Author's Note: I'd like to apologize for the long delay in getting this chapter up. The major reason for the delay was a need to do some serious rewrites to this story's climax. Another reason for the delay though is another project I'm currently trying to get off the ground. It's something I've been developing for the past couple of months, and now that we're finally nearing the end of this story my focus is admittedly drifting more towards this other project. Of course that doesn't mean I won't be phoning it in with trying to give this story the best ending possible. If it did, I would've posted this chapter a lot sooner without giving it the needed revisions.

Also, I should mention that the title of this chapter comes from a song by the band, Yes. I ended up listening to that group's music quite a bit while working on what could be considered a very early rough draft for this particular story. I also felt like the song title was a very appropriate one for this chapter given the mechanical nature of Yog-Sothoth's avatar in this tale.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, nor do I own the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

Chapter 12: "Machine Messiah"

Yog-Sothoth began to raise his right hand towards Mercury and the others. Both Mercury and Zoisite felt sure they would soon be reduced to nothing but a mass of particles to be sucked into the incarnation of the dark god floating before them.

However, in a flash, Eir put a hand to the side of her goggles and suddenly a glowing silver hexagon appeared on the ground beneath the trio. A second later a beam of blinding silver light rose up around Mercury and her comrades. After a few moments, the light faded and the three were back in the apartment Eir and Zoisite had been using as a base.

Eir sighed and began pacing around the room, muttering words in some sort of language that sounded Scandinavian. From the tone, Mercury and Zoisite deduced the pinkette was likely going on about how they were apparently doomed.

"Sailor Eir, what you're doing isn't helping us," Zoisite pointed out.

"Nothing can help us!" Eir responded, flailing her arms. "Yog-Sothoth is an incredibly powerful entity, more powerful than the Old Ones! There is no force capable of stopping him! Face it! We're doomed!"

Dejected, Mercury went over and slumped onto the nearby couch. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't set up the computer in Charles's lab to translate that spell, none of this would've happened."

"I did warn you!" Eir pointed out as she put her hands on her hips. "But did you listen to me? No! Now look where we are!"

"Mercury didn't know anything like this would happen!" Zoisite pointed out. "None of us did. And placing blame isn't going to help get us out of this situation."

At last, Eir calmed down and sighed. "No, I suppose not. But the fact is there is no way to combat Yog-Sothoth."

"Wait a minute," Mercury spoke as a look of realization came to her face. "There were two spells Charles gave me to translate! One to call forth Yog-Sothoth's power, or as we know now his mind, and another spell to banish it."

"You think this other spell is the key to stopping Yog-Sothoth?" Zoisite asked.

"It's the only possible solution I can think of."

"And just what are we supposed to do? Trick Yog-Sothoth into saying the spell designed to banish him back to where he came from?" Eir pointed out. "Besides, we don't even have the second spell."

"Don't be so sure," Mercury told her. "Give me a moment."

Mercury produced her small hand-held computer. Zoisite and Eir watched as she rapidly typed several keys on the device.

At last a look of triumph came to Mercury's face. "Good, it's still in the databanks. In order to translate the text of both spells, I had to link the computer in Charles's lab to the super computer of my planet's castle. The translation program has still been running on the castle computer's mainframe. It should only be about half an hour before the second spell is fully translated."

"But how will the second spell help us?" Eir asked. "Like I said, it's not like we can trick Yog-Sothoth into reciting it like we were trying to trick him into saying his name backwards."

"The computer is reading these spells as though they were computer programs. As we've been talking, I deleted the copy of the summoning spell on the castle computer," Mercury revealed as she continued to type. "I think what happened is Charles somehow activated the summoning program on the computer in his lab."

"What you're saying is, he didn't recite the spell, he just pressed a button," Zoisite realized.

"Precisely. The computer simply did the rest. Yog-Sothoth mentioned that Charles's computer is essentially part of his body, so now all we have to do is get the computer to run the program for the banishing spell. If I'm right, this would cause Yog-Sothoth to be sent right back where he came from."

Eir put a hand to her chin. "A promising theory, but how are we supposed to get this computer to run the program?"

"Simple. We just send it to the computer," Mercury explained.

"I get it! You're saying we use the banishing spell like malware," Zoisite realized. "If you're right, the computer will simply execute the spell once it receives it."

"Exactly," Mercury confirmed. "All we need to do is create some sort of transmitter to send the banishing spell to Yog-Sothoth."

"I may be able to help you with that," Eir declared, suddenly looking smug. "As it happens, my father is one of the dwarves of the planet Nidavellir, a technologically advanced race known for being master craftsmen. I have inherited the crafting abilities of my father's people."

"Hmm. I guess you being a dwarf also explains your height," Zoisite remarked.

Eir's right eye twitched a little at this comment. "Yes, my father being a dwarf is the reason why I am…somewhat vertically challenged."

"Why'd you have to bring that up?" Mercury asked Zoisite. "Clearly she's sensitive about her height."

"Sorry! It just sort of slipped out," Zoisite told them.

"It's fine," Eir assured them. "I'm used to such comments, believe me. Frankly I'm just glad I didn't get stuck with my father's looks as well. I take more after my mother in that department. She's a healer from my home world of Folkvangr, by the way."

"Oh, so you're only half-dwarf?" Mercury asked.

"Yes, but my lineage is of little importance right now. We need to focus everything on this malware plan of yours. If we don't act quickly, Yog-Sothoth will wipe out all life on this planet."

"Then let's get to it," Mercury decided. "It probably won't be too long before he finishes with the Knights of Dagon."

Irene had finished watching the Deep Ones finish trying to impregnate her no longer virgin sorority sisters. The only thing left was to see to it Ami was impregnated. Irene took out her phone and looked at the clock on its screen. A full five minutes had passed since she ordered Ami to be brought to what they were playfully referring to at the moment as the breeding chamber. Irene was finding it hard to believe it would take so long to bring in a single restrained girl.

At long last one of the men Irene had sent to grab Ami ran into the room with a panicked expression on his face.

"Where the hell's Mizuno?" Irene asked.

"Gone! And we've got bigger problems!" the panicked man reported. "Something's attacking the base!"

"What do you mean 'something' is attacking the base?"

Before the panicked man could respond, he froze like a statue. Irene watched in horror and amazement as the man was suddenly rendered into a mass of exposed muscle and organs, reduced into a skeleton, and soon became nothing.

Suddenly Irene heard screams from everyone else in the chamber. She turned to see the Deep Ones in the chamber, along with the women they tried to impregnate and the guards who had been watching, be broken down and reduced to nothing in the same way. The sight caused Irene to back away in horror towards the doorway, only for her to bump into the half-mechanical avatar of Yog-Sothoth that now floated there.

Irene instantly turned back around and managed to stifle a scream as she backed away. "What…what are you?"

Yog-Sothoth looked down at Irene with the cold glowing eyes on the screen of its monitor head. "I am the end of your world."

Irene let out one final scream as the skin of her face began to dissolve away.

Reverend Jim gasped as he awakened from another dream vision sent to him by his great god, Cthulhu. The undersea deity had told him of a drastic change in fortune for the Knights he had assembled. Due to some error, the man Reverend Jim thought he knew as Joseph Curwen had betrayed them all and had called forth the power of Yog-Sothoth to destroy them all. Now Curwen had become the avatar of Yog-Sothoth, a mechanical messiah who would bring forth the world's end. It seemed not even Great Cthulhu could stand against such an enemy.

Cthulhu had told Reverend Jim there was only one hope for their salvation. If they were all to survive, Jim had to step aside and leave the matter of Yog-Sothoth to Sailor Mercury and her friends. Only they had the key to thwarting the horrid Outer God. Reverend Jim was forced to accept the fact the Knights of Dagon were now finished, but the mission given to him by Great Cthulhu could still go on. His only choice was to flee.

After gathering up a few small belongings in a backpack he had carried since his days as an aimless wanderer, Reverend Jim opened up the R'lyeh Text to a certain page. He recited a spell at the top of the page, and in an instant Reverend Jim became enveloped in a pillar of water. A few seconds later the water stopped and became a massive puddle on the stone floor, and Reverend Jim was nowhere to be seen.

Mercury, Zoisite and Eir spent the last several minutes working on their method to stop Yog-Sothoth. Eir had decided their best method to send the banishing spell program to Yog-Sothoth was to use a sort of transmitter gun similar to a rifle of the pinkette's design. Mercury admitted she was very impressed by Eir's level of technical skill. Eir was handling the construction of the gun herself while Mercury dealt with the task of downloading the now fully translated banishing spell into a special data crystal the pinkette had provided. Zoisite meanwhile had gone out to get a few parts Eir needed.

At long last Zoisite came back into the apartment carrying a paper bag in his arms. "Sorry it took me so long. I had to sneak into the university computer lab to get some of these components, not easy at this time of day."

"Just set the bag on the table," Eir ordered as she screwed in a tiny circuit board into the now half-finished rifle.

After setting the bag down, Zoisite walked over to the couch where Mercury was working. "How's it coming?"

"The download to the crystal is nearly done," Mercury answered. "Soon our digital bullet will be ready."

"I just wish I could do more to help right now."

"You've done enough. Just sit back and try to relax for now."

Zoisite nodded and sat down on the couch next to Mercury. "So…about what happened between us in your cell…"

Mercury stopped typing and her face turned bright red. "Yes?"

"Well, I was just wondering…was some of what we did because of the sex drug Irene gave you, or…"

"It…it was all real. I mean it all came from a real place. I think the drug just sort of brought it out of me."

"Cool, cool." Zoisite fell silent for a moment. "So, you'd be up for some of that sort of thing again?"

"Of course!" Mercury assured him as she put her hand on his. "In fact right now it'd kind of take the edge off."

"Don't make me turn a hose on you two!" Eir interrupted.

Zoisite rolled his eyes. "You know, I thought part of your big mission was to get me and Mercury to have intercourse."

"Yes! And you've done it. There's no longer an urgent need for you to have sex with Sailor Mercury. So until we save the world from being destroyed by Yog-Sothoth, keep it in your pants! Both of you!"

Suddenly Mercury's handheld computer beeped, getting her full attention. "Oh! The download to the crystal is finished."

"Great. Bring it over here," Eir requested.

Mercury brought the crystal over to Eir's workstation. "So you don't need me or Zoisite for anything at this point, right?"

"Nope. This is pretty much all on me now."

"How long will it take for you to finish the transmitter?"

"Probably twenty minutes or so," Eir responded without looking up from her work.

"Great, great," Mercury responded as she slowly backed away. "Um, in the meantime then, Zoisite and I will be in the other room…strategizing. Let us know when you're done."

Eir simply waved the blunette off, still with her eyes on her work. Mercury meanwhile took Zoisite by the hand and quickly guided him back to one of the bedrooms. In another few moments, Eir heard the loud pounding of a headboard against the wall and the sound of moaning.

Eir groaned. "Why do I suddenly feel like I may have unleashed something upon the world worse than Yog-Sothoth?"

Once the rifle was finished, Eir, Zoisite and Mercury teleported to the outskirts of Innsmouth. When they arrived, they saw Yog-Sothoth floating above the ruined city, or rather what was left of it. Four of the larger buildings and many of the dilapidated houses were in the process of being broken down into tiny particles of matter, which were at the moment floating up into the half-mechanical deity. Mercury was armed with the silver transmitter rifle.

"So what now?" Zoisite asked.

"We simply need to fire the rifle's beam at Yog-Sothoth," Mercury answered. "If all works as we hope, the banishing spell malware will instantly load itself into his cybernetic systems and run automatically. The problem is we can't get a good shot from here."

Zoisite quickly surveyed what was left of the town and spotted a ruined but sturdy-looking building known simply as the Gilman. "The roof of that old hotel or whatever it is should be a good vantage point. Of course at the rate Yog-Sothoth is destroying the town, it probably won't be there for too much longer."

"That's where I come in," Eir interjected. "I'm going to try and keep Yog-Sothoth distracted long enough for you to get to that building. Hopefully he'll be too busy dealing with me to keep breaking down Innsmouth."

"You really think you can keep him distracted?" Mercury asked with a worried expression.

Eir smirked. "Trust me, I can be really annoying to people when I want to be, or so my fellow Sailor Valkyrie, Sailor Brunhilde keeps telling me."

With those words, the pinkette raised her right arm to her chest, and appearing on her forearm with a flash of pink light was a small silver crossbow armed with a golden arrow. Two feathered wings made of white light formed on Eir's back, and in an instant she took off into the sky towards Yog-Sothoth.

"I think Sailor Eir has this covered," Zoisite observed. "Right now we need to do our part."

Mercury nodded. "Let's get over to that building."

Eir meanwhile stopped in the air a few feet away in front of where Yog-Sothoth was floating. The half-mechanical god didn't seem to notice her existence. On the digital display of Sailor Eir's goggles, fourteen crosshairs overlaid themselves on Yog-Sothoth's head, chest, and every one of his limb joints. The words, "Targets locked" appeared at the bottom of the display in the runic language of Eir's people.

Sailor Eir lifted her arm-mounted crossbow and aimed it at Yog-Sothoth. "Fairy Bow Legion Arrows! Fire!"

The gold arrow loaded into Eir's bow fired and began to glow. It split into fourteen armors that all headed for the portions of Yog-Sothoth targeted by her goggles. Before any of the arrows could hit though, they struck some sort of invisible barrier and exploded. Eir's actions seemed to catch Yog-Sothoth's attention however, because the ruins of Innsmouth immediately stopped breaking down and he was looking right at the pinkette.

"Yog-Sothoth! I am Sailor Eir of the Sailor Valkyries!" she declared. "In the name of Lady Freyja I cannot allow you to destroy this world of Midgard!"

"You are an insignificant creature whose identity is meaningless to me," Yog-Sothoth responded. "However if you wish to trifle with me, you must pay the proper penance."

Yog-Sothoth outstretched his right arm towards Eir and fired a ball of green light from his metal palm. Eir flew out of the projectile's path to her right and fired off more golden arrows as she moved over to the Outer God's left.

"I will not make it so easy for you to exact penance from me!" Eir declared. "Our battle has only just begun!"

Down on the ground Mercury and Zoisite were heading straight for the Gilman. They were nearly about to get to the building's street when two Deep Ones suddenly lunged out at them from a nearby building, stopping them both in their tracks.

"You!" one of the Deep Ones spoke in a hideous croaking voice. "You brought this ruin upon us. Therefore you will pay with your BLOOD!"

Right as the two Deep Ones charged for Mercury, Zoisite charged in and slashed both creatures with his sword. A second later their fish-like heads fell from their bodies.

Zoisite turned back to look at Mercury. "Are you okay?"

Mercury nodded. "That was impressive."

With a serious expression, Zoisite looked back towards the sky and saw Eir flitting around Yog-Sothoth like a moth around a flame, firing off more arrows that failed to even reach the Outer God. "We must hurry. I don't think Sailor Eir can hold out for too much longer."

Mercury nodded again and the two of them raced off towards the Gilman. Moments later they had reached the dilapidated hotel. After quickly circling the old hotel they found a mostly intact fire escape on the building's side and used it to get up to the roof. When the two finally got on top of the building, they again saw Sailor Eir dodging the projectiles from Yog-Sothoth while pointlessly firing more arrows at him.

"Think you can hit him from here?" Zoisite asked Mercury.

"I hope so," Mercury responded. "It helps that he seems to be remaining stationary."

Mercury made her goggles appear and lifted the transmitter rifle, aiming its barrel at Yog-Sothoth. Mercury didn't feel too confident since she was hardly a sniper and had no desire to become one, but she hoped her technology would make up for her lack of skill.

After finding the best place at the edge of the roof to fire at her target, Mercury knelt down and activated her goggles. Sailor Eir had programmed the rifle to synch up with Mercury's equipment. Sure enough, a set of blue digital crosshairs appeared before her vision. Mercury pointed the rifle up towards where Eir and Yog-Sothoth were fighting in the sky. In the upper left corner of her display, Mercury read a small message indicating she was in optimal firing range for the weapon.

Unfortunately Mercury's goggles were unable to get a clear lock on the mechanical avatar of Yog-Sothoth. The problem was Eir kept flying in her path while dodging Yog-Sothoth's attacks.

"Well?" Zoisite asked.

"I don't have a clear shot yet. If only Eir can just get out of the way," Mercury responded. "Unfortunately the battery in this rifle only has power enough for one shot. I can't afford to waste it."

Zoisite nodded. "I understand. Just take your time."

Mercury focused her attention on the battle in the sky, waiting for the right instant to pull the trigger. Just when it seemed like she might have an opening fire however, more Deep Ones burst out onto the roof. There were six in all and perhaps more coming. Mercury realized she was in no safe position to open fire.

Zoisite stepped between Mercury and the Deep Ones and drew his sword. "I'll hold them off! You just focus on Yog-Sothoth."

Mercury nodded and turned her attention back to the sky. "Just don't die this time."

Zoisite charged in at the oncoming hoard of Deep Ones and slashed the one right in the front, his sword chopping into its gilled neck. He quickly pulled out his blade and stabbed a second one in the chest while quickly dodging a slash from a dagger being held by the third. Zoisite turned around and stabbed the third Deep One in the gut. Zoisite's skillful swordplay had caused the other three Deep Ones to pause in their attack. Very soon though, two more of the fish-frog creatures had shown up on the roof.

"This may take awhile," Zoisite realized.

Meanwhile up in the sky above Innsmouth, Eir was still doing her best to dodge Yog-Sothoth's attacks while trying to land a few of her own, but really all she was doing was trying to keep the Outer God busy until Mercury could use the rifle to send the malware program and end their current nightmare. Unfortunately Mercury was taking far too long to get the job done. Eir wondered if something might've happened to Mercury and Zoisite and quickly scanned the surrounding area below and spotted the duo on the roof of the old Gilman Hotel with a bunch of Deep Ones. Zoisite was holding his own against the Deep Ones quite well though. It seemed as though Mercury had a clear shot at Yog-Sothoth, yet for whatever reason she wasn't pulling the trigger.

It took only a moment for Eir to realize the reason for Mercury's hesitation. The pinkette had been getting in Mercury's line of fire. Instantly Eir knew what she had to do and began firing off arrows at Yog-Sothoth while circling around him to the right. Just as Eir hoped, Yog-Sothoth kept her in his sight the entire time. Very soon the mechanical avatar had his back to the Gilman, right as Eir had hoped. Unfortunately making sure Yog-Sothoth had his back kept to the building limited where she could fly to dodge the deity's attacks, but her hope was she wouldn't need to dodge for much longer.

Down on the roof of the Gilman, the Deep Ones had formed a semicircle in front of Zoisite and were about to advance on. Right when they charged in though, Zoisite knelt down and stabbed his sword into the roof. Suddenly yellow bolts of lightning fired from several small crystals that had been scattered around the roof where the battle had been taking place. Zoisite had in fact been releasing these small crystals from his sword's blade the moment the first three Deep Ones had charged at him, all so he cold lay this trap for the remaining hoard. In seconds the electricity shut off and the last of the Deep Ones on the roof fell dead. Meanwhile the crosshairs displayed on Mercury's goggles finally settled on the Outer God's back and the words, "Target locked" appeared at the bottom of the display.

After taking a deep breath, Mercury pulled the trigger and a beam of blue light fired from the end of the silver rifle's barrel. The laser sliced through the air, nearly grazing Sailor Eir before striking the center of Yog-Sothoth's back to deliver the digital information encoded within it. Soon after being hit, Yog-Sothoth let out a high-pitched sound like an old dial-up modem and the screen that served as his face turned to static. A few seconds later the Outer God exploded into a burst of green light that soon shot into the air and parted the clouds.

Eventually the light faded and pieces of metal and wire were falling to the ground. When the smoke finally cleared, Sailor Eir saw Charles Dexter Ward floating in the air in an altered state. He now had on only a pair of tattered brown pants. His hair was gone and he had strange black burn marks on parts of his torso and the left side of his face. The skin that hadn't been burned had become as white as a maggot's. Ward was totally unconscious, and soon his body began to plummet to the ground.

Sailor Eir let out a sigh. "Oh bother."

The pinkette flew down towards Ward with incredible speed and grabbed him by his right arm. She then turned and flew down onto the roof of the Gilman, setting Ward down near Mercury and Zoisite before landing. Eir's light wings vanished as soon as her feet touched the roof.

Mercury quickly came over and kneeled down next to Ward. "Charles! Are you okay?"

After a moment's Ward's eyes opened and he looked up at Mercury. "Ms. Ami. It seems…I made a terrible mistake. In trying to save this world from the doom of Cthulhu and his minions…I nearly brought forth an even greater ruin upon it."

Mercury shook her head. "Neither of us knew this would be the result of calling forth the power of Yog-Sothoth."

"Even so…I must now pay the price for my actions. I ask you one favor. Hasten me to my death."

"What…what do you mean?"

"As you already know, my life is…unnatural. I was raised from the dust, and it is to the dust I must now return. You should know the way to do so…because I once showed you."

Mercury recalled the night when she saw Ward use a spell to reduce an apparently undead shoggoth to dust. She still remembered the spell's words.

Ward coughed, shaking the blunette from her thoughts. "Please Ms. Ami. At least give me…a merciful…death."

After a moment, Mercury got to her feet and recited the spell she had heard once before. "OGTHROD AI'F GEB'L – EE'H YOG-SOTHOTH 'NGHA'NG AI'Y ZHRO!"

Ward smiled, closed his eyes, and in a matter of seconds, his body was reduced to a pile of strange grey dust that quickly blew away in the breeze. Soon all that was left of Ward was the pair of tattered brown pants he had been wearing.

Zoisite came over and took Mercury's hand. "You okay?"

"I will be," Mercury responded. "I just wish things didn't have to end so horribly for Charles."

"This outcome couldn't be helped, Sailor Mercury," Eir responded. "Sadly Ward's fate was sealed the moment he began dealing with his wicked ancestor, Joseph Curwen. Unlike your with your boyfriend there was no hope of redeeming him. You can at least be comforted by the fact you gave him a merciful death."

"I suppose."

Eir looked out over the remains of Innsmouth and crossed her arms. "The important thing to focus on is the fact we banished Yog-Sothoth, not to mention the fact the Knights of Dagon are no more. It didn't happen the way I would've liked, but I'm willing to call this mission a success. I say we call it a day."

"Mercury, is there anything I can do to help cheer you up?" Zoisite asked.

Mercury looked at Zoisite for a moment before moving in and whispering something in his ear.

Zoisite's face instantly turned bright red. "Um…I think I can do that for you, yes."

A look of disgust formed on Eir's face. "Looks like I had better take you back to Mercury's hotel before you two start doing it on the roof."

Author's Note: As you've probably guessed, we're just about at the end of this story. Just one more chapter to go, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, please review and let me know what you think.