Part 12
****************************************************************************
Oh man, i really wanted to get the ending out all at once, but once part 12
hit 42 pages, i had to break it into two parts. *sniff!* so here's up to page
24. thanks to everyone who emailed me.
ATTENTION! i have a new email address: Joyfulgirl129@@aol.com thanks!
I don't own Sailor Moon or any brand name.
oh and on another note, please don't rip off my ideas. Thanks.
Oh and one last thing, i apologize to anyone reading this on ff.net about
the crappy formatting. I STILL haven't figured out how to fix it. Hey, if
anyone does know give me a buzz.
And we're off…
"Everything has fallen to pieces
Earth is dying help me Jesus."
-Blink 182
"Anthem Part Two"
Serena pushed the door open without knocking. "Hello?"
"Hey, Serena," Amy answered, not once looking up from her Palm Pilot. A
tangle of black and gray wires snaked under the coffee table and behind the
television, which was broadcasting an official report from the university regarding
the dorm fire, which had claimed the lives of three students.
Matt and Kevin were shooting an abysmal game of pool; their concentration
was shot to shit, evidenced by the numerous balls still peppering the scarred
felt as opposed to those in the pockets. Jay sat between Raye and Lita on the
couch, strumming on his guitar what sounded like, "Jane Says." Mina was softly
singing along from her position on the floor.
"Oh hi, we were waiting for you," Mina said, raising herself into a sitting
position. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, and her nails were raw
and bleeding from nervous biting. "We might have actually gotten somewhere,
believe it or not. Amy?"
Amy waved them over. "Here you guys, look at this." She tapped a few keys,
and switched the television from CSPAN to a projected view of her screen. "Ever
since we've arrived in America, I've been trying to find doorways into the Negaverse."
"Dark Kingdom," Zach interrupted from the kitchen, where he was frying up
Steak-Ums. "They get really pissed if you call it 'the Negaverse.'"
"Zach, who gives a fuck? Fuck 'em." Matt said, sinking his first solid in
a corner pocket.
Amy continued before a squabble could erupt. "Anyway, I never found even
a trace of one before, anywhere, and now, look." A map of Bryce University
popped up, with green blinking dots scattered in several places. "These doorways
suddenly popped up overnight."
"Huh," Darien grunted, studying the map. "There's one on the entrance
to the stadium, another in the library, two on Graduate Ave…"
"Very detectable and very convenient," Kevin said, lining up a shot.
"What better way to trap us then to leave the welcome mat unrolled?"
"I'd bet my life savings that the minute we enter from one of these
places, we'd get ambushed," Mina proclaimed, popping open her Sam's Choice
orange soda. "A fourth grader could have figured that out."
"That's why she left open this one," Amy explained, pointing to one on
the outskirts of town. "This one has a weaker signature than the others, so
I deduced that the main points are simply decoys. Beryl knew that we're too
smart to walk blindly into one of her traps, so she opened a barely-detectable
entrance at this location. She's planning on us taking the road less traveled.
Of course, I don't think Beryl planned on this," she said, hitting a
key. A map of the world popped up. "In opening all of these doorways, Beryl
expended a great deal of negative energy, and when you use dark magic, it
kind of…leaves residue."
"What?" Raye asked, confused.
Amy blinked. "Think of it like a car. Dark energy gives off exhaust,
like a car gives off exhaust from burning gasoline. All of Beryl's exhaust-"
Matt and Zach snickered. "-ended up permeating the earth…there." An orange
arrow appeared, pointing at the top of the world where Santa Claus lived.
"The North Pole? You're kidding!" Darien shut his eyes and rubbed his
face in exasperation. "Are you sure we can get in that way?"
Amy nodded. "Beryl is using up all of her energy at the main points,
so she must have all of her concentration directed there. I doubt that she's
noticing where her exhaust goes."
"Or it's a huge trap," Lita groaned.
"We'll have to take that chance," Mina said softly. "This is our best
bet."
Jay put his guitar down and stood up. "All right. Where are the yellow
pages? I'll call Delta."
"No!" Lita burst out.
"Ok, fine, I'll call Greyhound."
"No, that's not what I mean. We can teleport there."
Jay gave her a look. "Are you sure? I mean, just by experience and
process of elimination, I know that I'm going to be the one who teleports
into the middle of the Sahara or the Atlantic Ocean or something."
"We'll make sure you don't," Serena reassured him.
"Do we have a plan once we're in there?" Darien asked. Mina smiled.
"I got that, thanks to my awesome brainpower and Kev's photographic
memory." She proceeded to explain, while Amy wandered off to the kitchen.
"Cheese on yours?" Zach asked, spreading buns out on paper plates.
"No, thank you, I can taste the grease from here. Is everything OK?"
"No."
"No, I-I meant at h-home," Amy stammered, her palms starting to
sweat. She had remembered the message that Nana had left, and, despite
her best efforts to mind her own business, it had been bugging her for
over twelve hours.
"Oh, yeah, everything's fine." The enthusiasm in his voice was
obviously faked. He pulled open the dishwasher and stopped.
"What's the matter?"
"I-" He stopped and stared at the grungy plates and cups like it
was the tombstone of his best friend. "I don't know. I mean; I could wash
these dishes, right? I do it every day so we'll have something to eat off
of the next morning, obviously. But like-" He faltered again. "What if
none of us come back? I know I should be all optimistic and everything,
and 'Yeah! We'll kick ass and take names!' but I know what we're up against,
and you know too. So what's the point of washing these dishes if we might
not ever use them again? If you think about it on a grand cosmic scale,
turning on the stupid dishwasher is just about the most insignificant
thing one could do right before going into a battle. I'm getting ahead
of myself by thinking we're all going to come out-"
Never taking her eyes off of his, Amy kicked the dishwasher shut
and punched the button. It whirred to life. "Has anyone ever told you that
you analyze things to death?"
"A few times," he admitted, then added: "A day."
She reached out and hugged him, reassuring his body the way she
wished to do with his mind. He put down the spatula and wrapped his
arms around her, pressing his cheek to hers. They stood in silence,
taking comfort in their embrace.
"Yo, can we get some Steak-Ums in here?" Jay broke through the
sentimental moment before it had a chance to fully develop.
The Steak-Ums were devoured in way too short a time, and after
all the mouths were wiped and cans were cleared, everyone stopped and
looked at each other.
"Well, this is it, you guys," Serena started, almost choking up.
"If you're going to give a big, flowery speech right now about
how much we mean to you and how close we all are and how no matter what
happens we'll all be friends forever, please skip it. You'll just jinx
us."
"Yeah," Matt nodded, agreeing with Jay. "Let's think of this as
just another obstacle, and not just a…a…"
"Heinous deathtrap?"
"You know what I love about you, Raye? Your undying optimism."
She shrugged. "I try."
Lita caught herself raising her hand. "What about the campus?
Knowing Beryl, she'd deploy a youma attack as soon as we landed on a
stray penguin in the pole."
Her question was answered in the form of pounding feet in the
hallway, and a frantic thumping on their door. Kevin answered it.
The hallway was clogged with guys, two of whom were Musto and
John, and each one was equipped with a baseball bat or other heavy
piece of weapon-like material. "Hey, Belles, one of those weird monsters
landed in middle of the street. We're going to go kick its ass, wanna
come?" Musto, the speaker, stuck his head through the door. "Hey
Melman! Hey Chiba! Care to join?"
"Um, I think we'll pass," Kevin said, eyeing the lead pipe Musto
was twirling in his hands. "You sure you can take care of it?"
"Fuck yeah, man! We're going to beat its fuckin' head in! You
sure you don't want in?" Kevin shook his head. "OK, then, your loss.
See ya later, ladies!" He winked at Serena, despite the fact that
Darien was standing less than five feet away, and took off with his
posse. The newly formed militia exited down the staircase.
"What a dick," Darien mumbled, after the door was closed.
"You guys," Mina said from the window. "Come here, you've got
to see this!"
They crowded around, trying to catch a glimpse of the scene
below. Darien solved the overcrowding problem by opening the window
and letting everyone spill out onto the fire escape.
"Dude, that's just a small one!" Zach breathed. The youma holding
up traffic in the middle of Boris St. was about the size of large
cow, and was striped like a yellow jacket. Diaphanous insect wings
sprouted from its shoulders, and, as they watched, Musto hit one with
his metal pipe and tore it from the youma's body. It screeched in
pain. A dozen more guys zeroed in, ruthlessly beating down the youma
until it was cowering on its knees.
"Looks like it's Whacking Day," Jay quipped, forgetting that not
everyone was an avid viewer of "The Simpsons."
Lita was amazed. "They are kicking its ass! I didn't think that
those guys had enough brains to play kick the can!"
"Makes you feel real important, doesn't it?" Mina said cynically.
"We're the defenders of love and justice, righting wrongs and triumphing
over evil, bestowed with cosmic powers of our mother planets, and
we're being upstaged by a bunch of guys with baseball bats."
"Well, at least everyone came out to watch," Raye said, pointing
to the heads poking out of windows in the buildings across the street.
Several objects began flying out of windows as occupants decided
to help out by pelting the street with empty liquor bottles.
Kevin turned and crawled back through the window. "I think
we're leaving the place in good hands."
Matt and Jay lingered behind on the fire escape. "WHOA! Kev,
you missed it! I think Tony Garrel just threw his old, shitty couch
out the window!" Jay leaned over the railing and continued to shout.
"YO TONE! DIDJA HIT IT?"
"YEAH!" came the enthusiastic reply. Raye reached through the
window and dragged Jay in by his shirt.
Serena dusted herself off and pulled out her crystal. "OK, since
we're not going to exchange pleasantries because JAY thinks it'll
JINX us, let's just get this over with."
"C'mon, quit being so negative," Lita pleaded as Serena
transformed in a shower of pink light. She pulled out her henshin
pen. "We'll be back before Letterman's Top Ten."
"I hope so," Sailor Moon muttered.
The guys pulled out their white gloves. "God, I hate these
things," Zach muttered. "Whose great idea was it to wear them in
the first place? Did our jobs require running our fingers over
furniture?" He pulled it onto his right hand and transformed in a
cloud of silver.
"Maybe we were bellhops," Kunzite offered.
Nephrite elbowed Endymion in the ribs. "Maybe we were gay…oh
wait, that was just you guys."
Jadeite helped out by coughing the word "buttsex." Zoicite
punched him in the stomach. "Hey, don't get all violent just because
I'm telling the truth."
"I'm not gay!"
"Zoicite, I know you're not gay, would you relax? I just find
it extremely amusing that your evil twin just happens to be-"
"I wonder why that is, too," Sailor Mercury interrupted. "I
thought they weren't created to think."
Zoicite shrugged. "They weren't."
"Maybe it's because Kunzite is an ALPHA male," Jadeite laughed.
Kunzite glared at him. "You're going to be a negative male if
you don't shut up."
To her utter disgust, Sailor Venus found herself clapping like
a schoolteacher. "OK, everyone, let the immaturity leave the room
now. Are we ready?"
They glanced at each other, relishing the few moments of relative
normalcy that they had left. "Ready as we'll ever be," Jupiter said.
"Ready?" Sailor Moon took Nephrite and Kunzite's hands. "Senshi,
put a General in between each of you. They're not too good at this
yet."
"Sounds kinky," Zoicite said, joining the circle between Mars
and Jupiter.
"PLEASE make sure I don't end up somewhere weird," Jadeite begged,
imagining himself suddenly appearing in the middle of the Running of
the Bulls, or the New York Stock Exchange, or the Daytona 500.
"We won't, I promise," Venus assured him. "Everyone ready?
Concentrate."
They closed their eyes and let their energy flow into each other,
through each other's bodies and minds, where it combined into force
powerful enough to flicker the lights for the next three blocks down.
Their bodies hummed with the magic flowing through them, old magic,
powerful as a comet hurtling through the abyss of space. It built
and built, faster and harder, into a violent crescendo that swept
away their bodies in a burst of light.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Holy FUCK!" Sailor Jupiter swore, wrapping her arms around her
body in a desperate effort to keep her skin from windburning.
Kunzite immediately began shivering; the cold was something his
California body was not accustomed to. However, this type of cold was
something that would shock the average Anchorage body; it was cold
that pierced through your clothing like it was tissue paper, burning
as it froze the water in your epidermis and ruptured the delicate
skin cells.
"Oh shit," Nephrite muttered, his lips blue. "We're going to
freeze to death."
Sailor Venus squeezed her eyes shut to keep her tears from freezing.
Nephrite was right; five more minutes of exposure and they would succumb
to hypothermia, and then most definitely die. I'm such a fool. Why
didn't I think of this before?
Only Sailor Mercury was unaffected. "Oh no!" She held up her
palm, and a glittering ball of blue and white energy formed between
her fingers. "Quick, everyone, touch this!"
Zoicite stumbled over and touched it. Instantly he felt his body
warm rapidly, until the piercing wind felt like a tropical wind blowing
off the Caribbean and caressing his face. "Mercury, have I told you
I love you recently?"
"Yes," she replied happily, running over to each Senshi and
General in turn. "But you can say it again."
Jadeite stopped gasping as his skin relaxed out of rigid
goosebumps. "I love you too, Mercury." He helped Mars stand up.
Sailor Venus scanned the frozen landscape. The sunlight
reflecting off of the white ice threw up a glare that almost fried
her retinas. Nephrite had clapped his hands over his eyes, groaning
in pain. "Everything OK, Neph?"
"That light really hurts," he said simply. "It's like staring
directly into the sun."
Endymion squinted; the glare was a little overpowering, but
not nearly as painful as Nephrite made it out to be. "Do you have
glaucoma or something?"
"I don't know. All I know is that if I open my eyes, I'm as
good as blind."
"Great," Kunzite muttered, holding up one hand to shield the
sunlight. "Mercury, have you detected an entrance?"
She pointed her finger, sending a stream of water in a circle
over a patch of snow, which instantly froze into an ice ring about
ten feet in diameter. "Right in the middle of that ring is a hole
covered in snow. It's about three meters in diameter, but I can't
detect its depth. All the negative energy residue is blocking my scan."
Jadeite sent a spiral of energy into the ring, blasting away
the snow and uncovering a dark, gaping hole in the ground. They looked
down.
"Jesus H. Christ in a chicken basket," Zoicite breathed. "How
far down do you think that is?"
"Can we jump? We've jumped off buildings before, no sweat, and
they were like, forty or fifty feet." Sailor Moon asked. Mars shook
her head.
"We could…but what if there's spikes or a snake pit down there
or something? I don't feel like losing this battle before it even begins."
"OK, Indiana Jones," Jupiter muttered.
Mars huffed, "All I'm saying is that we don't know how deep
it is or what's at the bottom. I don't think it's safe to just
jump blindly."
Venus nodded. "We're not jumping if we don't know what's at
the bottom, or if there even is one. Mercury, are you positive you
can't get a reading?"
"I'm positive."
Venus sighed. "I might have an idea then." She unraveled
her chain from her waist. "If I can attach the end of this to
something, I can kind of, well, quickly rappel down to the bottom.
The only problem is, I would have to pull it in from the bottom,
and I don't know how I would get you guys down."
"We can jump," Zoicite offered.
"But what if it's hundreds of feet down? We've only jumped
off of four or five story buildings, and my ankles were killing me
for days from that distance. If it's any more than that, we'd
probably, well, splat." She twisted her chain in her hands. "Unless…"
She hooked her fingers in one of the hearts, and pulled out. The
golden heart expanded to the size of manhole cover. She stood at the
edge of the chasm and threw it down, each subsequent heart that rolled
out as big as the first, their golden glint swallowed up by the
smothering darkness. The links clanged together like church bells.
Venus knelt and stuck her head down, listening for the sound
of metal hitting the bottom. "There!" She announced, rising. "I
heard it hit bottom; it's pretty far down, but I think we can make
it." She detached the chain from around her waist and looped it over
a block of ice. "Mercury, is this thing solid?"
Mercury sent a stream of water around the bottom, freezing it
to the ground. "Now it is."
Endymion stepped forward. "I'll go first."
"Like hell you are," Kunzite said, elbowing in front of him.
"I'm going first."
"Maybe we should all go, together," Sailor Moon suggested.
"I would hate to think of what might happen if one of us is alone
at the bottom and they're something waiting for us."
"Strength in numbers," Jupiter agreed. "I'm going second, then."
"I have to go last, to pull the chain up," Venus explained.
"Then I'll rappel down."
Kunzite stuck his foot in a loop. "Well, here goes." He began
descending down the makeshift ladder. It twisted violently. "Whoa!
It's kind of unsteady, like a rope ladder."
"I'll try to steady it." Venus grabbed it near the base.
His head disappeared into the blackness. "You have to feel
for the next rung, so everyone be careful. Go slowly."
"Aye-aye," Jupiter saluted, grabbing hold of the chain and
descending. "Wow, Kunzite, you weren't kidding! I'm having flashbacks
of gym class…"
After Jupiter went Jadeite, and then Mercury, Nephrite,
Endymion, Sailor Moon, Zoicite, and Mars. "Oh, why couldn't I
go last?" Sailor Moon whined in the darkness, her foot grappling
for the next rung.
"Because I want you in the middle, surrounded by protection,"
Venus called from the top. "Tell Kunzite to give me a report."
They relayed the message down the chain. "Hey, Venus wants
a report," Jupiter shouted to Kunzite, who was about ten feet below her.
"What's there to report? I'm still climbing down the chain
in the dark. Can you see at all?"
"A little bit," Jadeite said from above Jupiter. "The chain
is glowing very faintly; a birthday candle gives off more light,
but it's better than nothing."
"My eyes still hurt," Nephrite complained. He gasped as the
chain swung a little. "OH GOD!"
"What are you complaining about?" Mars asked, cursing at
her red heels. "I can barely maneuver around in these stupid,
impractical shoes! Jadeite, if you say one word about it I'm
going to jiggle the chain!"
Jadeite shut his mouth, and Nephrite gasped. "Please don't
do that!"
"What's wrong?" Endymion asked from above. Nephrite had
been literally crawling down at a snail's pace; Endymion had
almost stepped on his fingers twice. He lowered his voice. "Are
you scared?"
"NO!" His denial was dripping with indignation. "Well,
maybe a little. Or a lot." His mouth had gone completely dry.
"I kind of don't like heights."
Endymion groaned. "You're kidding."
"Does it sound like I'm kidding? God, my heart is racing…"
"Nephrite, don't worry, OK? Just take it one step at a
time." Sailor Moon's voice was overly soothing.
"What do you think I've been doing?"
Kunzite advanced down. "OK, I've lost visibility."
Jupiter craned her neck up. "Hey, Jadeite, Kunzite's lost
visibility."
"Kunzite can't see anymore!" He shouted up. Nephrite groaned.
Kunzite lowered his foot to find the next rung, and merely
swiped at empty air. "Uh-oh."
"What?" Jupiter asked. He started swinging his foot around,
searching for another link. There was none.
"We're short," he groaned.
"What?" Mercury asked from above. "How short, can you tell?"
"I can't see a thing. Everyone stop climbing!"
Venus's voice was barely an echo. "You've got to be kidding
me! I heard it hit bottom!"
"Maybe it was hitting the sides," Jadeite offered. "Should
we start up?"
"No," Kunzite said, squinting in the darkness. An idea
dawned on him. "Wait."
"Hurry up, Neph's about to go postal."
"Everyone shut up!" Kunzite shouted. The chain of soldiers
fell silent.
He leaned over, disregarding how much the chain shook and
how much Nephrite whined, and spit into the darkness.
Pat.
The sound of saliva hitting stone was much closer than he
had anticipated; he spit again to gauge.
Another message came trickling down. "Venus says she's sending
something down," Jupiter reported.
A golden heart streaked by the chain, illuminating the stone
walls of the tube with its almost painful golden light. It whizzed
past Kunzite and impacted on the ground below, giving him a brief
glimpse of a flat stone floor.
"OK, I saw it. The bottom looks pretty solid, and it's
perfectly flat. We should have no problem landing on it."
"How far down?" Endymion inquired.
"About twenty or thirty feet. We can jump it."
"Be careful!" Venus's distant voice echoed down the tunnel.
Zoicite snickered and made a whiplash sound.
Frowning, Kunzite lowered himself until he was dangling on
the last heart with his hands, and the rest of his body swung loose.
Taking a breath, he released his hold on the chain and plummeted
into the darkness.
CLUNK. He landed unsteadily on his feet, the impact throwing
him down, undignified, on his ass. For once, he was grateful for the
darkness. "It's OK; it's not that bad!" he shouted. Ow. Good goddamn.
Jupiter reached the end of the line. Her tiara sparked with
white electricity in the darkness. "Kunzite, can you see me? Am I
going to fall on you?"
"No, just let go. I'll catch you." He positioned himself
under the flashes of light. "Ready? On three."
"One, two, three!" She let go of the chain, and Kunzite
caught her.
"Oh, thanks." The air crackled, and Jupiter held up a ball
of lightening, illuminating the cavern with a harsh white glow
reminiscent of fluorescent light bulbs.
"You gonna catch me too, Kunz?" Jadeite teased.
"Hell no. Just jump."
After Jadeite, Mercury jumped off with little fanfare and
was also caught by Kunzite. He had barely put her down when her
computer screen lit up and she was typing away.
Nephrite had hit the end of the line, and was latched onto
the chain with a death grip. "Oh no."
Jadeite groaned. "Oh God, Neph, don't tell me you're afraid
to jump!"
"Shut up, asswipe!" Sweat was pouring down his face and he
gripped the chain tighter.
"Hey, what's holding up the line?" Mars shouted from above.
"Nephrite's too pussy to jump," Jadeite said.
"Jadeite, I'm so going to kick your ass," Nephrite choked.
"Well, then jump down and prove it, pussy."
Jupiter cleared her throat. "Nephrite, listen to me. I know
this is scary for you-"
"Scary? Try paralyzing!"
She continued. "Please, baby, listen to me. Nothing bad will
happen to you, I promise. It's hard but you're going to have to do
it. I believe in you, baby, I love you. I'll help you get through this."
"You will?" he squeaked. On the ground, Jadeite was turning
purple stifling his laughter.
"Yes, hon, please, I believe in you. We all believe you can
do this."
"I believe in you," Endymion said. "I'll help you, too."
"We all believe in you, hon," Jupiter said, her voice smooth
as melted beeswax. Jadeite sank to his knees with both hands clapped
over his mouth and tears streaming down his face. "Just listen to
me, I'll talk you through it. Let go of the chain on three, OK? I'll
know you can do it, baby, all you have to do is jump."
"Oh God. I can't."
"Yes you can, hon. It will all be over in a second, I swear to
you. You don't have to be afraid of anything. It's not bad at all.
I love you, baby, are you ready?"
"Yes," Nephrite finally agreed. "I'm ready."
Jupiter kept talking. "OK, here we go. One…two…Endy…three!"
Endy? Nephrite had a split second to process the discrepancy
in Jupiter's countdown when Endymion's boot solidly connected with
his face, and he lost his grip and tumbled off of the chain. He
screamed as he plummeted thirty feet to the ground, and landed
directly onto Kunzite with a gigantic "WUMPH", kicking him in the
stomach in the process.
"Ugh!" Kunzite grunted, doubling over, and suddenly the cavern
was filled with sounds: Jadeite laughing hysterically at the top
of his lungs, practically crying with mirth, Nephrite whimpering
like an earthquake victim, Mars and Moon cheering from up above.
Nephrite lay on the ground and gripped Jupiter like a life
preserver. He found his voice. "What…why…why did…you had…Endy…booted
me off…"
"Well, you weren't going to jump, were you?" Jupiter hugged
him.
"Hell no! I would have let go of that chain when you pried
it from my cold dead fingers!"
"See, the only way we would have gotten you off is if
Endymion kicked you! It was for your own good!"
"That's twisted logic if I've ever heard it!"
"Crude, yet effective," Endymion said as he jumped down.
"Hate…you guys…so much…"
"Aw, relax Neph, you're not the only pussy to walk the face
of the Earth. We're all afraid of something; Kunzite's afraid of
horses."
Kunzite, who had been off to one side wheezing, straightened
up and glared at Endymion's comment. "I am not!"
Endymion caught Sailor Moon out of the air. "Don't even deny
it, Kunz, I remember. You wouldn't go near the stables until you
were sixteen, and that's only because they forced you."
Jadeite, who had just barely gotten his breath back, dissolved
again into laughter. "Yes, you were! Oh my God, remember when he
was first starting to ride?" He elbowed Endymion compulsively,
and they both held up their hands and widened their eyes in a
pantomime of a terrified rider. Then they started laughing, a
little too loud and a little too hard, stopping only when Jadeite
announced that if he kept laughing, he was going to vomit up his
Steak-Um.
Kunzite was glowering. "That was un-amusing."
Sailor Mars landed deftly to his left. "What was?"
Nephrite had started to giggle. "Kunzite's fear of horses."
Mars joined in the contagious laughter. "No! For real? But
you had a horse, remember? The gigantic one, what was his name?
Triton?"
"Titan. And I wasn't afraid of him."
"That's right!" Zoicite clapped his hands together. "Titan!
I remember Titan! He was the biggest motherfucking horse I've ever
seen…and the dumbest!"
Mercury looked up from her computer screen. "Didn't you have
internal combustion engines back then? I remember tracking the
cloud of smog over the Middle East; you could see it from the moon."
"Yeah. But most of the Earth's oil was tied up in the Middle
East, and they had a holy war there every other day and twice on
Sundays," Endymion explained. "We couldn't run our engines on magic
like you screwy Moon People."
Sailor Jupiter ran her hand down the gray stone of the wall.
"Why didn't you guys try Alaska?"
"Talk to Nephrite, that was his department."
Their idle conversation of Earth's ancient modes of
transportation was broken by a "zzzzrip!" like a giant zipper
being pulled up a giant windbreaker, as Venus pulled her Love-me
Chain back up to the surface. Sailor Moon's communicator rang.
"Yep?" she said, clicking it on.
"I'm going to be coming down, and fast, so keep your heads
up, OK?"
"Gotcha, Venus."
The light from Jupiter's electric ball was eclipsed by a
brilliant golden glow that glared in the insides of the tunnel as
Venus flew down, her chain around her waist. She slowed before hitting
the ground, and landed easily on her feet.
"You're right, I was pretty short," she said, pulling down her
chain. The glow waned and died once she looped it back around her
waist. "What's the verdict, Merc?"
Mercury looked at her through her visor. "Specific points on
these walls are hollow; I suspect that they're hallways and we just
landed parallel to them. The closest is right-here." She stopped in
front of a jagged wall. "We have to break through it."
Jadeite simulated rolling up his sleeves. "Allow me."
Sailor Venus stopped him. "Wait, I don't want to cause a big
scene just yet."
"How are we going to get through?" he asked. Zoicite was already
tapping his knuckles against the stone.
"It's not that thick, I don't think."
"Zoicite's right; the wall is only about and inch thick, and
the stone is a soft shale. If Kunzite leans on it the right way he'll
probably knock it down."
Sailor Moon made a sweeping gesture towards the wall like one
of Bob Barker's Beauties. "Go ahead, Kunzite. Lean."
Sailor Mars knelt down near the floor and pressed her index
finger against the base of the wall. Her hand glowed as red as coals
as she traced an outline of a door on the gray stone. "Or here,
kick it in."
"Ready, Neph?" Nephrite nodded. Kunzite steeled himself. "On
three.
Three!" They kicked at opposite sides of Mars's seam, crushing
through the soft stone and sending a large rectangular slab crashing
to the ground. The noise was deafening in the relative silence, and
sent shock waves through the leather and rubber of their shoes. A
cloud of dust kicked up, stinging their eyes and tickling their
sinuses. Throwing caution, prudence, and anything requiring higher
and complex thought to the wind, Jadeite valiantly leapt through
the newly formed opening, sword ready and drawn, screaming the first
phrase that popped into his head.
"Freeze! FBI!"
A youma had been lurking in the hallway; all of three feet
tall with bumpy, plastic-like red skin covered in oddly shaped bumps
and boils. It gave a shrill screech of terror, a cross between
Styrofoam squeaking between your teeth and a fork scraping the inside
of a frying pan, and scuttled off down the dank hallway as fast as
its stumpy legs could propel it.
They watched it toddle out of sight, whimpering like a stray
dog. An extremely ugly stray dog.
"OK," Zoicite observed. "That was…"
"Pathetic?" Venus supplied.
Silence. "Was that a beanbag chair?" Nephrite asked hesitantly.
Silence. "Well, it was a beanbag chair that FEARED me," Jadeite
proclaimed.
Sailor Jupiter scoffed. "Please. It was a baby youma."
"A baby beanbag chair youma," Sailor Moon concluded.
"Congratulations, guys, you've just passed the descriptive
writing final for English 15." Sailor Venus ran her finger against
the stone. "Mercury, what is this stuff?"
Mercury held her computer up to the bluish, glowing slime
covering the walls. "Some type of…bioluminescent lichen. But,
according to my calculations, it has been extinct since the Cretaceous
period."
"Is it poisonous?" Mars asked, shying away from Venus's finger.
"No."
Jadeite elbowed Endymion. "Dare you to lick it."
Endymion turned to face him, half a smile on his face and a
smart remark blossoming on his lips. And then, he almost fainted.
Jadeite saw his prince go even whiter in the sickly glow of
the lichen. "Endy? What's wrong?"
Sailor Moon turned. "Endymion? Is everything…?" She gasped.
Venus swiveled around. "You too, Venus!"
Venus mirrored her princess's expression of absolute shock.
"Your-your eyes are glowing!"
"So our yours! So are everybody's!" Sailor Moon's exclamation
started a chain reaction, and soon everyone was staring at each
other's eyes.
Mercury's eyes glowed like silver coins as she typed in her
computer. "Our eyes aren't glowing; they're reflecting light much
like a cat's or a dog's. It seems that we have a higher concentration
of rods and cones."
Zoicite's eyes were the dimmest. "Then we should have amazing
eyesight, right?"
"I believe we do. A normal person wouldn't be able to see
this well in this amount of light."
Nephrite's eyes reflected the most light; they seemed to
radiate with an internal fire that made the rest of his face seem
ghostly. "Doesn't anyone remember? When your eyes reflected light-"
"-you were a Magic Person," Endymion concluded. "From the
Moon or with Moon ancestry. They needed better eyes to see where
it was almost always night."
Kunzite stared into space for a full minute. "When they came
to take me away from my home, the first thing they did was shine
a light in my eyes. That's how they knew I was a Magic Person,
because of my eyes."
"My grandfather was a Magic Person," Jadeite started. "He
always wore dark glasses, ever since the Cleansing, so that no
one would ever find out and arrest him. I was the only one lucky,
or unfortunate, enough to inherit his Magic."
A memory blindsided Endymion, a memory of playing hide and
seek with his friends, his brothers, in the dark, and screaming when
he saw four pairs of disembodied eyes shining back at him when he
clicked off the light.
Venus cleared her throat. "I'm officially stopping this journey
down memory lane. Nephrite, what's through the walls?"
He focused. "You're going to love this. Another hallway, and
it's completely empty."
She groaned. "Mercury, please tell me you can MapQuest this
thing."
"I can, in a way. We're standing in the outer hub of the
Dark Kingdom, and to make our way inward, we have to follow where
that youma went." She pointed down the hallway.
Kunzite drew his sword with a lethal hiss. "Be on guard."
A half an hour later, the scenery hadn't changed, but the
atmosphere had. The cavernous hallway had been entirely silent on
the point where they had broken through the wall, and now eerie
hisses and scuttles were resonating through the chamber like Dolby
surround sound. A slight scraping noise had been a constant, as
if the very walls were breathing. Sailor Moon trembled.
"It's getting loud. I don't like it," she whispered. Endymion
squeezed her hand.
"What was that?" Sailor Jupiter gasped, twirling around,
her hands crackling.
"What was what?" Mars echoed, her voice tight.
"That cracking noise. Don't you guys hear it?"
Venus drew her sword. "I do now. Where's it coming from,
Mercury?"
Mercury craned her neck up. "The ceiling. There's a fault
line form-"
She was cut off by a low growl.
Endymion was almost knocked over as Kunzite slammed into his
back. That's right. We always fought back to back. Something
stirred in the darkness, and a youma came lumbering out, oily and
black and predatory, a cross between a black mamba and a common sea
crab. It hissed viciously through its crustacean mouth.
"Oh, ew!" Sailor Moon breathed, staring at the trail of greasy,
clear liquid it left in its wake.
"Fire Soul!"
Mars's attack was unusually effective; the youma went up in
flames like it had been doused in gasoline. Its hissing became desperate
as its exoskeleton rapidly incinerated, giving off a smell of burning
chemicals and steamed crab.
Mercury smiled. "Good call, Mars. The coat of secretion on its
shell was highly flammable."
Mars shrugged. "I kind of figured that out; it smelled like
lighter fluid."
Nephrite sniffed heavily. "Now it's making me hungry."
Kunzite was halfway to responding, something stupid like what
lighter fluid must taste like on crabs, when something jumped out
of the shadows, knocking him over and sinking its teeth into his sword
arm.
"No!" Sailor Moon screamed. More shadows appeared from nowhere,
each the size of a large Rottweiler, snapping and biting as they attacked.
Venus shoved her out of the way. "Rolling heart vibration!" The
golden heart obliterated two of the youmas in mid-jump.
A flurry of ice spears flew through the air and landed in the
back of the youma that had latched onto Kunzite's arm. He pried its
blood-soaked jaws from his elbow. Zoicite ran over and helped him to
his feet. "Close call, bud."
Mars, Jadeite, and Nephrite wove back and forth in the melee,
drawing more of the youmas away from the Prince and Princess. Nephrite
fired several deadly accurate comets, blowing the youmas to dust. He got
his first good look at them in the dying light of the flaming crab youma.
"Oh man, they kind of look like Rottweilers without snouts! Here
boy, c'mon! Burn in hell! That's a good boy!"
"And bigger teeth," Jupiter added, electrocuting any youma close
enough. Their teeth were long, pointed, and perfectly smooth, designed
to crunch through bone. "I think these are Beryl's guard dogs!"
"Guard this," Endymion grunted, shoving his sword through one's
neck.
Sailor Moon's tiara flew through the air, cutting off the legs
of the three remaining youma, and the only sound left were their
dying screams.
Zoicite kicked one's body. "Damn, they were ugly little fuckers."
Kunzite held his injured arm against his body as Mercury scanned
it. "Does it hurt?" she asked, ripping off his cape and wrapping it
against the gushing wound.
"No," he lied, his face gray.
"Well, you're definitely lying, because your arm's broken."
"Great," Jadeite groaned, tapping one tentative foot against
the charred crab. "That's just what we need right now; our big gun
KO'd by a mutant Rottie."
Venus started towards Kunzite, ready to comfort or reassure or
whatever was most appropriate for the occasion, and then suddenly
took off running. "JADEITE! LOOK OUT!"
Jadeite jumped back as the supposedly dead youma sprang up from
the ground and started after him. "Oh shit!"
Ten different attacks hit it from ten different angles, and
ricocheted off its burnt body and slammed into the ceiling. The rock
exploded, and suddenly hundreds of boulders were raining down on their
heads in a torrent of debris and noise.
Endymion could barely see through the cloud of dust, but he
managed to catch one last glimpse of his beloved's face, her gigantic
blue eyes round with terror, before Venus pulled on her arm and out
of the way of danger.
Nephrite only had time to shove Jupiter out of the way of
falling rocks; if Zoicite hadn't grabbed him by the collar, he would
have been buried under a dump truck's worth of broken rock and rubble.
The dust settled; Sailor Moon and her Senshi and Prince Endymion
and his Generals were separated by two tons of jagged rock and rubble.
"This is soo clichéd!" Mars grumbled, laying flat on her back.
"What kind of higher power would stick us in such a trite, overdone,
tired situation as this?"
Sailor Moon clicked on her communicator. "Is everyone all
right and accounted for?"
Endymion's dusty face appeared in the box. "Yeah, we're fine,
except Zoicite thinks he's swallowed a rock. How about you guys?"
She took a quick survey of her friends: Mars and Mercury
seemed none the worse for wear, Jupiter had sustained a cut on her
forehead, and a section of Venus's hair was caught under a giant
rock. She was presently sawing it off with her sword. "We're good,
for now. Mercury, should we teleport over there or should they come
over here?"
Mercury wiped a film of dust off of her visor. "We should go
over there."
"We're coming over," Sailor Moon said. "Hold on a second.
Ready, girls?"
Venus's hair was now extremely lopsided. "Let's get it on."
They held hands in a circle.
Nothing happened. "Guys, concentrate," Venus ordered.
"What do you think we're doing?" Jupiter said, squeezing her
eyes shut.
"Something's not right," Sailor Moon said, her voice quavering.
Sailor Mars snorted. "My thoughts exactly. Why isn't this working?"
Mercury let go of Venus and Jupiter's hands and re-opened her
computer. "Something's definitely blocking our teleporting ability.
There's no way we can teleport in this kind of interference."
"What about the guys?" Venus opened her communicator. "It's not
working for us. Why don't you try?"
"OK," Endymion agreed. A few minutes passed, and all five of
their faces appeared. "It's not working for us, either."
"Looks like we're up shit creek," Zoicite added cheerfully.
"What's our Plan B?"
"Blast through the rock?" Jupiter suggested, wiping the blood
off of her forehead.
"Take it easy, tiger, we'd probably cave in the ceiling again,"
Nephrite said on the other end.
Sailor Venus pulled her bow out and started tying her uneven
hair up into a ponytail. "Mercury, give me a mutual point where we
can meet up."
She typed. "If we travel in opposite directions, we'll both
hit an opening into a parallel hallway. We can meet in the center
there."
"Hear that, guys?"
"Loud and clear, Venus. You guys be careful."
She smiled at Endymion's warning. "You too. And try to lay
low; we're at a disadvantage being divided like this. Keep the
communication lines open, and if we don't meet up in an hour, we'll
try teleporting again. Keep your eyes open and your head down."
"She always this bossy, Kunz?"
"Shut up, Jadeite. Venus out." She shut her communicator, and
turned to face her friends. "We are in deep shit, guys."
"Kinda figured that one out, too," Mars muttered. "Come on, we
have a lot of walking to do."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Yikes! Watch it with that thing!" Nephrite rubbed his leg where
it had almost been sliced off by Kunzite's sword.
"Sorry. I'm not used to using this hand." His injured arm dangled
across his chest in a makeshift sling made out of his cape, leaving
him with no other option but to carry his sword with his subdominant
hand.
"Kunzite can't even pick his nose with his right hand," Jadeite
reported, chuckling as he remembered Kevin curled around a right-handed
desk, trying to balance his elbow while filling in little SAT bubbles
at the same time.
Zoicite imagination was running wild; he scanned the ceiling for
potential dangly bat-youmas. "You think the chicks are OK?"
Jadeite scoffed. "You should be worried about us, not them. They
logged in much more playing time then we have. Haven't you noticed
that we completely suck at this? Five months ago my biggest concern
was how many parties I was going to in a weekend, and now it's
saving the world from evil Negaverse Communism, or whatever. Not
to mention that besides what's leftover in my brain from a past
life, I have absolutely no military experience."
"Still…" his voice trailed off.
Endymion could sympathize with Zoicite; all he could think
about was Sailor Moon. True, she practically had enough power to
put the entire world in a coma, but she was still green, and vulnerable,
and he wasn't fully convinced that the cave-in had been an accident.
She was his soul, his life, his reason to roll out of bed in the
morning and keep at it, and if anything happened to her in this
freakish ghoul-world, he wouldn't know how to carry on…
Nephrite's mind was on the same track; although he knew that
Jupiter would probably physically beat him for being such a chauvinist,
he couldn't help but think that he should be there, protecting her.
What if one of those crab-things was waiting on the other side for
them? She was a powerful soldier, he knew, but, for God's sake, WHAT
IF?
His mind was still awash with sappy ponderings, and he had barely
a second to register his comrades' gasps when something large and
heavy slammed into his back.
He spun, adrenaline pumping, ready to eviscerate the new threat
with one fell swoop, and stopped dead in his tracks. "J. Christ,
Kunzite, watch where you're going, I almost attacked you!"
Strangely, Kunzite didn't meet his eyes, but rather fixed his
gaze on a point above Nephrite's head. "Like I meant to," was his
curt response.
"Well then-" Nephrite stopped and studied his friends. Zoicite
was biting his lip and tapping his sword to the ground like a blind
man taps his white-tipped cane to the pavement. Jadeite held one
hand to the wall and another out in front of him. Endymion was wiping
the air with both his hands. "Wait, what's wrong? Have you all been
struck blind?"
"Nephrite, cut the smartass shit," Kunzite growled, still
staring above his head. "Would everyone talk or something so I
know where you are?"
Endymion was smiling in the dark. "God, you have such an
accent. 'Smaht-ass!'"
"You've never noticed it before?"
"No, I just thought you had a speech impediment. Say 'Harvard.'"
Zoicite waved on arm out to the side. "No, tell him to say
'car'."
"You're both retarded."
"Re-tah-ded!"
"I think I'm in front and to your right," Jadeite reported,
feeling the wall as he took a step forward.
It finally dawned on Nephrite. "Guys, can you see? I'm not
being a smartass, I swear, because I can."
"You can what?" Zoicite tripped and caught himself.
"I can see!"
Endymion stopped short. "How the hell can you see; it's pitch
black!"
"Hey, I'm just as shocked as you guys, but I can see in the
dark. What happened, anyway?"
"The lichen clicked off," Zoicite said, moving towards Nephrite's
voice. "It sounds weird but that's exactly what happened. One minute
we're going on our merry way and the next thing I know, all the lights
go off and we're stumbling around like blind men."
"Are there any immediate threats?" Endymion asked sharply.
"Other than one of you falling and impaling yourselves on a
sword, none that I can see."
Endymion sighed. "You're going to have to lead us, then,
unless someone has the power to create light for more than five
seconds.
Does anyone?" He concluded hopefully.
"No," Kunzite sighed, adjusting his arm so that the broken
bones didn't grate together and send white-hot sparks of pain
shooting up to his shoulder.
"I don't remember how," Zoicite said. "I used to do it all
the time back then, too. Sorry."
Jadeite was disgusted with himself. "Why the hell can I remember
the spell for cheating at pitch like it's the friggin' Pledge of
Allegiance, but for the life of me I can't remember how to generate
a few measly watts that would probably be drowned out by a regulation
Christmas light!"
Click! Everyone except Nephrite recoiled, startled by the sudden
burst of flame and dim yellow glow that accompanied it.
Nephrite held the Bic up. "Is this good?"
Endymion blinked. "Where did you get that?"
"I keep it in that subspace pocket, or whatever Mercury calls
it, with a pack of smokes. Why?"
He shook his head. "You're unreal. Let's keep moving."
Time seemed to pass in hours instead of minutes as they moved
down the cavern, occasionally tripping over a stray rock or other
hard, unidentifiable object that they chose not to explore in detail.
Nephrite led the way with his cigarette lighter, and the others
followed behind, hands on each other's shoulders like a line of blind
men.
"So who's going to win the Series?" Jadeite started, not knowing
that he was whispering.
"BoSox," Kunzite responded immediately.
"Boston my ass, I'm still pulling for the Giants."
"Zoicite, your Giants have about as much chance winning as
the stupid O's."
"Who's dissin the O's?" Jadeite snapped.
"Me. The Mariners are taking it, bitch. What's your team,
Endymion?"
Endymion swallowed nervously, not knowing how it would go
over with a Red Sox fan directly behind him. "Yankees."
Collective groaning echoed off the walls. "You suck," Zoicite
muttered.
"Say that again and we'll feed you to the youmas," Nephrite
laughed, two seconds before he disappeared into thin air.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Luna watched as a portion of Beryl's globe lit up, and
Beryl's extremely surprised expression.
"How did they get there?" Beryl whispered. Luna could barely
pick up what she was saying, but she couldn't take her eyes off
of the blinking dot on the globe.
Beryl waved. "It doesn't matter how at this point." She
nodded at her minions. "You know what to do."
They bowed. Luna's heart froze.
"No. Oh no. Why did they come?"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Unlike their counterpart male party, the Senshi were not left
in the dark when the lichen inexplicably clicked off. Jupiter lit
her glowing electricity ball again, this time joined by a fireball
from Mars.
Venus blinked in the sudden, harsh light. "Mercury, what
just happened?"
Mercury angled her computer so that it caught the light
from Jupiter's electricity. "Something just passed through,
some kind of dark energy."
Mars groaned. "Bad dark energy or good dark energy?"
" 'Good dark energy' is an oxymoron, Mars."
Venus and Jupiter simultaneously pulled out their communicators.
"They're not working," Jupiter said, ramming her finger on the
button over and over, much like elevator passengers do when the
doors don't open immediately. "What the hell's wrong?"
"It must be the dark energy; we're surrounded by it!"
Venus and Mars were on guard. "What caused it? Did we set
off a trigger?" Venus asked.
"I don't know."
"Fuck us hard." Mars stormed in front of the group, leading
the way with her fireball.
Sailor Moon drew closer to the glow of Jupiter's ball. "Oh
great, after all we went through to draw up a stupid plan that had
a pretty decent shot at actually freaking working, somehow we manage
to fuck it up and now we're wandering around in the stupid dark
like a bunch of stupid-"
Mercury screaming abruptly cut off Sailor Moon's complaint.
"MARS DON'T MOVE!" Mercury took off, shoving Sailor Moon and Jupiter
out of her way, and nearly ripped Mars's arm clean out of the
socket in an attempt to pull her back. Mars teetered on her skinny
spike heels and fell to the ground, hard.
"Mercury!" Her eyes blazed with invisible flame as she jumped
up, brushing the backs of her legs. "What was that for?"
"You nearly walked right into a 'dark spot'," Mercury panted,
placing one hand to her chest.
"A what what?"
"There's no other way to describe it. It's a patch of highly
concentrated dark energy, used mainly as shortcuts to other
designated parts of the Dark Kingdom."
"Sort of like those secret passages in 'Clue'?" Jupiter
surmised.
"Not exactly. They were designed for use only by inhabitants
of the Negaverse. If we walked into one, at worst we'd be instantly
killed; at best, tripping an alarm."
Venus smushed her face between her hands and expended every
ounce of available energy to keep from screaming. "Is there any way
around it?"
"No. We'll have to backtrack."
"How long will that put us behind?"
"Approximately two hours."
This time she did scream, albeit through her hands clapped
over her mouth to muffle the sound. Sailor Moon patted her on the
back.
"Don't worry, Venus, this is just a roadblock."
"Big fucking roadblock, if you ask me."
They started back down the way they came, Mercury in the lead
to scan for potential dark spots. Sailor Moon felt like she had
been walking for hours; her ankles and knees ached from repeatedly
pounding the stone floor, and her optimism was waning with every
minute spent in the dark. "This place, it's horrible, it's filled
with hate. All I can feel is hate; it even comes from the walls.
It's only happy when other people are suffering."
"That's probably Metallia you're sensing," Mars said from
the rear. "She's basically the embodiment of hate."
Sailor Moon sighed, and, like a small child in a crowded
shopping mall, she reached for Venus's hand and latched on. "I'm
worried about Endymion, too. I mean, I know he's capable of taking
care of himself, and he's bailed me out of a few hundred close
calls, but…I don't know what's out there. He could be in danger
and I would have no way to help him."
Venus glanced down at her. "He'll be fine. He's got plenty
of backup."
"I know he's in very capable hands, but if anything happened
to him, I wouldn't have a reason to live." Her tone was light, but
her words were deadly serious. Venus pulled her closer.
"I don't want to sound like my mother, and say that eventually
you'd get over it-"
"Then don't," Sailor Moon said simply, like she was answering
survey questions. "I love him; he's the other half of my soul,
and he's the only thing that keeps me going. If he dies, I die."
Venus studied the steadfast resolution in her face. "You mean
that, don't you?"
"You bet!" She giggled, cheerful even when discussing a
serious subject. "Aw, Venus, it's just like old times, when you
used to tell me that my love for Endymion was just a crush, and
then stick to my side like an overgrown leech to make sure I didn't
sneak down to Earth!"
Venus guffawed. "I don't know how I didn't pick up on the
fact that HE was the one breaking the rules and sneaking up to the
Moon!"
Sailor Moon laughed, the happy sound refreshingly clashing
with the dismal atmosphere. "He wasn't the only one sneaking up to
the Moon, hmm? That goes for all of you!"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Jupiter said, feigning
innocence and starting a round of embarrassed laughter.
Sailor Moon wasn't finished with Venus. "Wouldn't you want
to die too if Kunzite did? Don't you love him?"
Venus stared straight ahead at Jupiter's back. "Yes, I love
him. But I would have no other choice to live on; it's my duty to
protect you. He would do the same for Endymion."
She sighed. "You know, Venus, it's this total preoccupation
with duty that makes you absolutely no fun to hang out with sometimes!"
Venus smiled. "I'm that boring?"
"No, did you hear me? I said, 'When you're Venus.' When
you're Mina, you're a blast."
"We're the same person."
"Sort of. You have this G.I. Jane persona going on when you
slip into Sailor Mode. When you're Mina, stuff seems not to bother
you so badly."
She glanced at the floor. "I hide it well."
"We all do," Mars interrupted. "You think I'm this bitchy
when I'm not punishing in the name of Mars?"
"YES!" said the chorus. Mars reddened until her ears looked
like they were burning.
A half hour passed, uneventfully. Jupiter broke the silence
in the most tactless way possible. "So, Mercury, get any last
night?"
"I'm not at liberty to discuss that," Mercury said, thankful
that her visor covered most of her mortified expression.
"'I'm not at liberty to discuss that.' Listen to you! You're
not being interrogated by the police, you're just sharing your
personal conquests with four of your best friends!"
"Let's save the personal conquests for later, OK?" Venus
said, peering up at the ceiling.
"Not until Mercury swears to tell us everything when we
get back," Jupiter bargained.
Venus cut Mercury off. "She promises."
Mars kicked a stone out of her way. "Do you think we should
start on the plan yet? We've been here a while and we haven't done
anything except wander and look cute."
They all looked to Venus, who nodded. "Might as well stick
to the plan. Only Mars and Mercury, though, I don't want to get
zapped while running from a youma or a dark spot."
Mars began firing at random points on the ground, creating
mounds of dust that resembled mini-volcanoes. When stepped on, they
would erupt in a burst of flame. Venus had gotten the idea while
watching a news report about forgotten land mines in Kosovo that
had the unfortunate tendency to blow off children's limbs when they
stepped on them. If everything had been going as planned, Kunzite
and Nephrite would be planting even deadlier land mines, and Zoicite
would be rigging the ceiling with falling, ice crystal stalactites.
"Watch your step, guys," Mars warned as she blasted her way
down the cavern.
Sailor Moon stayed within spitting distance of Venus. "Did you
guys hear something?"
Venus held her arm out, and everyone stopped. "No," Jupiter
said. "I don't. Do you?"
"Yes!" Sailor Moon was absolutely distressed. "It's Endymion!
He's hurt and he's all alone, oh God he needs my help!" She took off
running, heading towards Mars's land mines.
Mercury grabbed her before she could blow off her leg. "Please,
get a hold of yourself! You're the only one who can hear it, so
it must be an illusion."
"It's not an illusion, Mercury!" Sailor Moon struggled against
her grip. "He needs me!"
"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Mars screamed, her face folded in
concentration. "I hear something, it's not Endymion, but something
is coming."
They heard it then, a soft, scraping sound like wet garbage
bags being dragged over gravel.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"This fucking sucks," Nephrite said to no one, since there
was exactly that many people around to talk to. He clicked off his
cigarette lighter, trying to take in his surroundings and assess the
situation. Boy, did I feel like a hose after I kept talking after
everyone disappeared. The ceiling had lowered, it was only about
fifteen feet high instead of practically limitless; it was also making
him feel a little claustrophobic.
Maybe I was the one who disappeared. What I would give
right now just to know what the hell happened. Where's Mercury and
her computer when you need her?
Soon after, a solid wall hindered his progress, and when he
backtracked, he ran into another wall. "What the hell?" he whispered
placing a hand on the wall and walking parallel to it. For ten
minutes, he followed the wall, not once hitting any sort of door
or passageway. Once he thought he saw a glimpse of a narrow passageway
cutting through the rock, but when he ran up to it, it wavered and
vanished.
"I'm boxed in," he said out loud, not caring who heard.
There's probably nobody within earshot anyway. "SHIT!"
"Not completely," a second voice answered from behind his
back. Nephrite experienced a mere second of pee-yourself shock as
he swiveled around, sword drawn.
"You," he whispered. Anger like he'd never felt before
flooded his mind; it wiped out any other rational thought until
all that was left was a primitive urge to inflict harm on the
other person until they stopped moving.
Nephlite drew his own sword as he advanced. "What else were
you expecting? A red-carpeted path into the Queen's throne room?"
"Shut up," Nephrite barked. They circled each other, slowly,
like predatory cats.
"I just killed Jupiter a few minutes ago. Didn't you feel
her go?"
"Shut up," he repeated.
"I killed her slowly. She screamed."
"Fuck you."
"I raped her, too. I raped her after she was dead."
"Motherfucker, do you think I'm stupid? I'm not falling for
any of your twisted psychological shit!"
He attacked, landing several blows as the feeling that
something just wasn't quite right permeated his brain. Nephlite
slashed out, slicing his shoulder in the exact same place where
Endymion had a thousand years ago. He hissed in pain, and threw
a comet just in time to deflect the one that was hurtling to his
face.
"You think I'm playing mind games?" Nephlite laughed, even
though half of his body was singed from Nephrite's attack.
"I'm going to kill you," Nephrite promised, spinning and
blocking in a way that would have made Endymion proud. "Talk
all you want, it won't get to me." He's left-handed, that's
what's screwing me all up! He swallowed the hard lump that had
barnacled in his throat. Did he really kill Jupiter? God, I
hope she's all right!
"You're going to kill me?" Nephlite laughed, effortless
flinging dark energy at his opponent like it was mud. Nephrite
dodged most of it, but his body caught the afterburn and he gasped
in pain.
Nephlite continued, laughing as Nephrite stumbled back,
desperately sucking in air. "But, I thought you were the one
who was supposed to be dead." His voice fluctuated, from a
sinister hiss of an agent of the Dark Kingdom to the gruff
bark of a forty-something paramedic.
" 'This one's still alive.'"
It was no more than a parlor trick, but it worked. Nephrite
froze for a split second, wondering how the Dark Kingdom knew as
he remembered:
His best friend. Brian Hampton. They met in first grade,
purely by coincidence as the teacher had seated them alphabetically.
They sat together at lunch, too, sharing Chips Ahoy and chucking
the bananas that their respective maids had packed in their plastic
lunch boxes, and never separated once through the years. Brian would
go on vacations with the Haberman family, and vice versa. They
played on the same hockey teams, all through grade school and on
through high school. They only dated girls that liked each other,
so that double dates wouldn't be like walking on a half inch of
ice frozen over ten feet of water. Matt couldn't count the hours
they spent together: playing basketball, fishing, going to clubs
and parties, picking up girls.
They sat next to each other at graduation, flicking at their
green and gold tassels and waiting for it all to end, so that they
could move out of state and dorm together at Bryce University in
the fall, where undoubtedly they would continue to remain friends,
even though Brian had stopped playing hockey at that point. Maybe
they would join a fraternity.
The kid who threw the customary graduation party lived pretty
far away, but the trip was well worth it, since the guy's parents
were conveniently out of town and his very large house was well stocked.
Matt had drank until the mere thought of rising from his seat was
an obstacle, but he didn't care. This was their night to kick back,
forget everything, and celebrate being young, carefree, and invincible.
"Bob just called my cell," Brian told Matt as he slumped on
a couch, his eyes so glassy one could see his reflection in them.
"Oh yeah? Is he coming?"
"He's sneaking out of his house; I told him we'd come and get
him."
Matt couldn't have stood up if his shoes were on fire. He
reached into his pocket and wrapped his hand around the keys to his
father's Mercedes. "All right. Want to go now?"
Brian pulled the keys out of Matt's hand. "What the fuck,
dude, are you fucked up in the head? You're not driving! You can't
even stand."
Matt put up no argument. "I think you just want to drive a
Mercedes, Bri."
Somehow he made it out to the driveway, and had barely sat
down when Brian reached over and pulled Matt's seatbelt across his
chest. Matt had wetly grinned. "Brian, you are my best fucking friend,
you know that?"
"Yeah, I know," he responded, turning onto the highway.
"No, you don't even know. You are the fucking man. You're
always taking care of me and shit. We're going to have one fucking
time next year, bro."
"Yeah," Brian answered simply, flicking on the windshield wipers.
It had started to drizzle.
"You know everything, Bri. You're a goddamn genius. You've
always been better than me at everything."
"I'm a lot better looking, too."
Matt remembered laughing thickly at that, and turning his
head slightly to say something when the car violently lurched, like
a roller coaster when it turns a sharp corner, and he remembered
thinking that. It feels like a roller coaster in here.
A flash of white hit him hard in the face; he struggled to
breath through the clouds of choking smoke, and in a panic, he wondered
if the car was on fire. Glass shattered dangerously close to his
face, and then something incredibly hard struck him on the side of
the head, knocking him out.
The first thing he was aware of when he regained consciousness
was his mouth and the rain falling in his eyes. He rubbed his
tongue against the space where his front teeth had been, not
realizing that they were gone yet, trying to assuage the throbbing
pain in his mouth. Warm rain rolled down his face, wet and sticky.
His eyes were closed, but he could hear, and he listened for the
sound of rain pattering against the asphalt, and wondered why he
could not.
"This one's still alive!" The announcement had been shouted,
and Matt flinched and opened his eyes, facing a pair of knees clad
in black polyester.
I'm sideways. he thought sluggishly, and suddenly the
pain roared to life as if a match had been held to it. His chest
hurt so much he could barely breath; it felt like a four hundred
pound rock was pressing down on it and preventing his lungs from
expanding. He started to hyperventilate. A latex-gloved hand pressed
a plastic mask over his face, wiping away some of the rain that
was pouring down his face. It was red.
The rain's red. His eyes dropped shut as he sank back
down into blackness, and the last sound he heard was metal squealing
and groaning in protest as it tore.
He woke up a week later, minus one spleen, with a tube down
his throat and several in his arms, and his mother's tear-streaked
face hovering above his, her dark hair glowing like a brown halo
against the fluorescent lights. She informed him, quite simply,
that Brian was dead. He hadn't been stone-cold sober like Matt
had previously thought, nor was he wearing a seat belt when he
drifted into oncoming traffic. Matt would have been dead if Brian
hadn't reached over and buckled his seat belt.
It should have been me. He thought in the weeks thereafter,
smoking Camel after Camel through his new, false front teeth, while
he crumpled the new dorm assignment in his fist. The faceless name
"Zachary Straub" and a phone number blurred into black puddles as
tears formed in his eyes. What he had said in the car in the final
moments of Brian's life was the truth, in least in his mind. Brian
was smarter, nicer, funnier, better than him in every way. He should
have been the one driving.
He hadn't told anyone about Brian, not even Lita. He told her
he lost his teeth in a hockey fight, and the scar on his abdomen
was from an appendectomy. Zach, the premed baseball player, had
inquired about it the second day they lived together and hadn't
bought the appendix excuse.
"For real? Why's it so big? They don't usually do I-incisions
unless it's for exploratory-"
"They had to explore." Something in Matt's face made Zach
drop the subject.
"It should have been you," Nephlite said, extending his hand
and sending an enormous ball of dark energy spiraling towards
Nephrite. He countered at the very last second, but his attacks
were growing progressively weaker as he grew wearier. Nephlite
sensed this, and blasted an impossibly large comet, crackling
with power.
Nephrite was too weak and too shaken to dodge. The comet caught
him in the chest and sent him flying across the cavern. His body
hit the opposite wall so hard the stone cracked upon impact, and
he slumped to the floor, gasping.
He struggled to breathe against the crushing pain, just like he
had felt while pinned in the wreckage of his father's Mercedes.
He begged his body to get back up and fight, but it would not or
could not obey. He's going to attack you again! If you don't
get up, he'll kill you!
What's the point? Another part of him groaned. It
should have been you in that car. You've been living on borrowed
time anyway.
He breathed in gasps as another picture floated through his
now-foggy mind. His Prince, the one he swore to give his life
to protect, would be short one guardian, and that might mean
the difference between life and death. He thought of Lita, Makoto,
Jupiter, and her shining green eyes and Colgate smile, and how
she felt in his arms. "Get up," he whispered to himself. "Get
the fuck up."
The tip of a sword was pressed against his throat, and he
looked up at his double. Something's always been off about
him; he doesn't look exactly like me. The mirror must have been
warped.
Nephlite smiled down at his wounded prey. "Well, you've never
been-"
BOOM! Nephrite put everything he had into the comet, every
ounce of strength and love and pain that he had left in his
body. He threw it for Endymion, for Jupiter, for Brian, for
all of his friends that would be that much safer having one
less Dark General in the picture.
Nephlite's face exploded when the comet impacted, splattering
Nephrite with a more than a gallon of blood and brains and flecks
of bone. He shut his eyes against the grisly tidal wave,
partially to block out the horrific scene and partially to keep
it from falling in his eyes. He felt the now-dead body hit the
ground like a ton of bricks.
"Dumbass. You all fucking talk to much," he mumbled in the
darkness, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it between his
teeth. He leaned back against the wall and waited for his
accelerated healing to kick in, so it would abate the throbbing
pain in his chest. Like magic, the crack in the wall that he
had been chasing before Nephlite appeared emerged from the shadows
again. "If you'd just cut the crap and can all the megalomaniac
speeches, maybe your face wouldn't be splattered all over mine."
He coughed out a plume of smoke, and wiped away the blood that
had appeared on his lips. "Come on, damn it, hurry up. Endymion
needs me. How long does it take for a couple of ribs to heal?"
* * * * * * * * * * *
"How long does it take for an arm to heal?" Kunzite tried to
flex his elbow, gasping when assaulted by a hurricane of screaming
nerves.
"It's only been broken for an hour. Mine usually heal
overnight," Endymion said, silently thanking a higher power
for turning the lichen back on and relieving them of the
crushing darkness. Without Nephrite, they had no chance of
making a whit of progress with zero visibility.
"We don't have overnight," Zoicite bitched. He had been
the number one advocate for searching for their missing comrade,
only to be harshly overrode by Kunzite. "Can you fight right at
all?"
"A little. I'm slower with the right."
Jadeite had a simple alternative. "Then don't fight. Use
your boomerang to blast them into kingdom come."
Endymion, walking besides him, laughed. "Yeah, I'll back
you up with my amazing flying shrubbery."
No response. Endymion stopped Jadeite and turned around.
"Kunzite?" Still nothing. "Zoicite? Answer me." Silence answered
him. Endymion's entire chest cavity seemed to sink into the
base of his stomach, as the feeling of defeat sunk its teeth
deeper into his optimism. I'm getting scared now.
Jadeite sighed, sick to death of the whole situation.
"Shit."
"Did they walk into one of those traps? Do you think
they'll find Nephrite?"
Jadeite met his eyes. "I think we just walked into
one."
* * * * * * * * * * *
"What-" Jupiter began, before Mercury shushed her. The visored
Senshi typed furiously into her computer, backing slowly
away from the escalating scraping that seemed to be heading
straight for them.
Mars and Venus planted themselves in front of Sailor
Moon, prepared to attack on a moment's notice. "What is it,
Mercury?" Mars whispered, trying to stay invisible for the
longest time possible.
Mercury's eyes were wide with terror. "I think it's
Metallia."
"What?" Venus hissed, drawing her sword. "We can't
take her on without the others! We're sitting ducks!"
"She's descending down a tunnel," Mercury reported.
"I suggest that we head in the opposite direction."
"Don't have to tell me twice," Jupiter said, pulling
on Sailor Moon's wrist. "Let's get the hell out of here
before the Incredible Blob finds out we're here."
They scurried down the hall like a pack of mice,
attempting to run on tiptoe to muffle the telltale clicking
of their heels against the stone floor.
Mars suddenly stopped. "Guys! What's that?" They
gathered around.
Venus was puzzled. "It's a door. But I don't understand;
it wasn't here before…"
Mercury scanned it; a dark, cathedral-like door
anachronistically stuck in the middle of the stone wall. She
ran her hand down the ancient wood. "If we keep going on the
present course, we're going to hit the dark spot again. If we
backtrack, we hit Metallia. I think we should just take our
chances and try door number one."
Sailor Moon shrugged. "Might as well. It's not like we
have a lot of options open." She reached for the tarnished
brass knob.
Venus almost karate chopped her hand off. "What do you
think you're doing? I'll go first." She faced her friends. "Be
prepared to attack."
"Gotcha," Mars affirmed, her hands glowing with heat.
Venus took a breath and pushed the door open, softly, so
that it didn't hit the wall and come springing back at her.
Behind the door was a room, huge, it's ceiling so high that
she could barely see the top. It glowed with an eerie green
light, making their faces look distorted and sickly. An
ostentatious throne sat in the middle, almost undignified
in its grandiosity; the chair of someone who wanted to
publicly advertise the power that she had stolen.
Sailor Moon was looking at the floor, at a doggie-igloo
like translucent dome that housed two beaten cats. "Luna!
Artemis!" she cried, wishing she could run across the throne
room and rescue them. Only about a hundred youma stood in
her way.
Venus had locked eyes with the person standing in
front of the throne. "Beryl."
Beryl grinned, raising her arms like a hostess
welcoming guests. "Welcome, Sailor Senshi. I was hoping
you'd take the bait and come through that dark spot. I had
it blocked behind the door, Mercury, so don't start spitting
out facts and statistics to me. You should have known better
anyway."
Mercury flushed with embarrassment as tears pricked at
her sinuses. "I'm so sorry, you guys. I should have seen it."
"It's not your fault," Sailor Moon whispered reassuringly.
Beryl ripped her gaze from Venus and drilled it through the
Moon Princess.
"Sailor Moon, I see you have brought the crystal. Am
I to understand that this will end in surrender?"
"Hell no!" Jupiter shouted, her face screwed up in
extreme rage. Thinking quickly, she grabbed Sailor Moon by
the arm and threw her back through the dark spot. Sailor
Moon had time enough to emit a thin cry before she disappeared
through the portal.
"You'll regret that decision, Jupiter!" Beryl screamed. She
turned to her youma army. "Kill them. Go after the princess."
Mercury started laughing hysterically, tears running
down her face. "You'll have to find her first, Beryl! I just
sealed off the dark spot!"
Jupiter smiled, swelling with pride that Mercury had
kept her wits and came through. "Way to go, Sailor Mercury!"
Beryl was nonplussed. "I will find her, I promise you that."
The youma advanced on the four Senshi, who were almost pinned
against the wall. Mars was bloodthirsty. "Drop me near
that bunch, would you, Venus?" She pointed to a patch of
gray-skinned, human-looking youma without faces.
Venus grinned. "Any more requests?"
"Anywhere will do," Jupiter growled, cracking electricity
along with her knuckles.
"Drop me near the cats," Mercury added.
"Right, then," Venus said, her cobalt eyes blazing
with anticipation. She slowly unwrapped her chain from her
waist. "Grab hold of me."
Each Senshi grabbed on. "Ready?" She threw the chain
skywards, blinding everyone with golden light. "Here we
go!"
They shot upwards with the chain, up over the
youmas' heads and into the air, swinging like a quartet
of female Tarzans. Mars let go and dropped at her desired
designation among the faceless youma, her hands shooting
jets of fire. "Haha! Betcha you didn't see that coming;
you've got no eyes!"
Jupiter and Mercury dropped down into the foray;
Mercury cleverly fogging up the area to mask their descent.
Venus swung like a pendulum for a few minutes, searching
for an area that was safe to land in. A figure scurrying
away from the battle caught her eye. She swung around and
dislodged her chain, landing directly in front of Beryl,
her eyes slitted with fury, her sword drawn.
"Going somewhere?"
Beryl was startled for a split second when the blond
Senshi dropped in front of her, but quickly regained her
senses. Raising one hand, she blasted dark energy at Venus,
knocking her back a few feet, and escaped through another
doorway.
Venus chased after her. "Where do you think you're
going?"
Meanwhile, Mercury froze the energy dome encasing
the cats and kicked it in, shattering it like a pane of
glass. She carefully pulled Luna and Artemis through the
jagged hole.
"Are you guys all right?" she asked frantically, heat
from Mars's attacks singing the backs of her legs.
Luna gasped. "Why did you come? You've all put yourselves
and the Princess in danger!"
Mars tumbled by them, somersaulting on the ground while
billowing smoke. "What, did you think we'd leave you here?"
She ran back into her battle, leaping Bruce Lee-style with
one heeled foot positioned in a kick.
Mercury tucked Luna into the crook of her elbow, and
was positioning Artemis when Jupiter screamed. "Mercury!
Look out!"
Mercury didn't even have time to duck. A streak of
dark energy hit her square in the back, throwing her forward
into a wall. She tried to twist in midair to avoid crushing
the cats, but only succeeded in smashing her forehead
against the rock.
"Unh!" she grunted, slumping to the floor, unconscious,
Luna and Artemis absorbing most of the impact.
"Mercury!" Luna screamed, trying to wiggle out from
Mercury's dead weight.
Jupiter, who had been keeping one eye on Mercury
the entire time, quickly wiped out a wave of youma and ran
to her friend's aid. "Mercury! Are you OK?" She lifted
Mercury as gently as she could with one hand, as the other
was detonating bolts of lightening at the advancing front.
Mercury's head flopped backwards limply, her visor
cracked down the middle and a stream of blood running
underneath. "Oh, no," Jupiter breathed. "Mars, back me up!
Mercury's down!"
"I can't!" Mars screamed back. The non-faced youmas
were all but wiped out; however, a fresh wave of skinny,
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind"-ish beings had her
surrounded.
Jupiter discharged more lightening. "Mercury? Can you hear
me? Wake up; we need you!" She shook the Ice Senshi's
head back and forth, trying to draw a response. "Mercury,
please wake up, please!"
Luna was in a panic of her own. Artemis hadn't immediately
responded after she pulled him out by his scruff, and now she
frantically batted his cataleptic body with her paws. "Artemis!
Are you OK? Speak to me!"
Jupiter thought briefly of slapping Mercury in the face
before she noticed the visor. Carefully she ripped it off of
Mercury's face and stuck it on her own. Oh God, I don't
know how to use this! Her eyes darted around all the
statistics around the screen, attempting to piece together
what was vital information and what was not.
A few minutes later, she tore it from her face and
flung it as hard and as far away as she could, tears of
anger and unbearable grief running hotly down her face.
She jumped up, frying any youmas obstructing her path to
Mars.
"Thank God you're here! I was getting my ass
kicked!" Mars leapt in the air, kicking a youma in the
face.
Jupiter pressed her back to Mars's as they
regrouped. "Mercury's gone."
Mars almost fell to the floor in shock. "WHAT?"
"She's gone. Dead. So is Artemis."
Mars shook her head. "You must be mistaken."
"No, I'm not. I looked through her visor; she
has no pulse. Her brain was bleeding."
Mars shook her head. "No," she whispered, her
voice quavering. She swallowed around the giant lump
forming in her throat. "No, she can't be. She-"
"She's gone, Mars." Jupiter clenched her teeth
against the onslaught of fresh pain, wishing desperately
to disbelieve her own words. Suddenly, she screamed,
releasing thousands of green oak leaves that tore through
the white youma, ripping their flesh to shreds.
Mars grabbed her wrist and pulled her through the
rows of falling youma, stopping only briefly to grab Luna's
sobbing form. She ran back through the doorway, an army of
youma chasing them.
"Mars, wait! We can't leave Mercury behind!"
"She's dead, Jupiter, you said so yourself. Now we
have to find the princess."
Jupiter swung her long arms around to gain momentum.
"Shouldn't we land right next to her?"
"Mercury closed the dark spot, remember?" She threw
Luna over her shoulder and picked up speed. "We're on our
own now. I just hope Venus knows what she's doing."