Disclaimer: I do not own anyone from "CardCaptor Sakura". They are all owned by the ladies of CLAMP who are much more talented than I. (smile) I also do not own anyone from "Sailor Moon". They are all owned by Takeuchi Naoko whose vision will live eternally. (smile) (Much to Elflina's dismay...) All other characters are my own. Feel free to steal them.

I do not hold chapters ransom for reviews, but I sure appreciate compliments, constructive criticism, and grammatical corrections. So if you feel like it, please press that little review button, and let me know what you think. Acknowledgments at the bottom today. Enjoy!

Vital Ensoleillé means Life (Essence) of the Sun - Raya

Moonlit Sakura

Chapter 28 –Dissipating Fog

King Necro laid King Wisp's body on the makeshift bed in the temple. With a grimace of sympathy, he felt the child's rigid muscles resist all attempts to move them. The boy's eyes were glazed in shock as he stared blankly up at the stone ceiling.

"Geist isn't going to be happy about this," the older man grumbled to himself a little nervously. "Not one little bit… Blasted, useless, interfering guardians!"

After several minutes of helpless watching and shield casting, King Necro sank to the edge of the bed in relief as the boy cried out, relaxed, and curled into a fetal position with his eyes closed. Whatever attack the senshi had thrown at him had finally worn off.

Kin Necro studied the sleeping child for a few more minutes, then strengthened the shields around him and walked out into the jungle to look for more herbs, roots, and fungus.

Several hours later, Pallas sat in front of the main computer with a stony face. Celeste stood beside her, gently resting her right hand on Pallas' left shoulder. Behind them, June and Bessa flanked Vital and Lady. The room was silent as they watched Super Sailor Mercury stop at the site where Neptune and Uranus were last known to be alive.

After almost an hour of arguing, crying, and yelling, Ami had finally won. Lady had been the last hold-out. She had finally fallen silent, just begging with her dark pink eyes for Ami not to sacrifice herself in this way. Silver tears had streaked slowly down her face, wrenching at the hearts of the people around her.

Ami had walked up to her and gently drawn her into a hug, taking care not to crush Diana who had lost consciousness once again. "Small Lady. Please, no more tears. I'm not going to die. You will see us all again," she whispered reassuringly into her princess' ear. As Lady's tears smeared onto her own face, she added another request. "Please, ChibiUsa-chan. Please be strong just this one more time," she had whispered pleadingly, arms tightening around the younger girl. "Let me do my part to find them. Let me rejoin my friends…"

The others had watched as Lady's eyes grew big, and then her face crumpled. She had wrapped her left arm tightly around Ami and squeezed her back. They stood that way for a long moment, tightly wrapped in each other's embrace. And then, Lady had pulled away.

She had held her head up proudly, and with a set, emotionless face she nodded her permission. "Find them for us, Sailor Mercury," she had said in an unwavering voice. After Ami had given her a wide-eyed nod, she had turned and walked silently from the hall.

Vital had moved to follow her, and then stopped as to look back towards the Doors he had pledged to guard. "Don't worry, Vital-san," Celeste had said quietly. "We will stay with her."

Later, when Diana awoke once more and learned that Helios had arrived and was guarding the Doors of Time with Pegasus, she had volunteered to take his place so that he could be with Lady. Secretly, she felt a desperate need to make up to Pluto and the others for guiding the enemy to the Doors.

"Synchronization check," Super Sailor Mercury said softly.

"Synchronization still at 100 to nine zeros," Pallas responded after glancing at the readings. "Data reception rate at two Bytes per one tenth of a nanosecond. All unnecessary systems shutdown. Memory and cache usage low. Lunar backup reports same. Tracker and transponder communication clear." She paused a moment, and then added "We're all set here, Mercury-sama. Good luck."

Super Sailor Mercury smiled at the honorific then reached up to press her right earring. Immediately, her heads-up visor formed around her face.

As her hand dropped back down, it fell to the little silver charm attached to her choker band. "Grace notes can stand on their own," she said softly to herself. "You were right, Usagi-chan. But they need their friends in order to shine. Even alone, together. Draw me to you."

She released the charm, and began to walk carefully and cautiously towards the temple where her enemy hid.

King Necro jumped as his telemetry alarms screeched a warning inside his head. "Not again!" he growled, thoroughly put out with the senshi and their interference of his simple mission. He turned down the heat under the pot of soup he was making then gave King Wisp's shields one final check.

'I'd better lead them away from here,' he thought to himself as he turned towards the doorway. 'Geist will torment my soul for several millennia if anything happens to her little boy…' He stepped out into the muted green sunlight to face his intruder.

Super Sailor Mercury studied the landscape through her visor with interest, almost forgetting her mission as it reported that a good-sized building complex had once stood here. Only the tops of the structures were visible after so many years, and they were overgrown with trees, vines, and shrubs. The computer extrapolated sizes, dimensions, and shapes underground based on the remains it could find, and projected them onto her visor. Only her sharp reflexes, honed by eight wars and centuries of training, allowed her to dodge the spell attack that the enemy threw at her.

She dove forward and to the left as the ground to the right of where she had been standing exploded. Quickly, she rolled back to her feet and scanned the area for King Necro's presence. Her visor warned of another blast in time for her to jump out of its path.

Realizing that the computer was once again having problems breaking through his cloaking shield, she relaxed and let her instincts take over.

"Mercury Shine Aqua… ILLUSION!" she cried, tossing the blast toward the apparent source of the attacks. Even as she threw it, she dove to her right, narrowly avoiding another attack.

"Mercury Melodic… SPRAY!" she cried again, blanketing the area with chiming ice crystals. As she identified the spot where the crystals seemed to shatter in a bubble pattern, her eyes narrowed. She called the attack again aiming for that same spot. Suddenly, she could see her enemy.

"Only one of you?" he called tauntingly. "And here I thought this would be a challenge. Where are your remaining friends? Don't tell me they let you come to take care of me all by yourself! Or are they too scared to move now?"

Super Sailor Mercury shook her blue head with a small, secret smile. "No, they're not scared. They just haven't started attacking yet since I don't need their help. Can't you find them?"

Her enemy frowned, and eyed her suspiciously. On the one hand, he couldn't believe that these simple weaklings could have developed a stronger cloaking shield than him. On the other, if they did, it made sense for one of them to act as a rabbit to draw him out while the rest surrounded him for the final blow. 'Got to get them away from here…' he thought to himself again as he looked around surreptitiously. Her satisfied smile drew his attention back to her.

"They shall meet the same fate sooner or later," he said with a confident, evil smile in return. "None of you can break my shields, so I don't have anything to worry about. You, on the other hand," he continued as he raised his wand and cast his paralyzation spell at her. "You are mine." His smile widened as she tried to struggle against the spell.

Back in the central control room, Celeste tightened her hand on Pallas' shoulder. Pallas winced, but didn't complain. Vital, Bessa, and June all exchanged worried glances as Lady continued to watch the scene on the screen with a complete lack of emotion.

"Mercury Bubble Spray… Freezing!" Super Sailor Mercury called, throwing the power of the attack out of her paralyzed hands and straight up the corridor that he had formed between them. As he became encrusted in ice, she blinked and wondered if she had accidentally gone too far. Her eyes narrowed as she once again began concentrating her power, hoping to put an end to this after all.

For a long moment, the two of them struggled magically: Mercury's ice against Necro's paralyzation spell. Suddenly, however, the ice around King Necro shattered. With a furious glare, he began to wave his black wand and chant the banishment spell.

Super Sailor Mercury cried in pain as he finished and her left arm disappeared. He smiled again, watching and holding onto his shield and paralyzation spells, as her body began to disappear in small chunks. His smile faltered, however, when her triumphant eyes met his.

"There's one… small problem… with that spell," she gasped as she held his eyes. He frowned again, offended and disturbed. Quickly, he glanced around for her friends. "It's… incomplete," she said as her lower half disappeared.

He snorted then dropped the paralyzation spell. "Sure it is…" he sneered as her right arm disappeared. Her smile continued to unsettle him, though. "It…," she started then screamed in pain. "It is…" she sobbed. "See you… soon…" she added as she faded completely out of sight.

Nervously, he scanned the area once more and then teleported away to his backup hiding spot hoping to draw the remaining senshi after him.

"Track him! Track him!" Celeste yelled, jumping for the computer.

Pallas reached out and knocked her away. "I am! I am! Don't touch anything! You'll make me lose Mercury-sama!"

Keeping one eye on the memory and processor loads which had skyrocketed, Pallas keyed in the tracking commands. "Blast!" she yelled angrily as the memory spiked and overloaded. "Blast, blast, Mercury Bubbles Blast!" She smacked her hand hard against the computer console.

"What?" Bessa, June, Celeste, and Vital all asked excitedly. Lady just stood and shivered as she watched the display. "Did you loose him?" Bessa continued fearfully staring at the screen.

"No," Pallas replied with uncharacteristic anger. "No, he's leaving a trail we could follow blindfolded. I lost Mercury-sama! Blasted energy levels spiked and blew the memory during a turn."

As her friends stared at her blankly, Vital stepped forward. "What about the overflow to the lunar computers?" he asked as he stopped beside her and studied the computer layout.

Pallas gave him a frustrated, angry look. "It spiked, too. The combination of the energy and the data overloaded both memories. It's gone." She glared at the computer again, beginning to calm down a little. "I think it was a critical point, too. Why else would it have had so much energy?" She clenched her hands into fists, lowered her head, and slowly turned the chair around to face Lady.

"I'm sorry…" she whispered, unable to meet her friend's eyes. Bessa, June, and Celeste turned to watch the two of them uncertainly while Vital reached out to tentatively tap a few keys on the computer.

Pallas started as she felt a gentle hand cup her chin and make her look up. She stared into Lady's shimmering pink eyes, and felt her heart clench again at the pain and tears that were there.

"Don't be," Lady said gently, trying to smile reassuringly. "It's not your fault that we lost her. We knew it was a risk. Be… Besides," she added, choking just a little on her restrained emotions, "Ami-chan has her tracker and her computer. She'll help us to find her."

"Yeah," June added, putting a hand on Pallas' knee as she crouched behind Vital. "In fact, she'll probably lead them all back here before we can do all that much."

Bessa crouched on her other side and nodded with a small smile. Celeste put her hand back on Pallas' shoulder and gave her a small smile as well.

"In the meantime, we can start from here," Vital said encouragingly, trying to break up the cloud of sadness and defeatism that was entering the room. As the five girls looked at him in surprise, he tapped a few more keys on the computer. He gave them a half smile, and then pointed at the screen.

"He's not going anywhere just yet. He seems to be hunkering down and raising shields. Now would be the time to go after him, while he's off balance. Just avoid his paralyzation spell, and you should be okay. Magic takes a lot of energy to work, and he hasn't had a chance to recharge yet. Meanwhile, I can start crunching these numbers and see how far we actually got in our trace." He paused then shifted a little on his feet as he turned to look at the girls. "Um… If you trust me to, that is…"

"Oh, we trust you, we trust you," Celeste quickly reassured him. "But… What about the Doors? Diana is good for a short term, but we need someone a little more powerful there."

Bessa nodded in agreement as she stood up. "Yeah, and she's still hurt, too, which means you'd probably better go relieve her soon."

"I suppose tracking them can wait until we get back…" June said a little uncertainly as she, too, stood back up.

Pallas blinked then carefully turned her seat back around to face the computer. "Maybe not," she said as she pushed it back, crawled under the console, and began to fiddle with something. "Ah. Here we go…"

She backed out from under the console, then stood up and handed Vital a mini computer. She smiled at his inquisitive look. "It's the remote console for the mainframe. It hasn't been used in a while, but we check it monthly to make sure it's in good shape. You can start the crunching procedure while we go take care of that creep."

"Yeah!" June called as her lime colored eyes lit with excitement. "Let's go get him!"

Quietly, a lone man with blonde-brown hair stepped out of the shadows of a nearby tree. The muted sunlight caught the burnished gold pattern on his olive suit, making it sparkle. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and stretched his psychic senses looking for traces of any watchers.

After he verified that he was indeed alone and unwatched except by King Necro's passive defenses, he pushed his way through the jungle and into the temple that was serving as a hideout. He sniffed as he walked through the door, then made a tsk-ing sound and walked over to the low fire King Necro had left. "Never leave a pot on..." he mumbled to the absent man as he turned off the campstove.

He studied the pot intently for a few moments, and then shrugged. Reaching around, he snagged several cloths and bundled up the pot. Then, he turned to the still slumbering boy.

"Queen Geist would get really upset if you got hurt any further," he said thoughtfully. "But the Empress probably won't appreciate my bringing you back, either. You look like you'd be more of a handful than Fey." He studied the unconscious child for a few more minutes then sighed and shrugged again.

"Can't leave you here to be eaten by the beasts..." Gingerly, he insinuated himself inside King Necro's shields, picked up the child, phased his way back out of the shields, and teleported home with King Wisp and his medicine.

Acknowledgments:

Wow, I have had a lot of reviews in the past few weeks. In addition to my faithful ones (Taeniaea, aserene, and Miss Takin), I received some more reviews from Sakura Blossom-Cillia-85, and have had a new reveiwer, Mangaka-chan, join in.

Taeniaea – Here you go! Hope you enjoy it!

aserene – The next chapter is a long Sakura chapter. Things start to come together... In more ways than one. (grin) Look forward to it!

Miss Takin – As I said, another CCS chapter coming up. I know I've been kinda neglecting them for the past few chapters, but I couldn't have things move too fast on that end. As for Mercury's card combination, it's... a secret! (laugh) And I'm glad you like the hallway of paintings. After I created the first few, I just couldn't let the idea go...

Sakura Blossom – Cillia-85 - ChibiUsa was Twin and Hope. Although it was not defined, her card would have been Moon/Hope. I know, I know, two Moon cards, but they are both still Moons. (smile) No need to update your list, although I thank you for putting up the remaining Cards for those who do not have access to a Sakura Deck.

Mangaka-chan – Welcome! I believe it was "Return to the Past" that I started reading. It was pretty good, but I've gotten a bit behind here in the past couple of weeks. So much going on! Ah, anime Helios' eyes are amber, not garnet! That's right. (smile) 1) Actually, Earth doesn't have any official scent/plant associations either. Therefore, Lady's would have to be a pure Moon scent. 2) The real reason I made Helios a Brazilian-French Canadian? His name. (smile) Vital is Portuguese, and since I already had three out of five of Lady's court from Europe (Celeste – France, Bessa – Hungary/Romania, Pallas – Greece), I really didn't want him to be part Portuguese. So, Brazil it had to be. Besides, it represents that part of the world and gives him a purpose in the story! He's not there as just Lady's boyfriend/future husband, which I know you and other Helios fans appreciate. 3) Helios' started out in my story with silver/blue eyes and white hair until I read a comment you wrote somewhere about people doing research and white hair and amber eyes. I went through my artbooks and decided to change his hair to very pale blonde/white and his eyes to wine based on some of the pictures I found. All of my BSSM stories, except one, are manga based, not anime, for anyone who has missed my statements on that in previous stories. (smile) I do draw in anime and musical elements as appropriate, like the modified hospital scene from the R movie in STCB, and the songfic a few chapters ago. 4) Hmmm.. Why are the Cards linked to the Senshi... That's a hard question... Because my sister Elflina demanded, ahem, I mean requested a CCS/BSSM crossover? And this neat idea came to me? hahaha... And finally, 5) I have future plans for this "curse". I will probably spend years writing back stories for my universe! I'm glad you like the pictures, too. Just ya'll wait to see what Mercury's looks like! (grin)

For any PGSM fans out there, I will be posting a new PGSM short story (five chapters if I remember right) starting tomorrow. I hope you all enjoy it. Until Chapter 29! - Raya