Seeing Stars
By Jason Ulloa
Original story by Moonsong
Continued with her permission.


Chapter 21

"So, what do you think so far?" G.Q. asked after swallowing a mouthful of 
food. He set down his hamburger and took a quick drink of his soda before 
continuing. "I made quite a few changes to the second half of the script, 
especially to the scenes between Jack and Diane during Tokyo, Hong Kong, and 
Sydney. The biggest changes of all take place in Sydney."

Molly's eyes blinked as she reread the page over again. "I... see," she said 
simply.

"This is quite a big change you're making here, G.Q.," Melvin said as he put 
down his copy of the script and looked straight at him. "Any reason why you're 
making this change? I thought that the script beforehand was pretty good."

"Well, first of all, what do you think of the script now?" G.Q. asked, 
grinning confidently. "Remember that I haven't finished all of the changes 
that I've been planning. I just want to get some feedback and possible 
suggestions before continuing, so what you're looking at is just the potential 
of what the script could be. At least, I think so."

"What the script could be?" Molly asked, rasing an eyebrow as she nibbled 
daintily at her sushi, fish and rice wrapped in seaweed, with her chopsticks. 
"What do you mean?"

"Look here," G.Q. said, flipping his copy of the script around and pointing at 
the scene in question. "Tokyo. Before, we just had Jack and Diane go straight 
from arriving in Tokyo to confronting Jed in the museum. Instead, we now have 
them temporarily checking into a hotel room nearby in order to stake out the 
musuem."

"And you've also made them start to grow attracted to each other earlier in 
the story than before," Melvin added. "I think I can see where you're headed 
with this. This way, there will be more tension and added pressure for them 
should the other be put in an extremely dangerous situation, right?" He added 
emphasis to his question by pointing at G.Q. with his chopsticks before he 
picked out one of the fried shrimps from the bentou lunch Molly made for him.

"Exactly," G.Q. said, pointing at Melvin for added emphasis.

"So, what about that one hotel scene in Sydney?" Molly added. "Exactly how far 
are you planning to take that one?"

"How... far?" G.Q. asked, blinking in confusion at the question.

"Yes, how far?" she repeated. "I don't think that there's any need for me to 
go into a detailed explanation of what I mean."

"That will be explained in full detail when the blue final revision comes 
out," he replied. "Do you have any objections to the scene?" he asked.

"No, no objections," she replied. "I just wanted to know exactly how far you 
were planning on taking it. I'm sure that I'm not going to be the only people 
that will want to know. Serena and Darien will most definitely want to know, 
since they will be the ones doing the scene. I'm pretty sure that Darien won't 
mind - most males don't - but Serena will probably want some say in the scene, 
depending on how far it goes."

"Well, there's several ways to go about it," G.Q. began after taking another 
bite of his hamburger. "We could make the room dark with only the exterior 
lights providing enough illumination to show the action, but little detail. 
We could use the often-used method of using the man as a screen, showing only 
his back due to the camera angle. Same thing if the couple is lying down on 
the bed, only Serena'll have to make sure she stays pressed against Darien, or 
else she'll risk showing more than necessary. Then again, some directors just 
let the woman expose her upper half to the camera, but I hardly think that Amy 
would go for such a thing. Sometimes I think that that overused phrase 'for 
the sake of art,' or 'for the sake of the theater' is becoming more of an 
excuse than a reason, nowadays."

"I agree entirely," Molly said firmly, nodding her agreement. "I'm sure that 
Amy will know what's best, though. I think we should leave the final decision 
on that scene to her."

"Well, since we've agreed on that," Melvin said as he flipped through his copy 
of the script, "let's go on. If you wanna go to the final revision, G.Q., then 
we've gotta make sure we've looked at everything and come up with all the 
ideas we can think off."

"This might take a few days, maybe a week," G.Q. said as he thoughtfully 
sipped his soda.

"Well, we'd better get back to work, then," Melvin said. "After all, this 
script isn't going to revise itself. And, if scripts did revise themselves... 
well, you'd be out of a job, now wouldn't you?" he said, laughing to himself.

Molly and G.Q. exchanged a patient look. "I do love the man," Molly said with 
a sigh, "but his horrible jokes get on my nerves sometimes."

"I feel your pain," G.Q. replied sympathetically while Melvin tried to get 
himself back under control.

"Out... of... a job...," Melvin wheezed while laughing.

"Mou...," Molly muttered irritably while making a vexed face.

"Ditto," G.Q. sighed as he took another bite of his hamburger.

            **********************************************

"How long has it been, Ryo-chan?" Hotaru asked from the room. She had been 
sitting on the bed for a long time since waking up that morning just staring 
at the building next to them from out of the room's window.

She had started doing that a couple of days ago and even though it was 
beginning to worry Ryoku, he didn't say anything about it. It was better than 
when she was crying every morning for five hours straight.

Ryoku exited the kitchen and walked into the bedroom, giving Hotaru a 
concerned, yet loving look as he sat down next to her. "We've been here for 
almost ten days, Hotaru-chan," he replied calmly as he put his hand on hers 
and squeezed it.

"Something's wrong," she said as her eyes began to narrow. "I can hear it in 
your voice. What's wrong, Ryo-chan?" Her voice began to grow panicked, so 
Ryoku quickly took her in his arms and started rocking her back and forth 
until she began to calm down. He had figured out the best way for calming her 
when she was having her crying fits. Even though she still cried for five 
hours straight, it wasn't as bad as when she first started crying. 

Before, she cried so hard that it soon became hard for her to breathe at 
times. Those days, before he figured out his soothing technique, she cried for 
almost the entire day, stopping only to eat, although she would sometimes cry 
then, as well. The only thing Ryoku could think of was when his mother used 
to comfort him when he was small. When he first tried it, Hotaru told him that 
it reminded her of when her own mother used to do that with her. It worked 
almost every time.

"There is something wrong," he said when Hotaru calmed down. "I just finished 
checking our food supply."

"Are we... out of food?" she asked faintly.

"Even though we started cutting down on what we eat," he began slowly, "we 
only have enough food to last us for the rest of today."

"The water and power has been cut off for a few days now," Hotaru added 
faintly. "I'm glad you thought about filling those jugs full of water before 
the water got turned off. It's been getting hotter every day now."

"I had a feeling that this would happen," he said quietly. "Since the A/C is 
off due to no electricity, it's gonna get hotter soon. We need the water to 
keep from dehydrating ourselves. With the windows welded shut, we have no 
ventilation to cool this place down. We can get by on no food for a few days, 
but dehydration can lead to heat stroke in this heat."

Hotaru was quiet for a long time before she stood up from the bed and walked 
over to the front door. Ryoku followed a short distance behind, watching her. 
Hotaru suddenly started to scream as she kicked and pounded on the metal door, 
which was welded completely shut.

Ryoku quietly stood back as he let her relieve herself of her frustrations. He 
knew that they were in a dire, life-threatening situation, and the only thing 
that was keeping him from joining her in venting his frustrations against the 
impenetrable door was the fact that he had to remain strong for her. She 
needed his strength to keep from completely falling apart from the situation 
she was in. She needed him.

After a long time of venting her frustrations, she finally let her anger 
subside as she sank down to the floor. "Ryo-chan...," she called out weakly, 
which quickly summoned him to her side. "Take me to our room," she requested 
quietly as she continued to stare at the unmoving metal door. Ryoku wordlessly 
picked her up and carried her to the room and sat her down on the bed.

"Let me get you some water, Hotaru-chan," he told her as he turned to leave. 
"I think you should try to refrain from doing that again for a while," he said 
as he poured water into a small glass. 'It's getting hotter already,' he 
thought to himself as he wiped the sweat forming on his head. "You'll only 
make yourself sweat more, and that will dehydrate you. We've got to make this 
water last, since this is all we have." He reached for the water and paused as 
a thought came to mind. 'Since it's going to get hotter soon, I need to do 
something to keep cool.' He quickly reached for the bottom of his shirt and 
pulled the whole shirt off over his head, leaving his chest bare. 'Too bad 
Hotaru-chan can't do this as well,' he thought. 'Maybe she can borrow my shirt 
and use it to cover herself down to her thighs. It'd be cooler than the 
clothes she's wearing now.'

As soon as he walked into the room, he almost dropped the glass in shock. 
"Hotaru-chan?" he exclaimed in shock as he noticed her state of dress.

"I see you had the same idea, Ryo-chan," she said with a smile as she laid 
back against the bed and looked him over. Her eyes caught on the small 
makeshift bandage she had made for him almost a week ago, to replace the 
bloody one she made for him on their first day there. He hardly showed any 
sign of being injured anymore, which amazed her due to the fact that he had 
sustained very heavy injuries, but she accepted his explanation that he had 
always been a rapid healer. "But, why did you keep your pants on as well? 
You'll get hot in those." Her smile turned seductive as she noticed Ryoku's 
expression. "So... you like?"

Ryoku swallowed again as he tried to gather his thoughts, but seeing her in 
her underwear was quite distracting. Especially since the underwear was the 
exact shade of violet as her eyes and showed off her figure VERY well. 
"Hotaru-chan! You're almost naked! Why don't you at least wear a shirt?" he 
added while tossing his shirt toward her.

Hotaru laughed as she caught his shirt, then sat up and walked up to him. 
"It's only you and me here, Ryo-chan," she said as she took the water from him 
and drank it. "You will be the only one to see me like this," she said as she 
turned around and tried to strike a seductive pose, like she had seen in those 
Victoria's Secret catalogs that she remembered from when her mother used to 
buy stuff like this for her father to see her in. She had always told her that 
when she grew up and was ready to wear things like this, that she should only 
show them off to the one she loved. Well, she definitely loved Ryoku, and 
seeing the situation that they were in.... Well, her mother would understand.

"But, Hotaru-chan...," he began faintly as he tried to gather his thoughts 
together.

"Shh...," she began as she put a finger to his lips to silence him. "I've been 
thinking about this for a long time. If anyone was going to save us, or at 
least use us to get ransom from my father, then someone would've at least come 
for us by now." She shook her head, then hugged him sadly. "No one's coming 
for us, Ryo-chan. We're going to die together. Here." She moved back so that 
she could look him straight in the eye. "We're going to die here, don't you 
see?"

"Hotaru-chan...," he said again, but drifted off quietly. 'Maybe she's right,' 
he thought as he stared down at the floor, thinking. 'It's been too long. 
Either way, someone should've come for us, but we've been condemned to a slow 
death by either dehydration, starvation, or both. Without food and more water, 
I don't know how long we'll last here.'

"There's something that I want to ask you, Ryo-chan, but... I don't know how 
to ask it...," she began quietly... and bashfully.

"You can ask me anything," he told her gently. "You know that."

"Yes," she said with a serene expression on her face. "I do know that." With 
that she sat down on the bed and pulled Ryoku around so that he was standing 
in front of her. "I know this may sound inappropriate for people our age, and 
especially since we've only known each other for such a short time, but under 
the circumstances, I think we can forget about all of that."

"What are you talking about?" he asked in confusion. He was answered by Hotaru 
gently pulling him down toward her and kissing him passionately.

"We may die in a few days, Ryo-chan," she said quietly as she looked deeply 
into his eyes. "Before that happens, I want you to make love to me."

"Nani?!?" he said, gasping in shock for a second, then stared into Hotaru's 
eyes with grave seriousness etched into his own eyes. "Are you sure about 
this, Hotaru-chan?"

"Make love to me, Ryo-chan," she repeated, her own eyes pleading with him. 
"I want to experience this with you just once before we die. Onegai, Ryo-chan?"

Ryoku replied by kissing Hotaru as he climbed onto the bed over her. "I love 
you, Hotaru-chan," he said gently as he caressed her face with his hand.

"I love you, Ryo-chan," she replied with the same gentleness as she ran a 
hand down his bare chest and stared up lovingly at him.

Hotaru sat up and reached behind her back to unfasten her bra, but paused when 
Ryoku glanced behind him with a wary expression on his face. "What's wrong, 
Ryo-chan?" she asked as she followed his gaze out of the bedroom toward the 
front.

"I thought I heard something," he said without turning his head. "Voices 
outside."

"Voices?" she repeated hopefully. "Oh, you think they're here to rescue us?"

"I don't know," he said doubtfully as he slowly, and very reluctantly, moved 
away from Hotaru and got to his feet. "Stay here. I'm going to go check it 
out."

"I'm coming, too, Ryo-chan," she replied as she got up as well.

Ryoku merely shrugged as he bent down, grabbed his shirt, and tossed it to her 
again. "Wear this then," he told her. "Wouldn't want anybody else other than 
me to see you in that, ne?" he said with a grin.

Hotaru blushed as she slipped into his shirt, then glanced down to see how his 
shirt looked on herself.

"You look very sexy in that, Hotaru-chan," he commented with an approving 
grin. She smiled and winked at him. "All right," he said, turning serious. 
"Let's go."

Ryoku and Hotaru slowly crept out of the bedroom and moved closer toward the 
front, using the abandoned furniture as cover as they tried to see who was 
coming.

"Yeah, this's the place," a male voice said in reply to an unheard question. 
"Got the stuff?" the voice asked almost eagerly.

"I swear, you get off on it, don't you?" another male asked. "What is it with 
you and high explosives, anyway?"

"I DON'T 'get off' from explosives!" the first male retorted. "I just find 
them very useful."

"Useful, huh?" the second said patiently, as if he had had this conversation 
before. "I'll bet. Haven't you ever heard of the expression, 'Don't use a 
sledgehammer to swat a housefly'?"

"Yeah. So?"

The second male sighed patiently. "Just go get the torch. After I start on the 
door, go get the rest of the gear, okay?"

It was quiet for a moment while the first man left. "High explosives?" Hotaru 
whispered questioningly to Ryoku.

"I don't think this is a rescue," he replied with a worried expression on his 
face. "I think they've finally remembered about us."

"Why'd they have to come back?" she said in a frightened voice as she clutched 
onto Ryoku. "It was better when it was just me and you!"

"Try to think of it this way," he told her as he gathered her into his arms 
and slowly rocked her back and forth again, trying to calm her. "In a way, 
we're being saved from a slow, certain death. It may look like we might be 
headed for what might be a possible violent death if they choose it, but I 
won't let that happen, Hotaru-chan. I won't let them harm the girl I love. I 
promise you."

"Ryo-chan...," she murmured as she hugged him tightly.

"Hey! You know how heavy this damn thing is?"

"That's why I wanted you to bring it."

"HEY!!!"

"Just shut up and let me get to work," the second man said. "Just get ready.
The boy's supposed to be a tough fighter, so be on guard. He may try something 
as soon as we're in."

"Let him try," the first man said confidently. "I'll kick his ass!"

"Whatever," the second man replied as a low roaring sound suddenly erupted 
into life, followed by a loud scratching sound. Ryoku cautiously glanced over 
the back of the couch they were hiding behind. As he watched the door, bright 
sparks of light leaped off of the welded door from the top right corner.

They were cutting their way inside. It wouldn't be too long until they broke 
through.

"I still say that a little bit of C-4 placed around the frame will take that 
thing right off," the first man complained boredly. "This way is taking too 
long."

"Don't you think that a loud explosion would attract a lot of undue 
attention?" the second man retored with a little bit of heat in his voice. 
"Why the hell do you think that Jed took the trouble to find this out of the 
way place in an all but abandoned ghetto?"

"'Cause he's cheap dumb-ass. He would've been fine in one of those cheap 
apartments we passed about half a mile back on our way here."

"And how would he be able to keep a couple of kids from being able to escape 
while he was busy trying to take care of other business in L.A.? Hire a 
sitter? Don't be stupid. Now, shut up. This's gonna take a little longer and 
I'm tired of hearing you talk."

"Whatever. I'm gonna go smoke, so just hurry it up, all right?"

After the first man left, it was quiet except for the sound of a blowtorch 
blazing against metal. When the work was done, it turned out that only the top 
and bottom of the door was actually welded. Once those were taken care of, it 
was easy to remove.

"Hey, it's done. They've gotta know we're here, so get ready."

"About damn time. Let's go."

The door opened and a tall silver-haired man entered with a blowtorch in his 
hand, followed by a shorter blonde man with his hair tied in a small ponytail 
at the back of his head, almost similar to Ryoku's hair style. The silver-
haired man carelessly tossed his blowtorch to the side and cracked his 
knuckles. "Let's go find them."

"Don't bother looking," Ryoku said as he stood up. "I'm right here."

"And the girl?" the silver-haired man asked with a slight grin slowly crossing 
his face.

"She's around," he replied nonchalantly. "But, if you want her...," he began 
as he moved in front of the couch and shifted into a fighting stance, 
"...you'll have to go through me."

"Fine by me!" the blonde man said as he charged Ryoku. The two quickly 
exchanged blows as the silver-haired man watched. Hotaru quietly watched from 
behind the couch, while being careful not to be seen.

'Hmm...,' the silver-haired man thought as he watched Ryoku fight. 'The boy is 
a fairly skilled fighter, even after his recent injury.' His eyes blinked in 
surprise as Ryoku managed to feign an attack to the left, then snuck through 
the other man's defenses to deliver two punches to the man's stomach and face, 
followed by a fierce kick to the throat, which knocked the other man down to 
the floor.

'Incredible!' the silver-haired man thought in surprise, then frowned 
thoughtfully. 'Well, Jed did say that even he had a hard time with the boy. I 
should've realized that this would happen, since Jed's much better at fighting 
than Blondie, down there.' He smirked for a second as he turned his attention 
back towards Ryoku. 'I haven't had a decent fight for a while, but now's not 
the time for fun. We've already wasted enough time here.'

"So?" Ryoku asked smugly as he turned toward the silver-haired man and made a 
taunting gesture at him. "Aren't you gonna come get some?"

"I'm sure it would be a whole lot of fun," he said as he reached into his 
shirt and pulled out a gun, then pointed it at him, "but I've already wasted 
enough time here. All right, Blondie," he said to the man clutching his neck 
on the floor, "get up. You've had your fun."

"My throat...," the blonde man choked out as he tried to stand up. "And stop 
calling me Blondie!"

"All right," the silver-haired man shouted, making sure that his voice could 
be heard anywhere in the place. "Listen well, Hotaru Tomoe. There is a gun 
pointed at your boyfriend's head. If you don't come out in three seconds, he 
will die. Three!"

"Wait!" Hotaru shouted as she jumped up from her hiding place. "Don't kill 
him!"

"Aw, how disappointing," he said as he grinned slightly. "I was hoping to at 
least get to one before you came out. I just love tense dramatic situations." 
He gestured for Hotaru to move next to Ryoku so he could keep an eye on both 
of them at once.

"You punk!" the blonde man growled as he punched Ryoku violently in the face, 
causing his head to snap back.

"Enough!" the silver-haired man ordered. "Quit being such a sore loser."

"I'm not a sore loser!" the blonde man snapped back angrily.

"He kicked your ass, fair-and-square. Live with it," he replied firmly as he 
gestured for him to get on with what he was supposed to do. The blonde man 
huffed irritably for a second, then brought out two pair of handcuffs and 
snapped them on Ryoku's, then Hotaru's wrists.

"We gonna leave the rest of their clothing here?" the blonde man asked. "Or 
are we gonna take it with us?"

"Bring 'em," the silver-haired man replied. "We need evidence that we have 
them and sending their parents all their clothing will do nicely." He turned 
to look at Ryoku and Hotaru and smiled devilishly.

Hotaru and Ryoku both shared a frightened look before the blonde man covered 
their heads with a heavy black cloth, then stuck them both on the back of the 
head to knock them out.

The last thing that Ryoku could feel before blacking out was his body being 
picked up and swung over someone's shoulder like a sack of laundry.

            **********************************************

                              To Chapter 22

            **********************************************

Author's Note: No! Not again! Yet another chapter gone by and I haven't even 
finished yet! I really gotta stop doing this. Then again, how else could I 
make so many great chapters for this story. All right, now I'd better cut that 
out before I start giving myself a swelled head. ^_~ Next chapter: Jack and 
Diane start looking for Jed, while Tira starts putting all the clues together; 
a delivery is made to the Tomoe mansion; and the second attempt on Jack's life 
goes horribly wrong.

Disclaimer: All original materials belong to their respective 
owners. Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi and a bunch 
of big companies. No copyright infringement is intended. This 
story belongs to Moonsong and myself, and I would appreciate 
you emailing her or myself for permission before posting it 
anywhere else. Thank you.

Prologue Copyright © January 24, 2000 Moonsong.
Other Chapters Copyright © August 12, 2000 Jason Ulloa. 
All Rights Reserved.