FURY
The Shield room of the Crystal Palace was silent and shrouded in deep shadows. If not for the dim light emanating from the central crystal where the inner senshi stood trapped, the room would have been pitch black. Littered throughout the shadows were dozens of glowing yellow eyes that blinked in and out of existence. It was impossible to tell exactly how many demons were in the room, for they moved stealthily without so much as a tap on the crystal floor.
Three cages lay on the desk in the corner with a captive in each. The guardian cats lay sleeping, curled into balls on the floor of their cells. The smallest form, that of Diana, was pressed against the wall of her cage to be closer to her mother. Luna had stretched a paw out of her wire cage, reaching for her isolated kitten as she slept.
The wall farthest from the three felines contained six figures who hung limply from chains in the crystal wall. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune drooped in their bonds, sleeping fitfully. Next to them were the small forms of the Asteroid Senshi, Sailors Juno, Ceres, Vesta, and Pallas. They also slept, their minds tormented with their failed mission to keep the princess safe.
A pair of yellow eyes disappeared only to have another pair reappear a few paces away. Sailor Uranus observed it all, her chin touching her chest as she pretended to sleep, but her mind very much awake. She didn't dare alert the demons who guarded her, didn't dare even tell her partner of her plan. She had watched Abyss review the workings of the Shield, and knew that the purple haired woman could now destroy the inner senshi with a wave of her hand. The time of watching had past and now, Uranus knew it was time for action.
Her plan was simple, but dangerous. Distract the guards and slip out the back entrance only the Planetary Ladies and the queen knew about. It would lead her to the common room where the Ladies had often gathered in happier times and from there she could gain access to anywhere in the palace. Her time was short. Abyss had left only a few hours ago and could be anywhere by now. She had to be fast.
As if she had read Uranus' mind, Diana woke and stood up in her cage. The wire squares were not small enough to keep the flexible kitten contained, but she had stayed in the cage to prevent harm from coming to her loved ones. As Uranus raised her head slightly, the kitten looked at her with red eyes wide and nodded once. Uranus smiled to herself, and quickly lowered her head again as the yellow eyes swept past. Quick as a flash, Diana squeezed her way through the bars of her cage and stood on top of it.
"Meow!" she said loudly.
At once, all the yellow eyes in the room converged on the kitten. Uranus did a quick count and guessed at fourteen or fifteen demons. As the guards closed in on the kitten, she squeaked in alarm, leapt from her cage, and took off at a run out of the room. Luna, awakened by her daughter's cry, yelled for her to come back and began to frantically try to escape the cage. Artemis was doing the same and, in the confusion, Uranus slipped free of her chains. She silently thanked Sailor Pallas for loosening the bonds when the quartet had been caught as she vanished down the secret passage way.
As the night progressed, Sailor Uranus slipped through the northern gate and out into the city. The Tokyo she remembered from only a few short weeks ago was gone and a city akin to her vision of the Silence remained. Half destroyed buildings were vaguely silhouetted in the moon's dim glow and unthinkable creatures slithered through the deep night.
Suddenly, a pink glow illuminated the blackness, shooting into the sky in a pillar of light. Uranus quickly hid from view behind a building, squinting to the north where the light originated. Uranus thought back to a conversation she had had with Setsuna in their old lives a hundred years ago.
"So you were guarding Chibiusa the first time she came to the past?" Michiru asked.
Setsuna nodded. "I kept an eye on her through the Luna-P ball, but it wasn't easy. She was a scared child far from home."
"At least the Black Moon Clan couldn't spot her easily," Haruka remarked, sipping her coffee.
"Not at once, no," Setsuna agreed, "but if she was scared, she would use the Time Key prematurely which would cause a rip between space and time."
"So?" Michiru said.
"So," Setsuna continued, "that rip was like lighting a huge, pink beacon and shouting 'Here I am!' to the Black Moon Clan. They could spot her miles away."
Uranus smiled grimly to herself, knowing her short time had just grown shorter. If the princess had decided to use a last resort and try to escape through the Time Gate, she must be in great danger. The pink beacon was certainly useful for Uranus to come to their aid, but if Abyss knew of it as well, the princess and her friends would be in serious trouble.
As the beacon died down, Uranus slipped from the building into the street again. As fast as she could, she headed to the northern foothills of the mountains.
********
Sailor Moon, Sailor Saturn, and Sailor Pluto stayed in the mountain foothills where Sailor Nyx had disappeared for the rest of the night and for most of the next day. They had followed Nyx's trail as far as the chasm in the forest but had seen no trace of her at all after that. They could not cross the canyon and feared for their friend's life.
Sailor Moon gazed into the forest as the other two senshi stood guard. She had not give up hope that her friend would come out of the forest, smiling and carrying the lost cylinder. She knew Akumu was all right. She could feel it. A gentle hand fell to her shoulder.
"We should keep moving," Sailor Saturn told her.
"But, Akumu," Sailor Moon protested.
"If she has not returned yet," Pluto said, "she probably never will. We must assume the cylinder is in Abyss' possession, Small Lady."
"We must get it back," Saturn added.
Sailor Moon shook her head stubbornly. "Akumu will be back."
"But what will she be?" Pluto asked.
Sailor Moon looked up sharply. They had told Pluto of Sailor Nyx and of her transformation into something else. What she had become, none of them could guess. The girl's senshi uniform had turned black and her blue hair had become streaked with red. Her eyes had remained white and leathery wings had sprouted from her back. Sailor Moon could remember the expression on the creature's face as she looked at Sailor Moon before running off into the forest. The face had been wild, untamed, and very angry.
"She'll be fine," Sailor Moon said forcefully. "I can't abandon her."
"You aren't," Saturn said to her friend. "Akumu will be able to follow us. You've seen how resourceful she can be. She's what has kept us alive this far."
Tears sprung unbidden into Sailor Moon's eyes and she finally nodded. Taking a last look at the dark forest, Sailor Moon followed her two friend further north to Abyss' hideout.
********
At dawn, Abyss walked down the hallway toward the Shield room with Queen Serenity and King Endymion a few paces behind her. Every morning Abyss heard reports in front of the queen, just waiting for the news that the princess was dead. She knew the news would destroy the queen as well as the captive senshi and then no one would stand between her and the city.
The two demon guards swung the large doors open for Abyss and she swept past them into the room. Immediately she noticed two things very wrong. The smallest cage on the desk was empty, and a pair of vacant chains hung from the wall next to Sailor Neptune.
"Where is she?" Abyss screamed, pointing to the chains.
Sailor Neptune smiled and said nothing. The Asteroid senshi all craned their necks to see what Abyss was talking about. Queen Serenity and King Endymion took their usual places by the desk, surrounded by guards.
Abyss walked up to Neptune until their noses were nearly touching. "Where is she?"
"If I knew, why would I tell you?" Neptune retorted.
Abyss raised a hand and struck Neptune full across the face. The aquamarine haired girl's head reeled with the blow, but she remained silent. Abyss struck her again and a trickle of blood came from Neptune's lip.
The sound of a demon entering the room made Abyss turn. She saw the massive black creature holding something almost delicately in one hand.
"What's that?" Abyss demanded.
The demon opened his hand and Diana popped out. She looked at Abyss with her large eyes and cocked her head to one side. Abyss walked over to the demon and picked the kitten up by the scruff of her neck.
"Diana!" Luna cried.
Abyss held the kitten up over her head. "Either someone tells me where that senshi went, or this kitten won't live to see the sunset."
The room fell silent except for Luna's muted sobs. Artemis was trying his best to comfort her, but the distance that separated them made it difficult.
"She's gone."
All eyes snapped onto Neptune as the senshi spoke. Abyss headed back to her, still holding Diana roughly by the neck.
"What did you say?" Abyss whispered.
"She's gone," Neptune repeated. "She escaped."
"I know that!" Abyss roared. "Where?"
"I don't know," Neptune replied calmly.
In frustration, Abyss threw Diana across the room. The kitten squeaked in alarm as she flew through the air, but Endymion ran forward and caught her before she landed. The guards pushed him roughly back to his wife, but the purple kitten remained in his gentle grasp, shaking with fear.
"Get every warrior out in the mountains," Abyss ordered. "Assemble the rest of the army in the north. I want every demon who is not guarding the palace to search for the missing senshi!"
The demons bowed and scrambled to obey her orders.
"And you," Abyss said menacingly, turning back to Neptune. "You will be punished for every day they are free."
Neptune's expression remained calm, but a sense of dread settled in the pit of her stomach.
Haruka, she thought. Please hurry!
********
Sailor Uranus ran non-stop until she reached the approximate location of Sailor Moon's beacon. She could not be sure of the exact site, but she trusted her instincts to help as she fumbled her way through the dense forest. Almost immediately she came to a clearing where signs of a struggle were clearly marked. The grass was flattened and scorched in several places, greenish stains from demon blood stained the rocks, and half a demon lay rotting in the afternoon sun. Pausing, Sailor Uranus looked back to the south and saw the spires of Crystal Tokyo shining dimly in the sunlight.
Help her
Uranus brought her head up sharply as the two word echoed in her mind. She looked around and saw a faint path that headed into the forest to her right. Seeing no other way to go, she headed back into the forest.
Uranus walked through the tangle of trees and underbrush for quite some time, the hot sun beating down on her. She ignored the uncomfortable sensation and kept moving, suppressing her thirst and hunger. Suddenly, the never ending parade of trees stopped and Sailor Uranus found herself face-to-face with a large canyon that split through the forest like a scar. She walked to the edge and looked down into the depths. A few pebbles, dislodged by her foot, fell down the chasm wall and she waited to hear the sound of their landing, but heard nothing. With a shrug, she turned back the way she had come.
So close
Sailor Uranus paused. "Who's there?"
Silence answered her. She turned full circle, searching for the origin of the mysterious voice, but saw nothing. Uranus was about to head back into the forest when something behind her crashed. Whirling around and dropping into a defensive crouch, Uranus looked for an attack but found none. The sound had been a huge tree falling to span the chasm like a bridge.
Help her
"This is very strange," Uranus muttered to herself as she walked across the huge log.
A few feet ahead she saw the sun reflecting off a large lake. Her thirst suddenly overwhelming her, Uranus ran forward and fell to her knees at the edge of the lake. She drank deeply, feeling the cool water trickle down her throat, and felt a pang of regret for leaving Neptune and the others behind.
Something across the lake caught her attention and Uranus leapt to her feet. She stared across to the other end of the lake and saw a familiar figure. Thinking her eyes were deceiving her, she moved forward until the strange figure was only a meter away. The girl smiled warmly at Uranus, her shoulder length brown hair fluttering gently in the breeze. She was dressed in a yellow gown that seemed to be made of pure sunlight and an aura of golden light shone around her like an angel's halo. As ethereal as she looked, she was very familiar.
"Kami?" Uranus whispered.
The girl shook her head. "Once, long ago, yes. Now I am Lucis."
Lucis gestured with one hand to an unconscious form at her feet. Uranus looked down and saw a girl with wild, blue and red hair wearing a black senshi uniform. Two huge leathery wings sprouted from her back, and a cylinder shaped object lay near one of her outstretched bloody hands.
"What is that?" Uranus asked. "A demon?"
Lucis smiled. "Always quick to jump to conclusions, Haruka. Take a closer look. She won't harm you."
Cautiously, Uranus crept forward and turned the sleeping form over. With a gasp, she stepped back and raised terror filled eyes back to Lucis' calm face.
"It's Akumu! What happened?"
Lucis looked down sadly at the girl. "She has not yet mastered her full powers and they transformed her. She is the senshi of Dreams, the Mind, but her namesake is Night."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Uranus demanded.
"She allowed her fear and anger of who she was to consume her," Lucis continued, as if Uranus had not spoken. "She became a monster of Night, a Fury."
"A what?" Uranus asked. "Kami, you're not making any sense."
"A Fury," Lucis repeated. "Long ago in ancient times, the Furies were the ones who prosecuted criminals, driving them insane as they chased them. They would stalk their prey until it was caught."
"Then what?" Uranus wondered, looking down at Akumu.
"Then the Furies would destroy him," Lucis replied. "Haruka, you need to help her control her fear and anger or else she will transform again."
Uranus nodded. "I'll do what I can, Kami."
Lucis smiled brightly. "Thank you."
With that, the spirit of Light disappeared, leaving Sailor Uranus alone in the clearing with the unconscious Fury.
********
"There it is," Sailor Saturn whispered.
The three senshi hid in the forest at the rim of the demon camp. Before them, hundreds of demons mustered about, striking tents and polishing their claws. Pluto observed it all with a look of concern and Sailor Moon bit her lip nervously.
"What are they doing?" the pink senshi asked.
"It looks like they're getting read for war," Pluto replied.
"But they have the city," Saturn objected. "What else does Abyss want?"
The grip on Sailor Pluto's staff tightened as she looked down to Sailor Moon. Saturn followed the eldest senshi's gaze and gasped in spite of herself. Puzzled, Sailor Moon looked back up at Puu.
"What?" she asked.
Pluto shook her head. "No matter. We have to stop them. Here."
Saturn planted the butt of her glaive into the soft soil beneath her feet. "I'm ready. What shall we do?"
"A direct attack would be foolish," Pluto mused. "There are far too many of them. We need to find the cylinder and take it back first."
"But we don't even know where the cylinder is," Sailor Moon said.
"Look," Saturn said, pointing through the trees at a tent that hadn't yet been taken down. It was guarded by five or six large demons.
"Whatever is in there," Pluto said, "it would be valuable to us if Abyss needs to guard it so heavily."
"So, we should break into the tent?" Moon asked, blinking at the guards. "How will we get by them?"
"At night," Pluto replied. "The rest of the demons will be asleep by then and we will have the element of surprise."
"Too bad Nyx isn't here," Moon pouted. "She could have put them all to sleep for us."
Saturn and Pluto said nothing. In silence, the trio of senshi watched and waited.
********
Akumu came to herself very suddenly. Her sore and exhausted body protested consciousness, but her mind was already at work. Without moving from where she lay, she thought about what had happened to her. She remembered it all as if it were a dream; she chased the demon and she ripped it apart with her bare hands. Slowly, she lifted her hand to her face and noticed they were clean. Her gloves had gone as well and it took her a moment to realize she was no longer dressed in her senshi uniform. Taking a deep, shaky breath, Akumu pushed herself into a sitting position and looked around.
The sun was just setting to the west. She lay near the edge of a large mountain lake and the cylinder containing the life essences of the inner senshi rested beside her. She was dressed in her pyjamas, the clothes she had been wearing weeks ago when the Amazon Quartet had abducted her. In front of her burned a small fire and Akumu stared at it for a moment, trying to remember if she had made it or not. Movement to her right made her turn her head sharply and cry out in pain. Her vision blurred for a moment, and when it cleared, she saw Sailor Uranus kneeling before her.
"Lady Uranus?" Akumu mumbled, not believing her eyes.
"How are you?" Uranus asked, her voice betraying some worry.
Akumu rubbed her eyes and looked again. The scene was the same and Sailor Uranus was in front of her. The elder senshi put a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"Am I dreaming?" Akumu wondered.
Sailor Uranus laughed sharply. "If you are, can you put us somewhere else?"
Akumu smiled. Suddenly, the memory of what she had done came racing back full force and she shuddered. Uranus fed more branches to the fire as the sun sank out of view.
"Where's Usagi and Hotaru?" Akumu asked.
"I was hoping you could answer the same question," Uranus replied. "You're the only one I found here."
"The cylinder," Akumu began.
"Is safe," Uranus replied. "How did you get across that canyon by yourself? Why didn't you stay with the princess?"
Akumu blushed and lowered her head in shame. She opened her mouth to tell Uranus everything that had happened, but something made her pause. She looked at her hands again in disgust. She had become everything she feared in the senshi - cruel, heartless, and destructive, like the senshi who had taken away her guardian.
Uranus watched her struggle with her thoughts. Slowly, she nodded. "I saw you."
Akumu looked up sharply. "You saw "
"What you became. The Fury."
"Is that what I am?" Akumu said angrily. "Why was everyone so eager to have me become a senshi? Did you know this was what my powers would do to me?"
Uranus shook her head. "Of course not. No one knew."
"They why did it happen?" Akumu sobbed. "I'll never become Sailor Nyx again."
Sailor Uranus sighed. Kami had been right. She was letting fear control her.
"Listen," Uranus said. "It's the fear that turned you into a Fury, it's not who you are. You need more control."
"Control, control," Akumu cried. "That's all you tell me. What if I can't control it? What if it controls me?"
Uranus bit her lip, thinking back to the stories Usagi had told her of the Dark Scout. Kami had had the same problems as Akumu, yet had been more willing to fight it.
Until I killed her.
"You can master it," Uranus assured her. "Tell me exactly what happened before you turned into the Fury. Together, we'll figure this out."
Akumu sniffed and wiped a stray tear from her cheek. Slowly at first, she began to tell the elder senshi everything that had happened since Abyss had seized Crystal Tokyo.
********
Abyss watched the sunset of the ruins of Crystal Tokyo. Her demons had been hard at work, cleansing the city of any who opposed her rule. Those who did fight against her, and survived capture, were taken to the training arena in the palace. Abyss had big plans for their mass execution, witnessed by the former king and queen of Tokyo.
"Before that," Abyss said to herself, "we have those frozen senshi to deal with. They've been an eyesore in my palace for too long."
She held the paper with the workings of the Shield in one hand and squeezed it. As the paper crumpled beneath her fingers, a small purple spy ran from the open doorway.
"Sir! Sir!" Diana whispered frantically, scratching the door.
King Endymion opened the door a crack. The two guards on either side looked at him suspiciously, but Endymion merely smiled and closed the door again. Neither of the guards noticed the small, purple kitten run in between his feet, nor had they noticed the scratching.
Inside the bedroom, Endymion picked the small kitten up and carried her to the small office where Serenity sat waiting. For the two nights since Uranus had escaped, Endymion had hid Diana in their room. Abyss, too preoccupied in catching the escaped senshi, had not even noticed the kitten's absence.
"Sir, Madam," Diana said urgently, "Abyss is going to kill Lady Venus and the others!"
Serenity looked at her sharply. "What? How?"
"I don't know, Madam," Diana said sadly. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Endymion said gently. "You've done more than enough already. You're very brave."
Diana beamed with pleasure as Endymion stroked the kitten's head. Serenity sighed and tickled Diana's chin.
"I'm sorry as well," Serenity said. "I've been so worried about Chibiusa and the others, I didn't even thank you for risking your life."
Diana purred and smiled. "I understand."
"Abyss must have found the notes on the Shield," Endymion concluded.
"She did go through papers on Sir's desk," Diana agreed.
"So she knows how to kill them?" Serenity said.
Endymion nodded thoughtfully. "We'll have to stall her long enough to give Chibiusa and Haruka enough time to get back here."
Serenity nodded. "I hope she gets here soon. Abyss is growing more and more impatient."
********
When darkness covered the mountains, Sailors Moon, Saturn, and Pluto crept out of the cover of the forest and headed toward the camp. They had waited patiently for the demon guards to settle down but were disappointed to find the five guards around the tent remained standing at attention. Nevertheless, the trio of senshi were determined to stop Abyss' army before it headed to the city, and that meant stealing whatever was being guarded in the tent.
Pluto motioned for Sailor Moon and Sailor Saturn to go around to the back of the tent, the place that was the least guarded. When she was sure the two smaller senshi were in place, Pluto stepped out of the cover of the shadows and aimed the staff at the guards.
"Dead Scream," she called.
Two of the five guards were eliminated with the one attack while the other three tried desperately to raise the alarm. Pluto silenced them before they could wake the army, but some of the closer demons woke to join the fray.
Behind the tent, Sailor Saturn ripped the seam with her glaive and the two senshi slipped inside. It was pitch black within the tent and the two had to pause to allow their eyes to adjust to the darkness.
Navigating by the sliver of moonlight from the tear they had crawled through, Sailor Moon and Sailor Saturn saw the contents of the tent. It was not the cylinder, but something worse.
"Well, well, well," Abyss said. "What do we have here?"
"Abyss!" Sailor Moon gasped. "How?"
"Did I get here?" Abyss finished. The woman laughed. "A simple teleportation device. I don't trust my warriors enough to send messages to them. I prefer direct orders."
Saturn leveled her glaive at Abyss as the woman moved forward a step. "Don't try it," the purple senshi warned.
Abyss pouted. "Oh no! Are you going to hit me with your stick?"
"Where's the cylinder?" Sailor Moon demanded.
Abyss raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You don't have it? How delightful! I'm sorry, princess, but I don't have it either. It's a shame, really. By the time you and your little friends make it all the way back to Tokyo, your crystallized sailor friends will be ancient history."
The front of the tent flew open and Pluto walked it, pointing her staff at Abyss. Behind her as the tent flap fell closed again, Sailor Moon could see the remains of a dozen or so slaughtered demons.
"Give up, Abyss," Pluto said.
The purple haired woman turned. "I don't believe we've met. Of course, you must be Sailor Pluto. I've heard much about you."
Pluto said nothing. Abyss looked from her to Saturn and sighed.
"I'm sorry to break this up," she said, "but I have some business to attend to."
"Don't move," Saturn warned.
Abyss chuckled to herself and lifted a hand above her head. A sphere of black energy formed and crackled as she held it. Pluto's eyes widened as Abyss threw the sphere into the air. Time seemed to slow as the energy ball plummeted to the ground. All three senshi watched it in horror as Abyss disappeared back through her portal.
Suddenly, the black sphere struck the ground and the entire tent exploded in a hemisphere of negative energy.
********
Sailor Moon opened her eyes and blinked in surprise. She stood in the tent with Sailor Saturn beside her and Sailor Pluto in front of her. The portal through which Abyss had escaped was just closing, but time appeared to have stopped.
Sailor Saturn blinked and looked first at herself, then at her companions. Sailor Moon shrugged and both the young senshi turned to face Saturn.
"Run," the eldest senshi told them. "I've slowed time, but I can't hold it for long."
"Puu," Sailor Moon said, "what about you?"
Pluto smiled. "I'll survive. I have before, a century ago when I saved Haruka and Michiru from a similar fate. Now, go Small Lady. You are needed."
"Abyss" Saturn began.
"She can't be stopped now," Pluto said, "but we do know what she will be doing. I'm sorry I can't go with you to Tokyo."
"Why not, Puu?" Sailor Moon asked.
Pluto smiled wearily. "It is no easy task to slow Time, Small Lady. I must rest and recover my powers at the Time Gate. If you need me, I'll be there."
Tears welled up in Sailor Moon's eyes as Saturn pulled her through the rip in the tent. As the two senshi ran, Sailor Moon looked back and saw Pluto, her eyes closed in concentration, giving them enough time to live.
When the two senshi were a safe distance away, time returned to normal, and Abyss' northern army was vaporized in a blast of dark energy.
Alone again, the two senshi began the long walk back to Tokyo. They had no plan for rescuing the inner senshi without the cylinder, but maybe they could free the captives and free Crystal Tokyo of Abyss once and for all.
A faint glimmer of hope settled in Sailor Moon's breast, and she smiled to her friend. Saturn smiled back, and hand in hand, the two girls headed for a brighter future.