Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, nor do I own the works of H.P. Lovecraft or Robert W. Chambers.

Chapter 7: Gerard Prescott's Last Case

Keisuke suddenly found himself sitting at the polished dining room table of a spacious penthouse apartment with a large window overlooking the city. He felt as if he had just woken up from a dream, and tried as he did he could not remember anything from it. Whatever it was though he had forgotten, Keisuke felt like it was important.

As Keisuke struggled to remember his dream, if it was a dream, an attractive young woman with pale skin and long wavy blonde hair came up from behind and kissed him on the cheek. "Good morning, darling. Did you sleep well?"

Keisuke blinked as he watched the woman sit down across from him at the table. "Um, I think so."

"Good," the blonde responded. "I really do wish you would stop working all of these late nights at the office. I know how important your job is to you, but you need to take care of yourself."

Keisuke tried to remember who this young woman was and it at last came to him in a flash. The woman was his fiancé, Quinella Robins. They had been going out together for at least a year, and their engagement was announced two months ago.

"Perhaps you should speak to your father about taking some time off," Quinella suggested. "I'm sure he feels as I do about how you've been overworking yourself."

In that instant another detail of Keisuke's life that he had somehow forgotten had clicked into place. Keisuke worked for his father's company as a vice president, one of the company's youngest vice presidents in its history. This detail somehow felt wrong to Keisuke however. As he recalled, he and his father rarely got along. In fact one of the things they clashed over was whether or not Keisuke should go into the family business, and yet he was now a top executive at his father's company.

A dark-haired maid came in from the kitchenette carrying two plates of pancakes. She placed one plate in front of Quinella and another in front of Keisuke. Keisuke couldn't help but notice that the maid's face seemed indistinguishable somehow, as though it were the face of a featureless department store mannequin.

"Well darling?" Quinella asked as the maid left. "What do you think?"

Keisuke shook his head and focused on cutting into his breakfast. "Quinella, you know my work is very busy right now. The company is at a critical time and there are certain matters that need my personal attention."

"Don't you have assistants you can delegate some of those matters to?"

"They're still too green. Besides, this is also about my image. There are many who think I'm too young for my role as vice president, that it was handed to me simply because of who my father is. I have to show everyone that I'm capable of filling my position."

Quinella sighed and leaned back in her chair. "I suppose you have a point. Still, I don't want my fiancé to end up in the hospital from overwork, especially with our wedding just two weeks away."

"All the more reason for me to get done as much work as I can. I'm sure you don't want any paperwork to interfere with our big day."

"Very true," Quinella responded with a smirk. She pushed her plate aside with her breakfast mostly uneaten. "Well, I should be off. Your mother and I have to meet with the caterer for the reception. Oh! And we still need to finish deciding on the seating chart."

Keisuke rolled his eyes. "No offense, but it seems like planning this wedding is far more work than running the company."

Quinella came over and kissed Keisuke again on the cheek. "It will be well worth it in the end, darling. Ta."

As Quinella left, Keisuke turned his attention back to his breakfast and paused. He felt that something about his life was wrong. He also couldn't shake the feeling that he was forgetting something very important.

Jupiter and Nephrite at last returned to the base and transformed back into their civilian identities. Once inside, Makoto and Nao found the others in the sitting room. Yoko was on the couch with her feet resting on the coffee table and one arm resting on the couch's back. The tattooed tomboy's other arm was wrapped around Hotaru, who was cuddled up next to Yoko. Erica was sitting in a chair and sipping a cup of tea.

Nao looked around the room. "Where's the cop?"

"For the moment she's resting in one of the spare rooms," Erica answered. "I don't imagine she'll wake up until morning."

Makoto put her hands on her hips. "Okay Yoko. It's about time you filled us all in on what's going on. How is it you know that freak who works for Hastur?"

"If you'll both have a seat, I'll tell you everything," Yoko responded.

Makoto and Nao shared a look before finally sitting down in two of the chairs. All eyes in the room were intently on Yoko.

"This all happened at the end of my previous lifetime here on Earth," Yoko began. "Back then I lived right here in London, and worked as a detective for Scotland Yard…"

The time was the spring of 1901. The place, London. Back then the incarnation of Khepri was a young inspector for Scotland Yard by the name of Gerard Prescott. Gerard had awakened as the Egyptian God in the summer of his eighteenth year when he and his parents had traveled out to the country. On the way to their vacation home, the carriage Gerard and his family were riding in was attacked by a gang of highwaymen. The bandits shot both of Gerard's parents, robbed them and the carriage of everything they thought they could sell, and threw Gerard into the river after tying him up.

As he was on the verge of drowning, the memories from all of Gerard's previous lives flooded back to him and his powers returned, allowing him to break free of his bonds and escape the river. As Khepri, Gerard tracked down the bandits responsible for his parents' murder and brought them to justice by turning them into the proper authorities. Afterwards Gerard decided to dedicate the remainder of his life to the cause of justice and joined Scotland Yard as a policeman, rising to the rank of inspector at the age of twenty-six. For Gerard, his duty as an officer was all he had. After all, his beloved Saturn would be forever out of his reach.

It was a sunny spring day as Gerard's carriage took him down the brick streets of London. His destination was the home of William Marbury the Third, a rather prominent member of the city's elite. Gerard's business with the aristocrat was a very peculiar case of grave robbing. During the previous night, someone had broken into the Marbury Family Mausoleum and stole the body of William's recently deceased daughter, Patricia. The way Gerard saw it, his first step was to question William Marbury and determine whether or not this act of corpse snatching was some twisted act of revenge.

The carriage pulled up in front of a white three-story mansion at the end of the street. Moments later when Gerard rapped at the green front door using the ornate brass door knocker, he was greeted by an old butler with tufts of white hair growing out of his ears. The aging butler escorted Gerard to the sitting room of the mansion. Sitting in one of the chairs and smoking a cigar was a well-dressed and somewhat portly man with greying hair and a handlebar mustache. Gerard deduced that this could be none other than William Marbury the Third.

"Inspector Prescott of Scotland Yard to see you, sir," the butler announced to William in his wizened voice.

William thanked the butler and dismissed him with a wave before turning to Gerard. "So, you're the one they sent to look into the desecration of my daughter's grave, eh?"

Gerard removed his bowler hat and bowed. "Inspector Gerard Prescott at your service, sir."

"A bit young, aren't you?"

"I may be young, but I am quite experienced, sir."

"Ah well. Have a seat, won't you?"

Gerard nodded and sat down in the red chair across from William. He set his hat on the table and pulled out a pad and pencil to take notes.

"Now I trust you people at the Yard are doing your best to keep this business out of the papers," William continued. "The last thing I want is what happened to my daughter's grave to become the subject of gossip."

"Rest assured we are handling the matter with the utmost discretion," Gerard told him.

William removed his cigar from his mouth and paused. "Are you sure you're qualified for this young man? I don't want your inexperience to bungle this business."

"Again sir, I assure you I am quite qualified," Gerard told him. It was starting to become harder for him to maintain his professional attitude. "Now then, the first thing I must ask is if you know of any enemies you might have who could've committed this…this robbery as an act of revenge."

"Well I do have enemies of course, but none who would commit revenge in such an obscene manner."

"What of your late daughter? Did she have any enemies who might be capable of such an act of depravity?"

"Enemies? No! Everyone loved Patricia. She had no shortage of admirers, especially among this city's young bachelors. In fact…well, no. It's absurd."

Gerard leaned forward a bit. "Go on, sir. Any information you provide could turn out to be an important clue in the investigation."

"Well, Patricia did have one admirer who was a little…peculiar. His name is Mortimer Wyld. He's the second son of Dr. Johnathan Wyld, perhaps you know him."

"I know of him at least, sir," Gerard responded as he wrote the name down in his notepad. "He's a rather skilled surgeon and the current head of London's general hospital."

William nodded. "He has three sons, wants every one of them to go into the family business. His oldest son is doing quite well in the field, but Mortimer…from what I've heard he's struggling getting into his father's profession."

"He does not possess the proper aptitude I take it?"

"Well he's smart enough, clever as a whip that lad. But from what I've heard from the boy's father, Mortimer's always been a bit…squeamish. Personally I can't blame the lad. It's a hard business cutting into a person's flesh and manipulating their organs. I certainly wouldn't have the constitution for it, and from what I gathered neither did Mortimer."

Gerard nodded and continued writing notes. "And you say young Mr. Wyld was fond of your daughter?"

"Oh yes. They were childhood friends, you see. My family and the Wylds actually go back a ways. Mortimer was always rather shy. Kind but as timid as a field mouse. As he got older I could see his attraction to Patricia."

"I take it you disapproved?"

William tapped his cigar to the glass ashtray on the table by his chair. "Well, to be perfectly blunt, yes. Fortunately for me, Mortimer's feelings towards my daughter were one-sided. Patricia saw Mortimer as nothing more than a friend. Now you young man, I'm certain my daughter would have fancied you. If I may be so bold sir, you seem to be quite the ladies man."

Gerard couldn't help but smirk at this comment. Many of the young women he encountered both while on duty and off complimented his blonde hair and chiseled good looks, and they often said how his golden eyes gave him an heir of mystery. Of course Gerard always turned down their advances. There was only one woman he could ever love, and she was bound from him by the stars.

"I thank you for the compliment sir, but I am married to my work," Gerard told him. "Now what more can you tell me about Mortimer Wyld?"

"Well…recently Mortimer's affections for my daughter took a rather unhealthy turn it seemed," William answered. "She'd tell she'd see him following her at a distance while out in public, and one night Patricia ran into my room to tell me she saw Mortimer standing out on the street and looking up into her room. Naturally I felt I had to take matters into my own hands. I sat down with the lad's father and had a firm talk with him. Dr. Wyld assured me he'd have a word with Mortimer, and that was the end of the matter."

Gerard nodded and wrote more notes in his pad. "Now sir, am I correct in assuming that this all happened shortly before your daughter died?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. Wait a moment inspector, you're not assuming young Mortimer robbed my daughter's grave, are you?"

"I'm not assuming anything sir, just getting the facts. Now, how exactly did your daughter die?"

At this question William began to tear up. "She…contracted some sort of illness the doctor's couldn't identify or cure. In a matter of days my Patricia simply wasted away from a vibrant young girl to a…a pale shadow of a thing. One of the worst parts was how she'd cried out in her sleep. She kept saying how something was trying to take her away to some place. Carcosa I think she called it. There were mentions of black stars and a castle that towered behind the moon. Fever dreams, nothing more."

Gerard nodded. "Now sir, did Mortimer Wyld send your daughter any gifts before her death?"

"Well no, but…now that you mention it inspector, my daughter did receive a gift from a secret admirer shortly before she took ill. It was a strange brooch, never seen anything quite like it before."

"Do you still have this brooch sir?"

William nodded. "It's still in Patricia's room. I assume you want to see it."

"If possible, sir."

"I'll go fetch it. Give me a moment."

Gerard sat and reviewed his notes from the interview so far as William got up and left the room. There was no doubt in the investigator's mind that Mortimer Wyld was somehow connected to at least the desecration of Patricia Marbury's tomb. A few moments later William returned and placed something wrapped in a white handkerchief on the table before Gerard. Gerard unwrapped the item to discover it was a brooch made of an odd black stone. The brooch bore a strange yellow glyph unlike anything the investigator had seen before.

"Patricia was rather taken with the thing because of its peculiarity," William spoke. "It was shortly after she had gotten the brooch though that Patricia first took ill."

Gerard prodded the brooch with his pencil. "Mr. Marbury, might it be all right if I take this with me?"

William shrugged. "I suppose so. Not sure how it will help you in your investigation though."

"It might sir, as I'm fairly certain your daughter may have been murdered."

William was so shocked that his cigar dropped from his mouth into his lap. "Good lord! Murder you say?" He shook his head. "Young man, I assure you my daughter's death was quite natural."

"There are many forms of murder that can be disguised as natural death, Mr. Marbury. For instance the symptoms caused by certain forms of slow-acting poison aren't unlike the symptoms caused by most diseases. As preposterous as it may sound, you may have just handed me the murder weapon."

"And…you believe young Mortimer to be the murderer?"

"And perhaps the robber of your daughter's grave as well, but it is too soon to say for certain at this juncture of the investigation." Gerard rose from his chair. "I will be in touch with you, Mr. Marbury. Thank you for your time."

"…The moment Artemis mentioned those dead women having received those brooches back at the Japan base, I knew what's happening in London now was somehow connected to what happened back then," Yoko continued. "I didn't know back then that the mark on the brooch was called the Yellow Sign, or that it had anything to do with Hastur."

"Hold on," Nao interrupted. "You were a guy?"

Yoko let out a heavy sigh. "Unlike all of you, whenever I reincarnate I also change form. Now can we please stay on topic?"

"Forgive the further interruption milord, but I do have one observation to make," Erica spoke, raising her hand. "The police officer we mentioned. According to her identification, her name is Constance Marbury."

"Oh yeah! And Patchwork kept calling her Patricia," Makoto recalled.

Yoko nodded. "I saw a portrait of Old Man Marbury's daughter hanging in his house when I interviewed him. Officer Constance is a dead ringer for her."

"Maybe she's a relative," Hotaru assumed.

"Has to be. But the fact she looks so much like her ancestor has to be why Wyld was going after her tonight, which is why I thought we should bring her here."

"A wise precaution, milord," Erica praised. "Please continue."

Yoko nodded. "After I found out about Wyld's relationship to Patricia I decided to track him down. Unfortunately I didn't have much luck at first…"

Five days had gone by since the interview with William Marbury, and during that time Gerard's investigation had gone practically nowhere. Naturally his first move had been to bring in Mortimer Wyld for questioning, but he soon discovered that the young medical student had gone missing. In fact Gerard had found out Mortimer had been expelled from the medical university and by extension had been removed from the dorms. When Gerard asked why Mortimer had been expelled, the explanation the university gave him shocked him deeply. One night one of the professors had walked into the university morgue and found Mortimer sewing the head of a male cadaver onto the body of a dead dog.

Gerard immediately went to the task of questioning Mortimer's professors and fellow students, particularly his roommate at the dorms. According to the roommate, Mortimer's studies had been suffering due to his earlier mentioned squeamishness. Mortimer's attitude had apparently changed though after he had read a certain book he had found in a dusty corner of an old bookstore they checked out together one weekend. The roommate claimed not to remember the title of the book, but said that after Mortimer had read it his attitude towards his anatomy classes had changed.

Mortimer apparently came to see the inner workings of the human and animal forms as works of art. The professors had thought this change in Mortimer's attitude to be a positive one, until he started going on about how he could use those forms as raw materials to create works of art even greater than what God had made. Apparently Mortimer saw himself as a sort of sculptor that worked with flesh instead of stone. No one took Mortimer seriously until the night they found him in the morgue working on his first masterpiece. The next morning Mortimer had been expelled and thrown out on the street.

This information had at least confirmed many of Gerard's suspicions about Mortimer, but it didn't get him any closer to finding the deranged former med student. The next place Gerard's search took him was the Wyld family home, but of course Mortimer was not there either. In fact Dr. Wyld made it clear he had disowned his middle son and wanted nothing more to do with him. None of this surprised Gerard though. He didn't expect Mortimer to be hiding out in his family home, but a good investigator always checks out even the least likely possibilities to make sure they can be dismissed completely.

Mortimer was in hiding. Meanwhile during the five days that had gone by, the bodies of two more young women had been snatched from their graves. The families of both young women were in the same social circle as the Marbury and Wyld families. Gerard immediately looked into the circumstances behind the deaths of both women and discovered they had both died from the same wasting illness that had claimed the life of Patricia Marbury. Both young women even had the same fevered nightmares, calling out things like black stars and some unknown place called Carcosa.

When Gerard asked if both young women knew Mortimer Wyld, the families confirmed the deranged young man was indeed an acquaintance of them both, and he had begun stalking them shortly before they took ill. The two ladies also shared one other thing in common. They had both received brooches from a secret admirer shortly before the unknown disease claimed them. Gerard was able to get those brooches from both families. As he had expected, they were identical to the one Patricia Marbury had received. Given all the facts Gerard had been able to find, there was no question that Mortimer Wyld was both the killer of these poor young women and the robber of their graves.

There was also no doubt in Gerard's mind the brooches were the instruments used to commit the murders, though just how he could not determine. He had his theories though. Thanks to his previous lives in the earliest days of Ancient Egypt and his former home world of Saturn, Gerard had scientific knowledge beyond the knowledge currently possessed by the humans of his current era. One of Gerard's theories was the brooches were made of a stone which emitted radiation toxic to humans, but he decided to dismiss this theory due to him suffering no ill effects from the brooches after having them on his person almost constantly.

Gerard also knew from his past lives the brooches could be magical charms imbued with curses designed specifically for the people they were sent to. Unfortunately there was no way for Gerard to prove any of his theories with the resources he had available to him. Yet he was certain of one thing. Mortimer Wyld was a dangerous individual with access to incredibly dark powers. Gerard was fairly certain that he would not be able to bring Mortimer to justice as an officer of Scotland Yard, but instead would have to dispose of him as one of the lost Gods of Egypt.

The hour was close to midnight as Gerard sat in his office going over the facts of the case for what seemed like the ten-thousandth time. He had been reviewing every detail again and again thinking he might've missed some clue to Mortimer's current whereabouts, but Gerard was forced to come to the conclusion that he had missed nothing. The case had hit a dead end. Gerard was about to go home for the night when he was brought an unexpected visitor by the officer who had been at the front desk. The person had been Mortimer's roommate at the dorms, Geoffrey Kingston.

Gerard had questioned Geoffrey very thoroughly and found him to be a very bright and detail-oriented young man. The young medical student had also been very cooperative and eager to help in the investigation. In Gerard's experience as an investigator, witnesses and interested parties such as Geoffrey were rare gems in any investigation.

"I apologize for calling on you so late, Inspector," Geoffrey spoke. "You told me to inform you if I recalled any detail about Mortimer that could help you apprehend him, and I recalled something about half an hour ago I thought you should know immediately."

"It's perfectly fine," Gerard responded as he sat back down behind his desk. "Finding Mortimer Wyld is far more important than my own personal comfort. Please, have a seat."

Geoffrey nodded and sat down in the chair in front of Gerard's desk. "This is something which happened about a week or so before Mortimer…committed the act that got him expelled. We had a week off and some fellow students of ours invited the two of us on a little trip out of the city. The father of our friend, William Stewart, was holding a little party at his country house. Anyway, on the way back William had the carriage stop briefly at an old hillside cemetery just a few miles outside of the city. There's no formal name for the place, but according to William the older folks call it Serenity Hill."

"And just what is the significance of this cemetery?"

"Well sir, it's a cemetery for the poor. It's also where the cadavers for our university's medical studies are sent to once they've fulfilled their purpose. The cemetery is overseen by a small church run by a rather forward-thinking clergyman who has worked out a deal with the university. It's caused many people to shun the little church unfortunately."

Gerard nodded and leaned forward. "This is all very interesting, Mr. Kingston. However I don't see what it has to do with Mortimer Wyld."

"Well sir…as I said, this happened only a week before Mortimer committed his foul act. By this time he had already become quite strange. At the time I didn't think too much of it, but as we were looking at the cemetery, Mortimer made a rather odd comment. He mentioned quietly that the cemetery might make the perfect studio."

"I see. So you think Mortimer might be hiding at this 'Serenity Hill'. It's definitely worth checking out. Thank you for bringing me this information."

Geoffrey nodded. "I only wish I could've done something to prevent Mortimer from going down this dark path. He was always quite sensitive, too sensitive for medical work I always thought. If only his father hadn't pushed him so far into this field."

Gerard came over from behind his desk and put a hand on Geoffrey's shoulder. "I'm certain you did all you could for him just by being a friend. Unfortunately I think Mortimer was always on the brink of madness. I don't know what specifically pushed him over the edge, but I don't think there was anything either you or anyone else could've done to save him. Unfortunately Mortimer's madness has led him to committing acts which are unforgivable. The only way to help him now is to bring him to justice and prevent him from committing any more evil deeds, and that is something only I can do."

"…Like I said earlier, I didn't know anything about Hastur, or that he was one of the Old Ones like Tsathoggua," Yoko continued. "If I did, I would've been more careful and things with Wyld might've ended differently."

"So the play this Mortimer freak read had to have been the same one Erica and the others mentioned during the big briefing," Nao realized.

"Indeed," Erica agreed. "It could only have been The King In Yellow. Through reading it, Wyld not only went insane but obviously came in contact with Hastur himself, who chose Wyld to be one of his heralds."

Yoko nodded. "But like I said, I didn't know a thing about Hastur. If I had, things probably wouldn't have ended as badly as they did…"

Despite it being the dead of night, Gerard made his way out to the hillside cemetery known as Serenity Hill. The driver of the carriage he had hired thought Gerard was mad for coming out to such a place so late at night, but Gerard felt certain this was the best time to find and apprehend Mortimer. The time he was most likely practicing his dark arts. The carriage brought Gerard to the base of a large hill with a crumbling wall of red brick. Built into the center of this wall was a rusted gate of black metal. Gerard found the gate to be unlocked and creaked on its hinges as he pulled it open.

Beyond the gate was a simple dirt path that wound its way up the hill. As Gerard began walking up this path, he couldn't help but notice the countless unmarked graves around him. Many were marked by simple crosses and unmarked stones. These markers were all nameless, though from time to time Gerard could see faint traces of a name on certain crosses; names which had been put on with paint that was worn away by time and the elements. Gerard couldn't help but think back to his past life in Ancient Egypt and of the great lengths the pharaohs went to for their burial monuments. The neglected unmarked graves he now passed were the exact opposite of those massive memorials in more ways than one.

As Gerard continued to ascend the hill, a strange fog suddenly formed around him. Right away he realized something wasn't right. The fog now totally obscured the unmarked graves. Gerard pressed on however in spite of the danger. The fog steadily began to grow thicker, and eventually he began hearing strange sounds from around him. Gerard immediately came to a stop and listened.

The sounds he heard were strange moans and growls, and they were quickly getting closer and increasing in number. At last the fog cleared just enough to reveal the source of the unsettling noises. They came from creatures too horrid to describe in great detail. They were stitched together from the parts of all manner of creatures, human and beast alike. Many of these abominations had more than one head, not all of the same gender or species or not all placed on the top of its torso where a head would typically be placed on an animal. Most of the abominations had an odd number of limbs, and in many cases had an arm where a leg should be or a leg where an arm was rightly supposed to go. The creatures either walked on two to four limbs or simply crawled or dragged themselves across the ground.

Gerard was sickened by the sight of these undead abominations that were creeping towards him. He realized he needed to act though, and knew that the pistol he had hidden in his coat would not do the job of dispatching these horrors. Gerard raised his right hand into the air before bringing it down to his chest while bringing his left foot forward at the same time. A second later Gerard's body was enveloped by a golden light so bright that it caused the undead chimeras before him to stop in their tracks. Moments later the light faded away to reveal Gerard in the form of Khepri.

Khepri drew the blaster hanging from his hip and attached the scarab from the buckle of his belt onto the back of the weapon. As soon as he did so, the back of the scarab popped open to reveal the three buttons hidden inside. Khepri pressed the top button twice before pressing the bottom button three times.

An electronic voice spoke from the blaster. "CHARGING!"

Khepri pointed the blaster at the monsters and pulled the trigger. "Morning Light Firestorm!"

A single bullet made of gold light shot from the barrel of the blaster and split apart into several. The bullets struck a third of the oncoming creatures and lit their bodies with golden flames. Khepri pulled the trigger two more times and took out the remainder of the chimeras. In a matter of seconds the creatures were burned completely to ash. With the chimeras gone, Khepri disassembled his blaster and continued on up the hill. The entire time he kept his eyes out for more chimeras.

Khepri reached the top of the hill without incident and discovered an old moss-covered mausoleum. The door was open and he could see the light from a candle burning inside. Cautiously, Khepri approached the open door and peered inside. The inside of the ancient stone structure was lit by candles hanging from the walls. Sitting atop the slab in the middle of the mausoleum was a young man with skin as pale as a corpse, slightly long stringy black hair, and eyes the color of puss. His clothes were disheveled and somewhat tattered, and the sleeves of his white shirt were rolled up to show that his arms were covered in dried blood up to his elbows.

The young man noticed Khepri standing near the doorway. "Oh! I see I have an unexpected guest. Might I know who you are, good sir?"

Khepri stepped into the doorway. "I am a child of the sun! The Warrior of Transformation and Rebirth! Solar Knight Khepri!"

The young man tilted his head. "You have a rather ostentatious title. Though you being a knight would explain the armor."

Khepri stepped further into the mausoleum. "I presume you are Mortimer Wyld?"

The young man smirked. "Indeed I am. What business do you have of me?"

"I have come to put an end to your acts of depravity! The abominations I encountered out on the hill could only be examples of your work."

"Ah. You must mean my early creations. They were merely experiments. Practice attempts to help me refine my skills. I wanted to make sure I could do things right before I started work on my ultimate masterpiece."

"What I want to know most is how you were able to animate those monstrosities with such unnatural life!"

Smiling, Mortimer got off the slab. "Tell me Sir Khepri, have you ever heard of a play called The King In Yellow?"

Khepri relaxed his stance slightly. "I don't get out to the theater very much."

Mortimer laughed. "The play has never been performed on stage, at least not successfully. I don't blame you for not knowing about it though. In fact the play is so abhorred by society that the powers running the world have tried very hard to erase all evidence of its existence. I ran across a copy hidden among the shelves of a decrepit old bookstore not long ago."

"Yes. My investigation indicated your behavior changed after you read a certain book. I take it the book was this play you're talking about?"

"It changed my life! In fact when I finished reading it, I was brought briefly to the land of Carcosa and found myself in the presence of His Majesty. He showed me the truth behind the universe and granted me not only salvation but power! Now with Him as my patron I use the gifted hands my wretched father wanted me to waste on mere surgery to create true beauty! I am now the greatest artist this world has ever known!"

Khepri shook his head. "I pity you. Clearly you are lost completely to madness, which is why I must stop you from committing even more acts of depravity!"

"Actually you've found me in a state of repose," Mortimer revealed, putting his hands in his pockets. "You see I recently finished my great masterpiece and find I am a bit drained. I suppose all artists feel such fatigue after completing a major project. Would you like to see it?"

Before Khepri could respond, a horrible scream cut through the air. Soon after the sound of galloping could be heard from outside. Khepri rushed out to see a creature coming towards the mausoleum from the other side of the hill. At first he thought it was merely a horse, but as it came closer he realized it was something much more horrible. This new abomination let out another scream as it galloped up to the building, and in the light of the full moon above Khepri could see just how grotesque the creature was.

The beast was a sort of female centaur, but one clearly made by Mortimer's depraved hand. The human upper half had clearly been the corpse of a young woman, and Khepri had seen a portrait of the unfortunate girl's face in the house of William Marbury. There was no question he was now looking at what had once been the late Patricia Marbury. The lower half of the creature had been the body of a black horse, but there were other parts attached as well. Attached to where the human part ended and the horse part began were the heads of two more young women with faces just as lovely as Patricia's; Khepri deduced these had to be the heads of the other two young women who had died the same way as poor Patricia. There was also a second pair of arms attached close to what could be considered the horse's shoulders, and a third pair attached to the sides of the horse body's midsection. The most obscene feature of the undead beast however were the two pairs of human breasts attached to the horse body's underside like a set of udders.

The eyes of all three of the creature's heads were completely black except for glowing green irises. The face of Patricia Marbury was twisted into a rictus grin of madness and despair as tears flowed down her cheeks. The faces of the other two heads bore similar expressions.

"Magnificent, isn't she?" Mortimer remarked as he stepped out of the mausoleum. "I have refined the beauty of my fair Patricia and magnified it ten fold! I have always yearned for her with every breath, and now she is at last mine! We've even had intimate relations since I finished her transformation."

Khepri felt as though he was about to vomit when he heard this revelation. Never before had he imagined an act of simultaneous necrophilia and bestiality could ever be committed. Khepri also had to believe Mortimer had forced himself on his unfortunate creation. In fact none of what had happened to poor Patricia had been done with her consent, nor with the consent of the two other young women used to make parts of Patricia's new body. Their very lives had been stolen and their bodies twisted into the mockery of nature now standing before Khepri, and the armored hero had to believe the creature was in a constant state of pain.

Without saying a word, Khepri opened the scarab on his belt and pressed all three buttons from bottom to top.

An electronic voice let out the call of a single phrase. "RISE OF THE FINAL DAWN!"

The front two pairs of legs attached to the scarab on Khepri's back extended out over his shoulders and the ends opened to reveal the cannon barrels hidden within.

Khepri pressed the head of the scarab on his belt. "Final Sunrise!"

Four powerful beams of gold light fired from the cannons and completely enveloped the chimera. In a matter of seconds the beast was completely vaporized.

Mortimer's face twisted into an expression of horror. "NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Khepri turned around to face Mortimer. "I cannot allow a madman like you to continue to exist in this world!" He then jumped into the air and launched into a flying kick towards the depraved artist. "Breaking Dawn Kick!"

Khepri's glowing boot connected with Mortimer's chest and knocked him hard into the ground. With the attack over, Khepri transformed back into Gerard with a flash of gold light. Gerard went over and checked Gerard's pulse, nodding when he found the madman didn't have one. Satisfied, Gerard began to walk away. He stopped and took one last look at the new scorch mark on the ground where Mortimer's masterpiece had once been. Gerard spent that moment trying to figure out what he was going to tell the families of those poor young women and found he couldn't think of anything.

Sighing, Gerard continued to walk. He only got two steps though when he heard the sound of a gunshot. Suddenly he felt cold. Gerard looked down at his chest and found blood spreading onto his shirt. He felt no pain, but in an instant the energy drained from every part of his body and he collapsed to the ground. Moments later he saw Mortimer standing over him with a pistol, looking down at him with mad hatred.

"You destroyed my masterpiece," Mortimer hissed in a low, hateful voice. "You're not even fit to be used as material for my next work. I'm just going to burn you like you burned my beloved."

Gerard heard Mortimer's footsteps on the grass heading back towards the mausoleum. He deduced he was likely going to get a candle from inside and possibly some sort of oil to burn his body. The one relief to Gerard was that he likely wasn't going to be around to feel the flames. He could feel his consciousness beginning to fade, and it was fading quickly. Though his eyes were open, everything was going dark, and the last thing he saw was a brief vision, the face of his beloved Saturn.

"…And that was the end of my life as Gerard Prescott," Yoko finished. "A little over a century later I was reborn as the person you see now, Yoko Renard. So now you know the full story."

Before anyone could say anything, Hotaru began to sob.

"Oh crap!" Yoko exclaimed. "Hotaru, I didn't mean to make you cry."

"How could I not?" Hotaru responded. "How could I not cry after hearing how you died alone and in pain? I should've been there to protect you! I should've…"

Yoko pulled Hotaru close as she broke down again and gently stroked her hair. "Remember what you told me back in Paris after I heard how your bio-dad experimented on you? When I got angry about how I should've been there to protect you back then, you told me what mattered was I was here for you now. Well you're here for me now, Dearest. We can't change how any of our previous lives ended, but we do have this one together. That's what counts."

It was a few more moments before Hotaru finally calmed down. Everyone else remained silent until then.

"You know…after seeing the way you blew away that zombie clown thing, it's hard to believe you were once killed by a single gunshot," Nao remarked, rubbing his head.

"It happened because I was careless," Yoko responded bitterly, still holding Hotaru. "I thought he was a normal human and my kick had finished him off. It was stupid of me to drop my guard like that."

Erica shook her head. "You had no way of knowing Wyld had become an undead minion of Hastur. Now then, perhaps it would be wise for you and Lady Hotaru to retire early for the evening. I'm sure tonight's events have worn you both out."

"Uh yeah. I can send you both back some dinner later, if you want," Makoto suggested.

Yoko nodded and headed back towards the master bedroom with Hotaru.

Nao stretched. "Well I'm certainly starving. We never did have dinner, did we?"

Makoto shook her head. "It shouldn't take me long to finish what I was cooking before."

"I for one am actually quite ravenous myself," Erica admitted as she hopped out of her chair. "Don't be surprised if I end up eating half of what goes on the table."

Nao smirked. "Didn't think a little thing like you could have such a big appetite."

"I can also hurl you through the ceiling without breaking a sweat, so watch your mouth you big brute," Erica responded as she headed for the kitchen.

Nao went a little pale. "I suddenly get the feeling I shouldn't make her mad."

Makoto nodded. "I got that feeling a long time ago."

Neptune awoke to discover she was inside what looked like a giant birdcage. The bars of the cage were made of tarnished gold and had strange red vines growing up around them. Beyond the cage was a large floor of alternating black and white tiles, at the edges of which were black Roman pillars with more of the strange red vines clinging to them. There were no walls beyond the pillars and no ceiling above them, only an endless sea of blood-red clouds. At the far end of the floor on Neptune's right was a large set of black double doors, and at the opposite end sat Rita atop a gold throne, holding a cup and saucer.

"Ah! You're finally up," Rita observed as she took a sip from her cup. "Before you try anything cute like using your Sailor Guardian powers to break free of the cage you're trapped in, you should know that the bars are enchanted to reflect back any attack you throw with double the force. Actually, go ahead and try. It would be a riot for your friends to arrive only to find they've gone to all the trouble of rescuing a corpse."

"Why have you brought me here?" Neptune demanded to know.

"Well, your friends seemed like they needed a little more motivation to play the little game I had in mind, so I captured you to use as bait," Rita explained as she set her cup and saucer upon a little table next to the throne. "As for why I picked you, no special reason."

"Why are you doing this? Helping an entity like Hastur?"

"Well, I guess you could say this job sort of became my calling. It wasn't my first choice, but when you're chosen by a god to do something, you don't have the luxury of saying no. The bright side is I have a hell of a retirement waiting for me once my task is finished. Once I finally help spread His Majesty's word, I can go to Carcosa and spend eternity in bliss."

"And what's in Carcossa?"

Rita leaned back in her throne with a bored expression on her face. "Oh, you don't wanna hear about me and my goals. I'd think you'd be more concerned about your friends. Care to see how they're doing?"

With a wave of Rita's hand, a large sphere of white light suddenly appeared in the air. The sphere showed an image of Uranus and the others trudging up a staircase covered in vines.

"They're been making some good progress," Rita remarked. "They've already made it up the first forty floors of the labyrinth. This may be where they finally meet their end though."

"Why do you say that?" Neptune asked.

Rita smirked. "Because on this floor lies one of the strongest guardians of this labyrinth, the Eggman. Those who encounter him only encounter death."

Please review and let me know what you think.