I am like a beast. I got on to my computer last night and spewed this whole chapter out in pretty much one go. And I think its pretty decent. The next chapter is already half-way done, as I actually started working on that first, but decided I wanted Ami's part out of the way first. Uranus and Neptune will be featured next, and then…well, heck breaks lose. Sort of. Not really.

Ami walked into the room, looking back and forth strangely. The room had walls of metal, and was almost completely empty except for a large, strange looking device in the center of the room. She noted that on the other side of the room, there was some sort of large metal door with an electronic keypad next to it.

"Dark Water!"

Ami whipped her head, already expecting the attack. "Shine Aqua Illusion!"

The two water attacks clashed together. Berthier walked forward and smiled. "I guess there's no surprising you, is there?"

"The chess was a bit of a dead giveaway," said Ami, crossing her arms. "Now, where's the other one?"

"Other one?"

"Mercurius, a.k.a. Viluy. I know she's here too."

Viluy stepped out of the shadows. "Genius girl Ami…surely, with your bright mind you've calculated that you can't defeat the both of us."

"I'll manage somehow. I'm not letting that disease get out!"

Viluy chuckled. "Oh, that old thing. We stopped doing work on that ages ago."

Ami frowned. "But I thought…"

"You thought wrong," said Viluy. "We lied to you—well, at least partly." Viluy raised her arm and talked into her bracelet. "Is she in position yet?"

"Keep your panties on!" came back a male voice. "I'm working on it. She isn't anywhere near close yet."

"Well, then, find her and teleport her there then!" said Viluy angrily. "Over and out. Ugh, good help is so hard to find these days…"

As she spoke into the communicator, a corridor of darkness had opened behind Berthier and Viluy. A girl with long purple hair stepped out and jumped on top of the machine. Ami bit her bottom lip and said nothing. Sailor Nemesis winked at Ami and snapped her fingers. Darkness engulfed the machine, and both it and Sailor Nemesis disappeared.

"What is it exactly that you're planning?" asked Ami to Viluy and Berthier, wondering what just went on. She pressed one of her earrings, bringing up her visor, and began scanning around the room—first at Viluy's bracelet, then at the door.

"You're familiar with my research on nanites?" asked Viluy, raising her arm and giving Ami a good look at her arm thingy. "We decided that they would be a better substitute for the disease. Nanites infused with energy from the heartless…once they enter a human's system, they hibernate until they are activated by a signal emitted by this machine. Then they begin attacking the heart of its host, turning them into a heartless. It's pretty ingenious if you ask me."

"But how do you plan to spread the nanites?"

"We've already been doing it," said Berthier happily. "We've been putting them in the water supply for weeks now."

"So what are you waiting for?"

"For the right moment," said Berthier. Viluy stepped forward. "Have you heard about the circus coming to town?" Ami shook her head. "I'm not surprised. You and your friends don't really get out much anymore, do you? Well, the whole city has been buzzing about it for a while now. My guess is almost everyone's there right now, or near by. Now, we just need a certain someone to get near this great gathering of people, and…"

Ami paled. "A whole army of heartless in one spot…"

Viluy nodded. "You really are smart, aren't you? I wonder if even the invincible Sailor Moon could handle a whole army. Especially in the state that she's been in…"

"You're planning to turn her into a heartless?"

"And what a heartless she'd be!" said Berthier gleefully. "But the real prize will be her heart…"

Viluy glanced sideways at Berthier, shutting her up. Ami shook her head. "I only have one more question."

Viluy rolled her eyes. "Yes?"

"Uh…what machine?" asked Ami. Viluy frowned. "This one right behind us…" she turned, and gasped. "What the? How? Who could have moved the entire machine?"

"Sailor Nemesis," groaned Berthier. "You know how she is with her space warps…she must have moved it when Ami came in the room. Smart move, actually."

"Yes…wouldn't want you damaging it…" said Viluy. "Not that you'd be able to. I designed everything here to be resistant to your powers. Any way, it seems like it will be some time before Sailor Moon is in position, so…"

"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"

"In the meantime we'll just…AH!"

The large stream of water shot out, blasting the both of them against the wall to the right. Ami quickly dashed forward to the other end of the room and took out her computer, typing furiously as she hacked into the door.

"Why you little brat! Mosaic buster!"

"Aqua Rhapsody!"

The stream of water powered through the nanites, knocking them down. Viluy smiled.

"Haven't we learned?" The nanites shot up, surrounding Ami and electrifying her.

"Hm. Once a loser, always a loser."

"Couldn't have said it better myself!"

Viluy turned. "What?"

Mars, Jupiter, and Venus all stood there in the doorway.

"Crescent Beam!"

The slender beam shot out and hit Viluy's bracelet, shorting it out. "Nice try, but I don't need that to control them. I can use my own dark energy to move them to my will."

"Dark energy, huh?" Rei ran forward. "Akyuro Taisin!"

She threw one of her talismans at Ami. The nanites quickly moved away from her. Ami and Rei locked eyes for a moment and nodded. Ami opened the door.

"But wait! This is supposed to be our fight!" said Berthier. "Aren't you going to stay?"

"Sorry, duty first," said Ami, closing the door behind her. As soon as she stepped in, she turned back towards the door.

"Shabon Spray Freezing!"

A think coat of ice surrounded the door. That should hold them for a while…she thought to herself. She took out her computer again; she had already gotten a signal on the machine as soon as Nemesis had moved it. Viluy and Berthier had thought it was a good move for them—and perhaps it was, because Ami might have been able to disable it their—but…Ami wasn't convinced. Just what was Nemesis playing at?

Viluy and Berthier turned towards the three Senshi. "How did they get through that maze?" growled Viluy.

"She must have only been focusing on Mercury and those other three…she really holds a grudge against them. I wondered if she was really loyal to our cause…"

"It stupid to hold a grudge now of all times! Ugh, emotions are so useless! Why cling to past feelings like that?"

"Hey, emotions aren't useless!" said Minako. "Shut up!" Viluy snapped her fingers and several Wizard heartless popped up.

"Let's see you defeat these," she said angrily, and ran towards the door. "What? It won't open…damn her, she froze it shut on the other side! Mosaic Buster!"

The nanites threw themselves against the door uselessly. Berthier stepped up. "Dark Water!"

The attack was equally ineffective.

"You idiot! How could you let this happen!"

"Me? You were the one who made these doors 'super strong' and 'power resistant'!"

"I don't have any defenses up in any other rooms!"

"Why not?"

The continued to squabble like that as the the senshi tried to fight the heartless. "Fire Soul!" "Supreme Thunder!"

The wizards raised their wands, absorbing the attacks and sending them back at them.

"This could go on for a while..." groaned Minako.

Usagi and Tuxedo mask raced through the streets, which seemed strangely deserted today. Neither of them had brought much money with them at the airport, so they couldn't get a full ride in a cab. And besides, the cab they took from the airport was particularly superstitious and didn't want to go anywhere near the disaster sight.

"We should invest in a car…" whined Usagi.

"Usa-ko…"

"Ooh! We could have a Tuxedo-mobile! That would be so cool! And you'd actually have a use! And when we aren't fighting crime, we could use it for other things…"

Mamoru smiled to himself. At least she was getting back to her normal self. "Hey, what do you mean 'have use'?"

"Uh…" They both came to an abrupt stop as several neo shadows began to raise themselves from the ground. Usagi resisted the urge to sigh in relief as she took out her scepter.

"Watch out!" said Momaru, turning behind them. They were surrounded by a circle of the heartless. "Oh boy…"

Usagi raised her scepter quickly just as one started to dive at her…

BAM!

The shadow disappeared in a cloud of smoke before she had the chance to blast it. Several lasers fired down from above them, destroying the rest of the heartless. Usagi and Mamoru both looked up as a man in a black coat jumped down. His dark hair was in a ponytail with grey streaks, his ears slightly pointed, his face covered in scares. He wore an eye patch over his right eye; the left one was yellow and stared creepily at Usagi.

"Who are you?" she asked, glaring. He chuckled. "Boy, you got an angry look just like him…calm down, will ya? I just saved your life."

Usagi didn't let up. "So, you're saying you're not an enemy?"

"Aren't you even going to give me the benefit of a doubt? You really have changed, haven't you? But then, these are dark days we're facing. I mean, all the people you thought you helped have turned their back on you. It's gotta be impossible to know who to trust anymore, doesn't it?"

"That's enough from you!" said Tuxedo Mask. "Ditto," said Xigbar, snapping his fingers. Several dusk Nobodies surrounded him. Usagi gasped.

"Don't worry about the dead weight. Those things won't attack him unless I tell them to. I just wanted to chat with you, mono y mono."

"I'd rather not," said Usagi, glaring even harder. "I'm supposed to believe you're my friend now?"

He grinned. "As if," he said.

"Well, I won't forgive you for trapping my boyfriend! In the name of the moon…"

Xigbar dove at her. She gasped in surprise and raised her scepter, and suddenly felt a weird dizzying sensation…

"Sorry 'bout that. Teleporting doesn't always sit to well with other people."

Usagi groaned. "Where are we?"

She looked out and saw hundreds of people staring back at her. She looked around. She was in a circus tent? A giant one, by the looks of it—it looked more like a football field. Several performers around her suddenly stopped and stared at the unexpected guest. Xigbar had already disappeared.

"Everybody, look on stage!" came an announcer's voice. "Its that brave heroine, Sailor Moon!"

The crowd cheered and started chanting her name. Usagi basked in the adoration for a brief moment before wondering why the man had brought her here.

"Sailor Moon?" said one of the girls in front of her who was balancing on top of a ball on one hand.

"PallaPalla?" said Usagi in surprise.

"You're stealing the spotlight!" Usagi looked up, realizing the trapeze artists above her were VesVes and JunJun.

"What are you all doing here?"

"We could ask you the same thing," said CereCere angrily, coming up on stage next to Usagi. "We work in the circus. What exactly are you doing here? And out of nowhere?"

Usagi sweatdropped and giggled nervously. "Um…I'm not sure," she said.

Xigbar was outside, balancing upside down on air above the tent. The tent itself was big enough, but all of the events going on around as well…this place was packed with people. People who would soon be heartless.

"Quite the harvest," said Xigbar to himself. "Those guys aren't half bad. We oughta be finished in no time…"

Hotaru walked forward into the familiar room.

"This was Nehellenia's throne room…" she turned forward and saw that the throne was empty. What could she be doing?

"Ho…tar…u…" whispered a voice weakly. Hotaru turned and saw Setsuna, suspended in the air by what looked like spider webs. She looked she had been beaten pretty badly. "Get out of here," she said, her voice regaining some strength and authority. Hotaru raised her glaive. "I'm bringing you with me!"

"That's not such a good idea…"

Hotaru didn't need to turn around to recognize the voice. "Nehellenia…" she said coolly. She raised her glaive in her direction as she walked forward, standing in front of her thrown.

"No need for such hostility. I know we've had our differences, but I assure you, no harm will come to you."

"Yeah? I beg to differ," she said, motioning towards Setsuna. "She got what was coming to her," said Nehellenia coolly, with a hint of something else in her voice—sorrow? Hotaru dismissed it. "If you were smart," continued Nehellenia, "you'd leave her now. She's tried to kill you on numerous occasions. What do you owe her?"

"That's in the past!" said Hotaru. "Setsuna's like a mother to me now!"

Nehellenia grimaced. "Any care she has taken of you has been out of guilt."

"What are you talking about?" Hotaru turned as she noticed a tear drop fall next to her. Setsuna was crying silently, whispering, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…"

"See? She knows what she's done."

"What she's done? And what are you doing?" asked Hotaru angrily. "Usagi felt sorry for you. She gave you a second chance because she believed you deserved one…"

"Something for which I am very grateful for."

"…and now, you spend it like this? If you want to hurt Setsuna, you're going to have to go through me!"

Nehellenia shook her head. "Like I said, I don't wish to bring any harm to you or your princess," she said, almost pleadingly. "I'm not really fighting alongside the enemies you've been fighting thus far. But…those three…Sailor Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto…I cannot forgive them. They must pay."

Something in Nehellenia's eyes seemed so sincere and sad…but Hotaru shook her head. "I don't believe you! And either way, we won't let them come to harm! You haven't changed! You're still nothing but a spiteful witch, aren't you?"

Nehellenia looked hurt, as if the words had cut her with a knife. Then her face hardened.

"Is that any way to talk to your real mother?"

Uh…what?

If you ever watched the trailer I made and put on youtube…I already did the "I-am-your-father!" part. And don't worry: I didn't do it for giggles or star wars references. It has heavy plot significance that Hotaru is Nehellenia's daughter. Heavy plot significance indeed…MUWAHAHA!

And psychicshipping: You ask for Saïx, I give you Xigbar. And yes, I'm working on the whole heartless thing! Its supposed to be a big reveal thing!

Actually, to be honest, I hadn't even considered the heartless thing until you mentioned it^^ so thanks for the plot enhancers!