Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ Reflections of Ruin ❯ Scylla and Charybdis ( Chapter 14 )

“I'm Sailor Moon,” Usagi said simply, looking her mother right in the eye.

 

Ikuko stared at Usagi for a long moment, allowing all the remaining pieces to fall into place. It made sense. It explained just about everything, actually. Usagi's lack of involvement in the home life, the late nights, the way that Luna seemed almost too smart for a cat, everything. “I see,” she said.

 

Silence hung between them. Ten seconds stretched on into thirty, thirty seconds became a minute, and a minute became two before Usagi finally spoke up again. “Say something, mom.”

 

Ikuko's eyes flashed angrily. “What do you want me to say? That my own daughter has been lying to me for, what, two and a half years? That you've been running around the city, putting yourself in mortal danger with no concern for your family and how we might feel if something were to happen to you?”

 

Usagi felt the blood drain from her face. “No! That's not it!”

 

“Then what is it, Usagi?”

 

“I'm Sailor Moon. I right wrongs, and triumph over evil! We help people, and we make the world safer!”

 

“That's a load of nonsense,” Ikuko said dismissively, and Usagi flinched to hear it. “You might think of it as some sort of game for school girls, but this is serious! You could die! All of you could die, and we wouldn't even have known it before now! You'd just vanish. We'd look for you and never find you, and there'd be nothing we could do. We'd never know what happened to you!”

 

Now in a state of near panic, Usagi went for broke: “But Moooom, I'm a reincarnated Moon Princess and it's my destiny!” she wailed.

 

Ikuko was less than impressed.

 

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Reflections of Ruin

by P.H. Wise

A Ranma/Sailor Moon/Cthulhu Mythos Crossover Fukufic

 

Chapter 14 - Scylla and Charybdis

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma. I don't own Sailor Moon. Please don't sue me. I'm not doing this for profit.

 

Warning: Lime

 

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The glow around the great statue of the Messiah of Silence intensified until it shone with a deadly purple light. They were here. They were here! Students poured into Mugen Gakuen, moving as if in a trance with no distinction between those that were still human and those that had been transformed by the mermaid's flesh. The brackish reek of the transformed filled the lobby, and still they came, moving, flopping, crawling, climbing up the stairs, filling the building as best they could.

 

Within twenty minutes, most of the students had sorted themselves out into their classrooms and sat at their desks, vacant eyed and staring. Those that didn't make it as far as the classrooms milled about in the lobby, waiting. Waiting for the moment they had been prepared for so carefully.

 

Waiting to die.

 

Her long hair rippling around her with a life of its own, Mistress 9 strode up to the statue and raised her hands up high. For a brief moment, she looked guilty. She hesitated. She looked away. The moment passed. “Now. It is time.” A ball of dark power began to collect between her open palms, and a sense of anticipation grew thick in the chamber. “The preparations are complete. Eudial!”

 

Across the chamber, Eudial laughed madly. “Let the harvest begin!” she cried melodramatically. “Give us your pure heart crystals, students of the Infinity Academy!” An unnatural wind rippled around her; her hair flowed impressively, and her glasses gleamed brightly in the darkness. She threw another huge switch - one of many - and yet once more, deep underground, vast engines began to churn, building up their combined charge of electricity and dark magics.

 

Mistress 9 placed her globe of darkness in the air before the statue, and it hung there in space for just a moment before flowing into the stone skin of the statue itself. Energy pulsed around it, and with a terrible crack, the power was unleashed: the harvest had begun. Heart crystals poured out of the students of Mugen Gakuen, flowing up through the ceiling and into the air above the summoning circle.

 

“It's working!” Eudial cried, and continued to laugh.

 

Mistress 9 looked annoyed, but said nothing.

 

They collected on the ceiling of the summoning chamber, forming constellations of crystallized pure hearts there in the darkness. And one by one, the students who had lost their pure heart crystals began to die. First one, then another, another, and another.

 

Suzuhara, the viola player, who had dedicated almost her entire life to the pursuit of musical excellence. Dead.

 

Kotori Monou, the delicate, flighty blonde with long hair and expressive eyes, a talented cellist, and doted on by her loving brother. Dead.

 

Gendo Rokubungi sat in the music room, staring around him in shock as his classmates died all around him. He was one of the lucky ones: those few who had not been successfully conditioned by the school to produce a pure heart crystal. There were others like him, but they were few and far between.

 

Ikari Yui, a talented young student from the school's science department, burst into the room a moment later. “Gendo?” she asked, and her voice was filled with terror. “What's happening?”

 

He looked up, and as the heart crystals of his classmates swirled up through the ceiling, his eyes burned with the fervor of one newly converted. “Do you see it?” he asked. “Do you see it?”

 

“See what?”

 

“It's here! This is how it begins!”

 

Yui shook her head. “I don't understand... Gendo, everyone's dying! We have to get out of here!”

 

That brought him back to his senses. He nodded determinedly and took her hand. Together, they ran: ran for all they were worth.

 

All around them, their classmates died.

 

Outside, Sailor Saturn strode calmly up the steps, sensing the vast magics at work within, but also, finally, sensing Akane's presence. Akane was somewhere in that building, and as Saturn walked through the doors, she knew that she would not leave without her.

 

A bit further back, Uranus and Neptune stood before a fountain in the courtyard, watching the Senshi of Ruin as she went into the nest of the Deathbusters.

 

Observe. Stay out of sight. Gather information. Report back to Pluto.

 

It sounded simple enough.

 

-------------------

 

“Damnit, they can't get away with this!” Jupiter screamed, and smashed her fist into the wall. The concrete gave way before her fist, leaving a sizeable dent in its wake.

 

She and Mars stood in one of the shelters that they had visited earlier, and dead bodies littered the floor. Some looked half eaten, others were missing limbs, still others were torn into so much scrap. An awful, rotting saltwater smell rose up powerfully all around them. They were too late: the Esoteric Order of Dagon had already been here. Close at hand, the Red Cross doctor lay dead.

 

Mars's eyes hardened at the sight, and she turned to Jupiter. “Let's just get to the next Shelter,” she said, though there wasn't much hope in her voice.

 

Jupiter was only glad that Usagi wasn't here to see this... slaughter.

 

----------------

 

“Have you tried not being Sailor Moon?” Ikuko asked.

 

Usagi gave her a look. Had her mom really just asked that? She thought about it for a moment. “Yes,” she said. “I've tried not being Sailor Moon.” She thought of all of her wishes for a normal life. How she had even made that wish a reality with the Ginzuishou after Queen Beryl's defeat.

 

“Then why can't you stop?” Ikuko asked, her voice choked with emotion. “If you've done it before, then can't you just put aside Sailor Moon and be my Usagi again?”

 

Usagi said nothing.

 

“Is this what drove you and Naru apart?” Ikuko asked.

 

Usagi flinched.

 

“You used to be such good friends. She was over all the time, and you went to visit her home just as often. Then it happened less and less often, and now I never see Naru around anymore. Usagi-chan, we're your family! I don't want that to happen to us. Just stop. Please.”

 

Nearby, Shingo stirred for a moment, and then settled back down into sleep.

 

“If half of the stories I've heard about the Sailor Senshi are true, then you're putting yourself in danger almost every day! If you had been hurt - Kami-sama forbid, if you had been killed - before today, we never would have known about it!” She was repeating herself, but she clearly didn't care. “You would have just disappeared one day, and your father and I, and Shingo, we'd look for you, and we'd never find you, because whatever body they found, it would be Sailor Moon, not Tsukino Usagi. How could you put us through that? Usagi, if you love me, you'll stop. Stop putting yourself in danger. Stop being Sailor Moon. Just be Usagi.”

 

“I can't!” Usagi whispered fiercely.

 

“Why not?” Ikuko all but shouted.

 

For a thousand reasons. Because it was her destiny. Because when she became Sailor Moon, it didn't feel like she was becoming someone else: it felt like she was becoming herself. Because if she didn't fight for love and justice, if she didn't work to protect people, who would? Because... “Because!”

 

Ikuko was not impressed.

 

Emotion stirred within her. She knew what she needed to say. Usagi's eyes burned with passionate intensity, and she met her mother's gaze. “Because I've found a better way of living my life, mom! Because I can't just give up. I can't just let things happen. My friends and I - together - we make a stand; we say no. We do what's right when everyone else just runs away! I can't go back to the way it was before; I've found a better way. Love and justice! Those are more than just words.”

 

Ikuko smiled sadly, her anger fading. “You sound like me when I was your age,” she said.

 

Usagi felt her heart lifting. Her mother had been like her?

 

Ikuko reached out and brushed her daughter's cheek fondly. “You can't save the world with idealism, Usagi-chan.” She let her hand drop back to her side. “Believe me, I wish you could, but it's not the way the world works. You know what happens when people stand up for their principles? When people do what's right when everyone else just runs away?” Silence hung between them for a beat. “They're fired. They're killed. They're destroyed.”

 

Usagi felt her heart sink.

 

“The world is cruel, and we are so small.” Ikuko was in tears now. “I learned that lesson the hard way, Usagi-chan. I don't want you to have to do the same. Just, just stop.”

 

“But that's not the way things have to be!” Usagi replied. “We can change it. All of us. If we all get together, we'll find a way.”

 

A single tear trailed down the side of Ikuko's face. “I don't want you to die,” she whispered thickly.

 

“I won't die,” Usagi said gently. She rose to her feet. “If we all get together, it won't matter how cruel the world is, or what evil people want to do to people who stand up for what's right. I'll show you.” She grasped her broach and held it up. “MOON COSMIC POWER! MAKE UP!”

 

Light erupted around her as the veil was torn off. Bathed in power, before her mother's astonished eyes, Usagi transformed, her mortal disguise vanishing before the truth of her nature.

 

Ikuko stared.

 

“This is who I am, mother,” Sailor Moon said gently. “I can't give it up, not now, not ever.” She looked down at her unconscious father and brother. “But I can take you somewhere safe.”

 

-----------------

 

As she and Sailor Venus raced to the Crown Game Center, Mercury's only thoughts were of her mother. Her mother who had been so cold to her. Her mother who even now could be transforming into one of those, those things. Ami had always had a good relationship with her mother: it was what made this sudden coldness so puzzling, so dismaying. The thought of her mother turning into one of those things, though, that was more than she could bear. Now moving at a dead run, she rounded the corner and caught a glimpse of the building there down the block.

 

It had not been repaired: the windows were gone, the glass doors long since shattered, and the gaming machines were pushed up against the far wall. The main room was full of those same dirty, tired people, and the steel door yet lay open to the main shelter beneath the Crown Game Center. They had to stop them. Had to prevent the Esoteric Order of Dagon from converting them. Had to...

 

Mercury raced through the doors just in time to see her mother lifting a piece of what looked like sushi to her mouth. Behind her, Venus called out, “Wait, Mercury! We don't know what we're going into!”

 

“Mother, no!” Mercury yelled, dashing towards Mizuno-sensei.

 

Too late. Doctor Mizuno swallowed the bit of fish, blinked, and looked up. “'Mother'?” she asked, staring at Mercury. “Why did you...”

 

It was then that Sailor Mercury noticed the bento sitting on the desk in front of her mother: the bento with five more pieces of sushi sitting in it. Pieces of unagi.

 

Mercury's face turned red.

 

Her mother was still staring at her, she realized a moment later: staring at her, with a hazy sort of recognition in her eyes as her intellect warred with the glamour that prevented the Senshi from being recognized in their human forms. “Do I... know you?” Mizuno-sensei asked.

 

Mercury and Venus exchanged glances, and then Mercury breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God,” she whispered. Still, even if the Order hadn't been here yet, that didn't mean they weren't on their way. “Mizuno-sensei,” she said as calmly as she could manage, “there are men on their way here. Men from the Esoteric Order of Dagon.”

 

Doctor Mizuno blinked at that. “The Esoteric Order of Dagon? But they've been the greatest help of anyone to us. They've brought food, blankets, clothing.”

 

Venus broke in then. “They're not what they seem, Mizuno-sensei. They're killing people.”

 

Mercury nodded. “They've gone from shelter to shelter, first building trust and then, once people are willing to accept whatever they give them, giving out tainted food. People are being transformed, Mizuno-sensei.”

 

“Transformed? What sort of nonsense are you talking?” Doctor Mizuno rose to her feet. “I know you Sailor Senshi deal with the weirder side of life. I've seen it on the news. Monster attacks, UFOs, that sort of thing. But people can't just be `transformed' by tainted food.”

 

“I wish that were true, Mizuno-sensei,” Mercury said. “But we've only just come from the shelter at the Azabu Juuban Underground. Almost everyone there is either dead or transformed. When they arrive here, we can't let them in. Don't let anyone take any food from them. In fact, it would be better if everyone were to go down into the shelter for the time being. We'll have to leave here afterwards, but right now, the shelter is the safest place available. Or are you willing to risk the lives of everyone in this building over a bag lunch?”

 

Doctor Mizuno looked at Mercury for a long moment. “... Ami?” she asked.

 

Surprise rose up in Mercury, and she stared at her mother in shock. After a moment, she nodded. “It's me, mother.”

 

Doctor Mizuno stared. Then, after another long moment, she nodded slowly. “All right.” She glanced towards the wide open entrance, then at the various people around her. “I'll tell them. Meanwhile, the two of you can figure out what you're going to tell the Dagonites when they arrive. But when this is over, you and I are going to have a long talk.”

 

Doctor Mizuno walked towards the crowd of refugees.

 

Mercury breathed a sigh of relief. That could have gone much worse than it did. It struck Sailor Mercury then. That's what they were: refugees. The Minato Ward had become a Ward full of refugees, displaced by the conflict between warring factions that they knew nothing about. The Deathbusters. The Dagonites. After a moment, Mercury added the Sailor Senshi to the list as well: they might not be a destructive faction, but they were definitely a part of it.

 

Even as Doctor Mizuno ushered the refugees through the steel door and into the shelter proper, Sailor Mars and Sailor Jupiter arrived through the front entrance.

 

“The other shelter?” Venus asked.

 

Sailor Jupiter clenched her fist and looked angry. Mars shook her head sadly.

 

“Chikishou,” Venus whispered.

 

“They haven't been here yet,” Mercury said. “Whatever else happens today, we can at least make sure that these people are safe.”

 

The other girls nodded as one.

 

Venus glanced about. “We know they're coming. We don't know when they'll get here. Any ideas, minna?”

 

At Venus's prompting, Mercury spoke up. “Let's think about this. We've got an open space, several dozen gaming machines, multiple entrances and exits, and an ice cream parlor upstairs. Whatever preparations we make have to be the kind we can abandon at a moment's notice, since we don't know when the Dagonites will get here, and we don't want to be at a disadvantage when they do. How can we use this?”

 

Venus's gaze settled on the gaming machines, and Mercury almost smiled. She could see the blonde's thoughts racing. “We can block off the broken windows with the games. Limit their access to the building.”

 

Mercury nodded. “Good thinking.”

“If there are any of the gaming machines left over, we could knock them on their sides in strategic places to provide cover,” Jupiter said.

 

“Somewhere further back,” Mars added. “Somewhere Jupiter and I could use our long range attacks from. The Flame Sniper and the Supreme Thunder.”

 

The girls were grinning now. The plan was coming together. “Let's do it,” Venus said.

 

They went to work. Mars kept a look out for the Dagonites while the rest of them set about moving gaming machines to block the windows. It was easier than they would have thought: their strength was significantly enhanced when they weren't wearing their depowered forms. Absently, Mercury wondered when she had started calling them `depowered' forms instead of `normal forms,' or just calling it being detransformed. No time to worry about that now.

 

Soon enough, all the broken windows were blocked: the only access was by means of the main entrance. Two gaming machines were on their sides back near the steel door that led to the government shelter, and both Mars and Venus were taking up their positions behind them. But there was something missing. Something... Mercury smiled. She opened her hand, summoning up a tiny ball of blue ice-tinged magic.

 

“And for her next trick,” Venus called from across the room, smiling wryly.

 

Mercury smiled ever so slightly, and then tossed the ball of magical energy onto the still wide open floor area between the entrance and the steel door. It spread across the floor and rapidly solidified into a sheet of ice, and Mercury found that with a simple act of mild concentration, she could maintain it at below the freezing point.

 

They were ready. After a last minute discussion, the Guardian Senshi took their positions.

 

The monks from the Esoteric Order of Dagon arrived some ten minutes after the Guardian Senshi had finished their preparations. They approached from across the street, about a dozen of them, men and women both, all dressed in pale robes and each pair carrying a box between them. Their approach was almost totally silent, but a faint smell preceded them: a smell like the harbour at low tide: brackish and foul. They stepped through the doors and then stopped short: Sailor Venus stood before them, barring their way.

 

“They're gone,” Venus announced. “The people in the shelter are safe from you. We've sent them away.” She leveled an accusatory finger at the monks. “Those who would corrupt and destroy humanity can never be forgiven. I am Venus, and in my name, and in the name of the Silver Moon, you will be punished for your atrocities.”

 

The monks each set down their boxes and moved forward until they were facing Sailor Venus as a united front. The shadows shifted, and all at once a man appeared in the midst of the monks, pale of face and clad all in black robes on which were written blasphemous incantations in praise to the Old Ones. “So,” he said. His voice seemed very ordinary. Like the voice of a neighbor, or a trusted friend. “The Silver Moon really has returned to the Waking World.”

 

Venus blinked. She hadn't expected to encounter someone willing to talk rather than fight. “Who are you?” she asked. “Why are you doing this?”

 

The dark man smiled pleasantly. “Oh, it's nothing personal. We just need soldiers is all.”

Venus nodded. “We assumed as much,” she said, her tone a dangerous one. “Turning human beings into monsters to serve as shock troops. Building an army out of innocent people. It's unforgivable.”

 

“You'd be surprised what sorts of things can be forgiven in a time of war,” the Dark Man replied.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Surely you've sensed it. The gathering of power. The Deathbusters are preparing to make their move.” He shook his head. “You won't stop us, Venus. It's not in your best interest, besides. Things will go much better for you in the long run if you just step aside. I should warn you, these are not like the monks of Dagon you may have faced before: each of these is trained in the fighting arts, both the magical and the physical.”

 

Venus brought her hands together as if she were holding a weapon. Instantly, a shining crystal sword emblazoned with the symbol of Venus sprung into being in her hands. She leveled the weapon at the Dark Man. “You aren't going to take one step further, or I'll punish you in the name of the Silver Moon.”

 

The Dark Man nodded. “So be it,” he said. He glanced at the monks. “Kill them.” He then drew a sword out of his own robes. It was the colour of the ocean at midnight, and on it were inscribed many fell runes. It seemed to give off an icy chill.

 

The monks rushed forward into the room, and immediately about half of them slipped on the icy floor.

 

“NOW!” Venus shouted even as she brought her sword up to parry the Dark Man's deadly thrust. The two blades met with a crackle of unleashed power, golden and midnight blue light writhing around their joined surfaces.

 

“MARS FLAME SNIPER!” Sailor Mars called from behind the gaming machine she was using as cover. The arrow of fire lanced out and downed one of the monks instantly.

 

“SUPREME THUNDER!” Jupiter yelled, sending forth an intense blast of lightning into another of the monks.

 

Venus dodged another slash from the Dark Man and countered with a vicious thrust that would have impaled him right through the midsection had he not brought his sword up to parry at the last second: the blade skidded off of his own and tore a hole in his robe.

 

Mercury looked out at the arcade-turned-battlefield. Most of the monks were still on the ice. “Jupiter!” she called out. “Now!” She released the magic keeping the ice frozen. It melted instantly, turning into a large puddle at the feet of the monks of Dagon.

 

Jupiter grinned a vicious grin. She quickly summoned up a ball of pure electrical power. “Sparkling Wide Pressure!” she incanted as she flung it into the center of the puddle.

 

Electrical energy crackled across the room, flowing easily through the water and into every single monk that stood within the puddle. They had not even time to scream; their nervous systems overloaded instantly by the sheer power of the energy flowing through them: sixty kiloamps, three million volts per meter crossing an eight meter diameter puddle, 5 coulombs, and 500 megajoules, all of which translates into ten extremely dead monks falling to the floor, their bodies still convulsing as the electricity burned its way through their nervous systems.

 

Venus jumped back away from the Dark Man, sword held at the ready. “Looks like your friends weren't as deadly as you'd hoped,” she said.

 

The Dark Man did not respond: rather, he grimaced, took a step backwards, and vanished into thin air.

 

The Senshi waited a beat, and then Venus jumped into the air. “Yatta!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.

 

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The great lobby of Mugen Gakuen was littered with dead bodies. Quiet, still, empty. Corpse after corpse lay where students had just fallen over, their wills completely drained away, even to the point where they had not energy enough to continue breathing. So they had died. Their bodies had shut down, and they had died.

 

In the midst of this lobby-turned-charnel house, Sailor Saturn stood, shaking her head. She could sense Akane's ki signature somewhere above her. She knew that Akane was still alive, but judging by all this, she had no idea for how much longer that would be true. Saturn recognized some of those who lay dead here in the lobby: some of them were her classmates. She grimaced.

 

Nearby, a grand staircase ascended into the innards of the school: the very same staircase where she and Haruka and Michiru had held a shouted conversation. She hoped that they were ok. It didn't look good at this point, but she hoped they were ok. But she couldn't worry about that now. Akane was somewhere above. Sailor Saturn strode up the stairs, up one flight, up another flight, another, another, ascending into the innards of the building until finally she came before a small metal door beyond which... beyond which... `Akane,' she thought, `You had better be OK.'

 

She opened the door: it was cold to the touch. She walked through, and the door stood ajar behind her.

 

The door opened into a vast chamber - the summoning chamber, where only a few hours earlier, Ryouga had met his fate. It was dark save for the glyphs around the summoning circle, and the faintly glowing star-field on the ceiling.

 

The winged, scythe-bearing statue of the Messiah of Silence loomed large.

 

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A long, strange procession wended its way up the steps to the Hikawa Shrine. It was growing towards evening now: three hours had passed since the first attack on the shelter at the Azabu Juuban Underground. Sailor Moon stood at the head of the column, with Ikuko, Shingo, and Kenji immediately behind her. Behind them was Sailor Venus, and then the refugees from the Crown Game Center, with the other Senshi scattered amongst them, and Jupiter bringing up the rear. It took nearly five minutes for the entire procession to pass, with nearly five hundred people walking in roughly single file, some straggling, some rushing to catch up, all nervous, all hopeful. They'd been promised some place safe, and what's more they'd been promised it by someone they believed in: Sailor Moon. To some she was little more than an urban legend. To others she was their greatest defender. But to all of them, she represented hope in a very real way, and that hope was all that was holding them together at this point.

 

Chibi-Usa, Mamoru, Luna and Artemis stood at the top of the stairs, watching the column approach.

 

As much as she wanted to run to Mamoru, Moon held herself back. She had to see these people through, and she suspected that if she were to run off ahead, the rest would scatter. Slowly, painfully slowly, she completed the long trek up the stairs.

 

Mamoru inclined his head. “Sailor Moon,” he said, and his voice was full of warmth.

 

Chibi-Usa was smiling widely. “Welcome back,” she whispered, pitching her voice quietly enough to avoid it carrying to Ikuko. Then she turned towards Ikuko. “Ikuko-mama!” she called out excitedly.

 

“Chibi-Usa-chan!” Ikuko exclaimed, rushed up and pulled the little girl into a fierce hug. “You're all right! I was so worried!”

 

Chibi-Usa nodded, her eyes shining. “Sailor Moon has been looking out for me,” she said.

 

Ikuko gave Moon a sidelong glance. “Good. I'd hoped that she would.”

 

“Hello, brat,” Shingo said as he walked up behind Ikuko.

 

Chibi-Usa stuck her tongue out at him.

 

“Chibi-Usa,” Kenji said, inclining his head in greeting.

 

“Kenji-ojisan,” Chibi-Usa replied, smiling happily.

 

Kenji smiled faintly. “I told you not to call me that,” he said half-heartedly.

 

Moon smiled, and then turned to the rest of the approaching group. “Everyone gather in the courtyard. From there we'll be able to take you all somewhere safe. Somewhere beyond the reach of the monsters.”

 

The people did so, gathering together in the courtyard in front of the shrine. It took a while to get them all sorted out, but eventually, they were all there. Bruised, battered, hungry, tired, and very alive.

 

“So what's your big plan, Sailor Moon?” Venus asked. The Senshi, Mamoru, Luna, and Artemis had gathered near the top of the long stone stairway.

 

Moon spared a friendly smile for Luna and Artemis. “Hey Luna. Hey Artemis.”

 

The two moon cats smiled as best they could. “Welcome back, Sailor Moon,” Luna said.

 

Jupiter spoke up next. “Where are you going to take them all if they won't be safe here at the shrine?” she asked.

 

Moon swept her gaze across the others. “To Queen Serenity in the Dreamlands,” she said. “She will watch over them until the current threat has ended.

 

Jupiter blanched, and Venus and Mars looked uncomfortable.

 

Luna's eyed widened. “The Dreamlands! I hadn't thought of those in...”

 

“Ten thousand years?” Artemis asked.

 

Luna glared at the white-furred cat, then looked back at Moon and the others. “From what I remember, Queen Serenity was a very powerful dreamer. I didn't know that she had re-established the Silver Millennium in the Dreamlands after its fall in the Waking World, however.”

 

“It makes sense, though,” Artemis said. “And I'm glad. The Dreams of Men need places of light like that. When are we leaving?”

 

“Maybe this isn't such a good idea, Usagi-chan,” Jupiter said uncomfortably.

 

Mamoru, Luna, Artemis, Mercury, and Sailor Moon all looked at Jupiter in askance, while Venus and Mars looked uncomfortable.

 

“Usagi-chan,” Venus said, “I don't know how much you were told, but the last time we were there, things didn't quite go like we wanted.”

 

“What do you mean?” Moon asked.

 

Jupiter broke in then. “I wasn't completely truthful with you when I told you what happened there, Sailor Moon.” She looked ashamed. “I'm sorry.”

 

An awful sense of hurt welled up within Sailor Moon's heart. She looked at Jupiter disbelievingly. “Go on,” she managed to say.

 

“When we arrived, Queen Serenity treated us - Venus, Mars, and myself - very well. Actually, when we first arrived, we were attacked by Moon-Beasts. It was a band of soldiers from Eternity that rescued us, under the command of Princess Ersa.”

 

“Princess Ersa?” Moon asked.

 

“She's your little sister,” Venus said, smiling faintly. “She was born in the Dreamlands - after the fall of the Silver Millennium.”

 

Moon's face lit up at that news. She had a sister! “What was the problem, then?”

 

Jupiter answered: “Saturn was with us, too.”

 

Mars nodded. “The first thing Queen Serenity did after we arrived was lock Sailor Saturn away in the dungeon.”

 

“She thought Saturn was a threat to you,” Jupiter added. “She said that Saturn would destroy the world. That she wouldn't have a choice. She said that...”

 

“Uranus and Neptune said the same,” Mamoru commented.

 

Venus nodded. “Serenity said that... that each Senshi represents a concept as well as a planet. She said that Saturn represents Ruin. That she can't help it: she IS Ruin, and that she'll bring it in her wake whether she wants to or not.”

 

Luna and Artemis said nothing, but exchanged meaningful glances.

 

“I can't believe that,” Moon whispered. “Not Ranma.”

 

“Serenity believed it,” Mars said. “She said that she wasn't going to let Saturn hurt... you.”

 

“We knew you would never approve,” Jupiter said. “That's why we rescued Sailor Saturn and ran away.”

 

“I see.” Moon's face was unreadable. None of them knew what she was thinking. What she actually WAS thinking was this: `Wait a minute. Momma, Shingo, and Papa were only saved because I'm Sailor Moon! If it weren't for me, they'd be monsters now! Oh, why didn't I say that when we were arguing?' Then she blinked. That had been random. It hurt that her Senshi had lied to her. As she looked at Jupiter, she wondered if she'd be able to trust her again. Yes. Yes, she decided. It would take a while, but yes.

 

“So you see...” Jupiter trailed off, looking at the other Senshi helplessly. “It might be a bad idea to go back.”

 

Mamoru looked to Sailor Moon. “What do you think, Usako?”

 

Sailor Moon met Mamoru's gaze. “I think that Queen Serenity and I have a lot to talk about, her treatment of Sailor Saturn not the least. We're going.” She gave Jupiter a disappointed look. “Tell the people to get ready.”

 

“How exactly are you planning to get them to the Dreamlands, Sailor Moon?” Mars asked. “We don't exactly have a Tomoe house to cross over from.”

 

The Ginzuishou appeared in Sailor Moon's hands.

 

“Oh,” Mars said.

 

She thought of all that she had gone through since she'd first become Sailor Moon. The Dark Kingdom. The wish that had returned everything to normal, for a little while. The Makaiju. The Black Moon. And now, the Deathbusters and this `Esoteric Order of Dagon.' For so long, all she had really wanted was for things to be normal. But now, as she looked around at all of these people whose only hope in survival rested in her, she knew that she could no longer afford to pursue those dreams. If they were going to create a better world, it was time to put aside her dreams of escape from her responsibilities.

 

The people had begun to gather around her, Ikuko and Chibi-Usa among the very first rank.

 

Sailor Moon held up the Ginzuishou, and as she did, the conversation she'd had with her mother earlier that day echoed in her mind: “This is who I am, mother.”

 

This was who she was.

 

Her uniform unfolded and shifted: a brilliant white aura sprang up around her, and all at once she was the Moon Princess, clad in a flowing white dress, a golden crescent moon upon her forehead. Power radiated off of her in waves, and as she finally embraced her destiny, the earth shook beneath her feet. Her features shifted subtly: she was still Usagi, but she seemed goodlier: more awful, more divine.

 

The crowd stared in awe.

 

“Mama,” Chibi-Usa whispered lovingly from her place next to Ikuko.

 

Ikuko looked down at the little girl in shock.

 

Then the Ginzuishou begins to glow.

 

-----------------

 

Saturn stood before the Summoning Circle, Silence Glaive in hand. The room was utterly silent but for the faint hum of the Circle. She glanced about. There was a Presence here - a weight. It was hard to think.

 

Quite suddenly, a gentle purple light came on off to the side. Then another. Soft, gentle, like the lamps in Hotaru's room at the Tomoe home, like the first, faint whisper of spring after winter. Another. Another. Then the whole room was bathed in that light.

 

Like something out of a dream, Akane stepped out from behind the statue of the Messiah of Silence, clad in a long, flowing, dark purple dress. “Ranma?” she asked, seemingly unable to believe her eyes.

 

Saturn's heart leaped. The Silence Glaive fell to the floor with a clatter, its blade sinking deep into the concrete. “Akane,” she whispered.

 

“Ranma, I was so scared!” Akane said as she rushed up to the Senshi of Ruin.

 

Ranma's heart beat faster. Faster. She had found Akane! She had found Akane, and everything would be ok! Her head was buzzing. It was hard to think, and more pleasant not to. A smile lit up her face and she rushed forward.

 

And then they were kissing passionately, heedless of their surroundings or of the danger of the place. Akane's hands moved up and down Ranma's body, and her hands over Akane's. Passion swept over them. Akane's dress fell to the floor, Ranma's fuku joined it a moment later, and all at once Ranma was in her lover's arms, and all the world seemed full of hungry kisses, soft curves, and passionate moans.

 

“Akane, I...” Ranma tried to say. It was hard to think. Hard to think of anything except for her.

 

“Do you love me?” Akane asked.

 

“More than anything,” Ranma replied immediately.

 

“Then give yourself to me.”

 

A cold chill went through Ranma's heart, and a realization of exactly where she was returned to her. Her top was on the floor, but the lower part of her senshi fuku was still on her. The summoning circle glowed menacingly not a dozen yards away, and the soft purple light played across their skin, creating strange patterns of flesh and shadow. This wasn't like the first time she and Akane had been together. This was different somehow. Wrong.

 

“Wait, Akane, something isn't right...” Her skin burned at Akane's touch and desire, pure and primal, rose up within her breast. All rational thought was nearly obliterated in an instant.

 

Akane's hair began to grow with unnatural speed until it covered their nudity like a cloak. “I want you,” she said, her eyes glowing an intense purple.

 

There was a smell in the air that tingled at the back of Ranma's awareness. The smell of... (Nemesis). Akane kissed her breast, and she shivered. “Something isn't...” she managed to say.

 

“I've always wanted you,” Akane - Mistress 9 - said, her voice low and passionate. “You should have been mine.”

 

Mistress 9 kissed Ranma again, their bodies moving as one. Then she looked right into Ranma's clear blue eyes, her own eyes shining with purple light.

 

Ranma felt the blood drain from her face.

 

“You shouldn't have died, Hotaru,” Mistress 9 whispered. “Your body should always have been mine.”

 

Mistress 9 kissed her again, and pressed her body against Ranma's almost frantically, as if seeking that oneness of flesh that had been denied her by her inability to possess the then-deceased Hotaru. But there was more. This was AKANE. There was a light, a hunger in her eyes that was unmistakably her. Ranma was WANTED on a level that she had never seen since... since... Nemesis, and it was Akane who wanted her that way.

 

Mistress 9's skin began to writhe and shift, yielding before Ranma's touch. Ranma - Sailor Saturn - felt her arousal vanish as suddenly as if someone had flipped a switch to turn it off. She stared in horror into her lover's eyes, and distantly she heard once more the words of Y'Golonac:

 

“SAILOR SATURN,” the creature intoned, though it had no mouth, its voice an horrific parody of human warmth, “I HAVE ALWAYS WONDERED WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE TO BECOME ONE WITH A SENSHI.” It reached out one of its orificed hands towards her, longingly, needfully, and it put forth its might. “BECOME ONE WITH ME, BODY AND SOUL, AND I WILL SHOW YOU SUCH PLEASURES AS YOU HAVE NEVER DARED TO DREAM.”

 

“That's enough!” Saturn snapped. Her sigil flared upon her forehead, and a burst of power flung Mistress 9 headlong off of her. Her body glowed for a moment, and when it faded she was fully clothed, Silence Glaive in hand. Saturn's eyes were as hard as diamonds, and fury raged within her: fury at having been tricked, fury at nearly having given in, and deep beneath that, sheer terror at the thought of the fate she had only narrowly avoided. She felt... dirty. She leveled the weapon at Mistress 9, and it came to rest scant inches from the woman's face. “Who are you, and what have you done with Akane?”

 

Mistress 9 trembled, and the writhing of her flesh subsided. The glow faded from her eyes, and they were purple. She began to cry. “Ranma,” she whispered. “I don't know what's wrong with me.”

 

Saturn blinked. “A, Akane?” she asked incredulously.

 

Mistress 9 nodded miserably, clenching her fists against the floor of the summoning chamber. “I'm a pervert. It's perverted. But I want you so much! God, why is this happen...” she trailed off, and a sense of Presence filled the room once more.

 

“Akane?” Saturn asked hopefully. She embraced the other girl once more, this time not needfully, but comfortingly. “I'm here.”

 

Mistress 9's eyes began to glow, and her dress flowed back onto her body. The tears dried up, and she traced the line of Saturn's jaw with her finger.

 

Saturn felt that touch like it was fire, burning not unpleasantly across her delicate jaw line. She stared at Mistress 9, her eyes wide.

 

“I could give you everything, Ranma,” Mistress 9 whispered, her hair shifting around her lazily, snake-like, casually brushing against Saturn every now and then.

 

Not just her jaw: everywhere Mistress 9 touched was like fire, and Saturn realized in that moment that what she wanted more than anything else was Akane. Not `everything.' Just Akane.

 

“My father - my real father - is coming. He'll be here soon. I could give you power beyond your wildest dreams.”

 

Well, that took some of the shine off the deal. Saturn laughed, and there was a hint of bitterness to it. Power? Akane would give her power? “Who do ya think I am, Akane? I got so much power it's a lia, liab, uh...” She thought for a moment. “Liability, not an asset. I could break the world in half by bringin' down this Glaive.” She gestured a little with the Glaive. “Just,” she mimed bringing down the glaive with her free hand. “Woosh, and Earth's gone.”

 

Mistress 9 looked faintly annoyed. “Then I could give you my love.”

 

“Already got that,” Saturn said.

 

“Authority. A position at my side in the new world.”

 

Saturn looked unimpressed.

 

Mistress 9's eye began to twitch. “GOD, you're annoying! Ranma, get this through your stupid, stubborn head! If you'd just give yourself to me, worship me, you can have everything!”

 

Saturn sighed. “I love ya, Akane, but I ain't the worshippin' type.”

 

Mistress 9's battle aura rose up around her, and the heat of it forced Ranma to take a step back. “RANMA NO BAKA!” she shrieked, and suddenly there was a mallet in her hands. In short order, Saturn was sent flying into the far wall.

 

Saturn grimaced and rose to her feet, brushing bits of debris off of her fuku. “Damnit Akane, that ain't funny!”

 

Mistress 9 glared at her fiancé-turned-fiancée. “No, and neither is this you dummy. Ryouga! Get out here!”

 

Saturn blinked. “Ryouga?”

 

“I said get out here!” Mistress 9 snapped. She looked around. “Damnit, where IS he?”

 

Saturn tapped her two index fingers together. “Maybe he got lost.”

 

Mistress 9 made a face. “GET BACK HERE, RYOUGA!” she shouted. Then she gathered her power into a sphere of dark energy and flung it at the summoning circle. In a flash, Ryouga materialized where the sphere had struck, looking somewhat bedraggled.

 

“Now where am I?” he asked. Then he took in his surroundings, and his eyes narrowed. “Ranma...” he clenched his fist.

 

“Uh, hey Ryouga,” Saturn said. OK, that was odd. How did he recognize her in her Senshi uniform? No time to think about that now.

 

Ryouga immediately began to glow a deep, dark red. He looked... odd. His pupils were dilated; his eyes showed almost no white. His fangs were more pronounced, and several swathes of Daimon-pink colouring could be seen across his hair and skin. He glared at the red-headed Senshi. “For what you did to Akane, prepare to die!” he yelled.

 

Saturn blinked. “What I did to Akane...?” But that was as far as she got before Ryouga was all but on top of her, and she had to duck to avoid a powerful boot to the head. She leaped backwards to get some space between the two of them and hefted her glaive. “Ryouga, I don't know what you think I did to Akane, but I...” Ranma dodged a razor-sharp bandana. “KNOW,” she ducked under the swing of Ryouga's umbrella and kicked him in the face before springing back and away once more. “That ya probably took it the wrong way.”

 

Ryouga's eyes were glowing red now. “Shut up you coward! What you did can never be forgiven! You swore you wouldn't hurt her! You're a girl too, now! How could you do something like that to her?”

 

“WHAT?” Saturn yelled. Was Ryouga seriously suggesting that she had... had... no way. There was no way.

 

“Now, DIE!” Ryouga gathered up some of the red energy that surrounded him into his hands. “SHI SHI HOUKODAN!” he bellowed, flinging a MASSIVE blast of red and green energy.

 

As it flew towards him, Saturn almost giggled. Almost. It looked like a flying Christmas decoration. Still, this was a deadly flying Christmas decoration. She hefted the Silence Glaive. “SILENCE WALL!” she cried. A moment later, Ryouga's blast detonated violently against Saturn's shield.

 

Smoke rose up all around her form, but Sailor Saturn was unharmed. Still, that had been a hell of a blast: far stronger than anything Ryouga had ever thrown against her before. This might actually be a challenge. With a confident smirk on her face, Sailor Saturn leaped into battle.

 

They fought like earth and water, Ryouga strong and immovable, Saturn endlessly fluid and agile. For ten minutes they fought nonstop, blows flying furiously between them, evading or shrugging off each other's attacks, leaping here and leaping there, sending out ki blasts, bringing out special techniques.

 

Ten long minutes of nonstop combat was what it took for Saturn to realize that her blows just plain weren't having the effect that they should have. Even the kachu tenshin amaguriken barely served to stagger the Lost Boy, and although she could evade most of Ryouga's attacks, those attacks of his that did get through her defenses were far stronger than they should have been, and he wasn't tiring out the way he normally did. It looked like if she wanted to win this fight, she had to stop holding back. Only problem was, the only thing she was holding back at this point was the power of Saturn.

 

If she wanted to win, she had to kill him.

 

That was a problem.

 

---------------

 

From their vantage point near the entrance to the summoning chamber, Uranus and Neptune observed the confrontation unseen, a cold mist flowing out around them, dimly illuminated by the gentle purple light that emanated from within. Mistress 9 had vanished some time after summoning Ryouga to her presence.

 

“What do you think?” Neptune asked.

 

“I think she's losing,” Uranus replied.

 

So she was: despite her absolutely amazing level of skill, Ranma was being worn down. She simply did not possess the same level of Daimonic endurance that Ryouga did. They had been fighting for fifteen minutes nonstop now, and it was clearly taking its toll.

 

“She could kill him at any moment, and she holds back. She could destroy the whole building without much trouble, but she hasn't.” Neptune commented pointedly.

 

Uranus met Neptune's gaze. “Do you think those girls really are right about her?”

 

Sailor Saturn took a vicious, vicious blow to the face and staggered, allowing Ryouga to follow up with a sweep kick that knocked Saturn from her feet. She barely managed to roll out of the way of his ensuing ki attack.

 

“Maybe,” Neptune replied.

 

“Mouko Takabisha!” Saturn yelled, gathering up a ball of blue confidence-tinged ki and flinging it at the oncoming Lost Boy. It struck him with a thunderous explosion, but he just came right on through it like a freight train and cracked Saturn solidly on the jaw with a vicious right hook.

 

“She could still end up destroying the world, you know.” Uranus said.

 

Neptune smiled faintly. “Sailor Moon believes in her.”

 

“Sailor Moon is a silly girl,” Uranus replied.

 

Neptune nodded. “But you believe in her.”

 

Uranus stared at her partner. Within the summoning chamber, Saturn managed to rally herself and went on the offensive, forcing Ryouga back. For about ten seconds, she seemed to have the upper hand. Then her energy peaked, and Ryouga went on the offensive again.

 

They stood there, watching in silence for another minute.

 

“Do you still think Saturn needs to be sacrificed?” Neptune asked.

 

Uranus looked torn. She didn't reply. Another minute passed.

 

“We're running out of time to make a decision, Haruka,” Neptune said.

 

Uranus looked up, and the tension in her bearing faded away. She had decided her course. “Then let's not keep them waiting,” she said.

 

Neptune smiled. Together, they dashed into the room.

 

Saturn was all but beaten, now. A vicious kick to the chest sent her tumbling to the floor. Ryouga grinned a savage grin as he raised his umbrella and prepared to drive it into her face as hard as he could. “Now,” he said, “You can finally...” He slammed the weighted umbrella down. “DIE, RANMA!”

 

Unnoticed, a handful of sakura petals drifted by on the ghostly wind.

 

And she might have died indeed, but at that moment a shout rang out at the door: “WORLD SHAKING!” A moment later, an ringed ball of energy attuned to elemental wind flew across the space between the door and the two combatants. It struck the unprepared Ryouga head on, flinging him violently backwards and away from Sailor Saturn.

 

Both Saturn and Ryouga looked up in surprise.

 

“Invited by a new age, I am Sailor Uranus, acting with elegance.”

 

“Also invited by a new age, I am Sailor Neptune, acting with grace.”

 

There, silhouetted against the entrance, stood Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. The Outer Duo had arrived.

 

“You!” Saturn said, surprised at their appearance.

 

“YOU!” Ryouga bellowed, enraged by their interference. “Stay out of this!” He gathered his ki into a ball and flung it their way.

 

The Outer Duo dashed out of the way, and the ki blast detonated harmlessly in the spot where they had stood only moments before. “Neptune!” Uranus called, even as she herself dashed towards the downed Sailor Saturn.

 

Neptune gathered her power, calling forth a ringed ball of energy attuned to elemental water. “DEEP SUBMERGE!” she incanted, sending the blast of magical power flying into Ryouga's face.

 

The Lost Boy, too surprised to dodge and only just having gotten back up after the World Shaking, took it on the chin. He was blasted clear off his feet and even as he flew backwards, he vanished into his clothing, which struck the floor in an empty bundle a few seconds later.

 

Neither Uranus and Neptune were about to look a gift horse in the mouth: with a protesting but thoroughly weakened Saturn now being carried in Uranus's arms, they made their escape. So it was that they missed what happened next: the bundle of clothing shifted, and from within them arose something new, dangerous, and ... adorable: a pink-striped black piglet, bweeing furiously, his eyes filled with killing rage. Absolutely sure he knew which way they were going, Daimon-P-Chan dashed out after the three soldiers of the outer solar system... and promptly got completely, hopelessly lost.

 

Meanwhile, Mistress 9 had not been idle. Enraged by Ranma's rejection, she strode angrily into a control room some three levels down from the summoning chamber. Here, Eudial had waited, observing the action over the video camera network. “Eudial,” she snapped.

 

Eudial looked up, her glasses gleaming brightly in the dark control room. “Mistress 9?” she asked.

 

“It's time to begin the final phase. Activate the Daimons. My father's return won't be stopped: not by Ranma, not by anyone.”

 

Eudial grinned widely - so widely that her face would have split apart had she still been human. “Hai,” she replied, and then began flipping switches, seemingly at random. Yet not so random. Deep within Mugen Gakuen, huge vats full of Daimon eggs began to hatch all at once.

 

And outside, rushing headlong away from the building in Haruka's car, Uranus and Neptune could see a vast vaguely pinkish barrier rising in the distance behind them around Mugen Gakuen. The Deathbusters were making their move.

 

In that moment, they knew that the end was nearly at hand.

 

END CHAPTER 14