Part 12 **************************************************************************** Oh man, i really wanted to get the ending out all at once, but once part 12 hit 42 pages, i had to break it into two parts. *sniff!* so here's up to page 24. thanks to everyone who emailed me. ATTENTION! i have a new email address: Joyfulgirl129@@aol.com thanks! I don't own Sailor Moon or any brand name. oh and on another note, please don't rip off my ideas. Thanks. Oh and one last thing, i apologize to anyone reading this on ff.net about the crappy formatting. I STILL haven't figured out how to fix it. Hey, if anyone does know give me a buzz. And we're off... "Everything has fallen to pieces Earth is dying help me Jesus." -Blink 182 "Anthem Part Two" Serena pushed the door open without knocking. "Hello?" "Hey, Serena," Amy answered, not once looking up from her Palm Pilot. A tangle of black and gray wires snaked under the coffee table and behind the television, which was broadcasting an official report from the university regarding the dorm fire, which had claimed the lives of three students. Matt and Kevin were shooting an abysmal game of pool; their concentration was shot to shit, evidenced by the numerous balls still peppering the scarred felt as opposed to those in the pockets. Jay sat between Raye and Lita on the couch, strumming on his guitar what sounded like, "Jane Says." Mina was softly singing along from her position on the floor. "Oh hi, we were waiting for you," Mina said, raising herself into a sitting position. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, and her nails were raw and bleeding from nervous biting. "We might have actually gotten somewhere, believe it or not. Amy?" Amy waved them over. "Here you guys, look at this." She tapped a few keys, and switched the television from CSPAN to a projected view of her screen. "Ever since we've arrived in America, I've been trying to find doorways into the Negaverse." "Dark Kingdom," Zach interrupted from the kitchen, where he was frying up Steak-Ums. "They get really pissed if you call it 'the Negaverse.'" "Zach, who gives a fuck? Fuck 'em." Matt said, sinking his first solid in a corner pocket. Amy continued before a squabble could erupt. "Anyway, I never found even a trace of one before, anywhere, and now, look." A map of Bryce University popped up, with green blinking dots scattered in several places. "These doorways suddenly popped up overnight." "Huh," Darien grunted, studying the map. "There's one on the entrance to the stadium, another in the library, two on Graduate Ave..." "Very detectable and very convenient," Kevin said, lining up a shot. "What better way to trap us then to leave the welcome mat unrolled?" "I'd bet my life savings that the minute we enter from one of these places, we'd get ambushed," Mina proclaimed, popping open her Sam's Choice orange soda. "A fourth grader could have figured that out." "That's why she left open this one," Amy explained, pointing to one on the outskirts of town. "This one has a weaker signature than the others, so I deduced that the main points are simply decoys. Beryl knew that we're too smart to walk blindly into one of her traps, so she opened a barely-detectable entrance at this location. She's planning on us taking the road less traveled. Of course, I don't think Beryl planned on this," she said, hitting a key. A map of the world popped up. "In opening all of these doorways, Beryl expended a great deal of negative energy, and when you use dark magic, it kind of...leaves residue." "What?" Raye asked, confused. Amy blinked. "Think of it like a car. Dark energy gives off exhaust, like a car gives off exhaust from burning gasoline. All of Beryl's exhaust-" Matt and Zach snickered. "-ended up permeating the earth...there." An orange arrow appeared, pointing at the top of the world where Santa Claus lived. "The North Pole? You're kidding!" Darien shut his eyes and rubbed his face in exasperation. "Are you sure we can get in that way?" Amy nodded. "Beryl is using up all of her energy at the main points, so she must have all of her concentration directed there. I doubt that she's noticing where her exhaust goes." "Or it's a huge trap," Lita groaned. "We'll have to take that chance," Mina said softly. "This is our best bet." Jay put his guitar down and stood up. "All right. Where are the yellow pages? I'll call Delta." "No!" Lita burst out. "Ok, fine, I'll call Greyhound." "No, that's not what I mean. We can teleport there." Jay gave her a look. "Are you sure? I mean, just by experience and process of elimination, I know that I'm going to be the one who teleports into the middle of the Sahara or the Atlantic Ocean or something." "We'll make sure you don't," Serena reassured him. "Do we have a plan once we're in there?" Darien asked. Mina smiled. "I got that, thanks to my awesome brainpower and Kev's photographic memory." She proceeded to explain, while Amy wandered off to the kitchen. "Cheese on yours?" Zach asked, spreading buns out on paper plates. "No, thank you, I can taste the grease from here. Is everything OK?" "No." "No, I-I meant at h-home," Amy stammered, her palms starting to sweat. She had remembered the message that Nana had left, and, despite her best efforts to mind her own business, it had been bugging her for over twelve hours. "Oh, yeah, everything's fine." The enthusiasm in his voice was obviously faked. He pulled open the dishwasher and stopped. "What's the matter?" "I-" He stopped and stared at the grungy plates and cups like it was the tombstone of his best friend. "I don't know. I mean; I could wash these dishes, right? I do it every day so we'll have something to eat off of the next morning, obviously. But like-" He faltered again. "What if none of us come back? I know I should be all optimistic and everything, and 'Yeah! We'll kick ass and take names!' but I know what we're up against, and you know too. So what's the point of washing these dishes if we might not ever use them again? If you think about it on a grand cosmic scale, turning on the stupid dishwasher is just about the most insignificant thing one could do right before going into a battle. I'm getting ahead of myself by thinking we're all going to come out-" Never taking her eyes off of his, Amy kicked the dishwasher shut and punched the button. It whirred to life. "Has anyone ever told you that you analyze things to death?" "A few times," he admitted, then added: "A day." She reached out and hugged him, reassuring his body the way she wished to do with his mind. He put down the spatula and wrapped his arms around her, pressing his cheek to hers. They stood in silence, taking comfort in their embrace. "Yo, can we get some Steak-Ums in here?" Jay broke through the sentimental moment before it had a chance to fully develop. The Steak-Ums were devoured in way too short a time, and after all the mouths were wiped and cans were cleared, everyone stopped and looked at each other. "Well, this is it, you guys," Serena started, almost choking up. "If you're going to give a big, flowery speech right now about how much we mean to you and how close we all are and how no matter what happens we'll all be friends forever, please skip it. You'll just jinx us." "Yeah," Matt nodded, agreeing with Jay. "Let's think of this as just another obstacle, and not just a...a..." "Heinous deathtrap?" "You know what I love about you, Raye? Your undying optimism." She shrugged. "I try." Lita caught herself raising her hand. "What about the campus? Knowing Beryl, she'd deploy a youma attack as soon as we landed on a stray penguin in the pole." Her question was answered in the form of pounding feet in the hallway, and a frantic thumping on their door. Kevin answered it. The hallway was clogged with guys, two of whom were Musto and John, and each one was equipped with a baseball bat or other heavy piece of weapon-like material. "Hey, Belles, one of those weird monsters landed in middle of the street. We're going to go kick its ass, wanna come?" Musto, the speaker, stuck his head through the door. "Hey Melman! Hey Chiba! Care to join?" "Um, I think we'll pass," Kevin said, eyeing the lead pipe Musto was twirling in his hands. "You sure you can take care of it?" "Fuck yeah, man! We're going to beat its fuckin' head in! You sure you don't want in?" Kevin shook his head. "OK, then, your loss. See ya later, ladies!" He winked at Serena, despite the fact that Darien was standing less than five feet away, and took off with his posse. The newly formed militia exited down the staircase. "What a dick," Darien mumbled, after the door was closed. "You guys," Mina said from the window. "Come here, you've got to see this!" They crowded around, trying to catch a glimpse of the scene below. Darien solved the overcrowding problem by opening the window and letting everyone spill out onto the fire escape. "Dude, that's just a small one!" Zach breathed. The youma holding up traffic in the middle of Boris St. was about the size of large cow, and was striped like a yellow jacket. Diaphanous insect wings sprouted from its shoulders, and, as they watched, Musto hit one with his metal pipe and tore it from the youma's body. It screeched in pain. A dozen more guys zeroed in, ruthlessly beating down the youma until it was cowering on its knees. "Looks like it's Whacking Day," Jay quipped, forgetting that not everyone was an avid viewer of "The Simpsons." Lita was amazed. "They are kicking its ass! I didn't think that those guys had enough brains to play kick the can!" "Makes you feel real important, doesn't it?" Mina said cynically. "We're the defenders of love and justice, righting wrongs and triumphing over evil, bestowed with cosmic powers of our mother planets, and we're being upstaged by a bunch of guys with baseball bats." "Well, at least everyone came out to watch," Raye said, pointing to the heads poking out of windows in the buildings across the street. Several objects began flying out of windows as occupants decided to help out by pelting the street with empty liquor bottles. Kevin turned and crawled back through the window. "I think we're leaving the place in good hands." Matt and Jay lingered behind on the fire escape. "WHOA! Kev, you missed it! I think Tony Garrel just threw his old, shitty couch out the window!" Jay leaned over the railing and continued to shout. "YO TONE! DIDJA HIT IT?" "YEAH!" came the enthusiastic reply. Raye reached through the window and dragged Jay in by his shirt. Serena dusted herself off and pulled out her crystal. "OK, since we're not going to exchange pleasantries because JAY thinks it'll JINX us, let's just get this over with." "C'mon, quit being so negative," Lita pleaded as Serena transformed in a shower of pink light. She pulled out her henshin pen. "We'll be back before Letterman's Top Ten." "I hope so," Sailor Moon muttered. The guys pulled out their white gloves. "God, I hate these things," Zach muttered. "Whose great idea was it to wear them in the first place? Did our jobs require running our fingers over furniture?" He pulled it onto his right hand and transformed in a cloud of silver. "Maybe we were bellhops," Kunzite offered. Nephrite elbowed Endymion in the ribs. "Maybe we were gay...oh wait, that was just you guys." Jadeite helped out by coughing the word "buttsex." Zoicite punched him in the stomach. "Hey, don't get all violent just because I'm telling the truth." "I'm not gay!" "Zoicite, I know you're not gay, would you relax? I just find it extremely amusing that your evil twin just happens to be-" "I wonder why that is, too," Sailor Mercury interrupted. "I thought they weren't created to think." Zoicite shrugged. "They weren't." "Maybe it's because Kunzite is an ALPHA male," Jadeite laughed. Kunzite glared at him. "You're going to be a negative male if you don't shut up." To her utter disgust, Sailor Venus found herself clapping like a schoolteacher. "OK, everyone, let the immaturity leave the room now. Are we ready?" They glanced at each other, relishing the few moments of relative normalcy that they had left. "Ready as we'll ever be," Jupiter said. "Ready?" Sailor Moon took Nephrite and Kunzite's hands. "Senshi, put a General in between each of you. They're not too good at this yet." "Sounds kinky," Zoicite said, joining the circle between Mars and Jupiter. "PLEASE make sure I don't end up somewhere weird," Jadeite begged, imagining himself suddenly appearing in the middle of the Running of the Bulls, or the New York Stock Exchange, or the Daytona 500. "We won't, I promise," Venus assured him. "Everyone ready? Concentrate." They closed their eyes and let their energy flow into each other, through each other's bodies and minds, where it combined into force powerful enough to flicker the lights for the next three blocks down. Their bodies hummed with the magic flowing through them, old magic, powerful as a comet hurtling through the abyss of space. It built and built, faster and harder, into a violent crescendo that swept away their bodies in a burst of light. * * * * * * * * * * * * "Holy FUCK!" Sailor Jupiter swore, wrapping her arms around her body in a desperate effort to keep her skin from windburning. Kunzite immediately began shivering; the cold was something his California body was not accustomed to. However, this type of cold was something that would shock the average Anchorage body; it was cold that pierced through your clothing like it was tissue paper, burning as it froze the water in your epidermis and ruptured the delicate skin cells. "Oh shit," Nephrite muttered, his lips blue. "We're going to freeze to death." Sailor Venus squeezed her eyes shut to keep her tears from freezing. Nephrite was right; five more minutes of exposure and they would succumb to hypothermia, and then most definitely die. <> Only Sailor Mercury was unaffected. "Oh no!" She held up her palm, and a glittering ball of blue and white energy formed between her fingers. "Quick, everyone, touch this!" Zoicite stumbled over and touched it. Instantly he felt his body warm rapidly, until the piercing wind felt like a tropical wind blowing off the Caribbean and caressing his face. "Mercury, have I told you I love you recently?" "Yes," she replied happily, running over to each Senshi and General in turn. "But you can say it again." Jadeite stopped gasping as his skin relaxed out of rigid goosebumps. "I love you too, Mercury." He helped Mars stand up. Sailor Venus scanned the frozen landscape. The sunlight reflecting off of the white ice threw up a glare that almost fried her retinas. Nephrite had clapped his hands over his eyes, groaning in pain. "Everything OK, Neph?" "That light really hurts," he said simply. "It's like staring directly into the sun." Endymion squinted; the glare was a little overpowering, but not nearly as painful as Nephrite made it out to be. "Do you have glaucoma or something?" "I don't know. All I know is that if I open my eyes, I'm as good as blind." "Great," Kunzite muttered, holding up one hand to shield the sunlight. "Mercury, have you detected an entrance?" She pointed her finger, sending a stream of water in a circle over a patch of snow, which instantly froze into an ice ring about ten feet in diameter. "Right in the middle of that ring is a hole covered in snow. It's about three meters in diameter, but I can't detect its depth. All the negative energy residue is blocking my scan." Jadeite sent a spiral of energy into the ring, blasting away the snow and uncovering a dark, gaping hole in the ground. They looked down. "Jesus H. Christ in a chicken basket," Zoicite breathed. "How far down do you think that is?" "Can we jump? We've jumped off buildings before, no sweat, and they were like, forty or fifty feet." Sailor Moon asked. Mars shook her head. "We could...but what if there's spikes or a snake pit down there or something? I don't feel like losing this battle before it even begins." "OK, Indiana Jones," Jupiter muttered. Mars huffed, "All I'm saying is that we don't know how deep it is or what's at the bottom. I don't think it's safe to just jump blindly." Venus nodded. "We're not jumping if we don't know what's at the bottom, or if there even is one. Mercury, are you positive you can't get a reading?" "I'm positive." Venus sighed. "I might have an idea then." She unraveled her chain from her waist. "If I can attach the end of this to something, I can kind of, well, quickly rappel down to the bottom. The only problem is, I would have to pull it in from the bottom, and I don't know how I would get you guys down." "We can jump," Zoicite offered. "But what if it's hundreds of feet down? We've only jumped off of four or five story buildings, and my ankles were killing me for days from that distance. If it's any more than that, we'd probably, well, splat." She twisted her chain in her hands. "Unless..." She hooked her fingers in one of the hearts, and pulled out. The golden heart expanded to the size of manhole cover. She stood at the edge of the chasm and threw it down, each subsequent heart that rolled out as big as the first, their golden glint swallowed up by the smothering darkness. The links clanged together like church bells. Venus knelt and stuck her head down, listening for the sound of metal hitting the bottom. "There!" She announced, rising. "I heard it hit bottom; it's pretty far down, but I think we can make it." She detached the chain from around her waist and looped it over a block of ice. "Mercury, is this thing solid?" Mercury sent a stream of water around the bottom, freezing it to the ground. "Now it is." Endymion stepped forward. "I'll go first." "Like hell you are," Kunzite said, elbowing in front of him. "I'm going first." "Maybe we should all go, together," Sailor Moon suggested. "I would hate to think of what might happen if one of us is alone at the bottom and they're something waiting for us." "Strength in numbers," Jupiter agreed. "I'm going second, then." "I have to go last, to pull the chain up," Venus explained. "Then I'll rappel down." Kunzite stuck his foot in a loop. "Well, here goes." He began descending down the makeshift ladder. It twisted violently. "Whoa! It's kind of unsteady, like a rope ladder." "I'll try to steady it." Venus grabbed it near the base. His head disappeared into the blackness. "You have to feel for the next rung, so everyone be careful. Go slowly." "Aye-aye," Jupiter saluted, grabbing hold of the chain and descending. "Wow, Kunzite, you weren't kidding! I'm having flashbacks of gym class..." After Jupiter went Jadeite, and then Mercury, Nephrite, Endymion, Sailor Moon, Zoicite, and Mars. "Oh, why couldn't I go last?" Sailor Moon whined in the darkness, her foot grappling for the next rung. "Because I want you in the middle, surrounded by protection," Venus called from the top. "Tell Kunzite to give me a report." They relayed the message down the chain. "Hey, Venus wants a report," Jupiter shouted to Kunzite, who was about ten feet below her. "What's there to report? I'm still climbing down the chain in the dark. Can you see at all?" "A little bit," Jadeite said from above Jupiter. "The chain is glowing very faintly; a birthday candle gives off more light, but it's better than nothing." "My eyes still hurt," Nephrite complained. He gasped as the chain swung a little. "OH GOD!" "What are you complaining about?" Mars asked, cursing at her red heels. "I can barely maneuver around in these stupid, impractical shoes! Jadeite, if you say one word about it I'm going to jiggle the chain!" Jadeite shut his mouth, and Nephrite gasped. "Please don't do that!" "What's wrong?" Endymion asked from above. Nephrite had been literally crawling down at a snail's pace; Endymion had almost stepped on his fingers twice. He lowered his voice. "Are you scared?" "NO!" His denial was dripping with indignation. "Well, maybe a little. Or a lot." His mouth had gone completely dry. "I kind of don't like heights." Endymion groaned. "You're kidding." "Does it sound like I'm kidding? God, my heart is racing..." "Nephrite, don't worry, OK? Just take it one step at a time." Sailor Moon's voice was overly soothing. "What do you think I've been doing?" Kunzite advanced down. "OK, I've lost visibility." Jupiter craned her neck up. "Hey, Jadeite, Kunzite's lost visibility." "Kunzite can't see anymore!" He shouted up. Nephrite groaned. Kunzite lowered his foot to find the next rung, and merely swiped at empty air. "Uh-oh." "What?" Jupiter asked. He started swinging his foot around, searching for another link. There was none. "We're short," he groaned. "What?" Mercury asked from above. "How short, can you tell?" "I can't see a thing. Everyone stop climbing!" Venus's voice was barely an echo. "You've got to be kidding me! I heard it hit bottom!" "Maybe it was hitting the sides," Jadeite offered. "Should we start up?" "No," Kunzite said, squinting in the darkness. An idea dawned on him. "Wait." "Hurry up, Neph's about to go postal." "Everyone shut up!" Kunzite shouted. The chain of soldiers fell silent. He leaned over, disregarding how much the chain shook and how much Nephrite whined, and spit into the darkness. Pat. The sound of saliva hitting stone was much closer than he had anticipated; he spit again to gauge. Another message came trickling down. "Venus says she's sending something down," Jupiter reported. A golden heart streaked by the chain, illuminating the stone walls of the tube with its almost painful golden light. It whizzed past Kunzite and impacted on the ground below, giving him a brief glimpse of a flat stone floor. "OK, I saw it. The bottom looks pretty solid, and it's perfectly flat. We should have no problem landing on it." "How far down?" Endymion inquired. "About twenty or thirty feet. We can jump it." "Be careful!" Venus's distant voice echoed down the tunnel. Zoicite snickered and made a whiplash sound. Frowning, Kunzite lowered himself until he was dangling on the last heart with his hands, and the rest of his body swung loose. Taking a breath, he released his hold on the chain and plummeted into the darkness. CLUNK. He landed unsteadily on his feet, the impact throwing him down, undignified, on his ass. For once, he was grateful for the darkness. "It's OK; it's not that bad!" he shouted. << Ow. Good goddamn. >> Jupiter reached the end of the line. Her tiara sparked with white electricity in the darkness. "Kunzite, can you see me? Am I going to fall on you?" "No, just let go. I'll catch you." He positioned himself under the flashes of light. "Ready? On three." "One, two, three!" She let go of the chain, and Kunzite caught her. "Oh, thanks." The air crackled, and Jupiter held up a ball of lightening, illuminating the cavern with a harsh white glow reminiscent of fluorescent light bulbs. "You gonna catch me too, Kunz?" Jadeite teased. "Hell no. Just jump." After Jadeite, Mercury jumped off with little fanfare and was also caught by Kunzite. He had barely put her down when her computer screen lit up and she was typing away. Nephrite had hit the end of the line, and was latched onto the chain with a death grip. "Oh no." Jadeite groaned. "Oh God, Neph, don't tell me you're afraid to jump!" "Shut up, asswipe!" Sweat was pouring down his face and he gripped the chain tighter. "Hey, what's holding up the line?" Mars shouted from above. "Nephrite's too pussy to jump," Jadeite said. "Jadeite, I'm so going to kick your ass," Nephrite choked. "Well, then jump down and prove it, pussy." Jupiter cleared her throat. "Nephrite, listen to me. I know this is scary for you-" "Scary? Try paralyzing!" She continued. "Please, baby, listen to me. Nothing bad will happen to you, I promise. It's hard but you're going to have to do it. I believe in you, baby, I love you. I'll help you get through this." "You will?" he squeaked. On the ground, Jadeite was turning purple stifling his laughter. "Yes, hon, please, I believe in you. We all believe you can do this." "I believe in you," Endymion said. "I'll help you, too." "We all believe in you, hon," Jupiter said, her voice smooth as melted beeswax. Jadeite sank to his knees with both hands clapped over his mouth and tears streaming down his face. "Just listen to me, I'll talk you through it. Let go of the chain on three, OK? I'll know you can do it, baby, all you have to do is jump." "Oh God. I can't." "Yes you can, hon. It will all be over in a second, I swear to you. You don't have to be afraid of anything. It's not bad at all. I love you, baby, are you ready?" "Yes," Nephrite finally agreed. "I'm ready." Jupiter kept talking. "OK, here we go. One...two...Endy...three!" <> Nephrite had a split second to process the discrepancy in Jupiter's countdown when Endymion's boot solidly connected with his face, and he lost his grip and tumbled off of the chain. He screamed as he plummeted thirty feet to the ground, and landed directly onto Kunzite with a gigantic "WUMPH", kicking him in the stomach in the process. "Ugh!" Kunzite grunted, doubling over, and suddenly the cavern was filled with sounds: Jadeite laughing hysterically at the top of his lungs, practically crying with mirth, Nephrite whimpering like an earthquake victim, Mars and Moon cheering from up above. Nephrite lay on the ground and gripped Jupiter like a life preserver. He found his voice. "What...why...why did...you had...Endy...booted me off..." "Well, you weren't going to jump, were you?" Jupiter hugged him. "Hell no! I would have let go of that chain when you pried it from my cold dead fingers!" "See, the only way we would have gotten you off is if Endymion kicked you! It was for your own good!" "That's twisted logic if I've ever heard it!" "Crude, yet effective," Endymion said as he jumped down. "Hate...you guys...so much..." "Aw, relax Neph, you're not the only pussy to walk the face of the Earth. We're all afraid of something; Kunzite's afraid of horses." Kunzite, who had been off to one side wheezing, straightened up and glared at Endymion's comment. "I am not!" Endymion caught Sailor Moon out of the air. "Don't even deny it, Kunz, I remember. You wouldn't go near the stables until you were sixteen, and that's only because they forced you." Jadeite, who had just barely gotten his breath back, dissolved again into laughter. "Yes, you were! Oh my God, remember when he was first starting to ride?" He elbowed Endymion compulsively, and they both held up their hands and widened their eyes in a pantomime of a terrified rider. Then they started laughing, a little too loud and a little too hard, stopping only when Jadeite announced that if he kept laughing, he was going to vomit up his Steak-Um. Kunzite was glowering. "That was un-amusing." Sailor Mars landed deftly to his left. "What was?" Nephrite had started to giggle. "Kunzite's fear of horses." Mars joined in the contagious laughter. "No! For real? But you had a horse, remember? The gigantic one, what was his name? Triton?" "Titan. And I wasn't afraid of him." "That's right!" Zoicite clapped his hands together. "Titan! I remember Titan! He was the biggest motherfucking horse I've ever seen...and the dumbest!" Mercury looked up from her computer screen. "Didn't you have internal combustion engines back then? I remember tracking the cloud of smog over the Middle East; you could see it from the moon." "Yeah. But most of the Earth's oil was tied up in the Middle East, and they had a holy war there every other day and twice on Sundays," Endymion explained. "We couldn't run our engines on magic like you screwy Moon People." Sailor Jupiter ran her hand down the gray stone of the wall. "Why didn't you guys try Alaska?" "Talk to Nephrite, that was his department." Their idle conversation of Earth's ancient modes of transportation was broken by a "zzzzrip!" like a giant zipper being pulled up a giant windbreaker, as Venus pulled her Love-me Chain back up to the surface. Sailor Moon's communicator rang. "Yep?" she said, clicking it on. "I'm going to be coming down, and fast, so keep your heads up, OK?" "Gotcha, Venus." The light from Jupiter's electric ball was eclipsed by a brilliant golden glow that glared in the insides of the tunnel as Venus flew down, her chain around her waist. She slowed before hitting the ground, and landed easily on her feet. "You're right, I was pretty short," she said, pulling down her chain. The glow waned and died once she looped it back around her waist. "What's the verdict, Merc?" Mercury looked at her through her visor. "Specific points on these walls are hollow; I suspect that they're hallways and we just landed parallel to them. The closest is right-here." She stopped in front of a jagged wall. "We have to break through it." Jadeite simulated rolling up his sleeves. "Allow me." Sailor Venus stopped him. "Wait, I don't want to cause a big scene just yet." "How are we going to get through?" he asked. Zoicite was already tapping his knuckles against the stone. "It's not that thick, I don't think." "Zoicite's right; the wall is only about and inch thick, and the stone is a soft shale. If Kunzite leans on it the right way he'll probably knock it down." Sailor Moon made a sweeping gesture towards the wall like one of Bob Barker's Beauties. "Go ahead, Kunzite. Lean." Sailor Mars knelt down near the floor and pressed her index finger against the base of the wall. Her hand glowed as red as coals as she traced an outline of a door on the gray stone. "Or here, kick it in." "Ready, Neph?" Nephrite nodded. Kunzite steeled himself. "On three. Three!" They kicked at opposite sides of Mars's seam, crushing through the soft stone and sending a large rectangular slab crashing to the ground. The noise was deafening in the relative silence, and sent shock waves through the leather and rubber of their shoes. A cloud of dust kicked up, stinging their eyes and tickling their sinuses. Throwing caution, prudence, and anything requiring higher and complex thought to the wind, Jadeite valiantly leapt through the newly formed opening, sword ready and drawn, screaming the first phrase that popped into his head. "Freeze! FBI!" A youma had been lurking in the hallway; all of three feet tall with bumpy, plastic-like red skin covered in oddly shaped bumps and boils. It gave a shrill screech of terror, a cross between Styrofoam squeaking between your teeth and a fork scraping the inside of a frying pan, and scuttled off down the dank hallway as fast as its stumpy legs could propel it. They watched it toddle out of sight, whimpering like a stray dog. An extremely ugly stray dog. "OK," Zoicite observed. "That was..." "Pathetic?" Venus supplied. Silence. "Was that a beanbag chair?" Nephrite asked hesitantly. Silence. "Well, it was a beanbag chair that FEARED me," Jadeite proclaimed. Sailor Jupiter scoffed. "Please. It was a baby youma." "A baby beanbag chair youma," Sailor Moon concluded. "Congratulations, guys, you've just passed the descriptive writing final for English 15." Sailor Venus ran her finger against the stone. "Mercury, what is this stuff?" Mercury held her computer up to the bluish, glowing slime covering the walls. "Some type of...bioluminescent lichen. But, according to my calculations, it has been extinct since the Cretaceous period." "Is it poisonous?" Mars asked, shying away from Venus's finger. "No." Jadeite elbowed Endymion. "Dare you to lick it." Endymion turned to face him, half a smile on his face and a smart remark blossoming on his lips. And then, he almost fainted. Jadeite saw his prince go even whiter in the sickly glow of the lichen. "Endy? What's wrong?" Sailor Moon turned. "Endymion? Is everything...?" She gasped. Venus swiveled around. "You too, Venus!" Venus mirrored her princess's expression of absolute shock. "Your-your eyes are glowing!" "So our yours! So are everybody's!" Sailor Moon's exclamation started a chain reaction, and soon everyone was staring at each other's eyes. Mercury's eyes glowed like silver coins as she typed in her computer. "Our eyes aren't glowing; they're reflecting light much like a cat's or a dog's. It seems that we have a higher concentration of rods and cones." Zoicite's eyes were the dimmest. "Then we should have amazing eyesight, right?" "I believe we do. A normal person wouldn't be able to see this well in this amount of light." Nephrite's eyes reflected the most light; they seemed to radiate with an internal fire that made the rest of his face seem ghostly. "Doesn't anyone remember? When your eyes reflected light-" "-you were a Magic Person," Endymion concluded. "From the Moon or with Moon ancestry. They needed better eyes to see where it was almost always night." Kunzite stared into space for a full minute. "When they came to take me away from my home, the first thing they did was shine a light in my eyes. That's how they knew I was a Magic Person, because of my eyes." "My grandfather was a Magic Person," Jadeite started. "He always wore dark glasses, ever since the Cleansing, so that no one would ever find out and arrest him. I was the only one lucky, or unfortunate, enough to inherit his Magic." A memory blindsided Endymion, a memory of playing hide and seek with his friends, his brothers, in the dark, and screaming when he saw four pairs of disembodied eyes shining back at him when he clicked off the light. Venus cleared her throat. "I'm officially stopping this journey down memory lane. Nephrite, what's through the walls?" He focused. "You're going to love this. Another hallway, and it's completely empty." She groaned. "Mercury, please tell me you can MapQuest this thing." "I can, in a way. We're standing in the outer hub of the Dark Kingdom, and to make our way inward, we have to follow where that youma went." She pointed down the hallway. Kunzite drew his sword with a lethal hiss. "Be on guard." A half an hour later, the scenery hadn't changed, but the atmosphere had. The cavernous hallway had been entirely silent on the point where they had broken through the wall, and now eerie hisses and scuttles were resonating through the chamber like Dolby surround sound. A slight scraping noise had been a constant, as if the very walls were breathing. Sailor Moon trembled. "It's getting loud. I don't like it," she whispered. Endymion squeezed her hand. "What was that?" Sailor Jupiter gasped, twirling around, her hands crackling. "What was what?" Mars echoed, her voice tight. "That cracking noise. Don't you guys hear it?" Venus drew her sword. "I do now. Where's it coming from, Mercury?" Mercury craned her neck up. "The ceiling. There's a fault line form-" She was cut off by a low growl. Endymion was almost knocked over as Kunzite slammed into his back. <> Something stirred in the darkness, and a youma came lumbering out, oily and black and predatory, a cross between a black mamba and a common sea crab. It hissed viciously through its crustacean mouth. "Oh, ew!" Sailor Moon breathed, staring at the trail of greasy, clear liquid it left in its wake. "Fire Soul!" Mars's attack was unusually effective; the youma went up in flames like it had been doused in gasoline. Its hissing became desperate as its exoskeleton rapidly incinerated, giving off a smell of burning chemicals and steamed crab. Mercury smiled. "Good call, Mars. The coat of secretion on its shell was highly flammable." Mars shrugged. "I kind of figured that out; it smelled like lighter fluid." Nephrite sniffed heavily. "Now it's making me hungry." Kunzite was halfway to responding, something stupid like what lighter fluid must taste like on crabs, when something jumped out of the shadows, knocking him over and sinking its teeth into his sword arm. "No!" Sailor Moon screamed. More shadows appeared from nowhere, each the size of a large Rottweiler, snapping and biting as they attacked. Venus shoved her out of the way. "Rolling heart vibration!" The golden heart obliterated two of the youmas in mid-jump. A flurry of ice spears flew through the air and landed in the back of the youma that had latched onto Kunzite's arm. He pried its blood-soaked jaws from his elbow. Zoicite ran over and helped him to his feet. "Close call, bud." Mars, Jadeite, and Nephrite wove back and forth in the melee, drawing more of the youmas away from the Prince and Princess. Nephrite fired several deadly accurate comets, blowing the youmas to dust. He got his first good look at them in the dying light of the flaming crab youma. "Oh man, they kind of look like Rottweilers without snouts! Here boy, c'mon! Burn in hell! That's a good boy!" "And bigger teeth," Jupiter added, electrocuting any youma close enough. Their teeth were long, pointed, and perfectly smooth, designed to crunch through bone. "I think these are Beryl's guard dogs!" "Guard this," Endymion grunted, shoving his sword through one's neck. Sailor Moon's tiara flew through the air, cutting off the legs of the three remaining youma, and the only sound left were their dying screams. Zoicite kicked one's body. "Damn, they were ugly little fuckers." Kunzite held his injured arm against his body as Mercury scanned it. "Does it hurt?" she asked, ripping off his cape and wrapping it against the gushing wound. "No," he lied, his face gray. "Well, you're definitely lying, because your arm's broken." "Great," Jadeite groaned, tapping one tentative foot against the charred crab. "That's just what we need right now; our big gun KO'd by a mutant Rottie." Venus started towards Kunzite, ready to comfort or reassure or whatever was most appropriate for the occasion, and then suddenly took off running. "JADEITE! LOOK OUT!" Jadeite jumped back as the supposedly dead youma sprang up from the ground and started after him. "Oh shit!" Ten different attacks hit it from ten different angles, and ricocheted off its burnt body and slammed into the ceiling. The rock exploded, and suddenly hundreds of boulders were raining down on their heads in a torrent of debris and noise. Endymion could barely see through the cloud of dust, but he managed to catch one last glimpse of his beloved's face, her gigantic blue eyes round with terror, before Venus pulled on her arm and out of the way of danger. Nephrite only had time to shove Jupiter out of the way of falling rocks; if Zoicite hadn't grabbed him by the collar, he would have been buried under a dump truck's worth of broken rock and rubble. The dust settled; Sailor Moon and her Senshi and Prince Endymion and his Generals were separated by two tons of jagged rock and rubble. "This is soo clichéd!" Mars grumbled, laying flat on her back. "What kind of higher power would stick us in such a trite, overdone, tired situation as this?" Sailor Moon clicked on her communicator. "Is everyone all right and accounted for?" Endymion's dusty face appeared in the box. "Yeah, we're fine, except Zoicite thinks he's swallowed a rock. How about you guys?" She took a quick survey of her friends: Mars and Mercury seemed none the worse for wear, Jupiter had sustained a cut on her forehead, and a section of Venus's hair was caught under a giant rock. She was presently sawing it off with her sword. "We're good, for now. Mercury, should we teleport over there or should they come over here?" Mercury wiped a film of dust off of her visor. "We should go over there." "We're coming over," Sailor Moon said. "Hold on a second. Ready, girls?" Venus's hair was now extremely lopsided. "Let's get it on." They held hands in a circle. Nothing happened. "Guys, concentrate," Venus ordered. "What do you think we're doing?" Jupiter said, squeezing her eyes shut. "Something's not right," Sailor Moon said, her voice quavering. Sailor Mars snorted. "My thoughts exactly. Why isn't this working?" Mercury let go of Venus and Jupiter's hands and re-opened her computer. "Something's definitely blocking our teleporting ability. There's no way we can teleport in this kind of interference." "What about the guys?" Venus opened her communicator. "It's not working for us. Why don't you try?" "OK," Endymion agreed. A few minutes passed, and all five of their faces appeared. "It's not working for us, either." "Looks like we're up shit creek," Zoicite added cheerfully. "What's our Plan B?" "Blast through the rock?" Jupiter suggested, wiping the blood off of her forehead. "Take it easy, tiger, we'd probably cave in the ceiling again," Nephrite said on the other end. Sailor Venus pulled her bow out and started tying her uneven hair up into a ponytail. "Mercury, give me a mutual point where we can meet up." She typed. "If we travel in opposite directions, we'll both hit an opening into a parallel hallway. We can meet in the center there." "Hear that, guys?" "Loud and clear, Venus. You guys be careful." She smiled at Endymion's warning. "You too. And try to lay low; we're at a disadvantage being divided like this. Keep the communication lines open, and if we don't meet up in an hour, we'll try teleporting again. Keep your eyes open and your head down." "She always this bossy, Kunz?" "Shut up, Jadeite. Venus out." She shut her communicator, and turned to face her friends. "We are in deep shit, guys." "Kinda figured that one out, too," Mars muttered. "Come on, we have a lot of walking to do." * * * * * * * * * * * * "Yikes! Watch it with that thing!" Nephrite rubbed his leg where it had almost been sliced off by Kunzite's sword. "Sorry. I'm not used to using this hand." His injured arm dangled across his chest in a makeshift sling made out of his cape, leaving him with no other option but to carry his sword with his subdominant hand. "Kunzite can't even pick his nose with his right hand," Jadeite reported, chuckling as he remembered Kevin curled around a right-handed desk, trying to balance his elbow while filling in little SAT bubbles at the same time. Zoicite imagination was running wild; he scanned the ceiling for potential dangly bat-youmas. "You think the chicks are OK?" Jadeite scoffed. "You should be worried about us, not them. They logged in much more playing time then we have. Haven't you noticed that we completely suck at this? Five months ago my biggest concern was how many parties I was going to in a weekend, and now it's saving the world from evil Negaverse Communism, or whatever. Not to mention that besides what's leftover in my brain from a past life, I have absolutely no military experience." "Still..." his voice trailed off. Endymion could sympathize with Zoicite; all he could think about was Sailor Moon. True, she practically had enough power to put the entire world in a coma, but she was still green, and vulnerable, and he wasn't fully convinced that the cave-in had been an accident. She was his soul, his life, his reason to roll out of bed in the morning and keep at it, and if anything happened to her in this freakish ghoul-world, he wouldn't know how to carry on... Nephrite's mind was on the same track; although he knew that Jupiter would probably physically beat him for being such a chauvinist, he couldn't help but think that he should be there, protecting her. What if one of those crab-things was waiting on the other side for them? She was a powerful soldier, he knew, but, for God's sake, WHAT IF? His mind was still awash with sappy ponderings, and he had barely a second to register his comrades' gasps when something large and heavy slammed into his back. He spun, adrenaline pumping, ready to eviscerate the new threat with one fell swoop, and stopped dead in his tracks. "J. Christ, Kunzite, watch where you're going, I almost attacked you!" Strangely, Kunzite didn't meet his eyes, but rather fixed his gaze on a point above Nephrite's head. "Like I meant to," was his curt response. "Well then-" Nephrite stopped and studied his friends. Zoicite was biting his lip and tapping his sword to the ground like a blind man taps his white-tipped cane to the pavement. Jadeite held one hand to the wall and another out in front of him. Endymion was wiping the air with both his hands. "Wait, what's wrong? Have you all been struck blind?" "Nephrite, cut the smartass shit," Kunzite growled, still staring above his head. "Would everyone talk or something so I know where you are?" Endymion was smiling in the dark. "God, you have such an accent. 'Smaht-ass!'" "You've never noticed it before?" "No, I just thought you had a speech impediment. Say 'Harvard.'" Zoicite waved on arm out to the side. "No, tell him to say 'car'." "You're both retarded." "Re-tah-ded!" "I think I'm in front and to your right," Jadeite reported, feeling the wall as he took a step forward. It finally dawned on Nephrite. "Guys, can you see? I'm not being a smartass, I swear, because I can." "You can what?" Zoicite tripped and caught himself. "I can see!" Endymion stopped short. "How the hell can you see; it's pitch black!" "Hey, I'm just as shocked as you guys, but I can see in the dark. What happened, anyway?" "The lichen clicked off," Zoicite said, moving towards Nephrite's voice. "It sounds weird but that's exactly what happened. One minute we're going on our merry way and the next thing I know, all the lights go off and we're stumbling around like blind men." "Are there any immediate threats?" Endymion asked sharply. "Other than one of you falling and impaling yourselves on a sword, none that I can see." Endymion sighed. "You're going to have to lead us, then, unless someone has the power to create light for more than five seconds. Does anyone?" He concluded hopefully. "No," Kunzite sighed, adjusting his arm so that the broken bones didn't grate together and send white-hot sparks of pain shooting up to his shoulder. "I don't remember how," Zoicite said. "I used to do it all the time back then, too. Sorry." Jadeite was disgusted with himself. "Why the hell can I remember the spell for cheating at pitch like it's the friggin' Pledge of Allegiance, but for the life of me I can't remember how to generate a few measly watts that would probably be drowned out by a regulation Christmas light!" Click! Everyone except Nephrite recoiled, startled by the sudden burst of flame and dim yellow glow that accompanied it. Nephrite held the Bic up. "Is this good?" Endymion blinked. "Where did you get that?" "I keep it in that subspace pocket, or whatever Mercury calls it, with a pack of smokes. Why?" He shook his head. "You're unreal. Let's keep moving." Time seemed to pass in hours instead of minutes as they moved down the cavern, occasionally tripping over a stray rock or other hard, unidentifiable object that they chose not to explore in detail. Nephrite led the way with his cigarette lighter, and the others followed behind, hands on each other's shoulders like a line of blind men. "So who's going to win the Series?" Jadeite started, not knowing that he was whispering. "BoSox," Kunzite responded immediately. "Boston my ass, I'm still pulling for the Giants." "Zoicite, your Giants have about as much chance winning as the stupid O's." "Who's dissin the O's?" Jadeite snapped. "Me. The Mariners are taking it, bitch. What's your team, Endymion?" Endymion swallowed nervously, not knowing how it would go over with a Red Sox fan directly behind him. "Yankees." Collective groaning echoed off the walls. "You suck," Zoicite muttered. "Say that again and we'll feed you to the youmas," Nephrite laughed, two seconds before he disappeared into thin air. * * * * * * * * * * * Luna watched as a portion of Beryl's globe lit up, and Beryl's extremely surprised expression. "How did they get there?" Beryl whispered. Luna could barely pick up what she was saying, but she couldn't take her eyes off of the blinking dot on the globe. Beryl waved. "It doesn't matter how at this point." She nodded at her minions. "You know what to do." They bowed. Luna's heart froze. "No. Oh no. Why did they come?" * * * * * * * * * * * * Unlike their counterpart male party, the Senshi were not left in the dark when the lichen inexplicably clicked off. Jupiter lit her glowing electricity ball again, this time joined by a fireball from Mars. Venus blinked in the sudden, harsh light. "Mercury, what just happened?" Mercury angled her computer so that it caught the light from Jupiter's electricity. "Something just passed through, some kind of dark energy." Mars groaned. "Bad dark energy or good dark energy?" " 'Good dark energy' is an oxymoron, Mars." Venus and Jupiter simultaneously pulled out their communicators. "They're not working," Jupiter said, ramming her finger on the button over and over, much like elevator passengers do when the doors don't open immediately. "What the hell's wrong?" "It must be the dark energy; we're surrounded by it!" Venus and Mars were on guard. "What caused it? Did we set off a trigger?" Venus asked. "I don't know." "Fuck us hard." Mars stormed in front of the group, leading the way with her fireball. Sailor Moon drew closer to the glow of Jupiter's ball. "Oh great, after all we went through to draw up a stupid plan that had a pretty decent shot at actually freaking working, somehow we manage to fuck it up and now we're wandering around in the stupid dark like a bunch of stupid-" Mercury screaming abruptly cut off Sailor Moon's complaint. "MARS DON'T MOVE!" Mercury took off, shoving Sailor Moon and Jupiter out of her way, and nearly ripped Mars's arm clean out of the socket in an attempt to pull her back. Mars teetered on her skinny spike heels and fell to the ground, hard. "Mercury!" Her eyes blazed with invisible flame as she jumped up, brushing the backs of her legs. "What was that for?" "You nearly walked right into a 'dark spot'," Mercury panted, placing one hand to her chest. "A what what?" "There's no other way to describe it. It's a patch of highly concentrated dark energy, used mainly as shortcuts to other designated parts of the Dark Kingdom." "Sort of like those secret passages in 'Clue'?" Jupiter surmised. "Not exactly. They were designed for use only by inhabitants of the Negaverse. If we walked into one, at worst we'd be instantly killed; at best, tripping an alarm." Venus smushed her face between her hands and expended every ounce of available energy to keep from screaming. "Is there any way around it?" "No. We'll have to backtrack." "How long will that put us behind?" "Approximately two hours." This time she did scream, albeit through her hands clapped over her mouth to muffle the sound. Sailor Moon patted her on the back. "Don't worry, Venus, this is just a roadblock." "Big fucking roadblock, if you ask me." They started back down the way they came, Mercury in the lead to scan for potential dark spots. Sailor Moon felt like she had been walking for hours; her ankles and knees ached from repeatedly pounding the stone floor, and her optimism was waning with every minute spent in the dark. "This place, it's horrible, it's filled with hate. All I can feel is hate; it even comes from the walls. It's only happy when other people are suffering." "That's probably Metallia you're sensing," Mars said from the rear. "She's basically the embodiment of hate." Sailor Moon sighed, and, like a small child in a crowded shopping mall, she reached for Venus's hand and latched on. "I'm worried about Endymion, too. I mean, I know he's capable of taking care of himself, and he's bailed me out of a few hundred close calls, but...I don't know what's out there. He could be in danger and I would have no way to help him." Venus glanced down at her. "He'll be fine. He's got plenty of backup." "I know he's in very capable hands, but if anything happened to him, I wouldn't have a reason to live." Her tone was light, but her words were deadly serious. Venus pulled her closer. "I don't want to sound like my mother, and say that eventually you'd get over it-" "Then don't," Sailor Moon said simply, like she was answering survey questions. "I love him; he's the other half of my soul, and he's the only thing that keeps me going. If he dies, I die." Venus studied the steadfast resolution in her face. "You mean that, don't you?" "You bet!" She giggled, cheerful even when discussing a serious subject. "Aw, Venus, it's just like old times, when you used to tell me that my love for Endymion was just a crush, and then stick to my side like an overgrown leech to make sure I didn't sneak down to Earth!" Venus guffawed. "I don't know how I didn't pick up on the fact that HE was the one breaking the rules and sneaking up to the Moon!" Sailor Moon laughed, the happy sound refreshingly clashing with the dismal atmosphere. "He wasn't the only one sneaking up to the Moon, hmm? That goes for all of you!" "I don't know what you're talking about," Jupiter said, feigning innocence and starting a round of embarrassed laughter. Sailor Moon wasn't finished with Venus. "Wouldn't you want to die too if Kunzite did? Don't you love him?" Venus stared straight ahead at Jupiter's back. "Yes, I love him. But I would have no other choice to live on; it's my duty to protect you. He would do the same for Endymion." She sighed. "You know, Venus, it's this total preoccupation with duty that makes you absolutely no fun to hang out with sometimes!" Venus smiled. "I'm that boring?" "No, did you hear me? I said, 'When you're Venus.' When you're Mina, you're a blast." "We're the same person." "Sort of. You have this G.I. Jane persona going on when you slip into Sailor Mode. When you're Mina, stuff seems not to bother you so badly." She glanced at the floor. "I hide it well." "We all do," Mars interrupted. "You think I'm this bitchy when I'm not punishing in the name of Mars?" "YES!" said the chorus. Mars reddened until her ears looked like they were burning. A half hour passed, uneventfully. Jupiter broke the silence in the most tactless way possible. "So, Mercury, get any last night?" "I'm not at liberty to discuss that," Mercury said, thankful that her visor covered most of her mortified expression. "'I'm not at liberty to discuss that.' Listen to you! You're not being interrogated by the police, you're just sharing your personal conquests with four of your best friends!" "Let's save the personal conquests for later, OK?" Venus said, peering up at the ceiling. "Not until Mercury swears to tell us everything when we get back," Jupiter bargained. Venus cut Mercury off. "She promises." Mars kicked a stone out of her way. "Do you think we should start on the plan yet? We've been here a while and we haven't done anything except wander and look cute." They all looked to Venus, who nodded. "Might as well stick to the plan. Only Mars and Mercury, though, I don't want to get zapped while running from a youma or a dark spot." Mars began firing at random points on the ground, creating mounds of dust that resembled mini-volcanoes. When stepped on, they would erupt in a burst of flame. Venus had gotten the idea while watching a news report about forgotten land mines in Kosovo that had the unfortunate tendency to blow off children's limbs when they stepped on them. If everything had been going as planned, Kunzite and Nephrite would be planting even deadlier land mines, and Zoicite would be rigging the ceiling with falling, ice crystal stalactites. "Watch your step, guys," Mars warned as she blasted her way down the cavern. Sailor Moon stayed within spitting distance of Venus. "Did you guys hear something?" Venus held her arm out, and everyone stopped. "No," Jupiter said. "I don't. Do you?" "Yes!" Sailor Moon was absolutely distressed. "It's Endymion! He's hurt and he's all alone, oh God he needs my help!" She took off running, heading towards Mars's land mines. Mercury grabbed her before she could blow off her leg. "Please, get a hold of yourself! You're the only one who can hear it, so it must be an illusion." "It's not an illusion, Mercury!" Sailor Moon struggled against her grip. "He needs me!" "EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Mars screamed, her face folded in concentration. "I hear something, it's not Endymion, but something is coming." They heard it then, a soft, scraping sound like wet garbage bags being dragged over gravel. * * * * * * * * * * * * "This fucking sucks," Nephrite said to no one, since there was exactly that many people around to talk to. He clicked off his cigarette lighter, trying to take in his surroundings and assess the situation. << Boy, did I feel like a hose after I kept talking after everyone disappeared. >> The ceiling had lowered, it was only about fifteen feet high instead of practically limitless; it was also making him feel a little claustrophobic. << Maybe I was the one who disappeared. What I would give right now just to know what the hell happened. Where's Mercury and her computer when you need her? >> Soon after, a solid wall hindered his progress, and when he backtracked, he ran into another wall. "What the hell?" he whispered placing a hand on the wall and walking parallel to it. For ten minutes, he followed the wall, not once hitting any sort of door or passageway. Once he thought he saw a glimpse of a narrow passageway cutting through the rock, but when he ran up to it, it wavered and vanished. "I'm boxed in," he said out loud, not caring who heard. <> "SHIT!" "Not completely," a second voice answered from behind his back. Nephrite experienced a mere second of pee-yourself shock as he swiveled around, sword drawn. "You," he whispered. Anger like he'd never felt before flooded his mind; it wiped out any other rational thought until all that was left was a primitive urge to inflict harm on the other person until they stopped moving. Nephlite drew his own sword as he advanced. "What else were you expecting? A red-carpeted path into the Queen's throne room?" "Shut up," Nephrite barked. They circled each other, slowly, like predatory cats. "I just killed Jupiter a few minutes ago. Didn't you feel her go?" "Shut up," he repeated. "I killed her slowly. She screamed." "Fuck you." "I raped her, too. I raped her after she was dead." "Motherfucker, do you think I'm stupid? I'm not falling for any of your twisted psychological shit!" He attacked, landing several blows as the feeling that something just wasn't quite right permeated his brain. Nephlite slashed out, slicing his shoulder in the exact same place where Endymion had a thousand years ago. He hissed in pain, and threw a comet just in time to deflect the one that was hurtling to his face. "You think I'm playing mind games?" Nephlite laughed, even though half of his body was singed from Nephrite's attack. "I'm going to kill you," Nephrite promised, spinning and blocking in a way that would have made Endymion proud. "Talk all you want, it won't get to me." <> He swallowed the hard lump that had barnacled in his throat. << Did he really kill Jupiter? God, I hope she's all right! >> "You're going to kill me?" Nephlite laughed, effortless flinging dark energy at his opponent like it was mud. Nephrite dodged most of it, but his body caught the afterburn and he gasped in pain. Nephlite continued, laughing as Nephrite stumbled back, desperately sucking in air. "But, I thought you were the one who was supposed to be dead." His voice fluctuated, from a sinister hiss of an agent of the Dark Kingdom to the gruff bark of a forty-something paramedic. " 'This one's still alive.'" It was no more than a parlor trick, but it worked. Nephrite froze for a split second, wondering how the Dark Kingdom knew as he remembered: His best friend. Brian Hampton. They met in first grade, purely by coincidence as the teacher had seated them alphabetically. They sat together at lunch, too, sharing Chips Ahoy and chucking the bananas that their respective maids had packed in their plastic lunch boxes, and never separated once through the years. Brian would go on vacations with the Haberman family, and vice versa. They played on the same hockey teams, all through grade school and on through high school. They only dated girls that liked each other, so that double dates wouldn't be like walking on a half inch of ice frozen over ten feet of water. Matt couldn't count the hours they spent together: playing basketball, fishing, going to clubs and parties, picking up girls. They sat next to each other at graduation, flicking at their green and gold tassels and waiting for it all to end, so that they could move out of state and dorm together at Bryce University in the fall, where undoubtedly they would continue to remain friends, even though Brian had stopped playing hockey at that point. Maybe they would join a fraternity. The kid who threw the customary graduation party lived pretty far away, but the trip was well worth it, since the guy's parents were conveniently out of town and his very large house was well stocked. Matt had drank until the mere thought of rising from his seat was an obstacle, but he didn't care. This was their night to kick back, forget everything, and celebrate being young, carefree, and invincible. "Bob just called my cell," Brian told Matt as he slumped on a couch, his eyes so glassy one could see his reflection in them. "Oh yeah? Is he coming?" "He's sneaking out of his house; I told him we'd come and get him." Matt couldn't have stood up if his shoes were on fire. He reached into his pocket and wrapped his hand around the keys to his father's Mercedes. "All right. Want to go now?" Brian pulled the keys out of Matt's hand. "What the fuck, dude, are you fucked up in the head? You're not driving! You can't even stand." Matt put up no argument. "I think you just want to drive a Mercedes, Bri." Somehow he made it out to the driveway, and had barely sat down when Brian reached over and pulled Matt's seatbelt across his chest. Matt had wetly grinned. "Brian, you are my best fucking friend, you know that?" "Yeah, I know," he responded, turning onto the highway. "No, you don't even know. You are the fucking man. You're always taking care of me and shit. We're going to have one fucking time next year, bro." "Yeah," Brian answered simply, flicking on the windshield wipers. It had started to drizzle. "You know everything, Bri. You're a goddamn genius. You've always been better than me at everything." "I'm a lot better looking, too." Matt remembered laughing thickly at that, and turning his head slightly to say something when the car violently lurched, like a roller coaster when it turns a sharp corner, and he remembered thinking that. <> A flash of white hit him hard in the face; he struggled to breath through the clouds of choking smoke, and in a panic, he wondered if the car was on fire. Glass shattered dangerously close to his face, and then something incredibly hard struck him on the side of the head, knocking him out. The first thing he was aware of when he regained consciousness was his mouth and the rain falling in his eyes. He rubbed his tongue against the space where his front teeth had been, not realizing that they were gone yet, trying to assuage the throbbing pain in his mouth. Warm rain rolled down his face, wet and sticky. His eyes were closed, but he could hear, and he listened for the sound of rain pattering against the asphalt, and wondered why he could not. "This one's still alive!" The announcement had been shouted, and Matt flinched and opened his eyes, facing a pair of knees clad in black polyester. <> he thought sluggishly, and suddenly the pain roared to life as if a match had been held to it. His chest hurt so much he could barely breath; it felt like a four hundred pound rock was pressing down on it and preventing his lungs from expanding. He started to hyperventilate. A latex-gloved hand pressed a plastic mask over his face, wiping away some of the rain that was pouring down his face. It was red. <> His eyes dropped shut as he sank back down into blackness, and the last sound he heard was metal squealing and groaning in protest as it tore. He woke up a week later, minus one spleen, with a tube down his throat and several in his arms, and his mother's tear-streaked face hovering above his, her dark hair glowing like a brown halo against the fluorescent lights. She informed him, quite simply, that Brian was dead. He hadn't been stone-cold sober like Matt had previously thought, nor was he wearing a seat belt when he drifted into oncoming traffic. Matt would have been dead if Brian hadn't reached over and buckled his seat belt. <> He thought in the weeks thereafter, smoking Camel after Camel through his new, false front teeth, while he crumpled the new dorm assignment in his fist. The faceless name "Zachary Straub" and a phone number blurred into black puddles as tears formed in his eyes. What he had said in the car in the final moments of Brian's life was the truth, in least in his mind. Brian was smarter, nicer, funnier, better than him in every way. He should have been the one driving. He hadn't told anyone about Brian, not even Lita. He told her he lost his teeth in a hockey fight, and the scar on his abdomen was from an appendectomy. Zach, the premed baseball player, had inquired about it the second day they lived together and hadn't bought the appendix excuse. "For real? Why's it so big? They don't usually do I-incisions unless it's for exploratory-" "They had to explore." Something in Matt's face made Zach drop the subject. "It should have been you," Nephlite said, extending his hand and sending an enormous ball of dark energy spiraling towards Nephrite. He countered at the very last second, but his attacks were growing progressively weaker as he grew wearier. Nephlite sensed this, and blasted an impossibly large comet, crackling with power. Nephrite was too weak and too shaken to dodge. The comet caught him in the chest and sent him flying across the cavern. His body hit the opposite wall so hard the stone cracked upon impact, and he slumped to the floor, gasping. He struggled to breathe against the crushing pain, just like he had felt while pinned in the wreckage of his father's Mercedes. He begged his body to get back up and fight, but it would not or could not obey. << He's going to attack you again! If you don't get up, he'll kill you! >> << What's the point? >> Another part of him groaned. <> He breathed in gasps as another picture floated through his now-foggy mind. His Prince, the one he swore to give his life to protect, would be short one guardian, and that might mean the difference between life and death. He thought of Lita, Makoto, Jupiter, and her shining green eyes and Colgate smile, and how she felt in his arms. "Get up," he whispered to himself. "Get the fuck up." The tip of a sword was pressed against his throat, and he looked up at his double. <> Nephlite smiled down at his wounded prey. "Well, you've never been-" BOOM! Nephrite put everything he had into the comet, every ounce of strength and love and pain that he had left in his body. He threw it for Endymion, for Jupiter, for Brian, for all of his friends that would be that much safer having one less Dark General in the picture. Nephlite's face exploded when the comet impacted, splattering Nephrite with a more than a gallon of blood and brains and flecks of bone. He shut his eyes against the grisly tidal wave, partially to block out the horrific scene and partially to keep it from falling in his eyes. He felt the now-dead body hit the ground like a ton of bricks. "Dumbass. You all fucking talk to much," he mumbled in the darkness, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it between his teeth. He leaned back against the wall and waited for his accelerated healing to kick in, so it would abate the throbbing pain in his chest. Like magic, the crack in the wall that he had been chasing before Nephlite appeared emerged from the shadows again. "If you'd just cut the crap and can all the megalomaniac speeches, maybe your face wouldn't be splattered all over mine." He coughed out a plume of smoke, and wiped away the blood that had appeared on his lips. "Come on, damn it, hurry up. Endymion needs me. How long does it take for a couple of ribs to heal?" * * * * * * * * * * * "How long does it take for an arm to heal?" Kunzite tried to flex his elbow, gasping when assaulted by a hurricane of screaming nerves. "It's only been broken for an hour. Mine usually heal overnight," Endymion said, silently thanking a higher power for turning the lichen back on and relieving them of the crushing darkness. Without Nephrite, they had no chance of making a whit of progress with zero visibility. "We don't have overnight," Zoicite bitched. He had been the number one advocate for searching for their missing comrade, only to be harshly overrode by Kunzite. "Can you fight right at all?" "A little. I'm slower with the right." Jadeite had a simple alternative. "Then don't fight. Use your boomerang to blast them into kingdom come." Endymion, walking besides him, laughed. "Yeah, I'll back you up with my amazing flying shrubbery." No response. Endymion stopped Jadeite and turned around. "Kunzite?" Still nothing. "Zoicite? Answer me." Silence answered him. Endymion's entire chest cavity seemed to sink into the base of his stomach, as the feeling of defeat sunk its teeth deeper into his optimism. << I'm getting scared now. >> Jadeite sighed, sick to death of the whole situation. "Shit." "Did they walk into one of those traps? Do you think they'll find Nephrite?" Jadeite met his eyes. "I think we just walked into one." * * * * * * * * * * * "What-" Jupiter began, before Mercury shushed her. The visored Senshi typed furiously into her computer, backing slowly away from the escalating scraping that seemed to be heading straight for them. Mars and Venus planted themselves in front of Sailor Moon, prepared to attack on a moment's notice. "What is it, Mercury?" Mars whispered, trying to stay invisible for the longest time possible. Mercury's eyes were wide with terror. "I think it's Metallia." "What?" Venus hissed, drawing her sword. "We can't take her on without the others! We're sitting ducks!" "She's descending down a tunnel," Mercury reported. "I suggest that we head in the opposite direction." "Don't have to tell me twice," Jupiter said, pulling on Sailor Moon's wrist. "Let's get the hell out of here before the Incredible Blob finds out we're here." They scurried down the hall like a pack of mice, attempting to run on tiptoe to muffle the telltale clicking of their heels against the stone floor. Mars suddenly stopped. "Guys! What's that?" They gathered around. Venus was puzzled. "It's a door. But I don't understand; it wasn't here before..." Mercury scanned it; a dark, cathedral-like door anachronistically stuck in the middle of the stone wall. She ran her hand down the ancient wood. "If we keep going on the present course, we're going to hit the dark spot again. If we backtrack, we hit Metallia. I think we should just take our chances and try door number one." Sailor Moon shrugged. "Might as well. It's not like we have a lot of options open." She reached for the tarnished brass knob. Venus almost karate chopped her hand off. "What do you think you're doing? I'll go first." She faced her friends. "Be prepared to attack." "Gotcha," Mars affirmed, her hands glowing with heat. Venus took a breath and pushed the door open, softly, so that it didn't hit the wall and come springing back at her. Behind the door was a room, huge, it's ceiling so high that she could barely see the top. It glowed with an eerie green light, making their faces look distorted and sickly. An ostentatious throne sat in the middle, almost undignified in its grandiosity; the chair of someone who wanted to publicly advertise the power that she had stolen. Sailor Moon was looking at the floor, at a doggie-igloo like translucent dome that housed two beaten cats. "Luna! Artemis!" she cried, wishing she could run across the throne room and rescue them. Only about a hundred youma stood in her way. Venus had locked eyes with the person standing in front of the throne. "Beryl." Beryl grinned, raising her arms like a hostess welcoming guests. "Welcome, Sailor Senshi. I was hoping you'd take the bait and come through that dark spot. I had it blocked behind the door, Mercury, so don't start spitting out facts and statistics to me. You should have known better anyway." Mercury flushed with embarrassment as tears pricked at her sinuses. "I'm so sorry, you guys. I should have seen it." "It's not your fault," Sailor Moon whispered reassuringly. Beryl ripped her gaze from Venus and drilled it through the Moon Princess. "Sailor Moon, I see you have brought the crystal. Am I to understand that this will end in surrender?" "Hell no!" Jupiter shouted, her face screwed up in extreme rage. Thinking quickly, she grabbed Sailor Moon by the arm and threw her back through the dark spot. Sailor Moon had time enough to emit a thin cry before she disappeared through the portal. "You'll regret that decision, Jupiter!" Beryl screamed. She turned to her youma army. "Kill them. Go after the princess." Mercury started laughing hysterically, tears running down her face. "You'll have to find her first, Beryl! I just sealed off the dark spot!" Jupiter smiled, swelling with pride that Mercury had kept her wits and came through. "Way to go, Sailor Mercury!" Beryl was nonplussed. "I will find her, I promise you that." The youma advanced on the four Senshi, who were almost pinned against the wall. Mars was bloodthirsty. "Drop me near that bunch, would you, Venus?" She pointed to a patch of gray-skinned, human-looking youma without faces. Venus grinned. "Any more requests?" "Anywhere will do," Jupiter growled, cracking electricity along with her knuckles. "Drop me near the cats," Mercury added. "Right, then," Venus said, her cobalt eyes blazing with anticipation. She slowly unwrapped her chain from her waist. "Grab hold of me." Each Senshi grabbed on. "Ready?" She threw the chain skywards, blinding everyone with golden light. "Here we go!" They shot upwards with the chain, up over the youmas' heads and into the air, swinging like a quartet of female Tarzans. Mars let go and dropped at her desired designation among the faceless youma, her hands shooting jets of fire. "Haha! Betcha you didn't see that coming; you've got no eyes!" Jupiter and Mercury dropped down into the foray; Mercury cleverly fogging up the area to mask their descent. Venus swung like a pendulum for a few minutes, searching for an area that was safe to land in. A figure scurrying away from the battle caught her eye. She swung around and dislodged her chain, landing directly in front of Beryl, her eyes slitted with fury, her sword drawn. "Going somewhere?" Beryl was startled for a split second when the blond Senshi dropped in front of her, but quickly regained her senses. Raising one hand, she blasted dark energy at Venus, knocking her back a few feet, and escaped through another doorway. Venus chased after her. "Where do you think you're going?" Meanwhile, Mercury froze the energy dome encasing the cats and kicked it in, shattering it like a pane of glass. She carefully pulled Luna and Artemis through the jagged hole. "Are you guys all right?" she asked frantically, heat from Mars's attacks singing the backs of her legs. Luna gasped. "Why did you come? You've all put yourselves and the Princess in danger!" Mars tumbled by them, somersaulting on the ground while billowing smoke. "What, did you think we'd leave you here?" She ran back into her battle, leaping Bruce Lee-style with one heeled foot positioned in a kick. Mercury tucked Luna into the crook of her elbow, and was positioning Artemis when Jupiter screamed. "Mercury! Look out!" Mercury didn't even have time to duck. A streak of dark energy hit her square in the back, throwing her forward into a wall. She tried to twist in midair to avoid crushing the cats, but only succeeded in smashing her forehead against the rock. "Unh!" she grunted, slumping to the floor, unconscious, Luna and Artemis absorbing most of the impact. "Mercury!" Luna screamed, trying to wiggle out from Mercury's dead weight. Jupiter, who had been keeping one eye on Mercury the entire time, quickly wiped out a wave of youma and ran to her friend's aid. "Mercury! Are you OK?" She lifted Mercury as gently as she could with one hand, as the other was detonating bolts of lightening at the advancing front. Mercury's head flopped backwards limply, her visor cracked down the middle and a stream of blood running underneath. "Oh, no," Jupiter breathed. "Mars, back me up! Mercury's down!" "I can't!" Mars screamed back. The non-faced youmas were all but wiped out; however, a fresh wave of skinny, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"-ish beings had her surrounded. Jupiter discharged more lightening. "Mercury? Can you hear me? Wake up; we need you!" She shook the Ice Senshi's head back and forth, trying to draw a response. "Mercury, please wake up, please!" Luna was in a panic of her own. Artemis hadn't immediately responded after she pulled him out by his scruff, and now she frantically batted his cataleptic body with her paws. "Artemis! Are you OK? Speak to me!" Jupiter thought briefly of slapping Mercury in the face before she noticed the visor. Carefully she ripped it off of Mercury's face and stuck it on her own. <> Her eyes darted around all the statistics around the screen, attempting to piece together what was vital information and what was not. A few minutes later, she tore it from her face and flung it as hard and as far away as she could, tears of anger and unbearable grief running hotly down her face. She jumped up, frying any youmas obstructing her path to Mars. "Thank God you're here! I was getting my ass kicked!" Mars leapt in the air, kicking a youma in the face. Jupiter pressed her back to Mars's as they regrouped. "Mercury's gone." Mars almost fell to the floor in shock. "WHAT?" "She's gone. Dead. So is Artemis." Mars shook her head. "You must be mistaken." "No, I'm not. I looked through her visor; she has no pulse. Her brain was bleeding." Mars shook her head. "No," she whispered, her voice quavering. She swallowed around the giant lump forming in her throat. "No, she can't be. She-" "She's gone, Mars." Jupiter clenched her teeth against the onslaught of fresh pain, wishing desperately to disbelieve her own words. Suddenly, she screamed, releasing thousands of green oak leaves that tore through the white youma, ripping their flesh to shreds. Mars grabbed her wrist and pulled her through the rows of falling youma, stopping only briefly to grab Luna's sobbing form. She ran back through the doorway, an army of youma chasing them. "Mars, wait! We can't leave Mercury behind!" "She's dead, Jupiter, you said so yourself. Now we have to find the princess." Jupiter swung her long arms around to gain momentum. "Shouldn't we land right next to her?" "Mercury closed the dark spot, remember?" She threw Luna over her shoulder and picked up speed. "We're on our own now. I just hope Venus knows what she's doing."