And, finally.  It took long enough.  Here's the end of SM: Gray, and the
epilogue.

Once again: any comments, particularly bad ones, are appreciated.

Random notes: I'd like to once again thank my prereader Zombie, who is
in large part responsible for this fic.  (He made me sit through all 200
eps of SM, for one thing.)  Also thanks to people who sent me
encouraging letters.

And for those of you who like this sort of thing, I'll probably get
around to posting the first chapter of SM: End of Days sometime after
all my final papers get done.  (Cheery Title!)  This'll be a direct
sequel - its dark and fun, a bit experimental, etc.  Please tell me
anything you hated in Gray, so I can do less of it!  And if there are
any unresolved questions, let me know.

[] is character thought, ** is emphasis.  For the whole fic, hit
http://bloodgod.res.cmu.edu/smgray/index.html.  My contact info below -
talk to me!

AIM: khaine1310
ICQ: 53426521
Django Wexler (khaine)
khaine@mindless.com


Chapter Fifteen
     In which heroes and villains resolve their differences in a
peaceful fashion and everyone lives happily ever after.  Or possibly
not.
     

     "Hotaru!"  Rei's head snapped around to follow the girl's flight,
but lost her among the debris at the end of the observation deck.

     [Rei...listen to me...]

     Resh ran his tongue carefully over his fangs, obviously satisfied
with himself.  A moment's concentration brought his blade of dark energy
blazing forth once again; this time it was Haruka who blocked his path,
with Shard behind her.  Michiru was already running toward where Saturn
had fallen.

     Rei stared at them, hardly daring to move.  "Ami?"

     [I don't have long, Rei.  You can beat him.  He's using the power
of the nexus to defend himself, and you can set up a negative resonance.
All you have to do is...find...find a...]

     "Ami!"  Rei looked around wildly.  Her friend's voice had sounded
like she was in pain.  "Where are you?"

     [...the same power.  Rei, use the nexus...]

     The brief contact cut off entirely with a kind of mental shriek,
lost in the slash and rumble of the lightning.  Like some berserk
warrior, the storm stabbed at the tower again and again, one every
level, arcs of pure energy draining into the nexus and pulsing out over
the city in waves.

     "World...Shaking!"  Haruka's voice was getting strained, and the
fireball burst around the vampire with about as much effect as if she'd
hit him with a water balloon.  Shard raised one of his backup weapons
and fired to the same result; the bullets blazed with black fire and
were dust before they reached him.  Resh continued to advance, slow and
implacable, pushing the pair back towards the edge of the deck with
utter disregard for their attacks.

     Rei concentrated.  There had been a tiny sliver of an image with
Ami's last thought.  Bits of equations, all spidery brackets like cages
around strange symbols, danced around some central idea.  

     [The nexus...]

     She shook her head, turned, and started to climb.

 

     Ami felt something slick and impenetrable slam into place between
her and Rei.  She pressed at it for a moment, like someone scrabbling at
concrete with their bare hands.

     "You are *not* supposed to interfere."  Eridu's white eyes burned,
providing a soft illumination to counterpoint the lightning.  He
advanced on her step by threatening step.  "Understand?  We civilized
people sit up here while the rest of them brawl it out."

     She tried to stare him down until her eyes hurt.  It was like
looking directly into the sun.  "Civilized?  You're just a thug."

     "Oh?"  This seemed to placate him, strangely.  The white-haired
Unforgiven straightened up and regarded her more normally.  "How so?"

     Ami shrugged, weakly.  "You come to our world and threaten people
until they do what you want.  Sounds like thuggery to me."

     "I merely took advantage of a pre-existing situation.  Without me,
this fight would still be taking place, would it not?"

     "I would be down there helping them."

     "Without the power to do anything to help."  He smiled again.
"Really, Miss Mizuno, do you think that--"

     "That's not even really the point, though."  Ami was thinking
quickly.  "Because this wouldn't have happened without you, would it?"
She felt a brief surge of elation as his expression changed, just a
little.  "Mako filled me in, a little, on what Rei had told her.  Resh
was working for some mob boss named Iylitrio, in exchange for protection
from Jahara."

     The taller Unforgiven nodded at the mention of his name, the first
evidence she'd had since he'd arrived that he was even listening to
their conversation.  Ami continued, gathering momentum.  "But Shard had
said that someone had hired *Iylitrio* to capture us, and he'd sent the
vampire to do it.  To capture, not to kill.  Now, I don't doubt there's
any number of people left around the city who'd want us.  Maybe even
want us alive, the better to torture to death and so forth.  But who
could make a deal with a big shot like Iylitrio?"

     "I could, you're implying."  Eridu shook his head.  "You're very
clever."

     "You too.  But you weren't quite sure about me, were you?  Hence
the capture order.  If I wouldn't comply, maybe one of the other Senshi
would be more amenable."

     "You worked out perfectly."

     "Sure.  A little test, to spy on your allies and keep up the
pretense that we were making a deal.  And then you saddle me with a
bunch of your old memories, along with enough tantalizing hints to make
me want to believe you.  In the meantime, you tell Iylitrio to have Resh
pull out all the stops."

     "I fail to see the point of this.  Our situation is unchanged."

     "Maybe.  But it's nice to have someone to blame for all of this."

     "Go ahead and blame me."  He snapped it off too fast, and Ami's
eyes narrowed.  [There's something else here...let me try this.]

     "Here's the one thing I'm not sure of."  She paused until she was
sure she had his full attention.  "Why?"

     "What?"

     "Why bother?  What do you get out of all this?"

     He shrugged.  "More of my kind.  Isn't that enough?"  His perfect
white suit rippled in the wind.  Up until now, the tower had been in a
dead calm at the center of the storm; now, as the cyclone collapsed, the
howl of the wind was rising.

     "I don't think so.  From what I remember..."  She smiled, trying
not to let him see her sweat.  [This has got to be the craziest bluff
I've ever tried.  He could blow me away with a thought, and I'm
*taunting* him.]

     Eridu regarded her silently for a moment.  "You're still an insect,
Miss Mizuno.  Don't pretend to know my motivations."

     "But they're so simple."

     Both heads snapped around as Jahara spoke for the first time since
Hotaru had left.  He didn't look back at them, but kept staring down at
the battlefield below.  [Looking for Hotaru?  What were those two doing
together, anyway?]

     "What do you know?"  Eridu snapped it off with a snarl.  "All you
have to do is keep thinking with your fists.  So keep your mouth shut."

     [Here goes nothing.]  "Let's hear it."  She kept her voice
sprightly.  "I'm interested, Jahara."

     The green-haired giant shrugged.  "As I said, it's simple.  The
reason Eridu's actions seem so odd to you is because he's really trying
to convince himself.  If he can get you to act the same way he did, it
provides some measure of vindication.  The rest is just
self-justification."

     Eridu snickered.  "Very nice.  A pair of amateur psychiatrists.
But it doesn't change *anything*."  He whirled on Ami.  "*Do it*.  Or
I'll find someone else in this pathetic universe who will."

     "Too late."

     The Unforgiven turned around again to face the growing light.

     

     Resh was toying with them.

     It had become obvious as he fought Haruka, dancing around her with
his superhuman speed and giving her what must have been, to him, tiny
little taps.  The Outer Senshi collapsed against a ruined wall from the
last of these, wiping a trail of blood from her lips and staring
impotently at the towering vampire.  Shard had tried to interfere
earlier and got a backhand for his troubles, sending him sprawling
across the floor.

     "Well."  Resh's voice was a growl.  In the intermittent darkness,
his face was defined by the glow from his eyes, shading his whole body
in tones of red.  The wind screamed like an asylum escapee, and
lightning flashed to the tower again and again.  "It's been fun."  

     "Resh."

     The first shout was barely audible through the near-constant growl
of the thunder.  The next somehow rode the trailing wind and boomed
across the deck.

     "RESH."

     The vampire looked up, and Rei summoned what energy was left to her
in order to get to her feet.  She was standing on an outflung beam, a
dozen feet over the edge of the deck, a windbreak thrust out into the
madness of the storm.  The wind shrieked and tore at her, trying to
knock her from her perch.  She didn't even have to remind herself not to
look down, since the vivid mental picture of the nothingness that yawned
below her was indelibly printed behind her eyes.

     Resh smiled his toothy smile and strode to meet her, leaving a
gasping Haruka behind him.  Rei tried to quell the quiver in her
stomach.  [This is it.  This is the only way.]

     "Haven't you had enough already?"  The vampire shook his head.
"You're persistent, I'll give you that much."

     "You've hurt my friends."  Her breath came with a rasp, and for a
moment it was all she could do to remain upright against a cramp in her
side.  "You killed Minako.  You came to our world and brought nothing
but pain and suffering."  Rei took a deep breath; lightning crashed
behind her, at just the right moment.  "In the name of Mars, I will
punish you."

     Resh's eyes glittered.  After a moment's pause, he opened his mouth
to reply; he never got the chance.

     Rei was concentrating.  The idea that Ami had sent her was only a
glimmer, and she had to guess on the detail.  She focused her power, as
though preparing for an attack, letting it build up without release.
[Creating a sink.]  The energy gathered, as much as she could hold and
more, building up around her hands until she thought they were about to
burst into flame of their own accord.  The rest of her felt empty,
drained, and still she drew power until pain lanced through her like
silver needles.  Her vision dimmed, narrowing to a blurry tunnel, and as
her hands burned the rest of her body felt like ice.  [Power.
My...energy...]  Her breath froze in her lungs, and she felt her heart
skip a frantic beat, then another.  What was left of her field of view
started to sparkle.

     [Not much longer now.  Another second, and I'll be dead.]  Time
seemed to have slowed; her body was numb, blood no longer flowing.
[Another second.]  The feeling in her hands had gone beyond pain, the
power squirreling back and forth, straining for release.  [It's
everything I have, and it still wouldn't touch him.]  Resh wasn't
relying on his own power anymore.  He was drinking huge draughts of
energy from the inexhaustible fountain of the supernexus.  [But I can't
work that way.  I can't reach outside myself...]

     "Rei!"  Shard's voice, tiny and far off.

     [It's not going to work.]  Her body was a lifeless husk that her
spirit was ready to abandon.  [It's over.]

     [I'm sorry, Shard.]

     And still she squeezed herself, tapped her innermost reserves,
shunting away the last little bits of power.  Death was one breath away.
There was nothing left but a hole, a dark place, emptiness in the midst
of awesome forces.  

     She could see Ami's smile.  [A potential difference.]

     The lightning bolt was a monster, brimming with the pent up energy
of the clouds, power that had spiraled from all over the world to its
central point.  It arced downwards into her, following the path of least
resistance, and Rei suddenly found herself outlined by a corona of
actinic fire.  The power headed for the supernexus flowed through her,
filling the dark place inside herself that she'd created, dwarfing the
power she could muster.  It passed through her on its way to the greater
sink of the Tower and the supernexus, burning and destroying everything
in its path, but for a moment she was riding the stream, controlling it.
It only took a moment.

     "Mars."  Rei felt herself floating, the tips of her toes lifted off
the outlying beam, supported by the sheer force of the river she was
trying to control.  "Plasma."  Her eyes glowed white, like twin gateways
to the center of a sun.  She pointed a shaking finger at the suddenly
motionless vampire.

     "*LANCE!*"

     Resh raised his hand desperately to block, drawing on all the power
the nexus had to offer in order to deflect the titanic bolt.  But this
time something was different.  [Resonance.]  The power the vampire
called up hesitated, twisted, and drove itself inward, aligned against
its will with the greater force that was approaching.  He barely had
time to scream as the beam caught him in the chest, a solid line of
something so bright and hot it had gone beyond matter.  It extended past
him, lancing out high over the city at the speed of light and stretching
into the night sky.  The whole tower crackled in sympathetic agony.

     She felt it crest, like an upward-thrown ball that suddenly runs
out of forward momentum.  Then the power left her, the glow faded and
she was falling.

     [I got him.]  Time seemed to telescope.  [I got him.  I got Resh.
Minako...]  She was almost past the ground floor of the deck, starting a
plummet that would end many hundreds of feet below.  [Thank you, Ami.  I
did it.]

     [I...]

     One of her outstretched hands was grabbed, nearly jerking her arm
out of its socket and swinging her into the solid steel wall.  Shard had
slid on his stomach to the very edge of the deck and brushed against her
trailing fingers more by luck than any real design.  His grip felt
solid, more real than the rest of her body.

     The bounty hunter smiled grimly, despite a split, bleeding lip.

     "Oh, no.  No noble self sacrifice for *you*, young lady.  You're
not getting away from me that easily."

     She concentrated on breathing as he hauled her limp form back onto
the observation deck, her limbs still haphazardly twitching from the
power that had coursed through them.  Once he'd gotten her up he laid
her out as best he could, elevating her head in his hands.  Her uniform
was barely holding together, charred and scorched as her skin; most of
her hair had been fried to a crisp.

     [I could still die.]  She didn't know.  [I was burning life energy,
and I can't just replace that with raw force.]  Bleary eyes blinked and
looked up at Shard.  [This could be the last thing I ever see.  Am I
even going to live?]

     The bounty hunter brushed errant, singed hair back from her face,
and smiled gently.  "You alive?"

     "Was that..."  She coughed, spattering red against her hand, and
managed a slight smile of her own.  "Was that suitably pyrotechnic?"

     

     "No."  Eridu's face had gone suddenly cold, watching the mammoth
lightning bolt strike and the obliteration of the master vampire.  "She
can't...I..."

     Ami couldn't help but smirk, just a little.  [Get ready for it...]
"I warned you."          

     "You."  He rounded on her, the nimbus of power just beginning to
form around his shoulders.  White lightning crackled.  "You told her."

     She shrugged, modestly.

     "You're *DEAD*!"

     He raised a hand and a white lance of energy enveloped her, a
miniature imitation of what had just happened below but no less powerful
for that.  The full force of a universe's worth of guardian power hit
Ami full in the chest at a temperature that could have reduced steel to
its component atoms.  Her vision went white, even behind closed eyelids.
Once it was over, it was a long, scary moment before it began to clear.


     Ami blinked the aftereffects of the bolt away and shivered, the
movement throwing little crackles of residual power into the air.  Eridu
took a step back, pupil-less eyes wide and unbelieving.

     "That...that's impossible.  There's no way you could have enough
energy..."

     She shrugged.  "As your friend Resh there taught me, there's power
enough if you know where to look."

     "You can't have learned to align with the nexus so quickly!"

     "I was always smarter than you thought."

     His eyes narrowed.  "You really think you can beat me?  Even with
the power of the nexus, there are a thousand ways I could rend your
living soul into fragments--"

     "Enough."  Jahara turned from observing the battle.  "It's over,
Eridu."

     "Don't you interfere!  I can still wreck this world."

     "I think it has been amply demonstrated that the guardians of this
world are quite capable of defending it."  Jahara took a step closer.
"And more to the point.  Up till now, you have earned my mild
displeasure.  Would you like to try for something worse?"

     Eridu's eyes, white-on-white, were unreadable.  The play of
emotions on his face, though, was obvious.  Raw fury warred against five
thousand years of guilt and fear.  The stare stretched on and on, until
finally the white-haired Unforgiven broke away with a snarl.

     "Damn you, Jahara.  I'm not going to forget this."

     "I wouldn't expect you to."

     He turned again.  "And as for you, Miss Mizuno."

     Despite her confident demeanor, Ami felt her breath catch in her
throat.  It must have shown; Eridu laughed.

     "You're cursed already.  So I gave you power?  Not enough.  You'll
be trapped by your function, tantalized by hints of things forever
beyond your reach.  And someday, no matter how long you live, you'll
face the end of your span with the knowledge that *it could have been
forever*."  He waved a hand, already regaining his jaunty manner.
"Farewell, Miss Mizuno."

     There was a white flash, and a brief sensation of speed.  When it
cleared, Eridu was gone.

     Ami fell to her knees, breathing hard.  "Thank God.  Or anyone else
responsible."

     Jahara was at her side almost instantaneously.  "Are you hurt?"

     She shook her head.  "No.  Just a little tired.  And scared out of
my fucking mind."  She looked up at him.  "I was sure he was going to
fight you."  She shivered to imagine what such a battle might have been
like.  [I wouldn't be around to think about it afterwards, that's for
sure.]  "What if he'd called your bluff?"

     "Bluff?"  Jahara shrugged.  "I like your world, Miss Mizuno, but
dealing with my own comes first.  I was quite ready to defeat him,
whatever the cost."  He caught her expression and his face softened.  "I
did not think it would come to that, though.  Charging headlong into
impossible odds is more my function than his.  Eridu, for all his
knowledge, is quite predictable."

     Ami shook her head.  [If he hadn't bought it...]  She shuddered.
[Oh, well.  How often has the world come that close to destruction?  One
more narrow shave won't hurt it.]  "We should..."  She struggled to her
feet on legs that felt like they were made out of wet noodles.  "We
should find the others.  They could be hurt...I don't even know if Rei
could survive something like what she did..."

     The Unforgiven helped to her feet.  His hand on her arms was a
strange sensation, cold and unyielding, as though she were being lifted
by a machine.

     "Indeed, Miss Mizuno.  It is time to go home."


Epilogue
     In which certain parties take their leave.


     There was a horrible shriek, the cry of a nine-limbed demon
escaping from the nether hells.

     "That's the tea."  Rei leaned back against the couch and glanced
longingly at Shard, who rolled his eyes.

     "Fine, fine.  He made his way into the kitchen, muttering.  "Just
because she blew herself to bits, she makes me do all the work..."

     Rei smiled to herself and turned back to Ami.  "And then he just
left?"

     The blue-haired girl nodded.  "Yeah.  Just like that.  I thought he
and Jahara were going to have it out, and that would certainly be the
end of us.  But..."  She shook her head.  "Lucky again, I guess."

     "No kidding."  Rei yawned.  "Too bad I never got close to this
Eridu guy.  If he really did everything you say he did, I would have
liked to take a piece out of him too."

     "I think you did enough."  That brought on a chuckle from both of
them.

     A bedroom door creaked, and the pair looked up.  Rei put up a hand
in greeting.

     "Good morning.  Get enough sleep?"

     Hotaru blinked and yawned, rubbing her eyes with the back of one
hand.  "Yeah, pretty much."  She made her way over to the couch and
plopped down on the floor in front of the coffee table, wincing slightly
as she sat.

     Ami leaned forward, concerned.  "Does it still hurt?"

     "Not badly at all!"  Hotaru waved her hands frantically.
"Considering Resh just about caved my chest in with one punch, you did a
wonderful job putting me back together."

     Now it was Ami's turn to blush.  "I...it wasn't that much, really.
Just straightening bones and stuff.  Nothing like what I should be able
to do..."

     "You saved her a year in the hospital, if not worse."  Rei patted
Ami's shoulder.  "You should be proud."

     "Jahara helped a lot too.  Even though he's no good at healing, he
knows a bit of the theory.  And he said I have an aptitude for it..."

     "Here we are."  Shard bustled in from the kitchen with a pot and a
trio of cups.  He set the cups down on the coffee table before he
noticed the third visitor.  "Oops.  Lemme get another one..."

     Ami snapped her fingers absent-mindedly, and another cup and saucer
dropped onto the table with a clatter and a tiny thunder-clap.  Shard
raised an eyebrow.

     "I'd ask for sugar, but I'm not sure the bowl would survive the
trip.  Let me get it."  The bounty hunter left the girls to themselves
once again.  Ami's tea carefully poured and stirred itself, the cup
hovering in the air in front of her until she grabbed it to take a sip.

     "That's going to take some getting used to."  Rei couldn't help
staring at the hovering crockery.

     "Not as much as that."  Ami pointed at Rei.  "I can't get used to
seeing you with short hair."

     Rei raised a hand self-consciously to where her long, dark locks
had once trailed past her shoulders.  She smoothed what was left,
carefully.  "Most of it got burned.  I'll grow it out again as soon as I
get the chance..."

     "I think you should keep it."  Shard returned once again from the
kitchen.  "It makes you look more professional."

     "I guess..."  Rei still couldn't help blushing a little bit as
Shard sat down next to her.  [We still haven't really had the chance to
talk.]  On some subjects, though, no conversation was needed.

     "So."  Ami pushed her hovering saucer aside and turned to the
bounty hunter.  "What are you going to do now, Shard?"

     "Not sure.  Iylitrio's dead, and his organization is in shambles.
Given my role in what happened, I doubt any of the other bosses would
hire me"--he caught Rei's murderous glare and coughed--"not that I'd
consider such a thing anyway.  I was thinking of going into your line of
work.  Helping good, shooting evil, that sort of thing."

     Rei met his sardonic smile and shook her head.  [Shard...]  "It
doesn't pay very well, bounty hunter."

     "I suppose that's a problem--"

     Ami cleared her throat.  "Actually..."

     The other two turned to look at her, and she smiled mysteriously.  

     "Ami."  Rei leaned forward threateningly.  "What did you do?"

     "I...uh...couldn't really sleep last night.  So I had a look around
Iylitrio's computers.  Since I broke his encryption for Eridu, I had
plenty of names and passwords and stuff."

     "Ami..."

     "It wasn't that much stuff, honest!"  She raised her hands
defensively.  "Just a couple of files."

     "A couple of files of *what*?"

     "Just useful stuff.  Names of known criminals.  Public officials
who've been bribed.  Stuff like that, to turn over to the authorities."

     "That's good."

     "And some Cayman Islands bank account numbers and passwords."

     Rei sputtered in her tea.  "What?!"

     Ami raised her hands again.  "Just some money Iylitrio had stashed
away in case of emergencies.  There's not that much there, actually."

     "You *checked*?"

     "I was kind of curious.  And like I said, it wasn't much."

     "Good."

     "Not more than ten or twenty billion."

     This time the saucer did not survive.  "*What*?"

     "Relax, relax.  I'm making arrangements so that most of it gets
turned over to various good causes."  Ami was smiling even wider now.
[She *planned* on telling it to me this way, damn it!]  "I figure there
should be enough left over to 'hire' Shard indefinitely, though.  Plus a
little bit."  She caught Rei's eye.  "Just for whatever comes up!
Hospital expenses, maybe.  As long as it gets spent for a good cause,
right?"

     Rei glanced from her blue-haired friend to the bounty hunter and
sighed.  "Only good causes, right?"

     He chuckled.  "Right."  Shard slipped one arm around her shoulder
and lifted her up into a kiss that seemed to last for hours.  Rei could
hear Ami pointedly clear her throat and turn to look the other way.  A
door opened, somewhere, and there was the sound of footsteps, but for
the moment she ignored them.  [Sometimes I want to stay like this
forever.]

     There was a startled gasp from behind her.  "R...Rei?"

     The voice made her break away and turn to confront the blonde,
still half-dressed in a plastic hospital uniform and bulky with bandages
underneath.

     For a moment, there was nothing to say.  "M...M..."

     Minako, still limping a little, made her way over.  "So, this is
him?"  She looked up at Shard, who doffed an imaginary cap.  "Ooh, I'm
jealous.  He really *is* good-looking."

     Rei felt tears welling up; she threw her arms around Minako like
someone clinging to a life preserver.  The blonde started in surprise
before putting one arm on Rei's shoulders.

     "Mi...Mina..."  Rei felt in danger of dissolving into
unintelligible sobbing.  "You're really okay.  You're...you're not..."

     "Rei..."  Minako's voice softened.  "Didn't Mako and Usagi tell you
I would be getting out of the hospital?"

     [I was hardly in a condition to understand anything when we got
home last night.]  Still, it was hard to imagine she'd been so tired she
missed *that* whopper.  [It doesn't matter.]  She rubbed her tears out
on the shoulder of Minako's flimsy hospital gown.  "I thought...I..."
Rei took a deep breath and pulled back so she could look into her
friend's eyes.  "Don't *ever* do that again.  Don't ever scare me like
that.  Okay?"

     The blonde nodded and spoke in a whisper.  "Okay."

     They tableau held absolutely still until Minako spoke again.

     "Hey, did you cut your hair?"

 

     Hotaru found herself sitting outside again as night fell.  The
storm was gone as though it had never been, and the breeze carried a
faint hint of salt off the water, miraculously uncorrupted by the smog
of the city.  She took a deep breath and felt herself relaxing, slowly
but surely.

     Pluto's graceful figure took up a seat next to her, silently.  The
two sat on the grass, staring up at the stars, in silent companionship.


     "Hi."

     Setsuna raised a hand weakly.  "Hi."

     "Is Haruka okay?  She seemed kind of mad."

     "I told her she couldn't go after Jahara."  Setsuna shook her head.
"You know Haruka.  She just needs to feel dark and brooding."

     "Yeah."  Hotaru sat back a little more, so she could look almost
straight upwards.  The stars, even dimmed by the city lights, were
spectacular.

     [Infinite worlds...]

     "What about you?"

     The little girl paused.  "I'm...okay."

     "Really?"

     "Sort of."  Saturn was still there, lurking just below the surface.
A merciless killer, totally dedicated to her goal.  [And that's me.
Sort of.]

     Setsuna looked at her quizzically.  "Okay."  She hesitated.  "He's
here."

     "He is?"  Hotaru sat up suddenly.  "Where?"

     "Inside.  I told him I wanted to talk to you first.  Are you sure
you want to see him?"

     "Of course!"

     Pluto sighed.  "I thought so.  I'll go get him."

     Hotaru, who had started to rise, sank back onto the grass.  "Okay."

     Halfway to the door, Setsuna stopped again.  "Hotaru?"

     "What?"

     "Be careful."

     [Be careful?  What is that supposed to mean?]

     As always, Jahara moved slowly, effortlessly, carefully.  He ducked
under the doorframe and stood next to where she was lying, green eyes
moving indifferently over the starscape.  [I'm sure he's seen more
impressive things.]

     "You're still here?"

     "Yes."  He shifted his eyes down to her.  "There were a few matters
I needed to work out to my satisfaction."

     "And now you're leaving?"

     "Yes.  I will return to the Aegis."

     [His ship.]  She nodded.  "And you've come here to, what, say
goodbye?"

     "Yes."  Jahara knelt next to her.  "Without you, I'm not sure that
what happened here would have worked out as well as it did.  I owe you a
debt."

     "Don't worry about it."  She waved a hand.  "It was fun.  I guess I
almost died a couple of times, but that's the way things go in this line
of work."

     "Yes."

     Silence fell.  Hotaru could feel her eyes clouding with tears; she
blinked them away, distractedly.  "Can you answer one question before
you go?"

     "Of course."

     "There's me..."  She hesitated.  "There's me, and then there's
Saturn.  We're different.  You say I can achieve peace by submitting to
my function.  So that's Saturn, I guess.  But where does that leave me?
I mean, speaking as the part of myself that *isn't* Saturn, what happens
to me in the end?  Do I just"--she swallowed--"vanish, eventually, until
all that's left is something like her?"

     "No."

     Her voice was small.  "Then what?"

     Jahara shifted uneasily.  "It is not a question I am personally
familiar with.  On my world, the guardians had no human front, no
alternate identity.  I am the Guardian of Power Incarnate, and that is
*all*.  It has taken me a long time to pick up some semblance of
normalcy from you humans.  But for someone like you, things will be
easier.  I imagine eventually you will achieve peace with the guardian
force.  Some sort of symbiosis.  It cannot operate without you."

     She closed her eyes, feeling a tear trickle down the side of her
face.  "Thank you."

     Jahara stood up and waited a moment longer in silence, then turned.
Hotaru called after him, hesitantly.  "Wait a minute."

     "Yes?"  He half-turned.

     "Why can't you just stay here?  We could use someone like you
around from time to time."  [I could use you around.]  The peculiar
rapport she felt with him, which he attributed to their sharing a
function, felt too strong to simply lose.  [Guardian of Power Incarnate,
eh?]

     He chuckled.  "I'm afraid not.  There are other things I need to be
doing, in other places.  Being immortal does not save one from being
busy.  I must return to the Aegis."

     "Yeah."  Hotaru sank back onto the grass, looking away from him.
"I guess so."

     Jahara's soft footsteps behind her made Hotaru curl up on her side,
into a ball.  She covered her eyes with her hands.

     "What's wrong?"

     "Nothing."  She sniffed.  "Go."

     "Hotaru..."  He stopped.  "I know what you want.  But I am
Unforgiven.  I have my fate, assigned to me by my function.  That is all
there is."  He touched her shoulder.  "You understand."

     "I..."  Hotaru hiccupped and choked back a sob.  "I understand.
You have to leave."

     "Yes."

     "So go."

     He got his feet, slowly, and raised one hand.  A point of brilliant
green in the air expanded into an impossibly thin oval, tall enough to
admit the Unforgiven without him even having to duck.  The energy
shifted and thinned, offering tantalizing glimpses in places of what lay
beyond the portal.

     Hotaru sat up, unable to help staring, as Jahara stepped up to his
gateway.

     [Goodbye].  Her throat was choked closed.  [I can't say it.
Goodbye.]

     At the very threshold, he paused.

     "Well?"  Jahara looked back over his shoulder.  "Are you coming?"

     [Be careful, she said.  I think she knew...what would happen...]

     "Hotaru?"

     She practically leapt forward.

 

     'New incoming mail.'

     Since she was in class, Ami had sound suppressed on her laptop.
There wasn't a warning 'ping', but the new message flashed an urgent
red.

     [One of my urgent codes...coming in under Iylitrio's encrypt!]  She
looked at Professor Schiavo, who was scratching a long and tedious
equation in great detail on the blackboard at the bottom of the
half-bowl shaped classroom.  The place was only half full, and no one
around her was watching.

     [I have a bad feeling about this...]  First she checked to make
sure all the anti-viral countermeasures were in place, and that her
security programs were running full-bore.  Then, hesitantly, she opened
the mail, and her expression hardened as she read.

     'O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king
of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.  Have fun, Miss
Mizuno.'

     [Damn him.]  Her hand curled ever so slowly into a fist.  [I wish
he'd never shown me...]

     [No I don't.  And that's the hell of it!  I can hate him, and curse
him, but he did me a *favor*.  And now...]

     She stared moodily down at the poorly lit classroom.  Ami had
perched herself near the top, up by the projectors; normally she'd be
down in the front row, arguing the professor point for point.  [I just
don't have the energy today.]  And, she had to admit, it didn't seem
*worth* it.  Minor points of physics palled when you had power in the
palm of your hand.

     [Maybe he finally read my paper.]  For a physics teacher, Schiavo
was remarkably open-minded.  [He might not laugh me off the stage.  I'll
talk to him after class.]

     The rest of lecture passed at the speed of a retarded slug.  By the
time the clock reached the appointed hour, she could almost hear the
collective sigh of relief from the student body.  Amid the hustle and
bustle of people finding their coats and textbooks, she jumped down the
aisle steps three at a time to catch the professor before he left.

     "Professor!"

     Professor Schiavo pushed his bifocals back until he could see her,
then smiled broadly.  [Maybe he liked it after all.]  "Ami!  I've missed
you at lectures recently.  I thought you didn't make this one either."

     "I was here.  Just a bit quiet today."  She set her bag down next
to the podium.

     "Well, class was decidedly less interesting without you.  I hope
I'll be seeing more of you in the future?"

     She winced.  [Nice guy.]  "Of course.  But I was wondering if you
had a moment to look over that paper I sent you last week."

     He seemed to remember on the spot.  "Ah, yes.  Very interesting."
Her eyes lit up until the professor fixed her with a penetrating gaze.
"But are you sure this is the best use of your time?"

     "What?"

     "I mean..."  He waved a hand vaguely.  "I'm sure the occultists and
so forth will be happy for another nugget of pseudoscience to back them
up.  And the equations certainly look pretty.  But it's hardly
*dignified*..."

     "Dignified."  Her tone was low and dangerous.  "It's hardly
*dignified*."

     The professor seemed taken aback.  "Y...yes.  If you find yourself
lacking research projects, I might consider employing you among my
staff.  We have a couple of very interesting--"

     "Did you even *look* at the math, professor?"

     He shrugged.  "Not after reading the topic of the paper.  Ley lines
and nexus points for magic in Tokyo?  You don't need a self-consistent
equation to back that up.  Just put something that looks pretty, and the
tabloids will eat it up."  He sighted down the glasses again.  "Just
don't associate the name of this university with it, please."

     "Of course not."  Ami picked up her bag, and almost, *almost*
turned to go.  But there had been something in the tone of that last
comment...

     [You know what?  Fuck this.]  She shrugged her back-pack on and
turned around with a bright smile.

     "You want to see something cool, professor?"

     "Cool?"  He glanced at his watch.  "I suppose.  Will it take long?"

     "Not long."  Ami snapped her fingers and a portal scythed into
existence, a long oval hovering above the podium, built of crackling
blue energy.  Schiavo's jaw dropped slowly, by intervals, and Ami's
smiled widened.  "You might want to read that paper a bit more
carefully, professor."

     [Who knows where it goes?  At the moment, I frankly don't care.  It
has to be more interesting than here.]  She thought briefly of her
carefully planned life, college and med school and becoming a doctor.
It felt like a stifling blanket.  [Hamlet was fucking right.  The world
is a prison, if your head gets big enough.]

     [I mean, there are good things here too.  My family, my friends.
It's not such a bad world.  But right now...]

     [I should be able to keep track of where I'm going, so I'll be able
to find the way home.]

     [I'll be back.]

     [Eventually.]





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