Neko Usagi

\"NEKO USAGI\"
A Sailor Moon Lemon fanfic
By Bill K.
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Sailor Mood ald all related characters, except for Garvac, are copyright
2000 by Naoko Takeuchi/Kodansha and Toei Animation. This story and
Garvac are copyright 2000 by Bill K.

For those only familiar with the English dub of Sailor Moon:
Usagi=Serena
Ami=Amy
Rei=Raye
Makoto=Lyta
Minako=Mina
Mamoru=Darien
Setsuna=Trista
Shingo=Sammy

This story takes place after Sailor Moon Sailor Stars.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The ship came to a halt miabovabove the Earth. It was a gleaming
metal sphere, with no breaks in its surface for portals or hatches. The
sun caught it, illuminating its sleek shiny surface and making it
clearly visible to anyone looking from the surface.

The inhabitant of the ship didn\'t care. His instrumentation
scanned the surface of the primitive twentieth century world, searching
for one particular person, a beauty his obsession for spanned the
centuries.
* * *
\"I hate school.\"

It was a statement that knocked everybody in the gathering of
girls for a loop, mainly because it was Ami who said it.

\"A-Ami-chan?\" gasped Usagi in shock.

\"All right!\" roared Minako, pumping her fist in the air. \"We
finally wore her down!\"

\"Wait,\" Makoto said, staring intently at Ami. \"Are you sure it\'s
her? Maybe she\'s been possessed by some demon. What do you think,
Rei?\"

\"I don\'t sense anything,\" Rei said, staring intently and trying
not to grin. \"Maybe it\'s very cagey, though.\"

\"Has anyone told any of you that none of you are the least bit
funny?\" bristled Ami.

\"Well, you have to admit that it\'s the last thing we\'d expect to
hear from you,\" Luna offered in conciliation. The five girls and two
cats were curled up in a grassy area of Juuban Park with a picnic lunch
that Makoto had prepared.

\"So what finally did it for you?\" prodded Minako. \"What made you
see the light?\"

\"Well, I\'m so far ahead of the class,\" sighed Ami in frustration.
\"It\'s just so. . . boring. A person can only study just so far ahead of
the curriculum, you know.\" Minako glared at Ami with extreme
disappointment. \"Well, you did ask.\"

\"Remind me never to open my mouth again,\" muttered Minako.

\"Well,\" Usagi said, \"maybe you could do something else with your
time besides study so much.\"

\"I already tutor the four of you.\"

\"Something else, Ami-chan,\" scowled Usagi.

\"Such as?\"

\"ROMANCE!\" grinned Usagi.

\"R-Romance?\" gulped Ami.

\"Romance with boys,\" Rei added with a conspiratory whisper,
picking up on Usagi\'s lead.

\"Handsome boys,\" grinned Makoto.

\"Rich, handsome boys,\" added Minako.

In unison they all sighed and fell backwards into the grass,
leaving Ami the only one upright. She was blushing a deep crimson.

\"Artemis,\" muttered Luna, looking intensely annoyed, \"shoot me
now.\"

\"You four like seeing me break out in a rash,\" pouted Ami.

Unexpectedly, a golden beam of energy lanced out of the blue
afternoon sky. It struck Usagi full figure, enveloping the girl in a
golden tint.

\"USAGI!\" screamed Luna, even as the others became conscious of it.

Luna leaped forward. Usagi began to shimmer in the confines of
the beam before she could gather her wits to move. The others lunged
forward, hoping to pull Usagi to safety and fearing they were too late.
Luna entered the energy field even as Usagi began to fade from
existence. Once she was in the field, though, Luna shimmered as well
and disappeared even more quickly. Makoto reached for the beam a
fraction of a second after it disappeared.

\"LUNA!\" gasped Artemis.
* * *
On the ship, the pilot materialized his quarry, then started for a
moment. It was her; scans had confirmed it was her. And yet it wasn\'t
her, not by a long shot. He pondered this for a moment, wondering what
had happened, staring at the unconscious girl lying on the deck of his
ship. Should he keep her now?

Creeping over, lest she wake up and somehow do him harm, the pilot
knelt down. Despite the differences, she was still so beautiful. She
had all of the ethereal grace that first entranced him, yet this one was
full of a youthful vigor that maturity had stilled. Risking waking her,
he lightly stroked her arm with his hand. Her skin was so soft.

In that moment, he decided. Hang the differences. She was his
now and she would be his forevermore. Rushing to the control console,
the mystery man sent the ship rocketing forward toward his destination.
Usagi lay unconscious, along for the ride.
* * *
The moment Usagi disappeared, Ami had her wand out. \"Mercury
Crystal Power Make Up!\" thundered out of her lungs, heedless of whether
anyone else saw her transform. Once she was Sailor Mercury her computer
was out and her visor was activated. The others stood ready to
transform at a moment\'s notice.

\"I\'ve got the energy signature,\" Mercury said as her fingers flew
over the keypad. \"It looks like it could be some sort of molecular
transportation beam.\"

\"Then she\'s still alive!\" Rei gasped, concern mixed with relief.

\"I\'m tracking the beam into space,\" Mercury reported. \"I\'ve got
an object: metallic, spherical, giving off energy waves. . .it\'s a ship
of some sort.\"

\"She\'s been kidnapped by aliens?\" gulped Jupiter.

\"Can you identify anything about the ship?\" asked Minako.

\"I\'ve never seen a design like this before,\" Mercury stated. \"The
technology is way beyond anything. . .\" Mercury stopped suddenly, a
look of utter horror on her face.

\"What?\" demanded Minako.

\"It\'s gone,\" whispered Mercury.

\"Gone? Gone where?\" asked Makoto.

\"I don\'t know. It was there one moment, then it just. . .
vanished.\"

\"Is there an exhaust trail of some sort?\" Artemis asked.

\"Nothing. It just disappeared.\"

\"Well we\'ve got to find it!\" Rei blurted out desperately. She saw
Minako roll back on her heels, stunned. \"We\'ve got to find her! We
can\'t just abandon her!\"

\"What can we do?\" asked Minako. \"Where would we look? And even
if we found her, how do we get to her? We can\'t teleport without
Usagi.\"

Rei gnashed her teeth, tears welling up. She desperately wanted
to do something, anything. She scanned the faces of the others,
searching for some hope and finding none.

\"Usagi,\" she whispered, looking up into the heavens.
* * *
Usagi pried her eyes opened, her hand going to her forehead in
response to the pounding inside. She was confused and slightly
nauseous. It took a moment to focus on her surroundings.

When she did, she sat bolt upright. Technology completely alien
to her senses surrounded her, recessed into smooth gleaming walls of a
material she didn\'t recognize. The surface she sat on was cold and
smooth. It gave her the creeps. Her headache and the bright light of
the interior made her squint and it was hard to take in her surroundings
all at once.

\"H-Hello?\" Usagi squeaked. \"Is anybody here?\"

[\"Usagi?\"]

\"Luna? Ist yot you? Where are you?\"

[\"I\'m not sure. It\'s so bright. I see some sort of technology.
Strange. I\'m trying to get up, but I can\'t seem to make my body work.\"]

\"Are you hurt?\" Usagi asked fearfully.

[\"Aside from a pounding head, it doesn\'t seem so. I can feel. I
just can\'t get my body to work. Perhaps I\'ve been drugged.\"]

\"Luna, why is it I only hear you in my head?\"

[\"I don\'t know, Usagi. I can hear you fine. You must be close
by.\"]

Suddenly Usagi let out an ear-piercing shriek.

[\"Usagi, what is it?!\"]

\"Luna, I\'ve got a tail!\" cried Usagi.

[\"A what?\"]

\"A tail! A long black furry tail growing out of my butt! And I\'m
practically naked! I\'m wearing these tiny leather panties and there are
leather straps running around my chest and my waist! It\'s like a bra,
but there are no cups!\" She felt around her throat. \"Luna, I\'m wearing
a collar! A collar with a bell on it!\"

[\"Usagi, calm down, please!\"]

\"Luna, what\'s happened to me? What\'s going. . .\"

[\"Oh, gracious!\"]

\"Luna?\" Usagi gasped. \"What is it?\"

[\"Usagi, put your hand up in front of your face.\"] Usagi
complied. [\"No, this can\'t be! It just can\'t!\"]

\"Luna?\"

[\"Usagi, I\'m seeing your hand! Look down!\"] She did so. [\"I\'m
seeing my tbetwbetween your legs!\"]

\"Am I sitting on you?\" gasped Usagi.

[\"No you\'re not sitting on me! Usagi, that energy that hit us - -
it may have been some sort of teleportation beam. I-I think we\'ve
somehow been merged.\"]

\"MERGED!\"

[\"That explains why I can\'t move. If our atoms have been merged,
we must be two brains sharing a hybrid body. And since your brain is
bigger, you must dominate the motor reflexes. Search around your body.
See if you cand and any other cat characteristics.\"]

Usagi complied.

\"Luna! I\'ve got - - I\'ve got cat ears!\" Tears sprang from her
eyes. \"I don\'t want to be a cat!\" Usagi wailed.

[\"Oh, stop blubbering! This isn\'t any more acceptable to me than
it is to you! Therefore, if we\'re going to get out of this, we have to
find out where we are, who abducted us and whether the process can be
reversed.\"]

\"You mean it might be permanent?\" Usagi gasped, snuffling.

[\"The possibility does exist. Now Usagi, you must stay strong!
If anyone\'s going to get us out of this, it\'s Sailor Moon. You\'d better
transform.\"]

\"OK,\" Usagi sniffed. She reached to her chest. \"Luna! My
transformation brooch is gone!\"

[\"Oh dear. Well, all we can do is try to find it. Can you walk,
Usagi?\"]

Usagi started to get up, then sprawled back onto the deck.

\"No,\" she whisd fed fearfully. \"My legs won\'t support me and my
back hurts when I try to straighten up! What did they do to me, Luna?\"

[\"Try getting up on your hands and knees.\"]

Usagi accomplished this with ease.

[\"It must be another effect of our being merged. Your skeleton is
a human and feline hybrid and your spine and hips won\'t support you if
you try to stand erect. You\'re going to have to walk on all fours for
now.\"]

\"This sucks,\" whimpered Usagi. \"I don\'t want to crawl around like
a baby!\"

[\"Then stop acting like one! We need to find that brooch, Usagi!
Now move!\"]

Usagi started to move forward, crawling along the deck on her
hands and knees. Her gait quickly took on a feline quality. However,
she didn\'t get very far before a pair of man\'s legs stepped into her
path. Usagi looked up timidly at the face of her captor.

\"Serenity,\" he exhaled reverently.

\"We\'re in trouble, Luna,\" Usagi thought.
* * *
As if they didn\'t have enough to worry about, a very agitated
Tuxedo Mask, standing majestically atop a light post in the park
suddenly confronted the senshi. Tuxedo Mask scanned the area with
mounting concern, then leaped over to the senshi.

\"Where\'s Sailor Moon?\" he asked, gruff in his overwhelming concern
for her. \"I felt her distress.\" The girls looked at each other
uneasily.

\"She\'s gone,\" Rei said finally"Abd"Abducted.\"

\"By who?\"

\"We don\'t know.\"

\"Is she still alive? I don\'t sense her anymore.\"

This brought new worried looks to the girls.

\"All we know is she was taken away in a space ship,\" Mercury told
him. \"It just disappeared from my sensors.\"

\"Maybe that\'s why you can\'t sense her any longer,\" offered Minako.
\"She\'s just too far away.\"

\"You couldn\'t trace it?\" Tuxedo Mask asked.

\"Unless the propulsion system is beyond my ability to trace,
there\'s nothing there to trace.\"

The group fell silent.

\"Maybe they didn\'t go anywhere,\" Tuxedo Mask reasoned.

\"What, they\'re invisible?\" Makoto asked.

\"A cloak of some sort?\" added Mercury.

\"Maybe they\'re not from this time,\" concluded Tuxedo Mask.

\"Time travel!\" spat Mercury angrily. \"Why didn\'t I think of
that?\"

\"That would explain why I can\'t sense her anymore.\"

\"So we look up Setsuna?\" Rei queried.

They all nodded. After Mercury and Tuxedo Mask transformed back
to Ami and Mamoru, to be less conspicuous, they headed for a rendezvous
with Setsuna.
* * *
The man before Usagi was tall and solidly muscled. He had a lean,
hard, athlete\'s body and thick black hair. It was somewhat the image of
Mamoru, but that was where the similarity ended. His face was long and
lean with sallow cheeks and a long thin nose. His eyes were a steel
gray, lik like a shark\'s and just as menacing. He wore black gloves,
pants and boots, and a black cape draped his shoulders and swirled
lightly around him.

\"W-Who are you?\" gulped Usagi.

\"I am Garvac,\" he proclaimed proudly, seeking to impress her.

\"Why did you do this to me?!\" she demanded. \"What do you want
from me?!\" He knelt down before her.

\"Serenity,\" he said, \"I have admired you, longed for you my entire
life. Your legend is the greatest in all of history and it does not
nearly do you justice. You are the very incarnation of all that is fine
and good and beautiful.\"

He reached out to her cheek with his hand. Usagi shied away, but
he persisted and touched her.

\"And now, Serenity, when that wondrous goodness and beauty is just
beginning to blossom like the bud of a precious flower, I have come. To
claim you, to preserve you, to link with you so that you may enrich me
and I you.\"

Usagi stared at him with mounting horror.

\"You-you can\'t!\" she gasped, revolted. \"I love. . .\"

\"Endymion,\" he said bitterly. \"I know the legend of the love that
traverses time and space, the love that defined love for a millennium.
Never have I hated and despised a man so much. The King of Crystal
Tokyo, the Consort of The Light Of Hope, the most envied man in all the
annals of time - - but no longer. That\'s another reason I came back to
this primitive time: to pluck his Sety fty from his grasp before she can
become his. And I have succeeded.\"

\"No,\" heaved Usagi, her eyes burning with an anger that never,
ever burned so brightly in the Queen of Peace. \"No you haven\'t. I love
Mamo-chan!\"

\"You will love me,\" declared Garvac.

\"NEVER! My love for him is eternal! It will live until the
universe itself crumbles and dies from age! I will NEVER love any man
but my Endymion!\"

The two stared, neither backing down.

\"Cling to your image of Endymion, then,\" Garvac said bitterly. He
seized Usagi by her upper arms. She squirmed mightily in his grasp, but
didn\'t have the strength to pull free. \"You\'ll see it fade from your
memory with the passage of time, for you will never escape my grasp!\"

He roughly jammed his mouth to hers. Usagi tried to pull away,
but her attacker\'s weight forced them over. She fell onto her back, her
captor landing on top of her. Usagi began to panic. She felt
overwhelmed by him, like she was being swallowed whole. His hips were
insinuated between her legs. She felt his erection pressing against the
patch of leather covering her labia.

His right hand came away from her left arm. Immediately Usagi
began using it, forcing it between them and trying to push him away. It
was no good; he weighed too much and she was just not strong enough. At
once she became aware of his right hand tugging at the leather strap
that held her panties, such as they were. She tore her lips away from
his.

\"What are you doing!\" she shrieked, knowing full well what he was
doing. \"Stop! You can\'t do that! You can\'t!\"

Ignoring her protests, Garvac continued until the leather panties
were down far enough to reveal her virgin sex. Then he began tugging at
his own waistband.

\"Mamo-chan!\" Usagi wailed. \"Mamo-chan, help me! Please!\"

Suddenly Usagi\'s left hand worked its way up from between them.
The thought crossed her mind to do so, but it was a thought not entirely
own.own. Her fingers curled into makeshift talons. With viciousness
completely uncharacteristic to Usagi or Sailor Moon, the blonde dug her
fingernails into Garvac\'s face and raked down with feline rage.

[\"That may not keep him at bay for long,\"] Usagi heard in her
head, [\"but it will make any victory a costly one!\"]

Garvac pulled away, clutching his wounded face. He hauled himself
up to a kneeling position. Instantly Usagi tried to scuttle away along
the d but but his hand seized her and pinned her down effortlessly.

\"So even the Queen of Peace bears claws when sufficiently
provoked,\" Garvac hissed, his chest heaving. Usagi shrank from him, his
violent aura battering her senses; yet her ears were pinned back and her
fingers still curved to rake again. \"Very well then,\" and his hand went
from his face to behind his cloak. When it reappeared, he held leather
cuffs with but three steel links between them.

Usagi\'s eyes grew to saucers and she renewed her efforts to squirm
away. Garvac seized one of her wrists and held it in a grip of iron
until he could straddle her body and hold it down. Oblivious to her
efforts to escape, Garvac buckled one cuff in place around Usag sli slim
wrist. He jerked her captured arm over to the free one and in moments
she was a prisoner of the cuffs. Garvac looked down on her in triumph.

\"Please,\" begged Usagi tearfully. \"Don\'t do this! For your sake
as well as mine, please don\'t degrade yourself this way!\"

\"Shackled and humbled, and yet you still think only of the welfare
of others,\" marveled Garvac. \"You defy all description, Serenity. Now
I simply must bathe in your light.\"

\"NO!\" wailed Usagi.

Her shackles held down with one hand, her body pinned by theeigheight of her attacker, Usagi could only endure the assault with
mounting horror. She felt her legs being forced apart. A hard, thick
intrusion parted her labia and she wailed again, inarticulately. Tears
dribbled down her cheeks as the intrusion forced its way inside her,
tearing at her, filling her with its unwanted presence. The tears
weren\'t for her, though. They were for Mamoru, for the first time that
they both longed and dreamed and anticipated, an opportunity now lost
forever. No matter what happened from now on, it could never, ever be
the same and Usagi wept for that.

Again Garvac thrust into her and again, his strokes painful and
bereft of love and kindness. Usagi\'s mind began to swirl and she was
afraid she was about to plunge into a whirlpool of insanity, her mind
broken from the violence of the assault. And then she felt another
consciousness brush hers: Luna.

[\"I\'m here, Usagi.\"]

\"Lunhat hat do we do?\" Usagi thoughspersperately.

[\"We survive. There\'s nothing else we can do.\"]

Usagi whimpered as Garvac thrust again.

[\"Be brave, Usagi. You\'re not facing this alone.\"]

\"Oh,\" Usagi thought, her self-pity suddenly replaced. \"Luna, you
two?\"

[\"I can feel every. . .wretched. . .moment of it.\"]

\"Poor Luna,\" she cried mentally.

And through the entire ordeal, two minds melded into one comforted
each other\'s pain while the barbarians assaulted from without.
* * *
Setsuna answered the door curious as to who might be visiting her.
It was not what she expected, but she quickly overcame her surprise.

\"This is not a social call,\" she judged, surveying the faces of
Mamoru and the girls. \"Please come in and tell me what has happened.\"

\"We think Usagi\'s been abducted and taken through time,\" Minako
blurted out.

\"Luna, too,\" added Artemis.

\"What leads you to this conclusion?\" Setsuna asked, her tone as
ever sad and world-weary.

\"I can\'t sense her any longer,\" Mamoru replied. \"Not even a faint
cry over a long distance. It\'s as if she no longer existed in this
time.\"

\"And you would sense her death,\" Setsuna said, nodding
respectfully to Mamoru.

\"She was taken to a ship, then the ship just vanished from my
sensor screen,\" Ami added. \"And I doubt it was something from space, or
Harund Mnd Michiru would be involved by now. Are they?\"

\"To my knowledge,\" Setsuna said with a faint smile, \"no. Your
reasoning is sound. Usagi has seemingly been abducted through the Gate
of Time.\"

\"Can you help?\" Makoto pressed her.

Setsuna looked down. \"I cannot. Not in the way you wish of me.\"

\"Why?\"

\"Understand, I am not who you think I am. We met for the first
time during our battle with Queen Neherenia.\"

\"Um,\" Makoto said,prisprised and confused. It was confusion the
rest shared, except for Ami.

\"I understand,\" Ami said. \"You were only just activated during
that battle. The Sailor Pluto we fought next to against the
Deathbusters was your future self. She traveled back into time to help
us.\"

\"Because she knew history dictated it,\" continued Setsuna. \"And
she - - I will pay a heavy price for my actions. That Sailor Pluto
commanded the energies to traverse time. I do not yet have those
powers, though I will in the future.\"

As one, the girls and Mamoru\'s hopes sank visibly.

\"Then there\'s nothing we can do?\" asked Rei desperately. Setsuna
smiled another of her enigmatic, wistful smiles.

\"While I do not control the energies to travel through time,\" she
said, \"I did not say I could not help you.\"

\"You can help us?\" Mamoru whispered excitedly, reflexively seizing
Setsuna by the upper arms. Rather than take nse,nse, Setsuna actually
seemed touched by the gesture. \"How?\"

\"I will remember.\"
* * *
Curled up in a corner of the time craft, Usagi sobbed softly to
herself. Her leather harness had been repositioned back on her body.
Added to the leather cuffs around her wrists were a similar pair
surrounding her ankles, again connected by a mere three chain lin A A
large red ball protruded from her mouth, forcing her jaw wide as a
leather strap held it firm against her teeth and tongue.

She could still feel his rough hands on her arms and torso, his
unkind lips and tongue on her neck and breasts. Her loins still ached
from the forced entry and the cruel thrusting. But, worse than the
physical afflictiowas was the mental battering she\'d taken from being
subjected to such self-indulgent cruelty. Why had he done it? He\'d
called her beautiful, but his actions were like a little child plucking
a lovely flower and then pulling off the petals one by one, just because
he could. He\'d mumbled that he loved her even as he violated h How How
could it enter into someone\'s mind to destroy beauty in the name of
admiration, to physically brutalize someone in the name of love? She
just couldn\'t grasp it. And so she wept, for her, for him, for Mamoru,
for her child yet unborn and for the queen she would have become and the
peace she would have brought, now dashedo sho shards of what would have
been.

[\"Usagi?\"]

\"Why, Luna?\" Usagi thought, because she couldn\'t speak through her
gag.

[\"People have been asking that since the dawn of humanity and they
still don\'t have an answer. Everyone faces adversity of some sort in
his or her lives. They either grow stronger from it or it consumes
them. Don\'t let it consume you, Usagi.\"]

\"I almost hope I\'m not rescued now,\" Usagi thought. \"I\'m not sure
Mamo-chan would want me now.\"

[\"Stop thinking rubbish! Mamoru will understand. He loves you.\"]

\"But something like than kan kill love.\"

[\"Or make it stronger. Don\'t forget who you are or who he is.
Don\'t forget the bright light your love is destined to shine onto the
universe. That Garvac person said it himself. Trust in Mamoru\'s love
for you.\"]

Usagi didn\'t reply. She continued weeping, but at length nodded
her head.

[\"Usagi, I knou juu just want to sit here and cry, and I can\'t say
as I really blame you this time, but we really have to start looking for
your transformation brooch. We\'re going to need it, if for no other
reason than to keep that lunatic from raping you again.\"]

\"But how?\" Usagi thought. \"He\'s got these chains on me.\"

[\"Your forepaws. . .hands are manacled in front of you. You can
still move about. It\'ll just be a little more difficult.\"]

\"Everything\'s always diffic\" t\" thought Usagi petulantly.

[\"It could be worse. You could be tethered to something. Now go
on!\"]

Usagi sniffed back the rest of her tears. She wiped her face with
the back of her hand, then licked it reflexively before she caught
herself in horror. Easing fod, sd, she furtively scanned the area for
some sign of her captor.

[\"Listen for signs of him, too. You\'ve got cat\'s ears now. Use
them.\"]

\"Don\'t remind me!\"

Scuttling along the deck was very labor-intensive, hamd asd as she
was by the wrist and ankle cuffs. Every so often Usagi would make a
sudden move and the bell on the collar around her throat would tinkle.
Finally she reached up and pulled it off after three attempts to jerk it
away.

As she crawled, Usagi could feel her tail move involuntarily to
balance her. Her heart was pounding in her chest and adrenaline was
shooting through her body at a rapid clip. She was on edge, senses
sharp for the slightest threat.

It was a small ship and there shouldn\'t have been that many places
to hide things. Edging away from the wall, Usagi looked around. She
didn\'t see anything that might hide her brooch, but she did see Garvac
sitting in a chair. He seemed either to be sleeping or lost in his own
thoughts. The blonde froze, fearful that a single movement would
attract his attention.

[\"Usagi! To your left! There, above the console! That looks
like some sort of storage bin!\"]

Usagi looked. It was above a console with some strange technical
display, roughly five feet from the floor. There was a single stud,
probably to open the latch.

\"Luna, it\'s too far up! I\'ll never reach it!\"

You You have to try, Usagi! We\'ve no other option!\"]

Usagi glanced fearfully at Garvac. He hadn\'t moved.

[\"I\'m a bit more experienced at creeping, Usagi. Relax your mind
and let me guide you.\"]

Usagi complied. After a bit, she felt her consciousness began to
detach from her body. Then she felt her body begin to move forward
without her mind controlling it. She took a few halting paces across
the floor on her hands and knees, then lurched to a stop.

[\"Sorry. You\'ve a bit more body than I\'m used to controlling.\"]

Slowly Usagi inched forward, her every move calculated to cover
the maximum amount of distance with the absolute minimum of noise. She
brought herself closer and closer to the console, her ears perked and
listening for any sound from Garvac. Usagi, a spectator in her own
body, waited nervously, fearing she would be caught at any moment.

She reached the console and rolled back onto her back legs,
kneeling on the deck as she reached up to the storage bin with her
fettered hands. The stud to unlatch the door was out of reach by a good
two feet.

\"I\'m too short, Luna!\" thought Usagi.

[\"Stretch, Usagi! Try to extend with your hips!\"]

Pulling off of her heels, Usagi tried to extend. But her
restructured hip joints held her back.

\"If I could stand up, I could reach it,\" thought Usagi.

[\"Try, Usagi!\"]

\"I am trying, but it hurts!\"

Suddenly alerted by a noise behind her, Usagi shrank back and
turned to confront the perceived attack. She found Garvac behind her
just as he seized her wrists by the chain between them. Holding her
hands aloft above her head, Garvac pressed the stud with his free hand
and pulled out her transformation brooch. Usagi whimpered.

\"Were you looking for this?\" he fumed. \"Trying to escape me? No,
Serenity, you don\'t escape me!\" Viciously he flung Usagi down to the
deck. Sprawled at his feet, she looked up at him with misty, fearful
eyes. \"I thought you were different. I\'ve spent so much of my life
alone, never knowing love, never knowing the touch of a sensitive hand.
The only thing that sustained me was you! I read all the files on you!
I watched holo-vids of you until the picture integrity began to
disintegrate! I thought you would be the only one who could have enough
love in her heart for me. I prayed that you could be the hope to end my
suffering and banish my loneliness. And you will! If I have to keep
you safe in this ship until time itself runs out, you will!\"

Garvac droppee tre transformation brooch at his feet. To Usagi\'s
utmost horror, he lifted his foot, preparing to crush it beneath his
heel.

\"You will not escape me, Serenity.\"

\"MMMMMMMMMMM!\" cried Usagi as the boot descended toward the
brooch.

\"Dead Scream,\" echoed softly through the confines of the craft,
followed by a burst of sonic energy that hit Garvac full and threw him
into the far bulkhead. He fell away from the wall with a pitiful groan
and collapsed onto the deck.

Usagi looked over in the direction of the blast and saw Sailor
Pluto approach. Momentarily her heart soared. Then she saw the look of
shock on the usually implacable scout. Pluto knelt down next to Usagi.

\"My Queen,\" she whispered, aghast. \"What has he done to you?\"

Usagi\'s eyes sought the floor in shame.

\"Did he hurt you?\" persisted Pluto. She looked over the revealing
costume Usagi wore. \"Did he. . .?\" The crimson flush in Usagi\'s cheeks
was all the answer Pluto needed.

Setting her staff aside, Sailor Pluto reached around and unbuckled
the ball gag, then gently removed it from Usagi\'s mouth. She breathed a
sigh of relief. Pluto tenderly brushed the girl\'s cheek with her gersgers. Usagi looked up and saw the tremendous sadness and sympatn
n
the lone scout\'s eyes. It broke Usagi\'s heart to be responsible for
such sadness in a friend.

\"I apologize for not arriving sooner,\" Sailor Pluto said gravely.
\"This renegade hid his vehicle well, in the limbo that is between time.
In this realm of between space, a thousand thousand centuries could pass
in the span of one day here. I know. I searched many of them in my
quest to find you.\"

\"How did you know he even took me?\" Usagi asked.

\"Your absence from the river that is time is not something easily
hidden, my Queen. Plus I remembered from my early days how Endymion - -
Mamoru and your four closest friends came to me seeking my help in
finding you. It was many years ago, but I did remember.\"

\"Years?\" Usagi said uneasily. \"How many? Are they still alive?\"

\"My Queen,\" Pluto grinned as she worked off the wrist cuffs, \"this
vehicle in this spot is unaffected by the passage of time. When I
embarked upon my quest for you, my appointment to the guardianship of
the Gate of Time had just begun, my mission given to me by a destitute
and lonely Endymion, many years in the future from what last you recall.
But I can return you to the year you left, to the very second you were
abducted if you wish, though that is not recommended. And that will
restore time to its original flow. Endymion will have his Serenity and
Crystal Tokyo will be born and all will be right.\"

\"No!\" screamed Garvac. Pluto turned too late and the man slammed
into her, driving them both hard to the deck. His black cloak fluttered
to the deck like the wings of a great bat as he straddled her. \"She\'s
mine! Serenity is mine! I won\'t let you take her! I won\'t let you
condemn me to the agonizing loneliness again!\"

Pluto tried to shift under him to throw him off. She heard Usagi
shriek in the background. Then she felt Garvac\'s hands lock around her
throat. She grabbed at his forearms, attempting to pry them off, but
his elbows were locked and his shoulders hunched down. All of his
weight pressed down on her throat as his fingers pressed in and
constricted. Blindly Pluto reached for her staff, but it was too far
away. She tried to speak, but all that came from her mouth were soft
gurgles.

[\"Usagi! You have to help her! Get your brooch and transform!\"]

Prodded into action, Usagi lunged for the transformation brooch.
Her ankles were still fettered, so she scooted across the slick deck and
seized the brooch. It almost slipped from her fumbling hands, but she
finally got control of it.

\"Moon Eternal Make-Up!\" she shouted and inside Luna got a first
hand experience of transforming into Eternal Sailor Moon.

\"Condemn me!\" ranted Garvac. \"Look down on me! What do you know
of loneliness, of loneliness so awful and oppressive that you think
you\'ll go mad if only to have the company of a second personality?
Decades of unremitting loneliness, toiling at the only hope I had of
companionship. And now you think you\'ll take away everything I\'ve
worked and sweated and suffered for! Never! I\'ll kill you first!\"

Pluto continued to gasp for breath that wouldn\'t come. She pushed
up against his body, but she couldn\'t move him. Black spots began to
dance before her eyes. She knew, deep in the back of her mind, that
this wasn\'t the moment she was destined to die, but she couldn\'t quite
dismiss the fear just the same.

And then a hand touched Garvac gently on the shoulder. His grip
eased just enough for Pluto to gasp in some precious air. Garvac\'s eyes
darted to the hand, a delicate, feminine hand covered in a white glove
with a red band around the wrist.

\"Please stop,\" came a woman\'s voice behind him, a voice that was
the voice of every boy\'s mother and every father\'s daughter and every
man\'s lover. It was a voice soft as down and sweet as honey, a voice
unassuming and at peace with the universe.

Helpless to look away, Garvac turned to the voice, releasing
Sailor Pluto\'s throat. He found himself kneeling before a radiant
goddess, the very fantasy he\'d sustained himself with over the many
years of hardship. Eternal Sailor Moon, in all her blinding glory,
stood over him. There were no cat\'s ears, no swishing tail, no stooped
posture. She stood before him as the embodiment of human kindness and
love. And bathing in her radiance, Garvac realized at that moment to
what depth desperation had driven him. His words and deeds came
flooding back to him. Tears spilled from his eyes and he clutched the
folds of her multi-colored skirt to his face.

\"Serenity!\" he gasped,bingbing wretchedly. \"Forgive me! In my
madness, I have destroyed my life and yours. I have descended beyond
the depths of a common animal in my desperation. Forgive me for all
that I have done!\"

forgforgive you,\" Sailor Moon whispered, a tear streaming down her
melancholy face. \"I sense the void within you. Let me fill that void.\"

With solemn grace, Sailor Moon summoned the Moon Power Tier. Her
eyelids closed over her eyes and she held the tier above Garvac\'s head.

\"Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss,\" she whispered.

Silver energy flowed over Garvac like the mist of a gentle rain.
As he bathed in it, his face and posture grew calm. His eyes rolled
closed and his lips parted, allowing a deep, contented sigh to escape.
Folding his arms across his chest, Garvac seemed to embrace himself.
Ecstasy curled his mouth into a wide smile.

\"Beautiful,\" Garvac sighed from the very depths of his being.
Then he gently sank to the deck of the ship and ceased living. Pluto
inched over to him and checked for a pulse while Sailor Moon sagged, her
radiance dimmed.

\"He\'s dead, isn\'t he,\" Sailor Moon said, her heartache clear in
her voice. Tears flowed down her cheeks.

\"Yes,\" Pluto replied.

\"He just,\" Sailor Moon said haltingly, \"stopped living. He had no
reason to go on. His goal was achieved.\"

\"And you weep for him?\" asked Pluto. \"After all he did?\"

\"He was from the future,\" Sailor Moon began, her voice small and
frail. \"A far away future, way beyond Crystal Tokyo. Some sort of
technological accident had wiped out all life on Earth. Only he escaped
- - but to what? Can you imagine it, Pluto? To be the only living
thing on an entire world, to have nothing and no one for companionship
for years.\"

\"I think I can get some sense of it,\" Pluto replied.

\"I sensed this as I was healing him. He couldn\'t help what he\'d
become. I can\'t imagine going through a tenth of the horror he knew and
not breaking either. Hate what he did, what he forced himself to
become; don\'t hate him.\"

\"As ever, your wisdom shines like a beacon in the dark, my Queen,\"
Pluto said reverently.

\"You OK in there, Luna,\" Sailor Moon asked and Pluto glanced at
her curiously. \"You\'ve been pretty quiet.\" When she got no response,
she became concerned. \"Luna? Luna, answer me!\"

Catching her reflection in a metal panel, Sailor Moon realized for
the first time she had no physical manifestations of Luna on her body.
The shock so unnerved her that she lost her concentration. Her Sailor
Moon costume faded away, returning her to Usagi. Instantly her revamped
skeleton took over and she fell to the floor.

[\"Usagi, can you hear me?\"]

\"Luna!\" Usagi gasped. \"Luna, what happened to you? Where did you
go?\"

[\"I guess when you transformed to Sailor Moon your power so
overwhelmed me that I couldn\'t connect with you. It was quite like
being locked away in a little box. I couldn\'t hear you or feel
anything. I have to confess to being more than a little frightened.\"]

\"Oh Luna, I\'m so sorry!\" gulped Usagi.

\"Usagi, who are you talking to?\" asked a puzzled Pluto.

\"It\'s a long story,\" moaned Usagi.
* * *
\"I\'ll remember,\" said Setsuna.

With that, Usagi and the future Sailor Pluto materialized into
existence behind them. Mamoru and the girls were taken completely by
surprise, while Setsuna only smirked with that mysterious way she had,
as if she knew this would happen.

\"And I did,\" Sailor Pluto said.

\"Pluto!\" bellowed a mortified Usagi, again wearing her shorts and
knit pullover, cringing behind the lanky sailor scout. \"I told you I
didn\'t want him to see me like this!\"

\"And I apologize, my Queen,\" Pluto replied. \"But Endymion
deserves to know. Trust his judgment. And now I must go. Every second
I linger risks further contamination of the time stream.\"

Pluto raised the time staff above her head and faded from view.
Usagi cringed on the floor, her cat\'s tail swishing, wishing she had a
hole to crawl into. For the first time, her ears, tail and posture
registered with the gathered.

\"Usako!\" Mamoru gasped in shock and rushed to kneel next to her.

\"Oh my goodness, what happened?!\" Rei cried.

\"And where\'s Luna?\" Artemis demanded.

\"In here,\" sobbed Usagi, pointing to her chest. \"We\'ve been
merged! And I don\'t know how to fix it!\"

Mamoru hugged her to his chest. The others gathered around her.
Usagi wept pitifully into Mamoru\'s shirt.

Continued. . .