"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"

Chapter Fifteen

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

Catastrophe led his victim through the halls of his dimension, a wicked smile playing on his lips. He looked down at her, stiffly walking beneath his arm, her chin at a rebellious angle, her angry eyes forward and refusing to look at him. Not for long. Soon, her eyes would only be for him.

"So quiet," he said, conversationally. "Will you say nothing to me? I did, after all, come all the way down to the dungeon to speak with you."

"Then, speak."

"You would talk to an old friend as you would a dog? How rude."

"I speak to people as I feel they deserve to be spoken to."

"Very well, if you insist on behaving like a three year old, I will treat you like one and take you over my knee." He inclined his head and breathed in her scent at the side of her neck. In her present condition, she couldn't move away, but she shivered at the rush of cold air. "We never did get that far in our relationship, did we?"

She took a sharp intake of breath. "Stop it, Taka..."

Instantly, his hand closed like a vice around the back of her neck and she felt that tightly coiled power that could easily be used to snap her spine. "I'll thank you not to use that name to refer to me ever again." His tight voice was deadly serious.

She took a chance. "It is who you are to me."

His fingertips dug slightly into her skin. "That weak vessel no longer exists. Use it again and I will not hesitate to kill you."

"If you wanted to kill me, you would have done it by now."

"Then I'll have to think of a more interesting punishment."

She took the hint and fell silent. His hand fell away from her neck and came to rest at the small of her back.

"Now, then," he said, resuming his more conversational tone, as if he hadn't just threatened her, "there's something I want to show you." They stopped outside of a large double door and it opened for them. The interior was dark.

"It's not like I have a choice."

"No," he agreed, and walked her inside. The door closed solidly behind them. Once inside, he released her from his power. "I've sealed the door, so don't try to escape, but I thought this would be more amusing if you weren't standing like a statue."

"What would be more amusing?"

He snapped his fingers and candles lit, illuminating the room they were in. Light revealed a large, opulent bedroom with a canopied, four-poster bed at the center. Everything was in red and black and lit by tall black candles in brass holders. He was resting lazily against one of the bed's posts, a knowing half-smile on his face. She paled and backed away from him, but when she hit the door behind her, a sizzling backlash sent her staggering a few steps forward. He hadn't been bluffing when he said the door was sealed.

"You dirty girl," he said with a chuckle. Apparently, he'd gotten his amusement. "Get your mind out of the gutter."

"Why else would you take me here?"

He pushed away from the post and came closer. "To make you uncomfortable, of course." He circled her and she froze as he lifted her hair away from the back of her neck and ran his tongue along her nape. "Don't worry, Angel," he said in that silky tone, "when I take your body, it will be with your full co-operation."

"What!" She tried to pull away from him, but he had her hair fisted in one hand.

"That's the other reason I brought you here." He waved his free hand and more candles illuminated another section of the room. At the far end of the bedroom was an elevated platform, long enough to lie on. He wrapped his arm around her waist, pinning her arms, and he pulled her close. His large frame nearly engulfed her smaller one. Whispering in her ear, he said, "That is where I am going to infuse you with my dark power, my little Angel. That's where you will become my willing slave."

Held captive in his embrace, Angel let the tears fall. Now she knew why he had kept her alive. He wasn't simply going to hold her as a hostage against the other senshi, he was going to use her as a weapon against them. Her heart felt as though it were breaking. If she harmed one of her friends in the battle that was surely coming, she'd never forgive herself.

Suddenly, her heart pounded in her chest. The Star Wand was somewhere in this room. While Catastrophe was otherwise occupied with her neck, she moved only her eyes and looked about. The pull seemed to be coming from an ebony cabinet on the opposite side of the room. Slowly, she gathered her power within her. He would know the instant she let the spell go off, but hopefully she could catch him enough off-guard that he wouldn't have enough time to counter.

His sharp teeth nipped at one sensitive earlobe. "What's going on inside that pretty head of yours?" he murmured. "Aren't you going to beg me not to do it? Don't disappoint me now. I had hoped for something other than those lovely tears."

"You're horrible," she said, not wanting to arouse suspicion by being too quiet.

"And you hate me?" Her statement seemed to have made him delighted.

"No."

"No?" He lifted his head slightly to look at her.

"I feel sorry for you." With that, she released the spell and the cabinet shattered.

Catastrophe flung around and watched, stunned, as the Star Wand let out a great flash of blinding light, then dimmed and lay there as useless as a toy. He turned and grabbed her by the throat, using his other hand to twist her arm behind her back.

"What did you just do?" he growled, furious.

She coughed, but managed to answer him in a strained whisper. "You should have known I wouldn't go down without a fight." She cast a glance to the now dark Star Wand. "You might as well throw that away. I just expended all its power." As she spoke the words, her fuku disappeared, leaving her in her costume from the concert, which also faded and melted from her body. She was unable to cover her naked form at the moment, however.

He tightened his grip. "To do what?" When she just smiled at him, he shook her roughly. "TO DO WHAT!" She passed out from his tight grip around her throat and with a scream of outrage, he tossed her onto the platform like a rag doll.

For a moment, he fumed with anger. But slowly, a chuckle worked its way up from him, until it was a full-bodied sinister laugh. "Very good, my once-love," he said, approaching the unconscious form on the platform, her long golden hair offering her scant cover under his gaze. "It appears that I underestimated you." He leaned closer to her and stroked the side of her face, his claws lightly skimming her cheek, then running down her arm and across her hip. "But that is the last trick you will ever play on me," he whispered. "When the sun rises on Earth tomorrow, you will be all mine."

Another laugh bubbled up as he used his power to turn on the apparatus. At once, Angel was bathed in a dark purple light and even as she slept, Catastrophe's power began to fill her veins, erasing all thoughts of her friends, of Yuki, of anything... but serving her new master.

Far across the stars, beyond the Galaxy Cauldron, there was the realm of the Sky Castle, the place where all Messengers of Danger were born. And within the Hall of Souls, surrounded by ivory statues of each Messenger that has come before, lay the Holy Crystal.

All was quiet until Angel released her final spell from the Star Wand. Then, the Holy Crystal began to glow with an intense light. A voice rose up from the midst of the Crystal, and it echoed throughout the castle, "Rise up, thou who have served and passed. The time has come, and ye are needed once more."

At these words, each statue began to glow with the same light and a ghostly apparition of each girl stepped down from their pedestals. They might have had different hair styles, were of different heights, and different body types, but each possessed a set of wings and a sailor fuku which marked their rank as Messengers.

This was the power of a Messenger of Danger, when she has reached her last resort. She could choose to give up her power and send an emergency warning to the Holy Crystal that would then raise the spirits of the past Messengers. They would go to each planet and sound the alarm, raising each available warrior to the cause. Soon, Catastrophe would have his hands full of powerful senshi to deal with. As Angel had said, she would not go down without a fight. With the last of her power, she would send a message to the senshi on Earth and prepare them.

And then... a new Messenger would be born. As Angel's consciousness slipped away, she hoped her successor would not be as foolish as she had been. And that she could convince her friends to kill her when they needed to.

To be continued...