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Disclaimer: I bought them all in my spare time! Bwahahaha not really.
Author's note: For those of you who know Sailor Moon, I apologize for the odd mixture of manga and TV; it's just the way I want it. Oh, and ouch there's a lot of plot in this part. That's why it took so long to pump out. Sorry, guys.
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"I can feel this mortal body dying around me."
--The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle.
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"Agent Mulder?"
The man looked up, bored out of his mind. Scully promised him he'd get released from the hospital today... but no earlier than noon, damn it all. "Hello," he greeted the tall woman with the dark, long hair and beautiful dark skin. "Setsuna, right?"
She nodded, and noticed the dark red quality of her eyes. "I'm sorry to bother you--"
"Don't be sorry. Please," he gestured her welcome. "I'm so bored I'm about to start climbing the walls. Come in."
"I was wondering if I might be able to look at that silver wand again for a moment." She smiled charmingly.
He picked it up off the bed table and handed it to her. "I don't suppose you know what it is, do you?"
Running her fingers over the metal, she smiled mysteriously and changed the subject.
Mentally, Mulder made a note.
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The Queen lifted his eyebrows regally, a sense of displeasure settling over his wrinkly features. "You have not yet succeeded in getting the information out of her?"
Spike rolled his eyes and settled down in the chair next to him. "Not for lack of trying. Her lips are sealed up tighter than the bloody exit doors on Hell."
"This is most unfortunate. Your job is to retrieve the information she has on the Sailor Senshi, and your methods have failed." He took another puff off his cigarette, cooly calculating his ally. "Have you not even thought to make her a vampire?"
Spike took another puff off his cigarette. "Look, it's not that easy. She's an angel--or, at least she was until recently. Her blood's like acid to us; it won't turn. No," he growled, "I'd have the information out of her if she didn't keep spacing off. But, never to fear. I've got Dru brewing up a little something special right now--a spell of sorts. Right, love?" he called over his shoulder.
"I've gathered the roses and tucked them in bed," she replied excitedly, "but they want a story and a song. A song to call the story. And when it's over, we can all have tea and daisy-cake."
The Queen skeptically raised his eyebrows again, as if to say, "This is supposed to make me feel better?"
"Dru, darling, what about the spell for the angel?" he tried again.
"Shh!" she scolded. "You'll wake them!"
"Drusilla. The angel?"
Drusilla made an unhappy noise. "Yes, yes, I have your spell all prepared. ...But I don't like her, Spike. She scares me."
"Yes, love, I know. We'll kill her after we've got the information. Right?" he confirmed with the Queen.
Dru shivered. "She makes my skin feel all tingly, and my eyes burn."
Spike settled back in the overstuffed chair, taking a deep drag off his cigarette. "Could be worse, love. She's not exactly the best angel in the lot of 'em."
"A good angel can make your skin burst into flames," Drusila confirmed quietly. "Poof! No more Spike."
"Don't kill her," the Queen said, extinguishing his stub and lighting a fresh one. "Let's hold her as long as we can before it becomes dangerous. She's lying a puddle of her own blood, vomit, and piss. How dangerous can she be?"
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"You awake?" She looked down at the head she'd pulled into her lap.
New Girl blinked once or twice, eyes still cloudy and confused. "I hurt all over," she said through cracked, dried lips.
"I'm not surprised," the chained woman replied, running her fingers over the other girl's dirty hairline. "I don't think there's any part of you they haven't beaten yet."
"Is there any... water?"
"Yeah, hold on." She reached back for the cup she'd been saving water in. "It's a little stale, but it's wet." She dipped the corner of her blanket in the cup and let New Girl suck on the material. She dipped the corner four more times before she decided that was enough for the moment, and began to use the damp edge to sponge at the dried crud on her face. "You holding up okay?"
"Have I told them anything yet?"
"Not much they didn't already know."
"I'm okay." She winced as the wool blanket rubbed against a scrape. "I don't know how much longer I can hold out."
"You have to," the other girl told her, voice hard. "You can't tell them about the Senshi."
"They've run out of physical torture." New Girl's voice was a harsh whisper. "Pyschological next. I'm... I'm not that strong. I like simple things. Ice cream, movies, trees. My friends. A game of chess here and there. I don't like pain. I want to tell them, but I shouldn't. I can't."
She grabbed the girl's shoulders tightly, painfully. "You do, and I'll kill you myself."
"The alternative is unthinkable." She looked aside. "I need a miracle."
The girl in chains frowned. They needed a rescue. Fast. If New Girl got any worse, she'd have to kill her.
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Luna approached the girl slowly, still uncertain of the timing. "Ami?" she called softly from a few paces away.
"I knew he wasn't coming," the blue haired girl whispered, raising her head to look at the stream. "As soon as I saw them, I knew."
The black cat moved closer and settled herself in the girl's lap. She felt close to the shy, intelligent soldier of Mercury, closer to her than to any of the other senshi--possibly even her own. "Ami..."
"But I'm not going to worry about that now. After we rescue Lun@, after that, I'll cry. But I need to have a clear head. So, he's not gone until after we rescue Lun@, okay?"
There was nothing Luna could think to say to that, so she curled her tail around the girl's thin waist and laid her head down for comfort. "Oh, Ami..."
"I need a clear head," Ami whispered. "I need to think. I have to be smart for the both of us now." She closed her eyes briefly. Taiki had always been her competition, always been a step ahead of her. "I'm strong enough. Don't worry, Luna." She smiled, sadly.
Luna said nothing. It seemed to her that Ami's eyes were a bit distant.
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She frowned at New Girl's still form, lying across her lap, clothed in the tattered, soiled remains of her jeans and t-shirt. The other girl's heavy, small head lay on her bare legs like a rock; the only movement was the slight flare of her nostrils as she breathed.
The girl in chains took the opportunity to meditate on the likelihood of ever being rescued. Not a very large possibility, unless the sailor senshi came looking for New Girl. Perhaps--
But, then what? There was no life for her anymore. She did not matter. Her sisters were gone--back at home, safe, with any luck. They were innocent of her crimes; her exile was because of these--unnatural thoughts. These--feelings.
She bit her lip against a surge of loneliness. The girl in chains had never thought to fall in love; it had never crossed her mind. She didn't want any of it: the heart-wrenching attraction, the rampant distracting dreams, the complications. Such love was taboo; same-sex unions were forbidden.
She had stayed in disguise too long back on Earth; she grew too used to the mask, too comfortable with it--and with some of Earth's inhabitants. She was never safe from the ghost of her past, and though she knew it was merely a hallucination, her gut twisted as a pair of blue eyes, shyly melancholy, gazed at her. Her sisters had felt mild attraction, sure, but it faded with the end of their masquerade. Her own forbidden thoughts, however...
A voice interrupted her thoughts. "Well, isn't this a comfy little corner." Spike sneered a little at the girls on the floor. "Taken our little robin under your wing, have you?" he cheerfully asked the girl in chains.
Her violet eyes flashed scornfully as she held the head of New Girl closer to her stomach, protecting her. She would not let her reveal the senshi. "She will never tell you, you monster!" she hissed confidently.
"We'll see about that, love," Spike said cheerfully as Drusilla swept into the room dreamily. A perverse idea struck him. "Since you're so attached to the brat, hold her while Dru does her magic, will you?" He lit a cigarette calmly while she sent him a look of disgust. "Unless you'd prefer that I restrained her."
As she imagined his hands in New Girl's hair, she felt ill and held the child herself.
Dru knelt next to the two girls. Lun@ stirred a little, restless in her sleep. "Shh!" the vampire lady hushed. "This won't hurt a bit."
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Scully held her coffee close to her upper lip, allowing the steam to warm her forehead as she held the paper Starbucks cup in her hands. Another damn dream. Another blouse ruined, stained by blood from her nose. She felt so old, so confused.
Something big was coming. Something huge. She didn't know how she knew. She didn't even know why. It felt wrong, to know so much, wrong to be so calm. She was falling apart; she could feel her body dying around her, coming to pieces.
She threw the cup away, coffee untouched. She didn't need caffine to keep her awake. She needed to get away from the temple, away from the group of teenagers with raging hormones and the serious discussion in one of the larger rooms in the Hikawa Shrine. Decisively, she stood and made her way to the back gardens. She needed to hear the earth speak to her.
Dana, my girl, you are losing it, she told herself with a touch of wryness. Hippie Mentality was definitely not her thing.
Stopping on a rock, she looked to where her feet had been leading her: the grassy knoll some 20 meters away where the shy blue-haired girl sat, cross-legged. What was her name again? Amy? "Hello," she said quietly.
The girl jumped a little. "Oh, Agent Scully! I didn't hear you approach."
Scully nodded, and sat beside her in the grass. "I've been thinking. About Lun@. If you could find her, the Sailor Senshi could probably break her out, right?"
The girl--Ami? Aery?--nodded affirmative. "Everyone has a power signal, but when I scanned her earlier, I never saved the reading. If I had something of hers that gave off a signal--her necklace, maybe, or some other item of magical value--I could trace it and track her, but..." She looked down at her hands. "And so technology fails." She shrugged.
Scully frowned. "Are you feeling okay? You look a little pale."
She smiled a little, sadly. "I haven't been in the sun much lately."
They sat in silence for a moment.
"Ami," called a familiar voice.
She turned around. "Hello, Mamoru," she greeted.
The tall man sat gracefully on the grass beside her. "Setsuna wanted me to give you this." He handed her a small grey rod--the same one Lun@ had given Mulder for safekeeping.
Ami took it with interest. "What is it?" she inquired, turning it over in her hands and running her fingers along the seamless edges.
He shook his head. "She didn't say."
The blue-haired girl nodded and stood, handing the grey rod to Scully and lifting the black cat on her lap to Mamoru's large, capable hands. Holding aloft her own Transformation stick, she took a breath. "Mercury Crystal Power, Makeup!"
Scully sat transfixed, a mixture of horror and awe at the blatent expenditure of magic surrounding the girl. Rings of energy swirled around her and dressed her in powerful protections. The FBI agent's eyes widened and she gasped a little as the wards suddenly appeared emblazened on the warrior, blindingly bright and strong in a blinding sky blue light, and the aura of shyness around the girl condensed and transformed into something powerful.
She tensed as a barrage of images confronted her, unrelenting. Pink dress. Grey tail. Weeping girl, collapsed on the floor. Flash of a long, brown ponytail as the room exploded. A prince.
She latched on to the last image. Prince... where had she... Prince... Scully stared at Mamoru, disbelieving. She was from... the US was a democracy... she had no... "Your majesty?" she whispered through trembling lips.
"What?" he asked, surprised.
"I'm sorry," she blurted out, forcing her eyes away. "I just thought..." Scully started at a hand on her shoulder and looked up.
"Here," he told her, concerned.
She stared blankly at the handkerchief in his hand and blindly raised it to her dripping nose. "Endymion." Reverently.
He drew back, concerned and not a little shocked. "Agent Scully?" he asked uncertainly. Did he know...?
Sailor Mercury bent down to one knee, her right hand holding Scully's shoulder. "Scully, what's wrong?"
The strong, flame-haired woman grabbed Mamoru's pantleg, uncharacteristically pleading. "Endymion, they're coming. Their plan is darkness, but don't blame them. They're only lost. They can't... they don't--realize... What they have is... they can't..." She swayed a bit on her knees, and Mercury helped her lie down on the grass, prying Lun@'s stick out of her fist.
"Are you okay, Agent Scully?" Mercury asked, pulling out her visor and scanning her.
"Endymion, they come for Earth, to conquer in lieu of salvation. Andy and I--" She broke off suddenly, pinching her eyes shut. Her fingers pressed at her temples, and she shuddered. "I..." She shook her head, and when her eyes opened again, they were confused. "What's happening to me?"
Mamoru thought for a moment. He could direct enough healing power to stop the nosebleed and the headache, but there was something greater than that here. He didn't know what, but he could feel it at the edge of his mind, hiding in the shadows, just outside the light. Well, first thing was first. Allowing Luna to drape herself back over his shoulder, he reached out and cupped his hands around her head. Her fragility was almost tangible, but he allowed the earth energies to flow through his body and soak into her skull. Her eyelids fluttered closed at the pleasant warmth, and the blood stopped flowing.
As he brought his hands down, he frowned. There was something larger hiding in her body, something sinister and strong. He could treat the symptoms, but until they destroyed the presence in her skull, her recovery would be but superficial.
She opened her eyes widely and stared into his. "How did you do that?"
He smiled gently, despite his worry, and helped her sit up. "I'll show you later."
Turning back to Mercury, he gestured for her to proceed. With a frown, she lifted the wand from the ground where it had fallen from Scully's hand and began scanning it with her visor.
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Dru was confused. She had had the angel for a moment before a wall of sorts slammed down, knocking her back. When it had lifted, her mind was gone. Poof, no one was home. Not the child's doing; from what she'd seen, the girl would have been easy pickings. No, someone powerful was protecting her. She dug deeper.
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Lun@ blinked. She'd been dreaming, and all of the sudden she found herself back in the strange study with the Infuriating Man. He kept sending her puppy dog eyes, and his hair was long and unencumbered, streaked with silver. He was--well--beautiful.
But the simpering fool refused to give her her past. She knew he had it; everytime she saw him, he looked incredibly guilty. She would place good odds that he knew what was happening to her, too. And how to stop it. How to make her whole again.
Had she ever been whole?
The emptiness gnawed at her. "What am I doing here?" she asked.
"I brought you here," he responded, keeping his eyes on the book he was writing in.
"I didn't ask for that," Lun@ responded calmly.
He shrugged. "It was necessary." There was a pause.
"Who are you?" Lun@ cried, frustrated. "What do you want?"
"You asked for help, didn't you?" he said, trying to sound calm.
"I prayed for a miracle. A miracle you aren't--nor are you God, for that matter.""You wound me."
"A sane person would leave under such torture."
"Yes." He didn't move.
There was another pause as she stared at him. Finally, he looked up into her eyes, noting the way the hair in her braid was unraveling and tangled. Her complexion was washed out; she looked tired.
Trying to retain her cool exterior and hide her nervous shaking, she sat on an overstuffed chair. "You know, don't you." It wasn't a question.
"Yes, I know your past."
"And you can make me remember."
"You don't want to do that."
"I want to know myself."
"Look into your heart!" he urged, a bit carelessly. "You know who you are."
Her eyes closed and she breathed deeply. "Was I... was I such a bad person?" A single tear slid jerkily down her cheek.
"Why would you think--?"
"Did I kill anyone?"
He blinked, suddenly feeling the water close over his head; he was so out of his depth. "What?"
More tears worked their way down her cheeks; she looked so young. "Was I really horrible? Was there a war? Did lots of people die?"
"Well--"
"Did I dishonor my family? Make my parents do bad things?" Her breath began to catch and shudder, and she clenched the arms of the chair so tightly her fingers whitened.
"No!" Kalguna decided finally, appalled by her approaching hysterics. He left his chair to kneel next to her, taking her calloused hands into his tanned, ink-stained ones and brushing loose strands of hair from her face. "No, you're the same person you've always been." His touches and caresses were as light as butterfly kisses. She leaned into his chest, clutching at his ornate robes and sobbing harder.
"I don't want to be evil," she hiccoughed soddenly. "I want to be good as everyone says my mother was, but it's hard... there's so much evil in my soul an' I don't know how to be a Guardian to Buffy, an' what if she finds out and hates me even more, and everyone dies because my stupid powers won't work? All I'm good at is killing, and they want me to be nurturing, and I don't know what to do!"
He knew his robes were probably covered with tears, snot, and drool, but it was too late now. He patted her back in what he hoped was a comforting gesture.
"What if she dies b'cause my powers are dribbling out my ears?--and I can't heal anymore. What if I tell 'em... what if I've already told 'em..." As her hysterics subsided and sleep overcame her, Lun@ missed the crumpling of Kalguna's facade.
He lost his nervous look as he carefully laid her back on the chair, and his expression became pondering. He stared into the fire for a while, thinking. Finally, his brow set and his hazel eyes hardened with calculation. "When I swore no intervention," he said darkly, "I didn't swear to this!"
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Mercury shook her head and her visor slid away. "She's not being kept in this dimension."
"What?" Scully asked, skeptical.
"It's more like a--fold of space. You have to use magic to get there; I can't track the signature through such raw power. Not this late. All sense of Lun@ has been swept away."
Mamoru frowned. "We have to get her back. She knows who we all are--I don't want to give that away."
"That and she's a human being," Scully said a little angrily.
Mercury bit her lip, and with a rush of energy she was once again Ami Mizuno. "I'm not quite sure of that."
"I think she's an Angel of Death," Mamoru said.
Scully blinked, not really believing them. "Well, it shouldn't really matter. You Senshi--you have this incredible power; don't you think it morally wrong not to use this gift to help others?"
"They do help others," Luna said suddenly, to Scully's surprise; for a while, she'd forgotten the cat could speak. "They spend most of their free time rescuing others."
"But it's never enough," Ami whispered, and for a moment, her face was more than it's usual trace of sadness.
Mamoru patted her shoulder comfortingly. "It'll do."
"Hey, we've been looking all over for you guys!" a woman yelled, running up the hill. "The others insisted that we couldn't start without you, so get back to the temple so we can talk! I've figured something out!"
Exchanging a glance, the four rose and followed her back to the Hikawa Shrine, Scully quickly checking to make sure she'd mopped up all evidence of her latest nosebleed.
When they were all gathered back in the room, Jenny began to speak. "I've found a spell that will call a spirit willing to guide us through magic boundries, but it'll be tricky."
"I've tracked them to where they leave this time level," Ami informed her, "but they enter a pocket outside time, and I lose them there."
"They must be getting through with a portal," Setsuna contributed, "but it'll be very difficult to find."
"The spell I found should get us through a portal of our own," Jenny said. "It'll be much easier if we start where they started. The only problem, however, is seeing if we can find a spirit willing to guide us."
"Ms. Calendar, I find this talk extremely interesting, but unrealistic. Surely you don't expect all of us to go." Scully looked around the room. God, they were all children. They were going to die.
"Of course not." Jenny looked insulted. "But, Haruka will be talking about the plan."
The blond woman stood up. "Okay, here's the plan--and there's no room for argument." She sent a pointed glare to Rei, who looked ready to spew sacred flames.
A new girl, sitting with the Americans, murmured some sort of approval; evidentally, she felt asthetically pleased. Scully mentally winced. Ugh. Teenagers and their ever rampant hormones.
But, the blonde standing at the front of the room demanded attention. She gave everyone a hard stare. "Only some of the senshi will be entering the portal," she said. "I don't want any civilians getting in the way. Setsuna, Michiru, Hotaru, Ami, and I will enter the portal to the other universe. Makoto, Minako, Rei, and Usagi will stand guard incase anything tries to slip through, but they will remain in this world. Yaten, Seiya--the enemy doesn't know you're here just yet, and I'd like to keep it that way for now, so stay at the temple unless one of our groups has a problem." They looked ready to protest, and Haruka held up her hands to stop the argument. "I know you guys want revenge for Taiki, but now is not the time. This is strictly a rescue mission right now, and you guys are too angry. Stay here. Understood."
Seiya nodded, seeing the logic, and turned to Yaten, his shorter, silver-haired brother. "Yaten?"
Yaten glared venomously at Seiya. "They can't tell us what to do! Damn it, Seiya, Taiki is--"
"Yaten!" the black-haired boy said sharply, reaching out to grab the other boy's shoulder. "For now, let it be. Taiki wouldn't want us to die. Not for him. Not for this."
Reluctantly, Yaten nodded, folding his arms against his chest and glaring at the room to keep the tears in his eyes from showing.
Haruka accepted this and continued. "I want Agent Scully to be on headset with Ami in the control room below the arcade."
"What about me?" Buffy protested. "What do I get to kill?"
"There are reports of another monster appearing in the park," a voice said from the doorway.
"Mulder!" Scully cried, jumping up to help him to a chair. "What are you doing out of the hospital?"
He shrugged and sat. "They released me. Said they needed the bed."
Haruka nodded at Buffy. "You and your team will take care of that."
The slayer grumbled something about working alone, and nodded, looking about as pleased as Yaten.
"Everyone who does not have a job will be preparing some sterile bandages and such for when we get back. If your friend doesn't have any legal ID or such, we can't take her to a hospital unless we really have to."
"What about me?" Mamoru asked.
Haruka smiled, but it wasn't pretty. "Well, if it comes to it, you can assist Usagi, but I have a special job for you."
"And me?" Mulder asked. "Can I go, too?"
The entire room glared at him.
"Guess that's a 'no', huh?"
