Ok I lied. The final battle doesn't start in this chapter either. I didn't want to rush into it! Can you blame me for wanting to keep my wonderful story going? I'm sorry. But I guess I won't change the title of this chapter. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy, R&R, and I'll see you next week.
~SXS
Oparu's Trap; The Final Battle Commences
Oparu led us down a series of hallways and corridors. Seiya and I could brely keep up. She was fast and it seemed that she knew where she was going. She didn't tell us where it was or how long it would be. The silence was eerie.
"Oparu-san," I said. "How did you get trapped here and why, if you don't mind my asking."
She hesitated for a moment. "Well, it is sort of complicated." A pause. "A few years back Nenkaningen came to our kingdom and overthrew our leader. That is how he began to gain power. But my, uh, father, the leader of our nation, he made a deal with Nenkaningen. He said that he would loyally follow him if he let our people go. Nenkaningen agreed and our people were free except my father and our family, including myself.
"Then one day, my father decided that he wanted to escape. He fought Nenkaningen to the finish but unfortunately lost his life in the process. Nenkaningen sent us to the dungeon and we've been there ever since. Me, my brother, and my mother, who is also dead."
"Oh, that's a terrible story," I said.
"I don't feel it as much as I did i nthe beginning..." she trailed off. Then she was silent again. I looked to Seiya who shared my apprehensive look. He took my hand and I felt a little better.
After a while we came to a corner. Oparu stopped us and peeked her head around. "The room is just over there but there are guards. We'll never make it past them."
"Maybe I can stun them with my new powers," I suggested.
"No!" she suddenly said. "I mean, they're pretty tough. I've had some experience with them myself." That worried me so I decided I would let her handle it. "The only way to get by is to use this." She held up a Koyomi. "I stole this from the one who feeds me without his knowing." She opened it and a big purple blob came out and jiggled on the floor. "Monomane, impersonate those guards and lead them away from the door."
The gooey creature slunk to the corner and suddenly reformed into a guard. If you didn't know any better, you would think it was the real thing. The fake guard then went around the bend and a few seconds later, three guards were running down the hall in the opposite direction. We pressed ourselves against the wall as they went by.
Oparu peeked her head around once again. Then she signaled us to follow. She pulled the large stone door open and ran into the dark room. Seiya and I followed more cautiously. We took a few steps but the darkness was unbroken and we stopped.
"Oparu, where are you?" Seiya asked.
"I'm here with my leader, you fools." Someone clapped twice and the lights came on. Suddenly, my feet were swept from under me and I cried out. Mine and Seiya's ankles were tied together and we were hanging upside-down. The floor beneath us opened and a pit of boiling lava was revealed.
"You tricked us!" I cried.
"Pahahaha!!" Oparu laughed. "You actually believed my story too, which is quite hilarious. I made it up off the top of my head!" She was sitting on a small throne next to a larger one where the same shadowy person from the Time Gates was sitting. On his other side, an older boy was sitting. He had emreald green eyes and wore a green polo sweater and bright green pants. He had a green crew cut.
"Finally, I have captured the leader of the Sailor senshi. And even her little boyfriend," Nenkaningen chuckled. "Excellent work, Oparu. You greatly surpass the talents of my other servants."
"Thank you, Nenkaningen-sama," she said and bowed her head.
"Don't get too cheery," Seiya said. "Star Serious-" A flash of green circled around us and then flew back to the throne. Our bodies had been bound with chains. "What?!"
"I am Gogatsu," the green themed boy said. "And I was born with the gift of super speed. That was just one example of my awesome powers."
"You and your sister are to be commended," Nenkaningen said. "You shall now rule beside me in my new era!" He laughed evilly. "Come, the two of you. We must continue our destruction of Crystal Tokyo. I just wanted to make sure everyone was nice and secure beofre we left."
"Yes, Nenkaningen-sama," the two said and they all disappeared into a black portal.
"Well, isn't this dandy?" Seiya grunted.
"What will we do?" I asked.
"For now, there's nothing we can do..."
I was afraid of that. The tears started coming again. The room was silent except for the sound of my crying.
--
The soundproof cell holding the three prisoners was exploding in screams and shouts on the inside. Unfortunately, none of their voices could penetrate and reach the two trapped senshi in the center of the room. Lightheaded and out of breath, the three who were trapped sat on the ground and rested for a moment.
"It's no use," Setsuna said. "We'll be trapped here forever. They can't hear us. This is a disaster."
"Why is Nenkaningen doing this anyway?" Kakyuu asked.
Setsuna sighed. "I guess I might as well tell you." She cleared her throat. "It all started in the Silver Millenium."
"I'm sorry. Silver Millenium?"
"Oh, yes. You don't know about it, do you, Kakyuu? Two thousand years ago, all the planets in the universe were inhabited. Now only a few are; Earth, Kinmoku-sei, and a few others. Most of the planets were wiped out by the evil force of Metallia. The moon was included in that, and that is where we all were on the day of its destruction. Queen Serenity, queen of the moon, trapped us all, including Metallia and her minions, in the Silver Crystal. She couldn't destroy it because then we would all die too. So she sent us all to the future on Earth and here we are. Luna and Artemis were preserved in time capsules in case they needed to reawaken the senshi.
"But you story comes before the last days of the moon. The Moon Kingdom was considered the center of the universe. There used to be councils with all the leaders of other planets and stars. You, Kakyuu, were one of those leader. You were alive in the Silver Millenium and were princess of Kinmoku-sei, as you are now."
"I was alive then?"
"Yes, and you were at one of those councils when you met Prince Endymion."
"Me?" Mamoru now turned his head away from the glass wall holding them in.
Setsuna nodded. "Your memories of the past are limited, Mamoru-kun."
"Why does he know of the past but I don't?" Kakyuu asked.
"You were there on the last day of the moon. You and the queen were quite close and she invited you to the ball. When the moon was destroyed, she sent you back to your planet to be reborn. You never gained back your memories because you never needed to. The senshi did because they were fighting Metallia again."
"Ahh, I see."
"So, Mamoru, or Endymion, was prince of Earth during the time. The two of you met at a council and soon after fell in love. Endymion was now first in line for the kingship of Earth."
"There were others?" Mamoru asked.
"Your brother...Nenkaningen." Kakyuu and Mamoru gasped. "At first he was very happy for the two of you. But people began to pay more attention to the happy couple than to him. He grew reclusive because of this.
"But this was when you were both young. In fact, you were both 16 if I'm correct. You were very much in love though, but the distance between your planets sometimes made it hard for the two of you. Both of you started to look elsewhere, even though you still cared for each other deeply. Neither of you were satisfied by anyone else. That is, until Endymion met Serenity.
"He had met Serenity many times but him being older she seemed too young before. He felt sort of like a father to her. But as she matured, he grew to feel more for her. Eventually, he fell for her and asked her to be his wife. She agreed. She felt it was a good decision because it would ally two great civilizations and he was a very charming prince.
"Endymion didn't want to tell his family right away about the change though. He didn't want them to think he was fickle or disloyal. Unfortunately, he never did get the chance to tell them or to tell Kakyuu it was over.
"After Metallia had wreaked her havoc on the Earth and moon and was trapped and sent to the future, the survivors on Earth started to rebuild their civilization. Nenkaningen, knowing his brother had perished, tried to take over as king. However, the people shunned him. They wanted a new type of government with their fresh start. I'm not sure what happened to him after that, but he seemed to drop off the Earth."
Kakyuu and Mamoru were speechless. No one said anything for a while. Then Mamoru spoke. "I never knew any of that. Why didn't you tell us before?"
"I had to do some research," Setsuna replied. "I didn't know until after they first attacked. And once I did learn, I was kidnapped."
"So he wants revenge on us for ruining his life. And he didn't know of Serenity because Endymion never told the family. He thought I was still the one," Kakyuu sorted her thoughts outloud.
"Exactly."
Again there was silence. Kakyuu sat with her head bowed and thought. If only there was something we could do... Then something occured to her that she hadn't thought of before. She felt in the special pocket on her dress and her heart jumped.
"YES!" she cried. She yanked out the object. It was a henshin tool that looked like the Starlights' only it was golden orange and red. "My henshin tool! They didn't take it!"
"You're a senshi?" Setsuna and Mamoru asked in shock.
"Merely for emergency purposes. But usually I don't have to worry beucase I have the Starlights. I tend to forget I even have this with me. No one would suspect a princess like me to be a senshi so they didn't even check. We have a chance!" She stood and called out her transformation phrase. "Kakyuu Star Power, Make up!!"
Orange and red ribbons of light surrounded the princess and she became Sailor Kakyuu. Her fuku was two pieces like the Starlights. The top was the same as a Starlight fuku only in red. The bottom was a leaf-like skirt made of red translucent silk. Her shoes were also red and curled at the toe. She still wore her headpiece but now had a Starlight tiara. In place of a chocker, she had a blue bow that tied around her neck.
"Sugoi!" Setsuna said. "But let's not jump into the heat of battle just yet. I think first we should come up with a plan."
--
While waiting for Seiya and Sailor Moon to return, Ami tried continuously to wake up her friends but with no results. She could only hope that they didn't take too much longer.
"I'd be out of here in two seconds if it wasn't forthe fact that I can't use my powers." Suddenly, she heard a scream. "Usagi-chan!" Ami started to struggle with the chains holding her to the wall. She didn't care if she fell into the water if she could save her friends. Pulling with all her might she cried out, "Hang on Usagi-chan! I won't let you down."
Ten minutes passed and Ami was feeling very weak. She thought that maybe the chains would have been old, judging by the look of the room's age, but they were as strong as if they were brand new.
"Or maybe I'm just weak," she whispered. "My attacks aren't even that useful. I don't deserve to protect the princess." Tears started to stream down her cheeks and her sobs echoed through the lifeless dungeon.
At first she didn't notice, but one of her tears never fell once it rolled off her face. It floated in front of her and changed into a blue crystal. The light of the crystal made Ami look up and open her watery eyes. "Nani..." A glass bubble formed around the crystal. A slim blue handle extended from the bottom of the bubble and rounded at the bottom. On top of the bubble, a blue heart formed with the sign of Mercury shining on it in gold.
"What is this?" Ami asked herself. The newly formed wand floated up to her trapped hand and she gripped it. A new henshin phrase formed in her mouth. "MERCURY ETERNAL, MAKE UP!!" Blue lights surrounded her and she became Eternal Sailor Mercury. Her new fuku was like Eternal Sailor Moon's but with Mercury's blue theme.
"What an upgrade...But you should never forget the classics. Shabbon Spray Freezing!" Mercury twisted her hands around and gripped the chains which froze over from her attack. She then pulled at them and the shattered. However, she forgot that she was about to fall into a pool of water and who knows what else. Without thinking she called out, "Freeze!!" and faced her plams to the water below.
Bracing herself for a splash and holding her breath, she plopped onto a bed of ice. She looked underneath herself and felt the thick sheet that was now covering the water. "Did I do this? These new powers must be very strong."
"Mercury?" a voice from above said.
"Taiki-san!"
"What are you doing down there?" the aubern-haired light asked.
"No time to explain. I've got to free you. Shabbon Spray Freezing!!" She shot an attack at Taiki's chains and he yanked them and fell to the ice below. Mercury went over to him to help him up. "Are you ok?"
"Yes, thank you." They remained hand in hand for a moment. Then realizing, they both blushed and dropped their hands to turn away from each other slightly. "A-Anyway, what happened to your fuku?"
"I guess I upgraded. I was crying and one of my tears became a wand and I transformed. That's how I escpaed. Seiya-kun and Usagi-chan are in trouble! This strange girl led them away from here and I heard Usagi-chan scream just now. What should we do?"
"I'm not sure. We can escape, but to fight Nenkaningen will be a difficult task alone. How can we wake everyone else?" Taiki put a hand to his chin and looked up at the remaining senshi who were still trapped and unconcious.
"Well, you can start by freeing me," a new voice called from above.
"Mako-chan!" Mercury said. She proceeded to use the same freezing process to free her friend.
"Now there's three of us but only one senshi...what to do?"
"Usagi-chan is in trouble, Mako-chan," Mercury said.
"Well let's go save her! Jupiter Crystal Power, Make up!!" But nothing happened. "What the hell! They took my henshin tool! If I get my hands on that freak I'll kill him!!"
"I don't think there's anything we can do right now. Perhaps if we had everyone we would have a fighting chance, even without powers. But the way it's looking I think it's best we stay here and free our friends as they wake up," Taiki suggested. Mercury and Makoto weren't entirely too happy with this plan but there really wasn't any choice at the present moment. They sat on the ice and waited.
--
The Crystal Palace was peaceful and serene. All the people in the kingdom were happy. Nothing could ever go wrong, or so they thought. Soon, the nation would become a battlefield.
Next chapter is definitely going to be the conclusion of the battle. Not the conclusion of the story, just the battle. So here's the preview:
After time, all the other trapped senshi woke up and Mercury saved them. But now that they were all together, what would they do? And what are Kakyuu, Mamoru, and Setsuna planning? Will anything ever look ok for Sailor Cosmic Moon again? Will the entirety of Crystal Tokyo be destroyed in battle? All these questions answered and more in chapter 10 Thirteen Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen Against The Power of the Talisman. Read it next week and always remember, destiny is not written in stone.