Okay, this one's sort of a sequel to "None of Your Business" ...
some of the characters make passing references to the events of that
story, but it's not necessary to have read it to understand what's going
on, I think.
        As for continuity, this one takes place in the a period of
relative calm during the series ... possibly after the original troops of
the Black Moon are all either converted or dead (in other words, after
the last episode that has been shown in North America.)  (Sigh.  Two
little mistakes and I have to junk whole swaths of continuity.)
        One final note before the screaming starts:  If this were a film,
it would almost certainly be rated R, for a couple of scenes of brutal
violence, and some rough language.  No sex this time though, which should
please certain individuals in the crowd ...

Rating: PG-13
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                               "Five Minutes"

        A great deal can change in five minutes.
        Five minutes ago, Serena Tsukino, the one named Sailor Moon, was
staring up anxiously at what a ... more spiritual age would consider a
demon.  Over to one side of her, Darien Chiba, alias Tuxedo Mask, perched
on the branch of a tree, waiting for the perfect moment to make his
move.  I, Raye Hino, was lying on the ground, coming out of a stupor
induced by a hit that the demon had scored on me.  The demon was looming
over Serena, having backed her up against a tree, and was brandishing its
clawed hands.  The other Sailor Scouts were some distance away, engaged
in a fight with the demon's small army of mind controlled humans.
        Now, the Sailor Scouts have finished their fight, and come racing
to this small, almost idyllic glade in the forest, and are staring at the
tableau that fate has prepared at them with expressions from shock and
disbelief (Lita), revulsion and horror (Mina) and tearful anguish (Amy).
The demon's charred remains lie before me, the scent of its roasting
flesh assaulting my nostrils.  Darien is holding Serena's still form in
his arms, and weeping like a wounded child.  Serena's cooling body has a
large hole in her upper chest where her heart used to be.  When last I
saw it, the demon was busy crushing it to a pulp.
        Serena is dead.
        Hindsight affords perfect understanding of these events.  I can
see, with crystal clarity, each step that has brought us to this point,
and I don't have to be a seer to understand what must occur now.
        It began about twenty minutes ago.  Mina was taking a casual walk
in the park when she stumbled onto the demon, busy recruiting troops from
the other visitors to the park.  She managed to escape, transform to
Sailor Venus, and summon the rest of us.  I was the first to arrive,
about twelve minutes ago, with Serena showing up two minutes later with
Lita and Amy.  The smart thing to do would have been to have Sailor Moon
use the "Healing" power on the demon's troops, but any use of the scepter
drains power from her.  And we knew that the fight, like all our fights,
would inevitably conclude with Serena using the "Elimination" power on
the monster.

        MISTAKE:  Falling into repetitive patterns of strategy.

        So it was decided that Serena would go try to destroy the demon,
with me as backup, of course, and hope that the demon's destruction would
free the people he was controlling.  From the sudden absence of the
sounds of the fight, I guess we were right on that score.
        So we went after the demon, while Sailor Venus, Sailor Mercury,
and Sailor Jupiter tried to contain and minimize the damage that the
"army" did to themselves and others.  Amy's ice powers and Mina's "Love
Chain Encircle" are good for that sort of thing.  Lita wanted to come and
back us up against the demon, but Serena insisted that she should hang
back in case we needed the really big guns.

        MISTAKE:  Not bringing Lita into conflict with the demon.  Waste
of resources.

        So, about nine minutes ago, I launched the first "Celestial Fire
Surround" at the demon, while Serena started to move into position to use
the Scepter.  Isn't it a pity that we didn't know the damn thing didn't
have any reason to fear fire?

        MISTAKE:  Underestimating the enemy.

        He let me fling all my energies against him for about three
minutes, before slamming some sort of invisible boulder into me.  I
suppose Amy would call it telekinesis.  All I knew was that I was having
a hell of a time breathing.
        So that brings us up to where we were, five minutes ago.  I have
no idea when exactly Darien showed up.  Probably he headed here the
minute that Serena transformed to Sailor Moon.  They are linked like that,
you see.  They were linked.
        Four minutes and forty seconds ago, Serena made some sort of
witty yet terrified comment that I didn't quite make out.  Four minutes
and thirty seconds ago, Darien threw one of his roses in between the
demon and Serena.
        I remember once that Amy had wondered, before we knew who and
what Tuxedo Mask was, why the creatures of the Negaverse were so
terrified of the roses that he threw.  Now, of course, we knew.  The
roses were a symbol of a love that had survived through death,
destruction, and thousands of years.  Until now, of course.
        Four minutes and twenty seconds ago, all our eyes turned in
Tuxedo Mask's direction, as he rose from his crouched position on the
branch and began to make one of his trademark speeches.

        MISTAKE:  Not checking to see if the branch could stand up to the
sudden movement of someone standing up on it when they had been crouching
only a moment before.

        The branch snapped.  Darien was agile enough to avoid being hurt
in the fall, of course, but Serena immediately turned all her attention
towards him.

        MISTAKE:  Turning her eyes from the opponent.

        Four minutes ago, I watched as the demon's huge clawed hand
streaked out, punching through the cloth of Serena's sailor suit
instants before it sliced into her breast, snapping through the ribs,
and grabbing something small and red and completely unrecognizable as
the inspiration for any Valentine's day cards, spraying blood
everywhere.  Serena made no cry.  It was too sudden for her even to
whisper Darien's name.  She was almost certainly dead before she hit the
ground.  She may have been dead before he seized hold of her heart -- I'm
told that the shock of such traumatic wounds can be as lethal as the
tissue damage actually inflicted.
        Three minutes and fifty five seconds ago, Darien raised his eyes
from the ground to stare at the obscene sight of a demon smiling as it
crushed Serena's heart in the palm of its hand.  The heart made a wet,
almost squishy noise as it turned into bloody chunks.
        "SEERRRRREEEEEEENNNNNAAAAAAA!"
        No voice should ever sound that completely lacking in hope, so
filled with pain.  No eyes should ever be as empty of any instinct for
self preservation as Darien's were as he rushed to grapple with the
demon.  If he had grappled with the creature, it would almost certainly
have torn him to bits.
        However, it was time for the demon to make a mistake:
Forgetting that I was there.
        A burst of flame more intense than anything I had ever released
before slammed into the back of the creature, knocking him over and out
of Darien's path.  The creature rolled over, and that's when it saw me
coming for it.
        I remember that the creature looked almost frightened of what it
saw in my face.  I doubt that it feared the Sailor Scout.  I think it was
simply frightened of the expression of utter hatred and desire for its
death that was on my face.
        I don't think I've ever wanted anyone dead before.  I'd hated
Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite, Kunzite, and Beryl, but I hadn't really
desired their deaths.  If they had gone away, stopped hurting the people
of Earth, I wouldn't have sought them out.
        But I wanted this thing dead.
        I wasn't thinking coherently at that point, so I don't know how I
worked this out.  The thing's outer skin was resistant to fire and heat,
but what about its internal organs?
        I landed astride its chest, pinning its arms to the ground with
my knees.  Its mouth was open, revealing several rows of sharp teeth that
would have stopped me if I had been thinking at that point.  But I
wasn't.  I jammed my hand down into the back of the thing's mouth, and
released a jet of flame down into its stomach, rolling off of it the
instant I did.
        It exploded.  Black, oily blood sprayed everywhere, including on
me.  The lower part of its torso separated from the upper in a burst of
flame that severed its spine.  But since that might not be enough, I
decided to keep up the flame for another half a minute, burning it from
the inside out.
        About three minutes ago, I was finally satisfied that the thing
was dead.  I turned my weary eyes towards Darien.
        He was cradling Serena's corpse in his arms.  The mask had fallen
off, and I could see his face clearly.  I don't think he was even
remotely aware of his surroundings.  He was whispering something to her,
something that I couldn't hear.  They were both covered in her blood.
        I hadn't expected to feel any great elation when I put an end to
the demon, but looking at them, all I could feel was a dull, empty ache.
As though somehow, in tearing out her heart, the thing had done the same
to me.
        It was at that point that the others began to arrive.  Amy was
first, and her jaw dropped in horror as she saw what had occurred.  She
started towards Serena, as though thinking for one moment that there was
something she could do, some medical trick she'd picked up that would
make everything better.  But Amy, being smart, knew better, and she
slowed, stopped, and held her distance.  The tears welled up, and began
to slowly flow down her cheeks.
        Lita limped into the glade next, having taken some sort of blow
to her leg.  She stared at the two of them.  Blinked.  Stared again.
Started to shake her head.  Muttered "no, no, no," over and over again.
But Lita is wiser than she seems.  Eventually, the muttering stopped as
a look of complete loss developed on her face.  She didn't cry, though.
I don't think I've ever seen Lita cry.
        And finally Mina.  She'd seen the other two stop suddenly, and
with her greater experience, she'd guessed what had happened.  So she
gave Serena and Darien only a brief look.  A single tear trickled down
her cheek.  Then she turned to look at the demon's remains.  A look of
disgust grew on those classically beautiful features.  She slowly raised
her eyes to mine.  I was prepared for a look of accusation, of contempt,
of "why didn't you save her, you bitch?"
        I wasn't, however,  prepared in the slightest for the look of calm
approval that was in those eyes.
        The same questions are on our minds.  How are we going to explain
this to Serena's family?  How are we going to explain this to LUNA?
        But we are silent.  The only sounds are those of the small
woodland creatures, and they were muted, and the sounds of Darien
weeping.  I think we know, deep in our hearts, that nothing we could do
would ever explain what had happened.
        Or at least, they know that.
        I know that there is something I can do that will fix it.
        The Moon Scepter is hanging, half-in and half-out, of the
"subspace" pocket that Serena stores ... stored it in.  Swiftly, before
any of the others can guess what I'm about, I reach out, and snatch the
scepter.  "Amy," I say quietly, "when I'm done with this, tell Chad ..."
        What should she tell him?  "Raye loved you?"  I don't ...
exactly.  "Raye was a Sailor Scout, and she nobly laid down her life to
save Sailor Moon?" I don't know if that's true yet, and if it works I
never will.
        "Tell Chad the truth."
        "Raye, NO!" Lita's voice rings out.  Too late.
        I've already activated the Crystal.
        I wasn't sure that it would work for me.  It's actually only
supposed to work for a member of the Royal House of the Moon, which I
definitely am not.  But I remember, vaguely, watching ... another woman,
not Queen Serenity, not Serena, use the Silver Imperium Crystal to perform
some great magic.  She died in the doing, of course.  I wish I could
remember more, but there isn't any time for contemplation ...
        The process is both simple and complex.  I'm going to have to
release the full power of the Crystal, but in a way that isn't
destructive.  This thing has the power of life and death.  I'm going to
use the power of life.
        The problem is, of course, that it will kill me.  And there is a
very good chance that it will not work at all.
        But I have to remember who I'm doing this for.
        I feel ... out of my body, but still rooted in it.  I can feel my
legs begin to tremble, prelude to a collapse.  I know, with a strange
dispassionate certainty, that if my body collapses, I will fail in my
aims.
        So it is with great relief that I feel strong arms supporting my
body.  Lita.  Of course.
        As though from a great distance, I can hear her screaming at me.
"Raye!  Don't do this!  You'll die!  Just like Queen Serenity!"
        There had been time enough to worry about minor, unimportant
details like that before I started on this.  I command the Crystal to
find Serena's spirit.  Instantly, I am moving at a great speed.
        Or part of me is.  Part of me is rooted in my body, still.  I
know, somehow, that if I release my grip on my body, I will die, and the
task will not be completed.  The same will happen if I release my hold on
the Crystal ... or perhaps its spiritual analogue, wherever the part of
me that is outside my body is.
        I am being stretched taut.
        It ... hurts.
        But I have to remember who I'm doing this for.
        Back in the real world ... or is where my spirit is moving at
such great speed the real world, and that other just a shadow? ... back
where my body is, I can hear Lita shouting some more.
        "Darien!  Help me!  Help her!"
        Silly girl.  He won't leave her body.
        Her voice becomes more frantic.  "Godammit, Darien, she's doing
this out of love for you!  She needs you!"
        Damn, Lita, why did you have to go and tell him that?  I've done
my best to keep him from realizing how I felt about him for so long since
the final battle, since he remembered being Tuxedo Mask ... since he
remembered loving Serena.
        But it won't matter.  He won't leave her body.
        I'm being stretched even tighter.  I ... can't ... hold ... on
.. I ...
        "Raye."
        That voice.  I remember hearing that voice for the very first
time.  It was mocking Serena, then.  Later, I remember it speaking to me
in words of tenderness ...
        "Raye, please come back.  I've already lost Serena.  I couldn't
bear to lose both of you."
        Strong arms holding me up.
        Oh, Lita.  How wrong you are.
        I remember other things, now.  Watching a film with the girls.
An American film.  E.T.  A scene where a woman is reading a fairy tale to
her child.  Peter Pan.  "Do you believe in fairies?" she asks.  "Clap
your hands if you believe in fairies."  Clapping noise to the side of
me.  Turning my head.  Serena watching the film in rapt adoration, her
hands still clapped together.  Innocence in her eyes.
        It is not just for him.  It is for her, too.
        And another time.  Walking, alone.  Turning a corner, and
realizing that they are standing together under a streetlamp.  Hiding.
But still watching.  They do not kiss.  They just stand, holding each
other.  Gazing into each other's eyes.  Loneliness.  I will never be
a part of that.  It is just for them.  I can't do anything for them.
        Until now.
        It is not just for him.  It is not just for her.  It is for them.
        They deserve to be together.
        And those who would separate them, in the name of Mars, I will
punish you.
        Strength.  Strength greater than I have ever had fills me.
        I can see her spirit, closer now.
        Why am I not surprised that she has wings?
        Closer.  Closer yet.  The Silver Imperium Crystal will bring her
spirit back, and heal the wounds she received.  It can do that.
        The price is no object.
        I am almost close enough to touch her spirit.
        And the Crystal bursts into flames.
        They are burning me.  It is agonizing.
        But I cannot stop until it ... is ... done ...
        And I am falling back to my body.
        My hands are wreathed in flames.  Not the red flames I command,
but silver ones.  Lita is holding my hands shut around the Crystal, and
they are burning her as they burn me.
        I force my hands apart.  The flames stop, instantly, as the
Crystal drops to the ground.
        I sag, beginning to fade to darkness.  A darkness made colder by
the sure certainty that I've failed.
        And then ...
        A voice.  The most beautiful voice I can imagine.
        "I feel awful.  What's with Raye?"
        She's alive.
        Darkness.

        Light.  And a face.  Male, early thirties.  Holding a flashlight.
        "How are you feeling, Ms. Hino?"
        I want to say, "Like I'm dead", but I can't.  Throat too dry.
        "You're in the Juban Hospital.  You were in serious condition,
but you're all right now.  Would you like something to drink?"
        Slowly, I lift my head to take a sip of the water that I'm being
offered.  Grandfather is crouched at the end of the bed, staring at me
anxiously.  My hands are swathed in bandages.  They feel very hot.
        "Your friends told us that you tried to put out a fire in the
park by yourself, and were burned doing so.  Is that correct?"
        I nod, and croak an affirmative.
        "That was very foolish.  You could have been seriously hurt.
You're very lucky that your friends found you in time."
        "Yes.  I am."
        The doctor smiles that I have seemingly taken his chastening to
heart, and continues.  "You have second degree burns on your hands and
arms.  You also seem to have had a serious shock of some sort.  We can
probably discharge you tomorrow morning."
        The doctor turns to go.  "Only one visitor at a time, okay?
You've got quite a crowd waiting for you."  He heads out the door.
        Grandfather is staring at me very oddly.  I try to meet his gaze,
and can't quite.
        "You aren't so careless as to try to put out a fire by yourself,
Raye ... you've been around fire since you were a very young girl, and
you respect its power ... so I think that you lied to the doctor."
        "Grandfather, I ..."
        "Do not interrupt.  I know also, that you would not lie, unless it
was for a good reason.  But the good reason must be a secret you have to
keep.  So, I won't ask, so that you won't have to lie to me."  And then
Grandfather smiles his twisted little grin.  "None of my business, right?"
        I blink several times, to keep the tears from my eyes.
        Grandfather gets up, and walks towards the door.  "Now, if you'll
excuse me, there's a really cute nurse I saw coming in.  I think she
needs some spiritual counseling."  He makes his googoo eyes at me.
        I laugh quietly.
        Lita comes in the door.  She's wearing gloves over her hands, so
I don't know how badly they're burnt.
        She sits down on the edge of the bed, and quietly looks at me
without saying a word.
        "Why am I not dead?" I ask quietly.
        "I don't know," she replies, shaking her head.  "Amy theorized
that the Crystal drew the energy that would have killed you out of all
three of us ... you, me, and Darien.  You got the worst of it, it seems.
I remember ... back in the Negaverse, it did draw from all five of us,
even though Serena was the only one that was really affected."
        "Are you ... okay?"
        Lita pulls off one of the gloves.  While her hand is beet red, it
seems to be in better condition than mine are.  "And as for the drain of
life-force ... I don't know.  I feel a little empty ... but I should get
better soon."  She smiles.  "I have a lot of life-force to build on."
        We're silent for a few moments.
        "Why did you do it?" she finally asks.
        "Because we're supposed to protect her, and I didn't do a good
enough job.  Because I couldn't stand the look in Darien's eyes when he
saw she was dead."  Long pause.  "And because I didn't want to have to be
around when you explained what happened to her to her parents."
        She nods.  "You're a better person than I thought you were, when
we met last year."
        I try to shrug that off.  "You would have done the same thing."
        She smiles ironically.  "I would have sacrificed my life to save
that of someone who had a prior claim on the heart of the great love of
my life?  I guess you don't know me as well as you think."
        Before I can answer that, she leans down, and kisses me on the
forehead.  It's a warm kiss.  It completely disrupts my train of
thought.
        And then she gets up to leave.
        For a long moment, I don't think I'm going to have any more
visitors.  Then Darien steps into the doorway.
        He looks very nervous.  I wonder why he's so embarrassed to be
around me.  He holds out a bouquet of flowers.
        Yellow roses.
        Without saying anything, he puts them in the vase on the dresser
beside my bed.  Then he sits down in the chair.  He looks as though he's
looking for a way to say something.
        "I don't remember you," he bursts out finally.  "I mean, I
remember you ... but I don't remember us.  It's like the Moonlight Knight
took the memories away, and then didn't return them when he merged with
me.  So I don't know if ... I mean, I know that we went on dates ... but
was I ... did we ... were you ..."  He trails off, finally.
        I'm tempted to say, "None of your business," but I don't.  "It
doesn't matter, Darien."
        "But ..."
        "You're in love with Serena.  That's the way things are, and
that's the way that they've been for thousands of years, and that's the
way they're going to stay."
        He stares at me for a few more minutes.  "I think that ... the
three of us should have a talk about this."
        I shake my head.  "Won't do any good.  If you dump Serena again, I
swear I won't have anything to do with you at all."
        "I didn't mean ..." he protests.
        "Darien, just accept it.  And take very good care of her." I
smile predatory.  "Or else.  And you've seen my *or* *else*."
        He smiles suddenly.  I wonder, momentarily, if he's going to kiss
me, but he doesn't.  He simply nods, heads for the door.  Before exiting,
he turns back.
        "I almost wish that I didn't love Serena as much as I do ...
because I can't help but think that I didn't care about you as much as I
should have when we were dating ..."
        "You cared, Darien.  I knew you cared."
        He nods, and then leaves.
        And I'm alone for a few minutes.
        Then the nurse pushes a wheel-chair bound Serena into the room.
"Now, Ms. Tsukino, you shouldn't be exerting yourself like this ..."
        "But I gotta see Raye!  It's important!"
        The nurse lets out a sigh.  I recognize that sigh.  I've given it
myself.
        Serena leans forward in the chair to talk to me.  Then, suddenly,
she realizes that the nurse is still here, and glares at her.  "Ahem.
Privacy, please?"
        "Whatever the two of you want to talk about, I'm sure you can do
it in front of me."
        Serena starts to fret.  Before she comes up with an idiot plan to
get rid of the nurse that will almost surely blow up in our faces, I
decide to head her off at the pass.  "If the little meatball head wants
to talk to me privately, there's a few things that I'd like to say to her
that are for her ears only, too.  Could you wait out in the corridor?
Please?"
        The nurse frowns.  Then sighs, shrugs, and heads out into the
corridor.
        "Boy, that was way easier than the idea I had ..." Serena says
admiringly.
        I don't even want to know.  "Did that thing say what it was?"
        She stares at me for a moment, as if she was expecting something
else ... then nods.  "It said something about being a ... survivor of the
Dark Kingdom.  I guess that it was one of the ancestors of the things
that've been after Reenie ..."
        "Why are you in the hospital?  I would have thought that the ...
thing healed all your injuries."
        She shakes her head.  "No ... just the ones that ... I can't
believe that I was almost actually ... wow."
        Wow.  She comes up with wow to describe what we just went
through.  "You weren't almost actually anything.  You were there."
        "And you brought me back.  Why?"
        Blink.  "Whaddayamean, why?"
        "You're always insulting me, teasing me, hitting me ... I don't
understand why you'd want to keep me around.  I don't understand you at all."
        She doesn't understand me.
        This wondrous child -- who has taught me more about compassion
and caring than I ever thought possible; who never ceases to amaze me in
the depths of her concern for others; who is a miracle and a blessing on
the human race -- doesn't understand me.
        "Good," I say, "we're even."
        A lot can change in five minutes.
        But some things never should.

Sailor Moon, the Sailor Scouts, and all associated concepts and
characters, are copyrighted (and probably trademarked), by several large
corporations, none of whom I wish to mess with.  This story, however, is
mine mine mine.