THE NIGHTMARE REALM,
CHAPTER 8: "Blood Kin"
By Bill K.
Goth reached down to touch the crumpled mass of pterodactyl that was Sailor Vesta's current form. One touch and she would die, because this was a nightmare realm and it was where he had such power. Only his mistress, Echidna, or the golden crystal could stay his power and, once used, even they couldn't reverse the effects. Even the other denizens of the nightmare realm feared him, not that Goth cared. They were beneath him. Only Echidna didn't fear him. Only she gave him her caresses and her companionship, whether from her superior soul or from courage born of her madness. That's why only Echidna could claim his total allegiance. His hand neared the scaly gray skin of the flying lizard.
And suddenly it was gone. Goth whirled around, looking for whoever came to Vesta's aid. The unconscious form of Tiberious was off in the distance. No one else was around. Confused and sick with worry that she had somehow escaped and threatened Echidna, Goth stole off quickly.
As he left, thundering off to its perception, an earthworm wriggled out of the dirt it had burrowed into and 'watched' Goth depart. Only when it was sure he was gone did it allow its form to change. The worm swelled up, growing and changing until it once more was Sailor Vesta. The girl remained on all fours and bowed her head.
"Oh, my head's still ringing from that crash landing," she mumbled to herself. "Barely changed in time. Urk! D-Don't barf, Vesta! You don't have the time! Got to get to the Princess."
Vesta struggled to her feet. With no energy at the moment to change to a faster form, she jogged along as fast as she could manage until she could.
"Got to help stop this," she told herself. "Got to prove - - I'm not like him!"
* * * *
Usa was in pain.
It hurt that she had failed against Echidna. It pained her that Echidna had surprised her and possessed her body in order to combine her pink crystal's energies with Echidna's own. It was agony to realize that Echidna had recognized that to try to directly control the energy of the pink crystal was to court destruction, that the only way was by controlling and using Usa - - and she hadn't realized it. It was torture for her to think that her carelessness and lack of ability as Sailor Moon may cost the world everything.
But none of it hurt as much as watching Helios passionately kiss Echidna, watch the two grind their bodies together in open lust, while she stood helplessly by. Usa strained to move toward them, but the coils of the giant serpent wrapped around her held her tight. The kiss just kept going on and on. No matter how hard she wished for it, it wouldn't end.
"Helios!" she wailed. "Why?"
"I share your body and I share your mind," Echidna said, parting from Helios' lips and purring at her. And still her visible eye wasn't quite lucid. "Why should I not share your lover?"
"You get away from him!" Usa raged impotently.
"He was mine before he was yours!" Echidna pouted. "Oh, you are so cruel and selfish!"
"He loves me now!" bellowed Usa. "You get your hands off of him!"
"Maiden," Helios said coldly, "stop this. Such behavior is unseemly."
"Helios?"
"You brought a moment of gaiety to my life, Maiden. But did you think I could ever see you as more than a moment's dalliance?"
"No," Usa said, shaking her head.
"He was mine before he was yours," Echidna smiled eerily. "And he was never mine. Why would you think he could ever be yours?"
"No," Usa repeated. "You're doing something to him. You're controlling him. You have to be!"
"How immature," sneered Helios. "How could you expect one such as I to love or even respect such immaturity?"
Usa sank to her knees, still wrapped in the coils of the serpent. Its head, bearing the likeness of Echidna, bobbed up and down by her own head.
"Then it was - - all a lie?" whispered Usa.
"My feelings for you were genuine," Helios replied. "There is much in you that recommends you. But you are yet a child - - and I could not love a child."
Echidna, with Helios watching her, turned and focused on combining and manipulating her energies and those of the pink crystal in order to see her plans come true. While behind them came the sound of soft sobs.
* * * *
The moment the pink light radiated out from Sailor Moon, Endymion acted. From his hands came golden energy, surrounding the pink radiance coming from his daughter. The energy formed a bubble around Sailor Moon, containing her radiance and preventing it from spreading further than the temple.
"There you go again!" chattered Sailor Moon, grinning madly, her one visible eye dilated and staring. "You're always trying to limit me!"
For a moment it sounded like Usa herself was actually speaking to him. But the insane look on her face told him otherwise.
"Get out of my daughter!" Endymion snarled. Maintaining the barrier around her was difficult. The combination of Sailor Moon's energy and Echidna's proved to be very potent. But Endymion knew the consequences should he fail and so didn't. "Let her go!"
"But she's mine!" Sailor Moon pouted. "I found her and I'm going to keep her! And I'm going to pet her and pat her and give her milk and tie a bell around her pretty neck! Hahahahaha!"
"Do you know who I am?" Endymion asked. He looked at her, stern and serious. While maintaining the barrier around her, Endymion approached Sailor Moon. With every step he towered over her more and more.
"You don't frighten me!" Sailor Moon snapped petulantly.
"Do you know who I am?" he repeated. Sailor Moon flinched and looked away, but he still kept coming. Finally he stopped less than a foot from her, towering over her. Sailor Moon glanced up at him out of the corner of her eye, scowling. "Who am I?"
"Y-You are our father," Sailor Moon replied at length and with great reluctance. "You are Endymion, rightful prince of Earth and of all humanity. A-And by divine providence, Lord of all the dream-lands who exist and serve by the grace of humanity." Sailor Moon's lower lip trembled.
"What you are doing is wrong," Endymion said in a soft voice, a voice that threatened no anger, no retribution, but a voice that would brook no argument. "You will leave my daughter's body and you will stop spreading your influence beyond the boundaries of the nightmare realms."
"No," Sailor Moon replied, shaking her head in disbelief, as if she couldn't comprehend him even saying such a thing.
"Now, Echidna," Endymion told her.
"NO!" Sailor moon roared.
Pink energy veined with black streaks exploded out from her. The blast struck Endymion's barrier and forced it to expand. Endymion braced himself and poured more energy into the containment barrier, but was still forced back. His shoes skidded several feet along the floor of the temple before he could halt himself.
"I am the sower of troubled sleep!" Sailor Moon proclaimed, lifting her wand high above her head and balancing on tiptoes. "I am the reaper of angst and guilt! I will spread my violet and indigo wings over all and they will allow me to fly up and touch the sun! And together we shall perish in a fireball of glorious torment!"
As Sailor Moon laughed and gazed up at the ceiling, she began to pirouette, spinning on one toe so fast her trails of hair fanned out into pink wings. Endymion grimaced, not only from the strain of containing her increasingly powerful energies, but from what he feared he must do. Transferring the output of his barrier to his left hand, Endymion closed his right fist, then opened it. As he opened it, a red rose appeared in it. Grasping the rose by the stem, he flung it at the oblivious Sailor Moon like a throwing knife.
"Oh, Daddy!" Sailor Moon cackled, suddenly swatting the rose out of midair with her wand. "You're so cruel to your only daughter!"
She was playing with him. Somehow the combination of the two energies was more than even the Golden Crystal could handle. Endymion struggled to hold the barrier, but suddenly sensed that it was an effort in vain. He could feel his barrier beginning to buckle. Desperately he reached out with his mind, trying to reestablish the link he had with his daughter, to make contact and somehow help her reassert control over her body.
Something was there. But it was like trying to reach through a mesh screen.
* * * *
Ceres had only a second to react. Then the vampire Sailor Saturn was on her, slamming her to the ground. She felt Saturn's nails, grown to talon length, dig into the flesh of her shoulders. She saw Juno trying to pull Saturn off of her without success. She felt Saturn's breath hot on her neck and smelled rot and decay and dried blood. Then she felt two jabs of pain in her neck.
"FLORAL STIMULATION!" she shrieked, her voice splitting the night.
Sprouting with amazing speed, garlic plants suddenly grew and surrounded Sailor Ceres' upper torso. They matured rapidly, sprouting garlic cloves. Saturn recoiled in horror and fell back, scrabbling away on all fours on the ground. Ceres, holding her throat with one hand, gestured to the trees she had previously controlled. A limb came down across Saturn's back with the force of a swung bat and knocked her flat. Instantly more garlic plants sprouted all around her. By the time Saturn recovered, she was surrounded, imprisoned above and on all sides by mature, clove-bearing plants. She howled impotently, sounding more like a beast than a human.
"Ceres, how bad is it?" Juno asked, rushing to her side.
"Never mind about that!" Ceres wheezed, on the verge of tears. "What do we do about her! I don't know how long that's going to hold her!"
"She's got to be possessed by some nightmare," reasoned Juno. "You'd think if she can just wake up from it, she'd go back to normal. But how do we wake her up if all this didn't?" Suddenly she turned to Ceres. "You're the plant expert! Is there some plant that can be enough of a stimulant to wake her up? It's got to be strong!"
Ceres sat there, bordering on shock. Blood dribbled down her neck to her collarbone under her hand. Then something clicked and a light came to her eyes.
"Floral Stimulation," she whispered.
A plant sprouted up between her legs. Ceres surrounded it with her hands as it grew, shaping the plant until it reached maturity. Then she gently cradled a leaf of the plant in her palm. The leaf dried, crumpled, then turned into a white powder. Gesturing with her free hand, the one stained with her own blood, Ceres directed the powder across the short expanse to where Saturn the vampire was imprisoned. Deftly the powder shot up Saturn's nose, even as Ceres was drying another leaf.
Saturn's head fell. The girl slumped to the ground, oblivious to the grove of garlic plants she was in. Juno could see Saturn's face twitching, but fangs still protruded from beneath her upper lip. Ceres sent another bit of white powder wafting up Saturn's nose. Instantly Saturn began to twitch more violently. Another dose sent her into more violent shakes.
"Is that how it's supposed to work?" Juno asked.
"Kind of," Ceres replied. "I'm guessing on how much to give her. I don't want to give her too much."
"Will it kill her?"
"If I give her too much."
Suddenly a shriek of terror tore from Saturn's mouth and she sat bolt upright. The girl was panting like she'd run fifty miles. Her eyes were wide and she looked around, disoriented, until she locked onto Juno and Ceres.
Her fangs were gone.
"It worked!" Juno smiled. "What plant was that?"
"A - - coca plant," Ceres admitted.
"Coca," Juno puzzled, then grew alarmed. "You gave her - -!"
"Well you said you wanted a powerful stimulant!" hissed Ceres.
"What happened?" Saturn asked weakly. Then she saw the wound on Ceres' throat. "Ceres, you're hurt!" She started for her fellow senshi.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" gasped Ceres, clutching her throat and shrinking away. Saturn sank back onto the ground. Those were familiar words.
"Um," Juno began awkwardly, "how much do you remember?"
"Everything," whispered Saturn. Tears dribbled down her pale cheeks. "It's happened again. I turned into a monster - - and hurt people." Saturn drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "I'm sorry, Ceres."
"Um," Ceres replied softly. "So am I. I - - you were just trying to help and I, uh, well, kind of went all baby and freaked." She crawled over and tentatively touched Saturn on the arm. "I know what I went through was really scary, but I'm sure it was worse for you. Sorry I freaked on you, OK?"
Saturn nodded.
"Uh, look," Juno began, "I know we've been through a lot and all, but the Princess is in trouble."
"Usa's in trouble?" gasped Saturn, rousing her from her melancholy.
"Yeah, and we have to get to her fast."
"How?" Ceres asked. "None of us have a lot of speed, unless you've got a hover-car stashed somewhere."
"I think I know a way. Ceres, build us a boat."
"What?"
"Weave a boat! Weave something out of tree limbs and vines and leaves and bark and sap and whatever you need! Just make it water-tight and big enough to carry the three of us!"
"OK! Floral Stimulation!"
As the others watched, Ceres manipulated the trees and flowers of the area until she had woven a crude canoe out of limbs, bark and sap. Juno placed it in the lowest part of the land.
"Now what?" Ceres asked.
"Just get in. I'll provide the rest," Juno told them. The three got in the canoe. "Aqua Initiation!"
Behind them the ground shook. Water burst up from the ground, a huge gusher that quickly filled in around them. The canoe lifted up and began floating forward.
"Instant river," Saturn nodded. "Very good."
"By maintaining the right water pressure, I can even give us a current," Juno replied. "Hold on, girls. It's not going to be the smoothest ride, but it'll get us there as quick as possible."
* * * *
Usa tried to abate the tears. She forced her way through the ache in her heart, struggling to focus on what was more important. Echidna - - that sneaky little so and so - - had to be stopped from spreading nightmares into the realms where pleasant dreams resided. The condemnation from Helios was - - secondary.
But it was hard. Hearing him say those things was a body blow, even if they were words conjured up by some spell of Echidna's, a hope Usa clung to with both hands. She tried to marshal her thoughts on escaping, on reclaiming her body and her command of the Pink Crystal. But Helios kept intruding into her thoughts, his words hammering her like a club, confirming her worst fears.
"Think, Usa," she whispered to herself. "Concentrate! Stop being a lovesick little girl! You're fifteen now! You have to do it!"
"Usa," she heard someone whisper.
Twisting around surreptitiously within the coils of the Echidna serpent that held her, Usa saw Hotaru behind her. The slight girl was in a gown of virgin white. The white seemed to glow with a brilliance of its own. For a moment Usa feared Hotaru's glow would alert Echidna and bring the intruder's wrath down on her friend.
"Don't worry," Hotaru said, reassuring her with her small, timid smile and her large violet eyes. "She won't see us. I'll get you loose."
"I knew I could count on you, Hotaru," smiled Usa, feeling hope for the first time in a while. "But are you sure you can do it? That snake is strong and it's probably really nasty, too."
"I can do it," Hotaru said. "I can do anything. That's what you keep telling me."
Hotaru's eyes rolled back into her head. Her arms drifted up until they were level with the floor, then her hands raised up. Usa couldn't see anything at first. Then Hotaru's shoulder length hair began to fan out from her. Her dress seemed to glow with even more brilliance until it threatened to blind Usa. Usa continued to glance back at Echidna and Helios, fearing discovery at any time. She believed without question that Hotaru could free her. What she feared was Hotaru's fate should they be found out. Usa felt she'd rather face Echidna's wrath alone than subject Hotaru to a moment of it.
"Don't be frightened, Usa," Hotaru paused long enough to whisper. "She won't find me. I'm safe from her."
Usa wanted to believe it. However, she knew how many times Hotaru had been victimized by evil, used or attacked. She didn't want it to happen again, ever, even if it meant sacrificing her own freedom.
Then she felt the serpent's coils begin to loosen. She was still helplessly wrapped in the coils, but the pressure of the cold-blooded serpent was lessened slightly. It was just enough to send her heart leaping. Hotaru remained eerily calm and utterly focused on her job. The coils' grip on her relaxed fractionally. The serpent itself seemed to realize what was happening and redoubled its efforts to squeeze Usa. However it never once looked at Hotaru. She was invisible to it. Usa shifted, trying to leverage her arms against the snake and help Hotaru's efforts - - anything to keep the slight girl from straining herself. Hotaru would keep trying well past the point of her utmost endurance. Usa was determined to keep that from happening.
Like a lightning strike it hit. Hotaru gasped and arched backward in shock and agony. A giant ball of energy, spinning wildly and colored vaguely red, had passed through Hotaru's chest from behind her. Bereft of the force keeping it at bay, the coils snapped tight around Usa's torso. Usa gazed in horror as the color drained from Hotaru's young face. Her mouth curled around words that died in her throat. With her arms bent double and clutched awkwardly over her chest, Hotaru teetered and sank backwards. She came to rest rigidly on her back.
"Hotaru!" screamed Usa. To Hell with whether Echidna heard. The young Princess had only one thought: Was her dearest friend harmed?
"She can't answer," came a delinquent voice that Usa recognized all too well.
"I doubt she'll be doing much of anything anymore," a second mocked.
"Right," came a boastful third. "When I knock 'em down, they stay down."
The fourth only laughed. It was a malevolent giggle, the sound a five year old might make - - if that five year old were capable of murder and found it fun. Usa didn't have to look to know who it was. She didn't want to look. But she did.
Standing behind her were Jun-Jun, Cere-Cere, Ves-Ves and Palla-Palla. They wore their Dead Moon Circus costumes and their Dead Moon Circus mirthless leers. Ves-Ves held a pool cue in her hand.
"Surprise," snickered Jun-Jun.
"You really didn't think we were going to stick with that senshi stuff, did you?" Cere-Cere sneered. "It's just so - - sickening!"
"Palla-Palla wants to play with her new dolly!" Palla-Palla squealed, the gleam in her eye and the width of her grin anything but innocent.
"Just hold on, shrimp," Ves-Ves proclaimed, barring Palla-Palla's path with the pool cue. She focused on Usa and their eyes met. "This one's mine. Ready for our rematch, 'Princess'?"
And without warning, she swung the pool cue at Usa's head.
Continued in Chapter 9
CHAPTER 8: "Blood Kin"
By Bill K.
Goth reached down to touch the crumpled mass of pterodactyl that was Sailor Vesta's current form. One touch and she would die, because this was a nightmare realm and it was where he had such power. Only his mistress, Echidna, or the golden crystal could stay his power and, once used, even they couldn't reverse the effects. Even the other denizens of the nightmare realm feared him, not that Goth cared. They were beneath him. Only Echidna didn't fear him. Only she gave him her caresses and her companionship, whether from her superior soul or from courage born of her madness. That's why only Echidna could claim his total allegiance. His hand neared the scaly gray skin of the flying lizard.
And suddenly it was gone. Goth whirled around, looking for whoever came to Vesta's aid. The unconscious form of Tiberious was off in the distance. No one else was around. Confused and sick with worry that she had somehow escaped and threatened Echidna, Goth stole off quickly.
As he left, thundering off to its perception, an earthworm wriggled out of the dirt it had burrowed into and 'watched' Goth depart. Only when it was sure he was gone did it allow its form to change. The worm swelled up, growing and changing until it once more was Sailor Vesta. The girl remained on all fours and bowed her head.
"Oh, my head's still ringing from that crash landing," she mumbled to herself. "Barely changed in time. Urk! D-Don't barf, Vesta! You don't have the time! Got to get to the Princess."
Vesta struggled to her feet. With no energy at the moment to change to a faster form, she jogged along as fast as she could manage until she could.
"Got to help stop this," she told herself. "Got to prove - - I'm not like him!"
* * * *
Usa was in pain.
It hurt that she had failed against Echidna. It pained her that Echidna had surprised her and possessed her body in order to combine her pink crystal's energies with Echidna's own. It was agony to realize that Echidna had recognized that to try to directly control the energy of the pink crystal was to court destruction, that the only way was by controlling and using Usa - - and she hadn't realized it. It was torture for her to think that her carelessness and lack of ability as Sailor Moon may cost the world everything.
But none of it hurt as much as watching Helios passionately kiss Echidna, watch the two grind their bodies together in open lust, while she stood helplessly by. Usa strained to move toward them, but the coils of the giant serpent wrapped around her held her tight. The kiss just kept going on and on. No matter how hard she wished for it, it wouldn't end.
"Helios!" she wailed. "Why?"
"I share your body and I share your mind," Echidna said, parting from Helios' lips and purring at her. And still her visible eye wasn't quite lucid. "Why should I not share your lover?"
"You get away from him!" Usa raged impotently.
"He was mine before he was yours!" Echidna pouted. "Oh, you are so cruel and selfish!"
"He loves me now!" bellowed Usa. "You get your hands off of him!"
"Maiden," Helios said coldly, "stop this. Such behavior is unseemly."
"Helios?"
"You brought a moment of gaiety to my life, Maiden. But did you think I could ever see you as more than a moment's dalliance?"
"No," Usa said, shaking her head.
"He was mine before he was yours," Echidna smiled eerily. "And he was never mine. Why would you think he could ever be yours?"
"No," Usa repeated. "You're doing something to him. You're controlling him. You have to be!"
"How immature," sneered Helios. "How could you expect one such as I to love or even respect such immaturity?"
Usa sank to her knees, still wrapped in the coils of the serpent. Its head, bearing the likeness of Echidna, bobbed up and down by her own head.
"Then it was - - all a lie?" whispered Usa.
"My feelings for you were genuine," Helios replied. "There is much in you that recommends you. But you are yet a child - - and I could not love a child."
Echidna, with Helios watching her, turned and focused on combining and manipulating her energies and those of the pink crystal in order to see her plans come true. While behind them came the sound of soft sobs.
* * * *
The moment the pink light radiated out from Sailor Moon, Endymion acted. From his hands came golden energy, surrounding the pink radiance coming from his daughter. The energy formed a bubble around Sailor Moon, containing her radiance and preventing it from spreading further than the temple.
"There you go again!" chattered Sailor Moon, grinning madly, her one visible eye dilated and staring. "You're always trying to limit me!"
For a moment it sounded like Usa herself was actually speaking to him. But the insane look on her face told him otherwise.
"Get out of my daughter!" Endymion snarled. Maintaining the barrier around her was difficult. The combination of Sailor Moon's energy and Echidna's proved to be very potent. But Endymion knew the consequences should he fail and so didn't. "Let her go!"
"But she's mine!" Sailor Moon pouted. "I found her and I'm going to keep her! And I'm going to pet her and pat her and give her milk and tie a bell around her pretty neck! Hahahahaha!"
"Do you know who I am?" Endymion asked. He looked at her, stern and serious. While maintaining the barrier around her, Endymion approached Sailor Moon. With every step he towered over her more and more.
"You don't frighten me!" Sailor Moon snapped petulantly.
"Do you know who I am?" he repeated. Sailor Moon flinched and looked away, but he still kept coming. Finally he stopped less than a foot from her, towering over her. Sailor Moon glanced up at him out of the corner of her eye, scowling. "Who am I?"
"Y-You are our father," Sailor Moon replied at length and with great reluctance. "You are Endymion, rightful prince of Earth and of all humanity. A-And by divine providence, Lord of all the dream-lands who exist and serve by the grace of humanity." Sailor Moon's lower lip trembled.
"What you are doing is wrong," Endymion said in a soft voice, a voice that threatened no anger, no retribution, but a voice that would brook no argument. "You will leave my daughter's body and you will stop spreading your influence beyond the boundaries of the nightmare realms."
"No," Sailor Moon replied, shaking her head in disbelief, as if she couldn't comprehend him even saying such a thing.
"Now, Echidna," Endymion told her.
"NO!" Sailor moon roared.
Pink energy veined with black streaks exploded out from her. The blast struck Endymion's barrier and forced it to expand. Endymion braced himself and poured more energy into the containment barrier, but was still forced back. His shoes skidded several feet along the floor of the temple before he could halt himself.
"I am the sower of troubled sleep!" Sailor Moon proclaimed, lifting her wand high above her head and balancing on tiptoes. "I am the reaper of angst and guilt! I will spread my violet and indigo wings over all and they will allow me to fly up and touch the sun! And together we shall perish in a fireball of glorious torment!"
As Sailor Moon laughed and gazed up at the ceiling, she began to pirouette, spinning on one toe so fast her trails of hair fanned out into pink wings. Endymion grimaced, not only from the strain of containing her increasingly powerful energies, but from what he feared he must do. Transferring the output of his barrier to his left hand, Endymion closed his right fist, then opened it. As he opened it, a red rose appeared in it. Grasping the rose by the stem, he flung it at the oblivious Sailor Moon like a throwing knife.
"Oh, Daddy!" Sailor Moon cackled, suddenly swatting the rose out of midair with her wand. "You're so cruel to your only daughter!"
She was playing with him. Somehow the combination of the two energies was more than even the Golden Crystal could handle. Endymion struggled to hold the barrier, but suddenly sensed that it was an effort in vain. He could feel his barrier beginning to buckle. Desperately he reached out with his mind, trying to reestablish the link he had with his daughter, to make contact and somehow help her reassert control over her body.
Something was there. But it was like trying to reach through a mesh screen.
* * * *
Ceres had only a second to react. Then the vampire Sailor Saturn was on her, slamming her to the ground. She felt Saturn's nails, grown to talon length, dig into the flesh of her shoulders. She saw Juno trying to pull Saturn off of her without success. She felt Saturn's breath hot on her neck and smelled rot and decay and dried blood. Then she felt two jabs of pain in her neck.
"FLORAL STIMULATION!" she shrieked, her voice splitting the night.
Sprouting with amazing speed, garlic plants suddenly grew and surrounded Sailor Ceres' upper torso. They matured rapidly, sprouting garlic cloves. Saturn recoiled in horror and fell back, scrabbling away on all fours on the ground. Ceres, holding her throat with one hand, gestured to the trees she had previously controlled. A limb came down across Saturn's back with the force of a swung bat and knocked her flat. Instantly more garlic plants sprouted all around her. By the time Saturn recovered, she was surrounded, imprisoned above and on all sides by mature, clove-bearing plants. She howled impotently, sounding more like a beast than a human.
"Ceres, how bad is it?" Juno asked, rushing to her side.
"Never mind about that!" Ceres wheezed, on the verge of tears. "What do we do about her! I don't know how long that's going to hold her!"
"She's got to be possessed by some nightmare," reasoned Juno. "You'd think if she can just wake up from it, she'd go back to normal. But how do we wake her up if all this didn't?" Suddenly she turned to Ceres. "You're the plant expert! Is there some plant that can be enough of a stimulant to wake her up? It's got to be strong!"
Ceres sat there, bordering on shock. Blood dribbled down her neck to her collarbone under her hand. Then something clicked and a light came to her eyes.
"Floral Stimulation," she whispered.
A plant sprouted up between her legs. Ceres surrounded it with her hands as it grew, shaping the plant until it reached maturity. Then she gently cradled a leaf of the plant in her palm. The leaf dried, crumpled, then turned into a white powder. Gesturing with her free hand, the one stained with her own blood, Ceres directed the powder across the short expanse to where Saturn the vampire was imprisoned. Deftly the powder shot up Saturn's nose, even as Ceres was drying another leaf.
Saturn's head fell. The girl slumped to the ground, oblivious to the grove of garlic plants she was in. Juno could see Saturn's face twitching, but fangs still protruded from beneath her upper lip. Ceres sent another bit of white powder wafting up Saturn's nose. Instantly Saturn began to twitch more violently. Another dose sent her into more violent shakes.
"Is that how it's supposed to work?" Juno asked.
"Kind of," Ceres replied. "I'm guessing on how much to give her. I don't want to give her too much."
"Will it kill her?"
"If I give her too much."
Suddenly a shriek of terror tore from Saturn's mouth and she sat bolt upright. The girl was panting like she'd run fifty miles. Her eyes were wide and she looked around, disoriented, until she locked onto Juno and Ceres.
Her fangs were gone.
"It worked!" Juno smiled. "What plant was that?"
"A - - coca plant," Ceres admitted.
"Coca," Juno puzzled, then grew alarmed. "You gave her - -!"
"Well you said you wanted a powerful stimulant!" hissed Ceres.
"What happened?" Saturn asked weakly. Then she saw the wound on Ceres' throat. "Ceres, you're hurt!" She started for her fellow senshi.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" gasped Ceres, clutching her throat and shrinking away. Saturn sank back onto the ground. Those were familiar words.
"Um," Juno began awkwardly, "how much do you remember?"
"Everything," whispered Saturn. Tears dribbled down her pale cheeks. "It's happened again. I turned into a monster - - and hurt people." Saturn drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "I'm sorry, Ceres."
"Um," Ceres replied softly. "So am I. I - - you were just trying to help and I, uh, well, kind of went all baby and freaked." She crawled over and tentatively touched Saturn on the arm. "I know what I went through was really scary, but I'm sure it was worse for you. Sorry I freaked on you, OK?"
Saturn nodded.
"Uh, look," Juno began, "I know we've been through a lot and all, but the Princess is in trouble."
"Usa's in trouble?" gasped Saturn, rousing her from her melancholy.
"Yeah, and we have to get to her fast."
"How?" Ceres asked. "None of us have a lot of speed, unless you've got a hover-car stashed somewhere."
"I think I know a way. Ceres, build us a boat."
"What?"
"Weave a boat! Weave something out of tree limbs and vines and leaves and bark and sap and whatever you need! Just make it water-tight and big enough to carry the three of us!"
"OK! Floral Stimulation!"
As the others watched, Ceres manipulated the trees and flowers of the area until she had woven a crude canoe out of limbs, bark and sap. Juno placed it in the lowest part of the land.
"Now what?" Ceres asked.
"Just get in. I'll provide the rest," Juno told them. The three got in the canoe. "Aqua Initiation!"
Behind them the ground shook. Water burst up from the ground, a huge gusher that quickly filled in around them. The canoe lifted up and began floating forward.
"Instant river," Saturn nodded. "Very good."
"By maintaining the right water pressure, I can even give us a current," Juno replied. "Hold on, girls. It's not going to be the smoothest ride, but it'll get us there as quick as possible."
* * * *
Usa tried to abate the tears. She forced her way through the ache in her heart, struggling to focus on what was more important. Echidna - - that sneaky little so and so - - had to be stopped from spreading nightmares into the realms where pleasant dreams resided. The condemnation from Helios was - - secondary.
But it was hard. Hearing him say those things was a body blow, even if they were words conjured up by some spell of Echidna's, a hope Usa clung to with both hands. She tried to marshal her thoughts on escaping, on reclaiming her body and her command of the Pink Crystal. But Helios kept intruding into her thoughts, his words hammering her like a club, confirming her worst fears.
"Think, Usa," she whispered to herself. "Concentrate! Stop being a lovesick little girl! You're fifteen now! You have to do it!"
"Usa," she heard someone whisper.
Twisting around surreptitiously within the coils of the Echidna serpent that held her, Usa saw Hotaru behind her. The slight girl was in a gown of virgin white. The white seemed to glow with a brilliance of its own. For a moment Usa feared Hotaru's glow would alert Echidna and bring the intruder's wrath down on her friend.
"Don't worry," Hotaru said, reassuring her with her small, timid smile and her large violet eyes. "She won't see us. I'll get you loose."
"I knew I could count on you, Hotaru," smiled Usa, feeling hope for the first time in a while. "But are you sure you can do it? That snake is strong and it's probably really nasty, too."
"I can do it," Hotaru said. "I can do anything. That's what you keep telling me."
Hotaru's eyes rolled back into her head. Her arms drifted up until they were level with the floor, then her hands raised up. Usa couldn't see anything at first. Then Hotaru's shoulder length hair began to fan out from her. Her dress seemed to glow with even more brilliance until it threatened to blind Usa. Usa continued to glance back at Echidna and Helios, fearing discovery at any time. She believed without question that Hotaru could free her. What she feared was Hotaru's fate should they be found out. Usa felt she'd rather face Echidna's wrath alone than subject Hotaru to a moment of it.
"Don't be frightened, Usa," Hotaru paused long enough to whisper. "She won't find me. I'm safe from her."
Usa wanted to believe it. However, she knew how many times Hotaru had been victimized by evil, used or attacked. She didn't want it to happen again, ever, even if it meant sacrificing her own freedom.
Then she felt the serpent's coils begin to loosen. She was still helplessly wrapped in the coils, but the pressure of the cold-blooded serpent was lessened slightly. It was just enough to send her heart leaping. Hotaru remained eerily calm and utterly focused on her job. The coils' grip on her relaxed fractionally. The serpent itself seemed to realize what was happening and redoubled its efforts to squeeze Usa. However it never once looked at Hotaru. She was invisible to it. Usa shifted, trying to leverage her arms against the snake and help Hotaru's efforts - - anything to keep the slight girl from straining herself. Hotaru would keep trying well past the point of her utmost endurance. Usa was determined to keep that from happening.
Like a lightning strike it hit. Hotaru gasped and arched backward in shock and agony. A giant ball of energy, spinning wildly and colored vaguely red, had passed through Hotaru's chest from behind her. Bereft of the force keeping it at bay, the coils snapped tight around Usa's torso. Usa gazed in horror as the color drained from Hotaru's young face. Her mouth curled around words that died in her throat. With her arms bent double and clutched awkwardly over her chest, Hotaru teetered and sank backwards. She came to rest rigidly on her back.
"Hotaru!" screamed Usa. To Hell with whether Echidna heard. The young Princess had only one thought: Was her dearest friend harmed?
"She can't answer," came a delinquent voice that Usa recognized all too well.
"I doubt she'll be doing much of anything anymore," a second mocked.
"Right," came a boastful third. "When I knock 'em down, they stay down."
The fourth only laughed. It was a malevolent giggle, the sound a five year old might make - - if that five year old were capable of murder and found it fun. Usa didn't have to look to know who it was. She didn't want to look. But she did.
Standing behind her were Jun-Jun, Cere-Cere, Ves-Ves and Palla-Palla. They wore their Dead Moon Circus costumes and their Dead Moon Circus mirthless leers. Ves-Ves held a pool cue in her hand.
"Surprise," snickered Jun-Jun.
"You really didn't think we were going to stick with that senshi stuff, did you?" Cere-Cere sneered. "It's just so - - sickening!"
"Palla-Palla wants to play with her new dolly!" Palla-Palla squealed, the gleam in her eye and the width of her grin anything but innocent.
"Just hold on, shrimp," Ves-Ves proclaimed, barring Palla-Palla's path with the pool cue. She focused on Usa and their eyes met. "This one's mine. Ready for our rematch, 'Princess'?"
And without warning, she swung the pool cue at Usa's head.
Continued in Chapter 9