Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Fragility of Time ❯ Objects in Motion (Chapter 29) ( Chapter 29 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Chapter 29: "Objects in Motion"

With the ringing of the bell, Usagi quickly packed her
books away. It was Friday afternoon, and like all the
other students with the exception of Ami, she was ready
bolt and put as much distance between herself and the
school. Unfortunately, she had detention this afternoon,
a fact that she when Haruna moved to block her path.

"Did you forget that you had detention this afternoon?"
Haruna-sensei asked Usagi as the girl stopped her dash to
the door.

"Oh yeah." Usagi grumpily mumbled as she turned around
and headed back to her desk. "Detention on Friday,
totally unfair." She whined under her breath.

"What was that you said?" Haruna sharply asked, having
heard Usagi

"Nothing Haruna-sensei." Usagi said as she sat down.
<Just great, I didn't even do anything to deserve
detention today. I got to school on time and even had my
homework done. All I did was accidentally knock a book on
the floor during class and I get hit with detention. She
probably had a date bail on her and decided to take it
out on me, so unfair.> Focused on mentally complaining
about the unfairness of her detention, she missed Haruna
opening a window to let Luna in.

"Now take out your notebook Usagi-chan, so we can get
started on your lessons." Luna said.

Surprised by Luna's presence, Usagi asked "Luna what are
you doing here?" while her cat hopped up onto her
teacher's desk.

"Luna-san and I have been talking," hearing that Usagi
dropped her head knowing that nothing good could come out
of any explanation that started that way. "And have
decided that you need more studies, you are a princess
after all.

"On the moon you received extensive lessons from an early
age that prepared you in diplomacy and other affairs of
state in preparation of your ascension to the throne at
age 20. Unfortunately, unlike the others, whose fighting
skills are ingrained in their souls, you have to relearn
all you lessons and you are already 14. Additionally
except for title, you are now the Queen of the Silver
Millennium." Luna added.

"But Luna, the Siler Millennium is no more. We and the
others are the only survivors of it."

"That may be true, but remember that we already know that
you will resurrect the Moon Kingdom. Furthermore, there
are other empires out there in the galaxy. Following your
final battle with Ail and Ann, I remembered about the
Moon Kingdom's dealing with star systems across the
galaxy. The reawakening of the power of the Silver
Millennium will not go unnoticed for long and others will
be drawn here and it fall upon you to negotiate with them
on behalf of the Earth."

"Me? What about the nations and their leaders."

"Do you ever wonder why the others are princesses of
their respective planets? A Sailor Senshi by her very
nature can't help but to protect her people and can never
be tainted by evil. There has never been any case of a
Sailor Senshi with a tainted soul and it is because of
this that people the galaxy over trusted the ultimate
rule of their planets to their guardian Sailor Senshi."

"The are other Sailor Senshi?"

"Hai, there are. While not every world is protected by a
Sailor Senshi, many are. And where there are Sailor
Senshi, they are universally recognized as speaking for
their planets. Of all the systems, ours is actually
unique, in that the Sailor Senshi are subservient to
another, the line of Serenity.

As Luna paused for a moment in her explanation, Haruna
took a moment to chide her student, "Usagi-chan why
aren't you taking notes??

Usagi wanted to argue that she hadn't yet agreed that she
needed this training. But she knew that look that Haruna
was giving her and pulled out her notebook. It was a look
of "do this or I will stop being lenient with your other
detentions."

While Usagi was pulling out her notebook, Luna searched
her memories to try to get her own lessons from long ago
straight. Seeing that Usagi now had a notebook out and
had finished jotting down what she had just explained,
she decided to continue her explanation. "Lets see how
well I remember my ancient history lessons of the forming
of the Silver Millennium. The Moon Kingdom was created by
a group of settlers, who created the Sailor Senshi of
this system. How I don't know, but in the process the
Ginzuishou was created. At first, not much was thought of
this artifact and following their leader's death, the
plan was for the Sailor Senshi to elect one of their own
to lead the colonists.

"However about fifty years after they arrived, General
Serenity gave birth to a child, a silver haired girl
Misako, though she had taken no lover. Examination of the
child found that she was a perfect clone of her mother.
Then on the 20th birthday of the new child, General
Serenity was absorbed into the Ginzuishou. This caused
much debate amongst the Sailor Council. The debate raged
for ten years until one of them came to see the
Ginzuishou as the birth of another Sailor Soldier, a
Sailor Moon in essence. On that day, it was decided that
the Misako would be crown queen of the fledgling Moon
Kingdom and that as long as each queen gave birth to a
clone princess, her line would continue to rule. On her
31st birthday Misako was crowed Queen Serenity the First."

Usagi jotted down notes as to what Luna was saying,
finding herself quite interested in learning about the
formation of the Moon Kingdom. While she definitely did
not approve of this apparent divine right to rule that
she had, one that went even above the normal Sailor
Soldier divine right, she couldn't really argue with
Luna's logic. Admitting her defeat, Usagi said, "Hai I
guess you are right."

"That's good, now lets get started." Haruna said. "We are
going to begin by examining various current and recent
past events and look at the international relationships
that are involved. You will need to read these books."
Haruna said as she moved a stack of texts from her desk
to Usagi's. "Luna knows which chapters you will need to
read for each day. But for right now we are going to
learn about the different forms of government."

Responding to Usagi raising her hand, Luna asked "Yes,
Usagi-chan what is it?"

"How long are these extra lessons going to be?"

"We will be starting out at 90 minutes each day." Luna
replied, to which Usagi just slumped in her chair seeing
her day vanish completely into schoolwork. "Of course
should Sailor Moon be needed, you will be excused for
that.

Luna had only just finished answering Usagi's question
when the door to the classroom opened. Usagi looked over,
hoping to find salvation from these extra lessons. Seeing
that it was her daughter, she asked, "ChibiUsa what are
you doing here?"

"Diana said that I needed to come here."

"Like I said earlier, a princess is taught these studies
from an early age. Therefore ChibiUsa will be joining you
in these afternoon sessions."

"Nani-ka! You mean I have more schooling?" ChibiUsa
exclaimed.

"Hai." Haruna-sensei replied. "It is a pleasure to have
the opportunity to teach you along with you mother. Now
why don't you take a seat next to Usagi, ChibiUsa-chan,"


Happy that it was Friday, Rei walked down the street.
Turning a corner, the steps leading up to the Hikawa
shrine and her home became visible. Only a few more
blocks away and she would be back home. She had been
feeling uneasy all day and seeing the entrance to the
shrine lessoned that uneasiness. She was not sure what
was bothering her. She hoped that the Sacred Fire would
be able to tell her.

Effortlessly reaching the top of the steps, she saw her
grandfather attempting to woo a gaggle of schoolgirls.
Any other day she would have headed right over there to
knock some sense and decorum into him. But not today, her
unease was bothering her too much and she was fearful
that it might have something to do with Usagi. Ever since
that first vision of the future shattering, she had been
hypersensitive to anything that might indicate a threat
to Usagi.

Thinking about how hypersensitive she was at times,
caused Rei to smirk as she remembered a scene from a
couple of days ago. Shingo and his friends had apparently
found some place that sold fortune cookies that contained
cruses instead of the normal fortunes and of course,
given his sister's appetite for any kind of food, this
was a perfect joke to play on her. He had left a couple
of the cookies out where she could find them, and as
expected, when she did, she ate them. Later at their
Sailor meeting, Usagi had whined about the bad fortunes
that the cookies had given her. Jumping to conclusions,
she had immediately attempted to remove the curses from
Usagi, which involved amongst other things dousing her in
water and covering her in ofuda.

Only the combined efforts of Minako and Makoto had saved
Usagi from any more of her help. While those two
attempted to restrain and talk sense into her, Ami
checked on a very confused Usagi. ChibiUsa of course had
been utterly useless in her mother's defense, instead
having collapsed to the floor in laughter. Later they
learned that the little girl had known about Shingo's
little prank. After getting Usagi some dry clothes to put
on she had apologized for overreacting, an apology of
course which descended into a tongue war.

Reaching her room, Rei put away her satchel and changed
out of her school uniform. Now clad in the traditional
shrine robes, she headed to the main shrine building and
the sacred fire. Entering the room, she headed over to
the fire. After stoking life back into it, she took a
seat on the ground and began her meditation and chants.
The power of her planet quickly entered her body and from
her fed the fire, telling it her wants and desires.
Knowing what its Mistress desired, the flames flared even
higher, however Rei as usual did not notice. Instead, her
mind was now inside of the fire seeing the images that it
laid out before her.

Unlike previous visions, this time she could feel
the heat of the fire as it surrounded mind. However,
that was not quite correct Rei realized, it was not
the flames of the Sacred Fire that she was feeling,
but instead the world itself was burning. Looking
around, she guessed that the wasteland that she
found herself in was once Tokyo, though it was only
the lay of the land that suggested that, as
everything else lay in smoldering ruins. Noticing
some objects off in the distance, she began walking
towards them. Walking through the arid air of this
wasteland was unpleasant, but before long Rei got
close enough to get a good look at what appeared to
be statues, statues of each of the other Sailor
Senshi. Though as she looked more closely at them,
she realized that they weren't statues but her
friends turn to stone.

That realization made her shiver with horror,
however as she did so, she realized that her friends
had all been staring at something when they were
turned to stone. Turning to follow the direction of
their gaze, she scanned the horizon to she what had
drawn their attention. At first, she did not see
anything, but then after a bit three hovering lights
became visible. Initially the lights were dim, but
they quickly grew in intensity till they blinded her
to everything else. But then from one moment to the
next, they simply vanished and Rei's eyes attempted
to adjust to the return of near darkness. When she
could finally see again in the dim red light, Rei
saw that a figure now stood where the lights had
been.

Straining her eyes to make out the stranger's
details, she saw what looked to possibly be a young
woman holding some kind of staff. Taking a step
towards this person, she was forced to stop when a
strong wind suddenly picked up. Turning her head to
brace herself, she turned back towards the stone
forms of her friends. As she did so, she was just in
time to see them shatter into a million pieces and
those pieces shatter again and again until nothing
but dust remained.

"IIE!" cried Rei in both the vision and real life.
Snapping out of her vision, Rei slowly became aware of
her surroundings, while her lungs greedily pulled in the
relatively cooler air of the fire room. Effected by the
vision, the only thought on Rei's mind was placing
physical distance between herself and that hellish
vision. Getting up, Rei quickly left the shrine room.

Needing to calm her mind and body from the effects of
that vision, Rei stopped by the storeroom on her way out
to get a broom. Walking outside she began sweeping the
leaves, letting the methodical work of her chores guide
her in her calming exercises. Absently she thanked Kami
that there were no visitors currently and that her
grandfather had apparently gone back inside. She did not
feel like having to deal with others right now and she
definitely did not want her grandfather prying into what
was troubling her.

Before long, her chores had calmed Rei sufficiently that
she ready to begin analyzing her vision. One that that
immediately struck her, was how drastically different a
vision it was than those of the future shattering. As it
was, she was still no closer to deciphering what those
visions were warning them of. Somehow, she felt it was
something far beyond the threat that Rubeus posed. And it
frustrated it greatly that she hadn't been able to learn
anything to help the one who meant the world to her.

Feeling her frustrations rising, Rei broke off that train
of thought and returned to analyzing the current vision.
The danger while bad, an Armageddon in itself, it felt
less severe than those of that previous set of visions.
That meant, that the danger it posed was a very immediate
one. Somehow, the enemy's attempt to collect pure heart
crystals was tied to this pending Armageddon. Rei, hoped
that Ami might have some ideas, something that would help
her make sense of these images.


A pair of teenagers sat at a table in the back of the
library, though one would be hard pressed to see the
second teenager given that the table was covered with
massive stacks of books, some a meter tall. Or actually
only half covered, as Ryo's side of the table only had a
couple of books on it, his science book, a couple of
reference books and his notebook.

Finishing the problem that he was working on, he put down
his pencil and leaned back before stretching a bit.
Deciding that it was time for a break from his work, he
looked through the one gap on the table to the blue
haired girl who sat on the other side. He had to admit
that she looked very cute right now in those reading
glasses of hers. Smiling at that thought he committed the
scene he saw in front of him to memory.

Thinking about how cute she looked in those reading
glasses, also caused another thought to surface: why she
even needed reading glasses in the first place. When he
had first admired her from a distance and only knew she
was Sailor Mercury through his visions, he had no problem
with her needing them. But now having learned of the
miraculous healing abilities of the Sailor Senshi and
having some understanding of their powers, he thought
that being a Sailor Senshi should have taken care of any
deficiency that might develop in her vision. Thinking
about it some more, he thought that her powers sleeping
until this past year could explain why she had developed
the need for reading glasses, though not why she still
needed them. For as to why she still needed them, the
best he could guess at was that when her powers activated
they took her current condition as the baseline
condition.

Finishing his reasoning, Ryo realized that he was still
staring at Ami. And that she had noticed as well. She
hadn't said anything, instead probably even tried to
focus in on the text she was reading even more so, but
the bright blush on her face was ample evidence that she
had indeed noticed. Reaching across the table, he took a
hold of one of her hands, gaining her attention. As she
looked up from her book, his eyes caught hers and he
smiled, which earned him one in return.

"While you are quite beautiful studying as you are, all
these book you have on the table have me worried. There
must be at least ten times your weight in books on this
table, what if the table gives."

Ami just smiled even more to that worry. "Ryo-chan don't
worry, this is a very durable hardwood table, capable of
taking far more weight than is already on it." Seeing the
surprise on Ryo's face, she continued. "I guess your gift
doesn't tell you anything about the past, a little over a
year ago I actually broke one of their regular tables
with all my books."

"Nani-ka" Ryo replied, surprised by that revelation,
though given the amount of books she would go through
during her intensive study periods, he realized that
something like that was bound to happen.

"Yep, it was quite embarrassing. It was extremely loud,
especially given the normally silent nature of the
library. I was sure that the librarians were going to
throw me out and ban me from ever returning. Instead they
just chuckled a bit and told me to not worry about it and
then a few weeks later I found they had replaced the
table I had destroyed with this one."

Looking at the book she was currently studying he
realized that it was not a text for any school assignment
or project, probably then something Sailor related.
Curious he asked, "So what has you interest so peaked
that you needed to transfer the library's collection to
this table?"

"Starting last week the enemy substantially changed their
strategy. They have gone from stealing energy from a
large group of people to stealing a single victim's life
force. When they do this they extract a glowing crystal
from the victim's chest." Ami began. Then continuing, Ami
said, "It's this attempt to steal their victim's life
force in its entirety that has me worried. Going this
route verse the normal group energy drains is far more
risky, as it becomes an all or nothing operation. There
has to be some benefit to possessing a pure heart crystal
other than just energy. And that is what I have been
searching for.

Ryo nodded his understanding. He wished that his gift
could give Ami some help, but unfortunately, the
premonitions were rarely of anything more than a few
moments into the future. Well except for exam studying,
but that was because his mental approach to studying was
very similar to what is required for going into battle
and consequently activated his gift.

"Have you found anything of help?" Ryo asked

"I have come across some things that might be useful,
descriptions of Blood Magic."

"Blood Magic?"

"Yep." Ami replied. "Apparently it is a very ancient form
of magic and can be quite powerful, particularly in that
it gives even the weakest mages moments of massive power.
This form of magic is based on sacrificing an object and
in so doing turning the less intrinsic elements of its
value into energy. At its extreme the practitioner will
kill a person, often young virgins, to gain a moment of
immense power."

Listening to Ami describe blood magic, Ryo frowned. The
thought of harvesting energy this way gave Ryo a sick
feeling to his stomach, partially because her description
hit very close to home. His kind had used a similar,
though non-magical, method of increasing their own power,
by using captured prisoners as substrates to grow their
tools and weapons.

"However, I don't think this is what they are doing
here," Ami continued. "Even given the immense power
contained in these crystals, it doesn't make sense
strategy-wise to go after them, given that it is an all
or nothing operation. It makes far more sense for them to
just drain a hundred people for a few minutes to get the
same net effect." As Ami said that last part she picked
up a pad of graph paper and turned it around so that Ryo
could see it, on it she had graphed the number of people
and the length of time they needed to be drained to equal
the energy contained in one pure heart crystal.

Seeing that graph convinced Ryo that it was definitely
time for Ami to take a break. While he knew
intellectually that that calculation that Ami had done
was important for them to figure out the enemy's ultimate
goal, the frankness of the graph still revolted the human
part of his soul. Not saying anything, he quickly packed
away his bags and then stood up.

"Come on, that's sufficient work for this afternoon." Ryo
said to a confused Ami, while at the same time reaching
out and taking the pad of paper she held in her hand and
placing it down on the table. After which he then walked
around the table and took her hand in his, encouraging
her to stand up as well.

As she got up, Ami wanted to object. They still had a
good half hour or so before they needed head over to meet
Rei. And if they took the rooftops, they could stay even
longer. However, looking into Ryo's eyes instantly killed
off that idea, as he the same look in his eyes that Usagi
got when she would not be argued out of a position.
Giving into the futility of disagreeing, Ami took a few
moments to pack away her notes before walking out with
Ryo.

Leaving the library, Ryo took Ami's hand in his own and
the two of them proceeded to enjoy the late afternoon sun
while taking a leisurely walk towards the Hikawa shrine.


Kaolinite watched as Tomoe worked on a giant contraption
that he had been building in the lab over the past few
days. All she knew about it was that it was supposed to
fix "a design flaw" in the crystal daimons so that the
Sailor Senshi wouldn't be able to defeat them. Thankfully
the professor agreed that there was a problem with the
crystal daimons and that it was not her fault that the
Sailor Senshi were preventing her from capturing any
heart crystals, as Rubeus was very displeased with her
progress. He really shouldn't be that upset, after all
none of those Pure Heart Crystals contained any of the
Talismans, so it really didn't matter that the Sailor
Senshi had retrieved them. But he never let her point
that out.

"All finished" came the triumphant declaration from the
professor as he put his tools down and crawled out from
under the Daimon Incubator. "This is my finest invention
yet, even better than my Stargate. With this device, we
will be able to create crystal daimons far stronger than
any you have created before. While they are already
fierce creatures, they can also be even more powerful, as
Daimon eggs can merge with more than one substrate. And
with this machine of mine we will be able to do that."
The professor said while widely gesturing at the device
and ending with a fit of laughter.

<Yes, that is what I need.> thought Kaolinite. <With
these enhanced daimons, the Sailor Senshi won't stand a
chance.>

"The crystal daimons as they exist already have more than
enough power to destroy the Sailor Senshi. The Sailor
Senshi have only been able to beat them, because they
have been able to wear them down. Consequently, what the
daimons need is some more armor and this hard hat will be
perfect" The professor said as he picked up the hard hat
that had been lying on the table.

<Okay.> thought Kaolinite, barely avoiding falling to the
ground with the professor's very anticlimactic
announcement of using a hard hat to give the Daimon more
armor. <How about maybe a Kevlar vest, or something with
some combat strength.> Kaolinite wondered, her confidence
in the professor dropping a fair bit. <I just hope this
works for my sake.>

Ready to use the Incubator for the first time, the
Professor opened the chamber door and added the hard hat.
Then walking over to a reinforced container that sat
against one of the walls, he opened it up and removed a
droid crystal. Carefully closing the box, he walked back
and added the crystal to the machine as well.

As the professor placed the crystal into the machine,
Kaolinite asked, "How many of those droid crystals do we
have left?"

"Just 12 of them now. Too bad Rubeus doesn't know
anything about their manufacture, as I am sure I could
make more of them. But without some help, I can't risk
using any of these valuable crystals for research." Tomoe
replied. And then turning to regard Kaolinite, while the
overhead lights reflected off his glasses so that they
obscured his eyes he said, "And make sure you don't waste
any more of these."

Following that declaration, Tomoe turned to walk over to
one of the lab tables, where the nascent daimon eggs were
stored, his mood returning to its normal cheerful mad
scientist-self. Selecting one of the vials, he picked it
up and examined it in the light. Satisfied he returned
and poured its contents over the two other objects in the
Incubator. With his closing of the machine's door, it
activated. Then thirty seconds later the machine fell
silent with the dinging of what could only be described
as a dinner bell.

On one side of the machine, a conveyer belt extended away
and with the dinging of the bell, the conveyer activated.
Figuring that this is where the new daimon would be
delivered, Kaolinite walked over to collect her tool.
Seeing a large metal briefcase emblazed with a black star
emblem roll out on the conveyer belt, Kaolinite reached
out and picked it up. Ready to begin her next mission,
Kaolinite turned and walked out of the room. However, she
had only gotten a few steps before Tomoe called to her.

"Hold on a moment, with the daimon now contained inside
that briefcase till its release you are going to need a
new way to find the carriers of the Talismans. This
device will point them out to you." Tomoe said as he
handed her the daimon Compass. "The device uses a daimon
Egg to locate those of pure hearts. Since it does use a
daimon egg, it can be activated as well to create a
generation one daimon." The professor's voice turned icy
again as he gave her the final helpful hint, letting her
know very clearly that she would do best to make sure she
returned with all three Talismans should she need to use
the compass in that manner.


Rei finished up the last of her chores as the afternoon
sun graced the horizon. She was still troubled by her
vision from earlier that afternoon and was wondering what
to make of it. Putting the broom away, she decided that
she would put it out of her mind for the evening and deal
with it tomorrow at the meeting. This was a Friday night
and Friday nights were meant to be spent out enjoying
yourself with your friends, not worrying about visions of
Armageddon.

Walking back outside she decided to just stand out on the
grounds and enjoy the warm evening and the invigorating
smell of nature that was on the wind that night. Glancing
at her watch, she noted that Ami and Urawa would be
arriving in about fifteen minutes, assuming that they did
not get distracted by their studying. After those two
arrived, the three of them would head out, stopping by
Juuban Junior High School to pick up Usagi.

Rei chuckled a bit, imaging the scene that Usagi must
have made this morning when Luna told her that she had
been talking to Haruna-Sensei and that the two of them
had put together a program to work on her training as a
princess. Poor Usagi, while the rest of them innately
remembered how to be warriors, she had received no
training in that department in her past life, yet at the
same time was most crucial of them all in battle given
her powers. And then to top it all off, the memories of
the one area that she did receive training in, did not
transfer at all to the present. As much as Rei wanted to
see Usagi take her studies seriously, she did feel that
having these extra lessons on a Friday afternoon was
cruel and unusual punishment. She guessed that if any of
Usagi's classmates learned of her staying after this late
today they would have just chalked it up to Haruna-sensei
getting dumped on a date for the weekend. In some ways,
she guessed that Usagi having a teacher who was known to
be moody was a good thing.

Heavy breathing alerting Rei to a guest ended her mind's
wanderings. Even before she turned to see the newcomer,
she knew that it wasn't Ami and Urawa as both of those
two could easily jog up the steps without any heavy
breathing. Absently she wondered for a moment if anything
could make Urawa breath heavy given that he was no longer
human. Now facing the guest, Rei smiled warmly as she
walked over to great the new arrival.

"Welcome to the Hikawa shrine, how my I help you?" Rei
politely asked.

"Ah yes you are the one that I am long for. Your heart is
infinitely pure and must contain one of the talismans.
Now give it too me!" the last bit Kaolinite exclaimed as
she threw off her full-length coat, revealing her Witches
5 outfit. Then dropping down to her knees, she placed the
briefcase on the ground and unlatched it. Stepping back,
she watched as a demon spirit escaped and quickly formed
into the Crystal Daimon.

Stunned by the sudden actions of this guest, Rei failed
to throw herself out of harms way in the few seconds of
time she had. Instead, she watched as Kaolinite unleashed
the demon and by the time she realized that she was in
trouble, the Daimon was already advancing on her. Backing
away from the Daimon, Rei moved to run, but the Daimon
snaked out its hands and grabbed a hold of her. Trapped,
Rei watched helplessly as a black star on the top of its
head began to glow.

As the dark energy from the star reached out to her body,
she could feel her energy begin to drain away. While mild
at first, the pain very quickly escalated into shear
agony as it felt like her insides were going to be ripped
away from the rest of her body. Not a very inaccurate
description of what was happening. She tried to use her
training as a priestess to fight the stealing of her
soul, but the Daimon was too strong. Instead, she felt
her world go black as the last of her life energy was
removed from her body. Finished the Daimon released her
comatose barely living body, letting it fall to the
ground.


Ami and Ryo were walking up the steps of the shrine when
Ryo suddenly froze, no longer seeing with his eyes but
his gift. The flash of the future only lasted for a
moment but he saw Sailor Mars being killed and then a
second flash of the future, which showed just Sailor
Uranus and Neptune and for some reason caused him to feel
a barely controlled desire to rip the two of them two
shreds.

"Ryo-kun what is it?" Ami worriedly asked.

"Rei, she is in trouble." Responded Ryo as his body began
absorbing all light that fell on it, blurring into his
true form. Ami quickly followed Ryo's lead, becoming
Sailor Mercury though in a flash of light as opposed to
Ryo's darkness. Then regarding Sailor Mercury with his
twenty-four eyes, he said, "I'll see to Rei."

"Hai," agreed Sailor Mercury. Then turning to face of the
remaining steps once again, she quickly bounded up them.
Unfortunately, she arrived just in time to see Rei's body
collapse limply to the ground. The horror of that sight
caused her to scream out "IIE!" Then a few moments later
as she regained control of her emotions she turned to
regard Kaolinite and said, "Hold it right there! How dare
you desecrate this holy place. For this transgression, on
behalf of the planet Mercury I will punish you!"

Mercury's scream had drawn the attention of Kaolinite,
and she had been annoyed to find that a Sailor Senshi had
already arrived. But that annoyance quickly turned to
satisfaction as she realized that the blue haired soldier
was the only one here. "Only one of you? You think that
you yourself will be able to stop me when your whole
group can barely stop my crystal daimons?" Kaolinite
taunted. "While getting just one of you seems a waste of
the daimon's efforts, I won't complain. Crystal Daimon
Hard Hat kill her."

Knowing that without out the others present she wasn't in
a good tactical position, Mercury moved quickly to try to
control the pace of the battle and cast her Shine Aqua
Illusion spell even before Kaolinite had commanding the
demon to kill her. But to her horror, the spell just
harmlessly dispersed upon hitting the creature's shell.

Shocked by the complete and utter ineffectiveness of her
attack, Mercury forgot to move. Taking advantage of its
opponent's mistake, the demon charged Mercury. Realizing
the need to move only moments before being hit, Mercury
didn't have time to do anything than to bring her arms
down in an attempt to protect her chest. The move would
have helped had the demon not been aiming even lower, at
her stomach.

Catching her unprotected belly with its head, the daimon
caused Mercury to forcibly exhale while knocking her
backward. Only having started to fall from the attack,
the blue haired warriors body was hit by a second attack,
one that continued to pound in her for a few seconds
knocking her even further backwards. However, to Ami the
two attacks blurred into just one intense moment of pain
as she fell over backwards. Unfortunately, for the Ice
Warrior, she had made her stand not far from the top of
the shrine's stairs and the demon's attacks had knocked
her backwards. So far backwards, that as she caught sight
of the street below Mercury realized that she had been
knocked off the hill. She did not have long to ponder
that thought before her back impacted the stairs and then
she proceeded to painfully fall the rest of the way down,
only coming to a stop when she slammed into a parked car.


Seeing the Daimon easily take care of that Sailor
Annoyance, Kaolinite walked forward to collect the Pure
Heart Crystal from where the demon had left it. <This
mission is going quite well, Rubeus will be quite pleased
to learn that I have taken out Sailor Mercury.> However,
her self-congratulations were a bit early, as was made
apparent by the appearance of a second demon.

Given her line of work, Kaolinite thought that nothing
could scare her, but this creature did. It was some kind
of humanoid insect with black skin and the two rows of
six eyes on each side of its head that glowed an intense
white. Primal fear routed her feet to the ground and
prevented her from calling out for help from her own
demon. Helplessly she watched as this creature knelt down
to pick up the unconscious shrine girl and then reached
out to grab the Pure Heart Crystal. It was not till the
creature had almost reached the other side of the
courtyard that she found herself able to think clearly.

"Don't even think of giving chase to that Pure Heart
Crystal." declared another, who punctuated her statement
with a glowing yellow ball of energy that smashed into
the ground inches in front of where she was standing.
Turning to glare at the newest interloper, Kaolinite
found the situation quickly escalating out of control.


Escaping behind one of the shrine buildings, Ryo placed
Rei down on the ground. Even though he knew the fear that
his true form instilled in others, he was still a bit
surprised that the witch had not given any chase, though
he wondered how long that would last. With Rei down on
the ground, he took a moment to examine the Pure Heart
Crystal, hoping that his gift might tell him what the
enemy wanted with it, but nothing came. Now ready to
return the crystal back to Rei, he was stopped by Sailor
Neptune.

"Hold it there Urawa-san, hand me the crystal." the aqua-
haired warrior declared.

Startled by her voice, he looked up and saw that he was
no longer alone. "This is Rei's life force, I need to
return it to her." he said

"I know it is, but it may be much more. Now hand it over
to me." Neptune demanded while walking up next to him.
"If you don't then I will attack intruder."

This time Ryo's gift activated and he was able to see the
sincerity in Neptune's statement. This was his last
warning, if he did not give her the crystal in ten
seconds she would blast him at point blank range with her
Deep submerge. He might be strong, but he wasn't that
strong. Either way she was going to get the crystal, at
least this way the team would remain whole for now and
more importantly Ami wouldn't be anguished. Giving in, he
let his form return to its humon form upon which he
nodded his accent and then held the crystal out to her.

"Thank you." replied Neptune as she took the crystal and
examined it, peering into its interior looking for a
talisman.


Flung down to street level, Mercury had come to rest
against a parked car. At first she did not move, instead
just staring blankly at the sky. Then slowly she began to
become aware of her surrounding again. The first
sensation was of how cold and hard the ground was.
Unfortunately, following quickly on the heel of that came
intense pain. <Owe, what happened?> Mercury thought, her
mind finally able to put thoughts together. As she tried
to remember how she got on the ground, her eyes caught
sight of the top of the Hikawa Shrine's gateway. <Hikawa
Shrine? What am I doing here?> An even more confused
Mercury thought. But even has her mind thought those
questions; the answers flooded back and with them the
energy to return to her feet.

Not quite ready to jump back to her feet, Mercury instead
rolled away from the car and lifted herself onto all
fours. Unfortunately, while she had the desire, her body
had taken more of a pounding than she realized. That
little movement proved to be even too much for her
injured body to take and she found herself coughing up
blood. Not willing to give up, Rei needed her help, Ami
focused all of her planetary energy into giving her body
the strength to fight. The pain of her wounds vanishing,
Sailor Mercury was able to return to her feet, only to
see that the demon had reached the bottom of the stairs.

The daimon took only a moment to locate its prey and
charged the blue haired warrior for a second time. This
time knowing what to expect, Mercury leapt out of the
way. Landing on the roof of a car on the other side of
the street, she had to wince at the damage the daimon did
to the car she had been standing in front of. Taking
advantage of the momentary advantage she had while the
daimon extracted itself from the remains of the smashed
car, she summoned another Shine Aqua Illusion.

To her horror, the spell that left her hands was a
fraction of its normal size and it splashed harmlessly
against the side of the daimon. While it was more
powerful than ChibiMoon's Pink Sugar Heart Attack, it was
not by much. <This is not good.> thought Mercury. And
then analyzing the situation further, she concluded, <I
must be using so much energy to keep myself going that I
don't have any to spare for attacks.>

With that realization, Mercury knew that she could no
longer hope to control the momentum of the battle.
Instead, the best that she could hope for was to minimize
the damage and keep the demon occupied while she waited
for the others to arrive. <I just hope that Ryo-chan is
able to save Rei.> thought Mercury. Then noticing that
the demon was preparing to charge her yet again, Mercury
got ready to leap out of the way again.

As Mercury kept the attention of the daimon, she thought,
<At least this demon doesn't seem to have any attacks
other than using its head as a battering ram, so if I
stay in the middle of the street I may just be able to
keep it from damaging anything else.> Unfortunately after
a dozen more of her jumps back and forth along the middle
of the street (trying to keep the daimon from hitting
anything) she began to feel herself tire. Realizing that
she was exhausting even her planetary energy, Mercury
knew that she would need to withdraw soon.

Another two jumps and Mercury decided it was time to pull
out. Making one final jump out of the way before escaping
to the safety of the roof tops, Mercury found she stayed
one jump too many. Her timing was off by just enough,
that her toe just barely caught the top of the demon's
head. While her foot barely touched the demon, it was
enough to change her graceful jump, to a painful
uncontrolled crash to the ground. All she had time for
was to curl up into a ball before hitting the pavement.
Then acting on instinct she rolled with the impact and
quickly returned to a kneeling position. Looking up she
saw that the demon had already turned around and was
getting ready to charge her again and this time she knew
she could not get out of the way. Deciding to face her
end as it came, Ami kept her eyes open to watch the
approaching final blow.

"Dead Scream." Mercury's ears barely heard the whisper of
salvation, but eyes had no trouble spotting the violet
ball of energy, which shot out from a side street.
Catching the daimon by surprise, the attack smashed into
the daimon and flung it to the ground a half dozen meters
away. Leaving the side street, Pluto looked over to
Mercury and said, "Sorry about the timing."

Ami smiled at Pluto's attempt at a bad joke before she
gave into her body's desires and collapsed down to the
ground. As she did so, it almost seemed as if her
planet's energy was happy that she was finally allowing
it to do what it needed to do.

Regarding the demon, Pluto was not happy with what she
saw, as the creature did not appear to be any worse for
wear. Instead, all she appeared to have done was get its
attention off of Mercury for the moment, which while a
good thing wouldn't do her any good if she couldn't kill
it. But before she had to worry about dodging one of its
attacks, reinforcements arrived with the clicking of
three more sets of boots landing on the ground behind
her. Taking a quick glance behind she saw that the new
arrivals were Jupiter, Venus, and ChibiMoon.

While Sailor Moon had jumped down along with the other
three, she had caught sight of Mercury's crumpled form.
Immediately she had spread her wings wide and taken back
to the air. Landing now beside her injured friend, she
quickly knelt down to see to Ami.

"Ami-chan are you ok?" she asked, fear in her voice.

The blue haired warrior somehow having managed to retain
consciousness gave a smile of reassurance to her friend.
However, when she tried to speak she found she couldn't
without significant effort. Usagi saw that Ami was having
trouble speaking and quickly silenced the other girl with
a finger on her lips.

"Not now, just rest." Usagi said. Then seeing that Ami
had accepted her advice to remain quiet, Usagi removed
her finger.

"Damn it! Why won't our attacks slow this creature
down?" cursed Sailor Jupiter as the demon barreled
harmlessly through one of her Thunder Dragons as it
charged Venus.

Hearing Jupiter's curse, Usagi turned to look towards the
battle. She looked up just in time to see the demon
deflect one of Pluto's Dead Screams into Venus. Usagi
winced in sympathy as an unsuspecting Venus was blown
backwards. Feeling movement from Ami, Usagi turned her
attention back to the blue haired girl. Seeing Ami
attempting to sit up, she laid a hand on Ami's shoulder
to push her back to the ground. In spite of her weakened
state, Ami attempted to shake off that hand. Glimpsing
the determination in the other girl's eyes, Usagi
relented and instead helped Ami to sit up.

Leaning against Sailor Moon, Mercury summoned her
computer and deployed her visor. While she might not be
able to fight any more, she still could still make
important contributions to this battle. As Ami analyzed
her reading, Usagi wanted to ask the girl, if there was
anything they could use against this demon. However, at
the same time she did not want a repeat of what happened
the last time Ami attempted to talk. For the moment, the
desire to not hurt Ami any more won out.

Examining her scans intently, Ami did not like what she
was seeing. As she feared this creature was heavily
armored, none of their attacks were actually doing any
damage to it. If that was the case, then what could they
do to defeat it? While Sailor Moon was stronger than the
others, her Moon Scepter would not be any more effective.
About the only thing that would work would be her Moon
Tier, but Ami knew that after what happened the last two
times, Usagi would refuse to consider that option.
Examining her scans yet again, trying to find another
option, something caught her eye. A glimmer of hope
rising, Ami's fingers flew over the keyboard as she ran
more scans and a new set of analysis. Finding the key to
defeating this creature, Ami attempted to voice her
finding to Usagi. However, like the last time she
attempted to speak, she doubled over as her body was
wracked by coughs.

"Mercury don't try to talk. Just conserve your energy.
We'll take care of this creature." Usagi said

Shaking her head, Ami forced her body to speak the words
that needed to be said. "No you can't. It's too strong,
you aren't hurting it at all." Each word that she spoke
was a struggle for the injured warrior and she had to
take rest a moment after speaking only her second
sentence. Knowing that Ami needed to speak what she had
figured out, Usagi instead just gently held the other
girl to her chest, lending Ami her strength. Getting her
breathing back under control, Ami continued, "But if
everyone focuses on just one point and one point only,
you'll be able to crack its armor."

Usagi continued to hold onto Ami through the bought of
coughing that followed, worrying every time Ami spit up
some blood. Eventually the coughing began die back down.
With Ami's breathing having returned to normal, Usagi
laid the other girl back on the ground. Kneeling over
Ami, she said, "Now you stay here and rest." Then placing
her hands on Ami's chest, the Ginzuishou reacted to her
call and flowed a small drop of her energy into Ami.

As she let Usagi lay her down on the ground, Ami closed
her eyes agreeing that it was now time to let her body
rest and recover. As a result, she was unaware of what
Usagi was doing with the Ginzuishou. But she did feel a
sudden warmth that flowed into her body, washing away her
troubles and with them her grip on reality. Content, she
fell into a deep slumber.

Seeing Sailor Mercury's chest rising and falling now in
the slow rhythm of sleep, Usagi gave a sigh of relief.
Reassured about her friend for the moment, she returned
to her feet and turned to join the battle. With a strong
downward beat her wings, she took to the air.

Landing by the others, she called out, "Minna-san!
Mercury says we need to focus on hitting the same spot,
that is the only way we are going to beat this thing."

"Hai!" the others agreed, feeling energized again as
Mercury's plan gave them hope again.

Quickly following Usagi's instructions, Venus and Jupiter
and unleashed attacks that hit in the same spot on the
demon's head, a spot which was soon hit by Pluto and
ChibiMoon and then again by the foursome. While the
others continued to attack the demon, Sailor Moon
returned to the air, realizing that up there she wouldn't
have to worry about dodging the demon's charges. As she
hovered in the air waiting for the demon to be weakened
enough for her to use her Moon Scepter, Usagi realized
that being unchallenged up here she wasn't restricted to
just giving the final blow.

Calling upon the power of the Moon, Sailor Moon let the
energy she would need for her attack build up within her
body. Then when she had enough, she pulled her wings in
and quickly dropped down to the ground. With a quick
spin, she unleashed her attack. The golden crescent moon
smashed into the head of the creature knocking it
backwards. As expected, the attack was insufficient to
destroy the creature. But as it lay there on the ground,
Usagi could see that the armor on its head was now
noticeably cracked.

"You go girl!" Venus called out before blasting the
creature with one of her Crescent Beams.

"What happened to the wind up?" ChibiMoon asked,
wondering if she could eliminate that part from her
attack as well and make it slightly less useless.

Usagi smiled in response to that question. "I just
realized that even though I am stuck using this weaker
attack instead of Moon Tier, I can still make use of the
fact that I am now a whole lot stronger than when we were
fighting the Dark Kingdom. I can pre-build the energy for
my attack if the enemy leaves me alone long enough.
Yikes!" the exclamation coming as she realized almost too
late that the demon had returned to its feet and was
charging her.

Safely back up in the air, she began to build her energy
again. Unfortunately this time the demon was not going to
let her go unchallenged and instead decided that it was
time to show these Sailor Senshi that it did indeed have
another attack in addition to just charging its
opponents. Bringing up its left arm, Usagi noticed that
it was hollow. Not quite realizing what that probably
meant, she was taken by surprise when it began shooting
rivets at her. The first dozen missed widely, passing low
and to her right. However, the demon kept firing and
quickly adjusted its aim, raking the sky with its shots.
Not reacting fast enough, some of the rivets caught her
in the stomach and even worse, some of them punched
through her left wing. While the ones that hit her
stomach caused intense pain, they held nothing to the
sudden burning sensation she felt from the holes that
were punched in her wing. No longer able to support her,
Usagi's left wing collapsed and she fell out of the sky.

Seeing their princess fall out of the sky, Pluto, Jupiter
and Venus screamed, "That does it!" Anger coursing
through their blood, the three of them turned on the
demon and in concert unleashed their powers. Fueled by
anger the attacks they unleashed were already at double
strength before they fused into one energy beam,
crackling with electricity and temporal energy. The
crackling yellow beam smashed into the wounded armor of
the demon, flinging it down the street and embedding it
in the retaining wall surrounding the hill the Hikawa
Shine sits on.

When the daimon had brought up its rivet gun, Tuxedo
Kamen left the shadows to take action. Unfortunately, for
the first time his roses came too late, the demon had
already clipped Sailor Moon's wings before he disabled
its gun. Though while he had moved too slowly to save his
love from being hit, he was in time to catch the
plummeting Sailor Moon. Feeling the warmth of her love's
embrace, Usagi opened her eyes and gave him a smile of
thanks.

Landing, Tuxedo-Kamen placed Usagi down on her feet. The
silver haired girl walked forward ready to end this
battle. The burning pain of her punctured wing flowed
through her link to Tuxedo-Kamen and to her daughter.
Sensing the pain that her mother was feeling, ChibiMoon
knew that Sailor Moon would not be able to muster the
concentration she needed for her attack with her injury.
Walking up beside Sailor Moon she said, "Momma, let me
help you."

Usagi did not need to ask what ChibiMoon meant, looking
at her daughter's eyes she could tell that the young girl
was referring to the pain caused by her injured wing. She
would have said that she was fine, however even as she
thought about that she knew that she wouldn't be able to
channel the intense power of the Moon with the
distraction of her wing. Curious as to how ChibiMoon
could help, she summoned her scepter and handed it over.

Given ChibiMoon's short height, the little girl had a
slight problem with using the scepter (it would hit the
ground on the wind up). ChibiUsa discovered this when she
gave the scepter a test swing to get a feel for its
weight and whacked it into the ground. "Oops," ChibiUsa
said quietly to herself with a slight chuckle. Almost as
she said those words, hands lovingly grasped her around
her waist and lifted her up onto the top of a nearby car.
Turning to look at Sailor Moon, ChibiMoon said,
"Arigatoo".

Now that her daughter had sufficient clearance to use the
Moon Scepter, only one issue was left: being able to
summon the energy necessary to use it. ChibiMoon might be
a Sailor Moon in training; however, she could not yet
draw more then a little power from the Ginzuishou. Usagi,
knew that she would need to provide ChibiMoon with the
power to use the Moon Scepter. Placing her hands on her
daughter's waist, while resting her head against
ChibiMoon's back, Usagi closed her eyes and opened
herself up to both the power of the Moon and to her
daughter.

ChibiUsa instantly felt the moment her mother created the
link, a washing her body in energy. The power was
tremendous, she had never imagined that Sailor Moon was
this powerful; it truly was the power of legends. As much
as she would have liked to explore some more, she knew
she had a job to do. Forcing her gaze outwards again, she
sighted the demon and then letting instinct guide her,
she summoned the power of the Moon.

She found the power that washed through her body
deliciously seductive. As she turned the demon to dust,
she found her will to resist the siren call of the even
greater power that remained in her mother's body
crumbling. Listening to that siren call, she remembered
how great it felt to have that all that energy at her
command when she was Black Lady and furthermore how much
better it would be to have this far greater level of
power at her command. A power that was right at her
fingertips, all she had to do was reach over and take it.
And there was nothing that Sailor Moon could do to
prevent her; the foolish girl had not retained any
control of this link.

With every passing moment, the buried part of her that
was Black Lady became stronger and stronger and ChibiUsa
began to reach across the link looking for the heart of
Sailor Moon's power. Once she found that orb of energy in
the other girl's soul, she could rightfully take it for
herself. With it, she could finally return home and save
her mother herself and with that power no one would ever
question her lineage ever again.

Thinking about home and the future shattered the siren's
spell. The persona of Black Lady lost its hold and
vanished. With its departure, she remembered that the
threat of Nemesis was now over, that her mother was safe
and she was growing again. Not only that, but she was now
as Sailor Senshi in training. However on the heal of
those happy thoughts, came unhappy knowledge of the
current situation.

But as she remembered that Sailor Moon was indeed her
mother, the horror of what she almost did began to take
over. Rapidly distancing herself from that alluring
power, she shattered the link as jumped down off the car
and ran off into the distance. Disappearing into an
alleyway, she changed back to her civilian form before
exiting out the other end and disappearing into the
streets of Tokyo.

Focused as the others were on other elements of the
battle, only Pluto saw the look of horror that crossed
ChibiMoon's face before she vanished. Pluto frowned when
she saw that and prayed to the Cosmos that it was not
what she thought it was.

Released from her link with ChibiMoon, Sailor Moon
collapsed into Tuxedo-Kamen's arms. Adjusting his hold on
her, he carried her over to where the others were
standing.

Seeing the unconscious Sailor Moon, Jupiter asked, "Is
she going to be okay?"

"Hai, I think so. Though do you know where ChibiMoon
disappeared to?"

In response to the question, the others looked around to
see where the little girl had disappeared off to. "Don't
know, though my guess is she went to get Usagi something
to much on when she comes to again." Venus said, knowing
the love the two girls felt for each other and that Usagi
was probably hurt fairly badly for the two of them to
have done what they just did.

Pluto remained quiet, not wanting to voice her suspicions
till she knew for sure. Instead she just said,
"Unfortunately we can't stand around right now, there is
still the issue of Kaolinite."

"Hai" Venus agreed, "Come lets go show that witch what
happens when she messes with one of us."

Nodding their agreement, Jupiter and Pluto joined with
Venus and dashed up the stairs to the shrine. Tuxedo-
Kamen first walked over to where the injured Sailor
Mercury lay and placed Usagi down beside the petite
warrior. Hoping that the two of them would be okay by
themselves, he followed the others up to confront
Kaolinite.


Taking the Pure Heart Crystal from Ryo, Neptune examined
it. Finding no indication that it contained one of the
talismans, she released a sigh of relief, happy that she
wouldn't have to sacrifice Rei's life. Though a part of
her was also annoyed that they hadn't yet found any of
the talismans.

"There is no talisman contained in this crystal," Neptune
said to Ryo as she handed it back to him. "Here return it
to Rei and look after her. I am going after Kaolinite."

Getting Rei's life force back from Neptune, Ryo placed
the crystal down on the priestess's shirt. As soon as the
crystal touched Rei's chest, it slipped back inside of
her. Immediately the color of Rei's skin improved and her
breathing became strong again. Then a minute later, Rei
open her eyes.

"What happened?" a groggy Rei asked.

"Your life energy was stolen by the enemy."

"Guess that explains the weird sensations that I am
feeling." Rei said as she began to remember what had
happened to her.

"Hey what are you doing?" Ryo asked as Rei climbed up to
her feet.

"To join the others." Rei replied after her henshin into
Sailor Mars. "Anyways we recover faster when we engage in
mild combat."

Ryo just shook his head with that pronouncement. <The
others would have liked warriors like these where
fighting equals faster healing. Well I better go and keep
an eye on her.> He thought as he shifted back to his true
form and phased invisible.


Kaolinite was doing fairly well against Sailor Uranus and
Neptune, keeping them on the defensive. Neptune's
pronouncement that the Pure Heart Crystal was no good
annoyed her. But she figured that taking out three Sailor
Senshi would still make this a good mission. Uranus was
barely staying in there, having been outmatched when it
was just herself against Kaolinite. Neptune had barely
arrived in the nick of time, a few minutes more and
Kaolinite would have had a trophy to bring back to
Rubeus. Though as it was, Kaolinite was now wearing down
Neptune as well and before long she would have two
trophies to bring back, plus the petite warrior as well.

"Hold it right there." Came an annoying voice announcing
the arrival of more Sailor Senshi. "For you desecration
of this holy place in the name of Venus." "Jupiter,"
"Pluto," and then from the other side of the courtyard
"and Mars." "We will punish you."

<Dang it looks like the Crystal Daimon has been
destroyed. Though it appears that I did get Sailor
Mercury out of the deal.> Kaolinite thought as she
assessed the situation. Deciding that she did not like
the odds and as much as she hated the idea of letting
Sailor Uranus and Neptune live when she was so close to
killing them, she much preferred her own life.

"Well it looks like you brats win this time." Kaolinite
said before turning on her heals and making a run for it.

Not giving chase, Jupiter and Venus instead headed over
to see how Rei was, while Pluto walked over to check on
the wounded Uranus who was currently being supported by a
fairly beat-up Neptune. Becoming visible in his human
form, Ryo looked around for Mercury. Not seeing her and
fearing the worst, he ran towards the stairs. As he
passed Tuxedo-Kamen, the masked warrior reached out and
grabbed a hold of the distraught teenager.

"Let me go! I need to see to Ami-chan." Ryo pleaded.

"Urawa-kun you can't go to her yet. She is still in her
Sailor form and I am sure that by now bystanders will
have begun to return to the street. Don't worry she seems
to be doing okay for the moment; I laid Sailor Moon down
beside her before coming up here."

Ryo looked up at the Tuxedo-Kamen not quite certain if he
agreed with his assessment of the situation.

"Why don't you head to her home and I will bring her over
by the roofs. I am sure that Usagi is up and about again,
she was just drained from using her attack."

Ryo reluctantly agreed to this and once again changed
back to his other form and phased invisible, as that
would allow him to get to her home faster.

Having taken care of that issue, Tuxedo-Kamen leapt down
to street level. Landing on top of a light pole, he then
jumped down to the ground and walked over to where Usagi
was kneeling beside Sailor Mercury. Walking up beside his
love, he placed a supportive hand on her back.

"How is she doing?"

"Not good, but she will recover. Though, right now her
energy levels are very low." Usagi replied.

"And how about you?"

"My wing hurts like crazy, but I am okay for the moment.
Though I won't know how much damage has been done to it
until Mercury is able to look at it. Right now though,
Mercury is far more important, we should get her home."

Mamoru listened as Usagi talked, impressed by how mature
she was in handling the situation. Part of him expected
her to be wailing about the pain to her wing she was
feeling. However he knew what it came to the well being
of others, especially her friends, nothing would deter
this lighthearted girl. "Hai, Urawa is probably already
at her home waiting for me to return with her." he said.

Then after seeing Usagi nod her head in approval, he
knelt down to pick Mercury up in his arms. As he did so,
he was startled to see that blood stained the pavement.
<What happened to Ami when she was battling that demon? I
just hope Usagi is right in saying that she'll be okay.">
Knowing that he would have to extra careful in how he
handled the blue haired girl, he carefully cradled her in
his arms and took to the roofs, with Sailor Moon
following not far behind.


Dr Mizuno walked over to the fridge to get a something to
drink; she had the evening off tonight, not even on call
for once. She wished that she could have spent her time
off with her daughter, but she was not going to intrude
on her daughter and friends plans for the evening, since
seeing Ami with friends meant so much to her.

Walking back into the living room to sit down, she
suddenly stopped, realizing that she was no longer alone.
Turning around she found Urawa Ryo standing there in the
kitchen.

Startled by his sudden appearance, she asked, "How did
you get in here? Is Ami here?" as she attempted to get
her racing heart back under control. Even though she
could see that it was only Urawa, something about his
presence still made her apprehensive. Looking into his
eyes, she could tell that something had happened. With a
growing feeling of despair, she asked, "Something has
happened to Ami, hasn't it? Where is she?"

"Hai, I am afraid Ami's been hurt. There was another
battle today, this time they attacked Rei." Ryo said.
"Ami and I were the first ones to arrive and there was no
time to wait for the others. Unfortunately by herself,
Ami was outmatched. I don't know what happened, only that
things did not go well for her."

As Ryo finished his reply, the sound of footsteps were
heard upstairs, indicating that Tuxedo-Kamen had landed
on the balcony and had entered the house. Both Ryo and
Mizuno-san knew what those footsteps meant and headed up
the stairs to Ami's room. There they found Usagi sitting
on the bed, beside a resting Ami. Mizuno-san immediately
rushed to her daughter's side.

Standing up and blocking Mizuno-san's path to the bed,
Usagi said, "You may want to wait on pulling her into
your arms. This demon attacked in a manner similar to
being run over by a car and I don't know how many times
Ami was hit before we arrived. All I know is that she
could barely sit up on her own and that even talking
caused her to cough up blood."

The color drained from Mizuno-san's face as she listened
to Usagi. Now in her doctor mode, she stepped around
Usagi to take a better look at her daughter. She could
see the beginning of large bruises on Ami's arms, legs
and face and could see the stains of blood on the front
of Ami's outfit.

"I need to get her out of this outfit. The tightness of
it will cause trouble if she has any swelling, especially
with the likely internal injuries that she may have."
Mizuno-san said to herself as she tried to keep herself
professional for the moment.

Usagi looked away from mother and daughter to the other
two in the room and caught Mamoru's attention. He
understood the silent message she sent and slipped out of
the room with Ryo in tow. With that taken care of, she
returned her attention to Ami (it would do no good to
have Ami deeply embarrassed once she recovered).

"This is one area where I can be of help." Usagi said as
she placed her hands down on Ami's chest. Closing her
eyes and focusing on the energy she felt in front of her,
Usagi allowed the Ginzuishou to flare to life. With her
birthmark glowing brightly and the silver crystal
suspended in front of her chest aglow in its own light,
she felt the energy of Mercury become part of herself.
Giving a mental command she opened her eyes.

As Usagi removed her hands from Ami's chest, Mercury's
fuku began to glow a bright blue. The glow continued to
increase and then spread to cover her entire body,
becoming a blue flame. When it vanished a few seconds
later, Mercury's fuku had not only been dissolved, but so
had much of much of Ami's civilian clothing.

Mizuno-san watched on in awe, "Well that beats using
scissors."

"Figured you would need her regular clothing off as well
so that you could do a full evaluation."

Mizuno-san just nodded a reply to Usagi as she bent down
over her daughter and began checking her injuries. During
her investigation, Usagi remembered that she had pocketed
the Mercury computer when she had put Ami to sleep and
took that out and gave it to Mizuno-san. Between the two
of them, they eventually were able to figure out how to
put it into medical mode. And while neither of them knew
how to really use it to diagnose Ami, it thankfully
started up in a basic scan mode. Using that information
and her own training, Mizuno-san was able to determine
that Ami had a handful of cracked ribs, massive bruising,
a slight break in her right arm, but thankfully did not
appear to have any major internal organ damage. That kind
of injury would have necessitated a hospital visit,
something that Mizuno-san was very glad she didn't have
to deal with. And while Ami was in a very rough shape,
she was able to conclude that Ami would pull through
okay.

"Well it looks like she will be okay, though one thing
does worry me." Mizuno-san said, that last part drawing
Usagi's attention. "I can't figure out why she hasn't
woken up yet. The only thing I can think of is that she
has some kind of head injury or." Mizuno-san trailed off
at the end, unable to voice her fears.

"Don't worry." Usagi said in a warm voice. "I am
responsible for her being sound asleep. And don't worry,
it is nothing more than a deep sleep." Then seeing how
Mizuno-san was looking at her, Usagi elaborated. "Ami-
chan can be very dedicated when she wants to be. And
unfortunately, today she did not listen to her more
reasonable mind and fought long after she should have
withdrawn, to the point where I am sure she was using all
her power to just remain fighting.

Just a few weeks earlier, Mizuno-san would never have
believed any who told her that her daughter, Ami, had
fought a solo battle, much less that she fought it far
past her own breaking point. However since learning that
Ami was Sailor Mercury, she was finally able to see the
inner strength that had been growing in Ami. A strength
that was strengthened everyday just by being around
Usagi.

Thinking about Usagi's explanation, Mizuno-san asked,
"You have the ability to put them to sleep?"

"Hai to a limited degree. The Ginzuishou, the source of
my powers, was created by pooling all the planetary
energies in this system, through it I can influence the
magics of those planets. However, I can only do so when
there is no opposition to my control. Hence I can't
command their magics if they are conscious, but if they
are out, as Mercury was just now when I dispelled her
Senshi magic or in the case of the battle where she was
barely conscious, I do have the ability to take control
of their magic to a limited degree." Usagi replied.

"I guess that makes some sense." Mizuno-san said, still
not being that comfortable with the concept of magic.
Walking over to the closest she took out a sheet, which
she proceeded to cover Ami with. "Well the only thing we
can do now is let her rest and hope that she is feeling
better in the morning. At least she will have the weekend
to recover before we need to worry about school. And
worse comes to worse, being a doctor I can always write a
long term note for her if she needs it" Mizuno-san said,
believing the last part to be a distinct possibility.

With Ami taken care of, the two left the room. Walking
behind Usagi as they left, Mizuno-san realized that Usagi
was still in her Senshi form. "Usagi-chan if you don't
mine my asking, why are you still as Sailor Moon?"

"Oh?" Usagi replied, having forgotten that she was still
in her Senshi form. "Well that is a simple thing to." She
began saying as she started to let her form revert.
However, she suddenly broke off both her speech and
transformation in mid-sentence as a pained grimace
crossed her face while she doubled over slightly.

"Usagi-chan what's wrong?" Mizuno-san asked, concern in
her voice.

Straightening herself back up, Usagi replied, "In looking
after Ami, I had entirely forgotten about my own injury
from the battle. The enemy did something to my left wing
and when I tried to pull it back into my body so that I
could revert to my school uniform, the pain became
unbearable. And unfortunately, I am currently wearing my
school uniform and not one of outfits that have been
modified for having my wings out. Because of that I can't
leave my wings out when I release my transformation."
Usagi said. And then after pausing for a moment she
continued, "Well I could still do that , but I wouldn't
be wearing my shirt anymore." She ended with a smile.

Even as Usagi was speaking, Mizuno-san had taken a hold
of her arm and pulled the silver haired girl into the
kitchen where the lighting was good. Then bringing in a
stool, she had the younger girl sit on it. Reaching out
she gently took a hold of Usagi's left wing, the one that
had streaks of blood on it. Understanding what Ami's
mother was doing, Usagi let her wings go limp, so that
Mizuno-san could pull the left one up and examine it.

At one point in her examination, Mizuno-san sent a rather
large shiver of pain through Usagi. "Gomen Usagi" Ami's
mom said after the shiver died down. Usagi just sent a
smile back saying that it was okay, while she let the
doctor continue her examination. A few minutes later
Mizuno-san finished her examination, thankfully without
causing much more distress to Usagi.

Releasing Usagi's wing, Mizuno-san walked back in front
of the other girl to tell her the results of her
examination. "Well I have found your problem, there are a
half dozen holes in your wing. Most of them are pretty
clean and should hopefully heal without too much trouble.
However, I am not a vet so I don't know for sure. But
there is one that I am worried about." Reaching out she
carefully took a hold of Usagi's wing to point out the
one that she was worried about. "Here at the top of your
wing, this one was ripped through muscle and may even
have nicked some bone. I am going to need to clean these
wounds out so that they can heal and I am especially
worried about this top one getting infected.
Unfortunately this is not going to be any fun."

Hearing that last bit Usagi's face went white, while she
did not know exactly what Mizuno-san was going to do, she
was very afraid that it might involve needles.

"Thankfully after learning about Ami's secret, I started
stocking the house with various medical supplies and I do
have something that I can give you." She said as she took
out a case from below the sink. Opening it, she removed a
couple of items before she found what she was looking
for, a large cylinder and a bottle.

"Iie! I don't want any shots." Usagi cried as tears began
running down her face from the realization that Mizuno-
san was preparing to give her a shot.

"Don't worry it won't hurt too much. And it will make the
pain in your wing go away. If I don't give you this, it
will hurt even more than before when I clean out the
wounds. Especially that nasty one."

Usagi considered Mizuno-san's explanation as tears
continued to stream down her face. However, Mizuno-san
could see from the girl's indecision that she was not
buying her reasoning. Trying one last option, she said,
"If you let me give you this shot I have a lollipop for
you." To which Usagi's face immediately lit up. Opening a
cupboard, she removed the bag of candy and took out a
sucker to give Usagi. Now with Usagi content and
distracted by the sweet, she quickly injected the
painkiller into Usagi's wing.

Usagi's crying had attracted the attention of Ryo and
Mamoru and the two arrived just in time to see Mizuno-san
give Usagi the shot. Seeing Dr. Mizuno treating Usagi
immediately reminded Mamoru of what had happened to Usagi
that afternoon. Walking up beside Usagi, he took a hold
of her right and said, "Don't worry I will be right here
with you." this improved Usagi's mood even more.

"Urawa-san, Ami is going to be okay. With the aid of her
computer, I was able to give her a reasonable examination
and from what I understand of how much punishment she and
the others can take, I am sure that she will recover.
Though she is going to be bedridden all weekend."

Ryo gave a sigh of relief when he heard that. "I'll bring
her over some stuff to work on tomorrow." He said knowing
that she would go crazy otherwise, and knowing exactly
what material she was going to want to have to work on.

"Hai that sounds good. Oh Urawa-san, if you wouldn't
mind. Could you give Usagi's parents a call and ask if
they could bring over one of Usagi outfits that is
designed for her wings. When I am done cleaning this
wound and while the pain is still numb, I think she
should change out of her Senshi form and then out of
school clothes into something that will be a bit more
comfortable."

"Hai."


Once she had verified that Uranus and Mars were okay,
Pluto took leave of the others. There was one other that
needed to be checked on; one that in the confusion of the
moment everyone else had overlook, not that you could
fault them for that. Usagi at the time was unconscious;
Tuxedo-Kamen of course had his attention focused on her.
Jupiter and Venus had already been focusing on the next
part of the battle. That left only her to see ChibiMoon
disappear. Pluto just hoped that the expression that she
had seen on the child's face was not what she thought it
was. None of the others are ready to deal with the
nightmares that will result if it is true. Neo-Queen
Serenity and King Endymion had been barely able to deal
with those nightmares and it took months to put them to
away.

Hoping that it was just the stress of battle getting to
ChibiUsa, Setsuna first visited the Crown Arcade to see
if ChibiUsa had gone there. Not seeing her, she then
walked by the Tomoe mansion, but could only sensed the
energy of destruction there. Keeping her fingers crossed
she headed to the Tsukino home. Of course, of the three
areas this was the most likely place for ChibiUsa to go.
However, even if it was just battle stress, she did not
expect ChibiUsa to head straight home and so had taken
the time to check the other places to give ChibiUsa the
time to get home.

"Shingo-kun it is good to see you again. Is ChibiUsa
home?" Setsuna asked when Shingo opened the door.

"Iie, she hasn't come home yet." Hearing that, Setsuna
crossed her brows in displeasure but did not say
anything. Seeing that green haired woman hadn't said
anything and was making no move to leave, Shingo added,
"Would you like to come in and wait for her? I am sure
she will be arriving soon."

"Hai, if it is not too much of an imposition."

"Iie" Shingo replied as he held the door open for her to
enter. Then closing the door, he went into the kitchen to
get her some tea to drink.

Later when the phone rang, Shingo answered and listened
to Ryo's request. "But she is okay, right?" he asked
before hanging up the phone. Then turning to his guest
said, "Why didn't you tell me that Usagi was hurt today?"
venting his concern of his sister as anger.

"Gomen Shingo, I know how much you care about Usagi. I
did not know that she was injured badly. And
unfortunately I am more concerned about ChibiUsa right
now."

That response froze Shingo in his tracks. He cared a lot
for his niece, especially since she was a great ally in
taking on his older sister. "What is wrong with her?" he
asked some fear in his voice this time.

"Nothing I hope. But I am afraid that she may be facing
internal demons from her past. I just hope that Usagi is
able to help her through them."

"Usagi, ah yes that's right. Hold on a moment Setsuna-
san. That was Urawa-san calling, he says that they need a
new outfit for Usagi, she's at Ami's being treated by
Ami's mother. Could you bring it to her?"

"Hai." Setsuna said.

"I'll only be a minute in getting it." Shingo replied and
disappeared up the stairs.

"I should have stayed with Usagi instead of staying to
talk with Haruna-sensei." Luna said shame in her voice.

Kneeling down to look at the feline, Setsuna said, "Luna
there is nothing that you could have done. If what I
suspect is true, there is nothing anyone could have done,
well other than Usagi not getting shot out of the sky,
that could have prevented what has happened to ChibiUsa.
I am going to go outside and get Diana. Once we have
dropped off Usagi's shirt the two of us will go out and
look for ChibiUsa. You will need to stay with Usagi and
keep her from chasing after ChibiUsa as well.

"It is complicated, but it involves something that
occurred during her previous trip back to the past. And
seeing Usagi will only make the guilt that she is
undoubtedly facing even worse."

"Guilt? I don't understand." Luna replied.

"I know you don't. But this is not the time to explain
it. For now it would be best not to tell Usagi of my
concerns and I would like you to make sure that Usagi
does not go looking for ChibiUsa." Pluto told Luna. Then
having said that, she went out to the backyard to get
Diana.

-End Notes
? The founding of the Moon Kingdom is the subject of
the second chapter of my In the Beginning series
(though I don't think I have posted that chapter,
still needs work). On the Senshi who declared that
Ginzuishou was a star seed, that would be Saturn.
However, Luna doesn't remember the existence of a
Saturn so of course she couldn't attribute who
exactly said that. Of course, one would think that
she and the others could have deduced that there
should be a Sailor Saturn.
? The second attack that hit Ami was the rivet gun
attack. However, she wasn't really in a position to
see that second attack nor did she really realize
after coming to that she had been hit twice.
? Misako is a reference to the "Tales of the Younger
Senshi" series. In that series, she is the second
daughter of Usagi and Mamoru.
? I probably have the correct number of eyes for a
Babylon 5 shadow wrong, however, I couldn't find any
shadow pictures in which I could count their eyes.
But six is a nice alchemic number, hence how I got
the 24.
? I am afraid to say to those who have been asking
Helios will not be making an appearance in Falling
Towards Apotheosis. However, if I ever do write my
third volume (maybe finished sometime next decade)
he would appear there. He will play a rather pivotal
role, beyond the normal Supers roll. But that is
assuming that I get a faster chapter pace going.
? Sorry for the delay on getting this chapter out. But
I have an excuse for at least part of the time, as I
was moving from NC to OH in December to take a new
job.
? Next chapter should be short, so maybe it'll see the
light of day before the summer.