Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Fragility of Time ❯ "Hunter, Prey" ( Chapter 22 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Chapter 22: "Hunter Prey"

Many of Tokyo's denizens dreaded the arrival of the morning sun and would instead plead for, "Just five more minutes of sleep," a five minutes, which could easily turn into an hour. Others went about their lives as the sun rose, only absently noticing its presence; Eudial was one of these people. Of course, most of her coworkers would have only gotten up recently; her situation was rather unique since she lived at the Tomoe residence.

Thinking back, she could not really remember when she began living there. She supposed it may have been before the accident, but unfortunately, memories from that time were a bit muddled. But if she had to hazard a guess, she would have said that the kind professor had offered to put her up till she could find an apartment. But of course, the accident changed all that. Now, the living arrangement was no longer temporary, in many ways she was the good professor's caretaker. She did not mind that extra job one bit; she loved his daughter and did not mind being around him either.

As was normal for her, she had already been up for many hours. First getting herself ready, then preparing breakfast and finally getting the professor and Hotaru's things ready. Finishing with her breakfast, she washed her dishes. Then grabbing her stuff, she made one final check of the house before heading out. Thankfully, Hotaru today was going to walk to school with her friend and that girl's cousin, allowing Eudial to leave for work early today. She generally liked to get into work at least thirty minutes before the others, otherwise she found herself playing catch up all day. Though with Hotaru going back to school, she had thought, those days of being ahead of the game were over. But with ChibiUsa going to the child's school that thankfully might not be the case.

Arriving at Mugen, she walked up the steps and entered. Passing down the empty hallways, she first headed to her office. Unlocking the door and sitting down at her computer, she brought up the previous night's security reports. Five minutes later, she had sufficiently satisfied herself that nothing seemed amiss. Of course, the same was true that morning that she had discovered months' worth of experiments turned into nothing more than moon dust.

Well it was time to check on the experiments, to ensure that something else impossible hadn't happened to them. Walking down the staircase, she headed to the basement labs. Arriving, she attempted to upon the door, but it would not budge. For some reason it appeared to be stuck. More annoyed than puzzled, she decided to give it a good shove, which opened the door. Standing back she thought, <Guess it was just stuck. Will have to have someone look at those hinges later today, they may need oiling.>

However, those thoughts did not remain in her mind long. Instead, they were forced out by a repulsive stench coming from the room. Bringing her hands up to her mouth in a futile attempt to block the smell, she at first wondered if something had gone wrong with a batch of daimon eggs causing them to spoil (that being if they could spoil). Walking over to the benches to look at the test tubes, she noticed that they appeared to be fine. During this time, the wafting of fresh air in had made the stench a little more bearable and she came to realize that the odor was nothing more than stale air. <Strange,> she thought. Looking at the test tubes more closely, she noticed that each one contained an egg-like object, each one only a few millimeters across.

<Hmm… that is strange. The last batch took many months to mature to this stage. But suddenly over the course of a night what was only the nutrient broth seeded with a daimon egg, has become what appears to be a nearly fully mature egg. I wonder if that Rubeus fellow is responsible for this, but yet something tells me that that is not the case.> With yet another mystery to ponder, she made to leave. While walking out, she absently ran a finger along one of the bench tops. Bringing her finger up, she was very surprised to see the amount of dust it had collected. The professor was a stickler for clean labs, but now looking around she realized that the lab had a layer of dust many month old laying everything. <Stranger and stranger,> were her thoughts as she left the lab and turned off the lights.

Morning found Ail snuggled against one of the tree's massive roots with Ann lying against his body. Waking, he carefully disentangled himself from his love before stretching and then walking out into the apartment's main room. The night's sleep while refreshing still left him feeling very tired. A feeling that at one time he never woke to, but that was before the war. A war that he only had vague memories of, instead his memories were primary of him and Ann drifting from one world to the next looking for what scraps of energy they could find to keep the tree alive.

Since their arrival here, its spiral into death had thankfully slowed. But it was still dieing and unless they could harness the energy that the inhabitants of this planet glowed with, it would die. It should have been a simple task to collect that energy, but those mage-soldiers had complicated matters. Now they needed even more energy, to make up for what they would have to spend fighting those soldiers. Ho had no doubt that at some point he and Ann would have to deal with them.

Glancing back into the tree's room, he noticed Ann beginning to stir. Shortly they would need to leave for the walk to school, but there was still enough time to grab a little snack before classes. Hopefully that would clear out the remaining cobwebs in his head. Grabbing his satchel, he teleported out to the city. Appearing above the streets, he floated along at roof level, while he let he senses search for his breakfast. Finding a nice strong concentration of energy, he headed off.

Setting foot on the ground, he once again reapplied his human disguise. Now appearing to be nothing more than a human, he headed up the library's stairs. Opening the door, he began his hunt for breakfast. His senses lead him down past row and row of books, till he arrived in one of the back corners. There at one of the cubicles, a student worked furiously with piles of books all around him. Ail could almost taste that delicious energy, which was wrapped all over that child.

Sensing someone behind him, the student with his massive glasses looked up in time to see what had to be an alien place a hand on his shoulder. And, then he collapsed unconscious to his desk. Ail reveled in the wonderful feeling that the energy brought, though it was nowhere as good as that of those children the other day, but would do for now.

Reapplying his disguise, he began to walk away. However, something made him stop and head back to the child. Reaching out a hand, he shook the junior high school student awake. "Umino-san wake up, its time to head to school for class."

"Huh?" questioned a confused Umino as he slowly returned to the land of the living. Looking down at his watch he realized that the new student was right, if they did not leave soon they would be late for class. "Hai, we better get going. Arigatoo for waking me."

As the two walked out of the library, Seijuurou decided to be social and ask about what was so important to bring the class geek to the library before school. "By the way Umino-san what are you researching here? You look like you have been there since the early hours of the morning."

Umino ran a hand through his hair trying to brush it out. "Hai, I was. Just researching various things that perplex me. That and trying to understand what makes Usagi-chan and the girls that she has recently made friends with so special."

"Huh?" Seijuurou replied; unsure of what Umino was referring to.

"Don't worry if you don't understand what I am talking about yet. By the end of the month, you like every other student at school will now that there is something different about them, especially Usagi. Not different in a bad way mind you, or anything you can really put your finger on, which is what's driving me so crazy. There is just something about her, something that is more…" Umino trailed off at the end, not quite sure of how to put his thoughts to words. Part of his research had just been looking through various literature to try to find a way to describe what Usagi was, of course it would probably be a lot easier if he had something more than just feelings to go on.

However, it was more than enough for Seijuurou. His thoughts immediately turned to the previous day with Usagi in that deserted classroom. How she had quickly breached all of his barriers and had made him feel at peace. "I know what you mean. There is something different about her, different from the rest of this planet's inhabitants." <Something almost kin to Ann and me.> "I have not met her friends yet. However, I have the feeling that she will see to those introductions before long."

To which Umino only chuckled, "Just be warned she also has a cousin named ChibiUsa, who is just like her. The two are so alike, and she is very protective of that child. It's as if they were mother and daughter." And with that, they arrived at the entrance to the school and parted ways, as each joined the corresponding stream of students heading towards morning homeroom.

As the sun began descending from its daily apex in the sky, Rubeus walked out of the Infinity Academy. Today was a good day indeed. Something wonderful had happen the night before and all of the daimon eggs had matured to their final stage of growth, give it a week and they would be able to begin the search for the pure heart crystals which contained the talismans.

That scientist had mentioned that the power of the Grail had been needed to punch a wormhole through the universe to link a distant galaxy to this planet. Consequently, with their slightly less ambitious task of just opening a portal into the fabric of the multiverse, they would not need an artifact of such immense power. Which was perfectly fine for Rubeus, as the previous use would have destroyed it, and now he would be able to present it as a gift to the Wiseman as he came back into this world. The thought of abandoning the professor's original mission of finding the grail never occurred to Rubeus. Considering who would be awakened if the Grail were ever used, that was probably not a good thing.

He also had a feeling that he would need all the help he could get to defeat Serenity. That colonist tyrant had nearly killed him in the backlash of her battle with Metalia. He was beginning to be a bit unsure if even the Wiseman had enough power to face her, but the Grail would tip the balance.

He did not know why the Wiseman wanted the rabbit so much. He had the feeling that the Wiseman was more interested in getting that child than their goal of capturing Crystal Tokyo. Could she really be that much of a threat? Of course, she was the child of Serenity, and had to be at least as strong as her mother if not more so. Well not now but later when her powers matured. He guessed the Wiseman just wanted to eliminate the loose ends first before taking the goal.

Of course with Serenity somehow becoming more powerful than she was in the future, what had that fool Beryl done, nothing was the same anymore. He had no illusions that he would be able to defeat her. Only the Wiseman stood a chance, and of course, he currently lay trapped in the rivers of time.

The professor had a machine that could free the Wiseman. But it needed substantial modifications, changes that required money. And with the daimon eggs almost ready, that meant they needed the money now. But that foolish scientist with his pesky morals was refusing to use his previous source of funding, siphoning funds out of the school's budget.

While that daimon controlled him, the professor did not question the morality of his actions. But now that Rubeus had freed him, that idiot did. <Damn ideological fools.> Even worse, that scientist seemed to be constantly fretting about the funds he had already stolen. About the only thing that kept him from turning himself in, was the knowledge that if he did so, then Hotaru would never be cured of her "illness".

Rubeus shook his head while he crossed the street. The best he had been able to do was to tell the professor that he might be able to convince his associates to give them some deals on the equipment that they would need. At least that fool was not a completely lost case; he did seem to be ok if Rubeus were to use some extra incentive on the underworld of Tokyo. But, Rubeus had no desire to do that; they needed the help of those people to get what they wanted.

Instead, he needed to find a different source of the money. He unfortunately, could not simply go in and rob a bank himself for two reasons. One that fool would likely find out pretty quickly and that would end everything. Secondly, use of his powers was sure to draw the Sailor Senshi. He had seen too many battles in the past few months to not realize that the use of Dark Powers instantly drew the attention of the Sailor Senshi.

Someone else was just going to have to do the robbing for him. Of course, he could always provide a very convenient distraction. And a nearby museum had just received a very nice collection of gems; ones that he was sure would very much appreciate a new home. As Rubeus walked a smile began to grow on his face, as a plan began to form in his mind.

Usagi looked up from her math exercises, only five minutes left before school was out. Of course, six minutes were left an hour ago. Sighing she returned to her drills. Classes were much more enjoyable when she had her daughter here with her. She missed having her daughter here, always knowing that she was safe. But, she also knew that this was best, the danger was over for now and ChibiUsa needed to live her own life. And there was someone at ChibiUsa' school that needed ChibiUsa even more, Hotaru.

Usagi smiled happily, knowing that Hotaru's wish had finally come true, being able to attend a regular school with her peers. That child deserved a better fate than the one she was dealt. Like other times when she thought of Hotaru's predicament, Usagi thought of revealing herself to the child, to show her that she was not alone in this world. In addition, with these escalating battles, Hotaru's healing ability would make her a valuable asset as well. But just as quickly, she dismissed the idea. She could not risk making Hotaru a target for their enemies.

No, Hotaru and her wonderful gift were to remain unused by the Senshi. But at the same time, as Usagi she would do all she could to make the life of that child more bearable. The ringing of the bell brought her out of her thoughts and back to reality. Looking up she saw that class was indeed finally over. "Yes!" she cried as she jumped to her feet.

"Try not to look so relieved Tsukino-san." scolded Haruna-sensei.

"Gomen, Sensei." Usagi replied dropping her head a bit in shame.

As the other students filed out of the classroom, Haruna walked over to the most unique student in all her years of teaching. Placing a hand on Usagi's back she spoke to the child, "Don't worry about it Usagi-san. I know that you just miss having ChibiUsa here with you."

Usagi looked up at her teacher, her eyes confirming Haruna's comment. "Hai, but it is best for her to be at her own school. Anyways there is another there that needs her more." And with that, the ever-energetic Usagi bounded out of the classroom.

Smiling at the departing teen, Haruna returned to her desk. "Always thinking about others, you truly are an angel that will bring the world salvation Usagi. Thank you from all of us for saving us from Beryl, princess."

"I will be sure to tell her that you said that." A female voice said.

"Ah!" Haruna yelped. Taking a moment to calm her startled racing heart, Haruna turned around to look for the voice's owner. She had thought she was alone in the room. Not finding anyone her gaze finally came to rest on a certain black cat sitting on the windowsill. Smiling Haruna spoke, "Sorry about that, you startled me, didn't think there was any one else in the room."

"It's my fault." replied Luna. "I had been waiting outside in the tree for Usagi and heard your comment, and so took advantage of this open window to let you know that your thanks is sure to make Usagi happy. Now if you don't mind, I need to find my charge. She mumbled something about needing to see someone when she woke up this morning." And with that, the cat leapt back out of the window and disappeared.

"Yes got to remember the talking cat as well. She takes her assignment of being Usagi's guardian very seriously, though of course with Usagi one kind of has to. At least I don't have the others taking turns watching her during class in their Senshi forms. While that would undoubtedly be safer for her, it definitely would not be conducive to learning. Well learning about anything other than the history of the Silver Millennium, not to say I wouldn't like to learn about that once Luna-san and Miszinu-san get more of their memories back." She let herself daydream for a moment and imagine the havoc that would result should Makoto and Ami come in as Jupiter and Mercury. With those happy thoughts, she gathered her stuff, turned out the light, and left the room.

"Natsumi what is the purpose of going on this tour again?" asked a bored Seijuurou.

Shaking her head, Natsumi turner to her "brother" and spoke, "we are knew here, and this is part of the program offered to new residents of Tokyo. So therefore we are doing like any good new citizen of this city and learning about it. Anyways I find these painting to be very fascinating."

Knowing that he would not win the argument if he tried it, Seijuurou just nodded his assent and gave up. While he enjoyed making music and even listening to some of the human music as well, his appreciation of the arts was limited. But if it made Ann happy then he would oblige her. Though he hoped this tour would end soon, this morning's snack was already beginning to fade away.

Walking down the less popular streets of Tokyo, Usagi approached her destination. Stopping for a moment, she opened her mind one more time to sense the energies of the others. Good none of them were near her, not even Luna. She did not really want her guardian to be following her this particular afternoon and had been afraid that she was going to have to use a little magic to ditch her shadow. But fate had smiled on her and for once Luna had not followed her out of the school, she wondered for a moment what might have caught the attention of that cat. But figured that if it was anything important, Luna would be sure to tell her this evening. <Probably just a nice tasty little bird.>

Reaching her destination, she slipped her feet out of her shoes and left her bag by the door. She already knew that there were currently no visitors and so would not have to bide her time. Entering the sanctuary, she marveled as she always did at the beauty of its stained glass windows. As the door closed behind her, she let her form flow freely discarding her disguise.

Father Morgan was working in the front of the sanctuary when he heard the door open and close. Looking up to greet his guest, he saw a sight that stirred his very soul. There in front of him, lit by the afternoon sunlight an angel emerged from her mortal shell. Great white wings spread out from her back as her school uniform gave way to finer garments laced with golden refinements. And her aura was visible as a wondrous silver glow. A glow that lasted for only a few moments before dieing down till it was but a golden crescent moon, which adorned her forehead.

Forgetting himself, he fell to his knees, bowing at the sight before him. "My Lord" he whispered along with a prayer of thanks. Standing up he bowed yet again to the form that was coming up before him. "Messiah." He greeted her, though quickly adding "Usagi-san" at her scowl.

"It's not prefect, but I guess I can accept Usagi-san for now, but you will eventually call me Usagi-chan. That is a given." Serenity said with a warm smile for the man before her. "It is good to see you again father." She said while moving forward to embrace the man.

"It is good to see you again too" Father Morgan reciprocated as the two of them embraced. Moving apart, Morgan continued, "I gather that you were able to defeat the darkness that threatened the Earth."

"Yes, though unfortunately Metalia was not the only darkness that threatened this planet. Another one from the future still does, and unfortunately a new one now does as well."

"I could feel the difference in the Earth the morning after, and I am sure that you will be able to deal with these other threats equally as well. You are after all the Messiah, whose coming has been prophesized."

Serenity wanted to argue the point, but knew that in her current form she did not have much ability to argue that she was not some angel sent from Heaven. That Lunarians did not generally look like her made it even harder. While she did not place any stock in herself being some Messiah, she was beginning to accept that she had this form for some reason.

A bit annoyed at not knowing why she was different and what it meant, Usagi realized something. With Pluto's powers, there was always the possibility of someone messing with time. And that meant there might just be some information of use in those prophecies. Realizing that, the moon princess asked, "May I see that prophecy you speak of?"

"Certainly my Lord. While there are many references to your coming in the various religious texts and that was what first alerted me to who you were, the secret text is the one that you really are interested in. Wait here a moment, it is in a safe in my office." With that, Morgan disappeared out the side of the Sanctuary.

The angel looked up at a stained glass window that was framed in the front of the sanctuary. <I am different, why? Before me, no princess of the Moon ever had the power of a Sailor Senshi. My fighting power is very weak, as it should be for one who is only the Senshi a moon. But when I use the Ginzuishou my power easily dwarfs the combined power of the Senshi, a power that I tap just a bit when ever I use my staff (either of them).>

The footsteps of the returning priest ended for now Serenity's contemplations. "Here you go." he said as he turned over to her a bundle of papers.

"Arigatoo" Serenity replied as she took the papers. Sitting down on a bench, she read them. <So, this transformation of mine was prophesized. What is this about the Moon Kingdom falling so that I would have to face fire? Why is it so important that I, a mere princess become a warrior? Should not my Senshi be able to handle the fighting? And, why did all those people have to die for me?">

Sensing the questions that must be plaguing his lord, Morgan spoke. "Usagi-san, I am but a lowly priest and so am unable to help you find the answers that you seek. But what I can tell you is that you are the salvation that my faith believes in. You will bring your kingdom of the heavens here to Earth and in so doing bring us into an age of utopia.

"But as to why you have your powers and what it means, that I cannot answer for you. If you are willing, there are those who might be able to guide you along the path that lies before you. To provide you with the support that you will need when your true nature becomes evident to the world."

The last part Serenity had not even thought about. She hadn't even considered the reaction of the populace when her true nature was revealed, nor the very likely negative reaction when they found out she was the heir to the empire that ruled the Sol system. While she did not plan on taking her place as ruler of the system anytime soon, it was inevitable that the secret of her identity would get out. How long did she think she would be able to maintain the illusion of being just a normal teenager? Even if she did not consciously do anything to reveal her secret, the Ginzuishou might reveal her true nature if she ever found herself in danger. Her connection to the Ginzuishou since her transformation was extraordinary, it might not be alive, but it was a powerful magical artifact that was intimately connected her own being. Should she fear for her life, she was sure that would trigger the Ginzuishou.

"Hai, I would like that."

Pulling into a parking space along the road, Kado and his two companions got out of their car. A few blocks down and then across lay their target, the museum. Moving around to the back of the car, they removed three cases, the supplies they would need.

"Rubeus is really going forward with this?" Taro asked.

"Yep, though I still have no idea how we are going to pull this one off. But if Rubeus says it can be done, then it can be done. Though I still would have liked to know what his signal was going to be."

"Yeah, all he said was that we would know it when we saw it." The third member of the group, Takeo replied. "And what is this about us remaining outside till we see it, shouldn't we be inside the museum staking out the target.

"No that would get us on their surveillance cameras, whatever Rubeus is doing it is going to make the exhibit a sitting duck for us to grab. They are likely to investigate anyone who was near it before their cameras go dark, so its better for us to remain outside till then." Of course, that didn't mean that he or his brothers in arms had to like it.

From where he stood on Tokyo's skyline, Rubeus watched as his men arrived. <Good those fools are following directions and are waiting outside the museum for the signal. Guess it is time to get this heist started.>

Reaching inside of his vest, he pulled out a crystal, while he had given the professor the majority of the crystals to meld with the daimon eggs; he had kept a handful for himself. Of those, this one was severely damaged, so damaged that if he was following protocol he should have destroyed it long ago. Consequently, it was absolutely prefect for this mission. He needed to create general mayhem, allowing an "opportunistic" jewel heist. An unstable droid should keep anyone from realizing that it was merely being used as a diversion.

Giving the droid crystal its mission, he charged it with dark energy and threw it down to the street below. Moments before reaching the ground, its form pulsing with energy as it activated and then became a demon. Landing, looking something like a construction worker, the droid surveyed the scene.

Decisions made, it began moving out. Unleashing a barrage of deadly safety cones at the nearby cars, it chanted "Construction zone, Construction zone." Bending over its arms touched the ground and became large wheels while the same happened with its rear legs. Rising out of its upper back, a large metal plow unfolded down in front while a hose like device rose up to face backwards.

"Vroom! Vroom!" the demon cried as it revved up its "engine" Appropriately a large yellow hazard light began flashing. As it currently faced the wrong direction, it spun around in a quick semi-circle, not being too careful in avoiding sideswiping any shops. Now that it was facing in the right direction, it sped off with a cloud of dark smoke.

Outside the museum, every sane soul had left for a safer location. However, the patrons inside the museum's walls were none the wiser to the danger that was quickly approaching them. Suddenly without warning, a wall suddenly bulged in and then collapse. From the new doorway, the droid entered the space exhibit, scattering scared patrons every which direction.

A quick barrage of safety cones took down the patrons and drained them of their energy. The hose on its rear end pivoted around and fired of globs of cement, busting up any part of the room that had survived the original devastation and sending those who had found a place to hide out into the open where it could trap them with the energy draining safety cones.

"Make way for the new highway bypass." The droid Constructor announced in a loud voice as it continued further into the museum, not slowing down one bit. Within minutes, it had passed through the entire museum, sending visitors and security guards alike fleeing. As a final insult to the museum, its cement cannon zeroed in on the security office and fired its projectiles, taking it out.

"Well that was a nice little tour." Natsumi said to her brother, who was obviously glad for it to be over. "And now I think it is time for some dinner, what do you think love?"

Smiling, now that it was time for something much more interesting, Seijuurou replied, "Yes I think that would do nicely." Removing his deck of Cardians, he splayed them out for his love as the two of them shifted back to their true forms.

As Ann lifted one of them up, he nodded approvingly. "Yes that one should stand a better chance against those mage-soldiers." And then he began the tune that would bring the card to life.

From the card, a lion like creature emerged and landed on the ground. Looking up at its masters it brought a paw up and displayed its long claws. Divining their desires, it turned and began the hunt.

Walking the halls of the gallery, Michiru admired the work of her contemporaries. Prior to Pluto's arrival, one could often find her here doing just this. By walking these halls, she could for a little while escape and find peace, while at the same time nourishing the mental tapestries that she worked from. Unfortunately, the recent war had kept her from these halls. But with the current pause, she could once again walk these halls.

Patrons in the museum normally spoke in hushed voices to each other, but suddenly cries of fear very much out of place began to ring out. The cries echoed up and down the many halls of the gallery preventing Michiru from knowing which way they came. Giving up on that sense, Michiru instead let herself listen to the raging seas. And from them she knew where the darkness lay.

Not wasting a moment, she took off towards that darkness. Rounding a corner and entering a gallery, she came to an abrupt halt. Dozens of patrons lay strewn about the room unconscious. However, it was not that, which had brought her to a stop; it was the full-grown demon lion. And currently that lion was tearing into the last person still conscious in the room, draining his energy. While Michiru knew that the lion was only taking energy, the method was so violent that it made her feel sick. She additionally felt her normal confidence in fighting missing, for this one actually looked lethal instead of ridiculous.

Finishing with its final victim, the lion looked up at Michiru and grinned with the anticipation of more pray to kill and began stalking towards her.

Without a second thought, Michiru summoned her transformation wand. "Neptune Planet Power, Make Up!" she cried, and the energy of Neptune enveloped her.

Stepping into the room, she somersaulted over the lion. Landing at the far end of the room, where she would have more room between her and the demon, she took up a fighting stance. Normally not one for the speeches that her princess and the royal guard liked to give, this atrocity called for one. "How dare you defile this place of beauty and peace. For attacking the patrons of the arts I will destroy you."

Lifting her hands, the energy of Neptune pooled between the two of them and she ended her speech with two words, "Deep Submerge." As soon as the ball of ocean energy left her hands, she brought out her communicator to summon the others while the creature was distracted. The waves were far too restless for this to be a simple demon like the one that Mercury and Venus faced.

Ami's face forming on the screen, the blue haired warrior asked, "Neptune was is it?"

"The enemy is attacking the art gallery." Unfortunately, the demon had easily dodged Neptune's attack, and now charged the one who dared to fight back. The demon lion's attack forced her to devote her attention fully back toward the demon. A quick leap into the air, allowed her dodge that charge. But, the lion was not fooled, and upon landing, she found herself once again facing an immanent attack from the demon. Unable to take her eyes off the lion, less she miss its attack, as it paced the ground in front of her, she yelled into her communicator. "This one appears to be a tad bit stronger than the one you and Venus faced yesterday. I am going to need your help, and SOON!"

A swipe from its front paws had caused her to yell the last bit into the link. She had not realized how close it had gotten with its pacing back and forth, as the swipe was only centimeters from her chest. Closing the link, she focused everything in on the enemy in front of her.

This time she was ready as it leapt at her. Grapping the outstretched front legs, she attempted to spin the creature. Unfortunately, the demon's momentum was just too much for her light body to handle and instead of spinning, her legs slipped out from under her. Instead of flinging the creature into a wall and maybe getting the advantage for a moment, she fell to the ground. Worse still, the creature now lay partially on top of her.

To her luck, the move did take the Cardian by surprise and the sudden fall to the ground had stunned it slightly. Taking whatever she could get, Neptune quickly rolled towards her right, escaping from under the creature. Jumping to her feet, and then a quick jump backwards, she managed to just barely avoid a swipe of the demon lion's claws, a swipe that managed to leave nice deep claw marks on the floor.

<Hmm, for some reason I don't think that it is trying to drain my energy like the others.> Quickly getting to her feet she made a dash for the other end of the room, with the beast quick on her tail. <This is not good; it is too quick for me to fight in this room. I need more space, so that I can open enough room to use my attacks without becoming that lioness's dinner. The front atrium is my only hope, hopefully everyone else has cleared out of here by now.>

Kado and the others stood at the street corner waiting for the signal. While they knew the "signal" would have to be significant to allow them to pull off the heist as easily as Rubeus claimed they would be able, they were still startled when a loud explosion rang out. When the masses began running past them, they were quickly pulled up in it and ran for their lives.

The droid Constructica only paused for a moment as she sped out of the building to take a sharp turn to the right before she shot down a block to begin more urban renewal. Of course, she took the opportunity to spray the fleeing crowd with her traffic cones, though none of them came close to hitting the three mobsters.

After a few minutes of running, the three gangsters remembered their mission. Slowing down, they let themselves drift out the back of the crowd. With the crowd gone they turned back around and began walking back towards the devastated museum. As the reached the museum they opened their briefcases and removed their gear.

"Well that is one way to get rid of any security forces." said an impressed Takeo.

Picking their way over the debris the three entered into the museum. Even after seeing the hole it had left in the side of the museum and the damage it had done to the street they were still startled by how much damage it had wrecked. The museum would probably have to be condemned. A brisk five-minute walk brought them to the exhibit featuring the precious gems. Removing the charges, Taro placed them on the case protecting the jewels. The case was built of a composite material that would survive even a shot with a rifle, but these charges would be too much for it.

Moving from rooftop to rooftop, Serenity and her guards raced to help Neptune. To those on the ground the sight would have been majestic if they had known to look up. For in the front, the Moon Princess, in her battle attire, flew with her wings outstretched, easily outpacing the vehicles on the ground. Close behind her, touching each roof for only a moment, the four Guardian Senshi followed.

Taking a sharp turn to the left, the moon warrior made to cross the street and begin heading north. Midway across the street, her Senshi just landing on the previous building, the street suddenly erupted into a fireball of flame and debris. The inferno fueled from a gas main below the street reached its fingers of fire up into the sky to envelop the Moon princess. A manhole cover, part of the debris, shot into Serenity, stunning her. Wings folding back in on themselves, she plummeted out of the sky.

Just a few seconds behind their leader the others watched in horror as the flames engulfed her. Breaking their forward motion, they stopped at the edge of the building. All they could do was cry out "Sailor Moon" while ChibiMoon collapsed to the ground in tears.

One warrior though did not stop. Instead, she gave herself to her heart and flung herself into the inferno after the one that she loved more than anything in the world. A distant part of her mind told her that the fire would not touch her, but even still, she would have thrown herself into it. Her aim perfect she caught the falling Serenity. Now plummeting to the ground herself, the fiery warrior twisted her body so that she would take the brunt of the fall. Looking up into the face of her cargo, she saw the Serenity's smile of thanks. "Usagi, we will always be there for you no matter what." She said moments before her back slammed through a shop's window. As they came to a rest towards the back of the store, the warrior with her final energy rolled her body once more, this time to cover Serenity and protect her from any advancing flames.

"Mars!" Venus cried as she saw their hotheaded friend leap into the flames. She mentally kicked herself for not expecting that girl to pull a stunt like that. Now they had two injured Senshi down in that mess. However, thinking of ways to kill Mars would have to wait till later, they had a fire to deal with. Even if two of their friends were not down there in it, it still had the potential of destroying a huge portion of the city. "Mercury, can you do anything about this?" she asked the blue haired warrior while continuing to scan the scene, something about it did not seem right to her.

"Hai." Mercury replied as she leapt off the building, ignoring Venus's screams of "WHAT IN GOD'S NAME ARE YOU DOING?" As she reached the apex of her jump, which corresponded exactly to the center of the inferno, she gathered her powers about her. Concentrating as the energy built she released it and called out "Shabon Spray," and then after the fog had traversed over the entire inferno added "Freezing!" With those words, a now frozen, sub-zero fog began slowly wafting down extinguishing the flames.

Continuing across the street, Mercury tucked her head in to somersault before landing on the opposite building with her back to the others. With a quick back flip she was down on the ground, joined shortly thereafter by Venus and Jupiter.

Turing her head Jupiter looked frantically around, "Where are they?" she asked.

"Over there." Mercury said while pointing to store with a broken window, but no other blast damage to its façade. "They must have gone through that window when they came down."

Jupiter began to move towards them, but a restraining hand from Venus stopped her. "Something is not right here." Venus replied in response to Jupiter's questioning murderous look.

Deploying her visor, Mercury began scanning the area. "Venus is right. I am detecting Dark Energy. I think there may be a…"

"Droid!" cried Venus and Jupiter as they saw Constructica climb her way out of the subterranean hole in the ground.

"Yes, droid, how did you know?" Mercury asked as she began looking up from her computer. "Oh" she answered for herself as she saw the enemy.

A barrage of killer traffic cones from the demon scattered the three warriors. <So much for checking on the princess and Mars.> thought Jupiter as she leapt to dodge a barrage of hot asphalt. Twisting around in midair she retaliated with an attack of her own.

Unfortunately, the beast seemed to have a liking for baseball, as it brought a backhoe out from its body and hit the ball of energy. Jupiter could only watch in horror as the beast avoided any injury and instead sent her attack towards Mercury. The blue haired scout tried to jump out of the way, but only ended up ensuring that the blast hit her full and square. Electricity flying across her skin, Mercury shot straight and rigid before crumbling to the ground in a heap. While fresh water is normally a poor conductor of electricity, give it enough power and even water will conduct.

"Why you, Crescent Beam Smash," cried Venus as she let loose her attack. The beam of pure energy punched through the droid, leaving a gaping hole. But unfortunately that is all it did, besides make it madder. Running through their options in her head, Venus was not coming up with anything good. They needed help and soon. Uranus was hopefully giving Neptune some relief and Pluto who knew if she was even in the time stream now. There was Ryo, but they had no way of contacting that Shadow Warrior, Just hopefully he had gotten a vision of that last attack on Mercury and would be on his way here.

A sudden flash of red thankfully brought some relief. "Fixing the streets is for the unionized street workers, one should not make a mockery of their job."

Racing down the corridors, Neptune was beginning to doubt that she would be able to reach the Atrium before this monster had her for lunch. The back of her uniform was in tatters and she could feel the fine scratches on her back from its claws. For the moment, she had been able to pull slightly ahead of the creature, though only by knocking over quite a few works of arts into the path of the creature.

Looking behind her, she gathered her energy again for another attack. The small ball of seawater smashed into the ground beside the lion. Water flew everywhere, ruining even more paintings, while the impact left a nice sized divot in the floor. Thankfully, the blast also caught the demon and flung it sideways against the wall. But already it was back on its feet and moving again. But it had bought her a few more seconds of time.

Bringing her head down she put all her remaining energy into pumping her feet into the ground. The atrium was just ahead, and if she could reach it, she might just have a chance. That was of course assuming that she had any energy left upon arriving there. Right now, all she wanted to do was to collapse to the ground and sleep. But the hot breath of the demon drove those thoughts out of her head and she instead just concentrated on her goal.

And then she was there; she was through the doorway and in the main lobby of the museum. Unfortunately, she was also finished. Her energy spent, Neptune collapsed to the ground. Rolling over to face her fate, she watched as the lion now more slowly stalked up towards her, sensing victory to be his.

"World Shaking!"

Startled by the presence of another the creature looked up from its meal. Its eyes widen in horror as a yellow ball of energy slammed into it. With the creature out of the way for the moment, Uranus quickly moved to her love and picked her up. Jumping to one of the upper levels, Uranus laid Neptune down. "Don't worry love, I will make it pay for hurting you."

Then with a chilling grin, Uranus turned back to gaze at her prey while stepping up onto the railing. The two opponents gazed at each other, neither making the first move. And there they stood as one moment became many. For her part, Uranus had a large ball of energy in her hand, powerful enough to take out half the building if she missed. She was not interested in playing with this monster, it would die here and now.

Unnoticed by the two, a third figure entered in through the museum's entrance. Holding her long staff in front of her body, she regarded the situation. <Hmm, would not have thought Haruka to be so calm and collected right now. Though that is probably the only reason why the museum is still standing. But I don't know how much longer she will be able to hold herself back.> "Dead Scream," Pluto whispered.

Once again caught off guard, the lion was taken by surprise. However, this time being that it was preparing to pounce anyways, it was able to easily leap clear of the attack. Smiling, Uranus leapt as well. Reaching the far wall, she pushed off of it and headed down towards where the creature was landing. Pulling her body into ball, she spun so that she now faced the demon as she passed over it.

"World Shaking" she screamed at it, placing her hand directly in front of its roaring face. Sensing the nearness of the second pray, the demon opened its mouth in an attempt to bite Uranus. However, instead of sinking its teeth into the flesh of the windy warrior, it instead swallowed a massive ball of energy. The attack ripped through the creature, utterly consuming it till nothing more than dust and a burnt card was left.

Uranus's jump carried her away from the creature even as she released her attack, allowing her to avoid the power backlash. Even still, though, explosion that had resulted flung her like a rag doll against the far wall of the room.

Consequently, Pluto was the only one in the building left standing. <Just great, one knocked out warrior I can deal with, but both of them.> With nothing else to do until the others arrived, the great guardian of time was left to baby-sit the fallen warriors. Finding an undamaged comfy chair Pluto plopped herself down, but her feet up and waited.

From a different roof, Rubeus watched the battle below him with great amusement. After releasing the droid, he had decided to follow it, so that he could see Serenity and her new power for himself. The Wiseman had said that she had suddenly become very powerful, and if he were to fight her in the future, he would need to know all that he could. However, as far as intel, this idea was useless.

But that failure was but a success, since the droid had managed to take out Sailor Moon before the battle had even begun. And he was guessing that Sailor Mars must be out of it too, after her foolhardy rescue attempt. The two were probably still alive, but he could arrange otherwise shortly, but the Wiseman's words played in his head and he gave them heed. Only if the droid took out the other three would he finish the group of them off. Otherwise the tables could very quickly turn, another thing he had noticed while watching the Dark Kingdom's operations.

From what he had seen of Sailor Moon's very brief appearance, she was definitely different now. Not only did she have silver hair, she also had wings, much like her future self. He figured that meant that she had enough power now, that she no longer felt the need to hide her true nature. And, unfortunately, that made things harder. But if that professor could free the Wiseman from his entrapment, then it wouldn't matter. The Wiseman had allowed them to beat her in the future, and here in the past she would be no harder. And without having to devout his time to both the future and the past, he figured it would be even easier on the Wiseman now.

Smiling again, he watched as the Soldier of Jupiter electrocuted the Warrior of Mercury.

While the three teenaged warriors had moved to face the droid upon landing on the ground, the pint-sized warrior had headed towards her mother instead. Carefully jumping in through the broken window, ChibiMoon spied where her mother and Mars lay on the ground.

"Gomen, Mars" she whispered to the fallen warrior as she pushed Mars off of her mother. With her mother now clear, she smiled, as she was able to confirm that her mother was still alive. Crawling up beside her mother, she laid her body against the other and lay like that for a moment. She was fully content like this and could have remained lying with her head on her mother forever. But Mercury's scream of pain brought her back to reality.

Shaking her mother, she tried to wake Usagi up. Even mentioning Mamo-chan's name seemed to have no effect. Frustrated she got up on her feet and walking to Usagi's feet, gave her a good kick. However, all it managed to do was to cause Usagi to roll over and to begin to snore real loudly.

"Great, just great. There is a battle going on out there, and you are going to just sleep. Usagi no Baka." Now really annoyed, fear for her mother's condition having been reassured when Usagi began to snore, she pulled out her wand and cried "Pink Moon Sugar Heart Attack."

And, for once, the attack worked the first time. The stream of pink hearts floated out of the wand and impacted right on the Moon Warrior's behind.

"Ow!" Cried Sailor Moon as she quickly woke and moved out of the line of the attack. "Why you little spore!" she yelled at ChibiMoon.

ChibiMoon, knowing what to expect had already back flipped through the store window. Sailor Moon quickly followed the pink haired brat outside. But on arriving outside, all thoughts of the spore vanished from her mind. Turning sharply to the left, she headed towards where the other Soldiers and Tuxedo-kamen were fighting the droid.

"How dare you attack my friends. I am the pretty soldier of love and justice. For what you did to Mars, I can not forgive you and I will punish you." Sailor Moon declared as she reached the battle scene.

The other combatants paused in their combat as they heard her speech, something about the tone of her words. Her friends could see a fierce determination burn in her eyes, and quickly moved out of the way. Tuxedo-kamen moved to be beside his love, knowing that she would need him when this creature had been taken care of.

The droid Constructica regarded this new threat and for the first time felt fear. It had no idea what it was talking about with regard to this Mars person. But it also knew that it was about to face this young warrior's wrath. Back peddling it began frantically firing any and everything it could at the Moon Warrior.

Sailor Moon stood her ground as the cones and whatnot passed by her. Then slowly she pulled out her Eternal Tier. Bringing the staff up, she felt her body become a conduit for the energy of the Moon as it flowed through her into the Tier. And then with a final motion, she slammed the butt of the Tier into the ground and its purifying energy lashed out in all directions, sweeping away the darkness.

And when the light was gone, so was the monster. Not even the ruined droid crystal remained. With exhaustion, she fell into the arms of Tuxedo-kamen. Catching the eye of Venus, he left the battlefield with his love in his arms.

Turning to Mercury, Venus spoke "Mercury go check on Mars. Jupiter and I are going to continue on to the art museum and Neptune and the other demon."

"Hai," replied Mercury as she watched the other two Soldiers leave. Then turning she walked back to where Mars lay.

Rubeus watched in interest as Sailor Moon made her presence known. <Lesson 1, when I go to take her out, I do not take her friends out first in a hope of disheartening her.> He watched closely as pulled a new weapon out from behind her back and then in shock as he felt her energy build to incredible levels. Suddenly fearing for his life, he got an uncontrollable urge to duck down behind the ledge of the roof.

Only moments after he cowered with the ledge as his cover, the sky above him lit up in a bright light. From where he lay could feel the power in it. <Her power, it is unbelievable. I don't know what would have happened if I had remained standing, and I was not even close to being in her attack line.> With a new respect for his opponent he picked himself up from the roof and teleported himself away, having decided that under no circumstance would he attack her directly.

The sound of boots clicking on the marble floor of the museum ended Pluto's vigil. Standing up she noted two battle weary warriors approach. "I take it, you found some of your own fun."

"Yep it looks like we are back to our two for one deals." Venus replied. "What happened to them?"

"The demon was a bit more than Neptune could handle herself. And Uranus, well she was never one in this life or the previous one to listen to caution."

Jupiter and Venus nodded their agreement with that statement. Walking up to the two downed warriors, Jupiter picked up Neptune while Pluto and Venus took Uranus. Leaving the museum, they took to the roofs to bring the two unconscious warriors home to bed.

-End Chapter 22

Yeah, finally finished with this chapter. Don't worry the next few chapters should be a bit quicker in coming out. I already have most of 23 written, and parts of 24 started. The second part of the story should also be picking up soon.