Dedicated to Devin DeGruyl, the "insert-something-here" kid.  And also 
to Cara, wherever you are.

                                 Prologue

    Once upon a time there was a Princess of the Moon and a Prince of the 
Earth, and they were in love.  They fell in love, or so the bards tell, 
the moment each first laid eyes on the other.  Some bards, in fact, go 
further, saying that neither had ever known the meaning of love until they 
met.

    Bards tend to lie a great deal.

    She was not his first love.  Nor was he hers.



    "You have made your decision?" the Princess' lover asked quietly, 
knowing what the choice must be.

    The Princess sighed in response.  Why, she asked silently, why must it 
be this way?  Why must one whom I love be hurt?  At last, she said aloud, 
"I will marry the Prince."

    "Of course," her lover said quietly, coldly.  "You love him."

    "As much as I love you," the Princess protested, "but differently.  He 
... he needs me."

    "And I do not?"

    The Princess shook her golden hair.  "No.  You have always been strong 
enough to make your way alone, if you chose.  I envied you that strength, 
once."

    Her lover was silent a moment.  "And when they ask you to forsake all 
others ..."

    "I shall keep that oath," the Princess answered the unspoken question, 
and there was steel in her voice.

    "Will you swear an Oath with me?" her lover asked, producing a long, 
wicked dagger.  "The oldest of the Old Oaths?"

    There were tears in the Princess eyes.  "I will, beloved."

    They clasped their hands around the blade, opening wounds in each 
palm.  As their blood mingled, they spoke the words.

    "Blood for blood, bone for bone, life for life, until only we two 
stride the worlds.  My life is in your hands, my blood is in your veins.  
Hold me well and I will lend you my strength; break your bond and may we 
both perish.  Friendship I swear to you, an Oath of clasped hands and 
shared hearts."

    They removed their hands from the dagger, the force of the Oath having 
sealed the wounds.  The Princess' lover placed the dagger in its sheath.

    "Good-bye," they whispered, as they turned and walked their separate 
ways.



    Life is not eternal.  Love is not eternal.

    The Old Oaths *are* eternal.

    And this is the story of how the oath of the Princess' lover was kept.


                                Sailor Moon
                                Celebration


    The sun rose early on September 15, 1996.  It slowly seeped through my 
window, lulling me out of my dreamless sleep, and alerting me to the start 
of another lovely day in Tokyo.

    I wished Godzilla would show up.

    Today, my best friend in the world would marry the man she'd loved 
even when she hadn't known who he was, and no matter how much I wanted to, 
I couldn't be happy for them.

    Because today was the day my heart was going to break.

    I'd known it, ever since they'd announced their engagement months 
before, after that ... unpleasantness in Nerima.  I'd watched the wedding 
plans that we had all been enlisted in making as though it were happening 
to someone else, even attended the "get-to-know-your-daughter's-fiancee" 
dinner Serena had given her parents (wisely delegating the responsibility 
for cooking to Lita), going through the motions in a kind of daze.  I'd 
even been able to laugh when Darien had given Serena's father the 
traditional engagement presents and said, "Now, sir, will you stop 
believing your daughter is twelve years old?"

    Poor Mr. Tsukino.  He'd been so worried about the fact that Serena was 
keeping her relationship with Darien a secret from him, when that was 
really one of the lesser secrets she held.

    Thinking about the other people enmeshed in our little romantic comedy 
let me divert my attention from the fact that in the next twenty-four 
hours, the one true love of my life would be lost to me forever, and 
worse, would never know just how deeply I cared.

    "Good morning ... Rei-san."  The voice came from behind me as I tended 
the sacred fire.

    "Good morning, Chad," I replyed calmly.  There was a limit to the 
amount of formality I could endure from him, considering the fact that 
we'd had sex.

    He'd been so startled when I seduced him.  I suppose that it had been 
irresponsible of me, but I'd been a little drunk on my eighteenth 
birthday, and had decided to do something so completely out-of-character 
that it would send my friends' jaws to the floor, if they ever found out 
about it.

    At least, I think that's what my reason was.  In the morning, during 
my hangover, I'd decided that it had been a good thing that it hadn't been 
my first time, or the experience would probably have soured me on the act 
for life ... and I was going to be around for a *long* time.

    Anyway, Chad had still not gotten used to the reduced level of 
formality I asked of him.  I only rarely called him Kumada any more, much 
less Chad-san.  But to him, I was still Rei-san.  He couldn't get used to 
the idea of calling me Raye, the name I preferred.

    Names are such a problem in Jyuban, where half the people have western 
family names, like Baker, or McGovern, or Koch, and even more have 
personal names that no Japanese family would ever have come up with thirty 
years ago.  It's an unavoidable consequence of the increasing 
Americanization of Japan, I guess.  I mean, my own parents gave me a 
normal, heck, ridiculously common Japanese name, and what do I do when I 
get to adolescence but start westernizing it?

    Take Serena for another example.  Her "real" name is Usagi, but 
everyone, even her mom and dad, call her Serena.  In her case, though, 
it's more the result of her mixed ancestry, with her Canadian 
grandfather's influence on both his daughter and her husband (who had 
worked with him at the newspaper) showing in a lot of their attitudes.

    But I digress.

    I turned back to look at Chad.  "So ... looking forward to the 
wedding?" I asked.  It seemed the polite thing to do.

    "Yeah ... I'm really honored that Chiba asked me to be his best man 
when his buddy Andrew had to go rushing to Africa like that ..."

    I had had a variation of this statement every day for the past month, 
and I was getting royally sick of it.  But it seemed that being asked to 
sub for Andrew like that had been the biggest thing that had happened to 
Chad in nearly four years.  Which hurt a bit, but ...

    "It's strange that Serena didn't ask you to be her maid of honor, 
though ..."

    I was tempted to strangle him.  "Not really, Kumada," I said with an 
admirable degree of restraint.  "Molly's been her friend since grade 
school, after all."

    "Yeah, that's true," he said, nodding.  "But hey!  Maybe you can try 
to ..."

    "No, Chad, I've no intention of trying to catch the fricking bouquet 
when Serena throws it!"

    His mouth hung open for a moment.  "How'd you know what ..."

    "... you were going to say?" I finished his sentence.  "Chad, that's 
all you've been talking about for the last month!  You're gonna be his 
best man, why aren't you her maid of honor, why not try and catch the 
bouquet?!  I'm SICK of it.  SICK SICK SICK!"

    He stared at me with a poleaxed look.  "Don't you want to marry me?"

    I gave him the exact same look.  "What are you talking about?"

    "Everybody knows that the person who catches the bouquet will be the 
next one to get ..."

    "Baloney!  If that superstition had ANY basis in fact, AMY would have 
gotten married before now, because of that bouquet she caught when we were 
... uh ... at that wedding contest four years ago!"  I'd almost slipped 
and said, chasing after Nephrite, but I'd recovered quickly.  "And anyway, 
you haven't asked me to marry you!" I pointed out.

    He dropped down into a bow, and began to declaim, "Hino Rei, thou art 
the mistress of mine affections ..."

    "Cut it out!" I said.  This was another one of those things that I 
didn't want to have to deal with.

    He ignored me.  "... wilt thou accept me as thy ..."

    "No!"

    He was very silent for a moment.  Then he got up off his knees, and 
brushed his pants off.  "I see.  So, you slept with me as a joke, then?"

    "Chad ..." I hissed, trying very hard to keep a handle on my temper.

    "No, I really want to know why you did something like that if you 
weren't ready to commit to a serious relationship?"

    "What is this, some kind of sick farce?" I demanded.

    "I've worked and SLAVED in this temple for four years, simply to be 
around you.  I fell in love with you the minute I saw you, and NOTHING I 
have done has gotten that message through to you!  What do I have to do, 
get water from the moon?"

    I tried not to let the odd appropriateness of that question phase me.  
"Chad ... you're just moving too fast, dammit!  I'm not ready to get 
married!  I mean, we haven't even gone out on a date yet!"  Instantly, I 
knew that had been a mistake.

    "You're right, we haven't.  I've asked you about, oh, three hundred 
times, and you have always had somewhere else to be, something else to do, 
and so on, and so forth ..."

    I was momentarily tempted to tell him just what I'd gone through on 
some nights when he'd asked me out and I'd had to go and defend the world 
from marauding monsters.  It was a weak moment.

    "And I'm getting tired of it, you hear me?  Just tell me, yes or no -- 
do you want to continue this relationship?"

    "Chad ..."

    "Yes or no!"

    "Yes, but ..."

    "But what?" he exploded.

    "But I can't marry you.  Not now, not ever."

    His jaw dropped.  "Why, in the name of all the kamis?"

    Because I'm Sailor Mars, and I'm going to be alive a thousand years 
from now, and you aren't.  Because I'd be terrified of watching you slowly 
wither away and die.  Because ... because I don't love you as much as I 
could.  "There are a lot of reasons," I said quietly.

    "Like what?" he demanded.

    "I'll tell you ... tonight.  After the wedding.  I promise."  Just 
what I was going to tell him, I wasn't sure.

    But evidently he decided that my assurance was enough.  We went 
together to breakfast with Grandpa, and listened to him yatter on about 
how the wedding today was a clear sign of the degeneration of Japanese 
youth, as it was going to be a semi-Christian/semi-secular ceremony.  The 
Christian elements were mostly for the benefit of some of Serena's 
visiting cousins from Canada.  I didn't bother to point out to Grandpa 
that he could have just refused the invitation, because that would have 
meant that he wouldn't be able to enjoy all the free food at the 
reception.

    Plus, as he himself observed, "It might be a good way to recruit some 
of the young girls attending the wedding to come work as acolytes, by 
pointing out the inherent lack of true spiritual meaning in the ceremony, 
yadda yadda yadda, yak yak yak."

    I don't know who Grandpa thought he was fooling.

    After breakfast, I changed into my street clothes, and walked to the 
bus stop near the temple.  I started remembering how this place had 
completely changed my life.  I wondered what would have happened to me if 
Jadeite had chosen some other place to work his schemes ... would I have 
still been drawn into Luna and Serena's orbit?

    But I didn't want to think about that.

    The bus arrived, and I got on it.  Mina was sitting in the back.  I 
sat down beside her after a brief exchange of "hello" gestures.  We didn't 
talk.  There wasn't any need, we'd worked out the details of the plan 
weeks before.

    We exited the bus, and found Lita waiting for us at the bus stop near 
Darien's apartment.  I checked my watch.  "She's never late ..." I 
muttered.

    Two minutes after she was supposed to have been there, Amy jogged up, 
silently ignoring the stares we gave her.  Why had she been running?  
She'd gotten a car for her seventeenth birthday that was the sleekest 
roadster I'd ever seen, and it figured in our plans ...

    Still not talking, we marched as one into Darien's apartment complex, 
and buzzed to have him let us in.  "Darien," Lita said calmly, "we'd like 
to have a word with you."

    "Who's we?" his voice buzzed back.

    "The four of us, Darien," Mina answered.

    A long silence ...  "Uh, okay, c'mon up."

    We proceeded to the elevator, going up to the fifth floor, and arrived 
at his door.  Amy knocked.

    He opened it up, and we realized instantly that he'd only just gotten 
up.  He was wearing a T-shirt and jeans that showed off his muscles quite 
nicely ... but I yanked my mind from that path, whither lay madness.

    "Good morning, Darien-san," I said politely.  "May we come in?"

    "Uh ..."

    Taking that as an affirmation, we marched in, sat down on his 
furniture, and let Mina gesture for him to do the same.  With a vaguely 
panicked expression, he sat down in front of his low table.

    "How was your bachelor party, Darien?" Amy inquired.

    "Um ... pretty crazy ... what can I do for ..."

    "It's not what you can do for us, Darien," Lita interrupted gently, 
"but what we're GOING to do for you."

    "We've been giving this marriage business a great deal of thought," 
Mina explained.  "And it really is a Serious Step in your relationship 
with Serena."

    "Uh ..."

    "And you know, you and Serena don't handle Serious Steps very well," 
she continued.  "Consider, if you will, the events of your first date."

    "We ... went boating ..."

    "Yes, and Reenie showed up for the first time.  And then what 
happened, Darien?" Amy asked.  She'd been designated the Inquisitor for 
this little session.

    "Well ... I started having these ... very unpleasant ..."

    "Visions," Lita interrupted again.  "Visions which prompted you to 
dump Serena, if I recall correctly.  For her own good, of course."

    He swallowed, sweat beginning to form on his forehead.

    "And then, when all that stuff was over, you would expect that your 
relationship would be even more cemented," Mina went on, "you kept her on 
hold, effectively, for nearly three years."

    "She ... wasn't an adult," Darien interjected.  "If her parents had 
found out ..."

    "You would have had to face up to the fact that you were in the first 
serious relationship of your life, right?" Amy pressed.  I had objected to 
that question, when we'd drawn up our plan of attack, but I'd been 
overruled.

    So it was very uncomfortable to have him suddenly look to me for 
support, especially since my role in this little production was to give 
him the silent treatment, and a vaguely menacing glare.  That alone should 
have tipped him off that something was afoot, since I am *not* inclined to 
be quiet when I am angry.

    "In any event, the history of your relationship is one of many missed 
chances and sad turns of fate," Mina stated.  "We've decided to make sure 
the fickle finger of fate doesn't interfere with your wedding in eight 
hours.  We're going to make SURE that you get there in one piece."

    He swallowed again.

    "For the next eight hours," Mina continued, "one of us will be with 
you at all times, except when you are dressing or ..." She gave a vague 
sniff, then nodded her head.  "... bathing.  Lita has the first shift, 
from nine to eleven, Raye will be taking eleven to one, I will be here 
from one to three, and Amy ..."

    "Uh, there's a small problem, Mina."

    Mina slowly turned her face, which was smiling beatifically at Darien, 
to look at Amy, who was doing her best to shrink into the cushions of the 
couch.  In Mina's eyes was a look of ... well, let's just say that sitting 
beside Amy, I quietly prayed that nobody ever gave me a look like that.

    "Whatever is the matter, Amy?" Mina asked with exaggerated patience.

    "Um ... the plan called for me to drive Darien to the wedding.  And I 
can't."

    "Plan?" Darien asked, but none of us gave any sign of listening.

    "Why not?" Mina asked in a strained tone.

    "Well ... I had a bit of trouble ..."

    "Engine trouble is not a problem, Amy, we'll have Erica give it a look 
over and ..."

    "I mean with the law, Lita.  My license has been revoked.  That's why 
..."

    Mina's left eyebrow began to twitch.  This was a very bad sign ... she 
only has that particular facial tick when she's very peeved.  "I see ..." 
she said quietly.  "Well, Amy, what would you suggest, considering that 
none of the rest of us has a vehicle?"

    "Uh, we could take a cab?" Darien interjected.

    "Stay out of this!" Mina snarled.

    Darien looked like he was about to faint.

    And that's when I knew that the fickle finger of fate had already 
decided how it was going to screw with today's wedding.  "Mina," I said 
quietly, "I can get him to the church on time."

    She turned to me with an expression of equal parts irritation and 
surprise.  "How are you going to pull that off?"

    "Chad has a car.  He doesn't drive a lot, but I can talk him into 
driving us to the wedding."

    "Uh, yeah, actually that's how I'd planned on going ... but I'm going 
to shut up now ..." Darien began, but slowly trailed off as Mina gave him 
a version of the look that she'd given Amy earlier.

    "So, I might as well switch shifts with Amy, too," I concluded.  
"It'll work better ..."

    "Good idea, Raye ..." Mina was back to the beatific look.  "Well, 
then, Darien, I guess we'll leave you here with Lita ... don't you think 
it'd be a good idea for you to cook breakfast for him, Lita?  He needs to 
keep his strength up.  *Especially* today."

    "Sure, Mina," Lita said in a subdued, almost strained tone of voice.  
"But I need to have a few words with Raye, so maybe you should start 
running your bath, Darien?"

    "Right," Darien agreed quickly, eager to get the heck out of the 
emotionally charged room.

    "Don't do anything stupid like trying to climb out the window, okay?"

    Darien slumped as he went into the bathroom.

    "I think Amy and I will be going now," Mina said in the same light, 
menace-laden tone she'd used on Darien.  She pushed Amy out the door, and 
before it closed behind them, I could hear her begin to shout, "Amy, how 
could you DO this to me!"

    I listened to the sound of the water running in the bathroom, avoiding 
looking at Lita, who had fixed me with a stern glare.

    "What are you doing, Raye?" she asked finally.

    "I'm just trying to help keep the plan running according to schedule, 
that's all."

    "Really?"

    "Yes, dammit, really!  Do you seriously think that I'd try and screw 
up Serena and Darien's wedding?"

    "I don't know, Raye.  I really don't.  I've known you for more than 
four years, and I still don't understand you a bit.  Sometimes it seems 
like you're Serena's best friend ... and other times it's like you want to 
kill her.  And I know that you'd give your life for her -- hell, you 
*have* -- but you still keep insulting her every chance you get!"

    She was silent for a long time.  "And you still love Darien."

    I whirled and gave her my most ferocious look.  "Don't you EVER 
learn?  I am OVER Darien!  It was OVER a long time ago, dammit!  Why do 
you keep living in the past?!"

    "Because it's so much more certain than the future," Lita answered 
calmly.  "Pluto taught us that, remember.  The future that we've seen, 
with all of us still together, and them married and ruling the Earth, is 
just one possibility.  It can be much worse ..."

    I felt my anger drain out of me like water out of a bathtub.  "Lita 
... all I can do is promise that I won't try and interfere with the 
wedding.  And I do promise.  I just want her to be happy."

    Lita sighed, and nodded.  "Yeah ... I know.  I'm sorry, Raye, I think 
I'm a little on edge over all the preparations that a certain ever so 
mildly hyper member of our little coterie has put us through.  Sometimes, 
I think I'm getting as anal as Mina ..."

    "How is your end holding up?" I asked.

    "Okay.  Catering is gonna be taken care of by you-know-who.  That's 
been a little bit of a headache ..."

    I frowned.  "X'ian was saying something about her recently, but I 
don't remember what it was."

    "If it's that she's getting dictatorial about her catering service, 
then she's not exaggerating."

    "It was ... something else.  Oh, hell ... I shouldn't believe anything 
she says about the other girls in that nutty village, should I?" I asked, 
rolling my eyes.

    "Eh," Lita said with a shrug.  "It's a sign that something good did 
come out of that whole fracas a few months back ..."

    Mina wouldn't have agreed with that, I thought, feeling the burden of 
my depression grow even heavier.

    "... I mean, doesn't it feel good to have friends who *aren't* Sailor 
Scouts?  Did Serena tell you how shocked Molly was when she asked her to 
be her maid of honor?  I think we were beginning to get a little too 
insular for our own good."  Lita paused.  "If we're gonna be ruling the 
world ... we have to learn to work with people, right?"

    I nodded, and got up.  "Anyway, I've got to get some other things done 
today.  Feed him well, oh Chef of Justice," I said with a straight face.

    Lita smiled widely for an instant, then made her face go utterly 
firm.  "Be traffic-smart, oh Substitute Chauffeur of Justice," she 
replied, and then waved.

    As I headed out, I heard Lita say, "Hey, Darien?  I think you've been 
in the shower long enough ... we don't want Serena marrying any prunes, 
now do we?"

                                  *  *  *

    As Chad hadn't known about the plans that we'd set up, he had already 
been planning on driving Darien to the chapel.  It wasn't hard to talk him 
into accepting another passenger -- especially when the passenger was me.

    I occupied myself in my chores at the temple, cleaning and working in 
the shop.  Grandpa even praised me for my focus.

    For ten minutes before I was supposed to be at Darien's apartment, I 
knelt before the sacred fire, and tried to foretell if anything was going 
to interfere with Darien and Serena's wedding.

    Nothing.  Not an indication of smooth sailing, not a vague, cryptic 
warning.  Just nothing.  I took it as an indication that I wasn't in any 
state to be trying to see the future.

    I changed into the clothes I was intending to wear to the wedding, 
reminded Chad to be at Darien's apartment at about quarter to five, and 
headed off.

    At the apartment, I was buzzed in without comment.  It was Mina that 
answered the door, wearing a smile that hovered right on the near side of 
hysteria.

    "Raye!" she said.  "Good!  I'm glad you're here!  Now, make sure that 
mean ol' Darien doesn't do anything crazy like trying to sneak off!  That 
would make Serena *so* sad ... and when Serena's sad, we're aaaaallllllll 
sad!"  Her voice held a manic note.

    "Mina?"

    "Yes, Raye?!"

    "Go home, Mina.  Get some rest.  Please."  Inspiration struck, and I 
leaned to her ear to whisper.  "If he does run away, I'll need all of you 
to help me track him down ... and you're not ready for that, are you?"

    Mina blinked about thirty times in the next five seconds.  "You know, 
Raye, you're right!  I ... I need a rest!  I'm gonna go home and sleep the 
next two hours away!  And then ..."

    "And then we aaaaallllllll live happily ever after," I deadpanned.

    She nodded, and headed down the hallway.  I stepped into Darien's 
apartment.

    He was sitting on the couch, staring at his big-screen TV, which was 
displaying a test pattern, but he looked up as I came in.  I waved.

    "Does she scare the rest of you sometimes?" he asked.

    I nodded.  "Her dedication to causes can be a little ... fanatical.  
She's not normally that bad, though."

    Darien sighed.  "Well, I have to take some of the blame.  I couldn't 
do anything around the house with her watching, so I talked her into 
playing the Urusei Yatsura drinking game with some high-caffeine soft 
drinks I picked up ..."

    I winced.  "Which version of the Urusei Yatsura drinking game?"

    "The one by the `Anti-Shinobu-Society' -- ten sips if Shinobu acts in 
a basically decent manner?  Of course, then we watched the first few 
episodes ..."

    "Oh, God, why do people come up with stuff like that?  I mean, they're 
just characters in an anime, for Pete's sake, it's not worth fighting wars 
over to discuss their virtues and flaws."

    "I could've sworn Mina mentioned something about how the five of you 
had sat around watching Marmalade Boy and you flipped out everytime 
Suzu-chan was onscreen, shouting invective?" Darien asked, with a faint 
smile on his face.

    "That's different.  Suzu's a rotten, stinking, overly-cute ..."

    He held up his hand, his smile getting broader.

    "... boyfriend-stealing ..." I trailed off, wishing to whoever was in 
charge that I hadn't said that.

    Darien's smile faded.  The tension in the room increased a notch.

    I noticed that he was wearing his jogging suit.  "Planning on going 
for a run?" I asked.

    He shook his head.  "I already went for one ... a few hours ago, 
during Amy's turn at nursemaiding me.  We got back just in time for the 
changeover to Mina ..."  Suddenly, there was a pained expression on his 
face.  "Raye ... do the four of you really think that I'd ..."

    "No, not really.  It started as a joke that Lita told Serena not long 
after the two of you set the date, that we'd make certain that you got to 
the chapel, even if we had to fight through hordes of demons, or tie you 
up so that you couldn't be kidnapped ... but Serena overreacted.  She does 
that, you may have noticed."

    He nodded gravely.

    "So, she made us swear to do just that, and Mina was all giddy about 
the thought -- `how romantic!  how dramatic!' -- and here we are."

    "Yeah ... so, what do you want to do?"

    "Well, why don't we watch some more anime?  Unless you've got some 
other things that you wanna do."

    Darien smiled.  "Nope.  Lita already did all of the housework that I 
was planning on getting done, so I've really got nothing else to do.  I 
*should* be working on my thesis, but ..."

    "Kinda hard with the distraction?"

    "Pinpon," he said, patting a seat next to him on the couch.  "What do 
you wanna see ... I've got some Rayearth ..."

    "Darien, I *am* a magical girl.  I don't *need* to watch magical girls 
shows for escapism," I replied, sitting down in the chair that was a few 
feet from the couch.  "What else have you?"

    He gave the question some thought.  "What do you think about 
`El-Hazard'?" he asked.

    "Oh, wow, I love it!  Shayla-shayla is too cool for words ..."

    He grinned.  "Yeah, I thought you might like her for some obscure 
reason ..."

    "OAVs or TV?"

    "I've got a few of the series, and all but the last video ... 

    So we settled in to watch `El-Hazard'.  Inevitably, Jinnai's laughter 
brought Mina's hysteria to mind, and we both shared a few laughs talking 
about how the characters in the series were like the people that we knew.

    "Oh, come on," I said, "you seriously think Miz is like Michelle?  
They couldn't BE anything less alike!  Do you see how goofy Miz acts when 
she's around Fujisawa?  Could you even imagine Michelle acting like that 
towards Erica?  Puh-leez!"

    "Okay, okay, I'll let it go ... but you will admit that the real 
reason that you think Shayla-shayla is so cool is ..."

    "... that she's a fellow fire priestess?  But of course!"

    "So who's Serena most like?"

    "Ifurita," I said without thinking.

    Darien stared at me, shocked.

    "All that power ... and ... and she's really the focus of the whole 
story, just like Serena's the focus of all our lives ..." I tried to 
explain without mentioning that Ifurita had interrupted Shayla-shayla's 
prospective romance with Makoto just like ...

    "I was actually thinking that she's more like Makoto," Darien said 
quietly.  "His power is pretty incredible, but it's not as big a deal as 
his ..."

    "... compassion," I finished.

    "Yeah."  We were both silent for a long moment, while the Eye of God 
was unsealed on the screen before us.  "I think *Lydia* is like Ifurita, 
actually," Darien said casually.

    "Oh yeah, how can I have *been* so blind, big staff-scythe thing, pale 
skin ..." I suddenly stopped babbling.  "Would you excuse me please, I 
need to go to the washroom."

    Before he could say anything, I was off the seat, in the bathroom, 
shut the door behind me, started to fill the sink, and stared at myself in 
the mirror.

    "Stop it," I ordered myself.  "He's going to marry her today.  If you 
interfere in *any* way, you'll just make both of them miserable ... to say 
nothing of how you'll feel afterwards.  We have to get through this.  It's 
... it's fate."

    I clapped my hands together, and rubbed them, in self-mockery.

    This was pointless.  I couldn't just keep my feelings bottled up like 
this, I wasn't built for it, so I'd have to let it out.  I nodded firmly, 
and turned off the water.  I dried my hands, dabbed at my eyes with the 
towel, took a deep breath, and walked out of the bathroom.

    "Okay," I said, not looking at him, "I have to tell you something.  
I still have unresolved feelings for you.  But it's like I've told you 
before, they don't matter.  What we had ... it was never meant to be, and 
what the two of you have *is* meant to be.  So I want you to go with her, 
and never look back, please."

                              To Be Continued

Author's Notes

    It is my intention to have this story finished by February 21, 1997.  
Of course, it was originally my intention to have it finished by February 
14, 1997, due to a promise that I made to a certain person that I would 
publish this very special Sailor Moon romance for Valentine's Day.

    Didn't happen.  But I am making a start on it, at least.  I hope the 
person in question will forgive me.  No more guarantees.

    A short guide to certain characters and references:

    Erica (Ten'ou) = Ten'ou Haruka (Sailor Uranus)
    Michelle (Kaioh) = Kaioh Michiru (Sailor Neptune)
    Susan (Meiou) = Meiou Setsuna (Sailor Pluto)
    Lydia (Tomoe) = Tomoe Hotaru (Sailor Saturn)

    "El Hazard" and "Marmalade Boy" are two of my favorite anime outside 
of Sailor Moon.  I was, in fact, considering having Miki and Yuu (the 
principal characters of "Marmalade Boy") make a cameo appearance in this 
story and one other, but ...

    The "Anti-Shinobu-Society" is a joke (although there may actually be 
such a thing ...) and its activities are intended to be an indirect,  
humorous commentary on certain activities currently prevalent on 
rec.arts.anime.misc and alt.fan.sailor-moon.  (And sort of a jab at the 
creators of "Urusei Yatsura:  The Senior Year" for taking so long to get a 
chapter about her put out ...)

    That's everything, I think ...

    Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and brought to North America 
by DiC.  This story, while incorporating aspects of stories held under 
copyright by others, is copyright 1997 by Chris Davies.

    Nobody sue me, okay?
 
Chris Davies, Advocate for Darkness, Part-Time Champion of Light.
"I am not a very nice person anymore." - Rand al'Thor, "Crown of Swords"
http://www.ualberta.ca/~cdavies/hmpage.html