LEGACY
Chapter 10: "Panic Attack"
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
"Everyone!" bellowed Vesta suddenly. "Trouble!"
The three senshi turned to Vesta. Saturn's containment chamber was emitting an intense violet-white light. Fissures had appeared on the cylinder wall. The connected electronics were shaking.
"I think she's gonna blow!" yelled Vesta.
Vesta's words were no sooner out than the crystalline shell of the containment chamber exploded outward. Vesta ducked away, but still caught several pieces of flying shrapnel. Several others embedded in surrounding cylinders, including the one that contained Palla-Palla. Fissures began to spider-web out from the embedded fragments.
Eerily, Maria remained untouched. Several fragments lay at her feet at unnatural angles, as if they had been deflected.
"Ves?" Ceres cried out anxiously.
"I'M ALL RIGHT!" Vesta bellowed angrily. She reached down and jerked a crystal fragment out of her hip. "Get that thing shut down so we can help Palla-Palla!"
Sailor Moon, though, was fixated on Sailor Saturn. Saturn's body glowed with a harsh violet-white light, so much so that only the outlines of her features and frame could be distinguished. Saturn didn't seem conscious, but her body began to rise up out of the broken cylinder anyway. A chill ran down the pink senshi's spine.
"There's a monitor reacting!" Juno exclaimed. "I think the life-support system has been compromised!" She looked over her shoulder when Sailor Moon didn't react. "Sailor Moon!"
As Saturn rose up into the air, the air in the room began to swirl. At first it was only noticeable. But as Sailor Moon watched, transfixed with growing alarm, the swirling air increased in intensity. Skirts began to blow. Hair billowed. Soon unanchored material in the room was lifted up and swirled around Saturn and the cyclone her runaway terror had whipped up through her psychic power. Suddenly a psychic dagger launched and broke a hole in the wall.
"Damn it!" Juno cursed. She programmed her senshi communicator and patched into the connection Sailor Moon had with Ami Mizuno. "Mizuno-Sensei! I think the life-support system has been damaged!" She turned her communicator to the control panel.
"You're correct!" Ami reported. "You have to try to shut the system down! If it crashes, all of the connected people will go into shock and die! I'll talk you through it as best I can, but you need to act immediately!"
Outside, Sailor Mars struggled to her knees. As she strained, she expected at any moment another attack from the psychic giant that Abrahan Melo had created. So far she had been lucky and the attack hadn't come. If she could just regain her feet, she might have a chance.
Suddenly an overwhelming wave of psychic energy washed over her like a tidal wave. Mars teetered backwards and ended up sitting on the pavement. Her senses identified the wave as Saturn's. But she'd never sensed anything remotely as powerful as this from Saturn. Not since the day Mars and her fellow senshi had set up the barrier around Infinity Academy . . .
"Gods," Mars whispered in growing horror.
She looked up. Melo was to her left, just inside the fence. He'd apparently headed for the building rather than finish her off. Even as she focused on him, Mars could see the psychic giant diminishing, receding back into him. Melo hovered over the ground for a few feet, held aloft by the rapidly diminishing giant, then softly touched the silicate pavement. Without any strength to stand, the man crumpled to the pavement.
An explosion of windows from the building drew Mars' attention. The psychic storm had spawned a real one and the increased air pressure had blown out all the windows. Moments later the door was next, followed in rapid succession by the roof. Through the now open doorway, Mars could see a glowing figure levitating limply in the air, the eye of the maelstrom. She didn't have to see the barely recognizable features to know it was Saturn. Vesta stood below, struggling not to be swept away by the cyclone. The girl, Maria, was also there, but she seemed barely affected. Mars' attention drew up to the sky. Ominous dark clouds began to collect in the sky. The wind began to pick up.
"In this state, she could destroy everything," Mars murmured to herself. The senshi struggled to her feet, ignoring the pain in her legs and her side.
"Fauna Assimilation! Dragon!" Sailor Vesta called out. While dragons didn't exist on Earth, Vesta could still draw on her power to become one after facing one on the distant planet of Cartaghos. The senshi's body lengthened and enlarged. Her skin became gray and scaly while wings sprouted out of her back until she towered thirty feet in the air.
"Vesta, what are you doing?" Sailor Moon cried.
"Somebody's got to contain her before she wrecks the place and kills everybody!" the dragon snarled. It bent down to lunge into the air.
"No!" Sailor Moon called out. Vesta stopped and looked at her. The Princess was summoning the Moon Scepter. "I'll do it. I may be the only one who can. Moon Princess Halation!"
A concentrated beam of pink tendrils lanced out toward Saturn. When the beam reached her, it split into a dozen tendrils, each tendril wrapping around Sailor Saturn. They caressed her head and body, trying to calm the terrorized senshi and bring her under control so she could bring her massive power under control. Vesta watched for a few seconds, still in dragon form in case she was needed. When the situation didn't immediately resolve itself, she glanced back at Sailor Moon.
The incredible strain on the pink senshi's face did not fill Vesta with confidence.
"Maria," Palla-Palla thought. "What's happening? Palla-Palla doesn't feel good."
"The other broke free," Maria replied with her thoughts. "It damaged the tubes."
"Is Palla-Palla going to die?"
"I," Maria began hesitantly. "I don't know. I don't want you to die. I don't want the other to die. You're the only ones I've ever talked to other than the father."
"That man is your father?" Palla-Palla asked weakly.
"Yes."
"He's Palla-Palla's father, too. That means you and Palla-Palla are sisters!"
"Sisters," Maria thought. Palla-Palla could sense the girl turning the concept over in her mind. She sensed the wonder in the girl's brain over so many different new concepts that had suddenly been allowed to flood into her brain.
"Palla-Palla feels so weak," Palla-Palla thought. "It was good to know you, Maria. Palla-Palla is happy she found another sister."
Juno and Ceres were still at the control panel. Ceres watched with mounting anxiety as Juno pressed crystal control studs in the panel according to the sequence Ami Mizuno was dictating.
"Juno?" Ceres asked, for while Juno was tapping out sequences at a frantic pace, the senshi got the sense that it wasn't fast enough.
"I'm trying!" Juno hissed as she continued to work the panel. "That bastard Melo encrypted the panel! I hit a failsafe encryption after every command string!"
Ceres looked to Palla-Palla's tube. The cracks in the tube were spreading. Palla-Palla's head was slumped forward.
Through the door, Sailor Mars staggered into the room. Her eyes scanned from right to left, taking in the situation and immediately calculating the most immediate threat. Though her side was killing her and the psychic bombardment from Saturn gave her a migraine, Mars steadied herself against the door frame and produced one of her wards. She saw what Sailor Moon was trying to do. She knew her ward would do little to help. But if it could gain Sailor Moon that one little inch that she needed, then it was worth it. The ward was charged and Mars flung it at Sailor Saturn.
As it flew, unaffected by the cyclonic winds inside the plant, Mars watched it. She could see the edges of the sacred ward begin to brown and curl. It wasn't a good sign. Saturn's psychic power was affecting it. Prudence told the senshi to produce another one. But as she pressed it to her forehead, the first ward suddenly blackened and curled. Mars flew backward, struck by the psychic feedback from the ward's destruction. She lay on the silicate pavement outside of the plant, clutching her head and trying to suppress the wave of dizziness enveloping her.
Vesta saw all of this. She looked back at Sailor Moon and found the Princess's features twisted in agony. Perspiration coated her skin and her arms shook from the rigid manner in which she held the Moon Scepter. But pink energy still flowed from her to Saturn.
"Hotaru?" Sailor Moon thought, mentally reaching out to her friend through her crystal, through the Moon Scepter. "Hotaru, please! Come back! Come back to us! Everything's all right now! Hotaru, if you keep going like this, your heart condition could flare up! Hotaru, come back to the light, please!"
Juno continued to work on disengaging the life-support system and opening the containment tubes. She tried to keep her concentration on Ami's instructions and block out everything else that was occurring around her. As such, she heard Ceres speak, but didn't really hear what she said.
"Juno!" Ceres repeated. "That kid is doing something!"
Vesta heard and turned. Maria still stood motionless, still stared out at nothing in particular. But her black hair had fanned out from her small body and there was a faint, eerie green glow to her. Vesta's first thought was to attack, despite Maria's obvious physical disadvantage. But something stopped her for a moment. Then Palla-Palla's containment cylinder began to take on the same green glow.
"Palla-Palla doesn't feel so weak anymore," Palla-Palla thought to Maria. "Are you helping Palla-Palla, Maria?"
"I don't want you to die," Maria thought back. "I've never had a sister before. I like having a sister. So I wished for you to live."
"Are the others all right? They're our brothers and sisters, too."
"They are?"
Ceres and Vesta saw all of the containment tubes take on the same green glow.
"Are you helping everyone?" Palla-Palla thought.
"I'm trying," Maria said and Palla-Palla sensed distress. "It's hard."
"Just do your best. Usagi-Mama told Palla-Palla once that all a person can do is their best. Palla-Palla will understand if you can't do it, so long as you do your best."
"I'll try," Maria answered.
Back at the control panel, Juno worked feverishly as Ceres watched her and Ami watched from the communicator.
"This should be the last sequence," Ami advised her. "You're doing fine, Juno."
"Another encryption!" Juno fumed. "This guy must have been the most paranoid man in the world!"
"He seems to have been quite protective of the project," Ami said. Through the communicator, she was receiving the encryption and using her senshi computer to break it in record time. "It must have been very important to him."
"Obviously more important to him than his own children," Ceres remarked. "How does someone do that to someone they're supposed to lo . . ." The last word caught in Ceres' throat as she remembered her recent history with Gallan.
"That's it!" Juno exclaimed as a command menu popped up on the screen. Quickly she engaged the proper sub-program. She and Ceres, and Vesta off in the distance, turned to the containment cylinders. The collars around the necks of the victims opened, as did the waist belts. They retracted on the arms they were connected to. Hatches on the cylinders opened, hissing with equalized air pressure. All of the prisoners slumped in their cylinders.
Vesta transformed back into her senshi form as she ran for Palla-Palla's cylinder. Already damaged, the hatch flew to pieces as Vesta ripped it open and pulled Palla-Palla out.
"She's alive!" Vesta called over, yelling to be heard amid the cyclone that still battered everyone in the room. "She's pretty groggy! Is that normal?"
Juno looked to the communicator. "I would imagine so," Ami told her. "But you really should have a doctor look at her there."
"Yeah, we'll do that," Juno smiled gratefully.
"If Saturn doesn't kill us all first," Ceres added nervously.
Punctuating the comment, Sailor Moon sank to one knee. She was still pouring every ounce of pink energy she could muster into Sailor Saturn, trying to pull the senshi back to reality and rein in her psychic panic. The strain was evident everywhere, from her expression to her body language. The others wanted to help, but they knew they could do nothing. Saturn was out of their league and if Sailor Moon couldn't pull her back, none of them could.
"Hotaru!" Sailor Moon mentally called again. "Hotaru, it's me! Usa!"
Nothing. Sailor Moon continued her Halation in spite of the toll it was taking on her.
"Hotaru! Please, Hotaru, wake up! You don't have to be afraid anymore! I'm here! I've got you!"
Nothing.
"Hotaru, please!"
Nothing - - at first.
"Usa?"
And in her mind, for the first time, Sailor Moon could see Hotaru's image. She saw a violet-white light in Hotaru's shape that seemed to be Hotaru's psychic essence. And, remarkably, she saw her own essence, a pink-white light in her own shape. It had to be her own shape, because nobody else wore rabbit-ear odangos like she did. Hotaru's essence was in a fetal ball, cowering in whatever psychic plane they were both on. It timidly looked up at her, not daring to believe that she was no longer alone. Sailor Moon could see in her mind's eye pink tendrils gently swirling around Hotaru's essence. It gave the young princess a feeling of great pride.
Her essence held out her arms, open and inviting, to poor Hotaru. The features on Hotaru's essence began to tremble, like she was about to cry. Hotaru's essence scrambled to its feet and ran to Usa, ran as if hungry wolves were nipping at its heels. The essence got near enough and lunged into the arms of Usa's essence, holding on lest it be torn away.
"Oh, Usa!" Sailor Moon felt the essence say. "Oh I was so scared! Please say you're real! Please say you're not a hallucination!"
"I'm real, Hotaru," Sailor Moon thought back. "You're safe now. It's all over."
In the waking world, Sailor Saturn opened her eyes timidly. She lay on the cold floor of the factory complex Dr. Melo had converted. At her feet, Juno and Ceres were knelt down, looking at her hopefully. She glanced to her right. Vesta was there, holding on to Palla-Palla. They were both looking at her with guarded anticipation. A hand touched her shoulder and she flinched, but it was only Sailor Mars, above and to her right. Searching, momentarily frantic, Saturn looked around. When she found it was Sailor Moon cradling her on her knees behind her, a timid smile crept onto her face.
"You OK?" Sailor Moon wheezed. The exertion was evident on her face and strands of pink hair dangled in her eyes. Suddenly Saturn felt her eyes flood.
"I am now!" Saturn wailed and hugged her best friend in the entire universe.
Continued in Chapter 11