Indifference: Rational Madness II
Black Beyond
~'~

This part is shorter than the first, but I swear the whole 
part overall is as long [or almost] as the other parts. Well,
not swear. I promise. Well.... I *think* it's as long as the
other parts.

Okay, I hope it is. I'm pretty sure, but your's truly is too 
insane and lazy to go check, and I'm writing this because my 
school's on a two-hour delay and my uncle's here nagging 
about the puppy I picked up at the cementary running around 
(it was cute and itty bitty and really skinny and I just had
to get it because it was soooo cute, and I named it Pollicle) 
so I'm sitting here typing and it's making him really mad but 
that's what I'm best at.

What? Take Pollicle to the POUND? Excuse me, I have to go save
my puppy....

~'~ 

	
	"Mama, what did Bakimo mean when she said that 
secrets are to be revealed? What secrets?" Chibi-usa 
asked, as Usagi led them through the house.

	"Er..." Usagi flushed. "I don't know, exactly."

	"Usako... do you know why we're here?" Mamoru 
asked, looking at her curiously. "Why would this Kronus 
want me if he's after you?"

	Usagi hesitated. What was she supposed to say? 
'Oh, Mamo-chan, it's really simple! You see, you're not 
Chibi-usa's father, and he's going to use that against me 
to break us up and distract me so he can stab me in the 
back?' I think not!

	"Well.... why would Beryl use you if she was after 
me?"

	Chibi-usa giggled.

	"I don't think Kronus swings that way, Mama. Not 
after the lists of consorts he had. Which, by the way, 
included Beryl."

	Usagi scowled at her.

	"I knew that, thank you."

	"Heh. I would have liked to know that, Koneko." A 
low voice said from behind them.

	Usagi twitched as Chibi-usa and Mamoru spun 
around. She already knew the owner of that voice.

	"Hello, Haruka. Minako. Hota-chan. Ami." She said, 
without turning around. "Bakimo help you get here?"

	"Of course." Venus replied. "Usagi... if I could 
have a word... in private?"

	Usagi's shoulders slumped as she nodded.

	"Come on, troops. Outside." Saturn barked. "You 
heard me, Endymion. Bulma's out there and she wants to 
meet you. Move it!"

	"I'm staying right here." Uranus said, after the 
rest had filed out and Venus and Usagi were looking at her 
strange.

	Usagi walked over to a chair that sat beside her 
bed. She laid a sleeping Rini on the bed and looked up at 
the both of them.

	"Shut the door, then." She said.

	Uanus shut it, locking it as she leaned against 
it.

	"So... Usagi." Venus dehenshined, becoming Minako. 
"Been a while."

	"Too long, actually." Usagi said. "I had to whoop 
Beryl's can again. To save the world. Again. By myself. As 
usual." She grinned.

	"You'd be dead by now if we weren't there to saev 
your can ten times a day. How you're still alive in beyond 
me."

	"Oh, Kunzite makes a good bodygaurd."

	"DO WHAT?!" Minako shrieked. 

	"Of course. Didn't Bakimo tell you? I revived the 
generals completely as soon as I got here. Kunzite and 
Zoisite will be thrilled you and Ami are here."

	Minako had a twitch in her eyebrow as she turned 
to Haruka, who laughed.




~'~





	Bakimo frowned ever so slightly as she looked 
around the room full of mirrors. Everything was as it 
should be, and yet something was wrong. She felt it, and 
searched each mirror carefully before turning to the next. 
She had found nothing yet, and still she kept on.

	She was a very careful person. No matter how free 
she seemed, she was bound by many rules and orders. Some 
were obvious, and some were so subtle that they were 
impossible to detect. Some she knew, and some she followed 
so instinctivly that no one had ever told them to her.

	In the last mirror, she found what she was looking 
for. Instead of the crisis she had suspected, this problem 
was on that made her lips curl in a rare genuine smile.

	"So this is what has happened. I should have 
guessed." She said, memorizing every detail of the mirror. 
It showed a very familar face. "It is not every millennia 
that this happens, after all."

	She looked around carefully before taking her 
gloved fist, pulling it back, and with every ounce of her 
nonhuman strength, propelled it into the mirror's surface.

	Glass shattered with the intense force, flying in 
all directions, shredding the glove to were wisps of 
cloth. The glass fragments bounced harmlessly off the 
revealed skin, though they flew the a force that would 
have left any other clutching a bloody limb that only 
vaguely resembled a hand.

	"We shall see now who sees what, Kronus." She said 
triumphantly. Her eyes, the color of the sea, flashed dark 
as she made sure to trod upon the glass shards as she left 
the Hall of Mirrors.

	She sighed as she felt Kronus's rage. 

	"I told you, Brother. Corruption shall place you 
as Fate's punching bag. At least if you turn to the light 
you don't get used to test the senshi."

	

	

	Away, in a place no one knew the true location of, 
a shadow cursed venomously. His Sight was lost. But he 
still had his plan.

	He called the last of his minions to him.

	"You shall win." He told the creature, before 
showing her his map.

	She smiled.



~'~

	

	Usagi was acting strangely.

	Okay, yeah, that was only normal. Mamoru hadn't 
exactly seen her for a while. She would have changed a 
little. And she was fighting.

	He had been so shocked he'd almost fallen down. He 
had walked out of the Capsule Corp one mrning to see his 
beautiful, frail, weak, uncoordinated Usako in a pair of 
short shorts and a tank top fighting with that purple 
haired kid-- was his name Trunks-- like there was no 
tomorrow. She was the perfect warrior against someone of 
her own strength. 

	He had watched her for long moments until his 
daughter appeared behind him. 

	"She's great, isn't she?" Chibi-usa asked 
excitedly. "She's not doing her best, though. She's only a 
quarter of the way powered up. That's Trunks she's 
fighting, and he's not as strong as she is. Gohan's more 
her level, but she likes to spar against Vegeta and Goku 
best. They aren't as strong as Gohan can be, but they're 
more experienced and don't reply as much on strength."

	"Not at her strongest?" Mamoru couldn't follow 
either of their movements easily. "She could easily defeat 
Haruka at that speed."

	"She could defeat every single senshi all at once 
at her best." Chibi-usa said. "That's why she's so afraid 
of capture."

	He flinched. Capture. To him it broughtback the 
sparse memories of his time as a traitor. Capture meant death or 
betrayal. Either way, with Usagi at stake, it 
meant the end.

	Chibi-usa saw him flinch and shrugged. For some 
reason she no longer felt hesitant to touch the painful 
memories of her father's past. 

	"Where's Goten?" She called into the flurry of 
limbs.

	There wasn't a pause as Trunks called out an 
answer. "With... ah! With Pan. At Gohan's-- hiya!"

	"Thanks!" Chibi-usa said. She touched off into the 
air. "Be back later." She told Mamoru. "I'm going to see 
if Goten feels like sparring."

	She disappeared.

	Mamoru opened his mouth to putter a protest that 
hit dead air.

	Just as suddenly, Trunks and Usagi froze. Her fist 
was millimeters from his stomach and his hand was a hair 
away from knocking her down.

	"Where's Chibi-usa?" Usagi asked, in a very low, 
dangerous voice.

	"She disappeared." Mamoru looked bewildered. 

	Usagi then let off a string of curses that were 
very explicite and painful sounding, ones that made Trunks 
back away quickly and made Mamoru's jaw drop.

	"I'll go get the others." Trunks muttered, and 
flew off.	

	Suddenly, Usagi was Sailor Selene. Just like that. 
There was no flashy transformation sequence, no 
traditional calling of the henshin phrase, no raising the 
brooch that at that moment was no where on Usagi's 
personage.

	"Get the senshi." She said, in the same silky, 
dangerous voice. Mamoru comlpied instantly. This side of 
her was overloading his brain circuits. 

	He wasn't needed for that chore. The four senshi 
came from different directions, all breathing hard and in 
full sailor costume, Uranus with ehr sword in hand and 
Saturn welding her glaive.

	It didn't take many words. As Mamoru watched, it 
was almost like they had seen the whole thing.

	"Venus, get the baby to a safe location. Protect 
her at all costs. Don't let anyone in unless they show you 
the ginzuishou, not even another senshi. It could be a 
disguise."

	Venus nodded swiftly and disappeared into the 
Capsule Corp building.

	"Mercury, can the area for Chibi-usa's signature 
and any signs of dark magic. Saturn, I need you to find 
Bulma and help her with the remodeling of the machine 
she's working on."

	Not questioning this, Saturn follow's Venus's 
trail.

	"Uranus, come with me." Selene said darkly. 
"Mamoru, you breif the special forces on our locations. 
Tell them to set up a defensive barrier around the CC 
building and be ready to fight."

	She reached out to grasp Uranus's shoulder and 
they were gone in a swirl of silver and gold. 

	Mamoru looked to Mercury, who was tapping away 
furiously at her computer.

	"What's going on?" He demanded.

	"Oh." Mercury didn't even look up. Her voice was 
distracted. "Apparently Kronus set up some kind of anti-
teleporting devise. If someone tries to teleport, they end 
up as his prisoner in some kind of negative domain. I 
can't get a lock on that, though."

	"But Usagi just--"

	Mercury did look up this time. He looked at him 
like he was the world's biggest moron. 

	"Usagi's power is too strong. That's why she 
teleported Haruka with her instead of doing two sperate 
teleports." She might as well have added "Duh!", her tone 
was such so. "Oh, shit." She whispered, glancing back down 
at her computer. "Move!"

	"huh?"

	"MOVE!" She screamed at him, a second too late.

	Just like Chibi-usa, he too vaished.



~'~







	Three hours later, when Seleen and Uranus 
reappeared, Uranus sweating and muttering the worst kind 
of vulgarity under her breath and Selene looking like 
every second that went by was pissing her off worst that 
the last, Mercury told them what had happened to Mamoru.

	Krillin only narrowed ducked the flying sword that 
Uranus threw blindly, and Selene gave Mercury a long 
stare. 

	Finally, she whispered in a voice she had used 
only once, a voice full of every emotion she had that was 
underlined thickly with rage. "Do you know what this 
means?"

	Everyone looked at her dumbly, varying stages of 
confusion and shock.

	Finally, Gohan spoke up.

	"Kronus will tell Mamoru." He said softly. 
"Mamoru, if the past is anything to reply on, will turn on 
Usagi. Chibi-usa will be torn and see above reason that 
she might turn too."

	Selene nodded.

	"I'll contact Venus." Mercury said. "Usagi, I have 
nothing to go on. Nothing."

	"I know." Selene said. She tossed Mercury her 
broach. "Here. Take it. Show it to Venus. Stay with her, 
give the broach to the baby. I don't need it anymore. I 
have made my decision."

	Mercury wanted to press the meaning of that 
statement but caught the broach and departed.

	Uranus retrieved her sword from the wall.

	"What am I to do?" She asked.

	Selene looked at her.

	"The better question is-- what am I to do? We can 
only wait until Kronus shows a way to him." Selene said, 
calmly walking over to a chair and taking a seat. "If the 
truth is told, I say so be it." Her words didn't make 
sense to them. Not after her previous spells. "Uranus, you 
go alert the generals of our situation." Selene said. 
"Tell them Usagi is though."

	Uranus gave her leader a long, peircing look before 
shoving the sword in her hand into its jeweled scabbard and 
walking off, knocking Tienshinsan over as she opened the door with 
a bang and stalked away.

	A cold light was in her eyes, one to match the 
voice that now desided in her throat as she called to Haruka. 

	"Tell them I'm in charge now. I am Selene."

	"She's lost it." Krillin muttered to Yaumcha, who 
agreed quietly. "I knew it would happen. One too many hits 
in the head."
	
	"I heard that!"

	Krillin chuckled nervously as everyone immediatly took 
two giant steps away from him, leaving him exposed to the 
disturbingly amused look in Selene's eyes.

	"Heard what?" He asked weakly.

	"Run, Krillin!" Goten shouted.

	But instead of the sword/staff they'd expected her to 
pull out, she held a small, strangely shaped harp--

	"A lyre." Gohan said aloud, recognizing it from 
his studies. "A silver lyre."

	"Very good!" Selene said, dehenshinging into 
Usagi. She sat the lyre in the crook of her arm, and 
raised her draw to pluck it.

	"I would appreciate it if everyone except for 
Yamucha, Tienshinsan, Chao-tsu, Krillin, and Gohan covered 
their ears, please. I want them alone to hear this song."

	The saiya-jins and demi-saiya-jins except for 
Gohan did so, looking at her curiously.

	"Vegeta is a scumbag who's in love with Bulma." 
Usagi announced in a loud voice.

	Yamucha burst into laughter and even Gohan smiled, 
but the prince of the saiya-jin hadn't heard. 

	"Good." Usagi began to play a soft lullaby on the 
lyre. Within seconds, all five of the men were sleeping on 
the ground. Usagi let the lyre vanish.

	"What did you do?" Goten yelled, looking at them.

	"The humans will be in the way during the battle." 
Usagi said, now fingering a long, thin staff with a spear 
point. A lance made of gray and black metals. "Gohan would 
only try to stop the inevitable. They will sleep for seven 
days, until the seven moon."

	They looked at like she was crazy. Even Goku did. 

	"What's the seventh moon?" Goku asked.

	Usagi grinned. "They're lucky. The seventh moon 
only hits every two hundred years. It is a night of great 
power to all of those magical. It is a night when kingdoms 
fall, when the great are born, when queens die and when 
life itself is reborn. A night for great, terrible 
things." 
	
	Usagi recited from a speech made by one long 
forgotten. "Usually the people put to sleep by the lyre 
are buried by mistake. They have no pulse, no breath." 
Another sick grin.

	"In seven days, there's gonna be a lot of people 
six feet under clawing their way to the top layer. Ever 
heard of zombies? Those are them."

	Trunks rolled his eyes. 

	What on earth would that woman think of next?

~'~



Can't figure out if that last line is for me or for Usagi. 
<g> Sorry this took forever. I got stuck. Really. That's 
where Bakimo and the Hall of Mirrors came in. I swear to 
Artemis I will try to have this next part out sooner.

Really.

What, don't you believe me?

No?

Why I outta...



-Hecate Black 
(black beyond)
black_beyond@hotmail.com

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