THE NIGHTMARE REALM,
CHAPTER 10: "The Soft Answer"
By Bill K.
Helios - - and Vesta?
Usa couldn't wrap her mind around the concept. And yet, right before her eyes, she saw her Helios passionately kissing Vesta. Or at least she thought he was her Helios. Maybe she'd been wrong. Maybe that little unspoken fear in the back of her mind was true. Usa always wondered if someday Helios would find someone that he liked better than her.
But Vesta; Echidna was surprising enough, but Vesta?
Vesta wasn't resisting in the least. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying it. Naturally she would. Usa couldn't really blame her, although at that moment she hated the girl's guts. Then she heard the twitter of laughter. The rest of the amazons were giggling at the situation, enjoying her discomfort. And all the while poor Hotaru was hurt - - or worse. And once more, just as she always feared, Usa was helpless to avert a tragedy unfolding before her.
Then Usa stopped. That was it!
"You did this!" fumed Usa, turning as much as she could, still trapped in the coils of Echidna's serpent familiar, to Echidna. "You're controlling them! You're making them all act this way!"
"Am I?" Echidna asked vacantly.
"Yes! You're using all of my fears against me, creating nightmares from them! That's what all of this is!"
"Are you certain?" Echidna responded doubtfully.
"GET OUT OF MY LIFE!" Usa roared. The serpent had to strain some to keep her restrained.
"How typical," Helios sneered. Vesta was panting, looking up at him with desire and caressing his chest. "Once more a crisis occurs and you revert to fits of childish anger."
"Stop making him say those things! I'm on to your game!"
"They're your mental personifications, Princess," Echidna replied, almost tantalizingly lucid. "All I did was gather them and give them a stage." Suddenly Echidna turned to nothing and listened intently. "The Warden of Dingle-Dell says you're quite the madwoman and I shouldn't listen to you." And she flashed Usa a wild look of insanity.
"Honestly," Helios added callously, "she hardly seems worthy of the wonderful gifts she possesses. What did I ever see in her?"
Usa felt her rage welling up. Then something clicked in her mind and the rage cooled.
"'Fits of childish anger'," Usa thought. "That's what makes Echidna stronger - - anger and fear! And Helios is always telling me that anger and hatred blunts my own power!" She glanced back at Helios and smiled at him tenderly. "In his own way, he was telling me now, even through the haze he's in. I've been attacking this the wrong way!"
Summoning every trick taught to her by Helios, by the original senshi and, yes, even by her parents for controlling emotions, Usa closed her eyes. The girl slipped into a Zen state of calm, breathing evenly and shutting out the world and everyone around her.
"What are you doing?" Echidna asked, sounding like a lost little girl. "Come back! We still want to play with you!"
Usa ignored her, ignored everything and mentally reached out to the pink crystal that was hers by birthright.
"Don't go! Don't leave us all alone, please!" wailed Echidna.
The pink crystal was there, but she could feel the taint of Echidna's black energy on it. It was a struggle, but Usa fought down her revulsion and pierced the energy. Once she was through, the crystal seemed to leap to her gratefully.
Usa opened her eyes. The serpent that had been holding her was gone. Helios was gone. The Amazoness Quartet and even Hotaru were gone. Only Echidna remained, grabbing at the air as if she were snatching invisible butterflies. Suddenly she sensed Usa's presence again and turned inquiringly to her.
"Get out," Usa replied as calmly and as evenly as she could manage.
* * * *
The hand of Goth reached out for Sailor Saturn. It was a gnarled hand with blotchy, diseased skin hanging on bony fingers. Saturn backed up a step, but sensed instinctively that there was no place to run. She allowed herself a furtive glance at her glaive. It was about ten feet away from her, the point stuck in the ground. Goth would be on her before she could get it.
Saturn only had one weapon left. Even if she could summon it, there was no guarantee it would work on this mystical being. But she had to try. The fate of the world might depend upon her. Certainly Usa needed her.
"Don't run, little senshi of death," Goth smiled. "You're only prolonging the inevitable."
Recalling Sensei's words, Saturn forced herself to calm as she backtracked just out of Goth's reach. Once she shut out the crisis nature of the situation, Saturn found her center. She forced herself to concentrate on that center, on pushing out a mental bolt that would pierce Goth and disable him. Her center resisted - - this was more complex than picking up a ruler. Saturn struggled to make it work. She felt herself panicking and tried to suppress it.
Then a bolt launched. But as it left her mind, Saturn could sense it was weak. Opening her eyes, she found Goth almost upon her. Quickly backtracking, Saturn lost her balance and fell onto her back. The bolt impacted Goth's forehead.
"Was that the best you could do?" Goth asked, his voice dripping in mock sympathy. Then he reached down.
Animal survival instinct took over. Saturn scrabbled along the ground, trying to get turned around and off the ground. If she could just get to her glaive - - but a glance back at Goth told her he was nearly upon her. Her adrenaline surged and her small heart pounded in her tiny chest.
The bolt was away before she realized it. It struck Goth like an arrow through the brain. He flung back, clutching at his head and bellowing in agony. Saturn didn't stop to gloat. Crawling desperately on her hands and knees, she scrambled over to her glaive and pulled it from the ground. Spinning on Goth's last known position, Saturn brought the glaive up ready to use it.
Goth lay on the ground. He was stiff and unmoving. Still, wary of a trap, Saturn gave him a wide berth as she walked to the temple, eyeing him the entire time. She was twenty-five yards from him when she heard it.
"PREPARE YOURSELF!" the roar came, a bellowed war cry echoing over the expanse of ground between the temple and the ridge.
Saturn looked and saw a huge, burly man charging her with murder in his eye. She couldn't know he was Tiberious, Echidna's other aspect, but there was no doubting his intentions. Saturn's lips thinned and she felt frustration quickly boil into anger.
"YEEEEAAAARRRRRGGHH!" Saturn screamed as she spun around once, bringing the glaive over her in a high arc.
The blade plunged into the ground and the world shook on impact. A deep crack in the ground split out from the glaive's blade, shooting straight at Tiberious. The crevasse opened five yards wide and nearly a quarter mile deep
- - right under the charging brute. Unable to stop or change direction, he plunged into the crevasse with an angry howl. The unconscious Goth had already tumbled into the pit. Saturn looked down. It would take a lot of time and effort to climb out of that. However, she didn't feel satisfaction - - just frustration at having been delayed.
"And stay in there!" she snapped uncharacteristically, then headed for Echidna's temple at a jog.
* * * *
"Rei?" Queen Serenity inquired. Rei and Makoto were sitting with her, trying to ease her worried mind. Rei's head snapped back up.
"Hmm?" the priestess asked.
"Your head slumped over there like you were going to sleep," Makoto told her.
Rei took inventory of her memories. "Yeah," she nodded, groggy. "I guess I almost nodded off there for a moment. Sorry."
"Rei, what's wrong?" Serenity demanded.
"Nothing!" fussed Rei. "I almost fell asleep. Sorry!"
"Rei Hino, don't you treat me like that!" fumed Serenity. "After all these years, I know when one of you are hiding something from me!"
Makoto looked at Rei suspiciously, knowing better than to mistrust Serenity's power. In frustration, Rei sagged back into her chair.
"All right! It's probably nothing," Rei confessed. "But for a moment there - - it almost seemed like I could hear a voice."
"Whose voice?" Makoto asked.
"I've never heard it before - - and yet it seemed vaguely familiar."
"Could you hear what it said to you?" Serenity asked.
"I guess I did at the time," Rei answered, rubbing her forehead, "but I can't remember now."
"Is it connected?"
"To what?"
"You don't feel it?" Serenity asked. "You don't feel the shadow that's fallen over the Earth? You don't feel how cold and bleak it suddenly seems? I do."
Rei paused. "Yeah," she nodded. "Now that you mention it, I am sensing it. I just didn't notice."
"Hey, you two are creeping me out," Makoto interjected.
"What kind of power could slip in and cover the world without me noticing it?" Rei asked.
"The power Endymion and Usa are fighting," Serenity swallowed. "I've got to help them."
"We've been through this," Rei said, her tone one of warning.
"I promise I won't leave this chair," Serenity told them. "But you can't stop me. All I ask is that you watch out for me here - - pull me back if I'm needed."
With that, Serenity let her head fall back. She closed her eyes and took on a silvery glow. Makoto looked over to Rei.
"We've been doing it for a thousand years," Makoto grinned. "Why should we stop now?" Rei grinned back.
Then Rei slumped over into Makoto's lap.
* * * *
Even as he tried to reassert control over Sailor Moon, Endymion inched over to the fallen Helios, maintaining the protective shield around him. Once he was in reach of Helios, he extended his barrier over them both, allowing the injured warrior to rest.
"What happened, Helios?" Endymion asked. "Are you hurt? Is it your ribs?"
Helios nodded. "Injured in the battle with Tiberious, I fear," he said, gasping for breath. "I think some are broken. Forgive me for failing, Your Majesty."
"You did your best," Endymion told him. "I can't understand how Usa got so powerful, though. Is Echidna that powerful, combined with Usa's power?"
"You do not see it, do you?" Helios smiled through his suffering. "In your eyes she will always be that bright-eyed little girl so dependent upon you." Helios took a painful breath. "Your daughter will one day surpass you, Your Majesty. She has the potential power within her to be greater than you and your queen - - to be greater than you both combined."
Endymion glanced over at Sailor Moon. At once he was proud and just a little intimidated.
"And Echidna sensed this - - she must have, even through her madness. It was a mistake to bring Sailor Moon along. It put the greatest prize Echidna could ever dream of right in her grasp. I am to blame."
"Don't," Endymion said. "I know how hard it is to say 'no' to her."
Suddenly Endymion stopped. He turned slightly, listening to a voice Helios couldn't hear. But a few seconds passed and he heard it, too. He felt the caress of ghostly hands upon his cheek. He felt them pass down his sleeve. A feminine hand he couldn't see clasped his. Helios looked over to Endymion and saw he clasped an invisible hand as well.
"Do you feel it?" Endymion asked. He seemed invigorated. "She's here - - with us."
"I do indeed, Your Majesty," Helios replied. As he spoke, he noticed the stabbing pain in his side didn't seem to hurt as much.
Endymion raised the invisible hand to his mouth and kissed it.
"Let's bring our daughter home, dear," Endymion murmured. He focused on Sailor Moon and his golden aura seemed threaded with silver now. Helios brought his own power to bear and noticed silver threads ran through it, too.
The laser pistol was about a second away from firing. Vesta could see the officer's finger squeezing the trigger in slow motion, drawing the agony out. A chill ran through her body. This was how her father died.
And then her senshi training clicked in. Vesta bent into a crouch and lunged forward. The pistol moved to track her. Vesta opened her mouth to shout her power phrase. She would turn into a wasp, evade the blast, and then sting her attacker in the face. While he was distracted, she would make her escape.
"Fauna Assimilation," Vesta started to call out.
Then reality shifted. She was back in the darkened temple of Echidna. Juno and Ceres were just ahead of her, turned back and looking at her like she was crazy. So startled was she by the turn of events, Vesta staggered and fell to the floor on her hands and knees.
"Vesta?" Ceres asked.
Vesta just stayed on all fours, staring ahead in shock, her chest heaving. Cold sweat covered her body and her lower lip trembled. Sailor Juno crouched next to her.
"Ves?" Juno inquired. "What was it? Were you someplace else? Did something happen that we didn't see?"
"It was so real," Vesta whispered. "I-I was in Brasilia. A security officer was . . ." Vesta looked up to Juno in confusion. Juno saw she was trembling and put her arms around her.
"It wasn't real," Juno said. "Well, it was, but it wasn't. It's Echidna. She's making us experience some of our worst nightmares. Ceres and I have been through it, too. So has Saturn."
"She did this?" Vesta asked softly, still in shock.
Juno could see Vesta's emotional state etched on her face. She watched it change in seconds from shock and fear to rage.
"She did this?" Vesta snarled.
"Now, Vesta, calm down!" Ceres warned, because she saw it, too.
"You - - little - - BITCH!" Vesta bellowed. "Fauna assimilation - - Lion!"
Usa didn't move. There was no need for overt symbolism. The pink crystal hovered between her and the mental image of Echidna, caged by talons of black energy. Usa reached out with her mind. She was in contact with the crystal and was trying to pull it free.
"No!" Echidna wailed, her eyes wild and fearful. "It's my shiny sparkly! It's mine! Give it back, give it back!"
Usa didn't respond. She kept her concentration focused on the crystal. Occasionally impatience and desperation would rise up in the back of her mind and she would feel her mental grip on the crystal begin to slip. The princess would force her anxiety down and keep pulling. Keeping control was difficult.
"It's my crystal!" Echidna bellowed. "I need it! I need it to escape! To escape the voices and the dark clutchy things! They grab me around my throat and drag me down into the darkness and-and they do terrible things to me! And I need the crystal so I can escape them and run away with sweet, beautiful Helios and live in the sunlight! You must give it to me, YOU MUST!"
The mention of Helios caused her anger to rise again. The crystal nearly slipped from her grasp and Usa struggled to keep it. It was hard. Her doubts about Helios didn't want to go away and they acted as grease on her mental palms.
"Helios isn't yours!" barked Usa. "He was never yours!"
That outburst only served to let the crystal slip further.
"Stop it!" Usa thought, lashing herself mentally. "You're just letting her win! Think happy thoughts! Helios - - the way he touches you, the way he makes you feel. Think of that - - think of the way he looks at you, the way that makes you feel so special."
The crystal stopped slipping. But Usa feared she didn't have the strength to wrest it back.
A hand closed around Usa's left shoulder. She turned, startled, but nothing was there.
"Usa honey," she heard her father say. "I'm here."
It was him. He'd come for her. He'd come to help her. Despite all of her protestations when nothing threatened, the feel of Endymion's ghostly hand on her shoulder seemed to make everything better. Another hand closed around her right shoulder. It wasn't her father's; this hand was smaller and feminine.
"I'm here, too," she heard her mother whisper in her ear. "You may be a brat, but you're my brat and I want you back home with me. Come back to us, dear. You can do it. We have faith in you."
Usa could feel her grip tightening on the crystal. The power seemed to be reaching for her eagerly. Suddenly all of her doubts and fears were melting away. Echidna struggled to wrest it back, but she seemed so small and diminished. Usa suddenly felt sorry for her. Then her sight of Echidna was obscured. It took a moment to focus. Helios was before her.
"Maiden, whatever Echidna has told you or made you see is a lie," he told her. "In her world, truth is wrapped in lie and lie wrapped in truth until neither is distinguishable. Do not be fooled. She is not more powerful than you are. She could not be, for she lacks your good heart and gentle elegance. Cast her out, Maiden. Cast her out and return to those who love you."
"No, Helios!" cried Echidna. She sensed the presence of the lord of wonderful dreams. "I am your only love! Don't you remember? Don't you remember all the wonderful times we had? We can have them again! Don't abandon me, Helios! Not again!"
With a savage jerk, Usa wrenched the pink crystal away from Echidna. It hovered before Usa's chest, glowing like a miniature sun. The Lady of nightmares fell to the floor and looked up at Usa from her hands and knees. Usa towered over her, the glow from the crystal throwing unearthly shadows on her eyes. The pupils, already an alarming red, took on a grisly shade of pink.
"Get - - out," Usa stated.
Hurricane force winds sprang up, blowing against Echidna. She strained to maintain her position, to no avail. At once the gale picked her up and sent her, spinning and careening, out of Sailor Moon through her eyes.
At that moment Vesta changed from a fifteen-year-old girl to a six-hundred-pound full-grown lioness. Juno tried to tackle her, but the great jungle cat ripped from her grasp with ease. Leaping between Endymion and Helios, Vesta landed within two feet of Sailor Moon. She reared up on her hind legs and with a single swat from her powerful forepaw spun Sailor Moon to the floor. Confused and terrified, Sailor Moon looked up into the open mouth of the great lion. Rage burned red in its eyes and bared fangs glistened in the low light.
"I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT!" roared the lion.
Continued in Chapter 11
CHAPTER 10: "The Soft Answer"
By Bill K.
Helios - - and Vesta?
Usa couldn't wrap her mind around the concept. And yet, right before her eyes, she saw her Helios passionately kissing Vesta. Or at least she thought he was her Helios. Maybe she'd been wrong. Maybe that little unspoken fear in the back of her mind was true. Usa always wondered if someday Helios would find someone that he liked better than her.
But Vesta; Echidna was surprising enough, but Vesta?
Vesta wasn't resisting in the least. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying it. Naturally she would. Usa couldn't really blame her, although at that moment she hated the girl's guts. Then she heard the twitter of laughter. The rest of the amazons were giggling at the situation, enjoying her discomfort. And all the while poor Hotaru was hurt - - or worse. And once more, just as she always feared, Usa was helpless to avert a tragedy unfolding before her.
Then Usa stopped. That was it!
"You did this!" fumed Usa, turning as much as she could, still trapped in the coils of Echidna's serpent familiar, to Echidna. "You're controlling them! You're making them all act this way!"
"Am I?" Echidna asked vacantly.
"Yes! You're using all of my fears against me, creating nightmares from them! That's what all of this is!"
"Are you certain?" Echidna responded doubtfully.
"GET OUT OF MY LIFE!" Usa roared. The serpent had to strain some to keep her restrained.
"How typical," Helios sneered. Vesta was panting, looking up at him with desire and caressing his chest. "Once more a crisis occurs and you revert to fits of childish anger."
"Stop making him say those things! I'm on to your game!"
"They're your mental personifications, Princess," Echidna replied, almost tantalizingly lucid. "All I did was gather them and give them a stage." Suddenly Echidna turned to nothing and listened intently. "The Warden of Dingle-Dell says you're quite the madwoman and I shouldn't listen to you." And she flashed Usa a wild look of insanity.
"Honestly," Helios added callously, "she hardly seems worthy of the wonderful gifts she possesses. What did I ever see in her?"
Usa felt her rage welling up. Then something clicked in her mind and the rage cooled.
"'Fits of childish anger'," Usa thought. "That's what makes Echidna stronger - - anger and fear! And Helios is always telling me that anger and hatred blunts my own power!" She glanced back at Helios and smiled at him tenderly. "In his own way, he was telling me now, even through the haze he's in. I've been attacking this the wrong way!"
Summoning every trick taught to her by Helios, by the original senshi and, yes, even by her parents for controlling emotions, Usa closed her eyes. The girl slipped into a Zen state of calm, breathing evenly and shutting out the world and everyone around her.
"What are you doing?" Echidna asked, sounding like a lost little girl. "Come back! We still want to play with you!"
Usa ignored her, ignored everything and mentally reached out to the pink crystal that was hers by birthright.
"Don't go! Don't leave us all alone, please!" wailed Echidna.
The pink crystal was there, but she could feel the taint of Echidna's black energy on it. It was a struggle, but Usa fought down her revulsion and pierced the energy. Once she was through, the crystal seemed to leap to her gratefully.
Usa opened her eyes. The serpent that had been holding her was gone. Helios was gone. The Amazoness Quartet and even Hotaru were gone. Only Echidna remained, grabbing at the air as if she were snatching invisible butterflies. Suddenly she sensed Usa's presence again and turned inquiringly to her.
"Get out," Usa replied as calmly and as evenly as she could manage.
* * * *
The hand of Goth reached out for Sailor Saturn. It was a gnarled hand with blotchy, diseased skin hanging on bony fingers. Saturn backed up a step, but sensed instinctively that there was no place to run. She allowed herself a furtive glance at her glaive. It was about ten feet away from her, the point stuck in the ground. Goth would be on her before she could get it.
Saturn only had one weapon left. Even if she could summon it, there was no guarantee it would work on this mystical being. But she had to try. The fate of the world might depend upon her. Certainly Usa needed her.
"Don't run, little senshi of death," Goth smiled. "You're only prolonging the inevitable."
Recalling Sensei's words, Saturn forced herself to calm as she backtracked just out of Goth's reach. Once she shut out the crisis nature of the situation, Saturn found her center. She forced herself to concentrate on that center, on pushing out a mental bolt that would pierce Goth and disable him. Her center resisted - - this was more complex than picking up a ruler. Saturn struggled to make it work. She felt herself panicking and tried to suppress it.
Then a bolt launched. But as it left her mind, Saturn could sense it was weak. Opening her eyes, she found Goth almost upon her. Quickly backtracking, Saturn lost her balance and fell onto her back. The bolt impacted Goth's forehead.
"Was that the best you could do?" Goth asked, his voice dripping in mock sympathy. Then he reached down.
Animal survival instinct took over. Saturn scrabbled along the ground, trying to get turned around and off the ground. If she could just get to her glaive - - but a glance back at Goth told her he was nearly upon her. Her adrenaline surged and her small heart pounded in her tiny chest.
The bolt was away before she realized it. It struck Goth like an arrow through the brain. He flung back, clutching at his head and bellowing in agony. Saturn didn't stop to gloat. Crawling desperately on her hands and knees, she scrambled over to her glaive and pulled it from the ground. Spinning on Goth's last known position, Saturn brought the glaive up ready to use it.
Goth lay on the ground. He was stiff and unmoving. Still, wary of a trap, Saturn gave him a wide berth as she walked to the temple, eyeing him the entire time. She was twenty-five yards from him when she heard it.
"PREPARE YOURSELF!" the roar came, a bellowed war cry echoing over the expanse of ground between the temple and the ridge.
Saturn looked and saw a huge, burly man charging her with murder in his eye. She couldn't know he was Tiberious, Echidna's other aspect, but there was no doubting his intentions. Saturn's lips thinned and she felt frustration quickly boil into anger.
"YEEEEAAAARRRRRGGHH!" Saturn screamed as she spun around once, bringing the glaive over her in a high arc.
The blade plunged into the ground and the world shook on impact. A deep crack in the ground split out from the glaive's blade, shooting straight at Tiberious. The crevasse opened five yards wide and nearly a quarter mile deep
- - right under the charging brute. Unable to stop or change direction, he plunged into the crevasse with an angry howl. The unconscious Goth had already tumbled into the pit. Saturn looked down. It would take a lot of time and effort to climb out of that. However, she didn't feel satisfaction - - just frustration at having been delayed.
"And stay in there!" she snapped uncharacteristically, then headed for Echidna's temple at a jog.
* * * *
"Rei?" Queen Serenity inquired. Rei and Makoto were sitting with her, trying to ease her worried mind. Rei's head snapped back up.
"Hmm?" the priestess asked.
"Your head slumped over there like you were going to sleep," Makoto told her.
Rei took inventory of her memories. "Yeah," she nodded, groggy. "I guess I almost nodded off there for a moment. Sorry."
"Rei, what's wrong?" Serenity demanded.
"Nothing!" fussed Rei. "I almost fell asleep. Sorry!"
"Rei Hino, don't you treat me like that!" fumed Serenity. "After all these years, I know when one of you are hiding something from me!"
Makoto looked at Rei suspiciously, knowing better than to mistrust Serenity's power. In frustration, Rei sagged back into her chair.
"All right! It's probably nothing," Rei confessed. "But for a moment there - - it almost seemed like I could hear a voice."
"Whose voice?" Makoto asked.
"I've never heard it before - - and yet it seemed vaguely familiar."
"Could you hear what it said to you?" Serenity asked.
"I guess I did at the time," Rei answered, rubbing her forehead, "but I can't remember now."
"Is it connected?"
"To what?"
"You don't feel it?" Serenity asked. "You don't feel the shadow that's fallen over the Earth? You don't feel how cold and bleak it suddenly seems? I do."
Rei paused. "Yeah," she nodded. "Now that you mention it, I am sensing it. I just didn't notice."
"Hey, you two are creeping me out," Makoto interjected.
"What kind of power could slip in and cover the world without me noticing it?" Rei asked.
"The power Endymion and Usa are fighting," Serenity swallowed. "I've got to help them."
"We've been through this," Rei said, her tone one of warning.
"I promise I won't leave this chair," Serenity told them. "But you can't stop me. All I ask is that you watch out for me here - - pull me back if I'm needed."
With that, Serenity let her head fall back. She closed her eyes and took on a silvery glow. Makoto looked over to Rei.
"We've been doing it for a thousand years," Makoto grinned. "Why should we stop now?" Rei grinned back.
Then Rei slumped over into Makoto's lap.
* * * *
Even as he tried to reassert control over Sailor Moon, Endymion inched over to the fallen Helios, maintaining the protective shield around him. Once he was in reach of Helios, he extended his barrier over them both, allowing the injured warrior to rest.
"What happened, Helios?" Endymion asked. "Are you hurt? Is it your ribs?"
Helios nodded. "Injured in the battle with Tiberious, I fear," he said, gasping for breath. "I think some are broken. Forgive me for failing, Your Majesty."
"You did your best," Endymion told him. "I can't understand how Usa got so powerful, though. Is Echidna that powerful, combined with Usa's power?"
"You do not see it, do you?" Helios smiled through his suffering. "In your eyes she will always be that bright-eyed little girl so dependent upon you." Helios took a painful breath. "Your daughter will one day surpass you, Your Majesty. She has the potential power within her to be greater than you and your queen - - to be greater than you both combined."
Endymion glanced over at Sailor Moon. At once he was proud and just a little intimidated.
"And Echidna sensed this - - she must have, even through her madness. It was a mistake to bring Sailor Moon along. It put the greatest prize Echidna could ever dream of right in her grasp. I am to blame."
"Don't," Endymion said. "I know how hard it is to say 'no' to her."
Suddenly Endymion stopped. He turned slightly, listening to a voice Helios couldn't hear. But a few seconds passed and he heard it, too. He felt the caress of ghostly hands upon his cheek. He felt them pass down his sleeve. A feminine hand he couldn't see clasped his. Helios looked over to Endymion and saw he clasped an invisible hand as well.
"Do you feel it?" Endymion asked. He seemed invigorated. "She's here - - with us."
"I do indeed, Your Majesty," Helios replied. As he spoke, he noticed the stabbing pain in his side didn't seem to hurt as much.
Endymion raised the invisible hand to his mouth and kissed it.
"Let's bring our daughter home, dear," Endymion murmured. He focused on Sailor Moon and his golden aura seemed threaded with silver now. Helios brought his own power to bear and noticed silver threads ran through it, too.
The laser pistol was about a second away from firing. Vesta could see the officer's finger squeezing the trigger in slow motion, drawing the agony out. A chill ran through her body. This was how her father died.
And then her senshi training clicked in. Vesta bent into a crouch and lunged forward. The pistol moved to track her. Vesta opened her mouth to shout her power phrase. She would turn into a wasp, evade the blast, and then sting her attacker in the face. While he was distracted, she would make her escape.
"Fauna Assimilation," Vesta started to call out.
Then reality shifted. She was back in the darkened temple of Echidna. Juno and Ceres were just ahead of her, turned back and looking at her like she was crazy. So startled was she by the turn of events, Vesta staggered and fell to the floor on her hands and knees.
"Vesta?" Ceres asked.
Vesta just stayed on all fours, staring ahead in shock, her chest heaving. Cold sweat covered her body and her lower lip trembled. Sailor Juno crouched next to her.
"Ves?" Juno inquired. "What was it? Were you someplace else? Did something happen that we didn't see?"
"It was so real," Vesta whispered. "I-I was in Brasilia. A security officer was . . ." Vesta looked up to Juno in confusion. Juno saw she was trembling and put her arms around her.
"It wasn't real," Juno said. "Well, it was, but it wasn't. It's Echidna. She's making us experience some of our worst nightmares. Ceres and I have been through it, too. So has Saturn."
"She did this?" Vesta asked softly, still in shock.
Juno could see Vesta's emotional state etched on her face. She watched it change in seconds from shock and fear to rage.
"She did this?" Vesta snarled.
"Now, Vesta, calm down!" Ceres warned, because she saw it, too.
"You - - little - - BITCH!" Vesta bellowed. "Fauna assimilation - - Lion!"
Usa didn't move. There was no need for overt symbolism. The pink crystal hovered between her and the mental image of Echidna, caged by talons of black energy. Usa reached out with her mind. She was in contact with the crystal and was trying to pull it free.
"No!" Echidna wailed, her eyes wild and fearful. "It's my shiny sparkly! It's mine! Give it back, give it back!"
Usa didn't respond. She kept her concentration focused on the crystal. Occasionally impatience and desperation would rise up in the back of her mind and she would feel her mental grip on the crystal begin to slip. The princess would force her anxiety down and keep pulling. Keeping control was difficult.
"It's my crystal!" Echidna bellowed. "I need it! I need it to escape! To escape the voices and the dark clutchy things! They grab me around my throat and drag me down into the darkness and-and they do terrible things to me! And I need the crystal so I can escape them and run away with sweet, beautiful Helios and live in the sunlight! You must give it to me, YOU MUST!"
The mention of Helios caused her anger to rise again. The crystal nearly slipped from her grasp and Usa struggled to keep it. It was hard. Her doubts about Helios didn't want to go away and they acted as grease on her mental palms.
"Helios isn't yours!" barked Usa. "He was never yours!"
That outburst only served to let the crystal slip further.
"Stop it!" Usa thought, lashing herself mentally. "You're just letting her win! Think happy thoughts! Helios - - the way he touches you, the way he makes you feel. Think of that - - think of the way he looks at you, the way that makes you feel so special."
The crystal stopped slipping. But Usa feared she didn't have the strength to wrest it back.
A hand closed around Usa's left shoulder. She turned, startled, but nothing was there.
"Usa honey," she heard her father say. "I'm here."
It was him. He'd come for her. He'd come to help her. Despite all of her protestations when nothing threatened, the feel of Endymion's ghostly hand on her shoulder seemed to make everything better. Another hand closed around her right shoulder. It wasn't her father's; this hand was smaller and feminine.
"I'm here, too," she heard her mother whisper in her ear. "You may be a brat, but you're my brat and I want you back home with me. Come back to us, dear. You can do it. We have faith in you."
Usa could feel her grip tightening on the crystal. The power seemed to be reaching for her eagerly. Suddenly all of her doubts and fears were melting away. Echidna struggled to wrest it back, but she seemed so small and diminished. Usa suddenly felt sorry for her. Then her sight of Echidna was obscured. It took a moment to focus. Helios was before her.
"Maiden, whatever Echidna has told you or made you see is a lie," he told her. "In her world, truth is wrapped in lie and lie wrapped in truth until neither is distinguishable. Do not be fooled. She is not more powerful than you are. She could not be, for she lacks your good heart and gentle elegance. Cast her out, Maiden. Cast her out and return to those who love you."
"No, Helios!" cried Echidna. She sensed the presence of the lord of wonderful dreams. "I am your only love! Don't you remember? Don't you remember all the wonderful times we had? We can have them again! Don't abandon me, Helios! Not again!"
With a savage jerk, Usa wrenched the pink crystal away from Echidna. It hovered before Usa's chest, glowing like a miniature sun. The Lady of nightmares fell to the floor and looked up at Usa from her hands and knees. Usa towered over her, the glow from the crystal throwing unearthly shadows on her eyes. The pupils, already an alarming red, took on a grisly shade of pink.
"Get - - out," Usa stated.
Hurricane force winds sprang up, blowing against Echidna. She strained to maintain her position, to no avail. At once the gale picked her up and sent her, spinning and careening, out of Sailor Moon through her eyes.
At that moment Vesta changed from a fifteen-year-old girl to a six-hundred-pound full-grown lioness. Juno tried to tackle her, but the great jungle cat ripped from her grasp with ease. Leaping between Endymion and Helios, Vesta landed within two feet of Sailor Moon. She reared up on her hind legs and with a single swat from her powerful forepaw spun Sailor Moon to the floor. Confused and terrified, Sailor Moon looked up into the open mouth of the great lion. Rage burned red in its eyes and bared fangs glistened in the low light.
"I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT!" roared the lion.
Continued in Chapter 11