Crystal Tears Chapter 8: A Time for Revenge by Aisuru aisuru_chan@yahoo.com

*****

Amethyst sat on the couch in General Jadeite's old quarters. She was deep in thought, mulling over the conversation she had had with General Kunzite. 'So I am to be trained in energy projection beginning tomorrow,' she thought. She remembered a child she had visited during the long sleep, a child that had read a text on energy manipulation, knowledge that was now hers to access. Amethyst had applied this knowledge when she gave Dark Energy to the dragon. She could envision how the energy would be gathered from either her surroundings or a storage crystal, focused through mental discipline (or, more effectively, through the use of another gem), and projected towards a target.

There were many variations on the energy focusing, depending on the energy's purpose. While usually focused for weapon applications, either as heat or as raw energy, it could also be focused as pressure (for shields or the movement of objects) or softened to supply energy to another citizen or youma. Amethyst had softened energy to strengthen youma, but she had never used energy as a weapon or shield before. Still sitting on Jadeite's couch, Amethyst siphoned a little energy from her ever-present purple energy storage gem, trying to control the energy in its raw form without the use of a gem. She mimicked a form she had seen Jadeite use, levitating the energy in a ball that hovered above her outstretched palm. This required a lot of concentration as energy manipulation was not a natural talent of hers, and she realized that without the other child's stolen book- knowledge even this relatively simple task would be impossible for her.

"General Kunzite said that the '...ability to control energy aids in the development of many other abilities,'" Amethyst remembered. An old vase sat on a table across the room, and Amethyst attempted to use this energy to physically levitate the vase. Focused by only the power of her mind, the ball of energy flew across the room. It missed the vase; instead the physical force she had formed slammed into one of the legs supporting the table, reducing it to splinters. Her eyes widened in horror as the fragile vase, instead of levitating gently, shattered on impact with the plush carpeting. She approached the fragments hesitantly, as horrified that she destroyed one of Jadeite's ancient treasures as she was that she had so little control of her powers. Unsure what to do, she left the splintered table and vase fragments where they lay.

Sitting on the couch again, she contented herself with hovering a second ball of energy, again taken from the purple energy-storage gem, above her outstretched palm. "Maybe this weakness in my skills is for the best," she muttered. "I can't let the other generals know how advanced my abilities have become. I'll just let General Kunzite think that I can't teleport on my own." She had to smile when she recalled what the generals must think of her abilities. The original purple energy storage crystal that the generals had seen was extremely simple.

Another thought occurred to Amethyst; if she was going to be under close supervision by General Kunzite, her freedom would be severely limited, meaning no more trips to earth. The more she thought about her failed attempt at wrecking havoc on earth -- due entirely to the same horrible Sailor Senshi that had led to Jadeite's downfall -- the more her anger burned against them. It was time to destroy the Sailor Senshi. It was time for revenge.

Amethyst picked up her precious book and flipped through the pages, looking for a worthy adversary for the Sailor Senshi. The creature would need to be intelligent and easy to control. She found a picture of a unicorn. In the picture, the creature looked fierce, and according to the text unicorns were chaotic-good in nature, had the power to purify poisons and renew the spark of like, and could be easily tamed by innocent girls. Amethyst was as amused at the idea that she, full of Dark Energy, would be the one to tame the unicorn as she was at the thought of a being of goodness being the tool to destroy those that claimed they fought for love and justice!

Her book in her arms and her modified energy-storage crystal held tightly in her fist, she teleported back to earth once again. The park was in ruins from the dragon's attacks, but she swiftly sucked the life-energy of the few people that did venture out onto the singed grass of the field or sat under the half-baked trees. She wondered that the Senshi did not appear as the people fell dead into the dirt, but they did not.

Seating herself under one of the few trees that still had leaves enough for shade, Amethyst set to work at summoning the unicorn. The unicorn's world was one of beauty and health. Lush meadows full of rabbits and grazing deer bordered thick, protective forests of ancient trees. The babbling music of brooks and the rustling of leaves in the branches high overhead competed with the melodies of birds. The unicorn's balancing energy permeated this place, and Amethyst felt dizzy and sick. Taking a bit of her crystal's energy for herself, she wandered deeper into the forest, where the aura seemed strongest, and there she found the unicorn.

It was a beautiful creature, emanating not the beauty of power and strength but a but a fluid grace and tranquility not found in the Dark Kingdom. Its first appearance was that of a white horse, but closer examination showed the longer tufts of hair around the feet and the tail of an oxen. Its most distinctive characteristic, though, was the horn, which radiated its golden light. Only when it noticed Amethyst's intrusion into its paradise did Amethyst notice the fierceness in its eyes. The fierceness, though, was born of determination to protect, and not the hatred or ambition Amethyst was used to seeing. It unsettled her.

Wasting no more time, Amethyst held her crystal in front of her and directed a flow of Dark Energy towards the unicorn. The unicorn reared up on its back legs and stamped around as if uncertain of which course of action to take -- the girl should be healed of the energy poisoning her, but the unicorn's world must also be protected from evil influence. The unicorn fought as Amethyst flooded its veins with the Dark Energy, so Amethyst teleported it swiftly to the park, where the aura of peace in the unicorn's world would not be present to offer its protection.

The Dark Energy was weakening the unicorn, but its eyes refused to flash from their soft silver to the purple that would indicate it was sufficiently tamed. "This will be harder than I thought," Amethyst muttered as she set to work entrapping the unicorn in an energy field -- easy to do with the crystal's guidance -- and began creating a youma that could wield the unicorn's power more to her purposes. The youma she created was a dark mirror image of the unicorn, minus only the horn. It shook its ink-black mane with a toss of its head and stamped its pewter- gray hooves in angry restlessness. Its purple eyes flashed allegiance to Amethyst and the world of darkness she served.

It was no easy task to remove the horn from the true unicorn, infuse it with enough Dark Energy to twist the effect of its power, and place it on the crown of the youma unicorn, but Amethyst worked quickly, knowing that her absence from the Dark Kingdom could be noticed at any moment and wanting to destroy the Sailor Senshi before that could happen. The final result was well worth the effort, Amethyst realized, as the weakened and powerless true unicorn wandered away and the youma unicorn used the horn's power to poison the very earth under the singed grass and dying trees.

The Sailor Senshi did arrive, but not until after the dark unicorn had used its powers to reanimate the lifeless bodies of the people Amethyst had drained to summon the unicorn in the first place -- a side effect that Amethyst had not expected but that delighted her to no end.

Sailor Mercury, the first senshi to arrive, scanned the unicorn with her visor to determine the nature of the creature. "It has a dual nature," she called to Sailor Mars as she arrived, "both youma and twisted true unicorn. Please heal these people as I figure out how to approach this problem."

"Aku ryo tai san!" Mars shouted, throwing the little slips of papers at the zombies with preternatural accuracy. They fell down, limp and dead, as the papers struck them.

"They're dead!" Mercury exclaimed in surprise as she turned from the youma to scan a Tokyo citizen.

"What? It's not supposed to kill them, Mercury!" Mars exclaimed, horrified at the very possibility.

"They were probably dead to begin with," Mercury soothed. "They might have been drained before we got here."

"Just like the people found after the dragon attack," Mars mused sadly, before her eyes flashed in anger. "The Dark Kingdom didn't use to kill people when they drained them. Are we dealing with a new enemy? We haven't seen Jadeite in days!"

Amethyst stifled a little growl as she heard their mention of Jadeite. The little creeps didn't even know what their interference in Jadeite's work had caused, and that fact made it all the more horrible. She sent a bolt of dark energy to the unicorn, despite her weariness, encouraging it on in its work and its true purpose: the destruction of the senshi.

The true unicorn had been attracted to purity and innocence, so the first senshi to attract the unicorn's attention was Sailor Moon, who had arrived silently and was leaning heavily on a tree and struggling to keep her warrior face on. Her eyes widened as the unicorn thundered towards her, purple eyes fixed hatefully on her, its dark head bowed and its horn ready to pierce her through. She let out a strangled cry; then Tuxedo Kamen, who must have been hiding very nearby, swept her aside.

No sooner had he set her back on her feet than the dark unicorn charged towards her again. "Why is it after me?" Sailor Moon cried from her new position in Tuxedo Kamen's arms high in a dragon-burned tree.

"It must be attracted to her purity," Sailor Mercury said, still taking readings on the dark unicorn.

"Pure? Her?" Sailor Mars scoffed. "As in pure tardiness? Pure clumsiness? Purely annoying?"

"Oh, Mars, you are so mean!" Sailor Moon whined.

With Sailor Mars out of reach, the dark unicorn turned its attention to Sailor Mercury. Tuxedo Kamen threw a rose to halt its charge towards the girl, and Sailor Mercury quickly summoned her Mercury Bubbles to hide herself from view.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Sailor Mars exclaimed in anger, her voice coming from the heart of the Mercury Bubbles mist. The fog glowed red as she started to summon her fireball attack, but Mercury's voice stopped her.

"No, Sailor Mars, don't!" she cried. "The body may be youma, but the horn was stolen from a real unicorn! We can't risk damaging it."

"Then what are we supposed to do? Just let it destroy Tokyo? Oh, look, it is poisoning the fountain!" Sure enough, as the fog started to fade, Amethyst could see that the water in the fountain was now a muddy red, and some sort of oily substance floated on its surface.

"Sailor Moon," Mercury called out after making more of the fog. "Can you use your tiara to remove the unicorn's horn without damaging it?"

"I'll sure try," Sailor Moon answered, her voice weak from within the fog. "Moon Tiara Action!"

Sailor Moon's aim was true, and the golden horn fell to the ground as the youma screamed the cry of the dusted. The grass underneath the horn sprang up fresh and green, making a circle of lawn roughly a meter in diameter.

Unwilling to face both a unicorn and the senshi alone, Amethyst teleported back to Jadeite's apartments in the Dark Kingdom.

*****

Unnoticed by either Amethyst or the Sailor Senshi, Nephrite watched the scene. He had been meditating when he had sensed the opening of a portal between planes of existence, and had followed the distorted energies back to the park. He had watched the senshi fight the dark unicorn, whose true nature he recognized immediately, and he had felt a Dark Kingdom presence teleport away at the youma's destruction, but had been unprepared to follow, having not seen who it was that teleported away.

He watched in silence as Tuxedo Kamen carried Sailor Moon back to the ground, letting her lean heavily against him. It did not escape Nephrite's notice that Sailor Mercury was watching Tuxedo Kamen with intense curiosity, and Sailor Mars watching the same young man with intense suspicion. Tuxedo Kamen was cradling the girl tenderly against his chest as if he meant to never let her go, but when the horn-less white unicorn approached the group he whispered something into her ear and she smiled softly.

Sailor Moon removed her elbow-length white gloves before pushing herself away from Tuxedo Kamen. She approached the severed unicorn horn on shaky legs. Nephrite cringed as she picked up the golden horn with her bare hands, holding it gently -- touching such a thing would burn the dark energy right out of him, and he cringed at the very thought. It seemed to have no deleterious effect on Sailor Moon as she waited for the true unicorn to approach.

It tossed its white mane and looked at the girl with compassion and tenderness in its silver eyes. It even went so far as to nuzzle against her cheek, causing the girl to laugh, its pure sound grating on Nephrite's nerves. When Sailor Moon reached to reattach the horn to the beast's forehead, Nephrite put up shields to protect himself from the blast of pure energy that was released. The light enfolded Sailor Moon, seeming to strengthen her. The light also touched Tuxedo Kamen and each of the senshi, and they gasped.

The senshi seemed frozen in place as the unicorn set about giving new life to the grass and trees, purifying the soil that the dark unicorn had poisoned, and even touching the fountain so that its water was crystalline clean once again. Only when the unicorn turned towards Nephrite, its eyes gleaming, did he teleport away.