Double Jeopardy
Chapter 13: Down the Rabbit Hole
To Dark Sailor Saturn, her moment of glory felt like it was proceeding in slow motion and she wanted to savor every instant of it. She could feel her fingers gripping her weapon as it plunged down. Feel her soon to be vanquished foe squirming in pain and terror, like a worm on a hook beneath her foot. Feel Sailor Jupiter's eyes watching her. Feel the air rushing out of her lungs as she yelled out in triumph. She so enjoyed taking a person's life! To her it was a form of art, and the ultimate form of power. In a way it was what she lived for.
Trista was so focused on the joy of the kill that she hadn't noticed the elevator doors open.
"Venus Love-Me Chain!" At the last possible instant, a chain of light smashed into Dark Saturn's glaive, causing the Sekkou to momentarily lose her balance and sending her weapon flying through the air, then embedding itself into a far wall.
Sailor Venus emerged from the elevator at a run toward Dark Saturn, ready to defend her friend! At the same moment on the other side of the cube farm the door next to Dark Jupiter and Sailor Jupiter swung open, smacking into Lita's back, hard. Sailor Uranus had given the door a powerful kick and the rest of the Sailor Guardians rushed into the room. As if it were planned that way the remaining Sekkou also made their entrance, smashing through the office windows sending glass flying in every direction!
Regaining her balance, Dark Sailor Saturn kicked Sailor Mercury aside, discarding her for her new opponent. As she charged Sailor Venus, fully intent on tearing the blonde apart with her own bare hands, Venus started to power up another attack to defend herself. When Dark Saturn had covered half the distance to her, a staff came out of nowhere to crash against Dark Saturn's jaw, sending her toppling backwards to the ground.
Sailor Venus looked over to the direction where the person who had swung the staff was still standing. Seeing Sailor Pluto there, she said happily, "Thanks!" Sailor Pluto didn't have time to answer as she rushed off to continue her duel with Dark Pluto.
Sailor Venus stepped over the barely conscious Dark Saturn and helped Sailor Mercury to her feet. Ami accepted the hand her friend offered and asked as she stood up, "When did you get here? I thought you would not be able to get free until around noon."
Smiling, Minako said, "The radio station isn't far from here, so when Ritsuko's shopping trip got cut short by your fight, she came straight to the station claiming to feel better. From the looks of the shopping plaza, somebody had fun!" Then, switching to a more serious mood as the two ran to help Makoto, she said, "So what's the situation?"
"The Sekkou are trying to kill us, but they apparently need our bodies in decent condition. That is all we know at this point. Our goal is to try to capture one of them alive for questioning and retreat." Sailor Mercury spoke just loud enough for Sailor Venus to hear as the two ran.
It took Sailor Venus every ounce of discipline she had not to stop where she was. Waving her arms and sounding surprised she said, "That's crazy! You're going to have to explain what I missed later."
The two were halfway to Sailor Jupiter when Dark Venus landed several feet in front of them blocking their path as she glared directly at Sailor Venus. They slid to a halt, and Minako leaned toward Ami, whispering, "Go help your girlfriend. I'll handle her."
Sailor Mercury nodded once and backtracked the way she had come while trying to navigate the maze of cubicles to find another way to Sailor Jupiter. This was becoming an increasingly easier task since every time one of them used an attack it flattened a new path. Of course, it also made it more difficult to walk let alone run, since it also sprawled damaged office supplies, computers, ceiling tiles, overlapping cubicle walls everywhere as well. Sailor Venus found it a little amusing that as Sailor Mercury turned around a corner, she nearly disappeared behind the five foot tall cubicle walls.
Sailor Venus snapped her attention back to her opponent when she spoke.
Nodding toward the direction Sailor Mercury had gone, Dark Venus said, "Your friend is an admirable woman. She withstands pain rather well. Let's see how well you measure up!" As she spoke, a straight beam of light formed in her hands, then somehow loosened into a flexible cord. Apparently, Dark Sailor Venus's version of Minako's love me chain was more like a whip. She twirled it around her on the ground as she swung the end she was holding slowly above her. Then with speed Sailor Venus could barely comprehend, Dark Venus sent it cracking at Minako, missing her by inches as it slammed into another cubicle.
Sailor Venus ducked instinctively, and was glad her opponent missed since she was entirely too slow to have dodged the attack had she not. As she rolled for cover, she watched as the stricken section of wall slid apart, almost perfectly cut in half. She was about to yell out one of her 'improved' puns, but forgot what she was about to say when another crack of Dark Venus's whip ripped through the wall behind her, cutting into the ground next to her. Sailor Venus's eyes went wide as she watched the deadly weapon slide away like a snake as her opponent pulled it back again, readying it for yet another strike.
Before either of them could attack, a tremendous explosion rocked the entire floor, causing a section of the ceiling to collapse and knocking everyone off their feet. As Minako stood back up, she realized the source of the explosion must have come from either Sailor Mars, Dark Mars, or (most likely) both of them, because by the time she had gotten back to her feet, half the room had burst into flames. The smell of burning metal and melting plastic filled the room as the temperature shot up shockingly quick, setting off the sprinklers. The water doused some of the flames, sending up choking clouds of smoke, making it impossible to see or breathe.
Sailor Venus dropped to her hands and knees and crawled along the floor back in the direction she had come, trying to make her way to the elevator. She clicked on her communicator when she realized her attacker had given up the fight for her own safety.
She could only rasp out one word because she was coughing so hard from the fumes. "Retreat!" The fight had suddenly become pointless since no one could see, and if they didn't get out of here soon, the smoke and toxic fumes would probably kill them all.
Meanwhile, the Sekkou had gotten the same idea as Sailor Venus. Like her double, Mina had given them the order to withdraw. Dark Sailor Jupiter flew out one of the shattered windows to join the rest of her companions hovering outside the building.
It didn't take her long to realize after she cleared the smoke billowing from the windows that one of them was missing. Dark Jupiter looked around and said, somewhat distressed, "Where's Amy?"
Dark Moon spoke, trying to calm her. "We tried her communicator several times already. We were hoping she was with you."
Dark Jupiter didn't even think. She spun around in the air and started to head back into the smoke without any thought for her own safety. She only stopped when Dark Uranus and Dark Saturn both flew over to her and yanked her back.
"Don't be a fool!" Amara said angrily to Lita.
Lita, still struggling to get free, said, clearly furious by being blocked, "But she's still in there! We can't - "
Dark Mars cut her off, flying in front of her to grab Dark Jupiter's shoulders and shook her hard to get her attention. "Shut up and listen to me!" When Lita stopped struggling for a moment and glared into Ray's eyes, she continued. "We think she probably opened her portal and left rather than meet up out here. The smoke was so thick in there she probably realized she couldn't find her way out. Now, I need you to - "
Lita shouted at the top of her lungs, "No thanks to you! We have to - " She was cut off by Mina sending a sharp slap across the tallest scout's face.
"Get ahold of yourself!," Mina said angrily. "We are going to go back through the portal and see if Mars is correct. Mercury is a cunning, resourceful woman. I'm sure she is fine regardless of where she is. If we don't find her in our universe, I promise you we will come back and search for her at the first opportunity." Turning back to watch flames shoot out of the windows, Mina said, "Besides, we don't have a choice now." With that, the Sekkou activated a portal and disappeared inside it as several of them pulled Dark Sailor Jupiter in with them.
Minako thought she heard Makoto say something over her communicator, but she hadn't caught what it was. At the moment it would have to wait since she was still crawling across the floor trying to reach safety. She knew using the elevator during a fire wasn't the best of ideas, but the smoke was so thick she wasn't sure she could find a stairway quick enough.
Once she reached the elevator she brought her hand up and smacked the button to close the door, then pressed the button for the first floor. She coughed a few more times as she rolled onto her back, taking a moment to relax. As the elevator lowered, the thick black smoke slowly cleared and she realized she wasn't alone. Rei and Hotaru had also made it to the same elevator.
At first she had thought the two were Sekkou because their uniforms looked black, but then she realized the color of their uniforms was from all the greasy soot caked on them. "Did the others make it out?" Minako asked, still coughing.
Hotaru answered from where she was sitting on the floor in the far corner of the elevator after taking several breaths of air. "The others went down the stairway we came out of, except for Ami and Makoto. They ..."
"They decided to do something really stupid." Rei angrily finished for her.
Then, with a guilty expression, Rei said, "I was fighting my double when we both fired off an attack. The two attacks struck each other somehow causing an explosion that aside for setting the place on fire, knocked a support beam from the ceiling." She looked at Minako then said, "When it fell, it pinned down Dark Mercury. Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury were close by and decided to try to get her out both to accomplish our goal and because Ami simply didn't feel right about leaving her to die regardless of what she has done. I tried to tell them to leave, but they wouldn't listen."
Minako sat up, clicked on her communicator and said quietly, "Ami, are you there?" After a few moments she asked, "Makoto? Can you hear me?" When silence again greeted her she yelled out with a shaky voice, "Damn it! Will one of you answer me!"
Ami's image appeared on the screen after several tense moments. She unwrapped her nose and mouth which had been covered by what was probably a section of her skirt she had ripped off and covered with water to allow herself to breath. "We're safe. We are going down a stairway on our way to the basement. Try to make your way to the subway station and find a place away from prying eyes. We will meet you there. " Preparing herself for the reprimand she knew was coming for not following directions, she said nervously, "I'm sorry, Minako-chan. Please don't be upset with Makoto. It was my idea. I felt we needed answers too badly to let the opportunity past us." Shrugging her shoulders, she added, "Besides, it just didn't set well with me leaving her to burn alive." Ami looked at something off the screen for a moment, then added, "Even if she deserves it."
Minako sighed and let herself lay back down for a moment. Then she said, loud enough for Ami to hear her, "I guess that's the difference between us and them. If the situation had been reversed, they would have left you to die." After a pause Minako said, "The important thing is that you're both alright, but next time I tell you to fall back you do it, understand? See you in a few minutes." Then Minako clicked off her communicator.
As the elevator continued down to its destination, Hotaru couldn't help but be grateful for the small fact that at least they didn't have to take the stairs.
Haruka said to the other person on the other end of the phone line, "Yes, hello? I'd like to report two stolen vehicles." Then after the dispatcher asked her a question, Haruka said, "A yellow 2003 TVR Cerbera, license plate number 10-25K and a blue 2001 Honda Acura, plate number 1701-A."
Haruka blinked a few times, momentarily perplexed by the dispatcher's next comment. "Ehhhh ... no," Haruka replied, "The blue one is my friend's car. That would make her the 'trekkie'." The two went back and forth answering questions, then once the dispatcher had finished filing their report, Haruka turned off her cell phone and walked back down into the subway to join the rest of the Sailor Guardians and their captive.
The subway was empty and would probably remain so since this stop had temporarily been taken out of service while the police and firefighters above began their work. Makoto had tied Amy's hands behind her back and around a hand rail against the wall at the bottom of the stairs leading up to street level to keep her from escaping while they talked to her.
So far, Amy hadn't said anything, almost as if she preferred them to start the conversation. She just glared back at each of them with a stare colder than ice. For their part the Guardians kept whispering short conversations back and forth to each other, trying to figure out what to do with their prisoner. They had never had a captive before and weren't quite sure what to do with her. Plus to make things even more awkward, they really hadn't had enough time to think about what exactly they were going to say to her.
Ami finally broke the silence, deciding that simply getting to the point was the best place to start. "We have several questions we would like to ask you. I suppose we should ask you the first one on our minds which is, why do you wish to terminate us?"
"Why should I answer you?" Amy shot back as Ami was finishing the last word in her question. "The less you know the more of an advantage we have." Smiling as she continued, she said, "It is not like you are going to hurt me if I do not talk anyway. If I do not talk the worst you can do is wait for my friends to come back and get me and let me tell you, they can be persistent."
Makoto had been silent ever since they had saved Amy from her fate. She hadn't wanted to save her at all and only did so because Ami had taken pity on her. If it had been up to Makoto alone, Amy would have been left to die. The woman had caused Ami so much pain before, and in Makoto's mind leaving her to die would have been better than she deserved, not to mention it also would have removed part of the threat they now faced. She wanted to beat the living daylights out of the Sekkou of Mercury whether or not she spoke.
She said quietly, but unable to hide the anger in her voice, "We saved your life. That should entitle us to some information out of you at least."
Dark Mercury laughed, then said happily, "That you did." Then she looked over at Ami and said, smiling, "He, Ami! Sie sprechen German ja? Wie steht's mit etwas Information über Sie, ja? Denken Sie, dass sie lieben würden, die Geschichte über das erste Mal zu hören, als Sie von Ihrem Gesichtspunkt starben?" Her smile got a little larger as she finished, "Ich denke, dass Makoto es sehr interessant tatsächlich finden würde. Was sagen Sie?"
The comment was clearly meant to get a reaction out of Ami since she was the only one among them that spoke German. Ami suddenly got a look of anger with a touch of panic to her face as she glanced at Makoto, then back at Dark Mercury finally replying back, "Nein! Sie können nicht ihnen darüber erzählen! Das ist zu persönlich!" Whatever Dark Mercury had just said it was obvious Ami didn't want the others to know.
Dark Mercury opened her mouth to say something, but Ami walked closer and surprised everyone by slapping Amy in a fit of rage, intent on not allowing her to speak. Ami said rapidly, "Ich werde nicht Sie diese Befragung kontrollieren lassen. Sie werden auf unsere Fragen antworten!"
Then Ami grabbed their prisoner by her collar, clearly distressed, and yelled out, "Sie verstehen mich?!" Her voice echoed loudly for a moment in the cavernous space before she felt arms grab her and pull her away quickly. The other Sailor Guardians had realized Ami's temper did have limits and weren't entirely sure what she was going to do.
As Haruka and Setsuna pulled Ami off her double, she protested loudly, "Don't listen to her! She is trying to gain control of the situation in the worst possible way!"
"You want information, Mako-chan?" Amy laughed out, "I'll give you information. Did Ami ever tell you the story about what happened to her when those Youma killed her before Usagi faced Beryl?" Smiling, she said quieter, "You were dead at the time so I doubt you know it unless she told you." Noticing she had everyone's attention she said clearly restraining laughter, "It is after all unpleasant to talk about one's own death."
Ami looked at Makoto and said, pleading, "Makoto, please don't . . ."
Makoto raised her hand so it was facing behind her toward where Haruka and Setsuna were holding Ami. The gesture's meaning was clear.
Be quiet.
Once everyone was silent again Makoto said, "I want to hear this."
Amy leaned back a moment, closing her eyes as she thought back. Then she looked into Makoto's eyes as if searching for something. "Our history isn't much different from yours, you know? The pivotal change is mostly when Serena fought Beryl. Therefore, it is a good bet that my experience was nearly identical to your own. My story I am about to tell you is about Ami, and her greatest moment of weakness."
Tilting her head to the side gesturing toward Sailor Moon, Ami continued, "After you died, Usagi actually suggested that we give Beryl the Legendary Silver Crystal. Can you believe that? Just give it to her, just like that! All out of guilt because you," Amy nodded her head to indicate she was talking about Makoto, "sacrificed yourself to keep that from happening. Naturally, I slapped her as hard as I could in an attempt to knock some sense into her."
Usagi, with a look of shame on her face, reached up and gently rubbed her own cheek as the memory came back to her all too clearly. So quietly that no one actually heard her, she said, "I deserved it."
Realizing her comment had caused a reaction from one of her audience members the Sekkou continued, "I remember saying afterward, 'Jupiter's death must not be in vain,' or something to that effect ... I don't remember honestly the exact words. It was after all, back when we were all in junior high which was, oh, about -"
"Get to the point!", Makoto said clenching her fists as she glared at the woman. Makoto was so engrossed in the story that she didn't even realize Amy had been telling it as if she were Ami.
Looking truthfully sad at the memory, Amy continued again, ignoring the rude interruption. "I told the others to let me hold them off while they made their way to fight Queen Beryl. I promised Usagi that I wouldn't die." Biting her lower lip for a moment as depressing thoughts ran through her mind, Amy said quietly, "In reality, that was exactly what I wanted to happen at that point."
Makoto didn't let her eyes leave Amy's as she asked out loud, "Is this true?"
Before Ami could answer, Dark Mercury spoke for her. Her voice was a strange mixture of anger and sadness. "Of course it is." Straining her arms as she tried to wave them in frustration, she yelled, "I could not bear the thought of living without you. So I decided to let myself be killed in a meaningful way rather than to even attempt to go another day without you. It seemed to be ... the honorable thing to do, and the best way to ... end my suffering. It was a truly cowardly act, in a moment of despair and weakness."
Makoto turned around to look at her new girlfriend and said quietly, "Ami?"
Ami could almost feel all of her friends looking at her. She had her head turned so it was facing the wall with her eyes squeezed shut and her arms wrapped around herself. She had the look of someone who wanted nothing more than to just disappear all together. "It's true. I didn't show it, but I was distraught. I was weak, a coward, and I was scared. I was too young to realize how ... permanent my decision could have been if things had gone differently and we were not brought back to life." Ami kept her eyes closed. She didn't want to see her friends looking at her. No doubt, they must be disgusted with her for being so weak.
After a few more moments she felt a hand gently touch her chin and guide it so her face was turned forward. When Ami opened her cobalt blue eyes, they met Makoto's emerald green ones as they looked at her. To Ami's surprise, Makoto had a smile on her face.
Once she realized she had Ami's attention, Jupiter said happily, "You know, it would have been a lot simpler if you had just told me how you felt. I mean, It's kinda sweet that you felt you had to play out the ending of Romeo and Juliet because of me, bu - "
Her words were cut off by Ami burying her face in Makoto's shoulder as she squeezed her close, both for comfort and to hide her tears. The entire event was something she had tried to keep a secret from Makoto for what seemed like forever since she felt so strangely guilty about it. Ami's muffled voice asked, clearly relieved, "You mean you are not upset with me?"
"Of course we're not. We all have our secrets we would like to keep and mistakes we've made," said Michiru. "I wasn't there, but from what little I have heard about those events, even if you hadn't sacrificed yourself, the outcome would have probably been the same anyway. Plus, you were young, and you sound like you have learned your lesson. Everyone has their moments when they are weak and vulnerable. You're a strong person, Ami. You should never doubt that."
After a few more moments of silence, Minako cleared her throat and said quietly, so as not to sound too harsh, but loud enough to accomplish her goal of getting everyone else's attention, "As touching as this is, well, I hate to ruin the moment but, uh ... this is an interrogation."
As if in agreement Dark Mercury groaned out, "Oh please, spare me." Then she started to rhythmically smack the back of her head against the wall in frustration. She had thought for sure that that bit of 'information' would have caused a rift of some kind among the team against Ami. Obviously she had been wrong. Between thuds she said bitterly, "Man, this just is not my day."
Taking one last instant to pull herself together, Ami wiped her eyes and backed away from Makoto. As her cheeks turned a slight pink color, and sounding more than a little embarrassed by her emotional outburst, she said, "Uh . . . right."
Ami had always been good about controlling, and even suppressing her emotions, but it seemed to her that about four weeks ago that had become more and more difficult to do. She wasn't sure if it was stress from when she was captured, her budding relationship with Makoto, repressed sexual tension, the fact she was getting older, or any combination of reasons for that matter. The one thing she was sure of was that there was probably a long technical name for it in psychology, and it was starting to embarrass her. Partially because she couldn't remember what it was.
Setting her emotions aside, she switched on her visor as she turned her attention back to the Sekkou. "If you will not talk, we can still get some information out of you using nonverbal methods that do not necessarily have to be violent. It will not be as useful as answering our questions, but it is better than nothing." Analyzing something always made Ami feel more confident and helped to calm her nerves a bit. It helped that the subject matter in front of her, from a scientific standpoint, was rather fascinating.
A new wire mesh of Amy appeared on her visor, this one showing considerably more detail about her than the ones Ami had used to track the Sekkou during their flight around the building. Charts and graphs as well as detailed analytical information scrolled across her screen as the visor began its analysis of their opponent.
Ami began stating the information as if she were talking to a science professor. "Her deoxyribonucleic acid is nearly identical to mine, but not an exact copy. The variant in her DNA would be considered strange in any human being ... or, for that matter nearly any organism alive. In normal DNA, we only have four base nucleotides, adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine. These pair up in a long sequence to form the DNA molecules in all living things. Hers, however, have an extra pair that appears seemingly randomly throughout her DNA pattern. The visor interprets this pair as XX. In short, this is the visor's way of saying the particular pair of nucleotides cannot be analyzed."
Ami looked at the others and realized her explanation was a little too technical, so she said, "In other words, someone altered her on a genetic level in ways I cannot even begin to understand."
Ami got a chorus of "Oh's" in response.
Sailor Mercury continued her scan of their enemy, and for her part Dark Mercury stayed quiet as she listened to find out what they found out. Sometimes the best way to do damage control when someone finds out your secrets is to find out what they know so that you know what they know. Ami understood this, but she felt letting the others know right now was more important than waiting until later to digest the information since she had no idea how much or little time they had before the other Sekkou realized what had happened to their missing member and came back to fetch her.
"Physically, she is nearly identical to me aside from a place on her left arm, right leg, and the upper right frontal quadrant of her skull where it appears she sustained severe damage at some point in the past. Muscle structure and strength are the same, as well as internal organs. Her brain waves are different, probably because of different methods of thought. Energy patterns are the same as mine, but are aligned differently, and slightly more powerful, which probably is what results in her attacks being more aggressive than my own, and giving her the ability to fly." Ami stopped speaking for a moment and made another adjustment to her visor before adding, "There also seems to be another energy ... spike. I do not think it is coming directly from her though. Perhaps something she is wearing?"
As Ami said the last comment, Dark Mercury tucked her chin down as far as she could, glaring at Ami as if daring her to continue. Ami took a step closer, and Dark Mercury tried to kick at her for a moment as if defending herself, but Ami was still out of reach. The Sekkou said angrily, "I'm warning you stay back!" Then she smiled and said only being slightly sarcastic, "I bite."
Lost in the sea of information she was reading Ami said quietly, "Good point." Then she turned her head and said, "Haruka would you be so kind as to hold her chin up? There is something I would like to get a closer look at."
"With pleasure," Haruka said as she cracked her knuckles. She walked over to Amy and as she expected, Dark Mercury tried to kick again. Haruka expertly blocked the kick with her own leg. When Amy realized that wasn't going to work, she sunk to the ground as low as she could in an effort to keep away from Haruka. Sailor Uranus grabbed Amy by her collar and lifted her back to her feet, then used her leg to hold both of Amy's in place and her free hand to force her head up so that Amy was now looking nearly straight up.
Dark Mercury watched as best she could while Sailor Mercury walked calmly up to her. Almost like a child fascinated by a small shiny object, Ami reached out and unfastened Amy's choker. Like her own, Amy's choker had an ornamental star on the front of it held in place by blue fabric. The only visible difference was that Amy's was titanium in color instead of gold. However, it wasn't the aesthetic dissimilarity that had captivated Ami's attention and Dark Mercury knew it.
"Don't touch that!" The Sekkou screeched out not trying to hide her distress. As Ami continued to examine the choker, Amy screamed, "You fool! Give that back! You have no idea what that is!"
Almost as if Amy's words were nothing but a stray thought in her mind, Ami, with her voice full of fascination said softly, "You are right, I do not. It is amazing just the same though. It appears to have more energy at its disposal than you do. Over ten times more."
Still peering through her visor, Ami brought the small object close to her face studying it a moment more. Then she moved away from the group several feet, still apparently lost in thought. As an afterthought she said, "You can let go of her now, Haruka."
Amy didn't put up a fight when Haruka stepped back. She still had her eyes locked on Mercury as she said angrily, "For all of our safety, I highly advise you to put that down!" She emphasized the last word by stomping one of her feet.
Makoto looked at Ami from where she stood and said sounding concerned, "I think you should be careful, Ami-Chan."
Ami was so lost in thought that she ignored both of them. A few of the Sailor Guardians started to move toward her, but Ami held up a hand to have them stop.
"Amazing! I wonder ...", was all Ami could say as she kept reading the information scrolling across her visor.
Finally, she held the star in the palm of her hand and gently pressed the front of it with a finger. As soon as she did there was a flash of light, and then a portal opened up in front of her. Its familiar purple outline with a dark black center was familiar to the Guardian, since it was the same one the Sekkou had used to escape. All of the Sailor Guardians except Mercury jumped in surprise, and a few of them rushed toward her for a moment thinking it had been some kind of attack. Once they realized what it was they stopped but watched the portal cautiously as if it were a monster come to attack them.
Ami blinked a few times as her visor fired several more messages across her view. "The portal has an event horizon. That is why we see black in the center. We can not see any of the light traveling through our side or the other. I think it is a ... miniature black hole? That would not make any sense. If that is what it is, the entire planet would have been sucked in by now."
Then Ami switched off her visor and stepped closer to the portal looking at it with her own eyes. Sounding for all the world like Haruka admiring the latest model of sports car, she said in awe, "It's a wormhole!" The portal was absolutely fascinating from a scientific standpoint to her. She had seen several different portals since she had become a Sailor Guardian but had never gotten the chance to see one up close to study.
"A what?" Usagi said sounding confused. Then she cringed as she said, "You mean a giant worm is going to come out of there?"
Ami, now inches from the portal laughed as she shook her head at Usagi's question and said, oblivious to the fact that the rest of the Sailor Guardians had barely understood most of what she had said so far, "No, I mean it is a hole through space and time. They can travel vast dis - " Ami screamed out in surprise, suddenly stopping herself in the middle of her explanation.
A black gloved hand had shot out of the portal and latched onto her wrist! Ami frantically tried to pull the hand away as her friends rushed toward her to help.
Makoto had nearly reached Ami, so she lunged toward her.
Sailor Mercury was yanked off her feet and through the portal a fraction of a second before anyone could reach her. Almost instantly, there was another bright flash of light and Ami's screaming abruptly silenced as the portal closed behind her, leaving the rest of the Guardians and their prisoner in stunned silence as Makoto crashed into the ground empty handed.