Sailor Moon: On The Edge Of Yesterday
Chapter Thirteen: An Ally... And Defeat
"Look, you're going to have to trust someone," Lieutenant Kelley
said, as the Sailor Scouts stared at him. "You might as well trust me.
For what it's worth... when the fighting starts, I'll get you out of
here." He glanced at Sailor Jupiter, who was still not sure of what he
was saying. But she smiled, anyway. "No one will miss you after the
battle's over..."
He then looked back at Darian. "But I've been able to make out
some of what you've been saying. Not much... about as well as you
understand me, I guess, but enough to know that there's trouble here.
You're not Union spies, I know that. You're not here about our War...
but you are here for a reason. I want to know what that is."
Tux stared at him, in silence, for a moment, until Kelley's
expression turned stern. "I DESERVE to know what that is, dammit! My
LIFE is at stake!"
Darien nodded. "You're right. You do deserve the truth."
"Darien!" Mercury hissed, but she was too late. "We are here," He
continued, "to fight a great enemy. You would call them demons. You may
not believe in such things... but we do."
The Lieutenant nodded. "I know enough about your people to know
that you take the idea of demons seriously. I don't know if I believe
in them -- but I do know that you do. Go ahead."
"These demons are here to... to make things happen that shouldn't
happen. I can't say any more than that."
Kelley frowned for a moment. "You mean the General's plan to take
Vicksburg. The demons are going to help us..."
Before he could finish his statement, there was a commotion from
outside. Kelley ran to the tent flap and opened it, looking out over
the camp. Tuxedo Mask and the Scouts, coming up behind him, could see
soldiers running wildly about the camp, and hear the crack of gunfire.
There were flashes of light, and explosions in the distance.
"What's going on?" Darien asked.
"The horses got loose," Kelley answered. "The noise must have
alerted the Union camp. They're attacking."
He charged out of the tent, with his new allies right behind him.
"Here's your chance... Ya'll make a run for it. I'll tell the Colonel
you escaped in the confusion."
Darien shook his head. "We are at least partly responsible for
this... we can't run now."
The Lieutenant paused, drawing up short as he looked at Darien.
"We ain't supposed to win at Vicksburg, are we? I've been... well...
I've had a bad feelin' about this since we made camp. Maybe I knew the
truth all along."
"Look!" Sailor Moon shouted. She pointed, and several yards away,
they could see General Devin, with the Colonel and the Major, standing
with their backs to the battle. The General's eyes glowed a bright
purple, and the two men who flanked him stood slack-jawed, staring
blankly ahead as if in a trance.
As the General gestured, and his unwilling charges chanted some
nonsense that only they understood, a glowing circle of light appeared
in front of them. The wind began to pick up, lifting up leaves and
debris from the ground, and swirling it around in a wide circle. Some
of the soldiers, caught in the sudden storm, stopped their fighting to
run out of the way, but for the most part, the battle went unabated.
"General..." Sailor Moon said in English, still pointing at him.
"He... possessed! Must stop!"
Kelley nodded. "Yes. I know. Can you stop him?"
"We can try," Tux answered.
"Then do it." He unslung his rifle. "I'll keep the others back, keep
them from interfering. You do what you have to do."
Sailor Jupiter suddenly burst into tears, grabbing Kelley in a
fierce hug. "Thank... you... I wish..."
He ran a hand down along her face. "Yeah... me too..."
The Lieutenant ran off into the crowd, driving the soldiers away
from the portal, as the Scouts turned to face their enemy. Sailor Moon
pointed her scepter at him. "All right! This insanity ends now!"
"Scouts! Form a Planetary attack!" Luna yelled.
"On the General, or the portal?" Mercury asked. She was scanning
the gate, now, her visor once again over her eyes as she studied the
readings on her computer. "The General is clearly powering it, but I
read a connection between him and the portal. If we sever it..."
"Attack the General!" Luna answered. "If we can cut the source of
power, the gate may close on its own!"
As the glowing window of light continued to open, they could
actually begin to see something on the other side of it. It was a city,
glowing with light. "Crystal Tokyo..." Sailor Pluto muttered. But the
other Sailor Scouts had already linked hands, in a circle.
"MERCURY! STAR! POWER!" "VENUS! STAR! POWER!" "MARS! STAR! POWER"
"JUPITER! STAR! POWER!"
Sailor Moon closed her eyes, as the power flowed into her. She
could feel her friends' love, their faith in her, as the energy built
to a critical point. She opened her eyes, and looked at the General. He
was smiling. He'd noticed them, he knew what they were doing, so why
wasn't he attacking?
"Don't hit the Dominator!" Mercury shouted. "Hit the Colonel and
the Major! NOW!!!"
The General suddenly turned on them, with a roar, as Sailor Moon
turned her head, to look at the two men that stood numbly at his side.
"NO!!!" The Dominator called out, his body erupting in a field of purple
fire, but Sailor Moon was already calling out the words that would add
her power to theirs:
"MOON! CRYSTAL! POWER!!!!!"
"SAILOR!!! PLANET!!! POWER!!!!!"
The discharge of blinding energy forked out in two beams of light,
each striking the two men. As they were blasted across the battlefield,
collapsing to the ground like a pair of rag dolls, the General doubled
over in agony. The portal flickered, and started to fade, and the body
that the Dominator had assumed twisted and distorted, and then took on
the roiling form of energy that was the demon's natural form.
"*NOW* HIT THE GENERAL!"
The beam snapped back into a single blast, which swept across the
Dominator in a torrent. It roared again, trying to retain its hold on
the world, but it could not escape the overwhelming energy that held it
pinned. It exploded, with a report that drowned out the much smaller
explosions of the cannon and gunfire around them.
But from the portal, there was another eruption of purple light.
The gateway suddenly snapped back open again, and began to grow to
several times the size it had been before. "YOU HAVE NOT WON, SAILOR
SCOUTS!" A voice told them. "ONCE THE PORTAL WAS OPENED, IT BECAME
POSSIBLE FOR ME TO HOLD IT OPEN, FROM *THIS* SIDE!"
The Sailor Scouts all took a step back, as a form began to move
out of the portal. It was many times the size of the Dominator they
had just faced, and didn't bother to try and form a man-shaped body. It
just hung in the air in front of them, a roiling, seething cloud of
purple energy, with two huge purple eyes, which seemed to move about
inside its depth.
"NO, SAILOR SCOUTS. YOU HAVE NOT WON. IN FACT... YOU HAVE ALREADY
LOST!!!!!"
Five bodies dropped from the maelstrom, five broken and bloodied
bodies, which fell in a heap to the ground below. Four of them were
Sailor Mercury, Sailor Venus, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Mars. The
fifth was a young girl, maybe ten or eleven, with pink hair. And she
was wearing the costume of Sailor Moon.
"It's... It's... US!" Venus's voice was hushed, her eyes wide as
she stared at the bodies that had been dropped in front of them.
"SMALL LADY!" Sailor Pluto called out. She started to run to the
little girl in Sailor Moon's costume, but took a step back as the huge
Dominator moved towards her.
"Who?" Sailor Moon asked.
"Your daughter." Sailor Mercury stared at their duplicates through
her visor, her expression serious. "They're from the future -- OUR
future. They look to be about twenty, although my readings suggest
they're actually older than that."
"You mean... they're our future selves... like we were to our past
selves, back in Ancient Japan?" Sailor Jupiter stared at herself
intently. "Are we... dead?"
Mercury shook her head. "Not yet."
"THEY SOON WILL BE!" The Dominator cut in. "AS WILL YOU!!!"
A wave of black energy shot out of the massive form, and swept
over the Scouts. It solidified into a black bubble, and the Sailor
Scouts all doubled over in pain.
"Not again..." Sailor Jupiter hissed between her teeth.
"Yeah..." Sailor Mercury gasped. "I'm starting to get tired of
this..."
"I hope... I can remember... what Artemis did..." Luna managed.
She closed her eyes, and the golden glow began to surround her. Sailor
Pluto joined her, and the other Sailor Scouts pulled themselves to
their feet, as the darkness was forced away.
Sailor Venus suddenly started. "Artemis!" She whispered, then
looked up at the Dominator, putting a hand over her mouth. Her cat had
found its way to the future Venus, and was crouched behind her body,
hidden from the Dominator's view.
As Sailor Mercury glanced up at Venus, and then over at the fallen
future Scouts, she met Artemis's gaze. Her blue eyes glittered, and she
suddenly smiled. "Our enemy has made a mistake..." She muttered darkly.
"What do you mean?" Sailor Mars asked. Mercury put up a hand, then
returned to her computer. Her expression was intense, as she worked at
the tiny keyboard, shaking her head from time to time as something she
tried failed to work.
"Come on, Mercury... There's only a few passwords I would use...
YES!" The little genius grinned wickedly, staring at her readouts. "Just
as I thought... they've got a direct link to the time stream."
"What's going on?" Sailor Moon asked.
"I've made a connection to my future self's computer, and
downloaded all the information she's collected on the Dominators.
Apparently, this all started when Sailor Pluto inadvertantly led a
Dominator to the Time Gate, the source of her power. It was able to
gain control of the Gate, turning it into THIS thing..."
"A few minutes ago, she and the other Sailor Scouts formed a
Planetary Attack, and attacked the Dominator with it. It was able to
divert the power into the time stream, making itself even MORE
powerful." She looked up at the fallen Sailor Scouts, outside the
bubble. "After that, they were defeated easily."
"So if we'd attacked the General..."
Mercury nodded. "It would have made him more powerful, yes. I
suspected something like this. But he was drawing power from the
Colonel and the Major's life force to open the portal. When we blasted
them..."
Moon's eyes widened. She looked out at the two soldiers, who still
lay still in the grass. "You mean... I..."
"They were already dead, Sailor Moon," Mercury told her. "Their
life energy was exhausted in opening the portal."
Sailor Moon looked away, clenching her fists. Then she looked back
at Sailor Mercury. "How do we STOP this thing?"
Mercury returned to her computer. "We have to close that portal.
Until we do, no matter what we do to the Dominator, it will be able to
shunt the energy into the time stream..."
"GIVE UP, SAILOR SCOUTS!" The Dominator called out. "NOW THAT YOU
KNOW WHAT YOU FACE, YOU KNOW THAT YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!!!"
"I'll NEVER give up!" Sailor Moon answered. "As long as there's
life in me, there will ALWAYS be hope!"
"That's the spirit!" Tux told her, grinning. "We can beat this
thing, if we all hit it at once!"
"Not through the field, we can't..." Mercury said, "but you are
right. We CAN defeat it. But it will take ALL of us..."
"Sailor Moon... if you and Sailor Pluto combine your power, you
can close that gate. Not immediately," Mercury looked up at the
Dominator through the opaque blackness of the bubble. "but I have an
idea..."
"I need a distraction."
Moon and Pluto nodded to each other. "We can't wait here in this
bubble for the inevitable," Sailor Moon said. "Let's do it."
There was a flare of power as Serena transformed into the
Princess, and then she raised her locket. "MOON! CRYSTAL! POWER!!!" The
glow of the Crystal erupted with white light, and joined with the red
light of Pluto's staff, as she raised it above her head. The brightness
began to push back the Dominator's darkness.
"WHAT!" The mass of blackness redoubled its efforts, sending dark
tendrils of energy into the dome. Beneath its cover, Sailor Mercury hit
a key on her computer.
Artemis jumped straight up in the air, as the future Mercury's
visor short circuited, sending sparks shooting into the air. The little
Scout cried out, her body tensing as a massive jolt of electricity tore
through her, but then she blinked and looked around.
Artemis put a paw to his lips, then gestured above his head.
Mercury looked up at the Dominator above them, then at the dark bubble
it was directing its energy at. Then her eyes met those of her double,
inside the dome.
She smiled as a message flashed across her visor. "Wake...
Venus..." she whispered, to Artemis, as she crawled towards Sailor
Mars. "We have to... help... the others..."
The cat immediately leaped onto Sailor Venus's back, and began
digging his claws into her shoulder. She woke up immediately -- but
then, Artemis knew quite well how to wake Mina up out of a sound sleep.
"Wake up Sailor Jupiter," He said. "Your past selves have been pinned
down by the Dominator that almost finished you."
"What?" Venus sat up. Mercury and Mars had managed to shake Chibi
Moon awake, and Venus crawled over towards Sailor Jupiter.
"WAIT! YOU HAVE TRICKED ME!" The Dominator had noticed the
movement below, and was turning to face the older Scouts. Inside the
bubble, Sailor Mercury shouted a warning.
"MERCURY! BUBBLES! BLAST!!!" In the bubble, the younger Mercury
was a little comforted to know that even with years of experience
behind her, her future self still found the protective attack the one
that was most useful. The future Scouts faded from view as the fog
spread over the area around the dark dome.
"Luna..." She said. "Now... it's up to you and Artemis. You've got
to use your Mind Meld, through the Time Gate, and make contact with
Serena's future self, in Crystal Tokyo. If she can add her power to
that of the Princess, here..."
"Yes..." Sailor Pluto nodded. "And the power of Sailor Moon, and
the Serena of the PAST, as well!"
"You've got to be the link," Sailor Mercury said. "My other self
is already telling Artemis the same thing..."
Luna nodded. "I'll try my best..." She closed her eyes, and a thin
beam of energy shot out towards Serena, who still stood holding her
Crystal out before her. Luna gritted her teeth, concentrating, but for
a moment, nothing seemed to happen.
"I can't... get through... the field..." She muttered.
"Artemis is trying, too. Keep it up. Try and meet him... halfway."
Luna grunted, sweat beginning to form on her forehead, but
suddenly her fur erupted with golden light. Just as before, the soft,
diffuse light enveloped her, and suddenly Serena's Crystal began to
glow brighter.
*Artemis!*
*I'm here...*
Outside the bubble, a pencil thin beam of light formed in front of
Artemis's eyes, and shot into the portal. He gasped at a backlash of
power from the other side, but somehow kept the beam going. The roiling
form of the Dominator somehow managed to convey a sense that it was
looking down at him, but kept up its attack on the Princess.
"THIS WILL NOT SAVE YOU!" He roared. "YOU DIE! NOW!!!"
Chapter Thirteen: An Ally... And Defeat
"Look, you're going to have to trust someone," Lieutenant Kelley
said, as the Sailor Scouts stared at him. "You might as well trust me.
For what it's worth... when the fighting starts, I'll get you out of
here." He glanced at Sailor Jupiter, who was still not sure of what he
was saying. But she smiled, anyway. "No one will miss you after the
battle's over..."
He then looked back at Darian. "But I've been able to make out
some of what you've been saying. Not much... about as well as you
understand me, I guess, but enough to know that there's trouble here.
You're not Union spies, I know that. You're not here about our War...
but you are here for a reason. I want to know what that is."
Tux stared at him, in silence, for a moment, until Kelley's
expression turned stern. "I DESERVE to know what that is, dammit! My
LIFE is at stake!"
Darien nodded. "You're right. You do deserve the truth."
"Darien!" Mercury hissed, but she was too late. "We are here," He
continued, "to fight a great enemy. You would call them demons. You may
not believe in such things... but we do."
The Lieutenant nodded. "I know enough about your people to know
that you take the idea of demons seriously. I don't know if I believe
in them -- but I do know that you do. Go ahead."
"These demons are here to... to make things happen that shouldn't
happen. I can't say any more than that."
Kelley frowned for a moment. "You mean the General's plan to take
Vicksburg. The demons are going to help us..."
Before he could finish his statement, there was a commotion from
outside. Kelley ran to the tent flap and opened it, looking out over
the camp. Tuxedo Mask and the Scouts, coming up behind him, could see
soldiers running wildly about the camp, and hear the crack of gunfire.
There were flashes of light, and explosions in the distance.
"What's going on?" Darien asked.
"The horses got loose," Kelley answered. "The noise must have
alerted the Union camp. They're attacking."
He charged out of the tent, with his new allies right behind him.
"Here's your chance... Ya'll make a run for it. I'll tell the Colonel
you escaped in the confusion."
Darien shook his head. "We are at least partly responsible for
this... we can't run now."
The Lieutenant paused, drawing up short as he looked at Darien.
"We ain't supposed to win at Vicksburg, are we? I've been... well...
I've had a bad feelin' about this since we made camp. Maybe I knew the
truth all along."
"Look!" Sailor Moon shouted. She pointed, and several yards away,
they could see General Devin, with the Colonel and the Major, standing
with their backs to the battle. The General's eyes glowed a bright
purple, and the two men who flanked him stood slack-jawed, staring
blankly ahead as if in a trance.
As the General gestured, and his unwilling charges chanted some
nonsense that only they understood, a glowing circle of light appeared
in front of them. The wind began to pick up, lifting up leaves and
debris from the ground, and swirling it around in a wide circle. Some
of the soldiers, caught in the sudden storm, stopped their fighting to
run out of the way, but for the most part, the battle went unabated.
"General..." Sailor Moon said in English, still pointing at him.
"He... possessed! Must stop!"
Kelley nodded. "Yes. I know. Can you stop him?"
"We can try," Tux answered.
"Then do it." He unslung his rifle. "I'll keep the others back, keep
them from interfering. You do what you have to do."
Sailor Jupiter suddenly burst into tears, grabbing Kelley in a
fierce hug. "Thank... you... I wish..."
He ran a hand down along her face. "Yeah... me too..."
The Lieutenant ran off into the crowd, driving the soldiers away
from the portal, as the Scouts turned to face their enemy. Sailor Moon
pointed her scepter at him. "All right! This insanity ends now!"
"Scouts! Form a Planetary attack!" Luna yelled.
"On the General, or the portal?" Mercury asked. She was scanning
the gate, now, her visor once again over her eyes as she studied the
readings on her computer. "The General is clearly powering it, but I
read a connection between him and the portal. If we sever it..."
"Attack the General!" Luna answered. "If we can cut the source of
power, the gate may close on its own!"
As the glowing window of light continued to open, they could
actually begin to see something on the other side of it. It was a city,
glowing with light. "Crystal Tokyo..." Sailor Pluto muttered. But the
other Sailor Scouts had already linked hands, in a circle.
"MERCURY! STAR! POWER!" "VENUS! STAR! POWER!" "MARS! STAR! POWER"
"JUPITER! STAR! POWER!"
Sailor Moon closed her eyes, as the power flowed into her. She
could feel her friends' love, their faith in her, as the energy built
to a critical point. She opened her eyes, and looked at the General. He
was smiling. He'd noticed them, he knew what they were doing, so why
wasn't he attacking?
"Don't hit the Dominator!" Mercury shouted. "Hit the Colonel and
the Major! NOW!!!"
The General suddenly turned on them, with a roar, as Sailor Moon
turned her head, to look at the two men that stood numbly at his side.
"NO!!!" The Dominator called out, his body erupting in a field of purple
fire, but Sailor Moon was already calling out the words that would add
her power to theirs:
"MOON! CRYSTAL! POWER!!!!!"
"SAILOR!!! PLANET!!! POWER!!!!!"
The discharge of blinding energy forked out in two beams of light,
each striking the two men. As they were blasted across the battlefield,
collapsing to the ground like a pair of rag dolls, the General doubled
over in agony. The portal flickered, and started to fade, and the body
that the Dominator had assumed twisted and distorted, and then took on
the roiling form of energy that was the demon's natural form.
"*NOW* HIT THE GENERAL!"
The beam snapped back into a single blast, which swept across the
Dominator in a torrent. It roared again, trying to retain its hold on
the world, but it could not escape the overwhelming energy that held it
pinned. It exploded, with a report that drowned out the much smaller
explosions of the cannon and gunfire around them.
But from the portal, there was another eruption of purple light.
The gateway suddenly snapped back open again, and began to grow to
several times the size it had been before. "YOU HAVE NOT WON, SAILOR
SCOUTS!" A voice told them. "ONCE THE PORTAL WAS OPENED, IT BECAME
POSSIBLE FOR ME TO HOLD IT OPEN, FROM *THIS* SIDE!"
The Sailor Scouts all took a step back, as a form began to move
out of the portal. It was many times the size of the Dominator they
had just faced, and didn't bother to try and form a man-shaped body. It
just hung in the air in front of them, a roiling, seething cloud of
purple energy, with two huge purple eyes, which seemed to move about
inside its depth.
"NO, SAILOR SCOUTS. YOU HAVE NOT WON. IN FACT... YOU HAVE ALREADY
LOST!!!!!"
Five bodies dropped from the maelstrom, five broken and bloodied
bodies, which fell in a heap to the ground below. Four of them were
Sailor Mercury, Sailor Venus, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Mars. The
fifth was a young girl, maybe ten or eleven, with pink hair. And she
was wearing the costume of Sailor Moon.
"It's... It's... US!" Venus's voice was hushed, her eyes wide as
she stared at the bodies that had been dropped in front of them.
"SMALL LADY!" Sailor Pluto called out. She started to run to the
little girl in Sailor Moon's costume, but took a step back as the huge
Dominator moved towards her.
"Who?" Sailor Moon asked.
"Your daughter." Sailor Mercury stared at their duplicates through
her visor, her expression serious. "They're from the future -- OUR
future. They look to be about twenty, although my readings suggest
they're actually older than that."
"You mean... they're our future selves... like we were to our past
selves, back in Ancient Japan?" Sailor Jupiter stared at herself
intently. "Are we... dead?"
Mercury shook her head. "Not yet."
"THEY SOON WILL BE!" The Dominator cut in. "AS WILL YOU!!!"
A wave of black energy shot out of the massive form, and swept
over the Scouts. It solidified into a black bubble, and the Sailor
Scouts all doubled over in pain.
"Not again..." Sailor Jupiter hissed between her teeth.
"Yeah..." Sailor Mercury gasped. "I'm starting to get tired of
this..."
"I hope... I can remember... what Artemis did..." Luna managed.
She closed her eyes, and the golden glow began to surround her. Sailor
Pluto joined her, and the other Sailor Scouts pulled themselves to
their feet, as the darkness was forced away.
Sailor Venus suddenly started. "Artemis!" She whispered, then
looked up at the Dominator, putting a hand over her mouth. Her cat had
found its way to the future Venus, and was crouched behind her body,
hidden from the Dominator's view.
As Sailor Mercury glanced up at Venus, and then over at the fallen
future Scouts, she met Artemis's gaze. Her blue eyes glittered, and she
suddenly smiled. "Our enemy has made a mistake..." She muttered darkly.
"What do you mean?" Sailor Mars asked. Mercury put up a hand, then
returned to her computer. Her expression was intense, as she worked at
the tiny keyboard, shaking her head from time to time as something she
tried failed to work.
"Come on, Mercury... There's only a few passwords I would use...
YES!" The little genius grinned wickedly, staring at her readouts. "Just
as I thought... they've got a direct link to the time stream."
"What's going on?" Sailor Moon asked.
"I've made a connection to my future self's computer, and
downloaded all the information she's collected on the Dominators.
Apparently, this all started when Sailor Pluto inadvertantly led a
Dominator to the Time Gate, the source of her power. It was able to
gain control of the Gate, turning it into THIS thing..."
"A few minutes ago, she and the other Sailor Scouts formed a
Planetary Attack, and attacked the Dominator with it. It was able to
divert the power into the time stream, making itself even MORE
powerful." She looked up at the fallen Sailor Scouts, outside the
bubble. "After that, they were defeated easily."
"So if we'd attacked the General..."
Mercury nodded. "It would have made him more powerful, yes. I
suspected something like this. But he was drawing power from the
Colonel and the Major's life force to open the portal. When we blasted
them..."
Moon's eyes widened. She looked out at the two soldiers, who still
lay still in the grass. "You mean... I..."
"They were already dead, Sailor Moon," Mercury told her. "Their
life energy was exhausted in opening the portal."
Sailor Moon looked away, clenching her fists. Then she looked back
at Sailor Mercury. "How do we STOP this thing?"
Mercury returned to her computer. "We have to close that portal.
Until we do, no matter what we do to the Dominator, it will be able to
shunt the energy into the time stream..."
"GIVE UP, SAILOR SCOUTS!" The Dominator called out. "NOW THAT YOU
KNOW WHAT YOU FACE, YOU KNOW THAT YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!!!"
"I'll NEVER give up!" Sailor Moon answered. "As long as there's
life in me, there will ALWAYS be hope!"
"That's the spirit!" Tux told her, grinning. "We can beat this
thing, if we all hit it at once!"
"Not through the field, we can't..." Mercury said, "but you are
right. We CAN defeat it. But it will take ALL of us..."
"Sailor Moon... if you and Sailor Pluto combine your power, you
can close that gate. Not immediately," Mercury looked up at the
Dominator through the opaque blackness of the bubble. "but I have an
idea..."
"I need a distraction."
Moon and Pluto nodded to each other. "We can't wait here in this
bubble for the inevitable," Sailor Moon said. "Let's do it."
There was a flare of power as Serena transformed into the
Princess, and then she raised her locket. "MOON! CRYSTAL! POWER!!!" The
glow of the Crystal erupted with white light, and joined with the red
light of Pluto's staff, as she raised it above her head. The brightness
began to push back the Dominator's darkness.
"WHAT!" The mass of blackness redoubled its efforts, sending dark
tendrils of energy into the dome. Beneath its cover, Sailor Mercury hit
a key on her computer.
Artemis jumped straight up in the air, as the future Mercury's
visor short circuited, sending sparks shooting into the air. The little
Scout cried out, her body tensing as a massive jolt of electricity tore
through her, but then she blinked and looked around.
Artemis put a paw to his lips, then gestured above his head.
Mercury looked up at the Dominator above them, then at the dark bubble
it was directing its energy at. Then her eyes met those of her double,
inside the dome.
She smiled as a message flashed across her visor. "Wake...
Venus..." she whispered, to Artemis, as she crawled towards Sailor
Mars. "We have to... help... the others..."
The cat immediately leaped onto Sailor Venus's back, and began
digging his claws into her shoulder. She woke up immediately -- but
then, Artemis knew quite well how to wake Mina up out of a sound sleep.
"Wake up Sailor Jupiter," He said. "Your past selves have been pinned
down by the Dominator that almost finished you."
"What?" Venus sat up. Mercury and Mars had managed to shake Chibi
Moon awake, and Venus crawled over towards Sailor Jupiter.
"WAIT! YOU HAVE TRICKED ME!" The Dominator had noticed the
movement below, and was turning to face the older Scouts. Inside the
bubble, Sailor Mercury shouted a warning.
"MERCURY! BUBBLES! BLAST!!!" In the bubble, the younger Mercury
was a little comforted to know that even with years of experience
behind her, her future self still found the protective attack the one
that was most useful. The future Scouts faded from view as the fog
spread over the area around the dark dome.
"Luna..." She said. "Now... it's up to you and Artemis. You've got
to use your Mind Meld, through the Time Gate, and make contact with
Serena's future self, in Crystal Tokyo. If she can add her power to
that of the Princess, here..."
"Yes..." Sailor Pluto nodded. "And the power of Sailor Moon, and
the Serena of the PAST, as well!"
"You've got to be the link," Sailor Mercury said. "My other self
is already telling Artemis the same thing..."
Luna nodded. "I'll try my best..." She closed her eyes, and a thin
beam of energy shot out towards Serena, who still stood holding her
Crystal out before her. Luna gritted her teeth, concentrating, but for
a moment, nothing seemed to happen.
"I can't... get through... the field..." She muttered.
"Artemis is trying, too. Keep it up. Try and meet him... halfway."
Luna grunted, sweat beginning to form on her forehead, but
suddenly her fur erupted with golden light. Just as before, the soft,
diffuse light enveloped her, and suddenly Serena's Crystal began to
glow brighter.
*Artemis!*
*I'm here...*
Outside the bubble, a pencil thin beam of light formed in front of
Artemis's eyes, and shot into the portal. He gasped at a backlash of
power from the other side, but somehow kept the beam going. The roiling
form of the Dominator somehow managed to convey a sense that it was
looking down at him, but kept up its attack on the Princess.
"THIS WILL NOT SAVE YOU!" He roared. "YOU DIE! NOW!!!"
