In her private bedroom, Princess Dia was getting worried. In a few minutes, she would have to go out and give a speech about the family gem in front of a crowd. She would have memorised the speech, but the event had been moved forward two days without her knowing. Even worse, her body double for these situations hadn't shown up yet. If she wasn't ready soon, the job. whole event could turn out to be a disaster.
As if on cue, another girl, about the same height came into the room. The princess turned around to look at the newcomer. "Oh my, the agency did a fantastic job. You look just like me." The princess was unfortunately, short-sighted and not wearing clean glasses at the time.
"Oh really?", the other girl said with a sneer. "Sorry darling, but you need to get your glasses checked." Then Mercury dispensed the shadow that Nephrite had given her into the princess. Dia screamed, but that was soon cut off. Her skin suddenly turned a foul purple and the evil spirit inside the body now raised its new head and laughed an inhuman laugh.
"Hold it!" Mercury and the possessed princess turned around. They saw another Sailor Guardian, the same one that had thwarted their operations in London. She had blonde hair that was long and flowing. She wore a red ribbon in her hair. Her sailor uniform was an orange colour primarily. And unlike the other Sailors, she wore a red domino mask to cover her eyes.
Mercury recognised her immediately. "Ah, the infamous Sailor V, or should that be Sailor Venus?"
Venus was shocked. "How do you know who I am? Are you from the Silver Millennium too?"
"Oh yes." With that, Mercury drew out her transformation pen (or rather, the fake that Kunzite had created to brainwash her) and transformed into her Sailor uniform as well. "You see, I was one of your little gang back in the Silver Millennium. But now, I've decided to join up with the winning team." She then turned to the demon-princess. "Take care of her while I deliver the Crystal to Nephrite."
"As you wish!" The creature tried to run towards its opponent, but tripped over the princess's dress. Thinking pragmatically, it left its host and hit it's opponent with enough force to send her flying. Then it flew into the centre of the house and began draining energy from the guests.
In the West Wing, Makoto noticed everyone else collapsing suddenly. Realising the situation, she transformed into Sailor Jupiter and ran towards the source of the disturbance.
And in the East Wing, Rei, Haruka, Michiru and Chiba noticed the rest of the crowd were collapsing to the floor.
"I'll see if I can find a doctor.", Chiba said, running out the door.
"Rei, get to safety!", Haruka said with some urgency. She couldn't let an outsider see her or Michiru change into their Sailor Suits. Plus she enjoyed making the other girl think she was a man.
"I will.", the raven-haired girl replied, intending to use this distraction to change into Sailor Mars out of their view.
Soon, the four Sailor Senshi, still ironically unaware of each other's real identity, came together in the lobby.
"Hey aren't you the girls from the hospital incident?", Jupiter said to Uranus and Neptune.
"And you're the girls from the trouble at the theatre.", Uranus said back to her.
"What are you doing here this late?", Neptune asked.
"Same thing as you presumably; looking for the source of the energy drain affecting these people.", Mars replied. Then she noticed the unconscious figure lying on the floor. "Isn't that Sailor V?" They went over to her and turned her over. Her mask had fallen off, but none of them recognised her due to the disguise charm on the Senshi uniform.
"Who did this to you?", Uranus asked. The blonde merely pointed towards the ceiling. They looked up and saw that what they thought was a chandelier was actually a disembodied glow, which promptly turned into a 3-headed dragon-man.
"Now I have enough energy to take down a whole army of you miserable Scouts. You don't stand a chance." The newly formed creature declared.
"Jupiter Supreme Thunder Crash!"
"Uranus World Shaking!"
But neither attack had any effect on the monster. But Mars, Venus and Neptune had come up with an idea.
"How about we all combine our powers?"
The other two nodded in agreement. All five of them launched their respective attacks together.
"Mars Fire Soul, Ignite!"
"Neptune Deep Submerge!"
"Jupiter Supreme Thunder Crash!"
"Uranus World Shaking!"
"Venus Crescent Beam Smash!"
The combined energy of fire, water, thunder, wind and light was too much for the creature. It's body disintegrated and the soul vapourised. In the aftermath, Venus noticed Mercury walking towards the door with the box containing the crystal and leaped to intercept her.
"Mercury," Jupiter said with shock "what're you doing with that box?"
The bluenette tried to lie her way out of the situation. "The crystal is inside the box. I was just borrowing it to check if…"
"Don't lie!", Venus snapped. "You we're going to hand the box over to Nephrite, weren't you!"
Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune were shocked to hear this revelation.
Mercury tried to bluff her way out of this situation. "Why would I hand the Crystal over to Nephrite?"
"Because you're a lying, conniving Dark Kingdom agent. My contact knows you've been one since you awakened!", Venus said unrelentingly.
"Mars, you can't believe this stranger. She's trying to frame me."
But Mars was unconvinced. "I DO believe her. I've suspected you myself for some time. You know too much about the enemy's current situation to play the innocent."
Jupiter was still in denial about this "Mercury. Ami. Say it's not true."
But Mercury had abandoned all attempts to feign innocence. "So you rumbled me. I'm one of the bad guys, rather than the fuzz. It was them who awakened me." She pulled out her pen again, only to say something different. "Dark Mercury Power, Transform!"
A black light filled the air. When it cleared, Mercury looked completely different. Her tiara had been replaced with a sapphire on her forehead, she was wearing a black shirt that exposed her arms and her midriff, her skirt was replaced with a set of black trousers and her pen had turned into a large staff.
"I am Dark Mercury, servant of the negative forces. I'll spare your lives this time, but next time I shall not be so lenient!" And then she teleported out, leaving nothing but the jewel box. The five Senshi went their separate ways, unaware they were being watched by a figure in a tuxedo, and overheard by a strange bicycle connected to the fuse box.