Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Road to Hell ❯ Chapter Six ( Chapter 6 )

The air around Usagi was thick with smoke and ash was falling from the sky. Usagi looks around the garden as one by one, her senshi fall to the ground. Hearing something crying in the distance, she followed the sound and discovered a baby lying in a rosebush, tangled up in thorns. Usagi immediately set about trying to free the child from it's prison, her heart breaking as she watched the child cry louder and louder when the thorns dug deeper into it's flesh. Once freed, she clung to the baby girl who was strangely quiet and feared that it was dead.

The scene changes and Usagi found herself and the baby enshrouded in fog. Looking around, she ran into the silhouetted forms of a man and woman whose faces she could not see but whom she felt she could trust. Suddenly, a door appeared out of nowhere. Deciding to investigate, she thrust the baby in the woman's arms and opened the door, finding a vast, empty space. She glanced back at the couple but they were gone, and heard a child's laughter over the wind that rushed around her ears. Just as she was about to close the door, she felt the wind pulling her in but was powerless to stop it. Once she was through the door, she heard evil laughter all around her, the sound resonating through her entire body. Usagi heard herself scream as she felt a burning sensation in her body erupt before her vision burst into a million stars. The last thought before she lost consciousness was on the child she gave up, and hoped that she would one day see her again.

Usagi jolted awake, her breathing was hard and sweat covered her body. `Wow, some dream,' she thought. Glancing at the clock, she was dismayed to find that it was only 5:08 in the morning, hours before her regularly scheduled appearance on early Saturday afternoons. Lying back in bed, she thought about her conversation with Artemis before she went to bed last night. She explained that the Universal Council ordered her to protect Mamoru and the ex-Inner senshi, an irony that was not lost upon Artemis. They both decided on heading out early to the Outers' mansion in order to draw plans for the upcoming battle with Metallion. `I guess now's a good enough time as any to get breakfast and be out of here before everyone else wakes up.' Stroking Artemis' back a few times, earning her an appreciative purr from the sleeping kitty, she got up gently and went downstairs.

Heading straight for the kitchen, Usagi put two slices of bread in the toaster and retrieved the newspaper from the front step for her father, a man who loved to catch up on world affairs before heading out for the day. Hearing her toast pop up, she set the paper down on the kitchen table to get her breakfast ready. Finally sitting down with her breakfast in front of her, Usagi picked up the paper with one hand and a slice of toast in the other. Taking a bite of her toast, she read the headline and almost choked at what she saw. "Massacre of Downtown Tokyo; Senshi Responsible" glared back at her astonished face. Setting her breakfast aside, Usagi hurriedly read the article and was even more

astonished at what she discovered.

Newspaper article:

"Last night, at around 11:30 pm, for reasons known only to themselves, the senshi and Tuxedo Kamen decided to wage an attack on downtown Tokyo. Witnesses claimed that the recently absent Sailors Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter and Tuxedo Kamen were accompanied by Sailors Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and Pluto, rogue senshi who show up sporadically off and on for a few months at a time, and went on a rampage, using their powers on anyone and anything that stood in their way. One witness reported seeing Tuxedo Kamen force himself upon a woman before stabbing her in the heart with a rose.

`What the hell are they talking about? I got home at 10:30 last night and even said goodnight to my parents before I fell asleep. Besides, we can't transform anymore into the Inner senshi or Tuxedo Kamen,' Usagi thought wildly before resuming.

"According to those questioned by the police afterwards, the senshi had no apparent target as there were no youma present. After the mysterious assault, a staggering 53 people were injured and 17 people were pronounced dead at the scene, including the mayor's daughter 18-year-old, Masahiko Yumi. Masahiko-san was out with friends last night celebrating a friend's birthday when, according to a

witness who did not wish to be identified, `Sailor Moon threw her tiara electrified with Jupiter's power at the poor girl and burned her to death as they watched, laughing hysterically.'"

`I would never do that. Sure, I punished that bastard Haru and I killed Rei in cold blood but I would never just attack someone who didn't deserve it.' Tears poured down Usagi's face, making it hard to read the startling paragraph that was to come.

"According to an unidentified source from the Tokyo Police Department, they were able to obtain surveillance camera footage of the Inner senshi and Tuxedo Kamen detransforming in a parking lot near the scene of the attack. Their identities, which are now known to investigators on the case, are being withheld for the time being until arrests can be made. The identities of the so-called `Outer'

senshi remain to be determined. Who is to protect the citizens of Tokyo from those whom we thought were our protectors? For more information, see pages 1-7 and 3-5 in section B."

Without another thought, Usagi raced upstairs and burst into her room, startling Artemis awake. "I swear Mina-chan, I didn't go snooping in your laundry hamper again! Oh, it's you Usagi-chan. Um, hehehe, forget what I said."

"Never mind, you perve, we've got more important things to worry about. Here, look at the garbage that's in the paper this morning." Artemis read the paper that Usagi dropped on the bed, letting loose a few choice words that even Usagi didn't know, while she hurriedly started to pack a few articles of clothing and personal hygiene into a large duffel bag. "So I guess Metallion has started her attack sooner than we thought. We don't have time to lose."

"This is bad. Usagi-chan, who else knows about your identities as senshi?" Artemis asked as he paced around the room, formulating a plan. In the six months since he was made her advisor, Usagi found that he was a brilliant tactician who was forced to work in Luna's overbearing shadow. Usagi grew to

value his opinions, as his method was to listen to everyone's viewpoint, instead of commandeering the entire operation, Luna's preferred modus operandi.

"Motoki knows, and so do the Four Sisters. Why, Artemis?"

"Then it's imperative that you go there now and erase any knowledge they have of the identities of the senshi. I think it would be wise to visit the Four Sisters first, since they will be more susceptible to reverting to evil, given their past with Nemesis. Since the police don't know about the Outers yet, we

have to get to Motoki and the sisters before they do. Before you go out though, use the Disguise Pen. It should still work even though you aren't Sailor Moon anymore since it was designed for anyone's use."

Even before Artemis finished talking, Usagi had already whipped out the pen out of her subspace pocket and activated it, transforming into an old woman. Picking up her duffel bag and placing Artemis on her shoulder, Usagi raced out into the streets with the speed that a woman her "age" shouldn't have. Finally reaching the Four Sisters' apartment, Usagi pounded on the door and was let in by a grumpy looking Beruche after finally convincing her that she was in fact Usagi in disguise and not some crazy woman off the streets. After explaining the situation, the sisters readily agreed to the idea, but not before wishing Usagi and the others good luck on their mission. The sisters were unconscious after the mind meld and Usagi let herself out as quietly as possible. Her next destination was Motoki's apartment, which was fortunately only a block away from the sisters' home.

An exhausted Usagi knocked several times on Motoki's door, once again having to convince him that she was whom she said she was. Going through the same speech she gave the sisters was a long and tedious process. "I'm really sorry, Motoki-chan, but I really need to do this. I am only asking out of courtesy because I consider you not just one of my closest friends but also my brother, but I will erase your memories of the senshi even if you refuse."

Motoki was hesitant at first about having his mind erased, concerned that Usagi might accidentally erase more than she intended, but after much coercion on Usagi's part and flashing of claws on Artemis', he finally agreed to be brainwashed. Usagi thanked him and immediately started to erase the memories he held of the senshi. Leaving an unconscious Motoki stretched out on the couch, Usagi glanced at the clock and realizing it was already 6:15 in the morning, immediately ran in the direction of the Outers' mansion, a good 10 minute walk, which Usagi managed to reach in 4 minutes after `borrowing' a bicycle parked in front of a house. Pushing away thoughts of guilt for having stolen a bike, Usagi vowed to have it returned as soon as possible. She hid the bike in the bushes outside the mansion and used her key to open the door noiselessly.

Entering the mansion, Usagi was somewhat startled and amused to find Serena sprawled out on the couch with Sailor Pluto asleep on the floor next to her, Rei and Mamoru sleeping against the wall with cushions behind their heads in a corner, with Sailor Uranus laying diagonally across from them, preventing them from leaving without having to go through her first. Sailor Saturn slept on the love seat with Ami and Makoto on the floor and Sailor Neptune in another corner next to Mina who had Luna on her lap.

"WAKE UP!"

Everyone shot up from dreamland, startled at the sudden noise. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Haruka grumbled, "what's going on, neko-chan?"

When Usagi, who was busy drawing the drapes shut didn't answer, Artemis said,

"Metallion has struck."

Immediately at attention, they all gathered in the dining room and read the day's paper. "You know, for an all-seeing bunch of busy bodies, that Universal Council sure has lousy timing. They could've warned us before any of this shit went down," groused Makoto as she read the front page for the hundredth time.

Usagi was pacing back and forth, thinking of a plan while ignoring the righteous indignation of all those around her.

"Um Usagi-san, could you please stop pacing?" asked Mina timidly. Usagi whirled around in mid-step with a look that scared Minako.

"Why is that, Aino-san? Is my pacing bothering you?" Mina gulped and nodded. "Well in that case…" Usagi spun on her heels and resumed pacing, causing Mina to turn red as she saw Haruka barely hiding a smirk.

"We need to find out what those people died of, since it wasn't your powers that did it. Since some of you can't transform due to a certain action which I warned a certain cat not to do," -Luna had the grace to look embarrassed at Artemis' rather pointed hint- "they obviously weren't attacked by the inner

senshi. Not to mention that you all were paying an intergalactic visit to the Universal Council at the time. You also need to determine who this `source' at the police department is and how they found out your identities."

"Hey Michiru-chan, may I borrow your laptop?" A plan had formed in Usagi's head. When the laptop was set up in front of her, Usagi immediately started hacking into the city hall records and managed to find blueprints of the hospital where the bodies lay in the morgue and the police precinct. She was

also able to obtain a map of the Tokyo sewer system.

`Where the hell did she learn to do that? When we were going out, she didn't even know how to turn a computer on, much less hack into private records. I feel like I don't even know who she is anymore.'

"Wow Usagi-san. When did you learn how to use a computer like that?" asked Ami, unable to keep the amazement at seeing Usagi in action out of her voice.

Without even glancing up from the screen, Usagi replied, "contrary to what you all believed about me, I have a brain and know how to apply it when I want to accomplish something. How do you think I managed to beat your ass in every assignment, test and exam every time? I didn't spend more than a thousand years in the War Room just to play around, you know."

An uncomfortable silence followed. Sensing the tension in the room Serena, in an effort to change the subject, decided to speak. "The War Room? I heard you mention it last night but you never told us what it was. How were you able to stay there for so long?"

"The War Room is an area of negative space which is much like the Time Corridor. Since there is a time differential in the War Room, I was able to spend extreme amounts of time in there and hardly miss a thing in the real world. When I caught my rapist, I put him there and tortured him for a hundred years before I turned him in anonymously to the police ten days after I caught him."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean you caught your rapist and tortured him for a hundred years?" Mamoru cut in. His head was reeling with all the information thrust upon him this early in the morning. First, he learns about the existence of parallel universes and then finds out that his own universe is in danger too. Now his former girlfriend is informing him that she single handedly caught her assailant and tortured him for a hundred years. How was that even possible?

"I mean I caught him by using the bond we formed when he raped me. One day in normal time is equivalent to ten years in the War Room. I kept him in there for ten earth days and fed him his own penis for the last five days of his captivity, or fifty years War Room time. Consider yourself lucky that all I did was curse you, Chiba-san," Usagi said wryly when she noticed Mamoru squirming uncomfortably. "The War Room is where I planned my revenge on all of you."

`So that was how she managed to kick my ass at the volleyball championships. She had extra time to practice. I only had a month to prepare for the finals but she had….holy shit, three thousand years! She must really hate us."

"So anyways, I hope I answered your question fully Serena. Goodness knows some people here don't trust my mental capacity enough to follow my leadership."

Serena nodded numbly and although didn't know what a Time Corridor was, decided not to push it, while the Ami looked ready to cry when Usagi pointedly quoted what she said about her the night of the rape. "Now, if we can all pay attention. Here's what we do. A team will break into the hospital morgue and perform autopsies on the bodies. Another team will break into the police station, figure out who the source is, and steal their so-called evidence against us."

"Also, I think another team should go to Central Control and erase all your records," Artemis put in.

Usagi nodded. "That's a great idea Arty."

Upon hearing her term of endearment, Artemis groaned and covered his bent head with a paw. "Usagi-chan, you promised not to call me that in front of the others."

Minako couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy at the rapport between her former guardian and leader. `Artemis was never that friendly with me. He was always about senshi business.'

After a few hours of heated discussion, it was decided that Usagi would lead a group consisting of Mamoru, Mina, Makoto and Haruka into the hospital morgue. Usagi and Mamoru were to perform the autopsies while Makoto ran a background check of the victims' medical histories. Minako and Haruka are on lookout duty for the others.

Thanks to Serena's experience as a spy for the Japanese government, she was put in charge of the team consisting of Setsuna, Rei, Michiru and Hotaru. Apparently in her world, the Sailor Scouts were secret agents employed by the government to spy on other countries. They reported to the emperor of Japan about technological developments, which would benefit their own country, and if he deemed it worthy, they would steal it for him. Thanks to the efforts of the Sailor Scouts, Japan is at the top of her world's governmental hierarchy. Rei's job was to use her psychic abilities to identify the source which Michiru would verify using her mirror. Setsuna's job was to slow down time for fifteen minutes, giving Serena and Hotaru enough time to review the evidence.

"But remember, Setsuna-san, you must only slow down time when they find the evidence. You must not stop it or slow it down for any longer than that otherwise Metallion could trace your energy signature. Also, don't slow down time until Serena-san and Hotaru-san find the evidence, otherwise they'll just waste that time looking for it," Luna advised rather arrogantly. Setsuna rolled her eyes and gave her a look that said, "Who do you think you're talking to?"

Artemis was to lead the last group, consisting of Luna and Artemis in Central Control since they have been restricted access to it, to erase the records of all those present. "Don't you guys think we should move ourselves to our hideout, wherever it may be, and establish ourselves there before we head out tonight?" Serena asked. After much debate, it was determined that they would hide in an abandoned warehouse by the harbour, which was slated for demolition in three months' time. From there, they would use the sewers to get to their own respective destinations.

Before they could make any more plans, however, Luna and Artemis were sent to stake out the hospital and precinct, respectively. Setsuna and Hotaru were to go out and buy the supplies they needed to live on while in hiding. In the roughly two hours they were gone, Usagi shut herself off in Hotaru's room, crying about the burden which had increasingly gotten heavier in the past six months or so after she was raped.

`How can I do this? I have to work closely with Mamoru again after months of ignoring him and my feelings for him. If I hadn't gotten raped, I would be eight and a half months pregnant, close to delivery and it would be even harder to carry out this mission. Maybe losing the baby that night was for the best. If I was that far along and I had a miscarriage as a result of the mission tonight, I would break down even more than I already have and let Metallion have this stupid planet.' Realizing what just passed through her head, Usagi buried her head in the pillow and cried herself to sleep.

Usagi woke up to Mamoru shaking her shoulder gently. "Come on Usagi, everyone's back now. We need to run a few more details of the plan through with you."

Usagi blushed at Mamoru's touch but quickly shook his hand from her shoulder and stood up. Without a word of acknowledgement, she walked out of the room with Mamoru trailing dejectedly behind her.

As it turned out, Hotaru and Setsuna went a step further and moved the supplies they purchased to the warehouse already. Luna reported that since the hospital laundry room was in the basement, Usagi's group would be able to sneak in through a drainpipe in the floor. From there, they would have to sneak in to morgues two and three where the victims were being kept. Artemis reported that there was a manhole located in the alley beside the police station. They would have to crawl through a small window that opened into the men's washroom.

Serena warned that all radio frequencies were probably being monitored so using their communicators would be ill advised. Usagi agreed and decided that everyone should meet back at the warehouse two hours after they initially set out. If one group didn't make it back in the time allotted, the others would

proceed to an old church on the outskirts of Tokyo and the late group would head there directly. That being said, the group donned disguises brought back by Hotaru and Setsuna and headed for the warehouse. Usagi was saddened by the fact that she didn't tell her family goodbye before she left.

Fifteen minutes after midnight

Usagi & co., dressed all in black, quietly slipped into the sewers, synchronized their watches and set off in separate directions. Making various turns through the myriad of pipes, Usagi's group finally reached the hospital fifteen minutes after they started. Quickly familiarizing herself, Usagi found the vent Luna described and crawled in followed by her group. `Isn't it ironic that three of the people who were opposed to me being the leader is following me again.'

Reaching Morgue 2 within a few minutes, Usagi and Mamoru opened one of the lockers while Makoto began checking the names of the victims in the hospital computer. Mina and Haruka stayed out in the hall, making sure no one came by. Pulling out a body with a `Sakai, Fujimori' toe tag, Usagi and Mamoru were able to determine at once that the body has been dead for at least forty-eight hours, long before the massacre.

"Hey Mako-chan, are you sure Sakai-san was one of the victims?"

"Hai, Mamoru-san. It says on this chart that he was killed by a blast to the chest." Sakai's body had a burn mark on the chest but it was apparent by the amount of decomposition that he died much earlier than the day before. Taking a scalpel, Usagi sliced through his chest and was barely able to contain her surprise when green blood stained her gloved fingers.

"It's a youma," breathed Mamoru. "Metallion killed these youma before the `attack' and dumped these youma for the police to find. What makes me wonder is, what about the mayor's daughter? It was written that she was killed too."

"Kino-san, check the records on Masahiko Yumi." With a few keystrokes, Makoto was able to report that Yumi died as a little girl due to complications brought about by pneumonia and not as an eighteen year old out with her `friends' on the night she was killed. "Maybe the mayor is in on this too."

Mamoru pulled out another body, this time labeled `Araki Hiro' and discovered that he too was a youma. Makoto ran a check into his records and discovered that Hiro died from lung cancer ten years ago. Deciding they found out enough, Usagi signaled to Haruka and Mina that it was time to go. Stuffing the bodies back into the lockers and wiping of everything they touched, they climbed back into the vent and headed back to the warehouse to await the others.

Serena's group reached the alley with hardly any problems and one by one was able to enter through the window with ease, except for Setsuna, who was clearly the tallest in the group. With a final grunt, Setsuna squeezed through and fell on the grimy washroom floor. Shivering with disgust, she caught up to the rest of her group members who were peering out the door, cautiously. "Do you feel any evil vibes yet, Rei?"

"Well duh, Serena. This is a police station, you know." Haruka, fighting the urge to smack Rei in the face opted to frown menacingly at her.

"Although Serena is not the princess in this world, Hino, she is still in charge of our group so I suggest for your sake, that you shut the hell up and do your job before I pull out that nail up your ass and replace it with my foot."

Rei blanched visibly and apologized. "I'm sorry Serena."

After a few minutes of observing the station, Rei began to feel a negative aura emanating from a detective whose back was turned to them. She motioned to Michiru, who used her mirror to identify the officer. "It's the detective who practically bit our heads off when we tried to visit Usagi in the

hospital the day after she was raped," Rei gasped.

Haruka snorted and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "maybe he's not so bad after all," causing Hotaru to giggle out loud. Serena looked at the pair sternly, warning them to be quiet. They watched as the man disappeared behind the door to his office. "I bet my life that whatever bullshit evidence he has against us is in that office."

Giving Setsuna the signal, Serena and the others raced to the office door. All activity in the busy precinct came to a virtual standstill. In the office, Serena and Rei immediately began poring through the photos of the senshi during their killing spree. Rei recognized one of the photos as one she had

taken of the group during happier times at a picnic in the park, spliced onto a background of mass destruction. In the original photo, Usagi and Makoto were laughing gleefully as they wrestled a book away from Ami but the doctored photo showed them without Ami laughing over a dead body. There were files on Usagi, Makoto, Rei, Ami, Mina and Mamoru dating back to two years prior, the time

Metallia posed a threat to the world. Setsuna warned that there was only five minutes left, so the girls pocketed all the files and photos and left the office. Making sure they were back in the washroom, Setsuna released her once she was safely out the bothersome window.

By the time they got back, Artemis and his group was back and discussing what their activities with Usagi's group. Artemis relayed how Ami and Luna deleted all their records while he worked to create new identities for them. Resolving to talk further the next day, everyone crawled wearily into their sleeping bags and fell asleep for the night.