[FanFic] [Sailor Moon] The Chosen, Part 3: Choice - chosen_3.txt [01/01]
David Kogan
BEGIN -- Cut Here -- cut here
Title: The Chosen, Part 3: Choice
Author: David Kogan, 74367...@compuserve.com
Editor: Albert Lee Vest, ves...@osu.edu
OK, standard disclaimers:
Sailor Moon and all associated symbols, characters, etc.. are owned,
trademarked, and heavily merchandised by large companies which I do not want to
sue me for copyright infringements. :-) This is a piece of fan fiction, and
all Sailor Moon stuff is not mine. Anything else mentioned in this story that
is not mine is the copyright of whoever it is that owns that. Hopefully, that
should stop anyone from suing me- and if it doesn't.... well, I don't have that
much money to lose anyway :-).
Where was I? Oh, yes, this story, however, was written by me, David Kogan, and
is mine, mine, mine, and mine alone. Er, well, Albert edited it for mistakes
and holes in the plot, but it's still mine... I think.. :-) (see disclaimer
above, though). You are welcome to distribute it in printed form to friends
(or, if you don't like it, enemies) or whatever, but I'd recommend you keep
this part of it attached to the printed copy, since the disclaimers are here.
But it's your neck, not mine, if *you* are sued. Also, if you want to
post this on the net anywhere (yea, right), let me know
74367...@compuserve.com before you do it.
Once more, this is a piece of *fiction*. All characters are
*fictional* , which means that any resemblance to real people is
accidental, (or is purposeful but then not necessarily true). I do hope that
sentence made sense. (I am almost sure it does not)
End disclaimers>
Repeat info, those who have read parts one and two can skip this if they
want>
All right, now that that's done, this is a piece of Sailor Moon fan fiction
(surprise), which means that the story is based on the show. I am afraid I've
only seen the US version, though I have seen all of the episodes DIC
translated, and that is what I am basing the story on. I do have a rudimentary
knowledge of the stroy line of the original series, and I am attempting to
write this in a way that you would only have to change the names (and the
language :-) ) to make it jive with the original. If I have made any gross
errors that relate to the Japanese version, don't tell me since I most likely
will not care. If something is wrong that relates to the US version, I would
appreciate being corrected, though I will still probably not change anything
:-).
I have taken somewhat of a poetic license on the Sailor Moon stroy line, and I
do not guarantee (in fact, I doubt) that I will ever return to it. This story
takes over after the Alan/Ann episodes and changes well..... everything,
basically, from there. Basically, though I suppose you could just read this
without any knowledge of Sailor Moon, I would not recommend it. Also, this is
the third part in the series, the Chosen, which is why it is named Part 3:
Choice. :-) I would not recommend reading it without reading the first part,
Part 1: Questions, or the second part, Part 2: Clash, which you can find at
http://pages.prodigy.com/vbaa85a, http://www.rose.com/~flung/smoon.html,
http://users1.ee.net/cardiss/fanfic1.htm and wherever else it is that it is
posted. :-)
If you have a problem with any of the above, you are welcome to stop reading
now :-). Otherwise, good luck.
End old info>;
New stuff>;
Hi! This is mostly for those of you who have read the first two parts of The
Chosen. Actually, it's kind of hard for me to imagine someone reading this
without having read the first two parts, but it's possible. Not likely to be
profitable for that person, but possible :-)
Anyway, unlike the previous two parts of the story, this one has been formatted
a little differently. Due to numerous requests, between every
lin/paragraph/person speaking, I have put a blank line to make the story easier
to read. So although it may LOOK like it is longer than the other parts, it
isn't actually, it is actually the same size as part one, maybe a little
larger, but certainly not as big as part three. I'm using this as a test of
sorts, to see which type of formatting people would prefer, so tell me whether
you like this way or the other (see the end of story for more info).
Also, this story should contain fewer errors of grammatical and typo nature
than did its predecessors because it has been edited. The editor is Albert Lee
Vest, and if you like the way the story flows without errors, you can let him
know at ves...@osu.edu and I'm sure he will apreciate it (either that, or he'll
send you a computer virus :-) ).
Well, I guess I'm going to stop babbling now and let you enjoy (hey, who
laughed?) the story:
*The Chosen*
by David N Kogan
*Prologue*
(yes, another one)
The dark plain stretched in every direction, never changing its texture, a
desert underneath an alien sky. No horizon was visible, a blackness darker than
the worst night concealing everything beyond a small distance, blending the sky
and the ground into one darkness. A harsh wind beat against the ground,
stirring up clouds of gray dust, twirling it, making dust devils that danced
temporarily. The wind had scrupulously ground every single feature from the
ground, leaving it flat for as far as anyone could see.
Above, the winds were darker, harsher, changing into black clouds that floated
over the landscape, casting harsh shadows over it. Mere suggestions of light
broke through the thick dark cover, momentarily illuminating the ground, then
vanished as quickly as they came.
Nevertheless, the plain was not completely dark, or completely featureless.
One part of the desert was lit up by a glow that came from a strange source.
It illuminated a strip of land in a wavering, slightly bluish light, spreading
its shine over a small area before the darkness swallowed it up once more to
either side.
The source of the light was obvious, standing out, the only feature in a land
without any. A row of crystals perhaps eight feet tall each stretched out in a
strip, spread evenly in the center of the glow. They emitted a light from
within, the strange watery blue that illuminated the ground so strangely, a
glow that came from the power inside them.
For in each crystal was trapped a single creature, imprisoned for all
eternity.
It was the final resting place for all those unfortunate enough to be placed in
the Eternal Sleep by Queen Beryl, former Queen of the Negaverse.
The crystals stood in their row, unmoving, not wavering against the wind,
untouched by the harsh environment. Despite centuries of keeping those who
failed Beryl prisoner and despite her subsequent death, they still stood, as
impossible to move or alter as mountains.
The creatures inside were diverse in the extreme. They came from the every
range of possibilities. Some were humanoid, so similar to a normal person they
could not be told from one. Others were as alien as the crystals in which they
now rested, as if someone twisted a natural being into a warped form. Almost
all held some expression of pain in their features, from the process of being
encased in their prison, but not all. A few, a very few, seemed relaxed,
resigned to their fate.
The crystals held all of them, melding around their limbs, bonding them to the
transparent substance. The crystals did not care who was inside, and almost
every crystal was the same, a slightly glowing obelisk of glass.
But not all of them.
The last two were different.
The one next to the last was not really that different at first glance, but the
changes were obvious. While the other crystals around it emitted the wavering
blue glow, this one was dark. Inside, a blond man stared out, completely
relaxed against his bonds, not moving, but also obviously not trying to move.
Several cuts on his body spilled orange-red blood over him, some of the blood
diffusing into the crystal around him like a cloud, hiding the details of his
appearance. But one thing was obvious to anyone.
He was dead.
A single cut in his chest had gone all the way through before his being encased
in the Eternal Sleep, an obviously mortal wound. Of all the creatures trapped
forever in the line of crystals, he was only who was able to rest.
But despite that, his was not the crystal that really stood out from the rest.
It was the last crystal that was really different.
Unlike some of the others, it was obvious that the creature inside this one
was not resigned to his fate. His limbs strained with an almost visible
effort, the arms striving against his prison. In one hand, a sword flashed
malevolently as he forced it into the transparent material. A look of hate and
determination on his face spoke of only one thing. The need to be free. And
the muscles twisted in that anger, flowed with its power, and ground themselves
against the glass.
And the crystal's light flickered, for it was not meant to withstand that kind
of force, never created to deal with the kind of creature that was inside it.
A myriad of tiny cracks covered it, flashing bright blue against the
transparent background of the glass. Had anyone been there to observe it, that
person would have noticed the cracks growing larger, expanding, ever so
slowly.
But there was no one to witness but the howling wind, tearing at the outside of
the glass prison as if trying to help the person within.
Time passed slowly, for there was nothing to measure it by. The wind continued
to blow, the crystals pulsed, the clouds glided overhead.
And the creature filled with hate continued to strive for freedom.
Then a certain point was reached, the crystal's cracks expanding. One of them
suddenly widened, creaking, almost screaming in a human way, then another
followed.
The crystal suddenly let out a shrill scream, then the light in it died. The
eyes of the creature inside seemed to flash in satisfaction, as he forced
himself to thrust once more.
And the crystal shattered, splinters of its material littering the ground
around his feet.
Each shard that fell pulsed once with a gloomy dark blue light, then began to
evaporate, the combined streams of vapor obscuring the one in the center for a
few moments.
Then he stepped out, a black figure that cut through the fog, extinguishing
it.
He stopped at the edge of the vapor, obviously disoriented, his eyes pulsing
unevenly. Almost without warning, he collapsed, the wind whipping dust around
his body as the last of the crystal shards behind him disappeared into the air.
For a long time he lay still, his hand clutching at his chest, then got up, one
hand still clutching the sword. Energy seemed to flow from the malevolent
blade into him, giving him the power to move. Slowly, as if each motion caused
him pain, he stepped forward, walking down the line of crystals. He paused for
a few moments in front of the darkened prison next to his, then shook his
head.
"You always were weak, Jadeite." The first words came harshly out of his throat
as he addressed them to the dead warrior. The general's eyes seemed to look at
him reproachfully as the other continued down the line.
At the end of the row, he halted, staring at one figure. For al long time he
stood there, continuing to look, then he did something strange.
Staring at the crystal so similar to his own prison, he began to laugh, a
hollow echoing sound that reverberated through the dusty desert. Hefting his
sword, the creature prepared to strike the crystalline cube.
Out of the prison, a figure clad from head to toe in gray armor seemed to stare
through a metal face shield at the stranger, one metal clad arm clutching a
heavy mace as if about to bring it down on the other's head.
As he prepared to strike with the sword, the Dark Lord continued to laugh, the
sound echoing louder and louder, consuming all other sounds, until even the
wind was still.
*Part III: Choice*
"Mars Fire IGNITE!" In the giant black room, a perfect cube, the shout echoed
back and forth.
A lance of flames sped forward after the black figure as he ducked a little,
crouching to the featureless floor. It seemed about to hit, when he suddenly
straightened out, keeping the momentum of his sprint, launching himself at the
wall in front of him. The fire slammed into the floor, flaring for a moment,
the extinguished itself against the smooth panels.
The man in black, at the same time, changed his orientation in midair, hitting
the wall feet first, then collapsing himself into a crouch, sideways on the
wall. For a split moment, he seemed to stick there, defying the laws of
gravity, but it was far to fast to really be sure.
Then a bolt of lightning flashed toward him, Sailor Jupiter getting close
enough that she thought she couldn't miss. But instead of launching himself up
from the wall, as everyone expected him to do, he used the energy stored in his
legs to thrust himself down, the blast of lightning flashing over his head.
He hit the floor hard, but immediately tucked himself into a roll, coming up
without pause and jumping straight for the first scout if front of him.
Sailor Jupiter had no time at all to react, no time to launch another attack,
as he slammed into her, avoiding a feeble blow and knocking her to the ground.
Drawing his sword, he slashed once at her throat and she collapsed.
"Mars Firebird STRIKE!!!" The red scout launched a bird made entirely out of
flames at the man as he sheathed his sword and sprang to one side. A second
later, he reversed the motion, against surprising the scouts, heading directly
toward the flying attack. At the last moment, when the red of the flames
reflected off the slight layer of perspiration on his face, he dodged to one
side, smoothly avoiding the bird, letting it pass by.
Mars smiled as her attack, possessing a mind of its own, turned in midair,
pursuing the man who continued to run toward Rei. He was fast, very fast, but
he could not run away from her firebird.
He changed directions again in the same liquid like manner, flowing from one
heading to another, now going directly at Mercury. The blue scout, startled
out of her reverie, suddenly remembered her objective.
Without thinking very much, something rare for her, Ami closed her eyes.
"Mercury Ice Bubbles... Freeze!"
As the freezing front of fog launched toward him, the man seemed to almost
smile. The two attacks closed in on him, and at the last moment, as he dodged
to one side, Mercury suddenly realized her mistake.
With a smooth move, he circled around the unguided blast of cold air, placing
it between him and the firebird. Mars's attack had some intelligence, but not
that much. Without thinking, it plowed into the freezing area.
Then it warped, hissing as the two collided, and within a moment, it dissipated
as the cold front continued on, severely diminished.
Meanwhile, the man slammed into Sailor Mercury, slashing her throat with his
sword in the same way as he did with Jupiter, then he turned to Rei, pivoting
on one foot effortlessly. Dodging a hasty beam of fire, he feinted with his
sword, then came under one arm and drew the blade across her neck as well.
To one side, Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus gaped, too far to help their friends,
as a wave of cold air hit them. Mercury's attack had not been designed to work
against her allies, but this far from the source it was uncontrollable. Though
weak, it did slow down the response of the two scouts a little, allowing the
man to close in, a slight smile on his face.
"Venus Crescent Beam..." For some reason, the orange scout hesitated as she
pointed at the man, and Sailor Moon glanced at her in surprise.
Lifting the scepter, the princess concentrated. "Moon Scepter-" It was too
late, the man arriving with unstoppable swiftness, knocking Mina to one side
with a careful blow, then putting his sword against the skin of Serena's neck.
With his other hand, he grasped at the center of her chest, his fingers
wrapping around the object there, then pulled. The locket came away with a
sharp ripping sound as Serena transformed back into her ordinary self. The man
stepped back, hefting the crystal, looking around.
Three scouts lay dead on the field, two were completely neutralized, and he had
the Crystal in his possession.
He sighed, putting the sword away into the harness across his back, next to its
twin, and shook his head. For the first time, he opened his mouth. "Time?"
His voice was completely relaxed.
"Time is two minutes after start," answered a melodious voice that seemed to
come from everywhere.
"End simulation," he ordered, bending down. With one hand, he gave Serena back
the crystal while lifting her with the other. The rest of the scouts stirred,
rising from their positions from the floor.
Lita groaned, rubbing one gloved finger along the hairline cut to her throat.
"You have got to find an easier way of declaring us beaten, " she spoke
ruefully. The other grinned, then shook his head, looking around. The scouts
had gotten away with mostly bruises, plus the three cuts to the throat. His
suit was slightly scorched from the flames of the firebird, and his nerves had
been shocked by one of Lita's lightning bolts.
But otherwise, he was unharmed, the suit stopping the minor energies that
reached easily.
Another figure dressed in black came into the large arena, two small shapes to
either side.
"What do you think?" Nakiad tossed over his shoulder at Darian and the two
guardians.
"Well, they are getting better," the prince answered with a smile.
"They *have* improved a lot with the practice," Luna agreed with a sigh,
exchanging a glance with Artemis.
"Yes," the Chosen agreed, "but they still do not work as a real team. Each
attacks alone, unsupported by the others." He raised his voice, making sure
the scouts could hear "If I had been from the Negaverse, you would all be dead,
and the crystal would be mine."
Tuxedo Mask shook his head. "What's the last monster you met that could fight
like you," he asked frivolously. The other looked at him darkly until the
prince frowned. "Oh." The Dark Lord, who was bound to get free.
"'Oh', indeed." He shook his head, his face suddenly tired and his voice
softened as he turned toward the individual scouts. "Lita.." He paused for a
moment. "You did all right, but you were not ready for me going after you as I
did, you were dependent on you attack to stop me. And you separated from the
rest of the scouts, away from their protection." He stared at her until she
sighed and looked away, then he turned to Mars and Mercury. "Ami, Rei," he
shook his head. "You actually did all right, but I was actually surprised that
you," he looked at the blue scout, "would make the kind of tactical mistake you
did. You, Rei, did well, except that you did not expect the firebird to be
extinguished by Mercury."
He sighed once more, then turned to Sailor Moon, ignoring Mina for a moment.
"Serena... You are too dependent on the Scepter, without it you were completely
helpless."
The girl frowned, protesting. "But it is the source of my power, what I use to
attack others."
Nakiad seemed to hang his head. "No, Serena," he said softly. "You have
inherited the power of the Moon, not by the scepter, or even the crystal.
*You* are the source of the power, not some silly looking stick." The
princess shook her head, obviously not understanding, and he sighed once more.
"I suppose you are not ready for that yet," he murmured to himself. "I just
fear you may have to believe in that sooner than you have to. There is another
thing, thought," he turned to the rest of the scouts. "I know I've been saying
this pretty often, but you have to get used to your powers being part of you.
The reason you lose is because you wield the attacks like weapons, letting them
separate from yourself, and then can not handle it when they miss. You have to
be able to use the strikes as if they were an extension of your fighting
skills, a different way of punching or kicking. Only then will you truly be
unbeatable."
He looked at each in turn. "That is why I want you to try this over the next
week or so. I want you to try attacking with your powers without saying the
words to the strikes. Try concentrating on the power, internalizing it, then
releasing it. At first, the attacks might be much weaker than normal, but in
the end, you will benefit from it."
The scouts looked at him as if he was asking the impossible, but did not
object.
For a few moments, he remained there, silent, then raised his head. "I think
we should call it a day. Anyone for a shower?" The question was rhetorical,
as everyone followed him through the room, towards a door that blended in
perfectly with the walls.
On the way, he paused, hanging back a little, until he was walking next to
Mina. "You hesitated again," he told her calmly, sadly.
The girl sighed as she leaned on him and closed her eyes. "I know," she
answered softly.
"You can not live your whole life based on one mistake." For a moment, he was
silent, his eyes looking somewhere far away. "Believe, me, I know," he finished
softly.
The scout did not answer, but the look she gave him told him enough."
He shook his head. "It was more my fault than yours, and no one was hurt in the
end. It does not matter."
"It is hard for me-" she began as they came up to the exit.
"I know." It is hard for me as well, he agreed silently as they stepped out
into the corridor.
Outside, Lita closed her eyes a little as she went out into the giant corridor,
and remembered the first time they had been at Nakiad's house.
* * *
"I have done some research into portals, quite a lot of it, but so far, the
scientific solution has not worked as well as the... magical, you would call
it." Nakiad was driving the car, Mina sitting next to him.
Lita shook her head, looking around the vehicle. When she had first seen it,
it had seemed like an ordinary minivan, like the kind that were always seen on
the streets. The only thing missing was the symbol of the company that
manufactured it, there was nowhere a name or a trademark type. From the front
to the rear, the car was completely black, with no writing of any kind, nothing
marring the smooth surface. The other thing that was strange on the outside of
the car was the lisence plate. Actually, the green scout frowned a little,
there was nothing really strange about it, except that she couldn't remember
the license plate number, although she distinctly remembered examining it.
Still, she might have just been surprised by the inside of the car, and the
number might have slipped her mind. On the inside, the van seemed a lot larger
than one would expect in a normal car its size. Although it still looked
almost ordinary, some things were just a little off. Such as the control panel
in front of the driver, one that reminded Lita of the photo she had once seen
of a space center, or the way the steering wheel seemed capable of moving up
and down.
Sighing, the green scout refocused on the conversation about portals.
"So how far have you gotten?" Ami looked up from her seat next to Lita, her
curiosity naturally aroused.
"I've been able to make a one-way portal, but the equipment necessary to create
it is too bulky to transport. And, it has a few side effects," he added
ruefully, rubbing his forehead for a moment. "Nothing dangerous, but rather
unpleasant. I try to avoid using it whenever possible."
The others did not reply as the minivan continued down the winding road. As he
had promised, he was taking them to see his house for the first time, which it
turned out was pretty close to Tokyo. They had been driving for half an hour,
the scouts getting a bit cramped in the minivan that seemed to be designed to
sit seven people comfortably. Now it was carrying those seven exactly, but
apparently Nakiad had not thought he would be carrying teenagers. By an
unfortunate coincidence Rei and Serena ended up next to each other, which
didn't turn out too well, and they had to be separated. Several other battles
ensued when the scouts tried to decide who would get the front seat, and who
would get to sit on the slightly larger back seat.
Darian sighed slightly. He had been taking the commotion as well as he could,
ignoring the various limbs that were jammed into him. Several times, he had
glanced at Nakiad with envy, the man apparently unmoved by what was happening
around him. Finally, the prince had ended up sitting next to Serena on the
middle seat, something that would have suited him all right except for the fact
that his true love could not seem to sit still.
"Look Darian, did you see that?" She suddenly yelled in his ear, suddenly
enough to make him jump, and he sighed once more, turning to look at whatever
it was she had seen.
The vehicle was definitely not designed to carry people this active, especially
not along with two rather disgruntled cats, one of which was prone towards car
sickness.
"Relax, Artemis," Nakiad glanced over at the cat, whose fur was temporarily
taking on a greenish tint, "we are almost there." The Chosen turned off the
main road into a smaller one.
For a moment he paused, turning to look at the scouts, smiling, then looked
back.
The passed a gate, to either side of which stretched a wire fence three yards
high. As they passed the entrance, Nakiad closed his eyes as if speaking to
someone in his mind, then continued on through. For a few minutes they
continued through a wooded area until they came to a clearing, the car slowly
pulling up to a halt.
He turned once more. "Welcome to my humble abode, ladies and gentlemen. And
cats," he added with a smile, glancing at the two guardians.
Outside, a green field surrounded a house that was surprisingly ordinary. Only
one story high, it seemed strangely in place with the surroundings. Large
windows were surrounded by walls that looked like they were made out of wood
and stone. To one side a path covered with irregularly shaped stones led off
into the woods Other than for the size of the driveway, and the territory that
surrounded them, the house might have been found just about anywhere.
Artemis came up to Nakiad, having jumped out of the car as soon as Mina opened
the door. The cat looked at the house, his legs still slightly shaky from the
ride. "I thought you had said the place would be impressive."
The Chosen looked down at his former tutor. "I didn't exactly want the
government or the military on my case every time I did something-" He paused,
smiling a little. "Something interesting, yes. Mostly, everything's
underground."
They went in slowly, the scouts looking around the strange countryside. Many
of the trees growing around the house did not look as if they belonged there,
some resembling something that might have been found in a tropical rain forest.
On their way, Lita remembered Ami telling her that at least half of the trees
were not of a variety native to Japan.
Inside, the house was still amazingly ordinary, furnished in a modern style,
nothing that one might not find in a Tokyo suburb.
"This part's for the tourists, though I spend a lot of my time living here."
Nakiad answered their silent question with a slightly sad smile. Come to think
of it, Lita thought, he never completely smiled, as if there was always
something worrying him.
Then the Chosen stretched out his hand, placing it palm down on a small coffee
table. To one side, Lita saw movement, and turned, amazed, as a wall slid
silently into the floor, revealing a large passageway angling down.
"*This*, is the interesting part."
* * *
Lita shook her head, opening her eyes. Nakiad had been telling the truth, they
had been impressed. The green scout had no clue as to the portion of the house
she had seen, but what she knew of was gigantic. They had walked for several
minutes through the first hallway before they came to anything at all, and
after that, there seemed to be an infinite number of branchings. The place was
like an enormous three dimensional maze, in which the people were the rats
scrambling along glass walls. On the other hand, it did make for good
exercise, trotting from place to place all the time, the green scout added with
a smile. The place was large enough that it took a long time to go just to the
places she knew of. And Lita had a hunch that what she did not know about was
even larger.
The place was an amazing jumble of the ultra modern and the antique. A person
walking down a hallway might walk through a clean, bare white corridor with no
decorations whatsoever on the walls, then enter a dimly lit hallway made out
stones, that seemed to have come right out of the middle ages.
Still, no matter how ancient a particular piece of the complex was, there would
always be technology near by, in the form of light, conveniences, screens, the
ever present computer.
But the most impressive thing, in Lita's view, was not the technology, which
seemed advanced in some places and slightly retarded in others. No, the most
superb thing was the range of training facilities that existed, both
underground in rooms like the one they just left, and in the training area to
which the path through the woods led.
And even as the green scout thought that there could not be another way to
train, he led them to yet another place, a different way of studying every
time, as if he could read her mind and knew when she was getting used to
something.
Then Lita shook her head, suddenly angry. In almost every single area, he had
been able to beat them, no matter how hard they tried. She had gotten used to
thinking of the scouts as the best, able to defeat any foe. And yet Nakiad,
with almost all the powers of the Chosen gone, managed to defeat them
constantly.
For the first time Lita wondered if they were not ready for any threat the
Negaverse might send after them.
* * *
Nakiad sighed, settling down to watch the scouts fight yet another group of
monsters, almost acting as a team. This time, Tuxedo Mask was with them,
aiding them in the destruction of three large reptiles that breathed a
poisonous vapor.
The Chosen smiled a little, continuing to watch the fight via his electronic
position. Because of the danger of injury, the combat was not real, but took
place inside a computer generated simulation. The scouts along with the prince
were stuffed into gyroscope like spheres, with adjustments that changed their
position to correspond with the fight they were seeing. The technology was far
from perfect, but it was a considerable improvement on the best available
outside his home. It allowed the training, both mental and physical, without
much threat to the person being tested.
Nakiad was in a similar suit, though he was not feeling it at the moment,
inside the simulation with everyone but the two cats. He smiled, remembering
his chagrin when he thought about the two guardians. He had been prepared for
the possibility of the scouts undergoing training, but not Luna and Artemis.
The two cats were considerably annoyed at not being able to participate.
A lance of poisonous gas lanced into Sailor Mars and she went down, coughing
and clutching her chest. Two scouts carried her away while two others covered
them, and Nakiad almost smiled with satisfaction at the group effort. On the
other hand, they were not winning, which was not good.
Then the Chosen blinked. At least his simulation did.
A strange feeling was going through him, flooding his systems. It was almost
as if- impossible, he told himself.
Guardian suddenly appeared a foot or so away from his face. <Do you feel
it?>
For a moment, Nakiad looked at the other, feeling that something was not right
about his protector talking to him. Then he figured it out. "How can you be
inside a simulation?"
Guardian seemed to laugh. <I'm not. You only think I am.>
The Chosen shook his head, then replied to the original question. "Yes, I feel
something." He got up, preparing to go somewhere, then remembered that he was
still inside the computer. With a twitch of his mind, he ended it, the scene
around him blurring and refocusing a second later into the front of his visor.
With another thought, Nakiad activated the mental release, the suit
disengaging, dropping him to the floor.
Artemis came up to him. "What's wrong?"
What *is* wrong? Nakiad asked himself the question angrily. The other
scouts were still inside their suits, obviously not noticing his absence. So
they did not feel anything, it was only him. The man closed his eyes, quickly
scanning his system, not finding anything. He did it again as Guardian
appeared, shining silently in midair.
"Something is wrong, but I don't know what." He shook his head, not used to
being helpless before a problem.
Then something hit him, something in his scans that he did not notice because
it was so subtle it escaped his attention. He had simply noted it and went on
with the rest of the scan, the discrepancy never making it to his conscious
mind.
He looked within himself again, narrowing it down.
And he found it.
It was so subtle that it was almost impossible to feel, coming from deep
within. From somewhere inside, energy gathered, coursing through his veins,
gathering ever so slowly. With horror, Nakiad realized that he was becoming
more powerful.
Cursing to himself he opened his eyes.
<What is it?> Guardian's voice suggested that he already knew.
Nakiad shook his head, suddenly tired. "*He* is free."
A silence descended on the room, even the scouts halting their battle for a
moment, thought they could not possibly hear him. Still, the amount of emotion
he had released with those three words might be that Mina or Rei, at least, had
felt it. The rest of the scouts might well follow the other's example.
After a minute, the man suddenly sat down on a chair, then addressed the
computer. "End simulation," he stated, his voice barren of any emotion.
* * *
Mina slipped in the green river of blood coming from the first monster, the
reptile not moving. The orange scout almost lost her balance, a strand of the
poisonous vapor passing close to her, blown away by a fortuitous gust of wind.
She rejoined the other scouts, facing the two remaining creatures.
The first one had been almost impossible to destroy, taking a direct hit from
the Scepter without dying, a second hit required to finish it. The other two
creatures did not even seem to be tired, though each had scarred portions on
their hide and dozens of roses embedded all over their bodies. Still, they
raged, regrouping and attacking, making it very difficult to escape their
attention for the time needed for the scout's attack.
"He isn't making this easy," Rei gasped, holding her side, referring to Nakiad.
She was mostly recovered from her encounter with the gas, the breath she took
having been a small one.
"It wouldn't be of any use to us if it was," Tuxedo Mask retorted, throwing
another rose only to have it glance off one of the tougher portions of his
target's creatures' hide.
Ami frowned, tapping a command on her computer, then looked at the man. "Try
going for their eyes again."
Darian shrugged and threw another rose. As before, the creature merely moved
its head fractionally, letting the sharp tip bounce off the ridge of bone under
its eyelid. "It's no use."
"Mars Fire.." Rei began, then everyone had to scatter as the creatures pounced
on them, and the scout's attack was interrupted.
"It's taking too much time to strike," Ami yelled at Mina from across the
ground held by the two reptiles. "They seem to know when we are powering up."
Then the blue scout had to dive out of the way of another breath of poison.
Panting, Mina closed her eyes. Nakiad had told them many times that their
power came from within, that words were only there for their benefit. The
orange scout thought deep within herself, concentrating on a beam of energy.
She felt something begin to form, then her insides wavered and she felt a bit
of pain in her hand.
Then she felt something strange, an emotion that seemed to be coming in from
outside.
Opening her eyes, the girl looked around to find that the outside was also
changing, melting and disappearing. She suddenly remembered that she was
inside a simulation, just in time for her to feel the metal of the suit. As it
released her, dropping her to the floor, she managed to land on her feet.
A yelp from her right told her that she was lucky in that respect. Serena
picked herself up from the ground, rubbing one side with an angry expression.
Behind her, Darian was also frowning and seemed to be favoring one ankle, but
he did not seem to be overly angry. Instead, he seemed puzzled, staring at
some point behind Mina.
She whirled in place, finding the object of Darian's attention to be a black
figure sitting on a chair with a strange expression on his face. Mina's feet
automatically took her to him, sitting down on a chair facing his.
"What is it?" The other scouts gathered around, some sitting down as well.
"We have a problem," he answered with a dark sigh.
He sat down brooding, then remembered that he was being watched, and looked
up.
Straight into Mina's eyes, and he forced himself to keep from flinching. They
were so innocent, unmindful of worries, caring about him in a way he never
thought anyone would again. And yet she loved him, despite his first failure,
and somehow, he knew she would love him even when he had to fight the Shadow
once more.
He sighed, thinking, still looking into her eyes. <The innocent are always
the first to die.>
<'In *war*, the *brave* are always the first to die', >Guardian
corrected the quote, and Nakiad cursed the others ability to see his thoughts.
<And this is not war.>
<Isn't it?> Nakiad asked the question bitterly, then focused back
outside.
"What is wrong?" Mina was asking him again, and he forced himself to look
away.
He tried to think of an easy way to say it, but couldn't think of one. Then a
white cat hopped on the control console to his side and answered for him. "The
Dark Lord is free," Artemis said calmly. Nakiad looked at him, thanking him
the best he could with his eyes.
The scouts immediately focused on the cat. "How do you know?," Rei asked almost
immediately. "I haven't felt anything."
Nakiad looked at her, smiling gently. "I know." He forced his voice to remain
calm, his face expressionless. "When the Dark Lord was defeated and imprisoned
in Eternal Sleep by Nephlyte," he began, his hand going up to his chest where
the wound was. Had it been only a month, he wondered silently? It seemed like
an eternity. And yet, it was soon, far sooner than even Guardian's worst
projections. He wondered where the Dark Lord could have gotten the strength,
and had to admit to himself that he really did not know the Shadow's abilities.
Nakiad remembered what he was saying, continuing. "His power was trapped
within. The Eternal Sleep ordinarily keeps everything constant, but it seems
that he was able to heal inside, for I have healed and we are joined
together.
"After his imprisonment, I felt the strength given to me as the Chosen
disappear. Now, I am no more than what I was before I ever had the post.
Other than physical abilities and my ability to drain things, I can not do
much. And even in that, I am diminished."
He raised his head, keeping his voice level. "And that is good, for that was
how I knew the Dark Lord was imprisoned. My power corresponds to his, as long
as I have none, he is helpless as well."
For a few moments, there was silence, then Ami looked up. "You said, you
*knew*, past tense." The question was in every scouts' face.
"Yes," Nakiad sighed. "I feel my strength returning. Slowly, almost impossible
to notice, but it is coming back. It will take another millennium for it to
accumulate back to its full strength, but its presence makes one fact clear."
"He is free," Mina answered for him, whispering.
"Yes," he agreed, a wealth of understatement in that one word.
For what seemed like a long time, the room was silent.
Finally, Luna sighed, shaking her head. "All right. He is free. This isn't
exactly unexpected."
Nakiad nodded. "Early, yes, unexpected, no."
The black cat looked at him. "So exactly how bad is this?"
The man sighed, looking around the room. "I truly don't know. Theoretically,
his strength is generally equal to my own, so he will be capable of the same
things I am. Right now, I am pretty weak, and, like I said, it will take a
long time for me to get back to full strength."
"So what can he do?" Lita asked the question, looking directly at the
Chosen.
He sighed, shaking his head. "You want to know if he can travel between
universes." Nakiad paused, thinking. "I don't think so. It will take a long,
long time for him to get the strength necessary to do that. If you recall, I
needed to drain energy from the power lines leading to Tokyo in order to make
it, and that was an effort. I could not have done it without that extra
strength, or if I did, I would have been to weak to fight him."
For a moment, the scouts looked at him, then Rei frowned. "Wait, what you are
saying is that he cannot get to the Universe?"
Nakiad nodded slowly. "I do not think so."
"Then what is the problem? If he cannot get here, he can't cause any harm." A
ripple of relief spread through the scouts.
But Nakiad still looked sad. "You do not know him like I do. I have fought him
twice, I have seen what he is." For a moment, the Chosen stared into space.
"Perhaps you are right, maybe it does not change anything."
He got up suddenly. "Still, I would feel better if we returned to Tokyo
tonight, and cut the training session short." He smiled to himself, seeing the
hopeful look of the scouts. The training *is* rather painful, he reminded
himself. And doing it every weekend is pretty tough, though not as much so as
doing it every day. At least until you get used to it, he remembered, after
that you can hardly live without it.
Mina looked at him hopefully. "You said 'we', not 'you'."
"Yes, I think I should come with you this time. Rei, you want me to stay at
the temple again?" Or do you trust me, he added mentally with a slight
smile.
The red scout nodded. "If you want to, but I'm sure Darian will be glad to put
you up for a day or two." Tuxedo Mask nodded as well.
"All right, then it's settled. And I think we should take the portal," Nakiad
added, ignoring the collective groans. "I'll shut down over here while you
change."
The scouts along with Darian and the two guardians filed out the door while he
turned to the console, shutting down the power to the gyroscope-like
simulators.
Guardian appeared behind him. <This is bad.>
<Perhaps the scouts are right, perhaps he is helpless there.> Nakiad did
not turn around, a red light on the console attracting his attention.
<Perhaps>, Guardian said with a sigh, then disappeared.
The man punched a few keys on the console, then turned to one of the suits.
Slowly, he came up to the gyroscope like structure holding it. With a strange
expression on his face, he looked at the fingertips of the gloves closely.
The covering over the right index finger was charred.
It was Mina's suit, Nakiad remembered, and frowned, wondering.
* * *
He breathed in deeply, savoring the air. Usually, Tokyo was as lacking of
fresh smells as any other major city, but tonight was different. A fairly
strong wind gusted from the direction of the bay, brining in the smell of the
sea, clearing the sky. As the city darkened gradually, the stars came out of
their hiding behind the veil of the sun, and the city glittered with beauty.
But Nakiad paid little attention to all of this after breathing out, he had
more important business at hand. He had told Darian, at whose place he was
staying for a few days, that he wanted to go look around the city, but that was
not exactly true. Or at least, it was not the whole truth.
He sighed, a black shape against the background of the buildings and lights,
standing on a roof in the middle of the city. It was not the first time he had
to lie, or slightly alter the truth, but he never enjoyed it. He knew how
expensive a lie could be, when you had to live with it. Forever.
But something strange was happening, something Nakiad could not quite explain.
The logical part of him insisted that the Dark Lord could do nothing, trapped
in the Negaverse, nothing dangerous. But another part of him, the primordial
subconscious that joined with the Shadow twice in their battles, whispered
otherwise. It was an insistent voice, always in the background, telling him to
watch out, to be on alert. And that voice brought him to this alley, in the
middle of the city, and told him to wait. A strange feeling passed through him
for a moment, like a cold breeze making him shiver, but the wind coming from
the sea was warm. The chill that took him was more than just physical, an
emotional stirring that promised dark things to come.
Without thinking, Nakiad reached for one of the pouches around his waist, his
hand grasping something there, then paused. The chill increased through his
bones, his body remaining still. Only his eyes moved, focusing on a single
spot in the middle of the alley, a place on the pavement that looked no
different than any other. But it was not the same, for an emotional cold
gathered in its center, and focused, changing, altering the fabric of the
air.
For a moment, nothing happened, then a black figure formed in the center of the
point, a figure that radiated malevolence in the same way that the sun radiated
light.
Nakiad kept himself from flinching physically even as his insides jerked, then
the figure finished forming. A part of him sighed in relief for it was
definitely not the Shadow. The figure was gray and seemed to be clad in armor
that covered its whole body. A heavy mace rested easily in one arm, a mace
that should have been impossible for a person to lift so easily.
Then the figure turned, and looked up, directly at the Chosen, and his feeling
of relief vanished, replaced by another feeling, just as powerful.
The feeling was dread.
"No," Nakiad whispered quietly as the figure stared up at him.
* * *
The flame flickered suddenly for a strange reason, and Rei opened her eyes,
awakened from her meditation. Something, somewhere in the city, was not right,
a force of evil invading the scout's mind. The evil intensified, growing in
force until it was unmistakable, then stabilized. For a few moments Rei did
not move, then she looked into the flames, preparing to ask.
She did not get a chance, as her communicator beeped, awakening her to reality.
With one hand, she pulled it out of her pocket, looking at the screen.
It was Nakiad, and his usually calm face was creased with lines of worry. "We
have a problem," he said, his voice wavering a bit as he looked at something
behind him, then the screen went blank.
Shaking her head in confusion, Rei punched the button for Serena, knowing the
girl would be hardest to awaken.
Ami put the communicator back on the table next to her bed as she got up, her
hand grasping for the transforming stick. As she grasped the smooth surface
she remembered suddenly the time she would never forget, when the pen spoke
with the power of her planet, keeping them from interfering with Nakiad. The
fingers closed around the shape, keeping it tight. For a moment before she
changed, the scout wondered how Nakiad cut into the scout communication grid,
then she spoke the words that changed her. Blue energy bands encircled her as
her mind thought frantically.
"Rei has no respect for sleep," Serena muttered sleepily as she reached for the
locket.
"It is Nakiad who called first," Luna told her with annoyance, "he is the one
who needs help."
"All right, all right."
With a smooth motion, Nakiad put the communicator back in its pouch, having
done all he could to alert the scouts. The armored figure continued to stare
up at him for a few moments, as if thinking. Then a surge of power seemed to
go through it, and the massive arm holding the mace thrust into motion,
directly against the side of the building on which Nakiad stood.
As the end of the weapon turned into a blur, the building shook with the
impact. A portion of it began to collapse, a large piece almost directly under
the Chosen's feet turning to rubble.
With a smooth motion, he jumped down the five story building, landing easily,
facing the creature. For a moment, it hesitated, then thrust into motion once
more.
The massive mace seemed to whistle in parting the air as the figure brought it
through the air directly at Nakiad's head. The sharp studs on the sphere of
metal reflected the light of the city ominously as it approached.
At the last moment, two swords seemed to appear as if by magic in Nakiad's
hands, as he shifted into a lower stance. The two thin blades seemed pitifully
inadequate against the sheer power of the mace as they intersected the other
weapon's path.
But the swords of the Chosen were made of no ordinary metal, but of Maraki, one
of the strongest materials in existence. And the strength of the Chosen went
into the blades, hardening them, making them almost indestructible.
And so when the mace smashed into the swords, they did not shatter as the
armored figure might have thought they would, but held. Nakiad's stance flexed
a little as he absorbed the blow, then he twisted the mace aside, slamming it
into the ground. While one sword kept it down, the other whistled in an arc
and slammed into the armored shoulder.
Nakiad frowned at the resulting shock, not surprised. Any ordinary material
should have been at least damaged from the blow, but the figure emerged
unscathed. Unfortunately, that only confirmed the man's fears as to what the
figure was.
Another surge of strength rippled through the creature as it brought the mace
up from the ground, thrusting Nakiad's sword upward almost negligently. The
man did not flinch, merely returning to a combat stance, ready for the other's
attack.
The armored figure did not think for long. The mace went back, behind the
creature's head, the arm holding it tensing like a wound spring. Then the
weapon launched forward, directly down at Nakiad's head once more.
This time, the man chose a more promising tactic, stepping aside smoothly from
the point of impact, letting the mace pass by him and slam into the pavement,
without trying to stop it directly.
It was a mistake.
The weapon slammed into the concrete with a thunderclap, jarring the Chosen,
then continued through the covering. All around the impact, the pavement
exploded upward in a circle, the ground rippling like a wave.
As the ripples reached the Chosen, the pavement left his feet for a moment,
then came back up, slamming against the soles of his thin shoes. For a split
moment, he came off balance, his stance flickering a bit.
In that instant, the figure came forward again, the mace whistling sideways
this time, not leaving the Chosen any place to escape. He was only able to
save himself by rolling backward on the cracked pavement, coming up to a
somewhat unsteady stance.
Though the creature's face was completely hidden, the figure's stance seemed to
speak of amusement as it raised its mace once more. This time, it slammed
directly into the pavement between the creature and Nakiad.
The cracked pavement did not withstand the abuse. This time it collapsed in a
line going directly at the man, though Nakiad was ready for it and got out of
the way. After a moment, he regained his balance, and was able to strike at
the knight once more, with no effect.
They continued fighting, the figure unable to get in a hit on the Chosen, but
the man's hits completely worthless against the strange armor.
Nakiad began to get tired.
Ami rushed through the street toward the location of the Chosen according to
her computer. Next to her, Serena was puffing from the run, a black cat pacing
the two girls.
"How," Serena breathed heavily, "much further do we have to go?"
Ami tapped a few keys on her computer and frowned. "The disturbance is a fair
distance away, it will take us several more minutes." Another key showed the
probable location of the other scouts, and a tentative placement for Tuxedo
Mask. None of the scouts would reach the Chosen soon, but the one there first
would be Sailor Venus.
Nakiad blocked yet another blow, his arms absorbing the force of the impact,
turning the mace aside. He cursed his inability to do anything about the
figure, then brought his swords up. If he did nothing, he would not be able to
survive for much longer, as the knight had been methodically wearing him out.
Even the strength of a thousand years of training could not cope with the
seemingly infinite power of this creature.
Dodging another blow, the man thought quickly, remembering what he once knew
about this knight.
He made a decision.
The knight swung his mace again, the metal end whistling through the air bare
inches away from Nakiad's face.
But the man did not dodge aside like he usually did. Instead, in that moment,
he concentrated on his hands, half closing his eyes, then looked straight
ahead, launching himself forward. While the figure swung the heavy mace
around, the blades blurred in Nakiad's hands, seeming to vanish because of the
speed of their being put away. The Chosen's hands, now bare, reached out as
the man almost hit the knight, and grappled for the armor. Both palms made
contact, and for a moment, seemed to still. In that instant, the temperature
of the shoulder joint of the armor dropped drastically, to a point where any
ordinary material would have shattered.
As Nakiad had suspected it would, the covering held, and he spun away as the
mace whooshed through the air where he had been.
It's not over yet, the Chosen thought grimly, drawing his swords again,
blocking another strike, then slipping it past himself. Then he concentrated
once more, hoping the figure would not have enough time to strike.
In the instant between one heartbeat and the next, all the energy in his body
shifted. It flowed, generated, energizing his legs and arms, flowing into the
two blades in his hand.
With a harsh mental cry, Nakiad launched himself, forward, two blades ready,
then twisted in the middle of his leap. The two blades, charged with the
power of his being, unstoppable, blurred in the air.
And smashed against the frozen patch of armor with a deafening thunderclap!
Nothing, no metal in the Universe could resist that blow, nothing could stop or
avert the energy of the impact. The two swords smashed and continued moving,
impossible to stop. And the metal had already been weakened by the tremendous
draining of energy, a cold so extreme that the slightest hit should have
shattered it.
But the armor of the figure held, withstood the impact. And the blow slammed
through Nakiad's arms, numbing them, almost shocking the swords out of his
hands. And as the energy of the impact flared, the blades tensed, shrieking,
then shattered!
In an instant, the two turned from gray lengths of Maraki to pieces of shrapnel
flying out over the concrete.
The blades of the Chosen are more than mere weapons, than mere swords. The
staff of the Chosen, of which the blades are an alternate form, is the one
weapon capable of destroying the Shadow. And the link between the swords and
Nakiad had been there for a thousand years, getting stronger, more solid.
After a millennium of using the blades as if they were part of him, they became
part of the Chosen, their energy intertwined as if they were part of the same
person, until the swords were effectively a piece of Nakiad, a part he thought
to be indestructible.
And as the blades shattered, a lance of pain thrust through the center of the
Chosen's chest, overloading his nerves, slamming into his mind. The world
seemed to turn into a sheet of white fire, enveloping him, burning his senses.
He collapsed to the cracked pavement, the pain overloading his mind, destroying
his ability to fight.
The armored figure stepped forward, the metal clad feet crunching as they
stopped on shards of metal. The creature raised his mace, preparing to bring
it down on the man's head.
Nakiad continued to lie, not moving, unconscious.
And the mace shrieked down at his head.
She almost screamed suddenly, her hands going up to her head, a blow of pain
that was almost physical slamming into her. For a moment, Mina stood still,
trying to shake off the effects, finding nothing wrong with herself.
As she continued running, her mind wondered where the shock of pain could have
come from, and found only one answer.
The orange scout was linked to Nakiad through the bond of true love, the same
bond that allowed Darian to sense when Serena was in danger. And so if the
pain was not hers, then it had to be the Chosen's, and if it was this powerful
in its echo- Mina finished the thought, getting rapidly more worried.
She sped up, going as fast as she could.
But she would not be in time.
The heavy weapon slammed down through the air, approaching Nakiad's face at an
unstoppable speed. He was unconscious, helpless before the blow, and no one
could regenerate from an impact like the one that was about to smash his
head.
But a thousand years of training embedded instincts in his body, a will to
survive that could not be broken easily. While his mind tried to deal with the
pain, a portion of him, some reflex learned over a millennium took over. At
the last moment, his body spasmed, and flipped itself to the side, the mace
smashing into the concrete, sending waves of stone to all directions.
The armored figure looked at the Chosen, wondering what happened, then stepped
forward once more. One foot came down on the leg of the man, then pressed
down, holding him there. The mace cocked once more, ready to smash down.
This time, there was nowhere for Nakiad to go, his body as immobile and
impotent as his mind.
The mace whistled through the air once more.
"Venus Crescent Beam SMASH!" The cry rang out in the cool air, reverberating
from the buildings.
And a beam of energy slammed into the mace, carrying it away from its target.
Once more, the heavy spike-studded end smashed into the pavement, and the
creature seemed to glare up at the orange scout that stood on top of a nearby
building.
Then it stood up straight once more and made a motion with both hands.
And was gone.
It vanished into thin air, a feeling of cold the only reminder of its
presence.
He tired to blink away the veil of pain that obscured his sight,
unsuccessfully. Someone seemed to be over him, saying something, but he could
not hear.
His swords.
They were.. another spasm of pain went through him, then the haze that covered
the world around him seemed to begin to lift. Slowly, the blurry figure began
to come into focus, as did the words the person was saying.
"Are you all right?" The image abruptly focused into Mina's face as his body
fought to break out of the paralyzed state, and he tried to answer. The effort
sent him back into darkness for a period of time the length of which he could
not guess. After it, the world seemed to focus around him better, and he began
to distinguish general shapes.
This time, there were several figures over him, the scouts talking among
themselves. After a few moments, the words became recognizable, though it was
still difficult to tell which scout was talking when.
"What happened?" Good question, he thought.
Another voice came from behind him, and his head shifted as if the speaker was
holding it. "I'm not sure. When I came, there was this figure standing over
him, and he was unconscious." He could feel Mina - for that was who the
speaker was - hesitate, then continue. "When I was on my way, I felt something,
and I think it was through the mental link between us. It was.. I'm not sure
where it came from, but it was pain."
With an effort, Nakiad shifted his position, showing that he was awake. His
throat opened on the second try and a dry croak emerged. After a moment, he
managed to get a modicum of control. "I know," he whispered, and the scouts
bent toward him.
Then another shape appeared, a black one. "I think we had better leave."
Suddenly the sound of sirens infringed on Nakiad's consciousness and he became
aware that the police had been approaching for some time. "Come on, Mina,"
Darian continued, "I'll help you carry him. I think we should go to my place,
there'd be a lot fewer awkward questions."
The other scouts seemed to agree, because someone lifted him to his feet.
Suddenly angry, Nakiad shook off their support, then started to collapse.
Catching himself, he forced strength to his legs, straightening, then looked
around. "Swords," he whispered, remembering.
Around him, the pavement was completely wrecked. The hilts of two swords lay
nearby, with lots of shards scattered, mixed in with the rubble. With several
unsteady steps, he approached the ends of the swords, picking them up, then
looked around.
The sirens stopped, very close, and the sounds of doors opening and closing
reached him. He felt a touch on his shoulder, Ami was behind him. "I don't
think we need an encounter with the police right now," she whispered
urgently.
His mind protested violently, his body wishing he could get all the pieces.
But Ami was right, the police could be awkward. Clutching the two hilts like
talismans, he turned, following the scouts up a fire escape, shaking off any
helping hands.
Several policemen arrived a minute or two later, missing the exit of the
group.
For a moment, the first stood still, looking at the alley, then turned to his
partner.
"Er," was all he managed to say, looking at the wrecked pavement and damaged
buildings surrounding.
* * *
"I did not see it," Nakiad whispered quietly. He seemed to have recovered from
whatever it was that happened to him, but Mina was still worried.
Darian suddenly held up one hand, and everyone quieted as he turned up the
sound on the TV.
"... And in other news, a strange occurrence baffled police today, when a woman
phoned in about a fight going on outside her apartment window. When the police
arrived at the scene, there was no one there, but the alley was completely
wrecked.." The TV screen jumped, showing the alley for a few moments, then a
policeman blocked the camera's view, obviously telling the reporter to get out
of there. "..The police are not saying much, but rumor is that they have found
a strange metal at the scene which is now being analyzed." the commentator
paused, shaking his head in bafflement, then smiled. "And in happier news, the
project to demolish the park in downtown Tokyo has been.."
Darian pressed the power switch on the remote, the picture disappearing, and
turned to Nakiad as he rested on the couch. "So what happened?"
"So stupid!" He did not seem to be talking to Darian or the scouts, but to
himself.
Mina, sitting next to him, tried to take his hand, and almost cut herself on
the jagged edge of the sword he was still holding. Looking down at his hands,
he smiled crookedly, putting the two ends on the floor.
"All right," he answered, "all right." He grasped his forehead for a moment as
if still in pain, then dropped his hands. "I was stupid. It was right there in
front of me, and I did not even *see* it!" For a moment, he was silent,
then looked up. "You don't see it, do you?"
He calmed down suddenly, turning to Darian. "Do you remember the attack on the
Earth The first one, I mean?"
The prince's face became serious as he sat down in an armchair. "Vaguely.. I
remember it was sudden, and no one was expecting it. Then.." His voice
faltered.
"It's OK, Darian, that's what I wanted to hear anyway. The attack was
unexpected. Do any of you remember *why* that was so?" He nodded as the
scouts shook their heads. "I thought so." He sighed. "I am not sure about
this, but this is what I know from the time after the first battle, when I was
a spirit, and from what Guardian told me. I was able to piece together what
happened."
"The main army of the Negaverse, the one that was commanded by Beryl and,
hopefully, is now under Kaneth, was not the same during the Silver Millennium.
It was under the command of several generals, each having an equal share of
power. It was not the most stable of ways of rule, but it worked. For a
time."
"Then Queen Beryl came, as one of the lesser warriors. She had one great
asset, however, she knew the secret of Eternal Sleep. And that allowed her to
rise through the ranks, until finally, she was admitted to the highest council,
the council of the generals."
"It was a mistake. Beryl turned on the other generals, destroying the balance
of power they had, despite their agreements. She did not have the strength to
destroy them, but she had the power of Eternal Sleep. And it was enough. The
generals disappeared, and Beryl was left to take charge of the enormous power
of the army."
"As you know, she did not hesitate. She attacked in a very short time. And
the people of the Silver Millennium were not ready for that onslaught, prepared
for the strategies of the more moderate generals, they were unable to take a
direct assault like the one the evil Queen commanded. And so they lost,
because of Queen Beryl.." Nakiad paused, and Mina wondered if he still felt
guilt for that loss.
"And ever since then, that is the way in which she held power, far longer than
any single creature ever did, other than the Dark Lord. When a general got too
much strength, or when she could no longer trust someone, or when someone
failed her, she trapped that person in the prison of crystal, sending them away
to another dimension, forever imprisoned."
"And that is the same place where Nephlyte sent the Dark Lord, to the place
where all the strongest creatures of the Negaverse had been trapped."
The room stayed silent for a few moments, then Darian buried his face in his
hands. "You mean," he began, then fell silent.
"Yes." There was no emotion in that confirmation, the tone was calm. But
Nakiad's eyes wavered with an emotion that resembled failure. "The Shadow does
not have the power to cross between dimensions, but those creatures do. And he
knows the way to release them, as he is doing."
Lita raised her head. "Could you be wrong? I mean, could this creature be from
the Negaverse after all? Kaneth did say we were his enemies, and you told us
that he was probably in control now."
Nakiad shook his head. "No," he answered, his voice dark, "I'm not wrong.
Kaneth would not send another creature to attack at random. In him, you may
have found the best enemy you have ever had. Even if he does strike, and I'm
not sure he will, he will do so honorably, challenging you directly." He shook
his head again. "No, everything points to one thing, and one thing only. The
Shadow is free, and he can launch as many creatures after us as he wants."
Again, the room was silent, then Mina raised her head. "Then what is that
creature?"
Nakiad seemed to shiver, and one hand twitched toward the remains of the
swords. "There are legends-" he began, then fell silent. "One of the generals,
the ones of the original council before Queen Beryl came was rumored to be a
creature clad in impenetrable armor." Again, the hand twitched. "He was a
warrior of great intelligence, and no mercy, one of the mightiest fighters
ever. But that is not his true strength."
"His armor," he began, the arm twitching once more, "is of a metal stronger
than Maraki, stronger than my swords. Stronger than the staff. It is of the
ancient metals, lost forever over time, and it is almost impossible to destroy.
My swords-" His hand flicked toward them again as he sighed.
Serena looked at him, her eyes wide open. "How are we supposed to defeat
something you can't? You are the Chosen, aren't you, the mightiest warrior in
the Universe? How can the scouts destroy someone who could do *that* to
you swords."
He shook his head violently, then winced in pain, ruefully rubbing his head.
"You don't understand." He sighed. "I was a fool for fighting him, and I knew
it. Somehow, deep inside, I did not believe the legends, I thought I could
destroy him if I weakened his armor by draining it."
Mina laid a hand on his arm, looking at him. "But you were not strong enough,"
she finished for him.
He frowned, shaking his head. "You still don't get it. Even if I had the
*full* power of the Chosen, I *still* would have been defeated by
him." Before the scouts could protest, he raised his voice slightly. "Because
it is not for me to fight him." He paused, looking at Rei. "It is the same
reason for which I could not help you against Queen Beryl, and because of which
you can not help me directly against the Dark Lord. We have our fights. Yours
is against the Negaverse as a whole, whatever minions they spawn, such as the
knight." He sighed suddenly. "Mine is against the Dark Lord."
The scouts exchanged several puzzled glances, until finally Ami spoke up. "If
we are the ones who are supposed to fight this knight, then that means we have
the power to destroy him."
It was somewhere between a question and a statement, so Nakiad nodded. "In
theory, yes, the crystal should work against him."
For a moment, Serena looked puzzled, then a look of joy washed over her. "Then
we ought to be able to moondust him and that's that. Yay!" She yelled, leaping
into the air and almost knocking her head against the ceiling. On her way
down, she managed to land next to Darian, remaining there.
The Chosen sighed. "Just because you *can* destroy him does not mean it's
going to be easy," he began in a tired tone.
* * *
He looked at the knight, anger charging through him. The other seemed to be
staring at him through the metal visor, and thoughts came to the Dark Lord.
The black figure sighed in frustration. "All right, so I forgot to tell you
that the scouts are here. That is not something you should be worried about.
They are not the old ones, but just kids, new to their powers. They do not
represent a threat to you."
The Dark Lord seemed to listen again while the knight continued staring. Then
he sighed, answering. "No, I do not think the Princess is here," he lied, "she
was destroyed by Beryl, remember." At the mention of the queen, the armored
figure flinched slightly, then seemed to glare at the Shadow. For a moment, he
was still, then the Dark Lord seemed to get angry. "That is *enough*! I
am your master, and I command you to return and destroy the Chosen, or harm him
as much as possible. The scouts are not your concern, deal with them only if
you have to. If they get in your way, kill them." The knight did not move,
and the black figure seemed to sigh again. "All right, whenever you have enough
power, go."
The armored figure turned away, walking to one side while the Shadow turned
around. The Dark Lord made sure he could not be seen by his minion, then
allowed a slight smile of victory to cross his lips. So, he thought with
satisfaction, the swords of the Chosen are destroyed. It does not matter any
more, he said silently to his enemy, nothing but this matters.
Now, you are *mine*.
The Shadow looked toward one side of the field, where a slight glow illuminated
the ground.
It was not nearly finished yet, energy still flowing into the strange shape,
brightening and focusing it. But it was already clear what it would become in
the end.
A portal.
* * *
"Um, Ami, could I talk to you for a moment?" The girl turned around in the
doorway of Darian's apartment. She had been leaving, the rest of the scouts
already ahead of her, and the voice stopped her just as she was about to close
the door.
"What is it, Nakiad?" He seemed almost recovered from the fight, but something
in his eyes worried her.
"It's my swords. According to the news guy, the police are holding the shards
of metal for experimentation with them. I would just as soon that did not come
to be. So could you sort of-" he looked embarrassed for a moment, but the
expression passed so quickly that Ami could have imagined it, "find out where
they are keeping it?"
Ami smiled slightly, putting a slightly astonished tone into her voice. "You
mean you want me to hack into a government computer, something clearly illegal,
and be a part of an illegal operation Involving the obstruction of justice and
the stealing of evidence?"
He seemed to consider that, then also smiled a little. "Basically." Then his
face became somber. "Seriously, though, I could do it myself, I suppose, but
I'm staying here for the night. Besides, the Mercury computer is something
else when it comes to.. well, anything."
Ami nodded. "Of course. I'll see what I can do."
He smiled to himself as she closed the door, going outside.
Darian came up behind him, almost silently, and stood there for a moment as
Nakiad stared into space, directly ahead.
"What do you think our chances are against that knight?"
The Chosen remained still for a moment, then sighed, turning. "You don't want
to know," he answered ruefully.
Darian stared into the other's eyes for a moment, then hung his head. "Do you
really think Serena has the power to defeat this thing?"
Nakiad looked at his in surprise. "As the Moon Princess, she has almost
unlimited power. She had the strength, yes, but that rarely matters. Many
people have strength of which they have no knowledge." He shook his head. "It
is whether she has the ability to use the power that is the question. And I'm
honestly not sure whether she does."
Darian stood there, then sighed. "I love her, you know." The Chosen mentally
stopped himself from saying anything in answer to the obvious. The man turned,
looking out through the windows, out into the city. "If she cannot defeat this
thing, then what will happen?"
"Darian." He emphasized the name, making the other look at him. "She
*can* defeat the knight."
The other's emotions seemed to lift a little, then he looked back. "Then why
do you look so worried?"
Surprised, Nakiad focused on his face, forcing it to return to impassivity.
But it was too late, and he sighed. Because the knight is the least of our
problems, Darian, he did not say. Instead, he merely shook his head. "It is not
a problem you or the scouts will have to face," he answered indirectly.
For a few minutes, both men were silent, each thinking to himself, of different
things. Darian broke the silence first, looking at the other. "Mina offered to
stay for the night. Why didn't you let her?"
Nakiad looked at him sadly. "For the same reasons that you would not Serena
sleep over. Because she is too young." Darian looked at him strangely, and
Nakiad sighed. "And because I'm too old." Because in the end, I'm the Chosen.
And as long as I am that, I can not truly belong to her, nor she to me.
The prince seemed to accept what he said, then seemed to force whatever it was
he was thinking about out of his mind. "Do you want to sleep on the couch, or
the bed?"
Nakiad merely shook his head. "If you don't mind, I'd like to sleep on the
balcony."
Darian looked at him strangely again, but did not object. "All right. You
hungry?" He began the trek to the kitchen.
It took a few moments for the other to respond, a second or so for him to break
out of his thoughts.
* * *
"What?" The voice asking the question was barely audible, as if coming through
a pillow.
"Good morning, Serena," Ami said cheerfully into the communicator.
The blonde girl merely groaned. "Is it time for school already?"
"Well, no," Luna said from beyond the range of the communicator's camera,
"today being Saturday and all."
"Saturday?" Abruptly, Serena was wide awake. "Why didn't you tell me it was
Saturday, she spoke directly at Ami, the blue scout flinching only slightly
from the assault.
"Because otherwise, you would have never woken up. Rei felt something strange
and she went to investigate. The rest of the scouts have already been called,
and we need you as soon as possible."
"All right, I'm getting up," Serena began moving, getting up with a fair amount
of speed, "where do I go?"
Ami answered, turning off the communicator several seconds later, just in time
to avoid hitting a tree on her run. Shaking her head at the near miss, she
continued down the street, already in her scout uniform.
The mace whooshed inches over Rei's head as the scout ducked, concentrating.
"Mars Fire Ignite!" A lance of flames flew from her fingers, slamming into the
figure at close range, bathing the gray armor in red.
But the other merely ignored the attack, letting the firs wash over him, then
strode forward once more, swinging the mace at her side. She dodged, then he
switched the direction of the swing, smashing the mace down against the
pavement. The concrete exploded upward, throwing Rei off her feet and almost
into the path of the swinging mace. The vicious spikes passed scant
millimeters away from her chest, the bow on the front of her uniform the only
casualty. She stumbled back, sitting down hard on her hands, just barely
avoiding a completely prone position.
But the knight stayed on top of her, a heavy metal fist suddenly grasping one
of her arms, the other metal hand swinging a mace at her head. The red scout
tried to twist free, but in vain against the immovable fingers.
"Jupiter Thunder CRASH!" Suddenly, the crushing force of the monster's fingers
was wrenched away from her arm, and the gray shape no longer dominated her
view. A moment later, three shapes landed next to Rei. While the armored
figure backed off a bit, obviously startled by the appearance of two scouts,
they helped Rei up, and moved away a little.
"He isn't damaged at all," Ami said calmly, the blue visor covering her eyes.
"I think the only reason he is holding back is because he is unsure what to do
about us, like he does not know just what our abilities are."
Tuxedo Mask accelerated to keep up with Nakiad's unnatural speed as they ran
toward the direction from which Sailor Moon's stigma was coming.
Suddenly, the Chosen paused for a moment, holding up a hand to stop Darian. He
closed his eyes for a moment, then glanced urgently at the other. "There is a
feeling of evil coming from that direction," he motioned to one side from their
path, "a feeling that matches the knight's. And Sailor Moon seems to be moving
that way."
Thinking along the same lines, they changed direction, running now toward the
other feeling, Darian annoyed at their having to guess the direction by such
means. "There really ought to be an easier way of communicating, than by you
getting woken up every time Serena transforms."
Darian startled, wondering if the other was reading his mind. "Actually, I
meant to ask Luna for a communicator, but somehow it slipped my mind. Too many
other things going on at once, I guess."
Nakiad smiled without slowing down. "I do have the ability to er.. hack into
the communication lines, but I forgot to tell the scouts how to do it vice
versa, how to call me. Oh, well." The other's voice suddenly became somber as
he looked at Darian. "You realize, of course that I can not help you in this
fight."
For a moment, he thought about that, then looked back at the other. "Can not,
or may not?"
The Chosen smiled grimly. "Both, but the second one can be bent, as it was when
I fought the knight the first time. But as you saw, more bad came out of that
than good. A lot more. I have no weapons capable of harming him, no way to
fight him." For a brief moment, a thoughtful expression crossed his face, then
disappeared.
Darian continued to run. "And we do."
"Serena does. Her birthright gives her the power."
The prince puzzled over that for a moment, then shook his head. "You mean the
crystal."
Though Darian was not looking directly at Nakiad, the prince caught the
suggestion of a strange expression on the other's face. But he agreed, in
slightly uncharacteristic tone. "Right."
Several people got out of their way as they continued down the nearly deserted
street and Darian concentrated on them for a few moments. Then he remembered
something else.
"Wait.. you never told us what exactly happened back there. I mean, we know
you broke the swords against the knight's armor-" suddenly Darian realized that
the other had not told them even that much, "but not why you were
unconscious."
A look of pain seemed to wash over the other's face for an instant, then it was
gone. "I suspect that you will have to wait for an answer. We're here."
Surprised, Darian raised his head.
The four scouts, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter were standing in a circle,
facing inward at the solitary figure at the center. All of the scouts showed
signs of wear, a bow missing on Rei's uniform, several tears in the other
scouts' clothes. The legs of the scouts were all scraped from the smashed
concrete sticking up underneath them. But they were not giving up.
In the middle of the circle, like a juggernaut, stood the knight, one arm
raised with the mace held firmly in it, the other bent toward the ground.
Darian breathed out, shaking his head in surprise. "No wonder you couldn't hurt
him."
The figure emanated a feeling of power that crossed the distance between them,
a sensation of complete impregnability.
Nakiad touched his arm. "Remember, though I will try to help, you are on your
own." Darian nodded as the figure moved the mace through the air, then leapt
forward.
The knight spun around almost immediately toward him, seeming to size him up,
then raised the mace. A dragon made of lightning suddenly smashed into his
back, only to be ignored as the mace continued down.
It smashed into the pavement, sending a tendril of exploding concrete at the
prince's face, then the knight sprung forward through the net of scouts.
Darian flicked a rose at the creature's face as he dodged aside, letting the
mace pass well away from his body. The flower merely bounced off the metal
plates, embedding itself in the ground.
But rather than attacking again, the knight continued forward, past the prince,
never slowing. Darian whirled in time to see Nakiad dodge out of the way of
the spiked mace, then he grasped for more roses. A blast of light smashed into
the armored back, not affecting it as the creature pursued the black clad
Chosen.
Catching him was obviously not as easy as it seemed at first. Nakiad seemed to
meld away from the other's grasp, avoiding him easily. Meanwhile, blasts of
various energy impacted into the armor, and seemed to be bothering the
monster.
Because it stopped its chase. For several seconds, it stood still, seemingly
in thought, then looked back at the scouts.
Then at Nakiad once more, standing just out of its reach.
The knight sprang into motion.
Directly at the scouts, reaching out with the free hand.
Whether it was by choice or luck, the scout he grabbed was Mina, who screamed
and shot an ineffective blast of light at him as the creature crushed her
against his side. She tried in vain to twist free, as the knight's visor
turned toward Nakiad once more. As he paused, the metal clad hand moved inward
a little and Sailor Venus gasped at the pressure.
Darian's thoughts whirled as he considered the situation. Meanwhile, his body
reacted, a rose blurring through the air only to bounce off the other's visor.
Several others followed, with no more effect. Tuxedo Mask thought frantically.
Both he and the scouts were helpless in the situation, doubly so because of
Mina. Any widespread attack would stand a good chance of killing her without
hurting the knight.
Nakiad seemed to have already finished the thought process because he suddenly
dropped his head. "All right," he whispered brokenly.
"No!" Mina yelled out, twisting futility against the bonds. The armored hand
moved inward and the orange scout gasped in pain.
"All right!" Nakiad said angrily. "It's me *He* wants, obviously." The
armored hand seemed to relax a little as the Chosen stepped forward.
Then the knight's head suddenly turned toward the top of a building as he
seemed to sense something. A seemingly tiny and fragile figure stood there,
two long pigtails moved slowly by a slight breeze.
"Moon Scepter *ELIMINATION*!"
Time seemed to slow as the blast of energy descended onto the armored figure,
slamming into its side. As the knight bent soundlessly away from the impact,
Mina managed to scramble free from he grasp, running over to the rest of the
scouts.
At the point of impact, the knight's armor glowed with the energy of the beam,
and he was slowly forced down toward the ground. He moved back a little as the
metal of his side seemed to bend, the air around it distorting the image
because of the heat.
Then the beam ceased as the energy of the attack ran out, and the knight seemed
to shake the metal plates a little. The whole right side of the figure was
black, but the creature straightened smoothly, hefting the mace in one hand.
It turned the helmeted head toward Sailor Moon, then seemed to look down.
As Serena prepared to attack again, a feeling of cold permeated everyone as the
knight disappeared, vanishing in front of all of them.
After a few silent moments, the princess leapt down from the building, landing
easily on the pavement. Then she almost fell flat on her face as the abused
concrete buckled under her.
"Well, seems a good thing I came when I did, don't you think?" She inquired
brightly.
"Yeah," Rei answered darkly, "better late than never, Meatball Head! Where
were you, at the arcade?"
Sailor Moon's eyes began to fill with tears as Luna came out of the alley,
shaking her head. "It wasn't-" the cat paused, then continued in a slightly
annoyed tone, "*entirely* her fault, Mars. It is very difficult to sneak
by her parents, they are very light sleepers." The red scout merely looked
around, and so did Luna, a worried expression crossing the cat's face. "Where's
Artemis?"
Everyone exchanged glances, then a moan came from one side. A white cat
scrambled out from beneath a chunk of pavement, slightly bruised but not much
worse for wear. Mina rushed gratefully up to him, but he was intent of the
black cat.
"I was *not*," Luna protested his look, suddenly realizing how worried her
voice had been, "I was just worried about Mina's feelings."
"Uh-huh," he nodded knowingly as several police sirens infringed on the
situation.
Nakiad stepped forward. "I guess it's my turn to remind you that we don't want
a scene with the police."
"I need to go back to my place before my folks wake up," Serena suddenly
remembered. Several of the scouts agreed, realizing the time.
"All right," Nakiad answered. "I think I'll get back to my place, see if I can
help in some way." He looked around at everyone. "You did good this time."
"Yeah, but not good enough," Lita answered darkly. Nakiad did not reply, which
was an answer in and of itself.
"Regroup later today at my place?" Darian asked with a slight smile.
Rei shook her head. "I'd rather it was at the temple. I'm going to do a
reading on this creature, see if I can find something out.
The various parties nodded, leaping out of sight.
"Mind if I borrow your bike?" Nakiad shrugged. "The portal only works one
way."
The prince turned around to a haggard looking Nakiad standing behind him, and
thought of the motorcycle in the parking lot of the apartment building. "Of
course I don't mind," Darian answered. Exchanging a glance, they began running
down the street. As they saw several people in the distance, Darian
automatically transformed to his regular clothes, slowing his pace to a more
normal jog. The other slowed down as well, though he remained in his black
gi.
"What if you are recognized?"
The other did not respond for a moment, then seemed to startle a little. "Oh."
He smiled a little. "I am the Chosen. People only remember me if I want them
to." As if that explained it, he switched to another topic. "That is not what
worries me."
For several minutes they continued in silence, then Darian asked. "What
does?"
Again, Nakiad seemed startled by the question, as if he was somewhere else.
Then he looked at the prince gravely. "I expected more damage from the scepter.
And we have not yet begun to face the real problem."
"Oh," Darian answered quietly, with a complete lack of understanding.
* * *
Once more, the warrior stood across from the Dark Lord, his mace put away on
his waist, his stance slightly subservient. But at the same time, the way the
knight stood, the way the metal plates moved against each other suggested
anger.
"Then take care of it," the Shadow answered calmly. "Surely you are not going
to let yourself be stopped by a little girl wielding a power she does not
understand. If I recall, she is still using tools to access the power in
herself. Use that to your advantage."
Again, he listened, growing more impatient, but at the same time more satisfied
inside.
Perhaps, he thought silently, this Sailor Moon will take care of the knight as
well. The warrior has done his job in destroying the swords of the Chosen, and
there was little further use in him. He had proven to be a powerful fighter,
but he was more of a leader than a servant, having been in a position of power
with no superiors before his entrapment. As such, he was not a good candidate
for a minion, though he did fight well. At the same time, the more creatures I
can send, the more energy I can take away from the Chosen before the
confrontation, the better, the Dark Lord decided. "As soon as you have enough
energy, you will go back and destroy the Chosen, along with the measly team
called the sailor scouts."
The knight seemed to glare at him through the visor.
After a moment, the Dark Lord snarled. "I will not stand insubordination.
Remember, you can always be replaced," he added angrily, pointing to the line
of crystals. Toward the crystal at the end of the line, the one that had been
next to the knights. Parts of the transparent substance had been knocked off,
and the creature trapped within seemed to writhe, waiting for freedom.
The knight looked down, bowing slightly to his master, then turned away.
Satisfied, the Shadow turned as well, turning to the portal. It was not yet
close to readiness, but a day would be enough to make it strong enough.
Strong enough to take the Dark Lord to Earth.
And to victory.
* * *
Ami sighed in relief as the computer beeped, interrupting her frustrating
reading.
When she had arrived home, her mother had almost caught her, Ami having barely
enough time to sneak under the covers of her bed, in full clothing. As it was,
the parent had been a little suspicious because Ami rarely stayed in bed until
so late.
Now she had been unable to concentrate on her book about the applications of
vector calculus at relativistic speeds. The night before, her mind had been
focused on the subject, and the volume had seemed to be relatively easy. Now,
with her mind occupied, the blue scout found herself reading the same page over
and over again, a situation that was very annoying.
Now, at least, she thought as she reached for the computer, I can think about
something else. Earlier during the day, she had connected it to a phone line,
and set it to retrieve the location of the pieces of the Chosen's sword. It
had been working for several hours, because the location seemed unreasonably
well guarded.
Ami scanned the screen quickly, then punched a few buttons to get more
information. A small indicator inside the computer began flashing, detecting
an unauthorized entry through the phone line, but Ami did not see it. The
virus, finding itself in hostile territory with various antiviral programs
running, settled quietly to the bottom of the RAM stack like any other piece of
information.
Meanwhile, the scout had gotten all of the needed data, and automatically
reached for the communicator to call Nakiad.
Then she hung her head, remembering that there was no way to access him through
the device, it having been designed only for the four scouts and the
princess.
On the other hand, Ami suddenly thought, the communicators were pretty ancient,
having been made before the scout was born in the Silver Millennium. And
Nakiad had been able to call the scouts in some way, as he did during the
attack. So perhaps- Ami took out the small communicator.
"Nakiad." She said the one word, waiting for an answer. Nothing happened, the
screen remaining as dark as it was before. Ami sighed, preparing to put the
device away, then another thought came.
"Chosen," she said, not really hoping.
The screen lit up, and several seconds later the man's face came on the
screen.
"Sailor Mercury, what is it?" He looked a bit worried, she noticed, though it
was well hidden. The fact that it showed at all made it plain that he was very
upset about something.
"I scanned the police network for the information you asked for." He suddenly
looked interested, and Ami sighed again, preparing to give him the bad news.
"I'm afraid that the shards have been taken to a high security science lab.
For some reason, the pieces are attracting a lot of interest from the
authorities, it was almost impossible to trace them."
She told him about the security measures of the lab, expecting him to be
disappointed. As far as the scout herself could see, there would be no way to
get inside.
Nakiad's expression did not change. "Thanks Ami." He smiled, though it looked
a little forced. "Don't worry, I can get them out. Anything else?"
Ami shook her head and the screen dimmed. Bemused, she turned back to the
book, starting at the top of the page once more.
Nakiad looked at the screen, then put it away, brightening a little. At least
that was one thing he could take care of.
"Computer, bring up the schematics of lab Ami was talking about." A panel in
the wall next to him slid aside soundlessly, revealing a screen. The computer,
with microphones all over the house, automatically analyzed the conversation,
figuring out which plans he was talking about.
Behind him, Guardian appeared. The white globe of light pulsed slightly.
Nakiad did not turn around, continuing to study the schematics. "You haven't
been around a lot lately."
The white sphere bobbed a little. <I've still been following your
progress.>
"Mina, right?" The Chosen sighed, turning around.
<Partly. You are too important to just give yourself up> the way you did
out there.
"I knew Sailor Moon was on the way. I needed to buy some time, all right?"
<True, but not the whole truth.> Guardian seemed to sigh mentally. <If
the Princess had not come in time?>
For a moment, Nakiad merely looked at the protector, then he, too, sighed. "I
do not know."
<Yes you do.>
Yes, the man thought, I do, but if I admit it even to myself, then I might not
be able to go on. He cut off that line of thought, continuing aloud. "You said
'partly,' just then, what is the other thing?"
The white light hesitated. <There is another problem. We have thought that
the Dark Lord does not have the power to cross into the Universe.>
"Yes, all he can do is send monsters against us. But because of the number of
creatures he can send, he has to be stopped. And I don't know how." I don't
think he can be, Nakiad did not say, making sure to bury the thought where
Guardian could not see it.
<We were wrong.>
"What?" Involuntarily, he said it aloud, and cursed himself for betraying his
surprise so obviously. He had thought the mental training had made him almost
invulnerable to being startled, but apparently it just took a shock severe
enough.
<The calculations on the power needed to move between dimensions was based on
going from the Universe to the Negaverse. Apparently, those placed in Eternal
Sleep are in a separate dimension->
"Second law of interdimensional transport," Nakiad finished for Guardian. "The
amount of energy required for a portal varies directly with the size of the
source Universe and inversely with the size of the destination one." He
finished the quote, a cold feeling settling somewhere in the area of his
stomach. "It is easier to make a portal from a pocket universe than it is from
a large one. Can he do it?"
Again, Guardian hesitated. <I am not sure. But there is a good chance that
he can.>
Nakiad sighed. After several moments of silence, Guardian disappeared.
There was nothing more to say.
The Chosen studied the schematics, going over a plan in his mind. Getting the
swords back was now his top priority, even though he knew they would not help.
It would be nearly impossible to heal them in time to stop what he feared was
coming. Beside which there was a good chance the police had not found all the
shards.
Then he remembered something else. "Computer, how much time passed between the
beginning of the first attack and the second?"
The mechanical voice answered almost instantly, the instruments having
automatically recorded both disturbances. "Approximately eleven hours, three
minutes and four point five seven nine seconds."
<Guardian>, Nakiad called silently. He felt the other listening. <Why
was there such a long time between the attacks.>
The other answered without appearing. <The Dark Lord would not have stood for
insubordination, he would have wanted the next attack as soon as possible.>
The protector seemed to be thinking out loud.< And though the knight is
cautious, he would not disobey the Shadow in this.>
Nakiad thought for a moment. <Could it take that long for the knight to
gather enough energy to cross the gap between the universes?>
<There is nothing that states to the contrary.>
<Then the next attack will be at about 5> in the evening.
The other paused, then seemed to give the equivalent of a mental shrug. <That
is as good a guess as any.>
Nakiad glanced at the monitor. It was almost noon.
* * *
"What do you think is up, man?" The two security guards stood by the door,
trying to appear fierce. They were both failing rather badly, being ordinary
policemen, but they were doing their best. Especially considering that they
did not know why they were guarding a science lab.
"I dunno, but they said on the news that we got some sort of strange metal from
the fight scene."
"So we're guarding a bunch of scrap metal."
From across the street, a black burning gaze landed on the two security guards,
and went unnoticed. For several seconds, it remained there, then dissapeared
once more.
"Probably." The man yawned suddenly, his hands going up above him. "I feel
sleepy all of a sudden.. like.." His eyelids flickered a little, but he forced
his eyes open.
"Yeah..." the other agreed between yawns, "me... too..." Both slid silently to
the floor of the entrance while pedestrians passed them, apparently without
seeing anything strange in two cops lying on the street.
A black figure detached itself from a shadow, coming forward. It came across
the street smoothly, and although it was quite visible, no one seemed to pay
any heed.
The figure slipped inside the entrance, the door closing without a squeak.
Inside, the real security began. Unlike the officers at the entrance, these
were trained professionals. They paced the corridors while hidden cameras
tracked any movement and lasers protected from any intruders.
None of these measures did any better than the two cops.
* * *
"I call upon the power of fire.. Oh sacred flame, guide me to the place of the
next attack." Rei intoned the words as they came from deep inside, someplace
where her conscious and subconscious joined together in one.
Behind her, four scouts sat silently, observing the ritual. Behind them, two
more figures, slightly larger, sat in similar silence. Almost invisible, two
cats remained in the back, the flickering of the fire reflected in their feline
eyes.
Rei concentrated, her brow furrowing as her fingers wove mystical signs in the
air. The flame surged and she relaxed, though no one saw anything.
"It's another alley, in the bad part of town," the red scout told them calmly
as the fire settled down to its normal height. She smiled, turning around. "I
doubt that this happens by chance."
Nakiad shook his head. "I understand that a lot of people might interfere with
teleporting, so a deserted place is usually the choice for coming in. And the
last two sites are crawling with cops right now."
"And you are sure the attack will happen at five?" Serena sat back with a
sigh. "Positive?"
"Princess-" He paused, remembering her dislike for the title. "Serena, nothing
is impossible, especially in this case. But I think there is a fairly good
chance that the time will be five."
The group exchanged series of glances as each thought about the encounter.
Artemis came forward, his white coat emerging suddenly from the shadow. "If you
recall," he said grimly, "we did not make much of an impression on him last
time."
"Hey, I did," Serena protested, an annoyed Rei jerking her back too late.
"True," Luna agreed, coming forward as well, "but the knight survived. And you
exhausted your beam."
Lita glared at the leader of the sailor scouts. "Well, at least you made some
sort of an impression on him. None of our attacks seemed to harm him at
all."
Nakiad seemed to jerk himself out of his thoughts as he heard that. "That is
not entirely true. Each strike damaged him, but not none of the attacks
individually was powerful enough to stop him."
"So what do we do to destroy the creature? And can you help?"
Nakiad sighed. "The answer to the second question is no, I'm afraid.
Technically, I'm not allowed to help, but as long as the help does not involve
the power of the Chosen, I can do whatever I want. However, with the power or
without, there is really nothing I can do. But you *can* destroy him,
trust me on this." He looked meaningfully at Serena. "Even Sailor Moon alone
can, I think, for the knight is not as powerful as Beryl was, just
different."
Ami looked at him penetratingly. "If that is so, then why are you worried?"
He glanced at her and sighed. "I don't really know the true capabilities of the
knight, and I cannot help you. When he went after me, you saw, I could do
nothing but try to avoid him." He paused, looking around. "But that is not
all. There is another problem, a far graver problem. So far, we have only
been fighting the one creature that the Dark Lord has sent us."
Mina sat up suddenly. "You mean, he could send more with him?"
"I do not think so. No, he probably barely has control over one of these
creatures, I doubt he wants to release two at the same time. However, he
obviously has the ability to release as many creatures as he wants, which makes
for a huge problem. Even if you defeat the knight, you will have another
creature ready to fight you. And that could go on forever, and he is bound to
find one that is stronger than you."
Lita grinned. "Beryl never did."
"Beryl always trapped her strongest warriors in those crystals." Lita looked
down. "But this is not all," Nakiad continued. "I have assumed that the reason
for these attacks is revenge, to destroy those who caused him to be trapped,
and partially planning. For if we are out of the way, when he gathers enough
strength to make a portal, there will be no one to stop him."
Ami looked at him steadily. "And now you think that may not be true."
Nakiad sighed. "Guardian was checking that. He was wondering if it was
possible for the Dark Lord to make a portal, because he is in a bubble universe
as opposed to the Negaverse."
"And?"
The globe of light appeared over the group. <"And he has a good chance of
being able to.">
The scouts let out a collective sigh, and no one talked for several seconds.
Artemis suddenly curled up in a ball, as if he was cold. "What can we do?"
Nakiad hung his head. "It is what *I* should be able to do that is
important. It is my job to stop the Shadow when he attacks, but there is a
severe problem with that."
"The swords," Mina finished for him.
"Yes," he sighed. "I have recovered the pieces, and being a part of me, they
are capable of healing from damage as long as I am alive. But they have been
shattered, and it would take time for them to join together, and more time to
become as strong as they once were. Time we do not have." He sighed once
more. "I fear that destroying the swords has been the Dark Lord's plan from the
beginning of the attacks, and in striking out against the knight, I merely
played into his hands. And now.." He trailed off.
Luna came up, leaving a sad looking Artemis behind her. "Can you fight him
without the swords?"
Artemis shook his head. "No, Luna. The staff of the Chosen has been passed
down from Nemesis, the very first Chosen. It takes the shape of the weapon
best suited to its host. But it is necessary to face the Shadow, without it,
he would be as helpless as-" The white cat smiled a bit. "As a kitten."
"No Artemis," Nakiad stopped the white cat suddenly. "I *can* fight him."
I just can't win, he did not say.
Everyone heard anyway.
For several long minutes, the temple was silent, the sacred fire burning lower
than it had in years. Then the Chosen stood up.
"It is still half an hour before the projected attack. But I want you there
now, to be ready, just in case."
Mina glanced at him strangely. "What about you?"
He did not seem to hear her at first, then shook his head. "I'm going to go
back to my place. I need to do something."
"Then what about us?" Suddenly Serena changed from being too confident to
being scared.
"Princess." He stressed the title slightly as if to remind her of it. "You
have the power within you to destroy him. And you always have your friends."
She nodded, but still looked unsure. "I'll make it."
I hope, he added to himself.
The sun sank slowly behind the clouds, getting closer to the horizon, beginning
to tone down the stark shades of the day.
Once more, a feeling of cold surrounded a deserted street, somewhere in the bad
part of Tokyo. A shadow seemed to concentrate in one place, slowly forming
into a coherent shape. And once again, the knight appeared.
He was no longer damaged, as he had been the last time he had attacked. The
side that had been scorched black once more shone with the dull gray, identical
to the rest of the armor. The hand that easily held the heavy mace did not
seem tired, none of the armored plates drooped in a way that would suggest
weakness. The knight had recovered, and was ready to fight once more.
But this time, the scouts were also ready. Standing several meters away from
him in a semicircle, they faced him steadily, not letting his power get to
them. To one side, a sixth black shape stood, holding several roses with one
hand and a cane with another. On the other side of the semicircle, two cats
stood together, slightly behind everyone else. As he glared at them from
across the distance, they focused, forcing themselves to hold still.
The knight, too held his place. There was no way for the scouts to know
whether that was because of the absence of Nakiad, who might have been the
knight's primary target. Or whether that hesitation was caused by the person
in the center of the scouts' formation.
Sailor Moon stood calmly, holding to herself any fears she might have had. In
one hand, the Moon Scepter was held lightly, ready to be brought up to an
attack position within a moment's notice.
It might have been that weapon that caused the knight to pause, or it might not
have been. But for whatever reason, for long seconds, the creature held
still.
Then the mace moved fractionally back, as if cocked slowly for a throw. And
the knight sprang into action, leaping forward toward the formation of the
scouts.
Almost instantaneously, Serena reacted. The scepter moved up, pointing at the
armored figure. "Moon Scepter Elimination." The words came calmly from the
princess's mouth, pronounced easily.
And a beam of power leapt forward, at the gray figure.
At the last moment, the knight tried to dodge, get away from the power that
attacked him.
But he was too late.
The beam struck, carrying within itself the focused power of the Imperium
Silver Crystal. It hit the creature full in the armored chest, slamming it
backward.
The mace was tossed out of its grasp, landing on the ground as its wielder was
slowly forced back from the scouts. The armor at the point of impact began to
glow red from the energy.
As the scouts watched, the red glow brightened, going to orange, then yellow.
Almost white.
But the effort of forcing all of that power was costing the princess. Sweat
formed on her forehead, the arm holding the scepter began to shake. And the
other scouts, intent on the knight who had seemed impervious before, did not
see it in time to help her.
As the armor on the knight seemed about to collapse, flexing from the impact,
as creature was forced back even more, the beam faltered.
And died.
The scouts, the two cats and the prince, all of them looked at the princess as
she settled back, exhausted.
Almost immediately, they started toward her, to help her, lend some of their
own power to give her the strength needed to finish the fight.
While all of their attention was focused on the princess, the knight suddenly
straightened out. The front of the armor seemed close to being destroyed,
waves of distortions contrasting with the otherwise smooth gray metal.
But the creature was still alive.
And it reacted with inhuman speed, with an instinct of survival that was
hammered into all of the denizens of the Negaverse.
As the others, sensing motion from him, turned to face the armored figure, it
leapt forward with an impossible jump.
Landing in the center of the distorted semicircle.
The scouts surrounding the princess jerked back, none more than a step, all
involuntarily. It is merely human instinct to get away from danger that comes
that quickly.
The only ones that did not move were Darian and the princess.
Five roses slammed into the knight's side as the figure reached forward. The
flowers bounced off ineffectively, as before.
Serena opened her eyes with an effort to see two metal gauntlets close over the
Moon Scepter. She tried to jerk it back, but the force in those hands was
enough to match that of the Chosen. She never stood a chance.
With a jerk, the knight ripped the Scepter out of the scout's grasp.
And the metal fingers tightened, crushing into the Scepter
The Moon Scepter was a tool of power, a weapon capable of many things. It was
made of a material designed to withstand many energy blasts, a lot of
strength.
But not the kind of power that was being thrown against it now, not the kind of
material that could shatter the swords of the Chosen.
It seemed to breathe out hard as it collapsed, in the grasp, the portions under
the hands turning into powder, the length of the scepter crumbling. The
resulting surge of energy threw the knight back, turning the metal clad hands
black, throwing him out of the scouts' formation.
And the fragments of the scepter tinkled to the ground, landing with the sound
of broken crystal.
As the scouts watched, horrified, the fragments seemed to pulse with the energy
trapped within, then wavered. Before the astonished eyes of six warriors, the
pieces dissolved into vapor, blown away by a stray gust of wind.
* * *
Nakiad sighed, looking at the information displayed on the screen. According
to it, he could get the power to travel to the pocket dimension in which the
Dark Lord was. He had enough power, but there was no way he could do it.
For the bubble universe could be anywhere, and there was no way to find its
location. The only way that existed to get there was to be trapped in the
Eternal Sleep. And the only two who knew the secret to that, Nephlyte and
Beryl, were dead.
Nakiad sighed again. Even if he could reach the other, there was absolutely no
way he could do anything, not with the state he was in. The Chosen glanced
down, where the two swords lay on the pedestal, all the shards collected and
placed in the proper combination.
It had not been hard to put them together, for the swords were part of him. He
only had to feel which piece belonged where, and place it at that point, where
it adhered as if by magic.
The amazing thing was that the police had managed to do something right for a
change. Every one of the hundreds of pieces had been in the lab, every single
one of any size. Someone must have gone through that alley foot by foot with a
metal detector for that kind of precision.
The rest, the microscopic pieces that either were not recovered, or were placed
somewhere else, did not really matter, the weapons could heal themselves.
They would heal, yes, but by the time that happened, it would be far too late
for the Universe.
And he was helpless to hurry them any.
"... this just in. The police have reported a break-in at the main science and
technology center today by an unknown force. The chief of police of Tokyo
claims that there was nothing of value stolen." Nakiad smiled a bit. "..and
everything was proceeding according to plan. The police deny any connection
between this break in, the disturbance last night, and the one this morning-"
"Distortion scanned in projected location." The computer's voice abruptly
interrupted both the television program and the Chosen's thoughts.
So, Nakiad thought, it has begun. The knight was attacking. He had spent more
time thinking that he had realized.
But there was nothing he could do, really, no way in which he could help the
scouts.
For several minutes, he pondered that thought, wondering.
He reached a decision.
Turning aside from the screen, he walked to another wall of the room. A panel
slid aside, revealing a small, dark chamber into which he stepped.
He spoke one word.
"Armory."
The computer rocketed the lift down into the shaft.
* * *
For a few moments, everyone but the knight remained motionless, startled by the
sudden reversal. But then the creature reached for his mace, grasping it with
one hand, and, as he did, his strength seemed to return. The ripples the
Scepter's power left on his armor seemed to smooth, as if an enormously
powerful hand brushed aside the imperfections, making the metal strong once
more.
And the knight sprang into motion.
At the same time, the scouts seemed to unfreeze. Serena, obviously completely
drained, and now shocked by the destruction of her weapon, started to collapse,
caught at the last moment by Sailor Jupiter. Darian, seeing his love caught,
reversed his course, throwing himself at the knight.
And almost getting his hand smashed by the heavy head of the mace. At the last
moment, he managed to dodge sideways, and strike at the knight with his cane.
An armored hand caught his arm easily in midair, and tossed him aside as if he
was not worth wasting energy on. The young prince slammed into the wall of a
building and slid to the ground, unconscious from the impact.
A beam of energy interlaced with fire and bubbles slammed into the knight,
three scouts attacking. A short moment later, a dragon made of lightning
smashed into the figure as Serena regained her feet and Lita was able to
release her. A bird of fire followed rapidly, then a blast of frozen air.
For a few moments, it seemed as if the attacks were holding the armored figure
back, buffeted by the energy directed at it. Though it seemed as impervious as
ever, it was obvious that the blast of the scepter left it damaged.
It was not enough.
With a surge of strength, the creature brought the mace around, throwing it
directly at Serena. The princess, still in shock, could not react fast enough,
and Sailor Jupiter dove at her, throwing her out of the way.
But it was not fast enough, for the mace grazed Lita's side and arm, throwing
her to the ground in pain. The mace smashed into the ground, showering the two
scouts with pieces of concrete, and they stayed down, not moving.
The heavy weapon abruptly jerked itself out of the ground, and, ignoring the
scouts, flew back to its owner.
The knight leapt forward before the other three scouts could react, attacking
with inhuman speed. From one side, two cats leapt forward, their claws
extended in a futile effort to stop the metal figure. The creature did not
even bother to brush them off as they hit the armor, painfully bounced to one
side.
Then the knight was in the middle of the three scouts. One metal hand slammed
into Ami's side, sending her flying to land on the hard ground, unconscious.
The other gauntlet caught the mace as it returned, gripping it easily by the
handle. The weapon went to the other side, trying to hit Rei. The red scout
dodged into the swing, avoiding the mace but getting hit on her head with the
metal hand holding the weapon. She collapsed to the ground without
resistance.
A barrage of meteors slammed at point blank range into the knight, bouncing off
the metal plates. He seemed to huddle for a moment, fighting the flow, then
straightened. One hand reached out, grasping Mina's arm, the other drew the
mace backward, cocking it for a swing.
It whistled through the air toward her side.
Darian opened his eyes half way, the world spinning around his eyes, his ears
ringing. With a painful movement, he forced everything into focus.
Around him, scouts littered the ground, all unconscious or unable to move. To
one side, Lita lay on top of Serena, both covered with concrete and blood, both
apparently out of it. The prince could feel that Serena was alive, though in
shock, but Lita- He saw the green scout's side lift and fall, and sighed in
relief. At least they were both alive.
But to the front-
To either side of the knight, Rei and Ami lay on the ground in crumpled heaps,
obviously unconscious. But the thing that horrified Darian was Mina, held
immobile by the knight.
While the mace was ready to strike.
Tuxedo Mask tried to force himself to move, but he was too far away. He opened
his mouth, nothing but a squeak coming out. There was nothing he could do but
watch as the heavy weapon started to come across.
The a brilliant flash of light partially blinded him. For a moment, Darian got
a feeling of deja vu, as a blast of white energy slammed into the knight from
somewhere above. The blast was followed by another, and another, continued in
a straight of white bursts.
The armored figure was forced back, releasing Mina, bathed in pure white
flames.
Darian looked up, trying to distinguish the source of the blasts, but the
flashes merely blinded him, and he looked down once more. He counted the
scouts mentally, then wondered who was creating the blasts.
The knight, grasping at himself, still holding on to the mace, seemed almost
frantic. The flames continued to attack him, slamming into his armor.
Then a blast seemed to miss, impacting on the pavement below. The rest of the
string of attacks followed, until it stopped and Darian figured out that the
knight had disappeared.
Slowly, the prince staggered to his feet. He raised his head, trying to make
out who their rescuer was. A black figure stood on top of a building, holding
something in its hands, looking down. It was already getting dark, and the
clouds gathered around whoever it was, hiding him in the shadows, obscuring his
face. But there weren't that many people Darian knew who dressed in all
black.
The black shape seemed to crouch for a moment, then leapt down from the
building, landing lightly.
"Better late than never, huh?" The prince asked lightly.
"On the contrary," Nakiad responded seriously, "I believe my timing is
perfect." Held easily in one hand, the object Nakiad had noticed before swung
back and forth. It looked something like a shotgun crossed with an uzi, then
all of that on steroids. A slight trail of smoke rose from the barrel, blown
away by the wind.
To one side, Ami and Rei began to move slowly with the help of Mina. The
orange scout glanced gratefully at the Chosen, then turned back to her task.
To one side, meanwhile, Serena got from under Jupiter, somewhat shaken.
Then Darian noticed the blood on Lita's side. He had seen it before, but it
had not really registered on his conscious mind as human blood, the result of a
serious injury. He moved there quickly, followed by Nakiad.
Lita stirred a little, and raised her head to look at the princess. "Did we
win?" The green scout asked weakly.
Serena shook her head. "Oh, Lita, you're all right," she said in relief. "I was
worried that-" she broke off suddenly.
Lita raised her uninjured hand weakly toward Serena. "Hey, girl, don't be like
that. It's not that bad." She demonstrated by sitting up with a little help
from Darian. The other three scouts came up as well, gathering around the
inured girl.
Ami examined the wound with a scan from her computer. "It looks worse than it
is," the blue scout sighed in relief. "Though the wounds are pretty nasty, they
are also shallow. they should heal pretty easily, as soon as we can get you
cleaned up."
"Where are Luna and Artemis?"
"Right here," Artemis answered, coming up with the other guardian. Both cats
looked a little bedraggled, but obviously not badly hurt. "I think we had
better leave."
For a few moments, everyone was a bit confused, then Nakiad sighed. "I am
beginning to hate the police."
"What?" Then Darian heard it too. With their better hearing, the cats heard
the sirens first, but everyone could hear the rhythmic alarm approaching.
Luna came up to them. "How about we finish this somewhere else?" She paused,
looking up. "Lita, you feel up to getting up on that roof?" The black cat
pointed to the building with one forepaw. A fire escape ladder was drawn up,
making a gap of some five or ten meters at the bottom, something that would not
have been a problem for a scout ordinarily.
"Sure," the green scout nodded. "I'm fine, really." She winced a little at
saying that, but seemed able to move.
"Let's go, then."
* * *
Well, there go the cops, Darian thought looking down from the rooftops. Below,
several of the cars were leaving while more were arriving. Unlike the previous
attacks, this one did not leave much evidence. Only in two places was the
pavement damaged at all, and scorched in a bunch of others.
"Darian?" Nakiad called him over, and the prince walked up to the rest of the
group. Lita had been expertly bandaged by Ami, with cloth that Nakiad produced
from somewhere on his belt of pouches. The material was black, like almost
everything the Chosen wore, but it had been pronounced sterile by the blue
scout, so it had to be OK. Darian shrugged mentally, not having any knowledge
of medicine beyond first aid. He thought back to the time when Zoicite had
wounded him, when he had not even bandaged himself. There had been other things
to worry about then, of course, but that wound had hurt him. And it had been
obvious to everyone around, giving him away to Serena.
Getting her involved with that fight.
Then he smiled a little, remembering the revelation he had about who she was,
and the one she had about him. It had been quite a day. And not with a
particularly good ending, he remembered, turning grim.
Nakiad had been talking, the prince suddenly realized, and forced himself to
pay attention. The Chosen was talking about the weapon he used to attack the
knight, hefting it in one hand as if it were a visual aid. "...it could not
have caused any damage, it merely frightened him because of the scrambling
effect in has on exterior perception." Ami nodded while most of the rest
looked blank and Nakiad almost smiled. "It confused him. But it is not match
for his armor, nothing short of a nuclear explosion is, and he will realize
that as soon as he checks out the damage, of which there is none. The only
reason he really left was because it was an unknown at a time when he was
already damaged."
"So basically, what you are telling us is that weapon only scared him off,
without hurting him."
"Right, Ami."
"Um, guys," Darian interrupted. "Those cops might take it into their heads to
check the roof out. Especially if they have a chopper somewhere around here."
Nakiad nodded. "If the next attack continues in that pattern, then it will be
at about four, tomorrow morning." Serena looked at him in horror at the early
time, without making the slightest effect on his expression. "I think we need
to talk, and plan for that attack. Do you think you can all come to my place
for the night? You can tell your folks that you are staying over at Rei's or
something."
The scouts did not answer, but Luna nodded. "Yes, we can arrange that."
"Good," Nakiad sighed and fell silent for a few moments before continuing.
"Lita, you need any help to get home?"
The green scout flexed her arm gingerly, then with more confidence. "Naah, it's
not nearly as bad as it looked. I'll be all right."
He nodded. "Still, I think we should come with you to your house, at least,
just in case." Several of the scouts nodded, and she relented.
"All right, then, let's go."
* * *
"So, you failed me again." The Dark Lord smiled to himself, looking at the
knight. The minion had done well in causing the swords to be destroyed, well
enough to forgive his mistake. And the creature had disarmed the princess, the
leader of the Sailor Scouts. But he was the Shadow, the Dark Lord.
He did not forgive.
The knight seemed to merely stare in his direction. "This is the last time. If
you do not destroy at least a part of the sailor scouts, or the Chosen, then-"
He let his voice trail off as he glanced toward the minion in the crystal,
almost free.
The creature seemed to glare once more, then turned away.
So did the Dark Lord, satisfied. The warrior was angry now, both at the
Shadow, and at Nakiad for tricking him. And anger fueled the power of those
serving the dark forces, those who served under the Dark Lord.
So, Chosen, he thought darkly, you are not entirely out of tricks yet. But that
does not matter, for your swords are destroyed, and no amount of artifice will
save you now. With satisfaction, the dark figure glanced over the almost
completed gateway, the passage to the Universe.
The knight moved a little, catching the Shadow's glance. The other now seemed
to glare at the creature that had stood next to him in his prison of Eternal
Sleep. The entrapped warrior was almost free, a thin layer of crystal
separating him barely from freedom. Dark, red eyes burned with a ferocity as
it seemed to strive for freedom.
The Dark Lord turned away, waiting.
He had waited millennia for the day when he could take over the Universe
unobstructed.
He could wait a while longer.
* *
"Oh, Luna, what am I going to do?" Serena cried to the black cat.
All of the scouts, as well as the two guardians and Darian, were assembled at
Nakiad's rather eccentric house. The room they were occupying at the moment
was large enough to hold all of them comfortably, but it was cast in dark,
somber tones. Nothing in the room was black precisely, but every color was
subdued, giving an impression of grief.
In the time it took to come there, Serena had gotten over the shock that came
with losing the battle, and almost losing her life. Now the reality of the
situation was sinking in.
She had lost the Moon Scepter, the single most powerful weapon she ever had.
And the only thing with enough power to let her destroy the knight.
"Serena," the black cat sighed, hanging her head. "I do not know," she
admitted. "The Scepter was a gift from Queen Serenity, one of great power. I
do not know if you can fight without it, and I do not have anything with that
kind of strength. I am sorry, I can not help you this time."
Nakiad and Artemis exchanged glances, and the white cat spoke. "You want to
try, or should I?"
The man shook his head. "I suspect that you are better at it, you try it."
The cat nodded. "Serena." For several moments, the girl did not respond, then
finally lifted her head. "It is kind of difficult to explain-" he paused,
gathering his thoughts, then continued. "You are the Princess of the Moon. As
the direct heir to the throne, you receive the power and the responsibility
that comes with that position, such as the crystal and the need to fight the
Negaverse. But the way this happens is more direct that you might think." The
scout slowed in her crying, listening to the cat. "Remember, when you were in
the starlight tower? What happened to the Rainbow Crystals then?"
The sadness in Serena made the answer take a while to get there. "They came to
me, and formed the Imperium Silver Crystal," she finally answered.
"Right," the cat agreed. "But why?"
"Because.." She paused. "Because Zoicite cheated?"
Artemis stared at her. "Partially, perhaps. But not the only reason. Remember
what you did when the crystals came, remember what was happening."
"I.. Darian got hit by the crystal instead of me.. and I was crying."
"Yes. And the crystals came to *you* Serena, they came to your tears. Do
you know why?"
"Because..." The girl paused for a long moment. "Because I'm the Princess?"
The cat smiled. "Yes Serena, you are the Princess. But the crystals did not
come to you because they recognized you as the heir to the Moon Kingdom." The
scout looked doubtful, but did not interrupt. "In fact, they did not come to
you at all."
"Wha- But we saw them," Rei objected. Artemis glanced at the red scout and
she fell silent.
"Then what did they do?" Serena asked quietly.
"They did nothing. You did it, Serena, *you*. You brought the crystals
to yourself, subconsciously, and you united them into the Imperium Silver
Crystal."
The girl shook her head. "I do not remember." But she seemed thoughtful. "But
even if I did, why does that matter now?"
"Because, Serena, the power of the Moon is not in any of the objects you carry.
It wasn't in the wand and it wasn't in the Scepter. In a way, it isn't even in
the crystal, though it holds the energy for you like a battery holds energy for
a flashlight."
Serena merely looked at him, not understanding, and the cat continued. "The
power of the Moon is in you, the Princess, not in anything else. And as the
Princess you have the ability to call on that power whenever you wish." The
cat paused. "If you believe that you can."
The room was silent for several seconds, then Serena blinked. "But I was never
able to do anything before I got the magical objects. So I need them, I need
them to fight."
The white cat glanced at Nakiad, and the man nodded, interrupting. "Serena."
She looked at him. "They are nothing but tools. Do you agree with that, at
least?"
She seemed to think for a moment, then nodded. "Perhaps, but they made me who I
am."
"No, Serena," the Chosen stopped her. "In the end, no tool is more powerful
than the person that wields it. The power of a hammer is not in the thing
itself, but in the arm of the person using it. And so, the strength of the
Scepter was naught more than your strength put forward in a focused way."
"But... Then I need the scepter to focus my powers."
Nakiad sighed. "Let me try something else. Scouts, to attack, you need to
speak certain words to summon your powers, right?"
The scouts did not answer for he had told them several times in the training
that they did not need to.
"Wrong. Listen to me. Mina, remember when we were training, before I felt the
Dark Lord awaken. When you were in the virtual world. What did you do inside
the world?"
Mina wrinkled her forehead, obviously trying to remember. Then she brightened.
"Well, those two beasts were attacking us, and they were anticipating our
attacks by the words. So I tried striking with the beam without saying
anything, just by concentrating." She looked at Nakiad. "But nothing happened.
I felt something strange, but nothing happened."
The Chosen smiled. "But it did. The world you were in was not real, it was
imaginary, designed to interact with you as if you were there. But you were
not, you were inside mechanical suits whirling in a sort of a cage. So I made
the program to recognize it when you used your powers, and approximate their
real effects. In fact, if you recall, you were not there as Sailor Scouts,
because you would have destroyed the suits with your blasts, since they would
have come out in real life."
Mina nodded. "So nothing happened because nothing *could* happen."
Nakiad smiled a little again. "But it *did* happen. When you
concentrated, you summoned your power, outside of the program parameters."
She looked at him carefully as he continued. "And you almost burned a hole
through one of your gloves."
Mina sat back, surprise plainly written over her face. "Then.."
"And the rest of you scouts. All of you, at some point in your training, have
tried to attack without saying the words that summoned the power. Usually,
those attacks either failed, or were very weak. But the fact that you could do
it at all points to one thing. Mina, you used your power without ever being a
sailor scout, without using your transformation stick. You had the power, and
you used it."
The scouts looked at him not speaking, and he finished. "The power is in you,
not in the words you speak, not in the tools you use. Now, Serena, do you
understand?"
The blonde looked at him strangely. "I am not sure." Nakiad sighed, looking at
Artemis helplessly, then the girl continued. "But I believe you."
The two looked at her, then at each other, and smiled.
The white cat then turned serious. "But remember Serena, you have to believe
in yourself. The power is within you, you have to let it come out, but you
also have to control it."
Serena nodded once more. "I understand."
"Good." Artemis smiled. "In fact, great."
Then the scouts noticed something strange. The room, so somber and dark
before, seemed to have brightened with everyone's mood, lightening the group's
feelings. The dark colors seemed to have grown brighter, the light seemed more
evenly distributed. Even Artemis, usually somber, was smiling.
"All right," Nakiad interrupted the celebratory mood for a moment. "We have to
get up pretty early tomorrow, so everyone better get some rest." The two
guardians nodded, supporting the statement. "There are rooms for everyone, in
whatever combination you choose, just out that door." He sighed. "I'll join
you shortly, I guess."
Mina looked at him strangely and seemed about to protest, but he looked back,
shaking his head slightly, and she relented.
The scouts filed out of the room slowly, glancing back at Nakiad as they left
him alone in the again somber room.
He sighed, turning around and leaving through another exit. After several
seconds of walking, he came to another door, a black entrance set deeply in the
wall. After a second's hesitation, he stepped forward. The door slid
noiselessly to one side, opening the way into the black room.
Nakiad ignored the darkness as if he were used to it, as if he had been in the
place so many times that he memorized where everything was. His feet took him
unerringly to one side of the large chamber, where a small pedestal stood.
On top were the two swords, lying easily on a soft material.
Nakiad closed his eyes, remembering what Guardian taught him of his weapons.
When the first Chosen was created, Nemesis, her weapon of choice was a staff, a
simple piece of wood interlaced with Maraki, a yard and a half in length, an
inch in diameter. She used that weapon when she fought the Dark Lord, the
first to do so. Somehow, with her strength in it, the stave was able to
withstand the attack of a Maraki blade.
Then she died in stopping the Shadow, the only remainder of her being Guardian,
a creature of energy alone. The staff had been thought lost forever in that
battle, unrecoverable from the arena of combat, or destroyed by the Dark
Lord.
Time passed in the Universe, the staff forgotten by many, only Guardian keeping
the memory of the Chosen alive.
So when over a thousand years later, the threat loomed again, a new Chosen was
picked from the best fighters of the Universe. And something unexpected
happened.
As soon as the Chosen was picked as such, the staff returned.
Not even Guardian, with the combined knowledge and experiences of all the
Chosen, knows why or how the weapon traveled through time, finding each of the
warriors picked to fight the Dark Lord.
But it does. And for every one of them, it takes up whatever shape its wielder
wishes, as if in recognition of their sacrifices.
When Nakiad was approved as the Chosen, a millennium ago, he found the staff
lying next to him in bed when he woke up the next morning. And when he grasped
it, when he felt the power of the weapon, power from the best warriors of the
Universe, he knew it was the only thing that could hurt the Dark Lord.
For it was not just a piece of wood, it was a portion of every one of his
predecessors, their courage and their strength, their wisdom.
And their will.
And the weapon returned to him again, when he found himself on Earth, alive
somehow after the battle.
Nakiad sighed, thinking about the two swords lying in front of him. For every
fighter, the staff takes one alternate form, the form of whatever weapon that
Chosen prefers in normal life. For him, it was the two thin swords, with
blades of Maraki, capable of withstanding almost any attack.
Almost any.
Nakiad snapped out of his thoughts.
On the pedestal, the fragments of the swords were already joined together,
forced to a whole by the power of Nakiad's will. At every point where the link
had been made, a white line glowed brightly, as the healing process of the
weapon continued.
But it was going slow, far too slow for it to be of any help to him in the
fight that was coming. The clean break of the Staff in their last encounter
had taken almost a month to completely regenerate, and the swords had not even
been damaged then, only the staff. Now, the Maraki blades were in shards, each
piece carrying power within itself, but not enough to bond them as quickly as
Nakiad needed it.
The Chosen closed his eyes, sighing. "I promised, my Queen. But what can I
do?"
The blackness of memories swept aside his thoughts, buried them far away where
he lost them for a time.
* * *
It was a thousand years and a universe away, yet it seemed as real as what was
happening here and now.
The Dark Lord slipped away from his own sword, laughing as he vanished before
Nakiad's eyes. A physical pain added to the mental one as the Chosen realized
that in his hesitation he failed, and he felt himself slide backward.
The Shadow's sword, with which he had planned to destroy the Dark Lord, faded
from his grasp, the arena blurred. A fog obscured everything he saw as he
floated through the air, afterimages flashing at him from the corners of his
eyes. But when he turned to look, he saw nothing, felt nothing.
Am I dead? He wondered, but the question lacked the urgency he would have
thought it carried.
For he deserved to be, he knew that. He had failed, in his hesitation he had
allowed the Shadow to escape, and he deserved to die.
Time might have passed, or it might have been standing still, he had no
knowledge of that, no way of telling.
The fog around him was complete, hiding everything around him, taking away all
of the references that Nakiad needed to understand what was going on. His
usually accurate time sense was not working at all.
And so he floated, not fighting the currents of the air, not letting himself
hope.
A second might have passed, or a century. He had no way of telling, no clock,
no time piece. Even his thoughts seemed to run unnaturally, not letting him
judge by them.
But he was not to rest there forever, for he felt something. It was hard to
perceive at first, the weakness of it making it almost impossible to even feel,
but it was there. As if someone had tied a string to him, and was pulling the
man somewhere, somewhere against the direct current of the fog.
<Help me.>
Did he really hear that? The voice seemed to come from nowhere, as if Guardian
was speaking to him, but different, much different. The protector's thoughts
were always strong, inspiring, whereas the voice he thought he heard was weak
and far away. A part of his mind told him he should be able to recognize the
voice, though none of his memories that should have told him who it was seemed
to be there.
But for some reason, an urge to fight came over Nakiad, and he tried to move,
move himself against the fog, toward the pull of the invisible string, toward
the unknown voice.
And nothing happened. His arms continued as they were, spread out slightly to
either side, his legs slightly separated and relaxed. It was as if he had
never tried.
He forced another jerk, and it also failed without reaching his body.
<Help me.>
The voice was louder and seemed closer, but it was also weaker, as if the
speaker was tired. With sudden inspiration, Nakiad looked within himself, his
eyes closing somehow, though he had no control over the rest of his body.
In his mind, he imagined himself moving, moving with the string, against the
current.
A strange feeling took over his body, as if something was happening, but he did
not dare to open his eyes. Some part of him that was almost instinctive told
him that if he lost the concentration, he would lose all that he had gained.
For a period of time the length of which he could not tell, he felt himself
moving toward the location of the voice.
Then he stopped.
He felt the fog stop flowing over him, the string stop its pull.
For a time, he did not know what to do, then realized he had no choice.
And he opened his eyes.
He was in a small darkened chamber, lit only by a slight bluish glow that came
through the windows, and the light of the stars. Outside was the landscape of
the moon, with the buildings of the Imperial Palace covering the ground.
He recognized the place from the surrounding landscape, for he had never been
there. It was one of the few rooms in the Imperial Palace forbidden to all but
the Royal Family. It was a single round room, on top of a tower that rose high
above most of the other buildings, and Nakiad had wondered sometimes what was
there.
But he did not concentrate on his surroundings for long, as there was something
else he automatically focused on.
Sitting on her knees on the floor was a person in a long white dress, with two
lengths of hair coming down from her head to the ground.
It was Queen Serenity.
In front of her, lying on the ground, was the Imperium Silver Crystal, glowing
slightly against the stone floor, illuminating a small circle of gray.
The Queen did not move, her head bowed toward the ground, her eyes closed.
Somehow, Nakiad understood that she could not see him, but she had been able to
summon him here, and it had to be for a reason.
But there was no way he could tell her that he was there.
He did not need to, for she seemed to know he was. Or she thought he might be,
and hoped for it, without being sure.
"Chosen." She said the word suddenly, making him jerk back a little. He found
out that he could control his body to an extent, though it had no substance.
He could not exit a circle drawn on the floor, and he could not actually move
the parts of his body separately, not counting his face. But he could think of
where to move with his mind, and his body obeyed.
Serenity continued to speak. "I do not know if you are here or not, but I pray
that you hear me now. It seems impossible for someone to survive an encounter
with the Dark Lord, but the images the crystal had given definitely say that
you are alive, in a way." The Queen sighed. "But the images are also hazy at
best, impossible to truly distinguish."
"I hear you, Queen," Nakiad answered, but Serenity did not react. He realized
that if she did not know if he was there or not, and could not sense it one way
or the other, then she probably could not hear him.
"I have felt your encounter with the Dark Lord, it reflected in the crystal as
such combat always does, and I know what has happened. I could feel your pain,
your sense of failure, at the least. Know, then, Chosen, that you have stood up
against the ultimate warrior of the Negaverse, and you have survived. In that,
you have accomplished something that no one ever did."
Nakiad looked at her, trying to see if she knew what really happened. Somehow,
he thought she did, for the holder of the crystal had many powers. And if she
did, she was not blaming him.
"But there is also danger, both now, and in the future. The crystal has told
me this much, at least, and I know some of what is to come."
He frowned, feeling grief coming from the Queen.
She drew in a haggard breath, then continued. "I know, that in a very small
time, this will all be over." What? He wanted to yell out, but kept silent.
His training taught him self control, and she would not hear him. And he
needed to hear her. "A new warrior seems to have taken over in the Negaverse,
someone called Queen Beryl. She has already launched a strike against Earth,
and she will be coming here next."
"We will not be able to withstand the attack." Though the voice of the Queen
did not change, Nakiad saw the face grieve.
"The Moon Kingdom will be destroyed. And I will die with it."
"What?" He could not stop himself from saying it, but the Queen did not
hear.
She shook her head slightly. "I do not grief for my death, nor should you. I
have lived long, and I have been happy. I have been blessed with a wonderful
child who can carry on my line.." Her voice trailed off, then strengthened.
"That is the only thing I am sad about. I will never see my daughter again."
Nakiad looked at her in horror, for he was realizing something. The shift of
balance in the Negaverse was probably due to the strange combat he faced with
the Shadow.
If he had killed the Shadow, it might not have happened.
It was his fault.
The destruction of the kingdom was on his head.
The death of Queen Serenity was his fault.
"I'm sorry, my Queen." But that would do nothing, she could not hear him, she
could not see him.
And yet, she did not blame him.
The room became blurred for a moment, and Nakiad blinked the tear away
furiously. If Serenity could face her death so calmly, then he could face his
fate as well.
He could not escape his responsibility, and he would not try to.
A sudden hardness came from inside him, as if a promise was being made, a pact
within himself that he had to create.
And he was calm once more.
The Queen fell silent for several moments, as if knowing the effect of her last
statement would have on him, and was waiting, then she continued. "I know that
in the end, I will use the crystal, and that somehow, I will succeed in
trapping Beryl back in the Negaverse. And I know that somehow, in some way, my
children, and all who are here on the Moon, will be reborn in new bodies, back
on Earth, a long time from now."
"It is that which worries me, Chosen, for the rest of the things the crystal
can tell me are very vague. I know that the Princess, along with her court,
the Sailor Scouts, will be reborn at a time when there is need for them, and I
know that evil will threaten the Universe once more. But I do not know whether
it is Queen Beryl breaking free of the Negaverse, or something different. All
I know is that the scouts will be needed."
Serenity sighed, pausing for a moment, then continued in a slower voice. "The
crystal also showed me your future, to a certain point. When you regain some
power, you will be rematerialized on Earth, just as the Dark Lord has come back
to the Negaverse every time he is stopped. But after that... I am not sure in
what way that will be, but I suspect that you need only wait until you have
enough power, then wish yourself there. The crystal says that a long time will
pass before the Dark Lord breaks free. And you will face him, and you will
fight once more for the balance of power." Once more the Queen shook her head.
"But after that, the future gets blurred, difficult to read. The outcome of
the fight is not known, for that would cause paradox, but it is not the last of
the battles you will have. A very short time after, your destinies come
together again in a single instant."
The Queen sighed. "You must know this. The crystal does not tell me what
happens in that encounter, merely that there is one. But after that, there is
nothing I can see about you, nothing the crystal can see. After that, your
destiny is your own."
"Nakiad." For the first time in all the years he had known her, she used his
given name. "According to the crystal, the Dark Lord's return and the rebirth
of the scouts will be at approximately the same time. But you cannot help them
any more than they can help you, for the fight of the scouts is their own. If
they do not triumph of their own accord, it is the same as if they lose." She
bowed her head lower. "I know your feeling for Sailor Venus, but remember. If
you try to help them before the return of the Dark Lord, it might mean the doom
of the Universe."
The Queen breathed deeply once, inhaling and exhaling, and the crystal pulsed.
During the conversation, it had grown dimmer, and now was almost extinguished.
"When you regain enough strength Guardian will find you, and he will be able to
tell you more."
"Nakiad." She looked up suddenly, staring at him, though he knew she could not
see him. "There is one more thing. When the crystal told me of your future, it
flashed dark, as if there are black times ahead of you. I do not know if you
win or lose, and I can do nothing about that now. You are as ready as you have
ever been. But no matter what happens, no matter how bad things get in the
future, I want something from you." She paused, looking straight at him. "It is
not for me to ask anything from you, but I ask for this alone."
She seemed to gather courage, the crystal growing brighter for a moment,
illuminating her face in stark shadows. "Don't ever give up. No matter how bad
things may seem, there is always hope."
The Queen's voice began to fade, the crystal almost completely dark now, and
Nakiad jerked. "I promise, Serenity." He knew she could not hear him, but it
did not matter. "I promise."
Nakiad sighed, opening his eyes. "And I never have," he spoke aloud.
Then he sighed, looking down at the swords. But what can I do? He thought
silently.
<I do not know.> Guardian answered, appearing behind him. <Every Chosen
that has ever been needed the staff to just keep the Dark Lord in the Negaverse
for a thousand years. You are the only one who has ever managed to survive the
encounter. But without the staff..>
<Without the staff, I am helpless.> Nakiad finished for him.
Guardian seemed to think for a moment. <I wonder..>
<What?>
The light pulsed. <There are so many memories.> Nakiad sighed,
remembering that Guardian contained the combined experiences of an uncounted
number of Chosen. <There might be another way.>
<What other way?>
<I do not know. But there is rarely a real life problem that has a single
solution.>
Nakiad sighed. <But you have no idea what it is.>
<No.> For several moments, Guardian was silent. <But.. about the staff.
Remember what you told Serena.>
He thought for a moment, then had it. <In the end, no tool is more powerful
than the person that wields it.> Could it be that he had the ability to
defeat the Dark Lord without the staff? "But that doesn't work," he protested
aloud. "The staff contains in it the power and knowledge of all the Chosen. It
gives me strength and power, and it balances the advantage of the Dark Sword.
Without it, I would be cut down in a moment."
<The statement is true, nevertheless.> Guardian answered. <This, at
least, I know.>
"Then there should be a way to defeat the Shadow without the weapon, and there
isn't, so it's *not* true."
Guardian paused. <Perhaps.>
Nakiad glared at the other, then sighed and walked out of the room.
Behind him, the white light hung for a few moments in the air before
vanishing.
He paced slowly down the darkened hallway, past the doors of the scouts. He
could feel their mental presence behind each door. Serena and Darian were
sleeping in one room, the prince probably staying with her to let her relax
before the battle. For a moment, he paused by the door, thinking about
something, then realized that it was none of his business and moved on.
Lita and Rei were in rooms opposite each other, the red scout's mind suggesting
that she was meditating instead of sleeping. For her, it probably amounted to
the same thing.
In the next room, Luna and Artemis were asleep, the generally worried minds
relaxed in the slumber.
Through the next door, Nakiad felt Mina's regular breathing. For a moment, he
stopped, wondering why she had sent Artemis away, but the answer was obvious.
For a moment, his hand slid slowly to the panel that would let him inside, then
he remembered the last time they had been together before a fight. He jerked
the arm back angrily, and forced himself to keep going. Then he stopped, and
felt to her with his mind, concentrating. With a gentle force, he smoothed out
her thoughts, letting her rest in peace. This much, at least, he could do.
The mental link between them allowed them to sense each other's feelings, but
it took all of his mental discipline to be able to do even as much as he did.
Ami occupied the next room, and she was not asleep. No crack of light slipped
under the doorway, which sealed the entrance completely, but there was no way
Nakiad could mistake a sleeping mind for one that was awake.
He knocked softly on the door.
"Come in." Her voice came through, muffled slightly by the door between them.
He pressed a button next to the entrance and the door opened outward.
Inside, Ami was sitting at a desk with the lights on. In front of her was her
computer, ready and obviously working.
Nakiad sighed. "I thought I told everyone to get some sleep."
Ami looked over at him. "Well, you aren't, obviously."
"Aren't what?"
"Asleep."
He forced himself to relax. "I don't need as much as normal humans- or scouts,"
he added before she could say anything. "And I was on my way."
Ami nodded. "Right." Somehow, she did not sound convinced. "Look, there's a
virus in my computer, and I need to get it out. There's a possibility that
it's going to be needed tomorrow."
He nodded, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "So where did you get it,
anyway?"
She glanced at him sideways. "Actually, as near as I can tell, the computer I
hacked into to get the location of the swords was protected with it."
"I suppose it's pretty bad, since you are still up. Seems that you should have
been able to get rid of it long ago."
"It's a nasty little sucker.." She trailed off, almost speaking to herself.
"Adapted itself to a system made thousands of years ago on a different
planet... then keeps coming back after I kill it."
"Coming back? How is that possible?"
"Well, it seems to die, but in doing so, it integrates itself with the programs
around it, making them part of itself. So what I get is a larger problem."
Nakiad suddenly straightened, as if he was surprised, thought the scout did not
notice, busy tapping out a sequence of keys.
She smiled. "There, it's gone," she said, turning it off and putting it to one
side. Then her mouth stretched in a wide yawn. "Sorry," she smiled
apologetically, "normally I'm a night owl, but it's been a rough day."
"I'll go," he answered, distracted, "I have to do something anyway." He got up
quickly.
"Is something wrong?"
He glanced back, obviously preoccupied. "No, nothing. Goodnight." The door
closed behind him, and Ami stared for a moment at his exit, the second one to
do so in several minutes.
"Guardian."
The white light appeared a split moment later, summoned by Nakiad's command.
<What is it?>
He needed to hear his own thoughts, so he kept talking out loud. "Can you be
destroyed?"
The light seemed to think. <Not as far as I know.>
Nakiad looked at the other.
<That's suicide, bloody suicide.>
"Yes," Nakiad answered grimly. "Do you have any other ideas?"
The light paused. <No>, it admitted finally, <but there is no way this
can possibly work.>
Nakiad looked at him for several moments. "You are probably right." But I'm
not giving up. I'm not! He swore silently.
<Very well.>
Slowly, as if unsure of himself, the Chosen lifted one hand, reaching out to
touch the globe. As his fingers contacted the shining surface, a blinding
light filled the previously dark room.
* * *
"Wake up, meatball head." The voice was gentle, but the injunction was not,
and Serena groaned, slowly opening her eyes. She found herself staring into
Darian's eyes from several inches away.
"Morning, muffin." She suddenly remembered that she had asked him to stay with
her during the night. She straightened out, shaking off sleep with a speed
that might have astonished Luna, had the black cat been there to see it. To
Serena's surprise, she did not feel any aches from the seemingly uncomfortable
position in which she spent the night. She had expected her clothes to chafe
during sleep, but Darian had insisted on them, for some reason.
The princess sighed. She was not as ignorant as some of her friends believed,
she thought darkly about Rei, thought. Still, she knew it would be
uncomfortable sleeping the way she did, in Darian's arms, for a long period of
time.
Only it hadn't been.
If anything, she had one of the best nights of rest in her life, without even
sleeping an overly huge amount of time. Now, the sun was shining, birds were
singing, and she was ready to face the knight.
Sun? Birds? Serena snapped her eyes open, looking at the patch of space that
seemed to be a window. She was absolutely sure that the rooms they occupied
were deep underground, as was most of the Nakiad's house. Then Serena
remembered that it should be before three in the morning, since the attack was
to come around four, and they had to be ready by then. And there was no way
there should have been this much sun that early in the day.
Darian followed her gaze to the window as she tried to lever herself out of the
large armchair, and smiled. "Oh. I already tried to figure out how that
works." He walked over to the window, behind which impossibly green fields
stretched out for as far as Serena could see. With a slight smile, he reached
out with one hand, stretching it out to the window, then stopped. It was as if
there was a wall there through which the hand could not pass. Darian's smiled
increased a little as he exerted force against the wall, pushing his hand in.
The scene around his hand began to distort, losing its depth and becoming only
part of a picture. After a moment, he released the scene, letting it go back
to the way it was before. He shrugged. "Seems to be some kind of illusion."
Serena shook her head in wonder. "Well, I like it." Then she paused, becoming
aware of another feeling. "Um.. where's the bathroom?"
"Tea, coffee, molash?"
Mina sat down at the table with a sigh, rubbing her eyes a little. All of the
others were already seated around the table, and looking at her. "Um.. what's
molash?"
Nakiad almost smiled. "Kind of like coffee, only stronger."
Lita suddenly interrupted him. "Don't try it, Mina."
"Why not?"
The green scout made a gagging sound. "Because it tastes horrible, and feels
like swallowing fire."
Nakiad turned toward her a little. "It did wake you up, didn't it?"
"Yeah, but so would a cup of battery acid, but you wouldn't want to drink that
now would you?," Lita grumbled darkly. Still, the scout looked amazingly awake
compared to everyone else, her eyes wide open, and her face calm. "Why didn't
you drink it, then?"
The Chosen shook his head. "I don't need it." He raised his cup, filled with
tea, to his lips, sipping.
Mina sighed, smiling a little. "I'll take the coffee."
For several moments, the scouts continued in silence, stoking up for the fight.
For a moment, the orange scout wondered just how large the underground complex
really was, since she did not remember the table or the room, so she had not
been there before.
Nakiad put his cup down softly, looking up. "All right, Scouts. And guardians,
and Darian," he added with a sigh. "In a bit over-" he glanced over at the
clock on the wall "-forty five minutes, the knight will strike again. Or
should anyway. Your job is simple, keep him busy while Sailor Moon uses her
power to destroy him."
The others looked at each other a little strangely, but did not object. Serena
did, on the other hand. "What if I can't do it?"
"But you can, princess, and you will. You have the power within you, all you
have to do is let it come out."
"But.."
"Serena," Nakiad stopped her, "the main thing is to believe in yourself. If
you can do that, you will be able to destroy the knight."
Darian looked at her. "You can do it, Serena, believe in yourself."
The girl sighed and nodded. "All right. I will try, but.." She saw a black
cat frowning at her and smiled. "Hey, relax, guys, I can do it."
The black cat shook her head in exasperation. "Big Serena.. little Earth," she
muttered, or something to the same effect. Several of the scouts frowned at
Luna, but no one asked.
The Rei looked at Nakiad. "Then what?"
"What do you mean, Mars?"
"I mean, you've told us that once we destroy the knight, the Dark Lord will
continue to send monsters after us for as long as he wants. We can't just let
that happen, we have to do something about it."
He nodded, his expression sad. "I know. There are two problems, basically, the
immediate and the long term. Right now, a knight is planning to wreak havoc on
Earth unless it is stopped. That is a job for you, the Sailor Scouts."
"But there is also another problem, a far more serious one, that of the Dark
Lord. He is the true root of the situation, and until he is gone, we will not
have any rest." Nakiad stared at Rei. "But that is not a job for the Sailor
Scouts, the Dark Lord is my duty. Just as you must fight the creature whom he
sends, I must fight the Shadow himself, and stop him."
"But how?" Lita interrupted him. "I thought you didn't have enough power to
get to the Negaverse."
"Actually, I do not need it, for the bubble universe is easier to get to. But
that problem is not important anyway, because I have no way of finding out
where the pocket universe is."
"But," he stopped. "Sailor Scouts, do not despair yet. I do have an idea."
"You have a plan?"
Nakiad sighed. "Well, no. But I do have an idea about one." He shook his
head. "Do not worry about that, it is my concern, and mine alone. It is my
responsibility that he became trapped in the universe he is in, and it is my
duty to stop him from doing any more harm."
Ami looked at him strangely. "Are you sure about this?"
"Yeah," Lita agreed, "do you know what you are doing?"
He looked at them calmly, with no expression on his face. "Trust me."
Re sighed. "Do we have a choice?"
"No, you do not."
He waited, continuing to sit as everyone filed out of the room to get ready for
the fight. Only Mina lingered behind, waiting for the rest to be gone, then
she faced him. Nakiad did not let any expression cross his face, expecting
this.
For a long moment, they merely looked at each other, then Mina sighed. "I sent
Artemis away last night," she began in a conversational tone, then paused.
For a long moment, neither spoke, then Nakiad relented. "I know."
"Do you love me?"
The question cut through him like a sharp blade. "Of course."
"Then why didn't you come?"
Because the last time did not work out so well. He looked at her for a long
moment. "Because I had no right."
A look of pain flashed briefly through her eyes. "You are going to go after him
again, aren't you?"
"I told you, I have no way of knowing where the universe I need is-"
She cut him off. "But you are. I do not know how, but you are planning to
challenge him again."
He sighed to himself, keeping his face from moving. He could not lie to her,
not without her knowing. The link of true love was far too strong for that.
She waited for him to respond, then took his silence as an answer.
As it was.
"The last time, you were barely able to defeat him. Now, your swords are
destroyed. He has the ability to send an infinite number of creatures after
us. And you are going to stand up to him again."
It's the only way, Mina. How can I do anything less?
"How do you plan to win?"
He stared back at her.
"You aren't are you?" Her eyes began to fill with tears. "You plan on
sacrificing yourself for no reason, without any hope of being able to stop
him."
With one hand, he reached out, gently lifting her chin until she was looking
into his eyes. "I am not sacrificing myself." A surge of hope sparkled through
those beautiful eyes, then was put down. "I do not know how much of a chance I
have against him, or even if I have a chance. But there might be a way."
He looked directly at her. "I'm not giving up."
For a long moment, she looked at him in silence, not moving. And there, he
knew that if she did not allow him to stay, he might not be able to refuse her.
He had broken a promise to her once, it would be almost impossible to do so
again.
You must, a voice inside him said, no matter what she says.
But can I? Another part of him asked quietly. Even if I can refuse her, will I
have the will to go through with it?
She sobbed, twisting her chin out of his hand, then paused. Then she nodded,
just once, jerking her head up and down. "All right. I.." She looked back up
at him. "I can no more stop you from your fate than you can from mine. The last
time..." Nakiad remembered with pain how she made him promise not to go alone.
"I have no right to stop you."
"But-" She looked at him even more intensely. "Promise me that you will at
least try to come back."
He looked at her in silence for a few moments, and she seemed to sigh. "I'm
sorry," she said quietly. "I did not mean to ask you that."
She began to turn away. "Mina." With that one word, he stopped her. "I
promise."
Slowly, as if she did not quite believe, she turned to face him. He nodded
somberly. "I promise."
And she came into his arms.
It was several minutes before they separated a little. "Mina." She looked at
him easily, her eyes still glistening with tears. She had been crying all of
the time, the emotions of sorrow and relief joining in one to confuse her
emotions. But there was something else she had to know.
"I have to tell you this. We are joined by a mental link, you know that. When
the swords got broken, you felt an echo of my pain, when I'm in danger, you
feel it, and the other way around. Now, as a crisis approaches, that link will
become stronger, as the one between Darian and Serena does. You might be able
to feel what happens to me." He looked at her sadly. "Mina, I do not know what
will happen, but no matter what, you must keep fighting. You are Earth's last
defense against the knight and ones like him, just as I am against the Dark
Lord."
Mina looked at him in silence, then nodded.
"And Mina. Remember, in the end, I am the Chosen. I can not truly die."
She looked at him sadly, then turned away to go and change.
I hope, he said silently to the corridor in which she disappeared.
Darian adjusted his hat, frowning not for the first time at the way his clothes
were shaped. Just because something looks romantic, he thought a bit angrily,
does not mean that it is good in combat. At the moment, he would have rather
preferred the kind of clothes the Chosen wore, a loose fitting gi that did not
hamper his movements.
Well, Darian thought once more, actually, this doesn't confine me in any way,
but it sure looks ridiculous. With an automatic motion, he checked the
position of his cane, and reached inside his jacket to check for several roses,
ready for deployment. In the process, he brushed against the rose Nakiad had
changed, and a strange tingle went through his fingers.
"Darian?" He turned around to find Serena standing behind him in full scout
costume. The prince smiled a little, making sure that she could not see. She
was never more beautiful than at times like these. Except when she starts
pigging out of- he cut his thoughts off before they could make a list of times
at which the scout looked more lovely, to him, at least.
"What is it, Princess?" He took one of her gloved hands, bringing it up to his
lips in a gentenmanly fashion, until she stared blushing.
"Darian," she berated him a little, though she was obviously very pleased.
Then she became serious. "I don't know about this power thing. I mean, what am
I supposed to say, what do I do?"
"Serena, you don't have to *do* anything. The power is within you, all
you do is let it out, reach for it with your mind and release it. There are no
words you have to say, if I understand correctly, nothing you have to really
do. Just let the power flow."
"I.."
"You can do it Serena, I believe in you."
She smiled a little, her features relaxing. "Thanks, Darian. I.. I think I
needed that." He looked at her with a bit of worry as she walked toward the
other scouts. It was almost unheard of for her to be serious, let alone so
somber. The last time- he winced, remembering Alan and Ann attacking them
both, and Serena placing herself between him an the blast.
You can do it, Serena, he whispered silently after her.
A hand lay down lightly on one of his shoulders and he turned around, a bit
surprised. He had not heard anyone come up to him.
It was Nakiad. Oh, he thought with sudden understanding. Of course I would
not hear him come up. The prince had always thought of himself as quiet, his
friends always berating him for sneaking up on them, but the Chosen was
something else.
"Darian, I need to speak with you."
The Chosen seemed somber, even for himself, and Darian wondered if it was
contagious. First Serena, now him. "Sure, what is it?"
The other seemed to be distracted. "Remember the rose? The one I-"
"This one?" Darian asked, taking out the flower Nakiad had altered to be able
to fight shadows.
"Yes." The Chosen glanced at it, then held out one finger to the
fragile-seeming flower. And touched it.
Darian suddenly had a vision of bright light passing through the extended digit
into the rose, infusing the flower with energy, but at the same time his eyes
told him that nothing happened.
Then Nakiad pulled his hand back, and seemed about to turn around. "Wait. What
did you do?"
Darian sniffed the flower carefully, finding nothing wrong with it, and nothing
different as the Chosen answered. "You will know."
Without understanding, the prince looked after the other as he went to the
scouts, then looked at the rose. Somehow, he knew it would not work against
the knight, so it couldn't be that, he thought calmly. Then what?
With a shrug, he put it away into his tuxedo.
He would find out soon enough, most likely, he thought.
"All right, is everybody ready?" Luna looked around at the scouts.
They were standing in front of the portal that Nakiad had the ability of
making, preparing to jump through.
"Are you sure the coordinates you gave us are accurate?" Lita asked the red
scout who was standing beside her.
"As sure as it is possible to be about anything." Then Rei turned toward
Nakiad for a moment. "Say, where in all of this is Guardian? You know, the one
who is supposed to protect you and help you?"
The other looked a bit strangely at Rei. "He's here," he answered. Rei
remembered that the protector was usually invisible and shrugged mentally. If
he did not want to show, that was none of her business.
"All right, scouts," Luna interrupted. "It's time. Let's go."
Steeling their stomachs against the violence of the passage through the gate,
they leapt through.
After a few moments, the portal closed, leaving no trace of itself behind.
As always, the transfer between one side of the portal and another felt
instantaneous. And at the same time long, as if she had spent forever
traveling in a dark space, hurtling through the universe. This time, Serena
noticed, it seemed to take even longer than usual, perhaps because of the
seriousness of the battle they were going to.
Then suddenly it was over, they were back outside, the well of black that was
nowhere. Serena fought a wave of nausea that passed over her body, one of the
effects of the gateway that Nakiad could not work out. It had been getting
better over the month that she used it, but it was still extremely
uncomfortable.
They were in the park, Serena noticed with surprise, then realized it would be
the largest deserted place in the vicinity. And Nakiad had said something
about portals being easier to make where there were few people to distort
energy. The sun was not up, and the trees were hanging in an unearthly fog,
concealing many things that should have been clear. It was as if the park
itself was hiding from them, as if the very trees were on the other side of an
impossibly dark universe.
Concentrate, Serena, a startlingly serious voice came from within her. This is
important.
Out of the corners of her eyes, she saw her friends in two lines to either side
of her, ready to fight on her side. A wave of gratitude washed over her, as
effective as the nausea that passed before. I will not fail you, my friends,
she swore. I might not be able to defeat this thing, but I am going to try.
No, Serena, a the inner voice said, you must not just try. You must do it.
Then the princess became distracted from her thoughts as a feeling of cold slid
through her body. Ahead of her, it was as if someone lit a furnace that
generated cold instead of heat. The freezing waves came over her, chilling her
mind, but she held steady. Though before she had been much farther away from
the point of actual appearance, she had felt this before.
I can handle this, she said silently.
Then the air half a dozen yards away from her began to distort, flexing as if
it was no mere gas. It turned dark all of a sudden, taking the rough shape of
a humanoid figure.
Then the knight appeared.
Despite her previous encounters with him, she flinched away from the
malevolence he radiated, stepped back a little in her mind.
I can't do this, a voice inside her whispered frantically, he is too powerful.
He will swing that mace, and I will be gone, just like that.
Then something made her turn, move her head to one side.
And her eyes met those of Darian.
And she broke free of her fear. The feeling of cold remained, it was not so
difficult to get rid of. But an equal warmth, an courage equal to the other's
hate came to her, and she faced the knight.
It seemed to be hesitating, probably unsure what it was supposed to do. As far
as it knew, the princess was supposed to be helpless, so why should she be
here?
Serena smiled to herself, thinking that, then concentrated. You are about to
get a major surprise, Negatrash.
With a deliberate motion, she closed her eyes.
Around her, the world seemed to recede a little, the things happening outside
fading a little. Somewhere, on the edge of her consciousness, she knew the
knight had attacked, leaping for her, but her mind ignored that. A split
moment later, she felt a discharge of power from one of the scouts, and the
knight's position moved away from her. She felt waves of energy arching around
her, shouts coming from the scouts, and impacts of the mace against the
concrete.
But somehow, none of that mattered.
She felt for power within herself, reached for it.
Closer, getting closer, coming up to the surface.
And.
Nothing there.
With despair, she felt around herself for energy, something to use against the
knight and found nothing.
Then she felt something else. The crystal, burning with its own power, ancient
energy trapped there for all eternity. Power that was hers to command and
control as the rightful heir to the throne of the Moon.
She reached into the crystal, gathering that power, then stretched out her
hand, pointing at the knight. She felt the hate around him without needing to
open her eyes, and she let the power go.
Something was wrong.
She opened her eyes suddenly, and saw the beam coming from her hand. It was a
blast of energy coming straight at the knight's chest, impacting there.
But the creature did not move back, did not tremble.
For the beam was weaker, far weaker than it should have been, and it was not
enough. With an almost negligent gesture, the knight turned away from Serena,
facing the rest of the scouts.
No! Serena screamed in her mind, and felt her strength fade with the beam.
Her legs suddenly refused to hold her as she watched her friends try to beat
away a stronger enemy.
But she did not fall.
Strong hands grasped her shoulders, keeping her upright. The knight seemed to
glance in her direction, then leapt straight toward her. At the last moment, a
wave of meteors swept the creature to the side, the mace strike whistling
through air.
Her fiends continued to keep the knight away, but they could not do so for
long.
The grip on Serena's shoulders changed, suddenly she felt herself spun around
so quickly that she lost her orientation.
Nakiad was in front of her now, holding her once more by her shoulders.
"What happened?"
"I don't know," she cried back at him, "I just don't know. I took the power
from the crystal, and used it, but it wasn't enough."
His face changed. "No, princess, that is not what you have to do. The power in
the crystal is only a fraction of the strength given to you. And you cannot
use that strength, it is not something that can be wielded like a weapon. It
is part of you, Serena, no one else."
A surge of anger went through Serena. "I can't do it. Let me go!" With all her
strength, she twisted in his grip, trying to break free.
His hands did not so much as budge from her exertion, they did not even
tighten. It was like trying to break free from a statue made of stone, the
stone did not resist, but neither could you move.
"Listen to me, Serena. Look within the power of the crystal, to its source,
and find the power there. Look within yourself."
She mutely tried to break free from his grip, and his gaze softened. "Do it for
your friends."
He looked at her with his strange eyes. "Do it for Darian."
The plea went into her heart, cutting away resistance.
She could not refuse.
Abruptly, she forced herself to relax, to stop struggling. Almost immediately,
Nakiad's hands released her, let her turn back to the battle. Her friends, the
Sailor Scouts, her love, Darian. Even Luna and Artemis were there, trying to
distract the knight.
They were counting on her.
She could not let them down.
Once more, she closed her eyes, concentrating, looking within herself.
She looked deeper, to the brooch she always wore, to the power of the Silver
Imperium Crystal.
It could fit in the palm of her hand easily, and yet it contained the power
that stopped Queen Beryl, that saved her friends, a power that brought all of
the scouts back to life when they died in that final fight.
That power had to come from somewhere.
She looked within it, tuning out the sounds of the fight around her,
concentrating on that one spot. The crystal seemed to pulse, then enlarge,
encompassing the things around it. For as far as she could see, it stretched,
a transparent talisman of power.
But the power had to come from somewhere, someone.
She saw it, in one corner, like a mote of dust hanging in the transparent web
of facets. With an effort of will, Serena forced her consciousness there,
moved herself to that point.
It was a person, she saw as she came near, a human hanging lifeless in the
glass, energy coming out of her, a human-
A human who was dressed in a long white robe.
And as Serena approached, the truth became evident, obvious.
It was herself, the Princess of the Moon.
But she was not moving, holding still with her eyes closed, trapped forever in
the crystal.
And Serena understood what she had to do.
With a thought, she extended her hand to the other girl, still in the web. And
the princess opened her eyes, moving slightly, looking at Serena with
surprise.
And held out her own hand.
They touched.
With an effort of will, Serena crushed the prison that held the princess
separate, freed her from the prison of her own mind's preconceptions.
And the crystal in Serena's mind exploded with energy, her energy. It was not
the power of the Moon, it was not Serenity's strength. It was *her*
power, Serena's power.
That was why forcing it did not do anything, because you can't tell your arm to
move and expect it to.
You just do it.
With a thought, she was back in her body, ready to do anything. And she felt
powerful. It was not an addition of energy as much as an alteration of it, a
changing of the way she felt about it. Before, she got it from the crystal,
from the wand, from the locket, from the scepter.
Now, it was *hers*.
She opened her eyes deliberately. She stopped concentrating.
<It is not something that can be wielded like a weapon. It is part of you,
Serena, no one else.>
She did not need to concentrate to bring the energy there, it was already
there. All she had to do was let it go.
And she did.
A flash of light as brilliant as the sun lanced out from her, impacting on the
knight just as he was about to raise his mace overhead. The beam smashed into
him, bending his armor once more, heating up the metal plates.
He bent in pain, collapsing away from her as the beam continued, stumbling
away.
And Serena felt the other scouts offer their power to help her, to lend their
strength. With gratitude, she accepted, for her power was the same as it had
been before not being increased.
Just changed.
Now she could use it when she wanted, without relying on tools or crystals.
Because it was *her* power.
She felt the strength of the beam increase as the scouts added their own energy
to hers, felt the armor of the knight start to buckle. The power of the five
scouts was too much even for that creature's legendary strength to handle.
As the grass around him began to scorch from the heat, he collapsed to the
ground, feebly holding up one hand as if trying to escape.
But it was too late.
With a final effort, with a shriek of tearing metal, the armor broke.
Then it was over.
On the ground, a heap of scorched metal lay lifeless, dead.
And Serena almost collapsed with relief. Once more, two strong hands caught
her before she fell to the ground.
"You did well, princess," a calm voice whispered to her.
"Thank you," she whispered in return.
Somehow she knew without turning that his face was grim. "It isn't over yet."
* * *
The Dark Lord closed his eyes in disappointment, feeling the life force of the
knight vanish. A split second before, there had been a resurgence of moon
power, so it was not extremely difficult to figure out what happened.
The question remained as to how that kind of energy was summoned. With the
scepter destroyed, the princess should not have been able to gather so much
power. On the other hand, the reports of her abilities might have been
misinterpreted, or she might have discovered a new strength in herself.
It did not occur to the Dark Lord to wonder if the scepter had been truly
destroyed, for no denizen in the Negaverse would dare lie to the master of
evil. Only one has arranged for that to be done, and Kaneth's turn would
come.
But no matter, the Dark Lord decided. To one side, the portal was complete, he
required no more help from the knight, no more distractions. The Chosen was
helpless without his sword, the sailor scouts-
He frowned a little, but shook his head. The scouts posed no threat to him.
Still, it would be nice to get rid of them once and for all, or at least create
a distraction for him to take advantage off.
He moved away from the inviting portal, moving down the line of crystals, to
one end, where a creature strove to free itself from a thin layer of
transparency.
The sword of the Shadow swung smoothly, the edge just barely nicking the
imprisoning shell.
The crystal split, cracks running from the impact around the creature. The
Dark Lord had calculated the leftover shell to be destroyed with one blow, and
it worked.
A surge of strength came from the warrior trapped within, and the fragments
moved outward, then fell down to a heap at the monster's feet. It looked
around with insane eyes for a moment, then seemed to focus on the Dark Lord.
"Master," it spoke, kneeling in front of the Shadow.
He smiled a little at the instant obedience.
"Go. Go to where the Sailor Scouts are, and destroy them." This creature had
the ability to focus on a specific person and get there, which was one of the
reasons the Dark Lord had chosen him.
"I go!"
He leapt away into the darkness, where he would weave the spell that made the
portal. The Shadow frowned a little, but knew that his own aura interfered
with the creation of gateways, so kept silent.
Now, he swore gleefully to himself, now it ends.
He turned back to his own portal.
Then he felt it.
* * *
Slowly, Lita approached the still smoking armor, obviously on guard. But the
metal plates did not move, the charred black material continuing to lie on the
ground. With a tense foot, Sailor Jupiter reached out, shifting a few of the
plates to reveal the creature inside.
The metal pieces slid aside almost effortlessly, separating under the green
boot. Beneath-
Beneath there was nothing.
With surprise, Lita moved more plates, trying to see something, but to no
avail. The only thing on the ground was a pile of metal armor, mostly charred
black by the powerful blast.
Serena turned to face Nakiad, the man letting her stand on her own. "Was he
disintegrated by the blast, with only the metal surviving?"
The other's mind seemed to be occupied elsewhere, but he answered. "Perhaps.
But there is a legend, an ancient story that the knight is no more than that."
He gestured at the pile. "As a figure in armor, he is a creature to be reckoned
with. But once that armor is breached, there is nothing but an empty shell of
metal." The Chosen shrugged. "No one knows exactly how much of that myth is
true, but it is known that the knight never took off his armor. Never."
He was staring at the knight's last position, and Serena turned in time to see
the pile of armor began to glow slightly. Surprised, Lita jumped back several
yards, landing next to the rest of the scouts. A wind seemed to gust up,
rattling the metal, and then it dissolved into smoke. The gray gas lifted up,
leaving a circle of scorched earth behind.
And nothing else.
Serena began to turn toward Nakiad. "What do you-" She interrupted herself as
completed the turn.
He wasn't there any more. A second ago, he had been standing behind her, now
he had disappeared as if he had turned invisible. She looked over at everyone
else. "Did anyone see where Nakiad went?"
Ami held up a hand. "Wait a second, guys. I'm reading something really strange
coming from the burned circle. Everyone stand back." They backed up several
yards, then waited. For the second time that day, the air in front of them
distorted, this time forming into a ragged black circle hovering a foot off the
ground.
"It's a portal," Ami informed the others calmly.
"Get ready, Sailor Scouts," Luna said tensely, then looked over at Artemis.
The white cat seemed to be looking around as if searching for something, then
shrugged and turned to the portal.
The circle flashed for a moment, and the creature came through.
A warrior with the size and build of a lion appeared, snarling as it stood in
front of the gateway for a few moments. The scouts got an impression of a huge
toothy mouth and powerful front legs before the monster seemed to blur in the
air, the features becoming difficult to distinguish. It seemed to phase in
midair, moving a yard or so forward, then rematerialized.
At the same moment, the portal behind it began to close.
And a black shape appeared behind the creature.
It turned its head from the scouts, sensing someone behind it. It was the
Chosen. But before it could react, the man leapt through the portal,
disappearing.
The warrior sighed mentally, preparing to go back through after it, then a
thought reached it, a command that leapt between dimensions.
<Leave him to me. Take care of the Sailor Scouts.>
For once, the wishes of its superior were the same as its own, the creature
thought.
Grinning to itself with satisfaction, the warrior turned back to the scouts and
concentrated. In slow motion, it saw a blast from their leader, Sailor Moon,
approach its chest. With a slight effort, it spun itself away from the attack,
leaving the beam behind.
This is going to be fun, it thought.
* * *
Slowly, Nakiad breathed in the air, getting used to the smell of the fog that
drifted everywhere. A slight glow in one direction drew his eyes, a familiar
mental force pressing against his mind.
The Dark Lord knew he was there, there was no way to hide something like that
from powers of their magnitude. But he was waiting for the Chosen to come to
him.
Nakiad shrugged silently to himself, and started moving forward.
As he did, he felt something strange in the palm of one hand. Without realizing
it, he had reached behind to the harness on his back.
It was empty mostly, the two swords staying back in his house. They would have
been useless in the conflict, without their power, and there was nothing he
could do with them. Besides, he had thought ruefully, I will not need them for
what I am planning to do.
But the swords were not his only weapons. Below them, rarely noticed, was a
knife also made of Maraki, a blade he had found long ago, already on earth. Of
the scouts, only Mina had seen the weapon, and at the time she had other things
to worry about. So no one inquired as to what happened to it after the swords
were destroyed.
Now his hand, trained for centuries, automatically reacted to the presence of
danger, reaching for the best weapon available.
For a moment, he let the hand stay there, thinking. Theoretically, the knife
could kill the Dark Lord, but-
With an angry thought he forced his arm down, back to his side.
He would do what he came to do.
The fog ahead of him parted slightly as he continued, the blue glow
intensifying in a line that stretched into two directions. Then a single step
brought the glow into view, the fog ending in a line as if a curtain was
holding it back.
And in the center of the clear space was the Dark Lord.
The Shadow had obviously picked the spot in which he stood carefully while
Nakiad had been coming. He was standing so the glow of a crystal illuminated
him from behind, making him look that much more dark and forbidding in
contrast. To either side, the crystals seemed to stretch out forever, a
monster seemingly ready to leap from each one.
The Chosen approached slowly, halting a dozen yards away.
"So," the Dark Lord began, "you have come." The black figure paused, then
shifted its stance a little. "Nice trick in getting here. But getting out is
the hard part. You see, the only way to leave is through there." With a
sudden gesture, he pointed to one side.
There, hidden before by the fog, an object was revealed by the retreating
vapors. A flat black circle, it was a tear in reality.
A gate.
Nakiad felt out with his mind, though he knew what he would find.
It was a portal back to the Universe.
So, Shadow, you do have the power, the Chosen thought calmly. He forced his
emotions still, warned by the Guardian about this.
The Dark Lord seemed to notice. "So, you have been expecting this." He paused,
then seemed to shake off any doubts. "So much the better."
He suddenly shifted forward, striding toward the Chosen until the crystal
directly behind him was hidden from view. "All you have to do to get home is
get through me." Nakiad smiled grimly. From the point of view of the Shadow,
that was an empty promise. Either they would die together, something almost
impossible.
Or Nakiad alone would die.
He smiled to himself. Hopefully, he had a third option.
"So, Chosen, face me now, once and for all."
He looked at the Dark Lord calmly, keeping his hands by his sides while the
other's strayed slowly to the scabbard across his back.
* * *
Serena watched with astonishment as the black figure that could only be Nakiad
disappeared in the portal.
Good luck, Chosen, she thought clearly as the portal closed behind him. Her
newfound ability brought a startling calm to her, as if she was already a
queen, regal and ready to make decisions. She looked at the creature in front
of her. It was a warrior for the Negaverse, and had to be destroyed, she knew,
but somewhere deep inside, she also understood that it was a creature.
One that deserved pity.
And a clean end.
With a free thought, she released the power within her in a beam, lashing out
at the furry monster.
And it blurred as the blast approached, leaving the point of impact. Serena's
blast went wide, destroying a tree while the monster phased through the air too
fast for anyone to follow. From there, it screamed shrilly at them, and a
blanket of white needles of power appeared, then threw itself at the scouts.
They scattered out of the way, and various attacks launched themselves at the
source of the blast.
A split second later, four roses, several rings of fire and a blast of
lightning knocked a hole in a grove of trees.
The monster, already on the other side of the glade, hissed at the scouts,
launching another attack, but only caught Tuxedo Mask's cape that time. Then
it blurred almost without pausing, not letting the scouts get a solid lock on
it.
Mina looked at the monster, breathing heavily. Her beam had missed twice, but
she was not only thinking about that.
Somewhere, she felt that Nakiad had found the Dark Lord. What would happen
next she did not know.
Or perhaps she knew, and feared.
Luna glanced over at Mina, a worried expression also on her face. But the cat
was looking at the monster, wondering what they were going to do about it.
None of their attacks were so much as slowing its charges, and the needles were
almost impossible to avoid.
Only luck had kept the scouts away from injury, and the black cat knew from
experience that luck does not play favorites.
"No," Nakiad answered simply.
For a moment, the Dark Lord seemed simply to have been astonished. Then he
recovered. "So, you fear to fight me without your swords. I can understand
that. But if you do not-" he gestured toward the portal expansively. The
Universe will be mine, he did not need to finish.
No, Shadow. You want to get rid of me because you do not want the slightest
chance of me coming back again. Well, I'm not going to give you the
*satisfaction*.
"No," he refused once more. "I am tired of fighting."
Again, the other stared. "What, not even a simple struggle? Are you going to
merely give up, after nearly defeating me two times?"
"I *have* defeated you two times." Nakiad reminded himself to remain
calm. The Dark Lord was trying to goad him, trying to figure out what trick he
was playing.
The Shadow snarled. "A fluke that will soon be corrected. Very well, then. If
you will not fight, then I will strike you down where you stand, and no one for
a millennium will rise to defend the Universe against me." Nakiad did not
respond, which seemed to infuriate the Dark Lord. "Well, what does your
Guardian think of that?"
You'd be surprised, the man thought calmly.
I might have a chance, he thought, looking at the other. He is arrogant now,
overconfident. Perhaps, if I can lull him off guard, I can use the knife to-
No.
I have had enough fighting. The Chosen have had enough fighting. It is time
for it to end.
"Very well, then," the Dark Lord's hand seemed to blur for a moment, and a
blade appeared in it. Unlike the other two times they had fought, the sword
did not appear, but was merely drawn very quickly, the Shadow not having the
energy to place it in a bubble universe.
The sword, the same sword that Nakiad had fought against twice, the sword that
was stronger than almost anything else, shone eerily in the blue light.
It danced a bit in the other's grip, as if he were expecting a sudden attack,
and Nakiad forced himself to hold still.
He looked at the other with a strange peace that suddenly came over him, a
strength that came from deep inside.
This is right, he thought.
This must be.
The sword came toward him.
"Venus Meteor Shower!" She launched a volley of energy at the place where the
creature had just been, destroying a small garden of flowers. Well, she thought
with sudden dark humor, they were going to demolish this park anyway, might as
well help out.
Then she had to dodge out of the way of a hundred energy needles. She felt
several graze the skin on one arm, and winced in pain.
Then she felt something once more, a feeling that came from so deep inside her
that it was not her own.
"No," she whispered as the feelings hit her, imprinted themselves on her
consciousness.
"NO!" She felt the other scouts turn toward her.
"You promised," she begged him in her mind.
You promised to try to come back
<Trust me.>
*NO!*
With a smooth, fluid motion, the sword sprung forward, guided by the black hand
that held it.
Nakiad waited for it calmly, patiently.
It came toward his chest, directly for the center where it would cut the heart
in two, one of the few sure ways to kill him.
It *would* kill him, he knew.
Hold still, he thought to himself.
And he did.
The blade seemed to blur into a single arc of metal, coming straight at him.
Then it hit.
He felt the pain lance through the center of his chest, the blade penetrating
his skin, then his ribs.
Hitting the heart.
For several moments he wondered about how little pain there really was from the
blow.
The memory of the agony of feeling his swords break made this seem almost
pleasant.
For a moment, he felt his body try to resist the blow, try to heal, but he
forced it to relax. He did not wish to take long to die, not now. He felt
himself grow light somehow, even as he started to collapse to the floor.
For a moment, he stared up at the black figure over head, and then, somewhere
deep inside, he smiled.
You can't hurt me anymore.
The world dissolved into blinding light.
The Dark Lord watched with a strange feeling deep inside as the Chosen looked
straight at him. Slowly, the other slid down from the sword, gracefully as if
he were made out of feathers.
With a jerking motion, the Shadow disregarded the strange emotion. His enemy
was dead, finally and forever. It would be a thousand years before another
Chosen would have a chance of challenging him.
He started laughing as he turned toward the portal, leaving the prone form of
the Chosen behind him.
"You promised-" Lita heard Mina whisper, then something else she couldn't make
out.
Then the orange scout shrieked.
She collapsed to the ground, huddled in a ball, as if trying to escape a fate
she knew had already happened.
"What is it?" Lita yelled to Darian, who was next to her trying to nail the
creature with a rose. He looked worriedly back at the green scout, then
grimaced, seemingly in pain. He reached into his suit with one hand, grasping
something inside. With a jerk, he brought it out.
It was a rose.
It was also black. Not the kind of black the prince's roses were when he had
been brainwashed, but a burning, dark black.
The kind that was in shadows.
The kind that the Dark Lord was.
Darian stared at it in horror, then let it go as if it was burning his arm. It
dropped the short distance to the ground, embedding itself in the concrete.
Mina sobbed loudly, once, and the creature seemed to notice her for the first
time since she collapsed. It blurred toward the orange scout, seeing an
helpless target.
At the last moment, a barrage of roses and electricity forced it to change
direction, but not before a cloud of white nails leapt at the helpless scout.
Lita and Darian reached her together, the prince throwing his cape over them
all as the blast hit. The cloak was not just ordinary cloth, it stopped the
penetrating power of the needles, they shattered against it. But Lita could
feel the burns of the needles even through it, and by the expression on
Darian's face, so did he.
"No, no, you promised, you *pro-*" Mina froze in mid-sob. "No," she
whispered, then shook her head. "No, he meant it this time, I felt it. Then-"
She paused, then resumed crying.
"We're losing her," Darian muttered as he picked the girl up easily, leaping
away to the protection of the other scouts.
"We are also losing the battle," Luna told him grimly. The creature's
unpredictable movement made hitting it almost impossible, so far an unreached
goal. All of the scouts, however, carried the burn and slash marks of the
energy needles, either on their suits or on their flesh. Even the two cats
were burned in several places. "And if that is any indication," Luna added
sadly, nodding at Mina, "we just lost Nakiad as well."
Artemis looked at her and sighed, hanging his head.
But he did not disagree.
The scouts scattered as the monster blurred toward them once more.
He turned away, laughing, toward the portal, then paused. For a moment, he
wondered if he should let the creature destroy the scouts, the fight was going
well as far as he could tell.
No, he thought, I am going to finish that pleasure myself.
He moved once more toward the portal, then paused again.
A strange feeling washed over him, something unlike anything else he had ever
experienced. It was not hate, or anger, or jealousy.
It was-
Impossible, the Dark Lord swore, resisting the impulse, and moved toward the
portal once more.
But his will was not in it, and slowly, he relented.
He turned, ever so slowly, coming back up to the dead Chosen.
Here lay the warrior who was able to defeat me twice, he thought, and here he
lies dead through no merit of mine.
He died like a coward, a part of him raged, as the coward he is.
He died without flinching, another part said calmly, and he deserves it.
And he had to give in to that part of himself.
Slowly, as if resisting every motion, he drew himself erect before the
warrior.
As if repeating a motion he had seen but never done, he joined his two hands
together in front of his chest, one hand around the other fist.
Slowly, the Dark Lord, master of the Negaverse bowed to the Chosen.
Just once.
A relief of being done with it came over him, along with something else he
ignored. With a motion, he started to turn back, when he felt something behind
him.
"So, even you are not entirely without honor."
The voice resonated behind him, a voice he recognized. But the Chosen was
dead, his form lying in front of the Shadow.
Then what? The Dark Lord thought as he turned.
Behind him, there was nothing but the gateway. But slowly, something began to
take shape, some kind of concentration of energy forming between him and the
portal to the Universe.
A human figure was taking shape out of stray beams of white light, flowing into
a single coherent form.
The slivers of white light finally finished in a single form, flowing along the
figure and making the outline change as if it were made out of liquid. But the
face remained unmistakable.
It was Nakiad.
Pain lanced through her, both emotional and physical. She felt the attack of
the creature, felt Darian and Lita save her life.
But she did not care.
For she knew that Nakiad was dead.
Even when she struck him down herself with the crescent beam, she never felt
this kind of anguish. Somehow, some place deep inside of her knew he would
survive.
That certainty was gone now.
She knew he was dead.
Then something else, another feeling went through her, a strange one. It was
as if somehow, Nakiad's death was being changed in some way. Not reversed, but
altered, as if it no longer meant the end it should.
Swallowing hard, Mina looked over to the other side of the glade, where a
single rose burned black on the green grass.
Along the base of the rose, where it touched the ground, a touch of white was
coming back, fighting the black.
The darkness remained there, seemingly impossible to erase.
But a white light was covering it, rising slowly from the ground.
It wasn't over.
She opened her eyes wider.
Not yet.
She saw the creature launch a strike at Serena, saw the princess about to come
under a hail of fiery nails.
"Venus Meteor Shower!"
The meteors leapt forward, slamming into the wave of nails, distorting it. The
princess glanced at Mina and smiled, then leapt out of the way of the rest of
the blast.
Mina sighed.
"You are dead," the Dark Lord pronounced in a tone of finality.
The figure made of light looked at him for several moments before replying.
"Yes. And No."
Then the Shadow seemed to step back a little as a look of realization washed
over him. "Of course. Get out of my way, Guardian. You can not harm me by
yourself with some visual trick. I have found who you really are, so give it
up."
Again, a pause. "It is true that I am Guardian, in a way." The figure seemed
to glare at the Dark Lord. "But not the whole truth. I have absorbed Guardian
before coming here, knowing I could not fight you physically. But with his
energy inside of me, combined with the energy I had over you because I did not
need a portal, I was able to make myself immortal as part of Guardian. He is
part of me now, all the Chosen are. I know their thoughts, their memories. I
have all the combined experiences of the best warriors in the Universe."
He paused, then finished. "And you can not harm me any more."
Snarling in rage, the Shadow drew its sword in a single motion, lashing out
against the figure. The blade penetrated all the way through, leaving a slight
trail of red in its wake which swiftly disappeared. Nakiad winced a little,
but that was all. Calmly, he continued to look at his enemy.
"We are more alike than you think, than anyone believes. I know you through
the eyes of thousands of warriors, and I *know* you. We are both tools
for our universes. You were created to destroy us, having no choice in the
matter."
"And I was created to stop you. For eons, we have struggled, you have
struggled against us, each trying to kill the other." He paused, then looked
with his glaring white eyes at the Dark Lord.
"Why?" He asked the single question.
The Dark Lord paused in mid swing. "Because that is who I am," he snarled.
The Chosen seemed to sigh. "For a long time, I thought that was enough of an
answer. But it isn't." He looked at the other. "You have to be stopped."
The Shadow seemed to grow smarter. "If I can't hurt you, then neither can you
hurt me."
"I do not need to," the other replied, moving forward a little. "You must
stop," he said persuasively.
"I do not know *how*," the Dark Lord snarled through a grin as he lunged
and struck at the other again. The Chosen ignored the pain, only wincing a
little.
"Then I must teach you," he answered calmly.
With a single motion, he changed his shape, gathering into a single point,
flowing forward, directly at the Shadow. He struck into the middle of the
others chest-
And continued into it, moving until he was inside the other's body.
With a harsh cry, the Dark Lord collapsed to the ground, dropping the sword and
huddling there.
His eyes, wide open, saw nothing.
Mina's eyes flared as she felt that something was happening. She felt
suggestions of what it might be flitting away around her consciousness, but it
was difficult to put together a picture.
Then she understood.
If Nakiad could not fight the Dark Lord physically, he might be able to stop
him on the inside.
Mina closed her eyes in grief, knowing he could never survive, without even a
body to come to.
You must do what you must do, she thought quietly.
And so must I.
Good luck, she thought as she struck out at the creatures once more.
Two forces strove against each other, one light as the sun, the other dark as
night.
They clashed, sparks of energy flying from one to the other, edges getting worn
away, melding around each other, trying to surround the other and destroy it.
Nakiad concentrated on the fight, forcing his energy to flow at the other's.
He had to defeat the Dark Lord here, he had not choice. With his full strength
of will, he tried to force the dark force away from him, out where it could not
survive.
It was not working.
The black energy responded too strongly, springing back, striking the Chosen,
damaging him.
Slowly, so slowly it was almost unnoticeable at first, Nakiad was being forced
out. The hate of eons gave the Dark Lord power, a hate fueled by the battles
he had had, by the things he had done.
Nakiad struck back, but his attack was snuffed out before it had a chance to
land.
If he was forced out, he would no longer have anywhere to go. He might not
even be Guardian any more, without any energy to fuel him. And so he would
merely dissipate, floating forever through the universes while the Dark Lord
could take over his own Universe.
Never! He swore, screaming at the other, and strove against the other even
harder.
The battle only got worse, as if the Shadow was using his own power against
him, and Nakiad felt himself losing.
There was nothing he could do.
Mina felt him begin to lose, sharing the emotion of defeat, but it was
difficult to distinguish those feelings from her own. All of the scouts were
hurt to some extent, Mina herself bleeding from several major wounds.
One of Serena's arms was hurt so badly that Ami had to freeze it a little in
order for the princess to be able to stand the pain. Serena was now far
removed from her princesslike display of power, her inner courage obviously
fighting with the fear of the monster.
The creature, on the other hand, seemed not to have been damaged at all, easily
blurring through the air, herding the scouts into a single area, then launching
a thousand needles at them.
Slowly the blasts from the scouts and Darian's roses became less frequent as
they began to exhaust their powers.
Still, the creature came, relentless.
You're our only hope, Nakiad, Mina thought as she struck out again. We can't
win this without you.
The two powers crashed again, but the white was forced back, the black steady
as a rock. Nakiad could not win, not even in this type of fighting.
He suddenly felt Mina's mind, through the gap between universes.
<We can't win this without you.>
And a realization went through him.
He was still fighting.
Not physically, perhaps, but still.
For eons, the Chosen fought against the Dark Lord, strove and died for the
Universe. All to hold back a single overshadowing black force that was pure
evil.
Or was it?
A thousand voices in his head screamed at him that he was, an uncounted number
of Chosen wishing nothing but for the Dark Lord to die.
With a sudden effort, Nakiad disregarded all of their voices, stopped
listening. He looked at the black enemy with the memories of a thousand
battles, but with the mind of a single person, a person whose love was still
alive.
And he found the answer, as hard as it was to admit.
No.
The Dark Lord had been created by the Negaverse, made for a single purpose, to
fight. He had been given nothing but rage and hate as emotions, and so he did
the only thing he could.
He had struck against his makers, destroying them, then turned on the Universe,
and continued for as long as he existed, unable to turn away from who he was.
He was a tool, Nakiad thought with astonishment.
Just as the Chosen were tools, used by the Universe to hold back the Dark Lord,
then allowed to die, the vicious circle continued forever.
Both created to fight, to know anger and hatred, neither given a real choice
over their destiny. Each alone was not whole, for without one there could
never be the other.
He thought at the other, knowing he could hear, remembering the words he had
said once before.
<We are more alike than you think, than anyone believes.>
No, he thought. We are more than similar, Dark Lord.
We were created by opposite Universes, but our creators managed to do the exact
same thing to both of us.
We are the same.
Without each other, we are nothing, and so we seek each other out, fighting for
all eternity.
That is why when a Chosen dies another must take his place, that is why if you
die, I must die as well.
Because we are one.
Opposite faces of the same coin.
You cannot fight evil, for in a battle, hate will always triumph. That is what
a battle is, an ongoing hatred.
There is only one way to fight evil.
And that is not to.
*Not to.*
With a single thought, Nakiad let go, allowed the black wave to wash over
him.
He let the Dark Lord win.
"No," Mina whispered. She held one hand against the blood leaking out of a
wounded leg as she turned to the rose embedded in the ground.
The battle had been reflected on the fragile flower, and now, the white that
had covered part of it was swamped over by the black. In a split moment, the
rose began to burn darkness like the night.
She felt several needles graze her, but did not really think about them.
Around her, several of the scouts were on the ground. Darian was limping, one
hand not moving. The two cats, covered with burns, were lying on the ground,
unconscious.
"Nakiad." She whispered his name into the night like a prayer. Please, tell
me you know what you are doing.
He did not know what he was doing, not mentally.
But he was right. Somewhere inside his heart, he knew he had done the right
thing.
The black wave washed over the white, covering the blinding power of the
Chosen, leaving no trace of it.
But as it did, it absorbed it.
Ever so slowly, almost impossible to notice, the black stopped being black,
turning slightly gray. Then more so, and more so, until it was balanced
between black and white, completely neutral.
And Nakiad felt the Dark Lord. Not just his emotions, not his thoughts, but
everything. All the memories of eons of bitterness washed over him in a
moment.
Anger, hatred, despair.
Killing each of the Chosen, remembered as vividly as the death of Nakiad.
Eons of living for one thing only, to destroy the universe.
Striving for only thing, only one thing.
Never any peace, never a true chance for anything.
*Pain.*
For what seemed like a long time, Nakiad felt the other's pain, let the waves
of hatred and bitterness wash over him.
He listened.
* * *
A single black figure knelt by a portal, in a universe that held only pain.
Until now.
Slowly, the figure opened its eyes.
The person looked up into the sky.
His face was calm, composed, relaxed.
It was Nakiad, both in face and body, differing only in clothes.
"*I forgive you*," he whispered.
Thousands of creatures dying by my hand, all the Chosen gone forever- and yet
not gone, surviving in Guardian.
"I understand."
A strange light crossed the face of the person.
"*We* understand."
"We have never had a chance to choose what we will become."
"Until now."
For a long, long moment, the world seemed to hold still with the figure,
motionless.
Then they chose.
Inside, the gray exploded into blinding white light.
Serena lifted her head from the ground with astonishment as she felt something.
A wave of light that was not light, of invisible good washed over everything.
It was as if every object in the world turned bright to some inner eye that she
had, as if something truly new had been created in the world.
And the creature they were fighting paused in mid blur, stopped in its
tracks.
Slowly, it raised its head into the sky, shrieking a question.
To one side, the rose embedded in the ground flared suddenly and ignited with
the fire of a sun, blinding everyone for a moment with brilliant white light.
As if her emotions were linked to the flower, Serena's spirits suddenly soared
up, and she felt new strength and hope infusing her.
The princess lifted her hand.
And released her power.
A blast of energy launched itself at the monster, joined by a shower of meteors
from another side, joined by fire, by lightning, and frozen air.
The creature never stood a chance.
Slowly, he got up, rising to his feet.
Slowly, he looked around as if seeing many things for the first time.
Overhead, for some reason, the clouds began to clear. The fog around the line
of crystals slowly began to recede, making the aisle of clear air wider, more
visible.
To one side, a human figure was lying prone on the ground, not moving.
The man walked over to the body of Nakiad, the last of the Chosen.
For a long time, he stood there, not moving, then raised his arms. Slowly,
repeating the same motion he had done before, he bowed.
But it was a deeper bow, more sincere somehow, as if paying homage to something
sacred.
Slowly, he crouched, reaching out one hand to the figure lying on the ground.
At his touch, the body crumpled inward, as if drawn to the man.
Within moments, the body was gone, drawn completely into the figure. At the
same time the man seemed to blur a little, the outlines of the body changing as
if altered by the form of the dead person. A single knife remained lying on
the ground, and for a long time, the man looked at it, as if wondering what to
do. As if reaching a decision, he looked away, deliberatly, leaving the weapon
in the dust.
The blade glistened with the reflection of the dark sky, the only thing marking
the place where the greatest warrior of the Universe died.
Once more, the figure looked around, this time at the line of crystals
stretching from side to side. Slowly, as if he was no longer in a hurry to get
anywhere, he walked over to the spot where he lay so few minutes ago.
He bent down smoothly, picking an object up from the ground.
It was the sword.
The sword of the Dark Lord.
The blade reflected the blue light, but it no longer looked evil, as it did in
the hands of the Shadow. Instead, it was merely a tool, something to be used
in whatever way its wielder wanted it to be.
The man slowly turned, walking to one end of the line of crystals. Several
minutes later, he stopped, standing in line with the crystals, behind the last
one.
He raised the sword, pointing at the line, and seemed to concentrate.
The blade pulsed slightly, and the first crystal exploded into shards of glass,
annihilating both the prison and the creature within. The next crystal
followed, and the next, the line of entrapped monsters disappearing in a
holocaust of blue splinters.
A minute later, all of the creatures ever entrapped by Queen Beryl were free,
and the plain stood empty.
The man sheathed the sword across his back, and turned to the portal.
His job there was done.
* * *
"Well, it seems we were lucky." Luna sighed, settling down next to Artemis.
Around the two cats, everyone else was gathered in a circle, tending to their
wounds. Fortunately, none of them were serious or life threatening, though
several looked bad.
"Yes," Serena greed, "we were, Luna." Surprisingly, the princess had been able
to withstand the near loss without breaking down, demonstrating unusual
willpower. It was as if her discovery of ability had given her the courage to
fight her fears, stop herself from being overwhelmed by their near loss. She
looked at Mina.
The other scout's eyes were still filled with tears. She had refused to tend
to her own wounds, but did not resist when Ami had bandaged her leg. It had
been almost half an hour since the inexplicable wave of light allowed the
scouts to destroy the creature, and they were beginning to lose hope. Soon,
the sun would come up and they would have leave before people started to
arrive.
Rei looked up. "I feel something." Around her, the scouts hid their winces of
pain as they prepared to fight once more, every one of them praying that they
would not have not.
A portal was forming in the air, in the same place that spawned the other two
monsters. A black figure stepped through slowly, the portal closing behind it
soundlessly.
"I don't believe it." Darian breathed, putting the rose he had taken out back
into his tuxedo. He had recovered the rose Nakiad had altered before, after it
had dimmed and returned back to normal several minutes before.
The black clad man looked up at the others.
The clothes were the Dark Lord's, as was the sword across his back. But they
did not carry with it the malevolence that they carried before, instead, they
seemed to be only clothes, only a weapon.
And the shape of the body, and the face, were Nakiad's.
And yet at the same time, there was something in his eyes that screamed that it
was not only Nakiad that was facing him. A new dimension of age had been added
to his gaze, a new measure of wisdom even greater than before.
There was something strange as well in the figure, something none of the scouts
had ever seen before in the Chosen.
Together, the scouts approached him as he stood waiting, calmly.
Mina was the first to speak, wiping away her tears. "You are Nakiad."
It was not quite a statement, but neither was it a question. For a moment, he
paused, then nodded. "True. But I am more than that."
"You've changed." The others remained silent, watching.
He looked at her, but the expression on his face was not sad. "I am many
people. I am Guardian, all the Chosen there have ever been, from Nemesis, the
first, to the last. And I am the Dark Lord, as well, for his essence is deep
within me. But you are talking to Nakiad, for he is visible and dominant."
Mina looked at him, without understanding.
He smiled, and the expression was clear as it had never been, a true expression
of happiness. Serena suddenly realized what was different about him, a
startling change from before.
In all the time they had known him, he had always been somber, grim, expecting
the worst. He had always known that he was going to die, losing his love, and
somehow that made it impossible for him to ever truly express joy.
Until now.
His face was unchanged, his eyes wise as if he was the oldest creature alive.
But at the same time there was a new calmness in his eyes, a new relaxation
that had never been there before.
Serena smiled, realizing what it was.
For the first time in his life, Nakiad was at peace.
He looked at Mina. "And I love you," he finished.
Slowly, as if afraid for his frailty, she stepped forward.
And as if they had been separated for a thousand years, they embraced, together
again.
*Epilogue*
"The Dark Lord is part of me, just as all the other people Guardian was are.
The evil is within me, the hatred that was part of the Dark Lord. But he was
never really evil, he just was never given a choice as to what he could
become."
Nakiad paused, looking at the scouts. "I gave him that. And he accepted, for
if he had not, I would have never become part of him. In the end, it was he
who made the crucial decision, and it was because of him that the Universe is
safe."
"For now."
"Now, I will have the darkness within me, but under control."
Artemis looked at him, frowning a little. "How long can you keep that up?"
The man looked back calmly. "For as long as I need to." He seemed to look
through the cat at something far away, lost in thoughts for a moment.
Mina put her hand on his shoulder. "Come on, let's go home."
Behind her, several scouts groaned, and Nakiad seemed to notice their injuries
for the first time. For a moment, he closed his eyes, seeming to concentrate on
something, then relaxed. "I've called the minivan, it should arrive here in a
few minutes." No one contested that claim. "I think the medical facilities at
my base are sufficient to deal with those wounds, unless," he turned to the
Princess, "you retain enough power to heal them."
Serena seemed to concentrate for a moment, then sighed, shaking her head.
"Sorry guys, that was the last of it." She smiled a little.
Ami looked at Sailor Moon, smiling a little. "In that case, I think we should
take up Nakiad's offer, don't you think?"
The scouts wholeheartedly agreed, and they turned away from the burnt glade,
slowly making their way toward the exit of the park with each other's support.
Behind them, a portion of the park was devastated by the powers that had been
released there that day. But overhead, the sun rose gently, casting light over
the damage, making it seem insignificant to the beauty of the rest of the
park.
And with light came hope.