The Dark Lords Ascendant, Chapter 12 [R/SM Cross]

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The Dark Lords Ascendant, Chapter 12 [R/SM Cross]

Postby claymade » Mon Sep 07, 2015 12:14 pm

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 Twelve: On the Offensive



Ryo could not suppress a grimace of pain as Metzger's guards shoved him toward their destination. The four men weren't concerned with his bad leg, only moving him along as fast as possible, and each step caused bursts of pain from the old injury. Still, he managed not to give them the satisfaction of hearing him cry aloud.

The only time they paused was at the gate in the electric fence surrounding the camp, where one of the guards radioed to have Ryo's explosive collar temporarily authorized to leave the grounds. Otherwise, just stepping beyond that boundary would have been enough to trigger its detonation. It seemed they wanted him alive for a little longer, at least.

Once they were past the fence, the guards herded him toward the security center, a large, three-story building. After entering it, they followed a series of corridors that was all too familiar to Ryo, finally arriving in the room where his interrogations usually took place. The guards threw him down into a metal chair in front of a small, white table. On the other side of the table stood Doctor Metzger.

Usually, in any interrogations where the elderly scientist deigned to appear in person, Metzger would be eyeing Ryo with an aloof, clinical detachment, as though he were regarding an insect. Not so this time. This time, he glared at Ryo with undisguised anger.

For several seconds silence reigned, as Metzger tried his best to read Ryo. Finally, the scientist spoke. "Is it true?"

"Is what true?" asked Ryo mildly. "You'll have to be more specific if you want me to—"

Metzger made a small gesture, and one of the guards slammed the butt of his assault rifle into the side of Ryo's head. The force of the blow sent the young man sprawling to the floor, but the guard on the opposite side pulled Ryo back up and threw him back into the chair.

Ryo tasted blood in his mouth, and his vision swam. That's new, he thought. Metzger's never had me hit in the head before. While Ryo had been tortured regularly, Metzger had always avoided anything that might possibly have had an adverse effect on his brain, paranoid about killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. He didn't seem worried about that now, though.

"Understand this, youma," Metzger spat out, his voice thick with suppressed fury. "Playing dumb will not save you. One way or another, you will not leave this room alive. You may, however, be able to earn yourself a slightly easier death if you answer my questions honestly for once. Have you really been manipulating me this whole time? How much of the future did you actually see, that you kept hidden? Davidson and his men assaulting me... did you know about that ahead of time as well?"

Ryo said nothing, only stared back up at the old man who had been his tormentor for years. Once the silence had dragged on for too long, Metzger gestured again. This time, two of the guards drew metal batons and began to strike Ryo over and over again from either side. They swung the weapons into his ribs, into his arms, into his head, beating him until he fell out of the chair a second time. Once that happened, they started to kick him as well.

Finally they paused in their beating, allowing Metzger to walk closer, circling the table until his boots came into view from Ryo's prone position. The old scientist knelt down and spoke in a disgusted tone. "What a waste. If only you had cooperated, youma, none of this would have been necessary. You could have helped me achieve great things, and would have lived out your days as an important specimen." He sighed. "The shortsightedness of your subhuman species, I suppose."

With that, Metzger rose back to his feet. "Beat him to death," he instructed the guards. "Make sure he suffers. Then put his body on display in the camp as a warning to the rest of these animals."



**********



"I have the cold water. And the pen."

Boxy offered the former item to Beneda, who splashed herself with it, taking on her human form once more. The latter item had not been Beneda's idea; rather, it had been something Yumemi had suggested when Beneda had explained what she intended to do. Boxy handed the pen to Yumemi, who sat down and closed her eyes.

Beneda held her breath, knowing that she was about to witness something she had only heard of in the legends of her people. The power of Binah the Artist, one of the Seven Great Youma. Metzger's experiments on Yumemi had restored the use of her innate ability, but the magic still required some kind of drawing implement as a focus. Karkala had swiped this pen during one of her own examinations, smuggling it back into the camp at great risk to herself, and they had kept it hidden from the guards ever since.

With quick, precise swipes, Yumemi began to draw in the air, each stroke of her pen leaving behind a glowing green line hanging in space. Once each construct was outlined it was quickly filled with substance, becoming a true example of what she had drawn. Yumemi went from one object to the next with a grace that astonished Beneda, drawing out the different items they had decided would help the most. It took only seconds for her to finish, and when she did she handed them to Beneda.

There was no time to waste. Once again, Beneda donned the guard uniform that she had worn to sneak in in the first place, binding her silver hair up inside the helmet. She stuffed Yumemi's gifts up under her shirt, hiding the bulge beneath the body armor. She took a deep breath, and looked over at the other three youma. There was no more putting it off now.

Karkala spoke up. "If they're taking Ryo to Metzger, that probably means he'll be in the interrogation room. It's in the biggest of the buildings. You'll need to take the first right immediately after the entrance, then the second left, and it's the fourth door on the right."

"Thank you," Beneda said. Then she turned, and hurried out into the camp. Putting one foot in front of the other, she made for the main gate. Her heart hammered in her chest as she drew nearer and nearer, until she had reached the checkpoint. She flashed her stolen badge as she walked through, but the guard paid little more attention to her going out than yesterday's guard had to her entering. Then she was past, and headed toward the building Karkala had described. Now the really dangerous part would begin.

She entered, repeating Karkala's directions over and over again in her head to ensure that they didn't slip her mind. Before going to the room, though, she searched until she found a small, out-of-the-way storage closet. Ducking inside, she pulled off her armor and guard uniform, she replaced them with some of the items Yumemi had drawn for her: a sharp, tight-fitting black suit over a white shirt, with a matching black tie and high heels. Finishing off the ensemble was a pair of black sunglasses that hid her eyes entirely.

Her hands trembled a little as she buttoned up the suit. It was sinking in to her just how completely alone she was, in her weak human form, in the middle of an encampment filled with enemies. There was no Konatsu watching over her this time. If she went through with this, and if anything went wrong with her spur-of-the-moment, barely-thought-through plan... they would kill her without mercy.

Beneda clenched her hands into fists as tight as she could, until the trembling stopped. She couldn't afford to let even the slightest sign of fear show. Both her life and Ryo's depended on it. She finished buttoning up the suit, slipped the sunglasses down over her eyes, and walked back out into the hallway, putting every bit of confidence she could fake into her stride.

It did not take her long to reach the interrogation room. Beneda did not allow herself to stop and second guess herself, but opened the door without pausing and walked in, slamming it shut behind her.

Metzger and the guards whirled to look at the intruder, turning away from where Ryo's battered, bleeding body lay. Beneda forced herself not to pay any attention to him, forced herself not to worry about the four assault rifles that were now leveled at her. Instead she looked directly at the old scientist, affecting a look of cool professionalism. "Doctor Metzger. A pleasure to finally meet you."

"Who the hell are you?" Metzger demanded, thrown off-balance by her arrival. "How did you get in here? How do you even know about this place?"

Beneda let a small smirk cross her face. "My employers have been aware of your little operation here for quite some time, doctor. Today isn't the first time I've paid you a visit, just the first time I've announced myself. We've been keeping close tabs on your work here."

Metzger paled, looking a little nervous. Which was exactly what Beneda had hoped for. The more she could play up her complete infiltration of their security—which in reality had been far more Konatsu's skill than hers—the less likely Metzger would be to risk trying something with the handful of ordinary guards he had with him. She pressed her advantage. "My employers have a business proposal that they would like you to bring before your own employer. They believe that our interests align, and that we can be of use to each other."

"You can't be serious," Metzger replied. "This is insane. You're insane. I should have them shoot you right now."

"You could try." Beneda crossed her arms and let her voice go ice cold. "But it would be the last thing you ever did. If you had Zhang with you I might be worried... which is why I made sure he was back in our world before I approached you."

Metzger hesitated. "You know about Zhang?"

"Of course I know about Zhang," Beneda replied. "We are in the same line of work, after all. I always keep an eye on my competition."

The elderly scientist swallowed. He clearly knew what Zhang was capable of, and her survival depended on planting the idea in Metzger's mind that she was that same kind of monster. She'd learned long ago that sometimes, when you were completely in over your head, the only thing you could do was double down and bluff with everything you had.

The last time she'd done something like this, it had been to save her own skin, and it had caused the rift between Ranma and the Sailor Senshi. This time, though, it was to save someone else's life... and hopefully repair some of the damage she had caused.

Metzger was clearly thinking hard, trying to decide on his best course of action. Beneda didn't interrupt him. Her entire goal was to stall him for as long as possible, to stretch out this insane gambit until help could arrive, using whatever lies or distractions she could come up with. Finally the scientist spoke. "I'll... speak to you some other time, through proper channels," he said. "But you need to leave. Now."

"Not good enough." Beneda's tone was flat, but inside she was thinking frantically to come up with a counter. "If you're not willing to talk... then I have orders to take you back by force."

The soldiers tensed at that, and Beneda knew she was walking a tightrope. One wrong move, and she would be shot dead. Her only weapon was the image they had of her. She walked slowly, deliberately toward Metzger, the guns tracking her every move as she tried to project utter unconcern. "Think about it, doctor," she said. "Do you really think I would be stupid enough to just reveal myself like this if your little soldiers were anything even resembling a threat to me?"

Please don't let him realize I am that stupid, she prayed. Please don't let him realize I am that stupid. Please don't let him realize I am that stupid. Please don't let him realize I am that stupid.

The silence stretched on, the guards waiting on the signal to open fire. Metzger looked into her eyes, and Beneda was grateful that they were hidden behind the impassive black shades. He licked his lips, and then finally spoke. "Very well..." he said. "I suppose it wouldn't do any harm to hear you out. Just what kind of deal is it that you want me to take to my employer?"

Beneda wanted to sag in relief, but allowed no sign of that to show. All she gave was a tight smile. "A wise choice, doctor. Now... to begin with, one area that interests my employers are your grey 'Synth' creatures. They seem fairly capable in combat, and have other potential uses as well. Tell me... how much would it cost per unit to order a supply of them for our own use?"

Her mind already racing ahead, Beneda tried to think of more ways to stall, tried to think of how to drag each of those ways out as long as she could. And all the while, one constant refrain was running through her thoughts. Please, please let them get here soon...



**********



Ranma, Konatsu and Sailor Mercury leapt from rooftop to rooftop as they headed toward Juuban, keeping Ryouga hemmed in between them to ensure that he stayed on course. Not that he hadn't veered off anyway, but it made it easier to rein him in when he did.

As they drew closer to their destination they dropped down to the streets in order to be less conspicuous, Sailor Mercury turning back into Mizuno Ami as well. They walked the rest of the way, none of them saying much, each absorbed in their own thoughts. Eventually they arrived, and Konatsu vanished to sneak into the facility once again. The other three went over to wait in a restaurant across the street from the fake business, keeping an eye on it while they waited for the ninja's return.

Ranma noticed that Ami was clenching the fingers of one hand with the other, as she stared out the window. He regarded the younger girl for a moment, considering what she was going through. How would he feel in her place? If he had thought that Akane had been dead, only to learn years later that she was alive, but had spent all that time being tortured by some crazy scientist?

He shuddered. It didn't bear thinking about. He didn't know how she was even holding it together. He usually wasn't much for the touchy-feely stuff, but he figured he ought to say... well, something to try and reassure her. "Um, hey..." he began. "Don't worry about pulling this off. We've all done way crazier stuff than busting a bunch of people loose from some prison. Rescuing this 'Ryo' guy is gonna be a piece of cake."

Ami looked up in surprise, then nodded once. "Thank you."

The three of them lapsed into silence yet again. After a few minutes, Ami pulled out her little computer-thing and started typing into it, while Ryouga just kept staring across the street worriedly. Eventually, Ami looked up from her device. "My scan just picked up Konatsu!" she said, struggling to keep her voice quiet despite her urgency. "It looks like he's on his way back."

It wasn't much longer before the ninja appeared before them, sitting down at the table. He wore a troubled expression that worried Ranma. "What's wrong?" the pigtailed fighter asked, even as Ami and Ryouga both tensed.

"Your friend, Mr. Urawa... has been taken by the doctor in charge of the camp," Konatsu explained in an undertone. "Beneda thinks they intend to kill him. She's trying to stall for time, but—"

The explanation was cut off, as Ami shot to her feet, reaching into her pocket for her transformation stick as she ran toward the door. But Konatsu's hand shot out, grabbing her arm before she could get far. "Wait!" he urged. "Let me go in first. The youma told me about a control room that I need to secure without them realizing, or else they may start killing the prisoners with their collars."

Ami froze, the agonizing need to do something written across her face. But she closed her eyes, nodded, and forced herself to sit back down. Konatsu rose instead. "Give me three minutes," he said. "Then hit them with everything you have." With that, the ninja vanished into a flicker of speed.

The three minutes that followed was one of the longest three minutes that Ranma could remember. Just sitting there, waiting, the seconds ticking by. Ami used her wristwatch communicator to contact the other Senshi, telling them to hurry as fast as they could to back them up, but once that was done she had nothing more to do besides constantly checking the clock on the restaurant wall. With a minute to spare, she rose. "I'm going to find someplace to transform," she informed them, her voice tight. "I'll meet you outside."

She slipped out of the restaurant. About half a minute later, the two martial artists got up themselves and strode toward the door. Or at least, Ranma did, and so did Ryouga once Ranma had grabbed him by the collar and pulled him in the correct direction. They emerged, joined seconds later by Sailor Mercury. Murmurs began to spread through the surrounding crowd at the sight of the Sailor Senshi, but the three of them ignored it as they walked across the street toward Tanizaki's building.

Ryouga opened the door, causing the mousy-looking receptionist at the front desk to look up from her work. "Hello, and welcome to—" she began, only to halt in mid-sentence, her eyes going wide at the sight of the Sailor Senshi coming toward her, flanked by the two martial artists.

Immediately, one of the woman's hands slid under her desk, and a shrill alarm began to blare throughout the building. Her other hand shot out to one side, a throwing knife appearing in her palm from inside her sleeve, which she hurled at Sailor Mercury. But the Senshi managed to duck, the blade slicing over her head and into the wall behind her. Ranma took the opening, dashing forward to vault over the desk with a kick aimed at the woman's face.

The "secretary" managed to get her arms up in time to block, but the force of the kick still lifted her off her feet, smashing her through the wall behind her and into a small locker room in a shower of wood and plaster. She rolled as she landed, a second knife appearing in her other hand, which she used to slash at Ranma as he came after her.

Ranma slid around the first two cuts, then caught her wrist and twisted, wrenching the blade loose with a hiss of pain from his opponent. Off-balanced, she couldn't stop him from kicking her legs out from under her, then slamming his palm down into the back of her neck as she fell, driving her into the ground and into unconsciousness.

Behind him, he heard the sound of many tromping feet, and then the doors on either side of the lobby burst open, armored guards flooding in with weapons at the ready. The ones on the left emerged straight into a perfectly-timed torrent of water, released with a cry of "Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!" The Senshi's attack swept back and forth across the hallway, scouring it, knocking soldiers around like rag dolls.

To the right, Ryouga jumped right into the thick of Tanizaki's men before they could react. He drove a kick into the chest of one of them, using him as a projectile to take out several more like a human bowling ball. The others tried to turn and target him, but they were far too slow. He backhanded one away without even looking, the man spiraling through the air five times before crashing back to earth. With his other hand, he grabbed another by the front of their armor, yanking the man forward into a head-butt that knocked him out even through his helmet.

In mere seconds there were no enemies left standing, and those few that were still conscious were groaning weakly in pain as they curled up on the ground. Sailor Mercury lowered her blue-tinted visor, scanning the area, and then pointed to one of the doors. "This way!"

Ranma and Ryouga needed no second bidding, and the three of them raced down the hallway toward the Dark Kingdom portal.



*********



Doctor Metzger narrowed his eyes as he regarded the silver-haired woman standing between him and the door of his interrogation room. Currently, she was asking questions about how much it would cost to allow her employers' scientists to examine some of the monsters here themselves. But at this point, Metzger suspected that there was something else going on here. Her questions were increasingly disorganized as she went, covering many different areas, while being entirely vague whenever he tried to press her for specifics.

Is she fishing for information? the scientist wondered. Trying to make me let slip a secret? He had made sure to be equally vague in what he'd told her, revealing nothing important. But who knew what she was really after? Or who she really worked for?

Either way, he tried not to let his suspicions show. Whatever game this woman was playing, she had penetrated his security undetected, and that spoke to her skills. If she truly was one of those freakish martial artists—if she was even half as deadly as Zhang—then he knew the four guards he had with him would be unlikely to kill her. That wasn't a risk he was willing to take, not when it was his own neck on the line.

Besides, time was on his side. If he could just stall her, eventually more of his men would come to check on him. His position could only get stronger. He just had to play for time, avoid revealing anything too crucial, and hope she didn't lose her patience.

It was then that the alarm klaxon began to sound.

They couldn't hear anything from outside, since the interrogation room was thoroughly soundproofed, but the alarm system did have a speaker in that room, and it was blaring for all it was worth. "What the devil is—?" Metzger began, but was cut off as, with a cry of fury, Urawa Ryo tackled one of the guards from behind, grappling with him for his gun.

The other three guards whirled reflexively, trying to get a clear shot without hitting their comrade... but the instant they took their eyes off the silver-haired woman she sprang into action. Both her hands shot out, one poking the nearest guard in the side of the neck with two fingers, while the other snaked around underneath his arm to jab up into his armpit. The man's entire right side went limp and he tumbled forward, even as the woman wrenched the assault rifle from his grasp. She spun swinging the weapon around to slam its butt into the face of the guard on the other side of her.

The blow broke the man's nose, snapping his head back as he stumbled away, but by then the fourth guard had spun back and aimed his weapon at her. But before he could fire, Urawa beat him to the punch, pulling the trigger of the gun he was still feverishly struggling over.

Neither combatant had a good grip on the weapon, and the gun jerked crazily in their hands, spraying the entire room with ricocheting bullets as the deafening reports assaulted Metzger's ears. The scientist dove to the ground, curling himself into a trembling ball to make himself as small a target as possible. Above him, the guard who had been about to shoot the woman lurched back as several lucky shots hit his body armor.

By now, the guard struggling with Urawa was driving his knee into the young man's stomach over and over again in an attempt to dislodge his grip, but Urawa hung on with crazed determination, and a resistance to pain forged by years of torture. Within a few seconds, the gun had expended the entire clip. With no more need to hang onto that weapon, the guard hurled both Urawa and the rifle to the ground, then pulled a smaller pistol from his hip holster, swung it down to point at his attacker, and fired twice.

Urawa cried out as the bullets hit him, one in his stomach and the other higher in his chest. Then next instant, the guard standing over Urawa was knocked staggering as he was hit by the limp, careening body of the guard whose nose had been broken. The silver-haired woman had paralyzed him with her pressure point attacks and then thrown him into his ally. She followed, charging headlong across the room and snatching up the metal chair as she went, using all her momentum to spin and slam one of the chair's legs into the back of the guard's neck, dropping him to the ground.

She knelt down beside the bloody young man, and from her desperate expression Metzger realized belatedly what her game had really been all along. She was on Urawa's side, somehow. It had all been a ploy to delay his execution. But it had failed; the precognitive youma was bleeding out, and with the alarm there would doubtless be more of Metzger's men coming to get him at any moment.

Probably realizing this, the woman picked Urawa up, slung him over her back in a fireman's carry, and raced for the door. Even as she ran, the guard who had taken the bullets in his armor managed to crawl back to a sitting position and bring his gun around. He opened fire, bullets tracing her path as she dove out of the room, but the guard's injuries impacted his accuracy, and she made her escape unscathed.

Grimacing, the guard pulled himself to his feet and hobbled over to where Metzger was huddled, clutching his side as he went. Considering the caliber of those rifles and the limits of the armor, he probably had at least a broken rib or two. "Are you hurt, sir?" the guard asked. "Do you need any help?"

Gathering his nerves, Metzger climbed back to his feet, ignoring the offer of aid. "No," the scientist snapped. "What I need is to find out what in damnation is going on here!"



**********



The sound of the alarms carried over to the camp outside, causing the monsters within to look up in anticipation. Murmurs began to spread between them. Was this it? Was it really happening? Were these "Dark Lords" that had been promised really coming to rescue them from the hell they had been living in for so long?

Now was the time the plan called for them to rise up, to strike out themselves against their oppressors. But on reaching the point of no return... they hesitated. Would it really work? The collars around their necks had never felt so heavy as in that moment, the collars that had kept them subservient for years.

Had the deadly devices really been taken out of play? If not, then any attempt at resistance would end in a massacre. It was a leap of faith, putting their lives entirely into the hands of humans that they had never even met. The idea seemed so insane, now that they had actually come to it.

Jimenko, the brown, stocky leader of the lemures, looked out across the throng of monsters filling the camp's courtyard. She knew the fear that they were feeling. She could feel it in her own chest, chewing away at her spirit. Hell, she'd doubted the sanity of this whole plan from the beginning.

And yet... she had agreed to it. She wasn't about to back out now. Not because she was scared. These bastards hadn't broken her that far, not yet.

Slowly she reached down, digging her fingers into the stone beneath her. Jimenko didn't even have any ranged attacks of her own, just strength and durability that were impressive even by lemure standards. She used that strength to rip up a chunk of rock, feeling its heft in her hands. Then she drew her arm back and hurled it, with all her might.

The projectile shot from her hand faster than the ordinary eye could follow, striking one of the guards stationed near the main gate. His body crumpled from the impact, which sent him flying backward into the electric fence that surrounded the camp. Twenty thousand volts of electricity made his body spasm and smoke as he fried there.

For a moment, that sizzling sound was the only sound to break the stunned silence. Then, in a rush, all the remaining guards whipped their guns up to aim at Jimenko, as did the two machine gun towers on either side of the gate. "You scum!" one of them snarled, his expression showing both anger and incredulity that one of their victims had dared strike back against them. "Get on your knees, monster! We're going to make an example out of you!"

Jimenko snorted, simply crossing her arms but not otherwise moving. Instead, several other monsters moved to cover her, standing between her and the soldiers. Not just lemures either. To her surprise, the group included several other monster species as well.

The human guards looked even more surprised at the scale of the resistance. "Fine, have it your way!" their leader finally spluttered, then activated the radio attached to the shoulder of his body armor. "Control! Are you idiots asleep over there? Why aren't you watching the cameras? We've got a Code Ten, repeat, Code Ten! I want you to start blowing collars right away!"

For a second, every monster in the crowd held their breath, certain in spite of themselves that they were about to see carnage unleashed. But that one second stretched into two, and two into three, and three into four, and on past that with no change or response whatsoever.

"Control?" the guard finally called out, his tone not nearly so confident as before. "Control! Come in, control!"

Silence.

Across the camp's yard, hundreds of monsters began to slowly converge on the gate and the half-dozen guards manning it. Many of them were lifting their hands, readying all manner of different attacks. Fire, ice, blades, bombs, and countless different colors and flavors of magical energy. The guards inched backward as the tide advanced, their eyes wide with panic. They still brandished their guns, but dared not fire them, seeing the entirely disproportionate response it would set off.

"L-look..." their leader finally said, his face pale. "Why don't we... uh... talk this out? I'm sure we can—"



**********



A good distance away from the camp, Konatsu watched the security camera feed on the monitors of the control room, as it showed the gate guards vanishing under the furious outpouring of youma attacks. One of the nearby machine gun towers exploded into a flaming pyre immediately, while the other got off a short half-burst before it was eviscerated by countless criss-crossing energy beams.

Behind the ninja, the unconscious personnel who had previously been manning the various consoles lay strewn across the room. Taking them out had been child's play. Now he just needed to hold this room against any attempts to reclaim and use it. Part of him was tempted to simply smash the deadly controls outright, but he didn't know what failsafes that might trigger. No, the best course of action was to keep the computers safe until someone more technical—like Miss Mizuno—could examine them.

He took another glance at the monitors. The prisoners had used their powers to clear the perimeter of the camp without much difficulty, but the real work was only beginning. They were still trapped like fish in a barrel, unable to leave the camp grounds without their collars tripping automatically. It would be up to the humans to take care of the forces outside.

The sound of booted feet running toward his position drew Konatsu's thoughts back to his own task. The ninja took a few steps back, melting into the shadows in one corner of the room, ready to strike. More enemies were already on their way... and he would be ready to greet them.



**********



Beneda ran headlong down the hallway, looking for someplace she could hide. Ryo's bullet wounds were bad, and he needed immediate treatment. But if Metzger's men caught up with them before her friends fought their way here Ryo would be dead just the same. "Why did you go and attack like that?" she muttered, half to herself. "I could have stalled him for longer."

"No..." wheezed Ryo, somehow hanging onto consciousness. "I... I saw. Metzger... the alarms... already suspicious. Would have just... had them shoot. Making... our move then... only choice."

Further conversation was cut off as they rounded a corner and Beneda saw exactly what she had been hoping to find: a restroom. She ducked inside, slamming the door behind her, then laid Ryo down on his back in front of the rows of stalls. Running over to the sinks, she twisted on the hot water and ran her hand under it, returning to her youma form. She breathed a sigh of relief. At least she wasn't quite so weak and fragile anymore.

Next, she moved over to the large metal garbage receptacle by the sink, grabbed it with both hands, and then pulled, straining with all of her regained youma strength. With a creak and a wrench it came free, whereupon she used it to brace the door shut, wedging it in tightly at an angle with several strong kicks. Beneda knew that more soldiers would be sweeping the building soon, once Metzger told them that there were enemies inside the facility as well as outside.

Once she had bought that much time she turned back to Ryo, kneeling down next to him. It didn't look good. The whole front of his drab prisoner's uniform was sodden with blood. She formed a shuriken with one hand, deftly cutting away the shirt to expose his chest. I have to stop the bleeding, she thought. That's the most immediate threat to his life... if it isn't already too late.

Pushing all defeatist thoughts aside, the youma shrugged off the costume Yumemi had drawn for her, slashing the suit jacket and pants into strips of cloth suitable for impromptu bandages. She applied them, using direct pressure as well, doing everything she could think of to keep the young man from bleeding out. He was still breathing, but his face was deathly pale and he was no longer conscious.

"Come on..." she whispered, barely even registering what her own mouth was saying. "Come on, come on, hang in there!" But while her efforts were helping, she knew she could not stabilize him completely, not with what she had here.

Not to mention all the enemy soldiers who would soon be coming to look for them...



**********



Doctor Metzger stalked out of the interrogation room, followed by the injured guard. He hadn't gone far before he ran into another guard, this one an officer. "Sir!" the officer exclaimed. "I was just coming to find you. We're under attack! We've lost all contact with our forces on the Tokyo side of the portal, and now the enemy is smashing their way through the tunnels!"

"Who?" the elderly scientist demanded, anger in every word. "Who is it?"

"We're not sure, sir. Everything in their path has been taken down, without anyone making it back to report. But what fragments of radio transmissions that we have gotten indicate that the invasion force is... three people. And sir... one of them is a Sailor Senshi."

Metzger let out a burst of profanity in German. It was the worst possible situation. Tanizaki would have his hide if he let Urawa come under the control of the Sailor Senshi. "We have to terminate Project Janus now. Contact the control room and have them detonate his collar immediately!"

The officer hesitated. "Sir, we've... lost contact with the control room as well. I sent a squad to investigate, but I haven't heard back from them yet. Also... the monsters in the camp have seized control and killed any of our people in the area. It all seems to be coordinated, sir."

The expression on Metzger's face was one of incredulity. He stumbled backward, his mind beset by memories from decades ago. Memories of the previous time he'd had a place of unfettered research like this torn away from him by short-sighted, self-righteous invaders. This can't be happening! he thought. Not again!

Then the elderly scientist clenched his fists, his face twisting into a snarl. No, he would not let it happen that way again. This camp he'd created was his second chance, given to him because Tanizaki had seen his genius, seen his willingness to use whatever means were necessary. He was not going to run away and hide this time. This time, he would defend his work with everything he had.

"Release the Beast into the tunnels with its aggression initiator set to maximum," he snapped. "That should be enough to deal with the group headed our way. Then put together a team to sweep this building and kill Project Janus, and the woman with him. Any forces you have left after that, send them to retake the control room."

Then his lips widened into a humorless smile. "And have the Jötunn prepared for launch."



**********



Sailor Mercury sprinted down the rocky tunnel, with Ranma and Ryouga on either side of her as they raced toward a group of the grey creatures. A half-dozen of the four-armed, sword-wielding types ran to meet them, while one of the tank-sized grey spiders followed at a distance, its single eye glowing. A large beam of blood-red energy soon burst from that eye, burning through the air with a wash of heat as the three of them veered around it on either side.

The Senshi of Water called on her power as she ran, her element flowing around her to form her liquid harp. She drew her fingers across the strings, sending a concentrated blast of water surging down the corridor. The sword-wielders scattered nimbly out of the attack's path, but she had aimed so that the larger enemy—her true target—didn't have enough room to dodge. The raging torrent slammed into the creature, knocking it back off its legs and onto its back as it slid along the ground.

The sword-wielders took the opportunity to close the rest of the distance and leap at her, blades swinging. But before they could slash her, Ryouga landed in their path. His finger stabbed down into the rock, and the resulting explosion blasted the monsters back through the air, their arms flailing. He caught two of them by their ankles in mid-flight, one in each hand, then lunged after the rest, swinging the two improvised bludgeons around him as he spun. Using the bodies of their fellows, he pounded the other four into the ground and walls with bone-shattering force.

Ranma raced past them both, reaching the grey spider as it struggled back to its feet. He tore into it with a rain of savage blows, and the creature shuddered under the assault. But Sailor Mercury saw that its eye was beginning to glow again. Acting quickly, she called out "Shine Aqua Illusion!" and hurled another burst of water at it, this one wrapping around its target to freeze it solid.

A grin crossing his face, Ranma drew his fist back, then slammed it into the huge monster in a single, concentrated punch. The frozen spider shattered, fragments flying everywhere. Ryouga, meanwhile, was finishing off the last of the smaller monsters, using one of his "clubs" to repeatedly smash it into a crater.

Once the area was clear they broke into a run again. This was the third such patrol they had encountered, not counting the guards that had been immediately on the other side of the portal. They were punching through easily enough, but even slight delays made Sailor Mercury nervous. Were they going to get there in time?

She pulled out her Mercury Computer as they ran, scanning the tunnel system ahead, checking their route and looking for any further threats. The area ahead looked clear, and they had almost reached their destination. She increased her pace, the walls shooting by as she ran.

Then her computer let out an urgent chirp, as a blinking red dot appeared on the screen ahead of them, racing down the tunnel toward their position at high speed. "Something's coming!" she called out. "It's readings are far more powerful than any of the grey creatures. In fact..." She paused, double-checking what her device was telling her. "In fact... it's giving off a youma reading."

Even as she spoke, the red dot was drawing nearer and nearer. The three of them spread out, their every sense alert. Then finally, in a sudden burst of motion, a large greenish-blue blur shot around the corner, ricocheted off a wall and dove toward them with a crazed yowl. It targeted Ryouga first, who leapt away, narrowly avoiding the slash it made at him.

The blur continued after him, attacking in a frenzy, until Ryouga managed to grab one of its overextended strikes and fling it bodily overhead, hurling it down the tunnel behind them. It hit the ground in a roll, skidding to a stop, and it was then that Sailor Mercury got her first clear look at their attacker. Her eyes went wide. "Rhett Butler?"

Of course, the creature before her eyes was not the fat, lethargic housecat named by his young owner after a character from an American novel. No, his previous incarnation had been unleashed once more, that of Bakene of the Seven Great Youma. A huge cat-youma with a two-tone coat of bluish fur, he loomed over them, flexing his razor-sharp claws.

There were differences, though, from the last time Sailor Mercury had seen him like this. He wore a bulky metal collar around his neck, doubtless rigged with an explosive like the others. His musculature was more pronounced, and the power readings she was getting from him now were far in excess of any youma they had ever encountered during the Dark Kingdom battles. What did they do to you, Rhett?

Worse was the maddened, unthinking look in his eyes, a look that showed no recognition of her. His walk was more hunched and bestial than before, going mostly on all fours. "Rhett, it's me!" Sailor Mercury called out, holding up her hands palms-out, hoping against hope that she could get through to him. "Please remember!"

Rhett Butler blinked, his eyes focusing on her with a more sane look for a brief moment. But then he howled, clutching at his head, and the feral look returned. He launched himself at her—only to have Ryouga hit him from the side, plowing the youma into the tunnel wall. In response, Rhett raised one of his rear legs and kicked out, knocking Ryouga off him and into the opposite wall, then pouncing after him.

"Try not to hurt him!" Sailor Mercury urged, as she summoned her own power to join the fray. "He's not in control of his actions! Ranma, do you think you can—"

But as she turned to glance back at the pigtailed martial artist, she saw that he had gone white as a sheet, cowering at a distance while he watched Ryouga and the cat-youma wrestle back and forth. Sailor Mercury mentally kicked herself. His ailurophobia! she realized. Even in his huge form, Rhett Butler still retained features very similar to the housecats that so terrified Ranma, similar enough that it was triggering his fear response.

We can't waste time like this! Sailor Mercury thought. Her mind analyzed the situation, taking into account the different possibilities, and quickly settled on a course of action. "Ryouga!" she called out. "Don't worry about him! Just get Ranma out of here. I'll make sure he doesn't follow you."

Ryouga leaped over a claw slash, then rebounded off the tunnel ceiling to drive a kick into the side of Rhett Butler's head that sent the youma staggering away. "Are you sure?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at her with worry in his eyes. "This guy's pretty tough."

"I'll be fine!" Sailor Mercury insisted. "Someone needs to get help to Ryo. Besides, I have the best chance of getting him free without hurting him too badly. Please, trust me on this!"

Ryouga hesitated... and then nodded, jumping away from the youma. He landed next to Ranma, grabbed him by the back of the collar, and dragged him off down the tunnel away from the fight, though Ryouga kept looking back over his shoulder as he went.

Rhett Butler, meanwhile, was already back on the offensive. He burst into a run, charging toward her with an enraged snarl. She ducked at the last second, his claws shredding the air above her head, and she took advantage of the opening, leaping in at an angle while simultaneously lowering her visor. The youma tried to spin and stab down at her, but she kept darting back and forth, using the range and the tight confines of the tunnel to make it difficult to target her.

At the same time as she was doing this, she was also initiating a scan to try and figure out more about what was going on. She was going to have to stop Rhett somehow. And she was going to have to do it alone.



**********



Beneda continued to apply pressure to the makeshift bandages over Ryo's wounds as she knelt over the dying young man. There was far too much blood—on the bandages, on her hands, on the floor, and his breathing was dangerously shallow. Her treatment was not helping enough.

Truth be told, with his injuries Beneda was surprised that he had lasted even this long. Somehow he was still clinging to life, but she didn't know how much longer he could keep that up. She reached out with her senses, trying to get a feel for his life energy... and noticed something peculiar. There was something just slightly off about his aura.

It still felt mostly human, but there was a tinge of something else at work, something out of place. Could his youma magic be trying to keep him alive? she wondered. After all, he had been able to use his precognition even in human form. It was just possible that other traces of his former power might be surfacing in response to his injuries.

Beneda continued to do what she could as well. But all too soon she heard the sound of many new footfalls approaching their location. From the sound of it they were kicking in doors as they went, searching room by room for Ryo and her. They were still a ways down the hall, but at the rate they were going it would not be long before they found the refuge Beneda had chosen.

Between their numbers and their weapons, Beneda didn't think too much of her chances in a straight fight, but she was still determined to give it everything she had. She watched the door, biting her lower lip as the sound of their hunters grew closer and closer. Then they reached the restroom door itself, kicking it, only to have her impromptu barricade resist their efforts.

"They're here!" came the shout from outside, followed by an immediate barrage of gunfire, spraying bullets through the door and into the room beyond. Beneda went fully prone, covering Ryo with her own body while trying to make herself as small a target as she could. Bullets cut through the air above her, until finally the shooter had spent his clip. He began to reload, while another guard started to deliver more kicks against the now-weakened door itself. It was clear that their defense would not last much longer.

Beneda could see glimpses of movement through the holes shot in the door, could sense the killing intent radiating from the soldiers beyond. There would never be a better chance than this. Her hand shot into the pocket of the suit she was using as a bandage, and pulled out the one weapon she'd taken in with her.

A fifty yen coin.

Her version of the attack was still not at the level of Miss Hinako's original, but she had improved it since the fight against Kiima years ago. And these foes didn't have anything remotely close to the winged warrior's reserves of ki. The effect was immediate once she began; the soldiers outside reeled backward, their strength sapped as Beneda drained their life energy through the holes in the door. Some collapsed completely after several seconds, while some others who weren't as close to the door managed to crawl out of range.

Beneda could feel the power surging into her. But instead of absorbing it herself, she acted on a sudden inspiration, placing her other palm on Ryo's chest and redirecting the flow of the life energy into him. Such a crude infusion wasn't likely to make much difference for a normal human... but if there really was some part of Ryo's youma nature working to keep him alive, then it might be able to draw strength from that.

In the meantime, she went back to putting pressure on the bandages again, all too aware that the soldiers would soon return, and that they would be ready for that tactic the next time. Please hurry, everyone, she thought. I don't know how much longer we can last...



**********



Sailor Mercury launched herself backward, angling left and right as she attempted to avoid Rhett Butler's claws while simultaneously reading the data scrolling down the inner face of her visor. The youma's berserk assault didn't let up for a moment, as he lashed out in strike after strike. Her sailor fuku was cut in several places, with blood seeping from shallow cuts across her stomach, shoulder and cheek where she had not been quite fast enough.

Eventually, a soft ping signaled the end of her analysis and the data stopped scrolling. Just as I suspected, she thought as she dove under a slash, ending in a roll that carried her behind her attacker. The collar will kill him if anything so much as damages it. High explosives, set to blast shrapnel directly into his neck. They didn't want any risk of him getting free of their control and turning on them.

It was the mechanism of that control, though, that was the real discovery. The collar was sending electrical impulses into the youma's brain, directly stimulating a region that Sailor Mercury guessed corresponded to the amygdala in humans. The goal was to generate an overwhelming fight-or-flight reaction, and bring the youma's bestial instincts to the surface.

I have to get that collar off of him, without setting off the bomb! Sailor Mercury thought. But there's no way I can do that while he's attacking me like this. The next time she jumped back from one of Rhett's wild claw swipes, she gathered freezing energy to herself in mid-jump, then released it with a shout of "Shabon Spray Freezing!"

Innumerable blue spheres shot toward the cat-youma, flooding the tunnel. Even with his reflexes and speed, there was no way Rhett Butler could avoid them all. He charged forward regardless, ice forming around him wherever the attack scored a hit. Soon he was wrapped in ice, his paws freezing to the ground, and his forward progress ground to a halt. But Sailor Mercury could see that it would not hold him long enough for what she needed to do. Already cracks were beginning to show, as the monster roared and strained against his frozen bonds.

I think I'll need to knock him out, Sailor Mercury thought regretfully. Once again she formed her water harp, then drew her fingers across its strings, sending a torrent crashing into the monster. The force of the impact shattered the ice binding him and blasted him down the tunnel. He yowled and righted himself unsteadily, only to have a second stream hit him, followed by a third. Sailor Mercury advanced steadily down the rocky corridor after him, playing her harp as she went, battering the youma ever backward.

Finally, they reached a junction where the tunnel split at a right angle in either direction, leaving Rhett Butler nowhere to go but straight into the stone wall. Even then, it took a sustained—yet careful—bombardment to finally wear him down to the point where the youma crumpled forward to the ground, unconscious.

Sailor Mercury rushed over to the fallen monster, kneeling down beside him. She used her superhuman strength to pull off one of the small access panels on the collar, exposing the wiring underneath. More internal schematics and analysis flashed across her visor, supplementing what she saw with her own eyes. I think... Yes, I think I see how it all works... she thought. I should be able to disarm it. I just need to make certain that I haven't missed any failsafes.

But then she frowned, noticing a fluctuation in the readings she was getting. The electrical current has increased, and it's targeting a different region of the brain now... she thought. Then her eyes widened, as she realized what was happening. The collar detected that he lost consciousness, and it's programmed to forcibly wake him up!

Before she had even finished the thought, Rhett Butler's eyes snapped open. She tried to jump away from him, but the youma's hand shot out and grabbed hold of her ankle in mid-air, before she could get completely out of range. He then swung her in a wide arc around himself, slamming her like a baseball bat into the stone wall of the tunnel.

Sailor Mercury let out a choked half-scream of pain before the breath was knocked out of her, stone shattering from the impact. The crazed monster simply swung her back around, into the stone wall on the opposite side, duplicating the impact. Then he swung her up, high overhead, before bringing her crashing down with a force that cratered the ground beneath her.

The bestial youma threw back his head in a wild roar of victory. Then he lunged toward where she lay, his slavering fangs aimed to rip out her throat.



**********



Ranma raced down the tunnel at high speed, followed closely by Ryouga. The pigtailed martial artist had soon regained his composure after losing sight of the hideous cat monster, allowing him to take the lead.

Hope Sailor Mercury is doing all right... he thought. He couldn't really understand how anyone could bear to stand up to a creature as horrifying as the one back there, but he knew he'd just have to trust her.

There was no time for further worry, though, as the two martial artists reached their destination, bursting out of the tunnels and into the large cavern. They could see a few soldiers scattered around, most of them fleeing for their lives. "Looks like they got things under control here," Ranma said. "But where's Beneda and that Ryo guy? From what Konatsu said, it sounded like they were in trouble with—"

A low rumble cut off his words, the ground vibrating as up from beneath came the sounds of heavy machinery activating. Looking off in that direction, Ranma saw that a set of large blast doors built into the ground were slowly opening, and that something was rising up into view, propelled by an equally large elevator. They've got some kind of... underground hangar over that way... he realized. But what are they keeping down... oh hell.

Second by second, more of the rising object became visible, allowing Ranma to determine what it was. It loomed above most of the buildings around it, well over three stories tall. Its metallic surface gleamed, its form roughly humanoid, but bulkier and featureless, with all manner of protrusions around it that were almost certainly weapon systems. Damn it, Ranma thought. I hate fighting mecha...

His first encounter with this sort of thing—Gosunkugi's old "One Punch" suit from years ago—had been bad enough, and that had been cheap mail-order crap. By contrast, the behemoth in front of them now looked top-of-the-line, and considerably more heavy-duty. If nothing else, Ranma was pretty sure that this one wasn't going to have a convenient time limit before blowing up all on its own.

He and Ryouga exchanged glances. Youma might be more than a match for normal soldiers, but against something like that they were going to be in trouble. "C'mon!" Ranma urged. "We gotta take that thing down, fast!"

Ryouga nodded in agreement, and as one, the two martial artists sprinted across the cavern floor toward their giant mechanical adversary. As he ran, Ryouga cupped one hand behind him, ki charging there as he ran, in what Ranma recognized as the lost boy's Shuchu Arashi. Good choice, he thought. We'll need a whole lot of stopping power for this, and even as slow as that technique is, a mech that huge probably won't be agile enough to avoid it.

Already Ranma was formulating his own battle strategy, considering the enemy and how best to put the resources at his disposal to use. Together, the two fighters raced toward the towering suit of mobile armor, ready to take it on.



**********



Inside the cockpit of the battlesuit, Doctor Metzger let out a breath of relief as he rested his hands on the controls. The Jötunn was his personal weapon, built to his exact specifications. Outside of it he might be weak and vulnerable, but inside he was untouchable, safe against both the attacks of these invaders and the defiance of his test subjects.

And not only was he safe, but he was able to return their insolence tenfold.

The scientist jammed a lever forward with one hand, activating the rocket boosters built into the Jötunn's legs, while using his other hand to steer with one of the half-dozen control sticks built into the panel. He could feel the suit's gyroscopes counterbalancing to keep him level as he soared through the air, easily clearing the electric fence around the camp proper and landing in the center with an earthshaking impact. He then turned to face the area where the creatures had gathered, and activated the suit's external speakers.

"This is your only warning," he barked out, his words amplified outside to a thunderous boom. "Cease this resistance and I may spare some of you."

The response from the monsters was to open fire at him. The Jötunn rocked a bit under the onslaught as various projectiles and energy blasts impacted against its armor, but Metzger was unconcerned. The horde of rebels out there in the camp were mostly the dregs of their various species. Any members with abilities powerful or esoteric enough that they might threaten something like this suit were either dead or held in specialized containment cells in his personal lab back in Tanizaki's skyscraper.

Metzger's lip curled in contempt. "Very well..." he said, and used a different control stick to aim a targeting reticle, before bringing his palm down on a button. "Then you can all die."



**********



Jimenko dropped down to one knee, ripping another large chunk of rock out from the ground and hurling it up at the metal giant with all her might. The projectile shot across the length of the camp to crash into its target, joining with all the other attacks doing the same, but it had little effect. What is that thing made out of? wondered the lemure.

Ignoring their ineffective attempts at resistance, the mechanized monstrosity retaliated with its own attack. Panels built into the top of its shoulders slid open, and scores upon scores of small missiles shot straight up from the launchers beneath, leaving long smoke trails behind them. Upon reaching a certain height they blossomed outward, arcing back down through twisting, criss-crossing paths toward the assembled monsters.

A few of the rebels with ranged attacks tried to pick incoming missiles out of the sky, but they were too small, too unpredictable, too fast. Other monsters raised their hands, forming barriers of various shapes and materials: energy shields, stone walls rising from the ground, steel plates materializing out of thin air, all of them forming a motley, patchwork defense over them.

Then the missile barrage hit.

Explosions burst against their defense with a fury entirely at odds with the small size of the missiles themselves. The monsters strained and struggled, but before long the shields began to crack and falter. Above Jimenko, the pulsing green shield protecting her area shattered completely, with two more missiles still plummeting toward the gap. Jimenko acted without thought. Not considering how stupid the idea was, she leaped up herself to meet them in midair, swinging both her fists in punches that just barely managed to tag them.

The missiles exploded, and Jimenko's whole world became fire and pain as the shockwaves blasted her earthward. She was barely conscious as her body crashed into the ground, but it seemed that her toughness had been up to the task. And she had fended off the brunt of the explosions from the rest.

Rolling over and dragging herself back to her hands and knees, she saw that they had fended off the barrage, if only just barely. Still, most of the defenders were either injured or spent, and Jimenko had no illusions as to whether they could do it a second time. If the battlesuit fired a second volley once it had finished reloading...

The enemy, however, raised its right arm instead, pointing it straight at them. A hatch opened in its forearm, and a different weapon slid out, locking into position. This one was long and sleek despite its immense size, with two prongs aimed in their direction. Even as far away as she was, Jimenko could hear a growing hum as the enormous railgun readied itself to fire.

It's over... Jimenko realized. There's no way we can stop something like that with what we have left... The enemy was just too strong. For all Beneda's promises and protestations, they'd never even had a chance. Still, she refused to close her eyes, instead looking up in defiance to stare her imminent death right in the face.

So she saw it perfectly when the blinding bolt of power slammed into the railgun from the side and detonated, knocking its aim away from them just as it fired. The warhead it launched ripped through the air, crossing nearly the entire length of the cavern before impacting against the ceiling in a devastating explosion that sent rocks raining down all over that area.

Jimenko gaped, unable to process such a sudden reversal. Before she could recover from her astonishment, two figures shot into view, clearing the electric fence around the camp in a single leap to land between them and the enemy. She had never seen them before, but she recognized them from Beneda's descriptions. They came... she thought, dazed. They actually came. I... never really expected them to actually live up to what she was saying...

But here they were, right before her eyes.

One of them, the one with the bandana, turned back to look at them. "Are you all right?" he asked, his hand still crackling with residual energy from the blast he'd unleashed to save them all. Jimenko could only nod mutely.

The battlesuit, however, was still intent on changing that, and before anyone could respond further, it unleashed another swarm of missiles up from its shoulder launchers. "Look out!" Jimenko shouted, fighting her way back to her feet. They had to get some kind of defense back up, had to do something to stave off as much of the rain of destruction as they could. She wracked her brain, trying to think of something in the few scant moments they had left.

The human with the pigtail, however, simply smirked and slid back into deep stance. Then, as the countless missiles reached the apex of their climb and began to arc down toward them, he called out "Heisoku no Hyo!"

And then he began to punch. Faster than Jimenko had ever seen anyone punch before, so fast she could barely even see his arms at all. With every single strike, a small charge of golden energy burst out from his hand, shooting across the distane in the blink of an eye. The individual attacks were not all that powerful, but they struck with a speed and accuracy that Jimenko wouldn't have believed possible if she weren't witnessing it herself. And they had enough punch to detonate the missiles that they hit.

The air between the monsters and the metal behemoth erupted in a violent maelstrom of fiery carnage. No matter how many missiles the battlesuit fired, none of them reached their targets. None of them even made it halfway there. Soon the entire barrage was spent, the last explosion fading away, leaving them all completely unscathed.

The Dark Lords of Nerima looked back at their awestruck faces again, and the pigtailed one grinned. "You guys did good," he said. "But from now on, everyone just try to keep your distance. We'll take it from here."



**********



Rhett Butler lunged down at Sailor Mercury, his fangs going directly for her neck. She was still hurt and disoriented from the blows he'd given her, but she managed to get her arms up in time to hold him off, one hand grabbing him by his lower jaw, the other by his upper teeth, holding his mouth open. The huge youma strained against her mystically-enhanced strength, his teeth biting into her fingers. Inch by inch, the crazed monster drew closer to his target.

Sailor Mercury's mind raced, thinking through her memories of the collar's wiring, the approach she had decided to take. It was difficult; her vision was unsteady and there was a ringing in her ears. Rhett continued to press down on her trembling arms, then also began to rake her with his claws. She let out a cry of pain, and the youma took advantage to push through her resistance.

She twisted left at the last moment, Rhett's jaws clamping shut in the air where her throat had been. But that also brought the collar into a position where she could grab hold of it. She pushed through the pain, digging her fingers into the internals that she had previously exposed, and yanked at what she hoped was the first wire she had to pull in order to disarm it. In her pain and haste, however, her finger accidentally snagged a second wire at the same time, breaking that connection as well.

No sooner had she done so than Rhett let out a howl of agony, rearing back and thrashing around. Sailor Mercury flinched. Her mistake hadn't outright detonated the bomb... but it had caused the shock function to go haywire, discharging indiscriminately, torturing the already-maddened youma.

Sailor Mercury rolled away, then launched herself at Rhett's back, grabbing onto the collar again and not letting go. She couldn't leave him like this. Rhett swung her back and forth in his frenzy, but she held on, identifying the next connection to break and pulling that wire free.

Before she could find the third one, Rhett threw himself backward, body-slamming her into one of the stone walls, then rolling over to crush her beneath his bulk. But Sailor Mercury did not release her grip, and pulled the third connection. I think there's only one left! she told herself. But it's behind a different panel. I'll have to open that one to get at it. She found the section of the collar that her scans had revealed, and ripped off the metal panel over it.

Unable to dislodge her, the crazed youma took off running, on all fours, the tunnel walls blurring past at an incredible rate. Sailor Mercury ignored it, focusing her efforts on identifying the final wire. She was badly hurt, and was having trouble concentrating, but she forced herself to think it through. Eventually, she saw the solution. There! It's that wire right there! I just need to—

Something out of the corner of her eye caused her to look up, just as Rhett turned into a side tunnel barely high enough to fit him alone. The rock wall filled Sailor Mercury's vision completely in the split-second before she was slammed into it face-first, knocking her tumbling off the monster's back.

She hit the ground hard, but with one hand she managed to grab hold of the youma's tail. Rhett's insane flight dragged her along the ground behind him, slewing her left and right as the tunnel twisted and turned. One sharp turn swung her so that a large stalagmite was directly in her path, but she managed to kick off the nearest wall and roll herself out of the way, flipping over onto her front in the process as the stone protrusion shot past.

Hand over hand she pulled herself back up the tail, eventually getting her feet underneath her. The heels of her Senshi footgear each sprayed sparks behind them as they were dragged across the stone, but she kept her balance waiting for her chance. Soon they emerged from the side tunnel into a larger one again, and Sailor Mercury sprang upward, climbing across the youma's back to reach the collar once more. Without hesitation, she reached down and ripped out the wire she had identified earlier.

Immediately the collar went dead, its torture ceasing, and Rhett Butler crumpled forward, his frenzied run turning into a tumble. Sailor Mercury was thrown from his back, her momentum hurling her forward until she hit ground, rolling end over end until she slid to a stop.

For a while she simply lay there on the ground, battered, bleeding from the gashes that Rhett had inflicted in his madness. She had pushed far past her normal endurance, and now it was catching up with her. She didn't know how long that lasted—perhaps seconds, perhaps minutes—but however long it was, what snapped her out of her dazed state was the sound of Rhett getting back up and padding over in her direction.

She grimaced, trying to pull herself upright as well, but her body was sluggish and slow to respond. Is he himself again? she wondered. I have no idea how quickly youma physiology can recover from something like that. If the impulses still have control over him...

Sailor Mercury could hear him directly over her, and she knew she wasn't in a state to defend herself. The enormous monster bent down, his jaws closing in on her... and then she felt the sandpaper scratch of a cat's tongue as he licked her a few times, letting out an apologetic meow in the process.

With an effort, Sailor Mercury rolled herself over into a sitting position, looking up at the now-freed youma, then offering him a tired smile. She pulled out her computer, using it to scan her current location. Her heart sank a little at the result; her battle had taken her far from her original destination, and the quickest route back would still take far too long in the condition she was in. Ryo was still in danger, but she herself wasn't going to be able to make it back in time to do anything to help.

Unless...

She looked up at the youma again. "Rhett..." she began. "Can I ask a favor of you?"



**********



Ranma weaved left and right as he sped toward the hulking mecha, the ground erupting behind him as heavy-caliber bullets traced his path, fired from a pair of nearly canon-sized machine guns emerging from either side of the battlesuit's head. The pigtailed fighter smirked. Whoever was piloting that thing was pretty bad at it; Ranma was reading his aim and keeping ahead of him with contemptuous ease. Can't make it too obvious, though, he cautioned himself. After all, he was purposefully trying to draw the pilot's attention away from the youma, not to mention setting Ryouga up with the perfect opportunity to—

Another immense blast of ki from Ryouga's Shuchu Arashi crashed into the mecha's head, the detonation reducing the machine gun on that side to scrap and denting its skull as the behemoth struggled for balance. Ranma threw himself in headlong as well, taking a running start before leaping up to drive his fist into the battlesuit's knee joint with all his might. The leg shook and the knee twisted a little, turning its movements a bit jerky, but not otherwise impeding it.

Damn thing is built tough, I'll give it that... Ranma thought. The mecha turned to blaze away at Ryouga with its remaining machine gun, but Ranma hopped his way up its back while it was distracted, landing on the thing's shoulder next to the firing weapon. He grabbed it with both hands and used one leg to brace against the battlesuit's head, gritting his teeth as he pulled. Slowly, with the sound of creaking metal, the gun began to come free of its mount, until with a final wrench Ranma ripped it completely off, hurling it spinning away.

On the ground beneath him he saw Ryouga whip off his belt, which straightened as the lost boy used his Iron Cloth technique to turn it into a razor-sharp sword. Nor did he stop there, continuing to focus, until the belt-sword was wreathed in a seething bluish-white aura that Ranma knew would increase the sharpness of the blade far beyond even its usual level... at the cost of destroying the belt itself within seconds.

Ryouga wasted no time, leaping at the metal monstrosity and stabbing with all his strength. The strike did managed to pierce the battlesuit's armor, though not easily. Ryouga continued to attack, jumping all around the mecha, thrusting, slashing, trying to find a weak point as he attacked from every angle. When he pierced through, he often twisted the blade around in the thing's guts, and Ranma could sometimes see electrical flashes as various systems were ruined.

One of Ryouga's stabs even managed to find the enemy's fuel tank, sending a small but steady stream of fuel pouring from the hole to run down the behemoth's back. Looks like it is on a time limit now, just like old "One Punch" was, Ranma thought. Can't keep going forever with a leak like that...

Even so, the belt-sword soon disintegrated, leaving them again with fists and ki blasts to fight the battlesuit. Ranma wasn't worried, though. They had this thing on the ropes, and it was only a matter of time before they took it down.



**********



Beneda licked her lips, the tension eating away at her as she treated Ryo. Each minute that went by was another minute's respite from the attacks of the soldiers, but it was also another minute closer to Ryo's death from his wounds. The life energy she'd given him might have helped, but it couldn't last.

The youma closed her eyes, sensing the presences of the men outside. Two groups now, taking up positions in the hallway on either side of the door leading into the restroom. What are they waiting for? she wondered. Why haven't they made another move? Are they still trying to figure out how to deal with my energy drain?

She had pulled Ryo back farther into the restroom's corner, as far away from the entrance as she could. She'd also tried to shore up her bullet-ridden barricade by ripping some of the doors off the stalls and using them to further brace the main door, falling apart though it was. The anticipation and uncertainty of it all was maddening. Their lives were hanging by a thread, but nothing was happening.

Finally, she sensed a new presence come running up to the group on the left side of the hallway. That group milled around the newcomer for a bit, and then Beneda sensed a fresh surge of killing intent from them. Moments later, she heard the sound of multiple metallic impacts bouncing and rolling down the hallway, coming to a stop just outside the door. Beneda's eyes went wide. Grenades! They sent someone to go get grenades!

She threw herself down, covering Ryo with her body while keeping as tight to the ground as she could. A second later the door exploded inward, her barricade shredded by the shrapnel that filled the air. Beneda felt a piece of it embed into her shoulder, and felt two more slash lines of hot pain across her back. She raised her head, fighting past the disorientation and the ringing in her ears, just in time to see a swarm of guards come rushing into view, full of killing intent, their guns ready to fire and searching for a target.



**********



Sailor Mercury held on tight to Rhett Butler's fur as the Sailor Senshi rode the Great Youma into battle. They had gone so wildly off course in their struggle that the quickest route to the main cavern was through a completely different section of tunnels. They had hit a few more patrols of the grey creatures, but between Rhett's savage strength and the magic Sailor Mercury unleashed from her position atop him, they had torn their way through all resistance without even pausing.

Finally, with a surge of speed, Rhett burst from the tunnels and out into the central cavern. Sailor Mercury's gaze swept across the entire area. Her eyebrows went up when she saw Ranma and Ryouga fighting the enormous mechanized armor, and she considered going to help them. But they seemed to have it on the defensive by themselves, and if she rode Rhett in closer Ranma would probably panic. Instead, she decided to search for Ryo, knowing that he was in particular danger.

She lowered her visor and took out her computer, her fingers flying across the keys as she entered in the search parameters. Human, at least in his current form. Male, in his late teens. Exclude Ranma and Ryouga, and she expected it would be enough to locate him. She executed the scan, and almost immediately her visor highlighted the result, not in the main camp, but in a large, three-story building a good distance away from it. She focused in on that location, trying to get a better idea of the situation... and her heart nearly stopped at what she saw.

A wireframe image of Ryo blinked on her visor, but according to the readouts his vitals were dangerously low, almost to the point of death. There was another wireframe figure kneeling over him, this one giving youma readings, and from the look of it she was tending to him. There were also nearly a dozen humans in combat gear nearby, taking cover in two groups, each a good distance away from that pair.

Even as she watched, several of the humans tossed small objects down the hallway, objects the Mercury Computer flagged with high urgency as explosive. They bounced and rolled until they reached the entrance to the room that Ryo and the youma were in. Then they detonated, blasting in the door, and the humans all charged forward.

"No..." Sailor Mercury whispered, fear clenching at her chest like a vise. For years she had believed Ryo to be dead. She had only just learned that he was alive, and now he was about to die again, right in front of her eyes. There was no way she could cross such a wide stretch of cavern and reach him in time. Ryo was going to die.

Her fists clenched tight, with a force that would have been painful if she had been in a state of mind to even notice. Something broke inside of her, and in that moment, the only thing that existed in her mind was the absolute certainty that she would not let this happen. She raised her hand, palm upward, as around her the ambient temperature plummeted to freezing levels. A raging storm of ice formed above her. Swirling. Spinning. Concentrating.

Sailor Mercury called on the power of her planet, more and more and more of it, her hair whipping around her face from the force of her gathering element as the glowing blue symbol of Mercury blazed to life on her forehead, shining with cold radiance.

She was not going to let him die.

She was not going to let him die!

And with that, she swung her arm down.



**********



The guards dove through the doorway, their assault rifles at the ready. They saw where Beneda and Ryo were lying, and swung their weapons to target the pair. Beneda flinched, knowing that there was nothing left she could do to delay them any longer. Already she could see their fingers tightening on the triggers, and braced herself for the rain of bullets that would end their lives.

What took place next happened too fast for Beneda to consciously process. One instant the soldiers were there, about to kill them. The next instant they were gone, replaced by ice that crashed in through the wall like it was made from toothpicks. So much ice that it filled her vision completely, tearing through the space where the soldiers had been standing and out the opposite wall, moving with a raging force that pulled violently at Beneda with its sheer air displacement.

Beneda could do nothing except cower there and wait. After the ice finally spent itself, the youma climbed unsteadily to her feet and walked over to where it had happened. As she drew closer, she saw the actual scale of the destruction. It wasn't just limited to that room. The slash of ice had cleaved the entire building in half, and even cut a chasm deep into the bedrock below. Beneda gaped, then whirled to try and determine the source. It did not take long. Through the new opening in the walls, she saw Sailor Mercury racing toward them, riding on a huge catlike youma.

Understanding now what had happened, Beneda turned back, returning to her treatment of Ryo. Soon Sailor Mercury leapt into view, jumping through the gap she had made to land next to them. The youma looked up at the Sailor Senshi, a little nervous in spite of herself. Memories flashed through her mind unbidden, memories of all she had done to trick or harm this girl and her friends. But she saw no anger or condemnation in Sailor Mercury's eyes, only concern, as the Senshi knelt down on the other side of Ryo from Beneda. "Is there anything I can do?"

"He... um... needs better bandages," Beneda answered. "I did my best with what I had, but if you can find something better in one of these rooms..."

Sailor Mercury nodded. "I'll go search for something to use," she said. Then she gave Ryo's hand a quick squeeze, and darted away in search of what Beneda had mentioned.



**********



Red flashing lights and acrid smoke filled the cockpit of the Jötunn, warning of damage and system failures. Doctor Metzger's hands flew across the controls, his thin grey hair disheveled, his eyes wide and frenzied as he tried to use what options he had left to turn the battle around. It wasn't working. The Jötunn's entire structure shook as attack after attack slammed into it, and he was still completely unable to hit either of these new opponents no matter what he threw at them.

The pigtailed fighter jumped up onto the Jötunn's left shoulder, smashing his fist down several times in quick succession, and a new warning light appeared indicating that the missile launchers embedded there were now damaged beyond the point of safely firing. Doctor Metzger wrenched at the control stick governing the movements of the right arm, swinging it up to crush the boy, but he simply backflipped over the strike just before it hit, landing back on the ground.

Metzger was nearly hyperventilating. How was it all going so wrong? His camp was in revolt, his forces were dropping like flies, and his invincible mechanized armor was being torn apart by a pair of children! They were looking up at him now, from the ground, and the pigtailed one called up to him. "Hey! Whoever's in there!" he shouted. "Why don't you just give it up and come out? You're pretty much sunk."

The elderly scientist gripped the controls until his knuckles went white, trying to think of a way out of this. But his intellect was failing him. He was caught like a rat in a trap, and each desperate idea that he considered and rejected only pushed him closer to hysteria.

He noticed movement in the corner of one of the monitors, and saw that many of the monsters were also watching, probably gloating over how he had been reduced to this. The thought of those animals taking pleasure in his ruin filled him with a white-hot rage that replaced his fear for a moment, and Metzger took refuge in that rage.

They wanted him to surrender? To let himself be paraded in front of some kangaroo court for his "crimes" like the world had done to his comrades all those years ago? To let himself be judged by self-righteous fools who deluded themselves into thinking that the lives of a few subhuman creatures meant anything next to the progress of science?

Metzger's lip twisted into a snarl, and his hands shot out toward the controls of the Jötunn once more, activating every remaining weapons system, turning them to target the monsters in the camp. He might not be able to kill the two fighters attacking him... but exacting vengeance on those wretched monsters? That he could do.



**********



Jimenko watched, wide-eyed, as their saviors systematically demolished the towering behemoth. It was staggering, limping, its left knee joint barely functional, most of its weapons smashed. The two humans hadn't even taken a scratch. Hope swelled up within the lemure, hope like she had not felt in a long, long time. She had thought Beneda had been exaggerating about the Dark Lords of Nerima, but from where Jimenko stood now, it felt like the youma hadn't even done them justice.

The pigtailed Dark Lord—Ranma, by Beneda's description—was calling out now, commanding the pilot of the battlesuit to end the farce and submit to him. Jimenko leaned closer, eager to see what would happen. For several seconds, silence was the only reply.

Then the battlesuit turned, leveling its left arm at them, as large missiles emerged from every side of its forearm cavity, ready to launch. Jimenko sucked in a breath, realizing too late that the pilot had shifted to targeting them again.

"Ryouga!" The Dark Lords, however, were already moving. Ranma rocketed toward Ryouga with incredible speed, while Ryouga dropped to one knee and linked his hands together. They moved in perfect synch, communicating their intent to each other without requiring anything other than body language. Ranma planted his foot in Ryouga's hands, then leaped forward at the same time as Ryouga hurled him, the combined acceleration pushing Ranma to a velocity that boggled Jimenko's mind. Ranma poured all that force into a devastating kick that hit the enemy square in the head.

The raw power of the kick sent the battlesuit stumbling backward, fighting for balance. It tried to get its feet under itself, but even as its enormous metal foot came down, Ryouga darted underneath it. To Jimenko's eyes it looked as though the Dark Lord would be squashed like a bug... but instead Ryouga caught the descending foot with both hands. The impact drove his feet deep into the rock and bowed his knees, but to the lemure's utter disbelief he withstood it. Then, with a loud roar, he thrust his hands back up, off-balancing the battlesuit even further.

Whatever remaining systems the walking armor had to keep it upright, they had been pushed to their limits, even as the armor itself had been pushed to the edge of the camp. It was teetering, right on the brink of collapse. Both warriors charged toward their foe... and as they did, the air around them exploded with energy, which turned into enormous versions of Ranma and Ryouga. They glowed with power, of equal size to the battlesuit they were attacking.

Both Dark Lords drew back their fists, and in unison the two titanic figures swung at the battlesuit. The sound of the impact echoed throughout the cavern, and the walking armor fell backward, managing in the process to crash into the large electrical fence surrounding the camp. Bolts of sizzling power arced and flashed all along its body... which in turn ignited the stream of leaking fuel. The stream of fuel which lead back to the behemoth's fuel tank.

Even at Jimenko's distance, the explosion threw her to the ground. The fuel tank detonated first in a roar of uncontrolled force and searing flame, followed an instant later by the secondary explosions as all the battlesuit's remaining ordnance exploded as well. It was many long seconds before any of the monsters managed to get back to their feet and survey what had happened.

Not much remained of the battlesuit, only broken, scattered wreckage. And fire. Thick black smoke rolled toward the cavern ceiling, while the radiance of the flames painted everything in lurid orange tones. Jimenko, along with all the others, held her breath, blinking the afterimages out of her eyes as she tried to search for the Dark Lords.

And then she saw them, striding out of the flames, backlit and shadowed by the hellish, fiery devastation they had wrought. To Jimenko, they looked like demons walking unflinchingly out of perdition. The lemure's mouth opened and closed, trying to form words, but nothing came out.

The Dark Lords continued to advance, only halting when they reached where the nearest monsters were cowering. "Hey, you guys all right?" asked Ranma.

Jimenko, along with several other monsters, nodded mutely. "That's good," said Ryouga. "Now, we need to find Beneda. Does anyone here know where she is?"

"Y- yes, master!" Jimenko blurted, pointing. "She went to try to keep them from killing Urawa. She should be in that building over there!"

Ranma and Ryouga both gave her a quizzical look, before exchanging glances and shrugging. Then Ranma leaped in the direction that Jimenko had indicated, followed by Ryouga a moment later.



**********



Sailor Mercury was not long in returning to Ryo's side, and she brought not just bandages, but an entire first aid kit. Working together, she and Beneda quickly replaced the original makeshift bindings. After that, the Senshi activated her wristwatch communicator and spoke into it. "Everyone, this is Sailor Mercury. How close are you?"

There was a crackle, and then she heard Sailor Mars' voice over the channel. "We're in the tunnels right now. Are you all right?"

"Ryo is... hurt," Sailor Mercury said. "Please, come as fast as you can."

"Right!" came Sailor Moon's voice. "Don't worry, Sailor Mercury, it's going to be okay!" With that the channel closed, leaving Sailor Mercury and her youma companion to wait. Beneda wasn't meeting her eyes most of the time, looking down at Ryo instead, or anywhere else. Sailor Mercury regarded her for a while, thinking of everything Ranma had told them about her, about why she'd done what she'd done. Eventually, the Senshi of Water reached over and placed her hand atop the youma's. "Thank you."

Beneda looked up, surprised. Sailor Mercury continued. "With these wounds, Ryo would definitely have died if you hadn't stayed with him and treated him. So thank you." She gave Beneda's hand a squeeze as she finished.

"Oh. Um... you're welcome." Beneda didn't look like she knew what else to say to that, but at least she looked a little more at ease now. They settled back into silence, waiting anxiously. Then, not too long after that, the rest of the Senshi arrived.

Despite all reassurances, the lone youma's expression did get a little nervous as Sailor Senshi after Sailor Senshi leapt through the gap in the wall to land in the remnants of that restroom. Sailor Moon. Sailor Mars. Sailor Venus. Sailor Pluto. Sailor Saturn. Beneda looked particularly unnerved by the last one, her eyes fixing on the Silence Glaive. But Sailor Saturn made straight for Ryo, kneeling down and resting her hand on the injured boy's chest. Purple light spread from her hand to Ryo's body, and the wounds in his chest began to knit themselves closed. Checking her computer, Sailor Mercury saw that Ryo's vital signs were slowly stabilizing.

She let out a long, shuddering half-breath, half-sob of joy and relief. They had done it. They had saved him.

"We should still be careful," Sailor Pluto cautioned. "Healing such as Sailor Saturn's can repair most physical damage so long as the subject is alive, but this young man has also lost a great deal of blood. He will need time to recover. Also, simply healing the wound will not remove foreign elements that may have entered the body, so we should be wary of infection as well."

Sailor Mercury nodded. Those were all important concerns. For the moment, though, she let herself savor the simple fact that they had all made it through.



**********



Back at the Tendo home, Sailor Jupiter kept pacing up and down the dojo floor, trying fruitlessly to bleed off some of the anxious energy that filled her. It had been some time since they had received Sailor Mercury's urgent message, some time since the reinforcements they'd sent had left. Sailor Jupiter would have liked nothing more than to be with them out there... but their families needed protection as well, and so she had stayed behind as part of the group guarding this place.

Most of the family members were clustered in the dojo as well, also waiting for news of the battle. Nobody said anything, not even Rei's grandfather, who looked as serious as Sailor Jupiter had ever seen him. Minako's parents looked fairly sick with worry, while Mr. and Mrs. Tsukino sat gripping each other's hand. Ami's mother had it even worse, not having any of her family around, but Professor Tomoe was staying close to her and trying to give at least some support.

Then, without warning, the beeping of a wristwatch communicator filled the dojo. Everyone's heads snapped up, listening as Sailor Jupiter answered it. "Are you guys all right? What happened?"

"We're fine!" came Sailor Moon's voice over the channel, prompting an enormous exhale of relief from everyone present. "Everyone's okay! The fighting's over."

"Over? Already?" Sailor Jupiter asked. "What about the enemy?"

"A lot of the bad guys ran for it when they realized how bad they were losing," Sailor Moon explained. "Most of them got through the portal back to the human world. The ones that were beat up too bad to get away... well..." A note of hesitance entered the young princesses voice. "Sailor Pluto took them. It was like how she goes to the Gates of Time, except... different. They went... somewhere else. She wouldn't tell me where. She just said that place would definitely hold them until we decided what to do with them."

A small chill ran down Sailor Jupiter's spine, and she quickly shifted the conversation to other matters. "How long will you be staying there?

Sailor Moon's response was a nervous chuckle. "Um... well... that's what I wanted to talk to all of you about," she said. "You see... we were talking it over with everyone here, trying to figure out how many people were going to stay here to protect this place. And Sailor Mercury was really worried about splitting up our forces, 'cause we don't know where Tanizaki's going to attack next. And she said this place is a lot easier to defend, since the portal is the only way in!"

An expression of disbelief crossed Sailor Jupiter's face. "You're not actually suggesting..."

"Well... it is actually kinda nice here!" Sailor Moon interrupted, forced brightness in her tone. "I mean... the atmosphere isn't that gloomy... for a kingdom of evil, at least. And even the monsters aren't really so bad once you get to know them!"

Tsukino Ikuko stood and walked over toward Sailor Jupiter, until she could talk into the wristwatch herself. "Usagi..." she began. "Are you saying that you want us all to come and stay in this... Dark Kingdom?"

"Um..." her daughter said, in a small voice. "...yes?"

Sailor Jupiter sighed. Somehow, the events of this day just kept finding ways to get stranger and stranger...



**********



Over an hour later, Konatsu watched along with Sailor Moon and Sailor Neptune as Sailor Mercury typed away on her small computer, surrounded by the much larger computers of the camp's command center. Konatsu hadn't left his post here since the start of the battle, defending the room against every attempt of their enemies to retake it. Now, he watched as the Senshi used her magical technology to scan Tanizaki's systems in preparation for her attack on them.

It was all quite intriguing, really. He might not know much about such matters, but it was still obvious to him that the young lady was highly skilled, and he respected that. Skill was skill, whether in martial arts or okonomiyaki or anything else. He was looking forward to seeing her in action.

After a few minutes a section slid open in the back of her computer and a cord extended, snake-like. There was a glow of magic at the tip, and Konatsu saw the end of the cord shift and configure itself, until finally it slithered over and plugged into a port on the enemy computer. New information scrolled down her small screen, reflected in Sailor Mercury's eyes as she scrutinized it.

"How's it going?" Sailor Moon asked, looking over Sailor Mercury's shoulder. "Do you think you'll be able to get those collars off soon?"

"I hope so," replied Sailor Mercury, not looking up from her rapt absorption in her endeavor. "It appears that everything is controlled through this system, so there should be a way. These computers are advanced—years, maybe decades beyond anything on the market today—but they're no match for the Mercury Computer's security intrusion suite."

It was true; the computers in that room did seem unusually advanced. Furinkan High had added a computer lab during Ukyo's last year there, on another one of Principal Kuno's whims, and Konatsu had seen it once or twice while visiting his employer there. But those computers had all been bulky, monochrome things, whereas these ones were sleek and their display screens colorful. "Is their science that far beyond everyone else's?" asked the ninja.

Sailor Mercury shook her head. "I don't think it's all their own work," she said. "When my Mercury Computer was scanning the architecture of these systems in preparation for interfacing with them, it identified several components that resemble Dark Kingdom technology. I expect that Tanizaki's people have been scavenging more than just the biology of our defeated enemies."

"Can you find out what else they might have 'borrowed'?" asked Sailor Neptune. "This place was one of their research centers. There might be records that will tell us more about what we're up against."

"I'll try," replied Sailor Mercury. "My first priority is getting those explosives off the prisoners, but after that I'll search the mainframe for anything I can learn about what Tanizaki might have up his sleeve..."



**********



Sailor Saturn rested her hand gently on the daimon lying on the bed in front of her. The monster was green and purple, with tufts of feathers growing out from her body along her limbs and head, but her skin was marred by white lesions where her body was simply crumbling away. Closing her eyes in concentration, Sailor Saturn called on her healing magic. Purple light glowed, illuminating both of them.

Unfortunately, the white lesions neither healed nor diminished. After trying for over a minute, Sailor Saturn stopped and looked regretfully at the monster. "I'm sorry. It looks like my healing power either doesn't work on daimons, or it doesn't work on this kind of problem."

"Th- thank you... for... trying..." the daimon managed to rasp, her voice weak. Sailor Saturn looked down at the slowly dying monster, feeling helpless. She wished she could do something for them all, even if seeing the daimons did bring back memories of her own suffering at the Death Busters' hands. That hadn't been the fault of these daimons, and even if it had been, she still wouldn't wish a fate like this on them.

She looked around at the makeshift field hospital, which was little more than a bunch of beds set up in one of the camp buildings. It was predominately to treat daimons whose condition had progressed too far to move around, though there were also some other monster types who had been injured in the fighting. They were all being tended to by Sailor Mars, Beneda, Boxy, Yumemi and a few other monsters.

Ami's mother was also there, a ways off to the side, pouring through stacks of documents that had been taken from Doctor Metzger's office. Sailor Saturn walked over to her. "Have you found anything useful in these?" she asked hopefully.

Doctor Mizuno sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in weariness. "I've learned a great deal, but none of it is promising," she answered. "From what I've read, this Doctor Metzger had been trying for over a year to figure out what was wrong with his version of the daimon egg formula, without success. And we're coming into this nearly blind. I've never even seen organisms like these before. It could take months just to get up to speed on the basics." She shook her head. "And I don't think these daimons have months."

The frank appraisal caused Sailor Saturn's heart to sink. She turned to look back to where the daimons were lying. The feeling of death hung over that entire area. "Isn't there anything else we can do?"

"I don't know," Doctor Mizuno admitted. "But I don't intend to give up on them, even if it isn't looking good."

"I agree," came a quiet, familiar voice from behind them. "And I would like to offer my assistance as well."

Sailor Saturn turned, and saw that her father was standing there. The words that she wanted to say froze in her throat, allowing Doctor Mizuno to speak first. "I would be grateful for any help, Professor Tomoe," she said. "Are you familiar with this field?"

A rueful, humorless smile flitted across the professor's face. "Quite familiar," he said. "While I was possessed by Germatoid, he... we... were the ones who developed the original formula for the daimon eggs."

Doctor Mizuno's eyebrows shot up. "I... I see. Then yes, your help would be invaluable in figuring this out."

"But your amnesia!" said Sailor Saturn, confused. She hurried over to her father, looking up at him, searching his expression. "You lost your memories of that time."

Professor Tomoe nodded. "Yes, I did. But when I heard about what the daimons here were suffering, and the likelihood of finding a treatment... I decided to ask Sailor Moon if there was anything that could be done to regain my knowledge from back then. And, as it turns out, her cat Luna has previous experience at magically awakening buried memories."

Sailor Saturn looked down at the ground, biting her lower lip. She understood why he had done it. She couldn't argue against that. But even so, she knew better than anyone else how the memories of what he'd done would torment him.

Then she felt her father's hand on her shoulder, as he pulled her into a hug. "Don't worry about me, Hotaru," he said, his voice soft and comforting. "It'll be fine. This is something I have to do."

With that he walked past her, all the way over to the daimon she had been trying to heal. The monster looked up at him plaintively, even as Professor Tomoe looked back at her, staring his legacy directly in the face without flinching or turning away. He reached down, his finger probing the white lesions gently but firmly as he examined the patient.

Doctor Mizuno walked over to join him. "I've been going through Metzger's lab notes," she explained. "He tried countless variations of the formula, but no matter what he did, all of them had the same problem. If you look at some of his attempts, maybe you can see what he was missing."

"That won't be necessary," Professor Tomoe replied. "I have a fairly good idea what would cause symptoms like these. It's not a problem with the formula at all. Metzger was on completely the wrong track. No matter how perfectly he replicated the original process, it could never have worked. The real problem is that Pharaoh 90 is dead."

The explanation caused Doctor Mizuno's eyes to light up in understanding. "You're saying that daimons were never even intended to be autonomous beings?"

"Not in the sense Metzger wanted, no," Professor Tomoe said. "It wasn't obvious, but when we designed the formula there was always an aspect of their sustaining essence that was taken from their link to Germatoid, and from him to their ultimate master. Without that link, I'm not surprised that we're seeing decay. You shouldn't think of it as a disease or a disorder in their bodies. The closest comparison in human terms would be... something like a severe vitamin deficiency."

"It's scurvy..." Doctor Mizuno murmured. "Metzger spent all that time trying to fix his formula, when what he was really chasing was the daimon version of scurvy."

Sailor Saturn wasn't sure whether this was good news or not. "If that's what it is, then can we do something about it?"

Professor Tomoe looked down at the daimon again. Then Sailor Saturn saw something shift in his bearing. There was a determination, a straightness to his shoulders that she hadn't seen in him for a long time. "We most certainly can," he said. "Pharaoh 90 may be gone, but if we can synthesize an artificial replacement for what they require, it should still be possible to save them."

"What will you need?" asked Doctor Mizuno.

"For now, just a blackboard and a place to think," Professor Tomoe said. "Eventually, though, I'll need someone to make an inventory of all the equipment in the labs around here, so I know what resources we have to work with. And depending on how everything is laid out, we may need to figure out some way to move the larger devices to a more central location..."



**********



Without any discernible effort, Ryouga hefted the huge, awkwardly balanced piece of equipment onto one shoulder. Once he'd done that, he followed Sailor Venus out of the lab they were in, heading back to the lab where Professor Tomoe had set up shop. The blonde Senshi plied him with questions as they went, just as she'd been doing ever since she'd agreed to be his guide. Questions about his martial arts, questions about his travels, and—above all—questions about all the various boys in the Nerima circle.

Her sheer friendly exuberance surprised Ryouga. It was something he wasn't used to dealing with, but he was beginning to acclimate. She did seem like a nice girl, all in all, even if he found her a little bit exhausting to converse with. She kept on talking as they navigated the labyrinthine maze of hallways, then took a flight of stairs up (or had it been down?) until finally they arrived at their destination.

As they entered, Professor Tomoe glanced back over his shoulder, away from the blackboard full of incomprehensible equations and molecular designs that he had been working on. "Ah, the ectoplasmic centrifuge!" he exclaimed. "Excellent, excellent, put it down over there, next to the cellular sequencer." Ryouga set the machine down where the scientist pointed and immediately Professor Tomoe got to work setting it up.

It was just one of the many strange devices that the professor had collected here, along with test tubes, burners, and strange liquids of different colors coursing through transparent piping. It was enough to make Ryouga's head spin. He wasn't joking when he told me that he was a mad scientist.

"That should be the last device I need carried here," Professor Tomoe continued, without looking up from his work on the centrifuge. "Thank you very much for your assistance."

"You're welcome," replied Ryouga. Truth be told, he'd just been glad for something worthwhile to do, rather than just sitting around uselessly, watching far more intelligent people tackle problems he couldn't even wrap his mind around. But moving big things from room to room? That he could manage.

"Come on, then!" urged Sailor Venus, interrupting his thoughts by grabbing him by the wrist. "If we're done lugging stuff around, let's see what else is going on!" Without waiting for his reply, the high-spirited girl dragged him off in search of more interesting pursuits. Ryouga was content to be dragged, not having anything better to do.

Eventually they emerged out into the larger cavern area and cut through the camp itself, where most of the crowds were milling. Sailor Venus had let go of his hand by that point, and he slowed his pace, taking in their surroundings. He noticed that many of the monsters were watching them, though he could not identify the mixture of emotions behind those alien eyes.

Step by step he followed Sailor Venus... until he saw one person in particular, his gaze catching on her, causing him to pause in his stride. Off in the temporary field hospital, Sailor Saturn knelt beside one of the sicker daimons, tending her, holding the monster's hand as she spoke words that Ryouga could not hear at that distance.

She hadn't seen him yet. He studied her profile, her soft expression, focused on the daimon she was watching over. To his eyes, she seemed to radiate compassion, gentleness. She was... beautiful. That was the only word he had for it.

But once again, he shoved such thoughts out of his mind. I need to stop thinking about her that way, he warned himself. Hell, everything else aside, how old was she? He didn't know for sure, other than that she was clearly a good deal younger than him. He couldn't tell if she was even in high school yet, whereas he was already nineteen—or twenty, if you counted living his sixteenth year twice over.

No, it was all completely crazy. He had to forget about it before anyone noticed, especially Hotaru herself. Fortunately, he was confident that he was keeping any such feelings well-hidden.

He didn't notice that Sailor Venus had stopped walking as well, curious as to why Ryouga had halted so abruptly. Her eyes tracked his rapt gaze from where he stood over to where Sailor Saturn knelt. Then she looked back to him, then back to Sailor Saturn, then back to him again. Slowly a mischievous smile spread across her face, and she grabbed Ryouga by the wrist again, pulling him over in that direction. "Oh Sailor Saaaaturn..." she called out, her voice taking on a sing-song lilt. "We thought we'd come over and see how you were doing."

The young Senshi turned to look up at them, her eyes widening as she saw who was approaching. "Oh, um, hello!" she said. "I'm... I'm doing fine! I'm just trying to help out where I can. My father is working on a long-term cure, and Doctor Mizuno is trying to find ways we can help them stay alive until it's ready. I'm just doing what she tells me to do."

Ryouga looked over and saw Ami's mother deep in conversation with Yumemi and Boxy, two of the youma with the most hands-on experience at taking care of the daimons during the years they'd spent here. He turned back to Sailor Saturn. "That's very kind of you."

Her face flushed at that, and she studied the ground for a bit as she gave a quiet "thank you". Ryouga's mind raced, trying to think of something more to say. Hoping that Sailor Venus could provide something, he turned to look at her. Or rather, he turned to look at the empty space where she had been standing. His guide had disappeared, leaving the two of them together, and he hadn't even noticed her go.

For a moment Ryouga froze. Turning back, he saw that Sailor Saturn was looking up at him again. He blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "Is there anything I can do to help you with this?"

Sailor Saturn's face lit up, and she nodded. "Of course!" she said. "I'll show you what to do. It's very easy."



**********



Peeking around the corner of one of the camp buildings, Sailor Venus watched gleefully as Sailor Saturn and Ryouga talked. "Another good deed done by Aino Minako, goddess of love!" the blonde girl exulted under her breath.

Ditching the directionally-challenged martial artist in Sailor Saturn's care had gone without a hitch, and now she could bask in the results of her handiwork. Sailor Saturn's expression was bashful yet sincere, looking up at Ryouga with a slight blush still on her cheeks. It was obvious how smitten she was with him.

Sailor Venus couldn't fault her taste; the martial artist was definitely not bad-looking. She might have even been tempted to make a try for him herself... but despite her boy-crazy nature, there was no way she could be so cruel as to interfere with Sailor Saturn's feelings, not when the shy girl had found someone she liked this much.

Not that Ryouga's feelings weren't pretty obvious as well, with the way his eyes lingered on her as they talked. Sailor Venus continued to spy on the pair, enjoying the show as the two of them interacted.

Now I just need to find a boyfriend of my own... she mused, her mind already starting to travel down all-too-familiar paths. Even taking Ryouga out of the picture, there were still other options, like the guy who pulled all the weapons out of his sleeves. Not quite as tall or muscular as Ryouga, but he definitely had the whole "mysterious bishounen" thing down. And he was a part of their Sailor Senshi lives already, with no need for secrets. How often did that happen?

True, Ryouga had said he was hung up on that Shampoo girl, but Sailor Venus was confident she could win him over. She just had to decide on her plan of attack...



**********



Hours later, off in a different part of the camp, several monsters gathered together in one of the buildings. Yumemi and Boxy were off helping the daimons, and Urawa was still in a coma from his blood loss, but aside from that it was more or less the same group that had heard out Beneda to begin with, the leading monsters from the various factions.

"I still can barely believe it," Jimenko told them, shaking her head. "I... I thought she was at least exaggerating the stories she told us about them. But you all saw it. You all saw what they did."

"The Dark Lords of Nerima..." murmured Trakil, the daimon leader. "They really did come to free us. And the way they destroyed Metzger's mechanical creation! Do you think the rest of it was true too? That they even fought off the Sailor Senshi? For the sake of monsters?"

The group considered that in silence. Their kind had served under many different masters before: witches, dark generals, amazon trios and quartets, the Black Moon Clan... but regardless of the master, they had always been treated as disposable foot soldiers. The idea of dark overlords who would put their own lives on the line for the sake of their minions was an alien concept. And to face down their old enemies, the Sailor Senshi! And to succeed!

"I think they are the ones!" Carda, the snake-like Droid spoke up, her eyes alight. "Everything we've suffered up until now... All our masters from before who were defeated... I think that these dark lords can do it! I think that they can lead us to greatness!"

Jimenko nodded in agreement. For the broken and dispirited remnants of the monster races, bereft of their original leaders, tortured and denigrated, then left to the mercy of their old enemies, the thought of new masters who could turn everything around was something they wanted so badly to believe.

Karkala, however, spoke up. "Do we even know what their ultimate plan is?" she asked. "We never asked Beneda that. Whatever they were doing before, it doesn't look like they're fighting the Sailor Senshi now."

"Maybe they're just cooperating until Tanizaki is out of the way?" suggested Jimenko half-heartedly. "Maybe they'll go back to fighting once he's defeated?" The idea of getting along too well with their old foes did rankle a bit, even if it was unavoidable.

Trakil frowned. "No, it's more than just that," she said. "I stopped by where they're treating the really sick daimons, and I saw Sailor Saturn with one of the Dark Lords. Ryouga, the one with the headband. And... well... it looked to me like there was a lot more than just 'temporary cooperation' going on between the two of them."

"Oh." Jimenko sighed. The cessation of hostilities was quite understandable now. "Yes... I've seen that happen before. Fish Eye was the same way. He was infatuated with with Tuxedo Kamen. And then later on Queen Nehelenia tried to get him herself, according to what I heard."

Karkala and Carda both nodded, doubtless agreeing from their own experiences of Queen Beryl and Prince Diamond. According to the stories going around the camp, both of them had chased after one of the Sailor Senshi as well. "Trying to seduce one of them is very common," Karkala admitted. "Even if it never works out in the end."

"No!" blurted out Trakil, fairly dancing in place with excitement. "No, no, you don't understand! It was working, I'm sure of it! You should have seen the way Sailor Saturn was looking at him! He practically had her wrapped around his little finger!"

A murmur ran through the circle of monsters. Could it really be true? If it was, then even in this the Dark Lords of Nerima were succeeding in ways that all their previous masters had failed. "Do you think this might be part of their plan?" Jimenko suggested. "Just think how it would affect the balance of power if he can actually tempt Sailor Saturn away from the side of the Moon Kingdom!"

"That's insidious..." Karkala breathed. "He's taking their own precious 'power of love' and using it against them! What about the other dark lord? Ranma? Is he following the same strategy?"

"I'm not sure..." Trakil said thoughtfully. "I did ask a few of his comrades about that, but it wasn't very clear. From what I heard, it sounded like he keeps somewhere from four to seven beautiful warrior women around for his pleasure, but it didn't sound like any of them were Sailor Senshi."

Jimenko nodded. She supposed a harem like that was respectable enough for a dark lord, even if he hadn't gone so far as to corrupt one of the Senshi like his partner had. Or at least... he hadn't done so yet. "Ranma might just be biding his time," she said. "Waiting for the right moment to add a Senshi or two to that number."

"If that's their plan, then we should look for ways to aid them with their scheme!" urged Trakil. "I... admit that I don't know much about human romantic rituals. But I'm sure it can't be too difficult! And just think how pleased Ranma would be with us if we pulled it off!"

"We're in agreement then?" asked Jimenko. "We throw our support behind them?"

"The choice is obvious," replied Carda. "Alone, none of our races possess the strength to resist any vengeance by Tanizaki, let alone anything the Sailor Senshi might one day decide to do to us. But if we can convince these new masters to accept us, we may not only survive, but overcome."

The words sent a thrill through Jimenko. How many hopeless years had it been since any of them had considered that as even a possibility? Seeing that all the other leaders were nodding in agreement, she smiled. "Then it's settled," she said. "The monsters currently residing in the Dark Kingdom hereby pledge their united service to the Dark Lords of Nerima!"



**********



Sailor Pluto stood in the ruins of Queen Beryl's enormous castle, Garnet Rod held in hand, looking through one of the empty stone windows out across the enormous cavern housing the camp they had just liberated. From this height the figures crawling about below looked tiny, barely distinguishable from one another. And while she could detect no active magic or evil forces, a taint of misery and gloom still seemed to hang in the air of the Dark Kingdom palace.

Or perhaps that was just her imagination. She had spent the past hour checking over these ruins for anything dangerous, anything left behind by Beryl or Metallia, but it looked like that had been a needless precaution. Still, it had left her on edge, walking alone through the silent, crumbling remains of the empire that had destroyed the Silver Millennium so long ago.

The surroundings turned her thoughts unavoidably toward reminiscence... but she was not so lost in it that she would miss someone coming up behind her. "Is there something you wish to speak to me about?"

"Not much," came Ranma's voice. "Just wanted to talk about our next move."

Sailor Pluto looked back at where the martial artist stood, leaning against one of the damaged stone walls. "For us, the next move is simple," she told him. "Tanizaki has targeted our princess. That must not stand. Whatever weapon or spell he has created using the blood that he stole from Sailor Moon, we cannot allow him time to improve it any more. We must take him down."

"Nice and direct," said Ranma. "I like it. So we're paying a visit to his big skyscraper?"

"Yes. Tomorrow, if possible." Sailor Pluto studied him closely. "Do you still intend to fight alongside us?"

"Of course," replied Ranma, as though that should have been obvious. "I still owe Tanizaki an ass-kicking for using us as scapegoats so he could test his weapon. Besides, we're all friends now. No way we'd just let you girls take him on alone."

"Thank you," Sailor Pluto said. Then she paused, trying to find the right words. "I... I want you to know that despite my misgivings about the... eccentricities... of you and your friends... I do appreciate the help you have already given us. Today's events would have turned tragic if you had not been there."

Ranma chuckled. "Don't worry about it," he told her, his tone companionable. "A lot of people think we're nuts at first, but you'll get used to the way we do things. Just give it some time."

The terrifying thing, Sailor Pluto reflected, was that he was right. If someone had told her yesterday that she was going to help Ranma and his friends to conquer the Dark Kingdom to liberate hundreds of monsters, she would have responded that they were insane. And yet in the space of a single day, the whirlwind of events surrounding these warriors had turned that from insanity to simple fact.

Sailor Pluto was getting used to the way they did things. They all were. And the two groups were only growing more intertwined as time went on.

She sighed. At least they're willing to help stop Tanizaki, she thought. If these fighters are going to drag me down into insanity along with them... at least we can save the world in the bargain.



**********



Late that night, Chibi-Usa opened her eyes to a cloudless blue sky. Sitting up, she found herself on the grass beside a gently gurgling stream, surrounded by verdant trees and bushes. She was barefoot, wearing a white dress. She spent a few seconds confused before she realized what was going on. She was back in Elysion, dreaming.

Once she got over her initial disorientation, she noticed the two figures standing on the bank downstream. Helios was one of them, in his silver-haired human form, and a human-looking Melinoe was with him. Helios was watching his sister like a hawk, whereas she wore a calm, unperturbed expression. As before, her arms and legs were manacled, attached to heavy chains with glowing golden runes inscribed on each link, chains that stretched out of sight.

Chibi-Usa walked over to the two of them, ignoring the nervous fluttering in her stomach. She'd been preparing for this all day, but she still didn't know if she was ready. "Helios!" she called out as she drew near, and shared a quick embrace with him. Then she turned to his sister. "Melinoe."

The mistress of nightmares looked down at her. Melinoe looked different, seen in broad daylight like this, but her blood-red eyes were no less intimidating. Her gaze was just as cold as it had been last time, but there was a hint of surprise there as well. "I did not expect to see you again so soon, little girl," she said. "Not many seek me out deliberately."

"You asked me a question last night," the young princess responded. "I wanted to give you an answer."

She walked over to the stream's edge, looking out across it as the crystal clear water rushed over the shallow bed. "You said you wanted to know what it was that was so different about me, that Helios fell in love with me and not anyone else."

"I've tried to explain it to her before," interjected Helios. "I've told her about your beautiful dream, about how you believe in people, and bring out the best in them. But she doesn't listen to me."

Melinoe laughed, a short, scornful bark. "You expect me to believe that she has been the only human with a beautiful dream in all the millennia that you have watched over her race? The only one who believed in love and happiness? Because I've watched her too, and she doesn't seem all that special to me."

Helios opened his mouth to retort, but Chibi-Usa held up a hand, wordlessly asking him to wait. "Actually... I think you're right, Melinoe," she said. "All the time I've been a Sailor Senshi, I've met a lot of people with really beautiful dreams. It's different for everyone, and everyone has their own idea of what kind of dream is the most beautiful of all. But in the end, I was the one who could hide Helios from Queen Nehelenia when he was in trouble. And the time we spent together then... everything we went through... it made a connection between us that he wouldn't have with anyone else."

"So it was just chance," said Melinoe, sounding self-satisfied. "You just happened to be thrown together by circumstances. That's all it was."

"Maybe. But I think that's the wrong way to look at it." On an impulse, Chibi-Usa stepped down into the stream, the cold, crisp water rushing around her ankles. She waded out a ways, then reached down and pulled up one of the many smooth, rounded stones laying in the stream's bed. "You said you wanted to know what was special about me. I thought about it a lot after you asked, and I think there is something. But the most special part isn't about what brought the two of us together. What makes it really special are the things we did together."

She looked down at the small stone in her hands, not much different from any of the others she might have picked up, and called on her magic. It felt very different, here in the world of dreams, but with concentration she managed it. Pink energy gathered at her thumb, the glow flickering across her face as she used that finger to etch stroke after stroke into the stone's face. "Chance is only a little part of it," she continued. "You meet a whole lot of people by chance. But what you make out of it... that's your choice."

Chibi-Usa walked back through the stream toward Melinoe, who was still standing on the bank looking down at her. She offered the stone to the mistress of nightmares, revealing the result of her work: the kanji for "love" inscribed in the rock. "Now this stone is special," she said. "In a way none of the others are."

Melinoe regarded her emotionlessly for a few seconds. Then she took the stone from Chibi-Usa's hands to study it closer. Then she looked back up at the smaller girl. "Your calligraphy is atrocious."

"W-well it's not easy when you're carving it!" Chibi-Usa spluttered. "It was my first time trying something like that..."

For a while Melinoe continued to study Chibi-Usa, her face showing no sign of what she thought. Finally she asked a different question. "Why are you going to all this trouble, little girl?" she asked. "I am sealed away. You could have just hid behind my brother's protection and never dealt with me again. What is your aim?"

"I just wanted to try to understand each other," Chibi-Usa said, smiling. "Especially since you're Helios' family. Even if you're fighting right now, I can tell that he still loves you. And if you're important to Helios, then that means you're important to me too."

Melinoe digested that. Chibi-Usa, meanwhile, glanced over at Helios, then blushed. "And also..." she said. "Well... you know... depending on how... things... go in the future... we might end up becoming sisters too!"

The expression that crossed Melinoe's face in response to that possibility was the sort of expression one might wear in response to someone suggesting new and exciting forms of toenail fungus, a morbid incredulity that cracked the unreadable mask she had been wearing up to that point. Chibi-Usa pouted a little at the reaction. "Come on, it's not that bad," she protested. "I think it could be really nice! I grew up as an only child, but I've always kind of wanted a big sister!"

"This conversation is over." Melinoe's voice was flat, and she wrestled her unreadable expression back into place by force of will. Without any further words she took a step backward, her body fading from the dream until nothing remained.

Helios stared at where she had been, his eyes wide. "That's amazing," he said. "I... think you're the first person I've known who's ever been able to make her retreat from anything..."



**********



Tanizaki Kazuo stood, hands clasped behind his back, looking down from the windows surrounding his penthouse office. His eyes barely noticed the glowing lights of Tokyo's nighttime cityscape, his thoughts elsewhere. Finally, he spoke. "At this point, it's safe to assume that Doctor Metzger is either captured or dead."

As he spoke, one of his hands clenched into a fist, the other tightening around it. Even now, many hours after the event, residual fury still churned within him. But he suppressed it. No matter how damaging Metzger's loss was, no matter how much it threatened the plans he had been working on for so very long, he knew that indulging his temper was a weakness, one that he could not afford.

"I apologize, sir," said Zhang, who was standing behind him, more toward the center of the room. "If I'd been able to extract him, or at least make sure he was silenced..."

"No. It wasn't worth the risk." Tanizaki shook his head. "Not even you could have slipped through the portal undetected, not with the caliber of martial artists they had guarding it." And the situation had only grown worse once Sailor Pluto managed to subvert control of the portal's magic, sealing it shut. Now Ekim was the only one with even a chance at forcing it open again, and Tanizaki was not about to risk losing his sorcerer on such a reckless venture.

"The fault wasn't yours," the businessman continued. The words weren't pleasant to say, but he forced himself to say them. "It was mine. I assumed their concern over what Unit Zero was doing to Sailor Moon would drive them to attack this location immediately. I didn't think they even knew about our Dark Kingdom facility at all. Clearly, I underestimated them."

Acknowledging one's own mistakes and failings was seldom enjoyable, but it was vital to avoiding them in the future. That was something Tanizaki knew from long experience. "Losing Metzger is a serious blow," he continued. "But it is still possible for us to recover. As long as we have Unit Zero, we have the chance to turn the tables."

"Then we're still going forward with the plan?" asked Zhang.

"Yes," Tanizaki said. "I have no intention whatsoever of backing down from this fight. This is our one chance at supplanting Sailor Moon. Our one chance to seize control of a power that could determine mankind's very fate. No matter what happens, I will play this out to the end."
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