Coeus slapped his brother. "Why did you disobey me in this manner?!" He asked. "I expressly told you not to fraternize with strangers."

Mauros looked off to the side, frowning sternly. "She's not a threat to me. She's a good person."

Coeus turned away. "You don't know what she's capable of."

"I do," Mauros said. "She makes me feel warm and happy inside... she eases the loneliness I've felt all these years."

"What you feel is an illusion, Mauros," Coeus replied. "Someday you'll realize... love is empty and fleeting. You're better off just putting it aside."

"Is it love...?" Mauros said aloud. He supposed if Coeus said so it must be true... but then, these days he was not sure if he trusted Coeus as much as he used to. "But Coeus... I love you. Should I put that aside?"

"That's... different," Coeus said. "You know your feelings for Mayumi are different than your feelings toward me."

"They are, but..." Mauros sat down in one of the cushioned chairs in their room and looked sadly toward the floor. "But I do care about both of you. Coeus... why do you hate Mayumi...? I know, if you got to know her, you would understand why I like her so much."

"I don't want to understand," Coeus said sullenly. "I..."

"Why do you hate women so much, brother?" Mauros asked.

Coeus sat down in a chair beside his brother. "Ten girls--ten girls, and every last one of them was spared," he said. "But not us. You were abandoned, barely old enough to read, on that desolate place. And when Diana came... our mother left us to die on our holy lands. Like animals. She didn't even care about her own flesh and blood."

"Just because our mother--"

"If it was just our mother, I might shrug it aside as one cold-hearted person," Coeus snapped. "But our whole family, and the maenads? They left us all there to die and escaped to Earth. Their hearts might as well have been made of ice."

"But Mayumi isn't like that!" He protested.

"For now," Coeus replied. "But once things get ugly, she'll push you aside. Now, I don't want you to leave this room--not for any reason." Coeus placed a small, mechanical merlin on his desk. "I'll know if you do. And Mayumi will be the first person I look for when you leave. Trust me, you don't want that."

Coeus turned toward a full length mirror that was set into the wall, it's border an intricately carved pattern of ice and snow. Coeus touched the surface of the mirror ever so lightly with his fingertip. As the surface rippled, he walked casually through the mirror and into the same park he always frequented on Earth.

Moon Senshi: Unmei no Kodomo

Episode Nineteen:

"The Blood of Chronos, Part I"

Sailor Charon looked around the fourth dimension somewhat disinterestedly as she stood in front of the Gate of Space-Time. "Huh," she said, "this place is pretty boring."

"From this land, you can go anywhere in the space-time continuum of Sol," Sailor Pluto said. "In some ways, it's the most interesting place you could possibly go."

"Looks like a lot of smoke and fog," Charon replied.

Sailor Pluto looked a little surprised. "You're a senshi of time, are you not?"

"Yup," Charon replied. "Chaos time-space."

"Chaos time-space...hm. Quite a jumble of words, isn't it?" she asked rhetorically, walking toward Charon. "For me, looking at the fourth dimension is like seeing a map. I can go anywhere from here. But even though your domain is the same as mine, you'd get just as lost as anyone else trying to travel the fourth dimension."

"I guess," Charon replied. "I don't really see the point of hanging around here. Why wouldn't you just zap straight to wherever you wanted to go?"

"Because... that is a difficult thing to do," Pluto said. "It's easier to go through the fourth dimension. It doesn't take as much concentration and exertion."

"Well, it might take concentration and exertion," Charon replied, looking around the cloudy expanse, "But it's not even possible to go this way for me."

"I suppose if that's the way your powers work, it must be impossible for you to go somewhere in time or space without knowing your destination," Sailor Pluto mused.

"Duh," Charon replied. "How can anyone go anywhere without knowing where it is they're going?"

Sailor Pluto smiled patiently. "What I mean is... I can just sort of... look around and decide where to go. Like looking at a map in the real world, or standing on a mountain... you can see places without actually going there. But from what I understand, you can't see where you're going before you get there. You just have to know where it is you're headed.

"For example, one thing it can allow me to do is look for someone in the fourth dimension if I know they are interfering in the time stream. I get the feeling that you would not be able to do so with any kind of efficiency."

"Yeah," Charon agreed. "I guess I'd just kind of have to guess where they went and check it out the old fashioned way. That would take for-ever. Anyway," she continued, sitting down on... grayness, "Did you just bring me here to ask me about my powers?"

"No," Sailor Pluto said, unsure of what to make of Charon's making herself cozy in Pluto's domain. "I wanted to ask you about Mauros. What do you know about him?"

"Maybe you shoulda asked Sailor Io," Charon suggested. "She seemed to know him a lot better than me."

"Ah, well... I meant more... his powers. Pluto's holy land. What things... what they were like back then."

"You don't remember?" Charon said, surprised. "I thought you killed me."

"No," Sailor Pluto replied. "What makes you think that?"

"I had a dream about it," Charon replied. "I was on Charon, and you killed me. It kinda sucked."

Pluto looked thoughtful. "Perhaps it was my mother," she suggested.

"You had a mother?" Charon said, surprised. "I thought you were like, timeless and stuff."

"Well, sort of... I exist everywhere at once, in a sense. But I was born at one particular time and place. My mother died when I was just a baby, and Queen Serenity--the first--raised me until I was old enough to guard the gate of time. "

"Huh. Well... I don't really remember much from before I died," Charon admitted. "I don't think I ever even met Mauros, or went to Hades. I almost want to think we weren't even allowed to go there, kind of like most people can't come here."

"Is it another entrance to the fourth dimension?"

"I dunno," she replied. "I've never been there. I guess we'd have to ask Mauros, huh?"

"A difficult proposition, considering he is working for the enemy."

"Only for now," Charon replied. "He fell in love with Sailor Io. That means he'll turn good to be with her."

"How can you be so sure?" Pluto asked skeptically. "What if he is more loyal to his brother and to Nemesis than Sailor Io?"

"Because it's love, duh. Wouldn't you pick being with your true love over everything else?"

"No," Pluto replied. "And I hope you wouldn't either. What if being with your true love involved hurting someone else--or joining Nemesis?"

"Well, I wouldn't fall in love with someone like that," Charon said. Then she remembered Coeus, and she wasn't sure what to think anymore. But she was making him go good, so she supposed that didn't really count... right?

"So you say," Pluto replied. "Do you know Io personally?"

"Nah, she's famous," Charon replied. "Mayumi Hatsuhara, haven't you heard of her? She's a big idol."

"No..." Pluto replied.

"Well, I guess if you spend all your time hanging around here, it's not too surprising. But you could probably arrange a meeting with her, 'cause you're like, important and stuff. Maybe Princess Jupiter would want to talk to her 'cause they're like, sister stars."

"Were the Moon Senshi very close to their orbiting planets during the Rainbow Millenium?" Pluto asked.

"I guess it sorta depended," Charon replied. "Like I said, my memories are pretty vague. But I remember that Charon was close to Pluto. And then Hydra and Nyx, not so much. But we were all way closer to the planet we orbited than the other planets. Kinda, I guess... like each planet was a country, and all of the moons were prefectures."

"Maybe I will talk to Princess Jupiter. Perhaps Io will identify with her more than myself."

"Maybe. I mean... Jupiter's a bit less of a cold fish than you, anyway."

Sailor Pluto just sighed.

"Look at all the cool stuff we got you!" Minako said happily, motioning to the spoils of their shopping trip. Eros neatly laid all of the parcels they had garnered on their trip side-by-side in the vestibule of Aphrodite. "I bet you wish you had these back in the day!" she added, motioning to the sewing machine they had bought.

"I still feel like that's cheating," he said. "Isn't it just like making one with magic?"

"No, it's totally different," Minako said. "It just... does the stitching for you. You still have to cut it out and put it together. If you magic one up, you only have to design, it?"

"I guess..." Eros replied dubiously.

"Anyway, this way, you can finish it in a week or two," Minako continued.

"I could probably finish it in less than a week, with this machine and all the time I'll have on my hands," Eros said. "I'm planning on working on it almost non-stop."

"Well... I was thinking... maybe I could hold a masquerade ball, and you could give that dress to Yamiko... and then she could wear it to the ball!"

"Oh, Mina..." Eros smiled and sighed. "I see what you're trying to do, and it's very sweet. But Yamiko will never go to a ball in the state she's in. She isn't even fond of social gatherings normally, let alone when she's in a bad mood."

"But it would be perfect. You wear your masks... she doesn't know it's you... you share a romantic moment..."

"It doesn't matter if she won't go," Eros said. "Anyway, it's not like there's a lot of westerners running around Tokyo. She'd know it was me immediately. Even if she didn't, it wouldn't be a very nice surprise when she found out who was behind the mask."

Minako pouted. "Well... even if she did know it was you... maybe the atmosphere would get to her. Anyway, I need to introduce you to the public at large anyhow. This could be a good excuse to do that, and a good excuse to make up with Yamiko."

Eros sighed. "I'm telling you, My Lady, It won't work."

"I'm sure if we get you in some tight pants and a nice jacket, she'll begin to think about taking you back."

Eros laughed. "Maybe. It's worked before," he said. "But, to be honest, I don't think even walking around the masquerade in nothing but a mask would make Yamiko take me back. Still, attending the masquerade ball will do no harm, I suppose. And if it will make you happy, I will gladly do it."

"Excellent," Minako replied.

"What kind of clothes do we need for hiking?" Fuyuko asked as they walked into a sporting goods shop.

"Good boots are the most important thing," Kazeko replied. "But you want some sturdy jeans and a shirt you don't mind getting dirty."

"Haha, I think you'll have to help me pick out boots," Fuyuko said.

Kazeko led her to the section with hiking boots, where they tried on a few promising pairs until they found something. They were kind of expensive. "Maybe we should buy you something cheaper," Kazeko suggested. "I mean... it's not like you go hiking all the time or anything."

"Do you go hiking very often, Deirdre?"

Kazeko looked around herself nervously. "Please don't call me that in public."

"Why not?" Fuyuko asked wonderingly. "I like your real name."

Kazeko shuddered. "I can't talk about it."

Fuyuko squeezed Kazeko's hand reassuringly. "Maybe we can talk about it later."

Coeus watched as a school of koi swam about the pond in the middle of the park. How long had he been sitting here? He had sort of lost track of time. His book sat beside him, but every time he tried to pick it up and read the words swam together into meaningless gibberish.

He was losing the only thing that meant anything to him. To a woman. Always, always, it was a woman!

"Hiya!" Himeko called out cheerfully, bobbing her face in front of him. "Whatcha up to?"

"Go away," Coeus said dismissively. She was the last person he felt like seeing right now.

"Nah, don't feel like it," Himeko said, sitting down in front of him and next to the pond. "Looking at the koi?"

Coeus said nothing, but just watched the orange and white carp dart restlessly about. He wasn't going to indulge her juvenility this time.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"Go away," he insisted again, trying to pretend that the carp were arresting all of his attention. Unfortunately, koi were not the most intelligent and interesting fish on the best of days.

"You'll feel better if you talk about it," Himeko told him. "When I used to have a bad day at school, my mom would get me a cup of cocoa and some cookies. Then we'd talk about it until we came up with a solution or I felt like I could tackle it."

"I'll never understand how someone could fall in love with a woman," he said angrily. "Never."

"You like guys?" Himeko responded, sounding disappointed.

"What?" he said, looking at her disbelievingly. "No. I don't find men attractive."

"Oh, good," she said, relieved. "Well, if you like girls, you must see how someone could fall in love with one."

"I can see how someone might have feelings of attraction toward a woman," he said. "But that's different than love... than wanting to spend your life with someone."

"Hm," Himeko said, looking at the koi. "But... don't you ever wish you had someone who you trusted enough to share anything with? Even your darkest secrets?"

"Then they wouldn't be secrets anymore," Coeus replied.

"I guess," she replied. "But isn't it better that way? Isn't having to hide something from everyone lonely?"

"I'm not lonely, because I have---" Coeus stopped and looked at the ground. Did he? He could tell that he was losing Mauros. He knew that he was hurting people--oh, he wasn't sure yet, but Coeus knew it was only a matter of time...

"Me?" Himeko said hopefully.

"What?!" Coeus said. "No, I meant--"

"Let's go to the museum today," Himeko interjected. "I want you to tell me about all the smart people things you like."

"No," Coeus replied. "I'm... busy."

"Sulking?"

"No--"

"Then let's go," she said, grabbing his arm and yanking him upward.

"Can't you see I don't want to?!" he snapped, pushing her away. She looked at him, lost and a little hurt, and a pang of something entered him that he knew he wanted to push away. She didn't have feelings. She just saw something in him that she wanted, and she was going to take it and leave him hollow.

"But..." she looked at him. Her eyes were dark and black and pleading. What did she want? Why did she bother him so? "But you look so sad. Maybe if we did something fun, you'd feel a little better," she said.

Coeus stared at her for a long time. She blushed and looked away. "Why do you do this?" he asked at last. "I have treated you like a pesk, an annoyance. I've insulted your intelligence and your sex. It would untenable to allow anyone who caught your eye to treat you this way, even if they were the most attractive man alive. And I am hardly that."

"Well, you are pretty cute, I guess," she said, reaching out and stroking his shoulder length blue hair appreciatively. "But more importantly, you're smart and clever. And sometimes, when you think no one can see, there's a look in your eyes--"

"D-don't touch me," he said, quickly grabbing her wrist and pulling her hand away. "Don't..."

"Don't...?"

"Don't do this," He said, turning away. "I'm not..."

"Let's go to the museum," She said, yanking on his wrist. "I want you to teach me stuff."

He yanked it away. "Why are you acting like this?! Why are you so persistent?!"

She paused for a long time. "You're lonely. And... you're kind."

"I am anything but kind." ma

"When we were at the aquarium, the way you talked, I started to see..." she glanced away. "It's not that you're a bad person. You just expect other people to be bad to you first. So you figure you'll beat them to it."

"That's..." He stared at her. "...true," he admitted.

"I think... I think if I prove to you that I won't be bad to you, then... just maybe, you'll stop being mean and calling me names," She said. "If you can't, well... that'll suck. I hope you do. But even if I can't, at least I tried. And it's not like your words can hurt me. I know you're just being a jerkface 'cause that's all you know how to be. But I hope you do change... because I think you're cool. I'd hate to stop being your friend."

Coeus didn't know what to say. He knew these words were getting to him. He hated that. He hated it, but... No! She was just like all the others. Then why, why, why... he had to understand. "Fine," he said at last. "The museum."

"Thanks!" he said, hugging him happily.

"G-get off me!" he said, shoving her away. An ill-considered response--she was tipping off balance and into--

"Ah!" he grabbed her shoulders as she threatened to fall backwards into the pond. For a moment, they just stared at each other stupidly. "You were falling," Coeus said, taking his hands off her as though she would contaminate him.

"Yeah," Himeko said. "You caught me. Thanks."

"Reflex," he offered indifferently. Himeko smiled and he hated it. He hated it because he felt something. He shouldn't be doing this! He had to, had to...

"Come on, let's go," she said, gently taking his wrist and leading him along.

And he let her. Why did he let her?

"How long have we been walking?" Fuyuko asked, gasping for air as she took a drink from her water bottle.

"Almost two hours," Kazeko replied. "Two and a half, if you count the walk up the shrine steps."

Fuyuko shook her head. "I don't think I've ever walked so much in my life."

"It's good for you," Kazeko replied. "...clears your head. But we can sit down for awhile now." Kazeko glanced over at a small stone shrine nearby and placed a small rock at its base. Then she sat down on a log nearby, next to an exhausted Fuyuko.

"So...why don't you want me to call you Deidre?"

Kazeko jumped and looked around her nervously. Fuyuko raised an eyebrow. "We're alone here," she reassured her friend. "The only ones who can hear us talking are the trees."

Kazeko smiled weakly. "Right... the trees.."

"Mom and dad worry a lot, but no one can find us here. We're safely nestled amongst the trees..."

Kazeko began to cry. "It's not safe anywhere," she said. "Not even in the middle of the forest."

Fuyuko hugged her friend tightly. "It's safe, I promise," she said. "There's no one here but me."

Kazeko continued to cry for quite some time. Eventually, she pulled out a handkerchief and wiped away her tears. "I'm sorry..." she mumbled at last. "It's just... there's some people, they... they killed my family back in Ireland, everyone... in front of my very eyes.... the grove, everything, was burned down..." Kazeko shook her head. "I ran here. I didn't want them to find me... so I changed my name."

"Who are these people? Can we find them?" Fuyuko asked.

"I don't know..." Kazeko replied, breaking off from Fuyuko's hug. "They're very secretive. They call themselves the Catholic Order of Purification, they're a extremist fringe of Christians." Kazeko paused. "Back when the Queen first ascended the throne... a lot of religious groups thought it was a sign of God on earth. But what gods... and what the sign meant... everyone had an opinion. Everyone thought they knew the truth. Including us--the druids." Kazeko put her arms around her knees and looked at the mossy ground that reminded her of home. "In Ireland at that time, people had become less and less serious about religion, but what people were still deeply faithful were Catholic.

"But the Queen's ascension changed everything. A lot of people found the Sailor Senshi and their powers a lot like Ireland's ancient Druidic gods. What was formerly a small revival of a dead creed exploded into the mainstream, and the Catholics, who had always thought of Drudism as a shady religion, didn't like it. Even some Neo-Catholics, who enshrined Queen Serenity as another coming of God, thought Druids worshipped demons. The COP were a splinter group off of the Catholics that thought we were demon-worshippers. They..." Kazeko shivered. "They murdered our leaders and bombed our temples... by the time the war with Nemesis was over, Druidism and Roman Catholicism were both dying religions breathing their last breaths in Ireland. My parents were leaders in hiding along with the rest of a community of Druids. The COP found out about us and..." Kazeko shrugged and bit her lip as tears poured freely from her eyes.

Fuyuko put her arm around her friend, unsure of what to say. Her own problems seemed small compared to Kazeko's, at least since she had come to Crystal Tokyo and begun to serve the Princess. "I wish there was something I could do," Fuyuko said. "But I don't think these guys are gonna get you here. It doesn't seem like they'd come all the way out to Japan. Anyway, you're a Sailor Senshi. It's not like they'd really stand a chance against you."

"Even hearing that name brings back all the worst memories," she replied. "The smoke, and the death..."

Fuyuko frowned. "Don't think of it that way," she said. "Your name is a gift your mom and dad gave you. It's a symbol of their love, don't you think?"

"I guess," Kazeko replied.

"Then shouldn't it be something that brings back sad memories. It should be something that makes you think of everything your parents gave you... of the nice things that happened when you were with them."

"When I try to think about that..." Kazeko shook her head. She tried to remember the stories and songs, the times in front of the fireplace eating chestnuts, but they always dissolved into memories of angry flames and violent screaming. "There's too much pain."

"Well...maybe someday," Fuyuko replied, leaning her head against her friend's shoulder. "In the meantime, I'll call you Kazeko."

"Thanks," Kazeko replied.

Fubuki yawned as she tied her bathrobe. Someone was at the gate. "Who is it?" she asked, walking up to the speaker next to the front door. It was connected to an intercom that sat beside the doorbell.

"It's, uh... it's Jirou," he said awkwardly. "Is it okay if I come in with Chikao?"

"Yeah, sure," Fubuki said. "I'm still in my pajamas, though."

"That's fine," Jirou said. Fubuki opened the metal gate for him and let him in the front door.

"What's up?" she asked as Jirou shuffled Chikao into the vestibule. "Something at home?"

"It's our parents..." Jirou said nervously. "Me and Meimi can handle them, but... I don't think it's a good idea for Chikao to stay there."

"Do you... want him to stay here?"

Jirou looked tense. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

"No... I just got up."

"Why don't we talk while we eat," he said. "If that's all right."

"Nah, it's not a big deal or anything," she said. "I'll just tell Michito to make extra." Fubuki wandered into the kitchen, where Michito was busy preparing an omelet. "Michito!" Fubuki shouted. Michito turned toward her and smiled. "Can I get two extra?"

"Sure," she said, glancing at Chikao. Chikao looked uncomfortable but said nothing.

"Com'on, guys," Fubuki said, going into the dining room. They sat down at the tall, walnut table. "So, what happened?"

Jirou sighed. "They're always taking things out on him," Jirou said, glancing at his brother. "Of course, she doesn't give a shit how badly me and Meimi fail, but when he comes home with bad grades, she's all over him. Nevermind that it's their goddamn fault things are going so bad, with all the fighting and shit."

Fubuki sighed. "So, have him stay here. Problem solved."

"But your mom..."

"She's hardly ever here, and when she is she sticks to the common rooms. He could stay in one of the rooms on the fourth floor or higher and she'd never notice. Fuck, you should all come live here."

"Maybe..." Jirou murmured. "I'm not sure if my parents would do anything or not. I'm not even sure if they'll do something about Chikao or not... but... I'm sick of this fucked up bullshit. He needs somewhere to go."

"Yeah," Fubuki agreed. Michito brought out the mushroom and bacon-filled omelets and set them on the table in front of Chikao and Jirou. "Eat with us, Michito," Fubuki said.

"As you wish," Michito said, smiling and sitting down as she served the food onto their plates. "Will Chikao be staying with us for awhile?"

"Will you help us out, Michito? Keep my mother from getting suspicious?"

"I'll try," Michito replied. "I can't go too far, or I could lose my job... and I suspect that is not something you'd like."

Fubuki frowned. "No..."

"But I'll cover you when and if I can. I understand that Jirou also has a difficult home life."

"Damn straight," Jirou bitterly replied.

"Where do you go to school, Chikao?" Michito asked.

"It's Buki's old middle school," Jirou replied.

"Hm," Michito said thoughtfully. "I think that should be manageable. Chikao... let me know if you need any help with your schoolwork."

Chikao just stared at her and nodded, his face cowed and withdrawn.

"Is this room okay?" Fubuki asked, opening the door to one of the rooms on the top floor. She picked somewhere on the other end of the house and up two floors, since she figured her mother was less likely to notice that way.

Chikao's jaw dropped. "it's half the size of my house," he said wonderingly.

"Yeah, my house is kind of ridiculous," Fubuki said. "This is some kind of fancy arse guest room, so it has a bathroom on it and everything."

Chikao opened one of the doors to find it was a huge walk-in closet. He moved to the other one, which was the promised bathroom. "The bathroom is as big as my kitchen," he remarked. "No... bigger. And the bathtub is as big as my bathroom."

"Well, enjoy it I guess," Fubuki said. "Honestly, you don't really know what to do with all the space. It just sort of sits there."

"Hm," Chikao mumbled, looking around. "Jirou says you don't get along with your mom, either."

"No," Fubuki said. "But I don't really like to talk about it. Things used to be different, but then my dad died and that was that."

"Do you think I'll get in trouble for staying here?"

"Trust me, my mom will never notice," Fubuki replied. "And if she does, you won't be any worse off than you were before."

"I guess," Chikao said, lying on the king-sized bed. "Do you like school, Fubuki?"

Fubuki scoffed. "No."

"I like it way better than being at home," Chikao said.

"Parents basically suck," Fubuki replied. "Well, at least you can get away from them here."

"It'll be a nice change," he agreed.

There was a knock on Fubuki's door. She scowled as she put down her scotch on her bedside table. "Who is it?"

"It's your mother."

Fubuki sighed and sat up. "What do you want?"

"The Father--Sir Gakusha--wants you to come to my next... my next session, if you don't mind."

Fubuki sighed and sat back again. "Why?"

There was a long pause. "He wants to talk about your father," she said at last.

Fubuki sat back up and took a sip of her scotch. "He's dead," she replied bitterly. "What is there to say?"

"I'm not the one who wants to talk about it," she snapped. She sighed. "Perhaps... perhaps he thinks we have not come to terms with what happened."

"Gee, you think? How long did it take you to figure that out?" Fubuki looked out the window. "Why should I go?"

There was silence on the other side of the door. "I won't make you go to college," she said at last. "I know you'd rather not... Michito has been trying to talk me out of it for a long time."

"It's not like you could make me go to college anyway," Fubuki replied.

"No," her mother replied, "But I could kick you out if I wanted to."

Fubuki almost felt like saying 'could you?' but she decided that her mother was being too amiable to spoil things with a threat. "I suppose," she said. " I guess I can waste an hour of my time not to go to college."

"Ah, Fubuki..." she continued a little awkwardly.

"Yeah?"

Her mother hesitated. "I was talking to the Father, and... he said... Fubuki... I will admit I have often looked for reasons to condemn you. I think... we have often encouraged the worst in each other."

"Well, there's a lot of bad things to encourage," Fubuki replied.

"In you, or in me?"

"I'll let you mull that over for awhile," Fubuki cryptically replied.

To Part B