Chapter 2: Crisis
The Next Morning
"Usagi, look outside!" Chibiusa exclaimed worriedly, jumping onto her 'cousin's' bed.
"Huh?" Usagi asked, slowly rising from her cocoon of blankets, as if she were ill.
"Tokyo is covered in spider webs!" Chibiusa said as Usagi gasped in horror.
"Chibiusa, go get dressed, we're going to go meet the girls," Usagi said urgently, grabbing her communicator.
Later, the six of them met at the Juuban shopping center. As Ami traced the source of the spider webs Usagi covertly placed a hand over her heart. I feel weak and achy. This started yesterday, but it's much worse today. I know Mamo-chan feels as bad, if not worse. Usagi thought, feeling her lover's weakness through their soul bond.
As Usagi and Chibiusa henshined to fight the Amazoness Quartet, Usagi thought, my henshin is weaker than normal. I hope Chibimoon doesn't notice.
Moon struggled not to scream as PallaPalla used her doll to tear them limb from limb. Suddenly a rose struck the doll from PallaPalla's hands. Everyone looked up to see Tuxedo Kamen standing on a tent support. Making his usual speech, he leapt down to join the senshi, landing somewhat heavily beside Moon.
"Is everyone all right?" he asked before his knees abruptly buckled on him in brief, but searing pain as Moon, still braced for an attack from the four girls, curled in on herself where she stood, gasping in pain. Both clutched their chests.
Shit, these attacks are getting more frequent. I can't let the enemy notice. Tuxedo Kamen thought, hurriedly pushing himself back upright.
Damn, not again! I feel weaker after each attack, but I can't give in to it now, too much depends on me! Sailor Moon thought, straightening her back and shifting her feet to a surer stance.
"Amazoness Quartet." A gravelly female voice, reminiscent of an old crone, rang out. "The greatest event of the millennium is about to begin! Get your flamboyant tails back in here now!"
"It's Zirconia-obaa-chan." VesVes stated looking at the other three.
"We'd better get inside before she starts yelling." CereCere said, getting out her ball.
"PallaPalla wants to see this mysterious event!" the blue hair girl exclaimed copying her pink haired compatriot.
"Race ya!" JunJun shouted, using her ball to teleport away. The other three quickly followed.
"What the heck was that old hag over the loud speakers talking about?" Sailor Mars asked the group in general. Everyone shrugged their shoulders in bewilderment. Overhead, a dark moon started to cover the sun in an eclipse.
Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen's legs gave out and they landed on their knees, and sat heavily on their heels. Both doubled over in anguish and clutched their chests, painful groans and pants escaping the two heroes. The senshi gasped as one and rushed to surround their fallen leader and her lover.
"Sailor Moon what's wrong?!" Sailor Mercury's soft voice demanded, her slim fingers busily typing on her minicomputer. Before Sailor Moon could do more than open her mouth, Tuxedo Kamen gritted the answer out between gasps of pain.
"Ever since… those spider… webs started… appearing… my heart… and chest have started… hurting… Moon is… the same… but mine… are a little… bit more… powerful." Sailor Moon nodded in agreement of her lover's explanation. They leaned against each other and held each other for physical and emotional support.
"These webs must be caused by the enemy. So the only way to cure Mamoru-san and Usagi-chan…" Sailor Mercury trailed off, looking grimly at the Dead Moon Circus' main tent.
"Is to defeat this Zirconia or whoever is in charge of this lousy dump." Jupiter growled, cracking her knuckles, a fierce grin forming on her lips.
"Then I say, let's storm the place and deliver some justice a la senshi style!" Venus exclaimed, jumping up from where she had been crouching beside her fallen leader and pointing at the tent like a general leading a cavalry charge.
"Yeah, let's do this, girls!" Jupiter shouted, getting to her booted feet as well and joining Venus' side.
"I'm in." Mars snarled willingly, standing and walking to Venus' other side. Her glare should have lit the fabric of the tent on fire with its intensity.
"They need to pay. I'm scanning for the best way to get in now." Mercury joined the trio, coming to stand beside Jupiter. Together, the four warriors formed a wall between the lovers and the enemy's encampment. Still kneeling beside her future parents, Chibimoon was torn between joining her friends and staying to look after Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor Moon.
:You mustn't, Senshi of Serenity's Inner Court.: Everyone but Chibimoon started at the sound of a warm tenor voice speaking in his or her mind. Chibimoon jumped up and looked at the sky, her ruby eyes lighting up with joy.
"Pegasus! Where are you?" she exclaimed scanning the skies above her, ignoring the stares of Tuxedo Kamen and the senshi. There was no verbal response to her query. Instead the magnificent snow white creature appeared in a golden flash in front of the line of senshi.
Chibimoon smiled hugely and ran up to Pegasus, throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face briefly in his silky mane. He whickered happily and cupped his wings around her slender, thirteen year old frame.
:Hello my Maiden.: Pegasus mindspoke gently to her 'ears' alone.
"What do you mean, Pegasus-san? Why mustn't we attack the Dead Moon Circus?" Mercury called, laying a calming hand on Jupiter to prevent the tall senshi from showing her opinion of the winged horse's command.
:You are neither prepared nor strong enough in numbers to take on your enemy.: Pegasus stated bluntly, but not unkindly, turning his head to look the blue senshi in the eye.
"What?!" Mars squawked in outrage. "How dare you presume to—"
:I do not presume. I am merely stating a fact.: Pegasus countered evenly. :Besides, is it not your first and foremost priority to protect your Princess?: he continued, preventing the riled senshi from arguing with him.
"Well, yes." Venus answered reluctantly. "But to protect her, we need to lift the curse. And to do that we need to defeat the enemy."
:First you need to transport them to a safer place than in front of the enemy's stronghold. Her and Prince Endymion both are too weak and vulnerable to defend themselves.: Pegasus mindsent, pointing his nose in the direction of said people, who were shakily walking forward after having climbed slowly and painfully to their feet.
"He's right, minna." Chibimoon suddenly piped up, turning to face her friends, an arm still slung around Pegasus' neck, her free hand fisted nervously at her side. After a second, Jupiter exhaled explosively and ran a gloved hand through her ponytail.
"Both of them are right. Let's go to Mamoru-san's apartment and contact the outer senshi."
:Before you go, I need to give you some much needed and long overdue explanations. I don't have much time so pay close attention.: his form flickered briefly and Chibimoon voiced a distressed negation.
Pegasus then briefly explained who he was, what was happening and showed a hologram of the true Moon being covered in spider webs and darkness as well as the Earth. He told them of his capture and his plight to find the person who possesses the Golden Crystal.
The beautiful, horned creature they now knew as the cursed high priest of Elysion, Helios, slowly hung his head in shame. :But I am out of time, and too weak to stop the Dead Moon's rise. I failed you, my Prince. Forgive me.:
"No! Helios, don't go! Please don't leave me!" Chibimoon begged, tears springing up in her red eyes and embracing his neck as if she could physically stop him. But Pegasus just shook his majestic head regretfully as his form lost its solidarity and started to flicker and fade. Briefly everyone saw the gleam of grief in his amber orbs and the weariness lining every inch of him before he faded out of existence.
"Helios!" Chibimoon cried out, tears now coursing down her cheeks. But her attention was ripped from her sorrow to the sudden crackling and booming radiating from the black skies above.
Black lightning raced across the clouded skies and struck the ground with alarming frequency. Where the lightning struck, craters were left, from which wickedly barbed vines, a meter or more in diameter at their bases, erupted to wrap around everything. Simultaneously many more spider webs swamped the Earth, covering everything with webs and darkness. Chibimoon was forcibly reminded of the time Pegasus showed her a vision of when Elysion was invaded.
Looking up she was unsurprised to see smaller floating replicas of the Dead Moon Circus tent floating down from the clouds by the dozens. Her heart dropped into her boots as she called everyone's attention to it. But the senshi only were able to glance up briefly before two strangled screams of agony claimed everyone's attention.
Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen collapsed abruptly onto the concrete ground writhing and emitting low moans of anguish. Kamen's top hat and mask fell off, revealing a face contorted in pain that mirrored Moon's. From the way Moon's reaction mirrored Kamen's, everyone rightly assumed that the same type of attack Earth was undergoing was similar to that of the Moon.
"Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Kamen!" Chibimoon shouted, worry lacing her young voice. She hurried to their sides along with the other four senshi. Mercury scanned them quickly with her minicomputer.
"They're in incredible pain, but at this point in the process, their lives are not currently in danger. It's safe enough to move them." The blue haired senshi stated, turning to Venus as the default leader of the senshi. The golden haired senshi nodded decisively.
"Okay. So basically they're not going to die right now, but both are in too much pain to move by themselves correct?" Mercury nodded slipping her computer into her subspace pocket.
"How do you want to do this?" Mars asked watching as Chibimoon helped the lovers get into a semblance of a sitting position. The two heroes had either become used to the higher level of pain or just had their reaction to it under better control, for both kept their vocalizations to a minimum though their faces were white and pinched with pain.
"We'll split into twos and each pair will support one between them. Chibimoon will act as scout and bellhop." Venus reeled off.
"Well, I know I'll be one part of the pair that has Tuxedo Kamen. Who's going to be my partner?" Jupiter asked taking up her position to the right of the formally dressed hero.
"Minako-chan is the most physically able of all after Makoto-chan. Rei-chan and I will escort Usagi-chan." Mercury stated.
"Makes sense. I'm in volleyball after all." Venus commented, mostly to herself as she directed Mars and Mercury to help Moon upright. After the two girls had their odango-ed leader on her feet between them, Jupiter and Venus got to work on Tuxedo Kamen.
Each grabbed one of his upper arms and hauled him up off the ground. Quickly they maneuvered themselves so that one of his arms was slung across each senshi's shoulders and each girl had their outside hand holding Tuxedo Kamen's on her shoulder and her inner arm wrapped around his back.
Their positions were identical to Mars' and Mercury's. Jupiter, growling in annoyance at Kamen's cape, unfastened the cape on her side. Venus quickly copied her and Chibimoon rolled it up and loaded it into her arms along with Kamen's hat and mask.
After a moment's thought, the pink haired senshi shoved all but the mask into her sub-space pocket. She then handed the mask to Jupiter. The brunette needed no prompting. She simply slipped the white object on Tuxedo Kamen's face.
Not a minute later, all seven were a block or so away, leaping rooftops carefully and somewhat slowly. The carriers had modified their grips so that their outside arms interlocked under their passenger's bent knees. Chibimoon, for all her smaller size, was easily keeping her place in the lead, at least at first.
They had to stop at increasing intervals along the way. A few were for the senshi to rest, but the majority of them…
"Why does this keep happening? To me I mean? I'm not even in any pain!" Chibimoon, who had just lost her henshin for half a second before regaining it, asked, scared and confused. She looked to Mercury, who had her computer out while Mars supported Moon, who was mirroring Chibimoon's henshin flickers, along with Tuxedo Kamen.
"One second Chibimoon, the scan is almost finished." Mercury said, mostly to calm the senshi in training down. "Okay, it's done. You are losing your henshin because it connected to Sailor Moon's. You and Moon effectively share a henshin, so just as if one is not there, the other cannot henshin, if one of you de-henshins or forcibly loses it, the other will follow."
"And why are Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen losing their henshins?" Mars asked, casting a worried glance at the blonde hero she was supporting. She was pale, sweating and breathing shallowly when she wasn't hissing or groaning quietly in pain from the seizures.
"Because their main source of power is their planet, or moon in Usagi-chan's case, just like us. The attacks upon the Earth and Moon are draining as well as damaging. And since, being royalty, they are connected deeply to their respective homes, the bond goes both ways. The attacks drain and damage Usagi-chan and Mamoru-kun." Mercury reported, shutting her minicomputer and sliding it back into her sub-space pocket.
"Well, since these flickers are increasing steadily in length and frequency, we need to change how we are going to be carrying everyone. Because there is no way Chibiusa can jump from building to building like Chibimoon does." Jupiter stated. She glanced at Venus, who was biting her lip as she thought.
"Right. Jupiter you're strong enough to carry Sailor Moon by yourself. Mercury, Chibimoon is light enough that you can carry her piggy back style. And Mars you and I will carry Tuxedo Kamen between us." She rattled off and her senshi rapidly obeyed her.
Chibimoon clambered up onto Mercury's back, flickering to Chibiusa and back as the blue senshi stood up from her kneeling position. Jupiter, after a moment's consideration picked Sailor Moon up bridal style as she flickered between personas. Mars and Venus linked their arms behind Tuxedo Kamen's back and under his legs. The rearrangement was completed in under a minute.
They took off again, though more slowly than before. The senshi stuck to the rooftops; all of them, even Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen, knew that if they traversed the streets someone would invariably see them and it was rapidly becoming more than a seventy-five percent chance that the three heroes would be caught during one of their involuntary de-henshins.
A grueling ten minutes later, Chibiusa looked over Mercury's blue-clad shoulder to see that Mamoru's apartment complex was the building after the next in front of her. By this time, Chibiusa was spending more time as herself than her hero persona. The 'flickers' now spanned a minute or so in length with maybe a half-minute between them.
Mercury leapt onto Mamoru's balcony, followed closely by Jupiter. Chibimoon slid off Mercury's back as she slid the glass door open. All three quickly filed inside to make room for Mars, Venus and Mamoru. Once that trio was inside, Chibiusa slid the door shut.
Jupiter never stopped, carrying Usagi right into Mamoru's bedroom. At Mamoru's hoarse insistence, Venus and Mars put his legs down so they were only half carrying him. Chibiusa followed them in.
As she crossed the threshold, Chibiusa felt and saw her fuku appear for half a second then as she felt something give out in her mind, her fuku disappeared, leaving her standing as Chibiusa once more. Somehow the future princess knew that she had just lost her henshin completely.
She said as much to the inner senshi as Usagi and Mamoru nodded in agreement from their place on the bed. Venus glanced at Mercury, nodding to the petite warrior in a manner that clearly said for her to take command of the situation.
"We need to conserve our powers, minna. De-henshin." The order was given in a crisp tone that brooked no argument. A short light display later, Minako, Ami, Rei, and Makoto stood where the warriors had been.
Ami sent Minako to fetch pajamas for Usagi and Mamoru, rightly assuming that the blonde girl had at least one pair here in case she ah…happened to stay the night. A brief glance at the laboriously breathing couple on the bed told her that they would never be able to change unaided.
"Minako, set those beside them on the bed. We're going to have to change them. They're in no condition to do it themselves. Two to each so we can expedite the process." Ami announced going to Mamoru's side and kneeling to remove his shoes. Makoto joined him a minute later as Rei and Minako undressed and re-dressed Usagi like a giant doll.
Mamoru was in too much pain to even be mildly embarrassed about being changed by two girls. Ami got over her blushes by slipping into her 'doctor's mode' and Makoto just blushed and tried not to look too much.
Meanwhile Chibiusa had taken upon herself to turn down the bed so the girls could get the lovers into bed more easily; which the girls did by simply dragging their stiffened and hunched forms up the bed and tucking the covers over the heavily sweating and out of breath couple. Mamoru turned feverish midnight blue eyes past Usagi to look at Ami.
"Y-You were right. Helios… confirmed it… in our minds… why this… is happening… to us. Our bodies… are connected… to the Earth… and Moon… respectively… so what… happens to… the Earth… and Moon… happens… to our… bodies." He rasped out between spasms, which were coming at shorter intervals, then gasped in unison with Usagi and clutched at his chest through the blankets as Usagi mimicked him.
"So unless we stop them, the Dead Moon will destroy the Earth and Moon, which will kill both of you. Not to mention me." Chibiusa stated emotionlessly, though her eyes shining brightly with tears she refused to let fall. Tears caused by fear for her two dearest friends and future parents, and fear for her own life. Usagi nodded, having turned her pain glazed sapphire blue eyes to look at the pink haired girl.
"C-Chibiusa, come…over here…please." Usagi whispered hoarsely, gasping from the pain in her chest. It felt as if red hot, spiked curved steel bars were being tightened painfully around her chest and rose thorns crossed with barbed wire were wrapping tightly around her heart. Her own pain was compounded by the pain that flowed into her through her soul-bond to Mamoru, just as she knew hers radiated into him.
She knew that had she not been in so much pain, it would have been very funny to watch herself and her love. They were mimicking each other perfectly, due to the simultaneous seizures that were steadily getting worse and more frequent. She watched as Chibiusa came up and sat on the bed's edge beside her. The pink haired girl then leaned forward so Usagi would not have to speak as loud. Usagi smiled briefly with love for her 'cousin's' thoughtfulness.
"All of us… know I'm… too weak to… be of any… use in the… fight against… Nehelenia." She forced out between spasms of searing pain. "You must… take my place… here…" Usagi slowly raised her arm into the air and drew out her Moon Kaleidoscope from her sub-space pocket. She had meant to hand it to Chibiusa, but she was so weak that the weapon fell from her grip to land on the bed. Chibiusa swiftly grabbed the pink object and slipped into her own sub-space pocket.
"My brooch…" Usagi whispered reaching weakly for it. Rei grabbed it from the pile of clothes near the bed and handed to her princess. Usagi offered a weak grin of thanks for her friend. She popped it open, revealing the Silver Crystal and pried said crystal out. She then handed the now empty brooch to her future daughter. "Place your… Pink Moon… Crystal in… my locket… it should… allow you to… henshin alone" Ami nodded in agreement, her minicomputer in her hand.
"The power… stored in it…should allow you to… use the Moon… Kaleidoscope." Usagi smiled weakly, as Ami nodded again in the background, and looked at her lover. Mamoru attempted a smile that promptly twisted into a grimace of pain as yet another powerful spasm hit him. Leaning heavily on his right arm, Mamoru reached over Usagi with his left hand to touch his index finger to Chibiusa's forehead. Golden light briefly flared from his finger then sank into Chibiusa's body.
"T-there… now… you have… my ability… to throw… roses. It's… not much… but it… will help." He said and collapsed as his right arm gave out under him. Staying on his right side Mamoru clutched at his chest with his right hand and wrapped his left arm over and around Usagi's slim waist as she slowly scooted over to spoon herself tightly against him laying her left arm onto her lover's and clutching at her heart with her right hand.
Chibiusa nodded and got up, turning away as she did so, unable to bear the sight of Usagi and Mamoru's pain. Ami touched Usagi's and Mamoru's foreheads in turn, leaving faint blue dots that faded away quickly and set up a mini camera that would send input to her Mercury computer.
"The camera feeds directly into my computer and the power I placed in your bodies will allow me to monitor the both of you." Ami explained, seeing the puzzled look on Usagi's and Mamoru's faces.
A knock then sounded from the apartment's front door. Rei closed her eyes, testing the auras of the person or persons at the door. She suddenly smiled in relief and left to open the door before anyone could question her.
She returned quickly with four familiar faces in tow. Setsuna, Michiru, Haruka and a teenage Hotaru walked into the now crowded bedroom and greeted their bedridden princess.
Michiru held up her mirror and said, "We know everything. We have come to help you defeat the Dead Moon."
"Thank you," Chibiusa said for everyone. Taking a deep breath, Chibiusa donned her new role as the leader of the senshi like one would don a cloak and said, "Let's go up to the roof to henshin." Everyone nodded in acceptance and, after bowing to the couple in bed, left.
Bea here: ok here's the second chapter what do you think? It is significantly longer than the original mainly cause I filled out the parts that I had previously skated and/or jumped over, which made it really choppy.
Please tell me what you think, especially if you have read the original before!
Ja ne!