Part Nineteen

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Part Nineteen: The challenge of the Doomsday Gate! Narcissus collects the Senshi

"What is this place?" Mars muttered as the Senshi stared about them in confusion. They'd entered the gaping aperture atop the Altar, and as they all materialized inside, they couldn't help their small gasps and mutters of amazement.
"I don't know what I expected from a gate between two universes," Sailor Venus tossed in, "but this certainly isn't it."
 The Sailor Senshi found themselves standing on a beach; a long, endless expanse of golden sand that stretched out farther than any of them could see on either side. About six feet in front of them, the brilliant turquoise waves met the sand, lapping gently back and forth, crested with lacy white foam. And far, far ahead, where the horizon met the water, the entire sky looked as if it had been lit on fire with the dazzling array of colors of a spectacular sunset. It was absolutely breathtaking. But there was something almost creepy about it.
Jupiter shook her head. "I don't like it," she declared in a low voice. "It's too perfect. There's something weird going on."
 "My computer and VR goggles aren't working," Mercury announced, folding the top of her mini-computer down and tucking it away. "There must be some highly potent negative energy here if it can block the scanning. We should all be very careful."
 Sailor Pluto took a step forward, her garnet eyes scanning the horizon with concern. "This all seems very familiar, somehow. I feel like I ought to know this place. I've been here before, I'm sure of it."
 "Once again, welcome to the Doomsday Gate, Sailor brats." All the Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen spun about to see Lord Narcissus striding down the sand towards them. At the sight of the caped admiral, Sailor Moon's hands balled into fists.
 "Where are Uranus and Neptune?" she demanded, stepping forward. Tuxedo Kamen put a hand on her arm to prevent her from going too close to the Negaverse lord. They were, after all, in his territory now.
 Lord Narcissus chuckled. "All in good time, Miss Moon. You have my word, you'll all be seeing your little friends soon." He smiled deviously. "That is, of course, if you can prove yourselves worthy. We have a few little tests you'll have to pass first."
 "What sort of tests, Narcissus?" Tuxedo Kamen questioned quietly from behind Sailor Moon's shoulder.
 "Oh, just a few little things we've put together especially for you. I wanted your first visit to the Doomsday Gate to be an educational and entertaining experience, you know. You want to see your friends? Well, I'll tell you this much. They're down there." He waved one lavender-suited arm behind him, and when he'd stepped aside, they could all see a giant slab of stone rising out of the sand. There was something carved on its surface, but they were too far away to read it at the moment. Lord Narcissus cocked a pale purple eyebrow. "The first test is the test of Mind," he grinned. "Have fun." And with that, he shimmered out of view like a mirage.
 "Wait!" Sailor Jupiter called, running forward, but it was too late and Narcissus had vanished. Jupiter sighed. "Well, now what?" she wondered aloud.
 The others moved to join her. "Now I guess we take Narcissus' test," Venus replied, and they all turned to stare at the wide expanse of stone that had just appeared on the beach. As they approached it, they could see that there was an inscription at the top, and that beneath it was a raised series of buttons. Mercury reached the stone first, and read the inscription out loud.
 "My First is the beginning of a Tree
 My Second centers Cordially
 My Third makes the first half of Me
 My Last twice ends a Jubilee
 And I am the fabric of Eternity
 Who am I?"
Mercury shook her short blue locks as she gazed at the poem again. She realized that each of the small buttons beneath had a letter carved on it, similar to her computer's keypad. "It's a riddle," she said to the others. "We figure out the answer, punch it in, and this slab will open."
 "Kind of like a combination lock," Sailor Mars suggested, and Mercury nodded.
 "That's right. Normally I would just type the riddle into my computer and run analyses until it came up with the answer, but my computer's not working here. Which means we're going to have to do this the hard way, I suppose." The blue-haired Senshi sighed as she squinted again at the carved words.
 "Well, I know the first one," Jupiter jumped in. "I mean, that part about 'the beginning of a Tree' that's a seed, right?"
 "Hey, that's right," Sailor Venus exclaimed. "Way to go, Jupiter!"
 But Sailor Mercury was frowning. "You might be right, Sailor Jupiter. It could be a seed. But it could also be a flower, fruit, or cone since all of those things carry seeds. We have to keep every possibility in mind. Does anyone have a piece of paper and a pencil?" The Senshi looked at one another blankly, and she shook her head. "Never mind." She knelt down and began to write in the sand with her finger. "All right. We have 'seed', 'flower', 'fruit', and 'cone'. I think we should add 'roots' to that, because speaking structurally the beginning of a tree is at the root. All right, any other ideas?" The others were silent, and Mercury nodded. "Okay, so we move on to the second part. 'My Second centers Cordially.'" She frowned. "Even I'm stumped on this one. Do any of you have a suggestion?"
 The others shook their heads. "That doesn't make any sense, Mercury," Mars complained. "I mean, it centers WHAT cordially? How can you center something cordially? It's just silly."
 Sailor Moon turned towards Pluto, who had a funny, far off expression on her face. "Pluto, what is it?" she wanted to know. The Revolutionary Soldier turned to meet her eyes with a vague expression.
 "That last part about the fabric of Eternity I used to know this riddle. I know I did." She shook her head, her dark green hair brushing her face. "But I can't remember. It's been too long I wish Orion was here. She'd know."
 At the mention of their invalid friend, the Senshi were all quiet for a moment. Sailor Pluto took another deep breath and gazed out over the glittering water, towards the skyline. It was so familiar-- those colors, the sound of the waves, the noticeable absence of sea-birds, crabs, shells and seaweed; she knew she'd been here before. She ought to know this place. The fabric of Eternity. Eternity. Eternity
"The oceans of Eternity upon the shores of Time." Pluto's eyes widened as Orion's voice seemed to whisper in her ear, and she spun around. There was no one there.
 "Pluto? Is everything all right?" Tuxedo Kamen asked with concern.
"Yes yes, it is. I just remembered something," she answered as she recovered herself. "I remember-- where I've seen this place before." She turned towards Mercury. "The fabric of Eternity. I remember now this place is the ocean of Eternity, which laps away at the shores of Time. That's what the fabric of Eternity is, Mercury, it's Time. I think no, I'm certain, that the answer to the riddle is 'Time.'"
 Jupiter frowned. "But what does that have to do with the beginnings of a tree?" she wanted to know. "And that 'centers Cordially' and 'first half of Me' and all that other stuff?"
"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Mercury interrupted suddenly, a new light appearing in her eyes. She reached down with her hand and smoothed out the sand she'd written in before. Then, carefully, she spelled out the word TIME in big, sweeping strokes. "All right, now, just for the sake of argument, let's say that Pluto is right and Time is the answer. Now, suppose that the first four lines of the riddle aren't referring to things or objects, but to letters."
 "Huh?" Mars interjected with a puzzled look. "I don't get it what do you mean?"
 "Well, like the first line. 'My first is the beginning of a Tree.' If we're dealing with letters, then what letter begins the word 'Tree?'" She used her finger to circle the 'T' that had been traced in front of her. "Right?" Then she looked up at her friends, who were beginning to catch on. "All right, so that's the first letter. Now. 'My second centers Cordially.'" She spelled out the word 'cordially' into the sand, a little ways below the huge word TIME with its first letter circled. "Okay, there are nine letters here, an odd number, which means that one letter is the center of the word, right? So we count in from each side, one, two, three, four" Mercury moved her fingers one letter at a time towards the middle of the word, until at last both fingers were poised under the central letter.
 Sailor Moon's eyes widened. "It's an 'I!'" she exclaimed. "The letter 'I' centers the word cordially!"
 Mercury nodded, and with a flourish she circled the capital 'I' in the word TIME. "So that's two."
 "Wait, I get it," Sailor Jupiter broke in. "So when it says 'My Third is the first half of Me,' it's talking about the letters in the word 'Me.' But Me is only a two-letter word, so half of it would be just one letter. The 'first half' would be the very first letter of the word, which is an 'M'. So the third letter is 'M', right?"
 Mercury smiled up at her. "That's right, Jupiter. Very good." And she circled the capital 'M' in front of her. "Which leaves the very last letter, 'E'. And 'E' just so happens to end the word Jubilee twice." The last letter of TIME was also circled then, and Mercury straightened up and beamed at Sailor Pluto. "You did it, Pluto, you solved the riddle. Time is the answer."
 Sailor Pluto smiled a bit in acknowledgement, but she tilted her head to the side. "There's only one way to find out," she pointed out quietly, and Mercury nodded back at her. Bending over, the blue-clad soldier pressed the lettered buttons.
"T. I. M. E," she pronounced out loud as each button was depressed carefully. As her finger released the final button, the words of the inscription began to glow with a bright light. For a moment, none of them could see anything, as the intense brightness swept over them. Despite Sailor Moon's determination to distance herself from Tuxedo Kamen, she couldn't help but be grateful for the strong, reassuring presence of his hand on her shoulder. All the Sailor Senshi covered their eyes, shielding them from the powerful light.
 But as the light slowly faded, they were delighted to find that the heavy stone slab had disappeared, leaving behind a rectangular opening from which they could see a flight of steps descending downwards. That was where Narcissus had told them Uranus and Neptune were... they'd passed the test!
 "The riddle-thing vanished," Sailor Jupiter breathed in astonishment.
"Uh, Jupiter that's not the only thing that's gone," Sailor Mars suddenly pointed out. The Sailor Senshi looked at one another in alarm, realizing that it was true somehow, during that flash of blinding light, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Pluto had also disappeared.
Sailor Moon's large blue eyes widened with worry as she realized that her friends were missing. "Mercury? Pluto!!" She turned around, scanning up and down the beach, even peering down into the open stairway that had appeared before them. But there was no sign of either of them. "Pluto! Mercury, can you hear me?"
 "Congratulations, Sailor brats. The test of Mind is complete." The Sailor Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen looked up as Lord Narcissus materialized in front of them.
 "Where are Sailor Pluto and Sailor Mercury?" Jupiter demanded. "What did you do with them?"
 Lord Narcissus smiled coldly. "Why, they passed the test, my dear girl. And now it's time for the next one."
 Sailor Moon felt a chill run down her spine. "Where are they?" she asked in a near whimper.
 The Negaverse admiral fixed his icy gaze on her. "They're waiting for you. Down there." He pointed in the direction of the steps. "So go after them, if you dare and face the test of Body." An instant later, Narcissus was gone. Sailor Moon, Sailor Venus, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter and Tuxedo Kamen found themselves staring down a long flight of stone steps, swallowed up in darkness so that they could not even see the base.
 "Well, come on then," Sailor Jupiter declared, and moved forward to begin the descent. "You heard what he said. Test Number Two, here we come!"

"Oof!" Mercury landed hard on the stone floor, and rubbed her smarting behind ruefully.
 "Are you all right, pretty girl?"
 Mercury's blue eyes flew wide at the sound of the familiar rich voice, and she looked up into the grinning face hovering over her own. "Uranus! And Sailor Neptune!" She turned to see Pluto nearby, who was also picking herself up off the cold stone. "But where are the others?"
 Sailor Neptune shook her head and pointed at the smooth glass screen set into the wall. Mercury and Pluto could see the other Senshi as they disappeared down the steps that led them to Narcissus' next test. "They're still out there," Neptune replied. "We can watch them, but we can't help."
 Uranus held out her hand and helped Mercury rise to her feet. "We watched you and Pluto solve that puzzle," she said. "Very well done."
 But Sailor Mercury shook her head as she gazed around them, taking in the hard, solid stone walls and the bars that blocked off the end of the cell. "I don't understand," she muttered. "If we passed the test, then why did we end up in here?"
 Neptune sighed. "Narcissus is only playing with us, Mercury. It's not us he wants."
 "He wants Sailor Moon," Pluto concluded in her smooth, timeless voice.
 Sailor Uranus shook her head, her one golden earring swinging. "No, actually, she's not his main target. What he really wants is Sailor Orion. He thinks he's going to lure her here by capturing all of us."
 Sailor Mercury raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's just silly. Orion doesn't even have the energy to stand up how on earth is she going to make it all the way here?"
 "I wouldn't put it past her." This came from Sailor Pluto, whose tone was thoughtful. "I know Orion's loyalty to Sailor Moon and the other Senshi. She has this connection with all of us that's difficult to describe. As soon as she senses that we're in danger, she'll find a way to get here. I'm sure of it."
 But Neptune sighed. "If Orion really does come, it would be plain foolishness. Weakened as she is, she's not going to be able to help Sailor Moon much. Narcissus will get exactly what he wants all the Senshi in his pocket. All he'll have to do is line us up firing-squad style and aim that Soul Dissolver of his."
 "Not if I can help it," Uranus growled, rising to her feet and looking at the screen again. "He'd just better shoot me first."
 Neptune giggled gently and put a hand on her partner's shoulder. "Don't worry, Uranus. None of us are giving up yet. He may be able to defeat the rest of us, but he'll never overpower Sailor Moon."
 The other three girls nodded in agreement. It was true. They all knew their leader had more power in her pinkie finger than Narcissus and all his jaki put together. Together, the captured Sailor soldiers turned towards the viewscreen in the back of their cell to watch as the rest of their friends continued their journey through the Gate.

Sailor Jupiter gazed at the sheer rock face in front of them with an almost delighted grin. "Now this is what I call a test!" she exclaimed cheerfully. The others looked at one another with a bit more trepidation.
Directly in front of them, a heavy iron door was set into the rock face. The door was locked, with a prominent keyhole visible. Looking far, far above them, they could see what appeared to be a large iron key, embedded into the rock at least twenty feet off the ground. The smooth iron ring of the key jutted out of the rock towards them. There was a rope, coiled neatly, lying nearby. The only light came from a series of torches that had been drilled into the sheer rock at intervals.
 Sailor Moon shook her head. "Jupiter, this is impossible. How are we supposed to get up there and get that key? There's no place to tie the rope there's nothing to tie it to."
 Tuxedo Kamen stepped forward, eyeing the rocks before them thoughtfully. "I took a rock-climbing course in the university," he mused. "I think I could make it up there."
 "And then what?" Sailor Mars wanted to know. "That key is totally embedded up there. We'd need a hammer and chisel in order to pound it out, and to do that you'd need two free hands. Without anything to tie the rope to"
 "I've got a better idea." They all turned to look at Sailor Jupiter. "Tuxedo Kamen, you stay down here. Venus, hand me the rope, will you?"
 Sailor Venus frowned with confusion, but picked the coil of rope up and handed it over to Jupiter. The green-clad Senshi surveyed the rope carefully and tugged at it a little, then nodded in satisfaction. "All right," she said, and she looped the whole coil over her head and one shoulder, which allowed her to carry it while leaving both hands free. Then she looked up at the ring of the key, some twenty feet over her head. Jupiter rubbed her hands together. "Okay, here goes nothing," she declared, and reached up for a good handhold. Before the others had the chance to call her back, she was climbing.
 "Is she crazy?" Sailor Venus mumbled under her breath as their friend slowly and carefully ascended the rocks. "What's she going to do when she gets up there? There's no way to pull that key out."
 Sailor Moon watched Jupiter climb, and she held her breath. There was another flash of guilt as she realized that once again she was allowing her friends to do all the hard work. She resolved that the next test, whatever it was she was going to carry her own weight. Suddenly, she heard Tuxedo Kamen's low voice in her ear.
 "Sailor Moon I know you probably don't want to talk about this right now, and I know it's probably the wrong time but I need to know that everything is going to be all right between us."
 She turned to look up at him. She knew what he meant, and he was right, she didn't want to talk about it right now. Right now all she wanted to do was to find their friends and get out of here. But one look into those beautiful, worried blue eyes and she couldn't help responding. "Of course everything is all right," she responded. "Just because nothing is the same doesn't mean it can't be all right." She did her best to make her voice ring with a confidence she did not feel.
 "Yes, it does, Sailor Moon, and you know it. If you're not with me, then nothing can ever be right again." His voice caught a little and he had to pause before he could continue. "I love you, Sailor Moon. Just the way you are, for everything that you are. And I think you still love me too. I don't see how you can turn your back on me, and on Chibiusa."
 Sailor Moon shook her head. "You're both so much better off without me."
 "Why don't you let me decide whom I'm better off with?" Tuxedo Kamen prodded gently. "And even if it WERE true for me, it couldn't be true for Chibiusa. Don't you understand? She can't be 'better off' without you. Without you, she doesn't even exist. You're her mother, remember?"
 Sailor Moon's eyes filled with tears. "I'm not a mother, Tuxedo Kamen. A mother would have stood up and defended her child from Narcissus. A mother wouldn't let her child dress up in a soldier's uniform and fight evil creatures ten times her size. A mother wouldn't steal her own child's snacks." This anticlimactic statement brought a hint of a smile to Tuxedo Kamen's lips, and the petite Sailor leader sniffled a little. "I don't deserve to be her mother. I'm just going to get her killed."
The young caped man sighed, and reached forward to wipe the tears away from her eyes. "Sailor Moon, listen to me. If you do this if you choose to stay away from me, then Chibiusa will never be born. And if she's never born, she's going to cease to exist. Is that what you want?"
 "Maybe things would be better that way."
 "You don't mean that." He stared at her in surprise.
 But Sailor Moon nodded. "Yes. I do mean it. Maybe it's better if Chibiusa didn't ever exist I mean, I couldn't hurt her then, could I?"
 Tuxedo Kamen just stared at her, uncertain of what to say to this. But before he could think of anything appropriate, he heard Sailor Jupiter calling his name, and he looked up.
 Jupiter had made it all the way up the steep rocky wall to the key. She found a handhold deep enough that she could grip it firmly, and then painstakingly she used the other hand to remove the rope from her shoulder. Carefully, still gripping at the rock, she threaded one end of the rope through the iron ring of the key embedded into the stony surface.
Just as her fingers left the ring, however, the tiny ledge upon which her right foot was resting crumbled away from the weight upon it, and Jupiter slipped. Venus let out a scream as the small party below watched their friend scrabble for a new handhold and they all sighed with relief as Jupiter took hold of the ropes looped through the ring of the key and caught her balance. Sailor Jupiter breathed a little sigh of relief, but she also realized that by pulling on the ropes, the key had come loose a bit from the rocks. That's it, she realized. But I need a new handhold first She looked above her as the key wobbled again. The rock was smooth and angled inwards for at least a foot above the key. She could see a wedge higher up that would be just right, but she couldn't reach that high, and there were no more good foot-holds to help her up. She found herself wishing that Sailor Orion was here. With Orion's impossibly long legs and arms, she'd have been able to help.
 "It's all right, Jupiter. You can do it." The Senshi of Electricity's eyes widened as the whisper sounded very close to her ear. If she hadn't known better, she would have sworn that Orion really was right there with her she closed her eyes and shook her head for a moment to clear it. That was weird, she thought to herself. The key that was bearing much of her weight wobbled again, and she realized that she didn't have a choice. She had to try for that wedge, or she'd fall. Jupiter took a deep breath, tightened her hold with her other hand, and then released the ropes, stretching upwards towards the wedge. Her hand went up, and she pressed with her foot against the protruding rock in order to gain more height. I'm not going to make it
 Suddenly she was startled by the feel of a hand on her own, and the feeling of being pulled upwards. The next thing she knew, her fingers had found the wedge and were hanging on she was safe now. With a good, firm grip like this, she'd be able to hang around up here for a good long time. Jupiter turned her head to see who it was who had taken her hand and helped her up those last few inches, but there was no one there. Really weird. Looking down, Sailor Jupiter could see Tuxedo Kamen, apparently engrossed in a conversation with Sailor Moon. "Tuxedo Kamen!" she called down to him, and he looked up at her. "The key it's loose now. Take the ropes and pull on them-- I think you can pull it out."
 Tuxedo Kamen nodded and stepped forward to take the two ends of the rope, which were now dangling from the key ring. He tugged a little at them, but nothing much happened, so he wrapped one end around his arm several times, and yanked at the other end as hard as he could.
 "It's working!" Jupiter called down. "I saw it move! Try again!!"
 The masked man nodded and pulled again, this time throwing his full body weight backwards against the ropes. The key trembled a bit. He repeated the action a second time, and then with the third mighty heave the key came loose from the rock face with a resounding clang and another blinding flash of bright light. For a moment, everything went white.

"OUCH! Hey!!" Sailor Jupiter protested as she landed hard on cold stone. "What the-- "
"Welcome to the party, Jupiter," came the gentle, smiling response, and Jupiter looked up to see Sailor Mercury bending over her.
"Mercury!" She then noticed the other three Senshi behind her friend, and her green eyes nearly popped out of her head. "Uranus and Neptune?! And Sailor Pluto. How on earth" She rose to her feet unsteadily, and realized that Tuxedo Kamen was next to her on the stone floor. Swiftly she gazed around them, taking in the details of the small holding cell that Narcissus seemed to be dumping all of them into.
 Tuxedo Kamen also stood, shaking his cape out. He gave a low whistle when he realized that Uranus and Neptune were there with them. "So this is where you two have been hiding," he teased mildly. "We've had quite a time trying to find you." Then he took another look around and frowned. "Where's Sailor Moon and the others?" he wanted to know.
 Uranus jerked a thumb towards the back of the cell, where the two newcomers noticed the smooth glass television screen for the first time. They could see Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus. The three girls were staring at one another in confusion as the bright light faded away and they discovered their missing friends. "They're still out there," she informed them unnecessarily. "I guess Narcissus hasn't had enough fun with them yet."
Neptune shook her head, then turned to Jupiter. "We were watching you climb those rocks," she said with an approving smile. "That was well done. And those rocks giving way-- Mercury here nearly jumped out of her skin."
 Sailor Uranus lifted an eyebrow at her partner. "As I recall, Neptune, you looked a bit pale yourself." The aquamarine-clad soldier blushed a little, and Uranus grinned. "But she's right, that was a great climb," she asserted, turning towards Jupiter. "Couldn't have done it better myself." And she raised an arm to give Jupiter a high-five.
 Sailor Pluto stepped forward as Jupiter enthusiastically smacked hands with Uranus, and she caught the tall blond Senshi's elbow. "What's this?" she wanted to know, indicating the long, straight cut on the underside of her upper arm. "It's too straight and smooth to be a scratch. This was made with a knife."
 Uranus nodded with a little surprise. "Well, yes, it was. Neptune has one too, courtesy of Lord Narcissus and that Lady-Slipper friend of his."
 "What Lady-Slipper friend?" Tuxedo Kamen wanted to know. Uranus and Neptune looked at one another and nodded, and Sailor Neptune turned towards the others.
 "All right, then, we've got a few things we probably ought to tell you"

Sailor Venus stared. "I don't believe this. First Mercury and Pluto, now Jupiter and Tuxedo Kamen! I mean, what's going on?"
 "I guess they must have passed the 'test of Body' or whatever it was that Narcissus called it," Mars responded wryly, bending over to pick up the iron key which had been left in the dust at her feet. "So now what?"
 The two girls turned to look expectantly at Sailor Moon, whose face was white as a sheet. The Sailor leader shook her head. "They're gone. They're gone too. I didn't tell him" Her voice was dazed, and Sailor Mars frowned.
 "Tell him what?" she demanded.
 "That I love him." The words were out before Sailor Moon realized what she was saying, and Mars' violet eyes immediately softened. She reached out and put a hand on the smaller girl's shoulder.
"Hey, it's all right, Sailor Moon. He knows." The Senshi of Fire patted her shoulder soothingly.
 "That's right," Venus added, moving to Sailor Moon's other side and taking her hand. "I'm sure Tuxedo Kamen knows how you feel."
 Sailor Moon's still-wet blue eyes shimmered even brighter as a tear rolled down her cheek. Her friends meant well, but they didn't understand. She didn't have the opportunity to respond, though, because Mars was pressing the iron key into her hand. "Come on, Sailor Moon. We're going to go find him, and all the others, too." Sailor Moon looked down at the smooth, hard metal lying in her gloved hand, and she nodded. Straightening her shoulders, she marched forward and put the key into the lock of the heavy door. She turned it until they heard a satisfying click, and then the door swung slowly out towards them.
Sailor ChibiMoon was standing in the doorway. "Hi, guys!"
 Sailor Moon let out a little shriek of surprise and shock, and would have fainted dead away if a sudden recollection hadn't brought her to her senses. She seized the little girl's shoulders and shook her. "ChibiMoon! What are you doing here? I told you to stay at home. I left you there on purpose so you wouldn't get hurt. How did you get here? What do you think you're doing? You'd better start talking right now or I'll--"
 "Sailor Moon, calm down! How's she supposed to answer you when you're shaking the teeth right out of her head?" Mars declared firmly, reaching out to remove her leader's hands from the child's shoulders. But then she herself took the pink-haired Senshi and began to shake her, even harder than Sailor Moon had. "Why did you come? You're not supposed to be here!"
 Sailor Venus finally stepped in and pulled ChibiMoon away. "That's enough!" she cried. "Really, you two"
 It took Sailor ChibiMoon a moment to regain her senses, but then in true ChibiMoon fashion she stuck her tongue out at both of the other girls. "I came because there's no way I was going to stay at home and let you guys have all the fun," she snapped defiantly. "Besides, Narcissus thinks I'm dead thanks to you, Sailor Moon, so when I snuck in here he didn't even notice me. Look, while the rest of you have been playing around out here, I've already been to the dungeon where he's got Uranus and Neptune and now all the others. But I'm not tall enough to reach the key so I had to come get you."
 Sailor Mars' eyes widened. "You've seen Uranus and Neptune? Are they all right?"
 The littlest Senshi nodded. "Yeah, they're fine, but they really want to get out of here. I can take you to them. Come on."
 Mars and Venus exchanged glances and shrugged. Then they turned to Sailor Moon, who had gone disturbingly pale again. ChibiMoon was already disappearing through the doorway and down a long stone corridor. The three older girls began to follow.
After a moment, Sailor Moon hurried ahead to catch up with ChibiMoon. "Uh, ChibiMoon, can I ask you something?" she said a little timidly.
 The russet eyes looked up at her sharply. "Sure."
 "Um" Sailor Moon looked down and fiddled with her brooch a bit. "I was just wondering. What did you mean when you said that Narcissus thinks you're dead 'thanks to me?' I mean, the 'thanks to me' bit What did you mean by that?"
 Sailor ChibiMoon rolled her eyes. "Well, duh. He shoots me with the Soul Dissolver, and you of all people, my own mother, just stands there like a bump on a log."
 Sailor Venus, who had overheard this, gave a little gasp of indignation. "ChibiMoon! Don't say that! That's not the way it happened!"
 But Sailor Moon shook her head sadly. "Don't argue with her, Venus. That's exactly the way it happened."
 "You got that right," ChibiMoon affirmed with a self-important nod. "Some mother you are, Sailor Moon. I was just lucky that Orion knew what to do, or I'd really have been a goner. But don't worry about it, because I won't hold it against you. I'll still save your behind along with all the other Senshi."
 Sailor Moon's head lowered and her chin began to tremble. She deserved ChibiMoon's disdain. Everything she'd said was true. She HAD just stood there, useless as a bump on a log, while Narcissus attacked her. And here ChibiMoon was, helping her out after everything she'd done. She didn't deserve to be called ChibiMoon's mother.
 Sailor Mars reached out and seized ChibiMoon's arm, and shook her roughly. "What's the matter with you?" she demanded. "I know Sailor Moon may not always be the most exemplary of leaders, but she does try! What happened to you was not her fault and you know it. What are you saying all that stuff for?"
 "Let her go, Mars, she has every right to--"
 "She does not," Venus interrupted Sailor Moon, also glaring down at the little girl. "I think you ought to apologize, ChibiMoon."
 Sailor ChibiMoon shook her head defiantly. "No way! I'm not apologizing for telling the truth. She ought to be ashamed of what she did of what a little crybaby she is. She is no leader. You'd make a better leader, Sailor Venus. You should have taken Sailor Moon's offer."
 Venus' eyes widened and she dropped back a step. "What did you say?"
 Mars scrutinized the child she was holding carefully. Something wasn't quite right about all this. Something about the coldness in the russet eyes, the pure nastiness in her voice it didn't seem to fit. And then there was a whisper in her ear. "Mars. That's not ChibiMoon." Mars' violet eyes flew open and she twisted around to see who it was that had just spoken. She knew that silvery tinkling voice! But there was no one there. She turned back just in time to hear the little girl speaking again.
 "Venus, you're so much prettier and braver than Sailor Moon. You really ought to be the leader. Why not just take her locket from her and send her home? She'll be safer there anyway, and she won't be putting any of the rest of you in danger."
 Sailor Mars gaped at Venus. "Venus, don't listen to her, something's really wrong here" But the golden-clad Senshi had an odd look on her face as she locked eyes with the pink-haired child.
 Dreamily Venus stroked one of the pink ponytails. "You really think I'm prettier?" she mused.
 Mars couldn't believe it. "Venus!!" But then the child, who Mars was certain now was definitely NOT Sailor ChibiMoon, turned and fastened those large russet colored eyes on her, and Mars suddenly felt her own will going a bit soft.
 "Sailor Mars, you're so much smarter and more sophisticated than Sailor Moon would ever be. You would make a much better girlfriend for Mamoru, don't you think? A man like that needs a real woman, not a clumsy little girl like Usagi. He needs someone who can take care of him, not someone to baby-sit. Come on, now. Just take Sailor Moon's locket, give it to Venus, and send her home. The two of you can take care of the rest of the Senshi so much better." The russet in the eyes was flickering now, into a decidedly darker shade, and the flickering was nearly hypnotic. The little girl turned towards Sailor Moon now. "And you, Sailor Moon. Can't you see you're nothing more than a weak, scared little girl dressed up in a fuku playing the heroine? Come on, you know you don't have what it takes. Give up. Let them take care of it. Go home, take a nap, play some video games, and leave the real fighting to the real soldiers."
 Sailor Moon wasn't even looking at the child. She didn't need to meet her eyes to know the truth of her words. The Sailor leader nodded slowly, a tear trickling down over the bridge of her nose, and she reached for her locket. Sailor Venus held her hand out, palm up, ready to receive it. Mars watched. Yes. This was good. This was right. It was then that the voice came back, whispering in her ear a little more insistently now, snapping her from her trance. "Mars! That is not ChibiMoon!!" And Mars recovered herself right away. She straightened up and looked down at the child, who was wearing an unearthly wicked grin as Sailor Moon prepared to detransform right then and there.
 "Listen, you little maggot, I don't know who or what you are, but you're not Sailor ChibiMoon." Mars reached out and grabbed Venus' outstretched hand. "Venus, listen to me. That thing is not ChibiMoon. Don't listen to it."
Sailor Venus' unfocused blue eyes slowly began to clear at the touch of Mars' hand, and she blinked a few times as though waking up from a dream. She met Mars' gaze, and then looked down at the ChibiMoon-impersonator, and she frowned. "Hey," she cried, reaching out and grabbing the child's arm. "Who are you, huh? Just what are you trying to do here?"
 Sailor Moon looked up. "Venus, Mars, don't. She's right Here, just take my locket--"
"You keep that locket on your fuku where it belongs," Mars barked back at her. "I'm going to take care of this little Senshi impostor right now."
 "No!" Sailor Moon tried to step in between them, but Sailor Venus grabbed her and held her back.
 "Sorry about this, Sailor Moon, but I agree with Mars. That thing, whatever it is, has got to go."
 The imitation ChibiMoon smirked at Mars. "What do you think you're going to do?" she demanded imperiously. "Your powers don't work in here."
 "I don't need them," Mars grinned right back. "I've got one little trick that works against evil no matter where we are." And she produced one of her handy ofudas. Before the ChibiMoon impersonator could move, she held the long strip of white paper with the sacred Japanese symbols up and began to chant, "AKU! RYO! TAI! SAN! " The ofuda sang through the air, striking the pink-haired impostor right between the eyes. There was the distinct sound of a jaki hissing, as the evil spirit disguised as ChibiMoon was melted away by the power of the cleansing chant and symbols and then there was another explosion of white light.
Sailor Moon threw her hands up to shield her eyes from the brightness, and when it had faded, she was alone. Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus had both vanished, just like the others, and with a sinking heart Sailor Moon realized that they'd been right. ChibiMoon hadn't really been there, hadn't really said those things; it was all an illusion, and once again she'd been the one fooled by it.
She could hear mocking laughter, and turned to find Lord Narcissus approaching her from the other end of the corridor. He was clapping his hands dramatically. "Oh, that was lovely, wasn't it? Your friends just passed the test of Will." He stopped clapping as he drew closer however, and tilted his head to the side, gazing at the shaken girl with his one good eye. "But, my dear, you haven't passed any of the tests. Your little friends did all the hard work for you." He clucked his tongue condescendingly. "My, my. I would have expected more from the legendary leader of the Senshi. So now what? I'm afraid I don't have any tests left for you. And I can't very well just release your little friends to you when you haven't earned it."
 Sailor Moon sighed wearily. She was so tired of this. It felt like they'd been fighting this battle forever, and what for? Because he had some weapon that he was going to use on her friends, that's why. She looked up at Narcissus. "Well, what do you want now? Am I supposed to fight you for them?" She wasn't sure she had the strength.
 Lord Narcissus cocked an eyebrow. "Well, that's one option. But I have a better idea. Surrender."
 She regarded him with exhaustion. "What?"
 "Surrender. If you come with me now willingly, let me take you prisoner, I'll release all your little buddies in exchange for you. Deal?"
 Sailor Moon closed her eyes. She could see the faces of her friends, hear their voices in her mind. She knew they wouldn't want her to do this. She also knew that she had no other choice. This would be best for all of them, after all. Narcissus would kill her, and let the others go Tuxedo Kamen would be free to be with Mars, and ChibiMoon well at least she wouldn't be placing her future daughter in any more danger, since her future daughter would cease to exist. Venus could lead the Senshi, and life would go on perfectly well without her. She opened her eyes, looked into Narcissus' cold, menacing, grinning face, and nodded. "Very well. I surrender, Narcissus. Let them go."
 His smile broadened. "I always knew you were a reasonable girl," he stated smoothly, taking her arm as if he were a fine gentleman escorting her to a ball. "Come, let's go see your little friends, shall we?"

Pandemonium broke out as Sailor Moon entered the dungeon room on Narcissus' arm. She looked up and tears came to her eyes to see her friends all lined up behind the bars, calling to her. A sense of relief went through her to see Uranus and Neptune there as well, seeming safe and sound, though the glowering expression on Uranus' face was a little less than comforting. She knew they were all probably angry with her for just giving up, and she didn't blame them a bit, but she shook her head as all eight of them were yelling different things at once. Narcissus just stood there for a moment, grinning like a Cheshire Cat. Finally he waved his arms for silence.
 "Anything you want to say to them, Miss Moon?" he asked, looking down at her.
 Sailor Moon met the eyes of her friends, some accusing, some full of pity, and some just confused. But it was Tuxedo Kamen whose gaze caught and held hers a gaze of acceptance, understanding, and underneath all of that, a love that nearly took her breath away. She faltered a bit at that. She didn't deserve that look, not at all. "I know you're all mad," she said a little shakily. "But look it's going to be better like this. You'll see. Better for all of you. And I'm sorry-- for being such a failure. I really am sorry."
 Narcissus nodded and snapped his fingers, and the bars of the cell once again dissolved into thin air. The Senshi came tumbling out of the cell towards them, everyone talking at once, trying to reach Sailor Moon, to reason with her, to reassure her but none of them made it. There was a shimmering of the air at Narcissus' left, and suddenly a woman materialized into being right next to him a woman with long rose-colored braids and poisonous sea-green eyes. The woman smiled, and clapped her hands once.
 It was as if a wind had suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, shoving everyone backwards against the wall in opposite directions. For Neptune and Uranus, it was a familiar feeling as the iron manacles once again appeared from the stone wall and clamped down around their hands and feet. Sailor Moon, too, was wrenched away from Narcissus' arm and slammed up against the wall directly behind her, the solid heavy iron quickly emerging to secure her to the wall.
 When Sailor Moon recovered enough of her wits and her breathing to speak, she turned towards Narcissus. "What are you doing?" she demanded. "You promised if I came with you you'd let them go."
 Narcissus shook his head. "My dear girl, lesson number one: in the Negaverse, there is no such thing as a promise."
Lady Slipper, standing next to him, smiled and held out her hands. A moment later, the Soul Dissolver had appeared in them, and she giggled. "Oh, Narcissus, perhaps I was wrong about you. When the Avatar hears that we've permanently dispatched all the Senshi in one blow, he's sure to give both of us a promotion." She lifted the Dissolver to her shoulder and swung it around. "Now, which one goes first?" But Narcissus reached out and snatched the Soul Dissolver out of her hands.
 "Not yet, Lady Slipper. I don't want to kill them until I've got Sailor Orion in my hands too."
 Lady Slipper frowned. "My dear admiral, I already told you. The only one you need to catch Orion is Miss Uranus over there. The rest of them should be taken care of now, while you've got the opportunity."
 Lord Narcissus shook his head. "I don't think so. We're waiting for Orion."
 "I'm telling you, that's foolishness. You don't need all of them."
 The lavender-headed admiral shook his head. "I disagree. There's no way Orion is going to come after just one of her little friends. I don't see anything so special about Uranus I'm in charge here, and I say that we wait."
 "You're in charge? YOU'RE in charge? Narcissus, do you have any idea who you're speaking to? I outrank you six ways to Sunday, and I'm telling you that you need to get rid of the rest of them now. Orion will come for Uranus. I promise you that."
 "Lady Slipper is right. Even if you did kill the others, I'd come for Uranus." There was a collective gasp as Sailor Orion seemed to step into the center of the room, right out of thin air, and Centauri was right at her heels. The colossal Sailor Senshi turned to throw a bitter smile at Lord Narcissus. "But I'm not going to let you kill any of them."
 "Orion!" Sailor Moon gasped from the wall behind them. "Where did you come from?"
 Sailor Orion made a slight bow towards her. "I've been with you all along, Princess, from the very beginning." She held up her right arm, on which the bracelet set with her fire opal glinted in the dim light. "The Orion Fire Opal is such a handy little thing, you know. It lets me disappear--" She pressed the stone and vanished from sight for a moment, then became visible again. "--and reappear at will."
 "Then it WAS you I heard, and you were the one who helped me on the rocks when I slipped," Jupiter exclaimed.
 "And it was you who reminded me of the shores of Time."
 "And told me that jaki disguised as ChibiMoon was an impostor."
 Orion nodded. "Yes." She turned towards Narcissus, and her silvery eyes had gone very dark, and very, very cold. "I hope you had fun playing your little games, Lord Narcissus. Because I'm not going to play with you any more."
 The Negaverse admiral stared at her, and had to swallow hard. Something was lurking in those eyes something dark. A black secret. And he had the feeling that whatever it was, he wasn't going to like it. He looked over at Lady Slipper, who had also gone very pale and was staring at Sailor Orion as if she'd seen a ghost. The sudden abject terror on the Negaverse woman's face confirmed his suspicions. There was something about Orion that was not exactly what it seemed to be and he had the very uncomfortable premonition that he was about to find out what that something was, and it wasn't going to be pleasant.

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