Sailor Moon: World Rebirth -Part 3, Hope and Chaos
Episode 18 'Separation'
In the absence of speech, all one could hear was the swishing sound of the
ship gliding through the calm waters under the star filled sky. Mamoru stood
at the tiller with the steersman, gazing upon the multitudes of fiery lights
in the night sky. "Are you sure it's safe to sail in the dark?" Mamoru asked
his companion.
"You can be rest assured matey, that we won't run into anything. In this new
world the oceans are perfectly clear of obstructions, except of course for
an island here and there."
"It still doesn't seem safe enough to me, sailing into darkness."
"It's no stranger than sailing with magic rather than wind."
Although there was just a slight breeze the ship was making good time
through the use of the threads of magic which only the senshi could utilize.
While Mamoru and the steersman were at the rear of the boat watching the
steering and stability of the ship, Sailor Mercury and Rei were in the bow,
keeping the threads of magic aligned.
Rei was hanging from a few of the mast ropes. "She's come a long way. She's
her same, ditzy self, but still quite different."
"She's accepted the responsibilities that come with our gifts. We've all
grown up some in the past two years; but old habits and lifestyles die
hard."
A hollow silence surrounded the two of them. Rei looked down from the stars
to look at Sailor Mercury. The silence was unnerving. "Why are you
transformed Ami? Couldn't you just as easily control the ship without
exerting as much energy?"
Mercury paused for a moment. "I don't like sailing in the dark. I feel ...
safer this way."
"Scared of the dark are we?"
"Don't go there Rei." Rei immediately fell silent. There was pain and anger
in Mercury's voice. It would be better to not speak of the matter again, for
she too had some foolish-sounding fears which had festered during the
darkness. (The darkness was the first two months after rebirth when the
beyonder and Creators were experimenting with the planet, its resources, and
its residents. It was a very dark and dangerous period of time.) Rei
returned her attention to the night sky. At least it never changed. But
wait; a small, dim, red object in the night sky caught her vision. "Ami,
what's that red dot," she said, pointing.
"Huh?" Mercury looked up just as the sky exploded in red light. Rei cried
out in pain, clutching her head.
"My eyes! My eyes! I can't see a thing!"
Sailor Mercury on the other hand was only blinded for a moment since
fortunately, she had been using her visor. A sudden jerk in her footing
signaled that the ship had run into something. Sailor Mercury instinctively
released the threads of magic as more flashes of light ignited the night
sky. She caught a glimpse of hooks being thrown over the side of the ship.
Acting on priorities Mercury returned her attention to her friend. "Rei, are
you all right?"
"I feel fine but my vision is playing tricks on me. I'm not sure what I'm
seeing-"
"Listen Rei; our ship is being boarded. I want you to climb up the ropes
until you're above the sails and then start shooting fire across the sky
until your vision returns. Got it?
"I think so. Mars Eternal, Unite!"
Mercury returned her attention to the sides of the boat to find figures with
short swords climbing over the railings. "Death to the evils of the realm!"
she heard one of the cry.
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!" she cried, washing some of the intruders over the
side of the boat. She began to blast the others when a thunderbolt blasted
them back into the water without damaging the ship. Sailor Jupiter landed on
the roof of the cabin, behind Sailor Mercury.
"All I wanted was a quiet evening up with the stars. Is that too much to
ask?! Oak Evolution!" More of the intruders were blown off the ship as
Sailor Jupiter flung green balls at them. Sailor Mercury jumped up to beside
Jupiter.
"Who are they Jupiter?"
"Pirates. I've encountered them before." The two of them sent another
onslaught of the elements at their enemies.
"Where's Venus?" Mercury asked
"Hopefully getting to the source of the attack."
*****
Sailor Venus was wondering why she hadn't let Jupiter go after the pirate
ship rather than herself. The water was freezing cold. The pirate ship was a
good distance away -which was probably why they hadn't seen it coming.
There were few pirates to dodge as Sailor Venus made her way around on the
ship. There was just enough crew to handle the ship. The rest had left,
believing that their ship was safe. Venus slipped down to the lower decks,
where the oar slaves were chained. Most of them were trying to get some rest
before the ship had to be moved again. From her vantage point above them,
she could see only one crewmember walking along a raised walkway above the
oars.
In a flash Sailor Venus leapt and punched her opponent in the gut. She then
tipped him over enough so that he fell down onto an oar. The oar slaves were
happy to beat him senseless. Sensing movement from behind, Venus spun around
and jumped back in time to avoid being grabbed by another pirate. "Crescent
Beam!" The sailor was knocked senseless, as well as getting some pretty bad
burns. Sailor Venus hurried to one end of the gallery and jumped down to
where the oar slaves were sitting. She changed back to Minako and called
down to the people for them all to hold their chains straight up. As she
swung around and strung her bow, everyone responded. With inhuman accuracy
she sent off four arrows, through the lines of chains. Without delay she
hopped over to the other side of the ship and repeated the same process
there. No one had to worry about removing the actual chains since they all
disappeared as soon as they were hit by the arrows.
Most of the prisoners, in a dash of desperation from being locked up for so
long, ran for the ladders to escape. They were scared of the pirates and
scared of this strange woman who had made their chains completely disappear.
Minako was surprised that the people weren't crowding around her. Quite the
opposite actually. Minako was about to get out of there when she noticed a
woman and child moving towards her. Actually, the mother wanted to get out
of there but the little girl was insisting that they couldn't leave yet.
"Venus, Sailor Venus," she was calling. Minako walked over to them. "Sailor
Venus, we found you!" The child looked up to her mother "Mommy, this is the
woman from my dreams!"
"Yes dear, I'm sure it is." She looked at Minako. "I'm sorry miss; you know
children. Now come along dear, let's get out of here," she said, tugging on
the little girl's hand. The little girl slipped her hand out of her mother's
and grabbed Minako's. "No. I have to help the senshi; my dream told me so."
"Maybe you should lis-" Minako was abruptly cut off.
"No! We're leaving now!" the woman nearly screamed.
Minako was about to step forward when the little girl did it first. She
waved her hand away at the woman. "Oh Mommy, don't be foolish; I have to
help Sailor Venus. You can go now if that's what you really want."
A complete calmness washed over the woman's face. "Why thank you honey," she
said and then walked off without another word or gesture.
"What -how could you treat your own mother like that? What did you you do to
her," Minako said in a shocked voice.
"Oh Mina, it wasn't my actual mother; just some flake I was helping out
until I ran into you. Don't worry about it."
Minako took a closer look at the girl. "Carrie, is that you?"
"No, of course not silly. It's just the person I decided to imitate from
your memory."
"Well all right. But we had better get out of here quickly."
"I think there's a couple of boats left up on the water."
"But how do you kno-"
"Don't ask Mina, just go!"
Minako and 'Carrie' had an uneventful climb back up to the deck of the ship.
The prisoners had either been flushed out or had scared away the remaining
crew. But Minako made sure to start a little fire in the lower decks of the
ship so that the ship would burn down eventually, but not immediately alert
the pirates aboard the senshi's ship. When they reached the deck Minako
started to move off towards where the lifeboats were stored but Carrie
tugged her the other way. "There aren't any lifeboats left over there Mina;
we have to go this way."
She didn't feel any will to resist this girl so Minako followed along. When
they reached the edge of the ship Minako looked over the edge and saw that a
small boat was now sitting there in the water. "But how did you kno-"
"Come on Mina, where would be the fun in that?" With that she jumped over
the edge of the ship and landed safely on the boat eight feet below. "Let's
go!" Minako shook her head and side flipped over the railing and landed in
the boat beside Carrie.
"Show off," Carrie pouted, although Minako had a feeling that the little
girl had been expecting nothing less.
As Mina and Carrie approached the senshi's ship they saw that all of the
pirates were on board now since there was no one guarding the small crafts
they had tied together and to the ship. Without a second thought Minako cut
away all of the boats and allowed them to float away. No one was going to
survive an attack on her liege's ship. Only after all of the small boats had
floated away did she herself climb the side of the ship to find out what was
going on. The situation was not a pleasing one. In front of the cabin door
Usagi was being held with a knife at her throat. There were tears all over
her cheeks as well as blood on her neck. The other senshi and sailors were
on their knees, but the sight of Usagi so helpless and given-up set Minako's
blood on fire.
She was seriously considering doing something rash when she noticed Carrie
on the ropes beside her, tugging on her clothes and pointing downwards. The
two of them swung down below the edge of the ship, out of sight.
"You don't have to kill them all, just the one who has the knife to your
friend's throat." Minako realized that that was what she should have thought
of in the first place but said nothing to that effect. It was probably best
that she wasn't Sailor Venus at the moment for she didn't want to damage the
ship.
The real challenge was how she was going to hit the man behind Usagi when
Usagi was in between her and her target. These were the only ropes still
hanging from the ship so she had to shoot from here without boarding the
ship. She would have to get Usagi's attention first.
"Don't worry Mina, I'll get you her attention." Before Minako could stop
her, Carrie was climbing up onto the deck. Being too late to stop her,
Minako just held up two fingers below Carrie, and watched Usagi very
closely, trying very hard not to be seen.
"Over here everyone! Look at me!" Carrie called out. "Usagi, you too! Over
here!" Carrie had everyone's attention, but Minako's attention was
completely on Usagi.
Although Usagi was ditzy at times, she wasn't in important situations.
Minako knew that Usagi had seen her when Usagi flashed a V back to her.
Sailor Mars saw the V and took this as a chance to raise her finger and
point it towards the man holding Usagi for all she had to do was say one
word and fire would spring from her fingers. Unfortunately the pirate saw
what Sailor Mars was doing and turned so that Usagi was directly in between
him and Sailor Mars.
Fortunately, in order to do this he had to turn slightly to the side, which
enabled Minako to get a clear view of his shoulder holding the knife. She
took careful aim with her bow and fired.
At the same moment Usagi saw the top of Minako's bow and reached up her
hands to grab the wrist of the pirate who was holding her. Before he had a
chance to react the arrow hit him in the shoulder. Usagi was then able to
push the knife away from her throat so that she could lean forward and kick
the guy holding her. This gave her just enough time to slip away. The pirate
barely had enough time to pull the arrow out of his shoulder before Prince
Endymion ran him through. Chaos erupted on the deck of the ship. With a
hostage, the pirates had held the upper hand. But now with four angry sailor
soldiers free they didn't stand a chance. The decks of the ship cleared
quickly, and when the pirates realized that their ship was on fire they swam
towards as quickly as possible in hopes that they'd be able to save at least
something.
Order returned to the deck of the ship.
***
A little while later found Usagi back in her room. Tuxedo Kamen was standing
guard outside the door while the other soldiers continued repairs on deck.
Usagi rolled over to find a familiar figure lying in bed with her. Only
being partially awake she flipped the other girl onto the floor. "Usagi,
that wasn't very nice of you, you know." Usagi shook some more of the
sleepiness away and focused on the newcomer.
"Chibi-usa? No that's impossible. You must be that girl that distracted the
pirates."
"You're in rare form today Usagi. I just took the memory of Chibi-usa from
your mind."
"What are you?"
The young Chibi-usa jumped into Usagi's arms. "When you returned to the
present time, no, before that -when you left the present to the future a new hope was born.
That was us! Then when you returned to the present that hope was given
embodiment. I'm a little bit of all happy things, but mostly of innocence
and hope."
Usagi seemed a bit puzzled, but cleared it up by placing the information
aside in her mind for future reference. "But what do you want?"
Chibi-usa brought her head up so it was a little closer to being level with
Usagi's. "This isn't about what I want, but about what YOU need. I just want
to play around and have fun. I'm here to tell you that you have to come to
the caverns of Shmite. You're a special person, because right now you're
only partially in this time. You're special because you're one of the few
people who has the potential to affect time."
Usagi didn't have a clue as to what the girl was talking about. "I don't
understand. Maybe you have the wrong person."
"No, and don't worry, you don't need to understand it yet. All you have to
do is come to the caverns of Shmite. Then you can make a difference." With
that the little girl disappeared into a puff of smoke, just like Chibi-usa
used to.
Usagi was about to try to return to sleep when a loud explosion erupted from
outside. She jumped out of bed and rushed to the door. Tuxedo Kamen was
already gone. Reaching the end of the hall Usagi once again rushed right
outside as she had before, the concern for her friends overriding her common
sense.
Outside two dark figures floated above the ship. It was impossible to see
what they were, for they were shadowed in black. Usagi held up her locket
which was now attached to a chain around her neck so she wouldn't loose it.
"Moon Crisis, make up!" Just as her locket opened up and the transformation
began something happened. A black arrow which disappeared on impact slammed
into Usagi's locket. The force sent her flying over the side of the ship.
Sailor Jupiter and Mars jumped in after her.
Mamoru, now as Prince Endymion on the other side of the ship jumped up to
attack one of the figures. But just as he got close he found himself frozen
in place. In a flash the figure that he had been trying to attack appeared
behind him and stabbed him a whole bunch of times in the back before
blasting him down into the water. Sailor Venus saw it happen and was about
to attack when Sailor Mercury grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the
side of the ship. "Mercury, what are you doing!"
"We can't win this," Sailor Mercury answered. "No matter what we do either
they'll sink the ship with their attacks or we'll sink it with ours. We
can't win this battle and it would be best if we weren't separated. We have
to follow Mamoru. He was hurt pretty badly. Now jump!"
Sailor Mercury and Sailor Venus just cleared the ship as a column of fire
burst through the middle of it. They had to swim away as fast as they could
to avoid being sucked under as the ship sank.
Sailor Venus found Tuxedo Kamen but Sailor Mercury was no where to be found.
Sailor Mars and Jupiter held an unconscious Usagi up out of the water as
they struggled to find something to tie her to.
The senshi hurried away, followed by the dark inhuman laughter of a man and
woman.
Episode 18 'Separation'
In the absence of speech, all one could hear was the swishing sound of the
ship gliding through the calm waters under the star filled sky. Mamoru stood
at the tiller with the steersman, gazing upon the multitudes of fiery lights
in the night sky. "Are you sure it's safe to sail in the dark?" Mamoru asked
his companion.
"You can be rest assured matey, that we won't run into anything. In this new
world the oceans are perfectly clear of obstructions, except of course for
an island here and there."
"It still doesn't seem safe enough to me, sailing into darkness."
"It's no stranger than sailing with magic rather than wind."
Although there was just a slight breeze the ship was making good time
through the use of the threads of magic which only the senshi could utilize.
While Mamoru and the steersman were at the rear of the boat watching the
steering and stability of the ship, Sailor Mercury and Rei were in the bow,
keeping the threads of magic aligned.
Rei was hanging from a few of the mast ropes. "She's come a long way. She's
her same, ditzy self, but still quite different."
"She's accepted the responsibilities that come with our gifts. We've all
grown up some in the past two years; but old habits and lifestyles die
hard."
A hollow silence surrounded the two of them. Rei looked down from the stars
to look at Sailor Mercury. The silence was unnerving. "Why are you
transformed Ami? Couldn't you just as easily control the ship without
exerting as much energy?"
Mercury paused for a moment. "I don't like sailing in the dark. I feel ...
safer this way."
"Scared of the dark are we?"
"Don't go there Rei." Rei immediately fell silent. There was pain and anger
in Mercury's voice. It would be better to not speak of the matter again, for
she too had some foolish-sounding fears which had festered during the
darkness. (The darkness was the first two months after rebirth when the
beyonder and Creators were experimenting with the planet, its resources, and
its residents. It was a very dark and dangerous period of time.) Rei
returned her attention to the night sky. At least it never changed. But
wait; a small, dim, red object in the night sky caught her vision. "Ami,
what's that red dot," she said, pointing.
"Huh?" Mercury looked up just as the sky exploded in red light. Rei cried
out in pain, clutching her head.
"My eyes! My eyes! I can't see a thing!"
Sailor Mercury on the other hand was only blinded for a moment since
fortunately, she had been using her visor. A sudden jerk in her footing
signaled that the ship had run into something. Sailor Mercury instinctively
released the threads of magic as more flashes of light ignited the night
sky. She caught a glimpse of hooks being thrown over the side of the ship.
Acting on priorities Mercury returned her attention to her friend. "Rei, are
you all right?"
"I feel fine but my vision is playing tricks on me. I'm not sure what I'm
seeing-"
"Listen Rei; our ship is being boarded. I want you to climb up the ropes
until you're above the sails and then start shooting fire across the sky
until your vision returns. Got it?
"I think so. Mars Eternal, Unite!"
Mercury returned her attention to the sides of the boat to find figures with
short swords climbing over the railings. "Death to the evils of the realm!"
she heard one of the cry.
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!" she cried, washing some of the intruders over the
side of the boat. She began to blast the others when a thunderbolt blasted
them back into the water without damaging the ship. Sailor Jupiter landed on
the roof of the cabin, behind Sailor Mercury.
"All I wanted was a quiet evening up with the stars. Is that too much to
ask?! Oak Evolution!" More of the intruders were blown off the ship as
Sailor Jupiter flung green balls at them. Sailor Mercury jumped up to beside
Jupiter.
"Who are they Jupiter?"
"Pirates. I've encountered them before." The two of them sent another
onslaught of the elements at their enemies.
"Where's Venus?" Mercury asked
"Hopefully getting to the source of the attack."
*****
Sailor Venus was wondering why she hadn't let Jupiter go after the pirate
ship rather than herself. The water was freezing cold. The pirate ship was a
good distance away -which was probably why they hadn't seen it coming.
There were few pirates to dodge as Sailor Venus made her way around on the
ship. There was just enough crew to handle the ship. The rest had left,
believing that their ship was safe. Venus slipped down to the lower decks,
where the oar slaves were chained. Most of them were trying to get some rest
before the ship had to be moved again. From her vantage point above them,
she could see only one crewmember walking along a raised walkway above the
oars.
In a flash Sailor Venus leapt and punched her opponent in the gut. She then
tipped him over enough so that he fell down onto an oar. The oar slaves were
happy to beat him senseless. Sensing movement from behind, Venus spun around
and jumped back in time to avoid being grabbed by another pirate. "Crescent
Beam!" The sailor was knocked senseless, as well as getting some pretty bad
burns. Sailor Venus hurried to one end of the gallery and jumped down to
where the oar slaves were sitting. She changed back to Minako and called
down to the people for them all to hold their chains straight up. As she
swung around and strung her bow, everyone responded. With inhuman accuracy
she sent off four arrows, through the lines of chains. Without delay she
hopped over to the other side of the ship and repeated the same process
there. No one had to worry about removing the actual chains since they all
disappeared as soon as they were hit by the arrows.
Most of the prisoners, in a dash of desperation from being locked up for so
long, ran for the ladders to escape. They were scared of the pirates and
scared of this strange woman who had made their chains completely disappear.
Minako was surprised that the people weren't crowding around her. Quite the
opposite actually. Minako was about to get out of there when she noticed a
woman and child moving towards her. Actually, the mother wanted to get out
of there but the little girl was insisting that they couldn't leave yet.
"Venus, Sailor Venus," she was calling. Minako walked over to them. "Sailor
Venus, we found you!" The child looked up to her mother "Mommy, this is the
woman from my dreams!"
"Yes dear, I'm sure it is." She looked at Minako. "I'm sorry miss; you know
children. Now come along dear, let's get out of here," she said, tugging on
the little girl's hand. The little girl slipped her hand out of her mother's
and grabbed Minako's. "No. I have to help the senshi; my dream told me so."
"Maybe you should lis-" Minako was abruptly cut off.
"No! We're leaving now!" the woman nearly screamed.
Minako was about to step forward when the little girl did it first. She
waved her hand away at the woman. "Oh Mommy, don't be foolish; I have to
help Sailor Venus. You can go now if that's what you really want."
A complete calmness washed over the woman's face. "Why thank you honey," she
said and then walked off without another word or gesture.
"What -how could you treat your own mother like that? What did you you do to
her," Minako said in a shocked voice.
"Oh Mina, it wasn't my actual mother; just some flake I was helping out
until I ran into you. Don't worry about it."
Minako took a closer look at the girl. "Carrie, is that you?"
"No, of course not silly. It's just the person I decided to imitate from
your memory."
"Well all right. But we had better get out of here quickly."
"I think there's a couple of boats left up on the water."
"But how do you kno-"
"Don't ask Mina, just go!"
Minako and 'Carrie' had an uneventful climb back up to the deck of the ship.
The prisoners had either been flushed out or had scared away the remaining
crew. But Minako made sure to start a little fire in the lower decks of the
ship so that the ship would burn down eventually, but not immediately alert
the pirates aboard the senshi's ship. When they reached the deck Minako
started to move off towards where the lifeboats were stored but Carrie
tugged her the other way. "There aren't any lifeboats left over there Mina;
we have to go this way."
She didn't feel any will to resist this girl so Minako followed along. When
they reached the edge of the ship Minako looked over the edge and saw that a
small boat was now sitting there in the water. "But how did you kno-"
"Come on Mina, where would be the fun in that?" With that she jumped over
the edge of the ship and landed safely on the boat eight feet below. "Let's
go!" Minako shook her head and side flipped over the railing and landed in
the boat beside Carrie.
"Show off," Carrie pouted, although Minako had a feeling that the little
girl had been expecting nothing less.
As Mina and Carrie approached the senshi's ship they saw that all of the
pirates were on board now since there was no one guarding the small crafts
they had tied together and to the ship. Without a second thought Minako cut
away all of the boats and allowed them to float away. No one was going to
survive an attack on her liege's ship. Only after all of the small boats had
floated away did she herself climb the side of the ship to find out what was
going on. The situation was not a pleasing one. In front of the cabin door
Usagi was being held with a knife at her throat. There were tears all over
her cheeks as well as blood on her neck. The other senshi and sailors were
on their knees, but the sight of Usagi so helpless and given-up set Minako's
blood on fire.
She was seriously considering doing something rash when she noticed Carrie
on the ropes beside her, tugging on her clothes and pointing downwards. The
two of them swung down below the edge of the ship, out of sight.
"You don't have to kill them all, just the one who has the knife to your
friend's throat." Minako realized that that was what she should have thought
of in the first place but said nothing to that effect. It was probably best
that she wasn't Sailor Venus at the moment for she didn't want to damage the
ship.
The real challenge was how she was going to hit the man behind Usagi when
Usagi was in between her and her target. These were the only ropes still
hanging from the ship so she had to shoot from here without boarding the
ship. She would have to get Usagi's attention first.
"Don't worry Mina, I'll get you her attention." Before Minako could stop
her, Carrie was climbing up onto the deck. Being too late to stop her,
Minako just held up two fingers below Carrie, and watched Usagi very
closely, trying very hard not to be seen.
"Over here everyone! Look at me!" Carrie called out. "Usagi, you too! Over
here!" Carrie had everyone's attention, but Minako's attention was
completely on Usagi.
Although Usagi was ditzy at times, she wasn't in important situations.
Minako knew that Usagi had seen her when Usagi flashed a V back to her.
Sailor Mars saw the V and took this as a chance to raise her finger and
point it towards the man holding Usagi for all she had to do was say one
word and fire would spring from her fingers. Unfortunately the pirate saw
what Sailor Mars was doing and turned so that Usagi was directly in between
him and Sailor Mars.
Fortunately, in order to do this he had to turn slightly to the side, which
enabled Minako to get a clear view of his shoulder holding the knife. She
took careful aim with her bow and fired.
At the same moment Usagi saw the top of Minako's bow and reached up her
hands to grab the wrist of the pirate who was holding her. Before he had a
chance to react the arrow hit him in the shoulder. Usagi was then able to
push the knife away from her throat so that she could lean forward and kick
the guy holding her. This gave her just enough time to slip away. The pirate
barely had enough time to pull the arrow out of his shoulder before Prince
Endymion ran him through. Chaos erupted on the deck of the ship. With a
hostage, the pirates had held the upper hand. But now with four angry sailor
soldiers free they didn't stand a chance. The decks of the ship cleared
quickly, and when the pirates realized that their ship was on fire they swam
towards as quickly as possible in hopes that they'd be able to save at least
something.
Order returned to the deck of the ship.
***
A little while later found Usagi back in her room. Tuxedo Kamen was standing
guard outside the door while the other soldiers continued repairs on deck.
Usagi rolled over to find a familiar figure lying in bed with her. Only
being partially awake she flipped the other girl onto the floor. "Usagi,
that wasn't very nice of you, you know." Usagi shook some more of the
sleepiness away and focused on the newcomer.
"Chibi-usa? No that's impossible. You must be that girl that distracted the
pirates."
"You're in rare form today Usagi. I just took the memory of Chibi-usa from
your mind."
"What are you?"
The young Chibi-usa jumped into Usagi's arms. "When you returned to the
present time, no, before that -when you left the present to the future a new hope was born.
That was us! Then when you returned to the present that hope was given
embodiment. I'm a little bit of all happy things, but mostly of innocence
and hope."
Usagi seemed a bit puzzled, but cleared it up by placing the information
aside in her mind for future reference. "But what do you want?"
Chibi-usa brought her head up so it was a little closer to being level with
Usagi's. "This isn't about what I want, but about what YOU need. I just want
to play around and have fun. I'm here to tell you that you have to come to
the caverns of Shmite. You're a special person, because right now you're
only partially in this time. You're special because you're one of the few
people who has the potential to affect time."
Usagi didn't have a clue as to what the girl was talking about. "I don't
understand. Maybe you have the wrong person."
"No, and don't worry, you don't need to understand it yet. All you have to
do is come to the caverns of Shmite. Then you can make a difference." With
that the little girl disappeared into a puff of smoke, just like Chibi-usa
used to.
Usagi was about to try to return to sleep when a loud explosion erupted from
outside. She jumped out of bed and rushed to the door. Tuxedo Kamen was
already gone. Reaching the end of the hall Usagi once again rushed right
outside as she had before, the concern for her friends overriding her common
sense.
Outside two dark figures floated above the ship. It was impossible to see
what they were, for they were shadowed in black. Usagi held up her locket
which was now attached to a chain around her neck so she wouldn't loose it.
"Moon Crisis, make up!" Just as her locket opened up and the transformation
began something happened. A black arrow which disappeared on impact slammed
into Usagi's locket. The force sent her flying over the side of the ship.
Sailor Jupiter and Mars jumped in after her.
Mamoru, now as Prince Endymion on the other side of the ship jumped up to
attack one of the figures. But just as he got close he found himself frozen
in place. In a flash the figure that he had been trying to attack appeared
behind him and stabbed him a whole bunch of times in the back before
blasting him down into the water. Sailor Venus saw it happen and was about
to attack when Sailor Mercury grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the
side of the ship. "Mercury, what are you doing!"
"We can't win this," Sailor Mercury answered. "No matter what we do either
they'll sink the ship with their attacks or we'll sink it with ours. We
can't win this battle and it would be best if we weren't separated. We have
to follow Mamoru. He was hurt pretty badly. Now jump!"
Sailor Mercury and Sailor Venus just cleared the ship as a column of fire
burst through the middle of it. They had to swim away as fast as they could
to avoid being sucked under as the ship sank.
Sailor Venus found Tuxedo Kamen but Sailor Mercury was no where to be found.
Sailor Mars and Jupiter held an unconscious Usagi up out of the water as
they struggled to find something to tie her to.
The senshi hurried away, followed by the dark inhuman laughter of a man and
woman.