When Ami finally came to, Mamoru immediately put his phone in her hand. "First things first, call your mother and tell her you are alright. She is worried sick."
Groggily, Ami pushed the numbers on the phone, her intelligent but tired eyes slowly roving about the room and taking in her surroundings. She finally managed to focus in on the still unconscious man and quietly asked, "Is he alright?"
"Don't worry, he's fine," he said as he shielded Ami from his ecstatic girlfriend.
"She's back!" Usagi cried, jumping up and down despite Raye clutching her midriff tightly. "Ami's back from the dead!"
"I keep telling you!" the priestess growled through grit teeth. "She's not dead!"
"Not anymore!"
"Not ever! She was never dead!"
In the commotion of Raye and Mamoru keeping the excitable girls at bay and Ami calming her mother over the phone, the blond boy wearily opened his eyes, stirring slightly as the room slowly came into focus. Groaning softly, he gently touched his bruised, sore side where his wound used to be. Noticing the movement out of the corner of her eye, Ami dropped the phone and crawled over to him, leaving Mamoru to quickly retrieve his cell to finish the conversation with Dr. Mizuno.
"Serafim, are you alright?" she asked quickly, helping him to sit up, and he nodded, breath a little ragged. "Just relax; we're going to help you."
"Ami?" Makoto asked, creeping forward a bit. "Do you know this guy?"
"It's complicated…" she muttered, wetting a cloth and tending to the groggy man.
"Is he from your cram school?" Usagi guessed, and his eyes snapped in her direction, focusing instantly and locking on to her big blue eyes.
"Please, help me, Sailor Moon."
The entire room fell deadly silent, and Usagi stepped back, tightly clutching her transformation broach. "Please," he continued, seeming to take no notice in the change of state in the room. "One of the creatures that were after me today was massive. It looked human enough, but it wasn't. Aren't creatures such as these said to fear the Silver Crystal? Please, only you can save me!"
"Just what are you!" Raye asked, stepping forward and standing between him and her leader, transformation pen in hand, ready to defend her princess.
The blond shook, red eyes wide in fear. "Please, I don't want any trouble with you. I just need your help."
"How did you know who I am?" Usagi asked softly, stepping in front of Raye and kneeling before him to get at his eye level, her kindness reflected in her eyes and tone of voice.
"I just looked at you and knew," he said, voice shaking. "I can't really explain it."
"Well," she said, smiling, "what can we do to help you?"
"Usagi," Raye said quickly. "We can't just help him, he's using dark energy! Remember what just happened?"
"But he needs our help!" the blond girl shouted, eyes on fire with a stubborn sense of duty. She turned back to the man and softly asked, "How did you come to use dark energy?"
He was extremely guarded, and he quickly looked at the group of girls and tried to figure out what was going on. "I have no idea what you're talking about…"
"He has the Dark Crystal," Ami interceded, and everyone looked slowly from him to her and back again. Usagi suddenly started laughing.
"Oh Ami! You pick weird times to have a sense of humor. We destroyed the Dark Crystal when we defeated the Doom Phantom, remember?"
"It's true," Serafim said quietly. "I'm in possession of the Dark Crystal."
"That's impossible," Minako strongly asserted, but she quickly looked about the room as though she were suddenly unsure.
"But…but how!" Usagi cried. "We destroyed it!"
"Apparently not," Makoto growled, glaring at the man. "The Silver Crystal reacting, the dark energy, what happened here today…the Dark Crystal can explain that."
"But how do you know you have it?" Usagi asked, growing a bit desperate. "Have you seen it? Do you use it?"
The man shook his head. "I've never used it, and I've never actually seen it, but I do know I have something called the Dark Crystal inside me."
Raye scoffed at this. "You can't say you know you have it if you've never even seen it."
"I don't need to see you transform to know you're Sailor Mars," he snidely remarked, and she glared at him, nearly angrily retorting when Usagi cut her off.
"What are you doing with such a terrible thing!" she asked loudly. "It's very dangerous!"
"I didn't choose to have such a thing."
"Well, what happened?" Minako asked, and he sighed, crossing his arms.
"I was out camping in the woods one night so I could get away from the city and study in peace. I looked up and saw a huge, bright light in the sky that only stayed for a few seconds. Right after it disappeared, right in that spot, I saw a bright point of light." He paused, putting his hand to his chest. "I saw it getting bigger, and too late, I realized it was coming right toward me." He unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt and exposed his chest, revealing a large, deep scar that spidered out across his skin like a windshield broken by a bullet. "It struck me, right here, and I heard a voice speak to me in a language I couldn't understand. Ever since, I've been having blackouts where I have strange visions and memories that aren't mine, and I've been chased nonstop by strange people."
"How long ago did this begin?" Minako questioned.
"About three years ago."
The senshi looked at each other, and Ami quietly said, "That coincides with our battle with the people of Nemesis.
"And after he passed out," Raye added, "I saw a bright light in him. I still don't know what it is, but it could be the Dark Crystal. I saw it in Usagi and Ami too, so I thought it could just be a heart crystal or something."
"And you didn't see anything in Makoto or me?" Minako cried indignantly. "I keep telling you, I have a pure heart! You saw it!"
Raye huffed. I wasn't looking in your direction, you narcissist! You guys were behind me, I wasn't exactly looking around. And I only saw it for a second."
"It's got to be a heart crystal," Usagi said confidently, crossing her arms and nodding. "Ami doesn't have a crystal." Looking about the room, suddenly much more unsure, she asked, "Does she?"
Ami suddenly looked very uncomfortable, and the red eyes of the newcomer settled on her, sympathetic and hurt by the knowledge that she was in pain. "It is possible," Ami said softly, trembling slightly, "that I may have the Dark Crystal too."
"No," Usagi said petulantly, shaking her head. "No, that's not possible. There can't be two Dark Crystals."
"Unless it's in pieces," Makoto offered, but Raye glared at her.
"In pieces or not, Ami doesn't have it. She doesn't use dark energy, and she isn't evil."
"What if she has a different crystal completely?" Minako offered, and the girls erupted into a cadence of agreement.
"I think," Mamoru finally said, "That we're doing a lot of unfounded speculation. Why don't we take a look at what we know for certain?"
There was silence for just a minute, and then the blond man meekly said, "I know there is at least one group that is after me."
"And we know it is because he's in possession of the Dark Crystal, or something very much like it," Ami said quickly. "Though we do not know the reasons they are after it."
"We know that his crystal causes the Silver Crystal to react," Makoto added.
"Ami, Usagi and Serafim all have bright lights in them that may be heart crystals, or may be something else," Raye said, tapping her foot.
The room was silent again for a minute, and when nobody else said anything, Ami crossed her arms, the information quickly piecing together in her mind. "Taking all this into consideration, we have a few important questions that need to be addressed: Who is after the Dark Crystal, and why are they after it? I think we can agree that these are the most important thing to answer."
"But we also must know what the lights Raye saw were," Makoto added quickly. "Because if it is the Dark Crystal like Ami speculated, then we need to know what to do about that."
"And if it is the Dark Crystal in them, how do we get them out?" Minako asked, and the girls muttered their agreement.
"I agree that we need to figure out that too," Mamoru said, "but I think Ami's right in that the enemy is most important. I also think that by finding out about them, we will learn about the rest."
Ami nodded. "I think that's the best course of action. Serafim, can you tell us about who is chasing you?"
"I can't say much because I really don't know anything," he sighed, looking at the ground. "But they said something about a kingdom on the moon and exiles on a dark planet."
Usagi gasped, laying her hands over the Silver Crystal contained in her broach reflexively. "Nemesis? They shouldn't be here! Are they attacking again?"
"I thought the Moon Kingdom was destroyed by Beryl," Minako said, and there was a cadence of agreement from the other girls.
"So the Dark Moon Clan are going after the Dark Crystal!" Usagi cried, and the other girls all began talking, some with agreement and worry and others with disagreement.
"Or," Ami said softly, and the girls instantly quieted down. "Or it's the Moon Kingdom that's after him." The girls were extremely quiet, and after a moment, Mamoru gently cleared his throat.
"We've been told that the Moon Kingdom was destroyed. The Silver Millennium is over."
"Yes," the blue haired girl nodded. "But let's say it wasn't. Let's assume for a moment that when Queen Serenity used the Silver Crystal to revive us and seal the Dark Kingdom away that the attack ended. The royal family died, but I think it's reasonable to assume that the entire population wasn't killed. In that sense, the Moon Kingdom wasn't entirely destroyed, just crippled."
"So…" Usagi said slowly. "The Moon Kingdom is still there?"
"I don't know, but for the moment, I think it's a possibility we have to consider."
"But why would they be after the Dark Crystal?' Makoto asked, and Ami crossed her arms.
"I have a theory, and this is all just speculation, so let's take this with a grain of salt. I think both Nemesis and the Moon Kingdom are involved in this. Without the Silver Crystal, the Moon Kingdom is greatly weakened, so we have to assume the same is true for Nemesis and the Dark Crystal."
"Alright," Mamoru said, nodding slowly. "I'm with you."
"If the Dark Crystal is anything like the Silver Crystal," Ami continued, "then we can assume that Nemian possession of it will be the end of the Moon Kingdom. If a Black Moon Clan really does exist in this time, and they really are after the Dark Crystal, then it stands to reason that the Moon Kingdom will be after Serafim too, not to possess it, but to destroy it to prevent the retrieval of such a weapon by their enemies."
The blond man shuddered, and the girls paled slightly. "So if this is the case," Raye asked softly, "what are we going to do with him?"
"That," Ami said somberly, "is what we need to figure out."