Omnes was standing in a void, surrounded by everything and nothing all at the same time.  In otherwords, surrounded by himself.  He pulled out his day planner, which was very small and usually resided in a hidden pocket, and a red marker.  He flipped through the calendar until he reached the day's date, and he drew a red X over it with a self-satisfactory smile.

He was the only entity existing that cared that it was Amethyst Duncan's birthday, including herself.

Amethyst had never cared much for anything, and she was not about to start now.  She was not sure why it was that she could never have but a mild interest in the world around her; it was a state of mind she had cultivated ever since her birth, which was, as of two thirty that afternoon, eighteen years ago.  The problem that plagued Amethyst was the fact that her soul had been nearly asleep for all of her life.  It did not function much save to keep her body in existence.  It had been waiting until she reached her eighteenth birthday, as that was the last year of life its previous body saw.  And thus, upon the arrival of this day, her soul began to stir.

Amethyst lived in a small, low-rent apartment  building that was situated in downtown Vinton.  Her residence in this building began when she was fifteen, the year she decided that it would be a good idea to run away from home.  This idea had wandered into her mind one afternoon as she was lying in her bed, listening idly to whatever moronic song happened to be playing on the radio.  Amethyst spent most of her after school days like this: sprawled out over her comforter, eyes closed, her mind only vaguely entertained by the strains of noise the radio presented.  Sometimes it was interlaced with yelling by her father, who was a volatile, impatient lawyer.  Her father did not yell at her mother, probably because she was of a similar temperament and a great deal stronger than he was, but into the phone, usually at a client or potential client.  When he was not yelling into the phone, he yelled at her, for her grades and for the way she never seemed to do anything but lie around and listen to the radio.

 Her mother joined him often, and the family passed whole nights with Amethyst sitting on the couch, listening quietly as they yelled at her.  Amethyst had decided, in a rare moment of caring, that she was no longer fond of this form of quality family time, nor was she really fond of her family at all.  So that night, before another session of chastisement could begin, she stole the cash from her father's safe (several thousand dollars--he was the kind of person who did not believe in credit cards) and stuffed it in a duffel bag, along with clothing and various other things neccessary to stay alive.  She then slung the duffel bag over her back and walked serenely out of the house, leaving a note on the kitchen table on which she had scrawled

'Thanks for everything.'

Her parents, when they found out about this, were more upset over the loss of the money than their daughter.  They made an effort to find her, but it proved futile--Amethyst did not stop moving until a year later, when she entered the town of Vinton.  She still had some of her funds left,  and she took them to the old building.  Its owner, a partly senile, elderly woman, knew that Amethyst was more than a little young to be living alone.  But she had money, and she seemed nice enough, so she let her stay.  Amethyst knew, at that point, that she was going to have to find some way to continue earning money, as her supply was certainly not going to last forever.  Unfortunately, Amethyst suffered from the handicap of legal blindness, thus there were not a great deal of options available to her.

Her problem found an unlikely solution one day at the library, where she was sitting, reading a Braille book.  Learning to 'read' Braille was one of the few things Amethyst had ever showed a zest for, though after she had mastered it she re-lapsed into total apathy.  The librarian had approached her and asked her if she wouldn't mind reading a few of the books aloud to a group of children.  She apparently thought having a blind person read to them from a Braille book would be a novel, educational experience.  Amethyst, having really nothing better to do, complied.  When the day was done, the librarian handed her a few bills and asked if she wouldn't mind coming back every other day to do it again.  Thus, Amethyst got a job.

It was on her way home from this job on Friday, January twenty-sixth, that she remembered that it was her birthday.  She pondered her being eighteen for a moment before shrugging it off, and did not think of it again until an hour later, at around two-thirty.  She was sipping a glass of water when suddenly a flood of memories shook her soul awake.  The glass slipped from her hands and smashed on the floor as the great revelation of her former life exploded through her mind in a series of fast-moving, extraordinarily detailed images.  Memories of her family and the planet Nemesis, and of their war with the Moon family poured through her brain, steeping it in hatred and knowledge.  A deep enmity for the human race colored her heart as this went on.  The cry of vengeance that had died on her lips so long ago now breathed again, and Amethyst's purpose in the world was made strikingly clear.  She would eradicate the offending human race from the planet, just as they, along with the white moon family, had eradicated hers.  Amethyst smiled widely as the black moon sigil outlined and then fully formed on her forehead.  She rose from her chair, neglecting the shards of glass scattered on the floor, and left her apartment.

Next door to her lived a pair of sisters.  The elder of the two was a loud, somewhat homicidal woman named Harmatia.  Her younger sister, Peripetaia, although she was frail and often afflicted, took care of her and prevented her from devouring the local children.  Amethyst thought they were excellent candidates for recruitment.

Peripetaia was pouring herself a glass of milk when she heard a buzz from outside her apartment door.  Wearily, she put the carton in the fridge.  She was wearing a long, summer dress made of thin, dark blue fabric (to match her hair), and its hem swished around her naked ankles as she walked to the door.

"Yes?" she said cautiously, pulling open the door just enough so that it caught on the rusting chain lock.  Peripetaia's voice betrayed her illness; it was soft and scarce, though it was of a deep, pleasant octave.  She relaxed a bit when she saw that it was Amethyst, the girl who had helped Peri and her sister secure a spot in the building.  Peri liked Amethyst, she was quiet and polite, if perhaps a little odd.  She noticed that Amethyst had acquired a new tattoo--a crescent moon, colored black and turned upside down marked her forehead.  Peri herself had a couple of black marks on her face--downward sloping triangles on either cheek--but these were skin discolorations she had been born with.

"May I come in?" Amethyst asked.  Peri nodded, closing and then unlocking and re-opening the door.  Amethyst smiled at her as she crossed the threshold.

"Is your sister here?" she said mildly. "I need to talk to both of you."

Peripetaia expected that this question was asked only out of politeness; she would never allow Harmatia to be out alone.  She shuffled out of the kitchenette and called,

"Harmatia, Amethyst is visiting."

The entrance to Harmatia's room burst open and she bound out, her dark pink, wavy locks bouncing with the ruffles in her similarly colored dress.  Harmatia shared her younger sister's birthmarks, though hers were white and sloped upwards.

"Hii, Amethyst," Harmatia said.  Amethyst's head turned in the general direction of Harmatia's voice.

"How are you," she said formally.

"I'm okay," Harmatia answered in a high-pitched, childish voice.  "I'd like some milk."

"Here, take mine," Peri said quickly, handing her sister the glass.  There was silence while Harmatia happily glugged down the milk.

"So what is it you need to speak with us about?" Peri said finally.

Amethyst extended her hand.

"Come here, Peri...I feel like you're far away."

Blinking, Peri obeyed.  Amethyst ran her fingers over Peri's face, her hands pausing on her forehead.

"Yes.." she murmured. "That's better."

Peripetaia suddenly felt a strange energy coursing through her body, sharp and crackling.  She gasped as it coated her mind, and she squeezed her eyes shut in pain.

"Sis?" Harmatia said, licking the milk off her lips.

Peri clutched her chest, breathing shallowly and staring at Amethyst.  The black moon crescent glowed against her pale skin.

"Will you help me, Peripetaia?" Amethyst whispered.  Peri nodded slowly.

"Thank you," Amethyst said. "Now let's see if we can't convince your sister."

Amethyst left the apartment five minutes later.  Harmatia, besides already holding a grudge against general humanity for reasons unknown, would follow her sister into the hands of death.

For the first time in her life, Amethyst felt truly alive.  The anger of her lost battle and planet raged like fire through her blood.  But the rage had not made her stupid.  She needed help, and she did have some, now.  But two people, one insane and one seemingly on the verge of death, were insufficient.  So she brushed her hair, put on a pair of sunglasses, and changed clothes.  The world was full of misanthropes.  Help should be easy to find.

Pathos Andros moved through the shadows behind the counter of the bar he worked in, cleaning quietly. He was a tall man, with straight, white hair flecked with blue that he kept pulled back into a ponytail. The lack of light did not entirely hide the fact that he wore a mask over half of his face, but it did make it less conspicuous.  The other half was perfectly fine--his skin was smooth and clear, and his showing eye was large and crystalline blue, despite his age of twenty three.  Pathos's main objective in life was to avoid the rest of it.  He tried to keep his head down and his mouth shut, and hope that he was just left alone.   But he did like his job.  He was able to meet new people without having to get close to them, and if they thought anything of his mask, then after a few drinks they were usually too out of it to care.

"Bloody Mary, please..." a soft, female voice startled him, and he looked up from where he was wiping the counter.  He nodded a little.

"On the rocks?" he said casually, holding a cup beneath the ice machine.

"Please," she said.  Pathos mixed the drink.  He could tell by the features of her face that she was underage, but the bar needed business.  He gave her the drink guiltily, observing the uncertain way she felt the glass and held it to her lips.

"Sorry for the poor lighting," he said apologetically.  The girl smiled a little.

"It's always dark for me," she said.  Pathos blinked, realizing as he gazed into her glassy, purple eyes, that she was blind.

"Oh," he said. "I.. I'm sorry."

"No problem," she answered. "What's your name?"

"Pathos," he said, immediately more comfortable with this girl's presence in the knowledge of her blindness. "Yours?"

"Amethyst," she said, downing the last of the drink.  She withdrew a twenty from the pocket of her skirt and slid it across the counter.

"Um, this is a--" Pathos started.

"I know," Amethyst said. "Keep the change."

"O...Okay," he said, opening the register.  He would leave it for his boss, Kelsea.  He didn't really need the money, anyway.

"Would you mind coming a bit closer?" Amethyst asked. "I'd like to get a feel for your features, if you don't mind."

"Uhh... I don't think you want to do that," Pathos touched his mask. "I..I don't have very good features."

"I'm not judgmental," she said easily.  Pathos bit his lip.  She had given him four times the cost of her drink.  He supposed he might as well indulge.  Pathos leaned forward, and her hands found his face.  He waited nervously until she inevitably touched his mask.

"What's this for?" she asked.  He was thankful that she did not attempt to remove it.

"I..had.. an accident, as a child," he said slowly.  "The skin is disfigured..and sensitive to the touch of light and objects."

Amethyst withdrew her hand.

"I understand."

Pathos refrained from amending that the skin was not really disfigured; it simply wasn't there at all.  He did not have a right eye--it was merely an indention in the network of wires, muscles, and nerves that made up that half of his face.  He wore the half mask wherever he went, and sometimes if he were feeling particularly brave, the full.  Most often people saw his long hair and trenchcoat and assumed he was making a fashion statement.  But always there were the inquisitive ones, the people who refused to leave until he consented to let them see beneath the mask.  Then they would scream in shock and many times, run away.  The more polite sort covered her mouth and excused herself quietly.

"You have a nice face," Amethyst said, breaking him away from his recollections.  He blinked.

"Thank you," he said, though disbelieving.

"When do you get off work?" she said. He coughed.

"You're straightforward."

Her little smile broadened.

"Best way to accomplish things."

"Suppose you're right," he agreed. "Well, I have break in about half an hour."

"I'll wait," she said.  She pulled another twenty from her skirt.  "Another Bloody Mary, please."

"Hey," a female voice said, and suddenly a hand was grasping hers, "Are you okay?"

Amethyst stopped, wondering who was touching her.

"Yes..." she murmured.

"Do you need some help?" the girl asked, concerned.  Her voice was sweet and slightly airy.  Amethyst enjoyed its sound, but she was wary of her touch. "I'm Kaitlyn."

"Amethyst," Amethyst muttered. "Is there anyone left in there?"

"Oh, no doubt," Kaitlyn said. "I know for a fact that there's some guy doing a plant experiment still hanging out in the greenhouse..and there's play rehearsals and stuff."

Thespians and science geeks.  Lovely.

"Will you lead me inside?" Amethyst asked.  Kaitlyn lightened her grip on Amethyst's hand.

"Sure."

Kaitlyn held the door open with one hand and gently guided Amethyst into the building with the other.

"Anywhere you want to go?" she asked kindly.  Amethyst thought for a moment.

"The lab," she said decisively.  "Please."

He had been in the lab for about ten minutes, examining a strangley patterned leaf he had uncovered in the greenhouse. Upon scrutiny beneath a microscope, he found that the plant's cell walls were crumbling rapidly, though he had not yet found out why.  Unfortunately, before he could form a solid hypothesis, he was suddenly accosted by a senior boy whose mission it was to shatter Assyrius's soul.  This boy's name was Judas.  He was eighteen, with dusty brown hair and small, dark eyes.  Assyrius bested him often in class, though unwittingly.  Judas had developed a healthy dislike for Assyrius, mostly because he seemed completely unaware of what seemed to Judas to be a burning rivalry.  When Assyrius received a higher score on a paper (which he usually did), he thought nothing of it, while Judas's blood boiled enviously.  On the occasion that his score was lower, he just shrugged, while Judas gloated and boasted of his superior intellect.  Assyrius just tried to ignore it, really, and the knowledge of this frustrated Judas exceedingly.

Judas was entering the lab that afternoon becuse he, too, was an avid experimenter.  But unlike Assyrius, Judas was perfectly fine with utilizing whatever living thing available in order to achieve his desired result.  At the moment he was studying the effect of various acids on some of the plants in the greenhouse.  He had collected a sample and was returning with it to the lab.  His eyes hardened when he found Assyrius already there, and with one of his leaves, no less.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, causing the smaller boy to look up from his microscope with a skittish start.

"I--was just studying this leaf..." he said tremulously.  "I'm trying to find out what's wrong with it."

"Well, the fact that I poured acid on it might have something to do with it," Judas mused, smiling maliciously at Assyrius's shocked expression.  Any other person would have passed off Judas's experiment as a waste of time, but to someone like Assyrius it was a crime against nature.  Assyrius did not believe in harming plants or animals to further scientific research.  Judas had never met a bigger environmentalist, unless he took into account the school's small vegan population.

"Why would you do a thing like that?  What purpose does that serve?" he said indignantly, turning off the microscope.

"Amusement?" Judas suggested.

Assyrius glared at him as though he were suppressing a desire to tear him apart, but he kept his lips and anger sealed.  Judas saw the restrained fury and resolved to draw it forth.

"What's wrong?  Afraid to speak your mind?" he said silkily.  He set down his leaf sample and strode over to the supply cabinet. A pair of keys appeared from the depths of his pockets, at which Assyrius balked.

"Where did you get those?" he said, throwing the leaf away dejectedly.

"I took'em, of course," he answered, unlocking the cabinet and picking up a bottle of hydrochloric acid.  He turned and carried to where Assyrius stood.

"What are you going to do with that?" Assyrius questioned.  Judas smiled.

"Oh, just a little expreriment..."

"You do that..." Assyrius mumbled, starting to leave.  Judas grabbed for and caught his wrist.  Alarmed, Assyrius's body jerked back, and he stared up at Judas, afraid.

"Yes?"

"Do I disgust you, Assyrius?" he asked. Assyrius's gaze switched from Judas to the acid.  He did not respond.

"Don't be afraid," Judas's voice was mock-soothing.  Assyrius swallowed.

"Well, yes, I suppose you do."

Judas pushed Assyrius to the floor roughly.  Even though the younger boy succeeded him in intelligence, he would always have the upper hand in strength.  Assyrius cried out softly as Judas dug his knee into his ribcage.

"You suppose?" Judas snapped.  "I don't think I've ever heard such a half-assed answer."

Assyrius lay still, and Judas unscrewed the top of the acid container.

"Let's see if I can't get something with a little bit more power."

Beneath him, Assyrius squirmed frantically, covering his face with his hands.  A drop of the caustic acid splashed onto his skin, and he whimpered with pain as it burned.

"Stop it!" he yelled through his hands.

"Yes," a female voice interrupted.  "Stop it."

Judas dropped the bottle in surprise, and its contents spilled out over the floor.  A young woman--a student, he thought--dressed in a tight white tank and a black miniskirt stood in the lab's entrance. Her eyes were pools of violet, the same shade as her short, spiky hair.  Fishnets clung to her pale legs, which were hidden up to her knees by black boots.  Caught, Judas got hastily to his feet.

"What was he doing?" the girl addressed Assyrius.

"Getting ready to drown me in hydrochloric acid!" Assyrius said, who had scrambled for the sink and was dousing the affected parts of his skin with vinegar.  Behind him, Judas scowled as he wiped up the floor.

"I was just messing around."

"I would advise you to leave," the girl said calmly, though she was not especially looking at either of them.  Judas debated internally over whether or not to push the issue.  Deciding finally that it wasn't worth it, he threw out the empty bottle and stalked from the lab.

"Thanks," Assyrius said sincerely.

"Does he bother you often?" she asked.  Assyrius was mildly unnerved by the way she averted his eyes.  He nodded.  When she made no move to show that she had seen, he asked,

"Are you okay?"

"Yes.  Just a little bit poor with my vision."

"Oh," Assyrius said, realizing. "Oh!  I'm sorry..."

"It's fine.  Are you going to answer me?"

"Oh..um, yes.  A lot of people do."

"That's terrible," she murmured, walking closer to him.

"You get used to it," he said sheepishly.  "I'm Assyrius, by the way."

"Mm...Amethyst," she proferred her hand.  Assyrius took it gently, and she leaned forward, touching his cheek with her other hand.

"Well, uh, hello, Amethyst," he reddened.  He was surprised that she didn't seem to mind the fact that he now smelled quite strongly of vinegar.

"Would you like to be strong, Assyrius?" she said, quite suddenly.

"I..." he blinked, somewhat taken aback.  "Well, doesn't everyone?"

"Strong enough to protect yourself?" she continued, her fingertips pressing into his cheek. "Strong enough for revenge?"

The beating of Assyrius's heart slowed and quivered.  He had a faint inkling that it might have been a good idea to run, but he discovered that he was hardly able to breathe.  He nodded his head with difficulty.  Amethyst smiled, slowly taking his glasses from his face.   She let them slip from her fingers, and they clinked loudly against the tiled floor.  Her heel came down on the frames violently, causing the lenses to shatter.  Assyrius inhaled sharply as she pressed her forefinger against the space between his eyes, his body shaking as an electric darkness crackled through his veins.  He realized suddenly that his picture of the world was brightening.

"I...I don't need my glasses anymore," he spoke in a thin, awed whisper.  The pieces of metal and glass on the tiles lifted into the air, and Assyrius saw that Amethyst was manipulating them.  She flicked her wrist so that the debris was hovering over the trash can, and then, as her hand went limp, the pieces fell.  She stepped away from him.

"Welcome to the Black Moon family."

Outside the lab, Kaitlyn Sinclair was staring, her eyes open wide with fear.  She cursed herself for leaving her transformation pen at home, a practice which she had engaged ever since the residual paranoia after Riordan's death and Reve's forgiveness had worn off.  Kaitlyn, it is important to understand, was a fighter for justice.  She, along with a group of her friends, defended Vinton from its nemeses by transforming into short-skirted sailor suits.  It was an odd existence, to be sure, and despite having been at it for a while now, Kaitlyn was not entirely used to her new life.  To be honest, she was enjoying the lack of evil permeating the area lately, which was why what she had just witnessed frightened her more than she would like to admit.  Unfortunately, Amethyst emerged from the lab before Kaitlyn could decide what to do.  Assyrius was behind her, a dark look on his normally gentle face.

"Who's she?" he asked, jerking his thumb in Kaitlyn's direction.

"She helped me find my way," Amethyst said.  "You can go now, Kaitlyn.  Assyrius has kindly offered to take me home."

"Oh, um, okay," Kaitlyn stammered.  "See you later."

Kaitlyn turned around quickly and hastened out of the school.  Assyrius and Amethyst watched her, and when she was gone from their lines of vision, Assyrius asked,

"Want do you want I should do about her?  I'm pretty sure she saw what went on."

"Nothing," Amethyst said. "Like I said, she helped me find my way."

"I suppose I ought to retrieve my pen, then.  I'll call Jada.  We will be there shortly."

"Bring Jigoku, too," Kaitlyn added.

"Mm.  Of course."

Kaitlyn hung up and sat down on her bed, wringing her hands.  She wondered how many battles she would have to face before she achieved the kind of peace she had previously enjoyed in her life, when she was ignorant of her position as Sailormana.  She wondered if she would be responsible for yet more loss of life.

Omnes's tall, lithe body coalesced on her comforter as she mulled over these issues, supporting her head with her hands.

"Hey, baby," Omnes said, folding one leg over the other.  He grinned at her. "What's shaking?"

"No doubt you know very well," Kaitlyn snapped.  Omnes had stopped appearing to her physically after Reve's permanent appearance in her life, but in the month or so that followed he had spoken to her mentally and even (much to Reve's dismay) appeared in her dreams.  Generally, it concerned things that seemed trivial in comparison to the fate of humanity--nagging about studying for a  test, about how much Etienne was drinking, et cetera.  He never spoke to anyone but Jigoku, who he harrassed in the flesh almost every day.

"Oh, such an icy reception.  You know I'm always thinking of your welfare, Kaitlyn," Omnes said, mock-offended.

"And how to screw it over," she muttered.  He chuckled as the doorbell buzzed.  Kaitlyn threw him a glare as she stalked to answer it.  Jada, Kiera, and Jigoku, along with Kiera's pink-haired butler Xavier, stood on her threshold.  Xavier bowed deferentially to Kaitlyn and held open the door while the others entered.

"Hi, Xavier," Kaitlyn said nervously.

"Hello, miss," he said, glaring at her through his bangs. Kaitlyn thought Xavier's passive-aggressive approach to life to be both interesting and mildly disturbing.

"Sit down, Xavier," Kiera said gently, and he obliged her sullenly.  "Now, Kaitlyn..tell everyone about your new friend."

After Kaitlyn had finished recounting the story for the second time, Omnes stood to interject.

"Where are the others?" he asked, raising a multi-colored eyebrow.  "Azura?  Lani?  Roan?  And your lovely ferret cat, Jada?"

"Fuu is neither a ferret nor a cat, and he was sleeping, so I left him," Jada made a face.

"I know what he is, my dear," Omnes returned derisively.

"Anyway..." Kaitlyn said, cutting off a second remark from Jada, "I just wanted to know what you guys thought before I bothered everyone else."

"I think our course of action is pretty clear," Jada shrugged. "We take out our pens, we kick some ass, and we save the world."

"Not the world, exactly," Omnes said, earning him a room of quizzical looks.  He smiled smugly.

"Why don't you just crawl back into the void you came from?" Jada snapped. "You're not helping at all."

"It's not my job to help," he spoke with a serene kind of obstinance.  Jada glowered as though she were about to say something more, but a glance from both Kaitlyn and Kiera silenced her.

"Look," Kaitlyn said, feeling mildly frustrated, "arguing isn't going to do anything.  We need to find out who these people are, what they want, and whether or not we have to fight them."

"Of course we have to fight them," Jada grumbled.  "They wouldn't be here if we didn't have to fight them."

"We don't know that," Kaitlyn said defensively.  Jada rolled her eyes.  Reve trotted into the room then, his healthy blue-green coat shining as he walked in the patches of sunlight created by Kaitlyn's windows.  His long tail was held pertly in the air as he jumped into Kaitlyn's lap, mewing.  Reve had gained a considerable amount of weight since he started living with Kaitlyn--about fifteen pounds, Kaitlyn thought--and while he was still fairly gaunt, he no longer looked as a skeleton on the verge of collapse.  Kaitlyn scratched behind his ears, and he purred appreciatively, rubbing his head against her stomach.

"Wonder what Etienne would say if he knew you petted Reve so much," Jada said loftily.  Kaitlyn frowned, and Reve looked over at Jada questioningly, his tail swishing.

"What does that mean?" he asked innocently.

"Nothing, precious," Jada answered sweetly.  Reve jumped off Kaitlyn's knees and transformed, his little feline body lengthening and morphing into that of a tall, fully clothed human being.  He wore the same black overcoat and pale, silk shirt that he had worn ever since he was young.  A beige, frilly ascot spilled over onto the coat where its buttons met one another, and his feet were clad in black, buckled shoes. Perfectly straight hair, the same color as his fur, fell to his waist, and his lavender eyes were large with a childlike wonder.  He sat primly next to Kaitlyn, his delicate hands folded in his lap politely.

"Isn't he cute," Omnes ruffled Reve's hair.  Reve edged away from Omnes, his lips pursed.  Reve was not especially fond of Omnes, as one might expect, being that Omnes had orchestrated a very painful period in his life.  He supposed that he could not be terribly angry, however, given that the ordeal had ended with his permanent living arrangement with Kaitlyn.

"Does anyone know a guy named Assyrius?" Kaitlyn asked, it having just occurred to her to do so.

"I believe there is a boy by that name in my Chemistry class..." Kiera said. "Care to describe him?"

"Wel, he was that guy Amethyst put the black mark on..he's short and skinny, and he had these big glasses until Amethyst smashed them..and blond hair.. interspersed with strands of black," Kaitlyn said, looking up at the ceiling as she recalled the image of his face.

"Yes, that's him," Kiera said. "Shall I keep an eye on him, then?"

"I think that's really all we can do for now," Kaitlyn sighed. "Since I haven't heard of any of them actually doing anything..."

"Does that mean I can go home now?" Jada said. "I'm afraid Fuu is like ransacking my room about now or something."

"Yeah, sure," Kaitlyn said wearily.  She stood from the couch and held open her door. "I'll call the others."

"Bye!" Reve called happily as all but Jigoku filed out.  He stayed, looking at Kaitlyn with concerned eyes.

"Are you feeling okay?" he asked gently.  She nodded, silent.  He took his gaze from her face for a moment, regarding Omnes and Reve.

"Would it be possible for us to talk alone for a few minutes?"

Reve shrugged, returning to his feline form.  He trotted through into Kaitlyn's room and out of earshot.  Omnes smirked as his body began to dissolve into so many shining particles.

"Anything for you," he said, as his glittering pieces faded into the air.  Jigoku's lip curled slightly, but he regained his composure before he turned back to Kaitlyn.

"So, uh...do you miss me?" he asked sheepishly.  She smiled.

"It is still a little weird to not have you around.." she said. "Spose it must be nice to live in a mansion, though..."

"I always think Xavier is poisoning my tea," Jigoku admitted. "He resents me."

"I think Xavier resents most everybody," Kaitlyn said lightly.

"Well, anyway..I was just thinking about..getting an apartment in this building.." he began, "I mean, I don't want to stalk you or anything, but it's just.. I'm still your guardian and I feel like I should be..closer to you.."

Kaitlyn was beaming.

"That's so sweet, Jigoku," she said happily.  He shook his head, lowering his eyes in chagrin.

"I was just wondering how I was gonna pay for it..."

Omnes appeared again as Jigoku finished his sentence, slipping his arms around Jigoku's waist.

"Aw, you know I could take care of that baby," Omnes purred into Jigoku's ear. "If you'd just ask me nicely..."

The tips of Jigoku's ears reddened.  He answered through gritted teeth.

"Will you please remove yourself from my person?"

Omnes sniffed and pulled away.

"So cruel," he moaned. "I only want to help."

"As long as your ulterior motives are satisfied," Jigoku muttered.

"Alas, you know me too well," Omnes said. "Come back tomorrow and there'll be a place awaiting your occupation."

"But there aren't any vacancies in this building," Kaitlyn said suspiciously.

"That can be easily remedied," Omnes sang, bowing as he disappeared. "Goodnight, children."

"Now I'm sorry I brought it up," Jigoku said nervously.

"I hope he doesn't hurt anyone," Kaitlyn bit her lip. "OMNES!"

He did not answer.

"I'll see if I can't talk to him tonight," Jigoku reassured her. "Don't worry."

Kaitlyn stared at him wonderingly.

"You're so different from when I found you on my doorstep...actually, you're a lot different from when you were a fish in general..."

"Yes, well," he muttered. "There are a lot of things about being a fish that make one...cranky."

"I see," she said. "but still..."

Jigoku shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"Oh, it's a nice change, Jigoku," she said, hugging him.

"Okay," he said, somewhat relieved. "I was getting a little afraid, there."

He wrapped his arms around her and held her against him, his fingers tangled in her hair and touching her scalp.  They sheepishly broke their embrace when the doorbell rang.

"Hullo?  Kaitlyn?" Etienne's voice filtered through the other side of the door.  Kaitlyn let him in, her face flushed.

"Er.." Etienne said. "Hi, Jigoku."

"I was, uh, on my way out," Jigoku mumbled, brushing past Etienne. "See you later, Kaitlyn."

"Bye," she said shakily.  Etienne blinked.

"What's up?" he said.

"Nothing," she answered, taking his hand. "I'm sorry."

"Nothin' to be sorry for," he said, bewildered. "How was your day?"

"Oh...oh!" Kaitlyn remembered. "There is something up, actually."

And she told him her story.

"That sucks," he affirmed, when she was finished.

"Yes," Kaitlyn said miserably. "Etienne, I don't want to fight anymore..."

He touched a lock of her hair, kissing her cheek.

"I know," he said. "That's one of the reasons why I like you so much."

A minute smile played on her face.  He pulled her into his arms, sitting down on Kaitlyn's couch.

"But.." he began, stroking her hair soothingly as he spoke, "it's still your duty to protect this planet..as cheesy as that sounds..."

She pressed her face into his chest.

"I do want to protect it...I just don't want to hurt anyone," she said pathetically.

"That's perfectly understandable," Etienne said, "but you have to...well..you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet, sometimes.."

She raised an eyebrow and stared at him.  He shrugged, embarrassed.

"Or something.  I'm not very good at this."

Kaitlyn sighed heavily.

"I'm just scared."

"You were able to fight that crazy Sailorknight, weren't you?" Etienne said suddenly.

"I don't know what came over me then," Kaitlyn confessed. "It felt like my sword was controlling me."

"Oh," he knitted his eyebrows.

Their conversation was halted by another ring of the doorbell.  Etienne loosened his grip so Kaitlyn could answer.  He watched quietly as she said, "Hello?" curiously.  His insides wrenched when he heard 'Mama!' in response.

"Mama?!" he thought feverishly. "She has a kid?"

A little girl with dark, purple hair tied into a pony tail leapt in front of his eyes and into Kaitlyn's arms.

"Mommy, mommy!" she cried happily, clinging to Kaitlyn tightly.  Flustered, Kaitlyn petted the little girl's hair.

"I...I don't have any children," she managed.

"Are you sure?!" Etienne cried, similarly distressed.  She flushed.

"I'm a virgin!  Jeez!" she hissed. "I think I'd notice if I were giving birth!"

"Then why is she saying 'Mama'?!" Etienne clutched his chest.  The little girl smiled cutely.

"Because she's my mommy," she purred. "I'm from the future."

"W-well, at least she's direct," Kaitlyn said thinly, her voice wavering.

"How far in the future?" Etienne asked.

"Preeettty far," the little girl said. "My name is also Kaitlyn.  But for the sake of avoiding confusion, please call me Chibi-Kai, or CK, if you like."

"What's the Chibi for?" Kaitlyn frowned, relaxing only just slightly.  She took a seat on the couch next to Etienne, massaging her temples with her thumbs.  Her mind was drowning in a myriad other questions, most of them seeming more important than the one she had just asked.  But she supposed it would be best to start small.

"It's a Japanese prefix meaning small or little," CK responded promptly.

"But we're...not in Japan," Kaitlyn said slowly. "And...we don't speak Japanese..."

"Details," CK said cheerily.

"Can you tell us any more about where you're from?" Etienne prompted.

"Well, I could..." she said carefully, "But then that would finish the story rather prematurely, don't you think?"

"Oh," Etienne said, relenting as he leaned back. "Well.  You talk pretty well for a little kid."

"Thank you," CK beamed.  She sat down on the couch beside Etienne and proceeded to crawl into his lap and wrap her small, thin arms around his waist.

"Oh," he said again, with slight surprise, petting CK's hair. "Hi, there."

"She's friendly, too," Kaitlyn muttered.  CK seemed oblivious to both of them.  She was peering into Etienne's eyes curiously, her small hands touching his pale cheeks.

"Are you my daddy?" she said questioningly.  Etienne quickly stopped himself from speaking his thoughts ("Well, I'd certainly like to be..."), and instead merely stared at her, speechless.

"Well?" CK said.

"I.. I don't know.." he answered at last, feeling rather miserable.  The possibility that Kaitlyn would leave him for someone else was, in his mind, very likely indeed.  It was a thought he only entertained just before becoming ragingly drunk (or, in other words, almost every week).  Lately he had been finding that his wine supply had been diminishing much faster than he remembered drinking it.  This was beginning to frighten him, since while he did drink a bit of wine with his food and did tend to get drunk more than he should, he always remembered when it happened.  However, he knew that this was not the time to ponder the situation.

Disappointed, CK had left his lap and opted for Kaitlyn's, who had not so much as moved during their exchange.  Etienne took this is a bad sign, but actually it was because she did not know what to say either.  She liked Etienne well enough, but how could she predict the future?

"Suppose I should go home now," Etienne said finally.

"I'm sorry, Etienne," Kaitlyn sighed.

"No worries," he smiled weakly as he left.  "Talk to you tomorrow."

He heard the two of them talking about sleeping arrangements as he closed the door and returned to his own apartment.  Etienne slunk into his kitchen and opened the wine cupboard.  He almost cried out when he saw that it was empty.  He knew he had some--he had seen the bottles just last night, when he had a glass with dinner.  He cursed under his breath as he put his head in the cupboard, glaring into the darkness.  His eyes suddenly came to rest on a note in the shadows, which he withdrew, puzzled.  The note was typed, with the following print: "Girls don't like alcoholics."

"Omnes," he grumbled.  He knew it without even thinking. "As if it's any of his damn business."

Etienne crumpled the note and tossed into the trash.  He stared at himself in the mirror as he took off his shirt.  His job as the bookstore's manager paid enough so that he no longer needed Omnes's help in paying the apartment's rent, though he was still indebted to him.

"He didn't have to take my damn wine, though," Etienne said to the mirror.  Still muttering, he crawled into his bed and resolved to not think about his problems until morning.

Kaitlyn had elected for this solution as well, though it was considerably harder for her to not think about her problem, as it was curled into a small ball next to her.  She had given CK a long shirt of hers to sleep in, and the little girl was already very much asleep.  Kaitlyn expected that time traveling consumed a great deal of energy.  She wanted to yell for Omnes and demand an explanation, but the fact that he had not shown up led her to believe that it was just possible that he wasn't expecting this to happen either.  Kaitlyn based this on the fact that Omnes _always_ revealed himself whenever something strange occurred, if only to gloat about how much more he knew about it than everyone else.  She rolled away from CK, so that she was lying flat on her back.  She remembered Etienne's earlier comment about CK's style of speech--except for her use of 'Daddy,' she spoke rather intelligently for someone who looked like she was only around seven years old.

"Go to sleep," Reve muttered.  He was next to her ear, also curled into a ball.  His voice startled her, as she was not yet used to his now common pratice of continuing to speak while still a cat. "I can hear your worrying."

"Al..alright," she whispered.  She felt Reve's paw on her lips, and heard his voice again as her eyelids grew heavy.

"I'll give you nice dreams..."

There's the first chapter... lots of stuff to be wrapped up, I know, but hey, we've got a long way to go and a lot of time to explain. XD;  Please tell me how you like it so far--especially what you think of the new characters, them having finally been introduced.