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

Chapter 7: The Cursed

As Rei, Jun and Grete had been making their way back to their quarters, red lights had started to flash in the halls and an alert noise had begun to blare. Over the intercom speakers there was an automated voice telling everyone to return to their quarters immediately and lock their doors until further notice. All around the trio were scientists and other technicians scrambling to get back to their rooms, each of them in a panicked state. There were also more than a few security officers passing by every now and then running in the opposite direction from the scientists. Clearly something had gone terrible wrong at the facility.

Jun managed to grab one of the fleeing male scientists by the arm as he passed. "Hey! What the hell's going on around here?"

"Some kind of monster has gotten into the indoor garden!" the scientist answered. "If you were smart, you'd get the hell back to your room and wait this out!"

The scientist then managed to free himself from Jun's grip and continued running for the living quarters. Rei and the others meanwhile all looked to each other.

"Could it be one of the monsters Rei and I fought last night?" Jun wondered.

"If it is, then why hasn't it gone directly after Ms. Hino instead of rampaging around the garden?" Grete pointed out. "Clearly whatever's happening is not by design."

"Whatever it is, we should go check it out," Rei told them.

Phobos and Deimos suddenly flew from Jun's shoulders to Grete's as he and Rei ducked around a nearby corner where nobody could see them. A pillar of flames quickly consumed Rei while Jun became shrouded in a twister of ice and snow. A few seconds later the two of them emerged in the forms of their alter egos and dashed off down the hall towards the garden.

Back in his office Kaidou, or rather the entity controlling him, was watching the entire situation unfold on the monitor behind his desk, which at the moment was showing the feeds from several cameras. Moments ago Dr. Higgins has called Kaidou and informed him of Subject 613's escape. The entity had at first been content to let security handle things, but when he saw Sailor Mars and Jadeite take off towards the garden, he decided a change of plans was in order.

Kaidou got out his phone and contacted the chief of security. "This is the chairman. Have your men hold off for now. Our two most special guests are going to handle the rogue subject personally. For the time being, just make sure our renegade test subject doesn't get any further than it already has."

"As you command, Master," the chief responded. "What about Officer Sampson though? Dr. Higgins reported that she managed to get away and use the teleport pad to get to the garden."

"Leave her be for now. You can apprehend her once the subject has been neutralized."

"As you wish, Master. But are you sure it's wise for my team to sit by and do nothing?"

Kaidou smirked. "Don't worry about a thing. Despite how it may seem, the situation is totally within my control. In fact I believe I can use this to finally give the princess my regards."

Mars and Jadeite finally made it to the garden. It didn't take them long at all to find the monster the scientist had told them about. The creature was very much like the three others Jadeite and Mars had fought during the previous night, but with one shocking exception. The thing had a human face. At the moment it was simply wandering around, looking in all directions, for what Mars and Jadeite could only guess.

"What the hell is going on here?" Jadeite asked.

"It almost looks like it's in pain," Mars observed.

"Then maybe we should put it out of its misery!" Jadeite suggested as he drew his sword.

The creature seemed to notice Jadeite's actions and suddenly began to charge for them. Jadeite raised his sword in response and prepared to finish the creature off with a single strike.

"Nathan! Stop!" a familiar voice called. Mars and Jadeite looked and saw Virginia running up to them. The creature had stopped when it heard Virginia's voice, allowing the security officer to get between it and the duo. "Please Nathan! Just calm down! It's me, Ginny! Don't you recognize me?"

Mars let out a startled gasp. "Ms. Virginia. Is that…is that really your brother?"

Virginia looked back at her and nodded with tears in her eyes. "This is what the Foundation did to him. They altered his DNA and turned him into this! They have at least a thousand more like him locked up down in the basement."

Jadeite was visibly shocked by this news. "So…those three monsters Mars and I fought last night…they were originally humans?"

Virginia turned her attention back to the thing she called Nathan. "Please Nate! Listen to my voice. Don't you recognize me anymore?"

Nathan looked at Virginia for a few moments and reached a clawed hand for her. "Ginny?" he spoke in a deep monstrous voice. "Is that…is that you?"

Virginia nodded and took his hand with both of hers. "It is. It's me Nate. You have no idea how long I've been looking for you."

"I don't…feel right. Something's wrong with me."

Virginia quickly wiped away more tears with her sleeve. "Don't worry. I don't know how, but we'll get you fixed up. For now just calm down and come with me. I'll get you out of here."

Nathan seemed to relax a bit at these words. Virginia let go of his hand and began to lead him towards one of the doors out of the garden. Nathan followed her for a few steps but suddenly stopped and cried out in pain. He grabbed his head with both hands and started shrieking Virginia's name, but then stopped when a third eye burst open in the center of his forehead. Nathan turned back to Mars and Jadeite, showing that all three of his eyes had turned blood red.

Nathan grinned at Mars. "Salutations, Princess of Mars. I was hoping I'd get to speak to you as my true self."

"Nathan, what're you doing?" Virginia called.

Nathan looked back at her and chuckled. "Apologies my dear, but your brother's consciousness has been totally suppressed. I have taken direct control of his body in order to speak with the princess. Trust me, your brother is far better off this way."

"Who are you?" Mars asked the creature.

Nathan turned his attention back to Mars and flashed her a fanged grin. "I am the King of Cydonia."

"Cydonia? But…I remember. There was never anyone living there."

"Not during your time, no. I'm sure the existence of my people long ago faded from the memories of yours, living on perhaps only as a ghost story told to children who misbehaved. 'Be good or you'll be sent to Cydonia where the lizard men will eat you down to your bones!' I'm sure that was the kind of story that was told."

"I never heard such a story growing up."

"You didn't have to my dear. You lived it. I must admit you've grown a lot since the last time I first laid eyes on you, and yet you still seem very much like the frightened little girl I saw standing in the doorway. As I recall the blood of your parents was still fresh on my claws."

Mars went completely pale and she began to tremble. "You're…you're…"

Jadeite put a hand on Mars's shoulder, which calmed her down a bit. "So you're the monster that Mars has been seeing in her nightmares!"

"In spirit at least," Nathan answered as he gave them a little bow. "I would've killed her too back then had it not been for the intervention of that wretched Queen of the Moon! She was the one who thwarted me and reduced me to my current disembodied state, trapping me on this pathetic planet. But in spite of all my misfortune I have clawed my way back from the abyss. And now that I have finally found the princess again, I will soon have my true body and my full power restored to me!"

Mars suddenly pulled a ward from behind her skirt and threw it towards Nathan. "Evil Sprit Be Exorcised!"

The ward flew from Mars's hand and attached itself to Nathan's forehead. A burst of flames then shot from Mars's hand and blasted the half-human monstrosity in the face. In moments the flames cleared, but while the ward had burned to ash Nathan had been left unharmed.

Nathan chuckled. "Was that supposed to hurt me? Did you really think a silly little charm could harm me? You're nothing more than a weak little girl against the likes of me, princess."

"Then how 'bout you take me on instead?" Jadeite dared as he pointed his sword at Nathan.

Nathan looked at him with indifference. "You're no stronger than her, human. In fact I'm starting to find you to be a little annoying. So I think I'll see if I can finish you off right now."

With those words, Nathan let out a hiss that caused Mars to fall to her knees. The creature meanwhile charged straight for Jadeite.

Jadeite meanwhile thrust his sword towards the oncoming abomination. "Sub Zero Lance!"

A spear of ice shot from Jadeite's blade and struck Nathan, bursting a large hole right though his torso. Nathan's body froze to ice in an instant and shattered to pieces.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Virginia shrieked as she fell to her knees.

As Virginia began to sob, Jadeite sheathed his sword and walked up to her. "I'm truly sorry. But…it was already too late to do anything for your brother. Surly you realize that."

Virginia managed to compose herself a bit. "Just go away and leave me alone. You've done enough already."

"Jadeite!" Mars spoke. The blond warrior turned and saw that Mars had gotten to her feet. "We should go… before this place's security gets here."

"But we can't just leave her behind!" Jadeite pointed out.

"No…you have to," Virginia told them both. "They'll be looking for me anyway. Just go or else they'll catch you too!"

Reluctantly, Jadeite quickly took Mars by the hand and the two of them ran for the door out of the garden. As they departed, Virginia remained kneeling over the frozen shards that had once been her brother.

The entity once again resumed control of the sleeping Kaidou's body. He was disappointed he had been unable to kill Jadeite, but he had quickly realized doing so was always unlikely using an unfinished Dragon's Teeth soldier. In order to kill Jadeite he would need more of his true power, and that soldier was just as unfitting a conduit to channel that power as any ordinary human. The entity suddenly felt something wet on Kaidou's upper lip and reached up to touch what it was. When he pulled his hand away, he saw blood covering the tips of his fingers.

"So, this puppet is starting to give out already, eh?" Kaidou spoke. "Given how young this one was I thought I'd have more time, but it seems I've used him up much faster than I have my other puppets." He leaned back in his chair. "Ah well. It won't matter for very much longer. Soon I'll have the princess to help me get back to Mars, and once that happens I won't need these pathetic puppets any longer."

Rei and Jun met back up with Grete out in the corridors and the three of them made it back to their quarters without incident. Though Jun and Rei couldn't help but worry about what might be happening to Virginia.

"Ms. Hino, if you'll give me the data storage device I issued to you, I can begin looking though what it downloaded to see if we can determine more about what's going on here," Grete requested.

Rei handed her the disk. "I really hope what's on there was worth all the trouble we went through."

Grete took the disk and nodded. "You should both use the afternoon to get some rest, but be alert. We're still clearly in the heart of enemy territory."

With nothing more to say, Grete went into her room.

"You should try and take a nap or something," Jun told Rei.

Rei nodded. "Not a bad idea. Thank you, by the way…for being there. I'm not sure what would've happened if I had been facing that monster on my own."

"Don't worry about it." Jun then turned to the door to his room but then stopped. "You know, we forgot about our session with Dr. Ichinose."

Rei shook her head. "That's not important right now. If there's anything more for us to learn about our past lives, it can wait."

"I suppose you're right. Although…I've been having this weird sense of déjà vu ever since I was forced to kill poor Nathan."

"Now that you mention it, something about what happened did feel a little familiar."

After a moment, Jun smiled and shook his head. "It's probably nothing though. Anyway, let me know if you need anything."

Rei nodded. "I will. Don't worry. And thanks again, really."

Jun winked at her and went into his room. Rei went into her own room with Phobos and Deimos still perched on her shoulders and decided to follow Jun's advice. As Rei headed for the bed though, she was troubled by what sort of dreams she might have during her nap.

As Rei and Jun slept, their minds once again went back to the time of Silver Millennium. They recalled a time when they were heading off on an important mission connected with an incident where Venus and Kunzite fought a group of monsters out in the desert. The most shocking thing about the incident was that the monsters Venus and Kunzite fought had once been human. Since the incident, Venus and Kunzite had decided their two teams should work together to investigate what had transformed those poor souls into monsters and find out if the phenomenon was occurring anywhere else. To that end, Jadeite and Mars were currently riding on horseback to a small mountain village in Jadeite's territory.

The two of them had been riding mostly in silence, with Phobos and Deimos flying high overhead above them. During the ride Mars had been taking in the scenery. It had been the first time she had ever seen such mountains up close. Mars couldn't help but marvel at what a majestic place Earth was.

"Something on your mind?" Jadeite asked. "You haven't said a word since we left the palace."

"I've just been admiring our current surroundings," Mars answered. "This really is a beautiful place."

"Do they not have mountains on Mars?"

"Of course we do, but they're nothing like this. Our mountains are beautiful in their own way, but they're more desolate. The mountains here seem to have far more life."

Jadeite smiled. "I actually have a little cabin around here. It's my own personal hideaway. Not even Kunzite knows about it. It's a little lower than where we are now next to a lake. In fact you can see that lake from here."

Mars looked down towards the direction where Jadeite was pointing. Far down below was a fairly large oval-shaped body of crystal blue water surrounded by pine trees on all sides that from their current distance looked like tiny plants. Mars couldn't see any cabin of course, but she realized that from so far up it would look like nothing more than a tiny little speck.

"It looks like a very beautiful spot," Mars declared. "How often do you go there?"

"Usually when I manage to get some time off from my duties for a few days, which isn't often," Jadeite answered. "I sort of look at it as my second home. But please, keep it to yourself. Like I said, I'm trying to keep the place a secret."

Mars nodded. "I am honored you'd share such a deep secret with me." She then looked in the sky towards where Phobos and Deimos were flying. "So, do you really think we'll encounter monsters like the ones Venus and Kunzite fought at this village?"

"Honestly, I have my doubts. The truth is we're only going to this village because of some rumors heard by my soldiers in this area. But Kunzite said to check out everything."

"What sort of rumors?"

"Well, it's been said for the last few weeks people have been hearing odd noises from one of the houses in the village; sounds like the king one might hear from some kind of beast, but not of any normal beast of the earth. In fact one story said that the man living in the house brought home two dead sheep one night, supposedly to feed whatever monster he's sheltering. Like I said, it's probably nothing more than a bunch of ghost stories. This could very well be a waste of time."

"Well, I don't consider traveling through this countryside to be a waste."

In another hour or so, Mars and Jadeite had reached the village. It was a small yet somewhat majestic settlement. The houses and buildings were the same shade of grey as the mountains surrounding them, and some of the houses had even been built into the side of the mountain itself. Once they arrived, Jadeite and Mars dismounted their horses and began asking around about the supposed town monster. At first the villagers were friendly to them and seemed eager to help, but the moment they brought up the monster they all pretended like they had somewhere else to be.

Eventually though, the duo came upon an old man who gladly have them the info that they sought. It seemed the monstrous noises that people had been hearing had come from the house of the village chief, and that it was he who people had seen dragging home those sheep one night. The old man had also revealed that around the time the noises had started, the chief's wife had died in a way all of the villagers thought to be most unusual, but nobody who lived in the village dared speak of it openly. This was all Jadeite and Mars needed to hear to convince them the stories of this supposed monsters were no mere rumors. Their next stop of course was the house of the village chief.

The house in question was one of the houses that had been built into the side of the mountain, and was higher up on the slope than all of the others. The place was quiet when they arrived, but right away Phobos and Deimos began to caw like mad as they circled the house from above.

"Looks like your friends think we have the right place," Jadeite observed.

Mars nodded. "We do. I can sense a malignant energy coming from this house. Something unclean dwells within."

Jadeite and Mars began to approach the door. Before either of them could knock though, the door opened and a man stepped out. He was in his late forties and had long black hair and a beard that was turning grey. The man before them was dressed mainly in red and brown.

"I am Kotaro, the village chief," the man spoke. "How may I help you travelers?"

"I am Jadeite, general to Prince Endymion of the Earth Kingdom," the blonde answered. "This is Sailor Mars of the Moon Kingdom. We're both here on important business."

"Well, I am honored two such important visitors have chosen to grace our humble village with your presence," Kotaro responded as he tightly shut the door behind him. "But what sort of business could you possibly have here?"

"Not long ago, two of our comrades fought against a group of savage monsters that had once been human," Mars answered. "We're here because we believe such a monster dwells in this house."

Kotaro seemed shocked but quickly put on a smile. "Ah! You must have been hearing the rumors being spread by the travelers who have stayed the night in this village. I assure you both though that they're nothing more than colorful stories made to garner attention around the fire or in the tavern. I'm sorry you both came all this way for nothing."

Suddenly a loud roaring noise came from within the house, causing all of the color to drain from Kotaro's face. Jadeite drew his sword and pushed Kotaro aside. He busted down the door and charged into the house with Mars following close behind. Kotaro called for the two of them to stop as he rushed into the house after them. Jadeite and Mars followed the sound of the roaring noise up the stairs to the first room they encountered. Inside they found the source of the noise and of all of the dark rumors about the village.

Inside the room was a muscular humanoid monster with pine-green skin and an apish head bearing long pointed ears, yellow eyes, and a mouth filled with yellow fangs. White claws tipped the beast's fingers and toes, and hanging around his waist was a tattered piece of grey cloth. The beast was being held back by two strong chains that had been manacled to his wrists and bolted into the wall of stone behind it.

"This is exactly like the monsters Kunzite had described," Jadeite observed.

"At least there's only one," Mars pointed out.

Kotaro burst into the room and threw himself between them and the snarling creature. "Please wait! I beg of you! Do not harm my son!"

"Your son?" a stunned Jadeite repeated.

Kotaro nodded. "Yes…this beast is…was my son, Koji. We don't know what dark magic inflicted this curse upon him, but several nights ago in this very house he transformed into the wretched thing you see behind me. The first thing he did unfortunately was to kill and devour his poor mother, but I do not blame Koji for this. Whatever curse transformed him into this beast also robbed him of his senses."

"So you tried caging him here to try and keep him from doing more harm," Mars deduced.

Kotaro nodded. "It took our ten strongest men to restrain him, and many of them suffered severe wounds in the process. Since then I've been trying to provide for Koji as best I can. As a father I beg of you, do not take my son's life! I promise that I will make sure he does no more harm to anyone! And if necessary, I will offer up my life to atone for any harm he has committed."

"It may not be necessary to end your son's life."

"What're you planning to do?" Jadeite asked Mars.

Mars pulled out a ward from behind her back. "I'm going to see if this curse can be undone. Chief Kotaro, please step aside."

Reluctantly, Kotaro stepped out of the way. Mars took a few steps forward, causing the creature formerly known as Koji to swipe his claws at her.

Mars threw the ward from her hand. "Evil Spirit Be Exorcised!"

The ward flew and stuck to Koji's fore head. A blast of flames shot from Mars's hand and struck the beast soon after. When the attack ended the ward burned to ash, but not a thing had happened to Koji. The beast let out an even more vicious roar and suddenly broke the chains that had been binding his arms. He ran straight form Mars and was about slash her, but Kotaro called for Koji to stop and quickly rushed into the beast's path, only to be stabbed in the chest by his own son's claws.

The village chief collapsed to the ground and the beast renewed his attack. This time though Jadeite drew his sword and slashed Koji across the chest with a blade that was generating an icy mist. Koji completely froze in a matter of seconds and his body shattered to bits.

Mars quickly went over and checked on Kotaro. "He's dead."

Jadeite scowled and sheathed his sword. "I really wish things hadn't turned out this way."

Mars nodded. "Whatever magic caused that poor boy's transformation is clearly stronger than the purifying arts I know."

"What do you think caused that boy to transform?"

Mars stood back up and faced him. "That's one thing we need to find out, and soon. I feel like this is only just the beginning of an even greater tragedy."

"Then we had better get back to the palace and report to Kunzite as soon as possible. Hopefully we can stop whatever this is before it spreads."

After making sure there were no other monsters lurking in the village, Jadeite returned with Mars to the palace and reported to Kunzite on what they had found. Kunzite listened to the report and decided to give Jadeite a couple of days off while Zoisite analyzed the situation further to try and discover what was causing the monster transformations. Deciding to take advantage of his time off, Jadeite went to the cabin he had pointed out to Mars on the way to the village. The sun was setting, and Jadeite was busy chopping some firewood out behind the cabin. He stopped when he heard a familiar cawing sound coming from the surrounding trees.

Jadeite looked up and saw a pair of crows perched up in one of the nearby trees. Standing next to the tree was a familiar raven-haired woman that Jadeite had come to know very well. Instead of her Sailor Guardian uniform, Mars had on a sleeveless red dress that ended just above the knee. Jadeite blushed when he noticed how the dress showed off her bust.

"Good evening," Mars greeted as she stepped forward. "I hope I'm not intruding."

Jadeite put down his ax and rubbed the back of his head. "Uh…not at all. I'm pretty surprised to see you here though."

"I wanted to see this cabin of yours up close. Did you build it yourself?"

"Yep. It took me a while, but it was all worth it. Here I can be totally alone with my own thoughts."

"Well in that case, maybe I should depart and leave you to yourself then."

"Wait!" Jadeite spoke as he grabbed her by the wrist. "I'm glad you came down here. You're welcome at this cabin anytime. I must admit though, I'm a little surprised to see you. I mean, we have been a little friendlier with each other lately, more than usual, but I was certain you detested me."

Mars looked down so he wouldn't see her blush. "I…I find I was wrong about you. You're a good man, mostly anyway. I saw how you reacted when you were forced to cut down that creature after it had killed its father."

Jadeite sighed. "That was really not the way I had wanted things to end."

"Nor I. That's partly why I came down here tonight. I felt that I…needed your company a bit because of what happened."

Jadeite smiled. "I just finished cutting the firewood and was about to go start dinner. Why don't you join me?"

"I would be delighted."

Jadeite then took Mars by the hand and guided her to the cabin. Phobos and Deimos remained where they were in the trees and watched them go in.

Upon awakening from her recollection of the past, Rei shot up in bed with her face having turned a bright shade of red. She couldn't believe she had done something like that in her past life, and with Jun. Unfortunately for Rei, the flashback had ended right as they had gone into the cabin, she could recall nothing more from that point. For a moment Rei thought about what they might've gotten up to; about how far she might've let Jun go. Then again, it had only been their first date (not that Rei was totally willing to admit what they did was a date), and Rei was certain that despite any feelings she had for Jun, she wouldn't have broken her vow to Usagi.

Rei suddenly heard a knock on the door to the adjoining room. She quickly got up and opened it to find Jun standing right on the other side. The blonde's face was a bit red, and he was smiling and rubbing the back of his head.

"Hi, so…I just had a really interesting dream," Jun began. "Let me know if any of it sounds familiar to you…"

"Did it end with me visiting that private cabin of yours in the Mountains?" Rei asked before Jun could say another word.

Jun blinked in surprise. "Uh…yeah! So I guess what I dreamed was a legitimate memory, huh? I can't seem to remember though what happened after we went into the cabin."

"Well I'm sure it wasn't whatever you think probably happened!"

"What're you…wait a sec! You think I tried getting you into bed that night? I'm not that kinda guy!"

"You mean the idea honestly never crossed your mind!"

"Well…sure it did, but I'm sure I never acted on it! Of course you didn't make it easy for me with the dress you had on! What the hell were you thinking wearing something like that?"

"I'll have you know Phobos and Deimos picked that dress out for me!" Rei then blinked and crossed her arms at a realization. "Come to think of it, I'm wondering if maybe those two had an ulterior motive."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, they've always seemed to like you for some reason. I honestly can't comprehend why."

"Did Phobos and Deimos tell you this back then or sometime during now?"

"Deimos mentioned it to me in passing after our first duty guarding the prince and princess together. Look, let's get back on topic here!"

Jun nodded. "Right. So…what does this mean for us now then?"

"Why does it have to mean anything?"

"Well clearly we had feelings for each other back then, and we certainly do now. And as those memories showed us, there was clearly something more between us than just mere infatuation."

Rei sighed. "I don't know what happened between us that night, but it was a mistake and you know it. Besides, we may not have the full story but we know how it ended. You and I became enemies."

"But that's not going to happen this time around. Once I finish this mission with Grete I can go back to my life. We've been given another chance, Rei."

"Perhaps…but anything between us would still only be doomed. Trust me on this."

Before Jun could say anything in response, Rei shut the door and made sure to lock it so Jun couldn't try to open it back up. She then went back over to the bed and flopped onto it facedown. Re found herself wishing she had never recovered that particular memory from her past life, because recalling it meant she could no longer deny the feelings she had for Jun.

Virginia had been sitting in the brig on Level 2 for a few hours now, pondering what her next move was going to be. Her plan had gone off the rails the moment Dr. Higgins had found her down in the lab. Now that her brother was gone, the only thing left for Virginia was to destroy the Foundation, but there was no way she could pull off such a thing in her current situation.

The door to the brig opened and a male security officer carrying a rifle entered. "The Chairman wants to see you, right now."

Virginia got up and exited the cell at the officer's lead. She found two other officers, also armed with rifles, waiting right outside. Virginia had hoped briefly she could knock out the one guard who had come for her and take his rifle to escape, but with two other guards there that plan had instantly gone down in flames. The three officers soon brought Virginia to Kaidou's office. Upon entering, they found Kaidou inside with Dr. Higgins.

"Ah! Officer Sampson. So glad you could finally join us." Kaidou spoke.

"If you're going to kill me, I suggest you go ahead and get it over with," Virginia told them.

"Kill you? Why would I kill you when you're so useful to me? Rei Hino has come to trust you, correct? I can use that trust to my advantage."

"You can go to hell! Why would I help you after what you did to my brother?"

"Oh you will, Officer Sampson," Kaidou told her as he went over and sat behind his desk. "You see it's an easy matter for me to get you humans to do exactly as I want, even if they first object, because the human mind is in fact the simplest thing to control."

"This is one human whose mind you can't possibly control."

"Oh I think you'll soon see differently. Especially once you see my true form."

Suddenly a hole opened up in the center of the floor in front of Kaidou's desk. Rising out was a grey metal sphere atop a black pole. When the sphere rose to about six feet, the front of it opened up to reveal something inside. The moment Virginia saw the thing within the sphere open its eyes she couldn't help but let out a scream.

Author's Note: So far this has been the only chapter where Rei and Jun had a flashback that was naturally induced and not triggered by Dr. Ichinose's regression machine. Initially I had some reservations about abandoning said pattern, but with the whole thing involving Virginia's ill-fated brother, Rei and Jun having another session with the good doctor would've been a little redundant.

I'll hopefully be back next week with yet another update. Until then, please review and let me know what you think.