Author's note: God, it feels good to finally get this story moving! I'd
say about 5-6 chapters left at the most.I think.but you all know how I love
to draw things out, so probably not^_^0 *sigh* oh, one bad word in this
chappie, so little kids, hide your eyes^_^ lol
~*~Chapter 9~*~
"I know everything about you...Mina." Mina gasped and started to back away. "You're not strong enough and you know it. You won't win and they'll all die." Mina could feel herself crying, but she couldn't help it.
"No, we'll defeat you!" There that laugh was. That cold laugh that pierced through the night air.
"They'll all die...Mina!"
"No!" Mina screamed as she sat up in her bed. "Only a dream. But it was so real... It's true, we'll lose. We're not strong enough." She bent her head in defeat and wept. Beside her Artemis stirred from his sleep.
"Mina?" he said groggily. "Mina, you're awake! What's wrong?" he asked, noticing the tears.
Mina looked up from her hands and grabbed Artemis up into a hug. "Oh, Artemis! We can't win! We ARE all going to die! We can't win!" She buried her face in Artemis's coat and sobbed until her eyes were dry. Artemis did the best he could to comfort her.
"Of course we'll win, Mina. No one's going to die. Shhh..."
"I'm *sniff* sorry *sniff* Artemis. But we're *sniff* not strong enough! We *sniff* will die *sniff*!"
Artemis stepped back and scowled at her. "Now, you listen here! This isn't the Mina I know! You can all win! But not with that attitude! You're all gonna get out there and survive and kick some Nega-verse ass!" Mina looked down at the cat in awe. Then she ran her hand across her red swollen eyes and smiled brightly at him.
"You're right, Artemis. I'm letting him get to me, and that's exactly what they want! We are going to win! I'm the leader, I can't be all depressed and negative!" she said as she shot up from her bed. Artemis yowled as he was thrown from Mina's lap. Mina paced back and forth through the room, eyes downcast. "We gotta think of something... there has to be a way! I'm gonna call the girls together so we can have a meeting." Mina ran out into the living room and picked up the phone. One by one she called everyone. "Alright, come on Artemis, let's go!" she yelled as she quickly threw some clothes on.
"Mina, where's the fire?! Where are we going?" Artemis asked, his eyes tearing as he was whipped around the corner, held by his tail.
"Raye's silly! I said we were gonna have a meeting! And Raye said she had something really important to tell us! Maybe she knows how we can beat them!" Artemis felt his tail was sure to rip off as Mina sprinted up the stairs to Cherry Hill Temple. She entered the Temple and looked at the bedraggled Artemis. "Oops...eh-heh...sorry, Artemis." Artemis just lay there on the ground.
"That's okay..." he said, his legs twitching in his face-fault position below Mina. Mina slipped her shoes off and left them at the front door and silently padded back towards Raye's room. She peeked her head in the door to see Raye sitting alone.
"Peek-a-boo," she said quietly. Raye turned to face her.
"Wow, you're the first one here! That's a first!"
"Ha ha!" Mina said dryly. Raye looked at her and smiled.
"I'm glad you're okay now. We were all really worried about you." The two sat in silence, both brooding over the enemy and how to defeat them. In a few minutes time Amy came, followed by Lita, and last, as usual, Serena and a nagging Luna.
Mina voiced what had been on her mind since she got there. "So what's the plan, Raye?"
"Huh?"
"You said you had something to tell us, so I assumed it was a plan," Mina said, her face falling when she realized that must not have been what Raye had to say to them.
"Well, I don't know if this could be considered a plan, but I scryed the Fire this morning. I got something, but I don't know what it means."
Mina and the others leaned forward in interest. "Go ahead and we'll see if we come up with any ideas," Luna said.
"Alright, here goes," Raye said. "Well, like I said, I scryed the Fire this morning. When I asked about a way to defeat the enemy, it came up with a picture of the legendary stone sword." The others nodded but looked confused nonetheless. Raye continued, "It showed it glowing and splitting into four different pieces, each in one glowing of our," she motioned to herself and the rest of the inners, "aura color." The others looked completely confused. "I know," Raye sighed. "I told you it made no sense whatsoever."
"Great," Serena said. "Back to square one! That was no help at all! *Sigh*"
"Well, I'm sorry, Meatball Head! I can't control what the Fire says! Just like you can't control being air headed!"
"Girls, we don't have time for arguing!" Luna shouted. She turned her attention towards Mina. "Now, Mina, you've got the sword, haven't you?"
Mina looked up. "Yeah, it's back at my house."
"But how's that help?" Lita asked. "We can't just stare at it and hope it'll split!"
"I could run a few scans on it with my computer," Amy offered.
"Well, I guess that's better than nothing," Lita returned, everyone already getting up. They all walked out the door and started for Mina's house.
"Here it is," Mina said walking to the back of her room where her closet was. She stepped inside and dug it out of the back.
"You threw the sword in the closet!" Serena screeched. Mina shrugged.
"Where else could I put it? I think someone would get a little suspicious if they came in here one day to find a sword mounted on a pedestal, don't you?" Serena shrugged her shoulders and finally nodded. Mina went over to Amy and laid the sword in front of her. Amy got out her handheld computer and started typing clumsily with only her left hand, seeing how the other one was in a cast. Mina looked up at everyone with their various wounds. "Wow, what happened to you guys last night?"
Everyone looked up. "It's pretty obvious what happened to us. What happened to YOU?" Lita asked. Amy stopped her typing.
"Yes, what happened to send you into such shock," Amy asked in wonder.
"Hmmmm," Mina mumbled aloud. She squinted her eyes and tried hard to think. "I don't really remember. Last night's kinda foggy, ya know?" Everyone was silent.
"Well," Lita said, breaking the silence. "Let's start staring," she joked dryly.
"Ugh, there's gotta be some way to get this hunk o' junk to split open!" Serena whined.
"Maybe be gotta stare AND concentrate, yeah?" Lita joked.
"We don't have time for joking, right now, Lita!" Luna said, irritated. Lita hung her head.
"Sorry, Luna, but how're we gonna figure this out?" Luna sighed deeply and loudly.
"I don't know, Lita, I just don't know."
"Well, we're not getting anywhere sitting here and doing nothing. The sword's not just gonna get up and split on it's own," Raye said, standing. "I'm going home to scry the Fire and meditate some more. Maybe I'll come up with a better answer." Luna nodded in agreement.
"We should all go home, we're getting nothing accomplished here like this." Everyone got up, Mina included to see everyone to the door. Only Amy remained sitting, looking at the sword still.
"Mina, do you think I could stay here for a while to do some more tests on it with the computer?"
"Yeah sure, Ames, I'll be right back," Mina answered walking out the door with the others. Amy nodded okay, even though Mina never saw it, and went back to looking at the sword. She could hear Mina saying goodbye to the others and saw them walking by outside the window. "K, I'm back," Mina said walking back into her room and sitting down next to Amy.
"I can't think of what could make the sword split," Amy sighed.
"Yeah, that's really weird," Mina agreed, picking up the sword and putting her face up close to it. "I mean how could a sword just up and split. There has to be some code or secret to it to set it off. Ya know, like in the video games how you get to the next level of the game."
"I'm afraid this will be a bit more complicated than an arcade game, Mina," Amy said.
"Why? Maybe we're making mountains out of moles as the saying goes."
"Mole hills, I believe," Amy corrected. "Maybe you're right, but what kind of code, I wonder."
"I don't know, that was hard enough to come up with." Amy sighed and turned to her computer and continued on with the clumsy typing.
"Oh, yeah, you got a cast!" Mina shouted jumping up. She ran across the room and grabbed a marker. "Yay, I've always wanted to sign someone's cast!" She took off the lid and bent down by Amy. "Love... always... your... friend... Mina..." she said aloud as she wrote. "There!" she cried stepping back and looking at her signature. "Beautiful," she giggled. Amy giggled too and, once again, took up the typing.
Her face scrunched up and she looked at the sword.
"Did you get anything?" Mina asked excitedly.
"Well, sort of. But I'm not sure if I understand. Here, take a look," she said shoving the computer into Mina's face.
"Hey, it's the sword. Oh, now I see," she said blushing as she sweat dropped (^_^0). "That part of the sword is glowing," she said pointing to the computer screen.
"Exactly," Amy said, picking up the sword and examining it. "The jewel right here seems to be the sensitive point according to the computer," she said pointing right above the hilt.
"Well, great, how's a jewel supposed to help us?" Mina said, exasperated. Amy sighed and shook her head.
"I don't know," Amy admitted. "Hopefully Raye will find something... Maybe we should go over there, ne?" Amy suggested.
"Hm, yeah, I guess so, there's nothing else we can do here, and this info'll be helpful to Raye while scrying the Fire." Mina looked at the sword. "We'll have to find an awful big bag to carry around this thing without it being seen," Mina pointed out.
"Yeah, well, if you keep a sword in your closet, let's see what else is in there. Who knows, maybe a big bag as well," Amy joked.
"Ha ha," Mina said dryly. "Very funny, Amy." Mina walked over to the closet nonetheless, rummaging through for anything that would help hide the huge sword. "Ah-ha!" she said stepping out triumphantly. "Here's one I used to use for volleyball; it'll be big enough."
"See, I told you you could find anything in there." Amy had a big goofy grin spread across her face (A/N: seems very unbecoming of her, ne?). "Come on, let's hurry up and get to Raye's," Amy said in response to Mina's mock pout. The girls hurriedly stuffed the sword in the over-sized gym bag and ran out the door, slipping their shoes on quickly and continued the dash.
"Raye!" they cried in unison as they ran through the Temple. They ran back to the room where Raye always scryed the Fire and stopped, seeing she was in the middle of it. They'd interrupt if it weren't for the fact that every time they did that they got their heads bitten off. They halted and quietly tiptoed into the room and sat silently in the corner. Raye finished and looked over at the two, shaking her head.
"Nope, I couldn't find anything, guys." She sat back stretching out her aching muscles.
"Oh, Raye, you didn't tell me those beautiful friends of yours were coming over!" Everyone jumped. They hadn't even noticed the old man who had entered. "I'll go make some tea... Then I'll leave you alone," he added at the look on his granddaughter's face.
Raye sighed and shook her head. "Thank you, grandpa." Her grandpa bowed and then left the room. Raye shifted her attention towards the other Mina and Amy, who were still sitting quietly in the corner. "So what ARE you guys doing here?"
Mina let out a big sigh at having been quiet for so long. "Well... AmyFoundSomeInfoThatMightBeHelpfulToYouWhileScryingTheFire,ButYou'veAlreadyD oneThat...SoYeah!" She took a deep breath and Raye just blinked. (A/N: I put all the beginnings of words in capitals so you'd understand what she was sayin'^_^)
"None of that I understood."
Amy sighed. "I'll tell you. While I was scanning it -the sword, I mean- with my computer, I discovered a part of the sword that seemed sensitive almost. It glowed with energy on the screen."
Raye sat up straight. "Can you show me, Amy? This may be out first big lead to anything!"
"Sure," Amy shrugged. She got out her computer and brought the sword out of the bag.
Raye sweat dropped. "Where'd ya find the body bag? ( -_-0)
"Mina's closet, where else?" Amy joked. (Mina: V_V why can't you leave my closet alone?!)
Raye nodded and sweat dropped again. "Ok, let's see it."
Amy opened the computer and started typing, beginning the scan. Suddenly a picture of a sword appeared on the screen, the bright jewel in the middle glowing and blinking. "See?"
"I think it's like a code on a video game," Mina announced proudly.
"Mina, hardly," Raye said.
"Amy said it could be possibly, so if Amy says, it must be right," Mina pointed out.
Raye blinked a few times, dumbfounded. "Really, Amy? You think it could be that easy?"
Amy shrugged her shoulders. "Why not? Maybe we really are making mountains out of mole hills."
"Hm," Raye said pondering. "Maybe, but what kind of code do you think?"
Amy sighed. "Well, that's what came here for, actually. We were hoping you could do a scrying since we could come up with virtually nothing past what we just told you."
Raye sighed and nodded. "I see. Alright, I'll give it another go." Everyone jumped out of their skins at the sound of another voice behind them.
"Well, I'll be! What a relic! Where'd you girls find this?"
"Grandpa, I hate when you sneak up on me!" Raye cried out. Her grandpa blushed a bit and then shrugged.
"Sorry, I was just bringing the tea," he said, putting the sword down and picking up the tray again.
Raye sighed. "It's ok, grandpa. You just scared us all."
"Well, you never answered me," he responded, shaking off Raye's apology. "Where'd you find this dinosaur at?"
"That's just a school project I brought over! We're studying the uh... Stone Age! Yeah, that's it, the Stone Age!" Mina gave a big sigh, fairly pleased with her excuse.
Raye's grandpa raised and eyebrow, but played along nonetheless. "Ah, yes, the good old Stone Age." With that he walked out of the room, shaking his head.
Raye looked at Mina's smug look and let out an exasperated sigh. "The STONE AGE?! That's your brilliant excuse?"
"Hey, he bought it, didn't he?" Mina cried.
"No!" Raye shouted. "Didn't you see the look on his face? He saw right through that lie!"
"Oh, well," Amy said, once again becoming the voice of reason. "We don't have time pointless quibbling. Time is of the essence and we need to crack this code if we're ever going to beat the generals." Mina and Raye nodded, knowing she was right.
Raye sat at the Fire, taking deep breaths to get ready for the scrying. "Oh great Fire, I ask of thee." The Fire leapt up. "What is the mystery of the legendary stone sword? What is the answer to this riddle we must uncover?" The fire crackled brightly and leapt up high in the air. They saw the jewel on the sword swing open and a great white light shone from within. Then the Fire calmed and was at normal size, a small crackling noise of the Fire dying out as it hungrily consumed the coals keeping it burning. Raye sighed. "Great, what's that mean?" Mina shrugged.
"Beats me." Amy sat in concentration then her head flew up. "I know!" Raye and Mina looked at her excitedly. "Now, don't get your hopes up, it's a long shot, but I think I've figured out the message the Fire's been trying to tell us!" The other two smiled and scooted closer to Amy as she leaned over and explained her theory. "What do you think?"
"Sounds good to me!" Mina exclaimed. Raye nodded in agreement.
"Come on, let's go tell the others!" Raye shouted. They packed the sword in the bag and ran out of the Temple towards Serena's house. "Bye grandpa, I'll be back soon!" Raye shouted as she dashed out.
2nd A/N: well, how was it? Long enough? (readers: yes, definitely!") k, well, I have two things I'd like to say here about this chapter. One is the part with the jewel on the sword; if you've read the mangas look at the pics of the sword and you'll see the jewel I'm talking about. If you don't have the mangas and you really wanna see the sword to be able to visualize in the story you could go to any search engine and look up sailor moon manga scans and more than like likely there'll be pics of them w/ the sword^_^ Two is on the part where Raye scrys (sp?) the Fire, I've never seen an episode where she does a scrying, so if that's not how it goes, gomen^_^ I just made up how I always pictured it and put that down^_^
~venusgirl ^._.^ (yay kitties!)
~*~Chapter 9~*~
"I know everything about you...Mina." Mina gasped and started to back away. "You're not strong enough and you know it. You won't win and they'll all die." Mina could feel herself crying, but she couldn't help it.
"No, we'll defeat you!" There that laugh was. That cold laugh that pierced through the night air.
"They'll all die...Mina!"
"No!" Mina screamed as she sat up in her bed. "Only a dream. But it was so real... It's true, we'll lose. We're not strong enough." She bent her head in defeat and wept. Beside her Artemis stirred from his sleep.
"Mina?" he said groggily. "Mina, you're awake! What's wrong?" he asked, noticing the tears.
Mina looked up from her hands and grabbed Artemis up into a hug. "Oh, Artemis! We can't win! We ARE all going to die! We can't win!" She buried her face in Artemis's coat and sobbed until her eyes were dry. Artemis did the best he could to comfort her.
"Of course we'll win, Mina. No one's going to die. Shhh..."
"I'm *sniff* sorry *sniff* Artemis. But we're *sniff* not strong enough! We *sniff* will die *sniff*!"
Artemis stepped back and scowled at her. "Now, you listen here! This isn't the Mina I know! You can all win! But not with that attitude! You're all gonna get out there and survive and kick some Nega-verse ass!" Mina looked down at the cat in awe. Then she ran her hand across her red swollen eyes and smiled brightly at him.
"You're right, Artemis. I'm letting him get to me, and that's exactly what they want! We are going to win! I'm the leader, I can't be all depressed and negative!" she said as she shot up from her bed. Artemis yowled as he was thrown from Mina's lap. Mina paced back and forth through the room, eyes downcast. "We gotta think of something... there has to be a way! I'm gonna call the girls together so we can have a meeting." Mina ran out into the living room and picked up the phone. One by one she called everyone. "Alright, come on Artemis, let's go!" she yelled as she quickly threw some clothes on.
"Mina, where's the fire?! Where are we going?" Artemis asked, his eyes tearing as he was whipped around the corner, held by his tail.
"Raye's silly! I said we were gonna have a meeting! And Raye said she had something really important to tell us! Maybe she knows how we can beat them!" Artemis felt his tail was sure to rip off as Mina sprinted up the stairs to Cherry Hill Temple. She entered the Temple and looked at the bedraggled Artemis. "Oops...eh-heh...sorry, Artemis." Artemis just lay there on the ground.
"That's okay..." he said, his legs twitching in his face-fault position below Mina. Mina slipped her shoes off and left them at the front door and silently padded back towards Raye's room. She peeked her head in the door to see Raye sitting alone.
"Peek-a-boo," she said quietly. Raye turned to face her.
"Wow, you're the first one here! That's a first!"
"Ha ha!" Mina said dryly. Raye looked at her and smiled.
"I'm glad you're okay now. We were all really worried about you." The two sat in silence, both brooding over the enemy and how to defeat them. In a few minutes time Amy came, followed by Lita, and last, as usual, Serena and a nagging Luna.
Mina voiced what had been on her mind since she got there. "So what's the plan, Raye?"
"Huh?"
"You said you had something to tell us, so I assumed it was a plan," Mina said, her face falling when she realized that must not have been what Raye had to say to them.
"Well, I don't know if this could be considered a plan, but I scryed the Fire this morning. I got something, but I don't know what it means."
Mina and the others leaned forward in interest. "Go ahead and we'll see if we come up with any ideas," Luna said.
"Alright, here goes," Raye said. "Well, like I said, I scryed the Fire this morning. When I asked about a way to defeat the enemy, it came up with a picture of the legendary stone sword." The others nodded but looked confused nonetheless. Raye continued, "It showed it glowing and splitting into four different pieces, each in one glowing of our," she motioned to herself and the rest of the inners, "aura color." The others looked completely confused. "I know," Raye sighed. "I told you it made no sense whatsoever."
"Great," Serena said. "Back to square one! That was no help at all! *Sigh*"
"Well, I'm sorry, Meatball Head! I can't control what the Fire says! Just like you can't control being air headed!"
"Girls, we don't have time for arguing!" Luna shouted. She turned her attention towards Mina. "Now, Mina, you've got the sword, haven't you?"
Mina looked up. "Yeah, it's back at my house."
"But how's that help?" Lita asked. "We can't just stare at it and hope it'll split!"
"I could run a few scans on it with my computer," Amy offered.
"Well, I guess that's better than nothing," Lita returned, everyone already getting up. They all walked out the door and started for Mina's house.
"Here it is," Mina said walking to the back of her room where her closet was. She stepped inside and dug it out of the back.
"You threw the sword in the closet!" Serena screeched. Mina shrugged.
"Where else could I put it? I think someone would get a little suspicious if they came in here one day to find a sword mounted on a pedestal, don't you?" Serena shrugged her shoulders and finally nodded. Mina went over to Amy and laid the sword in front of her. Amy got out her handheld computer and started typing clumsily with only her left hand, seeing how the other one was in a cast. Mina looked up at everyone with their various wounds. "Wow, what happened to you guys last night?"
Everyone looked up. "It's pretty obvious what happened to us. What happened to YOU?" Lita asked. Amy stopped her typing.
"Yes, what happened to send you into such shock," Amy asked in wonder.
"Hmmmm," Mina mumbled aloud. She squinted her eyes and tried hard to think. "I don't really remember. Last night's kinda foggy, ya know?" Everyone was silent.
"Well," Lita said, breaking the silence. "Let's start staring," she joked dryly.
"Ugh, there's gotta be some way to get this hunk o' junk to split open!" Serena whined.
"Maybe be gotta stare AND concentrate, yeah?" Lita joked.
"We don't have time for joking, right now, Lita!" Luna said, irritated. Lita hung her head.
"Sorry, Luna, but how're we gonna figure this out?" Luna sighed deeply and loudly.
"I don't know, Lita, I just don't know."
"Well, we're not getting anywhere sitting here and doing nothing. The sword's not just gonna get up and split on it's own," Raye said, standing. "I'm going home to scry the Fire and meditate some more. Maybe I'll come up with a better answer." Luna nodded in agreement.
"We should all go home, we're getting nothing accomplished here like this." Everyone got up, Mina included to see everyone to the door. Only Amy remained sitting, looking at the sword still.
"Mina, do you think I could stay here for a while to do some more tests on it with the computer?"
"Yeah sure, Ames, I'll be right back," Mina answered walking out the door with the others. Amy nodded okay, even though Mina never saw it, and went back to looking at the sword. She could hear Mina saying goodbye to the others and saw them walking by outside the window. "K, I'm back," Mina said walking back into her room and sitting down next to Amy.
"I can't think of what could make the sword split," Amy sighed.
"Yeah, that's really weird," Mina agreed, picking up the sword and putting her face up close to it. "I mean how could a sword just up and split. There has to be some code or secret to it to set it off. Ya know, like in the video games how you get to the next level of the game."
"I'm afraid this will be a bit more complicated than an arcade game, Mina," Amy said.
"Why? Maybe we're making mountains out of moles as the saying goes."
"Mole hills, I believe," Amy corrected. "Maybe you're right, but what kind of code, I wonder."
"I don't know, that was hard enough to come up with." Amy sighed and turned to her computer and continued on with the clumsy typing.
"Oh, yeah, you got a cast!" Mina shouted jumping up. She ran across the room and grabbed a marker. "Yay, I've always wanted to sign someone's cast!" She took off the lid and bent down by Amy. "Love... always... your... friend... Mina..." she said aloud as she wrote. "There!" she cried stepping back and looking at her signature. "Beautiful," she giggled. Amy giggled too and, once again, took up the typing.
Her face scrunched up and she looked at the sword.
"Did you get anything?" Mina asked excitedly.
"Well, sort of. But I'm not sure if I understand. Here, take a look," she said shoving the computer into Mina's face.
"Hey, it's the sword. Oh, now I see," she said blushing as she sweat dropped (^_^0). "That part of the sword is glowing," she said pointing to the computer screen.
"Exactly," Amy said, picking up the sword and examining it. "The jewel right here seems to be the sensitive point according to the computer," she said pointing right above the hilt.
"Well, great, how's a jewel supposed to help us?" Mina said, exasperated. Amy sighed and shook her head.
"I don't know," Amy admitted. "Hopefully Raye will find something... Maybe we should go over there, ne?" Amy suggested.
"Hm, yeah, I guess so, there's nothing else we can do here, and this info'll be helpful to Raye while scrying the Fire." Mina looked at the sword. "We'll have to find an awful big bag to carry around this thing without it being seen," Mina pointed out.
"Yeah, well, if you keep a sword in your closet, let's see what else is in there. Who knows, maybe a big bag as well," Amy joked.
"Ha ha," Mina said dryly. "Very funny, Amy." Mina walked over to the closet nonetheless, rummaging through for anything that would help hide the huge sword. "Ah-ha!" she said stepping out triumphantly. "Here's one I used to use for volleyball; it'll be big enough."
"See, I told you you could find anything in there." Amy had a big goofy grin spread across her face (A/N: seems very unbecoming of her, ne?). "Come on, let's hurry up and get to Raye's," Amy said in response to Mina's mock pout. The girls hurriedly stuffed the sword in the over-sized gym bag and ran out the door, slipping their shoes on quickly and continued the dash.
"Raye!" they cried in unison as they ran through the Temple. They ran back to the room where Raye always scryed the Fire and stopped, seeing she was in the middle of it. They'd interrupt if it weren't for the fact that every time they did that they got their heads bitten off. They halted and quietly tiptoed into the room and sat silently in the corner. Raye finished and looked over at the two, shaking her head.
"Nope, I couldn't find anything, guys." She sat back stretching out her aching muscles.
"Oh, Raye, you didn't tell me those beautiful friends of yours were coming over!" Everyone jumped. They hadn't even noticed the old man who had entered. "I'll go make some tea... Then I'll leave you alone," he added at the look on his granddaughter's face.
Raye sighed and shook her head. "Thank you, grandpa." Her grandpa bowed and then left the room. Raye shifted her attention towards the other Mina and Amy, who were still sitting quietly in the corner. "So what ARE you guys doing here?"
Mina let out a big sigh at having been quiet for so long. "Well... AmyFoundSomeInfoThatMightBeHelpfulToYouWhileScryingTheFire,ButYou'veAlreadyD oneThat...SoYeah!" She took a deep breath and Raye just blinked. (A/N: I put all the beginnings of words in capitals so you'd understand what she was sayin'^_^)
"None of that I understood."
Amy sighed. "I'll tell you. While I was scanning it -the sword, I mean- with my computer, I discovered a part of the sword that seemed sensitive almost. It glowed with energy on the screen."
Raye sat up straight. "Can you show me, Amy? This may be out first big lead to anything!"
"Sure," Amy shrugged. She got out her computer and brought the sword out of the bag.
Raye sweat dropped. "Where'd ya find the body bag? ( -_-0)
"Mina's closet, where else?" Amy joked. (Mina: V_V why can't you leave my closet alone?!)
Raye nodded and sweat dropped again. "Ok, let's see it."
Amy opened the computer and started typing, beginning the scan. Suddenly a picture of a sword appeared on the screen, the bright jewel in the middle glowing and blinking. "See?"
"I think it's like a code on a video game," Mina announced proudly.
"Mina, hardly," Raye said.
"Amy said it could be possibly, so if Amy says, it must be right," Mina pointed out.
Raye blinked a few times, dumbfounded. "Really, Amy? You think it could be that easy?"
Amy shrugged her shoulders. "Why not? Maybe we really are making mountains out of mole hills."
"Hm," Raye said pondering. "Maybe, but what kind of code do you think?"
Amy sighed. "Well, that's what came here for, actually. We were hoping you could do a scrying since we could come up with virtually nothing past what we just told you."
Raye sighed and nodded. "I see. Alright, I'll give it another go." Everyone jumped out of their skins at the sound of another voice behind them.
"Well, I'll be! What a relic! Where'd you girls find this?"
"Grandpa, I hate when you sneak up on me!" Raye cried out. Her grandpa blushed a bit and then shrugged.
"Sorry, I was just bringing the tea," he said, putting the sword down and picking up the tray again.
Raye sighed. "It's ok, grandpa. You just scared us all."
"Well, you never answered me," he responded, shaking off Raye's apology. "Where'd you find this dinosaur at?"
"That's just a school project I brought over! We're studying the uh... Stone Age! Yeah, that's it, the Stone Age!" Mina gave a big sigh, fairly pleased with her excuse.
Raye's grandpa raised and eyebrow, but played along nonetheless. "Ah, yes, the good old Stone Age." With that he walked out of the room, shaking his head.
Raye looked at Mina's smug look and let out an exasperated sigh. "The STONE AGE?! That's your brilliant excuse?"
"Hey, he bought it, didn't he?" Mina cried.
"No!" Raye shouted. "Didn't you see the look on his face? He saw right through that lie!"
"Oh, well," Amy said, once again becoming the voice of reason. "We don't have time pointless quibbling. Time is of the essence and we need to crack this code if we're ever going to beat the generals." Mina and Raye nodded, knowing she was right.
Raye sat at the Fire, taking deep breaths to get ready for the scrying. "Oh great Fire, I ask of thee." The Fire leapt up. "What is the mystery of the legendary stone sword? What is the answer to this riddle we must uncover?" The fire crackled brightly and leapt up high in the air. They saw the jewel on the sword swing open and a great white light shone from within. Then the Fire calmed and was at normal size, a small crackling noise of the Fire dying out as it hungrily consumed the coals keeping it burning. Raye sighed. "Great, what's that mean?" Mina shrugged.
"Beats me." Amy sat in concentration then her head flew up. "I know!" Raye and Mina looked at her excitedly. "Now, don't get your hopes up, it's a long shot, but I think I've figured out the message the Fire's been trying to tell us!" The other two smiled and scooted closer to Amy as she leaned over and explained her theory. "What do you think?"
"Sounds good to me!" Mina exclaimed. Raye nodded in agreement.
"Come on, let's go tell the others!" Raye shouted. They packed the sword in the bag and ran out of the Temple towards Serena's house. "Bye grandpa, I'll be back soon!" Raye shouted as she dashed out.
2nd A/N: well, how was it? Long enough? (readers: yes, definitely!") k, well, I have two things I'd like to say here about this chapter. One is the part with the jewel on the sword; if you've read the mangas look at the pics of the sword and you'll see the jewel I'm talking about. If you don't have the mangas and you really wanna see the sword to be able to visualize in the story you could go to any search engine and look up sailor moon manga scans and more than like likely there'll be pics of them w/ the sword^_^ Two is on the part where Raye scrys (sp?) the Fire, I've never seen an episode where she does a scrying, so if that's not how it goes, gomen^_^ I just made up how I always pictured it and put that down^_^
~venusgirl ^._.^ (yay kitties!)
