Chapter 37: Sailor Saturn Returns

After Serena finished bawling her eyes out in the hospital, we left to check on Raye's Temple as we waited for the Spymaster to contact us. " Mars breathed a sigh of relief when we got there. "Here we are. It's a complete mess, but it's still standing." Some of the buildings looked like they would collapse if someone leaned against them; the snow piling up surely wasn't helping. "I need to tend to the Great Fire. Charon, could you come with me?" she asked.

"We left a few things here. We'll meet back in a few, sweetie," assured Venus. We attracted a few stares from the rest of the group when she put a hand on my shoulder and kissed my cheek. I noticed Rini and Tuxedo Mask were following me after the rest of the group split up.

"Charon, I have to ask what you were thinking when you requested to meet the Spymaster," said Tuxedo Mask. I stopped in my tracks as Sailor Mars bent down to pick up a small pile of wood outside the main shrine. "He crushed you all in your last fight. Sailor Mini Moon and I won't be enough to even the odds in the next one." Rini - or Mini Moon as Darien had called her - stared at me with quivering eyes. She was also afraid at the idea of fighting the Spymaster. He didn't just beat us and walk away. Something else happened...

"We can't count on Uranus and Neptune for their help either," sighed Sailor Mars. She must have noticed I looked confused, so she explained: "they're Sailor Scouts too, but...they don't really listen to Serena. We're not even sure if they're on our side anymore."

"I only met you four Guardians and Princess Serenity at the Palace," I told them. "I heard there were others. I know about Sailor Saturn, and I heard rumors there was a Sailor Pluto."

Sailor Mars nodded as she opened the door to the main shrine. The fire was indeed still burning. "You've been helping us protect Sailor Saturn." That was a relief...at least this time I was on the right side...but how would she feel about seeing me again?

"But Saturn's powers haven't returned yet," added Tuxedo Mask as Mars threw the logs onto the fire. "Trista - Sailor Pluto - is with her right now. I have to warn you: she's been pretty hostile towards you."

If she knew that I had attacked Saturn, I wouldn't blame you.

"She's not so bad, Darien!" said Mini Moon. "She promised to be nice to Logan for his birthday!"

"Hotaru doesn't remember anything about being Sailor Saturn, either," said Sailor Mars. Mini Moon's face fell to the ground again. Perhaps they had been close friends too. "Does any of this look familiar to you?" Mars asked.

I shook my head. "There was one other Sailor Scout," I told them. "She went by the name 'Amethyst' on Earth."

The others exchanged glances. "All of us are accounted for, Charon," said Sailor Mars.

"She wore a Sailor Scout uniform and she had a crescent moon compact," I explained. "It was badly damaged, but it was authentic. She didn't want us to take her back to the Moon Kingdom, so we recruited her into the Shadows."

"A crescent moon compact...sounds like the one Artemis gave Sailor V," commented Darien. Sailor V...I remembered that name...

"From what I remember, he crafted that specifically for her," answered Sailor Mars. "It's obsolete now; it has to be frequently recharged by moonlight in order to use it. But if Amethyst managed to get her hands on something like that, she could transform into a Sailor Scout - or something similar."

Mars winced and started clutching her head. I put a hand on her shoulder and asked "are you OK?"

"It was faint, but...I sense a dark presence in the room with us," she answered. The others glanced around frightened when we heard a familiar, blood-curdling laugh above us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a Shadow teleport next to me. I quickly grabbed her arm and threw her outside the shrine. I pinned her down on the snow-covered ground and stared into those familiar, menacing orange eyes...

"The Spymaster and I were so excited to hear you have all your memories back! Now we can talk about all the fun times we had!" she cackled.

"Amethyst." She smiled when I said her name. She had the same pale complexion and black hair under her hood, but her teeth were rotted and there was a dark hunger swirling in her eyes. Tithon...is this what the Shadows have become under your command?

"We fought her before! Are you sure that's her?!" asked a shocked Sailor Mini Moon.

"I'd recognize that laugh anywhere," I answered.

"You finally remember me!" the Shadow taunted and...started rubbing my hand. "I feel all tingly inside when you hold me down like this!"

"That's disgusting!" cried Rini.

"I don't remember her flirting with him before," concurred an equally disgusted Tuxedo Mask.

"You're one of those guys who attracts all the crazy girls, aren't you Charon?" commented Sailor Mars.

"I heard that, Mars!" Sailor Venus and the others stood in the snow across from us.

"Sorry Venus, but it's true!" sighed an unapologetic Sailor Mars.

"The point is, he's taken!" Sailor Venus directed at Amethyst.

Amethyst rolled her eyes at me. "I never understood why you picked that one. The tall brunette would have been a better fit for you!" Fortunately, no one on my side called out Sailor Jupiter when her face turned scarlet.

"You and I were never friends, Amethyst," I snarled.

She smirked. "I thought you were trying to be friends with all the Sailor Scouts. That's too bad. I have something I thought you'd want to see." I followed her eyes as she tilted her head to the right. Lying in the snow next to us was the exact same crescent moon compact she had carried 1000 years ago, all beaten and weathered. It emitted a bright flash, blinding the rest of us long enough for Amethyst to flip me over and escape out from under me.

When my vision returned and the light faded, she was holding the compact up with one hand as she dropped her hood with another. Her long black hair flowed out as her Shadow robes glided to the ground. Her Sailor Scout uniform was now immaculate, with the same black ribbon, black knee high boots and black skirt as before. Her skin was permeated with dark shards.

"Charon was right! She can transform just like us!" said Sailor Mars. The other Scouts gasped.

"Your old friends Uranus and Neptune helped me fix my compact! They're really not so bad once you get to know them!" she laughed.

"Figures - those two walked right into her hands!" shouted Sailor Jupiter. Most of the Scouts looked disgusted.

"So did they help you willingly or did you take their help? What happened to them?" demanded Sailor Mars. Amethyst ignored them and kept laughing.

Sailor Mars put one hand on her hip while the other lay at her side. "If there's one thing we all hate, it's a bogus Sailor Scout dragging our names through the mud!" I sense another routine coming...

"The clothes we wear and the powers we wield aren't what make us Sailor Scouts!" added Sailor Jupiter.

"Being a Sailor Scout requires integrity, courage, and compassion!" said Sailor Mercury.

"We're real Sailor Scouts!" declared Sailor Venus.

"And we stand for love and justice!" added Sailor Mini Moon as she stood back to back with Sailor Moon. Amethyst yawned.

Sailor Moon posed like she did back at the hospital, raising one arm in the air and then repeatedly crossing them. "We will right wrongs and triumph over evil!"

The other Sailor Scouts made different poses, with Jupiter and Mercury kneeling on one knee, Mars making fists and holding them at her sides, and Venus raising an arm in the air. Then they all pointed at Amethyst shouting "and that means YOU!"

Amethyst shook her head. "Don't you ever get sick of those stupid routines?! They were half the reason I went to Earth!" I had to admit, it was a little drawn out...

"I am Tuxedo Mask - "

"OH, FOR THE LOVE OF - CAN WE PLEASE JUST GET THIS OVER WITH?!" Amethyst threw her arms up in the air and shouted, then abruptly lowered them and pointed at me. "Or can we at least skip to his routine?"

I turned my head in Sailor Moon's direction. "Do I have to give a speech?" I asked her.

Sailor Moon stared back holding her pose. "I didn't want to put you on the spot before since you were so shy. Do you want to say something before we get started?"

"No!" Public speaking was one of the few things that made me sweat.

"It'll be good practice for you!" chimed Sailor Venus. "We can work on a routine together after we trash this phony!"

"The others weren't so outraged when you were running around as 'Sailor V'!" charged Amethyst. Sailor V...I recognized that name. "And what makes you so sure I'm fake, anyway? Let me guess - you think Queen Serenity was this goody two-shoes who pampered everyone?"

"Don't even think about insulting my mother! We're turning you into moon dust this time!" threatened Sailor Moon.

"She's becoming exactly like her mother, isn't she?" Amethyst casually chatted with me as if I were a long-lost friend. "But you haven't told her yet, have you? They wouldn't have believed you, anyway. Let me take care of it!" Amethyst pointed her compact at me, opened it, and shouted "Prism Field!" I was encased me in a shimmering energy prism and lifted several feet into the air.

"Charon! Put him down!" screamed Sailor Venus. The others watched in horror from below.

"The Spymaster wanted me to make sure that the Scouts don't interrupt your meeting this time. I'll keep them company!" Amethyst sent me hurtling through the forest below...

After several miles, my crystal prism shattered when it flew into one of the trees, sending me towards the ground. I grabbed a tree branch, but it buckled under the weight. My robes were nicked and torn by branches that gave way during my descent. After I recovered from falling several feet to the ground, the Spymaster hurtled towards me at lightning speed. I teleported out of the way just in time, causing him to slam into the tree. "I said I wanted to talk," I snarled.

Besides a slightly larger beard that showed a few gray hairs, he looked exactly the same when he faced me. "If you can't talk and fight at the same time, then I failed you as a teacher!" Fighting was his way of reading people: combat was the language he understood best. He charged me and threw a flurry of punches in my direction, but I was able to dodge them all.

"No...you trained me well," I admitted. I grabbed hold of him and kneed him in the stomach, following up with a karate chop to the back.

The Spymaster quickly recovered. "I see you remember. You're not floundering around as much as last time!" He created a dark magic bolt in the air and threw it towards me. I teleported and managed to strike him in the back with a dark energy blast at close range.

"So you could have destroyed us all, but you didn't. I think you had meant to, but you couldn't bring yourself to kill your own daughter. You won't hurt Serena and you know she'd never forgive you for killing her friends. You're biding your time until you find a way to make her see the world the same way you do: a place devoid of love and hope, where strength is the only quality that holds value." I stood across from him to witness his reaction, looking for any sign that I was weakening his resolve...

The Spymaster's mouth and facial lines remained perfectly straight; he was making a conscious effort to hide his emotions from me. "Logan had one advantage over you, Charon: he didn't try to psychoanalyze me. You caught me off guard one time with the question of Serena's father. I won't make that mistake again." I leapt out of the way when the Spymaster shadow-charged me, then he ducked under my dark energy punch. "It seems that while you remember your past, you have forgotten the present...just as I hoped."

The Spymaster shadow-charged again and slammed me into a tree. He smiled when I channeled dark magic to my hands. I realized too late that I was leaning against the tree with the crescent moon carved into it. This was exactly where we met 1000 years ago...the entrance to my hidden base. He tricked me into opening it for him.

"Thank you for letting me into your hideout, Charon. Then again, it WAS mine first." I heard an audible click and the ground gave way to reveal the entrance to my hidden base. The Spymaster threw me headfirst into the tree. I began stumbling after him when I heard someone running through the snow...

"Charon!" Luna had to leap through the snow to reach me. "I was able to escape, but Amethyst captured the others!" Her eyes widened in horror when she saw the opened entrance to my base. "Sailor Saturn and Pluto are down there!"

Sailor Saturn! The image of her screaming and wincing in terror when I grabbed her came to haunt me again. I had to save her! Luna and I jumped down and ran through the tunnels.

"Logan! You're back!" A chill ran down my spine when I heard Saturn's voice in the tunnel...there was no way she could have seen us from here.

"That isn't Logan! Hide, Hotaru!" shouted Luna.

"Get away from her!" I heard another woman shouting in my cave. I didn't recognize her voice...it must have been Sailor Pluto. Hotaru scream when I heard the sound of sparks and glass breaking, followed by someone (likely Sailor Pluto) being thrown into the cave. Luna and I found the Spymaster grasping Hotaru's forehead as she screamed, suppressing the symbol of Saturn on her forehead.

I shadow-charged to slam him into the wall of the cave. "Leave her alone! She's just a child!" I shouted.

The Spymaster shoved me away from him, giving Hotaru a chance to run. "Her powers must be suppressed, Charon!" he snarled. "Or else Sailor Moon will abuse them just like her mother did!"

"Trista! We need Sailor Pluto, now!" cried Luna.

"Pluto Crystal Power!" the woman shouted behind me. I caught a brief glimpse of her planet-shaped transformation rod before it turned into a purple orb of energy. She encircled herself in a whirlwind of energy as she spun around. Sailor Pluto emerged lifting a much larger gray rod in the air, shaped like a key with a red orb at the top. Her skirt, choker and collar were black with a dark red ribbon at the front, and she wore maroon earrings in the shape of a downward arrow.

Sailor Pluto raised her rod towards the ceiling and once again became encircled in a whirlwind. "Pluto Deadly Scream!" The wind gathered into the orb of her rod to create a massive purple sphere of energy. Sailor Pluto spun once holding the rod and sent the planet-shaped sphere hurtling towards the Spymaster. It tore through everything in its path, but he easily dodged the attack.

"Not fast enough, Sailor Pluto," dismissed the Spymaster. "Your face is difficult to read. I wonder if you know the future but act to disguise it from the others."

"I don't need to look into the future to know your fate, Spymaster. You will be stopped," Pluto answered coldly. She swung her rod at the Spymaster, but he sidestepped her attack and delivered a karate chop to her neck before turning his attention back to me and Saturn.

I threw myself between Saturn and the Spymaster to block one of his attacks. He charged his hands with dark magic and tried to press them down on me, but I held his arms away...barely. "Queen Serenity was just like her daughter once, Charon! She became drunk with power just like Sailor Moon will! The only way to prevent her from abusing that power is to keep it from her!" He ducked when Sailor Pluto attempted to strike him from behind with her rod and punched her hard in the stomach, forcing her back. Luna pounced at the Spymaster's face, but he swatted her away in mid-air. I head-butted the Spymaster in the nose and pushed him off. The Spymaster created a massive dark energy bolt in the air and threw it in my direction...

"Saturn Silent Shield!" Hotaru's voice cried out. A transparent barrier like the ones Queen Serenity summoned in the past blocked the Spymaster's attack. When I looked over at Hotaru, Sailor Saturn stood in her place. She was several inches taller and returned my glance with more somber purple eyes. I had never seen Saturn as one of the Scouts...but the purple and white uniform, the planet-shaped and diamond-tipped earrings, the bladed polearm weapon she held behind her back...it still looked familiar to me...

"Broken free from the silence, I'm Sailor Saturn! Protected by the planet of destruction, your plan ends here!" Sailor Saturn declared.

"You have no hope of escape, Tithon," I warned him...even if I knew he would never surrender.

The Spymaster smirked. "You forget that this was my hideout before you became Spymaster. You were always so idealistic, charging into Titan Castle with little hope of success. I always have an escape plan!" He raised an orb of black-purple energy and threw it to the ground, surrounding us with magically-charged smoke that electrocuted and blinded us. When the smoke cleared, we saw a massive hole in the wall behind the computer. The four of us only saw bottomless caverns below.

"Are we safe anywhere?" sighed Luna.

"If he came here for Saturn, why would he flee?" Trista pondered out loud.

"The others were captured. The Spymaster acted as his own diversion!" I realized. Amethyst was going to tell them everything. She sought to turn the Sailor Scouts against everything they were fighting for!

I went to examine the damage Tithon had done to my computer. The interface had been shot out with dark energy and occasionally sparked. The dented terminal lay on the ground. Poor Vigil...wait, I don't remember giving my computer a name!

"Amy's going to be disappointed when she sees this. She was getting attached to that computer of yours," commented Sailor Pluto.

I stood the dented terminal up. "I can fix it, but we don't have the time. Is there any other way we can track the others?" I asked Luna.

"He must have taken them to the Crystal Palace!" she exclaimed.

I turned back towards Pluto and Saturn. "Let's go before he - " I stopped midsentence when I saw multicolored words that read 'Happy Birthday' strung across the entrance of the cave behind them. I walked into the room and found small floating balls of different shapes and colors pushing against the ceiling.

Artemis had told me it was my birthday. "This was for me," I muttered to myself as I grabbed one of the balls and held it in my hands.

"What's going on with you?" Pluto asked impatiently. Darien was right...the tone of her voice suggested she didn't like me very much.

"He relived his memories during the Silver Millennium, but he remembers nothing of the present day," explained Luna.

Sailor Saturn joined me in the cave. "I'm sorry you don't remember any of this. We needed you at your best...once I knew that I could trust you."

"Stay focused, Charon. The others are counting on us," Sailor Pluto crossed her arms.

"We'll help you sort through everything once this is all over," Saturn promised. She smiled when I faced her, still holding the air-filled ball. "I am happy to see you again."

"I must look better than last time," I teased. "I'm sorry we met the way that we did."

"You made up for it," she nodded. "You are loyal to your friends and have compassion for others. As long as you retain those qualities, we will always be on the same side. Now, we must hurry..."

Miles away, Sailor Venus awoke to find herself face-first in the snow. She stirred at the sound of her own voice laughing in the distance...but she recognized the voice sounded much younger. When she lifted her head, she saw a transparent, ghost-like version of her teenage self standing on the ice. Her figure skated over to a robed boy that was lying flat on the ice as well-dressed nobles stared blankly at him.

"Skating without skates? Sounds like something Princess Serenity would try!" her apparition teased.

"Mina, are you OK?" Sailor Venus found Artemis' head sticking out of the snow right next to her.

"Artemis, tell me you're seeing what I'm seeing." Artemis' eyes widened and his mouth fell open.

"I haven't seen you around the Palace before. What's your name?" the girl asked the boy."You're shy, aren't you? It's OK. Queen Serenity's waiting for you. Your friend in the robes told me where to find you!" When her apparition lifted the boy up by his arms, Sailor Venus immediately recognized the boy's face...

"That's Charon! This was when we first met! It's happening just like he said..." Affection flooded Venus' eyes.

"Careful, Mina. This could be one of Amethyst's tricks. We need to find the others! Mina?!" Artemis warned Sailor Venus, but she was so enamored that she followed the two apparitions towards the Crystal gates without a second thought...

To Be Continued

A/N: Another chapter done! I wasn't sure if it would live up to the same quality as my last couple chapters, but I felt better about it once I finished. I'd really appreciate feedback!

Exciting news: starting a new job next week! It does mean updates will take me a little longer, but I am committed to finishing the story! Hoping to get another one later this week. Looking forward to hearing from you!