Disclaimer: All characters of the series "Sailor Moon", except for Sailor Storm, Thunderstorm, the Sailor Elements, the Five Storms, and all other Original Characters, are under copyright protection of Naoko Takeuchi.

Sailor Storm: The Lost Element

Ch. 14: The Day the Storm Cried

It was a dark night with no moon in the sky. The city was pitch black, like there was no power anywhere. It made the city so quiet that not even crickets were chirping. To Sailor Storm, it was way too quiet. Storm tried making her way through the pitch black city of her hometown, following an unknown presence that was leading her to the center of the city. The eerie thing was that not only could she see everything like the moon was shining down at half brightness, but a wind around her body started growing every time she had progressed closer to the presence. There was absolutely nothing in sight, but that was most likely the case why Storm was feeling more and more scared. She knew that something was definitely not right, especially with this wind constantly getting stronger. It took her a few more minutes to finally reach the source of the presence, but she still saw nothing around her. Suddenly, the wind stopped altogether. Storm looked around until a sudden explosion from the ground in front of her threw her back a few feet. She jumped to her feet only to see flames burst out of the streets all around her and throughout the entire city. Every street and building was on fire, including the ground Storm was standing on. It was only her magic that was keeping her from being roasted immediately, but her magic couldn't keep the flames off for very long. It was around that time when she heard loud evil laughter. The odd thing was that the voice laughing sounded awfully familiar and it was coming from the City Hall building in front of her. She looked up to the roof while trying to reinforce her magic field when she saw the person laughing. That sight alone made her blood run cold as she saw that the person who was laughing was herself as Kyle dressed just like Thunderstorm. Though there was no star on his forehead, it was more than enough for Storm's eyes to produce tears fast, and to cause Storm feel like her heart was ripped out. Sailor Storm screamed her lungs out when the flames consumed her.

"NNOOOOOOO," Kyle screamed as he shot up on his bed so hard that he almost crashed to the floor.

Zeus was immediately awakened and was on the floor trying to calm Kyle down. It was the seventh time Kyle has had this nightmare since he came home over a month ago.

"Kyle, it's okay. It's just a dream," Zeus said while pushing at Kyle's shoulder.

"Then why am I still having it, Zeus? I swear, it's becoming more real every time," Kyle said visibly shaking.

"It's probably a premonition then. It means that we have to find out what it means before it's too late. But before we do that, I need you to please calm down."

"Okay, Zeus," Kyle said sitting up to meditate for a minute.

Kyle was starting to calm down as his sweat-covered body started to dry when his mother opened the door to his room. Zeus told her it was okay and that Kyle just had another nightmare. It took Kyle a few more minutes to finally get out of bed.

Later in the morning...

"Kyle, I need to know what's going on with you," Zeus said as both he and Kyle were walking down an empty Dunn Avenue near Interstate 95.

"What do you mean 'what's going on with me'? I'm perfectly fine," Kyle said.

"That's a load of bull. You were having some odd dark personality moments back in Tokyo and now you're getting scared from nightmares. I mean, actually scared from a dream. Now I need to know if there is anything going on with you."

"Zeus, I don't know. Okay? I hardly know myself anymore. Hell, I don't even know how much longer I can handle all of this responsibility now."

"Kyle, you don't have a choice. No one in this entire Universe can do your job except you."

"So you're saying that if I quit, the world dies?"

"No. I'm saying that if you quit, the Universe dies. And there will be no one to blame except for you. That's just how this is."

Kyle says nothing in reply, but instead turns his face away in shame.

"Kyle, I'm trying my best to help you out with all that is going on right now. Your responsibility is to protect the innocents of the Universe from evil and harm. All of your actions have done nothing but proven and excelled that expectation. What you may be having problems with is just your dark side and light side trying to balance out, and that's okay. We all have our good and bad sides. But you are capable of embracing and controlling both your good side and dark side, and use it to destroy evil and to protect the innocent. You've already proven this when you not only gained full control of your Thunderstorm power, but also when you used both your Sailor Storm power and your Thunderstorm power to combine them into your Neo Storm form. Of course, I'm pretty sure you had help there, but it's still a start. All I can do is help you along with everything, but I can only do so much by myself. I need your help as well because I can't do it alone. Please."

Kyle had his eyes closed while both listening to Zeus and thinking about what he was trying to say. After about a minute, Kyle looked back at him.

"Okay, Zeus. I'll do what I can."

"That's all I'm asking for, Kyle. Thank you. Anyway, who knows? All of these odd emotion swings probably just mean that you need to be Thunderstorm a little more often. Because I've only seen you as Thunderstorm that one time since you've gained control of it. I'm not saying to use it when dealing with criminals, but to use it against the Negaverse."

"Speaking of which, have you made any connection from these attacks?"

"Other than the fact that they moved here because no one could defend themselves against them, no. It seems their choices of attacks are random at best, except for the fact that they always attack during the day. Maybe they think that curse Neflyte gave you a month ago would somehow slow you down or prevent you from fighting."

"Yeah. A lot of good that did."

Zeus started laughing as both he and Kyle kept walking down the still-empty road. They were on there way to pick up Kyle's Camaro from a repair garage on Main Street four miles away from their location. It was Zeus's idea to walk to it since Kyle could easily transform and be there in seconds. Eventually, that's what happened when they reached Main Street to head north.

Meanwhile...

Neflyte has been experiencing some trouble with his plans, from not finding the right youma for the job to constantly losing track of his target. However, his plans are almost finally completely prepared. Now, he just needed to finish the preparations.

"Gemini," Neflyte called out.

Two twin youma appeared in front of him, one with orange skin and the other with blue skin. They stood with their tails intertwined awaiting orders.

"You called for us, Master," both twin youma answered.

Neflyte wasted no time casting a spell at the twin youma at point-blank range. The Gemini twins were in utter pain as their bodies racked with dark power trying to split them apart. In the end, the feat worked. The former two-as-one youma twins were now individually operable. It did not take them long to figure out that they were capable of reaching their full potential by themselves. After casting the spell, Neflyte named the orange twin "Gem", and the blue twin "Nye." His preparations were finally completed. Now he just needed to time his attack correctly.

At around 6:00 in the evening, Travis was in the middle of making run-arounds for Kyle's parents. His job mainly consisted of meeting up with business officials to check on their progress, despite being a little looked down upon due to his age. Nevertheless, the meetings went off without a hitch, and Travis began to feel more and more confident. While leaving the building, he felt an odd wind blow towards him from the east. He knew that something was a little off because there was a large thunderstorm heading in from the west, but it never occurred to him that it was an omen. Therefore, he decided to head back to the Rayden estate where he was staying temporarily. If it wasn't for Kyle deciding to take his sweet time to pick up his car, Travis would be riding with him instead of taking one of the regrowing number of buses in the city.
"Kyle, I need to ask you something," Zeus said to Kyle when the garage finally finished with his car.

"What is it," Kyle asked.

"I was remembering what you said about how you couldn't die because of your complex magic field. I'm trying to figure out that if what you said is true, then how come Sailor Lightning and Thunderstorm managed to kill each other? How can that statement be true?"

"There are things of my past that I don't remember, Zeus. Chances are that they could have 'allowed' themselves to be killed. I don't know. Why do you keep asking me these things?"

"It's my job to know you through and through, Sailor Storm. Whether you like it or not, I am your guardian and your advisor."

Kyle didn't say anything else and decided to concentrate on his driving. Zeus, however, could already tell that Kyle was getting more and more angry and frustrated recently. As a matter of fact, the evidence shows itself in Kyle's somewhat aggressive driving at the moment. Something else did happen to strike Zeus oddly as well. It was around 6:30 in the evening in the middle of summer, but the sky was almost pitch black like the sun had gone down more than an hour ago. It couldn't have been just that thunderstorm making its way towards the city. Something bad was going to happen tonight, and both Zeus and Kyle could feel it. When Kyle made it back home, he let Zeus inside the house before he closed and locked the door without going inside. Then Kyle made a quick transformation into Sailor Storm while running off the property before Zeus had a chance to protest and follow her. Whatever was going to happen, she needed to be there fast.

Travis got off the bus he was on to wait for another bus traveling a different route. He noted to himself that it was too dark for the time of day, but he thought no more of it. It was at that time when Neflyte chose to strike. He landed on the ground in front of Travis, startling him.

"Hello, Travis. I see you're in good health," Neflyte said.

Travis knew already about guys like this, and immediately made a break for it. Neflyte smiled and teleported in front of Travis, but it didn't stop him. Even though Travis didn't have his cousin's speed, he did make very quick calculations in alternate routes as well as taking them immediately. He was still fast for a normal human, but he was also very agile. Every time Neflyte tried to cut him off, Travis had already changed directions. It was really starting to get under Neflyte's skin when he decided to have Gem and Nye do the chasing for him. After all, it would make a great workout for them. That is until Neflyte sensed a very low, but very fast magical signature almost on top of them. He unleashed Gem to fight off Sailor Storm, while having Nye pursue Travis. Queen Beryl would never forgive him if he failed tonight.

Sailor Storm was quickly making her way across rooftops almost in the same manner as the martial artists did back in Nerima. She was halfway to the city when she felt a dark presence. She was going to stand on top of a building to keep an eye out, but the Negaverse was already here, so now she had to really move. She was almost on top of the signature when her danger senses went off. Storm made a quick stop on a roof when an orange youma slammed down her spiked tail where Storm would have been had she kept on going. The youma laughed in typical fashion.

"Well, if it isn't the little sailor brat my master found to be a nuisance. Hopefully for you, I'll be able to kill you quickly," the youma said.

"Oh really? Who the hell are you this time," Storm asked aching to fight.

"You may call me Gem, though it won't matter to me. DIE!!"

Gem never hesitated in her attack against Sailor Storm. Storm quickly learned that this youma was much faster and more physically attacking than the others. This would not be easy at all. Storm made a dive towards her right when Gem made a charge at her. She let loose her Lightning Storm attack on Gem, but immediately noticed that her attacks weren't having very much effect. Storm managed to land on her feet, but Gem also managed to quickly counterattack her by kicking her into a light pole. Storm dodged the next charge again, but this time she ran across the street towards a 10-story building. Gem started pursuing her while Storm ran up the building's side. On her fourth step, Storm jumped off the side hard, intending to land on the other side of the street. In mid-air, she flipped over and held her hands out towards the youma.

"Ultra Star Ray," Storm yelled.

A moderately sized blue energy blast erupts from Storm's hands and races towards Gem, slamming the youma into the building wall, almost shattering it. Various front parts of Gem's body were seriously damaged with chunks of those parts missing. Unfortunately, the damage didn't slow Gem down very much as she had already recovered from the wall and was about to charge again. Storm had to jump 14 feet to dodge Gem's attacks while trying to stay away. As she had already found out the hard way that the youma was more than able to fight with all of her limbs including the tail, she now had to come up with an attack to use while keeping away a safe distance. Finally, she figured out that she could transform into her Neo version, but her decision came too late as Gem was fed up with Storm's constant nuisance. As Storm made another dodge while firing her Lightning Storm again, Gem swung around to whip her tail in front of Storm's path. The tail almost acted like a clothesline, but it also wrapped around Storm's neck. Storm immediately regretted losing focus and tried to pull away the tail that was choking the life out of her, but Gem just tightened her grip even more. Gem was trying to make Storm at least lose consciousness if she couldn't kill her. Storm did what she could to pull off the tail, even going as far as running lightning through direct contact of the tail, but nothing was working. It would only be a few more seconds before she would pass out, but she heard three words echoing in her head getting louder and louder through each passing moment. Using the last of her strength and breath, she uttered those words.

"Dark Storm Power."

Immediately, Storm could breathe again as her eyes glowed blue with lightning just a split second before very powerful energy exploded from her body. Gem was immediately thrown back twenty feet while the part of her tail that was choking Storm was ripped off. Storm's transformation was giving off a blinding white light with lightning coursing through, and it exploded again even harder than before after five seconds of transformation. Finally, the light died off to reveal Thunderstorm standing in Sailor Storm's place. Gem felt a heavy wave of fear, making her hesitate for several seconds before she regained her motivation. So she started charging and attacking again, but this time the results were completely different. Thunder was dodging her attacks with so much ease that he kept his serious and relaxed look every time he moved. After seven dodges, Thunder remembered that he still has to save Travis.

"As much as I love wanting to give you everything you deserve, I still have a job to do," Thunder said.

Gem only answered by charging Thunderstorm again. This time, Thunder didn't move because he didn't have to. As soon as Gem was within three feet of him, Thunder grabbed his hidden Shadow sword and slashed Gem three times in less than one second. Gem immediately stopped dead in her tracks with the slashes glowing fast when Thunder kicked Gem's body away as it exploded into light and dust. It was then Thunder felt a bit of a tug at his endurance. Worried that his Negaversal powers might not be used to his body yet, Thunder decided to de-transform back into Sailor Storm. The funny thing was though he was the original Sailor Storm when he transformed, he was now Neo Sailor Storm when he changed back, which was fine by him. Storm was thinking about this as he quickly made his way through the current part of the city to find Travis. Hopefully, he wasn't too late.

Travis was having some luck trying to get away from the blue youma that was chasing him. Apparently, she was a bit slow, but she did somehow managed to keep track of Travis no matter how many times he tried to hide. That point was made clear when she fired energy shots at the spot to flush him out. As if the weather picking up wasn't bad enough, he was being chased down by a monster and the same man who somewhat blinded Sailor Storm for no apparent reason. The fact that this was happening when he didn't do anything was truly scaring him. Not intending to do it, he ran into an alley with a dead end. The youma rounded the corner as Travis saw a fire escape on his left. He started climbing it as fast as he could while the youma started firing blast balls right where Travis was just a second before. Travis was almost literally sprinting up the fire escape while having energy blast explode right behind him all the way up to the roof. When Travis threw himself up onto the roof, he turned around to see a blast destroy the ladder he had just used. As he was hearing the remains of the fire escape crumble off the side of the fifteen-story building he was on, he turned around only to see Neflyte standing right in front of him. A second later, Neflyte was suddenly behind him and slammed Travis into the roof access wall using nothing but his power. The damage dealt wasn't enough to break any bones or to cause major bleeding, but it did hurt something fierce. Travis fell to the gravel on his back, and tried to get up after rotating around, but Neflyte grabbed the back of his shirt and threw him to the center of the roof. Neflyte had an evil smile on his face as he walked towards Travis.

"Congratulations, Travis Rayden. You have hereby been chosen by Queen Beryl of the Negaverse to become her ever-obeying slave and warrior," Neflyte said.

"Never. I'll never allow it to happen," Travis managed to say while trying to get up again.

"You don't understand. It's already been done."

Neflyte grabbed the front of Travis's shirt and picked him up off the ground.

"NEFLYTE," a new voice screamed from a roof of the taller building next to them.

Neflyte looked in the direction of the voice to see Sailor Storm standing on the roof looking at them. Storm managed to finally make it on top of a building, hoping to find Travis faster. When he reached the other side of the roof, that was when he saw Travis and Neflyte on the roof across the alley. He yelled out at Neflyte to hopefully take his attention off of Travis so he could escape. Unfortunately, this where everything went downhill. Then it started raining.

"Sailor Storm," Travis yelled, though not as loud.

"Sailor Storm. How very satisfying, because I wanted you to see this," Neflyte called out.

Storm was about to say something when Neflyte immediately turned his attention back to Travis, who in turn was starting to look back at Neflyte. It then felt like his entire life flashed before his eyes as the following events played out. Neflyte wasted no time in taking his free hand to summon a dark portal just behind Travis. Within the split second it took to summon the portal, Neflyte fired a dark blast of energy from his free hand right through Travis's body. The resulting effect was that Neflyte gained almost all of Travis's life force, Travis felt like he was shot by a shotgun at point-blank range, and the blast caused Travis to fly out of Neflyte's hand that was holding him into the portal. The portal that was leading to Queen Beryl's Negaverse stronghold swallowed up Travis just before it closed. Travis Rayden was now in the Negaverse.

Everything that had just happened had happened like it was in slow motion for Sailor Storm. However, the difference is that he just wasn't able to move. He had just witnessed his cousin, his family, get seemingly murdered in front of his eyes. When he almost came back to his senses, raw blind rage just exploded from his bottled up emotions.

"NOOO!!! YOU BASTARD," Storm screamed as he willed his legs to push him off of the roof.

He was trying to land on the other roof when Nye had cut him off. She blasted him with a shockwave attack that sent him flying backwards to the center of the roof he was just on. He backflipped in the air to land on his feet, and immediately charged towards Nye without even thinking. As a matter of fact, Storm was running off of nothing but rage and adrenaline at the moment. Another thing that didn't help out Storm at all was hearing Neflyte laughing that evil laugh of his ever since Storm first moved. Nye was about to attack again, but Storm time-sped his way towards her before jumping off the roof with sword already drawn. Storm jumped harder this time to gain better altitude as he swung his sword, slicing Nye's head in half from the top to the neck. He destroyed the youma, but payed no attention to her as he focused on Neflyte. He started his blind charge the moment he set foot on the roof intent on cutting Neflyte's head off, but the dark general proved that Storm was not in the right state of mind by disappearing at the last moment while still laughing that damnable laugh of his. Storm put everything he had into that swing, and when Neflyte disappeared just before the sword reach his neck causing it to go through nothing but air, it in turn caused Storm to lose balance as he stumbled to the ground and landed on his knees on then gravel topped roof. Neflyte's laugh could still be heard around him.

"So how does the GREAT Sailor Storm feel to lose the one thing he was supposed to protect to the hands of death!? You are weak, worthless; unworthy to call yourself a defender of humans. You are no better than us," Neflyte taunted, laughing as hard as he could as his voice faded out of existence.

It proved to be too much for Storm's emotions to handle. He did the one thing he had left in him. He screamed out his lungs as hard as he could to the heavens as a flotilla of lightning flashed in the night sky around him. Though it was raining making it hard to actually tell, it was pure fact that Sailor Storm was crying for the first time in his life as far as he could remember. It was then when he felt absolutely and completely useless.

Zeus was waiting in Kyle's room, fuming over thoughts of giving Kyle a piece of his mind about slamming the door behind him, preventing him to do his job. He was beginning to become amused at the picture of him strangling Kyle, when it hit him like four tons of bricks. A feeling that chilled his very soul had rushed through Zeus just before the night sky lit up like a christmas tree, and he immediately knew what had happened. But he didn't plan on this actually happening. Travis was not part of his plan at all. He was just supposed to live out his life like every other person on this planet, and he was never to be involved. Things were now getting out of hand and uncontrollable. If he didn't fix what was left of this incident, it would be the end of everything as he knew it. Zeus stared out of the window looking in the direction of the city. His only thoughts were that he had to fix this, and he had to fix it now.

A/N: Finally, I finished this thing. All of my free time has been butchered up, so it's going to be a little tough to keep updating this story, but I'm still trying. In case anyone doesn't know it, Kyle now has full control of his Negaverse form from now on, so Zack (the first Thunderstorm) will never take over his body unless Kyle asks for it. This chapter was a turning point in Kyle's life, and the next chapter will continue right where this one had left off, though it will be much shorter than usual. It will, however, show something new about Zeus that I haven't revealed yet. So just hang in there and bear withme on this. Later.