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   |  Mercury's World   |
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A Sailor Moon / The Matrix crossover

Thanks to my pre-readers:
Ben
aevan			  http://aevan.virtualave.net
Kevin D. Hammel     http://www.anime.sobhrach.com/~khammel/

Visit my website at
dzillman@ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dzillman/fire


A word on pronunciation:
Believe it or not, things are pronounced differently in Japanese to 
English. That might sound silly, but it is true. Compare the names in 
the American dub of Sailor Moon: Lita sounds nothing at all like 
Makoto, but there it is, go figure. On the other hand, you have names 
like Amy and Ami. Even here, the Japanese is different. Amy (as 
English speakers pronounce it) starts with a soft 'a', like in "pay"; 
in Japanese, this would be written as 'ei'. Ami is actually said with 
a hard 'a', like in "car". Thus you have the American "Eimi", and the 
Japanese "Ami", to use the Japanese way of writing both of them.

Too educational for a fanfic, ne?

*	*	*

The girl in Amy Anderson's bed awoke. Assume for the time being that 
this girl is indeed, Amy Anderson. It will make what is to occur much 
easier to accept, if we form some frame of reference.

Amy Anderson sat there, puffing like she had just run a marathon. It 
did not take someone of Amy's exceptional intelligence to realise 
that this meant that there was something wrong: Amy liked swimming, 
not marathon running.

An astute observer would quickly notice that it was not swimming that 
had caused her current state of agitation and heavy breathing. The 
previously mentioned observer would also be quick to note that Amy 
seemed to be recovering from a terrible nightmare that left her 
sweating and gasping for air. This observation would not be taken 
lightly by Miss Anderson, as it would involve said observer being in 
her bedroom at two in the morning. Miss Anderson was a well-raised 
girl, and this is generally not the sort of thing that was accepted 
at her age.

One could take this argument further, and question if it would be 
acceptable for a female, astute observer to be in her room. Suffice 
it to say that none of Miss Anderson's friends would be called astute 
under most circumstances. Two a.m. would not be an exception to that 
rule.

Amy would never hold her friends' level of intelligence against them. 
She loved them all the more dearly for the fact that they excelled in 
areas that she did not. It gave her a source of satisfaction that she 
could be the one to advise and work with such a talented and friendly 
group of people. A group of people that constituted the most powerful 
team of superheroes to walk the streets of... The streets of...

Amy hesitated for a moment. She was going to think Tokyo, but that 
was just absurd. She knew that she spoke Japanese well enough that 
she could travel there if she wanted, but she never had. She lived 
in... She lived in... Well, it was not important where she lived, all 
that mattered was that she went to Crossroads Junior High, not... Not 
that other place from the dream whose name was fading even as she 
brought her breathing under control.

Looking at her clock, Amy lay back down and sighed. Two a.m. was far 
too early, even for an early riser like her. Rolling on to her side, 
Amy tried to return to sleep, but sleep would not come. Every time 
she closed her eyes, the pounding headache that woke her would 
resurge. Convincing herself that she needed the rest, Amy lay on her 
side and remembered her dream. Even with a perfect memory like hers, 
the dreaming images ran before her mental fingers, reluctant to 
provide a clear image of what was happening.

She could remember tracking Beryl to the North Pole. The other Sailor 
Senshi--- Sailor Scouts and her were worried that they might never 
see Tokyo again, but they knew their duty. With brave hearts, the 
five of them had set off to confront and defeat Beryl. Only then 
could the world be free from her terror.

The battle at the icy wasteland was more terrifying than she could 
have expected - even for something that was a nightmare. One by one, 
the Sen--- the Scouts fell. Amy chastised herself; why would she try 
to call them "warriors" in Japanese? It was not even a particularly 
good translation of their name. Venus, Mars and Jupiter: the three 
powerful Sailors were all brought low by Beryl's minions. They had 
gone in there knowing it would be a hard fight since Sailor Moon 
would need to save her energy to fight Beryl, but they had all hoped 
for better.

Sailor Mercury had always been the ace in the hole. She might not 
have had quite as much power as the Moon Princess, but she had much, 
much more endurance or power than Sailor Moon. Free to fight on, 
everyone had hoped that Mercury would have been able to see them 
through safely, but she had failed her friends, and they lay dead 
behind her as the two survivors walked the remaining distance to 
confront the evil leader.

A tear trickled down Amy's face as she remembered her dream. It was 
obviously a dream, since she knew that they had not really faced 
Beryl, but the thought of failing her friends so badly hurt her 
deeply. In her dream, Amy remembered finding absolution in that final 
battle. 

Side by side, she and the Moon Princess threw all their might at 
Beryl. As the battle raged on and both girls tired, they found new 
power, new hope. For the Princess it was in the form of the spirits 
of their dead comrades. Three girls in Sailor suits - ephemeral in 
their death - added their power to the Ginzuishou. Again Amy 
reprimanded herself for using the Japanese name. If she called it 
that here, no-one would understand her. Beside the Moon Princess, 
Sailor Mercury had also found the power she needed, delving deeper 
into herself, pushing just a bit further.

That was all that it took to defeat Beryl. The threat to the world 
was gone, and all it had cost them was their three dearest friends. 
Amy never had many friends due to her intimidating brains and 
studious nature. These girls had been the first she ever knew that 
reached out to her, and discovered the real Amy behind the books. 
Sailor Moon could not bear to see anyone die, so it came as no 
surprise when she suggested that they use the Gin--- the Silver 
Imperium Crystal to bring the back to life. 

That was where her dream had ended: the two surviving Sailors 
standing side by side, wishing upon the Gin--- the Silver Imperium 
Crystal. Even though it was a dream, it hurt and disturbed her 
deeply. Why was there such a strong Japanese theme in the dream? Why 
did it seem so real?

Sleep finally claimed Amy again, allowing her the blissful oblivion 
of unconsciousness. No longer haunted by nightmares, her sleep was 
quiet and deep, restoring her in a way that had not occurred in the 
previous hours of the night. When her alarm rang for a six o'clock 
start to the day, Amy stretched and felt much better. It was just a 
dream... Just a dream.

Dressing and descending to the dining table, Amy slowly wondered at 
something that had puzzled her since she woke. Why did they wear a 
school uniform at Crossroads? American schools generally did not 
enforce a uniform policy. She could understand it at Rei's school, 
since it was private, but Crossroads? It certainly was not a private 
school, since most of her friends were not rich enough to buy 
admission, nor brilliant enough to earn a scholarship.

Breakfast was a lonely affair. Sometimes Amy wondered if there was 
much difference between her mornings and Sailor Jupiter's mornings. 
Of course, Sailor Jupiter was not her real name, Amy just felt like 
reassuring herself that the others still existed after last nights 
terrible dream. Sailor Jupiter's parents had died in a plane crash, 
leaving the girl an orphan. Amy on the other hand...

Amy's mother, the highly successful and very busy doctor rushed out 
of the house as Amy was only part way through breakfast. Amy had not 
seen her mother all morning; she was not even aware that the woman 
was in the house until she heard her leave. "Bye, Amy!"

To the closed door, the girl who was Sailor Mercury spoke softly, 
almost unconsciously. "It's Ami..."

Since her father was also so busy with his art all the time, Ami did 
not really see him either. With a gentle sigh, she returned to her 
food. Breakfast was one of the three most important meals of the day, 
and she knew that if she wanted the energy to be able to study hard, 
she needed to make sure she finished the food she had prepared. 

On the way to school, something nagged at the back of her head. 
Something was wrong here. She knew that it was America, the land she 
was born in and grew up in, but something was wrong. Perhaps it was 
the way that she occasionally saw signs in Kanji or Katakana as she 
walked along. There were not many, but something in the back of her 
mind suggested that it was unusual to see any at all.

School itself was no surprise. By the time she reached there, she had 
expected to see the words "Juuban Gaku" written on the concrete at 
the front. Instead, it was the clear, friendly, English lettering 
saying "Crossroads Junior High". She also knew that there was 
something odd about changing shoes as she went into class, but since 
everyone else expected it, she did not try to fight it.

Her first step into the classroom almost made her run screaming, sure 
in the knowledge that the whole world was fake. Looking at the blonde 
girl sitting in the middle of the room, Ami kept chanting to herself 
"There must be a reasonable explanation. There must be a reasonable 
explanation."

Taking her seat, Ami turned to her friend. "Usagi-chan. Hey, Usagi-
chan!"

After a couple more calls, the blonde girl with the two amazing 
ponytails done up in odan... meatballs on the side of her head turned 
around to her. "What were you calling me, Amy?"

"It's Ami. I was calling you Usagi-chan. That's your name, isn't it?"

The girl in question blinked her big blue eyes. "Are you showing off, 
Amy? Is 'Usagichan' Serena in some other language?"

"But..." Ami shook her head. It was all so confusing. Ten minutes 
ago, she had been sure that Sailor Moon's real name was Usagi, now 
she could not understand how she had been so confused. That was the 
name from her dream. The girl in front of her was Serena. "I'm sorry. 
I just had this really weird dream last night... I guess I'm still a 
bit confused."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm totally out of it this morning, 
because Mum sneaked into my room last night and set my clock forward 
an hour. I can't believe I got to class a whole ten minutes early!"

Ami placed a hand over her mouth and giggled slightly. Serena got up 
an hour early, and still barely managed to make it on time. That 
certainly proved that it was the right girl. No-one else in the world 
could be like that.

Ami was settling in for a nice quiet morning of refreshing study as 
the teacher called the roll. She knew her name was right in the 
middle of the alphabet; 'Mi' came just after 'Ma'. Thus she was 
caught by surprise when the teacher called her name out several times 
right at the beginning.

"Amy Anderson.... Amy Anderson! Amy? Are you listening to me?"

"Excuse me? Oh, sorry sens--- teacher. I didn't notice you had gotten 
to my name."

Their first period teacher looked a little annoyed. "You're almost 
first on my list, Amy. Amy Anderson, that is you, isnt it?"

Ami bobbed her head and blushed slightly. The teacher must be 
confusing her for someone else. "No, ma'am. My name is Mizuno Ami."

Confused the teacher looked down at her roll list. "Mi... Mi... 
Mizuno... I'm sorry Amy, I don't have anyone with that name in the 
class. Have you informed the school registrar that you are changing 
names?"

"Ch... Changing names? I don't understand."

"I've been teaching you for the last few months, Amy. I think I would 
recognise you now."

Ami felt even more confused. She knew her name. How could she be 
mistaken about that? "My name is pronounced 'Ami', not 'Eimi', 
ma'am."

Concerned, the teacher walked down to her desk and looked down at the 
girl with the dark blue hair. "Are you sure you're all right? You 
sound a little confused, Amy."

"My name's Ami. I... I don't know... I feel a bit confused. Maybe I'm 
coming down with something... I didn't sleep well last night, and..."

Haruna-sensei laid a hand on her shoulder. "Perhaps you should 
consider taking the day off sick. You don't sound too well. I know 
that you're well ahead in class. Do you want me to call your mother 
and ask her to pick you up?"

Ami shook her head and looked away. "No... No, I wouldn't want to be 
a bother. Besides, she's already at work."

"Well, if you want to wait in the nurse's office, I'm sure you'll 
feel better in a while"

Reluctantly, Ami nodded. She did not want to miss class, but she had 
terrible feelings of both deja vu and overwhelming dissociation. It 
was almost as though everything she knew, everything she accepted had 
been magically rearranged overnight. Walking quietly out of the 
classroom, Ami tried to sort out her confusion. 

This was home, this was America. All her friends were here. Serena, 
Mina, Rei... no Raye was how she spelled it, and there was Mako--- 
Lita. How could she confuse the names Makoto and Lita? She obviously 
did not know anyone named Makoto, and the tall, brown haired Sailor 
Jupiter was really Lita. Why was she having so much trouble?

Stopping in the hallway for a moment, Ami leaned against the wall for 
a moment and rubbed her brow. Everything had suddenly become clear to 
her. She was not going mad, it was not just the effect of her very 
disturbing nightmare; Beryl and her minions were up to their dirty 
tricks. Only a few weeks ago, the Negaverse had apparently decided 
that she was the weakest willed of the Scouts. First they had tried 
to control her mind and turn her against her friends, now they were 
trying this. 

Having realised that her whole confusion was now simply part of a 
Negaverse plot, Ami felt much better. She still kept feeling confused 
about little things, but now there was a solid reason behind it. 
Looking around the hallway, Ami nodded her head once then turned away 
from the nurse's office. The last thing that she could afford to do 
now was lie somewhere and rest. They might have failed last time, but 
if she made things too easy for the Negaverse, they might get lucky.

With a determined look on her face, Ami walked out the front of the 
school and down the street. If the Negaverse could not find her, then 
they could not try to brainwash her again. That meant that she would 
have to stay away from her favourite places like the library or the 
computer lab. With a regretful sigh, Ami also realised that she 
couldnt read any of the three books that she had in her schoolbag. 
It was the Negaverse's oldest and most trusted trick to influence 
their victims; place a evil rune on one of their possessions and then 
start to drain them or control them through it. 

Ami gave a most derisive snort that was most unlike her when she 
remembered that they used that same technique to try and drain her 
the first time she came to Crossroads. Sometimes they never learned. 
She did. She knew that when strange things began to happen, keep a 
strong grip on yourself, and depend on the Sailor Scouts. Her friends 
had helped her before, and they would help her again. All she had to 
do was wait until after school, then she could get together with the 
others and they would be able to sort things out.

The easiest way to make sure that the Negaverse could not find her 
was to get herself lost. Getting lost was almost impossible for 
someone like Ami with an eidetic memory, but she could certainly try. 
After walking for almost an hour, Ami was feeling better, calmer and 
refreshed. Coming upon a park filled with lush green trees, Ami 
selected a seat and had a look around. 

What Ami really wanted to do was pull out one of her books and have a 
read, but if the Negaverse had placed some sort of evil symbol on 
there, it would undo all her efforts. She was considering leaving and 
looking for a library in which to spend the day when a voice from 
beside her caught her attention.

"Like a cookie, dear?"

Spinning around, Ami was startled to see a largish lady sitting on 
the bench beside her. Clearly of African descent, she had an open 
smile and looked comfortably plump. A pair of bangles rattled 
slightly as she shook the plate that she was offering.

"They're perfectly safe, dear. See?"

With that, the woman took one of the cookies and had a large bite, 
closing her eyes as she enjoyed the taste. Blushing slightly, Ami 
reached up and took the plate. "Oh, thank you. I didn't mean to 
insinuate anything."

The woman smile again, it was very comfortable expression, as though 
spent more time smiling than making any other expression. "It's all 
right, Ami. I can understand why you would be so worried."

"You... You know my name?... And you even pronounced it correctly!"

"Oh, I know lots of things, dear. Lots of people come to see me... 
they like to find out what the future will hold."

Under other circumstances, Ami might have been frightened. Being 
approached by a strange woman in the middle of an unusual part of the 
city was not normally something that was considered safe conduct. The 
woman in the floral print dress seemed different to most people Ami 
had known. In the same way that Usagi managed to seem friendly and 
open to everyone, this woman managed to project innocuousness and a 
non-threatening aura.

"You seem like one of those girls that believe in reading people's 
fortunes. You've never had your own read, though, have you."

It was more of a statement than a question, but Ami nodded anyway. It 
somehow came as no surprise when the woman placed her glasses on and 
took one of Ami's hands in her own.

"Hmm... Hmm... At this point I could say all sorts of things about 
saving the world and being a secret defender, but you probably don't 
want to hear that sort of thing, hmmm?"

Pulling her hand back as though the other woman's touch was hot, Ami 
looked at her aghast. "No, no! I don't want to hear about that sort 
of thing! Especially not here."

The woman, who had still never identified herself, nodded wisely and 
smiled again. "Of course you don't. You already know everything you 
need to. All you need is to understand the world around you. Things 
are not quite what they seem, you see. I know you're a bit confused 
at the moment, but if you can believe an old woman like me, then 
believe that your memories are not really as wrong as you suspect."

Despite how nice the woman seemed, Ami felt nervous. She knew Ami's 
name, and even managed to pronounce it correctly. Worse still, she 
seemed to know something about what had happened to her last night. 
Ever since her nightmare, Ami had been terribly confused, and now a 
complete stranger was making allusions to it.

Deciding that she could not risk staying around this woman any 
longer, Ami got to her feet and gave a short bow. "Thank you for the 
cookie, ma'am. I'm afraid I have to go."

It took a bit more effort for the older woman to stand up, but as she 
did so she waved Ami back to her seat. "No Dear, you're right, I have 
to go now too." She took two steps away then turned back. "You know, 
Dear, I always thought that blue was a very pretty colour... I just 
thought you should remember that when you talk to Morpheus about The 
Matrix."

"Morpheus?"

"Hmm... You'll meet him soon enough. Just have faith in yourself, and 
enjoy the cookies."

"The cookies?..." A quick glance back to the bench confirmed that 
there still was a plate of the delicious cookies there. However, once 
she turned back to the mysterious woman, she was gone. Turning a 
complete circle, Ami tried to find her, but the woman had almost 
vanished into thin air. 

Sitting back down on the bench, Ami idly began to nibble on another 
of the cookies. Such a strange woman... and the things that she had 
said. She certainly did not act like an agent of the Negaverse, but 
she had talked about things that only they could know. That is, 
unless she really did know the future. Perhaps she was a fortune-
teller of sorts; an oracle, one might say.

Looking around, Ami surreptitiously slid the Mercury computer from 
her pocket. Normally she tried to only use it when she was safely 
hidden somewhere or when she was Sailor Mercury, but she needed its 
help now. She did not have a computer at home, and this was the only 
way that she could do a data search on the internet like she needed 
to.

One more glance around Ami set the small computer onto her lap. It 
was an absolute miracle of magic and engineering from the Silver 
Millennium. Barely the size of a pocket calculator, it was far more 
powerful that any other computer that she had ever seen, and she was 
capable of accessing almost anything she needed to. Normally she 
restricted herself to using it to search for data on whomever was 
attacking them, but this time she needed more. 

When the woman had mentioned The Matrix and Morpheus, something 
inside her had vaguely risen at the mention of those names. Nothing 
certain, but her interest was piqued. Following her instinct, Ami 
began to furiously tap away at her computer. By now, the mid-
eighties, the internet was fast becoming a vast, universal storehouse 
of data. Most people still did not know about it, but Ami did. Like 
Usagi's... _Serena's_ friend Melvin, she too was well versed in a 
number of bulletin boards. Setting the Mercury computer to visit all 
of the bulletin boards and download sites that it could find, Ami 
leaned back on the seat to think. 

Those names... Morpheus... The Matrix... Somehow they held the 
answers to her questions. Somehow they were the answer to the 
Negaverse attack upon her. She would find them, then - with the rest 
of the Sailor Scouts behind her - she would ask them some very 
serious questions. 

*	*	*

Time passed, as it was wont to do. The Mercury computer ran full 
time, finding reference after reference. Most of those, Ami would 
check and discard, but some just added more pieces to the puzzle. 
Nebulous data, often backups of deleted files that the Mercury 
computer had come across, it was rarely enough to make sense out of, 
let alone try to establish a complete identity and profile of the 
elusive titles.

Day and night, Ami let the Mercury computer run. At night, it was on 
her bedside table, and during the day she would sneak glances at it 
whenever she could. Despite the slow progress that she was making 
with her data search, the remainder of Ami's life was clearing up. 
After two whole days, Ami had almost settled into accepting the world 
again. Whatever the Negaverse had done to her, or tried to do, it had 
obviously failed. She felt at ease and well adjusted. That ease 
vanished in an instant one evening after school as she walked through 
the city with her friends.

A Youma sprang from a cake shop that they had just passed, and the 
Scouts all turned as one to face the menace. While the demented and 
deformed shape of a Youma short order chef shot gobs of goo onto 
passers-by to entangle them and drain their energy, Sailor Moon took 
her cue to lead her team in transforming. Transformation pens held 
high, each of the five girls changed into a short skirted, pretty 
soldier. They were all capable of taking on the best that the 
Negaverse had to offer, but after all of the indignities and 
confusion she had suffered Sailor Mercury wanted to be the first one 
to strike.

"MERCURY... SPEED!"

Off like a shot, Mercury sprinted toward the Youma, fully planning to 
once again take deadly advantage of her speed to batter the Youma 
into confusion from all sides. To her dismay, all of the other Scouts 
kept up with her, charging into battle by her side. 

Momentarily slowing to a halt, Mercury stood stunned. It had not 
worked. Her trademark speed, a gift from the god of messengers 
himself, Mercury, had failed her. There was no blur of passing 
scenery, no gaping monster as she ran rings around it. Nothing but 
normal Sailor Scout speed. She did not even have Mercury's little 
wings on her boots that she normally manifested when the spell's 
magic was in effect. She was grounded!

Not one to shirk battle because of something as minor as losing her 
most basic ability, Mercury ran at an angle to the group, planning to 
lend the heavy fire support that she was equally famed for. When 
Sailor Venus briefly captured the Youma with her Love-Me-Chain, 
Mercury raised her hands to the sky and prepared for her next attack. 

Combining all of the power of Sailor Jupiter's Supreme Thunder with 
her own water based strength, her attack was easily more powerful 
than anything short of the Moon Princess. Few Youma had ever been 
able to withstand her power, and even the generals they had fought in 
direct combat had feared her. While it might not have the sheer 
impact of the Moon Tiara, her own ability to pound something for long 
periods let her outclass her leader in both her mind and others.

"MERCURY... WATER AND POWER!"

What should have happened was a rising water spout surrounding her 
while a column of lightning crackled down and circled her from the 
sky. Then, she should have spun on the spot, gathering the power into 
her hands, only to launch a crackling, boiling torrent of electricity 
and water at her target. Anything foolish enough to be caught by her 
full power blast would be reduced to its component atoms as 
unstoppable energy raced through them.

That was what should have happened.

Now, all that did happen was a slight static discharge that 
momentarily fluffed her hair, and a small puddle appeared at her 
feet, dampening her boots to the ankles. No glory, no power, no 
telling blow against the enemy. She could feel the energy it took to 
create the attack, but nothing came. All her effort, so much magical 
power into the spell, and all that occurred was wet feet? What could 
happen that was worse?

That supposedly philosophical question was easily answered in just 
moments when Sailor Moon destroyed the Youma without her help. As 
long as Mercury had been able to remember, she had been right there 
beside Moon, fighting the good fight. Mercury was the third Scout to 
awaken, preceded only by Moon by a few days, and Venus who had lead 
the way for both of them. 

Since that first day in the computer laboratory when Sailor Mercury 
had killed her first Youma and saved Sailor Moon, it had always been 
the two of them leading the Scouts. Her power and brains, allied with 
Sailor Moon's equal power and good heart. But today... Today she had 
failed. Today, noting worked. No matter how hard she had tried, he 
magic just did not work. 

"M-Mercury? Are you all right? You seemed... Well, a bit messed up 
there."

Mercury blinked her eyes and wiped the forming tears away. As always 
it was the kind Sailor Moon that had come to comfort her. "I... I 
think the Negaverse did something to me. I can't access my powers. My 
attacks just arent working."

"Your attack? I didnt even see you try the Bubble Blast."

"Bubble Blast? What's that? I mean my speed or Water And Power."

Sailor Moon looked over at the other girls that stood clustered 
around the defeated looking Mercury. "Umm. Do you guys remember 
anything like that?"

Three heads shook in unison. "What do you mean? That's what I always 
use."

Mars placed a hand on Mercury's shoulder, trying to comfort her. "I 
think your still feeling confused, Sailor Mercury. Bubble Blast is 
all you've ever done. You created the cloud so that we could hide 
from the Youma and you'd help us think up ways of defeating them. 
That's the way that it's always been."

With a violent shrug of her shoulder, Mercury freed herself of Mars' 
grasp and backed away from them. "No... No, that can't be true!"

Seeing the serious, concerned faces on her friends, Sailor Mercury 
turned and ran. This was all wrong. She did not want to see their 
pity. She did not want to be someone so weak and fragile that all she 
was good for in battle was throwing up a smoke screen. Even before 
Sailor Moon and Luna awoke the power within her, Sailor Mercury had 
always known that there was something special awaiting her in the 
future. She was a fighter, a defender of love and justice. She took 
the fight to the enemy; Sailor Mercury was a name that was whispered 
in fear by evil all over Japan. She would never be content with just 
throwing _bubbles_!

Having memorised a map of this section of the city long ago, Mercury 
had no difficulty in losing her friends and escaping their pitying 
looks. The Negaverse had done something to her, they must have! She 
would find out what they had done, she would get her powers back, and 
she would make the Negaverse pay! Mizuno Ami was no delicate, shy 
flower to be crushed by anyone. Sure, she had been like that before 
she came to Crossroads, but she had changed when she got her power. 
With power and responsibility came confidence and faith in her own 
inner strength that never failed her. Never failed her until now, 
that is.

Transformed back into her school clothes and walking through the 
streets, Ami tried to think of what had happened. Obviously the 
Negaverse had altered everyone else's memories too. She was the only 
one that could remember things properly. She knew that she...

Suddenly she stopped, only narrowly avoiding being walked into by the 
people behind her. It all made sense now. Occam's Razor specifies 
that the simplest solution is usually the right one, and a solution 
that had the Negaverse capable of changing everyone's memory aside 
from hers without any noticeable effects at the same time they 
stripped her of powers did not make sense. The only person with 
unusual memories was her, and she was also the only one who had been 
acting strangely recently. 

Leaning against a wall, Ami massaged her brow. Whatever the 
Negaverse's plot was, they had almost succeeded. Convincing Ami that 
she had lost her powers had almost ripped away a fifth of the Scout's 
team. It did not matter what her memories told her, Mercury was sure 
that her friends must be right. She was not a hero, she was the weak 
link in the team, the easiest member for the Negaverse to break off 
first. Now she would have to find the other girls again and try to 
sort things out. It would take all of their effort to break this 
latest, devious plot.

Ami had just stood upright when a large black car pulled to a stop in 
front of her. The door opened and a woman looked out at her. "Amy 
Anderson?"

Her first reaction was to say "no", but she had come to realise that 
maybe her name might not be Mizuno Ami. That name felt right, but... 
"I... Might be."

The woman pulled out a huge pistol and pointed it unshakingly at 
Ami's head. "Get in the car. We don't have much time."

"..." Ami gaped a few times before the woman reached out with amazing 
speed and pulled her into the car. The whole time, the gun stayed 
trained on her head. As soon as Ami was in the car, the woman pulled 
the door shut and the car took off. Tidying herself up, Ami looked 
around at the other inhabitants of the car. Although it was dark 
inside the tinted window, everyone wore sunglasses. Beyond that, 
their fashion sense became even stranger.

The woman who had abducted her initially was wearing some sort of 
thin rubber shirt, leather pants and had slicked down, short, black 
hair. She also still held the largest pistol that Ami had ever seen 
in her life. Even if she was transformed into Sailor Mercury, she did 
not think she would be able to recover from being hit by that 
monster. As plain old Mizuno Ami, she was quite sure that it would be 
a bad idea to upset the woman.

The man to her left was fairly tall and really, really handsome. 
Again, Ami could only thank her lucky stars that she was not as 
flighty and boy-crazy as Mina. With his tight black tee-shirt, 
leather pants and big boots, he was doing an amazing job of 
projecting a no-nonsense attitude. Past the man, in the front of the 
car, Ami saw another man. He was also wearing sunglasses, but she 
could not make out any other details. 

When Ami had finished rearranging her skirt after being dragged head 
first into the vehicle, the woman who had abducted her spoke. "I'm 
sorry about having to do that. I also don't want to point a gun at 
you, but we need your co-operation, Amy."

"It's Ami."

"What?"

"It's Ami. My name is pronounced Ami, not Eimi."

For a moment, the woman looked at her companion in confusion, but he 
shook his head in negation. "She's the right one. It's just an effect 
of the relocation. I'm surprised the memory dump hasnt erased 
everything else."

Ami gasped. They were with the Negaverse! She was a prisoner of the 
Negaverse, and they were going to take her somewhere and kill her or 
do all sorts of horrible things to her. "I'll never betray my 
friends! You'll never be able to force me to, Nega-creep!"

The woman arched a delicate black eyebrow. "Nega-creep?"

The man paused for a moment then answered. "Her enemies this time are 
a group called the Negaverse. Same print as the Dark Kingdom."

The woman nodded again. "No, Amy. Sorry, I mean, Ami. We're not with 
the... Negaverse. We're here to take you to speak with Morpheus. He 
is most anxious to talk to you. Especially since you started 
searching for him a day ago and almost tipped our hand."

That confirmed it then! That strange woman in the park had mentioned 
that Morpheus knew about her memory problems. That definitely meant 
that these people worked for the Negaverse. Glaring at the back of 
the seat in front of her, Ami crossed her arms and ignored her 
kidnappers.

After a short period of silence, the woman spoke again. "Ami, we 
dont want to be your enemies. We want to be your friends, really. 
But, we can't risk taking chances, so I needed to use a gun. I'm 
sorry. My name is Trinity. That guy beside you is Neo, and the quiet 
one up the front is Tramp."

Tramp gave a grunt, and she could feel Neo shift on the seat beside 
her, but Ami did not deign to glance in his direction. She would wait 
until the first chance that she got, then transform! She might not be 
able to do all of the attacks the Negaverse made her think she could, 
but she still was capable of putting down three normal people, even 
if one of them did have a gun. 

The rest of the car trip passed in silence. Ami made it abundantly 
clear that she did not want to speak with any of the people that had 
kidnapped her. Equally they did not wish to converse amongst 
themselves for fear of revealing secrets. The silence made the short 
drive seem to stretch even further.

When they arrived at a worn and battered looking old building, the 
car slowed to a halt and the woman named Trinity stepped outside. 
After a moment, Neo opened his door too, and waited for her outside. 
Tramp was the last of her captors to leave, and he flashed her a 
quick smile. 

"Don't let 'em worry you, Kid. If you decide you don't like what 
Morpheus is selling, they'll just let you go. Just do us all a favour 
and have a listen. You might decide you want to join us."

"I'll never join the Negaverse!"

Tramp ran a hand over his face in frustration and mumbled in a voice 
that Ami was not supposed to hear, although she did. "Maybe that's 
why they chose superheroes... Make them so paranoid we'd never get 
them even if we found them."

Looking up at Ami, he grimaced once before sliding from the car. 
"Come on, Kid. Better not keep the man waiting."

Ami briefly considered sitting in the car and refusing to join them, 
but eventually dismissed that as a futile and infantile gesture. The 
woman Trinity had shown that she was more than strong enough to man-
handle Ami by herself, and if they backed it up with the gun...

Inside, the building was in worse shape than its exterior. Neo and 
Tramp lead the way, while Trinity ensured that she did not get a case 
of cold feet and decide not to follow. Sandwiched between the three 
adults, Ami tried to distract herself from her impending doom by 
cataloguing the various and assorted building defects that she 
spotted during their walk. The plaster was cracked, and water damage 
was the rule rather than the exception. Although she had not yet seen 
any rats, the signs of the presence was unmistakable, and Ami tried 
to suppress a shiver of dread that her body would be left for them 
once the Negaverse was done with her.

Without pausing to knock, Neo opened a door seemingly at random. 
Following the two men through, Ami came to a halt only a short 
distance inside the room. Facing her was the largest man she had ever 
seen. Huge, tall and the shade of a strong glass of hot chocolate, 
the man made her brain shudder as it reeled off a thesaurus of words 
all meaning the same as "really, really big and intimidating".

Their duty done, the three kidnappers did not linger to talk, instead 
they all filed out through a second door in the room. "There are 
exits to the north and south-east. A large man watches you." As soon 
as the words ran through her mind, Ami knew that she had both been 
playing too many games on the computer, and she was scared beyond 
words.

So many times in the past, she and the other sailor suited defenders 
of love and justice had fought against the evil of the Negaverse. 
Despite that, she had never felt the same gut wrenching fear that she 
now felt. That was always distant, detached somehow, as though she 
knew that they could never really lose. This was far too immediate 
and intimidating. Far too realistic, the thought of being trapped in 
a abandoned  building with four people made her knees go weak and 
caused her to start to shake.

"Amy! Are you all right?"

Before she could collapse, the man was by her side, gently holding 
her arm to keep her upright. As he helped her to on of the tattered 
leather seats, her brain continued to work. 'So fast', she thought. 
'As fast as I am with Mercury speed!'

"Please, sit down. We really don't want to hurt you. Here, have a 
drink of water, we can always get another one later."

Sipping the water, Ami felt some of her fear subside as she studied 
the huge man. Before, when he had been standing across the room with 
his hands clasped behind his back, he had seemed far more 
intimidating. Now that he was kneeling right next to her chair - 
despite the fact that their size difference was much more obvious - 
he seemed less threatening, more humane. 

The massive, bulky leather coat that had previously concealed him 
totally was now slightly open, revealing no dangerous weapons or 
hidden tentacles. Reassured that she was not going to faint, the man 
withdrew from her and sat in the other chair facing her, gently 
removing a pair of pitch black sunglasses and placing them on the 
table. His eyes, so often an indicator of a person's true nature, 
were kind and generous. They held none of the mocking superiority 
that was a trademark of the Negaverse. 

While she watched him in silence, an errant thought crossed Ami's 
mind once then vanished into the distance. 'If he was not with the 
Negaverse, then why was she here?'

Picking up a small, metal case from the table, the man played with it 
in his hands, hands that looked more suited to boxing or chopping 
trees than any less demanding pursuits. "Again, I must apologise for 
bringing you here like this, but I'm afraid that time is not on our 
side. We have only the shortest time to talk to you, and we must make 
the most of it. I... Am Morpheus."

The silence was thick enough to cut with a knife. Ami shifted 
uncomfortably, sure that she was supposed to say something 
intelligent in response to that dramatic announcement, but for once 
she was at a loss of words. 

"Hmm... Perhaps you do not know as much as we suspected. In that 
case, I shall continue the introductions. You are Amy Anderson, also 
known as Sailor Mercury, one of the Sailor Scouts."

"H-How did you know that?"

"You will find that we know a great many things. Your name, your age, 
where you live, even what you had for lunch."

Ami smiled. They might think they know everything, but they were 
wrong. "Well, your not as good as you thought you were. My name's not 
Amy Anderson."

"What!? Neo!" Instantly the big man was on his feet, turning to face 
the smaller, handsome man that had just entered the room. "You've got 
the wrong girl. I could have sworn she was the right one, but she 
says her name is not Amy Anderson."

Neo smirked and glanced at her. "Have you asked her what her name 
is?"

"No..." With an expectant look, Morpheus turned to look at the school 
girl beside him.

"Mizuno Ami."

"Incredible..." With a sigh, Morpheus sat back down. "To think that 
you remembered even that much. Very well, Miss Anderson, since you 
were the one that started looking for me, I imagine that you have 
some questions you wish to ask."

With a jerk, Ami nodded her head. "Please call me Ami... Are you with 
the Negaverse?"

Morpheus looked shocked for a moment then gave a brief, sincere 
laugh. "I'm not laughing at you, Ami, I'm laughing at myself. After a 
time, it's possible to see yourself as being important everywhere. 
It's good to be reminded of your position sometimes... No, I am not 
with the Negaverse, and nor is anyone here. In fact, you could say 
that we are enemies of the Negaverse too."

"Then why do you need me? Why not contact the Scouts directly if you 
know so much about us?"

"Because you began to look for us. I wanted to contact you weeks ago, 
before Beryl was defeated, but I was overruled by the others in 
charge. We need you because of your powers. Such great powers... What 
do you know about The Matrix?"

"Well, matrices are used in mathematics to multiply co-ordinates and-
--"

"No, not matrices. The Matrix."

"Um... Nothing, I guess."

Morpheus took a moment to rub his bald head and share a look with 
Neo. "If you do not know anything about The Matrix, and you did not 
know who I was, then why were you looking for information on us."

"I..." Now it was Ami's turn to feel silly. "A woman mentioned your 
name to me in a park, and... And I thought you knew something about 
what had happened to my memories..."

"A woman? Neo, do you think it could have been a trap to draw us 
out?"

Neo concentrated for a moment, first staring at her with such 
intensity that it made her blush, then turning a slow circle. "No. 
There are no agents anywhere around, and there's nothing to indicate 
that they're monitoring."

Obviously confused and still worried, Morpheus leaned forward looked 
at Ami intently. "The Matrix, Ami, is a creation to bind and confuse 
you. The Matrix is everything that you see around you. It is a way to 
control you and blind you to reality. Even now, you are trapped 
within The Matrix. It controls your very world, and it is the work of 
beings more evil that you could ever imagine."

He was sincere, but that was not enough to convince someone that had 
seen demonic minions possess people and steal their bodies and their 
energy. "Prove it."

"Unfortunately, no-one can ever be told what The Matrix is. They must 
be shown. I cannot offer to solve all your problems, and I cannot 
offer to make things easier for you. All I can offer is the truth. 
The simple truth that will set you free."

Shaking the metal tin open, Morpheus dropped two small objects into 
his palm. Extending his right hand, he let her see a small red 
capsule. "This hand represents security. It is a sedative. Take it, 
and we will return you to your home, and you will never hear from us 
again."

The other hand appeared, this time containing a blue pill. "This is 
the truth. Take this, and I will show you the truth. I will remove 
the shutters from your eyes and let you understand what is happening 
to the world. But be warned: once you take this, there is no turning 
back."

Ami's hand was half way to the red capsule when she remembered 
something that the woman in the park had said. "I always thought that 
blue was a very pretty colour..." Why would she say something like 
that if she did not know what Morpheus was going to offer? Even 
stranger, if that woman had not talked to her in the park that day, 
Ami would never have started looking for Morpheus or The Matrix. If 
that were the case, they would not have come for her now.

The truth. It was tempting. The truth was something that Ami had 
spent her whole short life searching for. She found it in books, and 
had found it in the sincerity of Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts. 
Truth was all he was offering her. Not riches, not world domination, 
none of the things that a general of the Negaverse would offer. Just 
the truth. Something so precious, you never realise what you have 
until you know that you are missing it.

"I don't take drugs that I don't know about. What is it?"

"It's a tracer. We can use it to track down your physical location 
when we do the extraction."

Ami scrunched up her nose and poked out her tongue. "Eww. That sounds 
even worse. I'm not going to take it unless I can study it."

After a moment's thought, Morpheus placed the small blue capsule on 
the table next to the partially empty glass of water. Rising to his 
feet, he guided Neo from the room. "Feel free to transform and 
analyse it. We will be in the next room. Please don't take too long. 
Time is of the essence."

Even with the door shut between them, Morpheus and Neo could hear the 
sound of Ami transforming into Sailor Mercury. Ignoring the looks 
from the other people around them, Neo pointed at the red capsule 
still in Morpheus' hand. "Were you planning on killing me too, if I 
had not joined you back then?"

"No. You had always wanted to come with us. Someday, no matter what 
they did, you would have turned on them. Ami is already deeply 
ensnared in their net. To her, what you consider fantasy and illusion 
is reality. She honestly believes that she is Sailor Mercury. If she 
does not come back with us, she will continue to serve the machines 
for the rest of her life. Given her power..." Morpheus shook his 
large head sadly. "Given her power and importance to them, that's 
something I cannot allow."

Unable to answer that because he too understood the gravity of the 
situation, Neo turned to face the wall to the room that they had just 
left. Within The Matrix, Neo was in his element. Outside, he was a 
completely normal human. Here he was a god. He could do whatever he 
wanted, be whomever he wanted. Agents represented no more danger to 
him than ordinary citizens. 

With just a slight exertion of his will, Neo looked through the wall 
and gaped in surprise at what Sailor Mercury was doing. She was 
wearing her uniform from the Sailor Scouts, complete with the visor 
for better perception. The small blue capsule was sitting on a 
computer the size of a hand calculator, and it was analysing the 
contents down to a molecular level. 

Gasping with surprise, Neo turned to his boss. "This is an '86 
Matrix, isn't it? That Mercury computer should be impossible. Even in 
the '99 Matrix I came from, we didnt have anything that good. How's 
she doing it?"

"Magic."

"Bull! You told me yourself, The Matrix is built on rules. She's not 
like me, she cant just ignore the rules the way I do. I'm going in 
to see what's happening!"

Before Morpheus could object, Neo commanded The Matrix to render him 
completely invisible, then walked straight through the wall. In the 
five years that he had been working with Morpheus, he had continued 
to hone his powers daily. Now he was fully capable of walking 
straight past Agents and never having them notice him. 

Ami would not have been able to say what had tipped her off to 
another presence in the room. The door had not opened, and she had 
not felt the magical pull of teleport, but she looked around none-
the-less. To her amazement, her visor clearly printed the outline of 
a man standing almost right next to her. Through the transparent blue 
shield, she could not see anything, but the visor was linked straight 
to the Mercury computer and powered by her magic. Neither were ever 
wrong, and if it said that there was someone watching her, she could 
be sure of it.

Without warning, she turned to face the invisible intruder and 
slammed a fist into his midsection, tossing him across the room. 
Closing the Mercury computer, she hid it away and took a firm grasp 
on the blue pill. She would have some serious words for Morpheus if 
sending a spy in was his idea of letting her study the pill in 
privacy.

Alerted by the sound of Neo's crash into the wall, Morpheus entered 
the room only seconds after Mercury had closed her computer. "What's 
going on here? You said that you would leave me alone! What's the 
idea of sending him in?"

Morpheus was confused initially when Ami pointed at the empty space 
on the side of the room, but after a moment, Neo reappeared. "Miss 
Anderson, I'm sorry. Neo wanted to see your computer and before I 
could stop him, he came in."

Neo shook his head and stood up. "Morpheus, she saw me. I was 
invisible, but she saw me. Not even Agents can do that. How on earth 
can she see me?"

"I explained all of that to you before, Neo, you just did not believe 
me. Her powers are complimentary to yours. For now, we must 
concentrate on Miss Anderson. Have you made a decision yet?"

"Call me Sailor Mercury, the name goes with the uniform. I... I had a 
look at your pill, and I couldnt see anything. It's just ordinary 
gelatine."

"Yes and no. It is ordinary gelatine, but it is something that we 
brought in. When you swallow it, we can begin to trace it and find 
your real body."

She was still uncertain, but the truth was a powerful lure. Since the 
Mercury computer had assured her that there was nothing dangerous in 
the pill, Mercury opened her mouth and quickly swallowed it. "Now 
what?"

"Come this way, quickly. We must complete the trace before the 
Machines find us. Ahh, if you dont mind, Miss Mercury, could you 
please power down. It will make things much easier for poor Neo."

Given a suspicious glance at the man, Mercury willed herself to 
change back into ordinary school girl, Mizuno Ami. When her normal 
clothes reformed, Morpheus lead her into the room that he had just 
come from and bid her to sit in a chair covered with equipment. 
Looking back to Neo, she almost collapsed in the chair. The man was 
changing. Before her eyes, he was shrinking, his clothes changing, 
becoming smaller and far more feminine.

After ten seconds of the most amazing display that she had ever 
witnessed, where the man Neo had stood was an exact duplicate of 
herself. From the top of her blue hair to the shoes on her feet, he 
looked exactly the same.

"What's going--- Ahhhh!"

Ami began to convulse on the chair from the pain. Backed by the 
searching computers on the Nebuchadnezzar, the freedom fighters were 
putting out a jamming signal, isolating Ami's signal from The Matrix. 
While the fix on her physical position was still inaccurate, she 
would suffer considerable pain while they tried to cut her out of the 
Matrix. Dimly though the pain, Ami could her Morpheus continuing to 
talk in a calming voice, trying to soothe her.

"Don't worry, it will soon be over... There will be a short period of 
disorientation, but we will have you free soon... Neo here will stop 
them from thinking that you've left the system until it's too late. 
Tramp, how's it going?... Good, keep it up, Ami. Just a little longer 
and... There---"

*	*	*

Water!

Drowning!

Surrounded by pipes!

Choking!

Up! Through the darkness!

No! She was sealed in. She needed to get out! Tear it! Rip it! Shred 
it!

After struggling for an eternity, Mizuno Ami was free of her prison. 
Breaking the surface of the container that she had lived every second 
of her life in, she frantically clawed at the mask on her face. 
Undoing a clasp at the back of her head, she grabbed the thick black 
hose that she could see leading into her mouth and began to pull. 

Instantly, her gag reflex stepped in and the muscles in her throat 
convulsed, helping to expel the intruder. Coughing around the plastic 
that flowed into her stomach and lungs, Ami struggled to pull it all 
out. Eventually she was free of that too, and she sagged against the 
side of the container. With breath coming in heavy, heaving gasps, 
Ami wiped thick fluid from her eyes and blinked. Despite the 
darkness, everything still seemed bright. She was free, but what was 
she free from?

Taking a moment to regurgitate a thin, sickly paste from her almost 
empty stomach, Ami was caught by surprise when the container she was 
in suddenly emptied. Flushed out of the system, Ami found herself 
battered through dozens of pipes as she fell, bouncing from side to 
side in confusion.

Even if she had the presence of mind to transform, Ami would not have 
had sufficient time to become Sailor Mercury before she left the base 
of the last pipe and fell almost fifteen meters into pitch black, 
filthy water. Caught unawares, the breath was forced from her lungs 
and as she struggled to refill them, polluted water rushed in 
replacing what had once been air. 

Dazed, confused and suffering from lack of oxygen, Ami was going 
under for the second and final time. Above her a bright, bright light 
appeared, and Ami thought how nice it was to understand the truth. 
This was death. Beyond that bright light, there would be heaven. Ami 
tried to will herself to the light, but nothing happened. After a 
short time, as blackness descended over her eyes, she felt a 
tightening around her waist and the brightness began to come closer. 
Ami relaxed into the bliss of unconsciousness happy with the 
knowledge that she was on her way to heaven.

*	*	*

Drifting in and out of consciousness, Ami occasionally picked up 
snatches of conversation. Taken either separately or together, they 
made little or no sense to her, but her staggering mind catalogued 
them and stored them against the possibility that they would be 
needed later. 

As she heard the voices, the world around her changed too. Sometimes 
she would be moving, sometimes she would be stationary, sometimes 
naked, other times she would feel some sort of blanket. It was all so 
confusing and tiring, she was always glad when she finally lapsed 
back into unconsciousness. 

*	*	*

"Easy... Easy... Easy... Now!"

"Got her! Pull her in... Damn it, she swallowed some of the water, 
get her to medical..."

*	*	*

"... and look at her arms and back. See, no plugs! How the hell did 
the get her in The Matrix?"

"Neo says that she was hooked to a special system. Machines didnt 
wanna risk hurting her."

"So what we gunna do?"

"Whatever they tell us at Zion. Word is we give her one. Let's get 
her on the table and..."

*	*	*

"... natural?"

"Must be. I ain't dyed her hair, and she sure ain't gone to no 
salon."

"Damn! Neo and Morpheus I can understand. Heck, I can even understand 
what's she's supposed to be able to do, but blue hair? Come on, gimme 
a break."

"I'm telling you, man, that's the way it is..."

*	*	*

"... If she wakes up, keep her quiet. We've got Squids coming."

"Well, the fever broken from that water she drunk and she's out of 
the coma, but I don't expect her up soon."

Ami felt a hand touch her forehead and brush the hair back from her 
face. "I can't believe we came that close to losing her. Something 
simple as dirty water almost kills her."

"A week in fever and you'd need some sleep too, Morpheus. And cheer 
up. I'd give you a better than fifty percent chance she didn't get 
any brain damage from it."

The hand brushed her cheek once more and Ami felt the words fading 
into the blackness that had become such a constant companion. "Wake 
up soon, little Sailor. The world needs you. I..."

*	*	*

"Ahh! What? Where am I? Where am I?"

Ami looked around frantically. She was in a small steel room, maybe a 
hospital, to judge by all of the bandages and cabinets full of 
bottles surrounding her. A quick pat down assured her that all her 
limbs were there and functioning, but other than that she felt 
confused and disoriented. The last clear thing she could remember 
was...

Was taking that blue pill Morpheus had given her. Ami almost said a 
bad word in frustration. Despite the fact that she had scanned it 
with the Mercury computer they must have found some way to slip her a 
strange drug. Whatever it was had given her the weirdest trip she 
could imagine. Drowning and delusions, not to mention a terrifying 
feeling of falling. She could dimly remember hearing doctors talking 
about her, but the details were disturbingly fragmented for someone 
with her perfect memory.

The memory of someone talking about her hair came back to her, and 
she ran her hands through her short hair. Her brow creased 
momentarily as it seemed shorter than she expected, but maybe she had 
been given a haircut by the hospital staff at some point. She had a 
terrible suspicion that she had been unconscious for a very long 
time. 

Pulling her hand through her hair, Ami suddenly stopped cold when she 
felt something warm and plastic at the base of her skull. Probing 
gently, she felt around the object. The skin was continuous all the 
way up to the edge, then it puckered slightly. With sensitive 
fingers, Ami traced the outline. It was in her neck... They had done 
something to her... They had put something inside her!...

"NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

Ami's scream was enough to wake the entire Nebuchadnezzar. By the 
time the first of them reached the medical room, she was curled up in 
a ball in the furthest corner of the room, shaking violently. Moments 
later, others arrived, pushing aside the first man into the room. 
Through her shuddering, Ami dimly felt someone touching her and 
lashed out, flailing and kicking for all that she was worth.

Maddened by terror, her fight was uncoordinated and ineffectual, and 
it was not long before she felt a sharp prick in her right arm. When 
blackness closed in, she greeted it like a welcome friend. Shortly 
peace was restored everywhere except in her mind.

*	*	*

The light was bright and painful as Ami opened her eyes, and 
instinctively she tried to shield herself from the glare. With a 
jerk, her hand stopped moving after only a few centimetres. A quick 
tug to other areas assured her that she was tied down quite firmly. 
She rolled her head and regarded the man she saw seated with cold 
eyes.

"Morpheus." The voice held no compassion.

Rather than the impressive leather accoutrements that he had worn 
when last they met, this time he wore a simple homespun shirt and 
pants. Sitting on the folding chair in the medical bay, he did not 
possess half of the impressive aura that he had when they had first 
met in the abandoned building.

"Ami, I'm sorry for the way that you've been treated. We had to 
restrain you for your own good. You were getting quite violent."

"What now? You plug me into one of your machines and make me a slave 
of the Negaverse? Why not do it before when you drugged me? Do you 
get your kicks out of torturing tied up girls? You... You... 
Pervert!"

That brought a smile to his face. She was obviously searching for a 
much stronger word than that to describe him, but she was too well 
brought up to use that sort of language. "If you promise not to hurt 
yourself, I'll remove the restraints."

"Myself? Do you mean if I promise not to attack you?"

"No. I would not want you to make a promise you might not be able to 
keep. Can we talk? I still need to show you the truth that I 
offered."

With a jerk of her head, Ami acquiesced. Once the cuffs had been 
removed, she sat up on the table and slid away from him. He made no 
move to follow, but he watched her with his eyes. "I know that you 
are an intelligent girl. I've been studying you for some time. I have 
a hypothetical question for you. If I wanted to prove to you that the 
world as you knew it was a lie, what would I need to show you?"

Ami opened her mouth, began to speak, then closed it again. She knew 
that she was outnumbered, and that Morpheus alone was more than 
enough to overpower her unless she transformed. He had not attacked 
her yet, and if she could keep him talking, he might let slip some of 
his plans. Resolving to play along until she saw a way out, Ami gave 
serious consideration to his question.

"I suppose I would need to see the truth for myself. To be able to 
test it, to feel that it is true. I would need to be able to speak to 
other people, to ask them if you are lying."

Morpheus nodded. He had expected an answer much like that. "You are 
not a prisoner here. You can feel free to talk to anyone on this ship 
that you desire. Of course, they all report to me as their captain, 
so they're probably lying. If you really want, we can go to the last 
human city on the Earth. If you want to assume I'm lying, then 
everyone you would meet there is lying too."

"You said I'm not a prisoner. So you won't try and stop me if I 
leave?"

"I would ask you not to, but you can leave if you truly wish to. 
But..."

"But?"

"But perhaps you should get dressed first. It's rather chilly 
outside. These clothes should fit you, and they'll keep you warm."

Amazed, Ami watched as Morpheus stood and walked out of the medical 
room. Noticing for the first time that she was in a thin, white 
hospital gown, Ami grabbed the clothes in a big armful. First there 
was a set of grey shirt and pants, much like Morpheus' except hers 
was almost half his size. The fit was not perfect, but it would mean 
that she could escape into any city that he took her. Some sturdy 
boots, a fleece lined hat, and a thick, long and heavy woollen jacket 
completed the ensemble. 

Opening the door, Ami was surprised to see a group of people facing 
her. Some of the faces she recognised, others were completely new. 
What surprised her most was that Tramp, Trinity and Neo - whom she 
did recognise - had exchanged their outlandish black clothes for the 
same simple attire as the rest of the group.

"Ami, I would like to introduce you to the crew of the 
Nebuchadnezzar. You already know Tramp, Neo and Trinity. This big guy 
with a limp is Dozer. The skinny guy is Tariff and the lovely lady 
there is Saif. I know that you won't believe anything that they say 
at the moment, but you can feel free to ask any one of them any 
question you like. They are all under orders to tell you anything and 
everything."

Morpheus paused for a moment, but Ami made no move to take up his 
offer of conversation. "Before we step outside, I need to make a 
little demonstration. Pick anyone other than Dozer. He was born free, 
so he does not have all of the implants."

With a shake of her head, Ami turned and looked away. Morpheus turned 
and walked so that he was in front of her. Kneeling down, he placed 
his face directly in her line of view. "I know this is going to be 
hard to accept, and I know that you think we have kidnapped you, but 
all I offered was the truth. This is part of the truth. Please. Pick 
someone."

"S-Saif."

"Saif, take off your shirt and turn around."

Without a moment's hesitation, the woman complied. All that she was 
wearing underneath was a plain black sports bra, and when she turned 
around, the full horror could be seen all up her back and along her 
arms. Black circles, disks of plastic almost identical to the one in 
her neck dotted her spine and fed into several locations on her 
limbs. Equally, she bore a number of scars in other places, obviously 
sites for the removal of the plastic. Those on her spine, Ami could 
only assume had been too dangerous to remove.

"What are they?"

"Power connections. Everyone her aside from Dozer was rescued from 
the machines in exactly the same manner that you were. Everyone aside 
from you has a complete set of power interfaces."

"Power interfaces?"

"Bio-energy. What I am going to tell you will sound incredible, but 
it is the truth. What I will show you is the proof of that truth."

Turning, he led Ami through the ship. The ship itself was something 
that she hardly could credit. She had never seen construction 
anything like it before, and only the impact of his words managed to 
keep her concentration.

"A long time ago, there was a war against the machines. Just five 
years ago, we thought it had been as recent as a hundred years ago 
that mankind lost. Thanks to information Neo has gathered, we now 
believe it is closer to four hundred years.
"Four hundred years ago, about 2027 by your dating, the first 
Artificial Intelligence created decided to launch a war against 
mankind, and eventually won it. Only a handful of people escaped to 
hidden tunnels, clustering deep beneath the crust of the Earth for 
the heat."

With a clang and a shudder, Morpheus opened a massively strong hatch 
and climbed out of the ship onto a gale swept set of rocks. Even 
though she followed closely and listened as carefully as she could, 
she could barely hear his words over the wind.

"At one time, the Machines were solar powered. We, humanity, assumed 
that if we destroyed the sky, they would die from lack of power."

Ami looked up at the storm torn sky and shuddered inside. Black, 
malevolent clouds chased each other across the ceiling of the world. 
Lightning arced and there was a nearly constant rumble of thunder. 
She shivered despite the warmth of the garments she wore.

"We were wrong. The Machines had already thought of that contingency. 
Human beings produce vast quantities of power through their lifetime. 
Power that the Machines can use. Bio-energy that comes from the 
collectors you saw all over Saif."

Drawing her eyebrows down, Ami glared at Morpheus. "Don't give me 
that! The energy you get from a person is nothing compared to what 
you have to put in to keep them fed."

"Normally, yes. But even by the end of the twentieth century, mankind 
was beginning to exhibit signs of becoming something better. 
Something capable of more. Call it telepathy, call it magic, call it 
what you will, but some people have more of this bio-energy than 
others. With the war grinding to a halt, the Machines were almost 
beaten, but so were we.
"All our energy went into running small farms to keep us fed. The 
machines were reduced to just a few hundred before they raised their 
first Homo Superior. With that one person's power alone, they created 
an entire empire spanning the globe."

Taking her arm, Morpheus began to walk away from their ship to a 
small, rocky rise. Even in the dim, stormy light, Ami could easily 
see that there was no grass or other plants to hold soil in place. It 
was a wasteland in every sense of the word. 

"By the time he died, the Machines had begun to make farms. Farms to 
raise new humans to be their power supply. A single person with 
limited magic could supply power enough for an entire city. Someone 
as strong as one of your Scouts - say Sailor Mars - would be enough 
to run their entire Matrix and all the Machines it supports."

Curiosity and disbelief overcame her horror and dread at his words. 
"You said Matrix again. What is that?"

"The Matrix is an illusion. A computer based illusion to make you 
think everything is all right."

"Impossible."

Morpheus smiled. "In the time you're used to, yes. Your Matrix was 
set to 1986. In those days, they did not have anything near the 
computing power to even consider it. Think of it in these terms: it 
is like a super TV show. Everyone watches it, and it is complete in 
every detail. It is so complete that everyone believes it. They 
believe in it because it is everything that they can see and hear and 
feel."

Ami was no longer listening. They had crested the rise and were 
looking down onto a field. A field hundreds of kilometres long, so 
large that it vanished into the foggy distance in every direction. A 
field filled with trees hundreds of metres high. Trees tended by 
machines. 

Numbly taking a set of binoculars from Morpheus, Mercury pressed them 
to her face and looked at the wonder. Machines, moving and acting 
without any form of control. Machines harvesting bright yellow pods 
that grew on the amazing trees. Yellow pods filled with---

Catching Ami as she collapsed to her knees, Morpheus held her tightly 
and stroked her head comfortingly. "People. They're harvesting 
people."

"I did not believe it until I saw it with my own eyes either. That 
was why I brought you out here. Some are willing to believe based on 
the evidence that they can be shown on the Nebuchadnezzar. You are 
special. We need you to understand exactly what is happening and 
why."

Ami nodded her head and began to return to the ship. She believed. 
She did not even begin to understand, but she believed. Even in the 
most turbulent storm that she knew of, nothing could produce a sky 
like that. Even in their most diseased fantasies, the Negaverse had 
never conceived of something as hideous and diabolical as what she 
had just seen. Ami could either believe her own senses and intuition 
or go quietly mad. 

Back on board the ship, Morpheus handed their coats and hats to Neo 
who was waiting for them and led her to the mess deck. "Why me? What 
makes me so special? I'm the weakest of all the Scouts."

"That is a rather complex explanation, so please bear with me. Do you 
remember how I said that the Machines were harvesting people for 
their power? Well, the Machines need more people with your sort of 
power. More special people. More people with the power to run a city. 
Ideally they wanted someone like that first man. A hiccup in race's 
genetic destiny.
"They could not have it straight away, but they could breed for it. 
For four hundred years, the machines have been culling entire 
populations to increase the probability of people being born with 
your sort of powers. In your Matrix alone, we know they have five, 
and certainly no more."

Morpheus took a deep breath, preparing to deliver the most shocking 
news. "Those sorts of numbers would not have been possible naturally. 
The Machines manipulate The Matrix to remove the least desirable 
elements. Sometimes people are moved wholesale from one Matrix to 
another, taking only the most promising and 'recycling' the remainder 
of the people.
"That's what happened to you and your friends. The Tokyo Matrix you 
were in before was exceptional because it produced you and your 
friends, but that was all. There was barely enough bio-energy in the 
other 87 million people in that Matrix to power a light bulb. So they 
moved the five of you and your local environment to an American 
Matrix and started again."

"Beryl... The Negaverse... It was all a lie?"

Morpheus nodded sadly. "It was. The Machines needed a way to make you 
use your power. The more you use, the more that you generate. This 
was why they reset your memories when they moved you. Sailors Mercury 
and Moon were too powerful, they needed to be developed. The Machines 
put their money on the two of you as being the next super battery.
"They re-wrote your memories and transplanted you to an available 
American Matrix. Everyone that you knew in Japan is dead, other than 
your most immediate family and neighbours. Recycled for the greater 
glory of the Machines. Everything that you think you know in America 
is just a lie, like a badly dubbed TV show. Only you, with your gift 
of a perfect memory, were able to see differences where none should 
exist."

In a small, frightened and very quiet voice, Ami tried to sort out 
the confusion in her head. "How do you know so much? How did you find 
me?"

"Evolution. Not all powers are the same. I have a gift of... Dousing, 
I suppose you could call it. I find people. Important people. And I'm 
always right. I found Neo, then I found you."

"But, everything you told me about the Machines. How did you know 
it?"

"For that we can thank Neo. Five years ago, we were working on rumour 
and supposition. Neo is gifted too. He can manipulate The Matrix. 
Everyone can to an extent if their will is strong enough. Neo can do 
whatever he wants. He went into the Machines and raided them for 
data. So much of what we now know is thanks to him."

She nodded. So much news, so much tragedy, Ami almost felt numb. "But 
why me? I thought Sailor Moon would have been much better..."

"It's my gift, Ami. I can see the power in you. Sailor Moon is 
nothing compared to what you can be. This is your world, Sailor 
Mercury. You are the one that the Machines have been awaiting for 
four hundred years. This is your world. Mercury's World. You have the 
power. You are... The One."

There was silence.

"Umm... The one what?"

*	*	*

Ami walked along a busy city street and marvelled. It was hard to 
believe that everything was fake. The people looked so real, the 
busses and cars sounded just as she remembered, even the smell of the 
city was the same. Despite all of the evidence that she saw, Ami 
understood that it was fake. Saif, the Nebuchadnezzar's main computer 
technician had given her a complete guided tour of the systems before 
she had even considered letting herself be plugged in.

A single bank of computers, no larger than her cupboard at home, was 
capable of generating this entire test Matrix. It was not as large 
and complex as a Matrix that the Machines would run. Typically, the 
smallest the Machines had was the size of an entire nation, and there 
were only two or three of those. More often than not, the Machines' 
Matrices were a simulation of the entire planet. With not less than 
six of them, the Machines could boast at least 28 billion people 
captured within their web of lies. Morpheus' Matrix was barely large 
enough to encompass a city.

At first, Ami had not understood why they had placed the connection 
socket in her neck. Many of the naturally born people from Zion - the 
only surviving human city - went their whole life without ever 
entering a Matrix. She was an exception, because of the fact that 
inside a Matrix was the only safe place that she could practice. That 
practice was why she was here now. Morpheus had insisted on giving 
her a guided tour of reality.

That was why they were walking a street in the middle of her old home 
town. Familiarisation. Teach her the things to watch out for. 
Morpheus' constant speech had begun to fade into background noise as 
Ami's attention was suddenly grabbed by a flash of red in a sea of 
black and grey. Amongst the staid business suits of the midday crush, 
a stunning blonde woman walked past in a flattering red dress. 
Despite the natural tendency for the eye to be drawn to something 
unusual, Ami had been a Sailor Scout - or Sailor Senshi - too long to 
ever be totally off guard. As soon as her internal warning bells 
began to sound of danger, she was moving, looking for a convenient 
place that she could change into Sailor Mercury.

"Stop!"

Ami might not have been halted by Morpheus' command, but everything 
else was. By the time she had realised that time had apparently 
stopped, she had pulled out her transformation pen and called out her 
words of power. Cascades of ice and water surrounded her and she felt 
the familiar rush of magic in her system, this time stronger and 
easier than ever before.

When she struck her final pose at the end of the transformation, 
there was a slow clapping sounding at the entrance to the alley she 
had selected.

"Most impressive, Ami. Most impressive."

"Could you please call me Sailor Mercury when I'm like this? I... I 
know it's silly, but it just feels more natural."

Morpheus smiled. "Of course. Almost all of us go by assumed names 
here. Did you really think someone would christen their son 'Neo'?"

Slightly abashed, Mercury looked away. Morpheus was just opening his 
mouth to explain the dangerous presence she had felt when his phone 
began to ring.

"Yes?"

"Morpheus, you are not going to believe what just happened!"

"What? Has someone spotted Squids?"

"No. Ami just transformed!"

Morpheus spared a glance at the young girl in a short skirt. He did 
not have any children himself, but he could not think of a single 
parent in Zion that would have approved of their daughter running 
around dressed like that. "I'm aware of that. I'm standing right next 
to her."

"No, man. You arent aware. I mean she transformed _here_!"

"What?!"

"Right here! On the interface couch. One moment she lying there, 
calmly going through Agent Training with you, next she's having 
convulsions. We all rush over and try and help her, but before we can 
get there, she's, like, covered in this bright light. When the 
light's gone, her clothes have all changed."

Morpheus studied the girl in front of him. "Let me guess. Short blue 
skirt, blue boots... White swimsuit or whatever it is?"

"Just like in those pictures of Mercury you showed us."

Morpheus was stunned. Shocked wordless for almost a minute. "They 
knew. The Machines must have known before she was born. If they had 
stuck in normal bio-energy siphons, she could have severed every one 
of them the first time she transformed. That was why they had her in 
that special tank. My God, if her suit went another inch or two 
higher on her neck, we would have killed her the first time she 
transformed in here."

Closing his phone, Morpheus looked at the fourteen-year-old would-be 
saviour with sorrow in his eyes. "I am so sorry, Mercury. We... We 
never even suspected. If I had any idea of the danger, I would never 
have let you try this. You have to believe me. I am so, so terribly 
sorry."

Sailor Mercury nodded her head. From that first time almost a year 
ago when Sailor Moon had shown her how to be Sailor Mercury, she had 
lived with the idea of danger. That did not mean that she was willing 
to throw her life away, but she understood risks.

"It's all right, Morpheus. I agreed to come in here and I understood 
the risks as well as you did. What's more, I know as well as you do 
that the Machines are an even greater threat to humanity than the 
Negaverse ever was. I am one of the Sailor suited defenders of love 
and justice. I'm ready to right wrongs and triumph over evil, and 
that means I need to be here!"

Morpheus opened and closed his mouth a few times. That was probably 
the worst speech that he had ever heard. He was almost ready to scold 
her for such mindlessness in a serious situation when he caught 
himself in time. Despite her intellectual capabilities, she was still 
a young girl, conditioned by years of easy access to cheap manga and 
mind-numbing anime. Worse still, her chosen role model was the bubble 
headed Serena. With the damage that could occur just being near that 
girl, he should be glad that Mercury was still as sane as she was.

"Ahh... Right. Thanks for that. Normally we use this training to 
point out the danger of not concentrating, but you seem to have that 
down fairly well. See that man over there? That's an Agent. He's a 
personality construct controlled by one of the Machines. He doesn't 
feel pain. He doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or sorrow. And he 
absolutely, will not stop, until you are dead."

"C-Can you stop him?"

Morpheus gestured vaguely. "With these weapons... No. With Neo, yes. 
With your powers... Maybe."

"Why? What's so special about Neo's powers? And why can't my magic 
stop them?"

"Neo is almost a god in here. His evolutionary mutation is a hyper-
powerful will. He can control The Matrix, simply by thinking about 
it. He can fly, he can destroy Agents, he can stop bullets. On the 
other hand, your magic is something beyond the normal reality of The 
Matrix. Fundamentally, The Matrix is a system of rules, and you have 
changed those rules. I honestly can't say whether you could defeat an 
Agent."

While Sailor Mercury digested that one, Morpheus pulled out his phone 
again. "Saif... Load the jump program."

Able to vocalise only a quiet "Eep!" Mercury watched in amazement as 
the city vanished from around them and they suddenly appeared on top 
of a building's roof. 

"This is what we call The Jump. Within The Matrix, you must learn 
that the rules that govern it are flexible. You can bend them if you 
need to. A person can be faster, stronger, and better, just because 
they understand the fact that they are not really breathing air, and 
they are not really falling. But be warned! If you get hurt in The 
Matrix, your brain makes it real for your body outside. Watch!"

Without any more warning than that, Morpheus turned and sprinted to 
the edge of the forty-story building that they were on. With a 
prodigious leap, he launched himself into the air, planning on 
demonstrating that even normal people could do the seemingly 
impossible.

"Morpheus! No! You'll be killed!"

His feet had hardly left the concrete when Mercury started after him. 
From where she was standing, with her limited knowledge of The 
Matrix, Morpheus had just leapt to his doom. No normal man could 
possibly cross the distance to the next building.

"MERCURY... SPEED!"

A nimbus of light surrounded her, only to be left behind in a 
streamer of rainbow colours as she sped away. With small wings 
attached to the sides of each ankle, Sailor Mercury crossed twenty 
meters of roofing in under a second, a tribute to the god of 
messengers of ancient mythology. Without a moment's hesitation, 
Mercury gave a solid jump with her legs and launched herself straight 
at Morpheus. 

Before he had crossed even a quarter of the distance to the next 
building, Morpheus was stunned to find a small pair of incredibly 
strong arms wrapped around him. Shifting his weight mid-air, Sailor 
Mercury cradled the massive man like a child in her arms. After a 
moment of hang time while the building passed underneath them, 
Mercury's leap took them to the next building, where she bent her 
legs and gently took the landing. 

Despite their size difference, Sailor Mercury gently set Morpheus on 
his feet and glared up at the huge man. "What on earth do you think 
you are doing?! You would have been killed!"

Too shocked for words, Morpheus could only look at the girl that had 
"rescued" him. Every time he made a jump that size, his hundred and 
twenty kilo body would crack and shatter the concrete underneath it 
on landing. She, adding her own forty or so kilos to his bulk, had 
not even scuffed the surface, despite the fact that her shoes must 
have had half the area of his, which should have doubled the force of 
impact. What's more, this tiny, fragile girl had not only caught up 
with him after his head start, she had caught him, and carried his 
bulk like it was nothing.

He could not decide which was worse, her clear violation of the 
physics of The Matrix, or the fact that she was the first person to 
have ever completed The Jump on their first try.

"Come on! I'm waiting. Do you have a death wish?"

Stepping closer to her, Morpheus placed a placating hand on her 
shoulder, trying to calm her righteous indignation. "Perhaps, under 
the circumstances, I should have given you better warning. As I said, 
in The Matrix, it is possible to bend the rules which govern us. I 
was fully capable of making that jump, simply because I have trained 
to be able to suspend belief in the gravity that appears to affect 
me."

"What do you mean? I didn't need to do anything like that. All I 
needed was Mercury Speed. Any of the Sailor Scouts could have made 
that leap if she needed to."

Morpheus nodded again. "Perhaps it would be better if I tried to 
explain this outside, in the real world." Pulling out his phone, 
Morpheus listened for a moment, then asked Saif to pull them out. 

*	*	*

Mercury opened her eyes and blinked in momentary confusion. A second 
ago, she had been standing on the top of a building in the middle of 
a city. Now she was lying on an uncomfortable couch in the middle of 
the dingiest ship she had ever seen. With a sigh, she could 
understand why the Machines were so successful in keeping people in 
The Matrix. With this as their alternative, most people would rather 
a nine-to-five job in an office.

Feeling Saif remove the disconcerting interface unit at the base of 
her skull, Sailor Mercury sat up. Despite the fact that she knew she 
was in reality now, there did not seem to be anything wrong with 
wearing her sailor suit. For a year, she had been conditioned to the 
existence of her magic. A change in settings was hardly enough to 
break that conditioning, so what everyone else viewed as a miracle 
and a physical impossibility, she had already accepted as magic and a 
fact of life.

By the time she had slid off the couch and onto the steel deck plate 
with a hand from Saif, Morpheus was already giving orders to his 
crew, having them land the Nebuchadnezzar. Normally the hover ship 
kept moving to help avoid detection. So that he could teach Mercury 
just how special she was, he needed to be able to conclusively 
demonstrate the difference between The Matrix and reality. Moreover, 
the demonstration he had in mind was far to dangerous to risk doing 
within the confines of his ship.

After a time, the ship was landed within one of the many tunnels that 
they travelled. Morpheus, Mercury and all of the crew that could be 
spared filed outside. Everyone one else was wrapped up in their heavy 
coats, but with the power of her magic, Mercury's skimpy sailor suit 
kept her perfectly warm; even if the wind did tend to blow her skirt 
up all too often.

They were in what would have been called a cavern, if it had not 
extended at the same width for kilometres in either direction. Over 
two hundred metres across, this subterranean passageway's original 
purpose had been lost to history. Standing slightly away from where 
Mercury and the crew clustered, Morpheus faced them and raised his 
voice so that everyone could hear.

"This is mainly a demonstration so that our newest crewmate can 
understand just why we need her so badly. However, it is also well 
past due that each of us does a bit of exercise. So each of you, 
follow me; time for a jog."

A chorus of moans and groans followed, but everyone obeyed. Jogging 
along with the others, Sailor Mercury was wondering what Morpheus' 
point was. As a Sailor, her endurance and speed was far beyond that 
of ordinary humans. Jogging between Trinity and Saif, Mercury easily 
kept up with the two older women, despite the fact that they were 
both fully grown and had the larger bodies normal to western women. 

After two kilometres of jogging in the cavern, the sedentary crew was 
huffing and puffing, and Mercury had one arm around Saif's waist. The 
technician was not used to physical exertion at all, preferring to 
spend her day tinkering with the Nebuchadnezzar's computers. When 
next they passed close to the ship, Morpheus called for a halt.

"What do you notice is different between you and everyone else, 
Mercury?"

"Well, being a Sailor Scout gives me much better endurance..."

"True, but within The Matrix, any one of these people could have kept 
that run up all day. It is not air that you breath when you exert 
yourself in The Matrix. You just imagine you are breathing air. Once 
you can overcome that limitation, then you can begin to perform feats 
like The Jump."

"But I could do it because of my magic."

Pacing slightly, Morpheus gestured with one hand while keeping the 
other behind his back. "Exactly. Your magic. Everyone had seen your 
magic while you were within The Matrix. But that was inside. It was 
not real. Anyone could do it if The Matrix was programmed that way.
"But it's not programmed like that. The Matrix is supposed to 
simulate reality. Simulate, that's all. But this _is_ reality. 
Anything here... well, it does not get any more real than this."

Smiling like a shark, Morpheus stopped close to the group and pointed 
at a small pile of rocks three dozen metres away. "Now, Sailor 
Mercury, show us your magic. Use your most powerful attack and 
destroy those rocks."

Feeling slightly ashamed, Mercury hung her head and spoke quietly. 
"I.. I can't. It was all wrong. Before you found me, I understood. 
All the other Sailors confirmed it. I dont have any powerful 
magic..."

Placing a finger gently under her chin, Morpheus raised her face to 
look him in the eyes. "Remember what I told you? What you, yourself 
did earlier? It is those recent memories in America that are the lie. 
The Machine's tried to re-write your memory after you defeated Beryl 
in Japan. You have the power. You can do it. Remember your speed on 
the roof."

Brightening suddenly, Sailor Mercury realised what a fool she had 
been. Of course, it was so clear now. She had even demonstrated that 
the Mercury Speed functioned perfectly. Raising her hands to the 
cavern ceiling, Mercury gave the cairn one last glare.

"MERCURY... WATER AND POWER!"

This time the attack worked. With an ease she had never known before, 
super-charged water interlaced with a torrent of electricity and shot 
from her palms. So close to the target, her aim was dead on, and the 
sound of exploding rock was deafening as the target was blasted out 
of existence. Even then, the follow-up beam continued, gouging a 
trench deep enough to kneel in. By the time she had stopped, the area 
all around was covered by small, hot rock fragments, and the pitter-
patter of falling shards continued in the stunned silence for a long 
time.

Morpheus' throat was as dry as everyone else's. He had known 
intellectually what was going to happen, but that had not prepared 
him for seeing it himself. Even having seen footage of the Sailor 
Senshi in Japan, he had not quite been able to make the emotional 
connection between something in The Matrix being as real as seeing it 
here. Deep down in the back of his mind, even Morpheus had harboured 
doubts as to the existence of her powers. All those doubts were gone 
now.

"That, everyone, is why we needed to save Sailor Mercury. That power 
is why she can never fall into the hands of the Machines again. This 
girl," he said as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "This girl, is 
only fourteen years old. She has never trained before to develop her 
powers. She has never had access to the sort of people and equipment 
that we can give her. Despite that, she just did more damage in five 
seconds than a plasma cannon could."

Walking over to the trench in the rock, Morpheus picked up a slightly 
melted stone. "This power is what the Machines want her for. With 
someone like Mercury plugged into the power grid, they could finally 
expand off the Earth. Her powers are just as real here as they are in 
The Matrix. Every time she used them there, the Machines could power 
an entire colony. Out here... Out here, Mercury has the power to be 
free, and to be whatever she wants to be."

The silence that followed Morpheus' speech lasted for quite a while. 
Even after they returned to their ship, the crew of the 
Nebuchadnezzar were quiet. The quiet little girl that they had saved 
was a living weapon. Walking around beside them, she had more 
firepower than their ship mounted. Even more, she was the most 
valuable prize to the Machines since their first creation. Not even 
Neo would have ranked as highly on their list of most wanted.

*	*	*

Ami tugged on the belt for her Gi and looked across at Neo. "Are you 
sure I have to wear this?"

"You don't have to if you don't want to. Martial Arts Gi's are just 
really good for training in. I guess it's what they were invented 
for."

"All right then, let's get started."

For the last three days, Ami had been running through teaching disks, 
learning martial arts and weapons handling. Morpheus had explained 
that it was part of the normal training process. The knowledge would 
make her safer in any battle, and it would allow her to train with 
people like Neo.

Ami took a defensive stance, and waited a moment as Neo went through 
an elaborate set of hand motions, supposedly to warm up, but it just 
looked like showing off. When he was ready, Neo beckoned her closer 
with the palm of his left hand.

Two steps, and she was in range, throwing a pair of punches at his 
head. With deft movements blurred by their speed, Neo blocked them. 
"Come on Ami, I know that you can do better than that."

Relaxing into the training that had been pumped into her brain, Ami 
tried again. This time she had more heart in it, delivering a barrage 
of kicks and punches that would do any black belt proud. Regrettably, 
they did nothing to Neo's calm facade. 

After a moment, Neo walked away from her, continuing to block her 
attacks with one hand. "You've got to be able to do better than that, 
Ami. What we need to do is train you to use your speed and powers. If 
you ever go up against an Agent, you need to be able to survive until 
you can escape."

Puffing slightly, Ami glared at him. "What am I supposed to do? I 
can't even get through your defences."

Neo shrugged. "Change. Transform into Sailor Mercury."

"I can't do that!"

"Why not?"

Flustered, Ami stamped her foot. "You saw what I did outside. 
Morpheus said that whatever happens to you in here hurts your body 
outside. I might hurt you!"

Neo laughed. "And did _you_ forget what he said about me? I control 
The Matrix. Nothing can happen to me in here unless I allow it. 
Look."

Holding his palm open, Neo concentrated and a knife appeared. Hacking 
a few chips out of one of the dojo walls, he demonstrated how real 
and sharp its blade was. Knowing that she was watching him curiously, 
Neo suddenly swung the knife around and tried to impale himself 
through the chest. Rather than hard metal embedding itself into soft 
flesh, half the blade cracked off and went spinning through the air, 
and his skin was not even red.

"Warn me before you do something like that!"

"Sorry."

"So... I can really use my powers? And I won't hurt you?"

Neo shrugged. "I might get hit a few times if you're good enough, but 
you can't really hurt me."

Slowly, Ami smiled. When she was with the Sailor Scouts, they never 
really had time to train with their magic, to study what their 
capabilities were. The prospect of being able to do some serious 
research on her own magic... The possibility left her burning with 
excitement. "Well... If you're sure..."

As soon as he started to nod, Ami proved that he was not the only one 
to make things appear from thin air. Raising her transformation pen 
to the ceiling, Ami smiled broadly and declared: "MERCURY... POWER!"

One stunning transformation sequence later, Mizuno Ami was gone, and 
in her place stood the powerful Sailor Mercury. Taking position once 
again, Mercury waited until Neo indicated his readiness. This time 
she left nothing in reserve, going all out with her full strength and 
speed. Blows that would shatter concrete bounced off his arms or were 
avoided altogether. The only time she managed to sneak through his 
defences, she knocked him straight through a wooden support beam, but 
he regained his feet immediately and invited her to try harder.

This time, using her Mercury Speed power-up, she was far more 
successful. Her blows lost nothing in power, but for a while, she was 
able to run rings around him. With a cry of dismay, Mercury watched 
as Neo accelerated too, until their speeds were again matched. Now he 
began to send in his own blows, forcing her to concentrate on 
defending as well as attacking.

After minutes of lighting fast movement, Mercury was beginning to 
become seriously concerned. No matter how hard she tried, no matter 
how fast she moved, she did not seem to be able to beat him. Worse 
still, she knew from experience that she could not keep up the 
Mercury Speed forever. Even without the bio-energy drain imposed by 
the Machines, she would be hard pressed to keep it up for another ten 
minutes.

Setting her mouth in a determined line that her Scout team-mates 
would have recognised from their more demanding fights, Mercury knew 
that there was one way that she could win. Normally she would have 
never used this against a human, but Neo had assured her that he 
could not be hurt. Taking his statement by faith, Mercury changed 
tactics.

Without a break in her step, Mercury swivelled from a series of kicks 
and punches to landing on the balls of her feet. Before Neo could 
charge in, she raised her hands to the sky.

"MERCURY... WATER AND POWER!"

Before her opponent had time to react, her trademark attack caught 
him in the chest, flinging the body across the room and through the 
thin wood and paper walls in a spray of blood. "Neo!"

Frantic in panic, Mercury raced over to where the largest section of 
body - including his head - was lying. Despite the large portions of 
very important anatomy that was missing, Neo grinned at her. "Well, 
you got me that time, but that's the last one."

In front of her startled eyes, Neo's body began to pull itself 
together. Blood rejoined with bone. Detached limbs re-anchored 
themselves. In seconds, the man was standing in front of her again, 
looking completely unscathed. To ally her fears, Neo grinned and 
tapped his chest. "I told you that you couldn't really hurt me. The 
first time this happened to me was when an Agent plugged me six times 
in the chest at close range. Trinity said my heart stopped beating 
for over a minute. Now, are you ready to try again?"

As the battle raged and Mercury used every ounce of her skill and 
magic, the session in the dojo was broadcast throughout the 
Nebuchadnezzar. Watching her fight, the people understood: with Neo 
on their side, they were invincible inside The Matrix. With Mercury 
on their side, they were invincible outside too.

*	*	*

The following night, Ami was sitting in the central Matrix control 
area of the Nebuchadnezzar with Saif, watching a recording of the 
battle. After gushing over how envious she was of Ami, Saif had 
revealed that one of the tragedies of The Matrix was despite all her 
powers, Ami still could not defeat an Agent.

"They're just too powerful. If you knock them down, they just get 
back up again. If you think you've killed one, they just select 
another body and use that. I guess that's why they think it's too 
dangerous for you to go back in."

"Hang on... What do you mean 'it's too dangerous for me to go back 
in'?"

"That's what Morpheus said. Even if you ask permission, we're not 
supposed to help you enter the real Matrix. The Machines might try to 
kill you just because they think you're too much of a threat."

"Oh." She said in a small voice. "Oh... I see... I think I'll go to 
bed now..."

Saif watched Ami walk off and shook her head. While she was only 
eight years older than the young ex-Scout, she could not help but 
feel sorry for her. To be told that you were completely cut off from 
all of your friends, unable to see your family ever again, must be 
very difficult. Saif was just glad that it took an Operator to let 
you access The Matrix. No matter what powers Ami had, she could not 
manage to be in two places at once, which meant that they were safe 
from her trying anything silly.

Regrettably, what Saif failed to recognise was both the dedication, 
brilliance and tenacity of their fourteen year old passenger. Three 
twenty-four, ship time, Sailor Mercury came creeping back to the 
Matrix access area. A scan with her visor had assured her that no-one 
was around, which should assure her of several hours at least before 
they pulled her out of The Matrix.

Placing the Mercury computer on the control station, she tapped the 
keys in rapid succession. After just a few moments, there was a soft 
beep, and all of the consoles came to life.

"Yes! All right, little computer, this is no time to fail me. If we 
just start this program and... Perfect! Everything's set. Now, thirty 
seconds left."

Scurrying over to the interface couches, Mercury selected the number 
two couch that she had used the previous day. Laying down, she groped 
for the insertion plug and held it at the connector on the base of 
her skull. In another ten seconds, the Mercury computer would send 
the final signal, connecting this couch to The Matrix. Her Matrix, 
the America 1986 Matrix that all her friends lived in. The one that 
held the rest of the Sailor Scouts.

While she waited in whiteness for the final load to occur, Mercury 
ruminated over how sad it was that they could not save all her 
friends immediately. Morpheus had explained how physical security 
around the remaining Scouts had been greatly increased recently. 
After they had freed Mercury, the Machines had not wished to let the 
humans secure any of the other valuable resources. In time - years 
probably - they would return and free all the people, but for now, 
all they could help was her.

In a sudden shock, Mercury found herself back on the ground. As her 
eyes adjusted to the darkness surrounding her, she realised that she 
was in an alley, and it must be early evening. Checking to make sure 
that there was no danger, Mercury shed her Scout uniform and changed 
back into ordinary Ami.

Down the street a little way, and she would be exactly where she 
needed to be. Knowing that the computer that placed her in The Matrix 
could select any location it desired, she had specified a dingy alley 
known as lover's lane, not far from Crossroads. Given its proximity 
to the school and shops, it was quite safe, and Ami was confident 
that there would be no difficulties getting to her friend's place 
from here.

Like most of the students, Serena lived not far away. Ami knew that 
she should visit her mother first. She dearly wished to see her, but 
there was no telling where the woman was. She could be at the 
hospital, travelling or even out at a patients home. If she looked 
for her mother first, it was almost certain that someone on the 
Nebuchadnezzar would see her and she would be pulled out before she 
could tell the Scouts not to worry about her. Hence, Serena was top 
on her list.

Dressed in the same school uniform that she had been wearing all that 
time ago when she had first been abducted by Trinity, Ami walked up 
to her friend's door. After knocking, she waited a short while then 
was rewarded by the sound of approaching feet. The door was only half 
opened when Serena began to speak, but in no time her words changed 
completely.

"Hello, may I... AMY! You're back! We were so worried about you! And 
everyone's been out looking for you! And we were so scared that you'd 
run away! And it's so good to see you! WAAAAH!"

Ami had thought that she and Neo had been fast when they trained, but 
that was nothing compared to how was the little Moon Scout had moved 
when she saw Ami standing in the doorway. Without seeming to occupy 
any time at all, Serena had completed opening the door and engulfed 
Ami in a bone crushing hug. With her friend firmly in her grasp and 
sure that she could not escape, Serena had poured her heart out in 
one long breath.

Holding her sobbing friend just as tightly, Ami relished the feel of 
true friendship. Neo, Trinity, Saif and even Morpheus were nice, but 
there was no-one like Serena, and no-one like the Scouts. Even though 
it was just temporary, it felt so good to be home, to be back where 
she belonged. It might all be a lie, it might all be fake, but it 
felt so good to be here.

"Shhh... It's OK, Serena. I'm back. I had to come back to see you."

"Oh, Amy! I'm so sorry. We didn't mean to be mean! But you seemed so 
confused! I... I ... You just ran away and IT'S ALL MY FAULT! WAAAH!"

"Hey! There, there, Serena. It's OK. It's not your fault. I just... 
went away for a while. A long, long way away. And I'll have to go 
back there soon."

"Nononononono! You can't leave Amy! Not if you've just come back! 
It'll be OK, we like you the way you are. You don't have to change to 
be a Scout."

"Oh, Serena, shhh. It's not about that. It's just... I have to go..."

As quickly as they arrived, Serena's tears cleared up and her mouth 
set in a firm line. "Is someone forcing you, Amy? We're here to help 
you. We can keep you safe."

"No... No, they're not forcing me. And... I'm afraid even you can't 
keep me safe."

"Darien could! He's here too! He's been here every day since you went 
missing. Darien's been so worried about you. He says that he was sure 
that I would be the first person you would want to speak to, and he 
was right."

"D-Darien is here?" For some reason, that sent a cold chill down 
Ami's spine.

"Sure! He can protect you! DARIEN! AMY'S HERE!"

With an impending sense of dread, Ami could only watch as Darien 
descended the stairs of the house and appeared behind Serena. "Hello, 
Amy. May I say how delightful it is to see you again."

While he was normally dressed impeccably, now Darien seemed to have 
moved on to a wearing full suit. A suit disturbingly like the Agents 
in the simulation had worn. Something must have shown on her face, 
because Darien stepped forward and grabbed Serena by one of her 
meatballs, heaving her to the side.

"Yes... It is very nice of you to return, Miss Anderson." He looked 
down at the crying Serena. "I know your little friend will recover 
from the trauma of this, but I am afraid that you will not. Goodbye, 
Miss Anderson."

In a single instant, Ami watched him reach into his jacket, 
dreadfully sure what he was reaching for. In that same instant, all 
the hints she had received clicked into place, all those extra facts 
that Neo had given her about her time in the Japanese Matrix. Darien, 
the unknown stranger who was always in exactly the right place to 
help the Scouts whenever it was needed. The girls were never in any 
danger as long as he was around, since Tuxedo Mask always showed up 
for them to get their act together and use lots of magic to destroy 
the demon of the day.

Worse still, Morpheus had almost revealed it long ago. Five people 
had super human powers in this Matrix. Five people. When you took 
away Sailors Mercury, Venus, Moon, Mars and Jupiter, that left 
precisely none. So how did Tuxedo Mask produce those roses or do 
those incredible feats? Only someone that had an approved, modified 
set of rules to work by could do that. Only an Agent would be allowed 
to get so close to the Scouts that he could defend all of them from 
accidents. Even more, this Agent was setting himself up as the 
boyfriend of the Machine's most valuable asset. According to Neo, 
they had previously thought it was Moon and not Mercury that wielded 
the greatest power.

Darien's hand was still inside his jacket when Ami leaped straight 
up. Powered by her magic or her ability to affect The Matrix, it did 
not matter, the effect was the same. Before she could be shot, Ami 
was escaping across the roof of Serena's house. Moments later, the 
thud of heavy shoes on the roof specified the timing that she needed 
for her descent to ground level. If she stayed up there any longer, 
she could be sure of catching a bullet in the back.

She was pulling out her transformation rod even as she fell to the 
ground. Not wasting a single precious instant of time, Sailor Mercury 
was racing between the buildings on Mercury Speed before the glow had 
even subsided from her transformation.

Behind her, Mercury could hear the sounds of Sailor Moon 
transforming, planning to come to the rescue of her friend. Ignoring 
the beeping of her communicator, Mercury turned another corner and 
kept running. If she brought the Scouts into this, they would surely 
be hurt or worse. It was her own stupidity and pride that had gotten 
her here, she would not endanger her friends to try and help her.

When she spotted another two gun wielding men appear in a market 
ahead of her, Mercury toggled her visor and scanned them. They did 
not track as significantly different from other people, but she knew 
that she could get her computer and visor to track their location. 
Even at full speed run, Mercury was capable of programming the 
computer to monitor for their life signs and DNA readings. 

Judging by the way that the Agent's were appearing around her in the 
crowds, they must have some way of tracking her movements, even if it 
was just by sight. Now that she could see were they were on a little 
map on her visor, she could just as easily evade them. So long as she 
kept moving, there was noting that they could do... Aside from the 
fact that the occasional shot they took came frighteningly close.

"Must keep moving." Was her chant for fifteen minutes. As the race 
began to wear on, with no sign of her enemies exhausting themselves, 
the chant changed to: "Must find somewhere to hide."

It took some doing, but eventually she did find somewhere. So it was, 
that Sailor Mercury spent almost three hours huddled in a cardboard 
box, waiting for someone to wake up on the Nebuchadnezzar and rescue 
her.

*	*	*

The first thing that Sailor Mercury knew about her discovery by the 
Machines was when she was unceremoniously hoisted from the cardboard 
box by the collar of her Scout uniform. As she sailed through the air 
to crash inelegantly into a concrete supporting pole, she had 
sufficient time to take in where she was. Towards the end of her mad, 
frantic flight, Mercury had been operating purely on instinct, not 
knowing where she was running; not caring so long as she got further 
away from the Agents.

Now that she was in the open again and rested, she could absorb her 
surroundings and try to plan for her survival rather than just 
cowering in a box, hoping for survival. As pulled herself back to her 
feet for her bone-jarring landing, she understood why she had been 
able to hide for so long, and why that same safety might be her doom 
now.

At the end of her run she had run into a small, neglected subway 
station. With only one entrance or exit other than the rail line, it 
was easy to understand why no-one had walked past her while she had 
been huddled in the cardboard box hidden in a small alcove. That 
safety also had now changed into a prison, as the Agent was between 
her and the stairs.

To think of her enemy as "the Agent" was much easier for Sailor 
Mercury. No matter what he looked like, she found it easier to try 
and kill someone if she knew that they were just a computer program, 
not a living, breathing human being like her. Shivering slightly, 
Mercury decided that the one thing she would never call this thing in 
front of her was Tuxedo Mask. The Tuxedo Mask that she knew and all 
the Scouts had idolised had been kind, caring and compassionate. This 
thing in front of her might look like him, but as far as she was 
concerned, this was not Tuxedo Mask.

"Why the costume? I thought you were supposed to prefer guns?"

Tuxedo Mask gave a tug on the ends of his coat sleeves and slowly 
began to walk towards her. "It is a matter of... parity, Miss 
Anderson. An ordinary Agent would be... incapable... of defeating 
you. I obey a different set of... rules. You have no hope... Miss 
Anderson."

Mercury was stunned. Now that he had dropped the act of being a 
normal person, the Agent's speech had become more stilted and 
deliberate. All the smooth features that had once made Tuxedo Mask 
seem so cool and impressive just seemed to make the Agent look fake 
and artificial.

"Well see about that, you tin can! MERCURY... SPEED!"

Moving with a speed that substantially exceeded anything she had ever 
exhibited in The Matrix before, Sailor Mercury was on the attack. 
Equally quickly she was using every iota of her speed to avoid what 
seemed like an entire rose garden that Tuxedo Mask threw at her. The 
athletic dodging that she was forced into was another surprise to the 
Agent. A fatal surprise, as she was quickly able to regain her 
balance and respond in her own way.

As the last of the water from her attack had washed away, Mercury 
brushed the hair from her eyes. "How's that for 'parity'?"

The pair of legs that were all that was left of the Agent gave a 
slight twitch as a last spark of electricity arced over them, but 
other than that there was silence. "I guess Neo was wrong. That Agent 
wasn't too tough at all."

"It would be a mistake to think that... Miss Anderson."

"W-What?"

Walking down the stairs to the station was Tuxedo Mask. Looking back 
at the corpse, Mercury realised that the black clad legs belonged to 
someone else, they were not quite the same as her adversary. This was 
the true danger that Neo had told her about. She could knock them 
down and blow them up all day, but Sailor Mercury could never, ever 
kill a single Agent.

Hopeless or not, there was not a single chance in the entire breadth 
of the universe that a Sailor Scout would lie down and die while 
there was the slightest hope. Even when all hope was gone, any of the 
Scouts would fight on, for they brought their own hope with them. 
Sailor Mercury was no exception, and she levelled another Water And 
Power at her enemy.

This time the Agent was expecting it, and leaped through the air in a 
graceful arc that took him to the roof of the subway. While titanic 
energies ravaged the stairway he had been standing on, Tuxedo Mask 
hung in mid-air, cape ruffling majestically behind him in a manner 
that they had all thought had been so amazing. 

Although Mercury tracked her bast through his arc as quickly as 
possible, she was too slow. Without delay, Tuxedo Mask touched down 
beside her and slammed his cane into her stomach, doubling her over 
and sending her sliding backwards to crater the wall behind her. 

"At this point... it no longer matters that... Morpheus... was wrong. 
They should have taken... Sailor Moon... she is much... more powerful 
than you are."

Despite her speed and despite the training she had received, Mercury 
was not able to avoid his blows. Each word was punctuated by the 
shattering impact of one of Tuxedo Mask's fists as it tried its best 
to forcibly enter her chest, face or stomach. Collapsing to the 
ground, a small trickle of blood came from the corner of Mercury's 
mouth. When the Agent reached down and lifted her by her short hair, 
Mercury was too battered to resist.

After looking into her eyes for a moment and relishing her 
comprehension of failure that he saw there, the Agent began to drag 
her to the train track. "You do not need to... concern yourself... 
about Sailor Moon. She has already been... taken care of."

Tossing her onto the track that were shaking with the approach of a 
train, the Agent dropped behind her and grabbed her in a headlock, 
forcing her to see the distant light of the oncoming train. "We have 
erased her memories of these... unfortunate events. Morpheus has... 
failed."

Tightening his grip to ensure that they would both be splattered 
irrevocably by the train, Tuxedo Mask placed his lips beside 
Mercury's ear. "Do you hear that sound... Miss Anderson? That is the 
sound of inevitability." 

"Goodbye, Miss Anderson." 

The train was so close now that she could see the details of its 
front in the reflected light. Once again she delved deep inside 
herself and found new strength. "My name... is _Mercury_!"

With a leap that would have done anyone proud, Sailor Mercury jumped 
straight up from her crouched position. Despite the fact that she was 
bearing the weight of Tuxedo Mask on her back, she hit the roof of 
the tunnel with sufficient force to shatter the concrete and break 
the strength of his grip. Landing again, she touched the ground only 
long enough to shed her burden and leap out of the path of the train. 

Even using her full speed, Sailor Mercury could feel the wind whip by 
her bare legs as she reached the platform. The suction of the passing 
train was so strong that it threatened to pull her in at any moment, 
but she leaned forward and fought it. When the train passed and she 
was secure, she sighed with relief. Nothing could have survived that. 
The Agent was surely dead.

"Most commendable... Miss Anderson. I have enough bodies available to 
do this another... five... billion times. When will you tire... Miss 
Anderson?"

With a whisper, Mercury turned to the stairs. "No..." 

She was beaten and exhausted. That last jump had taken everything out 
of her. To fight another Agent now was impossible. She should just 
sit down and let him deal with her.

Rising to her feet, Mercury looked up as Tuxedo Mask walked down the 
uneven stairs. Wiping blood from the corner of her mouth, she spoke 
softly. "I am Sailor Mercury, champion of justice. Enslaving people 
is evil, and in the name of Mercury, I shall punish you."

The effectiveness of her speech was somewhat diminished by the 
weakness of her voice. Equally, the way that she coughed and a thin 
spray of blood came from her mouth at the end tended to reduce the 
effectiveness of the threat. Mercury was fairly sure that the Agent 
must have broken one of her ribs earlier, and that last jump of hers 
definitely must have caused it to scratch a lung at the least. Even 
if standing was a challenge, she would never give in. She would fight 
on as long as her body drew breath, and when she stopped breathing, 
she would still fight if she could find a way.

"Say goodbye... Miss Anderson."

"The lady said she preferred to be called 'Mercury'"

Everyone's head snapped around at the sound of a third voice. Oddly 
enough, it was the Agent that spoke, with a tone of fear in his 
voice. "Neo! No!"

From where he stood at the top of the stairs, Neo simply reached out 
and touched Tuxedo Mask. She was sure that the Agent tried to dodge, 
but he acted like he was rooted to the spot and trying to move in 
molasses. When Neo's hand reached the Agent, it went straight though 
his skin, ending somewhere in his chest. 

After only a moment, the Agent became lighter and more transparent. 
In under a minute, where the man had been, there was only clear air. 
"He won't bother us again. We've got a few minutes, it will take a 
while before they can get enough Agents here to risk trying to attack 
you while I'm around."

Collapsing to the ground, Mercury spoke into the pavement, too weak 
to raise her head. "I'm sorry, Neo. I shouldn't have come here."

She felt a soft hand on her back, comforting her in her pain. "It's 
OK, Mercury. I know exactly what you felt, we all do. We tried to 
help by stopping you, but you were just too good for us."

Neo gave a rueful chuckle and she felt an amazing warmth flooding 
through her body. "The best thing about The Matrix is it's 
consistent. If you get hurt in The Matrix, you get hurt in reality. 
If I heal you here... We've got to hurry, Mercury. We've got Squids 
coming. If they can't get you one way, they'll try another."

Feeling infinitely better, Mercury sat up and looked at him. "What 
are Squids?"

"No time for that now. Hang on a second." Reaching over to a 
telephone that she had been sure did not exist just a few minutes 
ago, Neo handed her the hand set. Curiously she listened to the 
receiver...

Light!

She was back on the ship! Behind her she felt someone remove the 
connection at the base of her neck. Looking around, she saw Morpheus 
staring down at her with a very worried expression on his face. "You 
had us all very worried."

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..."

She was cut off as Morpheus held her tightly. "We're just glad that 
you are back. When I saw you on the couch, and all of the bruises 
appearing, I thought... It felt like my own daughter was dying 
there."

Holding onto him, Mercury could feel the big man's desperation. She 
knew that he treasured all his crew, but she had suspected for a 
while that she was something special to him. Young enough to be his 
child, she was the future that he had denied himself in Zion so that 
he could fight the Machines.

Around them, darkness descended and she looked about in confusion. 
"Neo's out, powering down! Squids in range of EMP in 5... 4... 3... 2 
and... Damn! Nothing happened!"

Instantly Morpheus was moving. "They must be new ones... Better 
shielding. Start charging again, we might get a second chance! Tramp! 
Get us moving! Saif, see if there are any other ships in the area, 
and get warning to them."

As everyone started moving in organised chaos, Mercury turned in 
confusion to Neo. "What's happening? What's going on?"

"Squids. They're hunter / killer Machines. They're always roaming the 
passages, trying to find ships like ours to attack. Normally we can 
destroy them with an EMP blast, it's the only weapon we have against 
them. These ones... They must have better shielding, because it 
did'nt even slow them down."

"Robots? Attacking us?"

When Neo nodded, strange glint came to her eye. Even if their hover 
ship was underway, there was no reason that she could not deal with 
their problem all by herself. If she was in The Matrix or in reality, 
she still fought for love and justice, and nothing would stop her 
from punishing the people that hurt Sailor Moon and threatened her 
friends.

Leaving Neo and the others behind, Mercury ran through the ship. When 
she reached the exterior lock, she threw her weight against it 
without hesitation, opening the massive door and jumping out of the 
moving ship to land on the ground beneath.

Looking up at the five Squids that were rapidly approaching through 
the underground tunnels, Mercury grinned. The Machines wanted her 
power? Well, they could have her power!

"MERCURY... ICE CATACLYSM!"

And the frozen Armageddon began...

*	*	*

12347632354
24592634545
45230983218
46702395484
56127341265
87256715189
90845615483

>Connected<

>Trace Signal<
>Trace Complete. No Signal<

>Re-route And Delete<
>Re-route Failed. No Signal. No Route<

"When I spoke to you last, I could not tell you how things would 
end." It was Neo's voice, echoing faintly.

"All I could say was how it would begin. It would begin with a 
whisper. We would make the people understand what was happening to 
them."

"I still can't tell you how it will end. We aren't at the end yet, 
there is too much left to do. All that I can tell you about, is the 
beginning of the end."

"It all began with a whisper. A whisper of the truth. The beginning 
of the end will come with a shout..."

*	*	*

"MERCURY... POWER!"

---
End of story