Chapter 11

Haruka was prepared to return to the mine and to work in the decaying mountain of meat. Last hours caused her to be on the edge of nervous breakdown. She came a long way. To safe Michiru, she betrayed people who trusted her, but instead of freeing her green haired beloved, she cheated on her with other woman. Uranus promised herself, that Chronos would pay for everything he did to her and Neptune, even if she had to die or stay forever in that infernal place. Suddenyl, the door of her room opened and the bald man turned up in a grey habit entered.

"Are we coming back down?" The blonde asked getting up.

"No. Aexel wants to see you again."

"No way. I'm coming back to the mine." Haruka clenched fists.

"Aexel wants to see you again." The bald man repeated. He took the sparking cane out.

"Do you want to force me to go with you? You don't have to. I won't be fighting... I'll go with you." The girl replied knowing that the fight would end with coming of more guards, and this time nobody would help her. Her death would also mean the end for Michiru. The tall man left the roon first and then he headed in the direction of the chamber inhabited by Aexel, guessing that Haruka would be following him and wouldn't try to escape. When the girl came into the guest room of the white-skinned woman, it turned out that K'h'bloo was there also. The alien was beaten up and hacked off in cuffs, but his wounds didn't look too serious.

"K'h'bloo!" Uranus was glad, but she quickly grew more serious.

"What do you want from him!" She shouted at Aexel. The woman looked at her coldly.

"Tell him to show me your memories! I want to know, if there really something exists besides this land! I want to know the truth!"

"Have you stop believe your master? You'll be punished." The blonde said with a malicious smile.

"Just do it! Ask him to show me your memories!" Aexel insisted. Haruka came up to Zeta Reticulian.

"Did they do something to you?" She asked.

"No. They got me out of the cell and brought me here. I won't be sharing the gift of telepathy with somebody as she. She won't force me to do it, never." The grey-skined alien replied.

"No, you must show her. If you don't want to betray your memories, do what she asks you for and show her my mind. Find the most beautiful places that you'll find in it. Show her happy moments from my life."

"Why do you want to do it? She is our enemy." K'h'bloo didn't want to connect with the mind of the woman who forced him to do laborous work.

"I learnt that she's as prisoner of this place as all of us in the underground. I'm sure about it. Only you can make her understand it. And then we can gain a strong ally."

"Ok. I will do it, because fought for my life earlier. I am indebted to you."

Haruka sat down on the sofa nearby Aexel. The grey-skined alien approached both women, unsteadily raising the hand in their direction. He touched their heads, trying to unite telepathically with their minds and show Aexel memories of the blonde. The mind of the woman with white skin was moved to the seashore with a giant, red, setting Sun visible over the horizon.

Aexel looked all around, not being able to get used to the vision and strange emotion of bodilessness. After a moment, she realized that Haruka had been by her. The wind blowing from above waves shook her fair hair.

"It's the seashore on which I and Michiru relax. I was there last time just before Chronos attacked us."

"It's beautifull here..." Aexel whispered fixing her eyes on water butting against the shore and the red ball of sun disappearing beyond the horizon.

"I feel the sea, puff of wind... how is it possible?" The surprised woman asked. K'h'bloo appeared.

"You are feeling exactly what Haruka remembered. You are now living the moments of her life, the time when she walked with her beloved on the beach of her world."

"Now see what else my planet has to offer." Uranus touched Aexel's hand. Both girls moved to other place, to the roof of one of Tokyo's skyscrappers. The cold wind tossed hair of the pale woman, but she didn't notice it. She ran up to the fence in order to closely examine lights of the night city, surrounding her from all four directions of the world.

"This place... lives!" She said, comparing the modern metropolis with the stone city located in the heart of the dead desert.

"Not only this place." Zeta Reticulian replied. He touched Aexel's hand and transferred her mind to the planet which he very well remembered from the childhood. This time, the black-haired woman was going to admire the extensive green meadows and the blue on which there was the Sun and a large gas giant with rings glistening with reflected light looming into the view from behind the horizon.

"This is the world which Chronos took from us all." Haruka said.

"In a very brutal way." She added. K'h'bloo moved minds of women to another scenery. This time he wanted to show her atrocities that Chronos committed on the Earth. Visions changed in a very rapid pace, not letting Aexel rest and or react to violent resentments in any way whatsoever. She looked at the burning airship and at Chronos kidnapping Michiru to the fiery whirlpool, at the gloomy corridors of Cygnus' tower, full of deformed victims of experiments of the man in the white suit, at the horse with flaming mane which was feared by Elysion's residents and at the ballroom full of the man' allies playing amongst the splendour and elaborate dishes.

"That's enough!" Aexel shouted removing the hand of the alien from her head. She moved away from Haruka, cannot stand the truth she got to know a moment ago.

"It was intense... as if I lived all of this... I believe in it..." She whispered.

"How could he cheat us for all these years..." She added.

"Chronos hurt us all. Therefore we must support each other." The blonde approached Aexel. Her eyesight expressed the readiness to act.

"I must call The Council. Zeta Reticulian will connect all of us and show us these images. Then we will decide what to do next." Aexel was worn out by the long telepathic session and crushed with truth about the man whom she regarded as the saviour. She wanted to be alone and think everything over.

"Come back to your chamber." She said to Uranus.

"And you..." She turned to the alien.

"You're coming back down. I will call you, when I need your help again... soon." She announced.

In the afternoon, the bald man dressed in the habit came to Haruka's room. He didn't say a word, but the girl knew very well that she had been called by Aexel again. This time the bald man led her along stone stairs down to the level of the city which she hadn't visited yet. Uranus thought that the white-skinned woman had decided to shut her in the underground cell and never again let her question her faith in Chronos. It turned out that she had been wrong, because the bald man ordered her to go with him in the direction of the central part of the city, bear big building laid on the very centre of the market. Haruka looked at the entrance gate, noticing the sculpture of the devil's head, similar to the one decorating the walking stick of the man in the white suit. The entrance hall, which she entered, was big and cold, much better than hot and dry climate of the desert. The girl noticed a few soldiers with faces of pigs and white-haired men with elvish features. She was led to the room in which there were gathered all administrators of the city who swore loyalty to Chronos in exchange for the possibility of living in his world. Aexel and persons whom Haruka saw the first time were sitting by the wooden, semicircular bench: women and men with light complexion and pointed ears, hooded figures in grey habits, three persons coming from the Earth, two men and older woman and pig man with golden chains on the neck, who was probably a superior of all guards from mines near the city. Haruka's friend stood in the middle of the chamber. Seeing the blonde, Aexel got up from her chair, smiling to her.

"I informed the City Council of what I had experienced. You must understand that they want evidence. You must show them what exist apart from this dead piece of rock."

Uranus approached the alien.

"K'h'bloo, will you manage to join me to so many minds?"

"Yes, but I don't like this idea. Who knows what filth hides in their head. Do you want to risk and to see it?"

"We have no choice. It's our only chance to escape from this place and... defeat this monster."

"Please yourself." The stranger turned to the assembled company. He touched Haruka's hand with one palm, and the second one moved in the direction of Aexel.

"Tell everyone to take hold of one another's hands. It will be easier for me to show them Haruka's memories." He advised.

"You heard him!" Aexel said touching the hand of the alien and the woman of elvish beauty sitting by her.

"Why are we supposed to do it! Perhaps it's a trap!" The pig screamed banging his fist on the table.

"Exactly, why?" The man in the black suit asked.

Long-haired elf, partner of the girl sitting by Aexel, got up from the chair, took the sword out of the scabbard and pushed it to the neck of the pig.

"You will be quarrelling later. I want to see whether Aexel told the truth. I want to know whether I believed in lies all these years."

"I agree with Eliral." The old woman in glasses replied. All Council members joined hands, and Zeta Reticuli alien started opening his and Haruka's memories for them.

After the completed telepathic projection, the majority of members of the Council of the stone city was shocked. Truth in which they believed all their life proved to be lies thought up by Chronus. Haruka observed the development of the situation with an anxiety. The pig man struck the table with his fist.

"I should chop Chronus' head off with an axe!" He shouted.

"But why I'm supposed to think that what I saw is really true? Perhaps I should cut head of these two?" He added.

"It was real. Otherwise we would sense evil intentions of this two." The hooded person in the grey habit said.

"The Earth didn't become the nuclear hell..." The man dressed in the suit said.

"There is still a life on it... The woman with grey hair added.

"If that's true, perhaps our world also wasn't destroyed. " the man of elvish beauty said.

"Perhaps we will be able to see Everforest again..." He whispered to the ear of his partner.

"Do really you understand nothing?" The other terrestrial man got up from the chair, trying to finish discussion of his acquaintances.

"Don't you understand that it does not make any difference for us whether anything exists apart from this place, because we are sentenced to live here until the day of our end? Chronus is powerful. His science created the entire timespaces. None of our worlds achieved enough development to make something even closely similar. This city is surrounded with desert on which herds of Cacodemons predate! We won't manage to cross the desert. And even if we reach the Chronus' palace, his protective systems will destroy everyone who won't become a food for flying demons earlier."

"I and my guards will cope with the task! We're ready to stand up and fight against years of lies!" The Pig man screamed hitting the table with the hand.

"Even if all guards and city dwellers stand up to the fight, there are too few of us to cross the desert and storm Chronus' castle." The man remained sceptical.

"You forgot that there is much more hand to fight." Haruka cut in on the conversation.

"Yes?" The man replied sitting down on the chair.

"All prisoners working in mines and all industrial plants of this city. If you arm them all, they will be an army with which even Chronus won't win. Each of them ahd hate for this monster engraved upon the heart. Let it be free, and the victory will be yours."

"Are we supposed to fight shoulder to shoulder with slaves?" The Pig man was surprised.

"She is right." The older woman interjected.

"If everything turned out to be the lie, our interrelation also ceased to be real. We cannot exploit these people, because the system of values which invoked social roles in this city also collapsed."

"But how do you want to force them to cooperate? If they are freed, the first thing they will do is they will cut throats of us all!" The black-haired man was sceptical again.

"I will show them the truth. The truth will free them like all of you now." Zeta Reticulian announced trying to dispel all doubts.

"If we have to decide, let us vote now. I accept Haruka's plan." Aexel said.

"We also." the elf announced on behalf of his brothers and sisters.

"We also." The hooded man added.

"I am too."

"And I."

"I must agree." Three people said, one after the other starting with the old woman.

"I agree." The a pig finished.

"It's decided. We will meet in the square. All guards and all prisoners." Aexel finished the meeting.

Prisoners working in mines of minerals and the rotting meat, in milles and processing plants of all materials, resting in small cells and shut in isolation rooms for minor offences, everyone got the order to finish the performed job and come off with their guards to the surface, to the level of the city accessible only to privileged residents of the stone metropolis. Some of them saw the light of the sun for the first time since they were thrown to the mine. Guards informed nobody of the aim of their walk, and what's more all attempts to obtain information reacted with their aggression. Habits taught by years aren't changed within an hour, even after hearing the shocking revelation from their superior. Prisoners thought that they had been lead to new mines, assigned to the largest project. Some of them passed rumours that Chronus had wanted to build the tower reaching the sky and to reach stars from it. Therefore he needed thousands of hands to the work in hot desert sands. They were other rumours. Some prisoners thought that Chronus had decided to get rid of all of them, they were no longer needed. They thought that they had been led to the place of their execution and soon they were supposed to rest in graves dug up by their own hands. Guards shared the similar views, because none of them could believe that their boss wanted to show them truth concerning their existance in the barren world. On the main square,there were crowds of prisoners from other parts of the city, as frightened and as unsure of their fate as the group led by pig-headed warriors. Amongst crowds there were also armed city dwellers, white-haired elves and hooded representatives of the forgotten cult. Everyone looked at the terrace on which representatives of the city council gathered. Aexel, the woman arousing fear in hearts of the majority of convicts, started her historical speech.

"Today, I have a gift for everyone of you. It can be good news, or the fullfilment of the worst nightmares. Today, you will learn whom really is person thanks to which we are all stuck in this dying world. Today, thanks to the help of these two wonderful beings..." Aexel pointed at Haruka and K'h'bloo.

"A curtain of lies was removed from my eyes. Therefore I want each of you to look behind this veil." The woman finished the monologue. Loud conversations appeared amongst the crowd.

"Silence!" The commander of pig warriors shouted.

"Calm yourselves down and open your minds!" Aexel added. Grey alien closed eyes and began sending Haruka's and all other prisoners' memories to minds of guards and residents of the stone city gathered together in the square.

Michiru was floating inside the fluid space-time. Her senses got used to the new reality, and the mind of the girl started seeing some meaning in the surroundings closest to her. Michiru discovered that she could influence what happened around her only with her thoughts. She was relaxed, and trips to the strange became for her a form of escape from the grim reality. The girl observed changes in phosphorescing substance which seemed to be an odd life forms with an intelligence. Flashes of the light appearing around Michiru's body ckecked her out, tried to establish contact with her and to understand what she was. Abstract, geometrical, changing shapes appeared in front of her face, answering with transformations to every movement of the girl. Visions, shreds of memories, pieces of knowledge from dead world turned up at Neptune's mind. The girl absorbed alien memories and placed them between their own. At some point, a blinding light paralysed her and ejected her from the space. She fell down on the floor. Chronus helped her to get up.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I don't know. Something threw me out. Perhaps humman cannot stay there too long." Michiru replied gasping.

"Could you see something?"

"Yes... memories... probably from the Golden Millennium... former knowledge. I don't understand it."

"Rest easyr. Stay here and relax. Your mind needs the time to recall times of our greatness." Chronus said with a cooing voice. Soon, he left the mirror's chamber leaving Michiru alone.

Haruka was walking on the urban square which had been converted to barracks for the new-incurred revolutionary army compound of ex-cons of mines and their guards. The girl looked at warriors with pig's physiognomies teaching former slave workers how to use energy horsewhips, swords and other kind of weapons and guns. In the narrow lane leading to the closed mill, a few hooden men trained telekinetic abilities crushing stones with an energy of their joined minds. Haruks walked up the stairs to the highest levels of the city, passing her acquaintance from Zeta Reticuli conducting the telepathic session with people not being able to cope with terrors of living in underground of Chronus's city. The girl changed into the leather dress given her by Aexel, uniform of armies from the homeworld of the white-skinned woman. Its protective part resembling the chain mail garment and the sword hanging by the belt, let Harucks to think of herself as the woman-warrior again. She didn't have her talisman or the ability of the cast offensive spells, but instead she gathered an army of beings hating her enemy. She entered the chamber of the City Council. It turned out that only Aexel was there. The woman had the same dress as Haruka, differing only in a colour. Sailor Uranus had blue one, Aexel's was red.

"Uniform of the royal army fits you." The black-haired woman turned to senshi standing in the doorway.

"It must be enough for me up to the moment when I recover my real uniform... and the power which it gives to me." Haruka replied. Aexel went to the window.

"Thanks to you a miracle happened." She said.

"I 've shown you the truth about this place. The truth which you should get to know much earlier, if only you dared to search it."

"I don't know whether to love you or hate you for it." Aexel replied sadly.

"Before you appeared here, I had a simple life. I had to guard supplies of fuels for Chronus and supervise the work of prison guards. I was grateful to Chronus, because he rescued me and a few of my co-companions from the certain death, when our planet was destroyed. I could see how our world died, and then I waited for the death inside the Star Ark in which the system of life support was destroyed as a result of a sabotage. Chronus told me that destruction of our planet had initiated the chain reaction which led to the destruction of the whole galaxy, except his desert-like land. Now I know that it was a lie. I'm thinking... what this knowledge will bring to me. Soon, we will set off to the desert, full of hungry Cacodemonons and other lice protecting the access to the Chronus' castle. How many of us will die? Tens? Hundreds?" Aexel became sad.

"How many will fall down beneath the castle?" She asked.

"I don't also know what I'm going to face there. I don't know even if Michiru still lives. Perhaps what I'm doing doesn't have any sense?" Haruka added.

"We must kill him. At all costs. We must free the universe from this monster." Aexel said hard. She touched the sword's hilt. Uranus smiled.

"And take these poor beings to their houses." She stated looking through the window.

"She lives, you must believe in it." Aexel rested her hands on the shoulder of the blonde.

"And I won't be between two oy you." She added.

"Because I cannot compete with somebody for whom you can change the order of the world."

A few hours later, the army compound of residents of the stone city and prisoners from mines and milles was ready to start its walk to the other side of the desert. After an exchange of thoughts between prisoners and their guards, the majority of people was ready for the fight for the freedom and the return to their native worlds. Everyone knew that the only road to freedom led through the castle of the man dressed in white. Hate among two groups of beings was still present, it could not disappear in a flash. However the shared case was much more important. Undecided and opposed to the revolution remained in the city or changed their beliefs after being touched by the telepathy of Zeta Reticuli alien and psychological suggestions from the group of hooded men. All of them agreed to fight, of their own free will or forced to do it. Aexel and Haruka were walking in the first row, with the alien, council members and prisoners who had performed important functions in the community of workers. Hundreds of pairs of feet hit red desert sands, leaving clouds of dust. After an one hour march from the city, the group reached to the stone desert. In the distance, they could see red sands and the Chronus' castle. Unfortunately, there were also a desert, rocky canyons, sand dunes and herds of Cacodemonons whom some board members were afraid of so much. These monsters resembled big, red balls with spikes. They were afloat above the hot earth like balloons filled up with helium. There was a single, green eye in the middle of their body and a jaw with a sharp teeth under it. Demons were floating closely spaced, waiting for next supplies of the meat. This time they were supposed to get something completely different.

"Cacodemons." Aexel announced.

"A lot of Cacodemons." She added.

"Cannot we just run in a greater distance from them? I think that they're slow. They should not catch up with us, if we're far." Haruka said.

"It's not that simple. They're belching out fire, balls of fire. We won't go through, if we don't fight with them directly."

"What are we waiting for?" Haruka smiled. She took the sword out of the scabbard. Aexel turned to crowds standing behind her.

"Look! The last barrier to the freedom is just there! We must destroy it together!" She said. K'h'bloo and telepathic monks acted at minds of the army, increasing their morale and helping their courage weakened by the desert march. Pigs armed in energy rifles and elves who could cast spells from a distance assumed strategic positions. The rest of the people of the rebellion prepared swords, horsewhips and other kind of short-distance weapon. They moved towards herds of Cacodemons. Meanwhile, Zeta Reticulian and monks tried to reach inside the minds of red monsters and to arouse the panic in them. Unfortunately, it wasn't easy, because thoughts of monsters were incomprehensible to them and their strong willpowers resisted the telepathic interference. Pigs started to fire at the herd of demons, and elvish mages threw bullets of blue flames in their direction. A few monsters were effectively hit and inertly fell to the ground gushing with a blue blood. Remaining ones, alerted with situation, spotted the coming group of the stone city's residents and set about to the counter-attack. Their jaws opened, and fire balls spew out from the inside of their throats. A few large explosions scattered Aexel's army. Prisoners were running like crazy, not being able to extinguish flames consuming their clothes and bodies. A few Cacodemons rose up higher to better see snipers with pig's faces and elven wizards. They attacked again, this time shooting more blindly than accurately in order to eliminate the biggest threat. Exploding balls of the fire hit warriors, wounding them or killing outright. The commander of elves, long-haired Eliral, was one of victims. His body became charred corpse, after direct hit by the fiery spell. A panic turned up between rebels. Many of them tried to escape. They wanted to come back to the city as soon as possible, to escape to far desert, anywhere at all, the farthest from terrible monsters with one eye. Cacodemons said goodbye to them with their fire balls, causing even bigger panic amongst rebels. The commander of pigs screamed at them, he shouted out sentences with which he had frightened them when were his prisoners, tried to frighten them with the penalty for treason. His threats fell on ears which didn't want to hear anything. Demons, encouraged with desertion of prisoners, commenced the attack. A promise of the hunt finished with the feast turned up at their minds. Wizards fired magic bows at monsters, and pigs tried to puncture their hard skin with energy horsewhips. One of monsters spotted the leader of guards. He attacked him with teeth, tightened jaws on his body cutting him in half. The pig man squealed frightfully, when his life left him along with the blood. Two other Cacodemons cornered terrestrial members of the city council. Soon blood poured out, and people became food for red wild beasts. Aexel ordered her people to attack. She jumped at one of monsters with the sword, aiming for his green eye.

"Come as close to them as possible! Then they will not be able to spit fire!" She screamed. Haruka also joined in the fight. Her sword slid down from the scaly skin of demons, when the girl tried to slash it. K'h'bloo took control over one of monsters, and attacked the others using his teeth. Unfortunately, his victory was short-lived, since other Cacodemon fried two monks who helped him with the telepathic attack. Haruka hit with the sword, aiming for the eye of the monster, but it closed its hard eyelid. The girl wasn't prepared for hitting the hard surface, the weapon fell out from her hands, smashing to shreds. The demon opened his jaws widely, preparing the fire ball. Haruka felt the stink of sulphur, and the air arounds her became much heater a moment later. Large stream of fire dashed off at her side. Aexel rushed to help the blonde. She turned her over to the ground, which saved her from being burnt alive. Aexel quickly stood up and gave Haruka hand in order to help her to get up also. Other Cacodemon surprised two women from the back, shooting balls of fire at them, just like his predecessor. Girls jumped away. Haruka landed in desert sands, but her new friend unluckily fell between the group of Cacodemons.

Meanwhile, many Chronus' guests went to the walls surrounding the castle, hearing alarming sounds coming from a distance. Many of them spotted large group of people fighting with red, spherical monsters amongst explosions and fire. The man in the green armour took the telescope out in order to see the strange occurrence more closely.

"People... they're coming here. They're fighting with some monsters..." He replied surprised.

Wiseman appeared by him. He didn't react hearing his revelation, instead he disappeared in the wall. In the same time, Chronus was standing on the terrace, looking at clouds of dust raised on the desert and flames of demons decimating people trying to force their way through herds. He clenched fists guessing what happened. Soon, the stone gargoyle landed at his feet.

"What is going on!?" The man asked angrily.

"Rebellion, my lord. City dwellers and all prisoners united are coming here to overthrow you." The monster answered obediently.

"How could they dare?!" Chronus clenched fists. He pinted his the ring at the messenger.

"World Shaking!" He shouted, attacking the monster with the Sailor Uranus' spell. Gargoyle didn't have any chance. He was shattered into small pieces.

Haruka looked with a terror as one of Cacodemons was showing his jaws in front of Aexel, who tried to stand up from her fall. The blonde's sword was shattered, and she was too far away to help the woman. The monster slowed down, like he knew that women were no danger to him. He decided to play with them. In the same moment Wiseman materialised by the blonde. The girl assumed a defensive position, supposing the man was sent by Chronus.

"I can see that your small revolution is reaching the glorious ending." Wiseman spoke.

"Damn!" Haruka didn't hide her fury.

"But I can help her, if you agree." Wiseman showed Sailor Uranus' transformation pen.

"You.." The blonde wanted to attack him and to get her property back, but, to her great surprise, Wiseman gave it back himself.

"Why... are you helping me?" Haruka was surprised.

"Because I want to become even the chances." The man replied disappearing. The girl looked at jaws of the demon approaching Aexel.

"Uranus Planet Power, Make Up!" She shouted transforming in Sailor Uranus. After the transformation, she immediately summoned the Space Sword.

"Space Sword Blaster!" She attacked Cacodemon. The monster was hit with a bright blade straight in his single eye. He howled with a pain, trying to blindly get out of the battlefield. Aexel looked at the blonde in disbelief.

"You finally saw the real me." Uranus said gladly.

"We're coming back to the fight." She added.

"World Shaking!" Sher shouted, sending the ball of amber light towards the red demon attacking the group of prisoners. The monster was hit inside its mouth. Convulsions stunned him, and his blue blood poured out from the large mouth.

"It worked!" Aexel was glad.

"World Shaking!" Haruka attacked the group of three Cacodemons trying to devour a few prisoners and two guards with pig's heads. The ball of yellow light hit between monsters, effectively scaring them off the people. Other Cacodemons moved away to a safe distance and started spitting burning phlegms towards the girl. Sailor Uranus used her natural speed and effectively avoided all their blows. She felt the intense heat of the fire splashed beside her body. Many ex-cons looked at the feat of the girl in disbelief. Many of them started to have faith in the own victory again. They took weapons from their dead companions of the fight and started the attack. They fired energy rifles, hit hard Cacodemons' bodies with light horsewhips. Others threw stones at single eyes of monsters. Demons counter-attacked. The fire shotting from their mouths changed fighting human into torches running all over the desert like fanatics. Zeta Reticuli alien covered ears, trying to separate himself from enduring victims with telepathic barrier. Aexel looked at big, red bullets balls cutting members of her own race in two halves.

"It must end..." She said with clenched fists.

"Do something! We must escape from here! Come back to the city!" She shouted at Haruka.

"These monsters already killed half of us! And even your spells aren't working on them! We lost!" The woman was desperate. She wanted to attack Haruka with her sword and kill her, because she persuaded her to start the revolution which hadn't the smallest chance of the victory. Killing Sailor Uranus, she hoped that she will be able to count on Chronus' compassion.

"No." Haruka replied coldly. She raised the Space Sword above the head and closed her eyes. Her weapon lighted with bright glow and the girl hit the air with it, making a hole in space-time's fabric from which the red light emerged.

"Uranus! Space Turbulence!" The blonde cast her most powerful spell. Tens of yellow energy balls emerged from the bright, red rift. All dashed off at surprised Cacodemons with a huge speed. A few of them opened their jaws belching out fire, but the strength of Sailor Uranus' magic bullets and the wind accompanying them was too great. The fire was smothered, and golden bullets hit monsters. A few of them were hit by many missiles. Their bodies fell into convulsions and were ripped to shreds. Other monsters were only stunned. They all got scared, panicked, started spewing fire to each other. Survived Cacodemons raised higher, above hot desert's sands. They turned around and escaped from the battlefield.

In the same time, the man in the green armour observed the fight through the telescope on one of castle walls. A few other Chronus' guests kept him company. The bearded man ceased observation. He was alarmed very much, his face became paler.

"What's going on?" The grey haired woman standing beside him asked.

"They won. They won against these monsters." The bearded man replied. He looked at the battlefield through the telescope again.

"They won and they are coming here. Everyone." He added. Chronus appeared on walls. He came up to irritated persons and leaned against the wall. He raised his walking stick up, pointing the head of the devil at the direction of towers surrounding the castle. He smiled to the assembled company.

"This place is protected with the technology of the Golden Millennium, the real world. Nothing threatens you here. Sit down comfortably and observe the slaughter of these idiots. They could lead calm life in the city which I built for them. They rebelled and they will die. I don't have a penalty more fair for the ones whoare opposes my will."

City dwellers and prisoners, who survived the clash with Cacodemons and didn't escape back to the stone city, seeing the power of Sailor Uranus magic, gained more courage and the self-confidence. In the moment when they marched to the Chronus' castle, there were no divisions between them, they became one nation wanting to take its freedom from hands of the tyrant dressed in white. Each of them gripped the weapon, some of them took hard, sharpened rocks from the desert, since their weapon was destroyed during the fight with red monsters. Aexel and Haruka were walking in the first row, together with the alien from Zeta Reticuli and a few hooded men. The city council wa no more, because almost all its members were torn apart by shapr teeth of Cacodemons or burnt alive by their fiery breaths.

"Do you realize that two thirds of us are dead, escaped back to the city or got lost on the desert?" Aexel asked.

"But one third of us still wants to defeat Chronus. It's all that counts to us. We will be mourning the dead, when we win." Haruka announced.

"And we will punish all cowards." The black-haired girl added gripping the sword.

The group was very close to the castle. Persons with good eyesight could notice people moving on its walls without a problem. Aexel stopped everyone with one move of the hand. She ordered survived magi and guards of the mine to prepare for the fire at the stronghold from the distance. Uranus noticed rocks sticking out of sand, making a maze going to the entrance gate to the castle. She knew that she had to take advantage of the confusion which was supposed to happen in a short moment and enter the inside of the building as soon as possible. Michiru waited for her.

The grey haired man smiled joyfully. He raised the hand, and the ring on his finger shone with many colours. He gave a mental order to all towers protecting his house. As it turned out, the order wasn't carried out. None of towers reacted, all of them were dead as if somebody cut their power away. "What's that supposed to mean?" Chronus gripped the walking stick. His voice expressed a great concern.

"They are closer! Do something!"The older woman tried to force him to act.

"Where is this protection!" She asked. She was hit by one of snipers from the group of rebels. She fell on the floor. The bearded man in the emerald armour looked with a terror at the grey haired owner of the castle.

"They are attacking us! Destroy them!" He screamed. Chronus was enraged. He hit the man with the walking stick.

"You hoped that I would help you in everything?! Defend yourselves! Deserve the place in New Order of World!" The grey haired man left the dangerous zone and ran to the interior of the palace. He knew that he had to act quickly, because otherwise his dream would be terminated once and for all. He was furious, because he hadn't killed Sailor Uranus when had a chance. The woman-warrior returned and turned his subordinates against him. The breakdown of the protection system of the castle had to mean that there was a traitor in his thresholds. The man ran into the research chamber of Silver Crystal and mirror with the surface filled up with the fluid space-time. Michiru was sitting there on the floor trying to establish the telepathic contact with the emerald substance, tried to learn to control it as she had been ordered by Chronus. Alarming signals reached her ears earlier, but seeing the face of her kidnapper, she was certain. Something happened outside. Something not good for Chronus. Michiru thought about Wiseman and his promise. He became operative. She turned her head, noticing that the grey haired man tried to change something in settings of the computer controlling Silver Crystal. It was somethig bad, she thought. She got up and quickly ran up to him.

"What are you doing?"

"I must release all barriers. I must free the energy of ginzuishou to protect this palace." Chronus replied not looking at the girl.

"Why?" Michiru asked.

"There are raging barbarians at the door."

Michiru noticed that the energy, the man wanted to free, was really big. Visits to the fluid space-time, amongst remains of the personality of Chronus' former beloved, caused that Michiru had understood technology of the Golden Millennium. What Chronus wanted to do was really crazy.

"Such the quantity of energy, its directionality... it will destroy this planet!"

"Yes. Exactly I count on it. But our palace will be protected. Nothing will happen to us, don't be afraid. A few chambers will be enough for us to work on our project. We are already so close to our purpose!"

"I won't let you do it!" Michiru got hold of Chronus' hand. She pulled it, trying to dissuade the man from the insane plan. The man pushed her very hard. The girl ended up on the floor. She hit her arm. "I need your head only! The rest of the body can break up, remember about it!" Chronus shouted in a great anger. Michiru had to act. She closed her eyes and tried to relax, as during her attempts to take the control over the fluid space-time. She wanted to reach to the surface of the mirror, to catch it into her telepathic embrace. Simultaneously, she recalled how she had used the Deep Aqua Mirror, the small fragment of the phosphorescing space created by the technology of the ancient world. It came off.

"Submarine Reflection!" She shouted opening her eyes. She managed to use the magic, not being transformed into Sailor Neptune. The shapeless bubble of green colour broke away from the surface of the mirror, changed into the form resembling the arrow and dashed off towards Chronus with high speed. It slapped him in the face, squeezing into his eye. The man shouted from the pain, grasping the wound. His blood appeared on white walls of the room. Chronus fell down between computers. Michiru didn't want to check whether he still lived. She knew that she had to be outside as soon as possible. She ran out of the room and entered on the terrace after a brief lapse of time. She saw a chaos which engulfed that place, when infuriated residents of the stone city barged in. Two bright beings, similar to flying jellyfish, escaped above towers of the castle. The man in the green armour fell to stairs after a few effective blows of Aexel's sword. The robot was firing at the squad of pig people and white-skinned elves concealed between rocks of the stone maze. The black-haired girl strangled her jailor, with the same chain on which kept he kept her the entire life, band young boys threw the man dressed in purple robes down from a rock. Michiru walked around avoiding the fight, because she wanted to see the person for whom she waited all the time as soon as possible. Where was Haruka? Did she gather all these people, so they could rescue her? Maybe it was only a coincidence. Perhaps Uranus no longer lived or was still imprisoned in stone city with thousand chimneys? Soon the girl came inside the desert, rock maze.

Dhe saw her beloved at last. The blonde fought an uneven fight with the Minotaur, the same one, who tried to end Michiru's life. Uranus avoided blows of his fiery horsewhip, which were becoming faster more accurate, with an effort. Haruka was worn out, she breathed with an effort, she could not stop neither to rest nor to use the spells against the monster. Michiru clenched fists. She was ready to attack the horned wild beast with her bare hands. In the same moment, Wiseman appeared by her. He kept the transformation pen in his grey hand.

"It all happened as I planned. Chronus is losing." Hooded man said to the girl.

"His sick future will never become real." He added.

"And I have something that should belong to you." Michiru handed the pen to her. She didn't even manage to thank him, because he disappeared again.

"Neptune Planet Power, Make Up!" The girl trnaformed in Sailor Neptune. She ran up to the Minotaur, then stood behind his back. The monster overlooked her because he was busy fighting Haruka.

"Hi! Do you remember me?" She shouted. When the monster turned away his head, Neptune used her most powerful spell against him. A column of water which quickly was transformed into a crystal glass violin appeared behind her. Michiru started to play on it. A few streams of water, carrying tens of blue balls, hit Minotur. The monster didn't even manage to howl, because water with unusually high pressure surrounded him from every side. Columns hit him, drowning him and simultaneously pressing his body with pressure of oceanic depths. The Minotaur fell down dead, and his flaming whip turned into a heap of ash. Haruka stood up, noticing who saved her life. She smiled. She tried to say something, to joke, but emotions didn't let her speak. Michiru also wasn't able to think out the right welcome. Girls ran up to each other in a silence, embraced each other and kissed passionately. The Earth shook. Sailor Senshi looked in the direction of Chronus' castle, noticing that a strange glow appeared around it.

"He lives. And he is trying to destroy us." Michiru said.

"We must stop him." She added.