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

Chapter Eighteen

By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk

As best they could, all twenty-four people and cats (Hotaru had counted) crowded into Central Control beneath the Crown Center. Artemis had been working day and night (to avoid Zara's wrath) with Ami's findings of both Dark Angel and the rifts. Now that there was a rift in Rei's courtyard, they had even more data to run.

It seemed that since the realm of time space they were dealing with was so unusual, and therefore not very compatible with the other surrounding realms of time space, every time a new rift was made in this dimension, the guarding spell weakened. Either that, or Angel wasn't too adept yet at wielding the dark power, and couldn't seal up her rifts completely. Either way, they had managed to gather a tiny bit of data on Catastrophe's realm without actually entering it yet.

Artemis brought up a 3-D representation of the dimension on the computer and projected it so everyone could see. "This is a rough adaptation, but it's pretty accurate from what we've gathered. It seems as though he's shaped the realm into a kind of moving fortress. And when I align the computer to the rift's signal..." He punched a few buttons and little red dots appeared inside the fortress. "This is a live feed, basically. It shows where everyone in the fortress is at the moment." He pointed at two stationary red figures in an upper part of the fortress. "I'm guessing that these two are Catastrophe and Angel, and that all the moving ones are minions."

"There's a ton of them!" said Minako. "How will we get by without being caught?"

"I've been working on new transformation devices with Artemis," said Ami. "They're going to have this same function to display Catastrophe's realm. We'll know where everyone is at all times, including ourselves, in case we get separated. All that's left to do is infuse them with our powers."

"And," added Artemis with a proud feline smile, "I've been working on a new power-up for all of you!"

Rei glanced around at everyone and raised an eyebrow. "You'd think with twenty-one senshi and Mamoru-san, we'd already be able to take a bad guy down."

"We've already seen a little of what his power can do," said Luna. "We can't be too prepared."

"Hey," said Zara, who was still looking at the projected realm. "What is this little white dot?" She pointed at a solitary dot near the very bottom of the dimension that wasn't moving. "Why isn't it red?"

Artemis examined it and frowned. "I don't know. I programmed the computer to display everything with dark power as red. Whatever that is, it must not be evil."

"A prisoner," deduced Makoto. "So we've got someone else to rescue, too."

"Then we are going to rescue Celeste?" asked Zara.

The white cat turned back to the computer and brought up another projection of data. This one was of Celeste, or rather, Dark Angel. He made the projection transparent and everyone could see a dark entity pulsing inside.

"This is the representation of Catastrophe's dark power. We've discovered that, even though Celeste is no longer a senshi, she's not inherently evil..."

"Of course she isn't!" Zara said, getting angry.

"I-I know that!" Artemis said hurriedly. Zara was scary when she wanted to be. "It means that she can be changed... But only if she wants to change. The good inside her has to overcome the bad. It's not easy, but it CAN be done."

"That's true," said Usagi. "It happened for the Dark Moon family and for Allen and Ann."

"And for me," added Mamoru. "All of it occurred due to the power of love. It seems to be the only emotion strong enough to overcome evil."

"There's plenty that Celeste loves," Zara said with great certainty. "If anyone can overcome it, she can."

"Well, what we're really going to do is get in there and re-kidnap her. Then we can try and change her back," finished Luna. "And we need to do it soon, because Catastrophe seems to be gaining in strength with every passing day."

"What should we do until we're good to go?" asked Ami.

Luna and Artemis exchanged looks, then turned back to the senshi, seriously. "Training."

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They actually didn't have much time to train, but everyone was paired off and spent as much time as possible learning to fight to compliment their partner's powers. Artemis and Luna tried to pair up senshi whose powers were opposites, like fire and ice, so that they covered a broader spectrum and hopefully did more damage to whatever or whomever they were fighting.

Somehow, Seiya and Zara were paired up together. It may have been due to the death glare Minako sent Artemis as everyone was matched. That same glare was used to pair herself up with Yaten. But at any rate, Zara spent much of the next two days with Seiya.

"It's not that I'm trying to always be conceited," Seiya was saying one day as they were sitting down, taking a training break in one of the rooms at the temple. "I've just found that when you pretend to be confident all the time, people tend to listen to you more. I guess I've gotten so used to it, I come off as an arrogant jerk." He took a water bottle from Zara and took a sip.

"Yes, you do," she said. "But I guess I can understand. Celeste was always saying that I act conceited when I'm really not. I thought it was fun to act confident when I really have no idea what I'm doing."

He grinned and handed the bottle back to her. "So you admit it. The thing for me is, I kind of stopped caring whether or not people are offended. As long as what I wanted was never obscured by it, I just went ahead."

"You know, Seiya, you're actually a pretty nice guy... Have you ever tried just being yourself?" She took a sip of water.

He thought about it for a moment as he blotted his brow with a towel. "I can't remember. I've been this way for too long, I think."

"You're being yourself with me, aren't you? I mean, right now, you're not being a jerk."

He laughed. "Well, there's nothing I want from you at the moment."

"I'd be less inclined to give you anything if you were being a jerk."

"But see, if I were being a jerk, I wouldn't wait for you to give it to me; I'd just take it from you."

"You'd have to fight me for it." She was smiling. These verbal sparring matches were really fun.

"I'd win."

"Okay, now you're being a jerk."

He laughed again, then held out a hand to help her to her feet. "Come on, enough of this debate. Let's get back to work. We can decide later how much of a jerk I am."

"Oh, I've already decided that."

As they laughed together, neither noticed Minako peeking her head into the room and grinning like a fool. She skipped off to find Yaten. If Seiya could be melted by Z, then Yaten could not hold out much longer from Minako's considerable charms; she was sure of it.

To be continued...