Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Star Scouts ❯ Return ( Chapter 11 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

AN: Sorry it took so long, I had a bad case of writer's block. But here's the next chapter! And I tried to make it up to you by making it a long chapter. Yup.

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Princess Lilly Raye Bellona Ares Hino of Mars stared out at the lake. She heard footsteps and said “Go `way Kaze.”

A familiar voice laughed and said "Is that anyway to greet a friend?”

Lilly whipped around and her violet eyes met with her best friend's emerald eyes. Lilly mouthed wordlessly, not believing her eyes.

“It's nice to see you too, Lil.” Hannah smiled.

“But, how?” Lilly asked.

“I'm not sure, but something tells me that Sailor Pluto has to do with it.” Hannah grinned.

Lilly hugged her tightly, laughing.

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Amara & Michelle's House

The moment Hannah walked through the door; Kaze flung her arms around her neck and squeezed her tightly. The others followed suit, and she was soon unable to move because all of her friends were hugging her and not letting go.

“Let her breath!” Lilly exclaimed, prying them off gently.

Hannah looked around and suddenly asked “Where's James?”

“Well, um….Neo-Queen Serenity kinda called him back….” Bianca mumbled.

The Jovian Princess looked a little disappointed but smiled all the same. A small black furry blur shot forward and leapt into her arms.

“Luna Belle!” She said gleefully, hugging her cat. The Sailor Scouts were smiling as they watched the reunions.

“Anyway, I'm really glad to be back. But, I've found out how to get to Lady Quartz.” Hannah said seriously.

Marie and the others looked at her questioningly. She pulled a small circular disk out of her pocket.

“I can activate this to take us to her, but only when you think you're ready.” Hannah answered their unspoken question.

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Next Night, the Park

All of the Scouts, Star and Sailor included, watched as Sailor Emerald activated the disk. In a flash of light they vanished.

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“Ow! Serena, you landed on my foot!”

“Sorry!”

“Marie, get off my back.”

“Oh, sorry Bianca!”

The girls untangled themselves from one another and got up, disorientated. Emerald turned and said something quietly into Sapphire's ear. Sailor Sapphire took her mini-computer out of her subspace pocket and started typing rapidly. They were surrounded by forest on all sides.

“We need to split up into groups.” Sailor Emerald said, looking around at them after Sapphire muttered something in her ear.

“There are fifteen of us in all. Mars, Mercury and Sapphire, go with Serenity. Jupiter, Venus, Ruby, and Garnet are a group. Amethyst, Uranus, Neptune and Crystal. Aquamarine and Tanzanite will come with me.” Emerald instructed.

“Be careful.” Ruby told her.

“Aren't I always?” Emerald responded as they parted ways.

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Group One

Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars and Sapphire trudged along in silence.

“So, what exactly are we looking for anyways?” Sailor Moon asked.

“A castle.” Sapphire replied shortly.

The three Sailor Scouts looked at each other. Something had Sapphire on edge.

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Group two

“Watch out for that-”

“OW!”

“-Tree root…”

Sailor Ruby shook her head, smiling exasperatedly. Sailor Jupiter helped a dazed Sailor Venus to her feet as Sailor Garnet laughed lightly.

“I warned you.” Ruby sighed.

“Ah, zip it.” Venus said sourly.

Garnet watched the pair, smirking. Venus was reacting the way Sailor Crystal would react.

`Like mother like daughter.' Garnet thought.

“C'mon you three, we have to keep moving.” Sailor Jupiter reminded them.

“Right behind you Jupiter!” Garnet chirped.

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Group three

Sailor Crystal and Sailor Amethyst stopped at the edge of a river.

“Well, that's a really wide river.” Neptune said, walking up behind them along with Uranus.

“Yup.”

“Jump across?” Uranus suggested.

“Nah, it's too wide, even for us.” Crystal shook her head.

“Swim?”

Amethyst picked up a stick and tossed it in. Immediately it was set upon by dozen or so fish, each with razor sharp teeth.

“Knew it wouldn't be that easy.” Amethyst sighed.

“Can't you teleport us?” Uranus asked.

“Quartz will have planned for that, but we can always try.” Crystal said after a moment.

Amethyst touched Neptune's shoulder and Crystal did the same with Uranus. They vanished, only to reappear ten feet above the surface of the water. The four scouts fell and splashed into the water.

“Try to get to the other side!” Crystal told them quickly.

“Venus Love Laser!” The beam of orange light cut through the water, fending off the deadly fish.

Neptune reached the other side first closely followed by Uranus. The two older scouts pulled the duo out of the water. Crystal sank to the ground, still in shock.

“I think I can safely say that we won't be trying that again.” Uranus said. The others nodded vigorously.

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Group four

Sailor Tanzanite, Aquamarine, and Emerald quietly treaded through the forest. This part of the forest seemed darker and more ominous. Sailor Emerald stopped the other two in their tracks, cautiously walking forward. The trio finally got out of the forest. Ahead of them was a giant, menacing castle.

“Look out, here comes the welcoming committee.” Emerald cautioned.

That was putting it mildly. At least ten-thousand youma were approaching them.

“There's no way we can do this alone.” Aquamarine whispered at they ducked back into the forest.

“They have the advantage if we go out into the open where they are. But if we lure them in here…” Tanzanite pointed out, grinning. Sailor Emerald thought quickly, planning a strategy.

“Alright, here's the plan…” Emerald started quietly.

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All over the plain, there were youma scattered, a few standing guard. One particular youma guard, Targyth, thought he saw a figure leave the forest, but after looking again, brushed it off to be a shadow of a tree.

His mistake.

The last thing Targyth ever saw was a flitting shadow and a beam of light.

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“I got him.” Aquamarine reported quietly to her sister.

“Good, now we watch Emerald strut her stuff.” Tanzanite grinned as the pair effortlessly scaled a tree and watched what was going on in the clearing. The aforementioned Jovian princess was running all over the clearing, being chased by the much less coordinated youma.

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Sailor Emerald grinned as she did a handspring over a youma's head. She gracefully landed and performed a perfect flip over another youma. Suddenly all of the youma stopped chasing her and kneeled. She stopped, only to be picked up by the throat from behind. Emerald eyes met cold black eyes. Lady Quartz.

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Castle

Hannah pounded her fists furiously against the wall of her prison. This was getting her nowhere. With a frustrated scream Hannah slammed her fist against the wall and slid to the floor.

“I swear if you don't let me out of here I'll-” She was cut off.

“You'll do what?” Lady Quartz curled her lip sneeringly.

Hannah threw a giant ball of lightning at her prison wall, but it dissipated the moment it touched the clear wall. Lady Quartz sneered and vanished. Hannah let out a furious noise and banged her fist against the wall again.

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Tanzanite & Aquamarine

“She was captured! I can't believe we let her get caught!” Tanzanite exclaimed, pacing back and forth.

“Bianca-”

“We failed as her guardians!” Tanzanite continued ranting, ignoring her sister.

“Bianca-”

“How the heck are we supposed to find the other to help us rescue her?!”

“BIANCA!!”

“What?!”

“The castle's right over there, and very easy to reach.” Aquamarine pointed out.

Tanzanite rolled her eyes.

“It's never that easy, they'll be expecting us to do that. We need to find the others.” Tanzanite told her little sister.

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Somehow, the two sisters managed to find and bring all of their colleagues back to the woods. As they expected, Sailor Ruby was more than displeased at their foolish plan.

It took both Sailor Mars and Sailor Jupiter to restrain the angry young Martian.

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Hannah Kino suddenly stopped pacing in her cell, an idea forming in her mind. She concentrated all of her electrical power on one point of the cage. Slowly, very slowly, a hole started forming, and she quickly got out of the prison when it was big enough for her.

She crept out of the castle, silently avoiding guards and found herself face to face with none other than Sailor Neptune.

“Neptune! What are you doing here?” She whispered, pulling Neptune into the shadows.

“We were coming to rescue you, but I guess we don't have to.” Neptune replied.

“No, but we have to fight Lady Quartz and beat her. If we don't, kiss the universe goodbye.” Hannah said grimly as she transformed back to Sailor Emerald.

“And we can start by taking out the youma.”

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“Lady Quartz! Come on out and join the party!” The two sisters, Aquamarine and Tanzanite, shouted in unison as they destroyed yet five more youma. Together, the Star and Sailor Scouts were taking out youma by the dozen and the youma army was dwindling down to only two hundred or so.

“Yeah, come join the fun!” Emerald and Ruby called together, throwing beams of energy into the sky.

Sure enough, black smog covered the plains and Lady Quartz materialized on the battle field.

“How nice of you to join us.” Emerald said curtly, sword hanging loosely in her hand.

“Seems I had no choice.” Lady Quartz replied coldly.

“Damn right you had no choice.” Emerald snapped, flipping her sword in her hand to a ready position. “Enough with the formalities. I'm here to kill you and that's all there is to it.”

The two sisters, Aquamarine and Tanzanite, were attacking from opposite sides, only to be thrown back ten meters. Unluckily, Aquamarine's head connected with a tree and she slid to the ground, unconscious. It was gonna take a hell of a lot more to take the others out though.

“Amethyst, go tend to Aquamarine. Ruby, you ready?” She asked, taking shelter behind a boulder with Ruby while Tanzanite and Uranus let off a vicious onslaught of attacks.

“Of course.” The Martian responded and they shot out from the boulder as Uranus and Tanzanite were propelled backwards.

Sailor Ruby let loose a barrage of arrows from her Martian bow, and Lady Quartz threw a ball of black nega-energy at her. Sailor Emerald, accompanied by Sailor Crystal who wielded her own sword, let off an attack.

“Lightning Sword Strike!” A beam of lightning leaped forth from the tip of the blade, exploding as it connected with Lady Quartz's back.

“Direct hit!”

When the dust cleared away, Lady Quartz stood in the exact same spot, unharmed. The villainess laughed as she threw a ball of nega-energy right into Emerald's stomach. The ball sent Emerald flying into a boulder, cracking her ribs.

“Emerald!” Garnet, Tanzanite and Sapphire all rushed over, after Sapphire created a fog of bubbles.

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Her head ached and her sore ribs weren't helping. Sapphire stayed by her side diligently as the others went off to take advantage of the fog.

“Are you okay?” Sapphire asked.

“Yeah, I'll be fine. Let's go help the others.” Emerald grinned and Sapphire wore an identical expression.

“Neptune Deep Submerge!”

“Space Sword Blaster!”

“Jupiter Oak Evolution!”

“Mars Flame Sniper!”

“Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!”

“Venus Love Chain Encircle!”

The multiple attacks combined created a huge explosion. For a second the Sailor Scouts smiled, thinking they had one. But, a stream of black matter slithered out and headed right at Tanzanite, Aquamarine and Emerald. Under the cover of fog, it wrapped itself around their waists and dragged them to the ground.

“Let go of me!!” Sailor Emerald yelled, fighting to get loose.

Similar shouts and yells could be heard from the sisters. Unfortunately, the fog made it quite impossible to see them.

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“Now you've made me mad.” Emerald muttered unsheathing her sword.

Lady Quartz never saw her coming. The sword went through her back and to the other side.

“It seems….that you've won…” She choked out her last words, grey eyes clouded.

Sailor Emerald pulled out her sword once she was sure that Quartz was QUITE dead. She went over and pulled Aquamarine and Tanzanite to their feet.

“We won.”