"Sailor Angel and Sailor Phosphora: The Fight Against Catastrophe"
Chapter Twenty
By Angel Sentier and M'Lila Cronk
Zara leaned against the wall of the room they'd placed Angel in, arms crossed, frowning. A nearly transparent silver dome circled the bed on which Angel was laying, protection courtesy of Sailor Omega. It allowed Warrior Ice, also in the room, to use her Ice Staff to heal her, yet cause the dark powers to 'die' while within the walls of the barrier. Her former friend was motionless... for now.
Seiya sidled in and stood against the wall next to her. "You okay?"
"Yeah. Just thinking."
"About what?"
"How I can get Celeste to wake up inside of all that evil."
"Well, Celeste loves you. Power of love and all that stuff."
"Yeah... But will it be enough?"
Seiya didn't have an answer for that. He reached down and took her hand in his, squeezing it briefly. "It'll be okay."
"You shouldn't make promises you don't know if you can keep."
"That wasn't a promise. It's a hope. Still got that, right?"
Zara gave him a half-smile and squeezed his hand back.
Warrior Ice stopped her ministrations and detransformed. "She is healed. At least, in body."
"Thanks," said Zara.
"Let's go see what everyone else is doing," said Seiya. "I have a feeling she's not going to be very happy when she comes to."
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In one of the larger rooms, Rei was handing Yuki a cup of tea. His hands were shaking slightly and he apologized for it. "I can't yet summon enough strength to heal my most recent wounds," he said.
"No problem," said Minako with a smile. "We can ask Ayesha to help. Oh, here she is..."
When Yuki turned to greet Zara, Seiya, and Ayesha, Ayesha gasped as she laid eyes on him. Instantly, she fell to one knee. He grimaced slightly.
"Greetings, your highness," she said in a highly respectful tone.
"Your highness?!" echoed everyone else.
"Yes," said Yuki, somewhat reluctantly. "I'm actually... Prince Yuki. Please just call me Yuki. It's not how I would have preferred to introduce myself, but..." He glanced at Ami. "I suppose this makes it as good a time as any for the explanation I promised." He sighed, trying to decide the most tactful way to bring it up. "I am the Prince of Mercury, so incidentally... I am your older brother, Ami-san." At her shocked expression, he continued quickly. "I didn't want to tell you until you remembered on your own, so I apologize... If you doubt it, then..."
With a bit of an effort, he stood up and rotated the jewel on his bracelet. Instantly, his body was enveloped in an icy mist and when it cleared, Yuki was wearing full body silver armor with blue jewels. "I am Mercury Knight, healer and guardian of the planet." He indicated Mamoru and Usagi. "Just as the Earth Prince guards the Golden Crystal and the Moon Princess keeps the Silver Crystal, so do I protect the Aqua Crystal." He held up the bracelet to show them the jewel. He rotated it the other way and detransformed. "This is why I was so glad to see you. You had been on Earth for so long, and your memories were gone, so I didn't want to visit you..." His voice caught slightly. "I just... missed my sister."
"This is getting more confusing by the day," said Minako in an undertone to Zara. "But it makes sense, I guess... Somehow..."
Ami was silent for a moment, trying to digest all the information. "I'm a little... overwhelmed..." she said, finally.
"I understand," he said, instantly. "Take whatever time you need." He smiled, a bit shyly. "Now that I'm here, we have all the time in the world."
"Not exactly," said Artemis, breaking into the family reunion. "Now that we've got Angel back, we've got to get her back on our side as soon as possible. I've been reevaluating the old data along with the new that Ami brought back from your trip through the rift. Catastrophe is actually a lot stronger than we originally thought."
"Geez, Artemis," said Minako. "Don't you ever have any good news?"
The white cat had the grace to look somewhat embarrassed. "I don't mean to be all doom and gloom..."
"It's okay, Artemis," said Rei. "We know you're just doing your job."
He sent a grateful look to the fire senshi. "Well, based on this new data, we're going to need every bit of help to defeat him. It turns out, he's been studying us. Ami found traces of each of our energies in the fortress. He's been looking for weaknesses. I'm guessing that the only reason he hasn't followed us out to Earth after we ambushed him is because of the new power-up you've just received. He has to start all over before he can attack."
"But he won't wait long," added Luna. "Which is the reason we don't have 'all the time in the world.'"
"Yeah, he was pretty mad," said Minako.
"That's an understatement," said Zara.
"We're going to need every bit of help we can get to defeat him. That's why we need to wake up Celeste-san's inner goodness," finished Artemis.
"Wait a minute," said Makoto. "I thought she wasn't a senshi anymore. Wouldn't she just be a regular person if we managed to wake her up?"
"Setsuna-san?" prompted Luna.
The time senshi stepped forward. "It is written that once a Messenger of Danger dies, a new one will be born instantly."
"But no one's shown up," protested Rei.
"Exactly. Celeste-san's powers must not be entirely dead, or someone would have arrived already. And it is up to us to revive her."
"I'll help," said Yuki. "Before that bastard turned her, we spent some time together, and I did some healing on her. I know her body's chemistry, I might be able to do something."
"And I'll help," said Zara. "I know Celeste the best."
"I'll help too," said Seiya, though he offered no explanation.
"So," said Artemis. "Before we go up against him, there's just one more thing to tell all of you." It didn't look easy for him to say. "Prepare for the worst."
All of the senshi exchanged looks, knowing what that could mean.
"Yuki-san," said Zara, suddenly. "You didn't happen to find out why Catastrophe wanted Celeste in the first place, did you? I mean, we figured he wanted to use her against us, but... I don't know, that reason alone just doesn't jibe with me, somehow."
He stared at her. "You mean you don't know?"
Everyone exchanged glances and shook their heads. Yuki released a breath and ran a hand through his dark blue hair as he shakily sat back down at the table.
"Warrior Ice," he said, addressing Ayesha by her title. "If you would do me a favor and heal me so that I can manage to stay awake, I'll tell you all a story of star-crossed love, loneliness, and a fatal mistake of the heart." He tossed his tea back in one gulp and prepared to bare Celeste's deepest secrets to her best friends.
To be continued...
