Through a Mirror, Darkly
a Sailor Moon story


Part 1

	Fall. Darien had always loved the Fall. He leaned and sent the bike 
through a drift along the gutter, grinned as he watched the leaves fly 
behind the cycle in a violent swirl of colors in the rear view mirror. 
Right now, at this moment, life was good. The loneliness that had 
haunted him through most of his life was gone. He had found the princess 
of his dreams. *Well, not quite.* His grin changed to a fond smile. 
Serena was such a klutz and a ditz, in almost all things the exact 
opposite of the Princess she once had been. Yet the soul he had fallen 
in love with so long ago was still there and that's all that mattered.

	Their fast, chaste kiss under her fathers disapproving eye as she had 
handed the helmet back to him still tingled on his lips. He blushed as 
his thoughts went off on tangents that any healthy young man's would 
when thinking of his love. The bike wobbled as he had a moment of light 
headedness, then a cold so intense it burned enveloped him from the 
inside out. He screamed in agony, the bike going out from under him in a 
sideways slide which he followed for thirty feet.

	In the same five seconds in six different places.

	Rae sighed as she swept at the leaves that covered the walk on the 
North side of the Temple. This had been one of her chores for as long as 
she could remember and this year, like every one before it, it seemed an 
endless task. She'd sweep the walks clear in the evenings before dinner 
and when she'd get up in the morning they'd be covered by a new fall of 
leaves. She despised it, felt it was a huge waste of time. It would be 
much more efficient to just wait until the trees were bare and then 
sweep them up. She'd argued that with Grandfather once again as soon as 
the first leaves had started to fall but he insisted and said it would 
teach her patience. She'd almost managed to foist the task off on Chad 
but Grandfather had caught her. She'd snatched the broom back out of 
Chad's hand, Grandfather sending her into a fury of guilty sweeping with 
nothing more than a sad sigh and a shake of his head.

	A thought hit her. One she liked but couldn't act on. But it would be 
fun. She was envisioning the leaves burning out of existence under a 
swath or two of her fire as she continued to sweep. Deimos and Phobos 
exploded out of the tree over her head squawking warning as their black 
wings beat the air. She looked up, startled and the sky spun for a 
heartbeat, then she was on her hands and knees in the leaves gasping as 
pain ripped through her body. *Attack? From where...* the pain overcame 
her and she collapsed into the relief of unconsciousness.

	Mina had just sat down to her homework, having put it off all weekend 
and wished once more she had Amy's gift for math as she frowned at the 
string of numbers on the page before her. She chewed on the end of her 
pencil as she tried to remember the formula for equilateral triangles. 
The numbers blurred before her eyes, looking for a moment like the 
foreign language she considered them, then the room spun. She reached 
out and grabbed the sides of her desk as a wave of weakness and nausea 
flooded over her.

	"Mina?" Artemis asked in concern from his curl on the foot of her bed 
as she pushed herself up and staggered across the room.

	She didn't have time to answer, kept one shoulder against the wall of 
the hallway for support as she fought to keep her stomach under control 
until she reached the bathroom.  She barely made it. *Geez! What is 
this? The flu?* She wondered as she leaned against the side of the 
bathtub, shuddering with cold chills and too weak to move.


	Lita shoved the door to her apartment closed with a backwards kick, her 
hands full with her book bag and the groceries. She hummed to herself in 
a subconscious attempt to make the apartment seem less lonely as she 
hefted the bags up onto the counter and started to unpack them. Curry. 
She'd had a craving for curry all day long so an impromptu trip to the 
store on her way home from the library had been called for. It had been 
great that Amy had some research to do for a paper also and had gone 
with her. Even though they had been working hard and quietly, it was 
great to have her there to whisper too every now and then. That was the 
best thing about being a Sailor Senshi. Her friends. Now she wasn't 
alone. At least not very often. She'd asked Amy to come for dinner but 
she had to bow out. They were having company for dinner and she had to 
be there to help her mother. She got the cutting board down and began to 
sharpen her favorite knife.

	But alone often enough. It was still hard in the evenings when she'd 
listen to the soft creaks and sounds of her apartment, but knowing that 
she'd see Serena and the others in the morning would keep the depression 
and the demons at bay. She grabbed at the counter as a wave of dizziness 
grabbed her. *What?* Then it was gone. She waited a moment, wondered 
what had brought that on. Down to the bone weariness hit her. She 
couldn't keep her eyes open. She heard the knife clatter into the sink 
as it fell from her nerveless fingers, thought that she needed to stay 
awake long enough to get the chicken into the fridge as she sank down. 
She was asleep before her body slid out on the floor.


	Amy was guiltily reading a Sailor V manga on her bed as she waited for 
her paper to finish printing out. She really should be brushing up on 
the next chapter of her history text but this was so much fun! She 
giggled as she hit a particularly wretched bit of dialogue between 
Sailor V and the villain. The giggle turned into a gasp as she felt a 
spinning moment of disorientation and a sudden dissolution of strength. 
So much so that she sank back onto her bed, too weak to keep herself 
upright. She tried to analyze the sensation as she blinked up at the 
ceiling, her body limp and unresponsive to her mental commands.

	She had a strange moment of double vision, saw her ceiling overlaid by 
an image as if she was looking down at her hand held computer. The 
information on it showed a schematic of the city then the scene changed 
as if she looked up and out, down the narrow walls of an alley, the 
Tokyo Tower framed between the opening of the walls out into a main 
street.

	"Mercury, where are we?" A harsh, painfilled and tired voice asked from 
behind her. Her doubled vision looked back at the computer.

	"The North side of Tokyo." She answered to her ceiling, realized as she 
did so that two voices had answered that question in unison. Then there 
was only the white of her ceiling. She frowned up at it. That had been 
definitely strange. That other voice had been hers, but a full octave 
lower. What was going on? She took a few deep breaths, focused herself 
and managed to sit back up. She reached for her computer with a 
trembling hand, needing answers.


	Serena put her elbows on the window sill and rested her chin on her 
hands and sighed happily. Luna jumped up beside her, sat and curled her 
tail around her toes and looked out over the brightly colored trees of 
the neighborhood, appreciating the view before she turned her attention 
to her ward.

	"Serena, shouldn't you be doing your homework? Tomorrow is Monday, you 
know."

	"Uuuummm..." Serena answered back with a distracted, happy smile.

	Luna sighed. Serena was obviously miles away. "Serena!"

	"Uuuummmm..."

	Luna stood up and put her paws on the day dream lost girls shoulder and 
stuck her muzzle close to her ear. "SERENA!"

	"Ack!" Serena winced away from her, stuck her finger in her ear and 
wiggled it as she frowned at her cat. "What did you do that for, Luna? I 
heard you!"

	"Did you really?" Luna snapped sarcastically back.

	"Yes, I did. You were nagging me about homework, as always." Serena 
answered with a pout and crossed her arms.

	"Well. What about your homework?" Luna prompted.

	Serena looked at the closed books in a messy stack on her desk with 
papers sticking hapazardly out of the pages and sighed. Not happily this 
time.

	"O.K." She moved to her desk, stared at the books, tried to decide 
which was the easiest assignment to start with. *What a wretched ending 
to a wonderful day!* She grumbled to herself as she pulled the History 
book out of the middle of the pile.


	Mercury looked down at the computer display again in disbelief.

	"Mercury, where are we?" Venus' asked, pain and exhaustion making that 
calm and gentle voice harsh.

	"The north side of Tokyo." Mercury answered with a scowl, turned back 
to the other Senshi. Mars was a bleeding mess slumped on Jupiter's back, 
Venus next to them helping to keep that battered form in place despite 
the burns and unseeing eyes.

	"Did we go back in time?" Jupiter growled, green eyes raking the 
surrounding with distrust.

	"I think so."

	"What do you mean 'think so'?" Jupiter snapped in fury.

	*Not directed at me. Remember that. We were so close...* "I think so. 
The readings are a little strange."

	"It doesn't matter. They'll be following us." Venus paused, obviously 
trying to think of a way around the obvious.

	There was only one choice, one chance for the others and Mercury made 
it. "I'll go. You all change. Jupiter, get Venus and Mars to a hospital. 
I'm the best at 'hide and go seek' anyway."

	Jupiter gave an understanding nod and a hard smile. "Take as many with 
you as you can."

	"I will." Mercury promised, blue eyes as hard as Jupiter's smile.

	"Good luck." Venus whispered as Mercury's trotting steps moved away 
from them.

**********************************************************


	Amy was on her third bottle of sport drink as she frowned at her 
computer screen. She'd had a sudden craving for the stuff and knew that 
one's body normally craved what it needed. It seemed to have cured her 
case of shakes anyway and she felt almost normal again. This was most 
interesting. The screen was tracking herself as a blue blip against a 
map of the city. Or at least what the computer thought was Sailor 
Mercury. When she'd first started the program up, she'd gotten the red, 
green and yellow blinks of the other Senshi all in one place, on the 
north side of Tokyo but then they'd blinked out. Changed back. She took 
out her communicator and tapped out Rae's code. It beeped unanswered. 
She tried Mina's next.

	"Yes, Amy?" Artemis answered in a whisper.

	"Where's Mina?" Amy asked in surprise.

	"Ssshhh...not so loud. She's asleep right now. She's sick. She thinks 
it's the flu."

	"The flu? Did she just get home, Artemis?" Amy matched her voice to 
Artemis' whisper.

	"No. She's been home for an hour or two.  Why?" He watched Amy chew at 
her lower lip. A sure sign that something was wrong.

	"Well, I just am getting some strange readings on my computer. Don't 
worry her with it, it's probably just a glitch or something."

	"Strange readings? Like what, Amy?" Artemis felt the first faint 
stirrings of alarm.

	"Oh, just ghost images, I'm sure. I haven't gotten a chance to check it 
over since Serena dropped it yesterday. Don't worry about it. If it's 
anything, I'll get back to you, O.K.?" With that she broke the 
connection.

	Artemis flicked his ears in annoyance. Amy was on to something. He 
could tell. Something more than ghost images. Well, he knew she was 
sensible enough to call when she figured it out. He jumped back onto the 
bed and curled up by Mina's head.

	Amy tried LIta next. It was possible that she'd be over in that area. 
Just not probable. Lita's code beeped unanswered as Amy watched the blue 
blip that the computer thought was her started to move fast, slowed and 
moved on the map in a way it shouldn't be able to. Sewers, she realized. 
Whatever or whoever the computer was tracking was moving like it was in 
trouble. Where was Lita?

	She always saved Serena for last. She let out a breath she hadn't 
realized she'd been holding as Serena answered.

	"Oh, Amy!" Serena was close to tears and from the motion of the 
background on the small communicator screen, running.

	"Serena, what's wrong!"

	"It's Darien! He's been in an accident! I can't talk to you right now, 
I have to get to the hospital!"

	"O.K. Call me when you can, O.K.?"

	Amy watched Serena gulp and nod, then her communicator screen went 
dark. She hoped Darien was all right. The blue blip was heading her way. 
She tried Lita and Rae one more time as she watched it turn up alleys 
and backtrack. It was acting as if it was trying to throw someone off 
it's trail. Still no answer. Well, whoever it was, they were in trouble, 
that was obvious. She decided she had better go and take a look.

	The last jewel colors of the now hidden sun was still in the sky as Amy 
hurried to follow the blip. It had been stationary now for three 
minutes, the longest it had been still since she'd started tracking it. 
She trotted through an alley that opened to a road that ran along one of 
the big drainage channels that crisscrossed the city. She heard the 
sounds of the battle before she saw it. She put the computer in her 
jacket pocket, not needing it anymore, pulled out her transformation pen 
and powered up.

	She paused at the rim of the drainage channel and looked down into 
chaos. Her bubbles had created a fog that reached halfway up the steep 
sides of the channel. Huge misshapen figures were shadows moving in it, 
bellowing curses and battle cries. Youma. There was a series of screams 
cut short as she saw her 'aqua illusion' cut through the fog and 
enshroud three of the youma in it's icy grip, then the fog rolled back 
to cover them.

	*What in the world was going on? How could someone have her powers?* 
She steadied herself with one hand as she slid down into the sparkling 
grayness. 

	"Here! Here! Here!" The howl went up and she ran after it, felt the air 
temperature drop drastically. She touched her tiara, activating her 
visor. There were youma everywhere, a good number frozen solid. The ones 
that weren't were converging on one figure who was backing towards the 
wall, throwing attack after attack, her attack, whittling down the ranks 
that rushed towards it, but not nearly enough. Amy hit them from behind, 
choosing the placement of her attacks carefully to take as many youma 
out with each one. The youma scattered in confusion, one bellowing 
"retreat, retreat!" Then they were gone.

	Amy stood and just panted for a second, feeling tapped, then looked for 
the figure that the youma had been attacking as the supernatural fog 
started to dissipate. She saw the prone form and hurried towards it, her 
mind taking in the strange outfit, registering the similarities and 
differences as she closed the distance. She had already figured it out 
as she knelt by the limp figure but the face that came into view as she 
rolled it over caused her to gasp in shock even as a part of her mind 
scolded that she should have expected it.

************************************************************************

O.K. Too obvious? Not obvious enough? Any comments will be greatly 
appreciated!

Windlily

trichm@iu.net