May 1, 1996

      Hikaru finished reading 'Louis XIV and 20 Million Frenchmen' just as
the strains of a waltz started to drift through the wall from Usagi's
bedroom.  It wasn't the sort of music she was used to hearing from Usagi's
room, so it caught her attention.  She got up and walked over to Usagi's
room and knocked.  The door swung open.  Mamoru, Usagi's fiancee, and
Usagi were trying to waltz.  It wasn't working very well.  Mamoru knew how
to dance, but it clearly wasn't Usagi's strong point.

      Hikaru said, "Need some help?"

      Usagi said, "Do you know how to waltz well, Hikaru-chan?"

      Hikaru laughed.  "Is the Pope Catholic?  Is the Emperor Japanese?"
She walked over to the couple.  "I wanted to go into professional dance
when I was younger, and I learned all sorts of stuff."

      She spent the next thirty minutes helping Usagi get the moves down
and giving Mamoru tips on how to effectively 'lead' Usagi.  Finally, Usagi
plopped down on her bed, exhausted.  "Wow!  You're really good at this.
So why didn't you stay in dancing, Hikaru-chan?"

      Hikaru sat down and sighed.  "I was in a car wreck and I had leg
injuries.  I can handle something like this, but anything as stressful as
professional dancing would wreck my legs permanently."  I can only manage
this because I have the Power, but I won't mention that.  

      "That's too bad, Hiyama-san,"  Mamoru said.  "It's terrible when you
can't follow your dream."

      "I've had a lot of my dreams wrecked over the years, but I'm pretty
good at bouncing back from disaster.  Like my boyfriend falling in love
with my best friend."

       "Ack!  That's awful!"  Usagi said.  "I can't believe your best
friend and your boyfriend did that to you!  You're such a nice person!"

       You're so innocent and sweet, Usagi, Hikaru thought.  I wish I was
still as much like you as I used to be.  She smiled.  "Thank you,
Usagi-chan."  She noticed Usagi's Ayukawa Madoka poster on the wall and
laughed.  "You just put that up there?"

       "Yeah!  She's such a cooool singer!"

       Hikaru laughed.  "She's the one my boyfriend fell in love with."

       "You're kidding!"  Usagi got big eyes.  "You know HER?"

       "We grew up together.  And then this kid Kyousuke Kasuga moved to our 
town..."

*****

Chapter 12:  Chrysalis


*****

      The group prepared to scatter for the night.  The leadership would
likely be up all night trying to decide on the next action, but everyone
else could get some sleep.  Linna was about to ship out when Sasami
approached her.  "Mind if I talk to you for a while?"

      "That's fine.  I know a coffee house we can go to."

      They soon got there in Linna's car, making insignificant small talk
along the way.  Linna got some coffee and a donut; Sasami got a big scoop
of ice cream.  "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

      "How could you percieve my true nature?  Very few people can see
what I am."

      "Uh...what exactly ARE you?  Just because I saw that doesn't mean I
understand it.  And I have no idea how I could see that unless it has
something to do with my martial arts training.  Master Hiromi tried to
teach me a lot of mystic stuff, but it never worked until recently like
when I..."

      "Like what?"

      "Like when I accidentally ended up in one of Celia's dreams.  If
that really was one of her dreams."

      Sasami got another ice cream cone, having rapidly finished her first
one.  "That is a very useful and incredibly dangerous talent."

      "What, visiting people's dreams?"

      "There is  much you can learn from a person's dreams.  But it can be
very dangerous.  If you are not careful, you can be trapped for the night
or even longer in some cases.  I can help you, if you'd like training,
though dream walking is not my strong point."

      "I...sure.  So what ARE you?"

      "My name is Princess Sasami of Jurai.  My name is also Tsunami, a
spaceship who has lived for twenty five thousand years.  You see..."

      It took a long time for Sasami to explain everything and even longer
to get Linna to believe all of it.

*********

      X sighed.  Another disaster caused by Z's incompetence.  At least
this time the ADPolice didn't get involved.  Uncovering those Juraiian
agents has left them rather paranoid.  There has to be some way we can
exploit that.  

      The worst part of this is that we don't know where the Juraiians
are.  With the satellites down, there's no good way to observe the entire
city to find them.  They could just be lurking in space somewhere.  X paced 
back and forth, trying to decide how to draw them out.

      We could strike at the Sabres...if Z is right, then one of them is
Juraiian, and one of them is carrying a master key...that would draw out the 
Juraiians.  However, a force capable of doing that successfully would attract 
too much attention...

      Hmmm.  There must be some way I can use Z to lure them into a trap.
Either way, I'll be rid of one threat.  Ideally, we need to capture one of
their space ships too so we don't stay stuck on this rock.  

      X would need a lot of time to think.  As usual, he wouldn't get as
much as he really needed, or even just wanted.

**********

     One might think that learning to dream walk would be fun.  Of course,
one might also think that space is full of air or that anything as pretty
as a fire can't burn you.  To start with, Linna's training began with her
being yanked out of a dream in which a gorgeous millionaire proposed to
her.

      "Hey!  I was enjoying that!"  She found herself floating in the
starry void of space.

      Sasami floated nearby, dressed in her usual garb, as compared to
Linna, who was wearing a tank-top and panties and feeling a bit
embarrassed.  She had been better dressed in the dream, but this was what
she had been sleeping in.  

      "You'll have plenty of time to dream when we're done.  Also, I
wanted to make sure you didn't send yourself somewhere I'd have to go
looking for you."

      "So what's first?"

      "First you get dressed."

      "How?"

      "Think about wearing something else."

      Linna thought about her hardsuit jumpsuit and suddenly she was
wearing it.  She thought about a donut and it appeared.  She ate it.
"Well, that's easy."

      "Just don't forget you won't get real nourishment from imaginary
donuts."

      "Won't get fat either."

      "Good point."  Sasami turned and pointed at the panorama of stars.
"These are all dreams.  There are many other ways you could percieve this,
but this is a fairly common one because it lets your mind use many
metaphors to help you percieve the incomprehensible."

      "So each star is someone dreaming?"

      "Yes.  The first step is to learn to find the dreamer you're looking
for.  The second step is to do it without getting sucked in."

      "Okay.  Let's say I want to go drop in on Nene's dreams.  How would
I do that?"

      "The essential element is you think about the person you want to
find.  The better you know them, the easier it is."

      "Right."  Linna tried to picture Nene in her mind.  It was pretty
easy.  An image of Nene in her ADPolice uniform sprang full blown into her
mind.  Soon, she started moving through space.  "So this will take me to
her dreams?"

      "As long as you stay focused.  The tricky part is stopping before
you end up inside the dream."

      Linna saw the same knot of stars from the night she had dreamed of
Celia, but this time she was heading towards a different one of the
swirling mass of binaries.  She noted briefly that one binary was actually
a trinary, which she hadn't quite noticed before.  One of them was almost
black.  "Why is that one black?"

      "He's shielding his dreams.  One of my students.  I'll try to
teach you that as well.  It's a useful skill.  Now, let go of the image of
Nene before you get pulled in."

      Linna stopped thinking about Nene, but found she was still drifting
towards one of the stars.  "I'm still moving!"

      "It's easy to find your friends' dreams and hard to stay out of
them.  Just concentrate on not moving."

      Trying to concentrate on NOT doing something is not as easy as it
sounds, though easier than trying to not itch.  With effort, Linna managed
it, for the moment.  "Now what?"

      "The next step is to find the exact one you want and observe it.
Think about it getting bigger so you can actually see what is in it."

      Linna looked at each of them, trying to intuit the right one from
the tiny images she saw inside them.  Finally, she selected what she
thought was the right one and told it to grow.  So of course, it grew
to five thousand times original size and swallowed her up.  Linna's new
skill lacked the precision her fighting skills possessed.

                          *****************

     Linna found herself standing in a vast royal hall, lined with
tapestries on the walls, with two huge thrones at one end.  Nene, dressed
in elaborate renaissance style garb, mostly pink and purple, including one
of those HUGE pleated collars, sat on one of the thrones, and Ryu sat on
the other one.  

     The room was bustling with courtiers, some of whom Linna recognized,
like Kiyone, Naoko, and Nene's mom, and others who Linna had never seen
before in her life, all dressed in the same huge expensive satin clothing.
In fact, Linna herself was dressed in such an outfit, all green and grey
like her hardsuit.

     The heralds blew a trumpet call and one cried out, "Queen Stingray of
Tokyo has arrived."

     Linna turned and saw Celia, dressed even MORE elaborately than Nene,
if that was humanly possible, striding up the middle of the hall, followed
by Priss in her hardsuit and Macky, who was wearing a 'wizard' costume--a 
blue robe covered with squiggly glyphs and a long pointed hat with the word 
'Wizzard' written on it.  Linna tried hard not to laugh.  A voice whispered to 
Linna, "Well, you found the right dream.  However, letting yourself get 
sucked in like that was not so good."

      It was Sasami.  Linna turned to her.  "I didn't think it would get
that big."

      "Well, luckily, this dream is not powerful enough to control you so
getting out won't be too hard."

       Queen Stingray and Empress Nene began having a discussion about
recent Boomer attacks from Mordor and the necessity to mount another
expedition against the Boomer Breeding Pits in the Mountains of Darkness.  
Perhaps General Priss' army of replicants would be able to hand it.  

       Linna said, "So how do we get out?"

       "Basically, you have to will yourself out.  This is easy with a
dream like this, and a lot harder if the person is properly trained."

       Linna closed her eyes and found herself back in the starry void.
She could see Nene's dream floating nearby.  "Well, that was easy."

       "You have much to learn, but that's a good start.  There's three
important things to remember.  One, you're not getting any rest while you
do this, so don't spend too much time in any one night on this.  Two, be
very careful, or you might get caught in someone's dream and not be able
to get out...and if it's a nightmare, you can mess yourself up pretty
badly.  Three, be very careful about how you use this.  Not only can it be
dangerous, but you shouldn't go traipsing around people's dreams for fun."

      Linna nodded.  "Right."  

      Not that anyone ever pays attention to these rules until they get
burnt, Sasami thought, but I gave you a chance, anyway.

********

      Ingraman flew off into the sky as the crowd cheered...and then Noa
woke up.  She laughed faintly then got out of bed, leaving her husband to
sleep a while longer.  The sun was still below the horizon, leaving the
city to survive on its own light, which was still pretty substantial,
especially on a cloudy night, since the clouds reflected back a lot of the
night lights of the city.  

      Noa's body ached from driving labors around all day, though not half
as much as it had after the first day of training her new students.
Except for a few charity appearances, Noa hadn't driven labors in years
since she retired from SV2.  As a result, her body ached in ways she'd
almost forgotten existed.

       She didn't mind.  While she loved her restaurant, she hadn't
realized how much she'd missed being a labor pilot until she started doing
it again.  I feel young again, she thought.  We may be going up against
incredible odds, but I...I don't mind.  This is all so completely insane,
but I like it.  It's probably foolish of me to be looking forward to a
good fight, but I am.  

       Should I take Hiyama's deal?, she wondered.  Those kids rely on
their powers too much...but it would be useful.  I should do it...because
if I don't, I know I'll end up needing them.  Assuming I can actually
learn what I'm doing with them fast enough to do any good.

      Having made up her mind, she went to go get some more sleep.

*******

      Priss finished another practice with her band.  Kinda odd to do
something this normal with all the crazy stuff in my life, she thought.
She went and changed back into her normal clothing and headed for her
bike.  Setsuna was waiting there for her.

      "Good afternoon."

      "Now what the hell do you want?"

      Setsuna smiled her usual infuriating smile.  "It is time for you to
be properly trained in your powers."

      "I know how to fight."

      "You know nothing.  You're a brawler who has been VERY lucky, but
luck won't keep you alive forever.  Without the toys you rely on, you
couldn't beat a decently trained fighter.  Your friend Linna has twenty
times your skill.  Maybe forty.  And there are things you will have to
confront that would crush her like a grape."

       "HEY!  I'm a damn good figher!"  Okay, Linna is better, but not
twenty times better than me!

      Setsuna laughed.  "Right.  Come and get me."

      Priss charged forward and never did quite figure out how Setsuna
grabbed her and flipped her into the nearby wall of the building.  She did
figure out how badly it hurt, though.  Getting up, she aimed a kick
at Setsuna and was pulled off her feet.  Three more attacks got her three
more beatings.  "Okay, you're not bad."

      "And you're not good."

      Priss got mad and charged her again, this time getting grabbed and
twisted around into an elbow lock.  "You also get angry, which clouds your
judgement.  I couldn't have done this if you had been paying attention."

       "Let go of me!"

       "There is a lot you must do, and not much time to do it in."

       "DAMMIT, LET GO OF ME!"

       "Make me."

       Priss tried her damnedest, but fifteen minutes of efforts to escape
proved no more fruitful than trying to plug a hole in a dam with a
toothpick.  Maybe less fruitful.  "All right.  You win.  I can't escape."

       "As I was saying.  There are three things you must do.  First, you
must find your sister."

       "Why don't you just tell me where she is since you think you know
everything?"

       Setsuna ignored her and kept going.  "Secondly, you must find the
Empyrean Crystal."

       "I already know that."

       "And third, you must stay away from Leon."

       Priss blinked.  Of all the things Setsuna might have said, that was
NOT something Priss expected.  "You can't tell me what to do."

       "Of course I can.  I know what MUST be."

       "No one can know the future!"

       "Destiny cannot be denied."

       "Screw destiny.  I go where I want and I talk to who I want."

       Setsuna let go of Priss.  "If you ignore my guidance..."

       "Then I won't have to put up with you popping up out of nowhere and
telling me what to do.  No one tells me what to do."

        "Not even Celia Stingray?"

       "I trust her.  I don't trust you."

       "Your fate be on your own head, then."

       "Just the way I like it."  Priss roared off on her motorcycle,
still fuming.  Can't see Leon, eh?  Well, screw you, witch.  I'll show you
no one pushes me around.

       Setsuna laughed once Priss was out of sight.  "You are such a
bull-headed one...and so easy to manipulate.  You'll run right to him,
just to spite me.  Just as I planned.  Now to let the 'good cop' play his
part to my 'bad cop.'"  She turned and walked away, smiling faintly.  "Or
is Tsunami the good cop...hmm.  Well, two can do the job as well as one."

 *****

      Leon and Daley examined the scene of the crime.  Someone had torn
three sailors limb from limb down at the docks the previous night.  "So
what makes you think this is a BOOMER crime?"  Daley asked the ship's
captain who had lost three of his crew.

       "What, you think a human managed to rip the limbs off another
human?  That woman wasn't natural.  I guess she might have just been a
cyborg, but don't you guys handle those cases too?"

      Leon wandered about, looking for something that might at least
pretend to be a clue.  Other than a few ashes near one of the chalk
outlines, there weren't any.

       "Yeah.  So you say she looked like a highly muscular pro wrestler
type?"

       The captain nodded.  "I'm not even sure what they got in the fight
about.  All I heard was something about Mars."

       "Like the planet?"

       "Yeah.  Something about Mars.  Having to kill Mars or something."

       "But you have no employees by that name?"

       "Not even close.  Not even something that could be misheard as
Mars.  Heck, I've never met anyone named Mars.  Maybe someone on one of
the European vessels, though.  The woman had a weird accent too."

       Daley turned to Leon.  "Found anything?"

       "Not even close.  I wish the Metropolitan Police had called us in
sooner."

       "Well, time for us to go check ships registries, then.  Looking for
a sailor named Mars.  Or anyone named Mars for that matter."

       Their search did not pay off...yet.

********

     Somewhat later, Leon had returned to ADPolice headquarters.  He
stopped by Nene's desk.  "How is the security check coming along, Nene?"

     Nene looked up, looking very nervous.  "I don't know.  I just had my
interview with the internal security woman.  She made me REALLY 
nervous."  I hope those faked records hold up or I'm in trouble.

     "Can you run a check on me for something, Nene-chan?"

     "Sure.  What?"

     "We've got a lunatic cyborg on the loose, looking for someone,
possibly a sailor, named Mars.  At least maybe looking for someone named
Mars.  Can you see if you can find anyone in the city by that name?"

     Nene nodded.  This would be fairly easy.  Just search the phonebook
and local police records.  It took only a few minutes.  "No one.  That's
'Mars' as in the English spelling, not the Japanese one, right?"

     "Try it the other way too."

     She did.  "Okay.  I found four people this way."  She printed out
names, addresses, and phone numbers.  A few more minutes and... "None of
them have police records besides a few parking tickets and the like.  Good
luck on your investigation."

     "Thanks.  At least I have my real, sane partner back."

     "Had enough of Mihoshi to last you a lifetime?"

     Suddenly, it struck Leon.  Wait...Mihoshi is Ryu's aunt.
Therefore...  He got big eyes.  

     "Is something wrong?"

     "I just had a revelation."  More thoughts ran through his mind.
Is Ryu working with them?  Is NENE working with them?  She hangs out 
with Priss a lot and I know Priss is one of the Knight Sabres...They had to
have someone on the inside to get Mihoshi and Andrea hired so easily.
Heck, to get Mihoshi hired at all.  Nene is a genius with computers.  Is
Nene working for them...what if Nene IS one of the Knight Sabres?  It
can't be a coincidence that she's dating Ryu and she knows Priss and...or
maybe I'm just paranoid.

      "About what?"

      "You've given me some ideas.  Thanks a lot for the help, Nene-chan."
I'll ask Priss.  She might tell me...or she might not.  But I have to
know.  I have to know what's going on.  Leon ran off.

      Nene blinked.  What's with him?

******

     Priss banged on Leon's door a twentieth time.  Dammit, where are you,
Leon, she wondered, then answered her own question.  He's probably at
work.

      She was about to leave when a voice startled her.  "Hello,
Priss-chan."  It was Usagi, staggering along with two grocery bags full of
food.

      Priss turned around.  "Got any idea where Leon is?"

      "Probably at work, I think.  I just got home from work myself."
Usagi fumbled with the keys to her apartment.  

      "I should have remembered that."  She turned to go.

      "Is everything okay?  You sound pretty mad about something,"  Usagi
observed, finally getting the door to her apartment open.

      "This damn woman keeps coming around, trying to tell me how to live
my life."

      "Your mom?"  Usagi put the groceries down inside the apartment and
stood in the doorway.

      Priss laughed.  "I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to claim she
was.  Just this intefering busybody who's a..."  Priss tried to rein in
the impulse to swear.  "Really annoying."

      "Want to talk about it?"

      "Sure."  Priss felt the need to blow off some steam to a
sympathetic ear.  Usagi was a good listener.
 
*************************

     Leon was getting ready to go home for the evening, when the boss called 
him.  "Yeah, what's up?"  Leon asked.

     "Ready for your bout with our Internal Security investigator?"

     "No."

     "Too bad.  She's in the office over there waiting for you."

     Crap.  This would be a lot easier if I hadn't just realized all that
stuff.  I gotta figure out what to do about it.  Damnit.  "Right."

      Lt. Yamanoto strode out of the office, looking cranky as Leon walked
up.  She glared at Leon for no apparent reason, then marched off.  Leon
sighed and walked into the office.

       The Internal Security Officer, Lt. Tara, was tall with long black
hair and light blue eyes.  She made Leon intensely nervous just by the
cool way she looked at him.  "I've heard many interesting stories about
you, Officer McNichol."

      Time to use my best charm, he thought.  "Only the good ones are
true."

      "I certainly hope so.  Am I correct in my understanding that you
were Officer Mihoshi's partner?"

      "Not of my own free will, but yes.  At least in the same sense that
two people chained together in a chain gang are partners."

      He still didn't get a laugh.  Tough audience.  "You lodged no
official complaints."

      "Because no one ever pays any attention when you do."

      She frowned slightly and made a check mark on her pad.  "So, tell me
about your experiences with this officer."

      This took a very long time and mainly succeeded in making Leon even
more nervous than before.

******

     Ryu tried to finish his homework.  Normally, this would be easy, but
Manami kept calling him on the phone and laughing maniacally at him.  He
was starting to get pretty nervous, especially since his mom was helping
her and probably grandma too if she had heard about this.  As long as they
don't douse Nene-chan with mutagens or something.

      The phone rang.  He picked it up and said, "Domino's Pizza."

      "BWAHAHA...oh, sorry."  The woman hung up.  It had been Manami.

      Ryu felt marginally better.

****

      Ryouko turned to Manami.  "I guess he still hasn't tried listening to
any music?"

      "He should have called me and bitten my head off by now.  Are you
sure you switched HIS CDs?"

       "He has the blue CD case, right?"

       "Right.  Are you sure you did the right room?"

       "He was sitting at his desk, studying.  Unless he was lost..."

       "I doubt he was lost.  What could have gone wrong?"

******

       Nene set up her stereo to copy some of Ryu's CDs, blissfully
unaware she was about to make ten copies of 'BOB and his Chainsaw'.  She
would never borrow Ryu's CDs again.

*******

     Macky ran through the exercise in his mind again, managing to clear
it of extraneous thoughts for once.  I am the willow in the wind...no,
that's not right.  He opened his eyes, "What am I supposed to be thinking
about?"

       Youshou sighed.  "You don't remember?"

       Aeka said, "You have no discipline."  She got up.  "I'll be back.
I'm taking a walk."

        Meylia sighed.  Aunt Aeka has no patience.  He's just a boy.  An
idea struck her.  "Try imagining a faucet."

       Macky closed his eyes and thought about a faucet.  That was easy.

       "Now imagine taking the faucet and turning the cold water on.  It's
an old and rusty faucet, so you might have to really put your shoulder
into it."

        Macky could see it in his mind's eye.  In fact, he'd had to fix a
rusty old faucet here the other day so he imagined THAT faucet.  In his
mind, he got out a set of tools and fixed the faucet, then turned it on,
just like he had in real life.  Water started running.  Unseen to him, he
started to glow.  

        Youshou stared.  "That was easy."

        "You have to understand how his mind works."

        "Now imagine yourself turning the faucet down to a trickle."

        Macky did so and the glow dimmed.  Then in his mind, the handle
came off and the faucet exploded out of control, just like he NOW
remembered the real one had.  "Uh oh."

     Aeka saw the explosion all the way from Funaho.

*****

     "So THEN I snuck a frog into her bed.  We could hear the screaming
all the way from our wing at the far end of the building from her."  Priss
finished another story about her days in the orphanage, feeling a lot
better than she had earlier.

       Usagi laughed.  "Remind me never to make you angry."

       "That's a pretty good resolution."  Priss laughed.  "Although from
that story about what you did to your brother...I don't think I've ever
gotten angry enough to shave someone bald when they were asleep."

        Usagi laughed.  "I bet no one ever tried to put Nair in your
shampoo, either...if I hadn't dropped it, I'd have ended up bald myself."

     There was a knock on the door.  Usagi answered it.  It was Leon.
"Hey, is Priss here?  I thought I heard her as I was coming up the
hallway."

      "THERE you are!"  Priss said.

      "You missed me?"

       "Yeah, wasted all my ammo hosing down your room, and you weren't
even home so you could die properly."

       Usagi laughed.  "You wouldn't really shoot Mr. McNichol, would
you?"

      "Not if I could use a knife instead."

       They all laughed.  "Got a minute, Priss?  I need to talk to you
about some stuff."

      "So you do want the roadie job?"

      "Do I get free beer?"

      "Only if you pay for it."

      "Fair enough."

      "Gotta run.  See ya later, Usagi-chan."

      "It's been nice talking to you, Priss-chan!  If you need a frog for
someone's bed, let me know and I'll talk to our school's biology teacher."

      Priss looked at Leon, then at Usagi.  "Okay, see if you can get a
live one."

      As Leon headed to his apartment, he asked Priss, "Should I even
ask?"

      "It'll be more fun if it's a surprise."

      Leon locked the door after they went in.  "You want something to
drink?"

      "A beer'll be fine."

      "Right."  He got two.  "You're probably going to get mad at me for
asking this, but..."

      "I'm not marrying you, Leon."

      Leon paused.  Is she just trying to yank my chain and confuse me?
"Uhh...Actually, this has to do with Nene."

     "She's taken, Leon."

      "I'm not proposing marriage to ANYONE!"

      "Did a woman with long green-black hair tell you to stay away from
me?"

      Leon felt his carefully planned series of questions and speeches
disintegrating around him.  "Unless she dyed her hair and is working for
internal security at ADPolice, no."

      "So someone DID tell you to..."

      "No one told me to stay away from anyone!  What are you talking
about?"

      "That damn busybody came around, picked a fight with me, and told me
to stay away from you.  And a bunch of other stuff.  She's trying to use
me and I HATE it when people use me."  Priss downed the entire beer in one
swig, then burped.

      "The woman who showed up in your trailer that you told me about?"

       "Yeah.  So she didn't come bug you about anything?"

      Leon shook his head.  "I haven't seen anyone by that name...She
wouldn't happen to be named Mars would she by any chance?"

      "Pluto.  Sailor Pluto."

      Leon thought for a second.  "Wait...as in the..."

      "Yeah, the Sailor Warriors.  Didn't I tell you this before?"

      He struck his forehead.  "So THAT's what that thing was looking
for...Sailor Mars.  Was there a Sailor Mars?  IS there a Sailor Mars?"

      "As far as I know, me and Pluto are it.  All the others are like
asleep or something."  I need to ask Sasami some more questions, Priss
realized.  

      "There's some kind of cyborg looking for Sailor Mars."

      "Or it could be another one of those damn droid things."

      "Droid things?"

      "Remember those weird 'boomer rampages' a few days ago?  Some kind
of magical critters named 'droids' were on the loose."

      "Magic?"

      "Do I need to do my song and dance for you again?"  Priss laughed and 
chugged down the last bit of her bottle of beer.

      "No, I remember.  How many of those things are there?"

      Priss got another beer.  "I have no clue."

      Leon steeled himself to try again.  "Priss, I don't mean to pry, and
I know we never talk about this.  It's normally none of my business, but
because of this recent affair with Mihoshi and Andrea and all...and
internal security is asking around..."

       "Spit it out, Leon."

     Leon stared at the ground as he talked.  "Is Nene one of the Knight
Sabres and what the HELL is going on?  I know something big is going on
and the Knight Sabres are mixed up in it, but I can't figure it out.  I
know too much, but I don't dare tell Internal Security about it because I
don't want to start a line of inquiry that leads right to you and to my
friends."  He sighed.  "I got grilled by Internal Security today about
this and I think she figured out I was hiding something.  If you can't
tell me anything, I'll understand, but..."

      "I can't tell you anything about the Sabres, Leon.  But I can tell
you that Genom's being run by nasties from outer space."  She paused,
waiting for Leon to freak out.

      Her expectations failed to come true, as he simply nodded and said, "Go 
on."  

      "Your ex-parter and her partner are both from outer space and so are
a bunch of other people.  We're planning to bust the aliens once we can
find them.  There's one hell of a dustup coming."

       If Leon hadn't heard Kiyone talking to those Genom agents and seen
Priss' new...abilities, he would have thought she was whacked.  However,
it explained a few things, like the rumor he had heard about someone
disabling all of those laser satellites.

       Leon stopped pacing and sat down on the couch by Priss, turning on
the TV.  "So your friends took out the laser satellites?"

       "Yep.  I wish they'd shown up a few years ago."

       Leon idly flicked through channels.  "You think you'll ever be able
to answer the other half of my question?"

       "Let's get pineapple, sausage, and lettuce on the pizza this time."

       "Right.  No apricots?"

       "We BOTH threw up the last time we tried that.  I just want to see
you throw up."

       They soon got into an argument about pizza toppings, and Leon didn't
realize Priss had switched the topics on him until much later when they
were both lying around sick from eating too much pizza after trying to
prove the other person had a weaker stomach.  Most people outgrow this
sort of behavior in college.  Sadly, neither of them had gone to college.

*******

     Priss woke up with a severe stomachache.  She stifled the urge to
moan, because she didn't want Leon to know she felt sick.  No weakness.
She looked around Leon's apartment.  No Leon.  She went ahead and moaned
for a few seconds and got it out of her system.  Bastard, leaving me on
the floor after he's already gotten up.  He could have at least put me on
the couch.  She staggered to her feet, then saw his feet sticking out from
behind the couch.  

       She laughed.  What the heck did he crawl back there for?  She went
over and kicked his foot.  "Wake up."

       The sun was just still down, she realized, looking out the window,
yet she didn't feel tired.  Leon wasn't getting up either.

       "Come on, lazy butt!"

       Silence.  He's bluffing, she thought.  She leaned over to drag him
out and shake him awake, and saw that there was a huge hole in his chest.
Leon was rather thoroughly dead.  Some kind passing soul had scrawled 'A
gift for you' on the wall next to him with his blood.

       For a moment, Priss simply stared, totally unable to believe this.
She was shaken out of her shock when strong hands grabbed her from behind
and began to crush her throat.  "Hello, old friend."  It was a man's
voice.  She tried lashing out backwards instinctively, but it was like
kicking stone.  She couldn't speak either to transform.  The voice was far
to familiar to her.  It was the voice of Largo.

       This has to be some kind of nightmare, she thought.  He's dead!
He's fucking dead!

       "You miss me?"

       She would have cursed if she could speak.  All she could do was
flail pathetically and wish she had her hardsuit.  If wishes were horses,
though, beggars would ride.  The realization also came to mind that
keeping a boomer dead wasn't easy...if Wasyuu could bring Sylvie back to
life after what happened to her...the aliens must have found some way to
put Largo back together.  Or make a new one.  Priss swore mentally,
feeling herself about to pass out.

       "I should just blow your chest open like I did to him, but this is
so much more personal and satisfying,"  Largo said.  

       For a minute, the only sound was that of bones on the verge of
breaking.  The silence ended with a whisper, "dead scream."

       Fortuitously enough (or not), Largo was perfectly positioned to
shield Priss from the blast that turned him into a small vapor pile and
still flung her into the couch.  

       Pluto said, "I told you to stay away from him.  It's not safe to be
around the likes of us."  

       A wave of rage washed through Priss more pure in its intensity than
she had felt since the day Sylvie had died.  She transformed without even
thinking about it.  "This is YOUR FAULT!"

       "I told you to stay away from him.  You ignored me.  He died.  How
is this MY fault?"

      "I...you...."  Priss' gut told her to just mangle Pluto, but
her common sense was just barely managing to rein her in.  Pluto had just
saved her life, after all.  "If you knew this would happen, why didn't you
STOP me?"

      "Only you can control yourself.  If someone else controls you for
you, then you will always be the puppet of others.  You have to learn to
take responsibility for your actions and for their consequences on
others."

       This was not the best time for a lecture on responsibility.  Priss
twitched, unable to find a good excuse to rip Pluto apart like she
wanted to, but totally lacking a good way to vent her anger.  Attacking 
the person who killed Leon was no option--'Largo', if that had really
been him, was dead.  She could feel her anger roaring inside her, and it
was getting harder and harder to ride the whirlwind without being carried
by it.  She knew Pluto was right, but knowing that didn't make her bit
less angry that Leon was dead.  At least I didn't have to kill him myself,
a tiny bit of her whispered.  This wasn't very comforting.

*******

      Linna said, "Can't we DO something?  We've got to tell her it's all
just a nightmare!"

      She and Sasami were floating in dream-space, staring into a three
foot globe that contained the nightmare Priss was having about Leon being
dead.

       Sasami whispered something about Pluto always being an idiot, then
said, "Much as you need to learn about defending yourself against
nightmares, this is not the time or the place.  She's trying to teach
herself a lesson."

       "What's this person doing in Priss' dream, anyway?  Does
she dreamwalk too?"

       "Priss is only dreaming of her.  If that was the real Pluto, I
don't think we'd be able to see into this dream."

        Linna said, "I can't just let Priss suffer like this.  She has to
know."

        Sasami could have stopped Linna from entering the dream, but she
didn't.  Instead, she followed Linna in.  

******

       "How did you know to come here, anyway?"  An awful suspicion
insinuated itself into Priss' mind, since it was congruent with her
desire, which was to mangle Setsuna.  "You watched him die and you didn't
do anything about it because you wanted to try and teach me a lesson!"

       "I have never let an unnecessary death occur that I could have
prevented."

       Priss' mind struggled to stay coherent enough for her to try to
translate that.  Something tapped her on the shoulder.  Her instincts took
over and she swung around with her sword, preparing to cut it in half,
whatever it was.  Her sword stopped about a milimeter away from Linna's
face.  

        Linna stared at Priss in abject fear, unable to speak, unable to
breathe.  Priss' face was a mask of pure rage, now transforming itself
into pure horror.  Priss stepped back.  

        A string of obscenities rang from her lips, totally incoherent.
Finally, she managed to gasp out, "Oh God fucking shit, I'm sorry Linna,
what the fuck are you doing here, I nearly cut your freaking head off."
Her voice wavered between rage and terror.  

        "Snap out of it, Priss!  It's just a dream!  Leon isn't really
dead!"

      Priss stared at Linna for a few seconds as if she had said, 'Throat
Warbler Mangrove', then turned to Pluto.  "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON
HERE?"

       "I didn't do this."

       "It's just a dream, Priss.  You and I are the only real people
here."

       Priss' rage began to ebb, replaced by confusion.  "Why the fuck
would I do this to myself?"

       "It's a nightmare, Priss.  Why would anyone be stupid enough to
rebuild Largo?  Why didn't he kill you when he killed Leon?"

       "To...to...You're right, Linna."  Priss felt more relief than she
would have ever believed possible.  "Wait...if this is a dream, what are
YOU doing here?"

        Sasami spoke from nearby, startling Priss.  "Because she is a
dreamwalker, and she wouldn't listen to me when I told her to stay out of
your dream."

       Priss blinked.  "Since when did you cruise around people's dreams,
Linna?"

       "Since when did you carry an energy sword and shout out
transformation phrases?"

       "So you're one of us too?"  Priss looked at Sasami for
confirmation.

       Sasami smiled faintly.  "Was it ever very likely that three of four
Knight Sabres would turn out to be extraordinary and the fourth completely
mundane?"

       Priss and Linna stared at each other for a moment, then Linna
laughed.  "I suppose this does sort of count as special."

       "What's so extraordinary about Nene?"

       "One day worlds will shake at her command."

       Priss began to laugh.  "Yeah, right."

       "One day she will be one of the rulers of Jurai.  More importantly,
she has a keen mind and will have a VERY long time to put it to work.
Most importantly, she has a pure and loving heart, and that in itself can
contain more power than anything can withstand."  Sasami smiled, a 
childlike smile that transformed her as for a moment, the child who had 
become a woman shone through her older self.

       Priss laughed bitterly.  "Feh.  Nene's out of touch with reality."

       "No, reality is out of touch with her.  That's ITS problem, not
hers."

        "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

        Linna was wondering as well.

        "Only by seeing the world as it should be, can we make it that way
in fact as well as in hope.  The rest of us need dreamers to show us the
way.  'One must become as a child to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.'  It is
such as them who open the way for those weighed down by the world."

        Linna decided to venture into philosophy, since things were going
that way.  "What, you're saying Nene is a Boddhisatva?"

     "A what?" 

      "A Bodywhat?"  Priss asked.

      "Someone who reaches enlightenment and returns to lead others to it,
instead of moving on to Nirvana.  I think.  Just what the point of
Nirvana is in the first place, I don't know.  Who wants to cease to
exist?"

       "It is the only way to escape the cares of the world."

       "Oh."

       "But I see it as running away."  Sasami sighed.  "Anyway.  We could
argue philosophy all night, but that's not why we came."

       Priss thought for a moment.  "Am I still dreaming?"

       "Yes."

       "Just getting that straight."

       "Priss, would you like to see what the Moon Kingdom was like?  I'd
like to show you your heritage."

        Priss blinked.  "Time Travel?"

        "No.  Linna is going to take you inside my dream."

        Linna blinked.  "I am?"  Did I forget this?  I don't REMEMBER her
telling me how to do this...

        "Will I see my...my..."  Priss couldn't quite bring herself to say
mother.

       "Yes.  Just remember.  Everything you will see is a dream.  It may
seem real, but it is only a dream, though it will be as close to the real
thing as I can make it."

        "I want to see it,"  Priss said.  

        Linna heard Sasami's voice in her mind.  'After I disappear,
take Priss by the hand and lead her out the door into dream-space, then
take her to my dream and enter it.'

        Linna thought, praying Sasami would hear her, 'That's all I have
to do?'

        'Then you have to make sure she doesn't get herself killed.  If
you die in someone else's dream...you'll be lucky to wake up as a
lobotomized zombie.'

         Linna paled.  'Priss almost...'

        'I told you nightmares were dangerous.'  "Ready?"

        "I was born ready,"  Priss said.

        Sasami vanished in a poof of light.  

        Linna took Priss' hand.  "Let's go."

        Priss looked at Linna.  "Thanks, Linna."

        "You'd do this for me, wouldn't you?"

        "That's not what I'm talking about."

        Linna decided not to pry.  "You're welcome."

        She led Priss through the door and into the world of dreams.

**********************