Foreshadowing -
Chapter Two
"Glad everyone could make it," Mina, or rather, Sailor Venus, chirped as she stretched her arms and legs and yawned.
"Where are we?" Makoto whispered.
They stood in a hallway, dimly lit, with arch ways in the design of Greek and Roman pillars; a soft wind blew through the hall, ruffling Rei's hair. The four stones buzzed and the ghosts appeared, glowing faintly.
"Welcome, " Nephrite's ghost said, " to what used to be the Golden Kingdom, and which is now -"
"Hell." Kunzite finished quietly.
"This is where I died," Jedite whispered, "in a few moments you will see an explosion of light and fire and fog."
"That's right," Ami nodded, "I remember, you captured Rei and brought her here, then when we attacked you you tried to use Rei as a shield."
"Yes," he flickered unhappily, "that's right."
"So what's the plan?" Mako asked, "How are we going to get between evil Jedite and...ourselves?"
"Um," Mina started, then scratched her head.
"You don't have a plan!?" Rei hissed in disbelief.
"Hey, I'm making it up as I go," Mina defended herself, "Setsuna, as usual, didn't exactly give us much to go on."
"Oh great!" Rei growled.
"Shh!" Ami shushed them frantically, "They're coming!"
"You mean, we're coming." Rei spat, jerking Makoto out of the way.
They hid in the corner of the hall as a flash of white light that was typical of Sailor Moon and a fog that was definitely Mercury's poured out from the room.
They heard muffled voices, Rei's and Ami's and Usagi's screams and shouts rang through the hall.
"We can't just stand here, we're going to miss our chance!" Mako exclaimed.
"Ami?" Mina asked through gritted teeth.
"Uh..." Ami closed her eyes, her brain working faster than it ever had, "we could...no..no..I...I..."
"I'm going to die in three seconds!" Jedite screeched.
"You're already dead!" Rei barked. She launched herself toward the door.
"Stop!" Mina yelled. The other Shitennou suddenly appeared.
"I can't take this anymore!" Kunzite growled, "Zoisite, create a barrier around the Senshi; Nephrite – grab Jedite and restrain him; Jedite -"
"Uh, we can't, sir," Zoisite pointed out, "we don't have hands."
"Damn!" Kunzite thundered.
"Kunzite?" a voice came from the other room; it was strained and in pain.
"Huh?"
"It's the real Jedite!" Ami said in surprise.
"I need help!" the voice called.
"Uh," Kunzite looked a bit uncertain.
"Tell him you'll help him!" Mina whispered.
"I'm in here!" Kunzite cried.
"I'm coming!"
"He' leaving!" Ami heard herself yelling.
The living Jedite burst through the door, his cape and uniform badly singed. When he saw the Senshi, two of whom he'd just escaped from, he tried to stop but his slick boots skidded down the hall.
"Grab him!" Mina commanded, and lept bodily onto Jedite, slamming him onto the floor.
"What the hell!?" He wheezed.
"Jupiter!"
Mako grabbed his arms and wrenched them behind his back.
"Look out!" Ghost Jedite yelled, "He's – I mean – I'm about to -"
Mako blasted Jedite point blank effectively knocking him unconscious.
"Stop us!" Mina screamed to Rei and Ami.
Rei blasted fire back at herself, Ami filled the hall with bubbles, confusing her former self and Sailor Moon.
"Now what?!" They yelled.
Mina looked around wildly.
"Uh-oh," Ghost Zoisite mumbled, "I hear more footsteps!"
"We've got to get out of here, Venus!" Rei shrieked.
"Well, I'm trying!" Mina lurched to her feet with Jedite's limp body, as Mako grabbed his feet, Rei hoisted his torso and they drunkenly staggered down the hall while Ami tried to contact Setsuna.
"Why are you so heavy?" Rei grumbled. To her surprise Jedite's ghost didn't reply.
"We've got him!" She yelled into the communicator they now shared with the Outers, "Open a portal or something, for goodness sake-"
"Turn! Turn!" Mina screamed, the three of them lurching down the hall to the right as a very alive Nephrite flew down the passage the way they'd come.
"There!" Ghost Nephrite yelled, trying to point to a black portal like the one they'd used that morning.
Tumbling head long into the blackness, Mina, Rei, Mako and Jedite's limp body fell through the portal as it closed.
All sound stopped, then they were dropped unceremoniously into the parking-lot of a bridal shop.
The Senshi shook themselves and rose, though Jedite was still unconscious.
"Everyone alright?" Mina asked, patting her torn fuku.
"Yeah, just peachy," Rei snarled, "this is by far the stupidest thing we've ever done!!"
"Where's Jedite?" Mako asked.
"He's on the ground in front of you," Rei remarked, jabbing a finger at the prone man.
"No," Mako argued tersely, "I mean the other one."
"Isn't he here?" Mina asked, looking around her as if ghost Jedite was hiding under her feet.
Then she saw the cracked stone beside her foot.
"Oh, no!" She moaned, "I killed it!"
"Um, I hate to be argumentative," Zoisite appeared, "but you really can't crush a stone like that with your bare heels."
"Why did it crack?" Rei puzzled, "Is he dead?"
"I can still feel him," Nephrite commented, "close, but -"
"I think he's there." Zoisite pointed a translucent hand at the unconscious Dark Kingdom servant.
"Hey, he went back to his body?" Mako asked, "we must be doing something right."
She grinned, but soon her grin faded.
"Where's Ami?"
There was silence for a solid minute.
"Oh, shi-"
"Ami!!!" Zoisite began to freak out.
"I can't believe this!" Rei shouted and promptly incinerated the sign on the Bridal Shop door.
Somewhere within the under belly of the Dark Kingdom, Ami wandered in the dark trying to find her way out. She found an arch that led to a deeper cavern. The air was stale and rancid, but she reasoned that, however long she had to wait here, no one would find her in so hidden a place. That was when she saw a faint glow. Creeping toward a curtain she peeped through.
"Oh, no," she started to tremble at what she saw.
"Wait a minute," Mako interrupted Rei's temper tantrum, "I recognize this place."
They all turned to stare at the Bridal Shop.
"This is where we fried Nephrite," she finished.
"Great," Mina commented, her tone was somewhat dampened from it's usual cheeriness, probably because Rei was still heaping blame on her.
"Well, fearless leader," Rei snipped, "what is your brilliant plan?"
"Rei, cut out the attitude out," Mina ordered, "it's not helping."
Rei looked furious but she didn't reply.
"Let's see, you used mannequins to lure me here - and a bride that was your shadow...right?" Mako asked the floating Nephrite ghost.
"Yes," he answered, "I'm probably already in there with you and the other Senshi should be -"
"It's over here!" they heard Rei's voice shout from the street.
"Hide!" Mina commanded. They bolted through the back entrance of the shop and crept into the show room. It was covered in strange looking mannequins, dressed in bridal veils.
"Here," Mina shoved a veil onto Rei's head.
"Ow!" she muttered, "What are you doing?"
"I've got an idea," Mina said, "Mako, put a veil on." She then wrapped a piece of material around her head. Then, crawling as softly and stealthily as she could, she made her way to the corner of the shop where she could see a spooky looking bride confronting Sailor Jupiter.
"On my count," Mina hissed to the others, "Mako, you knock him out like you did with Jedite -"
"That's not him, though," Mako whispered, "Nephrite won't appear until I kill his shadow."
"She's right," Nephrite agreed.
"Rats."
There was a sudden scream and they saw Jupiter powering up to blast the shadow - which she did in less than a second.
Right on cue, Nephrite appeared and as he furiously challenged Sailor Jupiter, Mako snapped her fingers.
"I've got it," she said, "I'm about to blind him, when I do, we'll grab him before I hit him with the other attack."
"Ok,"she said without waiting to hear their answers, "One, t- oh, crap, now!" she hurled herself between herself and Nephrite as Mina and Rei jumped on Nephrite's back, clinging on for dear life and praying they wouldn't be electrocuted. Fortunately the Jupiters performed identical attacks on each other, knocking each other back against opposite walls. In a split second Rei and Mina wrestled the totally surprised Nephrite over the top of the sales counter, and they all fell in a heap behind it.
"Mako, are you alright?" Zoisite yelled. Nephrite's ghost had disappeared, the stone lying cracked on the table counter.
Mako shook her head and got to her feet woozily. Her hair was standing out all over her head.
She stumbled and fell on top of Nephrite, instantly transferring the electricity in her body into his. He yelped and passed out.
Unfortunately he'd already managed to blast Mina and Rei into the counter. They pulled themselves up groggily.
"Remind me why we're doing this?" Mina groaned.
The sound of voices close by forced them to the floor where they half crawled, half dragged Nephrite's body out the back door.
Once in the back parking-lot, they took a look at each other.
"You don't look so good," Zoisite commented bluntly.
"This coming from a guy who doesn't have a real body." Mina muttered.
"Alright, Setsuna," Rei panted into the communicator, "let's-"
Before she could finish, the Senshi, Nephrite and Jedite disappeared.
"Guys!" Ami whispered frantically into her communicator for the thirieth time. She had just seen the face of pure evil: she had looked into Metallia's cavern.
Unable to make a connection, she stood up shakily and made her way out of the passage. Her face was pale and her breathing unsteady, and she kept her hand on the wall to help her stay upright. As she followed the twisting passages into the hallway, she noted the change in the air. Here, though there was no natural light source, the air smelled fresher and felt lighter. She went a few more steps and found a door that was unlocked.
Carefully entering, making sure there were no nasty surprises in the form of Dark Kingdom servants on the other side, she crept in and peered cautiously inside. She let out a gasp at what she'd found.
She realized, for the first time with something akin to hope, that she'd inadvertantly stumbled upon the one thing that could have cheered her up:
the Library.
Hungrily she devoured the sight of the gigantic shelves of books. As she took another step into the room she heard a sigh and imediately jumped into the shadows near the closest shelf.
"Is that you, Kunzite?" a thin voice asked.
Ami mentally cringed. She recognized Zoisite's voice. She cleared her throat and muttered something in a low voice.
"Oh, you're one of the servants, aren't you?" he asked in a bored tone and after a moment, Ami guessed that he must have returned to whatever he was doing.
Arrogant twit, she thought angrily, then turned to look at the books nearest her. Glancing across the titles one arrested her attention. It was called - A History of the Golden Kingdom.
Beryl must never have come down here, Ami thought in surprise, taking the giant tombe and blowing the dust off it. Intrigued, and because she knew she had a lot of time to kill until the Senshi would return to the Dark Kingdom, - if they return, she thought grimly - she decided she might as well make the most of it. She carried the book to the furthest chair and, making herself as small as possible, she settled down to read it.