DISCLAIMER: Sailor Moon and its characters are not owned by me, blah blah blah, and other legal junk.
Author's Note: This fanfic is a direct sequel to Looking Up To You, a Sammy/Ami romance fanfic that I wrote about a year ago. It's still on my profile, so I recommend that if you haven't read Looking Up To You, it would be best to stop, don't pass GO, don't collect $200, and go immediately to my profile to check it out. Otherwise, you'll be kinda confused.
Second Author's Note: This fanfic takes place after Sailor Moon Sailor Stars. (Serena, Ami, Rei, and Mina are 17. Lita is 18. Sammy is 14. Darien is older than all of them.) Also, if you're confused about some of the Senshi's attacks, that's because they got a whole set of new ones in Looking Up To You. So like I said, go check it out.
---
"Great fire, please... show me all you have to tell..."
"Is this really going to work?" Sammy whispered, sitting next to Ami and watching Rei stare into a blazing flame. Before school, Serena, Ami, Lita, Mina, and Sammy had all come to Rei's Shinto shrine, trying to solve the mystery of last night's attack.
"Shh," Ami whispered. "Rei's trying to concentrate..."
The flame continued to burn, and Rei chanted several more verses, the fire flickering with each verse. Finally, the flame stopped, and burnt out. Rei turned to the others.
"There is an evil force at work, but it is... hidden," Rei said. "Clouded."
"Clouded?" Serena asked.
"Probably when they went into that portal," Sammy said. "What kind of force is it?"
"I'm not quite sure," Rei said, pacing about the hard, wooden floor of the shrine. "Like I said, it was clouded, so I couldn't see very much."
Rei walked over to Sammy.
"Sammy, you said that you had a dream last night... do you remember what you saw in the dream?" Rei asked.
"Well, it was really dark, but... well, anyway, I felt a huge, evil presence after Ami disappeared, and then, when the evil force finally revealed itself, it was... it was..."
"What was it, Sammy?" Ami asked. "Don't try to push it if you don't want to reveal the whole dream just yet..."
"Tell us!" Mina said eagerly. "Some kind of monster, right?"
"It was... it was me," Sammy said. "It was another me, it looked just like me... that's when I woke up."
"Hold on," Serena said, shaking her head in disbelief. "Let me get this straight. The dark force in the dream was... you?"
"It's really not very smart to make too much of dreams anyway, Sammy," Lita said.
"Lita's right, Sammy, I'm sure you're not evil," Ami said reassuringly. "It was probably just a nightmare, with no real meaning... I mean, some dreams do have meaning, but..."
"It's okay, you guys," Sammy said, smiling. "You're right, it was just a dream... I shouldn't think too much into it."
"Hey, you guys," came a young male's voice, entering the room. "Shouldn't you girls be headed off to school? Well, girls and boy."
The girls and Sammy turned around to see a tall man wearing a long white and blue robe. He had long, brown hair, and held a broom in his hand.
"Chad, what are you doing here?" Rei asked. "You know you're not supposed to come in while I'm conducting a-"
"I'm sorry, Rei, but I just wanted to remind you guys that school's about to start, that's all," Chad said. "See you all later, okay?"
After Chad left the room, Serena, Ami, Lita, Mina, and Sammy stood up.
"We probably should head to school, you guys," Serena said. "I can't afford to be late again!"
"I'm going to stay here for a couple more minutes and see what else I can learn from the flame," Rei said. "I'll catch up with you guys later, okay?"
As Sammy and the girls left the room, Rei walked back over to the altar and closed her eyes.
"I know there are strong evil forces at work here... I just... have to find out what they are..."
"Yoo hoo, girly-poo," came a female's voice from the back of the room. "What'cha doin'?"
Rei quickly opened her eyes and turned around to see a black-haired girl with angelic wings, standing before her. It was one of Jekelai's twin minions.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Rei shouted, getting into a defensive stance. "You need to leave, immediately!"
"My name is Ceyra, and I'm a collector on a mission. Right now, that mission is to collect Sailor Senshi... including you."
Rei gasped in shock. "How can she possibly know I'm a Sailor Senshi? Sammy and Ami told us that the creature who attacked Serena's house last night knew about her being Sailor Moon, but... is this another one of those creatures?"
"I won't let you take me," Rei said, holding out her henshin stick. "Mars Crystal Power!"
Rei quickly transformed into Sailor Mars, and Ceyra squealed in delight.
"Why are you so happy?" Mars shouted. "You're about to get burned."
"I think not," Ceyra replied, a grin on her face. "My dear, if you think Nevin's powers were anywhere near my level, you're wrong... you won't be beating me that easily."
"We'll see about that!" Mars shouted. "Mars Celestial Fire... Surround!"
Eight deadly rings of flame shot outward from Sailor Mars' body, with Ceyra as their target. Ceyra leapt away, dodging some of the rings, but the others slammed into her, five in all. A huge explosion engulfed the angelic being's body, and Sailor Mars smiled.
"Your little collector's club is canceled," Mars said. But her confidence was short-lived. As the smoke began to dissipate, a flurry of tiny white feathers came rushing at her, the sharp, pointed stems of the feathers directed right at Sailor Mars. "What the-"
The feathers stabbed through the sleeves and skirt of her outfit, sending her flying back and pinning her by her fuku to the wall. Ceyra emerged from the smoke, laughing. Mars' attack had done some damage, singing Ceyra's skin slightly, but Ceyra seemed mostly unharmed. Sailor Mars grimaced in pain and fear, as even though most of the feathers had only pierced through Mars' sleeves, some of the razor-sharp points had come a little too close, forming tiny scratches on her skin.
"Dammit, let me go!" Sailor Mars shouted, struggling to get free from the feathers that were pinning her arms to the wall. "Argh!"
"Oh, it's no use struggling," Ceyra said snidely. "Those feathers are incredibly strong, infused with magic... looks like I've won, and now, I get to claim my prize."
Ceyra pointed her arm at Sailor Mars. The feathers began to glow brightly, and Sailor Mars screamed in terror as she and Ceyra disappeared from the Shinto shrine in a bright flash of light.
---
Meanwhile, after dropping off Sammy at his school, Serena, Ami, Lita, and Mina had been standing outside their own school for several minutes, waiting for Rei. There wasn't as much snow as there was yesterday, as it fell in light flurries. Still, the girls were beginning to get cold.
"You guys, Rei only said she'd stay for a couple of minutes, and now it's been five," Serena said. "You don't think she's still back at the shrine, do you?"
"She seemed quite troubled," Ami replied. "Maybe Rei saw something that we didn't see?"
"Well, whatever it is, she's about to be late," Lita said. "I'm sure she'll show up sooner or later..."
"We should probably go inside! I'm freezing!" Serena said, her teeth chattering.
"Alright, we'll just catch up with Rei later then," Mina said. The girls nodded and headed into the school building.
---
That afternoon at Sammy's school, the big math test was getting ready to start. Sammy watched as Miss Haruna passed the test sheets around to everyone in class, until she finally got to Sammy. She gave him the test, and he picked up his pencil and began to look it over.
"You have one hour to complete the test," said Miss Haruna as she sat back down at her desk. "There are eight questions, but they're tricky, so you'll have to take your time. I shouldn't have to tell you that there will be no cheating allowed, so try to keep your eyes on your own paper. Now... begin."
Sammy leaned his elbows on his desk and rested his head in his right hand as he glanced at the first problem on the test, his brain searching for the answer.
"Let's see here... a woman who owns a flower shop has twenty-five bouquets of red roses, and forty bouquets of white roses. If she can sell fifty bouquets total, and red roses are 5,000 yen, while white roses are 3,000 yen, what combination of bouquets will lead to the best yield of profits? Ugh, I don't know how to run a flower shop... I should think about what Ami said when I first asked her to help me study this sort of thing..."
---
Two weeks ago, in Sammy's room, Sammy and Ami were sitting on the floor with several math textbooks and pieces of paper in between them. Ami was helping Sammy with his homework, which seemed to be getting tougher and tougher everyday.
"Ami, how do I work this problem?"
"Well," Ami replied sweetly, sliding over to Sammy, "what exactly is it?"
"I've got this graph, and this formula, and I have to find out what the best combination of numbers are that go in this formula."
"You have to find the maximum and minimum," Ami said, pointing to one of the diagrams in Sammy's math textbooks. "It's a profit equation. It's quite simple, really... the hardest part is finding the points. Then all you have to do is plug in the numbers and solve for them."
"So, how do I find the points?" Sammy asked. "I never really was good at graphing..."
"You can solve it algebraically; there's no graphing to it," Ami said, smiling. "See, that's the beauty of math, you can find so many different ways to solve the problems... it's a lot like life, really."
As Sammy looked into Ami's eyes from just a few feet away, and saw her beautiful smile for what must have been at least the fiftieth time that afternoon, he couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of love and joy... love for Ami, and joy that he could be with her... that he could make her happy. When she was happy, he was happy... their souls were truly bonded together. That had to be it...
"Thank you, Ami," Sammy said, scribbling down some notes on one of the pieces of paper. "That really helps."
"I'm glad I was able to help, Sammy," Ami said, drawing even closer to him. "I love you."
Sammy stopped scribbling on the paper and put down his pencil. He leaned in close to Ami and kissed her deeply for the next few seconds, not knowing why Ami had decided to kiss him, but happy that they were kissing. Sometimes he would kiss her just because he got the urge to do it, and sometimes she would kiss him. As they were kissing, the door to the room opened, and Sammy's mother walked in.
"Sammy, are you doing your home...work?"
Sammy and Ami abruptly stopped kissing and stood up, turning toward Sammy's mother.
"Um... well, we were before we started kissing!" Sammy said, as innocently as he could. Sammy's mother smiled... she'd caught the two of them kissing before, and was getting to the point where she was ready to just ignore it. With a sigh, she closed the door, and Sammy and Ami began to snicker, Sammy moreso than Ami.
"I guess we'd better get back to your math homework, Sammy," Ami said, her cheeks starting to turn a bright shade of red. Sammy simply nodded.
---
"What was the problem again?" Sammy said to himself, having nearly wasted ten minutes daydreaming instead of working on his test. "Oh yeah, the profit equation..."
---
"Rei never showed up at school," Serena said as she, Lita, and Mina walked down the path toward Rei's Shinto shrine. Ami hadn't gotten out of school yet, but Serena was so worried that she didn't even want to wait for Ami, instead, heading right down to the shrine with Lita and Mina.
"Think something happened?" Lita asked. "Maybe she's still looking at the flame..."
"So she saw something big... big enough to stare at that flame for nearly eight hours?" Mina stammered. "I don't think so, guys..."
As the three girls began to approach the shrine where Rei had been, Chad and Rei's grandpa came running up to them, frantically. Chad's face looked especially worried.
"You guys, I think Rei was attacked!" Chad shouted as he ran up to Serena. "I heard her scream, and when I went to go check on her, she wasn't there! And I found this, embedded in the wall!"
Chad held up a small, white feather. A drop of blood had caked onto the end.
"That's blood," Lita said in a worried tone. "But... what could this feather be?"
"Maybe Rei was attacked by a bird!" Serena said.
"This is pretty serious," Mina replied. "Maybe it's not Rei's blood..."
"I don't know whose blood it is, but all I know is that I heard Rei scream, and now she's gone!" Chad yelled, fear and concern clearly evident in his voice.
Chad had stayed at the Shinto shrine with Rei and her grandfather, and anyone who really looked could tell that Chad cared for Rei deeply. He'd tried to get into Tokyo University, but he'd been turned down, so he stayed at the shrine, waiting for the day that the university would finally accept his application.
"My poor Rei, she might have been abducted by terrible creatures!" Rei's grandpa shouted. "If you girls know anything-"
"I wish we knew something, but we don't," Lita said sadly. "But... what could have possibly happened to Rei? Last time we saw her, she said that we should go on to school, and that she wanted to stay after a bit and tend to some things. How long after we left did you hear her scream, Chad?"
"About five minutes or so," Chad said. "I can't believe something like this could've happened..."
"We'd better get back to Ami and tell her about this," Mina whispered to the other two girls.
Serena and Lita nodded.
"Sorry, Chad, but we've gotta go... um, look for Rei," Serena said.
"I'd better go look for her too," Chad replied. "If you guys see Rei at all, you've gotta let me know, alright?"
Serena, Lita, and Mina nodded.
"Oh, one more thing," Serena said. "Could we... have that feather?"
Before Chad could reply, Serena plucked the feather from his grasp. Then, the three girls ran toward Ami's school as quickly as they could. If Rei really had been taken, Ami might be in danger too...
---
"So, Sammy, how do you think you did on that test in Ms. H.'s class?" Rick asked as he and Sammy walked out of the school building and headed toward the arcade.
"I think I did pretty good," Sammy said, even though he'd just barely managed to finish all of the problems.
"I'm kinda glad I don't have Ms. H.'s class," Rick said. "I mean, I'd like to be in class with you, but I heard she was really tough."
"She gives tough work, but she's really nice," Sammy said. "Part of that's probably because I'm doing a lot better than my sister did when she was in there, though. So, Rick, is Mika doing better?"
"She was in class with me today, but she was still sneezing and stuff," Rick said. "She said that it really cheered her up when I gave her those balloons and that card yesterday... and that she felt a lot better after I gave them to her!"
"I'm glad she did, Rick," Sammy said, smiling. "I didn't get to see Mika today, though..."
"I told her that you wanted her to get well," Rick replied. "She told me to tell you thanks!"
Finally, Sammy and Rick arrived at the Crown Arcade, where Sammy, and sometimes his sister and her friends, hung out.
"I'm going to reclaim my record today, Rick," Sammy said, entering the moderately-sized arcade and walking over toward the Battle Armada machine. As they walked around the arcade, they could see Serena, Ami, Lita, and Mina, standing at the counter and talking with Serena's friend, Andrew. As Sammy saw Ami, his face lit up.
"Hey, Sammy, isn't that your girlfriend?" Rick asked, pointing over to the counter.
"Yeah, that's Ami!" Sammy said. He ran over to the counter, but as he saw the worried look in Ami's eyes, he frowned. "I wonder why she looks so sad?"
"Sammy?" Ami said, turning around to face him. "Hello..."
"Ami, what are you all doing here?" Sammy asked. "Why are you so worried?"
"We're looking for Rei," Ami said worriedly. "She disappeared, and we thought she might be here..."
"We found this feather where she disappeared," said Serena, showing the mysterious white feather to Sammy. "Oh, Ami... I guess you haven't seen this feather either, have you?"
"Sorry we forgot to show it to you when we picked you up, Ami," Mina said.
"That's quite alright," Ami replied, gently taking the feather from Serena. As she began to examine it, her eyes widened. "I think I've seen this feather before!"
"What's going on here?" Andrew asked. Ami handed the feather back to Serena and led her over to the women's restroom so that they could talk in private. Lita and Mina started to follow, but stopped as Rick walked up to them.
"You guys, what's going on?" Rick asked quietly. "What was the whole deal with that feather?"
"You were watching, Rick?" Sammy asked his friend. Rick nodded.
"It's nothing serious," Lita lied. "Just a-"
"Lita, Mina, he knows," Sammy whispered, pointing at Rick. Lita and Mina looked surprised for a few seconds, but then nodded.
"I swear, I haven't told anyone," Rick whispered. "Sammy told me a while ago, when you were all at that opera house... I had to help him sneak in."
"Well, you two should probably just go about your business as usual," Mina said. "We'll take it from here."
"She's right, Sammy," Rick said. "Whatever's going on right now, I'm sure the Senshi can handle it... we should go play Battle Armada...."
"Alright," Sammy replied, although he felt a little guilty about not helping Ami. Still, he was fairly sure that the Senshi could take care of whatever new evil had risen up... just like Ami had done yesterday...
---
"Alright, nobody's in here," Serena said, turning to Ami. "You saw this feather yesterday?"
"Yes... one of the suspicious people I tailed yesterday had large, angel-like wings... with white feathers," Ami said. "I think that Rei might have been attacked by her!"
"Should we go tell the others?" Serena asked.
"Yes," Ami said. "You go... I'll stay here and scan this feather with my VR Visor."
"Alright," Serena said.
"I'll be right out," Ami replied. Serena nodded, then exited the restroom. Ami withdrew her henshin stick and held it in her hands, placing the blood-caked feather on the white sink of the restroom. "Mercury Crystal-"
Suddenly, one of the restroom stalls flew open, and a black-haired girl with large, black, devilish wings tackled Ami to the wall with incredible speed, putting her hand over Ami's mouth before she even had a chance to scream.
"My name's Yeika," said the girl. "Wow, Ceyra had to deal with Sailor Mars when she was transformed... I guess once we get you back to headquarters, we can trigger the Mercury transformation on our own."
Ami tried to scream, but found her screams muffled as Yeika held her against the wall. She smacked her henshin stick across Yeika's face, but the devil-winged girl was completely unharmed.
"A futile attempt," Yeika said evilly. "You're mine."
"Venus Arrow of Beauty!"
A large, golden arrow of magical energy flew into Yeika's arm, causing her to fly off of Ami and slam into the wall. As Ami slid to the floor, breathing heavily, the arrow, still embedded in Yeika's arm, pinned the devil-winged girl to the wall.
"Ami, are you alright?" said Sailor Jupiter as she ran into the room, followed closely by Sailor Moon.
"Oh my gosh, how did you guys know I was in trouble?" Ami asked, standing up. Serena smiled.
"As I left the bathroom, I heard a loud noise in the restroom, so I ran over to Lita and Mina, and we quickly ran into the men's restroom and transformed," Serena said. "Nobody was in there, thank goodness..."
"You interfering fools!" Yeika shouted, angrily pulling the arrow out of her arm and hopping down from the wall, blood trickling from a large gash made by the arrow. "Oh well, I can take all of you on! I'll capture all of you and make this easy!"
"You'll never defeat the Sailor Senshi!" Sailor Moon shouted. "In the name of the Moon... we'll punish you!"
"We'll see about that," Yeika said. "Take this!"
Yeika leapt back, but as she did, she slammed into the hard restroom wall, her head smacking especially hard against the firm tile.
"We've got you trapped!" Sailor Jupiter said. "You won't escape!"
"That's what you think!" Yeika said, extending her arms. "This wall has gotta go!"
A large burst of black-colored energy emanated from Yeika's body, smashing into the back wall of the restroom and disintegrating it instantly, exposing the large, vacant lot behind the arcade, as well as a wide, busy street.
"Now to attack!" Yeika shouted, leaping back into the vacant lot. "Beams of Dark Destruction!"
The Senshi braced themselves as Yeika fired several dozen small beams of energy at them, the beams flying at the Senshi with incredible speed. The beams slammed into the four Senshi, creating a huge explosion and knocking the four of them to their knees.
"She's strong..." Sailor Jupiter said through clenched teeth, weakly standing up with the rest of the Senshi. "But not too strong to dodge this! Jupiter Thunder Axe!"
An axe, comprised entirely of lightning energy, formed in Sailor Jupiter's hands. She swung it at Yeika's head, but Yeika ducked under it, dodging it easily.
"You're just too slow!" Yeika shouted. "Take this!"
Yeika swept her leg under both of Sailor Jupiter's, sending her crashing to the ground and causing her axe to disappear.
"Oh no, Jupiter!" Sailor Moon shouted.
"What's going on?" Sammy yelled, running into the room. "We heard a big explosion, and everybody ran out of the arcade, including Rick... are you all okay?"
"Sammy, get out of here!" Sailor Mercury shouted angrily. "We can handle this!"
Stunned by his girlfriend's angry reaction, Sammy stepped back a few feet, but didn't leave, instead, staying near the entrance of the restroom.
"Mercury Ice Javelin!" shouted Sailor Mercury, turning around and hurling several large spears of ice at Yeika's head and chest. Yeika twirled one of her arms around in front of her body, forming a small, red tornado that sucked up the spears and sent them hurling into the air. Then, the tornado came rushing at the Sailor Senshi. Sailor Moon pointed her henshin stick at the tornado and fired a magical blast of her own, disintegrating the tornado and hitting Yeika squarely in the chest, knocking her flat on her behind and sending her skidding out into the vacant lot. The Senshi followed her, and Sammy entered the restroom, getting closer to the fight so that he could get a better look.
"Not bad," Yeika said, rising to her feet and brushing herself off.
"You won't defeat us!" Sailor Mercury shouted. "Even when there are only four of us, our powers are still strong!"
"Do you know how many other warriors I've killed?" Yeika said proudly. "Thousands. Thousands, in a single fell swoop! You really don't know the full extent of my powers, and frankly, you don't deserve to see them... but I'll give you a sample!"
Yeika flew high into the air, using her wings to soar about fifty feet. Then, she dove at the four Senshi. Watching the fight from the relative safety of the destroyed women's restroom, Sammy gasped in horror.
"She's going to do something terrible, I know it!" Sammy thought. As Yeika flew toward the Senshi, however, they did something Yeika hadn't quite planned for. They fought back.
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!" Sailor Mercury shouted, sending powerful waves of water energy headed straight toward Yeika. As she tried to fly threw the waves, they slowed her down and knocked her back, and as they finally dissipated, Yeika had been stopped in her tracks, shaking and shivering as crystals of ice formed on her body.
"You w-w-w-weren't s-s-s-s-supposed to attack!" Yeika shouted, her teeth clattering. "I'll show you!"
Undeterred, Yeika flew at the Sailor Senshi again. A trail of black energy began to form behind her, and it rippled the air around her as she flew at the Senshi. Suddenly, Sailor Jupiter stepped forward.
"Jupiter Thunder Dragon!" Sailor Jupiter shouted. A huge, dragon-like beast of lightning met Yeika in the air, causing a huge cloud of sparks and lightning to fly off of the devil-winged girl's body. Again, Yeika was stopped in her tracks, and the attack left several burns and bruises on her body.
"Yes!" Sammy cheered, pumping his fists. "They're kicking his butt! Maybe the Masked Warrior won't have to come out of retirement after all..."
"I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" Yeika shrieked, screaming and throwing forth a huge flare of black and red energy from her body, causing an aura of dark magic to form around her.
"You'll never defeat the Sailor Senshi!" Sailor Venus said confidently. "Venus Love Chain Encircle!"
A long, golden chain flew out from Sailor Venus' body, but instead of being hit by the chain, Yeika grabbed it as it flew toward her. The Senshi gasped.
"Not this time," Yeika said coldly, her once carefree expression now an angry scowl. "You're mine."
With a powerful tug of the chain, Sailor Venus was sent flying up toward Yeika. The Senshi could only watch helplessly as Yeika dove toward the ensnared Sailor Venus and tackled her, then flew into the concrete with incredible energy and velocity, causing a large explosion of black light.
"NO!" Sailor Moon shrieked in horror.
"Sailor Venus!" shouted Mercury and Jupiter. As the large cloud of smoke cleared, the three Senshi immediately ran over and peered into the bottom of a large crater that had been made on the ground. The crater was six feet wide and four feet deep, and looked like it had been caused by a truly prodigious impact. Sammy ran out as well and peered down inside the crater, causing Sailor Mercury to look up at him again.
"Sammy, what are you still doing here?" Sailor Mercury asked. "I told you to leave, Sammy... I mean, I know you're still concerned about us, but-"
"They're gone!" Sailor Moon shouted. "Sailor Venus and that woman are gone!"
Sammy, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Jupiter looked down into the crater. Sure enough, both Yaika and Sailor Venus had disappeared into thin air.
"She's taken her," Sailor Jupiter said in astonishment.
"And... and we might be next," Sailor Mercury said, a tear running down her cheek. "No... the evil has returned..."
---
Sailor Venus and Sailor Mars, abducted? Can it be? And what of Sailor Moon, Mercury, and Jupiter? Are they next? Can the crazy winged chicks be stopped? Find out... next chapter! (DISCLAIMER: Not all questions may be answered next chapter.)
