Part VI
The world went black and time seemed to stop. It was as though some one was strangling her, for she could not breathe. Every vein in her body seemed to pulse a fiery liquid. Her heart pounded as though it was trying to escape her chest. Kakyuu watched in horror as she saw the pain that Fighter was feeling at that moment. "We have to warn them!" Fighter finally got out.
Kakyuu nodded and they turned towards the control room where Maker and Healer were already in the process of doing so.
Haruka dropped Rei off in front of her house. It was now dusk and night would be upon them soon. Rei looked up into the sky, through the now apparent colors of the sunset she could see the first stars of the night breaking through to shine their light. "Exquisite." She remarked.
Haruka looked up at the sky that she was so taken by and too admired its beauty. "You should try to get some sleep tonight, we'll tell the others tomorrow."
Rei didn't take her eyes off of the sky but just simply nodded her head.
"What's going on? Why haven't you contacted them yet?" Fighter's voice was frantic. She knew Maker was doing all that she could but that didn't seem to be enough. The anxiety running ramped through her body, spreading beyond her control.
Maker knew that Fighter didn't mean to be this way, she had been under a lot of stress lately, they all had, but with this new news she only expected as much from her. Kakyuu tried to calm her down. "Fighter, she is trying to do all that she can right now." Kakyuu's hand that was placed on Fighter's shoulder was soon shrugged off.
"When we left Earth, we never planned on having to contact each other for anything, therefore we have no idea where to begin to search." Maker explained in her calmest voice. Although she would often at times appear calm, cool and collected her inner turmoil was usually above that of a normal human being.
"She's trying to tap into their communicators now. Since we know that they all had one, this is the most convenient way to do so. Its not like we can send a radio broadcast to them. The whole planet would hear it and panic." Healer had already had the entire situation explained to her while Kakyuu was getting Fighter.
"Hello?" Usagi answered her phone. She was just getting ready to turn in for the night.
Rei was a bit nervous on the other end of the line but found the courage to speak. She had to sound as normal as possible, she didn't want Usagi to sense that there was anything wrong. "Hey, did I disturb you?"
"No, what's going on?"
"Nothing, I was just disappointed that I had to miss the arcade with you guys. Do you think we could do it tomorrow? We can all meet at the shrine in the morning." She couldn't very well explain to the others about her premonition at the arcade but would tell them instead when they arrived at her house.
"Sure, have you talked to anyone else?" Usagi was changing while talking on the phone.
"Yeah, they're all going to meet us there. So I'll see you around tenish?"
"Tenish huh? Rei you can just say ten, I promise I'll be on time!" Usagi pulled back the covers of her bed. "So I'll see you at TEN." She put extra sarcastic emphasis on the time.
Rei had to laugh. Putting the same emphasis on the time she answered. "Alright then TEN it is. Ja ne!"
Usagi hung up her phone and got into her bed. Mamoru had been gone for two whole days now and hadn't called or written once again. She knew that he had gotten there safely because Ami checked with the University again just as a precaution. Before she knew it, Usagi's thoughts slipped once again from Mamoru to Seiya. She fell asleep that night with the hope that she would one day see him again.
Hours had passed and Maker didn't appear to be any closer to solving the problem than she did when she began. Everyone was growing frustrated by now and the tension in the room was unbearable. Maker crawled under the control panel again for what seemed like the hundredth time and began playing with miscellaneous wires.
The control room was torn apart and every electrical circuit that would have been useful was now torn apart and rewired. As she played with the wires a picture began to come on the screen. "Maker wait, you're picking up something." Fighter yelled as she saw the slightest change in the screen.
Maker readjusted the wiring to stay on that channel and soon a clear picture came into view. It was Luna. "Luna, where are the senshi?" Healer asked as she recognized the black cat.
Luna didn't answer but instead looked down. The Starlights were confused as to why Luna had answered the communicator in the first place. They assumed that the Earth senshi always wore them on their person. "When did you get a communicator?" Maker asked wondering why a cat would need such technology.
Luna's head picked back up as she stared into the screen. The icy glare that emanated from her eyes chilled the Starlights to the bone. "This is Sailor Moon's communicator." Her voice was grave and her appearance unsettling.
"Where is Sailor Moon? Why doesn't she have it? What's going on?" Fighter's voice emphasized her panic and was breaking up with every word that struggled its way out of her throat. Had she caused this?
"She does have it." Luna answered. The screen shifted and it looked as though Luna was turning the communicator. Usagi's face came onto the screen. "Do you see her?" Luna asked as she held Usagi's wrist up so that the communicator would show her face and her body. "She's dead."
Artemis walked over to the window as he looked up at the moon that now hung high above the city. Night had come and so had something else. He hadn't been there when it happened but it appeared that Minako had not struggled. She lay peacefully in her bed as though she was sleeping, but he knew better. She was ghostly white but a certain serenity hung over her.
He hadn't reacted the way you might think that he would have. He didn't panic, he didn't cry instead he sat in disbelief as he marveled at how beautiful she was even in death. He knew that he had to tell Luna. He dreaded calling her, he didn't want to have to tell the others.
Artemis knew that she didn't just die in her sleep, he knew that some force greater than her or himself had intervened and now her life had paid the price. The communicator beeped as he waited for Luna to answer it. It had only beeped when the line was already in use. He wondered if this had happened to one of the others. Panic swept his brain once again as he tried to imagine the worst case scenario.
Luna's face soon showed up on the screen but who she was talking to also showed up on the other half of the screen. "Starlights?" He questioned when he recognized them. He didn't see Fighter but only Healer, Maker and Kakyuu. "Luna you must keep an eye on Usagi."
"Too late." She replied in the same grave tone that she had used with the Starlights. Artemis knew immediately what she meant and wished that it wasn't so.
"What about the others?" Kakyuu asked urgently and almost impatiently.
"Usagi. Minako. Ami. Rei. Makoto. Haruka. Michiru. Hotaru. Setsuna. They're all. dead." Luna's voice trailed off. "We don't know how it happened. We didn't see anything. There was no preliminary attack. They just went to sleep tonight as they normally would and when we checked on them they were dead."
The satellite feed began to break up. A fuzzy cracking dissipated the image on the screen. "We hope and pray for your safety." Was the last thing they heard before all contact was lost.
"No. no. this can't be." Healer shook her head in disbelief. "Why would they have gone to Earth?" The questions that she asked were ones that none of them could answer.
"But more importantly, how did they know to attack the Earth senshi and who they were?" Maker was trying to make sense of it all and bring any sense of reasoning back into the picture.
Kakyuu turned and looked around the room for Fighter. The room behind her was vacant and she had a bad feeling that Fighter was going to go down below.
It was all her fault.
She looked down at her gloved hand. The smooth leather that reflected what little light was filtering in through the window seemed some how foreign to her as she looked down at her hands as though they were disgusting and were responsible for the condition of her love.
If she hadn't been so selfish the Earth senshi would have been warned. Now, instead of not wanting to see the one person she loved more than anyone else for fear of hurting herself she has doomed her to death.
She looked beautiful. The moonlight was coming in through her window and falling on her face as she appeared to be sleeping. If only she was sleeping. The tears were coming with no hope for an end. Was this her punishment for being selfish?
The same darkness that she had drifted into so many times before overwhelmed her once again, but now somehow it seemed to be even darker, more malicious than before. Her hope, her light of hope had gone out and she felt that there was nothing else to live for. But she had lived sixteen years of her life before she met Usagi without her. Why was it so hard to live in these few moments without her now?
Nothing seemed to happen before that day. That day that she had met Usagi. The day that put her entire existence into perspective. The day that she would never forget. She couldn't remember caring or feeling the love that consumed her before meeting Usagi. It was as though this girl had awoken a sleeping emotion inside of her. One that felt so good to finally have but felt so horrible not to be able to feed.
The one thing that she had loved the most in her life and the thing that she wanted to keep safe was the thing that she was responsible for its downfall. How was she supposed to go on now knowing that she had committed such a haenous crime? Should she even be allowed to?
Fighter's thoughts turned slowly from loathing and self-pity to hatred and animosity. She had to fight, she couldn't give up now. Her thoughts were once again broken by the sound of footsteps behind her.
"Fighter it's not your fault." Kakyuu said as she approached her in the darkened room. She was relieved to see that she had not left the palace but was put off by the darkness that her heart was emitting.
Fighter's hands shook violently with rage as she stood up and turned around to face her Princess. Kakyuu saw the fire in her eyes as she could tell her blood was boiling. Pure furious passion could be seen in her body. "Why.?"
The question was one that she had not expected and didn't really know the answer to. "I don't know." Was all that she could reply.
Fighter passed Kakyuu with a breeze as she mad a valiant dash through the palace. With her determined pace she drew the attention of everyone that was watching. Healer and Maker ran closely behind her as the Princess trailed off in the distance. They had to stop her from leaving the palace.
As Fighter made her way into the courtyard she came to a sudden halt. Panting with her chest heaving up and down with each breath she saw the enemy. Blinded by her emotions she was about to make a charge at them but was held back by Healer and Maker who quickly caught up with her.
Thousands of soldiers lined up on the outside of the force field. The Starlights had not noticed that they were gathering, as they were busy trying to contact the Earth senshi in their wasted effort. Their bodies were decaying as the rotting flesh hung off of them. It was an army of the dead. They had fed off of the souls of the living to resurrect themselves to the state they were at now. At the head of the pack was a man who was almost completely covered with flesh and bore a cape on his back.
From one glance into the eyes of this mad man one could tell that he held a certain understanding and insight that only the insane possessed and the sane wished for. He had a cocky grin as he began to speak. "Princess Kakyuu." He said in a tone just slightly above a whisper.
The Starlights turned around to see that the Princess had come up behind them. "Isai." Was all that crossed her lips.
The world went black and time seemed to stop. It was as though some one was strangling her, for she could not breathe. Every vein in her body seemed to pulse a fiery liquid. Her heart pounded as though it was trying to escape her chest. Kakyuu watched in horror as she saw the pain that Fighter was feeling at that moment. "We have to warn them!" Fighter finally got out.
Kakyuu nodded and they turned towards the control room where Maker and Healer were already in the process of doing so.
Haruka dropped Rei off in front of her house. It was now dusk and night would be upon them soon. Rei looked up into the sky, through the now apparent colors of the sunset she could see the first stars of the night breaking through to shine their light. "Exquisite." She remarked.
Haruka looked up at the sky that she was so taken by and too admired its beauty. "You should try to get some sleep tonight, we'll tell the others tomorrow."
Rei didn't take her eyes off of the sky but just simply nodded her head.
"What's going on? Why haven't you contacted them yet?" Fighter's voice was frantic. She knew Maker was doing all that she could but that didn't seem to be enough. The anxiety running ramped through her body, spreading beyond her control.
Maker knew that Fighter didn't mean to be this way, she had been under a lot of stress lately, they all had, but with this new news she only expected as much from her. Kakyuu tried to calm her down. "Fighter, she is trying to do all that she can right now." Kakyuu's hand that was placed on Fighter's shoulder was soon shrugged off.
"When we left Earth, we never planned on having to contact each other for anything, therefore we have no idea where to begin to search." Maker explained in her calmest voice. Although she would often at times appear calm, cool and collected her inner turmoil was usually above that of a normal human being.
"She's trying to tap into their communicators now. Since we know that they all had one, this is the most convenient way to do so. Its not like we can send a radio broadcast to them. The whole planet would hear it and panic." Healer had already had the entire situation explained to her while Kakyuu was getting Fighter.
"Hello?" Usagi answered her phone. She was just getting ready to turn in for the night.
Rei was a bit nervous on the other end of the line but found the courage to speak. She had to sound as normal as possible, she didn't want Usagi to sense that there was anything wrong. "Hey, did I disturb you?"
"No, what's going on?"
"Nothing, I was just disappointed that I had to miss the arcade with you guys. Do you think we could do it tomorrow? We can all meet at the shrine in the morning." She couldn't very well explain to the others about her premonition at the arcade but would tell them instead when they arrived at her house.
"Sure, have you talked to anyone else?" Usagi was changing while talking on the phone.
"Yeah, they're all going to meet us there. So I'll see you around tenish?"
"Tenish huh? Rei you can just say ten, I promise I'll be on time!" Usagi pulled back the covers of her bed. "So I'll see you at TEN." She put extra sarcastic emphasis on the time.
Rei had to laugh. Putting the same emphasis on the time she answered. "Alright then TEN it is. Ja ne!"
Usagi hung up her phone and got into her bed. Mamoru had been gone for two whole days now and hadn't called or written once again. She knew that he had gotten there safely because Ami checked with the University again just as a precaution. Before she knew it, Usagi's thoughts slipped once again from Mamoru to Seiya. She fell asleep that night with the hope that she would one day see him again.
Hours had passed and Maker didn't appear to be any closer to solving the problem than she did when she began. Everyone was growing frustrated by now and the tension in the room was unbearable. Maker crawled under the control panel again for what seemed like the hundredth time and began playing with miscellaneous wires.
The control room was torn apart and every electrical circuit that would have been useful was now torn apart and rewired. As she played with the wires a picture began to come on the screen. "Maker wait, you're picking up something." Fighter yelled as she saw the slightest change in the screen.
Maker readjusted the wiring to stay on that channel and soon a clear picture came into view. It was Luna. "Luna, where are the senshi?" Healer asked as she recognized the black cat.
Luna didn't answer but instead looked down. The Starlights were confused as to why Luna had answered the communicator in the first place. They assumed that the Earth senshi always wore them on their person. "When did you get a communicator?" Maker asked wondering why a cat would need such technology.
Luna's head picked back up as she stared into the screen. The icy glare that emanated from her eyes chilled the Starlights to the bone. "This is Sailor Moon's communicator." Her voice was grave and her appearance unsettling.
"Where is Sailor Moon? Why doesn't she have it? What's going on?" Fighter's voice emphasized her panic and was breaking up with every word that struggled its way out of her throat. Had she caused this?
"She does have it." Luna answered. The screen shifted and it looked as though Luna was turning the communicator. Usagi's face came onto the screen. "Do you see her?" Luna asked as she held Usagi's wrist up so that the communicator would show her face and her body. "She's dead."
Artemis walked over to the window as he looked up at the moon that now hung high above the city. Night had come and so had something else. He hadn't been there when it happened but it appeared that Minako had not struggled. She lay peacefully in her bed as though she was sleeping, but he knew better. She was ghostly white but a certain serenity hung over her.
He hadn't reacted the way you might think that he would have. He didn't panic, he didn't cry instead he sat in disbelief as he marveled at how beautiful she was even in death. He knew that he had to tell Luna. He dreaded calling her, he didn't want to have to tell the others.
Artemis knew that she didn't just die in her sleep, he knew that some force greater than her or himself had intervened and now her life had paid the price. The communicator beeped as he waited for Luna to answer it. It had only beeped when the line was already in use. He wondered if this had happened to one of the others. Panic swept his brain once again as he tried to imagine the worst case scenario.
Luna's face soon showed up on the screen but who she was talking to also showed up on the other half of the screen. "Starlights?" He questioned when he recognized them. He didn't see Fighter but only Healer, Maker and Kakyuu. "Luna you must keep an eye on Usagi."
"Too late." She replied in the same grave tone that she had used with the Starlights. Artemis knew immediately what she meant and wished that it wasn't so.
"What about the others?" Kakyuu asked urgently and almost impatiently.
"Usagi. Minako. Ami. Rei. Makoto. Haruka. Michiru. Hotaru. Setsuna. They're all. dead." Luna's voice trailed off. "We don't know how it happened. We didn't see anything. There was no preliminary attack. They just went to sleep tonight as they normally would and when we checked on them they were dead."
The satellite feed began to break up. A fuzzy cracking dissipated the image on the screen. "We hope and pray for your safety." Was the last thing they heard before all contact was lost.
"No. no. this can't be." Healer shook her head in disbelief. "Why would they have gone to Earth?" The questions that she asked were ones that none of them could answer.
"But more importantly, how did they know to attack the Earth senshi and who they were?" Maker was trying to make sense of it all and bring any sense of reasoning back into the picture.
Kakyuu turned and looked around the room for Fighter. The room behind her was vacant and she had a bad feeling that Fighter was going to go down below.
It was all her fault.
She looked down at her gloved hand. The smooth leather that reflected what little light was filtering in through the window seemed some how foreign to her as she looked down at her hands as though they were disgusting and were responsible for the condition of her love.
If she hadn't been so selfish the Earth senshi would have been warned. Now, instead of not wanting to see the one person she loved more than anyone else for fear of hurting herself she has doomed her to death.
She looked beautiful. The moonlight was coming in through her window and falling on her face as she appeared to be sleeping. If only she was sleeping. The tears were coming with no hope for an end. Was this her punishment for being selfish?
The same darkness that she had drifted into so many times before overwhelmed her once again, but now somehow it seemed to be even darker, more malicious than before. Her hope, her light of hope had gone out and she felt that there was nothing else to live for. But she had lived sixteen years of her life before she met Usagi without her. Why was it so hard to live in these few moments without her now?
Nothing seemed to happen before that day. That day that she had met Usagi. The day that put her entire existence into perspective. The day that she would never forget. She couldn't remember caring or feeling the love that consumed her before meeting Usagi. It was as though this girl had awoken a sleeping emotion inside of her. One that felt so good to finally have but felt so horrible not to be able to feed.
The one thing that she had loved the most in her life and the thing that she wanted to keep safe was the thing that she was responsible for its downfall. How was she supposed to go on now knowing that she had committed such a haenous crime? Should she even be allowed to?
Fighter's thoughts turned slowly from loathing and self-pity to hatred and animosity. She had to fight, she couldn't give up now. Her thoughts were once again broken by the sound of footsteps behind her.
"Fighter it's not your fault." Kakyuu said as she approached her in the darkened room. She was relieved to see that she had not left the palace but was put off by the darkness that her heart was emitting.
Fighter's hands shook violently with rage as she stood up and turned around to face her Princess. Kakyuu saw the fire in her eyes as she could tell her blood was boiling. Pure furious passion could be seen in her body. "Why.?"
The question was one that she had not expected and didn't really know the answer to. "I don't know." Was all that she could reply.
Fighter passed Kakyuu with a breeze as she mad a valiant dash through the palace. With her determined pace she drew the attention of everyone that was watching. Healer and Maker ran closely behind her as the Princess trailed off in the distance. They had to stop her from leaving the palace.
As Fighter made her way into the courtyard she came to a sudden halt. Panting with her chest heaving up and down with each breath she saw the enemy. Blinded by her emotions she was about to make a charge at them but was held back by Healer and Maker who quickly caught up with her.
Thousands of soldiers lined up on the outside of the force field. The Starlights had not noticed that they were gathering, as they were busy trying to contact the Earth senshi in their wasted effort. Their bodies were decaying as the rotting flesh hung off of them. It was an army of the dead. They had fed off of the souls of the living to resurrect themselves to the state they were at now. At the head of the pack was a man who was almost completely covered with flesh and bore a cape on his back.
From one glance into the eyes of this mad man one could tell that he held a certain understanding and insight that only the insane possessed and the sane wished for. He had a cocky grin as he began to speak. "Princess Kakyuu." He said in a tone just slightly above a whisper.
The Starlights turned around to see that the Princess had come up behind them. "Isai." Was all that crossed her lips.
