Dark Kingdom Renegades/Sailor Moon : Thy Kingdom Come
by Mark Latus
Part 2 : Apocalypse Then
"Ti, we try to avoid contact with the Senshi remember? Showing them all
where we live is a bad idea." Calcite wasn't worried about being overheard
as he was speaking the Dark Kingdom's language. He hadn't used their native
tongue in months as speaking Japanese had become second nature. But it was
perfect for this situation as it meant only their group would understand him.
At least that's what he thought until Sailor Hermes spoke a few harsh,
guttural words.
"So you're still scared of the Senshi? Interesting." Calcite stared
at her momentarily at a loss. He wasn't alone, Margrave and the other
Renegades were equally stunned.
Sailor Moon looked up from petting Margrave. "Do they have a throat
infection?" The question jogged Titanite out of her daze.
"Huh? Uh no, they're speaking Youma'shak, our native language. I didn't
know you guys could do that."
"There's a youma language?"
"Sure. You didn't think we spoke contemporary Japanese in the Dark
Kingdom?"
"Well ... yeah. Every youma we met did. Matter of fact they all spoke
fluent Japanese. Hey! You must have had great language teachers in the Dark
Kingdom. Think you could help me with my English classes?"
"Actually we sort of cheat. See we have these translator implants. As
you use them you build up your vocabulary and context until you're hardly
accessing them anymore."
"Oh." Usagi felt disappointed until the brainstorm hit. "Hey can I
trade something for one of those translators? I've got a huge pile of old
manga mom wants me to recycle."
"Well I don't ... what have you got?"
Pyrite called over, "Ti, we don't have any spare translators. And I'm
not making one just so you can get more comics and Sailor Moon can cheat in
school."
Sailor Mercury nodded, "You should succeed in school through your own
hard work and dedication. Not because of some magical trick."
Titanite glowered and Sailor Moon seemed on the verge of tears as she
accused Ami-chan of being mean to her. Watching this Sailor Zeus felt close
to tears herself. She was just like Usagi ... no she was Usagi! The Usagi
of a world where everything worked out. She glanced over to her counterpart
who was watching her suspiciously. A world where the only thing I have to
worry about is finding a new boyfriend. At least that's what I was like.
She called herself Sailor Jupiter not Sailor Zeus. Ami's lookalike called
herself Sailor Mercury. What differences are there apart from the names?
Which reminded her, "So you're Minako Aino, Sailor Aphrodite and she's
Rei Hino, Sailor Ares?"
"I'm Sailor Venus ..."
"And I'm Sailor Mars!"
"So Usagi's the only one who has the same Senshi name? How about Luna
and Artemis?"
"If you mean the cats then those are their names." Weirder and weirder.
Turning back to Calcite and Sailor Hermes he'd regained his voice.
"How did you learn youma'shak?" He was watching her closely. Hermes cursed
herself for showing off. She might have just thrown away a hole card. She
should have kept her knowledge secret. "I didn't learn it. I have a
translator ...", she'd been listening to Titanite and Usagi, "... much as
you do."
Sailor Mercury frowned. "I don't have a translator."
"Then I assume Artemis is fine. I ... acquired mine from him after he
had no further use for his."
Minako overheard that and stared at Hermes. "What do you mean Artemis
didn't need it?"
Hermes looked her in the eye and said coldly. "He sacrificed himself to
save our lives. After he died Luna insisted I take his translator as Artemis
wouldn't want it wasted. She kept going despite losing everything that
mattered. I've done my best to follow her example."
There was a moment's silence broken by Usagi asking, "So where's the
food Polaris mentioned?" Calcite was about to say it was none of her
business when Mercury called up a streetmap on her terminal. She turned the
screen to face him and asked, "Is this your house?" From the way he twitched
it obviously was the right address. The Senshi and Renegades craned their
necks to try and see the screen. Mercury blanked it and folded up her
terminal.
Calcite make a rapid recovery and assessment. He asked quietly, "How
long have you had that information?" From the way the other Senshi looked
they were almost as surprised as him.
"I uncovered your whereabouts shortly after the incident with the fake
generals. While we'd agreed not to look for you as long as you didn't cause
trouble I decided it might be wise to discover your new location. Purely as
a precaution."
Sailor Venus frowned. "Why didn't you ever mention it to me?"
"There was never any reason too. While there were some strange incidents
shortly afterwards the source obviously wasn't youma. As the DKR, which I
believe Polaris said was the group's name, weren't connected to Chibi-Usa's
pursuers or subsequent events I had no reason to reveal their location. Also
..." She paused and blushed slightly before continuing, "... I had to break
into a number of civic databases to find them." The blush deepened.
Jupiter shook her head. "Ami, you're a cyberpunk!" Sailor Mercury
turned even redder and mumbled something about necessity.
Azurite swore under her breath. They've known where to find us all
along. Okay so we always suspected it wouldn't be too difficult if they
wanted to but ... She took a moment to compose herself. On the positive side
the Senshi hadn't used this knowledge against them. Still it meant Cal's
house was no longer secure. She glanced over to Calcite and caught his nod.
Guess who's coming to dinner?
"Well as it seems our location isn't secret I guess my sister's
invitation stands after all." Titanite was about to cheer while Margrave
forget acting cute and shot him a sharp look. "With one precaution." His
sister watched him in confusion as he made eye contact with Sailor Hermes.
Something formed in his hand. She glanced away to Sailor Zeus, pursed her
lips then looked back and nodded. She caught the collar Calcite tossed her.
Zeus stared at her in shock.
"AMI!"
"It's a sign of good faith. Besides we stand or fall together. If
things go wrong I can't keep going without you. Anyway the odds against me
alone are ridiculous." She snapped the collar into place.
Somewhat grudgingly Calcite said, "That earns you a lot of credibility."
He'd expected her to refuse.
"Maybe this'll give us a bit more." Suddenly she was holding something.
Calcite, Azurite and Margrave all tensed and prepared to strike when they
realized that it was her computer. Hermes tossed it to Mercury who caught
it but looked very confused. "Tie it into yours and compare the data. I'd
like to know just how different this world is from ours." Mercury nodded
and began linking the two terminals together.
"So how do we get to this secret headquarters of yours? Is it far?
Cause we aren't exactly inconspicuous on the bus." Rei was feeling rather
left out by recent events. All she'd done lately was get knocked over by
Usagi then stand around trying to figure this whole mess out.
"It's some distance away. We got here by teleportation."
"Really?" Sailor Moon sounded surprised. Then she confided to Titanite,
"Course we can teleport too."
Ami looked up from the interfacing terminals. "We've never actually
tried short range transport. I don't know if we can jump exactly enough as
our other jumps were to large open areas."
"No problem!" Titanite beamed, it was so obvious. "Four Renegades,
eight of the rest of you. If we all take two of you with us, no problem."
Before her brother could object she added, "It's close enough that I can
handle the additional mass with ease. Want to come with me?" Sailor Moon
looked uncertain but nodded, perhaps thinking of the promised snacks. "Great
then I'll take you and Margrave." A brief flicker of alarm crossed the
catwoman's face but wasn't noticeable unless you knew her. Which Ti did.
"Don't worry Margrave. I know what I'm doing." Margrave looked as though she
was about to say something but simply nodded.
"Ti I think it would be best if ..." Suddenly the threesome was gone.
Pyrite coughed. "That appears to resolve the matter."
Calcite stifled the urge to sigh. "Seems that way." He looked from
Hermes to Zeus. "I'll bring the outsiders. Azure, Pyr split up the others."
He took Hermes arm and she shuddered at his touch. For a moment Zeus seemed
ready to fight but at a signal from Hermes she joined her silently. Pyrite
performed a quick courtly bow.
"If two of you ladies would care to join me?"
Jupiter took a step towards him but was blocked by Azurite. "I think
you'd better ride with me. Anyone else?" Mercury joined Pyrite followed
closely by Mars who eyed him suspiciously. Venus joined Jupiter. Azurite
wondered if Venus knew that on the few occasions Gray and Lord Calcite had
been required to appear simultaneously she'd filled in for the latter.
"Either of you get warpsick?"
"Huh?"
"Guess we'll find out." With that all three Renegades teleported
dragging the Senshi with them.
The nine materialized in the room Titanite had decorated earlier. To see
the three early arrivals sprawled on the floor. Calcite immediately rushed to
Titanite's side as the four Senshi noisily clustered around Sailor Moon.
Mercury knelt down to examine her as the others stood over her asking what was
wrong. After a quick word with Azurite Pyrite pushed through the crowd to
have a look at Margrave. While Azurite listened to the crowd she kept her
gaze locked on Sailors Hermes and Zeus. If they tried to take advantage of
the confusion she'd be ready for them. They didn't. Right now they were
studying Ti's banners with confusion. They were also practically drooling
over the food. Yet despite their obvious hunger they regarded the food with
suspicion.
None of the three seem to be suffering. Quite the contrary all seemed
locked in a euphoric daze. Titanite kept repeating "Beautiful" while Pyrite
heard Margrave giggle and mutter, "Scuse me while I kiss the sky." Sailor
Moon had been silent but she suddenly looked into Ami's eyes and spoke.
"All is one tied together by the thread of infinity. Time and space are
illusions within the whole. I have become one with the arc of forever ..."
Sailor Mercury was looking worried while everyone else looked confused. Then
Usagi's nose wrinkled and she sniffed the air, "FOOD!" The glaze disappeared
from her eyes along with all hints of cosmic awareness. She nearly bowled
Mercury over in her hurry to track the odour's source. The others sighed in
relief, that was the Usagi they knew. Her bellow snapped Margrave and
Titanite out of their trances.
Margrave rubbed her head and muttered, "Haven't felt like that since I
chewed J'mara root."
Quietly in youma'shak Pyrite asked, "You used J'mara?"
"Just once, when I was much younger. I didn't think the visions and
contentment were worth the scrambled senses and being off guard. A wise
decision considering the average lifespan of J'mara users." She gave him one
of her sultry looks, "Besides I found better ways to obtain my pleasures. As
I can demonstrate."
Pyrite smiled faintly. "I see you're back to normal." He nodded towards
the Senshi who were trying to find out what had happened from Usagi (along
with restraining her from throwing herself at the buffet). "Meantime we have
company." Margrave sighed quietly and nodded. Think cute and nonthreatening.
She slipped back into brain dead and bouncy mode.
Meanwhile Titanite was looked confused as she tried to work it out.
"What happened? I don't know ... I did the jump and ... and as we were
in between the park and the house ..."
"Ti it's impossible to perceive anything during the jump. It lasts a
nanosecond at most."
"Cal I know that! But you weren't there and I'm just trying to describe
what I think happened."
"Sorry. Go ahead."
"It's like suddenly I was everywhere in the world ... part of everything.
No that's not right. I was seeing that but ... but it all centered on her."
She pointed to Sailor Moon then continued, "The rest of you didn't have any
problems?"
"No, so it's not teleporting with Senshi that does it. Of course there's
only on Moon Princess. I wonder if it's connected with the Ginzuishou?"
Sailor Moon heard that and turned to look at him. "What about the
Ginzuishou?"
"Just speculating that it might have reacted with Ti's teleport for some
reason. Fortunately the effects seem temporary." As he said this Titanite
realized she didn't feel any hint of warp sickness.
Sailor Moon was still looking at Calcite. "Polaris-chan said that there
was food for guests?"
He'd forgotten about that in the recent confusion. "Hmmm ... oh yes.
Ti got a little carried away so there's far more than we can possible eat.
Please help your ..." Sailor Moon pounced on the buffet and began sampling
everything. Embarrassed expressions and large sweat drops appeared on the
other Senshi. "...selves."
Sailor Hermes stood there undecided, glancing from the table to the
renegades in confusion. Sailor Zeus made a quick decision, walked over to
the table and began loading a plate. Meanwhile Usagi was chomping her way
through coldcuts, springrolls, sushi, rumaki, fried shrimp, scotch eggs and
a variety of other foods. After Sailor Polaris joined Usagi at the table
all the Senshi except Mercury and Hermes followed and began picked at the
buffet in a more civilized fashion. Hermes kept studying the food with
distrust while Mercury was reading through the data from the interfaced
terminals.
The adults watched the single girl feeding frenzy with a certain
disbelief. In between mouthfuls she'd ask Ti what she was eating. Ti was
happy to answer as she liked seeing her cooking appreciated. This was where
the problem arose. Sailor Moon tried a small basket full of small golden
brown cylinders. She "Ummmed" in appreciation and began emptying it.
Titanite beamed, that had been an experiment but looked like it was a success!
Sailor Moon stopped munching long enough to say, "These are delicious!
Sweet and crunchy. What are they?"
"Kruthan'ick!" Sailor Moon slapped her hard on the back and Titanite
went down. From the floor she asked, "Why did you do that?"
"You were choking!"
"I wasn't choking! That's its' name." Sailor Mars muttered "Odango
head" at Usagi and helped Titanite back up.
Sailor Moon glanced into the nearly empty bowl. "Funny name."
"Well that's not exactly its' name. It's a Dark Kingdom recipe that I
modified as you can't get any of the real ingredients. But I think its' a
pretty good copy."
Usagi frowned and eyed the remnants a little dubiously. Jupiter asked,
"So it's not really Dark Kingdom food?" Ti nodded. "It's really just Earth
food prepared in Dark Kingdom style?" Ti considered arguing about the "normal
food" part but instead just said, "That's right."
Usagi breathed a sign of relief then got back to work on the bowl.
Everything would have been fine if Jupiter hadn't asked, "What does the name
mean?" and Ti hadn't answered honestly.
"It roughly translates as 'Honey glazed Krut'. Of course you can't get
Krut around here so I had to substitute crickets but I think ... Are you all
right?" Sailor Moon had just turned an interesting shade of green. She
clamped a hand over her mouth and glanced around frantically. Calcite took a
guess at what that meant.
"Up the stairs, first door on your right." Sailor Moon headed for the
toilet with a speed that astounded those who knew her. Mars and Venus put
their plates down carefully and stepped backwards. Sailor Jupiter began
studying the food a lot closer while Titanite looked a bit dismayed. Calcite
decided to intervene.
"I should mention that my sister only made one attempt to replicate Dark
Kingdom food. The remainder is all human recipes. However you might want to
avoid the soup." Jupiter looked from the ladle she was holding into the
thick green bubbling liquid within the pot. Intrigued by the smell she'd been
about to sample it. Instead she carefully eased the ladle back and stepped
away from it.
Next to Calcite Azurite whispered, "I thought that was just leek soup?"
Just as quietly he answered. "It is. Very good leek soup. I'd just
like to be sure there'll be some left for me."
Over by the table Minako looked at the soup and misquoted, "Well, 'too
many broths are spoiled by cooking'!"
Mercury looked up from the computer screens, "I think you mean 'too many
cooks spoil the broth' which isn't really relevant anyway." Minako begun
sulking.
That was when Makoto realized that her counterpart, Sailor Zeus, hadn't
turned a hair during their recent bout of revulsion. She finished loading a
second plate and realized she was being watched. The skinny senshi shrugged,
"I've learned not to be too fussy in this past year. So's Ami. If she didn't
totally mistrust our ... hosts she'd be over here." Everyone looked to the
thin Sailor Hermes who continued to regard the youma with barely controlled
hatred. Ignoring their audience Zeus walked over to Hermes and handed her
a plate. "Here!" Before her friend could object she said, "You're as hungry
as I am. They don't need to drug or poison us. After all they can blow our
heads off anytime they choose. And I for one would rather die on a full
stomach." She plopped herself down on a nearby couch and began to eat.
Hermes stared at the plate and tried to briefly to ignore the rush of saliva.
Then sighed and joined her friend. Both resisted the urge to tear into food.
Last thing they needed was to make themselves sick. Instead they began
methodically eating it in small bites. They realized they were still being
watched by everyone else. By now Sailor Moon had rejoined the group and was
standing there. Torn between letting free food sit there verses the fear of
eating something disgusting. Sailor Polaris had started trying to describe
what was in the various dishes in an effort to reassure her. But that had
quickly been sidetracking by Sailor Jupiter into a comparison of recipes.
After a little thought Mars and Venus had picked out the dishes they
considered safe and were eating from those. Mercury was still studying the
computers while nibbling from the plate one of her friends had dropped on the
armrest of her chair. The youma were also picking at their own plates but all
their attention was focused on their recent opponents.
Sailor Moon made a somewhat inevitable decision and went for the buffet
again. Zeus realized Jupiter had broken off her discussion and was studying
her closely. She finished off her current mouthful then addressed her
counterpart. "I know I look pretty messy but life in the field gets kinda
rough. God I miss showers."
Jupiter tried to think of something to say. "You're me ... sort of?"
she nodded. "Why'd cut you our ... your hair. We ... I liked it long."
"Me too. But with all the animals in the wild dying there are lots of
fleas and lice looking for hosts. I should really cut it as short as Ami but
I decided I could live with this. Lucky we found a supply of that medicated
shampoo ..." She realized her counterpart was studying her with loathing.
"You've got lice?! And you're so thin!"
Zeus felt herself getting angry. This idiot's got a soft life and she's
judging me?! Very coldly she said, "I don't have lice now but I have had
them. But that's just a minor inconvenience. You have no idea what we've
been through! As for the skinniness ... Food's hard to find and half the time
the rats have got there first! These Senshi bodies are not only tougher than
human they get a lot more nourishment out of food. But you've got to feed
them something or, just like human bodies, they'll devour their own tissues."
With that she started eating again. As she chewed she realized all the other
Senshi were regarding her with a certain horror. Feeling slightly malicious
she added, "The thing I really hate is that whoever designed these Senshi
costumes wasn't planning for us to live in them long-term. These one piece
bodysuits are a pain. When you can't fight the call of nature anymore you've
got to peel the whole thing off if you want to p..."
"WAIT A MINUTE!" Sailor Moon was blushing as she broke in. "You can't
mean ..."
"Senshi bladder control is excellent but not infinite."
"Couldn't you just find a toilet then change back?"
Hermes put down her empty plate and gave a mirthless grin. "Our world is
rather short on functioning plumbing right now. At least outside the youma
controlled enclaves. As for changing back ... the last time we used our human
forms was just before we left for the North Pole."
That caused a definite stir. Mercury looked up and asked (somewhat
incredulously), "You've been using your Senshi forms continuously for over a
year?"
Hermes nodded. "Turning human meant becoming vulnerable. We couldn't
risk that."
Zeus put down her own empty plate. "Besides now we can't turn back as
we'd never be able to revert. Ami had to use the transformation wands and the
disguise pen for parts when she was hacking into the youma teleport network."
"Hold it!" All eyes turned to Calcite. "There's no such thing as the
youma teleport network. There never was." Hermes gave another of those
humourless smiles.
"It was a recent creation. Pyrite designed it and you built it. That
way youma could travel anywhere on Earth they wanted to put down human
uprisings. It was a useful tool for you too enslave the world."
"This is getting ridiculous. I never wanted to conquer the world. Even
if I did I don't have to power to do that. On top of which youma can't
survive most places on Earth. There isn't enough background mana to sustain
us." Calcite abruptly wondered if he should have added the last bit.
Mercury looked as if she'd suddenly solved a puzzle while Hermes said,
"I am aware youma need magic to survive. But thanks to Metallia's influence
that's not a problem."
Sailor Moon looked confused. "But I beat Metallia! And that was two
years ago!"
"Not to them." Everyone turned to Mercury. "I've compared the data
in this terminal to mine and found the divergences. There are three main
differences." She paused to toss the terminal back to Sailor Hermes who
grabbed it out of the air and began punching keys. "The first is that what
we know as the ancient Greek names for planets were used instead of the
roman. So we have Sailor Hermes rather than Sailor Mercury, Sailor Aphrodite
instead of Sailor Venus ... and so on. Other than that history seems to have
proceeded identically until January 1993. Two years ago today to be precise.
The same people were the Senshi, just the names were different. Even their
adventures mirror ours. Hermes personal journal matches mine ..."
"You never mentioned you keep a journal." Rei was frowning. "What
exactly does it say about me?" Mercury acquired a sweat drop as everyone
began demanding information."
"ENOUGH!" Everyone fell silent at Azurite's yell. "I for one would be
interested in the meat of this story. You can sort the rest of this out among
yourselves later. Now let her get on with it." Her red eyes seemed to be
almost glowing. At any rate she looked scary enough to quiet the Senshi.
"Er yes, thank you. Uh ... The second discrepancy is the time.
According to my ... her computer it's still 1994. To be precise it is exactly
one year ago today."
"How's that possible."
Before Ami could admit she really didn't know Pyrite said, "Must be some
sort of chronological flux in their warpgate. We've found the dates in other
dimensions don't necessarily mirror this one's."
Titanite chimed in, "Yeah. That why it was 2033 when we arrived in
MegaTumphkwisx." The last of this was muffled by Calcite clamping a hand over
Titanite's mouth.
"You'll have to forgive my sister. She has a very vivid imagination."
He released his hold and she glared at him but kept silent. "You mentioned
three differences. The last being ... ?"
"Finally, everything changed after the North Pole. According to her
computer only these two returned from D Point. Immediately after that a
youma named Calcite began a successful campaign of global conquest. There
was too much for me to get more than a very general overview of it because
their history becomes so different." Everyone looked at Calcite who gazed
back without flinching.
"In case it's escaped anyone's attention I did not attempt to take over
the world and the Dark Kingdom is history. This counterpart of mine has no
connection to me except the same name. I am not going to feel any guilt
over anything someone in another universe may or may not have done."
"Right. You've got enough to feel guilty about in this universe."
Calcite turned to face Minako. "Meaning?"
"Meaning you caused a lot of trouble in England."
"A little property damage. A small price to pay for keeping my sister
safe." She didn't look mollified. "What's really bothering you is that I
kept you running in circles for about a year."
"Hey! I almost beat you a dozen times!"
"Uh huh. If I'd been serious it would have been simple to kill you once
I worked out Minako Aino was Sailor V. Or to strike when I was fighting along
side you in my Gray identity." Minako started fuming. "For that matter once
Sailor Venus appeared and she was so obviously Sailor V it was easy for me to
learn who the other senshi were. I just observed the four girls who hung
around with Minako Aino, discovered their names and matched them to the
appropriate Senshi. If I'd been seriously working for the Dark Kingdom you'd
have been attacked while off guard in your civilian identities."
The two were glaring at each other so Titanite decided to defuse the
situation. "Uh well I guess that settles that we're all on the same side. Or
at least not on Beryl's side. So how about we find out a little more about
this other world?" That turned their attention back to the alternate Senshi.
Hermes looked at Calcite and said, "You think just like our Calcite. He
didn't bother with big grandiose plans either. Just found the weak points and
struck. We were completely unprepared for that. We kept expecting hordes of
youma rampaging. But Calcite was so much more subtle than Beryl and her
generals."
Azurite had been watching the two all along. "So let's hear your version
of events. I'd say everyone here wants you story." There were nods and
various mutters of assent. Hermes just looked hostile so it was up to Zeus
to say, "Why not?" Hermes turned to reproach her but Makoto simply asked,
"How will they understand us if they don't know what happened to our world?"
Ami sighed and subsided. "Okay everyone better find a seat. This is gonna
take a while."
Sailor Zeus tried to think how she'd tell this. Maybe she should let
Ami start. After all she was the smart one of the two of them. She looked
over at the Renegades and shook her head. "If anyone ever told me I'd be
sitting anywhere peacefully with most of the Dark Circle I'd have said they
were crazy.
"Most?"
"Four out of five. Only one who's missing is Magnesite." That name was
obviously familiar to them and to some of the Senshi. Sailor Moon looked
puzzled, as if she wasn't certain whether or not she knew it. Then the cat
girl, who'd been hanging around Calcite as unobtrusively as possible, spoke.
"Magnesite here. Margrave fetch!" She bounded out of the room in dash
that alternated between bipedal and quadrupedal. It matched her light bouncy
voice. Quietly Azurite tried to work out how long Margrave could keep up the
cute routine before she cracked. It was left to Mercury to ask, "What is
she anyway?"
Titanite answered quickly. "She's a catgirl. We picked her up on ... an
expedition to another dimension. She decided she'd like to stick with us so
here we all are."
"You travel to other dimensions?"
"Not regularly. We've found we can't exactly fit into any of the nearby
reachable dimensions." She left her next thought unsaid. At least not
without becoming someone else and we'd all rather not do that.
"Which is why we spotted you and learned that other dimensions exist.
Using the readings I'd taken we followed you here. Once we'd stolen the
appropriate supplies." Hermes found herself the center of attention again.
Until Pyrite spoke.
"I'd question calling them appropriate supplies. Using one of those
clunky old warpfield generators to breach the boundaries of your continuum
was a desperate act."
"You're right. It was pure desperation. There was nothing else left to
try." You could see it in her eyes. The hopelessness that was slowly
crushing her. Held off by a few last sparks of optimism.
Before things could get too soulcrushing Margrave returned. She slapped
the crystal statue on the now ravaged buffet table and beamed. "Here
Magnesite." With that she squatted down at Calcite's side and began purring.
A quick glance showed Calcite that she was finding maintaining her act harder
than she'd expected. She'd welcomed an excuse to leave the room. In fact
Calcite had half expected her to jump through a window and bolt.
Zeus took a deep breath. Everyone seemed to be waiting for her to begin.
Why the hell had she volunteered? She was more of a doer than a talker. A
fact that had caused her no end of trouble by making her act without thinking
on several occasions. "Ami, maybe you should ..." Hermes took her hand.
"Just start. I'll jump in as need be." Looked like she was stuck with
it.
How to start this? She glanced up at Titanite's banners. "Two years
free of the Dark Kingdom? For us it was one year ago that we went to fight
the Dark Kingdom on it's own ground. Just one year since everything went to
hell. It seems so much longer." She fell silent as memory overtook her. Ami
squeezed her hand and she took up the narrative again.
"I remember on that day I wasn't scared, I was actually excited. This
was going to be the biggest fight of my life. I couldn't wait. We met at
Hikawa shrine just like we'd planned. We were all charged up and ready. At
least that's what we thought. Looking back I can't believe how overconfident
we were. How incredibly stupid I was."
"Not stupid, just naive." Sailor Hermes broke in before she could start
wallowing in self pity. "We'd won too many victories, too easily. Never
any injuries that wouldn't heal in a few hours. It gave us an exaggerated
sense of our own invulnerability. Even me, even after I'd relived my past
self dying I didn't get it. That was like a dream. Besides she wasn't
exactly me. Perhaps we shared the same soul, perhaps we even looked alike but
weren't the same person. Her death didn't touch me the way it should have."
She paused for a moment then said, "It's funny but out of all of us Usagi was
the only one seriously thinking that we might not be coming back. I always
thought of her as the one who avoided the harsh realities of life but she was
seeing it clearer than me. I was so sure we'd win. After all we were the
heroines! The white hats. And the good guys always won!"
"But not this time. Usagi was right. Most of us weren't going to be
coming home. Not then, not ever."
She fell silent and Makoto took up the tale again. "Well we teleported
to the pole the way Luna and Artemis had told us. We arrived in the middle of
this vast expanse of white. Nothing around but the five of us. Then the
reception committee arrived. This horde of youma hauling this giant green
glass globe ..."
"Wait a sec!" Minako's exclamation halted Zeus. "There were just the
five Senshi?"
"That's right."
"What about Trenchcoat Mask?" Zeus looked puzzled. "Who? Oh right, I
haven't thought about him in months. Last time we saw him was ... a month,
two months earlier ... somewhere inbetween there." Hermes nodded. "We never
knew who he was or why he'd showed up in the first place. He was a lot more
elusive than Mamoru-san. Wonder whatever happened to him?"
"If he was in Tokyo that day he died." Hermes voice was flat. "As we've
never run across any youma reports on him we have to assume he either died
with Tokyo or was already dead. Go on Zeus ... Makoto." That was a
concession. Ami had largely abandoned her human identity and usually used
their senshi names for the two of them. She only answered to Ami from Makoto.
To everyone else who asked she was Sailor Hermes. No other name. She'd told
Makoto, "Ami Mizuno was a shy quiet girl who just wanted a few friends and to
be a doctor. She had her whole life planned out from childhood. Then
civilization died and Ami Mizuno and her plans died with it. All that's left
is Sailor Hermes. A warrior who's going to fight on until they kill her.
Because she doesn't have anything left to live for." It was then she'd begun
to wonder about Ami's sanity. Not that she was any sort of great example of
stability herself. After all they'd been through was it any wonder they were
both a little crazy?
Makoto shook off the speculation. "Where was I before I was interrupted?
Oh right, the globe. Well I didn't like the look of it and neither did
Minako. So we both blasted it."
"And it absorbed your attacks?"
Sailor Zeus frowned at her counterpart. "Absorbed? Well that's one way
of phrasing it. There was this huge white flare and next thing I knew I was
sitting on my butt in the snow. My vision cleared and I saw the others were
all sprawled around. Usagi was screaming her head off that she was blind and
Rei would have slapped her if she could have seen her. Anyway Ami managed to
convince her that it was going to clear up soon. There was no trace of the
youma or the globe. Just this huge crater melted in the snow which was full
of water. It was beginning to freeze already. Not surprising when you
considered it was the North Pole. Anyway soon as Usagi can see again she
spots it and that reminds her just how cold it is. So her teeth started
chattering and she begins bitching. Of course Rei immediately started
picking on her and Ami was stuck being the peacemaker again." Sailors Moon
and Mars started glaring at each other and Usagi was about to accuse Rei of
being mean to her in every universe when Zeus spoke wistfully. "God, I miss
them both. I wish I'd told them more how much I loved them." Usagi looked
to the scarred Makoto and said simply, "They knew." Rei nodded.
After a moment Makoto resumed her story. "We were feeling pretty cocky
right then. Thinking that if that was the worst they could throw at us then
this was going to be a cakewalk. We hadn't met the DD Girls yet."
Azurite interrupted this time. "Now they were a real pack of psychos.
Quintuplets were really rare in the Dark Kingdom . Story was they couldn't
agree which of them should be firstborn so they clawed their way out of their
mother. After that they started getting worse. Glad we were never mixed up
with them." She missed Calcite's slight wince and Margrave's grin widening.
"Look do you want to hear the story or not?" After everyone had agreed
they wanted to know what happened she continued. "Okay, well the girls show
up using this mirage of Mamoru. Of course Usagi falls for it immediately.
Even after the girls show themselves she falls for the same trick again.
Course I can't claim to be any brighter as they trapped me the same way. We
were retreating ... well running really, it wasn't exactly organized. I spin
around to blast them and they pull this illusion of Motoki-san which makes me
freeze. So all five of them grab me and haul me into the air to electrocute
me. Guess they didn't study my powers closely enough. Anyway I get the idea
of generating all the power I can and trying to overload them." She reached
down and rubbed her scar unconsciously. "Not the smartest thing I've ever
done but my options were kind of limited ..."
*****************************************************************************
Makoto screamed from the pain as she built more and more power. The
youmas snarled and tried to match her. This wasn't going to end until one
side or the other reached their limit. She could feel the burning increasing
as the youma upped the ante. The pain focused her anger and she drew more
power. Dimly she realized she'd never reached this level before. Her scream
was of rage and commitment. She had to beat them and protect Usagi. Nothing
else mattered. She couldn't contain the power any more and it exploded. The
world went white again.
She seemed to be floating. Separated from the agony that had engulfed
her body. The pain brought her back to reality. It was a different pain.
Sharp rather than burning. Her vision returned and she saw she had her hands
clamped around her thigh. Blood was oozing between her fingers. She
screamed.
Ami was the first to reach her. Makoto was sprawled against the ice
mound that had been blasted out of the ground by the explosion. Ami began to
automatically calculate the force of the blast then shook it off. She
reached Makoto at a dead run. Makoto wasn't the only one screaming. One of
the DD Girls, the purple one, was lying nearby. She seemed unaware of the
approaching Senshi as she clawed at the ice beneath. One of her legs was
obviously broken but there was no sign of movement below the chest. A jagged
spear of ice protruded from her back, just below the place the wings joined.
Ami speculated briefly on spinal damage then forgot the youma as she reached
Makoto.
Makoto picked her up at the last moment and snapped her head up looking
for an enemy. For a few heart stopping moments she seemed ready to fire
another thunderbolt. Then she recognised Ami and tried to act stoic. "I ...
It's nothing. Just a uhhh .... just a scratch."
"Mako move your hands and let me see!"
"It's nothing. I'm fine AHHHH!" She added the last as Ami probed her
leg."
"Makoto Kino you can either move your hands and let me look or I'll have
Mina and Rei pry them off and hold them while I examine you. Save yourself a
little dignity and move your damn hands!" Makoto cringed slightly at Ami's
tone and released her grip. Ami heard movement behind her. Without turning
away she said, "Somebody watch the injured youma. The rest of you keep a
lookout for the other four and don't bother me until I'm done here!" Rei
might have argued with the abrupt order but Minako grabbed her arm.
Quietly "Let Ami help Makoto. I'll watch the youma, you guard Usagi."
Rei hesitated a moment then nodded. Slightly louder Minako called, "There's
only three of them left. One of them's buried in the iceheap." Ami's head
nodded slightly but she gave no other sign of having heard. Minako headed
over to watch the injured youma. It gave no sign of having heard her.
Instead it kept beating at the ice and screaming in pain with the occasional
curse thrown in. Minako hesitated. If it had been healthy and hostile she'd
have blasted it without a thought. But this youma was crippled and helpless.
Killing it in cold blood seemed wrong somehow.
Meanwhile Ami was examining Makoto's leg and cursing herself for a lack
of foresight. They weren't carrying anything in the way of first aid
equipment. Getting injured like this hadn't occurred to any of them. For the
others it was an understandable oversight. But she was supposed to be the
smart one who was going to be a doctor. How could she have made such a
glaring oversight? The wound appeared to have been caused by shattered ice
turned into lethal shrapnel. Thankfully none of the major blood vessels had
been severed. But it had been close and the damage that had been done ...
Ami tore a strip loose from her skirt and folded it into a rough pad.
Ordering Makoto to hold it in place she detached the ribbon from the back of
her costume and bound the pad into place. Then examined her handiwork
critically. Well it wouldn't win any first aid awards but it should do the
trick. She realized she was sweating and reached up to wipe her brow. But
stopped as she saw the red stains on her gloves.
From behind Usagi asked, "Is Mako-chan going to be all right?" Ami
started violently. She hadn't realized anyone was behind her.
"She'll be fine. BUT! ...", this broke Usagi's rush forward to hug
Mako, "She'll have to take it easy. No strain until a real doctor fixes it
up."
"Whaddaya mean? I'll be fine." Makoto started to get up but Ami placed
a blood stained glove on her chest.
"Let's leave the macho idiocy to guys, okay?" Before Makoto could
protest she said, "You can't keep going. While you didn't sever any main
blood vessels it barely missed your femoral artery. If that had gone you'd
have bled to death." Usagi gasped and Makoto paled but tried to keep looking
tough. Better tell her the bad news. "I'm sorry but ... several of your
tendons are cut. They need surgical repair. Bottom line is until that
happens your left leg is useless."
Usagi gasped again then grabbed Ami by the shoulders and spun her around.
"Ami-chan. You're sure." Ami nodded and resolution filled Usagi's face.
"There's no choice. Everybody we'll teleport back to Tokyo so Mako-chan can
get taken care of in a hospital."
Minako looked away from the youma. It had stopped screaming and was now
sobbing in frustration. "Usagi we can't! If we do that then we can't
teleport back here. Not without all five of us. We won't have enough
energy."
Rei nodded. "Besides we don't have enough time. You heard Luna. The
recent disasters are a sign of things to come. It's minor now but we're
running out of time fast. We have to stay here."
"But Mako-chan's hurt!"
"Hey don't worry about me." Makoto tried to sound chipper despite the
pain and the fact that she'd just tried to move her leg without success. It
was starting to feel numb and disconnected. Inside she was screaming as she
wondered if she'd be ever walk normally again. But she couldn't let Usagi see
that. Usagi had to keep going without worrying about her. She couldn't let
her failure hurt the princess. She had to be strong for her. "I'll stay here
as rearguard. Anyone tries to sneak up on you and I'll blast them. You guys
go take out Queen Beryl and rescue Mamoru then head back here and pick me up.
Then we'll all do the Sailor Teleport back to Tokyo and everything'll be fine.
You can drop me off at hospital before you and Mamoru-chan go on a date.
Soon as I can I'll be back on my feet and looking for a new boyfriend."
"But ..."
"Don't worry Usagi-chan. No, Sailor Moon. You've got a very important
job to do. Besides I'll be fine. Right Ami?"
"That's right. Makoto will be fine." She didn't add the rest. Long as
I didn't miss anything and the youma don't come back. She's stuck in place
which makes her a sitting duck. I have no idea how the injury will affect her
powers. Which reminded her. "What about the youma?"
The injured youma was still ignoring them. It sounded more coherent but
still didn't seem aware of them. Her brown hair was matted with dark green
blood. Then Minako recognised the name it was repeating. "Calcite, you
bastard!" The voice was low and rasping. "You promised me backup. Where is
it. Help me! Answer me. Where are you, damn your eyes!"
"Calcite? What about Calcite?" The youma didn't respond to Minako's
question. She just kept sobbing and repeated her anguished pleas for help.
Ami looked from her terminal to the youma. "It's dying! Multiple
internal injuries. Another hour at most."
Minako nodded. "That makes up my mind." She knelt down by the youma an
touched a finger to her forehead. "Calcite?!", the youma whispered in sudden
hope. Minako spoke softly, "Crescent beam!" There was a faint buzz and the
youma slumped. Her outline began to blur as the disintegration effect began.
"Calcite", Minako murmured. "It's been a while since I heard that
name."
Rei looked up from automatically saying a quick prayer for the deceased.
A bit pointless as it was a youma. Still it was virtually automatic. "That
means something to you?"
"Back in my Sailor A days he was my main enemy. I followed him from
Tokyo all the way to England. I never did learn exactly what he was up to."
"You never talk about what you were doing back then." Minako glanced
over to Usagi before replying.
"There were a lot of complications back then. Things didn't work out so
I don't like to talk about them unless I have to. Anyway all the heavy action
was happening in Tokyo so after it looked like Sailor A had been killed I
headed home and became Sailor Aphrodite. Far as I know Calcite disappeared
after I, that is Sailor A, died."
Rei looked over to the place Ami had tagged as their destination. "Well
Ami says the gateway to the Dark Kingdom is over there. Looks like you're
going to get the chance to settle things."
Minako tried to crack her knuckles but had to settle for looking mean.
"I'm ready."
*****************************************************************************
Sailor Zeus paused to take a drink of water. Ami looked to Sailor Venus
and commented, "You didn't mention Calcite to us until that business with
Magnesite and the fake generals."
"The name didn't come up until then. When we met the DD Girls none of
them mentioned it." What none of them added but they all remembered was their
Makoto hadn't survived that first encounter. Sailor Jupiter shivered as she
remembered being half buried in ice and knowing she was dying. To distract
herself she asked, "Just what did happen in England anyway?"
"None of your business."
"Oh? Is there a boy involved?"
"I said it's none of your business!"
Makoto grinned. "Yep, definitely a boy involved." Rei managed to stop
Minako before she whacked Jupiter with her plate.
Meanwhile Azurite was saying, "This other Calcite has to be a very
different person. There was never any connection between you and the girls."
Yet she thought she caught a flicker of something cross his face. Ti frowned,
she'd picked up something from her brother.
If Calcite was a closed book Pyrite was a lot more open. Seeing his
expression Azurite realized he knew something. But what? Then it hit her.
It couldn't be! She glanced to Margrave and saw the speculation written
there. Yes it could. The Alternate Senshi had mentioned the purple skinned
sister among the DD girls. What was her name? Latithax ... Latiax ...
something like that. No it was Latitax!
"Cal, it can't have been ... I mean you and Latitax! You didn't!"
For a few moments it seemed he wouldn't answer. Then somewhat
defensively Calcite said, "I don't really see what relevance my old romantic
involvements have to what's going on here. The Kingdom's history in our
continuum. Besides that was over with years ago."
That was overheard and they became the center of attention. Azurite her
Margrave whisper in youma'shak. "Told you I wasn't his first and he could've
done a lot worse." She could practically hear the grin.
"I don't believe this. One of those psychos ... It was just one right?"
She was very relieved to see him nod. "Even for the Dark Kingdom the DD Girls
were vicious hardcases. Why them? What was it, the wings?"
"In case you've forgotten in the Dark Kingdom we were supposed to be the
same ilk. Collectively they had the nastier rep. Individually yours was
about equal to theirs. As was my own."
"So why them and not me?" Stupid, stupid, stupid. "I mean back then I
was also after you." Pyrite seemed willing to let it slid and she breathed
a quick sigh of relief.
"This was back shortly before we knew you were a Renegade. So far as I
knew you were just as bad as them. But you were a lot smarter which increased
the odds you'd see me slip up and know I was a Renegade."
Azurite digested this answer for a moment. "So I was too smart to
become your lover."
Calcite nodded. "And after we knew you were involved with Pyrite so it
seemed irrelevant." Margrave turned her head so Azurite would see her grin
but the Senshi wouldn't. Her way of saying that by then she'd ensnared
Calcite so Azurite hadn't had a chance. She thought about it then shrugged
mentally. Old business, let it lie. She snuggled over a bit closer to
Pyrite and he eased an arm over her shoulders.
Calcite was eager to let the matter drop. "Okay maybe we can get back
to your story. Or perhaps to her story if they left you behind." He
indicated Hermes. She studied him for a moment then began to speak.
"The four of us left Makoto and headed toward the Kingdom's gateway. We
were still caught in the illusion field that the youma were generating." She
paused as the memory returned. "I had what I thought was a brilliant idea.
As my powers were purely defensive ... at least they were back then, I've
killed a lot of youma since ..." She looked squarely at the Renegades, "And
I've enjoyed every killing. The only good youma is a dead youma!"
Calcite didn't flinch. "If you think ruthlessness impresses me you are
sadly mistaken. And if you truly enjoy killing then I pity you."
Hermes snarled something incoherent and started getting up. Zeus grabbed
her arm. "You do remember the exploding collars, right Ami?"
For a moment it looked like Ami would strike her but then the wild look
faded. "You're right. I shouldn't let a youma get to me." She sat back
down and resumed her story. "At the time my powers were limited to the
Shabon Spray mist generation technique. Useful for defence and setting up an
ambush but useless for combat. I convinced the others that it would be best
for me to neutralize the illusion generator. I'd separate from them and the
youma would be sure to attack me. Three against one would be great odds.
When they attacked I'd blind them with the fog then find and neutralize the
illusion generator. Then I'd rejoin the Usagi, Rei and Minako. I really
thought I could do that. Things didn't work out as I'd hoped. I managed to
destroy the illusion generator but nothing else worked out. The pain was
indescribable. I stopped thinking, I hurt too much to comprehend anything
else. So I don't actually remember the next part but my faithful computer
recorded everything they said.
****************************************************************************
The dark green youma woman kept probing her forehead as though that
would somehow repair the jewel. Dammit that thing was one of a kind.
Irreplaceable! Not to mention the symbol of her leadership of this merry
little family. Her two remaining sisters studied her speculatively.
"It appears you underestimated her. She has cost us a useful weapon."
There was nothing to do but brazen it out. "A distraction, nothing more.
In any event our numbers are now equal again." She glanced around but saw no
teleport signatures. "It appears Latitax overestimated her importance to
Calcite. I seen no sign of reinforcements."
Ashitax shrugged her orange shoulders.. "With Latitax dead he might feel
any alliance is equally dead. Which is good as it means the glory of killing
the Senshi will be divided among the three of us."
Baritax nodded in agreement. "A three way split is better than a five
way ..." There was a whimper from the figure sprawled on the ice. Baritax
frowned. "Still alive? Tougher than I thought." She raised an arm shifting
it into tentacle form. She'd punch one of them through the Senshi's vitals
and wrap this up. Chest or head?
"Hold!" Eyes narrowing she turned back to Comitax. She was the leader
but only because Helitax had always backed her. The rest of them couldn't
form an effective alliance as they all wanted to be number one. Now Comitax's\
follower was dead and she'd lost the jewel so they were all equal as far as
Baritax was concerned.
"Mercy for a Senshi? Has loss of the jewel deranged you."
"Don't be ridiculous just look at her. Her lifeglow is fading, she is
obviously dying. It is equally obvious she is in agonizing pain." Comitax
smiled. "I like that. The Senshi have cost us two sisters, I see no reason
to grant them a swift death. She is no threat and will be dead soon. Once
we have eliminated the other three we will return to finish off the cripple.
As for this one ... if she's still alive we'll drag her back to the Kingdom
and let her expire in front of Queen Beryl. She should rather enjoy that."
Ashitax nodded. "That sounds like an excellent plan. Perhaps we should
give Sailor Zeus the same treatment so both can die in front of her majesty."
Baritax swore, looked like Comitax would remain the leader. Well no
matter. Once this day was over and they were covered in glory she could split
from her sisters. There'd be no shortage of youma willing to follow her.
Perhaps Beryl would reward them the vacant generals' posts. Yes, that would
be perfect. However ... "We shouldn't play around with Sailor Zeus. She's
already cost us two sisters. This one was a joke but she's too dangerous to
take chances. I say we finish her off quickly soon as we've wiped out the
others!"
Comitax nodded. "Agreed. Now let's get to work." She unfolded her wings
and launched herself upwards. Baritax followed. Ashitax stayed long enough
to gaze into the senshi's pain wracked face and giggle, "See you later!" Then
she followed her sisters and the dying Sailor Hermes was alone on the ice.
*****************************************************************************
Mercury's hand shook as listen to her other self recite her story. When
her memory returned her death hadn't seemed as terrible. She remembered being
in pain but the memory of the actual sensation was gone. She hadn't lived
long after that and had expired almost immediately afterwards. Evidently
Hermes attackers hadn't used as intense a heat as she'd faced. Or perhaps
here she'd used up more of her strength so she had less resistance. She
couldn't help staring at Hermes's torso and the lines in the fabric. What was
behind her costume? Was her whole chest nothing but scar tissue? Her double
had fallen silent and was staring at her. Daring her to ask. Ami looked
away.
"Ami-chan, you're spilling coffee everywhere." Usagi was looking at
Mercury in confusion. Ami blushed and put down the dripping cup and saucer as
Usagi asked, "You said you got back from the North Pole and you're here now so
you weren't really dying, right?"
Hermes voice was cold. "I was dying from third degree burns and shock.
Perhaps it would have been the first time someone died of those at the North
Pole. But you're right I didn't die that day." Quietly she added, "Though I
sometimes wish I had."
"AMI!"
"Only in my weaker moments when everything seems hopeless. Don't worry
Makoto, I'm stronger than that. I won't die before they kill me. We swore
we'd go out fighting and I'll keep my promise." They clasped hands and were
silent for a moment.
Which was broken by Usagi going, "AHHHH! They're like Haruka and
Michiru?!" The two senshi broke apart in confusion and Sailors Mercury and
Jupiter stared at one another then looked away and blushed. Zeus asked,
"Who are they?"
Rei answered, "Your world's different so I don't know if you'd have ever
met them. Have you ever heard of Sailor Uranus or Sailor Neptune?"
Hermes muttered, "Heaven and Poseidon. Yes we met them briefly." She
shivered at the memory. "If they're very lucky they're dead by now."
Before anyone could ask about that Zeus spoke. "We'll get to that. But
what about them anyway?"
There was a bit of foot shuffling among the Senshi and whispers among
them. At last Minako said, "They uhh ... always work as partners. They're
... close friends." Zeus didn't seem to get it. "Very, very close friends."
Zeus seemed to think about it for a moment as did Hermes. Zeus got it first.
"Oh I get it. I didn't know that as we only met them once ..." The
penny dropped. "WAIT A MINUTE! You think we're ...!" She looked very angry
and this time it was Hermes turn to hold her back.
Hermes looked cold as she told them. "We do not have nor want that kind
of relationship. If we seem unusually close it's because we're each the only
one in the world the other can rely on. There's no one else left."
There were sudden apologies from the Senshi. Azurite and Margrave
remembered their own encounter with Neptune and Uranus and a comment they had
made about Azurite. Azurite sighed. That didn't bother her, she'd been
getting some fairly steamy fan mail from women all along. Or rather Azure
DeWitt had for her model and movie work. She felt secure in her sexuality so
it held no interest to her. However she always destroyed them nowadays to
prevent Margrave answering them in her name. Which had caused some trouble
when she'd left a few letters lying around. What bothered her about the
incident was Margrave would have something new to bait her with.
Usagi said apologetically, "Sorry, Sorry. It was an easy mistake to make
'cause Makoto dated Haruka once. Ooops!" Titanite wondered if she should be
taking notes. This was getting interested. Makoto was about to yell at Usagi
when Zeus said, "You dated a girl?"
"It wasn't a date. I just thought she was cool so I went out with her!"
Jupiter had turned an interesting shade of red. Before things could
degenerate further Calcite broke in.
"While some people might find the sexuality of senshi fascinating I'm
not one of them. I'm more interested in hearing about this other world.
Either of you care to continue?"
"It doesn't really interest me either." Hermes nodded to Zeus. "You'd
better take over from here."
"Okay." Zeus tried to collect her thoughts then looked at Jupiter.
"From the way Ami explained this parallel universe stuff we were the same
person until the North Pole mission. Things changed after that cause I
wouldn't date girls." Jupiter began a furious denial. "Just kidding. I
don't think I'd change that much. Anyway I was left sitting propped up
against that iceheap with nothing for company except two disintegrating youma.
I'll bet you can guess what I did next."
Jupiter nodded. "You decided to follow them. Be a real rear guard."
"Right! I was too stubborn to just sit there. Problem was my leg wasn't
working right. That's when I had my great idea. There were plenty of huge
icicles scattered all over the place ... Lucky nobody got impaled in the
explosion now that I think of it ... sorry I'm getting sidetracked. Anyway
I decided I'd try using one of them as a crutch. First one I use snaps under
my weight and I go down hard. My leg feels like it's on fire ..." Oh no!
Why had she said that? She looked at Ami. "Sorry!"
"It's just a description. I don't doubt it hurt. Go on."
"Right. Well I was a little more cautious next time and managed to find
another the right size that seemed strong enough. So I started following the
tracks in the snow. I was plodding along and my leg dragging so I was
feeling sorry for myself. That was when I heard Ami screaming ..."
****************************************************************************
Makoto limped toward the source of the screams as fast as she could.
Her trailing leg sent shocks of pain with every step but she ignored it.
She thought she was getting close. Just over that ridge she should hopefully
be able to see something. She'd seen three figures rocket into the air from
somewhere up ahead. They'd seemed to spot her and pause but they'd zoomed
away in the opposite direction. She tried not to think about the fact the
screaming had cut off about ten minutes ago.
There was an odd smell in the air. Almost like roasted pork. Overcooked
by the scent. She topped the ridge and saw the source of the odour. Then
screamed.
She tumbled down the slope halfway between running and falling. It ended
with her crashing into the crater's bottom. She ignored both the ringing in
her head and the pain in her leg. Doing a swift three limbed crawl she
reached the sprawled figure. Fighting the urge to vomit she reached out to
take Ami's pulse. Then the charred girl gave a tortured gasp as she struggled
to breathe.
The top of Ami's uniform had been seared away in the attack. Modesty
was the least of her concerns. Makoto couldn't understand how anyone that
burned could still be alive. She realized she was feeling lightheaded and
disconnected. With an effort she stop herself falling into the easy way out
of fainting. She had to do something for Ami fast.
What had that damned first aid course said about burns? Soak in
icewater! No unfrozen water here but ... even as she thought that she began
shovelling snow onto her friend. She heaped it as high as she dared. Too
high and Ami wouldn't be able to breathe under the weight of it.
Ami's hand seemed to twitch as a flicker of awareness appeared in her
eyes. Hopefully the snow was helping. She took Ami's hand and managed to
stifle a cry at the crushing grip. The bones in her hand creaked as Ami
grasped at her like a lifeline. She tried to think. Ami looked bad ... hell
if she were normal she'd probably be dead already. She needed help fast.
Stuff the mission! They'd come back. Her free hand pulled the communicator
out of wherever the heck it disappeared to when not needed. She hit the
emergency signal.
Nothing but static on the screen. Either it had been broken when she was
attacked or the youma were jamming them. She could yell for help but by now
the others were out of earshot and the only things she could hope to attract
were youma. There had to be something else she could do! If she could get
Ami to transform back maybe the injuries wouldn't transfer over!
Then she really thought about that. If the injuries did transfer to
Ami's normal body she'd be dead in a few seconds. If they didn't, great!
Except they were stuck at the North Pole and Ami would freeze to death pretty
quickly. This couldn't be happening! There had to be a way out!
But there wasn't. There were just the two of them and she didn't know
what to do! She felt Ami's grip loosening. She was slipping away! No. She
couldn't let the youma win.
"Ami, you've gotta hold on! I can't even imagine what it's like for you
but you can leave us! If we lose you Usagi's gonna fall apart and she'll
lose. Please, you've gotta be strong just a little longer. Then Usagi,
Minako and Rei will beat Beryl and we can all go home. We'll get you to
hospital and they'll fix you right up. I'll bet Ryo visits you everyday.
Just stay with me. Please don't leave us. We love you ..." Her tears were
freezing on her face but she didn't pause as she brushed the ice away.
****************************************************************************
"So I kept talking. Babbling everything I could think of hoping it'd
help Ami hang on. About the boys we'd date and all the things we'd do once
we got back to Tokyo. God, I was so selfish! I made her stay alive because
of how much her dying would hurt us. She was in such pain and I didn't ..."
Zeus's eyes had been watering throughout her story. Now she broke down and
began to bawl. Hermes wrapped her arms around Makoto and held her. For a
change her voice was gentle.
"It's all right. You helped me. I'd have taken the easy way out and
let myself die if you hadn't kept me back. You kept me strong when I was
ready to give into weakness.
At length the tears dried up and Makoto sniffled. Hermes took a
proffered tissue and cleaned up her friend. Then realized Titanite had been
the one to hand it to her and turned a hate filled glare on the Renegade.
Titanite retreated fast.
Looking around the room Hermes saw everyone (except the cat woman)
looking distinctly uncomfortable. Good. These other Senshi were weak, they
hadn't been hardened yet. They needed to be reforged in the fires of battle.
As she had been. Else they'd been unable to defend their world against other
menaces. As for the youma they were kin to monsters. How little would it
take for them to become the Dark Circle? Makoto was looking at her.
"Sorry I fell apart. I just ... Maybe you should tell this?"
She shook her head. "No. You were the only one of us who was really
there. I was just hanging on to you as if you were a lifeline. Tell them the
rest."
"Okay." She took a few deep breaths to center herself. It was fair to
say she had everyone's attention. She resumed her account. "I kept talking
to Ami saying anything that came into my head. I guess I had no secrets from
her before too long. I wasn't even thinking about the youma anymore, just
about keeping Ami going a little longer. Any of them could have snuck up on
me unnoticed and finished us both. But they had over targets in mind. I was
babbling away to Ami when it happened. Suddenly we both knew Minako was dead.
She was silent for a moment then continued in a monotone. "Despite all
that had happened I couldn't believe it. We were the heroines, we always won.
Maybe we could get hurt but actually die? No way! Something would always
save us at the last minute! But there weren't any rules anymore. The youma
had kicked over the board."
"I didn't question how I knew what had happened. I hadn't seen it,
hadn't heard it and I still don't know exactly what happened. But I know it
happened. So did Ami."
"She started to slip away and I screamed at her to stay with me. I was
yelling that if we lost anyone else Usagi would be destroyed. I didn't even
know if it was already too late. God I almost grabbed her by the shoulders
and shook her. I nearly slapped her."
"I wouldn't have noticed. Stop feeling guilty and tell them the story!"
With an effort Zeus looked away from Minako and resumed. "Everything
was going straight to hell. I was yelling at Ami like a crazy woman and
crying my eyes out. Ami tried to speak but I stopped her. I didn't want her
overexerting herself. Just breathing was a struggle for her. I was just
getting myself under control when Rei fell."
"Two of us gone, Ami dying and me next to useless. I couldn't even
comprehend how it had all fallen apart so quickly. Everything was up to
Usagi and she was alone. If I'd been in her place I can't say I wouldn't
have just folded up and waited to die. But she didn't! She went to face
Beryl.
Things get confusing after that. I'm not sure how long after Rei died
it happened. Time had become meaningless except for Ami's breathing. Nothing
else mattered. I was hoping that somehow Usagi would unlock the true power of
the Ginzuisho and make everything all right again. Like a kid's fairy tale,
'then they all woke up and it was just a bad dream'. I know that sounds
crazy but I really thought that." She fell silent and everyone looked at her.
No one dared to say anything. Jupiter was trying to find the right words when
her counterpart continued.
"Then Usagi died. I can't begin to describe what that was like. Do you
have any idea how it feels when all hope dies?" Her tone was flat and
unemotional. No one could answer her. "Ami just gave up and stopped
fighting. I didn't notice. Nothing mattered anymore." She looked straight
at Calcite. "That was when you appeared."
****************************************************************************
Makoto stared at the image filling the sky. It was of an enclosed space
that seemed part of a vast cavern. There were four figures in the image.
Only one showed signs of life. Mamoru wearing the black and silver armour
she'd seen him in a few weeks earlier was slumped over Usagi. Her arms were
wrapped around his back, just below the smoking wound. Usagi's eyes were
wide open and lifeless. The third figure was recognisable as Queen Beryl.
Makoto remembered the image that had appeared behind Zoisite and Kunzite and
the woman Serenity had shown them overseeing the destruction of Silver
Millennium. Her face was untouched but most of her chest was gone. Something
had punched a circular hole right through her. Her face was frozen in an
expression of bewilderment. As though death was something that only happened
to other people. The one living person in the image smiled.
"There has been a change in management. The threat of both the Moon
Princess and the Terran King has been removed. I have also ended the menace
of being ruled by an incompetent. My name is Calcite but you can call me
The Overlord." He paused to brush back an errant lock of green hair. Then
casually said, "One more thing, the Dark Kingdom is no more." He raised a
hand and the black aura surrounding him deepened. Darkness seemed to gather
in his palm. "Welcome to the Dark World!" The blackness he held seemed to
explode outwards in all directions. Almost as though it was eating the light.
Above Makoto and Ami the sky the Arctic day shifted to darkest night in the
space of moments.
****************************************************************************
"And that was the last time I saw a blue sky until today." The Senshi
glared at Calcite as though it was his fault. Which in a sense it was.
Calcite became the centre of attention. He kept his cool and asked,
"This self proclaimed Overlord looked something like me?"
"HE LOOKED EXACTLY LIKE YOU!" Then Makoto frowned and added grudgingly,
"Except for the scar."
"Scar?"
"He has a long, thin, diagonal scar across his cheek right here." She
ran a finger over her face.
Azurite snorted. "Small flaw in your story. We don't scar."
Calcite nodded. "Part of being Renegades is having regeneration ability.
I don't retain scars anymore than the others." The Senshi didn't look
convinced. With fluid grace Margrave unfolded herself from the floor and
slashed a line across Calcite's cheek. He grabbed her wrist and held it
immobile. Quiet and controlled he spoke. "Don't do that!"
Margrave looked bright eyed and innocent. "Margrave sorry. Margrave
think demonstration help Senshi see. Margrave dumb, not think. Margrave
make mistake." Her voice dropped a bit. "Calcite punish later?"
He scowled but released his grip and Margrave settled down on her
haunches again. Azurite kept her own expression neutral but her thoughts were
troubled. Just a scratch but Calcite shouldn't have let her surprise him like
that. He's letting his guard down around her and that is trouble. She could
have gone for his throat. She probably wouldn't under current circumstances
but if she fell into a youma rage then Calcite had better be 100% battleready!
Giving her a break then could get him killed.
Meanwhile the blood had already clotted and the cut was closing. Calcite
wiped away the drying blood and the Senshi watched in fascination. If the
prime cause of amazement was the rapid healing or the blue blood he didn't
know.
"Well that settles that. Maybe this counterpart exists but he's no
Renegade. His genetic structure must be vastly different." As he said this
Calcite wondered what a normal youma version of himself would be like. Pyrite
frowned. The Renegade gene was a recessive so it was quite easy to imagine a
world where the children born to Nephrite and Metrenar were normal youmas.
Yet the Renegade gene was such a vital part of them. While the child could
still be a humanic and might bear the same name the odds of him looking
anything like Calcite were ridiculous.
"You're identical." Sailor Hermes had unfolded her computer which was
displaying a gene map. "I got the chance to scan the Overlord when he killed
the American President in front of us. You're identical! How do you think
I was able to recognise you as more than simply youma?"
"We have only your word for that. It doesn't make any sense."
"There appears to be a discrepancy. But perhaps you should hear the rest
of our tale. Continue Makoto."
Makoto remembered what had happened next and swallowed hard. Perhaps she
skip ahead to their return to Tokyo? No. She couldn't hide what she'd done.
That would be the greater cowardice. Her counterpart looked at her. "You
said Ami had given up when the Overlord appeared? But you said she didn't die
then. So what happened?"
Makoto felt bile in her throat but managed to get the words out. "I
ran."
"What?"
"I said I ran. I GOT SCARED AND I RAN ALL THE GODDAMNED WAY TO TOKYO!
I TURNED YELLOW AND FLED!"
Silence.
"How could you run? There was no way back?" Jupiter looked confused
rather than accusing. Probably thinking she wouldn't have done the same
thing. Honey, you're me. You'd have done exactly the same thing.
"I wanted out. All I could think of was I wanted to go home. Maybe
Luna would do one of those jumps and come up with some new gadget that would
make everything better. Maybe they could fix Ami up. But what I really
wanted was to run away and hide myself."
"I can't exactly explain what happened next. Ami was dying and her
power was ... flowing away. I could ... not exactly see it but sense it. I
seized it instinctively ... don't ask me how. We've experimented and I can't
link into her power. I wasn't really thinking anything except 'I WANT OUT'
but somehow that was enough. The 'Sailor Teleport' engaged somehow and
suddenly we were back at the shrine. Artemis and Luna came rushing up to
demand what had happened. Then they got a good look at Ami.
****************************************************************************
Ami was dying, that much was obvious. She lay cradled in Makoto's
arms and had stopped breathing. Makoto was sobbing as she babbled her jumbled
account of recent events. She was incoherent and hysterical half the time.
It looked like she had good cause. Artemis caught the main point.
"So Minako's dead. So are Rei and Usagi. Ami's about to join them."
He spoke quietly but with determination. The crescent moon mark on his
forehead began to glow brightly. Luna was appalled.
"ARTEMIS! What are you doing?"
"What I have to. We can't lose Ami and Makoto needs helps."
"Stop it at once!"
"Don't get so worked up Luna. I'll still have eight lives left." Before
Luna could protest that was just an expression a beam poured from his mark and
enveloped both senshi. He ignored Luna's wail, ignored everything but
channelling his power. This was a desperate, last ditch capability all moon
cats possessed to be used only in the direst emergency. This more than
qualified.
Artemis slumped and the beam flickered out. Luna spared the senshi a
quick glance then ran to him. She nuzzled his fur and began to cry. "You
fool, you're not supposed to be a hero! How could you leave me like this!"
Artemis opened one eye. "Why Luna, I didn't know you cared! Owww!"
Luna pulled her claws out of his rump. "Don't get carried away." She looked
back to the Senshi. "Meanwhile we've got to look after them."
The glow faded from Makoto's eyes and her sight began returning. The
pain in her leg was gone but that wasn't what captured her attention. She
heard a gasp and the body in her arms shift.
"AMI?!"
Her eyes cleared and she was able to get a good look at Ami. Ami's
costume was whole again and she was breathing normally. Her expression was
one of pure wonder as, still blind, she raised a hand to touch her chest. But
something was different, while her Sailor Hermes costume was as skintight as
before it was no longer smooth. Her fingers encountered one of the many
ridges that crisscrossed her upper body. Her expression changed to one of
confusion and she sat up. Makoto glanced toward her own leg. Where the
wound should be there was a large white scar. As though this was an old
injury.
"There was nothing I could do about the scarring." Artemis's voice
sounded shaky. The cats were beside them, Luna scanned the pitch black sky
while Artemis regarded the Senshi. He looked weary. "I was able to divert
my life force into a healing spell. This was the best I could do."
Makoto's mind was whirling as she tried to put everything together.
Ami's voice cut through her daze. "You burned up your own life to save me?"
"I'm a guardian cat without a senshi to guard. I had no further use
for it." That brought all the memories of what she'd felt back. Before
Makoto could speak Ami said sincerely, "I can never repay your sacrifice
adequately. I swear to you I will not waste the second chance you've given
me." She didn't seem concerned with what must lie beneath her fuku. Makoto
though of how ugly she'd thought her leg looked and felt very small. Ami
continued, "You know everyone else is ...?" Both cats nodded. Ami joined
Luna in looking up and activated her vizor. "The darkness seems to start
about 15 miles up. I can't tell how far it extends. In fact I'm not able to
scan anything about it. Though I'd imagine it can stop radio and microwave
signals far easier than it blocks my scan. Which means if this phenomena is
global no one's getting signals from their satellites."
Artemis nodded. "It also means nobody's going to see the sun rise
tomorrow. We're looking at global panic."
"The least of our worries." Makoto could only stare at Ami, how could
she be so together? Ami seemed to sense this and turned to her. "I feel
like my heart turned to glass and shattered. But we've got no time to mourn.
It's our responsibility to protect the world. The others died for that and
we can't let that be in vain." Her voice wavered a bit as she said, "the
others" but was otherwise firm. Makoto could only nod. Right now she wanted
someone else to take charge and tell her what to do. Because she had
absolutely no idea. Ami turned back to Artemis as Luna kept scanning the sky.
Her hackles were up. Something was very wrong.
"Now it goes without saying the situation is grim. Beryl now has the
Ginzuishou ..."
"No she doesn't!" Both seemed surprised at Makoto's interruption. "You
were out of it when that image appeared. Beryl's dead! Calcite ... the guy
Mina... (she continued with an effort) Minako mentioned took over!"
Ami frowned. "That's ... right. It's there in my mind. I wasn't
consciously away of it but now you've reminded me ..." Ami looked thoughtful
than shook her head. "Some sort of telepathic projection. Probably intended
for the youma rather than us. We just caught it because of our proximity. So
there's been a coup in the Kingdom. All that means is our enemy's name
changes. Artemis can this Overlord Calcite character use the Ginzuishou?"
"I ... don't think so. I believe there's a failsafe against using it
for selfish and evil purposes."
"You believe?"
"Well that's what I was told. I don't actually know. I also don't know
if the failsafe can be broken." Artemis shivered. The cold seemed so much
sharper. Was it just a reaction to the unrelenting darkness above or had he
burned up most of his strength?
"Let's assume for the present he can't access its' power. You told us
that Metallia was awaking and causing both the sunspots and the rise in
tectonic shifting. It's the real menace. Whoever rules the Dark Kingdom is
irrelevant. What can we do to fight that?"
Artemis sighed. "You can't fight Metallia. There's only one thing we
can do. Go to America right now."
"America? You mean one of their military bases?"
Artemis shook his head. "No. I mean go right to the top. Teleport to
the White House and get the President to launch their missiles at the North
Pole."
"WHAT?" Luna looked at Artemis in astonishment. "Are you out of your
mind?"
"No, I'm deadly serious. I think the only thing that has a prayer of
working is a full nuclear strike on the Dark Kingdom. If the missiles pass
through the warpgate and detonate inside the Kingdom than maybe, just maybe
we'll have a chance. Face facts Luna! There's nothing else left that might
work. The Russians are too disorganized and the Chinese too paranoid. The
Americans are the only ones with sufficient capability who might believe us."
Makoto couldn't believe the cats were discussing this. Using nuclear
weapons?! This had to be a sick joke. But Ami asked calmly, "How do you
propose we get to the president. Everything will be in chaos. Even if the
airlines are still running and we commandeer a plane to the states we still
have to get to the president. Time is of the essence."
Artemis nodded. "You're right. We'll have to do the Sailor Teleport
directly to the White House."
Over Luna's startled exclamation Ami asked, "Can we manage that with just
two of us ... sorry, stupid question. Makoto got us both back here on her
own." Artemis shook his head.
"Special circumstances. Far as I can tell you were close to dead and
radiating your magic instead of containing it. She used that to power the
jump."
"I did?"
Artemis ignored the interruption and continued, "She used up quite a bit
of your power in the process." Ami looked surprised.
"I feel fine. Using the Shabon Spray technique would be simple."
Artemis sighed, "We didn't want to tell you this because we thought you'd
feel inadequate ... but the fact of the matter is all of you are ... were
operating at a fraction of your true potential."
"WHAT!" Both senshi stared at the white cat. He shrugged as best as a
cat could.
"Do you really think Sailor Hermes, one of the mighty Inner Senshi was
limited to throwing fog at her enemies. You have a whole range of ice and
cold based powers. Unfortunately you don't know how to access them yet. As
for you Makoto your Supreme Thunder is the least powerful attack you're
capable of!"
Makoto muttered, "I don't believe this" while Ami was a bit more
pragmatic. "These other techniques ... how do I access them?"
Artemis sighed again. "I don't know. I wish Phoebe were here."
"Who?"
"The moon cat assigned to the House of Hermes. As I was part of the
House of Aphrodite. She could have given you more details. But she's been
dead for millennia so I'll explain this as best I can. The real problem is
Senshi used to follow a cycle of an Elder to Younger. The elder held the
actual office but the younger had power herself. After the former Younger
became the Elder a new Younger Senshi would manifest among the children of
the House. They'd then be given intensive training by both the Elder Senshi
and their cat guardian. That's the problem. This time around you all
started as teenagers without trainers and only hazy memories of your first
lives. It's slowed your progress down considerably. Worse most of you don't
have your own guardians." He sighed. "Not that I was much use to Minako.
I still couldn't get her using anything beyond Crescent Beam. Lacking all the
childhood background slowed things down. It didn't help that she ran off to
England chasing Lord Calcite. Well at least this clears up the question of
if he was a real menace or just a distraction."
Before they could ask about that he got back on track. "At any rate
returning to your original question, no the two of you alone can't summon
enough power to teleport. However if Luna and I link in our energy ..."
"NO!" They turned to Luna in amazement, she never yelled at anyone
except Usagi. "Artemis you've used up too much! If you give any more you
could ..." Artemis looked resigned yet resolute.
"We have a duty Luna. If we don't stop the youma then my life becomes
irrelevant." He gave her a grin. "Besides I'm not planning on dying anytime
soon. You don't rid of me that easily. I've got an old bet with Puck to
collect."
Before Luna could answer that the decision was taken out of her hands.
Her head snapped up towards the sky as her prenatural senses began shrieking.
"SOMETHING'S COMING! SOMETHING TERRIBLE!!" She locked gazes with Artemis.
"No choice, we'll use your plan. It's the only thing that might work! Ami,
Makoto! We're using the teleport. Link hands!"
The two Senshi grasped each others' hands. Both cats dashed under the
circle of their arms. Their crescent moon marks began to glow. Artemis had
time to whisper "I love you" before the power peaked and both Senshi cried
out, "SAILOR TELEPORT!"
An emergency meeting of the United States Security Council with the
President in attendance was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of two
girls in short skirted outfits and a pair of cats. One cat slumped and lay
still, an unmoving white bundle of fur. Luna whispered, "You lied to me
Artemis, you did die on me." Then blinking away the tears she addressed the
understandably startled president loudly in English. "Good day sir. We come
here with vital information concerning the grave crisis that is overtaking
the world. This global darkness is simply the first step."
*****************************************************************************
Makoto paused in her recitation. "Of course I didn't know what she'd
said back then. I only know a few words of English." Sailor Jupiter nodded
in agreement the frowned. Her counterpart was sounding hoarse. "I mean I
can speak it nowadays because of the translator but back then I had a problem.
Ami was able to get by but Luna had to translate for me. God my throat
hurts." She paused to massage it. "Ami, could you ...?" Ami nodded and
Makoto gratefully took the juice her counterpart offered.
Ami got rolling right away. "Skipping over the inevitable confusion and
our having to disable a number of secret service agents Luna got the president
to listen. He seemed impressed that her mouth movements matched her voice but
you could tell he didn't believe a word of it. That's when it happened.
Suddenly everyone got this urge to head for the nearest window and look up.
Imposed over the darkness was this massive projection of Calcite. He looked
like he was speaking but there was no actual sound. Instead we 'heard' a
telepathic transmission. To us it was Japanese, to the Americans it was
English. I didn't ask Luna what she heard. It was a simple message and a
chilling one. He said, 'I am Calcite. I am responsible for both the global
darkness and the imminent annihilation of the city known as Tokyo. I will
address the United Nations at precisely 10 am Eastern Standard Time tomorrow.
Enjoy the darkness. You have seen your last sunrise!'. His face had been
becoming wilder as he talked, the black aura around him flaring. You could
tell it from the darkness in the sky by the blue tinge around the image. At
any rate it gave us a certain amount of credibility. We weren't worried about
that. It was his statement about destroying Tokyo that took our attention.
We weren't alone, everyone had heard that.
As I'd theorized most satellite communication was down. The satellites
were still there, they simply couldn't transmit through the dark layer.
However there were still naval links. It seemed the darkness ceased 200 miles
offshore. Due to a curtain effect you couldn't tell the darkness ended until
you crossed that 200 mile line. The oceans remained subjected to the same
night and day cycle as always. I would realize later that was because he
wished to keep the oxygen producing phytoplankton functioning normally. Also
as the oceans didn't cool down without sunlight he avoided starting an ice
age. The ecological consequences of eternal darkness hadn't occurred to us
yet. Suffice it to say his goal was global conquest not the end of the world.
Which was the first indication that Metallia was not free as all it wanted
was to spread destruction.
No one knew what to do with us and we made it clear we were not going to
be shunted aside. I think half of them thought we were extraterrestrials.
Also they started talking very slowly to us as though that would make them
easier to understand. They were reluctant to use overwhelming force and they
couldn't get rid of us any other way. We didn't care, we just wanted to know
what was happening to Tokyo.
While satellite links were down the land and sea lines were still
operating normally. Which was how we found out the situation in Japan. The
Tokyo area was sealed within a hemisphere of black fire. Actually it was a
sphere as attempts to submerge under it or dig below it encountered the lower
half of the sphere. There was no contact with anyone inside the dome, no
way to see within. No one knew what was going on inside and there was no way
to break in. Makoto was for going back by any means necessary. I kept
thinking about my mother and the families of our fallen friends. But Artemis
had sacrificed himself to bring us here. We had to honour his loss. We
couldn't teleport back with just three of us and I feared that by the time we
got back by air it would all be over. Even if we had stayed there would have
nothing we could have done. Except died with everyone else." She fell silent
for a moment as the Senshi stared at her in horror. The she roused herself
from her memories and resumed.
"It was a long, frustrating day not knowing what was happening. It was a
long day in another sense still being early afternoon in Washington DC. After
making it clear we were not going to be guinea pigs we spent some time
demonstrating our paranormal abilities. It took out minds off our
helplessness before this menace. The tests improved our credibility and you
could tell the scientists were eager to dissect us.. We took charge of
Artemis's body before they could do anything to it. Luna claimed it needed
ritual prayer done over it. The truth was she wanted his translator.
Following her guidance and my terminal's instructions we removed it and
implanted it in me. The sudden improvement in my English went unnoticed in
the general confusion.
Local time it was a little after six when the first reports started
coming in. The dome had disappeared about half an hour earlier. Tokyo looked
like a warzone. Shattered buildings, fires everywhere, bodies ..." Hermes
cold voice shook then trailed off momentarily. She waved away Makoto's hand
and resumed.
"Emergency services, self defence force troops, mobilized American
troops, world media and panic stricken relatives poured in. Do you know how
many survivors they found?" No one guessed. Everyone shook their heads.
Hermes glared at the Renegades, her hate filled look said it all. She
resumed in the same cold monotone. "None." Before they could react to that
she went on. "There were no miraculous rescues, no survivors trapped under
the rubble, there was no one living left. Everyone in Tokyo had died one way
or another. At the time they were just reporting heavy casualties. We kept
waiting for word. They couldn't all be dead."
"But they were." Makoto wiped her eyes but managed to avoid a weeping
fit. Ami's eyes glistened but she didn't cry. "Everyone we knew was gone.
Wiped away in the space of hours. I couldn't believe it. It was just too
big. Something over eight million people were dead. It wasn't possible! It
was madness! But it was real, it had happened. Eight million people dead.
I couldn't imagine anything that terrible. This was the end of the world. It
couldn't get worse."
Ami shook her head. "I was a fool. It had barely begun."
*****************************************************************************
Makoto crossed to the guestroom Ami had been given well aware she was
being watched. Their status was somewhere between guest, potential threat
and unknown. You couldn't blame them for being edgy, the whole world was
going mad. She just couldn't comprehend the city being dead. It was too big
for her to grasp. It was almost impossible to deal with just Usagi ...
Makoto felt her eyes start to water. She took a moment to centre herself
and dried her eyes. She had to stay strong. She was Sailor Zeus one of the
two remaining Senshi. Ami had held on for her when living meant enduring
unimaginable agony. She couldn't repay that with weakness.
Before she could knock Ami called, "It's open", from within. She sounded
flat and unemotional. Makoto pushed the door open and saw an empty room
identical to the one she'd been given. The door to the bathroom was half open
and there was a light within. She strode over and opened it. Her greeting
died unspoken.
Ami had peeled her bodysuit down to the waist and was sitting in front of
the full length mirror. Makoto fought the impulse to gag and look away. To
just below the neckline Ami's upper body was a mass of scar tissue. Her own
scar suddenly seemed incredibly trivial. She wouldn't flinch from this, she
couldn't seem to reject Ami after what she'd been through.
Matter of factly Ami said, "I was just thinking how incredibly ugly I am
now. But Artemis was in a hurry and it was repairing the internal damage that
was vital. As he burned up his life to save me I can hardly complain about
how my exterior looks. Besides given everything else that's happened today
it seems so ... petty to complain about my appearance." Her voice roughened.
"Tokyo is dead. Practically everyone we knew is gone." Tears stained her
cheeks but she ignored them. "I was just thinking that my ... my mother ..."
Her voice broke and she closed her eyes as she bowed her head. Makoto wrapped
her arms around her friend and felt Ami embrace her in return. They sat there
in silence but Ami neither wept nor relaxed. At length Makoto whispered,
"It's okay to cry. I bawled like a baby when my parents died. So much for
the tough girl. But it helps you to mourn them. It's nothing shameful."
Ami's voice was muffled as he head rested on Makoto's shoulder. "I
can't."
"But why not."
"Because if I start I'll never stop." With that Ami released her own
grip and pushed herself out of Makoto's arms. "When this is over I'll cry."
Her voice was cold and controlled, in the days to come Makoto would come to
know that tone with its' edge of icy rage well. Right now it was a shock to
hear Ami sound like this. "Now where is Luna?"
"Last I saw she was talking to the president and telling his cat to stop
hissing at her. Socks didn't seem to know quite how to deal with that. Look
you said you felt tired. Why don't you rest?"
"I'll be fine. We can't afford to waste time and according to my
terminal with these bodies we need less sleep. Have you tried to untransform
yet?" The question took Makoto by surprise.
"Huh? Uh no, what with everything going on ..."
"Good. There's no point. We need to be constantly battle ready from now
on so we'll remain as Senshi until I say otherwise." Before Makoto could
protest Ami gave her a bitter smile. "Besides the damage carries over to our
human selves. I checked just before you walked in."
"AMI!"
"Don't worry, we'll look into reconstructive surgery after we've taken
care of the youma. They can do some marvellous things these days." Makoto
nodded hesitantly. She wasn't really lying, Makoto's scar should be easy
enough for a skilled plastic surgeon to cover. But injuries like hers would
never be repairable. She turned her thoughts away from pity and thought about
the murdered millions. Focus on the rage, it would help her learn how to
access her more lethal abilities. It was obvious, she'd never been able to
hurt anything because she didn't want to. Not even youma. Things had
changed. Now she wanted to pay them back for her mother, her father and Ryo.
He'd still been in Tokyo as the police investigated the case. The only one of
the kidnapped six (seven but Rhett Butler the cat wasn't counted) found in the
amusement park who was faking having amnesia. Why hadn't she seen him before
they launched the attack? Was she afraid of what he might foresee. Or was
she just scared to tell him what she really felt? Now he'd never know. But
she would avenge him and all the others! She strode for the door.
"Ah Ami? You uhhh ... you might want to fix your fuku first."
Ami realized she was about to step out topless and automatically
reddened. Then realized that any man who saw her would be repelled rather
than intrigued. Idly she noted scar tissue didn't blush. Makoto heard her
teeth grind. "Like me to give you a hand?"
Ami sighed. "Sure. This thing's tight and one piece. It's tricky to
get down."
"Yeah, I see you had to wriggle through the neckhole. Hope that
doesn't stretch it permanently."
"No it'll return to it's normal dimensions when back in place." Ami gave
her a funny look. "Didn't you ever examine your Senshi costume and body?"
"Well ... no. I just transformed when there was a fight then changed
back. Same as the others." Ami shook her head.
"Am I the only one with any curiosity?" For a moment she sounded amused
at her own rhetorical question. Then remembered that she was almost the only
one left. The traces of humour vanished and she was all business as Makoto
helped her with her suit.
At a little before 10 am the following morning all three visitors were
camped in front of a television set with the president, his family and a
large number of unobtrusive but heavily armed security guards. His daughter
was fascinated by Luna and was having her translate for Makoto more out of a
desire to hear the cat talk than an interest in the Japanese girl. Ami had
been confining her remarks to monosyllables as much as possible.
The image of Calcite and the announcement had been seen across the
world. The fact the sun hadn't risen anywhere and the world remained
enshrouded in darkness gave it a definite credibility. With all the
satellite links down all the networks in the world had scrambled for video
access to New York via land based links and underwater cables. Coverage
started hours ago with commentators speculating endlessly about what was
going to happen. The theories about Calcite were legion, from invading
extraterrestrials to the Dark Kingdom story which had been leaked from the
White House. This was drawing the greatest audience of all time. Despite
the circumstances the networks were in ecstasy. At least for now.
The podium had been left empty and the General Assembly was filled beyond
both capacity and all safety regulations. Security had settled for wedging
the doors shut to seal out the crush. The noise level was deafening but it
shut off as if sliced by a knife as the figure materialized. Cameras zoomed
in on a closeup on the green haired man. He seemed amused and waved a hand
exposing fingernails of the same hue. Announcers began informing the audience
that the black aura was not caused by special effects, people in the hall saw
it with their own eyes.
He tapped on a microphone and nodded in satisfaction at the amplified
sound. Then spoke, "Good morning to the representatives of the human nations
and all the ladies and gentlemen watching. I have chosen to address you in
English as my knowledge of your languages is currently limited to this and
Japanese. This tongue is the more widely understood and is the closest thing
you have to a universal language so it'll have to do."
"My name is Calcite, Overlord of the Dark Kingdom and future sovereign of
the world. I am responsible for both the darkness currently covering the
terrestrial landmasses and the deaths of the entire population of Tokyo."
He ignored the rising clamour and continued. "What I am about to tell you is
the truth. I don't particularly care if you believe it but these are the
facts."
"Prior to the start of your recorded history there was an earlier era of
human civilization known as Silver Millennium. Indeed it was descended from
an even earlier period called Golden Imperium though my knowledge of that
period is very sketchy."
"During this period the Kingdom of Arcadia made an alliance with the
demonic entity known as Metallia. Power and artifacts in exchange for souls.
It should have occurred to them that should they actually release Metallia
the alliance would end and they would be its' slaves. Unfortunately Queen
Beryl made an ill advised attempt to assume control of the planet through
prince Endymion. After that Arcadia was at war with the combined forces of
every other Kingdom on the planet. Beryl drew more and more power from
Metallia and seized control of the Earth. If she'd been content with that
the other worlds in the system might have shrugged their shoulders and signed
treaties with the new government. But she wanted it all and released
Metallia. Metallia was defeated against all expectations by Queen Serenity
of the Moon Kingdom through magical trickery. Magic vanished from the Earth
and the Silver Mellium crumbled and was forgotten. Both the Arcadian army
and its' Queen were cast into exile in another dimension. Lacking any way
back they seized territory in the new world and named it The Dark Kingdom
of Arcadia-in-Exile. Then being human they set about breeding their
successors. Over the centuries, under the influence of Metallia, their
descendants gradually mutated into a new race that named itself the youma.
But they never forgot their ancestral homeworld. Or that it was theirs by
right of conquest. Quite simply, Earth is our inheritance. And at long last
we have returned to claim our birthright!"
Everybody began shouting at once. An overzealous security guard tried to
seize Calcite. When his fingertips touched the aura the flesh vaporized from
his finger bones. The effect spread up his arm and over his body. It took
about two seconds, long enough for one horrified look but no way to scream
with his lungs already dissolved. The skeleton stood there for a second then
fell apart into a jumble of bones. Guns were drawn and fired. The bullets
that struck the aura vanished and black light spit back along their
trajectory. The luckless marksmen flared and vanished leaving a sprinkling of
ash. The chaos increased tenfold.
Calcite let it continue for a few minutes then his voice boomed over the
confusion. "ENOUGH!" He spoke into the stunned silence.
"I am not here to debate with you. I am here to tell you how things will
be run from now on. As the world is a little big for me to run by myself it
will be divided up into territories run by my deputies." A man appeared who
bore a striking resemblance to the late Humphrey Bogart. "Lord Magnesite;
Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and any other territory in that vicinity."
He vanished to be replaced by a blue haired woman. "Lady Azurite, South
America." A darkhaired man with yellow eyes, "Lord Pyrite, North America."
A teenage girl whose hair matched his, "My sister, Princess Titanite. Asia
and any other bits I choose to throw her way." She waved then vanished.
"The remainder of the world will remain under my personal rule."
He smiled at the outrage. "Now you are probably about to make a lot of
speeches about fighting us on the beaches, your finest hour and so forth.
Followed by a rousing show of unity. Unfortunately you're not going to get
anything to shoot at just yet. My race will remain in our own dimension for
the time being. The good news is that the recent unexplained disasters will
stop. The bad news is this is because Metallia is now under my control.
There will not be random destruction, just carefully orchestrated
annihilation."
"The darkness is permanent so you can forget harvesting. Your crops
need sunlight as does the wild plant life. Without plants herbivores perish,
which eliminates the carnivores. The planetary ecology is about to undergo
massive alteration. No plants, no animals. Being omnivores won't help you."
"Meanwhile I'll be systematically destroying food stores and power
stations worldwide. Urban civilization is fragile. Knock out a few pins and
it all falls apart. For those that don't live in cities life depends on the
cycle of the seasons. Which is now disrupted. There will be starvation in a
month and you'll be eating each other in two. In three months time you'll be
begging us to enslave you in exchange for food."
There was an outpouring of fury but no one dared touch him. Throwing a
glass and striking the aura with water was met by the same lethal response as
a bullet. He pointed out a delegate and everyone backed away from the man.
He paled but stood his ground and gazed at the youma defiantly.
Calcite asked mildly, "Please repeat your question."
Surprised not to be struck dead the Peruvian delegate asked, "What do you
expect us to do? Lie down and let you roll over us."
"What do I expect? I expect most of you to die. This planet is
overpopulated and there are too many of you for us to control. So we'll be
using hunger to cull your numbers about two thirds."
"That's inhuman!"
Calcite's smile broadened. A scalpel materialized in his hand and he put
a shallow cut in his thumb. Blue blood eased forth as the TV cameras went in
for a closeup. "I'm not human." The blade vanished. His eyes glowed
momentarily and the cut vanished without a trace.
He ignored the outrage. "Resistance is futile. But given your
psychology inevitable." Then he frowned as though hearing something no one
else could. He shook his head and muttered, "That's so corny." The sensitive
microphones picked it up. Again he seemed to be listening to someone. "I
know, I know. I lost that bet." He sighed and raised his voice, "Puny
humans, your weapons are useless!" A large sign reading 3:00:00 appeared
behind him.
"One more thing before I go. Some of you may doubt I destroyed Tokyo so
another demonstration is clearly in order. Therefore in three hours time I
will kill everyone in New York. Anyone who wishes to survive should leave
now." As suddenly as he'd appeared, he was gone. The sign remained.
3:00:00
2:59:59
2:59:58
2:59:57
It was counting down! The United Nations General Assembly exploded into
pandemonium!
*****************************************************************************
Ami paused in her recitation as she remembered watching the chaos from
Washington. She looked to the Senshi of this world and didn't like what she
saw. They were gripped by her story but it was like they were listening to a
horror story. They just didn't comprehend. How could they? She studied her
counterpart again. Sailor Mercury had everything she'd lost and took it all
for granted. She had a brilliant future as a surgeon ahead while all Hermes
had was a war she couldn't win. She felt a jealous rage burning inside.
Ignore it. Save her fury for the youma.
"Evacuating a city the size of New York in three hours was impossible.
Especially as everyone had been listening to the Overlord's speech. Inside of
five minutes the streets were permanently gridlocked and there were dozens of
homicides as drivers berserked. There was a large exodus on foot, a human
wave fleeing the city. How many were trampled to death in the stampede we'll
never know. It was impossible to even try to control. Seven and a half
million people reduced to total anarchy within minutes. Every bridge and
tunnel became a deathtrap as people fought their way through them. Three
quarters of a million made it beyond the city limits before the black dome
appeared. It looked just like Tokyo's.
During this period the Americans weren't idle. They were reprogramming
their missiles to strike the Arctic rather than overflying it on the way to
Russia. The Russians were frantically reprogramming their own weapons to the
coordinates they'd been given. We now had a lot more credibility with the
President and the military heads were screaming we should have come to them
straight away and let them handle the youma. 'Never send a girl to do a man's
job', was repeated frequently. The Chinese were supplied with the coordinates
but claimed they didn't have the capability to strike the North Pole. That
was a lie, they simply preferred to conserve their nuclear stockpile and
observe whatever form of counterattack fell on those who launched."
Ami sighed. "It's quite possible nobody still possessed a nuclear
arsenal at this point. Calcite wouldn't have wasted the hours between his
first announcement and his declaration of war. But we didn't understand his
subtlety yet."
"The launch took place about fifteen minutes after the New York dome
appeared. It may have been delayed to make sure this wasn't a hoax. 100
missiles each carrying 20 independent warheads of 1 megaton apiece headed for
the stratosphere to drop down onto D point. What happened to them we don't
know but all contact was lost after they entered dark layer. Naval
observation confirmed nothing fell on the North Pole. The second attack wave
consisted of surface hugging cruise missiles. They were destroyed by energy
beams as soon as they appeared over the horizon."
"Despite our objections the President gave the order to airburst several
missiles pre-impact to hopefully throw off the youma's air defences." Does
anyone except my counterpart follow this or are they all just trying to look
smart? "None of the missiles would detonate and all of them were destroyed
in seconds. Artemis's gamble hadn't paid off. He'd died for nothing."
"He died to heal you and to warn the world. He'd have thought that
worthwhile."
"You're right Zeus ... Mako. He'd have done it again in a second." She
looked to Sailor Venus. "Take care of your guardian. We didn't appreciate
our Artemis until it was too late."
"At any rate to resume my story; After the nuclear fiasco everyone was
somewhat dumbfounded. I don't know how many planes the American and Russian
air forces sacrificed before they realized that any aircraft that appeared
over the North Pole would be instantly destroyed. So with the spy satellites
unable to penetrate the darkness and only the ones linked to naval vessels
capable of being contacted advance reconasissance was impossible. New plans
were made for land based assaults by using the combined NATO and Russian
navies to land troops on the iceshelf. There were a number of major
logistical hurdles to overcome. At this point the dome disappeared over New
York City."
"As the closest things to experts we were sent ... strongly requested
perhaps I should say ... to investigate. The airport was a disaster area so
we went in via chopper. Accompanied by a mix of secret service agents and
airborne troops who couldn't understand why they were ordered to protect two
girls who looked like iceskaters."
"Iceskaters?"
"They referred to in several ways. That was one of the cleanest. They
underestimated both my hearing and my ability to speak English."
Zeus's eye's narrowed. "That's not what you told me they were saying."
"Last thing we needed was lightning in a helicopter." Ami paused a
moment. "What we found was terrible. The entire population was dead. Yet
the city itself was largely undamaged. All the bodies showed signs of age
and desiccation. My computer confirmed that they'd been killed by a massive
life energy drain. It was the first time we'd seen it cause any deaths, let
alone millions."
"People can die from energy draining?" Usagi sounded shocked. "But
everyone who was attacked was just very weak afterwards. Nobody died!"
Ami looked bitter. "Overlord Calcite was a lot more efficient than his
predecessors. He also had a lot more power to play with. It took hours to
suck the city dry but he was willing to wait."
Mercury frowned, this made no sense. There would surely be swifter
ways to destroy a city. For that matter they claimed Tokyo had been destroyed
by other means. "But why? They didn't need life energy anymore! Was it just
some sort of twisted message? A declaration of war?"
Hermes shook her head. "That's what I thought. A grandiose gesture.
And if Beryl had still been in charge I'd have been right. But Calcite was
much more subtle. He did and does nothing without purpose. It was weeks
before we found out the reason."
"What followed was global panic as every country in the world mobilized
its' forces to resist the youma assault. Through the Americans I released
pictures of the youmas we'd fought. That was to stop people shooting each
other on the grounds that they were youma. We did everything we could to
make it clear that human looking youma were an exception. Everyone was ready
and willing to fight. 'Here comes the sun' became a rallying cry. Destroy
the youma and the world would return to normal."
"But there was nothing to shoot at. The youma stayed put. No ravaging
horde appeared. It was a war without an enemy. But not without heavy
casualties. New York was only the first city. The following day a dome
appeared over St. Petersburg and it suffered the same fate. The next day it
was Calcutta! Every day for three weeks a city died! The final deathtoll
was over 100 million. But no sign of the youma, nothing to strike back at
and revenge ourselves on.
"Alone that would have been bad enough but that wasn't all! In the
Middle East oil derricks were crushed to scrap by something unseen. Tankers
disappeared in mid ocean along with their naval escorts. As did naval vessels
worldwide. The last message from the US Seventh fleet reported that the
aircraft carrier 'Enterprise' had literally disappeared leaving a vacuum that
air and water poured in to fill. The ship reporting that was the next to go."
"All over the world nuclear power plants began shutting down. Not
melting down, just ceasing to produce power. Examination showed the fuel rods
had somehow become inert. On a hunch I asked them to check their missile
silos. Sure enough every nuclear warhead examined was no longer functional.
Calcite wanted conquest not destruction. If humanity turned on itself because
it couldn't get to him he didn't want us able to destroy the biosphere.
"Around the world large food stockpiles burned. There was mass
starvation in the third world initially met by mass outpourings of aid. Soon
there was hunger in the industrialized nations and food shipments stopped.
Africa and South America erupted into war as nations invaded their neighbours
in a desperate bid to survive. Asia followed suit and I knew it wouldn't
be long before America was also starving. In a desperate effort to ward off
famine all domesticated animals were ordered destroyed by the American,
Canadian, Australian and European governments. The carcasses would serve as
food and animal feed would be redirected to human consumption. Fishing was
stepped up dramatically as the oceans remained unchanged."
"But it was too late. Civilization was dying as power plants ran out of
oil and the nuclear plants shut down. Hydroelectric dams remained but were
being taxed beyond their capacity. We learned later that the only reason
they weren't destroyed was Calcite thought some clean electric sources might
be useful. So there was neither the power nor freezer capacity to preserve
the millions of tons of slaughtered animals. The fisheries had already been
overfished by every country in the world. Also vessels that crossed the line
from darkness to light were vanishing with increasing frequency. Every city
was under martial law but the troops were also hungry. Anarchy was just
around the corner.
"I said earlier there was no sign of actual youma presence. That wasn't
exactly true. There were hundreds of sighting but almost all turned out to
mistakes or hoaxes. Almost all. There were a very few genuine incidents but
we still don't know what they mean. The day after New York died security
cameras in a Los Angeles minimall saw a man in black armour materialize in a
Taco Hut. He was accompanied by an orange skinned women with fangs and a
glowing red eye. He grabbed one Christine McVee, an unexceptional twenty
year old student, announced 'Mars needs women' then all three disappeared."
She glared at Pyrite. "He looked exactly like you. She wasn't the only
woman he grabbed. There was a similar incident in London, England and Cape
Town, South Africa. There were rumours of one in Peiping but those were never
confirmed."
"It was in the sixth week that the fields appeared. We were still with
the President and his advisors though we were now located in a military base
inside a Colorado mountain. Washington, DC had been abandoned when the
rioting became uncontrollable. It probably made an amusing sight, all these
generals conferring with two teenagers in sailor suits and a talking cat.
But I wasn't laughing much in those days."
"At any rate the reports arrive of new, small domes appearing. But
these weren't over cities or even towns. They'd appeared over fallow fields
in Idaho. Attempts to breach the domes were being made with no luck. I
pushed for Zeus and myself to investigate in person. They were somewhat
reluctant as we were their main source of information about the youma but they
agreed when we ordered Luna to stay. Besides they'd learned we were more than
capable of taking care of ourselves." Makoto twitched as she remembered
using her powers on the mob that had burst through the White House fence on
the day of the evacuation. The first time she'd killed humans. She'd
shivered and cried in Ami's arms all the way to Colorado. The first time.
But far from the last time.
****************************************************************************
The captain looked at his superior in disbelief. He'd been looking
that way since the promised specialists arrived and the two girls had stepped
out of the copter. They'd been accompanied by a pack of scientist (who were
busy supervising the setting up generators and their equipment), Secret
Service Agents and this man who'd just taken charge. "Colonel Barr, you think
two girls in miniskirts are somehow going to get us through that?" He
gestured toward the mile long hemisphere behind them. Two hundred feet tall
at its' highest point the black half oval had resisted all attempts to blast
through it. The demolitions experts were telling him it might take a micro
nuke to breach it.
The colonel smiled at some unknown joke. "Well I don't know if they can
crack it but they're surely going to try. Now have everyone pull back and
give them room."
The captain shook his head. The world had gone crazy, half his men had
deserted and now it looked like everyone at the top had gone mad. But he
wasn't at the point of mutinying yet. He gave the order and his troops fell
back. Makoto and Ami were left on their own. From the ranks she heard a
variety of comments but didn't understand them. She gave Ami a hard eyed
smile.
"I don't know what they're saying but I'll bet they think this is a waste
of time."
Ami nodded. "You're right. So show them they're wrong."
"My pleasure!" Ami stepped to the side as Makoto began to glow. There
was the crackle of electricity. "Here we go ... SUPREME THUNDER!!!" There
was a flare of light and the captain was temporarily blinded. His vision
cleared just in time to see the two girls disappearing through the ten foot
wide hole in the dome. His troops joined him in gaping in wonder. Then
his reason returned. "What are you waiting for? Christmas? Follow them!"
He started toward the hole and the immobile ranks snapped back to reality.
Makoto was trying to watch all sides as she looked for a trap. But there
wasn't one. Just a field of frozen earth with a little snow. It seemed a
little warmer in here than outside but that was probably because the dome
blocked the windchill. Ami had activated her visor and was scanning for
something ... anything out of the ordinary. So far she hadn't found it. Then
her terminal chirped and she studied the ground in confusion. Makoto watched
her reach down and pull a small off-white disc free from the ground. "What is
it?"
Ami shook her head. "Some type of unidentified fungoid. But what it's
doing here I have no idea." She gazed at the surrounding ground. "This place
seems to be full of spores for it and small nodules."
Makoto's eyes narrowed. "Poisonous?"
Ami looked even more puzzled. "No. Not in the least. This might even
be edible when it's grown a bit more. Must be hardy if it can grow in the
dead of winter in darkness ... That's it!"
"What's it?"
"This is of Dark Kingdom origin. I'll bet it's their equivalent of a
cultivatable crop."
"That doesn't make any sense. Surely they farm the stuff in the Dark
Kingdom? After all where else did they have to grow food before ..." She
trailed off as she saw the soldiers following their captain. She noticed the
hole she'd blasted was at least a foot smaller. The dome must repair itself.
Ami glanced up at the troops who were looking for nonexistent enemies.
She dismissed her worry at having nervous armed men behind her as cowardly
and answered Makoto. "This isn't for them. It's for human consumption.
Remember what the Overlord said? 'You'll be begging us to enslave you in
return for food'. They need something to feed their slaves."
Makoto thought about this then grinned. "Hey this is great! We've just
found how to get the food we need. I'll blow open all the domes then we'll
send workers in to harvest ..." She trailed off at Ami's expression.
"It won't work. According to the computer's estimates of its life cycle
this stuff needs at least another three weeks to ripen. Besides look at the
hole. It's already shrinking. Another ten minutes and the field will be
cut off from the outside world again." She sighed, "Even if all that happens
I'd be very surprised if the youma don't take measures to prevent us from ...
WARP SIGNATURE! DIMENSIONAL GATEWAY OPENING!" Makoto swore and built her
energy as she followed Ami's gaze. Behind them the captain snapped the safety
off his M16A2. He had no idea what she'd meant but it sounded like bad news.
His men did the same automatically without waiting for the order. After a few
weeks of "urban suppression" duty they were a little trigger happy.
Ten youma materialized in a semicircle. Despite vast physiological
differences they all had two things in common. Each carried a green crystal
rod about two feet long equipped with personalized handgrips and wore a gold
and jadeite amulet. Their number dropped to nine almost instantly as Sailor
Zeus's attack turned the fishman into sushi. The others spread out fast
waving their crystal rods as they moved. Beams of red light poured out and
scythed through the troops. Men fell in pieces as the beams cut through flesh
like a hot knife through butter. The captain saw the girl in blue summon
something then the dome filled with a fog. The creatures seemed to be blinded
but he could see them clearly. As could the girl in green as she crisped
another one. Bullets were flying everywhere, some fired in anger, some in
calculation, but most in panic. No one was listening to him and despite
seeming to have no vision the creatures were still lethal.
They called out to one another in a language he didn't even recognise
and four of them quickly gathered in a square then began sweeping their beams
around. He took aim at one that looked a combination of frog and ... Ronald
MacDonald? He opened fire from ten feet away. It went down hard then
bounced back to its' feet seemingly unhurt. He was still staring when the
creature swept its weapon toward the direction the bullets had come from.
Seven left and Makoto had accounted for all three of those. Ami couldn't
believe it, they were all bulletproof! Her visor finished the scan and gave
her the results. Just as she'd feared. All the youma possessed kinetic
energy shields. It would take a shell to penetrate. The soldiers were
dead men if they stayed. They'd just lost their leader so they wouldn't
get the order to retreat. All right she'd lead them to safety.
She called to attract their attention then dove for cover as the bullets
chewed up the ground. The survivors were firing at anything they saw or
heard. She heard Makoto swear then the screams as the youma directed their
fire at the chattering guns. The noise was lessening and her fog was
dissipating. Makoto rubbed her shoulder then dropped the bullet in her hand.
"These outfits are bulletproof but there has to be a better way to have
found that out."
"Can you still use the Supreme Thunder?"
Makoto stood up, a ball of electricity in her right hand. "SUPREME
THUNDER!" The group of four youma became a flare of light. When it cleared
two were gone and the remainder had dropped and started to combust. Makoto
winced. "Yeah but I don't know if I can take the remaining three and still
get us out of here."
Ami nodded. "Forget the youma we're heading for the hole before it
closes. Everyone else is dead and there's nothing to stop reinforcements from
arriving. Follow me!" The fog thickened and the youma howled in frustration.
Makoto hesitated for a second then followed her.
The hole had shrunk to about three feet in diameter and was closing
rapidly. It was simple for the Senshi to dive through and roll to their feet.
Sailor Hermes watched the hole reseal while Makoto glanced away momentarily
to the colonel. Before he could ask she shook her head and he saw in her
eyes that none of his men were coming back.
They waited for an hour until they were sure that no youma were going
to follow them out. It seemed as long as they stayed on this side of the
shield the youma didn't care what they did.
*****************************************************************************
"Youma don't carry beam weapons." Pyrite decided to focus on the
technical aspects of the story. "The majority that don't have energy
manipulation abilities depend on swords and various missile firing weapons.
As the youma you described didn't use powers of their own that would make them
low class. Which means they wouldn't have shields."
Makoto glowered at the slur on Ami's veracity but Sailor Hermes said
simply, "Look in the backpack I had on." Calcite had removed it from her and
dropped in a corner where he could keep an eye on it. Pyrite shrugged and
ambled over to the two packs. Calcite pointed out the one he'd removed from
her and Pyrite looked inside. Then frowned and fished out a green rod.
He turned it over in his hands but it wasn't the physical shape he was
feeling. What he was really doing was studying the magics bound to it.
"This is weird."
Sailor Mars made a cynical snort. "Today what isn't weird."
"What I mean is magick is an artform. Like most arts you can tell the
artist by his work. If I didn't know better I'd say I made this."
Hermes gave another humourless smile. "You did. Or rather Lord Pyrite
did. He designed the original then mass produced it. It became the standard
issue weapon for the youma. Along with the force field medallions it meant
a dozen youma could chew up a battalion."
"Amazing. I never had the resources to do anything like that though
a version of me that was one of the generals ..." He realized both Calcite
and Azurite were signalling him to shut up. "Of course I would hardly arm
the normal youma. Renegades would have been the first things they'd gun
down." He returned his attention to the weapon. "There's been some sort of
modification to this."
Ami nodded. "Normally they only work for youma. Through trial and error
I altered it so I could fire it." Zeus decided not to mention the dozen that
had nearly blown up in her face along the way. "Occasionally it's handy to
have a way to kill youma that can't be attributed to senshi."
Calcite nodded. "Assassination that can be blamed on rivalry among the
youma. So they'll kill each other off for you."
"Whatever works." She noticed Mercury looked shocked and disapproving.
Get desperate enough and you'll try anything my sister self.
Pyrite interrupted. "There's something odd about the battery component.
This is almost drained but it's designed to carry far too much power. You
shouldn't be able to pack that much energy in this small a unit. There's an
odd hint of necromancy about this too. Almost as though ... " The pieces
fell into place and he looked at Sailor Hermes. She nodded relishing the
horror on his face.
"That's right, it uses human life force. Calcite wasn't destroying those
cities just to terrorize us. He was taking the power and storing it. Then
using it to arm his youma. All the time we'd been chasing shadows and
cowering from his campaign of destruction he'd been getting the youma ready
to take the world and hold it. He'd thrown away the swords and arrows and
gave them weapons humanity couldn't match. They were still vulnerable to
energy based attacks like Makoto's but she was the only one left who could
do those. At least that's what we thought, there were two other Senshi we
hadn't met yet. The point was Calcite was ahead of us every step of the way.
Beryl would have sent a horde of youma out as soon as Usagi fell. Calcite
waited until he was ready. Civilization was on the brink. One good shove and
the whole thing would collapse. Ten days after we investigated the fields
he decided it was time. By now there were reports of domes appearing
worldwide. All unbreachable and opaque. Rumours spread there was food
inside and crowds surrounded them as people tried to claw their way in. I
imagine that amused them.
*****************************************************************************
The President paced to his office wearily hearing the two Senshi bicker
in Japanese. They'd become unofficial bodyguards after stories circulated
about a monster cat tearing apart Yeltsin. It was evidently retaliation for
trying a troop assault through Siberia over the ice connecting Zemlya and
the North Pole. America barely existed as a nation anymore. Without food
and power the cities were deathtraps. Impossible to govern and the source of
vast mobs pouring forth to seek food. Containment was proving impossible and
the rumours about cannibal armies running amuck were beginning to seem a lot
more reasonable. If there was just something they could fight against it
wouldn't seem so hopeless. Luna, his wife and daughter were walking beside
him. Both kept their own council.
Behind him Sailor Zeus was saying, "Why are we even staying here. They
can't do anything. We might as well go back to Japan!"
"How?" Ami looked tired. "We can't teleport back without killing Luna.
There are no commercial flights anymore. Any ship that leaves the darkness
vanishes without a trace and we can hardly walk. Besides which the last
reports we heard indicate Japan's in even worse shape than here. Face facts,
there's nothing to go back too. Everyone we knew is dead."
The two preceding Secret Service agents opened the doors. Then saw the
bodies of the staff within. They smoothly pulled their guns and stepped in
front of the President. Both crumpled and hit the floor.
The First Family stood frozen as Hermes swiftly knelt to check them.
Zeus looked for an intruder. Luna announced. "They're alive, just
unconscious. The same as everyone else in here."
"There was no need for unnecessary bloodshed. I simply wanted a quiet
chat." The voice came from the swivel chair behind the desk. Currently it's
back was towards them so they couldn't see the speaker. But they all
recognised his voice from the United Nations. The chair squeaked as it
rotated and Overlord Calcite faced them. "Good afternoon."
"SUPREME THUNDER!" Lightning flared around the Overlord and blue sparks
crackled over his black aura. He didn't even twitch.
"Ouch." He seemed amused and stood up. Makoto took a step back. Ami
raised her hands, "Shabon ..."
"Please Sailor Hermes, we both know fog can't hurt me. Why embarrass
yourself?" Ami stood frozen for a moment then lowered her hands. She burned
with rage but restrained herself from attacking him physically. She'd seen
how that ended. Calcite's gaze shifted to the President.
"Well now that we've determined that the greatest weapons you have can't
even scratch me are you ready to listen to me?"
He forced himself not to run. "What do you want?"
The youma king chuckled. "A great many things. However the only one
you can provide is an orderly transition of power. There's still some
structure out there. If you surrender your nation to me it'll simply things
for me. Or rather for Pyrite. Save him having to totally rebuild the
infrastructure from scratch. In exchange you, your family and associates
(he nodded around the room) not only get to survive but I'll find you
positions of authority. Authority over humans that is, humans giving orders
to youma is unthinkable. This doesn't apply to the Senshi. As our ancestral
enemies they must be destroyed." He looked at Makoto and shook his head. "I
was going to kill you personally but you're just not worth the effort. I have
to say the Senshi have not lived up to the legends. A pity I was rather
looking forward to an exercise of my new abilities."
"WORLD SHAKING" Something tore through adjoining wall and slammed into
the Overlord. With a startled cry he was flung across the room. He was
rolling to his feet when another voice called, "DEEP SUBMERGE!" Blue light
flared and the Overlord slumped to his knees. In a dazed voice he said,
"Name of the Abyss! What was that?" Hermes and Zeus were wondering the same
thing when the pair entered.
Both wore senshi costumes, the short haired blonde spoke first. "Invited
by the new age, the warrior of fury, Sailor Heaven."
Like Ami the second had dark hair with a bluish tint. She looked far
more severe than Ami had been but they were about on par now. "The Warrior of
storm and ocean, Sailor Poseidon."
"The legendary Outer Senshi I presume." The Overlord rose to his feet.
"Our records were sketchy about if you even existed but this seems to resolve
the matter."
Ami had activated her vizor and was studying the newcomers. "Incredible!
Their power level is at least twice yours Zeus."
Makoto slammed a fist into her palm. "Alright! With three of us ..."
"Keep back child." Sailor Heaven didn't even look at her. "You're way
out of your league. this is a job for real warriors."
"WHAT!"
Poseidon sounded less harsh but equally firm. "Your best attack didn't
even inconvenience him. You can do nothing to help us."
"But ..." Ami grabbed her arm.
"Don't get in the way. If they can destroy him then we can't risk
ruining it."
"Listen to your friend." Ami continued scanning the youma and the Outer
Senshi. They were powerful but somehow this didn't seem right.
Calcite chuckled softly. "A real warrior wouldn't have stopped her
attack to introduce herself. In your place I wouldn't have ceased attacking
until my enemy combusted. Free advice, unless you're at my power level avoid
the unnecessary expository dialogue."
Heaven gave a tight grin. "You just lost your only chance to either
surrender or escape. From now on, no mercy." The Overlord smiled himself.
"That's the way I like it. Let's go!" He raised a hand but he'd been
distracted by Heaven while Poseidon built her own attack. "DEEP SUBMERGE!"
Makoto's dive knocked the First Family out of the doorway an instant before
the Overlord tore through the space. The floor shredded as he hit. He had
no sooner stopped bouncing that a "WORLD SHAKING" hammered into him. He
snarled and twin bolts of energy tore through the spaces the Outer Senshi
had occupied. He had time for a startled "WHAT!" before Poseidon's attack
hit him.
The wall cratered as he hit it despite being built into the mountainside
itself. Before he could move another "World Shaking!" slammed into him
followed by another "Deep Submerge". Both Outer Senshi now rained their
attacks onto the howling Overlord. After he fell silent they each blasted
him twice more. No one could see him through the haze of dust from the
pulverized wall. It cleared enough for them to see the battered figure
embedded in the mountainside. He wasn't breathing.
Sailor Heaven nodded in satisfaction then jumped as Sailor Poseidon
fired a final attack into the still figure. Makoto watched them with awe.
"You did it! You beat him."
"Naturally."
The President and his family picked themselves off the floor. The youma
leader was dead? Just what exactly did that mean? Who was in charge now?
Then Ami called. "Something's wrong. He's not disintegrating!" As
soon as she said this the sardonic applause started from behind them. The
unmarked Overlord strode out of the office. He stopped just short of the
shocked Outer Senshi and smiled. "Most amusing. Bravo."
Poseidon looked back at the dead Overlord automatically. The body
changed to a three dimensional silhouette and began to fade. From behind
came a chuckle. "Just kidding. I was wondering what you were capable of
doing." His voice hardened. "Did you really think I didn't know you were
in here? You're not dealing with Beryl anymore!"
"WORLD SHAKING!" The yellow energy sphere tore towards Calcite. Halfway
there it took a 90 degree angle and tore through the roof.
"Not this time. My turn." Both Senshi were knocked down the corridor
by the shockwave. Poseidon rolled to her feet to see Heaven lying in a daze.
The Overlord began ambling down the corridor towards them. She summoned her
power and felt the attack build. She held onto it and poured more power into
it. NOW! "DEEP SUBMERGE!"
The blue energy sphere tore towards Calcite. Who raised a hand and
caught it. He brought it closer for a better look. "Even has a little ring
around it. That's so cute!" Poseidon was stunned. This was impossible!
She was slammed into the wall by a second shockwave.
"Should have blasted me while I was distracted."
"MICHIRU!" Sailor Heaven rose to her feet with obvious effort. "If
you've hurt her I'll ..." The Overlord flicked his wrist and tossed
Poseidon's attack into her. Sailor Heaven dropped like a stone.
The Overlord stepped past her to the crumpled figure of Sailor Poseidon.
He reached down and grabbed her by the long flowing hair. Then hauled her
too her knees. "Rise and shine. We have a fight to finish." Her eyes
snapped open and she slammed a fist into his nose intended to smash bone
fragments into his brain. Then screamed in pain and would have hit the floor
if he'd released her hair. Calcite showed no signs of injury and chuckled
softly.
"You're lucky I've toned my aura down. Contact is painful rather than
lethal." Behind him Sailor Heaven rose to her feet and silently summoned all
her available power. Everything she had left was focused into this. If this
didn't do it then nothing would. She saw Michiru looking at her but giving
no sign to the Overlord. This attack would kill them both. She hesitated
for a moment. Then saw Michiru silently mouth the words, "Do it Haruka!"
No turning back. "WORLD SHAKING!" With a roar it smashed into the Overlord's
back.
He didn't budge. Just absorbed the impact without passing any of it on
to Sailor Poseidon. He turned to look at Heaven and said simply, "No more
games." Suddenly the air around her crackled with black lightning. She
screamed in pain and rage then dropped. Still dragging the semiconscious
Poseidon he walked over to Heaven. She was still breathing. Good. He picked
her up and raised her in the air about five feet up. When he released his
grip she still hung there. He did the same with Poseidon then walked back to
the secondary oval office. The fallen senshi drifted after him.
He looked past Hermes and Zeus who blocked the doorway to the First
Family. "Well Mr. President? Before we were so rudely interrupted I had made
you an offer."
"What did you do with our sailors?"
"You didn't see? Oh your navy! Same thing I did with all the other
ships. I didn't want to just destroy them and pollute the oceans so I moved
them. You never know when you'll need something."
"Moved them? Where on Earth ...?"
"Nowhere on Earth. Are you familiar with the L-5 point? I've never
been there myself but it's the point Earth and the Moon's gravity wells
merge to create a balancing point. An object placed there will remain stable
for centuries."
"But all those people on the ships!"
"Dead of course. Unprotected in vacuum the wouldn't last long. I
suppose on the subs they had to wait for the cold to finish them or for the
air to run out." He looked briefly curious. "I'll have to ask Pyrite. But
we're getting sidetracked. I asked you a question. Your answer please?"
His voice was so maddeningly mild. A world conquering monster shouldn't
sound so bloody civil!
The President showed a courage that would have amazed his surviving
critics. "You are an abomination! I will not cede one square inch of this
nation to you and I will die before I bow before you!"
Calcite nodded. "Well yes, that was the alternative." He snapped his
fingers and the president became a pillar of fire. In a second all that was
left was ash. His wife shrieked and threw herself at him. She was
immediately shocked unconscious. His daughter just began to scream. Calcite
frowned. "I hope he wasn't speaking metaphorically. That would be very
embarrassing. Ah well, convey my congratulations to the Vice President on his
sudden elevation. Hmmm?" Sailor Zeus was crackling with power.
Makoto felt pushed beyond the limit. She'd just seen this monster
demolish another two Senshi after a sick joke, confess to asphyxiating god
knows how many men and women then burn their host to death before his family's
eyes. She'd never dreamed she'd ever witness some much cruelty in her entire
life. This was the creature who was starving the world and condemning
millions to death. She wanted the power to kill him more than she'd ever
wanted anything in her whole life. The words formed in her mind and she
screamed, "SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!" It felt like more power than every
"SUPREME THUNDER" she'd ever thrown combined. The power exploded against
the Overlord's aura in a dazzle of electricity. And it still wasn't enough.
The Overlord looked at her very condescendingly. "That's it? That's the
best you can do?" He shook his head. "I was right the first time. You're
not worth wasting my time on. Fortunately I know some people who'd be
perfect." He chuckled again. "I've got some good news and some bad news for
you. The good news is I didn't kill everyone in Tokyo. That's also the bad
news." He had their undivided attention. "I saved seven people, well six
people and one cat." Ami felt herself torn between anticipation and horror.
Could it be? "Because of Sailor Moon they'd been torn from their true shapes
and condemned to live their lives as humans. I rescued then from that sorry
fate and restored them. Meet the hunt team I've empowered to kill you. But
I forgot, you've already met the Seven Great Youma." With that a window
opened in the air and they saw seven monstrous figures. Once the carriers of
the rainbow crystals and Beryl's greatest warriors in the battle for the Moon
Kingdom. Reborn as humans and saved from the Dark Kingdom by Sailor Moon.
Now restored again to their original forms. Ami stared at the hulking
creature that resembled a bipedal metallic crab. She managed to stop the
tears but couldn't help gasping, "Ryo!"
The window must have been two way because Banbou looked at her and
croaked, "Ami!". Calcite didn't like that. His eyes glowed and the youma
fell over shrieking as black sparks crawled along his carapace. To himself
the Overlord muttered, "Thought I'd completely erased the human personality.
Ah well, it'll add a bit of irony to the hunt."
Makoto was planning to try comforting Ami when Hermes gave a low
animalistic growl. Zeus was understandably startled. Inside Ami's mind a
barrier broke and she howled, "SHINING AQUA ILLUSION!" The Overlord
disappeared in a flurry of white. It cleared and revealed an ice statue of
the Calcite. For a moment Ami dared hope then the ice cracked and sprayed
outwards. The Overlord stood there looking none the worse for wear.
"Not bad! You actually frozen all the moisture in the air around my
aura. You're almost worth killing." Reluctantly he added, "But I did promise
the Seven they could have you. Ah well. You've got a week's grace. Enjoy
yourselves while you can." With that he vanished taking Sailors Heaven and
Poseidon with him.
An hour later in the midst of the grief and chaos surrounding the
aftermath of the Overlord's visit the Senshi were heading for the surface.
As they'd been told once more Calcite's image was filling the sky. Again they
heard him via telepathy.
"Humans today I faced your champions and I was not impressed." Images
filled the sky of his battle with Sailors Heaven and Poseidon. These were
replaced by the victorious Calcite shrugging off Hermes and Zeus's attacks.
"Sailor Hermes and Sailor Zeus were not worth soiling my hands over. My
servants will destroy them." An image of the Seven appeared. "As for your
fallen champions ..." The image shifted to Calcite standing in a cavern
lined with unpleasant spiked and bladed machinery. Heaven and Poseidon had
been shackled to x shaped crosses. Both radiated defiance. "Your champions
made the error of letting me take them alive. I will now demonstrate why
defying me and failing to die fighting is a mistake." With that a variety
of bladed tools appeared in his hands and he set to work.
There are limits to both stoicism and even a senshi's ability to resist
pain. You could look away from the sky but you couldn't escape the
telepathically transmitted sounds. The screaming seemed to fill the world.
****************************************************************************
All the senshi looked very pale. So did the younger youma and the
yellow eyed man. The others retained excellent poker faces. Makoto finished
the story. "I don't know how many hours it went on. It seemed like forever.
At long last it was quiet and I looked up. God, the way they looked ... I
thought they were dead ... no that's not right. I hoped they were dead. I
was praying that it was finally over. But just before the image faded I saw
Heaven twitch. We found out a few month's later that they were still alive
but they were being held in the Overlord's citadel. If they're very lucky
he'll tire of them soon and dispose of them.
Silence.
At length Sailor Mercury asked, "None of this explains why you came to
our world. I don't think it was just to escape yours."
"You're quite right." She looked to Titanite. "After the Overlord's
visit we took off on our own. No sense getting everyone else killed when the
youma came looking for us. The Overlord had done us an inadvertent favour.
He'd made us known to everyone in the world. Before then we were virtually
unknown outside of ... outside of Tokyo. When the youma came out to occupy
the world there were still plenty of people ready to resist. Many of them
were ready to follow us. Ami discovered the youma had placed a network of
teleporting stations around the world to let them move troops more easily.
She learned how we could tap into it so we were able to travel the world.
There was no shortage of people eager to follow us into battle."
"But there are too many youma and only two of us. Too many people died
fighting with us so we returned to fighting on alone. Now the resistance is
gone and the surviving humans traded their freedom for survival. You can
hardly blame them. Talk about dying for your ideals is one thing, watching
your loved ones starve to death in front of you is another. We had no
options and no hope left."
"Then a few months ago everything changed. While we were foraging
through the ruins of Tokyo Makoto spotted another Senshi." She glared at
Titanite. "Or rather what we thought was another Senshi. I examined the
readings I got at the time then compared them to the readings I'd got
concerning the Dark Kingdom. I realized we were dealing with another
dimension. One where the Senshi still existed and had interdimensional
travelling capability."
"The plan was simple, steal the equipment to open the gateway, come here
and have the Senshi follow us back to free our world. And we did it. But
things aren't what they seemed and our warp generator burned out."
"Well no matter. If you'll reopen the gate and follow us back we'll
show the youma what the Senshi can really do!" The fanaticism in her tone
made Sailor Mercury edgy.
"But we can't do that. I have no idea how to traverse dimensions. I
imagine the DKR must but they haven't shared that knowledge ..."
Before she could finish Hermes was giving Calcite a very cold look.
"Your counterpart is a genocidal monster but you're getting a chance to make
amends for what you did to our world. You found our world once you can find
it again. I want a gateway set up between this word and ours!"
Calcite put down his drink and said four words in a calm tone.
"When hell freezes over."
End of part 2
Next : Hermes and Zeus are stranded without a way back, Titanite wrestles with
a thorny problem and Overlord Calcite pays a visit to Sailors Heaven
and Poseidon. All in Part 3 : The Atrocity Exhibit