Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Crystal Dreams ❯ Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

The first thing that Serin became aware of when he regained consciousness was that he hurt like hell. A blast of frigid wind chose that moment to cut across his face, lashing him mercilessly, which fully awakened him as he opened his eyes.

As his surroundings came into focus, the paladin tried to make sense of where he was. Slowly getting into a sitting position, his next realization was that his leg was pinned down. A cursory glance showed that his leg was only restrained, not crushed, by a large piece of twisted, charred metal. As he shifted into a position to survey his surroundings better, Serin could see that many other, similar pieces of scrap metal were deposited around his area, ranging from near miniscule to several that looked heavy enough to crush bones. Blinking his eyes slowly, the memories of his last few seconds of consciousness came rushing back.

`A firestorm rushed through the ship from the fuel tanks, and both Sephiroth and Urawa were putting up shields to protect us…' Shaking his head, the paladin reached down and, with a great deal of effort, managed to lever the restraining scrap piece off of his leg. Cautiously standing, Serin found that though it was still numb, he could quickly walk it off. With that settled, he began to take a better look at the area.

Aside from the large, rocky cliffs surrounding nearly every side, the only other thing of interest was a large structure that appeared to be made of some purple, crystalline material. Studying the building as closely as he could, Serin began to feel some strange energy pulsing from its interior. Shaking the ominous feelings that began to creep up on him, the paladin turned away, and began to search the debris for his friends.

Ryuhi was easily found, as he was underneath one of the larger pieces, trying to shove it right off of him with brute force. Failing to notice the paladin approaching, the martial arts warrior finally growled in irritation, and fired a Cosmic Saucer blast into the wreckage, disintegrating it into a fine powder. As he brushed himself off, Ryuhi turned and happened to see Serin standing there with a quizzical expression on his face.

Ryuhi, in turn, adopted a strained-patient look, and stated, "Tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing if you could."

Raising his hands in surrender, Serin directed the conversation on to more important topics, replying with, "Let's see if we can find the others, all right? I'll take a look over in that area, so why don't you search over there?" as he indicated each point with a gesture.

Ryuhi simply nodded, grunted, and then began jogging in the direction indicated to begin his search.

Within moments, everyone had been accounted for save for Cid, and a more thorough search failed to turn up any clues either. Finally, Serin called the others back and shrugged in surrender.

"I really don't think we'll be able to find anything else. Besides, even if we did find Cid, it's unlikely he'd manage to get the Big Whale repaired." The paladin paused, then slowly added, "I think…that for all intents and purposes…we're stuck here."

Ryuhi studiously showed no reaction to the pronouncement, Kara showed visible distress, while both Sephiroth and Urawa slowly accepted the fact that they would never see their loved ones again. Despite the enormity of the statement, both party members appeared to handle it reasonably well, and eventually resigned themselves to their fate.

Continuing on, Serin stated, "At any rate, we've got a job to do, so let's get to it. My guess would be that Zemus is probably hiding in there." This was punctuated by Serin pointing over at the crystalline tower he had noticed earlier. "Does anybody disagree?"

Nobody did.

"All right. Let's gather up the supplies we could salvage, and hope that we can get more once we're inside." Blowing out a short breath, Serin punctuated, "Ten minutes or less, people. Let's go."

It was a testament to Serin's seemingly natural abilities as a leader that everyone, even Ryuhi, immediately began to follow their directions, and within five minutes, all the salvaged supplies had been collected. With only a short pause and backward glance at the earth, the group entered their target.

Ryuhi, who had taken the lead, blinked at the almost immediate change in architecture as they entered the cave directly beneath the palace. Though the place started out as a hollowed out cave entrance, about a meter in the ground merged with the tile work that comprised the floor of Zemus' apparent dwelling.

The surprise wasn't lost on the others, either.

Sephiroth knelt to study the flooring, running first his hand, and then the tip of his Masamune across the surface. "Hm…interesting. The material appears like glass, yet I can't seem to scratch it at all."

Urawa shrugged at that point. "Maybe the floor's made of diamond. After all, the Lunarians apparently traveled all over the universe, so it's not entirely out of the question that they gathered enough diamonds to lay some flooring down."

Sephiroth nodded, but replied, "True enough…but my Masamune sword is strong enough to cut through even diamonds. That it can't, implies that this is a new material we're dealing with here."

Serin, meanwhile, had been pushing onward, reaching first a tall base upon which sat an elegant, yet simple chair. Assuming this to be a throne, Serin walked up the steps and ran his hand lightly over the frame, feeling something familiar nagging at him…something…no, someone who was supposed to be here… Gritting his teeth in frustration, he shook his head, and met his comrades at the bottom of the steps.

"Anything interesting?"

The paladin shook his head. "Nothing beyond the vague feelings, Urawa, and I've had just about enough of those. Let's continue on. With any luck, this is the throne room, and Zemus won't be far away."

Pressing on into the next room proved to be an even bigger surprise, as even Ryuhi's jaw dropped in amazement at the sight that awaited them.

The room itself was nothing overly spectacular, as it was a large circular domed structure with eight pedestals, one at each major and minor point of the compass.

It was what floated above those pedestals that captured the party's attention.

Each base supported a crystal that easily matched even Sephiroth's height, and each crystal glowed in its own distinct color. Still awed by the sight, the group split up and began to examine them, stopping short of actually touching them, at Kara and Urawa's request, as they both could feel massive amounts of magical energy rolling off of them.

After a few moments, Serin blinked, and then turned to his comrades.

"Wait…I remember what these are now!"

Urawa whirled at that, and asked, "Huh? What do you mean, Serin?"

Their leader, by way of answer, walked over and pointed to a glowing red crystal that almost appeared to have a blaze emanating from its center. "This is the crystal of Fire right here. Over there…" and as he spoke, Serin moved on to the next one, which glowed a dark blue, and seemed to have the appearance of the pre-Cataclysm liquid medicine capsules, "…is the crystal of water. And these other two are Earth and Wind, respectively," he concluded, pointing to two more crystals. "That means that…these are the crystals of the elements!"

Urawa scratched his head and opened his mouth to comment on that, but Kara beat him to the punch. "Okay, but…what about these other four, Serin?"

Serin's enthusiasm sagged for a brief moment, but then his face brightened again. "I remember someone telling me long ago that just as there were four crystals of light controlling the elements, there were also four crystals of darkness controlling the underworld."

Ryuhi adopted a skeptical voice at this. "You mean to tell me that long ago, the elements on our planet were controlled by crystals?"

Sephiroth tapped a finger to his chin in thought. "It does make a certain amount of sense when you think about it. Magic apparently has been in existence on earth for a long time. It's not entirely out of the question for magic to once have been the controlling force of earth, as well."

Kara then piped in with, "Well, as interesting as that may be, it doesn't bring us any closer to our goal of finding and defeating Zemus. And since there's no door in this room, where is he?"

Serin grinned slowly as the answer came to him, though he had no idea where or how he knew so much. "He's right below us."

"Huh?"

Serin pointed to a tile in the precise center of the room that was crafted differently from the others. "That teleporter will take us to Zemus' location…in the core of the moon."

Urawa glanced back up at Serin with an odd expression on his face. "How…"

The paladin shrugged in answer. "Beats me. But I say let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. Besides, if I'm wrong, we backtrack and try again."

Ryuhi then smirked and punched his left fist into his palm. "Well then, lead on, fearless leader."

Game for the challenge, Serin walked up and stepped directly on the tile as his comrades crowded around him. Almost as if they had hit a pressure-sensitive switch, a voice similar to the one that had greeted them in the tower at Skyhaven stated, "We will guide you to the path that leads to the core!" And with that statement and a flash of light, they were whisked away to face their destiny.

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Though they were ready much later than she had wanted to be, everyone had finally assembled to follow Serin and the others to Lunaria. Had the situation not been so serious, Makoto might have been prompted to laugh.

First off, when everyone found out what was going on, all of them wanted to go. Serenity had shot down that idea, however, stating that somebody had to be here to protect Crystal Tokyo. That led to Mars suggesting that the team heading to Lunaria would be comprised of herself, Serenity, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus. While Jupiter had no problems with that, Saturn threw a fit.

She stated, in no uncertain terms, that she was not going to sit around while Sephiroth was in possible danger. The young senshi also added that she didn't care what their concerns were over her health and well being, there was no way she was going to be left behind.

That meant that someone had to stay behind, to even up the teams, and pave the way for a possible second wave. Serenity plainly stated that since her brother was out on this mission, and she didn't particularly feel like losing him so soon, she felt a responsibility to assist him in any way. Mercury was adamant-she was going, citing her love for Urawa as the basis for her coming along, no matter what. With that precedent established, no one wanted to try talking Jupiter out of coming.

That left Mars and Venus.

Mars, despite her initial demands to come along, eventually conceded the remaining slot to her comrade, after drawing a pledge that they would all come back safe and sound.

Finally, an hour and a half later, the five girls stood in a circle, having already transformed moments earlier. With a simultaneous whisper, the senshi called out, "Sailor Teleport!"

Their comrades watched as a glowing mass of energy surrounded the five girls, and with a flash, transported them to their destination.

As they hovered above the surface of Lunaria in their personal `energy globe', Mercury activated her visor, scanning for any possible threats, as well as the composition of the atmosphere. After informing her comrades of the safety of the atmosphere, the Senshi descended, and began to spread out in a defensive formation while Mercury continued working with her visor in an attempt to track down the location of Serin and the others.

A few minutes into her work, the visor began emitting a sharp beeping sound. Glancing at the readout, the warrior of ice turned to her friends and shouted, "A large enemy force is coming in from the left! They're closing fast!"

Standing firm, the girls glanced left and right as they surveyed the desolate landscape, expecting their opponents to show up at any moment.

Seconds ticked by, but nothing showed up within visual range. After a few moments, Mercury turned to a cliff face, and shouted, "Over there!"

As if summoned by her voice, four gelatinous, blob-like monsters began oozing their way down the cliff at a steady jogging man's pace, seemingly having no trouble with the awkward mode of transport. Other than the color of their bodies (one dark purple, two light pink, and one white), the four were similar in all other respects, right down to the blood red eyes.

Saturn quickly reacted to the enemy presence, even as Sailor Moon reacted in disgust to the creatures. Calling her Glaive into being, she swung it outward toward their foes, calling out, "Death Ribbon Revolution!"

Seemingly hundreds of black ribbons phased into existence, and shot toward their targets slicing deep into the viscous `flesh' of the monsters. This had, predictably, no effect on their advance as the wounds instantaneously closed up as soon as the assault ended.

Mercury took action immediately afterward, as she brought her crossed arms in front of her face, and shouted, "SHABON SPRAY FREEZE!" As she called out her attack's name, the warrior-princess swung her arms outward as a deluge of freezing cold descended on the battlefield. Within seconds, amid loud crackling sounds, the three blob-like monsters froze in place, their bodies immediately afterward becoming encased in large blocks of ice.

Venus then followed up the attack, throwing her arms down at her sides, calling up a twirling chain of hollow hearts to encircle her body. Raising one hand up, she shook her finger once and then pointed at the three frozen foes as she called out, "LOVE-ME CHAIN!" The chain, such as it was, pierced each target, quickly shattering each block into a million pieces, which then evaporated. Standing victorious over the remains of their enemies, Mercury quickly went back to work on her computer, and smiled as the results flashed on her visor.

"Bingo! Got their location! They're inside that tower over there!" she stated to her friends.

Sailor Moon smiled herself and nodded as she spotted the lone spire in the distance. "All right, Scouts, let's get in there and punish them in the name of love and justice!"

Their leader's gung-ho attitude was slowed down when Saturn piped up with a question. "Um…who are we going to punish? Serin and the others, or Zemus?"

Jupiter giggled at that, and tousled Saturn's hair. "Both, if we have time, I'd say."

A chorus of laughter ensued before everyone returned to business, and began racing toward their destination, hoping that it was not too late.