The Fragility of Time
BOOK TWO: "Falling Towards Apotheosis"
The Fragility of Time BOOK TWO: "Falling Towards Apotheosis"
Chapter 35: The Messiahs of Light and Dark
Author: etj4Eagle
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Lasted Edited: 1/22/05
Disclaimer: A reminder I own none of the characters of this story, all rights are owned by others. However, the unique circumstances of the story are mine. If you distribute the story, do only so freely and inform me of where you post it.
The afternoon had been a long one for Eudial, having had spent it shifting through the remains of the Daimon incubator to see if any of it was salvageable. While a good amount of the structural steel was still good, many of the more sensitive and hard to come by parts had been destroyed and would have to be replaced. Now sitting at her desk with a bowl of instant ramen, she began to pull the necessary files for replacing those items. As she worked, she hoped that Hotaru was okay; apparently Mimete's mess had resulted in the telephone switching office that serviced Tomoe-sensei's house being destroyed. Or at least that was what the telephone company said when she called them after being only able to get a recording telling her that the Tomoe line was out of service As plodded through this initial paperwork, she hoped that she would be able to finish it up within the next hour so that she would be able to return home and check on Hotaru.
Hearing the door to her office open, Eudial looked up. Is it that late already that the review session is over? she thought to herself figuring that her visitor was Tomoe-sensei himself. However, to her displeasure she saw that it wasn't, instead it was Rubeus.
Not wasting any time, Rubeus demanded, "Eudial-san where is Tomoe-sensei?" as he entered her office.
Any fears that Eudial might have had with respect to the Mimete incident evaporated as she saw that he appeared to be in a very good mood, not that that made her feel really any safer. Just that it meant that she wasn't likely to be killed in a fit of rage in the next few moments. So now relaxing from how she had instantly tensed up upon his arrival, she said, "Tomoe-sensei is conducting a physics prelim review right now. He will be done in an hour."
"Then it looks like the review is over. What room is he in?"
"105" Eudial replied, not wanting to get on Rubeus's bad side by suggesting that he wait. If he was happy, she was going to do all that she could to make sure he stayed that way.
Without a word of thanks, he spun on his feet and left the office. Walking down the hallway, he took the stairs up from the basement level. He was almost tempted to directly teleport to the classroom, since with the Grail there was nothing those pesky Sailor Senshi could do to him. However, he barely restrained himself and decided it was better to avoid giving them too much of a heads up on the final element of his plan. Arriving at the classroom he threw open that door and entered.
"… and when you pass light through a converging lens you get a…" Tomoe trailed off in the middle of his optics lecture as he saw Rubeus enter his classroom. "Pardon me a moment minna-san." Tomoe said to his class before walking to where Rubeus was standing. Once he arrived by Rubeus he asked, "Rubeus-sama what brings you to my humble classroom?"
Rubeus's only reply was to hold the Grail out to Tomoe and to smile. Seeing the Grail, Tomoe's face did not take long to brighten up into a similar smile.
"You've found it! With this, I will be able to open the portal without any more modifications to the system." Tomoe eagerly exclaimed and then turning to the class he said, "Minna-san, I am afraid that something has come up, so I am going to have to end this review session now. Since I will otherwise be occupied tomorrow, I will have Eudial-san conduct a review session for you tomorrow during class and we'll push back that prelim by one day. Anyone have an issue with that?"
None of the students raised their hands in protest over having another day to prepare for their exam as well as getting a free hour that evening. And so instead, they just smiled and quickly collected their books and filed out of the classroom.
Returning to Rubeus he said, "Come let's go conduct our experiment."
As the two of them walked out of the classroom, Rubeus said "Tomoe-sensei, I have some additional good news. In addition to the Grail, I have secured a large short term supply of strong magical energy from around Tokyo that you can use as well."
"That's very good Rubeus-sama. We are going to need that energy to quickly mature the rest of the Daimon eggs to hold off any trouble that our opening of the gateway might draw. I'm fearful that many might react the wrong way to the gateway and act without thinking."
The rest of the walk down to the basement was accompanied by Tomoe mumbling to himself as he began running through the various final items that he had to take care of and the various checks that he would need to run. Ignoring the professor's ramblings, Rubeus instead focused on the pending arrival of the Wiseman. He knew the Wiseman was going to be quite pleased with what had been accomplished and while he expected that Sailor Moon was still hanging onto life, the Wiseman's arrival would fix that.
As they reached the basement floor, the twosome took a detour by Eudial's office. Stepping inside, Tomoe instructed her to locate his daughter so that she could be healed and to instruct the remaining members of the Witches 5 to come to the lab.
"Now did you find all of them or just half of them, I wonder?" those had been Rubeus's parting words before he had vanished.
Instantly realizing that they had been setup, Uranus practically ripped the communicator off her wrist as she hit the panic button. Within ten seconds faces for all the other Senshi except for the two Moon Senshi had appeared.
"Another demon attack? Uranus where are you?" Minako asked as soon as she activated her link.
"Hai, but Pluto's taken care of that for a moment, that's not the reason why I am contacting you. We have been had. Rubeus expected us to find those energy collectors; he has planted a second set."
"Nani-ka?" the others all exclaimed.
"Now it makes sense, that's why Rubeus did not have them booby trapped. Those were sacrificial." Ami said.
"Um minna-san, why isn't Usagi or ChibiUsa on the link?" Jupiter asked.
"Iie it can't be, she can't be dead." Rei insisted, not wanting to accept what the absence of Usagi suggested.
"Rei lets not jump to any conclusions." Ami said.
"Hai, when we last saw Usagi, she was flying out of the Crown Fruit Parlor carrying ChibiUsa and Hotaru. If something had happened to her we would expect ChibiUsa to have already alerted us." Neptune said.
"Ah, why was she carrying Hotaru and ChibiUsa?" Minako asked.
"We'll explain later." Uranus said, knowing that right now the battle was not relevant to the issue at hand.
"So she's at Hotaru's house, and the two of them can't answer their communicator. I guess that makes sense." Rei figured.
"That might be true. But, Neptune you said she was flying right." Ami asked
"Hai."
"Then there is another possibility. If the power loss occurred while she was flying." Ami began
And the others finished with, "Then she might have crashed." which was an option that also would explain why ChibiUsa had not contacted them – she was injured as well.
"Neptune, Uranus do you know which way Usagi was going." Venus asked.
"Iie she was just trying to get away from here as fast as possible and I don't think she stayed flying the same course she left on, or at least she didn't if she was smart. The new enemy that suddenly appeared here was gunning specifically for her." Uranus replied. "Oh and we have another problem. In order to deal with this enemy, Pluto had to seal her away in a stasis field. This required the power of a very powerful artifact, the Holy Grail, which that bastard Rubeus now has."
"How did Rubeus get a hold…"Makoto began but was cut off by Minako
"We can worry about that later. With Rubeus choosing now to set off his trap and also having possession of that artifact, he must have something major planned. We need to find Usagi and take out the rest of these energy collectors now so that we can stop whatever he has planned."
"Hai." The others all agreed.
"In that case minna-san henshin yo." Minako instructed.
"So how do we go about finding Usagi?" Jupiter asked once the transformations were finished. And with that they quickly began planning their search strategy.
"Owie, what did I hit my head on?" Usagi mumbled as she began to stir. Feeling very lethargic, Usagi wanted to do nothing more than to drift back off to sleep. But her back felt like it was on fire and she knew sleep would not come again. Wondering why her back was in so much pain she became aware of some warm bodies pressed up against her chest. Now really opening her eyes and taking in her surroundings, she directed her gaze down along her body and found two girls curled up against her stomach. Seeing them, she thought Hotaru and ChibiUsa. happily to herself as a warm feeling spread through her body.
Moving her right arm so that she could wrap it around the two children, Usagi relaxed for a few moments more. Seeing the two of them asleep as they were pushed her own pain out of her mind for the moment. With a smile still on her face, she began looking around, trying to remember how they had ended up in a grove of trees. And slowly the memories of the battle at the Crown and the resulting flight across town came back to her. But neither of those explained why they had crashed or why she was feeling so tired right now. That's right, I suddenly felt very drained while I was flying and then we crashed. Usagi realized, figuring out the missing piece of the puzzle. Though why am I feeling so drained right now? Maybe I'm getting sick? Wohoo no school tomorrow. Usagi thought with a smile, hoping that to be the reason and also knowing that she would need to see Mizuno-san and Ami-chan for a checkup in the morning.
Having figured out what all that had happened, Usagi turned her gaze back to her two charges. Now noticing that it was getting quite late out, she knew that as much as she really didn't want to get up, they needed to head home. But when I get home we can then take a nice relaxing bath in the furo and there will be a nice warm bed instead of this hard ground. she thought to herself as she began to become aware of the pain in her back again.
Using the arm that was wrapped around the two girls, she softly shook the two of them. Then seeing their eyes open, she asked them, "Hotaru-chan, ChibiUsa, are the two of you okay?"
"Uhh, what happened?" ChibiUsa moaned as she began to come to.
Beside ChibiUsa, Hotaru gave a quiet little moan as she too awoke and then looking around blinked her eyes a few times as she tried to make sense of what had just happened. Things had been going so smoothly, she was having a good time with ChibiUsa's cousin's friends and was once again beginning to look on her talent as maybe a gift instead of a curse. That was when all hell broke loose. There was that strange woman who accused Usagi of being Sailor Moon, which had been borne out shortly after with Sailor Senshi revealing themselves. Then in the midst of a terrifying battle, Usagi had taken her and ChibiUsa in her arms and jumped out of a window, it was then that she had learned that Usagi had wings and could fly. With a smile, Hotaru remembered how after the initial bit of fright, she had come to quickly enjoy that thrill. Of course that was before they had suddenly plummeted to the ground. Finishing her review of what had happened; Hotaru looked up at Usagi and replied, "Hai, I'm okay. Are you?" concerned over whatever had caused Usagi to go down.
"Hai, I think so. I'm just very tired for some reason. And no don't worry about healing me; you have already done enough for today with Michiru and then during the battle." Usagi said waving off the attempt at healing that was bound to come. Then with a smile she asked, "However, the two of you could help me get up."
"Hai," both ChibiUsa and Hotaru energetically replied as they bounded off Usagi and helped her up, both of them instantly forgetting about their own injuries.
"Okaa-san you don't look good" ChibiUsa stated after finally getting a good look at her mother.
"Hai, my back is killing me and I am feeling even worse than I did at auntie Misaki's. My crescent moon is visible isn't it?"
"Hai," ChibiUsa replied.
"Was afraid so, I'll have to ask Ami what's happening." Usagi said. "Come let's get out of the woods."
At first Usagi tried to walk unassisted, but after stumbling with every step, ChibiUsa and Hotaru finally forced her to accept some assistance. While it was not easy, given the relative size difference between the two of them and her, they managed to find a way to help her walk. As they moved slowly through the wooded area of the park, Usagi spoke to Hotaru. "Hotaru-chan I know you must have a lot of questions about this evening. When we get back to the house, I will answer all that you have. You need not worry about knowing that we are Sailor Senshi, I trust you."
"Arigatoo Usagi." Hotaru said thanking Usagi as an unformalized worry that she had was laid to waste.
Sometime later the group finally reached the edge of the park. Just as they were about to step out from behind the last of the trees, Hotaru pointed out that they had a slight problem – Usagi being quite a draw with her wings visible. Of course the two of them were not much more inconspicuous given the dirt all over their clothes and the occasional twig in their hair, but at least that could be passed off as them having been a bit rambunctious in the park. After discussing the problem for a minute, Usagi gave Hotaru some money so that she could run into a nearby store and pick up a light jacket and a baseball cap for Usagi to wear.
Leaving ChibiUsa with Usagi, Hotaru went into the store. She had seen how torn her friend was between leaving Usagi, her mother, and coming with her, so Hotaru had suggested to ChibiUsa that she stay to look after Usagi. Shaking her head, Hotaru wondered how Usagi could be ChibiUsa's mother. But if Usagi could fly, then why not? she thought to herself with a smile. Noticing the odd looks she was getting from the others in the store, Hotaru hurried to an appropriate rack and selected the first jacket that appeared to be of the right size. Then grabbing a baseball cap, she went to pay. Accepting the purchases back, a thought came to her and she asked the cashier as to the location of a pay phone.
"Moshi moshi." came Ikuko's response as she picked up the phone.
"Moshi moshi Tsukino-san, this is Hotaru."
"Hotaru-chan is everything okay? We were getting a bit worried about you, ChibiUsa, and Usagi."
"Iie, Usagi is not feeling very well and ChibiUsa and I have to help her to walk."
On the other end of the phone, Ikuko gave a slight sigh of relief. She had been very worried every since Mamoru had called them ten or so minutes earlier greatly agitated. He had suddenly felt his link with Usagi fade to such a degree that he was no longer able sense her presence. And while based on Hotaru's description it sounded like something was probably very wrong with Usagi, at least she was alive and that was all that mattered to the mother right now. "Hotaru-chan, tell me where the three of you are and I will send Kenji to go pick you up." And so after telling Ikuko where the three of them were, Hotaru returned to where she had left ChibiUsa and Usagi.
Usagi looked up from where she had been lightly dozing against a tree as ChibiUsa announced Hotaru's return. Giving the black-haired girl a smile, she accepted the jacket and cap and put them on. Then seeing a slightly guilty look on Hotaru's face, she asked the younger girl what the matter was.
"Gomen Usagi, but I didn't think you would be able to make it back to your house by yourself so I called your mom. She is having your dad come over here to meet us. I didn't tell them what happened only that you weren't feeling well."
"Don't worry about it Hotaru. Guess I should have told you this while we were walking here, but my parents know about me and ChibiUsa, so you don't have to worry about hiding anything. Though I guess your limited explanation might help keep my mom from freaking too much before we get home."
Hotaru smiled at that, relieved that she hadn't done anything wrong. With that taken care of, the group of three moved out to a nearby park bench to wait for the arrival of Usagi's father. It was about ten minutes later, that Tsukino Kenji drove up in the family car and three of them got in for the drive home.
"What happened to the three of you?" Kenji asked.
"I don't know, I was flying and then lost all of my strength. Hopefully I am just getting sick" Usagi explained.
"Have you told Ami about this?" Kenji asked.
"Iie, I haven't seen her since we fell."
"How about your communicator, or did you damage it in the fall?" Kenji asked
"Usagi no baka." ChibiUsa chided her mother as Usagi let her head fall and bounce as she realized she had forgotten that she had a communicator which she could have used to call for help.
Activating her communicator she was surprised to be barraged by a bunch of Senshi happy that she was okay. It took a while for her to get the story out of them regarding Rubeus's trap, following which she explained what had happened to the three of them. With the immediate crisis of locating Usagi over, the communicator conference turned to how best to find and destroy the additional energy collectors. Keeping a quick pace of action, the Senshi quickly decided to pair of Uranus with Neptune, Mars with Venus, Jupiter with Mercury and Tuxedo Kamen with Ryo while Usagi and ChibiUsa returned to the Tsukino household so that Usagi could rest.
"Don't worry momma, they'll get those energy collectors soon and then you'll have all your energy back." ChibiUsa said from the back seat as she tried to wrap her arms around the seat in front of her so that she could hug Usagi.
The ride home thankfully was short and then the two young girls were headed into the house, while Kenji helped his daughter walk in. Entering the house, ChibiUsa and Hotaru came to a halt as they saw Eudial having tea with Ikuko. After getting over their initial shock they both realized that the shouldn't be surprised to see Eudial here; after all they had left a note saying this was where Hotaru was going to be spending the night. And with that they slipped off their shoes and continued into the house.
"Konnichiwa Eudial-san." Hotaru said as she greeted the older woman.
"It's good to see that you are okay after that attack on the house Hotaru-chan." Eudial replied with genuine happiness in her eyes. "I was so worried about you when I saw the house and how badly it was damaged. You father will be happy to learn that you are okay. I have been talking with Tsukino-Ikuko while we have been waiting for the three of you to get home and we both agree that it would be best for you to stay here while the house is repaired."
"Arigatoo." Hotaru said to Eudial. And then turning to Ikuko she gave the woman a large bow and said, "Arigatoo Tsukino-san for letting me stay here. I am sorry that ChibiUsa and I didn't have the opportunity to ask you before now."
"Don't worry Hotaru-chan. I am happy to have you here. Now the three of you look like you have seen some better days so why don't you all head upstairs and take a bath.
"Hai!" the three girls said.
"Oh, Hotaru, before you go. You father wants to see you to come by Mugen around ten tomorrow morning; he thinks he has the cure to your illness ready." Eudial said.
"Really?!" Hotaru asked, not believing her ears.
"Hai." Eudial confirmed.
"Hotaru!" ChibiUsa screamed as she leapt at her friend and smothered her up into a bone wrenching hug of happiness. "I'm so happy for you."
"Umm… ChibiUsa why don't you let Hotaru breath a little bit." Usagi said. And then addressing Hotaru with a smile, "Congratulations Hotaru. If I was not feeling so under the weather I probably would be doing the same thing as ChibiUsa right now."
"Okay, off to your bath the three of you." Ikuko said as she began corralling them to the base of the stairs.
Watching the three girls go, Eudial was very happy for Hotaru. Not only was the girl going to be cured tomorrow, she had really found a pair of good friends. Those two loved her unconditionally. It was too bad Hotaru had to go for all those years without friends like those two. Well at least she now had them. Her spirits uplifted even more; Eudial finished her tea and took her leave of the Tsukino household.
Racing through the night skies, the Sailor Senshi hunted as fast as they could for the extra energy collectors. Uranus remarked to herself that it was a quite brilliant move by Rubeus – use two different methods of hiding the crystals. That way should they find one half they would think they had uncovered his secret plan, not realizing that he had a second layer of cloak and dagger. As much as she was upset that Rubeus had managed to pull this over them, she was very glad that they had found that first batch. If they hadn't there was no doubt in her mind that the princess would now be dead.
"Over there." Neptune said after pausing to look at her mirror.
"You mean by that large cherry tree?" Uranus asked
"Hai, my mirror is showing a large swirling of dark energy enveloping that tree. The energy of the crystal point must be why it has grown so large." Neptune replied indicating how the cherry blossom tree in question was at least double the size of the rest of the trees in the grove.
"Any idea of how we get at the energy collecting crystal without destroying the tree?" Uranus asked, hoping that they could avoid destroying such a beautiful tree. Her first instinct of course was to say heck with the tree, the princess needed them. However, she knew her Highness would not accept that as a valid trade and with her stable for the moment she could not use the excuse that they didn't have time to look for an alternative."
Thinking to herself, Neptune tried to figure out a way to extract the enemy's crystal. In the back of her mind she had a vague idea that somehow it should be possible. Then looking down at her mirror, she got an idea. Jumping down off the roof of the building they were standing on, she walked up to the tree. Then holding out her mirror, she said, "Submarine Reflection." and hoped that the beam of energy that it emitted would not destroy the tree.
Uranus quickly followed her partner down to the ground. Seeing the attack Neptune fired at the tree, she was about to chide her partner for destroying the tree; however, when the attack finished, the tree was still standing there. But now the tree was bathed in a silver glow that itself was wrapped up in a cage of black lightning. Well this is obviously the target. Uranus thought to herself before she began to circle the tree. She got about a quarter of the way around when she noticed that all of the dark energy strands appeared to be radiating outwards from one point. Following the propagation of the energy strands, she located Rubeus's crystal.
"Now this is something that I can do something about." Uranus commented to herself as she summoned her saber. And then with a fluid slash, she had sliced the crystal into two parts. Watching on with satisfaction, she followed the subsequent disintegration of the crystal and the vanishing of its dark energy. She was then momentarily blinded by the light of the crystal point as the tree flare brightly, with the energy of the Crystal Point no longer constrained.
"Beautiful." Neptune commented from where she had come up beside Uranus.
"Hai, we need to bring her highness here sometime in the future and have you do that trick with the mirror again." Uranus replied, also awed by how beautiful the Cherry Blossom tree looked enveloped in the silver light. The two paused there for a little while, just watching the energy arc up into the sky. It was not till the silver light vanished with the fading of the spell that Neptune had cast that the two of them remembered their mission. And then in a blink of the eye the two of them were on the move again, looking for the next Crystal Point.
Sitting in the bath with ChibiUsa and Hotaru, Usagi suddenly felt a jolt. This drew the attention of ChibiUsa, "Momma are you okay?"
Looking down at the worried ChibiUsa, Usagi replied, "Hai, I am. Actually I am feeling a little bit better now than before. I guess the others must have found one of the objects that was draining my power."
It was at this point that Hotaru remembered about Usagi being Sailor Moon. The recent learning of her pending cure had of course distracted her from those thoughts. Looking over at ChibiUsa, she asked, "ChibiUsa-chan why do you call Usagi momma?"
Smiling with a Cheshire cat's smile, ChibiUsa replied, "Because she is."
"Now ChibiUsa, be nice to Hotaru." Usagi said chiding her daughter for trying to confuse Hotaru. "Hotaru-chan, ChibiUsa is from the future. So while she has not yet been born, I will be her mother." Hotaru gave a little nod of understanding with that explanation as it did at least explain why the two were so close in age. "One of the Sailor Senshi, Sailor Pluto, is guardian over time. And ChibiUsa here was sent back in time to train to be a Sailor Senshi."
"You're a Sailor Senshi too?" Hotaru asked her friend with eagerness in her voice.
"Hai, I'm Sailor ChibiMoon." She said while striking the best pose she could while seated in the bath.
"Sugoi." ChibiUsa commented before chuckling at ChibiUsa's attempt to strike a pose.
"I'll show you my Senshi form once we get out of the bath."
"So do you have any cool moves?" Hotaru eagerly asked.
This caused ChibiUsa to look a little downtrodden, given the general ineffectiveness of her own scepter attack. She was saved from further embarrassment by Usagi. "Hai, she can form her tiara into a powerful energy discuss" Usagi said mentioning that attack that ChibiUsa had used at auntie Misaki's and had apparently forgotten about. "And I am sure as she gets better she will develop more. Though I think nothing can top Mercury's snowman disguise." That comment caused ChibiUsa to break out laughing. While neither of them had seen the snowman Ami had turned herself into and were really disappointed that they had missed it, they had gotten a good enough description from Makoto.
"Huh?" Hotaru asked, wanting to know the joke. And with that, Usagi and ChibiUsa began to relate the snowman incident and from there the conversation drew onto other Sailor Senshi topics.
As the night drew into the wee hours of the morning, the Senshi finally concluded that they had probably found all of the energy collecting crystals. They had found an equal number of crystals as to those they had destroyed a few days earlier and when two hours of searching following the last discovered crystal failed to turn anymore up, Ami decided that it was likely there were no more. Satisfied with their search efforts, the Senshi had returned to their homes to try to get some sleep in preparation for the next day, for each knew that they would likely be spending the day fighting. While Ami wanted to spend time analyzing the measurements that she had taken at some of the infected Crystal Points, her mom had sent her straight to bed.
As for Tomoe, he worked through the evening and into the wee hours of the night making various final adjustments to his gateway generator. Though, before he had started on the generator he had prepared a batch of daimon eggs to be quickly matured using the energy supply that Rubeus had found. Deciding to only mature them to the minimal degree possible, he was able to mature a batch of eggs every hour and by the time the energy supply had died out, he had a few hundred warriors. While they were nowhere as strong as the individually matured Daimons, he figured that they would be sufficient to delay the advance of anybody who detected the opening of the portal.
For his part, Rubeus was making arrangements of his own for the inevitable arrival of the Sailor Senshi. While the trick with the Crystal Points had allowed him to get away with the Holy Grail without issue, he was not foolish enough to think that he was lucky enough to have killed Sailor Moon. And in any case when the Sailor Senshi arrived, they would be coming at him and Tomoe like bats out of hell for what he had done to their leader. And for that he would need some cannon fodder, a job which the rest of Tomoe's assistants fit the bill perfectly for as well as his associates.
While he was willing to let his associates delay the Sailor Senshi for a few minutes with just their guns, he had decided to augment the powers of the witches. After all, they already had some experience with magic, so giving them some more would not be a waste. And so prior to giving the Grail to Tomoe, he had used some of its energy to charge his own shard of the Wiseman's crystal.When he was restricted to just his own powers, he had been barely able to caste the spell that allowed Kaolinite to be gifted by the Wiseman with some of his powers. But this time by using some of the power of the Grail he would be easily able to bring Tellu, Viluy, Cyprine and Pitol to see the Wiseman.
With the arrival of morning, Luna opened her eyes. Unwrapping herself from Diana, she stood up and then stretching she prepared for the daily morning ritual of awakening Usagi. Though, if she had remembered her conversation with Ikuko the previous night, she would not have bothered. After seeing the gashes in Usagi's back as the girl was getting out of the bath and then hearing about the various battles, Ikuko had declared that Usagi was going to spend today at home in bed. At the time Luna had agreed that Usagi would be best served getting some needed rest, though she also suspected that Ikuko's real motivation was partially a need to mother her daughter some.
But as it was, Luna was still half asleep and with her mind not thinking straight yet she just went about her normal morning routine of waking Usagi. And while it was nowhere as bad as it was before ChibiUsa's arrival, it was still not an easy task to rouse Usagi out of bed. Padding over to the bed she absently noted that both of the futons on the floor were empty, indicating that ChibiUsa and Hotaru were already up. However, upon leaping up onto the bed she discovered that conclusion to be wrong. While it was not unusual to find ChibiUsa curled up with Usagi in the morning, she was surprised to find Hotaru there curled up as well. Shaking her head at the scene, she thought to herself If Usagi is not careful she is going to end up with another daughter, especially with how Diana's has described Hotaru's home life.
The presence of Hotaru in the bed though did give her an alternate method by which to wake up her charge. Padding over to where Hotaru was lying, she licked the young girl's face. Unlike a Usagi, Hotaru's reaction was not long in coming. Slowly opening her eyes, Hotaru turned to regard the cat.
"Morning Luna-chan." She said as she pulled the cat up to her chest and began to pet her. Then extracting herself from the grip the other two girls had on her, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and got up. Still carrying Luna, she headed to the bathroom to wash up. "So Usagi and ChibiUsa tell me you can talk." She said as she placed Luna down on the counter.
Wha… why did they tell her that? Luna thought to herself. But then the memories of everything that had occurred last night began to finally settle back in, including the realization that she could have slept in a little longer. Not dwelling on that mixed luxury, Luna now remembered that Hotaru had learned about Usagi, Michiru, Setsuna, and Haruka the other day. Now fully awake, Luna replied "Hai, that I can. How are you doing this morning?"
"Ok, I'm excited about what my father has for me. I really would like to not get sick so easily." A giddy Hotaru replied.
"And the rest of yesterday?" Luna asked. While she did not want to ruin Hotaru's good mood, she wanted to make sure that Hotaru was not suffering any ill effects from the other two incidents she was involved in.
"I don't remember much of the dinosaur attack and I don't want to think about what happened at Crown. However, flying with Usagi was very fun." Hotaru finished on an upbeat, managing to find the good in bad as kinds are bound to do.
While Hotaru had been talking and going about washing up, Luna had been watching her intently trying to determine if the girl was suffering from any physical injuries. Hotaru did show signs that she was probably still a bit banged up and there were a couple of bruises visible, but nothing serious. Satisfied that Hotaru was okay, Luna followed Hotaru back out of the bathroom.
"Hotaru-chan could you wake up ChibiUsa and Usagi?" Luna asked as they reentered the bedroom, figuring that it would be a good idea to get Usagi up for at least a little bit this morning and that way she could see ChibiUsa off.
"Hai." Hotaru replied before heading over to the bed. Shaking ChibiUsa, she tried to wakeup her up. It took a few shakes, but eventually ChibiUsa opened her eyes. "ChibiUsa-chan time to get up." Hotaru said.
If it had been Usagi, Luna, or Ikuko-sama ChibiUsa would have mumbled an excuse and snuggled back into sleep. However, as it was Hotaru, she gave in and open her eyes the rest of the way before yawning. During this time, Usagi opened her own eyes and seeing that the other two were getting up, decided to get up herself. She was still worried about Hotaru from yesterday and was hoping that the events wouldn't come back to hit her later in the day.
"Morning Hotaru-chan," Usagi said to Hotaru as she reached out and gave the girl a quick hug and then giving a longer hug to ChibiUsa, she said "and to you too muzume."
"Usagi-chan how are you feeling this morning?" Luna asked Usagi as she got out of the bed.
"Other than many aches leftover from crashing yesterday, back to normal. Were the others able to find all the energy collectors?"
"Hai, Ami believes so and I agree with her. And, I'm glad to here that you are feeling back to normal." Luna said.
A little before ten that morning, found Usagi along with her mother walking Hotaru to the Mugen Academy. Ikuko had planned on walking Hotaru over by herself, but Usagi obviously had other plans. She had been in the process of changing the laundry loads when she had heard the front door open. Instantly realizing that Usagi was trying to take Hotaru herself, she had stepped out into the hall and asked Usagi and Hotaru to wait for a moment.
And it was a good thing that she had caught her daughter as Usagi had managed to completely forget about her wings, again. Unfortunately at times for Usagi, the phrase "you would forget your head if it wasn't attached" was quite applicable. Thankfully though, she was generally pretty good about remembering about her wings. And in fact more often than not it was Ikuko who belatedly forgot about her daughter's wings when guests were visiting, but in each case to her relief Usagi had already hidden them. But every now and then, Usagi tried to leave the house or go to open the door with them still out. More often than not that occurred when she was tired such as today. And so after finishing changing the laundry loads and then outfitting her daughter with an extra long wind breaker for her wings, the three of them had headed out.
"So Hotaru-chan what is the first thing you are going to do when you are all better?" Usagi asked.
"I'm going to go run to ChibiUsa's school to give her the good news." Hotaru replied enthusiastically.
Chuckling to that, Usagi replied, "That sounds like a good idea. And then I'm sure Haruka-san would be more than happy to help you begin training so that you run a marathon."
"A marathon?" Ikuko asked, having not heard Hotaru's dream.
"Hai, Hotaru's dream is to be able to run a marathon." Usagi replied, answering her mother. And then turning to address Hotaru, she said "And I think that it is a wonderful dream, which I am going to make sure that you achieve." while giving the young girl a pat on her back.
"Arigato Usagi-san." A happy Hotaru replied.
As the topic of conversation then drifted onto to how school was going for Hotaru, they continued their relaxing walked to the Mugen Academy. And then before either of the three realized it they were there and Ikuko and Usagi said they goodbyes to Hotaru. Then after watching her disappear through the front doors of the school, the two of them turned to go home. After a few block of walking in silence, Ikuko began speaking to Usagi.
"Usagi I am very proud with how you have been handling yourself since ChibiUsa's arrival. I know it may sound a bit harsh, but I find it hard to believe that you are the same daughter of mine from before."
Not letting her mother's words sting, Usagi instead said, "Hai, I know I have done a lot of growing up over these past few months. Many times I still want to be who I was before Luna found me, not having to worry about anything. But whenever I see ChibiUsa I forget all about my own desires and can only think about her and making sure that I am the best mother that I can be for her."
"And even though you are just fourteen years old, you are doing a very good job of being ChibiUsa's mother. ChibiUsa couldn't have asked for a better mother and the pride in her eyes over you being her mother is very evident."
"Arigatoo okaa-san." Usagi replied, "I just wish that I didn't have to hide that she is my daughter."
Ikuko understood the feeling that Usagi was admitting to. Just as ChibiUsa was proud of Usagi, so was Usagi proud of ChibiUsa and she wanted to be able to be able to proudly be able to introduce ChibiUsa as her daughter instead of just a distant cousin. "I know; I wish I could tell my friends that ChibiUsa is my granddaughter as well. And while you are doing a very good job with your newfound responsibilities, at the same time I do not want you to forget to be a teenager. Your father and I are here to help."
Racing through the hallways at a pace barely below that of a run, Hotaru hoped that the treatment wouldn't take too long and that it would have its effects quickly so that she could go show off her new healthy body to ChibiUsa this afternoon. Her father had been working on this particular invention for quite a while, so she had no doubt that it would do what it was supposed to, she just hoped that it would not hurt.
Opening the door to the lab, she spied her father and cried out, "Poppa!" as she flung herself practically across the room to grab a hold of him in a hug.
"Hotaru you're full of energy this morning." Professor Tomoe said with a smile as he caught his daughter.
"Hai, if I am going to be healthy again this afternoon, then I won't have to worry about getting tired anymore."
"Well then we should get to work." Professor Tomoe replied as he let his daughter go and headed over to the machine.
Really seeing the machine for the first time, Hotaru asked, "Poppa how is that going to help make me better?" the size and design of it scaring her a bit.
"It won't directly make you better. You see, Hotaru-chan, this is a gateway generator, which will allow us to bring over a powerful healer." Eudial said as she came up behind the girl.
"A healer?" Hotaru asked.
"Hai, someone with powers like your own, but with lots of training." Eudial said, putting the best spin on what she thought of this mysterious Wiseman. She did not want to worry Hotaru with her own worries, so for now she had decided to hide her concerns about Rubeus and his goals. For now all that mattered was healing Hotaru.
"So how long will it take to open the gateway?" Rubeus asked Tomoe as he entered the lab as well.
"I'm not sure, but probably a few hours. Yesterday's temporal disruptions have substantially complicated the calculations and I have only now gotten the initial ones finished. Now I need to begin probing the gateway, so that I can get the information I need before I activate the power of the Grail."
While Rubeus didn't look too pleased with that response, he did not say anything and instead took a seat in the corner of the room. He was close enough to bringing back the Wiseman that minor time delays would not matter. And anyways he had plenty of cannon fodder should the Sailor Senshi discover their plans.
Half an hour after lunch, the classroom could barely be described as alive. With lunch settling nicely in their stomachs, the students drifted in and out from following the English lesson and even Haruna did not have the energy to scold more than a few of the students for not paying attention. And so, when an alarm began buzzing with a rough approximation of an air raid siren, the more awake members of the class and Haruna jumped slightly while the less awake members ended up falling out of their chairs.
Turning to find the culprit, Haruna did not have to look very hard, as it was impossible to miss one very read faced Mizuno Ami. Instantly putting two and two together, Haruna realized that the alarm must indicate some kind of Senshi business. And with thoughts of the previous day's devastation, she said, "Mizuno-san, you might want to think of using a more subtle setting on your beeper, such as possibly a vibrate mode. However, you are dismissed to check in with your mother."
"Gomen, Haruna-sensei for the disruption, I won't let it happen again." Ami said after standing and while bowing quite low in apology to her teacher.
Once she had left the classroom, Ami summoned her computer and quickly acknowledged the alarm. Now with that noise maker silenced, she headed down the hallway to the nearest girls restroom. Entering one of the stalls, she began examining the readout from her computer. Let's see "temporal breach attempt". "Non response of Guardian of Spacetime", must be because of that stasis field Pluto is in. Is Rubeus unleashing another demon like yesterdays? Hmm… no these readings don't look anything from yesterday's battle. Ami thought to herself as she began to shift through the various sensor readings. Before long she realized that Rubeus must be attempting to open a portal to the Time Gate, probably so that he could bring reinforcements from the future. Now having figured out the what, Ami went about trying to determine the where. Unfortunately, the readings were too diffuse to adequately conclude that. In fact, the alarm appeared to have been trigged by the Gate itself, which she realized was probably why the computer had gone into a crisis mode, as the Gate logic would have hit a crisis response when it couldn't contact its Guardian.
A couple of minutes more and still not having figured out the where, Ami was about ready to go do some roof hopping in hope of finding the where, when she remembered the readings she had taken yesterday evening and in the wee hours of this morning during the hunt for those extra Crystal Points. The analysis on where that energy might have been directed was still running and she had a strong feeling that that energy was being used at least partially for creating this breach. Her fingers flying over the keyboard, Ami issued the commands to cross compare the two sets of measurements and then under a minute later she had her answer, Mugen Academy.
Closing her computer and stowing it back in her subspace pocket, Ami left the bathroom. Taking a moment to stop by the classroom, she let Haruna know that she had to leave and then headed down the hall as she walked she activated the panic button on her communicator. Once outside, she walked down the street a few blocks till she found an appropriate alleyway to henshin. Once she was transformed, she leapt up onto the roof of a nearby building and waited there for the others to check in.
Jupiter was only a few minutes behind her in reaching the roof, having gotten herself sent to the principal's office on purpose a few minutes after Ami had left. And during the distraction that Makoto had caused, Ryo had slipped out of the classroom and had arrived on the roof with Jupiter. Usagi, of course being at home, had responded immediately. Minako, Rei, Haruka and Michiru were all a few minutes after that. Once they were all online, Mercury told them to meet her on the roof of the Mugen Academy. And Haruka and Michiru were, as to be expected, quite surprised when they learned that it was their school that appeared to be Rubeus's base of operations.
Sensing the arrival of the Sailor Senshi, Rubeus thought to himself, Well it looks like the Rabbit's protectors have arrived. Well time to unleash the demons. And with that Rubeus walked over to the counter that held the containers of semi-matured Daimon egg broth. And then grabbing a hold of the containers he teleported to the roof.
"Well, well you are being as annoying as I had expected." Rubeus said as he appeared in front of the Senshi.
"Rubeus!" replied the Sailor Senshi when they saw him.
"I'm afraid that I don't have a good quality droid for you to face today, but quantity here will hopefully make up for that." Rubeus said as he emptied the buckets onto the roof of the building.
"Yuck, what is this stuff?" Venus asked as she backed away from the foul looking liquid.
Scanning it with her computer, Mercury was about to say that it appeared to have some of the same properties of the demons they had been fighting lately, when humanoid like shapes began to grow out of the liquid.
"Okay, instant demon I take." Uranus replied before slashing one of the demons with her sword. The blade cut smoothly into and through the demon to Uranus's delight and she smiled as the two halves of the demon returned to a liquid state and fell back into the muck. But then to her consternation, a new demon reformed out of the muck to take its fallen comrade's place. "Umm… this can't be good." She said as she realized that they might have a slight problem.
While Uranus was examining her sword work, Neptune had fired off a "Deep Submerge." blowing apart a dozen of the demons. Mercury for her part had frozen a series of them into ice statues, which then promptly shattered and Venus caught three of them in a row with one of her crescent beams. And unfortunately like the one Uranus had sliced in two, all of the demons they destroyed were quickly replaced by new ones coming out of the muck.
"Mercury-chan why aren't these demons staying dead?" Sailor Moon asked as she dashed behind Mars to get away from some of the advancing demons, demons which were quickly fried by Mars.
"Yeah how are we supposed to kill them if they keep reforming?" Jupiter added.
Deploying her visor and summoning her computer, Mercury began scanning the demons and the muck that covered the ground. As she tried to find a way to kill the demons, the rest of the Senshi formed up a wall between her and the advancing demon hoard. Settling on quickly firing off their attacks with the least power possible, the Senshi moved from one demon to the next, each focusing on the area just in front of them. This process of hitting the demon with an attack, watching it collapse back into the muck only to be replaced moments later continued for over ten minutes before Mercury finally spoke up.
"Minna-san I think I know why the demons aren't staying dead. This muck that is on the ground is the base component of the demons we have been fighting lately. When it forms up into a demon, it is doing so with only the bare minimum of energy needed for maintaining a demon form. So when we destroy it, we aren't doing any significant damage." Mercury said.
"Lovely" was Uranus's only reply between slashes with her sword as she cleaved one demon and then had to quickly bring her sword around to cleave another.
During the time that it took for Mercury to do her calculations, the demons had closed into melee range. And while Uranus was being forced to hack left and right non-stop, things were going relatively good for her – at least in comparison to the other Senshi. As none of the others had any kind of melee weapons and had so been forced into hand-to-hand contact with the gelatinous creatures. And while Venus did have her chain, which could be considered a melee weapon, her skill with it was insufficient for the current task at hand.
Actually Sailor Moon did have an improvised melee weapon as well – her scepter. She hadn't planned on using it as a club, but once the hoard of demons got too close it was impossible for her to use it for its intended purpose and so she had resorted to bashing them with the club. While not as effective as a sword, a couple bashes from the club, though, was sufficient to take down one of the demons. And with Mars and ChibiMoon helping to cover her, she wasn't in anymore danger than the rest of the group in being overwhelmed. The only one in the group not bothered by the demons was Ryo who after slicing too many demons with his claws and feeling sick each time he sliced into that gooey substance had decided to phase out and wait out of this battle. Even Tuxedo-Kamen's arrival did nothing to help turn the tide of the battle as he quickly discovered that he should have invested in Rose futures before he too was forced into just bashing the demons with his cane.
With her wings, Sailor Moon was a bit worse off in fighting the demons than the others were as she had more body area that could get covered in that demonic goop. And furthermore like happened to Ryo, she was finding that her body did not react well to getting demon remnants on her wings. But she managed to put up with the effects without too much more wining than the others were doing, but when Venus speared drenching her left side in the broth that was finally too much for Usagi to handle anymore. And so, with a distinct desire to get away from that substance, she took to the air. Now hanging in the air above the demonic ooze that was preventing their entry into the school, Usagi tried to think of some way to get past what was in affect a multi-headed demon. The power of her scepter was insufficient to blast away enough of the ooze to make a difference. Her Eternal Tier was another option open to her; it had worked the other day. But she knew that if she was forced to resort to using its power now, she wouldn't have sufficient strength left to fight Rubeus. But if the current state of affairs went on much longer that wouldn't really matter. Putting that depressing thought out of her mind, she tried to think of another solution. If only there was some way to purify this ooze all at once. Wait, that's it. she thought to herself as she hit upon the solution.
Calling down to the others, Sailor Moon said, "Minna-san I have an idea"
Now finally noticing that Sailor Moon was no longer on the ground, Mars grumbled, "Just great, the Odango-atama finally remembers she can fly, leaving us to fight these things hand-to-hand." Then tossing the demon she was currently fighting with to the ground, Mars turned and threw an ofuda onto another demon. Unfortunately she failed to notice a second demon, one which now lunged at her legs, knocking her to the ground. And then before she could move to standup, the one that had been the target of her ofuda turned back into ooze and fell on top of her. Quickly finding it difficult to breath, Mars struggled to free herself.
Seeing Mars trapped on the ground, Venus and Jupiter rushed to her side, but were clueless as to how to free her. Each time they tried to grab a hold of her, their fingers would slide off her arms. The problem of course being the ooze that was coating Mars's body, but they dared not use their attacks to free her from the ooze, sure that all that that would accomplish would be to hurt Mars even more.
Looking down on the situation that was quickly overwhelming her friends, Sailor Moon summoned the Ginzuishou. With a cry of "Moon healing Escalation" she sent a wave of purifying energy towards where the others were fighting. As the energy passed across the demons, they lost their cohesion and fell down into the ooze, which itself was quickly beginning to drain away as it turned into nothing more than dust. Then with the spell completed, she dropped quickly back to the ground, landing beside Mars.
Lifting her second best friend up off the ground, she asked, "Mars-chan you okay?"
Seeing the worried face of her friend, Mars smiled as she said "Hai, at least now I am."
Then turning to look at everyone else, Usagi asked "Is everyone else okay?" And when they replied in the affirmative, she said, "Well then let's go stop Rubeus."
With a nod of agreement the group of eight Senshi, one tuxedo clad warrior, and one alien dropped down to the street and rushed into the school building.
"Okay Mercury which way do we go now?" Venus asked after they entered the school.
"Give me a moment." Mercury replied as she began trying to determine where the location of this gateway generator was.
While Mercury was doing her analysis, the rest of the Senshi were trying their best to ignore the scene that they were in the process of creating, as students all around them stopped and turned to stare at the Sailor Senshi who had barged into through the front door of the school.
"Umm minna-san, shouldn't we do something about these kids?" Uranus asked after recognizing one too many of her schoolmates.
"Well we'll hopefully be going soon and then they can go back to what they were doing." Mars replied.
"Iie, that's not what I meant. We are probably going to be fighting Rubeus somewhere in this building and…"
"We've got to get them out of here!" Usagi exclaimed as she realized what Uranus meant.
Then turning to ask Uranus how to find the main office, she was shoved off her feet by Ryo. Rolling with Sailor Moon on the ground, Ryo yelled, "Scatter!"
Stirred into action by Ryo's sudden action and then even more so by the sound of gun fire, the Senshi quickly found what cover they could in the hall. Looking over to where Sailor Moon had been standing a few moments earlier, they saw the floor had been torn up by a series of bullet shots.
"Damn this is not good." Uranus grumbled as she risked a peak around one of the lockers. "There are far too many children around here." She said as she noticed a group of fourth graders down one of the halls who only moments ago were heading there way.
"Hai, we can't afford to fight here." Venus agreed.
Trapped out in the middle of the floor, Sailor Moon and Ryo were currently hiding behind a shield that Usagi was projecting using the Ginzuishou. Thankfully the impact of bullets from the automatic weapons was not very draining.
"Anyone have any good ideas?" Jupiter asked while trying to figure out how to send one of her attacks down the hall without hitting any of the students who were also trapped out there in the main hallway.
"If they can't see us, then we will have an opening." Mercury replied as she dashed out into the center of the hall with her arms pulled up into the beginning stance of her spell. Then acting before the enemy could get a bead on her, she summoned her fog with the words "Mists of the fox" not realizing that she had cast a different spell than her normal one.
As soon as she said her words, the hall and all adjoining corridors quickly became enveloped in a heavy fog as the ambient light faded to being no stronger than that of weak moonlight. Deploying her visor, Mercury and the others began to cautiously make their way down towards their enemy, moving quietly so as to not give away their position.
Beside Mercury, Mars shivered as she began to hear the sounds of rustling and motion in the distance. Looking around, she tried to peer through the fog to find the source of the noise, but this latest fog of Mercury's was far stronger than any of her previous ones and she could barely see more than a few feet in front of her face and part of her mind was even telling her she was lost in a thick forest. Straining her ears even more so to locate the source of the noise, she realized that whatever it was, it was all around her. And now her spiritual sense began screaming about some kind of presence in this fog, almost as if it was alive. It was then that she began to hear grown men begin to scream and the assault rifles open up again. Falling back into a ready stance, she realized after a few moments that none of the shots were coming their way. Listening more closely to the sounds of the weapons, she realized that they were being fired in random directions. Though, now their sound had diminished some, as well as the number of screams.
"Nani-ka" came the questioning voice of Mercury a few moments later just before she suddenly dissolved the mist. Able to now see where they were moving, the rest of the group quickly moved up beside Mercury and saw what had surprised their friend. There on the ground lay the bodies of six men, each sporting a series of nasty cuts and teeth marks. Beside them lay their weapons, or what remained of them, all but one of them had been broken into at least two parts. The sixth weapon quickly proceeded to join the others when Uranus saw that it was still in one piece, her sword neatly cleaving it.
"What happened?" Neptune asked.
"I don't know; Rubeus must have some other demon in the area, one that did not discriminate between friend and foe and took advantage of my mist to attack." Mercury hypothesized.
"Hai, I agree with Mercury. While Mercury's mist was obscuring everything, I felt another almost demonic presence in the area." Mars said.
"Great, so we have another demon to worry about?" Jupiter asked.
"Hai, and Rubeus has designed one that makes sure that I can't use my mist to buy us time and cover." Mercury replied, not too happy with their realization.
"Well then what now?" Venus asked
"Well at least it doesn't look like we have to worry about evacuating the students anymore." Ami replied as she nodded her head towards one of the blaring fire alarms, apparently someone had pulled the alarm while the Senshi were busy with the gunmen. Then pulling out her computer, she ran some scans before continuing. "It looks like Rubeus has set up shop in the basement." And with that the group took off towards the nearest stairwell with Uranus and Neptune in the lead.
Taking the stairs one landing at a time, the warriors quickly reached the lowest basement level and then without pausing they burst through the fire door and into the hallway.
"Well, well it looks like the Sailor Senshi managed to get past the Daimon broth." came a woman's voice that of Tellu.
"In that case, I guess it is time for us to try out these new powers that Rubeus-sama has given us and prove that unlike Kaolinite and Mimete that the rest of Witches 5 are not pathetic failures." Pitol added.
"Hai, and I think I will start with the dumb blond." Cyprine said moments before unleashing a blast of energy at Venus.
Quickly following suit the other three members of the basement welcoming committee attacked the gathered Sailor Senshi as well. Scattering out of the way, the Sailor Senshi quickly came to appreciate that the extra wide size of the basement hallways, as it gave them room to actually dodge out of the way of the attacks. Otherwise taking them out would have been no harder than shooting fish in a barrel. Counter attacking the witches, the hallway soon became nothing more than a jumbled melee as witch and Sailor Senshi unleashed attacks before quickly moving out of the way of an attack aimed at themselves. As they fought, Mercury wished she could have used her mist to give them some cover from the witch's attacks.
Blocking an attack from Ryo and then blasting him with the other end of her staff, Cyprine called out to her twin, "Since when did the Sailor Senshi begin recruiting demons?"
"Don't know. Too bad for it that its invisibility doesn't work when it is between the two of us." Pitol said before bringing the glowing end of her staff down on the back of Ryo causing the Shadow warrior to shriek in pain.
"Hai, though I might just let it go if it would just shut up." Cyprine said as she blasted Ryo with a blue ball of energy, resulting in another shriek of pain.
"Ryo-kun!" Mercury screamed as she saw the beating that her boyfriend was taking. Unleashing a Shine Aqua Illusion at the red head who had her back to her, Mercury was surprised when the girl suddenly spun around and deflected the attack right back at her. Not expecting to be hit by her own attack, Mercury was suddenly frozen in place.
"Hmm… looks like we have an artist in this group. And I thought you just liked playing with your chemistry set." Cyprine said.
"Well I can't take all the credit, I had a great model." Pitol replied. "Though, I guess I should share my talent with others." She said before giving the Mercury statue a good whack and sending it flying towards the others. It proceeded to fly midway through the melee before hitting Sailor Moon in the back knocking her down on top of Sailor Mars.
"Hey Odango-atama are you putting on some weight?" an annoyed Sailor Mars said from where she was face down on the linoleum floor.
"Gomen, something hit me in the back." And then turning to dislodge what had knocked over she gasped, before crying out "Mercury-chan!"
"Wha…" Mars said as she worked her way out from under her princess and then trailed off as she saw the frozen body of Mercury.
"Well well, now if this isn't a bit touching. How about some flowers for your funeral?" Tellu suggested before throwing a handful of seeds at the three of them. Seeds which midway through the air suddenly sprouted into a flowering vine with razor sharp needles.
Unable dodge out of the way in time, both Mars and Sailor Moon cried out in pain as the vines cut into their exposed flesh and sliced through their uniforms. Ignored by Tellu, the frozen statue of Mercury finally began to thaw from the sudden warmth that spread out as Mars began summoning fireball after fireball in an attempt to burn away the killer plants. Unable to actually control where she was summoning the fireballs, bound as her arms and hands were, most of them lay harmlessly on the ground. But a few of them appeared close enough to Mercury and some as well did manage to ignite the binding plant.
Finally free of the trap, Mars advanced on Tellu while bouncing a fireball in each of her hands. "Now if you know what is good for you, you'll let me burn all the rest of the seeds that you have." Stated Mars, but she did not get to take more than a few steps before the twins launched a very bruised Ryo at her. Falling to the ground, entrapped in the many legs of the Shadow Warrior, Mars's mental defenses cut in and shut down her mind to protect it from the telepathic contact she was currently having with the creature.
On the other end of the melee, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune were not having much better luck facing off against Viluy. Very quickly the trio had learned to stay away from any electric outlet or ficture in the hallway, as Viluy's powers over electronics turned each and every one of them into deadly instruments of war. Stray to close to one and you would be attacked by electric cables with a life of their own, each rippling with a nice shocking current.
"Now what?" Uranus asked as Viluy suddenly began tossing small items out of the pockets of her lab coat.
The items in question upon closer inspection appeared to be spiders made out of one of those child mechanical engineering toy building sets. If they weren't involved in a deadly battle, they might even be quite cute. But as it was none of them had a good feeling about the swarm of mechanical spiders that were suddenly being sprawled all over the floor or the fact that they were slowly marching towards each one of them. The bad feeling increased when the back of the lead spiders suddenly opened up and a small cylinder rose up and was aimed towards the Senshi.
"Umm… I have no idea what is about to happen, but I say jump!" Jupiter hastily said. And as the three of them jumped out of the way, three dozen class IV lasers opened fire blasting substantial chunks out of the basement wall.
Landing, the three of them were very dismayed to realize that the mechanical spiders had tracked them. Jupiter and Uranus were blown off their feet by the second volley of fire. However, Neptune had summoned her mirror and consequently had reflected the attacks directed at her back at the swarm of spiders, turning many of them into smoking wrecks. Or at least for a few moments into smoking wrecks as very quickly they reformed and began stalking towards their targets again.
Seeing the reforming spiders from where she had been knocked to the ground, Uranus just grumbled to herself, "Great just like the goop from earlier it's another group of instant heal demon." Then getting to her feet, her thinking out loud continued, "Well until Mercury gets a chance to figure out how to stop them for good or the princess does her trick again, World Shaking." And with that Uranus blasted a large swath of destruction through the swarm for a few moments. Following on her lover's lead, Neptune also began using her Deep Submerge in an attempt to keep the spiders in pieces.
Also returning to her feet, Jupiter took a few moments to examine the battle between Uranus, Neptune and the spiders and got an idea. Rushing into the center of the swarm of spiders, her brazen move caused both Uranus and Neptune to stop attacking as all the spiders turned to face the tasty treat which they now had surrounded.
"Jupiter-chan what the heck do you think you are doing?" Uranus practically yelled at the Thunder Senshi.
"Well this witch's power seems to be electronics and you know how bad lightning strikes tend to be for computers. Well I figured that these spiders might be similarly vulnerable." Jupiter said explaining her actions before tuning them out as she began to concentrate drawing all of the available electrical energy that she could. Around her the spiders suddenly froze in their motions, devoid of energy, and the lights began to flicker. As she drew the electricity toward her body, it arced from the various sources into the antenna on her tiara. Her body now crackling with electricity, Jupiter spoke the words. "Thunder Dragon Plunge." And with that the buildup of energy around her body suddenly took the form of a dragon which proceeded to dive straight into the ground, resulting in a sizzling wave of current radiating away from her body. And as the wave impacted the spiders, each one briefly lit up as every circuit was overloaded before becoming nothing more than a dead husk.
Awed by what was happening, Neptune and Uranus did not realize till too late that standing on the ground while an electrical surge was heading your way was probably not the best of ideas. They only had time to look at each other's face with the realization of what was about to happened before the wave hit them too and they screamed out in pain before they fell to the ground unconscious.
Viluy of course had taken to the air, the moment she realized what Jupiter was planning to do. As for the rest of the participants in this battle, the strength of the surge had died out enough by the time it hit them to cause them to only stumble in their steps and in the case of the Sailor Senshi to send nasty looks Jupiter's way.
"Well if you want to play with high voltage, two can play that way." An annoyed Viluy said before blasting the recovering Jupiter into a wall with an arc of electricity.
Venus of course had managed to miss the initial part of the battle, given that she had been the first target of the witches and unlike the other Sailor Senshi had not been able to move out of the way in time. Upon recovering she had attempted to help Ryo with Cyprine and Pitol but the twins did not seem to even need to look her way in order to repeatedly bat her into a wall as they proceeded to fight Ryo.
Then when the twins had decided they were done playing with Ryo things had gotten a whole lot worse for her as they were now able to turn their full attention to bashing her around with their staves. Quickly realizing that she was not going to survive long in this 2 on 1 battle and knowing that the others were likewise fully occupied, she decided to see how much camaraderie the witches had for each other. Hopefully they would be like Beryl's generals and would be looking for an opportunity to off each other, in which case she might just be able to make it out of this mess alive.
With much effort and pain, Venus slowly led the twin witches towards where Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen were trying to avoid being turned into plant fertilizer. Risking a quick glance to confirm where the Tellu and her opponents were, Venus leapt into the air and fired off a pair of her crescent beams, one at each of the two twins. As expected they easily dodged the energy beams and had retaliated with an energy attack from their staves – aimed right at where she was supposed to land. There was no way she could dodge those attacks, or that would be the case if she was to land on her feet, but with a smile Venus splayed her body and closed her eyes knowing that the face plant was going to be quite painful.
Pitol and Cyprine could only watch on in surprise as the blonde haired Senshi proceeded to hit the floor face first, having made no attempt to land on her feet. Looking at each other with a questioning look for a moment before looking back to their target, they suddenly realized what Venus's plan was since at that moment their attacks hit Tellu square in the back. But then with nothing more than a shrug, the twins returned to dealing out pain to Venus.
Venus's gambit came at the right moment for Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen as they had run out of room dodging the plants that were quickly beginning to cover the entire floor in the area. To make things even better, as Tellu attempted to return to her feet, Mars and Ryo rejoined the fight. Now fighting against two Senshi, one Tuxedo clad warrior who had limited powers over plants and a Shadow Warrior Tellu quickly found herself being overwhelmed. With no one being thrown into her, Mars was now able to incinerate the plants that Tellu called forth as fast as the witch tried to call them. And then with a scream of pain, Tellu was down on the ground as her leg began to bleed profusely through a series of claw marks.
"What happened?" Sailor Moon asked, not having seen the attack that had taken Tellu down.
"With the three of you distracting her, I was able to get in close and cut her with my claws. After much recovery she will have use of her leg again, and if we bandage the wound now, she will live." Ryo said, knowing that Usagi would not want any of their opponents to die if they could help it.
"Hai," Sailor Moon replied, already moving to patch up the wound on Tellu's leg. For Tellu's part, the shock of the blood loss had gotten to her and she had passed out, no longer a threat.
Then as soon as she had the wound patched up, the four of them joined Venus in her fight against the twins. As for the fought against Viluy, Jupiter was now done for the count. The spell she had cast to take out the spiders had really taken a lot out of her and as a result she was only able to put up a token resistance against the witch. But thankfully, by the time she was fully out of the fight, Uranus and Neptune were back in and with them no longer having to worry about tiny spiders packing deadly lasers, the two of them were able to double team Viluy back into a corner.
Never moving far from each other's side, Neptune was able to deflect every blast of electricity that Viluy sent their way, while Uranus used her sword to slice through any electrical wires that Viluy attempted to call forth. Dodging Deep Submerges and World Shakings, Viluy tried to think of someway to gain the upper hand again when she felt the cold concrete of the basement wall press into her back. Knowing that she had run out of time, she reached into her pocket to pull out one more contraption, a contraption that was quickly sliced in half by Uranus's sword in a strike that also sliced across the her left side of her body. Badly injured Viluy fell to the ground. Trying to get back up she suddenly was lifted into the air by a quick kick from the now minimally recovered Jupiter. Not yet recovered enough to use her spells, Jupiter however was fully capable of following up her kick with a strong punch to the face of Viluy knocking her unconscious.
Even though all but three of the Senshi were now battling the twins, the situation hadn't really improved for the Senshi. About the only improvement for Venus in the fight was now that there were more Senshi she was getting bashed quite so often since there were others to be bashed as well. Getting fed up over being tripped by the red haired twin, Mars twisted as she fell to the ground and unleashed a wave of fire from her hands. The fire of course completely missed either twin, since Mars had attacked in rage, and instead had slammed in the ceiling of the basement. Like many laboratory buildings, the ceiling here was unfinished and so her fire proceeded straight into the utility pipes and melted a steam line. Thankfully Mars had also melted a water line, so no one got scolded by the sudden mist that enveloped the hallway.
"What the?" some of the others called out as they tried to figure out what had just happened.
And of course with visibility nil, Sailor Moon managed to find Tuxedo-Kamen's dropped cane by tripping over it and giving a cry of "owie!" as she hit the ground. Then picking herself up, she gulped as she a glowing blue light just a bit further away in the mist.
"While I am not sure what your fire happy friend was thinking, I don't think you need to worry about it much longer." Cyprine smirked as she fired a massive ball of energy at her target.
However unbeknownst to Cyprine, Pitol had been thinking the exact same thing and had unleashed a deadly attack at Sailor Moon as well. While the two of them were too close to Sailor Moon for her to have been able to dodge if she had been one of the other Senshi, they had failed to take into account her wings. Wings which with a strung flex gave her an extra push up into the air, allowing her to clear ground zero just in the nick of time. Unfortunately for Cyprine and Pitol as was the case when they had accidentally hit Tellu earlier, they had not aimed their attacks at the ground and the two of them had been on exactly opposite sides of Sailor Moon. Eyes widening in fear, each of the witches took their twin's blast in the chest. Blown off their feet, they hit the ground and quickly slipped into comas.
When the Wiseman had given the twins their powers, he had given them complimentary opposite powers. This made the two of them quite deadly, but it also meant that they were especially vulnerable to each other's attack, a drawback that they had now learned or would learn if they ever regained consciousness.
As soon as Mercury had realized what Mars had done to the pipes, she had used her ice to temporarily seal the pipes. Then as the mist finally faded away, she gave a sigh of relief that the unknown demon from before had not made a second appearance. And with the mist now clear, they were able to see that their opponents were finally down for the count and so began the process of bandaging wounds before they moved onto Rubeus. But before they did that, Mercury had Mars melt the damaged pipes shut, and then they were off again.
Reaching the final door, no one blinked an eye as Jupiter and Uranus blasted it clear off its hinges and deep into the lab room. Then slightly more cautious than when they had entered the basement, the Sailor Senshi entered the laboratory and were immediately forced to scatter when Rubeus attacked.
"Well, well, you Sailor Senshi are definitely more trouble than I had thought you would be." A very confident Rubeus said from where he floated in the air midway between the group and a giant machine in the distance.
Taking stock of the room, .the eyes of all the Sailor Senshi except for Usagi and ChibiMoon were drawn to the giant machine and Rubeus. The eyes of Usagi and ChibiMoon were instead drawn to a black haired girl who was sitting on a chair near the machine, a girl that the two of them instantly recognized to be Hotaru.
"Hotaru?" the two Senshi asked.
Hearing her name called, Hotaru looked up to see Usagi in her Sailor Moon outfit. What are the Sailor Senshi doing here? she wondered and then taking a good look at the room again, she suddenly felt a chill in her soul as she realized that her father was somehow connected to the demon attacks. Any further thoughts, however, were ended when Rubeus teleported back to where she was sitting and grabbed her by the neck.
"Now Sailor Moon I am sure you don't want to be responsible for this girl's death. So be a good girl and don't move." Rubeus commanded.
From where she had been working beside the professor, Eudial gasped in horror when she saw Rubeus ruthlessly pick up Hotaru. Abandoning her work, she rushed over to save Hotaru, and as she did so she unhooked from behind her back one of her custom creations. After getting up from the few hours rest she had had last night, Eudial had stopped by her office before returning to the lab to pick up her Fire Buster. At first she had interpreted the feelings that she was having as being indication that someone would try to prevent Hotaru's cure, but now she realized that her intuition had been telling her not to trust Rubeus. Aiming for Rubeus's legs, the only part of him that she could confidently hit with out worrying about Hotaru, Eudial unleashed a stream of fire.
Noticing motion out of the corner of his eye, Rubeus turned his head in time to see Eudial charging towards him with furry in her eye. Quickly taking to the air, he managed to avoid the majority of the fire that Eudial sent his way, though his lower legs did get singed. Ignoring the pain, Rubeus turned his full gaze to the woman who had now come to a halt.
"Well I see that you have outlived your usefulness. The Wiseman was correct in knowing that your desire to protect Hotaru would make you too much of a liability." Rubeus said before blasting Eudial.
Eudial tried to shield her body with her arms and hence the Fire Buster she held as well. However, the blast quickly burned through the Fire Buster, igniting its fuel tank in a mighty deflagration. Blown backwards with her front singed by the fireball, the rest of Rubeus's attack then impacted her chest – charring her stomach and internal organs in third degree burns. Falling to the ground in unimaginable pain, she was left to stare at the smirking man as her body began shutting down, death being unavoidable.
Not wanting to take any chances with the professor defecting, Rubeus now proceeded to send a pulse of energy into the crystal shard that the professor carried. With the good professor now under his full control he asked, "How much longer Tomoe-san?"
Looking up from his work with a large smile the professor picked up the grail and set it down on its platform. "None, the gateway is being opened as we speak."
And he was right, as behind the device a region of the room began to grow increasingly dark as it seemed to pinch itself away from reality as it formed a portal to another plane of existence. From where they stood, stopped by Rubeus's taking of a hostage, the Sailor Senshi could only watch helplessly as darkness spilled out of the growing portal while Rubeus laughed. Then before they knew it a robed figure holding a purple crystal ball slowly glided out from the portal, bringing a deathly chill with him that caused each of the Sailor Senshi to shiver.
Returned to reality, the Death Phantom grinned with glee. Ahead of him lay the Sailor Senshi, and by the time they reached him it would be no trouble to crush them. Glancing to the side of the portal he saw his servant Rubeus and the professor that Rubeus had recruited. There was also a small child that Rubeus was holding by the neck, inwardly smiling some more he realized that must be why the Senshi were frozen in place like statues. Taking a few moments before the inevitable chaos broke out, the Death Phantom regarded Serenity, her aura was quite strong and in some ways more powerful than that of her future self. That was not good, but beside her stood the rabbit and she was also stronger than she was in Crystal Tokyo and that was good. Once he had taken the girl's body as his own, defeating Serenity would not be an issue.
Then feeling an unknown sympathetic energy the Death Phantom tried to locate its source. Very quickly he realized that he was feeling its presence through one of the crystal shards, which was very curious. Focusing in on what remained of the crystal, he now realized that the source of the energy was the child that Rubeus was holding. Now using the crystal shard to probe this energy, he smiled as he confirmed that she like him held the power of pure destruction – her soul was black as night.
This child would be a perfect a 1st to stand beside him as he took down this universe before moving onto the next. And combining her powers with those he was going to get when he took the Rabbit's body, there was nothing that would be able to stop them. Now searching his memories for the child's name, he slowly approached the girl.
From where she was being held in midair, Hotaru watched in horror as Rubeus brutally cut down Eudial – a woman who was like a mother to her. Eudial was the one who would protect her from Kaolinite's verbal abuse and gave her the will to live during those long periods when she rarely saw her father and before she met ChibiUsa. Struggling with all her might, Hotaru tried to free herself from Rubeus when her papa began activating the machine he had been working on. She did not know what kind of evil was about to come out of it, but she was now sure that it was evil and she also knew that she was the only reason why the Sailor Senshi were not destroying it. She had to get herself free from Rubeus.
Unfortunately, her struggles were insufficient and far too quickly pitch black darkness began to leak into the room. Strangely as much as that darkness chilled her soul and made her want to run away and hide, she was also strangely drawn to it – almost finding comfort in it. And then the evil which her father had called forth had entered their world. Gulping in fear, she realized that the creature was now regarding her. Feeling as if his eyes were peering into her soul, she suddenly felt very dirty. Trying to shy away in revulsion she was unable to and then the creature began caressing her right cheek.
"Yes it is as I thought. Rubeus you have done very well. This child you hold is kin to me and holds tremendous power." the Death Phantom happily stated, startling the Senshi and Hotaru. Now looking at Hotaru he continued, "Awaken my Soldier of Destruction. Come serve your master and cast away your mortal body."
As he spoke those words, the Death Phantom began channeling a portion of his energy and essence into the crystal fragment that she held. Feeling the energy exploding out from within her body, Hotaru screamed. Now released by Rubeus, she collapsed to the ground as the energy that the Death Phantom was feeding her soul began to burst out from within. With each passing moment the energy coursed more densely and Hotaru withered and screamed in even more pain. On the other side of the room, the Senshi could only stare in shock and horror at what this creature had done to Hotaru. Then a full minute after it had begun, the energy vanished and Hotaru found her strength returning.
Once her strength had fully returned and more so, Hotaru stood up. At first ChibiMoon and Usagi were pleased to see that she was alright, but their happiness died when they got a good look at her face. The warm eyes of the Hotaru they had gotten to know and love were gone, instead cold glowing purple orbs remained and on her forehead an alchemic letter was etched in purple as well. Then after reaching out a hand to summon her weapon of destruction, the Silence Glaive, Hotaru knelt on one knee in front of the Death Phantom.
"My lord I am in your dept for awakening me and saving me from that frail mortal body. What is it that you wish me to silence?" The Soldier of Destruction asked.
"Take the Holy Grail and use its powers to bring me the rabbit. We need her alive, though only by the barest of margins, so that I can merge with her and gain dominion over the Ginzuishou and the Golden Crystal. The others you can destroy."
"As you wish my lord." Hotaru replied.
While the Hotaru was pledging her loyalty to the Death Phantom, the attention of the Sailor Senshi was drawn by a telepathic scream from Ryo. Turning to look at Ryo, they saw him screaming in agony as violet energy clashed with silver energy along his body while his golden crescent moon glowed brightly and he tried to break free so that he could answer the siren's call. But as one moment passed to the next, the amount of violet energy decreased and the silver energy seemed to take on a more solid cord like appearance. And then when the last of the violet energy had vanished, the silver energy solidified into binding cords and Ryo fell to the ground unconscious.
"Ryo-kun!" Usagi cried out in concern when Ryo fell to the ground. Rushing up beside him, she looked at Mercury who had also moved instantly to Ryo side. "Mercury-chan what happened to Ryo?"
"I don't know, but at least his life signs are stable." A worried Mercury replied.
"How touching, such concern over my foot soldier. Don't worry once I kill Sailor Moon here, Urawa will be free to carry out my bidding again." the Dark Soldier that was once Hotaru said as she walked towards the Senshi.
Unsure of how to react to this demonic persona that had obviously possessed Hotaru, the Senshi fell into fighting stance but did not take any further action. Seeing that the Senshi were going to give her the honor of making the first move, the Soldier of Death unleashed a wave of black lightning at the group. Ready for the attack, the Senshi jumped out of the way and upon landing unleashed their own set of attacks – attacks that vanished harmlessly upon meeting a barrier created by Hotaru.
"Now, now did you think my power of the Silence just applied to taking peoples' lives? Your attacks are no different, especially since they are merely projections of your souls." A smug Hotaru replied before dashing towards the group with blinding speed.
Caught off guard by Hotaru's rapid movement, still considering Hotaru to be a weakling, she was past their ranks before they knew it and Sailor Mars and Uranus were down on the ground – the two Senshi who had stood near her path. Mars had been taken down when Hotaru had jammed the butt end of her pole arm into her stomach. Uranus met the other end of the pole arm and now lay on the ground clutching her arm trying to staunch the flow of blood. Smiling at the pain she had inflicted, Hotaru turned to regard the others just in time to be hit front on with a blast of from Usagi's Moon Scepter. In seeing Rei cut down she had forgotten who they were fighting and had instead become consumed with the soul need to protect her 2nd best friend.
The attack from Usagi knocked Hotaru into a cabinet full of glassware on one of the laboratory walls. Quickly recovering from the attack, Hotaru landed on her feet. Then summoning her Silence Wall to nullify another round of attacks from the Senshi, she retaliated by slashing her glaive down at Sailor Moon. As she did so, a black blade of energy was released along the direct line from the tip of her blade to Usagi. Barely having any time to react, Usagi brought her Scepter up to block the attack. Grimacing under the strain, she was pushed back a few feet, but she managed to hold her ground. At least she held her ground till the scepter snapped in two and then the final remnants of Hotaru's attack bowled her over.
Seeing the Sailor Senshi getting ready to attack her for yet another time, Hotaru decided she just wanted to end this battle. And looking over at the child that her master was so interested in, she noticed that the tuxedo clad warrior had her safely off to one side, which meant that she could unleash her full power on the rest without worry.
Summoning the grail, which the Death Phantom had given her, Hotaru spoke to her attackers. "Foolish Senshi, don't you know that I am the Messiah of Silence, nothing can stop me, especially when I have the power of the Grail."
Then slamming her glaive into the ground she unleashed a massive blast of energy at the Senshi, sufficient to kill them all as well as taking out a good mile of Tokyo's real estate. Knowing that the others would never be able to get of the way in time from Hotaru's attack, Usagi discarded her broken scepter and ran in front of the attack. Throwing her arms and wings out, she called upon the power of the Ginzuishou moments before the blast overcame her.
Curious as to why Sailor Moon had just thrown away her life, she after all had been far enough to the side of the epicenter of her attack to have been able to escape, Hotaru waited for the dust to settle. Once the dust had settled, she noticed that her blast had dug a nice ramp out to ground level in what use to be an exterior wall of the basement. But she also noticed to her annoyance that Sailor Moon had some how managed to erect a silver dome, thereby protecting the others from her attack.
While the dome had protected the Senshi and the bound Ryo from the worst of Hotaru's attack, the shield was not perfect. Some of Hotaru's attack did slip through and it had left six very badly bruised Sailor Senshi. As for Sailor Moon, she still stood, but her wings and fuku were slightly scorched. Feeling her strength faltering Sailor Moon slipped down so that one knee was resting on the ground. Looking up at Hotaru her expression had become one of confusion and pleading for the young girl to explain why she was helping Rubeus.
Walking closer to the weakened Sailor Moon, Hotaru just smiled, soon the battle would be over and she and her master in his new body could go about bringing the Silence to the entire universe. Reaching out her glaive so that it pointed directly at Sailor Moon's chest, she did not need to speak. It was clear that with the next attack Sailor Moon would be dead.
But then Sailor Moon found her strength returning as a hand was placed on her left shoulder. Looking up over that shoulder she saw that Tuxedo-Kamen had come and was now lending her his strength. Returning to her feet, she summoned her Eternal Tier. She was not sure how useful it would be given the bad record she had in using its attack, but she did feel more comfortable holding it in her hands. Bringing the tier up in a ready position in front of her chest she found her body gaining even more strength as ChibiUsa now joined her on the right side, wrapping an arm around her leg.
Smiling down at her daughter, Sailor Moon said, "Don't worry muzume, we'll get Hotaru back to normal somehow." Then turning back to look at Hotaru she called upon all of her power, letting her Serenity form take over. As she did so, Mamoru's Endymion and ChibiUsa's princess forms also took over. And so now two princesses and a prince looked towards Hotaru with expressions that said they wouldn't rest till she was saved.
Taking a step forward from Endymion and princess Usagi, Serenity said, "Hotaru-chan you don't have to do this. I don't know what that demon did to you, but we all liked the Hotaru that we used to know. I know you are my daughter's best friend." Serenity implored the opposing warrior. And to the last part, princess Usagi vigorously nodded.
"The Death Phantom did nothing; he only awoke the power that was already in me. And it was that power, which showed me my destiny. Now Princess Serenity, the last of the moon princesses it is time for you to finally meet the Silence."
Reacting quickly to Hotaru's attack, Serenity used her Tier to deflect the blast and then the second and third blast.
"Well you seem to be doing a bit better now, but how will you do against a grail enhanced attack?" Hotaru asked as began calling upon the power of the grail to unleash a series of violet-black ribbons from the tip of her blade.
Quickly realizing that the Tier would not be sufficient, Serenity dropped her staff letting it vanish and instead called forth her crystal. Erecting a silver shield with it, she poured all that she had into to stopping the attack. But even as she felt Endymion and her daughter add their own support to the barrier she knew that it would not last. Her mind racing, she tried to think of some way to stop Hotaru – preferably one that would allow her to still heal Hotaru.
"Princess give it up, you are no match for the power of the grail. You do realize that the attacks that humanity faces are because of you." Seeing the confusion cross Serenity's face she smiled and continued. "Don't be so surprised, I am the force of movement, I can see the shadows which cross the white moon. Your rebirth here on Earth shattered the seals holding Beryl and her army imprisoned in the fabric of space. Twentieth century Tokyo faced the wrath of Rubeus, because of your daughter and your future actions as queen. Did you know that 30th century Tokyo is utterly destroyed, the only survivors being those lucky enough to be in the palace during the attack. It was your actions you know which led to the creation of the entire Dark Moon Army.
"And yet more shadows will cross the moon and cause pain and suffering for the people of this planet, and all because of you. Should you cease to exist the people of this planet will be spared from those wars. If you really do desire to protect the people of this planet as the Silver Millennium was formed to do, you will see the truth and end this lie. Your time ended with the fall of the Silver Millennium. Join the rest of your people and succumb to the great silence."
Serenity tried to think of a counter argument, but none would come to her. The more she tried to think of a reason to justify her right to live, the more she realized Hotaru was correct. Not even the efforts of her love and daughter helped. Dropping her head and arms slightly she began to give in. Her efforts not so full hearted, Hotaru's attack grew closer. But then a conversation she had with father Morgan came to her mind.
"Usagi-sama you have a destiny to fulfill. You are the chosen one; you will bring Utopia to everyone. I knew this from the moment you healed me. It was further confirmed when I heard of the prophecy which foretold your birth and fall of your kingdom. Know this, before you can come fully into your power, you will have to walk through fire.
"Don't worry about those of us who fall during the fires. We gladly make our sacrifice so that you can achieve your destiny. Only you can bring heaven to Earth and protect us from those who wish to destroy it. The consequence of you failing is far greater than the price we will pay for you to accomplish your task."
Gaining strength from those words of Morgan, she straightened her back. "I think not, the people of this planet need me, I will give them the utopia of Crystal Tokyo. If I was gone, who would protect the people of this planet from demons like this Death Phantom? He would have attacked whether or not the Dark Moon rebels existed; they were merely a convenient set of tools for him."
Pausing for a moment, she looked Hotaru in the eye. "Let me heal you." She pleaded with the dark haired girl one more time. Beside her Endymion and ChibiUsa's auras began to glow and energy streaked from their hands into her crystal. Golden energy came from the Earth prince and pink from their daughter.
"Moon Healing Esca…" Serenity began, but before she could finish her spell to her horror the crystal shattered.
From where they had pulled themselves to their knees, the fallen Sailor Senshi's eyes went wide as they all cried out "NO!" in horror.
For the first few moments the shattered fragments of the Ginzuishou moved forward against the tide of Hotaru's attack. But then the unrestrained wave of Hotaru's attack swept them up and plunged into Serenity. There was nothing anyone could do but watch in horror as the deadly ribbons impacted into Serenity's chest lifting her into the air and backwards. And then the razor sharp fragments joined the ribbons and began slicing into Serenity, not one of them failing to hit her.
When the attack was over, princess Usagi and Endymion lay knocked to the ground from when the attack had hit Serenity and Serenity lay in a crumbled form in the opening that Hotaru had previously made in the wall. The silver hair's girl chest was barely rising with her now very labored breaths as her crescent moon began to fade. Along her body, Hotaru's ribbons continued slipping in and out. While her eyes were open, her mind was barely there, which was a good thing as she would have otherwise been blinded by the pain of the ribbons and her multiple broken ribs, broken legs, and a shattered right arm. And then as Serenity's body began to glow silver, the Senshi all began shedding some tears.
"Momma, momma!" Usagi cried out between sobs as she broke down in tears.
Beside his daughter, Endymion's world collapsed as Serenity's life was cut short. She was everything to him, his reason for living after his kingdom fell, the light in the darkness of his orphan life here in the present. Stunned beyond being able to form a coherent reaction to what had just happened his mind began shutting down, not wanting to acknowledge reality. As he his own will to live began to journey through his link to Serenity and to oblivion he saw Usagi. Tears running down her face as her body shook uncontrollably with tears, he reached out to pull her into his arms and some of his will to live began to return – so that he could take care of her.
But then as the silver light faded away and everyone expected to see a lifeless body or maybe even nothing, they were all shocked as Serenity began to slowly pick herself up. "How?" was a question more than one suddenly very tired Senshi asked, amazed that their princess was still alive and then they were even more amazed when they realized that her injuries from before appeared to have been healed. For his part Endymion had to hold onto his daughter tight to prevent her from running over to where Serenity now stood, knowing that the battle would be rejoined very quickly.
Looking more closely at Serenity, they saw that she was wearing her Sailor Fuku again, however this time it was different. Instead of the outfit she had worn since the battle in the artic, this one was nearly pure white with many of the frills of the previous fuku gone. The only color on her fuku now was a series of vertical strips on the front of her skirt and the yellow fabric covering her shoulders. And then even more surprisingly the crescent moon was gone from her forehead, replaced instead by a large star burst. She still had her wings, arcing out majestically from her back and upon standing she had summoned a long silver staff. Again the staff was far less ornate than her previous ones and was adorned simply with a crystal sphere and a pair of small wings at one end.
If Pluto had been present in the room at the time, she would have dropped to her knees in recognition of her one true liege while at the same time screaming in her mind over how things had changed so much. Hotaru had succeeded in killing Sailor Moon, the Moon princess was no more. But as Sailor Saturn was the soldier of both death and rebirth, the energy of the attack had also given Sailor Cosmos the phoenix ability to arise from the ash. However, Sailor Pluto was not there so no one knew the gravity of what had just happened, not even Sailor Cosmos. To her, she had only a few moments before felt the last of her life slipping away as she realized that she had failed Hotaru. But then somehow something had saved her and now she had a second chance to not fail Hotaru.
How is that possible? There is no way she could have survived a full hit from my Death Reborn Revolution, especially with it having been enhanced by the power of the grail. Hotaru thought to herself as she too was riveted in position, not even considering for the moment that her opponent had also healed herself.
Hotaru's contemplation came to end though, when Cosmos gave a powerful downward swoosh of her wings and took to the air. The battle returning to the forefront of her mind, Hotaru also moved into action. Releasing Rubeus's trademark set of black spheres of energy, Hotaru was not surprised when Cosmos easily dodged the attack. That was to be expected, instead she had used them to distract her opponent while she setup to unleash another blast from her grail.
Up in the air, Cosmos knew she could not dodge the second incoming attack and so she instead crossed both of her arms in front of her body and then to her surprise she formed a shield of ice, which blocked that attack. Not pausing to ponder how she had created that shield she instead let her staff vanish as she dove towards Hotaru. Reaching halfway to girl, she brought her hands together and unleashed rings of fire from her outstretched palms before pulling out of her dive.
As expected, Hotaru easily blocked the attacks before retaliating. And so began a ranged battle between the two opponents, each of them blocking and then unleashing an attack before moving quickly to another part of the room hoping to find a position that would give them some kind of an advantage.
From where they lay, the Sailor Senshi could not believe their eyes. They had never seen Usagi fight this good before. While she had recently gotten fairly good with all of her added training, both Senshi and the martial arts class that her father sent her to, she was still far from achieving this level. And then there was the issue of the various attacks she was using, none of them being anything like her usual ones.
Seeing Cosmos unleash a shower of energy beams, Mars suddenly realized what seemed so odd about the attacks. "She, she's copying our attacks." Mars whined to the others.
Venus opened her mouth to argue the point, but closed it when she saw her princess form a sphere of water similar to Neptune's deep submerge before throwing it at Hotaru. Instead, Venus just nodded her agreement.
"What I want to know is how she survived that blast, and what about the Ginzuishou. To my eyes she appears to be even stronger than before, not to mention she is putting us out of our jobs." Uranus said.
Pulling out her Mirror, Neptune looked at it and almost dropped it. Looking back again she spoke, her words unsure, "It is her, she in the chosen one. She is the Messiah of Light."
Rei was about to comment about how could Odango-atama be the Messiah, but then thinking about it she instead said, "That makes perfect sense to me. However, that does not explain how a blast that was supposed to kill her only mode her stronger."
"I don't know, all I know is that she and the crystal are now one. As for her power, she is drawing on the power of the 8 planets." Neptune replied.
"I didn't think she could draw upon the power of Earth, unless Endymion physically touches her." Mercury stated.
"Earth is not one of the eight."
"But there are only seven of us, unless. But there is no Senshi for Saturn awaken yet."
"I don't know why, but if it is Saturn. Then Saturn is the reason why the princess is able to fight that solider of darkness." Neptune said while pointing to the very bright energy stream heading towards their princess.
From where they stood by the machine that had opened the gateway, Rubeus, the Death Phantom and Tomoe watched the unfolding battle in awe. Tomoe his mind still controlled by the crystal fragment only thought of how strong and healthy his daughter looked, never considering that what had made Hotaru Hotaru was now gone.
The Death Phantom was disturbed however when he saw Serenity somehow survive and become even stronger after that attack from Hotaru. No longer so sure of his inevitable victory, he realized that he needed to take his new form quickly. Once he was in the body of that child he would be able to pull the power of the Ginzuishou out of Serenity. Looking over at the rabbit, he saw to his delight that that she was relatively unprotected. Yes, Endymion was with her but he was obviously not expecting an attack and he was far less of a challenge than any of the rest of his protectors. Sending a quick mental order to Rubeus, the two of the teleported over to their target.
From where he stood with an arm wrapped around his daughter, Endymion watched his love wield her power in a battle that was one that bards would have immortalized in song and story had they seen it for there in front of him was a classic example of the yin and the yang. By this point the two fighters had now moved on from using ranged attacks and were instead clashing together their staffs in an attempt to bring the other down. With each attack, the two warriors were pushed apart by the violent release of energy that occurred each time the staffs touched each other.
So caught up was he in the unfolding battle, that he had forgotten about Rubeus and the Death Phantom. And so it came as a surprise when upon sensing something he turned his head and saw Rubeus floating only a meter or so distant from him. Eyes widening in alarm, he was unable to do anything before Rubeus had blasted him. Returning to his feet, his alarm grew even greater when the Death Phantom suddenly appeared next to his daughter. Running to save Usagi, he drew his sword but was unable to reach her before the Wiseman had grasped a hold of the young girl with his own bony hand and the two of them had vanished.
However, Endymion did not let the kidnapping of his daughter falter him. There was still one participant in the kidnapping standing in front of him and leaping forward into the air he called upon the Earth to give him the strength to smite this foe. Then as he reached the apex of his leap he began bringing his sword down, which was now shimmering golden energy. Unable to get out of the way in time, Rubeus tried to block the attack with a shield spell. But within seconds the sword had overwhelmed his defenses and cut quickly and deeply into his side, leaving a long gash. As bad as the cut was, the pain from the blade of the sword was minor in comparison to that Rubeus was now experiencing from the sword's energy. With the golden energy of the Earth burning away at his soul, Rubeus felt his body go limp as he fell to the ground. Now barely able to focus his eyes, the last thing he saw was the cursed blade once again plummeting towards him and then his dead body lay on the ground, unworthy of any purification.
With the prize in his hand, the Death Phantom rematerialized beside the gateway. Everything was going perfectly now, in but a few moments he would be able to transfer his essence to body of this child and then he could begin consuming this world. Feeling the rabbit try to struggle, he looked down at the child and grinned, there was nothing that she could do. And with that he began to forcibly channel his pitch black soul in the child.
For her part, Usagi tried to fight back at first struggling against the strangle hold that she was in and then against the mental invasion. As she fought, the horrors from her previous encounter with the Death Phantom came to mind and she remembered how he had once before turned her against her parents and friends. Not wanting to let that happen again, she tried to call upon the power of her shadow crystal as the pain of what the Death Phantom was doing to her continued to increase. As she fought she began to think that the struggle was hopeless, but then her confidence began to sore as she felt one of her moonbeams begin to build. Knowing that one of those blasts would be enough to buy her sometime, she began to smile.
But that smile was quickly wiped from her face by the Death Phantom. Realizing what Usagi was about to do, he unleashed the entire power of his being into Usagi. As he did so, he crackled, "Sorry my little one, not today." And with that, Usagi screamed one final time before her body went limp as her Sailor Fuku faded away to leave her street clothes behind. On her forehead a dim crescent moon birthmark now glowed. And with that, the rabbit was ready to be possessed.
Feeling more than seeing the attack on her daughter, Cosmos paused in her attack on Hotaru to scream "ChibiUsa-chan!" while simultaneously falling to her knees.
Following Cosmos's gaze, Hotaru saw the girl who had only a while earlier been her best friend go limp in the Death Phantom's hand. Seeing that sight somehow managed to for the moment shatter the hold that the Death Phantom held over her as memories of ChibiUsa came back to her. Letting the silence glaive fall to the ground with a clang, Hotaru slumped down onto her knees as well.
Not noticing the change that had overcome Hotaru, Cosmos spread her wings once again and took the air. Flying as fast and as hard as she could, she could only think of one thing killing that creature. Dark emotions which rarely tainted her soul now were the only things she could think about as she began charging her staff to unleash a deadly attack. About ready to dive bomb that demon, she was suddenly sent spiraling out of control when the Death Phantom summoned a defensive barrier in front of her right wing.
Now turning his attention to his little Firefly of Destruction, the Death Phantom realized that she was no longer under his control. But it was a simple matter to increase the energy that he was using to bind her to his will. And as he did so he told his tool, "You can't fight my power. You know it's your destiny to join with me."
For her part, Hotaru did try to fight the Death Phantom's attempt to regain control. She tried to hold onto to those happy memories of ChibiUsa, but it was a loosing battle and one by one those memories began to fade away. And before long she was struggling to hold on to one final memory of her friend – when they had first met.
Don't fight the darkness, embrace it. a regal voice said in her head.
Huh? was Hotaru's response to the voice telling her to give in to what she was fighting so hard against.
Firefly you are the darkness, it is your birthright. Only by embracing it can you avoid having it consume you.
But… Hotaru tried to argue, not wanting to become the killer that this demon was trying to make her into again.
Don't fear the darkness; it has protected you and my granddaughter in the past. Embrace that power now.
Realizing that she really had no other option as she barely could even remember ChibiUsa's face, Hotaru began to embrace the darkness. And very quickly she felt her mind drowning in that blackness as she felt herself being overwhelmed by the desire to bring about death and destruction. Panicking Hotaru tried to push back against the darkness, but it was no use and the last fragments of her memories of ChibiUsa vanished. Gathering her resolve she turned and dove down into the depth of the darkness as fast as she could before she could loose her resolve.
As she dove she found that the darkness was no longer quite so black, instead she found that the blackness was tinged with a violet light, a light that became stronger the farther she dived. Finally reaching the source of the light she found an alternate her wearing a Sailor fuku and cloaked in shadows holding a glowing crystal. Then as this alternate her turned her face to regard Hotaru, she once again wanted to run away for the look on her other self's face was one that the innocence of Hotaru never wanted to have.
But Hotaru knew she did not have a choice, it was either take this soldier of the night into her soul or give her body and soul over to that demon forever. Taking tepid steps forward, Hotaru reached out and grabbed a hold of the crystal that her other self was holding. All the while this other self neither said anything nor did she make any moves. All she did was to coldly regard Hotaru with the assessing eyes of someone who had fought many hard battles.
As soon as she took the crystal into her hand and brought it to her chest, her other self raised her face fully out of the shadows and gave a heart warming smile before dissolving into motes of lights. The motes of lights now looking like fireflies began to circle around Hotaru surrounding her in a cylinder of light. Closing her eyes, Hotaru could feel the warmth of the crystal as it began to pulse in turn with her heart. Pulling it in even closer she smiled as the crystal gave one final warm blanketing pulse before vanishing.
As Hotaru was diving through who she was, the Death Phantom began to feed more and more energy into the shard in the young girl's body. Cursing in an ancient tongue he realized that he was loosing control of this girl and that soon Serenity would have her on his side. While he was sure she would not pose a problem once he took possession of the rabbit's body, the possession would take a few minutes. Minutes, that he was quickly realizing that he was not going to have. And so ignoring the rabbit for the moment he focused all of his energy on trying to regain control of Hotaru.
But as Hotaru whispered the words "Saturn Planet Power Make-Up!" he knew he had failed.
As the words were whispered, Hotaru's body suddenly exploded outwards in a violent explosion of violet energy. After shielding their eyes from the flash, the others dropped their arms to see that all that now remained of Hotaru was dozens of what looked to be fireflies, fireflies which begun to swarm closer and closer together, forming into a body. Then with a ripple the body solidified into the final Sailor Senshi of the Silver Millennium – Sailor Saturn.
Looking down at her hands Sailor Saturn saw that she was still holding the grail. Not yet sure of this new power of hers or even sure if she really wanted to fight, she instead looked over to her side where her best friend's mother stood. Catching Cosmos's eyes, she said "Usagi, catch." before tossing the grail over to the other girl. Glad to be rid of that powerful artifact, Saturn allowed her body to fall down to her knees as her mind tried to come to cope with everything that had just happened.
Having watched Hotaru fight her internal battle from the expressions on the young girl's face, Cosmos was very glad when she heard those five words that the girl had whispered. She almost broke down in tears when those words had apparently caused the death of Hotaru, but then rejoiced when she realized that they were just dissolving away the evil of the Death Phantom by renewing Hotaru's body. Now with the complete confidence that shortly everything would be back to normal for the Hotaru, Cosmos caught the offered grail and turned to face off against the Death Phantom.
But then in a cruel twist of fate with a bone chilling scream, the smile was wiped off of Cosmos's face as her two golden spheres of energy impacted her back. She remained standing with her back arched forward for a few moments before the blindingly bright shining crystal that was her soul was forced out from the front of her chest. And with that her soulless, lifeless body crumbled to the ground.
Stunned by what had just happened, the others just watched helplessly as the crystal was caught by another warrior. Closing her hand around the star seed, Sailor Lead Crow smiled and said, "Mission Complete."
End Chapter
-I am sure that quite a few of you are not going to like where I just ended the chapter, especially since I rarely end with cliff hangers. However when I sketched out the battle between Usagi and Hotaru back when Gundam W was still showing on Cartoon Network this had seemed like a perfect place to put a break, thereby giving the Gundam W reference more impact. Anyways the chapter as it is quite long and writing the full climax of this book would have pushed the completion date off till the summer at the earliest.
-For those wondering about Sailor Lead Crow, yes Pluto's stasis barrier is now no more
-I hope everyone is correctly following the use of names for Usagi, ChibiUsa and Mamoru. Once Usagi takes her princess form, ChibiUsa and Mamoru takes their royalty forms as well and hence I begin to refer to those two by Usagi and Endymion.
-In case you are wondering Usagi does not know that she has become Sailor Cosmos or that anything was different.
-The "toys" that Viluy used are based on the Replicators from Stargate SG-1
-As far as stories to tide you over till next time here are my latest recommendations:
"Of Mikos and Mutants" by Sayingirl which you can find posted at by The Collector, who incidentally is also posting this story at Freedom of Speech Fan Fiction as well.
"Ranmazoku" by PansutoTarou5925 a Ranma-Slayers-Sailor Moon crossover of different sorts. Ranma is a "monster" from the Slayers universe and things play out from there. Hotaru also gets to play a darker prominent role in this story.
"Process of Elimination" by Brian Randall ). This story is primarily a Ranma Tenchi (OVA) crossover and takes place when the world is being faced with destruction. The primary Tenchi characters are Washu and Tsunami. Other series do get crossed in and in the later chapters also include heavier crosses with Sailor Moon.
