Otaku Reflected 

Episode One, Part Three 

Only a Little Bit of Trouble 

by Jared Ornstead 

===== 
  

    "Ding Dong!" 
    "I'll get it!" 
    Kasumi, the ever dutiful hostess, got up to answer the doorbell. In 
seconds she'd reemerged, popping her head around the corner to say."Oh, 
Jared. It's for you." 
    Answering her beaming smile with the returning cheer it demanded, 
he popped up out of the cross-legged seat he had only just taken, and 
consciously resisted floating on after her to the door, remembering to 
ground himself to keep his secret and walk normally as he left the room 
and came within view of the delivery person. 
    The man was quite obviously emotionally effected by something. He 
bowed very low, then tipped his delivery cap, then stammered and 
reached out and shook Jared's hand, then he bowed again. "I can't tell 
you what an honor this is, sir." The delivery man stammered, much to 
Jared's confused surprise. 
    The man proffered a modest to small sized parcel, wrapped in brown 
paper. "I followed the instructions just like the anonymous phone call 
said, Mr Skysaber-sama, sir." The poor delivery person got all of his 
honorifics in that he could. 
    Jared accepted the parcel, noting that it was only somewhat thicker 
than paperback size, and therefore a convenient weight that he was well 
familiar with. Without even thinking, he reached into his pouch and 
retrieved a small, utility knife, flipping the blade open with a casual 
flick of his thumb. 
    "The Knife Worth Living!!!" The delivery guy cried in startled 
recognition, obviously delighted and enjoying himself immeasurably. 
    "What kind of a person names their tool something like *that*?" 
Jared asked himself. 
    "YOU DO!!" Cried friends, family members, and passers by who had 
strangely got all together for the rejoinder and vanished immediately 
after. 
    He blinked rapidly, staring at several of the areas, wondering 
*how* someone had concealed themselves there without cutting off 
circulation at the very least. That one was a flowerpot Soun had 
vanished back into. 
    Kasumi met his eyes and nodded quite meekly. "I'm afraid you do." 
    "Okaaay." Jared put the knife back in his pouch for use later. 
    The delivery man was wringing his hat in his hands. "I can't tell 
you what a thrill this has been, sir. Following directions left by that 
anonymous phone call, finding the package right in the spot identified 
- it was in a safety deposit box and the bank only let me in it because 
of a strange phone call *they'd* received, and also that I had the 
passcode and box number that *my* call had told me to use. My service 
didn't even have a numbered Swiss bank account before this, Mr 
Skysaber-sama. But the payment's all there now. If you'll just sign 
here?" 
    Jared had slashed off his typical signature before he'd even 
thought of it. 
    "And here and here and here. And make this one to Cousin Sally." It 
was then that Jared noticed that all of these were autograph books. The 
delivery man exploded inside and grabbed him in a hug, then shook his 
hand, then tipped his hat. Finally, Jared had to shove him out of the 
compound and slam the door, putting his back to it to meet Kasumi's 
startled eyes. 
    A joyous shout echoed from beyond. "Wow!!! A genuine Skysaber 
autograph! If I sell it I could live in luxury, but oh! How do I part 
with this treasure?!? I must keep them all!!!" 
    "Very eager, wasn't he?" Jared asked rhetorically. 
    Nabiki, who'd been watching sardonically since the rejoinder, now 
came over to grab Jared's hand, leading him casually back inside to the 
living room, where she seated him at their table so he could realize he 
was the focus of the entire household's attention and pay out with the 
info. Nabiki leaned, chin on her wrists, elbows on the table. "C'mon, 
we're just *dying* to see what's in that package." 
    [Open it.] Genma flashed a sign (was that man *ever* human for a 
conversation?) 
    "Well?" Soun asked, blowing smoke out of his nostrils. 
    Jared retched and scrambled back over to the sliding screen out to 
the veranda, where he gasped and wheezed, after turning a fair shade of 
purple. As he struggled to regain his breath, he panted. "Sorry. 
Allergic to tobacco." 
    Everybody stared at Soun, who got fairly embarrassed, and snuffed 
out his lit annoyance in an ashtray that Kasumi provided. Mr Tendo then 
put his hand behind his head and laughed it off. "So I forgot, okay?" 
    "Well?" Akane prodded, her attention refocused on Jared now. 
    "Open and see, Shampoo is dying of curiosity." 
    Just as he was beginning to have doubts, opening what had to be a 
special thing with all of these people to see, Jared felt the weight 
lifted from his hands and turned around to see Ranma, dangling by his 
toe tips from the awning overhead, pigtail hanging down as he let the 
empty wrapping paper fall away. 
    Ranma leafed through the pair of paperbacks, flipping through them 
and reading a bit here and there. "I don't get it." He scratched his 
head, balancing one of the books on the tip of his nose as he released 
his toes and flipped around midair to land on his seat. "Ain't your 
mission profile supposed to be in here somewhere?" 
    Nabiki leaned lazily on one of her arms. "Ranma, you know the 
series. Right now some bank official is reading a slip of authorization 
or something about the ownership of a certain deposit box, and all the 
information he sees are the typed words 'You're better off not 
knowing.' Which, as we all know, means The Agency that Skysaber works 
for." 
    This was news to Skysaber, err, Jared. He had a certain feeling 
that if he opened his mouth to *say* it, though, he'd be sitting before 
a video watching the action sequence of a scene just like they'd 
described before he could blink. 
    A small note fluttered out of the pages of one of the two books, 
and instantly the *entire* household, sans Jared, were leaping over one 
another scrambling for it. Nabiki was the one who got it by virtue of 
being mercenary enough to yank Akane's top open before Genma's face and 
thus take her sister, Ranma, Soun and Genma out of the fight. 
    With a delighted grin she cracked the seal on the small envelope 
only to have a small voice proclaim. "Unauthorized Access." 
    Grey smoke billowed out of all the Tendo home's windows to the 
accompaniment of a dull explosion and little shards of tinkling glass. 
    Kasumi opened a window so they could breathe, then went for a broom 
and mop bucket and a call to their repair service. Jared found out they 
got a special frequent customer discount rate. The repair people were 
auto dial 1. 
    As the Nerima crowd fell to arguing, Jared reached out and picked 
up the books that had dropped and opened one. The title sounded 
promising 'Gryphonholt', the cover didn't detract and the back sounded 
good. All of the clues were in place for a really good read. 
    While the others were arguing, he began to immerse himself in 
literary bliss. 
    ~Hmm,~ Nabiki thought. ~Look at the expression of his face. He's 
*certainly* on to something. Could the envelope have been a ruse?~ 
    Jared blinked several times. THAT was the first line of the book??? 
Since when did a.... He was interrupted by Nabiki snatching the novel 
out of his hands, then looking at the page he'd been reading, studying 
it intently. 
    After a brief pause she looked up, waving the book idly in one 
hand. "I don't get it. You were fascinated by page one and all it is is 
this guy getting out of bed in the morning." 
    He frowned at her and accepted the book back. She tried reading 
over his shoulder at the same time he was. But all he saw was the same 
story she'd just mentioned, and so that was all that she saw too. 
    Nabiki sat back on her haunches. ~Now *that's* interesting. I 
wonder if it's been encoded? Some kind of reading between the lines? Or 
maybe....~ 
    Jared managed to keep his emotions under control as the text 
switched back to detailing Nabiki's thought processes, writing them out 
as they happened in generous detail. Then Akane thought about enlisting 
him in her fight against Shampoo, which caused a line from Shampoo's 
perspective about not wanting to offend her Airen while beating up the 
Tendo girl... 
    Startling revelation time: When the others looked at it, it was 
just a book. That's *all* it was. It even avoided active defenses in 
favor of appearing unremarkable and ordinary. But to him it gave 
detailed information on.... 
    His allies? 
    Jared read on for several minutes, following Nabiki's plans on 
blackmailing, swindling, or otherwise coercing the information from him 
about the book. Then he saw, or rather read, as the doubts entered her 
head that *maybe* he just enjoyed a good read. 
    Jared read only a few paragraphs of her speculation about his 
always carrying some reading material around anyway, and maybe it was 
just a character quirk like his... ahem... He had to close the cover 
and lean back, ignoring the escalating fight where Soun was shouting 
something, Genma was capering about, Shampoo was getting into fighting 
mode with Akane, while both Cologne and Ranma were diving for cover. 
    Kasumi was in the kitchen, that left he and Nabiki just there, 
comparative islands of nonreactive stability in the usual type of 
blowup. 
    He *was* always carrying a book about. Did that reflect? It HAD to 
have carried over into the series because Nabiki had brought it up in 
her own mental dialog. And all of the Skysaber-otaku around here had 
expected that package to be his briefing materials... 
    So what if it WAS? 
    A weird thought was surfacing. Jared didn't know how Ranma kept on 
learning those tricks so fast. There were tons of things, even 
regularly occurring things, in anime that just remained mysteries and 
never get fully (or even partially) explained. 
    The only benefit he'd received, much, out of his research to date 
was uncovering that he was always supposed to know about critical 
things ahead of time - that the enemy plans were an open book to him. 
People in all cases he knew about put this down to something akin to 
having red hair, like Ranma's learning ability. It never gets 
explained, it just WAS. 
    The redhead glanced at the paperback book in his hand. 
    So what if the enemy secrets *were* an open book to him? Literally? 
    It would certainly explain him going around with his nose in a 
novel most of the time. An anime explanation for a lifetime habit. 
    Actually, if you take his real life with a sort of anime 
perversity, that made a whole lot of sense in a way. Everything had to 
have an explanation. That didn't have to be told to the audience and it 
*didn't* have to make sense. Why put it in book form when the Synoptic 
Teacher might download it into his mind directly? Actually, there was a 
good answer for that, too. Books were inconspicuous. He'd even seen a 
flash of him reading in a prison cell, they'd never let him keep fancy 
gear such as his Synoptic Teacher under such conditions. 
    Then he saw a tab, and knew, he KNEW, that touching it in the right 
way (only done by him, of course) would change the novel to something 
else - a different title, a different cover and color perhaps. His real 
life habit of going through a book a day would serve him as no one 
*could* ever suspect the Really Important Mission Notes being in 
something so transient. 
    After all, he was changing books all of the time, so long as 
supplies could last. And a paperback in hand was so familiar a 
weight.... He'd sooner lose just about anything before he could 
misplace a paperback. Just like his feet remembered paths, his hands 
registered books, and would remind him if their familiar weight was 
gone. 
    Heck, he'd even playfully imagined out fighting styles, using a 
book in one hand as a weapon. Which, this being a Ranma universe, was 
oddly fitting in a eerie sort of way. He'd even gained middling 
accuracy with them as throwing objects, better than most people got 
with knives... 
    This was all falling together in a really spooky fashion. Even his 
style of dress: every pocket on every pair of pants or shorts he owned 
was rated on its capacity to hold a novel. Then again, not that he had 
much of a wardrobe here to rate. He slid the remaining book into a side 
pocket, focusing in on the first he'd skimmed. 
    Jared checked the material again, opening the cover. 
    Nabiki's plots were done out in detail, recorded while he went over 
other things in his head. She'd reached a conclusion  that her first 
attempt would be to bribe him, next display friendship and hope he'd 
take her on as an ally and tell her secrets, opening up the Agency 
support which would literally give her the world. Other attempts 
considered things that were nastier, including some things that made 
him blush furiously. Once her plotting stopped, the book stopped, the 
rest of the pages were blank. 
    Detail the plot, then stop. That made it easy to read and be 
informed. No blocking it up with trivial stuff. He didn't even have to 
read it while it happened, he could catch up later, as he had time. 
Jared realized he could probably keep up on the secret plots of the bad 
guys, even minor ones like an overly manipulative and greedy sister of 
those he was living with, just by reading like he normally did. 
    He really WAS a superspy! 
    The fight came to one of those natural pauses, in this case brought 
on by Kasumi appearing on scene to deliver snacks. It was amazing how 
fast some good cooking brought peace to the violence. 
    "So now, boy..." Soun lit another cigarette. 
    Akane malleted her father, then pried the offending object from his 
cold, smashed lips and flicked it away, beaming at Skysaber. "Go on." 
She said perkily, holding the mallet dangling behind her waist. 
    Jared had to laugh. It was horrible, but he had to. Imagine! That 
mallet being used for something *other* than to bash Ranma? 

=== 

    It was night in the Tendo home. Jared was lying on a futon in the 
spare bedroom that would eventually become Happosai's. That evening had 
been eventful to say the least. It had started out innocently enough 
when Nabiki had offered to let Jared have a chance to use their bath, 
knowing about his sun sensitivity and saying how much he'd appreciate a 
chance to cool off from the heat of the day. 
    That part had been true, but he just wasn't used to suspecting 
ulterior motives in people, not even Nabiki. So, after securing a line 
of tape across the bathroom door saying, in Japanese, "Police Line, Do 
Not Cross" he'd made use of the facilities. Actually, he'd had a case 
of the willies and fitted both door and window with alarms and then a 
maglock, *then* he'd made use of the facilities. And, like he always 
did when he was in a good mood, he'd soon broke into song, doing a 
selection of love songs and a major portion of one of his favorite 
musicals. After rinsing, he'd donned a martial art gi that someone had 
let him borrow out of old dojo supplies and left to find the family 
arrayed outside the bathroom with snacks and treats, applauding his 
performance. 
    Nabiki'd caught the entire thing on tape and was talking of how 
much the production company would likely pay for an authentic 
recording. Apparently some of his vocal effects cost quite a bit to 
create. 
    What could he do? He threw a long-suffering look heavenward, 
engendering no end of laughter, and went up to sleep. Later that night, 
Jared crawled out of his covers, flipping the caps on several 
marble-like devices that began to illuminate the area well enough to 
see, but not light enough to show through a window curtain or under a 
door. 
    He pulled out the synoptic teacher, sliding it on like a fancy hair 
ornament. It was a bit stretchy, enough so as to hold securely but wear 
comfortably. As expected, his watch face began to blink. The redhead 
called up a catalog of training programs. Now if this worked like he 
thought it was supposed to, he should wake up in the morning with a new 
skill or two. 
    He hoped. 
    He triggered the acrobatics, martial arts (such basics as were 
common to most forms, he was notably short on specific styles), and 
related programs. Considering where he was those were the ones he was 
most likely to use, if only from staying out of the way of the real 
cast. 
    Then the boy went to sleep. 

    The first thought that struck Jared's subconscious mind was that it 
was no longer his subconscious mind doing his thinking. Followed 
quickly by the fact that there was nothing over him... Or under him 
come to think of it. 
    Which was around the time when his conscious kicked in. Just in 
time to find a great impact had sent him flying out past the window 
frame and headfirst towards the Tendo's koi pond. 
    A pond two or three feet deep and with a concrete bottom. 
    Jared tried to flip around in the air, and succeeded only in 
managing a belly-flop in the water. It took just enough force out of 
his fall that he hit the bottom without breaking anything, only driving 
all the breath from his lungs. 
    Unconscious reflexes took hold almost immediately and his body 
responded by gasping in breath to compensate. He wasn't awake enough to 
catch it in time, so he caught a double lungful of water. Tragedy. He 
suppressed the panic reflex even as his body thrashed about. A part of 
his mind that was pure reason concluding that he was likely dead. There 
was no one in this house who would think anything of this. He'd not get 
any kind of aid until he was fully drowned, or close to it. 
    A man could drown in three feet of water, all it took was enough to 
fill the lungs. And his already were. 
    Okay, emergency reflex. The superspy drew in his still foggy, 
slightly panicky mind into a pinpoint of will. With iron resolution he 
commanded his body to adapt, to be able to make use of this stuff, to 
breathe it and *use* it. 
    Somehow it worked. 
    The fog in his mind receded. Jared lay for a few moments on the 
bottom of the pool, letting his lungs fill and empty, letting the panic 
he'd suppressed take the toll it inevitably would. Pain from using the 
dream powers was surely there, but in a background of agony from other 
things it got lost. The water moved heavily though his lungs, he'd have 
to deal with that somehow. But he was alive, and likely to continue 
that way. 
    Someone grabbed the back of his gi and hauled him out of the pool. 
During the transition he found that his newfound change wasn't all that 
perfect. Venting the water from his lungs proved to be a major effort. 
Fortunately he was aided by someone pressing on his back. In a few 
minutes Jared was again breathing air and had recovered enough to look 
at his benefactor. It was Kasumi Tendo. 
    "Say there, son." Soun said, lifting Jared up by the back of his 
gi, having come over now the crisis was done. "Are you alright? You 
stayed down there for a couple of minutes. You had us worried." Jared 
looked around. Genma and son were standing by, their morning training 
interrupted. There was only one other person who could have done this. 
    Akane came downstairs. "Oh, there you are. Sorry, I heard some 
noises in the guest room and forgot you were in there. I thought it was 
a robber." 
    Soaking wet, Jared lurched to his feet triggering what emergency 
reserves he had to do this, he walked over to the girl and slapped her 
as hard as he could in the face. "IDIOT!!!" He screamed. "Are you 
STUPID by choice or by profession? I'm NOT a martial artist! You can't 
hit me like that and expect me to survive! You nearly killed me! If I 
hadn't talked with Shampoo's great grandmother last night I would be 
DEAD!" 
    "WHY YOU!!!" Akane's temper had never had a long fuse. Her stinging 
face had all her attention. Once the stun from that ran out her hammer 
appeared and began its swing. 
    With a sizzle and a hiss three feet of green energy snapped into 
existence. Jared started a swing of his own when Genma and Ranma 
grabbed both combatants from behind and restrained them. 
    "Hey now!" Genma shouted, overriding the argument. "Put the weapons 
away!" Neither complied. "PUT THE WEAPONS AWAY!!!" Genma shouted, right 
in Jared's ear. It stunned him enough that the nerd toy switched off as 
his grip relaxed. 
    Akane followed suit, releasing her hammer back into weaponspace. 
    The grips holding them loosened, but did not release. 
    "Now you'll both apologize." Genma commanded, in a rare show of 
sensibility. 
    Jared bowed to the inevitably of it all. He bowed at the waist, 
using some of that willpower of his to overcome his resentment of what 
she'd done. His stomach was roiling. 
    "I am sorry. My words were overly harsh." 
    Akane wasn't willing to concede that easily, hurt and anger were 
mingled in her eyes in great amounts. She shook out of Ranma's grasp 
and walked away in a huff. If she wasn't so upset Ranma would be 
hearing about how he'd grabbed her. Right now her stinging face and 
pride held all her attention. 
    Jared was released and went upstairs. Okay, Akane now held him in 
approximately the same status as Ranma: Hammer-fodder. But at least 
he'd learned something from the experience. Two somethings. One was 
that he made noises sleeping with the synoptic teacher. If this morning 
were any indication he'd have to find a safer location if he were to 
continue to use it, which he wanted to do. 
    Second, was that the recorded skills worked, after a fashion. He'd 
been able to partially affect his flight with acrobatics. Now that he 
was awake he realized it, that had been a good moment to fly, but he 
hadn't thought of it then. Then there was his performance with the nerd 
toy. 
    Akane might be the worst of the whole flock of martial artists in 
Nerima, but she was still a great deal better than he'd ever expected 
to be. He couldn't ordinarily have drawn before she'd malleted him, 
probably killing him as he didn't have Ranma's iron skull. But he *had* 
drawn. 
    So his skill had improved, it just didn't put him on par with the 
rest of these people. It had, however, caused an intervention that had 
very possibly saved his life. 
    Priority of events: Order his body to increase his reflexes and 
musculature. The experience with the pond had taught him that he could 
give his body certain orders to alter itself. Time to have it 
supercharged, though that kind of change would probably take weeks. 
    Second, he was amphibious now. That was not an advantage to throw 
away. He could take advice from a good science fiction book or two and 
really expand on that. He'd always loved swimming, now he could be even 
better at it. An advantage in water was not something to take lightly 
in the Ranma universe. 
    When Kasumi took pity on Jared and brought him up some breakfast he 
was lying unconscious on his mat and shuddering in the throws of 
illness. 
    Inhaling koi pond water is not exactly healthy. 

=== 

    Chad had been right - it was possible to forget about many things 
in the serenity 
that surrounded the Temple. It was late spring, and the grounds were 
scattered with the pink and white blossoms of the cherry trees, the 
birds constantly singing and the air was warm. Somewhere, somebody was 
humming. It all brought together the sort of atmosphere for complete 
peace. 
    Sunlight streamed through the branches, casting a serene 
golden-green glow beneath the trees. Fiona walked slowly through the 
trees, pretending to stumble every now and then for her 'older brother' 
who was watching her. After all, she was still supposed to be 
recuperating from her collapse days ago. ~Sixteen years old.~ Fiona 
thought, shaking her head in awe. ~And somehow I'm engaged to be 
MARRIED.~ 
    ~How must she have felt? Being forced into MARRIAGE of all things 
at that young an age?~ Not for the first time, Fiona wondered what had 
happened to the girl of this world when she had arrived, having already 
forgotten the bulk of Pluto's advice. ~Is she still out there 
somewhere? Feeling miserable with her husband?~ 
    ~How would I feel if I were in her place?~ Fiona shuddered. ~Ack! I 
guess I AM in her place! But I mean, I don't have all that many dreams 
in the first place, and I know I'd hate to be kept away from all of 
them. All my life, taught by tutors and to have only one dream... and 
then to have THAT dream taken away as easily as milk is spilled.~ 
    But a worry closer to home, so to speak, was precisely why she was 
here. ~I didn't think of it when I was standing in front of Sailor 
Pluto but it doesn't make SENSE now. Why do they need Sailor Earth to 
appear?~ It was the same question that had began to repeat itself for 
the past couple of days that she had been here. ~They don't need a 
Sailor Earth at all! I mean, Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and Pluto 
didn't appear till late in the third and fourth series. So why does 
Sailor Earth have to exist? Who'd notice her appearance or lack 
thereof? Especially since I'm not supposed to fight or anything like 
that.~ 
    If it had occurred to her she might've regretted being so 
bubble-headed for her first briefing, but the sheer nature of being 
bubble-headed is that it never does. 
    ~But I'm here, and Susan gave me the stick to transform. I mean, I 
actually might TRANSFORM (It still boggled her mind) and then be a 
Sailor for heaven's sakes! Would Chad recognize me for his sister? What 
if I'm a MARRIED SIXTEEN YEAR OLD for pity's sake! So why? What's the 
reason for all of this? Why am I here? I mean, if she wanted me to FIX 
the disturbance - who know's how I'd do THAT - she would've told me, 
and certainly not just dumped me here without anything to go by. But 
she doesn't. She said it herself. I'm only here to fill in the space 
that another person created when *he* entered.~ 
    It didn't make sense. And if there was ONE thing that Fiona hated, 
it was being dumped into a situation with her eyes figuratively bound, 
and then left to figure everything out on her own. 
    ~I mean, am I or AREN'T I supposed to be Sailor Earth, as in 
transformation, saving people and everything? If I was supposed to be, 
wouldn't I know?~ She glanced down at herself. ~I'm still built the 
same. I don't know any martial arts, I don't even know HOW to 
transform. So how am I supposed to help, if I'm suppose to be Sailor 
Earth?~ She sighed and sat down underneath the tree, watching as petals 
trickled down from above from the force of her landing. ~Why can't life 
be easy? Heck, why can't my DREAMS be easy?~ 

=== 

    After days under Kasumi's care, with the occasional home visit by 
Dr. Tofu, Jared emerged from his cocoon feeling well for the first time 
in half a week. He'd made good use of the synoptic teacher, and had 
finally gathered the energy to use his powers to throw off the illness. 
    A little pain verses alot of misery was a good trade, and it seemed 
to be hurting less when he did things that way. 
    On the morning of his recovery he went to wash and stopped in 
amazement as he undressed. It wasn't at all unusual to lose weight 
during a long illness. What *was* unusual was all that lean muscle mass 
he had grown in to replace it. It looked like his command for his body 
to fine tune itself had been taken seriously. Even lightly flexed his 
muscles were like iron, clinging tightly against his frame. 
    Which placed him in about the same boat, physique-wise, as Ranma 
and Ryoga and crowd. Now if only he could acquire their skill, because 
muscles weren't ability. 
    Not entirely. 
    There were three elements to any physical skill. The knowledge of 
how to do it, the body's memory of what doing it feels like (called 
reflexes), and then the physical capability. 
    He'd just acquired the physical capability with a vengeance. He was 
in great form. Admittedly he'd taken a shortcut but was there 
nonetheless. He'd exhausted the synoptic teacher's martial arts 
programs, which gave him a decent knowledge of basic form and black 
belts in a half a dozen styles (no more than base level by local 
standards, but something to work off of). What he needed now was 
relentless practice, and a little good instruction. Then he might 
actually qualify as decent, or at least not quite so bad. 
    The ability to fight he was beginning to regard as a basic survival 
skill around here. 
    Kasumi had gone shopping for him, allowing him something of a 
selection of clothes, though the T-shirts featuring his anime series 
were a bit of a shock. Genma had somehow had the insight to raid the 
dojo's supplies and left a half dozen new, plain, white, martial arts 
gis for him. 
    Considering that this was to be a training day, Jared tossed a gi 
on with a white t-shirt underneath and belted it all with his waist 
pouch. Then he went jogging barefoot, as was his wont. He had some 
things to test, and didn't feel like dropping by a major medical 
facility for an examination. If the things he'd planned before his 
illness were in place, then he'd be able to tell when they functioned. 
    Actually, his modifications could well have contributed to his 
illness. Diverting energy and having his body change like that could 
well be compared to sustaining a major injury. It would require 
resources away from dealing with the illness... Well, he hoped it 
hadn't been wasted effort. 
    Jared leaped to the top of a fence and began running full tilt, 
using his flying abilities to nudge himself back in line when his 
balance failed, which was all too frequently. Hopefully he'd get better 
with a little practice. 
    Or lots of it. 
    Sprinting like this had a reason. He'd ordered a lung change, 
adding an extra tube and wiring them like bird lungs. Humans replaced 
approximately 20% of their lung volume when breathing. The same tube 
was used going in and out led to significant backwash. Bird lungs have 
a tube going in and another going out the apposite end, so they don't 
have the same problem with backwash and can replace nearly the whole 
lung volume with a single breath. 
    The practical application of that is staggering. Birds wheel and 
play where humans need heavy oxygen equipment just to survive. But more 
than that, fatigue is more a matter of running out of free oxygen in 
the blood than anything else. Once the available oxygen is used up a 
man's metabolism switches over to anaerobic mode, which builds up 
toxins in the muscle mass that is doing it - toxins which impair the 
system and can only be removed by relaxing and gulping in enough new 
oxygen for the body to remetabolize those toxins all over again. With 
the ability to breathe more efficiently a man could, in theory, run 
until he ran out of food energy to power his cells. Exhaustion would 
cease to have any normal meaning. 
    After half an hour of heavy sprinting punctuated by leaps and 
bounds Jared got the clear impression that it'd worked. Though, like 
everything, it wasn't perfect. He'd neglected to account for cell 
damage from exertion and a ton of minor things. The chief limiting 
factor seemed to be how quickly his blood could circulate materials, 
with every body part making high demands it couldn't carry everything 
required for long periods. He couldn't run full force until doomsday. 
    Still, he could run a *long* time and not feel it, then recover 
quickly. 
    He'd probably have to order a regenerative aspect to deal with the 
cell damage. It wouldn't do to injure himself in finding out what his 
new limits were. Might as well retard the aging process at the same 
time, the two were reasonably related. The blood efficiency was going 
to be a trickier problem. 
    He was beginning to LIKE this! 
    So, it was time to test the other aspect. He looked around for a 
nearby pond, and found one in a park. There were boats and couples 
hanging out. It was a nice place but the water wasn't nearly deep 
enough. Wading depth only. 
    Jared wanted to test his water modifications. Still, he supposed he 
could find another place. The redhead hopped back to the top of a 
fence. He was about to start running away again when a trio of 
schoolgirls ran up and accosted him. 
    "Excuse me," the girls pressed around with dazzled eyes. "We've 
been hearing *alot* about how an authentic Skysaber has been found. Are 
you him?" 
    Jared hopped back off the fence with an aerial flip. Strictly for 
performance and also because he wanted to get the hang of them. He was 
cheating a little, so it looked alot more impressive than it was. 
    "Yes, that's me." 
    One of the girls grabbed him and kissed him. He rocked back in 
shock, but neither her lips nor her grasp released. Another girl 
clasped her hands together. "Oh! he looks just like my old boyfriend!" 
    The long haired blonde released him, clasping her hands together 
and getting stars in her eyes. "I've kissed the Virgin Casanova!" 
    Jared was ready to scuttle away backward on hands and knees when 
the third girl knelt down beside him. She had short blue hair and 
seemed less threatening. She also had a pen and notebook. 
    "Excuse me, but would you mind signing this for me?" She inquired 
softly. 
    Somehow she looked awfully familiar, but Jared couldn't immediately 
place why. He accepted the notebook, thumbing the pen so he could 
write. "Who do I make it out to?" 
    "Make it out to Amy." 
    Shuddering chills passed through him. NOW he knew where he'd seen 
her. He wasn't much of a Sailor Moon fan, but he'd seen a fair amount 
of it. He started scribbling the note. "Uh, Amy. Could you tell me, do 
you have any friends who collect Sailor-V comics?" 
    "Not really. I know they have some, but mostly they collect 
Skysaber comics. We're all really great fans." Her two friends nodded 
eagerly at this. 
    Jared almost rolled his eyes. *Another* group he had no secrets 
from! "I'm flattered. You look, what? Fourteen, fifteen? Are you going 
to high school?" 
    "Not yet, we're still finishing up with middle school." 
    "Cool. Well, here you go." He handed back the notebook, the other 
two girls were standing by with stars in their eyes. On a hunch he 
pulled a tiny device from his pouch, it looked like a small locket on a 
chain. He decided to present it to the one who'd kissed him. 
    "Miss, seeing as...." 
    "A Remote Tracking Unit!" All three girls cried in gleeful 
simultaneous recognition. The blonde girl snatched it to her breast. 
    "You want to know where I LIVE!!! You're **INTERESTED** IN ME! 
Here!" She yanked out the hem of his t-shirt, scribbling on it with her 
pen. "This is my telephone number and street address, some times when I 
can be reached... I'll be ready on Thursday night if you want to pick 
me up." She dropped his shirt hem and turned to blush alluringly. 
    Jared could only stand and stare in shock. What good was it being a 
superspy if everyone knew all about your supposedly secret toys? 
    He dropped a nod. "Yes, Sailor Venus. I'd be very interested in 
going on a date with you." He leaped back atop the fence. 
    The girls STARED at him, jaws agape. 
    "How... how did?" The blonde girl asked. 
    The redhead chuckled. "One fact that seems to have escaped all the 
comics and videos around me is that my mother is named for the goddess 
of the moon. See you on Thursday." 
    He leapt and ran away, moving hopelessly fast. 
    Amy dropped her eyes from his disappearing back down to her 
notebook. There was a sketch of the solar system, her face drawn in for 
mercury. 
    The note said 'Thanks for defending the universe.' 
    "Well, he *is* a superspy." The brown-haired girl offered. 

=== 

    The praying room was silent other than the rhythmic sound of 
breathing. The girl sat in the center of the room on a cushion, her 
eyes closed as she sat in a classical meditating pose. Chad stared at 
his sister. ~She's changed so much.~ He thought. ~It's only been a year 
since I last saw her... The doctor says her memories are gone because 
of the stress, that there isn't a physical reason, that they'll all 
return in good time, but I wonder if that's a good thing.~ He thought, 
standing there silently. ~She's so much more... at peace with the 
world. More matured and yet... less cynical.~ 
    Though it pained him, the Fiona he remembered had been 
sophisticated. From birth their parents had taught them how to fit into 
their world. His earliest memories were standing silently with Fiona in 
the middle of a garden party while they had all played 'the loving 
family' before the guests. Fiona had known how to fit in, as she grew 
older, she had been able to give the witty rejoinders and the sarcastic 
remarks that bit through the hardest armor. 
    ~But now - she's... changed.~ 

    Fiona knew that Chad was in the room. For the sake of her disguise, 
she had to allow him to observe her at times, if only so that he 
wouldn't get suspicious. ~The last thing I want to do is cause a 
disturbance in the Universe's timeline.~ Although, if she DID, she 
thought guiltily, then she would be able to stay here for longer. And 
regardless of all the questions that remained to hound her, it was... 
well, peaceful here in the Temple. ~What do I have to do when I get 
home? Go to school and get worried then stressed over grades and what's 
going on at the house? It's nice here.~ 
    But still, she had been brought her for a reason, and that reason 
was to help (if only by being there) solve the problems. By her honor, 
she could not cause what she was here to prevent, not for her own sake. 

    The sound of screaming jerked both Fiona and Chad from their 
thoughts. 
    "What in - ?" Chad ran over to one of the open windows (it got hot 
in the praying rooms, especially closer towards summer when the Holy 
Fire heated up all the connecting rooms. After all, it WAS a fire). 
    A strange feeling filled Fiona. A sense, a ... *knowing* that 
something was horribly, *horribly* wrong. Almost unconsciously, she 
began to back out of the praying room toward the entrance. Beyond the 
sounds of screaming, this time discernible as the supplicants, came 
voices. 
    "The Power here is incredible, m'lord!" Sounded a deep voice that 
reminded her of the stereotype voice dumb jock. 
    "The world here is ripe for the taking, m'lord!" Said a higher 
voice that squeaked off pitch every now and then. 
    "Would the two of you both be quiet and just start gathering!" Came 
a third, this one a tenor voice that sounded irritated. 
    "Well, you don't need to shout." 
    "Do you WANT to die?!" 
    "Gathering, m'lord!" Replied the two lackey voices in unison. 
    "GET AWAY FROM ME!" Screamed a young girl, here for a fortune and 
now trying to resist getting 'gathered', whatever that was. 
    "They're feisty on this world!" 
    "ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" 
    Fiona ran towards the door and out into the open courtyard just in 
time to see the last of the supplicants falling to her knees, staring 
at an ugly squat creature in horror, before falling limply over. What 
met Fiona's eyes as she rose up shocked her. The only description she 
could use was three heads perched on long, serpentine necks connected 
to the body of a squashed dragon. All in all, it had to be the 
*ugliest* think she had EVER seen in anime. Or, as it was, an anime 
universe. 
    "On behalf of planet Mars, I WILL PUNISH YOU!" 
    Fiona breathed a sigh of relief as a familiar red-uniformed girl 
appeared, flames roaring around her. 
    "Hey look! Short skirts must be in here!" One of the heads gloated, 
leering at the Sailor. The head was green colored with a shock of black 
hair and goblin ears and was the one with the dumb jock voice. 
    "I don't think *that* counts as a skirt, M'vik." The third head 
remarked. This head was orange with blue hair and no ears, just holes. 
    "Well what would you count it as D'vik?" 
    "Fodder." Interrupted the middle head. It was the strangest pallor, 
corpse white with streaks of blue, and it had three eyes. "FIRE!" It 
shouted. 
    All three heads turned and opened their mouths, inhaling. 

    Rae had been having a horrible day when the monster attacked. First 
off, Mina had come over and spent four hours raving about this 
character out of a sitcom called Skysaber. (She kept claiming that he 
was actually a real person). Then Chad had vanished before all the 
leaves were swept off the temple stairs and Grandfather had gone 
chasing after some young girls who had arrived early to pray, which 
meant Rae had to chase after him, which made her late in her chores. 
And now! When she FINALLY had time alone for herself, this monster HAD 
to decide to attack HER temple of all places! 
    ~I ask you, why not DOWNTOWN TOKYO? I mean, WHY a Shinto temple?~ 
She cast the thoughts up to an OBVIOUSLY deaf deity. He had ceased 
listening to her at about 9:05 am when Mina had appeared. 
    "FIRE!" Shouted the middle head of the hideous three-headed 
dragon-thingy (as Rae had labeled it almost immediately). Rae found 
herself leaping easily out of the way of three rays of fire. It was 
almost enough to make her laugh. 
    "So, you think you can beat me with *fire* do you?!" She teased, 
bringing her hands forward, "THIS will show you for interrupting me 
when I'm so behind!" She shouted. "BURNING MANDALA!" 
    A circle of flaming disks formed and shot out to surround the 
dragon-thingy, within seconds the creature had flared and was reduced 
to a merrily burning spot on the ground. 
    "There!" Mars said, brushing her hands, "THAT does it... what?" She 
screamed as a stream of flame hit her in the back. 

    Fiona watched in horror as three large flames seemed to *separate* 
from the central fire. She opened her mouth to scream a warning when 
the flames threw something at Sailor Mars. The flames seemed to bleed 
off their fire, till all that was left were three grotesque looking... 
dwarves? 
    ~Dwarves? Carrying FLAMETHROWERS?~ Fiona stared in shock, then in 
horror as Mars was hit again from all sides as the Dwarves advanced. 
    "Oh, you know who isn't going to be pleased. The dragon projector 
took him forever to make, and now it's down." The black haired jock 
dwarf warned. 
    "With the power from this trouble maker, maybe you-know-who will be 
appeased." The middle head said, still corpse white but with two eyes 
and a sort of circlet around his forehead as he snarled. "Keep her 
entertained and I'll start the draining." 
    "Yes, m'lord!" the two other dwarves chorused. 
    The flames spun out again, causing Rae to scream in pain as her 
uniform blazed. Even the powerful magic that surrounded her beginning 
to fray under the combined might of the unrelenting assault. 
    ~DO SOMETHING~ Fiona's mind shrieked, staring on in disbelieving 
horror that had her numb from shock. ~Disturbing the timeline for YOUR 
sake is one thing, but to SAVE a life... particularly a main 
character.~ Fiona stared down at her hands helplessly. ~But how do I 
TRANSFORM?~ She thought in horror, frozen in her incompetence. 
    The main dwarf was chanting and Rae began screaming more shrilly. 
    ~Like in the television shows remember?~ Fiona coached herself, 
reaching for the transformation pen. ~Oh golly, PLEASE let this work!~ 

    Mars knew that if she didn't start fighting back, she was done for. 
Only once had she ever felt this weak. ~And that time I died fighting 
those minions of Queen Beryl in that last battle.~ The thought still 
made her shudder. ~I HAVE to live through this! I don't even have a 
boyfriend yet! Serena will tease me endlessly!~ 
    But she couldn't, the pain took over her mind, making thought 
impossible, and Rae knew that she was going to die. The certainty of 
that fact frightened her more than anything else in the world. ~Oh! Let 
the others get here soon!~ 
    But she knew they wouldn't. 
    Dimly, she heard something, as if from far away. 
    "EARTH STAR POWER!" the intensity of the flames continued unabated. 
    "Earth PLANET Power!" 
    "earth power?" 
    Even in the darkness and pain - in the place where the pain seemed 
less connected to her, she found the place to smile. ~Sounds like 
somebody's trying to transform and doesn't know how to do it.~ 
    "ARGH! Why won't it WORK?!" The voice came again, this time 
snarling. "Come ON! Sailor Pluto! HELP ME! She's going to DIE if I 
don't!" 
    Then suddenly, silence. Blessed silence, as if she was dead. Except 
the pain was still there in the silence. ~Surely the pain ends when I 
die, right?~ 

    Fiona lifted her hand up into the air like she had seen countless 
times on the TV set. "EARTH STAR POWER!" She shouted. ~Come on! Hurry, 
I need to save her!~ It was several precious seconds before she 
realized *nothing* was happening. ~Oh spit.~ "Earth PLANET power!" She 
shouted desperately, trying a different tone. When that failed to 
produce anything she meekly cried. "earth power?" 
    Nothing was happening. Desperation gripped her and she felt 
foolish. "Why won't this WORK?!" ~Rae! Please, hold on! I can save 
you!~ 
    "Come ON!" She shouted, as if those words might do what everything 
else had not. But they did not answer her pleas either. If only she 
could get the transformation to work she might help Rae. ~Come on! I 
KNOW I can do this! I almost transformed once in front Sailor Pluto. It 
nearly worked... PLUTO!~ "Sailor Pluto! HELP ME! She's going to DIE if 
I don't!" But there was no answer from there either. A deadly silence 
had entered the courtyard as the three dwarves had turned to stare at 
this weird human screaming words and phrases like some mad person. 
    "Please." Fiona pled. "To save Sailor Mars, I need this!" She threw 
all her belief, all the power she had over dreams and nightmares, for 
this was certainly a nightmare, into her thoughts... 
    And suddenly it was there. A glowing stone that shimmered in green, 
brown, red and blue, hovering in the air before her. 
    "Finally." Fiona muttered grasping the stone. She felt a flash of 
heat, then cold, then wind blowing and finally, a sense of... 
*Belonging.* And when she opened her eyes, she could feel the uniform 
swirl around her. 
    "I am the Protector of Earth." She said, staring at the three 
dwarves, feeling the anger that roared through her beginning, "YOU who 
have hurt one of those under my care." She whispered, the words 
traveling easily through the silence, "Will suffer." 
    "Yeah right, short-skirt." D'vik said sarcastically. "M'lord, shall 
we roast her or take her back to *you* know." 
    "Roast her, then we can take both their power back." The dwarf lord 
said, lifting up his flame thrower, "This world has slightly more 
powerful beings than we originally thought." He added, "I have never 
SEEN this much power in merely one being." 
    "I have never FELT such power." M'vik muttered, rubbing his arm 
where one of Mars's mandalas had burned. 
    "FIRE!" The evil dwarf lord commanded. 
    ~Oh spit! I transformed. But now how do I attack?!~ Fiona thought, 
as she stared at the three deadly weapons aimed at her. 
    ~Believe.~ A voice deep inside her whispered. ~The energy is there. 
The words are merely the shapers.~ She lifted her hands into the 
familiar attack position seen so often on television, but one which she 
had never known how to use. 
    She still didn't. 
    But at that moment, she did not need to know. Things seemed to slow 
down as the flames roared towards her. The strangely familiar weight of 
something strapped to her left arm and another appeared in the palm of 
her right. The flames were coming closer, she could feel their heat. 
    Almost automatically, she raised her left arm before her and 
watched as the flames parted before her as if they had hit something 
invisible, yet unbreakable. ~Earth Shield!~ A voice crowed in the back 
of her mind. Then she realized she was carrying a long, thin, sword in 
her right. 
    "You will pay for what you have done." Sailor Earth said, stepping 
forward as a wind began to blow where one had not before. "I am Sailor 
Earth, Protector of this Planet, and I call upon the four elements to 
triumph over evil, and even get a good boyfriend!" The wind rose to a 
pitch as the three dwarves backed away, surprise, fear and confusion 
flashing over their faces. 
    "The Power Meter is shooting off the scale, m'lord!" M'vik 
reported. 
    "What is going on?" 
    "Where did she get those weapons from? They just appeared in front 
of her!" 
    "Just keep firing! Sooner or later we're bound to get through her 
shields!" Their leader snapped. The flames licked around the barrels of 
their flamethrowers, turning blue as the heat intensified. 
    "NOW! COMBINE THE FLAMES NOW!" their leader shouted. 
    What closely resembled a special-effects supernova took over 
Fiona's entire field of view. 
    ~Oh spit.~ 
    A thin lance of light beamed down and struck one of the squat 
dwarves in the pack. The flamethrower fuel combined explosively and 
rocked the temple with the shock wave of an expanding, though 
thankfully localized, fireball. 
    Fiona's shield shoved at her, but held. 
    A young man in a white martial arts gi and a white Zorro-type mask 
landed next to the Sailor. "Don't object to a little assistance, I 
hope?" 
    The man dove away as the twin dwarves tried to incinerate him. He 
holstered his snub nosed laser pistol and activated a beam sword and a 
glowing energy shield, moving to flank the remaining dwarves. 
    "Looks like you guys forgot about the fundamental weakness of a 
flamethrower: Their nasty tendency to explode when hit." He chuckled, 
whipping off a surprise blast from his supposedly holstered pistol. The 
dwarf he'd aimed for only narrowly evaded having his fuel pack hit. 
Both dwarves turned and attempted to roast the martial artist, but 
rather than take it on his shield the man avoided it in an impossible 
forty-foot aerial leap. 
    Which gave a newly recovered Fiona a chance at her second wind and 
an opening to slice at one of them. 
    An opening she did not miss. 
    Her sword bit into the dwarf's muscled shoulder. D'vik howled in 
pain, but the solidly built squat form didn't wilt under it. He tried 
to elbow his attacker with a stony arm, but ended up with another chunk 
taken out of his shoulder for his trouble. Sailor Earth shoved her 
sword into his face, forgetting for a moment that from her angle that 
meant her blade would hit his fuel tank if she missed. 
    She didn't precisely miss, taking out a divot of the creature's 
cheek before her weapon glanced off bone and went on to rupture the 
tank. 
    Completing a flight-powered evasive vault, the man in white watched 
the blow. He knew that he wasn't fast enough for a Ranma-style leap in 
and rescue, and Mars was lying in the blast radius as well. 
    Helpless, reacting on instinct like he would in a dream, Jared 
twisted and landed with a palm shoved toward the creature, chanting 
loudly and swiftly. 

    "Power of water, wind and earth, 
    Turn the fire back to its birth. 
    Raise the spell to shield the flame 
    By the power that I have tamed!" 

    The flamethrower exploded. But the blast was directed straight up 
so that even Sailor Earth, standing not three feet away, was completely 
unharmed. 
    But the martial artist had left his back undefended. He'd been 
relying on speed and the shield on his arm to defend him before. Fiona 
saw the other dwarf raising his flamethrower nozzle where neither would 
help him. 
    And it didn't matter. 
    Fiona was *MAD* at these short freaks and upset by her own 
helplessness earlier. Both of which combined into a fury of epic 
proportions that overcame her unexpected squeamishness. 
    "EARTH EMPOWERMENT!" 
    The words slid from her mouth almost unconsciously - which was 
where Fiona headed seconds later as she slid to the ground, her uniform 
unwinding around her. But for a moment fire had ripped forth from her 
outstretched hands, carried by hurricane force winds and followed by a 
hail of fist-sized stones and a crash of water. 
    M'vik tried resisting it, hunkering down and bracing against the 
attack. He didn't last a second as the elemental fury tore into him, 
battering him and swiftly detonating his fuel pack. 
    Fortunately for Fiona, there were no witnesses to her 
detransformation - except for the dwarf. But seeing as how it was - 
preoccupied (in several different locales) and it's explosion has 
shielded her from the other man's sight - it was doubtful that anyone 
knew her secret identity. 
    She fell to the floor, blending in with all the other drained 
bodies. 

    The explosion brought Jared back from the grips of the strange 
feeling casting the spell had thrown him into. Swiftly taking stock of 
his surroundings he confirmed that all the opponents had been dealt 
with, then rushed to kneel at the side of the fallen Sailor Mars. 
    She was in *bad* shape, and not likely to survive until somebody 
else showed up who could heal her. If Serena wasn't on hand, she wasn't 
going to get there in time. If he couldn't do something Sailor Mars was 
as good as dead. 
    Biting his lip, he raised both his hands and held them above Mars' 
body, calling out the only rhyme he knew that might fit the need. 

    "By the love that is intended, 
    let this damsel's burns be mended." 

    Thankfully, no sooner was his rhyme completed than both his hands 
began to glow. Rae's body began to knit and mend under their soft 
illumination. Being burned is a nasty way to die, but he held the spell 
until the last ravages of the fire had faded away, until even her hair 
was once again flawless and smooth. 
    Jared reeled and nearly fell when he released the healing effect. 
He was fighting that oddly giddy sensation that comes when your body 
goes way beyond its normal limits and is forced to function anyway. 
    Sailor Mars blinked and swam back to the world of the living. 
    Mars smiled. 
    "About time you got it right." She coughed. "Never seen anyone try 
so many times to get their transformation to work." 
    Mars blinked again, the rest of her body stirring. She sat up and 
rubbed her eyes, then looked at her hands and legs. She tossed a bright 
smile to her benefactor, but to her surprise found only the drained 
bodies of temple-goers around her. 
    "Say, where did you go? Don't I even get a chance to thank you?" 
Her eyes widened as they found the one figure that was not sleeping, a 
man all in white standing silhouetted as he gripped the doorframe of 
the temple. 
    "Who?" Rae asked, wondering. 
    The man spoke, the afternoon sun behind him blurring his features. 

    "Hope springs eternal in the human breast, 
    But it is Reason that lays our worries to rest. 
    Use your wits against those who are wrong, 
    Strike at their weakness and you will be strong." 

    The sunlit man in flowing white nodded. "Your enemies are dead, 
Sailor Mars. You have fought well. But try to take better care of 
yourself. There's a shortage of breathtakingly lovely young ladies in 
this world. It would have been a pity to lose one as nice as you." 
    "But wasn't there a Sailor Earth?" Mars stumbled out, then the 
compliment registered and her eyes went all starry and a hand flew 
demurely to her rosy cheek. "Oh, wow!" 
    "Your companion vanished before I could heal your wounds." The 
stranger spoke, then he saluted her and disappeared, superimposed over 
the image of a scroll. 
    Sailor Mars stood glittering for several minutes after the stranger 
had vanished, then she got ahold of herself, looking around. "Oh, well, 
I guess I can find Sailor Earth later. Probably at the next battle, I 
guess." She clasped her hands and her eyes again went all starry. "Oh, 
what a hunk!" 
    Jared lay on the floor, unmoving. He'd nearly fainted and had 
thought that the best defense lay in whipping off his mask and just 
appearing to be a normal body. He had no idea that he was the second 
one to do that today, though he was the first to do so intentionally. 
    Of course, calling for an illusion to allay her fears and cover his 
'exit' had been an idea that could use some work. He'd had no idea that 
the brief, emotional burst of instructions as he'd created it would 
give that image such a creative streak. Still, when you've got no time, 
the imperatives, 'allay her fears' and 'stay in character without 
disclosing my identity' were the best he could do. 
    Now that he thought about it, however, 'in character' for someone 
who'd saved a Sailor Scout was pretty much what it'd done. 
    Silly, but appropriate. 
    Jared decided to be the first of the drained bodies to 'awake'. 

=== 

    Jared arrived home just as Nabiki was returning from after-school 
trading. "Ah, Skysaber. Just the man I wanted to see. Kasumi called and 
told me you'd recovered. I took the liberty of enrolling you in our 
school. You'll just have to show some proper ID when you go with us 
tomorrow." She laughed lightly. "Which shouldn't be a problem 
considering your toys." 
    He heard what she said, but part of his mind was still dwelling on 
that fight at Rae's temple. Mina had carried his tracking device in 
spite of knowing what it was, and her movements had given him some 
useful information about the hangouts and places the Scouts tended to 
visit. 
    Luckily, he'd been checking them out and had been right by the 
temple when the attack had come. Jared brought himself back to the 
present. "I shudder with anticipation." He told Nabiki. 
    She laughed, putting a hand on his arm. "I want you to know that 
you can trust me, Skysaber. If you know as much about my family and me 
as we do about you then I probably couldn't get away with anything 
anyway." 
    His eyes grew wild. "Nabiki, the only time you ever pull the 'trust 
me' act is when you have some plot stirring and want to keep the sucker 
from finding out about it in time. What's up?" 
    Her face lost its mask of detachment. "We really *are* a series 
where you came from, aren't we?" She asked, looking displeased with his 
revelation of knowledge. 
    He nodded. "So I *could* go enroll myself in some other high 
school, or..." 
    Jared let the threat hanging. 
    Nabiki nodded in defeat. "Okay, Skysaber. I've got alot of bets 
running at school about whether you really are who you say you are. 
Then I've got a few people signed up who are interested in meeting you, 
and I accepted payment to bring you to school with us. Are you 
satisfied?" 
    He threw himself down on the couch, somehow landing without much 
force. "I guess I can live with that, Nabiki. How much do you owe me 
for this?" 
    She blinked. 
    "Moi? Here you are a guest in our house and you dare to bring up 
the subject of debt?" She tragically raised the back of a wrist to her 
forehead, not looking at him. "Here we nurse you back practically from 
the brink of death without asking the slightest reward in return and 
you have the gall to ask for payment on an eensy-weensy favor!" 
    She broke off at the sounds of his mock-snoring. Still, she didn't 
relent that easily. "Is it really all that much to ask, Skysaber?" 
    He shrugged. "No, I guess not. But trust me on this: If pictures of 
me start appearing anywhere, regardless of my state of dress, I will be 
*very* upset with you, Nabiki." 
    Her eyes flew wide. 
    Jared adopted a tolerant expression. "How many have prints have you 
sold so far? And if you've caught me with so much as my shirt off 
there's going to be some problems." 
    Nabiki sat down delicately, trying to appear small. "Well, there 
*were* the bills from Dr. Tofu to consider..." 
    "How many prints, what state of dress?" 
    "Fifteen rolls of 35mm, blown up to 8x10 and distributed generally. 
I'd have to look up how many copies sold. You were bare chested in half 
the shots, and the hottest selling print was from when Kasumi was 
sponge-bathing you. Don't worry, your towel was in the right place." 
She hurriedly amended, holding up her hands as if to defend herself. 
    Jared was torn between the desire to throttle her and laugh himself 
sick. This was so *typical* of her! It was like being upset at a 
dolphin for swimming. Still, it was bad. He rose seriously and 
addressed her sternly. 
    "Nabiki. No amount of money can fix what you've done. There isn't a 
bank in the world with enough cash to buy back all those photos, even 
trying would make them cost all the more. Where before it was cartoon, 
now people have the real flesh and blood. And from the prints an 
enterprising individual could conceivably make his own negatives." 
    He looked her very carefully in the eye. "You owe me in a way that 
no amount of money will ever repay, Nabiki. Not all the yen you could 
ever scam could make up for it. As far as I'm concerned, I will never 
owe you anything ever again. Understood?" 
    She nodded, completely unused to people coming down on her so hard. 
    Jared backed off, smiling. "Excellent! Now if you'd be so good as 
to go get your camera." 
    She hesitated, cocking her head at him. "What do you want my camera 
for? You aren't going to destroy it, are you?" 
    He shrugged winsomely. "*Maybe*, I don't know. However I would like 
to see it. And considering that I haven't asked for a dime out of the 
profit you've just made off me I think we can consider it well paid 
for. Go ahead and buy yourself a replacement." 
    "However!" Jared's voice grew stern and his gaze grew cold. "If you 
snap another shot of me without my permission you will appear in your 
underwear on CNN. And then you'll be lucky. Are we clear? Good." 

=== 

    "Fiona? Fiona!" Rae's voice intruded into the darkness that 
surrounded her, 
and slowly, she responded to the voice that was propelling her towards 
the light. 
    Almost immediately two facts hit her. 
    1) She wasn't Sailor Earth any longer. 
    2) Sleeping on the ground might sound good in the movies, but in 
real life it was cold, hard and the sleeper tended to wake up extremely 
sore. 
    "Rae?" Fiona asked, frowning, "What's... where...?" 
    "You were drained by the youmas that attacked here." Rae said, 
helping her to her feet. 
    "But... how?" *What happened?* The last thing she remembered were 
blue flames coming towards her, shouting words out blindly and for some 
reason a vague vision of a... *Person? A boy?* She couldn't remember 
more than the fact that he had been dressed in white and had a mask and 
had a... Star Wars lightsaber? 
    "Sailor Mars arrived but the youmas were too strong and nearly 
defeated her. " There was a strange look in Rae's eyes. "She would have 
died if it wasn't for this really cool hunk appearing." 
    ~Some hunk? What? Wasn't there anything about a new scout? I hope 
this isn't disrupting the timeline as we speak.~ "What did she look 
like?" Fiona asked, trying to sound as interested as possible, while 
inwardly she cringed at the living lie she was now leading. ~I hate 
lying.~ 
    "Huh?" Rae blinked. "Who was talking about a she? Sailor Mars was 
saved by this studly guy in white. He was *soo* dreamy!" 
    Rae nearly dropped Fiona's head as her eyes went distant. She 
sighed deeply with a kind of wistful grin. "Maybe even as handsome as 
Tuxedo Mask." 
    ~Right.~ Fiona chalked up inside herself. ~I nearly get killed 
trying to help out and she can't even *remember* it because some good 
looking boy shows up. I knew the Scouts were hormone-crazy, but 
*this!*....~ 
    "Actually, there *was* another Scout, now that you mention it." Rae 
idly put a finger to her chin and thought about it. "Or at least there 
was someone trying to fake it, as it didn't sound right." Rae said, 
"She called herself the Protector of Earth. I wish I could have seen 
her in the fight but... " She trailed off. 
    "I wish I could have too." Fiona murmured, ~Or at least gotten a 
real look at that other person...~ 
    "Hey!" Rae exclaimed brightly, slapping her on the back and 
cheering herself up for both of them. "Don't worry about it! The Scouts 
fight around here all the time. You'll get your chance to see them, I'm 
*sure* of it! Maybe that new one will get her transformation right the 
next time!" 
    ~You DO realize that you're trapped now, don't you?~ Fiona's 
conscious prodded her as she sat there, listening to Rae trying to 
cheer her up. 
    She was trapped. She wasn't suppose to fight or risk *more* 
disturbances in the timeline. But now that she HAD fought... ~To NOT 
fight will be worse. Rae will tell the other girls about the New Scout, 
and they'll all wait for her at every fight, and they'll expect her to 
rescue them which means they might be sloppy. And if their enemies ever 
find out and use the fact that they're looking and waiting for this new 
Scout, then it's VERY possible that they'll be able to disguise one of 
their minions as a Scout- look alike and cause havoc.~ 
    Which meant that from now on, there was a new Scout in this 
dimension, like it or not. 
    ~Not that I NEED an excuse to use a chance at being a Sailor.~ 
Fiona thought, grinning inwardly, then she frowned, ~But never again 
like this. 'Earth Empowerment' was powerful enough so that I 
detransformed. It's probably my highest power, like Sailor Moon's 
Silver Imperial Crystal. And the Silver Imperial Crystal attack can 
kill both user and attacker.~ She thought, frowning more. ~I need to 
practice. I don't want to enter a fight and not be able to transform, 
or be knocked about because I can't fight or something like that.~ 
    Rae watched in surprise as Chad's younger sister suddenly stood up 
and murmured apologies, than drifted off. 
    ~She's so strange.~ Rae thought, ~So distant and almost 
emotionless. I wonder what secrets she hides. And whether she can feel 
or if she can, and hides it all from us because she fears she'll be 
hurt - ~ 
    ~Or HURT somebody?~