Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all characters contained within this work are the copyright of Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, Kodansya and probably lots of other big people I'm forgetting. I am using them without permission, but suing me because of it would be futile as I have nothing. Feel free to distribute this work around (for no profit, of course; I'm not making any...), as long the included text is unmodified. If you publish or repost it somewhere, please let me know. Comments, criticism, flames, etc. welcomed (and, in fact, requested) at Ultrace@aol.com. The World Without A Sailor Moon fanfic by Mike Chenoweth [Ultrace@aol.com] Co-Plotted by "Tuxedo Will" Wolfshohl [Wwolfshohl@logicon.com] and Nikki "Jet Wolf" Purvis [Jetwolf@ix.netcom.com] Additional Editing by Novareinna [Novareinna@aol.com] Part 1: A Magnificent Transformation! The First Sailor Senshi Arrives! December, 1996 Somewhere, a voice was calling out and falling upon deaf ears. "Eight o'clock!" Sleepily, the girl rolled over in bed, turning her back toward the sunlight coming in through her windows. "Did you hear me, Usagi? I said it's already eight o'clock!" As though the voice was part of some dream best-forgotten, Usagi slowly opened her eyes and focused them on her clock, a tiny bird telling her it was indeed ten minutes after eight. "Usagi--" the voice began. "AHHH! I'm late!" One minute later, Usagi dashed down the stairs while simultaneously getting dressed, gathering her school supplies, and brushing her teeth, an amazing feat of dexterity. "Why didn't you try to wake me up earlier?" she asked her mother. "I've been trying all morning," came the reply. "I do it every time you ask me to..." Usagi was already halfway to the door when her mother called her back. "Don't you want your lunch?" Sheepishly, Usagi accepted the meal and then wasted no further time in getting out of the house and on her way to school. She ran the entire way, taking every shortcut she could think of, but unfortunately, fate conspired to make her even more late than she already was. Whatever agility Usagi had possessed earlier disappeared, and when she stepped the wrong way on a rock, she found herself flying through the air for a brief period of time before coming to rest rather painfully on the ground. For a few moments, she lay there, face buried in a now-crushed bento box, before miserably getting up and once again heading for school at breakneck pace. She barely overheard the three young boys as she ran by them. "I told ya to hold it still!" "I didn't think it was gonna bite me!" "Ow ow ow..." She didn't have time to think about the reasoning behind the words, and they were soon forgotten in the mad rush to get to school on time. In the end, she was late, made to stand in the hall, and told she had failed a test. Usagi sighed to herself. It was a day just like every other... ------------------ Ami was completely lost in thought as she stepped out of juku, trying to decide whether she wanted to do her studying that day at home or the library. Only a stroke of luck kept her from crushing the cat's tail with her foot. The cat, in turn, looked up, peering curiously at Ami, who stood there, frozen on one leg. It was a strange looking cat: jet black with no collar, only a pair of crossed Band-Aids on its forehead to mark it. What struck Ami as strange, though, were the eyes. When those eyes looked at her, she felt like every detail about her was being scrutinized. The cat remained still as Ami knelt down to pick it up. "Are you hurt? Whoever took care of you didn't do a very good job..." She reached down for the Band-Aids on its forehead. Pulling them off seemed to have an electrifying effect on the cat. It appeared to backflip out of Ami's arms to a safe distance, but didn't take up any threatening posture. Ami noticed that beneath the Band-Aids lay a very odd mark, which looked much like a crescent moon. She felt sympathy for the cat--which she now realized must be a stray--as it just stood there, looking at her. Who knows how long it had been roaming the streets or what it had been through. "It's okay, I won't hurt you. Come here," she coaxed. Slowly it responded, walking over to her and allowing itself to be picked up. But its eyes never wavered from Ami. "I guess that settles that," Ami said to the cat, as though it could actually understand her. "Home it is." Despite complete silence and isolation, Ami's studies were not going smoothly--she kept wondering about the cat that was, at that moment, drinking some milk in the next room. It was a very cute cat. When Ami had carried it home, something about having the animal in her arms felt right. Unfortunately, neither she nor her mother had time to take care of a pet right now. She didn't want to call the animal shelter, but... Her train of thought was broken as Ami looked at the doorway and watched the cat walk into the room, jump onto the bed, and then from the bed to her desk. The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds, and then Ami could have sworn that the cat raised its paw and politely cleared its throat. "My name is Luna," the cat told her. "I have been looking for you, Mizuno Ami." Ami blinked. "By the way, thank you for removing those Band-Aids... It was a very annoying prank--with them on, I wasn't able to talk or use my special senses." Ami continued to stare, expressionlessly. It wasn't quite the reaction Luna had been expecting. Shock, surprise, fear--she was ready for any of those, but not for this total apathy. "Ami-chan?" Luna suddenly found herself being lifted, then gently poked, prodded and examined, as though Ami were searching for a switch to turn the cat off. "Ami-chan!" Luna yelled, indignantly. "This is no trick!" "Cats aren't capable of speaking Japanese," Ami said, seemingly unaware that she was having a conversation with one. "I'm not an ordinary cat," Luna protested. "And you are no ordinary girl. Put me down and I will prove it to you." Rather sheepishly, Ami did so, and watched in amazement as Luna did another backflip through the air. At the peak of her flip, there was a flash of light and two objects fell onto the desk with a clatter. "What's this?" Ami asked, looking at the desk. "Strange incidents have been happening," Luna said, not really answering the question. "There is an enemy among us that the police are unable to handle, so you have been chosen to be a warrior, Mizuno Ami." Ami pondered for a moment and then, convinced that this was some kind of trick after all, again reached for Luna, but the cat backed away. "I said I would prove it to you. Take that pen and shout, `Mercury Power, Make-Up!' I guarantee you will believe me." "You mean this?" Ami asked, as she picked up the odd-looking stick. The other object that had fallen looked like a compact. She gripped the pen lightly and followed Luna's instruction. "Mercury Power, Make-Up!" Ami immediately felt a tingling sensation that began in her hand and quickly spread throughout her body, accompanied by a glow that persisted for a few brief seconds. When it had ended, she knew instantly that a change had taken place. Her hand, still holding the pen, was now gloved. She was wearing knee-high boots, and she felt... Different. "What happened?" she asked as she went to the mirror to examine herself. "You became Sailor Mercury, Ami-chan. You've been given the power to fight this enemy that we face. That's your duty, and it's my duty to guide you on that task. We have another responsibility as well--as we fight this enemy, we must search for your companions and our missing Princess." Ami looked at herself in the mirror. She WAS different. In addition to boots and gloves, her uniform had altered itself in shape and color, and she was wearing some sort of metal headband. It was a incredible amount of new information to process, even for someone as intelligent as her. She began to feel a little light-headed as she turned around and leaned her back against the mirror's countertop. "Now do you believe me?" Luna asked. Ami, though still skeptical, nodded, and held up the pen. "If this is what I use to turn into... Sailor Mercury, then this," she said, walking over to the desk and picking up the compact, "is what I use to change back?" Opening the compact, she noticed that it, like the pen, bore the symbol of Mercury. "No, that's your computer," Luna told her. "You'll use that to track the enemy and to help find the Princess." "It's beeping." "It is?" Luna asked, surprised. She leapt up to the desk and took a look. A faint beep was indeed coming from the computer, and there was a blinking red light on its screen. "It's the enemy's energy signature!" she exclaimed. "The computer has already managed to detect them in the city. We have to hurry, Ami-chan!" "What?" Ami asked. "Many people have been injured by the enemy so far. We have to stop them before they can hurt anyone else! We can use the computer to find them... Please, Ami-chan." Ami examined the screen for a moment longer, then looked up. Maybe this was real after all. "Let's go." Naru knew something was wrong when the customers inside her mother's store all began to collapse and pass out, but even that shock was nothing compared to what she felt when her mother suddenly turned and attacked her. "Someone help me..." she gasped, trying to break free from her mother, but the grip was like steel. "Stop it, Mama..." Morga laughed and let her disguise melt away, revealing her true face... That of a horrific demon-woman. "I'm not your `Mama.' She's locked up in the basement... And after I kill you, she'll be joining you in the afterlife!" Naru blacked out just as the voice boomed. "Stop it!" Morga released her grip on Naru--who slumped to the floor--and turned to the intruder. "Who are you?" she snarled. "I am Sailor Mercury!" Ami replied after a slight pause, not sounding at all comfortable with the title. "And I am going to stop you," she added, in an attempt to disguise the fear that she felt. The creature looked absolutely hideous. More importantly, it looked dangerous. "Sailor Mercury? Never heard of her," Morga said, then raised her voice. "Arise, all you who have given your energy to Our Great Leader. You are my slaves!" The fallen people in the store, except for Naru, all got up. Ami turned to her cat. "Luna...?" "Yell `Shabon Spray' and throw your arms outward!" Luna said, rearing back and preparing to slash any of the humans who got too close. Ami did as Luna commanded, and was as surprised as the humans and Morga at the shrouding fog that appeared, so thick that it obscured everything from sight. "Tap your earring, and a visor will appear that will allow you to see," Luna said. "What about you?" Ami asked, bringing her hand to her ear. She noted that Luna's voice had come from somewhere other than behind her, which was where Luna had been only a few moments earlier. The cat was moving through the cloud. "Don't worry, I can sense the enemy much like I sensed you," Luna said. "That will keep me safe." As the visor came up, Ami could once again see normally--almost. The forms displayed through the visor were indistinct and colorless, but compared to what she saw through the fog otherwise, they were crystal clear. The people that had been walking toward her before were now mostly standing in a daze. The few that weren't simply standing were instead wandering off in random directions. The monster that led them was some distance off, and remaining in place. There was no telling how long the fog would last, so Ami quickly made her way around the people and toward Morga. She wasn't sure exactly how she was going to fight the monster--there weren't any items on hand that would be suitable as a weapon, and Ami's experience in fighting was nil. She decided that her advantage of being the only one able to see would have to be enough. It wasn't. Ami made the first hit, knocking Morga across the jaw as hard as she could with the flat of her palm, and for a moment, Morga was actually stunned--but from the surprise of being hit, not the force of the attack. She swung at the now-revealed Ami and grabbed her by the throat. "My turn, brat. I'm going to kill you!" She started to tighten her grip and Ami struggled to breathe. There was a sudden blur of movement and Ami was released, moments before the monster could crush her throat. "Get off of me!" Morga screamed, flinging Luna to one side. The cat landed against the far wall and slumped to the floor. Ami took every advantage of the distraction caused by the cat, running up and catching Morga by surprise for a second time with her elbow. A jolt of pain ran up her arm as she struck home with the bony edge, and a tingling numbness instantly encompassed the limb. Morga staggered back, taken completely off-guard. This little girl's attack had actually hurt... The monster raised her arms in anger, and bolts of power crackled between her hands as she prepared to reduce the insect to ashes. But she didn't. Jadeite would be furious if she wasted the energy gathered so far on this pathetic little pest. Better to return and let him decide how to deal with her... "You aren't worth the trouble it would be to get rid of you," Morga said, with a laugh. "The energy of these humans is ours now, and a little girl like you can't stand in our way!" Morga vanished, and Ami was left alone with the victims of the attack. She went to Luna and found the cat unconscious and somewhat battered, but otherwise alright. Ami herself had little more than some bruising around the neck, and her numbed and useless arm, to which the feeling was slowly returning. The people weren't quite so lucky. As the fog started to dissipate, Ami examined them. Each was in a near-comatose state, their energy having been drained. She could only hope they would recover with time. "I'm sorry, Luna," Ami said, as she bandaged up the cat's leg. "It doesn't look like I'm going to be much good against this enemy of ours." "That's not true," Luna said. "If not for us, that girl would be dead, and maybe those other people, too!" "Still, that creature got away with their energy. If I could have stopped her..." "We'll do better next time," Luna said, standing up unsteadily. Her front left leg had borne the brunt of her impact with the wall. "Don't let it worry you. It's starting to get late and you should try to get to your studying. You have a normal life to lead, too." Ami managed a smile. "And up until today, I actually thought my life was a little dull." Luna smiled as well. "I don't think you'll have to worry about that again." ------------------ Luna sat in the darkness, facing the screen. "We fared badly. Ami-chan is brave, but she's not strong enough to fight the enemy alone." She frowned. "I wanted longer to search for the Princess, but I think our time is up." "Yes," the screen answered. "We have no choice..." --------------------------------------------------------------------- "The World Without" Author's Notes [with help from Nikki :) ] "The World Without" is a fanfic series that I thought up in the process of writing "Dream World." I'd already made some changes to the Sailor Moon timeline in both that story and "Time Twister," but I wanted to go out on a limb with a new storyline and try to make some of the biggest changes possible while still maintaining something believable. I mentioned this to Tuxedo Will, and he commented that he'd had a similar [though very different] idea, and thus a lot of discussion ensued on the matter, to the point where I eventually just decided to make him a co-plotter. Along the way, I felt I needed additional input, and as I always value her opinions, Nikki (Jet Wolf) Purvis also got dragged in, despite having at least a dozen other projects on hand at any given time. And so here we are. How long will this be? I plan to take this universe throughout the first season of Sailor Moon. Due to both time and interest reasons, however, I won't actually be covering every single episode from the first season. What I'll be doing is trying to hit the key ones whose plots I feel would still be viable in this time line. I don't feel that one can recreate the season without the debut of some senshi and some major villains, but one can, for instance, go without the episode where Usagi's family visits the hot springs. Just an example. Also along the way, I plan to create some "new" episodes, since, especially later on, major changes will make entire episodes invalid. An important thing to remember here is that these Senshi are fighing for love and justice even when you can't see them. Several "real" episodes could pass between some of "my" episodes. I'll try to make this apparent in the story, and hopefully it won't be too confusing and everyone can catch onto the swing of the story before too long. We've given this as much thought as possible as to how this universe can and will go. Part of the fun is seeing how the characters that we know and love are different from the way they are in the anime. I make no promises that you'll like everything, but I hope that you'll find it all interesting. A final word of warning: the anime series known as Sailor Moon is rife with coincidence; most episodes are a matter of someone just happening to be in the right place at the right time. Please bear this in mind as you read... Part two will be released to my web site on Sunday, February 2nd, and to a.f.s-m and RAAC on Tuesday, the 4th. My plan is to hopefully release subsequent episodes about every week to my web site, http://members.aol.com/ultrace/darkside/darkside.htm and and 2 days later to a.f.s-m and RAAC. I hope to avoid any delays, but unlike my previous works, this one is still in-progress as of the initial release. I hope you enjoy the story, and, as always, I'm interested to hear what you have to say at Ultrace@aol.com. Story by Mike Chenoweth. Address: Ultrace@aol.com. Part one and Mike's other stories can be found at http://members.aol.com/ultrace/darkside/fanfics.htm. Have a nice day. ***** Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all characters contained within this work are the copyright of Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, Kodansya and probably lots of other big people I'm forgetting. I am using them without permission, but suing me because of it would be futile as I have nothing. Feel free to distribute this work around (for no profit, of course; I'm not making any...), as long the included text is unmodified. If you publish or repost it somewhere, please let me know. Comments, criticism, flames, etc. welcomed (and, in fact, requested) at Ultrace@aol.com. The World Without A Sailor Moon fanfic by Mike Chenoweth [Ultrace@aol.com] Co-Plotted by "Tuxedo Will" Wolfshohl [Wwolfshohl@logicon.com] and Nikki "Jet Wolf" Purvis [Jetwolf@ix.netcom.com] Additional editing by Novareinna [Novareinna@aol.com] Part 2: Mercury Gets a Helping Hand? Birth of the Sailor Team! December, 1996 Queen Beryl was smiling, a rare occurrence. There was an uncomfortable shifting around the throne room until it became apparent what the source of her smile was--the flowing of recently collected energy. "I commend you, Jadeite. Your gathering of energy was a great success." Jadeite bowed. "Thank you, My Queen. The next plan should be even more bountiful. My youma, Morga, has already discovered a site where high concentrations of human energy are spent. This location is more likely to draw the attention of the humans, but it's clear that the strongest among them--this Sailor Mercury--is no threat to us." "I find it disheartening that this same being who poses no threat managed to hold your youma to a standstill," Beryl said, making Jadeite regret mentioning Sailor Mercury. "Proceed with this plan, but have that girl eliminated." Jadeite merely nodded in agreement, not debating the matter of Morga's victory over the human. He had already intended for his servant to destroy the annoyance, anyway. "By your leave," he said, vanishing from the room. Luna sat in the darkness, facing the screen. "We fared badly. Ami-chan is brave, but she's not strong enough to fight the enemy alone." She frowned. "I wanted longer to search for the Princess, but I think our time is up." "Yes," the screen answered. "We have no choice..." Luna hurriedly hit her paw against the screen to shut it off as soon as she became aware that she was not alone in the room. She didn't see or hear the woman who had just entered--Luna felt her. It was the enemy. Carefully making her way around the arcade--and without noticing the black cat that remained constantly hidden in the shadows--the woman toyed with and adjusted each of the game machines in turn until she was satisfied. Then, as quickly as she had arrived, she disappeared, leaving behind a relieved but concerned Luna. ------------------ Ami awoke to the faint beeping of her alarm and the feel of a warm cat laying on her. She rolled over to look at the clock and winced, not at the fact that it was five-thirty, but at the pain in her neck; it was still extremely sore from the previous day's fight. The numbness in her arm, fortunately, had long since gone away. She reached over and turned off the alarm. On the portion of the blanket that was over Ami's stomach, Luna was stirring. The cat stretched out and yawned, and Ami, more tired than usual, did the same. "I don't remember you coming back last night," Ami said. "Where did you run off to?" "There was some business that I had to take care of, Ami-chan. More importantly, I discovered where the enemy is going to strike next." "You did?" Ami asked, sounding more disappointed than she intended to. She had very successfully hidden from the cat just how terrifying her encounter with the monster had been. The monster's attitude and parting words had made it clear that Ami was nothing more than a pest who was spared from death only on a whim. "Yes." If Luna detected the disappointment in Ami's voice, she didn't show it. "The enemy's next target is going to be the Crown Gaming Center. I'm certain of it." Ami tossed her covers aside, got out of the bed, and made her way toward the bathroom. "How do you know that's the next target?" After a few seconds of finding her way out of the sheets and blanket that had been flung onto her, Luna answered. "I felt the presence of one of the enemy in the Gaming Center. She was tampering with the machines there." Ami examined her neck in the mirror. Only some mild discoloration from the bruising was visible. Another few seconds without Luna's interference, and those bruises would have turned into broken bones and a crushed windpipe. She shook her head and tried to put it out of her mind as she emerged from the bathroom. "What do we know about the enemy, Luna?" "Not much, unfortunately," was the reply. "All we know of them are monsters whose objective is to drain the energy from humans. There is no telling what they do with the energy or what their ultimate goal might be." "They must have chosen the arcade next because of how excited the kids get when they play those games, then," Ami said, thoughtfully. "And in that case, they'll probably wait until after school to do anything. That's when most of the kids go there." "Good thinking," Luna agreed. "I don't have juku again until tomorrow, so I should be able to check the arcade as soon as school lets out today," Ami said. She picked up the computer-compact. "And if this can alert us to the enemy's presence, I'll check it regularly at school in case they attempt anything before then." "I'll keep an eye on the area during the day as well," Luna said. Ami spent the next twenty minutes or so leisurely dressing and getting together her school supplies. She had an hour and a half before she needed to leave for school, plenty of time to discuss something else she was curious about. "Now, who are these companions and princess you mentioned...?" ------------------ "And I don't even remember what happened... This horrible thing was choking me, and then I woke up and she was gone..." "You must have fainted and had a dream, Naru-chan!" the girl said. Ami had stopped on the way to her second class and joined the small crowd which was gathered around the girl she had rescued the day before. "That's what I thought, except for this!" Naru said, pulling down the collar of her uniform to reveal the marks left from her partial strangulation. There was a collective gasp from several of the crowd. "And there were people all over the floor, asleep! It was real, Usagi." "Then maybe you were saved by Sailor V!" Usagi suggested. "That would have been so great..." Naru said breathlessly, looking off into the distance and almost forgetting for a few moments about the entire ordeal. `Sailor V?' Ami wondered, suddenly curious. She was about to ask Naru more about Sailor V when the crowd, aware that they were going to be late for class if they didn't get moving, dispersed, and Sailor V became to Ami just another stray thought in a day already too crowded with them. The two of them met outside the school. As Ami came walking down the stairs amid a stream of students, Luna was waiting. The cat didn't initiate any conversation until they were completely alone, and on their way to the gaming center. "Nothing," Luna said. "Not even a peep of unusual activity." "I checked my computer and didn't come up with anything, either," Ami agreed, almost absently. Apart from the brief report of the day's happenings, there was very little conversation. Luna could tell that something was troubling Ami, and had a good idea of what it was. They came to a bench across the street from the arcade, sat down, and watched. Half an hour passed. Slowly, the arcade began to fill to near capacity, and it was shortly after that that Amy's computer, active but silent during that time, began to beep. Ami checked the computer to make sure there was no mistake. The enemy was now inside the arcade, and as though on cue, people were inconspicuously falling to the floor unconscious. Ami probably wouldn't have even noticed it in the bustle of the city if she hadn't already been watching for this. She stood up, and pulled out her transformation pen. Luna, leg still bandaged, also got up and prepared to enter the arcade, before Ami turned to her. "Luna... Stay here." The cat was surprised and confused. "What?" "You still haven't recovered from yesterday. I don't want you to get hurt any more," Ami said, uneasily. "But I..." "Luna," Ami started, and paused for a long, uncomfortable moment. When she continued, her voice was anything but steady. "If something happens to me... You'll have to find the others you told me about. So, please, stay here... Okay?" Luna looked up at the girl sadly. "Ami-chan..." Ami gripped her pen tighter and looked back at the arcade with determination. "But don't worry, I haven't given up yet. They're not going to hurt anyone else if I can do anything about it." She took off across the street as Luna watched her run into the arcade. Ami wasted no time once she was inside. As before, people were scattered around the area, but she didn't need to examine any of them. She knew there was only one way they would recover. "Mercury Power, Make-Up!" If the words hadn't caught Morga's attention, then the sudden burst of light that heralded the arrival of Sailor Mercury would have. In either event, the youma turned to look at her opponent. "You again. It was a mistake to come here. This time, I won't be so merciful!" she screeched. "Shabon Spray!" Ami yelled, throwing forward her arms. As fog filled the area, she quickly moved some distance from her original position while activating her visor. Morga's form, along with those of the fallen humans, became visible. Ami noted that, strangely, the people were all remaining on the ground, unlike before. She didn't have time to wonder about why that was. She detected Morga's slight movements just before a powerful gust of wind, coming from the youma's direction, swept over Ami, taking with it almost all of her cover. When she regained her footing from the sudden gust, Morga was right in front of her. Ami didn't even have time to raise her arms before she was backhanded across the face, sending her flying into a corner of the room. Morga pulled her face back into a horrific mockery of a smile. "No more tricks," she said, raising her arms. "This will end it." Energy started to crackle between the ugly, wrinkled hands, and Ami desperately looked from side to side for some protection, realizing with a near panic that there was nowhere to run, and nothing she could do. Within a few seconds, Morga had drawn the collected energy within herself, becoming so powerful that she herself was glowing intensely. Ami closed her eyes, partly to avoid being blinded, and partly because she knew she was going to die. `I'm sorry, Luna...' That's when the two voices called out. One voice belonged to Morga. "DIE!" she howled. The other voice was unfamiliar to Ami, but there was one thing she realized instantly--it was a human voice. "Crescent Beam!" Morga turned her head toward the doorway, where daylight was pouring in and silhouetting the figure there. A thin pinpoint of light was racing out from the figure's fingertip, straight toward the youma. Unaware of the beam until it was practically upon her, Morga was struck full force with the attack. As though the concentrated light were some sort of catalyst, the energy Morga had built up released itself much more quickly than she had planned. She had a few seconds to twist her face into a mask of pain before the energy blew her apart into a mass of dust that fell to the floor and disintegrated. Amy was paralyzed with shock. The figure stepped into the arcade, becoming more than a silhouette. Ami could see a blonde-haired girl wearing an outfit very similar to her own, the biggest difference being a mask that served as a disguise. "Sailor Mercury?" the girl asked. "Who are you?" Ami asked in response, keeping her distance. The girl took off the mask and tossed it aside to reveal a pair of sparkling blue eyes. "I'm Sailor V." "S--Sailor V?" "Sailor Venus, now," someone corrected. Ami watched as from behind the girl, Luna emerged, and with her came a white cat carrying a symbol just like the one on Luna's forehead. "Luna...?" Ami asked. "It's alright," Luna said. "They're friends." ------------------ Luna decided it would be a good idea for the four of them to return to Ami's home and discuss a few things. Ami, sitting on the bed, rubbed her jaw lightly. The hit from earlier had left it tender, but probably wasn't serious enough to even bruise it. The girl who had, as Sailor Venus, saved her earlier, was a few feet away looking a bit sheepish. "Sorry we didn't arrive any sooner," Minako said. "I didn't mean to scare you like that, letting that youma corner you..." "I think I understand why," Ami said, turning to Minako. "You let her collect all the stolen energy in one spot and then destroyed her to release all the energy?" "Uh, yeah, that was it," Minako agreed, with an expression indicating that the concept had been the furthest thing from her mind at the time. Ami completely failed to notice it. "I'm just glad we made it in time," Artemis said, stretching from his perch on one of the chairs. "That was close." "You're one of the people we've been looking for?" Ami asked. "That's right," Artemis responded. "We've been fighting against the Dark Kingdom for a while now." "Dark Kingdom?" "That's what the enemy call themselves," Minako said. "We learned that much about them, but nothing else." "We were trying to provide a distraction elsewhere so Luna could search for the others, but we decided to come and join you when the enemy stepped up their efforts here," Artemis continued. Luna smiled. "And not a moment too soon..." "Given the circumstances, I'd have to agree," Ami said, also smiling. "Thanks, Minako." "No problem," Minako said, cheerfully. "After all, with friends like us, who needs enemies?" Ami gave her a confused look. Artemis rolled his eyes. "You mean `That's what friends are for.'" "Whatever." Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all characters contained within this work are the copyright of Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, Kodansya and probably lots of other big people I'm forgetting. I am using them without permission, but suing me because of it would be futile as I have nothing. Feel free to distribute this work around (for no profit, of course; I'm not making any...), as long the included text is unmodified. If you publish or repost it somewhere, please let me know. Comments, criticism, flames, etc. welcomed (and, in fact, requested) at Ultrace@aol.com. The World Without A Sailor Moon fanfic by Mike Chenoweth [Ultrace@aol.com] Co-Plotted by "Tuxedo Will" Wolfshohl [Wwolfshohl@logicon.com] Additional editing by Novareinna [Novareinna@aol.com] Part 3: The Demonic Scent! Schanerla Steals Love! February, 1997 "Jadeite." The one word, laced with an icy venom, was all that need be said. Coming from Queen Beryl, it was a summons and threat combined. With a very slight anxiety, Jadeite appeared and humbly knelt. "Your efforts of late have been less than satisfactory," Queen Beryl stated flatly, a strong disappointment showing in her voice. "Have you another plan to gather energy?" "While my last attempts have not been entirely successful, I'm certain that this plan will yield a considerable amount of energy. My youma, Iguana, is more reliable than the others. She is hard at work, and will deal with those humans who have interfered in the past." "Several times now you have underestimated Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury," Queen Beryl reminded him. "Let us hope that this time you can take care of them, Jadeite. Proceed." ------------------ "You realize, Luna, that if this keeps up, I won't have any time for studying at all," Ami said as she gathered up her books. "It's a good thing that the Dark Kingdom has slowed down their activities." Luna smiled. "I'm glad that you're working at being both a good student and Sailor Senshi. Yes, we have managed to slow the Dark Kingdom's progress, but they are becoming more careful with every attack, so we can't let our guard down now." "It's getting more difficult to discover their plans in time, even with Minako and Artemis," Ami agreed, frowning. "I hope we can keep up with them. If they manage to sneak by us..." "Don't think like that," Luna said, reassuringly. "As long as we don't give up, we'll win." She changed the subject. "But we have to find the other Sailor Senshi and the Moon Princess." "I've been trying to create a few programs on my computer to find out who she might be, but with no luck," Ami said, picking up her compact and idly running one of the programs to see if it would be effective. The screen remained blank. "I can't think of any other way to discover her identity." "I ought to be able to sense the Princess if she comes near me," Luna told her. "But unfortunately, approaching every person in Tokyo--if she is in Tokyo--is not a practical method." "We'll keep looking. As long as we can hold the enemy at bay, we should have time." Amy glanced at the clock. "I've got to get going. Try not to get too bored today, okay?" "Don't worry about that. There's no time to get bored with the Dark Kingdom out there," Luna said. Upon arriving at school, Ami quickly discovered that a new fad had sprung up overnight. In front of virtually every class, students could be seen holding small furry animals, and fawning over them like nothing else mattered. Pets weren't allowed inside the school's premises, and, while there were always a few who liked to bend or outright break the rules, Ami was puzzled to see some of the highest-scoring and most dutiful of the students with the animals as well. It wasn't until her second period class, however, that she realized something was seriously wrong. "In this example," her teacher said, diagramming their current mathematical problem across the board, "We have to assume that X has a value in the range of..." she paused, and looked at one of the students. "What are you doing, Toshio-kun?" The boy who had been addressed looked up from his desk, the inside of which he had been very inconspicuously examining. He did not answer her. The teacher, receiving no explanation, strode across the room and opened the desk herself, then nearly jumped back, screaming. "Get that animal out of here NOW!" The boy grabbed the small bundle of fur and clutched it close to his chest. It seemed to have a reaction on the other students--almost half of them threw open their desks and retrieved similar pets. Their suddenly violent expressions conveyed the fact that they were not about to be separated from the creatures. For a few moments, Ami was worried there was going to be a riot, but the students surprised her by getting up and simply walking out of the room with the animals, leaving behind all their books and materials, and completely ignoring the teacher's commands. `No time to get bored with the Dark Kingdom...' Ami thought to herself, in agreement with Luna. ------------------ "Tell me what you make of it, Artemis," Minako said to the cat, putting on her most thoughtful expression. "It is discovered that a new pet store has opened up within the past two days. Every person who buys a pet from this store develops a fanatical devotion to the pet, and attacks anyone who tries to separate them from it. And to top things off, it just happens to be several days since the last attempt of the Dark Kingdom to gather energy. I feel like I'm onto something here." Artemis decided that Minako was being sarcastic with her last sentence, and not scatterbrained. "The question is, `What are we going to do about it?'" "We check them out, of course. You're the one who discovered the store--Where is it?" Artemis led Minako to the store, which, not surprisingly, looked ordinary in every respect. Even the apparent employee inside seemed like a normal human, but the two of them knew better than that. Minako moved to enter. "We should go get Luna and Ami, and do this together," Artemis told her. "I'm only looking around, not attacking," Minako said. "What can happen?" "The last time you asked that, we almost got killed..." "Right. But only almost," she echoed confidently, and walked into the store. It was crowded with people, all eager for their new pets. Some had already picked up animals and were holding them adoringly. Minako spotted the vacant look in their eyes, indicative of the Dark Kingdom's influence. She stopped, and sniffed. Something smelled very, very sweet. Minako traced the smell to a cage near her, where one of the animals, much prettier than the rest, seemed to call out to her. Its eyes glowed with a beauty that seemed to melt her resolve and calm her immensely. She heard the voice of the employee, a woman, in her ear. "These are schanerla. They emit a perfume from their bodies, and each is different. This one likes you very much. She's perfect for you..." Minako opened the cage. "I'll take it." Artemis tugged on her sleeve, which was all he could do without attracting undue attention from the employee. Minako didn't notice. "Wonderful," the woman informed her. "I can tell she's going to have a good home, and she likes you so much, there's no need to even pay for her." "Thank you," Minako said, taking the schanerla out of its cage and into her arms. She smiled as she left the store. Once they were outside, Artemis took the first opportunity to talk. "Mina..." "What?" Minako asked sharply, as if now reminded that the cat was still on her shoulder. "That animal--" Minako stopped suddenly, almost throwing Artemis from her shoulder by inertia alone. Just as he regained his balance, she proceeded to grab him by the scruff of his neck and remove him from his perch, by way of throwing him to the ground. Artemis landed on his feet and watched her lay the schanerla on her shoulder instead. With no mind to her cat, Minako continued on her way. Artemis ran to get in front of her. "That animal is influencing you. You've got to get rid of it!" The very thought evoked a murderous look in Minako's eyes. Without breaking stride, she swung one of her legs to kick Artemis, who jumped aside onto a car, and immediately vaulted from this new vantage point, trying to grab the schanerla. Minako was quicker. She hit Artemis with the back of her hand and sent him flying into a wall, where he fell behind a few garbage cans. Satisfied that he wouldn't bother her any longer, she walked away. Artemis crawled painfully from behind the cans. "Mina..." "I don't understand," Ami said. She entered a different set of commands into her computer, but came up with the same result as before. Literally dozens of signals, scattered about the city, were coming up on the screen. "We've managed to pick up the Dark Kingdom, but how could there be that many of them so suddenly?" Her voice was tinged with more than a bit of worry. One servant of the Dark Kingdom was trouble enough; dozens would be a catastrophe. Luna stared intently at a small portion of the screen. "What's that, Ami-chan?" Ami isolated the area Luna was referring to, where several of the signals were gathered in a small radius. After a search of the computer's memory, she found out where the signals were coming from. "A pet store?" She paused. "Of course..." It made sense now. The signals on her computer were, no doubt, the pets that she had seen at, among other places, school. They were gathering energy, giving off the aura of the Dark Kingdom, and therefore coming up on the computer. "We need to go and examine that place," Luna said, after Ami explained it to her. "That's been taken care of..." Artemis said, limping through the doorway to Ami's room. "Artemis!" Luna said, running over to him. "What happened?" "Minako. She got one of those animals, and the Dark Kingdom took her over. I tried to get it away from her, but she didn't care for that very much..." Ami frowned. "Where is she?" "I don't know. She probably went home. I thought it would be better to come and get you two rather than follow her and have the same thing happen again. Between the three of us, maybe we can take it away from her and snap her out of this..." Ami zoomed in on Minako's house with the computer, and found one of the signals there. "Unless her parents also picked up one of the pets, then Minako's definitely at her house. I don't think anyone else would be there." Minako sat on her bed, affectionately stroking the fur of her schanerla. When the phone rang, she ignored it. When someone knocked on the front door, she ignored it. And when she heard footsteps coming up her stairs, she ignored them, as well. Only when her bedroom door was flung open did she take notice of anything other than the small, cuddly creature. She eyed Ami and the two cats balefully. "Minako-chan," Ami said, stepping toward Minako slowly. Minako held the animal closer to her chest, protectively. "Go away," she snapped. "You don't really mean that, right?" Ami asked. "I don't need any of you. All I need is the schanerla." "Now, Luna!" Artemis said. The two cats jumped almost simultaneously. Artemis was slightly faster, aiming for Minako's shoulder. He dug into her school uniform with his claws and held on. Minako reacted as he thought she would, grabbing the cat again and yanking him off. While Minako's free arm was occupied with Artemis, Luna snatched the schanerla in her mouth with one fluid motion, running for cover behind Ami as soon as she hit the floor. Minako started to advance on Luna angrily, oblivious to the fact that Ami was in the way. It became obvious to Ami that just taking the schanerla away wasn't going to be enough. "Stop it, Minako-chan!" Ami said, blocking the path to Luna. Minako grabbed Ami's arms and tried to shove her aside, but found a much tougher time of it than she had with Artemis. Ami was about to try and reason with her when one of Minako's feet slipped in behind her own and she was tripped backwards onto the floor. Luna, still holding the schanerla, tried to run by Ami and regroup with Artemis, but Minako managed to barely snag the cat by its tail and pick it up off the floor. She then took each of Luna's front legs in one of her hands, and started to painfully spread them in an attempt to make Luna drop the schanerla. Artemis was trying to get back up when he saw the brief flash of movement, and heard the loud, flat sound of Ami slapping Minako. Minako dropped Luna and brought a hand up her face. "What was THAT for?" she yelled, then halted momentarily in confusion. "What's going on? Oh, no--Luna!" As she bent down with concern and picked up the cat, Luna let go of the schanerla. Artemis coughed a little. "Aren't you forgetting about someone...?" "Oops," Minako said. "Are you okay, Ami-chan? I didn't know what I was doing..." Artemis rolled his eyes. "I'm fine," Ami said. "I'm sorry I hit you, but I couldn't think of anything else to do." Minako winced as she was reminded of her face, already red. "I understand." "She wouldn't have had to do it if you'd listened to me, you know," Artemis said, making a show of limping over to join them. "Remember, we're part of a team now." "Fine, we'll do something as a team, then," Minako told him. "I know a certain pet store that needs a visit from the Sailor Senshi." Iguana had been given careful instruction by Jadeite. Previous encounters with Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury had proven that using humans under youma control to attack would be pointless. Which was why Jadeite had chosen to give Iguana the honor of personally disposing of the two pests. She was strong enough to eliminate them without needing humans. Still, knowing how many other youma had been destroyed by those two, momentary second thoughts came to her when she heard a voice and saw Sailor Venus in the doorway. But the second thoughts were only momentary. Minako stomped into the pet shop, with Ami close behind. "This monster-selling pet shop is closed down!" Iguana, regarding the intruders with contempt, mentally commanded the schanerla. Under their influence, every human in the store, apart from the two girls in the doorway, collapsed. "Oh, really?" "That's right. I'm the warrior of love and beauty, Sailor Venus!" Ami chimed in. "And I'm Sailor Mercury!" "In the name of Venus--" "--and Mercury--" "--we'll punish you!" Iguana was not impressed by the fancy speeches and dramatic gestures. She shed her clothes and human disguise and revealed her true form of a lizard-like youma. With a blinding speed, she leapt forward, closing the gap between herself and Sailor Venus in a heartbeat. "Crescent Beam!" Minako acted on instinct, firing off the beam of light directly at the youma's midsection, only to watch it strike with no effect at all. "Huh?" Iguana landed and swung her tail around, catching Minako even more by surprise and flinging the girl across the room and into a wall. Minako started to get back up almost immediately as the monster approached Ami. If the Crescent Beam couldn't stop it, then Minako knew there was no way that Ami would be able to. "Use the Shabon Spray, then scatter!" she yelled. Ami followed Minako's commands, clouding the entire area, then flipped on her visor and searched for the youma. Minako wouldn't be able to see in the fog any more than the youma, but would be on the move so she couldn't be found by it. Ami made her way around the edges of the store as she scanned the youma in hopes of finding a weakness. She was so intent in her scanning that she didn't notice Iguana getting closer to Minako until the youma was on top of her. Through either some hidden power of the youma's or a quirk of fate, the two of them stumbled into each other. Iguana had seized Minako with her tail and was constricting it. Ami frantically tried to make the computer go faster. Minako, still entwined, had managed to partially free her arm and was firing several beams at the youma, but none of them hurt it enough to free her. She was slowly being crushed. Ami, feeling completely helpless, silently begged the computer to find a way for Minako to damage the youma. When it beeped with an answer to her scan, she couldn't ever remember feeling more relieved. Precious seconds were spent interpreting the data and realizing where it pinpointed the youma's weak spot at. "The tail, Venus! Aim for the base of the tail!" Ami yelled. Minako struggled, twisting in the youma's grip, to fire where Ami had told her to. Iguana, sensing what was about to happen, squeezed with all her strength, but it was too late for that. "Crescent... Beam!" The beam sprang forth into a soft patch of scales and blasted the youma's tail off. Both Iguana--howling in pain--and the tail were reduced to dust within seconds. Minako was gasping for breath and holding her ribs. Ami ran over to her. "Are you alright?" "Sure. I can probably even fit into that dress I wanted now," Minako huffed. She smiled, and seriousness set in again. "Thanks, Ami-chan..." The schanerla, like Iguana, were falling away into dust, and the people in the shop were rousing. Ami checked her computer and found that all the energy signals she picked up from the city earlier had also disappeared. "We'll see you later," Minako said, outside the store, as Ami and Luna took their leave. The people inside had all recovered and, except for an understandable amount of confusion as to why the pet store contained nothing but piles of dust for sale, everything had returned to normal. "Sailor V?" a faint voice cried. "Wow! Sailor V!" Minako turned. In the distance, a blond-haired girl with twin ponytails was running up to her. Artemis knew Minako loved attention, but her identity as a Senshi was not meant as a tool for publicity. "We should be going." "She's definitely running up to meet us. We don't want a reputation for being rude, right?" Minako said. Artemis was going to argue the point, but the girl was now clearly within earshot. She was panting with the effort of running as she came face to face with Minako. "Sailor V! Can I get your--huh? You're not Sailor V..." the girl said, inbetween breaths. Minako gingerly reached out and took the autograph card that the girl had been ready to offer. "I AM Sailor V," she said, signing it. "Only I'm going by my full name now--Sailor Venus." "Wow..." Usagi breathed, as the card was given back to her. Minako beamed. "Sorry, but I've got to go now!" She leapt away, taking Artemis with her. "Sailor Venus..." Usagi said in awe. "Something wrong, Artemis?" Minako asked, at the cat's expression. "Signing autographs can't really do any harm, right?" "That's not it. I thought I felt..." The cat shook his head. "I must be tired--I'm imagining things now." Ami sighed as they walked into her room. "It's already four o'clock and I haven't even touched my books yet. It's a good thing I'm already several chapters ahead in my classes." "Your studies are important," Luna said, "but you can't forget how important YOU are as a Sailor Senshi. After all, without you, Minako-chan would have died today." "That's true..." Ami said, smiling. She thought about it for a brief moment, but then frowned with the reminder of how helpless she had felt earlier. She couldn't really take any credit when it had been her computer which actually saved Minako. Before Luna noticed, Ami cleared it out of her mind and opened one of the textbooks in front of her, putting on a smile. "Right," she said. "First we'll go over Algebra, then History..." Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all characters contained within this work are the copyright of Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, Kodansya and probably lots of other big people I'm forgetting. I am using them without permission, but suing me because of it would be futile as I have nothing. Feel free to distribute this work around (for no profit, of course; I'm not making any...), as long the included text is unmodified. If you publish or repost it somewhere, please let me know. Comments, criticism, flames, etc. welcomed (and, in fact, requested) at Ultrace@aol.com. The World Without A Sailor Moon fanfic by Mike Chenoweth [Ultrace@aol.com] Co-Plotted by "Tuxedo Will" Wolfshohl [Wwolfshohl@logicon.com] and Nikki "Jet Wolf" Purvis [Jetwolf@ix.netcom.com] Additional Editing by Novareinna [Novareinna@aol.com] Special Note: This part was conceived and written by Nikki Purvis, with Mike Chenoweth and Will Wolfshohl as Co-Plotters. Part 4: Strong as the Weakest Link? Jadeite's Challenge! February, 1997 "Ami-chan, what's the matter?" Ami looked up at Luna's entrance, suddenly realizing that she'd been staring at the same page in her book for the past fifteen minutes. She sighed to herself, wondering if the cat would believe it if she were told that Ami was merely concerned with her latest test results. "Oh Luna," the girl began, resting her head on her crossed arms, "I don't know. I was just thinking about all that I've seen recently." The cat nodded in sympathetic understanding. It was difficult enough for her to accept all that had gone on in her life sometimes, she knew perfectly well how fast everything was moving and how confusing it must all seem for Ami. It didn't help that Luna herself could only remember bits and pieces of the past. "I just keep thinking back to all of the fights we've been in with the Dark Kingdom... And how close some of them have been. If Minako-chan hadn't already been found by Artemis, our mission would have been over before it really began." Luna opened her mouth to protest Ami's statements and defend her charge, but the sad smile that spread across Ami's face halted the cat's speech. "I know, I know," Ami began, closing her eyes. "You're going to tell me how important I am to the team and what a great job I'm doing and...." Ami's voice trailed off. With another sigh, she opened her eyes and looked at Luna. "I know you mean well. But the point is, I'm afraid. Not only for myself, but for you, Minako-chan, Artemis... For the entire world. I can't afford to be weak, Luna. But I don't know what to do about it." He was not having a good day. In fact, Jadeite hadn't had a single good day since those blasted Sailor Senshi appeared. Where he had once been Queen Beryl's favoured agent, he now had to fight every day to keep her from destroying him on a whim or in a fit of anger. And while he hadn't ever failed completely, he'd never really succeeded either. Queen Beryl was only willing to give so many chances. Jadeite knew that he was running out of them. Conjuring up an image of Sailor Mercury and Sailor Venus, Jadeite stared at the girls with undisguised hatred. THEY were the cause of his downfall. If it weren't for them, he could've collected more than enough energy by now! He pushed all those thoughts out of his head. There was nothing to be gained from placing blame or thinking about what might have been. Jadeite had to deal with the here and now. The Sailor Senshi were Earth's defenders, and they weren't just going to go away. He needed a plan. Jadeite continued to stare at the hovering image, mentally reviewing all that he had managed to observe and learn about his young opponents. An unexpected leg sweep sent Sailor Mercury crashing to the ground. She grunted in pain as all the air was knocked out of her and she found it difficult to move immediately. She blinked several times, trying to clear her vision and almost missing the foot that was aimed for her head. Instinctively, she rolled to safety, feeling the rushing air of the incoming blow as it impacted with the very spot where she had been only moments before. Ami's heart was pounding in her ears, the thought of her close call threatening to make her pass out. But her attacker wouldn't allow such luxuries, already tensing and preparing to try again. She didn't know what to do. Her computer had been knocked out of her hand earlier and was lying several meters away, too far to try and reach. And if she DID manage to get ahold of it, what good would it do her? The battle had taken its toll on Ami. Her arms and legs were bruised and scratched, and her ankle was beginning to swell from where she had taken a bad fall. She felt drained and exhausted and completely powerless. The area was already beginning to clear up from her latest Shabon Spray, which had proved to be as ineffective as every one before it. Ami laid her head back down on the ground and closed her eyes. `Just let it happen quickly,' she thought to herself. A minute or so later, when Ami noticed that she was still breathing, she opened her eyes to see Sailor Venus peering down, her face a mixture of anger and concern. "Oh good, you're awake. Did you stay up too late studying last night or something?" Venus' voice was laced with just enough humour to take the sting out of the words, but not enough to cover up how upset she was. Grasping the other girl's hand, Venus hauled Mercury to her feet, supporting her friend when she stumbled slightly on her raw ankle. "Now then," Minako began as the two transformed out of their fukus and headed for a nearby bench, "do you want to tell me what just happened?" Ami winced a little as she sat down, grateful for the chance to get her breath back and tend to her injury. "You're just too good for me, Minako-chan," she said with a slight smile that did nothing to hide the sadness in her eyes. Minako flashed a quick V-for-victory from across the park where she was retrieving the compact computer, but her heart wasn't in the gesture. While it was true that Ami wasn't anywhere near to Minako's athletic level, she HAD improved since they'd begun their workouts. A week or so ago, Ami would never have been able to dodge Minako's kick. She was progressively learning how to make herself more flexible in combat, being able to use both her fantastic mind and her body to their best advantage. Ami still had a long way to go, and would probably never be on quite the same level as her trainer, but Minako was still impressed with what she had seen. To see Ami simply giving up disturbed the blonde greatly. Still, she put on a big smile as she brought the computer back to her friend. Ami took it and began to scan her ankle. Minako sat down and looked over Ami's shoulder at the readout, even though she could never really make heads or tails out of the information it spat out. "Just a minor sprain," Ami reported. "I'll soak it tonight. It should be as good as new tomorrow morning." "Great!" An uncomfortable silence laid heavily between the two as Ami shut down the computer and put it away, staring down at her feet. Finally, Minako cleared her throat. "Ami-chan--" "I'm sorry." The voice was so low that Minako wasn't even sure if she'd heard it at all. "What?" Ami's head came up, but she stared straight ahead, tears filling her eyes. She blinked, sending them cascading down her cheeks. "I'm sorry," she repeated. Minako felt herself wanting to cry as well at the sound of such despair in Ami's voice, but she forced herself to smile instead to try and lighten the moment. "Sorry? What for? I was having a great time tonight. You were really giving me quite a workout and--" "STOP IT!" Ami cried, whirling on Minako, her face showing an anger that the blonde wasn't even aware her friend possessed, causing Minako to reflexively slide down the length of the bench to put a safer distance between them. "I don't want to hear any more speeches about how much I've improved and what an asset I am to the team!" Minako opened her mouth and reached out a hand to try and calm Ami, but the girl smacked it away. "You don't get it, do you?! Look at me, Minako-chan! Look at you! You're faster than me, you're stronger than me, your powers are more destructive than mine. In a fight, I'm a liability, a hinderance! I'm USELESS!!" With that, Ami surged to her feet and began to run from the park where they'd been training, but before she could go two steps her ankle gave out on her. Ami found herself again on the ground. In an instant, Minako was there, drawing the smaller girl close to her in a comforting hug. Ami tried desperately to pull away, but Minako held fast. Finally, Ami stopped struggling and instead sobbed into her friend's shoulder while Minako gently rocked back and forth, whispering words of comfort. That night, Aino Minako had a difficult time getting to sleep, her friend's words echoing in her mind as she tried to think of a way to show Ami that Sailor Mercury was anything but a useless liability. Mizuno Ami, exhausted from her emotional outburst, fell unconscious almost as soon as she was in bed. Her sleep was riddled with dreams. In each one, she watched, helpless, as her friends were defeated and the Earth destroyed. Again and again. Elsewhere, the being known only as Jadeite finally smiled for the first time since retreating to his chambers, as the path to his victory suddenly became perfectly clear. ------------------ Ami walked to school steadily but slowly, deeply lost in thought. It had been several days since her breakdown in the park. Minako, Luna and Artemis had been nothing but caring, reassuring and supportive, but nothing they said could really change how Ami felt. They had tried, but she still didn't feel any more secure in her abilities or position as a Sailor Senshi. The fact remained that no matter how hard she tried or how much she improved, she would never compare to Sailor Venus. "Shabon Spray!" She was so engrossed in her own ponderings that Ami almost didn't quite comprehend the words she had just heard. She didn't remember actually getting there, but she was now at the front gates of her school, and her head jerked up toward where she had heard the voice. She saw someone running in her direction, another person close in pursuit. Both were laughing like they were four years old and without a care in the world, despite the fact that they were at least Ami's age. The two students flew by at break-neck pace. So fast, in fact, that Ami almost wasn't able to see them at all. But she did catch one interesting detail. The pursuer was wearing what appeared to be a blue visor. `That's strange,' Ami thought to herself as she opened the door to the main building and stepped inside. Her classmates running around in the school's front yard were nothing compared to the scene that awaited her in the hallways. Almost the entire student body was either wearing a blue visor or carrying a compact computer. Or both, in some cases. Her classmates were running around, up and down the stairs and through the halls, ducking behind open doors and "shooting" at each other with cries of "Shabon Spray!" or by spouting out some impressive (yet meaningless) technical jargon while pounding furiously on their hand-held computers. Ami walked toward her first class feeling as though she must still be asleep and dreaming, she just didn't know it yet. Two boys tore by, nearly bowling her over in their excitement. Ami decided that this was even more bizarre than a talking cat. She finally reached her classroom and stood outside, just randomly watching the action going on around her before a nearby conversation drew her attention. "Wheeee, look at meeeeee! I'm Sailor Mercury!" "Usagi, you look ridiculous." "No I don't Naru-chan, I look COOL." Naru gave a weary sigh. "Whatever, Usagi." "And look! Lookit my cool computer!" "Usagi, it's a piece of hinged plastic with a shiny `Mercury symbol' sticker on it and an even CHEAPER looking sticker on the inside that's drawn to look like a computer. At least I think that's what it's supposed to look like. It's so awful that I can't be sure." But Usagi was undaunted by Naru's lack of enthusiasm. She began to animatedly talk about all the stuff she could do with her computer, how she was going to program it with the answers to the test next week, and get at LEAST a forty. Naru rolled her eyes and looked like she wished she were somewhere--ANYWHERE--else. "Ooo, guess what I can see with my VISOR!" "Absolutely nothing because it's a cheap piece of--" "I can see .... Haruna-sensei! She's on the phone! Oo, she doesn't look happy, I wonder if someone else just backed out on a date?" Naru looked in the direction that her deranged friend was staring. "Usagi, you're just looking through the window in the door!" "This is just the coolest!" "It's a piece of clear blue plastic with some red flashing lights attached to either side!" Usagi ignored Naru's comments while she tried to use her computer to pick up Haruna's phone conversation. "Usagi, you're even more childlike than usual today. How much did you pay for that stuff, anyway?" Naru waited a few moments, but when it became clear that Usagi was too deeply engrossed in "using" the visor to examine the contents of a nearby trashcan to answer, she forcibly grabbed the girl's shoulders and faced her. "Usagi! How much?" The blonde gave a nonchalant shrug. "My allowance." Naru's response was anything but nonchalant. "Your WHOLE allowance?! Every bit of it for this week?!" "And next week's, too." "Two week's allowance for THIS?!" Usagi nodded and then frowned. "If Papa hadn't been so cheap, I could've gotten the deluxe editions." Ami continued to listen to the conversation (which consisted of a lot of shouting on Naru's part) with only one ear, her mind mulling over Usagi's strange behaviour... And why it was that everyone was pretending to be Sailor Mercury. At lunch, Ami sat in her usual spot, an area nicely secluded to the side of the main building underneath a cherry tree that provided excellent shade there. Ami would sit and eat her sandwiches while either doing classwork or reading a book. Today, however, her bento sat next to her unopened, her fingers busily clacking away on the keys of her compact computer. `At least the sudden outbreak of Mercury paraphenalia doesn't make my own computer stand out,' she thought to herself while inputting the data. Her morning classes had reminded Ami of her first years of school all over again, only more so. Her teachers had tried to conduct class, but all their efforts had either been completely ignored or led the students to "attack". Ami was trying to see if she could pinpoint the trouble. Then she and Venus could-- `What was that??' The computer had started to emit a low shriek as an alarm went off and an alert began to flash in the corner of the display. Ami called up the menu and saw that the energy levels of students had just shot off the scale before dropping dangerously low. That could only mean one thing. Ami tore around the corner of the school and stopped short at what she saw. The front grounds were littered with the fallen bodies of her classmates, each still clutching their plastic computers and wearing the visors, lights continuing to blink steadily. Pulling out the computer, Ami ran a scan over a nearby body. As she suspected, it had been drained of energy. She started to turn away when the lights on the visor changed their flashing pattern. The girl stared at the red bulbs for a few moments. While they might seem to be blinking at randomly at a first glance, it soon became clear to Ami that it was a definite repeating pattern, even if it was one that she didn't recognize. Ami brought the computer close to the body again and set it to scan the lights. The computer whirred while it processed the information it was receiving and Ami took a look around while she waited. Alarmed cries were beginning to come from the building where teachers and those few students who hadn't bought the toys were all beginning to notice what had happened. No doubt the school would be crawling with police and hospital personnel in minutes. Ami mentally urged her computer to go faster. Finally it finished collecting the data and a message flashed up on the screen: Sailor Mercury, The energy of this student, as well as that of hundreds of others, is being held by me. I have left them with just enough energy to survive. I challenge you. If you do not meet my challenge by 2pm this afternoon, I will claim every bit of remaining energy from these children. I can be found at the Yowaiwa Toy Shop. Come alone. Ami looked worriedly at the address on the screen. The challenge was obviously a trap, a way to lure her into a situation where she would be forced to fight on her own. Looking at her watch she saw that it was already 1:30. Half an hour. She suddenly felt very cold. ------------------ The building remained completely lifeless. Sailor Mercury was standing on a rooftop directly across from the new toy store, scanning it with her computer and looking for a hint of the danger that waited for her inside. But neither the machine nor her own senses could reveal anything. 1:50. Ten minutes before she would have to go in there. Still plenty of time for Sailor Mercury to get to Minako's nearby school and for both of the Senshi to return to meet the challenge. But Ami knew that wasn't a real option. She had considered the same thing while still at her own school. She had, in fact, been about to leave to find Minako when she heard the crying. Paramedics were loading the still form of Usagi into the ambulance while Naru stood at her side, holding her hand and begging her friend to get better. The scene had convinced Ami to change her plan. She couldn't risk the lives of all these people by bringing Venus with her. For better or worse, Sailor Mercury would have to go alone. "Here I am!" There was no change in the toy store. It was still dark and deserted. Mercury activated her visor and looked around. The walls were covered with images of the two Sailor Senshi, although she was clearly the dominant figure. The store itself contained racks and racks of Sailor Mercury merchandise. The visors and computers that her classmates had owned were there, as well as books, dolls, t-shirts, cooking sets, trading cards, toothbrushes, pens, shoes... Anything that could possibly contain an image of Sailor Mercury had one slapped on it, along with a price tag. An outrageous price tag, Ami noted. "You're very marketable," a deep voice echoed from the darkness. Ami gasped and took a step back as a figure coalesced in front of her. "Jadeite! Why are you doing this? Why did you challenge me?" Jadeite chuckled to himself as a grabbed a nearby package containing the Sailor Mercury visor and computer toys. "I just ran a few...special television ads, you know, and then suddenly I could hardly keep these in stock." He smiled again, not an altogether pleasant look, and replaced the package on the rack. "Why?" he repeated, facing Sailor Mercury, who took another reflexive step backwards. "Because it's obvious that YOU are the weak link, Mercury. If I can defeat you, not only will it reaffirm my worth to Queen Beryl, but it will also strike a savage blow to the morale of Sailor Venus, one from which she might not be able to recover." Ami felt tears begin to well up in her eyes. To hear Jadeite vocalizing her own fears, to be, in fact, COUNTING on her inadequacies... It was almost more than she could bear to hear. "Allow me introduce Electra," Jadeite said as another figure stepped out of the shadows to stand by his side. The youma looked less human than any Ami had seen thus far, except perhaps for the lizard-like creature she and Minako had fought in the pet store. Her skin looked almost like smooth, polished plastic, molded into the proper shapes and made to be flexible. Her eyes and short fingernails gleamed like steel, and when she smiled, a pair of formidable-looking fangs were clearly visible. "Have fun, ladies." Ami had been lifted off the ground and slammed into the wall behind her before she'd even had a chance to register the youma's movement. Spots were dancing before her eyes from the blow, and her thoughts were racing, desperately trying to think of some way to break the youma's grip. Her hand struck upon a Sailor Mercury lamp and she grabbed it, raising it high in the air and bringing it down on the youma's head with all her might. The youma howled in pain and Mercury found herself sprawled on the floor. She shook her head to clear it and instinctively swept Electra's legs out from underneath her. Another howl pierced the air, although this one was more from surprise than pain -- until the youma's head cracked against the side of a nearby display case. Ami scrambled to her feet and looked around, trying to find something that she could use as a weapon and take advantage of the situation. She reached out to grab a handful of Sailor Mercury pins to throw when another hand restrained her wrist. Her head jerked up and she gasped as Jadeite loomed over her, a smile on his face. He shook his head slowly at her struggles to break free. "I don't think so, little girl." "Crescent Beam!" The bolt of golden light struck Jadeite in his arm, and he released his grip on Mercury with a startled cry. Ami looked over towards the entrance to see Minako, Luna and Artemis. "Sailor Venus!" Wincing with pain, Jadeite waved his hand towards the new arrivals, and a huge metal cage crashed down around them, trapping them inside. "You're later than I thought you'd be," Jadeite spat at Venus through gritted teeth. Minako opened her mouth to retort, but noticed the youma beginning to charge at Ami and called out a warning instead. Ami immediately threw herself to the side, and Electra's foot crashed through the counter. Ami lay on the floor of the toy shop, watching Jadeite yell at the youma who was busy trying to dislodge her foot. "C'mon, Mercury, don't give up! You can do it!" Venus cried from inside the cage. Ami turned to look at her friends, all counting on her to defeat both the youma and Jadeite. Images of her classmates came to mind, especially of Naru crying over Usagi. She had no choice. There was nobody else left to help them but her. Sailor Mercury. Electra finally managed to yank her foot out of the counter and she ran to the center of the shop. She couldn't immediately see Mercury, but she knew that the Senshi was still there. This girl had made a mockery of her. Mercury was the weakest of the Senshi and should have been an easy kill. Electra wasn't about to be made to look any worse in front of Jadeite. She spread her arms wide and began to channel in the energy that they'd absorbed from the students. The toys had all been modified to where they would automatically raise their owners' energy levels to those of young children, so the haul had been quite profitable. There was more than enough energy available to reduce Sailor Mercury to ashes. The area in front of Electra began to glow, and a visible ball of crackling energy appeared, growing bigger and bigger by the moment. A thick fog suddenly blanketed the interior of the store, indicating that Mercury had launched her attack, but Electra wasn't concerned. In a moment, she would easily be able to detect where Mercury was hiding, and then no amount of fog in the world would be enough to save her. There! She had siphoned out practically every bit of energy that she and Jadeite had collected that afternoon. Her senses were buzzing with the power that flowed through and around her, and she focused them all on finding Sailor Mercury. Almost immediately Electra found the girl, standing almost completely motionless back behind the youma. With a murderous cry, the youma flung the immense ball of energy in that direction. Ami's own senses were also going out of control. Her sense of sight was almost completely obscured by the readings that the visor was giving her, and her sense of self-preservation was screaming at her to run. But knowing that she was only going to have one chance at this, Ami held her ground until the youma released all the energy she had gathered. Hoping that her positioning was correct, Ami once again threw herself to one side, leaving a half-blind Jadeite standing behind the counter and behind Sailor Mercury. The sudden movement caught Jadeite's eye and he strained to make out what was going on through the fog. He couldn't see a thing... Until the energy bolt was almost right on top of him. He managed to throw up a shield just in time, but the force of the blast was so intense that he was driven backwards several feet and slammed into the opposite wall, just as Mercury had been earlier. His uniform was smoldering as he hauled himself to his feet, noticing that Electra was almost completely unconscious from the effort she'd put into the blow. Jadeite swore under his breath. Sailor Mercury was working to get the cage off Sailor Venus and had almost succeeded. His own energy reserves were nearly depleted from the amount he'd had to channel into his shield. There was no way he'd be able to defeat both of them in this condition -- he doubted that he could even beat one of them like this. With another wave of his hand, both he and Electra disappeared, Jadeite cursing again as he tried to think of what he was going to tell Queen Beryl. Both girls were grunting from the strain, but eventually Minako and Ami together managed to lift the cage. They surveyed the damage and figured it was best to leave before any authorities showed up. "You were FANTASTIC Ami-chan!" "Yeah, you sure gave him the old A-B!!" "I think you mean `the old One-Two'." "Oh, whatever." Minako, Luna and Artemis were all sitting in Ami's room, congratulating her on her performance as Sailor Mercury. She had already explained why she was fighting Jadeite alone, and Minako had told Ami that most of the students at her school had been acting in the same manner as the ones that Ami had observed (Minako had also gone on at length about how insulting it was that none of her classmates were dressing up as Sailor Venus until Artemis reminded her that it really had nothing to do with their discussion). It hadn't taken long for Minako to round up the cats and track down the store where the trouble had originated. The compliments continued to flow and Ami sat, embarrassed by all the attention, but feeling somewhat proud of herself as well. "Wheeee, look at meeeeee! I'm Sailor Veeeeee!" Ami looked up from the book that she was reading in the park to see Usagi and Naru walking close by, the former wearing a ridiculously huge paper mask over her face. Naru was shaking her head, but she couldn't help chuckling at Usagi's antics. "Sailor V? I thought you liked Sailor Mercury?" Ami had started reading her book again, trying not to eavesdrop, though she couldn't help but be curious about Usagi's answer. She glanced over at the blonde, who had stopped walking and was clearly frowning underneath the mask. "Yeah. Sailor V's just so pretty and athletic... But Sailor Mercury has all those neat gadgets and is sooo smart..." The dilemma continued to plague Usagi until her eyes widened and the answer hit her. She reached into her pocket and dug out something blue and plastic bearing a Mercury symbol sticker, raising it triumphantly over her head. "I can't choose between them, so I'm.... Sailor Mercu-V!!" "Sailor WHAT?!" But Usagi wasn't listening. She'd already run off down the path, crying how evil-doers had better beware the sailor-suited warrior of love and justice. Ami's face broke into a happy smile and she returned to her book. Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all characters contained within this work are the copyright of Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, Kodansya and probably lots of other big people I'm forgetting. I am using them without permission, but suing me because of it would be futile as I have nothing. Feel free to distribute this work around (for no profit, of course; I'm not making any...), as long the included text is unmodified. If you publish or repost it somewhere, please let me know. Comments, criticism, flames, etc. welcomed (and, in fact, requested) at Ultrace@aol.com. The World Without A Sailor Moon fanfic by Mike Chenoweth [Ultrace@aol.com] Co-Plotted by "Tuxedo Will" Wolfshohl [Wwolfshohl@logicon.com] and Nikki "Jet Wolf" Purvis [Jetwolf@ix.netcom.com] Additional editing by Novareinna [Novareinna@aol.com] Part 5: Minako's Dismay. Beware the Rushing Clock! February, 1997 There was a long silence in the throne room as Jadeite approached at the Queen's summons. He did not look pleased. "What have you to say?" Queen Beryl asked, calmly. "In your last attempt, not only were you unable to eliminate the Sailor Senshi, but you expended much energy in the process. My patience begins to grow thin with these failures." "They have been inexcusable," Jadeite agreed, holding his anger in check at the mention of the humans that had caused him so much trouble. "But soon I will prove to you that the fruition of my plans has been worth the wait." "You speak with confidence. How do you intend to redeem yourself?" "I will gather enough energy to compensate for my earlier mistakes. The energy of humans is known to increase and decrease with the stress they experience. Acting with my own power through a youma, I will hurry them and heighten that stress, raising the energy that we will collect to a phenomenal level." "A fine plan..." The Queen narrowed her eyes. "But the same can be said of your earlier attempts. What of Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury?" "I will focus my efforts on the collecting of energy and not on disposing of them. No doubt they will come and find us, but this time we will be ready," Jadeite assured her. "My youma and I have a new strategy devised that will take care of them. Even the Sailor Senshi can pose no threat when stripped of the ability to attack." ------------------ "You didn't have to walk with me to school, you know," Ami told Luna. The words were critical, but everything in her tone indicated gratitude. "You'll have to go back to the apartment alone when we get there." "I don't mind," Luna said. "It's nice to have a little time together without having to worry about the Dark Kingdom or your homework." "Well, that's certainly true." Ami thought about it. "I wonder if Minako-chan and Artemis--" She was interrupted by the ear-wrenching noise of a car that came racing down the street, and crashed right into another going in the opposite direction. Ricocheting from the collision, the first car went spinning into a third, and both of them ended up parallel to the direction of the street. Within seconds, other cars not involved in the accident were forced to stop. The resulting lines of vehicles had backed up a considerable distance, but Ami was far more concerned with the people in the accident. With traffic effectively halted, it was safe for her to run out into the street and make sure the drivers weren't hurt too badly. It turned out that she didn't need to. The three drivers and one passenger emerged from their vehicles before Ami reached any of them. Their injuries looked to be mostly minor, although one person was holding her arm and another appeared to have a slight cut on his head. What made Ami take notice, however, was that none of them seemed concerned about their wounds. They were all yelling at each other, and not about who was at fault for the accident. "Idiot! I'll never make it to work on time now!" the owner of the first car shouted. "You think you're the only one who has to be somewhere?!" came a response from the woman holding her arm. In the distance, Ami and Luna could hear rapidly approaching sirens. Since everyone involved in the accident was alright, they started heading back to school again, taking only a momentary look back at the squabbling drivers. Still puzzled by the way the people involved had acted at the accident scene, Ami arrived at school to find out that they weren't the only ones behaving strangely. She approached the door to the school, grasped the handle, then stopped. "What's that noise...?" She turned around just in time to be bowled over by two students hurrying to get into the building. Ami recognized the brown-haired blur, Naru, and her friend. "Faster, Usagi!" Naru yelled. "We're going to be late!" Ami picked herself up off the ground, wondering what they were talking about. She had left for school with plenty of time to spare, and stopping to look at the accident couldn't have slowed her down that much... A clock on the wall confirmed her suspicions. There was still almost twenty-five minutes before class started. Ami didn't know Usagi personally, but she did know of her reputation. Usagi was always late; for her to arrive so early was beyond strange. "What do you mean, no class?" a voice from inside one of the nearby classrooms was demanding. Ami walked closer to it and looked inside. "I just don't have time for class today, so I'm declaring a study period," the teacher responded. "Your exams will be postponed until tomorrow, at least." "Great," a student muttered. "Now what am I going to do with my time?" "We've got to wait more than an hour for next period!" another wailed. Ami backed away from the room, confused. "Excuse me, Takara-sensei..." she started, flagging down another passing member of the faculty. "Pardon me, Mizuno-san, but I'm already running very late," he apologized. "Perhaps another teacher can help you." Ami watched him continue quickly down the hall. `What's going on here?' she wondered. ------------------ Renua was a very special youma, and Jadeite knew it. She was physically weak and not exceptionally intelligent, but her unique capability to manipulate the energy of time was proving to be quite handy. Jadeite teleported next to Renua while she was admiring the results of her own handiwork, a glowing ball of energy that grew larger and brighter with each passing moment. "The energy you've collected is more than even I had anticipated," Jadeite told her. "Queen Beryl will be very pleased." "Thank you, Jadeite-sama," Renua humbly acknowledged. "When the Sailor Senshi decide to interfere, act as I have instructed and you will be rid of them with ease." He smiled. "And that will also very much please Queen Beryl." Jadeite smiled at the thought of it. Soon he would helping Queen Beryl to rule this universe. But first, he had to get rid of those Sailor Senshi. ------------------ Luna looked up from the bed and glanced at the clock as Ami entered the room. "You're home early, Ami-chan... Is something wrong?" "I think so," Ami said. "All of my classes except for two were cancelled. The teachers refused to teach them because they claimed to be too busy." "That sounds suspicious..." Luna said. "A lot of students were acting as though they were too busy for the classes, too. And there's something else... Before I left school, I overheard a few conversations, and some of the people who were behaving so strangely also mentioned something about new alarm clocks. To be honest, most of them were going on about it so quickly I couldn't keep up with what they were saying." "Clocks?" Luna confirmed. She mulled it over. "Artemis and I have been keeping an eye out for new locations the Dark Kingdom might use as part of their plans. An extravagant clock store just opened up a couple of days ago in one of the shopping centers..." "It's definitely worth looking into," Ami said. "Ami-chan!" Minako said, with relief, when she opened the door to find Ami standing there. "I thought I was going to die from boredom!" Ami was momentarily puzzled. "Why? How early were your classes cancelled?" "About twenty minutes ago," Artemis said, rolling his eyes. "Just twenty minutes??" Minako asked, in disbelief. She ran over to look at a clock on the wall, and threw her hands up in despair when she discovered the cat was right. "It feels like hours!" This behavior was now very familiar to Ami. She brought a hand to her head and closed her eyes with a light sigh. "Did you get any new clocks recently, Minako-chan?" "Yes! I bought this wonderful alarm clock yesterday--come on, I'll show you!" She grabbed Ami's arm and half-dragged her up the stairs to her room, flinging open the door when they arrived. Among the menagerie of dolls and stuffed animals, it was hard for Ami to make out anything different about the room. After a few moments of searching, however, she noticed the clock on Minako's headboard. It was small, little larger than a typical alarm clock, yellow and looked like a canary. Ami walked over to check it while Minako seemed compelled to fidget nervously. After a few simple scans with her computer, Ami turned to Luna and nodded. "What's going on?" Artemis asked. "This clock is from the Dark Kingdom," Ami said. "Their latest attack has something to do with giving these clocks to people and making them all rush through everything." "WHAT?" Minako yelled, outraged that she had again been a victim of the Dark Kingdom's plans. "Don't you ever keep an eye on her?" Luna asked Artemis. "She picked it up on the way home from school," Artemis said, defensively. "When she woke up early this morning, I thought she was taking a lesson from Ami." He glanced at Minako. "Maybe I should have known better..." "This clock is definitely carrying the energy signature of the Dark Kingdom," Ami said. "It's very faint, unlike the pattern the schanerla gave off, but there's no mistaking it." Minako had been clenching her fists in annoyance for the past twenty-five seconds or so while the others had talked, which, she felt, was twenty-five seconds longer than she had to spare today. "What are we doing, wasting time talking, then?" she asked. "Let's go!" When Sailor Venus, Sailor Mercury, and the two cats arrived at the store where Minako had bought her clock, they found it securely locked with a metal garage-style door. "They don't think that's going to stop us, do they?" Minako asked, raising her finger to blast through the entrance. Ami reached out to stop Minako from firing. "Wait. We should see if there is another way in. We might be able to surprise them that way. If they locked the door, they must have been expecting us..." Minako didn't like the thought of doing anything but busting in through the front door. What she wanted right now was action. But Ami had a point. "Alright, alright," she said, taking off around the building, and scanning it top and bottom with her eyes at a speed that would probably have been impossible were she not under the influence of the clock. As it happened, there was another entrance after all. On the opposite side of the building they found the back door. "Good thinking," Minako told Ami, grasping the knob. It was locked. "Or maybe not," she added, with a frown. Her small amount of patience from earlier was gone, and she pointed at the doorknob before Ami could stop her again. There was surprisingly little noise when her attack blew the handle off the door, which creaked a little as it opened. "Come on," Minako said, urging them to enter. The inside of the building was like a maze. Rooms warped and twisted as if they weren't at all real. It wasn't long before the four of them were lost as, Minako, in search of the youma behind this particular scheme, was running through the rooms at a near breakneck pace, and Ami, hard-pressed to keep up with her, had completely forgotten which way they had come from or were going. Artemis and Luna, surprisingly, hadn't fallen behind, although they too had no idea where they were. As Ami fumbled with her computer en route to their eventual destination, she noticed that it was getting bigger and bigger in her hands, which seemed to be getting too small for her gloves. In fact, her entire uniform was quickly becoming too large for her. "Venus, stop!" she yelled. Minako turned around impatiently, then saw Ami and recoiled. "What's wrong with you, Mercury?" she asked. Ami looked to be about eight years old, and getting younger by the second. Minako looked down at herself and suddenly realized that Ami wasn't the only one. "What??" "A youma must be responsible for this," Ami said, frantically punching the keys of her now cumbersome computer, hoping to find a solution to what was happening. All around them, she could see varying waves of energy through her visor, but only the computer could make any sense of them. Luna and Artemis, suddenly kittens, stared at each other in amazement. Frustrated, the now five-year old Minako waved a tiny, indignant fist in the air at the unseen youma. "You can't do this to me! I'm Sailor Venus!" she cried out in an unusually high-pitched voice. Ami, despite the fact that she could barely walk in oversized boots and clothes, grabbed Minako and pulled her off to the side. The cats followed, and within a few seconds they had all returned to their normal ages. "What happened?" Minako asked. Ami was looking around with her visor. "It looks like this youma can manipulate time. We were standing in a spot where time rapidly runs backwards. There are other spots where it quickly moves forward, and in some places it seems to stand still." "Can you find a way through?" Minako asked. "I think so. Hold on," Ami told her. Minako waited--barely--while Ami managed to pick a safe trail through the zones of energy. The interference from the mass energy was preventing her from locating the youma, but she hoped the path would lead them to her. It did. They entered a large and empty room. Empty, that was, except for the giant-sized clock, and, in front of it, a female-looking youma whose face was white with several black stripes, almost reminiscent of a tiger without fur. Renua smiled at the sight of the two Sailor Senshi. Had she not been expecting them, it would have been a disaster, but being prepared, she smiled, and waited for them to introduce themselves, as Jadeite had told her they would. Minako glared at the youma. "Time is a one-way street, and you've been driving on the wrong side of the road!" Ami, Luna and Artemis all gave her a look of bewilderment, but she swept on before anyone could say anything. "I'm the Sailor Warrior of Love and Beauty, Sailor Venus!" "And I'm the Sailor Warrior of Justice, Sailor Mercury!" Ami added. "In the name of Venus--" "--and Mercury--" "--we'll punish you!" Renua laughed, which, more than anything else that had happened that day, annoyed Minako. She ran toward the youma, who was at least fifty feet away, but before Minako got further than ten feet, her entire body suddenly felt like lead. Her legs gave out, and she fell to the floor on her hands and knees. "Venus!" Mercury said, coming forward to help her. "Stay back!" Minako yelled, and Ami stopped in confusion. `No wonder that youma laughed,' Minako thought. `She must have known I would come after her and right into another one of those time fields Ami was talking about...' She looked back to Ami. "Use your visor..." Ami again called up the visor up and could see the rampant energy waves flowing through the area in which Minako was trapped. She began working on finding a way through it and to the youma. "No you don't," Renua said, as though she could read Ami's mind. With a wave of the youma's arm, a strange bolt of energy hit Ami before she even saw it coming, and she felt almost totally paralyzed. The computer slipped from her frozen hand's grasp and clattered to the floor. As Renua started to leisurely walk toward Minako's semi-prone figure, Luna and Artemis were at a loss as to what to do. If they went after the youma, they would end up like Minako once they got too close. If they didn't do something, on the other hand, the youma would certainly kill them all. Minako, however, wasn't about to let that happen. With Renua only about twenty feet away, she pushed with every ounce of strength she could gather, and miraculously, managed to go from being on her hands and knees to just being on her knees. She started, slowly to get up and face the youma, every inch taking its toll as if she'd run a mile. Renua was stunned. It was impossible that anyone could get up after that much energy had been drained from them. She raised one hand and increased the power drain to an even higher level, forcing Minako back down to her knees again. Renua then continued to approach the girl, a little less leisurely. "Artemis..." Luna suddenly said, in surprise. "I saw it!" he responded. When Renua had raised her arm, the clock behind her had flared with light. Artemis decided that it must have been where they were holding the energy stolen from humans, and also the source of the youma's power. "Sailor Venus!" he yelled, making sure to get her attention, which was focused rather heavily on the youma ten feet away. "Destroy the clock!" Minako forced herself to ignore the youma and look at the clock on the far wall, noticing for the first time how it was glowing with power. She ceased trying to get up and put all her effort into raising and aiming one single finger at the clock. With horror, Renua realized what was about to happen, and that she was too far from either the clock or Sailor Venus to prevent it. "No!" she howled, making a last-second dash for the girl. "Crescent Beam!" Minako screamed, hoping she would have enough energy to make the attack count. Her beam streaked past Renua and impacted directly in the center of the clock's face, smashing it into dozens of pieces. In the blink of an eye, it seemed, the clock's effects were gone, and Minako was returned to normal. She made good use of her regained energy, jumping and rolling away from Renua's swipe, and ending up next to Ami, who had also recovered. The two of them looked at the youma disdainfully for a few seconds. Renua looked back at the shattered remnants of the clock. Her situation was not good. She was one of the few youma incapable of teleporting or otherwise escaping, and even if she could do so, Jadeite would probably have her destroyed for this failure, just as he had with Electra. She let out a heavy sigh, then looked up at the girls. The only thing she could do was take her chances. She leapt at the girls as quickly as she could, claws outstretched. "Die!" Ami and Minako acted as one. "Shabon Spray!" "Crescent Beam!" A warped blast of energy-laced bubbles ripped through Renua long before she reached Ami or Minako. The youma disintegrating youma fell to the ground and, to the surprise of Ami, Minako, Luna and Artemis, the building dematerialized as well, as if it had never been there in the first place. Jadeite winced in expectation of his coming chastisement, as he saw the ball of energy Renua had gathered dissipate. Queen Beryl was not going to appreciate another failure, and while it was indeed his youma who had been at fault, the misplacing of blame was not something Queen Beryl concerned herself with, merely success. Jadeite himself was tired of being humiliated at the hands of the Sailor Senshi. It was time he became even more personally involved in his plans... While he could still make them. ------------------ Ami stepped into the classroom with an almost cautious air. She knew she hadn't done anything wrong, but it was very unusual to be summoned by a teacher after school when you weren't even in any of their classes. "You wanted to see me, Haruna-sensei?" she asked. "Yes, Mizuno-san," Miss Haruna said. She indicated a chair near to her desk for Ami, and the two sat down. "I don't usually ask this sort of thing of students, especially since I know you must be busy with your own studies, but I asked you here to see if you would be willing to act as a tutor to one of my students." Ami hesitated, and Miss Haruna continued. "She's always had difficulty getting to class on time, let alone making good grades, but her performance has only been getting much worse during the past few weeks. I was hoping that someone who sets such a good example as yourself might be able to help her. Her name is Tsukino Usagi." For a brief moment, Ami couldn't help but smile as she thought of the girl who had only a few days earlier run around proclaiming herself to be Sailor Mercu-V, Champion of Love and Justice. It was no surprise that her academics had suffered recently; being a repeated victim of the Dark Kingdom could definitely have that effect on someone. Ami was indeed busy with her studies--more so now than ever before. But she could always find a few minutes here and there to help someone else out, she hoped. "I'll be glad to see what I can do, Sensei," she said. Miss Haruna smiled. "Thank you, Mizuno-san. If anyone can rub some good study habits off on her, you can." She looked toward the door with a frown. "I asked her to come here today as well, but I suppose she must have forgotten. I'll let her know tomorrow that I've requested for you to tutor her, so I suppose you can go home now. Thanks again." Ami nodded, walked up to the door, and started to grab the handle. She paused. `That noise...' Before she had a chance to react, the door was flung open, and for the second time that day, the blond-haired girl bowled Ami over, knocking her to the floor. "Sorry I'm so late..." Usagi panted. On the floor, Ami just winced. Things were back to normal, but for some people, that wasn't saying much... Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all characters contained within this work are the copyright of Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, Kodansya and probably lots of other big people I'm forgetting. I am using them without permission, but suing me because of it would be futile as I have nothing. Feel free to distribute this work around (for no profit, of course; I'm not making any...), as long the included text is unmodified. If you publish or repost it somewhere, please let me know. Comments, criticism, flames, etc. welcomed (and, in fact, requested) at Ultrace@aol.com. The World Without A Sailor Moon fanfic by Mike Chenoweth [Ultrace@aol.com] Co-Plotted by "Tuxedo Will" Wolfshohl [Wwolfshohl@logicon.com] and Nikki "Jet Wolf" Purvis [Jetwolf@ix.netcom.com] Additional editing by Novareinna [Novareinna@aol.com] Part 6: A Cursed Bus? The Fighter of Flames Appears! March, 1997 Ami flipped backward through the pages of her book, and resisted the unusual urge to sigh. "Alright, Usagi-san, let's try it again." "Again?" Usagi echoed with a wail, drawing the attention of some of the other library-goers. She collapsed forward onto the desk, her face becoming buried in a section on pronouns. "I'll never get this..." The first half-hour of their initial tutoring session had not gone as well as Ami had hoped. Almost immediately she realized Usagi's main difficulty with school: a critically-short attention span. The girl would not keep her mind on any given subject long enough to absorb it--unless that subject happened to be something fun, like the Sailor V video game. Ami could certainly understand Miss Haruna's frustrations now. "It's not that difficult," she said, trying to be reassuring. "Just concentrate." "But you make it look so easy, Ami-chan. You're so smart!" "I still have to study hard if I want to learn. You'd like to be smart, wouldn't you?" Ami asked. Usagi nodded half-heartedly, as though a little wary about what was to come. "Then you've got to be prepared to work in order to learn. Now, let's try it again." She glanced briefly at her book, back to Usagi, and spoke out in only slightly-stilted English. "`Good afternoon.'" Usagi didn't meet Ami's gaze, her own eyes riveted to the book in front of her so she could attempt a response. "`Hello,'" she said, after a considerable pause. "`Can you tell me what time it is?'" Ami asked. "`It's... It's...'" Usagi floundered for a moment, then recovered. "`It's three... Twelve.'" "`My name is Ami Mizuno. What is yours?'" Usagi started to say something, then stopped. After a moment, it was apparent that she was unable to recall the appropriate response and was making all sorts of faces in a desperate attempt to remember. Finally, with a satisfied expresssion, she prepared to boldly answer. "`I am Moon Rabbit.'" The two of them looked at each other for a few seconds, then Usagi lightly smacked herself in the head. "Sorry, I goofed..." she said, embarassedly. "That's true," a voice behind Usagi agreed. "It should have been more like `I am Dumpling-Head." The last part was spoken in English and with a higher tone of voice, mildly mimicking how she would have said it. Usagi just quivered for a few moments, then whirled on the intruder in anger. "Dumpling? Dumpling?? Shut up!" Every other person in the library except Ami and the person Usagi was yelling at turned to stare, and she suddenly remembered where she was. Her voice dropped to a loud whisper. "Go away." Ami studied the boy, who was wearing a pair of slacks, a black turtleneck, and an olive-green blazer with a pair of sunglasses hanging on the pocket. He was tall and--Ami had to admit--rather good-looking. But she was far too annoyed at having their studies interrupted to pay any mind to that. "Excuse me, but we're trying to study." The boy looked surprised. "Study? Dumpling-Head studying?" He thought it over. "Then again, with grades like she has, it would have to start happening sometime..." A piece of paper that just happened to be in Usagi's hand at the time suffered her wrath and was crumpled as she clenched her fists. Ami realized that what little bit of progress she had made thus far in the tutoring was quickly evaporating into thin air. She concentrated for a moment, then turned to the boy. He looked to be in the later years of high school, perhaps a freshman in college... She hoped, however, that his own command of English would be less than exemplary. "`Your unrequited presence is obstructing our capability to purloin scholastic accolades,'" she said in English, borrowing words she'd read and heard her mother use--and hoping she hadn't butchered the meanings of any of them. Ami's prediction was confirmed as the boy stared at her. His eyes narrowed and his smile slowly vanished, almost becoming a frown. He turned around in a near huff and walked off. "Later, Dumpling-Head." Usagi was so impressed with Ami's feat that she didn't even notice the phrase being used a third time. "Wow, Ami-chan! That was great!" Ami smiled. "It's worth studying to be able to do things like that, isn't it?" she asked. Usagi nodded vigorously and returned to her books, and the rest of their session went very well. Twenty feet out of the library, Ami turned and waved at Usagi, who was already heading hurriedly in the other direction at great haste. `The arcade,' Ami said to herself. "I'll see you at school tomorrow, Usagi-san!" she yelled. Usagi waved back with a smile. Ami turned around and saw Luna a few yards away, running up to her. By now, she had not only learned that Luna, though only a cat, was capable of some facial expressions, but she had also come to recognize some of them as well. This time, Luna was looking concerned. "What's wrong?" Ami asked, bending down to pick up Luna. "Have you noticed all the police cars going through the city today?" Luna asked, after draping herself over Ami's shoulder. "I wasn't really paying much attention to it before, but now that you mention it, there have been quite a few. Do you have any idea why?" "The only thing I know is what I've heard--some schoolgirls were discussing a bus that disappeared with several people on it. When it returned, the people were nowhere to be found." "Disappeared?" Ami repeated, her eyes narrowing a little. "You think it's the Dark Kingdom? But they don't usually kidnap people." Luna frowned. "I know, but the girls said the bus was one that made regular trips to a temple where good luck charms are sold..." Ami pondered it. "That does sound typical of their plans so far, though," she said, resignedly. "Did you tell Artemis and Minako about this? First, we need to do something about that bus before it takes anyone else with it. Then we're going to have to find the people that have already disappeared. Hopefully we won't be too late to help them." "Artemis was with me when we heard the girls, and he went to tell Minako about the bus. They were going to examine the temple. If we hurry, we can meet them there," Luna said, looking back the way she had come. Ami, with Luna still perched atop her shoulder guiding the way, left for the temple at a pace somewhere between a very quick walk and a jog. It was all she could really maintain over a long distance, especially carrying the cat and her schoolbooks, but it turned out to be more than fast enough. When they arrived at the temple, Minako and Artemis hadn't even arrived, and Ami and Luna wound up waiting for them to show up. Ami chose to ascend the impressive flight of steps and have a look around the temple's courtyard while they waited. No sooner had she got to the top step when she heard a voice addressing her. "Hello..." It took a few moments for her to locate the source of the voice: a short, elderly man standing in front of her. He was almost bald, wearing what appeared to be ceremonial robes, and was looking at Ami with an expression that she wasn't entirely familiar or comfortable with. "You're cute..." he said, admiring the fabric of her skirt. At least that's what Ami thought he was admiring. "Would you like to work at my temple?" "Well, uh, actually..." Ami said, surprised by the question. "I don't really have time for a job, but thank you for the offer." She gave a polite bow. "That's too bad..." the old man said, clearly disappointed. Ami studied him as he turned toward a clump of buildings. He certainly didn't seem like anyone from the Dark Kingdom she'd ever seen so far... "You're here already, Ami-chan?" Minako asked, walking up the steps herself. Ami's attention had been focused on the old man and she hadn't even heard Minako's approach. The old man made a deft change in his movements and within seconds was no longer heading for the buildings, but rather in Minako's direction. "You're cute, too," he told Minako, causing her to beam a little. "Maybe you would like to work at the temple, or are you too busy like your friend?" "I don't know," Minako said with a slight giggle. "I've always thought being an acolyte or something would be interesting, and I'd look great in a Shinto robe..." She arched her back a little and struck a pose much like any model in the midst of a seductive camera shoot would. Ami was a little taken aback, as was Luna. Artemis drooped his head in mock shame. The person who reacted the most by far, however, was the old man. His eyes were doing their best to burst out of their sockets, and Ami was worried for a moment that Minako's antics were going to give him a heart attack. Before that could happen, though, the three of them were interrupted. "Stop that!" a girl from inside the temple yelled, causing both Minako to snap back to her normal posture and the old man to cringe, looking like he wanted to slink away to some other part of the temple. The girl charged toward them. She was wearing essentially the same outfit as the old man, although the portion of her robes from the waist down was red instead of blue. Her black hair was long and flowing, and her expression was one of extreme annoyance. As the girl approached, Minako was preparing to apologize, only to find that it wasn't her that the girl had yelled at, but the old man. "What are you doing? You ought to be ashamed!" Under the force of the girl's words and glare, the old man grudgingly walked back to the temple grounds like a whipped pup. When he was almost out of sight, the girl turned back to Ami and Minako and bowed. "I apologize. My grandfather tends to get carried away." She stood back up straight and shook her head. "And yet he can't understand where those rumors about him come from..." None of the three saw that a young man, dressed in robes identical to those of the girl's grandfather, was watching from nearby and taking a significant interest in their conversation. Jadeite smiled as the opportunity was presented to draw any possible suspicions away from himself. He pointed toward the short-haired girl and concentrated. "There's no harm done, right, Ami-chan?" Minako said, feeling a little bad for the old man who'd gotten scolded because of her having led him on. "It was all in fun." Ami nodded her assent, then shivered as a chill ran up her spine. Several things seemed to happen at once. On her shoulder, Luna stiffened considerably, instinctively extending her claws, which caught Ami's attention. Artemis was suddenly looking at her with an expression of surprise and confusion. The girl they had been talking to gave her a very similar look, except the confused stare was replaced with a glare that very much resembled hatred. The next thing she knew, the girl had pulled something from the folds of her robe and had launched into the air toward Ami. She was mumbling something guttural that Ami couldn't make out, but she could tell it was anything but friendly. Ami had no trouble at all understanding the end of the statement, which was yelled out. "Akuryou Taisan!" Ami used the books she was carrying as a makeshift shield, throwing them up to block whatever attack the girl had planned. After a couple of seconds in this defensive position, though, she realized that the girl had never hit her. Cautiously, she lowered the books and examined the scene before her. Minako was holding the girl by the wrist--and in a way that didn't look very comfortable for the latter. They were both about two feet away from her, and Ami came to the conclusion that Minako had grabbed the girl at the last moment. "What was THAT for?" Minako snapped. "I just felt an evil force coming from her!" the girl yelled. "There's been something wrong at the temple lately and now I know where it's coming from!" She met Minako's gaze with an equally fearsome one of her own. "Let go of me." Luna had by this time relaxed, though Artemis was still looking a bit confused. Ami considered what had just happened. The cats' reactions, plus the cold sensation, along with the girl's attack... Ami had a vague theory about what had occurred, but no idea how it could have happened. She put her hand on Minako's and made her release the girl, who immediately stepped back and knelt down to retrieve a piece of paper from the ground. Thus armed, she prepared to assault Ami again, then stopped and stared at her in amazement. Clearly embarassed, she bowed once more. "I'm sorry. I... Made a mistake in trying to banish you," she said, and then, almost as though talking to herself, added, "I don't know what's happening. Lately all my predictions have been wrong..." "Predictions?" Minako asked. "You mean you can see the future?" The girl's response was cut off by Jadeite, who hurriedly approached and joined them. Neither Ami, Minako, nor the cats recognized him, since, in addition to his change of clothing, his hair had been arranged differently, and it effectively covered his eyes and everything above them. "Is something wrong, Hino-san? I heard you yelling..." "It's fine," she responded, a little flatly. "There was just a misunderstanding. You can go back to your duties." "As you wish," Jadeite said with a bow, and retreated into the temple's interior. The girl smiled a little weakly at Ami and Minako, and gestured toward the gate. "If you can forgive my actions, please, feel free to come in. I'm Hino Rei." Introductions were made, slight bows were exchanged, and then the five of them entered the temple, with Rei leading the way. Ami was in the rear, and Minako noticed as she glanced back that Luna was whispering something in Ami's ear while Rei wasn't looking. "Did you say you can see the future?" Minako asked. "Sometimes," Rei said, looking down at the ground. "I've had predictions of what might happen before, and sometimes I can see visions of the future in our spiritual fire. Every once in a while, I can feel the presence of evil spirits... But lately I've been making a lot of mistakes." "That man with the blond hair..." Ami started. "Is he your brother?" Rei looked suprised, then almost insulted. "Jede? No, my grandfather is allowing him to stay here and work at the temple. My grandfather used to take care of almost everything himself, but he's too old now, and I don't have time for it either with school, so he lets others live here in return for their help." "You don't seem to like him," Minako cautiously said, aware that it might not have been any of her business. "He's like most of the people who've come here," Rei said. "My grandfather and I take the temple and our beliefs very seriously, and he doesn't." They had come to the temple yard. "Do you mind if we look around?" Minako asked. "Go right ahead. Sorry again, Mizuno-san," Rei said. She walked off and entered one of the many buildings that neither Ami nor Minako could identify. "I don't think this temple has anything to do with the Dark Kingdom," Minako said, when the four of them were alone. Ami agreed. "Rei and her grandfather aren't like anyone else we've seen from the Dark Kingdom, and they don't draw much of a crowd to the temple, which is unusual for the Dark Kingdom's plans." "That's not entirely true," Luna said. She pointed with her paw to one of the buildings where a significant line of girls had gathered to either participate in a ceremony or buy souvenirs. Behind the counter was Jede. "Something about him is very wrong..." "But there is a type of dark energy here," Ami said, looking at Luna. "Earlier, you tensed up right after I felt a chill pass through me, and then Rei tried to `banish' me, as she put it. She must have thought for some reason that the energy was coming from me." "That's what I sensed too..." Artemis said, the confusion he had experienced earlier suddenly resolved. He thought harder about it, then glanced over at Luna, who was giving him a knowing look. "And Rei, too..." he said, in a near whisper. "Then there is something about this place," Minako said. "We just need to find out exactly what it is. Why don't we split up and take a look around?" Minako and Artemis spent the next fifteen minutes walking around the temple and examining it in detail, but finding nothing. "I don't know, Artemis... This looks just like every other shinto temple I've visited." "You've never visited any shinto temples before," the cat reminded her. "Exactly. Still, I don't see anything out of the ordinary here..." "Apart from Rei, who says she can see the future, her grandfather who tried to hire both you and Ami based on how cute he thought you were, and Jede, whose presence puts Luna on edge?" Artemis asked, sarcastically. "You know what I mean. Nothing out of the ordinary that would have anything to do with the Dark Kingdom. It could just be a coincidence that the disappearing bus comes here to the temple. There are probably other buses that stop here, too, right?" she said, looking toward the gate, where coincidentally, a bus had pulled up and was letting girls on. She pointed at it. "See? Just like that one." Artemis furrowed his brow. "Wait a minute..." Minako realized what he was trying to say as the driver of the bus started to close the door. Her face was clearly visible from where Minako and Artemis were standing, and what they saw was an evil smile accompanied by a menacing glint in the driver's eyes. "That IS the bus!" Minako said, starting to run toward it. The bus, however, was not waiting. Before she could get close enough to do anything, it pulled away, not only going forward, but rising up into the air with an unearthly silence, and vanishing into a black hole that hadn't been there five seconds earlier. The hole sealed itself as soon as the bus had completely passed through, leaving Minako and Artemis behind. Minako stared at the now-absent hole for a little while, as though hoping it would reopen, but it didn't. "Okay, so there's definitely a connection," she finally conceded. After regrouping, the four of them went in search of Rei and found her feeding two crows near the end of the porch. "Your bus just disappeared carrying a lot of girls who were here at the temple," Minako said with an almost accusing tone. "It's not our bus!" Rei yelled, quickly getting angry. "Why does everyone think the bus belongs to the temple just because it stops here? The police have been asking us the same thing." "You mean, the temple doesn't have a bus?" Ami asked. "That's right. We've never needed a bus before. This one started coming by a few days ago, and we thought they just added the temple to their route. We could use the traffic, so we didn't question it." "How often does the bus come, then?" Rei shook her head. "One or two times a day, maybe. I haven't really paid much attention to it." Ami and Minako looked at each other. "We've got to be going now, thanks," Minako said to Rei. Rei nodded as the girls walked away, then thought about the questions they'd asked. `Jede and the bus...' she thought to herself. `He showed up around the time that bus started coming by...' She decided it was just coincidence after all and went back to the crows. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught glimpse of something shiny on the ground. It looked like a fancy red pen. Rei picked it up and started to yell at the girls that they'd dropped it, but they were already gone. ------------------ Ami and Minako agreed to catch the bus at the next possible opportunity, which they decided would be after school the next day. If the bus followed any sort of schedule then they would have over an hour--plenty of time--to go to the temple from school, meet up, and get onto the bus. Unfortunately, as Minako discovered, the bus wasn't following a schedule at all. She was on her way home with Artemis when the bus drove by her, headed in the direction of the temple. At first she thought it was just another bus--until she saw the driver's face and realized she was wrong. "That's the bus!" she said to Artemis. "Are you sure?" he asked. "I'm sure," she said, looking at the surrounding area to get a feel for where she was. Even though the bus didn't seem to be in any particular hurry, there was no way she could outrun it. But... "We'll take a few shortcuts and beat it to the temple." "What about Ami and Luna?" Artemis asked, already gripping Minako's school uniform by the shoulder as she started to run. "Ami's school lets out earlier than mine. She could be home by now, and there's no time to go get her," Minako said between breaths. "The bus might not show up again until tomorrow--if ever." Although Artemis knew she was right and that she really meant what she said, it was also obvious as Minako ran along, darting through the occasional crowd and avoiding other obstacles in her path, that she was actually enjoying the challenge of trying to make it to the temple before the bus could. A small smile pierced her serious expression, all the way to the temple, and Artemis clung to her for dear life as she kicked in with more speed. Four minutes later, she arrived, breathing heavily with the effort, by which time Artemis was only barely hanging on with a single paw. "Made it!" she gasped, surveying the crowd of girls who were getting into the bus. The only one of them she recognized was the girl who had come to her--or to Sailor V, rather--for an autograph a couple of weeks earlier. As she drew closer to the entrance of the bus, she had to decide on whether to confront the driver here and now or play possum and simply get on the bus. There was no telling what she would find after the bus passed through the black hole, but she knew that there was no way to help the kidnapped girls from this side, and that settled the decision. The bus driver paid her no attention while she filed onto the bus, as zombie-like as the other passengers. There was something unnerving about the two dozen or so girls who sat in their seats, completely unaware or unconcerned that they were about to be taken to some other dimension and used as fodder for the Dark Kingdom. Just the presence of the massive gathered energy on board the bus was enough to make Artemis' fur rise. Minako sat at the back of the bus, keeping her eyes on everything while doing her best to give the impression of being completely dazed. The doors closed as the bus rolled forward and took off. "I hope you know what we're getting into," Artemis whispered to her. Rei tensed. There it was again, that feeling of evil, of a dark power, this time strong enough to interrupt even her meditation, but unlike before, it left her with no idea who or what was the cause. She turned to the blazing fire in front of her and closed her eyes. The thoughts, confusion and questions all melted away in the crackling of its flames. She spoke, at first no more than a murmur, but slowly growing in volume until she was yelling at the flames. Her eyes opened and she stared into the heart of the fire, waiting for her unspoken questions to be answered--and they were. The flames roared and flared in their own unnatural way, growing brighter in some spots and dimmer in others, forming the image of the person behind all the trouble. `Jede!' She stormed out, across a section of the porch and burst into another room. Jadeite was on his knees and scrubbing the floor, but he turned to her as she entered, accompanied by her crows. "Is something wrong, Hino-san?" Rei pointed an accusing finger at him. "Yes, there is. I know that you're the one causing problems for the temple! Admit it!" She reached into her robe and pulled out the paper she had wielded against Ami earlier. "Oh, yes, I'm the one," Jadeite said with a laugh. "You finally figured it out, but that's alright, I was getting tired of this disguise anyway." He stood up slowly and regarded Rei's threatening attitude with contempt. "You seem very angry... I'll send you someplace where our great ruler can put that wasted energy to much better use!" Before Rei could make any movement, he held out his hand and she was pulled off her feet and into a black void in the room that had never been there before. The last thing she heard before blacking out was Phobos and Deimos' crowing, overshadowed only by Jadeite's laughter. Minako wasn't sure what she had been expecting to find on the other side of the hole, but what she did find wasn't it at all. It looked like an entirely different world, almost beyond description. The purple sky made it appear to be night, but no stars were visible, and yet she could see several planets as though they were no further away than the moon. Below the bus was nothing but sand as far as the eye could see, without any sign of life whatsoever. What she focused her attention on, however, were the two other buses, seemingly indentical to the one she was in, floating nearby. That solved the puzzle of where the Dark Kingdom had taken the kidnapped girls to; they simply discarded the full buses here and took an empty one back to the other side each time. The bus driver had been preparing to exit the bus when Minako stood up and accosted her. "Hold it! Turn these buses around and take them back through that hole!" she commanded. The driver had no intention of doing so. She smiled and made the slightest of gestures, which somehow caused the bus to tilt while hovering in the air. Despite her acrobatic prowess, Minako was caught-off guard and sent flying down the aisle she was standing in and to the front of the bus, where she was quickly grabbed by the driver and thrown out of the door. She fortunately managed to roll on impact with the sand below instead of landing flat. What jumped out of the bus after her was still the driver, only without its disguise, now clearly a youma, and one who was ready for a fight. Minako scrambled to her feet with her pen in hand, wondering briefly why everything always had to be done the hard way. "Venus Power, Make-Up!" The youma had been quite surprised to see any of the passengers get up in the first place, but for this girl to be one of the Sailor Senshi was a real shock. While Minako's change of form illuminated the area for a brief couple of seconds, the youma decided on a plan of attack. She knew that Sailor Venus was the one with energy beams or something along that line. The only way to win a fight with her was to get in close. That suited the youma just fine. Minako completed her transformation just in time to see the youma flying at her, but not soon enough to attack. All she did was put up enough of a defense to stop the youma from tearing her head off. The two of them tumbled into the sand, grappling, and Minako's mind raced to come up with a way out of that situation--she had her fair share of fighting experience, but that wasn't going to be nearly enough against an opponent who was far beyond human. "Rei! Rei! Wake up!!" Rei groggily opened her eyes, fingers errantly scrabbling in the sand beneath her. `Sand? There's no sand inside the temple...' Then she remembered that she wasn't inside the temple any longer. She forced her eyes open all the way and looked around in a fear that started with her first glimpse of this place and increased by the moment as she searched for anything she recognize as familiar and saw nothing. `No, wait...' She saw a few familiar things--Sailor Venus, who was fighting some sort of monster, and not doing very well, from the looks of it, and Phobos and Deimos were perched next to Rei protectively. "Rei!" She jerked her head around, unable to find the speaker of the voice. There was only Sailor Venus and the monster, neither of whom were talking to her. The only other creatures in the immediate area were the crows, and a cat... "Snap out of it!" the cat hissed. Rei blinked. The cat had really said something. Its mouth had even moved. "You--you're talking? How?" she asked. "There's no time for that!" Artemis said. "Sailor Venus needs your help to fight that youma!" His words went in one of Rei's ears and out the other, as she suddenly realized how it was possible to be on another world watching a monster fight Sailor Venus, and having a cat talk to her. "Of course! This must be a dream. Or a vision..." she said to herself. Artemis glanced back at Minako's struggle. The youma had seized and almost completely pinioned both of her arms, not only immobilizing her but preventing her from using her power. Panic took precedence over judgement, and he did the only thing he could think of to bring Rei back to her senses and convince her that this was no fantasy. He jumped up and bit her on the arm. Rei cursed in surprise and backhanded Artemis so hard she almost knocked him out. He landed several feet away and got back up to face her. There was a quickly-ignited anger in her eyes that almost made him cringe, but his concern over Minako was more pressing. "This is no dream or vision!" he said, sternly. "You were left a pen at the temple which will let you become Sailor Mars. Tell me you have it!" Rei's furious expression didn't waver as she reached into her robe and took out the pen. "Now shout `Mars Power, Make-Up!'" Artemis told her. "What?!" she asked, disbelieving. "DO IT!" Rei followed his instruction, then flinched in reflex as the light surrounded and changed her, starting with the pen and traveling throughout her body. She could practically feel and taste the fire that momentarily surrounded her. When it was over, she knew, as though some previously closed part of her mind had been opened, that the cat was telling the truth. Sailor Venus needed her help--Sailor Mars' help. Rei looked at the youma, who had now become the target of her anger. "Fire--" Artemis jumped in her way. "You can't attack the youma like that! You'll hit Sailor Venus!" Rei glared at him in irritation, then took a step back and focused to clear her mind of thoughts and tap her spiritual power. Though he still couldn't understand any of the words, Artemis recognized the chant as being the same as the one she had used before her attack on Ami. "Akuryou Taisan!" Rei screamed, leaping at the youma, the paper from earlier coming out of nowhere to appear in her hand. This time, there was no one to stop her, and she planted the paper square in the youma's back. Suddenly, Minako felt the pressure on her arms subside, and she was released, only to fall face-first in the sand. She tried to take advantage of whatever it was that made the youma let go of her, but her arms had been almost paralyzed--temporarily, she prayed--by the youma's pulling, and she couldn't even lift up to her hands and knees. The youma was now alone, and frantically trying to figure out why it couldn't move. Rei didn't give it the opportunity. She brought her hands together, aiming her fingers straight at her target. "Fire Soul!" The resulting flame spiralled outward and engulfed the youma in a pillar of fire that reduced it, screaming, to ashes. Desperation at not knowing what was going on drove Minako to use her slightly-recovered arms to get up, unsteadily. Artemis ran over to make sure she was okay. "Artemis...?" she asked, looking at Rei. "Sailor Venus..." Artemis said. "Meet Sailor Mars." Introductions were cut short when Minako saw that, behind Rei, the hole that had brought them here was closing, and rapidly. "That youma must have been holding the hole open," she said. "We've got to get out of here!" "Run for it!" Artemis yelled as they made a break for the hole, but he could see that they would never reach it in time. Or at least that's what he thought. Just as Minako and Rei were reaching the same conclusion, a wide blue beam of light stabbed through the hole and down to the ground, somehow preventing the hole from closing any further. "We still can't reach it, though!" Minako said, as they got closer, almost to the edge of the blue light. A bus horn honked from behind and they whirled to find the three buses still floating in the air, but now attached to each other and being driven not by a youma, but by someone in a dressy black outfit. "Get on," was all he said. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" Minako asked. "I am Tuxedo Kamen. There is no time to explain anything else. If you wish to escape this world, then get on now." After a very brief exchange of glances between each other, Minako, Rei and Artemis decided to accept the offer. The driver of the bus said nothing more on the way back to the other side of the hole. "Ami-chan!" Minako said, leaping off the bus and going to join her. Rei followed. Ami sighed with relief. "Thank goodness... When Luna and I couldn't find you, and discovered that Rei and Jede were gone from the temple, we thought you might have gotten on the bus without us. Then the hole started to close..." "You kept it open? How?" Minako asked. "I don't know. I just really wanted to make sure it stayed open until you got back, and it did..." "Hmmm," Minako said, puzzling it over. She then tossed the thought aside and started to introduce Rei, except that Rei wasn't standing next to her now--she was back by the bus again. "He's already gone..." Rei said, half-disappointed, as Minako and Ami walked up. "He seemed to be in a hurry," Minako told her. "Yeah," Rei agreed. "I just wanted to thank him." "Me too," Minako said, even though it was obvious that thanking him wasn't all Rei wanted. She looked around as though to make sure he was really gone. `Thanks, Tuxedo Kamen... Whoever you are.' ------------------ "What's that, Usagi-san?" Ami asked, as they sat down for their study session the next day. "It's my wonderful good-luck charm!" Usagi said, excitedly. She held up the small token proudly. "It's already working, too! I'm going to go back to that temple today and get two more!" "Oh? Did it help you get a good grade on one of your tests?" Ami asked, dubiously. "Even better! Right after I got it yesterday, I had the most incredible daydream ever. It even had this charming guy in it!" Her eyes started to gloss over in a romantic bliss. "He was in this dashing tuxedo he was SO cute. And his voice was SO rich, and he was wearing a mysterious mask! And he..." Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all characters contained within this work are the copyright of Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, Kodansya and probably lots of other big people I'm forgetting. I am using them without permission, but suing me because of it would be futile as I have nothing. Feel free to distribute this work around (for no profit, of course; I'm not making any...), as long the included text is unmodified. If you publish or repost it somewhere, please let me know. Comments, criticism, flames, etc. welcomed (and, in fact, requested) at Ultrace@aol.com. The World Without A Sailor Moon fanfic by Mike Chenoweth [Ultrace@aol.com] Co-Plotted by "Tuxedo Will" Wolfshohl [Wwolfshohl@logicon.com] and Nikki "Jet Wolf" Purvis [Jetwolf@ix.netcom.com] Additional editing by Novareinna [Novareinna@aol.com] Note: "Ofuda" is the proper term for the "paper" Rei utilized in the last part, and it will be used from now on. Part 7: The Sailor Senshi in Unison! Jadeite's Final Strike! March, 1997 There was a deafening silence in the throne room. Jadeite stood straight and did his best to look confident, but the truth of the matter was he was not doing well at all. When Queen Beryl summoned him to appear before her--following his last failure aboard a cruise ship--he knew it wasn't for a commendation. The Queen waved her hand, and, perhaps for dramatic effect, a spotlight encircled Jadeite, pointing him out to everyone else present. It confirmed his suspicions; she was about to make an example of him. "Jadeite," Queen Beryl began, smiling. "You have managed to gather a great deal of energy, which has pleased us. But," she continued, her expression fading to something less than favorable, "You have also made many mistakes. Your plans to deal with Sailor Mercury were inadequate, and she has since been joined by Sailor Venus and Sailor Mars. Time and time again you have failed to defeat them, and that is disturbing. "Had you eliminated them, our great leader could already have awakened and enabled the Dark Kingdom to rule this universe. It is therefore your fault that we are delayed from completing our conquest." Jadeite gritted his teeth. Chastisement was never an easy thing to take, but the expectation of his forthcoming punishment was torture. Then, Queen Beryl said something that truly surprised him and the others who had gathered. "However, I will be lenient and give you one last chance. Do not bother with gathering energy. Destroy those Sailor Senshi, and quickly. If you do not succeed in this, you will face the ultimate punishment--eternal sleep." There was a murmur that penetrated the silence and spread through the crowd at the mention of such a sentence. Jadeite scowled, unsure of whether he would have preferred simply being destroyed instead of being offered another chance at the cost of a much worse fate. As he prepared to take his leave, the Queen added one more comment. "I suggest that you do not leave your fate in the hands of a youma this time. Good luck." Jadeite bowed and vanished from the room. The next hour was spent conceiving a desperate plan, with Jadeite becoming more convinced every step of the way that fate was against him. Despite all his encounters with the Sailor Senshi, he still lacked any vital information about them. That became painfully clear as he ran through everything he knew in the hope that some previously unseen weakness might appear. Sailor Mercury was the smartest of them, obviously, and was always capable of finding her way through any obstacle or difficulty put before her. She was also the weakest, however, and usually needed help from the others in order to succeed. Jadeite's only attempt at isolating her to take advantage of that had been a dismal failure that had come close to costing him his life. Sailor Venus had been, by far, the most dangerous. She accepted Mercury's guidance and ideas, but it was apparent she was the natural leader of the group, with the experience and capability to back her up. The only consolation Jadeite could take from his most recent battle with the Senshi was that even her power--which seemed to be the strongest of the three--wasn't able to defeat his own defensive abilities. Sailor Mars had been the wildcard thus far. She clearly lacked experience, but was learning quickly. Her fire had proven dangerous when she destroyed two of the three youmas the Sailor Senshi had fought since her appearance, and her ability to immobilize beings with psychic power was lethal in a way that no beam of energy or blast of fire could be. And that was all he knew of them, at least specifically. Of course, he had plenty of information about the Sailor Senshi in general, and he knew none of it would do him a bit of good. The Sailor Senshi always appeared out of nowhere to foil his plans. They were weak alone, but unstoppable as a team. They-- Jadeite stopped and backtracked his thoughts. They were unstoppable as a team... Every time he had been defeated by them, they had managed to work together to overcome their opponents. The solution, then, was to prevent them from working as a team. Press each one with challenges at the same time, force them to react as individuals, and they would be easy prey, particularly against Jadeite himself, as opposed to a mere youma. The plan suddenly came together. He knew just where he could set up such a situation, but before he got to work on that, it would probably be best to give the Sailor Senshi some notice of his intentions. Their identities were unknown to him, but there was an easy way to make sure they would see and hear him. Drawing a modest amount of energy from his gathered reserves, he concentrated on projecting an illusion of himself--one so large that they couldn't possibly overlook it--in the sky of the city. "Sailor Senshi!" his voice boomed. "I have had enough of your interference, so let's settle the matter once and for all. Meet me tomorrow night at 1 o'clock on Runway F of the Hanada Airport. And if you decide not to show up..." The phantom Jadeite spat a fireball from its mouth that instantly set the entire city ablaze. He waited a few seconds before snapping his fingers, which caused the flame to disappear. "That was just an illusion, but if you don't come tomorrow night, I'll turn this city into a sea of fire and burn it to ashes." With that, Jadeite dispersed with the illusion. A threat to the city would certainly bring the Sailor Senshi running. In that respect, they were nothing if not predictable. He smiled. All that was left now was to make a few preparations... And wait. ------------------ The meeting was called that morning at the shrine; it had been set up as a headquarters for the Sailor Senshi not long after Rei had joined the group. It was conveniently close to both Ami's and Minako's homes, and the abundance of buildings meant they would never lack a place to meet in private. Rei didn't mind it at all. Being fairly new, she always felt a slight pressure to accede to Ami's and Minako's inarguably greater experience, but here she was on her home turf, so to speak, which made her a lot more comfortable. "I say we take him on," she said, clenching her hand into a fist. "If he really wants to settle this like he said, then he won't run off like he did last time." "But he was very specific about where we were to meet him. I think he plans to set up a trap there," Ami said. "He set up traps at the park and on that ship too, and we beat those even though they caught us by surprise," Rei argued. "He wasn't expecting us, either, so we also caught him by surprise. This time he'll be ready." "We can't forget about his threats, Ami-chan," Luna reminded her. "Whether Jadeite sets up a trap or not, the Sailor Senshi have to meet him, or he'll destroy the city!" "I don't think so," Minako said. "There are plenty of people outside of Tokyo for the Dark Kingdom to drain. If Jadeite really could burn the entire city, he probably would have done it already, since it would be the easiest way to be sure about getting rid of us. He's bluffing." "I hadn't thought of that..." Luna agreed. "But Rei's right," Minako added. "We don't get chances to confront the Dark Kingdom directly very often. We can't pass this up." Ami quickly clarified her position. "I didn't mean that we shouldn't go, but we need to be careful. Jadeite will have a plan, so we should have one, too." "Right." Minako thought about it. "Jadeite's threat sounded a lot like a challenge, so he'll probably want to fight us himself... He's tough, but if we think about it, I'm sure we can come up with a way to beat him." They all considered what they knew, Ami calling information up on her computer while Minako mentally replayed her battle with Jadeite from a few days earlier. Rei idly fished into her robe and pulled out an ofuda. She stared at it, then smiled. "How about this...?" ------------------ Midnight came early for Ami. She made a point of going to bed early so she could get at least a few hours of sleep before the meeting with Jadeite. She ambled into the bathroom and came out fifteen minutes later, greatly refreshed. She and Luna made their way downstairs, stopping only to take a look in on her mother. After considerable thought, Ami went in and gave her a kiss without waking her up, then closed the door and continued out of the house. "This is the first time I've actually left with the intention of fighting the Dark Kingdom," she explained to Luna. "You hear too many stories of people who would have liked one last chance to say goodbye." "Ami-chan..." Luna started, in a chiding tone. Ami smiled a little. "Don't worry, I'm not going into this fight with that kind of attitude. We're going to take care of Jadeite tonight." "Good, that's the spirit," Luna said. They walked--or rather, Ami walked, with Luna in her usual position atop Ami's shoulder--for a while in silence, each in their own thoughts. They were just over halfway to where they would meet the others when Ami spoke up again. "Luna, why do you think Jadeite challenged us?" Luna looked at her, confused. "He said he was tired of our interference." Ami shook her head. "As far as we know, we've been able to stop all of Jadeite's schemes, except the first... He seems confident, but not stupid... If he really wanted to stop us, why didn't he use another of his schemes, but set it up as an ambush ahead of time, knowing that we would try to stop him? Why give us this warning and allow us get prepared for him?" Luna didn't have an answer for her. "I guess it really doesn't matter, and I'm certainly not going to bother asking him about it," Ami continued, "but this isn't like Jadeite at all. I wish we knew what he was really up to." Minako, Rei and Artemis were waiting for them at the monorail station when Ami and Luna arrived. Despite almost endless chatter at the three girls' schools about everyone wanting to go to the airport that evening and watch the Sailor Senshi's battle, the station was oddly deserted. Too deserted. Even the scheduled cars weren't running. Unfortunately, that also meant they couldn't get to the airport, unless Jadeite expected them to walk several miles along the highway. "Anyone have an idea for how to get there?" Artemis asked no one in particular. As though his words were some magical trigger, a car immediately came down the track to meet them, stopping right in front of the three. Its doors opened. Minako eyed the car warily, remembering their conversation earlier that day. "Think it's a trap, Ami-chan?" In a flash, Ami had her computer out and was punching away at the keys and scanning the monorail car. "I don't know," she said, shaking her head. "There's some sort of power other than electricity moving the car, but I can't tell what else that energy is liable to do." Minako pulled out her transformation pen. "We'd better not take any chances. Venus Power, Make-Up!" "Mercury Power, Make-Up!" "Mars Power, Make-Up!" "Let's be on guard. We can't put anything past Jadeite," Minako said. She stepped into the car, followed by Ami, Rei and the cats. The doors closed behind them. After two minutes of fast and nervous travel, the car stopped at the airport, and they exited it as cautiously as they had entered. The doors slammed shut behind them and the car took off again, leaving them behind. "No backing out now," Ami said, looking back into the distance at the retreating car in the distance before entering the airport with the others. She surveyed the building. "There's nobody here but the guards. Jadeite even managed to shut down the airport's traffic." "Good. People would've just been hurt if they'd showed up," Minako responded. She stopped and turned to Rei. "Are you alright?" Rei was holding her forehead, eyes shut tightly, which was normally an indication of extreme pain. For her however, it had other meanings. "There's something evil here... All around us." Minako and Ami swiveled and visually searched every corner of the area they were in. "Is it Jadeite?" Ami asked, pulling out her computer. "I can't detect anyone in here at... Uh-oh." Rei and Minako both looked to see what Ami had noticed. The guards had left their posts, rapidly and from all sides advancing on the three girls, who placed themselves back-to-back in a defensive posture. Rei was the first to be reached by a guard. She reacted with a high-flying kick that sent him to the floor. The next two came to her and Minako, and were both put down with punches--Minako's strike delivered with a graceful, practiced skill, while Rei's was driven more with raw anger than finesse, but effective nonetheless. Ami was able to knock her assailant off his feet with a leg sweep, though it only stunned him. More guards were coming in through the doorways. "There's too many of them," Minako said, catching another one across the jaw and shaking her hand ruefully afterwards. "It's a trick to try and wear us down!" "It's working," Rei told her. "Run for it!" The three took off with Luna and Artemis in tow, and the guards in quick pursuit. The brief battle had so occupied Ami's mind that she didn't even realize through almost half a minute of running what she had actually seen on the computer before the attack. She stopped, faced the guards and turned on her visor. "What are you DOING?" Minako asked. Ami merely typed on her computer in response. "I knew it!" she said, turning back to the others. "They're not human--they're made of animated sand!" Rei and Minako ran up to her, looking at the computer to try and be sure, and neither of them making any sense of it. Rei chose to glare at their pursuers instead. "If that's the case, then... Fire Soul!" The guards didn't even try to avoid the blast of fire that burned away whatever was holding them together and reduced them to piles of sand again. Rei smirked. "If that's the best he can do..." "I assure you, it isn't," Jadeite said. They looked up to see him, laughing, from the top of one of the airport's four-story buildings. "Very impressive, but that was just a warm-up. I'm going to be rid of you all by the end of this evening, and I'm going to enjoy every moment of it." "They say that those who live in glass houses should be the first to cast stones! In the name of Venus, I'll punish you!" Minako yelled, pointing her finger accusingly at Jadeite. "That's not how that goes," Rei muttered. Minako gave the tiniest, most imperceptible shrug before she yelled at Jadeite again. "Crescent Beam!" Jadeite simply held out his hand, and Minako's beam passed into his invisible shield and dissipated. "I thought you would have learned from the last time. Your `power,'" he said in a mocking tone, "is no match for mine. But as you're about to see, I'm the least of your worries." He closed his eyes and thrust out his arms. This was accompanied almost immediately by a loud, but unidentifiable rumbling. This time, Rei was the first to spot the danger: three airplanes had suddenly started moving onto the runway and after them. "Look out!" Jadeite smiled as he started moving the planes toward the Sailor Senshi. He had expected them to immediately waste more of their power trying to destroy the planes, but laughed uncontrollably again when they decided not to do so due to how much it would cost them; it was hard to believe that idiots like these had been holding him up all this time. The girls ran, resembling ants in comparison to the huge planes. The massive girth that each plane required had prevented Jadeite from targeting the Senshi individually, but it was only a matter of time. Even now they didn't seem to realize that they were racing toward the end of the runway. "We're running out of room," Ami said, after almost a minute of running. "The bay is up ahead!" "Split up!" Minako said, after thinking it over and checking out the planes. "Mars, take off to the left. Mercury, you go right. I'll lead the planes to the bay." "You're crazy!" Rei huffed. "Just trust me and do it!" Minako snapped in irritation. She didn't have the time or the breath to explain everything, but she had no intention of being caught by the planes in a dead-end. After a moment's hesitation, Ami took her cue and made an almost ninety-degree angle turn, breaking off from the other two. Rei followed suit, leaving Minako running toward the end of the runway alone. She looked back and cursed upon seeing that two of the planes had gone after Ami and Rei. That was going to make things more difficult. She poured on the speed, sprinting toward the rapidly-approaching bay, and smiled as Jadeite responded just as she predicted by speeding up the jet following her. Twenty feet from the steep drop into the water, the plane was almost on top of Minako, and at that point she made a sideways dash to her left, almost fatally slipping in the process. She ran as hard as she could to get past the wingspan before it caught up with her, not even watching the plane behind her. Jadeite did watch--helplessly--as he saw the trick he'd fallen for. The plane didn't turn nearly fast enough to avoid crashing, almost sideways, into the bay. He clenched his fist and hit the wall next to him, then regained his composure and smiled. After all, that was only one plane out of three. `So much for my allowance,' Minako thought, as she finally stopped to look at the gigantic plane half-submerged in the bay, one wing sticking up into the air at a bizarre angle. The resulting sprays of water had missed her by a foot at best. She started to run after Ami and Rei, who had each made additional turns and were now at least two hundred feet apart, and heading in opposite directions away from the bay. They were both also a long way ahead of Minako, and she wasn't sure if she could catch up to them in time to be of any help, but she had to try anyway. Ami was having extreme difficulties. She was out of breath and her legs felt like lead. She didn't dare look back at the plane that was undoubtedly about to crush her. Once she had taken a glimpse of the airplane that had fallen in the bay, Minako's idea had become clear: take advantage of the jets' lack of maneuverability. The problem was that Ami was not Minako; there was no way she could pull off anything in the way of an acrobatic stunt. With the rumbling of the jet pounding in her ears, however, she realized that the alternative to trying something daring and possibly getting killed was to not try something daring, and most certainly get killed. With those odds in mind, she opted to try something daring. Ami turned around and ran almost straight at the jet, veering at enough of an angle to run alongside it, exactly opposite to the direction it was heading. In spite of the jet's length, it was moving so quickly that she had already passed the tail before it began to turn significantly to follow her. The gamble bought her a considerable amount of time, but Ami had to press herself to keep going. If she stopped to catch her breath, the plane would be back on her tail before she knew it. Instead, she set her sights on Rei, who wasn't having nearly as much difficulty staying ahead of her own pursuing jet, but also hadn't thought of doing what Ami had to get out of its way, either. "Mercury!" Minako yelled, running toward her from a distance and attracting her attention. "Go after Mars!" Ami nodded. This time, she was relatively sure of what Minako was trying to accomplish. She adjusted her course to match Rei almost head-on. There was a look of total confusion in Rei's eyes as she tried to figure out why Ami, of all people, would be stupid enough to head in her direction. Rei tried to avoid Ami, but was matched turn for turn, Ami hoping that Rei would catch on in a few seconds. Jadeite watched them run toward each other. From his vantage point, their plan was all but spelled out for him. He wasn't about to let the two planes crash into each other, however--unless the Sailor Senshi were between them, of course. Ami waited until Rei was thirty feet away--and the plane no more then twenty feet behind Rei--before making her move and taking a last-chance shift to the right. She wouldn't have the energy to try another idea if this one didn't work. Still unaware of what was going on, Rei moved in the opposite direction that Ami did. Jadeite concentrated. The jets turned with them. And that was when Minako played her card. Steadying herself for the most difficult shot she'd ever made, she pointed at one of the airplanes. "Crescent Beam!" The bolt of light streaked toward the plane and hit the support bar separating the mass of the plane from its front wheel, denting the thick steel with the force of the beam. The tiny crease started to bend and rent itself apart under the pressure of hundreds of tons of weight. The front of the jet suddenly came crashing to the pavement with an ear-shattering din, and its movement ceased. The other plane's trajectory had counted on the first's fluid, uninterrupted movements, and when those came to a halt, it went crashing into the first, creating an even louder noise that left the girls' ears ringing when the silence came afterward. Jadeite made an effort not to lose his temper. His ability to move objects was powerful, but it had its limits, and those included trying to drag huge masses of metal across the ground. He decided to ignore his lack of success with the planes and focus on the Sailor Senshi instead. They were winded, looking like they had just fought an army of youma, and he'd managed that with just three simple jets. Maybe that plan hadn't been such a failure after all. He jumped down in front of the closest one, Sailor Mercury, whom he almost expected to fall over from exhaustion before he could get to her. "Look out, Mercury!" Minako yelled. Ami had already seen Jadeite, a mere ten feet away. Desperation alone gave her the adrenaline to use her power. "Shabon... Spray!" she yelled. Jadeite had started to lunge at her as soon as he realized what she planned to do, and she fell down and rolled to her left immediately after the fog descended. Jadeite frowned. Sailor Mercury's area-clouding ability was their one tactic he had no way of countering. Sailor Mercury herself would be the only one capable of seeing in it, and she was certainly no threat, but having to put up with it was still an annoyance. "What's the matter?!" he yelled, trying to disguise the anger in his voice. "Now that I'm ready to fight, you all run away?" "Venus!" Minako whirled in reaction, which was useless in the fog. She recognized the whispered voice as Ami's, anyway. "There you are..." Ami moved a few feet closer, gazing into the fog with her visor to scan the area. "Mars is in position, even if she doesn't know it. Jadeite's just staying put and waiting for the Shabon Spray to go away." "Guess he knows we're not going to leave and risk the city..." Minako said. She noticed that Ami wasn't rapidly panting like she had been earlier. "Got your second wind?" "I bought us enough time to catch a few breaths, but I'm in no condition to fight Jadeite." "If we're lucky, you won't have to," Minako said, managing to sound as confident as ever in spite of her doubts. They had all hammered out Rei's initial idea into a formidable, honed plan, but it still relied upon a lot of unknowns. "Looks like the spray's fading. Let's do it." The two of them stood up from their crouched positions to face Jadeite as the last remnants of the fog evaporated. "Where's your friend, Sailor Mars? Did she run off and leave you?" Jadeite asked, bemused. He considered it. "Probably not, but that's alright, I'll find her when I'm through with you two." Ami had pulled out her computer and was ready to use it. Minako had taken up a posture that was somehow both offensive and defensive in nature. "Don't you have any speeches or fancy gestures to make?" Jadeite asked, preparing to blast the both of them and be done with it. Minako acted without warning. "Crescent Beam!" she screamed, pointing her finger and concentrating to hold the beam down for more than an instant. Jadeite threw up his shield to block the beam, then almost recoiled at the continual pressure of Minako's attack. Given time, she might actually have broken through the shield, but it was clear that she was weakening much faster than he was. "It's working! Keep it up!" Ami said, watching the data flow on her computer and visor. Just as they had suspected, Jadeite's forcefield was best used against only momentary attacks. Like a rubber band, if they could keep pushing it far enough, it would snap. Even more important than that, she could see only through the visor, was the fact that the shield was limited in range; it only covered Jadeite from the front and not from the back. That would leave plenty of room for Rei, who, even at that moment, was running up to Jadeite from behind, unnoticed. Minako saw it too. She gave the beam an extra effort to distract Jadeite, watching as he actually started to fall back. Jadeite himself had lost patience by now. Toying with these girls was one thing; being threatened with their power was another entirely. He put out his free hand. "Take--" "Akuryou Taisan!" Rei screamed from behind, slamming the ofuda into his back and leaping over his stunned form in one fluid--if fatigued--motion. She landed near Ami and Minako, who went to join her. Jadeite felt the chilling grip of paralysis instantly spread over him. "What...? This can't be..." For the first time, he had a sense of real fear. The Sailor Senshi had the upper hand, despite of all his planning. He couldn't go back to Queen Beryl empty-handed; his awaiting punishment quelled any thoughts of fleeing. "Give up," Minako flatly told him. "No chance," Jadeite sneered, straining to stand upright and extend his open hand. "I'm going to destroy you even if I can't move! DIE!" "Crescent Beam!" "Shabon Spray!" "Fire Soul!" The power blast sprang out of Jadeite's hand just as the girls' attacks combined. The beam of light, wrapped with fire and bubbles, met Jadeite's force head-on and smashed through it, leaving him with neither the time nor energy for even an attempt at shielding himself. Jadeite collapsed backward under the attack, feebly clutching at his chest, where the uniform had been burnt away and the skin beneath it ripped, torn and smoldering. He tried to raise himself up on his hands, but the effort turned out to be too much and he fell onto his back, gasping, comforted only by the fact that this end would be quicker--and much more final--than the eternal sleep. The girls watched him lay there for a few seconds, unmoving, before his body flickered and melted away into the wind like a mist. Rei thought she actually saw a slight smile on Jadeite's face before he disappeared, but she quickly dismissed it as her imagination. There was a moment of silence, of uncertainty, where they weren't really sure if this was another of Jadeite's tricks, but when he didn't reappear and strike at them or do something similar, they decided it really was over, and almost instinctively came together, cheering. ------------------ Queen Beryl frowned, but only slightly. In a way, she had expected this from Jadeite, based on his past performances, and yet she had greatly hoped for the destruction of the Sailor Senshi. She bade the images disappear from her crystal ball, and looked up to the beings who had gathered, seemingly, to await the news. "Jadeite has been destroyed; his failure has brought its own punishment on him," she proclaimed. Without pause, she gestured to a member of the crowd. "Nephrite, I will now leave these matters in your hands." Nephrite stepped forward from the crowd with a smile. "A very wise choice... You can count on me, Majesty." --------------------------------------------------------------------- Author's Note: There will be a delay between the posting of Part 7 and Part 8 of "The World Without." Since the "Jadeite Arc" has just ended and the "Nephrite Arc" is about to begin, this is the optimum time for such a delay. While I'll be trying to make this delay as short as possible, I realistically predict it to be between 2 and 3 weeks, but the truth of the matter is that it could take any length of time for me to take care of someimportant matters. Firstly, as someone recently pointed out to me, ultimately the most important thing is that this story please me, or at least that I be satisfied with it. I am not. Despite comments from readers to the contrary, this is certainly not my best work to date. I am displeased with what appears to be my utter lack of being able to give these characters three-dimensionality that I feel is so important in the SM universe. Why I am unable to do this is unknown to me. It could be that the stifling mirroring of these first parts hampered my creativity; it could be the fact that I am trying to get these out on a schedule is giving the story a "rushed" feel. It might even be that I am not used to handling the Japanese characters as opposed to the NA dub ones. Whatever it is, I will not continue this story until I have fixed it. My own peculiar nature is not to revise anything I've written once it has been posted, so unless that changes, these first parts will remain as they are, whether I like them or not, but I refuse to continue mediocrity, especially if I actually feel I can do better. Secondly, continuing the story at the moment would be impossible, or at least very difficult, as the rest of the plots aren't finished. I went into the posting of Part 1 with the plots written out for what eventually became Parts 1-3 and 5-6. Part 4 sprang out of nowhere, and Part 7 here was done completely on the fly. However, the "Nephrite Arc" will introduce many more changes than the "Jadeite Arc" and will require pre-written plots, which I will be trying to compile in this time. Nikki has helped me come up with several intriguing twists, which I'll actually be polling select individuals on. Thirdly, I would like to answer E-Mail. I have mail in my box over a month old, and while some would balk at such a paltry amount of "stale time," for me this is disastrous. So, I have decided to answer all my e-mail. If I have to take a day and do nothing but E-Mail, so be it. Everyone who was kind enough to compliment me on my story, and everyone who writes me regular mail, you WILL be responded to, I promise. My apologies to all those who have been enjoying the story so far for this delay, and I will do my best to end it (the delay, that is) as quickly as possible. ---------- Mike Chenoweth Current SM Project: "The World Without." - Upcoming: "Tin Goddesses" My Homepage: http://members.aol.com/ultrace/darkside/darkside.htm ----------