Souls of Fire #11: Ascension

Ranma 1/2 VS Sailor Moon

Written by Razorclaw X (spiceoflife@Nhotmail.com)
http://www.crosswinds.net/~slythe/sm/index.html

Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and characters belong to
Naoko Takeuchi. Ranma 1/2 and characters belong to
Rumiko Takahashi. Proper licenses belong to respective
properties and characters. The manga has precedence
over material in the anime.

This file can be freely distributed so long as it
appears in its complete form and proper credit. No
part may be reproduced for monetary gain without
permission from the author.

----------------------------------------------------

World Parliament, Geneva

The process of justice was proceeding quickly, Ayame
noted, as she was escorted through the empty hall,
flanked by two Peacekeepers, one to each side. She
kept her head high and proud despite her hands being
bound in front of her with simple handcuffs. Despite
the fact that she had no intention of making an escape
the precaution was necessary.

The people of Earth needed a quick scapegoat to blame
all their problems on, of course. As with the Black
Moon that came before them, the Fenril Knights expected
no better treatment. All of them understood and
accepted that when they surrendered.

No sooner had Ayame made her televised surrender her
followers hiding in the Mishima compound, as well as
allies from all around the world, came out of hiding.
The Peacekeepers were very eager in securing their new
prisoners, as they were hovering outside the city
limits for quite some time. Ayame remembered their
faces: Higure, Shang Long, Dumas, and many other
technicians, being lead away in surface vehicles, but
there was special arrangements made for the leader of
the Fenril Knights.

Effectively, she was separated from her comrades, and
she had to accept that. She wondered what they would
do with Shion's body when they came across it in the
compound... provided they found their way in, of
course. It was inevitable that they would find it,
but Ayame knew they could do nothing to it, and the
Night Hammer would remain untouched, too.

She recalled the aerial view of Crystal Tokyo-- or
what was left of it-- after the Dead End Buster fired
its maiden shot. Although the weapon was nowhere near
full power, it did enough damage to open up a twenty-
meter deep crater, about a quarter mile around the
Crystal Palace, the sole survivor of the hit. It was
a strange sight to behold, as only enough of the
structure survived that could fit in a sphere centered
at one end of the palace, where Sailor Moon stood to
use her Silver Crystal.

Ayame later learned that all of the staff in the
palace survived the blast, but the Silver Crystal and
the Sailor Senshi were drained. She smiled to herself,
knowing that, despite the heavy gamble, everything was
going exactly as planned.

The rest of Project Endgame would have to be carried
out by Ukyo and Kanna, she knew.

---

Palace of Solitude, Nemesis

"Ow!" complained Kanna, as Ukyo injected her
hypodermic needle into the tactician's arm. "Be
careful with that!"

"Sorry," the okonomiyaki chef apologized. "It's not
like I do this every day."

"Mind telling me what this's about?"

"It's antibodies for the Chaos cells," Ukyo
explained. "We got them off the Sailor Senshi we
captured and released a while ago. All they'll do is
eat the Chaos cells."

Kanna nodded. Ukyo, having lived on Nemesis for
quite some time, was far more privy to what was going
on in the fringes than she. In particular, Ukyo had a
much better idea why they needed to get rid of the
cells, and purged them from her own body earlier. Both
Sypha and Cinder's physiologies worked too different
for the Chaos cells to be effective in the first place,
so they never needed to be treated. And, strangely
enough, it turned out that Shizuka's Chaos cells died
out on their own, but somehow Kanna suspected it had
something to do with Deathclaw's possession of her.

No matter, anything beat having the cells at this
point.

As Ukyo finished her work Kanna glanced toward
Mousse, who was already treated. Her eyes fixated on
his bandaged hands, and knew that the Chinese warrior
would not be going to battle anytime soon, thanks to
the handicap. To a warrior, it was likely one of the
worst things that could happen.

"So Ayame surrendered, huh?" Ukyo said, breaking
Kanna's train of thought.

She nodded. "It's up to us now."

"That's funny," the chef said, "because I tried to
convince the Sailor Senshi to surrender, too." She
laughed lightly, then shrugged. "Well, I guess things
are going to work out... just not the way I wanted."

"They're called plans, and they were meant to be
broken," added Kanna jokingly.

"So what was the rest of it?" asked Mousse, tapping
his bandaged hands on his knees.

"From here on we're looking at the Mekani," Cinder
stated, entering the chamber, followed by Sypha and
Shizuka. The cloaked warrior's mechanical eye whirred
as it rotated inward. "However, the next step depends
entirely on the Sailor Senshi to carry out."

"Yeah, don't you just hate that?" muttered Shizuka.

Sypha, the black sorcerer, cast a glance at Ukyo.
"So, Great Leader," she said sarcastically, "what is
our next move?"

Ukyo cast a dirty look back. "I'm working on it."

"You've been working on it for over a day," Sypha
pointed out, and there was an obvious edge in her
voice. "There must be something better to do than
wait."

"If you can think of a better way to bring the Dead
End Buster here, feel free to elaborate," Ukyo
offered.

"As a matter of fact," the sorcerer said, producing
her crystal ball from her sleeve, "I do."

"We really can't ask Wiseman's help this time,"
Kanna added, knowing full well that they had nothing to
offer him. "We need to do it ourselves."

"And I wouldn't have it any other way," Sypha assured
her, her ruby lips curving into a devious smile. "I
didn't spend time researching means to force open the
Gate of Heaven for nothing; the principles I theorized
can be applied here."

Shizuka lowered her head, shaking it and groaning.
"Here we go again."

She reached into her sleeve and produced her
favorite shotgun, one of her few surviving weapons.
As the rack mounted on the top was still filled
completely with unspent bullets it marked the weapon as
being unused during the last battle with the Sailor
Senshi. Shizuka opened the barrel, and slid the bullet
that was already loaded out, and held it up to the
light as if to study it. Without making any obvious
observations the priestess slid the bullet back into
the chamber.

"So when do you want me to go back?" she asked
finally, and Kanna was perplexed that Shizuka figured
it out so quickly, despite being in the dark about
Sypha's plan. The Crystal Spider herself had no idea
what the black sorcerer was up to.

Kanna didn't know what scared her more: the fact that
Sypha came up with a plan, or that Shizuka figured it
out before her.

---

Internal Security, Crystal Palace

The only word that could describe the air that hung
over the Sailor Senshi and the palace workers was
'devastated.'

Having barely survived the Night Hammer's onslaught
by using the Silver Crystal to erect a shield at the
last moment, Sailor Moon felt completely drained from
the weight of the world pushing against her. In her
desperation she realized she used up too much of the
crystal's power, and it would take some time for it to
reach it's previous power level. Yet, it would charge
slower the more she felt defeated.

There was no fighting that, as, if Uranus and Neptune
were correct, the Mekani invasion party was poised to
attack Earth sometime tomorrow. And that said nothing
about how long it would take for Nemesis to get hit, as
that was much closer to the invasion fleet, and there
were still people living there. At worst they had less
than twenty-four hours to save the Nemesians from the
machines.

"What I don't understand," Mercury said, trying to
stir ideas in the pot, "is why the Fenril Knights
haven't moved the people from Nemesis already, if they
know what's coming."

"At this point I don't think it matters," Mars
pointed out. "We've beaten them, but they also forced
us to heavy losses."

"So now we don't have the Silver Crystal," Uranus
said. "That doesn't mean we give up. I'll fight the
Mekani even if it kills me."

Neptune nodded in agreement. "The enemy forced us
into this wall on purpose, however."

"To think, they wanted US to surrender," scoffed
Uranus.

Could they have fired the doomsday weapon on purpose,
even if they knew what was coming? wondered Sailor
Moon. At first glance it hardly made sense, as the
Fenril Knights loved Earth more than anything, and they
were purposely throwing the planet into danger. They
wouldn't do that unless they were planning something
even bigger, something the Sailor Senshi hadn't
considered before.

"They asked you to surrender?" she asked Uranus.

"Yeah, but they were just blowing steam...?" Uranus
caught her own words, realizing something was wrong
with that assessment.

"Or were they?" Neptune considered, pausing to
think.

"Perhaps there is something else going on that we
haven't considered," Mercury said. "What else did they
say?"

"Something about how it's better to be on the same
side when the Mekani arrive," Uranus answered. "They
refused to halt their little war over it, though."

"Where's their leaders?" asked Sailor Moon, suddenly
getting an idea.

"Ayame, their supreme commander, is in Geneva," Mars
reported. "The world parliament wants to put her on
trial as an example."

"But she's not the only one," Mercury pointed out.
"The Fenril Knights was run by three people."

"Does that count their Nemesian commander?" asked
Neptune.

Mercury shook her head. "We also lost track of Kanna
and the others, as they were not part of the group
detained by the Peacekeepers."

"So do we talk to Ayame or to Ukyo?" asked Mars.

Sailor Moon eyed both Mars and Mercury, one after the
other. "Both. Sailor Mars, I want you to get to
Geneva and convince Ayame to help us. Sailor Mercury,
I need you to find a way back into the Fenril hideout
and figure out how to communicate with Nemesis."

"What do you want us to do?" asked Uranus, speaking
for Neptune as well.

"I want you two to rest," ordered Moon. "You two
need to rest from your journey to fight the Mekani
when they arrive."

"But..."

"We need you two back in fighting shape as soon as
possible," she interrupted. "As we are now we can't
hope to beat a large invasion force. Right now it's up
to the Fenril Knights to make the next move."

---

Inner Sanctum, Crystal Palace

Sailor Moon threw herself on the mattress on her
grand bed, absolutely weary from using her energies to
protect her friends and people.

"They never intended for us to die," she realized,
saving those words for when she was alone. It was a
concept the others might have difficulty understanding
at this point, considering the mess the Fenril Knights
made. "The Fenril Knights wanted to make a point...."

"Yes," another voice whispered. "They wished to
prove that the world could survive without the Silver
Crystal."

Sailor Moon was not surprised to see the reflection
of the hooded Death Phantom in the ceiling crystal.
"They would never think to do that unless they were
certain they could thwart the Mekani invasion."

"And certainly, it is true." The image of the Night
Hammer appeared beside Death Phantom's hood. "This is
the airship that bears the Dead End Buster, the final
weapon of the Deathbusters which was never completed.
With this they hope to wipe out the bulk of the
invading force."

"The bulk?"

"They cannot win with this weapon alone."

"Which is why they left us alive."

"However, they never expected Vizier to figure into
their plans. He is the only one who could ruin my
plans for this world."

"Vizier?!" Sailor Moon remembered the two-headed
monstrosity well, as it was the creature responsible
for the Chaos plague virus. "Wasn't he destroyed?"

"You never questioned the true nature of the beast,
have you, Sailor Moon?" Death Phantom replied coldly.
"The creature you destroyed long ago was merely the
macro form of the virus."

She thought back to the battle. The creature Vizier,
despite its ugly appearance and toothy mouths... every
movement it made spores containing the virus were
released. Despite the strangeness that Death Phantom
was suggesting, it made sense.

"Vizier IS the virus," she concluded. "The monster
we destroyed that time was a being completely infected
with its cells."

"The Fenril Knights no longer have a use for Vizier's
cells," Death Phantom informed her. "Even now they
purge the cells from their bodies, now that Vizier has
found the one who will become his new host body."

"The host... it's Pantyhose Taro, isn't it?"

"The energy from the crystal you destroyed in your
last battle triggered the cells," continued the hooded
man. "All souls shall become one, and he will become
a god. The Mekani will be the agents to the Sovereign
of Silence."

"If Nemesis is preparing for the invasion," Sailor
Moon said, "then that means the Mekani's invasion path
is through there. But the rim of the galaxy is away
from Nemesis's current position, so...."

"The Mekani have already established themselves in
Tau Ceti," Death Phantom informed her. "How else could
your Uranus and Neptune discover them quickly? A great
war is already being waged in Tau Ceti, the system of
ancestry, and that is the reason Pharaoh 90's spawn no
longer care for Earth. They are busy saving their
own hides."

"And you?"

"I plan to return home, and you should think of the
same."

"Home?"

"Tau Ceti."

He had to be lying. "I belong here on Earth."

"Think about it, Sailor Moon. Did you believe the
Silver Crystal and the Black Crystal were indigenous
to this system? How much of the Nemesian chronicle did
you read, for real?"

She had to admit to herself that she had not touched
the histories at all, and shook her head.

"The Moon Kingdom, your kingdom," explained Death
Phantom, "would not go out of its way to defeat an
enemy of another planetary system, would it? Your
kingdom prided itself on peace and harmony, and you
wished to spread that throughout the galaxy."

"However, in the same system was the dark twin of
the Moon Kingdom... the Empire of Nemesis. They did
not share the same views as their celestial neighbors,
and wished to expand their sphere of influence not
through peace and cooperation, but through force of
arms. In that respect they came into conflict with the
Moon Kingdom first."

"A great war raged across Tau Ceti between the Moon
Kingdom and the Empire of Nemesis. "For the first time
in universal history the Fenril Knights and the Sailor
Senshi waged a terrible war whose sights were never
seen since the wars first erupted against Chaos eons
ago. Each side, however, possessed an artifact that
reflected the world upon which they lived: the Silver
Crystal of the Moon Kingdom, and the Black Crystal of
the Empire of Nemesis."

"The Moon Kingdom put the Nemesians at their knees,
and brought the war to their homeworld with the
intent of destroying the Black Crystal they believed
orchestrated the conflict to begin with. The Black
Crystal resided at the heart of the world, and it was
there the last of the Fenril Knights fought the Sailor
Senshi, and lost. The Sailor Senshi of that time
succeeded in destroying the Black Crystal...."

"But they also ended up destroying the rest of the
planet as well," Sailor Moon knew.

"There was nothing to be done, and the evil Empire
was demolished, scattering its moons out of orbit.
One of them eventually became known as Nemesis, the
dark moon that erratically visits this solar system.
The survivors of the disaster eventually died out."

"However, even though their dark kingdom was
destroyed, and the Black Crystal was no more, the
Empire of Nemesis left behind their most dangerous
weapons. As the disciples of Chaos the destruction of
the original Nemesis brought about the birth of the
entity now known as Pharaoh 90, and not even the Sailor
Senshi could stop him."

"In the wake of eliminating the Black Crystal they
were in no condition to battle Pharaoh 90, and were
forced to flee to this solar system. Leaving their
homeworld behind they settled here to usher an era of
peace and happiness, leaving Pharaoh 90 behind in Tau
Ceti alone. They thought the creature would die out on
its own and forgot about the past, looking forward to
their era of peace, the Silver Millennium. They now
had the chance to start over, overlooking a young race
on planet Earth. They vowed they would never make the
mistakes they had done to Nemesis again."

"It's not okay to destroy an entire world for the
convenience of survival," Sailor Moon knew. "Without
the history we can't learn from the mistakes of the
past."

"From that point on a cycle of destruction would
begin," the Child of Chaos added. "The light would
eliminate the rising darkness, and only then would the
light suffer elimination itself. Then darkness would
rise yet again, only for light to return to start the
cycle anew. It is depicted in the example of the
former empires of old to the birth of Pharaoh 90, and
such is how it will continue until this Cycle of Chaos
is broken."

"Because we defeated the Fenril Knights again?" Moon
wondered. She shook her head. "The game is not over
yet, Death Phantom."

"Perhaps. Perhaps not." The dark man was conceding
to no side.

"Both the Silver Crystal and the Black Crystal are
still in play. The cycle hasn't regenerated yet."

"And what do you intend to do about it?" taunted the
hooded man. "The decision may be made for you."

Sailor Moon began to say something, but held her
tongue, realizing that offering to negotiate with the
Mekani Directors would be a meaningless gesture to the
mechanical plague. It was hard experience in the past
when the attempt was first made, as she nearly lost her
life in an encounter with the Mekani Director. They
were only interested in a world's natural resources,
and killed or assimilated everything that got in their
way.

The Mekani could not be bargained with, that was
certain.

Focusing her attention back to the ceiling, Moon
realized that Death Phantom vanished without a trace,
just as he had come. She was unsure what he was trying
to get her to do this time, as this was far less
obvious than their previous encounter.

"Death Phantom, what are you up to?" she asked aloud.

---

"It was propecized in the Moon Kingdom of old that
the destruction of Chaos heralded the coming of the
Children of Chaos... the five beings that were foretold
to avenge their father on the light. The first of
them was Pharaoh 90, birthed long after the defeat of
Chaos, when his disciples were annihilated by the
light. A being of pure dark energy Pharaoh 90 embodies
the dark energy of the shattered Black Crystal, and in
revenge would seek to transform his home, Tau Ceti,
into a bastion of Chaos, then proceed to follow the
light to this world, Earth."

"The second of those foretold was Queen Neherenia,
born in the light of the Moon Kingdom and in the
darkness of the void. Two shades of an entity,
Neherenia would sow chaos in the Moon Kingdom, creating
conflict from within their 'safe' borders. It would
only make way for the third."

"That third was Queen Metallia, the manipulative
nightmare born from the hearts of humankind that lived
under the shadow of the Moon Kingdom. The resentment
and fear of humans brought to life, Metallia succeeded
in destroying the Moon Kingdom, and ushering the end
of the Silver Millennium."

"However, it was not the end, for the royal court
survived and reincarnated into new lives. The court
would continue to walk the path of the Moon Kingdom
they left behind, until the fourth challenged their
undisputed rule: Vizier, a viral mass born from Tau
Ceti seeking the light. Threatening an apocalypse of
the world the royal court called home this beast would
ruin all to destroy a few."

"But the last, known as Death Phantom, would emerge
and complete the prophecy of Chaos. The Black Crystal
of old returned, as had the agents of the Moon
Kingdom's rivals, for one final battle, reinacted from
the age so long ago, before the prophecy. It would be
the last of the Children of Chaos that fulfilled the
elusive prophecy... a prophecy to avenge the father...
a prophecy whose meaning I alone understand."

"It is my destiny," Wiseman declared to himself,
his hand waving over the crystal ball in his lap.
"The conflict of Order and Chaos draws to a close, and
a new era of uncertainty awaits us all."

---

R&D Control Center, Mishima Heavy Industries

The atmosphere of the underground compound seemed
spooky to Shizuka, as she kept both her hands on her
shotgun despite the fact that no one should technically
be around and about. The entirety of the technical
staff and the administrators all exited the compound
at various points, and while the Peacekeepers still had
no idea how to get inside it was only a matter of time
before they pinpointed an entrance, judging from the
concentration spread of the prisoners when they
emerged.

The only ones left behind were, of course, Shion and
Thanatos, and both were sitting in Shion's quarters.
The boa constrictor, feeling useless as usual, gave
the priestess a piece of his mind about how he was
being treated lately, and he wouldn't shut up until
Shizuka promised to come back for him and Shion later.
She hardly wanted either of them still around when the
Peacekeepers found their way inside, much less allow
them to find the remaining weapons.

She forced open the door to the control center
manually, as Ayame saw it fit to turn on security
measures before leaving. While that did little to bar
Shizuka's own passcodes, it still wouldn't let her into
the new control center anyway. She was glad that Kanna
informed her the override, but would have preferred
her personal codes instead; the door was very heavy,
and Shizuka was barely strong enough to get it open
even a crack.

Many of the consoles were still lit and active, but
Shizuka was only interested in one of them. She
approached one of them, and found the control board for
the crystal prisms intact. Unsheathing one of her
swords, the priestess raised it high, and brought it
smashing through the board.

That part of her business concluded, Shizuka pushed
the sliced debris away, and produced a remote control
box. Pulling a chord out from the bottom she plugged
it in to the outlet, and punched in a few commands on
the keyboard. A series of text and numbers scrolled
down the screen, eventually being replaced by a
slowly-filling bar.

Downloading the master control of the Night Hammer
was only the beginning, Shizuka knew. She sheathed
her sword and wiped her forehead, then turned to leave,
knowing it would take some time for the controls to
download and wipe themselves from the mainframe.

In the meantime, there were other things she could
do to pass the time-- primarily to use the teleport
tube to transfer the weapons to the Night Hammer. All
of the Fenril equipment would be moved in one grand
gesture, courtesy of Sypha Blade.

---

Prison, Crystal Palace

Akane helped Ranma down the stairs, having one arm
around her neck as support while the martial artist
hobbled down on one foot. One of the burning questions
in Ranma's mind was his uncertainty to his fate, and
despite the warnings from the doctors he wanted to get
an answer straight from the horse's mouth.

The Peacekeepers, despite being rather ineffective
during the war, seemed far more intimidating when they
were in charge. Two stood at each side of the bottom
of the stairs, facing each other across the narrow
hall in their crisp, clean, white uniforms, with stone
faces. Akane kept her eyes fixated straightforward,
trying to avoid the piercing gaze of the trained
Peacekeepers.

They walked without breathing a word, and Akane was
certain Ranma recognized many of the faces in the
cells. Most of them, Akane knew, were technicians
working under Mishima Heavy Industries, left over from
a bygone age, awaiting punishment. Some of them were
members of resistance pockets that were scattered
around the world here and there that surfaced after the
Black Moon invasion. They, too, seemed eager to get
their punishments dealt to them.

Ranma motioned Akane to stop when they nearly passed
the cell which Higure Furui, the old man and wind
mage, occupied by himself. Higure looked very tired,
and appeared much older than Akane remembered in the
brief times she saw him, as if he were going to die at
any moment.

"Master Higure?" Akane said, wondering if the old
man was dead already.

Apparently, and fortunately, that was not the case,
as Higure slowly opened his eyes, and craned his neck
toward the bars. "Ah, I see you two still have your
freedoms."

"Hey old man," Ranma said, trying to sound more
confident about the future, "we ain't licked yet."

"Perhaps, but we here on Earth are finished," Higure
replied solemnly.

"So why hasn't Ukyo come back yet?" wondered Akane.

"Because Ayame is playing a strict game of politics
at the moment," explained the old man. "In fact, if
you were to go through her declaration of surrender
more closely, you would find several loopholes in it."

"Yeah, because only the guys here on EARTH
surrendered, huh?" guessed Ranma. "She said nothin'
about Nemesis."

"Precisely."

"Is that where Kanna, Shizuka, and Mousse disappeared
to?" asked Akane.

Higure shrugged. "It was up to them to leave or
stay, but I would venture they left."

"Huh, just like them to get up and run," muttered
Ranma.

"Hey!" they heard, a shout from down the hall.

Akane turned to see who was coming, and exclaimed,
"Ryoga!"

"You look well," noted Ranma.

Ryoga laughed as he approached, picking up on
Ranma's stray comment. "More than I can say for you!"

"What're you doing here?" asked Akane.

"I needed to come," Ryoga answered, dropping his
light-hearted tone. "When I heard that Crystal Tokyo
was taken hostage I tried to come back. I would've
gotten here sooner, but I got lost...."

Ranma shook his head. "Geez, they didn't even fix
that in you?"

"I see you and Akane are back together."

"Yeah, but I didn't need no crystal to do it."

"It doesn't matter which of us gets passed through
the light of purity," Ryoga said, "because... even
though I'm too late for the battle, I can at least
stand with you guys at the trial."

Both Akane and Ranma gasped. "You're kidding!" they
cried.

Ryoga nodded. "Even though I deserted you guys when
you needed me... and even if I won't get tried for what
happened... I'm going to stick by you guys."

"Ryoga... for what it's worth," Ranma said,
speechless, "thanks."

"Our time for trial would have to wait," Higure
pointed out. "We are in line after Ayame, after all."

"Ayame?" Ryoga blinked, as if he didn't understand.

"As leader of the Fenril Knights she is directly
responsible for the uprising," explained Higure. "In
the eyes of the world, the blame needs to fall on
someone. Since the leaders of the Black Moon Family
evaded justice by their deaths, the world was left
without a scapegoat. This time, they have one."

"That's unfair!" protested Ryoga.

"It's your world," Ranma pointed out.

"I'm sure they'll do the right thing," Akane said,
wishing that she believed the words herself. Despite
being pure of evil, people were still people, and
sometimes thought irrationally. The world was wronged,
and they felt, as a whole, the need to blame someone
for it.

She hoped Ayame knew what she was doing.

---

World Parliament, Geneva

Ayame wished she had an idea what she was doing.

Buried under the ground, locked away in a prison
with only a grate used for illumination, the leader of
the Fenril Knights could barely hear the sound of the
growing mob outside the building, yelling and demanding
justice to be served. They were not finished from
their rampage over the Black Moon Family, not by a
long shot.

And somehow, it was this aspect of humanity that
Ayame wished was disposed of by Neo Queen Serenity.

She kept her head low even as she heard the prison
door open, and someone enter. High heels echoed
throughout the dank, ten-by-ten cell, with only the
bars to separate her from Sailor Mars.

"You look well," Mars said awkwardly, obviously
unsure of herself.

Ayame chuckled softly. "Well, well, it's you. I
almost expected King Endymion, but perhaps he's too
sour over what Kanna did to him?"

"He's actually trying to intercede on your behalf,
believe it or not," Mars informed her. "The world
parliament is swayed heavily by the people you wanted
to put the power back into, and they're already poised
to throw the book at you without a proper trial. King
Endymion is trying to reason with them, and not just
because of loss of due process."

Despite her mood, the leader smirked. "You figured
it out, didn't you?"

"I don't care who engineered it, but at this point,
we need each other," the senshi said bluntly. "That
was the only reason you fired the Dead End Buster on
us, wasn't it? You needed a trump card because you
knew you couldn't win."

"I know these things," Ayame replied softly. "I also
know that our fates lie in your queen's hands."

"But why?" asked Mars. "You placed yourselves in our
hands, and yet you've got the most powerful battleship
known to man. That Night Hammer you have out there
could wipe out the Mekani fleet by itself...."

"No, it can't," interrupted Ayame. "We did the
math, and if the Mekani are smart they won't bunch-up
all their warriors in one place. The Night Hammer
needs time between shots to recharge, and any time
like that would give the remaining Mekani enough time
to land on it and tear it apart. And the Night Hammer
is one big chunk of natural resources, you know."

"So you need someone to defend the Night Hammer
between shots," Mars said in understanding. "Why us?"

"We lost too many in our war, and we're just about
out of hands and bodies. Unfortunately, as I said
before, my fate is sealed right now, and even I don't
have control over the Night Hammer at the moment."

"And what about the others? Kanna, Mousse, and
Shizuka fled, and were not detained."

"You tell me what they're doing."

"If I were them, I'd be working on a way to get the
Night Hammer off Earth and into the Nemesis space."

"I'd say that would be a good idea."

"But you're not saying it's so."

Ayame nodded, and Mars did the same. The leader of
the Fenril Knights smiled, finally finding something to
like in the Sailor Senshi. "And if they were doing
that, they'd have to avoid the Peacekeepers at all
costs, otherwise I'd be in real hot water."

"I'll see what I can do for you," Mars promised,
ready to turn away, but stopped. "One more thing,
though...."

"What?"

"Why did you guys fire on us? For real, I mean. The
Mekani could have been defeated easier if we had the
Silver Crystal at full power."

Again, Ayame laughed. "Other than the obvious ploy
to get you to ask us for help... there IS one other,
and it's far more important to us. By asking us to
help you, and not turning to the Silver Crystal, we are
proving to you and the rest of humanity that we do not
need to rely on magical artifacts and whatnot, because
we can still depend on our ingenuity. The Night Hammer
is the ultimate expression of cooperation, Sailor Mars,
and it's the finest creation made by human hands. I
want Earth to remember us for this final gift we bestow
upon them, because our potential still has yet to be
tapped. Without boundaries, our power is limitless."

Sailor Mars offered a smile, and Ayame knew that she,
too, found something to respect in the 'enemy.' "In
another time, we all could've been friends. In a
place without the battle, we could have helped each
other more."

"We still can," Ayame assured her. "Never forget,
however, that the battle was necessary, and the people
who lost their lives in it will not be forgotten. In
fact...."

"What?"

"You can still save one: Hokuto Takemasa is still
trapped in the shadow stream."

Mars nodded. "I'll see what I can do, but I'm not
promising anything."

"That's all I ask. Oh, and one more thing...."

"What's that?"

"Just because we surrendered to you, and are working
toward cooperation, doesn't mean that all of us are
going to be nice and friendly with you," Ayame warned.
"In particular, you have to watch out for Sypha Blade,
Shizuka, and Cinder. Their lives were far more
affected by the world revolution than the rest of us,
and their hearts are much less forgiving."

"The hating needs to end," Mars knew.

---

R&D Control Center, Mishima Heavy Industries

Stepping back into the control center, Shizuka was
pleased with herself now that the control box was
finished downloading the primary controls. She quickly
unplugged it from the socket, and typed in a few keys
into the console keyboard to make sure the information
was encrypted and wiped, now that the download was
complete.

Although she was by no means any proficient with
computers Shizuka learned much from Shion; simply
wiping data wasn't good enough because there were some
tricks to recovering them. Even though the data could
be recovered in its entirety given time, encrypting
the data first helped guarantee that wouldn't happen at
some critical juncture. Also, that left option the
need to recover it as well, in case something happened
to the original copy.

On the other hand, recovering the wiped copy was
something only Shion knew how to do.

She caught a red button blinking out of the corner
of her eye, and turned her head to see. Pressing it,
the main viewscreen flickered to life, revealing what
the remote Mishima watchers discovered while running
their current security directives.

"Well, well, well," Shizuka said to herself as she
watched Sailor Mercury descend the stairs into the
compound. "Looks like the game's become more
interesting by the moment."

Flipping the screen switch off, the priestess ran to
another console and queued the rest of her transport
list, then grabbed her shotgun from up her sleeve. She
glanced back at the monitor to double-check to see that
Shion and Thanatos were on the que. Finding the list
to her satisfaction, Shizuka ran the program, then
held her shotgun to her left hand, and drew one sword
with her right.

"The hunt's just beginning," she muttered.

---

Finding one of the hidden entrances to the Mishima
compound was a simple matter once Sailor Mercury
secured the information from Akane, as it required only
a certain button sequence keyed into a public pay
phone booth. A hidden elevator took her down through
several layers of earth, past the sewers and into the
stairwell, where she had to make the rest of the trek
on foot.

She descended more floors than she cared to count
before reaching the common level, where the command
center, living quarters, and service area were located,
and the place where she could most likely get her
information. At the stairwell's door there was one of
the standard keypad locks, and Mercury typed in her
override code she installed when she last tampered with
the Mishima mainframe. Surprisingly enough, the door's
lock clicked, allowing Mercury to enter.

The lights were kept at a dim, low-power consumption
level, a stark contrast to the brightness she
remembered. The white halls were thrown in a dark
shade of gray, and nothing in the area gave impression
of any sign of life.

If she remembered correctly, the control center was
straight ahead. Mercury picked up her pace, running
through the empty halls, her footsteps echoing off into
nothingness, coming to a stop at the T-intersection
from one of the side halls.

Strangely enough, the door was left ajar. Mercury
poked her head inside, staring down into the command
bowl, and saw that all functions were shut down.

"Mizuno!!" she heard, the voice carried from down
the hall opposite the door. It was quickly fired by
the unmistakable sound of gunfire.

Instinctively, Mercury ducked, hearing the heavy
bullet zip over her head, through the door, and
richochet off one of the walls and crack the main
viewscreen. Instantly she knew it was Shizuka, and,
not wasting time to get shot at again, Mercury got up
and bolted back the way she came.

She tried to imagine the common level in her head,
and formulated the key points from which Shizuka could
intercept her down one of the halls. Crossing the
first intersection Mercury was surprised to see that
Shizuka had already caught up to her, and the priestess
fired another shot.

Ducking behind the wall Mercury quickly glanced
around, and ducked into the nearest door. She looked
around quickly, finding that it was the kitchen
section, one of the ill-used areas of the compound,
since very few of the Fenril knew how to use the
equipment well. Steel pans and utensils hung from
ceiling racks, unused, over an empty grill. Set aside
on a large table was one deep soup pot and several
large barrels to satisfy the sweet tooth of the
technicians, as in chocolate syrup.

She quickly ran toward the other end of the room,
but Shizuka chose that moment to enter. The priestess
raised her shotgun up in her left hand, and squeezed
off another shot. Mercury ducked her head down behind
the barrels, and the bullet exploded through two of
them easily, spilling the contents out. Utilizing the
reloading time to her advantage Mercury tried to run
again, but her foot slipped in the spilling syrup, and
she crashed onto her back.

Mercury heard the telltale snap from the shotgun, and
knew Shizuka was finished reloading. She glanced
under the table, and saw an open sack of rice standing
there. Quickly rolling over she grabbed the sack, and
threw it over her head the moment Shizuka came into
view.

"Hey!" she heard Shizuka cry, followed by the
clatter of her shotgun falling.

Mercury quickly got up to her feet, spinning around
to throw a Shabon Spray. Mist unfurled from her hands,
and she heard Shizuka take several wild swings in the
air with her sword. Discretely avoiding the wild
swings Mercury slipped past the angry priestess and
made her escape.

---

"Blast it," Shizuka cursed, "I can't see a thing."

"Don't play her game," warned Deathclaw, speaking
through his host's mouth. "Use a talisman."

"What good'll that do?! I haven't been able to use
those since I landed in this crappy city, and for good
reason if the gods are destroyed."

"Fool, you have me. The power of the talisman is
not borrowed from a god; it is a gift of devotion and
trust between a god and his followers. Genbu may be
destroyed, but I am much closer than he ever was."

Snorting, Shizuka sheathed her sword again, and
fumbled through her sleeves for a blank talisman. She
quickly wrote out an incantation, and held it out in
the air. The paper talisman glowing, the mist was
quickly sucked into it until it was all gone, and the
talisman burned into ash in Shizuka's hand.

"Wow... that's... cool!" she exclaimed, surprised.
The priestess reminded herself to experiment more with
this newfound discovery.

Shizuka looked around the empty kitchen, realizing
that Mercury managed to escape. She kicked away the
spilt sack of rice, and reached down to collect her
shotgun, annoyed that the chocolate syrup was spilling
all over the floor, not that she was in the mood for a
shake in the first place.

She froze in place, an idea hitting her. Scooping
up her weapon, Shizuka walked around the mess to the
other side of the table, and her suspicion was
confirmed.

"Getting sloppy now, aren't we, Mizuno?" Shizuka
said to herself, following the syrup footprints left by
the Sailor Senshi.

---

Sky Deck, Night Hammer

Cinder's metallic toes scraped against the dark
surface of the flat deck of the Night Hammer, but did
little to scratch the energy collectors themselves.
Every square centimeter of the sky deck was lined with
the collectors, all running together down to a special
power plant below decks, and channeling it back up to
the Dead End Buster, the single, huge turret that
marked the only outstanding feature on top of the
airship.

He paused to stare up at the turreted cannon,
scratching his steel chin out of sheer habit, even
though it never itched. The only reason he felt the
need to scratch it was due to his inborn psychokinetic
abilities. It was those same abilities that made
Cinder a prime candidate for his devious operation in
the first place.

As a salamander warrior and a loyal retainer to his
liege, Cinder voluntarily traveled to the Earth side of
the planes in order to become stronger and to better
serve his lord. However, disaster struck, and one
event lead to another, turning the kami into a test
subject to malicious human scientists. They replaced
all the broken limbs of his body with metal
prosthetics, including his left eye, and attempted to
assert control over the fire master. It was they who
named him 'Cinder,' a name used among the humans
alone, as none were worthy of his true name.

Cinder eventually defied his masters and escaped, but
the events left him stranded on Earth, effectively
living with the humans in exile. It was during this
exile he met fellow exile Sypha Blade, who was deep in
concocting a mad scheme to find a way home. It was
during this exile he met and trained Miranda Kusao, a
girl with much potential and zeal. It was during this
exile he met the others.

The salamander kami hardly thought of his human
acquaintances as friends or close allies, but they did
have their uses. The girl, Miranda, however, in
particular reminded Cinder of himself toward his liege,
in that of a warrior retainer. For a time it amused
Cinder that a human would go to great lengths to
please him, whether it was slicing rocks with her bare
hands or polishing Cinder's magnificent obsidian
scales. She alone earned privileges for her service,
and it was her treasured honor to know of his secret
among the humans. And yet, the others still found out
by themselves in due time.

Among his human acquaintances, Cinder found he missed
Miranda dearly. Even though it was a guilty pleasure
for a retainer to have one of his own, the company
could not be beat, especially considering the only
other people Cinder would talk to would be other exiled
kami like Sypha.

Ah, the other exiles... it was likely they were still
in hiding from their human oppressors. Cinder envied
them, as they lived on this world long enough to know
the tricks of disguising their true nature very
convincingly. Considering them Cinder was a newcomer
at this game, and as such his disguise merely consisted
of a heavy traveling robe. People such as Sypha got
around their appearances with shape-shifting magic.

Cinder tore his thoughts away, and focused back on
the task at hand. He allowed his mechanical eye to
scan the surface of the sky deck, noting that the black
crystal chunks he installed at the edges of all three
triangle points of the deck were in position and ready
for the next step. Sypha would not begin until after
Shizuka fulfilled her part-- that of moving the
equipment from the Mishima compound to the Night
Hammer. After that it was all up to the black
sorcerer.

Summoning magic usually operated across different
planes, but doing so within a plane was very
uncommon, especially for something as large as the
Night Hammer.

---

Palace of Solitude, Nemesis

Sypha Blade watched with her reptilian eyes as Mousse
entered the chamber. The Chinese martial artist's
composure remained tall and proud despite his new
handicap-- the bandaged hands at his sides. Without
proper intervention it was possible he may never be
able to use them again, and Sypha did not have such
healing magic available to her, being a black sorcerer.

"What do you want?" he asked impatiently.

"Down in the storage shed you'll find several barrels
of black powder," the sorcerer explained. "Gather what
maintenance droids are available and disperse it all
in a pattern around the city as given in this scroll."

She produced a roll of paper in her metal claw, and
tossed it on the table. Mousse stared at it for a
moment, then gently unrolled it with his hands slowly.
If the weapons master was in any pain Sypha could not
see it.

A sign of strength, the Chinese sorcerer thought,
nodding to herself.

Mousse's eye level raised back up. "This looks like
a summoning circle."

"Very good," Sypha replied. "On a city-wide scale,
no less. It shouldn't take too long, really."

"So you're going to draw more power from the people?"
he asked, sounding jaded.

She shook her head. "They won't provide enough
power for what I'm doing. I'm going to utilize the
five black spires surrounding the city, the black
crystals, and the planet's energy itself. So yes, it's
one giant summoning circle, with us at the center."

"You SURE the Mekani will be coming this way?" Mousse
asked, doubtful.

"Take a star chart, and draw a path from Earth to
Tau Ceti; that's where the Mekani are based," Sypha
suggested. "Nemesis does not lie within that direct
path, but it's certainly close to it."

"What's so great about Tau Ceti, anyway?"

"The beginning, and the end."

Both Mousse and Sypha turned their eyes in surprise
toward Wiseman, who appeared suddenly to the side of
the table, levitating in his usual position.

"Wiseman!" Sypha gasped.

"The pawns are not moving fast enough," the hooded
old man complained. "It is time to induce proper
incentive." He waved his hand over the crystal ball in
his lap, and Sypha saw the image of the Crystal Palace
within.

"I've got a better idea," offered Sypha. "If the
Sailor Senshi are following the timetable we set as
scheduled, then all we need to do is manipulate one
variable, rather than several." She produced her own
crystal ball from up her sleeve, balancing it with her
claws. The silhouette of a man appeared within. "I
suggest our mutual friend, Vizier...."

---

Ukyo tried to relax, sitting back against the wall
in the indoor bath.

The bath room was one of the few places in the
Palace of Solitude the okonomiyaki chef truly enjoyed,
as the surroundings was mostly dark, black, and
dreary. The bath, in contrast, was brighter-- at
least, better-illuminated than the rest of the palace.
It was said that the water was pumped straight from
Lake Diamond outside Darkhold, and that the minerals
in it were good for healthy skin.

In any case, it felt great.

"Ditto," agreed Kanna, who was lounging herself a
couple meters to Ukyo's left, and the chef realized
she spoke aloud. "This is the best spring water I've
ever felt."

"It's bath water," Ukyo pointed out to Kanna the Hot
Spring Junkie. "And this is a bath."

"But it's still natural from the lake!" argued Kanna.
"It's only unnatural in that it's artificially heated
by the bath."

Ukyo shrugged. "Fine, whatever. I don't care."

She heard Kanna move a little closer. "Since when
did you become the uber-pessimist, huh?"

"I'm tired," the chef complained, "and I was planning
on relaxing before the next battle. Instead, I have
to share a bath with you."

"What's so wrong about that?"

Ukyo eyed the Crystal Spider lazily out of the corner
of her eye. "You overanalyze."

"No I don't."

"You just did it a little while ago with the bath
water."

"Oh."

Ukyo sighed, glad that Kanna finally decided to shut
up. She sunk lower into the water, allowing it to run
all the way up to her chin. She concentrated on
nothing, trying to relax naturally.

Yet, something was bothering her.

"Kanna."

"What?"

"Why haven't we surrendered along with the others?
At least that way we wouldn't have to fight."

"We have to fight now, because we blew up their
palace," the Crystal Spider pointed out. "Which, of
course, was a calculated risk."

"You guys shouldn't have done that," Ukyo replied,
too weary to be annoyed. "If we just let them keep
their ace in the hole we wouldn't have to do all the
things we're doing now."

"And if we didn't, what do you think'd happen to us
all, then?" asked Kanna, a serious edge in her tone.

Ukyo sat up again, and faced the other girl directly
for the first time. "I have no idea," she admitted.

"See, I don't like things like that, without a
certain, probable outcome," Kanna replied. "At least
this way we have a pretty good idea what's going to
happen-- whichever way it goes."

"Provided we can beat the Mekani," the okonomiyaki
chef added. "I'd think they'd be a bit more advanced
this time around than before; after all, the guys we
trashed last time didn't have room to advance their
technology in their dimensional prison."

"I'm aware of that. Just hope we can beat them."

"'Hope' was the last thing left in the box," Ukyo
knew. Somehow, it seemed that it wouldn't be enough.

"Okay, Pandora, whatever," Kanna said, shrugging.

---

R&D Hangar, Mishima Heavy Industries

"Would... you... like to swing on a star," Shizuka
hummed low to herself, taking careful, deliberate
steps with her shotgun forward. "Or carry moonbeams
home in a jar...."

The expanse of the hangar bay made itself more
apparent by the moment as the teleport tube
dematerialized heavy armors left and right, all of
which was headed for the equivalent on board the Night
Hammer. Shizuka caught a movement of shadow in the
corner of her left eye, and quickly swung around and
squeezed off a shot. The bullet ricocheted off one of
the walls and disappeared, but now Sailor Mercury was
driven out of hiding, as she ran for another hiding
space.

"Or would you rather be a fish?" the priestess
finished, reloading her firearm quickly. "They do say
the most dangerous game is man."

"There's no reason to be fighting anymore!" she
heard her quarry shout, her voice echoing loudly.
"The Mekani are set to attack at any day now."

"So now you're here, trespassing where you're not
welcome," Shizuka shouted back, closing the chamber of
her shotgun, as more columns of light dematerialized
the surrounding weaponry. "You're not stupid, but why
are you defying us even now? The only reason would be
if you wanted to stop us from reclaiming the Night
Hammer!"

"No, listen to me!" Mercury pleaded. "That's not it
at all! We just want to help."

"Help? Help! From you?!" Shizuka contained her
amusement, raising her shotgun again, scanning for an
irregular shadow off the walls. "Have I got a bridge
to sell you!!"

"If we destroy each other now, the Mekani might win,"
pressed Mercury, appealing to reason. "Then none of us
will be safe."

"We don't need YOUR help; you need OUR help!" Shizuka
corrected. "Between me, Master Cinder, and Sypha, plus
the Night Hammer, we can't lose!" The hunter withdrew
three steel cards from up her sleeve with her free
hand, noticing a movement of shadow. "Besides, the
only people I forgive for things you did are my
friends, and you're not one of 'em."

She threw the cards in the sailor soldier's direction
and heard them embed into the walls, one after
another. This time she forced Mercury out into the
open, and with such a pressed movement her palms were
already glowing in pale blue energy.

"Shine Aqua Illusion!" she cried, unleashing a
torrent of water.

Shizuka stood her ground, holding out her free hand
in a stop sign. Just mere millimeters before the
aqua strike hit an ethereal force burst from the
priestess's palm, forming an instant, perfectly-
circular, flat shield. Mercury's water attack washed
over and around the shield, barely missing Shizuka on
all sides.

Mercury gasped, surprised at her sudden display of
power. "How?!"

Shizuka's eyes flashed momentarily as she gave a
feral grin. "Come now, Mizuno," Shizuka/Deathclaw
said, the ghost dragon asserting himself, "did you
think it would take long at all before I could master
my reacquired ability?"

"'Reacquire?'"

The priestess shouldered her shotgun, and plucked a
bead hanging from her left sleeve. She held it up for
Sailor Mercury to see, holding the red bead between her
index and middle fingers. "The power of a priestess
is derived from her special bond with her god... but
now, I AM a god!!"

"Fools think our ability is limited only to
exorcisms," the dual entity continued. "Spoiled by
their flimsy anime they think the sole role we serve is
to banish evil spirits. It's only natural that they
are wrong, and it's only natural that I can use this to
my advantage! It's only natural that I possess that
which they cannot defeat!"

She raised the bead high, then quickly slammed it
onto the ground, cracking its surface. A beam of light
issued from the crack, splitting the bead in two with
its intense power. "Take her down... Summon Beast
Hydra!!"

The light burst like a miniature nova, and the beams
of light gathered into distinct shapes. Three snake-
like heads formed, each joined on one body. The light
died completely, leaving the three-headed snake, easily
as large as Shizuka, to glow with the same ethereal
haze as Deathclaw. Unlike the ghost dragon the hydra
was by no means skeletal, but it was monochromatic
nonetheless, as if the monster itself were a ghost.

The hydra's snake heads snapped and hissed at
Mercury, gazing at her with hungry eyes.

"A ghost summon beast...?" Mercury muttered.

"The memory of what once was will endure forever in
the minds of those who remember," Shizuka/Deathclaw
explained. She directed a finger toward Mercury. "Go,
Trikhanra!"

Each of the three snake heads reared their heads
back, then launched simultaneous volleys of spittle.
Mercury ducked, allowing all three volleys to soar over
her head. Behind her, the spittle collided with the
back wall, each bursting with elemental power.

The left head, Shizuka knew, spat tiny bolts of
fire, which burst upon impact. The middle head spat
a highly-corrosive acid, and it was now tearing a hole
in the metal wall across the hangar. The right head
shot high-velocity pockets of solid air, visible in the
human sight, but no less deadly than the other two
projectiles.

"Too bad; I've got a weapon for every occasion!"
gloated Shizuka/Deathclaw.

---

Inner Sanctum, Crystal Palace

Sailor Moon nodded thoughtfully as Sailor Mars
finished reporting the details of her encounter with
Ayame in Geneva. She focused her eyes back onto the
viewscreen, where Mars stood waiting for her next
order.

"What do you think?" she asked finally.

Mars shook her head. "I don't know. Ayame openly
admitted to everything we suspected, and then some.
And she's in prison, and probably going to get tar-and-
feathered... and she's still making demands."

Ayame wanted Hokuto released, Moon knew. On the one
hand doing so would also release Sailor Jupiter from
the same prison, but on the other hand there was no
telling what the Shadow Weaver would do upon being
released. In effect this was what Sailor Moon desired,
but everyone knew the variable was Hokuto; even Ayame
hinted as much in her careful words.

Yes, the leader of the Fenril Knights spoke very
carefully indeed. Her formal surrender speech, for
instance, indicated that her forces and allies would
surrender-- on Earth. That said absolutely nothing
about who was on Nemesis at the time of the surrender,
as Sailor Moon came to understand, and it was likely
designed to fool the world parliament rather than her.

It was the crafty plan, if dangerous.

"I'll see about releasing Hokuto," Sailor Moon
decided. "It'll have to wait, because we need to
eliminate the Chaos plague cells in our guests."

"Before the virus spreads again?" wondered Mars. She
shook her head. "But that would've happened a long
time ago...."

"It's not for that, but because Vizier may be able to
control them," Moon revealed. "The beast who sourced
the original plague on Earth long ago survives as the
virus, and it has been waiting for a strong host body
which to take over. Unfortunately, he's found one."

"That guy...."

"We need to find him, too, before it's too late.
Mars, please return as soon as possible; the battle may
begin at any moment."

---

Palace of Solitude, Nemesis

Ukyo's eyes stared at the targeting grid, leaning
forward in her chair and propping her chin up with her
left arm. She tapped the table with the fingers of her
right hand, thinking over the possibilities in her
head.

"B-7," she announced.

Across the table, Kanna stared up at Ukyo, annoyed.
"You sunk my battleship...."

"If you two are through," Sypha interrupted, barging
into the chamber, "I have important business to take
care of."

Ukyo looked up from her game board. "What's that
supposed to mean?"

The black sorcerer produced her crystal ball, and
the image of the Night Hammer appeared within. "All I
want is to attract the attention of Pantyhose Taro to
the airship. So I need one of you to come up with a
decent semaphore flag."

"Not a literal flag, right?" Kanna hoped. "I flunked
sewing."

"Why do we want HIM on the Night Hammer?" wondered
the okonomiyaki chef. "He'd just trash it or
something, the way the scoreboard's playing out."

"The Sailor Senshi know they need the Night Hammer as
much as we do," Sypha pointed out. "In fact it's just
to get them on the ship faster, as well as get rid of
a potential threat. We're speeding things up, so we
need Pantyhose Taro on the airship. I know one of you
knows him better than I do... so what does he want?"

"Power?" guessed Kanna.

"A better name?" Ukyo volunteered. "But he can't get
even that, because Happosai is dead."

"Does he know that for sure?" asked Sypha slyly, her
mind working a devious plan. "Does he, really?"

"Oh god, I'm not dressing-up as the old geezer," Ukyo
said, groaning. "He'll never buy it, anyway."

"I'm not interested in appearances," the sorcerer
snapped. "If there is even a slim chance that he could
get what he wanted most, then he won't be able to
resist taking it, won't he?"

"So what do you have in mind?" asked the Crystal
Spider.

---

R&D, Mishima Heavy Industries

"You know, Mizuno," Shizuka decided, stifling a
yawn, "you're boring when I go all-out."

Sailor Mercury ducked behind the deactivated robot,
pressing her back against its back as the ghost hydra
pummeled its forward armor with acid, flame, and ice.
She knew for a fact that Shizuka was holding back, and
probably for good reason.

Somehow, Mercury knew it was more for the sheer sport
of it, rather than any desire to preserve her life.

"Let's see," the priestess ranted, holding out her
hand and counting down fingers, "I could wait here and
waste you." She lowered a finger. "Or I could leave
and assume you died." Shizuka lowered another finger.
"Maybe a little of both, and I'll wait five minutes
before I go, or maybe I should just kill you myself."
She shook her head as she came down to her thumb.
"Naaaah...."

Another column of light appeared, and focused itself
on an armor next to Mercury's position. The armor
vanished into nothingness in the light, sucked up by
the so-called teleport tube. If she wasn't mistaken
her armor shield would be next.

She steadied herself in readiness to turn and blast
the ghost hydra the moment the robot vanished, but
Mercury realized that nothing was hitting it anymore.
Risking a glance Mercury looked around the armor's
tough body, and saw that Shizuka withdrew the monster.

"By the way," Shizuka said, her voice much closer
than before. Mercury glanced upward, and saw that the
priestess was sitting on top of the ruined robot's
shoulders. "Why don't you run along and tell your
queen that I sent you?"

She held up a remote control, flipping open a clear
plastic case that housed a large, thumb-sized, red
button. Sailor Mercury had a very good idea what that
meant.

As the teleportation tube surrounded the armor and
Shizuka, she told her, "Boom."

Deciding to take her chances, Mercury grappled onto
the robot's arm. She felt every molecule of her body
dissipate from her person, and soon felt nothing at
all as the light consumed her.

She found she had shut her eyes, and forcefully pried
them back open. The hangar area of the R&D block was
gone, replaced by a darker hangar area of similar
make. Had the area been damaged like the R&D was
Mercury would've thought she was still in the
underground compound.

Looking upward, Shizuka was nowhere to be seen. The
remote control she was holding earlier lay balanced on
the shoulder's surface, antenna extended with a small
white flag that read, "Fooled you."

Deciding there was no time to figure out where the
Fenril went, Mercury headed toward the exit, to see for
herself if she was really on the Night Hammer.

---

Sky Deck, Night Hammer

Wind whipped against Cinder's cape as he watched
Sypha's 'semaphore flag' in progress. He had little
inclination to acknowledge Shizuka as she joined him
on the deck, and barely registered from the edge of his
mechanical eye that she, too, was looking up into the
sky.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen," she
declared, looking up at the hastily-erected hot-air
blimp.

"Yes," the fire master agreed, watching the monitor
on the blimp's side continually spin a message that
'Pantyhose Taro is a weak loser.' "If he doesn't mind
being called 'weak' his name will certainly get his
attention."

A thin black beam coming from somewhere in the
crystal jungle below lanced out at the blimp, and
Cinder was forced to shield his real eye when the
blimp fireballed. His mechanical eye filtered out much
of the noise, but Cinder didn't need to know even that
much to know that Taro got the message.

He noted that Shizuka was turning her attentions
to another part of the sky, and sure enough from the
top of one of the buildings a huge, boomerang-shaped
wing was launched, with one man hanging off from the
bottom. Pantyhose Taro's wing sliced quickly through
the air, and the moment his shadow was cast over the
sky deck the martial artist released his grip.

He quickly collected himself, and the heart crystals
he captured remained in perfect orbit around his body
at all times.

"You fools," Taro hissed, his voice carried downwind
from the head of the sky deck. "How DARE you cast my
name like that?"

"You called it," Shizuka said, glancing at Cinder.

Cinder said nothing, as his attention was on
analyzing Pantyhose Taro. The man's right hand, which
used to be where his Deathbuster star was located, was
now hidden by a large, heavy black glove, one that
reached all the way up the length of his arm and ending
at the shoulder. It was an elaborate article, but the
robed salamander understood the feeling completely; it
was a distraction to think about the scars hidden
beneath the concealment, and perhaps also a source of
shame. Cinder bore that sentiment every day, and out
of courtesy refrained from analyzing beneath the
glove.

"So now I see we are both crippled," Cinder told the
martial artist. "The question is, is the extent
merely physical, or is there deep, mental scars as
well?"

"I'm nothing like you, cripple," Taro shouted. "I am
a god."

The salamander laughed. "Fool, I can lay claim to
that title as well. I am YOUR god, the spirit your
people created out of their nightmares. You are
nothing more than one of those people, deluded to think
they could walk the graces of the kami."

"Then let me show you...!"

Shizuka gasped. "Master Cinder... he's not what he
seems!"

"What?" he asked, hardly surprised.

"I just felt it now," she pressed, elaborating on her
premonition. "There's another sharing his soul... just
as I."

"Vizier, no doubt," Cinder snorted. "I've heard as
much, but so far I'm not impressed." He raised his
right claw back, and his left claw forward, igniting
both palms in flames. The fire master barely felt the
increasing temperature of his steel arms, and mentally
focused on increasing their intrinsic melting point,
knowing the fight would be long.

Yes, his 'creators' were wise to ensnare a
psychokinetic warrior.

---

Infirmary, Crystal Palace

"There, that should do it," Sailor Moon said, wiping
her forehead as she finished removing the Chaos cells
from the last of the Fenril Knights.

Ranma sat up in the bed, flexing his fingers. As the
volunteer to be the last to be cleansed he seemed in
good spirits. "You didn't just purge me, you healed
me...?"

"It was the least I could do," Moon replied. "It
was brave of you to throw away the dark power to save
us all."

"Eh," he scoffed, "don't think nothing about it.
It's what you would've done, I guess."

"What'll you do now?" asked Akane, looking toward
Sailor Moon.

She held up her wand. "I've thought this over, and
at the request of your leader, Ayame, I'm going to let
Hokuto back into this world."

Ranma immediately jumped up and held the wand fast.
"No, wait! You don't have any idea how bad that is!"

"You're just like Sailor Mars," Moon noted. "Maybe
it is a bad judgement on my part, but knowing you
Fenril Knights it wouldn't be the first time." The
comment left a bitter atmosphere in the air. "But, no
matter how bad it might be, I have to trust her. I
want to trust you, as I do all of you. The hate must
end if we wish to see true peace."

"Eh, that's not it, though..." muttered Ranma, but
he allowed it to trail-off, unwilling to speak of the
issue further. He released his hold on the wand, and
glanced at Akane nervously.

Stepping away from the bed, Sailor Moon held her
wand up high, and closed her eyes to concentrate. She
focused her will through her hands and into the wand,
and turned it in a counter-clockwise motion, preparing
to trace a portal to the shadow plane.

Suddenly, she felt the weight of light upon her, and
lost concentration on the portal. She looked out
toward Ranma and Akane, but they were on the other side
of a column of light.

No, it was because she was in the center of it.

Sailor Moon had no time to react as the light flared
into a blinding light, then disappeared completely,
replaced by complete darkness. She collapsed to the
ground, rubbing her eyes to adjust to her new
surroundings. She planted her palms onto the floor,
and felt the cool metal beneath her feet.

There was another flash of light, followed by several
more, each with decreasing intensity.

"I'm sorry about that," she heard, "but there isn't
much time left."

She recognized Sailor Mercury's voice instantly.
"Sailor Mercury?"

"We're on board the Night Hammer, the Fenril
airship," she explained. "The transport device was the
fastest way to get you all here."

"It could've been worse," Moon heard another say,
and knew it belonged to Ranma.

Her eyes having adjusted to the dim lighting, Sailor
Moon looked around, and saw that the remaining Sailor
Senshi were present, along with Ranma and his friend,
Ryoga Hibiki, who seemed quite disoriented.

They heard a loud rumble from above. "What's going
on?!" cried Sailor Mars.

"Pantyhose Taro is attacking the ship," Mercury
informed them. "Two others are already battling him,
but we can't let him damage the Dead End Buster."

---

"Ranma!" Akane cried, suddenly alone in the infirmary
after two columns of light abducted him and Sailor
Moon.

Her eyes adjusted back to the room's normal light,
and she glanced to where Sailor Moon stood earlier.
She was tracing a circle in the air, that much Akane
knew, but what she didn't understand was why the
partial circle was still there, glowing.

There was no time to think of it, and Akane rushed
out of the room, intent on finding out what was going
on.

Unseen by eyes, a thin, dark ooze dripped out of the
incomplete circle.

---

Palace of Solitude, Nemesis

"Excellent," Sypha said, watching Cinder battle Taro
by himself on the windy sky deck. "All the pawns are
in place."

She heard the double doors open behind her. "I got
your circle traced," Mousse reported, sounding a bit
weary. His eyes fixated on the viewscreen ahead.
"Hey, they're there...."

The black sorcerer turned away, facing the weapons
master. "I'm going to begin the summoning ceremony. I
want no interruptions. Incidentally, keep me informed
of what's going on; I don't care if Pantyhose Taro
stays on the sky deck or not, but I'd rather he be
dead."

"You got my vote," agreed Mousse.

---

"Left hand, green," declared a maintenance droid.

Kanna and Ukyo lowered their hands down to reach
the green circle on the Twister mat, but this time they
ended up bumping into each other and collapsing.

"God dammit, we must be really bored," Ukyo decided,
sitting up and glancing at the droid. "There's got to
be a better way to kill time than this."

"I suppose you don't want an answer to that," the
droid replied.

"Hell no," Kanna called. She propped her chin on
her hand. "When the hell is the Night Hammer coming,
anyway?"

---

Sky Deck, Night Hammer

"Your age is showing, old man!" Taro taunted, dodging
fiery punches from the robed salamander. "The time of
the old gods has passed!"

"And it is here where your arrogance will fail you!"
Cinder shot back, his mechanical eye displaying the
careful calculations he was making while distracting
his enemy with distracting blows.

Pantyhose Taro merely believed he was too good for
the retainer, but Cinder wasn't interested in landing a
blow. He reared his right claw back again for another
punch, and predictably, Taro dodged it. However, the
whelp was likely now aware of what the fire master was
up to all along, as Cinder's steel talons grabbed hold
of one of the orbiting heart crystals. Black
electrical energy arced in its orbit, all the way back
to Taro's heart.

"What the...?!" Taro gasped in surprise.

"So arrogant of you to maintain your source of power
so freely!" Cinder said, taking the reversal in
stride. He closed his claw even further, and splinters
broke off the surface of the glowing red crystal. "You
are no god...!"

"Master!" he heard Shizuka cry in warning.

The salamander felt a sharp pain in his arm clutching
the heart crystal, and realized that he was being
attacked by another. He quickly shot a glance to
the left, and his mechanical eye focused on one Sailor
Moon, holding out her wand.

"Hold it!" she cried. "That heart crystal you're
intending to destroy belongs to a human being!"

"You fool, the dead have no use for this wretched
shell of a soul!" Cinder roared. Planting his right
foot on Taro, he pushed backward and yanked the heart
crystal from his orbit, and sent the martial artist
sprawling across the deck.

He held up the heart crystal for the other to see.

"No, wait!" Sailor Moon cried. "I can restore them!
You can't...!"

"You have no understanding at all of the concept of
life and death, do you?!" the salamander raged, anger
flaring his flames. The wind continued to whip against
his cloak, and the flames of his hands fanned along
with them. "When the spark of life is torn from the
flesh, the soul is granted its final reward. How do
you suggest that I punish my disciple in such a
manner as this?"

"Mira's heart crystal," Shizuka realized. "You can
tell...?"

"You are no human," Cinder continued. "No human
would dare deprive the departed of final peace!"

"No, stop!!!" Sailor Moon screamed, almost pleaded.

"Master, look out!" the priestess warned.

The fire master had not been oblivious to the
recovering Pantyhose Taro, and silently thanked the
girl for her initiative as she headed off the attack
intended for him. The two locked their arms onto
each other, each appearing just as strong as the other
in the struggle, but Cinder knew Shizuka was far too
weak to handle her opponent.

He glanced back toward the opposing posse, and saw
that Ranma was dressing-down Sailor Moon with some
words, his hand on her shoulder as he spoke. Her
extended arm wavered in place, but Cinder knew the boy
would hold no sway over her.

Mustering all the force behind him, Cinder crushed
the heart crystal in his claw, shattering it into a
million pieces. He thought he saw the traces of a
ghostly visage wisp into nothingness, but thought
better of it.

"Miranda Kusao, your soul is finally at peace," he
eulogized. "Join those who lay their lives for their
masters in honor."

Without turning, Cinder ordered, "Keep him busy,
girl. The others are mine."

"Hah, easy for you to say," Shizuka muttered.

"Delicate souls," Taro hissed. "I smell them within
you, dragon spawn...! I hunger for them!!"

"Then come and get them, puss-for-brains!" Shizuka
snarled angrily.

Cinder held out his arms toward the Sailor Senshi,
and the traitors Ranma and Ryoga... seven opponents in
all. Totally uneven, he decided, but then, the battle
was always in his favor. He wasn't the valued loyal
retainer of Lord Kolvar na Strakil for nothing.

"I will defeat all of you," he challenged, his
chasm voice carried by the wind. "I will avenge my
lord and master, my people, and my disciple... and I
will destroy whoever gets in the way of the kami!!"

Ranma stepped forward, ahead of the others. "If it's
a challenge you want, you've got it!"

The boy behaves as if he was going to finish it all
by himself, Cinder noted. His fists flaring with a
greater fire, he raised them up in the air, and brought
them down quickly in an X-pattern. Flames rocketed
across the deck in the pattern. "Fire Cross!"

And it was Neptune who stepped up to the plate.
"Deep Submerge!"

A torrent of water jetted from her hands, but the
force behind the Fire Cross was too much for the water
force, transforming it to steam instantly and
continuing its path. The seven opponents scattered as
the fire attack exploded with the full fury of the
annihilated peoples.

"Cinder, you bastard!" he heard Ryoga shout. "We're
all on the same side!!"

Unfortunately for Ryoga, the fire master was standing
over him, emerging from the smoke like a specter.
"Twice now you've betrayed our cause, Hibiki. Worm.
You dare defy the will of gods, but I will not allow
a third time!"

---

"I've had enough of you," Pantyhose Taro snarled,
strengthening his hold on Shizuka enough such that she
was forced to release her own grip. "No matter how
strong you think you are, you'll always be weak. No
matter how much heart you give, you'll never compete
with the likes of me!"

He lifted her up with one hand, holding her by the
neck.

"Bullshit," she cursed. "You know nothing!"

"Shizuka!!" someone cried, probably Ranma.

"I pity anyone whose soul is as weak as yours," she
spat. "Better to have a frail body and weak mind than
a weak soul. You're no different than the other souls
Deathclaw captured; you are a prisoner to your
parasite."

"I'll soon rectify that!" he promised. "Your use has
come to an end, Shizuka; Deathclaw will become one with
me, and I'll show you how frail and weak you really
are!"

"Oh geez, you called me by my actual name," the
priestess snorted, jeering to the last. "I'm so
privileged."

"Now," Taro declared, "the souls Deathclaw has
hoarded over the centuries are mine! I don't care for
one heart crystal's loss when I can have hundreds more
of similar quality and power!"

Black lightning crawled up his gloved arm, bathing
the priestess of Genbu in dark energy. The energy
gathered at her heart, threatening to steal that which
made her Shizuka.

But in all of it, she was laughing.

"What's so funny?!" he demanded.

"You're too late," Shizuka declared, laughing
despite herself. Unseen, hidden in her sleeve, she
activated the charging mechanism of the Night Hammer.

Lightning rained from the sky, and the energy
collectors that made up the deck illuminated. All
were blinded by the mass of energy collected for the
second time from all around Earth, and the Dead End
Buster hummed with power.

At the same moment, the three black crystal chunks,
placed strategically around the Night Hammer, began
to glow with their own, hellish light.

---

Palace of Solitude, Nemesis

"It is done!" Sypha declared, finishing the summoning
ceremony.

Instantly she teleported from her secluded chamber,
and reappeared in the command center, satisfied that
Kanna, Ukyo, and Mousse were still present and
attentive. Each held their eyes on the main
viewscreen, watching as the five spires surrounding
Darkhold illuminated the night sky with violet
lightning. A violet column of light emerged,
enveloping the entire city in hellish energy. A large,
wedge shape flashed into view above, and Sypha knew
her incantation was successful.

"Now the final battle begins," she declared.



---------------------------------------------------

Author's Notes

Stay tuned for the conclusion.


--Razorclaw X (spiceoflife@NOhotmailSPAM.com)
http://www.crosswinds.net/~slythe/index.html

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