Chapter 13: One Bad Apple Will Spoil The Whole Bunch
"Actually," Ixion said crossing his arms. "I really do hope that your friends do show up on the other hand. There are only a select few of you that really interest us."
"What does that mean?" Sailor Venus asked.
"Oh you'll find out soon enough I'm sure." Ixion smiled coyly before turning to the transformed Adori. "Neikia I don't have all day."
"Well lets see how one bad apple can spoil a whole bunch!" Neikia held out her right hand, and the jaw of the snake opened on her wrist shooting out apples at the scouts.
"Ah! What the heck! We're being ambushed by fruit!" Jupiter said as she dodged one of them.
"I don't think their actually fruit. They seem a little hard-" Mercury said almost falling forward into Mars.
"Because they're bad apples! The venomous of hate always comes out LAST!" Neikia sang almost hysterically in anticipation as Neikia stopped suddenly shooting them. The girls took a breather.
"That was it?" Mars asked.
"Where's that venom stuff?" Venus asked.
"I think you spoke too soon." Jupiter said as she watched one of the apples on the ground roll around a little before it popped open and a cloud of green gas filled the air. Suddenly all of the apples did the same.
"I cant breathe!" Venus complained.
"I can't see much either!" Mars said.
"She must be doing this to distract us. " Mercury said trying to scan the room, as her arm covered her mouth.
"That was a rotten trick." Jupiter said who walked backwards absently bumping into Venus' back.
"AH!" Venus cried as simultaneously they found themselves with a snake-like gold coil wrapped around the both of their arms and waists pinning them to the wall.
"What was that?" Mars looked over to see where the yell came from through the green fog and she felt her waist tighten as she bumped into Mercury and further into the wall.
"Nice catch. Now for the main course." Neikia yelled out.
"Where did that guy Ixion go?" Mars asked searching the room.
"I don't think that's our issue." Mercury said as the serpent-like monster Neikia had been pulling at their ropes and with her other arm revealed a Seed-Face mark on her shoulder. Now that the fog was clearing they managed to see Jupiter and Venus get struck with seedlings,.
"Hey would you move over? How are we going to get free if I can't even breathe?!" Venus asked angrily.
"Oh yea like I put us here!" Jupiter nudged Venus, and pulled around in the grasp.
"Well you just pulled my hair!" Venus said trying to pull her locks out from between them.
"It's not my problem your hair is so long…If it was practically put up like mine we wouldn't have this problem!"
Serena got out of her bath. The sun was setting and the festival started just into the night time hours.
"Serena! Have you seen your phone!?" Luna said nudging at the cell phone on her bed.
"No, I was in the bath Luna and-"
"The scouts thought that Jewelry shop may have been linked to the Seed-Scouts you girls have been going against! Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Luna exclaimed reading the text.
"What? The Charm shop!" Serena nearly dropped her towel.
"They haven't said anything else. Can you reach them on your communicator?"
"Wait wait!" Serena stumbled into her clothes. She checked her watch-communicator. "I can't get to them!"
"Then theres no time to loose! We need to get to that shop!" Luna said.
"But Luna-" Serena started to question if Darien had texted her or if he was back.
"No time Serena!" Luna lead Serena down to the shop.
"Don't go in right away." Luna said. She peaked over into the glass. Instantly she saw the scouts, all of them arguing and pulling against the monster who had them trapped. "They're hopeless like that. I don't see Sedna or Varune…we should see if there's a back entrance Serena."
"Alright." Serena nodded. They ran down the side alley to find a door at the back of the shop. She transformed almost immediately.
"I'll let you handle this for the time being, I'm going to find Artemis. I think I'll get more help." Luna said.
"Mhm." Sailor Moon nodded and opened the back door as Luna left.
Ixion stood on the roof and smiled as he watched the feline counter-part leave. He'd actually found the right girl. His intuition was riveting at times.
Sailor Moon opened the door.
It was a stock room. Looked like the place they made the charms. It was pretty dark too…but she had to find her way out and get to her friends.
"I wouldn't go through the door if I were you."
She swallowed. "Who's there!?"
She turned to see a man flat in front of her. He looked vaguely similar to the man at the shop this morning. His red brown wavy locks hit his chin, dancing over his golden eyes, as his orange-red vest, something like Varune's ended in a pair of black pants and sharp rimmed arm braces. His forehead had a sign similar to an I with a slash in the middle and his hands were covered in tan fingerless gloves at the end of muscular arms.
"Who are you?" Sailor Moon took two steps back.
"Ixion, master in the Flames of Temptations. Lets say I give your friend Sailor Mars a little run for her fiery-go. Also, I must apologize for giving you that charm this morning."
"I don't know what your talking about…"Sailor Moon put her arms out ready to attack.
"It was me. You know. I know you're the same girl that came in with your four friends who are now fighting Neikia…or rather fighting with each other. All you have to do is light a fire and someone will find the stuff to ignite it into pure chaos. " Ixion smiled at her.
"In that case I need to get in there."
"You could…but you should realize your Prince Charming won't come for you today if you do fail. I watched Sedna and Varune the last few times. But you see you pinned him with a seedling, and I'm sure you already know how that goes-"
Sailor Moon's eyes opened wide. Dairen.
"But that's it. You know these seedlings don't work well on people that don't have something to fight about…it needs the ignition for an argument to arise…you think he really truly loves you if he's throwing you away so easily? Picking at the faults you have?"
"I gave him a reason to this morning. I wouldn't blame him for it. He does love me." Sailor Moon looked hard at Ixion.
"I had the feeling you were that type." Ixion smiled. "Just checking. But we'll see won't we, Princess Serentiy."
"How do you know so much?" Sailor Moon tried to move closer to the door.
"Just a hint. We were all there in the past. You might not remember, but most of us were kept separate…or we weren't known enough to be seen. But you, well everyone saw you. You were the ideal goddess of the Moon. Frankly you should realize that many others had their eye on you, and many others do, and many others will." Ixion stepped towards Sailor Moon. "When your Prince doesn't show up in that Tuxedo of his, someone else might just have to jump in. Sailor Moon, I think if you were more aware of all that was going on, you'd be more interested to see our side of things. You're already in the grasp of one of our kind, and I don't see a soul intervening." He was inches from her, his arm against the back wall beside her head. His golden eyes looked at her deviously and mysteriously. An enemy was so close to her and he didn't even strike? There seemed to be much she didn't know about these rogue planetary Sailors. More so… was he right about Darien?
"Well I'm just going to-" Sailor Moon then ducked under his gaze, and arm and opened the door to see her friends.
Ixion let her go and smiled.
"Hey you slithering Seed demon! If you think you can cause friction between my friends and my boyfriend well your way out of your mind!"
"Ahhhh another to catch!" Neikia smiled.
"WOW it took you long enough Serena!" Mars chimed out loudly pulling aginst her confines, nearly knocking Mercury to the ground.
Sailor Moon sighed. "I'm trying Rei. Now to deal with you." She turned back to Neikia.
"Don't waste the seedling Neikia. It won't work on her. I'd just make sure she doesn't get in your way." Ixion came out from behind and stood on one of the display cases.
"Oh not an arguer? Not one for a good quarrel or fight?" Neikia twisted her tail.
"When did that happen?" Juptier said.
"Yea you should hear Mars over here and her go at it sometime!" Venus yelled.
Sailor Moon sighed. It wasn't her friends speaking it was the seedling…but then what Ixion said before…
"No, she's not. She's more of a Princess like character. Still waiting on her Prince though…" Ixion teased pointing to a clock in the room. Sailor Moon looked hard at Ixion, but he only returned her glare with a smile. His smile was strange…as if he enjoyed the games but also something else…
"Sailor Moon you're not paying attention you meat-ball head!"
Sailor Moon turned to see a dark red apple being thrown her way, as it hit the ground it exploded barely dodging it falling into a display case.
"Still nothing." Ixion chimed.
Sailor Moon pulled herself up when Neikia threw another one. Sailor Moon barely dodged it again bumping into the wall.
"Let's make sure you don't get away and ruin all my glorious quarreling!" Neikia seemed to marvel in the sound of her friends bickering and pinned her to the wall like her friends.
"Enough." Ixion said to Neikia before she could throw an apple at her again.
Ixion walked over to her pinned against the wall, beaten up from the two bombs. He took her chin in his hand. "I just wanted to make sure that you werne't going to foil my plan so soon…but also-"
She looked up at him with large blue eyes. She saw something in his eyes. She'd remembered seeing that look before…once when she was trapped in the hands of another man.
"- I'd start to think about who really cares for you…amongst all this chaos. Because chaos is coming Sailor Moon, and if your smart, you'll find that you may find it in the most unexpected of places."