Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Crystal Dreams ❯ Chapter 17

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter Seventeen

Sephiroth sliced through the nucleus of a purple fossil-like monster, which somehow managed to roar in pain as it collapsed and disintegrated. From behind him, he heard Kara's shout, "Get back!" and leapt back with every bit of energy he had in his legs, propelling him just behind their front line.

The summoner, in the meantime, thrust her palms outward to face the four remaining creatures (valkyrie warriors with fiery-yellow hair), and called, "King of the Seas, heed my call. LEVIATHAN!"

Materializing out of mid air in place of Kara and her party appeared a great light blue serpent, coiled up and intently staring at its targets, which were remarkably showing no fear in light of the fact that the odds were obviously stacked against them. The warrior women charged in, shouting apparent war cries as they prepared to attack.

Leviathan apparently studied this audacity in great amusement for a few seconds before rearing up and hissing. This, in turn, summoned forth a huge tidal wave of water that rushed forward with incredible speed smashing into the fiery valkyries. With a hiss of superheated steam, the water and the creatures dissipated into nothingness. A moment later, Leviathan followed suit, to be replaced by its summoner, as well as the rest of the party. After insuring that they were indeed free and clear, Serin collapsed onto one knee, using his sword for support.

"Damn! That one sack of bones was a tough customer. He must have bit me four or five times before Sephiroth finished him off." As he spoke, Urawa cast a minor healing spell on the paladin, who sighed in relief.

Ryuhi brushed some dirt off of his back as he scowled even more fiercely than usual. "That ticks me off. If it hadn't been for my Cosmic Saucer going right through the skeleton's body, I wouldn't have been caught off guard for that one witch to smack me from behind."

Sephiroth chuckled as Kara replied with a smirk, "Don't worry, Ryuhi. Everybody gets caught off guard once in a while. You have a definite talent for that, though since you managed to make it quite entertaining. I never thought I'd get to see someone fly face-first into a wall and leave a nice imprint."

Ryuhi growled in irritation, then turned around with a `humph'. Serin, meanwhile, had stood and was glancing around the area for any more ambushes. Seeing none, he glanced back up and sighed. They had already gone down five flights of stairs, and he didn't think that it was a good idea to head back up, especially considering that they were stuck here anyway, without any home base or extra supplies to return to. Even though they had come across a few more bottles of Ether and about five potions, Serin didn't think it would be enough.

Gritting his teeth, he reminded himself of the task at hand, and called out, "Alright people, let's keep going! The longer we stay in one place, the longer Zemus will have to send reinforcements to our position."

With a chorus of assents, the party continued their journey deeper into Lunaria's core.

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Meanwhile…

Sailor Moon gazed at the crystals just above the surface as if hypnotized by its beauty. While normally the others would be pushing for action, they were similarly enraptured. As they all wandered the area, Saturn knelt by a peculiar tile in the floor, feeling a curious energy brimming out of it. After a moment, she shrugged, and stood back up, ignoring it for the moment.

Mercury slowly climbed the steps to one of the crystals, and peered at it from every angle possible, as if expecting to see a hidden door or something. Finding nothing, she activated her visor, and ran a few sequences through her computer as she scanned the crystal. As she waited for the programs to finish, she noticed her friend about to put her hand on one of them. Before she could shout out a warning, her computer began to emit loud beeping sounds, which briefly drew her attention. Shock widening her eyes, she shouted, "DON'T…"

Too late, Sailor Moon's hand came to rest on one of the crystal's faces, which shimmered outward from where she touched it. As she kept her hand on the gem, her friends rushed over to her, in an attempt to forcefully pull her away. Just as they reached the base of the pedestal, an ethereal voice spoke.

<Welcome, travelers. Long have we waited for one to speak with us.>

Coming to a confused halt, the other senshi paused as their leader pulled her hand away from the crystal's surface. "Who…who said that?" Jupiter asked.

<We, the four crystals of the elements, and the four crystals of the underworld, have spoken to you, who have come all this way.>

Mercury, who was regarded by many as the most knowledgeable woman in post-Cataclysm history, was flabbergasted. Several attempts were made to speak, but nothing came out.

Saturn, who was quicker to recover, said it for all of them. "The…the crystals…are intelligent???"

<Yes. Created by the Lunarians many years ago, we have kept watch over first Lunaria, and then earth. We have been in stasis for over 2500 years.>

A different voice piped in at this point, [The girl who awakened us…she has a similar power to TroYa's son.]

<Agreed. She is not of Lunarian blood, though…>

"Serin?!? Serin came through here?" Jupiter asked, barely able to contain her excitement.

The first voice answered, <We are not certain of his name. However, he did carry the Crystal Sword, which probably means…>

This time, a third voice spoke, {…That Zemus has returned.}

The second voice seemed grave as it added, [And since we do not sense any other Lunarians here…]

Jupiter called out a bit louder "Wait! You have guests here, you know! How far ahead of us are Serin and the others?"

A fourth voice answered, <<With Zemus' power weakened briefly, TroYa's son and his companions went through to the core…and they've been in for quite a long time.>>

Saturn nodded, and turned to the others. "We have to go after them."

A chorus of assents came, and the first voice whispered, <We will guide you to the path that leads to the core, then. Step onto the tile in the center!>

The girls quickly complied, and with a flash of light, they were back on the trail of their comrades.

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Urawa barely managed to stay upright after the purple-skinned behemoth's attack was finished, as he felt that nearly all of his life had been drained in that attack. To the party's credit, the beast was heavily injured as well, but that last attack had more than likely turned the tide in its favor.

Ryuhi struggled to maintain his focus, and gritted his teeth as the chi surged through him. Forcing his weakened muscles to react, the warrior exploded forward in a desperate attempt to down his foe, calling out, "KAIO-KEN TIMES 15!" Battering away repeatedly at the creature, Ryuhi forced his body to continue going, ignoring the screaming messages that his muscles were sending to his brain. Even as unconsciousness threatened to take him under, he relentlessly hammered away, not stopping until his body totally gave out, and forced him to collapse, utterly spent.

Fortunately, by that time, the Behemoth was defeated, and the others quickly administered all the first aid that they could with what they had to the martial arts warrior. When he finally came to, Serin noted with a sinking feeling that this left them with one elixir (or so Urawa called it) for each of them. Pushing that thought to the back of his mind, he again called for the party to press on, but was stopped by Sephiroth.

"No."

Serin blinked in confusion at the contradiction as he eyed the swordsman. "Huh? What do you mean, `No'?"

Sephiroth smiled slightly, and placed a hand on his comrades' shoulder. "I have a feeling that this is the last floor before we reach our goal. It's just a hunch, mind you, but my hunches are usually pretty good. What we should do is take a brief moment, and rest. You're tired, I'm tired, we're all tired, and a tired warrior is soon a dead one. We should set up camp here, rest for a bit, and then continue on. We'll do more damage that way."

Serin tensed up, prepared to fight it…and then the wisdom of his friend's advice sunk in. Blowing out a deep breath, the paladin nodded.

With a simultaneous sigh of relief, everyone collapsed to the ground, with Urawa making a makeshift pillow with his pack before drifting off to sleep, Kara following suit shortly thereafter. Ryuhi walked off a few paces, and then began an intense, energetic kata, in an attempt to further strengthen his body. Serin took the opportunity to lean against a column, hissing in pain as his legs immediately began to relax from a constantly standing state.

Sephiroth, who took up residence on the other side of the column, chuckled in response. "That wasn't such a bad idea after all, was it?"

Serin smirked, and responded with, "Bite me."

A moment of silence passed before Serin commented with a sly tone, "So…Kara tells me you've got the hots for Saturn?"

Sephiroth was thankful that no one could see his reddened face at the moment. "I knew I should have glued her mouth shut."

Serin chuckled and shrugged. "Hey, nothing wrong with that. You know I've got a thing for Jupiter, so I don't see your love as anything to tease you about. I do wonder though…"

"What I see in her?" Sephiroth asked wryly.

"…Well, yeah. Kinda…I wouldn't have put it that way…"

Sephiroth chuckled. "I don't hold it against you. As a matter of fact, she asked me that exact same question." Leaning back further against the supporting pillar, he sighed. "I think…that it has something to do with our…similarities in our early lives…"

"Similarities?" Serin asked.

"Yes…some things that…I'd really rather not go into…"

"Oh, yeah, sure…I mean, I didn't want to pry…"

Sephiroth chuckled again. "I know. But…we both went through a lot of the same pain in our early years. I told her that it's nice…to have someone who knows what its like…" Shaking his head, he muttered, "That probably sounds crazy."

"…No. It actually doesn't. An emotional burden such as the one you're obviously carrying shouldn't have to be handled alone. If Saturn can help you with it, then I say you two are a perfect match," Serin commented.

Sephiroth's only reply was silence for a moment, as he remained deep in thought. `Is it possible that…that I love her? Or do I just see her as a confidante?'

"Hey, Serin?"

"Yeah, buddy?"

"How…how did you know that you were in love with Jupiter?"

Serin blinked in surprise for a moment, and took a moment to try organizing his thoughts. Truth be told, even with his memories fully restored, he still wasn't sure when he knew for certain that Princess Jupiter was his true love. The words coming slowly out of his mouth, he started, "I…think…that when…you…really feel…I dunno, I guess…comfortable around the significant other…"

"Comfortable how? Sorry, but…well, let's just say I didn't have the best example of `love' when I was growing up."

Serin sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to concentrate. Finally, he gave up. "I really can't say, Sephiroth. For every person it's different. But trust me…when you know, you know."

With mock irritation, Sephiroth muttered, "Oh, that explains everything."

Serin laughed, and then clambered to his feet, noting that he did indeed feel much more relaxed. Glancing over to his friend, the paladin said, "Well, I think we've given Zemus enough time in this life already. Let's push on, and end this once and for all!"

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Sailor Moon screamed in pain as the lightning bolt crashed down on her body, sending each of her muscles into a brief, yet intense spasm. Saturn, who had had more than enough from this imp-like creature, raced forward, and bisected the monster's body from top to bottom with her glaive. After pausing a moment to insure that the creature was dead, she hurried back to the rest of her friends, who were crowding around their fallen leader.

Pushing the others back, Saturn quickly used her healing powers to rejuvenate the warrior-princess' wounds. Most of the others breathed a sigh of relief at that, save for Jupiter, who looked greatly distraught, as though she were about to cry.

"Sailor Moon, I'm so, so sorry! I wasn't thinking when I hit him with a Thunderclap Zap! Please believe me, I didn't mean to!"

Fighting her way back to her feet, the senshi of the moon smiled weakly at her friend as she succeeded. "Don't worry about it, Jupiter. To be honest, I was fooled by that routine, too. I didn't expect one of the creatures to be smart enough for reverse psychology."

Mercury smiled slightly at the memory. "It was a surprise to have it run up, and then cower in fear, begging us not to hit it with lightning."

"Please don't shock me! Please! Anything but lightning!" Venus said, in a rather poor imitation of the imp's voice.

This release of tension got a good laugh out of everyone, which greatly relieved Jupiter. Hugging her friend, she whispered, "Thanks."

After extricating herself from the hug, the princess and her friends continued onward, coming across more corpses, many of creatures that they hadn't seen in battle themselves. Some were easily identified (such as the few dragons they saw), but others completely baffled even Mercury (purple creatures that resembled a cross between a bull and a lion, and other creatures that seemed to be little more than a grotesque purple face.).

The few creatures that they did meet up with were easily dispatched, and fortunately, none of the tricky imps appeared, though Jupiter was still very cautious about launching any attacks before Mercury gave the okay.

Finally, after passing through one last teleporter, the girls spotted five figures surrounding one tall, imposing being clad in a purple robe just in front of them, and immediately, they knew who it was.

"SERIN!"

"SEPHIROTH!"

"URAWA!"

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Serin and the others, meanwhile, had their own problems to work out.

Urawa, acting under an impulse order from Sephiroth, had immediately cast a Slow spell on Zemus, which seemed to be working remarkably well, since the Lunarian mage had yet to retaliate, though how long that would last was anybody's guess.

Serin, meanwhile, was hacking away, occasionally joined by Sephiroth, but more often than not acting on his own.

Kara was firing off her most powerful spells like a machine gun, despite the fact that her body was beginning to complain about the mental strain. Starting off with her powerful Virus spell, she then went down the line to Ice 3, Fire 3, and Lightning 3, repeating as needed.

Sephiroth, when not tag teaming with Serin, was also casting his powerful attack magic, hardly pausing or moving as he continued to hammer Zemus with his attacks.

Urawa, who saw no need to heal the party just yet, maintained a defensive posture for the inevitable counter attack, save for the one time he decided to use his new spell to blast Zemus with holy magic.

Finally, Ryuhi, who had been standing back from the action this entire time, called out, "TAKE COVER!" Turning his gaze up at his foe, the martial artist grinned wickedly as he formed the familiar sphere of chi.

"If you really want to see how strong you are, then just hold that pose," he commented. Calling out, "SPIRIT BOMB!" as he lobbed the sphere, Ryuhi covered his face with his arm, just after taking a sneak peek to insure that the attack did, in fact, hit its target dead on.

Hearing several screams of surprise from behind him, Ryuhi risked a glance back to see, much to his shock, five of the Sailor Scouts struggling to stand against the shockwave of the explosion. Gritting his teeth, he then turned back to the front, as the explosion died down, and lowered his arm.

Zemus staggered a couple of steps back, and coughed up a thick stream of blood. Glaring at his opponents, he muttered, "This…is…only the…beginning, you fools!" Coughing a bit more, he gave a final gasp, and then collapsed to the ground.

The silence that followed was so complete; one could have heard the sound of a heartbeat from several feet away. It was broken by Ryuhi, who smirked as he said, "Well…I don't know what everyone was so worried about! This guy had a creamy center, as it turned out."

Serin would have replied to that, except that his senses directed him to turn, just in time to catch a human missile in his arms, which immediately began smothering him with kisses, even as they both collapsed to the floor.

"Ma…Mako-chan, I…come on, there's people looking…"

Jupiter took one brief moment to stop, and she held his face in between her palms as she gently tapped the back of his head against the floor. "Serin, I love you more than life itself, but if you ever do anything like that again, I'll kill you."

Serin smiled sheepishly and nodded at that. "Yeah, I know it wasn't the smartest thing to do, Mako-chan, but it was all Sephiroth's idea, and…"

"Oh, so it was your idea, huh, Seph?!?"

Sephiroth turned to see an understandably irate Saturn stomping over to him, her Silence Glaive gripped tightly in her right hand. Gulping, the swordsman glanced down at the materia in his Masamune, his dread growing when he couldn't find any Sleep materia. After he briefly thought about having Urawa cast a sleep spell on her, his lover was in front of him…and before anyone could react, smacked him on the head with the pole of her glaive.

"Aaahhh, son of a…!"

Waving a finger under his nose, the senshi of death stated, "Repeat after me, Seph-kun: I will never try to leave my girlfriend behind again."

Blinking both in pain and surprise, the swordsman nodded, and repeated the phrase, with enough vigor that it was acceptable to his significant other. Urawa managed to get off the hook with Mercury by spinning a yarn that they had tied and gagged him to bring him aboard, and though Kara heard the lie, she decided against saying anything to get her friend in trouble.

After a few moments of affection between the established couples, Sailor Moon slowly walked up to her brother, who was just standing up from his and Jupiter's `down time', and gave him the once over before breaking in to a broad smile, and nodding.

"Not bad, Serin…not bad at all. `Course, I could have done a lot better…"

Serin's eyes widened, as he took a menacing half step toward her. Serenity, understandably, giggled as she backed up while sticking out her tongue.

Sephiroth cut in at this point, stating "Wait, wait…much as I'm glad to see you all…how did you get here? The Big Whale was destroyed, and…"

Saturn glanced up at the taller swordsman and queried, "Oh, so that's what that flash of pain I felt was."

Moon answered Sephiroth, "Well, it's one of the powers that we Senshi have. We can transport to any location we wish at just about any time."

Ryuhi turned an unreadable look over at his comrade, and said, "Nice, Sephiroth. We couldn't have left them behind even if we'd really wanted to. You just proved that you know a LOT about them."

In the midst of the ensuing laughter, Urawa happened to glance behind him, and his eyes widened. Stepping away from the prone body of Zemus, he called out, "Guys…"

Mercury was the first to note something wrong, and when she discovered the problem, her call of alarm snagged the entire team's attention.

Once again, the silence that pervaded the room was complete, but now, it was a silence of shock and horror. For once, even Ryuhi was rooted to the spot as they all watched Zemus' body rise up, of its own accord, and begin to change.

Skin ripped apart, cloth tore, and limbs cracked into new positions as the powerful Lunarian mage transcended death to assume a new form. When the transformation was complete, little of his original visage could be seen, as he appeared to be a blue spherical mass of flesh with an area near the bottom that vaguely resembled a face.

"Born of Zemus' rage, a product of dark substance…my name is Zeromous. I…AM…THE HATRED!!!" the creature stated in a rumbling voice.

A flash of power sent everyone forcefully crashing into a wall, where each of them slumped over, unconscious. Unheard by them, Zeromous laughed maniacally.

"My rage will last until I destroy all. Now it's your turn…come into my darkness!"

As the monster gathered energy for its final blow, a glowing light began to emanate from Sailor Moon's locket. The Silver Imperium Crystal then phased out and rose up into the air, bathing everything and everyone in it's light.

Several orbs of the Crystal's power went into the Senshi and their friends, quickly reviving them to the fullest extent of their power. The final orb shot straight into Zeromous, who quickly convulsed in reaction, and began to roar in pain.

"Gr…RRRGGGHHH!!!"

Unsure what to expect, the group readied their most powerful weapons and spells as Zeromous underwent yet one more transformation into his ultimate form, which defied description. It became quite clear to all that this would be the final battle…and anything less than first place would be unacceptable for either side.