an unsatisfying tale of separation.
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chapter 10.
Entering Dix — The Sixth Circle
"Well, THIS is stupid," Makoto thought as she knelt down in the strange ruins. They'd each been separated to different areas of the ancient site, but apparently Makoto would be the first to enter the actual building.
"Just go," Helios whispered. "—and try to keep an open mind; you girls have been through several strange things, including a trip to the 30th Century. You've even been through death, more than once. Stay focused on your desire to help the Princess, who ultimately wants to help Endymion and the planet."
And with that, Makoto was shoved into the building. She shivered, thinking how nasty these old ruins were. She whispered to herself, "I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing here…"
And then she saw a strange gate several steps ahead.
She walked towards the gate, and suddenly felt pulled into another dimension, as if grabbed by the waist as her head and feet dangled behind her in a great wind. And just as suddenly, she was back on her feet, but now the entire area around her was dark. She tried to regain her orientation, and realized that she could make out walls and windows —of a building that could hardly be considered 'ruins'. She was somewhere else.
She swallowed, but continued gingerly to the gate — now a much larger, deeper gate with strange writings over it that seemed to glow in neon shades of blue. And far beyond this gate, through it, she saw thee familiar figures: three Senshi! As as she stared, she realized that one was herself! Chatting idly with another! "Oh crap," she choked, backing up.
But a firm hand landed on her shoulder; she turned quickly and saw "—Setsuna?"
The woman wasn't in a Sailor fuku — she was draped in a black shawl of old, dirty wool —but it was surely her!
"I am Hades," the fallen god said sternly to yet another version of her eternal brother, now in the form of a woman. He idly wondered if this one could possibly be the one, …or another version of the one already here, who at times tried to escape. "How are you here?" he asked firmly.
Makoto, purely freaked, jumped away from the wraith-like Setsuna and yelled, "Damn! Usagi said she'd seen Hotaru but she wasn't Hotaru and talked about hiding from things but …are you one of those? A spirit like Hotaru was?"
Hades knew nothing of any 'Hotaru'; he looked at his father's offspring, and then pointed his staff at the three figures beyond, guarding the real gate to the Sixth Level: "You're acting unlike yourself; weak, and weepy. I assume you've made yet another child and earned the fury of our sister?"
"Nnnnnnuh?" Makoto freaked again, taking another step back. "I'm a virgin!"
"You don't belong here," Hades announced angrily, now with new understanding that this was not, in any form, Zeus. "Tell how you passed the Acheron!"
FINALLY, a name Makoto knew! "Yes! Yes, this ..this droid we knew from the future, Chiral, ferried us all over the Acheron so that we could help a friend! But then we got off at Ammoudia, and Usagi disappeared, and then so did Ami…" She stopped her rambling and said firmly, "Helios said we had to come speak to some Oracle!"
Hades took a step towards the young woman and reached for her face, forcing the girl's memories to flood into Hades' mind —and the guardian of the underworld had to stifle a laugh. Finally, Hades pointed to the first gate again, and said, "Go; listen to Helios!" —that schmuck, Hades thought to himself.
Makoto ran to the entrance gate with the creepy blue lettering and jumped through without slowing, and continued running towards the three figures ahead. She found herself winded, and realized the gravity was much greater here. Wherever she was. And, while bent over to catch her breath, hands on her knees, she finally saw the three Senshi ghosts up close: Sailor Neptune was draped over a doppelganger of herself—Sailor Jupiter! And Setsuna was again there in the shadows now, but dressed as Sailor Pluto this time, standing opposite of the other two. And Pluto was glaring… much like the Setsuna everyone knew and loved.
Confused, she glanced behind her to see if she could find the creepy Setsuna dressed in black, but the gate she'd entered through was gone. She inwardly screamed, but kept her cool — she'd been through creepy lairs like this one! And there was no going back now! Then she set her focus on her doppelganger and asked the first thing that come to mind: "What are we doing here, and aren't you scared Haruka will get jealous?"
Zeus laughed at the intruder, the weak figure of himself in mortal attire of whom he'd heard far too much! The one who was to be bigger and better; an improved version of himself! Laughing raucously, he stepped away from Poseidon and towards this little girl, then stretched his arm out to let the girl behold his magnificent armor! He then said, "What are you compared to ME?"
Makoto saw herself step forward, a mirror image of herself, but one with a somehow-even-worse attitude! "Great," she whispered, "What, is this my future?" —and then, understanding more about Ami's earlier explanation of Dante's Inferno, she realized that they hadn't gotten off the river Acheron at all, nor had they avoided entering the deep circles of Hell; this WAS Hell! And this 'oracle building'? No, they'd entered that evil building Dix!
But she was Sailor Jupiter; there was NO WAY she'd turn back, not if her Princess needed her!
…and then the figure she'd seen as herself morphed into a figure of a warrior. She nearly fell down as his immense figure grew, along with the whole rumbling building, and the other two Senshi morphed as horribly as her doppelganger. —Especially the one who'd been Setsuna, who was now a giant, ugly man holding the leash of a fierce three-headed dog that was looking at her like she were dinner!
As she fell backwards, she realized this wasn't her future! It was the past… the Greek gods she'd read about. Ami hadn't mentioned that!
She immediately transformed into Sailor Jupiter, then faced her namesake. Zeus. "So you ended up in Hell!" she taunted, with much more bravado than she felt. This was like facing Galaxia alone. But three of them. —And she was asking after their fates?
Zeus shrugged: "It's not so bad."
Poseidon, now the large, bulky figure of the ancient ocean god with a sharp trident in hand, noted curiously, "You have retained no memories."
"Not a one!" Jupiter said, but with a smile; she was much happier to be a Senshi than one of these creeps. "So what, do we fight now? Because I think you'd be surprised by my upgrade!" She smiled widely, knowing she was talking shit, but not quite able to help herself; it was a defense mechanism. She prepared to show these has-beens a little Jupiter Oak Evolution—!
And immediately, Sailor Mars was by her side, grabbing onto her for dear life! Mars whispered, "I suppose you didn't move forward fast enough?"
Jupiter, very happy to see her real fellow Senshi, looked back at the three Greeks and told Mars, "I think we're supposed to get through them; they took me by surprise."
"HOW?" Mars asked incredulously, looking up at the three bulky giants from Hell.
Zeus suddenly moved aside and sneered, "Jupiter may pass," and motioned for her pass.
"For real?" Sailor Jupiter asked, but at the urging of Mars, didn't ask any further questions — she made a running leap through Zeus and Hades' hellhound, right into the gate they guarded to what must be, if her count was right, the 7th Circle of Hell. She hoped Mars was quick on her tail.
.
But when Mars followed, Zeus stopped her and shoved her back towards Hades like she was a toy mouse.
Mars yelled for Jupiter as the hellhounds growled at her in an attacking posture —but the gate had slammed shut, and Poseidon and Zeus were rounding on the fire priestess.
"So you're mimicking my useless wreck of a son?" Zeus laughed.
"I mimic nobody!" Mars squeaked out, but then stood straight up and forced Hades to back up a step. She breathed relief when Hades jerked the leash of the hellhound and made it stand down. —FAR away from Mars.
Poseidon seemed particularly not-fond of her, and Mars was particularly not fond of Hades, so she re-focused her energies back on Zeus. She yelled with the voice of a gladiator (she hoped): "What do I need to do to save Usagi and help Mamoru?" —And tried hard not to cry.
Zeus glared at her quietly, not knowing if she were simply acting the cool customer, or if there'd really been a change in her demeanor. "I don't know your Usagi or your Mamoru; I'm quite sure I don't know you! You refused the sword granted to you for this quest… no offspring of mine would have forfeited such a gift!"
Poseidon sneered, "—you should have grasped the sword and used it mercilessly on any who crossed your path!"
"Slashed your way into Tartarus!" Zeus agreed, eyes growing angrily at the sight of the tiny fairy before him.
But Hades, from behind, snarled, "The Mamoru of whom she speaks is the same Endymion to whom you granted immortality."
Zeus looked at Mars, who now had recognition on her face, then he said with horror: "You're after the Moon Goddess' fate? HERE?"
"Um… yeah!" Mars said, breathing more easily again. "Helios sent us—"
"Helios?" laughed Poseidon, who was now taking on the shape of a woman much more familiar to Mars… Sailor Neptune. Neptune bent over Zeus' arm and languidly continued, "Last I heard you were trying to slay that rat!"
"This one refused the sword," Zeus laughed, himself changing into the Senshi who'd just run through the 7th gate. And now he sneered, "Who has ever heard of a war god refusing the sword?"
A completely confounded Mars could only stare open-jawed at the three who had now transformed into some of her own group of Senshi: Sailors Neptune, Jupiter, and Pluto! They were a lot less formidable in those forms, and while she was itching to ask them further questions about their strange sayings, Usagi was at the front of her mind. She saw that the gate had opened again, and without asking, made a mad dash through it head-first.
After she tumbled head-over-heels through the gate, she noted that her friend Sailor Jupiter was nowhere to be seen in the vast array of sub-rings in this Seventh Circle. 'This is going to take forever!' she complained to herself, but then stood up and again yelled for Jupiter.
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Calling
Ami had approached Chiral with caution; he'd been waiting for her. She smiled nervously and said, "I'm, um…"
"Supposed to be here," Chiral said with boredom, then stepped aside to let her board the ferry again.
As he busied himself with undocking the ferry, Ami walked around the watercraft nervously. "Do you know where I'm supposed to be going?"
Chiral ignored her until the boat was off again, then steered it back into the open mouth of the Acheron, and on towards the frightening building they'd just passed en route to Ammoudia. Ami again said, "Excuse me, Sir? Um, yes… I thought we weren't supposed to be going there! To Ali Pasha's Castle?" Or, as she'd highly suspected, Dix — the gates of Hell! She considered jumping overboard, but steeled herself and approached Chiral again: "Excuse me! I'm talking to you!"
Chiral's ferry picked up considerable speed, and they were headed straight towards the castle whose features seemed to get worse the closer they got. Ami was hanging onto Chiral by the time she realized they were going to smash into the Castle: "PLEASE! You're going to KILL—"
Her breath caught as the ferry flew right through the 'palace'; instantly she was freezing and had wished she'd thought to grab her overnight bag from Helios so she could get a sweater.
"You get used to it," Chiral said, heading straight through the murky waters within the castle walls. And upon seeing the drop ahead, he warned, "You might want to hang on here; it starts out a little bumpy."
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Spooky Old Palaces
She didn't know what she was doing here. Eternal Sailor Moon had been back to the Moon several times in the past few years, whenever she'd felt out-of-sorts, or whenever Luna over-crowded her. When her Senshi had pressured her to reunite with Mamoru for the good of the world, or when Chibiusa would complain that Usagi was simply delaying the inevitable and making everybody miserable in the meantime.
The moon was her tranquility.
But she'd never really investigated anything here. Not the way Ami might. She found the ruins with ease, and went into the somehow-preserved underground dungeons of the ancient palace, where many halls of books and other boring things were so deservedly buried. She found a lantern in the freezing halls and lit it magically, then saw a lot of that strange script that she'd seen in Elysion. Illegible to her, but wow, would Ami have a field day HERE! She chuckled thinking about Ami's work at the beautiful blue caves earlier that day, and wondered if Ami had made any headway with that.
As she moved through the underground corridors lined with shelves of ancient books, feeling completely alone and devoid of purpose, she whimpered to herself, "Oh, Ami; why can't you be here now. I am useless here."
Indeed, she'd often found that the other Senshi, regardless of what Hotaru had told her today, were so much more powerful, capable! then she could ever hope to be. She was just a girl with a wand, and a desire to live, and a distaste for injustice. A girl like any other. But Rei? She could read the future, and sense things; she could make those spells! Venus was powerful and kind; an ingenious leader, and lots of fun. Jupiter was a perfect fighter, and a great homemaker… everything a guy could want in a woman. A fierce Senshi. And Ami? Was there any question there? She looked at the hall of annals and whispered, "Why me?"
She let go of her transformation and found a seat in the dark halls, wondering if her Mama would appear to her again. —but then again, there were no old computer parts here; just books. She sat and thought of Mamoru and the others, on some brave voyage for which Helios had all but said she couldn't be part of, and, like dealing with a child, had taken her to Eos for babysitting and fairy tales.
Pouting, she wondered how long she should wait…
Her body suddenly seized with fright, then she felt a disturbance in the air. This was the friggin MOON! NOBODY came here! …well, besides Luna, who was otherwise occupied at the present…
Usagi stood quietly, but then turned towards the outer halls and yelled out, "Hello? Anybody there?" —then immediately thought better of it. That was the very thing she screamed at horror movie characters NOT to do when hearing a strange noise in their homes! "I'm such an idiot!" she whispered, putting out the light and smashing herself as close to the shelves as she could while keeping an eye out.
At the next crashing sound, Usagi realized she never should have de-transformed! Near tears, she pulled her scepter out of the subspace pocket and held it high above her head: "Moon Eternal… MAKEUP!"
She froze — nothing had happened! Terrible memories of her battle against Mistress 9 came flooding back to her… she struck a better pose, a more confident pose, and tried it again: "Moon Eternal… MAKE UP!"
She dropped the scepter and backed away from it; it wasn't working! She swallowed and turned to run, then heard another crash behind her. It was getting closer, and she was in the underground of her Mother's ancient Moon Palace; RUINS of the ancient Palace, that is. And all alone; with only some spirit from Elysion even knowing her whereabouts. She ran as hard as she could down the corridor, wondering if since the Shitennou had died here, that maybe they could haunt her here!
"Usagi!"
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She nearly twisted her ankle as she spun around; running that fast and then trying to stop had never been her forte. As she fell awkwardly to the ground, she twisted around and saw the face that matched the voice: Sailor Mercury! "Ami! How'd you GET here?"
She was still shivering so hard she thought she'd throw up, but Mercury stepped up to her and said, "Sorry, Usa-chan; still trying to get my sea legs!" Mercury looked around and said, "I never knew about this place!"
"Yeah I know, I just found it last year, but it was really creepy so I stayed away from it. It's nothing but books." Usagi glanced down at Ami's "legs" she was trying to get used to, and saw that little gold wings had sprung up on her ankles! "Ami! … How'd you get THOSE?" She jumped up, twisted ankle long forgotten, then launched herself at her studious friend for a hug, knocking them both against a dust-covered bookshelf. "This must be an upgrade to your Eternal transformation!"
"Not exactly," Mercury smiled, standing to dust her brand-spanking new fuku off and looking at all the books. "—Usa-chan, do you know what this place is? How long have you known about it!" …and she started gently dusting off the giant tomes, eyes wide with amazement.
Usagi said, "I found it once when I came up here for a visit…" She looked up at the high ceilings lined with nothing but books and some covered paintings. "Started digging around the old Palace site. I thought I'd really found something great, but …it was just books!" she sighed, frustrated.
"Usagi," Mercury said suddenly, as if just remembering her mission. She grabbed her friend's shoulders and looked at her earnestly. "I thought you were in trouble! Is everything okay up here?"
Usagi held herself timidly and said, "Helios took me to Elysion, and his sister said I needed to come here and try to find out why… well, it's a long story," Usagi shrugged, weeping. "It sounds too stupid to repeat."
"No, Usa; Helios took me as well!" Mercury said, then turned and looked at the great shelves of books all around them, and was immediately reminded of her vision on the Acheron from a few hours ago. "Just… —WOW! I hope everyone else is having their visions come true like this!"
"This was your vision?" Usagi asked incredulously, stepping back as if from a daimon. Stupid books?
But then Usagi remembered her vision… her terrible, terrible vision of Hotaru, hiding from someone in a creepy forest in Hell. And while she'd thought it had been real, after hearing Eos' explanation of Cronus and Sailor Saturn, Usagi's only hope was that seeing Hotaru had been JUST a vision. Because otherwise, her claim as the Moon Princess was in serious danger… and her whole life might be a lie. And as for her other friends, and Mamoru….
"Usa, you're hyperventilating," Mercury said urgently, holding Usa steady.
Usagi asked, "Ami, where are the others? —is Mamoru okay?"
"They're all fine," Mercury said, backing away from Usagi and feeling the spines of the ancient texts. These books were making her blood race; she grew dizzy with desire. "When I left them, Helios was taking them to the Oracle." She turned away from the tempting texts and added, "Everyone was very upset with Helios for that, but trust me, Usa, Helios knows what he's doing." Mercury then pulled out a particularly giant book and let it drop to the ground, where she kneeled over to open it. "This is a history, Usa! It must be thousands of years old!"
"What do you mean, Helios knows what he's doing?" Usagi asked, affronted by the notion. "Ami, he KIDNAPPED me!"
"Again, he took me, too, Usa-chan," Mercury said patiently, standing and looking for another book. She found a few promising-looking books and started climbing the shelves. "It's a journey, Usa; a very important one. And I'd BET...," she struggled with the book of maps. Usagi helped her get it down, and then Mercury nodded a thanks. "I bet we all had our own separate paths to take. Remember, it's all to help Mamoru get better."
Usagi sighed and said sadly, "I was told that to help Mamoru, I have to know my origins. But that the last person who might have known them had …died, or given up her essence." She rolled her eyes, thinking 'whatever'. She bit her lip nervously and continued, "So there's only me, Ami, and I'm all alone up here!" Usagi rubbed her arms and remembered that an access to the Time Door was here, and she could potentially get to some version of Sailor Pluto, but that didn't comfort her any. "I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing, but I'm worried about all my friends."
"You're not alone, silly! I'm here to help you now!" Mercury said, now carefully inspecting the girl she'd known as Tsukino Usagi, Sailor Moon. She inhaled nervously, but smiled and but pressed on. "And these books might just tell us what you need to know, so let's get to work!"
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