Double Jeopardy

Chapter 29: Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

"No!", Sailor Uranus screamed!

Mamoru turned in the direction Haruka was looking and saw something fly through the air toward the other Guardians down the street. Even though he knew he would never get there in time he started to run in their direction to help. Without warning a blast slammed into him from behind, knocking his top hat and mask away and throwing him to the ground. For several seconds he was disoriented. He immediately started to stand up, yelling out when he felt sharp pain from his right ankle.

Despite realizing it was almost certainly broken, he clenched his teeth together and forced himself to stay standing, taking a moment to regain his senses. He looked in the direction of his friends whose aid he and Haruka had been coming to, and saw that they where suddenly gone as if they'd vanished into thin air. Then he realized Haruka was gone as well. Slowly, it occurred to him that he may have been knocked unconscious, and the fight was already over. But if that was the case, why did they leave him? Still feeling confused, he slowly turned around and was shocked by what he saw.

It took Mamoru a few seconds to identify the two Sekkou. He limped a step back and shook his head slowly, both in shock and to try to clear the ringing sound from his ears. Just a few steps behind him, Amara lay motionless, with her neck twisted at an unnatural position. Beside her was Mechelle, laying face down, who looked like she'd practically been crushed into the ground. Both were motionless, and almost certainly dead. While a part of him had known the fight between the Sekkou and Guardians could lead to his friends having to kill their opponents, he couldn't help but wonder if perhaps his friends may have actually gone too far.

Despite the fact that he knew the Sekkou were thoroughly evil, looking at the two broken bodies lying before him made him feel strangely sad. They appeared to be almost vulnerable as if in death they'd regained some of their humanity, if only at the very end.

After a short time, he became vaguely aware that someone was standing beside him. He heard Usagi say softly, "It's all right."

"Usagi, I-", He turned to look at her, and when he realized he was looking at Dark Sailor Moon he tried to move away from her. Too late, he realized he'd moved too suddenly as a wave of pain shot up his leg causing him to collapse back to the ground. Slowly pushing himself away from her he said angrily, "Get away from me, you monster!"

"Monster?", Serena said, as a look of sadness crossed her face. "But ... But Darien, sweet Darien, it's me, Serena! Don't you remember me? It's been so long. I knew they were wrong when they said you were dead." Tears slowly ran down her cheeks, as she smiled and compassionately offered her hand to help him up.

Before Mamoru could say anything, Dark Sailor Saturn stepped over the small, charred skeletal corpse of Dark Sailor Pluto and gave a frustrated growl before yelling, "We don't take prisoners you dolt! Finish him off!"

Dark Sailor Moon stood defensively in front of Mamoru as dark energy crackled around her. "He's mine! You can't take him from me again!"

Dark Europa started to move toward Mamoru as did the surviving Sekkou, but Trista raised her hand as she said, "No, wait." Then to Serena, "If you bring him, Beryl will just take him away for herself, and that's if you're lucky. Better for you to kill him now." As an evil smile spread across her lips she added, "Besides, you know he's not really your 'sweet Darien'. He's dead. From what I'm told he died pathetically, begging for his life."

"I- I ...but ...", Serena looked quickly to Mamoru then back at Trista, clearly unsure of what to do. "Darien or not, he's mine. You can't just-"

Trista tilted her head slightly, as she listened to approaching sirens then yelled impatiently,"Fine! We don't have time to argue about this. He's yours. That is until Beryl finds out and decides what to do with him. Take him." Then louder so that the rest of the Sekkou could hear, she said, "Return!"

Once they realized that the Sekkou had left with Mamoru, they headed straight to the nearest emergency room to have Haruka and Minako's injuries treated. For the sake of caution, the attending physician had recommended that Minako be hospitalized over night. Ami and Usagi gathered the cats, smuggling them into the hospital with back packs and met the others in Minako's hospital room to decide what more could be done.

Many years ago, Haruka had found these meetings that the Guardians insisted on holding to be nothing more than pointless debates about what to do next. While she eventually came to appreciate how they formed a sense of camaraderie among the group, and occasionally managed to accidentally produced results, her opinion of them had changed little. She usually cracked jokes to her partner or teased the younger women while killing time until they ended. This time however, she was unusually quiet. But then, everyone was.

Even Usagi was silent. Rei was wondering if it was either shock at Mamoru being abducted, or if perhaps the blond was starting to get used to it. It was obvious she was worried about him, and was sniveling occasionally, but so far, she'd kept herself from bawling, which was a marked improvement for her.

Hotaru was the first to break the silence by saying, "I just wish we had gone to the hospital that Dr. Mizuno works at."

Rei said, "I'm sure that would have been preferable to everyone, but it can't be helped. That's too far away, and we needed to make sure Minako was all right."

"Those doctors are overreacting anyway," grumbled Minako from her bed. "There's no reason to keep me here. I feel like a million buckets. It's just a couple of bruised ribs and-"

Ami said, "Any time a person loses consciousness for more than a few minutes it has the potential to be a serious situation, Minako."

Usagi chimed in, "Well, I think-"

"I think," said Luna, "that you are all avoiding what we really need to discuss here."

"Yeah?", replied Rei, "And what do you think that is, exactly?"

Without hesitation, Artemis stated, "Our next move. We need to-"

"Our next move ...", Haruka echoed.

Michiru said, "I don't mean to be crass, but do you cats ever listen to yourselves? Do you realize how cold you sound?"

Haruka nodded in agreement. "I don't know if you've been keeping score here, but we just got our butts handed to us. Minako and Hotaru were nearly killed, Setsuna died, Mamoru is god knows where, and Makoto's one of-"

"None of that matters!" Luna said, as she twitched her whiskers and flattened her ears angrily. "We all know the risks that come with what we do. We are as heartbroken and concerned about the situation we're in as you are. But we need to focus on what is important right now." Raising her eyebrows and relaxing her ears slightly, she added, "The others I expected to hear this from, but not you two."

Michiru said, "We have spent a lot of time with all of you over the last several years." Looking around the room she continued, "It is not that we do not value our mission. We willingly risk life and limb every time we fight alongside you. I know there was a time when we would fanatically be the first two to put the objective before absolutely anything." After a pause she glanced at Hotaru and finished, "But is it that hard to believe that maybe ... just maybe, over the years of being in contact with the rest of you that we have finally started to learn what is truly important?"

"I know how you feel," said Minako as she sat up in bed, "But Artemis and Luna are right. We don't have the luxury of grieving for our losses right now. What we need is the same thing we have needed all along. A plan."

Haruka fidgeted with the brace on her wrist absently, then looked at Minako and said, "So, I take it you have one then?" When she didn't answer, she looked around the room. " Anyone? This is what we need so let's hear it!" After searching each person's face and letting a long, uneasy silence fill the room Haruka said, "That's what I thought. There is absolutely nothing we can do. And until a realistic idea presents itself, I think what is best is that we take time to recover."

Haruka motioned to Hotaru and Michiru to follow her, but as she started to reach for the door, she heard Ami said almost inaudibly, "Well … I have a suggestion."

Everyone turned to look at Ami as she reached into the back pack she had brought Artemis in and retrieved something small and silver. Holding it out in her hands carefully, she explained, "I located this when I was dragged into their universe. It is one of the devices they use to return to their dimension of origin."

Usagi perked up a bit and asked, "Does that mean we can go try to save them?"

Rei tilted her head as she leaned closer to look at the small item. "Does it work?"

"Near as I can tell, yes. Assuming there are no objections, there is no reason why we could not leave to rescue Makoto and Mamoru right now. We would also have the upper hand, as they do not seem to know we have it. There is just one problem."

Usagi cringed and asked, "There's no chance it will suck us into dinosaur world or something is there?

"We would be in a world surrounded by an entire population of people who want to kill us?", asked Hotaru.

"We'd be hopelessly lost?", asked Minako.

"No," said Aim, "the problem is more severe than any of those possibilities. I'm sure some of you are wondering why I have yet to mention this to you before now, and I'm sorry. The reason is due to an issue that has crossed my mind since I acquired it. We would be relying on complicated technology that none of us, not even myself, fully understand." She paused as she held up the pendent to examine it closer before continuing, "If something, any complications arise with the technology over there, whoever goes would be trapped on the other side, unable to return."

Haruka carefully took the item from Ami and examined it in her hands. "So, what you're saying is, we should take this shuttle bus to the devil's house to try to save our friends, with no guarantee of success, and not knowing if we would be able to get home?"

Ami sighed then said, "I was thinking just myself and Usagi had to go. There is no reason why the rest of you should be put at risk, and the technology is more difficult to work without a mirror version of ourselves here."

Luna jumped up on Minako's bed to get to a slightly higher vantage point. "Out of the question. We can't let Usagi take that kind of a chance, and going by yourself would be suicide."

"That's why we're going with you," said Minako as Rei started to help her up. "There's no way we're going to let you have all the fun, right?"

"Yeah, that's right, Ami. We're a team. We all go or no one does," Said Hotaru.

"That's enough!" Haruka said behind clenched teeth. "It's too much of a risk! No one's going anywhere!" Then, she let the pendent slip from her hand. The second it touched the ground there was a loud cracking sound followed by a small flash of sparks as she crushed it with the heel of her foot, causing a short electrical discharge to wind around her shoe.

For a long moment, the only sound in the room was Usagi trying not to cry. Finally Hotaru said, "Haruka-Papa, do you realize what you just did? Even if you didn't think now was a good time, you could have suggested that Ami-"

Michiru cut her daughter off by saying, "Ami would have just convinced the others to go now, as soon as we left the room. She did the only thing possible to keep them from doing something foolish."

Rei glared at the two older Sailor Guardians and bit back, "By doing something foolish herself? We could have-",

Once again motioning for Michiru and Hotaru to follow her, Haruka said quietly, "That's enough! Get some rest, Minako. We'll think of something else. We're leaving." When her daughter didn't move, Haruka turned to her in annoyance and said, "Hotaru? Did you hear me?"

Bending down to pick up the peaces of the smashed pendent Hotaru said, "I'm staying. Ami, there's got to be a way you can-"

"It will be alright, Hotaru." Ami said softly as she blinked back tears. "Do not cause any trouble. Go with your parents. I ... I will see you at school. Your mother and papa are right. It was not the most appropriate suggestion. We can think of something else."

Hotaru slowly let the smashed bits slip from her fingers and pushed past Haruka without a word.

Unsure what to say Minako asked, "Will she be alright?"

Haruka looked at the empty doorway, then back at the other Guardians. "I don't know." Then she said quietly, "I'm sorry. I did what was best. For all of us." Then she guided Michiru out the door, carefully closing it behind her.

"I'm sorry too, Haruka," Ami said as she ruffled through her bag again for the second pendent. "But I have to do what I feel is right as well."

"Wait," Usagi sniffled, "You had two of them?"

Ami nodded as she located the second pendent and said, "Yes. The one I gave to Haruka was the damaged one that I got off of Dark Sailor Venus when she was staying with Rei. This one is one that I stole while I was stuck on their side of the portal."

Holding it in her hands Ami said, "I meant what I said earlier. Myself and Usagi have to go, the rest of you do not. No one has to go who thinks this is a bad idea."

Rei scoffed and said, "Are you kidding? I'll do it just to see the reaction from Haruka when we get back!"

"And I'm not about to let you three have all the fun," said Minako. "Besides, even if we get stuck there the food has to be better than what they have at this hospital."

Luna looked at Artemis and said, "You know ... they would be canned cat food without us."

The white cat raised his front paws and said, "Right. We couldn't get out of the hospital without being seen without you, anyway. We're in too."

Usagi smiled as she blinked back tears, looked at her friends and said, "I appreciate the help. I think Ami would have been doomed with just me at her side."

"Everyone ready?", Ami asked. When she didn't get an answer she activated the portal and said, "Just watch your step when you get through, and it will probably be dark."

One by one, she watched her friends walk through the swirling dark purple portal. When she was the last one left in the room, she looked around the room as if making sure they hadn't forgotten anything, then looked at the portal. What ever happened, Ami knew she wouldn't regret it. She just hoped the others felt the same way.

Just as she stepped through she said, "I'm coming, Makoto." The portal disappeared in a flash of light behind her, sealing them on the other side.

It would be hours before anyone noticed any of them were missing.