A/N: That's what you get when you write a chapter at office instead of working like you're supposed to! Bad wordings and stating the obvious!
Hmm…smaller chapters or bigger chapters pulling my hair got to find a median…some point where readers won't feel its either too short or too long…
Oh, don't worry Arbitercosmos, this story won't die, if you notice when I actually published it first, you'd understand that I'm very very lazy and procrastinate a lot, but I have no intention of letting it die. I have kept it alive for 4 years now…it would be a shame if I stopped writing now.
After Touya had informed her about the call, Sakura has snuck out of the house through her window. She knew Touya would probably get mad at her for sneaking away like that, but if Eriol called, it must have been important. On the way over, she stopped at a public phone to find out what it was that Eriol wanted to tell her.
"I don't want to sneak away from Touya if it isn't that important," Sakura muttered as she dialed the number. Sighing in frustration, she hung up when there was no answer after several tries. Wondering why Eriol wasn't answering her call, she tried Syaoran's house. She was relieved when Li answered the call.
"Did Eriol call you?" Sakura asked.
"Yes. He mentioned that your brother wouldn't let him talk to you," Li commented wondering what that was all about.
"Well, for some reason he has been acting way too protective lately. I don't know the reason, but I think all these children falling into coma have spooked him. He has become even stricter…wants me straight home after school and doesn't want me to leave the house once I get there"
"Maybe he knows something?" Li dismissed Sakura's brother from the conversation quickly, "Anyway, Eriol called to let us know that he has someone in his custody who might be our enemy."
Sakura frowned, "Oh, so we can probably question them to find out what they know…right? Are you guys heading to Eriol's place?"
"We were thinking of it, but Eriol suggested we all meet before we head off to the park."
"Where are we meeting then?"
"He didn't say where he wants us to meet, so Yue and I were thinking that perhaps we can decide the place and let everyone else know where we'll meet. That way Eriol can deal with the enemy and not worry about little details. So, anyway, we thought we should meet on the terrace of …" Li rambled off the name of a high rise building near the park they were to meet at.
"Alright then. I'll see you guys there in an hour," Sakura promised, excited at the prospect of finally being able to meet their enemy face to face.
"Right, I'll call Eriol to let him know the place."
As Sakura hung up the phone, she felt the oppressive presence of evil pass overhead. Clutching the key hanging around her neck, she shuddered as a chill ran down her spine. She sighed in relief as the evil didn't seem to pause for anything; instead it just kept moving on. "Maybe it doesn't know I'm down here, maybe it hasn't sensed my presence."
When the evil shadow didn't even pause, Sakura wondered where it might be going. Chewing her lip for a second, torn between following the shadow and meeting the gang, she stood there pondering for a second. Taking a deep breath, she muttered to herself, "I'll take a chance. There still over an hour left to meet the guys and the place isn't too far. I just might find more about this enemy and I might be able to contribute to the discussion they'll have when they all meet."
Making her decision, she started following the evil shadow when the world around her was plunged into complete darkness. Clamping a hand around her mouth to stifle her startled scream at the sudden darkness, she took deep breaths, "It's just a power outage, nothing major. The power should come back soon enough." She dug into her deck and withdrew a card, "Thankfully this isn't one of the moon cards, so it should work just fine."
Saying so, she chanted the words to bring out the power of the 'light' card. Controlling the power of the card carefully, she was able to light the way as she ran down the streets following the evil. When running seemed to tire her, she finally pulled her 'fly' card and flew after the shadow. As the shadow neared the Tokyo Tower, Sakura gasped. There were minor reports in the news on how tourists didn't feel like going up the tower anymore. She wondered if it was somehow connected to the evil she had followed.
Unsure on how to proceed, she landed near the tower staring at it. Though it was faint, she could feel the presence of evil all around the tower. It amazed her how clueless everyone can be when it came to danger. Taking a deep breath, she started towards the tower. The closer she got to it, the more she wanted to stay away from it.
Folding her fingers into a fist, fighting the dread filling in her heart and mind, she fought to move forward. The light emitted by the card was dimming as well and for reasons she didn't know she couldn't force more power into the card to light her way. Once she was directly underneath the tower, the card failed to light her way further.
Blinking at the sudden darkness, she stood still letting her eyes get used to the darkness around her. It was then she noticed that the darkness around her was different. It felt unnatural to her. Not sure how to explain what she was feeling, she started taking a step forward. Sakura felt as if, even though technically she was at the Tokyo tower, she was pretty sure physically she was in a completely different place. "Alternate dimension? Universe?" Sakura muttered as she looked around, "I'm sure this isn't the base of the tower."
She came to the conclusion because of subtle differences, like the air quality and the darkness. Yes it was dark, yet she was able to make out objects in her path. "Besides my cards aren't working here…" she talked to herself as she kept going deeper. The closer she got to the evil, the faster her heart beat.
As she made a turn, she almost gasped loudly at the site in front of her. There was a single ray of sunlight beaming into the place, coming from some unknown window. There was a giant ball of glowing light in the center. Frowning, she took a step closer, "Oh dear, that isn't light…there are things floating around in that ball…" she muttered.
When she heard a moan from somewhere close, she looked around her. Covering her mouth from letting out another squeak, she ran to the woman with platinum-blonde hair. When Sakura touched the woman's cheek, the lady opened her blue eyes. When the lady saw Sakura, she gasped in alarm and pain, "You shouldn't be here child, get out of here before he notices you!"
"You should get out of here too, you're hurt! I'll try to get some help," Sakura started to leave when the woman held her hand.
"You don't understand. Normal human beings cannot enter this place. Only those with magic in them can come in. You should run and save yourself before they find you. I can't see another child fall for their evil purpose," the lady said releasing Sakura's hand.
"Who are you anyway?" Sakura asked as she noticed the broken crown on the woman's head.
"I am Serenity, queen of the moon kingdom. But that is not important. Please go…" the queen begged, trying to push Sakura towards the door she had entered from. "And if you do find your way out my child, find the senshi, tell them where the evil is…they should be able to take care of this. I'm sure you'll be able to figure out who the senshi are…"
"I think I have a fair idea of who they are," Sakura said, awed that she was actually speaking with the queen herself. 'Wait till I tell the others, won't they get a kick out of this' she thought. "But, what is that giant ball in the middle of the room?"
Serenity's eyes turned sad and lined with tears, "That ball contains the pure souls of the children. The more they collect, the brighter the ball gets."
Sakura's eyes went wide, "So that's why the children are falling into unexplainable coma. Their souls were pulled out of their bodies before their time and trapped in here…"
"Yes. Sakura, now go. Please find them and let them know about this place," Serenity whispered weakly.
"How do you know my name?"
"That isn't important now." Serenity said as she pushed Sakura towards the door again, "Oh and tell them the man behind the scenes is none other than – "
"Telling tales my dear queen?" said a voice from the other side of the dark chamber.
Serenity gasped and tried to put Sakura behind her, even though trying to stand straight hurt like hell.
"Uh uh uh, you can't do that. That is one of the magical children. How else would she have been able to enter the place," said the man as he took slow deliberately menacing steps. "Foolish child, haven't you ever heard the expression 'Curiosity killed the cat'?"
Sakura found herself rooted to the place, unable to move her legs.
"Too bad she isn't the one we're looking for. But she'll do nicely in the collection," the man said waving towards the ball. When Serenity refused to move away from Sakura, the man summoned an energy ball in his hands and hurled it towards the queen.
Serenity cried out in pain and collapsed to the floor as the ball hit her, "Please don't do this. I know you're not evil in your heart. Fight whatever it is that's causing you to do things like this."
"You're wrong!" yelled the man hurling another energy ball at Serenity and then one at Sakura.
Sakura screamed in pain as the ball hit her. Her child's body could not cope with the pain and soon she collapsed as well. Then she felt as if someone was trying to pull her out of her own body. She was conscious, yet unable to stop whoever was doing it to her. She could hear the queen scream as Sakura felt herself being completely forced out of her body. All she was aware of was that the queen had somehow tried to help her.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Serenity had interfered with the man's plans at the last moment. Summoning all the power left in her body, she let out an attack. It wasn't strong to stop the man from doing what he was, but it had distracted him enough. Serenity saw that Sakura's soul had detached from her body. However, her soul wasn't just a blob like the other children's. Was it because the extraction was done in a different place, under different circumstances or was it because Sakura had magic? Serenity had no answers to it. All she knew was that Sakura's soul retained the image of her body.
Serenity didn't know how to return the soul to the body and even if she had, she wouldn't have been able to do it due to her weakened state and also due to the fact that the man was now hurling energy balls at Serenity with anger. Taking each hit bravely and groaning in increasing pain, all she could hope now was that Sakura had enough sense to flee the place.
It took a minute for Sakura to let her mind adjust to the fact that she doesn't have a body anymore. When she had oriented herself, she noticed that Serenity was being attacked. She was about to go help when she realized that without a body she wouldn't be able to help. Noticing that the man was distracted, Sakura flew out of the chamber and back the way she had come in, hoping against hope that she would find a way out.
To her relief, after blindly running in unknown direction, she was able to tell the difference between the inside of that place and the outside, the 'real world' as she came to term it. The darkness was still enveloping the city. When a clock somewhere struck eleven, she gasped. They were all supposed to meet at that building in the west side right now to discuss the enemy. She hoped that she wouldn't be too late as she flew towards the building.
Eriol met Li, Yue and Keroberos at the designated place. He noticed that they had a clear view of the park and all the possible hiding places. They waited for fifteen minutes for Sakura to show up. When she didn't show up, they started to get worried.
"I thought you said you told Sakura when and where we're meeting," said Eriol pacing the floor.
"Yes I did. I clearly remembering tell her that because as soon as we hung up I felt an evil presence pass above," Li muttered watching Eriol pace.
"Then why isn't she here?"
Sakura landed on the terrace and said, "Hi guys. Sorry I kept you waiting."
"I don't know why she isn't here. We could call her house and see if she forgot the time or something," Li suggested.
Sakura wondered why nobody was responding to her and speaking as if she wasn't there. It miffed her that they wouldn't take notice of her.
Eriol nodded and whipping out a cell phone, he dialed Kinomoto residence. Muttering softly, he ended the call and turned to the others, "Nobody is answering the phone at her house."
"Guys, this isn't funny. You're all spooking me now," Sakura said and went to pull on Li's hand. She gasped when her hand went through Li's body. She panicked for a moment, but calmed down slightly when she remembered that her body wasn't with her anymore. "Of course, that would mean, they probably can't see or hear me. Oh no! How am I going to tell them who the enemy was? What should I do now?" Sakura was near tears.
Time was growing short as they all tried to figure out what might have happened to Sakura.
While they were pondering their new situation, the senshi had decided that it would be best if someone stayed behind to guard Chibi-Usa. Upon mutual understanding, Rei stayed behind while Makoto and Mina headed towards the west side park. When they arrived at the park as Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus, they could feel the presence of another power. They could also identify that Ami's objects were with them.
Frowning, they stilled trying to determine where the power was emitting from. Once determined, they headed to the top of the building, preparing themselves for the worst.
Ami was watching everyone carefully, wondering what type of bad guys these were, if they couldn't keep track of their own. It also made her wonder why an intelligent kid like Li would be part of this evil. What really confused her was the power emitting from Yue. She could swear that power felt familiar, yet she wasn't sure how it could be familiar when this was the first time she laid eyes on him.
Sailor Moon and Touya arrived at the park thirty minutes to midnight. She could tell that three of the senshi were present. She could also feel the presence of another power. "I know my friends are here. I can feel the presence of another power," she told Touya softly. "I don't know if the other power is evil. I can't feel any traces of evil in it. However, one of my friends seem to be with them right now."
"Then we should go investigate who they are," Touya whispered back.
"Should we? I mean, I don't want the others to find me yet!"
Sailor moon didn't have time to say anything else as a blast could be heard and seen on top of a building.
She gasped, "That's where I felt the power from."
"Well then, no time to waste!" Touya shouted as he ran towards the building.
A/N: So, there it is. Chapter 14. As always, comments, reviews and flames are welcome Do keep me motivated to write soon!