Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Princess Mercury: her past and her promise ❯ Battle of the Sailor Scouts ( Chapter 3 )

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Chapter Four
Battle of the Sailor Scouts


"Aha! There you are!" Luna was angry.

Perhaps like the prophet of old she considered that she did well to be angry.

The intellectual cat had served along side her counter-part Artemis as an advisor to Queen Serenity many centuries ago during the days before the fall of the Moon Kingdom.

It was after the Twilight of the Moon Kingdom -when Luna and Artemis had been transported to Earth, along with the five princesses of the Solar System, in order to escape the clutches of the Dark Queen - that Artemis had located Venus, and she had been the first to recover her true identity. Venus had gone on to become the mysterious heroine Sailor V.

Since she had had no way of contacting Artemis it had been left to Luna to find the other four
princesses.

It had taken a while but in the end they had all come together re-united as the Sailor Scouts.

Luna had done her best to teach the girls the virtue of discipline and responsibility.

But in the past week one of her charges whom she had considered to be her greatest student seemed to have taken leave of the group and to throw her responsibility to the winds without so much as a word.

Sailor Mercury had disappeared without a word to the others and Luna wanted to know why.

Now seeing Amy walk in with Serena and the other girls had brought all of the anger that had gathered over the past day right out.

Luna jumped onto the living-room table as she saw Amy.

"Don't you think you owe me an explanation?" she demanded.

Amy gave a start as she perceived the anger in Luna's voice.

For a few minutes she was at a loss for words. When she received no answer to her accusation Luna continued. "You know exactly what I mean. The last time any of us saw you was last night. Since then you haven't been to school nor contacted us."

Amy found her voice somehow.

"I can't believe you're saying this to me Luna!" she protested.

"Well why should I speak any other way?" Luna brushed aside Amy's plea. "Why shouldn't I treat you with just the respect that you've treated the rest of us?"

"Luna!" Serena exclaimed as her eyes widened at the cats words to her best friend.

"No Serena I'm going to say this because it needs to be said! We can't have her thinking that she can just go off and leave us in the lurch if she feels like it! You may think that that's the way a Sailor Scout should behave but I don't!" Luna's voice was full of biting scorn.

The words struck Amy like a blow to the stomach.

She could feel the eyes of the other girls on her.

Serena Rei Lita and Mina were not condemning her as readily as Luna but obviously they were all wondering just what she had been up to while she had been away.

Amy felt hurt.

Her only friends in the world doubted her. Their doubt gnawed at her heart like a hostile cancer invading her body.

"Nothing to say?" Luna asked sarcastically.

Amy could hardly believe that Luna was speaking to her like this. Along with Serena the talking cat had been one of the first real friends she had ever found and now...

But then the pain was gone and it was replaced by pure anger. It must have shown on her face because Luna's tirade dried up as she saw her expression.

"You think you're so clever!" Amy snapped. "You really think I just abandoned you all for no reason?"

"I don't think, I know." Luna recovered from her shock and rallied again. "If not then where were you when that monster attacked a few days ago?"

"Well I was only kidnapped, stripped and humiliated. The usual." she didn't even bring Fargo into it. This was a difficult situation as it was.

"Well you certainly found replacement clothing." Luna eyed Amy's white top disdainfully.

Amy blushed.

"So where were you? Did you go and get drunk and couldn't face us in the morning or something? Is that it?" Amy gasped.

"LUNA!!" Mina's voice was stricken and her face was apalled.

"Draw the line Luna." Lita muttered balking at the suspicion in the cat's mind. But it was too late.

"That's what you think is it?" Amy's voice was deceptively calm but her blue eyes flashed with passion and excitement.

"What would your mother say?" was all Luna could think of.

That was it.

Everyone watched stunned as Amy pulled back her hand and smacked Luna around the head.

"Go to hell!" she half screamed at her. "Never suggest that I have shamed my mother! I had so much respect for you! I admired you...but no longer!"

With that Amy turned on her heel and walked straight out. The girls were speechless.

"Wow." said Lita after a while. "Someone had to say that one day. I just can't believe it was her!"

Serena had slipped out after Amy who was breathing hard as she reached the door.

"Amy! Hey babes are you ok?" Serena asked her friend. Amy was leaning on the door her face pale from the stress and strain of the past few days and that moment. Her anger at Luna had drained away leaving only a weary bitterness.

"No. Serena if you have any decency and respect for my feelings just let me walk out now."
she muttered.

"You can't." Serena impulsively moved to stop her friend. Amy flinched from Serena's touch.

"I can." was all she said.

Serena watched in silence, a solitary tear trickling down her cheek as her friend went off alone into the night and the pounding rain.

~*~*~

Merula smirked as she slid the vial out of her sleeve.

She spent a few moments toying with the glass turning it over and over in her palm watching
the blue liquid flow around.

She finally had all she wanted right here.

She'd waited for it for so long and now she was going to have it all. She uncorked the vial.

But it wasn't water in the vial.

The glass contained pure Mercury and it was this that Merula allowed to trickle into her
mouth.

The essence taken from Sailor Mercury that night. Having drank the Mercury Merula stood still and waited for it to take effect.

~*~*~

It had taken him a good while to follow her trail.

Now he did the concrete steps three at a time as he descended into the disused train station.

Amy was naive. Perhaps that was what drew him to her so much.

Fargo smirked.

That girl simply had no idea how to make sure that no one could track her.

Fargo had been irritated beyond measure when he had sensed Amy leaving his apartment.

He had watched her head for the park from his window before gliding down to the ground and following her. However before he had been able to go into the park after her the other Sailor Scouts had arrived and he had watched from behind a tree as they had met up with Amy again.

Looking around he caught sight of his quarry.

Amy was sitting on a bench with her head in her hands. She had not seen him yet so he approached her.

Amy heard his footsteps and as she looked up he could see the dried tears on her cheeks.

"Oh. It's you." Amy said flatly as she recognised him.

"Lil old me." Fargo agreed. "What's up Amy? You look bluer than usual."

"Nothing you'd understand." she rebuffed him.

"Try me." he asserted.

Amy just sighed.

Fargo's face was impassive but he realised that something about him made her feel uneasy.

"Is it me?" he asked straight out. She sighed again.

"You're so cold Fargo. How can you be so cold?"

Fargo realised that he had never really thought about it before. The thing was that he couldn't remember a thing about his past before the day of his great promise. That was the sole memory that Fargo could consciously recall. If there was a special reason for who he was he had no idea what.

"Amy." Fargo found that she didn't resist as he took her shoulders in his hands and drew her to her feet. "I can't help who I am. I'm not perfect. But you have great friends who'll stand by you through it all. I'm not sure what's happened but I feel sure that they'll remain true to you no matter what."

Amy didn't understand.

A few hours ago he hadn't shown any regret when flippantly talking about the deaths of his mom and dad and now here he was preaching to her about friendship? Then she felt his grip on her tense and saw his face crease.

"What?" Amy asked dreading the answer.

"I feel it...someone is coming...someone with a power that....dwarves my own...." he growled.

The temperature had dropped drastically.

Amy was the first to notice since she was hardly dressed for a rainy night. She hugged the sides of her shoulders. Fargo simply ignored the cold.

"Fargo look!" Amy cried pointing up at the ceiling. Fargo looked up and definitely didn't like what he saw.

The ceiling was covered in blue ice which was right at that very moment spreading from the centre covering the whole train-station with frost. The cold air was nearly unbearable!

Amy felt her skin turning white.

The clouds burst.

With a sharp crack the ceiling broke into millions of pieces as it was transformed into ice.

Amy covered her eyes against the tiny shards of frost but Fargo was focused on the figure who hung in the air above them. The figure slowly lowered through the hole in the roof. Amy and Fargo watched as the newcomer landed in front of them.

Amy breathed deeply.

A gold tiara glittered at the strangers forehead as the ice shone on it. In it there was set a sapphire. She also wore a white sailors shirt and a short blue skirt as well as white elbow length gloves and blue boots.

A Sailor Scout? But this could not be. Amy was the only Scout who wore blue and it definitely wasn't Moon, Mars, Venus or Jupiter standing in front of her. This Scout's hair was bright purple as were her eyes.

The gleam in her eyes seemed to mock Amy.

"Merula." Amy breathed as she remembered when she had last seen those eyes.

Merula grinned in mockery.

"How nice of you to remember. You're as pretty as ever Amy." she said. "Of course you must be wondering about all of this. Well let me make it clear to you. Yes I am a Sailor Scout..."

"That's a lie!" Amy broke out. "There are only five of us on Earth! I know because..." she struggled for a way to banish the doubt she felt welling up in her.

"You'd best ask Luna about that. How is that pompous old moggy these days anyway?"

Amy's head swam. How could Merula be a Sailor Scout? But if she weren't then how could she know about Luna as well as her personality?

"Poor Amy. You still don't really understand do you? Well then just watch this and you'll see."

Merula held out her arms and spread out her fingers in much the same way Amy did when she was about to transform. "Universal Planet Power! Make Up!"

A sphere of darkness surrounded her body pulsing and disintegrating the benches around her as well as some of the floor. The darkness was so intense that Amy and Fargo were forced to narrow their eyes in order to make anything out.

In the middle of the sphere Merula transformed.

Her boots flowed like liquid and became a pair of black high-heels. Her skirt changed from blue to the darkest black. A dark dust sprayed onto her finger nails colouring them black. Merula's hair was twisted by some invisible force into one long braid which hung loosely behind her.

The darkness of Merula's Scout outfit seemed to drain all the light out of the train-station.

Merula spoke with a voice seemed to be full of dark power.

"I am Sailor Universe and I will kill you. Sailor Mercury, time to die!" And pointing her finger at Amy she spoke. "Death Ice!"

The air around became bitter with acrid coldness as ice began to form around her finger tip and black lightning crackled between her fingers. Then a blast of vile freezing coldness rocketed straight at Amy who was too stunned to avoid it.

But the ice of death never touched her.

As soon as the beam had been discharged Fargo who had remained completely silent during the entire conversation sprang to one side with cat-like reflexes.

A horrifying blood-chilling scream echoed throughout the chamber as the ray hit him head on. The cold pierced his body like a sponge dropped in water and left there. His blood stream froze into a sluggish trickle.

He collapsed onto his back breathing shallowly.

Amy cried out in horror. As the world around him darkened Fargo leaned to one side to look up at her.

"Up to you now...Sailor Mercury." Fargo allowed himself the pleasure of blacking out. Hearing these words brought Amy to her senses.

Spreading out her arms and fingers and holding her Transformation Pen Amy called out.

"Mercury Star Power! Make Up!"

Warmth spread through her body as her clothing faded away and were replaced. As the blue light died down it was Sailor Mercury and not Amy who stood preparing to do battle with Sailor Universe.

~*~*~

"Whoah! See that? The reading's going right off the scale!"

Artemis had gathered Luna and the rest of the Scouts at Rei's grandpa's temple and they were all gathered around the Planet Power Detector.

At first all that the group had intended to use it for was to find out where Amy had gone after she had walked out into the rain all alone in the middle of the night.

There had been a great deal of resentment towards Luna among the girls because of the way she had treated Amy who was the best-liked of the group of five. As for Luna she had felt bad as soon as Serena had told that Amy had gone remembering how she'd spoken to her and how she'd doubted her word and suggested that her mother would have been ashamed of her.

She had sent word for Artemis to prepare the PP Detector so that they could find Amy and talk her into returning. Luna had been prepared to apologise to any extent in this case.

However what they had been expecting was far from what greeted their eyes as the Detector located Amy.

Amy had transformed into Sailor Mercury for some reason which was not quite clear. After all if an enemy from the Negaverse had attacked then wouldn't Artemis have detected it before?

But it wasn't that that caught their attention.

It was the presence of ANOTHER Sailor Scout that astounded the group.

Well if Moon, Mars, Venus and Jupiter were here together then who could be with Mercury…?

"What do you think?" Artemis asked his black counter-part.

"The power source certainly belongs to a Sailor Scout." Luna responded but everyone noticed straight away that there was a catch in her voice.

"What's the matter?" Rei asked her uneasily after a while in which Luna did not go on.

"Well…" Luna would have bit her lip. Perhaps she did but not having seen a cat bite their lip before the girls had no way of telling. But everyone realised that for some reason the black cat was trying to avoid answering the question.

Serena couldn't understand it at all. For the time she'd know Luna the intelligent cat had been very collected and together. She had never seen her as disconcerted as this. Not even when the Scouts had been trapped inside Malachite's energy sphere and had only been saved by the appearance of Sailor Venus.

Luna shook her dusky head.

"Shouldn't you four be getting over there and helping Mercury?" she demanded with something of the old snap in her voice.

Before any of the girls could press the matter she turned and scuttled off into the night.

As Luna ran all the way back to Serena's house her face was grim and her thoughts mixed and not wholly pleasant.

Which one of them is it? she wondered as she ran. Which of them has returned after all this time...?

~*~*~

"How could you? He never did anything to you!" Sailor Mercury accused. "You had no right to make him suffer like that!"

Sailor Universe leered.

"Always the caring warm one, eh Mercury? Well you wouldn't be so quick to come to Fargo's defence if you knew what I did."

"What are you talking about?" Mercury was intrigued but wary of deceit intended to throw her off guard.

"I mean that I'm not like you or the others Mercury."

"That's for sure." Mercury cut her off bitterly.

"No. No not like that." Universe's eyes seemed to glaze over as her voice changed to a more serious tone. "I'm not like you five in the sense that I can remember my previous life before…"

"Before what?" Mercury pressed when she stopped.

Sailor Universe breathed deeply closing her eyes for a few minutes as if what she was about to say needed a lot of effort.

"I can remember what happened in my life before the fall of the Moon Kingdom back in the days when Queen Serenity still ruled. You see Sailor Mercury unlike you, your friends and Prince Darien I was not sent to Earth after the Kingdom was destroyed. Well…not at the same time as the rest of you anyway."

Something in her voice made Mercury stop to think.

That Merula was a Sailor Scout was certain. There could be no doubt now that she had revealed that she knew about Luna, the other Scouts, Darien and the Moon Kingdom. So then what had happened to stop Universe from leaving the Moon Kingdom for Earth at the same time they all had? Why had Luna claimed that she, Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Venus were the only Sailor Scouts? There was no way Luna couldn't have known about Sailor Universe having been one of Queen Serenity's advisors… And how had Universe gotten to Earth and what had happened to her all those years ago to make her the way she was now?

It didn't matter. Explanations were going to have to wait for a while.

"That's enough talk for now." Sailor Universe snapped pointing with her dark gloved finger at her. "Let's get on with it! Have at you Sailor Mercury!"

And from where he lay on the floor several feet away Fargo mulled over in his head what he had just heard.

Fargo had managed to drag himself out of his cold induced coma in time to hear what had just been discussed by the two Sailor Scouts. Without realising it Universe had brought to light the possibility of him finding out about his past. Finding out what had happened to lead to him making his sacred promise to Queen Serenity. But as with before this was going to have to wait. There was nothing he could do in his condition but to watch how things played out and to hope that Sailor Mercury had what it took to take out a fellow Sailor Scout.

As it happened Mercury had been wondering about that exact same thing.

The discovery that Merula was a fellow-Scout complicated the whole thing. Could she bring herself to fight another Scout? Wouldn't that be just like fighting Serena?

No! No matter what Merula had done Mercury couldn't lower herself to her level. But then what?

She had no time to work this interesting problem out.

"Death Ice!" The all too familiar bitter coldness set all of Mercury's nerves on edge again.

She stood prepared to spring as the ice gathered to Universe's finger-tip and as the blast of ice made for her she uncoiled and avoided the blast with cat-like grace.

Sailor U's eyes were on her as she came down behind some dismantled benches which were piled up on top of each other.

Heh… Universe's lip curled maliciously. She was trying to get under cover then?

"Hell Fire!" All at once, searing heat blasted Sailor Mercury, reaching her even behind her hiding place and she was only able to jump out of the way in time to avoid becoming the same smoking ashes as the benches.

But her eyes were wide as she stared at the other Sailor Scout.

"You used a fire attack!" Mercury exclaimed, still hardly believing it. "But that can't be! A Sailor Scout can only draw on the power of ONE planet! And Sailor Mars has the fire element! How…"

Universe just sneered.

It dawned on Mercury that what she was now engaged in was quite possibly the fight of her life…


"This is near the spot you three!" Sailor Venus called back to her comrades who were leaping across the rooftops towards her.

Venus was pointing the Planet Power Detector north into the city when it had suddenly gone ballistic.

Two sources of Planet Power in one place at the same time. Venus was baffled by the implications of it.

When the detector had picked up the sources Serena, Lita, Rei and herself had been together so the source couldn't have belonged to any of them. So who was with Sailor Mercury right now if it wasn't Moon, Mars, Jupiter or herself? A sixth Scout? But if there was another Sailor Scout then why had Luna or Artemis never spoken of her? It made no sense.

But when they had first detected the new source of Planet Power earlier that evening Luna had began to act strangely. She had snapped rather more sternly than she usually would have done at them to go help Sailor Mercury. It was like she had been avoiding answering the question.

"Sailor V?" Venus realised that she'd stopped and had been thinking for so long that the other Scouts had had time to catch up with her. "You've been standing there doing nothing for three minutes, you know that?" Sailor Jupiter asked regarding her curiously. "What's on you're mind?"

Venus shook her hair. She had no time to be thinking right now. When they found Sailor Mercury they would see what they would see.

"I've managed to locate the sources." Venus avoided answering the question by showing them the two blips on the detector's small screen. One blue and one black.

"So there IS another Scout!" exclaimed Mars as she looked at the unknown reading.

"I don't know. Look let's just go and find Mercury. Something tells me that she could really use our help right now!"

Sailor Venus had no idea how right she was.

Sailor Mercury had to keep on her feet to escape being frizzled like barbecued meat as Sailor Universe continued to bombard her with her flame attack.

Universe never seemed to weaken or slow down but kept up her vicious assault as if there was nothing else in the world than Mercury. As the glow of the flames died down from her attack Universe took a moment to try and get her quarry in her sights.

She stared.

And blinked.

Sailor Mercury was nowhere to be seen.

In fact Mercury had used the cover of the fires intense glare to duck behind a large stone support pillar on the other side of the Train Station on the basis that Universe couldn't roast her alive if she couldn't see her.

Her theory was sound but flawed, for after not being able to find Mercury after two minutes Universe simply jumped up on the top of a ruined train and bombarded the entire chamber with her flames!

Behind the pillar Sailor Mercury closed her eyes feeling the intense heat of the flames. If she stayed here she was done for…

Using a break in between the bouts of pouring fire she sprang out from behind the pillar and rolling beneath the heat she stood just below the pillar Universe had situated herself atop of.

Moving quickly as Universe spotted her standing there Sailor Mercury spread out her arms.

"Mercury Ice Storm!" she cried.

The chamber was blasted with a cold aura as she focused her ice attack and let it rip.

Sailor Universe narrowed her eyes against the cold as her hair was blown back behind her head by the oncoming blast. But she focused on the blast approaching her coolly, coldly, calculatingly.

And the very moment before it arrived she dropped her fire attack and summoned a different power.

"Death Ice!"

In an instant she had formed her own ice attack which she had used earlier to drop Fargo.

The chambers walls were transformed completely into brittle ice and the air was unbearably

freezing as the two ice attacks met head on.

There was a short pause as the two ice blasts grappled pushing each other back and forth slowly struggling for supremacy.

Both Sailor Mercury and Sailor Universe threw all they had into the terrific battle of wills.

Their eyes narrowed as they both felt the acute weight of their struggle with each other.

However in the end it was Sailor Universe who proved superior.

With a heart-rending scream Mercury fell back onto her back as her ice beam was cancelled out by the other and she was hit head on by it. Her body was assailed by intense cold and for a moment she thought that she was finally finished.

But her enemy had no intention of killing her.

This was made clear as Sailor Universe dropped the ice beam and stepped off the edge of the pillar. Sailor Mercury watched helplessly as she landed on the floor a few feet away from her.

There was nothing she could do. She was as weak as a kitten and could hardly move.

Struggling with all her remaining strength Mercury got onto her knees as Sailor Universe came to a halt in front of her.

There was a smirk of malicious satisfaction on Universe's face as she stared down at her fallen advesary.

"You know something?" Universe broke the unbearable silence. "That was nowhere near as fulfilling as I imagined it would be."

Desperately Mercury raised her gloved hand and pulled inside for her remaining Planet Power…

"Oh please!" Sailor Universe spread her arms and fingers as dark lightning crackled between them. "And now to bring the show to a close...a bondage trick! ARROW-SNAKE!"

Sailor Mercury watched in horror as a pair of solid steel handcuffs materialised around her wrists. She pulled her hands apart but they held tight.

As they did so she felt her Planet Power fade away into nothing. Her Sailor Suit disappeared as she turned back into Amy.

"A special metal created by Emperor Mu's best sorcerers especially to contain your power." Universe explained. "You're coming with me whether you like it or not my dear, sweet Princess Mercury."

Weak and exhausted and stripped of her powers Amy could do nothing as Universe stepped forward and lifted her up, slung her over her shoulder and turning set off towards the exit.

And across the other side of the Train Station where Fargo lay in a pool of frozen blood the teenager lay back as a tide of black despair washed over his heart and silenced his mind.

He had failed in his trust.

He had not been able to keep his promise to Queen Serenity. Fargo's life was no longer worth living.

And it was in the middle of this whirlwind of despair and self-loathing that the amazed Sailor Scouts of the Moon, Mars, Venus and Jupiter arrived in the blasted ruin that had once been theTrain Station and found him laying there.