Author's note: Final Fantasy belongs to Mr. Sakaguchi and Sailor Moon belongs to… well, whoever thought it up. This fan fiction is dedicated to Myst Lady, for without her interest and kind words, these stories might go unappreciated. Besides, this is really her idea anyway.

Mind and Body

By Al Kristopher

I: Looking Glass

Deception ran amok that day.

The day was bright with the fires of a happy sun and the cool feeling of blades of grass. The omnipresent fireball above literally beamed with joy as it gave warmth to the world below. In return, beautiful blades of grass shot forth like hair on the planet's head, and hundreds of miniature critters crawled through the thick green forest. The sky was perfect and blue and happy; nary a cloud was within vision. Trees waved happily in the warm breeze, their flowers shedding petals in a beautiful array.

In short, it was the perfect day, and Sailor Mercury was suffering.

Not ten minutes ago, a demonic rogue monster calling himself the Void Droid had stormed into the delectable park. With terrifying ferocity, it scorched the beautiful blades of grass, toppled the gentle trees, polluted the crisp summer wind, and blackened the wonderful blue sky with its smog of darkness. Its origin was unknown; its purpose, however, was obviously havoc.

Sailor Mercury was suffering because it had her locked in its crushing grasp.

There was much deception going on that day. There was so much beauty in the park, for the sun was out and trees were waving and the grass felt so good. There was also horror, for a mechanical monstrosity had destroyed much of this paradise, and with maniacal glee, set forth to wreak even more chaos. It looked like something out of a bad B-movie, but its attacks were nothing to scoff at.

After all, Sailor Mercury was suffering because of it.

The five ladies had been called to battle only recently. They had all been elsewhere, attending to their own individual chores and lives. Each one was preparing for the next day--whether it was cleaning a shrine, cooking a meal, shopping for clothes, studying, or else rotting one's mind with games. Each and every one of the women present had other lives to live, other duties to attend to, and being interrupted from these tasks made them understandably angry.

Sailor Mercury began to feel her limbs rip apart.

They had all scurried over as quickly as they could, the five warriors, and gazed in a brief but astonished horror at the carnage that the Void Droid had caused. Thankfully, it had been a school day, so most everybody was studying at home or elsewhere. Everyone else had wisely retreated, leaving only empty picnic baskets or toys. The five warriors became shocked at such devastation, and by the justice of their hearts and the power in their souls, they had the ability to prevent such horrors from increasing.

Sailor Mercury's brain screamed out in pain as the monster squeezed her.

Calling forth the powers of four of the planets nearest to the sun, and the lone moon that circled the Earth which they stood on, the quintet became illuminated in a light unseen in those parts for months. A blazing inferno encircled one, and great flames spouted out of her mouth as if she were a dragon. This one was a champion of fire, and against her no demon could stand.

Sailor Mars was flat on the floor, groaning in misery.

Hearts and flowers covered the body of another. Wrapped in a beautiful envelope of gold and orange, the great goddess of love stood proud and tall against the wicked machination that dared to cause such pain. Great powers of the heart and hopes and dreams and romance poured out of her body, filling the air with a gentle yet firm sense of righteousness.

Sailor Venus had been beaten beyond recognition.

A third, thunderous maiden stood in the open, great snakes of white-hot electric power slithering across her body. Throbbing like a great conduit of power, rumbling with the anger of the heavens, and standing firm as a storm, the Amazon of things electric rose slightly higher than the others, for those that have strength often do. Yet her strength alone was nothing when compared to the power that her friends loaned to her.

Sailor Jupiter had been blasted black from the deadly firepower.

Their leader, Princess and Future Queen, sat in the radiation of great glorious crystal powers. Shining with more colors than a thousand rainbows, the illuminating one twirled like a majestic top as the pure light encompassed her. Holding in her hand the scepter of judgment and love, and on her shoulders the burden of all things Past and Future, the unlikely leader gave off a great glowing aura as she too joined her comrades.

Indeed, Sailor Moon did join her comrades, but in their defeat.

The final femme, the petite petal of sapphire and cyan, the gorgeous goddess of glaciers, stood calmly as snow and frost covered her own body. Unaffected by the cold, the bluest of all gems smiled with a great wisdom and charity that far exceeded her mental or emotional capacities. This one, though probably the most vulnerable, was also the most essential, save for the leader herself.

And she was suffering greatly.

Sailor Mercury had a strong head on her shoulders, but the Void Droid soon learned the hard way how strong it actually was. With a jerk, Mercury snapped her head back and bashed the back of her skull into the ugly face of the monster holding her. He screamed in horror, not in pain, and clutched his bruised nose in agony. Mercury fell and rolled on the floor, panting hard as her limbs burned. The thing had almost torn them off.

With a shout, their leader managed to rise to her feet, rallying her fellow warriors behind her. Each one, though badly damaged, would not have stopped fighting unless one side suffered a death--preferably the opposing side. Though they were riddled with injuries, and quite exhausted from the long fight, they nevertheless summoned up buckets from the Wells of Energy they had, and drank deep the waters contained within.

Refreshed mentally and beaten physically, the clumsy leader boldly led the charge against the horrid creature, her foursome right behind her. She suddenly stopped and kneeled down, allowing two light ones to leap on her shoulders and launch themselves at the beast. This catapulting action caused the Void Droid to stutter and back away, though it was not quite injured.

A powerful thunder bolt came crashing from the sky and dove deep into the brain of the mechanical monster. Thousands of delicate wires, constructed together by five dedicated scientists, were slowly losing life as the energy tampered with the programming. The one who had thrown the bolt smiled, and signaled for another to strike.

This other warrior, the one who had almost been deprived of her limbs, nodded in agreement and sent forth a chilling wave of water. The water froze the creature's circuitry, forcing the gears inside to hiccup and stutter. With the water now splashed across its innards, a second volt of electricity rumbled from the air to the warrior to the monster's brain, and a terrible shock debilitated its sensors.

Revenge came sweet a few seconds later. Aiming great and powerful cannons, the Void Droid fires salvo upon salvo of wicked energy, scorching the warriors like wicks of a candle. They fell back, their unfortunate bodies absorbing much of the blow, and several moans and groans indicated that many had been severely injured.

The monster did not know amusement, since it had no emotion, so it did not laugh in triumph. Instead, it shot forth a barrage of deadly needles, sending the girls scrambling for safety. On occasion, the android's efforts would be rewarded with a splash of blood and/or a scream of pain. Emptily, it continued firing in a berserk rage, even though it knew neither pain nor hate. The warriors, though many, were not quite as well-built as it was.

Suddenly, the delicate circuitry in the robot's brain began to fry and sizzle. Apparently, one of the girls had summoned her flames, and slapped the creature into stupidity with a few of them. Still another had a sort of chain wrapped around its legs, and though the robot tried moving, it did not get too far without falling towards the ground in an inanimate heap.

Their leader, the one dressed in colors of the rainbow, brought forth her great scepter and desired nothing save to finish the beast off. Shouting words that the robot would only hear once in its "life", the girl whom nobody ever thought would be a Princess or a Queen blasted the beast with something that could only be described as a crystalline kind of heart.

A great fiery explosion was her reward, and a pillar of smoke and flames told enough stories to the warriors--the monster was "dead", or at least defunct, and the destruction it had caused would never again come from its own sources. Or, at least, that's what the girls assumed.

To their shock, the robot stood up yet again, waving burning arms of steel and rubber. It was not quite dead yet; it still had one trick up its sleeve before the Great Nothing claimed it. Summoning forth great and dark powers that no mortal (save these five) had ever witnessed, it produced something similar to a mirror from its innards and held it up for all to see.

With a blinding flash, the mirror shot forth a great light that engulfed half the park in its rays. Something reached out from that mirror, stretching towards the closest victim in hopes of committing some atrocious deed. Despite valiant efforts, it found a suitable victim to strike, and blasted the poor girl with a power so strange and foreign that only a few twisted minds could possibly comprehend it.

With a rumble and another flash, the light retracted back into the mirror, pulling its unfortunate victim with it. The other four screamed as their friend and ally was pulled into the unknown, and with a final flash, their comrade had been yanked into the mirror, where she instantly became lost amidst a swirling vortex of matter, antimatter, chaos, and order. As their friend vanished, the robot died in a final, fiery flash, and with it the mirror, and any hopes of the unfortunate woman ever returning from where she had been sent.