The Dark Lords Ascendant, Chapter 10 [R/SM Cross]

[claymade]

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2 or Sailor Moon in any way, shape or form. All associated characters, trademarks, etc. are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and Naoko Takeuchi. I'm just telling some stories about them.



Chapter Ten: Ties That Bind



Sailor Uranus jumped from rooftop to rooftop, following closely behind Sailor Neptune, with Sailor Pluto at her side. It had been some time since the Deep Aqua Mirror had shown Sailor Saturn and her companions approaching this city, and as soon as they had identified which city it was they had departed to find her. They'd taken the first leg of the trip in Haruka's car, which she had pushed to breakneck speeds as only a talented race driver like her could.

Now they had taken on their Senshi forms and were racing the remaining distance as fast as they could, houses blurring past beneath their high-heeled feet. As they ran, Sailor Uranus looked over at Sailor Pluto. "So why do you think Ryouga led them all the way out here?"

"I do not know." The Senshi of Time frowned. "It doesn't seem likely that he's leading her into a trap, considering how many chances he's had to harm her already. Perhaps there is something in this area that would allow him to regain his human form?"

"As good a guess as any," agreed Sailor Uranus. Then the corner of her mouth quirked up in a wry half-grin. "Of course, if you believe what Chibi-Usa says, they might have come out here to have a secret romantic rendezvous..."

Sailor Pluto grimaced. "Please don't put Hotaru on the same level as Minako or Makoto. Regardless of whether or not Small Lady is correct about Ryouga's... feelings for her, she is sensible and level-headed enough not to reciprocate in a situation like this."

That prompted Sailor Uranus to raise an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that?" she asked. "I'm not saying that she would do anything to compromise us, of course, but you saw how protective she was of him at the Dark Lords' place, and he does have quite the knight-in-shining-armor routine going with her."

And truth be told, Sailor Uranus wasn't even all that troubled by the possibility. While she was still a little irate over how their fight had gone yesterday, she knew full well that she owed Ryouga her life for deflecting that gunman's aim in the hotel. More importantly, based on his actions he did seem to truly care about Hotaru. If her lonely teammate could find a little happiness, and the result was they had one less dangerous foe to fight, who was she to gainsay it?

Besides... considering how serious and responsible Hotaru was normally, it would be fun to finally have something juicy to tease her about.

Sailor Pluto also seemed to be considering the possibility—and was not looking quite so confident as before. But then she shook her head. "There's nothing to indicate that it is progressing in that direction," she said emphatically, though Sailor Uranus wondered which one of them she was most trying to convince. "I am certain that Sailor Saturn will avoid any such entanglements."



**********



Professor Souichi Tomoe looked out through the hole in the house's wall, at the scene playing out in the street beyond. A young man—who he assumed was Ryouga—was standing next to his daughter, his fingers tracing her face as he brushed aside her hair to look at where she'd been hurt. The professor resisted the urge to go out there himself. It was painfully obvious, especially to someone who knew his daughter as well as he did, that she was completely smitten with the boy, and he didn't think she would want their moment interrupted so soon.

It did concern him, how little he knew about this young man. Still, what he did know was that Ryouga had saved both of them from a terrible fate, now for a second time. The most recent attack had happened so fast, he was still trying to piece it all together in his mind. Gunfire, the madman bursting through the door, smashing his daughter through the wall with superhuman speed that the untrained eye could barely even follow.

A moment later, Ryouga had come charging down the stairs, led by the black-and-white dog. He'd pushed Professor Tomoe away from the danger, telling him to take cover before disappearing through the hole in the wall after the attacker.

Now, however, the danger seemed to be past, leaving the two of them out there with each other. Sailor Saturn slipped her hand up under his, a pale purple glow forming at her fingertips as she healed her injuries. They were talking to each other, but in quiet tones that he couldn't make out at this distance. He had no difficulty discerning the emotion in her gaze as she looked up at the older boy, however, and the thought of his little girl developing feelings like that for someone filled him with a mixture of pride and loss.

But then, despite his resolution to allow his daughter and her rescuer their moment, said moment was interrupted anyway by a very loud, very pointed sound of someone clearing their throat. Sailor Saturn jumped straight up into the air with a yelp, reflexively jerking her hand away from Ryouga's as she whirled around, blushing furiously. Professor Tomoe looked up as well, stepping out of the house to get a better angle.

The other three Outer Senshi were standing on a nearby rooftop, looking down at the pair. Sailor Uranus seemed quite amused by what she was seeing, and shot a sidelong glance over at Sailor Pluto, who regarded the two teenagers with the pained expression of someone fighting off a growing headache. Sailor Neptune, for her part, watched it all with a look of resignation.

"Y- you're here!" blurted Sailor Saturn, stating the obvious in her flustered embarrassment. "I... I wanted to get in touch with you, to tell you what had happened, but the men who took me brought me out into the forest, and we didn't know which way led back, and then one of them attacked again, and then..." Her voice trailed off, her explanation losing steam.

"I see," replied Sailor Pluto dryly. She stepped off the roof, dropped down to the street below and walked over to them. The Senshi of Time regarded Sailor Saturn for a few moments, and then her expression softened. "I am glad to see that you are all right."

"It was thanks to Ryouga," Sailor Saturn said, gesturing to the young man standing next to her. "We wouldn't have made it without his help."

"Then I thank you for your heroism," Sailor Pluto said, turning to address him, her gaze drilling into his, searching him. "But I must still ask what your intentions are toward the rest of us, and toward this planet. When we questioned you as a piglet, you indicated that you still had no intention of abandoning Ranma's side."

Ryouga nodded. "Yes. But you have to understand, even though Ranma and I said we were trying to conquer the world, that was just because the Dark Kingdom... well, that, and also because Beneda had been trying to... I mean, she's not trying anymore, but before that she had been..." He paused his fragmented attempt at an explanation and scratched the back of his head, his face scrunched up in thought. Then he sighed. "Look... this is the sort of thing that will only make sense if I tell the whole story. From the beginning."

Professor Tomoe raised his eyebrows, but didn't interrupt. He knew very little about these affairs, but if nothing else, from what he'd heard so far this should prove an interesting tale. Sailor Pluto's expression was equal parts skepticism and curiosity. "Very well," she said. "Then follow us. We will need to talk privately, and with an incident like this..."

She swept her gaze across all the damage from the fight, including the dead soldier in the street. "I'm sure someone will soon call the police, if they haven't already. We can talk as we go... and you can explain just what exactly you are talking about."

"All right," Ryouga agreed. "Well, for us, this all really started one day when I had gotten... a little bit turned around on my way to the Tendo Dojo in Nerima. I ended up stumbling across a woman I'd never met before, who looked like she'd been pretty badly injured..."



**********



With a wince, Sailor Mercury pulled herself up into a sitting position, aided by Sailor Jupiter. Her chest throbbed with pain where "Ranma" had hit her with the jagged chunk of ice, and she was still disoriented. Sailor Moon's eyes were filled with concern. "Are you okay?"

Her mother hovered over her as well, although in her case she didn't seem to know what to say, as everything she'd thought she'd known about her daughter was turned upside down. "You... you shouldn't try to move her until we know how badly she's injured..." she managed at last, taking refuge in the familiarity of her medical knowledge as she offered the warning.

"I'm all right," Sailor Mercury assured them. As fast as the icy projectile had been going, it probably would have torn a normal human in half, and even she would have some nasty bruises, but she didn't think she'd broken anything. She pulled out her Mercury Computer, using it as an excuse not to look her mother in the eye. "We need to make sure that 'Ranma' doesn't escape."

She began typing rapidly, and soon a map of the surrounding area appeared on the small screen. She winced again, this time not solely because of the physical pain. "This isn't good. He's moving incredibly fast. I don't think we're going to be able to catch up with him, and he's almost out of my scanning range already."

"What are you talking about? Who was that boy?" Her mother looked from one Sailor Senshi to another, finally settling back on Sailor Mercury. "What's going on here? Ami... you are Ami, aren't you?"

Sailor Mercury opened her mouth to reply, but stopped. With what words could she explain years of deception and lies to one of the people she loved most in the world? Worse, it wasn't just her own identity that would be revealed. If she didn't find some way to cover this up, her mother would doubtless connect the group of friends that she always spent her time with to the remaining Sailor Senshi.

Then Sailor Mercury felt a hand on her shoulder, and looking up saw that it was Sailor Moon. "It's all right," the blonde girl assured her, speaking directly to her fears. "The secret was supposed to keep the people we care about safe... but I think now it's doing the opposite. If the bad guys already know, then maybe it's not a bad thing that she does too."

Taking a deep breath, Sailor Mercury nodded. She closed her eyes, focused for a moment, and then her sailor seifuku vanished, replaced by the ordinary pajamas of Mizuno Ami.

The strength deserted her mother's legs, and the woman fell back into a sitting position on the floor with a thump. There was painful silence for several long seconds, until finally her mother spoke again. "A... Sailor Senshi...?" she asked in a small voice. "For... for how long?"

"Since the second year of middle school," was Ami's quiet answer.

She could see written across her mother's haunted face the attempt to try to come to grips with how many years her daughter had been secretly risking her life without her realizing anything. How many news reports was she remembering, about the Sailor Senshi fighting against one inhuman menace or another? Her mother didn't say anything further, but she did move over to where Ami sat, wrapping her daughter in a tight embrace, like she was afraid to let her go.

Eventually, Sailor Jupiter spoke. "We need to decide what we're going to do next," she said. "Even if we beat off this attack, our enemy is still out there. They could be getting ready for another move right now."

"We should contact everyone with our communicators," suggested Sailor Moon. "First Professor Tomoe, and now this... if they're going to keep coming after our families, then I think it's too dangerous for us to be separated. We need to have everyone in one place, so we can all help protect them together."

Her words were met with a skeptical look from Sailor Jupiter. "What are we going to tell them to convince them that they need to do that?"

Sailor Moon turned to look over at Ami's mother. "The truth," she said quietly.



**********



Ranma's body lay flat on its back, out of sight atop a random building, chest heaving from exertion. Ekim had run from the three Sailor Senshi at an all-out sprint, and kept that up for an extended period. He hoped that he was outside the range of that cursed Sailor Mercury's computer, but there was no way to know for sure. Even that, however, was overshadowed in his mind by a far greater fear. There was no more putting it off.

He was going to have to explain to his employer what had just happened.

Steeling himself, Ekim withdrew his consciousness and released his own body's grip on the ceremonial dagger that formed his contact point with the spell. He felt the spell itself take over as he left, returning Ranma once more to a comatose state while the sorcerer turned to look over to where Tanizaki stood. The businessman raised an eyebrow, then spoke. "Is it done?"

Ekim licked his lips. "There were... complications," he began. "But it wasn't my fault! Sailor Mercury... she was already awake and expecting trouble! It wasn't an ambush like it was supposed to be!"

Tanizaki's lip curled in contempt. "And of course, you couldn't handle a complication like that," he said. "So, did you run with your tail between your legs? Or did she actually manage to kill your puppet? That might be useful in its own way."

"Ranma is still alive, and under my control," Ekim said. He paused, gathering his courage, then continued. "But... during the confrontation... Sailor Mercury... was able to figure out that he was possessed. She realized that we were trying to trick her... and that everything Ranma had said about a third party was true."

A terrible silence followed that admission. Tanizaki's expression didn't visibly change, but something in his eyes shifted in a way that made Ekim's blood run cold. "What did you say?" the businessman demanded.

"The... the Sailor Senshi know that—"

Ekim didn't even see Tanizaki move, but he felt the vicious backhand that snapped his head sideways, lifting the sorcerer into the air and into the wall behind him, rebounding off it to crumple to the floor. "The Sailor Senshi know?" Tanizaki roared, dragging Ekim up again, only to slam him against the wall, pinning the other man there with a forearm across his throat. "Do you have any idea what a catastrophe your ineptitude has caused? Do you have any idea what the consequences of this might be to everything I've spent... spent a lifetime building?"

The sorcerer tried to choke out a plea about it not being his fault, but couldn't get enough air into his lungs. He had never seen Tanizaki lose his composure like this before. All he could do was croak unintelligibly, thanks to the arm crushing against his throat. Second after second went by, until at last Tanizaki managed to get his anger under control, though his eyes still burned with suppressed fury.

He released Ekim, who crumpled back to his hands and knees, gasping for air. At length, the sorcerer croaked out an attempt at placation. "It's... it's not hopeless. We still have Unit Zero."

Tanizaki grunted. "If Metzger can finish his adjustments in time. And you had best pray to your nameless master that he succeeds. Because of your failure, a being capable of ripping the very planet in half will soon be coming after us. The only question now is whether we will be ready to deal with her when she does."

Turning away from Ekim, Tanizaki walked over to the large pile of dossiers in the center of the room that he had provided for the sorcerer, dossiers on the Sailor Senshi, the martial artists and their associates. He began to search through them himself, then looked back over his shoulder. "You said you still had control of Ranma, correct?"

Ekim nodded rapidly, eager to atone for his disgrace. "What do you want me to do with him?"

"The best use left for Ranma now is to serve as a distraction, to buy us more time," replied Tanizaki. "If we establish him as the most immediate threat, then the Sailor Senshi will focus on stopping him before investigating the larger picture."

"Then should I attack another one of their families?"

"No. They'll be expecting that now, and I won't overestimate your abilities again. Not to mention that if they know Ranma is a pawn, there's little point left in trying to disguise our motives in doing this." Tanizaki continued to sift through the dossiers, until he saw one that seemed to catch his eye. He read it more carefully, then handed the file to Ekim. "Kill her instead."

The sorcerer glanced down at the file, reading the information on the target Tanizaki had selected. "Her? She doesn't seem very significant."

"She'll be significant enough to Sailor Moon. More importantly, she won't have any kind of protection whatsoever, so it should be impossible for even you to fail. Once Sailor Moon hears that you're murdering the people she cares about, she will focus on stopping Ranma as her first priority. Our more long-term operations will be safe from her, so long as you can keep your puppet out of her grasp."

With his orders delivered, Tanizaki turned to leave, prompting Ekim to speak up again. "Where are you going?"

"To check on Doctor Metzger's progress with Unit Zero," was Tanizaki's reply. "After all, we are now operating on borrowed time."



**********



Sailor Neptune frowned as the small group walked along the streetlamp-illuminated sidewalks toward where they had left Haruka's car. "You can't possibly expect us to believe that," she said, her voice flat. "You're claiming that your entire conflict with the Sailor Senshi was orchestrated by this one youma that you found? We know for a fact that you and Ranma were boasting about your plans for conquest with your own mouths!"

The Dark Lord's response was to wince. "I know!" he said. "I know, I know, it's just... let me get to that part of the story, all right? It'll all make sense by the time I do."

Privately, Sailor Neptune had a hard time imagining how that could be the case, but she held her peace. He'd earned the right to have his whole story heard out, at the very least. Sailor Uranus spoke up in her place. "Why would you even believe her anyway?" the blonde Senshi asked. "Hadn't you heard about all the attacks those monsters were making on innocent people?"

Ryouga shrugged. "Not really. I mean... sure, there are always some monsters or spirits or something else getting out of hand—keeping them under control is one of a martial artist's duties, after all—but we hadn't heard anything in particular about this 'Dark Kingdom' bunch. Remember, this was way back when even the Sailor Senshi weren't much more than urban legends, especially outside of the Minato Ward."

"I notice one other problem with your claim that she was manipulating you without your knowledge," remarked Sailor Pluto. "You are still protecting her, even though her supposed deception is now known to you."

That prompted a scowl from Ryouga. "Yeah, she made some mistakes," he snapped. "She was in a bad position, and she didn't have anyone she thought she could trust. She didn't understand that there was a better way. But she isn't like that anymore."

"You forgave her," spoke up Sailor Saturn earnestly, then turned to her fellow Outer Senshi. "That's something I know Sailor Moon would agree with."

Sailor Neptune raised an eyebrow, but otherwise did not comment. Her doubts still had more to do with how he and Ranma had ranted about crushing the Sailor Senshi and ruling the planet with an iron fist. Still, if nothing else she was curious how he intended to explain that away. "Very well. So you claim this youma lied to you about the Sailor Senshi after you defeated the youma sent to kill her. What happened after that?"

"Well, it was still just the two of us at that point," Ryouga said. "And we knew there would be more attacks coming, so we figured the best plan was to try to run. Except... well..." He scratched the back of his head nervously. "The truth is... I've... never really been the best with directions..."



**********



It was some time before Sailor Mercury—who had resumed her Sailor Senshi form in case of ambush—and her mother, along with Sailor Moon and Sailor Jupiter arrived back at the Tsukino residence. Sailor Mercury's injury, while not severe, had slowed them somewhat. As they came within sight of the two-story house, a black-clad figure dropped from the rooftop to meet them.

"Tuxedo Kamen!" called out Sailor Moon in a relieved voice. "Nothing's happened, has it?"

The masked man shook his head. "There's been no sign of Ranma, or any other danger," he said. "Sailor Venus and her family got here not long ago, and Sailor Mars should be here soon as well with her grandfather and Yuichiro."

Sailor Mercury felt relief at the words, though the relief was mingled with no small degree of anxiety as well. This was an unprecedented thing they were doing, revealing their secret to their loved ones. But then, this was an unprecedented danger facing them, now that it was clear that those loved ones had been targeted twice today already.

Perhaps sensing her trepidation, her mother squeezed Sailor Mercury's hand in a gesture of support. In fact, the woman had hardly let go of her daughter's hand all the way there.

"So... I guess you had to wake up my parents, right?" asked Sailor Moon, clearly not relishing the answer she knew was coming.

"Yes, and Luna explained to them the basics of what is going on," Tuxedo Kamen said. "They took the news... about as well as could be expected."

Sailor Moon gulped. "Maybe I should just stay out here for a while," she suggested. "You know... so I can be here to help fight any monsters or enemies that try to—"

Her excuse was interrupted by the sound of a door slamming open, the approach of the small party having been noticed from inside the house. In the doorway stood Tsukino Ikuko, filled with all the resplendent wrath of a mother who has learned that her daughter has snuck out at night. And then learned that she had been doing so for years. And then learned that she had been sneaking out to fight superhuman menaces trying to kill her. And then had been forced to wait anxiously until her daughter had returned from her latest life-and-death struggle.

The result was spectacular, to say the least. "Uuuuusaaaaagiiiii!"

"Eeep!" Sailor Moon—one of the most powerful beings in the entire cosmos, a being who had faced down ancient demon goddesses and planet-killing edritch abominations, a being whose incalculable magical power could reshape the very fabric of reality itself—went pale as a sheet and darted over to hide behind Tuxedo Kamen, peeking out from around his larger frame at the terrifying sight of her furious mother. "Ummm... hi mom..." she ventured at last, in a small voice. "I... um... I can explain this..."

Mrs. Tsukino stalked over to where Sailor Moon stood, shoving Tuxedo Kamen out of the way in the process. And while it was usually in his job description to serve as her human shield, there were some things even he could not defend against. At that point it was just mother and daughter facing each other.

Over the years she'd been friends with Usagi, Sailor Mercury had overheard Mrs. Tsukino dress her daughter down on many different occasions, for many different reasons. Failed tests, slacking on chores, squabbles with her brother, the list went on and on. This dressing down, however, was on an entirely different level. Sailor Moon couldn't get a word in edgewise; every time she tried to respond to any of the clearly-rhetorical questions ("What were you thinking?" "How could you not tell us what was going on?") she would be cut off before she had finished the first syllable as her mother continued to vent all the worry that had swelled up inside her.

Mrs. Tsukino's reading of the riot act to her chastened daughter only grew louder and more frantic... until, without warning, the woman's composure broke. Her arms shot out, and she clutched her daugther to herself in a tight embrace, rocking back and forth. Sailor Mercury saw that she was crying, tears streaming down her face, a state in which Sailor Moon soon joined her.



**********



Ekim used Ranma's stolen body to leap from rooftop to rooftop at a more relaxed pace now than before. He had allowed this body to rest for a while and regain its strength, but it was not long before he felt recovered. Now he was fast approaching the location from the dossier that Tanizaki had shown him. A small jewelry store in the downtown Juuban area.

The storefront proclaimed the store to be "Jewlery Osa-P", but Ekim was more interested in the apartments directly above it. One of which belonged to the store's proprietress... and her daughter, one Osaka Naru.

A smile crossed Ekim's face at the thought of what he was about to inflict on the unsuspecting family within. His failure against Sailor Mercury had been humiliating beyond words, but at least he could take his anger out on this girl and her mother. Unlike the Senshi, they would have no way of resisting him. He skulked along the roof, until at last he saw the window that looked into his target's room. She lay there in her bed, a high school girl with short, curly brown hair, sleeping peacefully.

He took a few steps back, broke into a run, and launched himself through the air toward the window. Glass shattered into spinning shards as he crashed through, and the girl in the bed awoke to the sight of an intruder standing over her with a menacing smile. She screamed, attempting to scramble away from him, her sheets tangling about her in her panic. Ekim laughed at the futile gesture, stalking behind her as she tumbled off the bed and crawled for the door. He let her almost reach it before grabbing her from behind by the collar of her pajamas, using Ranma's strength to drag her effortlessly back away from it as she kicked and screamed.

He dragged her up off the floor, using one hand to hold her against the nearest wall. She was sobbing, her breathing ragged, her eyes filled with uncomprehending terror at the sudden attack. It was beautiful, but all too fleeting. Already he could hear running footsteps outside; he would need to finish this girl so he could give her mother his full attention. Ekim raised his other fist for the deathblow, ignoring his victim's incoherent pleas to stop. Then he swung, and with a loud crunch drove his fist with all the force he could muster into the wall a half-inch to the right of the girl's head.

Ekim blinked. What the...? he thought. What just happened? How did I miss like that? The girl looked just as stunned as he did, her eyes tracking over to his extended arm. Snarling, Ekim drew his arm back for another try, swinging at her again.

This time, the punch landed a half-inch to the left of the girl's face. Nearly apoplectic now with thwarted fury, and refusing to be beaten, the sorcerer pulled his fist back and made a third attempt. But this time his fist simply stopped in midair, just before reaching its target. Ekim stared at the trembling limb, willing it with all his strength to finish the strike. Instead, slowly, inch by inch, the rebellious limb pulled away from the girl as Ekim watched incredulously. Then, crystal clear in his thoughts, the sorcerer heard an angry voice that was not his own.

Just what the hell do you think you're trying to do with my body, you son of a bitch?

And with that, the fist he'd been trying to kill Osaka Naru with punched him in the face.

The awkward arm angle meant there wasn't much power behind the strike, but it was impeccably targeted, hitting him right in the eye. Ekim stumbled back, releasing his grip on the girl as he cried out in pain. Nor did the traitorous arm let up, continuing to batter him viciously. He threw up his other hand to try and shield against the strikes, but they kept coming eventually causing him to lose his balance and topple backward onto his rear in an ungainly heap.

This is impossible! thought Ekim, as he twisted left and right to try and weather the self-inflicted barrage. Somehow, Ranma's consciousness had resurfaced, and was fighting for control of his body! That brush with Sailor Moon's purification magic! That must have been when he gained his foothold!

Off to one side the door to the room swung open, revealing Naru's mother standing there. Ekim reached out with the hand he still controlled, grabbed a nearby lamp that had been knocked to the floor by his struggles and hurled it toward the woman at supersonic speeds. But his other hand slammed into his wrist just before he released the projectile, causing it to go off course and smash harmlessly against the wall instead.

"Get out of here!" Ekim heard his stolen body shout, unbidden. "Get out of here, and find Tsukino Usaaaaghkk!" With a focused effort he choked off the words, preventing Ranma from completing the message, but that lapse in concentration allowed Ranma to land several more punches without interference. With a growl, Ekim managed to grab the attacking arm at the wrist, and for a moment they strained against each other.

Then, without warning, Ranma reversed the direction of his straining, pulling away from Ekim's face and instead driving his elbow into their gut. Ekim doubled over, gasping, the wind knocked out of him. Ranma followed that by driving the heel of his palm up into their chin, snapping their head backward, and then slamming his hand sideways into their temple, making their vision spin even more than it already was.

In their disorientation, the girl was able to run past them and reach her mother, the two of them fleeing out of sight. Snarling, Ekim tried to climb to his feet and give chase, but Ranma used his hand to latch onto Ekim's opposite ankle, keeping them doubled over. The sorcerer tried to hobble forward, but Ranma kept yanking and shoving on the leg erratically, which soon sent them tumbling to the floor again.

I'll never catch them like this! Ekim realized. Worse, there might soon be Sailor Senshi coming. Ekim didn't know if Ranma had actually deduced that the girl had been targeted because she knew Tsukino Usagi, or whether what he had said had just been a desperate shot in the dark. But either way, if Osaka Naru did heed his urging then there was no time to waste. His only chance was to repair the degradation of his spell.

He pulled his consciousness back from Ranma's body, back to his chambers in Tanizaki's skyscraper, and pressed the blade of his ritual knife against his palm, holding it above the already-bloody altar. It was extremely dangerous, mixing his own blood with that of an existing ritual, but he had no choice. There was no time to prepare another sacrifice. Besides, he was confident that he would succeed.

The blade sliced across his palm and the blood dripped down onto the altar as he began to chant, invoking his dark patron once more...



**********



Ranma could feel it when the invading presence left his head. As it did, his body stopped trying to chase after that girl and her mom, whoever they were. The magical whammy on his mind wasn't gone, though, even if no one was giving him orders through it. He still had incredible difficulty getting his body to listen to what he wanted it to do, and was forced to focus on one limb at a time if he wanted to wrest something like natural control of it.

His mind raced, trying to think of his next step. This wasn't over yet, of that much he was sure. He could try to escape somewhere, find some help, but how far could he get in this condition? He had only a vague idea of where he was in the first place.

The first flickers of consciousness had returned with a blast of light and a vague recollection of seeing the Sailor Senshi. He'd been fighting his way back ever since then, and had made his final, all-out push when he'd seen himself about to kill that girl. But now what?

He needed help. Dragging himself across the floor, he managed to reach the next room, and eventually found what he was looking for: a telephone. It was wall-mounted, which meant an arduous process of pulling himself up with his limited functionality, but he went at it with dogged determination. Soon he had himself propped against the wall, his finger shakily dialing the familiar number with the receiver tucked between his shoulder and the side of his head.

The phone rang. And rang. And rang. Come on... he pleaded, not sure how much time he had. Come on, hear it, please!

Then, in answer to his prayers, he heard the sleepy voice of his fiancee on the other end of the connection. "...hello? Who is this?"

"Akane!" he rasped out. "Akane, I'm in trouble."

"Ranma?" All sleep vanished from her voice in an instant, replaced by fear and worry. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"I got hit by something while I was sleeping," he said. Was it his imagination, or was it getting harder to focus on what he needed to do? "Some kind of magic spell or curse or... something. It's Tanizaki. It's gotta be. He made me try to attack one of the Senshi. And then someone else I didn't recognize."

"Where are you?"

"Don't know." Ranma turned his head as much as he dared without overbalancing his already-precarious position. "I can see stores outside the window, but I don't recognize any of them... Somewhere in downtown Juuban, maybe? I... I think maybe they went after this girl 'cause she was close to one of the Sailor Senshi."

"We'll find you as fast as we can!" Akane promised. "There has to be some way to help you, Ranma, just... just hang in there."

The edges of his vision were definitely darkening, he was sure of it now. "Akane..." he choked out, knowing that above all else he had to say this much. "Akane, if you see me again... no matter what I say to you, unless you've actually seen Sailor Moon do her healing thing on me, or something else like that... don't trust anything I say to you, all right? Promise me. Promise me that—"

But even as he spoke, a wave of violent nausea swept over him, causing him to double over and pitch forward. "Ranma? Ran—" was the last he heard of Akane's frantic voice, before his falling hand inadvertently snagged the phone's cord and ripped it free, severing the connection. He lay in a crumpled heap on the ground, convulsing.

No! The bastard is fixing his spell! Ranma fought back with all his willpower, but he could tell that he was only delaying the inevitable. Worse, he knew that not enough time had passed for the girl and her mother to get far enough away. With his speed, he would be very likely to run them down as they fled. If he didn't do something, they were going to die.

If he didn't do something, he was going to kill them.



**********



With a smug chuckle, Ekim put the final touches on his sorcery, bringing his spell back up to full potency. The young martial artist had put up more of a fight than he'd expected, but the outcome had never been in doubt. Now it would be just a matter of hunting down his prey again, and resuming what had been so rudely interrupted.

He clasped his hands on the ceremonial knife once more, sending his consciousness back into Ranma's body. What a pointless distraction, he thought disdainfully. As if some upstart fist-fighter could actually thwart the power of my mysticaaaAAARRRGGGHHH!

When his consciousness did arrive, it was to horrible, wracking pain, the likes of which he had seldom experienced. His mouth hung open, as he stared down wide-eyed at the sight before him. Ranma's left knee had been snapped at a nearly ninety-degree angle, in a direction it had never been designed to go. He... he broke his own leg! Ekim thought, incredulous. He broke his own damned leg!

Nor was that the only thing Ranma had left behind for him. His head had been turned to look at the nearby wall, at the eloquent message Ranma had etched into it with his finger. Namely, the crude drawing of a hand, with the middle finger extended.

For several seconds Ekim simply sat there, aghast at how simply his plans had been ruined. He could never catch up to his targets like this. He couldn't even escape to try anything else with this body. Sooner or later Sailor Moon would find him, and end his possession with all the pitiful ease of putting down a half-dead dog. Tanizaki had given him this second mission after his first failure, telling him it was easy enough to be impossible for even him to fail... but now he was about to fail even that!

The sorcerer ground his teeth. No! he raged to himself, as a desperate, half-crazed plan began to form in his mind. No, no no! I won't let it end so easily! I won't allow myself to be humiliated again! My magic can still allow me to triumph... I just need to buy myself enough time for a ritual!

Direct healing spells had never been his forte, being completely antithetical to the nature of his patron. But he knew something even better. There were manipulations, corruptions of being that could be infused into a body, eldritch forms that could provide increased combat power and even a form of regeneration. That would serve his purpose nicely. At the same time, there were also... certain forms of support... he could call on, to ensure that he was not interrupted before the transformation was ready.

The risk would be immense. His sorcery was difficult and dangerous enough normally, and trying to use it in an unfamiliar body would be even more so. Still, he knew those particular spells well enough that he felt confident he could succeed. He would not go back to Tanizaki with yet another failure. He would not!

Pushing back the pain, Ekim bit down on Ranma's thumb, drawing blood. He then used the blood to begin marking the sigils for the first spell on the nearby wall, working as fast as he could. As he wrote, he began to chant, a repetition that would underly the framework for the spell he was about to use.

"By the power of the Nameless One, as an agent of its purpose, I call upon its spawn to aid me in my hour of need. May my summons bridge the void between the planes, and may my invitation usher in a harvest of death upon this terrestrial sphere. By the will of my master I adjure you. Come forth! Come forth! Come forth!"



**********



As Kazuo stalked into Metzger's office, he saw that the elderly scientist was sleeping sprawled across his desk, the pages from several reports spread out in front of him. Kazuo wasted no time in giving him a firm shake, causing the old man to awaken spluttering out a burst of disoriented, irate German. When he woke up fully, however, and saw who it was that had roused him, his tone became instantly respectful. "Sir! Is there something you need?"

"Your status," Kazuo snapped. "What is the progress on Unit Zero?"

Metzger licked his lips. "The... damage incurred from the warehouse test is mostly gone. That mystic of yours claims that he's fixed all the problems with the 'magical bindings', and my team has imprinted stronger conditioning protocols, which should remove some of the... instability we saw last time. We're still running simulations using artificially induced stimulus, but compared to the real thing—"

"Would another live test help?" interrupted Kazuo.

"I... ah, yes, yes it would," the scientist replied. "But... won't that alert the Sailor Senshi? We wouldn't be able to blame it on those martial artists this time."

"The Sailor Senshi already know," was Kazuo's grim response. "Subtlety will do more harm than good now. Take whatever steps will result in Unit Zero reaching full stability as fast as humanly possible."

Doctor Metzger paled, but then nodded. "Yes sir," he said, rising to his feet. "I'll have my people prepare for another test run immediately."



**********



Her chest heaving with exertion, her breath coming in gasps, Naru ran blindly through the darkened city streets alongside her mother. She hadn't taken time to grab any shoes in her terrified flight, and the hard concrete hurt her bare feet with each step, but desperation let her push past the pain. Their panicked instinct was to put as much distance between themselves and their terrifying attacker.

Nevertheless, eventually Naru slowed to a stop, as clearer thoughts began to gain control. "Wait!" she called out to her mother, panting, her hands resting on her knees. "We... we need to get help. That man was dangerous. What if... what if he attacks someone else? Someone needs to stop him!"

Her mother considered this, then nodded. "We can call the police," she said. "They can deal with him."

Naru hesitated. She wasn't so sure. She had been in danger quite a few times before from freakish, superhuman assailants, and this had felt more like that than any normal burglar. And the police had never been of any help against that kind of foe; it had only ever been the Sailor Senshi who had saved her and everyone else.

"Get out of here, and find Tsukino Usaaaaghkk!" There was no doubt in Naru's mind what he had been trying to tell her. Find Tsukino Usagi. Nor was there much doubt in Naru's mind as to why, either. She had no proof, of course. Nothing beyond the way Sailor Moon always seemed to show up when Usagi was around, or the gradual changes she'd seen in the girl who had been her best friend since childhood.

She'd only tried to confront Usagi about it once, in the conversation the two of them had shared three years ago, in the shadow of the huge black crystal that had briefly appeared in the middle of the city. She'd tried to get Usagi to tell her what was going on, even though some part of her had known from the start that her friend wouldn't be able to. In the end, Naru had promised not to ask again. She had realized, in that moment, just how far apart Usagi's life had grown from her own, just how small she was in relation to the world her friend had been swept up in.

And now she was the one who needed Sailor Moon's help. Again.

"I..." she began, unsure of what to say that her mother might accept. "I don't think the police can handle this. We need... someone else."

"What are you talking about?" her mother demanded. "Who else could we go to?"

"I... can't say." Naru began backing away. "Just... find someplace to hide, and I'll try to get help as soon as I can!" With that, she turned and sprinted off at a ninety-degree angle from the direction she'd been running in, her mother's shouts behind her.

She didn't have any money on her for a pay phone, nothing beyond the pajamas she was wearing, but Usagi's house was close enough that she could make it there on foot, given enough time. She could only pray that she could make it there before that crazed man caught up with her again...



**********



Sailor Pluto stared at Ryouga struggling to hold onto her serene, inscrutable expression. "...that was your plan?" she asked, and despite her best efforts some flummoxed incredulity leaked out into her tone. "Pretend to be Dark Lords from another dimension to trick the Sailor Senshi into trying to kill you, so you could use them to fake your deaths?"

"That's right," Ryouga said, oblivious to her disbelief. He seemed slightly distracted by the fact that he was riding in Sailor Uranus's car. Sailor Pluto got the impression that automobiles weren't a normal mode of transportation for him, from the curious way he was glancing around the interior, like it was a minor novelty.

He also seemed oblivious to the acute embarrassment of the young girl squeezed tightly against him. Packing six people into the car had not been an easy fit, and while ushering them in, Sailor Uranus had contrived to seat Ryouga on the far left, with Sailor Saturn next to him, giving the younger Senshi a wink in the process. At Sailor Pluto's stern glare, Sailor Uranus had offered a completely insincere excuse about her being the best one to keep an eye on him, though it was obvious that the true reason was the opportunity to see Sailor Saturn so uncharacteristically flustered.

Ryouga, for his part, was being as much of a gentleman about it as space allowed, trying to make her as comfortable as possible. Sailor Uranus was driving, with Sailor Neptune in the passenger seat beside her, which left Professor Tomoe and Sailor Pluto as the other two squeezed into the back—the professor on the other side of his daughter, and Sailor Pluto on the far right.

Sailor Pluto craned her head around, trying to read the young man as he continued to talk. "We thought about telling the Senshi beforehand what we were doing, but we weren't quite sure how they'd feel about letting Beneda live. And we figured if they really thought we were Dark Lords, then it'd look more realistic when they attacked us."

"More realistic," echoed the Senshi of Time flatly. She wanted to dismiss his entire explanation as lies—or a bad joke—but the more she listened to him, the more the sickening suspicion grew inside her that it was all true. It fit too many small details, explained too many missing pieces that hadn't quite made sense about the original story. Not to mention that it was too utterly absurd for her to imagine any sane person coming up with it when trying to think of a convincing lie, let alone repeating it with a straight face. "That is, perhaps, the single most ridiculous plan I have ever heard of."

"Hey!" protested Ryouga defensively. "It wasn't that bad of an idea! We've used way stupider plans than that before!"

Sheer, morbid curiosity urged Sailor Pluto to inquire further along that line, but she squashed the impulse and stayed on topic. "So—according to this claim of yours—when your hostage told Sailor Moon and her friends about the artifact you were protecting..."

"We wanted that to happen," Ryouga confirmed. "That 'hostage' we were 'threatening'? That was Nabiki—hell, she's practically Ranma's sister-in-law at this point. If we go back to the Tendo Dojo I can even introduce you to her. And that bowl? It was just some piece of random magical junk we found to play the part."

He leaned back in his seat. "Anyway, you can probably guess how it went from there. When Sailor Moon broke the bowl, we used a smoke bomb to make it look like Ranma exploded. And then Cologne gave Beneda a Jusenkyo curse like Ranma and I have, so she could live as a human, without the Dark Kingdom or the Sailor Senshi knowing she was still alive."

Sailor Saturn spoke up. "If your youma friend wasn't hurting people anymore, then I'm sure the other Senshi would have been all right with letting her be," she assured Ryouga, earnestly defending Usagi and the others. "If you'd explained it to them afterward, I know they would have understood."

Ryouga shrugged. "Maybe you're right. But it wasn't a chance we felt like taking. If we'd let them know we were alive, and it turned out they weren't willing to listen, it would have all been for nothing. Things were fine the way they were, so we decided to just play it safe."

Sailor Pluto just regarded him silently for a moment. It all fit so far. That was the damnable thing of it. It all fit. True, the plan he described was reckless and melodramatic to an insane extent, but the more she actually interacted with these warriors, the more natural something that insane sounded coming from them. It was a lot to swallow... but she was getting to the point were at least that much was starting to seem plausible.

For his part, Ryouga thought for a few more moments, then spoke up again. "Oh, and remember, there was still the Dark Kingdom to worry about. Even if we eventually managed to persuade the Senshi, if we got into a big fight beforehand and one of those Generals caught wind of it, they would have realized we were alive too. We wouldn't have been able to get our own army together secretly and take out theirs."

This time, Sailor Pluto abandoned any attempt to keep the incredulity out of her expression. "...wait, what?"



**********



Multiple overlapping conversations filled the Tsukino home, as the multiple different families packed into the small space tried to come to grips with what they had each learned about their daughters. Sailor Moon looked across the crowded living room, struck by how each one handled the sudden revelation.

Rei's bald, diminutive grandfather didn't look thrown by the news in the slightest, still being his usual smiling, slightly-perverted self as he chatted with Sailor Venus. It was enough to make Sailor Moon wonder how much he had actually known, or suspected. Yuichiro, of course, was staring solely at Rei, or rather, Sailor Mars.

The Senshi of Fire, for her part, was talking with Luna and Sailor Moon's mother, who had calmed down—somewhat—from her earlier worried anger. Sailor Moon couldn't quite overhear what they were talking about, and was torn between desire to know and worry about just what the three people in the world most devoted to getting on her case might be discussing between them. Chibi-Usa was a bit closer, watching intently but not participating in the conversation.

Sailor Moon's father was still looking dazed, as though none of it had quite sunken in yet. He and Minako's parents were pressing Tuxedo Kamen about what was going on, but the conversation seemed to be going largely in circles, with her masked protector doing his best to assure them that everything was under control. Shingo was sitting silently off in the corner, his bulging eyes going back and forth between Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury. That last part was a tiny bit of smug satisfaction for her amidst all the emotional turmoil; now her little brother knew that the sister he had fought and squabbled with so often was actually one of his heroes.

Sailor Jupiter was standing at one of the windows, keeping watch, when suddenly she straightened up, her eyes going wide. "Sailor Moon!" she called out. "Everyone! Come look at this!"

The Sailor Senshi raced over to the window, and Sailor Moon let out a gasp at what she saw. Naru was stumbling headlong down the street, clad in nothing but her pajamas, obviously spent from running, her bare feet leaving bloody marks on the concrete behind her. Immediately Sailor Moon undid her transformation, turning back into Tsukino Usagi and ran outside, bursting through the door and hurrying to Naru's side. "Naru! Naru! What happened?"

The exhausted girl fairly collapsed forward into Usagi's arms. "There was... someone at our apartment..." she managed to say as she clung to her friend. "He broke through my window... attacked me and my mom."

There was no doubt in Usagi's mind who it had been, and she felt sick to her stomach at the realization that now even her friends were being targeted too. "How did you get away?" she asked, guiding Naru toward the safety of the house while trying to bear as much of her weight as she could.

"It was... the strangest thing..." Naru murmrred. "He was about to kill me, but... he didn't do it. His punches just kept... missing. And then he started punching himself, tripping himself, and he yelled for me to tell you what had happened. Does that make any sense to you?"

It did, and Usagi's heart leapt with hope despite the desperate situation. Soon they reached the door, and she guided her friend inside. The other Sailor Senshi—who had all taken the chance to transform back into their civilian identities—clustered around the two of them with concern. "What happened?" Makoto asked.

"Whoever is possessing Ranma attacked her," was Usagi's blunt response. "But Ranma's fighting back against it! He saved Naru's life, and he managed to tell her to find us!"

The rest of the incognito Senshi exchanged nervous glances at Usagi's forthrightness. Despite how badly their secret identities had been unraveling under the attacks of this new enemy, it still went against all their instincts to be so open in front of someone who might not realize it yet. But that would only delay their response, and in truth Usagi found that she was sick of all the lies. "You'll be safe here," she assured Naru, as she took her brooch in hand. "We'll take care of the person who attacked you."

After a slight hesitation, the other Senshi also took out their transformation pens. "He probably won't still be there," Ami warned. "He's fast, and by now he's had a long time to escape."

"But Naru said that he was also punching himself and tripping himself and stuff!" countered Usagi. "If he's getting control of his body back then he might not have gotten far at all! We have to try and help him get free!" With that, she raised her brooch and spoke in a firm voice. "Moon Eternal Make Up!"

She felt the transformation magic take hold of her, felt her costume appear and her wings form behind her. When it finished, she saw that the other Senshi had followed suit, as had Mamoru. She turned sheepishly to Naru, who offered back a weary smile. "I knew it."

Sailor Moon chuckled weakly and scratched the back of her head, then turned to Sailor Chibi-moon, who looked eager to head out with the rest of them. "Can you stay here and keep a lookout? Just in case someone attacks while we're gone?"

Sailor Chibi-moon's face fell in disappointement, but eventually she nodded. Artemis spoke up next. "I'll stay here as well. If we see any threats, we'll contact you on your communicators and do what we can to hold them off until you return. You just deal with Ranma."

"That's good." Sailor Moon looked across all the faces of friends and family as they clustered around, many of them having just seen them transform for the first time. "We'll be right back," she said. "Don't worry!"

With that, she stepped back outside, and with a single leap shot up to the roof of her house. From there she bounded from one rooftop to the next, the other Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen doing the same around her. The houses flew by as they raced toward their destination. Sailor Moon pushed herself to go faster, hoping that they would make it there in time to stop any further harm. She ran to the edge of the current rooftop, crouching in preparation for her next jump—

—but right before she could make the leap, she felt a sudden, familiar agony seize hold of her. She screamed as she tumbled forward, her body wracked with pain, her soul wracked with a terrible emptiness. Just like before, at the warehouse. Something was attacking her with ferocious desperation, attacking as though it meant to devour everything that she was.

Her transformation faltered as her momentum carried her forward off the edge of the rooftop, and the limp body of Tsukino Usagi tumbled toward the street below.



**********



Tanizaki Kazuo stood, hands clasped behind his back, looking out across a room packed with consoles, dials, readouts, glowing screens and control mechanisms manned by countless scurrying technicians. All of it to monitor and regulate the most ambitious undertaking he had yet attempted.

He then glanced to the side, looking over to where Doctor Metzger stood next to him. "I trust that the test is progressing better than last time?"

The eldery German nodded, looking from one monitor to another in nervous awe. "Yes... Yes! It's stable! Completely stable! The strain on Unit Zero is well within the expected tolerance levels. We've done it! We've actually done it!"

Kazuo allowed himself a thin smile. "Excellent. Then there is nothing stopping us from moving into the final phase of the plan."

Metzger nodded, though his eyes did not leave the monitors. "The rate of direct siphon isn't nearly as high as last time, of course. The connection is stable, unlike the warehouse test... but precisely because the pull isn't so out-of-control, it seems to be giving Sailor Moon a greater opportunity to resist it."

"Not unexpected," Kazuo agreed. "We knew that full transference would be impossible at this range. The ultimate confrontation between Sailor Moon and Unit Zero will be a direct one. That necessity was incorporated into our plans from the very beginning."

Then the businessman exhaled, no small amount of relief in his smile. "Either way, the most important thing is that we no longer need to fear exposure as we did before. We can counter their trump card now."



**********



Sailor Mars was already in the air, halfway between buildings when she heard the scream. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sailor Moon go tumbling off the edge of the roof, transforming back into Usagi on the way down. Her heart lurched in horror as she fought to change her course, to do something to help, but the laws of physics carried her relentlessly on her trajectory, unaltered by her desperation.

Fortunately, Sailor Venus had been running toward the rear of their loose formation, and was just barely in position to react. "Venus Love-Me Chain!" she cried out, as the golden, heart-shaped links shot from her palm at an angle to latch around Usagi's waist. Their stricken princess's uncontrolled plummet turned into a pendulum-like swing, as Sailor Venus dug in her heels to support the weight.

The instant Sailor Mars' feet landed she was jumping back down to the ground, running along with the others to gather underneath Usagi. As the swinging subsided, Sailor Venus lowered Usagi by letting out more chain, down into the waiting arms of Tuxedo Kamen.

To Sailor Mars' surprise and relief Usagi was still hanging onto consciousness, unlike the last time she'd been attacked like this. Somehow, it didn't seem to be affecting her quite so badly this time. But it was still bad enough. Sailor Mercury pulled out her computer, scanning Usagi while furiously typing on the keypad. "It's just like last time," she said. "Something is directly attacking the Ginzuisho, somehow, draining her power. We need to get her back to the house."

"No!" Usagi croaked out. "I'm... fine. We need to get to Naru's!"

"You're not in any condition to fight!" exclaimed Sailor Mars. "Let alone against someone like Ranma!"

"But you're going to need purification magic to get rid of whatever they've done to him," protested Usagi. With great effort she rolled over to her hands and knees, then pushed herself slowly to her feet. She was trembling, her breath ragged, her hand clutched over her chest in obvious pain. But still she stood. "I'm okay," she insisted again. "It's... not as bad this time, for some reason. I can fight back... sort of."

She took out her brooch once more, closing her eyes in tight concentration. "Moon Eternal Make Up!" she called out. The transformation was unsteady this time, faltering, but eventually she stood before them as Sailor Moon once more.

The other Sailor Senshi exchanged glances, silently debating what to do. Then Tuxedo Kamen stepped forward, turning to sling Sailor Moon onto his back. "Save your strength," he urged her. "Be ready to free Ranma, but leave everything else to us."

Sailor Jupiter nodded. "We'll set up whatever opening you need."

"Thanks everyone," said Sailor Moon, smiling at them with her chin resting on Tuxedo Kamen's shoulder. "Let's go. Naru's apartment isn't much farther."



**********



Officer Koyanagi made his way up the apartment building stairs, followed closely by his younger partner, Officer Ando. He didn't like the looks of what they were walking into. Their dispatcher had told them that a hysterical woman had called in a report of a crazed man who had broken into her daughter's room through the window and attacked her. Koyanagi would have been half-tempted to suspect a crank call, but on arriving they had seen the broken window... on a floor far too high for any normal human to reach unassisted.

"Damn it," Koyanagi muttered, running a hand through his greying hair. Just a few minutes after they'd arrived, and already this had all the markings of one of those "Juuban Incidents" that everyone at the station kept talking about. He'd never been caught up in one himself, but he'd heard the stories about the freakish creatures and strange attacks for which the area was known. But there was nothing for it; they would have to investigate, and see what they could do.

He drew his service revolver as he went. It wasn't usual procedure to pull it out so readily, but he was pretty sure this was not a usual situation. Ando had drawn his before even entering the building. Kid was jumpy, but given what they might be up against, Koyanagi had to admit it was probably justified.

Soon, the two of them reached the floor of the break-in and walked over to the door of the apartment in question. They took a position on either side of the door, exchanged a quick glance, and then Koyanagi called out. "This is the Tokyo Police! Whoever is in there, come out with your hands raised!"

No answer. After a few seconds went by, Ando reached down and tried the doorknob. It turned, and with a push the door swung slowly open, spilling a corridor of light from the hallway into the darkened room on the other side.

The entire room was packed solid with hulking forms, no two exactly alike. Some were on all fours like dogs, some had countless scuttling limbs, some stood on two legs like grotesque parodies of humanity. Their viscous skin was covered in cancerous-looking growths of all different sizes, and any appendages were misshapen and asymmetrical, whether arms or legs or tentacles or any combination thereof.

Koyanagi's breath caught in his throat. Ando, for his part, let out a hoarse scream, firing his revolver wildly into the room in an utter panic. The only effect of the gunshots was that, as one, all the enormous things turned toward them, focusing on them as a palpable feeling of raw hunger permeated the air.

The older policeman swore, and threw himself in a flying tackle, knocking Ando away from the door and rolling over each other down the hallway. The next moment, several of the nightmare creatures burst into the hallway, one coming through the doorway, the rest smashing through the nearby wall like it was made from matchsticks. The two officers tried to scramble away as fast as they could, but Koyanagi felt a tentacle latch around his ankle, dragging him back toward the monsters. His hands clutched and grabbed at the carpeted floor, but he was unable to even slow himself.

He rolled over and saw the thing that had caught him: a bulky, hunched-over creature of vaguely humanoid shape, with one arm that ended in a crustacean claw, and a mass of tentacles sprouting from the other shoulder. As it dragged him nearer, its entire upper body opened wide, fleshy flaps splitting apart to form an enormous maw lined with row upon row of curved fangs ready to rip him apart. The thing let out an earsplitting howl, splattering Koyanagi with its saliva, and then leaned down to devour its prey.

"Mars Flame Sniper!"

Before the creature could eat him, a bolt of flame shot above the prone policeman, so white-hot that he let out an involuntary cry even though it was well above him. The bolt went right down the creature's gullet, drilling into it and then exploding in a paroxysm of flame that splattered sizzling ichor over everything nearby, including Koyanagi.

The grip on his ankle had released, though, and he wasted no time in pulling himself to his feet and fleeing for all he was worth. As he turned, he saw a girl that could only have been one of the Sailor Senshi. She was clad in a red sailor seifuku, her long black hair streaming down behind her. In her hands she held a bow made entirely of flame, which she continued to shoot as she advanced down the hallway toward him, covering his escape.

Arrow after arrow lanced out at the creatures, even as the monsters adjusted to this new threat. Several fell, their bodies torn apart by the fiery blasts, but more bounded toward her, some along the floor, some along the walls, one along the ceiling. The Senshi caught one with a shot that blew out one of its left knees, sending it tumbling into its companions and slowing them all down, then hit the one on the ceiling dead-on, dropping its burning carcass on another one. But there were too many of them, and Koyanagi could tell they would overwhelm her in seconds.

By then he had reached the far end of the hallway. As he rounded the corner, he saw two more Sailor Senshi standing there. One of them, dressed in blue, was studying a computer smaller than any he'd ever seen before, while the one in orange was standing right at the corner's edge, her brow furrowed in concentration, gathering blinding yellow light at the tips of her fingers. There was also a cat there, for some reason.

As soon as Koyanagi was out of the line of fire, the red-clad Senshi who had saved him leapt back as well. At the same time, moving with perfect coordination, the girl who had been charging her attack spun around the corner and thrust her fingers out with a cry of "Crescent Beam Shower!"

The first girl's attacks had been precise, targeted strikes. This was the opposite. Countless golden rays arced out from that single point at her fingertips, filling the hallway entirely with rapid-fire magical destruction. The hail of super-charged golden energy tore the oncoming monsters to shreds, their unearthly death screams echoing in Koyanagi's ears.

But there was no time to celebrate. Even as the handful in the hallway fell, more crashed through the walls to charge at them, with others behind them following. To Koyanagi, it seemed as though the floodgates of hell had opened, unleashing the full force of these misshapen monstrosities on the world.



**********



Ekim looked up from the ritual he was performing with Ranma's body. From the other room he could hear that intruders—most likely the Sailor Senshi—had disturbed the creatures he had summoned, triggering their destructive instincts. Now the air was filled with the sounds of a pitched battle raging. He smiled. He had been right to prepare that line of defense, costly though it had been.

He looked to his left, to the final result of that spell. A glowing portal that dominated the wall next to him, through which an unceasing stream of monsters was swarming. In opening it, he had spent reserves of power that it had taken him years to accumulate, yet he had no regrets. There was no price too high if it meant the chance to avoid further shame, if it meant the chance to show these foolish little girls who they were really dealing with.

Even now, he could feel the results of the other spell he had cast worming their way through Ranma's body, corrupting it, changing it into something more than merely human. He could feel the broken knee shifting, repairing itself by drawing on the power of this combat form, and he knew that it would not be long before he could resume his mission. Should he still try to contrive a way to kill his original target? Or perhaps he could just target someone else from that stack of dossiers?

One way or another, he would not face Tanizaki empty-handed again.

Soon, he thought, as the sounds of battle raged outside, as his magic remade Ranma's body to suit his purposes. Soon I'll have everything I need to crush them.



**********



Sailor Jupiter looked down from her perch on a nearby rooftop, overlooking the jewelry store and the apartments above it. Sailor Mars, Sailor Venus, Sailor Mercury and Luna had gone in to investigate, while Sailor Jupiter, Tuxedo Kamen and the weakened Sailor Moon lay in wait outside. They had no intention of letting whoever had possessed the Dark Lord escape again. If Ranma was still in there, the first group would either secure him for Sailor Moon to come in and deal with safely, or flush him out for Sailor Moon to heal as he exited.

Then Sailor Jupiter's eyes went wide, as hideous creatures began to pour out the windows of Naru's apartment, swarming down the sides of the building like an inky wave. They had flushed something out, but it was not at all what they had been expecting. Whatever those things were, the Senshi's arrival had clearly stirred up a hornet's nest, and now they were rampaging free, letting out bestial roars of hatred and hunger as they went.

Unless they were contained, Sailor Jupiter could tell that the carnage the monsters would inflict on the city would be horrific. She focused, green light gathering at her tiara as she charged her power, then with a cry of "Jupiter Oak Evolution!" released it in a blizzard of small green energy bolts that crashed down from on high, each one hitting with a large explosion. Some beasts where blown apart by the blasts, while others were sent flying end over end by near misses.

As one, the horde turned toward the source of the attack. Well that got their attention, Sailor Jupiter thought, as she prepared herself for a fight. Tuxedo Kamen stepped forward as well, hurling down roses rapid-fire into the sea of monsters as Sailor Jupiter prepared to charge up another volley.

But the monsters were reacting now, and some of them had ranged attacks as well. One creature unleashed a stream of reddish-brown, pulsating projectiles in an arc through the air, raining down toward them by the score. Tuxedo Kamen hurled up roses to intercept, striking them in mid-air, which caused them to explode in thundering detonations of flame and choking red smoke.

He held off the first few, but the smoke from the first explosions provided cover for the subsequent ones, masking their approach and making them increasingly hard to target. Soon, one managed to get through, landing on the rooftop right next to them and detonating. The three of them were blasted apart, Sailor Jupiter landing hard and slid for several feet before rolling back to one knee. Without Tuxedo Kamen defending, many more of the miniature bombs came pounding down all across the rooftop, explosions buffeting Sailor Jupiter from every angle as she raised her arms defensively, unable to see anything through the thick cloud of choking red smoke.

I have to draw that thing's fire away from the others! she thought. Gritting her teeth, she called on her power once more, green energy charging at her tiara as she threw herself forward in an all-out run through the thick of the bombardment. Soon she burst out of the smoke, sprinting along the edge of the rooftops. The monster tried to track her with its attacks, but she leapt out over the battlefield, the roof exploding behind her as she let loose with another Jupiter Oak Evolution down on the monsters below.

Her magic tore through their ranks once more, specifically blasting apart the bomb-throwing creature. Her attack was interrupted, however, by a monster who instead of swarming down with the rest, had climbed up to take a position atop the jewelry store. From that vantage point it fired a tightly focused ray of black energy, lancing out to catch Sailor Jupiter right in the midsection. She cried out, pain wracking her as the force of the beam bent her over double, sending her tumbling off through the air at a different angle.

One of the creatures below stretched up a long, malleable tentacle that caught Sailor Jupiter by the leg, and slammed her down full-force into the street below, shattering the concrete with the impact. The nearest monsters took immediate advantage, lunging toward her with claws extended and fangs bared, but a flurry of roses from above broke their momentum, paralyzing the attackers and buying enough time for Sailor Jupiter to recover.

She tried to climb to her feet, but the monster holding her gave the tentacle another yank, off-balancing her and dragging her along the ground toward it. Sailor Jupiter resisted by driving her high heels into the street, carving furrows through it to slow the rate of her drag. Then she grabbed the tentacle with both hands. "Supreme Thunder!"

Electricity raced up the tentacle's length, causing the creature to spasm and smoke as she continued to pour her power into it. But even as she attacked that one, more were thundering toward her, while others swarmed toward where Tuxedo Kamen was shooting from, forcing him to divide his efforts. There's too many of them! she thought. We can't stop them all!

Sailor Jupiter barely managed to get back to her feet before the wave of monsters reached her. She threw herself backward, ducking, parrying, backpedaling, trying to stay one step ahead as they tried to corner and overrun her. Even as she defended herself, more were climbing or dropping down from the apartment to replace any that had fallen. There was no end to them, and it was soon all she could do just to stay in once piece.

From the rooftop above, another crackling black beam hurtled down at her. This time she avoided it, jumping back at the last instant... but that left her open, and a different monster slammed into her from the side while she was still airborne. She went flying toward another group of monsters, until an enormous, four-fingered hand clamped around her head and slammed her face-first into the street. She almost lost consciousness from that hit, black spots swimming across her vision.

Looking down at where she lay, the thing placed its foot on her head, then raised it high in preparation for a devastating stomp. With a surge of effort, Sailor Jupiter got one knee under her and launched herself forward, tackling the beast while it still had one leg in the air and driving it back into a group of its fellows, sending them sprawling. But she had hardly done so when she was hit from behind, a blow between her shoulder blades knocking her across the street to ricochet off the wall of a distant building and tumble along the ground.

Bloody, her arms trembling, Sailor Jupiter nevertheless pulled herself to her hands and knees, looking up at the nearest monster as it charged toward her, along with its kin. Behind them she could see Tuxedo Kamen jumping in her direction. There were too many foes for him to stop, so he was trying to grab her and escape, but it was clear he was not going to make it in time. The lead monster raised a deformed fist as it drew closer and closer—

—and then, shooting down from the rooftops behind her, a familiar girl with waist-length hair landed directly between her and the oncoming menace, her Chinese qipao dress flaring about her as she wielded the twin maces in her hands. Her feet had hardly touched ground when she shot forward like a human bullet, aimed directly at the charging creature.

Just before they collided, Shampoo tossed one of her maces up into the air, allowing her to two-hand the remaining weapon. The large creature had a greater range than her, but she slipped around its punch with mesmerizing, catlike grace, dodging by a hair's breadth. Then she spun, bringing her mace around with all her might into the creature's chest, using all her momentum and all the momentum from her opponent's charge to increase the power of the blow.

The monster crumpled around her mace, the wet crunch of snapping bones audible even above the howls of its companions. Shampoo continued her swing, launching the broken creature at another one running in behind it, sending both to the ground. She then caught her thrown mace and immediately used it to smash another monster in what passed for its face, knocking it stumbling away as she fended off several more with a series of sweeping strikes.

She ducked under one attack and blasted that creature back with a spin kick, while in the same motion hooking one of her maces behind a different monster's ankle and sweeping its leg out from under it. Her mace swung high, then came right back down again, burying itself into the falling monster's skull and driving it into the ground. Then her second mace followed the same path, falling like a meteor on top of the first mace in a vicious hammer blow. The creature's head splattered, staining Shampoo's clothes and face with streaks of greasy ichor. She smiled, a predatory gleam in her eyes as she faced down the inhuman threat.

Across the street, Tuxedo Kamen was receiving some assistance as well, as the white-robed fighter from the warehouse battle had landed next to him and somehow pulled an enormous scythe from his sleeve. The weapon spun and whirled in dizzying patterns around him, carving through any monster that came within his reach. Further down the street, a girl wielding a large spatula threw herself into the fray against a different group of the creatures.

Sailor Jupiter caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and she looked up to see that the monster atop the jewelry store had charged up for another attack, this one aimed at the fighter in the white robes. "Look out!" she shouted, as the dark power gathered, ready to be used at any moment.

But then, inexplicably, the magical energy just fizzled back away as the creature's arms fell limply to its sides. Then its entire body fell apart, splitting into two equal halves right down the middle, left side toppling to the left and the right side to the right. As the halves fell away, they revealed Ranma's ninja ally standing behind them, sword in hand, who then jumped down to join the thick of the battle.

Sailor Jupiter was still trying to adjust to the sudden bewildering turn of events when yet another girl landed next to her, the one called Akane. "Are you all right?" she asked, offering a hand to help get back up, while Shampoo continued to beat back any creature that came their way.

The Senshi accepted the offer, climbing back up to her feet, albeit slightly unsteady. "More or less," she answered. "It... would have been a lot worse if you hadn't shown up. Why are you here?"

"We're looking for Ranma," answered Akane, worry in her voice. "Please, do you know where he is? I know you think he's an enemy, but I swear to you, he isn't. He's not some kind of evil Dark Lord, it's really just that—"

Her impassioned plea was cut off, however, as high above them something burst out of Naru's apartment. It was Ranma... but completely different from how he had looked before. His skin had taken on a greenish tint, oily with hints of scales, his eyes glowing with an unholy crimson radiance, tentacles sprouting from his back that writhed back and forth as he laughed maniacally.

Akane stared up at Ranma, her jaw hanging open in dismay. "That... isn't..." she said at last, in the weak voice of someone who doesn't expect to be believed. "He's... not... usually..."

"We know!" interrupted Sailor Jupiter. "He's possessed. That's why we're here too, so we can help rescue him!"

Akane's eyebrows shot up, surprised at Sailor Jupiter's acceptance. But anything she might have said in reply was lost, as "Ranma" moved to escape while his minions kept them occupied. "No!" Akane shouted, leaping up after him in an attempt to intercept, rebounding off a nearby wall with a flying kick.

Ranma dodged out of the way... but distracted by that attack, he didn't notice the steel chain that shot out of the long-haired boy's voluminous sleeve. It coiled around Ranma's neck from behind, allowing the robed warrior to slam him back down to the street below. With a snarl, Ranma rolled back to his feet while swinging one of his new tentacles around in a swipe at the robed boy, who flipped over the strike and hurled more chains down at him from above.

With one of their number now occupied with Ranma there were more creatures to go around... but by now Sailor Jupiter was feeling better herself. Taking a deep breath, she charged brilliant emerald energy to her tiara once again.

Some of the nearby monsters saw that she was doing something and hurled themselves toward her in an attempt to stop it. But Shampoo was even faster, flipping over them and landing with a wide spin of her maces that drove them back. Akane charged back into the battle as well, covering Sailor Jupiter from another angle. When it was ready, the Senshi released all the power she had accumulated, sending explosions tearing straight through the enemy formation with a cry of "Jupiter Oak Evolution!"



**********



Sailor Mercury swept the raging torrent of her Mercury Aqua Rhapsody across what remained of the hallway, knocking back enemies as the high-velocity stream of water slammed into them. Blasts of fire and golden light joined her own attack, choking the air with the sheer volume of destructive magical energy as the three Sailor Senshi combined their strength. She was breathing hard from the near-constant attacking she'd had to sustain, but she kept up the pressure. They were starting to make headway.

At first it had been all they could do to hold their defensive position under the creatures' crazed, relentless assault. Now, though, the flood seemed to have lessened, as though more of them were being diverted elsewhere, giving the Senshi the chance to go on the offensive. They pushed the monsters back, slowly but surely, until at last they had fought their way into Naru's apartment. And, according to Sailor Mercury's scans, the source of this endless swarm of creatures was in the next room over.

"Venus Love and Beauty Shock!" Sailor Venus hurled a spinning golden heart into what was left of the doorway, which detonated in an enormous explosion. The monsters on the other side were sent flying, most of them mangled by the blast. This allowed Sailor Mars to dart in, her arm blurring as she fired her bow left and right into the reeling survivors. Sailor Mercury followed close behind, the three of them finally seeing the source of this invasion with their own eyes.

It was a huge, glowing portal in one of the walls, a circular gateway that reached from floor to ceiling. Looking through it, they could see a long tunnel stretching off into the distance—not into the physical space behind the wall, but into whatever otherworldly plane had birthed these crawling horrors. Even as the Senshi watched, more of the things were running and slithering and scuttling toward the mouth of the portal, eager to avenge their fallen kin.

Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus wasted no time, letting loose rapid-fire arrows and devastating explosive hearts at the oncoming tide of monsters, fire and light intertwining as they turned the inter-dimensional corridor into a killing ground. Sailor Mercury, for her part, knelt down at the portal's edge, scanning it with the Mercury Computer. Her friends might be able to stem the tide for a while, but she knew they had to close this point of incursion or they would eventually be overrun.

Outside, she could hear the sounds of battle continuing. She did not dare pause in her own efforts to investigate it, but fears still ate at her. How many more of the creatures had escaped into the city while they had been fighting through the rear guard? Would her teammates outside be able to deal with them?

I can't let that distract me, she tried to tell herself. Shutting this portal down is the best thing I can do for all of us, and then we can go help with the monsters that are left. From her readings, it seemed like the portal did have an inherent limit to how long it could remain open... but that limit was a matter of hours, and there was no way they could keep such an invasion contained for that long. The death toll would be staggering unless they found a way to close it sooner. So, taking a deep breath, she placed both her palms against the edge of the portal, calling out "Mercury Crystal Power!"

Pale blue light exploded from her palms, mingling with the darker glow of the portal's magic, the two struggling against each other for supremacy. She pitted her strength against the spellcraft of the gateway, the air around her turning icy cold as a sharp wind began to swirl around her. She was almost in position to rip the enemy magic apart, if she could get a little deeper, just a little deeper...

And then, without warning, her magic touched Something on the other side. She sucked in a horrified breath. There were no words that could properly describe it. It was a presence, an existence so vast and measureless that she could barely even take it in. Merely trying to perceive it flooded her mind with images of death and torment and all-consuming hunger. She screamed, resisting the urge to clutch at her head, and instead redoubled her efforts to sever the link between her world and whatever hellish dimension had given rise to such an evil.

But to her dismay, she realized that the entity itself was countering her efforts. Her magic blazed in a raging corona around her, but she couldn't hope to make so much as a dent in its power. Something was preventing it from extending its reach directly into their world—a barrier of some kind, much like the one that had kept Queen Metallia trapped in her prison—but while it could not attack her directly, she knew it could repulse any attempt she made to destroy this gate with barely any effort at all.

What can we do? she wondered, as Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus fired salvo after salvo, using the portal as a choke point to hold back the howling tide of creatures. How can we stop them? Sailor Moon could probably do it in her Princess form, but she's in no condition to use the Ginzuisho, and that's the only weapon we have that has a chance of working!

It was then that one of the creatures finally got lucky. As they crawled their way down the interdimensional tunnel, over the smoking corpses of their fellows, one of them managed to get off a shot with some kind of black magic that got through the Senshi bombardment and crashed into Sailor Mars' chest with a violent explosion that hurled them all away. Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury managed to climb unsteadily back to their feet, ears ringing from the blast, but Sailor Mars stayed down, bleeding badly and only half-conscious. With a roar of fury from countless alien throats, the monstrous horde charged forward again.

The Senshi were forced to fall back, Sailor Venus covering them with her Crescent Beam Shower while Sailor Mercury dragged Sailor Mars away. Her mind was racing as they retreated, trying to think of some way to salvage the situation. But there just didn't seem to be any options left.

Except...

It was an uncertain gamble, but as soon as the idea occurred to her Sailor Mercury knew it was their best bet. As they retreated, she activated her wristwatch communicator, speaking into it as fast as she could. "Artemis!" she said urgently. "I need to you talk to Sailor Chibi-moon! There's someone she needs to contact."



**********



A gentle wind blew across the verdant plains of Elysion, as its guardian, Helios, trotted across them with a young boy riding on his back. The child laughed with excitement as the pegasus gradually sped up, clinging tight to Helios' white mane as they enjoyed the ride. Soon they had reached a full gallop, weaving left and right around the occasional tree. Then, with a flap of his wings, Helios launched them into the air, soaring high above the ground.

The boy called out encouragement in Mandarin, whooping with delight. It was currently nighttime over Asia in the physical world, which meant that the dreamers visiting Helios' realm were mostly from that area. He oversaw all their dreams, guarding them, but it was mostly the dreams of the children that he chose to enter personally. They were the ones who still believed in things like that, the ones whose hearts were still open to the simple pleasures of running through a field.

He flew with the boy, just as he was simultaneously flying with hundreds of millions of other children who were also slumbering. Time and physicality meant less here than in the waking world, especially to one such as him, chosen to be the shepherd of humanity's dreams since time immemorial.

Then, without warning, he sensed something that he had not for quite some time. The beginning of a Twinkle Yell, a direct call from the one denizen of the mortal realm that was more precious to him than any other. Worry crept into his heart. If his princess was calling him now, he knew that it had to be something serious.

The pegasus swooped earthward quickly, kneeling so his passenger could dismount. "I must go," he told the boy in Mandarin, prompting a look of dismay. "You can stay here and enjoy the rest of the dream; you will awaken when the time comes." Across Elysion's countless layers of existence the entity known as Helios gave that same explanation countless times to all his countless charges. Then he focused, folding himself into the constraining confines of a single physical manifestation, reaching across the boundary between dream and reality to incarnate once again into the physical world.

He considered appearing in his human form—the form in which he would most prefer to meet his love—but decided against it. If there was danger, his pegasus form would be the more helpful of the two. With a dizzying sensation and a flash of light, he appeared in the living room of the Tsukino home, right in front of Sailor Chibi-moon... and quite a few other people. "Helios!" she called out, relief in her voice as she rushed over to give him a quick embrace.

"Are you all right? What has happened?" he asked, then looked around the room at all the others watching, including Chibi-Usa's own grandparents. Something was clearly up.

"There's no time!" said Sailor Chibi-moon. "Sailor Mercury said that some kind of... portal has opened up, and Sailor Moon is hurt and they can't close it by themselves and there are all kinds of monsters coming through everywhere! Please, Helios, can we use the Golden Crystal again?"

Helios looked down at her, uncertain of what to say. It was clear that she didn't fully understand the danger of what she was asking, so soon after the Golden Crystal had been used so extensively in the fight with Queen Nehelinia... but at the same time, if the situation was as dire as it sounded, there might be no other choice.

In the end, though, it was not his decision to make. He was only the caretaker of the Golden Crystal, holding it for one specific purpose. And he could feel the Golden Crystal reacting, telling him clearer than ever before how it should be employed this time. "Yes, we can," he said at last. "Tell me... is your father at the scene of this battle as well?"

The young Senshi nodded, and Helios' thoughts raced ahead, planning for what might happen next. The previous time they had needed the Golden Crystal's power, it had been Mamoru who had already been incapacitated by Queen Nehelinia's attack on the planet, where now it was Sailor Moon who was weakened. But if the Prince of Earth was healthy now, it presented them with additional opportunities, opportunities they hadn't had last time.

Sailor Chibi-moon quickly described the location where the other Senshi were fighting. Then—after squeezing out the doors of the house—he broke into a gallop and launched himself skyward, flying toward the battle as fast as he could, like a ray of dawn shooting through the night.



**********



With a pain-wracked moan, Sailor Moon fought her way back to consciousness. Her strength was sapped by the supernatural affliction clawing at her soul, and taking multiple explosions on top of that had nearly taken her out. But she refused to let it stop her. As more and more of her awareness returned, she could hear the sounds of increasingly chaotic battle.

She was too weak to stand at first, but she began to drag herself hand-over-hand toward the edge of the roof. As she went, she fought back with ever-increasing desperation. It was one thing to attack her, but now her friends were in danger, fighting, risking their lives. And she wasn't able to help them!

Sailor Moon ground her teeth, eyes flashing with determination, and she fought back against the force trying to consume her with a previously-unmatched ferocity. She felt something scream in an agony, as though it were coming from a great distance, and felt the tide of the internal struggle shift until it was slightly more in her favor.

Everything she had, she threw into her counterattack, fighting for the power she needed to help her team. Soon she had pulled herself to crawling on her hands and knees toward the roof's edge, and then to her feet, limping. She was still weakened, and using her Princess form would be completely impossible like this, but with each passing moment she managed to pull back a little bit more of her usual strength. I won't let them fight alone! I won't! There must be something I can still do!



**********



Tuxedo Kamen flung his roses as fast as he could, pincushioning monsters as they came, leaving them paralyzed and easy pickings for Sailor Jupiter and the unexpected reinforcements from the Dark Lords' side. But even more were pouring out of the building with each passing moment. They had been making headway a while back, when the flood of creatures had faltered for some reason, but then it had returned with a vengeance, pushing them back again. Even with their new allies, it was all they could do just to keep the horde contained.

Ranma's possessed body was the greatest threat, especially since they couldn't attack it with lethal force. He and the robed fighter were locked in combat, fighting each other up and down the street as the possessed Dark Lord tried to crush his ally, who was trying in turn to entangle him. The two of them ricocheted from street to wall to rooftop as they chased each other, jumping, spinning, diving. Tentalces and steel chains wound through the air in twisting patterns, as they each tried to find an opening. On occasion Tuxedo Kamen even noticed Ranma casting attack spells, something he'd never done in any of their previous fights.

Then Tuxedo Kamen saw something white, hurtling down from above at immense speed. Risking a glance over his shoulder, he saw that it was Helios, of all people. The pegasus plummeted to earth, hooves skidding across the shattered road as he came to a stop behind Tuxedo Kamen, panting for breath. "My liege. I have come at the request of your daughter. I am told you need power to disrupt the portal that these beasts are coming through."

Tuxedo Kamen hadn't seen any portal himself, but he didn't waste time questioning the offer. "Can you help?" he asked, as he extended his cane to bash one monster in its center of mass, then hurled three roses that pierced deep into the asymmetrical eye sockets of one that was about to attack the spatula girl while she was busy dealing with a different trio. A pair of monsters rushed him from the left, but the ninja dropped on them from above, stabbing one into the ground and then bisecting the other at the waist before leaping away to hunt down others.

"Yes, I can," Helios agreed. "But you must understand, it will only be temporary, and very dangerous. Among other risks, you are not as experienced as your beloved at dealing with the level of power that will result from what we will attempt."

The masked fighter swirled his cape in front of him, holding it there and using its defensive magics to absorb a blast of magic that was raging toward them. Even so, he grimaced in pain as he weathered the onslaught, bracing himself against the monster's blast even as more swarmed in from the left and the right. "We don't have any choice!" he shouted. "Whatever you can do, do it!"

He couldn't see what Helios was doing behind him. But he did hear what the flying horse was saying, a steady, focused chant, and he could feel something deep inside him surge in response. "By the ancient rite, as recipient of the ancient trust, I release that which was bound. I return that which was granted. I restore that which was separated. Let the two once more become one..."



**********



Ekim swore as he danced back and forth atop one of the nearby buildings, trying to avoid the swarming mass of chains. How was this fighter able to manipulate them so expertly? Now that he was in this battle form he had expected to crush any resistance with ease, but this boy was matching his every move! He wracked his mind for a strategy, one that might give him an edge. He couldn't afford to waste time like this!

Then he remembered something from Tanizaki's file on this one, and a nasty smile crossed his face. The sorcerer raised Ranma's hands, reciting the incantation and making the motions to channel the arcane power. A large sphere of ice-cold water appeared in midair, hovering there. Then, with a thought, it exploded outward in a continuous burst like a fire hose, sweeping the area in front of him with a wide spray.

Mousse leapt back, trying to escape. But it was too late, and suddenly Ekim was no longer fighting a young man, but rather a duck tangled in sodden, too-large robes. With a malicious laugh, Ekim focused the water into a tighter, high-pressure stream, striking the transformed martial artist and blasting the small animal off the edge of the roof and down through the wall of one of the buildings behind it.

Taking a moment to catch his breath, Ekim surveyed the rest of the battlefield. Now would be a perfect chance to escape, in accordance with Tanizaki's orders to keep them chasing him. Then again... considering all the risk and effort he'd gone through to get a portal like this open, it seemed a shame not to aid his true master's spawn in spreading death and suffering to this world.

But then his eyes came to rest where Tuxedo Kamen was standing... and his heart fairly stopped in his chest. There was a winged unicorn standing with him, making some kind of incantation. He couldn't tell what its purpose was, but he could feel the power that was coming from it, producing an instinctive, gut-wrenching terror in him.

As he watched, wide-eyed, the unicorn's horn vanished in a flash of golden light, replaced by a hovering, golden crystal. At the exact same moment, another golden crystal emerged from Tuxedo Kamen's chest. That has to be his star seed! Ekim thought. But then... that means...

Before he could finish the thought, the crystal from the pegasus shot over to the crystal from Tuxedo Kamen, the two of them glowing brighter and brighter as they spun around each other, orbiting nearer and nearer. Ekim cried out and averted Ranma's eyes from the blinding radiance, while the horde of monstrous creatures shrank back, cowering before the overwhelming manifestation of mystical power. Then there was a final blast that shattered the nearby windows and sent everyone around tumbling.

When the afterimages faded from Ekim's vision, he saw that "Tuxedo Kamen" stood there no longer. The mask and top hat were gone, and in place of the tuxedo he now wore a breastplate of blue armor with white designs inlaid on it. In his hands he held a longsword, and embedded in the armor just above his heart was something that sent chills down Ekim's spine.

The Golden Crystal! the sorcerer thought, stumbling back from what his enemy had become. He's activated it? My research suggested that he would be its true wielder, but none of the legends ever mentioned anything about it being divided in two!

Either way, he knew that flight was now his only option. However inflated his own opinion was of his magical prowess, he knew that he was less than an insect relative to the unimaginable power he could feel emanating from that crystal. It was the kind of power that could blast planets into dust, the kind of power that no mortal could hope to match. It was the power of Endymion, the prince of Earth.

Fortunately, there were other matters occupying the armored man's attention. He leapt toward the apartment, diving through the hole in the wall, his sword leaving golden trails as it cleaved through any monsters in his path. This is my chance to escape! Ekim thought. Accordingly, he ran to the far edge of the building and jumped off, disappearing out of sight into the narrow alleyway on the other side. Hopefully, none of his foes fighting on the ground below had noticed his hurried departure.

He tried to plan his next move, tried to think of where he should head now. But then suddenly another figure dropped down from the rooftops as well, landing in front of him, someone who had seen his escape attempt and followed. Sailor Moon. No! Ekim thought. No, no, no, no, not her!

But... there was something different about her now. She stumbled on the landing of her drop from above, leaning briefly against the alley wall for support before pushing off it to return to a standing position. Even then she was unsteady, her legs wobbling slightly, her breath coming in strained pants. Ekim recognized the signs. Tanizaki must be making another test of his Unit Zero! This is perfect!

Nevertheless, despite the agony he knew she had to be in, Sailor Moon still faced him down. "Taking control of someone else's body is a terrible thing to do, even when it's a Dark Lord you're taking control of," she panted, determination in her every word as she raised her scepter-like artifact and leveled it at him. "In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!"



**********



Endymion landed in Naru's apartment, sword swinging, his blade cloaked in a blazing golden aura that cut through any monster it touched without any resistance. He carved his way through them, one strike flowing into the next, until he reached his true target, the portal that was vomiting them out into his world.

More of the monstrous invaders were charging down the inter-dimensional corridor, but Endymion simply thrust out his palm, releasing a torrent of golden energy that scoured the magical passage, reducing all the creatures coming through it to ash in the blink of an eye. Then he raised his sword and drove it into the edge of the portal, channeling his magic through the weapon in an attempt to rip the passageway connecting the two planes apart.

Immediately he felt Something on the other side resisting him. Any heady overconfidence he might have felt from the sudden infusion of power evaporated instantly as he sensed what manner of being waited on the other side. The unfathomable power, the utter alienness. His mind felt as though it might shatter trying to comprehend the totality of it, and he sank to one knee as it strove against him, trying to expel his magic from the portal's spellcraft.

But Endymion fought back. The Golden Crystal on his chest blazed brighter and brighter as he poured his will into it, its power straining against that of the horrific thing beyond the gate. The power he channeled felt as though it would rip him apart, but he hung on, knowing that it was their only chance to stop this incursion and prevent many lives from being lost. He clenched his teeth, praying that somehow he could find the strength to win...



**********



Ekim swung his tentacles in wide arcs, smashing through the walls of the nearby buildings and filling the air with debris as he chased Sailor Moon relentlessly. The weakened Senshi was completely on the defensive, leaping backward to stay out of reach in a series of frantic dodges. The sorcerer kept up the pressure. He knew that if he even once let her have an opening, she could flood the entire area with another one of those enormous purification waves.

He had experienced just how dangerous one of those could be to a spell like his. Which meant he had no choice. He had to incapacitate her before he could escape. Leaving her at his back would spell disaster.

His hands traced intricate motions in the air, while he chanted a quick incantation with Ranma's voice. In response, small arcing bolts of fire burst from his palm, curving toward his opponent from multiple directions. They all struck with explosive force, knocking Sailor Moon back in an end-over-end tumble. Ekim swung his tentacles high as he charged toward her prone form, then brought them down with all the force he could muster.

Just in time, Sailor Moon swung her scepter up and braced it with both hands, blocking the direct force of the blow. The impact against her scepter still drove her into the concrete beneath her, shattering it. Ekim immediately twisted a tentacle to coil around her neck, hoisting her into the air and slamming her against a nearby wall as he choked her.

The girl managed to get one hand between the slithering apendage and her throat, straining against him enough to squeeze in a few shallow gasps of air, but in her weakened state it was only delaying the inevitable. She gripped her scepter in her other hand, light gathering at its tip. "Silver... Moon..." she began, but it was clear that she wouldn't be able to complete the spell in time. Still, just to be safe, Ekim sent another tentacle up to tear the artifact from her grasp.

The moment before his second tentacle struck, Sailor Moon swung the scepter around in a sudden burst of motion. Her spell wasn't yet ready to fire... but instead of shooting it, she took the weapon with all the purifying magic gathered at its tip and stabbed it directly into the tentacle strangling her. The corrupted flesh that his otherworldly master had bestowed on him sizzled and smoked as the glowing artifact pierced through it.

Ekim screamed, hurling the girl away as though she were a red-hot brand, sending her tumbling down the street until she rolled to a stop. His vision swam, nausea filling him, but he threw himself forward on the attack again with a hoarse, wordless battle cry. He would not lose like this! He would not lose like this!



**********



Endymion's sword was blazing like the sun from the energies raging down its length and into the portal's structure as he fought with everything he had against the horror opposing him. Each moment seemed to stretch on forever as the contest continued, a collision of powers beyond human comprehension.

Out of the corner of his eye, Endymion saw that another group of the monsters they had been fighting was coming down the corridor connecting the two planes, charging toward him with roars of bloodlust. He grimaced. This was bad. He was pouring every last bit of his power and concentration into the attack, leaving nothing left to defend himself with. If that group reached him...

But then his worries were countered by a cry of "Crescent Beam Shower!" and a hail of golden light that shot past him. Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury came running up, with Sailor Mars limping just behind. Moments later, Sailor Jupiter also arrived, leaping through one of the shattered windows, joining her firepower to that of her friends. This time, all four of them took up positions at the mouth of the portal, pouring incredible quantities of suppression fire down the corridor while Endymion tried to shut it down completely.

He knew that he could not overpower the thing he was fighting against. Not directly. Sailor Moon might have been able to, but even with the complete Golden Crystal he still wasn't on the level of power she could reach at her strongest, and he had far less experience at wielding it besides. Even just this much was tearing him up inside, and it would only get worse the longer this dragged on.

But he didn't have to beat the thing directly. He only had to close the portal, and he could tell that its spellwork was about to come apart, never designed to withstand being the battleground for two forces of such magnitude. Endymion did everything he could to increase its decay, fighting in such a way as to maximize the damage their clashing forces did to the portal they were battling over. The thing understood what he was trying to do, and Endymion sensed a wave of black, virulent fury emanate from the entity.

Endymion's hands were trembling, but he kept up the assault with all that he could bring to bear. He could see cracks, distortions forming in the bridge between the two realities, impossible geometries folding over each other as space itself warped. Still he pushed his assault, second after second... until finally he felt something break at a fundamental level in the mystic passageway.

"Get clear!" he shouted, a warning the four Senshi heeded without hesitation. They flung themselves headlong out the windows of the room, as behind them the very fabric of existence roiled in a destructive frenzy. Endymion jumped away as well, falling all the way down to the street below.

The strain of what he had done caught up to him even before he hit, sending him into unconsciousness as the ground rushed up to meet him.



**********



Chips of concrete shrapnel hit Sailor Moon as she tried to stay one step ahead of the violent onslaught of Ranma's tentacles. Stabbing him with her scepter had made him even more enraged, his swings coming with even greater ferocity. Time and again the attacks almost caught her, but if there was one thing that had been drilled into her over the years of constant monster fights, it was how to dodge. And his strikes were sloppier now, with less control behind them.

Which gave Sailor Moon an idea.

The plan was a long shot, based on a wild guess, not guaranteed to work. But it was still worth a try. The Senshi continued to leap backward, staying just out of reach as Ranma tore his destructive path through the nearby stores after her. Careless swipes tore out walls, smashed windows and snapped nearby streetlights in half with showers of sparks, plunging their surroundings into even worse lighting. Finally, Sailor Moon skidded to a stop, raising the Final Tiare and making as thought to use her attack once more. "Silver Moon..."

Ranma, of course, tried to stop her, swinging his tentacles down from above with devastating strength. Sailor Moon was ready for that, however, and aborted her own attack, leaping away just in the nick of time. Rather than hitting her, the tentacles instead smashed the object she had positioned herself in front of.

Specifically, a fire hydrant.

Water exploded everywhere, soaking the surroundings in their ice-cold blast. Water, like the water Ranma had used to turn the other Dark Lord into a duck. Or like the water that Sailor Saturn had described turning Ryouga into a piglet when she had told them about the encounter over the phone. Sailor Moon didn't know if Ranma had one of those transformations too, but those other two Dark Lords had both had them, and if it was something they all shared then it would be much easier to defend against a small animal.

What would he turn into? she wondered. Maybe a bunny rabbit? Or a mouse! A mouse would be good.

As the spray washed over them, and everything else in the vicinity, she saw that Ranma had changed. Not to a small animal like the other two, though. He was shorter now, but still very much a human. And... were those breasts?

Well... thought Sailor Moon. That's different.



**********



It took Ekim a moment to register what his savage assault had actually hit, instead of its intended target. It took another moment for him to remember the consequences of cold water on this borrowed body. When he put all the pieces together, though, his eyes widened in dismay.

The foundation of his possession spell was the thaumaturgic link he had created through a piece of Ranma's own body—his hair. But now that body had changed at the fundamental level, distorting the link and weakening the connection. He still had a grip on Ranma's underlying soul, but it was a slippery, uncertain grip now. I have to find hot water, quickly! he thought. If this goes on...

But the thought broke off as he tried to move... only to find Ranma's body resisting him, turning his attempted leap into a drunken stumble as he fought for balance. And, in his mind, he could once again hear Ranma's voice echoing. Hey, bastard! Doesn't look like things are going so well for you, does it?

Ekim clutched at Ranma's head, screaming in frustration as he lurched back and forth. But then he saw that Sailor Moon had raise her scepter once again, pointing it directly at him as light gathered at its tip. "Silver... Moon..."

The sorcerer threw himself at her, careening forward as best he could. His tentacles flailed out, but Ranma interfered, adjusting their course to miss by inches, while Sailor Moon's power continued to build. "Crystal... Power..."

With no time left for anything else, Ekim continued to stumble forward, trying to hit her with a simple tackle. But he couldn't make it in time. He cursed and swore at Sailor Moon in impotent fury, but none of it fazed her as she reached the final stage of her attack uninterrupted.

"...Kiss!"



**********



Sailor Saturn sat pressed up in the backseat against Ryouga, listening with wide eyes as he kept explaining how things had actually gone, and what his and Ranma's true intentions had been. She had been hoping—praying—that learning their true motivations might reveal a way for a peaceful solution, but this... this went far beyond anything she had dared to imagine.

The reasons behind why they had taken on the titles of Dark Lords had been shocking enough, but it had been followed by a recounting of what they had done during the final attack on the Dark Kingdom. She could tell that the other Outer Senshi still had doubts, but she believed every word. It made so much more sense, explained so many of the doubts that had plagued her.

The Dark Lords weren't their enemies at all. They never had been. In fact, they had fought and died to defend the world, just as the Sailor Senshi had. Sailor Saturn felt a warm, almost giddy sensation welling up deep inside her, though she tried not to let it show to preserve the decorum of the situation. Still, in that private, hidden part of her she could feel her heart leaping with joy and relief.

He wasn't their enemy. He really, truly wasn't their enemy.

"...and so everyone who had been on the Dark Kingdom attack eventually got their memories back," Ryouga explained. He had already covered his and Ranma's original ruse, and was now filling in details on the time between then and now, while Sailor Uranus drove them toward Usagi's home. Sailor Pluto had wanted to inform the princess of what Ryouga was claiming, as well as confirm certain parts of his story with her.

"It was pretty strange at first," Ryouga went on. "We kind of knew what was going to happen for the next year, but some things started to change pretty fast because of things we did differently. We spent a while getting our lives back to the way they had been before the spell. Some things... some things never went back to the way they had been."

He was silent for a few moments, staring out the car window, before shaking his head and continuing. "Anyway, we mostly tried to stay out of the Sailor Senshi's way after that, since the big threat was gone. We did check around once in a while, like when that big black crystal showed up, but for the most part we just stayed out of Juuban and tried to—what the hell?"

Ryouga's story broke off as the night sky lit up with an eruption of light. Purifying magic radiated out from somewhere ahead of them, sweeping across the surroundings. While Ryouga didn't recognize its source, Sailor Saturn definitely did. "Sailor Moon..." she said.

Sailor Pluto wasted no time in turning to Sailor Uranus. "Head for the source of that light!" she urged. Sailor Uranus, indeed, was already turning the car in that direction and flooring the gas pedal. They didn't know what was going on, but they were going to get there as quickly as they could.



**********



Before the light from the Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss had even finished fading, Sailor Mars was already reacting to it.

After the portal's destruction she had thrown herself into the battle outside, helping her teammates—and their unexpected allies from the Dark Lords' group—to take care of the last remaining creatures who had made it through to this side of the portal. The beasts had shown no sign of diminished morale, still throwing themselves at the humans with savage bloodlust. But with their constant reinforcements cut off, the outcome had been inevitable.

Soon the last of them went down, and Sailor Mercury had confirmed with a scan that there were none in the area that they had missed. But then had come the familiar blast of light, and with it the realization that their meatball-headed princess had gone off and was fighting somewhere on her own. Sailor Mars had immediately leapt for the rooftops in that direction, along with the other Sailor Senshi. The distance was not far, and when they arrived at the source an unexpected sight met their eyes.

Sailor Moon lay flat on her back in the middle of the street, surrounded by destruction everywhere—smashed storefronts, craters in the concrete, and even a destroyed fire hydrant that was spewing water all over the place. Lying right next to her, also flat on her back was a soaked girl, both of them looking completely spent. The mysterious girl lifted up her head briefly as they approached. "Hey," she said, weary smile on her face.

"...who are you?" Sailor Mars asked, perplexed.

"She's Ranma," Sailor Moon piped up, lifting her own head and smiling, despite the obvious pain she was in. "He turns into a girl. It's okay, I got rid of whatever was making him act all crazy."

"Yeah," the pigtailed girl agreed, nodding her head before letting it thump back down onto the pavement. "Thanks for that. I owe you one."

"Don't worry about it," was Sailor Moon's reply, as she let her own head thump back down as well. "We deal with this kind of thing all the time."

The other Sailor Senshi exchanged glances, and then Sailor Jupiter shrugged. They were still a little worried about what Ranma would do, but it did look like the exorcism had taken quite a bit out of the now-female Dark Lord, and she didn't seem very threatening at the moment. Not to mention the assistance her allies had given in containing the monster incursion.

It was not long before those same allies caught up with them, along with Endymion. The prince of Earth looked half-dead himself, and was limping along, supported by the shoulder of the ninja. With considerable effort, he made it over to Sailor Moon's side, dropping down on his knees beside her. "You're all right," he murmured. "I was worried something might have happened to you."

Sailor Moon giggled. "You look pretty beat up yourself."

Sailor Mercury, meanwhile, was studying Ranma with the Mercury Computer. After some time had passed, she spoke. "I can't detect any sign of whatever was afflicting you," she announced. Then she hesitated, a question clearly on the tip of her tongue. Finally, she asked it. "This... alternate form of yours. Did you ever use it against us when we fought before? I don't recall ever seeing you like this, but you do seem... strangely familiar. I just... can't quite put my finger on it."

The question caused Sailor Mars to frown and take a second look at Ranma's female body, but she felt no such familiarity in the slightest. Ranma opened one eye, looking up at Sailor Mercury. "Don't think so," he said. "I'm pretty sure I was a guy for all our fights."

He pondered for a little bit longer, then suddenly snapped his fingers. "Oh!" he said. "I bet I know what you're thinking of. There was one time you did see my girl body—the time you dropped by Doctor Tofu's clinic, and we had to go through all that trouble to keep you from figuring out that we were hiding there."

Sailor Mercury blinked. Then her eyes slowly widened. Then widened even more. Eventually, they seemed about ready to pop out of her head. Sailor Mars could practically see gears turning in Sailor Mercury's head, as the other girl put together piece after piece of some puzzle that Sailor Mars was not privy to. "The clinic..." she began, her expression more boggled than Sailor Mars could ever recall seeing it. "You were... Then... that was why... You mean... the whole time?"

Ranma shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much," he said.

Sailor Mercury sat down with a thump, eyes looking in Ranma's direction but not really focusing on him. At last she spoke again. "That makes no sense," she said, almost plaintively.

She was spared from further engaging that particular topic, however, by the sound of squealing tires, and then a familiar car swerved around the corner at speeds that Sailor Mars would have deemed suicidal had she not known who was at the wheel. The car pulled up to a stop nearby with the screech of brakes, and all four Outer Senshi scrambled out in full battle readiness. Sailor Mars considered making a dry remark about how useful their arrival would have been about five minutes ago, but she was tired enough and the pain from her injuries was great enough that she ended up forgoing the opportunity.

Sailor Pluto regarded the scene before her wordlessly for a moment. The widespread destruction. The water spraying everywhere. The group of Sailor Senshi and forces from the Dark Lords standing mingled together, without evident animosity. "I can see that you have all been busy as well," she remarked at last, her tone carefully neutral.

Ranma snorted. "Lady," he said. "You don't even know the half of it."



***********



Later on—after he had once again separated the Golden Crystal and the golden star seed that had ages ago formed a single whole—Helios walked through the plains of Elysion in his human form. Not as part of any pleasant children's dream. Not this time. This time his steps took him into a part of his realm that he was all too familiar with, and one that he ensured no dreamer ever stumbled into.

It had been close, this time. Far too close. The Golden Crystal had already been used so freely during the conflict with Queen Nehelinia, and now to have something like this happen so soon after...

There had been a reason that the Endymion's ancestors had entrusted him with guardianship of the greater share of their power, so many eons ago that even he had trouble remembering it clearly. The one use of its power that he did mediate himself, in his own way.

As he walked, the rolling grasslands gave way, bit by bit, to a harsh and wind-swept desert, a desolate wasteland in which no life flourished. Helios kept walking, making for the center of it, and for the person he would find there.

Soon he came upon the nearest of the chains. Thick workings of steel, stretching across the desert toward its center. Or at least, that was their appearance. They were not simply physical—but then again, nothing in the realm of dreams was exactly physical to begin with. Their true strength was in the symbol of what they represented... and in the intricate magical runes that had been laid into every link, runes that glowed with the same golden light as the light that came from the Golden Crystal. Their light was much dimmer now, however, the power in the wards dangerously low. It would take a long time for them to fully recover.

Helios continued to walk, and eventually more chains came into view, all of them converging at a single point far up ahead. When at last he arrived, he beheld once again the one who stood at the nexus of this enormous magical prison.

The winged horse was dark as night, and stood towering over Helios, intimidating for all that she was bound tight by the chains stretching off in from every direction. Her eyes blazed with a crimson radiance, and when her gaze fell on him, she gave an amused laugh. "Ah, little brother..." she said languidly. "You play a dangerous game, letting your little humans play with that power so often. My restraints are as weak now as they have ever been."

To emphasize her point, the pegasus strained against the chains that bound her. The skies of Elysion darkened as she flexed her power, the earth trembling beneath her as the chains struggled to contain her power. She stamped her foot, and Helios nearly lost his balance as the ground buckled beneath him.

Then the outburst subsided, the other pegasus apparently growing bored with the contest. "So close..." she murmured. "So very close. Just lend that crystal back to your human friends once or twice more, little brother, and I will once again enjoy the pleasures of freedom."

"Freedom?" Helios asked levelly. "Freedom to torture the humans, freedom to make their every sleeping moment an inescapable parade of their worst horrors come to life? Is that still what you consider 'pleasure', Melinoe?"

"You needn't make it sound so dire, little brother," the other pegasus remarked. "You know I would never, ever do anything to hurt you."

"Yes you would," was Helios's quiet reply. "You would hurt the ones I care about. It's the same thing. That's what you've never understood."

He turned his back, silence falling between them once more. At length, his sister spoke again. "This one particular human of yours..." she began, curiosity in her voice. "This... 'Chibi-Usa'..."

"Yes?" asked Helios, warily.

"She is different from the others. Or rather, you see her differently."

"Yes. I do."

"Why?"

"Because I love her." Simple words, but he said them with absolute conviction.

"But..." Helios could hear puzzlement in his sister's voice. "She is nothing compared to you. Even by the reckoning of your humans, she is a child. She has seen... how many winters? Twelve? Thirteen? You have witnessed the birth of her entire species. You have walked across the face of her world when it was nothing more than a molten ball. You measure your existence in terms she does not even comprehend!"

Helios nodded, slowly. "And yet I love her. If you understood that... perhaps you would finally understand why I sided with the humans against you all those eons ago."

His sister was silent for a long time after that, a longer silence in their debates than he had seen in millennia. "Perhaps I would..." she mused at length, her voice as unreadable and unfathomable to Helios as it so often was. "Perhaps I would..."



**********



Tanizaki stood in the control room, watching patiently as Doctor Metzger conversed with several of his aides. Eventually, the elderly scientist looked up at his employer. "I believe we have collected all of the useful data we can expect to get from this test run."

"Then cycle Unit Zero down to standby state," ordered Tanizaki. "Let the Sailor Senshi think the storm has passed for now, as we move into the final stage."

Doctor Metzger nodded. He turned to work on one of the control panels, then paused and glanced back at Tanizaki. "You realize..." he said. "They're going to be coming after us now."

A mirthless smile spread across Tanizaki's face. "Let them come."

[Spica75]

Final Tiare

"Tiare"? I had to check but the most i found was that a tiare is a kind of flower, and that didn´t really sound right. So, me not knowing the correct meaning/name or a typo?

Well... thought Sailor Moon. That's different.

Awesome chapter. And seriously, just one single thing that MIGHT be a typo? That´s neat.

[ijp92]

*Standing Ovation*

seriously this was a great chapter. I loved everything. You've done a brilliant job of balancing the action, drama, and comedy. I really lost myself in each scene. Speaking of, will we get more reactions from the Sailor Senshi about the "Dark Lords plan"?

I also picked up Fate/Zero vibes (specifically Caster/Bluebeard) as well as some Spender from Paranatural and MLP. I don't know Sailor Moon well enough so I have to ask... was that bit with Helios and his sibling canon or do you have something even more epic than we've been expecting planned?

[claymade]

"Tiare"? I had to check but the most i found was that a tiare is a kind of flower, and that didn´t really sound right. So, me not knowing the correct meaning/name or a typo?

It's how I've seen the final evolution of Sailor Moon's stick weapon chain spelled. Though you're right, it is kinda weird. The reference may not be worth it; I may just describe it as her scepter-thing the whole way through. Less confusing.

Awesome chapter. And seriously, just one single thing that MIGHT be a typo? That´s neat.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

*Standing Ovation*

seriously this was a great chapter. I loved everything. You've done a brilliant job of balancing the action, drama, and comedy. I really lost myself in each scene.

Thank you!

Speaking of, will we get more reactions from the Sailor Senshi about the "Dark Lords plan"?

Oh yes, that's coming next chapter, especially for the Inners...

I also picked up Fate/Zero vibes (specifically Caster/Bluebeard) as well as some Spender from Paranatural and MLP.

Never really saw Fate/Zero, only heard references to it, so I can't really comment on the first.

I knew that the MLP parallels would, indeed, be inescapable, and the only thing I can say is that Sailor Moon set the "winged horse" paradigm for this area of its canon a decade before FiM's storyline ever came out, so my hands were more or less tied if I wanted to explore this particular relationship...

As for Spender, I do definitely follow Paranatural (great webcomic) though I confess I am blanking on where his vibes are coming in.

I don't know Sailor Moon well enough so I have to ask... was that bit with Helios and his sibling canon or do you have something even more epic than we've been expecting planned?

Helios is canon, definitely, though his having a sibling is not something that was ever shown in the series. It was something thought would be cool to delve into, though, considering that while he's the guardian and overseer of the good dreams, the fact that there are definitely still the other kind in the Sailor Moon world could imply something more going on. (She's not without some very diminished degree of influence, even sealed like that.)

As for more epic than what you've been expecting... well, that's hard to say, given that I don't know what you've been expecting up 'till now, or what you're expecting Melinoe's appearance will change about that. All I can say is that (of everything I've had planned for this series) I've been saving up the stuff I thought was most epic for the fic's homestretch. Take from that what you will...

[Spica75]

It's how I've seen the final evolution of Sailor Moon's stick weapon chain spelled. Though you're right, it is kinda weird. The reference may not be worth it; I may just describe it as her scepter-thing the whole way through. Less confusing.

Huh, never saw that before...

And yes probably better, because due to how Moon does have that tiara of her´s, i can almost guarantee i´m not going to be the only one to wonder if that´s what you meant and just made a typo.

Helios is canon, definitely, though his having a sibling is not something that was ever shown in the series. It was something thought would be cool to delve into, though, considering that while he's the guardian and overseer of the good dreams, the fact that there are definitely still the other kind in the Sailor Moon world could imply something more going on. (She's not without some very diminished degree of influence, even sealed like that.)

Oh my, so you ARE setting up for something more...

As for more epic than what you've been expecting... well, that's hard to say, given that I don't know what you've been expecting up 'till now

I think regardless of expectations, it will be much appreciated, as it is indeed a very good chapter.
I totally agree with ijp92 that you´ve managed an excellent balance here.

[Té Rowan]

Huh, never saw that before...

Took me googling for '"tiare" sailor moon' to even find it amongst the bouquets of white flowers. http://sailormoon.wikia.com/wiki/Moon_Power_Tiare.

[ijp92]

As for Spender, I do definitely follow Paranatural (great webcomic) though I confess I am blanking on where his vibes are coming in.

The thing where using the Golden Crystal weakens Melinoe's prison reminds me of how Spender expending Lucifer's power weakens ...something's prison, as seen in the most recent arc.

[claymade]

And yes probably better, because due to how Moon does have that tiara of her´s, i can almost guarantee i´m not going to be the only one to wonder if that´s what you meant and just made a typo.

Yeah, you're right, I'll change it.

The thing where using the Golden Crystal weakens Melinoe's prison reminds me of how Spender expending Lucifer's power weakens ...something's prison, as seen in the most recent arc.

Ahhhhhhh, gotcha. Yes, I see the parallels now.

[Blackcat101]

Well, I liked this chapter despite the the Big Bad carrying the Idiot Ball. I understand it was needed unless you wanted the Senshi to end killing one of Ranma's friends and everything go wrong.

Also this is the BEST Ranma/Sailor Moon fic that doesn't have Ranma becoming a Senshi and or earning extra powers.

[Spica75]

Well, I liked this chapter despite the the Big Bad carrying the Idiot Ball. I understand it was needed unless you wanted the Senshi to end killing one of Ranma's friends and everything go wrong.

Also this is the BEST Ranma/Sailor Moon fic that doesn't have Ranma becoming a Senshi and or earning extra powers.

Who do you mean grabs the idiot ball? It´s hard to be "perfect" when you´re forced to react rather than act according to well prepared plans.

[Blackcat101]

Who do you mean grabs the idiot ball? It´s hard to be "perfect" when you´re forced to react rather than act according to well prepared plans.

The Idiot Ball was grabbed before this chapter actually, is just that in this chapter when they are starting to face the consequences.

I mean, Ranma had already been framed due to his supposed attack to Sailor Moon. Sending a possessed person against enemies that are actually used to fight possessed people? Really? Honest? That's the best plan you got?

That has to be the stupidest mistake the Bad Guys have made so far.

[claymade]

Also this is the BEST Ranma/Sailor Moon fic that doesn't have Ranma becoming a Senshi and or earning extra powers.

Thanks, glad you're enjoying it!

I mean, Ranma had already been framed due to his supposed attack to Sailor Moon.

Ah, but the NWC had already started working on fixing that--as Tanizaki knew Ranma would. It's certainly not the case that Ekim possessing Ranma "was needed unless you wanted the Senshi to end killing one of Ranma's friends". Remember, the Senshi were already starting to suspect that the Dark Lords were telling the truth about the third party's involvement before Ekim ever did anything. They certainly wouldn't have killed any of the NWC in that state of uncertainty, not without serious provocation.

Now, if it had been successful, Ekim's gambit might have been that provocation, if he'd caught Ami sleeping like they'd planned and things had gone as they'd anticipated. But if he hadn't made that play, the misunderstanding would still have been resolved. Just with much less fanfare. At least this way there was a chance for the Bad Guys to keep the feud going, even if it didn't pan out for them in the end.

[Spica75]

The Idiot Ball was grabbed before this chapter actually, is just that in this chapter when they are starting to face the consequences.

I mean, Ranma had already been framed due to his supposed attack to Sailor Moon. Sending a possessed person against enemies that are actually used to fight possessed people? Really? Honest? That's the best plan you got?

That has to be the stupidest mistake the Bad Guys have made so far.

And just how much do they know exactly about that, before trying it in this chapter? Even with perfect and complete knowledge, it was still not a plan doomed to fail. Not even close.

It´s not an "idiot ball" if it has a fair chance to succeed.

Not to forget, "bad guys" both real and fictional tend to be convinced that THEY are not susceptible to the failures and risks of all those incompetent ordinary people.

Sorry, but definitely no idiot ball there.

[Neko-]

I need to make some time to read this... Should've been easier to do if I didn't consider re-reading the whole thing from chapter 1 just to refresh my memory on the story

[claymade]

I need to make some time to read this... Should've been easier to do if I didn't consider re-reading the whole thing from chapter 1 just to refresh my memory on the story

Heh. Yeah, I know people have mentioned to me on more than one occasion that they've had that memory refresh issue, due to my crappy update speed. I keep resolving to try and crank the next chapter out faster, but the rate seems to stay fairly constant nonetheless...