* * *
	A few hours later, Raye picked up her phone and pushed auto-dial button
number six-a button she had not pushed since they broke up. Darien's voice
sounded rather ragged on the other end. "Hello?"
	"Is Serena there, Darien?"
	"No, she left about a half hour ago." (Thank Gods, Raye thought, she
*wasn't* alone last night. . .) "She didn't tell me whether or not she was
going home."
	"Darien. . .if you don't mind my asking. . .did anything. . .unusual
happen last night?"
	He let out a big sigh of relief. So Raye had sensed it as it was
happening. He didn't dream it after all. "Could you come over to my
apartment later? We can talk about it."
* * *
	After making the obligatory pitstop at home, Serena went to Lita's
apartment. She was working on another "surprise" for Darien-she was going
to learn how to cook a dinner for him. She was glad that her two surprises
last night had gone so well-she sighed at the slight taste of him that was
still lingering in her mouth.
	Lita met her at the door excitedly. "So, how was last night? Give me every
gory detail!"
	Much as she loved Lita, Serena was not about to share every single one of
her and Darien's most special, private moments with her. "Oh, he loved the
nightgown. Practically tore it off me. And he took lots of pictures of me
wearing it."
	"Oooh! Sexy! Did he shoot pictures of the two of you in bed, too?"
	"Lita! What do you think he is? Some kind of a pervert? Besides, how could
he take pictures if we were doing it?"
	"With a tripod and a remote shutter clicker, like the one that Ken. . ."
She clapped her hand over her mouth, a rather Amy-like blush starting to
stain her cheeks.
	Serena giggled at her bold friend's sudden awkwardness. "Come on, Lita,
show me how to do that chicken Kiev."
* * *
	As Raye walked down the road toward Darien's apartment, she felt it grip
her again. Oh no, she thought. Please, whatever you are, stay away. Far
away. But the feeling of evil, the sick feeling of dread, continued to grip
her, getting stronger and stronger and. . .
* * *
	Serena was covered in flour almost head to foot, a particularly fetching
dot at the tip of her turned-up nose. She looked like a little cookie. Her
hands were busy dipping the chicken cutlets in a beaten egg-milk blend and
rolling them in a mixture of flour and spices. So intent was she on her
task that she almost didn't notice the rumbling of thunder and howling of
wind outside.
	Lita raised her head. "What's that?"
* * *
	Raye strained with all her psychic senses, trying to determine where
Serena was, where the evil was. Please, Mars, help me, she cried out in her
mind. If you ever loved me, help me.
	She was rewarded with a strong pulse of feeling and knowledge. Lita's
place, she's at Lita's place, it's coming to get her there. . .
	Shaking off the sickness and lethargy, she took off for Lita's at a sprint.
* * *
	Lita let out a scream as her cabinet doors burst open, pots and pans
clattering to the floor. Serena was wandering over toward the window as the
room shook, her eyes transfixed on an unearthly light outside. Stumbling
over the debris on the floor, Lita raced for her bedroom and grabbed her
wand. Holding it over her head, she shouted, "Jupiter power!" Nothing
happened. She tried again, louder. "JUPITER POWER!"
	When Raye approached the apartment building, she saw it shrouded in a
strange fog. Ignoring the pounding in her head and the tearing nausea in
her stomach, she flew up the stairs and barged into Lita's door without
knocking. As soon as she entered, Serena's trance broke. She ran to Raye
and threw her arms around her, sobbing hysterically. "Don't let them get
me, Raye! Don't let them get me!"
	Raye hugged the smaller girl to her bosom. "Who are they, Serena? Who are
they?"
	But at that moment, the rumbling, wind and shaking stopped, and Serena
went limp and fainted.
* * *
	It was a very haggard Darien who opened the door to an equally harried
Raye. Their eyes met, and they didn't have to go into any preliminary
explanation of what had been happening. They knew.
	"It just happened again," she said. "At Lita's."
	"I know. I felt it. Is she all right?"
	"She hasn't got a single memory of it happening. She just woke up and
said, 'Oh! I must have dozed off on the couch! I'm supposed to be learning
how to. . .' Then she looked at Lita and I and said, 'What's with you
two?'"
	"Did you tell her?"
	"Yes. And she said, 'Raye, you've been having the same nightmares as
Darien' and went back to breading cutlets. Then Lita practically pushed her
across the room and said, 'It wasn't a nightmare! It HAPPENED, dammit!' And
Serena saw the mess on the floor, and got all shaken up. Lita and Serena
went to her house to find Luna; they're over there talking about it right
now."
	"So why didn't you go with them? Why did you come here?"
	"Because. . .I don't know why, but I have this feeling that we're the only
two people who can help her. She specifically cried out to me for help, not
Lita. . ."
	"What were her exact words?" he said, even though he already knew what the
answer to that was.
	"She said, 'Don't let them get me, Raye! Don't let them get me!'"
	He exhaled a long breath. "That's what I was afraid of. Come on-have a seat."
	She sat down on the couch, and noticed the heaps of books on the coffee
table and floor. She picked one up and looked at the cover-"Magickal
Gateways."
	"What's this?" she said.
	"It's something that might help us to help her. When I was a teenager, I
knew there was something different about me, something special. I didn't
have a clue as to what it was. I knew I had psychic talents of some sort,
but living in an orphanage, there was no one there I could talk to about
it, no one to offer me any kind of guidance. . .so I began spending a lot
of time in the library, reading up on anything paranormal, and that led to
my studying Western ritual magick."
	"Not that Satanic shit, I hope."
	"No. This was actually a system not too far away from Shinto. . .it
involves working with natural earth energies to stimulate psychic energy,
much as you girls channel planetary and deity energies as Scouts. You said
that Lita wasn't able to transform while that thing was active. Whatever it
is, it knows how the Scouts' powers work, and it's blocking them. But
maybe. . .just maybe. . .we can repel it with earth energies." He sighed.
"If only we knew exactly what we were up against, and why it wants Serena.
. ."
	She thought for a moment. "Are there any rituals and formulas in there for
putting someone in a deep, deep trance state?"
	"Yes, there are."
	"I want you to put me in the deepest trance you possibly can. I want to go
deeper into other worlds than I could with the fire. Then, maybe I can find
out what this is all about from something. . .or someone."
	"Raye. . .this 'someone'. . .does this have something to do with how
you've been acting lately?"
	"You've noticed?"
	"I know you better than any of the others do, Raye. You seem so different
from the girl I used to. . ."
	She smiled. "It's a long story. I'll tell you all about it when the
danger's past. Right now, we have to find out who our enemy is."
	Several minutes later, she was lying flat on the floor in the middle of a
circle of salt. At each compass point of the circle was a lit candle. He
was kneeling over her, holding her hand.
	"There was a time," he said, "when if we were in a position like this, we
would have been asking for major trouble."
	"We asked for trouble," she replied. "And we didn't get it."
	His face clouded as he remembered the humiliating, bewildering
incident-the one and only time in his life when he'd been unable to perform
with a woman (in a consensual situation, that is). It had been as if
something was blocking him from making the mind/body connection necessary
for arousal. . .
	She squeezed his hand. "I shouldn't have brought that up. I'm sorry."
	"Don't worry about it. It's in the past. We have to worry about the here
and now." He changed the tone of his voice so that it was a soothing
monotone. "Now I want you to relax and visualize, Raye. . ."
* * *
	She was in a corridor, an underground tunnel. At the end of it, she saw a
bright flickering, a flame. And her heart sped up, because she knew what
she'd find there.
	[i close my eyes, oh god i think i'm falling]
	Slowly, she moved toward it. She could see his form, silhouetted against
the flames. . .
	[out of the sky i close my eyes]
	When she drew near, and her eyes beheld him for the first time in months,
sobs began wracking her. He reached out his arms, and she fell into them,
burying her face in his chest. Oh, how good it was to feel him holding
her-like she was whole at last, at long last.
	[heaven help me]
	"Raye, darling," he whispered.
	[like a child, you whisper softly to me]
	"I never thought I'd see you again," she whispered back.
	[you're in control just like a child]
	"I told you that I'm never far away from you."
	[now i'm dancing]
	"But that's not the same as seeing you. . .touching you."
	[it's like a dream, no end and no beginning]
	"We weren't meant to be together like that, Raye. At least, not now."
	[you're here with me, it's like a dream]
	"But when? When?"
	"A future time. . .which may not come to pass if the vortex is allowed to
take Serena."
	Oh, Gods, in the ecstasy of seeing him again, she'd forgotten her original
mission. "What is the vortex?"
	"The primary weapon of an evil race from the far future which is trying to
remove Serena from this time line, because they know that in their own
time, she will be the focal point of a psychic attack that will destroy
them and prevent them from taking over the world."
	"Is it the Negaverse?"
	"It's something even worse than the Negaverse. Darien was right-it knows
how your Scout powers work. But its weakness is human psychic powers. You
have developed your psychic abilities, and so has Darien. Serena has latent
psychic abilities. She was able to sense on that level that the two of you
were able to help. The reason the first two attacks were broken off was
that one of you was with her."
	"What is the future time you were talking about?"
	"Look into the flames, Raye." She did, and was rewarded with a view of a
beautiful, utopian society. "This is Crystal Tokyo, the restoration of the
Moon Kingdom. Serena and Darien will rule over it as king and queen, and
their daughter Reenie will be their heir. All of you Scouts will hold high
rank. It will be a peaceful time, a time when gods will dwell on earth with
humans."
	"And. . .you will dwell with me?"
	"Yes, Raye."
	[let the choir sing!]
	"But," he added, "it will only come to pass if you and Darien can stop
this thing. You must remain completely focused on your goal, and you must
be willing to do whatever it takes. Are you?"
	"Yes."
	"Then go back to your body and the world. They're planning another attack
tonight, and they'll be expecting you and Darien to show up, so they'll
triple their efforts. You'll probably have to enlist the help of the other
girls-they may not have as much psychic ability as you, but at least they
all have some."
	"Do I have to go back. . .now?"
	"Yes, my darling. I don't want us to be separated again either, but it
must be done if the future is to be protected. Now kiss me. . ."
	Their mouths met, and she felt herself consumed by a brilliant, white-hot
ecstasy. When it faded, she was back on the floor of Darien's apartment.
	"Raye?" Darien said. "What did you find out?"
	She shook the cobwebs out of her head. Oh, Gods, she still felt warm all
over from being with him. . .Then, she remembered the seriousness of the
situation, and her mind snapped to attention.
	"Give me some of those books," she said. "We have to devise a ritual-we
have no time to lose."
* * *