Chapter 15:

"Do you have it yet?" Sailor Jupiter shouted. She dodged a punch which instead took out the wall she had been standing in front of.

"Not yet," Sailor Mercury answered. The response came so quickly it could have been an automatic reflex. She didn't even look at Sailor Jupiter as she spoke.

The situation was dangerous, and the more time went on the more dangerous it became. The Sailor Senshi were nimble enough to consistently evade the monster, but each attack was a close one and it only needed to get lucky once.

"Come on, Mercury, hurry up," Sailor Mars insisted. She fired a Fire Soul attack directly in front of the creature to try to distract it again. It worked. It turned with a snarl and charged at Sailor Mars, who narrowly avoided being slammed bodily across the street.

"Sorry, I'm going as fast as I can. It looks like there might be something weird there, but it's hard to tell," Sailor Mercury apologized, frantically typing into her computer as fast as she could while focusing her attention, and more importantly her visor, at the creature.

The problem had begun three days ago. Michiru and Haruka had entered the Hikawa Shrine talking about a monster they had run into while having lunch. Luckily the fight hadn't been that difficult and the pair had finished the monster off without too much trouble. They had just reported the attack as a formality. Typically Ami would investigate any supernatural occurrences just to make sure they weren't harbingers of a new threat.

Ami was able to get to their battle site that evening, the damaged walls and ground making it obvious where the Outer Senshi had fought. Her quick scans didn't find any negative energy or anything overtly wrong about the place, so she had concluded it must have been some ghost or other supernatural phenomena rather than the precursor of a new major enemy. Ami took a few final readings for future comparison just in case and then headed home.

That conclusion was quickly proven wrong when, on the way home, her communicator went off again. This time it was Sailor Moon. She had been doing some evening shopping, courtesy of Mamoru and his wallet, when they ran across a monster as well. That fight had also been relatively modest. Tuxedo Kamen had distracted the creature which had allowed Sailor Moon to dispatch it without too much difficulty.

Ami had then redirected her trip home to the shopping mall Usagi and Mamoru had been visiting. The damage there had been less extensive than at the street where Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune had fought. The only evidence something had happened there was a broken window and several small holes in the ground made by Tuxedo Kamen's enchanted roses. Ami hadn't been able to examine the battle field as well as she would have liked to due to being ushered out by mall security at closing time, but her quick scans again revealed nothing of note.

Any hopes that these fights were just a coincidence were shattered the next morning. Sailor Jupiter had called in, saying she was in a fight near her apartment and she needed help. She had woken up to the sound of screaming, and rushed outside to see some monster running around attacking anybody it could get its hands on. There were numerous bodies, many seriously injured, lining the street. She had managed to intercept and engage the creature in combat, but it was fast enough that she wasn't able to get a decisive shot in against it. Instead she had been forced on the defensive, frantically trying to stay in one piece, until Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus had shown up to finish it off.

Again Ami had checked the site out, and again she couldn't determine anything from it. This pattern continued for several days, with every few hours another monster attacking in an unpredictable location. The Sailor Senshi had taken to patrolling the area, as if there wasn't a Sailor Senshi on hand to deal with the attack then there would inevitably be numerous causalities.

Luckily none of the unknown creatures were exceptionally strong, but they were still strong enough to make it almost impossible for any single Sailor Senshi to handle an attack on her own. If one of them stumbled across an enemy she would be forced on the defensive waiting for help to arrive. Eventually they would get the two or three Sailor Senshi needed to defeat the monster. Then later, when Ami would scan the area after the fight, she would always find nothing.

Less luckily, the attacks were coming in faster as time went on. The second monster hadn't shown up for about half a day. The third one had shown up about eight hours later. The fourth one was discovered about six hours after that. There were still a couple of hours between each attack and things were still well in hand, but at the current rate things were going it was going to get very bad very quickly if they couldn't figure out what was going on.

Ami's eventual conclusion was that she would need to examine one of the monsters while it was still alive. She had reached that conclusion by the second day. However fate had conspired against the team and she was never anywhere near where a monster would attack.

Finally in desperation they had come to the current plan, whereby whichever Sailor Senshi engaged the monster would need to stall it until Sailor Mercury could show up. The lucky Sailor Senshi had been Sailor Mars, who had been minding her own business eating lunch when the screams of innocents from a few streets over caught her attention. She transformed, called for reinforcements, and started acting as a distraction while Sailor Mercury was en route. Sailor Mercury happened to be on the other side of the district, so a substantial amount of stalling was in order.

The fight had been a hard one for Sailor Mars. The number of near misses and grazing hits were a stinging reminder to her that it had been far too long since she had engaged in the more physical aspects of monster fighting. At the start of the fight, the monster had charged at her and taken a huge swipe. She had tried to dodge backwards from the monster's attack only to trip and land on her back. The monster had followed up with an overhead swing, which had forced Sailor Mars to roll over in an attempt to avoid it. From there she had had to rapidly crawl away for a bit before she could get to her feet for a full-fledged run.

Sailor Mars had then spent the next few minutes trying her best to stay one step ahead of the attacking creature, and managing to do so more by plain luck than any master plan. During those minutes she resolved that if she survived that she would tease Sailor Moon's legendary clumsiness less in the future. In the immediate future, at least.

With the arrival of Sailor Jupiter things had become noticeably easier. However both of them had to constantly stay on their toes, lest they either accidentally kill the monster or end up in a hospital or a morgue themselves. They had reverted to their most basic attacks to fight the monster, neither wanting to actually kill it but also not wanting to remain a mere idle target either.

After what seemed like an eternity, Sailor Mercury had arrived on the scene, now several blocks from where Sailor Mars had first engaged the creature, and the next phase began. Sailor Mercury began scanning the creature, taking what seemed like another eternity to the consternation of her teammates.

"Wait, I'm getting something. It looks like it's just out of phase. Let me try to adjust these settings to isolate it," Sailor Mercury announced.

Sailor Mars had no idea what that meant. She just hoped that whatever Sailor Mercury was doing that she would do it quickly.

Sailor Mars wasn't the only one to take notice of the semi-hidden Sailor Senshi. Almost as if detecting some hidden threat from Sailor Mercury, the monster turned and charged at her. Sailor Mercury was so caught up taking readings that she barely noticed her danger. It was only at Sailor Jupiter's shout that she looked up at the charging foe, and then jumped out of the way just in time.

A Supreme Thunder hitting the monster was enough to catch its attention and redirect it back to one of the designated distraction Sailor Senshi, letting Sailor Mercury finish her scans.

Three near-misses later, Sailor Mercury finally announced, "Okay, got it. Shine Aqua Illusion!"

Her blast of magically enchanted water knocked the beast off of its feet just before it was able to disembowel Sailor Jupiter. This stunned it long enough for Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mars to blast it with a Sparkling Wide Pressure and a Burning Mandala respectively, causing it to slowly evaporate into thin air.

Sailor Jupiter took a second to catch her breath, then turned to Sailor Mercury and asked, "So, what did you find?"

"I think it was a demon. It was pretty similar to the ones which have been attacking Saotome-san," Sailor Mercury explained.

"No way. It was a lot weaker than that demon that attacked us at the school yard," Sailor Jupiter protested.

"If that's so, then why are they attacking people at random? Shouldn't they be going after Saotome-san?" Sailor Mars also asked.

"I didn't say they were the same, I said they were similar, and I don't know why they're attacking people at random. Maybe it's just a coincidence," Sailor Mercury defended herself. "Anyway it gave off some strange energy signature which was out of phase with our time. That's why I didn't detect anything at those other attacks. With the primary source gone, the residual energy was too weak to pierce the temporal barrier. But now that I know what I'm looking for, I was able to change my scans to filter out the background energies and detect the demon."

"So you'll be able to detect more of them then?" Sailor Mars asked.

"Yes, I'll be able to detect them now if there are any more of them. That's assuming they're from the same source and use the same type of energy," Sailor Mercury confirmed. "I should also be able to locate where they're coming from too, if I get close enough."

"Great, so what are we waiting around here for then?" Sailor Jupiter asked.

"I'm not detecting anything here. We're going to have to go on patrol to see if I can find anything," Sailor Mercury said.

"We should get going then. I don't want to be out too late or grandpa might worry," Sailor Mars said. The three then embarked on yet another patrol around the area.

To say that Sailor Mars was happy would be a gross overstatement. It seemed like she had spent all of her spare time for the past three days patrolling and fighting. The difference between then and now, though, was that now they had actual purpose and a goal in mind rather than just waiting for something to go wrong to react to. All in all it left her feeling satisfied for the afternoon's work so far.

From Akane's perspective, the occasional times the topic of Ranma had come up during her frequent talks with Hotaru had raised more questions in her mind than answers. She really didn't understand Ranma's utter rejection to being Sailor Terra, or his rejection of the Sailor Senshi to the point that he refused to even let them help with Happosai's demons. Thankfully, at least, those attacks seemed to have stopped since the fight with Mordecai.

It wasn't being female. She was firmly of the conviction that Ranma viewed the curse as a moderate annoyance at most, and certainly not enough of one to cause this level of anger. It might have been the arbitrariness of the unearned strength the transformation granted to him. However protecting the weak and the innocent should come first for a martial artist, and if being a Sailor Senshi enabled that then it shouldn't matter what the source of that power was.

Despite her best efforts, though, every attempt to discover the root of Ranma's resistance resulted in abject failure. She had first tried confronting him, or rather asking him, the morning after that disastrous day when she had revealed herself as Saturn Knight. Things had turned sour rather quickly. Her words had come out all wrong, things escalated, and she had somehow found herself insulting his dedication to martial arts.

In retrospect she thought she should have just let things lie, but like a scab she couldn't help but pick at, she kept trying to find out what was motivating her husband's resistance. Her second attempt had ended up with her insulting his manliness in a pique of anger, and her third attempt had somehow ended up veering off with her bringing up the subject of him two-timing her with Shampoo. She still wasn't quite sure how she had ended up accusing him of that, even when she replayed the heated argument back in her mind.

Each time, once the haze of anger and the primitive need to win an argument had faded away, she would feel terrible and try to apologize, but Ranma refused to listen. Whenever she tried to get closer to him he would just back away. Whenever she tried to talk to him he would close up, or worse he would get visibly angry before discontinuing the conversation and leaving the room.

In desperation Akane had even tried to apologize for things she thought she had no reason to be sorry for. She apologized for coming to Juuban, for meeting up with Hotaru, for trying to have him keep the curse a secret from Rei when they had first arrived, for everything. If anything, those apologies just made him act more distant and secluded.

The situation had continued to degenerate until the two barely spoke to each other anymore. Ranma simply never initiated a conversation with Akane, whereas Akane's attempts to talk to Ranma were only met with icy coldness.

The two of them were currently eating a silent dinner. Akane didn't even have the dubious pleasure of the ritual fight of trying to cook for him. By the time she had come home from classes he was already in the kitchen cooking for them both. Her announcement of "Taidaima" when she entered their home had met with no response, and when she had entered the kitchen to try and hug her husband he simply moved out of the way without even looking in her direction.

The meal passed by in silence. Besides both saying "Itadakimasu" no words passed between them. It was painfully sad.

It was almost a relief when the phone rang in the middle of dinner.

Ranma barely acknowledged Akane as she excused herself and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" Akane asked into the receiver.

The voice on the phone greeted in a hushed voice, "Hello? Akane-oneesan?"

"Hotaru-chan. How are you?" Akane answered, a modicum of the dark depression around her instantly evaporating. At the same time a scowl flashed across Ranma's face, but lately he was so surly anyway that Akane didn't pay it any special attention.

"I'm sorry to bother you, especially at dinner time, but there's an emergency meeting of the Sailor Senshi being called at the Hikawa Shrine. Usagi-san said that we shouldn't bother you and your husband, but I didn't think it was very good to leave you out just because of him," Hotaru said, still in a loud whisper.

"An emergency meeting? Why? What's going on?" Akane asked. It almost didn't matter. She was happy for any reason to spend time with Hotaru, especially with the coldness and discomfort her home life had recently exhibited, and Sailor Senshi business was a better reason than most.

"Ami-san's found the source of the demon attacks we've been having, and we're meeting up to talk about what to do about it," Hotaru explained.

"You mean the ones which have been attacking Ranma? You know where Happosai is?" Akane asked. At this point Ranma stopped his pretenses of not listening and turned to watch Akane and the phone.

"No, not that. There's been more attacks," Hotaru said in a voice a bit louder and more excited than before.

"More attacks?" Akane interrupted, shocked.

"Yes, you didn't know?" Hotaru asked.

"No, I didn't," Akane said.

"There's been a bunch of attacks for the past few days, maybe about 10 or 15 or so," Hotaru said. "We've managed to stop most of them before there were any serious injuries."

"That many?" Akane asked. "That's what, three a day?"

"About. Sometimes more. Anyway Ami-san managed to find the source of them but she won't tell us anything else until everybody's all together. That's the subject of the meeting, to talk about the source and what we should do about it," Hotaru said quickly. "I wanted to tell you so you could come and help too."

"Okay. You said the meeting's going to be at the Hikawa Shrine right? When?" Akane asked, eager to join in. Since that fight at the school yard when she had first transformed into Saturn Knight she had sneaked away and managed to figure out how to actually perform a couple of the magical attacks from her memories. She was eager to try out her new techniques in actual combat.

"We're meeting at the shrine in an hour and a half. Ami-san, Rei-san, and Usagi-san needed some time to figure out something to tell their family. So you're going to come then?" Hotaru asked. Then without waiting for an answer Hotaru suddenly whispered in a much quieter voice, "Oops, got to go. Bye."

"Hello? Hotaru-chan?" Akane asked into the now silent receiver. There was no response. She stared at the phone for a second in contemplation of what must have happened on the other end of the line and then replaced it to its cradle. Akane then turned to go back to her meal, only to see Ranma watching her intently.

"What's this about more attacks?" Ranma asked. His voice was as flat as if he was asking about something as common as if there was any more rice in the house. Then again, given Ranma's life, his question was probably as common, if not more common, than asking if they had any more rice.

Akane sighed. Ranma was talking to her so that was a small blessing at least. "Apparently there's been several demon attacks in the past few days. The Sailor Senshi have been fighting them but haven't managed to stop them all."

"And they didn't tell us? Why not? I could have helped," Ranma asked, utterly oblivious to the contradiction or irony of his question.

Akane wasn't, though. In a teasing voice she asked, "Why would they? You don't want anything to do with the Sailor Senshi, right?"

Ranma answered with a frosty voice, "It's got nothing to do with that. Sailor Senshi or no, it's a martial artist's duty to protect the weak and I'm going to do that."

"That was a joke, Ranma, a joke. I'm sorry," Akane said, waving her hands defensively towards Ranma's accusation. She decided not to point out the parallels between what Ranma had just said and a conversation between Ranma and Sailor Senshi the previous week at the shrine.

"So, what's with the phone call then?" Ranma asked, voice still icy cold.

"Hotaru-chan said that they had managed to find the source of the demons and are meeting up in an hour and a half at the Hikawa Shrine to talk about how to handle it. She asked me to go and help them," Akane said.

"I suppose they want me to go too?" Ranma said.

"No. She said that Usagi-chan actually told them to leave you alone," Akane said. Told them to leave both Ranma and Akane alone, but Akane was all too happy to opt herself out of that declaration.

"And Hotaru-chan just happens to call you, and you just happen to tell me?" Ranma said with obvious skepticism.

"Yes. You asked me, remember? You don't have to go, you know. You can stay here, nice and safe if you want to," Akane retorted. Ranma gave a growl of frustration, catching Akane short and making her feel guilty yet again. It seemed like she always felt guilty recently. No matter what happened Ranma would make her feel like she had done something wrong. It wasn't fair.

"Damn it. Damn duty. Damn oaths," Ranma said after a brief pause. "You know I can't just stay here. If I can help protect people I need to go. That doesn't mean I have to like it, though."

Oaths? Plural? Was there something else besides his duty as a martial artist? Regardless, the scowl on Ranma's face showed Akane that not only did he not have to like it, he vehemently disliked it.

"It's not for another hour and a half anyway. Let's finish dinner first and do some homework. Who knows how much time we'll have after the meeting?" Akane suggested.

Ranma looked to be on the verge of protesting, but settled down and just said, "Fine."

With that, they both went back to the uncomfortably silent dinner.

Akane sighed to herself. Another argument. It seemed like every time they shared more than four words with each other it ended up in an argument of some sort. This had to change soon. Akane just didn't know how.

Hopefully if Ranma spent a little more time with the Sailor Senshi, he would realize they were a nice sort. Hotaru was quite nice, as was Michiru and Haruka. Akane was equally sure that all of the Inner Senshi were just as warm and friendly.

Hopefully this evening's meeting would be the first step to something new; the first step to Ranma accepting the Sailor Senshi.

Hopefully.

It had been surprisingly easy for Rei to convince her grandfather to not be around the temple in preparation for the upcoming Sailor Senshi meeting. Rei only had to tell him that some of her friends were coming over to talk about some problems they were having, which was true, and that she would appreciate some privacy when they talked, which was also true, to convince the elder Hino to find Yuuichiro and go run some errands in town. She could tell that he suspected something was amiss, but she also knew he wouldn't pry unless she wanted to talk to him about it. She didn't.

The first group to arrive was Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru. Despite the fact that Michiru was in female form, Rei could see the impact that the curse had had on her. The most obvious change was her clothing. She used to dress so elegantly, with lots of flowing blouses, skirts, and dresses, all topped off with just the right accessories to make her picture perfect. What she now wore was so ill fitting and androgynous that it almost looked butch. In fact it was quite literally butch except Michiru's posture and movements conveyed a natural feminine grace which still shone through. However, even that natural grace was substantially muted due to her bearing and how she now carried herself. She looked unsure and uncomfortable, projecting a general lack of confidence. That bearing combined with her bigger and ill-fitting clothes made her appear much smaller than she actually was, almost as if she were shrinking in on herself.

If she hadn't already known, Rei would have definitely been prompted to ask Michiru if something was wrong. However Rei already did know something was wrong, and furthermore already knew exactly what that something was, so she held her tongue.

Earlier Haruka had warned her, as well as the other Inner Senshi, to not talk about the curse with Michiru as she was still having a hard time of it. Rei was only too happy to comply, having no desire to poke at the still sore wound if she could help it, especially given a couple of the brief anecdotes she had already heard about over the past few days. Rei's only insistence was that in compensation for her promise to leave Michiru alone that Haruka would let her know if there was ever anything at all she could do to help.

Seeing the obvious impact that getting cursed to turn male had had upon Michiru, Rei was starting to reconsider her opinion of Ranma for what seemed like the hundredth time since he had arrived. She had assumed that the curse was not that big a deal. Ranma had seemed so casual and normal when they had met. Even her grandfather had said that it wasn't really a curse, which was all the more evidence to her that it couldn't really have been all that bad. That was before seeing firsthand the effect being cursed had had on Michiru. Seeing the previously proud and confident Michiru reduced this much made Rei genuinely wonder what kind of person Ranma had been before his curse, seeing how he still maintained confidence to the point of arrogance and still had a flippant attitude towards life in general despite Jusenkyo.

Haruka entered besides Michiru. Her arm was draped protectively around her lover, and her eyes carefully looked around as if searching for some unseen danger. Left, right, down, and up. No direction was left unchecked. Her face didn't carry the same haunted look that Michiru's had, but Rei did notice how she quite intentionally maneuvered herself to sit between Michiru and a pitcher of water across the room as they took a seat to wait. The pitcher was over ten meters away.

Hotaru was the next to enter the room. She also carried a worried look on her face for some reason, and like Haruka earlier she looked around the room as she entered. However her glance was much more furtive and quick than Haruka's measured one. Hotaru's face then fell a little when she presumably failed to locate what she was looking for, but it was so subtle that Rei almost missed it. Hotaru then placed herself where she could easily watch the entrance of the room, a mixture of worry and anxiety playing across her face.

Rei wondered if the effects of Michiru's curse were somehow contagious. It seemed like everybody in their non-standard household had been affected somehow.

A quick glance at the door forced Rei to correct her early assessment. In addition to the regular three Outer Senshi, Setsuna had also arrived in the first group. That was unusual for her. Rei had just assumed that Setsuna wouldn't be coming. She usually didn't bother attending these meetings, and the few times she did she would more often than not just suddenly appear on her own rather than arrive with her housemates.

The room remained silent despite the new visitors' arrival. Michiru was her new ordinary, agitated self, and not in a mood to talk. Haruka was spending most of her effort comforting Michiru and thus wasn't in a mood to talk either. Hotaru seemed unusually anxious as well and was far from her usual happy, if sometimes haunted, self. Setsuna was the only one acting normally, but that only meant that she was her ordinary detached self who was content to calmly wait in silence.

Rei tried to strike up a conversation with the mysterious Guardian of Time, but when she asked Setsuna why she had taken the unusual step of being here given how she almost never showed up at meetings, Setsuna had only answered that she thought she might be needed. She wouldn't explain any more than that, so Rei's attempts at conversation faltered.

The group was left sitting in silence, Rei hoping for somebody else to show up quickly. Her prayers were answered when Makoto showed up shortly thereafter, along with Minako and Artemis. The two girls were talking animatedly when they entered the temple.

To Rei's disappointment, they were talking about what cute boys they had seen in school recently and were plotting ways to intentionally run in to them by accident, preferably literally. As Rei was officially above such gossip, and both officially and unofficially didn't attend the same school as the pair of them, this left her decidedly outside of that conversation.

At least the silence around the room was broken with Minako's and Makoto's gossiping. Rei might not have been adding to their chatter, but that didn't stop it from having an effect on the overall atmosphere of the gathering. The lively inconsequential banter had the effect of brightening the previously oppressive silence. Michiru seemed relax a bit from the added warmth, causing Haruka to relax a bit as well. Despite this, Hotaru seemed just as nervous as ever to Rei, maybe even more so.

Any extra warmth Minako and Makoto's conversation was bringing to the meeting was abruptly choked off when Mamoru showed up at the door. No wonder, too. No matter how much they liked Mamoru, it couldn't feel good to be gossiping about boys in front of another boy. Rei also suspected that both Minako and Makoto still secretly fancied Mamoru. She knew that she herself still secretly fancied Mamoru, not that she would ever admit to that in front of Usagi.

Rei wondered if Mamoru felt as out of place as he obviously looked. He was the only man in the room surrounded by numerous girls, six younger than him and one older than him. True there was Artemis as well, but a cat didn't help much in regard to the gender equation. That Usagi, the almost perfect antithesis to punctuality, wasn't around yet either could only add to his both looking and probably feeling out of place.

An awkward silence once again permeated the room. Rei had never realized before exactly how little she had in common with the Outer Senshi before now. She wasn't on unfriendly terms with them by any stretch of the imagination, but she rarely had the chance to actually interact with them. Without Usagi's presence acting like the glue which bound the two groups together there simply wasn't anything she had to talk to them about except the off-limit topic of Michiru's curse.

It was a great relief to Rei when Ami finally showed up. The silence in the room had become oppressive to Rei, and hopefully Ami's attendance would be the catalyst to finally break it. She had barely let Ami take a seat before asking her, "So, what have you found out about these creatures?"

Everybody in the room perked up at this question and turned their attention to Ami. Everybody except for Hotaru, who looked more nervous than ever and was anxiously watching the doorway.

"It's probably better to wait for everybody to get here. I don't want to have to explain things twice," Ami said.

Rei was sure that if Usagi didn't hear the explanation from the beginning that she would ask so many questions once she did arrive as to force Ami to effectively start over. However that was an issue for later, and furthermore it wasn't her problem. They could cross that bridge when they got there. For now, if she could get Ami to start explaining what she had discovered it could break the boring and oppressive atmosphere around the room. Moreover it would give Rei yet one more opportunity to demonstrate her superior knowledge over Usagi, which counted as a win in her book.

Rei pressed on, "Come on, Ami-chan. You know how slow that meatball head can be, and everybody else is here already. Can't you get the meeting started now and we'll fill her in later?"

"Yeah, come on Ami-chan. What are these things we're facing?" Makoto agreed.

"I really think it's better to wait for everybody to show up before we talk about these demons. There's a lot more going on than just these random attacks," Ami repeated.

"All the more important to start early then," Minako chimed in. "It's like they say, 'it's better to make hay before it hatches.'"

Rei's had to turn that mistaken proverb around in her head a few times before it made sense to her. Once what Minako had been trying to say became clear, Rei quickly agreed, "What Minako-chan said. Let's get this meeting started."

Ami was saved from the pressure of the group to get started without Usagi from the most unlikely of sources.

Mamoru got a surprised look on his face and started looking around. It was obvious enough for Rei to take notice. She was about to ask if everything was alright when the door opened, revealing something which took her breath away.

In the entrance were the figures of both Akane and Ranma.

The playful pushing of Ami to get the meeting started was immediately forgotten in surprise. Rei was rendered shocked and speechless for a second, as was almost everybody else in the room. Hotaru, for her part, somehow managed to look both relieved and worried at the same time.

It took several moments before Rei was able to gather her wits enough to ask, "What are you doing here?"

"Hotaru-chan told me about this meeting and asked me to come," Akane said defiantly.

"That's right. I thought Akane-oneesan would be interested in joining, but I didn't think..." Hotaru started explaining but trailed off hesitantly.

"Yeah," Makoto picked up where Hotaru left off. "I thought you didn't want to have anything to do with the Sailor Senshi, Saotome-san, so why'd you come?"

"Just because I not going be a Sailor Senshi doesn't mean I'm just going to sit back and let innocent people get hurt. I'll bet Happosai is behind this somehow, too, and there's no way I'm letting him have his way," Ranma said. He took a position on the side of the room as distant from Artemis as was possible, even though that placed him next to the water pitcher.

Ami looked to be on the verge of saying something else, but closed her mouth without saying it.

"Well, I'm glad you came," Hotaru declared.

"So, what's going on then? What'd we miss?" Akane asked.

"Nothing so far. You're just in time. We're waiting for Usagi-chan and Luna to show up before we get started," Rei said. She noticed Ranma flinch and take a quick glance at the door when she said Luna's name.

"Because somebody," Makoto said, looking exaggeratedly at Ami, "refuses to start without her."

"I just don't want to repeat everything twice. It'll go a lot faster if I only have to explain things one time," Ami defended herself.

"It's probably better that way. She is the leader of the group after all," Michiru added in support of her fellow water-based Sailor Senshi.

"Too bad she's late again," Haruka concluded.

With that the group collapsed into another awkward silence, made more so with the unexpected-for-most arrivals of Ranma and Akane. With all of the recent tension between them nobody wanted to approach Ranma. Not even Mamoru, who had every reason to want to talk to his reincarnated sibling, seemed inclined to open a conversation. Whether this was because Mamoru didn't want to scare him off or because of the presence of all the girls, Rei didn't know.

Akane was much more approachable, and in fact Hotaru looked like she very much wanted to talk to her. However Ranma spent a lot of time glaring at Hotaru, occasionally taking the time to glare at the other Sailor Senshi and especially at Mamoru as well. She wasn't surprised that Hotaru felt intimidated by this and didn't approach. Even Rei felt a bit intimidated by him, and she wasn't even the primary recipient of his attention.

Finally, after what seemed like far too long, Usagi showed up with Luna following just behind her. Gasping for breath, Usagi exclaimed "SorryI'mlateeverybodybutmymomwouldn 'tletmegobeforeWHAT?!" The last was said when she caught sight of Ranma and Akane. Then visibly catching her breath, Usagi said, "Saotome-san, Akane-san. What are you doing here?"

"Apparently Hotaru-chan decided to invite Akane-san, and Saotome-san decided to tag along," Makoto explained to Usagi.

"I didn't just decide to tag along. I thought you would need all the help you could get," Ranma said hostilely. The backhanded commentary upon their collective skill did not go unnoticed, although it did go unremarked upon.

Usagi gave a pointed glance at Hotaru as she said, "I thought I told everybody not to bug you."

"I wanted to help out. I hope it won't cause any problems," Akane said.

Usagi's expression softened a little as she said, "It's not that. We're glad that you want to help. I just thought you didn't want to get involved with us."

"Yeah. I didn't, and I still don't; not if it means me being a Sailor Senshi or nothing," Ranma said, "but I heard there were these demons running around hurting people and I don't need to be a Sailor Senshi to deal with those. If it means I can finally settle things with Happosai, then so much the better."

"You don't even know that Happosai's behind all this," Akane said.

Makoto chimed in saying, "Yeah Ami-chan. It's been long enough and everybody's here. Why don't you finally tell us what's going on?"

"Okay. Now you know I haven't been able to get much information from those demons after we beat them, right?" Ami asked rhetorically. Ranma and Akane didn't do anything which would suggest a lack of knowledge while everybody else in the room nodded in agreement to the question. "The reason for that is because these demons are strange. They're slightly out of temporal phase with us. That's why they've been so hard to detect."

"Wait, 'out of temporal phase?' What's that supposed to mean?" Minako asked.

"It means they come from a parallel timeline. It's kind of like a parallel universe, only instead of overlapping with our time and being in a different space, it overlaps with our space and exists in a different timeline. It's not really that simple, but it's close enough for this discussion," Ami answered.

Looking around the room, Rei saw that the other Inner Senshi looked just as confused by Ami's exposition as she felt. On the other hand, Michiru nodded her head in reaction to Ami's explanation, so apparently it meant something to somebody.

Rei tried her best to synthesize what she could from Ami's remarks, and then asked the next logical question, "So, what are they after then?"

"I'm not actually sure," Ami admitted, before hurriedly adding, "but I was able to find their source. Now that I was able to scan one of those demons I was able to isolate the phase frequency of the temporal shift and run my visor scanning through a..." Ami noticed that she had lost most of the people present so cut herself off. She instead summarized by saying, "I was able to find a way to track their energy and locate a portal nearby. It seems like that's where they're all coming from."

"So that means we just go there and destroy the portal, right?" Makoto asked.

"It's not that easy," Ami said. Nobody was surprised. It was never that easy. "There's something else behind the portal. It's hard to read, but it's strong. Really strong. It doesn't seem as strong as the Ginzuishou, but it's on that order of magnitude."

Everybody in the room reacted in surprise to that declaration; Usagi, Mamoru, and Ranma most of all. The only one who this declaration didn't elicit a reaction from was Akane, who simply asked, "Ginzuishou? What's that?"

Hotaru was the first to answer, saying, "That's that artifact I was telling you about before, that Beryl and Metalia were after when Sailor Moon first awoke."

"It was the strongest artifact in the entire Moon Kingdom, and it's what made the Silver Millennium possible," Luna tried to clarify. Rei noted that Ranma tensed when Luna spoke, but otherwise didn't react nearly as much as she would have expected given the Neko-ken training she now knew of.

Akane nodded briefly to Luna's declaration but didn't otherwise react very much, certainly not to the extent that the discovery of a Ginzuishou strength power source warranted. Despite what Hotaru had said, Rei couldn't help but think Akane didn't fully understand what it was capable of.

"I use it to transform into Sailor Moon," Usagi added, pulling it out.

Rei wasn't sure if actually showing the Ginzuishou to Akane would really help to explain how remarkable Usagi's inheritance was. It might be an exceptionally pretty looking stone, but its appearance did little to suggest how much power it actually contained.

Akane failed to react to Usagi's demonstration, suggesting that it hadn't actually helped any.

"So what does that mean then?" Haruka asked, redirecting the group away from the side topic Akane's ignorance had started. "We need to go in and find out what it is?"

Ami agreed, "I thought that that would be the most prudent course of action. We could try to close the portal from this side, but it'd still be better to find out for sure what that energy source is before we try to close it."

"But what about the attacks going on here? We need to stop them before more people get hurt," Usagi declared.

"That's another reason to investigate. That power might be the cause of the attacks here, and if we just close the portal it could just open another one, maybe this time somewhere more remote which we won't find out about it until it's too late," Ami said.

"A demon might attack Tokyo while you're investigating," Artemis warned the group.

"Those attacks are coming more often too," Michiru agreed.

"We could split up and send some people through while everybody else stays behind in case of another attack," Minako suggested.

"It better be a small team," Ranma said with an authority of somebody who had undertaken numerous reconnaissance, and assault and rescue missions in the past. "They'll need to avoid a direct confrontation. If it is an enemy then we can't afford to face a power source as strong as the Ginzuishou with anything less than full force."

"That's what I was thinking," Ami agreed. "It'll be dangerous. It's out of phase with our time and there's no guarantee what will happen for those going through. It would likely tear anybody not protected apart in a matter of moments. The Sailor Senshi uniform should guard against that, but there's likely to be some synchronization problems as well."

Setsuna surprised everybody by speaking up and saying, "I had better go then. I should be able to help stabilize the portal for everybody else going through."

"I was hoping to hear you say that," Ami said. "I'd better go as well. I know the most about what's going on, and we'll need my computer and visor to find what we're looking for."

"Count me in too," Minako said. "I'm used to small operations from back in England. 'Float like a butterfly and be as quiet as a bee.'"

"That should be quiet as a mouse," Makoto corrected Minako.

"What does a mouse have to do with a butterfly?" Minako asked.

"Never mind," Makoto said. Minako really was hopeless.

"Well, I'm going too," Usagi declared.

"And if you're going, I'm going too," Mamoru declared, taking Usagi's hand.

Rei protested, "You can't go Usagi-chan. It's too dangerous."

"I can't just ask others to go into danger without me," Usagi complained.

"It's not just that," Ami said, "We need somebody to protect Tokyo while we're there. The demons have been appearing more frequently."

Usagi protested, "Who else can go then? You said the enemies are really powerful, right?"

"I can go," Hotaru quietly said.

"No, you can't!" Michiru exclaimed, possessively hugging the small girl.

Haruka put a hand on Michiru's shoulder and said, "We can't always protect her. She is Sailor Saturn too."

Ami interrupted, "Michiru-san's right. Sailor Saturn's attacks are too indiscriminate and too dangerous for an unknown situation. I was actually thinking Saotome-san might go."

"What? Me?" Ranma asked, surprised.

"Yes," Ami confirmed. "According to the records I saw in the Mercury Computer, besides the Princess and Sailor Saturn, Sailor Terra was the strongest Sailor Senshi during the Silver Millennium. Furthermore, with your martial arts background you are probably the most qualified person here to handle the widest range of unknown dangers."

"And I suppose you're going to say that I need to be Sailor Terra for this too, aren't you?" Ranma asked caustically.

"Yes. I meant what I said before," Ami said, half explaining and half apologizing. "We're going into another timeline and you'll need the protection that the Sailor Senshi uniform offers. Who knows what we'll be facing there? It's better to be careful."

Akane chimed in, saying, "Weren't you saying you were going to protect the weak? Who cares what you have to wear to do it?"

Ranma muttered something to himself but Rei couldn't make out what it was. Then in a louder voice, Ranma grumbled, "Fine, fine. If that's what I have to do."

"That should be enough then," Ami declared. "Now that that's settled we need to hurry to take care of this portal before more demons attack."

"But what about my sleep?" Usagi asked, in that particular tone of voice bordering on the edge of whining. It was likely on the wrong side of that border.

Ami explained, "We need to go now. At the rate these attacks are increasing something very bad's going to happen tomorrow evening, so the sooner we deal with this the better."

"So, who's going where then?" Haruka asked.

"It's probably better if we don't all go to the portal," Ami suggested. "If another demon attacks it'd be better if there was another group somewhere else to increase our coverage area."

"So who's going to the portal and who's going to patrol?" Makoto asked.

"Let's make it easy. Ami-chan and I are already going to the portal. Why not just have all of the Inner Senshi come with us," Minako suggested.

"And then Michiru, Hotaru-chan, and I will go out on patrol?" Haruka asked.

"Sure. We're all used to working with each other anyway, and you are as well. It'll be better that way," Minako said.

"What about me?" Akane asked. "I want to help too."

There was a silent pause as everybody remembered the last time Akane had joined in a fight. She had been more of a target than anything, even in the Saturian Guard armor. Nobody dared to say it, but they were afraid she would be more of a liability than an asset.

Everybody except for Hotaru. Her face perked up, and she quickly offered, "You can come with us, Akane-oneesan."

This caused a deeper silence to permeate the room, as everybody else in the room stared carefully at Akane and Ranma to see their reaction.

Akane took a subtle glance at Ranma, barely noticed by the careful stare of the others in the room. One second ticked by, than another. Slowly. If Ranma noticed he didn't say anything, let alone protest the arrangements. Eventually Akane said hesitantly, "I guess I can go with Hotaru-chan."

A flash of a frown briefed Ranma's face before it disappeared. Now it was his turn to subtly glance at Akane, only noticed by the gathered crowd because of their continued staring at the pair. Another pause. Several seconds passed. Akane either didn't notice Ranma's gaze or was intentionally acting like she didn't. Eventually he said with forced nonchalance, "Sure, that's your choice isn't it. It doesn't matter to me."

Akane flashed a scowl as well, which unlike Ranma's frown earlier stayed on her face. She quickly said, "Fine then, I'll go with Hotaru-chan. At least she appreciates me."

"Fine then," Ranma said, his tone suggesting it was anything but fine.

"Then we're agreed," Akane said, her tone suggesting it was anything but agreed.

"Okay, okay," Usagi said, interrupting the pair's fighting. "So that means that Akane-san and all of the Outer Senshi except Sailor Pluto will go out on patrol while the rest of us are going to the portal then, right?"

Neither Ranma nor Akane looked very satisfied with the conclusion, but neither said anything. Instead Ami said, "That's what it sounds like. We'd better hurry. Like I said before, these attacks are coming more frequently. It's going to be a long night for us all."

Makoto cracked her knuckles and said, "I can't wait."

Among the people in the room, Makoto's attitude was definitely in the minority.

The group was silent as everybody followed Sailor Mercury to the warehouse she had found earlier. Sailor Terra assumed that the various Sailor Senshi were lost in thought in preparation for the task ahead of them, but she couldn't be sure. The only person she was sure about was Tuxedo Kamen, who she could feel was anxious and wanted to approach her but wasn't willing to do anything which could cause offense. She didn't pay him, or indeed any of the others, any mind.

Instead she was still fuming about the meeting they had just had. Why did Akane seem so eager to go with Hotaru and her group? Didn't Akane care at all anymore? Wasn't Akane at all worried for her? Granted she had everything under control, but it was the principle of the thing. It seemed like Akane spent more time with Hotaru than at home these days too. Did Hotaru mean more to Akane than she did? Didn't Akane even care about their marriage anymore? Akane didn't even say goodbye before they had split up into their respective groups, hardly the behavior of a loving wife.

She was pulled out of her thoughts, suspicions, and accusations of Akane when Sailor Mercury announced, "We're here. It's in that building across the street."

Sailor Terra looked up and saw that Sailor Mercury had stopped with her computer and visor out. Across the street was a fairly nondescript warehouse, practically indistinguishable from hundreds of other similar buildings. Sailor Mercury was apparently scanning the warehouse because she added, "I'm detecting three demons in there right now. No wait, make that four of them, I think."

"What are we going to do?" Sailor Moon asked.

"They haven't been that strong so far. We'll be able to take them, no problem," Sailor Jupiter confidently said.

"You said they're four of them right? Let's split up," Sailor Mars suggested.

"I had better look at that portal first. We don't want any surprises from it," Sailor Pluto said.

"That leaves seven of us, so two apiece except for one of us. Sailor Moon, you're the strongest one here. You take one on your own," Sailor Venus suggested.

Sailor Moon likewise looked to be on the verge of protesting, but didn't say anything.

"You four are more used to fighting together, so why don't I pair with Terra?" Tuxedo Kamen quickly added.

Sailor Terra could tell that Tuxedo Kamen's suggestion, while true enough, was more of a superficial attempt to justify pairing himself with her. However she also knew that he was a more effective fighter when paired with her so she didn't disagree.

"So you two take one. I'll go with Mercury to get another one, and Mars and Jupiter get the last one, okay? This will be as easy as shooting fish from a baby," Sailor Venus said.

"That should be shooting fish in a barrel," Sailor Mars reflexively corrected, "but sounds good to me."

The group jumped off of the roof they had been standing on and properly arranged themselves in front of the door to the warehouse. When Sailor Moon thought the timing was right she pushed the door open, letting the back-lighting from a nearby streetlamp stream into the building and cast their shadows across the room towards the four demons standing in front of a large, hovering, flickering ball of energy.

Pointing extravagantly at the humanoid creatures, Sailor Moon announced, "Warehouses are important buildings to store things for businesses. They shouldn't be used to hide your evil plans. In the name of the Moon..."

Sailor Mercury added, "Mercury..."

Sailor Mars added, "Mars..."

Sailor Jupiter added, "Jupiter..."

Sailor Venus added, "Venus..."

There was a brief pause while the other Sailor Senshi waited for Sailor Terra to add her voice to the introduction. She wasn't inclined to. Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor Pluto remained silent as well.

Notwithstanding the slightly longer than expected gap, Sailor Moon finished, "We will punish you."

The speech, if silly, seemed to have put the demons off-balance. None of them moved until Sailor Moon had concluded it. Once she had finished, one of them shouted, "See? I told you!"

The fact that the demon spoke, and moreover was staring at them like a starving man might eye an all-you-can-eat buffet, put the Sailor Senshi off-balance as well. None of them moved until the demon who shouted charged at them. The other three demons joined in the attack just behind it.

The Sailor Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen scattered at the charge into their respective pairings. Most of them simply leaped away, although in the case of Sailor Moon it looked more like a lucky stumble which ended up putting her out of harm's way than anything else.

"Mercury, aim for the one on the right," Sailor Venus called out.

"We've got the one on the left," Sailor Jupiter agreed.

Sailor Terra and Tuxedo Kamen exchanged no words, both silently agreeing to take the one that had turned and charged at Tuxedo Kamen.

This left Sailor Moon with the last demon, which was stalking towards where she still sat after gracelessly falling over. She backed away as fast as her hands and feet would carry her, barely being missed by a pair of slashing claws. She shouted, "Help!"

Sailor Venus shot a quick Crescent Beam Smash in front of the demon advancing towards Sailor Moon, giving her some breathing space to regain her feet. Sailor Venus then turned back to the demon she and Sailor Mercury were facing, only to wind up looking at empty space. The demon had taken the brief opportunity when her back had been turned to escape from the pincer she and Sailor Mercury had set up on it and was now charging at Sailor Venus from the side.

"Shine Aqua Illusion!" Sailor Mercury called out, projecting a blast of magical water at the demon. While she didn't score a direct hit she did manage to wing it, catching its legs with the blast. This had enough force to knock it off course and send it spinning behind Sailor Venus.

Sailor Venus turned and let loose her attack shouting "Love-Me Chain!"

Sailor Venus's attack proved no more accurate but much more forgiving than Sailor Mercury's. The chain swept to the side of the creature, missing it barely, but rather than just ineffectually passing by her target at that point like Sailor Mercury's attack would have, the chain instead curved around and encircled the enemy, successfully trapping its legs.

Sailor Mercury tried again, shouting "Shine Aqua Illusion!"

Her second blast of water was far more effective than her first one, squarely hitting the inhibited and already injured demon, making it vanish into decomposing dust.

Both looked around to see if anybody needed any assistance.

Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor Terra confronted their demon with much less fanfare. Sailor Terra pushed her mind through the semi-unnatural thought processes that the Psi-Techs used. The process was made substantially easier with the presence of Tuxedo Kamen, who shared the burden of the strange patterns she had to force her mind into. To aid in her mental exercise, she shouted, "Psi-Techs! Psi-Blade! Aura Shield!"

Sailor Terra would have preferred to just use what passed for her as basic martial arts, but with everybody fighting in such close proximity, the faster she could finish the fight the safer it would be for all involved.

The familiar sword Sailor Terra remembered appeared in her hand while a glowing aura emerged all around her. The sword was much more resolute than the one she had created during her fight with Zoisite. The aura surrounding her was also much more firm, and it was mirrored by a golden aura which had sprung up around Tuxedo Kamen as well.

Sailor Terra slowly edged to the side away from Tuxedo Kamen, trying to get to the side of the demon. The demon matched her movement by edging sideways as well, getting no closer to Sailor Terra but at the same time not allowing itself to be flanked either.

Tuxedo Kamen thought to himself and Sailor Terra that he was going to try to distract the creature to give Sailor Terra a chance to finish it off. He then did a standing jump over the demon, reaching into his cape and summoning a large handful of roses as he did so. As he passed over the demon he threw them down, stem first.

The demon didn't stand still and easily swept out of the way of the flowery projectiles. It then planted its feet firmly on the ground and launched itself in the direction of the descending Tuxedo Kamen.

Unfortunately this had the effect of making the demon turn its back on Sailor Terra. Prepared to take advantage of any oversight the demon might make during Tuxedo Kamen's attempt at distraction, this was more than enough of an opening for Sailor Terra. With the precision from a lifetime spent fighting, Sailor Terra chased after the demon with more agility than anybody in high-heels had any right to have.

Sailor Terra swung her glowing sword up with a speed demonstrating the usefulness of a mass-less blade and neatly cut the demon in half. The demon faded to powder as Sailor Terra charged through and stopped herself in a crouch. Just above her head, Tuxedo Kamen twisted neatly, landing on his feet facing Sailor Terra.

She got to her feet again and looked around the warehouse, seeing if anybody needed any assistance.

Unlike the others, Sailor Jupiter took the straightforward approach and directly assaulted the demon. Turning to face the opponent who had barely missed her moments before, she launched her attack, shouting, "Sparkling Wide Pressure!"

The demon hadn't recovered itself from its initial charge and was crouched facing away from both Sailor Senshi. It got up and turned around just in time to receive the ball of electricity straight into its chest. This held it shocked still long enough for Sailor Mars to shout, "Burning Mandala!"

Rings of flame surrounded Sailor Mars and then flew directly at her target, joining the electricity currently shocking the demon and immolating it on the spot. Once the flame cleared, all that could be seen of their opponent was a rapidly disintegrating pile of dust.

They checked the other fights to see if anybody needed any assistance.

Sailor Moon was having the hardest time of the fight. While Sailor Venus's beam had given Sailor Moon the space necessary to get to her feet, she was still being hard-pressed by her demon. She kept dodging, frequently tripping and flailing out of the way as much by luck as anything. In a sense it was a tribute towards the dependability of her friends that she was doing so poorly. She rarely had the need to fight solo against an enemy.

As heartwarming as that was, it also meant that she had never improved her abilities of fighting on her own much beyond the level she had had from when she had first met Luna and taken on the mantle of Sailor Moon.

Sailor Moon backed up, and started her attack. "Moon Spiral... Ack!" she cried as she was interrupted by the demon charging at her. She was forced to fall to the side and barely got away as the demon went through where she had stood a second ago.

"Moon Spir... Eep!" she cried again. She fell backward away from the demon, again narrowly avoiding being flayed by the creature. The demon, overbalanced, fell over the now missing Sailor Moon. An apparent coincidence of timing meant it got kicked by one of her flailing boots and flew over her.

The demon lay on the floor, a perfect chance to be hit if Sailor Moon hadn't also had her back on the floor. She scrambled to her feet, just in time to see the demon get to its feet as well. She readied her Spiral Moon Rod for the third time, and shouted, "Moon... Ahh!"

Interrupted for the third time, this time she leaped over the demon which had charged at her. She managed to get over the demon, although it did clip her feet and send her tumbling through the air. Whether by luck or by an unknown agility, Sailor Moon managed to land on her feet despite that.

"Ohh! Forget it!" she finally shouted. The next time as the demon turned and charged towards her she charged at it as well. As she closed she jumped into the air and kicked forward with all her might, shouting, "Sailor Moon Kick!"

It was a clumsy jump kick, demonstrating how much more time Sailor Moon had spent watching Sailor V on television than practicing martial arts in a dojo. Her position was all wrong, carrying almost no momentum, and if she had performed the same attack while not transformed against a prepared martial artist she would have been more liable break her own foot than hurt her intended target. However clumsy the attack was, though, it was more than adequate to channel the energy of the Ginzuishou directed through her foot into the demon, and the magic of the Sailor Senshi uniform ensured no lasting injury from her impromptu strike.

Her slight momentum combined with an incredibly magically charged boot hit the demon with more energy than it was prepared to accept, and as she kicked through the head of the demon it evaporated into dust. It would have made a mess of her uniform if the dust hadn't been evaporating as quickly as it was being deposited on her.

Bereft of the expected resistance of the demon's body, Sailor Moon was left off-balance and landed with a crash on the floor just behind where the demon used to be. She rolled forward on the ground head over heels twice before finally crashing to a stop on her stomach, arms splayed out.

"Owwie, owie, ow, ow," Sailor Moon whined. Then getting to her feet, she rubbed her head saying, "Oww, that hurt."

Sailor Moon looked around to see everybody staring at her, except Sailor Pluto who was standing with the Garnet Rod pointed at the portal and her face in deep concentration.

"What?" Sailor Moon asked at her unexpected audience.

"Nothing," Sailor Jupiter said. "Nothing at all."

"Meatball head," Sailor Mars could be heard to mutter.

"What's that behind you?" Sailor Terra asked, pointing.

"What?" Sailor Moon asked, turning around in a panic. Rather than a feared fifth demon instead she saw a large symbol drawn on the ground with various items placed around its perimeter. She reached over to pick up a metal box in the center of the symbol. "I don't know, but it looks important."

"That looks familiar for some reason," Sailor Terra said.

"Be careful," Sailor Mars said. "I don't know what it is but it's giving me a bad feeling."

"Wait. There's something in here," Sailor Moon said.

Sailor Moon then pulled open a small door on the side of the metal box and reached into it. She grabbed a slightly charred piece of cloth and pulled it out. She started to say, "It looks like..."

"A pair of panties?" Sailor Jupiter concluded in a question.

"They look used too," Sailor Venus commented in disgust on some of the obvious stains on them.

"Eww," Sailor Moon said, dropping it and the metal box quickly and then wiping her gloved hand against her skirt several times.

"I know where I've seen that before. That's one of Happosai's magic burner things," Sailor Terra said.

"It looks like these things were used in some kind of ritual," Sailor Mercury observed. "By the looks of them, they might have been used to summon that portal."

"I knew it. I just knew Happosai was behind all this. Probably trying to get revenge against me or something. Why didn't he just face me directly? I'd have been happy to pound him flat as many times as he wanted," Sailor Terra fumed.

"Well, maybe he doesn't want to be pounded flat," Sailor Venus said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Sailor Terra would have none of that justification. "That doesn't matter. Honor demands it. He's getting innocent people involved now. That's completely against the..."

"Watch out!" Sailor Pluto shouted, cutting her off. "The portal's acting strange. I think something's coming."

Everybody turned to look at the portal. They didn't notice anything different about it, but took up a defensive position anyway in response to Sailor Pluto's warning.

They were rewarded for this when mere seconds later the portal flared up and another demon came out across the room. Luckily it seemed disoriented from its sudden appearance, and the combined might of all of the Sailor Senshi blasting it with their respective attacks made quick work of it.

"What's going on Pluto? Is it safe to go in there yet?" Sailor Jupiter asked.

"I'm almost there. It's just a matter of... there. Dark Dome Open!" She shouted, stabbing the Garnet Rod into the unnatural floating ball. The tip of the staff disappeared into the hole and the portal stopped its fluctuations. It now gave off a constant amount of light like the strangest street lamp any of them had ever seen.

"I won't be able to hold it very long. If we're going in, we have to do it fast," Sailor Pluto said. "Hurry, there's another demon on the way too, I think."

"Just go. We can take care of it," Sailor Moon said.

"Okay everybody, let's go," Sailor Venus declared. Then putting actions to words, she then jumped into the portal.

"Right behind you," Sailor Mercury said, going through the portal herself.

"After you," Sailor Pluto said to Sailor Terra, still holding the end of the Garnet Rod in the portal.

Sailor Terra jumped in at Sailor Pluto's prompting. As she crossed through the portal, she felt the definite sensation of... something.

Last Updated: December 13, 2012