Senshi Muyo Chapter 25

No Need For Doomsday, Part 9

"Then we'll just have to destroy you now!" Uranus raised her right fist, converging beams of light above her head.

"Wait!" Tenchi yelled even as he ignited his sword. "What about Sasami and Rini?"

"There's no time!" Uranus returned.

"We're sorry." Neptune added. "Hopefully they'll be all right."

"NO!" Sailormoon declared. "There HAS to be another way!"

"There is..." Mistress Nine smiled malevolently. "Surrender the chalice now and when my master arrives I will spare the four of you by making you Daimon vessels. Otherwise..."

Mistress Nine's eyes glowed red. Her long hair which scattered on the floor suddenly came to life and wrapped itself around Uranus and Neptune. The two were swung into a giant statue, and the hair around them melted into the statue.

"If you don't want to see them die before your own eyes, surrender the chalice." Mistress Nine threatened.

"Don't!" Uranus shouted from high up.

Mistress Nine's hair slipped around Uranus and Neptune's necks. "Maybe I should get rid of one first." Mistress Nine tightened the grip on Neptune's neck.

"Wait!" Sailormoon said.

Tenchi meantime disengaged his sword. Mistress Nine's grip on Neptune eased slightly as her eyes turned to the Jurain Prince. "You don't have to do that." He said.

"Then Sailormoon must surrender the chalice."

Neptune struggled to shout while being strangled. "If you give the chalice to her, I'll have no respect for you for as long as I live!"

"Take this instead..." Tenchi held out the Master Key.

Perplexed, Mistress Nine reached for the hilt as the three Sailor Soldiers tried to understand what was going on.

Mistress Nine closed her hand on the hilt...

"Aaaaggghhh!" She screamed as a powerful shock of energy shot into her and she dropped the hilt and yanked her hand back in pain.

"You FOOL!" She said.

"Very well... I don't really even need the chalice. She held up Sasami's heart crystal. "This single heart crystal is even MORE POWERFUL than the purity chalice! I will offer it to my master now." Mistress Nine's eyes started to widen with the radiance of the light. She could feel how close she was to the completion of her plan, traces of excitement showed on her otherwise cold face.

Mistress Nine forced the crystal through the glass of the cylinder standing in the the middle of all the machines. Accompanying her laugh, a great power was released. A black pillar of light shot straight up from the base of the building into the sky through the star-shaped opening in the force field dome. What remained of the campus building had begun to disintegrate from the top...

Tomoe Soichi walked slowly out of the darkness with one hand to his chest, which seemed to be injured, causing him pain. Breathing heavily with every step, he walked into the middle of the room.

"Ho...ta...ru..."

Tomoe kept walking slowly towards Mistress Nine. His unexpected appearance surprised Sailormoon. "Hotaru's father?"

"Hotaru...it's me...it's papa..." Tomoe struggled towards Mistress Nine, and put his hands onto her shoulders. "It's all my fault...that it ended up this way..." During all this, Mistress Nine's face remained stone cold, and she did not even bother looking at Tomoe.

"Germatos' empty shell..." She looked down at Tomoe's face with an expression of disgust. "How filthy and irritating. Don't touch me!" She repelled him off her, then picked him up by the neck with her hair. Tomoe was too weak to even struggle.

"Ho...ta...ru..." He was still calling his daughter's name even as he was being strangled.

"Stop that!" Crying, Sailormoon fell to her knees. "Stop that... please."

Outside the Muugen Academy building, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus were maintaining the energy field to keep the Daimons in even as the storm rose to an even greater intensity. Their guardians never wavering. Yet the strain clearly showing on them all. The red Daimons kept up their assault, only stopping inches before them.

"Everyone, hang in there!" Mars called for the others.

On Mercury's side, her barrier was barely keeping the Daimons in. "They're getting more powerful!"

"It's not going to get through us!" Jupiter was holding on strong.

"We can't let them out!" Venus said, while maintaining her field.

"How's the shield coming, Washu?" Kiyone called urgently.

"Almost... Almost got it..."

The glass cylinder rattled then shattered, revealing the crystal. Then the crystal shattered. Sailormoon was stunned. The glass dome glowed, with bolts of energy starting to explode out from the dome one after another, destroying everything in their path.

"This way, Pharaoh Ninety!" Mistress Nine called to her Master.

Back inside the building, Tomoe's remaining life was being gradually strangled out of him. "Ho...ta...ru..."

"Papa..." A weak voice came out of Mistress Nine's mouth. It surprised Tenchi and the three Soldiers in the room. "Papa..." The same weak voice slipped out of Mistress Nine's lips again

.
"Impossible!" She covered her face with her right hand. Seen between her fingers, rage filled her eyes.

"Hotaru...?" Sailormoon looked at Mistress Nine with a renewed sense of hope.

The Messiah of Silence started to feel the flesh rebelling against her. Her hair lost the grip on Tomoe, Uranus, and Neptune. "This body...is refusing me..." The pain caused her to fall to her knees. "This pain..."

"Papa..." Hotaru's voice again drifted in the room.

"Kill her now, Sailormoon!" Uranus shouted from high above.

"No!" Sailormoon said with tears in her eyes. "Hotaru is still alive!" She turned to Neptune and Uranus. "NO MORE SACRIFICES!"

"It all comes down to whether she'll fight for those dreams Haruka... If she will, then I'd say you're in good hands." Uranus recalled the detective's words and put a hand on her partner's shoulder and shook her head.

"But..."

"She won't give up. She's still fighting. It's her battle now."

Outside, the Daimons trapped inside the barrier suddenly started to attack with renewed force.

"What!?" Mars exclaimed. The Daimons were about to break through the force field.

"What happened in there!?" Mercury exclaimed as the Daimons on her side were also nearly through.

A Daimon emerged partially through the barrier and lunged at Jupiter. Kiyone shot it even as another lunged toward her as well.

"Got it!!!!" Washu announced as her shield came online at last. "At the rate the dome is gaining strength, that won't hold long!"

"Sailormoon!" Venus called.

"Lord Tenchi...." Ayeka breathed.

To Be Continued!