Chapter Twenty-One
LadyPrin
Disclaimer Applies.
"It's amazingly dark here!" Venus muttered.
"What else would you expect the home of pure evil to look like?" Mars asked, sarcastically.
"Quiet!" Serena whispered firmly.
The two scouts went silently instantly.
'Where are we?' Mercury asked via their mind links, which had grown amazingly strong and clear in so short a time of usage.
'We should be right in the dungeon area . . . Yes! Look!' Serena replied pointing in front of them.
Their eyes had adjusted to the darkness at last, and they could now see the bars that made up the cell doors on each side of the corridor. The dark stone blocks 6/at formed the walls, the floor, and the ceiling looked like they were seething with evil and none of the girls wanted to touch it. All of them were glad they had thick shoes on.
They walked on down the corridor, glancing into each cell they passed.
'Hopefully we'll have a little time before we're noticed.' Jupiter muttered through their mind links.
'There is exactly a 5.9 chance that we'll be discovered in the next thirteen seconds.' Mercury informed them.
'Thank goodness I was never any good with math. I don't have the slightest idea what Mercury just said, so it shouldn't worry me at all.' Venus stated happily.
'Look!' Serena exclaimed as she stopped in front of a cell door.
All five girls looked inside, but could only see a huddled mass in the darkness.
"Hello?" Serena whispered urgently.
It was only a whisper, but in the silent darkness it sounded really loud.
The huddled mass moved slightly at the sound of Serena's voice.
"Ann?" Serena tried again.
This time the mass turned around a little.
They still couldn't see who it was, but a voice spoke an answer to Serena's inquiry.
"Who's there?"
"That's Ann's voice. I know it is!" Serena exclaimed, then she spoke directly to Ann. "My name is Serena, and these are my friends the Sailor Scouts. We're here to rescue you! Alan sent us."
"Alan? Is he okay? Where is he? Has she gotten to him yet?" Ann cried as she lunged toward the cell door.
It seemed that Ann couldn't stand, she could just hold onto the cell door bars to hold her up. She held on so hard that her knuckles turned white with the effort, though no one could see them in the darkness.
"I'm sick of this darkness." Mars muttered.
Using her powers of fire, Mars produced a small flame in the palm of her hand.
Everyone winced as the light hurt their eyes for the first few seconds.
Once their eyes adjusted, they looked around, sure that the light would attract someone or something.
Nothing moved anywhere nearby.
They looked back at Ann.
Ann looked just as Serena had seen her. Only she looked paler, and her pink hair was dirtier, and there was a weak look in her red eyes.
"So how are we going to break open the cell door?" Venus asked.
Mercury whipped out her compact computer and ran a scan on the door.
"This door is protected against the powers of our elements. Fire, lightening, water, and heart cannot break it." She exclaimed tapping her computer keyboard.
"Then let's try something new." Serena announced.
The Sailor Scouts and Ann watched as Serena reached behind herself into thin air, but it wasn't really thin air. It was a dimension pocket. Serena and all the Sailor Scouts had made some for themselves before they came. The pockets held anything the girls wanted or thought they'd need.
Serena pulled her hand out to reveal a little steel container in her hand.
The girls all grinned as Serena carefully opened the lid.
"Ann get as far back from the door as you can." Serena ordered Ann.
Ann let go of the door, and dragged herself across the floor to the other side of the room.
Serena inserted the small container in between two bars, right above the lock.
She then tilted the container and leg just a glob of acid drip from the corner of the container onto the lock.
It melted the entire lock in two minutes flat; fell to the stone floor, preceded to burn through that, and who knows if anything would stop it later on.
Serena carefully closed the lid of the container, and then placed it back into her 'pocket', as Jupiter kicked the door open.
It opened without a sound, but hit the wall with a resounding clank.
The whole floor began to shake.
"We're busted!" Mars cried.
"Quickly, get Ann!" Serena yelled.
They rushed into the cell, and Jupiter picked up Ann in her arms.
'Pluto, open the door!' Serena commanded.
Suddenly a wall of the cell started to swirl like a black whole, and then it turned pinkish, and became an open arched doorway into a pinky cloudy world.
"Serena!" Venus cried.
Monsters started crowding the doorway to the cell.
Serena was about to signal them all to go through the time door, when something caught her attention.
'Help, me, somebody, please.' A weak voice whispered in the back of her mind.
Serena used the Impearium Silver Crystal to quickly search the dungeon area, and sure enough found another prisoner a few cells down.
Her life sign was weak and fading fast.
"There's someone else here!" Serena cried, just as Mars, Venus, and Mercury let loose attacks on the monsters in the doorway.
Serena turned to Jupiter.
"Jupiter, plan B! Take her to Pluto and then come back!" Serena commanded.
"Yes, my Princess." Jupiter replied with a hurried short bow, and then she entered the door of pink clouds.
She found Pluto waiting on the other side.
Jupiter laid Ann down in front of Pluto, a few feet from the door.
"She's hurt, but she should be alright. Take her to Alan. I'm going back to help the others, there's another prisoner in there that needs help!" Jupiter hurriedly explained.
"Should I leave the door open for you?" Pluto asked, placing a comforting hand on Ann's shoulder.
"No, the monsters could get in that way. Close it. We'll contact you via mind link when we need the door." Jupiter replied.
"Okay then." Pluto replied.
Jupiter turned around and ran back through the door, back into the darkness.
As the last of Jupiter's auburn hair disappeared, Pluto tapped her staff on the pink clouds at her feet, and the Time Gate closed.
Pluto wrapped one of Ann's arms over her shoulders, and then lifted Ann to her feet.
Then she turned the Time Gate to the Moon Kingdom's coordinates, and stepped through.
Back in the dungeons, Serena and her friends had beaten most of the monsters back, enough so that they had managed to ease their way out of their cell and down the corridor to the cell of the other prisoner.
Serena used the same technique with the acid to open this door as well.
This time the Sailor Scouts stood outside sending attacks to the monsters while Serena entered the cell alone.
"Hey there? Are you still alive? We're here to help you!" Serena cried as she knelt by the curled up girl.
She could tell the person was a girl by the tattered remains of a dress that she wore.
Serena laid a hand on the girl's shoulder and shook her gently.
The girl stirred enough to bring her head up out of her lap, and look at her with dim red eyes.
Serena stared at her for a moment.
Then she turned in the direction of the other cell they had just been to.
Then she looked back at the girl with wide blue eyes.
"You're . . . " Serena started to say.
Then she lunged away from the girl, and ran to the open door of the cell.
She leaned out and shouted to the Sailor Scouts.
Her shout was so loud it echoed around the corridor and empty cells, taunting them with the deadly mistake they had just made.
"WE SENT THE WRONG ONE THROUGH THE GATE!!!" Serena cried. "WE SENT BERYL THROUGH THE GATE!!!"