Chapter 29: The Truth
"
AN: 10,000 views on this story now. Even if several hundred of them are mine, that's a heck of an accomplishment for me, thank you to everyone who helped make it possible.
I am also about to find myself out of a job (though probably not for long) so I may have more time to write.
"
Twenty Eight Thousand Feet Up, September 3rd, 4:45 PM
"Venus, if you sign anything using your real name, you're going home in a body bag," Lita warned.
"I'm not that stupid!" Mina huffed. The five were seated in the passenger tube of a modestly-sized jet, wood finishes along the walls and red velvet seats making up the rows.
"Actually, you won't even go home. We'll bury you somewhere in Morocco," Lita added.
Mina quickly ran the thin-tip black marker over the eight-by-eleven photograph, a not-terribly-flattering photo of her in combat, scribbling a quick 'Sailor Venus' signature on the bottom right corner.
"I'll grant you, I'm not exactly used to signing things with Sailor Venus," Mina admitted, setting the picture down on the empty seat next to her after blowing on the ink. "Could get used to it."
"Yeah, we'll be sure to save the body bag in case you sign a math test as Sailor Venus in a couple weeks." Raye picked up a ten-inch rubber mask that just barely looked like her. "This is absolutely hideous...and embarrassing." She spun the mask around in her hand a couple times, nose wrinkled in disgust.
"Well, the people who made this stuff probably make like seven cents an hour, so go easy on them," Mina commented as she left a small signature on the leg of a Sailor Venus action figure. "God, when I put it that way, I...actually feel kind of bad about it."
"I didn't know we had merchandise," Lita muttered, signing a photograph. "I never see this stuff at the mall or anything."
"We don't have merchandise." Amy signed a newspaper clipping that contained an article about the Sailor Scouts. "We're vigilantes, which means we're fugitives, and fugitives don't get to have merchandise. These are all knockoffs, and are frowned upon in good society, so you wouldn't see them in a public place."
"Well, shoddy worksmanship and uncomfortable origins aside, it's...kinda cool," Mina said, looking a Sailor Venus plushie over. "I mean, think about it, it's like being a celebrity. All this cool stuff, and we basically got a free jet ride just because we are who we are."
"Well, please don't get used to it, we're not celebrities. Also, it's not going to be free," Amy said, opening her travel bag and pulling out a brown envelope. "When we land, I'm giving him the money."
"You don't have to, you know." Raye signed a low-resolution photograph of her in battle, taken by some cell phone a few months back.
"It's the least we can do," Amy insisted. "This could have been really hard for us. Could have been impossible." She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Ward's help may end up saving Serena's life, we're giving him the fifty thousand."
"Well, the value of this stuff we're signing has got to be pretty good." Mina signed another small poster of her. "Although, if we sign too much, we end up diluting the value of our signatures, so maybe—"
"Great to see you're all taking this so seriously."
The four girls looked over at Darien, who was seated in the backmost row, on the right chair, looking out the window into the clouds. He had a pile of assorted Tuxedo Mask photos and toys next to him, which he had yet to touch.
Mina rose to her feet and stepped into the middle alley. "Hey."
Timidly, Amy motioned her right hand downwards, pointing towards the seat Mina had just left, but Mina quickly walked down the path between red chairs.
"Hey, Mask," Mina said sternly. "Knock it off."
Raye jumped to her feet, stepping between Mina and the back of the chamber, frantically motioning for her to turn around and go sit back down. Mina went up to Raye and tried to push past her.
"Venus, Venus, come on, stop," Raye whispered, throwing an uneasy glance behind her at Darien. "Sit down, sit down, go."
"What, Mask? You think you're better than us because you haven't said two words since we took off?" Mina put her hands out at her sides.
Darien turned to look at her, still quite obviously irritated, with a hint of surprise on his face as he realized Mina was actually being serious.
"What's your problem?" Darien grunted.
"You think I'm not terrified right now?" Mina asked. "Moon's my friend. She's important to me. Believe me, Mask, I've never been this scared in my life."
Darien looked unconvinced, adjusting his mask slightly with his left hand before looking back out the window.
"I'm trying to deal with it. We all have our own ways of dealing with this situation. So don't you dare think I'm not worried about her, okay? Sorry I'm not moping enough for you, but that's not going to do anyone any good." Mina put her hands on the backrests of the two seats at her sides to steady herself as the jet encountered just a dash of turbulence.
Raye raised an eyebrow at Mina in confusion, and Mina took the opportunity to quickly step past her and over to Darien.
"We're all worried about her," Mina continued. The three other girls all watched with bated breath. "We're on your side here. How about you warm up a bit now? Gonna make it a lot easier to get her back."
Darien looked back at her for a few seconds, eyes flickering up and down her body. Finally, his scowl melted away a bit. He licked his lips timidly, then looked away, at the back of the chair in front of him.
"Yeah, it's tough to deal with," Mina said, patting him on the shoulder. "But...maybe distracting yourself isn't a bad idea." She reached down towards the pile of Tuxedo Mask items piled next to Darien and plucked a black marker from underneath a doll. She presented it to him, but he didn't move to take it.
"Venus, leave him be—" Lita began.
"Alright, Mask." Mina bent down in front of him. "Can we try something?"
After a second, Darien looked back to her.
"So, you're scared, of course...terrified." Mina gave a tiny shrug. "So terrified, you don't want to think about how terrified you are. But maybe you should. I got this from a TV show."
At this, Darien scoffed and turned back to the window.
"Hey, hey, come on." Mina cleared her throat. "So you're sitting there...scared, but trying to not think about how you're scared. Tough place to be. So...be scared."
Darien looked back at her.
"Just for a little bit. Five seconds. Let it all in. Be as scared as you want to be. Think about us...getting there too late, us not being able to save her, whatever. Let it in. Give it those five seconds, and then...be done with it. Better than just holding it in." Mina nodded. "Try it."
With that, Mina slipped the pen into the front chest pocket of Darien's jacket, turned, and quickly walked back down the alley between rows of chairs. Amy, Raye and Lita watched her in surprised silence as she sat back down in her seat.
Raye looked over at Amy, who could only shrug in reply.
There was an uneasy silence in the chamber for several seconds, and then Darien removed the marker from his pocket, picked up one of the photographs, and signed it.
"
Headquarters, September 3rd, 5:32 PM
"And there's text number one," Luna said, tapping the phone with her paws. "Serena's not going to like these claw marks on her screen."
Artemis jumped up onto the desk, looking down at Serena's phone. "Are you trying to break some sort of emoticon world record?"
"This is how Serena texts her parents," Luna insisted. "Believe me, I know. Alright." She sent the message. "Okay. Amy bumped the GPS locator in the phone to show up at the campsite, so we're in the clear for the moment."
"What happens when they call?" Artemis asked, looking around at the large, vacated warehouse, just a tad eerie with the lack of a human presence.
Luna sighed. "I give my greatest performance to date."
Artemis grimaced. "Not exactly filling me with confidence. No offense meant."
"None taken," Luna replied. "I'd be more concerned about it if there wasn't a much more significant problem."
The two cats stood there in silence for a few seconds.
"If...there is an attack, what do we do?" Artemis asked uneasily.
"Hide," Luna replied darkly. "And hope the police can handle it."
"Not exactly filling me with confidence there," Artemis groaned.
"There's a lot about this entire situation to not be confident about," Luna agreed. "But I couldn't bring myself to ask one of them to stay behind, not when Serena's in such danger."
"You didn't notice...anything last night?" Artemis asked timidly.
"No, I didn't!" Luna snapped, causing Artemis to recoil slightly. "And you don't need to bother trying to make me feel bad about it." She frowned. "Feel bad enough about it already. I just...don't know how she could have been taken without me waking up."
"Don't blame yourself," Artemis comforted. "We'll get her back. Whatever happened, it's nothing you could have stopped."
"It's kind of part of my job," Luna said. "Watching over her, having her back."
"And you do a great job of it," Artemis replied. "And you'll keep doing a great job of it when we get her back."
"
Essaouira, Morocco, September 3rd, 7:03 PM
Under better circumstances, Essaouira would have been a rather nice place to hang out and kill some time. A popular tourist attraction within Morocco, the fortified fishing town was highly accessible due to it's closeness to the metropolis of Marrakech. Very well protected by naval defenses, the town had plenty of personality, with it's active art life. But of course, the five teenagers had no time to consider such things.
"Alright." Amy turned to face her four current field partners, the group standing on a large rock structure at the edge of the ocean, Darien holding a large steel suitcase. Twenty feet away, a group of passerbys were gathering at a walkway that went by, eyes on the curious sight of four Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Mask standing there, holding a quick impromptu meeting.
"Can we hurry this up?" Lita asked, glancing behind her at the gathering crowd. "If they know who we are, it's only a matter of time before the authorities get involved."
"They won't be able to follow us," Amy replied. "Okay, we move now. We have no idea what's going on here, so every minute we wait is another minute something bad could happen to Moon. But, we work as a team, and we try to keep this as quiet as possible. The more we can find out without them detecting us, the better it'll be for us. This place is a fortress, and it's filled with well-trained mercenaries. They're absolutely capable of hurting and killing us if we get sloppy, and that's not even considering Malachite's potential involvement. Watch out for traps. I've been unable to create any sort of antidote or vaccine, so we have to simply try to avoid whatever he's set up."
Amy turned towards the ocean and looked down at a spot in front of her, about eight feet out. A small divot appeared in the rolling waters where Amy was looking, quickly becoming wider and deeper. Mina threw a quick look over her shoulder at the several dozen natives and tourists who were watching.
After a second, the gap in the water was twelve feet in diameter and went down to the ocean bottom perhaps eight or nine feet down below sea level. Amy jumped down into the hole, followed quickly by her friends. As soon as all five were down, a thin film of water covered the top of the divot, putting the four scouts and Darien in a cylinder of air.
"This is pretty cool," Mina mused, looking at the walls of water that surrounded the group.
Amy turned and pointed out towards the ocean. "We go this way, we'll be there in less than an hour. Everyone stay with me." She crouched down slightly, then took off. The air cylinder moved with her, her body forming the centerpoint of the unnatural gap, the others running to stay within it.
"
Westbridge Defenses International, September 3rd, 7:44 PM
"It's of utmost importance that I'm not disturbed in here."
Serena tried to focus on the voice, use it to pull herself back into a clear frame of mind. It was Amy. She wanted to study for an exam and didn't want anyone bothering her.
Wait, had school started?
No, it hadn't...not that that necessarily meant anything with Amy.
"Sir, nobody is going to try attacking us, I assure you we've taken every measure over the years to guarantee ideal defensive positioning."
Heavy accent that she couldn't identify.
Okay...it was Sammy. Yes. Playing some video game. He didn't want anyone to disturb him while he was playing, and the accented voice was the game.
"And I assure you that there will be an attack, sometime in the next few days. Don't ask me how I know, don't ask me why, just inform everyone here that it's the case. Not a large attack. A small group of teenagers. You are not to underestimate them, that's very important. You see them, you shoot to kill, and you sound the alarm. Make sure your men use the specialized equipment I provided as well. And make sure I'm made aware when they show up."
What was the last thing she remembered?
Going to bed.
Why would Sammy be playing a video game in her bedroom?
Did someone move her? Why?
With no small amount of effort, she slowly forced her right eyelid open, and came to stare at a plain, white tiled ceiling that she didn't recognize from anywhere within her house. The light was dimmed, thankfully, and seemed to be coming from a lamp rather than a ceiling mount.
"Very well, sir. We'll defend this room with our lives."
She quickly realized she couldn't move her head. Or anything else, for that matter. At all. Not from being restrained, she didn't think. She just didn't seem to have control over her muscles. It was all she could do just to open her eyes. She forced the left one open and moved them around, looking at much as she could.
Not much to speak of. A small room, completely bare, walls that looked like steel on every side. A door on the wall in front of her, a small light fixture mounted on the wall about a foot to the right of it. So plain and dull was the room, Serena thought she must be dreaming. As she was mentally chiding herself for having such a dull subconscious, her eyes rotated over to the right, and finally found something of interest.
Malachite was sitting there on a small wooden chair, arms folded over his chest.
"My God," he muttered. "You're awake."
Serena wasn't even able to manipulate her facial muscles to scowl at him. All she could manage was to stare, blankly.
"Good thing we got you when we did," Malachite continued.
Serena tried to summon up a reply, but was unable to even get her jaw muscles to react. She glanced about quickly. She was laying on what appeared to be some form of elevated surface, but was unable to surmise anything further. She thought she was still wearing her pajamas, and for a brief moment she thought about how it was rather embarrassing to confront Malachite wearing such a thing, but quickly more important things started popping up in her mind.
"You don't know yet, do you?" he asked rhetorically. "Blind leading the blind with you girls, isn't it? Well, doesn't matter now. As soon as I confirm your friends are here, I'll be disposing of you." He grimaced. "I'd love to draw it out, but...not to be."
He put his hand out towards her. "Don't bother trying to move, I spent a significant amount of resources on that bed. I'm surprised you're even awake." Malachite looked around the empty room for a moment. "We at the negaverse do appreciate your generous energy donation, however." He leaned back slightly, eyes on the door. "And now we play the waiting game."
"
Westbridge Defenses International, September 3rd, 7:52 PM
Amy pointed at a spherical black ball floating about ten feet above their heads, a heavy metal chain keeping it from floating up to the ocean surface.
"That's a mine, be careful," she instructed. "We're almost there." The five could just barely make out a large landmass rising up from the ocean floor in front of them, a mass of rock that supported the island. Assorted nautical life swam by the unnatural bubble of air in the water, avoiding it, moving out of the way as it came through.
"Do we have to worry about showing up on radar?" Lita asked.
"No, we're too small," Amy said. "The real concern is, if my powers get zapped right now, we'll all drown."
Darien stepped in front of Amy, shielding her with his much larger body. Lita and Mina took up positions on her immediate flanks, leaving Raye to guard her backside.
"Thank you," Amy said. "Alright. Now we have to figure out the insertion." The group moved, somewhat awkwardly due to the necessity to keep Amy as protected as possible, towards the large rock formation.
"Any ideas?" Mina asked.
"We're going in blind, so nothing strong," Amy replied. "Wherever we choose to surface, we run the risk of immediately being seen by a patrol or a camera." She looked up at the water surface, sighing. "And I didn't have time to get together any specialized equipment for this mission, so I don't have anything that can help us much."
The gang carefully moved forward, one eye looking down at the ground for any visible signs of a trap.
"And once we get in there...I know the stakes are very high, but we need to make every effort to keep the bodycount down to a minimum," Amy added. "Getting Moon back takes priority, but we don't know what the situation is here. Malachite could very well have everyone brainwashed."
"Minimum," Lita repeated. "Not necessarily zero."
Amy grimaced. "Not...necessarily. Okay." She reached down towards her belt, plucking the disguise pen from it and handing it forwards towards Darien. "Mask, I think the best play here is for you to infiltrate the facility in disguise, get in and see how close you can get to Serena."
Darien took the pen, nodding. "Got it."
"Obviously, there's going to be a...language barrier," Amy continued. "We don't even know what language they use in there...some form of Arabic, probably. As long as you keep quiet and your head down, you shouldn't have a problem blending in for awhile." She looked around at the other three scouts. "As for us...I don't know how we're going to sneak around undetected inside a place like this."
The group stopped just in front of the face of the rock, looking up at the ocean surface above them.
"Alright. Infiltration," Amy muttered. She pointed upwards at a boat hull floating at the top of the ocean, next to an elongated platform that extended several hundred feet back out towards Morocco. "We might be able to use the docks. I'll take us up behind the boat, hopefully nobody sees us."
"
Westbridge Defenses International Docks, September 3rd, 8:01 PM
Mina surfaced right next to the hull of the small freighter, popping up right next to her other four comrades. Amy had her visor up, moving her head around to get a full scan of the boat.
"Nobody's on the boat," Amy said finally. "No human life signatures, nothing from the negaverse. It's as good an entry point as we're going to find."
Amy spread her hands out to her sides. Slowly, the water around the group rose up above sea level, pushing the five up towards the lip of the boat silently. After a few seconds, the platform of water had risen above the boat edge, and the five boarded onto the wooden deck of the cargo ship.
They looked around, seeing an assortment of crates tied down along the edges and a cockpit near the front. They immediately moved to take cover behind the wall of the cockpit. Once there, quickly, Amy motioned over to Darien, who slid the large briefcase over towards her. She took it and popped it open, revealing the computer within.
"Okay..." she quickly tapped in some input on the keyboard. "Moon's not showing up on radar."
Mina leaned over, looking at the screen, squeezing ocean water out of the end of her blonde hair. "Uh...does—"
"My tracking chip probably isn't strong enough to pick her up, meaning she's probably underground." Amy ran her fingers across the keyboard again. "However..."
The radar was suddenly populated by a single, large red dot.
"It can pick up negaverse signatures. And that pretty much confirms their involvement," she said. "So...if we can't locate Moon, we can locate Malachite, which hopefully leads to Moon." She looked up at Darien. "You go, I'll direct you from here."
Darien got up. "How do I do this?"
"Well—"
Amy was cut short by a loud throat-clearing noise from the boarding ramp, that caused the five to jump up and press their backs into the outer wall of the cockpit. Immediately, Amy looked over through the wall, visor still out.
"He's boarding," she whispered hoarsely. They listened intently, managing to barely make out footsteps along the deck through the crashing of the ocean below. "Just one person." Amy looked over at Mina, pointed in the direction of the unknown visitor, then pointed downwards. "Be patient," she mouthed silently.
Mina nodded, then silently jumped up to the roof of the cockpit, pressing her body down flat and crawling along towards the back edge. Breathlessly, Amy watched with her visor, the heat signature that represented the visitor meandering over towards the starboard side of the boat, closer and closer to the crew.
Darien pulled out his cane, ready to burst out of hiding and quickly handle the situation if necessary. He could hear his footsteps, getting closer to the cockpit, seconds away from a possible line of sight.
Just as Darien thought about swinging around and buckling the man's skull, he heard a door swing open right around the corner from him.
"He's entering the cockpit," Amy mouthed over to Darien. Darien nodded as Amy held her hand out towards him in a 'wait' gesture.
The seconds ticked by, Mina poised on top of the large room, just above the door, ready to strike. After nearly a full minute, the man re-emerged, carrying a small accordion-style briefcase in his right hand.
Mina simply fell down on top of him, wrapping her right hand over his mouth to silence any noise, pressing him down into the dock and wrapping her left arm around his neck, cutting off his windpipe. The four others emerged from around the corner as Mina put the man to sleep.
"This is how you get in," Amy said quickly, pointing at Darien. "Move quickly, we don't know how long we have, but this is at least a window to get you inside."
After she was sure the man was unconscious, Mina set him down on the floor and rolled him over onto his back. He looked European, though there was a definite tan, and was about six feet tall. His black cap, white, button-down shirt with insignias on the chest and forearms, and black pants looked company-issued. Darien looked down at the man for a few seconds, then held the pen up. Magical energy engulfed him, and he was quickly turned into a passable doppleganger for the mercenary, complete with a matching uniform that should drive away suspicion.
Mina grabbed the small briefcase from the man's hand, ripped the access badge from his belt, and handed both to Darien as he walked by. "Good luck," she whispered as Darien made for the ramp.
"
Westbridge Defenses International Docks, September 3rd, 8:24 PM
"Alright, Mask, keep going down that stairwell, she has to be somewhere in the lower levels," Amy instructed, glancing up every few seconds to check to make sure nobody was coming up the boarding ramp. "As a warning, our audio connection may start getting fuzzy as you get deeper."
The computer screen showed a first-person perspective from Darien as he casually walked through the maze-like halls of the facility, taking care to avoid making eye contact with anyone he walked by. He passed by a corkboard on the wall inbetween two open doorways, which prominently featured a large poster with large red text on it.
"Mask, hold up, take a quick look at that poster, get me a good shot of it," Amy asked. Darien did so, subtly turning his body towards the posting without breaking stride.
"What's up?" Lita asked, leaning over as Amy froze the screen on the shot of the poster. It contained several lines of large Berber symbols.
"This one looks more important than the others we tried," Amy said quietly. "Maybe it has something to do with Moon."
By analyzing some of the signs that Darien had seen on his way in, Amy had determined that the language of choice was Berber, specifically the Tashelhit variety, and while she knew nothing of the tongue, she had been working to translate what she could find, in the event that it might cast some light on the situation.
After a second, she went back to Darien's camera. "Mask, head southeast from your current position," she ordered. "It's a little unclear, but I believe you're now on the right level." She went back to the freeze frame of the poster. "Okay...let's see here—"
Suddenly, an abrupt buzzing and a crackly voice came from the body of the mercenary, which the girls had moved to behind the cockpit along with them to better shield it from passerbys. A series of gutteral syllables that none of them understood.
Amy sighed. "Mask, move quickly, our cover is about to be blown," she warned. "Girls, be ready to move, they'll sound the alarm any second."
Quickly, Mina scrambled over to the unconscious body, flipped him over, and ripped a handheld radio from a velcro pack on his belt. She held it up in front of her as another string of foreign words poured out amid crackling static.
Mina cleared her throat, then pushed a button on the side of the device, forcing her voice down several octaves as she tried to imitate a male. "Uh, negative, negative, I have the briefcase from the ship, I've...I've gotten lost on my way back, but I'll figure it out, nothing to worry about here!"
Raye, Lita and Amy stared at her flatly as she released the button, some angry yelling emitting from the speaker on the radio.
Mina hit the button again. "Yes, yes, I'm perfectly fine, just trying to...uh...find my way back to...you, but I'm doing great, really!" Mina continued.
"What are you doing?!" Raye hissed, leaning over towards Mina, scowling.
"Trying to buy time!" Mina said, listening to the rapid-fire dialect coming out of the device.
Raye sighed. "They don't speak English!"
"We don't know that!" Mina insisted.
"Well, we do now." Lita pointed at the radio, which was still emitting angry syllables from what was no doubt an irate mercenary in a language that was clearly not English.
"Uhhh..." Mina pressed the button again, putting it up to her mouth. "Lo Siento, me he perdido!"
Raye put her right hand up to cover her eyes in exasperation.
"Ummm..." Mina grimaced before crushing the communication device in her palm, fingers reducing it to a pile of broken components, silencing the yelling. She threw the parts over the side of the boat. "Boring conversation anyway." Mina pressed her back up against the side of the cockpit.
"I suppose you may have bought us...fifteen seconds," Amy admitted. "Everyone, just follow the path in towards the main building, the alarm's about to be sounded, just find your way to the lower levels! Go!"
With that, the girls jumped out of hiding, leaping over the side of the boat and down to the docks.
"
Westbridge Defenses International, September 3rd, 8:27 PM
The small light fixture just to the right of the door jumped to life, blinking red and blue in rapid succession. Naturally it caught Serena's attention, her eyes jumping to it. Malachite, who hadn't moved from his position next to her, stood up.
"Already here," he said. "Remarkable. Didn't think they'd pull it off so quickly." He looked down at Serena. "They really care about you."
A sword began to materialize in his hands, a much larger version of the blades he typically threw in combat. Made of energy and about two feet long, it took about ten seconds for the creation to be willed into existence.
"Doesn't feel right, executing a helpless prisoner," he admitted, levelling the weapon in front of him. "But I'll get over it. Particularly after what you did to her."
Serena blinked a couple times, trying to force some kind of meaningful movement as Malachite raised the blade up above his head. She put everything she had into lifting just her left finger, just to start somewhere.
"So long," Malachite said.
And then, the bed Serena was laying on shattered into a million pieces as Serena began to glow a very bright white. Malachite was forcibly ejected into the wall behind him at great speed, his body ripping through the steel barrier and his momentum carrying him into the hall.
Serena landed on the ground, quickly rolling to her feet as her body stopped glowing, but she slipped and tumbled back to her knees. Confused, she looked down at herself.
She didn't find her pink pajamas that she had been wearing when she had fallen asleep the previous night, nor did she find her Sailor Moon uniform.
Rather, she found a stark white, strapless and sleeveless dress, gold trimming right above the chest area and a gold circle of beads just below the chest. She reached down and grabbed at the fabric of the dress slowly, seeing a white, swirling shoulder pieces on her right shoulder out of the corner of her eye as she did so. She picked her right hand up in front of her, looking at a gold beaded bracelet, slowly rotating her hand around to see the entire thing.
"What the hell?" she gasped.
And then, she felt a sharp crack inside her head and keeled over, immediately unconscious, folding to the ground in a heap.
"
Westbridge Defenses International, September 3rd, 8:28 PM
Malachite exploded through the steel wall as Darien turned the corner at a dead sprint, just missing ramming into Darien by about five feet. Darien skidded to a halt as Malachite was finally stopped by a second steel wall on the other side of the hall, nevertheless leaving a large dent in the metal with his backside.
Darien stared in bewilderment for a second, dropping the small briefcase at his side. Malachite groaned as he pried himself out of the wall.
Finally, Darien thought to turn and look at the room Malachite had come from, gasping at the sight. Serena in a white dress, laying on the floor, not moving, crumpled up.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Malachite snapped. "There's been an alarm, go help handle the situation!" He got to his feet. "Hey, you speak English?! No, of course you don't!" Darien turned to look at him as he pointed down the hall to his left. "You! Go!"
"You sick shit!" Darien spat, shedding his disguise and immediately taking Tuxedo Mask form. He spun around, charging in and managing to land an elbow to Malachite's gut before he lost the element of surprise.
"You got this far?" Malachite grunted as Darien pushed him down the hall, away from Serena. "My God, I knew humans were worthless, but I thought I could at least depend on a private military company to protect their own headquarters for a couple hours!" He squared up and launched a series of quick jabs to get Darien off the attack.
"You always play dressup with your captives?!" Darien slapped one of Malachite's jabs downward with his left hand, then took advantage of the opening to hook his right hand into Malachite's cheek.
Malachite gave a small laugh as he steadied himself and backed down the hall. "Oh, you really don't know what's going on here, do you?" He whisked a couple of quick energy blades at Darien, who deftly deflected them away with his staff as he closed in.
"Yeah, I think I do!" Darien retorted. "You haven't been seeing any action since Sailor Moon buried your old lady underneath a hundred tons of concrete, so you're trying to get your rocks off by sticking unconscious girls in dresses!" He lunged in, snapping the tip of his cane into Malachite's left temple. "Well, I'm real sorry for your loss, but I can't stand for that!"
Malachite ducked underneath another staff strike, then danced in and delivered a haymaker to Darien's gut. Darien flew back a couple feet, nimbly landing upright, and propelled himself right back into Malachite before he could take advantage of the distance between the two.
Just before he managed to impact Malachite, however, the negaverse general pulled a small brown sphere from his belt and lobbed it up in the air towards him. It smashed into Darien and exploded into a blinding array of multi-colored lights. When the rapid-fire flashing was over, Darien was back in his green blazer and black pants.
"Forget about that trick?" Malachite mocked, summoning up a small energy blade in his right hand. Darien was frozen to the spot as Malachite brought his hand back, waiting for the inevitable.
A pulsing chain snaked out from the hall behind Malachite, striking him in the head just as he threw, throwing his aim off and sending his projectile down into the ground at Darien's feet. Malachite turned just in time to see Mina smash her full weight right into him, driving him into the hallway wall next to Darien. Darien quickly removed himself from the fight, turning and sprinting down the hall, back towards Serena, trying to figure out how to shake off whatever Malachite had done to him.
Mina wrapped her chain around Malachite's neck, pinning the larger man down underneath her and tightening it. She pulled on the makeshift noose with all her might, Malachite reaching up to try to pull it off his neck.
After a couple seconds, Malachite threw an elbow into Mina's shin, knocking her off balance slightly and causing her noose to loosen. He took advantage of this to stick his fingers underneath the chain, yank it off, and then throw Mina off his back.
"I'm impressed!" Malachite said as he got to his feet. "You got this far!" He smirked. "But I'm afraid the effort's been wasted."
Mina spun the chain around in her hands menacingly. "If you've hurt her—"
"All you've managed to do is trap yourselves underground on a small island with four hundred armed and trained mercenaries!" Malachite continued. "There's no victory here!"
"We're not afraid of human mercenaries!" Mina menaced.
"It's not them you need to be afraid of." Malachite spun around and took off down the hall, dashing towards where Darien had fled to, but Mina was ready and snapped her chain forward, wrapping it around Malachite's ankle. She yanked him back, sending the general to the floor violently.
"
Westbridge Defenses International, September 3rd, 8:31 PM
Using the corner of the wall as a shield from the hail of bullets, Lita ducked down and sent snakes of lightning out into lounge room, violently frying a large television and sending it flying into the wall. With that second of distraction, she lunged out slightly and directed a flood of electricity at the half dozen armed guards, careful to keep the voltage down slightly. In short order, the guards were incapacitated and crumpled up in a heap on the floor.
As soon as the room was clear, she sprinted across into the adjacent hallway, speeding down past two doors on the right before getting to one on her left. She threw herself through it, quickly rocketing down a staircase, looking down the flights to just make out Amy three floors below her.
As she cleared two flights down, the door sprung open, revealing a single guard, a small brown sphere in his right hand. He lobbed it out towards her. She couldn't avoid running into it, and was caught in a blaze of bright flashes.
When the firework show was over, Lita's scout outfit was gone, leaving her in a green long-sleeve shirt and brown shorts. The sentry in the doorway leveled a large pistol at her as she processed this development, and only the self-preservation at the very base of Lita's subconscious got her to quickly smack the weapon away as it fired.
Lita reached forward, grabbed the man by the shirt collar, and ripped him into the stairwell, violently slamming his head into the stair railing, knocking him unconscious. Or perhaps dead. She had no time to figure out either way. Quickly, she tossed herself over the edge of the staircase and started dropping down, one flight at a time, speed key without her sailor form.
Finally, she reached her stop at the eighth sub-level, fearlessly throwing herself through the door and out into yet another plain hallway, mentally attempting to retake her superpowered form and finding herself still unable to. She didn't have time to worry about that right now.
Quickly, she turned a corner to the right and found Amy, wearing her school outfit, ducking to hide in one of the small siderooms. Raye stood out in the hall, sending streams of burning flames down it to keep a squad at bay. Lita followed Amy into the abandoned room, which contained a few filing cabinets and a small desk, but was otherwise just cold and dull.
"Got you too?" Lita asked, looking at Amy.
Amy nodded.
"
Westbridge Defenses International, September 3rd, 8:38 PM
Carrying Serena bridal-style, Darien raced into the break room. He didn't really know what he had in mind, of course he could never even think to outrun Malachite in human form, and he didn't rightfully expect Mina to be able to hold him off for any extended period of time. But long-term thinking wasn't really on his mind.
As he sprinted towards the opposite hall, a pair of armed guards frantically backed in, rifles out and pointed at an advancing inferno of fire. Quickly, Darien bent down, set Serena on the floor in front of him, then nimbly stepped over her. He cocked back and threw his right hand fist into the back of the head of the mercenary to his right, then quickly grabbed the back of his shirt and threw him into the one on the left. As the two haphazardly fell to the ground, Darien closed in and uncoiled his fist downward onto the forehead of the one on the bottom.
Raye dashed in, Amy and Lita quick to follow. Darien noted grimly they were both in civilian form, which logically could only mean one thing.
"Mars!" Darien pointed down the hallway from where he had come. "Venus needs backup!"
Raye darted towards the opening, taking perhaps two steps into the corridor before being forcibly ejected back into the small break room by Mina's thrown body, the two scouts getting tangled up as they crashed into and destroyed a small brown coffee table. In the next instant, a series of abrupt flashes filled the room, coming from a small orb that had been hurled into the room along with Mina. Sure enough, when the light show had ended, they were back in civilian clothing, without their powers.
Darien quickly scanned the room. Lita and Amy crouched down over Serena's unconscious body, Raye and Mina trying to untangle themselves from each other, and Darien standing over the two unconscious mercenaries. Not a one of them still had their powers, and try though he might, Darien was unable to will himself to take his powered form again.
"One hell of an effort." Malachite entered the room, giving some small claps. Darien quickly shuffled over towards Serena, getting between her and Malachite. "But you never had a chance."
Malachite held his hand out towards the hallway on the opposite side of the room. Darien turned and saw five mercenaries standing in the threshold, all of them with rifles leveled at the group of teenagers, cutting off the only way out of the room that didn't involve going through Malachite. Darien scowled, then turned back to the negaverse general, who was summoning an energy sword in his hands and advancing on the group.
Darien turned his head slightly and looked at Lita and Amy out of the corner of his eye as Mina and Raye scrambled to gather around Serena. "It's been an honor," he said quietly.
"Yeah," Lita muttered, eyes on Malachite as he came up on the ground, energy weapon raised up in front of him.
And then, Serena stirred from her spot on the floor, eyes opening slowly. Malachite's smile faltered and Amy gave a small gasp, drawing everyone's attention down to her as she lifted her head up, a serene, peaceful little smile on her face.
Malachite dashed forward, energy blade raised, but just before he was able to shove past Darien and get to Serena, he painfully crashed into what seemed to be thin air and was bounced back to the floor. A slight shimmering in the air just in front of Darien betrayed an invisble barrier that had just been lifted.
The five mercenaries in the hall opposite opened fire, a hailstorm of bullets erupting towards the half-dozen, but the projectiles hit another shining barrier and fell to the floor harmlessly.
"NO!" Malachite roared, jumping back to his feet and swinging his energy blade with all his might into the barrier, but succeeded only in causing zaps of light to jump from the shield wherever he struck it.
Serena slowly rose to her feet, looking quite unaffected by the violence happening on either side of her. She slowly turned around to look at her friends in turn, each of whom were quite obviously befuddled by everything that was happening.
"Uh...Serena..." Darien finally managed to gasp out.
"Darien." Her voice was calm, gentle, and measured, not the tone and beat they were used to hearing from her. She reached up and slowly ran her palm over Darien's chest, even as Malachite continued to uselessly beat his sword against the barely visible barrier. The mercenaries in the hall had finally figured out their ballistic assault wasn't doing any good and had ceased fire.
Finally, Amy stepped forward and put her hand onto Serena's shoulder-piece. "Serena, what's going on?!"
Serena slowly turned her head to look at Amy, still giving that entirely out-of-place smile.
"My eyes are open."
Pop!
Finally, Malachite's blade ripped through the air in a full swing arc, the barrier gone, but the strike hit nothing but air.
They were gone. All six of them had simply vanished into thin air, that slight sound effect the only herald of their departure. Malachite looked around, panting heavily, blinking rapidly, hoping beyond hope that it was an optical illusion and he might open his eyes to find them still there.
When that was out the door, he mindlessly spun the sword around in his hand a few times, then turned and angrily flung it into the counterspace on the south wall of the break room, the magical blade penetrating right through and gouging itself several feet deep into the wood.
"
?, September 3rd, 8:41 PM
Darien slowly looked around in shock, trying to get his bearings in this entirely unfamiliar place. Outside of the five girls, who were all standing there with him, still gathered together as they had been in the bowels of the Westbridge facility just seconds ago, he recognized nothing.
The group was standing in the middle of a mostly flat and gray plain that seemed to extend into eternity in all directions, only the occasional hill and crater providing any sort of variety. Up above was what appeared to be the infinite blackness of space, populated by countless blinking stars.
"W-what happened?!" Mina asked dully, looking about frantically, arms up to protect herself as she anticipated some form of attack at any second.
"Uh..." Amy looked upwards with wide eyes into the sky, attention drawn by something. Everyone quickly followed her line of sight, gasping as they found it.
Up in the sky, they could see a massive sphere, a swirling eye-catcher amid the dullness of everything else. Though mostly a series of white swirls, there was plenty of blue and some green that could be seen as well.
"...okay, I...want to say something, but it's going to sound stupid, so..." Raye looked over at Amy. "Amy, where are we?"
Amy finally tore her eyes away from the large and colorful sphere, giving her head a small shake. "...uh...well..." She looked around. She realized that all six of them were encased in small, almost transparent bubbles just slightly larger than they were. She stared down at the ground beneath their feet, hand on her chin. "Well...I...this is just an educated guess, but..." She looked up at the sky behind her, looking at the star arrangements that she knew to be a nearly infinite distance away. "Guys...we're...we're on the moon."
Raye pointed at Amy. "Yeah, that was the stupid thing I was going to say, but I didn't say it because it's stupid, and there's no way—"
Lita bent down and put her palm down on the grey rock beneath her. "Are you...are you saying the...actual moon, or...maybe—"
"Yes."
Everyone turned to look at Serena, who was looking out onto the blank stretch of land that extended outwards in all directions, her smile having finally faded.
"Uh...Serena, what's going on?!" Amy asked weakly, running up to her side and again placing her hand on her shoulderpiece. "D-did you—"
"Yes." Her voice was still slightly unfamiliar, still Serena, but more mature and even. "We had limited time, I had to act quickly. Sorry for the shock."
"...u-uh, Serena?" Amy took an unconscious half-step back.
"Mostly." Serena turned around and slowly approached Darien. "And yet...so much more."
"S-Serena, what are you talking about?" Raye asked, leaning in towards her as she passed by. "What's going on?"
"I remember now," she answered simply. "I remember everything. I remember who I really am. Who we really are." She gave her head a tiny shake. "Oh...so much to say."
"Are you...are you okay?" Lita asked as Serena stepped up next to Darien, wrapping her left arm around his back, their little encasing bubbles merging together.
Serena sighed. "Sad to see." She looked about again. "Lifeless, desolate, empty...nothing like what it once was. Sobering to see what it's been reduced to. An empty field of nothingness."
Darien shied away from Serena slightly, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. "S-Serena, what the hell are you going on about?! Are you—"
"Oh...you don't remember, do you?" Serena said, a touch of disappointment in her tone. Nevertheless, she smiled and reached over with her right hand, taking Darien's left in it before he could pull away, then looking up towards what could only have been the Earth. "Come now. We used to do this all the time. It's beautiful, don't you think? We'd just...look up at it. Talk about it. Talk about the sense of scale it affords you to see it like this."
Darien wrenched his hand away from Serena, backing away from her. "L-look, I've...I've never been on the moon! You've...you've got...uh..." He looked around, lost for words.
With a small laugh, Serena stepped forward and again wrapped her arm around his back. He limply allowed it, still trying to take everything in, panting heavily and approaching panic. "Calm down, silly man," she said softly. "You'll remember in time. You once told me you wanted to know the truth, didn't you? Well, here it is."
Mina stepped forward, putting her hand on Serena's bare right arm, drawing her attention. "S-Serena, what did Malachite do to you?!"
"Helped reawaken my true nature." She turned back to Darien. "Don't be afraid, everyone. All is well. More than well, in fact."
"Okay...okay..." Darien bent down slightly in front of Serena, getting down to her level. "S-Serena, you need to...you need to fill us in on what you're talking about! I don't know what's going on, I don't know what you're talking about, we need...look, what do you mean, what it once was?!" He threw his arms out at his sides. "What once was?! What do you remember?!"
Serena gave a tiny knowing smile, then leaned in and gave him a straight-on hug. His arms fell limply to his sides and he looked down at her, mouth hanging open.
Finally, she gave a one word reply.
"Home."
Darien's eyes darted around, again taking in the blank canvas of gray rock that completely dominated everything in sight on ground level. He gave his head a little weak shake, and then a massive structure swam into his vision, right in front of him.
His mouth fell the rest of the way open as a massive golden palace appeared before him, giant marble pillars holding up a canopy along the front, giant windows symmetrically positioned along the wall on both sides of the massive entrance. And then, before he could take in anything else, it was gone as quick as it came. Under other circumstances, he might have assumed he imagined the whole thing and brushed it off, but given everything else that was happening, he knew it wasn't the case.
He looked back down at Serena, still hugging him around the chest, ignoring his obvious distress. He looked back up at where he had seen the palace, again finding nothing but the ongoing expanse of gray.
Finally, he got his voice back, and weakly managed the only three words that came to mind.
"What the fuck?"
"
AN: So this chapter absolutely kicked my ass. I fought with it for quite awhile, and I'm not too happy with the end product, but screw it. Serious writer's block lately, but I'm gonna fight through it, and I think it should clear up now that I've gotten to this point in the story. Don't know what's wrong with me, but I've had a hard time with my muse lately. I'll get through it. This chapter gets me to where I need to be, so I'll live with it.
