Serena & Luna:
                     The New Adventures of Sailor Moon

                                Episode 107
                             "Abandoned Hope."

    "Hey, Serena," Lita murmured.  "We're here."

    She hated to disturb her.  Serena had worked like a maniac the night
before, getting done the editorial cartoons that she was supposed to have
been doing over the length of her trip ... which had unfortunately been
monopolized by both Serena's quest to find and save her missing friends
and her tendency to get involved in extremely unusual side adventures.
Lita still couldn't bring herself to believe *all* of the crazy stories
that Serena had told her about her journey, even if many of them had
happened in Gotham City, one of the centres for weirdness of the planet,
if some of the tabloid stories spoke truly.

    But the flight was over, now, and it was time for her to be waking 
up.  It had been a remarkably easy flight, much smoother than the last
time Lita had come home.  <Fortunately for both of us,> she thought,
touching her distended belly.

    "Excuse me, miss, but you really should be deboarding now," said a
harried looking stewardess.

    "... ah mom, it won't kill me to miss one day will it?" Serena asked
in her sleep.

    "I'm sorry," Lita apologized, wincing at how rusty her Japanese was.
"She takes a little while to get ... uh, is something wrong?"

    The stewardess was staring at Serena very oddly.  Something in her
expression gave Lita the impression that she was studying Serena's
features.  She suddenly realized that Lita had spoken to her, and flushed.
"Ah, no.  Um, considering your circumstances, I'm sure that it'll be okay
if you take as long as you want to get get going."  She  smiled, and
started walking to the front of the plane.

    Lita watched her go for a fraction of a second, and turned to look
down at Serena's sleeping face.  "Serena," she whispered harshly, "wake up
NOW."

    Serena's eyes blinked open, and she stared at the world through dully,
blurry eyes.  "Huh?" she asked eloquently.

    "The woman who was just here recognized you, I think she may be part
of the bunch you've been fighting against."

    Serena's eyes cleared in a hurry.  "Oh God," she whispered.

    Lita pushed herself to her feet, and popped open the overhead
compartment.  "Get ready to make a run for it, I'll cover y--"

    "Hey!" Serena protested.  "I can take care of myself, you know.  If it
comes down to a fight, I --"

    "Right," Lita grunted as she pulled a long, flat carrying case out of
the storage module, which she promptly handed to Serena.

    Serena stared up at her with an exasperated expression.  "Hey, who's
the pregnant woman and who's the woman who's been spending the last few
weeks fighting all kinds of youma?"

    "I'm sure that you can handle most of them, Serena," Lita said in a
just-slightly patronizing tone.  "But let me handle the big guys, okay?"

    Fuming, Serena stuck her portfolio under her arm and followed Lita as
the taller woman walked up the aisle to the exit.  They passed the
stewardess who had awakened Serena at the hatch, where she stood smiling
an oddly forced smile.

    Then they were off the plane, and walked through the boarding passage
without incident.  Lita noted that Serena was trying very hard to hide the
fact that she was studying every face that they saw for a potential
threat.  <She has learned, a little,> she admitted to herself.  Truth be
told, Lita wasn't sure how she felt about that.  It didn't seem right that
Serena should *have* to take care of herself ...

    They arrived ant customs, and Lita silently cursed herself for a fool.
"Serena," she said in English so that the majority of those present
wouldn't understand her, "we're going to have to split up."

    "Huh?" Serena gasped in Japanese.  She gulped, then replied in
English.  "Why?"

    "I'm not a Japanese citizen anymore, Serena ... I have to follow a
different set of procedures than you do."  She saw Serena blanch, and then
quickly continued.  "It will be okay, though ... I'm sure of it."

    Serena opened her mouth, closed it, and nodded swiftly.  She headed
for the turnistile marked "Japanese Nationals".

    Lita took a deep breath, and headed for customs.

    Everything was in order, and she passed through in a matter of
minutes.  If the customs officer showed any unusual interest in her
passport, he hid it well.  Her visa aroused even less concern, and she let
out a sigh of relief as the man said, "Welcome to Japan."

    She stepped through the gate, and headed toward the luggage carousel,
where she could see Serena standing and looking for their bags.

    A fashionably dressed young man stepped close to her when she was 
several yards from Serena, and she heard a click.

    "In my left hand," he said in oddly accented English, "there is a
small, single shot gun, pointed at your abdomen.  If you scream, attack,
or begin to transform, I will pull the trigger."

    Lita's heart skipped a beat.

    The man smiled.  "Please come this way?"

    A moment later, Serena looked over her shoulder.  <Shouldn't Lita be
through customs by now?>

    There was no one there.

                                 *   *   *

    "But I'm telling you, she's been kidnapped!" Serena yelled.

    The police officer sighed, ruing the day that he decided to work in
missing persons.  "Ms. Tsukino, we can't be sure of that.  Several people
report seeing a young woman who matches the description of your friend
walking with a young man out of the airport.  Emphasis on `walking
*with*'; she was very definitely not being forced."

    "But --"

    "Ms. Tsukino, has it occured to you that your `friend' might have just
used you as an excuse to come back to Japan?"

    "What do you mean?" Serena asked, baffled.

    "Now, just think about it for a bit.  A woman traveling alone rarely
feels safe --"

    "I do," interrupted Serena.  <Of course, I've been traveling with
Luna ... so maybe not.>

    The policeman continued as though he hadn't heard her.  "-- so when a
reason to visit the homeland comes up, *and* an old friend comes calling,
don't you think that she might take her old friend up on the offer, solely
to feel safe on the trip?"

    "No!" Serena answered, angrily.  "Lita's not *like* that!  She's not
afraid of anything!  And what `reason' could she --"

    "You mentioned that she's pregnant.  Who's the father of her child?"

    Serena blinked.  "I-I-I don't know ... she said it was one of her
ex-boyfriends, a man she met in America --"

    The officer smiled sadly as he held up a finger.  "But not necessarily
an American, right?  Maybe he was also from Japan, a tourist, and she came
back to meet him.  Maybe he's the man the witnesses saw her with."

    "No way," Serena said dismissively.  "She told me that he dumped her."

    "And you don't think she might lie to you?"

    Serena stood up, genuinely angry now.  "She's one of my best friends!
No, she would *never* lie to me!  Ever!"

    The police officer blinked.  "I thought you said that you hadn't seen
her in seven years?"

    Serena's mouth hung open.  "Uh ... yeah.  That too."  She sat back
down again, deflated.

    He stared at her with a confused expression, then finally just shook
his head.  "People change, Ms. Tsukino."  He got up.  "Listen, I'm going
to get some coffee.  Would you like anything?"

    Serena shook her head, and the police officer walked out of his
office.  In the distance, Serena could hear the sounds of the police
station -- the sounds of typing, of people talking ...

    "Do you think he's right?" she asked Luna, softly.

    "I really don't know, Serena," Luna answered from the kitty karrier
beside her chair.  "It doesn't seem like the sort of thing that she'd do,
but ..."

    "... but he's right, people do change.  I only have to look at Amy and
Mina to remember that."  She stood up, and started to pace.  "But ... but
it didn't seem like she'd changed when we were in San Francisco.  She
seemed the same as always."  She shook her head.  "I don't *want* to
believe that Lita would change so much that she'd just use me to feel safe
while she was traveling.  I don't --"

    Serena broke off as she noticed something on the police officer's
desk.  It was a fairly thin file, on top of a pile of thicker files.  What
drew her attention to it was the name on the label:  Gurio Usagi.

    "Is something wrong?"

    Serena turned around and saw the police officer at the door, looking
at her inquisitively.  "Uh ... no!  No, nothing's wrong."  <I can't very
well admit that I'm snooping around in his cases, now can I?> she
reasoned.

    "Listen, I've been thinking.  You'd have to wait twenty four hours
after she was last seen to file a missing persons report anyway.  Why not
go home, check your messages, and wait a day ... then, if your friend
hasn't gotten in touch with you, you can come and do the paperwork."

    Serena gave it a bit of thought, then sighed and agreed.  She picked
up her suitcase, the kitty karrier, and her portfolio, and headed out of
the police station.

    "So now what?" Luna asked her when they were alone in the elevator.

    "Now I go drop off my luggage.  Then I get these cartoons to Molly.
And then I find out what her daughter's name is doing on a file in the
missing person's department."

                                 *   *   *

    The door to the apartment opened, and the young woman stepped in,
toting her suitcase in one hand and a kitty karrier in the other.  She
looked around at the apartment with a small smile, and dropped the luggage
before kicking the door closed.

    It was then that Straczynski stepped out of the bathroom.  "Ms.
Tsukino, I'd like a --"

    "EEEEEEEEEEEK!"

    In all his years of investigating the mysterious phenomena that his
partner was obsessed with, Straczynski had never heard a sound so
simultaneously terrifying and terrified.  He took a step back,
involuntarily.  Then a small black hurricane struck his face, and he
yelped in startled pain as he fell back under its assault.  He suddenly
lost his footing, and collapsed to the floor, avoiding clonking his head
on the door of the shower by the narrowest of margins.

    A moment later, he realized that the black hurricane was perched on
his chest, its whiskers sticking straight out, and its huge red eyes
unmistakably hostile.  The cat hissed at him.

    "Okay, buster!" the young woman exclaimed as she stepped into his
field of vision.  "Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing in
my apartment and how the hell did you get in here?!"

    "I'm Straczynski," he answered, his mouth unaccountably dry.  "David
Straczynski.  I'm with Interpol --"

    "You're Amy's partner!" the woman stated, surprised.

    He nodded, or tried to.  "Right.  I'm Mizuno's partner."  Straczynski
paused.  "Can you get this thing off of me?"

    The woman flushed and picked up the cat, which continued to glare
balefully at him.  "So what about my other questions?  Does being Amy's
partner give you the right to break into people's homes and scare them
half to death?"

    David Straczynski was a peaceful, reasonable man.  He was not given to
sudden outbursts of emotion, preferring to gradually release his feelings
in constructive ways.

    But it had been a *very* long few days. 

    "What gives me the right?" he snapped.  "How about this for starters?
My partner has disappeared, and she told me that if anything should happen
to her, I should get in touch with you!  Yes, you -- some strange girl
that she apparently knew when she was in Junior High, for God's sake!

    "Amy has --" she asked, clearly startled, but Straczynski was in no
mood to let himself be interrupted.

    "Don't call the police, she says.  Don't contact our superiors.  Don't
even think of contacting her parents.  But get in touch with an old school
chum?  If I didn't already think she was a little crazy, this, I think,
would have convinced me!  So I go to get in touch with you, and much to my
stunned amazement I find out that you're in the freaking United States!
Naturally, I'm a bit perturbed!  After all, Mizuno certainly seems to be
implying that it would be a bad idea for me to report in, so I can't go to
my hotel room because it's probably under surveillance!  So --"

    "You broke into my apartment to find a safe place to sleep?" Ms.
Tsukino asked dazedly.

    "And what do we have for our lovely contestant, Don Pardoe?"
Straczynski replied with heavy sarcasm.

    She slowly sat down in one of the apartment's chairs, and gestured for
him to do the same.  "How ... how did Amy vanish?"

    He took a deep breath, recovering from his explosion.  "We had just
arrived in Tokyo.  I had managed to work things so that we could fly
together.  It was -- anyway, we got through customs, and everything was
going well, when she suddenly --"

    "-- up and disappeared?" Ms. Tsukino guessed.

    He shook his head.  "No, she was paged and asked to come to one of the
phones."  He bowed his head.  "I shouldn't have, but I let her go off to
answer the call while I went to get us a cab.  I should have gone with
her.  When I went to check on her, she was gone.  Airport security
reported seeing her walk away with some woman, with whom she seemed to be
fairly friendly ..."

    Ms. Tsukino slowly nodded, even though her face seemed to be getting
paler and paler.  "Mr. Straczynski ... I think you can go back to your
hotel room without trouble."

    He blinked.  "Huh?  But what --"

    "It's all right," she said with a degree of calm that seemed almost
frightening.  "They aren't concerned with you.  No matter where you go, it
doesn't really matter."

    "Like hell it doesn't!" Straczynski barked.

    "Mr. Straczynski, they're probably watching here, too."

    He blinked.  "Who *are* these guys?" he asked, incredulous.  "And who
are *you*, that they're watching your every move?"

    For a moment, her calm expression wavered ... and then she smiled
sadly.  I'm sorry, Mr. Straczynski, I really don't know anything.  I'm
just a silly friend of your partner, that's all."

    "So what am I supposed to tell Interpol about Mizuno?" he demanded.

    "Just tell them what you told me."  She looked away.  "For all the
good it will do."

    He stared at her, then shook his head and turned to go.  <I don't
believe this situation,> Straczynski thought angrily.

    "Mr. Straczynski?" came the voice behind him.

    "What?"

    "Where are you staying?"

    "It doesn't matter if I go to my hotel?" he asked annoyed.  "Then I'll
probably go there.  The Imperial Hotel."

    "If things change ... I'll try to get in touch with you.  I really am
sorry that you got dragged into this."

    "Yeah, so am I," he snorted, and left.

                                 *   *   *

    "What do you mean, `if things change'?" Luna asked, confused.

    "Luna ... something terrible is happening.  And I think Molly's
involved somehow."  Serena stood up, and picked up her portfolio.  "I
gotta go.  I'm already late."

    "I'll come with you," Luna said.

    She shook her head.  "No pets allowed, remember?  Just wait here, and
if anyone tries to break in, RUN."

    As Luna watched Serena go out the door, a quiet thought occured to
her.  <When I told her that she'd grown up, and that I was was proud of
the results ... I didn't realize that growing up meant that she didn't
*need* me to be a grown-up for her anymore.>

    <So what am I now?>

                                 *   *   *

    Serena stepped out of the elevator, and headed down to the newsroom.
A few people lifted their heads as she walked in, but everyone seemed too
hard at work to really bid her hello.

    At least, almost everyone.  Darien finished up his phone call, and
stood up as she passed his desk.  "Hey!  Welcome back, stranger."

    "Hey yourself," she said, smiling despite herself.

    "Glad to see that you survived.  I'm gonna make a bundle on the
betting pool ..."

    "I didn't miss you at all, you know that?"

    "You wound me," he said, taken aback.

    "Don't tempt me," Serena replied, smiling.

    "Don't tempt *me*," the grim voice behind them said.

    Serena turned to see Molly standing in the door of her office,
unsmiling.  "Uh, hi, Moll ..."

    "You were supposed to be here an hour ago.  What the heck happened?"

    "I-I had some problems with my baggage," Serena lied.  "Uh ... here's
the cartoons," she added, handing Molly the portfolio.

    "Right," Molly said, turning to head into her office.  "Good job, and
welcome back."

    "Uh, Molly?  How are you doing?" Serena asked.  She hesitated a
moment, then asked the hard question.  "How are things at home?"

    Molly didn't look at her as she began to leaf through the portfolio.
"Fine, just fine."

    "Oh.  That's good.  Well, I'll look forward to seeing the cartoons in
the paper tomorr-"

    The door closed behind Molly, almost slamming into Serena's nose.
"-ow," she concluded.  Rubbing her nose, she turned to look at Darien.  He
shrugged vaguely.

    Once again, Serena was torn in two.  In order to find out about
Chibi-Usa's kidnapping from Molly, she'd have to come back as Sailor Moon
... and for all she knew, that might cause Molly to start to remember
about all the things that she was better off never remembering, just as
Serena's presence had started to give Raye back her memories even before
the Mnemonic --

    "WHAT IS THIS *CRAP*?" Molly shouted.

    Dead silence descended on the newsroom.  Molly flung open the door to
her office, and scanned the room until her eyes lit on Serena.  Her face
was almost as red as her hair.  "This ... this ... what *is* this?!" she
hissed at Serena, waving her portfolio.

    "Um ... those are my --"

    "*THIS* is what this newspaper blew a few million yen for you to
produce?  *This* is what you did on your round-the-world romantic
rendezvous?"

    Serena blinked, and then remembered the cover story she'd given Molly
about her real reasons for going on the trip.  <Oh, geeze, no wonder
Molly's upset!>  "I'm sorry, Molly, I'll do better --"

    "The hell you will!  YOU ARE *FIRED*!"

    Serena's jaw dropped.  "M-m-m-moll--"

    "`Sailor Mercury as symbolic of the increasing economic Cold War in
Europe?'  WHAT KIND OF WEIRDO ARE YOU?  You seriously think you can just
waltz in here, dump this kind of bolonga on my desk and get away with it?
LIKE HELL!  Get out of here, and take your stupid Sailor Mercury comic
strip with you!" Molly all but screamed the last as she thrust the
portfolio at Serena.

    Serena, her eyes wide as saucers, slowly reached out and took the
portfolio from Molly's stiff, outstretched hand.  She opened her mouth to
say something, but the furious expression on the face of her "best friend"
stopped whatever it was.  She quietly made her way out of the office, and
it was obvious that she was only just holding in tears.

    Darien's vocal cords finally came unparalyzed.  "Chief," he said,
shocked, "don't you think that you were a little --"

    "Not one word out of you, Chiba!" Molly snapped, her odd accent almost
completely lost to her anger.  "She came in here thinking that she could
take advantage of my friendship to get whatever the hell she wanted!
Nobody does that to me!  Nobody takes advantage of my feelings like that!
NOBODY!"

    She glared at the faces of everyone in the room, and very few of them
could meet that gaze.  Molly wasn't very surprised to see shock or 
contempt in the faces of those who could.  She let out a long breath, and
marched back into the office.  She quietly closed the door behind her.

    And then Molly slumped against the door, holding her face in her
hands, and sobbed silently for a few minutes.  After she had regained some
control over herself, she walked to her desk, picked up the phone, and
dialed a number engraved in her memory.  The call was answered
immediately.

    "Yes," came the voice of the one who called himself the Mastermind.

    "It's done.  I just fired her.  When do I get my daughter back?"

    "Soon, very soon."

    "TODAY!" she insisted, now genuinely as angry as she'd pretended to be
for the newsroom.  "I wanna see her today!"

    The line was silent.

    "PLEASE!" Molly begged.

    "Very well," the Mastermind replied.  "Please come alone to the
following location --

                                 *   *   *

    Serena rode the slow elevator down to the ground floor in a state of
shock.  <I can't believe it.  I can't believe that she just *fired* me
like that!  Over a cartoon about -->

    <Wait a minute.>

    <I never did anything about Sailor Mercury!>

    As the car passed the sixth floor, she opened the portfolio and
searched through it anxiously.  In approximately the middle of the pages,
she found the one Molly had talked about.

    It was a primitive, messy sketch.  The sort of thing that a panicked
amateur would draw in a few minutes.  Sailor Mercury was standing between
several grounds of squiggles.  A word balloon containing the words
"Tasukete Sailormoon!" issued from her lips.  And her face was easily
recognizable, despite everything.

    It was Molly's face.

    And everything fell into place for Serena at that moment, just as the
elevator doors slid open to reveal the main lobby of the building.  Serena
dashed out, startling the small group of people waiting for the elevator,
and headed straight for a phone booth.

    She tapped out her home phone number, and waited anxiously for the
answering machine to pick up.  At last it did, and Serena blurted out
"Luna get down to the newspaper right now hurry!" and slammed the phone
down before the cat could lift the receiver and ask for more information.
She then turned and sprinted back to the bank of elevators, one of which
conveniently opened up just as she arrived.  <For once, things are working
out,> Serena thought dizzily, then started to get into character.

    She stormed into the newsroom, roared "OH YEAH?" and headed straight
for Molly's office.  This time her entrance drew everyone's attention, but
again, only Darien tried to talk to her.

    "Serena, this isn't gonna help --"

    She grabbed him in a two fisted grip around the lapels of his jacket
and pulled his face to hers.  She kissed him with every ounce of the
passion and desire that she'd accumulated, without knowing it, since she'd
lost him.

    It was sweet.  Not as sweet as she'd dreamed it would be, but sweet.

    "I love you," Serena whispered as she let go of his lips.  "Now get
the hell out of my way."  She moved him from her path, and he was too
stunned to resist as she resumed her march towards Molly's office.  "Oh
yeah?!" she repeated as she flung open the door.  "Lemme tell you a few
things about ART, baby!"

    The door slammed shut behind her, and the argument became incoherent
to anyone outside.  Darien slowly regained conscious thought.  <You dirty
old man ...> he thought blearily as he slumped in his seat.

    He noticed, then, that the argument had become extremely quiet.  In
fact, there was no sound coming from the office at all.  Darien slowly and
unwillingly stood up, and wondered if he should go see if they were all
right.

    Then Serena stepped out of the office, her head bowed.  She slowly
walked towards Darien, who got ready to catch her -- she seemed faint, and
after that kiss, she might be inclined to faint into his arms ...

    Serena walked past him, never meeting his gaze.  He turned to follow
her with his eyes as she plodded her way out of the newsroom in dull
silence.  She didn't even show any emotion as she stepped into the
elevator, and the doors slid closed.

    As if cued, Molly popped out of the office then, and came over to
Darien's desk, with an anxious expression.  "Darien, I need your help,"
she said, the accent in full force.

    "Uh ... really? he asked, by turns confused and angry.

    "Yeah," Molly said, nodding rapidly.  "I got a feelin' that Serena is
gonna do somethin' really stupid unless someone keeps an eye on her."

    "Gee, what makes you think so?" Darien asked, anger winning out in his
feelings.  "What did you *say* to her, Molly?  What --"

    "I said some stupid things," Molly replied calmly.  "And now I wanna
make up for them by makin' sure that she doesn't kill herself over them or
nothin'.  Please, Darien, you *know* that she loves you --"

    "I do?"

    "She said so," Molly said in a very cold tone, "didn't she?"

    "Well, yeah, but --"

    "But what?  Please, Darien!  I need your help!"

    Darien considered it for a moment, then sighed, and nodded.  "What do
you need me to do?"

    "Just drive where I tell you to drive, okay?"

    "All right ..."

                                 *   *   *

    Luna scampered down the street, moving faster than she had in ages.
Her bones ached, but Serena had been on the verge of panic when she'd
called ... something that probably wouldn't have frightened her before,
but considering how much her charge had grown up, now scared the living
hell out of her.

    She saw Serena walk slowly out of the building, and slowed down enough
that she didn't bowl her over when she leapt into her arms.  Serena caught
her, but there was a startled expression on her face.

    "Well, what's wrong?" Luna asked, quietly.

    Serena only stared at her with wide, surprised eyes.

    "Serena ..." Luna said, slowly.

    "Ms. Tsukino."

    She slowly turned, giving Luna a clear view of the two large bulky men
in heavy trenchcoats standing behind her, without any expression on their
faces.

    "Ms. Tsukino, we have your friends.  If you want them to live, you'll
come with us," the one of them on the left said.

    Luna watched as Serena swallowed deeply, then nodded quickly.  She
walked towards the large black car that the two youma -- for Luna quickly
realized that that was what they were -- indicated.  She slid into the
back seat.  Luna immediately noticed that there was a glass partition
between the front and the back of the car, and that the rear doors had no
inside handles.  As soon as the doors closed, they were trapped.

    "Serena," Luna whispered, "are you sure about this?  You've got some
sort of plan, right?"

    Serena bent down to Luna's ear, and in as quiet a voice as she could
manage, whispered, "Trust me."

    Luna blinked.  What was wrong with Serena's voice?

                                 *   *   *

    "Okay, make a left here ... and go through here ... and ... yes, here
we are."

    Darien looked around at the run-down neighborhood into which Molly had
told him to drive.  He was confused.  "I don't get it ... what makes you
think that Serena's going to come here?  I mean --"

    "Just a hunch," Molly replied, smiling nervously.  "There's the
building.  Park in front of it, an' we'll go in.  Darien ... ya gotta just
trust me, no matter what what happens.  Trust me, an' do what I tell ya to
do, okay?"

    Darien looked at Molly for a second, then nodded slowly.

    As they walked into the eight story building that Molly had pointed
out, a bored looking receptionist looked up.  She blinked as she saw that
Darien was accompanying Molly.  "Um, excuse me, Ms. Osaka," she said.  "We
have orders to admit only you."

    "Tell your boss that he's my insurance policy," Molly said in a tight
voice.  Darien blinked.  As the receptionist picked up a phone, and
started dialing, Molly looked over her shoulder at him, smiled wanly, and
whispered, "*Trust* me ..."

    "I'm not sure I should ..." Darien replied.

    The receptionist stood, and beckoned them to follow her into the
elevator that stood behind her desk.  They did so, and she pressed the "8"
button.  The elevator began to rise, slowly.

    After a long time, the elevator came to a stop, and the doors slid
open.  The receptionist gestured for the two of them to step out, and they
did.

    The single large room beyond the elevator doors was painted jet black;
floor, ceiling, and walls.  Darien swallowed at the oppressive atmosphere.
In the exact centre of the room sat a black, semi-circular desk, facing
them.  There was a chair on the other side, facing away.

    "You were told to come alone," a soft, male voice came from behind the
chair.

    "Like I said, he's my insurance policy.  You might be sure that I
haven't told anyone else where we were going, but do know how many people
he told, or how many people *they* told?  Anything happens to either of
us, people start talking."

    There was silence.  Then, "Well played.  I suppose that you want your
daughter back now."

    Darien let out a gasp.

    "Damn straight," Molly replied tersely.  "Give her to me!"

    "Very well," the voice said.  The receptionist stepped forward from
behind them, carrying a small child with short pink hair, dark eyes, and a
confused expression.  Molly snatched the child away from the woman, and
examined her carefully.  She finally nodded, and sighed with relief, and
then turned to look at Darien.

    "Darien," she whispered softly.  "You have to take her out of here,
and get as far away from here as possible.  Take her to Civic Hospital ...
that's where her Daddy is."  Molly paused.  "If everything works out all
right, I'll be with the three of you real soon, okay?"

    She carefully handed the child into Darien's arms, then turned to
glare at the desk.  "And I want some answers, too!"

    "Do you."

    "Yeah!  I wanna know what all this was about.  You can let him go,
aside from knowing where this place is, he's got no connection to any of
this.

    The chair slowly turned.

    The young man sitting there was oddly pale, with short cropped brown
hair and large, angled eyebrows.  His eyes were very cold and hard.  He
had a strangely androgynous look to his features, which was emphasized by
his languid gestures and movements.  "You're quite mistaken," he said in
the same tone as always.  "He has a substantial one, although he is not
aware of it.  However, given that he isn't aware, he can leave."

    She looked at Darien, who was holding Chibi-Usa and still staring at
the man behind the desk with an even more confused expression than was on
the child's face.  "Do I know you?" he finally asked.

    A look of pain flashed across the man's face.  "No.  Not really."

    Darien swallowed again, gave Molly one final look and then backed into
the open elevator doors.  They closed in front of him.

    "Okay," Molly said.  "Now I wanna know what this is all about.  Who
are you?  What do you want?"

    The man's features shifted.  His eyebrows became even more angular,
his eyes even darker ...

    ... and his skin slowly turned pale green.

    "Who am I?  My name is Fury.  Or Fiore, if you prefer."

                             To Be Continued.