Songs of Innocence

[Murmur the Fallen]

SONGS OF INNOCENCE

Part 1: The Little Girl Lost

Here is how the universe began, with a singularity
exploding with the beginnings of the fundamental rules of the universe. Energy from the infinite singularity spread,
which became matter, which turned into stars, which turned into clouds, then smaller stars and planets. Then life.

Here is how the universe began, with three sisters who had
a question. The question was, could they create a being more powerful than themselves?
With the question came the experiment, the universe built to make the answer.

Here is how the universe began, budding from an older one,
unnoticed by its parent.

Here is how the universe began.

How will it end?

-1-

None of these things were going through Usagi's mind as
she dozed serenely on her desk, the paper beneath her head slowly absorbing the rivulet of spittle that ran down the edges of her open mouth. No, her dreams were of light and love and the gloriously mundane. There was a knock on her
door, one that failed to wake her. Then another. Nothing. The door opened and Usagi's mother peered in. Shaking her head, she strode across the
room to her sleeping daughter and shook her shoulders.

Usagi woke with a start, flinging the pen that she had
clutched in her hand towards the bedroom ceiling. It landed on her head point first before dropping down onto the
carpeted ground. Rubbing at the sore spot, she looked at her mother with a tired grimace. "What time is it?" Her voice was cracked with fatigue, and she had to clear her
throat repeatedly after she spoke.

"Just after noon," came the answer. "We didn't see you at breakfast, and when you weren't there for lunch either, I thought I'd come and see how you
were."

"I'm wishing that whichever sadist came up with
mathematics would die," said Usagi. Standing up, she stretched, cracking her neck and knuckling the small of her
back. "And my eternal curse on whoever decided that all of our papers should be due in the same week."

Usagi went over to her large mirror and leaned in, staring
at her red eyes and haggard face. "The bruises under my eyes have bruises.
And I think, no, wait, yes, I am developing a pimple on my forehead. Egad, two of them."

Mother sat down on Usagi's bed and sighed. "Much as I like to see you study-"

"You emotional terrorist, you," interrupted
Usagi, seeing where the conversation was going and not liking it one bit.

"Ahem. Much as
I like to see you study, you should have managed your time better so that you wouldn't have to do ten things at once."

"It's only five things," said
Usagi. Then she frowned. "Three things.
Five . . . three . . . ."

"In any case, you come down and eat, and then take up
where you left off. The brain needs food just like any other part of the body."

Usagi's stomach growled in agreement and Usagi herself
did the same. "Let me just wash up a bit first, then I'll be down."

"Good. I'm
sure your father would like to hear how your papers are coming. And maybe you can practice getting along with your
brother."

Usagi scowled.
"I'm not the one who needs to act like a human being rather than some kind of mutant slug who thinks childish insults are comedy gold."

With another weary sigh, Usagi's mother left the room,
closing the door behind her. Usagi looked down at her desk, grimaced at the large wet spot on her paper, and then
organized her desk. So she was wrong, she needed to do four things. And
she'd nearly finished off two of them. Hey, maybe she could actually sleep on her bed tonight. What a treat.

Padding to the bathroom with new clothes in her arms, she
debated whether she could take the time for a shower before her stomach put in a veto on that. Contenting to simply
wash her face and hands, she promised herself a full and luxuriously hot shower after lunch. Toweling off, she changed
into new, clean clothes, feeling halfway awake now. She made to go get lunch when a bird passing by her bathroom window
caught her attention. It sat on the windowsill, still and calm, and then flew away again as suddenly as it came.

Usagi looked at the city the bird flew into and
smiled. Despite the sunlight burning her eyes, she could see it was a beautiful day.
Even the prospect of more schoolwork, because of which she could not go out and enjoy it, couldn't dampen her appreciation of the day and the
city.

"Good afternoon, Crystal Tokyo," she said to her
home.

It said nothing in return.



-2-

Lunch was a rather strained affair. Father and Mother were perfectly pleasant, of course, though they both wore similar distracted visages. The pressures of state were omnipresent, as were its trappings. Servers and valets came
and went, mostly silent, as they left small dishes of exquisite taste and immaculate design and took away the empty dishes and bowls. Usagi, her bangs still damp, had trouble staying awake after her immediate hunger was satiated.
Further, her brother, Mamoru, was sitting sullenly beside her, presumably from a parental telling-off. What
pleasure Usagi could take from her brother's chastisement was somewhat lessened by both his terrible attitude and, perhaps more importantly, the covert
kicks to the shin he directed at her. Usagi retaliated with her world-renowned pinches, sometimes to his arm or through
his pants leg. Neither let their pain show on their own rather stiff faces, and Usagi even appreciated the kicks to the
degree that they kept her awake through the meal.

"Mother tells me that you've been having some
problems with schoolwork," said her father, warm and chiding. He swirled a glass of water in his hand and lightly
sipped from it before setting it down without a sound. He was dressed in coal black, the only color coming from a
single, small gold starburst that decorated his left lapel. This was, for him, casual wear for an intimate meal.

"Problems finishing, not doing," answered
Usagi. "Never enough time in the day."

"Time management-"

Usagi put her head in her hands and groaned softly, then
muffled a gasp of pain as Mamoru kicked her again. How did he find the exact same spot every single time, no matter how
she shifted and moved? Mutant freak and his mutant freak powers of being a pain in her arse.

"In any case, you'll be finished soon,
yes?"

"One way or another," she said. "Either I shall be done in two days or I shall be dead."

Mother laughed, the long sleeves of her white blouse
sliding down her arms as she lifted a hand to her mouth.

"What is it you're doing, anyway?" said
Father, after looking fondly at his wife.

Usagi turned away to think, while at the same time making a
quick retaliatory strike against Mamoru with three rapid pinches to his arms that nearly brought tears to his eyes.
"Maths, but that's mostly articulating proofs. Literature, almost but not quite done with that. History. Biology. Finished philosophy,
linguistics, civics, and economics."

Father perked up.
As befitted his position, he took a keen interest in nearly all of those subjects. "So tell me about
them. What are you writing?"

"Stuff, lots and lots of stuff, most of it hot air and
nonsense," Usagi said, trying to evade answering. Quite honestly, the prospect of having to talk about her work
was too much like doing it, a prospect that she truly loathed returning to. That she would have to once the meal ended
was making her linger over it, and she didn't think she would have the willpower to pick up her pen if she had to talk about it. She particularly didn't want to discuss civics, which had taken a rather jaundiced look at the current political
landscape. Though she quite enjoyed being an oligarch, she had to be aware of the inherent unfairness of living in a
post-human oligarchy that was verging into a theocratic autocracy.

She was Serenity, heir to the Electrum Throne, the royal
princess. She was the daughter of Serenity and Endymion, the Eternal Queen and King of the Immanent Gods, the true
Monarchs of Creation, rulers of the Empire of Humanity, which had as its capital the shining city of Crystal Tokyo.
They had defeated the forces of evil, and pushed the Earth to heights of glory and prosperity that it has never known.
Or so the stories went.

The meal continued with Father turning his attention to
Mamoru, catching up on how his own schoolwork was proceeding. He answered back in a less hostile manner, though he was
terse and mumbled as much as he could. Father nodded as if all was right, though Mother pursed her lips
disapprovingly.

Usagi left just as the last of the plates were being taken
away and the large warm cups of coffee (for father) and hot chocolate (for everyone else) were being served. Making her
apologies, and pleading both a heavy schedule and a need for a shower, she left, taking her cup with her.

After her shower, which was not nearly as long as she
wished it could have been, she went back to her desk. With a healthy gulp of hot chocolate to strengthen her, she took
up her pen once more, set it against paper, and then fell asleep.

This time in her dreams, she saw many things.

[Murmur the Fallen]

-3-

Usagi found herself in a foggy land, undifferentiated from
the sky above. She walked along, quite aware that she was dreaming but unable and unwilling to will herself
awake. The concerns of the waking world were so very far away.

As she walked in this land of dreams, she noticed the fog
lightening after who-knew how long. She was standing on a hill, the fog now that of morning mist obscuring the land
beyond. Dawn was breaking, but the sun was hidden by the gray clouds overhead.
Sounds came to her, thundering and clashing of steel. Screams and shouts. It
was the sound of battle.

"Nasty business, isn't it?" said a voice from
behind.

Usagi turned and saw a man, sitting at the top of the hill
comfortably. His hair was a deep black and tied in a ponytail that fell just above his shoulders, his thick bangs
almost obscuring his eyes. He wore a uniform of some sort, a blue so dark that it was almost gray, which had bits of
thread hanging off on the shoulders, chest and arms. It was as if someone had torn away all rank, flag and
embellishments from it, leaving behind simply a severely cut suit.

"This is a dream," said Usagi.

"Yeah," said the man patiently.

"But . . . I don't think that I'm dreaming you or this place."

"Smart and cute," said the man. "You're right. Someone, not me, but someone has used your dreams to bring you
here and now to this place."

"Where am I?"

"Easily answered," said the man breezily. "That's Tokyo, or what's left of it. And this is the Battle of Ascension."

Usagi staggered to her knees, thunderstruck. The Battle of Ascension. If the man was right, she was over a hundred years in the past, just when her parents declared victory over the forces of Silence and ushered in the New Age, reawakening a sleeping world.

"And in about, oh," and here the man took a
pocket watch out and consulted it, "a minute or so, your dad is going to kill the remaining enemy and then your mom is going to lay down the Foundation
Stone of the Crystal Palace, fulfilling the prophecy and bringing about a never-ending age of peace, prosperity, and, I don't know, free ice cream on
Sundays."

"How do you know who I am? How do you know all this? What is going on?" Usagi cried plaintively. She wanted to wake up now. She wanted to wake up, and for this strange dream to end, but
it wouldn't. This was becoming too real. She tried to shut her ears to the
sounds of death but it came through regardless. "Who are you?"

The man stood up and walked over to her and sat down again,
laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You're on a quest and this is the beginning. Soon, you'll leave this place and me, and you'll see something or someone. Then
you'll wake up and you'll be on a quest proper. I don't know what, and right now I don't really
care. I'm busy. But that's what's going on with you. I know all this because when you get to be my age, you learn to see the patterns of things, the stories that shape the
world. And you're at the beginning of an old story. The only story,
really. And my name's Ranma, Saotome Ranma. I know you because I know lots
of things. Not much of an answer, but there you go."

"Father of a thousand bastards," whispered
Usagi.

"First of all, don't curse. I never liked it when girls use that kind of language. Secondly, there weren't a
thousand, all right? A lot, sure, but not a thousand. And they weren't
bastards . . . leastwise, not all of them. I mean, it wasn't as if there were a lot of standing churches and
government registries around with most of them. Anyway, I loved all their mothers.
Honest."

Saotome Ranma was a legend and at the heart of
legends. He collected a million stories around him, and almost as many names.
He was called the Warrior Sage, the Trickster Magician, and the Shape-Changer, accursed and holy. Hero, villain,
troublemaker. Everyone from Serenity, to Endymion, to nearly all the kings and queens of old traced their blood back to
him. Creator of Empires was the kindly term. Father of a thousand bastards the
less kind. And he was standing in front of her, looking for all the world like an ordinary man, though one whose
confidence and power blazed like the sun. Usagi remembered some of the romances and love songs that were written about
him, the ones that she had devoured when she was younger, and found to her horror that she was flushing. She darted a
look into his eyes and saw the amusement there. Why wasn't her hair catching on fire? Her face was certainly hot enough for that.

There was a flash of light, gold and silver, and trumpets
and bells sounded above the sounds of battle, silencing them. A second dawn had come, dispelling the morning
mist. From the plains of the battlefield, scattered with the bodies of the dead amid the few remaining ruins of ages
past, there came a great spire of crystal rising up into the sky.

"Well, that's my cue," said Ranma, standing
up and brushing the grass from the seat of his pants. "And I'm guessing from the increasingly wispy look
you're getting that it's yours, too."

"Oh," said Usagi, looking down at
herself. He was right; she was getting positively ghostly. "What do you
think is going to happen now? Am I going back home or . . . or what?"

"Beats me," said Ranma, shrugging. Then he smiled, wide and free and slightly mischievous. "But I'm sure that
we'll see each other again. Say hello to your parents for me, um . . . sorry, I never got your name."

"It's Usagi," she answered, feeling herself
continue to blush even as she became ever more transparent. "Or . . . or Chibiusa."

Ranma laughed.
"You're not so little any more. Well, see you later."

"Goodbye, uh, honored ancestor," said Usagi as
the world before her faded away.

Ranma stared at where the dreaming girl once stood, shook
his head with bemusement, and then walked away.



-4-

Back in the gloomy lands, Usagi felt the same lassitude
come over her, though she fought against it and succeeded somewhat. She thought, and thought hard. If her honored (and very cute) ancestor was right, she was going to be seeing something soon.
Keeping the insouciance away with sheer willpower, Usagi strained her eyes to look about her. From out of the
mist and clouds came the tap, tap, tap of boots against a stone floor. The fog cleared briefly in front of her and
there stood a tall woman dressed in black robes, bearing a long, metal, key-shaped staff topped with a shining round jewel inside a stylized heart.

"Hello again, Small Lady," she said.

Usagi stared, flabbergasted. It was Pluto, Guardian of Time, who hadn't been seen on Earth in years, though of course that meant little to someone who
transcended time and space. Among her parents' inner circle, they rarely spoke of her. When she was younger, they had been very close. She even had a special nickname for
Pluto. "Puu!"

Pluto smiled warmly and hugged the girl, her long dark hair
fall down from her and draping Usagi. Pluto had not changed much, as far as Usagi could tell. Was she younger? Taller? Less dark in her
complexion? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. Still, the same love, care, and core of
melancholy loneliness in her were the same. She smelled of herself, and it comforted Usagi, bringing back fond
memories. "Small Lady," Pluto repeated.

"I've missed you, Puu. Where have you . . . no." Usagi interrupted herself, disentangling from Pluto's
embrace and stepping away. "Where am I and why have you brought me here?"

Though still gentle in countenance, Pluto's voice had a
firmness and certitude that marked her as one of the powers of the world. "I realize that you have many questions,
Small Lady, but I cannot answer them just yet. You have one more thing to see before we can speak. Understanding of this and the previous vision will come in its course. When you return, I
shall answer what I will."

Pluto raised her staff and light shone from it, discrete
balls in all the colors of the rainbow. Distantly, there was the sound of hooves and of wings beating against the
air. Golden light shone out of the obscuring darkness and met Pluto's light.
Everything became clearer, much as before, though Pluto and the lights disappeared.

[Murmur the Fallen]

-5-

Usagi was on the same hill, or if not the same at least
very similar. Yet instead of the dawn, this time it was deep in the night. The
full moon shone down upon the land, its only illumination. Yet the moonlight was bright enough to see
everything. Usagi looked around her, but saw no one. Disappointed, but unable
to articulate to herself why, Usagi walked down the hillside. It soon became clear that, once again, she was at a
battle site, though this time it was in its aftermath. The bodies of the fallen, grotesquely twisted in death, were
nearly everywhere. It was obvious that fires once burned, but now not even smoke arose from the ashes of destroyed
buildings and trees, which were everywhere. Tokyo, if that was what it was, lay in ruins beyond ruin. No building was left standing beyond its exposed frames, and even those were cracked and soon to fall. Streets were crumbled into dust, the sewers beneath them mangled and filled with dried mud and filth. Debris was everywhere.

Choking with horror, Usagi searched for the meaning of the
things she was seeing. There had to be something beyond this destruction, something specific that Pluto wished for her
to see. But all was silent and still in this apocalyptic landscape. But wait,
no, there were voices, quiet sobs of a grief so great that no tears could ever expunge them. Usagi, walking quickly
towards the voices, soon came upon a scene of death and loss.

Two cats, one black and the other white, attended a woman
who was flat on her back underneath the full moon, raised up above the ground on a cairn built of fallen rubble. She
held something in her right hand, but it was hidden in the shadows of the cairn. She was calm, incredibly so for
someone in the middle of all this destruction, but there was also great sadness in her, sadness that came through with her voice.

"And the others?" she asked.

"Scattered," said the black cat, a golden
crescent shining on her brow. "We were able to save some, but it wasn't possible to hold them
together. I'm . . . sorry."

"No, I'm sorry, Luna," said the
woman. "Most of my allies lost in this silent world, my friends dead, my husband dead, and my son . . .
." And here the woman's face contorted in agony. The black cat placed
her head against the woman, obviously trying to comfort her. It succeeded, somewhat, as the woman slowly composed
herself.

The white cat, who had been the source of those quiet sobs
that had guided Usagi here, said, "What now?"

"I think you know," said the woman. "And I'm sorry. But my . . . the enemy will return and so must we. And so must everyone who has fallen. The world needs them."

The woman looked away from her friends. Her head, lolling slightly, turned until she stared at Usagi, their eyes meeting. Usagi,
frozen, could only watch as the woman smiled sweetly. "The future needs them."

"Please don't," said the black cat, as the
woman turned back to them. "Please. You'll die."

"And I'll be back.
I always come back," said the woman, still smiling. "But I won't remember. That's why you two will have to stay, to help me remember. Only this time, don't
forget what I look like."

"We won't," said the white cat. "We'll never forget."

"I know, I'm just teasing. I hope that I can do that the next time round." She raised her hand, bringing up a
staff topped with a crescent moon. Inside the curve of the crescent there was a great crystal, one with infinite facets
and a light of its own. It was a great struggle for her to bring up her arm, but she did it, if slowly. Tears ran down her face now and her voice cracked with pain and grief. "Oh, oh, I
wish I'd done a better job. I wish I'd been better."

"Please don't say that, Usagi-chan," said the
black cat. "You did everything right. Everything."

The woman looked down at the black cat and smiled, even
through her tears. "Thank you, Luna. Artemis." Then, she whispered, "Ginzuisho."

The light from the crystal pulsed, and the moonlight
brightened, blazing like the sun and covering the world, before dying. The cats rose into the air and they curled up,
just as they were enveloped by two clear capsules. The light of the crystal shone like a beacon in the suddenly
moonless night. Yet there were other lights as well, first one, then a hundred, then in uncountable millions and
billions, covering the night sky and swirling around the crystal's beacon like a galaxy. From out of the
coruscating light there came ten lights, all in different colors. They danced around the fallen woman, with a golden
light in particular staying close. The woman smiled and slowly dropped her arm, the light from the crystal fading away
even as the lights in the sky did the same.

Usagi went away from the world without a sound.

-6-

Finding herself once again before Pluto, Usagi broke down
in tears. Hugging her tightly, Pluto let her cry herself dry within her arms, comforting her as she could. Finally, Usagi dried her eyes and said, "That was just awful."

Pluto simply nodded, her own eyes bruised with unshed
tears.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Usagi calmed
herself. Weeping and mourning had its place, but now she had to take the situation as it was and face it as calmly as
she could. "What now?"

"Now I make an explanation, of a sort, and a
request," said Pluto. "The explanation is this: with the help of an old friend, I was able to show you things
of the past to teach you something. What you learned, of course, depends on you."

"They were endings," said Usagi. "And . . . beginnings."

"As you will," said Pluto, smiling now with
pride. "In any case, by showing you and teaching you, I am hoping that you will be as forewarned as I can make
you. "

"All . . . right," said Usagi, puzzled but
willing to let her continue without interruption.

Pluto bit her lip, unsure of how to continue. "I am not omniscient."

"I know," replied Usagi simply.

"The Lands of the First Darkness, from which all of
Space and Time are as one, can see nearly everything. But just nearly. There
are places where death cannot take hold, and there are places where it has been shrouded even against the sight of one who can stand where I stand. Such a time and place is coming, and it is changing everything. I am able to see the
precursor waves of its coming, and so see the outlines of its nature."

"Huh?"

Pluto blew a bang out from her eyes and tried
again. "I know what I know, but what I don't know I don't know.
But I'm getting a sort of hint of what it is I don't know."

"Oh, okay."

"But these hints are very, very vague. And I am unable to say how it is I know some of these things, beyond induction, hope and intuition." Pluto gestured with her staff, and a large cloth screen appeared from the mist. A light
shone on it, showing a blurry picture that progressively became sharper, resolving into a picture of Usagi's mother, standing on a pedestal and holding a
torch aloft.

"Slide!" yelled Pluto, the picture now changing
into a picture of Crystal Tokyo, the many spires of the Crystal Palace rising up from the plains of Kanto underneath a clear blue sky. "The present, the year 3004 by the calendar of the Common Era.

"Slide!"
The picture changed again, showing a painting of Crystal Tokyo, only instead of blue skies it was dark, with streaks of blood red. The Crystal Palace itself was shattered, with many floating rocks hover over it.
Underneath the picture was a caption reading 'artist's interpretation.' "Crystal Tokyo, the year 3004
after nearly a decade of rule and ruin underneath the Death Phantom."

"Slide!"
Here there was a picture of the Earth, only it was broken apart into different pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle. "The
year 3003."

"That's . . . huh," said Usagi, suddenly
understanding. "Whatever is coming is breaking apart, what, causality?"

Fierce pride once again shone through Pluto's face,
though she smoothed it down quickly. "Yes. That was how I knew that
whatever is coming, is coming. It is as if there is a flaw in the structure of the universe, one that is breaking it
apart. Indeed, it is already doing so. Where and when those breakages come, I
cannot predict.

"And this, to me, shows there is a mind at work
here. An old and subtle mind."

Usagi nodded, "And stopping this is, what, up to
me?"

"Yes," said Pluto. "You have anticipated my request."

"All by myself?" said Usagi, her voice climbing
incredulously.

Pluto shrugged.
"Without my help, without the help of your parents and your guardians, yes. Others, perhaps, but as to who
I cannot say."

"You are kidding,"

"No," said Pluto, sadly.

Usagi stayed silent, her thoughts too jumbled and dark and
strange to be truly called thoughts. Finally, she burst out, "But I've got homework!"

Pluto stared at her in disbelief.

"And, and, and I haven't had a good night's
sleep in ages."

Pluto smiled gently at her once more. "You must be brave and strong, Small Lady, as I know that you are." She
paused. "Even in the face of missed schoolwork and lack of sleep."

Usagi sighed deeply.
A part of her had to admit that it was greatly attracted to this, this quest, as Honored Ancestor Ranma the Cutie put it. She hadn't had an adventure in so long, burying herself in school, with interruptions for state events. Her time as a heroine seemed so long ago. Boring was boring, even in utopia.

Yet so many fears and insecurities gripped her, filling her
with questions. Could she do it again? Wasn't this, really, a job for her
guardians? Shouldn't Mother and Father know about this end of the world business?
And, honestly, what about her homework?

Finally, she said, "Oh, all right. I'll do it."

Pluto nodded.
"Good, I knew that you would. Slide!"

The picture changed, this time showing an irregular rock in
space, lights crisscrossing its surface. "Nemesis, the rogue planet. This
is where you must go next on your journey. Where on Nemesis you must go, where you will go afterwards, what you will
learn, all mysteries."

"When?"

"Immediately." And with that, the dream ended.

[Murmur the Fallen]

-7-

Usagi woke with a
start, Pluto's last words reverberating in her ears. Adrenaline surged through her as Pluto's urgency, coming
so soon after the enforced lassitude of her dreams, drove her to her feet and into a whirlwind of activity that unfortunately did very little. Packing and then unpacking then repacking a single satchel of clothing, Usagi dithered as to what to do. Seeking to calm herself, she wrote down a quick note to her parents.

"To their Divine Majesties, Serenity and Endymion,
celestial rulers of the Holy Empire of Humanity, lords of all creation, beloved of heaven, et cetera, greetings," it began, "I have been sent on a
singular mission of universal importance by the unseen, silent one, the daughter of Chronos, Dis Mater. Unfortunately
she has informed me that neither of your Majesties nor the guardian deities should assist me. Further, the importance
of this mission was such that I have only time enough to write this brief missive. Please accept my
apologies. I am now on my way to Nemesis, that planet which once made blasphemous war against your rightful supreme
dominion. Where I am to go from there is unknown, as is my time of return.

"It is my fondest wish that I shall be able to return
to your empyrean realm anon.

"From her highness, Serenity, Crown Princess of the
Holy Empire of Humanity, Heir to the Electrum Throne of Crystal Tokyo, Princess of the Moon, Duchess of Asia and Marchioness of the Asteroid Belt of the Solar
System.

"Post-Script: Please keep Mamoru out of my room as he
is horrible."

Enclosing the letter in an envelope and sealing it, she
left it on her table above her unfinished papers and stopped. What to do next, what to do next. Suddenly, inspiration struck, followed by a knuckle to her skull. Idiot that she was, she
had forgotten two of the most important things she would need. Usagi closed her eyes and searched her soul. Light flowed between her hands and her chest, forming a ball of light that condensed quickly into a golden brooch inscribed with a
crescent moon within a heart. This was the fetish of her identity, the outward and physical manifestation of the
sacrifice of self to self that empowered her and recast her into her war aspect. She stared down at it, knowing that it
had changed since the last time she had summoned it. If she were to look within, she would find it empty except for a
silver glow that shifted into a rose red, pregnant with promise.

Nodding with satisfaction, glad that she hadn't
forgotten how to do that, Usagi hooked her brooch onto her shirt. She then called up the second thing she had thought
of. "Luna-P, come!"

From the depths of her closet there was a terrible crash,
as something barreled its way out from behind piles of dresses, shoes and boxes of forgotten knick-knacks. A black blur
zoomed towards Usagi and then suddenly stopped, hovering inches away from her face. It was a black sphere, about the
size of a basketball and shaped like a cat's head, complete with triangle ears on top and a golden crescent moon on its forehead. This was Luna-P, a device capable of transforming into nearly anything, from an umbrella that could rewrite memories to a house
and anything in between. She had had it with her on previous adventures, particularly when she was very young, but for
the last few years had kept it inside her closet. A rush of fondness and nostalgia filled Usagi as she looked at her
old friend.

"Luna-P, follow," she commanded, even as she made
her way out of her room, Luna-P trailing behind her, hovering silently. Taking a quick peak into the hallway, Usagi
found it empty. Quietly walking on her tiptoes, she walked down the hall and up three flights of stairs. Stopping and massaging her feet, Usagi decided that going en pointe all that way was a really bad idea. Walking, or rather hobbling, up more stairs, she finally made it to the royal transport terminal.

The terminal was quite small, as it was purely for the
personal use of the royal family. Only about a square mile, it held the many vehicles that they used on a daily
basis. Replicas of ancient vehicles, chariots, helicopters, things of that nature, stood next to more modern means of
transport. As speed was the essence, she decided to take the fastest space-capable ship there was in the hangar: a
Swan. It took only a minute or so for the terminal director to bring the Swan over to her, driven by one of the
orange-clad servants that worked to maintain the vehicles.

The Swan was one of the newest model space vehicles, made
just in the last year. Shaped similarly to its avian namesake, if stylized, the Swan was an iridescent pearl white,
reflecting even the slightest bit of light with a cocky glint. Its long, red-tipped wings were kept folded in the
atmosphere but came free in the vacuum of space. There was room for only three people, if that, in the
Swan. Its small interior space meant that, despite the speeds it could attain it was pushing it to go interplanetary,
let alone interstellar, as there was little room for provender. As the bubble shimmered into place, sealing her in,
Usagi settled for a moment, twiddling with the controls and settings until she had it to her satisfaction. Submitting a
flight plan and a request for a launch window, both of which were approved summarily, Usagi launched out of the Crystal Palace with a jaunty wave to the
terminal director.

The Swan was new, it was fast, it was magic, but that
didn't mean that it was perfect. It handled like an iron brick in the atmosphere, despite the only demands put on
it were to go near on straight up. The wind outside swirled and screamed at her, and the pressure of her speed was
painful. Yet the Swan soon adjusted, especially once they left behind the gravity well of the planet. Its wings unfurled, spreading wide. Usagi wasn't sure what the wings actually did but
they sure looked nice. Switching over to autopilot, she settled back into her seat.
It would take a few hours to get to Nemesis, which was time enough to take a much needed, uneventful nap.

Changing the interiors so that the seats reconfigured into
a bed, Usagi lay against the newly produced pillow and closed her eyes. This time she dreamt of nothing in
particular.



-8-

Hours later, Usagi woke to the sound of beeping; someone
from Nemesis was calling her. Rubbing her face and looking in a mirror with distaste, she woke herself up as properly
as she could and readjusted her bed back into seats before answering.

"H-hello?" she said, trying to talk through a
very dry throat and acidic mouth.

"This is Nemesis Orbital Traffic to incoming Swan,
please identify," said a melodious voice that still managed to sound officious.

"Ah, this is Vehicle Registry . . .
." And here Usagi glanced quickly at the dash of the Swan, looking for its ID.
"Lambda Sigma Mu Lambda One Nine Seven Three; request permission for landing as soon as possible."

"Okay, Lambda Sigma Mu Lambda One Nine Seven
Three," said the same voice. "I see you're registered under the Royal family. Do you request honors?"

"No, no, goodness no," said Usagi
hastily. It was her right, and occasional burden, to have parades and fanfare and local leaders come give her honors
whenever she left Earth. People seemed to genuinely enjoy it, if only because it made for a good excuse for a street
party, but having to spend hours with a smile plastered on her face and her neck aching from all the regally superior nods that she had to give were almost
enough to make her regret her status. It would be doubly disastrous here, as she needed to move with speed and freedom
on Nemesis, not be hampered by diplomacy and fanfare.

"Very well, Lambda Sigma Lambda." The melodious voice paused for a moment, and then said, "I have a descent window opening up in five minutes over Mohs
City."

"Thank you, Nemesis Orbital," said Usagi, seeing
the specific data come up on her dashboard.

"Good day, Lambda Sigma Lambda."

As she approached Nemesis, she appreciated it
anew. The picture that Pluto had shown was accurate, in its way. It was indeed
an irregular rock, much like an asteroid. Yet its size was greater than that of any other object outside of
Neptune's orbit. Its own orbit took it from into the range of Pluto and then deep into the Oort cloud. Long before, when it had been used as the planet of exile, it had been nearly impossible to track save for set times when its
orbit took it closer, relatively, to Earth. Then, with the rise of the Black Moon Clan, it had disappeared completely,
under the dark power of the malevolent being that lived deep within it and permeated it. Now, with the defeat of the
Wiseman, it was possible to find it much like any other planet. The electric lines of its cities glowed like cold fire
across the face of the planet, making it magical and mysterious as well as welcoming.

As Usagi took her Swan closer, the details of Mohs City,
the capital of Nemesis, became clearer. The architecture of Mohs was very traditional Nemesis, given over to smooth
skyscrapers that would have seemed almost organic if not for their cruciform shapes. When not jutting into the air, the
buildings were low and fluting. It all made it seem as if the entire city had been made from one giant piece of blown
glass and then lit by fireflies, laid out on grids of similarly glowing giant panes of glass. However, breaking this
were grasslands and forests, vibrant and living even in the night light, that were spreading outward from the city's center. Instead of marveling at this, however, Usagi drafted a message to an old friend and sent it, before taking manual control of her
ship and bringing it safely down to cruising height.

The first step of her quest had begun.

[Murmur the Fallen]

-9-

Sipping on a deliciously cool apple mint tea just outside
the hotel she was staying, Usagi waited for her friend in comfort beneath the Nemesis twilight. The night's breeze
carried the smell of wet grass, tickling her nose and making her smile. As she had seen from above, the greenery on
Nemesis was small but growing. Vibrant and growing, Nemesis was nothing like it was when she had first seen its
cratered, rough surface nearly a decade ago. Delicately, she plucked the wet apple slice that was inserted into the
glass's rim and began to nibble on it, wondering as she did when her friend would come.

"Princess!" came the cry from deep within the
hotel's shadow. Usagi turned and saw a purple-haired head coming out of the darkness.

"Koan," Usagi said, rising. Koan and Usagi hugged briefly and they each took a seat opposite each other. Usagi looked
at Koan and noticed that she too had changed since the last she had seen her. Before she had had a very carefully
manicured appearance, as if a great measure of her time and energy were devoted to her hair and wardrobe and makeup; now, though she was nowhere near slovenly,
she looked very much more relaxed and natural. Her hair hung loose and free, curling into ringlets just at the tips,
and she wore a simple black and red dress and sandals. Yet the simple delight and pleasure that had been present before
was still very much present, if not amplified. It was, Usagi realized, the comfort and confidence of
maturity. "How have you been?"

"Oh, very, very busy," said Koan with a deep
sigh. She glanced down at Usagi's glass, which was nearly finished.
"Oh, excuse me for a moment." Usagi watched as Koan quickly got up and went into the hotel, to return almost
immediately with two tall glasses in her hand, one of them another apple mint tea, the other topped with a raspberry.
She sat and set down the glasses on the table. "Where was I?"

"Very busy were you," said Usagi, after thanking
Koan for the drink.

"That's right, very busy." She paused to take a sip of her drink. "Mmm, refreshing. Anyway, my sisters and I have been swamped. You'd think that after a decade of us
bossing people around, they'd get tired of it and get someone else to do the dirty work, but no. 'Oh,
not-so-Ayakashi anymore Sisters, what are you going to do about this really trivial problem that we could solve for ourselves if we only bothered to but
instead are happily foisting on you because you're there and are sucker enough to do it for us?' That's
what we're doing."

"Do they really call you that? Not-so-Ayakashi anymore Sisters?" Usagi shared a giggle with Koan, something that she
could never have imagined back when they first met. The circumstances of the beginning of their acquaintanceship was
anything but auspicious, involving as it did war, time travel, and a concerted effort to assassinate her. With her
sisters and her bully of a boss, Koan had chased her a thousand years into the past. That was when Nemesis had been at
war with the Earth, laying siege to Crystal Tokyo. Usagi could still recall quite vividly the look of sadistic delight
that Koan had worn when she had tried to kill her when she was all of five years old.

But things were different now.

"Well, no," said Koan, after she had finished
laughing. "But the other parts are true."

Koan looked at the greenery and smiled proudly. "We're doing good work, though. Transitioning from a feudalistic mixed economy on
a permanent war footing to one that's peaceful and post-scarcity isn't what you'd call easy. But we're
making progress, capturing a lot of heart crystals and dream mirrors. In fact!
We're about ready to petition Neo-Queen Serenity for a planetary guardian."

Usagi looked at Koan's eager face and sighed
inwardly. Call them what you would, planetary guardians, Sailor Warriors, immanent goddesses of the celestial spheres,
they were the soul of the living planet made manifest, charged with guarding it. What exactly they were, was known only
to a very few, which included Usagi's mother. All of the other planets of the solar system had goddesses attached
to them and had done for untold millennia except for Nemesis. The worlds outside the solar system proper but which
still fell under the Pax Argentum either already had their own Sailor Warrior or were too small to need one yet.

When there was a convocation of guardians, rare though it
was, the goddesses of the solar system were given honors above the other, irrespective of their connection to Serenity.
They were unique, the powers of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and the others could feel it.
Why that was so was also unknown to but a few. Usagi knew that it was known but not what was known. As a status symbol, becoming appointed a guardian was considered not only a job for life but also highly coveted for its
status. Being deified within ones own lifetime was a heady prospect, and a mark of a world's entrance into maturity
and power. As such it was highly politicized and politics were something that Usagi was hoping she could
avoid. One would imagine that when one was on a mission to save the universe one could avoid power brokering and
glad-handing. Oh, well.

"Yes," began Usagi, "my holdings in the
Asteroid Belt are also trying for it, though I'm not sure even Ceres is quite ready. Certainly I won't be
bringing it up with Mother until the population rises and the environment becomes stable." Which meant that
Nemesis shouldn't either until it did the same.

"Mmm," muttered Koan tonelessly. Then she brightened. "Did I tell you any gossip yet?
Did you tell me any?"

"No," said Usagi, glad that the conversation was
moving away from politics.

"Well, Biggest Sister is getting married!"

"No!
Who?"

Biggest Sister Petz, apparently, was marrying a very nice
fellow from Kinmoku, a quite-far planet but one that was firmly allied with Earth. He'd come to Nemesis to help
with the forests and oceans and become quite enraptured with Petz and vice versa. Cue whirlwind romance, mistaken
identities, arguments and tempestuous reconciliations. And in a few months they would be wed. Which was, in Katz's opinion, very well for Petz as before she had still been mourning the death of her previous crush,
despite the very little time they had had together. Or, as Koan put it, "She was right up herself."

Usagi shared a great deal of gossip herself, including that
perennial favorite topic Venus, whose love life needed advanced calculus and fractal geometry in order to understand.
That Venus was juggling with the hearts of Mars and Mercury was well-known, but that she was also trying her hand at matchmaking was not as well talked about,
as the results were either so successful as to be boring or so disastrous that her involvement was lost in the fallout.
Jupiter's recent roving eye was also touched upon. Usagi also complained at great length about her
brother. As the youngest sibling, Koan had little constructive comments, going so far at one point to try to make Usagi
see things from Mamoru's perspective. As his point of view was that of a monstrous little goblin, Usagi saw no
reason for it and said so quite firmly.

At one point, she was asked about her own love
life. "Well, I've been busy with school. I haven't had time to
date, really." She said this matter-of-factly and as off-hand as possible.
Koan was not impressed.

"Really? No
young buck catching your eye? No foreign ambassador wooing you? No ancient
spirits swirling romantically to your side?"

"No, none," said Usagi. There had been a boy, once upon a time, but that was long ago. The conversation, after
some prodding by Usagi, went back to more general gossip.

It was only after all this wonderfully freeing talk that
the subject of Usagi's purpose was touched upon. "I have to assume that it's something
important. It's not as if Earth and Nemesis were next door neighbors or anything."

"It wasn't that long of a trip," protested
Usagi.

"But not so short to be done on a whim," said
Koan. "So why?"

Usagi set down her newly-refilled drink and stared into
Koan's eyes. Telling her family was one thing, telling a friend, even one that shared so much history with her, was
another. "I'm searching for something. I've been told by those
that know that something's coming, a dark and dangerous something."

"End of the world something?" asked Koan.

"End of everything, past, present and
future."

Koan looked thoughtful but unafraid, an inherent core of
optimism and faith in the world strengthening her, which would have been impossible before she was purified and redeemed.

"So how can we help?" she asked.

Usagi smiled gratefully at her. "I need your time machine."

-10-

She stood in a vault, its dimensions changing and turning
wrong. Sometimes it seemed to be bigger than worlds, other times as small as a closet.
And then it turned strange and indescribable, causing her pain and nausea whenever she tried to concentrate on it.
At the heart of the vault was a mirror, elevated on a low altar. When Usagi came closer, she saw that the altar
and mirror were fused together, a wedding between the volcanic basalt of the altar and the strange black matter of the mirror.
Though it reflected light, the mirror also seemed to absorb it, a property of the Black Crystal that lay as the foundation of Black Moon power and
technology. All traces of that spiritually poisonous crystal were gone except for this, a mirror capable of sending
someone through time chiseled and crushed into shape from a large piece of Black Crystal. At the height of
Wiseman's power, it would have been sickening for her to be here. Yet now only there was only the dizziness of the
chamber and the absence of something, some vital something, when she came near the mirror.

And for a mirror, it didn't really do its job
properly. The chamber and the light were reflected, yet Usagi, like a vampire of myth, did not show up. She had been warned about this by Koan, who had reluctantly let her come into the last piece of the old order, kept deep and safe
within the depths of Nemesis's ground. As she walked around the base of the altar, looking for buttons to push or
some such, she noticed a change on the surface of the mirror from the corners of her eyes. Instead of not showing her,
there was an infinite number of her. Usagi looked behind her, thinking that someone had set up another mirror to
reflect the light back and forth forever. Yet of course there was nothing there.
Turning back to the mirror, she looked at her reflections, which descended down into the endless depths of the mirror.
They stared back at her, doing nothing. Usagi waited, knowing that sooner or later something weird and
disturbing was going to happen soon.

She was not disappointed.
Soon enough the foremost image overshadowed all the ones behind her and stood tall and proud. A haughty,
malicious smile bloomed on her face as a black, inverse crescent shone on her brow. Usagi's reflection changed
still further, as her hair went from raven black with blue highlights to its natural pink color, growing and reshaping itself as it changed until twin sharp
cones rose from the sides of her head with long tails trailing down to the ground from them. Her clothes changed as
well, becoming a black velvet evening gown slit very high with burgundy lace sleeves. A black choker with metal studs
encircled her neck. Usagi supposed that she looked quite evil, in theatrical, juvenile sort of way. It was a child's idea of evil and adulthood-stark, clear, sadistic and sexualized but without any subtlety to it.

Usagi recognized the image immediately of course; it had
haunted her for so long. This was the so-called Black Lady, the 'woman' she had been turned into when possessed
and seduced by the Wiseman back when she was a small child. She had become convinced that she had been abandoned by
everyone, unloved and consumed by a guilt that made her want to burn down the world in a petulant fury. Love turned
sour, twisted about with ideas of possession and power. All other emotions became stunted and empathy disappeared.

Looking at the Black Lady, Usagi said the first thing that
popped into her head. "That dress makes my hips look chunky."

The Black Lady said nothing, only smiled.

"And burgundy makes my skin pasty and sick."

Still nothing.

"Like an ugly, pasty vampire. Hello? Anyone there? It's at this point
you're supposed to, I don't know, make me fell bad about stuff and junk."

"As you wish," said the Black Lady. "But all I have is the truth."

"Yeah?
What's that?"

"You are on a fool's errand because you are a
fool."

"Insults now."

"Where are you going?
What is this nebulous threat you're fighting against? Have you seen proof beyond what Pluto has told
you? If she truly wanted to help you, why not do more? Tell you
more? And, indeed, why you?"

These were all questions that Usagi had asked herself since
starting on her mission. The exact same questions, in fact. "You have any
answers there or are you just going to pepper me with more questions?"

"Then here's an answer," said the Black Lady
triumphantly. "You are being used. You are a cat's paw in a greater
game and once your limited utility is done with, you'll be thrown away without a second thought. You are
nothing. Worthless. Useless. When you
could have been great, you threw away greatness. When you could have been free, you shackled yourself with, what, other
people? Parasites. You will never be as free as me, never be as strong as
me. You are pathetic."

"Now you've really gone and hurt my
feelings," said Usagi. "I remember what it was like having you in me, and you're nothing but
strong. You weren't ever really a person, because people are their feelings and you only felt. You were never me, but something put in me to make me sick."

"I am the real person and you are my shadow,"
stated the Black Lady. "I define the reality and you are the negative space.
All that I am, you are not because you are nothing without me and I am everything. What are you now but a
student, one of a billion, lost in the crowd, comforting yourself with memories of past glory. Little worm, why
won't you die and let me grow?"

"Shut up. Just
. . . be quiet," said Usagi.
Suddenly this wasn't as much fun as it was before. Maybe it never should have been.
She felt a suffocating dizziness, as if there was no more air in the world and try as hard as she could, she could not catch her breath. She'd felt contemptuous for the Black Lady, for all that she represented, all that she had gone away from. And now she was angry at her, a vicious, mindless anger that clawed away at her reason, telling her to hit and hit and never stop
hitting. "Let me by, so I can go into the past."

"Easily said and easier done," said the Black
Lady. "But where would you go? You haven't a clue, do you?"

"That's where you're wrong," said Usagi,
triumph coming through her voice. "I do have a clue. And it's this: it
doesn't matter."

She had been thinking about this, thinking about this long
and hard on the way to Nemesis and while waiting for Koan. Why Nemesis? Why was
this place the first stop? Then it hit her: if the enemy, whoever it was, was attacking time and causality, then they
were monitoring travel through time. This was why Pluto had sent her to those time periods through her
dreams. And it was also why she would not help her more directly. So it
didn't matter, really, where and when she went because as soon as she moved through time, the enemy would know.
Usagi was indeed bait. She was the bait and the trap all at once. But only if
she survived.

"There's the rub," said the Black
Lady. She laughed then, a high, cold bark of vicious amusement. "Then step
on through. But remember, you will never be rid of me."

"Yeah, yeah," muttered Usagi. The Black Lady slowly turned into a silhouette, a blank void in the shape of a woman inside the mirror, the long hair fluttering
in an unfelt breeze. Usagi took a deep breathe and stepped into the mirror, with all the light in the world bleeding
away slowly as she did.



-11-

"Lost girl, why not wail out at an uncaring
world? Shine forth your light and have it swallowed by the darkness," came a voice from nowhere.

Usagi looked around and sighed deeply and
disgustedly. "Oh, come on."

Inside the mirror was a long and high tunnel, long tapering
poles on all sides holding up nothing except a fragile reality inside a world of the same sort of eye-bending distortions and wrong geometry. It was very similar to Pluto's own Corridor of Time and Space, which was used to traverse distance and duration. However, there the tunnel was tiled and columned, beautiful if gloomy and silent save for the strong winds that whipped around it,
threatening to blow people away. This tunnel was sickening and, instead of the amoral danger of its counterpart, it was
definitely predatory and even malicious.

And of course the constant insults didn't help.

Usagi looked around for the source of the voice and
eventually found it, a wavering figure ahead of her in the tunnel. As she came closer, she saw it was a hunched figure
dressed entirely in robes. Only his hands could be seen, their dark surface running with a wan rainbow pattern like a
black oil slick on darkly violet waters. This was the figure of the Wiseman, the immanent aspect of the Death Phantom,
the malevolent spirit that was the heart of Nemesis.

Yet the Wiseman was dead, defeated and purified out of
existence at the end of the war that he had started. So who was this joker?
Nobody that she really wanted to talk to, whoever or whatever he was. She walked by the Wiseman, not even looking in
his direction, let alone talking with him. Yet out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that he was drifting along
beside her. They said nothing to each other. Pressure built inside of her as
the silence between them continued. Finally, unable to stop herself, she shouted, "Well? Aren't you going to continue? No, shut up!
Just keep shutting up, you stupid floating bag of nothing. I've had it up to here with the lot of you, with your
'darkness' this and your 'foolish' that. Can't you ever come up with anything more original, or are
you so thick that even the mayor of the town of Thickness, Thicky McThick, thinks you're too thick for a vote?"

"You have no thoughts in you, girl," said the
Wiseman. "All I have are words, but they were once enough to make you turn from your friends and family."

"You make one little mistake when you're a kid and
they never let you live it down," muttered Usagi. The Wiseman laughed, a strange echo distorting it.

"If you had a face to punch, I'd punch you in
it," said Usagi. "But I know what you are, now. I've figured it
out. You're not even a ghost; you're what gets left behind when everything else goes. You and her back there aren't even properly sentient. Recordings on the wind,
mindlessly repeating what's already been said."

"I am a shadow of a shadow; a lingering feeling after
a gaze has passed; nostalgia," said the Wiseman, placidly enough. "Yet even a record can teach
something. And I teach you this way: how did you get here?"

"Eh?"

"All those that traveled to the past through the
mirror had a shard of the Black Crystal. Yet you did not. You did not even
bring the Silver Crystal with you. Yet how did you get here? How are you
traveling to the past?"

"I, uh, I." Usagi was flabbergasted. The Wiseman was right; all the old Nemesis technology depended upon the Black Crystal, a poisonous stone that grew and flamed and
gave strength to its users even as it chipped away at their humanity. All those that went to the past wore fragments of
the Black Crystal, usually as an earring. Yet she had not. Indeed, the mirror
itself had not worked until she came near it.

"Think on that, as you make your way through time,
trying to stave off the destruction of everything."

Usagi was silent.
Up ahead she noticed a glimmering light, one that indicated the intersection between the tunnel and regular time and space.
She walked toward it, knowing where it was and also knowing that it was the perfect place for her to make her trap.

"You had no need for the Black Crystal. You never have. The power is always in you, my Black Lady." The Wiseman floated away from her, even as the light grew stronger. Usagi remained silent,
watching him go. He paused at the very interface between the tunnel and the light and lifted his strange, swirling
hands to the edges of his robes. With a single motion, the Wiseman pulled the hood away from his head, revealing a
sickeningly familiar face. It was her brother, Mamoru, his eyes sad and angry at once, yet his countenance taut and
grim. On his brow was the inverted black crescent of the Black Moon Family.
"A final word, this time of warning, my sister. Beware the children."

The light overtook Usagi before she could say anything.

[Murmur the Fallen]

PART 2: The Little Vagabond

-1-

The sky above Tokyo
was the color of crushed violets, electrified with rainbows. The distant warning lights of planes and copters and the
orbital habitats were the only stars there were. Steam pumped out of the city, hot water vapor the only exhaust coming
from an otherwise dirty city, ripped apart by canyons and ravines from an earthquake half a generation gone. It was
winter in Tokyo, or Mega-Tokyo as it was called nowadays, and Fargo was going to work.

He checked his
watch, more for the look of the thing than to really see what time it was, then walked down the concrete steps, passing underneath the neon sign that read
'Disco Mobius' in buzzing, electric rainbow colors. It was an old-fashion sign, and the place itself was fairly
traditional in its ways. The bar was set in front of a mirror that stretched nearly the entire length of a wall, with a
bartender wearing a red vest and black bowtie. The dance floor was, instead of being cleared, was crowded with small,
high tables and stools, while the back and side walls had booths with high backs and sides, thick and burgundy, with tables of glass and steel. The stage was temporarily empty, as technicians fiddled with their equipment before setting it down.

Yet he was not the
only customer. The booths held groups talking excitedly, while the tables on the dance floor were about halfway
filled. The balcony, which covered all but the dance floor and stage and extended into wings overlooking the sides of
the club, was filling up with people as well, all looking down eagerly upon the empty stage. The noise was just loud
enough to make any conversation heard from only as close as a meter nearly unintelligible. This fact was just one of
the reasons that he'd chosen to meet his prospective client here today.

He saw her there at
the bar, a short, slim girl with black and blue hair in a pageboy, necking a magnum of champagne with all the abandon of a college student. She had a group of older men in expensive suits trawling at the edges of her presence, waiting for her to get drunk enough to
stagger home with them and offer sweet, unconscious loving. He understood that; she was very pretty indeed. If he hadn't had a girlfriend, one who had the preternatural ability to tell when he strayed in thought, if not in deed, he
would have most definitely flirted with her, even if she had been a client. At any rate, though it wasn't in his
nature to draw attention to himself, Fargo sighed inwardly, squared his shoulders, and walked purposefully towards his client.
Radiating ownership and alpha-male-plus, he strode through the opportunistic rapists as if they weren't worth looking at and sat next to the girl,
smiling familiarly. He put a proprietary arm over the girl's shoulders and whispered in her ear, "Rose
Bud."

She had stiffened
at his first touch, instinctively flinching away and getting ready to fight, yet when he said the magic words Fargo could tell that she forced herself to
relax. He saw the edges of her smile from out of the bottom of his eyes, even as he drew in even closer to give her a
kiss on the cheek. As he pulled back, Fargo saw the other men drift away, disappointed and looking for easier
meat.


"Darling! Hello!" she squealed, hugging him enthusiastically.

"Don't
oversell it," whispered Fargo. Then, in a normal voice and manner, one that wouldn't go far but would still
give the impression of intimacy, he said, "Let's get a booth so we can talk more openly."

Silently leading
her to a darkened booth, ones perfectly suited for semi-public debauches, Fargo seated her while he waved a waitress over.
Ordering for the both of them, as she had already finished her bottle, he sat next to her and leaned in close.
"All right, you wanted to palaver, so spill."

"I'm a
little drunk," said the girl. "How unprofessional."

"Why not start
with a name? Doesn't have to be yours, but it might make the conversation go faster."

"Call me . . .
." She began snapping her fingers and looking cross-eyed. "Damn, I
can't think of a cool enough name. Oh, never mind. Just call me by my first
name, Usagi."

"Sure, why
not," said Fargo. He was bemused and not a little horrified by how cavalier she, Usagi, was being. He hadn't gone by his real name in decades and that she should just so casually drop it to him, an incomplete stranger, was
just so very alien and wrong. Not that he let on. She was a mystery, and one he
meant to solve. But trying to grill her wasn't going to work, he could tell that already. He would have to wait for her to open up.

"Well, I need
your help, obviously," said Usagi, straightening up and staring squarely at him. "And I need the help of your
other clients."

He looked at her levelly, saying nothing. Often silence bought
more information than threats.

"You
know," she said conspiratorially, leaning in. "Them up there."

Fargo remained
silent.

"Fine,"
said Usagi. "The Knight Sabers."

"Never heard
of them," said Fargo.

"Aw,"
said Usagi, rubbing her temple. "Don't be that fellah, fellah. Mr.
Deny Everything. All right, whatever. Say, Mr. Mysterious Stranger, I happen to
need armored mercenary types, women preferably, for protection detail, length unknown. Color coordination a
must. How's that?" She took a deep pull from her newly arrived
highball and muttered, "Jackass."

"I think that
something can be arranged," said Fargo evenly. "If you can leave off the insults."

"Sure,
sure. Anyway, protection, mainly. Possibly some intelligence work. No wetwork, of course. Possibly setting up some meet-and-greets, possibly not. Haven't quite decided that yet. Basically I need your
infrastructure."

Fargo nodding,
thinking to himself. This girl, no older than eighteen at best, had known of protocols for communication that she
shouldn't have, that really no one besides himself and his primary client should ever know. When she had contacted
him, Fargo had investigated her and found her to be a ghost. She'd appeared in Mega-Tokyo a month and a half ago,
with vast credit lines and a fake data trail and past. He knew it was false, though it was damned difficult to say
why. There were people mentioned in her fake biography, and when he'd had them surreptitiously interviewed,
they'd provided what seemed to be genuine information about their common past. There'd even been photographs of
her, old photographs made chemically. Yet there was something off about it, the shallowness to their recollections that
went beyond tired memories that had faded with time. This said to him that this girl somehow had the power to insert
herself into the memories and lives of other people: a not-so-fantastical possibility, given the world that they lived in.
The world of the future present, the year 2035.

The band was
walking onto stage, and soon the noise would be so loud that they would never be able to talk. So Fargo, quickly coming
to a decision, said, "All right. I'll see if my other clients are willing to do protection. They probably won't, but I'll see. As for the rest, I can see to
that."

"Tell the
Knight Sabers that I won't pay in money." The girl smiled widely and finished her drink and his. "You investigated me. You know what I did and can do.
Tell them that I can give them access to the Space Public Defense Corporation's secured shadow network.
Tell them I can give them the Genaros Station."

Fargo blinked and
grabbed at his drink, downing it without tasting, needing to do something to keep busy while his mind started up again.
How did she know about Genaros? How did she so damned much? Who was
she? Those words ached to erupt out of him, but he was still too much the professional to say them. Instead, he took another sip and then, silent still, nodded. Any desire to flirt with this
mysterious girl had left him. She knew too much.

"All
right. I'll tell them."


"Good. Listen, I'm going to go to the bar, get something to wash down these bennies I have, then hit the dance
floor. Call me tomorrow with a yes, or I'll assume it's a no."
With a faux-angry look in her eye, she slapped him hard in the face and jumped to her feet. With that, she left, a
scent of roses lingering in the air behind her.

The band was coming
onto the stage. Fargo rubbed his cold glass against his cheek, cooling it down.
There had been too much emotion in this meeting, and he felt drained and tired. He didn't know what tomorrow would
bring, didn't know what kind of trouble such a powerful person like that girl could need protection from, but it would likely take him down no matter what
happened. The only good thing about the future was that the band was beginning to play, and he could listen to his
girlfriend on the stage as she sang.