Chapter 21: The True Power of Teamwork
Minako, Rei, and Makoto, in their guises as Sailors Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, were caught in a rather precarious situation with no easy solution in sight. Granted, that was a typical modus operandi for them, given their roles as warriors and defenders of the Earth against evil, but this was an especially difficult case. One of their own was sprawled along the ground before them, writing in ever-increasing pain in a desperate and failing attempt to counteract the soul-sapping stone that was implanted within her. Zoisite, the perpetrator responsible for the intense suffering Ami was forced to endure, hovered above the blue-haired girl with a wicked smirk across his lips. He never was one to play fair, and under different circumstances he would have been the first to admit that very fact. But, even for him, this was particularly cruel. The other three girls would be forced to watch their compatriot die a slow and painful death, and they had no way to prevent it. No way save one. And the option he gave them was one that two of the girls did not want to use for a very good reason, given what they knew and what they were told. The last girl had a very different reason for her opposition.
Now, under most situations the girls would have had absolutely no reason to trust anything their enemy said. Agents of the Dark Kingdom, when under their best behavior, were sneaky and underhanded, and none of them were against telling lies to further their own agenda. So, there was no reason for the senshi to abandon their suspicion of their nemesis that evening. Yet, for them to save their friend and fellow senshi, they would have to believe Zoisite that night. They would have to believe everything he said about the nature of the sapping stone as well as everything he said about how to stop the cursed rock from killing its victim. According to the youngest member of the Shitennou, there were only a few people with the power to reverse the effects of the stone and remove it from Ami's body. One of those was Zoisite himself, and given his role in placing the stone there in the first place, he was unlikely to change his mind and remove it. Another was Queen Beryl, though she was too far away from the situation to do anything about it and, even if she were standing immediately next to Ami, would have only expressed great joy at the water senshi's agony. Kunzite was a third person capable of stopping the activity of the sapping stone, but he was busy fighting the fourth person capable of ceasing the effects of the stone. Although the girls, save the one unable to speak at the moment, were convinced there were two more people able to save their friend, in reality there was only one. That last person was Sailor Moon, and she was the person that Zoisite insisted they call.
His request—actually, it was more of a demand—caused a lot of consternation and conflict between the three girls. That conflict led to a brief and rather heated discussion.
"Now, do you want to reconsider your refusal to call her?" Zoisite asked impatiently.
"Well…" Minako started. She was the leader, unambiguously by her actions preceding the ill-fated meeting that evening, as well as by tradition. She knew what needed to be done to save Ami and the tremendous risks involved with that decision. What she didn't know was how rapidly her control of her fellow senshi in the face of the enemy was collapsing, until it was too late. And, as soon as she started to speak, it had become too late.
"Venus, you are not about to call Sailor Moon over, are you?" Makoto asked anxiously.
"I… I have no real choice," Minako replied wistfully. "If I don't then Mercury will die, and we don't have much time."
"But, who's going to help protect the princess? You heard what Zoisite said, right? Kunzite has found the princess," Makoto said, the volume of her voice gradually rising.
"Of course I heard him. But, unless you have a better idea, then I'm forced to say we're out of options. We have to do something to save Mercury."
Makoto took a few steps toward Minako and stared directly into the blonde's downcast royal blue eyes. "It pains me to say this, as Mercury is a dear friend to me as she is to all of us, but our priority is the princess, not any of us," she said with a somewhat dejected tone. It was utter torture for her to say those words and to imply that they should sacrifice Ami. She looked up into the sky as if searching for any sort of answer. "Maybe if we can defeat Zoisite, we can take Ami to wherever Sailor Moon and the Princess are, help Sailor Moon defeat Kunzite, then have her heal Mercury," she said softly and without much confidence. It was the longest of long shots, after all.
Minako just shook her head slowly in reply. "We can't even defeat this youma by ourselves. Mercury would be dead before we have a chance to beat Zoisite," she said gloomily.
Rei, who was standing nearby with her arms crossed, huffed loudly. "Heh. I say go ahead and call the bitch over. It can't hurt. She probably failed miserably against Kunzite, knowing how utterly useless she is. And that's assuming she didn't just sit there and cry the whole goddamn time," she said contemptuously.
That comment shook Minako from her dejection and instead cast her emotions toward anger. She walked up to Rei and grabbed her arm, much like she did minutes before. "What did I tell you about insulting one of our own in front of our enemies?" she demanded in a fierce whisper.
Rei forcefully dropped her arm, causing it to slip from Minako's grasp. "One of our own? That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time, coming from your mouth."
"Yes, she is one of our own," Minako said forcefully. "She might not have taken the pledge like we have, but she's a senshi just like us. And if Zoisite isn't lying to us about all of this in the first place, then Sailor Moon is the only one of us actually in a position to save our princess."
"Which is exactly why I think we can't call her over here," Makoto said. "If she leaves, then our princess is as good as screwed."
"You guys have amazing faith in her given what she's done over the past several weeks and months," Rei said with palpable irritation. "She's done nothing to prove that she can handle even the simplest youma on her own, and now you're saying she's good to go up against the leader of the Shitennou by herself? Please…"
"She's there, and we're here. We have to trust that she's able to do something to help the princess," Minako said determinedly.
"Trust? Trust? She was the one who stole the damned crystal in the first place! If it wasn't for her deceitfulness, we wouldn't be in this mess!" Rei shouted in fury, her hands balled up in fists beside her trembling body.
Minako stepped back from Rei and sighed deeply, her body hunching over slightly as she exhaled. The raven-haired senshi had a point. It really was Usagi who had caused all of their troubles. It was she who had taken the crystal from the princess, leaving her vulnerable. She did say she was going to voluntarily return the crystal, but she didn't show up. Zoisite and his youmas did instead. And how did he even know they were having the meeting at that place and at that time? How did Usagi know where the princess was? How did Kunzite find out, for that matter? Maybe… It was a damning thought to attribute to one of their senshi, but everything was just too strange to be coincidence.
"But, Usagi would never do something as terrible as that… right?" Minako pondered as she tried to comprehend all the thoughts swimming through her mind. "She did… she did try to kill Rei, though. And even though she was the one to ultimately destroy the youmas, she never made our fights easy. But this… this would be a new low for her."
"I know… I know I'm not one to defend the things she's done to us, but I think we need to have some faith in her, if only for this one time. Besides, she clearly is trying to make amends, calling this meeting and everything," Makoto said as she slowly walked toward Rei.
"How do you know that? How can you just blindly go and trust her like that?" Rei replied angrily as she snapped her head around to glare at Makoto. The fury in her eyes was beyond obvious. "If that bitch had her way I wouldn't be around right now. Remember that!"
A light groan emanated from the ground. That cry was from a mostly unconscious Ami. It reminded the girls that they didn't have much time and they couldn't spend what few precious moments they had bickering about tangentially related subjects. They had to come to a decision, and fast. Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on one's perspective—Zoisite was about to deliver some news that made their decision much easier. That is, he would do so as soon as he could recover from the pure comedy that was presented before him courtesy of the three senshi.
"Very good, girls, very good," he said while laughing heartily, stunning the girls who either had forgotten he was still there or had completely ignored his presence that whole time. "I could listen to this all day as I find it absolutely hilarious, but, unfortunately, I have other things to do. But, if you'll allow me, I can probably help you come to a decision much faster," he said with faux playfulness.
"How so?" Minako replied incredulously.
"While you girls were having your nice little chat I was checking up on Kunzite to see if he managed to, you know, capture your little princess. Seems Sailor Moon was a bit more effective than any of us thought—" he said while directing a pointed glance toward Rei— "and the princess managed to escape. I don't know how he managed that but… he just set us back a few days. No matter."
"Why should we believe you?" Minako replied.
Zoisite pulled the gold watch from his jacket pocket and looked at it with a smirk on his lips. "My, my, it's amazing how time flies when you're having so much fun," he said tauntingly. "Anyway, I would love to just kill you all with the snap of my fingers, but where's the fun in that? No, I actually want to enjoy my job. That's why I'm requesting you call Sailor Moon who, I'll remind you once again, happens to be free at the moment. Well, free from protecting the princess, at least. You can believe or not believe me if you want, but if you care one iota about your little friend here then you should seriously consider what I say."
The three senshi looked at one another, Minako and Makoto with concerned faces and Rei with no obvious expression one way or the other.
"I guess… if that's true, then maybe we should call her," Makoto said in a resigned tone as she stared at the ground.
Minako turned to look at Rei. "Do you have any objections?"
"Heh. No. Why would I?" Rei said in an attempt to sound nonchalant, though anger was still plainly evident.
Minako sighed. That was good enough for her. She took out her communicator and tapped the picture of Usagi that appeared along the right side of the screen. After what she interpreted to be a frighteningly long and unnecessary pause, the communicator beeped.
"I hope this works. For Ami's sake, I hope this works," she said to herself.
—|1|2|3|4|—
Usagi pushed herself to her feet and opened her eyes. At least, she thought she did. But, even though she was sure she had made the physical motion of lifting her eyelids, she could still only see darkness. She had run as quickly as she could into one of the six rooms on the second floor after another close call with Kunzite, pulled the door to as quietly as she could, and slumped onto the ground while burying her knees into her chest. That was where she remained in utter silence, save the sound of her own breathing, for several minutes as she sat there attempting to recoup as much magical energy as she could. She had wished to escape from his clutches, but as she turned her head about she realized she was completely lost in more ways than one. Her foot slowly inched forward as she took one tentative step deeper into the room. She had no idea what kind of room she was in or what obstacles laid in her path for her to trip over in her blindness. She called forth her Moon Stick and grasped it loosely, almost reluctantly, and held it in front of her. The magical wand was a very useful instrument in its own right, but with the Silver Crystal attached it became far more useful. It allowed her to perform her more powerful attack in Moon Twilight Flash as well as enhanced the effect of Moon Healing Escalation. However, it could also be used for somewhat more mundane purposes, as she was about to reveal.
"Silver Crystal Illumination," Usagi whispered, so as not to make her presence known to a very agitated Kunzite. The moment she spoke those words the crystal began to light up. But, unlike in previous uses, the intensity of its emission was very low, producing a soft white glow. Under normal circumstances, the sudden presence of even a small amount of light after spending several minutes in the dark would have induced severe pain in her eyes, but the healing effects of the crystal mitigated the suffering. She did have her worries, however, as using the Moon Stick and crystal in that manner required a small amount of magical energy. It wasn't enough to further deplete her store, but it slowed the rate at which her energy supply was replenished, and she needed as much energy as she could as quickly as she could get it. However, she also needed to know where she was and what was around her.
She gazed around at her immediate surroundings and saw a small desk and chair in one corner of the room, another door to her right, and several shelves full of books lining the remainder of the walls. An ornate rug covered most of the otherwise cold hardwood floor. She took a few more careful steps toward the rug, knowing it was far safer there as the fabric would muffle the sounds from her boots' heels as she walked. Her eyes fell onto the desk once again. She saw a few different cameras, various lenses, lens filters, and a laptop computer sitting on the desk. By itself it was an awe-inspiring collection of equipment, yet it was only a fraction of the total gear that Mariko and Azusa owned. Her hand reached out to touch one of the cameras when she felt buzzing and then heard a small beep.
"No… not now…" Usagi thought as she retrieved her communicator. She feared that even the tiny sound from the device would alert Kunzite to her location. At the same time, if Ami were calling her, then something serious had to have happened while they were waiting for her. After some deliberation, she decided she would answer the call, but she would try to be as quiet in doing so as possible. She crouched underneath the desk, hoping the distance between her and the door was sufficient to dampen any sounds and placed the Moon Stick in her lap, eerily illuminating her face from below. She lightly tapped the button and then gasped. Who she saw on the other end completely shocked her.
"Venus…!" Usagi said in a hushed exclamation. On her screen she saw Minako in her Sailor Venus garb with a desolate look on her face and in her eyes. She took a deep breath to calm herself before speaking again. "What's going on?" she asked concernedly in a much quieter whisper.
"Sailor Moon, where are you?" Minako asked hurriedly.
"I'm in a photo studio on the other side of town. I was trying to get to the park but Kunzite got in my way."
"Yeah, we heard about that, actually." Minako paused for a few moments. "Is the princess okay?"
Usagi sighed. She knew the plan and that the girls had expected her to show up several minutes ago. As such, they didn't yet discover that she was the princess. Maybe if she could deal with Kunzite quickly enough, she could rush over to the park and reveal her true identity to them before they all gave up on her. She barely heard several light clicks from the other side of the door but the sounds soon faded as they passed by.
"Yes, the princess is fine," she said softly with slight dejection in her voice. She saw Minako's eyes light up slightly when she said that.
"That's good news." Minako's eyes pointed at the ground for a few moments and narrowed once again. "I called you because it seems you're the only person who could help us," she said flatly.
"Venus, I'm glad that—"
"Don't misunderstand me. We still don't trust you. I… I still don't trust you. You have a long way to go before you've proven yourself to us and regained our trust," Minako said firmly. Usagi winced. She desperately needed to get to the park sooner, rather than later, if she wanted to maintain any hope of dissuading the girls from that mindset. "Anyway, it appears Zoisite found us in the park and ambushed us while we were waiting. He attacked Mercury with some soul-sapping stone and said she only had about thirty minutes to live. He also said you were the only one who could remove the stone and save her."
"Poor Ami… Why would Zoisite do such a thing to her?" Usagi pondered sadly as she listened to Minako's description of the attack on her friend.
"So, could you make it to the park soon, preferably in the next ten or fifteen minutes?" Minako asked.
"I will try to get there as quickly as I can. I promise," Usagi whispered with utmost determination. She saw Minako nod her head slightly in acknowledgement.
It was at that moment her conversation with Minako came to a sudden and dramatic end, though her partner in the conversation would only see her speak and then the screen go dark. She saw the blue flash of light from the corner of her eye and immediately leaped from her position beneath the desk. In the process of ensuring she had a secure hold of her Moon Stick she dropped her communicator. As the ball of blue energy zoomed toward the desk, she knew she wouldn't be able to speak with Minako or any of the other senshi again until she arrived at the park. She tumbled out of the desk and collided hard with one of the shelves, knocking some of the books to the floor.
"Did you miss me?" Kunzite said with his lips pulled into an evil smirk. He raised his hands to fire his energy attack at the prone Usagi.
"Not at all, Kunzite," she said coldly as she pushed herself to her feet. She slowly moved to her left, her hand feeling along the wall for the door handle she knew was behind her. Her other hand firmly grasped the Moon Stick.
"Well, that's too bad. It's a shame that you have to leave so soon, Princess. We were just getting to know each other."
"I think we're well enough acquaint—AAAARGH!" She was about to reach the door handle when another blast of energy from his palm raced toward her, forcing her to dive to the floor.
"You know I'm not going to let you leave anytime soon," he said frostily, his eyes narrowing as he stared at her. He then reached down to grab the girl by the back of her collar. That ended up being a painful mistake. She slammed the butt end of her Moon Stick as hard as she could onto his foot, causing him to shuffle backwards in pain.
"You cannot keep me here!" she yelled forcefully. She turned, pushed open the door, and proceeded to run into the next room, slamming the door behind her as she departed.
"Heh, you're not going to get away," he murmured under his breath. He then exited through the main door and turned down the hallway in pursuit of his prey. He walked slowly, savoring the fact that he knew she had very few options for escape.
Unfortunately for her, the next room happened to be a bathroom. That was the last place she wanted to be trapped with Kunzite on her tail. She saw there were doors in front and beside her as well as behind her. The loud clicks of boot heels on hardwood floor alerted her that he was walking down the main hallway and was about to be right on top of her. She glanced at the door leading to the hallway. She thought briefly about surprising him by rushing him right as he passed by, but a quick look at the door handle and hinges told her that was a very bad idea. The door opened inward, giving him early warning of her presence and making her a sitting duck. That left the door in front of her and the door behind her. If she continued going forward, she would continually be stalked by him. However, she figured he would also expect her to sneak back around behind him. She started to become frantic.
"No. I can't panic right now. I have to stay calm. I have to stay calm," she told herself. She turned her head around to look at each of the doors once again. Then, a novel idea struck her, bringing a smile to her lips. "Maybe I can play with his expectations, and think I have just the way to do it."
She slowly stepped forward and opened the door in front of her, then opened the door behind her. Then, she removed the tiara from her head and held the dimly glowing disc in her hand for a brief moment before tossing it into the room in front of her in such a way that it skipped along the ground. It bounded along the floor until it lightly tapped the back wall. She ensured she used as little of her magic as she could in the maneuver, instead relying on her physical throwing skills. A wide smile came to her lips as she realized she had made a perfect toss. After releasing the tiara, she crept into the corner of the bathroom that was right beside the door leading to that room, pulling the door to until there was only the smallest space between the door and frame. It was enough space for her to peek into the other room and see Kunzite.
"Ah, there she goes," he said to himself as he heard what he interpreted to be footsteps. He quickened his pace and walked to the pair of rooms at the far end of the hall, slowly opening the door to his left. Angry eyes scanned about the darkened room as he diligently searched for his quarry and yet found no sign of her. A slight glimmer of light along the base of the wall caught his eye. He looked down and saw, casually resting against the wall to his right, Usagi's gold tiara. He bent down and picked it up off the floor.
"Very good. Now come here," she thought, effectively willing the man to approach as she crouched once again in the corner of the bathroom. When she heard the tell-tale sounds of his boots as he walked by, she partially opened the door that led to the hallway. That was the last part of her trap. She was prepared for him if he went straight through to the bathroom, but she hoped he would instead come from the hallway as the door opened inward and effectively concealed her hiding spot, giving her an element of surprise. Her grip on the Moon Stick tightened and she grinned as she saw him hurriedly exit the room, as it appeared her plan was coming to fruition.
"Very clever, Princess, very clever," he said aloud softly but with clear malice as he first attempted to snap the tiara in half, but then quickly tossed it aside as he realized he couldn't waste too much time with such trivial things. That and the fact the tiara was practically indestructible. He pivoted around and briskly walked back into the hallway, coming to the junction between the hallway and the stairs before suddenly stopping. Something caught his attention to his right.
"I know that door wasn't open when I passed by here the first time," he thought as his eyes locked on the black gap in the pale yellow walls and white door. "She couldn't have gone far. If she went down the stairs I would have heard her. Maybe…"
He slowly pushed the door open as he walked into the bathroom. His dark reflection in the mirror above the sink momentarily caught his eye, but he soon ignored it. He took another step into the bathroom and looked to his right. The door was closed, so she couldn't have gone that way. A quick look to the left showed that the door to the room where he initially found her was open. He turned to walk into the office when he suddenly had a realization strike his mind. Unfortunately for him, he also had something else strike him at the exact same time.
Usagi's attempt to conserve her magical energy forced her to put the Moon Stick to use once again in a more mundane manner. As far as wands went, it was an awkwardly shaped thing: a large gold crescent moon atop a slim pink handle. To a layman's eyes, the wand would appear similar to be a sickle with the bottom section of the blade extending too far. It would also appear to such a person to be completely unbalanced, a top-heavy stick with the center of balance expected somewhere near the middle of the crescent. However, the handle was shaped to fit perfectly within her hands and, more importantly, was weighted just right to allow her to twirl and move the wand about with relative ease. That weighting was important as the gold crescent moon, at the base of which her Silver Crystal was docked, was a fairly hefty amalgamation of metals that gave it strength and hardness. The identities of the metals that had to be combined and their proportions to form the wand was lost during the tumult that followed the fall of the Silver Millennium and, unfortunately for modern humanity, had yet to be rediscovered. The crescent in particular was a combination of that alloy and another, the mixture of the two giving it its unique gold color. That combination of metals was critical as it allowed the crescent shape of the wand to not only represent the Moon and the Silver Millennium during battle, but it also allowed it to be a singular curved blade that was incredibly sharp with tips that were remarkably pointy. In other words, the Moon Stick was not just a device for dispensing magical attacks at foes. It was a pretty nasty weapon that made an enemy instantly regret getting too close to whoever wielded it. It rarely was used in that manner since its creation thousands of years ago by the second Queen Selenity. But, that evening, it was almost used in that manner by the one who would have become the fifth Queen Serenity.
Almost. She saw that her trap had worked to perfection and that Kunzite was standing with his back to her, completely unaware of her existence. Effectively all she had to do was charge at him with the Moon Stick and he would be no more. She had half the mind to do so as well, but she remembered one vital detail. If she had slain the leader of the Shittenou, she also would have killed her friend and advisor in Luna, the eccentric but otherwise lovely photographer Mariko, Mariko's dearest boyfriend Kousuke, and an unknown number more innocent people. However, she could not let the opportunity go to waste. She couldn't kill him, but she could sure knock him out for just long enough for her to escape. The Moon Stick was heavy, a facet of the device that frequently annoyed her, but at that precise moment she loved its weightiness. She loved it even more as she rushed out from her hiding spot, wand held high above her head, jumped as high as she could, and brought the blunt end of the crescent down as swiftly as she could on his head. He immediately collapsed to the floor in a heap.
"Got you!" she exclaimed cheerfully as she saw his slumping body. She pushed open the door to the other room and grabbed her tiara from the floor. She then took off running from that room to the hallway and the staircase. She didn't even bother taking one last look back to admire her handiwork. Her mind contained a singular goal: get to the park and to Ami. She descended the stairs two at a time and then rushed to the front door. The fact that she was dressed as Sailor Moon and was rushing into a public street did not faze her one bit. None of the bystanders would see more than a fleeting glimpse of her anyway as she planned to hop to the roof of the building as soon as she exited. Nobody ever seemed to check rooftops anyway.
She pushed the glass door open and was utterly astounded by what she saw in front of her. The street was completely empty of all cars, and the sidewalks were devoid of any people. She stopped dead in her tracks. It was blatantly obvious something was very, very wrong, and either it was an illusion or some kind of deception by the Dark Kingdom, or a lot of people suddenly disappeared and she completely failed to notice or save them. She opted for the former explanation, and she stood still in an attempt to concentrate on the source of the artifice. An invisible but thick cloud of dark, evil energy seemed to completely envelop her, causing her to stumble backward a few steps. She attempted push further away from the studio, but every step led to increasingly painful exposure to the negative energy, and after only a few feet she was forced to turn back. The trek to the park would have to wait until she found a way to destroy the illusion and rid the area of the dark energy. Reluctantly, she stepped back into what she considered the relative safety of the studio.
—|1|2|3|4|—
"Oh, good! So you finally called her. I'm happy for you all, as it seems that poor little Sailor Mercury may finally be saved," Zoisite said sarcastically with his lips pulled into a vile smirk. His eyes casually studied the remaining three senshi.
Minako felt her fingers almost unconsciously go weak and lose their grip of the communicator as soon as she saw the screen go dark. The device slipped from her hand and landed with a soft thud on the mottled grass and slightly damp soil. It was not something she wanted to do, but it was her last and only choice. She didn't fully trust Usagi. None of them did. But for one evening she had to place her faith in her erstwhile friend and hope that she would arrive on time for once. She thought back to the last time she had seen Usagi in person. She revisited in her mind that scene from over a week ago, in that very park, on a dark and cloudy evening, when the other senshi had finally given up on Usagi. She had also given up on the blonde, but her pathetic display of sorrow somehow managed to overcome her hardened heart. With some reluctance she had acquiesced to Usagi's sole request.
"Consider this your one last chance, Usagi," Minako said to herself. Her eyes narrowed slightly. "I hope you succeed. I hope for Ami's sake, and your own sake, you succeed, for if you fail at this, I will never, ever forgive you."
"So, with that out of the way, I think all we have to do now is await Sailor Moon's arrival. But I think it's too boring to just sit here, so let's have some fun," he said. He rubbed his hands together giddily as he stared at his three adversaries.
A harsh rumble emanating from the middle of the clearing caught the attention of all three girls. The youma, which was lying on the ground face down ever since Zoisite made his second appearance, pushed itself up to its feet with a fury. It turned around and locked its sickly yellow eyes on the three horrified senshi. The ferocity was plainly evident in the disgusting creature's face. It slowly raised its hand in preparation to send another devastating wave of energy at the horrified girls. They quickly closed their eyes and braced themselves for the intense pain they anticipated would come at any second. A sense of utter surprise enveloped them a few seconds later when they realized that nothing had happened. They opened their eyes and were stunned to see the youma completely frozen in place.
"Wait!" Zoisite exclaimed. His arm was extended in the direction of the youma, and it was clear that he was the one who had stopped its attack. He closed his eyes turned his head down, slowly shaking it side to side. "I'm going about it all wrong. With you girls in your state, and especially Mercury in her condition, I can't have this thing going around blasting you to smithereens. That's just not very sporting of me." He looked up at the girls once again, who by now were just astounded by what they were witnessing.
"Is Zoisite… actually sympathizing with us?" Makoto pondered as she looked at the youngest Shitennou member with bewilderment in her widened eyes.
A bright yellow light captured the attention of the girls. That intense light originated from the youma that was suspended a few feet in the air. They gasped as the black wings on the beast's back, the very objects that gave the youma its power, suddenly vaporized. The glow surrounding the youma gradually subsided as it slowly fell back down to earth.
"Yes, I just removed the magical talismans from my youma, so now you don't have to worry about any more painful energy blasts. That's great, right?" he said, following up with a smile that, had he not possessed the reputation he did, would have been considered genuine.
"You… you… bastard!" Makoto said, at first softly but with increasing intensity and rage in her voice. She knew, along with the other senshi, exactly what Zoisite had just done.
"Hey! I do something nice like remove your opponent's main attack and I get called names. How rude!" he said derisively. "Now, as I said before, I want to have some fun."
Although the youma no longer possessed the ability to send destructive energy blasts at the senshi, it was still extremely dangerous. Those massive arms could do some serious damage to anyone who strayed too close. So it was with absolute panic on their faces that the girls saw the youma charge toward the prone and completely defenseless Ami.
"Akuryo Taisan!" Rei shouted as she pulled an ofuda and threw it at the youma as hard as she could. She hoped it would be effective as she didn't have time to give her normal chant beforehand. The small, magically enchanted charm stuck fast to the youma's forehead, causing it to freeze in place as it struggled to rip the slip of paper from its face. Luckily for her and the other girls, it was unsuccessful.
"Supreme Thunder!"
"Venus Love-Me Chain!"
The combined attacks from Makoto and Minako scored direct hits on the massive youma. Makoto's lightning attack struck the beast right in the forehead, while Minako's beam crashed directly into its chest. They might as well have done nothing, however, as the thing appeared completely unfazed by their assault. The only obvious consequence of their effort was that the youma temporarily was intrigued by the presence of the two girls.
"That's right, come over here!" Minako yelled, jumping and waving her hands wildly in the air.
The youma decided not to comply. Once the effect of Rei's ofuda wore off, the hideous creature continued its rush toward the stricken Ami. By this time the youma was twenty feet away from its target.
"I'm not going to let you go any further!" Rei shouted. She pointed her clasped hands at the youma and released a gargantuan red fireball that completely enveloped the monster. However, that only served to slightly slow it down and enrage it more than it already was.
"No!" Minako shouted as she took off running for Ami as quickly as her feet could take her. The mottled green, brown, and red humanoid beast was five feet away from—and easily within striking distance of—its target when Minako reached the unconscious blue-haired senshi. She looked up with horror-filled eyes and saw the youma raise one of its massive arms in the air, its hand balled into a grotesque fist. There was no time for her to do anything else but the first thing that came to her mind, and even then she figured she had an equal chance of success or a quick, painless death. She grabbed Ami under both arms and yanked backwards, dragging her out of the way just as the youma's fist hit the ground. She yelped in surprise and fear as clods of dirt flew into her face, but she did not stop pulling her friend away from the youma.
Makoto watched with abject terror on her face and in her eyes as she saw Minako approach frightfully close to the immense creature. However, the sight of her leader acting so bravely emboldened the senshi of lightning. If Minako could be that courageous, why couldn't she? She was physically largest and strongest of the senshi and most gifted in close combat after all, and as such she shouldn't be so afraid of fighting in close quarters with the youma. At that moment, she decided to shelve her fear of the beast and her dread of what its considerable appendages might do to her. She had to be strong, not just for Ami but for all of them. She knew what she had to do, and with that knowledge she willed her long legs to propel her to where she absolutely needed to be.
The youma's deep yellow eyes were locked onto Ami's limp body as Minako continued in a futile attempt to drag the girl away from the monster. She had been pulling Ami around the clearing for a few hundred feet and the unsightly thing still was practically right on top of them. Zigzagging didn't work and only served to tire her faster. Her arms were already fatigued. Even though Ami was a small girl, the second shortest and by far the lightest of the five, she was still quite a bit of dead weight that had to be dragged across rough grass and dirt and occasional gravel. Minako's arms pleaded with her the only way they knew how, by sending frequent electrical signals along her nerves, up her spinal cord, and to her brain, which then interpreted those signals as intense and almost debilitating pain. Her mind at first attempted to ignore those cries but, inevitably, the pain won out. Soon, her legs joined in the chorus. It was only her willpower and her fear of what would happen if she failed that drove her onward and allowed her to endure the suffering of her limbs. But she knew fear and willpower alone were not enough, and soon, very soon, her body would give up despite what her mind desired.
* WHAM *
Minako's eyes widened as she saw the youma tumble forward and smack the ground hard enough to send a cloud of dust into the air. Its head missed Ami's feet by mere inches. They widened even further when she saw, crouched on top of the youma's back, an enraged Makoto. She wondered where the lightning senshi found the strength to topple something so large. Apparently, the youma was so fixated on Ami that it did not notice the running start that Makoto had garnered prior to launching herself at the thing. Her momentum was more than sufficient to achieve her desired goal of stopping the youma in its tracks. Surprised by the feat and yet undistracted from her ultimate goal, Minako continued to pull Ami's body about fifteen more feet before finally collapsing from exhaustion.
Rei saw Minako fall next to Ami's comatose form and sprinted over to the two of them, determined to protect both of them as well as she could from the youma. She did not have to do anything as of yet since Makoto was easily handling the beast herself.
Before the youma could fully lift itself from the ground, Makoto was upon it once again, harshly delivering the sturdy heel of a green boot directly to its gruesome face. The incredible strength behind that attack dazed the monster long enough for Makoto to take a few steps away from the youma, close to where Minako, Rei, and Ami were. She had no plans of running away, however. After taking a few steps away, she turned to face the youma and closed her eyes. Her body emitted a faint green glow as she concentrated as hard as she could on preparing her impending attack. A new and unfamiliar energy seemed to surge through her body, resulting in the combined sensation of curious pain and satisfaction. Without warning, the shadows along the ground disappeared, and much earlier than expected given that the sun had not fully set below the horizon. Instead, the sun was obscured by several thick and ominously dark clouds that billowed overhead. The air cackled with electricity as several bolts of lightning passed between the clouds. Makoto's glow intensified as the antenna extended from the jewel within her tiara. Words came to her mind, words she had never voiced before but for some reason she felt strongly compelled to speak.
"My guardian Jupiter! Brew a storm! Call the clouds! Bring down the lightning!" Makoto shouted with an unusually low timbre in her voice.
On cue the already grey clouds became even darker and several bolts of lightning shot down from the sky to collect around Makoto and her lightning rod. She opened her eyes at the exact same time the youma collected its senses. They were eyes that belonged to a completely different individual from the person the other girls knew as their friend and fellow senshi. The jade-green orbs were tightly narrowed, unwavering, and full of rage that was to be directed fully at the monstrous beast. The youma attempted to push itself from the ground and charge at her, but it was too late.
"Supreme Thunder Dragon!" Makoto yelled with a newfound fury. Unlike with her normal attack, several immense bolts of green lightning erupted from her fingers when she pointed them at the youma. The lightning then coalesced into the form of a colossal dragon that was many times larger than the beast it was sent to attack. The dragon fully engulfed the stunned youma, electrocuting it with wave after deadly wave of green electricity and causing the hideous being to release a cry of pain so loud that everyone, even Zoisite, was forced to cover their ears. The dragon soon dissipated and the beast collapsed to the ground once again, still alive but so weak it could not find any strength within its body to stand up, let alone attack any of the senshi. Makoto also collapsed in utter exhaustion, worn out from trying to control and store so much energy and then release it on target. She had given everything she had to weaken the youma. Now it was up to the others to finish it off.
Rei scrambled over to Makoto, a feat that was easy as she was only a few feet away from the group.
"Jupiter, are you okay?" Rei asked in concern.
"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. Let's finish this thing off before it wakes up again," Makoto said faintly. Despite her frailty the determined look remained in her eyes, and Rei knew that her friend would survive well enough.
Rei looked over at the youma. The monster was laying on its back with its eyes closed and its chest slowly rising up and down. Steam could be seen rising from its body. She then looked back at Minako. The blonde was halfway onto her feet, ignoring the pain shooting through her body with gritted teeth. A steely resolve shone in her eyes. Rei rushed over and looped an arm under Minako's to help her fully stand up and gain her balance. The two looked at each other.
"Venus…" Rei whispered cautiously. She was unsure if her leader had enough strength to continue fighting, but her concerns soon were assuaged.
"Let's finish this once and for all," Minako said with renewed vigor. She gave Rei a small smile before turning her gaze to the prone youma.
"I think my poor youma is finally about to meet its end, but no matter. I have plenty more," Zoisite murmured as he observed the spectacle that signaled the demise of the ugly beast. He felt nothing for it, as it was nothing more than a lowly pawn in his grand scheme. "Hmm… I wonder how Kunzite is doing?" he then pondered as he repositioned himself on the distant branch upon which he sat.
Much like Makoto did moments before, Minako felt the appearance of a strange and wonderful energy she had never before experienced. Her entire body felt warm, but it felt very different from the physical pain associated with heat. No, it was more an emotional surge that overcame her and filled her body and soul. She unconsciously closed her eyes and smiled gently as the power and a peaceful sensation washed over her. Her body emitted a golden light that initially was a soft glow but gradually grew to blinding intensity. Directly in front of her, she could feel an even greater energy that seemed to pulsate in rhythm with her heartbeat. She intuitively reached outward with an open hand to touch the source of that immense energy, far more than she had ever wielded as either Sailor Venus or Sailor V. A gasp escaped her lips as her fingers encountered a solid object that floated in front of her. Her eyelids slowly lifted and the glistening royal-blue orbs caught sight of the source of that wonderful energy. It was in the shape of a small heart, no larger than a softball's diameter, hovering just in front of her chest and shining brilliantly in a constantly shifting array of colors. She held the item loosely in her one hand, which soon was joined by the other. The strange object left her in awe at its beauty, but at the same time it left her confused. Where did it come from, and what, if anything, was she supposed to do with it?
As soon as those questions crossed her conscious mind, her subconscious had already provided the answers. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the multicolored, heart-shaped object in her hands. Despite its solidity it was composed purely of energy, a devastatingly powerful energy that originated from her guardian planet. She soon realized that the heart was part of a brand new attack, one that involved her casting the heart at her opponent. And despite the immense power she already held in her hands, she knew the attack was capable of so much more, but only if she demanded it.
"My planet of love, Venus! Give me your power!" she yelled. The heart began to glow even more brightly and the frequency of the pulses accelerated as more energy poured into the object. A few seconds later, she knew it was sufficiently charged as the heart rapidly shifted across the entire spectrum of vibrant colors.
"Rolling Heart Vibration!" she shouted passionately as she pirouetted once and released the heart in the direction of the prone youma with a slight twist of her arms. That twist imparted a spinning motion on the heart, causing it to race toward the monster in a corkscrew motion. The energetic heart slammed into the youma with incredible velocity and force, instantly turning the beast into an enormous pile of light-brown dust. The youma that had tormented them so horrifically that evening finally was no more.
Zoisite leaped down from the branch and casually strolled to where the three girls stood and the where Ami lied motionless. He stopped about fifteen feet away from the group.
"It seems I may have underestimated you all ever so slightly," he said with his lips pulled into a small grin. "I'll keep that in mind for later on. Anyway, it looks like I have to go now."
"The hell you do!" Makoto growled furiously. She charged at Zoisite with malicious intent, her hands curled into fists and raised to deliver devastating punches at her nemesis. However, he deftly avoided her strikes and, with a single raise of his hand, sent the brunette flying backwards toward the other girls. He then slipped his hand into his jacket pocket and removed the gold watch. A scowl momentarily appeared on his face but soon disappeared before he slid the timepiece back into his pocket.
"Anyway, all I wanted to say before I depart entirely too soon is that Mercury has about ten minutes left. For her sake, I certainly hope Sailor Moon arrives in time," he said with a dark chuckle at the end. He noticed the three pairs of furious eyes staring back at him. Before any of the bodies attached to those sets of eyes could lash out at the youngest of the Shitennou, he raised his right arm into the air and disappeared, leaving nothing more than a black cloud of smoke in his wake.
"Damnit!" Makoto yelled as she pounded her right fist into the palm of her other hand. "I so wanted a piece of—WOAH!"
The three girls were startled when Ami, who up to that point was completely motionless, started to convulse uncontrollably. Her arms and legs flailed wildly and her back involuntarily stiffened and arched itself upward and then relaxed without any set rhythm. The abruptness of the seizure alarmed the girls as they had no clue how to help their incapacitated friend.
"Ami-chan!" the three yelled almost in unison.
Rei, who was closest, tried to calm Ami from her seizure by wrapping her arms around her, but that ended up being a huge and painful mistake. An arm flew upward and hit her right under her nose, harshly knocking the raven-haired girl backward. She was lucky that it didn't break upon impact, but the sting of the sudden blow made her feel nauseous. A warm liquid that streamed down her face and occasionally into her mouth alerted her to the profuse nosebleed she had sustained. Interestingly, Ami's spasms had lasted for only a few seconds, but they were the first of several the hapless girls would see.
—|1|2|3|4|—
Kunzite slowly awoke from his stupor feeling thankful that he had available the astounding energy of Queen Metalia. He was unconscious for a full minute, which surprised him. That little girl could pack quite an amazing punch it seemed, and all of that was done without the use of any of her magic. Clearly, he had underestimated her. He didn't think of her as the dim, klutzy, weak, and utterly useless child the way her compatriots did. He knew just how graceful and powerful and intelligent she truly was—or so he thought. That evening demonstrated to him an even clearer picture of his opponent, one that absolutely frightened him. Certainly she could eliminate him, or heal him, at any time of her choosing with the assistance of the Silver Crystal. However, what stunned and terrified him was the fact she could kill him without magic if he wasn't careful. He replayed the previous attack in his mind. If she wanted to, she could have turned her wand the other way and he would have been done for. He would not have known what had hit him. He smirked. The only thing that had kept him alive—and her within his clutches—was his hostages. Her greatest weakness was her unwillingness to kill innocent beings if she felt she could prevail otherwise. In fact, she would much rather risk defeat and her own death than the lives of civilians. He had no such weakness. To him, everything was fair game, and he was about to demonstrate that very fact to her.
He slowly pushed himself up from the hardwood floor. He knew at that time he didn't have to worry about her escaping, again thanks to Metalia's dark energy, so he could move rather leisurely. Once on his feet, he raised one of his arms away from his body, his palm pointed outward, and mumbled inaudibly. A blurry outline appeared in front of him of a humanoid being that was somewhat shorter than Kunzite. The more he spoke the clearer and more defined the figure became until the details of its figure became fully realized. It looked very much like a person and less similar to the youmas that the Dark Kingdom had dispatched previously. It looked like a human, a woman of about twenty years old with wavy blonde hair that fell to the middle of her back and stunningly fair and unblemished skin that was almost opalescent. It, or rather she, looked up at Kunzite with pale indigo eyes and a slightly bemused expression on her face. She possessed all the physical features of an exquisite if not exotically attractive young woman. Yet, despite all appearances, she was not at all human. Nor was she strictly a youma, as those were purely creations of the Dark Kingdom. She was one of the original servants of Metalia from a time long before the dark queen had arrived on Earth and convinced Beryl to overthrow the sovereign rulers of the Earth and declare war on the Silver Millennium. At this stage, she had achieved more of a leadership role within the Dark Kingdom, although clearly she was deemed subservient to the Shitennou.
"You have summoned me, Master Kunzite?" the mysterious being asked with an unmistakably sarcastic tone and an obvious scowl once she realized where she was and who she was talking to.
"Come on, Sazaratha, drop the attitude. I have a mission for you," he replied while making no attempt to hide his annoyance.
"You have a mission for me? What am I, your goddamned lapdog?" Her eyes narrowed as she glared at him in infuriation.
He sighed. "Look, I know you're angry that Queen Beryl selected us Shitennou to lead the Dark Kingdom's forces, but what did you really expect?"
"Some proper respect for one. I've been with Metalia since day one. Then she makes the mistake of recruiting Beryl to take over this pathetic little marble and you guys suddenly are in charge? Where does that even begin to make sense?" she complained loudly.
"It makes sense as we're far more powerful than you, despite the connections you love to claim."
She chuckled. "So that's why you got your ass kicked by a little girl? Because you're so much more powerful than me?" she said mockingly. He glared at her with a perplexed expression in his eyes which caused her to smile. "I bet you're wondering how I knew. Somebody had to feed you all that energy from Queen Metalia," she said, with the smile morphing into a wry smirk.
He momentarily looked down at his feet and shook his head. He knew that the only reason he was being physically dominated by Sailor Moon was that he was holding back. Magically she had an edge, of course, but his mission was to keep her busy, not to kill her. But he knew none of that would matter in his argument with Sazaratha.
"Okay, okay… You win, for now," he said in a slightly defeated tone. "I need your help. Will you help me, please?"
"That sounds better," she said with a less harsh tone than before. She took one step toward the man. "Now, what is this 'mission' you're talking about?"
He lifted his arm as before. This time, he projected a hologram that displayed a small, red, five-door hatchback materialized in front of the pair. The sedan was parked in the driveway of a two-story house with a red-shingled roof.
"Why are you showing me a picture of a car?" she asked with some confusion.
"You'll find out if you'd let me finish," he replied coldly.
"I don't have to help you, you know."
"Fine… It's not the car I want, but its occupants," he said without the frosty demeanor from before. The hologram displayed, in order, the faces of an older dark-brown-haired man with similar colored eyes, a woman with sepia eyes and black hair that held a bluish sheen in just the right light, and a young boy with light-brown hair and dark-green eyes. "They are the Tsukinos. Kenji, Ikuko, and Shingo. These are your targets. I don't anticipate them being at home right now, thus me showing you their transport."
"That's more like it. But what do they have to do with anything?" she asked innocently.
"Sailor Moon is related to them. Her name is Usagi Tsukino. Those are her parents and her younger brother."
She nodded slowly, sensing exactly what he was about to request of her. "I see… So, what exactly do you want me to do?"
"Do what you do best. Just don't be so obvious about it, unlike last time," he replied with a light smirk.
She returned an intensely furious glare at him. "I'm pretty sure that was not my fault that I was put in a situation where I had to trash an entire building in order to save you guys. If you Shitennou, Jadeite especially, knew how to put together a decent plan, none of that would have happened," she said irately. "I'm just happy I managed to escape before any of the senshi learned of my true identity."
"Touché." He paused for a moment and exhaled a deep sigh. "So, will you help me?" he asked softly.
Sazaratha pointed her eyes toward the ceiling as she took a few seconds to ponder her options. Acutally, she had already made up her mind to assist Kunzite, as she wanted the senshi to fail as much as anyone from the Dark Kingdom, and she probably was better suited than anyone to make it happen. Furthermore, she found her role, when she wasn't plucking the Shittenou from the dangerous situations into which they stumbled, quite fun. But the discomfort on Kunzite's face that grew the longer she delayed was too good for her to pass up. That, and she had a request of her own she wanted to make sure she properly relayed.
"I'll do it," she eventually said calmly. Her voice then picked up for the second part. "But, I do want in return your recommendation for a promotion."
Kunzite practically stumbled over himself when he heard her say that. "A promotion?"
"With Nephrite dead and Jadeite in Eternal Sleep, you guys are a bit short-handed. And as much as I enjoy what I currently do, I would love the challenge—never mind the long-overdue respect—of being one of the supreme leaders. Besides, I can make your life a living hell if you don't," she said playfully, giving Kunzite a devious wink at the end.
He flinched. He didn't want to do so as he was more than happy to have the Shitennou in control of things. But, he knew she was absolutely right about them and about her ability to make life extremely difficult for him. "Okay. I'll put in a recommendation for your ascension," he said unhappily.
She gave him a sickeningly sweet smile before turning her back to him. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do," she said as she walked away from him and, with the smallest flash of white light, teleported out of the building.
Kunzite hung his head. He hated dealing with her, but she was the best at her role within the Dark Kingdom. He acknowledged in his mind that she was almost as good as them, and maybe she was already an equal. But he would never tell her that directly. Her ego was large enough and he didn't need to inflate it any more. He needed her peculiar skills, abilities none of the Shitennou possessed, in order to achieve his ultimate goal of defeating Princess Serenity. A very, very minute part of him briefly felt sympathy for the pure evilness of the method he had chosen to accomplish his objective, but it was soon squelched. It was nothing more than what had to be done. His eyes narrowed as he turned and started walking toward the stairs. He had a princess to corral.