Chapter 16:
Sailor Mercury was busily scanning the region around her with her visor to gather whatever intelligence she could. Sailor Terra stood ready with her eyes darting in every direction to watch for any possible threat. Sailor Pluto maintained a focused concentration on the portal with her Garnet Rod pointed towards it. This left only Sailor Venus to actually observe the terrain around the four of them in anything resembling a casual manner.
What she saw didn't impress her.
It was clearly night time, but that was not to say it was dark. The bright full moon in the sky may have had a pattern on its surface completely alien to the moon Sailor Venus had long become familiar with, but it still did a reasonable job lighting the entire plain with its unearthly light.
It took a few seconds for Sailor Venus's eyes to adjust to the pale light of the moon, but once they did she could easily see all around her, albeit only in black and white contrasts. Rather than bringing comfort, the cold light only made what was already a desolate scene seem even more ominous.
The area around them was barren and flat. This wasn't barren like a desert or barren like D-point. Such lifelessness would have been depressing but understandable. What surrounded the quartet was ordinary dirt. Dirt which was almost completely devoid of life. The persistent weeds which somehow managed to find a way to grow in the garden plots of even the brownest-thumb gardeners were nowhere to be seen. In fact the only living things in sight were a couple of trees which had no flowers, fruits, leaves, or anything else besides bare wood. Sailor Venus wasn't sure that they were actually still alive.
What the plain lacked in life it tried to make up for with craters. There were several craters all around them, some circular and some at a parabolic angle into the ground. The impacts reminded Sailor Venus of what a battlefield might look like after the Sailor Senshi had had a particularly bad fight, especially after an encounter in which Sailor Uranus or Sailor Neptune missed a few times with their attacks. It gave her a bad feeling.
Sailor Venus's contemplation was interrupted when Sailor Mercury said, "I'm detecting several power sources."
"Several of them? Didn't you say we were just looking for one?" asked Sailor Venus.
"It was hard to detect them through the portal. The phase shift garbled all of the energy sources into one big mess. Over here it's a lot clearer and I'm seeing several different ones all around us now," Sailor Mercury said.
"Are there any near us?" asked Sailor Terra, still looking around in a ready stance.
"I'm not reading anything too close to us. The biggest source is the one I detected before and it's over in that direction, maybe five kilometers away," Sailor Mercury said, pointing in the distance. "In addition there are maybe a dozen other smaller groups around it. It's almost like they're forming a loose perimeter around the big one. The closest one of those is about three kilometers over that way," Sailor Mercury said, pointing in almost the exact opposite direction. "That one seems to match the energy signature of those demons we've been fighting."
"So they're the enemy?" Sailor Terra asked for confirmation. She maintained her steady examination of the area all around her throughout Sailor Mercury's description.
"That stands to reason. Most likely they're the ones who've been coming through the portal. I'm detecting lots of small patrols everywhere. My guess is they sent out some scouts to form a perimeter around their main body and some of those scouts stumbled across the portal here. As the main body got closer, more scouts found this place," Sailor Mercury said.
"So how long do we have until the whole group arrives?" Sailor Venus asked.
"At their current speed we have a few hours before they reach their projected closest point, about a kilometer that way," Sailor Mercury said, pointing off in a third direction. "I suggest we use that time to examine that big power source as we originally planned."
The group of four set out, traveling at a speed somewhere between a brisk walk and a slow jog. They could have moved much faster but they were trying to avoid any unnecessary risk and attention. To that end, Sailor Mercury took the lead, using her computer and visor to avoid the sparse patrols all around them as they weaved around the plains. The task was made easier by how much faster they were moving than the demons, but the complete absence of any cover besides the occasional small hill or straggly tree still made it tricky.
The group had been traveling for several minutes when Sailor Terra suddenly interrupted their silence asking, "Did anybody else hear that?"
"Hear what?" asked Sailor Venus, perking up her ears.
"I thought I heard a voice," said Sailor Terra.
"What voice?" Sailor Venus asked. She still heard nothing.
Sailor Terra was quiet for a few seconds before concluding, "Nothing. Never mind."
Sailor Venus was able to make out a large structure in the direction they were walking towards from quite some distance away. As they approached it slowly resolved itself into the form of a castle, and it was obviously the target that Sailor Mercury was leading the four of them towards.
As they drew near to the castle Sailor Terra stumbled, clutching at her head as she did so. She managed to keep to her feet, but the stumble was obvious enough to grab the attention of even Sailor Mercury despite the fact she was still in front of the other three.
"Are you alright?" Sailor Mercury turned and asked.
"I think so. What was that?" asked Sailor Terra, shaking her head.
"What was what? You just stumbled from what I saw," said Sailor Venus.
"You mean you didn't hear that?" Sailor Terra asked in voice of exasperation.
"I didn't hear anything," answered Sailor Venus.
"What did you hear?" Sailor Mercury asked.
"It sounded..." Sailor Terra began, before pausing for a second. She then quickly looked around and loudly demanded, "Who's there?"
"Where?" asked Sailor Venus, looking around as well. "What's going on? You're starting to scare me."
"What help do you need? Where are you?" Sailor Terra asked loudly.
"Hold on. I'm detecting something strange," Sailor Mercury said, looking towards the castle.
"I'm Ra... I mean Sailor Terra," Sailor Terra said, acting completely oblivious to all the others. "Whoa, hold it. Slow down... I..."
Sailor Terra fell over clutching her ears and screaming louder than any of the Sailor Senshi had heard before. Sailor Venus was immediately at her side.
"Hang on, Terra. We need some help here, Mercury. What's happening to her?" Sailor Venus asked. She held the red haired Sailor Senshi, trying to comfort her as best she could.
"She's undergoing a psychic attack," Sailor Pluto said. Neither Sailor Venus nor Sailor Mercury questioned how she knew this.
"So what should we do then?" Sailor Mercury asked.
"There's nothing we can do for her. She needs to handle this on her own. Let's move her somewhere safe," Sailor Pluto said.
"Let's head to the castle then. It's close enough, and if the demons are surrounding it then maybe its inhabitants are friendly. Something might come and investigate that scream, and I definitely don't want to run into anything out here like this," Sailor Venus said.
Sailor Mercury and Sailor Pluto agreed. Sailor Mercury went to the front again, and Sailor Pluto helped Sailor Venus carry the incapacitated Sailor Terra. She was no longer clutching her head or screaming, but had instead gone completely catatonic. This ironically made Sailor Venus feel even more worried.
Ever since she had stepped through the portal in that warehouse Sailor Terra had felt slightly off. It felt like she was being watched, and she could feel the same sense of imminent attack that she had long grown accustomed to from the almost daily fights she had experienced in Nerima. As a result she spent all her time looking around, searching for potential threats. She couldn't see any immediate dangers around her but she was sure there was something out there. Even when Sailor Mercury said there was nothing nearby, Sailor Terra couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. She refused to let her guard down as they traveled to the large power source that Sailor Mercury had found.
As they started approaching the power source, Sailor Terra thought she heard an extremely faint, "... help... lon..."
"Did anybody else hear that?" Sailor Terra asked.
"Hear what?" asked Sailor Venus in return.
"I thought I heard a voice," Sailor Terra explained.
"What voice?" Sailor Venus asked.
Sailor Terra strained her ears for a few seconds before concluding, "Nothing. Never mind."
As they got closer to their target, it became apparent that the source of the power Sailor Mercury was detecting was to be found in a castle on a hill. Its construction of walls, crenellations, and keep were all different to anything she had seen in Japan or China, but their purpose was obvious upon even casual inspection.
Sailor Terra was about to comment on this when she was almost blown off of her feet as a piercing voice shouted at her. "Sad! Anybody there!? Alone! All gone! Anybody help!? Nobody here!"
It was as if somebody had shouted into a megaphone right behind Sailor Terra's head. She clutched her head in pain and fell forward a bit but managed to keep her feet.
"Are you alright?" Sailor Mercury asked.
"I think so. What was that?" asked Sailor Terra, shaking her head and trying to hear past the ringing in her head. Whatever it was it seemed to be gone now.
"What was what? You just stumbled from what I saw," Sailor Venus said.
"You mean you didn't hear that?" Sailor Terra asked, exasperated. That really worried her. How could they not have heard that?
"I didn't hear anything," Sailor Venus declared.
"What did you hear?" asked Sailor Mercury.
"It sounded..." Sailor Terra started explaining before being interrupted.
"Anybody out there!? They're coming! Told can't! They're coming!" the voice shouted again, just as loud as before.
Sailor Terra was expecting it this time so managed to brace herself against it. She loudly asked back, "Who's there?"
"Where?" Sailor Venus asked, looking around as well. "What's going on? You're starting to scare me."
"Help! Anybody?!" the voice shouted, so loud as to make it impossible for Sailor Terra to even think about what Sailor Venus had said.
"What help do you need?" Sailor Terra asked. Then in a louder voice, she continued, "Where are you?"
"Somebody there! There's somebody there! Who you?! You where?! Help here?!" the voice shouted disjointedly.
"Hold on. I'm detecting something strange," Sailor Mercury said, sounding like it was coming from a long distance away. Sailor Terra wasn't paying any attention to her. It was hard to think about anything besides the omnipresent voice.
"I'm Ra..." Sailor Terra started saying before correcting herself, "I mean Sailor Terra."
"Hello Sailor Terra! Are you nice?! Seem nice! Very nice! Nice people help! Help! You help! Help! They're coming! Now!" Whatever said that seemed to be slowly honing in on her. The volume of the voice was increasing beyond that already impossibly loud shout, and the sense of being watched rapidly increased until it felt like the entire world was focused on her.
"Whoa, hold it. Slow down," Sailor Terra said in a panic.
"Slow down? Slow down?! No! No! No! No! Not slow! Fast! They're coming! Coming! Coming now!" the voice demanded, shouting faster and faster.
"I..." Sailor Terra tried again. The omnipresent presence was overwhelming. It was like being in Mamoru's presence except while Mamoru's presence inspired a deceptive sense warmth and comfort, this voice only inspired loneliness, fear, and despair in overwhelming intensity.
"HURRY! COME! COME NOW! THEY'RE HERE! GOING TO BE HERE! HELP! HELP! COME! HELP!"
The spotlight of the voice focused all of its energy on her, taking the beam and increasing it to what felt like millions of watts. It was searing in intensity, overwhelming Sailor Terra and eliminating all room in her mind to consider anything but it.
Sailor Terra numbly fell to the ground, knowing it intellectually more than actually feeling her body slump to the floor. In the distance, she could also hear somebody screaming. Who was screaming? Was that her? Why was she screaming?
The last thing she heard from the vast distance was a whisper of somebody shouting, "Hang on Terra. We need some..."
Sailor Terra opened her eyes. She then immediately closed them again against the overwhelming light all around her.
She was surrounded by a cold, harsh, florescent glare, as bright as a spotlight focusing all of its attention on her in the middle of a pitch black night. Beyond the sheer pain she felt when trying to look around her, she felt decidedly uncomfortable and exposed in its excruciating intensity. Even with her eyes closed she had to cover them with her hands to reduce the light to a bright but bearable level.
"Who are you?" a disembodied voice came from all around her. Unlike the harsh light surrounding her the voice was much less overwhelming. It was still far too intense and was decidedly uncomfortable to experience, but still it was noticeably less painful than the overbearing light. In fact it sounded like a perky over-energetic child which somehow surrounded her while screaming in a loud shout.
"I'm..." Sailor Terra peeked her eyes open to look down at herself briefly to confirm what guise she currently appeared to be in, but then had to quickly slam them shut against the glare again, "Sailor Terra. Who are you?"
"It's... don't know," the voice said. "Far so long."
"Where are you then?" Sailor Terra tried asking.
"Gone. All gone," the voice answered instead, a touch of panic coming through over the loudness. "Where are they? Too quiet. Don't alone."
"Who's gone?" Sailor Terra asked.
The voice paused. Paused for a long time. It eventually said, "Don't know."
"Okay..." Sailor Terra said hesitantly, not sure how to deal with a seemingly insane and forgetful child. "Can you tell me what happened?"
"They left. Or did they? So long. So long. They came and they left and they came back. They came back so they left and they didn't come back. They're coming back but they aren't here," the voice said. Sailor Terra almost imagined she could hear some sorrow in the voice despite the loudness of it.
Sailor Terra thought being around Happosai, and Kodachi, and Tatewaki, and actually most of the people in Nerima for that matter, would have prepared her to understand all sorts of insane mutterings. She was apparently very much mistaken.
Sailor Terra tried again, asking, "Who's coming? Is it those things all around us?"
"Yes," the voice confirmed. "They want in. They want it, but can't. Said so. Why won't they tell me?"
"Do you need some help?" Sailor Terra hesitantly offered. She felt like she was finally getting somewhere.
"Yes. I need help, but why would you?" the voice accused.
"Because I'm..." Sailor Terra started, then trailed off. Why would she help? Because she was a Sailor Senshi? Because she was a sailor suited defender of love and justice? She refused to think that and instead said, "I'm a martial artist. That's what we do. We help people."
"Is that what it is?" the voice asked. "I think they were martial artists too. They always said things like that. Didn't they?"
"So, how can I help you?" Sailor Terra asked.
The voice took on a sharper edge to it, saying, "They're coming to get it. We can't let them. They said not to let them. It's very important."
"Get what?" Sailor Terra asked.
"Come here," the voice said, not answering her question at all.
"Come where? Where are you?" Sailor Terra asked. She was definitely getting frustrated by the confusing half-answers and non-answers she kept getting from the unidentified voice.
"You're already here," the voice said, amused.
"I am?" Sailor Terra asked. She cracked her eyes open again to look around. The painfully blinding light still surrounded her from all sides, causing her to give a squeak of pain and re-shut her eyes.
The voice softened a bit and asked, "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I doing this right?"
"Doing what right?" Sailor Terra asked.
"This. Communicating. Socializing. Interacting," the voice said.
"It's maybe a bit overwhelming, I guess," Sailor Terra said.
"Oh. Okay. I'm sorry," the voice said in a much, much quieter voice.
The pressure surrounding Sailor Terra, which she hadn't even been aware of until it lessened, slowly lifted away from her.
Sailor Terra opened her eyes. She was immediately greeted with a pounding headache.
Above her was a stone ceiling, which was a surprise as she had been expecting to see an open field and dark sky rather than masonry.
Her headache was slowly fading away.
It was strange. The ceiling was made of stone. Stone was hard. On the other hand she was lying on something nice and soft. And warm.
She tilted her head back found herself staring at a blue ribbon hanging from some white cloth. Above it was Sailor Venus's face. Something about that struck her as odd. She turned her head to the side and saw she was on an orange pillow.
Orange... blue ribbon... warm pillow... Sailor Venus's head...
Sailor Terra almost jumped out of Sailor Venus's lap. Her sudden movement caused the blood to rush out of her head, compounding her residual headache and leaving her momentarily dizzy. She put her hand against her head and leaned on a wall, waiting for the white static in front of her eyes to fade away.
"You're awake now," Sailor Venus said, stating the obvious. "How are you feeling?"
"I feel fine," Sailor Terra answered automatically, despite the pounding in her head and the dizziness she currently felt.
The white fuzz in front of Sailor Terra's eyes gradually faded away until color returned and let her look around in more detail. She was in a large stone room. Given its size and layout she guessed it was the entrance of the castle they had seen before. While Ranma hadn't seen many castles on his training journey, Akana had been in a fair number of them in her time.
"What happened?" Sailor Mercury asked.
"No idea," Sailor Terra said. "I was talking to somebody. At least I think I was."
"Did you hit your head too hard? There's nobody here. We checked," said Sailor Venus.
"You promised you'd help. You aren't going to be a liar are you? You aren't going to go away are you?" Sailor Terra heard the same disembodied voice that had been plaguing her earlier say. It was much less painful than before and its volume could almost be considered normal.
"What do you mean 'nobody's here'? Are you kidding me? Then what's that voice?" Sailor Terra asked, gesturing all around her at the directionless voice.
Sailor Venus looked at Sailor Mercury, who shook her head in response. Sailor Venus said slowly, "Are you hearing voices, because that's usually not a good sign."
"It's probably some kind of telepathic contact," Sailor Pluto said before things could continue. "The Earth royal family in the past had always been gifted with psionic ability like your Psi-Techs, especially empathic siblings."
Sailor Terra was thinking of asking Sailor Pluto how she knew all this when the voice said with an urgent tone, "Hurry. They're coming."
"Well whatever it is, it's saying we need to hurry. Something's coming," Sailor Terra repeated for the benefit of the others.
Sailor Mercury quickly engaged her visor and looked around. Even on the other side of the display Sailor Terra could see several lights show up in the visor, although she had no idea what they meant.
"There is something out there. A lot of somethings, and they're coming this way," Sailor Mercury confirmed.
"Then we'd better hurry and do whatever it is we're supposed to be doing. Anybody know what that's supposed to be?" Sailor Venus asked.
"Hurry, hurry," the voice said. "In here, in here."
"In where?" Sailor Terra asked out loud.
"In here," the voice said. Along with the voice Sailor Terra got the mental image of how the castle was laid out. The image was nothing as superficial as an image of blueprints. It was rather like a full three-dimensional map of the entire building, complete with the intuition of how to navigate it as if she had lived there her whole life.
Suddenly the place the voice was referring to made obvious sense.
"This way," Sailor Terra said and started leading the way towards one of the side rooms.
She led them through the twists and turns of the building, noticing the various scrapes and patches which had been made in the stone as she went. They all had some kind of emotional attachment to them, like they meant something to somebody at some point, but that somebody wasn't her and she had no idea what the stories behind the damage to the stonework were.
The juxtaposition of the familiarity of the building along with the fact that Sailor Terra had never been here before felt uncanny and incredibly eerie.
All the while, Sailor Terra was prodded by the mysterious voice to go faster. "This way. Hurry. Hurry. No, not that way, here. This way. Yes. Here."
The voice might not have been directly painful anymore but it was certainly pressure inducing. Moreover, even more than pressure inducing, it was sheer nerve-wrackingly annoying.
The four Sailor Senshi eventually made they way to the heart of the castle. Turning down a seemingly ordinary corridor, Sailor Terra stopped at a seemingly ordinary section of wall. The voice was almost hysterical now, shouting, "Yes! Yes! Here! There! You push that! And do that thing! There!"
"Yes, yes, I know, I know," Sailor Terra said, seemingly into the thin air as far as the other three Sailor Senshi were concerned. With the hesitancy of a computer password which hasn't actually been typed out for months, Sailor Terra pushed a sequence of stones along the wall. This caused a section of the wall to recede and slide to the side, revealing a small jagged doorway into a small room.
The room looked and felt very different to the worn and familiar stone they had been traveling through thus far. It was cold and metallic, bathed in a frosty bluish light. The source of the illumination was a large gemstone, radiating light and power so strongly that she was sure even Sailor Venus could feel it despite having neither Sailor Mercury's sophisticated equipment nor Sailor Terra's advanced martial arts training and psionic talents.
"What is it?" Sailor Venus asked in a hushed voice.
Sailor Mercury had her visor up and was furiously typing into her computer.
"The heart of the empire. I've been protecting it for one, two, three... I can't remember. They said to never let them have it before they went away. Why did they go away? It's been so lonely here," the voice said.
"It said it's the heart of an empire," Sailor Terra repeated, answering Sailor Venus's question.
"That looks almost like a heart crystal," Sailor Venus said.
"I didn't think an empire could even have a heart crystal," Sailor Terra said hesitantly. She certainly couldn't remember anything like that from the Silver Millennium, but the study of heart crystals had been something of a forbidden field, for obvious reasons.
"It was probably talking more metaphorically than literally. That crystal is so much stronger than any of the heart crystals we've seen before that I doubt it really is one, even if it does seem similar. It's the power source that I've been detecting all this time," said Sailor Mercury. She continued to type into her computer as she spoke.
"Is that the thing that those things outside have been looking for? That means we can't let them have it, right?" Sailor Venus asked, reaching out for the glowing crystal.
As her hand approached the gem, the room flared brightly for a second and literally blew Sailor Venus out of the room and across the hallway. She flew through the air and hit the wall opposite the door at an odd angle. The energy surge was strong enough that even Sailor Terra felt it wash over her despite the fact she was standing in the hallway outside the door.
"No touch!" the voice shouted, concurrently with the flare. The previously moderately bright light in the room had now dimmed to be substantially darker than it had been before the attack.
"Owie owe owe. What hit me?" asked Sailor Venus as she picked herself up off the ground. It was clear that her head was still spinning from the assault she had just withstood. Meanwhile, in the room, the now dim lighting was slowly regaining its previous level of luminosity.
"I don't like you! You ignore me!" the voice continued to shout.
"What do you mean?" Sailor Terra asked. She covered her ears although it didn't seem to have any effect against the once again painfully loud voice.
"They don't talk. They're mean. Make them go away," the voice answered.
"I was just touching it and then I don't know what happened. I think I'm okay, though," Sailor Venus answered at the same time.
Sailor Terra uncovered her ears to better hear Sailor Venus. It wasn't like covering them did anything against the omnipresent voice in the first place, after all.
"No, I meant..." Sailor Terra started saying, but then changed her mind. "Never mind. It says it doesn't like you."
"They're coming. Hurry! Hurry!" the voice urged on.
"Doesn't like me? What doesn't like me?" Sailor Venus asked.
"Whoa, slow down both of you!" Sailor Terra shouted. "That voice I'm hearing says it doesn't like you because you're ignoring it."
"It's probably been trying to communicate psychically with everybody, but you're the only one who actually talked back to it," Sailor Mercury suggested.
"It's also saying that whatever those things out there are they're coming and we need to hurry," Sailor Terra said.
Sailor Mercury typed something into her computer causing the display to visibly change. She confirmed, "It looks like there are five groups converging right now."
"Hurry! Hurry!" the voice continued to urge.
"So what do we want to do?" Sailor Pluto asked the group in general.
"Isn't it obvious? We fight," Sailor Venus said.
"There's hundreds of them out there, maybe thousands," Sailor Mercury said. "We can't fight them all."
"So what? We fight for love and justice. We'll prevail, for sure," Sailor Venus said triumphantly.
"But for how long? Hours? Days? Weeks? Even if we can fight them off it's not like we can stay here forever," Sailor Mercury retorted.
"So you're saying we need to run away then?" Sailor Terra asked. She wondered if she might be able to modify the Saotome Secret Technique to work against multiple enemies who didn't understand Japanese.
"What about me! You said you'd help! They said they must never get it!" the voice persistently reminded her. It was getting confusing to Sailor Terra to try to follow the multiple concurrent conversations.
"What about that gem?" Sailor Mercury coincidentally asked. "We can't risk letting those demons get something that strong."
"We'll just need to take it with us," Sailor Pluto said.
"But it won't let us near it," Sailor Venus said, rubbing her still sore shoulder.
"Why are you waiting? Aren't you going to take it? Hurry! Before one of the mean ones try again!" the voice said again.
"I think it might let me," suggested Sailor Terra.
"You were the one who was led here for whatever reason, so I guess it's worth a try," Sailor Mercury said.
Sailor Terra slowly approached the gem. Sailor Mercury and especially Sailor Venus were far more nervous than she was as she reached out and carefully picked up the crystal. The gem flared up in power, causing the other two Sailor Senshi to preemptively wince in pain.
The gem emitted a slightly brighter glow and then disappeared. Concurrently Sailor Terra felt a glow within her. It was different than the feeling she had with Mamoru, and very different than the stark coldness of that disembodied voice. It felt comforting, like a warm blanket on a cold winter day.
When the expected thump failed to occur Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury slowly opened their eyes. They saw Sailor Terra standing with outstretched hand and confused look on her face.
"What happened?" Sailor Venus asked.
"I'm not sure. The gem kind of glowed then disappeared," Sailor Terra explained.
"It looked like you absorbed it," Sailor Pluto said.
"Isn't that kind of dangerous?" Sailor Venus asked worriedly.
Sailor Mercury looked thoughtful, and answered, "I don't think so. It might have been a lot stronger but that thing still was similar to a heart crystal. You remember how Chibi-Usa's heart crystal was consumed by Sailor Saturn, and..."
"She did what?!" shouted Sailor Terra in surprise and alarm. She had heard rumors about Sailor Saturn, but didn't think any of them were actually true. She would seriously need to reconsider ignoring the time Akane spent with Hotaru.
"She wasn't in control of herself. It's a long story," Sailor Mercury explained. "The important thing is she had a second heart crystal in her and it didn't cause any harm."
"We'd better move," Sailor Pluto interjected. "We don't have much time."
"You're right, of course," Sailor Mercury agreed. "They're almost at the gate."
Sailor Venus and Sailor Terra needed no more prompting. Sailor Terra once again led the way as they ran for the exit of the castle. As they ran Sailor Mercury checked the location of all of the enemies in her visor and gave updates as they went. It looked like a whole army had just arrived and was right at the entrance to the castle, but they might be able to just get past them if they hurried. They sprinted as fast as their high-heel shoes would let them in their magically enhanced bodies.
They were almost to the main hallway when Sailor Mercury slipped and took a bad fall. The impact with the ground didn't cause her any serious injury, but waiting for her to regain her feet slowed the group down. Critically so. So much so that by the time they reached the entrance several demons were already making their way in.
One of the larger ones pointed at the group and shouted something which Sailor Terra couldn't make out. Regardless of what it was, though, the smaller demons seemed to take notice and the dozen or so who had already entered the castle all charged at the four Sailor Senshi.
Sailor Terra refused to copy one of the powers of the other Sailor Senshi present. It was a matter of principle. Instead she simply cupped her hands in preparation and shouted, "Mouko Takabisha!"
The large blast of ki, far larger than anything she could have imagined creating while not transformed, barreled forward directly at the advancing demons, breaking their charge and forcing them to scatter.
Sailor Pluto used the opportunity of their momentary distraction to swing her Garnet Rod at the demons and whisper, "Dead Scream." From the tip of the staff a large ball of energy manifested and then flew directly at a demon, hitting it squarely in the chest and causing it to vaporize.
Sailor Mercury and Sailor Venus tried to follow Sailor Pluto's example. They missed. Both of their shots went wide of their intended targets. Sailor Venus's Crescent Beam almost managed to graze her target whereas Sailor Mercury's Shine Aqua Illusion was a complete miss. It was an indication of their odds and how much trouble they faced that both shots still managed to hit two different demons behind their intended targets despite this, vaporizing them just as effectively as Sailor Pluto's Dead Scream.
The three killed demons were replaced by a dozen more charging through the giant doors at the end of the hallway. The eight remaining demons from the first wave who had been scattered by Sailor Terra's earlier shot had also regrouped and as a cohesive mass they lunged forward again.
By this time the four Sailor Senshi had recovered enough to launch another volley of energy attacks. This time their aim was true and four more demons disappeared into piles of dust. Unfortunately this did little to break the charge of the remaining demons who continued to surge forward and engaged the four Sailor Senshi once in melee range.
Sailor Terra easily sidestepped one of the attackers and hit it with a vicious strike to the back of the head as it charged past, knocking it to the floor. From there it was quick work to dust the immobile demon.
Sailor Pluto on the other hand didn't even bother dodging and instead swung her Garnet Rod upward, catching her attacking demon square on the chin. The magically reinforced staff magnified the strength of the strike a hundredfold and the demon faded into dust.
Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury had far less luck against their respective attackers. Sailor Venus jumped back from her assailant's strike, cleanly avoiding being hurt but ceding ground without any injury to the demon. Sailor Mercury tried to do the same but was much less agile. The tear marks on her skintight uniform left from the demon's claws showed exactly how close she had come to being disemboweled.
Sailor Terra and Sailor Pluto saw what had happened and moved to join and rescue their companions. In a situation like this to be separated was to be surrounded, overwhelmed, and killed. The two demons were fully concentrated on their would-be victims and were easily dispatched by the two rescuers. Despite this the fallen demons were quickly replaced by more from the entrance, and the previous dozen demons who had entered earlier were already charging forward at them.
The four Sailor Senshi regrouped and launched another volley at the attacking demons. Their combined attack was just as effective as their previous one in that four more demons turned to dust and faded away, but as a practical matter their attack had no effect. The numbers were not only replaced but reinforced by more reinforcements from the entrance, and the reassembled mass lurched forward under the orders of one of the bigger demons.
The end result was very much the same as the previous attack, and the four Sailor Senshi found themselves even further from the exit.
"So anybody have any ideas how we're going to get out of here?" Sailor Venus asked during a pause in the fighting.
Sailor Terra thought through the castle layout more carefully and noticed something she had ignored in their mad dash earlier. Something about the throne room called out to her and demanded her attention. It was only upon careful consideration of it that she realized why. "I think there's another exit out back."
"Do you know where it is?" Sailor Mercury asked.
"I think so. It's near the throne room," Sailor Terra said. Presumably the throne room would be the final place where the leaders would stand their ground, and would be the last place to fall in an assault such as this.
"Which way is it?" Sailor Venus asked.
"The fastest way should be that way," said Sailor Terra, pointing over to a door on the side of the hallway. Unfortunately the throng of demons had gotten far enough to prevent a clear run to the doorway. Unfortunately for the demons that is. There were only three of them between the Sailor Senshi the door.
"Everybody ready?" Sailor Venus asked.
"I am," Sailor Mercury said.
"Yes," said Sailor Pluto.
"Right," agreed Sailor Terra.
"Let's go!" shouted Sailor Venus, who then shot a Crescent Beam straight at the demons.
Much like Sailor Terra's first attack, the goal of the strike wasn't to kill the demons as much as to scatter and disorient them. The beam hit the ground in the center of the three of them, knocking one off of its feet and causing the two others to leap away. The four Sailor Senshi charged forward towards the newly created opening.
Once in the hallway and safely past the demons Sailor Mercury paused briefly, turned, and summoned a Shine Aqua Illusion directly towards the ground at the doorway. This covered the ground with a thick layer of ice, which had the side effect of freezing to the ground the demon Sailor Venus had knocked over earlier. It wouldn't stop their pursuers, but it might slow them down enough to let the Sailor Senshi get away cleanly.
Sailor Terra once again took the lead as they ran through the halls of the castle, this time heading for the throne room as quickly as they could. Every so often she would turn around and look behind them, expecting to see a group of snarling demons hot on their heels. Each time she turned to check, though, she saw nothing, and besides some loud snarling and howling there was no sign of any pursuit. However this was of scant comfort. Given the number of turns they made down the corridor this only meant there were no demons a dozen or so meters directly behind them; she could see no farther than that. Despite the fact that the blocked lines of sight meant that the absence of obvious pursuit had only limited meaning, it was still a small comfort to know that they weren't in immediate danger of being overwhelmed.
Sailor Terra led the others through the castle with the same familiarity and proficiency that she might have had of the Tendo home, and they were at the throne room in what could have been record time. She ran over to one of the large drapes hanging in a back corner. Once there, much like at the unmarked corridor which hid the crystal she had obtained earlier, she hesitated in thought. She then hesitated some more and tried to figure out what she was supposed to be doing.
"This place? What are you doing here?" the still unidentified voice asked Sailor Terra, not sounding half as overpowering and loud as before.
"We couldn't get out the main way. There's supposed to be an exit here, right?" Sailor Terra asked.
"Got me. You were the one who led us here," said Sailor Venus.
"Oh, I had forgotten. Nobody's visited that part of me since forever. More forever than they've been gone forever," the voice, apparently the castle itself, said.
"How do we get out?" Sailor Terra asked, ignoring Sailor Venus.
"You do that thing, with that, and then do that," the castle declared. For some reason it sounded much happier than it had before.
As the castle spoke, in a flash the knowledge came to Sailor Terra. She pulled on one of the stones, virtually identical to all the others, and pushed the recessed door inward revealing the cleverly concealed passage. She was about to enter it when Sailor Mercury's computer gave a shrill series of beeps.
Sailor Mercury pushed a few buttons and the view on her visor shifted. She quickly saw what had caused the alarm and said, "We have a problem."
"What is it?" Sailor Venus asked.
"It looks like one of the armies is about to enter the portal back to our world. They're right next to it and are heading in its direction. I'd guess a vanguard is already through it and the main body will be there any minute," Sailor Mercury said.
"So what do we do now?" Sailor Venus asked. "There's no way we can get back there in time to close the portal, even if we could fight through hundreds of those things."
"I don't know," Sailor Mercury said.
"I might be able to make a portal back to our timeline here," Sailor Pluto said.
"What good will that do? It's not like that will stop the invasion," Sailor Terra said. She pictured hundreds, maybe thousands, of those demons flooding the streets of Tokyo, and she didn't like what she saw.
"At least we can get out. Once we're all safely on the other side we should be able to close the portal from our side," Sailor Mercury said.
"Invasion?" Sailor Terra heard the castle ask.
"It's not a simple process, and I'll need to stay here to anchor the passage on this side to create the connection to our base timeline. It's risky," Sailor Pluto said.
"There's an army out there going through some weird portal and invading our world," Sailor Terra explained to the castle.
"Yeah. It's not like we can sit here and do nothing while our world gets destroyed," Sailor Venus agreed.
"Weird portal? You mean that temporal fluctuation nearby?" the castle asked.
"Agreed," Sailor Pluto said. She held her staff in front of her and closed her eyes in concentration.
"Yes," Sailor Terra said.
"Then that's easy. Now that you took my source of power out from my core I finally get to die. When I die, I'll go boom. The energy it's going to release should destabilize all temporal phasic phenomena," the castle said, far happier than Ranma would have expected of something talking about its own death. Then again it did seem to be at least half insane, although even so she wondered what could make it so desperate as to look to suicide as a pleasant alternative to living. Maybe it was just that the strange entity had a strange set of values.
"The portal's ready, let's go," announced Sailor Pluto. Her staff was pointed at an odd hole hovering in the middle of the air. The hole was similar to but much smaller and more sharply defined than the portal which had brought them to this war-torn world.
"Wait, what? When?" Sailor Terra asked.
"I assume now, unless there's a reason to stay here. What about you, Pluto? How will you get back?" Sailor Mercury asked.
"Oh, any second now," the castle said proudly.
"Don't worry about me," Sailor Pluto said. "I can find my way back using the Gates of Time as a beacon. At least I should be able to."
"When were you planning on telling us that?" Sailor Terra all but shouted. Unlike the much more subdued and happy castle she was decidedly not happy at the castle's abrupt revelation.
"She just did. Why? Is that a problem?" Sailor Venus asked.
"Was that important?" the castle asked.
Sailor Terra shouted to the others, "We've got to hurry! This place is about to..."
It would be the last thing Sailor Terra would remember.
Last Updated: December 13, 2012