, Queen of the Dark
Kingdom, Mistress of the Negaforce.

     There was a sudden rumbling noise, and the ground quaked, causing
Lina to lose her footing.  She recovered quickly, but found herself
staring down into a pool of water.

     The woman who gazed back at her had long red hair... was dressed in a
clothes that had seen better days... her face was scorched and bleeding in
places... and she looked very tired and worn.

     "No," she muttered.  "No, I'm not like that.  I'm not... I... take me
away from here!  Silver Crystal, take --"

     The Crystal pulsed, and she was gone.

                                   *****

     Beryl registered the odd pulse of magical energies in the distance,
but there was no time to deal with whatever it was.  The final battle was
at hand.

     The names of all those she'd lost flashed in her mind.  Jadeite.
Nephrite.  Zoisite.  Malachite.  And just now, her true love... Endymion.
Lost forever to the cruelty of the one before her.

     Queen Serenity, now bloated with the power of the evil spirit Luna,
stared down at her with a sneering gaze.  "So, you've come, little
princess."

     In the distance, Beryl could hear her familiar, Metallia, crying out
for her not to do this, not to make this sacrifice.  She ignored her pleas.

     The time had come for the final battle of Good and Evil.

                                   *****

The Bazaar, Deva
Still later

     Athena looked at the unimpressive tent before them and snorted.  "This
is the home of a Great and Powerful Sorcerer?  Methinks we have been given
bad advice."

     "Well, everyone we've asked says this is where the 'Great and Powerful
Skeeve' lives," Sheila said.  She peered at the sign on the tent.
"M.Y.T.H. Inc?"

     "Thtop wathting time," Chibi-Naga said.  "We need to find Lina!"

     "Right, right," Sheila said.  They had stopped by a clothing tent and
gotten some right-sized clothes for the pint-sized sorceress.  This had not
improved Naga's temper.

     They stepped inside the tent and found themselves in a waiting room
larger than the tent.  "Whoa," Sheila said.

     "Methinks I should re-evaluate mine opinion of this Skeeve," Athena
said.

     "People come see Big Crunch?  Big Crunch hungry," said a guttural
voice.

     The three looked up at the being entering the room... and up and up.
Big, strong, and UGLY were the first three words that occurred to them.
Then the bit about 'hungry' began to sink in.

     Chibi-Naga ran behind Sheila.  "Doeth everyone want to eat me!?" she
squealed.

     "W-we're here to see the Great and Powerful Skeeve," Sheila stuttered.

     "Perhaps -I- can help you," boomed another voice.  They turned in
relief to the newcomer... and then gasped as they saw a tall, powerful
being with green scales, yellow eyes, and lots of teeth.

     "Eep!" Chibi-Naga said.

                                   *****

Bugrom Fortress, El Hazard
All-Powerful Jinnai Year 1

     Lina fell to the floor, gasping for breath and curled up into a fetal
ball.  She was so cold, and the hollow sensation in her gut was getting
worse.  Shakily raising her head, she looked around.

     The room she was in resembled some sort of cave, with illumination
coming from various glowing sections of the wall.  It was dank and cold,
and the floor felt slightly yielding.  Honeycomb-patterns predominated,
making Lina think of a beehive.

     In the center of the room was a large, teardrop structure.  It had a
series of bars set in the honeycomb pattern and help an unconscious woman
inside it.  There were three other people in the room, two boys in suit
coats and ties (one also appeared to be wearing something furry), and one
tall, statuesque woman with pale skin and blue hair.  The woman was holding
a large ornamental staff."

     "Farewell, Mizuhara," the dark-haired boy said.  "You were a worthy
adversary.  I will never forget you."  He paused, placing his hand on his
chest... then he pointed a finger at the other boy and cackled maniacally.
"Now BLOW HIM AWAY, IFURITA!"

     The woman raised her staff and pointed one end of it at the brown-
haired boy.  Lina felt she should do something, but the multiple
dimensional jumps had left her too weak to move.  The world swum before her
eyes briefly but she managed, with great effort, to refocus on the three.
They were all staring at each other, none of them making a move.

     "I... must... obey," the woman (Ifurita?) grated out, obviously
against her will.  "He is the Master of the Power Key Staff."  Saying that,
she leveled her staff at the boy again.

     "No one's making you," the brown-haired boy said.  It made no
difference.  The woman fired a powerful bolt of energy--

     --and missed.  Somehow, the boy dodged and leaped at the woman.  His
hand closed over the end of her staff... and the two of them began to glow.

     "What's happening?" the dark-haired boy screamed, though no one seemed
to be listening, "I am Jinnai the All-Powerful!  It is my destiny to
conquer El Hazard!"  He laughed madly.

     Lina listened, feeling sick and not just from her condition.  She had
never seen anyone so consumed with the idea of power.  He had even less
redeeming qualities than Naga.  <The laughs are similar, I wonder if they
are related,> Lina thought.

     The glow around the other two faded.  "The obedience circuit has been
destroyed.  You're free, Ifurita!" the boy said.

     Ifurita held her trembling hands up to her face.

     "NO!  She's MINE!" the maniac cried, running up to the two.  Ifurita
let loose a powerful backhand, sending Jinnai flying across the room.

     "You're right... I AM free," Ifurita said, wonderingly.

     More people ran into the room, but Lina's consciousness was fading
fast.  "Silver Crystal," she croaked.  "Take me to someone who can heal
me...."

     Always eager to please, the Silver Crystal transported them both out
of the fortress just as Ifurita and the others blew themselves a way out.

                                   *****

The Abode of the Great and Powerful Skeeve
Tea Time

     "Terrible sorry about that," Chumley the Troll said while sipping at
his tea.  "Big Crunch is a bit of a boor, but terribly effective at getting
rid of time-wasters."  The troll had been the one to greet the three at the
door, acting like the stereotypical troll.  When not acting, however, he
was very polite and intelligent.

     Skeeve, the Great and Powerful, was sitting and considering what they
had told him.  He was far younger than they would have guessed.  Athena
even went so far as to call him "scrumptious."  His demeanor was all
business, however.

     "I wish I could help you, ladies," he said, "but I can't.  I'm sorry."

     "If it's a matter of fee..." Sheila began.

     "Well, for the right price..." the green and scaly being, a Per-VECT
named Aahz, they had learned, began.

     "No, Aahz," Skeeve said, stopping his partner.  "The problem is,
ladies," he continued, "is that we're not very skilled at tracking people
through dimensions.  I had a hard enough time finding Aahz here when I KNEW
what dimension he went to."

     "Kid..." Aahz rumbled threateningly.

     "But," Skeeve continued, "I can help you a little."  He handed a wand-
shaped object to them.  "This is a D-hopper.  It will allow you to travel
through dimensions.  I don't know which dimension is your home or where
your friend might be, but I can give you the ability to look for her
yourself."

     "Kid, that's not a cheap toy.  D-hoppers are rare--"

     "We'll pay for it," Sheila said.

     "--but not irreplaceable," Aahz said without a pause.

     "No, just bring it back when you're through... wait a second...."
Skeeve looked thoughtful.  "There IS one person who might be able to help
you."

     "Who?" Chibi-Naga asked.

     "Vilhelm, the Dispatcher."

     "Of course," Chumley said.  "He could find her."

     "Who?" Sheila asked.

     "His official title is the 'Dispatcher of Nightmares.'  If your friend
dreams, he can find her."

     "Well, where is he?"

     "That's the easy part," Skeeve said, leading them back to the waiting
room and pulling aside a tapestry to show a heavily boarded up door.
"Right through here."

     "Methinks I hath a bad feeling about this," Athena said.

                                   *****

Crystal Tokyo
The Rather Distant Future, Next Sunday AD.

     "--and that, listeners, is how I talked Sailor Pluto into letting me
have that computer link back to the place and time I originally came from,"
Crystal Tokyo's best -- well, ONLY -- disk jockey explained into the mike
while his beloved wife looked on with a bemused expression.

     The Thirty-First century had been good to Sean Gaffney-Tomoe.  He had
someone who loved him unconditionally (and vice versa), a job he loved
doing, and a skeptical-yet-positive worldview.  The restoration of his link
back to the world he'd originally come from was good -- he had no intention
of ever returning there, but it was nice to be able to let the friends he'd
left behind know that he was still alive, and catch up with them.

     "And so, without further ado, my lovely wife Hotaru will be reading
tales of other worlds' Sailor Senshi penned by people there, beginning with
Ken Wolfe's masterpiece, `Secrets'.  Whenever you're ready," Sean
concluded, turning the mike over to Hotaru Tomoe-Gaffney.

     Hotaru drew a deep breath, and began to read from the several inches
thick hardcopy that Sean had printed off earlier that day.  Before she got
more than a few words into it, however, she broke off, and jerked her head
around to stare at the hole in the space-time continuum that opened up
behind them.

     Sean spun around the instant after his wife did, and caught a glimpse
of the portal as it began to close.  His one coherent thought was a vague
curse on a certain group of self-insertion critics, and then he realized
that the portal was actually shutting instead of dragging them into it.  He
breathed a sigh of relief, even as Hotaru jumped up and ran over to kneel
down beside the still, pale form of the one it had deposited on the studio
floor.

     He let out a squawk at the sight of the red-haired girl -- for a
moment he wondered she was the Dirty Pair Flash version of Kei, or possibly
the swords-and-sorcery lookalike for Kei that had inspired Mathews' "The
Game Eternal" --, before he realized that the mike was still on.  Turning
back, he said, "Sorry, folks, something's come up... we'll be back in a
bit, but for now, why not lose yourself in a garden of sound?"  He jammed a
tape, any tape, into the player -- as it happened, the song cued was
Kansas' "Wayward Son", which would have increased Sean's apprehensions had
he known of it (and make him ill since Kansas was far from his favorite
group.)

     Meanwhile, Hotaru was drawing on her healing powers to determine what
was wrong with the person who'd fallen in on them.  Generally, her healing
powers worked in an almost shamanistic way.  She briefly obtained a higher
level of consciousness in which she perceived injuries, infections, or
diseases as afflictions to the spirit, instead of the body.  Then she used
her other powers to eliminate them, either by invoking her destructive
capability against them, or occasionally by converting the "affliction"
into a "benefit"; as Sean had noted, converting pain into joy.

     The problem with this patient, however, was that she had entirely too
MUCH joy.

     Hotaru let out a low whistle as she saw how the bright tendrils of the
artifact that the woman clutched in her hand had extended throughout her
"body" and were now very close to suffocating her of vital energy.  The
problem was that if Hotaru tried to destroy the tendrils, she would only be
delaying their eventual regrowth, and she couldn't be sure that she
wouldn't do more damage than good.  On the other hand, converting the sheer
amount of positive energy that this woman was filled with to its opposite
would CERTAINLY kill her.

     Stymied, she returned to the real world to examine the artifact in
order to get an idea whether or not destroying it as the source of the
disease would be feasible...

     ...and let out an "Ack" as she saw the Silver Crystal clenched in the
woman's hot little hand.

     "That's BAD, isn't it?" Sean asked as he saw what his wife was staring
at.

     "Extraordinarily bad," Hotaru agreed.  She stood and transformed to
Sailor Saturn in a pulse of light.  "I've got to take her to the Queen... I
think she might know more than I do about how to deal with this."  <I
hope,> she added silently.

     Scooping Lina under her arm, Hotaru teleported away, leaving her
anxious husband behind.  Sean turned back to his mike, and stared at it for
a second before turning it back on again.  The song playing as he did so
was a little ditty by the Muppets, from "The Muppets Take Manhattan".

     "Together again..." came Miss Piggy's voice.

     Sean quickly shut off the tape.  <Who put THAT in the machine?  That's
the last time I let Setsuna visit the studio.>  Turning to the mike, he
said, in his most reassuring voice, "Folks, you're never gonna believe this
one, but ..."

     They didn't.

                                   *****

The Bazaar, Deva
Look, go buy a watch and stop bothering me.

     "... and that's the setting for Deva, so that you can come back here
after you find your friend," Skeeve explained to Sheila, who was holding
onto the D-Hopper while Aahz irritatedly pried at the boards over the door
to Limbo that he had put up after their first trip there.

     Sheila nodded.  "Right.  I hope that this won't take too long -- say,
time doesn't pass oddly in this Limbo place than it does here, does it?"

     Skeeve opened his mouth to confidently answer no, when he remembered
that he couldn't remember much of his second journey to Limbo, so he
couldn't answer that definitely.  The first time, it hadn't seemed as
though they spent more or less time in Limbo than had passed on Deva, but
it was hard to be completely sure here, where no one was willing to give
anyone else the time of day -- at least for free.

     So instead he confidently answered, "I don't think so, no."

     Sheila nodded again, and tried hard not to think about the possibility
of time passing at a rapid rate back home while she worked at this.
"Regardless of whether this works, Mr. Skeeve, you and your associates have
the gratitude of Crystal Tokyo for your efforts."

     "And of the Moon Kingdom as well," Athena interjected.

     "Uh, not to be a pain or anything --" Aahz interjected.

     "That WOULD be a first," Chumley muttered, looking off in another
direction.

     "-- but gratitude puts no beans on the table," Aahz continued, his
lips curling in what was either a snarl or a smile.

     Sheila produced her credit card.

     Aahz's reaction was, in Athena's words, "MOST satisfactory".

     A few minutes later, the trio -- Sheila, Athena, and Chibi-Naga --
stepped through the door into Limbo.  It was dark, but that was the status
quo there.  They proceeded down the road to the town of Blut, being
extremely careful to avoid encountering any of the vampiric residents of
the dimension.  This was more out of a desire to avoid causing a panic --
humans having an EXTREMELY bad reputation in this neck of the multiverse --
than out of any fear.  Athena was slightly concerned by Skeeve's warning
that magical energies were at a premium in this dimension.

     Blut put images of the architecture of the city of Atlantis in
Athena's mind -- the eidolons of fearsome creatures perching on rooftops,
for example.  The many bats that infested the town's rooftops spooked Naga,
who didn't realize that they were to the local ecology what pigeons were to
a human city.  In Sheila's case, the town reminded her of images from
movies that had been old in her youth, films that she'd watched on
Hallowe'ens long past.

     They came at last to the building that Skeeve had identified as the
office of the Dispatcher, and mounted the stairs.  Sheila was startled for
a moment by the sheer number of television screens that adorned the walls
of the office, then shrugged it off.  To the others, it was even more
startling, since visual communications were almost unknown in their worlds.

     Vilhelm, the Dispatcher of Nightmares, was a short, stocky man with
surprisingly pink cheeks for a vampire, who positively exuded friendliness
as he hopped out of the chair of his desk, and crossed the floor to them.
"Hi there Vilhelm's the name Your problem is my problem Don't sit down
Standing problems I solve for free Sitting problems I charge for Reasonable
rates just a percentage off the top What can I do for you?" he said,
shaking hands with each of them once.

     "Ah... Skeeve sent us --" Sheila began.

     "Oh," Vilhelm said, blinking.  "Then I should probably drop the
Micromachine guy act," he continued at a more leisurely pace.

     "I beg your pardon?" Athena asked.

     "Never mind.  Still, what can I do for you?  If Skeeve referred you to
me, it's probably a dimensional thing, right?"

     "Right.  We were told that you act as a kind of missing person's
bureau?" Sheila inquired.

     "That's correct," Vilhelm nodded.  "Since pretty much every nightmare
in the multiverse comes through here on its way to it's intended recipient,
I can get a line on darn near everyone... IF you have an idea about what
they'd have a nightmare about."

     Sheila looked at Naga.  "Hey, Naga, what d'you think Lina would have a
nightmare about?"

     "Oh, definitely about lothing power," Naga answered confidently.  
Sheila turned to convey that answer to Vilhelm, translating if necessary,
when Naga continued.  "And THEN realizing the awful truth, that even if she
had all her power, she'd THTILL be inferior to me in the magic department.
Oh, and all her boyfriendth only having any interetht in her tho that they
can get clothe to me, and going to a boutique and being told that the only
undergarmentth they have in her thize are for little children, whiltht I
get oneth appropriate to my --"

     "Woman, about yay high, bust out to here, that color hair, REALLY
annoying laugh," Sheila rattled off to Vilhelm.

     "Hey, I remember that one!" Vilhelm exclaimed.

     "-- huge -- HEY!"

     Athena turned away to hide her amused smile at Sheila-chan's easy
humiliation of the annoying sorceress -- and froze in her tracks as she
stared at a screen on which Sheila was in clear sight.

     The world fell away as she watched.  Black-clad Sheila was in a large
building that looked like it served some religious purpose, standing before
an open coffin, in which lay a woman dressed in white with long, purple-
black hair, her eyes closed forever in death.  Tears were rolling down
Sheila's face.  Suddenly, there was a blade in her hand, and she unsheathed
it slowly, examining the edge with a keen eye.  Behind her, a duplicate of
the woman in the coffin appeared, screaming at her, shaking her head,
unheeded.  Sheila lifted the sword, its point aiming toward her own heart,
and then --

     The picture changed, and there was a giant flaming wombat pursuing a
much smaller human being across the screen.  Shaken, Athena turned away.

     "-- that would be on display 115Z, right now," Vilhelm was saying,
directing Sheila and Naga's attention to a screen not far from where Athena
was standing.  The image was extremely unclear -- bursts of static made it
almost unwatchable.  The Dispatcher frowned.  "Huh.  She's in SOME kind of
nightmare, but it's almost as though she's slipping in and out of
consciousness --"

     "That's too likely by half!" Sheila interrupted.  "Can you get a fix
on where she is now?"

     Vilhelm returned his attention to the screen and keyboard he was
working on.  "Yes indeed!"  He rattled off a sequence of coordinates, and
Sheila started modifying the controls of the D-Jumper, gesturing for Athena
and Naga to hold onto her.  A few seconds later, they vanished in a burst
of light.

     "Good luck," Vilhelm said belatedly, suddenly remembering the
prohibitions against dimensionally travelling into THAT particular
dimension.

                                   *****

Elsewhere.
Elsewhen.

     "Amora."

     "Perse."

     "It has begun at last, hasn't it?"

     "It has indeed."

     "Any regrets?"

     "None I can't handle."

     "I bet you guys thought I wasn't gonna find you, didn't you?!"

     A long silence ensued.

     "Hello, Setsuna," two voices chorused.

     "I have one regret, Amora."

     "I believe I have the same one."

     "Beeeedah!"

                                   *****

Crystal Tokyo.
A few minutes after you left.

     "... and then this girl with red hair drops out of nowhere!  Of
course, this isn't the sort of thing that happens every day."

     The trio materialized behind him.

     Sean covered the mike momentarily.  "Whoever is writing this is a
bloody sadist," he noted for the record, then turned to greet the new
arrivals.  He couldn't fail to recognize Sailor Mercury -- although there
was something very, very different about the way that this version of her
STOOD.  The young girl didn't look at all familiar... well, perhaps a BIT
like Hotaru had when she was little.  The redhead--

     He frowned.  She looked familiar, but he couldn't tell what it was
about her that made him think so.

     "Excuse me," Sheila asked quickly.  "did a carrot haired girl carrying
a very bright crystal in her hand appear here recently?"

     "Uh... yeah.  My wife took her to the palace for the Queen to heal
her," he said eloquently.

     "Great, thanks, come on Athena --"

     "Queen Serenity, that is," he added just before they dashed out the
door.

     Athena paused.  "Sheila-chan, have we returned to thy homeworld?  Thou
didst confide that there is a Senshi Mercury there who greatly resembles
me; is there also a Queen there akin to mine own monarch?"

     <SHEILA?  As in -- oh boy,> thought Sean.  The red hair and the
ponytail SHOULD have tipped him off....

     "Uh," Sheila temporized, looking around for any clue that they were in
Crystal Tokyo.  There wasn't a lot to go on.  She finally rounded on the
man.  "Listen, does the name Sheila Tenkai sound at ALL familiar?" she
asked.  She wasn't FAMOUS, but she did have a certain public recognition.

     Sean smiled weakly.  " You wouldn't be Sheila Tenkai, daughter of Har-
-er, ERICA Ten'ou and Michelle Kaioh, would you?"  <Ed handles this SO much
better,> he thought irritatedly.

     "Yes," she replied.  <This is home... and this guy is REALLY well
informed!>  "Great, thanks!"

     "Uh!" Sean interrupted.  "But --"

     "Yes?" Sheila replied, anxiously.  <Oh, great, he's that well informed
because it's been a thousand years and I'm part of elementary history or
something!>

     Sean sighed, and decided to come clean.  "I only know about you
because I read the stories that you first appeared in."

     That was unexpected.

                                   *****

     Being a Sailor Senshi has its ups and downs.  The downs largely
consist of having to fight every would-be world conqueror with a sack full
of energy-draining monsters, a uniform that is just a tad drafty, and no
time off.  The ups--well, at least you can drop in on the ruler of Crystal
Tokyo unannounced... oh, and Makoto's cooking.  Definite plus.

     So, Neo-Queen Serenity didn't even bat an eye when Sailor Saturn
appeared in her throne room carrying an unconscious sorceress.

     "This audience is at an end," she announced to her court, dismissing
it with a wave as she walked over to her Senshi.  There were mutters, but
everyone filed out obediently.  (This is Crystal Tokyo, did you expect
anything different?)

     "Hotaru-chan?" Serenity asked.

     "We have a problem, my Queen," Sailor Saturn said, turning Lina's hand
so the Queen could see the Silver Crystal she held.

     That DID raise an eyebrow.

                                   *****

     "Oh, GREAT.  My entire life is out there for an entire universe to
read, and YOU are making sure another universe gets to hear about it?"

     Sean began to sweat.  He was no newbie to fictional universes
(considering he lived in what he had considered one and was married to
someone he had first seen animated) but this little nuance was a new one on
him.  It was not an entirely comfortable nuance, as Sheila had a TIGHT grip
on his shirt and the expression on her face suggested that her hands might
go for his throat next.

     "I'm sorry!" he gasped.  "I didn't think it'd hurt--urk!"

     "HOW MUCH DO THEY KNOW?!"

     "Um, well, your entire history, your relationship with Priss--"  <Oh,
THAT is not a pleasant look,> he babbled to himself as Sheila's face
contorted even further in rage.  Then he saw that the ON THE AIR light was
still burning on his panel.  "--and everything you've said since you
arrived."

     That made Sheila let go of his shirt, at least.  The Sailor Mercury
who had appeared with Sheila laid a comforting hand on the redhead's
shoulder as the daughter of Uranus and Neptune began to sob.

     Sheila hated every tear that ran down her face, but she couldn't stop
them.  The stress of her sudden adventure, not knowing whether she would
ever see home again, the old wounds of her time with Priss, and now the
added embarrassment of humiliating herself over the airwaves to an entire
city.  (She would have felt better had she known the true size of Sean's
listening audience.)

     Then the felt strong arms wrap around her and looked up to see
Athena's sympathetic face.  "It is all right," the Senshi of Ice murmured,
stroking Sheila's hair gently.  "Rest now," she said, giving Sheila a
gentle peck on the forehead.  At the same time, she worked a little magic,
putting Sheila to sleep.  It would only last a few minutes, but it would
give the girl time to recover her composure.

     "Um, time for some more music, folks," Sean said finally to break the
silence.  Jabbing a button at random, he winced as the strains of "As Time
Goes By" (re-mastered from Casablanca) filled the airwaves.  <Definitely
the last time I let Setsuna visit.>

     "So, what's your story?" he asked the Mercury before him.

     "I am Senshi Mercury of the Silver Millennium," Athena said.  "You,
sir, hath caused my friend grievous harm--"

     "Athena!" Sean said, snapping his fingers.  "Wow, Hosmer and Biles
would give a lot to be here."

     "And how doth thou knowest my name?" Athena said, her eyes narrowing.
"Hath tales of mine exploits been bandied about by thee as well?"

     <Same mistake twice in as many minutes,> Sean thought.  <When Hotaru
gets back, she's welcome to whack me on the head with her Glaive... if
there's anything LEFT of me.>

     Fortunately, any further development along those lines was forestalled
by ANOTHER flash of light.  For the third time that day (setting a record
that Sean hoped never to exceed) people appeared out of thin air.

     <At least they've all been beautiful girls,> Sean thought, then
mentally whapped himself for being a hentai.

     The newcomers appeared to be Sailors Uranus and Neptune, but Sean
wasn't making any more assumptions.  Off hand, he tried to remember any
embarrassing stories about them that he might have broadcast.

     "Sean, is it really her?" Neptune asked.

     Sean let out a sigh of relief.  At least these people were somebody he
knew.

                                   *****

     "TWO Crystals?" Sailor Saturn exclaimed.

     "I am at a loss to explain it," Queen Serenity said, "but I have my
Crystal here."  She held up the small gem.  It was in all ways identical to
the Crystal being held by the unconscious sorceress.

     They had moved to one of the many guest bedrooms in the Palace and
were examining Lina.  The time-lost sorceress was wracked alternatively by
fever dreams and chills.  Sailor Saturn could see her life force ebbing
away and knew they had to do something soon.

     "We don't have much time left, my Queen."

     Queen Serenity nodded.  "I will use my Crystal to support her life as
you purge the link she has with her Crystal.  Once we have separated her
from it, we will deal with the question of how she came here."

     Sailor Saturn nodded and placed her hands on Lina's sweaty brow.  She
nodded to Queen Serenity when she was ready.

     Raising the Silver Crystal, Queen Serenity invoked its power.

     No one considered that an attempt to use the power of the Silver
Crystal on itself was a bad idea.

     A mighty bolt of power suddenly arced from Serenity's crystal to
Lina's.  With a cry, Queen Serenity was blown backwards, her Crystal
floating in the air above the bed.  Sailor Saturn gritted her teeth against
the backwash of energy that tore around the room in silver eddies and tried
to keep Lina alive.

     Then Lina's eyes flew open.  They SEETHED with the silver light of the
Crystal and Sailor Saturn had a moment of stark fear before she was flung
away.  She slid across the tile floor and hit the far wall hard.

     "Well, well, well," Lina said, sitting up.  She looked at the Crystal
in her hand and then at the one floating overhead.  She held out her free
hand and Serenity's crystal floated obediently into her grasp.  "It seems
that everywhere I go, people try to take my precious from me."

     "Stop!  You do not know what you are doing to yourself!" Serenity
yelled.

     "Oh, no," Lina crooned.  "It's all very clear now."  She held the two
Crystals up to her face, their silver light illuminating her features
eerily.  "I called the Crystal the key to the universe, but it's more than
that.  It's the key to the ultimate power in the universe... and that power
will be MINE!"

     "No human can possess the power you are talking about!  Please, stop
before it is too late."  Serenity was openly pleading with Lina, utterly
unconcerned with how it looked for a Queen to beg.  A woman's soul hung in
the balance and that made all other considerations moot.

     For one moment, Lina's expression wavered.  She looked at Serenity.
All-too-human terror filled her eyes, then it faded.  "You're right, no
human can," Lina said softly.  "But a GODDESS is another story all
together!"  She laughed insanely.  "But first, to put my preciouses
somewhere safe."

     Lina closed her eyes and held the two Crystals to her chest.  Serenity
cried out for her to stop as the Crystals were absorbed into the
sorceress's flesh, but it was too late.  When Lina open her eyes again, her
eyes had changed.  Instead of pupil, iris, and white, there was just multi-
faceted crystal.

     "And now, I go to claim my destiny," Lina said, her voice now filled
with harmonics of barely contained power.

     "Not without going through me," said a voice.  Lina and Queen Serenity
looked toward it and saw Sailor Saturn, her Silence Glaive leveled at
Lina's chest.

     "As you wish," Lina said, gathering her power.

                                   *****

     Sheila slowly came back to consciousness.  She could hear voices, but
it was too much effort to try and decipher them.  She wanted to tell them
to shut up and let her sleep, but that was too much effort, too.  Much
against her will, she came back to the light.

     "Feeling better?" asked an unfamiliar voice.

     "Ask me once I figure out what crawled inside my mouth and died,"
Sheila groaned.  She felt gummy and dehydrated at the same time.  The skin
of her cheeks was tight with dried tears.  She opened her eyes.

     A blonde with short hair was staring intently into her face.  The next
thing that registered was that the blonde was wearing the uniform of a
Sailor Senshi.  An impossible uniform.

     Sheila's eyes widened and she sat up with a start.  Another
impossibility, this one with blue-green hair that flowed over her shoulders
like sea foam, joined the first.  "How are you feeling, Sheila?" the second
one asked.

     "No.  This can't be.  No."  Sheila's mental state defied simple labels
like "incoherent" but it would do.

     "Well, she's awake at least," Sailor Uranus said wryly.

     Then the two Sailors were surprised by a sudden hug that threatened to
crush all the air out of their lungs.

     Sheila was beyond words.  She had seen pictures of them, studied them,
asked numerous questions of her mother and her aunts, and collected
ANYTHING that had belonged to her biological parents that had survived to
Crystal Tokyo.  It wasn't much, but the Sailors had tried to save something
for her to remember them by: Michelle's violin, a tape of a duet she and
Erica had played together, a frayed picture of Michelle hugging Erica as
the latter accepted a trophy for first place in a race.  It was not much,
yet it was infinitely precious to Sheila.

     "I never believed... oh, I am so happy there IS a Goddess!" she
babbled... before beginning to wonder why Heaven looked like the backroom
of a messy radio station and why she was lying on a cot.

     She let go of the Sailors (who were glad to get some air back into
their lungs.)  "I'm not dead, am I?"

     "Nope," Sailor Uranus said.

     "And you're not my parents."  It wasn't a question.

     "In a way we are," Sailor Neptune said, "but no, we're not the ones
who brought you into your world."

     Sheila felt the tears gathering in her eyes again but forced them down
hard.  She took a deep breath.  "Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, I am sorry.
I thought--"

     "We know," Sailor Neptune said.  "That is one reason we wanted to see
you."  She smiled, tears glittering in her own eyes.  "You see, we just had
a child of our own, almost a year ago."  She produced a photo from her
inter-dimensional pocket of an adorable toddler.  "Her name is Yurika
Sheila Ten'ou-Kaioh."

     Sheila's breath caught.  "Yurika SHEILA?"

     Sailor Uranus nodded.  "Named after you.  Sean showed us your stories
and--"

     "You... you know--" Sheila blushed horribly.  "I-I don't--" she
stuttered.  Finally, she bowed low.  "Gomen nasai!"

     "Sorry?  What for?" Sailor Neptune asked.

     "For... for a lot of things," Sheila said.  "For being... me."

     "Don't give me that crap," Sailor Uranus snarled.  "You have nothing
to be ashamed of, girl."

     "We came here because we hope to see a glimmer of who OUR daughter
might become in you," Sailor Neptune said.  "And we want to tell you that
your parents would have been very proud of you, too."

     "How... how did you know... how I felt?" Sheila stammered.

     "I'm a mother now, we know these things," Sailor Neptune said with a
smile.

     "If you ask me, that Priss bitch was a fool," Sailor Uranus added.
"And if I ever find that author of yours...."  She pounded one fist into
her open palm.  "We'll see if ANYONE can put him back together again."  She
smiled nastily.

     The lights flickered.

     All three of them looked up in alarm.  In a normal city, a flickering
light wouldn't rate much, but this was Crystal Tokyo.  Such things just
didn't happen.

     Then the lights went out.

     Emergency lighting came on dimly and the three of them ran out into
the radio station proper.  "What's going on?" Sailor Uranus asked.

     "I don't know!" Sean snapped, spinning a dial on his board.  "One
moment, everything was fine, the next the POLICE BAND was going crazy.
It's like everything went wrong at once.  Riots, theft, muggings,
telemarketing... it's like someone declared open season on utopia."

     A sharp SNAP filled the air.  Looking out the window, they all stared
in horror as one of the crystalline sides of a building across the street
broke off and plunged to the ground below.

     "We have to get to the Queen, now!" Sailor Uranus snapped.

     "Methinks that whate'er the cause of this disaster, Lina is at the
heart of it," Athena said.

     "Yeah, it'th her thtyle.  Chaoth, math dethtruction, the workth!"
Chibi-Naga added.

     "Hotaru!" Sean said.  "She's with that lunatic!"

     "Okay, okay!" Sailor Uranus snapped.  "You can all come.  Just grab
hold of us!"

     They vanished in a burst of light.

                                   *****

     The Glaive fell slowly from her nerveless hands.  It hit the floor,
bounced slightly, and then clattered to a halt.  Sailor Saturn would have
joined it, but the grip of the power mad sorceress on her throat kept her
upright.

     "Amusing," Lina said, her crystal eyes flashing as she grinned.  "Of
all the Senshi, you posed the greatest threat... and you didn't even cause
me to break a sweat."

     Saturn slowly lifted her head and, with great deliberation, spat in
Lina's face.

     The grip on Sailor Saturn's throat tightened like a vise for a second,
then Lina forced her hand to relax.  "Now, now, that wasn't very nice," she
said cheerfully.  The spit on her cheek sizzled and vanished.  "I should be
VERY angry with you for that, but a goddess should be merciful, right?"
Lina shook Sailor Saturn so her head nodded.  "I'm SO glad you agree.  So,
let me give you a gift..."

     Sailor Saturn's uniform flickered, then dissolved into ribbons of
white and black, leaving Hotaru Gaffney-Tomoe naked in Lina's grip.  The
ribbons streamed into Lina's chest, absorbed like the Silver Crystals had
been.

     "Mm-mm good," Lina said as she flung Hotaru to the floor.  She then
held out her hand and the Silence Glaive flew into her grasp.  "Thank you,
Sailor Saturn.  Your power will give me the time I need for my Ascension.
Now, it's time for me to leave."  Holding the Glaive over her head, Lina
vanished in a burst of silver light.

     Then another burst of light filled the room and six people (two
Sailors, one Senshi, one DJ, one Historian, and one brat) appeared.

     "Hotaru!" Sean yelled, seeing his wife's still form.  He ran over to
her, ahead of all the others, and touched her shoulder gently, careful not
to aggravate any injuries.  "Hotaru," he whispered.

     "S-Sean?" Hotaru gasped.  "I tried... s-she..."

     "Where is the Queen, Hotaru?" Sailor Uranus snapped.  "What happened
to the Queen?"

     Hotaru reached out a trembling hand and pointed.  Standing by the door
to the room was a giant crystal.  Inside it, frozen with her arms raised
high and a pleading look on her face, was Serenity.

                                   *****

Tokyo-3
December 8, 2014

     "Haaaaapppy BIRTH-day... to me... happppy birth-DAY to... me... happy
birth... day... Misa--"

     "Give me your Crystal at once, and you will not be injured."

     Katsuragi Misato, Head of the Department of Strategy and Tactics of
the secret agency known as NERV, twenty eight years old, and currently
plastered, turned around to gently berate the one who had interrupted her
rendition of the birthday song.  "Whyfuckyougoanddothat --" she began, and
then the one who had done so registered.

     Short, with extremely pale skin.  Vivid red hair.  Crystalline eyes.
Holding a glaive in her arms.

     Misato began to laugh.

     This was evidently not the reaction that Lina had been expecting.
"Why are you laughing at me?" she demanded.

     "...Talk about your hallucinations.  I mean, wow!  Okay, the skin is
definitely Rei... the hair has Asuka written all over it.  And the glaive
is... hey!  I know where I --"

     "I am not a hallucination!  Give me the Crystal, or you will die a
horrible death, Serenity!"

     "'Serenity'?" Misato asked cheerfully.  "Oy, have you got the wrong
person..."

     Lina examined the woman before her in closer detail, doing a complete
genetic scan, snarling at the waste of time and power.  This was, beyond
any doubt, Serenity -- or Usagi, Serena, Bunny, or any of a half-thousand
other names she had been known as on various alternate timelines -- but she
showed no evidence of the magic of the Moon Kingdom.  An oddity of the
timelines, perhaps.  It didn't matter.  Lina had wasted her time coming to
this dimension.  The appropriate thing to do would be to annihilate her and
get on with it.

     She snorted, instead, and turned away.  "You're pathetic.  You're not
worth my time."

     "Waaaah," Misato 'sobbed' mockingly.  "My hallucination is being mean
to me..."

     Lina began to make preparations for her next dimensional jump,
absently gesturing with the Silence Glaive as she did so.  The magic was
harder to call in this place than it had been in others that she'd visited.

     Finally, Misato let out a grin as she followed Lina's motions with her
eyes.  "Yep! That's who I though you looked like.  That girl... in that TV
series.  Wossname.  El-Hazard ..."

     The name didn't register with Lina.  The portal opened.

     "Ifurita," Misato said, finally remembering the name.

     THAT name, on the other hand, DID, and Lina turned around to stare at
her just as the dimensional shift took her.

     "Weee," Misato said to herself, "that was trippy.  Maybe I've had
enough for tonight."

     A few seconds passed.

     "Nah," she answered herself, and tilted back another Yebisu.

                                   *****

Crystal Tokyo
A little bit later...

     Sailor Mars, or as she had once been known, Hino Rei, was annoyed.
This, in and of itself, was not surprising.  The individual to whom she was
speaking had a unique ability to make her fly off the handle more than any
other living being.

     The King of Crystal Tokyo and the Crown Princess Usagi were standing
in front of the crystal that contained the frozen form of their respective
wife and mother, pressing against it as if by will alone they could free
her from it.  Sailor Mercury -- the real one -- was examining the structure
of the crystal with a frightened frown on her face.  Sailors Venus,
Jupiter, and the Asteroid Senshi were out in the streets of Crystal Tokyo,
trying to keep things from falling apart even more than they had.  Uranus
was staring at the crystal with almost as much anxiety on her features as
there was on King Endymion's, while Neptune was keeping an eye on the red-
haired girl that she had introduced to the others as her daughter from
another universe.  Sheila, if that was in fact her name, was standing apart
from the rest with a haunted expression on her face.  Near her was the
alternate version of Mercury, who seemed to be going out of her way to
avoid the real one.  If Mars had had time to think about it, this would
have made her EXTREMELY suspicious.

     At that point, however, Mars' attention was focused on Sean, who was
cradling the now-blanketed form of his wife as she trembled quietly.

     Because this was all HIS fault.

     "--and of course, you HAD to talk Pluto into giving you that uplink,
Gaffney," Mars ranted.  "Now, in addition to being a complete embarrassment
to the Palace with those bloody stories, your radio station has become a
magnet for invading weirdos from every alternate reality out there!
Dammit, Sean, this is --"

     "Leave him alone."

     Mars blinked.  In the thousand years of her life, she couldn't recall
ANYONE talking to her like that.  Her grandfather had cajoled, her Queen
had politely guided her in the correct way, but no one had ever simply
given her a blunt order in the way that Sheila Tenkai just had.

     "Excuse me?" she bit out.  "Who do you think you are, telling me what-
-"

     Sheila stopped her with a simple glare.  "Who do I think I am? I'll
tell you who I think I am."  She was silent for a long moment, then drew a
long, shuddering breath.  "I'm the one whose fault all of this is."

     Uranus jerked her head around.  As one, she and Neptune took a step
towards her.  "Sheila, that's not --" Neptune began.

     "Yes, it is.  I just realized it.  If I hadn't messed up Lina's spell,
we wouldn't have been thrown through the dimensions, and Athena wouldn't
have been drawn into the stream with us, and she wouldn't have had the
Silver Crystal with her --"

     Athena opened her mouth to voice an objection to that, but Sheila kept
on talking, her voice beginning to take a manic note.  "--and Lina wouldn't
have BOUND herself to the Crystal, and she wouldn't have been HERE, and she
wouldn't have gone NUTS, and this CITY wouldn't be falling apart, and your
Queen wouldn't be in that crystal, and Lina wouldn't be out in the universe
trying to become a GOD!!  DAMMIT ALL TO HELL, IT'S ALL MY FAULT!"  Sheila
screamed the last.

     It was a day for things to happen to Mars that had never happened
before, as she found herself backing down beneath the shame and guilt that
were written all over Sheila's eyes.

     Neptune, on the other hand, took three quick steps forward, seized
Sheila by the shoulders, and began to shake her.  "Stop it!" Kaioh Michiru
said in an angry tone.  "Stop it right now!  NOBODY blames you for what
happened!  It was NOT your fault!"

     "Yes it was."

     The voice came from behind her, and Neptune whirled, her eyes full of
almost psychopathic anger.  "NO IT--!"  She broke off as she saw whom she
was addressing.

     Pluto was standing a few feet away.  She was giving Sheila a very hard
stare, with a small amount for Neptune as well.  It was possibly the
grimmest they'd ever seen the teenaged reincarnation of their old friend.
"You're quite right, Ms. Tenkai.  Everything that has happened since you
decided to take matters into your own hands in Lina's laboratory is your
fault."

     "That is unfair!" Athena suddenly protested.  She recognized the garb
of the Senshi Pluto, but the current wearer bore little if any resemblance
to the ancient and wearily wise Senshi that Athena remembered.  "No small
portion of the blame must descend to myself and to mine Elder! Were it not
for the experiment that we conducted, the worlds would not now be in such
peril!  It is unjust to lay all the blame at Sheila-chan's door!"

     It was at that point that a second Pluto stepped out of thin air to
stand beside the younger Pluto.  This one looked exactly identical to the
Senshi of Athena's memories and to the Pluto who had died in the war with
the Black Moon, whom most of those had known for much of their lives.
"And what if I were to say, Athena of the House of Vulcan, that your Elder
had been acting under orders I had given long ago about what was to be
done in the event that things occurred as they did?" she asked calmly.

     Athena swallowed involuntarily.  "What of it?" she answered.  "We are
not fashioned of Vulcan clockwork, to move only according to a pattern laid
down by some artisan.  My Elder chose to obey your commands, and I chose to
obey hers."

     "Could it be that your determination to demand that part of the blame
be assigned to you arises from your attraction to Tenkai?" Pluto asked
calmly.  Mercury froze where she was standing, and turned to look in
Athena's direction with GLACIAL slowness.

     "I ask again, what boots it?" Athena snapped, now feeling more anger
than fear.  "I respect and admire my dear friend for far more than her
beauty.  It is not JUST that she should bear the burden of shame for these
events alone!"

     "Athena..." Sheila whispered, looking at the blue-haired girl...  the
one that she would never be able to see as her Aunt Amy ever again.

     It was then that ANOTHER Pluto stepped out of thin air, to flank the
younger Pluto on the opposite side of where "Athena's" Pluto stood.  She
gave Athena a quick glance.  "The Martians of Sheila's dimension had a
saying: 'One should never be found in the company of one with whom you
would not be glad to die.'"  Then she focused on Sheila.  "It is one thing
to accept responsibility for something, and another thing entirely to work
to correct what was done, Sheila."

     "I'm willing to do whatever it takes."

     "Really?"

     There was nothing in Pluto's voice to warn her, but she knew somehow.
"I'M willing.  I won't sacrifice other people to accomplish my goals.  But
if it costs me my life, I WILL fix it."

     For the longest moment of Sheila's life, Pluto's face was absolutely
still.  Then a small, quiet smile crossed it.  "It is good," Pluto
murmured, "to see that my habit of underestimating my charges has
diminished a bit."

     The trio of Plutos exchanged a look, and then nodded as one.  "We'll
let you handle the details, Setsuna-chan," the one on the younger Pluto's
right said.

     "After all, this is your territory, Setsuna-chan," the Pluto to the
left concurred.

     "Ganbatte kudasai ne," they said in chorus, and vanished.

     'Setsuna-chan' stood very still, her eyes closed and her mouth
clenched.  Then she let out her breath in a long sigh, and looked up.
"Sheila and Athena.  The two of you are hereby charged to prevent Lina
Inverse from causing the death of whichever universe she's in at the time -
- and possibly a few others as well -- when she makes her bid for godhood."

     "Huh?" Sheila asked.

     "Lina realized the truth of what Serenity was telling her about the
limits of her ability to use the power she was seeking.  So she's going to
attempt to exceed those limits... by transcending mortality.  She will
become, in essence a goddess, if she is successful.

     "HOWEVER, if she is successful, the final burst of energy will
devastate whichever universe she is in at the time.  The possibility also
exists that the backlash from the destruction of the Silver Crystals when
she Ascends could destroy the universes from which they came."

     "You mean that it would destroy the Silver Millenium," Athena
whispered, for once not using her archaic mode of address.

     "And this world, as well."  And then Pluto did something very strange.
She walked over to where Sean was holding Hotaru tightly, and laid a hand
on the weakened Sailor's stomach.  "And that would be a terrible thing, ne,
Hotaru-chan?" she whispered.

     "Well, yeah, I mean everybody dying, that's a terrible thing, yes, I
think it would be safe to say --" Sean babbled.

     "Sean, grab a clue."

     A long, shuddering breath was drawn.  "I'm gonna be a Dad?" he asked
in a very small voice.

     Setsuna nodded.

     Sean fainted.

     "So," Pluto continued, turning back to look at Sheila and Athena.
"You two have to find a way to prevent Lina from Ascending.  And before you
ask, no, I DON'T know how you're going to go about doing something like
that.  I only know that it CAN be done.  It's for the two of you to find
out how."

     Sheila drew in a deep breath.  "Okay.  When do I --

     "-- WE --" Athena interjected.

     "-- start."

     "Immediately."  Pluto walked over, gesturing for Sheila to give her
the D-Hopper.  Once she had it, she did some things to it -- making
modifications that Sheila and Athena couldn't understand.  Satisfied, she
then handed it to Athena.  "Now it's the cross-time equivalent of a
bloodhound, with the scent of the odd harmonics between the Silver Crystals
of Earth-BH and Earth-SG.  Theoretically, Lina's acquisition of other
Crystals won't change those harmonics, though they may become fainter.  You
may consider that to be additional impetus to stop her from gaining other
Crystals," Pluto concluded.

     Sheila nodded, then turned to Uranus and Neptune.  They were gazing at
her with worry in their eyes.  Sheila opened her mouth to start saying
something several times.  "I'll make it right," she finally blurted.

     "Of course you will," Uranus said, her voice coming out oddly.

     Neptune, it seemed, had nothing to say.  But her eyes spoke volumes.

     Sheila nodded, only barely holding back the tears as she turned to
stand beside Athena.  She indicated to the Senshi to press the button, and
in a flash of light, they were gone.

     Perhaps it was only in Neptune's imagination that she heard the words
"Goodbye... mom."

     "HEY!  BATHTARDTH!  YOU FORGOT ME!"

                              TO BE CONTINUED

Jeff's Note:
     Did that whet your appetite? :)  And to think that this story started
out as a joke.  I had just written a story and sent it out to my pre-
readers, of which Chris is one.  He wrote his C&C as if Sheila were doing
it.  I wrote my response as if Athena wrote it, and she flirted shamelessly
with Sheila.  Then I jokingly told Chris we ought to write a story putting
the two characters together... and he went and wrote the first bit.  The
story snowballed from there.  I will honestly state that we had no
intention of making Lina a threat to the multiverse, but... it happened.
And now WE have to deal with it.
     Yes, I include you in that WE.  Here's our request.  We need SM
universes for Lina to rampage across, and we know that there are more than
a few of them out there. ;)  If you've written a SM story and want to
volunteer it, please write us!  We promise that your universe will be put
right at the end of the story.  Honest.  What, don't you trust us?  Hey,
was what we did to Sean so bad?

Chris' Note

	At last, my long-held dream of making Lina into the daemonic force
that I always knew she was has achieved fulfillment!  Hah!  Let suffering
bloom!  AHAAHAHAHHAAHHAAAAAHAHAA!

	Okay, that's a lie.  Blame Shawn Hagen for it.

	I can't really add much to Jeff's description of how this story
came to be, and where we want to go with it.  And I promise that we won't
wreck any worlds that we're given permission to use *too* badly.  And
besides, I'm going to be the victim of a revengefic one of these days --
and by participating, you could let your characters get a whack at me.  Of
course, you'd come in a few thousand whacks *after* Ukyou Kuonji got hers,
but ...

	As Jeff is not currently a member of the FFML, please remember to
CC: all commentary and criticism to his address: jhosmer@ix.netcom.com.

	This story is dedicated, with respect and best wishes, to Edward
Becerra.

	"Sailor Moon" was created by Naoko Takeuchi and brought to North
America by DiC and Mixx Communications.  "The Slayers" was created by
Hajime Kanzaka and brought to North America by Software Sculptors.  "Neon
Genesis Evangelion" was created by GAINAX and brought to North America by
AD Vision and VIZ Publications.  All characters and locales deriving from
"Myth-Adventures" were created by Robert Asprin.  Athena was created by
Jeff Hosmer and John Biles, deriving from "Sailor Moon".  Sheila Tenkai
was created by Chris Davies, deriving from a number of sources.  Sean
Gaffney was created his mother and father.  We think.  This story, while
incoprorating elements from motion pictures, books, and magazines held
under copyright by others, is copyright 1997 and 1998 of Chris Davies and
Jeffrey P. Hosmer.

	Nobody Sue Us Okay?

Chris Davies, Advocate for Darkness, Part-Time Champion of Light.
"Damn it all, how am I supposed to sit here and wallow in self-pity and
disgust with all this racket going on?" -- Yuusaku Godai, Maison Ikkoku.
http://www.ualberta.ca/~cdavies/hmpage.html

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