Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Princess Mercury: her past and her promise ❯ A new enemy ( Prologue )
[ A - All Readers ]
By: The Mysterious Traveller 
When a mysterious new enemy targets Amy, the young man known only as 'Fargo' steps into the spotlight...
Anime/Manga: Sailor Moon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 10.02.2002 | Pages: 6 | Words: 2.8K | Visits: 271 | Status: Completed
When a mysterious new enemy targets Amy, the young man known only as 'Fargo' steps into the spotlight...
Anime/Manga: Sailor Moon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 10.02.2002 | Pages: 6 | Words: 2.8K | Visits: 271 | Status: Completed
Okay here's the first SM fanfic I ever wrote! It's main character is Ami but there are also quite a few new characters thrown in...well
here's the first five chapters so if anybody enjoys this I'll put up the rest!
Enjoy!!
Disclaimer: I don't own Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, however I do own Merula/Sailor Universe, Mu and Fargo.
Princess Mercury: Her Past and Her Promise.
Chapter One
A New Enemy
Click.
The control panel lit up as a gloved finger pushed the glowing red button.
The computer monitor which had sat dark and square up until now on the flat of the desk now
illuminated the gloomy room with a dull grey light.
A small box appeared on the screen as the heavily upgraded piece of software took mere seconds to boot up.
Two headings.
Login name.
User password.
The fingers danced around the keyboard and a word appeared in the name heading.
S. Universe
Five more buttons clicked and five asterisks appeared in the password heading.
The enter key came next.
The terminal buzzed for a few more seconds and was then ready for use.
The DVD drive slid open and the hand slipped in a CD ROM.
After more processing a data file appeared on the screen.
At the top there was the image of a teenager with blue hair.
She was perhaps sixteen and wore a school uniform.
She had the most beautiful face the person who had logged onto the terminal had ever seen.
A female sigh of joy broke the silence in the dimly lit room as the user of the computer terminal gazed upon that lovely face for the first time in what felt like countless lifetimes.
Below in red letters was her personal information.
Name: Amy Anderson
Sex: Female
Age: 15 yrs
D.O.B: Sept/10/1978
Identity: Sailor Mercury
The female eyes narrowed.
She finally knew who Sailor Mercury really was.
Now she had everything she needed to take action.
She could come out of her complacency and into her agenda...
~*~*~
"Are you guys ready?"
"We're ready!" four other female voices responded confidently.
"Go!"
"Venus Love Chain!" the blonde Sailor Scout raised a hand.
"Jupiter Thunder- Clap Zap!" the brunette Scout struck the side-walk with her clenched fist.
"Mars Celestial Fire!" the dark haired Scout flipped out a piece of paper with the kanji printed on it.
"Shine Aqua Illusion!" the blue haired Scout spread out her hands as blue energy crackled between her spread fingers.
The night-time sky was lit up as the combined might of love, lightning, fire and ice were unleashed as one.
The foul demon which had arrived from the Negaverse to inflict devastation upon the planet Earth only to have met with the might of the planets guardians who were the group of female warriors the Sailor Scouts, shielded its tortured eyes as the energies of the elements screamed toward it.
It howled in torment as it was held in place by Sailor Venus' long chain of small golden hearts while the combined power of the Scouts of Jupiter, Mars and Mercury shocked, charred and froze its armoured body all at the same time.
"It's weakened!" a small voice cried from the other side of the street in which the battle was raging. "Now Sailor Moon!"
"You've got it Luna!" another blonde Scout whose hair was in long plaits that were held in place by a pair of overly plump pom- poms that stuck out on the top of her head quite noticably told the talking cat who was watching the fight from an alley.
The leader of the team of Sailor Scouts, Sailor Moon drew out a small sceptre about a few metres tall and aimed it at the beast.
"Moon princess Halation" she cried out as she was surrounded by an aura of white.
Wings seemed to materialise about her and then were gone again.
The sceptre issued a beam of holy power which burrowed into the monster reducing it to crystal dust.
Sailor Moon, breathing heavily lowered the sceptre and leaned on it.
Sailors Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Mercury eyed her teasingly.
"This really takes it out of ya." Sailor Moon moaned. "I thought you guys would never wear it down enough for me to hit it with the sceptre."
"That's rich Serena! This would all have been over an hour ago if you hadn't let it knock the sceptre into the river." Mars retorted.
"She's right y'know." Jupiter had resented being elected to go after the sceptre.
Mercury just smiled softly as her fellow scouts became embroiled in a debate about the finer points of tactical thinking in the field.
~*~*~
After transforming back from her Sailor Scout alter-ego Mercury, Amy came out from behind the back of the shed and walked up to her back door.
Moving aside the loose brick near the door Amy retrieved the hidden key which she went on to unlock the door with. After putting the key back she turned the handle.
The door held firm.
Amy furrowed her brow in puzzlement.
She'd locked the door just now?
It had been unlocked before she had arrived?
Slightly annoyed, Amy took out the key, unlocked the door and hid the key all over again.
She must have forgotten to lock it this morning.
Amy couldn't believe she'd been so careless.
That was the last time she walked to school with Serena on the day she'd been together with the rest of the Scouts the night before.
It really had to be.
In the kitchen at last Amy slipped out of her shoes and went on to the hallway and up the stairs.
The door was slightly ajar as she got there and she shoved it open and walked in.
As she was about to get changed Amy noticed that the red light on her phone indicated that she had a message.
Pressing the button she shut the door with her other hand.
And the trap was sprung.
The intruder moved quickly dropping down from the door frame upon which they had stood since hearing Amy close the back door.
Amy's mind lurched as someone landed on her back and bore her to the floor.
Hands grabbed hers and held her down before she was able to do anything.
Amy thought frantically.
A demon?
A being from the Negaverse?
Her wrists were held so tightly down on the floor that she could not go for her Transformation Pen which was in her pocket.
One of the hands released hers.
That hand clamped over her face.
In it her unknown assailant held a damp cloth.
The powerful aroma of chloroform stunned her and her eyes watered.
She should have transformed as soon as she was attacked.
Now her assailant had the upper-hand and it was too late.
The intruder released her as her awareness began to fade.
The last thing Amy heard before darkness took her was a voice from the answering machine.
"Hey Amy this is Serena. The girls and I were just wondering if you have time to drop by the...."
~*~*~
Amy woke with a start.
She opened her eyes...and then regretted it.
The piercing white light flooding into the room was something her stinging eyes weren't ready for right now.
"Well that was a mistake." she moaned shutting her eyes again.
"I quite agree." a pleasant female voice said.
Amy's eyes shot open again before she could catch herself and her eyes watered again.
"Ooh. Subjecting your eyes to bright light after waking up from being drugged." her host laughed quietly. "I wouldn't recommend it."
"Who are you?" Amy muttered holding her eyes shut. "Where am I?"
"I don't think I'll tell you know either of those things. But never mind. After all you don't need to know."
"Then what do you want?"
"For now all I want is your company Amy. Or should I call you Sailor Mercury?"
Amy doubted the reality of her situation then.
"Wha...how do you..." she couldn't find the words in her confusion. "Are you from the Negaverse?" she settled for in the end.
"Negaverse?" her hostess said the word like it was something new. "I can't say the name means anything to me so I'm afraid not. Look Amy I'm at a bit of a loose end here. There's nothing to be said until an associate of mine gets here. That'll be enough for now. We'll talk again soon."
Amy heard a door open and shut and then the turn of a key in a lock.
Her hostess was gone.
Amy finally opened her tender eyes.
Her head ached sending spasms through her body so she remained seated.
She was in an upstairs (she could see the sky through a window) bedroom which was luxuriously arranged.
As she lay back weakly in the chair Amy thought about everything.
She knew that her captor was female and from her voice round-about her own age.
But what reason did she have to do this if she wasn't from the Negaverse?
She realised she was going to have to bide her time before making any attempt to get out of here.
She hadn't yet recovered from the effects of the chloroform so she'd never make the jump to Sailor Mercury without blacking out.
But when she was recovered...
~*~*~
"Can you believe it?" the chisel-jawed rough featured client of the night-club Tokyo Dead-Zone commented.
He drew no great response from the rest of the clientele sitting at the smoky bar drowning their sorrows.
So instead he directed his raucous bellow over the heavy metal blaring on and on to the person in the seat next to him.
The other client didn't react any more than the other boozers had but the drinker who had spoken was not to be deterred.
"The crap they throw in these rags at the last minute. Have you seen this?"
"No."
The one sitting next to him spoke for the first time since he'd walked into the club.
"What is it?" he asked in tones which made it crystal clear he couldn't have cared less.
"This crap." chisel-jaw waved a battered news-paper in his face.
Now that he had turned around he saw who he had begun this unprovoked conversation with.
He was a male who looked around fifteen.
He wore a grey sleeveless shirt and faded blue jeans. He had red hair and the most striking grey eyes.
The client wondered just how someone this young had been able to get past the bouncer.
Not that it was his business.
Rather than asking questions he handed the youth the gossip rag for his perusal.
The kid looked at the front page.
"Escaflowne not to be re-newed for new series?" he asked.
"No below that buddy."
The youth looked at the article beneath.
NORTHERN DISTRICT RAVAGED BY MYSTERY BEAST
The brief report stated that several witnesses claimed to have seen a monster appear in a town square and begin a rampage of destruction.
None had been around long enough to see what had become of the beast but the first person who had found the courage to return had said something about five teenage girls.
For the first time in a while a grin pricked up on his face.
So the Sailor Scouts were still around.
Good.
"Interesting." he stated passing the rag back to the client and rising to leave. "Thank you for the loan of your paper my good man."
As he got up from the bar the boy noticed a strikingly good looking woman sitting at a table on her own. In the blink of an eye he had crossed over to her.
"So what's a good lookin lady like you doing alone in a place like this?" he asked with a dashing grin. "What about you and me going out for a snack tonight?"
"What about you sliding across the floor?" growled a large hulking cue-ball of a man who had come up behind him and heard what he had said.
The youth turned and looked him up and down carefully.
From the build he'd say that the man was five times his size. From the attitude he'd say that he was the woman's boyfriend.
"I...dont think I'd like that very much." he said after careful thought.
"Then buzz off kid! You're irritating the lady!" The youth took the hint and turned for the door.
At the last second the man who had shown him the newspaper called after him.
"Just a sec sonny. What's your name anyway?"
The youth called over his shoulder as he strode out of Tokyo Dead-Zone.
"Fargo."
~*~*~
"Still no sign of Amy?"
"Nope." Rei shook her head. "Serena told me that she never came to school today."
Luna frowned.
This was unusual.
Not the frown itself although this would have been understandable coming from the face of a cat but the fact that this particular cat was the one doing the frowning.
"This isn't like Amy at all." Luna said at last. "First she wasn't at home when Serena called to walk her to school and now you tell me she never even showed up there."
"You bet your life it isn't like her!" Rei put in. "She crammed for today's algebra test for a month just to miss it."
Luna grunted. "Well Serena went to her house to fetch her. Amy can explain herself when she's here."
As if on cue the café door opened and Serena sauntered in.
Rei and Luna's eyes were on her.
Amy wasn't with her.
"She couldn't come?" Luna asked Serena as she took a seat opposite them.
"I didn't even get to see her." Serena surreptitiously grabbed Rei's untouched jam doughnut. "There was no answer when I rang the doorbell." she stuffed it into her mouth before Rei could reclaim it.
"Oh this is just getting ridiculous!" Luna's temper was at an all-time shortage. "Where can she have been the whole day?"
Serena shrugged. "Dunno. I haven't seen her. Come to that none of us have seen Amy since we all went off after fighting that monster last night."
"You think she could have been affected by the monster somehow?" Rei was concerned.
"She'd have told us if she had been." Luna snapped. "Amy has some reason for not showing herself all day believe-you-me. Well I won't be too gentle with her when she concedes to turn up."
A slight beep caught their attention.
Serena glanced stealthily around the cafe and then pressed the button on the side of her wrist communicator.
She listened for a minute to the voice on the other end and turned back to Luna and Rei.
"That was Lita you guys. She says Artemis has found another space-time rift. He wants us there in case something slips through. We'll just have to cope without Sailor Mercury's help."
~*~*~
Amy walked through the door she had opened.
She had no choice.
When she had awoken from her unrefreshing sleep she had found the door to her room unlocked.
However she had found little solace in this since all the other doors in wherever she was were locked.
All but this one.
The room beyond loomed up before her.
A book-lined study greeted her eyes.
Her hostess looked up from where she had been reading as she had come in.
"Ah Amy." she greeted her as she rose to her feet. "I was only just thinking of you."
For the first time since this had all began Amy was able to take a look at her captor.
She was a girl with purple hair cascading over her shoulders to her waist.
She was dressed in a modest way not unlike how Amy herself was wont to dress.
There was a strange sparkle in her brown eyes as she regarded her 'guest'.
"Were you now?" Amy's attempt to sound defiant collapsed.
There was something unnerving about those eyes.
"Stop staring at me like that!"
Her hostess shook her head apologetically.
"I'm sorry. It is impolite and I do apologise. But you should realise Amy that you are the most beautiful girl I've ever had the privilege to meet. Not that I mean anything by it but I could lose the time looking into your face."
Amy was completely thrown.
The strangeness of her day was complete.
"Feast your eyes." she retorted. "Since you'll need to make do with your memories for quite a while."
Her voice was flat for her words were empty and she knew it.
Her hostess smiled enigmatically.
"Well that's a maybe. Oh but here I am going on when we haven't even been introduced. My name is Merula. But tell me Amy...do you believe in destiny?"
Amy did not reply, wishing to have no part in this bizarre conversation.
"I'll take that as a no. Well...it certainly believes in you."
here's the first five chapters so if anybody enjoys this I'll put up the rest!
Enjoy!!
Disclaimer: I don't own Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, however I do own Merula/Sailor Universe, Mu and Fargo.
Princess Mercury: Her Past and Her Promise.
Chapter One
A New Enemy
Click.
The control panel lit up as a gloved finger pushed the glowing red button.
The computer monitor which had sat dark and square up until now on the flat of the desk now
illuminated the gloomy room with a dull grey light.
A small box appeared on the screen as the heavily upgraded piece of software took mere seconds to boot up.
Two headings.
Login name.
User password.
The fingers danced around the keyboard and a word appeared in the name heading.
S. Universe
Five more buttons clicked and five asterisks appeared in the password heading.
The enter key came next.
The terminal buzzed for a few more seconds and was then ready for use.
The DVD drive slid open and the hand slipped in a CD ROM.
After more processing a data file appeared on the screen.
At the top there was the image of a teenager with blue hair.
She was perhaps sixteen and wore a school uniform.
She had the most beautiful face the person who had logged onto the terminal had ever seen.
A female sigh of joy broke the silence in the dimly lit room as the user of the computer terminal gazed upon that lovely face for the first time in what felt like countless lifetimes.
Below in red letters was her personal information.
Name: Amy Anderson
Sex: Female
Age: 15 yrs
D.O.B: Sept/10/1978
Identity: Sailor Mercury
The female eyes narrowed.
She finally knew who Sailor Mercury really was.
Now she had everything she needed to take action.
She could come out of her complacency and into her agenda...
~*~*~
"Are you guys ready?"
"We're ready!" four other female voices responded confidently.
"Go!"
"Venus Love Chain!" the blonde Sailor Scout raised a hand.
"Jupiter Thunder- Clap Zap!" the brunette Scout struck the side-walk with her clenched fist.
"Mars Celestial Fire!" the dark haired Scout flipped out a piece of paper with the kanji printed on it.
"Shine Aqua Illusion!" the blue haired Scout spread out her hands as blue energy crackled between her spread fingers.
The night-time sky was lit up as the combined might of love, lightning, fire and ice were unleashed as one.
The foul demon which had arrived from the Negaverse to inflict devastation upon the planet Earth only to have met with the might of the planets guardians who were the group of female warriors the Sailor Scouts, shielded its tortured eyes as the energies of the elements screamed toward it.
It howled in torment as it was held in place by Sailor Venus' long chain of small golden hearts while the combined power of the Scouts of Jupiter, Mars and Mercury shocked, charred and froze its armoured body all at the same time.
"It's weakened!" a small voice cried from the other side of the street in which the battle was raging. "Now Sailor Moon!"
"You've got it Luna!" another blonde Scout whose hair was in long plaits that were held in place by a pair of overly plump pom- poms that stuck out on the top of her head quite noticably told the talking cat who was watching the fight from an alley.
The leader of the team of Sailor Scouts, Sailor Moon drew out a small sceptre about a few metres tall and aimed it at the beast.
"Moon princess Halation" she cried out as she was surrounded by an aura of white.
Wings seemed to materialise about her and then were gone again.
The sceptre issued a beam of holy power which burrowed into the monster reducing it to crystal dust.
Sailor Moon, breathing heavily lowered the sceptre and leaned on it.
Sailors Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Mercury eyed her teasingly.
"This really takes it out of ya." Sailor Moon moaned. "I thought you guys would never wear it down enough for me to hit it with the sceptre."
"That's rich Serena! This would all have been over an hour ago if you hadn't let it knock the sceptre into the river." Mars retorted.
"She's right y'know." Jupiter had resented being elected to go after the sceptre.
Mercury just smiled softly as her fellow scouts became embroiled in a debate about the finer points of tactical thinking in the field.
~*~*~
After transforming back from her Sailor Scout alter-ego Mercury, Amy came out from behind the back of the shed and walked up to her back door.
Moving aside the loose brick near the door Amy retrieved the hidden key which she went on to unlock the door with. After putting the key back she turned the handle.
The door held firm.
Amy furrowed her brow in puzzlement.
She'd locked the door just now?
It had been unlocked before she had arrived?
Slightly annoyed, Amy took out the key, unlocked the door and hid the key all over again.
She must have forgotten to lock it this morning.
Amy couldn't believe she'd been so careless.
That was the last time she walked to school with Serena on the day she'd been together with the rest of the Scouts the night before.
It really had to be.
In the kitchen at last Amy slipped out of her shoes and went on to the hallway and up the stairs.
The door was slightly ajar as she got there and she shoved it open and walked in.
As she was about to get changed Amy noticed that the red light on her phone indicated that she had a message.
Pressing the button she shut the door with her other hand.
And the trap was sprung.
The intruder moved quickly dropping down from the door frame upon which they had stood since hearing Amy close the back door.
Amy's mind lurched as someone landed on her back and bore her to the floor.
Hands grabbed hers and held her down before she was able to do anything.
Amy thought frantically.
A demon?
A being from the Negaverse?
Her wrists were held so tightly down on the floor that she could not go for her Transformation Pen which was in her pocket.
One of the hands released hers.
That hand clamped over her face.
In it her unknown assailant held a damp cloth.
The powerful aroma of chloroform stunned her and her eyes watered.
She should have transformed as soon as she was attacked.
Now her assailant had the upper-hand and it was too late.
The intruder released her as her awareness began to fade.
The last thing Amy heard before darkness took her was a voice from the answering machine.
"Hey Amy this is Serena. The girls and I were just wondering if you have time to drop by the...."
~*~*~
Amy woke with a start.
She opened her eyes...and then regretted it.
The piercing white light flooding into the room was something her stinging eyes weren't ready for right now.
"Well that was a mistake." she moaned shutting her eyes again.
"I quite agree." a pleasant female voice said.
Amy's eyes shot open again before she could catch herself and her eyes watered again.
"Ooh. Subjecting your eyes to bright light after waking up from being drugged." her host laughed quietly. "I wouldn't recommend it."
"Who are you?" Amy muttered holding her eyes shut. "Where am I?"
"I don't think I'll tell you know either of those things. But never mind. After all you don't need to know."
"Then what do you want?"
"For now all I want is your company Amy. Or should I call you Sailor Mercury?"
Amy doubted the reality of her situation then.
"Wha...how do you..." she couldn't find the words in her confusion. "Are you from the Negaverse?" she settled for in the end.
"Negaverse?" her hostess said the word like it was something new. "I can't say the name means anything to me so I'm afraid not. Look Amy I'm at a bit of a loose end here. There's nothing to be said until an associate of mine gets here. That'll be enough for now. We'll talk again soon."
Amy heard a door open and shut and then the turn of a key in a lock.
Her hostess was gone.
Amy finally opened her tender eyes.
Her head ached sending spasms through her body so she remained seated.
She was in an upstairs (she could see the sky through a window) bedroom which was luxuriously arranged.
As she lay back weakly in the chair Amy thought about everything.
She knew that her captor was female and from her voice round-about her own age.
But what reason did she have to do this if she wasn't from the Negaverse?
She realised she was going to have to bide her time before making any attempt to get out of here.
She hadn't yet recovered from the effects of the chloroform so she'd never make the jump to Sailor Mercury without blacking out.
But when she was recovered...
~*~*~
"Can you believe it?" the chisel-jawed rough featured client of the night-club Tokyo Dead-Zone commented.
He drew no great response from the rest of the clientele sitting at the smoky bar drowning their sorrows.
So instead he directed his raucous bellow over the heavy metal blaring on and on to the person in the seat next to him.
The other client didn't react any more than the other boozers had but the drinker who had spoken was not to be deterred.
"The crap they throw in these rags at the last minute. Have you seen this?"
"No."
The one sitting next to him spoke for the first time since he'd walked into the club.
"What is it?" he asked in tones which made it crystal clear he couldn't have cared less.
"This crap." chisel-jaw waved a battered news-paper in his face.
Now that he had turned around he saw who he had begun this unprovoked conversation with.
He was a male who looked around fifteen.
He wore a grey sleeveless shirt and faded blue jeans. He had red hair and the most striking grey eyes.
The client wondered just how someone this young had been able to get past the bouncer.
Not that it was his business.
Rather than asking questions he handed the youth the gossip rag for his perusal.
The kid looked at the front page.
"Escaflowne not to be re-newed for new series?" he asked.
"No below that buddy."
The youth looked at the article beneath.
NORTHERN DISTRICT RAVAGED BY MYSTERY BEAST
The brief report stated that several witnesses claimed to have seen a monster appear in a town square and begin a rampage of destruction.
None had been around long enough to see what had become of the beast but the first person who had found the courage to return had said something about five teenage girls.
For the first time in a while a grin pricked up on his face.
So the Sailor Scouts were still around.
Good.
"Interesting." he stated passing the rag back to the client and rising to leave. "Thank you for the loan of your paper my good man."
As he got up from the bar the boy noticed a strikingly good looking woman sitting at a table on her own. In the blink of an eye he had crossed over to her.
"So what's a good lookin lady like you doing alone in a place like this?" he asked with a dashing grin. "What about you and me going out for a snack tonight?"
"What about you sliding across the floor?" growled a large hulking cue-ball of a man who had come up behind him and heard what he had said.
The youth turned and looked him up and down carefully.
From the build he'd say that the man was five times his size. From the attitude he'd say that he was the woman's boyfriend.
"I...dont think I'd like that very much." he said after careful thought.
"Then buzz off kid! You're irritating the lady!" The youth took the hint and turned for the door.
At the last second the man who had shown him the newspaper called after him.
"Just a sec sonny. What's your name anyway?"
The youth called over his shoulder as he strode out of Tokyo Dead-Zone.
"Fargo."
~*~*~
"Still no sign of Amy?"
"Nope." Rei shook her head. "Serena told me that she never came to school today."
Luna frowned.
This was unusual.
Not the frown itself although this would have been understandable coming from the face of a cat but the fact that this particular cat was the one doing the frowning.
"This isn't like Amy at all." Luna said at last. "First she wasn't at home when Serena called to walk her to school and now you tell me she never even showed up there."
"You bet your life it isn't like her!" Rei put in. "She crammed for today's algebra test for a month just to miss it."
Luna grunted. "Well Serena went to her house to fetch her. Amy can explain herself when she's here."
As if on cue the café door opened and Serena sauntered in.
Rei and Luna's eyes were on her.
Amy wasn't with her.
"She couldn't come?" Luna asked Serena as she took a seat opposite them.
"I didn't even get to see her." Serena surreptitiously grabbed Rei's untouched jam doughnut. "There was no answer when I rang the doorbell." she stuffed it into her mouth before Rei could reclaim it.
"Oh this is just getting ridiculous!" Luna's temper was at an all-time shortage. "Where can she have been the whole day?"
Serena shrugged. "Dunno. I haven't seen her. Come to that none of us have seen Amy since we all went off after fighting that monster last night."
"You think she could have been affected by the monster somehow?" Rei was concerned.
"She'd have told us if she had been." Luna snapped. "Amy has some reason for not showing herself all day believe-you-me. Well I won't be too gentle with her when she concedes to turn up."
A slight beep caught their attention.
Serena glanced stealthily around the cafe and then pressed the button on the side of her wrist communicator.
She listened for a minute to the voice on the other end and turned back to Luna and Rei.
"That was Lita you guys. She says Artemis has found another space-time rift. He wants us there in case something slips through. We'll just have to cope without Sailor Mercury's help."
~*~*~
Amy walked through the door she had opened.
She had no choice.
When she had awoken from her unrefreshing sleep she had found the door to her room unlocked.
However she had found little solace in this since all the other doors in wherever she was were locked.
All but this one.
The room beyond loomed up before her.
A book-lined study greeted her eyes.
Her hostess looked up from where she had been reading as she had come in.
"Ah Amy." she greeted her as she rose to her feet. "I was only just thinking of you."
For the first time since this had all began Amy was able to take a look at her captor.
She was a girl with purple hair cascading over her shoulders to her waist.
She was dressed in a modest way not unlike how Amy herself was wont to dress.
There was a strange sparkle in her brown eyes as she regarded her 'guest'.
"Were you now?" Amy's attempt to sound defiant collapsed.
There was something unnerving about those eyes.
"Stop staring at me like that!"
Her hostess shook her head apologetically.
"I'm sorry. It is impolite and I do apologise. But you should realise Amy that you are the most beautiful girl I've ever had the privilege to meet. Not that I mean anything by it but I could lose the time looking into your face."
Amy was completely thrown.
The strangeness of her day was complete.
"Feast your eyes." she retorted. "Since you'll need to make do with your memories for quite a while."
Her voice was flat for her words were empty and she knew it.
Her hostess smiled enigmatically.
"Well that's a maybe. Oh but here I am going on when we haven't even been introduced. My name is Merula. But tell me Amy...do you believe in destiny?"
Amy did not reply, wishing to have no part in this bizarre conversation.
"I'll take that as a no. Well...it certainly believes in you."