The Crystal Senshi
Savagekitty
Dedicated to those who are true senshi of the heart and spirit.
Chapter Nine
Sailor Teleport
She was shaken awake. Kunzite kneeled by her, holding a glass of water to her parched lips. She drank slowly, coherent enough to remember if she drank too fast after so long without water, she would be sick. The precious water couldn't be wasted. She sipped, moaning, as the water burned down her throat. She opened her eyes and winced at the brightness of the room. It was slightly dim, like dusk at sunset, but it was brighter then it had been. He helped her drink slowly and she finally found her voice, "What's happening?"
It was a croak and it hurt her ears to hear it. She could smell herself and it bothered her. She didn't like being able to smell herself, it made her think of the very heavy people that had their own scent when they moved a few feet and started sweating. She shuttered in Kunzite's arms, making him look alarmed.
She squinted at him, "What are you doing here? Weren't you trying to kill me slowly? Wasn't this the point of the whole exercise?"
"Things have changed. There's… been a balance shift. Beryl is making plans to march on Earth in a few hours."
"And?" She struggled out of his arms and leaned against the wall, head against it. She closed her eyes and sucked on her back teeth in thought. Ok, so that was what that tremor was she had felt a few hours…days… ago, had been. It was probably the preparations. Why would Kunzite come down here though? She was the enemy. Unless… She opened her eyes and looked at him.
"You're defecting."
He looked uncomfortable, "I'm not. I've been…doing some…thinking. These last couple days. Actually since Zoicite died. I cornered Jadeite and made him tell me… Zoicite's compensation for joining Beryl was…me." He blushed and rubbed his nose and Caty looked at him, blinking a few times, deciding what to say next.
"Well," she said at last, "Can't say I'm all that surprised. You remember things better now, though, don't you. That's all that matters. You're returning to what normalcy you had before that bitch arrived. You can help us, unless… you had other plans?"
She was remembering something she had seen in the PGSM. The live action Sailor Moon. Erin had sent her a few DVDs of the show and Caty had watched it, reminded of the Power Rangers and lame fighting scenes, but it had it's moments. She remember now how Kunzite, in the show, had betrayed even Beryl for the power of the Dark Kingdom. She looked at him queerly, waiting for an answer. He looked uncomfortable and stood, "Um…"
"Kunzite!" Nephrite stood in the doorway, looking disheveled and blood trickled down the corner of his mouth. He looked darkly at Caty before stalking to Kunzite, "Beryl is looking for you, we are about to march, what are you doing here?"
Kunzite looked from him to Caty and then back, "I was going to kill her so she wouldn't be able to help her friends. These things always have a way of happening." Nephrite nodded, "I know what you mean." He looked at Caty and then an idea crossed his face, Caty could actually see the cogs turning in his head before she noticed that he held a piece of black crystal like a dagger in his left hand, "Let me help."
He lunged at her. She was weak and unable to move. She screamed hoarsely as she felt the crystal sink into the flesh of the back of her upper right leg. She sobbed and crawled away. She turned, looking up at him through a curtain of her hair. Panting, she scrambled for something, anything to defend herself as Nephrite leaped at her again, madness in his eyes, his auburn hair a wave of darkness in the dim light. She squeaked and braced herself for whatever would come her way, but nothing happened. She opened her eyes, looking up at Nephrite standing over her, limp, his eyes open wide in shock. It took a moment before she saw what she was seeing. Kunzite stood behind the smaller man, his arm over Nephrite's shoulder and chest, bracing him against him. Nephrite gave a shutter and fell to the side, leaving Kunzite standing with a bloody dagger in his hand. He leaned down, wiping it on Nephrite's uniform and slipped it back into his boot. He hauled Catherine up and through the door of the cell. Into a long hallway of darkness. Caty couldn't see, but Kunzite apparently could as he pulled her along. They walked for what seemed like a half hour before he pulled her into a large chamber. She looked around and blushed. It was his sleeping chambers.
"Kunzite?"
He ignored her as he went for his dresser, rummaging through the drawers. He was throwing pieces of clothing willy nilly as Caty stood awkwardly near the door, rubbing the arm he had pulled. She was feeling slightly stronger and getting better all the time. Had something been in that water?
A chuckle behind her made her blood run cold as she jumped. She looked behind her and moved back as Jadeite leaned against the frameless doorway twirling her necklace around his index and middle fingers, "Looking for this, Kunzite?" He was cold. His eyes and manner so hatefilled, Caty turned away. He was dressed as she remembered, dark charcoal gray with red trim. His short hair a brillian gold. More gold then even Minako's hair had been. Caty groped for the bedframe as she felt her back bump into it.
Kunzite turned and straightened, "Jadeite." He saw what he was swirling in his hand, "This is madness, give it to me." He moved forward, hand out. Jadeite pulled his hand back, "No no. I don't think so. After all these years, I have something on you. Beryl will love me. I will lead her armies across the Earth and solar system, finally achieving what I deserve."
"Yah, a kick in the ass, buddy." Caty snaked around Kunzite quickly and delivered a kick to Jadeite's manhood. Jadeite clutched his privets and fell to his knees, whimpering. Her necklace still in his hands as she bent down, "Give it to me!" She saw blood trickling from his palm and smiled. The emerald star points were sharp. If one wasn't ready for the sharpness, it would hurt. She learned that the hard way the first few times after she got the emerald. 'I feel better now,' she thought. Jadeite's hands braced on the floor as he tried to breath through the pain, she brought her foot down on the hand that held her necklace. He screamed and she put her foot into his face, feeling his nose brake. She gave a mental thanks for her leather Mary-Janes with the chunk heel. Jadeite lay, panting and moaning in pain as she pried her necklace from his grasp and saw it was only the sun charm, "SHIT!"
Kunzite came to see what cause her to shout profanity. He gritted his teeth and kneeled by Jadeite, grabbing him by the front of his shirt, "Where IS IT!" Jadeite giggled through the bloody mask that used to be his face, "Beryl…"
Kunzite closed his eyes and pulled Jadeite further from his laying position. He gripped the front of his shirt harder and pulled Jadeite forward and then whipped his back against the wall. His head smacked the cold stone walls with a wet muffled sound. He did it again and then shook Jadeite backward and forward roughly. Finally, he put a hand to Jadeite's forehead and pushed, hard and viciously. Kunzite stood, shivering with anger. Jadeite's body slid sideways. The back of his head was slightly caved in and as his head his the ground, a few bone fragments clattered wetly on the stone floor, blood and gray matter oozed into a puddle out the back. Caty covered her mouth, resisting the urge to vomit. She had killed many youma, but this was different. Jadeite had been human. Well, as human as he could be. Youma were just monsters. Kunzite turned to her, brushing blood the best he could from the front of his jacket, "If Beryl has it…"
Caty grit her teeth and hardened her face the best she could, "I have to get it back."
Sailor Moon stood with Sailors Sapphire, Ruby, and Guardian Sailor Amethyst. They stood in a circle with Artemis and Tuxedo Kamen in the middle. Sailor Moon shook her hands out, "OK, in theory, this has to work. I read it in the books that Artemis had about space travel in the Moon Kingdom."
Sailor Sapphire raised an eyebrow, "Physics? You understood a book about physics? And what do you mean in theory? We aren't going to end up on Pluto are we?"
Sailor Moon put her hands on her hips, "Yes, I'm not as stupid as the manga makes me out to be. I think Naoko Takeuchi was just pulling all that out of her ass. Exaggerating on my zodiac characteristics just a bit too much." Pouting, she pursed her lips. Ruby rubbed the bridge of her nose, "Can we please stop this nonsense? Caty could still be alive. We haven't found her body yet."
"She's alive." Artemis said as he slung his backpack over his shoulder.
"How can you be so sure?" Amethyst asked, holding her arms close to her body, hugging herself against the chill of the night.
"Because," He dug a crystal tied to a leather thong from his pocket. He held it up, it glowed in the shadows of the trees of the park around them, "If she was dead, this would be too. It's tied to her, if she carried it like I asked her to in the first place, she would have found out what it could. I tied its magic into her life force, to try and find the Silver Crystal. She would have been able to feel its pull." He stuck back into his pocket as Ruby smiled, "Ah so, Mastah-Sensei." She bowed to him then straightened, "You're too smart for you're own good, Arty. If that's tied to her, we can use it like a tracking dog and find her in that hell hole if they took her there. Lets do this."
The girls joined hands and bowed their heads, as they pooled their energy into what was called the Sailor Teleport. Artemis and Kamen looked a little uncomfortable, since the girls just stood there. A cool wind blew across them, making Kamen's cape flutter. Artemis scratched his arm. Kamen opened his mouth to say something and then stopped. He felt something. It was a thin heaviness to the air and the wind picked up. Ruby's eyelids fluttered. Amethyst's grip shifted from loosely gripping Sailor Moon's and Sapphire's hands to gripping them for dear life. Then the heaviness grew into a crackling hiss as the girls's hair started whipping around in the wind that has suddenly kicked up. At the same skin crawling moment, their heads rolled back on their shoulders in unison, and they looked up at the sky, eyes wide open and unseeing as the colored light of their auras filled them. They each started to glow faintly as the energy built around them. Tuxedo Kamen and Artemis stood closer together, back to back, unsure of what was really happening. And then it happened. The girls mouths opened in unison and they shouted over the crushing energy and the pounding winds,
"SAILOR TELEPORT!"
And they were gone.
Kunzite had led them to the throne room, but they knew they were in deep trouble the closer they came. Not only could they feel the power of the throne room on the back of their necks as the hair there rose higher with every step, but youma kept running by them, gathering in the throne room in one huge mass of darkness. Caty pressed herself against the wall, her breath short and fast in painful fear. Kunzite leaned close to her, "Don't you dare panic now. If you want it back, you have to trust me."
She actually snorted at that, "Trust you. Right."
Kunzite looked at her darkly, "As far as you can throw me. Yes I know. Right now you do not have a choice. She has it and she's massing the army for the invasion that will happen anytime now. You need to stop her."
Caty didn't want to listen to him, but she knew he was right. She pushed him away from her, "Go then. I'll be fine right here. Fear wont let me move an inch."
He looked at her like he didn't quite believe her, but walked through the tall arches that led into the cavern that was the throne room. Caty peeked in, watching him move through crush of youma. They parted like the Red Sea to let him pass. She could see Beryl high up, trapped in crystal. Her heart flopped. Was that how she spent these thousand years? Trapped like some puppet? She had to be cold. Caty was freezing in her thin blouse and pants, having been wearing her funeral clothing these long few weeks. Was this what hell was like? She didn't get a chance to answer her own question as she spotted Kunzite stand before Beryl. She couldn't hear what he said, but it made all the murmuring the youma were doing, stop. She could make out a few words, but nothing that made sense to her. Beryl seemed to say something, because the crowd parted again and Nephrite was dragged in and supported between two youma. Caty gasped and covered her mouth. He was still alive! He was weak from blood loss, but alive. He was saying something and the youma stirred. She felt the negative energy rise off them like a wave. Someone grabbed her from behind and she shrieked. Struggling, a large shark like youma dragged her through the crowd and threw her in front of Kunzite and Nephrite. She sat on her knees, wincing from the stab wound on her leg that Nephrite gave her. She was reminded of it and the dizziness from blood loss. Beryl looked down at her with blind eyes, "Welcome, Emerald."
Catherine looked up at her, "My name is Catherine."
Someone hit her, sending her sprawling onto her side. Her left side of her face a bundle of hurt. She slowly sat up, hunched over, holding her face. Kunzite was silent. Caty didn't dare look at him.
"So you are alive. After so long. It seems that only two people really remembered you after so long. A pity, isn't it Emerald? No one to remember your victories? You're family? Friends? Speaking of which. Yours don't seem to care too much for you."
Caty looked at the air between her and Beryl. It shimmered into a picture of Usagi at a wedding. She was getting married! It changed to Bonnie in a college class. Then to Erin sewing up the back of some piece of clothing of a dressmaker's dummy. Then it was Lauren, on a horse on her farm in Virginia. Caty blinked. This woman didn't know her at all. Her friends wouldn't abandon her to these freaks. Her Senshi would fight for her. Caty smiled, "Nice trick. Get ESPN on that thing?"
That earned her another punishment smack from the shark youma. She grit her teeth, closing her eyes. It hurt. She felt something crack in her cheek. Maybe her nose. Another hit and her cheek would break or her nose.
"Still a smart mouth. Like you always were," Beryl said with an edge of hate in her calm voice, "You may as well give up now. Emerald. You have lost before you even started."
Caty saw a small bubbled floating at Beryl's chest. It held her emerald star. She blinked. It seemed to be feeding her power. Good God, it was giving her power! Caty felt sick. Her own gifts being use for such perversion. She ran a hand through her hair, thinking. She couldn't let that happen. She placed her hands to the smooth floor of the cave, searching as she pretended to sob. She gave them what they wanted to hear as her hands groped slowly for something. She said she hated her life. She felt weak. She was angry for loosing her friends. She wanted power. She caught movement near Kunzite. He kicked something at her. A small stone the size of her fist. Yes! Caty gripped it to her as she struggled to stand. She stood and backed up slowly, still sobbing as she squeezed tears from her eyes.
"I want the power! I have been weak all my life! I yearn to be stronger!" She sobbed. She stopped by Kunzite, looking up at Beryl and hoping to God that her aim was good. Quickly, she sung back and threw the stone as hard as she could. Her aim was off slightly. The stone hit the tip of the star, but it flew off into the darkness. The room was dead silent and Caty could hear the star shatter with a pretty tinkling noise. The stone smacked Beryl in the face, making her head flop back with an angry thud on the crystal that suspended her. The youma of the room didn't move as Nephrite whimpered.
Beryl's head rocked back, looking down at them. Her face was half gone, sloughed off like so much rotted flesh. The Beryl they knew was gone and the darkness that was the Dark Kingdom remained in the simplified Beryl's body. Half her face grinned at the sea of youma. She moved, yanking her arms from the crystal that held the body. Kunzite pulled Caty back, away from the show, pushing past the stunned youma. They were halfway through the sea of bodies when a shattering scream of horror ripped the air. Caty looked back. She could make out Beryl's hands clenched to Nephrite's face, one thumb digging into his eye. Caty turned back, following Kunzite, whispering, "Hurry…hurry…hurry…"
End Chapter Nine
Sailor Teleport