“Big fucking roadblock, if you ask me.” They started back down the way they came, Mercury in the lead to scan for potential dark spots. Sailor Moon felt like she had been walking for hours; her ankles and knees ached from repeatedly pounding the stone floor, and her optimism was waning with every minute spent in the dark. “This place, it’s horrible, it’s filled with hate. All I can feel is hate; it even comes from the walls. It’s only happy when other people are suffering.” “That’s probably Metallia you’re sensing,” Mars said from the rear. “She’s basically the embodiment of hate.” Sailor Moon sighed, and, like a small child in a crowded shopping mall, she reached for Venus’s hand and latched on. “I’m worried about Endymion, too. I mean, I know he’s capable of taking care of himself, and he’s bailed me out of a few hundred close calls, but…I don’t know what’s out there. He could be in danger and I would have no way to help him.” Venus glanced down at her. “He’ll be fine. He’s got plenty of backup.” “I know he’s in very capable hands, but if anything happened to him, I wouldn’t have a reason to live.” Her tone was light, but her words were deadly serious. Venus pulled her closer. “I don’t want to sound like my mother, and say that eventually you’d get over it-“ “Then don’t,” Sailor Moon said simply, like she was answering survey questions. “I love him; he’s the other half of my soul, and he’s the only thing that keeps me going. If he dies, I die.” Venus studied the steadfast resolution in her face. “You mean that, don’t you?” “You bet!” She giggled, cheerful even when discussing a serious subject. “Aw, Venus, it’s just like old times, when you used to tell me that my love for Endymion was just a crush, and then stick to my side like an overgrown leech to make sure I didn’t sneak down to Earth!” Venus guffawed. “I don’t know how I didn’t pick up on the fact that HE was the one breaking the rules and sneaking up to the Moon!” Sailor Moon laughed, the happy sound refreshingly clashing with the dismal atmosphere. “He wasn’t the only one sneaking up to the Moon, hmm? That goes for all of you!” “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jupiter said, feigning innocence and starting a round of embarrassed laughter. Sailor Moon wasn’t finished with Venus. “Wouldn’t you want to die too if Kunzite did? Don’t you love him?” Venus stared straight ahead at Jupiter’s back. “Yes, I love him. But I would have no other choice to live on; it’s my duty to protect you. He would do the same for Endymion.” She sighed. “You know, Venus, it’s this total preoccupation with duty that makes you absolutely no fun to hang out with sometimes!” Venus smiled. “I’m that boring?” “No, did you hear me? I said, ‘When you’re Venus.’ When you’re Mina, you’re a blast.” “We’re the same person.” “Sort of. You have this G.I. Jane persona going on when you slip into Sailor Mode. When you’re Mina, stuff seems not to bother you so badly.” She glanced at the floor. “I hide it well.” “We all do,” Mars interrupted. “You think I’m this bitchy when I’m not punishing in the name of Mars?” “YES!” said the chorus. Mars reddened until her ears looked like they were burning. A half hour passed, uneventfully. Jupiter broke the silence in the most tactless way possible. “So, Mercury, get any last night?” “I’m not at liberty to discuss that,” Mercury said, thankful that her visor covered most of her mortified expression. “’I’m not at liberty to discuss that.’ Listen to you! You’re not being interrogated by the police, you’re just sharing your personal conquests with four of your best friends!” “Let’s save the personal conquests for later, OK?” Venus said, peering up at the ceiling. “Not until Mercury swears to tell us everything when we get back,” Jupiter bargained. Venus cut Mercury off. “She promises.” Mars kicked a stone out of her way. “Do you think we should start on the plan yet? We’ve been here a while and we haven’t done anything except wander and look cute.” They all looked to Venus, who nodded. “Might as well stick to the plan. Only Mars and Mercury, though, I don’t want to get zapped while running from a youma or a dark spot.” Mars began firing at random points on the ground, creating mounds of dust that resembled mini-volcanoes. When stepped on, they would erupt in a burst of flame. Venus had gotten the idea while watching a news report about forgotten land mines in Kosovo that had the unfortunate tendency to blow off children’s limbs when they stepped on them. If everything had been going as planned, Kunzite and Nephrite would be planting even deadlier land mines, and Zoicite would be rigging the ceiling with falling, ice crystal stalactites. “Watch your step, guys,” Mars warned as she blasted her way down the cavern.Sailor Moon stayed within spitting distance of Venus. “Did you guys hear something?” Venus held her arm out, and everyone stopped. “No,” Jupiter said. “I don’t. Do you?” “Yes!” Sailor Moon was absolutely distressed. “It’s Endymion! He’s hurt and he’s all alone, oh God he needs my help!” She took off running, heading towards Mars’s land mines. Mercury grabbed her before she could blow off her leg. “Please, get a hold of yourself! You’re the only one who can hear it, so it must be an illusion.” “It’s not an illusion, Mercury!” Sailor Moon struggled against her grip. “He needs me!” “EVERYONE SHUT UP!” Mars screamed, her face folded in concentration. “I hear something, it’s not Endymion, but something is coming.” They heard it then, a soft, scraping sound like wet garbage bags being dragged over gravel. * * * * * * * * * * * * “This fucking sucks,” Nephrite said to no one, since there was exactly that many people around to talk to. He clicked off his cigarette lighter, trying to take in his surroundings and assess the situation. << Boy, did I feel like a hose after I kept talking after everyone disappeared. >> The ceiling had lowered, it was only about fifteen feet high instead of practically limitless; it was also making him feel a little claustrophobic. << Maybe I was the one who disappeared. What I would give right now just to know what the hell happened. Where’s Mercury and her computer when you need her? >> Soon after, a solid wall hindered his progress, and when he backtracked, he ran into another wall. “What the hell?” he whispered placing a hand on the wall and walking parallel to it. For ten minutes, he followed the wall, not once hitting any sort of door or passageway. Once he thought he saw a glimpse of a narrow passageway cutting through the rock, but when he ran up to it, it wavered and vanished. “I’m boxed in,” he said out loud, not caring who heard. <> “SHIT!” “Not completely,” a second voice answered from behind his back. Nephrite experienced a mere second of pee-yourself shock as he swiveled around, sword drawn. “You,” he whispered. Anger like he’d never felt before flooded his mind; it wiped out any other rational thought until all that was left was a primitive urge to inflict harm on the other person until they stopped moving. Nephlite drew his own sword as he advanced. “What else were you expecting? A red-carpeted path into the Queen’s throne room?” “Shut up,” Nephrite barked. They circled each other, slowly, like predatory cats. “I just killed Jupiter a few minutes ago. Didn’t you feel her go?” “Shut up,” he repeated. “I killed her slowly. She screamed.” “Fuck you.” “I raped her, too. I raped her after she was dead.” “Motherfucker, do you think I’m stupid? I’m not falling for any of your twisted psychological shit!” He attacked, landing several blows as the feeling that something just wasn’t quite right permeated his brain. Nephlite slashed out, slicing his shoulder in the exact same place where Endymion had a thousand years ago. He hissed in pain, and threw a comet just in time to deflect the one that was hurtling to his face. “You think I’m playing mind games?” Nephlite laughed, even though half of his body was singed from Nephrite’s attack. “I’m going to kill you,” Nephrite promised, spinning and blocking in a way that would have made Endymion proud. “Talk all you want, it won’t get to me.” <> He swallowed the hard lump that had barnacled in his throat. << Did he really kill Jupiter? God, I hope she’s all right! >> “You’re going to kill me?” Nephlite laughed, effortless flinging dark energy at his opponent like it was mud. Nephrite dodged most of it, but his body caught the afterburn and he gasped in pain. Nephlite continued, laughing as Nephrite stumbled back, desperately sucking in air. “But, I thought you were the one who was supposed to be dead.” His voice fluctuated, from a sinister hiss of an agent of the Dark Kingdom to the gruff bark of a forty-something paramedic. “ ‘This one’s still alive.’” It was no more than a parlor trick, but it worked. Nephrite froze for a split second, wondering how the Dark Kingdom knew as he remembered: His best friend. Brian Hampton. They met in first grade, purely by coincidence as the teacher had seated them alphabetically. They sat together at lunch, too, sharing Chips Ahoy and chucking the bananas that their respective maids had packed in their plastic lunch boxes, and never separated once through the years. Brian would go on vacations with the Haberman family, and vice versa. They played on the same hockey teams, all through grade school and on through high school. They only dated girls that liked each other, so that double dates wouldn’t be like walking on a half inch of ice frozen over ten feet of water. Matt couldn’t count the hours they spent together: playing basketball, fishing, going to clubs and parties, picking up girls. They sat next to each other at graduation, flicking at their green and gold tassels and waiting for it all to end, so that they could move out of state and dorm together at Bryce University in the fall, where undoubtedly they would continue to remain friends, even though Brian had stopped playing hockey at that point. Maybe they would join a fraternity. The kid who threw the customary graduation party lived pretty far away, but the trip was well worth it, since the guy’s parents were conveniently out of town and his very large house was well stocked. Matt had drank until the mere thought of rising from his seat was an obstacle, but he didn’t care. This was their night to kick back, forget everything, and celebrate being young, carefree, and invincible. “Bob just called my cell,” Brian told Matt as he slumped on a couch, his eyes so glassy one could see his reflection in them. “Oh yeah? Is he coming?” “He’s sneaking out of his house; I told him we’d come and get him.” Matt couldn’t have stood up if his shoes were on fire. He reached into his pocket and wrapped his hand around the keys to his father’s Mercedes. “All right. Want to go now?” Brian pulled the keys out of Matt’s hand. “What the fuck, dude, are you fucked up in the head? You’re not driving! You can’t even stand.” Matt put up no argument. “I think you just want to drive a Mercedes, Bri.” Somehow he made it out to the driveway, and had barely sat down when Brian reached over and pulled Matt’s seatbelt across his chest. Matt had wetly grinned. “Brian, you are my best fucking friend, you know that?” “Yeah, I know,” he responded, turning onto the highway. “No, you don’t even know. You are the fucking man. You’re always taking care of me and shit. We’re going to have one fucking time next year, bro.” “Yeah,” Brian answered simply, flicking on the windshield wipers. It had started to drizzle. “You know everything, Bri. You’re a goddamn genius. You’ve always been better than me at everything.” “I’m a lot better looking, too.” Matt remembered laughing thickly at that, and turning his head slightly to say something when the car violently lurched, like a roller coaster when it turns a sharp corner, and he remembered thinking that. <> A flash of white hit him hard in the face; he struggled to breath through the clouds of choking smoke, and in a panic, he wondered if the car was on fire. Glass shattered dangerously close to his face, and then something incredibly hard struck him on the side of the head, knocking him out. The first thing he was aware of when he regained consciousness was his mouth and the rain falling in his eyes. He rubbed his tongue against the space where his front teeth had been, not realizing that they were gone yet, trying to assuage the throbbing pain in his mouth. Warm rain rolled down his face, wet and sticky. His eyes were closed, but he could hear, and he listened for the sound of rain pattering against the asphalt, and wondered why he could not. “This one’s still alive!” The announcement had been shouted, and Matt flinched and opened his eyes, facing a pair of knees clad in black polyester. <> he thought sluggishly, and suddenly the pain roared to life as if a match had been held to it. His chest hurt so much he could barely breath; it felt like a four hundred pound rock was pressing down on it and preventing his lungs from expanding. He started to hyperventilate. A latex-gloved hand pressed a plastic mask over his face, wiping away some of the rain that was pouring down his face. It was red. <> His eyes dropped shut as he sank back down into blackness, and the last sound he heard was metal squealing and groaning in protest as it tore. He woke up a week later, minus one spleen, with a tube down his throat and several in his arms, and his mother’s tear-streaked face hovering above his, her dark hair glowing like a brown halo against the fluorescent lights. She informed him, quite simply, that Brian was dead. He hadn’t been stone-cold sober like Matt had previously thought, nor was he wearing a seat belt when he drifted into oncoming traffic. Matt would have been dead if Brian hadn’t reached over and buckled his seat belt. <> He thought in the weeks thereafter, smoking Camel after Camel through his new, false front teeth, while he crumpled the new dorm assignment in his fist. The faceless name “Zachary Straub” and a phone number blurred into black puddles as tears formed in his eyes. What he had said in the car in the final moments of Brian’s life was the truth, in least in his mind. Brian was smarter, nicer, funnier, better than him in every way. He should have been the one driving. He hadn’t told anyone about Brian, not even Lita. He told her he lost his teeth in a hockey fight, and the scar on his abdomen was from an appendectomy. Zach, the premed baseball player, had inquired about it the second day they lived together and hadn’t bought the appendix excuse. “For real? Why’s it so big? They don’t usually do I-incisions unless it’s for exploratory-“ “They had to explore.” Something in Matt’s face made Zach drop the subject. “It should have been you,” Nephlite said, extending his hand and sending an enormous ball of dark energy spiraling towards Nephrite. He countered at the very last second, but his attacks were growing progressively weaker as he grew wearier. Nephlite sensed this, and blasted an impossibly large comet, crackling with power. Nephrite was too weak and too shaken to dodge. The comet caught him in the chest and sent him flying across the cavern. His body hit the opposite wall so hard the stone cracked upon impact, and he slumped to the floor, gasping. He struggled to breathe against the crushing pain, just like he had felt while pinned in the wreckage of his father’s Mercedes. He begged his body to get back up and fight, but it would not or could not obey. << He’s going to attack you again! If you don’t get up, he’ll kill you! >> << What’s the point? >> Another part of him groaned. <> He breathed in gasps as another picture floated through his now-foggy mind. His Prince, the one he swore to give his life to protect, would be short one guardian, and that might mean the difference between life and death. He thought of Lita, Makoto, Jupiter, and her shining green eyes and Colgate smile, and how she felt in his arms. “Get up,” he whispered to himself. “Get the fuck up.” The tip of a sword was pressed against his throat, and he looked up at his double. <> Nephlite smiled down at his wounded prey. “Well, you’ve never been-“ BOOM! Nephrite put everything he had into the comet, every ounce of strength and love and pain that he had left in his body. He threw it for Endymion, for Jupiter, for Brian, for all of his friends that would be that much safer having one less Dark General in the picture. Nephlite’s face exploded when the comet impacted, splattering Nephrite with a more than a gallon of blood and brains and flecks of bone. He shut his eyes against the grisly tidal wave, partially to block out the horrific scene and partially to keep it from falling in his eyes. He felt the now-dead body hit the ground like a ton of bricks. “Dumbass. You all fucking talk to much,” he mumbled in the darkness, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it between his teeth. He leaned back against the wall and waited for his accelerated healing to kick in, so it would abate the throbbing pain in his chest. Like magic, the crack in the wall that he had been chasing before Nephlite appeared emerged from the shadows again. “If you’d just cut the crap and can all the megalomaniac speeches, maybe your face wouldn’t be splattered all over mine.” He coughed out a plume of smoke, and wiped away the blood that had appeared on his lips. “Come on, damn it, hurry up. Endymion needs me. How long does it take for a couple of ribs to heal?” * * * * * * * * * * * “How long does it take for an arm to heal?” Kunzite tried to flex his elbow, gasping when assaulted by a hurricane of screaming nerves. “It’s only been broken for an hour. Mine usually heal overnight,” Endymion said, silently thanking a higher power for turning the lichen back on and relieving them of the crushing darkness. Without Nephrite, they had no chance of making a whit of progress with zero visibility. “We don’t have overnight,” Zoicite bitched. He had been the number one advocate for searching for their missing comrade, only to be harshly overrode by Kunzite. “Can you fight right at all?” “A little. I’m slower with the right.” Jadeite had a simple alternative. “Then don’t fight. Use your boomerang to blast them into kingdom come.” Endymion, walking besides him, laughed. “Yeah, I’ll back you up with my amazing flying shrubbery.” No response. Endymion stopped Jadeite and turned around. “Kunzite?” Still nothing. “Zoicite? Answer me.” Silence answered him. Endymion’s entire chest cavity seemed to sink into the base of his stomach, as the feeling of defeat sunk its teeth deeper into his optimism. << I’m getting scared now. >> Jadeite sighed, sick to death of the whole situation. “Shit.” “Did they walk into one of those traps? Do you think they’ll find Nephrite?” Jadeite met his eyes. “I think we just walked into one.” * * * * * * * * * * * “What-“ Jupiter began, before Mercury shushed her. The visored Senshi typed furiously into her computer, backing slowly away from the escalating scraping that seemed to be heading straight for them. Mars and Venus planted themselves in front of Sailor Moon, prepared to attack on a moment’s notice. “What is it, Mercury?” Mars whispered, trying to stay invisible for the longest time possible. Mercury’s eyes were wide with terror. “I think it’s Metallia.” “What?” Venus hissed, drawing her sword. “We can’t take her on without the others! We’re sitting ducks!” “She’s descending down a tunnel,” Mercury reported. “I suggest that we head in the opposite direction.” “Don’t have to tell me twice,” Jupiter said, pulling on Sailor Moon’s wrist. “Let’s get the hell out of here before the Incredible Blob finds out we’re here.” They scurried down the hall like a pack of mice, attempting to run on tiptoe to muffle the telltale clicking of their heels against the stone floor. Mars suddenly stopped. “Guys! What’s that?” They gathered around. Venus was puzzled. “It’s a door. But I don’t understand; it wasn’t here before…” Mercury scanned it; a dark, cathedral-like door anachronistically stuck in the middle of the stone wall. She ran her hand down the ancient wood. “If we keep going on the present course, we’re going to hit the dark spot again. If we backtrack, we hit Metallia. I think we should just take our chances and try door number one.” Sailor Moon shrugged. “Might as well. It’s not like we have a lot of options open.” She reached for the tarnished brass knob. Venus almost karate chopped her hand off. “What do you think you’re doing? I’ll go first.” She faced her friends. “Be prepared to attack.” “Gotcha,” Mars affirmed, her hands glowing with heat. Venus took a breath and pushed the door open, softly, so that it didn’t hit the wall and come springing back at her. Behind the door was a room, huge, it’s ceiling so high that she could barely see the top. It glowed with an eerie green light, making their faces look distorted and sickly. An ostentatious throne sat in the middle, almost undignified in its grandiosity; the chair of someone who wanted to publicly advertise the power that she had stolen. Sailor Moon was looking at the floor, at a doggie-igloo like translucent dome that housed two beaten cats. “Luna! Artemis!” she cried, wishing she could run across the throne room and rescue them. Only about a hundred youma stood in her way. Venus had locked eyes with the person standing in front of the throne. “Beryl.” Beryl grinned, raising her arms like a hostess welcoming guests. “Welcome, Sailor Senshi. I was hoping you’d take the bait and come through that dark spot. I had it blocked behind the door, Mercury, so don’t start spitting out facts and statistics to me. You should have known better anyway.” Mercury flushed with embarrassment as tears pricked at her sinuses. “I’m so sorry, you guys. I should have seen it.” “It’s not your fault,” Sailor Moon whispered reassuringly. Beryl ripped her gaze from Venus and drilled it through the Moon Princess. “Sailor Moon, I see you have brought the crystal. Am I to understand that this will end in surrender?” “Hell no!” Jupiter shouted, her face screwed up in extreme rage. Thinking quickly, she grabbed Sailor Moon by the arm and threw her back through the dark spot. Sailor Moon had time enough to emit a thin cry before she disappeared through the portal. “You’ll regret that decision, Jupiter!” Beryl screamed. She turned to her youma army. “Kill them. Go after the princess.” Mercury started laughing hysterically, tears running down her face. “You’ll have to find her first, Beryl! I just sealed off the dark spot!” Jupiter smiled, swelling with pride that Mercury had kept her wits and came through. “Way to go, Sailor Mercury!” Beryl was nonplussed. “I will find her, I promise you that.” The youma advanced on the four Senshi, who were almost pinned against the wall. Mars was bloodthirsty. “Drop me near that bunch, would you, Venus?” She pointed to a patch of gray-skinned, human-looking youma without faces. Venus grinned. “Any more requests?” “Anywhere will do,” Jupiter growled, cracking electricity along with her knuckles. “Drop me near the cats,” Mercury added. “Right, then,” Venus said, her cobalt eyes blazing with anticipation. She slowly unwrapped her chain from her waist. “Grab hold of me.” Each Senshi grabbed on. “Ready?” She threw the chain skywards, blinding everyone with golden light. “Here we go!” They shot upwards with the chain, up over the youmas’ heads and into the air, swinging like a quartet of female Tarzans. Mars let go and dropped at her desired designation among the faceless youma, her hands shooting jets of fire. “Haha! Betcha you didn’t see that coming; you’ve got no eyes!” Jupiter and Mercury dropped down into the foray; Mercury cleverly fogging up the area to mask their descent. Venus swung like a pendulum for a few minutes, searching for an area that was safe to land in. A figure scurrying away from the battle caught her eye. She swung around and dislodged her chain, landing directly in front of Beryl, her eyes slitted with fury, her sword drawn. “Going somewhere?” Beryl was startled for a split second when the blond Senshi dropped in front of her, but quickly regained her senses. Raising one hand, she blasted dark energy at Venus, knocking her back a few feet, and escaped through another doorway. Venus chased after her. “Where do you think you’re going?” Meanwhile, Mercury froze the energy dome encasing the cats and kicked it in, shattering it like a pane of glass. She carefully pulled Luna and Artemis through the jagged hole. “Are you guys all right?” she asked frantically, heat from Mars’s attacks singing the backs of her legs. Luna gasped. “Why did you come? You’ve all put yourselves and the Princess in danger!” Mars tumbled by them, somersaulting on the ground while billowing smoke. “What, did you think we’d leave you here?” She ran back into her battle, leaping Bruce Lee-style with one heeled foot positioned in a kick. Mercury tucked Luna into the crook of her elbow, and was positioning Artemis when Jupiter screamed. “Mercury! Look out!” Mercury didn’t even have time to duck. A streak of dark energy hit her square in the back, throwing her forward into a wall. She tried to twist in midair to avoid crushing the cats, but only succeeded in smashing her forehead against the rock. “Unh!” she grunted, slumping to the floor, unconscious, Luna and Artemis absorbing most of the impact. “Mercury!” Luna screamed, trying to wiggle out from Mercury’s dead weight. Jupiter, who had been keeping one eye on Mercury the entire time, quickly wiped out a wave of youma and ran to her friend’s aid. “Mercury! Are you OK?” She lifted Mercury as gently as she could with one hand, as the other was detonating bolts of lightening at the advancing front. Mercury’s head flopped backwards limply, her visor cracked down the middle and a stream of blood running underneath. “Oh, no,” Jupiter breathed. “Mars, back me up! Mercury’s down!” “I can’t!” Mars screamed back. The non-faced youmas were all but wiped out; however, a fresh wave of skinny, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”-ish beings had her surrounded. Jupiter discharged more lightening. “Mercury? Can you hear me? Wake up; we need you!” She shook the Ice Senshi’s head back and forth, trying to draw a response. “Mercury, please wake up, please!” Luna was in a panic of her own. Artemis hadn’t immediately responded after she pulled him out by his scruff, and now she frantically batted his cataleptic body with her paws. “Artemis! Are you OK? Speak to me!” Jupiter thought briefly of slapping Mercury in the face before she noticed the visor. Carefully she ripped it off of Mercury’s face and stuck it on her own. <> Her eyes darted around all the statistics around the screen, attempting to piece together what was vital information and what was not. A few minutes later, she tore it from her face and flung it as hard and as far away as she could, tears of anger and unbearable grief running hotly down her face. She jumped up, frying any youmas obstructing her path to Mars. “Thank God you’re here! I was getting my ass kicked!” Mars leapt in the air, kicking a youma in the face. Jupiter pressed her back to Mars’s as they regrouped. “Mercury’s gone.” Mars almost fell to the floor in shock. “WHAT?” “She’s gone. Dead. So is Artemis.” Mars shook her head. “You must be mistaken.” “No, I’m not. I looked through her visor; she has no pulse. Her brain was bleeding.” Mars shook her head. “No,” she whispered, her voice quavering. She swallowed around the giant lump forming in her throat. “No, she can’t be. She-“ “She’s gone, Mars.” Jupiter clenched her teeth against the onslaught of fresh pain, wishing desperately to disbelieve her own words. Suddenly, she screamed, releasing thousands of green oak leaves that tore through the white youma, ripping their flesh to shreds. Mars grabbed her wrist and pulled her through the rows of falling youma, stopping only briefly to grab Luna’s sobbing form. She ran back through the doorway, an army of youma chasing them. “Mars, wait! We can’t leave Mercury behind!” “She’s dead, Jupiter, you said so yourself. Now we have to find the princess.” Jupiter swung her long arms around to gain momentum. “Shouldn’t we land right next to her?” “Mercury closed the dark spot, remember?” She threw Luna over her shoulder and picked up speed. “We’re on our own now. I just hope Venus knows what she’s doing.”