Prolougue:"If the past is set and the present is beyond our control, what hope is there for the future?"

Two portraits. In one of them was a young girl, dressed in a long dark purple gown. Baubles of stone graced her ears, throat, and forehead. The other was a schoolgirl about the same age, dressed in uniform. Around her neck were beautiful stones, strung on a chain made of interweaving strands of silver and gold.

Both girls had the same delicate features. The same blood red hair and the same exotic golden eyes. They could have been twins. They could have been the same girl, though one portrait predated the other by millenia.

"She does have an uncanny resemblance." the man said.

"I know, Shiko-kun." The woman smiled, the smile's beauty made even sweeter by the pain and sorrow that played upon her features when she looked at the older portrait. More than once she wondered if her niece shared the same soul as her late child. She both hoped for and scorned that option, both her symbolic redemption and the child's.

The man smiled at his rather morbid nickname, Little Dead One. A play on his habit of reincarnating. Reincarnation. What if the resemblance was more than just coincidence? What if the girl was the Youma Queen reborn? He didn't want to think about it. He gazed out the view screen at the Moon, which they were passing.

"Maybe you'll find your answer there" the woman said, giving him one of her intense soul-searching gazes.

He looked at his infuriating partner; the Little Scary One, he called her as retaliation "I hope so, Kowaiiko-chan, I hope so." And he looked again towards the screen.

Chapter One: "Running With The Brat Pack"

It was a beautiful day, Hematite thought. She grinned up at her kite in the sky. It was equally beautiful. Hema remembered the feel of the wood in her hand, shaping it's curves and then wrapping rice paper around the frame. Attaching a gauze tail and tying twine to triangle points. This kite was a butterfly, graceful and dreamlike, like the barette that held her long blood-red hair back.

Hematite loved making kites; it was strangely peaceful. She had made one for everyone. Princess Usagi's was moonshaped; deceptively simply in design. Alan's was diamond shaped with a blue thunder bolt on a black background. Artoo had one shaped like a phoenix; not as complicated as one would have thought for bird shapes were not at all hard to make. Threepio had a box kite, one of Hema's earlier endevours but it was well made.

When they were younger Kodachi, Sylvite, and the triplets each had a simple triangle kite, a Delta, shaped much like the cheap plastic ones that you could still get at discount stores. They were much better made, however, and the younger children were enchanted with them. Now that they were older Hematite had decided to make them each their own special kite. She already had started on a bat shaped one for Luke.

"Hema-chan, c'mon! Today's when Mama comes home." Hematite looked behind her to see the blue-violet haired girl.

"Just a second, Leia." Hema started to spool the string. Aunt Rhi was coming home? She counted the months and days mentally. Yes, today was the return date.

"Hema-chan!" Another voice, Mara's. Probably all her cousins had come. She finished winding the string and gently cradled her creation. As Hematite turned around she saw that her guess was right. The children walked home across the small woods that was between their houses and the park.

The McIntyre-Muraino house was the larger of the two. It was Victorian style, light yellow, and had three floors plus an attic and basement. That way all five of her cousins would get their own room. Next door was Hematite's house. It was a smaller American-style farm house, painted white and a whole floor smaller than her cousins', though it was a wee bit more luxerious, given her mother's heirarchy in the government. Her mother and Aunt Rhi said it was a miracle that those two houses and the land by them existed, much less such a short distance from the palace.

When Hematite got home she raced to her work shed in the back of the house. When she was twelve her Uncle Bren, Uncle Pyr, and Uncle Cal tried to build it for her. Tried, because though her uncles were smart men, the former two in the field of magisci and the latter at politics, they were not carpentraly inclined. In the end Aunt Chrys and Aunt Mako finished the building of it the next time they visited. This proved what Hematite, Artoo, and Threepio had always suspected: the best man (or Youma) for the job is usually a woman.

Hema gently hung up her butterfly kite on the wall, next to her latest creation. She looked at the long dragon-kite, her masterwork. She had made the white and silver contraption for her Aunt Rhiannon as a "Welcome Home" Present. On an impulse she grabbed it and raced toward the long van that her Aunt and Uncle had bought just after the triplets were born.

When she got to the grey vehicle she slipped onto the middle of the three benches. The triplets were squeezed into the longer last bench while Artoo and Threepio were in the front bench. Uncle Bren drove and her Mom, Titanite, sat next to him. The nearest launching site was out by Whitecliff so they spent the next few hours driving. Uncle Bren turned on the radio to make the long ride a little less boring.

"Hello, Crystal Tokyo! This is Akemi Aino and get ready for a hour long music sweep full of late 20th Century hits on your favorite Pre-Great

Darkness station: 103.6, Radio Tokyo. To start it off of here's Don Henley with "Boys of the Summer"

Quite a few of Hematite's relations liked this station, mainly from nostalgia. When she asked Aunt Azurite about it she replied "Too much of the music played around here is bubblegum. There was much more _real_ music back in the twentieth. You just have to hope that they won't play Hanson." Which made Hema wonder what made music bubblegum. She sighed and listened to the song on the radio.

"Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadilac.

A little voice inside my head said 'Don't look back, you can never look back'.

I though I knew what love was; what did I know?

Those days are gone forever;I should just let them go.

But I can see you, your brown skin shining in the sun.

You've got the top cranked down and the radio on, baby.

I can tell you my love for you will still be strong, after the boys of summer have gone . . ."

Is that what life is, Hematite thought, going forward and letting go of old ghosts? It sounded okay but something inside her argued that things from the past resurface and letting them go is nigh-impossible. She thought about this for the rest of the ride up, barely acknowledging the music.

When they got to the site, Artoo had to wave her hands in front of Hema's face before she realized where she was. "Gomen" Hematite replied. She gently laid the kite on her bench and raced to the disembarkment area with her cousin.

Aunt Rhiannon and the man that Hema guessed was Ferrite had just left the ship. They seemed pretty much at ease with each other. Then they spotted the delagation. Aunt Rhi ran into Uncle Bren's arms to embrace him and gave him a long kiss.

After kissing Uncle Brenadan, Aunt Rhiannon turned around, as if sensing something. Ferrite was walking away. He seemed lonely to Hematite. Aunt Rhi ran up behind him, tapped him on the shoulder and when he turned she put something small in hand. She said something that Hema had a hard time hearing. Ferrite nodded, said what sounded like "Thank you", and smiled.

"What was that for?" asked Titanite.

"I just felt it was something that should be done. So, the kids all behaved. Right?"

"Rhi, you worry to much."

"Ti, I'm half Jewish. Worrying is my birthright!" Aunt Rhi ranted.

"Along with saying 'Oy', right?" Hema's mother answered sarcasticly.

"Exactly." Aunt Rhi smiled one of her secret smiles "It's all detailed in this handy little book call 'Jewish as a Second Language'. I'll lend it to you."

"Never mind, I believe you." Her aunt and mother started laughing.

Aunt Rhi gave all the kids a big hug and kiss.

"Guess what? I'm treating everyone to dinner at Renagade's Haven!" said Titanite. The triplets groaned, though Leia at least did it quietly. Hema thought she heared Mara mumble something about Mealwormballs and Judroot fries as a last resort.

As they walked over to the van, Aunt Rhiannon talked to Hematite about books. So far she had finished "The Hobbit" and was almost done with "The Lord of the Rings". She only had a few more chapters of "The Return of the King" left. "After you're done you should read the Sillamalarion, though the others are more story-ish. Sillamalarion is more like a text book" Aunt Rhi advised. "I read them when I was your age too." Hema nodded, a little shyly. Damn! Why wouldn't her mouth work?

At the van, Hematite showed Aunt Rhi the dragon kite. "It's beautiful" Rhiannon said "And you made it? You're even better than I remembered. How about I fly it with you this weekend?"

"I'd love to" Hematite said, grinning. Then she and her mother loaded up on the middle bench and Aunt Rhi sat next to Uncle Bren on the way back. After two or three hours of driving they reached the Haven. And sure enough, the triplets all ordered Mealwormballs and Judroot fries. Which suprised no one.

The day after next, which was a Thursday, dawned bright and early. So did Hematite. The she realised that it was still vacation and swore. A few hours later she had overslept, woke up again, and swore again at oversleeping. That was when Artoo and Threepio threw pebbles at her window. "C'mon Hema-chan. Don't sleep in on us."

"I'm up!" Hematite jumped around her room, putting on shorts with one bound, a tee-shirt the next, and then finally her socks, tennis shoes, and pulled her hair into it's usual ponytail. She ran out the door into the bathroom, brushed her teeth, rushed down the stairs, grabbed some toast, and ran out of the house, knocking down the twins.

"Shades of Tsukino Usagi!" Artoo said cryptically, remembering the Sailormoon tapes she had once saw her mom watching.

"When did our Usagi do that?" Threepio asked, refering to the princess.

"Not Chibbi Usa, her mother!" Artoo replied "Mom's got undeniable proof that Serenity did that every morning when she was our age."

"Speaking of the royal family" Hema said "Do you have the stuff for the sleepover at Usagi's place?"

Artoo smiled, took off her rather large backpack, and pulled out a giant duffle bag from it. "Yep, Mom's teaching me to store stuff in 'space!" Her cousin and twin were non-plussed. Artoo sighed and explained. "Not outer space but dimensional storage sheds. You know, where anime charecters keep their hammers and all kinds of things that they grab from no where. Netherspace. Hyperspace. Pocketspace. Otherspace. Hammerspace. Call it by any name you like but it remains the perfect place to put my stuff."

While Artoo did her 'Space Speech, Threepio had slithered up a tree and was hanging upside-down on a branch, preparing to summersault down. Threepio lived on risking life and limb. She maintained that plummeting ten feet, grabbing on to a handy pole or branch, swinging around once or twice, and then doing some gymnastics trick on the dismount was the best high in the world, better than anything synthetic or natural including what all the non-citizens insisted was in the Crystal Tokyo water.

Back on the ground, Artoo handed Hema a folded piece of paper. "I was doing automatic writing last night and this came up. I think it has something to do with you." Artoo was inexplicably interested in the occult and divination, even weirder was the fact that she was also studied about magisci frequently. And yet sometimes the two obsessions made sense, though they were of a weird combination. Both Hema and Artoo were readers, though Artoo specialised in non-fiction while Hematite was more inclined to novels.

Hematite looked over the paper but the symbols were as clear as java. She shook her head and handed it back. Artoo explained the markings. "Okay, that long line of symbols over there is the chemical formula for Hematite. See the 'Au'? That's the elemental abriviation for gold, Auric, and the '1K' means a thousand. Last we come to the 'TP'. It could mean toilet paper but I say teleport is a simpler answer. So, according to Occam's Razor, I want you to carry this." She handed Hema a small crystaline device.

"What is it?" Hematite asked.

"And what's Occam's Razor?" Threepio said as she flipped down from the branch.

Artoo sighed. "The devise is a teleportation tracker. If you keep it on you I'll be able to come after you if you're suddenly 'ported away. And as for Occam's razor . . .

"You guys remember those three books about computers Uncle Pyrite gave me as a Christmas present last year? The ones by Coville?" They nodded. "Well, Occam's Razor was in there. It means that the simplest solution is the most likely one." Uncle Pyr had given them all books that Christmas. Hematite and Threepio got Trek novels, though, and Hema read Threepio's as well as her own. Artoo had no idea why she got something different. Maybe because she worked better with computers than her sibling and cousin.

"Well, shall we be off?" The other two nodded. Hema and Threepio commenced whistling as they made their way up the streets, while Artoo hummed along. If they had had any other mothers the girls might of made use of "Hi Ho, Hi Ho. It's Off to Work I Go". Given the obsessions of their parents they instead did a rendition of the first season Ranma theme song.

Princess Usagi was outside to greet them. "Hey C.U.!" Threepio high-fived the pink hair girl "How's it shaking?"

"It is nice to see you, again" Hematite added.

"I think last time we saw you was yesterday" put in Artoo, dryly.

"But seriously" Threepio continued "What's happened since yesterday?"

Usagi answered as she led the girls inside. "Well, two of Mom's old friend have showed up and they spent all night talking. and I think the subject was ME" She paused in to point out two women across the hall. "There they are!"

The two women looked over at Usagi's direction and looked at each other, suprised. They nodded and strode towards the pink-haired princess and her red-headed friend, grabbing the girls' shoulders.

"Aunt Michiru? Uncle Haruka?" Usagi whispered "What are you doing?"

"Forgive us, kid" said the slightly masculine blonde. And she, the aqua haired woman, Usagi, and Hematite vanished.

The twins were stunned.

End Chapter One

Credit Where Credit's Due

Titanite, Pyrite, and Calcite belong to Mark Latus

Crysolite belongs to Berk Watkins

Ferrite aka "Shiko-kun" belongs to Frank Barr

Princess Usagi, Haruka, Michiru, and the rest of the Senshi belong to Naoko

Takeuchi, who we all shall worship

"Jewish As A Second Language" by Sylvia Rimm and Bruce Coville's A.I. Gang

books really exist

The rest is all vertabim Becky Malsin

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Next Chapter: Two Senshi at One Blow

Flashback to a few days ago when Haruka and Michiru have just woken up from a weird dream. Add a few bad puns and too many Star Trek references by the Raging Hentai. Finally stir in Artoo and Threepio's (aka the Droid Twins) daring rescue and you have lots of silly stuff.