Chapter Seven: The Key to the Journey:
When the group arrived at the East District, it was pure chaos.
Citizens were running around in panic, trying to escape to safety. Soldiers were escorting citizens on the streets out of the district to try and evacuate the area in time. The princes and princesses couldn't see who or what was attacking yet because of the flocks of alarmed people scurrying away from the scene. They squeezed through the retreating crowd until they finally reached the centre of the district. And then they finally saw it.
Sailor Nyx was standing confidently on top of tall building, a smug expression on her face as she watched the turmoil below. Several girls dressed in the same uniform that Estelle wore scattered tanzanite jewels around on the ground. Seconds later the jewels would glow and skeleton creatures would emerge from the jewels and start destroying everything in the district.
Kaji muttered something under his breath and took out his transformation wand. He called out his transformation phrase and soon he was surrounded by a cyclone of fire. He was left in his Knight form, Orion Knight, once the blaze had died down. "Fire Sword," he said and a sword of solid fire appeared in his right hand. "We need to make sure these people get out of here safely. We cannot afford any of the citizens to get hurt."
"That's right. These citizens shouldn't have to worry about Dark Senshi attacking. It's our problem, not theirs," Rini said and took out her transformation brooch then transformed. The rest followed her example and stood in their fighting stances.
Neo Saturn was a little absentminded though. Her mind wasn't necessarily on the battle before them but the creatures in the battle. Those skeleton creatures, the ones who had emerged from Nyx's tanzanite jewels. 'They're not hers. The spell she used to activate them isn't hers. Otherwise, they would have been shadows spirits or other night creature spirits...' Neo Saturn thought. Sailor Nyx was the Senshi of the Night. She didn't have the power to summon skeleton spirits.
'Ah, so they have arrived' Nyx thought. She jumped down from the building and landed on the ground without a noise. She raised her hand and all the skeletons stood still. Nyx turned to her minions. "Thank you girls. You may all return back to base now," she ordered them. "I'll take care of the rest."
The girls bowed and in an instant, they vanished in black clouds of smoke. Nyx held a sinister smile on her face as she faced the Senshi and Knights. Neo Moon gripped her sceptre even tighter. "Hello again Senshi and Knights."
"Sailor Nyx, why are you attacking innocent people? They have done nothing to you!" Neo Moon growled.
Nyx's smile twitched slightly. "Nothing to me? Nothing to me?" Nyx repeated as if it didn't process in her mind. "They might have not done anything directly to me but trust me, they have done horrible things."
"Tell us where Akaaka is!" Orion Knight glared at Nyx and aimed the tip of his sword towards her.
Nyx raised an eyebrow up at his sword. "I thought you have learned from my last visit. It appears you have not," Nyx said. She took a few steps forward so that she was now right in front of Kaji's sword. Kaji brought the tip of his sword up to her neck, pressing it slightly against her throat. "Go ahead. Stab me; do whatever you wish. I know you're just itching to kill me aren't you? Kidnapping your close friend and princess of the Sun isn't exactly on a list of good deeds now is it?" Nyx smirked.
Kaji's fists shook and he gritted his teeth. "Tell me where she is or I'll-."
"You'll what? Kill me? You already know that won't happen. Or do your failed attempts mean nothing to you?" Nyx asked, pushing down the Fire Sword. Neo Moon was surprised that the flames didn't harm her.
Nyx dissolved into the shadows her skeleton creatures were creating and reappeared on the roof of the building she was on earlier. She turned and faced Neo Saturn, staring her straight in the eye as if to say 'You stand no chance.' That infuriated Yume and Nyx once again smirked. "Attack," Nyx commanded her army simply.
The skeletons charged forward at the group but Kaji was ready for them. He ran forward and slashed his sword of fire at the attacking skeletons. Several skulls clattered to ground. It had been a while since the Senshi last saw Kaji fight and what they were seeing was pretty impressive.
Neo Moon shook her head to snap out of the daze. "OK there's no time to stare in awe. We need to fight!" Neo Moon told everyone. The Senshi nodded as the Knights readied their weapons.
"Jupiter Boreal Ivory Erosion!"
"Neptune Ocean Illusions!"
"Mercury Spiralling Cyclone!"
"Pluto Time Swirling Vortex!" The Senshi and Knights went on a fighting frenzy. Different colours from the different attacks would whirl around the district as they killed off the skeletons. But they seem almost endless in numbers. When one would die, another would take its place.
Neo Venus was fending off skeletons with her golden sword until she heard a cry of help. She slashed off a skeleton's skull before turning in the direction the cry had came from. There was a fountain in the middle of district with a statue of a soaring fire phoenix. On the statue was a young girl gripping onto the statue for dear life as skeletons crawled up the fountain. The child would shriek and scream every time a skeleton would swipe its bony hand towards her.
"Crap," she muttered and released her wings. She flew at high speed as she dodged all the bones the skeletons were throwing at her to block her path. The skeletons were getting closer to the child and Neo Venus forced herself to fly faster. She neared the fountain and called out, "Venus Heart Whip!" Her golden whip emerged out of her palm and she flicked it in the girl's direction. "Encircle!" The whip wrapped around the girl's waist and Neo Venus pulled the child towards her.
The girl let out another scream. Neo Venus looked down to see that the skeletons had grabbed onto the girl's legs and were dragging her downwards. Neo Venus landed on top of the statue and began kicking the skeletons and trying to push them off. One of them latched onto Neo Venus' leg and dug their bony fingers into her calf. She winced slightly but kicked the skeleton in the face and took the girl out of their grasps. The skeletons tried to claw at Neo Venus' wings as she flew away.
"Thank you for saving me," the girl said. Neo Venus just smiled and told her it was no problem. She landed where the soldiers were evacuating the other citizens out of the district. Neo Venus gave the child to one of the soldiers and flew back into battle, ignoring the increasing pain in her leg.
Neo Saturn couldn't believe the nerve these Dark Senshi had. She wanted to wipe the smug smirk off of Sailor Nyx's face. How could she be so comfortable with destroying lives? 'They have done horrible things.' That statement echoed through Yume's mind as her shadow dragon swallowed a whole group of skeletons. 'What did she mean by that?' she thought.
A crowd of skeletons started moving in towards Yume as she was standing there deep in thought. They pushed her back all the way to a wall of a building. Yume was struggling to kill the skeletons off since her dragon only seemed to distract a few of them while her levitation powers did nothing. The others wanted to help but they were also being attacked by skeletons at the same time.
Nyx watched Yume intensely. 'Go on daughter of the First King. Show me your power! Show me that you are truly a being of darkness!'
Neo Moon turned just in time to see a flock of skeletons jump off a nearby building rooftop and down towards Yume. "Neo Saturn! Watch out!" she cried.
Yume looked up to see the falling skeletons with their bony fingers and legs ready to attack. Her hands started glowing black as her hair flew upwards from a sudden wind. She thrust one of her hands upwards towards the skeletons above and the other aimed at the skeletons trying to hurt her from the front. "Precipio tibi rumpere!" Yume called out. Two black beams hit the two groups of skeletons and they shattered into pieces. Yume then brought her hands upwards quickly and streaks of black lights struck down on all the skeletons and destroyed them.
She clasped her hands and closed her eyes. "Delens...current...memoria..." she recited as she attempted to erase the memories of the escaping citizens and soldiers that they had of the skeletons attacking the district. The black light suddenly vanished in an instant and Yume opened her eyes when she noticed that something wasn't right.
Nyx leaped down gracefully from the rooftop and made large strides over to Yume. "Very impressive I must admit. But that last spell of yours failed for a reason. That was a spell of Lethe that you were attempting to cast, not an open spell. You need permission in order to do that spell," Nyx smirked. "Now Dark Senshi naturally gain this permission when we have gone through the initiation," she sang in a taunting voice.
Yume growled as she moved the bangs out of her face. "This was another one of your set ups!"
Sailor Nyx rolled her eyes as she turned around in a swift motion. "Of course; I had no business in attacking. I just needed to test out a little theory of mine."
Yume was so angry that she fell for another one of Nyx's tricks. She shot forward ready to grab Nyx but Nyx simply turned back around and raised her hand and said, "Congelasco." Yume froze in mid-air unable to move her arms or legs.
"Hey! Let me go!" she shouted as she struggled in place.
"Don't worry, I'll be back very soon," Nyx smirked before she disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. Yume unfroze and fell to the ground with a groan.
Kaji was surprised as he let his transformation fade. He walked up to Neo Venus. "Did Yume just do what I think she did?" he asked.
Tammy nodded, "Yup, pretty much." She let her transformation fade away as well but winced again. She looked down to see an open gash on her calf that looked infected with all the dirt and tiny pebbles that must have got in the cut during the battle. "Oh great," she muttered.
Kaji followed Tammy's gaze to her leg. "You got hurt when you were saving that little girl?" Tammy nodded once again. "Here, sit down and I'll heal it for you," Kaji said.
Tammy sat down on the edge of a broken bench and Kaji lifted her leg gently. "Wait Kaji; I can just get Uratoh to heal it for me," Tammy told him.
"It's fine, don't worry about it," Kaji said. His hand lit up in blue flames and he spread them over her large cut. "Healing Fire," he muttered. Tammy stared in awe as the flames healed her wound and closed it up. Kaji let go of her leg while the flames had extinguished and Tammy stood up. She noticed that the pain was now gone.
"I never knew you can do that," Tammy said.
"Well I just learned how to use it a while ago," Kaji said with a smile. Tammy grinned back.
Meanwhile Takemara was watching this with a scowl. 'How could she be okay with all this?' he thought. Rini walked up to him and realized that he was watching Kaji and Tammy intensely. "Takemara you really need to calm down. They're just friends," Rini told him.
"And how do you know Kaji doesn't want them to be more than just friends?" Takemara asked.
"Kaji's a respectable person. He knows you and Tammy are together already. Besides he has another reason too," Rini said.
"And what would that be?"
Rini was quiet for a moment. "I can't tell you."
Takemara huffed. "Of course you can't," Takemara mumbled before walking away.
Rini rolled her eyes then went over to check on Yume. She was still angry that she gave into what Nyx had wanted. The worst part was she didn't even know what Nyx wanted from her.
Kenzo helped Yume off of the ground. "Yume it's going to be alright. We'll figure out what Nyx wants eventually," Kenzo said to her. Rini was surprised that Kenzo could speak with such a soft tone.
Yume stared at Kenzo then slowly nodded her head. Kenzo grinned and started leading her back to the Sun Castle.
Everyone else was confused and looked at each other blankly. "Did Yume just..." Maxine started.
"Did Kenzo just..." Kimiko trailed off.
The sentences weren't processing in anybody's minds. "Weird," Rini concluded. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement and started heading back towards the Sun Castle.
/*/*/*/
A maid poured down tea for Queen Kiiro and Neo-Queen Serenity as the group finished explaining what happened at the district. The queens' faces were solemn the whole time.
"Mom, have these Dark Senshi ever attacked before?" Rini asked.
"...I can't recall an attack made by Dark Senshi before..." Neo Queen Serenity said at last. Rini had been paying close attention to this and noticed her mother casted a quick glance at Kiiro before answering. 'That's strange' she thought. Her mother snatched up a scone and stuffed it in her mouth to prevent herself from uttering another word.
Queen Kiiro took a sip of her tea before placing the cup back on a saucer. "Well this calls for some action. We must start immediately then with your mission," Kiiro said.
"But we don't know what to start with. I mean our investigation went poorly since we didn't know where to begin..." Tsunami told Kiiro.
"Then we'll skip the investigation. I already said our troops searched and found nothing," Kaji said.
"That's right. We need to move onto you finding the Zodiac Senshi so that they can assist in helping you find Akaaka," Serenity stated.
"But who should we find first? There are thirteen of them," Hiroshi said. He included the fact that there were two Senshi from Gemini making it thirteen.
"Kyoumou Aries is the first person you should find. She is the leader of the Zodiac Senshi when Akaaka is not around. After her it isn't of much importance of which Zodiac Senshi you should find next," Kiiro told them.
"How will we travel to each kingdom?" Takemara asked.
"That's a good question Takemara," Serenity said with her mouth full. Rini rolled her eyes at her mother's rudeness. Serenity swallowed, "Before you go on your search, I suggest you make a stop on Pluto first. I have a feeling that your home planet will be able to answer your question. It is the key to your journey."
"Why Pluto?" Kenzo asked.
"Why not Pluto?" Takemara retorted.
"Think about it Kenzo. What planet deals with time and space?" Ariel asked him. Kenzo held a blank look on his face. "It isn't rocket science Kenzo!"
"Of course not; we're talking about travelling, not rockets," Kenzo said in an obvious tone. Everyone groaned loudly.
The group had returned to Crystal Tokyo to pack up for their long journey. Kaji told them that he would meet them on Aries. They were mainly just packing random clothes into backpacks that they would bring while on their travels. Neo-Queen Serenity had mentioned something about being able to return to Crystal Tokyo if they needed anything along the way. The group didn't really mean what she meant by that since they still had no way of transportation.
Tammy was packing some of her hair products into her bag when she heard a knock on her door. "Come in!" she called out.
Takemara entered her room and gave Tammy a kiss on the cheek. "Are you almost done packing?" Takemara asked.
"I just have to put in a few more things," Tammy answered and skipped over to her vanity table. Takemara fell back onto Tammy's bed and stared at the ceiling. Tammy took a glance at him over her shoulder. "What's on your mind?" she asked as she searched for the things she needed to pack.
"What Queen Serenity said about the answer being on Pluto. I mean I find nothing out of the ordinary on Pluto. There's a room in the palace that leads to the Time Gates but other than that, nothing. I just want to know what she meant..." Takemara trailed off.
"We'll find out what she meant soon Take~kun. Don't be troubled by it," Tammy said walking over to her bag and putting the rest of her items in. Takemara sat up and nodded but his mind was still pondering on the subject.
"Arcturus!" Rini called out loudly.
Arcturus walked into the room and to Rini's side. "What is it?" he asked.
"I need your help with my bag! It won't close!" Rini said. Arcturus looked at the bag and noticed how full it was.
"OK I'll hold it together while you buckle it down," Arcturus instructed. She nodded and Arcturus squeezed the bag together while Rini tried to buckle the strap down. The strap didn't reach and the top of the bag flew open. Arcturus yelped when stuffed bunnies hit him in the face. He stared at Rini with an eyebrow raised, "Really Rini? Bunnies? What about clothes?"
"Oh those are in all my other bags," Rini said and pointed to the other five bags full of her clothes. "And the other two are full of my shoes."
Arcturus eyed all the bags. "And who do you think is going to carry these bags all the time?"
"You silly! Duh!" Rini laughed. Arcturus frowned.
"Rini, I'm pretty sure even Tsunami and Tammy don't have this amount of bags. You can only bring one," Arcturus told her as he headed for the door.
"Aww Arcturus!" Rini whined. Arcturus faced her with his right index finger up as if to say 'One' then walked out of the room. Rini sighed and bent down to pick up all her fallen bunnies.
Soon everybody was all packed and ready to go as they walked to the courtyard where Serenity was waiting for them. "Everyone ready?" she asked. They nodded and Serenity opened a portal to Pluto. "Well there you go. This is the start of your journey," Serenity said. The group walked through the portal and Rini turned around to face her mom. "I will not be able to help you any further," Serenity told her daughter.
Rini's face fell. "What? What do you mean by that?" Rini asked.
"I'm sorry Rini but I just can't. You'll understand later. This is your mission now. We'll see if we can help you in any way that we could but for now, you and your friends are on your own," Serenity replied with a sad smile.
Rini was stunned. Nobody would be able to even input a bit of guidance to them. At last she nodded. "Alright mother. Goodbye for now. Tell Daddy I said bye too and that I'll miss him," Rini told her.
"I will. Goodbye and good luck Rini," Serenity said. Rini gave her a smile and walked through the portal as it closed up behind her.
/*/*/*/
Takemara led everyone to Castella Palace. All the servants and staff seemed surprised by their visit. "Welcome back Prince Takemara. I'm afraid your mother is in court so she will be unable to greet you," the royal advisor said.
"It's fine. When she is done, tell her that we are in the throne room," Takemara ordered. The advisor nodded and Takemara and the group walked off to the throne room. Takemara's planetary symbol appeared on his forehead as he touched the knob to the door. It faded quickly as soon as they entered the room.
Aeneas closed the door behind him. "So what exactly are we looking for?" he asked.
"In truth, I have no idea," Takemara answered honestly. "I just felt like I had to come here."
Uratoh noticed a door on the far side of the throne room. "Hey Takemara, where does this door lead to?" Takemara and the others looked in his direction to see Uratoh standing beside a door. It was jet black with different images of portals, hour glasses, clocks, the sun and moon, and a symbol of Pluto etched right in the middle. An antique-looking key was in the key hole.
Takemara walked over to it and studied it closely. "I've never seen this door before," Takemara stated.
"So you mean it just popped out of nowhere?" Yume asked.
Takemara nodded, "Pretty much." Takemara reached for the key that was in the hole.
"Wait Takemara!" Rini stopped him. "It could be dangerous for all we know!"
'It is the key to your journey...' That line repeated itself in Takemara's mind. 'Maybe this is what the Queen meant' he thought. Takemara twisted the key and turned the knob. A gust of wind blew out and sucked Takemara into the doorway.
"Take~kun!" Tammy cried out before the door closed.
A/N: Chapter finished! Yes it took long but at least I got it done before the month mark so that's good :P Thanks goes out to my friend MashiroxKensei-Kayla-1993-18 for helping me create Kaji's powers. I love all these dark magic spells :) And if you're getting bored seeing Nyx all the time and not the other Dark Senshi, don't worry. One of them will appear soon. Anyway stay tuned and leave a review please!
