January 16, 2000

The Mask
A Sailor Moon fanfic
by Kristin Renee Taylor


It was a beautiful night. The clear sky was ablaze with starlight and
the constant, lower blinking that signified planes. The full moon
provided plenty of cool light so that I could clearly see each of the
individual warehouses. It's watery reflection, seemingly bloated by
the water, billowed on the Tokyo bay. Like I said, it was a beautiful
evening.

	Pity someone would have to die.

	I stood on a rooftop of the warehouse where, only minutes
earlier, I had resucued a man in a tuxedo from some wigged out psycho
woman with a crystal sword. I didn't know who either were; Artemis
had only given me as much information as he thought I needed to know.
From my position I could clearly see the loading docks, and the large
black dome resting in almost the center of it. I could also see the
right side of the man generating that force field and, if I squinted,
I could make out the shadowy details of the four girls trapped
within.

	"Katarina would kick my butt if she knew what I was doing," I
muttered.


	"What was that?" Artemis, crouched on the railing, looked up at
me. I smiled at him, but winced internally. "Nothing, Artemis. Just
thinking about how beautiful the night is."

	"Yeah," he said, glacing briefly at the sky. "It is. You gonna
send her a postcard of Tokyo at night?" Damn that cat's ears.

	"Maybe," I replied, only slightly surprised that I could keep my
voice calm. Ever since that night in the warehouse in England, I'd
felt strangly detatched, as though someone else was living my life
for me, and I was merely a visitor along for the ride. Even now,
feeling the wind rushing past my exposed skin and pulling my hair out
behind me, I felt curiuosly distant and serene. None of it felt real.

	"You know the plan?" he asked me.

	"Of course I do," I repsonded absently. "I've known the plan
since we got back. The only thing that could possibly go wrong with
the plan would be those four girls."

	"Hey now, Mina, those are your soon-to-be teammates."

	"Yeah, and look where they are now. Caught in a blatantly obvious
trap, even though they outnumber then enemy two to one. Two and a
half to one if you count that guy in the tux." Movement within the
dome. I leaned forward slightly and tried to see into it. "Frankly,
Artemis, those four don't take their job seriously enough." I saw him
open his mouth, and I said angrily, "I saw them earlier. Two of them
do nothing but squabble like chickens pecking at turnips and the
other two spend all their time trying to keep the first two apart. In
fact, I think the only competent one is that Mercury chick. But only
when the others aren't around."

	He looked at me, startled, "Don't you think you're being a bit
harsh? After all, you haven't even met them yet."

	I straightened and started to walk away. The white cat jumped
down to follow me. "That was a conservative estimate, Artemis. I'll
save you from knowing what I really think of them. But never fear,
Mina's here, and she's gonna whip those sorry Sailors into shape."

	"You don't have to do that, Mina. You're not the leader."

	"No, but I've have almost a year's worth of experience on those
four, and I know what we're up against, therefore I'm the most
qualified to lead. Those four won't slack off while I'm around."

	"That's strange, coming from you. You never took your Scout
duties this seriously before we left England."

	"People change, Artemis. Especially when they're 14 year old
girls fighting evil monsters in a foreign land." At the other end of
the rooftop, I pulled out my transformation wand as Artemis lept onto
my shoulder. I leaped off the side, transforming in mid-air, and
landed in a crouch on the wooden walkway. Artemis dropped nimbly to
the ground. "At any rate, let's get this over with. The sooner I kill
off those two Negaverse cretins, the sooner we can invade and blow
those goons to Hell."

	Artemis looked up at me. The lighting was bad here, so I couldn't
tell what expression he had on his face. His voice, however, sounded
strangly sad. "You don't care anymore, do you?"

	I stood hastily. "We have a job to do, Artemis." Turning, I
prepared to leap back to the rooftop.

	"What's more important to you, Mina? Being a Sailor Scout, or
being a human girl?"

	I glanced back at him once, then pushed off the ground so hard
that, for a moment, I thought I would overshoot the rooftop. I landed
badly in the center of the roof, almost spraining my ankle as I
rolled forward to absorb the shock of the landing. Swearing, I
climbed to my feet and limped back to my vantage point.

	The dome had shrunk even further, and the man had been joined by
the psycho woman. She seemed rather upset, and I smiled slightly.
That'll teach her to pick on innocent, injured tuxedo-clad men. Their
voices drifted easily up to me, but I ignored them, instead waiting
for the cue Artemis would give for me to attack.

	The plan was horridly simple. Artemis would signal me from the
set of stacked pipes all the way across the loading docks, which I
could easily see from where I stood. When I saw him, I would leap off
the building and, while the evil duo below was distracted by my
sudden appearance, I'd blow the guy's head off with my Crescent Beam.
His death would cause the force field to vanish and I, along with the
others, would finish off the woman. Introductions would be made, and
I'd go home to lie in my bed and be tormented by thoughts of what I
had done.

	The only problem was that I don't know how the others would
react. Luna, the four Scouts' guardian cat, had told Artemis about
the Scouts personalities, and he in turn had told me. Having worked
with a police officer for a year, I was pretty inured to death and
destruction. After all, I learned the hard way that not all monsters
dissolve into dust after you blow their chest open.

	That was a bad thing to think of. I wonder how Katarina dealt
with... Shit. "Stay focused, Mina. Katarina doesn't want you
anymore."

	A new voice spoke up, startling me. Dragging myself from my
morbid thoughts, I searched around and spotted the tuxedo man from
earlier lurching around the corner of another building. I didn't know
what they were talking about; I had never heard of a "Rainbow
Crystal," but I sure as Hell wasn't about to let those sleezeballs
get them.

	"He's not giving you anything!" I shouted, and leaped over the
edge. I was aiming for the man's head even as I fell. I could've
easily picked him off from mid-air, but I didn't, and to this day I
don't know why. I mean, I could easily picture what shooting him
would look like. Too easily. Dammit, Artemis, I've tried being a
normal girl. I've tried being a Sailor Scout. And neither worked!
There had to be a way to balance both lives.

	I spared a quick look at the black dome as I hit the pavement.
And quite suddenly I had the answer to Artemis' question. Somehow
those four had managed to balance their Scout lives with their normal
lives. And if I hung around them, I'd proably be able to do so, too.

	I grabbed the mask that covered my eyes, the very symbol of
Sailor V, and ripped it off. Without the mask I was nothing more than
Mina Aino in a Sailor uniform. 'No', I amended silently as I adjusted
my aim, 'I'm Sailor Venus and Mina Aino! And that's the way it's
gonna stay.'

	I smiled, and for the first time since that fateful night a
deranged man tried to blow me up with a hand grenade, it was
unforced.

	"Venus Crescent Beam SMASH!"


Fin.

Author's notes:

Set during the American episode "Sailor V Makes the Scene." I've
taken some minor poetic justice with it.

Comments, criticisms, and ideas are gratefully accepted. Even the
flames. Please address all the aforementioned stuff to
gelles@yahoo.com.


Disclaimer:
Sailor Venus, Artemis, and all the unnamed masses that you know are
the Sailor Scouts, don't belong to me. I take no claim to them. In
fact, all I take claim to is my brain.