Disclaimer: Don't own

Matsuri: Long time no see, but I'm back. I hope my slowness in putting up chapters isn't pushing you all away. PLEASE KEEP READING! Heh Heh. Enjoy.

13 Chapter Thirteen

Hiro's face popped up on the screen.

"Duo, come back to the mansion," Hiro said, his voice wavering up to Duo who was in his gundam.

"I'm kind of busy right now," Duo said, dodging a blow from the enemy.

"Hurry up and get done," Hiro said.

"Why?" Duo mumbled, using the power of his scythe. "What's the rush?"

"They're leaving."

Duo stopped in mid-air of swinging his scythe. The enemy quickly took advantage and charged, knocking Deathscythe to the ground.

"Leaving?!!" Duo cried, not making a move to lift up Deathscythe.

"Hurry up," Hiro answered. The view of Hiro disappeared. At the mansion, Hiro jumped out of wing Zero and ran back into the mansion. Wufei, Quatre, and Trowa, were standing outside of Makoto's door, looking in awe. The room wasn't glowing anymore. The glow had minimized to a glowing hole in the wall. From it, stepped the Keeper of Time, sailor Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn. They stood before Makoto and Usagi.

"Hiro!" Usagi cried when she saw him enter the room. She wrapped her arms around him and he wrapped his around her.

"Usagi," he said her name.

"We have to leave now!" Usagi cried. "I'll never see you again!" Hiro didn't say anything. He just held onto Usagi, not wanting to let her go. Makoto watched the two hold each other and for a moment she longed for Duo, but that longing quickly went away.

"Ikemasho, Usagi," she said, firmly. "We have to fight."

"You don't want to wait for Du"- Usagi started.

"Iie. Every second wasted is critical," Makoto lowered her gaze. "Duo's not important now."

"Then we're all set?" Setsuna asked, turning toward the glowing portal. She stepped through and was gone. The outers followed her. Makoto stepped in front of the portal. Her sailor fuku suddenly appeared on her.

"It's been a while," she said to herself, and then she walked through. Hiro then hesitantly let Usagi go. Tears were forming in her eyes, but she blinked them away and smiled. She stood on her tiptoes and caught Hiro in a kiss.

"See you. Hiro," she said afterward and turned toward the portal. Her sailor fuku formed on her and Hiro felt that she was even more beautiful in it. She waved one last time and disappeared into the portal.

"Good luck!" Quatre quickly said.

"Choootttooo!!" Duo cried from down the hall. He pushed Quatre, Wufei, and Trowa out of the way and stood in the middle of the room. His chest heaved. He was just in time to see the glowing portal shrink and disappear.

"Too late," he said. "I was too late!!"

"She didn't want to wait for you, Duo," Wufei stated. "Whatever you did, you really pissed her off." Duo moaned and punched the wall. A crack formed from the impact.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They were back in their world in no time. Sailor Saturn gasped in horror.

"The earth!" she cried. "Look at it!" it was completely flat. The tall buildings had been knocked down. Trees were bent and debris was everywhere. No people could be seen nor the stars in the night sky. Sailor Moon wanted to cry. She looked at Jupiter.

"Everyone's gone!" she said. Jupiter just stood there, the wind slowly billowing her ponytail.

"Where do we begin?" Neptune asked, scanning the landscape. A scream was suddenly heard and without a word, the scouts ran toward it. A woman lay on the ground at their feet withered away. She twitched a little, but made no other movements.

"Is she dead?" Saturn asked, panic clearly in her voice.

"The energy and her life force has been sucked right out of her," Uranus said. "Of course she's dead." From far away dirt was kicked up as if a tornado was coming their way, but there was no tornado. It came fast and knocked the girls to the ground. The girls quickly stood, coughing up dirt.

"Visus!" Neptune cried. "It's him!" Laughter was heard all around. Saturn whimpered and took a step back.

"So you're back little sailor scouts," Visus growled, his voice coming from every direction. "I thought you'd have given up."

"Never!" Uranus cried. "This planet is our home! We will not let you destroy it!"

"Looks like I already have!" Visus laughed. "Each and every little continent. Maybe not Antarctica, but then again, who lives there?!" Visus was laughing uncontrollably. A sound that was worse than the sound of fingernails scraping a chalkboard. "Even so, though, anyone who does cannot escape me."

"Show yourself now!" Jupiter yelled.

"Ah yes," Visus said. From far away the scouts could make out a glowing dot, but it soon got bigger until it was about the height of a tall adult man. It then took the form of a human man, but it was far from being human.

"That's him?" Sailor Moon asked, staring intently.

"It has to be," Uranus said, her hands in tight fists. The figure glowed for a second or two and then slowly became dim. There stood now a man or at least he appeared to be a man. He had on weird clothing that looked like it was patched together from shreds of other clothing. His hair was long and black and fell along his shoulders. He had the eyes of a cat, always watching and he stood with his head erect, staring straight at the girls.

"He has a body?" Saturn questioned no one.

"I've never had a body," Visus boomed from far away, making the scouts wonder how he could have heard her. "I've always been a ball of energy and I ruled my people who are also balls of energy." Visus started walking towards them now. All the scouts could do was stare. Visus chuckled.

"I'm so powerful now that I can make my own body. What you see before you is a projection. Just a shabby coating. I want to give you a chance to at least visualize the one who destroyed your planet!!"

Jupiter growled in anger.

"Jupiter Thunder Crash!!" she cried. The lightning came and struck Visus. A perfect bull's-eye, but to no avail. Visus stood unharmed, a smile on his face. He continued making his way to them.

"This is unbelievable," Neptune said under her breath.

"Uranus World Shaking!"

The energy ball raced toward Visus and seemed to hit him. A great explosion occurred, but Visus just walked through it. This time he was gripping a glowing sword.

"Say goodbye," he growled before charging at the scouts.

"Scatter!" Neptune cried. The girls ran in different directions. Sailor Moon tripped and fell next to the withered woman. She screamed as Visus was upon her in an instant.

"Deadly Scream!"

The impact of the two energies caused an explosion.

"Sailor Moon!" the scouts cried. As the smoke cleared, the scouts could see Sailor Moon on the ground covering her head and Visus stood over her, unharmed. He was turned to stare at the scout who had mysteriously appeared behind him.

"Pluto!" Jupiter cried. Sailor Moon, seeing that she was alive, quickly got to her feet and joined the other scouts.

"Another sailor?" Visus croaked. Pluto stood in a fighting pose, her staff outstretched.

"And the keeper of time," she said. "If I want to continue keeping the time of earth, then I should fight for it, right?" Visus glared at Pluto. He said, "You can try." Then he swung his glowing sword at Pluto, but she quickly blocked his blow with her staff. Meanwhile, Uranus ran behind him and tried to kick him, but her leg went right through him.

"Huh?" she gasped as she back flipped out of the way of his sword. Pluto then tried to hit him with her staff, but it also went through him.

"Enough child's play!" Visus cried, raising his arms in one swift movement and with that, the ground under each scout exploded as if they were standing over a bomb. As the smoke cleared, the tattered scouts saw that Visus had disappeared.

"Ugh!" Neptune cried. "My arm!" There was a huge gash in her arm. The other scouts had also been hurt. Their clothes were torn and dirty.

"His damn projection!!" Uranus cried. "He's not solid at all!!"

"This is not good," Sailor Moon whimpered, putting a hand over the cut on her forehead. "We're doomed."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Duo stood in the middle of the room. Makoto's room. He looked around at the mess that had been left. Gone, she was gone. forever? Her smiling face, her cheerfulness. The feeling he had when she was near was gone! He would never be able to hold her, to kiss her ever again. Also, if they failed, everyone would die. Duo slowly shook his head, not knowing how to feel at the moment. He walked out of the room and headed toward the garage.

"I'm missing them already," Duo heard Quatre say from somewhere and he sighed. In the garage, Duo found Hiro in Wing Zero's cockpit. Wing Zero was lying horizontally on its back and the radio was on. Relina's voice filled the garage through the radio. Duo leaned his back against Wing Zero. Relina was making a speech, talking about how the gundams would be going into space. Somehow, though, that information never got to them. They knew now. Duo sighed.

"Remember when you used to go out with Relina?" Duo asked Hiro. Hiro didn't say anything and Duo continued. "She was completely stuck on you and I always wondered why you two broke up." Hiro remained silent, except for the tinkering of his tools.

"Why did you break up?" Duo asked.

"You're talking too much," Hiro said, not stopping his work.

"Alright," Duo said. "But let me ask you this. The feeling you had when you were with Relina, was it as good a feeling as when you were with Usagi?" Hiro stopped tinkering with Wing Zero. His head popped out of the cockpit and he looked down at Duo whose back was still turned against Wing Zero.

"Why?" Hiro asked. Duo made a sound as if he was having trouble swallowing.

"You couldn't understand the feeling I feel when Makoto is near," Duo stated, his bangs covering his face. "There is just no explaining it. And now that she's gone. and she's mad at me at that, there's just a huge hole of emptiness inside of me." Hiro was still silent. From the radio, Relina's voice seemed to get louder.

"I understand," Hiro said. "Usagi." Duo inhaled and shuddered. He shoved his hands in his pockets and began to walk out of the garage. Hiro sighed before getting back to work on Wing Zero. Duo then stopped and took his right hand out of his pocket. In it, he held the Sakura petal, a little brown and curled from being washed in Duo's Laundry. He figured that he'd put the petal in his pocket without realizing it when he was looking for Deathscythe's missing part. Still, he stared at the petal as if it were a new specimen discovered in his hands, the Sakura petal had come out of nowhere. Its bright pink color was way out of place from all of the dead leaves at that time. Just like Makoto. She'd also came out of nowhere and she was different from any other girl he had ever met. Duo's heart began to race as he stared at the petal.

"Hiro," he called. "We have to find a way to get to their world."

Matsuri: Well that's it for this chapter. I'm sorry to say this, though, but this story is almost coming to an end. Just a few more chapters. I'm *sniff* going to miss writing for this story. Oh well. Hopefully the next chapter will be coming soon so sit tight. Please? Oh no. Don't go anywhere! Where are you going?! Come back!!