The Other Side
by Goz

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. If I did, I would've made them wear more clothes.

Warning: This is a Sailor Moon fanfic concerning various new Sailor Scouts of my own creation. It also contains liberal mixing of the Japanese version with the dub. Caveat emptor.

Note: Seeing as I wrote this thing nearly three years ago now, you'd think I'd have posted the whole thing by now, or at *least* stopped picking at it. But anyway, after four months, here's chapter sixteen, and I made a few changes to fourteen and fifteen.

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Part 16

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"Go 'way." Ariane felt like she could sleep forever, but that shaking kept rousing her.

"Ariane! Wake *up*! This is *important*, you *idiot*!" her mother screamed at her. Ariane growled and struck at the sound of the voice, not *wanting* to train today - but then she opened her eyes and was looking up at Connelly, who had a black eye from the punch that Crown Princess Calida would never have let Princess Ariane land.

"Andrea... she *switched sides*! Ket said she *switched sides* -" Ariane observed abstractly that she babbling.

"Yes, she switched sides," snapped Connelly, yanking Ariane up by her shoulder. "That's *fairly* obvious considering we spent ten minutes - what's wrong with you?"

"Why?" Ariane made herself say, shaking in exhaustion. Her vision was blurry, but she did notice that while she was still transformed, Connelly was back in her mundane form.

"I *don't know*. Did you get hit in the *head* - oh. Yeah. I guess you did." Connelly quickly helped her lie down again and held a bottle of water to her lips, blushing bright red. "You don't remember any of the fight?" she demanded anxiously.

"I remember fighting Sailor Alecto. And Andrea saying she'd drain people's energy," Ariane rasped.

"Okay. Okay. Uh - okay. Ariane went after you with Hydra Venom Fangs - she grazed you in the head, but you seemed alright *then* -" Connelly's voice broke. "- I - I thought so, anyway, but I was distracted - got hit, too - but - you got over to the other side of the theater and hit Alecto hard with Calling Wind - she was burnt pretty badly, and she got *mad* at you. Used Alecto Mobius Threads three times, but Andrea stopped the attacks -"

"Stopped it?" asked Ariane hoarsely.

"I know - I know - but I don't know that it meant anything," said Connelly shakily. "Mobius Threads is a dangerous attack with even *one* use - it's this huge thread that grows and spins around, like Circle Streams, but it's a very *thin* thread that can slip between molecules, cut through *anything* - the only way to stop it's burning it. Andrea got it with Hydra Searching Flame, then - they thought I was out - I faked being unconscious for a minute - tried to talk Belinda - Sailor Alecto -" Connelly didn't want to use the name - Ariane suddenly guessed why, and shivered. "- talk Alecto down. That was when I used Neo-Nega Last Stone on Alecto. I got her."

Connelly's voice had gone very flat, and Ariane shuddered a little. Connelly patted her arm with trembling hands, but kept staring straight ahead as she narrated. "Andrea destroyed the body with Hydra Last Strike and that knocked me out - the idea's to produce lots of carbon dioxide from the dead - and I just woke up a minute ago - look, can you get up yet?" Ariane tried to sit up again, and found that the spots that had been waiting for her the last time had given up.

"I still gotta go lie down s-soon -" she trailed off as she saw the movie-goers lying on the ground, all unnaturally pale. There was a hissing sound coming from the doors -

"Andrea drained their energy," said Connelly shortly. "The doors were melted closed, and I figured I'd let the police break them open. Now come on, use the healing move, then detransform -"

Ariane shook of Connelly's hands - she didn't think it was right to do this with someone helping her stand - and held up her wand -

"Cassiopeia Healing Slumber!"

"Okay. Good," Ariane heard Connelly say in a satisfied tone as she was lowered to the floor once again.

"Y-you didn't say it'd s-sap m-my energy t' do a lot of people," Ariane accused shakily.

"You wouldn't have done it," replied Connelly reasonably.

"Would *so*," growled Ariane, disgusted that Connelly thought her that callous, then more loudly. "Wh-why didn't you tell us - me - about what the other scouts' attacks did? All you did was list their *names* -"

"Because there are over a hundred attacks for all twelve of you, and I didn't want you freezing up and worrying about the best strategy. You just need to hit hard and fast," said Connelly glibly. Ariane gritted her teeth in frustration - Connelly was *still* doing her "it's not important" act. *Why* was she so set on not giving any information about their past lives?! Aside from the brief period of mourning for Isadora, she'd been practically *mute* -

"But the last two have been part of the same team, haven't they?" asked Ariane, shaking it off. She could at least prove that she was taking this seriously. "You said there were Sailors for the stars Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, and that Caprice had conquered those stars just because she liked their names. So I looked those names up - Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone were the three Erinyes, or Furies, the goddesses of vengeance in Greek mythology. So, isn't Sailor Tisiphone probably gonna be the next one who shows up?"

"...yeah, maybe," admitted Connelly - she'd clearly missed that angle. "They didn't work together much, but their abilities were originally *meant* to complement one another - like Megaera's fire attack and Mobius Threads -"

"*Tell* me, then -" One of the doors gave, and metal snapped and wailed around the flame of the torch.

"I will. And about Andrea's attacks, too. When we get home."

-

Ariane was staring at ceiling, trying to think of a way to make herself wake up from her nightmare and be back in Asahikawa. Two dead sisters who turned and tried to kill her, a living twin who did the same, a third sister still living who thought herself destined to drown the earth in blood, a mother who wouldn't tell her anything and wouldn't tell her why - it was a dream. Maybe if she jumped around a lot or screamed at the top of her lungs, she'd fall off of her old bunkbed.

Something knocked on the window, and Ariane dropped out of her reverie. She slowly drew her wand from under her pillow, her mind already forming the words of her first attack. She thought she hadn't made any noise, but someone banged on the window pane. "Let me in, Ariane," hissed a rough voice that Ariane knew she ought to recognize.

"Cassiopeia Constellation Power!" she murmured, making a controlled fall from her bed to the floor. She crept up to the curtains slowly, prepared to attack. The banging continued. *Damnit, I *know* you're awake! Let me in! It's *Ket*!*

She threw open the curtains, brandishing her wand. Andrea was standing outside the window, a supremely frustrated look on her face. Her eyes were green, not violet, and she was clinging to the windowsill in a way that suggested she didn't quite know how to stand on her own. *It's *me*,* growled the mental voice again. *Let me in FAST!* Ariane opened the window quickly and helped the clumsy - person, in. She was wearing a black ankle-length dress that couldn't have aided her dexterity.

"I didn't know you could take over Andrea's -"

"Shut up. This is important." Ket dropped to the floor on her back and closed her eyes. Ariane flinched, naturally assuming that Ket was hurt, but she kept talking. "Look, I thought I had it beat, but an old mind control thing's gotten hold of Andrea. It looks like Queen Bery, it's not - it's -"

"Mind control - wh-*what*?! I -"

"There's a goddamn *Negaverse mind control device* that was meant for *me* inside *Andrea* and she can't control her *actions*." Ket didn't try to get up, or even open her eyes, but Ariane got the idea she'd be flattened if she interrupted again. "I'm *trying* to break it again - but I'm not sure *I'm* the one who **can**. But I'm telling you *not to kill Andrea* - we *will* work it out and you *need* -"

"But, what if she kills other people -" Ariane began. It occurred to her that she had once seen Andrea standing over the shredded body of someone named Rhyolite -

"Damnit, *she won't*." Ket started to sit up, banging a hand on the floor - the wood splintered.

"I don't know that we can *risk* it," said Ariane, recalling Connelly's explanations. "Andrea is the *strongest brute force attacker of the Nega Scouts* -"

Ket surged up from the floor and hurled both her fists right into Ariane's eyes, knocking Ariane's wand across the floor and slamming her to the floor. Ket glared directly into her eyes, growling, "*Damnit*, you little *twit*, you don't even *know* what's going on -"

"I don't need to," spat Ariane, feeling Princess Ariane's blood pumping through her veins, and shouldered Ket off of her and to the floor with a strength she didn't know she had. She dragged the wand towards her with her foot, gritting her teeth. "I know that Andrea will kill people if we don't -"

"*You don't understand -*" Ket released her abruptly, standing up and looking around frantically. "*Damnit*, no *time* -" Ket turned to Ariane again, barely reining in her fury. "I'll get her cured whether I have your help or *not*!" Ket sprung out the window in an uncannily catlike motion, hissing, "Princesses!"

Ariane started towards the window, yelling "Ket!" in a commanding tone, but a bright red light flashed briefly outside, and the parking lot was empty.

Ariane slammed the window shut and turned around, seething. "Opened a *Nega Portal* - that goddamn arrogant disobedient little cat -"

She stopped.

That was Princess Ariane - the self-protective murderer and dictator of worlds - the one that silent Connelly must have hoped she could *escape*... the one who'd led a bloodier, more eventful life, a life that could just possibly dominate Ariane Erhlic's fourteen uncomplicated years...

Ariane quietly detransformed and curled up under her blanket, thinking hopelessly of Asahikawa.