Warning:  While this is not a lemon piece, there are definite adult undertones throughout.  I would give it an R rating.

Another Warning: This story is based heavily on events from the whole Black Moon Family storyline of Sailor Moon R.  It is written assuming knowledge of the events therein, and much of it would be considered Spoiler information for SMR, for those who have not seen that run of episodes.

At the time of this writing, the US Sailor Moon 1^st season ends at about the half-way point of the Black Moon Family storyline.

Insert the usual disclaimers, as I do not own any of these characters, nor do I claim any rights to them, blah, blah blah...

Crystal Tokyo Saga
Book Three: Wheels within Wheels

by Andy Combs

Serenity sighed as she wrestled with the problem once again. If only things could be simple like they were in the old days. Back then, when she had been galavanting around as Sailor Moon, everything had been so sharp. Black and white. Good and evil. And no grey areas in between.

That was part of why she had never seen eye to eye with Haruka and Michiru. They had always looked at the greys. The greater good served by questionable acts. The ends justifying the means. For Haruka and Michiru that had always meant *any* means to achieve their goals.

But plain simple Tsukino Usagi had never accepted that things had to be that way. Pure actions would bring about pure ends.

But for Serenity life was much more complicated. She had little choice but to see the greys in life. When one was almost a thousand years old, there was little choice. Especially when one was the ruler of the most powerful city on the planet. She had seen a lot in the last thousand years. Good and bad. She had seen the depths of evil. From Beryl to the Overlord to the Deathlord. She had seen good as well. And she had seen all shades of grey between. In the end there were few people that could be called wholly good or evil. Most were somewhere in between.

And so, she had come to realize, were most problems, like the one now before her. Serenity had discovered something that could destroy one of her closest friends if she acted on the information. But if she did nothing, as she had for the last month since she figured it out, then that destruction might just as well come.

No, not "might come", but "would come". From all reports her friend was caught up in a whirlwind of romance. Both in public and private. And disaster lay ahead. No, it just might lay ahead. But if Serenity interfeered, she would most likly set off the disaster she hoped to prevent.

So once more Serenity, wracked by indescision, did nothing.

Ti woke lightly, yawning as the morning sun sifted down through the crystal skylight of her room in the palace. A bit of movement at her side caught her attention. Topass, shifting in his sleep in response to her movement. She reached over to brush a stray lock of hair from his face. Topass. Who would have predicted it?

It had been a little over a month since they had met, and already she had a hard time imagining life without him. Her friends were still worried for her. Cal had given her a lecture on the subject just the previous day. No orders. The days when her brother controlled her life were long past. But he still worried deeply over her welfare, a fact which Titanite found sweet.

Minako and Makoto had talked to her as well. All were worried about what would happen when, inevitably, Nemesis attacked the Earth, and Topass was forced to choose between Ti and his family.

Titanite was pretty sure how he would choose. She hadn't asked him. She couldn't ask him without revealing what she knew of the future. On the other hand, Topass had commented a couple of times about his dislike for the "Game of Houses" the other Nemesites played. He considered it a drain on the energies of his planet's people. He also disliked Demand, Nemesis' current ruler. Or rather he disliked Demand's expansionist ambitions. Demand had united the four worlds of Nemesis for the first time since the Nemesites had spread from their original world to the other three "sisters". But Topass saw that it wasn't enough for Demand. Demand wanted more, and Topass feared where that hunger might lead. No, Ti was pretty sure that Topass would choose her over a family who's ways he held in contempt.

There was really only one member of his family that Topass cared deeply for... his sister Opal. But Opal was here in Crystal Tokyo with him, so he hadn't been forced to choose between her and Titanite. Not yet, at least.

When the Nemesites had completed their initial visit, they had made arrangements to leave an embassy behind. To help build relations between the two people. (To spy, Rei had commented.) Topass had gone to his father and asked to be assigned to the embassy. When Opal heard of Topass' request, she had asked to be left behind as well. Topass' dad had been so pleased to see his children take an interest in something that he had redily complied, passing the request to Demand, who had accepted it with a bored air. Thus were Topass and Opal now both semi-permanent parts of the Crystal Tokyo population.

They were technically only minor functionaries of the embassy. Glorified gophers, Topass had called it. The real power in the Nemesian embassy was a hard-faced man named Garnet, the ambassedor. Garnet was an older man, a grizzled, stern-faced man who looked more like he belonged out on a battlefield than behind an ambassedor's chair. But he was Demand's uncle, one of Demand's closest living relatives besides his brother Safir, and had thus been given what Demand considered one of the most important roles in the system, ambassedor to the other major magical power in the system.

Garnet was a giant of a man. Titanite always thought of bears when she saw him. Green hair that was fading to grey. Sharp, emerald eyes that seemed able to peer right through one. As part of her job as media liaison Titanite had had to work with him several times already. He made her very nervous. When around him she got the feeling as if he was some viscious beast, barely restrained, that could explode into violence at a moment's notice. And the scariest thing was that there was nothing overt that should be giving her that impression of him. He had never been anything but perfectly courteous to her. He had never said or did anything out of line. But none the less, her instincts screamed whenever she came near him. And given what she knew about the comming invasion, she wasn't about to dismiss such instincts.

She pondered, trying to decide whether or not to try to slip from the bed without waking Topass. Could she get out with a minimum of movement to the bed? Finally she just decided to cheat, and teleported across the appartment to her sofa...

...and found herself almost throwing up as she was hit with waves of nausea. Warp sickness. Clutching the edge of the sofa, she let the waves pass over her. They quickly subsided, but the very fact that they were there was a shock. While she had regularly gotten warpsick when she was much younger, she had gotten over it as she got older. These days she just didn't get warpsick. She just didn't. The only time she got warpsick now was when she was...

Titanite frowned. That was impossible. She glanced at Topass, still sleeping in her bed. She shook her head. It just wasn't possible. But a frown crossed her face. In a universe ruled by miracles of magic, where good and evil clashed with annoying frequency, was anything really impossible? She shook her head again, this time in defeat. No, nothing was really impossible, just highly improbible. Which meant that, if only for her own peace of mind, she had to prove this little "improbibility" wrong, or the doubts would eat her up. Fortunatly proof was easily enough obtained. She scribbled a quick note to Topass, apologizing for sneaking out on him, then quickly dressed and left. On foot.

Pyrite frowned at the results. They just didn't make sense. But he had run the tests several times, and the results just kept comming back the same way. He glanced over at the vase of flowers on his desk. Annoying just how much trouble a few flowers could cause.

They were Titanite's flowers, given to her by her new lover, Topass. Pyrite wondered at the logic of giving flowers to women. But they seemed to respond to it, so... At least most women did. Azurite had never been the flower type. Probably came from growing up in the Dark Kingdom, where so much of the local flora had been lethal. And that brought him back to the issue at hand. Namely, what in the abyss was Topass doing giving Titanite flowers native to the Dark Kingdom?

Pyrite sighed. Not just native. By all rights, these flowers should be extinct in this dimension. He and the other Renegades had brought back a few species native to the Kingdom when they returned from Earth-Beta centuries ago. But they had had very limited transport capacity, and had limited themselves to edible species. The flowers before him weren't edible. They were simply pretty. One of the few totally innocuous species that the Kingdom had held, they had been pretty much considered a weed back then, considering their lack of practical uses.

He had noticed them when Ti had come visiting a couple of weeks back. She was showing them off, still on an emotional high from falling in love for the first time in centuries. Pyrite had noticed how familiar the flowers looked at once. Titanite obviously had no idea of the resemblance. She had spent her time in the Kingdom mostly closed up inside, rarely venturing out. Pyrite on the other hand, having seen and studied much of the flora and fauna of the Kingdom, noticed the similarity at once.

He had persuaded her to leave some of the flowers behind, saying he wanted to examine them. Ti had gladly done so, long ago learning to humor his desires to study anything new. And Nemesian flowers definitly qualified. Pyrite hadn't mentioned his other thoughts. No need to bother her with suspicions.

But now they were no longer suspicions. Every test he could think of to run had returned then same answer. These were the same species as he remembered from the Dark Kingdom. Which raised all sorts of questions. What in the abyss was Topass doing giving Dark Kingdom flowers to Titanite being the formost one. In some ways it was logical. From what Titanite had described of Nemesis, the environment was very similar to the Dark Kingdom. Almost eternal darkness. A small amount of warmth from the brown dwarf that was the core of the Nemesian mini solar system. Flora generally centered around fungus, with a few other species that needed little light. These flowers fell in that latter category, making Nemesis a logical place for them to grow, once one got past the impossibility of them being there in the first place.

But they were there, which meant they had gotten there somehow. But how? Pyrite frowned. He simply had too little information to even start on a hypothesis. Hmm. He needed more information. And the easiest source was Topass himself. Topass had proved more than willing to answer Titanite's questions about Nemesis. Hopefully he could be persuaded to answer a few more.

Pyrite concentrated for a moment. Like the other renegades his powers had gradually increased over the past millennium. Unlike them, his increases were all in non-combative areas. Well, almost all. He could throw up a pretty strong force shield when he wanted, but he still had very little offensive capability. Well, innate capability, anyway. He had taken a cue from his counterpart on Earth-Beta and had a few magi-sci toys stashed around.

But for the most part his abilities had stayed to a passive nature. Like right now, he was using his aura detection abilities on a scale he would have never dreamed possible in his younger days.

The problem with any type of magical scanning in Crystal Tokyo was that the very magical nature of the city made such scanning difficult. Like trying to use normal sight to see in a room filled with floodlights. At anything beyond a few meters all one was able to pick up easily was Crystal Tokyo itself. Serenity herself seemed immune to this problem, but then the magic of the city all flowed from her in the first place, so that wasn't surprising. Few others were able to do much scanning in Crystal Tokyo.

Pyrite was one of those few. He was able to simply ignore the overflow of mana around him when he scanned. Calcite and Azurite had both just shaken their heads in frustration when he tried to explain how he did it. They were both almost mana-blind within Crystal Tokyo.

Pyrite shook his head and resumed his concentration, sweeping the city with his mind, looking for the familiar auras that were his fellow youma. Youma tended to stand out to his senses, and it was easier to look for all youma and eliminate them one by one till he found who he wanted than to try to look for one in particular. Thankfully it wasn't possible to trace Renegades separatly, or he and his friends would have never been able to survive in the Dark Kingdom.

There was Calcite in the throne room, probably advising Serenity in some matter or another.

Another youma signature was also in the throne room. A quick, closer scan revealed it as Margrave. Almost certainly in cat form, unobtrusivly observing, as usual.

Magnesite wouldn't show up on a scan like this, as he was no longer truely youma.

Which left only one other youma aura trace in the city. Titanite. The one he was looking for. Pyrite briefly wondered where Az had gone off to again. She had been leaving the city quite a bit recently. He shrugged. When she wanted to tell him, she would.

Pyrite was about to do a closer scan of Ti, to locate her so that he could teleport to talk to her, when something else caught his attention. A ghost-trace, flirting at the edge of his senses. Something else was showing up on his scan for youma. Which made no sense. He had already accounted for all the known youma in the city. Heck, except for his wife, he had accounted for all the known youma in the world. Titanite momentarily forgotten, he tried to locate the strange trace. But it stayed untracable, as if he was not quite scanning for the right thing. Youma, but not youma. Pyrite shook his head. Too much this day didn't make sense. Dark Kingdom flowers on Nemesis. Youma that were not youma....

Hold it. He ran those two facts again. Dark Kingdom flowers on Nemesis and youma that were not youma.

A nasty thought was crossing his mind, and he didn't like the implications. He quickly turned his senses on the Nemesian embassy and did a life-form scan. Quite a number of life forms. Some human, some something else, obviously the Nemesians. Picking one of the Nemesians at random, he anchored his scan. Slowly, Pyrite shifted the type of scan back to looking for youma while keeping its focus on the Nemesian. When he was back to scanning for youma he had exactly the result he was afraid he would get. The ghost, youma but not youma trace was there.

Pyrite didn't know why or how, but the Nemesites were somehow youma, or something close to it. Suddenly talking to Titanite took on new urgency. He returned his scan to look for his fellow Renegade. Locating her, he noted that she was with one of the Senshi within the palace. Good. The last thing he wanted was to teleport in on something intimate between Ti and Topass. Minako still hadn't forgiven her sister-in-law for teleporting in on her and Calcite a few weeks back.

Pyrite vanished...

...and with a wrench, appeared in a totally different place than he intended.

"Sorry to be so rough, but if you've just figured out what I think you have, then we should talk first."

Pyrite looked up at Serenity, an uncharacteristicly worried look on her face. Calcite stood beside her, his face as unreadable as allways.

Pyrite glanced questioningly at Calcite who just shrugged. He had no idea what this was about.

Serenity continued. "You've just discovered something about the

Nemesites. Something important. And the nature of that something made

the first person you told it to be Ti-chan, right"

Pyrite frowned in puzzlement, then made the connection. Serenity knew. Must have known for some time. In fact, this might be one of those things she knew from her encounter with the Nemesites a millennium ago.

Pyrite nodded. "So this is another one of those events that has to happen, is it?"

Now it was Serenity's turn to look puzzled. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"Something about this is important to the timeline, so we all have to sit back and let events take their course."

Serenity realized what he meant. "No. This has nothing to do with the timeline. This is a purly human problem of how much to tell her, and when. I've known about it for some time now, and have been paralyzed with trying to decide which does more harm. Telling her, or not telling her."

Calcite raised his hands. "Hold it. You two obviously know what you are talking about, but I have no idea. I can tell it concerns Titanite and the Nemesites, but that's it. One of you want to let me in on the secret?"

Serenity got a look of embarassment, while Pyrite answered. "Cal, I'm not sure how or why, but the Nemesites are youma. Not exactly, but pretty darn close. And as for Ti, I'm worried that if they're that close that they might be genetically compatable. Now, I don't know that for sure, but if they are..."

"They are." Serenity added softly.

Pyrite and Calcite just stared at her.

Serenity sighed deeply. "I may not know a lot about genetics, but I have played around with you and Titanite's genetic structure often enough that I'm familiar with the differences in youma and human genetics, even if I don't always understand those differences.

"A month ago I had reason to scan Topass. I had expected him to be basically human. Either that or something totally alien. He was neither. He's not pure youma, but not pure human either. He's somewhere in between. And there's something else. The similarities are not to just any type of youma." She paused, looking for the right words.

"Topass has one gene in particular that's very important. It's very weak, as if its been diluted, but it's unmistakable in him, just as it is in you two and Titanite. Topass, and likly the rest of the Nemesites, are Renegades."

Calcite frowned lightly. "Well, that's certainly a surprise, but what's that got to do with Titanite?"

Pyrite answered. "Cal, remember what I said about genetic compatability?"

Calcite nodded. Purite continued. "Cal, Ti's never had to worry about 'safe sex' or anything like it. She's immune to disease and, as long as she only has humans for partners, she cannot get pregnant. There's too much genetic drift between humans and modern youma, even renegades, for her to have children without Serenity's help. But if Ti's been spending the last month being frequently intimate with someone who's genetically compatable..." He let the last trail off.

Calcite nodded. "Minako's kid may have a cousin of the same age to play with." Serenity giggled.

Pyrite frowned at Calcite. "You're reacting extreamly calm about this.

You normally throw a fit whenever Ti's in danger."

Calcite laughed. "Ti? In danger? Pyr, you and Az have become way too afraid of having kids after Adamite." Pyrite winced at the name. "There's nothing dangerous to Ti about having another kid. Surprising, shocking, life-changing, yes. But dangerous?" He shook his head. "I do agree we should let her know, though. People should be given a choice about when they have kids, whenever possible." It was Serenity's turn to wince.

"But if she's already pregnant, well there's not much we can do about that. And it may actually be a good thing. We've been worrying about which direction Topass will turn when he's forced to choose. Ti and him having a kid will be another factor in Ti's favor. That's as long as he can be convinced that the child wasn't conceived just to entrap him. which it wasn't. That should be our first concern, I would think. Ti can take care of herself."

Calcite looked at Serenity. "Your magesty, would you mind 'inviting' the young man in question to join us? I think a conversation now could avoid a lot of misunderstanding in the future."

Serenity nodded in agreement.

Titanite sat fidgeting in one of Ami's examination rooms, waiting for the test results. She had come in and explained her worries to Ami, stressing just how impossible they were. Ami had understood, and had run a whole series of tests. Not just looking for the one cause of Titanite's warp sickness, but for any cause Ami could think of. The problem with patients who were immune to disease, injury, and most other similar things was that it was very difficult to diagnose them on the few occasions when something *did* go wrong.

Ami had run the full set of tests, then left to process them, leaving Titanite alone with her worries. Given her regeneration factor, there was only one logical explanation for her warp sickness. She was pregnant, with Topass' child. Pregnancy had always played havoc with her powers, warp sickness being only one of the symptoms.

But that was impossible. Renegade or not, she was still genetically a youma. She could no more breed with a human than a dog could breed with a cat. It just simply wasn't possible for her and Topass... No, as long as she was youma and he was human that was imposs...

An ugly thought hit her. How did she know he was human? Answer, she didn't. Nemesis was another planet, for goodness sake. Who knows what sort of beings might evolve there? She shook her head. That didn't fit. According to what little Serenity remembered from her past life, as well as Dark Kingdom history, humans had inhabited the whole solar system before Beryl and Queen Serenity broke everything in their fight. Humans. If the Nemesites were aliens, they had settled there since the fall. Which fit with what Topass had said about the Nemesites themselves beleiving that they had settled their world at some point in the past. Who the hell were they?

Titanite sighed and placed a hand across her belly, speaking softly. "Is there someone in there? If you're there, you're quite a puzzle, you know that?"

"He's there, Ti." came Ami's voice. Titanite hadn't heard her return. "I don't know how, but you were right. You're pregnant. I would guess you're about a month along."

Ti nodded as it sunk in. "You said 'he'?"

"Generic 'he'. I've no idea what the baby's sex is. But I hate calling them 'it', so..."

"I'm pregnant..." Titanite was in a daze.

"Oh, by the way, there's someone else here to see you." Ti looked up.

Ami moved to the door and motioned someone in. Topass. Ami just grinned and left, pulling the medical screen shut behind her.

Topass' face was neutral as he moved up beside her. "Are you okay, Ti-chan?" She just nodded, still dazed from the news.

"Did Dr. Mizuno tell you anything?" asked Topass.

"I'm pregnant." Titanite said, still in her daze. Suddenly realization seemed to return to her, as she realized who she was speaking to. "Oh, my god! Topass! I'm so sorry. After I specifically told you we didn't need to worry about it. That there was no way I could get... And now this..." She collapsed against him, sobbing.

"It's okay, Ti-chan. Really, it is." He wrapped his arms around her, letting her draw whatever strength she needed from him. Finally she calmed down.

"Sorry about that. I'm not usually that emotional."

"You have an excuse." Topass replied.

Titanite rubbed the last few tears from her eyes. "You're taking this awfully well."

Topass grinned. "I had a little warning. You have wonderful friends around here. They seem to have just figured out that this was a possibility, and called me in to warn me. If you were not already pregnant, they felt we should be more careful than we have been. And if you were pregnant, they were quite worried I would think you had lied to me about the possibility in order to entrap me. I know you better than that, but they were still worried.

"Anyway, when they figured out that you were at Dr. Mizuno's, they realized it was likly already too late. So Serenity sent me over here to help in whatever way I could. After all, this is as much my problem as yours."

Titanite just looked at Topass, then giggled lightly.

[Finish Scene]

Ami peeked her head back in the room. "You two about done here?"

Titanite nodded, and

[More]

Margrave relaxed on her couch, pondering this latest turn of event. That Ti was pregnant was no big shock. She might not be the baby making machine Minako had turned out to be, but she had born a number down through the years.

No, the shocker was that Serenity had had no hand in this one. The Nemesites were compatible with renegades, and by extension, youma. Like her. Margrave had just spent the last twelve hours doing extensive testing at Ami's side in her lab. Topass had supplied genetic samples, as had all the Renegades. Margrave had even given a sample of her own.

It had been a typical testing session for her and Ami. While Ami was the smarter of the two of them, for pure academic capabilities, Margrave tended to look at problems from totally different perspectives. When working together the two of them often spent more time arguing over theoreticals than doing actual hard research. What made the partnership work was that both were more concerned with finding the truth than with which of them was right on any particular matter. There was no "winner" or "loser" in their debates, just manuverings around each other to persuade the other of the truth, or be persuaded themselves.

The final results of their tests were sobering. The Nemesites were not aliens. Neither were they human or youma. They were, in fact, somewhere in between the two. By Ami's estimate they could breed with either humans or youma without assistance. Margrave had tried to argue against that conclusion, but Ami had prevailed, forcing Margrave to reluctantly agree to the liklihood of it.

Ami had won the issue by pointing out that Margrave was letting her emotions get in the way of her thoughts.

"Margrave, please just listen for a moment." Ami had began.

"You're not arguing logically. And the obvious reason is that you have a personal stake in this. You're youma, and a very promiscuous one at that. The idea of the Nemesites being compatable must raise all sorts of unpleasant possibilities for you. But there is one fact that stops your arguments cold. Titanite *is* pregnant. There's no debating that fact. So it's possible no matter what you might want it to be."

Margrave had just stared at Ami, then finally she had nodded, acknowledging the point, and the discussion had returned to how such a thing was possible.

Margrave sighed. Ami was right. She had been trying to deny the possibility. As if denying it could make it any less true. She had been like an ostrich, hiding it's head in the sand when scared. There. She had awknowledged it to herself. She was scared. Her emotions had always been her weak spot. They tended to override her rational mind at the worst possible moments.

But by forcing her to awknowlege the compatabily of the Nemesites, Ami had also forced Margrave to recognize her fears. And she had generally been able to control her emotions once she was forced to see them. So she was afraid. Of what? Of becomming pregnant, was the logical answer. No matter that Ami had placed the possibility of a repeat of Ti's prgnancy at around 10,000 to 1. It was still there. And even after all this time, she had no desire to litter.

But with the Nemesites around, it was probably only a matter of time before one or more sought her services. And the thought of having to screen her clients was just too daunting. Besides, there was an easier way...

Margrave had a very high degree of control over her body chemistry. Her phermone manipulation was only one part of it. She could basically command the various parts of her body to do as she consciously wished. >From shutting down to working at many times their normal rate, most of her bodily functions were at her control. This included her reproductive systems.

Back in the Dark Kingdom she had shut down her reproductive system. This had allowed her to use sex as needed without fear of unwanted litters. And use it she had. For pleasure and for personal gain. Both had been almost the same to her back then.

Shortly after Calcite's wedding to Minako she had let her normal cycles resume. It had been something of a personal awknowledgment of her loss of him. As the last available youma he had been her partner. With him lost to her, there had been no more reason to continue with her body in its unnatural state, so she had let her reproductive cycle resume.

[More]