It felt as if Ami's stomach had been left behind and she staggered sideways after the forced teleport. As she collapsed to the ground, she could hear Nephrite growl something obscene at Kunzite. She swallowed bile and turned her head towards her lover's voice.
The other four former senshi were all present, looking bruised and battered but alive. A pack of the hideous youma she had seen in the supermarket surrounded them, separating them from the other three Shitennou and Mamoru, who looked like he wanted to tear them all limb from limb in order to get to his wife. The one person Ami couldn't see was Chibi-Usa, and her heart leapt into her throat.
But then Kunzite was yanking her hair painfully, dragging her towards her friends and the youma parted to allow them to pass. He tossed her at them like she weighed nothing. Makoto looked like she was going to take a swing at him, but Minako grabbed her arm before she could do something stupid. Further away, Zoisite and Jadeite were attempting to physically restrain Nephrite and failing.
"Don't bother," said a familiar voice, and Ami followed the sound to a third group she hadn't noticed before. Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune and Sailor Pluto were all chained by some form of energy to the floor. Pluto spoke again. "You won't be able to defeat them all, and you'll need your strength."
"Where are we?" Ami asked shakily, taking the hand Rei offered her. When she got to her feet, she took in the surroundings. The walls appeared to be made of stone, but they had an unnatural quality to them. The floor had a glossy appearance, but she knew from experience that it was rough enough to scratch her skin. There was a dais of the same material about fifty feet away, lit by some unseen source.
"Nowhere," said an oily male voice. The miko's cat leapt onto Hotaru's shoulder and smiled at them, double tails twitching in unison. "You are nowhere and no when and soon you will be nobody."
A small part of Ami's mind found it amusing that she was the slightest bit surprised at a talking animal, but the rest of her was horrified by the very sound of its voice. Something about it made her skin crawl and her stomach twist. Perhaps it was the glee she thought she heard as it announced their fate.
The cat landed gracefully on the floor and threaded his way through the youma to climb onto Kunzite's armor. "That's all of you then, isn't it?" he remarked casually, as calmly as if he were taking homeroom attendance. "Now we can get this started without interruption."
"Get what started?" Ami blurted out, half out of curiosity and half to stall for time.
Instead of answering, the cat made an almost human "come here" gesture with his paw and Hotaru dutifully came to stand before him. "Stand on the dais and prepare yourself." His tails quivered with what Ami could only assume was anticipation. "Take me to the senshi," he ordered and Kunzite brought him to the bound guardians.
Uranus was glaring with such furiosity that Ami thought the cat would surely drop dead at any moment. Instead, he seemed to enjoy the rage of the helpless senshi and paused to stretch before jumping down to land at their feet. "I don't suppose I need to explain what it is I want from you."
"No, because we certainly won't give them to you," Uranus spat. "It's not like you could use them anyway."
"Of course I couldn't," he admitted. "That's what Hotaru is for." He looked toward the steps where the young girl was waiting obediently. "And then I won't need them, or any of you, anymore. At least not alive, anyway."
"But why, why are you doing this?" Neptune asked. "Why would you want to destroy the planet?" Her fingers clenched as she pulled against the her bindings. "How could this possibly help you?"
"In case you haven't noticed, human, I control the dead. The Messiah of Ruin will bring death to all with the Holy Grail." He bared his fangs in a twisted sort of smile. "With the Earth in ruins and its inhabitants nothing but a race of corpses I'll have an army millions strong at my disposal."
"What do you need an army for if you've already killed everyone?" Zoisite was unnaturally calm in the face of disaster, a sharp contrast to the other two living Shitennou. Behind him, Nephrite was livid and Jadeite stood glassy-eyed in shock.
"Surely you don't think this is the only planet of consequence in the entire galaxy?" came the nonchalant answer. "This pitiful little ball of dirt and water is just one stepping stone in the sea of stars. But enough chatter. Kunzite, take the talismans. If they don't give them up willingly, cut them out."
Uranus set her face in a mask of defiance as the strongest Shitennou slowly stepped away from the circle of youma and drew his sword. "You can't just take them from us, or cut them out of our hearts," she hissed. "We have to call them willingly."
A hint of Kunzite's former personality appeared in his smirk as he stepped not towards the defiant senshi of wind, but Sailor Neptune. The blade caressed the thin skin of her neck and a line of scarlet appeared above her choker. "Give me the talisman," he ordered, eyeing Uranus.
"Haruka, don't," Neptune pleaded, even as her eyes never left the sword at her throat.
"We have to do something!" Makoto growled. Her fists clenched at her sides and she looked back at Ami and the others. "We have to stop that, that thing!"
Rei's jaw was set in determination. "I can't believe I didn't know it was a nekomata," she said grimly. "If another one of the senshi dies, we'll end up fighting her as well."
Ami nodded, although the knot in her stomach only tightened. The rest of them knew what it was like to have to fight a comrade, and for Haruka or Michiru to have to fight one another... "We can't let this happen."
"How horrible," Usagi whispered. Minako had stepped in front of the former Princess to shield her, but Usagi refused to hide from what was going on. Her eyes were full of tears as she watched Sailor Neptune wince. "They're lovers, aren't they?"
"Yes," Ami said simply. It was very like Usagi to focus on the suffering of people rather than the danger to the planet. She glanced over at Nephrite, who was staring back at her to her surprise. His eyes were bluer than the clearest sky and she knew that the was gathering energy for an attack as well.
"The Shitennou are ready to fight," she mouthed silently at Minako, who nodded back. The other girls wordlessly acknowledged her, and without warning, they each lunged for the nearest youma.
The putrid stench of rotting flesh nearly suffocated her, but Ami refused to stop beating on the youma until it had fallen to the ground. Another of the corpse-like beasts wrapped it's rail-thin arms around her, but she quickly wrenched herself free of its grasp and shoved it into yet another advancing demon. Beside her, Minako sent another youma flying with a single, powerful kick and it skidded to a stop just short of Kunzite and the other senshi.
"Stop playing around!" the nekomata snapped impatiently at Kunzite. His eyes glowed brightly for a moment and even more of the rotting creatures began to appear.
Across the way, Nephrite and Jadeite were making quick work of the youma surrounding them, but more were appearing by the second. They were fighting back to back with Mamoru, who had more of a struggle but was still able to defend himself from the oncoming horde.
Moments later, she heard Kunzite yelp and saw that Sailor Pluto had freed herself and was defending her friends. The key-shaped staff she summoned easily kept the Shitennou at bay with it's long reach, keeping him away from both her and the other senshi as they struggled to free themselves.
Ami could barely hear the nekomata order Hotaru to transform of the wailing of the youma, but she was nearly blinded but the following flash of light as Sailor Saturn made her appearance. For a few seconds, no one seemed to move as the purple suited soldier began to make her way towards the fray, but then a scaly fished smacked Ami across the face and she could no longer pay attention to anything except fighting for her life.